Image courtesy of Laughlin Elkind. Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

If I have learned anything in the past two months of my life, it’s to take risk and never be afraid of falling flat on your face.

I am currently finishing up an internship at a software company in Raleigh, North Carolina, where my job for two months has been to call people and introduce a new solution to them. I know nothing about these people other than their name, their company name and title, and whether or not they currently use one of our products. Many times, I get rejected. Other times, I will catch people at the wrong time, and just miss out on a sale. I have to admit; it’s pretty intimidating once you’ve had a few people hang up on you in a row. However, persistence is key, as we all know. Through countless hours of training with my bosses, as well as constant morale support from my co-workers, family, and girlfriend, I’ve been able to hit my sales goal two months in a row, as well as garner various other accolade.

So, what does this have to do with fantasy football?

Recently, I decided to make this fantasy season a learning process. Ever since I started playing fantasy football seriously back in 2010, I have only played standard scoring, 12-team, traditional fantasy football (sans one 16 team league last season). I’ve never ventured into the world of PPR. I’ve never had the experience of doing a dual-QB league. Playing in a league that had an IDP never crossed my mind.

Until now.

This season, I will be stepping into my fantasy football unknown, and will strictly be playing in leagues that offer me something different from my norm. I know that this might not be a logical approach, and one might say, “Jon, it’s just a game, play it how you want.” Well, this is how I want to play it. I want to be challenged. I want to take various statistics and scenarios into account that I have never taken into account before. What would my season look like if I take back-to-back quarterbacks in Rounds 1 and 2 of a dual-QB league? Which running backs get boosts in their stocks because they are pass-catchers in PPR leagues? How early is too early to draft an IDP in a league that has one? These are all questions that I want to find out the answers to. Chances are, I’m not going to succeed right away. I’m going to make a few mistakes in my drafts. I’m going to accept a bonehead trade or two. I’m not going to look into a matchup as in-depth as I should. But you know what? That’s okay. I’ll have support from my friends, my colleagues here at YourFantasyFootballCoach, and you guys, the readers.

This is going to be an exciting fantasy football season. I can’t wait to see the game that I love from an entirely different angle. I hope you’ll join me on this awesome journey! Best of luck in your drafts, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Written by Jon Sousa

Categories: Fantasy Football