THE GENESIS LEAGUE: FINALE
Welcome back to the final roundup of LeagueDAO’s first ever fantasy football league, The Genesis League. The past 17 weeks have featured head-to-head battles between some big ballers with many of the matchups coming down to one play. As we reflect on the season, it’s important to note that this is just the beginning — much more to come so don’t forget to see what’s next toward the bottom of the roundup. Check out who had major performances and the final results of the playoffs, revealing the king of The Genesis League.
QUARTERBACK HEROES
Joe Burrow was a man on a mission this past Sunday, dialing in for one of the best games of his career. Burrow tallied 446 yards and threw 4 touchdowns to lead his Bengals to a clutch win over the red-hot Chiefs as time expired. Russell Wilson has had a less than desirable season but he resembled his former self on Sunday; Wilson led the Seahawks to a blowout victory, throwing for 236 yards and 4 touchdowns. Though they won’t be dancing come postseason, the Seahawks came up big. A familiar face we’ve seen on this list before — Tom Brady had another Brady game. The veteran quarterback recorded 410 yards and threw 3 touchdowns in Tampa’s theatrical victory over the Jets (Thanks, Antonio Brown). Last but not least, Mac Jones of the New England Patriots had his finest game of his career — the rookie had 227 yards and 3 touchdowns to help the Patriots find their footing again in a blowout 50–10 win over the Jaguars.
RUNNING BACK HEROES
Yet again, there were numerous big-game performances from running backs all over the league. At the top of the list, Rashaad Penny stepped up in Seattle’s victory on Sunday — Penny broke loose for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns. Najee Harris put up similar numbers for the Steelers on Monday night, running for 188 yards and scoring a touchdown. While they had the best stat lines, running backs like D’Onta Foreman and Jonathan Taylor made their impacts too with each player rushing for over 100 yards and scoring a touchdown. If you think that’s impressive, the list of Darrell Williams, Devin Singletary, David Montgomery, and Rhamondre Stevenson all took it another step further — each player ran for 60+ yards and scored 2 touchdowns a piece. It seemed like every game had at least one running back who stuffed the box score, and the stats back that up.
WIDE RECEIVER HEROES
Talent runs deep in the NFL and we saw the proof in week 17. Ja’Marr Chase had what was the greatest performance amongst wide receivers in the 2021–22 season. Chase and Burrow’s connection was on full display on Sunday as the rookie lit up the Chiefs for 266 yards and 3 touchdowns. Chase’s rookie campaign has been nothing short of excellence and has cemented his status as a premier receiver in the league. Not bad for a rookie. Following Chase, DK Metcalf was available all game for Seattle as the Seahawk hauled in 63 yards with 3 touchdowns in his best game of the year. Familiar faces here, Davante Adams and Cooper Kupp displayed their reliability; Kupp finished with 95 yards and a touchdown while Adams logged 136 yards and a touchdown. We can expect both players to be key targets heading into the playoffs, vital to where their squads will finish the year.
TIGHT END HEROES
Not too much to talk about here — Noah Fant and Rob Gronkowski had solid showings in week 17. Fant had 92 yards and scored a touchdown for the Broncos. Despite a slow season for Denver, Fant has been one of the more reliable TE’s all year. Gronk, though he’s in the latter half of his career, still proves to be a dangerous threat with Tom Brady. The future hall-of-fame TE had 7 receptions for 115 yards in Tampa Bay’s win on Sunday, and between injuries and the loss of Antonio Brown, you can expect Gronk to step up even more come playoffs.
ROUNDUP
17 weeks later and LeagueDAO’s first ever fantasy season, The Genesis League, has finally come to an end. 60 teams competed all year long and in the finale, only a few can be winners. Weekly scoring leaders were paid out $1,000. Divisional winners will receive a major payday (38k each), while the top 2 scorers amongst divisional winners will walk away with the biggest bags and even bigger bragging rights. How big? 100k and 66 worth of bragging rights. You can find the results of the league championship in the graphic below — big shoutout to NomNom and Run GMC for placing 1st and 2nd respectively, as well as the winners from each division!
WHAT’S NEXT?
As The Genesis League has concluded, LeagueDAO is already working on what’s next. As stated before, fantasy football is just the tip of the iceberg. Coming soon, our Fantasy Basketball season with Nomo Player tokens will be launching. Between randomized mints and free agents, community members and participants will be able to mint and stake players to earn weekly rewards based on real-life performances. Just imagine minting a triple-double machine like Luka Doncic or stat-sheet stuffer like LaMelo Ball — and then earning additional rewards for it. This is just one of the many things in the pipeline for LeagueDAO. Stay tuned fellow Degen, you won’t want to miss what else is in store for 2022.
