by Kevin Burton
When Puka Nacua of the Rams burst onto the scene last year as a rookie sensation, I was asleep at the wheel, as a fantasy football manager.
I didn’t bid for him on waivers even once. Don’t know why.
This year the world was hip to the wide receiver, and he was going as a late-first or early-second round draft pick. Still I chose others. This year there were injury concerns surrounding him.
Then maybe six weeks into the season somebody in my 16-team league dropped him. He was available. He was on injured reserve, but even so, nobody should be dropping Puka Nacua. So I put in a bid.
With 15 other managers (well 14 and the one who dropped him) and with my almost never being toward the top of the waiver list I figured I wasn’t getting him. But I had to try. One thing in my favor was this was Friday waivers, not Tuesday waivers. Some managers might not be paying attention.
I was shocked and amazed to open the app Saturday and see that I had gotten him. I got a top pick in the middle of the year just for asking. That took my K&J Vipers team from a decent team to being on the short list of contenders.
Sunday night the Vipers clinched the championship for me. It is the only time so far I have won a league with more than ten teams. Nacua was a big part of it, but not the biggest.
Largely on the advice of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, I drafted Washington rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels for four of my six teams, including the Vipers. The podcast said he might not hit, so also draft a solid veteran. On three of my Daniels teams I also drafted Jared Goff.
So far the only thing that has stopped Daniels has been a rib injury. He has been absolutely amazing (remember that hail mary to beat Chicago?) including on Sunday, when his overtime drive erased a three-point fantasy deficit and gave me a six-point lead in my fantasy championship game. Deebo Samuel tacked on a few points in the Monday nighter.
If I play fantasy football next year, I will be looking to draft Nacua and Daniels, though I will never get Daniels in the 8th or 9th round, or wherever I got him this year.
Well this fantasy season is behind us, and much as I enjoyed it, I am super glad it is over. It is Tuesday as I write this and I do not have to do waivers, the process of figuring out which players to drop, which to bid for, who might be hurt, etc. Got my Tuesdays back!
The Vipers story is a happy one and that is mostly what I had this year. The biggest disappointment was losing a championship final in the last three minutes of the Monday night game, when Jahmyr Gibbs of Detroit scored a touchdown to beat my K&J Silvers team. That’s the team in the only league I play in with friends.
Making the playoffs is the biggest deal to me. That shows skill. I have never been hung up on winning the championship.
But I had never lost one in the final three minutes before. So that stings a little.
But I didn’t have long to stew over it, because my K&J Middle 8 team (The Middies) was still in contention. All we had to do was keep 49ers tight end George Kittle out of the end zone. When that happened, I got my third championship of the year.
I never had children so I escaped all those no-win questions about favorite child. But the Middies were my favorite team this year. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t a fear-inducing team, but one that survived several narrow escapes.
The Middies won their regular-season title in week 15 by 0.74 points. They won the championship by 4.28 points. Middies Forever!
The other championship was the K&J I Scream (so named for my wife Jeannette’s love of ice cream). That’s the team where I had Patrick Mahomes but switched to Baker Mayfield late in the year.
Out of six teams I had five finalists, three won, two lost. My only non-playoff team was the K&J Tornados. That team drafted Christian McCaffrey and stumbled to a 5-10 record and barely held onto 8th place and made the post-season consolation bracket.
But the Tornados were much better than that and showed it by scoring 160+ points in the consolation semi-final and final. We would have beaten any team we played against either week. It may be the best 5th-place team in history.
Speaking of history. Fantasy is history for this year, at least. Three titles, two teams second, one in fifth. Not sure I can do any better than that, so this could be a good time to quit playing.
Page 7 