Honestly, I haven’t followed NFL salaries over the past few years so I can’t speak to whether players live up to their raises or not. The other day, I was chatting with a friend about baseball players and whether they follow up with acceptable seasons after cashing in on that first big payday.

With the NBA and NFL, the very best players are often not the Best paid at their position and it’s accepted practice. This is relevant because CeeDee Lamb just signed the second-highest deal for a non-QB in NFL history and I’m participating in my first Fantasy Football draft in decades. I know nothing about the guy-will he take the money and run or play like he’s on a one-year deal? I likely won’t draft him with my first pick, but it still matters.

Getting paid a boatload of money doesn’t equate with winning anyhow. It’s funny how fantasy sports really has nothing to do with real sports anyway, it’s just an inducement to get people to watch more games than they normally would. Assembling a fantasy team has little to do with assembling an actual MLB or NFL team even if real general managers operate that way. We’ve all seen professional athletes put up huge stats that mean nothing in the course of an actual game yet fantasy counts those meaningless points equally.

Despite the changes in the game (both real and fantastical), I’m looking forward to the upcoming draft and not because I’ll have a better idea what to expect from some players based on when they are drafted, but rather because of the changes in the system.

I’m not sure how many of us will be gathered in one spot, but I’m sure there will be enough gamesmanship to warrant a few pops.

When Rotisserie Baseball began in the 1980’s one of the defining characteristics was the limited budget each owner had to work with. Leagues decided upon a salary cap and each league decided what the buy in would be. I believe the was roughly $270 and owners might play .20 on the dollar. And rather than just paying the fee, the draft was an auction with owners throwing out players and bidding them up or not. It was more time consuming, but it was also more fun as one would have $5 remaining with four spots to fill.

In relative terms, guys like Lamb might not go immediately and then fetch only middling money. Some clever owners would throw out names with no intention of buying them, but rather they knew the guy would get a lot of attention and eventually go for too much money. Think of the Cubs bidding against themselves for Alfonso Soriano. Suffice to say, Scott Boras wouldn’t be welcome in my league.

If you were participating in a fantasy baseball league in 2025, who would be your first pick?