After every fantasy football season, evaluating what went right and wrong is essential. Sometimes, we learn new lessons. Other times, we see a historic season and must diagnose whether that is a new norm or an anomaly. Here are three lessons we learned from the 2023 fantasy football season.
Fantasy Football Lesson #1: Pay Attention To Play-Callers
Who calls the plays matters. Everyone was down on the Rams going into the year. We forget that Sean McVay has been one of the best play-callers in the last half-decade. There were questions, but we should trust that McVay will make it work. If there is a lot of change on the team, there could be questions, but when the players are mostly the same, the fantasy football floor is high.
On the flip side, bad play-callers don’t change their stripes. Many analysts, including myself, uttered, “The Falcons took Bijan Robinson in the top ten. There’s no way Arthur Smith ignores him.” We ignored the list of top picks that Smith has ignored in the past. Robinson was no different. Instead of drafting good players, draft players who have good play-callers behind them.
Fantasy Football Lesson #2: Dual-Threat QBs Are King
Draft a dual-threat quarterback at all costs. Of the top ten fantasy quarterbacks, only Jared Goff rushed for less than 140 yards. Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts dominated the sport yet again. Their ability to get rushing and passing touchdowns makes them more valuable than other quarterbacks. Even if the quarterback isn’t known for his running ability, the threat can still pay dividends throughout the season.
The knock on dual-threat quarterbacks in fantasy football is they are more injury-prone (more on that later). However, this season, traditional pocket passers like Kirk Cousins, Joe Burrow, and Aaron Rodgers all suffer season-ending injuries. At the same time, Lamar Jackson, Allen, and Hurts all had relatively healthy seasons. You are missing out on value if you are steering clear of a dual-threat quarterback because of injury concerns.
Fantasy Football Lesson #3: We Aren’t Doctors
This leads me to a huge lesson we learned in fantasy football this year. Take the phrase “injury-prone” out of your vocabulary for your 2024 fantasy football season. You aren’t a doctor. Football is a violent sport with lots of variables. Christian McCaffrey was passed on in many leagues because of his injury concerns. I personally got him eighth overall in a league because others were scared he would be injured. Guess who made the finals in that league?
Justin Jefferson has never missed a game and got injured this season at the wide receiver position. All players are at an injury risk. Context matters. Players like Christian Watson, who has struggled with the same injury over the course of his young career, should be considered. Players coming off a devastating injury also should be given a closer look. For the most part, however, passing on a player because he is “injury-prone” is a great way to give your opponents good players at cheap costs.
Those are the biggest lessons we learned in fantasy football in 2023. Make sure you remember these when the 2024 fantasy football season rolls around.
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Matt has been following sports since he was a kid. While football is his primary focus, Matt can talk about any sport anytime. He is a banker in Wisconsin and hosts two podcasts, Beers and Ears & Discontinued on Display.
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