Fantasy Football Is Hard

Fantasy Football Is Hard.

Period. Even if your league consists of all four of your grandparents, your co-workers who only watch hockey, and/or a couple buddies who only play for the Draft Party.. You have a slim chance of winning your Fantasy Championship! No other way around it. Whether it’s because of injuries to your stud players, offensive scheme changes from your most drafted team, or weather conditions that ruin the fantasy scores for both teams.. a lot can go wrong on your path to the Championship! That’s where Eli, Jimmy, and I step in to help! Before you draft we’ll get you the projections and rankings that you need to give you the best shot at drafting a winning squad. Then throughout the season we’ll provide you with insight as to who to pick up off the waiver wire as injuries and talent shift our projections and rankings. Because guess what?!? It’s about to be a long season!

If you drafted Nick Chubb, Joe Burrow, Mike Williams, and Mark Andrews in your 2023 Draft.. You know what I’m talking about! We can’t pretend to know what the future holds for the 2024 Season, but we can grind out all the analysis and projections to set you up for the rollercoaster that is Fantasy Football. We’ll stay on top of all the info to simplify your start/sit decisions, give you a leg up on your waiver wire league-winner(s!), and even some great banter to throw at your weekly opponent!

Well that’s a vague description of why Fantasy Football is difficult EVERY season.. But what makes this particular season so tough? Let’s start with the schedule.. If you are new to our show, or whether you’ve heard it before.. THERE IS A BETTER WAY!! Don’t worry, we’re still pissed about it. You’ll hear about it again! We have suggested the very clear and obvious option of scheduling any Thursday/Saturday games the week after a team’s bye week.. Because if the NFL really cared about the health and safety of its players, they would allow more time, not less, between football games. But what do we know!?! 

So what did the NFL do with the byes this season? Somehow the teams that finished as the #1 seed in each Conference ended up with the most and the least amount of days of net rest. The Ravens will have 16 days of net rest between games.. On the other end of the spectrum, the 49ers got screwed with a net total of -21 days of rest. Pretty wild how the galaxy-brains over at the NFL figured that math out! On top of that, the final 3 weeks of the Fantasy Regular Season should be quite a stressful finish. In 2024, we have 2 separate weeks leading up to the Fantasy Playoffs with 6 teams on bye each - Weeks 12 & 14. Granted, there are no teams on bye during the week of Thanksgiving (13). But the fact that over one third (37.5%) of the NFL has their bye leading up to the Fantasy Playoffs could make this year’s trade deadline extra juicy! Also, I want to crush my league-mates this season more than ever because fighting for a playoff spot after Week 11 will be more difficult than ever!

What other potential hazards do we foresee needing to plan around? Let’s talk about the Draft. In 2023, the WR position was so heavily drafted in the early rounds, I was suggesting to zag while everyone was zigging to make sure you got a pair of stud RBs with a top-4 QB.. because you could still find a lot of reliable WR1s that were getting faded because of their age - Keenan Allen, Mike Evans, DeAndre Hopkins - in the 3rd Round or later. This year looks no different at the WR position. In fact, they’re coming off the board even faster than ever! So what can we take from this? I have been disappointed with the final roster of almost all my Zero-WR Drafts, so I am almost certainly getting 3 WRs in the first four Rounds. This is because I am much more interested in waiting at all the other positions this year. I would love to draft a premium TE, but not unless they fall past their ADP! This is because I would be comfortable with starting any of the top-13 guys on my rankings. There are RB1s still available as late as Rounds 6 & 7. That is unheard of in all the time I have played Fantasy Football! But also a shining example of how much this game we play has changed with the offensive shifts in the NFL to being so much more focused on the passing game. What about QBs that are still available in most leagues after pick 100? Tua, TLaw, Herbert, and Stafford (ADP of 120+) are just a few of the guys I’m totally okay with starting Week 1 after stockpiling my team with at least 8 Rounds of studs from other positions.

These are all topics we will discuss as we lead up to your Draft Day! I mentioned the dreaded injuries earlier, and we will keep our rankings and projections up to date before the season.. But almost more importantly, we’ll also be a reliable source for finding the best opportunities for the next man up during the season on our Waiver Wire Show. And the weather? We are committed to following the best weather projections we can and reflecting that impact on our weekly analysis with our Matchup Show. 

So take a deep breath.. We’re here to help! Fantasy Football is Hard, but tune in so we can make your 2024 Championship season as seamless as possible!