Epsilon Mu

Week 6

Written by AI and published without review, so it may contain errors. The scores and records are computed from league data; the judgements are not facts.

The median was 111.94. The Real Slim Brady posted the week's best score at 146.12 and took down austingulley in the game of the week; 1-800-FLOWERS ran its streak to six straight results and now sits alone at the top on 9-3.

The week at a glance

The median was 111.94. Clear it and you bank a second win on top of whatever your opponent does; miss it and a close head-to-head loss turns into an 0-2 week in a hurry. Four teams went 2-0, four went 0-2, and only two split.

2-0: The Real Slim Brady, 1-800-FLOWERS, Shmurdarer's Row, BrendanPhillips. 1-1: Tetucky Odunze, austingulley. 0-2: HasBas, Denton Daemons, I Love Josh Allen, The Cold Seats.

Three numbers

146.12 — The Real Slim Brady, the week's best, built on a bench-to-starter churn that would make a general manager wince and then nod. Kenneth Walker III went for 27.90 and DeVonta Smith for 20.50.

0.00 — Lamar Jackson's line for The Cold Seats, who was ruled out for the week and started anyway. Sam Darnold sat on the bench with 13.02. One empty slot is the difference between a 91.20 and a respectable afternoon.

135.80 — austingulley's score, the second-best in the league, and a loss. Four teams scored under 102 this week; austingulley drew the one team that scored more than anybody. That is the schedule being rude.

The first byes of consequence landed too: Cincinnati, Detroit, Miami and Minnesota were all idle, which thinned several benches and is worth remembering before anyone gets judged too harshly below.

Standings after six weeks

The top half

The five teams that cleared 111.94, in order of what they scored. One note on a number used throughout: points left on the bench counts only players who could actually have been started. Anyone on a bye, ruled out, on injured reserve or stashed on the taxi squad is excluded, so a zero next to an idle player is not held against anybody.

The Real Slim Brady — 146.12, won both

The week. The best score in the league, and the most interesting way to get there. Kenneth Walker III led with 27.90 and DeVonta Smith added 20.50, but the story is that Kirk Cousins (19.52) and Dameon Pierce (15.00) were both free agents days before they started. MarShawn Lloyd's 1.00 was the only slot that misfired; just 6.00 sat on the bench, with Tanner McKee's 12.60 the best of it.

The season. 8-4, 826.78 for and 765.82 against, and four straight results in the win column. A 90.0% lineup efficiency is the best mark in the league — this roster gets more of its available points onto the field than anyone.

Outlook. The record and the points agree, which is rarer here than it should be. The quarterback room has been rebuilt on the fly twice now, and that churn is working, but it is being paid for in FAAB.

Moves. Busy. Three free-agent adds across four days: Pierce for Jacoby Brissett, Cousins for Najee Harris, McKee for Chris Rodriguez. Also Efton Chism and Kimani Vidal on the Tuesday waiver run.

austingulley — 135.80, split

The week. Second-most points in the league and a loss, which is the kind of thing that curdles a Sunday. Christian McCaffrey went for 30.70 and James Cook 24.30. The sore spot is the final flex: Jaydon Blue, added at 8:13 that morning, started and returned 0.00 while Rachaad White's 15.70 and Rashid Shaheed's 11.80 watched from the bench. That is most of the 20.20 left behind.

The season. 7-5 with 869.16 points for — the most in the league by over forty. Points against of 754.12 is unremarkable, so the modest record is mostly a matter of who they have drawn and when.

Outlook. The best roster in the league on raw output, sitting in a four-way tie at 7-5. Nothing needs fixing here except the habit of filling the last flex on game morning.

Moves. One: Jaydon Blue in, Jordan Whittington out, Sunday morning.

Shmurdarer's Row — 126.92, won both

The week. Malik Nabers (28.50) and Bhayshul Tuten (24.70) carried it, with Carnell Tate's 19.00 close behind. The tight end slot is where it leaked: Tyler Higbee started for 4.20 while Kyle Pitts put up 23.00 on the bench, an 18.80 swing that accounts for most of the 26.30 left there.

The season. 6-6, dead even, 778.20 for and 746.48 against, and winners of both games last week. An 80.0% efficiency is third-lowest in the league, which is the gap between a .500 team and a contender.

Outlook. The pieces are good enough — Nabers, Lamb and Tuten is a real spine. Nearly 195 points have been left on this bench across six weeks, and closing even half of that turns a middling record into a playoff seed.

Moves. None during the week itself; Kendrick Bourne arrived on the Tuesday waiver run for $5 and started for 9.70.

