Sometimes....it's just one of those years. At the end of the day, you have 12 teams and 9 of them are going to end the year empty handed. Still, not making the playoffs sucks and it happens for various reasons. Crappy Draft, Injuries and Luck are the main reasons why teams end up playing meaningless consolation games in December. Here's a team by team look at what happened to the teams who missed the playoffs.
Leland (No Soup For You)
Regular Season Record: 6-7
Reasons for missing the playoffs
#1 Striking Out on Todd Gurley
Coming fresh off a dominating run last season that resulted in a 2nd championship, there was no doubt in my mind Leland was going to enter the season as the favorite to win it all again. Why wouldn't he be? He took a risk on Todd Gurley in the 6th round and it paid off. That and the combination of finding an elite back like David Johnson, who ended up being a last round pick, gave Leland a serious advantage. How the hell do you compete with arguably two top 5 backs that were both kept in Rounds 6 and 14?? Unfortunately for Leland, Gurley just absolutely busted. Gurley's been awful all season, not even coming close to looking like the back he was as a rookie last year. Of course, Leland kept plugging him in because you just have to, but he was unbelievably bad. What started as a strength flipped into a weakness and misfiring on Todd Gurley was definitely the #1 reason Leland ended up missing the playoffs.
#2 Too Much Of A Good/Same Thing?
So keeping Gurley and David Johnson, helped Leland focus on nothing but the WR position in the draft. Initially, Leland did a GREAT job drafting at the receiver position as it looked like he had all the depth in the world to work with. Unfortunately, as the season went on, it looked like he had TOO much depth for his own good. After a hot start, Marvin Jones became unusable, and Brandin Cooks/Randall Cobb/Sterling Shepard/Demaryius Thomas/Michael Thomas were all good options, but not consistent #1 options (well Michael Thomas looks like that NOW, but by the time he really broke out it was too late) and Leland really didn't have a #1 receiver to count on. None of those guys really established week to week dominance and it lead to either good but not great plays or guys blowing up on his bench. By the time he made a trade for A.J. Green, he only got to use him for 1 full game before he got hurt. Also, in desperation mode, he traded away Demaryius Thomas for Philip Rivers so that good receiver depth quickly dwindled. What was once a promising group of receivers just never panned out and it hurt Leland greatly.
#3 QB Play
Since Leland made sure to get as great of a receiving group as he could using 5 straight picks on receivers, he decided to wait a while for QB. It's a good strategy as there are always high scoring QB's available in later rounds. This year those guys like Matt Ryan and Kirk Cousins. Matthew Stafford was supposed to one of the guys too. Even without Megatron, Stafford was supposed to be in a super pass happy offense that had no real running game to speak of. Like most years though, Stafford started great scoring 21 or more points (with 2 30 point games) in 4 of his first 6 games. Unfortunately he basically fizzled out after that and has yet to hit 20 points again all season. By the time Leland traded for Philip Rivers it was too late, Stafford had done his damage. Poor QB play definitely attributed to Leland missing the playoffs.
Me (Bay Area Tanners)
Regular Season Record: 4-9
Reasons For Missing Playoffs
#1 HORRIBLE DRAFT
Such a KILLER. Seriously the WORST draft I've ever had playing this game, which is ironic because I absolutely NAILED my first two picks beautifully. Mike Evans has been a BEAST and has entered the tier of Elite WR's with OBJ, Antonio Brown, and Julio Jones and LeSean McCoy has once again been a super elite RB1 (unfortunately I had to trade him when I was fighting for my playoff life). After that though...PURE GARBAGE. We'll discuss my keepers in a second, but as far as the draft goes it went like this...Michael Floyd (bust) Arian Foster (HUGE BUST that ended up RETIRING) Rashad Jennings (bust..he might be a tiny bit relevant now, but he's been LONG GONE from my team), Spencer Ware (He's been OK..but still hasn't been a great as everyone expected), Eli Manning (First half of the season..GIANT BUST...and then I let him go, Mike picked him up and I had to trade back for him, lol) Martellus Bennett (inconsistent week to week, he killed me when I had to use him and I got rid of him early in the season) Kamar Aiken (LOLLL, WHYYYYY) Jameis Winston (FINALLY one good pick) BUCK ALLEN (AGAIN...GOOD GOD TERRIBLE) C.J. SPILLER (just to top of this shit sundae). BOTTOM LINE...POOR DRAFTING ABSOLUTELY KILLED ME.
