The Joe Quarterback Podcast

Fantasy football…equal parts strategy, research, gut instinct, and dumb luck. I love it; and, I hate it. This year, I might have gone overboard. As in everyone rolls their eyes at you overboard. As in Michael Buble, eight leagues overboard (still probably my favorite interview ever on the Rich Eisen show). There were exciting weeks, there were frustrating weeks. But through it all, it connected me to the game in a fun way, and created some space for some good-natured trash talking along the way.

So, here we are, the good, the bad, the ugly in reverse order…

The Ugly

• The Family League (Yahoo!) – From the jump, this was a rough one this year. It was the third year of a league I had made the playoffs in the first two years. A first round pick on Justin Jefferson was, in hindsight, a bust. I finished the year 4-12 in dead last place. You win some, you lose some…
• The Work League (Sleeper, Commissioner) – This was a crazy league this year (more details over here). We ran two conferences and an offline championship. I wrapped the season in 6th place at 6-8, but ultimately finished last place in the consolation bracket. This was another league where J-Jettas was a late first round pick. Detecting a theme much? At least getting Puka on the turn in round 2 kept me from completely imploding.
• The Megalabowl presented by the Fantasy Footballers (Sleeper) – This was my first exposure to median scoring (an interesting twist) and being in a 12-team league (where all teams are playing in the same pool). I’d do it again, but a 12-22 finish was nothing to write home about. My Burrow/Higgins stack got blown up early on, Bucky got injured then was never the same, and Jameson Williams just never consistently lived up to the hype.

The Bad

• The Gridiron Gauntlet 1 (ESPN) – My first entry to ESPN’s new national competition. Similar to the family league, I just had a hard time stringing together wins in this one. BTJ wasn’t living up to the 2024 campaign, Chase Brown struggled during Burrow’s absence, and CeeDee and Garrett Wilson both spent some time on IR. I made a little run at the end of the season to finish 7-6, but just missed the playoffs. Ended up in 6th place through the consolation bracket. 

The Good

• Keepin’ It Clean Dynasty League (Sleeper, Commissioner) – In the first year of this dynasty league, I got bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Year 2 saw me finish as the #1 overall seed with a 10-4 record and a first round bye. This one was wrapped by the time Sunday Night Football was done, fueled by a dominant performance by Derrick Henry (his name is going to come up again…). I’m actually handing over the reins of this league and exiting to pursue a new format (ever heard of a contract league?), so going out on top was nice. And it was a good group of dudes. Championship #1
• The Gridiron Gauntlet 2 (ESPN) – My second entry into ESPN’s Royal Rumble of fantasy football started with the #1 overall pick in the draft. My first five picks were Bijan, Josh Allen, King Henry, M1K3, and Kittle. In a later round, I picked up Tucker Kraft who helped fill some gaps while Kittle was out until his season-ending injury. I squeaked into the playoffs as the 4th seed due to the up-and-down years Henry and Allen had. ESPN does two week rounds for the playoffs and my guys hit some hot streaks to finish the year. Championship #2.
• The Gridiron Gauntlet 3 (ESPN) – Yes, I had three, because ESPN said I could. And, I managed to pull the ping pong ball for the #1 overall pick again. This time, I went Bijan, King Henry, Josh Allen, Kittle, and Evans (because I had to switch it up a little bit). I also drafted Jake Ferguson in a later which, again, helped keep me afloat until Kittle came back. I rolled through this league finishing 11-2, the #1 overall seed, and I amassed over 316 points in the championship round. Championship #3. (As a side note, this team was ranked 3,726th in the national competition, scoring a total of 615.38 points. At the time of this post, ESPN had not released the total number of entries, but it was at least 34,986 based on the final ranking of my second entry. For comparison, the #1 overall team in the contest scored 730.6 points.)
• The Forge Keeper League (Sleeper, Commissioner) – If my wife came to me and said “Honey, it’s too much. You can play in one fantasy football league” – this is the one I would pick. It’s a bunch of guys I go to church with, we have a sweet traveling trophy, and it’s one more way to connect with some encouraging brothers. This one was an uphill battle the entire playoffs. Finishing the regular season at 8-6 and entering the playoffs as the fourth seed, I won the first round by a little over a point. I went into Monday Football in good shape on the round 2 projection, and then George Kittle started going off on the Colts before leaving with an injury (I’m fairly convinced that I lose that round if Kittle doesn’t go out of the game). In the finals, my opponent had tough performances from James Cook and Jahmyr Gibbs while my team was bolstered by Rhamondre Stevenson in my FLEX, and rookie RB Omarion Hampton outperforming his projection. In the end it came down to MNF: my QB, Matthew Stafford, vs. his TE, Colby Parkinson, and less than a 10-point lead. Stafford kept me on my toes the entire game (3 INTs, some borderline fumbles, TD called back), but it locked in after the late touchdown. Championship #4.

I entered the season with four fantasy championships under my belt. So, to match my lifetime fantasy championship record in a single season? I’d say it was a good year. Next year, I will cut back (even I’m willing to admit that 8 was too many). And, if things go well with the podcast…maybe a listener league? We’ll see…