A New Day

With the new 2019 season around the corner, CTDB faced its biggest franchise shakeups yet. Over eighteen years, we've only had two franchises switch hands before -- Skool in 2004 and Ante Up in 2013. Now three franchises would be leaving the league, and one of them the defending champs!

For such an unprecedented event, we decided to throw a dispersal draft for the three incoming owners. First there was a draft of which franchises they would take over (and that franchises' accompanying draft position) and then we had a five round dispersal draft from the rosters of the three outgoing teams. Here is the Google Sheet with details but we'll take a look at the results below. [ 2019 Dispersal Draft ]

City of Angels Masterminds, Marcus (Athena Nike)
Roger's friend and advertised as "never having lost at fantasy football," Marcus has reportedly played actual basketball against the likes of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. That's, um, impressive. While heading into an international weeks-long vacation Marcus was kind enough to put up with all our hurried dispersal draft issues.

Given the first position in the dispersal, Marcus took Ezekiel Elliott and then followed that up with Odell Beckham Jr, Todd Gurley, Cam Newton, and TY Hilton. Time will tell if he is capable of losing a fantasy football season, but since he's already inheriting our defending champion Athena Nike franchise, the winning ways are already built into this team's DNA.

Custom J (Dirty Birds)
One of Evan's cousins that we've been waiting to indoctrinate into CTDB, Josh takes over the best franchise in CTDB history (no bias here, ahem). Unlike the previous ownership regime, Josh apparently ventures outdoors as he was on a camping expedition during most of the dispersal draft.

Granted top choice in the dispersal, Josh chose to take the RD1.2 pick in the dispersal, avoiding the snake picks at the end of each round. The future Josh Josh's will start off with DeAndre Hopkins, Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, Robert Woods, and Leonard Fournette as their core. Placed into the competitive Marvel division, Josh will get first shot at taking down his cousin...

Crunch Bunch, Eddie (Fobsters)
A name already well know to us in our fantasy basketball league, Eddie aka Swamp Dragons, has proven his fantasy bonafides to us over the years. Now he's turned his attention toward our little ten teamer and will get the chance to not only crush his cousin, Evan, but also his older brother, Josh.

To do that, Eddie will have to fight his way through the Capcom division and he'll do it with Michael Thomas, Melvin Gordon, Dalvin Cook, Amari Cooper, and Kenny Golladay as his starting five. We hope to see Eddie in many future Super Bowls and laying waste to his family members -- and everyone else.

Welcome Marcus, Josh, and Eddie, we look forward to having you around in CTDB for many years! As for our outgoing owners -- Jimmy, Jon, Frank -- good riddance!

2019 Keepers

Draft Order: 2019

1. Fat Jubas (5-8)
2. Battle Angel (5-8)
3. LA Buffy (6-7)
4. Eddie / Dirty Birds (6-7)
5. Marcus / Fobsters (6-7)
6. Tiiite End Jammers (7-6)
7. Philadelphia Phreaks (7-6)
8. Chunky Monkeys (9-4)
9. Gang Green (7-6) *Runner Up
10. Josh / Athena Nike (7-6) *Champion

Toilet Bowl Win: Fat Jubas
TB Loss: Battle Angel

Tie-Breakers
1) 5-8, Fat Jubas and Battle Angel: Both 1-1 H2H, defer to PF
2) 6-7, LA Buffy and Dirty Birds: Both 1-1 H2H, defer to PF
3) 7-6, H2H among three teams: Gang Green (1-2), Tiiiite End Jammers (1-1), Philadelphia Phreaks (2-1)
4) 7-6, H2H among two teams: Tiiiite End Jammers lost to Phreaks WK8

Super Bowl XVIII

#3 Athena Nike (7-6) def #2 Gang Green (7-6), 141.6 - 126.5
As one prognosticator predicted, Athena Nike was the most dangerous team headed into the playoffs and then they went out and proved it, by taking down another higher seed as they romped their way to a title after putting up 135.6, 104.5, and a 141.6 points during the playoffs. (Note: The Super Bowl record for PF was 155.0 in 2001 by Buffy, which is wild since that was before we expanded starting lineups by two slots.) At the end of the day, Nike won eight straight from WK10 on, and that was after a 1-5 stretch from WK4-9, proving that perseverance is a key trait for every champion.

