OBITUARIES - 4TH PLACE
4TH PLACE
Team/Record/Owner:
Coming in 4th place with a regular season record of 10-3 and 1,721.6 points scored (3rd most) is Kens African Safari owned by Ken Peabody and Hasudin Pehratovich.
What Went Right:
Ken finished with the best record in the regular season so a lot of things went right. The main reason he was able to do that was the big winning streak he went on from Weeks 4 through 10. Ken won 7 consecutive games which was the longest win streak anyone had this season and an impressive stretch. During that time he averaged nearly 150 points per week and exceeded 150 on 5 separate occasions. He was just dominating and that streak alone clinched a playoff spot for him.
The biggest reason Ken had a good season was his WR group. His WR trio was officially the top WR group in the league and arguably the best positional group on any team. His first round pick Antonio Brown is WR3 on the year with 281 fantasy points, his second round pick Julio Jones is WR6 with 264 fantasy points and his 4th round pick Adam Thielen is WR5 with 265 fantasy points. All in all those three players have combined for 318 catches, 4,100 yards and 31 touchdowns. Their 809.4 combined points were nearly half of what Ken scored all season.
Antonio Brown had another monster season in 2018 and has officially solidified his future Hall of Fame enshrinement. AB has put up 104 catches for 1,300 yards and 15 TDs. The 15 TDs lead the NFL and he’s top 10 in both receptions and yards. He’s really on an unbelievable run as this was the 6th straight year he’s had more than 100 catches, more than 1,250 yards and 8 or more TDs.
After a pretty uneven 2017 season, Julio bounced back in a big way to put up 104 catches for 1,539 yards and 7 TDs. The 1,539 yards are the most by any player in the NFL and 115 more than the next highest (Deandre Hopkins). Last year Julio was frustrating to own because he was so feast or famine. This year he was great to own because he was so consistent – he had 20+ points in 8 games and 12 or more in every game but 2. He’s also more than doubled his TD output from last year but I guess that’s not saying much.
While Adam Thielen is WR5, he was actually a top 2 WR for most of the season. He leads Ken’s team with 110 catches and turned those into 1,335 yards and 9 TDs. Thielen was huge for his owners this year and started out the season with 8 consecutive 100 yard games. On the season he has either 100 yards or a touchdown in 11 of his 15 games. Another consistent performer, there was only 1 game when Thielen put up fewer than 10 points. (More on that later.)
What Went Wrong:
With how his regular season ended up it’s easy to remember that Ken started off the year with a 1-2 record. His team just wasn’t that good early on and he only averaged 110 points per game (16 below league average). I think he was still figuring out his RB situation and Joe Mixon was hurt for 1-2 of those games, but regardless it wasn’t a good start.
The major thing that went wrong was his playoff loss to dyckbagdylan. Ken put up a very respectable 132 points, but unfortunately he lost by 3.8 points. Losing by 3.8 points is a kick in the dick no matter how you look at it. A few things that make it even worse are:
- Ken also would have beat the other two remaining playoff teams – Keetz and myself.
- Ken’s kicker put up -1 in his playoff loss. The same kicker scored 8 points the week before that
and 7.5 the following week. If either of those scores are switched Ken woulda won the playoff matchup.
- Adam Thielen. One of the most reliable players in fantasy football had had his one bad game of the season during Ken’s playoff loss and scored 2.9 points.
- Jaylen Samuels put up 25 points that week when the Pats defense forgot how to stop the run. Ridiculous.
Best Owner Move:
Enlisting the help of a savvy fantasy football owner to do his draft for him was a good move. Personally I thought Ken shoulda had DMO draft he team and then they could co-manage it. It would have been a good way to get DMO involved since we decided to not make it a 12 man league. Instead Ken enlisted a knowledgeable owner who no one in the league really knows. It allowed Ken to start off the year with a good team – arguably one of the best teams.
In terms of moves Ken actually made: adding Eric Ebron for $2 of FAAB on September 26th is definitely one of his best moves. Ebron is TE4 on the year and has scored 12 touchdowns for the Colts.
Trading Evan Engram for Amari Cooper was another good move. Ken acquired Cooper from Kev right before he blew up for the Cowboys. While he wasn’t really able to use him (due to his crowded WR room), it was still a good move.
Gus Edwards was another solid pick up for the Safaris - $26 of FAAB on November 21. Edwards would go on to score 19, 12, 10 and 23 points over the next 4 games. The 23 came in Ken’s playoff loss, so it was almost a season saving move.
Worst Owner Move:
Trading Julian Edelman to Robby D for Lesean McCoy was probably Ken’s worst move of the season. The trade happened right before Week 8 and there was some controversy surrounding it. Long story short, Ken and Rob D verbally agreed to the trade at DMOs wedding when we were at the table. Ken then decided to go back on the trade because he would have had to drop a different RB (positional limits arguments begin). A few days later the league pressured him into accepting the trade though.
Since the trade, Lesean McCoy has scored 80 points in 8 games, or an average of 10 per week (he missed 1 of those games but for math purposes let’s ignore that). Meanwhile, Edelman has scored 120 points in 8 games or about 16 per week. While the difference doesn’t look huge, I have to point out that 32 of McCoy’s points came in 1 game. His other scores after the trade were 15, 7, 9, 11, .5 and 4.6 points.
Draft Recap/Prediction:
“Ken will finish 6-7 and misses the playoffs on a tie breaker. With all of his wedding and honeymoon stuff going on, he just didn’t have a lot of spare time for research. While he didn’t have a bad draft by any means, I just don’t think his team is a contender”
Man was I wrong on that one. I thought Julio would bust and not many people predicted just how good Thielen will be. Oh well.
Applicable Quote:
“Was all of this legal? Absolutely fucking not, nut we were making more money than we knew what to do with.”
That’s a quote from Wolf of Wall Street and it reminds me of Ken’s team a bit due to the whole controversy surrounding his draft. Is it legal to have someone draft your team for you? Arguably not. I’m just glad Ken didn’t win because that controversy coulda caused a shit storm.
Final Thoughts:
For a while there it looked like Ken had a chance to win the league. Looking back at the league history, Ken is 1 of only 4 teams to finish with double digit wins in a season. Props for that, it’s a really difficult thing to do. His team had a great draft and Ken added some more talent during the season. Honestly I didn’t want to run into him in the playoffs because those 3 WRs are deadly. Unfortunately for Ken (and for me) his luck ran out in Week 2 of the playoffs when he lost to dyckbagdylan. Regardless it was a good season for Ken and I think he made all of his money back. We’ll see how he does next year when he actually drafts his team.
