Oh we are so back! Hello again TRUE BELIEVERS!

Like a Dark Phoenix rising from the ashes, the Fellowship has returned! New year, same thoughts and prayers going toward every player's health on the battlefield. Looking right at you Breece Hall: don’t you dare pull an Age of Ultron Quicksilver on us.

Oh, he’s hurt? You didn’t see that coming?

After past seasons filled with Thanos snaps, battles for Middle-earth, treks through the Fallout wasteland, and an old man Logan-Gandalf Aaron Rodgers' smoking habit causing interdimensional rift problems for our league managers, we've returned in 2026 to the land of corporate diminishing returns: the MCU!

Our newly christened Marvel heroes drafted with heroic resolve and villainous determination. You've all just become part of a bigger universe. You all just don't know it yet.

Let’s recap a fun-filled draft from last Thursday, and celebrate the start of the NFL season with New England at Seattle.

Fellowship?!

… Assemble.

Another successful draft! Commissioner and Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dom Fury has done a great job yet again in getting everything done to ensure all went smoothly in our ESPN and Sleeper leagues. Doctor Doom wears a lot of hats (and masks) apparently.

The number one overall pick was in the Detroit Lines Jess’ hands. Last year’s champ picked number two overall (second year in a row where the champ picked the second pick). First pick was NOT Chase but instead we finally saw that three-year streak snap with Jahmyr Gibbs being selected. Following Sonic dashing off the board, our 14-man league ran hard after the top tier RBs, with 8 out of 14 players going to the big bellcows.

Tony was reunited with Chase yet again. LuLu Lemons said f*ck it, third time’s the charm, picked up the mic and ran CMC. And Jimmy finally aged into a man in the draft and got himself a true WR1 (sorry Brian Thomas Jr. and Tyreek Hill) with JSN. The rest of rounds one and two were really a smattering of usual suspects disappearing into Thanos dust. Jeremiyah Love was the first rookie to be swiped, as Trevor’s computers told him young guys are in. On the flip side, Josh Jacobs, our league’s very own Jonathan Majors, didn’t go until the seventh round, the risk assumed by Jimmy. Good luck my old friend. May you keep your wife far from Kang and his very handsy council.

After TEs started falling in the first round last year, Brock went in the second round, along with Trey McBride shortly after, scooped up by last year’s toilet bowl holder, Tony. Much to Alex’s annoyance, the first QB was selected by none other than yours truly, Rawb! Who else but Josh Allen? He refused to fly A.J. Brown or a stud TE, and when asked for comment he said with a smile, “seems like LuLu hates QBs more than I love ‘em!” Magneto vs. Santa can’t come soon enough!

It didn’t take long for the league to realize that Haribo Lecter, like some sadistic serial killer, was only targeting “B” names. She wanted to get those “beggars” out of here. We won’t read too much into her appropriation of the Robert Pattison meme from The Odyssey. She just watches too many movies with her husband, ok!?

Surprisingly enough, both of the last two Aragorn Crown holders finished in the top two spots according to ESPN projections, swapping their places from last year. That’s some consistency in impressing the Disney-owned giant’s data, that’s for sure!

How did the rest of the league fare? Well, I won’t go too much into litigating over ADP here (save that for the Discord analysis kiddos), but ESPN saw fit to give Smeagles an A grade! Precious! Detroit Lines also scored herself high marks, looking to avenge last year where she missed the playoffs. The following managers got a B: Bodega Cat, Beerserkers, LuLu Lemons, The Algorithm, Sacks in the City, and Jimmy Da Kid. Everyone else got Cs which in this league does NOT get degrees. I really hate to say it, but just by going off last year, only one single team made it to the playoffs with a C or lower draft rating: Haribo Lecter. She had a big fat D on her report card with two studs in Puka and JSN carrying her through the regular season. Let’s see how accurate ESPN is this year!

