This article is part of our East Coast Offense series.
Fantasy Football Is Work
As much as I love fantasy baseball, I'm always a little relieved in early October when the season's finally over, and I'm free to live my life again. No more 2-3 hours on Sunday doing FAAB moves, no more being around at 4 pm PT (midnight Western European Time) to make sure my players are in the lineup that day, no more looking at the Projected Starters grid a week ahead to see which scrub pitchers draw the Padres or Phillies. Fantasy football involves a little work - FAAB bids on Tuesday for Yahoo, Wednesday for the NFFC and Thursday for MyFantasyLeague, but it's obvious and easy. There are maybe 4-5 players any given week you'd want, you make a guess and move on. The only thing tedious about it is the various quirks of each web site that make the moves more cumbersome than they have to be.
Football does force you to agonize over lineup choices more than the other sports, but that's a cost you pay in angst, not time. In short, football is by far the lower-maintenance of the two, and it's part of why it's the most popular fantasy sport in the country.
That said, heading into the NFFC playoffs in two weeks, where the rosters lock from Weeks 14-16, and fighting for a playoff spot in the Stopa Law Firm league where every point counts, are forcing me to do some work. Suddenly the long-term, hard-to-predict, comes-out-in-the-wash considerations like strength of schedule and (in the deep-bench NFFC) having multiple tight ends, kickers and defenses, in case of injury and depending on match-ups, are significant enough to require my attention. While in my opinion, looking eight - let alone 16 - weeks ahead in a changing landscape is foolish, looking 2-4 weeks ahead when more is known, there's less opportunty for injuries/changes to take place and the stakes are highest makes sense. For example, Tyrod Taylor might be available in your one-QB 12-team league, and not only does he have Sammy Watkins back, he draws the Raiders, Steelers, Browns and Dolphins the next four weeks.
It's still not as complex or time-intensive as baseball, but I'll be looking at the kicker and defense schedules for the next several weeks and try to have two of each in the 10-man-bench NFFC with an eye on good matchups for both spots every game. Even in smaller bench leagues it might be worth stashing a defense with a great Week 16 matchup (Chargers, e.g.), a week or two ahead of time at the expense of upside (Alfred Morris, Kapri Bibbs, Christine Michael) and depth (James White, Anquan Boldin, Corey Coleman), something you wouldn't do earlier in the year.
Joy of Condensed Rewind
Since I've been in Europe, I've rarely stayed up to watch entire night games (They started at 2:30 am in Berlin and 1:30 in Lisbon.) Instead I catch them the next morning condensed (without commercials or huddles), and they take only 40 minutes. But the first 10 weeks, I'd have already checked my Twitter feed and the box score, so I knew what happened, and the 40 minutes often seemed like hours, especially when I knew, for example, that there were only two more field goals left over the game's final 20 minutes. I don't know why it took me this long, but the last two weeks, I finally tried avoiding any info about the game, squinting my eyes on NFL.com as I clicked "Watch Games" and launched the condensed version. I have to say it's the best NFL watching experience I've had in a long time. It's everything good about the league and very little of the bad - except for ticky-tack penalties and having to watch the ref announce and explain them. It would be amazing if you could watch all the early games at once on Sunday that way, starting at 3:20 ET and ending with the live product for the last 10 minutes.
Week 12 Observations
• Ben McAdoo was at it again – sitting on an eight-point lead for the first 19 minutes of the second half before Jason Pierre-Paul's fumble return TD. It was only after the Browns scored a subsequent TD that McAdoo briefly opened it up to go up 14 again. Don't assume he's learned his lesson because I can assure you he has not.
• After seeing Odell Beckham return a punt for a TD, only to have it called back on a penalty that didn't affect the play, I tweeted that Beckham was a slightly bigger and faster Antonio Brown. Some took exception, arguing Brown is the better player, but Beckham has slightly more yards per target over the last three years, the same number of TDs in five fewer games and plays with an inferior QB and a worse and more conservative coach/offensive coordinator. Brown is great, but Beckham is the better talent.
• The brainwashed announcers (can't remember who they were) kept saying things like: "I know there's some off-the-field stuff, but this guy is a player" about Beckham. Or "I'd still take this guy on my team." Those aren't exact quotes, but it was that level of preposterous, pretending-to-be-contrarian-while-stating-the-obvious idiocy. Anyone with even a passing interest in the NFL knows Beckham is a superstar.
• If you prorate Jason Pierre-Paul's three sacks over a full hand, he'd have had five. Seriously, though he's had 5.5 sacks the last two games and has been a disruptive force on the level of Khalil Mack and Von Miller of late.
•Victor Cruz has had only one catch in each of the last three games, and it's gone from between 37 and 48 yards.
• I was hoping for more from Gary Barnidge, but Josh McCown kept looking for his Seth DeValve. (I know, but realize some artists are only appreciated posthumously.)
•Terrelle Pryor and Colin Kaepernick are one-upping each other in the "I can produce with replacement-value teammates" competition.
•Larry Fitzgerald is still useful, but there's really only one player on the Cardinals. David Johnson had more rushing yards than anyone else had receiving, and more receiving yards than he had rushing. He also scored another TD for good measure.
•Devonta Freeman lost a goal-line TD to Tevin Coleman, but otherwise was not affected by Coleman's return. Despite averaging only 3.8 YPC, Freeman got a ton of extra yardage with sharp jump cuts and broken tackles and scored twice himself. Coleman went just 8-for-9.
•Julio Jones' volatile season continues. He now has four games with 35 yards or fewer and and six of 100-yards or more. Put differently, he has only one game (Week 1) where he had more than 35, but less than 100.
• I guess LeSean McCoy's thumb and hamstring are okay. He's back to being a top-10 overall player.
•Sammy Watkins seemed to have gotten through the game in decent shape too. It's nice he has one more prove-it game before the fantasy playoffs start.
•Blake Bortles salvaged an awful passing day with 81 rushing yards. His receivers were not so lucky.
•Matt Barkley played surprisingly well considering how many passes (a few of which were of the game-winning variety in the end zone) his receivers dropped.
•Derrick Henry outproduced DeMarco Murray for once, but Murray still had five catches and 84 yards from scrimmage. The bye week should help Murray's toe heal.
•Jordan Howard is the NFC's Spencer Ware – consistently productive, surprisingly efficient as a receiver and underused at times.
• Kaepernick had a huge day with 296 yards passing, three TDs and 113 rushing yards. But if he gets into the end zone on that last play, he adds a rushing TD and sets up a potential all-time day with an extra quarter.
•Carlos Hyde had another good game with 65 yards on the ground and five catches for 30 more and a TD.
•Ryan Tannehill played arguably his best game of the year with 9.5 YPA, three TDs, no picks, only two sacks and 34 yards rushing.
• Devante Parker got hurt, but Jarvis Landry still managed only seven targets and four catches for 47 yards. Adam Gase knows what he's doing.
•Jay Ajayi struggled against the 49ers suddenly not horrendous run defense, but he was also down three offensive linemen.
•Jared Goff looked good in the first half, but otherwise did next to nothing. Todd Gurley simply can't get going on this team.
•Mark Ingram is so much better than Tim Hightower it's laughable Sean Payton benched Ingram for two uncharacteristic fumbles earlier this year.
•Michael Thomas (who fumbled twice and caused an interception two weeks ago against the Broncos) is still the team's No. 1 WR. Brandin Cooks, for some odd reason, didn't receive a target.
•Josh Hill seems to have supplanted Coby Fleener as the team's primary TE, though Fleener went 4-for-59 in limited snaps.
•Drew Brees at home is arguably the most automatic source of production in all of sports.
•Jeremy Hill couldn't get going on the ground, but went 6-for-61 as a receiver in Gio Bernard's (permanent) absence.
• In A.J. Green's absence, Tyler Eifert saw 11 targets, Brandon LaFell and Tyler Boyd, nine each.
•Kenneth Dixon and Terrance West had nearly identical stat lines on the ground, but Dixon went 4-for-31, West 3-for-16 as a receiver.
• With 14 targets, Tyrell Williams was the Chargers clear No. 1 WR Sunday, but left the game with a shoulder injury. Antonio Gates didn't see a single target, Travis Benjamin saw only one and Hunter Henry only three. Williams' shoulder injury doesn't appear to be serious, and he draws the Bucs, Panthers, Raiders and Browns the last four weeks.
• The Texans are an offensive wasteland. DeAndre Hopkins and Lamar Miller toil for what they can.
• The Buccaneers defense dominated Russell Wilson and the Seahawks offense all game. Thomas Rawls did nothing, and no receiver caught a pass longer than 21 yards.
•Jameis Winston played well, given the opponent, and Mike Evans got his with an 11-8-104-2 line.
•Cam Newton did little most of the game, but had a 75-yard TD to Ted Ginn, a 44-yarder to Kelvin Benjamin who made a great, juggling catch and a three-yard TD run.
