Fantasy Football RBs

Alright here the list for RBs. Again I was down on some rookies because there is some question how they will learn the playbook. Come end of August they could jump up my board. 

RB

McCaffrey, Christian

Barkley, Saquon

Henry, Derrick

Elliot, Ezekiel

Kamara, Alvin

Cook, Dalvin

Drake, Kenyan

Mixon, Joe

Jacobs, Josh

Ekeler, Austin

Sanders, Miles

Chubb, Nick

Jones, Arron

Fournette, Leonard

Johnson, David

Edwards-Helaire, Cylde

Carson, Chris

Hunt, Kareem

Connor, James

Gurley, Todd

Singleton, Devin

Bell, LeVeon

Mostert, Raheem

Gordon, Melvin

Taylor, Jonathan

Montgomery, David

Ingram, Mark

Swift, Dandre

Akers, Cam

Cohen, Tarik

Vaughn Ke'Shawn

Guice, Derrius

White, James

Jones, Ronald

Johnson, Kerryon

Lindsay, Philip

Murrary, Latavius

Williams, Damien

Henderson, Darrell

Moss, Zack

Michel, Sony

Mack, Marlon

Breida, Matt

Johnson, Duke

Edmonds, Chase

Dobbins, J.K.

Jackson, Justin

Scott, Boston

Gibson, Antonio

Smith, Ito

Pollard, Tony

MAttison, Alexander

Hines, Nyheim

Coleman, Tevin

Wiliams, Jamaal

Dillon, AJ

Mckinnon, Jerick

Burkhead, Rex

Harris, Damien

Edwards, Gus

Bernard, Giovani

Thompson, Chris

Hyde, Carlos

Fantasy Football Rankings QBs

Well there may or may not be a football season but that is no reason not to give my first glance fantasy ratings. I am down and players that have to make major changes on offense or changed teams because of the lack of training camps. Let me know what you think about the ratings.

QB

Mahomes, Patrick

Jackson, Lamar

Watson, Deshaun

Ryan Matt

Wentz Carson

Murray, Kyler

Prescott, Dak

Allen, Josh

Rodgers, Arron

Wilson, Russell

Brady Tom

Brees, Drew

Jones, Daniel

Tannehill, Ryan

Goff, Jared

Stafford, Matt

Mayfield, Baker

Roethlisberger, Ben

Garoppolo, Jimmy

Cousins, Kirk

Carr, Derrick

Borrow, Joe

Darnold, Sam

Lock, Drew

Rivers, Philip

Minshew, Gardner

Newton, Cam

Stidham, Jarrett

Tagovailoa, Tua

Herbert, Justin

Trubisky, Mitch

Foles, Nick

Taylor, Tyrod

Went a bit deep into them. Malhomes scores the top spot because I think he is more likely to play a full season than Jackson based on play style. I think you can't go wrong with any of the top three. If Kyler Murrary had a few offseason to get on the same page as Hopkins he would be number 4. Tom Brady would also be higher if there was a full off season. Brady does seem to be breaking that rule so may move if up a few spots. 

Well those are my ratings. Keep an eye out for running backs later this week!

Ribs on the Smoker

Another beautify day calls for another day on the smoker. This time I tried during some racks of Ribs. Not understanding what I was buying I purchased 4 racks of spare ribs thinking it was 2 so a pleasant surprise. Also got lucky as you will later see the 4 racks just fit on the smoker. 

First Brisket

I attempted my first brisket the other day. Learned a lot and wanted to share with my faithful readers. Maybe in the future I'll get you a video as I work.

I cut some of the fat off and trimmed off some parts that were hanging off. It was a bit of a struggle because the knife was not as sharp as it needed to be. I seasoned it with salt and pepper. Coated the whole thing till it looked like the proper amount. No real science to it yet.


While I was seasoning the cut of brisket, the smoker in the backyard was getting up to temperature. I used a combination of coal and Hickey wood and the goal was to get it to 275 and hold that temp.

I was able to hold the temp between 275 and 315 for most of the smoke. At one point there was a major temp drop because the ash blocked the vent. Since there was obstructed air flow the temp started to drop below where I wanted. I was able to push the ash away from the vent and when I did the temp shoot up over 350 for a few minutes. It is something that I have to keep an eye out for the next time I use the smoker for the cooks over 4 hours.
      
We let it cook for 6 hours before I open it up to see how it was doing.  At the 6 hour mark it had a 185 internal temp so it could have been served then but I wrapped it and left it on for another two hours just to make sure it was tender as it was not as flexible as I would have liked.


