Each year, the fall season brings back many American favorites: pumpkin spice lattes, Thanksgiving dinners, jumping in the leaves, and most importantly: Fantasy Football. To some people, it’s just a joke—those people are wrong.
Fantasy football is not just a game or a hobby, it is a way of life. Every Sunday people have their eyes glued to the TV, then the computer, then back to the TV, constantly checking the scores.
People are at their desks at work, looking around for their bosses as they try and watch the game. Leagues have started up, friendly rivalries have began, and Tom Brady isn’t suspended. What else could you wish for?
The season has started and as such, people have already drafted their teams and eagerly await the weekly results. However, some draft picks are always less than ideal. Here’s a list of some of the top draft-day duds, and some of the top draft-day delights.
Duds
QB: Drew Brees
Easy, Breesey, Beautiful. Right? Wrong. Brees was projected to be a top-five fantasy quarterback this season, even without his number-one receiver from last year, Jimmy Graham. It looks like those projections were wrong. Graham is missed in the Big Easy, with the Saints having a slow start to the season. Brees’s new number-one receiver, Brandin Cooks, is also hurt, and also not producing the numbers he was projected to get. Cooks managed to hurt himself losing to Tampa Bay, dampening his prospects of turning his year around.
RB: Demarco Murray
Last year’s leading rusher, with 1,845 rushing yards on 392 carries is not having the same success this year. The new Chip Kelly offence, which many thought Murray would thrive in, has been less than optimal for him. With a very poor showing at the start of the season, Murray needs to step it up in order to increase his fantasy worth. The potential of Murray as a fantasy running back is unquestionable, but some people (including myself) drafted him very early on expecting to cash out only to be disappointed.
WR: Andre Johnson
A veteran wide receiver who did well in Houston despite not having a good quarterback comes to Indianapolis to play with Andrew Luck—sooooooo much potential. Instead of having a Renaissance season, though, Johnson is virtually invisible in the fantasy game. Although Luck has not made things easy for him, Andre Johnson was still a wasted pick by someone hoping for more than they would get.
Delights
QB: Tom Brady
HE’S NOT SUSPENDED!!! No one was expecting that at the beginning of the season. Those who selected Brady as their potential backup for later in the season hit the jackpot when it was announced that his four-game suspension for involvement in “Deflategate” was proven null in federal courts. With Gronkowski and Edelman to aim for, Brady just might be the best fantasy player in the league. Make as many jokes as you want about deflated manhood or how he’s a dirty lying cheat, but there is no arguing his talent and how happy I am that I drafted him.
RB: Lesean McCoy
Last year he averaged MAYBE 7 points a game after being projected to be one of the top five backs in the NFL. This year, he left the city of brotherly love for Buffalo and he’s been doing much better. Unlike Murray, McCoy has benefited from his change in scenery. An added upside is that he was injured during the preseason, making it questionable that he would play in the team’s first game. This caused some people to draft him in a later round of the draft, like Kevin Klaben ’17 … kid stole my pick.
WR: James Jones
Dropped by one team at the end of last year, then another the day before preseason games started, Jones’s prospects on playing in the 2015–16 season were not looking so hot. However, his old friends in Green Bay (GO PACK!) decided that they wanted their ex-receiver back. In the absence of Jordy Nelson, and the slight injuries to both Cobb and Adams, Jones has seen increased targets and increased touchdowns. Similar to how McCoy was chosen later in the draft because of his injury, Jones was selected, if at all, very late as a filler player because no one expected him to play at all.