The star of our next article in the Cats of Fantasy Twitter series — Gracie!
The Cat
Kyle’s (@KBellf54) cat, an American domestic shorthair named Gracie, was found at his wife’s friend’s barn in a litter of kittens. Gracie had a sister, Tallulah, but sadly she really enjoyed eating non-food items and it tragically caught up with her.
We salute Tallulah as she mocks us all from the kitty afterlife. Gracie remained and became the family kitty. She is now fifteen years old and spends most of her days sleeping and begging for treats, truly enjoying luxury time as is her right as a member of cat society.
Gracie was a bit of a loner kitty when she was younger, she did her own thing and rarely showed her humans any attention. However, as she’s gotten older and more comfortable in her environment, that has changed. Now, she commands the humans in her domain with the power of one thousand suns.
Gracie will feel free to go take a nap on anyone looking even remotely tired or comfortable and her loudly demanding treats has become par for the course. Gracie enjoys playing with Kyle’s two daughters and they will occasionally dress the kitty up which I’m sure she really enjoys.
Curiosity (almost) killed the cat
Gracie actually did something that I’m always afraid my idiot cat is going to do and somehow lived through it no problem. When Gracie was around two or three years old she somehow snuck by everyone while the fridge door was open and got stuck inside. She was in there for a good couple hours with no one home to hear her protests from inside.
By a stroke of luck, Kyle decided to get a drink as the first thing upon arriving back home after a shopping trip and the second he opened the fridge door this crazy little furball bolted out of there and has never repeated the incident. Lesson learned.
I Sleeps
Gracie, like the vast majority of all cats of all kinds on this planet of ours, loves to sleep. The average cat will sleep up to 18 hours a day with an average somewhere between 12 to 16 hours for most. And as much as we’d like those 16 plus hours a day to be at night time when we are sleeping that’s usually not the case. Cats operate on a cycle called rest, hunt, eat, groom, sleep.
They repeat this cycle endlessly until the end of time. This rhythm to their day and lives is another genetic predisposition they are born with. This cycle allows them to be at their peak energy levels and alertness during low light hours at dawn and dusk which is when it’s best to hunt, another ancestral memory these little guys are born with and follow without question.
As humans we are awake throughout the day and sleep at night, for cats they prefer to be awake at night and sleep (conserve energy) during the day. They are crepuscular animals (most active at low light) and arrange their lifestyles to meet that need. Another factor that leads to cats sleeping far more than other animals is their carnivore diet.
In general, carnivores sleep more than herbivores because hunting takes far more energy than grazing does. This act of sleeping so much lets cats recover energy from the previous hunt and conserve energy for the next hunt. Despite us serving our little critters their dinner in a bowl or out of a can these behaviors are still a part of who they are.
Cats also sleep more with age, a kitten will sleep less than an adult cat and an older cat like Gracie will sleep far more often in general. From the age of eleven onwards the time spent sleeping each day for the average cat increases year to year.
This is a bit counterintuitive since they do tend to become less active in old age so the need to sleep to recover and conserve energy isn’t as necessary but still it’s a fact, the older a cat gets the more they sleep. Gracie naps with the best of them and Kyle is clearly a great cat dad. We know he’s welcomed into cat society and we wish him luck in this year’s cat league.
Gracie doing what she does best, sleeping
The Draft
Kyle with the homer pick here, no surprise there!
Offense
Kyle, a writer at footballguys.com and one of the original crew at idpguys.org, has been playing fantasy football for a long time and is pretty good at it. A Superflex, full IDP league with corners and DT/TE premium like this one was not something that caused him anxiety in the least. His offensive strategy was to secure two excellent quarterbacks since this was Superflex.
He ended up getting Lamar Jackson (QB) and Aaron Rodgers (QB) for an excellent combination of starters. From there he moved to another position of scarcity (QB is scarce in Superflex) in the modern fantasy landscape and secured a RB1 with Joe Mixon (RB).
