The trade that meowed

In a minor deal, Snake Eyes trades WR Steve Breaston to the Dirty Birds in exchange for TE Brandon Pettigrew. Breaston was summarily released for Pettigrew's real life QB, Shaun Hill, who was then injured in Sunday's game. A trade of this minor proportion would normally be barely noted except both Ryan and Jon are convinced this move will secure their playoff berths.

They consider this trade a first date, like a coffee or a drink, and hope it will lead to bigger (trade) things in the future.

5 Games In: Uncanny X-Men

Heading into Week 6, we're about a third of the way through the regular season and while every team is technically still in the playoff race, some of the bottom feeders are going to have to pick up their game if they want to make it into the lucrative post-season. Let's take a quick look at how our divisional fights are shaping up.

The Dirty Birds have vaulted to the best regular season record in our young season by way of a four game winning streak. Since getting blasted in WK1, they've racked up three 100+ point weeks and four easy wins. The Birds found a ground game behind Browns RB Peyton Hillis, who is averaging 18.0 points a game. The Birds can continue their ascent if QB Ben Roethlisberger's return to action strengthens an already strong receiving game.

Nipping at the Birds' heels is Team Johnson, who is outscoring the entire league by a wide margin (almost a hundred points more PF than the next closest competitor). Two of their losses have come despite scoring over the century mark and in their past two games, both wins, the Johnsons have scored 140+ in each matchup. They've been powered by the explosive receiving trio of Miles Austin, Brandon Lloyd, and Hakeem Nicks. Add in multi-faceted Frank Gore -- not to mention Darren McFadden -- and this is a serious contender.

Balancing good offense with a very easy schedule, Six to Midnight started off 3-1 but lost last week to his cousin Oliver in a low scoring yawner (70-76). The running game has fantasy sensation Arian Foster but neither Shonn Greene nor DeAngelo Williams are performing up to their draft status. The possible season ending loss of TE Jermichael Finley could really hurt too. Still, mojo could be on Andy's side as only eleven total points have kept him from being undefeated. Raise your hand if you knew Antonio Gates was the best WR/TE so far this season?!

Team H and Inglorious Basterds have been pretty similar this year and are currently both at 2-3. Tough schedules, low scoring games, and losing streaks of two and three games respectively have sunk them to middle of the pack. Mark's Team H has the incredible Philip Rivers and erratically explosive Ravens Ray Rice and Anquan Boldin. The problem is, there's not a lot of depth here and they've swung wildly from great highs (125-121 vs Inglorious Basterds in WK3) to putrid lows (55-88 vs Snake Eyes in WK4).

Mike's Basterds are in a tailspin and haven't won a game at home yet. The last two weeks have brought big time beat downs and that pretty much coincides with when Michael Vick went down. RB Adrian Peterson and Wes Welker are around to steady the ship but Vick's replacements -- either Kolb or Mark Sanchez -- need to pick up the slack. Oh and Mike's team photo link is broken, another reason he's probably losing.

Rollen's Ro.Bots have faced the easiest schedule in the league and have mostly been unlucky. A seven point loss in WK1 and a four point loss in WK3. Still, it would be nice to see them put together more consistent efforts as their recent outings have been pretty bad (46 and 75 points, the latter resulting in a win). After clearing a tough week of byes, RoBots will have Tom Brady and Rashard Mendenhall back in WK6. This team desperately needs another RB to pair with Mendenhall.

It's been El Nino season around here but Hong's El Ninos have lost all four of their home games and been crsuhed by one of the hardest schedules in the league. Without much offense to compensate (no century games to speak of yet), it's meant that the El Nino's are going to turn things around pretty quickly to get back into contention. There is a lot of depth here, and some good second half breakout candidates, but for now LaDainian Tomlinson has been their best player at 16.8 points per game. That's great and all for LDT, but its' probably not a good sign when he's outperforming Donovan McNabb, Michael Turner, and Larry Fitzgerald.

