Lakeside Leeches

This week’s article is about my ESPN’s Angle Pond For Real fantasy football league played with my friends from New Hampshire. It’s a ten man redraft league. This is the third year this league has existed. Since I won the last two years, the pressure was definitely on me this year. I got the 9th pick in the draft, which was unfortunate. I chose Jeremy Hill as my first pick who was a big bust this season. I have to say it was disturbing to look back on this draft. Other than Rob Gronkowski, my other drafted players had underwhelming seasons. Some of my high draft selections that were disappointing included Jeremy Hill, Peyton Manning, Andre Johnson, and Isaiah Crowell.

After my draft on the night of September 9th, I was upset I wasn’t able to get Doug Martin. Therefore, I decided to send a few trade offers to his owner. I ended up trading Markus Wheaton for Doug Martin! I started the season off very slow. After week 2 I was 0-2 and decided to trade Isaiah Crowell and LaGarrette Blount for Melvin Gordon and James Jones. Looking back at this, it was a meaningless trade since all of these players didn’t have good seasons. I decided to make another trade after week 3. I acquired Arian Foster, who gave me a few good weeks before going down for the rest of the year, for Golden Tate. 

After the first month of the season, I was in a position that I’ve never been in in my fantasy football career. I was 0-4 and I was as angry as could be. Peyton Manning’s inconsistency was hurting my team a lot. However, my other players weren’t helping either. After week 8, I was 2-6 and it seemed like a long shot to make the playoffs. I added Marshawn Lynch, Andy Dalton, Eric Decker, and Ben Roethlisberger on waivers along the way. I won my next two games in weeks 9 and 10. Rob Gronkowski, Eric Decker, and Josh Brown were a big part of these wins. I was now an improved 4-6 heading into week 11. However, I went back to my poor play again in week 11 by putting up only 64 points and a loss. I just couldn’t get a lineup that would produce a consistent 90-100 points per game.

Many times I started the wrong players. In week 11, Jeremy Hill put up 16 points, Doug Martin put up 23, and Andy Dalton put up 20, all of which were on my bench. I added Scott Chandler and Doug Baldwin after week 12, who were key adds for my successful end of season push. My team bounced back big and totaled over 125 fantasy points in two consecutive games (weeks 12 and 13). Only 2 players produced under 9 points in both of these games. Big Ben, Bengals Defense, Doug Baldwin, and Thomas Rawls carried my team through weeks 12 and 13.

Week 13 was the last week of the regular season and only 4 teams make the playoffs. I came in 5th place! I was a little upset, but I was proud that I was able to come back from having a 2-6 record mid-season to 6-7 at the end. I won 4 out of my last 5 games in the regular season. I won the loser bracket, but it didn’t mean anything.

I have to say, my awful draft was the biggest reason I didn’t make the playoffs this year. Once I started making trades and picking up other players later, my team started to come together and put up points. While I don’t usually like to make excuses, my friend who won the league had an 11-2 record with 1169 points for, while I went 6-7 with 1154 points for. That is fantasy football. No one said it’s fair.  While this stat didn’t help me out, my team was just simply not good enough until the end of the season.

With fantasy now over, I can just sit back, relax, and watch some exciting NFL playoffs!