DeAngelo Williams, my hero and my tormentor from last season. And hopefully my starting running back in 2009.

It’s getting close to that wonderful time of the year again — the NFL season is right around the corner, and that means fantasy football and the return of Monday Morning H-Back, the weekly feature on this blog where I complain about my excruciating stat-watching experiences from the day before. I’ve rejoined both Yahoo! leagues I was in last year. Draft day is in three weeks, so I better start scouting.

But first things first: There’s unfinished business from last season. It seems that after griping on Monday Morning H-Back every week during last season, I neglected to actually write about the final playoff games in my leagues, mainly because I was in the middle of traveling all around China at the time. So here it is:

Basically my fortunes in the two leagues hinged on the same player: Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams, who had a breakout season in 2008 and was one of the top fantasy players in the NFL. In one league, I loaded up on running backs in the draft and cut Williams a few weeks into the season (it seemed like nothing at the time). Nothing really went right after that, as injuries to my backfield, disappointing seasons, and poor personnel management prevented my squad from building much momentum. I mustered enough points to claim the fourth and final playoff spot with a 7-7 record, then got promptly drubbed in the first round by the eventual league champion, who, aptly enough, picked up Williams after I cut him.

The script was basically flipped for my other league. I couldn’t make the live draft for that league, so I just set my player rankings for the autodraft. In what I thought was a stroke of genius, I moved all the defensive players and kickers into the “Do Not Draft” list, thinking that will make the computer fill all my spots with offensive players, and I can just drop some later to fill out my defensive starters. Well, the computer did fill all my spots with offensive players, with just one catch: After drafting enough players to fill my offensive starting lineup, it proceeded to fill all the other roster spots with backup quarterbacks. Imagine how pleased I was when I checked the draft results and saw that I had these fantasy studs on my roster: Billy Volek, Matt Gutierrez, J.T. O’Sullivan, Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Batch, Jim Sorgi, Kerry Collins, and Matt Cassel (who would’ve actually been a good pick, had I known at the time that Tom Brady was going to blow out his knee 30 seconds into the season).

Yes, I started J.T. O’Sullivan last season. And yes, the results were as ugly as this picture makes it seem.

A flurry of waiver claims followed, and I actually started the season 3-1 despite the meltdown of my projected starting QB, Marc Bulger. My team started to waver, however, as my problems at, ironically, quarterback started to catch up with me. I seemingly started a new QB every week. Heck, I used two (TWO!) 49ers quarterbacks. Meanwhile, my running backs roulette was equally pathetic — Laurence Maroney, Fred Taylor, Jonathan Stewart (before his late-season roll), Cedric Benson (oh for the love of god in the name of all that’s holy!). The only things keeping my team afloat above .500 were my solid receiving corps and a league scoring system that awards a point per tackle for individual defensive players.

That changed when I engineered a Vincent Jackson-for-DeAngelo Williams trade, just before Williams went on his tear. The addition of Williams, coupled with the return to health of Andre Johnson, gave my team new life. I even found a couple quarterbacks who could put up positive points in Shaun Hill and Matt Schaub. That group carried me to five straight impressive wins to close out the regular season and a bruising run through the playoffs to capture an unlikely title.

Anyway, so much for past laurels. A new season is at hand, and I admit I’ve not kept up too much with the NFL in the off-season. For instance, I didn’t even know Tony Gonzalez is now a Falcon. What’s next? Jay Cutler leaving the Broncos? Ha! And I’m actually going to be acting commissioner for one of the leagues this year, relieving one of my friends who’s apparently too busy with a baby on the way that he won’t have time for fantasy football (talk about having the wrong priorities). So strap yourself in for another season of Monday Morning H-Back.