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Worst Fantasy Call (1 Viewer)

DaBeers

Footballguy
For every "best" call there has to be a "worst" call.  Stow the pride and let's hear them:

My first season in FF and really needing a RB, I traded away a rookie Antonio Gates for a running back whose name I cannot even recall.  The RB promptly tore his ACL 2 quarters after joining my team and never played another down of football.  

I am sure there have been others, but this sticks out for some reason...stupid rookie move by yours truly

 
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I have 2 of them.

I believe it was right before Hopkins sophomore year (It was when Andre left the Texans) I traded him and 1.01 (Watkins) for Calvin Johnson.  Johnson played 1 more year and he retired.  The only consolation was that Calvin did help me get 2nd.

The worst call though was I traded A. Brown (before he broke out at all) and Jordy Nelson

for

P. Harvin (I think he averaged like 19ppg the year before) and Pierre Garcon

 
I believed in his talent, but I cut Ray Rice after his rookie season because he was rarely being used and I didn't think he'd ever get a chance.

 
Hurting at RB2 last year in a redraft, and Abdullah and Decker going down to injuries, I dropped Jordan Howard ..because at the time, he was doing nothing, I have zero patience and I needed to get active bodies on my roster.     Shortly after, Howard gets "his shot" blows up, and I torpedo out in the playoffs because I had no RB2 worth a crap. 

 
Montee Ball Pick 2.01. I considered him at 1.12 but I thought I might want to keep him and if I drafted him 1.12 that makes him not keeper eligible... I was elated to see him "drop" 

  :wall:

 
Traded several players and picks for Terrell Davis in a dynasty league right before week 4 in 1998.  A Ditka-esque platter of players for a guy who would play about 10 more games in his career.  Submarined my team for 3 years.

Took Jake Plummer over Peyton Manning (both were available) in a redraft in 1999 that was QB-heavy scoring.  Manning threw for 4,000 yards and 25-30 TDs while Plummer I think had something like a 9/25 TD/INT season.  I finished dead last.

 
Montee Ball Pick 2.01. I considered him at 1.12 but I thought I might want to keep him and if I drafted him 1.12 that makes him not keeper eligible... I was elated to see him "drop" 

  :wall:
Ball busted on me too, that one hurt 

 
I'm usually pretty conservative so I don't have any major fails but I did make one trade that was certainly a failure.  I had an abundance of good WRs and couldn't start them all so I tried to trade one for a young RB who I thought would be really good by the time the playoffs started.  I traded Golden Tate for Bishop Sankey in his rookie year.  Tate was having a good season and finished with a really good season while Sankey was worthless.

 
The year Warner and Faulk went nuts, I owned them both. They had the division and everything wrapped up super early. Word was that they were both not going to play week 16. This is back when there was not much Internet info, so you kind of had to guess. I was in the championship game and benched them both. They only played a half, but they both put up tons of points. If I had played either one I would have won the game. I still get crap about that from my league mates.

 
Had the third-to-last pick in a 2014 keeper draft in which you can keep drafted players ... at their original draft round ... forever.

With the name "Odell Beckham" staring at me from the top of my pre-draft list, I confidently made Bryce Brown my 17th-round pick, because something-something too short to be a true #1 something-something can never have too many RBs.

Naturally, my buddy the Giants honk took OBJ with his last pick instead, so I get to be reminded of my worst call 17 times a year ... forever.

 
For every "best" call there has to be a "worst" call.  Stow the pride and let's hear them:

My first season in FF and really needing a RB, I traded away a rookie Antonio Gates for a running back whose name I cannot even recall.  The RB promptly tore his ACL 2 quarters after joining my team and never played another down of football.  

I am sure there have been others, but this sticks out for some reason...stupid rookie move by yours truly
Recently, I went pretty heavy on CJ Spiller when he went to the Saints. I also drank the Cordarrelle Patterson kool-aid early on.

Don't get me started on Andre Johnson to the Colts...