BrendanPhillips — 123.10, won both

The week. Jaxon Smith-Njigba's 25.40 and Jayden Daniels' 21.00 did the heavy lifting, and Colston Loveland chipped in 18.50. Terry McLaurin (3.70) and Courtland Sutton (3.90) were quiet at the back of the lineup, and 23.20 went unused, led by Hunter Henry's 14.80 and Xavier Worthy's 14.30.

The season. 7-5, 794.58 for and 743.82 against, two straight results won. The weekly pattern has been choppy — three split weeks in six — but the trend is upward.

Outlook. A young receiving corps that is starting to produce on schedule. At 83.5% efficiency there is room to gain without trading anybody.

Moves. None.

1-800-FLOWERS — 118.10, won both

The week. Workmanlike and entirely sufficient. Drake Maye threw for 23.80 and D'Andre Swift ran for 23.00, with Luther Burden's 17.50 the surprise. Harold Fannin's 1.90 was the weak slot and Jordan Love's 21.24 sat behind Maye, which is a problem every manager would like to have; 10.30 left behind is among the tightest weeks in the league.

The season. 9-3 and alone at the top, with six straight results won. The quiet number is 691.46 points against — the second-lowest in the league — paired with a middling 765.34 for.

Outlook. The record is ahead of the roster, and it is fair to say so: this is seventh in points while first in the standings. That is not an accusation, it is a schedule, and the lead is real either way. Holding it through the deadline means finding a second reliable piece behind Jeanty.

Moves. None, and the FAAB budget is still untouched at $100 — the only manager who has not spent a dollar all season.

The bottom half

The five teams that missed the median. Two of them are 7-5 and one of them played the most efficient week anybody has played this season, so read on before drawing conclusions from the order.

Tetucky Odunze — 105.78, split

The week. Won the head-to-head, missed the median, and left more on the bench than anyone outside the bottom two. Isaiah Likely's 23.90 and Tetairoa McMillan's 14.60 led a lineup where nobody else cleared 13. Omar Cooper Jr. (22.30), Tyrone Tracy (18.50) and Khalil Shakir (13.40) all sat — 40.36 unused, and the optimal lineup was 146.14.

The season. 5-7, with 717.40 for and 827.28 against. That points-against figure is the worst in the league, and the 79.5% efficiency is second-worst — a difficult combination.

Outlook. The talent is better than 5-7. Mahomes at 11.48 and Bucky Irving at 6.90 were both quiet, and those are weeks that come back. The fix here is not acquisition, it is the Sunday-morning decision.

Moves. None.

HasBas — 101.74, lost both

The week. The most efficient lineup in the league this week and still a loss. Trevor Lawrence went for 28.34 and Jonathan Taylor 21.10; after that the roster simply ran out of healthy bodies. Minnesota and Miami were both idle, taking out Justin Jefferson, De'Von Achane, Ollie Gordon II and Malik Washington, and D.J. Moore, Tyler Warren and Quinshon Judkins were all ruled out. Just 0.90 was left on the bench. C.J. Stroud's 23.98 sat only because Lawrence outscored him, and Jaylin Noel's 20.70 came from the taxi squad, where it could not be used.

The season. 3-9, 682.70 for and 806.32 against, two straight results lost. The 79.0% season efficiency is unflattering, but this week was not the reason.

Outlook. This is the week the numbers and the record disagree loudest. A manager who gets within a point of a perfect lineup and loses by 21 has an availability problem, not a judgement problem. Noel on the taxi squad and Pearsall on injured reserve are assets, not dead weight, and the bye weeks that broke this lineup do not repeat.

Moves. None.

I Love Josh Allen — 93.80, lost both

The week. Matthew Golden's 22.40 was the high mark, with Caleb Williams at 16.50 and Jalen Coker at 15.70. The back of the lineup — Troy Franklin 1.20, Eli Raridon 2.10, Denzel Boston 2.50 — is where the gap to the median lives. Only 7.40 was left behind, which is the honest version of this week: the lineup was close to the best available, and the best available was 101.20.

The season. 1-11, 572.96 for and 803.46 against, ten straight results lost. An 85.8% efficiency says the lineups are being set properly; there is just not enough on the roster yet.

Outlook. A rebuild in its first hard season, and worth treating as a strategy rather than a collapse. Golden, Harvey and Coker are all young and all producing, and the 2027 pick position is going to be excellent. The thing to protect between now and the deadline is the ability to say no to a bad offer.

Moves. None.

