FAABulous: Year in Review

It's been a homerun of a fantasy season for Alfred Morris. (pnj.com)

It has been quite a year of football. Rather chaotic. Filled with monumental comebacks from Hall of Fame players, rookie sensations everywhere, records broken and nearly broken, and the usual on and off the field controversies. Reffed by replacement officials and a scandal that turned nothing into a big something.

While some of that stuff rents space in areas zoned for fantasy football, after a nearly full season of looking back on my first go around writing FAABulous - which wholly resides in fantasy - I can say it has been a fun experience. Writing about fantasy football week after week is not only challenging, but enjoyable because I truly followed the game closer than I ever have before. The nature of FAABulous was to shed light on some lower % owned players, so in doing such I had to dig a little deeper when I watched live games pay more attention to players during SportCenter or other highlight shows.

The fun of doing something like this is you get to make your observations, take calculated shots on certain players, and then see how things play out. Of course the glory of having written down these thoughts lets you go back and judge your guesses.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how things played out. I had some nice hits and some so-so misses. It was difficult to say if I completely whiffed on most of my calls as I feel a good amount of players I suggested were productive at some point. Obviously there were some cream of the crop picks and some I really wish I could take back.

If there's one thing I wish I could have done more of/ been better at is being proactive. Most of my picks were reactive to a previous game or an injury situation. This is mainly due to not having enough time or spending the energy out of my normal day to look that far ahead and really get involved with the numbers and match-ups in a way where any kind of advice like that would bear any fruits.

I'm not afraid to admit mistakes and take heat for them. At the same time, here is a horn, which I own, that I will blow into.

When analyzing some of my prouder and not so proud moments and selecting a couple of each I tried to gauge when my picks had the most impact. Obviously, in certain ways, the end of the season didn't have as much as impact as compared to a Week 2 pick. Also, when that pick coincided with a hot streak. If a player was on fire for 3 weeks, then faded off, then I should get credit for that as opposed to picking a player 2 games after he's had a big game. So all of these factors played into what I thought to be my hits and misses of the year. I've listed the player name, the week in which the player was mentioned and at what percentage that player was owned when I mentioned him.

Also, I get no bonus points for saying go grab Bryce Brown or Ronnie Hillman Knowshon Moreno. That's clown advice, bro.

So, here's the wrap-up to FAABulous 2012. Enjoy!

I'M A GOLDEN GOD STARING DOWN AT YOU FROM MT. PIOUS

James Jones Week 5 - (34% owned)
Jones is my big win of the year. I've always been a Jones fan due to his ability to be frequently located in the end zone by Aaron Rodgers, but due to varying and frequent injuries to Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson, Jones got to see what it's like to be a top option for one of the league's best quarterbacks. After Week 5, Jones went on to catch 9 TD's including a 3 TD output in Week 15. His 14 TDs led all wide receivers, and with Jennings on his way out of town, expect Jones to continue his TD scoring ways in 2013. I'd put him as a solid WR2 option.

Brandon Myers Week 3 - (1%)
One of my first THE 1% picks ended up paying some of the most dividend. With the tight end position being reinvented in the NFL, Myers took the ball and ran with it ... for 806 yards and 4 TD. He finished the season ranked 6th in Football Outsider's ranks ahead of such dignitaries as Vernon Davis, Jimmy Graham, Aaron Hernandez, Jermichael Finley, and Antonio Gates. Some shaky QB play affected Myers' production near the end of the season, but you can't argue with the return you got.

Colin Kaepernick - Week 11 (1%)
This pick doesn't fall under the No Shit category because Kaepernick wasn't supposed to keep the job. Alex Smith was coming off one of his best games as a pro, got clipped in the back of his noggin and it was expected he'd step right back in after Kaepernick started against the Bears defense that was, at the time, only playing as well as any defense ever. A 243 yard 2 TD performance ended Smith's 49ers QB experience.

David Wilson/Andre Brown - Week 13/Week 3 (15%/15%)
This was a part an injury play, but at the same time - they were both owned at such low amounts when they were respectively back-ups to Ahmad Bradshaw that it was almost criminal. From Week 7-10 Brown scored at TD a game, and when he was injured, Wilson finished the season with flair putting two scores on the board in Week 14 and added one in the fantasy playoffs Week 16. All-in-all Bradshaw's "back-ups" accounted for 14 total TD (1 was a kick return).

T.Y. Hilton - Week 10 (8%)
Hilton finished his rookie season with 7 TDs (5 came after Week 10) and became Andrew Luck's big play threat. What else would you expect out of one of the last picks in the 3rd round in the year of the rookies?

