Reacting to My Hot Takes From 2025

(Nothing in this post was created using any sort of generative AI)

Just under a year ago, I posted my hot takes for the 2025 NFL season that focused on each team in our dynasty league. I am here to reflect on my hot takes, see which ones went well, what I completely missed, and what we can learn for next year.

Skattebeast - The Wide Receiver groups holds this team back from the Playoffs

Now we all know how this one went, but I don't think anyone could have predicted it. Skattebeast went 0-14 last season for the worst season in league history. I said the WR group would hold this team back from the playoffs, and in a way it did, but more things went wrong for them to have as bad of a season as they did. While already outlining those issues in the 'Pimp your Franchise' article, I will focus on the WR group here.

I started with Mclaurin and said that he had just signed a monster 3 year 96 million dollar contract. This was good for him and the team, but he had missed several weeks of training camp and practices due to holding out and ended up paying for it. He missed several games due to hamstring issues, only playing in 10 and putting up 582 yards. Him being in and out of the lineup and not being particularly good when playing certainly hurt this team

Khalil Shakir was solid again for fantasy with 10 games of at least 10 fantasy points. I noted that he was a really good player when you need a high floor, but his ceiling is always capped with him not being a target or YAC monster. Shakir topped out at 21.8 fantasy points is a really good showing for him but only 4 of his performances were 15 points or higher. Being a high floor guy has its value at times, but for a team that needed the ceiling, he was not the guy for them. After Week 12, Skattebeast ended up trading Shair away with Juwan Johnson for DK Metcalf and a future 2 and future 3. But only putting up 178 fantasy points in a season is not productive enough for a team that was trying to make the playoffs.

Jameson Williams was a guy I was completely wrong on. I thought that with so many coaches leaving the Lions (specifically Ben Johnson), Jared Goff would take a step back and in turn, everyone else on the Lions would too. Jameson heard that and had a career year. 65 receptions, 1117 yards, and 7 touchdowns (all being career highs). Between weeks 9 and 16, Jamo had 4 games of 20+ points, and averaged 19.4 points per game over that stretch. Jamo proved to be a fantastic NFL and fantasy wide receiver and was way better than I expected. A complete miss for me.

Lastly, I tempered expectations for rookie Tetairoa McMillan because getting too far ahead on prospects can only lead to disappointment (I hyped Marv too much). TMac was the X-Factor for this team where I said if he were to play well, Skattebeast should make the playoffs. TMac had a terrific 70 receptions and over 1000 yards for a really good rookie season, but it was not enough for this team (for various reasons). I had no real take about him in the original article other than he could only be a plus to the season, and he was one bright spot for them, but not enough.

In general, I'd say my take was okay. Mclaurin was surely disappointing, Shakir was pretty much as advertised, maybe a little worse (20 less points in 2025 than in 2024), Jamo exceeded expectations, and Tetairoa was really good. Can't really say the wide receiver group held the team back although losing 160 fantasy points from Mclaurin is pretty big. The team did miss the playoffs but not sure it was directly the WR group. I'd say this is a half win. Verdict: Sorta

CMC Revenge Year - Alvin Kamara and Davante Adams are top 10 at their positions (Bonus: Courtland Sutton is a top 15 wide receiver)

Big 3 in 1 take here with two players finishing in the top 10 at their position and one in the top 15. My reason for Kamara and Adams finishing in the top 10 boiled down to, they are both still good players and I didn't see much regression coming from either of them despite their ages. Sutton I thought would take a step forward with Bo Nix heading into his second season and hopefully Sean Payton opening up the playbook a little more for him.

Alvin Kamara finished as the RB46 this season after only playing 11 games and missing the rest of the season. This was his first bad season after 8 seasons of being a top 15 RB. This was a complete miss for me, Kamara played bad and maybe he's aging out of the NFL. Maybe I underrated the loss that All-Pro OT Ryan Ramczyk was.

Davante Adams finished as the WR11 this year just outside my prediction. Adams was an elite touchdown producer this year with 14 this year (2nd most in career), and added 60 catches for 789 yards. Adams ended up missing a few games late in the year with abdomen and hamstring injuries. I will take this as a win as if he played just one more game he would have easily been in the top 10 missing it by only 0.8 points. Adams still certified elite wide receiver

Funny enough Courtland Sutton ended as the WR10 this year just one spot ahead of Adams. Sutton had a good year scoring 242 fantasy points this year with 74 catches, 1017 yards, and 7 touchdowns. This was a significant hit for me as Sutton and Nix continued to build their chemistry as he significantly outperformed the top-15 prediction. Overall I'll give myself another half hit as Adams was only one spot away, Sutton was a hit, and Kamara was a significant miss.

