The Avs Are Back, NFL Week 3 Went Off the Rails & Fantasy Football Got Personal | FeOTB Ep. 291

Hockey is back.

That sentence alone makes this one of the best times of the year.

For months we’ve had football Saturdays, football Sundays, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football and then a whole lot of wondering what the hell we’re supposed to do with Tuesday and Wednesday night. Now the Avalanche are back, basketball isn’t far behind, and the sports calendar finally feels full again.

Episode 291 of The Far End of the Bench ended up being a little bit of everything.

We opened with our first full Avalanche conversation of the new season, tried to make sense of one of the weirdest Broncos wins I can remember, caught up on everything we missed from NFL Week 3, suffered through some fantasy football mistakes, made our Week 4 Pick’em selections, negotiated an actual fantasy trade live on the show and finished by handing out this week’s Players and Benchwarmers of the Week.

So, yeah. We had some things to talk about.

The Avalanche Are Back, but the Regular Season Isn’t the Standard Anymore

It still feels weird saying that about this franchise.

There was a point when Niko and I were in college where the Avalanche were legitimately one of the worst teams in hockey. Now we’re talking about a team that can win the Presidents’ Trophy, make another deep playoff run and somehow still leave the season feeling like a disappointment.

That’s the standard now.

Last season finally got Colorado past the playoff ceiling that had been hanging over this core, but getting swept out of the Western Conference Final left an entirely different taste in my mouth. I don’t think either of us expected that series to end in four games. Lose the series? Sure. Vegas was good enough to beat them. But four straight? That made you question things that felt pretty solid before the series started.

And that’s why I don’t really care what this team looks like in January as long as they’re healthy and playing their best hockey when April gets here.

Obviously, you want to win the Central. You want home ice. You want another great regular season.

But nobody is going to remember an 84-game masterpiece if the same problems show up when the games actually matter.

The biggest thing for me is health.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are the engines. If those two are healthy, they make everybody else better. We saw what happened when Makar clearly wasn’t himself late last season. You can survive injuries in October. You cannot survive your most important players being compromised in May.

Then there’s the supporting cast.

Martin Necas, Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri, Gabriel Landeskog and the rest of the veteran group have to prove this isn’t some kind of reunion tour. I used the KISS analogy on the show because that’s basically how I feel about it: I don’t want the farewell tour. I want another year where these guys can still look like the version of themselves that made them stars.

At the same time, I actually like that Colorado seems willing to inject more youth into the lineup.

For the last few seasons it has felt like the bottom of the roster was getting filled with veteran after veteran chasing one last Cup. There’s nothing wrong with having those guys. I just don’t need six Brent Burnses. Give me one. Maybe two.

The 2022 championship team had young players contributing meaningful minutes. If Colorado can get some of that hunger and speed back around the established core, I think that matters.

Somebody Needs to Take the Avalanche Net

The goaltending conversation might be the most interesting one.

Scott Wedgewood had a ridiculous season. MacKenzie Blackwood has shown why Colorado invested in him. Together, they were good enough to help the Avalanche win the Jennings Trophy.

That’s great.

I still want one of them to become the guy.

This is basically the goalie version of the quarterback argument. If you’re constantly debating between two guys going into the postseason, then I’m not sure you actually have your answer.

I don’t particularly care whether it becomes Blackwood or Wedgewood. My expectation is Blackwood because of the investment Colorado made in him, but if Wedgewood takes the job and refuses to give it back, fine.

I just want to get to April and know who is starting Game 1.

No guessing. No rotating because one guy had one bad night. No wondering who gets the next game.

Somebody needs to take the net.

There Is No Excuse for This Power Play

Then there is the part that drove me insane last season.

The power play.

With this roster, it should not be this difficult.

You have Nathan MacKinnon. You have Cale Makar. You have Martin Necas. You have Gabriel Landeskog. You have more skill than almost anyone in hockey.

That unit should be terrifying.

Instead, the inconsistency wasn’t something that randomly appeared during the playoffs. It was there all season and then became impossible to ignore once the postseason exposed it.

I’m interested to see what adding some different looks and younger players does to the unit, because at some point you have to stop saying the talent is there and actually produce.

A power play featuring that much skill should, at minimum, be one of the better groups in hockey.

That feels like a ridiculously low bar.

