Letter From The Pyro® League Champ- d-Rx 12/29/11

Letter from the Champ

After draft day I felt very strong about my team. I felt I had enough consistent fantasy performers to go along some high risk high reward breakout candidates, some ended up being solid picks and like any team many were flops. After the draft my team looked something like this:

1.       (4)          Ray Rice (Bal - RB)

2.      (17)        Matt Forte (Chi - RB)

3.      (24)        Philip Rivers (SD - QB) X

4.      (37)        DeSean Jackson (Phi - WR)

5.      (44)        Chad Ochocinco (NE - WR) X

6.      (57)        Marques Colston (NO - WR)

7.      (64)        Owen Daniels (Hou - TE) X

8.      (77)        Fred Jackson (Buf - RB) X

9.      (84)        Steve Smith (Car - WR)

10.   (97)        Malcom Floyd (SD - WR) X

11.   (104)     Danny Woodhead (NE - RB) X

12.   (117)     New York (NYJ - DEF)

13.   (124)     Stephen Gostkowski (NE - K) X

14.   (137)     Joe Flacco (Bal - QB)

15.   (144)     Brandon Pettigrew (Det - TE)

16.   (157)     Mohamed Massaquoi (Cle – WR) X

The key to a draft is always in rounds 8-12, and I got two big steals here. The absolute steal of this draft for me was Steve Smith (Car) a guy who I was high on and got in the 9^th round. The other big steal for me was Fred Jackson, he would probably be my top steal if I wasn’t loaded at the RB position.

Half of these players would be dropped or traded during the season to put me in the best position possible. Houdini and I hooked up for a trade that would have been beneficial for both parties. I sent Philip Rivers and Fred Jackson to Houdini for Tom Brady and Andre Johnson. In a PPR league I was really lacking a true number one receiver and had a surplus of backs, so packaging one (Jackson) with Rivers I thought would bring an upgrade at WR and QB as I was getting leery of Rivers’ shaky performance this season. Tom Brady ended up being the prize of the trade and put up great numbers throughout his time on my squad.

My first big addition to the team was Rob Gronkowski, after the first week Owen Daniels put up a huge stinker and I was concerned about his injury history, I may have reacted hastily on this but it allowed me to pick up the guy who in my book is the Fantasy MVP this season. Gronk put up huge numbers this season and carried my team to victory some weeks.

A week later I had been looking for some improvement at the WR position and picked up Devery Henderson while the iron was hot and rode that until he sizzled out after a few weeks. I did this by dropping Massaquoi and saving the injured Colston for his few weeks while injured.

Always looking for a little help at the WR position I then picked up Nate Washington, he had already had a few solid games and with Britt going down with an injury I knew he was going to be in line for a few extra targets each game. This paid off big as I was able to pencil him into my starting line up week after week and he was routinely putting up solid numbers.

A few weeks later I swapped pass catchers from the backfield, picking up Pierre Thomas off waivers for Danny Woodhead. Woodhead I though was going to be a darling and have another solid season for the Pats but is it just me or did Belicheck turn into Mike Shanahan 2.0 and ruin some fantasy teams this season. At this point Thomas was no more than a bye week fill in for me until the Forte injury that put him in my starting lineup in the playoffs.

Around week 7 I finally gave up on Ochocinco, I thought the man was going to have a HUGE year but man was I wrong on this one. I dropped him and picked back up Pettigrew who I had dropped a few weeks earlier to have a nice bye week fill in.

I was also able to pick up Peyton Hillis, a guy who I absolutely despised in the draft, but with Forte’s injury happening at the wrong time I thought I could do much worse, and the one week he had a favorable matchup I went with my gut and played him even when all the experts said he was no better than a flex play, he scored a big game that week for good measure.

The other move I made was picking up Cincy’s D as a bye week fill in and also for certain matchups. This ended up working out well and scoring nicely for me a few weeks.

The rest of my season was spent picking up Kickers and trading them out like used socks. No one really stuck on my roster that long at this position, but I will give a shout out to Rob Bironas for his 15 point effort in the championship.

In the championship game my roster looked something like this:

QB – Tom Brady

WR – Steve Smith

WR – Nate Washington

WR – Desean Jackson

RB – Ray Rice

RB – Pierre Thomas

TE – Rob Gronkowski

K – Rob Bironas

DEF/ST – NY Jets

BN – Matt Forte

BN - Peyton Hillis

BN – Andre Johnson

BN – Desean Jackson

BN – Joe Flacco

BN – Brandon Pettigrew

BN – Ben Tate

They say the key too winning PPR leagues is having 1,000 yard receivers. I only had one true WR rack up 1,000 yards (Steve Smith, 1,308), and of course Gronkowki (1,219). Three of my receivers came close to the mark: D-Jax (875), Colston (998), and Washington (931). However, I tend to disagree having multiple pass catching backs (Rice, Forte, and Thomas) is the real key to victory. When these guys score 25+ points a game each your team is almost unbeatable. Pair them with a great QB, and a few number 1 wideouts (or number 2s on great passing teams) and you have the makings of a championship roster.

by Stagalicious

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-d-Rx12/29/11