Well the 2023 football fantasy season is a wrap, so here are my thoughts and takes on each team, what went right and what went wrong.
Here is a brief breakdown of how the teams did. I had 8 teams that had a cost of $2133 on the season. 1 home league had transaction fees. I had 2 teams win their Championships, 1 team finish 2nd and 1 team finish 3rd, so half the teams cashed. 6 of the 8 made the playoffs and the two teams that missed the playoffs missed by 15.65 points (1892.35 was 6th place and my team had 1876.70 points) and the other team missed by 9.85 points (1874.30 to 1864.45). So I was very, very, very close to landing all 8 teams into the playoffs. My teams won an estimated (the home league is still waiting on the year end summary) $3650 for a profit of roughly $1500.
A few players I was HUGE on this preseason were Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott, Isiah Hodgkins and Roschon Johnson. Brock and Dak were huge. Hodgkins bombed liked the entire Giants passing offense did this year and Roschon just could never quite work his way into substantial playing time. Everytime it looked like he would emerge, something stopped him.
Team 1. Finished regular season in 5th place and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Draft recap – Chase, Henry, N. Harris, Cooper, Kittle, Lockett, J. Taylor, Prescott, Cousins, Jamaal Williams, Smith-Schuster, Kmet, Hodgins, Moss, Osborn, Purdy, Ross, JAX, CIN, Maher.
Biggest misses – Chase, Tyreek went one pick later, Williams (Achane went less than 2 rounds later) Smith Schuster (Nico Collins went two picks later), Hodgins and Ross. Tank Dell went the round after Ross and no one drafted Puka.
Biggest hits – QB. All of them. Cousins was a top 3 QB before he went down and when he did I just plugged in Dak who ended up leading the NFL in passing TDs. Purdy was 2nd in the NFL in TD passes and finished as QB6. Zach Moss, drafted RB57 and scored RB27 ppg and RB29 overall
Smaller hits on JT, drafted him RB27 and he was RB24 ppg. Kittle, drafted TE5 and was TE6.
This team needed at least one more big hit to have made some noise in the playoffs, but even Tyreek wouldn’t have helped week 15.
Team 2. Finished regular season 7th missing playoffs by 15.65 points. Draft recap – Chase, Kupp, Mixon, Burrow, London, Lockett, J. Taylor, Dillon, Robinson, LaPorta, Hodgins, R. Johnson, Kmet, Butker, NO, MIA, Purdy, Joseph, Nacua, Stafford.
Biggest misses – Chase (again). Tyreek went 2 picks later and had I picked Tyreek, this team might have brought home the title. Burrow, but because of injuries. I knew he was injured in preseason but didn’t think it would have carried over to regular season and then once he got going in regular season he was out for the year.
Smaller miss on London. Could have had Aiyuk later in the round and Mike Evans went 2 rounds later.
Biggest hits – Puka!!!!! and Stafford in the last round as well as Purdy in round 17. Laporta in round 10.
This is the team I actually drafted last and went the biggest on taking the most risks. Had I even played Purdy over Burrow the first couple weeks of the season this team would have made the playoffs and been a handful for teams to deal with. Puka averaged about 25 a week in weeks 16-17. Mixon and Taylor were steady in the fantasy playoffs, Laporta had 2 big games, Stafford was balling. Maybe not enough to take a title if facing Dak or Cee Dee, but certainly could have had a top 3 finish and cashed.
Team 3. Finished in 3rd Place. Draft recap – Kelce, Mahomes, Higgins, Walker, Hall, M. Williams, Akers, Thomas, Sutton, Toney, R. Johnson, Lazard, Moss, Hodgins, NO, Purdy, Osborn, K. Williams, Fournette, Badgley.
Biggest misses – Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes. I took Kelce #2 overall due to the 1.5 PPR for TE in this format. Should have taken McCaffrey or Tyreek. I also took Mahomes as QB1 at pick #23, 16 picks ahead of Josh Allen. Kelce did end up as TE2 and Mahomes as QB7, so not team sinking picks, but far from the best possible picks at these spots. The Kelce – Mahomes hook up won me a title last year but could not deliver two years in a row.
Biggest hits – Kyren Williams. Picked him at the end of round 18 as RB67. Probably the main, reason this team cashed. Bryce Hall, picked early 5th round as RB18 scored RB4. Zach Moss round 13 RB52, ended season as RB29 but provided very solid numbers when you could plug him in the weeks he was the bellcow. Brock Purdy round 16 as QB22, finished as QB6 ahead of Mahomes.
Key FA pickups – Ty Chandler and Joshua Palmer who were starters in Week 15 first round matchup.
Team 4. Finished in 6th place and lost in 1st round of playoffs to eventual league champion. Draft recap – Bijan, Adams, Waller, Metcalf, London, Aiyuk, Pacheco, Jeudy, Watson, Toney, Cousins, Gainwell, Allgeier, Roschon, Moss, Purdy, MIA, WAS, Hurst, Sanders –
Biggest misses – Darren Waller. Finished as TE23. Disaster. Bijan Robinson, more so because of the opportunity cost. He finished RB12 which isnt a disaster, but could have had Cee Dee, Amon or AJ.
Biggest hits – Cousins for when he was healthy and Purdy. I was set at QB. Zach Moss in round 15. Aiyuk in round six ended up WR12
Smaller misses, Jeudy, Watson (would have been much bigger miss if not for Cousins and Purdy), Toney.
Key FA pickups – Ferguson, helped fill the gap that Waller left and Ty Chandler who had a big week in week 15 even though I still lost first round matchup.
Team 5. Finished fourth in regular season and was runner up in the playoffs. Draft recap – Ekeler, Mahomes, Higgins, Metcalf, Kittle, Akers, Jeudy, Taylor, Skyy Moore, Mostert, Lazard, Meyers, Hodgins, Prescott, Moss, NO, Rice, Joseph, JAX, Agnew.
Biggest misses – Ekeler, brutal. Had a huge week 1 but got hurt, missed several weeks and just could never get on track. Barkley, Amon, AJ and Cee Dee could all have been had. Moore, bad year for KC WRs. Could have gotten Sutton or Collins instead. Mahomes. If you pick the QB1, you HAVE to get it right and Mahomes was not the right guy this year after being a league winner last year. Higgins, drafted as WR15 but didnt finish top 30 at his position.
Biggest hits – With all those misses, how did this team end up as the runner up? Raheem Mostert, drafted RB42, finished as tied for RB2. Dak Prescott, drafted as QB14, finished as QB4 and paired with Mahomes who played for this team early in the year and then Prescott after Dallas’ bye week, this team probably ended up close to QB1 numbers. Zach Moss, drafted RB60. Rashee Rice, drafted WR75, finished as WR21.
Key FA pickup – Ty Chandler, helped very nicely in playoffs especially the first round matchup.
Team 6. Finshed 2nd, won Championship! Draft recap – Diggs, Henry, J. Allen, Harris, London, Aiyuk, Akers, Flowers, Higbee, R. Johnson, Ferguson, Hodgins, SF, Nacua, Butker, Howell, J. Wilson, Pierce, CLE, Myers.
Biggest misses – no real outright wiffs here although Najee wasnt great at RB14 and Akers at RB26.
Smaller miss – Diggs, at WR4 could have had Amon or Cee Dee or AJ.
Biggest hits – Josh Allen, the top scoring fantasy player at pick 31. Puka Nacua, drafted WR64 and ended up WR5. Jake Ferguson at TE16 came in at TE9. Brandon Aiyuk, drafted as WR30 gave this team two WR1 every week. Zay Flowers drafted WR41 but finished as WR25 and gave this team a high end WR3
Smaller hits – I refuse to put any D/ST or K as a big hit, but the combo of SF/CLE on this team was a nice combo and I didn’t have to spend one minute looking at the waiver wire for D/ST
Team 7. Finished the regular season 7th, missing the playoffs by 9.85 points. Ugh. Draft recap – Ekeler, Waddle, J. Allen, Cooper, Mattison, Lockett, Sanders, Flowers, Thomas, Mostert, Gainwell, G. Smith, Hodgins, Ferguson, Butker, Mayer, MIA, JAX, Ross, Kelley.
Biggest miss – Ekeler, cost this team probably cashing. Could have had Barkley, Cee Dee, Amon or AJ.
Smaller misses – Waddle, drafted WR11 but finished WR29. Ridley would have been enough to make the playoffs. Metcalf was also available or Deebo.
Biggest hits – Jake Allen, QB1 was still not quite enough to get this team into the playoffs even being drafted QB3. Raheem Mostert drafted RB40 but finished tied for RB2
Team 8 – Finished the season second in the division, but first overall in points and won the Championship! This team was just dominant. Starting in week 8 through the Championship in week 17, this team had the weekly high score for the league five times (including playoff weeks 16 and 17) and won weekly second place finish. Draft recap – this is a home league and the documentation on the website is pretty bad. I will do my best to remember the order. Henry, Lamb, Stevenson, Higgins, Cooper, Jeudy, Waller, Dillon, Cousins, Prescott, R. Johnson, Spears, NO, R. Moore, Elliott. This was a non PPR league.
Key FA pickups – Kyren Williams. League Winner. Jayden Reed, finished out the trio of WR and just piled on the points.
Key trade – Traded away Kirk Cousins and Rhamondre Stevenson for Austin Ekeler and Matthew Stafford.
Biggest hits – Henry, finished this league as RB6. Cousins and Prescott. Crushed the QB position. Cousins was on fire till he was injured and Prescott was on fire the rest of the way. Cee Dee Lamb, ended up WR2 and a good ways ahead of WR3.
Biggest miss – The trade, and even then this wasn’t really a miss. Cousins got injured the week after we traded him away and Stevenson’s season was over week 13. Ekeler did provide a couple weeks of decent scoring but just couldnt get going. Stafford warmed the bench on his way to a ring.
My takeaway from this season further reinforces my belief that you have to get the QB position right and it doesn’t matter if you pick early or late, you have to be right. You land a top 5 QB and you are golden. I was fortunate that I believe every team I drafted ended up with a top 5 QB between Josh Allen, Dak Prescott and Brock Purdy. I was a razor’s edge from landing all eight teams in the playoffs and managed to cash with half the teams. Pretty good. My intial investment two years ago of $550 has now grown to roughly $3600 – $3700.
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