2024 Draft in Review

 

Bragging Rights Fantasy Football League

From the desk of the Commish and 2024 Champion GGOAT

6/25/2025

2024 Draft in Review

Every year, one of this league’s favorite traditions is meticulously grading each and every pick by each and every team immediately following the draft until we depart back to our homes and lives. The draft provides lots of memories as we go along- we give our power rankings that end up usually being way off once the season concludes, we laugh at each other for what seem like ridiculous picks, we incorporate new traditions as we draft (IE the Najee shot), and just continues to provide reasons to judge one another on how well we draft players. We think we know ball going into each and every season, and sometimes we are spot on, sometimes we are dead wrong, and sometimes, nobody sees what we see. Our drafts have given us countless moments- we’ve had drunk Tyler doing his best to emasculate each and every one of our picks while we were in Tampa. We’ve had Jacques taking Sproles 8th overall due to losing the Polumbus bet. We’ve had Sloan giving a big OOPS when I took Higgins this past year (then proceeds to have an OOPS of an entire season). We’ve had Travis take Jarvis Landry in the 4th and Tarik Cohen in the 6th in the same draft (and then go on to win the title that year!). We’ve had Patrick using a guide for the auction draft because he didn’t know what the helliante he was doing and proceeded to start 0-10 (this is my blog post, so I’m not going to type out how his season ended. Fuck you Patrick). We’ve even had Tyler take both himself in one draft, and Kevin’s unborn child in another. (John’s odds to win a title as before Ty has jumped up to +10000 on Larned’s Locks Sportsbook after this past season that Ty had).

As the season goes on, it becomes clear very quickly how impactful each team’s drafted players are going to be. Early injuries derail some of our top picks, or maybe coaching decisions on the real team are completely opposite of what was being said during training camp. Trades have become far and few between our first season and our upcoming 13th season, but free agency still plays a huge factor in the pursuit of a title. I felt something was lacking in our league. Every year we talk so much about how the draft went- Steve’s team sucks (wins a title), Patrick gets to go after Kevin again, did Travis really put Kelce that high on his big board? Is that a typo? But, we don’t really follow up on it after the season is over. That’s where I wanted to dive in on a lazy weekend this weekend- how did our teams actually end up? Where did we go wrong with our picks? Where did we hit home runs? (Yes Max I’ll talk about Irving in the 15th, calm down big guy). Is it a coincidence I decided to do this after I finally win a title? Who knows. What I do know is all of us deserve to see the data as we start to head into next season with the BR Summit right around the corner. The sheet above provides every player drafted and their final positional rank.

Let’s start with our sole Dalton Dash contestant: 

Sloan

I, and everyone else except for Sloan I guess, remember thinking at the time “Damn. 2 Saints back to back?”. Kamara paid off finishing RB15, but boy Olave let him down big time. Obviously he missed a lot of games due to a concussion, but still a tough one to take, taking him in the 5th. CMC going first overall was finally a bust of a pick, ETN showed that the last few games of last season were no fluke, and 11th round pick Laporta potty finishing FLEX72 really did not help Sloan’s cause. He did get Lamar to finish QB1, Aubrey K1, but dropping JSN and having him finish WR14 had to sting. Is picking first overall actually a bad strat? 

Final Grade: D+

Hits: Lamar, Garrett Wilson, Kamara, Aubrey

Misses: Literally everyone else. Also, Pollard cause he is a cancer on fantasy football

Sub 10 minute Dalton Dash inbound…? Would be the only redeeming part of his 2024 season

Travis

I know the talks that were happening. I know the conspiracies were flying left and right. “Did Steve specifically draft this team for Travis knowing he could beat it in the championship?” After plenty of peer reviews of the top 100 player list Travis gave myself AND SLOAN, we did our best. Some of his player rankings didn’t make sense to me and Sloan, but we were going to draft to the best of our abilities. And with Travis getting his lineup privileges back circa week 2, making a key trade for Jacobs along the way, kept his core of Allen, Nacua, Adams, and Kyren all the way to the championship game. 

Final Grade: B+

Hits: Lamb (traded for Jacobs. Ty’s a sucker), Kyren, Josh Allen, Adams

Misses: Travis Kelce ranked 28th overall player on big board, finished FLEX86

Travis please don’t do that ever again

Jacques

Once the power rankings were submitted, Glenn’s averaged out to be the #1 team from the group’s power rankings. He was having nightmares of Sloan taking Hall first overall, leaving him with CMC to take at 3. Simulations ran. Numbers crunched. Yet this draft had the Glenn’s front office reevaluate their entire draft process. He is a true ride or die with his guys, but he now knows things have to change if he wants a 2nd title. Hall ended up RB18, so not even that bad, but you would’ve thought Hall finished RB89 the way Jacques talked about him throughout the season. Absolute home run on BTJ, excellent pick with Achane, but everyone else very mid once the season closed. 

