OBITUARIES - 3RD PLACE
3RD PLACE
Team/Record/Owner:
Coming in 3rd place with an 8-5 regular season record and 1,752.2 points for (2nd most) is Zeke – a – Tyreek owned by Jon Keetz.
What Went Right:
While Keetz didn’t get a good draft pick, he got a little lucky when Zeke Elliott fell to him at #7. Elliott is a stud and it was a unique set of circumstances that caused him to fall that far. Regardless Keetz snagged him with his first round pick and was rewarded with RB4 through 16 weeks. Zeke leads all NFL players with 304 carries and is the only player who will top 300 carries this year (unless Gurley has 44 carries in Week 16). Due to our scoring that alone is worth ~61 points. Zeke also leads the NFL in rushing yards with 1,434 – that’s nearly 200 yards higher than the next guy (Todd Gurley with 1,251). On top of his 1,434 rushing yards he has 570 yards receiving on 77 receptions. He really got involved in the passing game this year and his fantasy owners were thrilled. While he only scored 9 TDs, the nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards were huge.
Tyreek Hill was another asset for Keetz and I have to mention him here. The 3rd round pick is the #1 ranked WR in our scoring and has 299 fantasy points on the year. The Chiefs #1 target has caught 82 passes for 1,378 yards and 11 TDs. Not bad for a “return specialist” eh Jalen Ramsey? Speaking of which, Hill also added a punt return TD this year for good measure. The best part about Hill was the week-winning scores he was prone to put up this year. In Week 1 he put up 50 points and in Week 6 he put up another 38. Week 10 was a 31 point effort and he followed that up in Week 11 with a 45.5 point outburst. Keetz won all 4 of those games on the heels of Hill’s…. heels.
Like our 4th place team, Keetz also had a really important winning streak that helped him make the playoffs. Through 8 weeks, Keetz was 3-5 and in danger of missing out. The defending champ would not be denied though - he proceeded to rip off 5 consecutive wins from Weeks 9 through 13. In that stretch his team averaged exactly 150 points per week with a high of 192. That 192 points is ridiculous and the highest score anyone put up during the regular season (oddly enough Frader put up 192 during the final week of the season, but the consolation ladder doesn’t count). In Weeks 10 and 11, Keetz scored 375 combined points which is insanity.
Speaking of points scored, Keetz led the league on 3 separate occasions during the regular season. This netted him $75 bills which is pretty solid. The 3 times was the second most times any league member led the league and aside from Keetz and myself, no one led the league more than twice. He had the scores of 182 and 192 as I mentioned above and added a 174 point bukake in Week 6 for good measure.
What Went Wrong:
Devonta Freeman is the first thing that comes to mind. Keetz’ second round pick was one of the biggest busts in fantasy this year and hasn’t played since Week 5. All in all he played in just 2 games this season and combined for 14.4 points in those two games. He’s RB106 on the year.
Doug Baldwin was another frustrating player for Keetz this year. Baldwin dealt with a knee injury during the offseason and missed 3 of their first 4 games. Then when he did come back, he sucked. In the first four weeks after the injury, he went 6.6 points, .6 points, 12.1 points and then a bye. All in all he’s WR47 on the year and that’s only because he’s ripped off consecutive 20 point efforts the last two weeks. During the fantasy regular season he was probably closer to WR77 that WR47. One last note – due to the injury and poor performance, Keetz was barely able to start him. Out of the 16 weeks Keetz had matchups, Baldwin was only in his lineup ONCE. ONE TIME ALL SEASON. When you’re only able to use your 4th round pick once in the season that’s pretty brutal. Oh.. and how did Baldwin do in that game? Zero points.
Keetz had a ton of injuries this year, almost too many to count. During the year he suffered injuries to the following players: Devonta Freeman, Doug Baldwin, Jay Ajayi, Aaron Jones, OJ Howard, Will Fuller and later on Tyler Boyd. I may even be missing 1-2, but that list alone is absurd.
The other thing that went wrong was his 2nd round playoff matchup. Keetz put up his 2nd lowest score of the season enroute to a 100.9 to 100.9 point tie. A fucking tie in fantasy football? Are you kidding me? I wish I was. If Keetz got 1 more yard or one more rush attempt or 1 more completion he wins the game. Instead he loses a tie game on a tie breaker. Here are some other frustrating things about that loss:
- Andrew Luck put up a season low 12.1 points despite the fact the Colts won by 23 points.
