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Those of you know have read my articles or listened to my show on SiriusXM radio, you know that I tend to have some strong opinions. Every now and then I will rant and rave about a topic that is important to me. Luckily (or unlucky I suppose) as Assistant G.M. subscribers you will receive one of these rants in your email box every week. It’s a little thing that I like to call: One MANS Opinion.

You know what has been bothering me lately? Our society’s obsession with perfection. In every single aspect of life people are consumed with not just succeeding but by having to be perfect.

This obsession is front and center these days with women and their appearance. As a Father of two Daughter’s this makes me incredibly sad. The lengths that girls and women go to make themselves appear taller, prettier and more endowed are downright scary.

But for now let’s talk about how this infatuation with perfection and how it affects fantasy sports. Fantasy football is especially one in which players go to ridiculous measures to try and achieve the perfect team.

I know this because I spend over 16 hours a day taking phone calls, answering emails, Twitter questions, Facebook questions, Fantasy Alarm app questions and comments underneath my articles. Every single day I am answering the same sort of questions that all revolve around this penchant desire to have the perfect team and start the perfect lineup. The bad news here folks is that it is never going to happen. You’re not going to draft the perfect team, bid perfectly on all of your waiver pickups or start all of the right players. Get that idea out of your head right now please. You are going to absolutely make a terrible move at some point that will make you feel like a complete dipstick. The good news here is that it is perfectly fine.

Fantasy football is a very hard game to win regularly. Unless you play with complete turds who either don’t care or don’t know what they’re doing, you’re not going to win the championship every year. In my home league that I have played in for 15 years now I am easily considered dominant. Yet, I have only won the title three times. Sure, I have four additional championship game appearances without that one extra win, but that goes to show how elusive a championship can be.

What I have learned though is that the more you try to be perfect, the more you will screw up your team. Be honest with yourself. How many times have you looked over your team and tried to figure out which two or three of your players you can trade for DeMarco Murray or Jordy Nelson? You gravitate toward Murray and Nelson right now because they are the very best at their positions. You want the best. It seems easy to manage a roster with just the perfect lineup that you will never have to adjust on a week to week basis. But again, that just doesn’t exist.

The reason the perfect lineup doesn’t exist is because the fantasy football landscape changes dramatically from week to week. Players that were crazy valuable last week don’t matter so much right now. Remember how much you paid for Donald Brown or Jordan Matthews on waivers? Even worse do you remember how excited you were when you drafted Cordarrelle Patterson and Montee Ball? How about how excited you were about Darren Sproles after week two? I couldn’t mention any of these guys though without bringing up Adrian Peterson. Things change so quickly in fantasy football that you need to be equipped to handle whatever is thrown your way.

This is why I am an advocate for drafting players based on the simple formula or skill + system = fantasy success. If you have the right players in the right systems you will go far. It’s why I am an advocate of handcuffing your RB’s. We saw this work fluently with Jamaal Charles & Knile Davis earlier this season. Also, Andre Williams value now that Rashad Jennings is out for a few weeks. Yes, by handcuffing your RB’s you are using a dedicated roster spot for someone that ideally will have no perceived value. But Joseph Randle’s value if and when Demarco Murray goes down is going to be immense.

The quest for perfection is why so many fantasy players chase performance. Think about how desperate people become for the players who crushed it last week. Remember two weeks ago when people were talking about cutting Tom Brady and Cam Newton? Now they are the toast of the town. I got Branden Oliver on waiver two weeks ago for $11 out of a $1000 budget. This week he went for $879 in a very similar league. I mean think about it. Is Branden Oliver really going to return that kind of value after his big breakout game? No chance.

In fantasy football, to win consistently you need your players to produce consistently. Sure it is way easier to win when you have a Peyton Manning, DeMarco Murray or Andrew Luck on your team. But you don’t need them whatsoever.

Which players would you rather own the rest of the season starting right now?

Andrew Luck, DeMarco Murray and Wes Welker

OR

Jay Cutler, LeSean McCoy and Michael Floyd

I would venture to guess that 90% of you or more are easily going with Luck, Murray and Welker. But If you distill down the numbers here understand that the difference between Luck and Cutler is only 4.5 points per game. That margin is easily made up on the Floyd for Welker side. Welker is playing barely 50% of snaps for the Broncos right now whereas Floyd is averaging 11.3 more points per game than Welker with Carson Palmer as his QB. Then there is the DeMarco Murray/Lesean McCoy side. Murray is on pace for 424 carries this season a total that would basically double his previous career high. That is an unattainable number for Murray and thus he will come back down to earth. McCoy has been slow to start his season but now that Darren Sproles is out for a while he will get more carries and receptions going forward.

Chasing the best players of the past week or two isn’t the way to win your next matchup. The perfect lineup is never going to look like the perfect lineup when you are setting it. That’s because fantasy football does not work out that way. Heck, life doesn’t work out that way.

Embracing your imperfections and building upon your true strengths is the clearest path to success. When you live this way you are far more capable of weathering storms and navigating the tumultuous circumstances than when you are waiting for perfection.

Of course, what do I know? I am just a frosted tip radio show host who has dedicated his life to commenting on sports. You may not agree, but that is OK because this was just One MANS Opinion.