Fantasy Football: Week 18 Premier Edition Rankings and How Commissioners Can Handle Week 17

Monday morning I laid out my plans for this week’s newsletter, but when Invoices Security Damar Hamlin collapsed due to a cardiac event during that night’s game with the bengals, fantasy football was absolutely the last thing I wanted to think about. And I know I’m not the only one in this case.

This game we spend so much time thinking about can, at best, distract us from reality. And some of my favorite emails I’ve ever received are from listeners and readers telling us how what we’re doing has helped them through tough times. It always lifts me up. I know Fantasy Football doesn’t even come close to being the most important thing in the world, but it’s definitely helped me maintain a sense of normalcy during tough times, both in my life and in the world at large. .

But this game seemed more important than normal. We all tuned into Monday’s game with high expectations – two of the best teams in the league and some of the game’s brightest stars on the biggest stage, with high stakes for the NFL playoffs and countless fantasy championships to be determined. But it was all rendered so meaningless so quickly.

Monday’s game could never have gone on after that – the reactions of Hamlin’s teammates and opponents made that clear to anyone watching. It crystallized what can sometimes be hard to keep in mind as football fans: that, however indestructible these men may seem, they are still men, playing a dangerous game that puts them at risk of injury. serious every time they enter the field. It’s something they have to put aside every time they step onto the pitch, and it’s only natural that we as fans do the same. Sometimes, but inevitably, this illusion is shattered.

Hamlin remains hospitalized in critical condition since Tuesday evening, and I know you agree with me in sending positive vibes throughout this ordeal. It was amazing to see the sports world rally around Hamlin, with nearly $6 million raised for Hamlin’s. In search of the foundation of M – originally created to give back to the McKees Rock and Pittsburgh communities where Hamlin grew up.

By setting up the GoFundMe pageHamlin wrote, “As I begin my journey to the NFLI will never forget where I come from and I am committed to using my platform to have a positive impact on the community that raised me.” It’s amazing to see the whole football community and the sports world in general use this platform created by Hamlin to elevate him and spread this good message even more widely.Consider donating with some of these fantasy league winnings.I can’t wait for Hamlin to see what has been done in her name.

The game will continue, of course. It’s unclear at this point if Monday’s game will be made up, but there will be games in Week 18. Big games. Games that matter for playoff standings and draft position, and for some of you, your fantasy leagues. That sense of normalcy will also return, in spurts, but not without keeping Hamlin in our thoughts and prayers as he continues to fight.

And this newsletter will also return to normal. With fits and starts. I made some changes to my content schedule after taking the day off yesterday, but I’ll look into the 2023 rankings later in the week. Today’s newsletter contains some tips for Week 18 and some thoughts on how to handle the unprecedented situation of a Championship week rendered incomplete. I’ll be honest, it feels weird talking about all of this in light of what we saw on Monday night, and if you have no interest in reading about it, that’s okay. I understand.

But we’ll be pushing ahead with week 18 and beyond. Things are not normal right now, but we will make the best of it.

How Stewards Should Handle Week 17

There is no right answer for how to handle postponed matches. I can tell you how I handled it in the leagues I commission – We split the league. I was in the league in both leagues and planned to win but suggested calling it a tie – the last thing I wanted to deal with was trying to find a tie breaker or juggle the schedule. It just didn’t seem worth it, and honestly, I didn’t feel ready.

But that’s just me. Your league may be different. I’ve had other leagues declaring the projected winner the outright winner; I have others who will manually insert the Week 18 scores of Bills and Bengals players into their Week 17 lines to determine the championship. I think it’s an imperfect option because the circumstances of these games are completely different from Week 17. But imperfect options are all we have here.

I’ve even seen suggestions on Twitter to use projected score margins to determine how to split the winnings: you split the pot and, if a team was 70% favorite, they get 70% of the winnings, and so on . I’ve seen some suggest that you use players’ average scores for the season instead of their week 17 scores. You could even put players’ performances in every game so far this season in a hat and draw from that one for the score. It’s random, but so is fantasy football in many ways.

The thing is, there’s no perfect answer to how to handle this. This is an unprecedented situation, born out of a horrific incident, and trying to find the “right” or “right” answer to reward the “true” winner is not only impossible but rather irrelevant, if you ask me. . What works best for your league should be how you approach it. As commissioner, I try to do what’s best for my league, and that meant finding a way to settle the championship in a way that takes it out of anyone’s hands. That was what felt right to me.

Ranking of week 18

If you’re looking for players to add for Week 18, Jamey Eisenberg’s Waiver Wire column is here for you. But remember a lot will change between now and the first locks of the week on Saturday, as we learn who will be out and who will play.

For what it’s worth, the following teams enter Week 18 with relatively little at stake beyond potential playoff standings or draft order positioning: vikings, Buccaneers, giants, Texas, Broncos, Foals, The adventurers, Browns, Jets, Bear, Cardinals Rams, Falcons, Panthers, Saints, Commanders. Not many of them will be idle starters, but surely some of them will. We hope to have a pretty good idea of it by Saturday and Sunday, but it’s harder to say at the moment.

That means those waiver goals may be out of date by then, and so may those leaderboards. More than any other week, the Week 18 competition forces you to stay as up-to-date as possible as late in the week as possible on news about who will be available. That’s why we don’t recommend playing until week 18!

Here is my ranking so far: