Tag: free agency

Should Taysom Hill Be Permissible As A TE?

The following column is a direct email that was sent by yours truly, Ryan (aka Marzy), owner of The Martians, to all other league managers. The original email content was not altered in anyway.

To give some context on the developing story, I bid $11 FAAB on Taysom Hill Tuesday night to pick him up off waivers and add him as a part of my team, with the intention of potentially playing him in the flex spot as a second TE. Due to past events and the nefarious tyranny of The Commish (aka Andrew) I have been told that I cannot start Taysom Hill as a TE, only QB, which has me bewildered considering ESPN Fantasy Football, the New Orleans Saints, and the NFL all consider him a TE. This decision by The Commish to not permit Taysom Hill as an acceptable TE was made after he was on my team and I have yet to have my $11 FAAB returned to me.

You mean to tell me I can’t use a TE in the TE spot?

I feel I have been defiled and violated. This is my story …

*Law & Order Intro Music*

Good afternoon my fellow league managers,

I hope you are all enjoying your Friday and looking forward to a football packed Sunday. I am writing you to formally address the Taysom Hill dispute. Although this precedent has been addressed in past seasons, with an unfortunate ending to one of our fallen league members, I believe the circumstances of the current development are much different.

The League has grown a credible reputation through the last few years and is considered a respectable fantasy football franchise all throughout the NY/NJ region. Although the high acclaim for The League has grown in popularity and prestige, it does not mean the statutes of The League are taboo. Every season of The League leads to new developments and affairs. With no two seasons being the same, causing The League’s regulations to change every year. Yes, there are some statutes that remain the same, but many come and go season to season based on the affairs of the NFL. This being said, it was never stated before the start of the season, nor during the season, that Taysom Hill would not be able to be played as a TE. To find out that a league manager cannot use him as a TE after spending $11 FAAB on him is a criminal offense and downright goes against the honor of The League. To retrograde ruling after the circumstances have occurred is corrupt and deceitful.

Taysom Hill is by definition a TE for the New Orleans Saints and the NFL, and thus should be seen as the same for fantasy managers. Many could argue that using a TE that both throws and runs the ball, which gives him a slight edge over other TEs, is unjustifiable and objectionable. But that is why we make risky decisions and manage our teams the way we do, to get that slight edge over other teams. If Taysom Hill can’t be used as TE because he throws and runs the ball, then players such as Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts should not be able to be used as QBs because they rush the ball, and many times have the highest number of rushing yards on their team. Players should not be dealt with in different ways or have inconsistent fantasy permissions just because they are playing different positions.

Taysom Hill only has such a high value because Jameis Winston is hurt, and will most likely be out for week 6. Taysom Hill has put up a decent, but respectable, 24.3 points in the first 4 weeks of football. Without the game where he scored 34.08 points, he is nothing more than a mediocre TE. A manager should not have to guess if he can play him as a TE, when he is by definition a TE. If a manager were to play him as a QB and Jameis Winston was throwing the ball, leaving little passing attempts for Taysom Hill, then he would be averaging 8.1 points, which by any standard is horrendous for a QB. He is currently projected to score 6.5 points in week 6, which again, is abysmal if he were to be played as a QB. This calls attention to the intentions of the other FOUR league managers that bid on Taysom Hill. If Taysom Hill is to be used as a QB and would only score an average of 8.1 points a game then why did Abie, Brendan, Thomas, and Max bid $8, $5, $4, and $3 respectively? This is not only the highest amount of individual bids we’ve had on a single player all season, but collectively the highest amount of FAAB bid on a player. This is due to no other reason than the fact that the four other league managers had the same intention as myself. To use Taysom Hill as a TE.

This problematic conflict has warranted me to petition for two things. One, in future seasons, we generate a rule book. A list of rules that can be amended and added to from season to season. Two, the dispute of whether Taysom Hill is permissible to be used as a TE in The League goes to a vote. In the case that the majority of managers vote to approve Taysom Hill’s TE candidacy, myself and any other league manager is able to use him as a TE. In the event that the majority of managers vote to decline Taysom Hill’s TE candidacy, The Martians should be returned the full FAAB bid amount that was spent on Taysom Hill and won’t be obliged to drop him.

I have a great love for The League and I wanted to address this situation in a courteous and sportsmanlike demeanor. I ask that league managers take a moment to contemplate whether they think Taysom Hill should be able to be played as a TE if he was on THEIR team. I wish everyone’s fantasy team the best of luck in the upcoming matchups this Sunday and as always, the interactions of The League come from a place of love, morale, and competitiveness.

