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A new year is upon us, sports fans, and 2023 has already been historic. The dawn of the new year saw the Georgia Bulldogs rout the TCU Horned Frogs in the CFP National Championship game at SoFi Stadium to become back-to-back National Champions! The Sports Collectibles GameDay Auctions team was on-site in Los Angeles to witness the excitement. Stetson Bennett and team fought tough through the 2022 NCAA football season against many foes to come out on top. What a way to start the year for the Dawgs!

Let’s look back on some other FAN-tastic sports moments from 2022!

In the National Football League, the Los Angeles Rams started out the year as Super Bowl LVI Champions, beating the Cincinnati Bengals at the first big game played at the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. However, the ensuing 2022 season did not go as well for Matthew Stafford and the Rams. The Rams lost in the NFL Kickoff Game to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, who would go on to become season (and fantasy football) darlings in 2022. The 2022 season was noticeably missing some familiar faces that retired after the 2021 season including Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and longtime New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, five-time Pro Bowler Frank Gore and Georgia alum running back Todd Gurley, to name a few. Tom Brady announced his retirement in February of 2022 but then reversed the decision in March to come back to the Bucs to try to win one more ring. The Bucs had their ups and downs (as a Bucs fan I’ll admit, it was not the best season) but weren’t quite the same without Gronk and, despite making it to the top of the NFC South with stars like Mike Evans and Leonard Fournette. They lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round. The 2022 season saw Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs and Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles come out on top with the best records of the regular season. The Eagles have just been crowned NFC Champions and are headed to Super Bowl LVII in Arizona. At the time of publication, the Chiefs are battling Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals for the title of AFC Champions. The Bengals had a wild ride in 2022 with stars like Joe Mixon, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and Ja’Marr Chase. Can they make it to a second Super Bowl in 2 years? Time will tell.

2022 gave the Golden State Warriors their 7th NBA title with a win over the Boston Celtics. Steph Curry continues to dazzle on the court, now in his 14th season in the NBA. In hockey, the two-time defending champions, the Tampa Bay Lighting fought hard to try and win their third Stanley Cup in 2022 but were defeated in Game 6 by the Colorado Avalanche, who became 2022 NHL Champions. Mikko Rantanen and Nathan McKinnon led the Avs to a spectacular season and a hard-fought victory.

The 2022 World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between American League Champion Houston Astros and NL Champ Philadelphia Phillies. The Astros and series MVP Jeremy Peña defeated the Phillies in 6 games to win their second MLB Championship.

Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics and the Games made for great television during the cold winter month of February in the US. Snowboarder Shaun White made his last Olympics appearance, finishing fourth in the half-pipe before retiring at the age of 35.

Other top moments in sports from last year included the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with Argentina coming out on top and Lionel Messi winning his first World Cup Trophy. In the golf world, in April, golfer Scottie Scheffler won The Masters Tournament, taking home the coveted Green Jacket. Other golf majors tournament champions included Justin Thomas (PGA Championship), Matt Fitzpatrick (US Open) and Cameron Smith winning the coveted Claret Jug at the 150th Open Championship held at the historic St. Andrews course in Scotland.

With the NFL season winding down now at the end of January 2023, we await a new Super Bowl champion and so many more moments to come in the spectacular arena of professional sports. Stay tuned!

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This post is brought to you by Sports Collectibles Blog Dog Jackson!

– Jackson is a rescue dog born and raised in Florida. He loves watching NFL football with his pop-pop and college football with his GiGi when he visits her in Ohio. He doesn’t love that his mama has to travel often for her job as Director of Marketing for Sports Collectibles but he looooooves to greet her with big smiles and a helicopter tail when she comes home!

Every single day that passes by in the NFL Preseason, fantasy managers across the country are getting more and more excited to draft their fantasy team. The wide receiver position has blossomed into one of the most dominant position groups to target earlier in a draft.

Some of the top-end fantasy receiver talent on a week-to-week basis has a higher upside for fantasy managers than running backs, especially in the popular PPR formats. The high-end wide receivers even have a more consistent production record than running backs which can give you one less headache to deal with all season. We will be highlighting some of the best receivers to draft in your league this year.

