Week 14 and the regular season is over!
Congrats to this weeks winners! This season was a close one and people were shuffling for position all the way to the end. Id like to welcome to the playoffs Carol’s Cool Team, Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion, Hondo’s Gridiron, and Mo’s Men Minus James. These four teams will face off in a single elimination combat to claim their throne as league champion and gain the honor of housing the Battle Royale league trophy until the next champion is crowned.
Featured Games
There were some good matches this week, Carol took another loss, Kim had the biggest blowout, and Morgan secured the last playoff spot. Instead of going further into them though Im gonna be doing a closer look into the playoff teams and a recap of the regular season.
Playoff Preview
Here is the low down on this years playoff contenders. Each one of them is just two victories away from the crown.
Match 1
Normally Carol’s team would look like a sure thing, but with the injury to Carson Wentz the TE matchup here looks a lot closer than it normally would be. If Falcons RB TevinColeman doesn’t come back from concussion this week then I think it will be a lot closer than Yahoo thinks.
Carol’s Cool Team
The writing was on the wall early with this one. Claiming the the number 1 seed early in the season, Carol’s Cool Team started off hot with Krispy Kareem single handedly crushing each of her early opponents. While Kareem and the Chiefs have cooled off lately Carol’s team certainly has not. Not only has her team dodged any big injuries this season but her QB Russell Wilson is ending the season lights out as he has for the past two years. Carol’s weakest player is still the 24th ranked WR and her team is a true juggernaut and the favorite to win the championship.
Mo’s Men Minus James
On the other side of our first matchup is the 4th seed Mo’s Men Minus James. They have had a very up and down path to get here. Lead by the current #1 running back Todd Gurley, they started off with 2 wins before falling back down to a .500 team all the way until week 9 when they went 6-1 to finish the season and jump into the last playoff spot. While Mo’s Men minus James has the 4th least points for this season they shouldn’t be underestimated. They have made some solid moves this season and their points for sells their current team short. They may be the underdog in this matchup but many of their players have a great match up going into week 15.
Match 2
This one is gonna come down to two main games. Depending on if the Saints and Patriots score through the air or punch it in will really swing this matchup. If Antonio Brown has a big game then we might be seeing a 3rd and 4th seed upset.
Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion
Go Saints RBs! Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion may be named after their receivers but don’t be fooled, this #2 seed has gotten to where they are at on the back of two players. Both Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamera are top 6 RBs and should put fear into any team facing them. The second most active team in the league, Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion only has one player in their starting line up that also started in week 1. They made a risky move trading off their star QB Aaron Rodgers for a hopeful RB but boy did it pay off. Not only was Rodgers injured the very next game but Kamera has payed dividends. Their bold moves and determination has gotten them this far and they are hopeful that Kamera and Gronk will return this week so they can get things back on track.
Hondo’s Gridiron
On the heels of Carol’s Cool team all season Hondo’s Gridiron has been slipping for the past few weeks and is locked in as the 3rd seed for the playoffs. Hondo’s team is the third team to pass the 1400 points for mark. Their down spiral started with Zeke’s suspension leaving them down one of their star players. To fill that gap they traded away Carson Wentz for Alfred Morris who has done well but isn’t the week winning force that Zeke had been. Lead by the #1 WR Antonio Brown and touchdown magnet Jimmy Graham Hondo’s Gridion hopes to make it to week 16 where they will reunite with Zeke and ascend back to the team they once were.
Season Overview
This year has been a great one and looks to have an exciting finish. Not many people started inactive players and the league was more active than it has been in the past few years. Plenty of trades went through and although there were tons of big injuries the standings were crazy close. (Only two wins separate the bottom half of the league)
2017 Honorary Awards
Best Trade
This one is a close one. There were 7 different trades this season but two of them take the cake with a clear winner and loser.
Runner up: Mo’s Men Minus James
Mo’s Men Minus James takes second place for their trade of Alshon Jeffery and Ty Montgomery for Martavis Bryant and Todd Gurley. Although Bryant has been a non factor all year Gurley has gone on to be the seasons #1 RB. Combine that with the fact that Montgomery was injured the very next week and it seems that Mo’s Men must have some ESP avoiding a bullet that could near have ended their season.
