Season Obituaries - 5th Place

Pure Taige (8-5):

Overview:

Coming in 5th place with a regular season record and 1,655.3 points for (3rd most) is Pure Taige, owned and managed by Pure Tieg. Another successful year in the books for Tieg, but he fell out of the top 4 due to a first round playoff loss.

What Went Right:

This one doesn’t provide much value, but it has to be said. For the third year in a row, Tieg got lucky with his first round draft slot. It’s a really stupid topic, but it would be lazy of me not to complain about it.

In 2014, he got the 3rd pick in our draft. That was a year when the top 4 running backs were very clear. All he had to do was wait for Jamaal Charles, Adrian Peterson, LeSean McCoy or Matt Forte to fall to him. He got his wet dream and McCoy fell right to him at #3. McCoy had 1,500 total yards that season.

In 2015, he got the 2nd pick in the draft. We all know what happened there. Ken took acid before the draft and decided to take Eddie Lacy over Adrian Peterson……… Tieg was more than happy to take AP with #2 and All Day rewarded him by scoring the 2nd most points of all running backs. Meanwhile, Lacy finished as RB27.

This year, he got the 2nd pick again. It was pretty easy to pick in the top 2 this year, you either got Antonio Brown or you got Odell Beckham. Guy took Odell at #1 while the consensus #1 player fell to Tieg at 2. Antonio has done Antonio things and is the #1 scoring WR in fantasy. Must be nice to know you’re picking in the top 3 every single year.

What Went Wrong:

Tieg’s draft was uncharacteristically bad in 2016. If you look at the list of players he drafted I think you’d agree. Sure he got Antonio Brown in the 1st, but let’s look at the rest. Honestly, I can only count 3 good draft picks aside from that. He has LeSean McCoy, who was a great pick in the 2nd round – 4th scoring RB. He had DeMarco Murray in the 4th round, who is currently the #5 scoring RB (more on him later). The only other defendable pick was DeAngelo Williams in the 9th round – 68 points in the first two weeks. Having said that, Tieg only got 2 good weeks out of DeAngelo before he was rendered useless for the season.

Now that we’ve looked at the good, let’s look at the bad. His 3rd round pick, didn’t contribute anything - Jamaal Charles pretty much didn’t play this year. His 5th and 6th round picks were monumental busts as well – Randall Cobb and Coby Fleener. In the 7th and 8th round, he went to the AFC North and took Big Ben and Duke Johnson Jr. Big Ben isn’t even a top 10 QB while Duke Johnson Jr. has done next to nothing this year.

The list of misses adds up as you go down the draft board. Some of the picks were actually decent, but some of them were Pure Wastes. Sterling Shepard was okay, but he’s not even a top 35 WR. Mason Crosby in the 11th was bad, he’s not even a top 15 kicker. The Patriots D was a decent pick, but Tieg dropped them before their recent surge. Tyler Lockett was a bust, Marcus Mariota was dropped before he started producing and Phillip Dorsett (who?) was a complete waste of a pick.

Overall, Tieg only has 4 of the 14 players he drafted on his team at press time. For comparison, Lamone and Guy both have 6 (seems to be about the League Average). That doesn’t seem that bad, but Tieg’s retention rate is lower than 30% while the rest of the league sits at about 40%. Mel Kiper Jr. would not be proud.

Best Owner Move:

Since I’ve been staring at Tieg’s draft results for 20 minutes, I’ll stay there for this. Drafting DeMarco Murray in the 4th round was the best move Tieg made all year. It might be the best pick anyone made in the draft period. Murray was coming off a disastrous 2015 season and was new to the Titans. It was his third team in three years and as a result, his draft stock plummeted. After being a top 15 pick in 2015 he fell to an ESPN ADP of 52 in 2016. Tieg did reach a little bit by taking Murray at #39, but we all know Tieg loves his running backs. This reach turned out to be justified though - Murray is currently the #5 RB in scoring.

