Good fantasy football team names are almost as important as good teams

With fantasy football draft season upon us, For The Win has been ramping up our coverage the last few days with things like sleepers and busts, injuries to know about and players to avoid at all costs. And we have more to come. But today I'm not here to help you build a good fantasy team. Today I want to impress upon you the importance of having a good fantasy team name.

A good name isn't easy to come by. Typically, you need the good enough fortune of drafting a player with a pun-able enough name to flip into something worthy of team-name status. Then, you have to be witty enough to come up with the pun.

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As someone who hasn't been as thoughtful with these things in the past, my teams are simply a flip of the now-beleaguered GM of my favorite team (shoutout to Low Down Dirty Schoen. 2025 is our year). But I have to admit, some of the names I've seen since my pivot to Joe Schoen in 2022 put my team to... Schoen (sorry, couldn't resist). Seriously, I'm envious of some of these clever puns.

Pin the Tail on the McConkey... I Dream of Jeanty... Mahomes Depot... come on man. Those are great. And it's even better when the pun is a flip of a player who's on the team. Which isn't always possible. Sometimes, you're just carrying over a name from a previous season. Regardless, a good name never stops being good.

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Now, with all that said, let's not get things twisted here. Winning is still the most important part of fantasy football. I'd take a championship as Team Grimes over a runner-up finish as I Dream of Jeanty. But you know what's better than winning? Winning with a cool name. And because only one person can win each year, most of us are going to be losers anyway. The least you can do is put on the fantasy version of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' creamsicle jerseys and lose in style.

Preseason fantasy studs

Week 2 of the NFL preseason wrapped with Monday night's game between the Washington Commanders and Cincinnati Bengals, which leaves just one more week of tune-up games before the real football begins. In the games we've seen, several players have stood out as potential fantasy impact players.

Caleb Williams, in particular, showed some really good things, Christian D'Andrea wrote:

"Williams looked like the Heisman Trophy winner he once was in a game-opening 92-yard touchdown drive capped by a 36-yard Olamide Zaccheaus catch-and-run.

In fairness, backups Tyson Bagent and Austin Reed also carved up a deficient Buffalo Bills defense to the point where Bills head coach Sean McDermott seemed appalled. But after a season where Williams showcased many of the same flaws that derailed Justin Fields -- too many sacks (nearly 11 percent of his dropbacks), an eagerness to ditch designed plays under relatively minor threats of pressure, iffy processing -- this was a step forward. With a proven offensive mind at the helm and a lineup of explosive skill players, Williams could thrive in year two."

Check out more of what Christian had to say about Williams and the other fantasy studs of the preseason.

Quick Hits: Rich Eisen back on SC ... Nnamdi Asomugha interview ... and more

• Rich Eisen was back on SportsCenter for the first time in 22 years, and his return included a heart-warming tribute to his late ex-partner on the show, Stuart Scott.
• Cory Woodroof interviewed former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha for his directorial debut, a film called The Knife.
• With the Commanders putting Brian Robinson Jr. on the trading block, here are 5 potential landing spots for the running back.
• Is Juan Soto overrated? At least one little leaguer seems to think so.

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This article originally appeared on For The Win: Fantasy football team names are almost as important as the roster