MSUFFL 2024 Wrapped**

Another amazing season in the books. We finally saw Butler make the playoffs for the first time EVER and even led the league in scoring. Willen fumbled the bag due to his Bears homerism, by trusting Moore over Nabers in a must win situation. Smith made it back to the promise land after executing a perfect tank job (it doesn’t hurt hitting big on Barkley either) giving Chorazyczewski some hope for next year. Geraldo missed the playoffs for just the second time in league history. Costello went from contender to rebuild before the season started, while White went from rebuild to contender to broken down throughout the season. Frink finally found some running backs! Steinmetz and Banchiu traded themselves into and out of the playoffs. Laethem actually made some trades this year. Keaton failed to defend his championship, while a championship continues to elude Gillespie. Better luck next year!

Best 2024 Keeper Value: De’Von Achane (Geraldo), Chase Brown (Smith), and Chuba Hubbard (Frink) - It was tough to choose just one, but the theme for this year’s best keeper value is cheap, non-rookie deal, RBs for which we had 3 that finished as RB1s. All provided their team with a competitive edge and likely will into the foreseeable future.

Honorable Mention: Derrick Henry and Alvin Kamara (Steinmetz/Banchiu)

Best Auction Value: JK Dobbins (Smith) - after going all in on Dobbins last year, Smith stayed committed to him again despite a seemingly catastrophic injury last year. While healthy, Dobbins was a reliable RB2 and only cost Smith $9 (compared to $50 last year). It was close between him and Kittle who Lathem got for a steal at $14 and gave him a competitive advantage at TE for the whole season.

Honorable Mentions: George Kittle (Laethem), Tee Higgins (Gillespie), Tony Pollard (Geraldo), Courtland Sutton (Costello)

Best Rookie Draft Pick: Brian Thomas Jr. (Smith) - despite being the 5th WR off the board (and the 3rd picked by Smith), Thomas was strong from the start and dominated to finish the season off. He was a key piece in Smith’s playoff run and should be the key to future success for Smith. Bucky Irving should get some love here too because rarely does one find a starting RB late in the second round.

Honorable Mentions: Bucky Irving (Frink), Brock Bowers (Chorazyczewski), Jayden Daniels and Ladd McConkey (Geraldo)

Best Free Agent Pickup: Tyrone Tracy (Costello) - Tracy was putting up strong numbers in a bad offense, and while he didn’t help Costello win games this season he will likely be a franchise piece going forward. Tracy might be in the Best Keeper Value for 2025 if the Giants can ever get their shit together. It’s worth mentioning that White picked up two vets in Hunt and Smith to help him outkick his expected season finish.

Honorable Mentions: Kareem Hunt and Jonnu Smith (White), Bo Nix and Jerry Jeudy (Frink), Cade Otton (Steinmetz/Banchiu) - we’ll always have those 3 weeks

Best Trade: Justin Jefferson and James Cook for DJ Moore and Jeff’s 2024 First Round Pick (#2, Malik Nabers) - There were a lot of really awesome trades this season and for the most part they were logical. This trade set up the major storylines for the season with Butler going ALL IN for the playoffs, while also setting Willen up for a deep playoff run only to choose Moore over Nabers to lose the ‘ship.

Honorable Mentions: Ja’Marr Chase for Jeff’s 2025 and 2026 First Round picks (Costello), DeAndre Swift for Bobby’s 2025 Second Round and 2026 First Round picks (Chorazyczewski), Alvin Kamara and Jared Goff for Jordan Love and Brad’s 2025 First Round pick (White), Jaxon Smith-Njigba for DK Metcalf (Steinmetz and Banchiu)

Worst Keeper Value: Christian McCaffery (Costello) - At the time it was not a bad decision (he was the best keeper value last season and appeared to be affordable still), Costello held on to CMC through injury for $74 and basically tanked his season. Costello was able to offload him to White to get his 2025 draft pick back so it wasn’t a complete crusher, but it definitely set his franchise back a year at least.

Honorable Mention: Dak Prescott (Willen)

Worst Auction Value: Travis Etienne (Willen) - Despite a strong start to his career, Etienne was not worth top tier RB value and was placed into a timeshare with a guy named Tank. Willen made sure to keep him at $61, which he could have spent elsewhere to get more depth. Overall it didn’t kill Willen, but questions about his decision making are still out there because of this move and many more.

Honorable Mention: Javonte Williams (Laethem), Zamir White (Frink), Deebo Samuel (Smith), Travis Kelce (Chorazyczewski)

Worst Rookie Draft Pick: Caleb Williams (Laethem) - his rookie season was terrible especially considering the hype he came in with and to add insult to injury Jayden Daniels has been awesome both as a real life and fantasy football QB. While Brooks was probably a worse pick due to injury and opportunity cost, Williams is looking like a bad pick due to on-field performance.

