I have a bunch of teams, and the task is to make the waiver deadlines, set the lineups and repeat. It doesn’t matter if I win 107 to 105, or lose 158 to 156. Make the waiver deadlines, set the lineups, repeat. At the end of Week 16, we’ll see. Far more emotionally taxing is the Supercontest with the $1.5 million prize, where we still have a pulse, but it was teetering for a bit in the early games.
Last week Count Chocula was beaten soundly by a team reluctant to part with Todd Gurley. I have two thoughts on the loss.
1. Silver lining is it keeps the chase alive. With Gurley, winning the title would be a near foregone conclusion (barring massive injuries).
2. In the best Forrest Gump voice I can muster, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
Welcome to the sixth week of the NFL season and the RotoWire & FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship.
And for the sixth week, we will be without both New Orleans and Detroit who are on bye weeks. New Orleans will especially be missed.
Also, this might be the first of the rest of the season where the term: ‘Game Time Decision’ will be in effect. There are three just off the top of my head in Jets RB Isaiah Crowell, Bucs TE O.J. Howard and Colts TE Eric Ebron among many others. The key time for the actives and inactives is 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
In terms of the RotoWire FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship, it is straightforward. We’re running a $10 contest in each of the first 10 weeks of the season, where the top 150 users double their cash. You’ll compete against fellow RotoWire readers as well as three experts: Kevin Payne, Jeff Erickson and Derek Van Riper. Beat all three experts in one week and you’ll earn entry to Week 11’s Free Play championship round. The top 120 players in that round will win a prize, with the first-place contestant coming home with $1,000 and a two-year subscription to RotoWire. You can sign up for this week’s competition here.
I should have taken the Eagles -3. I knew they were going to roll, but being the homer I am, I made up some justifications for why I should stick with the Giants. The gulf from Carson Wentz, a wizard in and out of the pocket and Eli Manning, an erratic crap-shooter with the pocket awareness of a zombie, is oceanic.
After six years of seemingly either falling just short of a title, or finishing near the basement or subterranean – maybe there was one year of an in-between result – I finally reached a professional goal in 2018, bringing home my first Tout Wars expert-league title in the mixed auction.
I’m not aiming to make this into a “look at how great I did in one league” summary, though it always pays to take lessons from any victory or defeat.
We should look at any trophy-winning season in two parts: (1) dissecting your players’ performance, and (2) examining whether the strategy that got you there was valid or mostly good fortune.
But first … the Yoo-Hoo.
(Here’s a history lesson for the uninformed.)
It all starts in the trenches, as the abilities of an offensive line often dictate what an NFL offense can and can’t do, and the execution of its assignments often dictates the success of said offense on any given play — run or pass. Some units around the league, such as those from the Eagles, Saints and Titans, have lived up to the hype many of us thrust upon them during the offseason. Others, like the Raiders and Falcons, have not. Let’s dive in to learn which O-lines are trending up and down entering Week 6.
RISING
Carolina Panthers
First, stud guard Andrew Norwell left in free agency this offseason. Then starting right tackle Daryl Williams tore an MCL during training camp. After that, starting left tackle Matt Kalil required arthroscopic knee surgery in late August. Both of the latter two currently reside on IR. However, the preseason worries many had about this offensive line have been silenced after five weeks, as the Panthers have allowed the second-least quarterback hits (16) and fourth-least sacks (7) while Carolina running backs are averaging the third-most rushing yards per attempt (5.0). The secret seems to be the emergence of right tackle Taylor Moton, who’s replaced Williams in the starting lineup and has only allowed three quarterback hurries all season.
What to watch:
Cam Newton is currently throwing at a career-high 65 percent completion rate while Christian McCaffrey is averaging 5.2 YPC despite seeing 15.8 carries per game. There’s been nothing to suggest McCaffrey can’t sustain this efficiency, and there’s seemingly only room for improvement for Cam if the quarterback can start connecting with his receivers on intermediate- and long-range passes. The impending return of Greg Olsen from a fractured foot should help matters, as will the continued integration of both a healthy Curtis Samuel and the up-and-coming first-round pick, D.J. Moore.
This was a pretty good season for me.
I won the overall championship in The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational and finished top 10 in the NFBC RotoWire Online Championship among 1,764 teams.
However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. And realistically, nobody wants to hear about my successes anyway. It’s my opinion that in this game, looking at one’s failures is more productive than looking at one’s successes, so I wanted to take some time to look back at what I got wrong.
This is just scratching the surface:
Jose Peraza, SS, CIN – This was probably my biggest whiff of the season, and it was with a player on my favorite team. What I saw with my own two eyes in 2017 was beyond ugly. Part of it was body language — he wasn’t confident at all — but the numbers backed it up: no power (.066 ISO), no patience (3.9 percent walk rate), a 21.6 percent line-drive rate (down nearly six percentage points from 2016). I thought an ADP around pick 200 was way too high. I guess the lesson here is that it’s OK to overlook some warts and gamble on a player with pedigree outside the top 175 or so, especially when he plays a premium position, plays in an advantageous home park and helps in a scarce category.