The next three offensive picks were all at wide receiver with Tyreek Hill (WR), Mike Evans (WR) and Allen Robinson (WR). Between the possible week-winning performances that Hill and Evans are capable of and the solid weekly PPR production from Robinson he certainly did well in the wide receiver department.
Despite this being tight end premium Kyle decided to invest less capital in that position and went with Pat Freiermuth (TE) and Evan Engram (TE) for a couple solid options that will give him good enough production week to week.
I know Kyle and he’ll have his eyes on that waiver wire so even what appears to be a slight weakness is something that will be ironed out by the time playoffs come around, Kyle is another “Zombie”, only a headshot will stop him from heading to playoffs and challenging for a title.
He rounded out his offense with some nice shots at upside with Davis Mills (QB) for quarterback depth, AJ Dillon (RB) who is an Aaron Jones (RB) injury away from a monster season and Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR) who is coming off one hell of a breakout season last year with his sights set on an even better 22/23′ campaign.
Rondale Moore (WR) will certainly be a great option the first month or so of the season while DeAndre Hopkins (WR) cools his heel on the bench while suspended so that was another smooth move there as well. The offense looks good, let’s head over to where Kyle makes his real money.
Kyle, like many others in IDP land, is betting big on Gary this season
IDP
Kyle, like many others in this league, realized that true position flipped the traditional scarcity of certain positions and turned that traditional crippling anxiety into opportunity. He started by targeting those all import three down linebackers since getting defensive ends is much easier in this format.
He went with De’Vondre Campbell (LB) Cole Holcomb (LB), Cody Barton (LB), Bobby Okereke (LB) and Nicholas Morrow (LB) and ended up with a great mix of proven, solid studs and great upside guys. His depth at this position that is truly scarce in this format will guarantee him firepower throughout the season at a position where some will be scraping the bottom of the waiver barrel soon enough.
With the opportunity to wait a bit at defensive end with such a large player pool he was able to punt that position and still end up with Rashan Gary (DE), Harold Landry (DE) and Kwity Paye (DE). Up until a few hours ago (at the time of writing) that was amazing, but the Landry ACL injury has caused some trouble on that front.
Kyle will no doubt be able to recover and with Gary and Paye as his anchors, that position looks locked and loaded with high-upside youth. Kyle usually likes to get his cheek clapper supreme share (Aaron Donald DT) in defensive tackle premium leagues but unfortunately for him I’m also in this league and wanted him just a bit more. He still ended up with Kenny Clark (DT) and Chris Jones (DT) for two excellent veteran options that have been solid for years so no issues at that position.
In the secondary he went with Jayron Kearse (S), Taylor Rapp (S) and Brandon Jones (S) at safety for a good mix of high upside guys. And to be honest if those options don’t work there aren’t many others I would trust more than Kyle to be able to find solid options on waivers, he literally writes the articles others flock to for their own IDP waiver information so he’ll be fine regardless.
Kyle is a known corner streaming master and for week one he’s going with Marlon Humphrey (CB) in a game where the Jets will likely be a in a negative gamescript early and often and thereby forced to throw right into the waiting arms of Mr. Humphrey.
For his other CB option Kyle went with a homer pick in Jaire Alexander (CB). The matchup is correct, Minnesota in a likely shootout, and the talent and production have always been there for Jaire so that looks great as well. Overall this defense looks excellent all around and if for any reason it’s not I for one know that Kyle will be able to fix that nearly instantly.
Conclusion
Kyle took a smart approach to his draft and secured excellent options at the positions of scarcity on both offense and defense, the positions he punted are ones he’ll be able to fix or reinforce from waivers quite easily.
His team has talent everywhere it’s needed and despite the early Harold Landry (DE) injury Kyle has been doing this long enough that those bumps in the road are expected, planned for, and easily overcome. This team has playoffs written all over it.
Thank you for reading this entry in the Cats of Fantasy Twitter article series! There are more to come, as fast as I can get them out. A special thank you to @KBellf54 for joining me on this insane journey. Make sure you go check out his work, and we wish him luck in this years cat league.
Keep an eye out for the next installment in this series! It will be here as soon as I can write it, and Faith can edit it and send it. Until next time!
