The long awaited and much anticipated NFL season opens on Sept. 5 with a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens. This means it’s time for another season: Fantasy Season.
There were a lot of disappointments in last year’s draft, like 1st rounders who just didn’t do as anticipated – Austin Ekeler, Bijan Robinson and Josh Jacobs. Many of the new commissioners are trying to not make the same mistake for the upcoming draft.
“With the struggles of last year’s fantasy football season, I had to look back on my old team and saw I needed better running backs. Last year, I drafted a wide receiver first,” senior Major Dalby said. “This year, I decided to draft two running backs off the bat because there are more good wide receivers than there are running backs and my team is a lot more balanced now.”
Some commissioners wanted to make sure they had a well-rounded team and looked at mistakes from previous years to fix for the upcoming one. Not all commissioners had this thought though.
“I decided to wing it this year,” senior Diego Medina says. “Didn’t feel the need to do any mock drafts. I wasn’t as prepared, but I stuck to my gut feeling. On every pick, I feel I drafted a very decent team this year and can see it going far.”
When doing a fantasy draft, the two most important positions are running back and wide receiver. Even though it’s often for quarterbacks to be the centerpoint of the team, in fantasy the points that wide receivers and running backs get your team highly outweighs what a quarterback can get you on a given week. Fantasy teams need at least one elite player at either of those two positions to have a game changer on its squad. These two positions are essential to have a strong team and a successful season.
“After last year ended in the playoffs and by only one point in my final matchup, I wasn’t going to let that happen again,” junior Luke Elliott said. “I wanted to get wide receiver Tyreek Hill again this year because he is such a game changer but ended up getting the next great running back Breece Hall.
“He’s going to be huge this year and I’m excited he’s on my team. I want another good receiver so I’m in the market for a reliable WR1 or 2 but until then I’m really happy with my draft and am ready to win the year.”
The top-ranked athletes for this year’s draft are wide receivers Tyreek Hill, Ceedee Lamb, and Puka Nacua and running backs Christian McCaffrey, Breece Hall and Jahmyr Gibbs.
In order to keep your leaguemates attentive and engaged over their teams week to week, some leagues have a cash prize that the winner of the league receives after the championship week. Usually every league member puts in a set cash amount at the beginning of the season that they will be competing for throughout the season. This makes the league more fun and competitive especially when the playoff rounds start.
There is much anticipation for week one and these commissioners can’t wait to see how their draft results pan out as the NFL season gets underway.
“With 12 people in our league and everyone putting in $25, the prize for the winner of the league gets $300,” senior Carter Hawkins explains. “In the final weeks (leading up to the playoff games) people get very competitive making last second adjustments to their lineups to make sure they have the best chances to win that upcoming week. I look forward to the fantasy football season every year.”
