Coronavirus screws everything up
Fantasy playoffs looming as COVID wreaks havoc on league
Afew things to top off our weekly fantasy gibber gabber:
No. 1: That Patriots-Cardinals game was worse than my food coma on Thanksgiving. The Pats offense is a dumpster fire, especially Cam Newton and N’Keal Harry. No. 2: It was fun playing you in fantasy this week, Bruce. Derrick Henry was just a powerhouse ... some weeks he doesn’t show up, but when he does ... MAN. No. 3: Here is where I go on a rant ...
WHY in the literal world are the players still allowed to shake hands and interact after the games? We are in a pandemic. The NBA was quarantined for an entire season in a bubble, and the players are out here hugging and talking face-to-face — many times without masks on. No wonder the NFL is still dealing with COVID breakouts. I mean — look at Baltimore and Pittsburgh, it’s scary. We may not be able to finish this 2020 season if that continues. What are your thoughts?
BC: Re: Pats-Cards ... what in my mind makes the NFL the best sport to follow is the scarcity of games. Baseball plays every day. NBA, NHL, every day. And even though this year we have Tuesday and Wednesday football, that’s not normal.
So the games are precious. And if you blow one, it always comes back to bite you. Cam was stopped short in Seattle, couldn’t play in KC, was clearly off his game against Denver, fumbled in Buffalo. I’m not blaming those losses on Cam — three of those teams are just better. But losing at home to Denver, as well as losing to a marginal Texans team — those are bad losses, and now they have to get some divinity to get back to the playoffs. That’s two wins they gave away. Get the Pats to 7-4 and they’re a lock to play on. Instead, they have a long road. Kudos on your win; my team is just not that great. Although having Patrick Mahomes has been fun, he just can’t carry my talentless clods by himself. Although allowing more than 105 points per game hasn’t helped. That’s the worst in our league. Time to fire the defensive coordinator.
Now on to that elephant in the room:
The NFL is a monster, and it does what it wants. It’s why they used to market themselves for hard hits, then when CTE became too big to ignore they moved away from that sort of attention. The average lifespan of an NFL career is less than four years. People don’t think about that because they see Tom Brady, Drew Brees, etc. around year after year. But for the rank and file, the NFL is a meat grinder that chews up and spits out players year after year. If you’re a backup at any position — and NFL teams have 30 of those guys on a roster at all times — someone is right on your tail trying to take your job ASAP.
And for the lousy teams it’s even worse. Someone years ago said NFL stands for “Not For Long,” and in the case of players, the stay is.
We’ve got this global disease. A lot of players said no thanks and opted out. There was no minicamp, no OTAs, no preseason camp or games. You can’t freelance in football. Everyone has to be on the same page. COVID trashed all that.
So you got slow development and it’s hurt a lot of teams. And the lack of all that preparation, in my mind, has also contributed to the excessive amount of injuries that players have sustained this year. It’s been awful.
And that’s for real football! At least in fantasy, you can grab some free agents so you don’t have to play a QB who hasn’t played since 2015.
OK, for those of y’all about to get into the playoffs, any advice? Here’s mine:
1. Don’t chase your own tail, meaning don’t get cute. Your horses are your horses. If you have reliable guys, steady guys, ride ‘em. Doesn’t matter if you’re up against a good defense, play the studs.
2. It’s OK to stream D/ST or kickers, though. I picked up Younghoe Koo last week and he lit it up. Kickers are worth gambling on.
3. My superstar league in Dallas back in the day had weekly payouts to keep people engaged. That’s a good guardrail against people checking out and worth considering for your leagues next year.
4. Another thing I did in leagues before is stretch playoff games over two weeks, so if a guy gets hurt it doesn’t wreck your whole season. You still have a shot to make it up next week. This also rewards managers who have accumulated deep teams.
AI: I couldn’t agree more with all of this.
1. Got to go with the old reliable, always.
2. D/ST I change up every single week. I never keep a D week to week unless they have back-to-back weak matchups. I also dropped the best kicker in the league in Justin Tucker because the Ravens haven’t been kicking as many field goals as other teams have ... so it means I leaned on kickers on squads that are kicking-heavy.
3. I would’ve loved these incentives. Can we make up for lost time? lol
4. I love the playoff stretch. Smartest GM move to date. My biggest piece of playoff advice is do your research. Make sure you’re keeping tabs on the happenings in the league and make SMART decisions. Don’t always blindly rely on who you think will do well if there’s news on a bench player that makes them a top candidate for that week. Monitor the wire and your bench. You never know what may happen.