2025 Week 1 Dynasty Recap: A New Chapter Begins
Week 1. Everyone has hope heading into week 1. Some part of your team that you are excited to see in action cause you believe they can lead you to a championship. And then week 1 actually happens. For some, expectations are blown away. For others, their expectations are trampled on. But it’s important to remember that there’s always crazy stuff happening in week 1. Take a deep breath, and wait a week or two before smashing the panic button. Having said that, I have a fun stat for everyone. Teams that have won the championship are 5-1 in their week 1 games (Fred in season 2 was the only one to lose their week 1 game and win it all), and teams that have made the championship are 9-3 (Fred in season 2, Curt in season 1, and Rob in season 3 were the only losses). Not looking good for half of us… Here are your week 1 results:
Shadow Legion 97.32 over NUKEM 91.02
Congratulations on your first win in the league Anthony. And congratulations to you both, this matchup combined for the 4th lowest point total in a matchup since we moved to the new scoring system (so all of last season’s games, and this first week of the new year). Looks like Rob suffered heartbreak at the hands of Emeka Egbuka twice (cause he’s a Falcons fan). Had he not caught that final touchdown for the Bucs, then the Falcons and NUKEM would both be 1-0 right now…
Michael Style 117.62 over Bolt Battalion 99.44
So, in that More Fun Stats and League Projections article I posted at the end of August, I mentioned how Yahoo’s projected finishing spots and records has played out historically for the league. Well, I went all the way through it, and the only team left standing, the team that should win the whole thing, is Michael Style, and now he has week 1 win working in his favor as well. Nothing over the top for Alex in this one, just solid play pretty much across the board. Several poor performances for Matthew sank the boat, but on the bright side, James Cook seems to have picked up where he left off despite some offseason concern from the talking heads.
ay_Bilat 114.92 over Fantasy Fairies 91.38
I wasn’t sure what direction this game was going to end up going. First, it looked like Ryan was going to blow-up after Hurts ran in his second touchdown, but he barely looked A.J. Brown’s direction, so his 24.28 point game to kick off our week was essentially halved. Then on Friday night Mahomes got off to a rough start and I went to bed thinking Trey was going to have a tough time recovering, just to wake up and discover he had bounced back and brought Kelce with him. Sunday put the questions about how much playing time CMC would actually receive to rest, while he and Hubbard carried Trey the rest of the way to the win.
Ferocious Felines 127.68 over Storm Surge 95.08
The reigning champ gets buried in the dirt with the rest of us losers. Fred rode the legs of the super soldier known as Derrick Henry to the finish line in this one. That freak of nature would’ve taken home player of the week if it wasn’t for Allen’s heroic efforts late in that Sunday night game. Storm Surge just didn’t have an answer for him. Disappointing starts to the year 2 seasons for Malik Nabers and BTJ weighed down a starting lineup that largely under-performed.
Fear Itself 145.26 over Space Rangers 102.92
Worst stat ever alert, Nathan is the first coach in the league to hit double-digit wins against another coach, he now has 10 wins against me. There are several coaches that will get their turn to hit that mark this season as well, just how the schedule shook out. Josh Allen, thanks to his ridiculous late 4th quarter efforts, is your Player of the Week! He’s apparently looking to prove me right about who will take home league MVP and he’s trying to pull away early. He also helped Nathan finish with the largest week 1 point total we’ve ever had. One silver lining for me, I had two receivers score 19+ points, and neither of them was named Ja’Marr Chase.
The Empire 140.56 over Kade’s Dawgs 57.82
A lot to break down here, but let’s start with the group effort. This is the biggest week 1 blowout in league history, and ranks 3rd all-time regardless of the week. And now for the individual effort, it’s just more bad news Curt, so look away: this was the lowest individual score we’ve had in the new scoring system, and the 4th lowest output in a week 1 game all-time. HOWEVER, the other three games were Simon and Bryar in year 5, AND Curt in year 1 when he went on to lose the championship, so there’s still hope! Bryar, this was the second highest scoring performance we’ve had in a week 1 in league history, only outdone by Nathan as mentioned above. The team is looking scary again. Oh, and congrats Bryar, 6 seasons (and one week) and 8 matchups later, and you’ve finally put a mark in the win column against Curt!
Here’s a look ahead at next week:
In case you are wondering, yes, this is in fact the first time ever we’ve gone into week 2 with every 1-0 team playing an 0-1 team, which means for the first time ever we could have at least 5 teams undefeated going into week 3. The most teams we’ve seen sitting at 2-0 going into week 3 previously was 4 in both 2020 and 2022.
Fear Itself (1-0) vs Storm Surge (0-1)
Two matchups last season, two wins for Storm Surge, proving to be the deciding factor in the East champion. This year you find each other in different divisions, so this is your only chance to exact revenge Nathan, unless you were to meet in the postseason.
The Empire (1-0) vs Bolt Battalion (0-1)
New first time matchup, so here’s a little background info on your opponent Matthew. He’s the reigning West division champ, and reigning league champion runner-up. Last season was his first winning season since year 2. But those first two seasons his team was pretty dominant, second in points and tied for second in wins, and now he’s gotten a taste of the title game and wants more.
Ferocious Felines (1-0) vs Space Rangers (0-1)
I lead our series 6-3. I’m one of only two coaches with a 3 game lead on Fred. I’m also on a 3 game win streak in this matchup. The last time Fred beat me was Week 14 of the 2022 season, which prevented me from hitting double-digit wins, and I apparently took that personally. Weird stat that is completely unnecessary, but I’m going to give it anyway, Fred and I have faced each other in week 2 one other time, season 1, and Fred won that matchup.
Michael Style (1-0) vs Kade’s Dawgs (0-1)
Curt leads this series 4-3! These two have traded off wins since the 2021 season when Curt won in week 13 and then Alex won in the playoffs, then 2022 Curt won, 2023 Alex won, 2024 Curt won, and now 2025….?
ay_Bilat (1-0) vs NUKEM (0-1)
Trey leads this series 7-6. If you exclude Joel, Anthony and Matthew (all the newest members) this is the closest matchup Trey has. Every other one is at least a 2 win or 2 loss difference. Let’s put a different spin on it though, Rob is 6-3 against Trey since 2021. With the change in divisions, these old division rivals will have to rekindle the spark during these one off weeks, and hope for a postseason matchup to try and exact some revenge.
Shadow Legion (1-0) vs Fantasy Fairies (0-1)
Another first time matchup, here’s some information on Ryan for you Anthony. He’s only been in the league since year 4. His team hasn’t seen the playoffs since year 1, when Ben coached them, snuck them into the playoffs, and then retired. Cursed might be putting it lightly. Ryan took over the team after Cody had led it to back to back last place finishes. Over the first six seasons the team’s history as a whole ranks dead last in total points and win percentage (although if you exclude the 2024 season, then they’d only be second to last in points. Still last in win percentage though, Cody really did a number on the team). Since taking over he spent the first season trying to claw his way out of the pit of misery, his second season he came 11.17 points away from making the playoffs, and now he’s coming off the worst season in league history.
That’s all for this week, good luck to you all in week 2!
