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  • Philly Special Fantasy Football League Draft Analysis 2026 – Part I

    It’s time again for another Fantasy Football season and the fourth year of the Philly Special Fantasy Football League! As always, I am your chairman and will guide our journey through the highs and lows each season brings. We will relish in the joy of victories. We will suffer through the agony of defeat. Most importantly, we will talk trash and laugh at each other mercilessly over the next five months.

    Before we start going over everyone’s draft performance, I would like to take a moment to remind everyone who won the league championship last season… Me! Finally, after years of painful playoff exits at the hands of my own child, I emerged victorious and claimed the Championship Belt! It was a great season with a lot of fun moments and was capped off with our first annual live awards ceremony. Fun was had by all and I look forward to what this season has in store. Let’s get started!

    First of all, we are now a 10-team league. This year, we welcomed more young owners to get a taste of fantasy football and learn what it is all about. As a league that welcomes our children, it is important for the adults to set a good example and teach life lessons. Lessons that include “losing is a part of life and we will not let you win.” However, immediately after typing that sentence, I checked the historical records to see just how badly the adults have been beating the children. To my surprise, the data did not exactly support my argument. In matchups between an adult owner and a child owner (and yes, for purposes of this article, my ‘adult’ children still count as children), the adults were 17–13 last season and 29-23 all time. So, I guess the adults get to learn humility by losing to humans who don’t know what the save icon is supposed to be.

    The 2026 Draft Order

    Once again, we used the 100 Yard Rush website (100yardrush.com) to determine our draft order. This year they added a feature to allow your league to join remotely and watch live. The feature worked really well and made it an event that everyone could participate in rather than just waiting for me to post the results. I propose next season that each manager run a 100-yard dash for draft order and see how many people end up with pulled hammies.

    After the dust settled, the draft order looked like this:

    1 Cooper DeJawn
    2 Jawn-len Hurts
    3 Hail Mary Full of Grit
    4 McDarnold’s
    5 In St. Brown We Trust
    6 QdPi
    7 Goodell’s Circus
    8 Dart Side of the Moon
    9 Chuck-fil-A
    10 All Barkley, No Bite

    With The First Pick…

    In typical Philly Special League fashion, the draft started off with a surprising, if not questionable, choice as Cooper DeJawn selected Ja’Marr Chase. This is not a bad pick. This is potentially a great pick. ESPN has Chase ranked as the #1 WR on their PPR League Cheat Sheet and #3 overall on their PPR Top 300, and a healthy Burrow throwing him the ball could lead to a monster season. I’m just not sure how I feel about passing on Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson. Both RBs offer the kind of workload and talent that can anchor a fantasy team.

    Chase has the upside to justify this pick come playoff time, but a WR with the first overall pick needs to separate themselves from the elite RBs and QBs that historically dominate the consensus fantasy football #1 pick. The question on everyone’s minds this season will be: Did Cooper DeJawn just make the genius pick of the draft, or is this an early contender for Draft Bust of the Year?

    The rest of Round 1 went mostly like it should. We almost looked like a group of experts who knows what they are doing. Nobody drafted a QB! Is this even the same league?

    One last thing to note from Round 1 is the decision by In St. Brown We Trust to draft James Cook III with the fifth pick. I’m not saying this was a mistake or a bad pick. I just don’t understand the decision to not draft the man after whom your team is named.

    “I Need Another Quarterback!”

    Round 2 brought us back to reality as two QBs went in the second round. Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts were picked at 18 and 19 respectively. This was a big fall for them in this league as they were drafted 1 and 7 last season – in a first round that saw three QBs get drafted and another three QBs go in Round 2. Jawn-len Hurts will have to hope her QB can carry the team after using a Round 2 pick on the QB1. But much respect for drafting the player her team is named after – unlike some people.

    This season, every team drafted two QBs. Strike that. I should have said, this season, every team drafted at least two QBs. Two of our league managers, QdPi and Goodell’s Circus, decided to start their own QB sanctuaries. Using picks 26, 66, and 126 QdPi selected Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff, and Patrick Mahomes. That’s a lot of roster space used up by one position in a standard PPR league with only one starting QB. Meanwhile, Goodell’s Circus used picks 54, 134, and 154 to draft Jayden Daniels, Aaron Rodgers, and Baker Mayfield. When you look at these names and where they were drafted, it might be more accurate to say that QdPi is starting an elite QB sanctuary while Goodell’s Circus is opening a retirement community for elderly waiver wire QBs. On behalf of the rest of the league, we appreciate your efforts to provide good homes on your bench for QBs in need.

