GWBL - 2021 Season Recaps - 2nd Place
2nd Place: Tickle Pitts - Dylan - 8-6 record, 1,764 points (4th)
What Went Right:
Dyl went with the “zero RB” draft strategy and it worked to perfection. The “zero RB” strategy is exactly what it sounds like - foregoing the investment in RBs in order to stack elite pass-catchers and in turn, relying on mid-round draft picks and waivers to fill your RB spots. It’s definitely risky, but when an owner pulls it off it’s a pretty sight. This was one of those sights.
Of his first 9 picks, 6 were pass-catchers, one was a QB and only 2 were RBs. In drafting this way, Dylan assembled arguably the best WR group in the history of the GWBL. That sounds like dramatic recency-bias, but I don’t think it is. By the tape:
1st Round: Davante Adams, WR3. Adams is a stud and I’ve rode him to titles in my Westford league each of the past two years (humblebrag). He averaged ~19 points per game and put up 30 and 27 in Rounds 1/2 of the playoffs.
2nd Round: Stefon Diggs, WR7. While he got off to a slow start, Diggs proved that he’s still a top 10 WR. He totaled 10 TDs and put up 10+ points in 13 of 17 games.
3rd Round: Ceedee Lamb, WR14. That ranking is somewhat low, but consider that Dyl has 3 WRs in the top 14. Simple math shows that the remaining 9 teams only had 11 WRs in the top 14, so Dyl really cornered the market here. And he wasn’t done yet.
4th Round: Patrick Mahomes, QB4. It was a slow year by Mahomes’ standards, but he played well when it counted. His last 5 games were: 25, 38, 26, 25, 30.
5th Round: Kyle Pitts, TE6. Don’t let the ranking fool you, Pitts still had a solid year. He broke a number of rookie TE records and was a startable player every week.
8th Round: Jamaar Chase, WR5. Absolute stud, averages over 16 points per game, future HOF.
9th Round: Deebo Samuel, WR2. After a rough sophomore season, Deebo may have been the steal of the draft in 2021. A true 5 tool player, he produced as a WR, an RB and even threw a TD pass this year.
So all in all, Dylan had 5 of the top 14 WRs. That is RIDICULOUS. Hands down the best WR draft in the history of this league. Or fantasy football, probably.
What Went Wrong:
The finals loss to Tieg was rough. What a brutal time to have a bad performance. All he had to do was score 119 points to win, but he only put up 110. Dyl scored 119 or more in 10 of a possible 16 games heading into that matchup, so it was a better than 50% chance he would get the job done. There were some tough roster decisions that factored into this, but we’ll get to that later.
Best Owner Move:
Jamaar in the 8th and Deebo in the 9th were obviously great picks, but also kind of lucky. They were ranked in that range and whoever took them reaped the benefits of the unexpected breakouts. Instead we’ll look at the in-season moves:
The pick up of Justin Jackson that pretty much guaranteed his Round 2 win over me. It was stupid and flukish, but those are the decisions that win fantasy football games. (I was the Ekeler owner).
Aside from that it was the RB management in season. Throughout the year Dyl was able to piece together a competitive RB corp using duct tape, WD-40 and paper clips: Javonte Williams (7th round), Melvin Gordon (10th round), Chuba Hubbard (FA), D’onta Foreman (FA) and Darrel Williams (FA) all produced at various times.
Worst Owner Move:
Drafting Miles Gaskin in the 5th ended up being a huge bust, but that was his ADP and many people fell into that trap.
Then it was the decisions in the finals that ultimately undid his season:
Started Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams, both of whom play for the Broncos. He did this alot this year and it usually guaranteed him 20 or so points, but in Week 17 it was only 17. He was actually about to use that strategy in Week 16 before he picked up Justin fucking Jackson. Of course the week I play him he doesn’t roll with that strategy. FML.
Not only was that a questionable decision, but he had Donta Foreman’s 27 point on his bench. He starts Foreman over either of those guys and he wins.
He also sat Jamarr Chase and the 55 points he put up. Eeek. Jamarr outscored Adams, Diggs and Deebo combined. It was really a decision of Diggs vs Chase and he chose…poorly.
ESPN Projection:
ESPN had him at 6th which was a playoff spot. 6 right 3 wrong for ESPN.
Final Thoughts:
I’ve never been a big “zero RB” guy, but Dylans team has opened my eyes to a new way of doing things. Stockpiling talent at WR-TE-QB allows you to really be flexible at the RB spot and fully utilize waivers, injuries and in-season breakouts. When I whined about how lucky the start was, Dylan sent an email that said something like “anyone else could have picked up Jackson”. While somewhat true, I personally couldn’t. I would have had to drop a more talented player to do so, someone like Alexander Mattison or Damien Harris. So having a deep RB group actually may have hurt me in the end as I had to leave Jackson on waivers. Meanwhile a team like Dyl who went zero RB strategy had the flexibility to take chances and make moves that other owners may not be able to make.
All in all a great season for dyl. He got the gabriel last year so this was a huge turnaround. It’s definitely been an interesting few years for dyl. He went - title, missed playoffs, gabriel, 2nd place. We’ll see where the dice land next year.
