8/21/23 - Mitchell Ellison, BSL Sports Editor-in-Chief - Another day, another dollar spent on upgrading your Wide Receiver corp. Will it help? Will the injury bug be just a one-time thing you can spray with bug spray from the waiver wire, or will it be an infestation that ruins the entire foundation of your off-season plans? Those are the thoughts that go through all fantasy owners’ minds this time of year. The Blue Sky’s 3 leagues are no different. As we enter the 25th season of the Crazy Diamond League, the 20th season for the Four Star Daydream League, and the 18th Two Lost Souls League season, the questions are same as they were when each league first started. Hunches, stumbling into stars we didn’t expect, avoiding injuries, worse luck for your opponents… all these are big factors into how each season unfolds. We do not expect 2023 to be any different.
One thing we can all agree on is that there was one clear choice for the #1 overall college draft pick in each league this season. In previous years recently the choice hasn’t been so clear cut, but this season that was not at issue. Incoming rookie RB Bijan Robinson is already projected to be on par with several of the league’s top players at his position. His unique combination of size, speed, good hands and being on an NFL team that seems ready to use him to his full potential means that the teams that finished the lowest in the standings last season got a HUGE jump on rebuilding this year in their respective BSL leagues. The CDL’s New York Jints, FSDL’s Scarlet Widows and TLSL’s Bewildered Bruins all hope that Robinson is the key to moving from downtown to uptown. All we know is that it probably won’t hurt their chances. But Robinson wasn’t the only highly rated rookie this season. While overall this year’s draft class wasn’t quite as deep on paper as previous years, there are still several players expected to shine in coming seasons and as always there may be those unexpected gems that shine with a little polish.
The top of the class as rated by most experts include several WRs, in no particular order, WR Zay Flowers, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jordan Addison and the biggest target of this group Quentin Johnston. While size is nice, we have seen in the past several seasons that size isn’t everything… we are looking at you Kenny Golladay! This looks to also be one of the better Tight End drafts in a while if nothing else. Players like Dalton Kincaid and Michael Mayer feel like sure things while the likes of Sam LaPorta and Luke Schoonmaker could make 4 stand out TEs in this draft, which would be an anomaly. Tight Ends usually take more time to develop but we expect Mayer and especially Kincaid to come out of the box running. The biggest question marks for this year’s rookie class are the Quarterbacks. Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, C.J. Stroud… they all look good on paper and seem to land in places that could be good for their developments, but all have question marks and will most likely have growing pains, as most young QBs do. The 4th guy on the rookie QB list, Will Levis, is a complete mystery and one rookie QB will likely miss most of or all season after a late college injury could end up the best of them all potentially in Hendon Hooker. Ahh… the draft. Take a second to stop and smell the future potential disappointment in the picks you made and jealousy of that team that took that one guy right after you that you could have selected and won your league but didn’t. We love this time of year.
Well as we look forward to the 2023 season we will have more season preview articles in the coming weeks from our pool of contributors to the Occasionally Intermittent Bugle. We hope you stay with us through the course of the new BSL season, the CDL’s Silver Season! Hard to believe it has been 25 years since this upstart idea of ditching all the standard crappy online leagues and their stupid ‘team’ defense concepts for someone more robust and thought reliant but here we sit. 25 years in and still going strong. We want to specifically say thanks to all the original owners still with us from year 1! It’s been a ride, and the ride doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. Maybe the Jints will FINALLY see the top of the mountain with Bijan running out front… ok, probably not, but it’s fun to imagine!