Welcome to Week 15

Well we did it everyone, we finished the regular fantasy football season, and for FFPC, the league championships. It feels strange not researching waiver adds at this point, I have gotten into a routine for research and writing. I am going to take Peter Overzet’s advice and keep writing something every week to maintain the habit and continue to get in these repetitions. I hope some of you found success in fantasy football this season no matter what format or how competitive the leagues are that you play.

I want to touch on the importance of checking in on your mental health this time of year as well. While many of us our celebrating victories, both moral and financial, there are just as many people who suffered losses. Many of us play for money so the losses could take a toll finically, especially if you are not fiscally responsible. Please if you are playing a lot of volume manage and track your bankroll and don’t put in more money that you cannot afford to lose.

Losses can take a mental toll as well, making us question our own abilities or doubt ourselves. I feel like it is really important to maintain a healthy balance between honest self analysis and evaluation of your process and hyper-fixation on all things negative that you did wrong. It can be easy to spiral out of control, I find it is helpful to have a sense of community within the fantasy football space that can empathize with some of these feelings and at same time help examine things from an objective data driven lens. Look, I study behavior from an objective, observable, and measurable perspective in my day job in data analysis, but I still get emotionally invested in fantasy sports as well.

Ok, really emotionally invested… and loud (its called being passionate). I do promise to try my best to not get the cops called on me this year for cussing at the TV when I lose out on advancing a best ball team to week 17 on a catch in the last 12 seconds allowing my opponent to win on a tie-breaker technicality. See I am not emotionally invested one bit and never dwell on the past…one day I will follow my own advice, till then I am thankful for all the friends I have made along the way. Now, that we have a healthy and balanced mindset, let’s review the last waiver wire wins of the season and look at what teams made it to the final sprint!

First a Look at Week 14

Week 14 Waiver Wire Wins

When I say “wins” it is in reference to player(s) won on the waiver wire, not a performance evaluation. Because I am releasing this article after the conclusion of week 13 many things in hindsight may not be a win after all. I include this section not for bragging rights or victory laps, but rather to keep myself accountable and demonstrate that I am in fact bidding on many of the players I am writing about (for better and worse).

Desmond Ridder (2 shares)

Winning Bids $7, $11, other league price won $119

Chase Brown (5 shares)

Winning Bids $3, $14, $14, $22, $201, other league range price won $35-$126

DeeJay Dallas

Winning Bid $3, other leagues price range won $2-$588

Dontayvion Wicks (2 shares)

Winning Bids $34, $201, other league prices range won $1-$68

John Metchie

Winning Bid $1

Los Angeles Rams Defense (2 shares)

Winning Bids $1, $10

Minnesota Defense

Winning Bid $5, other leagues price range won $14-$24

Indianapolis Defense

Winning Bid $1

Atlanta Kicker (2 shares)

Winning Bids $1, $1

Cincinnati Kicker (2 shares)

Winning Bids $1, $1, other league price range won $1-$3

Tampa Bay Kicker

Winning Bid $3

San Fransisco Kicker

Winning Bid $1

Buffalo Kicker

Winning Bid $2

Week 14 Standings

NFFC Prime Time

Buck Eye Boomers (10-4) 1st Place 2089.10 pts

The Boomers finish the regular season with a clean sweep, boasting the best H2H record and most points. The team enters the final sprint ranked 53rd overall. The team has 4 QBs which does not seem quite so out there after all the injuries, it still remains strong across all the positions and is in line to make a big finish.

Ship Taeking (5-9) 9th Place 1722.80 pts

I feel Davis Mattek is in a good head space to accept not making it to the final sprint, at least he does a weekly show discussing DFS mistakes and late swap decisions on Gillcast (one of my favorite listens every week). Better luck next year boys.

Ship Chasing (6-8) 5th Place 1957.80 pts

This is probably one of the losses that hurts the worst. This team could not overcome the low score from the week prior mostly due to Kenny Pickett injury. They had a long shot if Tyreek Hill, Tee Higgins, and D’Andre Swift had better performances.

