Week 6 Reflections

Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.

Nothing is better than a clean sweep... But nothing is worse than losing by only a few points after you had over 140 points. I don't talk about it a lot (and I guess it is actually something I could address in a Friday blog) but I am a HUGE dolphins fan. For anyone that actually knows me, knows that it's unhealthy the way I base my life solely off of their play on Sundays. But this week, the Dolphins had a standout week and looked very impressive compared to their first few games. I won in both my $1 FanDuel submissions this week. I crushed in my free league against my roommate, I crushed in my $25 league, and yet when it all comes down to it I will probably lose in my big money league against my dad (I write these blogs on Monday and am winning by only 8.5 points and he has Josh Brown, NYG kicker, so I assume I am going to lose because the fantasy gods hate me.). I scored 143 points this week and the winner of this matchup is going to win the week, which means one of us is going to get an extra $50. I am a college student, I need that money. Nothing is set in stone yet, but with the way my luck generally goes in fantasy I would say there is not a very good chance for me. Anyways, so that was my normal, general outburst for my Reflections blog, let's get on to the good stuff.

Devonta Freeman is actually starting to get annoying. I feel like no one else on the Atlanta offense wants to score touchdowns besides him anymore. Matt Ryan, you have a guy named Julio Jones and he happens to be one of the best WRs in the game right now! Oh and did I mention he is taller than everyone corner or safety in the league!!! Throw it up and let the big man make a play. Eight touchdowns in three games is ridiculous! Even with Tevin Coleman back (and running hard I might add), it doesn't look like they are going to slow him down at all in the red zone.

Two guys that came back from injury this week who really showed that they should be back for the entirety of the season (barring another injury setback) are LeSean McCoy and Delanie Walker. If you were smart enough to store them on your bench up until this week, go ahead and activate them for the rest of the year (unless you have much better options like Gronk or a couple of super stud RBs). Shady bursted off a 33-yard carry on his first touch of the game and Delanie solidly had almost 100 yards in his 2nd debut this year.

Guys to stream this week:

There aren't going to be a ton of studs that emerge for the rest of the season off of the waiver wire, so generally from here on out this is going to be a list of people that are guys you may need because of bye weeks or injuries that would go in your lineup for a single week.

Anquan Boldin of the 49ers is a very interesting play this week against Seattle. Now I know what you're thinking. Why would you ever start someone against the big bad SEA Defense. Well, the Legion of Boom isn't what it used to be and especially isn't amazing away from home. The 49ers generally play SEA very tight at home and Greg Olsen (CAR, TE) just lit up that defense last week. The best thing Kaepernick has to a TE is Boldin. He should get enough catches in a PPR to do you well.

If you need a Defense this week, some that you may want to look at would include (I am basing this off of who is available in a few of my leagues): Pittsburgh D/ST vs KC, Giants D/ST vs DAL, CAR D/ST vs PHI. Somehow all of these defenses (all in the top 10 of standard ESPN scoring) are available to be picked up in both my ESPN leagues. Kansas City was a decent offensive power with Jamaal Charles, but without that solid production from the backfield the team struggled to do anything against MIN last week. Expect some heavy blitzing from the Steelers. The Giants have quietly been the best team against the run this year and because Romo and Dez will be both out of this game, they will need to rely on Randle, McFadden and company to do most of the work. Expect low scores from Dallas. Carolina is the 5th best defense in the league. They do it all. They get defensive touchdowns, they don't let you score or get yards, they pressure the QB. This is a defense you want to keep long-term if you're struggling in this category. Philly has been reckless with the ball, at times, with Bradford at QB. Expect at least one turnover and some QB pressure.

Thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be the Rundown that I did last week in my college fantasy league!

Daily vs Season Long

Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.

So by now, if you are a consistent reader of the blog, you will have found out that I have mentioned Daily Fantasy Sports a few times here and there. The two big sites that people use for Daily is FanDuel and DraftKings. I am sure if you have watched football at all this year, you've heard of both of them. I use FanDuel, but there is almost no difference between the two sites. So if you are going to try out one of them, I don't have any reason to tell you to use one or the other. They are both great sites. Tangent... Alright, I'm getting back on track.

