The Weekly Bender: 72 Hours and Counting

Mon Sep 1 5:17pm ET
By HOWARD BENDER
Fantasy Writer

The clock is ticking and I cannot contain my enthusiasm for the start of the 2025 NFL season; the start of another fantasy football season. Do you feel it? I know you do. I just wrapped up another draft and here I sit, just 72 hours away from kickoff of the Eagles/Cowboys game on Thursday night. I have a lot to say about the last four months. I have a lot to do over the next three days. My head is spinning right now. I feel like a kid who’s been given a free toy store shopping spree, not knowing exactly where I want to start, so forgive some of the blatant stream of consciousness you’re about to read. It’s football season, baby! Put on your get-psyched mix and let’s get to it.

Some thoughts if you still have more drafts:

1. People get way too caught up in the hype.

I got an email from a guy who asked me a litany of draft questions surrounding players he wanted and where to take them in his draft. The list was right out of my Fantasy Tourism article. He wanted to draft TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Ricky Pearsall and Jacory “Call me Bill” Croskey-Merritt. Now I’m not going to sit here and run down these players and say they’re bad to draft.

Side Bar: If you look at Croskey Merrit’s stat line for rushing yards in the RT Sports Pick’Em games, that 31.5 is standing out like a turd in a punch bowl, isn’t it? What does Vegas know…?

But what kind of a fantasy player are you if your whole team is built on hype? Henderson’s outlook seems super-tasty for PPR-scoring formats, but I’ve seen people grabbing him in the third round lately. Egbuka can be great, but what happens when Chris Godwin comes back? That’s a little too much uncertainty for a fifth-rounder, don’t you think? Is Pearsall worth a pick that high as well? And don’t even get me started on the Quinshon Judkins nonsense. Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com said Judkins COULD be back with the Browns as early as this week. Not that he will be or that he is. Big difference. The Browns still haven’t handed him a rookie contract to sign and after they do, he still needs to practice with the team, get into game shape and learn the playbook. Stop pushing him up your draft boards.

If you are basing your draft plan on what these guys may have done in college or what the preseason hype machine is spitting out, are you building your team sensibly? I get that you want to swing for the fences and no one cares who finishes in second place, but do you also want to be out of contention in October?

2. Are we overlooking the value of Travis Hunter in IDP formats?

So, I did something a little off-the-wall in my draft last night. It is not necessarily a move I would suggest to people, but seeing as how I’m in far too many leagues and like to have fun in the home leagues I play, I took Hunter with the 1.01 in one of my IDP leagues. Truthfully, I did it for the shock value. I love this league, there’s always a world of smack-talk and because I’m the only one in the league with the job title of “fantasy analyst,” they’re always gunning for me. As a result, I like to mess with them and when I drew the first pick, they went nuts when I sent them this on Sunday morning.

But when you actually sit and think about it, it does make a little bit of sense. The weekly average points scored for a defensive back drafted in an IDP scoring league that counts points for tackles is roughly seven to eight. The weekly average points scored for a good (not great) wide receiver is 10 or 11. Combine the two and discount a little for Hunter playing in limited packages on defense and you’re still looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of what…? Maybe 13-14 points per game playing both ways? If you can put him in a DB spot on your roster and he accrues points as both a DB and a WR, you’re giving yourself an advantage even over the people who draft the top DB in the rankings. Certainly not a 1.01 move in drafts, but as a late-second/early-third? I’d consider it. Again, I did it at the 1.01 just to mess with my league, not something I would recommend doing unless you’re super confident you can beat them with or without the move.

3. You can have a top QB or a top TE but you can’t have both.

OK, you can, but I do not like any of the builds I’ve seen when someone does it. I’ve even tried in a few leagues as well. I’m just not happy with what sits in front of me at the end of the draft.

I have been a strong advocate for drafting a top quarterback early. Give me all the Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts you can give me. The rushing upside is huge and they are all leading high-scoring offenses. Even though I like other mobile quarterbacks like Bo Nix, Kyler Murray and Drake Maye, my preference is the elite. But when you make a move like that, which usually comes in the third or fourth round, there is always a position to sacrifice. For me, that position is the tight end.

Take any draft board and look at how many running backs and wide receivers come off the board in the first five rounds. Among those 60 picks, you’ve got four or five quarterbacks, two or three tight ends and the rest are running backs and wide receivers. We know there is a distinct advantage to taking the QB early, but is there that much of an advantage, taking Brock Bowers, Trey McBride or George Kittle that early? Maybe if they’re putting up career numbers, but let’s go ask the “Sam LaPorta in the second round” crew from last year.

Guys like Evan Engram and David Njoku are both viable options after the sixth round and each of them could put up numbers close enough to narrow the gap between the first and second tier at the position. Your wide receivers and running backs are your fantasy bread and butter. Don’t starve yourself.

Some thoughts if you are done drafting:

4. Tidy up those rosters

Waivers are going to run this week and if you drafted early, you probably have a fair amount of clean-up to do. We’ve seen layers get cut, we’ve seen players get traded and we’ve seen players land on injured reserve. We’ve also seen a number of position battles reach their final point and starters have been declared. Spend your time reading the news and adjusting your roster accordingly.

That’s not to say you should start spinning the revolving door on your roster and start adding and dropping guys because you have nothing else to do. That would be a HUGE mistake. But sensibly adjusting your roster to remove injured guys or guys who won’t see a decent snap-share is important to start the season. Just remember – there are reasons some guys were never drafted. Don’t believe they suddenly developed value over the past few days since you drafted. Be smart about it.

5. Seek out contest overlays if you have time to sneak in more drafts

Go to the Fantasy Football Money Leagues page and see which contests haven’t filled. The Fantasy Life Championship is only at 90 percent and the Best Ball Championship is at 93 percent. But there’s also the Fantasy Championship Best Ball, which is only at 73 percent full. These prizes are guaranteed, so fewer people in them increases your chances of winning. I have spent the past two weeks seeking out overlays across the industry, so if you’ve got some cash burning a hole in your pocket, get in while you can!

6. Set up your DFS & Pick’Em bankrolls and budgets for the season

Once the season gets underway, we’re going to have some much fun researching each and every weekly match-up as we look to set up our fantasy lineups. If you aren’t using weekly stat lines (a.k.a. props) as part of your research, you might be missing the boat. The information available is extremely valuable and if you don’t think so, scroll back up to my Croskey-Merritt sidebar and ask yourself why the numbers look so low. Whether you like to purport yourself as a “gambler” or not, these contests present a fantastic opportunity to earn some extra cash while you wait for all those best ball and season-long tournaments to wrap up.

Just please be responsible. Set yourself up a budget for the entire NFL season and play within your means. Never play for more than you can afford and if you find yourself perpetually on the losing side, stop immediately. These contests are supposed to be enjoyable. I get it that there are professional gamblers out there and I get that everyone wants to get rich quickly by hitting a big-money parlay, but it really doesn’t work that way. Play smart and play responsibly.

I’ll be submitting another article closer to Sunday’s games to get you fired up and on your way.

In the meantime…

Bender out!

The Weekly Bender: 72 Hours and Counting

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