Defense Wins Championships
I live a tortured sports existence, which makes it hard for someone who is so passionate about sports. So if you had to guess, you’d guess I’m from A) Philly, B) Buffalo, or, C) Cleveland. If you picked C) Cleveland, you’d be correct. I’ve seen it all and witnessed a franchise so incompetent that one of my RSO league mates has a team name: The Death Blow: Cleveland’s Only Hope for a Title! (Coincidentally, he won the inaugural season of our 12-team RSO league and has Josh Gordon for another two years at a ridiculously good contract.)
Alas, there was no championship parade for The Death Blow or for other RSO league winners. However, in the city in which I currently reside, Seattle, WA, the Seahawks just won the Super Bowl and the sense of pride in this city is of Richard Sherman-esque proportions.
So when the team announced the parade for this past Wednesday, there was no way that my 3.5 year old son and I were missing this “life experience.” This is the only NFL city he has lived in and the Seahawks are definitely his team and while I wouldn’t dream of letting him go to an NFL game anytime soon (for a variety of reasons), you never know when a city will get another championship (in Cleveland’s case, probably never).
As a result, we braved cold temps (nothing like the Polar Vortex out East) and a gridlocked city that closely resembled Washington D.C. in “Live Free or Die Hard.” The buses were full and if it weren’t for a stranger whose mom came and drove us downtown (Seattle folk are just outwardly kind sometimes), we wouldn’t have even made it.
We waited for almost two hours for the parade to make it to us and that is a tall task with a young one. But when Marshawn Lynch came around the corner throwing Skittles, the people around me erupted and my son was going crazy. The vehicles in the motorcade went through the positions-Russell Wilson and the Quarterbacks, the Wide Receivers (I’m very high on Percy Harvin for fantasy next year), and ultimately to the “Legion of Boom”— the uber-confident defense that stymied the historic Broncos offense in the Super Bowl.
Say what you will about the confidence of the Legion of Boom but they have a Reggie Miller like way of talking the talk and walking the walk. Which gets me to my main point: I’m using my RSO Franchise Tag for 2014 on the Seahawks DST.
I know that in fantasy football, defenses fluctuate in fantasy points scored on a yearly basis and the Chiefs went off in the regular season and were exposed in the playoffs. Frankly, I don’t see that happening with the Seahawks for many reasons. First, they have 8 home games in the toughest place to play in NFL History-700,000 fans at a parade and another 100,000 in two stadiums reinforced the power of the 12th Man on Wednesday. If they can make Peyton Manning have happy feet, imagine what they can do to other QB’s, and we haven’t even talked about the weather at these games which is usually wet and windy. While their home trek includes Tony Romo, Peyton again, the NFC West, and Aaron Rodgers, they are at the point fantasy-wise where they are the only no-brainer DST to start regardless of matchup. Heck, you should consider benching your Larry Fitzgerald type WR’s and Colin Kaepernick type QB’s against them too. And to quote another Sherman (American Pie), “Confidence is high.” You just don’t see this group letting up right now, even if a piece or two up front may change.
In RSO your league dynamics, scoring system, and how fellow owners spend their money may differ from the league I’m in, but if your league is anything like mine where $30M/year contracts abound for RB’s and WR’s, DST is where the average salary for using the franchise tag is actually something worth considering. For me, that will be probably be in the $3M range for 2014 for production that rivals a Top 10 RB or WR and enables you to go after the Alshon Jefferys of this year’s FA crop in the Free Agency Auction. Sign me up – just not for another parade if the Seahawks repeat next year.
Editor’s Note: Matt Goodwin was a first-time RSO user this season, and we thank him for sharing his unforgettable Super Bowl parade experience in Seattle as well as his franchise tag advice. If you want to follow him on Twitter, his handle is @mattgoody2.