#2 HORRIBLE KEEPERS
Wow..remember a time when keeping DeAndre Hopkins in the 3rd round was considered a "steal"? This isn't his fault, but thanks to such a significant DOWNGRADE in QB play, Hopkins has been basically relegated to WR3/Flex status with as low upside as you can have. He was supposed to be the cornerstone of my team and a Hopkins/Evans combo was supposed to be as lethal as a combo as you can have. I gave up on him early and still don't regret it. Another guy I gave up after weeks of nothing was Devante Parker. He was absolutely worthless when I owned him, even getting outsnapped by Kenny Stills. Thanks to a terrible draft and busting on both keepers my team was what it was...a bottom of the barrel dweller team.
Historic Points Against Season
On top of all that, I'm currently having the most points against in our league's HISTORY. It's insane. Teams are averaging 116.36 points A GAME against me. That's nearly 3 1/2 points higher than the previous record owner. Even if my team exceeded expectations...I just couldn't win because teams typically had their best weeks against me. I've had nearly 1400 POINTS SCORED AGAINST ME....Dad's 2nd and he's 70 points behind me and 3rd place? Over 120 points behind me. This was just the ULTIMATE season in which nothing I can do was going to help me win.
Matt (Light's Broken Bots)
Regular Season Record: 4-9
Reasons For Missing Playoffs
#1 Risky Drafting At The Top
I get a lot of stuff wrong when evaluating, but this was one concern I had at the beginning of the season and I was actually pretty much on the spot with it. Initially, I thought Matt was in the best position possible when he won the #1 draft pick. He already had Jordy Nelson in the fold as a 10th round keep and I was imagining Matt keeping Beckham in Round 2 AND then having the #1 pick of the draft! Well...Matt threw a wrench in those plans by keeping Josh Gordon as a last round pick instead of Beckham in Round 2 and then using that #1 pick on a super risky guy in Gronk. It just didn't work out. There was a lot going against Gronk to begin with, injury concerns, Brady's suspension, that it was a huge gamble to take Gronk over safer options like Beckham (still could've "redrafted him" in the 1st round) or even a gamble like Zeke (hindsight, that would've been the way to go). When Gronk is healthy, he's awesome...he's just never healthy. Matt then redrafted Jamaal Charles in the 2nd round, who had injuries concerns of his own. Another risky, injury riddled pick and Charles only saw the field like for two games before being put on IR. To follow that pick..Matt took Russell Wilson, which would be fine....had he not used a 7th round pick on Tom Brady. Like I had stated on the draft results, typically drafters who were taking Tom Brady late, would take a guy like Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins etc later to use for the first four weeks of the season, then Brady would be back and be as elite as ever. It's also super tough to trade QB's for equal value, as most teams don't pay much for them in trades. It created a QB controversy on his team and to add to that, Wilson was TERRIBLE to start the season. Matt would've been best served to take a receiver/running back there and then take Brady late and get a serviceable backup a little later. Those 3 picks really hurt Matt's chances this year and it's definitely the main reason he missed the playoffs.
#2 Josh Gordon Keep
It was a risk..and it only cost a 14th round pick, but the domino effect it had was costly. Gordon never saw the field and like I stated earlier had Matt played it safe and kept Beckham in Round 2..we could've been looking at possibly a Zeke/Beckham/Jordy start to Matt's team. Again hindsight, but that's what happens when you take a high risk/high reward gamble on a guy like Josh Gordon.
