Friday, December 30, 2016

Year End Awards: Michael Wiley All Dud Team/Dud Of The Year

Busts, Disappointments, Duds, they all mean the same thing in the world of fantasy football, and it's always inevitable that for some reason or another, players just don't live up to their wildly high expectations. For those who drafted them, it's a near death blow that can cripple your franchise for the season. Here's a look at the Dudliest of the Duds. I took into consideration, the player, the reason, the relative draft position, and how it affected the team that had them. Here's the Michael Wiley All Dud Team.

QB
Cam Newton (BigBadBob)
QB Rank: 16
Overall Rank: 20
3,272 Passing Yards, 18 Passing TD's, 11 Interceptions, 353 Rushing yards, 5 Rushing TD's, 2 2 Pt Conversions, 2 Fumbles Lost, 269.68 Fantasy Points
Acquired: Keeper for Dad (9th Round)
Atlanta Falcons v Carolina Panthers : News Photo 
Holy Regression Batman! (Sorry, I've been watching old Batman TV shows with my dad the past couple of days, so it's still in my system ha). The two time Wane McGarity Bowl Stud of The Year (and last year's real life MVP) was supposed to be the cornerstone of Dad's team this year. Best of all, he was a 9th round keeper! A "steal of the century" so to speak. Cam was absolutely DREADFUL this season. Blame the refs, blame the poor O-Line play, blame Cam himself, but Cam's terrible play destroyed Dad's chances at the playoffs and actually helped get Dad the worst regular season record in our league's history at 2-11. Dad kept starting Cam because well...he's Cam! It killed him week after week. Remember with QB's don't look at Overall Rank which is 20. Most QB's will be the highest scoring players in Fantasy. Look at his rank against other QB's. It's 16 and if you adjust it due to Tom Brady's suspension (remember Brady missed 4 games, it's the only reason he's ranked so low) it's really 17 (and a point away from 18th as Andy Dalton is barely below him)There were 16 better QB's than Cam. It means he wasn't even startable in a 12 team league. This would've been even more of a disaster had he been a redraft player, but even as a 9th round keeper, he was awful. From Stud to Dud...just shows how fast someone can rise and fall in fantasy football.

WR
Brandon Marshall (Free Agent)
WR Rank: 47
Overall Rank: 111
59 Receptions, 788 Receiving Yards, 3 Receiving TDs, 126.30 Fantasy Points
Acquired: 1st Round (8th Overall) By Dad. Traded by Dad to me for Dennis Pitta and Jeremy Maclin. Waived By Me.
Miami Dolphins v New York Jets : News Photo  
Proof that I don't know everything when it comes to football. I thought Brandon Marshall would be a no brainer 5th round keeper for Alex and I criticized the decision for Alex to not at the very least keep Marshall at such a high round when he decided to start fresh. Well..I'm 11th place and Alex is the champion of our league. With Marshall back in the draft pool, Dad gladly took him 8th overall. PURE GARBAGE. Brandon Marshall being great last season really fooled me, because two years ago when I had him he was as shitty as you can be. Marshall teased everyone that he was "back" last season, but here we are back on the Dud team just like in 2014. Marshall is so bad, he's the first person to make the Dud team THAT'S NOT EVEN ON A ROSTER! I dropped him before Week 16 for a crapshoot guy. That's how bad he was. Totally worthless, never on the same page with Ryan Fitzpatrick, even worse chemistry with Bryce Petty, and generally looked disinterested the whole season, there were 46 better receivers than Marshall. Dad kept starting him because of his "name" and I started him a couple times thinking he'd bounce back before benching and cutting him completely. It's no shock he was on the rosters of two of the worst teams this season. Another reason Dad had such a terrible season and he made my team even worse than it was. Maybe a change of team will revitalize Brandon Marshall's career, but I know me and Dad won't be the ones to take a chance on that happening.

