The NFL regular season is mercifully reaching Week 17, and I personally can't wait to see how the playoffs predictably unfold. In contrast, the playoffs of the UMassBallers league were anything but predictable as the Chicago Ferrets surged with wins in 8 of their last 9 weeks to eke into the playoffs and emerge as the 2016 champion!
 |
| I think we all imagined Ryan doing exactly this when he clinched the title. |
The Ferrets weren't the only interesting storyline from the fantasy season though. Take a gander at my hindsight analysis of the draft, recap of game-changing transactions, and other odds-and-ends in TDZ's annual UMassBallers season synopsis!
The Draft
Every year, I do some simple math to try to arrive at a value for each
team's draft - below is a simple calculation of drafted player points
(Weeks 1-16) per dollars spent. Rather than simply dividing by the $200
budget, I divided by the actual dollars spent, since the remainder could
be carried into the regular season.
Sweaty Sac - 10.827 (league runner up)
#churrosforpresident - 10.227 (3rd place finisher)
Doge Flutie - 10.022
Farts are Funny - 9.782
smackycat - 9.303
HERE COMES THE BOOM - 9.186 (4th place finisher)
Nickel Blitz - 8.944
Cash4Gould - 8.458
Neat Team - 9.027
mangenius - 7.778
Chicago Ferrets - 7.656 (league champion)
Car RamRod - 7.545
One thing to keep in mind is that QBs almost always end up with the most total fantasy points, so a GM that drafts multiple QBs will generally look better using this analysis.
Still, notice anything with the rankings? Ah yes, Chicago Ferrets had one of the worst drafts, just barely beating Car RamRod, who by the way tied the regular season record for fewest wins! The 2 wins tied Red Coat Mafia from 2010 (no idea who that GM was). Car RamRod was hamstrung by a variety of poor values like Alshon Jeffery ($33) and Rob Gronkowski ($51), who each dealt with major injuries.
The best draft goes to Sweaty Sac, who had a runner-up finish, although his high ranking can largely be attributed to drafting 3 QBs, who all did quite well (Philip Rivers $4, Derek Carr $1, and Matt Ryan $1). In contrast, #churrosforpresident drafted 2 QBs but was similarly effective, thanks to great values like DeMarco Murray ($20) and Jimmy Graham ($1).
All-Aldi Team
 |
| Gotta get those Clancy's. |
QB: Matt Ryan - Sweaty Sac - $1
Matty Ice was the runaway winner among QB values this season. The Falcons offense was a revelation with plenty of high-scoring games, and even the loss of Julio Jones for a few games didn't slow down Ryan's steady production.
Honorable mentions: Tyrod Taylor - Farts are Funny - $1; Derek Carr - Sweaty Sac - $1
WR: Michael Thomas - mangenius - $1
WR seemed to have the fewest bargains this year, but Michael Thomas was a great one. He finished the year as the 12th ranked WR in the game, meaning he's officially a WR1 in his rookie season, finishing with 981 yards and 8 TDs through Week 16.
Honorable mentions: Mike Wallace - Farts are Funny - $2; Rishard Matthews - Neat Team - $3
 |
| He's even made Ryan's team seem somewhat respectable. |
RB: Jay Ajayi - Nickel Blitz - $1
What a revelation for the 'phins. In games where Ajayi had less than 16 carries, Miami lost. In games where he had 16 or more carries, they won. Pretty simple. And as far as fantasy production goes, he averaged 14.7 points per game once he took over as the starter, and he had three separate 200 yard performances. It's nice to have players on your team who can single-handedly win you a week like that.
Honorable mentions: Jordan Howard - Farts are Funny - $3; Spencer Ware - smackycat - $5; LeGarrette Blount - HERE COMES THE BOOM - $9; DeMarco Murray - #churrosforpresident - $20
TE: Jimmy Graham - #churrosforpresident - $1
After one season in Seattle, Jimmy Jam's fantasy value plummeted and suddenly he was in the bargain bin. Yet he finished the year as the 4th ranked receiver in the game. At 859 yards and 6 TDs, he's not what he once was, but he's plenty valuable at such a thin position.
