Standings

Mints
1.) Pollard, Pierce & Pickens, LLC (Rooney) – 4-2
2.) M.F. Lunchables (Gerrish) – 4-2
3.) Kupp Tha Balls (Adams) – 3-3
4.) The McManal Probes (Northrup) – 3-3
5.) Ghost of Bill Russell (McLaughlin) 3-3
6.) Bizz Dawgs (Bizzy) – 2-4
7.) Absentee Manager (Burke) – 0-6

Sundowner
1.) Boston Robstahs (Holter) – 5-1
2.) Merrymount Madmen (Caliri) – 4-2
3.) Boston Bureaucrats (Long) 3-3
4.) INSERT WITTY NAME (Fahey) – 3-3
5.) Dartmouth Drunks (Finley) – 3-3
6.) Gorham Mion Match (Sylvia) – 3-3
7.) The Pissahs (Lavoie) – 2-4

This season is the pinnacle of parity. 13 of 14 squads (RIP Al) still have a very strong chance to qualify for the MIPPA postseason.

Here’s how the experts see the rest of the year playing out:

The clear underperforming roster of the first 6 weeks belongs to Adams, who wants us to make sure we all Kupp Tha Balls down the stretch. Adams’ roster has the second most points scored on the season despite his 3-3 record.

The trio of DET Amon-Ra St. Jerry Rice Brown, MIN Jefferson and LAR Kupp is *by far* the highest upside WR room in the league. Adams may have stumbled onto his league winning RB with SEA’s Ken Walker III now that Rashaad Penny (fibula) is out for the season.

The biggest potential pretender who sits at 3-3 or better by points scored: shockingly, the Sundowner leading Boston Robstahs only have the 7th most points scored in the league. This is a big reason why the power rankings have them with a massive regression in the second half. Holter will need to manage well to stay on top deep into the winter.

Your author is feeling the pressure of living up to this projection, no question.

Trade SZN is likely to heat up in the next couple of weeks, as managers try to solidify their title run chances. Here’s your author’s top theoretical trade targets at each key position you should be considering for any roster holes:

Trade Targets

Buy WR Chris Godwin

Godwin’s routes run and targets spiked in Week 6, and he’s back to the top of Tom Brady’s priority list as a result. Godwin is by far the best remaining asset on Absentee Manager’s 0-6 roster, and should command a hefty price tag from a WR needy contender any day now. With his current manager purely looking ahead to 2023, high draft picks should be firmly on the table for TB’s slot specialist.

Buy RB Raheem Mostert

No idea if his owner is selling, but Mostert has played >55% of the snaps for the Dolphins in each game since Week 2, and currently owns a 69.1% share of MIA’s team rushes and 7.4% of team targets over the last 3 weeks of play. If that holds he’s going to be a great value once MIA’s offense gets back on track. Currently collecting dust on Adams’ bench, we suspect he could be pried away by an RB needy owner for a midrange draft pick.

Buy TE David Njoku

After seeing just 1 target in Week 1, Njoku has earned 5+ targets in every single game Cleveland has played since. He’s logging >80% of offensive snaps every single week, and is on pace for a career high in targets, receptions, and reception yards. Not only does Njoku sport a high target share on the season, he also has a 25% (7 of 28) target share in the red zone in Cleveland’s offense – so the TDs should be on deck. While this info might be enough to convince the trade happy Seth McLaughlin to simply hold him, TE hungry managers should try to pry him away.

Bonus targets: NO WR Chris Olave, ARI WR DeAndre Hopkins, SF RB Elijah Mitchell, ATL TE Kyle Pitts, TB TE Cade Otton

Key Week 7 Matchups

Here’s some matchups between closely ranked squads. The winners will start to create separation in our standings down the stretch:

Kupp Tha Balls (3-3, Adams) vs. Boston Bureaucrats (3-3, Long) – bye week hell for Adams might translate to yet another 7th place pace victory for the Bureaucrats. No Kupp or Jefferson? This is the week someone absolutely needs to clip Adams (and he knows it). The trio of Mahomes, Pittman, Pitts and Chubb projects to lead ML to victory.

Gorham Mixon Match (3-3, Sylvia) vs. Dartmouth Drunks (3-3, Finley) – Slight edge to Sylvia this week, as Finley’s Drunks have a huge hole with TE Dallas Goedert on bye. Jets rookie RB Breece Hall’s emergence as a true workhorse RB just might turn the tide for the artist formerly known as IR or In Jail.

Ghost of Bill Russell (3-3, Seth) vs. The McManal Probes (3-3, Northrup) – Minty! Either way, some Mints on Mints crime is guaranteed in Week 7 here. Seth’s hoping a return from DET’s Swift boosts his squad to victory, while Will needs to overcome the loss of Josh Allen with a waiver wire QB stream.

Merrymount Madmen (4-2, Caliri) vs. Boston Robstahs (5-1, Holter) – Will the Burrow & Chase stack hit on back to back weeks? This matchup of our two most recent champions also has major implications on the Sundowner division title. Caliri has to make up for the loss of Thielen & Higbee to their bye weeks, while Holter trades last week’s Davante Adams bye for this week’s Stefon Diggs absence. The potential return of Jonathan Taylor looms large over the outcome of this battle.
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MF Lunchables has a 2 game edge on the Bizz Dawgs, and is projected to win easily. Same goes for Pollard, Pickens & Pierce, LLC, as Absentee Manager’s squad is already looking forward to the offseason. Finally, look for INSERT WITTY NAME to climb above .500 with a healthy projection over The Pissahs in Week 7.

There’s a long way to go in the MIPPA 2022 season – we’ll either be back semi frequently with more updates, or see you again in Week 5 of 2024 for our next blog!