Its that time of year, one where we all spend mindless days reminiscing about the year gone by and promising to ensure this year will be the year, and for 13 GMRRFFA owners that’s absolutely the case. We saw a dramatic championship run from the unlikeliest of Filipino contenders, disappointing finishes for many, and a belt that remains simply out of the grasp of all of us (technically, the Sausage King owns the belt metaphorically).
As highlighted earlier this week, the 2018 season was nothing short of memorable:
And while we look to 2019 as the year in which we straighten out our fantasy football lives, can we simply ignore the outcomes that led us to such disappointing 2018 seasons? The legendary Oscar Wilde once said:
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
And if the 2018 season taught us anything, the Sausage King, the rightful holder of the metaphoric belt, certainly learned from his past mistakes. As you’ll recall, the reigning champ blundered in fantastic fashion the previous year:
[I don’t fault the Sausage King for] blowing his budget on David Johnson and LeVeon Bell, even when Johnson went down. Tough luck regarding Chris Thompson going down… so, why’s the RB-deprived owner here? Simple; Alvin Kamara. [SK] drafted him for $2 way back in August, only to drop him at the beginning of September for Saints back up John Williams, who hasn’t touched the ball all season and spent time on the Broncos’ practice squad before returning to the Saints. Meanwhile, the rookie Kamara is the 3rd-best RB in the league averages 20 points per week and has been in double digits every game starting in Week 3. You know who thanks [the SK] for this disaster? Eric Garcia, who has the rookie’s keeper rights through 2019.
To that end, I bring to you the SECOND ANNUAL KAMARA-WILLIAMS AWARDS, honoring the single-handed worst personnel decisions of the 2018 season. It is an exciting time, and this year, we’ve upped the ante slightly into SEVEN categories, going from least important to most important categories:
Worst Trade Involving the Commissioner
Lamest Trade of the Year
Worst Keeper of the Season
Worst Draft Pick of the Season
Worst Trade of the Season
Worst Personnel Manager of the Season
Worst Transaction of the Season
As a recipient of a Commissioner of the Year award by my owners previously (thanks again!), I feel its my duty to honor the owners in the annual post-season pageantry. To that end, back in late-November (ironically pre-trade deadline), I pined through many of the transactions and noticed a few common owners – Mark Hutchinson (a lot), the Unicorn (a lot), and Makese (sorry but congrats on the new gig!).
Then the deadline passed and damn, those first two names popped up again faster than Toby Kobach’s cough (too soon?). In any case, I was thrilled that I didn’t need to revisit draft and keeper decisions, but the worst trade contest was certainly was literally picking the best of the ’92 Dream Team participants (ie there’s a lot to choose from).
To that end, let’s dive right to it…
Worst Trade Involving the Commissioner
Proudly boasting 12 individual trades (tied with Garcia for first), the Commissioner had a ton to choose from. I recognize this is somewhat self-defeating, highlighting yet again some ill-advised trades by owners, but the plaque-recipient Commissioner of the Year must stay true to the cause.
The award finalists boiled down to only a handful of deals, most notably Mark Hutchinson dealing Julian Edelman (and Spencer Ware) to the Commish for Sammy Watkins and Jordan Howard plus Makese swapping cheap keeper Cooper Kupp for Derrick Henry (the Commish’s trade for Henry probably got some votes here too) and Michael Crabtree.
Why you ask? In Mark’s case, he traded Edelman – a top-20 WR averaging 17 points per game – for a three-week rental on Watkins, who he started just once in those three weeks, before packaging him for 1.7 points total from AJG, and Howard, who he shipped out 2 days later with $20 draft dollars for Jarvis Landry and Carlos Hyde’s corpse to Fredo. To recap, he sent away Edelman (roughly the same performance, if not better than Landry), and subsequently had to send $20 draft dollars away to get a replacement.
In Makese’s case, after the fact, it doesn’t seem so egregious, but it still is. Desperate for players, he sent away an injured Kupp (a $27 ’19 keeper and top-20 WR) for Henry and Crabtree ahead of Week 12, and subsequently never played either player for the playoff run, including the 23.5 points per game Henry averaged in the final five weeks of the season. Instead, he leaned heavily on… LeSean McCoy, who averaged just 4 points per week in that same time frame. Oh wait, LeSean McCoy was traded to Makese by… the Commish for $25 draft dollars.
The Winner is: Makese for the win – the double poo-poo platter makes it hard to ignore.
