To quote one of my favorite all time bands, Faith No More, ‘it’s always funny until someone gets hurt and then it’s just hilarious’. In no small way can’t I help but feel a little cheated by the fantasy football Gods in this league. There’s always a modicum of luck involved in creating a strong fantasy football roster. I get that just as about as well as anyone else but it truly takes some luck of the ‘un’ variety to get the team that I had riding into the consolation championship and not for the big prize. As you can see from my original post, I did really well, or at least I thought I did well in drafting for a 2QB league where you could start anywhere from 2 to 5 running backs at a time. I wish I could point out the positives but I swear, every time a positive happened, I got hammered by a negative that very same week. After starting off 2-1 with Chris Johnson struggling in my RB2 spot, I thought it would be good to make a strong move for another high end RB before the season got too far along. Since I already had Larry Fitzgerald – pre-Skelton/Lindley mess this was actually a GOOD thing – I felt comfortable trading Brandon Marshall and Michael Bush for Alshon Jeffery and Maurice Jones-Drew before the start of week 4. Well, Alshon broke his arm week 5, MJD did something to his foot and was out from week 8 until oblivion while Marshall went on to be the second best WR in PPR leagues through week 16. In the midst of all this turmoil, I made what – at the time – was a very good trade, sending Ryan Fitzpatrick away for Marques Colston because in our 2QB league, I had just picked up Kevin Kolb. Say what you will about Kolb but before he went down with an injury, he had a 7:2 TD to INT ratio. He was actually a top 15 QB to go with Big Ben. But of course as this season was so fated, he went down the very week I traded away his backup in Fitz. Needless to say, I could never get my team’s head above water long enough to make a serious run at the playoffs. By the time Adrian Peterson was clicking and CJ2K was no longer sucking, I was struggling to fill my QB2 flex spot with a various assortment of Tannehills and Skeltons while Larry Fitzgerald fell off the map. Oh, and did I mention I drafted Danny Amendola? Yeah, he got hurt week 5 as well. There was just no good luck rolling my way in this league this year. When Big Ben went down, my team couldn’t get back off the floor, finishing 5-8 while making me question my love for this forsaken game.
Ok, I’m not gonna end on the negative here. Let’s review the positives and the what could’ve beens. If Kolb stays healthy as does Amendola, my WR core is Danny/Larry/Marques. You tell me how much you’d fear that knowing I had AP and CJ2K coming atcha? Exactly, this was a well thought out and traded for team that just didn’t pan out. I also picked up Knowshon Moreno straight from the FA pool without spending FAAB on him. Easily the best pickup I made all year…or at least the best one that stayed healthy. After Kolb and Big Ben, my QB slot became a carousel ride between Henne, Foles, and Locker which sounds scary but actually panned out alright. In the end, I don’t feel bad about losing with this team this year. You can only do so much to account for injuries but when this many happen to your team in a 12 team league with fairly deep benches and 2 extra flex spots, you’re going to have a hard time pulling ahead at any point. Overall, I’d say for spending only $66 bucks in the draft on my two starting RBs when someone spent $57 on Arian Foster, my draft strategy for auction drafts turned out really well.  I ended up only spending $24 on two QBs who – for their price – I’d say they panned out above expectation. Someone spent $26 on Philip Rivers and another spent $42 on Matthew Stafford. Let’s just say, I like what I got better. So with that, I bid adieu to this team that died before it ever really got a chance. Fly to the angels, my dear sweet broken one.
