So Colby, how does it feel to be on top of Robio’s Rankings?
Back in 2001, Robioland’s first season in New York, a man named Jason Carpenter, liked by none, produced one of the greatest teams ever. He easily earned the top seed after suffering just three losses during the regular season and three games later, was the first league champ not named Robio.
That squad would go on to score 21,816 points in a 14-game regular season, an average of 1,558 points per game.
How did he do this? He did it the easiest way possible. He drafted early, well and everyone basically stayed healthy. The team that ended up winning the title was basically the team he drafted. His starting quarterback (Aaron Brooks), both his starting running backs (Marshall Faulk and Ricky Williams), starting tight end (Frank Wycheck) and one starting wide receiver (Terrell Owens) were not only all drafted by him, but those five players were five of his first six picks. His only fail was fourth-round pick Ed McCaffrey, who went on the IR midway through the season. He ended up picking up Keyshawn Johnson, who ended up being the 11th best wide receiver that year.
For what seemed like forever, that looked like a untouchable record. Hell, it would take a decade before anyone else would average over 1,500 for a season (that was Molly and Masterson, who both did it in 2011). Yet, even as NFL scoring went up and more and more folks hit the 1,500 point per game mark, no one came close to challenging Jason’s record of 1,558.
Me, the commish, got frustrated, as I don’t like any former members, especially one-hit wonders, owning any records. I wanted someone to break that record. That someone proved to be Colby Hall.
His 2018 squad, rode a wave of points last year, to break the regular season point record. He scored 20,588, crushing the record by averaging 1,584 points per contest.
However, unlike Mr. Carpenter, who basically drafted his record-breaking team, Colby’s team was always a work in progress.
Just look at his draft…
Round 1 – Antonio Brown (#5) A solid third-team All-Robio, but still felt like a disappointment. After three straight 1st-team All-Robio awards, Brown actually struggled to stay in the top-10 for most of the season.
Round 2 – Alex Collins (#35) By midseason, he was barely worth a bench spot.
Round 3 – Jerick McKinnon (IR) Failed to play a single game, as he tore his ACL in the preseason.
Round 4 – Travis Kelce (#1) A stud keeper, who again proved to be the best tight end in football.
Round 5 – Marvin Jones (#44) Fail. Never really played for Colby much and ended the year on IR.
Round 6 – Kirk Cousins (#13) Proved to be the best pick in Colby’s draft simply for what he got for him. Ironically enough, he was Neatock’s starting quarterback when he won the championship.
Round 7 – Robby Anderson (#66) He almost made Marvin Jones look productive.
Round 8 – Kenny Stills (#61) Unlike Anderson and Jones, Stills proved to be all Colby needed to add with Cousins and land Mahomes. The Fins receiver didn’t even last a month with me.
Round 9 – Isaiha Crowell (#19) Don’t be fool by his top-20 finish among all backs. 26% of his points came in one game. He was on Colby’s bench for that. Two weeks later he was traded to Bob.
Round 10 – Rams DST (#9) Colby’s second keeper. They were fine, but this D was expected to do better than barely finishing among the top-10 defenses.
Round 11 – Matt Breida (#17) He looked like an amazing handcuff for moments, but his inability to stay healthy kept him from being considered a steal.
Round 12 – Nyheim Hines (#39) Always seemed to be behind someone on the Colts’ depth chart.
Round 13 – Tevin Coleman (#21) Mr Hall’s last keeper had the perfect opportunity, getting handed the starting job in Atlanta, thanks to injuries to Freeman. Yet, he was average at best all season long, barely finishing as a backend RB2.
Round 14 – John Brown (#29) For a hot minute, he looked like a absolute steal, but he faded quickly in the second half of the season.
Round 15 – Will Lutz (#2) Second-team All-Robio kicker, behind a kicker who spent most of the season not on someone’s roster, so you could argue that Lutz was the best kicker this season.
Draft Results…
That’s not what we would call a good draft. He produced just three All-Robio players. His first pick (fourth overall), a third-year keeper tight end and his kicker in the last round. If you look at his projected starters, Colby would barely be able to avoid finishing last in points. Yet, creating a record-breaking team doesn’t begin and end with the draft.
Trades…
Of course, if you want to understand how Colby put this together, look no further than the greatest second-year quarterback since Dan Marino. Seeing in week two that I was desperate for a wide receiver, Colby nagged and nagged and nagged a bunch more and much like Tiki Barber 14 years earlier, the old man wore me down. He was able to ship Kirk Cousin and Kenny Stills away for Patrick Mahomes (and Chris Hogan).
The Chiefs quarterback proved to be the league MVP, breaking 5,000 fantasy points in 12 games played. Starting just 11 games for Team Colby, Mahomes accounted for 23% of Mr. Hall’s points. How valuable is that? The 106 players that started for Colby in 2018, averaged just 150 points per game.
Colby did pull off a second trade that season, shipping Crowell to Bob for Taylor Gabriel (Bears wideout), but to say it has less of an impact compared to his first trade, would be a minor understatement.
ADD & DROPS…
On the wire, Colby’s decision making on the wire proved to have a little impact, or at least, short-term impact. Overall, he made 21 add/drops in our regular season. In week three, he spent $54 on Gio Bernard and Ryan Fitzgerald. The latter did nothing for Colby, but Bernard ended up starting two games and his 312 fantasy points in week four helped Colby secure a 107-point victory over Don. Without that, he would have been 1-4 after five weeks.
After that, it would be week 10 before Colby would land another starter (other than kicker) off the wire. That would be Tyler Lockett. The Seahawks wideout was solid down the stretch. In three starts for Colby, he proved to be the WR2 that was missing since Josh Brown disappeared, averaging 199 points per game.
In week 12, he reached for Gus Edwards, who had become the starting running back in Baltimore. Colby started him in week 13, helping him break 2,000 and land the record breaking scoring crown. However, in the quarterfinals, he came up small with 134 points.
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