The NFL regular season wrapped up last weekend and so did our pick contest. It took me all year, but I finally won a week outright as I went 13-3. Dan the Man finished 2nd for the week at 12-4. Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy tied at 9-7. Overall it was Schaumburg Stu who won with a record of 167-89. Dan the Man moved into 2nd place with an overall record of 159-97. Mr. Fantasy took the 3rd spot with a record of 157-99 and even though I managed to win the final week I still finished in the cellar with a record of 155-101. Will wipe the slate clean and see how we do with our playoff picks.
Speaking of the NFL playoffs the days and match ups are all set. The AFC gets things started at 3:35 p.m. on Saturday as the Houston Texans host the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders did have a better regular season record than the Texans did, but Houston won a very weak AFC South while the Raiders finished 2nd in the AFC West to the Kansas City Chiefs. The second Saturday game with a scheduled 7:15 p.m. start times has the Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks. The AFC again starts the Sunday playoff schedule off as the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Miami Dolphins. The game has a listed 12:05 p.m. start time. The final game to wrap up the 1st round of the playoffs has the New York Giants as the Green Bay Packers. The scheduled start time for this game is 3:40 p.m. This is another situation where the wild card team has the better record, but they play on the road because they’re facing a division winner. In the AFC the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs have the 1st round byes while in the NFC it’s the Dallas Cowboys and the Atlanta Falcons who get the opening week off.
What are your feeling about having a wild card team with a better record than a division winner hosting the playoff game. I’ve heard both sides of this argument and if you’re a Raiders or a Giants fan I can see your point, but I believe you have to get some type of reward for winning your division. It’s just kind of how the NFL goes. Some divisions are better than others and this season the AFC West and the NFC East had top team with good records. People may forget that the Dolphins where a in team, but since they play in the win team this season, but since they play in the AFC East with the Patriots there name doesn’t really come up. I’m not sure if there needs to be a change here, but if someone had a good idea about how the NFL could handle this I’d be willing to listen to it. Feel free to let me know where you stand on this. Are you on the side of the better record getting the home game or would you like to keep it as it is with the division winners getting to host the opening round playoff games?
Are fantasy football season came to an end with the end of the NFL regular season. We have a couple of leagues that go all the way through Week 17. I know a lot of leagues end after Week 16 because of the fear of players sitting out the final week of the season, but to me it just makes it all the more challenging. We always talk about the two main leagues we play in. We have a snake league style draft and then we do and auction style draft. Both leagues are 20 team leagues and 8 teams make the playoffs. It’s the 4 division winners and then the next best 4 records regardless of how many could be in one division. In the snake league I didn’t make the playoffs. Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man did make it, but sadly they both went out in the 1st round. In our auction league I was the only one who managed to get into the playoffs and I just made it as the 8th seed. They always say you just want to get in and I did. It worked out for me as my team ended up winning the Super Bowl.
I can still remember going into our draft Mr. Fantasy telling me how running backs where devalued. Oddly 8 of the Top 10 scorers in our snake style draft league where running backs. The other two spots in the Top 10 went to quarterbacks. Wide receiver was the hot position going into the draft, but the top scoring wide receiver in our league finished 13th overall in scoring. Going into the draft wide receivers where the Top 3 ranked players. Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson was the top scorer in our league. Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers was the top scoring quarterback. Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers was the top scoring wide receiver. Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs was the top scoring tight end. The top scoring Defense/Special Teams was the Kansas City Chiefs while the top scoring kicker was Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens. We actually use defensive players in our leagues. The highest scoring defensive player in our league was Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner.
While you have your high scorers in fantasy you also have the players who don’t quite do as well as expected. Injuries aside here as there’s nothing you can do about that here are a few guys who didn’t do as well as projected. Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks was the 3rd quarterback pre-draft. Wilson finished as the 16th ranked quarterback. Todd Gurley of the Los Angeles Rams was projected as the 2nd best running back pre-draft. Gurley finished as the 13th ranked running back. At wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins of the Houston Texans was the 4th ranked wide receiver pre-draft. Hopkins ended up being one of the biggest fantasy bust as he finished the season as the 30th ranked wide receiver. Colby Fleener of the New Orleans Saints was projected as the 6th best tight end pre-draft. Fleener end up as the 15 ranked tight end. Again I stayed away from players who missed time with injuries this season.
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