I wrote in one of my earlier recaps about taking over a handful of teams this offseason–this recap covers one of the first that I grabbed, and one that I had the highest hopes for…welcome to Team Diablo.

The Setup

This league, started in 2018, is a pretty standard, 25-man roster (+ 5 taxi squad spots) league, with 1 QB spot, 1 standard flex, and 10 total starters (with kicker and defense).  Teams also get $1,000 in FAAB at the start of each league year.

2019 Season

One of the more confusing things of the teams that were dropped across all these leagues–some of them were absolutely stacked…and this team actually won the league in 2019, after finishing the #2 seed overall.

The Roster

Here is the roster as it ended the 2019 season:

QB Sam Darnold, Carson Wentz
RB Saquon Barkley, Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook, Chase Edmonds, Ryquell Armstead, Justice Hill
WR Cole Beasley, Michael Gallup, Kenny Golladay, DeSean Hamilton, KeeSean Johnson, Olibisi Johnson, Cooper Kupp, DJ Moore, Calvin Ridley, Deebo Samuel, Tajae Sharpe, Equanimious St. Brown, Miles Boykin, Keelan Doss, Steven Sims
TE Mark Andrews, Zach Ertz, Josh Oliver
K Joey Slye
Def Tennessee Titans

And here’s how it look when I took over in early May:

QB Sam Darnold, Carson Wentz
RB Saquon Barkley, Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook, Chase Edmonds, Derrius Guice, Bryce Love, Ryquell Armstead, Justice Hill
WR JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Cole Beasley, Kenny Golladay, Cooper Kupp, Deebo Samuel, Equanimious St. Brown, Michael Thomas, Laquon Treadwell, Miles Boykin, Keelan Doss
TE Mark Andrews, Zach Ertz, Josh Oliver
K Joey Slye
Def Tennessee Titans

Obviously some big deals were made leading up to the owner dropping out–and not deals I would have made.  In particular, a few big trades:

Traded: DJ Moore, 2020 Pick 1.12
Received: Michael Thomas, 2020 Pick 2.07

Traded: Calvin Ridley, 2020 Pick Pick 2.07
Received: Derrius Guice, Bryce Love, JJ Arcega-Whiteside

Traded: Michael Gallup
Received: 2020 Pick 2.05

The Ridley deal was particularly painful to see–it went down just a couple weeks before the owner dropped the league, Ridley was one of my big targets to have as many shares as possible in 2020, and Guice…definitely was not.

The Takeover

Fortunately, the other owners–in particular a couple of the guys that made the deals above–were still willing to wheel and deal heading into the draft.

Traded: Derrius Guice
Received: 2020 Pick 1.12

I was able to recover my own first round pick, and unload Guice at the same time. Big win.

Traded: Zach Ertz
Received: Calvin Ridley

I think I did a double take when this offer came in, from the same owner that had traded me the 1.12 pick less than 24 hours earlier. Another huge win–leaves me short at TE, but with Mark Andrews, Ertz was a luxury that I figured would be fading fast.

Acquired: Kaden Smith, $1 FAAB

One of the first things I often do in taking over teams is start grabbing young TE, if the waiver wire is thin.

Traded: 2020 Pick 3.10
Received: Jalen Hurd

Hurd is another guy I was acquiring where I could last off-season…and might have been a good indicator of what was ahead for this team.

Traded: Ryquell Armstead, Chase Edmonds
Received: Irv Smith

Interestingly enough, the same guy that traded me 1.12 and Ridley also traded me Smith, who I figured would give me depth behind Andrews.

The Draft

I ended up with 6 picks in the draft:

Pick Selection Alternatives
1.12 Michael Pittman Tee Higgins (2.02)
2.05 Joe Burrow Brandon Aiyuk (2.06), Antonio Gibson (2.09), Zack Moss (3.01), Justin Herbert (3.04)
3.07 Eno Benjamin Devin Duvernay (3.08), KJ Hamler (3.10), Donovan Peoples-Jones (4.02)
4.12 Collin Johnson
5.02 James Robinson
5.12 Brycen Hopkins

Obviously there were a couple times I could have gone in a different direction–but James Robinson at 5.02 was the absolute steal of the draft, and until he hurt his knee, getting Burrow at 2.05 was also a pretty good deal, even in a 1 QB league.

The Preseason

Won’t bore you with every move, but made a few more heading into the season:

Acquired: LeSean McCoy for $31 FAAB (later traded for a 2022 5th)

Acquired: Tyler Johnson for $66 FAAB

Acquired: Darrel Williams for $21 FAAB (dropped Laquon Treadwell)

The Season

Despite a roster loaded with talent…this team…underperformed.  And suffered injuries–Michael Thomas, Saquon Barkley, Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook, Michael Pittman, Kenny Golladay, Deebo Samuel, Joe Burrow…with COVID, the league added extra spots for IR, and I pretty much maxed them out.

I didn’t help things as a manager, though–I activated James Robinson from the taxi squad after week 2 but forgot to start him, picked up Kyle Juszczyk as a bye week fill in when Cook was on bye, and accidentally started him the next week too…it was ugly. Not sure if my mismanagement ended up costing me games, but it didn’t help.

Some significant transactions:

Acquired: Wayne Gallman for $7 FAAB (later dropped 7 days later)

Acquired: Freddie Swain, Olamide Zaccheaus, Randy Bullock, Adrian Peterson, and a handful of others.

Acquired: Salvon Ahmed for $145 FAAB

Traded: Carson Wentz
Received: Daniel Jones, Chase Edmonds, 2021 4th Round Pick

This deal happened before Week 7’s games, when I was desperately thin on RB with Chubb out and Cook on bye (along with Mike Boone, who I had to play in desperation the week before for him)–I also realized that Joe Burrow and Carson Wentz had the same bye week, which left me with Sam Darnold–who was coming off an injury when I made the deal.  Edmonds was solid the rest of the season, even though I only ended up using him for the one week (he put up 19.05 points for me) with Cook, Chubb and Robinson in the lineup–but with the way Wentz’s season turned out, I think I came out ahead in this deal.

The Results

Coming off a championship season, this team finished in 7th place–but wasn’t even playing for the final playoff spot in Week 13, having already fallen to 4-8.

The outlook for the 2021 season will depend largely on how a couple guys come back from injury–but the roster is still pretty deep at RB & WR, and solid at TE, and has 6 picks again to work with (draft order is pending, although I think I pick 4th, since the league uses Potential Points to determine the top 6 spots).

Here’s the current roster (with IR guys included–last year we didn’t have to cut down until the draft, we’ll see if that changes this year):

QB Joe Burrow, Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones
RB Salvon Ahmed, Saquon Barkley, Eno Benjamin, Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook, Chase Edmonds, Justice Hill, Bryce Love, Malcolm Perry, Adrian Peterson, James Robinson, Darrel Williams
WR JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Cole Beasley, Miles Boykin, Kenny Golladay, Jalen Hurd, Collin Johnson, Tyler Johnson, Cooper Kupp, Michael Pittman, Calvin Ridley, Deebo Samuel, Freddie Swain, Michael Thomas, Olamide Zaccheaus
TE Mark Andrews, Brycen Hopkins, Josh Oliver, Kyle Rudolph, Irv Smith Jr.
K Randy Bullock
Def Green Bay Packers

That leaves me with 4 roster spots to open up to be complient, and 6 more if I keep all 6 picks–but with this type of team, I’ll be active, trying to find a new QB at a minimum.

Photo by KA Sports Photos