Hefner’s new roster beat the frozen champ.

A week ago the story was that Hefner had stopped building a lineup for this year. Taylor and Amon-Ra went to Nathan. Henry, Barkley, Lamar, and Deebo went to John Mitchell. What he kept that still starts was Maye, and what he could actually use from the return was Flowers, Pickens, and Jacobs. Sunday was the first chance to see whether that was a plan or just a clearance.

He scored 118 and beat Thomas, 118 to 85. Maye had 27. Judkins had 22. Flowers had 20. Jacobs had 15. Pickens had 12. That is a week, not a speech about 2027. Thomas had Caleb at 22 and McBride at 17, and Kenneth Walker had 6. The name on the team was quiet. The freeze is still shut. The team that was not allowed to answer the sale lost to the team that made it.

Hefner is 2–5. One good Sunday does not put him in the six, and this desk is not going to pretend a 118 against a frozen roster is a new contender. It does mean the lineup he kept is not a placeholder. Maye is the quarterback in a one-quarterback league. Judkins is a back who just had a week. That is a different sentence than the one we were writing on Wednesday, when the useful players were the ones leaving.

Thomas is 5–2, and the points are still the light part of that record. He has 742. Fuss has 947 and Nathan has 886. The loss does not open the phones. Holden is the week 8 opponent, and Holden just scored 54, which is a different problem than the one Thomas just lost. The deadline for everyone else is still the Thursday after week 10. For him it never started.