Yeah, I know. Nobody cares about my fantasy football team!! But with the end of the NFL regular season, I need to vent just for closure.
Sad to say but Green Lantern Corps finished out of the playoffs. Still I enjoyed the experience overall (my second season), and it definitely made me much more knowledgeable about the league.
For any fantasy geeks who stumble upon this, here are some pertinent details. 16 team league (yikes!!) with a standard roster + flex. Touchdowns and yardage + points-per-reception (PPR) scoring. Top six made the playoffs, with ties broken by season total points. I got the 12th pick in the draft, so you know the deck was stacked against me.
Positives. Foresight to draft Kurt Warner as a backup to Tony Romo. Picking up Houston’s Steve Slaton and New Orleans Lance Moore off the waiver wires. Squeezing points out of Oakland’s Justin Fargas, along with Denver’s Ryan Torain and Peyton Hillis. Tying, based on record, with four other teams for that last playoff spot.
Negatives. Missing that last playoff spot by about 30 fantasy points. The league was so big that the waiver wire was pretty close to empty all season. A six team playoff, meaning two teams get byes, is sort of stupid. I had a crappy set of running backs all season, including Fred Taylor, who managed a negative game. Giving up on Steve Slaton way too early in week three. Tony Romo getting hurt right before Kurt Warner’s bye week. Romo not getting back on the field until after our trade deadline.
The GM of Green Lantern Corps (me!) blew two games with bad roster decisions driven by matchups. Fred Taylor bit me in the ass posting 0.5 points against Denver’s run defense. Alternatively, I could have played Earnest Graham against Carolina for 12 fantasy points and the win. Also, I sat Lance Moore against the Green Bay secondary (I thought Al Harris and Charles Woodson were shutdown corners) and Lance went for a couple of long touchdowns. Meanwhile, for some godforsaken reason, I thought St. Louis’ Antonio Pittman, as a starter, would actually put up some fantasy points against the Bears. There’s your season right there.
Despite all the negatives it was still pretty rewarding being a challenger with such a crappy draft position. Bottom line is that I’m a pretty decent talent evaluator, but overthought the matchup angle a bit. Next year I’ll have the confidence to put my best lineup out there and run with them.