After back-to-back 9 win seasons in 2016 and 2017 that ultimately ended in playoff disappointment, Mallards owner Steve Dugas decided he had to take a step back in order to make a leap forward.

After stockpiling draft picks to build for the future and using some of those picks to acquire top flight veteran talent, the Mallards are "all in" for 2019 and beyond in search of the franchise's first championship.

After a 66-43 drubbing of the Brothers, the Mallards now sit atop of the NFC at 4-1-1 and boast one of the league's most feared starting lineups, including a three-headed threat at WR that few teams can compete with.

Two of those pieces came via trade this season, as Dugas flipped draft picks for Chris Godwin and DeAndre Hopkins to join Mike Evans. The three wideouts combined for 302 yards in their Week 6 victory, but the team's most valuable player this season may be veteran Mark Ingram, who has scored touchdowns in 4 of his first 6 games and is headed toward a career year in his 9th season.

After a flurry of trade activity, are the Mallards finished? With three quarterbacks making a tough weekly lineup decision and a roster bursting at the seams, will the Mallards try to land one more superstar before the trading deadline? With a "win now at all costs" mentality, don't count owner Steve Dugas out.

Elsewhere around the league, the Boys and Huskers put on a show, amassing a combined 139 points in a NFC track meet that saw the Boys prevail, the Thugs rebounded from their first loss of the season with a narrow victory over Bear Poop in a matchup of 1-loss teams, and the struggles continued yet again for the Eaters and the Dragons as both teams lost by 2 points to move to 0-6 on the season. With the loss, the once mighty Dragons are now winless in 13 straight regular season games dating back to last season, conjuring echoes of their disastrous 1-13 season in 1995.