Matt walks out of the draft with the greatest team ever, 2009
Coming off a three-win season, Matt was set up to succeed in 2009. He had three great keepers (despite last season’s failures) and the top pick in the 2009 draft. However, he would still need to make good decisions in the draft. He had good keepers the year before and it resulted into three wins.
Right off the bat, he landed Frank Gore with the top pick. After keeping Peterson in the second, he grabbed DeSean Jackson in the third. In the fourth he nabbed his starting tight end, Tony Gonzalez. Three rounds later, he landed his starting D (the Jets in Rex Ryan’s first year as coach).
That was all Matt needed. He could have stopped drafting, set his lineup and walked away until week sixteen. This combination of draftees and keepers were that good.
Matt would roll out of the gate with two wins, scoring a league high 1,608 and 1,881. He lost to Don the following week by 123 points, but that was because Frank Gore had one carry before leaving the game with an injury.
Neatock would roll up five-straight wins, including three over 1,500, before falling to Masterson in week nine. That week, Adrian Peterson was on a bye.
Matt would end up dropping only one of his final four, a week 12 contest to Calderon, a week in which DeSean Jackson was out with an injury. Seeing a theme here?
With the regular season done, Matt was the top seed and scoring champ, losing only three games all season by just 418 points, all three involving a missing key player. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, he was completely healthy heading into the post-season. He was your champion.
However, for some strange reason, eight people predicted #8 Eric would upset Matt in the first-round. People are stupid. Matt swept through the post-season. No game was close, as Matt’s 5,390 playoff points were a record.
By the time it was all said and done, Matt’s 2009 season was ranked #1 all-time in season’s ranking. He did it without needing to ever pull off a trade or pick up a free agent. Time will tell if it remains the best team ever, but it certainly was the best team built before the season ever started.
Note: Ironically, none of Matt’s players finished as first-team All-Robio. Gore was 10th among running backs, while Peterson was 4th. DeSean and Welker finished 11th and 6th among receivers. Both Tony Gonzalez and the Jets Defense finished 4th among their respective positions.
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