I was mired in fantasy football mediocrity until I started following Roto Street Journal. During my first season of reading RSJ, I finished 2nd after back-to-back 5th and 7th place finishes. This year, I followed the Journal’s draft advice, as well as players to watch each week and jumped out to a big regular season lead. Despite finishing 3rd in the regular season, I won the championship on the Roto Street Journal’s advice on Pierre Garcon.

– Brian Lewin

Your 2016 Roto Street Journal Champion: JimboSlice

Ho hum, a championship for your boy JimboSlice, would you look at that. There are a few people I would like to thank for this title:

  1. My big brain
  2. David Johnson
  3. God (David Johnson?)
  4. Aaron Rodgers
  5. My big brain once again for playing Cameron Meredith over Larry Fitz, and sticking with Isaiah Crowell

On a serious note, it is a humbling honor to be crowned the very first RSJ champion in a league with so many intelligent owners. It was a great honor to face Nat “The Truth” Jones aka the Podfather in the league finals as I had told him and others numerous times throughout the season that we had the two best teams. Nat and I both were sacked with 4-6 records after week 10, despite having two of (if not, the) the highest scoring teams on the league. We both won three straight to end the year in order to clinch playoff spots and dominated the rest of the way. As for how I got here, it all starts with the draft.

Here’s what I wrote post-draft all the way back in August. You can read the entire article HERE:

“In a fantasy league where I would be surrounded by experts, I knew putting together a solid team would be difficult. I entered the draft room expecting the worst. I was going to get manhandled in this league and it was going to be ugly. But, as the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. That’s exactly what your boy did and here I am standing on top of the proverbial preseason mountain. I really like this team, I think it can do some lethal damage. If you put any stock into Yahoo’s draft grades and projections, I’m sitting at a 12-2 record with the second highest projected points ranking. Ho hum. Hopefully the season pans out as Yahoo thinks it will (spoiler alert: pretty much never does). Here’s a quick breakdown of my team.
The theme is balance. I think all positions are nicely covered and have solid depth. I fancy the receiving core of Cooks-Landry-Fitzgerald, all who should thrive in PPR formats. Reaching for Landry in the 3rd round was tough, but knowing that everyone in this league loves him, I had to make my move early. I like my running back core of David Johnson and Rashad Jennings, while James White and Isaiah Crowell can fill in if necessary. Chris Johnson was an obvious handcuff choice for DJ. I know we all like to wait on QB’s but I really liked getting Aaron Rodgers at #45. At that time, people are picking up mediocre running backs and WR3’s. Snagging an elite QB to anchor my team feels good in what should be Rodgers’ big bounce back year.  Emmanuel Sanders and Corey Coleman provide good depth at receiver, and having the Carolina defense should eliminate most weeks of streaming a defense. My only regret was picking TE Zach Ertz over TJ Yeldon. He wasn’t on my radar at the time and would have been a nice PPR option off the bench in case Jennings doesn’t work out.
Overall, I really like my team. I think we can do some serious work in what should be an ultra-competitive league.

Having the 4th pick in the draft, I had been hell-bent all year on getting one of the four top receivers in my mind (Brown-Beckham-Julio-Hopkins). Having used that strategy in so many other leagues, I decided to switch it up and select David Johnson (thank god) who was the highest ranked player in The Wolf’s player stock preview. He was the catalyst to my team and carried me week after week. There were some timely hits like Brandin Cooks (2nd), Larry Fitzgerald (5th) and Emmanuel Sanders (7th), but there were also some busts it turns out. Jarvis Landry (3rd), Rashad Jennings (6th) and Corey Coleman (8th). In this draft, I also broke another rule of mine which was to wait on a QB by drafting Aaron Rodgers in the 4th round at #45 overall. At the time I saw him still available and thought, he’s too good to still be here, I gotta have him. He really turned it on late in the season and is a huge part in my championship. My extreme foundation at wide receiver was what I desired, and it carried me through the season.

I would like to take this opportunity though to share how good the Roto Street Journal really is. After spending a whole fantasy year with these guys and seeing how smart they are, it’s apparent their knowledge really boosted my game, as I hope my knowledge may have helped them. Between constant messages with each other and sharing ideas/thoughts, I easily had the best fantasy football season of my entire life. In five different leagues I managed to complete the following:

There’s no doubt in my mind that there’s a direct correlation to my success and my time here at the Rot0 Street Journal. So keep following the site for some offseason content that can keep you busy and get you ready to dominate YOUR league next season.

From all of us here at the Roto Street Journal, thanks for following along with us all year. But from your league champion JimboSlice, just know who to trust with your fantasy questions/advice. This one was for you Kimbo. RIP in peace.

Author

  • Founder of Roto Street Journal. Lover of workhorse backs, target hog wideouts, and Game of Thrones. Aspiring to be the "Brady" and "Leo" of the fantasy universe.