There are tons of players this year who have exceeded and not even come close to the expectations of their managers. Students have strong opinions on these players and how they should be performing. They acquire these opinions after crafting a strategy and picking players for their draft.
Sophomore Tyler VonFeldt is in a ten-person league and he had the eighth pick overall.
“Going Into the draft I was looking to get a top-level receiver or running back because of my pick I ended up getting a running back,” VonFeldt said.
Managers have to prepare for the pick that they are given like VonFeldt. He accounted for the fact he didn’t have the first pick and realized his best chance would be a solid running back. He was able to get Saquon Barkley who is a well-developed starting running back for the New York Giants. However other managers play to risk it all like sophomore Jamin Whaley.
“With my first pick, I chose Bijan Robinson because as a rookie we don’t know what he’ll do. He could blast off at any time and be the best running back,” Whaley said.
Whaley decided to pick a rookie with high expectations and as of now Bijan is doing well, however, he is not quite performing on that top level everyone expected. Will this choice pay off later in the season or will this pick be a complete bust? There are several players who have completely underperformed so far this season.
“I think that Bijan has underperformed, he has had a lackluster performance so far, but I still hold out hope for him,” Whaley said. Having a rookie underperform while disappointing is part of the risk of rookies. However when a veteran underperforms it can often be much more disappointing.
“I think that Terry McLaurin has not performed his best this far in the season. I expected more going into the season,” VonFeldt said.
These are a few of the disappointments this season. But there have been players that exceed expectations.
“Darren Waller, tight end for the New York Giants, has been doing better than I thought he would,” VonFeldt said.
Waller seems to be playing well even though he has one of the worst starting quarterbacks and he was traded to the Giants at the start of the season. Everyone has their strategies going into a draft even if they are new to fantasy football like Ashley Jones.
“When it was my turn to draft, I would check the top players’ stats such as their points last season and whether they were hurt or how often they seemed to get hurt,” Jones said.
Drafting for and playing fantasy football is one thing but winning is something else a big part of winning is your motivation.
“The loser of my league has to go bald, and I want to be there for that in fact that’s the main reason I joined the league,” Jones said.
