What If: Westerlands edition

Welcome back to What If. This week, we focus on 2 teams in the Westerlands, the 1^st division eliminated from playoff contention. We all know what a mess the Westerlands were this year. The division winner finished .500 (below .500 if you count the playoff loss), and the better part of the division was in full rebuild mode by week 8. But what if things didn’t go that direction?

House Clegane

Background- After week 7, House Clegane was sitting at 3-4, 2-1 in their division, with 661.79 points (~33 behind the division leader). Before week 7, he made a blockbuster move to get Antonio Brown from a sweepstakes run by the Iron Bank. Prior to week 8, he made moves to acquire Thomas Rawls, Big Ben, and the Denver backfield. He also made several moves to begin building for the future. For this what if, we’ll examine what would have happened if Clegane would have gone for the Westerlands title this year, instead of blowing things up. Unlike my previous post, I’m looking at a roster that technically didn’t exist as the deal for Rawls happened after the deal sending Flacco away. I’m proceeding with the assumption that Clegane having Flacco on his roster wouldn’t have been enough to change the result of that deal

Roster pool- QB: Cousins, Flacco; RB: Rawls, Kelley, Richard, Riddick, Smallwood; WR: A. Brown, Landry, Conley, Roberts; TE: Ertz, Witten.

Actual results: 0-7, 241.43 points, missed playoffs

Projected results: 4-3, 585.31 points, wins Westerlands division and #4 seed, wins round 1 matchup vs. Swann, loses matchup vs Sand Snakes in round 2.

Summary: Propped up by the Cousins explosion, the breakout of Kelley and the triumphant return of Rawls, Clegane makes the playoffs by winning the Westerlands. In addition, he would have scored an impressive 142.83 points in his round 1 matchup vs. Swann, which, in addition to his 10 point division winner bonus, would have given him a very impressive win and the top score of the wild card round. His luck would have run out against Sand Snakes, as Le’veon Bell’s explosive performance would have counted Clegane among his many victims. So, by just missing out on cashing, one could make the argument that Clegane did the pragmatic thing beginning to rebuild his team.

House Banefort

Background- Everyone’s favorite trade partner, but only if you’re fast enough to snap accept before the revoke. Banefort was one of the more active owners in trade discussions, but didn’t get as many done likely due to his revokes, leading to the phrase “baneforting” someone by offering then revoking. This approach served him well post draft as he accumulated an impressive collection of talent. However, he ran into trouble when he over-consolidated that talent for elite players, that left him no depth to be able to build out a starting lineup. He had some high scoring weeks when his 4 studs went off, but lost enough games when one had a tough week that he was a seller of those assets by the end of the season. For this what if, I’m stopping the clock after his Sept 5^th trade, where he acquired Trevor Simean for Matt Jones.

Roster Pool- QB: Wentz, Simean, RB: Gurley, Johnson, West, Hyde, WR: Meredith, Goodwin, Cooks, T. Williams, DHB, TE: H Henry, V McDonald

Actual results: 3-11, 951.58 points, missed playoffs

Projected results: 9-5, 1392.66 points, wins Westerlands division and #3 seed. Defeats House Santagar in round 1, defeats House Targaryen in round 2, facing Sand Snakes for Fire conference title.

Summary- If the what if of The Iron Bank last week was “quit while you’re ahead,” then House Banefort has learned to know what your limits are. In his consolidation deals for Cam and Gronk, he gave up much of the depth that he needed to field a competitive roster. In his defense, many of these players (e.g., Meredith, Williams, West, Henry) were pre-breakout and Cam & Gronk represented major competitive advantages at QB2 and TE. But by acquiring those studs, Banefort pushed himself from a conference championship team, to the 1.06 in next year's draft, a pick which he hasn’t owned since the startup.

That’s all for this week. Next week we’ll take a closer look at a few Ice conference teams and what could have been.