If you play fantasy football you know how unpredictable it can be. You can lose while having a good week, win while having a bad week, or just have a generally terrible or great team due to the games unpredictability.
Wyatt Lautt, a sophomore here at Concordia, is a victim of unpredictability. Although he has the second highest amount of points scored in his league, he has a record of 3-7. Leaving him almost no chance of making the playoffs.
“I’m done. My season is over,” said Lautt, “I started out 2-0 and lost five straight so it’s pretty annoying.”
Although their are some like Lautt who feel the effects of an unfortunate schedule, most fantasy football players fail to field a successful team due to the unpredictability of year to year player performance.
Of course, there are a number of players who perform consistently year in and year out. But for every Larry Fitzgerald, Tom Brady, or Matt Forte that predictably perform at a high level every year while missing almost no time due to injury, sans Brady’s 2007 season that was lost to a torn ACL, there are dozens of players that for whatever reason experience meteoric rises and catastrophic falls. Melvin Gordon and Todd Gurley have essentially flopped in terms of statistical production from this season to last and offer a perfect case study to highlight the game’s unpredictability.
The majority of this article has focused on the negative outcomes of fantasy football’s volatile nature, however, their are those who benefit from taking a late round player that breaks out in a big way. One such player is Melvin Gordon. Gordon. a first round pick and one of the most hyped rookies of the 2015 draft class, failed to live up to expectations in his first season. He ran for just 641 yards at a clip of 3.5 yards per carry. To make matters worse, Gordon failed to find the endzone. After a mediocre 2015 campaign and offseason microfracture surgery, Gordon was a sixth round pick in most fantasy drafts. Those who took a chance on Gordon have been rewarded as 2016 has been much kinder to the former Wisconsin Badger. He has already eclipsed last season’s rushing and touchdown totals with 893 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns. Gordon, a player who was little more than an afterthought in the minds of fantasy football players heading into the season, now has the second most points among running backs in standard scoring leagues.
Todd Gurley, was drafted 10th in the 2015 NFL draft, five spots ahead of Gordon. After a 2015 season in which Gurley was named Offensive Rookie of The Year and Gordon struggled mightily, Gurley was going in the top 10 of offseason fantasy drafts. In 2016, Gurley has underwhelmed those that drafted him. The Rams have the 26th fewest passing yards in the NFL which has allowed opposing defenses to stack the box in an attempt to shutdown the young star. So far Gurley has yet to rush for 100 yards in 2016 and is 22nd among running backs in standard scoring with almost half as many points as Gordon. As luck has it, Lautt drafted Gurley.
“I can’t even start him,” said Lautt, “He’s a huge disappointment.”
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