Russell Wilson - Week 14 (23%)
I was late to the show by a couple weeks touting Wilson, but he had my attention. By the end of the year people were just outwardly ignoring him. The guy is good, and he should have helped many a teams win a playoff game or two.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? I DO THIS FOR FREE!

Alfred Morris - Week 2 (5%)
For all the good things I did this year, missing on Morris was such a misstep that it almost wiped out any positives from the year. I noted that this was the first line in the sand moment of the fantasy season, and I was on the wrong end. Morris - who still has an outside shot at Rookie of the Year - would have been a phenom in any other season that didn't include his option mate RGIII, Luck, and Wilson. If ROY was based on pound for pound value, this 6th round pick out of Florida Atlantic would surely beat out those pretty boy lottery picks. Alf is a top 15 back heading into next season, and finished with 1,613 yards and 13 TD, which I'm assuming is a rookie record for a Washington RB.

Danario Alexander - Week 11 (5%)
I felt a lot worse about this one until DX put up a goose egg in Week 15. He does emerge as the second best nickname in the NFL of 2012 though.

Greg Zuerlein - Week 5 (17%)
#1 best new nickname goes to Greg the Leg or Young GZ. This one hurt. I saw this beastmode kicker launching 50 yard field goals like they were PAT's and got all antsy in my pantsy. Another 6th round pick could only carry the rookie mojo so far. Sure he missed some long ... long field goals, but the Rams inconsistency on offense didn't put him in a good place to score points. After Week 5, he never surpassed double digit points and scored under 3 points on four separate occasions. The best kicker in fantasy, he was not.

Davone Bess - Week 6 (32%)
After Week 6, he had 1 TD, averaged 57 YPG, and missed the last 3 weeks due to injury. My point was that he'd be better than Brian Hartline, which wasn't far from untrue (0 TD and averaged 56.9 YPG), but Bess was a no show.

Titus Young, Sr. - Week 8 (26%)
The world learned in 2012 what happens when you put any eggs in Titus Young, Sr.'s basket.

Ben Tate - Week 11 (39%)
Of course that "rest period" everyone expected the Texans to have never came. They skidded like a streak down a pair of tighty whities to close out the season and could conceivably lose to Cincinnati. That lack cruising to the #1 seed hurt Tate's playing time as well as his inability to stay healthy. From Week 11 on, Tate's game high number of carries was 8 and he never scored a touchdown.

RETURN OF FANTASY FUNKHOUSER
So that's it for fantasy football season. It's been fun, and actually drove a lot of traffic to the site, so I'll be sure to bring it back next year.

Don't fret through, my fantasy baseball column Fantasy Funkhouser will be back in full affect in 2013. I will try to write more and even give a shot at rankings and such. Should be a disaster. Looking forward to it.

FAABulous: Fantasy Football Pick-ups Week 6

Stay sharp grasshopper. Stevan Ridley has become the apple of Bill Belichick's eye. (ESPN.com)

FAABulous will recap the week of football activity and point fantasy owners where to spend their hard earned (not really) FAAB or waiver priority. Players will be owned in at most 30% of Yahoo! FFL. This is the one time where mo' money probably wouldn't mean mo' problems.

Guess who's back? The running backs.

We were supposed to be entering the decade of the quarterback. Guys throwing the ball 50 times a game and racking up more 5,000 yard passing seasons in a year than had previously ever existed. Oh, if only Dan Marino were still around. Hell, maybe this would be promising if Don Majkowski were still around.

But, poof, just like that we've returned to the seemingly bygone era of running back heavy football, and needing those players to carry our fantasy squads.

This past week, 16 rushers had more than 15 attempts carrying the rock, and two of them - Jamaal Charles and Ahmad Bradshaw - reached the 30 carry mark. They also ran for 200 and 140 yards respectively.

What could have been for the Majik Man.

The 49ers were "Down" for 311 rushing yards against a shockingly poor Bills defense. On the 666th Monday Night Football game, the Texans opted to run the ball heavily to set up their play action to wear down the Jets. And don't look past a team like Pittsburgh, who with a healthy Rashard Mendenhall back could easily become the running force with Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer they usually are.

Ten teams thus far are averaging over 30 rush Att/G. Of those ten teams that average over 30 rushes per game, only Kansas City has outright fallen on their face. Washington and Miami have losing records, but have exceeded expectations to this point, and the rest of the teams have winning records, including the top two teams in rush attempts - New England and Houston - who are both candidates for best team in football.

What's been the cause of this? Well there are a couple of factors that jump out after 5 weeks.