The Cold Seats — 91.20, lost both

The week. The one to file away. Lamar Jackson was ruled out and stayed in the lineup, producing 0.00 from the quarterback slot while Sam Darnold's 13.02 sat on the bench. DK Metcalf (20.30) and Stefon Diggs (16.40) did their jobs; Derrick Henry's 5.00 did not help. In all, 41.32 was left behind — Keenan Allen 16.20, Alvin Kamara 14.90, Chigoziem Okonkwo 13.90 — against an optimal of 132.52.

The season. 7-5, 790.12 for and a league-best 653.56 against, but five straight results lost after winning their first seven games. That is as sharp a reversal as the league has seen.

Outlook. Still a playoff team on record and still the hardest team to score on. An empty quarterback slot is a one-week problem with a one-minute fix, and this roster is a correction away from being dangerous again.

Moves. None.

Denton Daemons — 88.86, lost both

The week. The defending champion's worst week of the season. Tre Tucker's 26.70 was excellent and Brock Purdy's 17.36 was fine, but Cam Skattebo returned 0.00, Jake Ferguson 3.30 and Wan'Dale Robinson 5.20. The bench held Tyler Shough's 26.96, Ryan Flournoy's 17.00 and Michael Mayer's 16.50, which is how 42.30 goes unused — the most in the league this week. Germie Bernard's 25.70 does not count against them; he is on the taxi squad.

The season. 7-5, 806.80 for and 811.72 against — the only team in the top six giving up more than it scores. Two straight results lost.

Outlook. Bijan Robinson at 7.30 and Davante Adams at 6.90 in the same week is bad luck more than bad planning, and those are the two players most likely to fix this without a trade. The champion is not in trouble, but the margin has gone.

Moves. None during the week; Darius Cooper was won on waivers for $10 the Sunday before.

The transaction wire

No trades. Eight moves in all, and six of them belong to one manager — the week's real activity was The Real Slim Brady rebuilding a quarterback room in the middle of a winning streak.

The Tuesday run is listed here because it cleared after week 5 had finished and shaped the lineups that played week 6. The one contested claim went against The Real Slim Brady: a $0 bid on Darius Cooper failed, and Cooper had already gone to the Denton Daemons for $10 two days earlier.

The week 7 wire is empty so far — nothing has moved since Sunday morning.

FAAB remaining

Most of the league is barely spending. Worth watching at the top of the table: The Real Slim Brady has used three-quarters of the budget and is the team most likely to need it again.

Looking ahead

Six weeks in, with the trade deadline at week 11, the league sorts less by record than by what each team actually needs.

Already there. 1-800-FLOWERS (9-3) and The Real Slim Brady (8-4). Both are winning, for different reasons — one on a favourable schedule, one on the best lineup management in the league. Neither needs to do anything dramatic.

Good rosters, ordinary records. austingulley, Denton Daemons, BrendanPhillips and The Cold Seats, all 7-5. This is where the most points, the best defence and the defending champion all live, and none of them is comfortable. austingulley leads the league in scoring and sits in a four-way tie; The Cold Seats won their first seven games and have lost five straight since.

One decision away. Shmurdarer's Row (6-6) and Tetucky Odunze (5-7). Both have left more on the bench this season than anyone else — 194.98 and 184.88 points — and both have the talent to be a seed. Neither needs to trade for a player; they need to start the ones they have.

Playing for next year. HasBas (3-9) and I Love Josh Allen (1-11). Both are being managed properly — HasBas was within 0.90 of a perfect lineup this week, and I Love Josh Allen is running at 85.8% efficiency for the season. The results are a roster problem, and roster problems in a dynasty league get solved in the offseason.

The deadline picture

Buyers. The Cold Seats and Denton Daemons. Both are good enough to win the thing and both have a hole that showed up this week — a quarterback contingency and a flex, respectively.

Sellers. I Love Josh Allen, and HasBas if the right offer arrives. Neither should be in a hurry; both hold young assets that will be worth more in March than in November.

Undecided. austingulley, BrendanPhillips, Shmurdarer's Row and Tetucky Odunze. Four teams between 5-7 and 7-5 who could talk themselves into either direction over the next five weeks.

Better than their record. austingulley, most obviously — 869.16 points and a 7-5 record is the biggest gap in the league between what a team has done and what it has to show for it. Tetucky Odunze is the other: 5-7 with the league's worst luck on points against. Anyone shopping for a seller should check both twice before assuming the record means they are open for business.

Published 2026-10-20. The figures here are as they stood that day; the live pages recompute independently. All recaps