The top receiver this season is Los Angeles Rams current Triple Crown Winner Cooper Kupp was absolutely unstoppable last season and won plenty of fantasy football championships for his fantasy managers. Kupp is easily the top receiver going into this season as well. While he may not win the receiving Triple Crown again, he will be putting up monster numbers in a pass-heavy Sean McVay-coached Rams offense. There are a couple of questions this season with how Cooper Kupp’s target share will look with newly acquired Allen Robinson II and quarterback Matthew Stafford’s elbow soreness. Even with these questions, Kupp looks like a clear cut WR1 and worth a top 5 selection in your fantasy football draft.

There is some debate on the second-best receiver in the fantasy football community. However, we believe that the next best receiver you should be looking at is former LSU Tigers standout and reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Ja’Marr Chase. The Cincinnati Bengals made an unbelievable Super Bowl run thanks in large part to their stud receiver Ja’Marr Chase. He played with Joe Burrow at LSU and has brought that same type of success to the NFL. As a guy who can win any 1-on-1 matchup he is an elite WR1 option. He is helped by the fact that defenses have to respect his receiving counterpart Tee Higgins as well as their terrific wide-zone running game led by Joe Mixon. While having all these additional weapons usually gives fantasy managers pause when spending a top pick on a player given their target share won’t be as large, Chase has show everyone that he can provide excellent production as a WR1. Look for Ja’Marr Chase anywhere in the top 8 selections of your fantasy draft.

Other former LSU Tiger and current Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson is the next best receiver after Kupp and Chase. He also played with Chase and Burrow on that amazing 2019 LSU Tigers National Champions team. While Chase has shown out in the one year he has played, Justin Jefferson has done that over the past two seasons with the Kirk Cousins-led Vikings. Just like Chase getting help with lots of talent, Jefferson also has a star-studded surrounding cast. The other offensive weapons that defenses must worry about covering are fan-favorite Adam Thielen and another top fantasy pick in Florida State Seminoles alum Dalvin Cook. If you are seeing a theme here, it is that these two receivers are incredibly close in fantasy rankings because their situations are incredibly similar. We gave Chase a slight edge, but also look to grab Jefferson in those top 8 picks of your fantasy football draft.

Another top receiver is Los Angeles Chargers player Keenan Allen. While there might be plenty of picks in between our top three receivers and Allen, we assure you that it will be worth the wait. Allen has consistently put up big seasons for fantasy managers everywhere. With a young star quarterback in former Oregon Ducks standout gunslinger Justin Herbert, Allen is looking at another top 10 fantasy campaign on the horizon. Like Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase, Keenan Allen is helped by an excellent surrounding crew in newly re-signed Mike Williams and another top fantasy running back in Austin Ekeler. Allen has plenty of history for fantasy managers to look at and realize this is a WR1 type you can get in round 2 or 3 if you use your early picks on a couple of running backs or get one of the top two tight ends. (Read our Fantasy Tight End 1 Article here.)

The last wide receiver we are looking at is our favorite sleeper pick in former Florida Gators standout Kadarius ‘Yung Joka’ Toney. Toney won’t be going in the top 7 or 8 rounds in any fantasy draft but we believe this could be a big season for him. He is one of our favorite breakout candidates going into this season. While Toney might not be his team’s top wide out, he showed flashes of greatness last year against the Dallas Cowboys. Putting up 189 yards receiving with ten catches certainly gave him WR1 potential. That may not happen on a week-to-week basis, but he has the capability to put up the type of scores to make him a late-round steal after round 8 in fantasy drafts. If Daniel Jones and the rest of the New York Giants offense can put it together, Toney could easily become a top 15 fantasy receiver if he reaches his full potential.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our other 2022-2023 Fantasy Football Draft Advice Blogs here. Follow our blog for the best 2022-2023 NFL Fantasy Football News and Tips throughout the season.

Find all of the best NFL Wide Receiver Authentic Autographed Memorabilia at SportsCollectibles.com like autographed helmets, autographed jerseys, autographed footballs and more!

This fantastic Fantasy Football Advice Post was brought to you by Sports Collectibles Blog Dog Barkley!

-Barkley is the ultimate NFL Fantasy Football Superstar. He loves watching football with his mom and dad along with long walks and lots of treats!