2012 NFL Fantasy Season-Team Recap

     2012 was a successful year for me in fantasy sports. I won both my baseball and football leagues.   I am in a 8 team baseball league and a 12 team football league.  Both are Yahoo leagues.  My football team was 11-2 in the regular season, gaining me the top seed in the playoffs and a first round bye.  I won in the second round and then in the championship match.  Here is a breakdown of the players on my team that got me the championship win:

300 Point Club

QB Matthew Stafford

QB Matthew Stafford (313.58 fantasy points)-  Stafford was a bit of a disappointment this year.  I drafted him early in the second round.  He did throw for a shade under 5000 yards, but his touchdowns were way down from 2011.  Stafford definitely showed some regression there.  It could partially be that many of Detroit's starting wide receivers and tight end suffered injures down the stretch.  The Lion's running game was also pretty bad.  Stafford threw the ball more then any other quarterback in the league, ever.  Stafford throws to the best receiver in the league, Calvin Johnson, but Johnson was pretty much Stafford's only legitimate option towards the end of the season.  Detroit will need to make some serious upgrades on both offense and defense next year for Stafford to be able to lead them team back to the playoffs.  Overall Stafford was adequate in the quarterback slot on my team, however he was probably not worth the second round pick.  There were 6 quarterbacks available when I drafted Stafford that scored more points this season then he did.  I also regret not picking up Russell Wilson down the stretch, because he put up better numbers then Stafford in the second half of the season.  Wilson was available on the waiver wire the entire season in my league.  In the end, I was able to win with Stafford and that's all that really matters.

RB Doug Martin (311.60 fantasy points)-  Martin was probably my best pick of the draft.  He was a complete steal as the 10th pick in the 5th round.  Martin ran for 1454 yards and 11 touchdowns.   He had one of the highest fantasy football scores ever with 55.20 points in week 9 vs. Oakland.  Martin had an outstanding rookie year for Tamp Bay and should be a fantasy stud for years to come.  He was second only to Adrian Peterson in fantasy scoring at running back in my league this year.

WR AJ Green

WR AJ Green (299.80 fantasy points)-  Green missed 300 points in my league by 2/10 of a point, so I figured I'd include him here anyway.  Green had a terrific sophomore year at wide receiver for the Bengals.  He had 97 receptions for 1350 yards and 11 touchdowns.  Green is the favorite target of QB Andy Dalton.  Their chemistry was a big part of the Bengal's ability to make the playoffs this year.  There were games where Green was the only Cincinnati wide receiver to catch a pass.  Green is truly an elite wideout and was third in fantasy scoring at his position in my league.  He was also a steal as the 3rd pick in the 4th round.

200 Point Club

WR Eric Decker

WR Eric Decker (269.40 fantasy points)-  I had Decker on my 2011 team and I could see there was talent there.  I figured things could only get better with Peyton Manning now throwing him the ball.  I drafted Decker to be my WR#3 as the 10th pick in the 7th round.  He was elevated to the WR#2 slot after Percy Harvin went down with an injury.  My hunch was right about Decker, he had an outstanding year in Denver.  Decker had 85 receptions for 1064 yards and 13 touchdowns.  He did have a small slump in weeks 10-13, but he turned it on down the stretch and was a big part of my playoff wins.  Decker was another great value pick for me.

RB Alfred Morris

RB Alfred Morris (252 fantasy points)-  Morris was my best waiver wire pick up of the season.  I had the second highest waiver spot after week 1 and I jumped all over Morris.  Most of my league had tried to pick him up, but I was lucky to be in a good position.  I immediately plugged Morris into my flex spot and when DeMarco Murray went down with an injury, he took RB#2.  Morris had an amazing rookie year in Washington along with his quarterback RG3.  Morris ran for 1613 yards, second most in the league, and had 13 touchdowns.  He has been a diamond in the rough for the Redskins, Morris was drafted in the 6th round of the NFL draft.  It is rare to get a contributor of Morris' caliber so late in the draft.  Morris is genuinely likeable and humble person.  He still drives his 1991 Mazda 626 with more than 125k miles on it.  I enjoy having good guys like Morris on my fantasy teams, it makes rooting for them that much better.  The sky is the limit for the two rookies in Washington.

