OBITUARIES - 5TH PLACE

5TH PLACE

Team/Record/Owner:

Coming in 5th place with a regular season record of 6-7 and 1,661.5 points for (6th most) is Deangelo Vickers owned by H Guy Ritch.

What Went Right:

Guy got the first pick in the draft which is huge, especially this year. Todd Gurley was the consensus #1 pick after winning about 1 million fantasy football titles last year and guy was happy to take him. Gurley has continued his Gurley ways this year and ranks as RB1 through 15 weeks. He averages 30 fantasy points per game and leads all non-quarterbacks with 415 fantasy points this year. Only one QB has more points than him, but it’s the MVP Patrick Mahomes. The next closest player has 34 fewer points than Gurley (Matt Ryan - really?) and the closest non-quarterback has FIFTY fewer points than him.

All in all Gurley has 256 carries, 1,251 rushing yards, 59 catches, 580 receiving yards and 21 total TDs. His 17 rushing TDs are 5 more than the next best player (Alvin Kamara) and nearly double what Melvin Gordon has. I’m in 5 leagues and every single team who owned Todd Gurley made the playoffs.

Davante Adams had a breakout season in 2018 and is currently WR2. He averages 20 points per game behind 100 catches, 1,300 yards and 12 TDs. While the Packers have been a nightmare this year, Adams has been a fantasy owner’s dream. He has 13 or more points in EVERY SINGLE GAME. He has 5 or more catches in all but 1 game and 60+ receiving yards in all but 1 game. He was a 3rd round pick this year, but he’ll definitely be a top 15 guy next year.

This is kinda cheap, but I guess I’ll mention it – Guy made the playoffs with a losing record. That’s pretty rare in this league, so he got a little lucky there. If Kev or Lamone win 1 more game he’s out, but that didn’t happen. Actually, all 3 of those teams were 6-6 heading into the final week. If Kev or Lamone had won they make the playoffs over Guy. Fortunately for our #5 team, neither of them won and he made the playoffs on a tie breaker.

What Went Wrong:

Guy had a ton of points scored against him this year and it nearly cost him a playoff spot. The 1,739 points his opponents scored were the 2nd highest in the league, but only 3 points behind the highest (Rob D). In 13 regular season matchups, his opponents put up 120 or more 7 times. On three different occasions Guy faced the highest scoring team in that given week and on a 4th occasion, his opponent put up 186 against him. Any other week that woulda been the week’s high score, but Keetz had to ruin things.

Speaking of Keetz – Zeke a Tyreek went and dropped 150 on Guy in the first round of the playoffs. The next week, ZaT dropped 98 – flip those scores and Guy makes the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Another thing that went wrong was the wildly inconsistent and frustrating usage of Kenyan Drake. Drake was Guy’s 5th round pick and he’s currently RB23. He was supposed to be a breakout player as he averaged 19 points per game from Weeks 12-17 last year. During that time he was the Dolphins feature-back and everyone expected him to resume that role this year. It didn’t happen. Drake only has 4 games (of 14) with 10 or more carries and doesn’t have a single game with more than 14 carries. Early on in the season, the 35 year old Frank Gore took the starting job and Drake was relegated to change of pace duty. The frustrating thing is that Drake can be awesome – he has 9 games with 10 or more points and 6 games with 15 or more. The downside was bad though – he has 5 games with 6 or fewer points. Given the full workload I think he coulda been a top 15 RB, but Adam Gase hates him.

Best Owner Move:

Kerryon Johnson was a great pick in the 8th round at #80 overall. The rookie out of Auburn earned the starting role by Week 3 and never looked back. From Weeks 3 through 11 he totaled 750 scrimmage yards, 4 TDs and 136 fantasy points (17 per week). Unfortunately he got hurt in Week 11 and was out for the season.

Tevin Coleman in the 9th round pick (81 overall) was a smart pick by Guy. Coleman always works himself into fantasy relevance and this year was no difference. He’s currently RB19 and has compiled 1,000 total yards and 8 TDs.

Worst Owner Move:

The Gronk pick was one of Guy’s worst owner moves. He hasn’t played in a full season since 2011 and he’s had multiple back surgeries in his career. He also talked about retiring during the offseason which made him a huge risk in the 2nd round. Sadly for Guy this pick did not work out – Gronk is TE8 on the year.

I guess the other thing is just the lack of activity. Guy didn’t have any meaningful free agent pickups and didn’t make any trades.

Draft Recap/Prediction:

“I predict Guy finishes 7-6 and earns a bye but loses in the 2nd round.”

Two in a row, would you look at that. I think that brings me back to 50%, so for now we’re keeping track again. 3 right 3 wrong.

Applicable Quote:

“No matter how many times I reach out to Dwight, he doesn’t seem to want anything to do with me. It reminds me of my relationship with my son…. Except there, I’m the Dwight.”

This is a quote by THE Deangelo Vickers in the Office and while it’s not very relevant, it is hilarious. I guessssss it’s kind of fitting because Guy is too busy to focus on the league a lot of the time? Reaching over here so let’s move on.  

Final Thoughts:

After finishing as the Gabriel last year, Guy improved his lot in life and moved up to #5. While it wasn’t the biggest drop in the standings (won’t name names), it was the biggest improvement any team made from 2017 to 2018. His biggest question for the offseason is what he’s going to do to replace the Guy-Briel trophy. Apparently he threw it out while he was moving, which is kinda weak, but oh well. On to 2019 for Deangelo Vickers.