Bonus Episode! 10 Things to Remember for 2024 - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/10
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Hey, Foot Clan, Andy here, and we've got a surprise for you. It's a weekend release of a little bonus episode. In fact, a blast from the past. Every year we record a 10 Things to Remember episode. In fact, we recorded one on February 29th this year with 10 things we wanted to remember from the past season of fantasy football, and we thought it would be a great time to give you a bonus episode, release it this weekend.

and remember exactly what we remembered from the 2023 fantasy football season. We thought it would be helpful, so we're going to give you an abridged version of that episode starting right now. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in.

Excited to have you with us, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Jason Moore, Mike, the Fantasy Hitman Wright. I'm Andy Holloway. Welcome in one and all. We've got a fun show. The 10 Things to Remember episode. Fresh off of a, as far as I'm concerned, fantastic season of fantasy football.

Oh, great year. Great year, right? Great year for the show, great year for me personally. Yeah, I mean, just I had a good time. So there's lots to remember. I mean, Jason, you probably remember the playoffs. I remember my championship. I think Papa Josh. What in 2022? When was that? Papa Josh, you probably remember a lot from this past year too, right? I mean, you had a good time. It was a great time, except for the ending. Yeah, so we're doing our 10 things to remember. Jason, did you...

Did all of your items this year on the show, as we count them down later, did they all come from your little black book?

Um, yeah, basically this, this year, uh, it was one of those things where I wanted to remember them in the moment. Cause we never, we were all goldfish other than Mike. Uh, right. Mike, that's why I don't even remember your championship from 2022. Right. Thank you. Um, you know, so it's like when I, when I see these lessons, in fact, one of the things that I am bringing up today was something I told Brooks on the show mid show. I was like,

Hey, Brooks, you got to remind me to bring this up on the things to remember because it was a lesson we had learned. And I'm like, this is something I can't forget. I forgot all about it. So Brooks brought it up. Brooks brought it up because that was his job. He was ordered to do it and he obeyed well. And so, yeah, thank you, Brooks. So, Jay, when you are post-mortem, we'll put it that way, is your little black book going to be the thing that's auctioned off?

Yeah, probably. Probably. You know, like the celebrity stuff. Is it just numbers and stats and little notes? Little love notes. Do you have some memoirs in there? No, it's all... I got one for you. Okay. Today I traded CeeDee Lamb for Jalen Waddle. Was that in there? No. Less of a diary. Okay. It's just pictures of stick men. Yeah. There's nothing in that book, man. Oh my gosh. That's the great...

Trick, all these years later, you've never written anything in it. No one has ever actually seen inside, so you don't know what the contents are. And someday after I die, you're going to go over there and you're going to open the book and you're going to turn page by page and you're going to say, this book is empty. These are all blank pages. There's literally nothing in this book. Just a few Braveheart quotes in there. Let's jump in. Let's go.

don't forget to remember these things all right well this should be fun i'm looking forward to uh hearing what you guys have in store i have not previewed any of your different things to remember number 10 number 10 quarterback loyalty gets you zero fantasy points and um

That was really, really true this year. It's something to remember moving forward. Because last year we saw a resurgence in a willingness to draft some quarterbacks early. We had just come off the Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes year, and it kind of reminded me of Aaron Rodgers had a ton of seasons at number one, and so he felt completely...

Sure thing where you would draft him for a number of years in fantasy. So there was some willingness last year, but I'm going to tell you right here, right now, if you draft a quarterback early or even in the middle of the draft, it is very natural to feel like you are committed to that player. You're drafting a onesie position, so you only start one quarterback if you're not in super flex. And

A lot of times, you know, we spend months preparing for our drafts and we think we have conviction about a certain player and we take them. And if you take them at quarterback, you're naturally taking a big name, right? These are the headline makers in the NFL. They're the ones that make or break games. And so, you know, even if you're taking a Justin Herbert and he's the sixth quarterback off the board, that's a big name. You feel committed to those players this year.

Patrick Mahomes was the number one quarterback off the board. He was the quarterback 19 from week eight on. Now, Josh Allen was great. Jalen Hurts pretty good, although it slowed down at the end. Lamar Jackson was the quarterback 17 for a six-game stretch. Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert both got hurt. Justin Fields missed time. Trevor Lawrence was not good. Deshaun Watson missed time. And was not good. And was not good.

If you show loyalty to players at the quarterback position for too long, you cost yourself. People won championships this year with Dak Prescott, who really didn't start the year well at all, was a 10th quarterback off the board in the late eighth round,

And there were a lot of people hesitant to move on from players that they drafted. I mean, Russell Wilson was somebody that was a relatively interesting pick for people to make, you know, last year. And if you had been loyal to Russell Wilson last year, when you saw things going downhill in Denver, he was that,

cautionary tale then. This year you had a number of those guys. Trevor Lawrence I think would fit that mold a lot. He ended the year so strong and people were probably starting Trevor Lawrence too long. Yeah, I think the best example from this last year of remember this for next year

that things don't stay the same at the quarterback position, is the Dak Prescott and Tua conversation. Because the first five weeks of the season, once you're five weeks in and you're going into week six, you feel like you understand everything. You feel like, oh, I got it. I know who's what's what. And Tua was, like, locked in. Every week, you've got to start him. He was the quarterback five. Dak, worthless. He was the quarterback 21. It's like you can't.

