Each week, Around the League sticks a fork in the NFL teams that have no chance to make the playoffs. Entering Week 11, I'm sticking a fork in something rather different: Dan Hanzus and Jim "Rhino" Reineking.
Hanzus and Rhino are nine games back of leader Marc Sessler in our season-long picks competition. With Kareem Copeland and I each trailing Sessler by only one game, there's just no way Hanzus and Rhino can pass all three of us. And there's little reason to think they'd have the guts necessary to make a comeback anyhow.
Sessler and I have seven "hero picks" each. That's when we correctly pick a game that no one else got right. Rhino and Hanzus have combined for three hero picks.
Copeland has just three hero picks of his own, but at least he's efficient at making boring picks. Kareem is the Matt Schaub of our competition. That's a compliment. Like Schaub -- and unlike Hanzus and Rhino -- Kareem still has a shot to win a title this season.
-- Gregg Rosenthal
* Based on nobility.
** Only person to pick a game right.