The best thing about DeMarco Murray this year has been his consistency. For the first 14 weeks of the NFL season, Murray scored 14 or more points in every single game. During the first 5 weeks of the season, he scored 20 or more in every game. During the fantasy regular season, Murray scored a touchdown in 11 games out of 13. ELEVEN! When you can count on your 4th round pick to score a TD pretty much every week, that’s a good thing. This was easily Tieg’s best draft pick given the cost and ultimate production.

Not from this year

Worst Owner Move:

Dropping Matt Ryan after his week 3 matchup was the worst move Tieg made all year in my opinion. Drafting an injured Jamaal Charles in the 3rd round was bad, but dropping Matt Ryan after week 3 was worse. Ryan was coming off a huge start to the season and combined for 88 points in his first 3 games. So why did Tieg drop him? Because his next two games were against the Panthers and the Broncos. This was before the Panthers defense was exposed and before Ryan proved to be matchup proof.

Ryan responded to his release by putting up a season high 44 points against the Panthers in week 4. He followed that up with 16 against Denver in week 5, which is better than you usually get against the Broncos D. Tieg did okay at QB during those two weeks, but ultimately struggled to fill the role throughout the season. 

Since week 5, Matty Ice has been nothing short of an MVP Candidate. In those 10 games, he has scored 20+ in 8 of them and that includes 2 games with 30 or more. The QB Tieg spurned is currently the #3 QB and 5th highest scoring player in ALL OF FANTASY. He’s ahead of notable names like Le’Veon Bell, LeSean McCoy and DeMarco Murray. Real tough call by Tieg that blew up in his face.  

Historical/Pop Culture/Literary Comparison: 

For Tieg’s literary comparison I’m going to go with Tywin Lannister. ****SPOILER ALERT**** If you are not caught up with Game of Thrones then stop reading now.****

Tywin Lannister is a character in the book series titled “A Song of Ice and Fire”, written by George RR Martin. The story became a cultural phenomenon when the TV show “Game of Thrones” came out on HBO in 2011. It’s honestly the best show in the history of television and I refuse to hear otherwise. Anyway, Tywin first appears in the second season of the show and is officially known as “Tywin, Son of Tytos of the House Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock and Warden of the West”. He previously served the Realm as “Hand of the King” and resumed that position during the book/show series.

As for background, he was born in the Westerlands (one of the Seven Kingdoms) to Tytos and Jeyne Lannister. Although House Lannister was one of the oldest houses in Westeros, it had faded in power and popularity over the years. Tywin’s father passed away eventually and he became the head of his House. His life's mission was to restore House Lannister to power through military & political means and it didn't take him very long to do this. Early in his reign, the Lannisters once again became one of the most respected and feared families in all of the Seven Kingdoms. This was almost entirely due to the actions of Tywin. Tywin in particular was known for being calculating and intelligent, but ruthless and controlling.

He eventually became Hand of the King, which is one of the most high-ranking titles in our story. He served as “Hand” for a while under King Aerys Targaryen aka the Mad King. The Targaryens were the most powerful family in Westeros and had ruled for over 200 years. Serving as the Hand of the King was a pretty big deal and Tywin thrived in that role.

A series of events occurred, Tywin was removed as Hand of the King and ultimately a rebellion began. A number of the large houses in Westeros decided to overthrow the Targaryens and place a new king on the Iron Throne. For most of the rebellion, Tywin did not commit to a side. Once it was clear the rebels would win however, he betrayed the King and sided with the rebels. This hurt his reputation, but enhanced his political reach since he married his daughter Cersei to the new King (and preserved most of his army while staying out of the war).  The next 20 years or so were pretty quiet and he ruled successfully in Casterly Rock.

Then the book series begins and things get wild. There is way too much to put in here, but ultimately Tywin defeats all of his enemies and becomes Hand of the King again. Seems like a good deal, right? Unfortunately for him, no. All of his past transgressions come back to haunt him and ultimately, he is killed by his own son.

