😞 The Injury Gods Strike Again

Last weekend without NFL football until February…

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by Paramount +:

A trio of injury updates shook up the fantasy world on Thursday, reminding everyone that under no circumstances should anyone EVER do a fantasy football draft before Christmas.

🐏 Rams WR Cooper Kupp (hamstring) suffers setback

The news comes straight from Rams Head Coach Sean McVay, who added that Kupp is considered day-to-day.

The strain was originally considered mild when diagnosed four weeks ago; now it seems to be anyone’s guess as to when the back-to-back WR1 in PPR points per game will be back on the field.

Shocker: This is objectively terrible news for anyone who already drafted Kupp.

Crying and then picking No. 2 WR Van Jefferson off the waiver wire seems like the best strategy in the near term. Meanwhile, the long-term hope is that the 30-year-old receiver will rebound from this “little muscle strain” enough to not spend too much time on the sideline.

While Kupp was an ideal first-round pick before this flair-up, drafters need to pivot in the early stages of Round 1 at this point. Kupp deserves to drop down to the WR1 borderline and past upside RB1 types like Tony Pollard and Saquon Barkley.

His best-case upside at full health keeps the veteran inside the overall top-24 picks; just realize there’s a newfound SCARY floor here with the Rams already lacking offensive depth across the board.

🐬 Dolphins RB Jeff Wilson (midsection/finger) lands on IR

It seemed like just yesterday that zero-RB drafters were thrilled to have heavy Wilson exposure after the rumored Jonathan Taylor trade fell through.

Wait, that literally was just yesterday.

Now, Wilson will miss at least the first four games of the 2023 season. Although Head Coach Mike McDaniel said he “won’t be surprised” if the 27-year-old RB returns this season.

While Wilson has been out of practice for quite some time, fantasy managers shouldn’t beat themselves up too badly: McDaniel’s lack of concern in addressing the issue with the media would make Pete Carroll blush.

The quick fantasy ramifications:

• Raheem Mostert suddenly profiles as the lead early-down back with the potential to assume an early-season workhorse role. He’s in play as a Round 9-10 upside RB3 alongside guys like Samaje Perine and AJ Dillon.

• Devon Achane (shoulder) is expected to be back in action “sooner rather than later”, although his path to a fantasy-viable role has certainly been cleared up — particularly on passing downs where Wilson usually worked ahead of Mostert last season. The rookie is a value at his current RB4 valuation and should be drafted with confidence alongside fellow No. 2 options like Jamaal Williams and Jerick McKinnon.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Dolphins added more to their RB room than just Darrynton Evans. But for now, Mostert and (to a lesser extent) Achane profile as arguably the two biggest winners at the position from August’s flood of bad news.

Let’s wrap things up on a slightly more positive note…

💰 Vikings TE T.J. Hockenson signs record-breaking contract extension

It turns out that throwing bags of cash at someone has a way of curing ear infections and lower back pain. What a concept!

ESPN’s Adam Schefter has indeed confirmed these issues “feel much better today”, making Hockenson a more-than-viable mid-round pick as a consensus top-five option at the position.

It’s fair to still prefer Mark Andrews and Darren Waller straight up (I do), but all three are certainly in the same tier, and Hockenson offers big-time upside after posting a 17-game target pace of 146.2 during his time with the Vikings last season.

This mostly sad day in fantasy football land hurts — but rest assured, the Fantasy Life staff will continue to watch the film and get better. MOVING ON.

Each week, Cooterdoodle will be breaking down all the pain and punishment that transpires in our very own BWW Punishment Eliminator League. 18 will enter, but 17 will leave with their tails between their legs as they are forced to face a season-ending punishment.

🏆 BWW Punishment Eliminator League

Got a minute to squeeze in just one more draft? Because we do.

All of us at Fantasy Life have got the time. But if we’re going to squeeze in one last league, it needs to be something different. So we’ve been cookin’ — here’s what we’ve come up with!

😈 Punish Them

Did you really think we would build a punishment generator and not find a way to play with it ourselves?

Ohhhh baby, we’re about to put our team through the wringer with a season-long punishment challenge.

I hope you’re ready.

😵 Eliminate Them

Over the course of the 2023 NFL season, our writers and staff will be battling it out in a punishment-centered best ball league. An ELIMINATION best ball league, to be exact.

You know, one of those “everyone fends for themselves” and “only one makes it out alive” type deals. Look… I didn’t say it was a good deal.

Us every week:

🔨 Build It

Any great league needs some clearly defined parameters. It’s important to set the foundation before the storm.

League specifics:

• Teams: 18

• Scoring: PPR

• Format: Best Ball

• Eliminations: 1 team, Weekly

• Punishments: Oh yeah, baby!

There you have it.

Each week, the Fantasy Life member with the lowest scoring team will be required to fulfill their punishment and promptly be kicked from the league.