You know, we know. We know how this season's going to end. Tua's a superstar and Dak sucks. And then if you played that out and you just stayed put and you had the loyalty, the brand loyalty to the quarterbacks that started hot or that you drafted high, it did not work out outside of Josh Allen. Right. And even Mahomes, right? It wasn't just these later picks like Tua and Dak. Like Mahomes...

was the hardest on people. Yeah. Because you felt completely stuck. I know that, you know, a lot of people that had Mahomes also had CJ Stroud, right? They picked him up off of the waiver wire and then it was like, well, I'm never going to start him over Patrick Mahomes. Like, loyalty to the quarterback position year after year, unless you hit on the one or two guaranteed MVPs of that year, which do fluctuate, right? It was Lamar, but how many years have we had

undo loyalty to Lamar that actually cost you. I mean, the first two years after his MVP campaign, people started him no matter what, and they literally lost games because of it. So have a willingness, I would say. It's not a necessity that you pivot because of one bad game. I'm not saying that. I'm saying have a willingness to

and have a loose grip on the quarterback you draft, be willing to play the field, and when you see these offenses change and become better, believe maybe a little bit that you can play those guys. Yeah, hit the number. Number nine. I'm going to move one of mine around because it kind of piggybacks on what Andy was talking about. I'm saying for this one, don't get cocky.

Your team always, always has to get better. And what I'm saying in there is sometimes there are moves that you need to make that are not your typical move where you're

We don't – resource management of fantasy football. I don't like to roster two quarterbacks. I don't like to roster two tight ends. You're saying don't get cocky with the team that you have. Yeah, even if you're having success. And because there could be players out there available for you that you feel like, my team is good. I don't need that player. I don't – and again, to piggyback here is –

I had the inverse of what the successful quarterback move was. I had Tua. I traded for Tua when things were looking good. And I talked on this show about my belief that Dak Prescott was about to go on a huge run because the schedule looked so fantastic for him. Dak was sitting on my waiver wire, and I –

believed to my core of all my analysis that, no, Dak is going to go on a run, but I don't need him because I have Tua. I don't need to go pick up Dak and...

That was idiotic. I should have made, if nothing else, to block my opponents from getting a quarterback who I think is about to be fantastic. Thank you for not remembering that. You're welcome. I had one of those, Mike. I had a guy that was on fire. He was catching fire four weeks in a row. Looked like the real deal. His name was Josh Downs.

And you made me a very easy trade offer to get Michael Pittman for very cheap. But your team was good. You didn't need to do it. I did not need to do it. I was solid. And had I done it, I think... Your season looks a lot different. My season looks a lot different. Sometimes that is...

I should have just picked up the second quarterback. It's not a move I normally make, but I need to be prepared. More and more, I'm getting comfortable with the idea of leaving my draft with two tight ends. Just for week one, have a guy that I believe in this player, and then maybe a player where... Let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. Let's talk about the beginning of the season. We did a...

and this is not supposed to be a full toot-toot thing, but we always do an undrafted gems. Like guys to look out for, they might be on your waiver wire after the draft is already over. And I'm like, dude, Jake Ferguson and Sam Laporta, both of their schedules to open are basically the number one and number two tight end schedule with the data we have. And both of those players went on to be really important and got off to pretty good starts.

And it's your team is not as good as you think it is. It takes one tiny thing to go wrong. And if you're not prepared and on already making moves and things for it, please. I was just gonna give you another example, which is like a perfect example would be somebody who started the year with Kenneth Walker and Travis CTN as their two running backs.

it would be easy to say, I got it figured out at the running back position and not add or not build some depth behind them, and then boom. And that's my kind of final point here is talking about your fab or your waiver priority. You too often, you as I'm talking about myself as well, I'll look at my roster, well, I really need

I've got to figure out this wide receiver problem I have. I'm so good at running back, I'm not even worried. But the top two pickups of the week, say, are running backs. And then I don't go hard after them because I think I'm good at that position. And someone else gets Kyron Williams in week one, just as the easiest example, because you think you're good. I don't need to go after Kyron. And that was...

an incredibly bad mistake because it just takes one injury to one of your two starting running backs and you're not it don't get caught up and just don't don't get overwhelmed and fall in love with the smell of your own farts looking at your roster always be trying to improve it yeah it is uh it is one of the great illusions of fantasy football

That what you're staring at, that perfect, beautiful specimen of a roster in week four, that's 4-0. The greatest illusion is that you are going to get to see what that team will do in the playoffs. Yes. Because it doesn't happen. It almost never happens. I cannot remember a team. I mean, my dynasty team last year.

