Fantasy Football: Five Reasons Your Team Didn’t Make The Playoffs
The fantasy football playoffs are here, and you’re on the outside looking in. But don’t worry: It probably wasn’t your fault.
OK, so maybe it was. Maybe drafting Johnny Manziel in the fifth round wasn’t the best idea. But before you get too hard on yourself, it’s important to note that a lot of things have to go right for a fantasy team to be successful.
Sure, being a savvy owner who knows his/her stuff helps, and doing your homework before your league’s draft can go a long way. After your team is set, though, much of the game comes down to luck. Just ask those who had Adrian Peterson on their teams.
So as your friends gloat about how awesome their playoff-bound team is (don’t worry, they’ll get knocked out in the first round) let’s take a look at what might have gone wrong for your squad.
1. You drafted Adrian Peterson.
When one of the best players in fantasy football history is indicted for beating his child just one week into the season, you know it’s going to be a long year. Peterson wasn’t the only high draft pick who was a complete bust, as Montee Ball, Doug Martin and Zac Stacy are just a few of the big names who made fantasy owners look foolish. In many cases, a bad draft is hard to overcome.
2. You didn’t draft Andrew Luck.
There are good fantasy players, there are great fantasy players, and then there’s Andrew Luck. Luck has 334 fantasy points in Yahoo! standard scoring leagues this season, more than 44 points greater than the next-highest scorer, Peyton Manning. You can never go wrong with an elite quarterback, but it’s almost impossible to predict who will put up the biggest numbers. Chalk it up to bad Luck. (Sorry, we had to).
3. Your fantasy team bought a timeshare.
Timeshares are great for a nice vacation getaway, but they’re not too fun for your fantasy team. This season saw an increasing number of NFL teams use an increasing number of running backs in increasingly unpredictable fashion, from the Cleveland Browns’ three-headed monster to the New England Patriots’ revolving door of random running backs. If you had any of these players with constantly fluctuating workloads, we feel your pain.
4. You felt your team’s pain.
Victor Cruz. Stevan Ridley. Knowshown Moreno. Ahmad Bradshaw. C.J. Spiller. We could go on all day, but a laundry list of injuries might be your most legitimate gripe at missing the playoffs. The NFL injury bug is ever-present and non-discriminatory, and sometimes your team just piles up too many injuries to overcome. If that’s the case, there’s not a whole lot you can do.
5. You just weren’t wired for success.
Injuries are brutal, but thanks to the waiver wire, they’re not necessarily a death knell in fantasy football. Some of the top scorers of late — Justin Forsett, C.J. Anderson and Odell Beckham Jr., to name a few — were unowned at the beginning of the season. On the other hand, waiver wire targets such as Branden Oliver and Jonas Gray quickly flamed out down the stretch. It’s tough to pick the right free agents, and if you didn’t play your cards right, it’s probably a big reason why you busted out.
Thumbnail photo via Mitch Stringer/USA TODAY Sports Images