 
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I had this awesome transaction

Green Machine Waiver

acquired Williams, Carnell STL RB 

dropped Cruz, Victor NYG WR

Wed Sep 14 11:30:03 p.m. ET 2011

 
2nd worst call for me was drafting Chris Johnson in his rookie season as my 4th RB in a 10-team league and promptly trading him away post-draft for Chester Taylor so that I had AP's handcuff (AP obviously was my RB1).

My worst was in 2006 in a 12-team, 2 keeper league with shallow benches. Post-draft I traded one of my keepers, Randy Moss, for a rookie named Maurice Jones-Drew and a 1st round pick (3rd round after keepers) in next year's draft that turned into the #1 overall pick. 2006 was Moss's 2nd season in Oakland where he tanked it so while the trade was a major steal for me it's what I did with MJD and the '07 1.1 that made it so awful. I ended up cutting MJD in the pre-season due to short benches. As for the draft pick, I decided to pass on the player I really wanted (rookie Adrian Peterson) and went with Broncos RB Travis Henry playing for the now. It also didn't help I used my own 1st round pick in that draft on bust Carson Palmer in a coin flip over Tom Brady who exploded that year after the Pats traded for Moss in the off-season.

 
Trung Canidate 2nd round in first year with Skins.

Kevan Barlow 1st round in first year without Hearst in San Fran.

Troy Hambrick 3rd round in first year as starter in Dallas.

Julius Jones 2nd round coming off a strong finish to rookie year.

 
Without a doubt my worst fantasy call was in 2015 in the RTS Fantasy Championship contest.  They lock waivers down for the post season and on Friday before week 12 the final day you can make a waiver move I dropped David Johnson after holding him ever since draft day.  He was currently 3rd string and while he showed flashes during the year he would not be anyone you could start unless Chris Johnson or Ellington would go down.  Also since waivers lock I felt I needed 3 QB's after the year before in 2014 having Newton get in a car accident and missed week 15 while Cutler my back up got benched week 16.  I spent a good part of week 16 in 2014 wondering if I was going to be playing for $200,000 without a QB.  That was a huge factor in my decision to drop a RB I never started all year who I drafted just in case because I felt he was loaded with talent for a 3rd string QB.  I picked up McCown who got hurt in week 12 was out for the season while both Chris Johnson and Ellington both went down that week as well.  We all know the outcome of what David Johnson did in weeks 14-16 and this team which finished 55th place and out of the money would have finished in the top 3 winning anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000.  I also finished 2nd that season with another team so I would have had two top 3 finishes overall and would have had a real shot to win $200,000 as we will never know which player I would have pulled out to put in David Johnson but no matter which of the players I pulled out I was finishing top 3 for sure just a question on if I would gone 1-2 or not with both teams.  Something that will live with me forever.

 
I played in a league with a guy who decided to let his season ride on his rookie QB. That rookie QB was Ryan Leaf.

 
Tavon Austin got me twice, I traded up to the 1.01 in a couple of leagues to get him in rookie drafts and last year I thought he would have the season Britt had.

Coby Fleener

Charles Rodgers

 
Trung Canidate 2nd round in first year with Skins.

Kevan Barlow 1st round in first year without Hearst in San Fran.

Troy Hambrick 3rd round in first year as starter in Dallas.

Julius Jones 2nd round coming off a strong finish to rookie year.
There are so many funny RB busts like that. Most were coming of a good finish to the year prior: Kevin Jones and William Green immediately jump to mind. 

 
Mine was also antonio gates. Picked him up around mid season 2003, dropped him 2 weeks later right as waivers closed for the year.  Could have drafted him in the 3rd the next rookie draft, but took Michael Turner instead (I had LT)

 
My first year of actually watching guys on DB and making rookie rankings I had a secret weapon nobody was talking about ranked #10 on my board that was the steal of the draft when I took him at 2.03.  His name?  None other than Storm Johnson.  I think I just liked the name.  Hopefully I've learned since then.  

