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When Pete threw the idea out there for a heartwarming piece to mark a special occasion on the calendar, I thought I’d jump in with my thoughts. As an Englishman, just trying to make his way in the fantasy world, I will be spending my thanksgiving at work, giving my time to ‘the man’, while my American brethren spend time with their nearest and dearest. However with the Vikings @ Lions kicking off at 5.30 pm UK time, I don’t have to miss any of the football action, though staying up until 4 am for the end of the Giants @ Washington game might be a little much.
Aside of all that, I have a few thoughts as to what makes me thankful this fantasy season.
Carson Wentz & Adam Thielen
These two players are the saviors of one of my dynasty league seasons this year. Its a third year league and I’ve suffered from the original draft where I took Andrew Luck and Calvin Johnson back to back with the 10th and 11th picks. I picked up Wentz late in the 2016 rookie draft and Thielen off waivers towards the end of last season as he started to emerge in Minnesota. Wentz has started all his available games for me in 2017 and currently second in QB scoring (per ESPN fantasy scoring). Thielen himself is the third highest scoring fantasy receiver this year, and in is line for Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors, averaging 16.9 fantasy points per game. I’m 5-6 in that league, but currently riding a 3 game win streak and only a game out of the fantasy playoffs. I’ll be riding these two the rest of the way.
Playing the Waiver Wire
Everyone knows the fantasy draft is only the beginning in most leagues, and that trades and waiver wire pick ups are the difference between making the playoffs and winning your league. Scouring the waiver wire each week for that diamond in the rough about to break out, or for the guy to slot in my lineup to help out when your star players are on a bye is what I live for in fantasy. Tarik Cohen was my early season darling, followed by Jerick McKinnon, Alex Collins, Chris Thompson (!) and Robert Woods (!). This week I’m all in on Dion Lewis and Danny Woodhead and will continue to look for that value as i reset my lineups from Thanksgiving through to Sunday’s games.
Fake Teams
My final thing to be thankful for (sycophant alert), is the team at faketeams.com as they have given me the opportunity to take my geeky stats analysis, add a fantasy spin and share it all with the great readers at the site. Its only been a few weeks but its been great fun to do and there’s so much more to come from me over the rest of this season and beyond (fantasy war ratings anyone?).
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone