This is a new segment that Fifth-Down is bringing you. While this will still be football related, it won’t necessarily have anything specifically to do with this NFL season. It might be past stories, fantasy football related or other fun or funny topics. So let’s dive into the first ever edition of Monday Funday.

The J Team

As you all know, I love fantasy football. I am not necessarily all that good at it but I love to play and get others to play. The biggest example of this is the family fantasy football league I created called A House Divided. This is our 4th season playing. It is made up of myself, my wife, and my two kids along with siblings, nephews, and nieces. While we have had a solid 10 teams from the get go, the 11th and 12th spots have rotated a little bit. Now I feel confident that we have our 12 going forward. The last member I roped in last year, was my sister, Ruth. I had a whole big speech ready to give to her to make her our 12th member. But she already knew I was going to make her play and was ready to say yes.

I am lucky to have two siblings that aren’t just my brother and sister but are also two of my best friends. Besides a short stretch when I was in middle school and Ruth was in high school, we always got a long. She is a great person and arguably the smartest person I know. She can figure out all sorts of things out that I am incapable of. To give you an idea of how smart she is, do you remember when Sudoku was cool? My wife got me started on Sudoku when we were dating. I was much more interested in her than Sudoku. If she was into checkers, I would have been into checkers. But I digress. Anyway, Sudoku is this puzzle game where you have to fill in numbers. The books would go from easy to very difficult. If I completed a medium difficultly level one I would feel good about it. As I was doing Sudoku, I thought Ruth would love these. So I called her and said, hey have you ever done Sudoku. She said, yeah I did that a little bit but it is too easy. I said you mean the ones in the front of the book? She said all of them. I felt dumb but I am only dumb compared to Ruth.

I am fully confident that if Ruth applied herself to Fantasy Football she would dominate our league and whatever other leagues she wanted to. However, there is just one problem. She doesn’t care. I know that seems crazy. But Ruth does not care about football. And therefore, she doesn’t care much about fantasy football. She is just in the league because she loves me and is a good sister. But she will admit that last year she had more fun than she thought she would. But when she loses, it does not affect her life. But as with all things in life, Ruth finds ways to make things more interesting for her. She came up with a strategy for this season that is definitely unique to her.

Draft strategies are nothing new to fantasy football. There is Zero RB, Hero RB, Heavy RB (I’m not sure why most of the strategies revolve around the running back), QB early, QB late, and so on. But this is a strategy I am sure you haven’t heard of or used before.

My Sister texts me and says, I think I have a draft strategy for this year. This was of course intriguing. She says, I am going to draft players that all have names that start with the same letter. Now this seems sort of up surd to someone like me who studies football a ton. But it is the perfect strategy for someone like Ruth. It’s a way to have a strategy without having to do a lot of work. But is it even possible? Well of course this guy had to try.

I started with a mock draft and used her number 4 pick. The first time I did it I decided to pick whoever I would actually pick at 4 and then draft the rest of the team based upon that. I picked Breece Hall. So at that point, everyone else on my team’s last name had to start with H. Here was my starting lineup.

QB- Jalen Hurts, WR- Tee Higgins, WR-Deandre Hopkins, RB-Breece Hall, RB Najee Harris, TE-Hunter Henry, Flex-Khalil Herbert, K-Dustin Hopkins.

While that is not terrible, it’s not great and my bench was way worse. So I let Ruth know not to go with H. Ruth, being the smart person that she is knew a much better letter to use. She said I think J for all the first names would work. That made sense to me. So I had to dive in and do another mock draft with this strategy. It did mean that I would have to start by drafting either Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson earlier than I normally would at pick 4. Well you know, I wasn’t picking Chase because I hate him. I wouldn’t draft Chase in a real draft, I’m certainly not taking him in a mock draft. Plus it is bonus points for Jefferson since both his first and last name start with J. As I continued the mock draft, I realized not only was this possible it was actually possible to put together a pretty dang good team. As each round passed and each of my picks came up I got more excited about the team. This was my final team.

QB Jordan Love

WR Justin Jefferson

WR Jaylen Waddle

RB Josh Jacobs (double points again)

RB James Conner

TE Jake Ferguson

Flex Jayden Reed

K Jason Myers

Defense Jacksonville

Tell me you wouldn’t roll with this squad. But unlike the H team, the J team had a really solid bench. My bench was Javonte Williams, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jameson Williams, Jerome Ford, Josh Downs, and Jahan Dotson. I immediately let Ruth know that J is the letter to go with. Ruth was excited and even more excited that I had done her homework for her.

Then the actual draft came. While I was certainly excited about the draft for myself because I love the draft. I was excited to see what Ruth would do, how it would go in a live draft and would anyone else notice. She came up to draft and picked Justin Jefferson. In round 2 she grabbed Josh Jacobs. She’s off to a great start not only getting two players but earning double points for both first and last name starting with J. Round 3 comes around quickly and she picks up James Cook. While I love Cook and have him in another league, I thought she should have gotten Waddle and hope that James Conner is still there in the 4th. But because she didn’t she drafts Jayden Reed way earlier than most people would. This immediately works out for her in week 1 when Reed is one of the highest scoring receivers in the league. Round 5 she gets Javonte Williams who has been a disappointment but doesn’t ruin her team because of a great grab later in the draft. Next she goes Joe Burrow at QB. She rounds out her starting team picking Justin Tucker, Jonnu Smith, and the Jacksonville D in rounds 7-9. Then she got Jordan Addison in round 10. She got what looks to be a steal of the draft in JK Dobbins in round 11. In rounds 12-15 she grabs Josh Palmer, Josh Downs, Juwan Johnson and Jaylen Wright to wrap up her team. And my favorite part, I am pretty confident no one noticed.

So how is the season going? She is 1-1 and in 4th place and 3rd in points. Not too shabby. Now I do have some questions on how she will manage bye weeks and injuries. But so far so good. I got a text after week 1 that said I started J and I should have started J. And J is listed at questionable so I might have to put in J. A couple of Saturdays ago, she said, you know I might actually know their first names by the end of the season. If you look at the app it just says J. and then the players last name. So it does look like a bunch of Js. She changed her team name to the Jays and her logo is a blue jay. She has gone all in on the strategy. And this is how she made fantasy football fun for her. Certainly I am hoping to win the league but if I don’t, I got to say I am cheering for the Jays. It would be hilarious if this strategy didn’t just make her competitive but won her the league. It just might create a whole new strategy that sweeps the fantasy football nation. Which would be about right, for the smartest person I know to come up with a successful strategy that involves absolutely no knowledge nor any care about football. If anyone can pull it off, it’s my sister Ruth.