Lamest Trade of the Year
Let’s not spend too much time on this, because there’s only a few legit contenders:
Stabs sending Carlos LeGarrette Blount to Carlos for Ben Watson
Toby Kobach sending CJ Uzimoah to Smeet for Robbie Gould and $4 draft dollars
Garcia sending the Houston Kicker to Smeet for an Atlanta Kicker (I’m not even pretending to look up the names).
The Winner is: The Stabs/Carlos deal, largely because I don’t want Smeet thinking he won anything in 2018, besides the hearts and minds of the Smeet fan club.
Worst Keeper of the Season
This is a really tough one, most notably because no one spent money on a kicker in 2018. More so, there were a lot of circumstances that simply couldn’t be predicted. I do not fault the Sausage King for the $92 Le'Veon Bell keeper, but that turned out to be wasted money for the eventual champ.
Some curious QB keepers included Mark Hutchinson keeping Alex Smith for $10, the Unicorn hanging on to Russell Wilson for $24, and Makese keeping two QBs, notably Jameis for $16. Otherwise, the most challenging were FIL dropping $27 on Jay Ajayi and Toby keeping $11 for Robby Anderson.
The Winner is: I guess Makese keeping Jameis, but only because he already kept Big Ben for $20. Strategically, it didn’t make sense given the trends of the league and this is what I said in my initial post-keepers power rankings:
I get keeping Big Ben for a reasonable $20, and I probably would’ve moved Makese up the rankings to low double digits if he had, but wasting $16 on Winston, who would likely have gone for $1 at the end of the draft seems dubious. There’s no guarantee he’ll be any good this year, when he comes back from a 3-game suspension. It’s the epitome of a head scratcher. What’s worse? He spent valuable draft dollars on two players when only one will actually play every week.
Worst Draft Pick of the Season
Ok, now we can finally start making legitimate gripes about non-sensical decision making, but its still a little difficult to judge too much in a vacuum as some of these players moved on in owners’ personnel decisions, but here’s some darlings for you:
Mark Hutchinson drafting Gronk for $67 – I get it, he’s a big name who had some solid years but the wheels had been coming off previous to 2018. The Pats were even about to trade him to the Lions last spring before Gronk caught wind and threatened to retire. That said, $67 for the 10th best TE was… extreme. Kelce went for $44, Ertz went for $29, Kittle and Ebron were undrafted, Cook and Hooper went for $1, Rudolph and Burton went for $15, and Njoku went for $7. All told, the top 9 tight ends cost on average for $12.
Mark Hutchinson drafting Rex Burkehead for $35 – If Rex wasn’t part of the initial Baldwin trade that landed Mark OBJ, this would be a no-brainer but let me pose this question: which is greater, the $35 Mark spent on Rex or the total number of points Rex scored this season? The answer is Rex’s 49 points but not too impressive.
The Commish drafting LeSean McCoy for $77 – Remember when I attempted an infinite number of trades that McCoy was one of only three RBs to finish top-10 back-to-back seasons? The seven weeks of McCoy was an awful experience, where he produced less than 46 points combined.
A few honorable mentions include Toby drafting Larry Fitz for $62, Stabs nabbing Devonta Freeman for $81, and Garcia overspending bigly on Rodgers at $45.
The winner is: solely because of splits votes for Mark Hutchinson, but the Commish in a landslide. If I hadn’t turned McCoy in to $25 draft dollars I’d be drinking rubbing alcohol right now. Panic drafting and overpaying for any Buffalo Bill not names Thurman Thomas is an unfortunate event. Let’s just move on.
Worst Trade of the Season
In the first 42 trades, I had a list of about ten that would be deemed too lop-sided and initially it felt like Fredo sending Golden Tate to Garcia for Chris Hogan and $20 draft dollars was the leading contender, but then real life happened as Tate landed with the Eagles and he pretty much sucked.
Then the GMRRFFA deadline happened and things got hairy. So, let’s dive in to some of the nominees…
The Unicorn sends Russell Wilson and Matte Breida to the Sausage King for Cam Newton – Any time I get to create a meme you know its bad. Pre-trade, Cam averaged 27 points per game; post-trade, he dropped to just 12 points. Ouch…
Mark Hutchinson trades Patrick Mahomes and Nick Chubb to Stabs for Alvin Kamara – Look, I get it I think. The CPA swapped Tarik Cohen and $7 to Stabs for DeShaun Watson, so he can trade only the third QB in NFL history to throw for 50 touchdowns who will cost $16 next year plus a $37 Chubb next year for a cheap Alvin Kamara contract. Actually, no, none of this makes sense…
Makese trades Sanu and $25 draft dollars for McCoy – We discussed this above but it stands out like none other. I’ve spent more time discussing McCoy today than anyone could imagine, but it is what it is.
