OBITUARIES - 6TH PLACE - LAMONE — Protector Of The League

JABAAL PAP SHMEARD: 7-6

What Went Right?:

Lamone obviously had a hilarious team name, so he had that going for him. Jabaal Sheard doesn’t play for the Pats anymore, but Jabaal Pap Shmeard definitely plays.

The Sheards entered the playoffs as the #6 seed and to be honest, they were pretty lucky to get there. Despite finishing 7th in total points scored, he still made the playoffs over Tieg (who led the league in points). That was due in large part to his points against – just 1,375 or 106 per week. I played around with the numbers and the average team had 113 points per game AGAINST them. Lamone obviously fell on the low end of that range, with only two teams having fewer points against (Keetz and Robby D – weird that they’re both in the finals).

Pretty much every game Lamone won was a pillow fight. In his 7 regular season wins, his opponents scored 84.7, 90, 81, 73, 69, 100, and 105. That’s an average of just 86 points against! When examining the numbers (above), I found that the league average for points scored per week was also 113. Not one of his opponents hit that mark in his victories. I like to call those “easy wins”.

Was this just an issue of bad opponents though? Did Lamone “deserve” to win anyways? For the sake of fairness I checked that out too. In his 7 wins, he scored 129, 106, 93, 118, 106, 145 and 163. I mentioned that the league average for points scored was 113. Lamone only topped that in 4 of his wins, with the one being close (118). If you take away those last two bu-cake parties, his average score in 5 victories was 110. Still below the league average in points scored per week. Considering the fact that Lamone only beat Tieg for the 6th playoff spot by 1 victory, these point totals really indicate some luck was on his side. While his team was solid, he was kinda fortunate he even made the playoffs.

What Went Wrong?:

He also had some bad luck during the year, which started with draft day. He drew the last pick in the first round which is never good. This year was a top heavy draft and having a late pick was tough. As a result, his first two picks were pretty disappointing. With the 10th and 11th picks, he took DeMarco Murray and Jay Ajayi. As of press time, Murray is RB19 and Ajayi is RB28. Considering the fact that they were the 5th and 6th RBs taken off the board, I would say they were both busts. I almost thought about putting this in the “Worst Roster Move” section, but this was more bad luck than bad decision making – Murray and Ajayi were RB5 and RB10 last year.

The reasons for their poor play were different, so let’s examine. Ajayi has been more of a bust, so let’s start with him. The first reason he was a bust was because the Dolphins Week 1 game was cancelled. Getting 0 points out of your 2nd round pick in Week 1 is NOT IDEAL and Lamone got bundled that week. The second and more important reason is because Ajayi got traded in the middle of the season. While Ajayi wasn’t setting the world on fire during his 7 games with the Dolphins, he wasn’t pulling a Fuller and wetting the bed either.

In those 7 games with the Dolphins, Ajayi put up 92 points, over 13 per game. That’s not great, but certainly not terrible. What came after was terrible though. Since being traded to the Eagles, Ajayi has scored 64 points in 7 weeks. One of those was a bye, but one was also this past week when Lamone was already out. If you look at the other 5 games, he barely averaged 10 per week. That includes 2 games with under 8 points. To make matters worse you were never comfortable starting him because of the trade and uncertain workload. All in all Ajayi was a bust.

Now for DeMarco Murray. The first reason is that the Titans offense is not that good. Through Week 15, they rank 22nd in total yards, 13th in rushing yards, 25th in passing yards and 19th in points per game. The second reason is Derrick Henry. The second year pro from Alabama stole 140 carries, 14 targets, over 700 yards and 5 touchdowns from Murray this year. If Murray kept even half of that volume he would have been a top 15 RB. The third reason is that Murray was banged up all year. He’s been limited to 12 or fewer carries in 9 of his 14 games after having more than 12 carries in all but 2 games last year. All in all Murray was a bust this year, especially considering he was a 1st round pick.

Best Roster Move:

Alvin Kamara...

Kamara was the free agent pick up of the year and is pretty much the reason Lamone made the playoffs. He’s currently RB7 and has over 1,300 all-purpose yards with 12 TDs on just 167 touches (68 catches wtf). I’m pretty sure this was the best pick up anyone in our league made all year.

Robby Anderson was another good move by Lamone – acquired for zero bitcoins on November 1st. In the first four games Lamone had Robby Anderson, he went for 13, 16.5, 32 and 18 points (the last 4 weeks of the regular season).

Jamison Crowder and Sterling Shepard were other good moves he made late in the year.

Worst Roster Move:

The worst move Lamone made all year was ignoring his WR position in the draft. He was one of only two teams that didn’t select a WR with either of his first two picks and it went downhill from there. He tried to remedy that by taking Terrelle Pryor in the third round, which only made the problem worse. He then ignored the position until round 6 when he took Kelvin Benjamin. Not a bad pick at the time, but it didn’t work out. He then took Corey Davis in the 9th who was an unproven commodity. All in all he only took 2 WRs in the first 8 rounds.

This really showed up in the box scores. In his 14 games (including first round loss), his WRs scored a combined 13, 14, 5, 27, 18, 18, 10, 14, 19, 24, 13, 59 (outlier OBVIOUSLY vs. my team), 25 and 11 points. That’s two players COMBINED. Really poor numbers there and it cost his team.

Defining Moment:

His first round playoff loss was a defining moment for two reasons. The first was exactly what I just mentioned – his lack of WR skill. This problem plagued him all year and he only got 11 points from 2 WRs in his first round loss. You are what you eat. The second was that his team, while solid, just didn’t have what it takes this year. I also mentioned that I thought Lamone was lucky just to make the playoffs. By putting up 57 points in the first round he proved my point. It was like when the Texans made the playoffs a few years ago with TJ Yates at QB. They just weren’t quite on the same level as the other playoff teams.

Pre-Season Prediction:

I predict that Lamone will go 8-5 and lose in the championship game. All of his research and effort from last year clearly carried over and he had a lot of good fortune in the draft. Two top RBs were there when he picked in the first – fortunate. Tom Brady fell and Jimmy Graham fell perfectly to him - fortunate.

Aside from that he made some good upside picks late and has a well-rounded team. His RB/WR depth is somewhat concerning, but our waivers have plenty of talent. I almost had Lamone pegged as the #1 team to beat this year, but winning this league back to back is nearly impossible.

I correctly predicted he’d make the playoffs, but missed on the final standings. I’ll give myself this one and call it 3-2 through 5 teams.

Non-Football Reference:

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

That’s from Doctor Seuss and is a lame quote, but it’s fitting. Lamone’s title run is over, but that’s okay. No need to cry. Smile because it happened. Smile because one title is worth 10 bad seasons. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

Wrap it Up:

Lamone’s reign as champ has come to an end, but like I said above - that’s okay. He got his title, he’s on the trophy forever and he can start rebuilding. He made it back to the playoffs the year after he won the title, which is an admirable title defense. I’ve always said that winning this league two years in a row is nearly impossible. While Lamone couldn’t pull it off, he still had a solid season.