Now let’s get back to Tieg. How is Tieg like Tywin? How is Tywin like Tieg? First, Tywin is one of the older characters in the story. When the book series begins, he’s about 50 years old. Meanwhile, other notable characters like Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon are about 30 years old. Tywin has an advantage here, since he’s more experienced and his age has turned him cold. That’s the same as our league, where Tieg is the elder statesman. He graduated Bryant in 2007 I believe while we were all class of 2010. He played fantasy before any of us got into it and his experience helped him get a leg-up.

The second similarity is their character arcs. Tywin was somewhat unknown when he was a young man, but that quickly changed. One of the first things he did when he came to power was to destroy some of his vassal houses. Westeros is a feudal society and under feudalism, a vassal house is a house that pledges loyalty to a noble house. The vassal house pledges loyalty, while the noble house provides protection, financial aid and lands. In our case, the Lannisters were the noble house and had a number of vassal houses that were supposed to be loyal to them. Tywin’s first actions as the head of House Lannister was to destroy the houses that weren’t loyal to them. Two houses in particular – The Reynes and the Tarbecks – were the first to go. Tywin killed every single one of them, including the women and children. He straight up eliminated their families, pretty much a genocide. This made everyone fear him early on.

This is like how Tieg ravaged the league during his first three years. He made the championship game every year during that span and took home two titles. Everyone was afraid of the big bad Tieg, just like everyone was afraid of the big bad Tywin. That has subsided over the years, but no one will ever count him out.

The third reason is that Tywin will do anything to win and further his house. He doesn’t care if he has to murder women and children. He doesn’t care if his daughter and son are fucking each other. He doesn’t care if he has to outcast his dwarf son and he doesn’t care if he needs to ally with someone like Walder Frey. This is very similar to Tieg, he doesn’t care what he has to do to win. There is no honor in some of his actions, but if he gets the win he doesn’t care. Take this season for example. Four days before the regular season ends, he makes a deal with the last place team. He didn’t care that it was dishonorable, or that it undermined everything I try to do for this league. He did it anyways because it gave him a chance to further his house.

The fourth reason is that while you may hate Tywin/Tieg, you have to respect them. They’re both good at what they do and have both had sustained success. Tywin as a Lord/governor and Tieg as a fantasy football owner.

Last but not least, the two have had much less success as of late. We all know what happened to Tywin. He lost a bunch of battles to Robb Stark, saw his family become a hated house and was killed by his son while taking a shit. Likewise, Tieg has not made it to the title game in the last three years. His aura of invincibility is gone and he’s no longer feared like he once was. The last two years he hasn’t made it past the first round of the playoffs and we’ve seen some chinks in the armor.

Commissioner’s Prediction:

I say Tieg goes 7-6 this year and loses in the second round of the playoffs. I initially predicted Tieg would win the championship, but he’s already won too much and I like some of the other teams better.

Ultimately there are a few picks that could crash and burn, which is why I like the other teams better. Jamaal Charles might not fully recover and DeMarco Murray could easily lose his job or be stuck in a committee. Randall Cobb should be better, but you never know. Coby Fleener is on a new team, which can go either way. Too many questions exist for me to give him a top 2 finish. 

Not bad Commish, one game off the record and missed the result by one round. Looks like I’m 4 for 6 on playoff appearances right now, even though I’m not doing so well on record or final results. I was dead on with the Jamaal Charles concerns, but way off on DeMarco Murray. My concerns about Cobb and Coby were also well founded, both turned out to be busts. Not bad Commish.  

Final Notes:

Overall it was another good year for Tieg. As I’ve mentioned a number of times, Tieg is the only person to make the playoffs every season he’s been here. That’s a really impressive feat, this league is ridiculously competitive (just ask Frader). He does seem to lose a little power every year though, so maybe next year will be the year. Until that happens, we can go into every season knowing Tieg will be one of the 6 playoff teams. Can’t argue with the results