The Broncos Won a Game They Had Absolutely No Business Winning

Then we went from hockey into complete chaos.

I was at Broncos-Rams on Sunday night, and there was a point in the first half where nothing made sense.

Denver goes into halftime down 16-0.

The offense looks dead.

There are plays open that aren’t being hit. The Rams are moving the football. The Broncos defense is spending way too much time on the field.

Then the second half starts and apparently somebody found the other half of the playbook.

Denver comes all the way back and wins 30-26.

What makes it even stranger is that this has now become a thing with this team. Back-to-back seasons, they’ve had a game where they were shut out in the first half, trailed by double digits and then somehow exploded in the second half.

I’m not sure that is the identity you want, but I’d rather have “we refuse to die” than the alternative.

There are still legitimate concerns.

The middle of the defense has to be better. The run defense has to be better. The offense cannot keep waiting until halftime to discover what works.

But sometimes you steal one.

And the biggest reason Denver stole this one was Talanoa Hufanga.

Two interceptions. A pick-six. Another interception to seal the game. A massive sack on third down.

He was everywhere.

Watching him live, I finally figured out why his orange No. 9 looked so familiar to me.

Talanoa Hufanga looks like Bobby Boucher.

Full head of steam. Hair flying behind him. No hesitation. Just visualize and attack.

If I see a Broncos No. 9 coming downhill now, all I hear in my head is The Waterboy.

NFL Week 3 Was Complete Nonsense

Once we left Denver, the rest of the NFL didn’t make much more sense.

Buffalo repeatedly tried to hand the Chargers a football game and Los Angeles still couldn’t take it.

Kansas City quietly started looking like Kansas City again, which is probably bad news for everyone who spent the first few weeks convincing themselves that the Chiefs were finally going away.

The Raiders got to 3-0, although I still need to see them do it against teams that aren’t living at the bottom of the league before I buy all the way in.

Seattle put up numbers and still managed to lose.

The Cowboys and Ravens gave us another reminder that Dallas can score 30-plus and somehow make you feel worse about the team by the end of the game.

And the Eagles absolutely murdered one of my fantasy lineups.

That brings us to the part of the show where things became personal.

Brock Bowers Ruined My Weekend From My Bench

This is one of those fantasy mistakes you know is going to bother you for a while.

I thought Brock Bowers was going to need some time.

Why rush him?

Be smart. Protect the player. Give him another week.

That sounded great until I got the message asking whether I had Bowers in my lineup because he was apparently busy scoring about 30 fantasy points.

I did not.

I lost by 15.

Beautiful.

The worst part is I still had Monday Night Football. Jalen Hurts against Chicago? I should be fine.

Narrator: I was not fine.

The Eagles offense looked completely lost, Hurts did almost nothing for me, and the fantasy comeback never happened.

Fantasy football is an incredible hobby.

The First-Ever FeOTB Live Trade Negotiation

Then Niko decided to do something we had never done on the show before.

He sent me a trade during the ad break.

So naturally, instead of waiting until after the episode like normal human beings, we negotiated the entire thing live.

The offer:

Niko sends me Drake Maye and Ollie Gordon.

I send Niko Kyler Murray and David Montgomery.

And somehow, despite spending several minutes wondering whether I was about to get swindled live in front of everyone, I accepted it.

I still don’t know whether I made a mistake.

That is what makes it fun.

Niko wanted out of the Drake Maye experience. I wanted another swing at upside and felt like Gordon could give me something at running back. Niko gets Montgomery and a quarterback he doesn’t have to hate-watch anymore.

Now whichever side loses the trade gets to hear about it on the show for the rest of the season.

That might be the real winner here.

Start/Sit: I’m Giving Jalen Hurts a Week on the Bench

For Week 4, I’m sitting Jalen Hurts.

That doesn’t mean I suddenly think Hurts is a bad quarterback. I don’t.

I just don’t trust what Philadelphia is doing offensively right now, and after watching that unit stumble around, I’m willing to let somebody else carry my fantasy lineup for a week.

On Niko’s side, Matthew Golden is one of the more interesting starts. He has quietly become a major part of what Green Bay is doing, and if the Packers are going to continue throwing the football at that rate, the opportunities are going to keep coming.

The running backs are where we got much more pessimistic.

