So fantasy draft season rolls around again, and my buddies are buzzing about their cheat sheets. Felt like a good year to build my own NFL contenders checklist, see if I could spot must-haves everyone else missed. Grabbed my laptop and a giant cup of coffee – knew it was gonna be a long one.
Started simple: pulled up last year’s stats and win-loss records. Jotted down obvious playoff-bound teams first.
- Chiefs: Mahomes. Duh. Always starts there.
- Eagles: That Hurts & Brown combo? Pure points.
- Bills: Diggs was wrecking folks early on.
- Bengals: Had Burrow & Chase circled big time.
Then I hit the trickier spots. Who was gonna pop this year? Dug deeper, eyeballing offseason moves and training camp whispers.
- Jags: Trevor Lawrence looked sharp preseason. Etienne? Maybe?
- Dolphins: Waddle was a beast, Hill’s still Hill. Tagged Tua as a maybe.
- Lions: Goff quietly put up numbers last year. Amon-Ra? Felt sneaky good.
Got stuck on the NFC South. Panthers? Falcons? Saints? Total crapshoot. Skipped ’em entirely. Ain’t gambling draft picks on that mess. My coffee was cold by now, brain starting to fry.
Then Draft Night Hit…
Our league draft started… and it went off the rails FAST. Guys reached for players I had flagged as total busts. Couldn’t believe it. My precious checklist?
- Dalvin Cook? Somebody snagged him way early. Had him down as massive injury risk after last season.
- Kupp? Still going round 1 after the ankle stuff? Nope. Not touching that.
- Someone took Aaron Rodgers before Hurts!?! My checklist screamed “avoid!” Got picked anyway.
My turn came up. Stared at my list… then kinda panicked. Mahomes, Allen, Hurts – gone. Burrow? Snagged right before me. My QB must-haves evaporated. Scrambled, picked Dak Prescott. Felt… okay?
How’d It Actually Go?
Honestly? My checklist bombed harder than the Broncos offense.
- Dak got hurt. Sigh
- My “sure thing” Etienne? Started slow. Real slow.
- Amon-Ra saved me some weeks, I guess.
- Totally missed Christian McCaffrey blowing up in San Fran. He wasn’t even on my radar.
Ended up glued to the waiver wire half the season anyway. That perfect list of must-have players felt useless by Week 3. Some guys I avoided (like Rodgers) DID bomb. So maybe I won some… by losing less? Fantasy football, man. It’s chaos. Learned less than nothing.