    My fellow league managers love their QBs (refer to my previous comment regarding six QBs being drafted in the first two rounds last season). This year, Jawn-len Hurts, McDarnold’s, Hail Mary, and QdPi drafted their second quarterbacks by the end of Round 8, while the rest of the league waited until Round 13 or later. Nine managers drafted their first QB before the end of Round 6… and then there was me. I was the last manager in the league to draft a QB1.

    I messed up. I waited too long. I got greedy with all the RBs and WRs left on the board (thanks to some interesting draft strategies) and thought I had another round to draft Trevor Lawrence as my QB1. But McDarnold’s swooped in and snagged Lawrence as his QB2. I was the last to draft a QB1 when I selected Jaxson Dart in Round 9. I had considered drafting only one QB this season, considering my waiver wire pickup last season of Trevor Lawrence that won me the Championship – in case any of you forgot. That changed when Lawrence went off the board. Because I had Tyler Shough on my draft board as a sleeper option, I decided to grab him with pick 133 in Round 14 so I wouldn’t have to fight the waiver wire if he blows up.

    My QB situation with Dart and Shough puts me firmly in boom or bust territory. The upside is there for both signal-callers but I may find myself in Draft Blunder of the Year contention if this doesn’t work out.

    How Many Tight Ends Do You Need?

    The TE position can be tricky when developing your draft strategy. You either have to spend a high draft pick for an elite player like Bowers or McBride or you wait it out for a lower-tier TE and hope for the best. Or you just draft all the TEs.

    In a standard 10-team PPR fantasy football league, you might see 12 to 15 TEs drafted. Figure each team drafts one TE to start and a few managers grab a backup or a high-upside sleeper at a good value. We drafted 19 TEs! Let me say that again for the people who started skimming this post and didn’t comprehend anything you’ve read for the last three paragraphs – we drafted 19 TEs! Apparently, QB hoarding wasn’t enough for some of you.

    QdPi got their elite TE in McBride with the 15th pick while All Barkley, No Bite got theirs in Bowers with the 30th pick. Pretty standard stuff. From here, at least one TE was drafted in every round until Round 12. Goodell’s Circus decided they only needed one TE to catch passes from their three QBs, joined by Dart Side, Hail Mary, and St. Brown as the only managers to draft a single TE. That means six teams drafted multiple TEs. If you think they all stopped at two, you would be mistaken. Remember, we drafted 19 TEs! Three managers decided that two TEs was simply not going to be enough.

    Jawn-len Hurts, Cooper DeJawn, and QdPi stacked up the TEs in this draft. Did you all see something in the NFL season script about TE injuries? Did playbooks get leaked showing increased TE usage in the passing game? Are you holding on to them for trade bait? Maybe, you just like saying the words Tight. End. Whatever the reason, that’s a lot of roster spots tied up in one position. Actually, two positions as Jawn-len and DeJawn have five roster spots each tied up by QBs and TEs.

    But QdPi is in a league of his own. Six roster spots are dedicated to his stacked QB and TE rooms! This manager could have drafted Lamar Jackson and Trey McBride and spent the rest of the draft building a roster of RBs and WRs. I call for QdPi to answer my interview questions because I must understand your strategy here!

    They Say Defense Wins Championships

    But does D/ST win championships in fantasy football? Hail Mary Full of Grit thinks so. This was showcased by her Special Teams Superteam! Hail Mary drafted not one, but two D/ST, and on top of that drafted two kickers!

    Typical draft strategy dictates waiting until the final two rounds to draft a defense and kicker in favor of building bench depth at the WR and RB positions. I have always followed this strategy – clearly it worked out for me last year. D/ST and K don’t put up enough fantasy points to justify drafting backups at these positions.

    That’s not to say a D/ST or K can’t make a difference or steal a win here and there. You need only look at week 1 of the 2024 season where I lost to Jacque’s Lion Den due largely to the 40 combined points put up by the Cowboys D/ST (19) and Brandon Aubrey (21) or week 11 of 2025 where a missed field goal by Borregales was the margin of victory for the Cheeseheads of Northern WI. Wait, why do all these examples involve me losing?

    Wrap Up

    So far, I love seeing the different draft strategies in this league. The positions upon which each manager places value are vastly different from team to team and that makes for an entertaining season! If I didn’t poke fun at your draft choices, then you probably have a pretty balanced team. Either that or you blundered so badly I couldn’t bring myself to write about it and you should never play fantasy football again. Have fun this season!

    Stay tuned for Part II of my Draft Analysis that will be released in a couple weeks.

