OBITUARIES - 2ND PLACE - ROB D

LeveonStuffed Kens TacoBell: 9-4

What Went Right?:

Robby D once again drew a high pick in this year’s draft, marking the 4th straight year he’s had a pick in the top 3. Yes, that's right - he's had a top 3 pick four straight seasons. Over those four years, his average draft pick is 2.25. If you look back to 2011 during Robby D’s first tour in the league, the good fortune continues - he had the third overall pick in that draft. In the 5 years Robby D has been a member of this league, he’s picked in the top 3 every single year. Must be nice.

The second pick was the best pick to have this year because you avoided the David Johnson disaster. Robby D sat back and took LeVeon and has been rewarded with the #2 RB in fantasy. Through 15 weeks, Bell has averaged 25 points per game and has 377 on the season. Let me say that again – he’s averaged* 25 per game this year. AVERAGED. Bell’s 377 fantasy points rank 3rd for all players and 2nd behind all non-QBs (only behind Todd Gurley). The next highest non-QB scored 331 points (Kareem Hunt), or about 46 fewer.

His fantasy numbers are nuts, but his real football numbers are nut-rageous.

On the year Bell has 321 carries, for 1,291 yards and 9 rushing TDs. Those are great numbers, but the best part about LeVeon is his versatility. He’s basically an RB and a WR combined into one player. In the passing game, he has 85 catches for 655 yards and 2 more touchdowns. All in all, his 1,964 all purpose yards are 2nd in the entire NFL – only behind Todd Gurley. The next highest player is Kareem Hunt with 1,747 (or 200 fewer). Overall, Leveon ranks in the top 3 of rushing attempts, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. In terms of receiving, he’s tied for 7th in number of receptions. SEVENTH! He has more catches than the following players: Julio Jones, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, AJ Green, Doug Baldwin, Dez Bryant and Mike Evans. There isn’t much else to say here, that is just absurd.

I’ll also mention Rob D’s team name – always hilarious. Leveon Stuffed Ken’s TacoBell always makes me laugh.

What Went Wrong?:

I’ll pick two things here, starting with TY Hilton. TY Hilton was Robby D’s third round pick at #22 overall. He was the 2nd player taken in the 3rd round and the 11th WR taken overall. Through 15 weeks, he ranks as WR22. That’s not terrible, but his fantasy line is really buoyed by some huge games. Let’s ignore those games and look at his bad ones. Hilton had fewer than 7 points in 10 of 15 games. He had fewer than 4.5 in 7 of those. That’s pretty bad. The only times Hilton was usable were weeks 3, 5, 9, 13 and 16 when he scored 27, 23, 34, 13 and 15 points. Even though it wasn’t his fault (Andrew Luck injury), Hilton was definitely a bust this year.

The only other thing that went wrong was his finals matchup. Robby D has now lost the finals in three consecutive years. While I don’t feel bad for him in any way (he’s made nearly 1,000 dollars off this league in that time), that’s gotta hurt. Getting that close and losing three straight years has gotta be tough.

So how did it happen? First was because Keetz had Todd Gurley (more on him in Keetz review). Gurley put up 54 by himself in the finals, which was just about 50% of the number Rob D’s entire team scored. The second is that Robby D’s team ran out of steam. In weeks 13-15, Ken’s Taco Bell scored 133, 135 and 145. In the finals he put up 108. Watching your team average 138 for 3 weeks and then puke on themselves right at the worst time is definitely frustrating. So who’s to blame? I guess a few people:

Leveon put up 33 in Week 15, but 21 in Week 16. Brees put up 21 in Week 15, but 15 the next week. Michael Thomas put up 20 in Week 15 and then 8.6 in Week 16. Marquise Goodwin put up 20 in Week 15 but wasn’t startable in Week 16 (matchup with the Jags). You get the picture.   