Thank you,
Your fellow league manager,
Ryan O’Connell

A (Hopefully) Weekly Column from Jack

Alright, alright, alright. Due to the unique nature of The League and our Free Agent Acquisition Budgets (that’s what FAAB stands for, who knew), I decided to run the numbers a bit and liven up the mid-week storylines so they don’t go unnoticed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Introducing: The Wire. I’ll be taking a look back at the performance of the free agents who were picked up last week, speculating about the ones picked up this week, and analyzing everyone’s FAAB strengths and weaknesses. I’ll also dive a bit into those free agents who were added/dropped post-auction. Let’s begin with Week 3…

Boy oh boy, were there a shit-ton of injuries in Week 2. I think everyone had one of their first three picks go down with a multi-week or season-ending injury, and if it didn’t happen to you in this league it probably happened in another. The most sought-after player in The League on Wednesday, September 23rd was Devonta Freeman, the man who returned to the NFL to replace second-overall Giants star Saquon Barkley. I think everyone may have forgotten that the Giants are gonna Giant no matter who’s in the backfield. The big winner, or should I say loser in this case, was Kris, who spent a whopping $26 on this man (and that wasn’t even his biggest purchase this week). The one silver lining for Kris is that he decided not to start Devonta, who put up 1 point and is therefore the LEAST efficient pickup of the week. Kris also spent $27 on Jerick McKinnon and $15 on Dion Lewis who did not start and was dropped immediately, if you’re doing the math at home you know that Kris has not very many FAAB bucks left.

On the other side of the coin, we have Mike Davis. Now I don’t want to gas Lebron up too much, but he was the only person in The League to think of picking up the man who would replace number one overall Christian McCaffrey. Maybe it’s because the Carolina star’s injury isn’t season-ending like Saquon’s, maybe it’s because Mike Davis didn’t sign an emergency contract and was just kind of there already, kudos to you either way. This was actually one of the few position players who scored more points than FAAB bucks spent on him. Ultimately Lebron could not convert this smart spending into a win, as he did not start his new recruit and ended up losing a close game in which Davis outscored RB2 Kareem Hunt and Flex Devin Singletary. He also dropped Justin Jefferson who was quoted as saying “Thank God Almighty, free at last” and dropped a quick 27 on the Titans, only to be picked back up again by Lebron this morning for $10 (he actually beat Abie’s $10 bid in our first tiebreaker, don’t ask me how). I guess there are some things you can’t teach, better luck next week.

The biggest winners in the Week 3 auction, were interestingly enough the people who picked up defenses. Looks like I’m learning the names of some more defensive players because these guys are the real deal. The BIGGEST STEAL of the week went to Beans Corp. and their acquisition of the Colts D/ST for $7 and a whopping TWENTY-SEVEN points. Of course, playing the Jets didn’t hurt, but this defense was Beans’ second-highest scorer of the week in a very close game with Kris (see two paragraphs up). Brent also ditched the Bears and picked up the Bucs D for $3 and got 16 points for his trouble. Alex tried to sneak in with a $1 offer but had to stick with the Chargers, although I don’t think that would have affected the outcome of his matchup ;).

Speaking of the Vignali twins, they had quite a rough week of free agency. I love them to death and am forever grateful for welcoming us to their home on a weekly basis, but this got ugly, plain and simple. Andrew picked up Darrell Henderson Jr., who got 18.5 points sitting on the bench in a close loss and a drop to 0-3. Then, Russell Gage gave The Commush some negative returns (that was a typo but he’s Eddie Mush so I’m keeping it). Alex’s only pickup was his hero Rodrigo Blankenship, who for just a buck gave him a solid 11 points. He actually saved the most money on offers he didn’t get, so hopefully he’ll use that extra $17 wisely in the future. It looks like Alex also entered two identical offers of $5 for Devonta Freeman, which is weird but he definitely dodged a bullet there. The ugliness continued into the FA Add/Drops, with Alex’s pickup of the Chargers D/ST scoring 1 point less than the Seahawks who he dropped to make room, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling simply not showing up on Sunday. Andrew actually had a decent add post-auction with the Titans D/ST, giving him 13 points vs. the Browns’ 2, but it still wasn’t enough to get the win. If we didn’t love them so much, these two may have been better off ending their careers with The League as the Champ and the Top Scorer. Best of luck for the rest of the season.

You can see all of the auction results in the spreadsheet above, which is ordered a little more clearer than how ESPN puts it to show who bid on the same player(s) and the handy point total for the week of the pickup. I also included a FAAB bucks summary below, I didn’t include the remaining balance because ESPN only shows the current balances and subtraction is tough. Yes, I’m an accountant. I’m also hungry, so I’m not going to get much into Week 4’s auction without the point totals to show you all that you wasted your money again. Just based on the adds & drops so far today, I can tell you that Kris is in panic mode. We’ll see how that goes.

My advice: Spend your FAAB bucks wisely, pick whichever defense is playing the Jets or Giants, and don’t spend it all in once place. Ryan, you may want to start spending some of yours, buddy. Until next time, this has been The Wire.