Season Of Giving

It’s long been the bane of fantasy owners’ existence – the dreaded unpredictability of the fantasy football finals. The reason being is because by the end of the season, so often the best players are being rested or pulled from games early by their coaches in hopes of saving their health for the real playoffs. At least at the running back position, Week 16 was a break in tradition of sorts, as a host of backs put together matchup altering performances. To name a few, Dion Lewis racked up over 30 points with his two touchdowns and over 150 total yards, Gio Bernard’s dual threat skillset saw him post 30 points as well with nearly 170 total yards, seven catches, and a touchdown, CJ Anderson closed in on the 30 point mark too with a rock solid rushing, receiving, and scoring day, while Bilal Powell’s 145 rushing yards came way out of left field to give owners an edge.

While these performances may have been the difference for a lot of owners in the finals, no Week 16 performance would rival that of Todd Gurley, who’s 50-point outing masked any other blemishes that your roster may have had this past Sunday. In all he saw 32 touches – 22 rushing and 10 receiving – while his 276 total yards and two touchdowns put him in rarified air.

Understanding the gravity of his performance not just in the scope of his and his teammates’ benefit, Gurley made an unprecedented move by breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging his fantasy admirers on Twitter…

Sure it sounded a little Grinch-like from the MVP frontrunner, but by doing that, something amazing happened… A new trend emerged from the fantasy football community, one that saw fantasy owners giving back to the players who gave to them all season long. In response to Gurley’s tweet, it wasn’t long before the replies began to pour in, featuring several instances of fantasy owners who won their championships and donated a portion of their winnings to Todd Gurley’s favorite charity Shriners Hospitals for Children. Below is just one example of many.

Not to get all sappy, but what a terrific idea this is. With Matthew Berry tweeting about it too, hopefully this is a trend that will catch on quickly. I brought it up to the guy who won my league (my cousin, who like many rode Gurley’s hot streak to victory) and he loved the idea. As I asked of him, I ask all of you winners out there too… If you have it in you, in this holiday season of giving, give back to the guys who gave all they had for your teams this season. It doesn’t have to be Gurley either, but ideally it would be for the player(s) who were most responsible for your victorious season. Offer a portion – small or large – of your bountiful winnings to their favorite charity. Donate online and send them a tweet, I’m sure they will reply or retweet, just as Gurley has been doing over the last few days. If you are like myself and didn’t win any of your leagues don’t let that stop your givings. I personally am going to make a donation to the charity of whomever wins the fantasy running back MVP award – an award that I will reveal in next week’s edition, so tune in on Wednesday to find out where my money is going.

Through this, ultimately you will feel good, they will feel good, and most importantly a difference will be made in our world. From this silly game that we invest so much time in, the effort can finally be tangible. In this way we can take it from fantasy to reality.

NostraDomUs Predicts – Week 15 Recap

Each Wednesday, in addition to this weekly article, I also publish theDFS RB Plays of the Week– an article reserved to PlaybookPro subscribers only. For our purposes here though, in hopes of keeping things how they have been for the past couple of seasons, I will consider those DFS selections as my "NostraDomUs Predicts" selections that I have been providing in this article for the past two years.

So to make things clear – I will make my running back picks in the other article for the upcoming week, and then I will recap the previous week's picks in this article. At the bottom of the page I will give a running season-long tally of my predictive record.

* Week 15 RB Predictions *

Elite Play(s)

Ezekiel Elliott, DAL –The rehashing of this game has been beat to death, so I’ll give it a rest for the most part…

Having said that…

WHY THE HELL DID SCOTT LINEHAN REFUSE TO GIVE ZEKE THE BALL IN THE RED ZONE AND AT ANY POINT IN THE SECOND HALF???

For Cowboys fans, fantasy owners, and DFSers alike, watching Elliott make mince meat of this Seattle defense was pleasing, but the buffoonery of the OC when it came to getting the second year back the rock near the goal line was crushing. Regardless though, Zeke still provided 16 points on DK with nearly 100 rushing yards, which is a solid fantasy day considering his affordable price tag.

Maybe with Linehan gone next season (fingers crossed), the Cowboys will feature their best player more often (see: Pittsburgh and Los Angeles).

Le’Veon Bell, PIT – While he was very expensive last week and while he didn’t exactly blow away the box score in the fashion that he usually does, Bell still provided the safest floor in all of fantasy football with over 20 points on DraftKings. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but his 97 total yards, one touchdown, and five receptions made his start more than worth while in Week 16.

Affordable Play(s)

Dion Lewis, NE – Lewis was my favorite play last week and he showed up big time with over 35 points on DraftKings. In all, he saw over 30 touches, racked up over 150 total yards, and got into the end zone twice – solidifying the narrative that the lack of Rex “The Vulture” Burkhead would be the difference in Lewis going from a solid fantasy back to an elite one. His five receptions were an added bonus to the already excellent showing.

Christian McCaffrey, CAR – Speaking for both the Cristian McCaffrey and Jonathan Stewart picks here, it should be known that two unexpected things happened last Sunday: A) The Buccaneers inexplicably stepped up their game – particularly on the defensive end – and B) The Panthers came out and unexpectedly laid an egg on the offensive end. Simply put, both teams played out of character in this contest, throwing off almost all fantasy predictions. Nothing much more to add here on this…

Bargain Play(s)

Jerick McKinnon, MIN – McKinnon disappointed here, and in the process, unfortunately once again a back failed me without much explanation. Sure the Vikes were up for the most part in this game, but at no point were they blowing out the Packers so badly that they needed to abandon the pass. Rather than thinking too much about this one, I’m just going to go ahead and chalk it up in the loss column for my season long predictive record.

Alex Collins, BAL – Sure Collins struggled last week, but overall he has been in excellent form over the last half of the season. This week he has a shot at the lowly Indianapolis Colts and their bottom of the barrel rush defense. Let’s not over complicate things here… He should be a bargain at anything under $6,000.

Flyer Play(s)

Jonathan Stewart, CAR – See: Christian McCaffrey explanation.

** NostraDomUs’ 2017 Running Back Predictions Record (NFL year to date) **

Right:(83) Wrong:(61)

Prophetic Percentage: (58%)