We were talking about how lucky I was getting with injuries week 10, 12, 13, and the shoe finally dropped. It is a good thing to remember that when the roster looks nice, take a picture, but it's not going to last very long. Prepare yourself. Number eight. This one's called... Smell your own farts. Good ain't bad. That's right. Good ain't bad. Remember that. Young stud players...

who have proven themselves on the NFL field. They came out and they're like, wow, they're really good. They're sensational. They are not going to go away just because the team brings in depth and more talent. And that's a lesson I needed to learn from this last year, specifically to two players you just mentioned, Andy, Travis Etienne and Kenneth Walker. Both of these teams went out and got a day two running back. High draft capital for a running back.

Tank Bigsby comes in to Jacksonville, and it was like both Travis Etienne and Kenneth Walker, prior to the NFL draft, were guys we were really, really, really high on. We did our early rankings shows, and Kenneth Walker, he's just a stud. But then in the second round, they go and draft Zach Charbonnet, and you're like, he's ruined. Kenneth Walker's ruined. I got...

unreasonably mad yeah oh yeah that was the maddest you'd been all year i know exactly where i was like you remember the moment i remember the moment i was sitting in my office and the news came through and i was a level of mad for a pretend game that i should not have reached yeah it's one it's one of those things where i thought for sure that with that kind of draft capital coming in

that these running backs would not usurp the talent, but just destroy it, just destroy the fantasy value. And obviously, you know, at the end of the year, Kenneth Walker got injured and Travis Etienne slowed down a bit, but that wasn't because of this backup that came in. They were both workhorses. They were both workhorses because they proved themselves already. We saw it. The NFL team saw it. Look, if you dominate on the field, then you're –

You're good. You know, so I think about this year, like, well, who could that happen to? Like, Kyron Williams dominated this last year. If they go out and spend a day to pick on a running back, I'm still going to be in on Kyron Williams.

The team needs depth. Every team needs depth. We just talked about, you know, don't rest on your laurels, you know, build. Oh, you're good at running back? No, you're not. You're never good at running back. Go add someone. And that's true for NFL teams as well. So, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, there's been so many rumors of the Texans going out and getting a wide receiver in the draft or going after Mike Evans if he becomes available or whatever the case is.

It's like... Alvin Kamara last offseason seemed like he was set up for the worst scenario. You're going to miss time. We like Kendra Miller. You had Jamal Williams. And it's Alvin. David Montgomery. You know, they... It's been a huge draft capital. David Montgomery was still very good. If you're a very good player, you're a very good player. And I want to be less afraid this season about...

oh, so-and-so added this player, so now my guy is ruined. No, if the guy's good, he's going to get his. The team is just better. Who was ahead of Keyshawn Vaughn in Tampa when that happened? Because I remember people being afraid of Keyshawn Vaughn in Tampa Bay. But I don't remember who the starter was. I don't know if it was – it was probably Fournette at the time. I think that checks out. But, I mean, that was –

Draft season is very fun. The NFL, it's the bright lights. It takes over the whole world. So I think it's very easy nowadays to lose perspective on the way a team is built and pay so much attention to six months worth of rookie and best ball drafts to lose sight of the fact that these players not only perform well on the field, but they also establish relationships with those teams oftentimes. So, um,

Yeah, it's a big time. Good reminder to have. And we'll take a quick break and be right back. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Whether you're throwing the ultimate Halloween bash, I can't believe it's right around the corner. Entertaining family for the holidays or just having a watch party on Sunday with the boys. You need to make sure your home is ready for hosting. And the best way to do that. Well, it is Wayfair. I just got a bunch of Wayfair gear for our guests.

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All right, let's look at number seven here. I've titled it Lose a Trade, Win a Title. I'm excited for this one. Look, you have a bit of a reputation around these parts as being maybe an aggressive, persistent trader. Would you agree? That's a nice way to put it. Yeah, I mean, and one of the things that I think holds a lot of fantasy players up is...

they are unwilling to lose a trade perceptively. Yes. And I think that that's a, it's a pride thing. It's obviously trying, you're trying to do the work, right? You're trying to make sure that you're on the perceived winning side. Everybody wants to win the trade, right? But what do we define winning the trade as? And, you know, for me this year, what I think is important is that you want to make sure that you're getting the difference making player on the roster. We've talked about that before in two for one, three for one trades, right?

but early in the season for me, what I recognized was that there were two players in my mind that were league winners definitively in fantasy football this year. And they were all Munros, St. Brown and CD lamb. And, um,

I know that a lot of players that we have in our league, opponents, teams in our league, when you get into trade discussions, sometimes it's like they have to have the last word, right? They have to have the last tweak to the deal. They have to make sure that they have one little tweak or one little addition, and it can disrupt the ability to get a trade done. And so the thing I want people to remember as they go into next year, if you have that conviction, the conviction that Mike had about Dak Prescott, the conviction that many of us have about certain players as you get halfway through the year,

If you believe somebody is going to be a difference maker slash league winner, what I'm saying is be willing to go out and lose a trade in the public's perception, right, in your league's perception, to get the trade done. You're saying Vontae Mack no matter what.

