So the regular season is officially in the books, and we now know who is headed to the playoffs to play for eternal glory, and who is headed to the consolation bracket to play for a jersey.
An action-packed Week 13 had playoff implications in every single game, a great testament to the overall competitiveness of the Red Zone this year. It's hard to believe that the worst regular season record was 4-9, and that the 302 Cadets were in sole possession of it! This year has had a lot of parity, and every team is looking threatening in some way. To breakdown last week's games, lets examine who played who, and what was at stake again. Winners are bolded. The 90* Putters and Troll Hunters: 90* was playing to preserve its #1 seed, while TH was playing for their playoff lives, trying to secure the #6 seed. River Gypsies and Twin City Tree Cats: RG was trying to take the #1 seed (or at least a bye) away from 90*, while TC2 was playing to avoid a last-place finish. The Mullynation and Indian Outlaws: MN just needed to win to secure a playoff berth, while IO actually was just playing for pride, since the playoffs were already secured, but the #3 seed was unreachable. IO was the only team with nothing at stake. Big City Hillbillies and 302 Cadets: BCH was the #2 seed going into this week, but could take the #1 with a win and 90* loss, while 302 was playing to avoid a last-place finish. Northside Angels and Smell My Finger: NSA needed to win to have a chance at making the playoffs, while SMF was playing to avoid a last-place finish. As heartbreaking as it is, 302 Cadets lost a ridiculous 157.7 - 176.1 match to BCH, thus earning sole possession of our last place ranking. Enjoy the 302 Cadets name while you can, people. Next year is gonna look a little different without it. So what's next? I'm going to do a brief look back at the regular season and highlight some underappreciated and overrated players. Let's get started! Underappreciated These don't necessarily have to be blue-chip Top 3 studs at their position, but they're players that I think deserve more respect than they've gotten. 1. Eric Decker I know many of you already know how I feel about Decker, but I really can't help myself. He deserves this #1 spot. Eric Decker, yes that same Eric Decker who went to the U of MN, is now the #11 scoring WR for the entire year, and this is despite missing a game due to injury! He also has the added value of being the #1 most consistent player of the year, with the lowest coefficient of variation (honorable mention to John Brown, who is second). Decker is a stone-cold lock for ten points every week. He is literally leading the league in red zone targets (tied with his teammate Brandon Marshall). At a $1 draft cost, and accompanied by disdain or indifference from the general population, I think he fits the bill as the most underappreciated player of the year. 2. Ryan Fitzpatrick Yup, I'm going with Jets for the #1 and #2 slot. I think the Jets offense overall is undervalued, and Fitzpatrick in particular does not get enough love for what he's done. Is anyone else surprised by the fact that Fitzmagic is currently the #11 scoring QB for the year? How about when you add in the fact that he missed Week 8 (a cushy game against Oakland) due to injury? Since his bye in Week 4, and excluding his missed game, Fitzpatrick has averaged 21 points per game! How good is that? That's third in the league. Pretty damn good if you ask me, and he will never be brought up when talking about great fantasy QBs. That's too bad really. He's earned it. 3. Delanie Walker In our third spot, we have a TE. TEs in general are underappreciated, but Walker even stands out amongst that crowd. Walker has vaulted himself into the Top 5 this year in scoring, with a fantastic 9.8 points per game. That trails Greg Olsen, yes that Greg Olsen, by less than one point per game. Does anyone really talk about Walker as a fantasy weapon? I don't think so! This has been the year of the TE so far, with Eifert emerging as a blue-chip talent, Barnidge going on a ridiculous tear during the middle of the season, and even Jordan Reed and Benjamin Watson getting some love. Where is the love for Walker? He has ONE game under 5 points this year. One! And that was back in Week Five! Gronk can't say that. Olsen can't say that. Walker is one of the safest, highest-floor TEs there is, but he isn't getting the love he deserves. Sure, there are some TEs I'd take over Walker, but there aren't that many. Overrated 1. Lamar Miller Lamar Miller is a bizarre player, both in fantasy and in real life. A lot of that is exacerbated by the way the Dolphins utilize him, which is enough to make any Miller fan rip their hair out. He is perhaps the most unreliable big-name player there is, which is saying something! Lamar Miller has had FOUR games this year where he has scored double-digit points. FOUR. For a starting NFL RB with a fair amount of talent! And yet, there he sits at the #6 RB scoring spot, with a nice cushy average of 11.9 points per game. Yeah right. He has met or exceeded that "average" a total of four times this season out of twelve freaking games. His two highest scores on the year? 26.1 and 35.6 points, both fantastic games where he looked like a Top 5 RB. His two worst games? 3.6 and 1.3 points where he looked like the Dolphins might cut him at any moment. His end-of-the-year total will put him in solid RB1 consideration, but with a historic 67% chance of scoring under 10 points in any given week, I think he's a mid-tier RB2 at the very best. 2. Doug Baldwin Sure, I know Doug Baldwin doesn't get a lot of love, but I'm asserting that the limited love that he does get is still undeserved. Here's why. Doug Baldwin has been a below-average WR for his entire career, and for the vast majority of this season as well! In fact, through his first eight games this year, he averaged a lowly 5.8 points per game. That's on the second page of WR ppg averages on ESPN. That's in the same level as the acclaimed Dwayne Harris of the NYG. And this is not a small sample size either! That is half the freaking season. Then what happened? Russell Wilson caught fire, and has been virtually unstoppable ever since. Baldwin has certainly benefitted/capitalized (however you want to see it), and has put up some enormous numbers since then, totalling 79.3 points in just four games. This has pushed him to the #13 spot in terms of WR scoring, just one single point behind Eric Decker. What absolute nonsense. Baldwin will probably benefit again this week from playing against a bottom 3 secondary (the Ravens), and it will push him into the Top 10. I don't care; I still wouldn't trust him enough to start him in a neutral matchup. 3. Drew Brees Brees has Lamar-Miller-Syndrome. He has a nice season total, well decent at least (#10), with 206.4 points. Let's jump in though, shall we? Brees had an absurd two-week stretch against the Giants and Titans in Weeks 8 and 9, and he scored a ridiculous 75.7 points in those two games. That's 37% of his yearly total! To give some perspective, if you add up Brees' four worst games of the year, you get 37.4 points. That's less than half of his two-game total! Other than his two ridiculous explosions, Brees has only cracked 20 points twice this year, both times scoring 22 points. Otherwise, he's been hovering around 15 points, or honestly quite a bit worse. For a guy who is often mentioned in the sentence right after Brady and Rodgers, that's pretty terrible. That's all I've got! Thanks for reading, and I hope we have some compelling playoff and consolation football this weekend! Best of luck to you all, except you Hayden. You're toast.
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By: Hayden HansonMr. Hayden Hanson (Editor in Chief) is an Accountant-extraordinaire, as well as an aspiring writer. He has written several moderately-successful self-help books, the most famous of which is "What Do You Mean You Can Smell My BO?" Gustav Travers of the New York Times praised the book as "A vulnerable, courageous look into the mind of a man who has literally no sense that other people exist. And also no sense of smell. Nope, he definitely doesn't have that either. Just musk, like a hog that's gotten into the cabbage." Archives
September 2019
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