Byron Leftwich

In the fourth round of this year's NFL fantasy draft, I picked Byron Leftwich, a young Quarterback entering his second year as a starter. He's not the QB I would have picked, but having the second pick in the draft means your picks on even rounds are very late picks, and all the QBs I really wanted weren't available.

In the first two games of the year, Leftwich was good for his NFL team, but very bad for me. The Jaguars defense would keep the team in games, and then the newly christened Lord Byron would get them to a scoring position and they would win. Great for them, crap for me, and I lost my first three games.

Then came week 4. I had grown tired of Leftwich's performances, and benched him in favor of newly acquired (and newly starting) Kerry Collins. Collins was terrible, but my team still managed its first win of the season. On my bench, Byron exploded for 20 fantasy points (after scoring 8, 10, and 12 in the first three weeks). So I put him back in the lineup. Since then, he's scored 23, 33, and 24. He's currently ranked 6th among QBs in fantasy points, and threatens to move two spots up if he keeps this up (the top three are pretty much unassailable). I've won my last four games, I'm up to second place in my division, one game behind first place. And Byron Leftwich just led his team to victory against the Indianapolis Colts (whose superlative QB, Peyton Manning, led my fantasy team to a championship last year).

Sometimes, the choices you are forced to make are the best ones. And this year, my new team is the Jacksonville Jaguars (I need a second team to follow, as following my beloved 49ers has become depressing, and they are nowhere NEAR playoff contention).