Anyways, as you may remember I play Daily Fantasy just as a side thing because it's fun. I only put a few bucks a week down and I will lose money some weeks and others I will barely win anything. I am not one of the people that try to go for the big bucks. What I will say is that going for the big money can be fun! Last year, I was naive and tried to go for the big money a few times and in one of them I actually scored a whopping 192 points in one week. Now, when you see that score in a season-long league there is no chance that anyone was even close to that score. I put $2 on that league where I scored 192. I only got $7 back... The top score in that league was like 242 or something like that. It was still awesome to get $7 because that was my first "big" win, but it was even more fun to be in contention for the big money at a point. That's why Daily is so fun. It is a rush of adrenaline just like gambling is (because it is gambling... FanDuel and DraftKings I'm looking at you). You don't get that kind of a rush in season-long formats as much as you can in Daily. In a season-long your biggest moment is probably you being down by 3 points with 10 seconds left on the MNF game and your kicker hits a 40 yard FG to win you the game.

If there is anyone reading my blog that has never played fantasy in either the Daily or Season-long platform, I would suggest putting a few bucks into one of these Daily sites and play some free leagues. It takes less than 10 minutes to make a lineup every week, and the beauty of Daily is that there are no season-long commitments. So if you are having a very busy weekend you don't have to set a lineup but if you are just relaxing on a Saturday afternoon watching college football, make a league during a commercial and trust me you will watch the game in a whole new light. 

There will always be a special place in my heart for season-long fantasy leagues, but Daily is always a refreshing change of pace. Don't make the debate that one of them is better than the other either. Both are very different, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Just play fantasy and celebrate with your other fantasy brothers and sisters.

Also, look forward to next Friday's blog where I will be showing my Rundown that I did for my College Fantasy League this week(I mentioned what a Rundown is in my blog FFL League post)!

Thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be on my Week 6 Reflection and looking forward to Week 7! 

Week 5 Reflections

Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.

I don't know about you guys, but fantasy is starting to kick my ass. As I talked about in my last post, Multiple League-titis, I have problems with multiple leagues because I am not sure whether I root for certain players to get an average number (if I have them playing and also am playing against them in another league) or to root for them to do amazing regardless of it. Well, I happen to be doing the best in the league that I don't have any money involved in. I started so well in my big money league and injuries have just killed me. It is a deeper league so every injury counts, and it's killing me. Sorry about this little complaining section to start this. Hopefully, you all are having better luck than I am.

There are some things that are universal truths in this world. If you throw something up in the air, it will fall back to the ground. If you blend red with blue, it becomes purple. If Aaron Rodgers plays football at Lambeau field, he won't turn the ball... Wait... What?... He did what?!?!... 3!!!! If there was anything that was anyone in fantasy football that was a good bet, it was Aaron Rodgers at home. It doesn't matter who he plays. He shreds defenses at home. Two interceptions and a fumble. The Rams have a good defense and it needs to be taken seriously, but it was at Lambeau! I'm just shocked. What's worse than that is Jamaal Charles tore his ACL this week. Charles is one of those great RBs that you always fear will get hurt and it happened again. Last but not least, everyone on the Arizona Cardinals looks stupid amazing and that is great for people like Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald who are consistently doing well. But for people like David Johnson, Andre Ellington, and Chris Johnson, it's scary. Ellington had a really long TD this week, but those aren't consistent. David Johnson had 2 very short TD's which are also not consistent. Chris Johnson is consistently doing well with yardage, but he can't find the end zone. They all have their moments, but I feel like you have to hope for a super high scoring game or get lucky.

Here are some people you want to target on the waiver wire this week:

With Jamaal Charles going down for the year, Knile Davis (RB, Kansas City) should be great right away. The Chiefs are apparently looking to bring in other talent at the position, but when Charles has been hurt in the past, they plug Knile in and he looks great. Look for him to be a top 15 RB the rest of the way. 

Odell Beckham Jr. and Rueben Randle of the New York Giants both got hurt in Sunday's game vs the 49ers. With Victor Cruz out there is a huge gap now in that team for receptions if either miss any sort of time. Look for either Larry Donnell (TE, NYG) or Shane Vereen (RB, NYG) to step up and take some more receptions. Both looked great on the final drive when OBJ and Randle were on the sideline, and I suspect that they will do well.