Omarion Hampton has not been what fantasy owners drafted him to be, and Niko is already trying to move him before the schedule gets any uglier.

I’m also sitting Jadarian Price until I see him settle down and start running like an NFL back again. The talent is there. But after the fumble, the injury and the way he started bouncing runs rather than taking what was available, I need to see him get comfortable again before I trust him in a lineup.

Fantasy football does not care how much I liked somebody in August.

FeOTB Pick’em: Niko Still Has a Lead I’m Trying to Erase

Insert the NFL Week 4 Pick’em graphic immediately after this heading and before the Pick’em discussion. This is the perfect point because the reader gets the full records and all eight selections before reading the breakdown.

Niko and I both went 2-2 last week, which is good news for me until you remember he already had a five-game head start.

That puts Niko at 9-3 overall and me at 4-8.

I am trying to stop picking the same games because there is no way to make up ground if we’re constantly sitting on the same side.

Niko has Seattle over the Chargers, Kansas City over Las Vegas, Minnesota over Miami and Baltimore over Tennessee.

I’m taking Chicago over the Jets, Detroit over Carolina, Cincinnati over Jacksonville and Denver over San Francisco.

Yes.

I picked the Broncos over the 49ers.

Yes, I understand what I am doing.

Sometimes you have to choose violence.

The one thing I’m comfortable saying is I like Denver’s chances a hell of a lot more after watching Hufanga completely take over Sunday night.

San Francisco is still a different animal, but if the Broncos want us to believe that Sunday was more than just an insane comeback, this is the type of game where they can prove it.

Jimmy’s Awards: Jeremiah Smith Is Just Different

Insert the Jimmy’s Awards graphic directly under this heading.

My Benchwarmer of the Week is Desman Stephens II.

I already talked about this on The Morning After, but it still bothered me enough that I had to bring it back for Episode 291.

Football is violent. Hits happen fast. Players make mistakes.

But when a quarterback is already giving himself up and you launch into his head area, we have been watching football long enough to know exactly how that is going to be officiated.

What bothered me even more was everything afterward.

Dante Moore is down, the situation is clearly serious, and instead of recognizing that the football game can stop mattering for 30 seconds, Stephens is waving to the crowd, talking to Oregon players and escalating the situation.

That’s the part I couldn’t get over.

There has to be a point where the human being matters more than the game.

My Player of the Week was a much easier choice.

Jeremiah Smith.

He is unguardable.

Twelve catches. 217 yards. Four touchdowns.

There are games where somebody looks like the best player on the field, and then there are games where it feels like somebody accidentally put a created player into college football.

That was Jeremiah Smith.

I don’t know if a wide receiver is going to get enough love to win the Heisman in this era, but I do think we have to seriously start asking whether he could eventually be the No. 1 overall pick.

If I’m sitting at the top of the NFL Draft and Jeremiah Smith is available, I’m not spending much time thinking about it.

Put the card in.

Niko’s Awards: Hufanga Goes From Bobby Boucher to Player of the Week

Insert the Niko’s Awards graphic immediately under this heading.

There really wasn’t much debate about Niko’s Player of the Week.

Talanoa Hufanga basically wrote his own award submission.

The pick-six completely changed Sunday Night Football. The second interception ended it. The sack came at another massive moment.

He was the best player on the field when Denver needed somebody to become the best player on the field.

Niko’s Benchwarmer went outside football.

Gable Steveson.

If you know Niko, you know how much he loves wrestling. That is what made this one hurt even more.

Steveson entered his fight as an overwhelming favorite and was knocked out almost immediately. After all the hype surrounding the transition into fighting, it became one of those moments where everybody who knew Niko apparently decided they needed to send him every possible camera angle.

Nothing like having your phone turn into a personal highlight reel of pain.

Welcome to the Best Part of the Sports Calendar

That’s Episode 291.

The Avalanche are back.

The Broncos just gave us another ridiculous comeback.

The NFL is already giving us teams we might have been completely wrong about.

Fantasy football has reached the point where Niko and I are negotiating trades live during the show.

And college football gave us both ends of our awards spectrum.

This is why I love this time of year.

There is always another game. There is always another argument. There is always another completely unreasonable fantasy football decision waiting around the corner.

Episode 291 of The Far End of the Bench is available now.

Come sit on the Far End.