It would be wrong of me to brag about my performance in last week's Fantasy Index Blackout competition. After all, I'd done poorly enough to this point that people were starting to talk. So finishing in the top 8% with a score of 178 is nothing I should feel compelled to crow about. Just smile and nod and move on to Week 7.
You can enter under Your Stuff at the top right of the screen. It's similar to our old SuperLeague competition, except you're prevented from using sure-fire, slam-dunk superstars. Gotta settle for lesser guys like Alex Smith and maybe Derek Carr in a matchup with a defense that's owned him in the past. Of course, now you're limited to Sunday-Monday. Here are my picks.
Quarterback: Brady and Dak are blacked out, and Aaron Rodgers is Xed out. I'll roll with a couple of NFL fossils against suspect pass defenses without much in the way of a pass rush: Matt Ryan in New England and Drew Brees in Green Bay.
Running back: Ezekiel Elliott gets to play again this week. Since it's a bonus game for him after thinking he'd been suspended, and he's facing a weak San Francisco defense, I'm figuring he'll be pretty good. It seems like eventually his appeal will run out and maybe he'll actually be suspended, so let's smoke 'em while you got 'em. I'll pair Elliott with either Melvin Gordon or (gasp!) Adrian Peterson against a poor Rams run defense. Bell and Gurley are wisely blacked out.
Wide receiver: Julio and Antonio are down at the school yard, plus they're blacked out. I'm going with Dez Bryant in San Francisco, Michael Thomas in Green Bay and I believe Mike Evans in Buffalo. As outlined in the Weekly, Bills have allowed only a couple of passing scores to wide receivers, which is bad. But No. 1 types have fared well in terms of catches and yards, and Evans is a No. 1 guy. I don't care that Jameis Winston might not play -- I have a sprained AC joint in my throwing shoulder and let me tell you, it hurts like a son of an unwed parent, though I bet Winston has way better meds than me -- I think Ryan Fitzpatrick will do fine against his former team.
Tight end: Gronk and Ertz are blacked out, fittingly. S'Okay, I'm going with the tight ends facing the teams that allow tight ends to score virtually every week. Delanie Walker in Cleveland and Jimmy Graham at the Meadowlands against the Giants. Easy money.
Kicker: I'll take Wil Lutz in Green Bay (funny story, I've lost two close fantasy matchups this year in the same league to teams that started Wil Lutz, once in Week 1 and then again last week after the Week 1 team dropped him on his bye and my opponent picked him up. Maybe not that funny) and Chris Boswell at home against the Bengals.
Defense: Seattle is blacked out, on reputation I suppose. I'm going with the Titans against the turnover-prone disaster known as the Cleveland offense and the Jaguars against the Luckless Colts.
Good luck to the rest of you.