5 Games In: Justice League

There's a glut of three win teams in this division, four of them to be exact, but Fobulus sets themselves apart due to a tie in WK3. Amazingly, Jimmy's team is thriving despite not having one century game so far this season. They have only 33 more PF than PA but have managed to pick up strategic wins by having a winningly mediocre team. Every starter and main bench player scores in the low to mid teens and nobody tops 15 points per game (led by WR Calvin Johnson). Weird but hard to argue with its effectiveness.

There's a case to be made that Brian's Howler Monkeys are the actual cream of the crop here, as he sports a healthy plus PF/PA differential and is one of the highest scoring teams in the league. With LeSean McCoy and Austin Collie leading the way, the Monkeys have even more upside as QB Drew Brees has been a bit underwhelming. There is a lot to like about this team, especially its consistency, as they've only scored under 90 points once and are coming off two wins and two century games.

The other 3-2 teams are both in incremental decline. Snake Eyes has been scoring less and less each week after a WK1 explosion, and Antoine Dodson Hide Your Wife has been doing the exact same thing, except his decline has been after WK2. Of the two, Oliver's Antoine Dodson is in better shape as he has been a tiny bit steadier (Ryan's team put up a sterling 45 points last week) and his under the radar trade for RB Michael Bush will give him a ground game to go along with his impressively balanced passing attack of Indianapolis receivers Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. Snake Eyes has the opposite problem: No consistent receivers and someone named Aaron Hernandez starting at TE. Chad Ochocinco's 12.2 point average is deceiving as he's yet to break double digits after a 33 point opening week. Peyton Manning has been great but he can't do it all by himself. Rumors swirl that either Matt Forte or Ahmad Bradshaw could be on the move.

Canadian Bacon (2-2-1) and Gangsta Wangsta (2-3) have both have been pounded by rough scheduling. Adam's team is actually a team to keep an eye on as they've scored three century games and are coming off a great win last week. Featuring the fastest running back tandem in the game, Chris Johnson and Jahvid Best, the Canadians also have deep threat DeSean Jackson to stretch the field (well he's only great when Vick is behind center). If Randy Moss can help Brett Favre's numbers, we see this team on the rise. It's actually a shock that there's no backup QB to Favre on this roster, as he's been pretty bad so far this season.

How about that Kyle Orton! The Denver QB is the third best in the land and he's outperformed his thirteenth round draft position by about fifty country miles. Orton throws to Brandon Marshall, Steve Smith, and Donald Driver, who have all been very solid this season. What Victor's team is desperately seeking is another running back to complement Steven Jackson, as Jerome Harrison and Brandon Jacobs are pretty much waiver wire fodder. Still, the Wangstas are facing off with the two worst teams in the league in successive weeks so they could vault themselves back up to respectability soon.

One of those worst teams is Team Olivia, who isn't technically the worst, but it's pretty close. Franchise QB Aaron Rodgers has been quite good and there is some erratic explosion in the passing game but what plagues this team is the gaping hole at the second running back position. Jonathan Stewart, Felix Jones, Willis McGahee, and Clinton Portis have been all but invisible and although ploughhorse Cedric Benson has been dependable, he's still just one man. A good WK5 from Cedric Benson, Michael Crabtree, and Jeremy Maclin point to better things, hopefully. Actually there's a possibility that Olivia isn't even paying attention as her transaction history shows no movements whatsoever, lineup changes or otherwise...

Helping Hands

Straight from ESPN News, Canadian Bacon and Antoine Dodson Hide Your Wife have exchanged RB Michael Bush and TE Jason Witten.

For Canadian Bacon, the addition of Witten means that they'll have the first tight end on their roster and a nice middle of the field complement to speedster DeSean Jackson. For Oliver's Hide Your Wives, a serviceable running back was a must as their current backfield options (Ricky Williams, Tim Hightower, Thomas Jones, Brandon Jacobs) are pretty much unuseable.

Proving his value, Bush scored got 26 carries and scored 22 points in WK5 during Darren McFadden's absence. Jason Witten was no slouch himself as he catch five balls for 84 yards and a touchdown last weekend. It seems like a great trade all around!