Sources: it's done. Or rather, for four teams in this league, it's not done at all, because it has never started.
Brian Jones. Evan Sinn. John Penney. Trent Harley. Four rosters, and a real mixed bag of what that $100 is protecting: Harley is 4-0, Penney is 3-1, Brian Jones is sitting dead even at 2-2, and Sinn is down at 1-3 with nothing to show for the patience yet. A person familiar with the waiver wire's general vibe tells me this is either extreme discipline or extreme fear, and for at least one of these four it's starting to look like the fear is winning.
Meanwhile, the Sleeper-wide trending board is doing 3.1 million adds on Dohnte Meyers and this league hasn't touched him. Available in Heavyweights, per the wire. Available to literally anyone with a working mouse. Roman Wilson, 1.6 million adds nationally, sitting here too. Will Shipley, Brian Robinson, Joe Mixon, Tyler Higbee — a league's worth of names everyone else is fighting over, free for the taking in a pond where Ryan Weaver, unbeaten at 4-0 and running a 38-6 all-play mark, has spent exactly two of his hundred dollars all season. Sources close to the situation call that "obscene." I call it the best argument yet that the top of this league doesn't actually need the budget it refuses to spend. Worth noting Trent Harley is also 4-0 and hasn't spent a dollar of FAAB this year either — apparently the path to an undefeated record in this league runs straight through money they won't touch.
Now for my favorite kind of story: a man cutting the player everybody else wants. Ollie Simmonds, 0-4, dropped Michael Mayer this week to make room for Josh Cameron. Fine, a move, happens every week. Except Mayer is now generating 573,255 adds across Sleeper over the last 48 hours — a tight end the wider fantasy world has decided is worth a roster spot the same week Ollie decided he wasn't. A manager in both leagues, granted anonymity because he still has to play this man in Week 11, texted me a single word: "Rough."
Then there's the Shakir shuffle. Ryan Weaver dropped Khalil Shakir to chase Tre' Harris. Hours later, per the transaction log, Ryan El Masri scooped Shakir off the wire like it was sitting on the sidewalk with a free sign on it. El Masri is 1-3 and clearly paying closer attention to his waiver app than his record would suggest. Sources tell me this is the first time all season two Ryans have directly transacted against each other without either one realizing it.
Speaking of moves that aged in real time: Kevin Jones added Kenyon Sadiq in Week 3, started him in Week 4, and watched him post a zero next to a second zero from Rashee Rice in the same lineup. Kevin has already burned 44 of his 100 dollars. A person with knowledge of his bidding habits says he "transacts the way other men breathe." The results, this week, were two goose eggs in the same box score.
The claim I'd make with other people's money: Evan Sinn, sitting on the full $100 at 1-3 with a receiving corps leaning on a 1.4-point Courtland Sutton line, should be the aggressor on Dohnte Meyers. He has the budget and, per the fact pack, absolutely nothing to lose. The claim I expect to actually happen: Justin Waitt, who has already burned 67 of his 100 and added a tight end this very week, out-bids a more patient roster for something he doesn't need and calls it aggression. Diamond Dogs are 2-2. This is not the era for panic spending. Nobody tell him that.
Four men with full wallets, in wildly different standings boats. One tight end getting cut and chased in the same calendar week. A Kevin Jones lineup with two zeroes in it. More on this as it develops.