As much as people seemed to revel in the Cowboys' decimation at the hands of Jordan Love and the Packers, I wonder if we shouldn't have a little more sympathy for Mike McCarthy. His teams are great in the regular season and look like they could win it all, but always seem to collapse in the playoffs. All that effort for nothing but disappointment when it matters most. The fact that the teams are so good each year makes the losses even more of a letdown. He did win a championship once, but that feels like a million years ago.
Sound familiar? That's the story of many fantasy managers. And if you've played long enough, odds are you know exactly what he's going through.
On the other hand, we also know what it's like to be Matt LaFleur: Barely sneaking into the postseason, facing a great team and absolutely dominating them. It's even better if you defeat a good friend or family member. And if it's a dynasty league the win is even sweeter, because you're in the early stages of a rebuild, and you already have a contender on your hands. The next few years look pretty bright. Same for DeMeco Ryans and the Texans. They're ahead of schedule. The future is now.
And what if you're Dan Campbell? Like the Lions, you had a plan, stuck with it, and now you're one of the league's better teams. Even in a redraft league, you picked solid guys and your players performed well when the games really mattered. A long playoff drought has been snapped with at least one victory. That's a fun season no matter what happens going forward.
Or you could be Kevin Stefanski, putting together a team with duct tape and chewing gum, and somehow making the playoffs anyway. Like the Browns, we've all had years where our star running back gets hurt, or we lose our quarterbacks and have to rotate guys in and out, hoping something sticks from the waiver wire. But to suffer both of those scenarios, and still make the postseason? You aren't even angry when the wheels come off. All you can do is pat yourself on the back for doing a great job as a manager and be satisfied with somehow keeping other teams (again, maybe friends or family) out of the playoffs.
Have you ever felt like Mike Tomlin, always competitive, often making the postseason, but never having a lineup that really threatens a playoff opponent? It's better than losing most of your games, but it's hard to get excited about the playoffs when the other side always seems to have the big playmakers while you get by with functional players.
Theirs is a different game than ours, of course. They're directly responsible for how the team performs. We don't control what plays are run, we don't set a game plan, and we don't have an opportunity to make adjustments. We just set lineups and hope for the best. It sometimes feels like NFL coaches do the same thing, but they're trying. Even when it doesn't work, they try to right the ship during a game. You think McCarthy didn't expect a better effort? Didn't Mike McDaniel want the Dolphins to be more competitive? Do you think Mike Tomlin enjoys winning just enough games to keep the Steelers from getting a high draft pick, but not really field teams anybody thinks will win a Super Bowl?
I'm just saying we should feel a little kinship with them, because we've been in their position. We don't make millions playing fantasy football, but we also don't get endless print, radio, and television media (plus podcasts and message boards) telling the world how awful we are and how we deserve to be shown the door if we lose. Imagine living in a city where everybody thinks you're a moron because you started the wrong receiver in the fantasy playoffs. Everywhere you go, people would whisper "They could have picked up Puka Nacua off the waiver wire early in the year, but they chose to keep Brandin Cooks instead." How would that feel?
Or worse, imagine partnering with someone to co-manage a team in a high-stakes league where they paid the entry fee and want your expertise. So now you're working with Jerry Jones, and every decision you make better be the right one. Would you enjoy the fantasy season?
Of course not. So, as we watch Nick Sirianni deals with calls for his job less than a year after his team was in the Super Bowl, let’s be glad we’re not held to the same standard. And believe me, I know that fan opinions on coaching changes can be valid. I'm not defending some of their decisions or lack of preparation. I'm just saying that no matter how our fantasy season went, we get an automatic contract renewal. No matter how many bad decisions we made, we're always coming back next year. What we lack in salary, we make up in lifetime job security. And we never have to move our families or take our kids out of a local school because we drafted the wrong rookie quarterback. Just something to consider as we watch the playoffs. Good luck this week.
If you were a coach and judged on your fantasy performances the past three years, would you still have a job? Would the team want to extend your contract, or would you be looking for a new position on another fantasy team? Which NFL playoff coach will get fired first? Share your thoughts below.