Lucky or Smart?

Dynasty/Devy Leagues
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My dad once said, “I’d rather be lucky than smart.” Then there is the other old saying, “Luck is merely the residue of skill.” I’ll let you folks decide what this was.

In my dynasty PPR superflex league this week, I was already down Derek Carr due to the bye week. That left me with Jameis Winston (who got hurt later, although luckily still beat my opponent’s 2nd QB in limited action). So I picked up Mike White during the waiver pickups, using $10 FAAB.

I just wanted to get SOME points! Did I ever! White vs. Kyler Murray was a mismatch, 24-7. With Winston vs. Mayfield ending up 10-5, I managed to pull one of the biggest upsets in our league.

I should also add I had JJ Taylor this morning, and he was declared inactive, so I rush added Tyler Johnson of TB and he added another 11 points for me!

A game that was projected by Yahoo to be 177-115 with me losing, and even by Fantasy Pros to be 177-123, ended up 133-116, me on top.

The best part? There are rumbles about Mike White starting next Thursday against Indy. If he does well there, we might see another new QB entering the mix. and I just dumb-luck stumbled onto him. I hope so too, cause it looks like Jameis may be out for the year.

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You know what? I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept starting White all season.

You gotta wonder what happened there with the Jets yesterday. I’m not saying that White is a better QB than Wilson. But one thing was painfully obvious: White made the entire team better. Every single player played as if their lives depended on it.

Wilson never did that. Why?

In this year’s fantasy rookie draft, there were 3 players I had red-flagged. Tamorrion Terry, obviously, after he got arrested on murder charges. Tutu Atwell, because I thought he was massively overrated.

And Wilson.

Maybe that was unfair. I obviously don’t know him, and I usually don’t judge people by what others say about them. But there were these rumours that Wilson had a few character issues that could stand in the way between him and a great NFL career.

He is a rich kid. His uncle owns JetBlue, and has a reputation of making rather unpleasant calls when things don’t work out the way he wants them to. JetBlue is a sponsor to the New York Jets.

Being the kid of a rich family isn’t a crime, nor does it make you a bad person. The public statements I saw from Wilson did not suggest any narcissism or character flaws.

Still, we all don’t know how he is being received in the locker room. And there were rumours from BYU that suggested things there were not always great. Doesn’t even have to be his fault. But if there is dissonance in the locker room, it will show on the field.

There are people who elevate everybody around them and turn them into better versions of themselves. Gardner Minshew is said to be such a person. And look at how the Bucs players responded to their former QB going down yesterday. He wore the other team’s jersey, but he was clearly still “their guy”.

Do the Jets o-liners see Wilson as “their guy”?

We have a saying in German: even a blind hen sometimes finds a grain of corn. Maybe the Jets are that lucky hen, that just happened to find itself a fine grain yesterday.

Or there is a lot more potential in that team than the first 7 weeks suggested. And the addition of a positive factor (or the temporary removal of a negative one) was all it took to unleash that potential.

The Bengals weren’t terrible yesterday. The Jets were really, really good.

If that repeats next week, the Jets have a very difficult decision to make. Or maybe I am massively unfair to Zach Wilson here, and he will take over and lead the now-unleashed team through a respectable second half of the season. We will see.

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I still need to watch the highlights from that game, but from what I’ve read, White was quicker to look at checkdowns than Wilson, rather than trying to scramble around and make things happen. Clearly, the Jets have some solid checkdowns, especially Michael Carter, who was also on my aforementioned team and had a career day.

Like I said before, White will get a second shot this coming week for me, as Jameis Winston is out for the season. I like White better than Winston’s replacement, which is saying something since the Saints supposedly have a better team than the Jets. The numbers don’t lie, and the Jets were a whole lot better.

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Just checked my draft notes on Wilson:

“Concerning pocket presence. Often too focused on deep shots. Gets in motion immediately when his first target isn’t there, and makes mental errors while on the run.”

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