Week 7, Thursday
In May 1845 Sir John Franklin sailed from England with two reinforced ships, three years of tinned provisions and the finest charts the Admiralty owned, to finish the last unmapped stretch of the Northwest Passage. The ships froze fast in Victoria Strait and never moved again, and when the crews finally walked away they hauled a ship's boat south over the ice loaded with silver cutlery, curtain rods and a backgammon board, and not one of the hundred and twenty-nine came home. Justin is starting Efton Chism III again.
Chism played for him in week 6 and scored nothing, and tonight he is back in the lineup at 5.2, the weakest starter Justin owns, while Peter's weakest starter, Juwan Johnson, is projected 12.4. Justin projects 148.4 against Peter's 199.2 and sits at 14 percent, the biggest underdog on the board. Jahmyr Gibbs at 25.2 and Tyler Shough at 18.4 are the entire cargo, and like a sledge party dragging silverware across the pack ice, Justin is carrying weight that will not feed him. Franklin's men had a frozen sea and poisoned tins to blame; Justin had a waiver wire and a lineup he could fix with his thumb. He named the team after his quarterback and then packed the boat himself.
The matchups
Njigba’s in Paris (Peter) vs Shough and Fhough (Justin)
Peter projects 199.2 at 86 percent behind Brock Purdy's 24.2 and Jaxon Smith-Njigba's 23.8, and he has nobody at all playing tonight, which is a mercy for a man who started Case Keenum last week and watched him not play. Justin's entire contribution to Thursday is Hunter Henry at 11.1 and Chism at 5.2, so his best hope all night is a tight end.
Love on the Spectrum (Ethan) vs Anish
Ethan wrote the rules and left 57.3 points on his bench in week 6, and he still projects 174.4 at 60 percent to Anish's 162.8. Caleb Williams at 20.9 and Luther Burden III at 12.4 work tonight for the commissioner, so his week begins while Anish sits with nothing until Sunday and a receiver, Jaylin Noel, projected 6. Anish answers with Bo Nix at 23.3 and Ja'Marr Chase at 19, which is a lot of firepower from the man who started Darren Waller for a zero.