ESFL Week 1 Insider by: Josh Perdew

ESFL Week 1 Insider by: Josh Perdew

IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!!! I have been waiting for this day for nearly 9 months….The start of this year’s football season.

It has been an interesting preseason. After a small draft site issue, the commissioner got things rolling and rolling in a hurry. I believe the fastest draft to date for the ESFL. After the draft, we ran into a few issues during training camp of some early pickups. Zima got cracked down as well as D Crown. Big “D” made a few extra transactions and then Kav did the same the following day. I personally like the rule of 2-a-days and I believe it evens the playing field a bit. I know we had some issues with the time for certain folks but I recall waking up in the middle of the night last year and grabbing a few players and headed right back to bed. Its fantasy football people and you have to be dedicated! Injured Reserve has become an issue with some, as the Kavanators placed their backup QB on reserve instead of the teams #3 and had to pay the penalty. Nice job, genius. Enough of the rules and rule-breakers….lets get this party started!

Global Division Overview:

Previous Champion and Defending ESFL Champion Terry Rhodes have once again loaded up a team of scrubs to try to become the third team to defend a title in this league. The Boot Hill Balut has a team full of talent lead by WR Andre Johnson. Tony Romo under center, Frank Gore in the backfield, and Antonio Gates lined up at the TE spot. It looks like they have the top team in that division again this year but looks can be deceiving. Temps Texas Boys are looking to regain the top spot and take the title back with a WR combo that makes me sick. Fitzgerald and TO.....are you kidding me? They will create matchup problems all year and we all know Patrick Willis and Ray Lewis are tackling machines. These team shows you that he knows what he’s doing and is in the hunt every year…..Wow… Frost Flurries are another team that could create havoc with studs like Drew Brees, DeAngelo Williams, and Marques Colston. His defense consists of Jon Beason, Eric
Weddle, Brandon Meriweather, and DQwell Jackson. This balanced team should make the post season. Pardue Bruisermakers have a fighting chance with the number one selection in Adrian Peterson and solid play makers in Roddy White, Matt Ryan, and Dallas Clark. Look for Pardue to pull a few upsets and make the playoffs. Zima Ruskies have an interesting group of players. He jumped up the draft board and took LT early and followed with Marion Barber. Jason Witten will be his top receiver even though he is a TE. The defense of this team is unheard of. He loaded up on the top names like James Harrison, Demarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, and Jared Allen. If defense wins championships, Zima has it locked. Meanwhile, D Crownholders have probably one of the worst teams in the division and his squad is lead by Tom Brady. Offensive production from this team might be hard to come by. The real question for this team is if Tom Brady and Chris Johnson are good
enough to carry the load. Defensively, guys like Ryans, Woodley and Finnegan are good playmakers but look for D Crown to struggle for points.



Appalachian Divison Overview:

Previous Division winner Bruce Fields is looking to jump back to the Ballistic Bowl again this year for a record 4th shot at the title. Fields Fanatix are 0-3 in championship games but might be able to overcome the hex with a group of studs such as Donovan McNabb, Steven Jackson, Randy Moss, Tony Gonzalez, Brian Urlacher, Julius Peppers, and Troy Polamalu. If this team stays injury free, look for them to hold up the trophy in January. Runner up in the division last year was the Perdew Pulverizers. The Pulverizers had a struggle with QB and WR issues last year but cleared them up in this year’s draft. Calvin Johnson, Wes Welker, and Brandon Marshall will be a solid receiver core. He grabbed Maurice Jones-Drew 5th overall and troubled running back Marshawn Lynch in the 5th round of the draft which could be turn out as a steal if he produces after his 3 game suspension to start the season. Jay Cutler must perform in a new home of Chicago and
Lendale White must get the goal line carries for this team to put together a run at the title. His defense stinks and doesn’t even need to be mentioned. The Texan Bruisers come in this year with a very solid draft with Michael Tuner, Anquan Boldin, Greg Jennings, Matt Schuab, and underrated Pierre Thomas. This team should put up a high point total on a weekly basis and probably has the best DL’s with Osi Umenyiora and Mario Williams. If Boldin and Schuab stay healthy, look out folks. Big “D”, which made the trade of the century last season, has drafted another decent team with Aaron Rodgers leading his troops and Matt Forte, Steve Smith, and Owen Daniel alongside. He nearly made the Appalachian Divison Championship last year but fell short and is looking to rebound back. Whitmore White Workhorses has yet again drafted some players nobody wanted like Ronnie Brown, Kellen Winslow, Jeremy Shockey, Ocho Stinko, Donald Driver, and Joey
Galloway. The guy has only a couple real threats in Peyton Manning, Brandon Jacobs, TJ Hush, and James Farrior. This team is likely to finish dead last this year if it wasn’t for Kav. Kav’s Kavanators are by far this year’s worst team. He has Philip Rivers leading his team, along with injury prone Brian Westbrook, over the hill Larry Johnson and even further over the hill Edgerrin James. Wow, his studs are far and few in between with Reggie Wayne, Antoine Winfield, and London FletcherBaker. By the way Kav, tell DeSean Jackson to actually get into the end zone this year before he throws the damn ball down. That’s called a fumble!

Week One:

The Boot Hill Balut take on the Pardue Bruisermakers in what looks like a total beat down by Balut. Some of these matchups look closer than they appear, but I believe Balut takes down the Bruisers by 5 points. We all know Adrian Peterson will get his against Cleveland but I think the Balut win this one with defense and have their eyes set on another title. 174 - 169

Frost Flurries take on the Zima Ruskies. Frost looks to have the edge in this close battle with a high powered offense lead by Brees. Zima’s stout defense will keep it close but not close enough as Frost wins by 7 points. 177 - 170

Temp’s Texas Boys take on D Crownholders. D had some training camp issues but his team is looking better than expected. I like the early defensive pickups D has made as well. As for Temp’s Boys, he has a couple of animals lined up at wide receiver and linebacker. Fitz and TO will create matchup problems all year and we all know Patrick Willis and Ray Lewis are tackling machines. I see a 20 point lose and a bad start to the season for D Crownholders. 183 – 163

Whitmore Workhorses take on Big “D”. Big “D” has owned Whitmore in ESFL and this week should be no different. Whitmore took a late week 13 regular season loss to Big “D” and missed the playoffs last year. Whit will start out 0-1 with a disappointing showing and drop this game by 35 points. Rumor has it that the over/under on Whitmore’s club this year is 4 wins, I’m taking the under. 155 - 120

Perdew Pulverizers take on Kav’s Kavanators: Probably the two best names in the ESFL. But names don’t win games, and Kav has no chance against the top receivers that Perdew have. Perdew will take this one easy by 28 points and move on to week 2. 168 - 140

Fanatix take on Texan Bruisers is what could be the Appalachian Division Championship game this year. These two teams are full of playmakers and scorers. This will be the highest scoring game of the year. I have to give the advantage to Fields as his team knows how to win the big games. The Texan will keep it close, but in the end, Fields wins by 6 points. 198 - 192.

Best of luck to all this season....