 
One that haunts me is in my keeper league, superflex.  In 2011 my keepers were Vick and Tebow, so going into 2012 I had no QBs.  Desperate for QBs due to at least 15 being kept, I traded Antonio Brown (before he totally broke out) for Matt Ryan.  Ryan did help me win the league in 2012, but I made another deal for Philip Rivers and could have won the league with Rivers and Carson Palmer (who I drafted that year since he wasn't kept the previous year) as my QBs.   I had Brown for $4 at that time.  His cap value is now only $20, a steal.  I threw Ryan back into the pool a couple of years ago.

Last year, different superflex league.  Drafted Cam Newton with the 6th overall pick.  Next pick? David Johnson.  Oops.

 
I was pretty high on Philip Dorsett a couple years ago. Thought him being a first rounder and getting teamed up with Luck (and Hilton approaching FA) gave him a lot of upside in the early 2nd round of rookie drafts. Have him on about half my dynasty teams and had no shares of David Johnson (who was going in the same range). 

 
12 team TE premium ppr dynasty startup the season after Gronk broke his arm and the season before Julian Edelman broke it.

Drafted Jimmy Graham with my first pick from the the 10 seat (ahead of Gronk) of this startup , my 40th pick of the draft i took Edelman. I cut Edelman just before week one kickoff. He was snatched up for a guys full FAAB.

Three years later i traded Graham for Edelman.

Cutting Edelman was my worst call. I traded him this offseason with a future first for the 1.08 and 1.09. Moved the 1.07 and the 1.09 for the 1.03 and took Mccaffrey, got John Ross at the 1.08. We'll see.

 
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msudaisy26 said:
Tavon Austin got me twice, I traded up to the 1.01 in a couple of leagues to get him in rookie drafts and last year I thought he would have the season Britt had.

Coby Fleener

Charles Rodgers
With you on Tavon. I think I had him 1.02 behind Gio that year and ended up with plenty of shares (over Le'Veon and Hopkins).

He was also one of my favorite mid-round targets last season in all formats. 

 
Former dynasty league. (Not in order)

RBs drafted 1.1: Kevin Jones; Cedric Benson (dropped him the summer before he had his few years of decentness on the Bengals); Jahvid Best

Traded 3 2nd's to move up and draft Eric Shelton in the late 1st. 

BTW, this league was my introduction into FF. 

 
It was the Spring 2014. I joined 6 FFPC big money dynasty leagues after having played in 30+ dynasty leagues on MFL for years. To this point, player evaluation had never been an issue. We always win some and lose some, but generally speaking my rookie buys and young buys were quite strong. 

During these drafts, the consistent trend was to trade out of the 1st round, acquire additional future picks and/or middle round picks, and start my team with a core of Cordarrelle Patterson, Christine Michael, David Wilson, Aaron Hernandez, and Michael Floyd.

From a pure prospect standpoint, Patterson was/is my worst buy - I drafted him between 2.2-2.6 in each FFPC start-up draft that off-season after my mouth watered watching his tape at TEN, drafting him in all of my MFL dynasties in Spring 2013, and liking what I saw during the 2013 season, his rookie year. 

 
Ilov80s said:
Ball busted on me too, that one hurt 
add me to that list as well.....I took Ball in the first....you would have thought I learned by now about Bronco RB's...but noooo....took CJA last year pretty early cause I was all in on Kubiak RB's.....and then followed that pick up with Allen Robinson....what a waste of two early picks....

but overall the pick that haunts me the most was Braylon Edwards the year after his big season.... I was running late to the draft and asked them to wait if I went OTC as I would be there in a few minutes....well they didn't wait and picked a player for me......some guy named Larry Fitzgerald....I walked in....threw a little girl fit cause I wanted Edwards.....they backed up the draft for me probably cause I started crying or something....I REALLY wanted Edwards.....the rest is history and they still let me know about it...