Von, yes. I'm saying you go Kostner. You go Kostner. If you have to, go Kostner. I don't care if I'm perceived as a winner. I wouldn't trade after number one. Right. To do it, but you know. Just no matter what. Don't get bogged down in the tiny minutiae details. Don't get bogged down in the little asks and the pesky additions to the trade.

If you want to get these players that are very hard to get, for me, it was waiting for a couple of teams to kind of get on the fringe of contention and then throw the kitchen sink at them to guarantee that I can get one of these players onto my roster and

You know, we've talked about the philosophy. Obviously, if you do a two for one, three for one trade, you get to go right to the waiver wire and pick up a couple extra names. If you've traded three for one, I think sometimes people get worried that they're going to be criticized for the trade that they make. But if you have the conviction, like I did, that C.D. Lamb was a must add if I wanted any chance at a championship.

Be willing to lose the trade in the public perception if you want to win a title. It can make the difference. Don't get bogged down. It's not like every player at the moment a trade is being made is going to play the exact same way the rest of the season. I think sometimes people just get stuck, and that's why deals don't get done.

Yeah, that's fair. Sometimes it's because we're just cowards. Yeah, and I think that that is, it's like the fear of the loss is more powerful than the potential of the victory. But we're not playing to win second or third, and I think it's really important to be willing to throw something else in to get the player you need. And it's, I would even tack on a thing at the end, be willing to perceptually lose the trade

And just be willing to be, at the end of the day, swing. Like, you may be wrong. I mean, it worked for you this time. Yeah, you could be wrong for sure. Well, I've done those trades and they get hurt the next week. I mean, that kind of stuff can happen. But the point of you're playing to win. You're playing for first place. You're not playing for second. You're not playing for third. So you have to be willing to take some gigantic swing because if you strike out,

Whatever, man. It's not the difference between... But if you hit, you're talking about a forever championship. It's very hard to win a title. Very hard. It's very, very difficult. Number six. All right. If the risk is... This is not a catchy title, but it's right to the point. If the risk is already built into the ADP...

Don't be afraid. And we have too many players every single year that we're all nervous about a new situation that has happened to that player. But it's fantasy football is the game of economics. And things that happen, we get afraid to draft players. Their ADP goes down.

And now the risk of everyone being correct, it's already baked in there. It's already in there. Some examples. Stephon Diggs with Minnesota was an emerging player where his final three years with the team finished as wide receiver 20 in 14 games, wide receiver 11 in 15, 21 in 15 games. He gets traded to the Buffalo Bills, which –

I still think at the time, with the information we had, Josh Allen did not look like a franchise quarterback. He was coming off of, I believe, two straight years of being the most inaccurate quarterback in the league. And so we all got nervous about Stephon Diggs, who Stephon Diggs looked like a rising superstar who just got banished to a land of mediocrity. And at that time then, he was going in the sixth round as the wide receiver 27th.

And he has a massive breakout campaign. Josh Allen has the huge, massive breakout campaign. So those that had the courage...

Which, my point being, it's not really courage. We were all scared to draft him, and he went in the sixth round. He's drafted as the wide receiver 27. It's like a real Jameson Williams type of risk. That's what I was talking about earlier. It's like it's baked in if he's in the ninth. And that's why I'm in. I'm like, I'll draft Jameson Williams in the ninth. If I'm wrong, I don't really lose anything. Jamar Chase as a rookie in 2021. It's laughable at this point.

The risk was baked in. He was being drafted in the seventh as the wide receiver at 30. That seems so ridiculous. That couldn't have been possible that we were all so dumb we let him go into the seventh? He had a lot of drops in preseason. He did, and he couldn't catch the ball, and yet he was 81 for nearly 1,500 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Gino Smith takes over as the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. Russell Wilson's out. There's panic in the streets. DK Metcalf, who was just a wide receiver 12, was being drafted in the back of the fourth. Tyler Lockett, who was...

who was the wide receiver 13 previously, plummets to the wide receiver 40 because it's impossible. These guys can't – there's no way to do it with Geno Smith. They're both fantastic. Mike Evans this past year. The risk is if it's baked into the ADP, you have –

You have very little to lose, and you have so much to gain. It's a lot like the way the stock market moves when you're talking about the risk or the situation being baked in. Because in those situations exactly, people had played the season out already in their minds. Yeah. And then-

Come up with the worst possible outcome for all of those players, and then that's exactly where you're drafting them. It looks nice now, but that's why Mike Evans was the strongest I've ever been convicted about a MyGuy ever, which I told you guys that in the studio. You said that on the show. And it was because he was so...

and everyone had anticipated a guarantee that this is how the season will play out with Baker Mayfield, there was just not a lot of risk to me in turning to a player like that. And those examples you brought up are great ones. And identifying those in draft season, more of a challenge. Trying to find those players that... Because they're scary. Yeah, they should be scary. And it feels...

When you're there and you're at their ADP, you're like, am I going to be the guy to draft this player that's fallen so far from where they were? Like, doesn't that mean they're old busted and I've got to be wiser? But you're right. Like, if the risk of them failing means they finish where you're drafting them. Right. Great. There's only upside. Number five. Number five.

Draft enigmatic backs. Say that again. Draft enigmatic backs. Is that one word? That's one word. It is now. Enigmatic backs. Enigmatic backs. You want to draft enigmatic backs? And what I mean by that. Trademark. Yeah. Go to that domain. Enigmatic backs.

Enigmatic backfields are scary. The ones where you just don't know who's the guy. I don't know the situation there. Yeah, so I don't want to go in. I'll let someone else figure it out. Exactly. Someone else will figure out this. We're not even sure who the running back is, so I don't want to take the shot and then just burn the pick. But the thing is, is most of those backfields don't cost you a heavy pick, and...

There are always emerging assets from that type of backfield where you're not sure who it is. If you look at this last year, you had the Miami Dolphins.

You had a new undersized rookie in Devon Achan coming in, and you had a super old veteran in Raheem Mostert. It's a good offense, but I don't know who the guy is. I'm just going to let someone else draft him. That's why they were drafted as the running back 42 and the running back 45.

Turns out they were okay because they finished as the running back 24 and the running back 2. Even if Raheem Mostert had not finished as a running back 2, hindsight is so easy. But looking back, we all had kind of projected Miami would be a high-powered offense.

And it's someone, a running back is going to score. It will not be the running back 40-something. Yeah, but you didn't know who it's going to be, so how would you draft him? Just take your shot. And maybe you're wrong. Like this next backfield, I was wrong on this backfield. But I don't have any problem admitting that because I saw the shot for one of these enigmatic backfields. The Rams, Cam Akers and Kyron Williams. You had Dan Graziano on August 4th.

Something happens.

Yeah, something happened. I liked Akers. He was the running back 21. That didn't work out. But Kyron, if you took him, which some people drafted him very late or most people picked him up off of waivers,

Obviously, we know what happened there. He was a sensational superstar. You've got these situations, and it's not always like the Kyron Williams and Raheem Mostert number one back coming out, but the commanders last year, is it going to be Gibson? Is it going to be Bryan Robinson? They were drafted. Bryan Robinson was drafted as the running back 36 because of that. It's a muddy backfield, and you pretty much, because of the value of the workhorse,

the Christian McCaffreys and the Saquon Barclays, you're only looking for like that. And I think that's sometimes a mistake because there's only a few of them. But there's a lot of running backs you need. So it's okay to take part of a committee where you're not sure who's going to be the lead guy because it's probably a value in the draft and they will rise out of that. Brian Robinson finished as a top 24 running back. Well, I think especially in the cases of Miami and Los Angeles, the extra layer there is that you have

teams that you had tremendous confidence in their running game. You didn't know which running back it would be, but you knew that the Rams could run the football. You didn't know which running back it would be in Miami, but you knew that they were going to have an offense that could run the football. And so I think if you wanted to add an extra qualifier there, you could say like enigmatic backfields on teams that have a history of being successful or coaches that would be successful there. All right, we'll move on. Number four.

It is my turn, right? It is. If it's not, it is now. Well, look, I'll be quick. I've titled this one The Little Things Kill. It's my favorite Bush song.

Oh, that is from that is from a bushel. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That is your little thing. It's just little things. All right. And look, this is the 10 things to remember. This is something that I literally did halfway through this season. And the reason I'm bringing it up in part is we are going into season 10 next year at the fantasy footballers.

And, you know, I think that there's probably a few people that are a little bit like me in our League of Record. Ugly. Ugly. Smelly. Smelly. What else you got, guys? Bad clothes. Too tall. Bad clothes? Very much too tall. Smelly. No, you already said that one. But really smelly. You started off real hot. Look, I had a couple of championships early in the League of Record. And if you were listening to the show for a long time, maybe you

Maybe you started to take your league over like I thought I was. And about halfway through this year, look, I've been in the midst, I was in the midst of a pretty decent drought of winning championships in League of Record. I had had so much success. Me and Mike played each other in championship games three straight years, a long time ago. Things just felt easy for a while. And then they didn't.