Take a look below at the immediate post-draft power rankings. The first eight spots include everyone the ESPN algorithm projects to make the playoffs. Selfishly, this author would like for that nine to turn into an eight. I wonder if we could make these numbers out of metal???

Magneto versus Black Widow ! Should be easy enough on paper since guns are made out of metal. While Katie’s projected higher, Rob should win everything with crybaby Josh Allen under center… right? Right?! Another reunion of sorts, but only with dynasty, sees Jonathan Taylor trying to stud out for Rawbneto over the the Ravens defense. It’ll be interesting to see if Jonathon Brooks can come back from injury and prove that Rawb’s faith in the Panthers RB room is not misplaced two years in a row. Meanwhile, the Red Room alum will have James Cook and newly minted Texan David Montgomery working alongside A.J. Brown. Will A.J. Brown make Rawb regret passing him up? Will Katie avenge her up and down previous season? Could Magneto actually reign over the league, his very own Genosha. Or will he end the season with nary a kiss from Professor X (hey that’s just what Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are telling me they want the characters to do). Conversely, will Natasha, or Yelena as future White Widow, trounce the league like her famous 100 armed men gauntlet? Yes, she took 100 by herself with the odds stacked against her … or will she be sacrficed so that another league manager gets their own Soul Stone in our eternal battle?

Sacks in the City vs. Chunkahontas

Scarlet Witch goes up against … Groot? Tim is Groot? Tim is Groot! Welcome to the Fellowship fellow hobbit of Canfield, Ohio. Our own Chunkahontas comes to our league from Gauntlet/Chopped. He’s probably hoping Lamar stays healthy and balls out. That goes double for great player, bad team Drake London. His RB room is looking great too… when healthy. Against him, we have Wanda Maximoff. Alyssa has been to the final game before. Now, it’s her turn to run the show (see what I did there—show like sitcom because she went by Dawson’s Creek and Sex in the Ci—okay you get it, you get it). Hurts and CeeDee Lamb lead the pack, with Jeanty and Tuten eager to prove themselves in our Fellowship Battleworld. Can Alyssa storm back to the championship game and say “No more league managers,” lording over us all? The alternative for the witch is insanity or death. No in between. Chunk’s got his work cut off for him if he’s to win as the loveable Groot. Powerful enough to take the head off of the Monster of Badoon once… and also someone that could fizzle out and regrow into an adotable little plant. Time will tell just as the Scarlet Witch will spell.

Jimmy Da Kid vs. Detroit Lines

Both managers here were able to project high. After scoring the Aragorn Crown her first season, this is the Kitty Pryde revenge season! A chip for her would mean something as great as phasing a colossal, planet-sized "Breakworld bullet" completely through the entire Earth, like she did in Astonishing X-Men. You better believe it! That sure beats her worst blunder where she couldn’t save a young Illyana Rasputin during a dangerous rescue mission against the demon Belasco. If anyone could act like a demon, it’s surely Jimmy’s Loki! Kitty will try her hand at phasing through walls and aiming bullets with first pick Gibbs, alongside Garrett Wilson, Javonte Williams, and a on-the-rise Coleston Loveland! Up Jimmy’s frost giant sleeves? Oh not much: JSN, Bucky Irving, and Kyren Williams. Rome Odunze and Mike Williams may be what breaks the god of mischief’s chances. He can either lord over our Fellowship, like his holding together of our sacret timeline (watch Loki true believers), or he could get HULK SMASHED into a pulp in Avengers Tower.

Bodega Cat vs. Haribo Lecter

The highlight matchup of the week here goes to a Dr. Doom versus Rogue bout. A championship rematch where last year’s runner-up pits her Bs against Dom’s D. That’s not a tits and dicks joke guys get your heads out of the gutter and back in the game! Dom’s back for his third ring as one of the MCU’s most iconic villains. Different mask, same task. A solid team on paper with the Sun God, Pickens, Kittle, Swift, and my best Pittsburgh friend Warren. That’s a solid salvo up against a bunch of B’s: Burrow, Barkley, Chase Brown, Burden III, Brian Thomas Jr., and Harrison Butker. That was still not enough B’s for our Rogue mutant. Doom’s high obviously had him create the universe in his image… as he lorded over all as Emperor Doom. Should he lose? Well, every momma’s boy does eventually go out like a wuss every now and then. Rogue’s best case here is to ride off into the sunset, championship in hand, and a nice Gambit by her side. Or… ya know… she could be responsible for the deaths of 8 billion beings.

My Name Jeff vs. The Philadelphia Smeagles

My name… baby land shark? So cute ! The Rivals and Marvel Snap star is here to rock the MCU. In this matchup, we’ll watch the waves and the Jaxson Dart injury report. A Jeff is hoping for Judkins, Nacua, and Rice to perform strong this season. Hey maybe just Olave his players should healthy, huh? Smeagles on the opposing side here comes swinging in off a 2 billion box office high. I won’t break character too hard but Peter Parker’s a wealthy spider these days. He comes in too with a great draft grade. On paper Achane, Derrick Henry, Davante Adams and Terry McLaurin will be working overtime to save their friendly neighborhood. Also Kyle Pitts—I’m legally obligated to mention him at least once per recap. Spidey’s looking to win it all this year, aborbing the Captain Universe power cosmic, strong enough to send Hulk into space with a single punch. Or, maybe losing his Gwen Stacy (Kyle Pitts in this case) could send him into a toilet bowl depression. Meanwhile, I guess Jeff could grow into a big, big Kaiju! Yes, that’s exactly what he would do at the peak of his powers dear readers.

The Algorithm vs. LuLu Lemons

J.A.R.V.I.S. online. Why not Vision or Ultron? Never question our machine overlords! Once again projected high, the Algorithm has saw fit to stack Drake Maye, Rico Dowdle, the potential rookie of the year in Love, JJ, and high ceiling Malik Nabers (if healthy). If he does lord over the league, I will say that this J.A.R.V.I.S. could easily evolve into a full-fledged Avenger, Vision. As for LuLu? Well, my dear rival didn’t think a baby shark was good enough so he saw fit to act as SANTA. He’s running an above 30 CMC alongside Kenneth Walker. A chance of volatility in the Christmas air tonight with highs of Zay Flowers (every 2 to 3 weeks) and Emeka Egbuka (once again if healthy). I mean if he wins it all, don’t forget that Cerebro detected Santa as the most powerful mutant ever. Or he could just not make it in time for Christmas. Or he could get diabetes. Those cookies gotta go somewhere.

The Movie Chef vs. Beerserkers

Finally! The champ! Chef’s going to try and cook with some jazzy dance moves as Bully Emo Maguire. However, he’s got his work cut out for him because I’ve seen a Beerserkin’ Tom go Thor on emo pussies back in college all day, drinkin’ all sorts of fellas under the table. Tobey’s Bully is jacked with Dak Prescott. He’s also relying on Breece Hall and Rhamondre (actually I like that pick). Stud Chase when healthy can be supported by DK Metcalf, who probably wasn’t that desperate for another Rodgers year. Our reigning God of Thunder champ will be zesty mustard seasoned with some Bijan, helped by Jadarian Price, new Bill DJ Moore, and Nico Collins. Thor has pushed and resisted the World Engine of Yggdrasil once. A feat of great, great strength. He was also fat and played a ton of Fortnite in Norway. There’s really only high or low with this guy. Will Bully Maguire kill Uncle Ben’s real killer? Or will he just end the season with some of his landlord’s daughter’s cookies?!

You’ll get your waiver wire pick when you fix this goddamn door!!!

The X-Men chessboard is set. The pieces are already in motion.

Who will take the crown? Is this year a Domsday or Santa’s Slay?

Or perhaps a new hero or villain will sit the Fellowship throne?

Keep an eye out for the return of our recaps. Authored every week by yours truly, Tom, and Dom. Thanks for playing, and don’t ever forget.

We love you 3,000 ❤