WR
DeAndre Hopkins (Rocket Man)
WR Rank: 39
Overall Rank: 95
71 Receptions, 831 Receiving Yards, 4 Receiving TD's, 142.6 Fantasy Points
Acquired: Keeper For Me (3rd Round). Traded by Me with Devante Parker to Eugene for Jordan Matthews and Jeremy Maclin.
Houston Texans v Green Bay Packers : News Photo 
The ULTIMATE example of "it's not his fault, it's his QB". Hopkins is an amazing talent, as evidenced by last year (he made the All Stud Team) where he had an AMAZING season. I thought I was getting a hell of a steal in the 3rd round by keeping him. Unfortunately, thanks to being tied to absolutely without a shadow of a doubt the WORST starting QB in the league today (well...not anymore because he got benched) Hopkins regressed big time. It's funny that so far, each selection on this team has been a part of either me, or my dad (or sometimes both). We definitely had shit luck drafting/keeping this year. Brock Osweiler just had no clue how to get the ball to Hopkins and of course it didn't help that defenses would scheme to take Hopkins out of the game. His slow start killed me and I had to trade him out of necessity to Eugene who thought he was maybe buying low. Nope...never happened..in fact when it really mattered, in the semi finals of the playoffs and with Julio Jones out with injury, Eugene still kept Hopkins on his bench because he simply couldn't trust him. For Hopkins sake, I hope the QB situation improves for him, otherwise as long as Osweiler/Savage are there, he'll be wasting away some prime years of his career.

WR
Allen Robinson (THE SPOILER)
WR Rank: 29
Overall Rank: 80
68 Receptions, 801 Receiving Yards, 6 Receiving TD's, 1 2pt Conversion, 152.10 Fantasy Points
Acquired: Keeper For Drew (6th Round)
Jacksonville Jaguars v Houston Texans : News Photo 
Even his awful end of the year numbers are inflated by a 19 point, 147 yard performance in a week 16 that Drew didn't even play because his season was already over. Make no bones about it, Robinson was flat out AWFUL and that's with a QB TRYING to force feed him all season. Before that 19 point explosion, he had 4 straight games of UNDER 5 POINTS. Drew's last place finish was definitely due to underachievers like Robinson on his roster. Thought to be one of the bigger steals as a 6th round Keeper, Robinson busted beyond belief. Proof that even keepers in late rounds can absolutely destroy your season.

RB
Todd Gurley (Woe Is You)
RB Rank: 19
Overall Rank: 65
845 Rushing Yards, 6 Rushing TD's, 39 Receptions, 290 Receiving Yards, 1 Fumble Lost, 167 Fantasy Points
Acquired: Keeper By Leland (6th Round). Traded by Leland to Me along with Brandon Cooks for A.J. Green and Sammie Coates. Traded by Me along with Tim Hightower to Mike for Eli Manning and Jordan Reed.
San Francisco 49ers v Los Angeles Rams : News Photo 
Even his abysmal numbers look better than they are (a 16 point performance in week 16 that was irrelevant because Mike's season was already done, having lost the 6th place game in Week 15). Leland was supposed to have the biggest advantage of all the teams by being able to keep David Johnson in the 14th round and Todd Gurley in the 6th round. Before the season started, I actually legit wondered if Leland would even get beat this season. Gurley would be even more of a bust had this been a redraft league, because no doubt he goes before guys like Le'Veon Bell, Zeke, hell probably even Beckham and David Johnson, just based on his age and what he did last year. Welp...everyone was DEAD WRONG. Gurley looked like Trent Richardson most of the year. He had 0 100 YARD GAMES!! 0!!! NOT ONE! He wasn't nearly involved in the passing game as expected (BENNY FUCKING CUNNINGHAM WAS TRUSTED MORE). Just a god awful bust of epic proportions who's keeper status is the only thing saving him from becoming one of the bigger busts of all time. I traded for him as a "throw in", he sucked for me and I shipped him to Mike and Gurley didn't do anything for him either. Questions about whether it was him, the offensive line, the QB, the playcalling, were swirling all around. I think it was a combination of all of the above. How do you not make the playoffs with having DAVID JOHNSON on your roster? By pairing him with TODD GURLEY. That shows how bad he was in destroying Leland's team (and to an extant me and Mike's because he sure as hell didn't help us).

RB
Thomas Rawls (Hoosier Daddy)
RB Rank: 57
Overall Rank: 217
335 Rushing Yards, 2 Rushing TD's, 13 Receptions, 96 Receiving Yards, 61.60 Fantasy Points
Acquired: 2nd Round (17th Overall) By Dad. Waived By Dad. Picked up By Ryan.

