It’s official…Griff Coomer is the 2015 Robioland Fantasy Football Champion…

However, before we heap praise on our new master of the mug, we always throw a little appreciation to our runner up.

Colby falls short, but proved that maybe we tend to overthink our top picks each and every summer, when really, it’s those later round grabs that do the real damage.

His first-round pick, Andrew Luck, hasn’t seen action for Colby since week seven and scored just 1,444 points for the Pounders. His third-round pick Ameel Abdullah did pretty much nothing for him all season, before being released in week fifteen (he was picked up a week later). Instead, this squad was led by Carson Palmer, an 11th-round pick, Doug Martin, a fifth-round pick and a pair of deep keepers, Mike Evans in round seven and Alshon Jeffery all the way in round fifteen. They were paired with a solid second round pick, A.J. Green, to make a lethal trio of receivers.

Of course, Colby made sure to not wait on a tight end this season, when he grabbed Greg Olsen in round three and he’s always put defense in the forefront, as he drafted two (the Bills, the Jets) before most teams even drafted one.

In the end though, the game was pretty much decided on who was able to fill in the flex spot and who was not able to fill in a flex spot. For Colby, he thought that spot was filled, but then Alshon Jeffery was declared out for this Sunday’s contest. Instead, he was left scrambling and picked Christine Michaels, a man twice cut this year by real NFL teams, but was coming off an 84-yard performance the week before. He failed to pay off against one of the best run D’s in the league, producing just 40 points.

Despite coming up one game short for the second time in his career, Colby has had a nice three-year run, where he has won 25 games and made the post-season three straight times. Unfortunately for him, all three playoff runs came to an end thanks to Griff Coomer.

Speaking of Griff.

It’s been clear for a while that Bob Castrone has become the best team in Robioland. However, with this title (his first since 2005), Griff is proving he’s right on his tail. Fitting, since this season’s incredible run began back in week nine when he ended Bob’s unbeaten season.

From that moment on, Griff hasn’t tasted defeat, rolling off eight straight wins to end the season. Yet, it was when he finally filled that flex spot, he became the favorite. That’s when the Cardinals Chris Johnson went down and Griff grabbed David Johnson off the wire in week thirteen for $23.

The free agent pick up became the league’s best fantasy player, averaging 389 points per game in his four starts. This includes his 314-point effort in the title game. It was that title game that I said Griff’s backs needed to deliver at least 500 points. Well, they did that easily, as Johnson and Adrian Peterson combined for 612 fantasy points.

For Griff, the success started even before the draft, when he traded up for the top pick in the draft and took a chance on Peterson, who was coming off a season where he played just one game. The moved paid off, as Peterson finished first-team All-Robio. Yet like Colby above, this run wasn’t about a bunch of top picks leading a team to a title.

At quarterback, Cam Newton was arguable the best player in the league, but Griff didn’t draft him until the 8th round. The Panthers D wasn’t taken until the 10th round, Gary Barnidge was a free agent pick up and most importantly, Odell Beckham was a 14th round keeper that wasn’t even drafted by Griff in 2014.

This championship is the payoff of an amazing run. Griff has now won at least eight games for seven straight seasons. Only Bob has done that. He’s now been to a record 32 playoff games, won 20 of those and has appeared in a stunning eight title games (in 17 seasons).

Worse yet for all of us, next year’s team could be even better. Think about it, before the draft even begins, he can keep Adrian Peterson with the 12th overall pick in round one (thanks to me, for trading him the first pick in the draft). He then drafts again with the 13th pick. Thanks to me, he can also keep David Johnson in round 10 (we’re going to assume Johnson has earned the starting job with his performance). Then he gets Odell Beckham in round 14 for one more year (thanks to Calderon).

Can you say repeat?