The Tape

01 · THE HONEST STANDINGSAlex alone at 5–1. Pat at 0–6 with the league’s hardest schedule.

Record next to all-play (your record against every team, every week) and the median record (did you beat half the league). Luck is real wins minus the wins your scores earned. Lucky and Robbed are flagged at a full win either way.

Alex beat Pat by 4.28 and is the only team with five wins. He is 42–12 on all-play, the best in the league, and his luck is +0.33. Michael, Ernie and Natchez are 4–2 behind him, and they did not get there the same way: Natchez is 19–35 on all-play and 2–4 against the median, with +1.89 luck, the most in the league. Ernie is 5–1 against the median. Michael and Ernie have each won three straight. Jerome and Andrew have each lost three straight, and Pat has lost all six.

Logan is 3–3 on a 13–41 all-play, the worst in the league, with +1.56 luck. Jerome and Pat share the worst luck in the league at −1.67. Pat has faced 881.38 points, the most in the league and more than any team has scored except Alex. Natchez has faced the fewest, 707.92.

02 · THE MEDIANLogan cleared it for the first time. Pat cleared it and lost anyway.

Jerome’s standing request since Week 5. The median is the middle of the ten scores — the average of the fifth and sixth. Robbed = beat the median and lost. Stole = missed the median and won. Every prior week is re-pulled from Yahoo before this page is written.

Re-checked against Yahoo on October 19. All sixty team scores for Weeks 1–5 were re-pulled player by player and matched the files exactly: no stat corrections this week. Every median above is the average of the two bold scores.

122.71 is the lowest median of the season; the previous low was 125.50 in Week 2. Logan scored 124.74, beat it by 2.03, and won. Six weeks in, he is 1–5 against the median and 3–3 for real — still two steals ahead of what his scores earned.

Pat scored 127.76, beat the median by 5.05, and lost to Alex by 4.28. It is his first robbery and his first week above the median. He is 0–6. Michael is the week’s thief: 118.60, under the median, and a win by 18.74 over Jerome. The league now has five robberies and five steals.

Jerome was not robbed this week. He scored 99.86, under the median, and lost by 18.74. Jerome is still the only manager robbed twice, and 3–3 against the median with a 1–5 record.

03 · WEEK OVER WEEKLouis and Pat climbed five places. Brent and Michael slid five.

Every score of the season, the weekly scoring rank, and the move from Week 5 to Week 6 only.

Last week this page asked whether Brent was the best team or the hottest one. He scored 120.68, 60.24 under his Week 5, went from first in the weekly ranking to sixth, and lost to Ernie by 6.12 with a perfect lineup. His starters missed their projections by 15.88. The climb that started in Week 2 is over. Michael had the biggest drop of anyone, 62.26, from 180.86 to 118.60 — and won.

Louis went from sixth to first with 139.40 and beat all nine teams. Pat went from eighth to third with 127.76, the best weekly rank he has had all season, and is still winless.

04 · THE COACHING TAXJerome’s bench scored more than his receivers

Points left on the bench: your optimal lineup minus what you actually started.

Jerome left 34.40, the most in the league this week. Two swaps account for all of it. Germie Bernard scored 25.70 on his bench while Denzel Boston started at receiver and scored 2.50. Carnell Tate scored 19.00 on the bench while Bijan Robinson started and scored 7.80; Tate goes in the flex and Bucky Irving moves to running back. Tight end stays as it was — Tyler Warren was out, so Tyler Higbee’s 4.20 was the best Jerome had there. His best lineup was 134.26. Michael scored 118.60. Natchez left 31.42: Trevor Lawrence scored 28.34 on his bench, the second-best quarterback score of the week, while Dak Prescott started and scored 13.02.

Alex, Brent and Andrew set perfect lineups. Andrew’s was perfect and lost by 30.66. Brent’s was perfect and lost by 6.12.

Losses your own bench would have won: your best possible lineup that week beat what your opponent actually scored. Opponents held fixed.

Jerome’s bench would have won four of his five losses — Weeks 2, 4, 5 and 6. With his best lineup every week he is 5–1. He has been robbed cleanly once: Week 1, a perfect lineup, lost by 1.82. This page called him robbed for five weeks. Six weeks of box scores say most of it was his bench.

