Fantasy Grout: Week 1 Recap

by Brett Hartfiel (killab2482) Last Updated 2014-09-10 19:33:12

That was it? It feels like we’ve been staring at Week 1 through our windshield for years, or roughly the time it takes Peyton Manning to, um, scamper 11 yards. And now it’s gone, visible only in our rear-view mirror. With the way the season flies by, Week 1 will be nothing but a data point by Thursday morning. That is all to say, as we barrel through the season, take a second, on a Sunday afternoon and just drink it in. This is the good life. Come March, you are going to be dying to have Darrel Young vulture a touchdown from someone.

Gang Grout

That’s the squad

Before we discuss who stepped up and who stepped in it, let’s frame the numbers. With all of Daily Fantasy Sports, we are looking for value, which can easily be defined as exceeding expectations. If we use salary to denote “expectations” and their results to place them, vis-à-vis those expectations, we come up with this handy metric, Fantasy Points per Thousand Dollars of Salary, to evaluate everyone’s value.

Big ups to markgenorex, whose 28th lineup took down the Sunday Million with 202.76. The budget is $50,000, which means the winner was at 4.055 PT/$K, the only one over 4 PT/$K. We’re going to see that throughout the season. 4 points per thousand is the Holy Grail. 3 might win you some Triple-Ups. 2 is a dog fight to win Double-Up money. Gang Grout finished at 3.290 PT/$K. If you extrapolated that over the entire $50K budget, it would have scored 164.5, good enough for 195th place and an $800 prize in the Sunday Million (4x buy-in).

By the way, for those who thought “28 entries at $200 a pop? Wow.” I’ll just add that his 46th lineup finished 3rd, his 45th took down 6th, and his 37th ended up in 9th place. I’ll also add that this tourney only had 4,000 of a possible 5,600 entries, meaning it was overlaid more than a porn star working on deadline. Value, by an alternate definition, might be a picture of markgenorex with a $100,000 check.

Gang Grout Recap:

Jake Locker @ KC – $6,100 – 20.04 – 3.285 PT/$K: This was a success. After Derek Anderson made an undectet out of our group of 10 QBs at $6,500 or less, Locker was the high scorer of the 11 pack, and he lagged only Chad Henne and Anderson in points per thousand. They were both slightly over 3.5.

Fred Jackson @ CHI – $4,400 – 10.4 – 2.364 PT/$K: You can really tell whether you are a glass is half-full or glass is half-empty person, based on how you viewed Fred Jackson’s late game gallop to take the Bills to the goal-line, ultimately sealing the victory. The half-full person says: “Phew, I thought he was injured already! Glad I got those extra 4 points.” Half-empty one says: “If he hadn’t jumped so HIGH, he’d have hit the pylon and scored.” Me? I just envision that stiff arm to Chris Conte taking place on Adam West’s TV version of Batman with the caption bubble reading “Old Man Strength!”

Andre Ellington v SD – $6,000 – 13.0 – 2.167 PT/$K: This was the letdown of my lineup. If I was the excuse making type, I’d blame the fact that he had a foot injury that, at one point, was reported to be a 4-6 week shelving. Still, his saving grace was Carson Palmer, who was in full-on, January 1st, still sticking to his New Year’s Resolution mode. Rather than make contested throws into coverage, he dumped the ball down, against every fiber of his being, with 12 of 37 attempts to running backs, including 5 to Ellington. I bet he made a Facebook post after about two of those check-downs, with the caption, “Grinding.”

Darren Sproles v JAC – $4,700 – 18.5 – 3.936 PT/$K: They say you only notice things after they’re gone, but in Sproles’ case, I don’t think you noticed the carries that he wasn’t getting in the NOLA until they came back to him in Philly. Sproles was a sought after commodity last year, despite getting very few totes. Now, with 11 carries to go with those 6 targets, he’s a points per thousand monster.

Emmanuel Sanders v IND – $4,800 – 14.8 – 3.083 PT/$K: This actually feels disappointing, at 3 points per thousand. He was clearly mis-priced, and this score feels like his floor. With DFS though, you get your production from different places, and sometimes you have to take DMX’s advice and “Get it on the floor. Get it, get it on the floor.”

Markus Wheaton v CLE – $3,300 – 15.7 – 4.758 PT/$K: Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Huge value without the luck of a touchdown. I imagine Chubbs Peterson, with his hand back, playing the piano when I think of Wheaton’s prospects the rest of the year. We really have only just begun.

John Brown v SD – $3,000 – 10.9 – 3.633 PT/$K: This could not have gone more to plan. He was picked for his chances to score a cheap TD, and score a cheap TD, he did. Now, if he hadn’t taken that bubble screen to pay dirt, you could have lit his $3,000 salary on fire. I think that’s going to be the life of the MIN WR OF THE WEEK, most weeks, with one play being the difference.

Antonio Gates @ ARI – $3,400 – 14.1 – 4.147 PT/$K: Zach Ertz was all queued up to sub in after Gates was added to the injury report late. Instead, Gates gutted it out, going over 4 PT/$K, leading the Chargers in targets, receptions, and yards. He also slashed the tires of the Ladarius Green bandwagoners, but if I know them, they’ll ride that wagon on the hub if they must.

The Bucket List

Regarding the best of the rest, the big winner was Kelvin Benjamin, who went off for 21.2 and 5.048 PT/$K. I was a little worried when it became clear Derek Anderson, instead of Cam Newton, was going to be goosing the center, but apparently it doesn’t matter. One of the knocks on Benjamin coming out of FSU was “Bad Hands,” but after he caught a touchdown through Mike Jenkins, he might just ask those detractors “What did the five fingers say to the face?!?!”

Zach Ertz and Chris Johnson were the other two standouts on the cutting room floor, both right around 4 PT/$K. Those who believe in “Bulletin Board Material” might conjecture that Ertz’s performance was due to me picking Antonio Gates over him. Then again, those who believe athletes “try harder” if they are slighted, presume that, for some reason, they aren’t already exerting maximum effort. They are also card carrying LODers, so no surprise.

Justin Hunter and Geno Smith were okay, both between 2 and 2.5. Frank Gore, Riley Cooper, and Heath Miller were the laggards of the group, all between 1.2 and 1.6. Really though, with everyone over 1.2 PT/$K, it could have been (and will be) worse. When you hang out down here in the Fantasy Grout, it’s bound to get a little grimy.