Winner: Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion
Another Bullet was dodged with this one. At one point in the season Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion found them self with 3 of the top 4 QB in the league. Looking to sell off some of their depth they went with the risky move of selling yearly super star Aaron Rodgers and putting their faith in Texans rookie Deshaun Watson. It only took a minute of shopping Rodgers around until Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion found a buyer. Cory’s Saved By Lev’Bells drooled at the chance to get their hands on a reliable QB and the trade of Aaron Rodgers and Austin Seferian Jenkins for Alvin Kamera and DeVante Parker was born. Even though Watson went on to get injured anyways Rodgers was the first QB to go down. In the very next game Rodgers suffered a broken collar bone while Kamera continued to average 14.7 points per game for the next 8 games. If you pinpoint where Ty-Hill-Sachs Lesion season took off this is it.
Toughest Schedule
Fantasy Football is already pretty random but one thing you cant control is who you play each week. The number of times you score the second most points only to face the top scorer can sometimes be heartbreaking. Here is a shout out to those who had to suffer through a storm of points that their opponents rained on them.
Honorable Mention: Sam Da Man
With a schedule maybe even tougher than the winner of this category Sam Da Man faced the toughest start to the season of any team. It wasn’t until week 6 that they faced a sub 100 point opponent. If it weren’t for the winner of this category putting up so many points for Sam Da Man would have taken it.
Runner up: Meg’s Cooper Troopers
Technically the most points against this year Meg’s Cooper Troopers had 237 more points scored against them than Mo’s Men Minus James had scored against them. That comes out to 17 more points a game the same as facing an extra QB every week. Meg’s Cooper troopers had to withstand bad beat after bad beat and this was the most evident in week two when they put up 133.78 points only to still lose to Cory’s Saved by Lev Bells who happened to have their best week of the year and stole the win by dropping 143.84 points.
Winner: Girls Rule
While not technically the most points against Girls rule wins this award by consistently playing top ranking teams each week. Meg’s Cooper Troopers may have had more points against, but they had most of their points against in just a hand full of weeks. Girls Rule only had one week with a sub 80 point opponent and over 1/2 of their weeks were against teams that put up over 100! They ended the season with the 4th most points for and yet instead of making the playoffs they have finished dead last due to just dumb luck.
Most Injured
Yet another factor out of our control. Injuries are never fun in real life or fantasy. Everybody just wants to see their guys on the field. When it does happen though it can spell disaster. This year was historically bad for top picks getting injured but in the end only one person can get this award. Here are the most banged up teams of 2017.
Runner up: Cory’s Saved by Lev Bells
A real close second and clocking in with the most injuries this year is Cory’s Saved By Lev Bells. Losing the #1 pick over all during the very first week of the season set the tone for what would be their season. Time after time they traded to fix the holes previous injuries had torn, but their new recruit would go out and get injured also. The Packers really did a number on the Saved by Lev Bells by having both RB Ty Montgomery and QB Aaron Rodgers not only getting injured the week after they were aquired, but Aaron Jones the Back up RB was also injured in a future week. Even though they didn’t make the playoffs their regular season was topped off by their most recent addition Carson Wentz heading to the IR to join the others.
David Johnson R1, Aaron Rodgers R3, Crabtree R5 (couple of weeks), Ty Montgomery R5, Davante Parker R6, Andrew Luck R8, Adrian Peterson R9, Charles Clay Undrafted, Aaron jones Undrafted, Carson Wentz Undrafted
Winner: Sam Da Man
Not quite the same number of injuries but it is truly astounding to have 5 of your top 6 picks get injured. Sam Da Man started the season with a minor injury to Odell Beckham Jr. He quickly returned only to lose Sam another week when he reinjured himself and had to be put on IR by the Giants. Over the next couple of weeks Sam Da Man’s players were getting blown up by defenders Davante Adams took a hit so hard that I could not believe he could walk let alone play football again. Near the mid season swing it looked like Sam Da Man may have found a shining light in his dull team. Rookie RB Dalvin Cook looked electric until week 5 when he tore his ACL and joined Beckham on the IR. Even going into the end of the season Sam Da Man couldn’t dodge some bad luck. Not technically an injury but two of his players were traded in the real NFL suffering not only a second bye week but having to learn an entirely new playbook and get worked back into a new system. Although banged up Sam Da Man did a great job patching up their sunken ship. Adding players like Robbie Anderson lead their team on a winning streak that had them in playoff contention all the way into week 13. Their season ended similar to Cory’s Saved by Lev Bells with one final injury to RB Tevin Coleman reminding them of what they had been through.