EDITOR’S NOTE

At the dawn of my fantasy-playing days (around 1998 as I recall, which betrays my age), I huddled with 15 or so work colleagues in a friend’s drafty garage, a few primitive stat-sheet printouts in hand, and stumbled my way through my first fantasy draft. I don’t recall having anything resembling a strategy, but I’m pretty sure that filling my wide receiver slots was little more than an afterthought. These were the days of Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Marshall Faulk, after all, with Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Steve Young hot on their heels.

Of course, a crafty owner could have made hay with a strategic approach to the wide receiver position, as there were many value picks to exploit — among them, a rookie with a checkered past named Randy Moss who would go on to catch 17 touchdown passes that season, no doubt winning a lot of people a championship in the process. But I don’t recall much attention being paid to the position with the early picks (of course, there was an echo in that garage, and I may not have heard everything).

Flash forward two-plus decades, and the fantasy hobby has evolved right along with the game itself. In addition to online and virtual drafts and terabytes of useful data, fantasy owners are availing themselves of the riches at the hobby’s premium position these days — wide receiver. Elite talents like Justin Jefferson (our No. 1 overall pick this year), Tyreek Hill, Cooper Kupp and Ja’Marr Chase are first-round locks. It’s next to impossible to win a championship in 2023 without at least one elite wideout on your roster.

In his feature story “Rise of the Receivers,” SI fantasy analyst Michael Fabiano takes a look at this trend. A veteran of the fantasy game, Michael recalls as I do the days when running backs were first off the board and how receivers have overtaken them on the fantasy food chain in recent years.

It’s far from the only storyline that has our attention in our annual deep dive into the world’s greatest hobby. We like to think that our analysis will make you a better-prepared team owner in the high-stakes battle for pride (and, presumably, some financial reward).

Speaking of financial reward, wagering has taken its place alongside fantasy in enhancing the enjoyment of America’s pre-eminent sport. A new feature in this year’s magazine is our 20-page betting guide, and as with our fantasy analysis, we hope it makes you a better-educated and better-prepared bettor as another season approaches. Tips on enjoying a lucrative season and a detailed series of odds (current as of press time) from our friends at SI Sportsbooks are among the highlights, starting on p. 40.

Each fantasy season brings lessons, some of them hard but all of them valuable. Michael details dozens of such nuggets in his fascinating feature “99 Fantasy Facts from the 2022 Season.” You’ll enjoy this information-packed trip down memory lane.

As always, many thanks to fantasy analyst Matt Schauf for his tireless efforts in providing our player capsules, and a special word of thanks to my colleagues at Sports Illustrated for their help and support with this year’s magazine. Now take their hard work and go win a championship.