In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Guillotine Leagues:

It’s, fortunately, a fairly quiet week on the injury front as we approach Wild Card Weekend.

Jalen Hurts and Amari Cooper both returned to practice yesterday while Zay Flowers missed his second straight practice, and … that’s about it.

That means we are biding our time until kickoff in other ways, like with way, way, way too early 2025 rankings and indulging the latest Bill Belichick rumor …

That’s right, despite recently signing a massive $50 million contract to coach UNC for the next five years, rumors are swirling that Bill might hit the Tar Heels with a “psyche!” and back out of his deal.

The rumors stem from a report yesterday that multiple teams, including Tom Brady on behalf of the Raiders, have inquired about whether Belichick would reconsider his move to College Football.

It seems crazy on the surface, but an out clause in his contract allows for a $10M buyout if he decides to leave before June 1 and a $1M buyout if he leaves after June 1.

The $10M will hardly be a deterrent for a team interested in landing one of the greatest coaches of all time, so there is legit smoke to this fire.

Belichick, who is clearly committed to the youth of America, is denying the rumors for now.

We’ll keep you posted …

WILD CARD WEEKEND PLAYER PROJECTIONS

 

Time’s running out!

Registration for CHOPionships end on Jan. 12.

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Way-Too-Early 2025 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: Predicting Round 1

by Ian Hartitz

Is it too early to discuss what a 2025 fantasy football first-round might look like? Yes.

Will that stop us from doing exactly that? No!

Presenting: A way-too-early 2025 fantasy football mock draft … specifically the first round. We'll assume full-PPR scoring and one-QB leagues. Cool? Cool.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

2025 Fantasy Football Mock Draft - Predicting the Top-12 Picks

1.01: Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase

2024 PPR Finish: WR1

The triple-crown winner is as talented as any WR in the world, led the NFL in targets despite sharing the field with Tee Higgins (free agent), and gets to run routes for arguably the best pure passer in the game in Joe Burrow. Only Lamar Jackson (25.3) averaged more PPR points per game than Ja'Marr Chase (23.7) last season; the 24-year-old WR combines a sky-high weekly floor with bigger boom potential than just about anyone in the league.

Hopefully, the Bengals do their No. 1 WR right and sign him to the sort of big-money deal he deserves. (Another) holdout of sorts looks like the only thing capable of dropping Chase down the 2025 ranks.

REST OF ROUND 1 OF THE WAY-TOO-EARLY MOCK DRAFT

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

The latest fantasy nuggets, silliness, and NFL gossip from our merry band of football nerds:

🤔 Lamar, Allen, or Hurts the first QB off the board? See what order they go in this Guilloteenie Mock Draft.

😡 Travis Kelce ain’t scared of the Bengals. He sounds off on a rumor.

🪓 Playoff contests are live. Get up to speed on the Guilloteenie and the CHOPionship.

🤫 A sneaky betting idea for the Packers game. Ulrich with the alpha.

🐎 Bo Nix, I was not familiar with your game. He’s ready for Buffalo.

🏈 Coach Gene delivers his picks and predictions for the College Football Playoff Semifinals.

Mapping Out The CHOPionship

by Geoff Ulrich and Matt LaMarca

The CHOPionship is a different beast. There is no draft, and you’ll instead build a 14-player roster entirely of your own choosing. That includes eight starters and six reserves, but that’s all you get for the duration of the playoffs. You’re also capped at a maximum of three players per NFL squad, so you can’t load up on a team like the Chiefs or Lions and hope to ride them all the way to the Super Bowl. 

That means that the maximum number of players that you can have available during the Super Bowl is six.

What is the best way to maximize your roster allocation? Let’s dive in.

Buffalo Bills

After the Chiefs, there’s a slight step down to the next tier. Buffalo is +300 to win the conference, which translates to an implied probability of 25%. However, Buffalo will take the field in the Wild Card round, and it will also be playing at home in the divisional round. That makes them one of the strongest teams to target overall.

That starts with Josh Allen, who is arguably the best quarterback in fantasy. He should be an extremely popular choice in this contest, as should James Cook at RB. After that, guys like Khalil Shakir, Amari Cooper, Keon Coleman, and Dalton Kincaid will be in contention for the third spot.

There’s no doubt that the Bills will be a popular choice, and having lineups built around them making the Super Bowl makes tons of sense if you’re building multiple lineups. However, if you’re only building one team, I feel more comfortable building around the Chiefs in the AFC, who have a significantly easier road. Grabbing a standalone player like Cook, Shakir, or Kincaid is viable, but unless you think the Bills can beat the Ravens and Chiefs in back-to-back weeks, you should look elsewhere for stacking purposes.

Los Angeles Rams

If I’m building lineups without Detroit, I’m 100% loading up on the Rams in their place. 

The Rams play in a dome vs. the Vikings in Round 1, and if they get past them will play in Detroit in Round 2, where they’ll have a chance to knock out the proverbial favorites and throw the CHOPionship on its head. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but Los Angeles has played Detroit extremely close in each of their last two meetings. 

Approaching them for drafts is fairly simple as well. Puka Nacua and Kyren Williams are musts and while I expect Nacua especially to be popular, the Rams being underdogs in Round 1 means that their ownership as a whole won’t be through the roof. Williams is one of my favorite RBs to target in general, as Blake Corum is out for the playoffs and Williams was already handling 20+ carries a game with Corum in the lineup. 

If you’re not filling out a three-man Rams stack with Matthew Stafford, then Demarcus Robinson has the kind of big-play ability that could prove vital should the Rams get into the Super Bowl. In that case, having a low-owned option like Robinson would help set your lineups apart for the final round. 

REST OF THE ROAD MAP TO BUILDING A WINNING CHOPIONSHIP ROSTER

Welcome back! As always, here is the answer to yesterday’s question: Lamar Jackson has not thrown for three touchdowns and rushed for two more in the same game. Talk about an exclusive group if he can’t get in.

Now … onto today’s Fantasy Life Trivia question:

With the Broncos clinching a postseason spot on Sunday, they officially snapped the second-longest active postseason drought (eight years). What is the only team with a longer current streak?