At the beginning of each fantasy football season, everyone believes they have a shot at Fantasy Gold. All 12 teams believe they have the team that will end up the Wane McGarity Bowl Champion. But to put it blunt, shit happens, and with only 6 teams making the playoff cuts, that leaves 6 other teams out in the cold and the big question is...WHAT HAPPENED? Was it bad drafting, trades, bad schedules, injuries, not picking up those key free agents? There's got to be a reason right? Well, I'm bored and I'll try to deduct what I think happened to the 6 unfortunate teams that are vying for a less coveted title...The Michael Wiley Loser Bowl.
#12 Eugene (Springville-Warrior)
Record: 4-9
What Happened?
-Julio Jones Season Ending Injury: This was huge and probably the biggest blow to Eugene's team. Julio Jones was done after week 5 and as Leland's best wide receiver and 2nd round pick, it was a huge gap that unfortunately no wide receiver was able to fill.
-The Trent Richardson Trade: As a reaction to Julio Jones going down, Eugene dangled Trent Richardson who at the time still had value. He turned down Josh Gordon and V-Jax, and settled on a Chris Johnson/Kenbrell Thompkins combo. Now in hindsight, the trade wasn't necessarily a killer as Trent Richardson is straight up droppable now, but he ended up trading Chris Johnson and dropping Thomkpins. Josh Gordon would've been a hell of a lot better alternative hell even V-Jax would've been.
-Lack of Consistent Receiving: Ties in to the Julio injury. Outside of Julio, Eugene had a maddeningly inconsistent group of wide receivers. Eric Decker was the best of the group and the defacto #1 but in his last 7 games he failed to produce 10 fantasy points in 5 of those games (though he admittedly went off for 25 and 45 in the other two). Julian Edelman, Chris Givens, Eddie Royal, Darrius Hayward-Bey, it was basically one of the weakest core group of receivers in the league.
-DeMarco Murray Injury/Production-Murray as Eugene's best running back missed two games due to injury and in the games he played had 7 games of under 15 fantasy points. As the lead back, that's not elite production.
#11 Ryan (Hoosier Daddy)
Record: 4-9
What Happened?
-Horrible 1st Half Start: Ryan started the season 1-5 and none of his losses were even close. The combination of a horrible Tom Brady start, a bad Stevan Ridley start, no real startable Tight End, and a crappy Marques Colston did him in. Even after the two huge trades he made with me, it was too late the salvage the season.
-Bad Luck 2nd Half Schedule: The trades with me dramatically improved Ryan's team. Unfortunately he always seemed to be outscored on weeks he did great. He lost to Kenny by 1, while scoring 118 points, lost to Drew by 5 the next week while putting up 107.5, lost to Dad by 2 points in a low scoring affair, and lost to me by 20 despite putting up 109 points. All that happened in the 2nd half of the season. The 3 losses by 8 points is critical and if he would've have picked those up, he'd be starting at a 7-6 record and possibly a playoff berth. Just one of the "not in the cards" seasons for Ryan.
#10 Leland (Next!!!!!)
Record: 5-8
What Happened?
-C.J. Spiller #1 Draft Pick: Hands down the worst #1 pick in the history of the league. A huge reason that Leland's season went down the drain. What a bust. Yes, last week (when it didn't matter) he went off, but it was too little late, the damage had been done. Spiller was beyond awful. He was oft injured and even when healthy was severely outperformed by aging veteran Fred Jackson. After that 140 yard, 1 TD performance last week, he's still the 29th ranked running back this season. Just a brutal blow and since we're a keeper league, there's a solid chance he's not even kept. For a #1 pick not even to be kept...that's insane.
-Sleeping on the QB during the draft-Leland admitted he kinda fell asleep at the wheel during the draft regarding his QB situation. He thought he could play the waiting game, but he waited a little too long and was force to go with Jay Cutler as his starting QB. Not happy with that situation, before Week 1, he traded away with Kenny who had strategically drafted Matthew Stafford after already having Drew Brees as trade bait. The trade for Stafford basically cost Leland his 2nd and 3rd round picks as he shipped Randall Cobb and Chris Johnson in a deal for Stafford, Lamar Miller, and James Jones. Miller was another fantasy expert dud. He never got out of a timeshare with Daniel Thomas until now, because of Thomas' season ending injury. He's now fodder on my bench. I think Leland was doomed anyway, as Cobb would suffer a season ending injury, and CJ2K hasn't lived up to his potential either. Stafford would be later shipped to me. Just a move that took too much depth away from Leland's team and combined with Spiller and reason #3 was just too much to overcome.
-GRONK: Leland was the team that decided to gamble on Gronk. Supposed to be only at minimum maybe 2-3 week injury, Gronk took forever to come back. Using a high draft pick, he left a glaring weakness on Leland's roster. By the time he came back, Leland had sold low on him and traded him to Mark for Jason Witten. Pretty much a wasted draft pick and NOW Gronk is back to being a top 2 tight end.
