Well, the NFL 2014 season is winding down and for most of you, the chance to win the yearly fantasy title in your home, office or whatever leagues is over. For the small percentage of people going for the title this weekend, I wish you the best. I’m one of the fortunate ones to be the #1 seed in a 10 team league, and ready to claim the championship. I was able to take home the crown in 2013 and also make it to the championship game in 2012. Although I didn’t win that one, I’ve only been in this league for three years. Those are pretty good numbers and I’m super excited to be going for it again. Confidence is High.
League Details
This league was founded over 25 years ago. It was made up of high school friends who truly loved football. I was invited into the league three years ago. The entry fee is $220 per team and $1 per transaction. First through third gets paid, so I’m already in the money. I was actually in the money since I won the total points contest. This collects all the transaction fees. It added up nicely.
Without going into too much detail, over the years, the scoring has changed, but still lacks a lot of bonus points and other methods to boost scores. We have a 28 round draft. Don’t be like, what the heck. This league is an IDP league. Also known as individual defensive player league. This was definitely new to me, but it did make it a lot more interesting. You had to follow a lot more players. The great thing about this is, between you and your opponent, you almost had a player in every game to watch. It made every game have some kind of interest. There are no flex positions, so the depth on the roster ends up being way to deep. Next year there will be an overhaul on the rules. Although these old rules have worked out really well for me, I have to agree with these changes.
You start a QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K, then you have the option of starting any combination of three DL or linebackers. You also start two defensive backs. A full roster is 12 players. There is a lot of strategy involved with this. Points are very low across the board. TD’s equal 6 points, which is very common, but everything else is halved for most standard leagues. This is nonPPR league at this time. The thing that stands out, which makes this league so different, is what you can do on defense.
Drafting JJ Watt this year has worked out well for that person. You get 6 points per sack and 6 points per interception. If your defensive guy gets a touchdown, you get 8 points. A pick six by your guy will grab you 14 points. Although the first 3-4 rounds are very offensive, it’s pretty smart to draft big defensive players early. Defense wins championships.
Starting Squad
In my case, I wasn’t really lucky to have a great defensive group. Last year I had 4 sacks and two picks in the championship game, which pretty much sealed it for me. Guys like Peyton Manning, Demaryius Thomas, and Antonio Brown did quite well for me last year. This year my defense has one guy that has produced very well. Justin Houston of the Kansas City Chiefs is a beast. My offense is super powerful. Andrew Luck at QB and Le’veon Bell and Jamal Charles as my RB’s. Then I have AJ Green and TY Hilton for my wide receivers. You can say it’s been a fun year. It was a little rough when Charles and AJ went down, but most of my squad has stayed healthy throughout the year. Let’s hope things work out for me this week for a repeat championship.
Although this is a breakdown of the common fantasy league, we still wanted to share with you. Although daily games are awesome, it’s still great to win the long season. Just like teams in the NFL, you have a lot riding each week. Although it doesn’t always work out, when you do get to that final game, the jitters inside are amazing. This being my third year in a row, I still have butterflies, but I feel very loose at the same time. I’m not going to worry about the outcome this year since this is the squad I’ve been starting all year. They better show up.