Down and Dynasty
“I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive”
When Jeff Lynne sang “I’m Alive” on the on the seminal 1980 album “Xanadu,” little did he know it be a phrase that so many fantasy football players would be screaming as we made our way through the fantasy football playoffs. I am still alive in 1/8 dynasty league, not a great year to say the least.
I expect to win this week in a matchup of the No. 4 seed Columbus Panhandles versus the No. 9 seeded team RBs, we have the meats. It seems like all of my players I expected to under perform due to tough matchups came through and I finished Sunday up 138–36.1. I had Cam Jordan to play on Monday night and my opponent had Curtis Samuel, Luke Kuechley and Will Lutz yet to play. The other side of the bracket was a much closer score as the No. 2 seed Team2123 was down 101.1–105.9 to the No. 11 seed Beware of the Vonster. Vonster did not have anyone left in the Monday night game. Team2123 looked to be done after Sunday as he had dropped Josh Lambo and picked up Steven Hauschka, but then made the unfortunate mistake of forgetting to insert Hauschka into his lineup. I cannot express how important it is to know your league rules. In this 20-team dynasty league we do not have a trading deadline. If you do not play in a league without a trading deadline, I urge you to get into one. In the past three seasons I have made in playoff trades. In 2016 Greg Olsen, won league; 2017 Kenyan Drake, lost in quarter finals; 2018 Justin Jackson, going to the championship game.
Anyways, back to Vonster and Team2123, the suggestion was made that maybe Team2123 could acquire a kicker from the Monday night game via trade or, as luck would have it, Chandler Catanzaro was available on the waiver wire. Dynasty roster construction often leaves empty spots as the rosters are large or there are free agents that we are hoping will get a chance, or in this case, another chance. There was one free agent on the roster as of Sunday night and Team2123 was faced with the unenviable decision to cut Kareem Hunt to pick up a kicker and have a chance to make up those 4.8 points or be eliminated from the playoffs. No one in any of my leagues condones what Hunt did, but by and large it is expected that after serving a suspension Hunt will get a job in the NFL again. Team2123 made the decision to cut Hunt and put in his $1 FAAB bid on Catanzaro, whom he got. And he inserted into his lineup.
What was a position of depth quickly turned into a weakness for Team2123. He started the season with Hunt, Jordan Howard, Chris Carson, Austin Ekeler and Spencer Ware. Great depth for a 20-team league. This week Team2123 had Howard, Carson and waiver add Marcus Murphy available.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I had Cam Jordan playing Monday in a blowout win. We use FAAB for free agent pick ups in this league and I have been fortunate that I took over a pretty deep team and have been able to make some trades and draft well enough that I have won my conference the past three seasons. At this point in the season I have $254 of my $300 FAAB dollars left. See where this is going yet? I am going to bid all of my remaining money on Kareem Hunt. There are four teams with more FAAB left than me. Waivers run at 11 a.m. every day so I was be waiting anxiously see if one of the four teams with more FAAB left than me saw the transactions and places a bid on Hunt.
I have a pretty good team, but depth at wide receiver and an upgrade at tight end are needed. My current roster:
Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers, Tyrod Taylor
Running back: David Johnson, Kerryon Johnson, Melvin Gordon, Justin Jackson, Elijah McGuire, Peyton Barber, Trenton Cannon
Wide Receiver: Mike Evans, Kenny Golladay, Pierre Garcon, Rishard Matthews, Kendrick Bourne
Tight end: Trey Burton, Greg Olsen (IR), Austin Seferian-Jenkins (IR)
IDP: Telvin Smith, Fred Warner, Derwin James, Reshad Jones, Geno Atkins
Kicker: Ka‘imi Fairbairn
DJ, Evans and Olsen are the only players left from the team I took over three years ago. I am sitting on the 1.01 via a trade in the 2018 rookie draft that netted a league mate Lamar Jackson. This looks like it will be a top-heavy wide receiver draft so I will have an opportunity add a potential stud wide receiver. I have the 1.01, 2.16 and 3.01 in the rookie draft. So what moves would you be looking to make with this roster? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter and the Fantasy Life App.
Waivers have processed and my $254 was enough to get me awarded Hunt. As of now the only league mate I know who bid on him was Team2123, but he did not have sufficient FAAB dollars. I would love to sit here and tell you I was smart enough to have known the only player Team2123 could drop was Hunt, but truthfully I never looked at his roster that closely. I glanced and saw he didn’t put his kicker in, then we started talking about his options and I expected he would make a trade not go the FAAB route. So how did that FAAB kicker work out? Catanzaro scored the exact same amount of points as Hauschka did, 2. The fantasy Gods are just downright mean sometimes, I guess.
So, I move to the finals against the No. 11 seed who finished the season at 5–7. Beware of the Vonster has knocked off the sixth, third and second seeds in the playoffs in his run for a title. I don’t think I can expect a blow out this time. I am going to need some guys in tough matchups to perform, Gordon against Baltimore, Evans against Dallas and Golladay against Minnesota. I am also hearing rumblings about the Packers shutting down Rodgers since they are out of the playoffs. It’s a 20-team league and I do not have a backup. Might need to make one more trade. Let me see here…….
I’m all over the place, give me a follow or tune in and listen. I am on the Fantasy Life App @panhandles, twitter @culture_coach You can catch me live at 1230pm est every Thursday and Sunday on the www.12ozsportsradio.com shows What’s Up, What’s Up Sports and on the NFL Pregame Show. The writers for the Fantasy Life All blog have podcast, The Fantasy Roundtable hosted by Matt Bruening, @roundtableff on twitter, that comes out daily Monday — Friday give it a listen.
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