Fantasy Draft Regrets And Food Prep: Week 1 Has Arrived

We are finally within reach of the start of the NFL regular season. The wait from February (or let’s be honest for most of us December/January) until September feels longer than the two years between the final Game of Thrones seasons, but at least we know writers won’t ruin the ending of this show (we all agree right? It was bad), but maybe the refs will- too soon Saints’ fans?

By now your drafts should be finished and you should fully be thinking about what you will be eating Sunday. There’s one problem with this care-free theory, many people wake up the next day and instantly think about their fantasy draft regrets. Maybe it was an impulse decision gone horribly wrong, your draft lagged and you picked a QB by accident in round 3, or you looked up and realized you drafted 7 wide receivers and no running backs (sorry M!). Either way, WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! And for my new fantasy footballers in the room, I see you stressing over your YAHOO! fantasy grades and I am here to tell you that I consider a good grade from YAHOO! to be the ultimate kiss of death. Their ratings are a general guide, but they don’t update fast enough in the wild landscape that has been preseason or if they do, sometimes their guess is as good as yours as to the impact a player move will have on their production. If you have a strategy or consult different rating systems (there are TONS out there) and chose accordingly, YAHOO! will consider that a bad draft by their standards, but lucky for you, you are a genius and you’ll probably win your league. I got an A- on my first draft and C+ on my second, my second team is BY FAR better than my first. Go figure.

This season has a lot of mystery still at the top of the draft, specifically with the ever-important running back position. I’ve heard instant regret drafting Nick Chubb as early as 10. Is Melvin Gordon going to play, and even if he does, for who? When do you get sick of seeing him sitting on the board and pull the trigger? Later in the draft I wondered, will AJ Green be healthy this season? The projections have him coming back Week 3, but do we ever know with these injuries? I stashed him just in case, but still feel nervous about it. Will Devin Singletary have a breakout year in Buffalo? Does Shady get his groove back with his homie Big Red? Two days prior Damien Williams was the dark horse breakout RB of the draft, did you still take him?! Does the Sean McVay coaching tree scream instant offense in Cincy and Green Bay? Does Josh Gordon play? Is he still good? Derrick Henry came on strong last year, but I still don’t trust him fully, so I passed on him, is that a mistake? Does Carlos Hyde compliment Deshaun Watson beautifully? YAHOO! didn’t seem to think so, but my husband sure does! Le’Veon (my friend from the elevator in Pittsburgh) fell out of the first round for the first time in years, but is he going to be a New York superstar? He’s fresh having taken a year off but he’s also a JET sooooo that doesn’t bode well. Did you draft like a homer? Did you feel like Aaron Rodgers was a must-have and drafted him WAY too early? Fantasy football is draped in guessing games, projections, and predictions, and like I tell myself at night, so I sleep better, luck (Not Andrew ughhh). If you had these questions or made some of the mentioned mistakes, the good news is most of us are probably wrong anyway and come Week 2 we will all be scrambling for the breakout stars of Week 1! And so on, and so on for the rest of the season. You probably hit on a few nice picks at least, a 12-team league means you drafted relatively top talent players for the first 3-4 rounds. After that, who knows, but I guess that’s the fun of the sport.

I hopped online this morning and my Twitter feed was filled with Melvin Gordon nonsense (I don’t care who he is following on insta if it isn’t @sweetsweetfantasysunday), Zeke finally getting his money so fantasy owners can take a big sigh of relief, and Week 1 WAIVER WIRE! WAIVER WIRE!??! I just finished drafting hours ago. Now I NEED to have this WR or that RB? If you didn’t have fantasy regrets before, you will after being on Twitter for 5 minutes! To be fair, you can make some nice last-minute adjustments if you do have any major regrets by utilizing the waiver wire and taking advantage of these late-breaking roster moves (Albert Wilson stock rising in MIA now that Stills is gone for example. Scoop-able in many leagues still(s) LOL). Managing a fantasy football squad is a never-ending job (total lie but you get the hyperbole), and the season hasn’t even started just yet!

Now that you’ve gone through the range of fantasy football emotions (excited to draft, start draft and feel stressed, end draft feels momentary happiness? Then regret, tweak with waiver wire, still feel regret) it’s time to think food. Your computer or phone will be fully visible keeping track of the live changes in fantasy scoring during the games, but what about the bowl of dip next to it? Or the wings you eat with one hand so you can still scroll through Twitter? I like to start the season with my staples, just like Andy Reid, I like to go into the season with my scripted plays for the first drive (first game). My crowd-pleasers are Buffalo Chicken Dip (yes we have a chef that will offer way better tips than me but my Buff Chick is the best), air fryer hot wings (crispy, sauce to order, truly satisfying), and roast beef, cheddar cheese, and chipotle mayo sliders that I found online last season and became obsessed with! Stay tuned for Chef Nick’s first recipe of the season coming soon to help you open up your Sunday cooking playbook! From Chef Nick directly on what he will be making for us this season, “a little bit of everything, for everyone. I like to make food that’s familiar but with some technique and a little passion. Yes, the dips, wings and other game-day noms are fun but we are gonna make some real food here people!” I LOVE IT! If that doesn’t get you fired up for Sunday than nothing will! #Is it Sunday yet?

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