Ladies and gentlemen, your champion: Adam Schefter’s Sources. Jake’s squad beat Judge Jeudy with a decisive 20 point margin. Meanwhile, Dez Still Caught It blew past The Good Guys with a huge 40+ point victory. Payments to everyone will be inbound later this week. 

And just like that, the season is over. I’m going to write some season superlatives below, but before that I wanted to thank everyone for a very fun inaugural fantasy Big League season. You guys were competitive, creative, inquisitive, and industrious! I have big aspirations for continuing this league including but not limited to a working website for roster submission, live scoring, player tracking, and more. No promises that I’ll be able to deliver, but I’m going to try! 

In the meantime, I’d love any and all feedback from you guys. What worked well? What didn’t? What would you like differently? What ideas do you have? Lastly, I’ll assume everyone is back in for next year (just let me know if that’s not the case). And if you have any friends that you think would like to join, send them my way! The more the merrier. 

Anyway, the writeup, enjoy! 

Season MVP: Cooper Kupp

25/28 teams played Cooper Kupp in this league. Even the perennial no-show rosters got him in at some point. Kupp, for me, represents the single biggest shocker of the season. Who could’ve predicted that Cooper Kupp would earn the triple crown of receiving TD leader (16), reception leader (145), and receiving yard leader (1,947). It’s not a hot take to say Stafford would be a boost to the Rams WR corps, but I don’t know if anyone would’ve wagered that Kupp would challenge the all time yard record. If he’s not OPOY, then I’m not sure what we’re doing here. Cooper Kupp totaled 439.5 points in this league’s scoring. For reference, the WR2 on the year, Davante Adams, scored 344.3. It’s incredible. 

Honorable mention: Deebo Samuel

Season Bust: Derrick Henry & Christian McCaffrey

If I were to craft the Fantasy Running Back Mount Rushmore, it would probably be Jonathan Taylor, Austin Ekeler, Derrick Henry, and CMC. These guys are either volume kings or dual threat masters. I imagine most people wanted to save these studs for a late season comeback, or even the post season. In an unfortunate twist of fate, King Henry and Mr. McCaffrey were injury plagued very early in the whole season. A handful of teams were able to secure the game-breaking performances early on, but the majority of folks weren’t so lucky. Even worse? Their respective backups weren’t quite sure things along the lines of a Mattison or Pollard. D’Onta Foreman eventually came on as a good fantasy add, but Chubba never really came close to what you wanted from the Panther’s bell-cow. I’d say there’s always next year, but with injuries you never really know.

Honorable mention: The  Giant’s Offense and specifically Saquon Barkley 

Season Juggernaut: Skid Marks 

With a first overall record at 10-4, and a league leading 1758 regular season points Skid Marks torched this league. They earned the first round bye and won the division convincingly. Despite that resume, Skid Marks lost in their first playoff matchup. This is easily explained, though. Skid Mark’s strategy to this season was to live like there’s no tomorrow. Play the stars and don’t look back. Rarely was his roster absent a true headlining player or two. That’s how you score points and win games, but perhaps not how you set yourself up for the endgame. Look at a team like Sources or Dez Still Caught It  and they had plenty of ammo to expend by champ week. That being said, no team wanted to face the Skid Marks, so they earn the Juggernaut title. 

Honorable mentions: Adam Schefter’s Sources and Freak of Nature (Freak was close to a playoff berth on the tail of a late season winning streak, but was foiled in the end. They also had the second highest points.)

Season Comeback: Judge Jeudy 

The Grumpy Division was an extremely volatile group of gamers. Aside from the cursed Fatal Floms, everyone held the division mantle at least once. The Judge was the division leader entering week 9, but he made the mistake of failing to turn in a lineup. Mr. Jeudy never reclaimed the title after that loss. For the remaining 5 games, Judge Jeudy went 3-2. On the eve of week 14, this team was out of the playoff picture. And even worse, it looked like a season finale victory wouldn’t even matter as he would be one of many 7-7 teams. In fact so many teams had 7 wins already, that it looked improbable that a 7-7 team would even be able to advance. However, just as the Steeler’s had an 8% chance to get into the playoffs and just as Dr. Strange saw only one chance out of 14,000,905 realities to save the universe, there was a chance for the Judge to see the post season. Not only did they get a win over the Minnesota Floms, but they somehow won out to the finals. They ran into the buzzsaw of the Sources, but they do receive the second place prize money. The story book tale ends in defeat for Judge Juedy, but it’s probably better that way because real life has no room for Cinderellas. 

Honorable mentions: Scrantonicity 3 & Team Blumpkins 

Powerhouse Division: Dopey Division

This division, much like the Grumpy division, was as turbulent as it was competitive. These four teams comprised the sole division to tout all winning or even records. However, what impresses me most is the range of experience and strategy these teams deployed. Kingpins and Krusty Krab Pizzas were the epitome of consistency, always being among the first teams to send me their rosters. Those two regularly used Thursday night players, which I’m sure informed their Sunday rest-of-lineup. Meanwhile, Scrantonicity 3 literally wrote code to help determine his lineup. With a formula that balanced powerhouses and mediocre plays, this team really embodies the pro in programming. Then we have why am i doing this, the reluctant participant to the whole shebang. Despite saying she was clueless with her lineups, she made savvy play after savvy play. The Dopey Division defied their namesake and ranked #1 in division power rankings with finishes at #4, #12, #15, and #17. It is easy to see any of these teams in the finals, but fate had it otherwise. 

Honorable mentions: Bashful Division (3 playoff teams and the worst team) and Happy Division (1 playoff team but maybe the fighting-est)

Season Oddities: 

I’ve played fantasy for many a season. And as long as I can remember, there were always a dozen quarterbacks that you could reliably count on for 20-odd points. This season felt very different. Josh Allen ends as the QB1 and that feels right but Mahomes was QB3. Raise your hand if you or a loved one rostered Mahomes and you were disappointed. Brady had several busts; Lamar flopped a number of times; Russel Wilson was a ghost this season. Herbert, Dak, and Hurts all hurt your team at some point. Quarterbacking was weird and unreliable. 

At the same time, it felt like defenses boomed this year. 16 Defenses scored over 100 total points on the season as a whole. Any given week, you were probably pleased with what you put in your slot. The Cowboys (Defense #1 on the year) scored double digits 7 times and scored 20+ in 3/7. I think this is largely due to defenses clawing back after the COVID season a year ago. NFL scoring was down this year and that will clearly favor the defense. 

Away from football, and back to fantasy – an oddity for me was the fact that this league succeeded! With very few scrapes and bumps we went 18 weeks and have a winner. Did I have to remind certain teams every week? Sure. Did a couple teams cut bait practically as soon as the season began? Maybe. Did someone use the Monday Night game as the basis for an entire roster because Sunday slipped them by? Once. But that’s all’s well that ends well. 

And my last oddity for this season is that your Commissioner was so god-awful in this league it’s hilarious. I was the 24th out of 28 teams and was lucky enough to face a blank roster once. I promise that I tried, but all of you clearly bested me! 

Hope you enjoyed this! Thank you and please send any feedback you may have.

Barring some unforeseen message I need to send everyone, you won’t hear from me till next season. Signing off, this has been Big League 2021-2022.