Carolina Panthers v Seattle Seahawks : News Photo 
I don't like to pick on injured guys, but he was so bad he ALMOST cost Ryan a trip to the finals and DID  cost Ryan a Fantasy Football championship. Rawls looked AMAZING last season and looked like the real deal in supplanting Marshawn Lynch for the Seahawks starting role after Lynch retired. He looked like a lock as a keeper for Dad. Unfortunately he got hurt during Dad's playoff game and it was injury that lingered longer than most thought. Dad STILL took him in the 2nd round and it was disaster from the get go. He played in two games, scoring only 9.5 points COMBINED before an injury once again forced him to sit out 7 games. In somewhat of a blessing, the Seahawks really didn't find a guy to replace him. They used Christine Michael for a good while and he was decent, but they let him go. They turned to C.J. Prosise who was acutally doing good before HE got hurt. It was the perfect opportunity for Rawls to step back in and reclaim his starting gig. Ryan smartly picked him up before he came back, in hopes that he'd have a legit starting running back in the playoffs. After a couple of mediocre games as he got back into game shape, he teased Ryan with an amazing 24.3 Point performance in the last week of the regular season. Ryan thought he had that key last piece to help secure his first fantasy title. He sucked during Ryan's bye, but Ryan plugged him against Albert in the semi finals and Rawls was GOD AWFUL. Chance after chance to punch in 1 yard TD's and he failed miserably. Ryan luckily survived Albert but in the most important game of entire season, the championship game, he rolled with Rawls again and it was even MORE disastrous as he sucked for a half before getting injured. He finished with less than a point. With a fantasy football championship on the line and $800 and when you lose by under 5 points, getting .8 from one of your starting running backs is a DEATH KNELL. He helped kill one team at the beginning of the season, and he killed another when it matters the most. He more than deserves to be on this team.

TE
Rob Gronkowski (Light's Broken Bots)
TE Rank: 23
Overall Rank: 172
25 Receptions, 540 Receiving Yards, 3 Receiving TD's, 84.5 Fantasy Points
Acquired: 1st Round (1st Overall) By Matt
New England Patriots v New York Jets : News Photo
I get the allure. When he's healthy, he's by far and away the best Tight End in Football and it's not even close. The advantage is enormous. The problem is, he's never healthy and his price is always too high that taking him creates a MAJOR problem when he inevitably gets hurt. Matt was in the perfect position to make a serious title run before the season started. It looked like he was going to have two excellent keepers in Jordy Nelson (10th Round) and Odell Beckham Jr. (2nd Round) PLUS  the #1 pick overall. Could you imagine a Jordy/Odell/Zeke trio?? Or Jordy/Odell/Bell? That could've happened. Instead Matt made two high risk swing for the fences moves in keeping Josh Gordon over Beckham and then using that #1 pick on Gronk. Both didn't come close to working and Matt's season was crushed instantly. Right off the bat Gronk missed 2 games, than came back and scored a whopping 1.6 points COMBINED with a backup QB in 2 games. He had a nice 4 game stretch in which he showed just why he's so dominant before getting hurt yet again, playing one game as a decoy and scoring 0 points and then being put on IR.  He missed 4 games in the regular season, had 2 "decoy" games where he scored 0 , 1 where he scored 1.6 and another where he barely scored 7. It was a season destroying decision to draft Gronk #1. Matt never recovered.

Flex
Alshon Jeffrey (Shock The Monkey)
WR Rank: 52
Overall Rank: 120
51 Receptions, 811 Receiving Yards, 2 Receiving TD's, 118.6 Fantasy Points
Acquired: 2nd Round (14th Overall) By Mark
Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears : News Photo 
I think Alshon Jeffery's shitty season gets overlooked by many, but I'm sure Mark won't forget it. He blew a 2nd round pick on the guy and he sucked beyond belief. Every possible negative thing that could happen to the guy did except the one thing that most people were worried about when drafting him...INJURY. He NEVER got injured...he just SUCKED. He had 1 TD ALL SEASON WHEN IT MATTERED (not counting his shitty TD in the loser bracket in Week 15) and it didn't matter who the QB was, Cutler/Hoyer/Barkley, they never had good chemistry. On top being a huge failure, he got SUSPENDED for 4 games for PED use. Those are some shitty ass drugs, because they didn't do anything to improve his performance. He's one of the main reasons Mark went from 2nd place finish last year to 10th place finish this year.

Michael Wiley Dud Of The Year
Cam Newton (BigBadBob)
Carolina Panthers v Washington Redskins : News Photo 
Wow...for the first time in history, a player goes from Stud Of The Year to Dud Of The Year. So why Cam? He has no injury (at least not widely known) excuse to fall back on. The expectations for Cam to repeat or come close to what he did last year were HUGE and he failed miserably. When you help lead a team like Dad's to a 2-11 record, there's really no way around it, Cam more than deserves this award. If anyone can turn it around it's Cam, I mean the guy is a two time Stud Of The Year, it just wasn't his year this year and it cost Dad dearly.

 


 
 
 
 

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