Each year, one of my favorite fantasy football experiences is a big draft I do in my community with friends and neighbors. I share a team and, thus, share responsibility for the final drafted product. After evaluating our roster last year, my good friend had this succinct (and accurate) takeaway: We had a lot of busts. The question was: Why?
The answer? Obsessions are momentary but feel like certainty. Last year, I would have told you that the outside-zone scheme was finally going to topple and destroy the NFL. I bet big on Travis Etienne, Javonte Williams and AJ Dillon. Last year, because free-agency pickups cost $5 a move, it cost us a small fortune just to stay in the race.
I bring that up because when picking all 272 games in an entire NFL season, I, too, am just taking a snapshot of my momentary obsessions. I did this exercise in time for it to be printed in our football preview issue of the magazine, which means this was the result of early-summer intel. Since then, I have been a bit kinder to the Chargers (which I think could win the AFC West), the Jets (which I think could have the No. 1 defense in the league) and the Steelers (which I think may be better than the Ravens). That said, this is still a pretty representative summation of how I feel the league stacks up right now.
