He’s tall, he’s bald and he was voted most likely to overbid on every item on The Price is Right…he’s Matt Neatock.

Unable to live down an attempt to draft Torry Holt (a top-5 wide receiver at the time) in the 12th round, Matt’s reputation has suffered for years, yet this is a guy who has had great success in this league. He’s won multiple championships (just one of four people to do that) and he’s put together some of the best teams the league has seen. Of course, he’s also a guy who has missed the playoffs five times, including twice in the season’s final weekend.

Lately, at least over the last two years, he’s really moved ahead of the pack among the mid-level talents in this league. He’s produced back-to-back 8-5 seasons, he’s scored well, crushed Masterson’s dream in the quarterfinals the past two playoffs and came without one-point of winning a third title in 2014.

For Matt moving forward, it’s about not losing focus and letting it all slip away, because he over-extends himself with 47 other fantasy football leagues. This was best seen in his 2015 keepers, which were easily his worst batch he’s ever kept. Luckily for him, his beloved Rams moved out of St. Louis, so that should free up some research time.

BY THE NUMBERS

THREE GREATEST MOMENTS

Although technically not one moment, I believe it’s worth a mention. No one has had more success drafting keeper worthy players than Matt Neatock. He has kept four players who ended up #1 at their position that year and not one of them was kept in round one: Carson Palmer (2005, Rd 11), Randy Moss (2007, Rd 3), Aaron Rodgers (2010, Rd 10) and LeSean McCoy (2011, Rd 9). Seven of Matt’s first eight career keepers finished the year with an All-Robio award and overall, 15 keepers total have earned an All-Robio award. He’s had six category three players finish in the top-10 at their position.
Matt has made some good decisions during the back end of the draft, but my personal favorite that has to be considered a great moment started back in 2007. In the 10th round of that draft, Matt snagged Aaron Rodgers, who would be starting for the first time in his career in Green Bay. It proved to be a great pick, as Rodgers finished 5th that season, second in 2009 and then first overall in 2010. Obviously, Matt kept Rodgers in both those seasons. Yet, Matt wasn’t satisfied and actually traded Rodgers away in week three of the 2010 season to Calderon for LeSean McCoy. The Eagles running back was the league’s fifth best running back that year and best yet, Matt could keep him another season. He did and McCoy, as a ninth round keeper, finished 1st among all running backs. That’s a pretty solid four-year run, thanks to good decision making.
Matt won two titles and those are clearly great moments, but there have been plenty of write ups about those on this site. Go find them. I want to dig deeper and find moments that might have been lost in time. For example, the way Matt ended the 2010 season. Coming off a second title in three seasons, Matt was in a good spot to repeat. He started the season with three straight wins and sat at 5-2 at one point. However, he dropped back-to-back games, having broke 1,500 just once all season and suddenly, he doesn’t look too impressive. Yet, in the final month of the season, Matt put together a collection four games barely seen before and certainly not after. In four straight wins, Matt scored 1,877, 1,829, 1,698 and 2,011. That’s a total of 7,415 points in four games. Now I’ve scored more than that twice in my career, but they came in 1999 and 2000. If we only want to count what’s happened since the current league members have been in, that’s the points scored in a four-game stretch.

THREE WORST MOMENTS

Let’s get started with the obvious, because when you lose a title game by a single point, it has to be first. The year was 2014 and Bob was a beast. He was Robioland’s New England Patriots, trying to win his third title in four seasons. Yet, here was Matt, within reach of slaying the monster, blowing up the Death Star, ending the greatest season ever with a loss. Hell, he wasn’t just within reach, he had it in the bag. Heading into the fourth quarter of the final game, Matt was down just one point. He had the Broncos kicker and Demaryius Thomas. Bob had no one. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when. But…because there’s always a but when facing Bob, Demaryius only caught one pass in the fourth and that one catch was erased due to a penalty. Later, Peyton Manning would drive the Broncos into field goal range twice, only to throw interceptions. Matt would never get that one point, failing to earn that third career title.
Lost in history is a little known fact that in 2013, Matt may have had one of the most dangerous teams out there. It certainly didn’t start that way. Matt began the season with a weekly low score, losing his first three. He did win back-to-back in weeks four and five, but those were against those two Vozzola guys, who both helped by scoring weekly low scores. Matt would end up losing another three in a row and at 2-6, looked toast. Then suddenly, led by his Philly connection of Nick Foles and DeSean Jackson, plus Demaryius Thomas, Matt Forte and stud keepers, Eddie Lacy and Tony Gonzalez, Matt turned dangerous. He scored 2,207 points in a win over Griff. He followed that up with 1,576 in victory over Jeff and then 1,631 taking down Bob. The 5,414 points scored was some of the most points scored over a three-game stretch. In week 12, he beat Calderon, scoring a solid 1,421. Matt had won four in a row, all against playoff teams and at 6-6, had moved one game ahead of Bob and Jeff for the final playoff spot in the season’s final week. If he won in week 13, he was in as a very dangerous lower seed. If he lost, then he would need either Bob or Jeff to lose, since they best him in total points. Unfortunately for Matt, those two didn’t play along, both winning. This meant all Matt had to do was beat me. Problem was, I was the current top seed, second in scoring, currently riding a stunning 11-game winning streak. For me, this was a game I had to win, as I would have had Matt as the playoff favorite if he got in. Well, for the first time in five weeks, Matt’s team came up small and lost by just 15 points (1,292 – 1,277) and just like that, a potentially historic team became a non-playoff footnote.
Okay, it’s one thing to be kept out of the playoffs because you couldn’t beat a 12-1 team in the season’s final week. What would hurt is if you are in a position to make the playoffs and all you have to do is beat a 3-9 team. Speaking of…in 2012 Matt was 6-6 heading into week 13, tied with Molly, Masterson and Bob, one game up on Burrier. The problem was, out of all those, Matt was the lowest in total points (by a lot) and one team had to get left out of the playoffs. Well, everyone did what they had to do. Molly won, Masterson did too, as did Bob. Even Burrier managed to find a W over Colby. Now all Matt had to do was beat a three-win Don team. It should have been easy. Matt was heating up, winning three in a row, while Don was riding a six-game losing streak. Sadly for Neatock, those streaks both ended when Don beat Matt, 1,617 – 1,307. It was only the second time in 54 games that Don had broken 1,600 points. Ouch. Just like that, Matt was watching the post-season from home.

