While football has been popular for a long time, the spread of fantasy football and sports betting has increased the interest in the sport. A great example is the recent dispute in Major League Baseball that all started due to a fantasy football league.
Fantasy football simplifies the game down to basic numbers while creating competition in a variety of ways. Interestingly, sometimes fantasy football helps show trends in the sport as well.
For the Cleveland Browns, the 2022 offseason was primarily about upgrading the passing game with the addition of Deshaun Watson, Amari Cooper and David Bell while retaining David Njoku. For a while now, “defense wins championships” is no longer a true saying but a good passing defense is important.
Based on the data, seemingly strong run games are not necessary to win in the NFL either.
Interestingly, fantasy football backs much of that up as well. This data set is eye-opening:
If hunting for a WR ceiling breakout, make sure he is on team you believe can win/surprise.
Over the past 30 seasons…
6.1% of all PPR WR1 have come from a team with 4 or fewer wins.
18.1% from teams with 6 or fewer.
73.3% from teams with 8+
48.6% from teams with 10+
— Rich Hribar (@LordReebs) June 3, 2022
Almost three-fourths of top wide receivers come from teams that were at least .500 or better with almost half coming from teams with double-digit wins.
If the Browns are winning in 2022, Donovan Peoples-Jones or Cooper have a shot to be real contributors to a fantasy football team. Cooper’s presence may allow Peoples-Jones a chance to break out in his third year in the league after taking a step forward last year.