
My favorite part of this past fantasy football Sunday was a Tweet from ESPN’s resident guy who points out the obvious, Darren Rovell, about Jacksonville Jaguars QB Chad Henne only being owned in .5% of ESPN fantasy leagues. Well, no sh*t, Sherlock. If you were in my league and you had Henne on your bench, you’d either have to be the biggest Jags homer on the planet or every QB that you had on your roster has died this season. And if you started him, I’d tie you to a wooden pole and burn you for witchcraft.
But as always, that’s the fun of fantasy football hindsight. It’s easy for Rovell and Co. to wag their fingers and shout, “I can’t believe nobody had the fortitude to pick this guy up!” Now they get to snort and chortle while their colleagues in the fantasy expert division bang their computers with rocks and try to figure out what went wrong.
This is where we join them, in the With Leather Fantasy Football Support Group, to complain about the guys who either unexpectedly spanked us or those who let us down beyond belief.
Let’s start with the guys who should have been expected to bust out like they did:
QB: Matt Schaub (47), Robert Griffin III (40), Tom Brady 31), Drew Brees (26), Peyton Manning (26)

I would have gone with Not Too Schauby.
I’m willing to take RG3 out of there because he hasn’t been consistent, but you can’t complain about those other guys. And if you’re complaining that they didn’t score enough, nobody feels bad for you.
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RB: None
No RBs that we expect to put up elite numbers each week had a great week, so that’ll probably be a consistent complaint.
WR: Andre Johnson (33), Dez Bryant (20), Calvin Johnson (17), Vincent Jackson (17) AJ Green (15), Randall Cobb (14)
I think Cobb has earned his spot in the expected category by now. He’s putting up the numbers that we always hoped for from Greg Jennings when we’d draft him in the second round and then try desperately to trade him after Week 3. As for Bryant, he’s been mostly awful this season, but this is how he’s supposed to play. You may have hoped for him to be awful, but you should have expected a good game.
TE: Rob Gronkowski (25), Vernon Davis (14)

Damn it, Gronk. You were supposed to be my rock for the playoff run. I’m gonna miss you, bro.
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And now the guys that we didn’t expect to kick our asses:
QB: Chad Henne (38), Colin Kaepernick (22), Brandon Weeden (18)

Again, if someone started Henne against you, your luck is in the toilet. I can see someone being desperate and needing to start Kaepernick, but against the Bears, that should have been terrible news.
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RB: Marcel Reece (19), LaRod Stephens-Howling (18), Bilal Powell (17)

I don’t really want to include Reece here because he’s been coming on strong since Darren McFadden suffered his annual injury, but Howling personally kicked me in the balls. And if you started Powell, congrats. If someone started him against you, See: Henne, Chad.
WR: Justin Blackmon (29), T.Y. Hilton (22), Danario Alexander (21)
What if all Henne or Blackmon needed was each other? What if they’re suddenly the next Manning to Harrison? I think I’ll vomit. Honestly, though, I can see a situation for someone needing to start any of these three guys. I started Alexander because I was tired of 3 or 4 points from Vick Ballard or Jonathan Dwyer each week. I wouldn’t have started the other guys, but it wouldn’t have been baffling if someone else did.
TE: Garrett Graham (20), Benjamin Watson (16), Marcedes Lewis (16), Jermichael Finley (12)
Of these four, I’d expect that people would have started Lewis. No way in hell someone started Graham or Watson, and if they did, strap ‘em to a wooden pole. But if you’re one of those poor SOBs that held on to Finley all season, waiting for him to pay off? Good for you. Smile a little brighter this week.
And now the guys who probably ruined the most weeks:
QB: Matt Ryan (2), Joe Flacco (6), Ryan Fitpatrick (7), Matt Stafford (11)