    Here are some interview questions I asked my family after the draft if you would like to answer them yourselves:

    • What player did you want most in round 1?
    • What player did you want most in any other round?
    • What was your strategy entering this year’s draft without knowing your draft position ahead of time?
    • Which pick by another player messed up your strategy the most?
    • What would you have done differently if you could go back and change one pick?
    • How do you feel about your team?

  • 2025 Philly Special League – Week 1 Recap

    What is wrong with the wide receivers? So many disappointing week one performances!

                With week 1 of the NFL season in the books, fantasy managers everywhere are celebrating a win or agonizing over a tough loss. But there is little time to revel or dwell as owners must scour the waiver wire for that extra bit of help, stream a defense or kicker, or fill roster holes due to injury. Still others are looking for that potential trade partner who won’t shoot them down. If you are among the 1-0 teams out there, congratulations on starting the season strong. To everyone else I say, keep your wits about you and make good choices. This week, the Philly Special League saw two come from behind victories, one blowout, and a high-scoring matchup that wasn’t decided until the clock hit zero on Monday Night Football. I’m excited for this season!

                While the NFL started out with a bang (or a Hawk Tuah?) on Thursday between the Eagles and Cowboys, fantasy owners started out the week with some disappointment. Sure, Saquan did his thing for the Jawns, and Javonte Williams did even better – on the waiver wire in this league. Is that because we all have really good running backs or because everyone in this league hates the Cowboys? Maybe both, but I have a strict “No Dallas Cowboys players on my fantasy roster policy.” Even Goedert has a solid fantasy performance. But the disappointment I mentioned came from the wide receivers. You could argue that CeeDee Lamb had a good fantasy performance, eclipsing 100 yards and earning fantasy owners 18 points. But when you factor in the dropped passes that could have not only given him substantially more fantasy points, but could also have won the game for the Cowboys, this wasn’t a good day for the number 3 ranked fantasy WR. In fact, both Lamb and A.J. Brown combined for under 20 fantasy points and no touchdowns – a frustrating start for owners of these top-ten receivers.

                The WR struggles continued into Friday as Xavier Worthy left the game before recording a catch, leaving the Lion Den to stare at 0.0 until Sunday. And then Sunday brought more of the same. Chase with 4.6 and St. Brown with 8.5, two more receivers in the top ten both failed to reach 10 fantasy points. Until Jefferson scored on Monday night, Thomas Jr, was the only top-ten WR to score a touchdown – and it was a rushing TD – and he only totaled 9 fantasy points. Out of the top-20 ranked WRs, based on ESPN’s PPR League Cheat Sheet, there were only four TDs scored. Not a great way to start the fantasy season for some owners out there. The top four scoring WRs of week one had been ranked no higher than 24, with the lowest ranked at 83. That means a lot of points were left on the bench or on the waiver wire, both of which are frustrating for fantasy managers. Let’s take a look at our league matchups from this week.

    Uncle Cunningham vs Jacque’s Lion Den

                Uncle Cunningham had a great draft and what looked to be a solid team. His squad looked poised to take down the Lion Den in week one especially after Worthy’s early exit on Friday. Despite Chase’s lack of production, Uncle Cunningham saw solid performances from his QB, Jayden Daniels, RBs, FLEX, and TE, but not enough to match the initially very high projected score for his team. The Lion Den started off slow, with the first of her points coming from the afternoon contests. Nacua got this going with a nice performance as one of only two top-20 receivers to exceed 20 fantasy points, though he failed to score and CMC posted a solid 23.2 points while also staying healthy – that’s a win in and of itself! The four Lions players on her roster then seemed to stall any momentum by combining for 23.9 points, leaving Jacque in a 93.72 – 70.2 deficit going into Sunday Night Football. Well, we all know what happened here, right? Josh Allen did Josh Allen things, going off for 38.76 fantasy points and justifying the decision to draft him first overall (at least for this week) while Kincaid’s 14.8 added to the total, turning this into a blowout as Uncle Cunningham could only watch the Lion Den run up the score on their way to a week one victory.

    Cheeseheads of Northern WI vs OKC Krakhawkiners

                Cheeseheads of Northern WI faced off against the OKC Krakhawkiners. Their roster projections were evenly matched to start, but that quickly got thrown out the window as Cheeseheads jumped out to an early lead on Thursday thanks to Jalen Hurts, and the team never looked back. OKC’s WRs and FLEX only totaled 19.7 between them, while Cheeseheads only had two players in single digits, with Collins and Engram. But while even the Cheeseheads strong roster was not immune to the poor WR trend in week one, the consistent performances across the board, aided by 26 points from his defense and kicker, led Shawn to a victory that was never in doubt.

