NFL Fantasy Football 2012: How Doug Martin Of The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Became THAT Guy

I had all the excitement in the world this weekend.

I took my engagement photos in Lexington, Virginia with my beautiful fiancée, my beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs kicked Ole Miss around to the tune of 37-10 (ONE step closer to back-to-back SEC East titles and causing another offseason of THIS from Steve Spurrier) and things were looking great for the Falcons improving to 8-0 Sunday night against the Cowboys.

I mean, things were PERFECT.

Then it happened. I got this funny feeling in my stomach around Thursday or Friday when I looked at the match-ups for fantasy football. I didn’t like how things were shaping up.

Drew Brees against a motivated Eagles team (and secondary) while my opponents Quarterback was Cam Newton in one league against the Redskins and Matt Ryan against those Cowboys in another. Aaron Rodgers against Arizona’s defense without two of his top targets (Jordy Nelson and Greg Jennings) while my opponent has Brandon Marshall (facing the Titans), Julio Jones (Cowboys), AND Eric Decker (against the Bengals).

I worked frantically to re-work, trade, acquire, waive, and anything else I could do to try to make up points where I could; and, in essence, thought I had.

Enter Doug Martin. Scourge/hero of the fantasy week.

Look, I consider myself pretty savvy at fantasy football, and I’m still holding strong to my commitment  of walking away from all things fantasy at 31 (or when I get my dream job as the general manager of a baseball team in seven years). I’m that guy who has a winning record despite being outscored on the season by 133 points overall.

Yes. I’m THAT guy. The one who leaves you like THIS when it is all said and done.

I have a buddy in Virginia (Hampton/Newport News area to be exact) who has been playing fantasy football a little while now. He’s not very athletic, LOVES Duke Blue Devil basketball, and may-or-may-not have an uncomfortable passion for the old WB show Dawson’s Creek (only I can say these things about him and get away with it people so don’t try it in casual circles). We were talking, as we normally do, before the season started and I was wondering what he saw in this guy out of Boise State that translated to “immediate NFL success.” He didn’t really give me much of an answer other than “these guys have Lagarrette Blount and went and picked this guy in the first round.” Ahead of Alshon Jeffrey (who everyone thought they could have used given Mike Williams track record thus far), Colby Fleener (mentoring behind Dallas Clark was a no brainer), and ahead of Ryan Broyles, Courtney Upshaw, and the guy I gambled on Alfred Morris (good gamble, but still).

I couldn’t understand it, and after decent early season performances but not great I thought “wonder what the big deal was.”

Well Adam Cubbage (hey that’s me) learned a harsh lesson this past weekend that others need to take note of: Doug Martin has rocketed himself into a top-3 running back in the National Football League. This isn’t a fluke, folks; this isn’t some flash in the pants “favorable match-up” period we’re looking at out of this guy. He’s the fantasy managers nightmare all wrapped up in a 23-year old, 5’9″, 215 pound package. He’s this years 2009-2010 Miles Austin, or 2011-2012 Antonio Brown, or 2011-2012 Victor Cruz, or 2010-2011 Arian Foster. He’s that guy who takes the 3-4, 4-5 fringe team to the bank with a check you thought you had locked up or a trophy made out of your dads old chess set and tongue depressors.

He’s that guy.

Here was his score breakdown in the three leagues I play in and consider the “major” fantasy leagues (CBS, Yahoo, and ESPN:

Stat line: 25 carries, 251 yards, 4 touchdowns, 4 receptions, 21 yards

• ESPN- 51
• CBSsports- 51
• Yahoo- 62

Most people are screaming sell high on this guy, I’m letting you know right now if you do you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Especially if you A.) are in a keeper league and B.) have a strong enough where he can compliment or take you to the championship. I lost two leagues this weekend because of this guy and one (116-215 loss in a Yahoo! league) wasn’t even close.

Moral of the story, get everything in order now to avoid THIS in the end.