1. Two Back System

What started as the perceived as the death nail for 30 carry per game rushers, the two back system has become all but mandatory in today's NFL. For every running back no matter how elite, there needs to be a more than qualified back-up to keep the top RB on the depth chart rested, healthy, and keep the offense moving for the team. Even Arian Foster, who just signed a monster deal to stay in Houston, has Ben Tate backing him up. If Tate was traded tomorrow and given the lion's share of the carries, he'd be a top 10 back, easily.

2. New Blood

There have been a lot of impact running backs this year, that were injured, ineffective, or not even in the league in 2011. Guys like Alfred Morris, Trent Richardson, Stevan Ridley, Doug Martin, and Mikel Leshoure have all turned teams with limited run presence into run threats. Aside from Leshoure who just returned form injury, all have helped fantasy teams as well.

3. Offensive Line Value

While manning the o-line will hardly ever be glamorous, it's without a doubt that teams are focusing more and more on developing and paying these players. Pass and run protection are key, and as Michael Lewis pointed out in The Blind Side (it's not just about Michael Oher) that the players on the offensive line are as important as ever. While his initial take is about the development of the left tackle, you can see how every position has increased in significance.

If your team loses a center, all you hear about is the fret and concern about pass protection calls, snapping the ball cleanly to the quarterback, knowing the audibles and everything else that goes into running a smooth offense. Well, with this increased value in the o-line, wouldn't it make sense that players develop and embrace this role more? Become better players at run and pass blocking?

We've yet to have a dominant batch of offensive linemen in a draft class, but there have been linemen emerging on a year to year basis. Last year I had never heard of Josh Sitton, but commentators were talking about him like he's the best player in football.


4. Old Dogs Learning New Tricks

The main reason this is happening is due to two of the most stubborn coaches in the NFL. Bill Belichick and Mike Shanahan have both learned to love the run game and one running back. How this happened I have no idea. In all of Belichick's hubris did he choose to zig with the run game when everyone thought he'd zag and throw the ball 50 times a game? Perhaps his offensive line's trouble pass blocking for Tom Brady made running the ball more of a necessity to keep teams at bay. Maybe Aaron Hernandez's injury caused a dramatic shift in strategy, when it appeared BB was looking to unleash Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski on unlucky defenses. For whatever reason, he found Ridley/Brandon Bolden/Shane Vereen/Danny Woodhead and he's trudging along.

The bigger shocker is Shanahan. He's never stuck with a RB like this since Clinton Portis. Alfred Morris has been a beast thus far. With Robert Griffin III getting dinged up, you would imagine Shanahan would rely on Morris even more this week if RGIII can't go. Has Shanahan finally bought in to a running back? Is this his last ploy to suck all fantasy owners in only to have him pull the rug out from under us one more time? Get out of my head Mike Shanahan, get out!

And yes, I know I picked Morris as a stay away in Week 2. If you added him, then hey, you definitely got value. He's even getting the Terrell Davis comparisons I joked about! As far as a season long player, I need two more weeks. If he does that, I'll throw in the towel on Alfred.

Can Alex Green get the Packers' offense back on track? (Andy Lyons/Getty)

Those waiver picks are getting slimmer and slimmer. Time to look at some players with $$ signs in our eyes.

Brandon Bolden, RB - NE (47% owned)

It'd kind of kill the momentum of the article if I didn't suggest a running back add this week. Bolden is clearly behind Ridley in carries, but he has the ability and the opportunity to emerge any given week. He's more of a straight line back than Ridley, so he's not going to break out on a lot of long runs, but with Ridley's potential fumbling issues, Bolden could sneak his was in as a goal line back. Sort of a Kevin Faulk/BenJarvus Green-Ellis hybrid player.

Davone Bess, WR - MIA (32%)

For all the Brian Hartline love that was going around last week, I feel that Bess is the better play in Miami. If you had the will power to pass on Hartline, you should invest in Bess. With Ryan Tannehill getting more and more comfortable, he'll be throwing a lot more, and I would look for the Dolphins to increase their play action pass plays with Reggie Bush running so well. He'd be a WR3 start for me this week in St. Louis.

Alex Green, RB - GB (10%)

Let's not get all Brandon Jackson 2.0 over here. With Cedric Benson injuring his foot, he could be out 6 weeks in the cheese state. Some things to keep in mind is that the Packers are having trouble running the ball, and on top of that they aren't much of a run team. However, with their recent struggles and a clear need for a change in mentality among the offensive players, the 2nd year man Green could take this opportunity to impress. He was a yards per carry beast, leading NCAA Division 1-A with 8.2 YPC in 2010, and in his first limited action last week, he pulled off runs at a 6.1 average (granted with a 41 yard run thrown in). He looks to be tough to bring down, and the Pack just may look to feature him a bit more.


PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED

Santana Moss, WR - WAS (33%)

Is he really owned in a third of leagues? He's the 3rd WR on the Redskins when everyone is healthy, and there's nothing to look forward to here as far as upside. With the lack of chemistry he's created with RGIII along with doubts Kirk Cousins will be throwing many more 77 yard TD's, this is a stay away. Many better wide receivers to click on for your roster needs.

THE 1%

Josh Gordon, WR - CLE (2%)

I'm filing this one under the "Someone has to Catch Passes" corollary. It's Cleveland. Someone has to catch passes! Brandon Weeden has been sneaky not terrible since his Week 1 fiasco, complete with getting sacked by the American flag. I wouldn't look to much into a 2 catch day against the weak Giants secondary as a coming out party, but he can serve as a big play threat for the Browns.

FAABulous: Fantasy Football Pick-ups Week 2

You win this round, RGIII. (wjla.com)

FAABulous will recap the week of football activity and point fantasy owners where to spend their hard earned (not really) FAAB or waiver priority. Players will be owned in at least 30% of Yahoo! FFL. This is the one time where mo' money probably wouldn't mean mo' problems.

Like most of you, I was eager and more than happy to hunker down on Sunday for the first full slate of NFL games for the 2012-2013 season,* but as one heralded rookie put on a show in New Orleans, I'm pretty sure I had a more unique experience watching this go down. Now, I have Robert Griffin III as my back-up to Tom Brady in my money fantasy league, so I can't say I was bummed I didn't start him, but rather happy to have him on board. Of course, this experience can be shared with hundreds of thousands of other RGIII owners. Where my experience becomes unique is that my initials are R.G. and I also just so happen to be the 3rd.

*Can we all just agree to "Madden" any sports years that aren't all encompassed in one calendar year? When Madden comes out, it's not Madden 12-13, it's Madden 13. This is the 2013 football season. Sorry to all the hyphen lovers out there.

So, not that he hasn't taken the moniker of RGIII more than rightfully over your humble narrator, I was just reflecting on two things.

1. How did I never make better use of the RGIII, RG3 nickname?
2. If I had, man I would have been able to make at least some money off of it.

The answer to the first question is much easier and more palatable. I had a better nickname growing up. Using my last name as the springboard, it initially became G-Lock, which streamlined to Glock (unbeknownst to me or any of my friends at the time a glock is also a pistol, so not trying to be all gangster or anyting). Then another incarnation, the Glockness Monster or just Glockness. To this day, I say much better than RGIII.

The answer to the second question gets to be a bit harder to swallow. For the longest time, at least in the early '00s when rap was exploding everywhere and I had realized that Glock is the name for a handgun, I was solicitous that a rapper would take my coveted nickname. Then from that point on, my nickname, which I liked, would be compared to/inspired by that rapper or it would become obsolete. Little did I know that around that same time, an 8th grader was going to blindside me for the rights to RGIII. 

Needless to say, in an era of 2Chainz, Maino, Tyga, Wiz Khalifa, and any other ridiculous rap names there are, Glock appears to be safe.

Where my RGIII connection comes in is that when Twitter first came out, I had to pick a handle. Glockness Monster was too long, Glock was not allowed due to the aforementioned affiliation to a firearm. So I tried RG3. Too short. Twitter requires 4 characters. Ok, RG_3. Eh, don't like the way it looks. What about...RGIII? Available, works, but eh, I don't know, let's go with TheRealGlockness (or something completely stupid and not funny). For a moment in time, I had Robert Griffin III's Twitter handle, and while I'm no economist I'm pretty sure the rights to that would have netted me a nice chunk of change from the RGIII camp. If only. Not to make matters any better, I've switched my name 2 or 3 times to the current one, which I'm fine with. 

As RGIII laid down after his 88-yd TD pass to Pierre Garcon, he had plenty of things whistling threw his helmet. Me? I only had one. "Shit."

Onto who you should be opening your wallets for.

