Mark and I have competed in a head-to-head weekly fantasy contest since 2018. Every week we pick different players but can only use a player once per season. It closely resembles our first fantasy football experience, NFL Home Team Challenge, that we started in 2003. Each week you get the chance to pick a new lineup and the challenge is predicting who's got a good matchup, when's the best time to take elite players, etc.
At the Owner's Meeting in August, we discussed the possibility of a second league that could scratch the itch that the first league doesn't quite cover: planting your flag on players for a whole season, specifically having to find gems outside the known elite players.
The solution was to do a head-to-head league with 2 key restrictions: You have a salary cap to spend for the draft AND there are no pickups after the draft. The 16 players you draft in August are the only players you can use the whole year. You have to plan ahead for bye weeks and injuries. Since you need to draft players with the endurance to last all year, I christened this the Ironman League. Here were the rosters we drafted, with their salary cap price.
Head to head weeks were the only thing that mattered. With an 18-game season, I made Week 17 worth double. The idea was that after 16 weeks, if it was 8-8 it would act as a Super Bowl or if it was 9-7, it would give the trailing team a chance to tie it up and turn Week 18 into a winner take all.
Here's our week 1 scores:
After 6 weeks, I was up 6-0 and none of the games were close. Derrick Henry, Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, Mahomes and Kelce were all lighting it up.
But in Week 7, I started having running back availability issues. Gus Edwards was out for the season. Chris Carson was now hurt. And Robinson was on bye. Derrick Henry was my only healthy running back. And he would soon get injured, out for the season.
Mark would win 6 of the next 7. So after 13 weeks, I was up 7-6.
In Week 14, I had zero healthy running backs. But Lamar got injured and put up a zero for Mark.
So heading into Week 16, I was up 9-6. But job's not finished.
If Mark wins the last three weeks, he takes the title.
By 12:45 on Sunday, my only healthy RB James Robinson gets carted off with an Achilles injury. Which means that for the rest of the season, I've got no running back points. If he wins 16, he'll be favored in 17 + 18.
In the last game that mattered, Mahomes came through for me and Stafford let Mark down. Poetry.
The key to this league is drafting well, obviously, and not only did you crush it, even without the best RB in football and all of his backups due to injury, you still won games. You took better players at cheaper prices than I did when they were all available for me to grab them. You were just better. You deserved the win. I'm going to come back stronger next year. Lots of lessons learned. Mainly, take fewer players on the "football team". Secondly, take players who score more points.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: Mark won the Week 17 matchup worth double, but I won Week 18. I finished 11-8.
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