Fantasy Football 2018: Early Cheat Sheet for Choosing Best Team Names

For some, the process of finding a fantasy football team name is more important than fantasy football drafts themselves. 

The naming process can be more complicated than a draft, too. Plenty of tools help fantasy football owners along when it comes to the drafting process, compiling rankings, past stats and projections to form boards. 

Owners are left to their own devices when naming a team. 

Similar to rankings during drafts, though, a certain mixture of resources should go into a quality team name. Whether it's current events on or off the field, callbacks to songs or movies and more, nobody wants to be the winner of a fantasy league who has a terrible team name—so here's a cheat sheet of some of the newer team name ideas to know. 

Team Names Cheat Sheet

• Baker's Dozen
• Shake it Goff
• A Kiss from a Rosen
• Hartline Bling
• Game of Jones
• Julio Think You Are?
• All About That Bosa
• Dude, Where's Derek Carr?
• 13 Reasons Ajayi
• Mixon, Mix-off
• Make AmariCarr Great Again

The arrival of Baker Mayfield at the NFL was always going to create some interesting team name possibilities, hence Baker's Dozen. 

Cleveland Browns fans or otherwise, Mayfield has a versatile name to work with, and it helps he's got one of the better personalities in the sporting realm already. While he might not beat out Tyrod Taylor for a starting job, he was still dominant a year ago at Oklahoma, and fans aren't going to forget about his collegiate heroics anytime soon. 

Elsewhere at quarterback, Jared Goff looked like one of the biggest busts in recent memory over seven games during his rookie year with the Los Angeles Rams. Now, not so much: 

Goff topped off his impressive turnaround in his sophomore season with 3,804 yards and 28 touchdowns against just seven interceptions, so Shake it Goff is quite the apt team name. 

A Kiss from a Rosen is a little more obscure, but the new Arizona Cardinals quarterback could be a future star after being a top-10 pick. If he beats out Sam Bradford for a job, owners might look great for jumping all over this one. 

Game of Jones, of course, refers to Atlanta Falcons wideout Julio Jones and one of the most popular books and television series in modern history. Jones has a way of pulling at the heartstrings just like the show after his disappointing 1,444 yards and only three touchdowns a year ago. 

Speaking of popular television shows, 13 Reasons Ajayi isn't a hard one to figure out. This name doubles in efficiency because Philadelphia Eagles running back Jay Ajayi is quietly one of the better sleeper adds this offseason. With LeGarrette Blount out of the way, Ajayi could function as something close to a workhorse in one of the league's most powerful attacks—giving owners plenty of reasons to choose the name. 

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

While on the topic of potential breakout running backs, Mixon, Mix-off clearly refers to Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon. He showed flashes of promise a year ago behind one of the league's worst offensive lines, so upgrades there and Jeremy Hill out of the way could equate to a top-10 season at the position. 

Rounding out the cheat sheet with a little fun is Make AmariCarr Great Again, a reference to the Oakland Raiders duo in need of a revival under the guidance of new head coach Jon Gruden. Derek Carr only threw 22 touchdowns a year ago with 13 interceptions, tied for a career high. Top wideout Amari Cooper only had 680 yards and seven touchdowns, down from 1,153 and five the year prior, respectively. 

As owners can see, some of the tickets to surefire must-see names include wrapping in some sarcasm with underperforming players, quality entertainment references with potential breakouts and a few other off-field items for good measure. It's important to get it right, as even the last-place finisher in a league can come out ahead if every participant remembers their brilliant team name instead of the performance itself.