I’ve had Stafford benched for 3 weeks now in favor of Carson Palmer. He ruined my auction league for me. I’ll get to that first dude in a moment.
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RB: Reggie Bush (3), Rashard Mendenhall (4), Matt Forte (5), Arian Foster (6), Willis McGahee (6)
I want to make a new rule that we can’t crap on a guy if he got hurt. I’ve always been a big fan of McGahee and his resurgence has been inspiring these past few years. That said, *shakes fist at Foster*
WR: Larry Fitzgerald (1), Mike Williams (2), Julio Jones (3), Jordy Nelson (4), Danny Amendola (4)
With the exception of Arizona Cardinals fans, is there an NFL fan on the planet right now that doesn’t want to see Fitzgerald on another team? This is depressing already.
TE: Antonio Gates (1), Tony Gonzalez (2), Heath Miller (2)
In fairness, you can’t expect these guys to blow up every week. In fact, if you drafted Tony Gonzalez, you should send him a fruit basket for what he’s done to this point.
Defense: Chicago Bears (3)
The Bears defense would be my big pick for the player that hurt me most this week, but I’m going to pin that on Matt Ryan. In my keeper league, I lost by 50-something because of duds from Ryan, Julio Jones and the Bears. But 5 picks? Not cool, Matty Bro.
So let’s hear it, friends. Who killed you or helped you kill?
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Sat LaRod on the bench for Donald “1 point” Brown… But Ravens D, Stewart and Vernon Davis carried my team to a win.
Not to mention last season’s kicking MVP, David Akers.
My pain this week –
QB – Matt Ryan (backup was hurt – Raperburger)
WR – Julio Jones & Danny Amendola
RB – Willis McGahee
TE – Heath Miller
D – Bears
Only real bright spot was Andre Johnson
Andre Johnson scored 35.3pts rest of my team 37.34pts
Dropped from 2nd place to 5th, and possibly out of playoff contention.
I had DBrown, Bradshaw, and Mendy to start the year. I’ve actually been very quick on the pickups, so I got the backups. What that means is I had to take up 7 roster spots to cover 3 RBs. Won’t someone just get hurt for the season and stop these merry go rounds?
I meant to add. Which means I couldn’t pick up Hillman or Kaepernick like I wanted to last week – I just knew it was gonna happen for one or both.
Starting QB: Matt Ryan
Bench QB: Matt Schaub
Goddamnit.
Also didn’t expect Houston’s D to give me ZERO points when they were going up against the freakin’ Jags. Not cool, guys.
Lance Moore and Felix Jones (picked up off the wire) helped me stave off a Matt Ryan fueled loss to the league whipping boy. Whew!
This week’s loss really bothered me. It’s not because I had Bush and Forte starting. It’s the fact that I lost by 13 to a guy who started Blackmon. I just don’t know what to think anymore.
Someone else in my league got beat because they had the Bears defense and his opponent went with Kapernick. For some reason, I think losing to Kapernick when starting the Bears defense hurts more than losing to Blackmon. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
If I lost by 13 to a guy that started Blackmon, I’d go find a really rough brick wall to punch
Fitzgerald has been a plague on my team.
I know its odd to whine about a 20+ point performance…but I traded away Amendola and Steven Jackson for Gronk to beat the trade deadline on Friday. *Scrambles to get Vernon Davis back from guy I traded him away for Danny Woodhead*
OK so here’s how it went down…Last week I pull out a
oh you have GOT to be kidding me…
fuck it
2 losses in 2 weeks by a combined total of 5.5 points. All due to Yahoo’s late point adjustments. FML
Love that Henne gif – I hope to see him win Survivor as Jeff Kent’s Revenge.
Matt Ryan in two leagues. Thankfully, one of those leagues was saved by Andre Johnson. The other one had Reggie Bush, Julio Jones AND Joe Flacco (two QB league).
But yeah, fuck Matt Ryan this week and as a Saints fan fuck him forever.
Down 9.5 points going into the Monday night game, I have Matt Forte and Robbie Gould. #PriceIsRightlosinghorn
Legatron Zeurlein netted me all of one point; opponent had Akers, who got 13. I lost by six.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
I won by a point and a half because I got sick of Jeremy Kerley and dropped him for DX. Good thing, too, because I also started Jordy Nelson and James Jones, who combined for about what Jonathan Stewart did alone.
No love (HATE) for Denarius Moore? 1 catch for 9 yards, with -5 rushing yards against the worst defense in the league. This coming off 5 TDs in his previous 7 games. I was looking like a genius for drafting him, then I started him in 2 leagues this week, and lost in both by 4 and 6 points.
Fortunate for me Ryan’s, Jones’, and Morris’ suck paled in comparison to the combined awesomeness of Reece, Bryant, and Denver D.