Don’t Look Back In Anger
AGS Fantasy Football 2023 Week 2.
By Nick M.W.
When you play fantasy football, it is only a matter of time before you experience the pain of regret or disappointment.
For some of us, that pain strikes early in the season; it ruptures like the weathered Achilles tendon of an aged quarterback who was simply trying to avoid a sack five minutes into his 80th season.
The pendulum can swing from joy to pain on a weekly basis in this game, and right now I’m feeling the pain of regret. It stings to watch guys you cut put up big points on some other team’s roster. It chafes at your pride, and that’s all we’re really playing really for, right? Winning money is a nice consolation to being the best at a difficult competition and lording that over your friends.
That brings us to Week 2 of the 2023 fantasy football season. Regrets? I have a few already, but I can’t look back in anger at the decisions I made that put me in a position where I’m forced to watch better options at (for example) the quarterback and tight end positions outperform dudes I chose to keep, with full confidence in those decisions, because I thought that these players would fucking matter. That’s just one part of this sticky equation. I opted for “quick maths” when I should have been studying calculus.
It's still early in the fantasy football season. Keep that in mind, folks. Put it into perspective. This advice is more for me than it is for you folks, but if you’re currently sitting at 0-2 or 1-1, don’t trip. There’s a lot of football left to play. If you’re 2-0, don’t get too cocksure either. In AGS last season (someone can check me on this), one team, Who’s Coming in 2nd?, started the season off hot. Team owner Joe Owumi might have been 4-0 through the first month, and then he proceeded to lose nine or ten games in a row. I was 1-1 a year ago, at this time, and I actually did worse before I got better. This isn’t last season, though. Plus, there aren’t many options out there on waivers in our league. Between the keepers and the rookie contracts, the free agent pool is thin enough. Waivers cut a fine slice of salami right off the tip of whatever snicklefritz is left. The only path I have to the playoffs is to hope that I get some of my key players back from injury, healthy and ready to rock (looking at you Cooper Kupp and Austin Ekeler). I’m also in the unfortunate position of hoping that the Bears remember their best running back is their quarterback. Let Fields run because he sure as hell can’t pass.
Thoughts and prayers go out to Nick Chubb and all the owners who had him rostered and were hoping to ride him to a playoff berth. Again, there’s still time for your dreams to come true, but losing one of the league’s premier running backs for the season hurts something fierce. I know you paid a heavy price for him in your re-draft league. Here in AGS, Mr. Chubb played for Penthouse PIMPS, and team owner Eric Doyle experienced the bittersweetness of a well-earned victory sprinkled with a little season-ending injury.
Sure, we expect injuries to affect us at some point in the fantasy football season, but we hope to get lucky enough to avoid them. Things seem different this season. You might even call it “exceptional.” There have been a lot of injuries so far to fantasy football stars, and we’re only two weeks in. I don’t like it, but this is a brutal sport, and I play in an unforgiving league. AGS. Any Given Sunday.
Welcome to the podcast.
Emmitt (aka Rudy’s Replacements) and Nick (aka Rebel Scum) acting far from professional at WBN Studio.
This week, Emmitt and I are finally in the studio together. We linked up on Sunday to chop it up immediately following the day games. It was a disappointing day for us, and we lamented our losses. Will things get better in Week 3? We hope so. Here’s to good health and good luck.
