FFAC Precap: The 2021 Variant
We thought!
2021 will be different.
We thought!
Football will return to football.
We thought!
Stefan will be good at this.
We thought. And it’s complicated. G̶o̶o̶d̶ ole ‘rona is still around with it’s very own Loki style variant. But for a few moments this summer things were feeling back to normal, so that was nice. All is not lost, however! A lil wombo combo of a simple face mask and your Fauci Ouchy, and you’re set to roll. We even saw the return of an in person live draft! We certainly missed some of you, but we made it work.
So things are a little different from last year, but kind of the same? The NFL is taking a pretty hard stance on player vaccination, so we’ll see how that impacts the players on your teams this year. The good news is that we seem to be peaking as far as variant cases at the top of the season so I do believe things settle down a bit more as the season progresses. Still, the biggest change this year isn’t even the new COVID protocols, we have a whole extra week of regular season football. 17(!) games this year, with one fewer preseason game. Not that it helped prevent injuries, some really dumb ones have hurt the league already. Oh, and yours truly made a bigly ouchy by drafting an already out for the season Cam Akers.
That’s right, Mr. Big Shot Commissioner (that’s what y’all call me, right?) had one of the dumbest draft picks this league has ever seen. Shiv isn’t with us anymore but he had some bad ones, leave me alone. Or not, I deserve all the smoke. Don’t laugh too hard, though, because the football gods are cruel as Stefan recently found out with the JK Dobbins injury.
We did lose Kelly this year, riperino, but regained one Spencer, who had a very low key draft and we cannot permit him to just drop his entire team in protest when he fails to make the playoffs or gets disqualified. Keep an eye on that man. Still! The season is here, and it’s time to play football. Hit that ball real far, that’s the right sport!
Welcome to the 2021 FFAC Season!
Through some uncertainty last season, Ryan prevailed and became a first time FFAC Champion. According to Stefan, he’s become insufferable, but all Champions should be. But the past is the past, Ryan, and we’re coming for dat ass.
High hopes for many a rookie QB this season, along with hopes that they make their teammates fantasy relevant, so we’ll see if Fields, Lawrence, and Jones pay off eventually for Jay, Adam, and Zach respectfully.
Enough with the pitter patter, let’s get to what you’re here for, my always totally accurate preseason awards!
Comeback Player of the Year
Fireball
It was not a good year for one Jason Reynoso last season, but based on his track record in this league, I’m going to chalk that up to an anomaly. Or maybe a curse? Who knows, but I’m relatively confident, and I imagine he is as well, that Fireball (who hasn’t consumed fireball in like 3 years during a draft I think) will bounce back for a playoff run. No pressure.
Worst Team
Stefan
This cannot be a surprise, Stefan. We all pretty much hated a lot of your draft picks, and not in the good “damn I was going to draft that guy” way. Seems like we may not have been that far off, either, because you’re currently projected for the fewest points from all complete lineups heading into Week 1. I won’t dunk on you too hard, though, you tend to be our league punching bag but still manage to turn it around, kind of. Sometimes. Hey, good luck!
Silent but Deadly
MJ
It’s usually MJ, right? Father duties (btw I know your son was helping with your draft, don’t lie), Florida man, the Excel legend himself. Someone gonna tell him he needs to set his lineup before Thursday’s opener? Either way, somehow I know it’ll happen without much of a peep, but so far seems to FINALLY avoid the injury bug heading into Week 1, so I’d keep an eye out for this man as he shoots for back to back playoff appearances.
Champion
Spencer
You know, for someone who was extremely worried about drafting the all 2016 team before the draft, his team is not bad and he might have the deepest bench in the league. I think the low confidence is a misdirection and the soon to be married man might surprise us this year in his first year back (last appeared in 2017, a playoff year for him). But who knows, wedding duties heading into November might keep him distracted enough, so consider the curse placed. Ask Shelby, it works.
Well, I’m not going to award something to EVERYONE, so Ben, Ryan, Shelby, Zach, Cody, Jay, & Adam, let’s get to work this season.
Week 1 Preview
It’s show time, baby, and while MJ nor Cody have a set lineup (and Fireball is missing a K, again), here are the spreads and my predictions heading into the opening week:
Zach (-116.28) v MJ
Adam (-5.75) v Ben
Fireball (-113.95) v Cody
Jay (-.34) v Shelby
Stefan (+13.85) v Spencer
Danny (-3.8) v Ryan
Week 1’s match of the week is Jay v Shelby, in which I’m taking Shelby (the matchups just are much more favorable). Rolling with Zach, Ben, Cody, Spencer, and myself the rest of the way.
As the football legends say, PLAY BALL
-Danny “AKA Mr WorldWideWeb AKA Commish & Destroy AKA Draft Day King” M
