I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling pretty burnt out from fantasy football this summer. I’m not entirely sure why, but ever since the end of rookie draft season I’ve been kind of tired of fantasy. I think it might be the countless articles, Tweets, and “hot takes” we’re exposed to daily. It got to the point that I was avoiding checking my Sleeper notifications some days.
According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, over 60 million people played in some form of fantasy sport last year with the vast majority of that being fantasy football. So why do roughly 1 in 5 Americans play fantasy sports? For the fun of it! Of course, that’s the easy answer, but sometimes that gets lost on us. I know I had forgotten that recently.
Part of my landscaping job includes taking care of the driving range my boss owns. Today was just like any Monday where I started my day by clearing extra balls from the tee box. What was different was we cleared the area with golf clubs instead of just hand-picking them. Imagine a half dozen 20-30-year-olds just goofing around and swinging clubs with no care at golf balls just for their 50-something-year-old boss to come out and join them. It was unexpected, but it was a great time! We joked about Happy Gilmore swings and trying to hit the signs marking “200 yards” from the tee box. It was the perfect way to start off a work week I was not looking forward to!
Who Made Fantasy Fun?
I reached out to a bunch of people all over the fantasy landscape asking them, “Who made fantasy fun for you?”
From Bob Lung meeting Brandon McManus to Joe O’Leary‘s recounting Larry Johnson‘s playoff hero campaign, we all have players we look back on fondly.
Devonta Freeman‘s 2015 season is what got me hooked. My first fantasy league was a 6 teamer where I couldn’t figure out how to get into the draft room for the first couple of rounds. I auto-drafted Freeman with my first pick. While I didn’t do so well that season, I was obsessed with watching Falcons games. My excitement for him and celebrating those 11 touchdowns he scored was strange to my die-hard Colts family.
Scott Connor is one of the hottest names in the fantasy football community right now. It only makes sense that he would pick one of the greatest wide receivers to ever step on the field when asked this question. Scott said Antonio Brown was the guy for him. While off the field, he caused some trouble, for sure. On the field, he was a problem for opponents. His 12,000+ yards on 928 receptions were monstrous. His 1,767 career fantasy points and six seasons as a top-five fantasy WR had a massive impact on the game. It simply didn’t matter how many guys you put on him. He was always open!
Jesse Moeller of the LeagueWinners and P2W Fantasy said that Shaun Alexander‘s game against Minnesota where he scored 5 TDs in one half is what hooked him. The highlights of that game are like watching a mix of Alvin Kamara‘s Christmas game in 2020 and Jonathan Taylor‘s game against the Bills. Go watch those highlights! That’s sure to bring a smile to your face.
Who Makes Fantasy Fun?
When asked about players they look forward to watching every week, I got so many different names. Kamara, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, and AJ Brown were some of the guys in the DynastyLounge and from Twitter mentioned. From winning leagues with these guys to going to college with them, these players give us countless reasons to root for teams we normally wouldn’t. My brother-in-law Kyle said guys like Devante Adams and Travis Kelce are staples for him.
I know, for me, it’s DeAndre “Nuk” Hopkins. When I stopped to think about who makes fantasy fun, the first name I thought of was DHop. I remember thinking “If he was on the Colts, they could win the Super Bowl,” as I watched him torch the Colts twice a year. I remember the miracle catch with Kyler Murray against the Bills that won me my week in my home league. The excitement! The energy! The nerves as a Kyler scrambled and chucked it to a triple-covered DHop as time expired.
Polling the People
Clay of TradesIn5 said Tyreek Hill is one of those guys for him who stands out. Between changing the game with the Chiefs to settings record with the Dolphins, Tyreek deserves to be on this list. He’s so shifty that it’s impossible to stop him. It’s like someone dropped Speedy Gonzales in the middle of a track meet. Additionally, he’s so much better than a lot of these defenders. If NFL players are in the top 1% of athletes, then Tyreek is in the 0.01%.
When asked, Shane of DynastyTradesHQ, TradesIn5, and DLF said that it’s guys like Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen who make fantasy fun now. These quarterbacks go out there and stun us weekly. My brother described Allen as “absurd” with the way he can make plays on his own. Numerous times he would text me asking if I saw a play. He later told me that he would go do the dishes and turn on the Bills game as he washed. He never liked football until we convinced him to join the family redraft league where he drafted Allen. That evolved into him regularly texting me about the game. It was awesome, even if it was also sometimes annoying (I’m mostly joking about that…mostly).
Who Will Make Fantasy Fun?
As we look forward to the future of fantasy football, let’s look at players that will make the game fun. I’m talking about young guys in the league with a bright future ahead of them.
The first players that come to mind are QBs, including guys who are still in college. In my mind, Caleb Williams and Anthony Richardson are guys who could become the next Mahomes and Hurts. An elite pocket passer and a mobile weapon all in one. If they ever play against each other, it could be the game of the week.
Bijan Robinson, Garrett Wilson, and Raheim “Rocket” Sanders are all going to be great for years. If I told you that Saquon Barkley, Davante Adams, and Derrick Henry were all going to be on their rookie contracts at the same time, wouldn’t you say this is the golden age of football? I would. Many would. That’s how I feel about those guys. They could be the next group of elite playmakers for their positions. I know Pruthvish Patel agrees with me on Garrett Wilson.
RJ of LeagueWinners suggested guys like Patrick Surtain II and Sauce Gardner as young playmakers on the other side of the ball. I would agree and add Micah Parsons to that list. These two young defensive backs and a linebacker make up some of the league’s best defenders. If you were to start an NFL-wide fantasy draft and your favorite team took those three guys first, you’d be in for some exciting defence!
Conclusion
We all get bogged down by some things in life. If you’re ever at that point with fantasy, do yourself a favour and think about this article. Think about who hooked you on fantasy. Think about who you look forward to watching play each week. Ask yourself what players you’re excited to see grow and develop.
After you’ve done that, go watch some player highlights. Maybe play some Madden. And when you are ready to go back to fantasy, do me a favour: Go make a trade offer in your dynasty league for a player you’d enjoy watching this year. Or if you’re a redraft junkie, pick up a guy from the waiver wire you think will go off this week. Just make a move for a player who will help you love football again.
We all need to stop and smell the roses sometimes. After that, jump back into fantasy and have fun!
Hunter Greene
Hunter started writing for The League Winners in the summer of 2021. Hunter has been playing fantasy football for about a decade, starting in middle school. Now he’s a professional landscaper and avid Colts and Purdue fan. He primarily writes D/ST Streamer articles in season and Dynasty/Draft content in the offseason.