Sean took a long time to break through against Brandon, who won the first eight head-to-head matchups including victories by less than two points in Week 14 of 2018 and Week 9 of 2019.

Sean finally did get a win when it mattered most in the 2019 AFL Championship game, which he won by a score of 121.40-107.76. He got his second H2H victory against Brandon in Week 2 of last season.

Brandon is coming off his fourth career Tom Brady Award after leading the league in scoring in Week 1. Sean’s opening week wasn’t too shabby either as he finished the week fourth in scoring.

Brandon will be replacing his kicker after Rodrigo Blankenship, who got him a respectable 8.7 points in Week 1, was cut on Tuesday by the Indianapolis Colts. He’ll also have to keep an eye on Patrick Mahomes, who says he’ll be good to go Thursday but popped up on Tuesday’s injury list with a wrist issue.

Sean, meanwhile, may have a tough decision to make at some point this season. He placed Drake London on his TAXI squad entering Week 1, making him eligible as a second keeper in next year’s draft if he stays there. But the rookie wide receiver was heavily targeted in the season opener.

Sean’s starting receiver tandem of Adams and Chase will be mainstays in his lineup, but if he needs help in the FLEX as the season progresses, will he be forced to forgo London as a second keeper in the interest of a playoff push?

As Alex enters his third season in the AFL, it’s still too early to call anything a trend in his head-to-head series with other opponents.

After trading victories in their two meetings as AFL West opponents in 2020, Alex scored a narrow victory in Week 4 of last season by a score of 135.30 to 134.16.

Alex was the #2 scorer in the league last week, about 21 points behind Brandon Saunders and 29 points ahead of William. The early-week projections favor Alex by about 3.5 points, though we all know fantasy football projections mean even less than projections for real football.

William has several plus matchups this week, but it’ll be interesting to see what he does at defense. He has the Chargers unit, which is projected to score negative points against the Chiefs. He’s rostering only one defense currently, a rarity for either Battle brother as they both have typically taken two of them in every draft. He might have to hit the waiver wire for one this week.

After taking each of their first four matchups by an average of more than 27 points, Cory has struggled against Will. Even a 29.86-point performance by Javonte Williams in Week 13 of last season barely got Cory within 30 points in their most recent matchup.

Both managers found themselves among the Top 5 scorers in the AFL in Week 1. In fact, they were separated by less than 5 points as Jerry Jeudy helped Will sneak past Cory’s point total on Monday night.

The matchups this week seem to favor Cory slightly, but if Pittsburgh’s defensive performance in Week 1 was any indication, Will’s propensity to have great production from his defenses may spell trouble, not to mention the possibility of a shootout between the Chargers and Chiefs potentially leading to a big day for Justin Herbert.

The big hit for Will is the loss of Elijah Mitchell for the next couple months. It’s the second straight year Will started the year with San Francisco’s lead running back and that player getting hurt in Week 1. The good news is he had solid depth at the position with Derrick Henry, James Conner, and Devin Singletary. Those are the only other running backs on his roster, though, so another hit to the position could prove devastating.

One of the most back-and-forth series in the AFL is this one, and we can probably expect more of the same this week. Neither manager had a particularly strong Week 1.

Evan had the lowest optimum point total in the league and wound up finishing tenth in scoring. Now he’s without Dak Prescott for the foreseeable future and he didn’t draft a backup. He hit the waiver wire hard and spent $21 of FAAB on Carson Wentz, a needless endeavor since he was the only manager to put a claim on the Washington quarterback.

The love-hate relationship (mostly hate) with Mike Williams continues for Evan. Somehow, he seems to have him on his roster for at least part of every season. He scored just 1.4 points in Week 1; I predict a trade in the near future and several 20-point performances for Williams as soon as he joins a new roster.

Eric, meanwhile, suffered a double-dose of turnover penalties as every interception, fumble, and pick-6 committed by Joe Burrow not only lowered his score but benefited his opponent who had the Steelers defense. If Burrow can clean up those turnovers, and if Eric can get better production out of his WR2 slot than CeeDee Lamb provided in Week 1, he might just be able to extend his series lead against Evan.

Neither manager has managed consecutive victories in this series series so far. If that trend continues, Stephen April will get his first win of the season this week.

Anthony’s two victories in their series are by an average of 63.21 points. Stephen’s two victories are by a combined 8.26 points. It’s been very ugly when Stephen’s team doesn’t show up, so he’d better hope they do this week.

The early projections suggest a close matchup, with their projected point totals separated by less than a point, which would favor Stephen if history is any indication and if the projections are even remotely accurate.

Anthony will be keeping an eye on Alvin Kamara in the leadup to Sunday as the running back injured his rib in Sunday’s comeback win against Atlanta.

Stephen, meanwhile, doesn’t have a lot of healthy depth on his roster right now. He’ll be watching the injury reports from Cincinnati as Tee Higgins deals with the concussion he suffered Sunday against Pittsburgh.

Andrew finally got his first head-to-head victory against Alex in their second meeting last season, a Week 13 tilt in which Jonathan Taylor scored 30.94 points but the rest of Alex’s lineup managed just 53.98 points.

George Kittle went bananas in that game, scoring nearly 35 points for Andrew. He won’t have that luxury this time around; he’ll be trying to decide between Cole Kmet, who failed to score after receiving only one target in Week 1, and Noah Fant, who did get targeted four times on Monday night but wound up with less than three fantasy points.

Both managers had Week 1 outings to forget. Alex’s 77.42 points were the fewest in the league while Andrew finished the week 11th in scoring, less than three points ahead of his Week 2 opponent.