Dispatches From the Anti-League: #2

by James Sinclair

In September I wrote an overview of a fantasy football league some friends and I started this year where the goal is to compile the worst team possible. Here's the long-awaited follow-up—a bit later than intended, but at least I got it in before the end of the season. Barely.

First, a few observations:

1. The draft was considerably less important than in conventional fantasy football, because in the Anti-League it's actually possible for a player to be too "good" (and with that, I'll stop using quotation marks to indicate ironic reversals of good and bad, because it would definitely get out of hand). Case in point: my first round pick, Jacksonville's Luke McCown. He put up a decent score in week 1, and then an outstanding score against the Jets in week two (the fifth-highest single-game point total of the year, as you'll see below). And even as I was watching that game I was thinking "oh crap, he's going to be benched", which is exactly what happened. Fortunately I was able to pick up Blaine Gabbert off waivers, and even more fortunately the Jaguars have stuck with Gabbert all season (presumably because their backup is Luke McCown).

Other first round picks included two rookie quarterbacks widely expected to be awful—Andy Dalton and Cam Newton. Dalton has been kind of middle-of-the-road (several higher-scoring quarterbacks went undrafted), while the Newton pick, beginning with his -10.7 point effort in week 1, was a disaster.

2. There might've been some concerns that it would be too difficult to keep scores in the black, and thus tempting to leave roster spots empty or start inactive players, but for the most part that didn't happen. Although I did win my first game with a score of -8.8 to -18.5 (no comment on whether the team I was facing was full of superstars like Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson because its owner had auto-drafted, and then couldn't change his roster in time, and was somehow on track to beat me anyway until Brady put up a -26.5 in the Monday night game).

3. It's hard to conceive of a scenario where a player could excel under both Anti-League and conventional fantasy scoring in the same game, but it hasn't been uncommon for a player to wind up with modest, but positive point totals in both. A running back who gets 50 yards on 15 carries, for example, would earn 5 points in each scoring system.

The point system (which is detailed at the bottom of the September post) was never intended to scientifically determine the worst (or least effective) players, of course, but our hope was that it would at least be somewhere in the vicinity. There are plenty of areas where some tweaking may be in order—QB scores are probably higher than they should be relative to other positions, WR scores are a little screwy and maybe too QB-dependent, etc.—but overall I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here are the ten highest-scoring quarterbacks who've started at least eight games (averages reflect points scored in starts only):

	Quarterbacks	Team	Starts	Pts/Start
1	Sam Bradford	StL	10	15.3
2	Blaine Gabbert	Jax	12	14.6
3	Colt McCoy	Cle	13	10.5
4	Rex Grossman	Was	11	9.3
5	Christian Ponder	Min	8	8.5
6	Matt Cassel	KC	9	8.2
7	Curtis Painter	Ind	8	8.1
8	Joe Flacco	Bal	14	7.4
9	Tarvaris Jackson	Sea	12	7.3
10	Kevin Kolb	Ari	9	7.3

As you can see, it's been a banner year for the Big 12. Also, honorable mention to Caleb Hanie, who has averaged an incredible 19.0 in his four starts.

Here are the leaders at the other positions (for reasons explained in the September post, we don't have a roster spot for tight ends):

	Running Backs	Team	Games	Pts/Gm
1	Peyton Hillis	Cle	8	6.9
2	Chris Johnson	Ten	14	6.6
3	Montario Hardesty	Cle	8	6.3
4	Dexter McCluster*	KC	14	5.0
5	Daniel Thomas	Mia	11	4.8
6	Deji Karim	Jax	11	4.6
7	Javon Ringer	Ten	12	4.4
8	Tashard Choice	3TM	11	4.4
9	Roy Helu	Was	14	4.0
10	Joseph Addai	Ind	10	3.9

*I'm including McCluster on just the RB list, but in many fantasy leagues he's also eligible at WR.

