Fantasy football, the greatest invention to hit planet earth. While this is not actually true, and it brings great torment many weeks out of the season to decimal point losses, winning over your friends is what makes this amazing game so fun.
“God bless fantasy football. There are many things a man can do with his time… this is better than those things.” –Unknown
Mr. Unknown, I have never heard a more truthful quote in my life. Fantasy football not only offers strategy and risk-taking, it allows friends to bond and come together in riveting competition. Fantasy takes the cake for things to do from September to February.
Fantasy football is an electronic game in which a league of people draft NFL players to be a part of their team. These drafted players are then scoring points for your team against other teams based on their live performances in the NFL. These battles week to week are based on extreme luck, but it is the management throughout the year of bench positions and picking up players when others are hurt that sets apart the goats from the greats.
Though it is deeply rooted in sports and competition, fantasy football allows friends to come together for a couple of months during the year. Friendships get built, alliances rise and fall, words get said, and fists might even get thrown. It brings together groups from all backgrounds to rally together and fight for who will be the best fantasy manager. Many times there is a buy in so that the winner gets compensation for being the best manager in the league. Additionally, there are typically punishments that range in intensity. Though we do not condone this, the cage is a popular punishment choice, where the loser gets in a dog cage and gets smelly things put on them. However, I must warn you that sometimes the cops may get called, or you may just get threatened by angry bystanders, especially if the punishment is done in a public space. Other ideas include the milk mile, which is worse than it sounds (ask Jaidon Daley), and making the loser post embarassing TikToks for a month (ask Jaidon Daley). One last idea I have would be to have the loser perform a trick or talent on King Street until they make a certain amount of money, then have them give all the money to the winner. You could also decide to be nice and allow them to at least keep their buy in. Simply to say, fantasy football is one of the best times of the year. It is full of ups and downs, excitement and heartache, despair, stress, etc.
A typical league consists of 12 teams where a team’s line up has a QB, WR1, WR2, RB1, RB2, TE, FLEX, Defense, and Kicker. Additionally, teams have six bench spots that can hold any position. Also, for those who don’t know, a FLEX position is a spot on your starting lineup that can hold a WR, RB, or a TE.
To avoid any confusion, here is what each acronym stands for:
QB: Quarterback
WR1 & 2: Wide Receiver
RB1 & 2: Runningback
TE: Tight End
Some of the best players for each position include:
QB: Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels
WR: Ja’Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and Justin Jefferson
RB: Bijan Robinson, Saquan Barkley, and Jahmyr Gibbs
TE: George Kittle, Brock Bowers, and Trey McBride
K: Brandon Aubrey, Cameron Dicker, Jake Bates
DEF: Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Steelers
Here, we will be analyzing the fantasy teams of our magnet students and maybe giving a few tips. Not all of the teams are in a 12 man league so there will be some differences in rosters, but it is impressive how some people managed to still achieve good teams and have good players. We hope that you all enjoy and we would love for you to continue to send us your fantasy teams so we can continue to analyze throughout the year.
Respond link here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfwwL-MusRU36B_TpOz5uYgov5HU1uoGZGBUNlrdr-BIPYEjQ/viewform?usp=header
Now we would also like to acknowledge the number of joke responses we received. If you submit a form that is fake or says we are unable to use your team, we are then unable to use your info. So, submit something that is real and ready to be analyzed.
The first team we have comes from Blake Yarborough (12), and although he only sent us his starting lineup, his team is pretty solid. He is in a twelve man league which allows for less full season luck, and more on the manager to make a great squad and adapt to injuries. Blake’s RBs of Jahmyr Gibbs and Breece Hall are a super solid base around which he can grow his team. On the other hand, his WRs are a little weaker which opens up great trade opportunities for him to sacrifice some RB talent to get some better WRs. Some managers do believe that you need to build around the WRs because they take less hits than the RBs and should be less prone to injuries. Other than that, his TE of Brock Bowers, K of Dicker the Kicker, and DEF of Pittsburgh are some of the top projected players this year. Overall, we hope that you can make it deep this season (win/make the playoffs), and we hope to see your team develop throughout the season.
As someone who is in Blake Yarborough’s league, I [Bennett Bair] can confirm that I’m scared to play him. This is not because his team is great, but because my team is not good. He is a force to be reckoned with in this league and some say that he has a chance to win it all. He has made some questionable trades, but it is still early in the season and there is a lot left to be traded or picked up on waivers. As we will see later, maybe he can win a bet and get some players from it.
32 man league, Luke Nestleroad (12).