Honorable Mention: Jonathan Brooks (Chorazyczewski), Marvin Harrison Jr., Rome Odunze, and Blake Corum (Smith)

Worst Trade: Bobby’s 2026 Second Round and 2027 First Round picks for Devin Singletary and Jake Ferguson (Willen) - There were not a ton of bad trades this year as the motivations were clear for most teams. This one stands out as the only terrible trade since it didn’t help Willen in any way and he traded a future first round pick for it. Don’t drink and trade folks!

Honorable Mention: Aaron Jones for Patrick Mahomes (Geraldo)

Most Active GM: Chorazyczewski made 42 acquisitions and 4 trades this season totaling a league high 46 moves. Steinmetz and Banchiu were the biggest traders this season with 7 deals, almost a third of all the trades. Overall we had the same number of trades last year at 22.

Least Active GM: Laethem was once again the least active manager with 19 total moves, 16 acquisitions and 3 trades (3 more than he made last year). He did have 3 more acquisitions than the lowest team, Banchiu and Steinmetz, who only made 13 acquisitions electing to make their transactions via trade.

GM of the Year: Smith is clearly the GM of the year. An argument could be made for Butler who made the playoffs for the first time ever and led the league in scoring, but Smith went from worst to first and set his team up for a potential dynasty. He secured draft capital and a strong core to build around last season, then added Saquon and JK Dobbins in the draft (we’ll ignore Deebo Samuel). Smith had a plan and made pragmatic moves including his trade for Baker Mayfield to ensure he had his best team every Sunday.

Drunkin Polaks

Chorazyczewski was in tank mode early and made some strong trades taking advantage of a drunk Willen a couple times to get lots of draft capital for the future. He also traded for George Pickens, who had a breakout year, and drafted Brock Bowers, who looks like the real deal. However, drafting Jonathan Brooks ahead of Brian Thomas and Keon Coleman before Ladd McConkey may set back Chorazyczewski’s championship dreams for a fewI years.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Tank mode

Key Acquisitions:

George Pickens

Brock Bowers

Keon Coleman

Jonathan Brooks

2024 Trade Chart:

Kyle
Sent	Received
2024 1st (Trey Benson)	Braden's 2025 First (1.5)
D'Andre Swift	Bobby's 2025 Second (2.11)
Travis Kelce	Bobby's 2026 First
Mike Evans	Bobby's 2026 Second
Jake Ferguson	Bobby's 2027 First
Devin Singletary	George Pickens

Half Chubb

Costello was trying to build around Ja’Marr Chase and CMC one last time and looked to have a really strong draft to do so. CMC had other plans that included not playing to start the season. Costello’s team was reliant on CMC being a cheat code and had a slew of veterans that could put up reliable numbers. When it became evident that CMC wasn’t going to do that he made some savvy moves trading Chase, CMC, and Cooper Kupp for 3 first rounders including getting his own pick back. In addition to the picks, Costello picked up strong rookie RBs on cheap deals in Tyrone Tracy and Braelon Allen.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Tank mode

Key Acquisitions:

Courtland Sutton

Tyrone Tracy

Braelon Allen

Nick Chubb

2024 Trade Chart:

Mike
Sent	Received
Ja'Marr Chase	Mike's 2025 First (1.2)
Christian McCaffrey	Jeff's 2025 First (1.8)
Cooper Kupp	Campbell's 2025 Second (2.7)
	Jeff's 2026 First
	Braelon Allen

The Mixon Administration

Laethem rebuilt his roster before the season started with some strong moves. Aaron Jones via trade, George Kittle and Davante Adams in the auction and Xavier Worthy in the rookie draft gave him a chance to make the playoffs until he decided to improve his draft position towards the end of the season. Unlike last season, Laethem was more active this year making some trades and a few key pickups that will help him continue his rebuild. We will see which WRs will be reliable and if Caleb Williams can live up to his pedigree, but two picks in the upcoming rookie draft will give him a few more chances at building the foundation of his team. Taking Worthy over Thomas may prove to haunt Laethem for a few years.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Borderline playoff team

Key Acquisitions:

George Kittle

Xavier Worthy

Khalil Shakir

Josh Downs

Caleb Williams

Tank Bigsby

2024 Trade Chart:

James
Sent	Received
Patrick Mahomes	2024 1st (Caleb Williams)
Calvin Ridley	Bobby's 2025 First (1.11)
Baker Mayfield	Josh Downs
	Khalil Shakir