Last but not least, the Falcons are an interesting team. They had a two-headed RB "force" with Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman at the beginning of the year. Tevin got hurt and Devonta looks like a God among men out on the turf. Also, Julio Jones is probably being triple covered which is helping the run game and hurting Julio. They have been getting up early as well so they run the ball. However, with Roddy White virtually non-existent and Leonard Hankerson getting a little banged up this week you may want to look at that offense for a sneaky pickup. If Hankerson is gone (pick him up if he is still available), look at Jacob Tamme (TE, Atlanta) who caught the first 6 receptions of the game this past week. He could be stepping up for a bigger role in that offense.

Have a great upcoming football week everyone!

Thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be on Daily Fantasy vs Season long leagues!

Multiple League-titis

Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.

For any of the people that read my blogs that are already aware of what the life of multiple fantasy leagues is, I pray for you. For all of those that either don't play fantasy football yet or only have one league, don't EVER change.

I make it out to seem like such a horrible thing but having multiple leagues is actually a ton of fun. You can have a league with high school buddies/college buddies, another with co-workers, a family league, there a ton of options. Fantasy football is one of those beautiful things that helps link people for a long time. I rarely talk to the guys from my high school league (that I started in 8th grade, and I am now a Junior in college) just because we have all gone our separate ways whether it be because of school or work or whatever. Yet every year on Draft night, we come together and can shoot the s*** just as if we had recently seen each other. So, there ae definite benefits to having multiple leagues. However, I have three leagues and it can get annoying at times.

When you have multiple leagues, you generally try to select the same guys at the draft, pick up the same guys on waivers, and drop the same guys. I 100% have fallen victim to this. It is wonderful when you hit on guys like Joseph Randle, but it is horrible when you miss on guys like Alfred Morris/Alshon Jeffery in multiple leagues. When it is one league, you are frustrated but you aren't 2x as frustrated because now two of your teams are in a tough spot. Yes, you just go through the motions. Bench the sucky player or trade him or whatever, it's simply annoying and I don't understand how people like Matthew Berry can have over 30+ leagues. 

The biggest problem for me in having multiple league-titis is when you play some of your own players in different leagues. For instance, in one of my three leagues, I was able to get Gronk at a great spot, but in my other two I waited on Tight End's (Owen Daniels in those leagues... Good job Kyle...). This week I have Gronk, who is almost a guaranteed 10 points every week, and then I play him in my other two leagues. What do I do? Do I root for him to suck because it helps me in two other leagues or do I want him to crush because I have him in my big money league? Or do I just want him to get a solid 10 and be done with it? I don't know. I'll never know. I have this predicament in at least one of my leagues every week. I hate it. And don't even get me started as to when you make a DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) team and you decide that your "perfect" lineup has players you're up against in all of your leagues. Just stop Fantasy Gods. I don't need this stress.

Thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be on my Week 5 Reflections and looking forward to Week 6!

Week 4 Reflections

Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.

Back again like I never left, Youg Sinatra, that's to the death... Why do I keep starting these with lyrics? By the way, that verse is from Young Jedi by Logic. Check him out, he is dropping a new album in December. 

Anyways on to what we are here for! Week 4 was... as always interesting. There are few things in this world that seem to be consistent. One thing that doesn't follow that is Devonta Freeman getting a lot of touchdowns. Although, once Tevin Coleman comes back to good health, I feel like he will lose a few carries, Devonta is proving to everyone that he is a great goal-line back and he needs to be in your starting lineups if you have him.

People were starting to freak out about the #YearOfTheTE again last week and look what happens when Gronk doesn't play... Touchdowns decide which Tight Ends will do well minus Gronk and a few others. Consistency will not be found at this position.

Antonio Brown is probably one of the best two WRs in the game. I was afraid of this when Ben went down last week, but Vick absolutely kills his value in fantasy. Do I think Antonio will do well probably average around 6-8 if he doesn't get a touchdown? Yes, I do. I think he has to be started in every league and I hope I'm wrong, but it seems like the Steelers offense should run through Leveon Bell and only Bell. Especially because the play-calling on Thursday night was atrocious in crunch time. Tomlin won't make those mistakes again. 