You want to know why? Because we started giving them our information. Well, yeah, we started a podcast and told them all of our information. But the truth is that many of you, maybe you had success early on listening, but the competition does get better in your leagues. And I wasn't, honestly, I wasn't willing to accept that. I believe that if I just kept going on the exact same way,

It would just all work out like it always had. I'd grown a little bit complacent, and I had to have a meeting about four or five games this year with myself, and it was literally. Did you schedule it? I did schedule it. It's in my Google calendar. Was there a mirror? No, Zoom. We did Zoom. Oh, incredible. So there was Zoom in a mirror. Right. Yeah. So look, I had the one-on-one meeting with myself, and I said, like, I can't.

keep doing the same thing I've always been doing. I have to pay attention to the little things if I want to get back over the hump. For me, that meant a little extra free agent prep every week, which look on this show, we try to help you with a little bit more persistence on the trade offers or finding those players I think can be league winners. Sometimes it's not just about trading a bunch. Sometimes it's about doing the work to figure out who you need to trade for. Not activity that doesn't lead anywhere doesn't help you.

I'm sometimes just paying a little bit more attention to some of the dirty work. That's not very fun. Like playoff schedules for players and future schedules for players, uh,

Some stuff is more fun and fantasy than others, but it all helps. Those little things help lead to victories and they add up over time. And so I think a lot of us here, maybe we've had success in the past. Maybe you're like, man, I want a title, but it's been four or five, six years. What am I doing wrong? For me, it was the little things. It was a willingness to reevaluate a few small areas,

And it led to success this year. It's obviously very difficult to win in fantasy. So I think those things do add up. The little things kill. Got the, went back to the fundamentals. Yeah, really doing his pushups grinding. That's right. Um,

It was the meeting, though. It was the one-on-one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically, things to remember. Schedule something. Self-meetings. Self-meetings, yeah. Number three. Let's talk a little Dynasty fantasy football here. We're going to call this one Know the Thresholds. Because in Dynasty, one of the harder things to make a decision on is young wide receivers who aren't immediately superstars.

When do I know? When do I know that I drafted a lemon and I need to move on? When do I know I got to give somebody some patience here? Like Jamison Williams, do we need to give him patience to grow into the player that the Lions hoped for when they drafted him? And so we talk about targets a lot on this show as it's an earned statistic. Because if a player is getting open, is building that trust with their quarterback,

They're going to get a target. A route gives context to just the opportunity that the team is giving them. But players can be out there, MVS style, running routes on every single play. Cardio Kings. Getting like three targets a game. And you now see where MVS is. He is looking for a new job because they're saying, sir, you have not earned enough targets. We need to look elsewhere.

And so we looked back over the last decade. These are wide receivers drafted in the first three rounds because still draft capital is the king of signal to what will a player actually be good or not. So here are the metrics. This is a little heavy in statistics, but bear with me. Through two years, on average, a first-round wide receiver averages about a 20% target per route run and a 1.68 yards per route run.

Second round, wide receivers, their yards per route run at about 1.55 on average. And the third round, wide receivers at 1.4. Now these are simply benchmarks to help guide your decisions. It is not saying if a player is under it, they are 100% toast, but you may want to think about this because honestly, through the last decade, the only player who has really resurrected himself from the grave

Was Devontae Adams. That dude sucked. Devontae Adams through two years. Remember how hard I was on him? Oh, we were all. And I was like, he never had a 1,000-yard season because he was at 997. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't even just that. It was his first two years. It looked terrible for him. I believe it was year two that Jordy tore his ACL, like right at the beginning of the year, and it was.

Thank goodness they have Devontae Adams. It's your time, and he did not come through. So it was, no, this is never going to work out, and now Devontae Adams over the last however long has been one of the best wide receivers in the league. So we're going to take a look back of what we've seen now. This is two years ago because you're collecting the data. At the top of the class, Drake London, Olave, Garrett Wilson. They're at the benchmarks. We're not worried about it.

Both Christian Watson and George Pickens are sitting above the threshold. They're volatile, definitely. I don't know if we're going to see them turn into studs, but we're okay. Watson and Pickens. Yes, on Christian Watson. Here's now where it gets a little sketchier. We're calling this one Keep the Light On because there could be some hope. So maybe if they're on your roster, you're just in a hold position.

Jamison Williams. Keep the light on. He is at 1.42 yards per route run, which is under the threshold we want. Again, the threshold is just a level that you're hoping they're above. Traylon Burks.

He's at 1.28. He's a sketcher. And Wondell Robinson, he's there with Jamison Williams at 1.42. Honestly, just putting Jamison Williams with those other two guys, really, it does not give me a lot of confidence for Jamison Williams. It highlights where he is. Because I don't believe in those other two at all. Keep a dim light on.

