Fantasy Football: Start’em / Sit’em Recap
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Last week: 21-14-1, Season: 307-181-34 (63%)
2015 Start’em / Sit’em Recap: I finished the season strong with a 21-14 record on my championship week picks, a 63% success rate for the season and 16 consecutive weeks at .500 or better. I hope I was able to help some of you win your leagues this season. Thanks to all my readers for checking out my picks every week and for all of your comments and tweets. I was 9% more accurate on my picks this season than last and hopefully next year will be even better, so I hope to see back in 2015. Happy holidays!
I broke down the players by position that consistently out performed their projected Yahoo point totals below and those who disappointed most often as well. Keep those players in mind for next year as they will probably end up over or under valued again next season.
Top 5 Starts:
QB – Russell Wilson, Seahawks
Finished the season with the 4th highest fantasy point total of all QBs and had the best point differential above his projected total for the season. For some reason Wilson was owned in less than 60% of leagues for most of 2014 despite having four games with over 32 fantasy points. Wilson rewarded his owners with a 33 point game in the first round of the playoffs and a clutch 40 point outing in championship week.
Honorable mention – Jay Cutler, Bears
I can’t think of a player with a wider gap between fantasy and real-life performance. Despite Cutler’s struggles for the Bears, he was a solid fantasy QB. He only missed his projected point total in 3 of 15 starts due to some garbage time heroics in multiple games. His bad first halves were very stressful for his owners and his week 16 benching was a death blow for those counting on Cutler in the championship. I was forced to start RG3 in one league, which ended up being my only championship loss. Cutler finished the season as the 12th rated fantasy QB, but if he had played in week 16 and put up just his average fantasy points, he would have been the 8th best fantasy QB overall.
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RB – Jeremy Hill, Bengals
Did you know Hill finished as the 9th best fantasy RB this year? I was surprised as well, but he averaged 12 fantasy points per game despite getting 4 carries or less in three starts early in the season. The uncertainty over the carry distribution between Hill and Gio Bernard kept his projected point totals lower than they should have been, but Hill was a consistent double-digit fantasy producer from week 7 on.
Honorable mention – Fred Jackson, Bill
The best player ever from Coe College just keeps getting it done every week he’s on the field. It isn’t pretty, but somehow the 33-year old Jackson averaged over 11 fantasy points per game. The presence of CJ Spiller, Bryce Brown, and Boobie Dixon kept old man Jackson’s projected points down but he again proved that he is the best RB in Buffalo and a solid RB2 in fantasy.
WR – Golden Tate, Lions
As 2nd fiddle to Calvin Johnson for most of the season, not much was expected from Tate this year but he managed to average just under 14 fantasy points per game. His fantasy point total for the season was the 12th highest from all WRs and he consistently out performed his projected point total.
Honorable mention – Kelvin Benjamin, Panthers
As a rookie with no other decent receivers around him, a terrible offensive line and a suspect passing QB, projections on Benjamin were understandably modest, but the 6’5 rookie was a consistent performer for the Panthers. Benjamin averaged 12.5 fantasy points per game and provided an awesome return on investment for those owners who rolled the dice on Benjamin in the back half of the draft.
TE – Travis Kelce, Chiefs
It’s hard to trust any receiver catching passes from Alex Smith and Kelce’s projections were understandably low every week, but Kelce averaged around 9 points per game which was good for the 9th best fantasy TE.