Bye Bye. Tootles. TTYL.

But wait, Cooter. How are the punishments decided? 

Well, I’m glad you asked! Each week, the league commissioner (me) will:

• Generate a random punishment with our Punishment Generator

• Announce the punishment to the league prior to kickoff

• (hopefully) Get a “woo!” “I love this league!” in the group chat

• Boot the loser from the league once the games have concluded

• Collect Proof of Punishment (PP)

• Expose everything in the newsletter

This is gonna be fun!

💦 Sweat It

Losing will be tough, but the punishments will be tougher. And week after week, you’ll be able to sweat it out with us.

As we recap the ongoing results of the league, you’ll find out who lost, you’ll watch their punishments, and we’ll tell someone goodbye.

👀 The Road to Las Vegas Begins on Paramount+

Live games from Week 1 all the way through Super Bowl LVIII!

Paramount+ is your home to stream local, national and postseason NFL games on CBS live, all the way through Super Bowl LVIII.

Sign up for Paramount+ now to catch CBS games all season long including your local Week 1 matchups:

1:00 pm ET Kick-Off

• Cincinnati at Cleveland

• Tampa Bay at Minnesota

• Tennessee at New Orleans

• Houston at Baltimore

4:25 pm ET Kick-Off

• Miami at LA Chargers

• Las Vegas at Denver

• Philadelphia at New England (National Double-header Game)

Make it the best season yet and follow the road to Las Vegas with Paramount+.

🔥 The University of Houston is honoring the Oilers. These jerseys are HOT.

😡 More updates on the ill-fated Jonathan Taylor trade. How did the Colts not get this done?

📜 Aaron Rodgers’ early thoughts on the Jets. He had a LOT to get off his chest.

😮‍💨 This first-round fantasy WR is in the clear after some offseason off-the-field issues. Phew.

😤 Miami makes a major backfield investment. Fullbacks are people too.

🪦 Pro Football Hall of Famer Gil Brandt passed away on Thursday. RIP to a legend.

😬 Patriots add the 2020 NFL Draft’s No. 21 overall pick to their WR room. Too bad it’s not the guy who went one pick later.

🙌 Friendly reminder that Fantasy Life has FREE updated rankings for your drafts. Great day to draft great!

🤔 Death, taxes: Fantasy analysts hyping up this WR in August. But seriously, this year might be different!

We live in the golden age of fantasy football, which means there are all kinds of options for where you can play. If you are looking to get your feet wet in real money leagues with big-time prizes, look no further than the NFFC — a high-stakes fantasy football site that offers contests at different price points. Their flagship “Primetime” contest boasts a $250,000 top prize. Today, Pete shares how to attack contests on the NFFC…

Fantasy Life has been drafting on NFFC all offseason, and today I’m going to share with you some of the important things to consider when drafting on NFFC so you can stay ahead of the competition.

🧐 Pay Attention To Third-Round Reversal

Most snake drafts follow a similar course, with each drafter getting one pick per round, and after a round is over, the following round is in the reverse order of the previous round.

But NFFC gives us a slight remix on the tried and true snake format with third-round reversal, aka 3RR:

3RR allows the team drafting from the end of the round (1.12 and 2.1) to begin Round 3 (3.1) after also starting Round 2 instead of picking at 3.12.

It’s an interesting wrinkle that helps balance the top-heavy nature of drafts. It never feels fair when the team drafting from the 1.01 is also able to get two more Top 25 players at the 2-3 turn, so this helps level the playing field.

Best of all, on NFFC, you can actually set your draft order preferences before the draft to remove some of the randomness of auto-generated slots. I’ll explain…

🐎 Set Your KDS! (Wait, What Is KDS?!)

KDS stands for “Kentucky Derby Style”, which allows owners to rank their draft order preferences from most desirable to least desirable BEFORE the leagues are randomly selected.

It’s a mechanism for giving owners a little say in their draft slot, and results in most managers receiving a more preferred draft spot than the random slot would have given them.

Before your league drafts, you can edit and re-order the draft slots however you see fit:

KDS pairs well with 3RR (look at all this cool lingo!) because it allows you to really think through the value pockets of the first three rounds.

Because I love the WRs at the 1-2 turn, having a late pick in Round 1 can be extremely advantageous. As you can see below, it’s possible to lock up two elite WRs at 1.12 and 2.01 and also start the third round with Tee Higgins:

In a normal snake format, the Justin Jefferson drafter would be gifted Tee Higgins at 3.1, but with the 3RR means, their selection (D.J. Moore) is in a different WR tier, which helps offset the advantage of locking up one of the Top 2 players.

Depending on how you view the WR tiers (I think there’s a big drop-off after Higgins), you quickly realize how the KDS and 3RR should heavily factor into your strategy.

Review NFFC ADP on Fantasy Life so you can plot out your ideal start and, subsequently, your KDS preferences.