The National Football League kicked off its 2024 season with an exciting game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. The Chiefs pulled off a win by a close margin of seven points and a score of 27 to 20. Although an eventful game, many football fans do not care about the score but rather the statistics of the players on their fantasy football teams.
Throughout each year of the NFL season, using online platforms such as ESPN and Sleeper, friends put together their own leagues in which they draft and trade players in hopes that their team will rack up yards and touchdowns. Teams consist of players from all NFL teams and all offensive skill positions. Each week the teams are matched up against a league mate and go head to head hoping that luck will be on their side. Each Sunday, users eagerly watch to see if their wide receiver is getting the catches they should be or if their quarterback is throwing well.
In recent years, many believe that the best strategy in fantasy football has shifted from drafting a running back in the first round to drafting a clear-cut wide receiver 1. New York Times sports writer Michael Salfino suggests drafting receivers aggressively. “You’re not winning anything with an average WR room,” wrote Salfino, which is why some fantasy football users draft using the “Zero RB” strategy. In this strategy the drafter holds out on taking a running back until a later round, ensuring that they fill out other important positions like wide receiver. The idea behind this is that, in recent years, running backs are so similar and easier to make up for than some of the amazing wide receivers playing today, such as Dallas Cowboys receiver Ceedee Lamb and Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill. The two were consensus top 5 picks in this year’s drafts.
Every year some players are projected to have amazing seasons, similar to Lamb and Hill. This year the “consensus first overall pick” was Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey has been in the NFL since 2017 when he was drafted by the Carolina Panthers, and has been putting up impressive numbers since the start of his career. He is now on the 49ers, after being traded in the middle of the 2022 season, and it’s safe to say his dynamic playstyle hasn’t regressed at all. Although his upside in fantasy may seem amazing, as he is a prolific runner as well as a consistent pass-catcher, the sport of football is violent and risky. Each year, fans hope for an injury-free season but unfortunately, it is never the reality. McCaffrey, like many others, has spent many games on the sideline due to various injuries including his hip, glutes, shoulder, ankle, and most recently achilles. Unfortunately, his injury-prone tendencies affect his value in Fantasy football. His high risk of injury generally scares drafters enough to choose another one of the many top players.
Fantasy football leagues can be structured in many ways. Some leagues have a kicker while some don’t, and some may have more players than others. However, what all leagues do have in common is the excitement that the game adds to football. Often in sports, fans are only interested in what occurs for their own professional team, but with fantasy football, Sundays turn into a marathon of exciting games, each of which viewers have many reasons to watch.
When the season does come to an end and the Fantasy football playoffs are over, the viewers will wait impatiently for the next season to begin: making predictions for next year’s draft and which players will have breakout seasons. The excitement seems to never end in fantasy football and hopefully this season goes down as a great one!