Honorable mentions: no other bargains
All-Whole Foods Team
 |
| I can't believe this is a real ice cream flavor at Whole Foods. |
It seems like Cam has spent the entire season narrowly avoiding concussions as he's taken repeated huge hits, and his play has been uneven as a result. He's thrown for less than 200 yards in 6 games and he's well below his prior year rushing totals (both yards and TDs). He was the 2nd most expensive QB in the draft, but he's ranked just 14th overall behind the likes of undrafted options like Dak Prescott and Tyrod Taylor. Aaron Rodgers was just $1 more, but produced nearly 100 more fantasy points this year.
Dishonorable mentions: Russell Wilson - #churrosforpresident - $16; Ben Roethlisberger - Doge Flutie - $14
WR: DeAndre Hopkins - Cash4Gould - $53
There were actually numerous busts from the WR position this season, but none was worse than Hopkins becoming Plopkins before our very eyes. While other WRs succumbed to injury, Plopkins never did, meaning that Cash4Gould unfortunately had to put him in the starting lineup week after week, constantly getting returns well below projections as he ended up totaling only 831 yards and 4 TDs. He was supposed to be an elite WR1, but instead was worse than waiver wire fodder like Kenny Stills and Marqise Lee.
Plopkins production is of course linked to the putrefaction of Brock Osweiler. Remember when people were complaining about Brian Hoyer as the QB of the Texans? Hopkins was still an elite receiver with Hoyer there, so what does that say about how bad Osweiler is? The Texans are the most flukish playoff team since the 2016 Chicago Ferrets!
Plopkins production is of course linked to the putrefaction of Brock Osweiler. Remember when people were complaining about Brian Hoyer as the QB of the Texans? Hopkins was still an elite receiver with Hoyer there, so what does that say about how bad Osweiler is? The Texans are the most flukish playoff team since the 2016 Chicago Ferrets!
Dishonorable mentions: Keenan Allen - Neat Team - $39; Eric Decker - smackycat - $23; Sammy Watkins - mangenius - $30; to name a few
RB: Adrian Peterson - mangenius - $53
No shock here as Peterson succumbed to a (nearly) season-ending injury in Week 2, and even before the injury, it looked like the Vikings offensive line wasn't going to do much for him. Soon to be 32 years old and coming off another major injury, it will be interesting to see how effective he'll be next season, and how much the UMassBallers will be willing to pay for him.
Honorable mentions: Jamaal Charles - smackycat - $31; Eddie Lacy - HERE COMES THE BOOM - $37; Todd Gurley - HERE COMES THE BOOM - $68; and many more
A lot of the selections in this article are opinion-based and open for argument, but in this case, Gronk was objectively the biggest bust of the draft from the TE position. He did put together 4 solid weeks of production, but not nearly enough to justify using one-quarter of your draft budget. It'll be interesting to see how much his draft value yo-yo's heading into next year. As for Car RamRod, one can only wonder if his team would have won more than 2 games had Gronk been healthy... probably not.
Honorable mentions: Jordan Reed - smackycat - $14
Terrible Trades
As usual, there weren't many trades, but the ones that did occur were actually quite blockbuster with lots of names changing teams. Here's the breakdown of what happened.
- September 30 - Sweaty Sac sends Travis Benjamin and Martellus Bennett to smackycat for Isaiah Crowell and Dwayne Washington.
- Benjamin had about 3 good games post-trade, while Bennett was uneven throughout the year but went off in a major way in Week 5 with 24.7 points. Too bad smackcat dropped him literally the same day he traded for him.
- As for Sweaty Sac, Washington did nothing and was dropped less than a week after the trade. Crowell, however, didn't get axed until late November, putting together 3 starter-worthy performances for which he was indeed started.
- Winner: I'm giving the edge to Sweaty Sac for Crowell slightly outproducing Benjamin, plus Sac was able to pick up and drop Bennett at will the rest of the season.
- November 25 - Doge Flutie sends Golden Tate, Chris Ivory, and the New England defense to Nickel Blitz for Stefon Diggs.
- Doge Flutie was looking for a WR to replace declining production from other options in his lineup, but he didn't find that with Diggs. Gone were the days of double-digit targets and high yards per catch as Diggs was never really the same coming back from injury.
- Meanwhile, Nickel Blitz got a New England defense that scored 62 points over the final 4 weeks, plus Tate proved to be a better receiving option than Diggs ever was. The only problem was that Nickel Blitz never started Golden Tate or Chris Ivory.
- Winner: Nickel Blitz still got the better end of the deal, but it didn't have much of any effect on the results since he only started the New England defense, and Doge was still able to get solid production from the defense slot anyways. But this just goes to show you the drastic lengths Doge has to go to get other GMs to work with him on trades!
Trades
were one way to improve our teams, but most turned to free agency and
the waiver wire. Some spent their FAAB dollars more wisely than
others, although I must say, we really didn't have any egregious overpayments like in past years.
Most Hilariously Wasteful FA Bids:
 |
| Oh Ebron, so predictable. |
- Sweaty Sac: Eric Ebron for $26 (beat a bid of $11 by Neat Team)
- The perennially mediocre TE2 got some early season interest after scoring a TD in Week 1, but he would only score in double-digits one more time and was waiver wire fodder the rest of the season.
- HERE COMES THE BOOM: Knile Davis for $15 (no competing bids)
- Knile was much ado about nothing despite moving from team to team, totaling literally 3.1 total fantasy points the rest of the year after this acquisition.
- Nickel Blitz: Jeremy Kerley for $14 (beat a bid of $3 from smackycat)
- The 49ers passing game isn't exactly known for being WR kingmakers in fantasy, so it was no surprise later on when Kerley disappeared and only had 1 good game the rest of the season.
- Cash4Gould: Kapri Bibbs for $18 (beat a bid of $15 by mangenius)
- With C.J. Anderson out of the picture and Devontae Booker scuffling, you can't blame C4G for taking a spin with Bibbsy, but he never had more than 5 fantasy points in a game and was utterly useless.
- Doge Flutie: Charcandrick West for $16 (beat a bid of $15 from smackycat)
- Similarly, with Charles out and Ware nursing an injury at the time, I thought I had a golden opportunity to use West for a big week, but he was disappointment personified, both that week and all season long.
Biggest FA Bid Steals:
 |
| Look at J-How navigate the gaps - impressive. |
- Nickel Blitz: Jay Ajayi for $27 (beat a $7 bid by Farts are Funny)
- This bid came after Ajayi's 204 yard, 2 TD virtuoso performance in Week 6. Surprising that no one else put up any bids at all aside from these two GMs. One thing worth noting, however, is that the Blitz dropped Ajayi earlier in the season, so this pick-up was mostly about fixing a mistake than making a smooth move.
- Chicago Ferrets: Jordan Howard for $35 (edged a $35 bid by mangenius based on waiver priority)
- Howard was worth every penny as he was a consistent producer for the remainder of the season and helped propel the Ferrets to a championship.
- smackycat: Tim Hightower for $7 (beat a $0 bid from Sweaty Sac)
- Just when you think Hightower is done for, he randomly emerges to put up some pretty decent volume and value. After his pickup, he had good production in 3 out of the next 4 weeks for smacky.
- Neat Team: Tyreek Hill for $21 (beat a bid of $1 from Chicago Ferrets)
- He has been a beast for the Chiefs, and since his pickup has totaled 51.3 fantasy points for Neat Team over the last 4 weeks. You can't ask for much better WR production than that during the most important weeks of the season. He's been doing it as a pass catcher, but also as a return man and rusher.
All-Free Agent Team
No
fantasy season is complete without some great free agent pick-ups over
the course of the year, and 2014 was no different as several free agents
changed the fortunes of a few lucky teams.