- Aaron Jones got hurt in the first quarter and put up just 1.6 points.
- Despite the fact the Chiefs scored 28 points, Tyreek Hill only had 6.7 points. Obviously his lowest total of the season.
He would have lost in the finals anyway, but that .1 fantasy points cost him $250 bills.
Best Owner Move:
Drafting Andrew Luck in the 9th round was up there for sure. Luck is QB5 on the season and has put up 20 or more points in 11 of 15 games. All in all he has 4,300 passing yards and 26 TDs.
The other one was Aaron Jones. Keetz added Jones for $13 off waivers on Wednesday October 31. That was right after Week 8 when the Packers RB put up 18 points against the Rams. Everyone thought he might finally take off and he finally did. Over the next 6 weeks, Jones would rush 85 times for 445 yards, 6 TDs and 131 fantasy points. On a week to week basis he averaged 14 carries for 74 yards a touchdown and 22 fantasy points. He was a huge reason Keetz had the late season surge.
Tyler Boyd also comes to mind. Keetz picked Boyd up for $0 FAAB on 9/26, which was right before Week 4. Boyd immediately put up 17 points for Keetz that week and never looked back. On the year, Boyd has 76 catches for 1,000 yards and 7 TDs. He’s WR17 on the season despite not playing in Week 16 due to injury. All in all a great pickup.
Worst Owner Move:
The Doug Baldwin and Devonta Freeman picks were both ill-advised in my opinion. Baldwin had been dealing with that knee injury all offseason and even said he would be dealing with it all year. He did drop in the draft due to that, but a 4th round pick is a little high for a 30 year old WR coming into the season with a knee injury. The Freeman pick was a little more justified, but he’s also been dealing with injuries for most of his career. He also sucked in 2017 so I was surprised when he went that high. When you add in the fact that Michael Thomas (WR7), Christian McCaffrey (RB2) and Julio Jones (WR6) were the next three picks it looks kinda bad.
In terms of add/drops I’d have to say Isaiah Crowell. Keetz added the Jets RB for $41 of FAAB on October 25th, which was right before Week 8. Crowell would only play in 6 more games during the season before going on IR. In those 6 games, Crowell combined for 55 fantasy points (about 9 per week). Keetz nearly spent more FAAB dollars than Crowell had points, which isn’t ideal.
Draft Recap/Prediction:
“Keetz will finish 7-6 and make it to the playoffs, but will exit in the first round. It is so so so hard to repeat in fantasy sports. The luck, good fortune and good decision making storm it takes to win a title is just difficult to replicate. Second and more importantly, I just think there are some better teams. Keetz has a good team no doubt, but not sure it’s as good as last year. Plus the whole Todd Gurley thing.”
Pretty close on that one. I’ll give it to myself and that puts me at 50% (4 for 8).
Applicable Quote:
“A quarter of an inch this way and it would have gone in. A quarter of an inch.”
“Yeah, but a quarter of an inch the other way and you’d have missed completely.”
I’ve definitely used that quote in write-ups before, but it’s fitting for the way Keetz’ season ended. Obviously losing by way of a tie in the semi finals is brutal. It’s dumb as hell and I really wish it didn’t happen. Still though, a quarter of an inch the other way and he would have missed completely. It actually almost did - I had a 2 point lead all the way through til Thursday afternoon. Then out of nowhere some stat nerd in the NFL office had to fuck with destiny and ruin the season for both me and Keetz.
Final Thoughts:
While it was a disappointing end to the season, Keetz still got 3rd place and finished in the money. I don’t think he should feel bad about not being able to repeat though, I’d be happy with the result. His team dealt with a ton of injuries, yet he was still able to finish 8-5 and come .1 points away from the finals. He made some huge free agent pickups and once again proved he’s one of the top owners in this league. Honestly looking back at it now, I’d have to say he is THE top owner in the league. He’s finished 3rd or better each of the last 4 seasons and that of course includes the title run he had last year. We’ll see if he can extend the streak to 5 top 3 finishes next year.