HISTORIC MOMENTS

We’ve already talked about it, but here is a more detailed take on Matt losing the greatest game in league history.
Sadly for him, Matt wa a loser during the league’s greatest weekend.
At the time, this streak seemed like a big deal.
Remains arguable one of the greatest teams ever put together.
Yet another streak that was big at the time, but has been blown away by Bob.
Matt joins the modern era.

LEAGUE RECORDS

Matt has three of the highest scoring games in the top-10. He scored 2,207 in a win over Griff in 2009 (#10). He scored 2,275 in a win over Masterson in 2014 (#5) and he scored 2,338 in a win over Bob back in 2007 (#2).
Matt beat Griff by 1,334 points (2,207 – 873) back in 2013, the fifth largest ass-kicking in league history.
Matt is one of three people to lose a game by a single point, when he fell to Bob, 1,495 – 1,494. Of course, he’s the only one to do it in a title game.
Matt’s 24,849 total points in regular and post-season is the second most points scored.
Matt has three of the top seven 1,000-pt streaks. He produced 29 straight in 2010-12 (3rd longest) and 24 straight twice (7th longest) in 2003-04, 2008-10.
Matt’s 12 straight games scoring over 1,250 is the league’s fourth longest streak.
Matt once went 50 weeks without a weekly low score. That’s the third longest streak in league history.

FAVORITE & NOT FAVORITE OPPONENT

Matt has had success against Burrier, taking 11 of 18, but he’s 0-2 in the post-season against his rival. He’s doubled up Griff (8-4), having won three in a row until Griff beat him in last year’s semifinals. Yet, Matt’s favorite foe is Jeff. He’s crushed it, going 8-2 in the series. He lost his first meeting against Jeff back in 2003, then won eight in a row, before losing in week thirteen of last year.
Matt has two opponents he should hate to see. First up is Colby. He’s just 5-10 against Mr. Hall, having lost three in a row, going 0-2 in the post-season against him in his career. Second is me. Matt is just 6-11 against me, yet this series use to be more lopsided, since Matt has actually won three in as row.

GREATEST PLAYER

I’ve already talked about all the good Aaron Rodgers did for Matt. He finished 5th, 2nd and 1st as a 10th round keeper, yet Matt did trade him away early in 2010. So let’s go ahead and say Matt’s greatest player was Adrian Peterson. The Vikings’ rookie back was taken late in the second round (at the time seemed a round or two early). Well, Peterson would finish the season as the 3rd best back in football. Matt would keep him the next two seasons and he would finish a solid fifth and fourth (earning two 2nd-team All-Robio awards and one 3rd-team All-Robio award). More importantly, he anchored two championship teams in 2007 and 2009.

FUN FACT

Matt’s 2008 season remains the second worst title defense in league history (only behind Bob’s 2004). He won just 3 games, averaging just 1,090 points per contest.
Matt is second in trades, averaging 2.15 per season, just behind me (2.29) and Colby (2.23). 2008 is the only season he didn’t perform a trade (it was also his worst season in the league).
Matt has had three 1st-team All-Robio wide receivers, but never a 1st-team tight end.
I’ve had the most All-Robio running backs (14) and Griff is second (12). However, Matt is third with 12 and he’s been in the league four years less than Griff and I.
Matt has had just six weekly low scores in his career out of 158 games (3.8%). Only Calderon has had less.

2016 Team Rankings: #4 Matt Neatock

July 20, 2016