BE: 55/873/3

LF: 96/1431/12

 
2015 rookie draft in a contract league, I took Duke Johnson with David Johnson on the board :bag:

Fortunately, in my auction dynasty right after, I snagged David for like $7 out of a $400 cap :moneybag:

 
Why just last year with the #2 overall in a RB heavy redraft, after debating for a while between them, I took Gurley instead of David Johnson. Then there was that Kevan Barlow in the 1st round year....

 
I am amazed this got to page two with no mention of what has likely been my worst call ever.

Trent Richardson + Norv Turner =  :moneybag:  right?  :no:

RIchardson gets traded to the Colts (and continues to suck) and the Browns end up throwing the ball almost 700 times when I thought they would be a run first offense that relied on TR in classic Norv Turner style.

There are plenty of other bad calls I have made, including several already mentioned, such as Kevan Barlow (if I wasn'r driving this train I was just taking a rest as copilot)  Dorsett (Still not enough time to be sure of this, but does not look promising). Bishop Sankey (everyone seemed to hate this guy who I kind of liked, but then ended up liking too much because I bought my own arguments for him against unsophisticated arguments against him).

One common theme I can identify here is projecting based off of perceived opportunity instead of proven results or talent. Also taking a contrarian view and then forgetting that the majority may actually know something I don't. Even if that view isn't articulated in enough detail for me to get it.

Of course I have also been very right about some players the majority slept on as well, which makes it very difficult for me to learn from these past mistakes.

When you go out on a limb some times that bears good fruit, other times you take a dirt nap when it falls apart underneath you. The bad calls are more painful than the good calls bring me joy. It takes like five good calls to equal a bad one for me (which is unrealistic, but I have high expectations for myself). I don't count calls where I generally agree with the majority either. The more time put into researching and discussing the call, the more it hurts when I am wrong.

Trent Richardson by far the worst projections I've ever made.

I don't really count busts that happened because of injury. That could happen to anybody. 

 
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Zealots IDP Dynasty...

Traded the DAL backup QB to Drew Bledsoe (Romo) and a rookie 4th .... for NEP S Rodney Harrison.

 
I'm sure I've made worse decisions, but this is the one that sticks with me right now.  In a dynasty league I drafted Kirk Cousins and held onto him for the 2+ years that RGIII was the starter.  I dropped Cousins at the start of the season in which the rails fell off for RGIII and Cousins got his chance and took over the starter job.

 
2000 3rd Round: Carl Pickens (dude was a bum)

2011, took Peyton Manning with the 9th overall pick in spite of his neck surgery. Ended up with the #1 overall pick in 2012  :bag:  jeebus 

Thanks to @DaBeers for starting this topic.  :thumbup:

I looked back through all my recorded drafts from 1998 till now. I've been pretty fortunate over the years. However, this topic showed me that my 4th round picks are consistently substandard over time. I could start a thread on just how bad my 4th's have been, but that would be dumb. 

:banned:

 
 The monster-point outburst producing, injury prone Ryan Mathews .

The travesty of that issue for me, is I somehow got sucked in year after year, in the middle rounds of a bunch of re-drafts.

I somehow always managed to talk myself into "Mathews is a fine guy for my RB by committee approach", and for what seemed like 10 years I managed to draft him in most every league I was in.

In retrospect, his best year (2013) was ironically the one year I had no shares of him.   :wall:

 I did make a pretty epic trade with him last year though.

 In one redraft league last year I traded Randall Cobb and Ryan Mathews for Eric Ebron and Brandon Marshall.

 The greatest thing about that trade, is I believe within 3 weeks of us making that trade, I believe all four of those players  were sitting on the waiver wire.

 The other owner and myself cut them all in pretty short order. 

 Kind of sums up all my experience with one Ryan Mathews.

 TZM

 

 
Traded up to get the top 2 picks in a dynasty rookie draft and walked away with Trenton Richardson and Justin Blackmon. Makes me weep.

 

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