West / Red: Knights Who Say Ni

Team Grrrrific (4-9)
It’s gonna be an uphill battle for new owner Donny as he inherited a keeper core of Isaiah Crowell, Matt Forte, Kenny Britt, Pierre Garcon, and Spencer Ware. See any current or potential stars in there? Noooope! As a veteran fantasy player though, GM Donny went right to work, flipping a future pick for Jamison Crowder and thus getting some intriguing youth for the future. In the draft, he took Dalvin Cook at 1.3, followed that up with draft and semi-stash rookie Mike Williams in RD2, and then started working to get some competitive players on-board in the form of Darren McFadden, Chris Hogan, Eric Ebron, Jay Cutler, Jason Witten, and Giovani Bernard. Injuries have been both kind and mean to Grrrrific, as Julian Edelman’s season ending injury now gives Hogan an increased role. On the other hand, Spencer Ware is now out for the season. Of course, the night before NFL started, Donny made a trade of Cook and Jay Cutler for 1.6 Kareem Hunt and Tyrod Taylor, and then Hunt went on to have the greatest fantasy debut in history. So if Hunt can emerge as a star, Team Grrrrific’s rebuilding prospects just got much better. Can they challenge for a playoff spot this year? Let’s find out!

Jedi Knights (4-9)
Chris’ team went the first eight years of Maize and Blue without winning a division title. Then he ripped off four straight from 2012-15, while also accruing the highest regular season wins twice during that span. Unfortunately, 2016 was a down year as Knights stumbled to just four wins and might be heading into a downturn with after achieving so much regular season success and yet just one post-season win. With no pick until RD3 this year — and many more high picks still due to Another Bad Creation for the Marshawn Lynch trade — Jedi will have to be creative while climbing back to respectability. Eli Manning is a shocking thirty-six years old and Chris drafted both Brian Hoyer and 2017 #2 Mitchell Trubisky to lead this franchise into the future.  Future Trubisky will have TY Hilton, Emmanual Sanders, and Greg Olsen to throw to, plus Danny Woodhead and 3.4 pick Theo Riddick to throw to out of the backfield. Knights also drafted rookie Cooper Kupp, and “prove it soon” youngish veterans like CJ Prosise, Kenny Stills, and Eli Rogers. With Eli Manning starting to age — Peyton Manning was a mainstay for Jedi during their successful runs — it could be time for a total rebuild here.

Another Bad Creation (8-5)
With four first round picks this year, four more next year, and three more in 2019 and 2020 each, ABC has the brightest future of any franchise. As the champ just two years ago, Another Bad Creation is poised to rule Maize and Blue for years if GM Oliver can play his cards right. While ABC hasn’t won the division since 2012, we feel a change coming. As the historical leader in division titles for Knights Who Say Ni, we see ABC padding those numbers soon. And now, 2017 #1 pick Leonard Fournette joins the fold after Oliver moved up in the draft. Fournette immediately becomes the franchise back and he’ll team with rich man Kirk Cousins to lead a stable of young guns. Michael Thomas and Terrelle Pryor both had substantial rookie seasons, oft-injured Stefon Diggs and Tyler Lockett both always intrigue, and if healthy, Jordan Reed is a force at tight end. While Bilal Powell, rookie Samaje Perine, and TJ Yeldon don’t exactly project well if Fournette goes down, ABC will have plenty of shots in future drafts to find another franchise runner. Who traded Oliver all those damn picks?!

P Funk All Stars (9-4)
After a pair of 2-11 seasons, P Funk came out of nowhere to grab their second division title — their first was in 2005 — and brought themselves back into the conversation. Of course, Paolo’s team has done this before. From 2009-2015, they won one game twice, two games three times, and had a five and eight win season stuck in-between there. So is P Funk finally for real? With two RD1 picks, they grabbed Marshawn Lynch at 1.7, touchdown machine Mike Gillislee at 1.14, and then went on a run of young guys with rookies Evan Engram, DeShone Kizer, and Curtis Samuel in subsequent rounds — plus Taywan Taylor in RD8. The youth movement dovetails nicely with this keeper core, as Derek Carr and Amari Cooper are a fantastic foundation to build on. Paolo will need Ameer Abdullah to stay healthy, Carr to return from his own injury, and find some other receiver pieces between DeVante Parker, Donte Moncrief, or Laquon Treadwell to step up as the rookies season. With Beast Mode added to Oakland, we’ll see if the Raiders and P Funk All Stars are for real or not…