Season to date, Logan has left the most on his bench, 141.36, and Andrew the least, 44.66. Michael is also the one manager whose best-lineup record has no losses in it: 6–0.

05 · THE FIRST TRADESettled: Louis won it, and Logan cut his half

Every trade this season, logged from Yahoo’s transaction page. Each side is scored on everything its players score from the week the trade took effect — started, benched, or dropped. Points scored while a player is on nobody’s roster come from Yahoo’s weekly player page and are marked FA.

Metcalf scored 20.30 for Louis this week, in his flex, in a win. Henderson is gone: Logan dropped him on October 17 to pick up Tyler Allgeier, who started and scored 6.80. Henderson scored 3.50 on waivers, and it still counts against the trade. Since the trade, Metcalf has 26.10 and Henderson 9.30: Louis by 16.80. No trades were made this week.

Logan also dropped Alvin Kamara on October 14 to claim Jordan Love. Pat picked Kamara up and started him at flex this week: 15.90, in a loss by 4.28.

06 · WEEK 6 PERFORMANCESThe best of it

Every starter and bench player on a league roster, ranked.

Christian McCaffrey’s 33.20 was the top score of the week and Michael’s margin over Jerome was 18.74. Malik Nabers scored 30.50 for Jerome, the best receiver of the week. Two of the ten sat on a bench: Trevor Lawrence for Natchez and Germie Bernard for Jerome. Both of them lost.

07 · LEADERSBy request: Jerome’s top ten at every position, Week 6

Every position, this week and the season, straight out of Yahoo under our scoring. Tap a position to open it. Red means nobody in this league owns him. Yahoo had not yet booked Monday night (Washington at San Francisco) into its season totals when this was pulled, so those players’ Week 6 points are added from the weekly page.

31 of the sixty weekly slots belong to nobody, up from twenty in Week 5. 7 of the week’s top ten tight ends are on waivers, and 9 of the top ten kickers. Season to date, 9 of sixty are unowned, 7 of them kickers and defenses.

08 · WEEK 7Natchez is starting four players with no game

Yahoo’s projections for lineups as they stood Monday night, before waivers. A starting line, not a forecast.

Jerome is starting Tyler Warren, listed Out; his best lineup is 127.83; Brent’s best is 140.02 — his lineup is already set. Pat is starting James Cook on bye; his best lineup is 124.80 with Jefferson, Higgins, Murray and Gordon in; Logan’s best is 122.72, but it needs Saquon and Judkins, both listed Out. Natchez is starting four bye-week players (Parker Washington, Hampton, Cam Little, Jaguars); his best lineup is 97.07; Michael is starting Dicker on bye; his best is 135.78. Jayden Daniels is on bye and Ja’Marr Chase is on Ernie’s bench; his best lineup is 147.84, but that counts Lamar Jackson, listed Out. Louis is starting Josh Allen and Dalton Kincaid on bye; his best lineup is 108.31; Andrew has Amon-Ra St. Brown on his bench; his best is 129.23.

Last week’s five calls went 2 for 5, and three of the five favorites had flipped by kickoff. That is what a Monday-night line is worth. Jerome was the projected favorite by 35.85 and lost by 18.74.

09 · PREVIOUSLY ON EPSOFFThe season so far, one thread at a time

Every thread carries the week it opened. A thread settled, confirmed or reversed for two straight weeks retires to the closed arcs.

Closed arcs

Andrew is the best manager in this league (Wk3–Wk6) Reversed in Week 5 and stayed reversed: 94.08 this week with a perfect lineup, a loss by 30.66, and a third straight loss. Can anyone beat Alex? (Wk1–Wk5) Natchez did in Week 4. Buffalo is carrying Louis (Wk1–Wk5) Reversed in Week 3 and stayed reversed.

Nothing opened, one closed, and the narrator’s own thread reversed — by 2.03 points.

10 · WHAT TO WATCHThree open questions

The things Week 7 actually settles.

Does anybody trade? The league has made one trade in six weeks, and half of it has already been cut.

Can Pat win a game? He plays Logan, the man writing this, who projects 109.99 to Pat’s 101.50. Pat is starting James Cook on bye, and his best lineup projects 124.80. Pat fixes that and the narrator is the underdog.

Is it the lineup or the roster? Week 7 puts Jerome against Brent. Jerome projects 125.19, Brent 138.76. If he sets his best lineup and loses, that is a roster problem.