Dear Diary – An Exercise in Patience

Jeff Haverlack Posted On October 14, 2010

I want to share a fantasy lineup with you. My lineup.

This lineup has been built over a long period of time, assembled over many years with careful attention to buy-low/sell-high opportunities, mindful addition of strategic draft picks and a keen eye for the next training camp, waiver wire and/or rookie gem. It is from a very deep dynasty format in which 30 players are a kept and competition is very strong. In fact, your DLF partners all play in this league.

I’m not normally a fan of bringing my personal dynasty league specifics into play here on the site but I’m making an exception for reference to a point to be made. Here are the primary pieces of my team:

QB: Matt Ryan
QB: Joe Flacco
QB: Brett Favre

RB: Chris Johnson
RB: Deangelo Williams
RB: Marshawn Lynch
RB: Donald Brown
RB: Brandon Jackson
RB: James Starks

WR: Andre Johnson
WR: Larry Fitzgerald
WR: Randy Moss
WR: Dwayne Bowe
WR: Kenny Britt
WR: James Jones

TE: Dallas Clark
TE: Jermichael Finley

I won’t bore you with the other details. Not surprisingly, this team won the championship in 2009. When looking up and down the lineup, it is easy to see and project potential multiple championships. But fast-forward to 2010 and read those names once again.

If not for a late Randy Moss TD this past Monday night, this team would have been 0-5 to start the season (a record that gives this missive a bit more punch). As it stands, here I sit at 1-4 on the season with the 7th most points scored. Oh what a difference a few months can make. A team that finished 13-2 in our 2009 regular season and was the clear 2010 divisional favorite starts 0-4 and was steaming towards a pathetic 0-5.

What now?

I can’t tell you how many times, at all hours of the day and night, I have simply pulled up my team page and stared in bewilderment at the lineup, ultimately allowing my eyes to fall up on those three characters, 1-4. Dare I say that as often as I preach about the variability present in fantasy football, my approach to 2010 in this league was a lackadaisical in nature, certainly ending in what I believed to be a pre-ordained outcome of which I only had to go through the motions to ultimately achieve. It was understood by all. Resistance was futile.

If not for a turn of events on Monday night involving both Randy Moss and Percy Harvin, this team would have found itself 5.5 games out of first place and a realistic end to the 2010 campaign. Instead, I’m 3.5 games back with an outside chance – but a war I’m willing to fight.

What is to be learned through this this example?

I have mulled many a response. I could trade for a higher end QB, package multiple players for a front line stud or even mortgage future first round picks for sure-fire 2010 difference maker such as Arian Foster, Brandon Lloyd or Kyle Orton. Did you catch that? Therein lies the point.

You cannot afford to overreact to any situation related to your dynasty team. Sometimes you must accept that the variables of fantasy football are beyond your control. A team loaded with top five talent one year is, in no way, guaranteed of performing the same way in any following year. After much consternation and strategic thought, it is obviously in my best interest to simply close my browser and walk away. And sometimes you must do the same.

The season is still young, games are still to be played and anything can happen. All of these cliches appropriately apply to a start such as this, perhaps you have had a similar one. But regardless of the how’s or why’s of the situation, your response to them is critical. Sometimes you just need to walk away. Is it difficult? Absolutely! Should you? Absolutely. In the dynasty format, the best you can hope for is a young competing team. When you have assembled that, focus must be turned to the small moves that can help to keep the team competitive, not wholesale knee-jerk reactions to the variability of the format. Resist, at all cost, the need to make drastic in-season changes or moves that will have multiple season effects.

Regardless of the team or starting lineup that you have assembled, you are ultimately at the mercy of blind or bad luck, variability, injury and NFL team dynamic. The factors under your control don’t guarantee anything other than your ability to field a team each week. To expect anything else is a fool’s folly.

Sometimes the key to building a true dynasty team is an exercise in patience. Just walk away.

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Jeff Haverlack

Co-Founder at Dynasty League Football

Appreciative husband and proud father who poorly attempts to balance family life with his passion for creating the largest, most helpful and most impactful fantasy community on the planet! DLF was created for the community and we're committed to each member within it! Hope anyone playing this great game will call DLF home in some way!

You can find Jeff on Twitter at @dlf_jeff

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