So after the 8 hours pulled it off and let it rest for an hour before cutting into it. My cutting skills need some work and fortunately I can't find the post the picture after it was cut. I did a good job of hiding the bad cuts so actually it is a shame since you also can't see the end results. If I can find the pictures I'll upload them! It was good through. My family liked it, probably could have been a bit moister but that will come with better temperature control. 

Thanks for reading, drop a comment and let me know what you think!

My Friends play Diplomacy: Italy

Alright this is the 4th edition in this series and it is time to take on the player who soared the highest and crashed the hardest. That would be Italy. No one player did more to win the game for themselves than Italy did. They also do the most to lose the game. It was not a pretty sight when things started to turn for them. Well we are going to dig in and find the reasons why things worked and what was the ultimate downfall for Italy.

My Friends play diplomacy: Russia

The third installment is based on the play of Russia. Unlike Turkey or France they lasted to the end of the game and at times were a major power and could have potentially won the game if things broke a bit different. Let's dive into their play and see what we can learn!

My Friends play diplomacy: France

Ready for the second edition of my new blog series. (Hey at least its something, I can't go to the store to get supplies for the smoker)


The next country to cover is France. Unlike Turkey they just seemed to be playing strategically unsound. Well I don't want to ruin the surprise of the game so let's look at the opening turn.

My Friends played diplomacy: Turkey's fall

My friends played a game of diplomacy that I watched and now they want some feedback. It went on way to long so I can't do one post that covers the whole game so I am going to break it down into several smaller parts. Here is the first edition, and while I would like to say I am going to get these out pretty quick I am not making any promises.

Let's start with Turkey since they went out first (okay Austria forgot the game started so they lost first but we are not counting them):

Alright let's see the first moves:

Sixer for a day!

Throwback to when we could walk outside. Pictures to come soon

I had this great opportunity to take a tour of the Sixers practice facility with my brother. The question everyone asks is how did you get to do this. Well my season ticket rep called me said that they were having an event for select season ticket holders and he thought I would love it. Oh course I said yes and it was off to the event.

The event starts with the a interview, ask about how long you have been a Sixers fan, favorite Sixers moment. Then you head into the court to check in and sign your contract. Which is cool thing to have.

They move you into the next part which is a picture with the nba championship trophy, (Obrien Trophy) and up to the lounge/Snack area. Alright the food spread they had was delicious, really when you think of it I am a food event blogger so you know this was going to make the cut. The chicken salad sandwich was delicious. It was on a sweet raisin bread and was great. They also had a the meats and cheese platters that they have at these events, artichoke dip, spinach dip, and crab dip. I also had a mozzarella tomato sandwich which was great as well. It look like they had white macaroon and chocolate chip cookies. I skipped the cookies because, for lent I am not doing deserts. (Exceptions for birthday cake and bachelor parties)

They moved us back to the practice court and squad 76 put on a quick show. The next part was the 30 second challenge. Layup, free throw, three, half court shot. I rushed the free throws and missed the first three. Took my time on the fourth sunk it but time ran out before I could hit the three. (Honestly the NBA three would have just been pure luck so I likely was going to hit it. My brother did slightly better but couldn't hit the three either.

After we were down the 30 second challenge, they let us have free session on the court so most people just shoot around on the courts. I took a few more threes, finally made one, but it was around 10% from three on the day. A step in through I drained a bunch. That extra step makes a huge difference.

I think my favorite part was when Matt got hot from the corner and said he is shooting better than Korkmaz. I also think I am shooting a higher percentage at the practice facility than Markelle Fultz from the foul line, but that is not saying much.

We also took a bunch of photos so you can check those out below. It was great time and thanks to the Sixers and my season Ticket rep.

Smoke BBQ ribs and Brisket nachos

Well went to Smoke last week and because of the time and effort in the cheesesteak tour I have been a bit slow to get this published. Sorry, loyal readers but I wanted to mix the content up a bit. Leave a comment if you like the cheesesteak tour or if you prefer I stick to the shorter review pieces.

I was wrong about the Sixers

I'll be honest there are a lot of things I have been wrong about when it comes to the Sixers over the past couple of years. I thought Fultz was going to be the third star next to be Joel and Ben and that the trade was a good one. Wrong. I thought that Nik Stauskas would turn into a better version of JJ Reddick, a combination of shooting, average defense and ball handling. Way wrong! I thought that Dario is super fun to cheer for and should be a sixer for life, actually I was right about that.