    FIITHY FLII FLIX vs Jawns

                FIIthy FLII FLIX faced off against Jawns in a matchup of the last placed finisher from 2024 against the unproven newcomer. This was another matchup that saw evenly matched rosters in the early projections, but Jawns jumped out to a big early lead on the strength of performances by Mahomes and Barkley. Sunday saw the matchup get close, with FFF trying to claw their way into it, and went into Sunday Night Football with Jawns leading 97.72-78.64. And then there was Derrick Henry. The same Derrick Henry who fell to round 3 of the draft proceeded to run all over Buffalo to give FFF 29.2 fantasy points and the lead while the Ravens defense set Jawns back seven points. Jawns’ Hockenson and Santos were no match for FFF’s Jefferson, and the come from behind win was secured on Monday night.

    Hurts Donut vs Juliano Joneses

    Our last matchup was a rematch of last year’s championship game between my Hurts Donut squad (named Fat Batman last season in honor of Jason Kelce) and the Juliano Joneses. Julian’s team sputtered from the start, giving him only 3.8 points between Brown and the Eagles defense to start the week. My offense started on Friday night with Hampton, who also stumbled out the gate with 8.1 points, leaving us with a pedestrian 8.1 – 12.8 total after Dicker gave the Joneses 9 points. Things heated up on Sunday. Murray, Robinson, Achane, and Bowers did what I had hoped and set me up with solid fantasy performances all around. Here is where I started to regret trading away Herbert for Murray before the first game as I looked at his 27.92 fantasy points sitting on the Jawns bench. I should also mention here a bad habit I have, which is leaving rookie talent on the bench. Last year, I drafted Worthy and left him on the bench week one. “Let’s see how he does,” I said and he scored 20.8 that week. This year, I drafted Egbuka and did the same thing. He scored 23.6 on my bench.

    Anyway, I felt better while watching the Joneses struggle with Harvey, Brown, and Higgins all staying in single-digits while LaPorta and Kyren Williams each put up 13.9. Even with St. Brown and Adams giving me only 8.5 and 9.1 points respectively, I was still sitting at 100.22 – 54.8 going into Sunday Night Football feeling pretty good. I should probably mention here that I had the Ravens kicker and Vikings defense remaining while the Joneses had none other than Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers… anyone else in this position this week? Then you know how I felt watching Julian’s score go up and up and up with each pass – with each QB run – with each catch. 57.46 points between Jackson and Flowers erased every bit of the score deficit and would have given him the lead if not for the 13 points scored by Loop.

    But it wasn’t over. I still had the Vikings defense to go and, as anyone who has played fantasy football knows (and how the Jawns knows just this week), your defense can give you negative points. Have any of you dropped or benched your defense in a situation like this?  I was holding on for dear life to a 113.22 – 112.26 lead – less than a point! The thought had crossed my mind but I dismissed it and let things play out on Monday Night. Normally I would not care that the Vikings defense could not stop the Bears, could not sack Caleb Williams, and could not tackle to save their lives. But I cared deeply this week. Every missed tackle. Every missed sack. Every yard and every point saw those initial 10 points given to my defense get whittled down further and further until I was sure I was going to lose. Then the Vikings scored, and their defense had new life. I relaxed a little until the Vikings took the lead, knowing that could lead to more points and yards as Chicago pushed to tie or win the game. In the end, I held on for a slim 117.22 – 112.26 victory. This was the highest scoring game of the week and the closest and I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting ending to the week.

    How did the week go from your perspective? What surprised you? What frustrated you?

    Go Birds!

  • 2025 Fantasy Draft Recap

    2025 Fantasy Draft Recap

    Six returning members and two newcomers look to start the 2025 fantasy football season off with a bang to capture the league championship. And it all starts with the draft.

    Another fantasy draft is in the books and another year where any mock draft you might run and any strategy you might have developed gets thrown right out the window. Last year’s draft surprised with CeeDee Lamb and Amon-Ra St. Brown going one-two with McCaffrey falling to number three.  In hindsight, this turned out to be a good decision, sorry Nick. Additionally, we didn’t see a QB drafted until the third round in 2024, and it was Jordan Love!? This broke the seal and was followed by Hurts, Mahomes, and Allen being drafted in the fourth round.

    Where 2024 saw rounds one and two dominated by RBs and WRs, 2025 was all about QBs in the Philly Special league.  Jacque’s Lion Den made a shocking decision to jump way down the draft board and use the number one overall pick on Josh Allen!  Round one also saw Jackson and Hurts go at six and seven overall followed by Burrow, Daniels, and Mahomes at 9, 14, and 15 – is it 2025 or 2023 up in here? More than any previous year of fantasy drafting, team owners showed why mock drafts are mostly a waste of time in this league as none of the top four QBs were drafted by anyone earlier than round four in ANY of the mock drafts I ran! And I ran a lot… too many, let’s just not talk about that anymore.  Early QBs continued into rounds five and six, where owners again jumped way down the draft board to get Goff, Nix, and Mayfield! Stroud and Murray went in eight and Mayfield in nine. In fact, by round eleven every team had drafted both a starting and backup QB before I drafted (got stuck with?) Herbert as my QB1.