Here are some people that you need to look for on the waiver wire this week:

Chris Thompson (RB, Washington Redskins) is a guy that if the 'Skins are down in a game, he is going to get all of the snaps because he is a true PPR only type of back. Sure he had a few carries against the Eagles, but he crushed the Giants in the passing game last week. I like him and so do the 'Skins. If you need a bye-week option in a PPR league, think about him. 

Another guy that I enjoyed last week in my FanDuel was Allen Hurns (WR, Jacksonville Jaguars). With everyone understanding that Allen Robinson is the main guy in that offense Hurns has been open and got 11 catches last week because of it. It also helps that Jacksonville is generally down and need to throw the ball. He will be a very solid option for the rest of the year and I like him more than Robinson now.

Someone else that looked really impressive the last two weeks was Willie Snead (WR, New Orleans Saints). It seems like Brees looked at him enough to possibly be playable soon. I'm not sure I trust him quite yet in season-long leagues, but in Daily Fantasy Leagues he should be a good cheap option. He is definitely worth a stash. Keep an eye on him!

Also, if anyone who reads this column has any questions about people I don't talk about, please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be on how multiple leagues can be annoying sometimes!

FFL - Fun (with) Friends League

Howdy Fantasy Lovers, Fantasy Novices, and Fantasy Creatures! Welcome to Fantasy Football 101, where I, Kyle Bazin, will be sharing my opinions, experiences, and advice on Fantasy Football to you all.

Fantasy football for a lot of people is something that you just look at on Sunday afternoon/evening and see if you beat your boss. Well, what if it was much more than that? What if you had a league that wanted to participate in activities all year long that was filled with inside jokes about the league itself? I'll tell you right now... It is a TON of fun!

My college friends fantasy league is filled with a bunch of guys that love trash talking and last year one of them were inspired by the TV show, The League on FXx. In that show, the do "rundowns" where the commissioner or person who won the league the year prior gets to talk crap about all the other league mates in a video. We tried it out last year in the middle of the year and it was an instant success. Our league had a new life, especially for people that weren't all that interested in the league itself. It ended up being competitive to see who had the best rundowns of the year. We ended up having weekly rundowns instead of yearly rundowns just so everyone could participate. At the end of the video, the person that had the rundown that week had to call out a league mate for them to do the rundown that week. It didn't matter if you were going to be in Antarctica for that week, you were doing the rundown. By the end of the year, each rundown was more spontaneous than the next (I will link a few of the best ones at the end of the blog.). During the offseason, our commissioner came up with the idea to have a reason to make the rundowns. At the end of every year (from now on), the whole league is going to vote 1-8 on who has the best rundown and that order will decide the draft order for the following year. We never knew a good way to decide order and this was just an awesome idea! I am excited for another great year of rundowns.

If this idea is too "radical" for a more laid-back type of league, there are still other ways to get things a little more interesting. Posting on the messages boards is a very easy way. Having a league chat is also a good way. And it's fantasy football people... If feelings aren't getting hurt, you aren't doing it right. In the league that I am commissioner of, I had the idea of doing a NFL playoffs bracket (similar to March Madness, but for the NFL playoffs) to decide the draft order for the next year. It's an easy way to stay involved with people in the league and to have them thinking about fantasy again.

If there is anything you do in your league that is unique, put it down in the comments because I would love to see what other leagues do!

Links to my league's rundowns:

Note: If you do not like profanity, do not watch these videos. We are all great friends and take a lot of jabs at each other in these. So please watch at your own risk. There are also a good amount of inside jokes and jokes that were relevant to the time we were making these, so bear in mind if you don't understand.

Very first rundown ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE1E5zOc7dY

The rundown that changed rundowns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8mqA2WRYIU

My first rundown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq7IZuMwgEY

The first rundown of 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-PGXVWQGTk

Thanks for reading everyone. Again these are all MY OPINIONS! Do not take them as a Bible scripture and do not use my word as the only word. It is OK to make opinions for yourself! I promise! My next blog will be some reflections on Week 4 and looking forward to Week 5!