Honorable Mention trades include Toby sending OBJ to Mark Hutchinson for Doug Baldwin and Dion Lewis… Garcia shipping Andrew Luck and Royce Freeman for Tom Brady… and the Edelman for Watkins/Howard deal mentioned earlier.
The Winner is: If the Unicorn was aware that Cam turned 62 ahead of the trade, then it’d be his to own, but Mark Hutchinson earned this one… Giving up a CHEAP Mahomes, who averaged six points more per game than the next ranked QB and nearly ten points more than Mark’s Watson replacement will haunt the Dorne squad in to next season.
Worst Transaction of the Season
Look, I’m cheating by creating two very similar awards like the NFL does with MVP and Offensive Player of the Year – how can Mahomes not be both in 2018?
The Winner is: Its pure and simple, the worst personnel decision of the year goes squarely to the Unicorn, who comically sent away Ezekial Eliot for Aaron Rodgers, TJ Yeldon, and Golden Tate despite the following facts:
He already had Russell Wilson at QB
Acquiring Yeldon despite Fournette returning (side note: Yeldon averaged just 6.2 points after this trade; Zeke averaged 23 points)
Golden Tate was already rumored to be potential trade bait and subsequently traded to the Eagles a few days later, and posted just one double digit total the remainder of the season.
The trade was the ultimate embarrassment and can not be ignored.
Worst Personnel Manager of the Season
So, here we are, the inaugural Kamara Williams Award for Worst Personnel Manager of the 2018 GMRRFFA season. There’s a few candidates, including Makese and the Commish, who were courtesy nominees, but this is a race among two horses… Let’s check the tale of the tape:
The Unicorn
Worst Keeper: Russell Wilson ($24)
Worst Trade: Zeke for Yeldon/Rodgers/Tate; Wilson/Brieda for Cam
Positive Notes: Traded Nuk for $62
Strategy: Boasting a need for consistent scoring after Week 7, the Unicorn shipped out Nuk wisely, but subsequently shipped out Zeke, Wilson, Brieda, and Evan Engram for Cam, Rodgers, Yeldon, Tate, and Jimmy Graham. Post-Zeke trade, the Unicorn’s scoring dipped from 108 to 100.5.
Mark Hutchinson
Worst Keeper: Alex Smith ($10), Rex Burkhead ($35)
Worst Trade: Mahomes/Chubb for Kamara; Edelman for Watkins/Howard; Thomas/Ebron for Nuk/Kittle/Cohen
Positive Notes: Traded for OBJ
Strategy: If you could deduce Mark’s strategy, please send me your notes. The CPA’s fantasy football strategy is like a kid with poison ivy, scratching for instant relief only to spread the itchiness to other places on the body.
In a vacuum, identifying Kamara as a cheap keeper makes sense, except Mr. Hutchinson had that cheap keeper in Michael Thomas, who he traded for Nuk and Kittle (after spending $67 on Gronk) along with Ebron, essentially a wash beyond Thomas being a $30 keeper compared to Kittle at $10 (always nab the cheap WR).
Also, if he was concerned with cheap keepers, he had them in the best QB in the league (Mahomes) and a promising yet slightly more expensive RB (Chubb).
Essentially, post-OBJ trade, Mark Hutchinson traded away Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Chubb, Tarik Cohen, Chris Carson, Michael Thomas, Corey Davis, Julian Edelman, and Eric Ebron. In return, Mark received Deshaun Watson (downgrade), Jarvis Landry, an injured AJG, Nuk, Kamara, and Kittle. Oh, and $75 future draft dollars.
And, the Winner is: The Unicorn makes an admirable case, but this is all Mark Hutchinson’s to enjoy. Which team would you rather have had this past season (keeper values for next year in parenthesis)?
Team A: Mahomes ($16), Chubb ($37), Cohen ($39), Carson ($27), Thomas ($32), Davis ($36), Edelman ($26), Ebron ($10), $300 draft dollars in 2019
Keeping Mahomes/Chubb/Thomas costs: $85
Team B: Watson ($37), Kamara ($22), Jarvis Landry ($44), Nuk ($88), an injured AJG ($107), Kittle ($10), $225 draft dollars in 2019.
This is a sobering analysis for many, especially Mr. Hutchinson. Yet, in the words of the great Oscar Wilde again:
I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.
Happy New Year everyone!