    I wasn’t sure how to ride the chaos of this year’s draft as it was happening. I wasn’t sure what to do as my roster was looking nothing like any I had prepared before tonight! I certainly waited too long to draft a QB. But I felt better after getting the draft recap from ESPN:

    Good job by Uncle Cunningham on his first draft with the league. I know your dad didn’t help you or that might have brought your grade down! I can’t wait to see how far Hurts Donut and Uncle Cunningham can ride that stellar draft performance. Jawns, despite no preparation and not really knowing what was happening (think boomer with technology) turned in a respectable draft performance. Will we have a new last place finisher in the Philly Special League this year? The reigning (can’t believe I have to type this) back-to-back league champ put in a mediocre draft performance (I guess C is passing). Jacque’s Lion Den earned the lowest grade of the draft with some questionable picks. In all my years of playing fantasy football, I’ve never seen a team draft two defenses and two kickers. Even though the Lion Den beat my Fat Batman team last year in week one on the strength of 19 points by the Dallas D/ST and 21 points by Brandon Aubrey, two of each might be overkill.

    The decisions made in round one had significant impact on how the remainder of the draft fell out.  Allen, Jackson, and Hurts are going to need to put up consistently high numbers to justify the decision to draft them 3-4 rounds too early and those owners will have to hope for enough points from the rest of their position players after missing out on the skilled WRs and RBs they passed up.  Uncle Cunningham gave us back some normalcy by drafting Chase third overall. That’s not to say Jawns made a bad decision by drafting Barkley at number two, but I would have taken Chase over Barkley. In fact, I went into this draft knowing that one of the Eagles fans ahead of me was taking Saquon and I had no shot of getting him this year. Jefferson selected by FFF and Gibbs by OKC also were solid round one picks that I thought put us back on track.

    Then… Burrow?  Yes, Burrow was drafted to start round two. The next four picks of Lamb, Brown, and Jeanty tracked with expectations but I am still shocked that St. Brown fell to me in round two at pick 13. I had wondered who would take a chance on McCaffrey this year after he destroyed the Krakhawkiners season in 2024, sorry Nick. Will he help the Lion Den make it to the playoffs or will he make Jacque question all of her draft choices for the next five months? Time will tell.

    Rounds three and four – oh thank goodness no QBs drafted. I had planned on taking Bowers in round three, and even though there were other players ranked ahead of him, I chose to stick with my plan for stability at TE. Derrick Henry at pick 21 was a steal by FFF, making Jeanty and Henry a dangerous RB duo for his team. However, I can sleep well knowing we didn’t allow Henry and Barkley to go to the same team again this year. Way to ride them to a .500 record Cheeseheads!

    Rounds seven through ten saw more jumping down to grab up those QBs, while I decided to keep drafting WRs and RBs. I knew if I didn’t get one of the big four (Hurts, Daniels, Jackson, Allen) in round four, I was going to wait until at least rounds eight or nine, but by then all the QBs I had on my board were long gone. Round ten also saw the first kicker to be drafted – way too early, followed by two more in round 11. Then the Defense/Special Teams started going in round 12 – way too early. I don’t think Philly’s defense is going to be that good for anyone’s fantasy team, Juliano Joneses.

    Week one is going to show us a lot and has some fun matchups to start the season. In a rematch of the title game, Hurts Donut plays against their (my) playoff nemesis, the Juliano Joneses. Joneses have an edge at QB, big surprise, while I have the edge just about everywhere else. Newcomer FFF faces off against last year’s last place Jawns who look to rebound. Very close matchup on paper right now and too close to call. Cheeseheads clash with OKC, both looking to improve on last year’s disappointing finishes. Cheeseheads have the edge at QB and WR while OKC have the better RB room. Lastly, Lion Den will welcome our second expansion team to the league, Uncle Cunningham. Jacque’s Lion Den look to start off the season strong yet again but also hope to keep that momentum going through the playoffs after a disappointing exit last year while Uncle Cunningham look to make their presence known to the league after a successful first year draft.

    What is your preferred draft strategy? What would you have done differently?

    Welcome to the 2025 Philly Special League season!

    If I lose to Juliano Joneses in the playoffs again this year, I’m shutting down the league.