Flac-daddy (http://cdn.stereogum.com)

Joe Flacco, QB - BAL (70% owned)

Perhaps no one took a leap in Week 1 quite like Joe Flacco (Audubon Green Wave, what!). The now unibrowless and fu-man-chuless QB opened up his brand new offense, and the no huddle seams to treat him just fine. With more control over play calls and having play makers like Dennis Pitta, a healthy Anquan Boldin, and burner Torrey Smith, Flacco can utilize Ray Rice as a runner, pass catcher out of the backfield, and most importantly excellent play action threat to open up deep balls that Flacco actually throws extremely well. Flacco has always been a better actual player than fantasy player, but after last night's performance he bumps up a tier to solid fantasy QB2/spot starter. By the end of the year, it could be higher than that.

Owen Daniels/Jared Cook/Kyle Rudolph/Dennis Pitta/Marcedes Lewis, TE (All 65% and under)

If you were pissed you missed on Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Gates, or Aaron Hernandez, maybe you shouldn't be. This appears to be Year II of the Tight End. All those guys (minus Gates who *gasp* got a little dinged up) put up solid Week 1 numbers, but the group of widely available TE's look to be up to the challenge.

Daniels we know about. He's had great success in Houston, and he has been productive. With Schaub back, it appears things are back to normal for him, however, I would still put him in the old school class of TEs. The next couple guys are a new wave.

Rudolph was highlighted in my failed Grantland submission as my sleeper, and when I was researching that position, a lot of what I liked in Rudolph you could say about Dennis Pitta. 

Kyle may not have won me a Grantland gig, but I still like him.(media.scout.com)

The thing that stood out for Jared Cook and Marcedes Lewis was easily how they were utilized on Sunday. @MikeClayNFL tweeted that the Titans called a pass play on 48 of Cook's 60 snaps. Out of those 48 pass plays, the TE stayed back to pass block all of zero times. He was out there running routes and looking for catches. The athletic TE has been a 'sleeper' pick for so many years I'm sure he's burned some bridges, but with Kenny Britt still recovering from his knee surgeries and a young QB in Jake Locker, the Titans certainly look to be turning to Cook.

Lewis did have 10 TDs two years ago, but the mess that Jacksonville was last year and some dropsies by the big man caused an unbelievably horrid year. He too became the apple of Blaine Gabbert's hair eye in Week 1 and was able to get a lot of look as well was haul in a TD.

Alshon Jeffery, WR - CHI (35%)

Titus Young was a popular sleeper pick at WR this year. People saw Calvin Johnson, people saw match-up issues, people saw a lot of one-on-one coverage for the young receiver. Well, things didn't exactly go as planned for Titus in Week 1. When you're the dumb one out of a confrontation with Janoris Jenkins, that's a problem. One Lions head coach Jim Schwartz probably won't tolerate much more of.

Another team in the division though, may have been a quiet sleeper in utilizing the Johnson-Young dilemma, the Chicago Bears. Brandon Marshall looked to be on the same page as Jay Cutler, which is a good thing for each of them, and potentially a great thing for Jeffery. The rookie wideout caught a touch and had 80 yards. If Cutler, Marshall, and Forte/Bush get motoring, it might be wide open spaces for Jeffery.

PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED

Alfred Morris, RB - WAS (5%)

Well, that didn't take long. The Redskins RB situation has created the first line in the sand moment of fantasy football 2013. Either people are going to be right or wrong in saying claim him or not. For me, I'm staying away. A tiger can't change their stripes and Mike Shanahan hasn't had a steady back in quite some time. If Alfred Morris is Terrell Davis, then I was way, way wrong, but I'll opt and say he isn't. Morris will be decent, maybe an RB4 or decent flex play given the match-up, but with RGIII at the helm, Shanahan will want to keep a back in there that can run, pass block, and pass catch. As far as I can tell, Morris can only do one of those things. That equals a RB shuffle akin to what we've all been known to hate about Shanahan.

Also, let's just say RGIII becomes a better version of Cam Newton last year? It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the run game minimized in that circumstance, along with the times when the 'Skins are trailing in the ball game. If I have a top 5 waiver claim, sure I can see doing that. But unloading half or more of my FAAB? No thanks.

THE 1%

Bilal Powell, RB - NYJ (1%)

I'm pretty sure no one is overreacting to the Jets offensive explosion on Sunday. Things would be a lot quieter in Gang Green land if Mark Sanchez could consistently do what he did against either an underprepared or overrated Bills defense. Odds are, they are going to have to turn to the run game, and while Shonn Greene looked to have a good game, he did fumble twice (both were recovered). This isn't great for Greene, who has continued to underwhelm the fantasy community for years. We all know Tim Tebow is lurking in weird packages that probably won't work, or in cases like Sunday, aren't needed, but with Joe McKnight being Joe McKnight, there is an opportunity for Powell to take some carries with the first team offense.