Y'all... I'm back. I'm sorry for dipping out of the article game early. 12 Weekly Roundup articles in total... as the year wrapped up I just hit a wall. Not an excuse, just a fact. Now that the 2020 fantasy football season is over (or at least it should be because week 17 championships are lunacy), I want to conclude my 2020 Roundup series by reflecting on my experiences this year in the fantasy football space.
My leagues
My Takes
Our 'brand'
I feel that these three categories were the driving forces in the creation and development of A-Z Fantasy Football throughout the year.
My Leagues
In 2020 I played in 13 leagues (6 dynasty, 7 redraft) in total across 3 different platforms (Sleeper, ESPN & Yahoo). This is the most leagues I have ever been a part of by far. I did struggle to stay on top of all of the leagues, remembering to check all three apps for waivers and lineup changes was just hard for me to do. That being said, I did manage to make the playoffs in 8 out of my 13 leagues (61.5%). I secured one first round bye (11-2 regular season record), and advanced to a total of 6 semi-finals out of my 8 playoff appearances (75%). In true 2020 fashion, I lost 5 out of 6 semi-finals matchups, advancing to just 1 fantasy championship (16%). I was able to capitalize on my one and only shot at a fantasy championship in one of my 'top priority' leagues, the goonies, a dynasty league that I run made up of family and friends. Shoutout to Alvin Kamara.... 59.65 points really helped me out (100% stud).
Photo: ibtimes.com
Pros
Playing in 13 leagues was a lot of fun because most of the leagues were made up of some amazing folks I met on Fantasy Twitter throughout the year. I felt honored to be able to partake in so many leagues with people that I had just met over a common interest, fantasy football.
These leagues were very competitive because the folks in these leagues knew their stuff! It was a fun challenge participating in leagues full of people who take this game just as seriously as I do. All of these experiences will help me grow as a fantasy football player & a content creator.
Cons
Trying to manage 13 leagues, 2 Twitter accounts, a weekly podcast & a weekly article, all in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was TOUGH. This was not only my first year playing in more than 10 leagues, it was also my first year trying to make a name for myself and our brand in the fantasy football space. Turns out, that takes a LOT of work.
I call this a 'con' simply because it was hard to keep up with. I have 0 regrets about the amount of leagues I was in, I am thankful for the friendships that were forged as a result of those leagues! That being said, I do want to make sure that moving forward I do not overwhelm myself with too many leagues. I know some of you might say "pshhhh 13 leagues is nothing!", and that's dope. I just know myself and I know that for me, there is such a thing as 'too many leagues'. That being said, I am already plotting an offseason dynasty startup in early 2021... so who knows what 2021's league count will be.
Lessons Learned
My biggest take-away heading into the 2021 season will be to mock draft from various draft slots early and often. Being in multiple startup leagues (both redraft and dynasty), you will most likely be drafting from different draft slots than you might like or be used to. I tend to prefer drafting on the turn (first 3 or last 3 picks each round), but I found myself smack dab in the middle where I was not comfortable drafting because I simply did not practice drafting from the middle draft slots. This led to some poor panic picks that put me in tough spots right out of the gate.
Wrap Up
All-in-all, the 2020 fantasy season was great. I can call myself a fantasy football champion, even if it was just in one league. It's a hard thing to accomplish! If you also won your league(s), congratulations!! Be proud of that, but just know that in 2021 the target is on your back. I'm excited to dive into the 2021 prep so I can work towards multiple fantasy championships in 2021.
My Content
I hesitate to call myself an 'analyst'. If anything, I am an enthusiast with aspirations of being an analyst when I grow up. One of my biggest points of emphasis heading into 2021 will be to learn to better utilize statistics AND film when building out takes and/or offering advice.
As most enthusiasts & analysts would tell you, there is PLENTY I got wrong this year. Starts of the Week that played like Sits of the Week (Miles Sanders for 3 weeks in a row), guys I really believed in that didn't do a DAMN thing all year (I still believe in Bryan Edwards), players I just flat out ignored or wrote off that ended up being studs (Mike Davis).
One of my favorite flubs of the year was telling my friend Shea to grab Bryan Edwards off of waivers over James Robinson heading into week 1... Shea went with James Robinson because Shea knows how to make his own decisions and not "monkey see, monkey do" whatever an online (insert player name here) truther says he should do. Moral of the story:
Yes, I want to give you advice
More importantly, I want to earn trust to give advice
I will still be wrong, because if I was always right I would be rich AF
While there were plenty of misses, I did have my fair share of hits this year. Sadly, the misses blur my memory, and I'm not really one for victory laps.. that being said, we are going to do a podcast this week highlighting some of Al & I's best and worst calls of 2020. Check out the podcast here: https://linktr.ee/AtoZffb
Wrap Up
I started @AtoZffb in April. Prior to that, I had virtually 0 idea what I was doing (you could argue that I still don't lol). I had never done actual research of any kind pertaining to fantasy football, I had never built projections, I have never created player rankings beyond a top 12 per position, I had never written an article & I had never recorded a podcast.
