GWBL - 2021 Season Recaps - 8th Place - DMO
8th Place: Hill Bill - DMO - 4-10 record, 1,587 points (8th most):
What Went Right:
DMO got off to a great start this year and cruised to a 161-115 Week 1 victory over Bob D. His team looked like it could be a contender and he got the weekly high score that week - $10 in the pocket.
His team’s name sake Tyreek Hill has been a stud again this year. He’s WR4 in our scoring and averages 17 points per game. In terms of real stats, he’s totaled 102 catches for 1,200 yards and 9 receiving TDs to go with 100 yards rushing. He had a few clunkers this season, but he scored 15+ in 7 of 14 games.
DMO actually drafted a very talented team. If you look at his team from a pure name value standpoint, it’s hard to believe that he missed the playoffs. Kyler Murray, David Montgomery, Saquon Barkley, Tyreek, Marquise Brown, Brandin Cooks, Adam Thielen, Miles Sanders, Darrel Henderson. All very good players right? So how did this team end 4-10….
What Went Wrong:
DMO had the most points against, an unfathomable 1,843 - more than 131 per week. That is bad bad bad bad bad luck. The highest scoring team in our league only totaled 1,804 for, which shows you how much of an anomaly this was. By comparison, Tieg’s opponents scored 1,505 against him or about 108 per week. All in all, DMO’s opponents scored 23 more points per week than Tieg’s did.
In terms of specific matchups, there are two tough losses that stick out. Week 2 when he scored 134 and lost (to Tieg ironically enough) and another in Week 6 when he scored 124 and lost to my team. Win those and he’s 6-8 and close to playoffs.
You know how I said DMO had a ton of talent on his team? Well, that talent has to stay healthy. For the record:
Saquon missed 4 full games and left early in the game he got hurt. From what I remember the injury happened on a flukey play at the end of the game when Saquon didn’t even have the ball.
David Montgomery missed 4 games.
Kyler Murray missed 3 games.
Thielen missed Week 14/15
Miles Sanders missed 3 games
Marquise Brown and Darrel Henderson also missed 2-3 games apiece
You don’t have much margin for error when your opponents are scoring a ton of points and that margin is disappears when all of your players get hurt.
Best Owner Move:
Marquise Brown in the 10th round was a great pick - WR17 on the season.
Brandin Cooks in the 9th round was even better - WR16.
Darrel Henderson was really productive for parts of the season - 7th round pick, RB21 despite missing 3 games.
Worst Owner Move:
Saquon Barkley at 7 overall was a really risky pick, even without the benefit of hindsight. There were so many RBs with higher upside on better offenses that went after him - Chubb, Jonathan Taylor, Zeke, Ekeler, Najee and Antonio Gibson were the next 6 RBs taken. All have drastically outperformed Saquon who is RB30 in our scoring.
The other bad move would be the lack of moves. DMO only made 8 free agent moves all season which is 2nd lowest (I’ll get to that later). When you finish 4-10 and only make 8 add/drops its easy to feel like you left something out on the field.
ESPN Projection:
Here’s one ESPN got wildly wrong. DMO Was ranked as the #1 team after the draft, but he finished 8th. 2 for 3 thus far.
Final Thoughts:
This year was a bit of a step back for DMO after he finished 5-8 during his inaugural GWBL season. He drafted well (Saquon notwithstanding) and he started out hot, but ultimately fizzled due to injuries and points against luck. Hopefully he can make a run at playoffs next season, but in the mean-time he’ll be battling 2 under 2.