TE Jimmy Graham (237.20 fantasy points)-    I knew Jimmy Graham was a stretch when I took him in the first round.  I took him then because I knew I could get Stafford in the second and that's who I wanted at quarterback. Only 2 guys picked in front of me in the second round, one had already chosen his quarterback and the other was on auto-draft.  Graham had somewhat of a disappointing season.  This was mainly due to injury.  He missed a couple of games and played out the rest of the season with a wrist injury that will probably require surgery.  He went 5 weeks in a row without scoring a touchdown and 4 of those weeks he did not meet his projections.  I also think Graham's production suffered because Sean Peyton was not calling the plays in New Orleans this season.  Peyton was unable to coach the team this year because of the bounty scandal.  Despite all this, Graham was still the highest scoring tight end in my league this year.  This is mainly because Rob Gronkowski broke his arm and Atlanta gave Tony Gonzalez a rest in the last game of the season.  Graham had 85 receptions for 982 yards and 9 touchdowns.  He was still a better option then most tight ends, I'm just not sure he was worth the 10th pick in the first round.

Honorable Mentions

WR TY Hilton (187 fantasy points)-  I picked up Hilton after Percy Harvin went down with an injury in week 9.  Hilton had started to develop some chemistry with fellow rookie Andrew Luck.  Plus the Colts are a pass heavy offense and it never hurts to have a receiver in that kind of scheme.  He is eerily similar to Harvin in some ways.  He returns punts like Harvin and is used in some rushing situations like Percy.  He turned out to be a decent WR#3 for me down the stretch.  He's no Percy Harvin, but the rookie receiver has much potential.

WR Percy Harvin

WR Percy Harvin (167.30 fantasy points)-  Harvin was a complete monster the first half of the season.  So much so that there was MVP talk involving his name.  Unfortunately Harvin sprained his ankle in 3 places in week 9 vs. Seattle.  He ended the season on IR.  I have to say I was really worried about how this was going to effect my team going into the playoffs.  Losing a fantasy stud like Harvin can really hurt your chances of being successful in the post season.  Luckily, I had good enough players on my team to cover his loss.

DeMarco Murray (145 fantasy points)-  Murray was a disappointment this year.  I had Murray on my team  in 2011 and was really excited about his potential in 2012.  I drafted him 10th in the third round as my RB#1.  He started off the season well enough, but injured his foot in week 6.  He then missed 6 weeks because of the injury.  This made my pick up of Alfred Morris after week 1 that much more important.  I used Felix Jones and Larod Stephens-Howling in my flex spot while Murray was out.  Fortunately they did a serviceable job in his absence.  Murray came back in week 12 and put up decent fantasy numbers, but he had a couple of costly fumbles down the stretch.

San Diego Chargers (173 fantasy points)-  I started the season with the Detroit Lions defense.  They were not worth a draft pick honestly.  They were terrible this year.  I dropped them early in the season and started cycling defenses.  I would pick up whoever I thought was going to give me the most points that week.  I picked up San Diego in week 9 and never looked back.  Partially because they put up good numbers and partially because I got tired of wasting my waiver moves on defenses just for a couple of extra points.  My league limits waiver moves to 25.  When it came to the playoffs I had to look ahead and see who had the best match ups out of available defenses in the final weeks of the season.  My league locks the rosters in the playoffs, so I took some planning.  I ended up sticking with San Diego because of their week 16 matchup vs. the Jets.  I knew if I made the finals that would be a good matchup for me.  I was right and San Diego was a big reason I won the Championship game.  They had 11 sacks on the Jets third string quarterback Greg Mcelroy.  The special teams also ran back a punt for a touchdown.

Two elements led to my winning season this year.  I had a strong draft, particularly in the middle rounds, and I made a few key waiver wire pickups.  Drafting guys like AJ Green, Doug Martin, and Eric Decker in the middle rounds made up for my under performing top 2 picks, Stafford and Graham.  When I lost DeMarco Murray and Percy Harvin, I had Alfred Morris and TY Hilton from the waiver wire to pick up the slack.