GWBL - 2021 Season Recaps - 5th Place

5th Place: Joey Num Nums Brain Freeze - Lamone - 9-5 record, 1,762 points (5th)

What Went Right:

Low hanging fruit, but Lamone didn’t have a ton of points against - just 1,677. That’s the third fewest and he was one of only 3 teams to have fewer than 1700 points against. The league average per week was about 122 points - Lamone’s opponents failed to reach that mark in 8 of 14 weeks.

In terms of players, he had one of the best RBs in football - Austin Ekeler (2nd round). Ekeler was the 10th RB drafted and is currently RB3 despite missing Week 16 (great timing, more on this later, fucking bullshit). The all purpose back cemented himself as a fantasy stud, with 800 rushing yards, 550 receiving yards and 17 TDs. Only Jonathan Taylor has more total TDs than Ekeler (QBs excluded). Ekeler had one 8.7 point dud in Week 6, but other than that he never put up fewer than 13 points (7 games with 20+).

Ekeler is relatively new to fantasy stardom, but his other RB has been a fantasy stud for a while. Zeke is currently RB5 in our scoring, with close to 1,200 all purpose yards and 12 TDs. He had a little bit of an uneven season and lost some work to Tony Pollard, but given our scoring he was still a valuable asset. His 264 points put him at #25 among all players, QBs included. If you take out QBs then he’s #8. An interesting feature of our league is that usage is a huge factor - of his 264 points, 42 came off of rush attempts alone, while another 22.5 came off receptions. All in all nearly 25% of his points came off touches alone. In any case he was a rock for Lamone’s RB corp all year.

I could put this in “Best Owner Move”, but Tom Brady was a huge reason for Lamone’s success. The 10th round pick and 10th QB drafted is currently QB3 and averages 27 points per game (Josh Allen averages 29 for those keeping track at home). He had 7 games with 30+ points, which can be week winners for you.

What Went Wrong:

Darren Waller was one of the biggest busts in fantasy this year. Lamone’s 3rd round pick is TE14 and has only scored 2 TDs all season. Part of it was poor play - he scored 9 or fewer points in 6 of his 10 games. The other part was injury - he’s missed 5 games with injury and I’m pretty sure he just tested positive for COVID. The funny thing is I’m pretty sure Lamone auto drafted Waller during the draft fiasco.

Sticking with draft busts - Terry Mclaurin stunk this year. Lamone’s 4th round pick is WR24 and has really bottomed out the past 5 games. From Weeks 12-16 he’s scored 7, 4, ZERO, 5 and 5.5 points. That zero came in Week 14, which likely cost some owners their season. He may be a good discount next year, but their QB play is an issue.

Lamone was the Gus Edwards victim in our league - he drafted him on a Monday night and I’m pretty sure he tore his ACL in practice the very next day.

Tom Brady in Round 1 of the playoffs. Huh? I thought he was a win for Lamone? Yes, until he and the entire Bucs offense killed their owners in Round 1 of the playoffs. The Saints shut the Bucs out and Tom only scored 5.8 points. Lamone lost by about 12 points, so it’s not unfair to say that Tom cost him his season. Unbelievable timing for Tom to have his worst game of the season. Fuck dylan.

Best Owner Move:

Elijah Mitchell, FA add for $101 on September 15. That price point is gross, but Mitchell was a beast when healthy. Even though he’s only played in 9 games, he’s still a top25 RB. He had an especially strong stretch from Weeks 7-13, where he scored 23, 26, 12, 15, 34 and 20 points (missed 1 with an injury).

Hunter Renfrow, FA add for $15 on September 29. While it may have come at the expense of Darren Waller, Renfrow had a career year. He’s WR11 in our scoring and has totaled 92-949 and 6 TDs. He put up 10 or more points in 11 of 15 games.

Worst Owner Move:

Unfortunately that Elijah Mitchell add cost Lamone more than just 101 FAAB dollars. It cost him Michael Carter, who he dropped for Mitchell. Carter got off to a slow start, but has since developed into a very promising RB. If you take out the first 3 weeks of the season, Carter averaged over 15 points per game. Guess who added Michael Carter about a week after Lamone dropped him? Tieg. Guess who’s in the finals with Michael Carter in his RB slot? Tieg. To make it even worse, Lamone kept James White to drop Carter.

Dropping the Colts D was another questionable move. Like Carter, they started out slow but have since proven to be a valuable asset. Their currently the #5 DST and had some huge games towards the end of the season - 14 vs HOU and 12 vs NE. To be fair, the Colts D bounced around a bit between Tieg/Dylfuck and ultimately ended on Kev’s roster.

ESPN Projection:

ESPN predicted that Lamone would be 5th, so touche ESPN. 4 for 6 here. He was projected to be 5th and scored the 5th most points. And lamone likes the number 55 from what I remember. Interesting.

Final Thoughts:

It was a solid season for Lamone and he was really just one bad week away from making it to the semi finals. He lost his Round 1 matchup by 12 points when TB12 scored just 5.8 points and his WRs combined for 10 total. Lamone continues to be a threat in the league and hopefully he shows up to the draft on time next year.