Thanks to Josh Allen, the league does not have to suffer through another Robio Championship write up about myself. Thanks to the Bills quarterback treating the Patriots defense like a high school JV cheerleading squad, Jeff Greenblatt earns his first ever Robioland Football Title. He had produced two baseball championships.
THE GAME
Led by my postseason heroes, Lamar Jackson and Calvin Ridley (618 combined points), I was able to turn a 67% chance to lose into a 54% chance to win, thanks to some poor decisions by Jeff (Marvin Jones: 38 points) and poor performances (DK Metcalf: 118 points). Yet, in the end, Jeff’s big threes were simply too much to overcome. Montgomery, after a slow start finished with 302, Derrick Henry nearly hit 200 in a challenging game against the Packers and of course, Josh Allen scored 522 points. Jeff, who was sweating it out Sunday, sending out congratulations, ended up winning it by the third quarter of the Monday night game, 1,554-1,455. The 99-point victory was the fourth closest win in title game history.
THE RUNNER UP
In the end, the better team won, so it was just nice got reach the finals. I’m the first person to go to the title game in back-to-back seasons twice in his career and my nine trips there, is now one better than Griff. I got here, because first, Lamar Jackson finally started to play like he did last year, scoring 1,708 in his last four. Second, Calvin Ridley went elite, 1,156 in his last four. Yet, I was never able to solve my running back issues. Between Drake, Connor and Gibson, none managed to be consistent enough to deliver me the goods. Drake failed to live up to his 13th overall pick, just three 200-point games all year. Connor was again hurt. He scored over 200 four times, all before week seven, and was on my bench for his best game. Gibson was my best, coming on strong at the end, but he got hurt heading into the playoffs, killing any shot of having a RB1 in my lineup. Like I always say, this is still a running backs league.
Could better decisions have made a difference? Of course. This is fantasy. Sitting McKissic for Gibson cost me 106 points. I lost by 99. I also decided to pickup Pollard over Jeff Wilson. Pollard didn’t even start, as Elliot came back. Wilson had a career high 468 fantasy points. Not going to beat myself up too much over these calls. I will blame Neatock for not trading me Stefon Diggs at the trade deadline. Fuck Neatock. I hope his pets get cancer.
THE WINNER
When historians look back, they’ll see that I had Jeff ranked #1 in my preseason rankings and they’ll think, he did what was expected from him. Yet, we cannot forget, Jeff just won a championship basically without his first (4th overall) and second round pick. Michael Thomas was a non-factor all season. He was hurt half the time, did little when he finally got healthy and was stuck on Jeff’s bench throughout the postseason. George Kittle had one 280-point game and a 444-point game and that’s it. His season ended in week seven (he technically returned this week, but remained on Jeff’s bench). Hell, add in Amari Cooper to this conversation. Jeff’s fourth round pick spent most of the season riding his pine, as he was mostly worthless without Prescott.
So, how did we get here? Well, like so many great champions in this league, it begins the season before with keepers.
KEEPERS
Jeff kept Derrick Henry (round 3) and Austin Ekeler (round 13). He basically had his starting backfield without using his first two picks. Ekeler spent most of the season hurt and ended the year on Jeff’s pine, but he was a big reason for Jeff’s 4-0 start. Henry started slowly, but like last year, dominated down the stretch, finishing his 16 games with Greenblatt with 1,777 yards rushing.
MID-ROUND DRAFT DOMINATION
Well, perhaps not domination, but damn good picks. In rounds 5-6-7, Jeff selected DK Metcalf, David Montgomery and Josh Allen. The Seahawks receiver dominated all season, earning an All-Robio award, finishing with 1,280 yards and double digit scores. The Bills quarterback finished the full season as the third best QB in fantasy and he scored a stunning 522 points in the championship game, the fourth most points by a quarterback in a title game.
THE WIRE
Jeff landed Justin Herbert, who was his big grab of the year. The Chargers quarterback managed to start a few games this year and could prove to be a stud keeper for years.
PATIENCE
David Montgomery was a 6th round pick, but like the previous season, he struggled badly out of the gate. Through week 10, he averaged just 145 points per game. Lesser teams would have sent him packing. Yet, Jeff kept him stashed on his bench and it was huge. Starting in week 11, the Bears back produced one of the greatest turnarounds in league history. In his final five, he scored over 300 in all five games, averaging 361 points per game. He scored 746 points in the semifinals and finals, two games Jeff won by just 166 and 99 points.
FUN WITH STATS
Jeff started hot, appeared to flame out and then caught fire at the end. In Jeff’s first four and final five, his squad averaged 1,639 points per game, producing five games over 1,700, going 8-1 in those games. In the middle six game, starting in week five, Greenblatt went 2-4, broke 1,500 just once, averaging 1,310 per contest.
REPEAT?
Jeff earns the last pick in the first round, thus the first pick in the second round. With a couple of good keepers, Jeff should have four starters just two picks into the draft. So yeah, he can repeat. In category one, he has three huge choices. He can keep Henry in round three for one more year, David Montgomery for two in the sixth or Josh Allen one round later. It probably won’t be Allen, as I’m 100% confident Jeff will keep Justin Herbert in category two (8th round).
Anyhow, congratulations…welcome to the Mug Club. This leaves Eric, Colby, Masterson and Michael as the only teams without the Football Hardware.