In 8 months, I began researching to bolster my fantasy football knowledge, I applied that knowledge to a player projections template (provided by @KyleYNFL), I utilized those projections to create my own, informed, player rankings at each position, I published articles backing up my research & we recorded 29 (soon to be 30) episodes of the A-Z Fantasy Football Podcast, which garnered over 1,000 total streams throughout the season. I am proud of this work. I am proud of Alex for embarking on this venture with me. I am proud of the hits & I am proud of the misses because dammit I know I at least tried to help lead people to fantasy football titles in 2020.
Our Brand
A-Z FFB is not a new idea to us. I have had that name picked out for 2 years now, it's a play on both of our names, (A)lex & (Z)ack. The missing piece was just the willingness to take a leap and make this thing happen. Enter 2020, as shitty as it was, there are some major personal wins to be celebrated. I have been working from home since March, and back in April I decided that there was no time like the present to take the idea that was A-Z Fantasy Football and make it a reality. As I mentioned above, there was a LOT of things I had to learn in a short period of time, but I genuinely looked forward to the challenge.
One of the biggest struggles Al & I ran into was finding our own voice in a CROWDED space. I went back and forth for years wrestling with the idea that I would have nothing new/nothing of value to add to the fantasy football space. That mental hurdle prevented me from doing something that I knew I wanted to do, but did not have the confidence in myself to pull the trigger on. 8 months after finally pulling the preverbal trigger, I am glad I took the chance, and I am glad Alex was game to take this on with me.
If I could describe our brand in a word, it would be authentic. Alex and I have been friends for 8 years, and the dudes that you hear on the podcast, that is exactly who we are in real life. I truly believe that Alex & I have cultivated something that is our own in this community. As it is with anything new, it started out choppy. We got off topic, we rambled, we didn't really have a 'unique' segment that set us apart from other shows. We still stray from the topic at hand, I still stutter and mumble from time to time, but there is very obvious growth that occurred from episode 1.01 to episode 29. One of my favorite segments we devised & introduced in week 7 was our awards segment inspired by our favorite show, Psych. If you have caught the podcast throughout the year, you are already familiar with this segment, and you know we have a lot of fun with this, we hope you do as well!
I won't speak for Alex right now, so MY goal with this platform is to be unapologetically authentic. In my Tweets, my articles & in the pod... My humor is dry, I tend to be monotone, I don't 'stick to sports', I stutter, I swear, I mess up often, but damn do I have a lot of fun. I want to continue to grow as a communicator, a content creator, a football fan, and a fantasy football player. I want to do all of these things while going against the grain of my mega-introverted personality, because so far it has been worth every second.
It took me a long time to be okay with being myself rather than trying to 'invent' a character that would be more appealing to the public eye, while also shielding me from any criticism that I may face down the road. I have largely avoided 'the haters' as they say, but I know they will show up eventually. BUT, by being myself, I have met some fantastic people over the past year. I know that when the haters show up there are people in this community that will have my back. That is a truly wonderful feeling. I hope to continue acquiring knowledge and delivering content as authentically as I can, because the one thing that nobody else can do better than me, is be me.
Wrap Up
A-Z Fantasy Football is here, and it is here to stay. The last 8 months have been packed full of many 'firsts'. We will both tell you that we really don't know what we are doing, but I know for a fact that we can both confidently say that we belong in this space, and we are proud to share this space with so many other amazing people.
The genesis of A-Z FFB has led to the creation of M|W Media. The main objective with M|W Media is leverage a media platform as a way to create other content. My Twitter bio has had "Mostly Sports" included in it for months now, this simply means that I enjoy talking about things beyond fantasy football. Enter our newest podcast, Maplewood Happy Hour (MWHH). This will be a sports centered podcast that also delves into our other interests & hobbies, as well as our friendship. If you have enjoyed our content, please consider subscribing to/following Maplewood Happy Hour. We will be dropping an episode weekly, starting in a couple weeks and continuing through the NFL offseason.
2020: In Conclusion
First off, I want to say thank you to my fiancé, Casie. She has been nothing but supportive to both me and Alex throughout this entire journey. Every time I had to leave her house early to record a podcast, or when I was going to be late for dinner because I had to finish some research for an article... she never complained and was always so understanding. Without her support, A-Z FFB would not exist.
Secondly, I want to say thank you to each and every one of you who has followed us or engaged with our content in any medium this season. This has been a challenging year in so many ways. I know we have all been impacted in one way or another and have likely struggled at some point this year. My hope is that somewhere along the way you have been able to celebrate even the smallest of victories. I probably speak for most of you when I say 2020 was the craziest year of my life. Looking back, I could have never imagined that starting a fantasy football venture would have resulted legitimate friendships being forged along with so many moments of joy and gratitude in a year that repeatedly tried to knock us all down.
As Season 1 of the A-Z Fantasy Football Podcast comes to a close, thanks again for everything. We are going to take a much needed break from fantasy football content for a bit. I hope that our content has been enjoyable, but more importantly, I hope it has been useful in helping you win games this year. Our podcasting game will be shifting gears for now, but I will be continuing to do research for the upcoming year of fantasy football, and we may even drop an occasional episode or two throughout the offseason. Season 2 of the A-Z FFB Pod will be back in full swing next summer.
Until then, be sure to tune in to Season 1 of Maplewood Happy Hour, where we will be sure to keep you up to date with all things related to the NFL and the NFL draft while also having a ton of other fun conversations throughout the offseason.
Thank you for the support this year, it has meant more than you know!
Zack Housholder