QB - Dak Prescott
- There's not much else to say that hasn't already been said ad nauseam by ESPN. I do think that he's benefited tremendously from arguably the best O-line and RB in the league, but he's still executed exceptionally well for a rookie as evidenced by a 68% completion percentage and 23-4 TD-INT ratio.
Cowboys homer #churrosforpresident picked up Dak early in the year, much to everyone else's chagrin because his roster was already loaded.
Cowboys homer #churrosforpresident picked up Dak early in the year, much to everyone else's chagrin because his roster was already loaded.
 |
| That classic dropped pass look. |
Despite his stellar play, he lingered on the waiver wire for a while before being snatched up by Sweaty Sac.
RB - Rob Kelley
- One glorious, absurd day in London was all it took for Rob Kelley to run away with the starting RB role for the 'Skins. He ran 21 times for 87 yards and a TD. The YPC aren't amazing, and the Redskins didn't even win the game (they tied), but you know what he didn't do? He didn't fumble the ball, and in fact he didn't fumble the ball once all year. In contrast, Matt Jones has fumbled the ball 8 times on 270 total touches in his career. More like Matt Groans.
Sweaty Sac once again benefited from Kelley's production over the last half of the fantasy season.
Sweaty Sac once again benefited from Kelley's production over the last half of the fantasy season.
TE - Cameron Brate
- The undrafted Harvard grad supplanted former 2nd round selection Austin Seferian-Jenkins and worked his way into a fairly reliable role with the Bucs, particularly in the red zone as he compiled 8 TDs (he also compiled 660 yards). Lots of GMs took Brate for a spin, but he ended the season with smackycat.
 |
| Real-time speed. Also, someone needs to make better Tyreek Hill gif's. |
Neat Team had the smarts to pick him up and ride him the last few weeks of the season.
W/R - Tyrell Williams
- To quote Aristotle, "Nature abhors a vacuum." So it's no wonder that when Chargers top WR Keenan Allen was lost for the year that someone had to become their X receiver, and Lord Tyrell filled the role admirably. Though undrafted, his 6'4" build and wheels helped him amass 989 yards and 7 TDs, mostly benefiting Neat Team.
 |
| Pryor electrified the G Podawund this year! |
Farts are Funny was laughing all the way to the bank with Terrelle's production, and repeatedly turned down my trade offers for him early in the year.
DEF - New York Giants - Who'd have thunk that the Giants would lose Jason Pierre-Paul to fireworks and yet emerge as one of the top defenses in the league this season. Yet another savvy Neat Team pickup!
Odds and Ends
- #churrosforpresident, Chicago Ferrets, and Sweaty Sac tied for the league lead with 10 total wins, but those were well off from the UMassBallers record of 14, set by Farts are Funny in 2011.
- Car RamRod tied a league record with 11 losses, including a 9 game losing streak that set a new league record.
- Car RamRod also had a league low point total of 983.64, but the all-time low is a mere 888.54, set by IdChokeTilaTequila2 in 2009.
- Clearly, Parker's team names have also set the record for most characters, fewest spaces, and overall nonsense.
- Car RamRod also set a new record low for single week points with 29.32, although it was in the consolation rounds.
- My Doge Flutie squad lead the league in scoring for the second year in a row with 1387.10 points, but as usual fell short of winning any money, argh!
- Parker redeemed himself in 2012 with the highest scoring season in league history with 1492.86 points as PK2K. Maybe not all of his team names are super long!
- The single week high for points was also set by Doge Flutie with 167.30, but that's shy of Deals and Steals' all-time record of 179.92.
- The largest championship margin of victory remains Forte Shades of Jay's 63.56 margin in 2014.
- The last time the Ferrets won the championship was 2009. The only players on that team who are still active are Justin Forsett, Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alex Smith, and Brent Celek. Does anyone remember Quinton Ganther??
- The only player from last year's championship team (Nickel Blitz) that was also on this year's was Lamar Miller.
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7419137/failkick.0.gif) |
| Oh you fancy huh? |
Past season champions (w/ links to season revues):
No comments:
Post a Comment