Their games got increasingly, slightly, tougher as they started off with a RD1 fifty-point blowout of Jammers, then a twenty-five point win versus top seeded Chunky in the Marvel finals, and finally a Super Bowl victory by “only” fifteen points. Of course, the title game was essentially sealed with a touchdown pass to Michael Thomas halfway through Sunday, and despite Ben Roethlisberger’s heroics and a comeback attempt by Christian McCaffrey, Gang Green fell short. Technically there were a lot of points left on Greg’s bench but none that would have been inserted normally, and to put an exclamation point for our year-long issues with defensive scoring, Texans defense threw up negative seven for the final matchup.

On the winning side, the heroes were many, as Baker Mayfield stepped in for an injured Cam Newton — his second start for Athena — and won a ring in his rookie NFL season. Ezekiel Elliot slowed a bit as the postseason wore on but still averaged 18+ points. The steadiest hand for Nike during the post-season was DeAndre Hopkins, who was an explosive stick of dynamite. Throw in Leonard Fournette and Adrian Peterson doing just enough, and it was a team-wide effort for this title. Heck, tight end Evan Engram was a free agent last week and then put up 14.3 points in the Super Bowl, while coach Frank also subbed out Vikings defense for Rams, resulting in a one-point increase.

In short, owner Frank’s plan worked out to perfection as he took a team that finished with only five wins in 2014 — the year Frank rejoined CTDB — and launched a rebuild that re-energized trade markets around the league and also resulted in Nike getting two #1 overall draftees despite never actually winning the Toilet Bowl.

Since inheriting a keeper core of Aaron Rodgers, Ray Rice, CJ Spiller, Alfred Morris, and Roddy White, Frank has turned over everyone to not only get younger, but also more talented. 2015 brought in DeAndre Hopkins and a RD3 for Nike's RD2 pick. That spare RD3 was then turned into Rob Gronkowski a day later. So yes, one RD2 pick brought in Hopkins and Gronk!

2016 was a mega-deal that resulted in draft picks used to grab Ezekiel Elliot and Michael Thomas. 2017 was another three-team mega-trade that involved Frank shipping off assets for Leonard Fournette and a bunch of future picks, knowing that 2018 was the year Athena Nike would mature into a contender. Three consecutive Augusts, four huge deals that laid the groundwork for this title run. There were other success stories too, like the long gestating belief in Amari Cooper’s talent if not actual production, etc. Even when stabbed in the back by GM Jon — who grabbed Calvin Ridley in 2018’s draft and gave Frank Cam Newton — things turned up roses for Frank as Newton outperformed Rodgers for most of the year.

All in all, it’s been a roller coaster ride for Frank in CTDB, split over two stints, but a short and well calculated flight to the top resulted in his first ring. Athena Nike looks stacked with talent galore and given the chance, Frank has a great shot at going back-to-back. Given the chance…

As for Gang Green, it was their fourth Super Bowl appearance but their first since their 2009 title. A third ring would’ve been nice but Greg was mostly just happy to be in the championship game after two previous seasons of getting bounced in RD1 of the Toilet Bowl. Gang Green finished the year out with the second best running back, Christian McCaffrey, and the best receiver, Davante Adams, meaning their traditionally star-less state is over. A 0-4 start to the season ended with 9-2 record until the title game loss. Being on the losing end of the highest scoring Super Bowl in CTDB history — and putting up the highest losing score ever -- is not bad at all for a runner-up season!

Toilet Bowl VIIII

#4 Fat Jubas (5-8) def #3 Battle Angel (5-8), 134.8 - 97.0
Heading into this year’s Toilet Bowl, we were pretty sure Battle Angels were the favorite, despite being only the third seed. Vu’s team had been throwing up 120+ points routinely since WK7 and was the real people’s favorite to take the Toilet Bowl.

On the other hand, Fat Jubas had started the season off 3-1 but then slipped into a seven game losing streak to bring them to the bottom of the league. Two wins at the end of the regular season gave Jubas some momentum and then they finished it off by toppling Dirty Birds and Battle Angel on their way to their first Toilet Bowl victory — previously they had been there in 2014, but lost. After losing by 0.1 points in the first round of the Toilet Bowl last season, Eric must be overjoyed for this year’s success. Next year: a return to actual postseason glory?

The duo of Jameis Winston and Chris Carson put up 50+ combined while Battle Angel came out flat except for Philip Rivers and Alvin Camera. Nobody else save kicker Adam Vinatieri put up double figures for Angel and with Alshon Jeffery and David Johnson also scoring nice games, Jubas coasted to an easy consolation title. Who will they pick next year?! Nice win for Jubas to save a lost season!