Lineup Advice: Week 15 – Review, Playoffs & Life Lesson
Week 15 – (PLEASE READ)
Bye:Â None
First and foremast, I’m wishing you and your family the most joyous, safe and healthy holiday season imaginable! As it turns out, today is the 20th anniversary of my wife’s passing from leukemia. 20 years ago today I became a single father to a two-year old and my life was turned upside down. It challenged me to the core on many levels and nothing in life seemed certain anymore. I learned powerful lessons about the love and support of my friends and community, not losing my optimism, the promises of a new day and to never, ever, take our time or those close to us for granted. If at no other time, use these holidays to let those close to you know how much they mean to you.
We say goodbye to the regular season, bye weeks and get ready for the playoffs. But first, a little recap.
I’m in a total of 12 longer running dynasty leagues and two orphans that I picked up in the last year. The orphan teams were bad-bad and I’m going to need 2-3 years to rebuild these. In those two leagues I finished 18-22 and, quite honestly, I’m not sure how one of those teams finished 5-9. I counted on being worse and securing a better draft pick. The other league plays double-headers each week and I finished 13-13, just out of the playoffs. Quite unexpected that I had a .500 record in that league. I like picking up orphan teams every now and then just for the fun of the rebuild and to test my strategies. I give myself three years for a rebuild and then I’ll include them in my end of year recap and review.
In my other 10 dynasty leagues, I finished a combined 91-49. Of these 10 leagues, only one team finished under .500, that being a team which made the quarter finals in 2020 but finished 2021 at 3-11 due to a loss of running backs, poor fantasy production by Patrick Mahomes and anchored (true to the word) by Brandon Aiyuk, Kenny Golladay, Allen Robinson, Amari Cooper and Marquise Brown. That’s just not going to get it done. But, the silver lining is that I will have the top pick in the draft and I still have a good youth core.
Of these 10 teams, I made the playoffs in eight, highlighted by three 12-2 teams, one 10-4 team and three 9-5 teams. Strangely enough, the team which I feel is most stacked with talent finished 7-7, again behind Patrick Mahomes and Cam Akers at running back. Other names such as Fournette, Antonio Gibson, Edwards-Helaire, Ezekiel Elliott, Hopkins, Lamb, Jeudy, Allen Robinson, Van Jefferson, etc. How that team finished 7-7 I’ll never know, but this team has been ‘cursed’ in the playoffs for the past three years as a top seed. This year I squeaked into the playoffs so I’m hoping that reversal of regular-season fortune, improves my post-season prospects. We’ll see.
One of the teams not making the playoffs is my longest running dynasty league, the one that launched DLF in fact, and the only league I use to amass my favorite players instead of focusing on being competitive. You can read more about that league here:
https://dynastyleaguefootball.com/2020/05/26/make-fantasy-fun-again/
I guess the take-away here is that there is a disconnect between my favorite players and the best players. This is the league and the players I watch on Sundays, the league where I collect draft picks, etc., in order to ensure I capture the most fun year-round in this great hobby of ours. Again, I highly recommend reading the linked article just above and consider doing something similar. It may have saved my fantasy enjoyment and involvment.
In any event, I’m pleased with my team’s performances this year and will be recapping how they do in the playoffs. It’s been an odd year with unfortunate injuries, Covid-related absences and a surprising amount of parity across the NFL. Just try to figure out which teams are going to the Super Bowl this year. Something tells me there are going to be significant surprises in our fantasy playoff weeks as well. Good luck out there.
I’ll be doing a lineup recap at the end of the season where I look back at my advice, some of the notable players which gave me fits and may have been instrumental in your wins and losses. Until then, good luck in the playoffs!
As always, get your questions in early and be sure to label your scoring system and “TNF” players.
Please focus on these following items this week for me to help me get to all the questions:
- Put “TNF” as the top line for any question involving Thursday Night Football games
- Include your scoring format (PPR, Non-PPR, etc.)
- Keep your questions as brief as possible – I won’t have the screens I’m used to over the next three weeks
- I always try to keep up with responses but, when in doubt, if you have an update post a new question
- Include your “lock” picks of the week who I should be betting on for this week’s games
Have a great week!
You can find Jeff on Twitter at @dlf_jeff
- Lineup Advice: Wrap-up, Thank You and Goodbye (TTFN) - January 1, 2024
- Lineup Advice: Week 17 – Championship Edition - December 26, 2023
- Lineup Advice: Week 16 – The “What is” Edition - December 19, 2023
