GWBL 2025 SEASON RECAPS – 8th PLACE (TIEG)

Tale of the Tape:

Coming in 8th place is I LOVE LAMB, owned and managed by Tieg Bean. Tieg finished with 1,657 points for (9th), 1,937 points against (4th most) and a record of 4-10.

Synopsis:

Tieg’s season started off crooked and never got on track. He put up a dud in a winnable Week 1 matchup on his way to dropping 4 straight. He got a win over – you guessed it – Kev in Week 5 before dropping another 5 straight matchups. Just to add more color to Kev’s misery – the 159.88 Tieg put up in their Week 5 matchup was his season high. You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

Anywho, Tieg started off 1-9 and the scores he was registering were not very competitive. If you take out the 159 point outlier, he averaged 110 points per week in the other 9 games. Our high scorer Keetz averaged 150 per game. The 5th highest scoring team/league winner (ahem) averaged 138 per game. On the season Tieg averaged 118. If you take out his top two scores it drops to 112. Tone’s team took a lot of heat in his recap but Tieg deserves to catch some flak too. He only scored 20 more than Tone and likewise, didn’t even beat the team scores from seasons before scoring-inflation struck. (I don’t love that terminology, I’ll work on it.)

So why were the scores so low? As opposed to Kev’s storm of injuries, it was mostly due to collective underperformance. Ceedee Lamb is only WR20 on the year. That’s rough for the #2 overall pick. (**He did have an ankle injury that caused him to miss 3 games, but that was in Weeks 4-6. He’s played every week since and I don’t recall seeing him on the injury report.)

AJ Brown (22nd overall) was a major headache for Tieg the first half of the season. A true week-loser in certain games. Over the first 6 games his point totals were: 2, 8, 23, 3, 9 and 14. Only 1 great week in there and 4 abject disasters. He had a nice Week 7 with 28 points but missed Week 8 and had a Week 9 bye. He caught fire down the stretch but it was too little too late.

DJ Moore was another underachiever. The 49th overall player is currently WR26. Luther Burden Wally Pipped him. Speaking of losing their job – Kenneth Walker (5th round) essentially lost his job to Zach Charbonnet. The Seahawks were easily the most annoying backfield committee in fantasy this year, bar none. (Bar None by Jordan Davis, very catchy country song.)

Calvin Ridley (6th round) was underwhelming for 6 weeks before getting hurt and essentially missing the rest of the season. I think I’ve made my point.

Signature Win/Loss:

I’m gonna say the Week 1 matchup. A matchup where Tieg scored 99.52 points. In a week when your roster is all-systems go. In a week where there are really no injuries. No byes, no weird matchups. No bad backup QBs submarining offenses (except if you’re the Jets). When your team should be fresh and ready to go – Tieg’s team couldn’t even crack 100.

In addition to being a terrible start and a missed opportunity (he only needed 122 to beat Lamone), it was a representation of what certain players would be. See above for: Kenneth Walker (7.4 points), AJ Brown (1.8 points), DJ Moore (9 points) and Calvin Ridley (6.7 points).

Miscellaneous Draft Results & Personnel Moves:

We talked a lot about the busts before, but were there any success stories? Deebo in the 9th round was a solid pick – WR29 and he was very consistent throughout the season.

The trades Tieg made were very impressive. He fleeced me on Treyveyon and got a 2nd round pick for his troubles. If he so chooses, Treyveyon can be kept at a 4th round price. The real win was the Ceedee trade though. He got a 1st and a 3rd for Ceedee and some later round picks. I respect Lamone for ponying up, but it was a haul for Tieg.

Keeper, I barely Know Her:

Ceedee was his keeper coming into the season and we saw how that went. Moving right along…

If he hadn’t dropped JaCorey Croskey Merritt I would have said him. He was a very good pick in the 11th round and for a while there Tieg had a big steal and possible keeper…until JCM fell off. And Tieg dropped him after the keeper deadline.

Treyveyon is an option as is Stefon Diggs (if he doesn’t go to jail). He got Diggs in the Ceedee trade and could keep him in the 9th next year.

Final Thoughts:

I have to give Tieg props for grinding this year. He made 42 transactions which was second only to Dyl. It’d be easy to give up on a lost season but he stuck with it.

But where does that leave us? Tieg has now missed playoffs three straight seasons. Is the fire gone? Has the luck run out? Is this simply regression? He dominated this league early on, maybe it’s just the pendulum swinging the other way? Or is it because he’s always on vacation during the draft and can’t focus? Only Tieg knows….