<p>Apparently I didn’t blog about it last year, but my “regular” league of college friends opted to do a keeper league last year. You can keep two players, their draft round is +1 from the previous year, and you can’t keep 1st rounders.</p>
<p>I had a hell of a year last year, picking up Michael Vick from free agency (he counted as my 5th rounder) and I whimsically drafted Arian Foster in the 5th round (he’d be my 4th rounder).</p>
<p>As you can imagine, this was met with many complaints, and we discussed changing the keeper rules for this year, but in the end I don’t think we did.</p>
<p>Anyway, it was expected that I’d win the year with ease.</p>
<p>I had what I’d consider a pretty good draft… I don’t mean to steal the term from <a href=”http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Vince-Young-says-the-Eagles-are-going-to-be-a-?urn=nfl-wp4302″>Vince Young</a>, but it was surely a dream team… Even moreso than the Eagles.</p>
<p>QB1: Michael Vick (5th Round)<br/>
RB1: Arian Foster (4th Round)<br/>
RB2: Chris Johnson (1st Round)<br/>
WR1: Greg Jennings (2nd Round)<br/>
WR2: DeSean Jackson (3rd Round)<br/>
WR3: Kenny Britt (4th Round)<br/>
TE: Rob Gronkowski (11th Round)<br/>
K: Adam Vinatieri (15th Round)<br/>
DEF: San Francisco (16th Round)</p>
<p>QB2: Joe Flacco<br/>
QB3: Colt McCoy<br/>
RB3: Jonathan Stewart<br/>
WR4: Santana Moss<br/>
WR5: Lance Moore<br/>
WR6: Mike Williams<br/>
WR7: Devin Hester<br/>
<br/>
The start was a slow one. Arian was injured, CJ wasn’t producing, Kenny Britt did nothing until he was put on IR in Week3. But come on, look at that team. Through 8 weeks, I was a mere 4-4, but had the highest point total. I can’t recall, but I think I had the highest scored against or close to it as well. Crap luck, some duds, and a bunch of injuries, and I ended the season as the 4th place seed with an 8-5 record and the 2nd most points scored (shy of 1st by 7). Getting to the playoffs is really all that matters.</p>
<p>Over the course of the season I messed around with free agency quite a bit. The top grabs turned out to be Tim Tebow (got me through Vick’s injuries), Dan Bailey proved to be a heck of a kicker, Eric Decker filled in nicely when Santana was out (I actually released him and then got him back for the playoffs, which turned out pretty well) and DeSean wasn’t producing (wait, DeSean was terrible all season…), and the Dallas defense ended up replacing the SF one (despite being an outstanding defense, SF doesn’t score big fantasy-wise).</p>
<p>I continued to have no faith for Vick into the playoffs, and rightly so. While Tebow only grabbed me 8pts in the first week, Vick had 6. The rest of my team also decided to not show up with 2, 6, 5, and -1.5 points from Jennings, CJ, Foster, and Dallas, respectively. I only lost by five points, but this was a well-deserved failure. Dropping to the consolation bracket/game for 5th place, folks showed up a bit more, but still not enough to win either of the two games in the winner’s bracket (even if I had, that doesn’t count for anything… just saying) so I very deservedly came away with a 5th place overall.</p>
<p>Looking at next year, I’ll likely be keeping Gronkowski as my 5th rounder and Foster will again be retained, but this time moving to my 3rd round slot (still a heck of a deal).</p>
<p>Most every week I did manage to play the ideal lineup, which means a lot of this was out of my hands. Looking at the roster above, assuming they all performed as they should have, things would be very different, but I digress. At the end of the day, I’m the one responsible for the guys on the roster so the fault lies on me. 5th place is nothing to scoff at, but I want more.</p>
<p>Being a stats nerd, I put together a history of our fantasy league (has been running 6 years). Pretty interesting to see the breakdown and how the tiers of managers are further defining themselves. There is one person clearly blowing us all away, a 2nd tier, an “average” tier, and then an “abysmal” tier. Points are based on your finish. As with golf, a lower “score” is better:</p>
<p>Matt (x+1+1+10+2+4) = (18/5)*6 = 21.6<br/>
Mike (1+9+4+6+3+5) = 28<br/>
David (5+6+5+2+11+1) = 30<br/>
Butter (4+2+7+8+7+2) = 30<br/>
Newman (1+3+12+4+6+8) = 34<br/>
Jakedog (6+3+2+11+10+3) = 36<br/>
Craig (x+5+10+7+4+7) = (33/5)*6 = 39.6<br/>
Sean (3+10+6+1+9+12) = 41<br/>
Greg (7+7+9+3+5+10) = 41<br/>
Louis (10+8+8+5+1+9) = 41<br/>
Dnorm (9+12+3+9+12+6) = 51<br/>
Steve (8+11+11+12+8+11) = 61</p>
<p>2nd? Not so bad.</p>
<p>It should be noted that “Greg” auto-drafts and doesn’t watch or know anything about football. His free agent moves included picking up Mike Kafka in Week 3 or something and Matt Leinart at the end of the season… Head scratchers to say the least. The fact that he’s not at the bottom and is very nearly “mid-pack” says something about those around or below him. In the words of the great Paul Rudd, “<a href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800039/”>Do less.</a>”</p>