The Cheesesteak tour of Philly

Well on February 22nd, it was the first group blog event, even if most of the people didn't know I was going to write about it here till the day before I think everyone was enthusiastic about the idea and with that 6 brave souls went about trying to find the best cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Before going forward check out the map of the tour and the details over here. (Yes I am doing this so I can skip a good portion of the rewrite between the two posts.) Also if you are just here for the results skip to the bottom I go on several tangents which have little to do with cheesesteaks and it goes against my core beliefs of blogging to take the tangents out.

So I can't take all the credit for this, several years ago Doug, showed me a youtube video of a guy who ate 16 cheesesteaks in 12 hours so it was always in the back of my mind as something I would want to do but I am not that crazy to try to eat whole ones so to steal the idea from cheesesteak fest I brought friends and cut it up into pieces. One of the things I remembered about that video was it started at Tony Lukes and actually Tony Luke's was the winner of his best cheesesteak. So with that in mind Tony Lukes was the starting point for this one as well.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog!

So a blast from my past was definitely going to get me to write a movie review. Back in the game Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (gamecube) was my game. College friends can remember the time I spent 100% the game and effort to get all As. So I'm going to follow my rainbow and give the review the Sonic Movie deserves!

Ribs at Back Alley BBQ

Was told that the Ribs at Back Alley BBQ were out of this world so I knew I needed to go out and give them a try. Well I was not disappointed. Maybe not the best in the world but they were good and huge. Just take a look!

Mission BBQ- Turkey and Ribs, oh yeah and the brisket sandwhich!

Going off the bbq trend to get back to some classics. Realized there where still a bit of items I am leaving off the reviews. One of those great items at BBQ places that can get over looked is the Turkey. Smoked Turkey can be delicious as I learned from my trip to Franklin BBQ. Time to apply that lesson and switch things up!

Turning classic board games into drinking games: Chutes and Ladders

Well we had Candyland a few weeks ago so you knew that this was going to show up sooner or later. Again like that Candyland this game is another one where the players do not have to make any decisions, the outcome is completely determined by luck which makes it a perfect game to turn into a drinking game.

Turning classics into drinking games: Candyland

Well this one is a tough one mainly because I don't own the game anymore. It used to be a Brennan classic back in the day but we moved on to more involved games. Alright because this game has no decisions that makes it the perfect drinking game because sometimes the best drinking games are just pure chance, like beer pong when you see three times as many cups as are in the game.

Whole Hog Cafe: Burnt ends Cheesesteak

So after trying the brisket cheesesteak at Seymors, I went down to Whole Hog to try the burnt ends cheesesteak that they serve. I was always interested in ordering it but never felt called to order it.

Turning classic board games into drinking games: Diplomacy

Well another classic game and another one that takes forever to play. People say Monopoly and risk are long games but those people have not played Diplomacy. Diplomacy the right way can take 2 hours for the first turn and go down from there until it reaches a tie. That's right there isn't even normally a winner just ties and losers, guess you could say shared victory. It think it is to show the point that WWI was not a winner but just sides that lost less. Through like WWI movement in this game is slow and deliberate. Each turn include a phrase of diplomacy where all players have an opportunity to talk to the other players and plan the turns moves. This part can take awhile.

Seymor Watch my Smoke

Went to Seymor Watch my Smoke to try their famous brisket cheesesteak and boy oh boy it was delicious. The cheese was perfect. It had all the benefits of whiz but with the great taste of real cheese. Now I wasn't planning to try a new place out but I had some time and threw it into the google maps asking for the closest BBQ place and out popped Seymors. Now, the owner was working behind the counter and he was super nice and really interested in making sure I enjoyed my meal. It was great. One of my favorite thing about BBQ places is that people are always friendly. They go out of their way to make sure the guest have a good time.

Turning classic board games into drinking games: Acquire

Acquire is a great game that seemingly no one knows about. even through it is almost as old as Monopoly. Well a quick rundown of the game is the point is to purchase stock in hotel chains and make the most amount money when there is mergers of the hotel chains. The person with the most money at the end of the game wins. It is pretty easy to play and it makes a lot of sense as you play.

Checking in on my fantasy football rankings: TE

The past three days I have posted my recap for QBs, Rbs, and WRs, earlier this week. Go check them out and let me know how you think I did. So far I think the hit rate has been on the higher side.