To my surprise, I'll be competing for my league's championship this weekend in fantasy football. I really wasn't happy with my draft this year, after missing out on Andrew Luck. He'd been buried in the CBS pre-rankings, so I figured I could wait a bit on taking him, but, of course, the top-ranked team that ended up going 12-2, and picked right after me at #2 (I picked #1 overall), took him one spot before I would've.
And then I got off to a brutally slow start, which only reinforced my pessimism. As an uber-fantasy nerd, I think I probably hit rock bottom when I accidentally slept-in (I'm on the West Coast) and left Arian Foster on my active roster, even though he'd been ruled out due to an injury about 1 hour before kickoff. That's a total rookie move, which never happens to me. NEVER! (*I look to the sky for solace, where I find none*... ok... maybe a little too dramatic, but you get the point). Of course, he earned me a big fat goose egg for his slot & I ended up losing that particular game by a score of 77-70. The worst part? I had 2 running backs on my bench -- one scored 8 points and the other scored 9. No joke. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Those numbers were burned into memory forever...
To boot, LeSean McCoy, who I drafted with the #1 overall pick, didn't play like a #1 pick at all. In fact, I don't think he put up elite numbers in even a single game this season. Granted, he didn't play terribly compared to the rest of the league, and for most of the season, he was running neck-and-neck with the #2 overall pick, Jamaal Charles (until Charles surpassed him later in the season). On the plus-side, he was a much better pick than Adrian Peterson, who ended up going #3 overall. So, at least there's that. In retrospect, I should've taken DeMarco Murray #1 overall, but hardly anyone saw that coming. Even if I'd had a gut feeling about him, it's awfully hard to go against the "safe" consensus pick when you're picking that high. So, really, my only choice was either McCoy or Charles, & I botched it. So much for that.
Yet, ever so slowly, my team started gaining steam, thanks in no small part to Arian Foster, who, once healthy, consistently dominated week-in, week-out. He played much more like a #1 pick than McCoy did, that's for sure. I was also fortunate enough to grab Odell Beckham out of the free agent pool just before he became one of the hottest commodities in the league, which provided me with a legit #1 WR for the second half of the season. And, believe it or not, as of today, Russell Wilson is the #4 ranked QB this season, according to ESPN rankings (he's #7 on CBS, which scores it a little differently, but still very good nonetheless). And, to boot, my Lions/Rams combo gave me the #1 ranked D/ST in the league. By season's end, I'd been the highest-scoring team in my league for 6-straight weeks and ended up making the playoffs as the Wild Card with an 8-6 record.
As the Wild Card, I faced off against the aforementioned #1 team last week (i.e. the guy who drafted Andrew Luck). He'd already beaten me twice, and with the likes of Luck, Jamaal Charles & Jordy Nelson running on all cylinders for him, my chances of advancing to the championship game seemed exceedingly slim. And, after leaving Jeremy Hill & his 26 pts on the bench in favor of LeGarrette Blount & his 9 pts, I knew I was screwed. But with a little bit of luck, and Odell Beckham, I was able to slay Goliath. The #1 team just so happened to post their lowest point-total of the season, scoring under 100 pts for the first time all year. I took it 92-87, which, granted, was a little too close for my liking, especially with all those pts sitting on my bench, but I'll take it every time, regardless. A win is a win. No complaints here.
Similarly, the #3 team upset the #2 team as well, so it will be a battle of the underdogs for the championship. The matchup will be as follows (CBS's projections favor me by 6 points, but that doesn't mean much, given their track record):
My Team
QB - Russell Wilson, SEA
RB - LeSean McCoy, PHI
RB - Arian Foster, HOU
WR - Odell Beckham, NYG
WR - Roddy White, ATL
FLX - Jeremy Hill, CIN
TE - Jason Witten, DAL
K - Steven Hauschka, SEA
D/ST - Lions, DET
Bench - Joseph Randle, DAL
Bench - LeGarrette Blount, NE
Bench - Julian Edelman, NE
Bench - Panthers, CAR
Bench - Rams, STL
My Opponent
QB - Matt Ryan, ATL
RB - Marshawn Lynch, SEA
RB - Justin Forsett, BAL
WR - Dez Bryant, DAL
WR - Vincent Jackson, TB
FLX - DeSean Jackson, WSH
TE - Julius Thomas, DEN
K - Adam Vinatieri, IND
D/ST - Cardinals, ARI
Bench - Jonas Gray, NE
Bench - Malcolm Floyd, SD
Bench - Anquan Boldin, SF
Bench - Travis Kelce, KC
Bench - 49ers, SF
Again, I'm not too thrilled with my chances, but I never expected to get this far in the first place, and no matter whether I win or not, I'm assured a cash-prize, even with a 2nd place finish. So, that's a nice consolation, but it would drive me nuts to make it this far, only to fall in the end. And with reports out of Philly that Chris Polk is running first team reps in practice after his 3 TD game, instead of LeSean McCoy, I'm starting to second-guess my choice to start him. But, I simply can't sit the #1 overall pick in the championship game for a crapshoot like Joseph Randle or LeGarrette Blount. There's a chance Julian Edelman might outscore him, but I wouldn't count on that either, given the plethora of targets Tom Brady is known to utilize from game-to-game. So, I figure, unless I get definitive news that McCoy has been benched, I'm rolling with him. On a side-note, I claimed the Panthers D/ST off waivers this week in an effort to keep them off my opponent's roster. I have no idea whether he would've added them or not, but they are projected to score more points than either of the D/STs he has on his roster. So, I'd rather not chance it. We'll just have to see who's left standing Tuesday morning. Stay tuned.
+CBS Sports
+NFL
No comments:
Post a Comment