Verdict: Sorta

Browns, Romans, Jeantymen - Amon-Ra takes a step back as this team misses the playoffs

As I mentioned previously, I predicted that Jared Goff would have a worse season with his genius offensive coordinator leaving to be the Bears head coach. With Ben Johnson gone, there were some early struggles, but Goff was the same player in just week two throwing for 5 touchdowns making me look silly. Goff ended up throwing for 4500 yards and 34 touchdowns and was the same guy this year, and it certainly translated to Amon-Ra. I said it was possible that Amon-Ra could finish outside of the top-10 for wide receivers, but he made me look stupid with ANOTHER top-3 finish (3rd straight) and a fantastic 354 fantasy points. This is a pretty simple one for me, it's a clear miss. While the end result was technically a hit as Browns, Romans, and Jeantymen did miss the playoffs, my whole reasoning on why that happened was a massive miss. I thought Amon-ra would take a step back and he was exactly the same player. Gonna give that a half hit. Bad Process, Good Result as they say.

Verdict: Sorta

Tony Dorset - Omarion Hampton and Treveyon Henderson struggle and finish outside the top 20

In my original article, I said that Hampton and Henderson would both disappoint. Hampton's struggles would be due to the offensive line struggling without Rashawn Slater. Slater is a multiple time pro-bowler and one of the two franchise tackles for the Chargers. Losing him on the offensive line (then Joe Alt during the season), was the major reason why I believed that Hampton would struggle in his rookie season. Now for Henderson, I was not sure if he could sustain a full workload over an entire season, since he could not do it in college and always shared the backfield. I was also skeptical of how Will Campbell would fare at tackle as a rookie.

Hampton finished as the RB35 putting up 152 fantasy points but a better 16.9 points per game (good for 13th among RBs). Hampton struggled to get into the top 20 of total points because he missed 7 games. But in those 7 games he was excellent (as seen by his points per game), and completely took over the backfield after returning from injury. I don't want to victory lap a take when the player got injured so this will be a miss because I thought his production would not be nearly as good as it was. Hampton was a terrific player when healthy and if it weren't for the injury, would have easily been top 20

For Henderson, his situation is a little different. His season definitely seemed disappointing when he didn't take over the backfield from Rhamondre Stevenson. Stevenson had a subpar season filled with fumbles that hurt the team, but Henderson always seemed to be in the dog house with Mike Vrabel. Speculating why that would be the case is just a waste of time, but Henderson still shined in the little playtime he got. And when Rhamondre missed a few games, Henderson showed just how good he really was. During the 3 games Rhamondre missed, Henderson averaged 25.8 fantasy points per game. Averaging a fantastic 5 yards per carry, Henderson was able to secure 227 fantasy points to land him exactly 20th among running backs. That was good enough for him to make me wrong about my take.

Verdict: Miss

Addicted to Coke - Terrance Ferguson will finish as a top 10 Tight End

This was a really bad one. I was really high on Ferguson during the draft cycle, probably due to my bias as an Oregon Duck fan. I thought that the Rams spending a mid 2nd round pick on Ferguson was a tell that they really liked him and would use him in the offence. Ferguson was NOT used in the system at all, only catching 11 passes for 231 yards and 3 touchdowns. Good for TE52 if you were curious. The TE that actually stood out for the Rams was Colby Parkinson but he finished with only 408 yards. The Rams offence was concentrated to just Puka Nacua and Davante Adams accounting for 2500 yards. I probably should have known the Rams would not spread the ball around as much as I thought they would. This was a massive miss on my end, I gotta be better for next year (Sadiq TE1 incoming).

Verdict: Huge Miss

PoohShiesty9 - Will Miss the Playoffs

PoohShiesty9 ended the regular season with the best record in the league getting the #1 seed for the playoffs as a big 'fuck you' to me predicting they would miss the playoffs. In my original article, I felt the team was due for some regression due to their weak running back and wide receiver depth. Starting with the running backs, I simply overthought the situations of Kyren Williams and Travis Etienne. For some reason, I believed that Kyren would be successful but Etienne would struggle to get playtime over Bigsby and Tuten, but anyways I was wrong on Etienne. He had a fantastic season finishing 10th among RBs in total points. The depth was still an issue with Chris Rodriguez, Ray Davis, and Roschon Johnson not providing help at all. Mid-season acquisitions of Derrick Henry, Rhamondre Stevenson, and David Montgomery were significant additions to the RB room and helped them to that 1 seed.

