Jordan's draft-day gamble pays off

Trading away consensus top pick Christian McCaffrey was a risk, but the return he received appears to have made the difference this season

Saquon Barkley's 41 points gave Jordan Garcia good reason to smile this week.

Back in August, on the golf course and later, on commissioner Jeff Lambert's patio in Del Mar, Jordan Garcia mulled over a trade offer that would likely set his team on a path to a playoff berth.

The Tirades, a team that had been looking for a way to land McCaffrey for two years (a 2023 trade with the Gerbils was ruled to have been made a couple months too late), proposed a pretty attractive offer: Jordan would protect McCaffrey as his keeper. Tirades owner Ron Hender would protect RB Saquon Barkley, who looked like he'd be in for a big year in Philadelphia after getting traded to the Eagles. And the Tirades offer was attractive: The teams would swap those RBs and the Tirades put a big cherry on top: the first pick of the 2024 draft.

The teams finally agreed on terms just as the draft started. And it looked like a good deal for both teams at the time: McCaffrey's achillies issues (on both legs!) had yet to be disclosed and no one expected him to miss any time, let alone the first 10 weeks of the season. Nine days later, 45 minutes before kickoff, he was surprisingly ruled out for the team's Monday night opener. A few days after that, he was on the IR. The only good news for Hender and the Tirades is that they’d have the option to protect McCaffrey as a keeper for 2025 and 2026.

But McCaffrey's injury changed everything. The Tirades would be scraping and clawing in an effort to get victories from that point on, and are still a .500 team even after his return. Had the trade not been agreed upon, the Tirades would have had Barkley, would have drafted another top RB who changed teams (Derrick Henry) with the No. 1 pick and then QB Josh Allen in round 2. I won't even bother trying to figure out where the team would be with that lineup.

Jordan, though, agreed to the deal and then selected WR Puka Nacua with his first pick, shocking everyone. Nacua, like McCaffrey, had injury issues early. But now that he's back, and Barkley is running rampant, those two guys have WTNE on a roll toward a playoff berth. Alternatively, if the trade had not been made, WTNE would have had McCaffrey and probably could have drafted Nacua with his original first-round pick, which he used to take RB Rachaad White.

But enough with the flashbacks and what-ifs. Barkley scored 41 and Puka added 11 as Jordan's team crushed the Invaiders 132-75 and improved to 6-6, two games (and 34 points) behind father-in-law John Lambert's Rangers with three games to play. ESPN says Jordan has a 46% chance of grabbing a playoff spot.

Meanwhile, the Tirades crushed Who Dey 103-42 and are now the only other team with a realistic shot at a playoff berth (37%). The losers in those two games (Invaiders and Who Dey) dropped to severe longshots with the losses, as did two-time defending champion Matt Pringle, whose Spread Beaters suffered a critical loss to the Rangers. The Beaters playoff odds dropped from 37% to 12%.

Here's a look at the wild results from Week 12 in the JSFL...

WTNE 132, INVAIDERS 75: Barkley ran roughshod over the Rams on Sunday, setting several Eagles records in the process, and almost single-handedly winning this one with his 41 points (check out video above, especially at 1:55 when he takes out both a sound guy and a cameraman). Jordan's QB Jayden Daniels added 30 points as his Commanders team lost to the Cowboys. WTNE (6-6) saw six of its nine starters score in double figures, even TE Trey McBride who scored 13 and found the end zone. Vern Ahrendes' Invaiders (5-7) got 18 from QB Bo Nix and 13 from his kicker Jake Elliott. On the Bench: Nothing would have made a difference for Vern here (Dak Prescott was +2). Jordan could have hit 140 if he'd started the Lions defense (+5) and Tank Dell (+3) over Xavier Worthy.

Tirades QB Baker Mayfield rubbed it in against the Giants by mimicking New York fan favorite Tommy DeVito’s celebratory dance after scoring a touchdown.

TIRADES 103, WHO DEY 42: Yours truly's team kept its waning playoff hopes alive with this win, as recent acquisition A.J. Brown scored two TDs and had 16 points. QB Baker Mayfield added 18 and RB Aaron Jones 17 for the Tirades (6-6). For Matt McCumber's Who Dey (5-7), only QB Geno Smith (12) managed to hit double figures. On the Bench: It would not have affected the outcome in any way, shape or form, but Matty left some points here with Matt Stafford (+6), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (+9 at flex) and the Packers defense (+8 over the Vikings). The Tirades got a Nick Chubb sighting (+12 over McCaffrey) and TE T.J. Hockenson scored and would have been +8 over recent acquisition Brock Bowers.

BAND AIDS 99, PACKERS 74: Josh Jacobs ran up, over and around the 49ers on Sunday (see video above) and led Bob Garcia's team to the victory with 28 points. QB Lamar Jackson added 20 and WR Terry "I'm Scorin!" McLaurin had 16 for the Band Aids (8-4). De'Von Achane had 17 and QB Anthony Richardson added 12 for the Packers (2-10), who were mathematically eliminated from the postseason. On the Bench: The Packers could have made this much closer with WR Jordan Addison (+20) over Deebo Samuel and QB Jordan Love (+2) in the lineup. Bob left some points here too, with Jonnu Smith going off on the bench for the second consecutive week (14 points, +10) and Chuba Hubbard (+6 over Kareem Hunt).

GERBILS 91, RECLINERS 72: Bye weeks have not been kind to Chris Zimnoch's league-leading Recliners (10-2). RBs Bucky Irving and Jamyr Gibbs combined for 41 points and QB Sam Darnold added 20 more as the Gerbils (5-7) kept their thready pulse of a playoff hope alive. WR Courtland Sutton made the most of a rare start, scoring 21 to lead the Recliners, who have already clinched a postseason spot. On the Bench: This one could have been even more of a blowout if Chuck had started Pat Mahomes at QB (+7) over Darnold. No changes would have helped Chris in this one.

RANGERS 81, BEATERS 67: This one really put a dent in Matt Pringle's hopes of reaching the playoffs, let alone defend his league title for a third consecutive season. John Lambert's Rangers (8-4) on the other hand, have seldom seen postseason play and have never won a league title and seem poised to make a run at doing both. The Rangers odds of making the playoffs hit 95% with this win, and the Beaters (5-7) saw theirs fall to 12%. Not a lot of scoring to boast about in this one. WR Nico Collins, in his second game back from a hamstring injury, led the Rangers with 15. QB Jalen Hurts and TE George Kittle each added 14 and RB Kyren Williams' 12 points was the other player in double-figures for John. RB Henry led the Beaters with 14 and was the only player on his team in double-figures. Additional bad news for the Beaters: both Amon-Ra St. Brown and JK Dobbins suffered knee injuries last weekend, but the severity of both aren’t known yet. On the Bench: John literally left nothing behind on this one. His bench scored a grand total of 7 points (all from backup kicker Justin Tucker) but the Rangers starter, Chris Boswell of the Steelers, had 8. Pringle might be beating himself up (and throwing another flat screen out a window) because he could have won this one easily... Jalen Waddle (+14, with 20 points) outscored both his starting WRs (and one of those, Amon-Ra St. Brown, scored 6 before leaving due to injury). QB Russell Wilson was +7 over Kyler Murray and RB Tony Pollard was +16 over Bijan Robinson.