• After starting the year with six straight games of 64 yards or more, Greg Olsen now has five straight with 52 or fewer. It's not quite Marvin Jones territory, but it's close.
• Despite a couple drops, Michael Crabtree was again Derek Carr's receiver of choice with 13 targets and 108 yards. Meanwhile Amari Cooper disappeared to the tune of 9-4-22.
• Carr dislocated his finger on a play, but returned the next series to quarterback the team to the win.
•Jonathan Stewart is getting some work near the goal line and scored twice, even though Newton also had a short TD. Stewart also averaged 5.6 YPC.
•Tom Brady had by far his worst game of the year with 5.7 YPA against the Jets of all teams. Familiarity not only breeds contempt, but also unusually defensive-oriented results sometimes.
•Rob Gronkowski returned to action only to suffer a back injury, providing fantasy owners with his second zero of the season. Combine that with three missed games, and an 11-yard game, and on balance he's been a bust despite the excellent stretch from Weeks 5-8.
•Malcolm Mitchell is emerging as an outside playmaker (2 TDs), but with Chris Hogan and Julian Edelman around, it's hard to see him getting consistent targets.
•Dion Lewis has apparently supplanted James White as LeGarrette Blount's change-of-pace complement, but both Lewis and White had four catches (Lewis on seven targets, White on nine.)
•Ryan Fitzpatrick played his best game of the year, and if that were to persist Brandon Marshall and Quincy Enunwa would again be relevant. It's telling that during Fitzpatrick's best and Brady's worst games, played in the Jets' home stadium, the Patriots won by five.
•Trevor Siemian actually played very well. It wasn't just the 368 yards and 10.8 YPA, but he did it in the face of pressure, scrambled for 23 yards and bought time for throws down the field.
•Emmanuel Sanders is a poor man's Antonio Brown, his former teammate.
•Tyreek Hill is a monster on punt returns, but like Dante Hall, Devin Hester and Tavon Austin before him, totally inefficient as a target from scrimmage.
•Spencer Ware runs hard and caught two more passes for 32 yards, but for God knows what reason Andy Reid so often has Charcandrick West in the game when the Chiefs are behind.
• It took three years, but Travis Kelce is now getting the targets he deserves.
•Justin Houston had 10 tackles and three sacks in his second game back. Von Miller had nine tackles, one assist and three sacks. Wonder if any two players on opposing teams ever combined for 19 solo tackles and six sacks before.
• Sunday night's contest was one of the more bizarre I've seen from the Chiefs being stopped short of the goal line to end the game, initially, only to have it overturned on review, to the Broncos attempting and missing a 62-yard FG in overtime, to Cairo Santos hitting the upright on the game-winning kick. But (and maybe I missed this) why isn't anyone talking about Andy Reid's decision to kick the PAT up five in the third quarter?
• Despite a down couple seasons, Aaron Rodgers still has to be on the short list of best QBs in the NFL. While MVP candidate Matt Ryan succeeded in Seattle and Denver, but failed in Philadelphia, Rodgers shredded the Eagles defense and would have done more but for a Mike McCarthy 4th-and-3 punt in plus territory and the Eagles not scoring enough to force the action. Rodgers finished with 8.0 YPA, two TDs, no picks, no sacks and 26 yards rushing.
•Davante Adams made some big catches including two TDs and a 50-yarder. It's hard to square this year's version with last year's – arguably the worst full-time WR season of all time.
•Jordy Nelson was also involved and efficient, showing last week's Jared Cook/Randall Cobb-fest was an aberration.
•James Starks was inefficient again. The Packers should turn to Christine Michael, but don't count on McCarthy to do that.
• What a bizarre challenge by Doug Pederson on a two-yard completion late in the game. He won it and got the two-yards back but gave up his right to challenge the rest of the game.
•Carson Wentz looked pretty good, especially as a scrambler. Unfortunately, the Eagles abandoned the early throws to Dorial Green-Beckham that were so effective and went largely with dump-offs and hand-offs in the second half.
• Speaking of which, Green-Beckham looked like a No. 1 receiver, making catches in traffic on the first couple drives, but he was largely ignored the rest of the game. He still led the team in targets (10), catches (six) and yards (82).
•Wendell Smallwood looked competent on his nine carries, but the Eagles didn't have the ball that much, and Darren Sproles is the team's pass-catcher out of the backfield. I was actually hoping Smallwood had a big game so I could make a Wendall Largewood joke, but to no avail.
