Might as well stay on topic with the first week of playoffs right around the corner. I manged 2 of 4 teams making the playoffs and positioned to succeed.
Wild Turkeys – $150 Buy In – FAAB – Yahoo
The Turkeys are primed to make a run in this playoff. There are never any guarantees, but the majority of my team is what I like to call, “high floor, high ceiling”. I suffered no injuries which is fortunate. I put up the 2nd most points in the league which is encouraging while finishing in 3rd place. I posted the 1st, 3rd, and 4th highest totals of the year which shows you don’t want to see these guys in the playoffs. I’m projected to win by 26 to start the week which is obviously ideal.
Who’s the squad? Saquon fell at 10 which was a gift. I came back with CMC at 15, another gem. Alex Collins in the 3rd was a player I missed on in multiple leagues. I stole JuJu in the 4th. Greg Olsen was a mistake I made in dropping back in week 2, but didn’t hurt me badly. Marvin Jones was a miss. Peyton Barber is a low floor, low ceiling guy. Julian Edelman was a great pick when you consider all I had to do was wait 4 weeks to get a guy of his caliber. Cobb was a whiff. Big Ben was a stud this late. John Brown whiff. Ty Mont whiff. DeDe whiff. The team now has Lamar for an option at Q, Boyd for a WR, and Gus Edwards and Theo Riddick for RB depth.
It’s A Hard Nuk Life – $30 Buy In – Waiver Priority – Yahoo
The team finished 6-7 and in 7th place. They scored the 3rd most points in the league and had the 5th most against. It came down to one win and weeks where I put up 126, 137, and 112 were all losses. There isn’t much to say except for bad drafting. Aaron Rodgers is why you don’t draft QB’s. I found gold in James Connor and Tarik Cohen. Michael Thomas and DeAndre are players who I like, but I’d rather have RB’s. Chris Thompson and Alex Collins were busts all year. Jared Cook was respectable, but this team doesn’t have the talent to win it all.
Beats By Deandre – $100 Buy In – Waiver Priority – ESPN
The team went 7-6 for 5th place with the 4th most points scored and 4th against. This is my favorite team that hit some bad luck this week with Connor and Breida going down, which is putting my playoff jeopardy way closer than I’d like. This team fires on all cylinders with OBJ, Nuk, and Juju at WR. Cam and Lamar are exactly the QB’s I like come playoff time with little chance of duds. George Kittle is a serviceable TE. I have depth at WR with Golladay and Sutton. Here’s the rub, Kenyan Drake and Dion Lewis have to play this week. I’m 12th in waiver priority and have 0 chance of getting a new RB. I’m playing Big Steve McGrath and am projected to win by 10 if Melvin Gordon does not play. This one will be left to the fantasy gods.
No Bad Juju – $100 Buy In – FAAB – 2 Player Keeper League / Free Auction Dollar Draft – ESPN
I had the best luck in this league…and the worst team. I finished in 9th with a 6-7 record scoring the 10th most points in the league and getting scored on the 6th most. I kept JuJu and Alex Collins which was a rough start because even though I had plenty of money for bidding, Collins was easily the worst keeper in the league. Bidding on Cam played well, but I erred on AP and Shady which is why I am no longer picking RB’s over 30. My biggest expenditures came on AJ Green and TY Hilton with Jimmy Graham being a total bust. I’m in big trouble again next year because I’ll have to keep Juju and then the rest of the cheap guys stink.
What I Learned
I did not get a single draft position below 9 this year. The league I’m doing best in was one where I made the 2 smartest picks in extremely fortunate positions. If I didn’t get Saquon at 10, I’m not writing that I have a good team with DeAndre Hopkins instead. If you’ve talked to me about fantasy at all, I make the same point every time with how to win, your studs have to be studs. When a guy can go for 40, that’s equivalent to 3 other players ALL BEING GOOD PLAYS. It’s hard to pick ANY good play. Todd Gurley (305), Saquon (266) and Christian McCaffery (256) are 1,2 and 3 in .5 ppr scoring this season. The other team that made the playoffs for me is the one where I drafted James Connor who has 241. For better comparison, the #10 is Philip Lindsey who has 179. The #20 back is Matt Breida at 133. This isn’t hard to see where points are made up in fantasy. So if you have a team in fantasy and you don’t have any of those top guys, I’d say you are climbing a HUGE uphill battle.
WR’s aren’t as impactful. The top WR’s are Tyreek (228), Thielen (221), and Davante Adams (220). I’m drafting Nuk and OBJ in the first and second rounds and they are combining to score 380 points which is 75 less than Gurley. 1st and 2nd round! If you were lucky enough to draft Mahomes, he has scored 70+ points over the next closest guy in Drew Brees. Roethlisberger, who I got in the 10th round, has 2 less points than Brees. There is never a good reason to draft a QB unless he’s going to be Patrick Mahomes.
Here are the 1st place rosters in my league:
Mahomes, Gurley, Ertz
Brees, Saquon, Kelce
Roethlisberger, Gurley, Kelce
Brees, Gurley, Lindsey
Now will those teams win the league? They have by far the best chance. That bye is so crucial in fantasy because it’s hard for a team of football players to have 3 consistent weeks in a row. That doesn’t happen all that often and you’ll need luck by the other player having an off week to skirt by most likely. If I can get both of my playoff teams through the first round, I’d be happy having one play for the title. Leggo.
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