Waiver Chasing (10-4) 2nd Place 1904.95 pts

My team won 2nd place in the league thanks to a massive fantasy performance from Breece Hall and Deebo Samuel. The odds were against us as we entered the week 35pts behind 3rd place with several teams in the mix (some ahead of us). I am very excited for the chance to compete in the championships and hope that Geno Smith returns next week.

NFFC Super 12 Team

Shark Jumping (9-5) 1st Place 2060.30 pts

Another team tied for best H2H record with the most points in the league easily wrapping up a first place finish heading into championships. I feel good about any 49ers heading into the final weeks and this team has Brock Purdy, CMC, and Brandon Aiyuk.

NFFC Silver Bullet

Ship Chasing Single Bullet (8-6) 3rd Place 1992.74 pts

Sometimes you only need one, this team sealed up a win with Lamar Jackson, James Cook, and Cooper Kupp, it was strong enough to with stand the loss of Nico Collins this week as well. I hope some of these players are unique as most Cooper Kupp teams probably had lower advance rates.

FFPC Main Event

Chasin’ Go Bills (#2 Seed)

The Chasin’ Go Bills won their league championships, which is always a nice extra despite already having a ticket to the big dance as the #2 seed. This is a beautiful team, but this week could mean big trouble if CJ Stroud is not cleared to play because the other quarterback, Justin Herbert, is finished for the year. I am hoping for the best, they deserve it.

SC (Mini Episodes) (#2 Seed)

The SC team was the epitome of a ship chasing team loading up on stud WRs pushing RBs until later rounds of the draft. Another league champion here for a team already in the championships. This team is super stacked at WR with Ceedee Lamb, AJB, Aiyuk, Deebo, Metcalf, Dionte Johnson, and Jordan Addision. We made a nice pickup with Chase Brown for some depth at RB and have Raheem Mostert, James Cook, and Jaylen Warren there too. TE is probably the weakest, but it is a bunch of younger players who could make a splash in the big race… LFG!!

Chasing Stolen Bananas (#3 Seed)

I was driving home today from work and put on an episode of my favorite podcast, Stealing Bananas, and wouldn’t you know Ben and Shawn were discussing their main event teams chances of advancing (the episode was recorded before the week was finished). Unfortunately, the team lost this week and as the #3 seed needed to win the league to move onto the big race. The guys discussed how the team was very reliant on CMC and Etienne, and was a little weaker at wide receiver than typical Stolen Bananas teams were. It was unfortunate that this was the week CMC had a floor performance, and Etienne had not had a ceiling game in a good while. At least I know they have other teams that made it through to the championship round, good luck!

Five Horsemen (#1 Seed)

This is another overachieving team that had to eviscerate their competition to take down the league championship after already clenching the top seed. They look Purdy damn good, and I think some of these Rotoviz guys might play some dynasty boasting a very young team full of potential and upside; Breece, Bijan, Garrett Wilson, Aiyuk, Rashee, Laporta, JSN, QJ, Keaton Mitchell… I’m just going to ignore that they also roster the oldest RB in the league.

StephWuGee (#4 Seed)

We had to fight for our entry to the final sprint as a the 4 seed in the league, but we won weeks 13 and 14 and now have a shot as the league champions. The matchup was way closer than I expected heading into the week. We have a Lamar Jackson team going up against Desmond Ridder and our wide receiver fire power runs deep. This week all of our stud wide receivers put up duds and it was 30 pts. David Njoku game that kept us alive. Monday night all we needed was a field goal from Miami to seal the win… anyone remember that blocked punt (yeah I may have let out a slight scream). But we won and are ready to make a sun run.

Scott Fish Bowl 13

Stephmiller40 #228

The playoffs don’t joke around for this contest as only the top 500 players remain. This week is the quarter finals and only half will make it through. My team is still looking strong as long as I remember not to start Tee Higgins.