For the Wide Receivers, I believed that Tyreek Hill was washed, and the other players were question marks at best. Jerry Jeudy, Travis Hunter, and Cooper Kupp were all question marks in my mind and I didn't even mention Keenan Allen because I thought he was super washed. Allen was a good option as a flex player, Tyreek was solid until his injury, same thing with Hunter, and Jeudy was simply not on a good team. What I did not predict was Nico and Jefferson to be mid this year. The Texans and Vikings both had struggles getting the ball to their best player, for differing reasons, but managed to keep the team afloat to the 1 seed.

While my final take was wildly wrong I would at least like to point out that PoohShiesty9 was dead last in points against. They had the least points against in the entire league, and were average in points for. That is what some people would call "lucky" but in Fantasy Football that's just being good I guess.

Verdict: Miss

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day - Emeka Egbuka leads the Bucs in Yards and Receptions

Taking a rookie to lead a team in receptions and yards with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on the same team is quite a hot take. My reasoning was mainly due to the injury concerns surrounding Evans and Godwin. While Evans is Mr. 1000 yards, Godwin was returning from a dislocated ankle from 2024 and was about to miss a few games to start the season. I thought that Egbuka would get some early run in the slot, where he plays his best, and could co-exist with Evans to start the season. This would provide Egbuka with an early path to beating Evans in receptions and yards due to being a more reliable route runner in the slot than the traditional X-receiver was. I also believed this because in 2024, Godwin had out-paced Evans in receptions in yards prior to his injury so there was a history of the slot getting more usage than the X. This take was ultimately correct because Egbuka had a fantastic year, but also because Godwin and Evans both got injured during the season and missed time, which turned Egbuka into the number 1 receiver there. Alas this was a fantastic take

Verdict: Bang

Mahomies over Mahoes - Makes the Playoffs

I was quite high on this team coming into the season by saying I thought they would make the playoffs. Via the league voted power rankings, this team was ranked 2nd to last in the league BEHIND the team that went 0-14. I said this team would succeed for 2 reasons. Their consistent high floor players, and their schedule was on the easier side. I highlighted players from this team that I really liked coming into the season, Patrick Mahomes, Ashton Jeanty, Tee Higgins, George Pickens and Devonta Smith. 3/5 of these guys did not have the years I thought they would (for various reasons), but this team succeeded for other reasons. Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell combined to be a good duo, Michael Wilson had some insane weeks, Bryce Young was fantastic every other week, they traded for Chase Brown and he was really good, and Pickens had a breakout year.

The schedule was significant because they played the voted worst team in the league twice (me), but that didn't particularly help because we split those games. The team did have a few good wins that got them into the playoffs. Beat Njigbas in Paris, beat Tony Dorset, beat CMC Revenge Year twice. That's half the wins against playoff teams. A pretty good year for them that ended with their first playoff appearance.

Verdict: Bang

Njigbas In Paris - Isaiah Pacheco will be a top 10 RB

Yikes. We don't need to spend much time on this one. I thought he could be good with the lack of competition and hoped he returned to his pre-injury form that got him a top 15 finish in 2023. Brutally bad take by me.

Verdict: Huge Miss

Chase-ing the Dynasty - Jamarr Chase will repeat as the Triple Crown Winner

Early on in the season this looked like it would be a really bad miss. When Burrow went down, Jake Browning was really bad, then the Bengals traded for Flacco and the offence was still bad. But at least Chase was starting to get fed the ball. Chase ended up being 3rd in receptions, 4th in yards, and tied for 11th in TDs. Not terribly far off for two of those stats. But a pretty solid miss on my end. It was my hottest take after all. Maybe if Burrow was healthy the whole year, or Flacco was the backup all along this would be different.

Verdict: Miss

I hope you enjoyed looking back at my hot takes from last season to see how bad they were. The final tally was:

Huge Miss: 2

Miss: 3

Sorta: 3

Bang: 2

I think I did okay for them being hot takes. A couple big misses and a few regular misses are bound to happen when making the takes spicy. Few of them were correct but the reasoning was so wrong I couldn't give myself full credit, but two of them I was simply so bang on that's all I care about really. I hope to be better next season.