	Wide Receivers	Team	Games	Pts/Gm
1	Austin Collie	Ind	14	6.3
2	Mike Thomas	Jax	13	6.2
3	Mike Williams	TB	14	5.7
4	Brandon Lloyd	2TM	13	5.4
5	Greg Little	Cle	14	5.2
6	Donald Jones	Buf	8	5.1
7	Jon Baldwin	KC	9	4.7
8	Andre Caldwell	Cin	13	4.5
9	Devin Aromashodu	Min	14	4.4
10	Eddie Royal	Den	10	4.4

	Kickers	Team	Games	Pts/Gm
1	Graham Gano	Was	14	2.3
2	Olindo Mare	Car	14	2.1
3	Shaun Suisham	Pit	14	1.4
4	Neil Rackers	Hou	14	1.4
t5	Billy Cundiff	Bal	14	1.3
t5	Mike Nugent	Cin	14	1.3

	D/ST	Pts/Gm
1	Colts	6.5
2	Buccaneers	5.9
3	Vikings	5.6
4	Raiders	5
5	Panthers	4.9
6	Giants	4.8
7	Bills	4.2
8	Patriots	4
9	Saints	3.8
10	Rams	3.7

Some big names at the top of the running back list, but Peyton Hillis and Chris Johnson have both had rather mediocre seasons—127 carries for 445 yards (3.5 yds/carry) and 3 TDs for Hillis; 232 carries for 930 yards (4.0 yds/carry) and 4 TDs for Johnson.

Drifting further into the realm of morbid curiosity, here are the best single-game point totals. First, the quarterbacks, whose scores were generally higher than the other positions:

	Player	Team	Opp.	Week	Pts
1	Mark Sanchez	NYJ	@Bal	4	34.5
2	Caleb Hanie	Chi	KC	13	32.8
3	John Beck	Was	@Buf	8	30.6
4	Matthew Stafford	Det	@Chi	10	29.4
5	Luke McCown	Jax	@NYJ	2	28.3
6	Kevin Kolb	Ari	@Min	5	27.4
t7	Charlie Whitehurst	Sea	@Cle	7	27.0
t7	Sam Bradford	StL	Sea	11	27.0
9	Sam Bradford	StL	Was	4	26.8
10	Joe Flacco	Bal	NYJ	4	26.5

And everyone else:

	Player	Pos	Team	Opp.	Week	Pts
1	Giants	D/ST	NYG	@NO	12	24.0
2	Calvin Johnson	WR	Det	@Chi	10	23.8
3	Colts	D/ST	Ind	@NO	7	23.0
4	Reggie Wayne	WR	Ind	Pit	3	21.2
5	Chris Johnson	RB	Ten	Bal	2	21.0
t6	Jacoby Jones	WR	Hou	Oak	5	20.2
t6	Arian Foster	RB	Hou	@Ten	7	20.2
8	Dolphins	D/ST	Mia	NE	1	19.5
9	Santonio Holmes	WR	NYJ	@Bal	4	19.4
t10	Greg Little	WR	Cle	@SF	8	19.0
t10	Rams	D/ST	StL	Bal	3	19.0
t10	Vikings	D/ST	Min	NO	15	19.0

Note that three of the top five defensive performances came against the Saints. And with that 24-point game the Giants achieved the highest score a defense can possibly get under our system (46+ points allowed, 550+ yards allowed, and no sacks, turnovers, blocked kicks, safeties, or TDs). The Colts would've pulled off a perfect score too, had they restrained themselves from sacking Brees a couple times.

Scores for kickers tended to be pretty low for the simple reason that kickers rarely miss—the most common single-game score was zero—but Neil Rackers (week 10) and Graham Gano (week 12) each had a 15-point day, which in both cases consisted of a missed field goal of less than 40 yards and the extremely rare 10-point missed PAT bonanza.

Finally, since I'm sure you were wondering, here are the worst single-game scores through week 15:

	Player	Pos	Team	Opp.	Week	Pts
1	Julio Jones	WR	Atl	@Ind	9	-36.8
2	Drew Brees	QB	NO	@Min	15	-34.4
t3	Aaron Rodgers	QB	GB	Den	4	-32.6
t3	DeMarco Murray	RB	Dal	StL	7	-32.6
5	Torrey Smith	WR	Bal	@StL	3	-31.4
6	Drew Brees	QB	NO	Ind	7	-30.3
7	Kevin Smith	RB	Det	Car	11	-30.2
t8	Arian Foster	RB	Hou	@Ten	7	-29.8
t8	Calvin Johnson	WR	Det	@Oak	15	-29.8
10	Pierre Garcon	WR	Ind	@TB	4	-27.2

I was surprised to see Julio Jones at the top, but it makes a certain amount of sense. The point system is designed to reward players who are heavily involved, but ineffective, and against the Colts Julio was just the opposite. He was barely involved (only four targets for three receptions, and he ran the ball twice), and he was extremely effective (164 total yards, including 50- and 80-yard catches for touchdowns). It was everything the Anti-League doesn't stand for.