You know what I mean? He's at the top of that group, right? No, not really. He's tied with Wandale, but Wandale was also not a first-round wide receiver, so he's overperforming compared to Jamison Williams. Jahan Dotson is on the cliff. Yeah, he's the next tier. That looks scary. And then the guys where you, I think you can pretty accurately just move on.

unfortunately. John Meche, Houston Texans, Tyquan Thornton, Alec Pierce, Sky Moore and the Sky People. That's us. Why are we putting Valus Jones in here? That's just mean to him. Jalen Tolbert, David Bell, who once upon a time was hoped to be the next guy for the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, David Bell's sitting in our dynasty waiver wire if anyone's interested. But we do have a huge article coming out here highlighting all the thresholds and things, but it's just...

It's a metric. That's in the Dynasty Pass? It's in the Dynasty Pass. Yeah, thank you. It's a metric for you to be aware of because what's nice about Dynasty wide receivers when you draft them, even when they stink in their first year,

More often than not, they at least hold their value. Like Sky Moore was, it was atrocious that first year. And there was so many glaring red signs. But now that MVS is gone. So many glaring red signs saying it's not going to work for Sky Moore. I know the draft capital was there. I know the team is there. It doesn't look like it's going to work.

But the hope was still there. Like, there were still things of, you could trade Sky more over that first offseason. I'm not sure you're going to be able to trade Sky more this far into the process. So, be aware how a wide receiver, where they were drafted, compared

compared to how they're performing through their first two years to help you make a real educated decision about, do I wait this out or do I try and move on? You know, and I'm sure, like you said in that article, to get into all the details, I think the big headline that I took away from that, from practical advice, was that if you pay attention to those thresholds, you know whether or not your belief in a player is justified by the metrics or not.

is going to be an uphill battle. I think that's what fundamentally I would be saying. If this player does break out and have success from this point forward, they will be

doing something that is unexpected. And that is saying something for the odds are not in their favor. Yeah, historically speaking, it's so wild how you can look back in history and find these numbers. They still hold true. The Skymore example is the example because we knew it. We talked about these metrics, about how he was on the field as a rookie quite a bit, and he was

really, really bad in that targets per route run and yards per route run. And so it's like it never works out. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but...

But it might work for us. Let's get that quote back in here again. People always think it, but that's the time to get out because there were people still thinking it's going to work. There's a Tobias Funk in your league right now who you can find one of these metrics and trade a wide receiver to them. We'll take another quick break and come back. Jason, I hope you're ready.

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All right. Thanks, Brooksy. This is the Brooksy special. I call it the preseason pretenders. Don't get fooled.

Every year we get fooled. It's so hard not to. It's so hard because we're so excited for football and we want to see things. And I went back, I racked my brain. We want to trust people, Jason. We want to trust people and we want things to matter in the preseason. We want things to go on. We watch these games. Follow the signs. We're looking for something that matters because, I mean, one, that's our job. Like when preseason rolls around,

I'm watching these games whether I want to watch them or not, and I'm trying to look for something tangible, and I need to remember to stop. I need to stop. We do so much research through the offseason. We have so much historical data. We go through so many training camp reports that are in-depth and long-winded and watch coaching press conferences, and we develop –

as solid of opinions as we can based on the information we have. This last year, I was so out on Damian Pierce. We had like three shows where I had a tangent on how that fourth round running back

Yeah, we argued about it. Yeah, it just doesn't work. And then a new regime came in and brought in a Devin Singletary, a veteran running back who's a quality back. Oh, man. I was so out on. Sounds like you're talking about Kyron now, though. What if Devin Singletary goes to the Rams? Yeah, well, I've got two things to remember. Yeah, sorry, go on. So, yeah, I mean, and then all of a sudden in a preseason game. Oh.

Oh, baby. 89% of CJ Stroud snaps at preseason week two went to Damian Pierce. He's the dude. He's going to be the pass catcher, but he was not. And I got fooled. And Andy, thank you. I had the 12th pick in that draft because I was the reigning champ.

Yeah, I took Damian Pierce. Thank you. But I was totally going to take Damian Pierce. I was so angry when you took Damian Pierce because of just a preseason game. And let me illustrate how the preseason. And the season before. But go on. The preseason game is not always indicative of future success. The Steelers offense was amazing in preseason.

The Steelers' first-team offense had five touchdowns on five drives in preseason. They looked great. Jerome Bettis is talking about Kenny Pickett has the potential to be a superstar offensively.

But he was not a superstar. There are so many examples of this. The Javante Williams injury that we knew the timeline. We knew it. We knew it couldn't work out. That one still hurts my feelings. We knew it's just medically impossible for him to be a rock star, but he got out in preseason. He played. And it was like, if you...

Now, we do learn things from time to time for preseason. Who was the Orange Julius? Julius Thomas. Yeah, Julius Thomas. We saw that breakout coming because of preseason utilization, the tight end that year. But what it wasn't is it wasn't a change of strongly formed players

and informed decisions that we had made over the entire offseason. If you have a really well-informed opinion that you believe in based on a lot of evidence, don't let – I'm talking to myself here. Self-meeting. Get me on my Zoom. Tank Bigsby was another one. Yeah. Because it was like you guys – he had an opportunity in the preseason, looked pretty good.