Best Roster Move:

Adding Latavius Murray for $49 on October 4th was a good move. Obviously the price tag was extreme, but the results have been favorable. Since taking over as the starter (post Dalvin Cook injury and stealing the job from McKinnon, both on my team obviously fml), Murray has put up 145 total points in 9 games or an average of 16+. Even though he pretty much didn’t play in Weeks 1-4 (14 carries), he’s still RB28 at press time. He’s scored 6 TDs in those 9 games I referenced and put up 12 or more points in 7 of them.  

Robby D added Robert Woods on Wednesday, October 25th for $0. This was right after Week 7, when Robert Woods scored 9 fantasy points on 5 catches for 59 yards. The Rams had a Week 8 bye, before Woods proceeded to shit on everyone’s faces for 3 weeks. In weeks 9-11, the Rams #1 receiver scored 21, 35 and 12 points. I don’t know how Robby D knew he’d explode like that, but that is some fortune teller shit. Before that 21 point game Woods had only gone over 10 points twice, one of those being a 10.1 point game.

Bilal Powell in the 8th round was solid – Powell is RB29 and scored 40 points the last two weeks.

Duke Johnson Jr in the 9th was another nice move. Johnson is RB22 and has 68 receptions on the season.

Worst Roster Move:

Drafting Demaryius Thomas and ending up with Travis Kelce was an unfortunate incident. After initially drafting Demaryius Thomas (WR23), he convinced us to let him re-do the pick. He then switched gears and took Travis Kelce. Dylan was going to take Kelce right after that, but Robby D pulled a fast one on all of us. Robby D got the #2 TE, while Dylan got Greg Olsen who was injured the whole year. Just unfortunate. This is the 2nd or 3rd year in a row this has happened and I’ve seen Bob do this in another league as well (draft someone and then convince the Commish to re-set the pick so he can pick someone else). I know Robby D is a stand-up guy, but this is a troubling trend that we have to watch out for on draft day next year.

I guess Robby D could have been more active on waivers. His 17 add/drops ranked 7th in the league which is obviously on the low end. Also, of those 17 add/drops, 10 were related to kickers or defenses. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, just something I noticed.

Other than that not much - he managed his roster well this year. Ameer Abdullah in the 6th round didn’t work out (RB39), but at that point it was worth the risk. Brandon Marshall in the 7th was another bad pick, but 7th round pick shmeventh ruound pick.

Defining Moment:

When his team shit the bed in the finals. The 108 Robby D put up was one of his lowest scores of the year. He only scored below 110 four times all year and of course one of them was in the finals. While Kev and myself are cursed for various reasons in this league, Robby D is cursed in his own “champagne problems” type of way. If Robby D played Keetz in Week 13, 14, or 15 he would have won. Unfortunately he only played him in Week 16, the one week in the last month he would have lost to him. Second place again.

Pre-Season Prediction:

As for the season - I say Robby D will finish 7-6 and make the playoffs. He’ll look to reach his 3rd straight title game, but he’ll be knocked out in the 2nd round and will have to fight for third place. His team is good, but it’s one LeVeon Bell injury away from being “not so good”. Also he’s had a ton of luck lately in this league and that has to run out at some point.

Right on the playoffs, wrong on the title. Game. 5 correct and 4 wrong thus far, not my best work.

Applicable Quote:

“No one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills!!”

No explanation needed.

Wrap It Up:

This is the 4th year of Robby D’s second tour in the league. Over that time he’s gone 30-22 and finished with the Silver Medal three times. All three of those have come in consecutive seasons though. Losing the title game has to suck, especially three years in a row. That being said, at least he’s lined his pockets during that time. This year he won 475 and in the previous two years he won about the same (400-450 total). While he hasn’t gotten over the hump yet, I’d say he’s enjoyed himself in this league. 900 dollars (ish) across three seasons is pretty fucking awesome if you ask me. I don’t know if I’ve won that much in fantasy during my entire 8 year career.

All in all another good season for Robby D. He finished in second, won some money and continued to raise his status in the league. He also found out he’s having another boy which is awesome. Let’s see if he can take the title next year.