Final Grade: C

Hits: BTJ, Achane, Hall (despite the narrative big Glenn’s tries to push)

Misses: Dropping Hubbard who would finish RB13, Zamir White, Pacheco

“This was easily the 2nd worst draft of all time”- Jacques

Max

The talking point for Max’s draft was taking two running backs from the same team. Was it going to pay off and be a genius choice? Or is Max an idiot? Thankfully for Max, it paid off. Hate that Monty got hurt towards the end of the year, but that combo of Gibbs/Monty every week was as consistent as it gets. Unfortunately, Max couldn’t escape the stereotype of drafting a rookie early and took MHJ in the 3rd round, who ended up being the WR26 in a lackluster rookie year compared to his expectations going into the season. Kyler finishing QB10 was a good look, and his last pick ended up being one of the best picks of the draft with the rookie Bucky Irving finishing RB14. Congrats on finding a great keeper Max!

Final Grade: B-

Hits: Lions RBs, London, Kyler, Irving

Misses: MHJ, Mostert, Amari, dropping Dowdle, Rashee “he’s a good guy” Rice

Congrats on raising shareholder expectations by finishing higher than 5th

Kevin

One of Kevin’s best drafts looking back at it. Tough way to end the season with Mixon throwing up a dud and Hurts getting hurt, but a draft to be proud of and take into this upcoming draft. The core of Bijan, AJ Brown, Mixon, Hurts, Dobbins, Najee, and Terry McLaurin put him in the playoffs and gave Kev one of his best seasons. He unfortunately gave into believing in Waddle, and Deebo going in the 3rd turned out to be costly.

Final Grade: A-

Hits: Bijan, Brown, Mixon, Hurts, Terry

Misses: Drafting Waddle, which caused a ripple effect that science cannot explain

There’s two rules to fantasy football: 

1. Do not draft Tony Pollard (see Dalton Dash boy above) 

2. Do not draft Jaylen Waddle

Tyler

God I’ve been waiting to get to his section. The man who preaches we are in standard- so RBs are inherently more valuable and anyone taking WR early is dumb- really went with a zero RB strat this past season. We have 11 seasons of data that shows going that route never works out, and once again, it did not work out. Tyler, our last remaining non champion, has had two hilarious season outcomes back to back. Two seasons ago, he had an extra 3rd and 5th round pick, yet missed the playoffs. This past season, he drafted WR in rounds 1 and 2, drafts who would end up being the RB5, shipped him off for Lamb- giving him the best WR Quad in our league’s history (probably). Yet, also missed the playoffs. What’s his next trick? Test out drafting only Cowboys?

Final Grade: C+

Hits: Chase, JJettas, Josh Jacobs (traded)

Misses: Josh Jacobs (traded), Brooks in the 7th (9 carries in 2024), McBride (FLEX52), Kincaid (FLEX161) 

(we don’t have TE as a position in our league)

Is next year his year? Looking forward to Mason’s thoughts to shape Ty’s strat

Patrick

The man with the trio of titles ended up having 5 out of his first 6 picks still on his roster at year’s end. After missing the playoffs for only the 3rd time in his career, he stuck with his guys and it didn’t pay off for a change. Trading away Nabers (WR8) and Jameson Williams (WR13) for Baker and MHJ late in the season was certainly a choice, but did luck out with Daniels finishing as the QB5 despite being a rookie with a piss poor franchise. His top 3 picks all finished top 8 in their position. With arguably the best keeper for the 2025 draft, Daniels should help Patrick get back into form heading into 2025.

Final Grade: B+

Hits: JT, Henry, Evans, Nabers (traded), Jayden Daniels

Misses: Aiyuk (yikes), Diontae Johnson, Chubb, Dell

Are we getting a new team name after this 6-9 season? OnlyDawgs just doesn’t hit after missing playoffs

Lastly….your 2024 champion

Steve

One of the greatest drafts of all time turned into the literal greatest season of all time. Between Saquon being overlooked by everyone else and falling all the way to me at the 8th pick, ARSB being an absolute menace for opposing defenses, James Cook having the exact kind of year I thought he could have, Higgins being the complete opposite of an OOPS, and Burrow’s wrist not being an issue thus having him finish QB3, this was a draft to remember. 10 out of 15 players still on my roster at season’s end, with all contributing at one point or another, with meaningful minutes, to give me the highest regular season and regular season + playoffs PF for a single season in league history. Take a minute to think about the 1996 or 2003 NBA draft, except all the top players went to my team. That was my draft. 13 out of 15 players taken by me finished top 40 in their position, and we look to repeat a draft and season as good as 2024 GGOAT.

Hits: Saquon, ARSB, Cook, Higgins, Swift, Burrow, Flowers, Chase Brown (dropped due to having too many good players on my roster), McConkey

Misses: Mike Williams, Keaton Mitchell

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, saw what I saw.

I can’t wait for the combine and see how athletic we all are at age 31. I'll be bringing two items with me that I’m introducing going forward for our league as a way to continue to celebrate huge milestones in our league. You all will just have to see at The 2025 Bragging Rights Fantasy Football League Summit.

Ready to see my GUYS.

Sincerely,

The Rizzionary