The Nixon Administration

Wait, didn’t we just do this team? Not so fast, my friend, Frink added QB of the future Bo Nix and updated his team name to reflect the new regime. This enabled him to move Joe Burrow for more picks and add another cheap, young keeper. Along with Chubba Hubbard from last year, Bucky Irving will help Frink have a young core to compete for the playoffs next year. Adding in a couple key vets in Andrews and Jeudy will add some much needed depth to backfill Jameson Williams who will be a RFA this offseason. In order to compete next year he needs to avoid poor auction moves again next year (Najee Harris and Zamir White were not it) to compete in 2025.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Borderline playoff team

Key Acquisitions:

Bo Nix

Bucky Irving

Jerry Jeudy

Mark Andrews

2024 Trade Chart:

Collin
Sent	Received
Collin's 2026 Second	Jeff's 2025 Second (2.8)
Joe Burrow	Jeff's 2026 Second
	Mark Andrews

Show Me Your TDs

Geraldo failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014 and only the second time in league history. Early season injuries made it an uphill battle, which he fell short of in the end. However, he was able to rebuild on the fly adding in two rookie every week starters in Daniels and McConkey, as well as some vets on cheap deals. Geraldo let go of some of his long-time vet favorites in Aaron Jones and Stefon Diggs for basically nothing, but will look to fill the gaps with the extra FAAB money he won for winning the losers bracket.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Championship contender

Key Acquisitions:

Jayden Daniels

Ladd McConkey

Tony Pollard

Jaylen Warren

Rashid Shaheed

Michael Pittman

2024 Trade Chart:

Braden
Sent	Received
Braden's 2026 Second	2024 2nd (Ladd McConkey)
Aaron Jones	Michael Pittman
Rico Dowdle	Patrick Mahomes

Lets Cook

Banchiu and Steinmetz once again made some major trades, first to improve their starting lineup trading a top 3 pick and some other pieces for Derrick Henry, then built for the future by trading DK Metcalf for JSN and the pick that turned into Caleb Williams for Calvin Ridley. All were tremendous moves to help them win now and build for the future. During the season they went all-in by trading another top 5 pick for Mike Evans and Travis Kelce, which did not pan out. They were still able to salvage their future late in the season, while costing themselves a playoff spot, by flipping Kamara for a late first in the 2025 draft and Kelce for Laporta. They will once again be straddling a playoff run and a rebuild next year.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Borderline playoff team

Key Acquisitions:

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Derrick Henry

Calvin Ridley

Sam Laporta

Sam Darnold

Cade Otton

2024 Trade Chart:

Adam & Stein
Sent	Received
2024 1st (Caleb Williams)	Brad's 2025 First (1.10)
Mike's 2025 First (1.2)	Collin's 2026 Second
Braden's 2025 First (1.5)	Calvin Ridley
DK Metcalf	Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Diontae Johnson	Derrick Henry
Gus Edwards	Rashid Shaheed
George Pickens	Mike Evans
Mark Andrews	Jordan Love
Alvin Kamara	Sam Laporta
Jared Goff
Travis Kelce

Windy City Waterboys

Gillespie snuck into the playoffs after losing five of his last six regular season games. Gibbs and ARSB remained elite options and the additions of Jacobs and Higgins were strong moves, but the lack of top-tier QB and some tough lineup decisions ultimately cost him a shot at his first championship. Gillespie still has some great deals with Gibbs entering the final year of his rookie deal to go with the cheap vets ARSB, McBride, and Higgins, but the time is ticking on this iteration of his team. No rookie picks last year or this year will force Gillespie to build through the auction and free agency again.

Way too early 2025 prediction: championship contender again

Key Acquisitions:

Tee Higgins

Jauan Jennings

Josh Jacobs

Jordan Mason

2024 Trade Chart:

Campbell
Sent	Received
2024 2nd (JJ McCarthy)	Braden's 2026 Second
Campbell's 2025 Second (2.7)	Christian Watson
Michael Pittman	Jauan Jennings

Benches Don’t Score Points I Do

Butler wasn’t leaving his hopes for ending his playoff drought up to chance and made some bold all-in moves before the season started by adding James Cook and Justin Jefferson. He followed those moves up with additional now or never moves by trading his next two drafts away to stack Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, both of whom he could keep at about market value. Butler successfully made the playoffs, but put up a dud and was eliminated without a playoff win. The goalpost has shifted slightly and Butler joins Frink as the only managers without a playoff victory to their names. The journey to win a playoff game will be tougher, even though he has pieces to build around he has few assets to trade next season to take his fate into his own hands again.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Playoff contender, but still no playoff wins

Key Acquisitions:

Ja’Marr Chase

Joe Burrow

James Cook

Darnell Mooney

DK Metcalf

2024 Trade Chart:

Jeff
Sent	Received
2024 1st (Malik Nabers)	2024 2nd (JJ McCarthy)
Jeff's 2025 First (1.8)	Justin Jefferson
Jeff's 2025 Second (2.8)	James Cook
Jeff's 2026 First	DK Metcalf
Jeff's 2026 Second	Ja'Marr Chase
DJ Moore	Joe Burrow
Christian Watson
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Braelon Allen
Sam Laporta

Can’t REED Can’t Write

Keaton entered the season with a similar team to his Championship squad from the year prior, and made one big trade to improve his second RB spot with Aaron Jones and added Terry McLaurin which caused more headaches than helped win games. Overall Keaton’s championship defense will go down as a failure after losing in the first round of the playoffs, though he did win the Thunderdome division. Garrett Wilson and Isiah Pacheco are going to be RFAs and Josh Allen and CeeDee Lamb get a little more expensive, but Kyren Williams remains cheap so he should be able to bring back the core team again. With no draft picks again, the bubble may burst soon.

Way too early 2025 prediction: championship contender

Key Acquisitions:

Aaron Jones

Terry McLaurin

David Njoku

Tua Tagovailoa

2024 Trade Chart:

Blake
Sent	Received
Bobby's 2025 First (1.11)	Aaron Jones
Khalil Shakir	David Njoku
Cedric Tillman

Detroit Lions Defense

After a surprisingly hot start, White had to recalibrate his rebuild strategy to a win-now approach. He traded Derrick Henry before the season and got what would have been a top 3 pick in 2025, but when he started 5-2 he became a buyer. White flipped the top 3 pick to Costello for CMC and Cooper Kupp and later moved his 2025 first rounder for Alvin Kamara to make his team look unbeatable entering the playoffs. However, some tough injury luck starting with CMC and ending with Jalen Hurts going down early in the second round of the playoffs ended White’s hope to win his fifth championship. He revamped his team and added some veterans that he could potentially keep and try for another run, but no draft picks this year will keep him kicking a rebuild down the road.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Playoff hopeful

Key Acquisitions:

Alvin Kamara

Cooper Kupp

Christian McCaffrey

Jonnu Smith

Adam Thielen

Tucker Kraft

Jared Goff

Kareem Hunt

Jalen McMillan

2024 Trade Chart:

Brad
Sent	Received
Brad's 2025 First (1.10)	Christian McCaffrey
Derrick Henry	Cooper Kupp
Rashid Shaheed	Diontae Johnson
	Gus Edwards
	Alvin Kamara
	Jared Goff

There’s a YOU Sheriff In Town

Willen was one start/sit decision away from his first title in just his second year of the league. He made some wild moves, giving up his first round picks until 2028. Adding Malik Nabers will help bridge any gaps and he still has Bijan Robinson for cheap for one more year along with Nico Collins and Puca Nacua locked in for a while. Lamar Jackson was a key auction pick this offseason and helped take his team to the championship game. His team should be competitive for at least one more year, but a running back issue is looming for Willen.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Championship contender

Key Acquisitions:

Malik Nabers

D’Andre Swift

DJ Moore

Jake Ferguson

2024 Trade Chart:

Bobby
Sent	Received
2024 1st (Malik Nabers)	2024 1st (Malik Nabers)
Bobby's 2025 Second (2.11)	2024 2nd (Trey Benson)
Bobby's 2026 First	DJ Moore
Bobby's 2026 Second	D'Andre Swift
Bobby's 2027 First	Jake Ferguson
Justin Jefferson	Devin Singletary
James Cook

The Benchwarmers

Smith took his draft picks and added one mega star (Brian Thomas) and a couple projects (Marvin Harrison and Rome Odunze), then spent a majority of his FAAB on the fantasy MVP Saquon Barkley which paid off big. Drake London, Jordan Addison, and Chase Brown were three Key Acquisitions last year that set him up for success this year. QB will be a question next year with Anthony Richardson not showing promise as a passer, but the late season move to get Baker could help alleviate those concerns as Smith shifts from rebuild to championship defense mode.

Way too early 2025 prediction: Repeat championship contender

Key Acquisitions:

Saquon Barkley

Brian Thomas Jr.

Marvin Harrison Jr.

Rome Odunze

JK Dobbins

Baker Mayfield

2024 Trade Chart:

Casey
Sent	Received
2024 Second (Ladd McConkey)	Rico Dowdle
Josh Downs	Baker Mayfield

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