The double flex in addition to the 32 man league makes for a rather spread out team. This makes getting a full team very difficult; however, to the best of his abilities, Luke has managed to acquire some star-studded talent. He does have some all star caliber players in Joe Burrow and Alvin Kamara. From the outlook right now, I wonder if everyone else in the league didn’t realize what was going on. Also, having Cooper Kupp makes for a strong three man core. He does have a great kicker in Tyler Bass. This strong core means nothing in the regular season as people get hurt, Luke is going to have to be extremely active on the waiver wire. The Bills should go far this year and, to me, they are some strong contenders for the Super Bowl. Luke, here at the Talon, we are wishing you the best of luck in your 32 man league and hopefully there will be a big money prize for you to take home if you win. The 32 man league also leads for great camaraderie. We are not sure if this is an in school league or if, like Reed Clendaniel, he is playing with a bunch of random adults. All I know is that the end of season party will be fun. The more the merrier, right!!
Kaden Knight (11), 12 team league
Your team is deep, very solid, however, I am slightly worried about your lack of a star. We are also slightly concerned by your double up on Rams WRs, but, as proven by our buddy Paul Simmons who won our personal league last year, the double WR strategy can work. We would like to suggest you make a potential trade to acquire a star RB that could boost your lineups potential ceiling. We also have some questions for your draft strategy. What made you want to draft the players of Justin Tucker and Deshaun Watson? These guys are previous GOATS in fantasy, but they have been caught for having suspicious mindsets. Said mindsets are then hindering the potential performance and playing time! Locker room vibes are important on both real teams and fantasy because they bring good luck. Other than that small hiccup, your potential talent on your bench with TreVeyon Henderson and Cooper Kupp shows that you did your research and were looking for some potential stars available with late round picks. Your team is solid, Kaden, but be sure to look for a star studded trade along with a switch of locker room mentality. After that, you should be dialed in for a great season.
William Waldorf (10), 8 man league
Mr. Waldorf, little brother of former Lady Raptor Star Evie Waldorf, has a STACKED team! Some might call Patty Mahomey (Patrick Mahomes) the next GOAT (I do not agree), but I know that he is good. Moreover, his team centers around Bijan Robinson. You would think that anybody who has him would never give him up, but I know someone who chose to give him away. While Jaidon Daley (12) claims to be a “ball knower,” he had a friendly bet with Jace Gutting (12) that if Clemson won, Jaidon would get Saquan. Well, we all know how that ended, GEUAX TIGERS! Back to William, his receiving core is stacked, Jaxson Smith-Njigba along with Drake London will consistently produce a strong counter for whoever he plays. You know your WRs are good when you can put Zay Flowers on the bench. My favorite season of fantasy I played was my sophomore year s0, William, we wish you the best of luck and hopefully you can beat your friends and take home the money!
Charles Bhat (12), 12 man league
I’m going to be honest, (for many reasons, I’m an honest man, and your squad would beat mine), how in the world did you acquire a team such as this in a 12 man league. There at least has to have been some trades or something where you were able to finesse some of your league mates out of some great players. We also love your name of Kurry Killa which shows that you are dedicated to winning, yet at the same time pays tribute to your cultural roots. We love it. Anyways, let’s get down to business on our thoughts. Again Patrick Mahomes… you will never catch us watching another Chiefs game again (if you know, you know). Nevertheless, he is a great start at the QB position. While your RBs are a little lacking, we are guessing that your league being PPR (points per reception) justifies you going for strong WR1 and WR2 before going in for RBs. Your WR by far makes up for you RB and gives you lots of room to grow your RB core through trades. While the first games will show the true strength of your team, we believe that you have what it takes to make it far.
Overall many of you guys have excellent teams that could go up against the greats. And yet, only one could be named the best out there, and that goes to Charlie Bhat, AKA the Kurry Killa in his league. William Waldorf was also up there for the best but he is in an eight man league which gives him some more room to add better players. Charlie’s team is just well rounded and you can tell he knows ball, possibly more than us (but probably not).
With this being said, we would love to acknowledge the fact that we don’t know all. We are only hobby Fantasy Football analysts and although we have our own ideas, people never know what is actually going to happen, so take everything that we, as well as others, with a grain of salt. Have fun with it as the game is not all about winning, but rather about the process, memories, and fun talks with friends.
We wish the best of luck to all of you, “Winning is fun, but losing sucks, don’t be a loser. Be a winner”- Micheal Jordan. You also better hope and pray that you do not have to do the punishment for your respected league. So far, Charlie Claus and I have been good enough not to and please hope that this year won’t be any different. We have seen what these punishments look like and sometimes it is “less about winning and more about not losing” – Dude Perfect.