I really want to make sure that I do not overemphasize preseason this year. That's the key because you do need to emphasize it. It's just a matter of like in fantasy football, I think our tendencies, because we want stuff to talk about, is that you go from witnessing something to making a pronouncement about it rather than just factoring it in. You could say, look, I'm not really a believer in Damian Pearce.

He's looked pretty good this preseason, but fundamentally this is still my concern. But it's easy. It's so easy to go from, well, we were wrong. This coach loves him.

But, yeah, I mean, it is. I'm going to de-emphasize. Because my natural human nature will automatically emphasize everything I see. There's just no way. I'm going to go in and try to de-emphasize it this year. Just say in your head, just say, you sure about that? Yeah. With whatever you see. You sure about that? Yeah. You sure about that, Des? Why? Okay, and, yeah, there are many examples of situations like that. The preseason.

You get vanilla offenses, right? And defenses. You get vanilla defense. And you get vanilla defenses, and you get different first teams, second teams playing each other. I think, in part, the preseason has become less and less of an indicator over time as well. We produce the total amount of games. We don't play starters very much. We want to see different things from different players. And you go out there, and you're not executing what a normal game player would say. It used to be the third week of the preseason. You're seeing two teams really –

prepare for the season with their main personnel packages. Now you've got to do heavy research even to see like, wait, okay, is this player going against a first team defense or is that cornerback their backup? You know, it's like. Yep. No, it makes sense. It makes sense. All right, we've got one more because we always share one at the end here. Number one. Now, Jason, you titled this one. Yeah, well, I'm a big fan of the movie Remember the Titans. Yeah. And this is a show about remembering. Okay.

I want you to remember the turds. Remember the turds. Remember the turds. In your league. So what are we saying? We're saying that. I don't know what we're saying. Well, we don't. Yeah, I mean, we could have said it differently, I suppose. But this is the reminder that the things in your league that cause you to have a bad experience, which may include a handful, a couple, single,

There's all sorts of turds. But if there's some managers in your league that didn't add to the experience, if there were rules in your league, league formation, settings, week 17 or 18 championship games, sorry, week 18 title games,

This is the time to kind of remember what went right, what went wrong, make the adjustments, get them in place. Maybe there's leagues that you were saying, man, I wish our league was like that league over there. Or I wish that this one manager set their lineup ever. This is the time to make the adjustments to, uh, to boot out those turds and to get things right for your league. Lace up them boots. Now,

I usually go with the flush. Oh, we could have flushed the turds. But so you guys. No, we don't. You're actually like drop kicking a poo. I'm drop kicking it straight from the source. Never, never hits the ground. It's incredible. That's quite the image. Yeah. Yeah. It's a backwards kick. Oh, it's like a mule kick. Yeah, it's a mule kick. When I'm camping.

You got to boot out them turds. What do you mean when you're camping? Well, I'm not doing it at home. I got a bidet. Wait, you do this for yourself? This is a joke. No, I know. I know. He's like, stop. Stop. You're the one who said camping. Well, I mean, where else are you going to kick turds? I mean. You doing good, Brooks? How are you doing over there? Oh, I'm doing great. Did you learn anything from that last one?

That was the most important one. That was? Definitely. Thank you, Brooke. Is there anything you needed to remember? I know I'm putting you on the spot, but is there anything from this past year that, like, do you remember how old your Dynasty team is?

Yeah, I'm starting to remember that. Just in general, not playing afraid, which a lot of your guys' points summarize. That's my problem. I was out of trades, and I go to his offer, and I don't offer them. You know, I think that's a good self-acknowledgement because I look at several people in our league, and it's usually the people that are hard to trade with.

And I just watched, I literally watched them hurt themselves. Like, it's annoying. I'm annoyed that they don't accept this trade or can't trade with anybody. But like, I often think like. I feel like you're like pre-setting them up. No, I genuinely have had the thought before of like, dude, you are such a coward that you don't help your team.

With the trade with you? No, no, no. Oh, okay. With the whole league. Specifically. All these cowards out there not taking my deals. Take my trade, coward. That's a good trade method. That's often worked. What are you? What are you, a chicken? What are you, a yellow? I get too attached to players, certain players. I have that problem too, Brooke. That's a really easy thing to do with these long off seasons where you fall in love.

With certain players. It's my beautiful fantasy baby. I found you. It feels better when you find them. I made you. It feels better when you find them and then they have success and they're yours. Yeah. No question.

All right, and that was a blast from the past. Some things to remember from our February 29th episode earlier this year. We wanted them front of your mind as you head into 2024, as you get ready for your draft and for your season. And so we thought we'd deliver you a little bonus episode this week and hopefully you enjoyed it. And we'll catch you with a brand new episode coming to you on Monday.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.