#3 Matt's RB Situation
With Jamaal Charles basically doing nothing, this was a glaring weakness all year. Sure every once in a while Jeremy Hill or Isaiah Crowell would have great games, but for the most part it was one of the most boring average group of backs you can assemble. Jeremy Hill, Isaiah Crowell, and Matt Asiata just don't intimidate anyone and those are the backs Matt used the majority of the season.
Drew (THE SPOILER)
Regular Season Record: 5-8
Reasons For Missing The Playoffs
#1 INJURIES...INJURIES..AND MORE INJURIES
After a slow start, Drew lost his 1st round Keeper in Adrian Peterson, 3rd round pick Donte Moncrief, and late round but starting RB for Drew Ameer Abdullah all around the same time. Later in the season he'd lose Eddie Lacy to a season ending injury as well along with never knowing when Ryan Mathews was healthy because HE WAS ALWAYS HURT! Injuries just totally killed Drew's season and forced him to use some pretty brutal lineups most weeks. There's a reason he's the league's lowest scorer and it's amazing he was able to win even 5 games this year.
#2 Allen Robinson and Eddie Lacy were BUSTS
By the time Allen Robinson had a mini resurgence a couple of weeks ago, Drew was already basically out of the playoffs and even before Lacy's injury, Lacy was a slow plodding bust that wasn't doing much anyways. Injuries and busts....the two biggest reason Drew's on the outside looking in.
Mark (Shock The Monkey)
Regular Season Record: 5-8
Reasons for Missing The Playoffs
#1 Team Volatility
Again..I called this from the get go. You were either going to get a team that wildly exceeded expectations, or a team that the busted horribly. Inconsistency KILLED this team. Dez was either hurt or trying to find chemistry with Dak Prescott all year...Alshon Jeffrey was a MASSIVE disappointment before getting suspended, Latavius Murray would show flashes, but would disappear a lot and was also hurt and involved in a 3 way timeshare, Carson Palmer looked finished, Jarvis Landry busted, Danny Woodhead got hurt etc. The only bright spot was the reemergence of DeMarco Murray who's had a great season so far but he can only do so much. It was just the ultimate high risk/high reward team with no middle ground and unfortunately this season for Mark..it completely busted.
Dad (BigBadBob)
Regular Season Record: 2-11
Reasons For Missing Playoffs
#1 Like Son Like Father...TERRIBLE DRAFTING
What killed me dead also killed Dad but even worse. At least I had LeSean McCoy and Mike Evans to fall back on...Dad got absolutely destroyed in the draft. Brandon Marshall was a huge bust as a 1st round pick, with Thomas Rawls being the worst 2nd round pick in recent memory. Greg Olsen was OK, though I wouldn't say worth a 3rd round pick and he got traded to Ryan anyways. Golden Tate was a HUGE early season bust and by the time he turned it around he'd already been on 4 different fantasy teams. Let's just say, when Frank Gore is considered your best pick..you know it's bad. Dad also inexplicably took Tyrod Taylor in round 7 when he already had Cam Newton as a keeper in round 9. Weird stuff. This along with reason #2 are the biggest reasons Dad's having a record breaking losing season.
#2 Busted Keepers
Even in Rounds 9 and 14, Dad's keepers were terrible. Cam Newton went from being an absolute steal in the 9th round to just another QB who's basically a matchup based start. Dad's whole team centered around Cam last season, and that's what made him so enticing this year as a 9th round keep. Cam for the most part was very erratic and didn't come close to having the same kind of magic he had last year. Jeremy Langford was even WORSE. It's funny when you think you can afford your late round keepers busting, but you really can't. Look at me, Matt, Drew, Leland, Mark, all of us kept someone in the 5th round or later who busted and we all missed the playoffs. Langford was terrible and then he got hurt. By the time he got back, it was Jordan Howard's job. Dad couldn't overcome both a crappy draft and busted keepers and it caused him to have the worst season we've ever seen in the league.
Well, like the old saying goes..."there's always next year" and hopefully for us 6, next year will be a hell of a lot better than this year.
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