-Bad Draft/Lack of Talent/Scoring: Looking at it, it was just a bad draft in general. Looking at back, it's actually a pretty brutal draft, consisting of busts and injury prone players. Look at the first 10 picks. Spiller (bust/hurt), Chris Johnson (not living up to potential), Cobb (Traded but lost for year) Montee Ball (Bust, especially in round 4, though he looks good now, I have him on my bench now) Gronk (Injury prone, then sold low) T.Y. Hilton (Traded away, but hasn't lived up to potential) Miles Austin (beyond irrelevant and injury prone, traded away) Deandre Hopkins (very inconsistent rookie) Jay Cutler (Injury prone) and Danny Woodhead (Best of the bunch). His best pick was his Keenan Allen pick in the last round, but he ended up cutting him and Drew got him and used him. It's no wonder Leland was last in scoring, the talent was severely lacking combined with trades he had to make. He only scored over 100 once all season and it was in week 2. He only scored even 90 one more time (naturally beating me in the process, lol). Just wasn't enough to get it done.
#9 Albert (Channel 4 News Team)
Record: 5-8
What Happened?
Top Heavy Team: Honestly, this is a head scratcher. How does a team with Peyton Manning, A.J. Green, Alfred Morris, and Frank Gore finish with a 5-8 record and go on a 4 game losing streak to finish off the season? I guess if you had to point out something, is it wasn't a super balanced team. Albert was using Scott Chandler types of Tight Ends after Jermichael Finley got hurt, and T.Y. Hilton and Mike Wallace though intimidating, weren't week to week consistent players. Maybe he should've used one of his running backs (he also had Le'Veon Bell on his bench who is more than suitable as a RB #2) as trade chip to improve the depth.
Came up Short In The Last 3 Weeks: Albert was 5-5 going into week 11 with 3 straight favorable matchups. My Dad, Ryan, and Eugene. Surely he could take 2 of these to clinch a spot. Nope. His team was beyond awful against my Dad, scoring only 55 points, Frank Gore and Alfred Morris couldn't combine for 10 points two Monday Nights ago, thus losing to Ryan 1.5 and the easiest matchup of all, Eugene, was a disaster. His team went absolutely insane, and though Albert put up good points, Eugene's team played out of it's mind and won easily. Not taking advantage a friendly schedule down the stretch is what ultimately did the former 2 time champ in.
#8 Drew (I'm A Paul Heyman Guy)
Record: 6-7
What Happened?
-Unlucky Luck: Another head scratcher because Drew had the best RB duo in the league in Adrian Peterson and Reggie Bush. Maybe ff Drew had a slightly better fantasy QB, he might be looking at a playoff berth. Bottom line, Luck hasn't cut it this year in fantasy land. The loss of Reggie Wayne made it even worse. He's still a top 10 QB, but his performances was pretty lackluster (9 games under 20 points, 5 of those under 15). More consistency at the QB position would've been nice.
-Same Skilled Wide Receivers: Is too much depth a bad thing? It can be, when you have no idea who to play, because noone absolutely stands out. Drew had probably the most deep receiving core in the league by numbers and on paper. Michael Floyd, Kendall Wright, Keenan Allen, Cecil Shorts, Danny Amendola, and Hakeem Nicks. That's 6 legit starters. The problem is...there's no clear cut #1 on this team. Nicks and Amendola are always tempting because of their past, while you never what what your young receiver core was going to do. Drew was bound to some weeks play the wrong receiver. It would've been nice to clear out some of that depth and consolidate to get a star receiver. Unfortunately that never happened.
-Bad Heartbreaking Losses: Drew had no problem putting points up, in fact he put up more points than my Dad who finished 1st. It was those gut wrenching losses that piled up and did him in. A 2.5 point loss to Eugene, followed by a 9 point loss to Mark when he had a 3-1 advantage that Monday Night, followed by a half point loss to Mayra because Austin f'n Pettis of all people caught a pass. All those happened in a row. He gets one of those wins back, he makes it. That simple. Horrible way to miss the playoffs.
#7 Dr. Light's Robots (Matt)
Record: 6-7
What Happened?
-QB Carousel: One of the things that plagued Matt at the beginning was playing the wrong QB. Matt would rotate between Vick and RGIII (and Nick Foles on one occasion) and it never seemed to work. It seemed like he always picked the wrong guy. It's not a great situation to be in when you have to consistently 2nd guess your QB play.
-Underproduction of WR's: The Roddy White Situation just killed Matt. He kept playing despite being injured, Matt felt obligated to play him and week by week he would suck. Matt's receiving core just hasn't been the best all season. Even Aaron Rodgers injury affected Matt, as Jordy Nelson saw his production drop. Matt made a trade for Marques Colston, but it was too little too late.
-Heartbreaking Losses: Despite the first two reasons, two losses stand out as why Matt didn't make it at the end. The 4 point loss to Dad, when he played Nick Foles (Concussed in the Dallas Game) over RGIII (who outscored Foles by like 20 points) and the 1 point loss to Drew two weeks ago, when RGIII needed 6 points to win and finished with a ridiculous 4.5. If it wasn't for those, Matt would've made the playoffs in dramatic fashion by beating me with a Zach Miller catch in the last minutes of the 4th quarter. Instead, it goes as a cool, but otherwise meaningless win. Fantasy Football....what a cruel bitch.
The real explanation is there is no explanation why these teams didn't make it. It just happens. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. Sports are unpredictable as is Fantasy Football. You just never know how the season is going to turn out.
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