Combine Reactions + 5 Ways to Make Your League Better

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary
Episode: Combine Reactions + 5 Ways to Make Your League Better
Release Date: March 5, 2019

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Introduction

The episode kicks off with the hosts—Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike “The Fantasy Hitman” Wright—reuniting for another engaging discussion on all things fantasy football. Andy introduces the Foot Clan membership benefits, offering access to exclusive leagues and global connections (00:00), while the trio shares light-hearted banter about Mike’s recent birthday and his humorous recount of abandoning his keto diet (00:45–02:05).

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NFL Combine Reactions

Standout Performances: DK Metcalf and Nikhil Harry

The hosts delve into the latest NFL Combine results, spotlighting standout athletes like DK Metcalf and Nikhil Harry. Mike highlights Metcalf’s “superhuman” performance, noting his impressive drills and speculating whether he’s the next Calvin Johnson (04:40–05:31). Andy echoes these sentiments, pointing out Harry's impressive combine stats and predicting his entry into the first round alongside Metcalf (08:01–09:29).

Mike Wright: “DK Metcalf was the talk of the town when first he showed up like an absolute cyborg who allegedly has no body fat on him. He absolutely dominated the drills.” (05:03)

Andy Holloway: “Nikhil Harry will sneak into the first round. I think you’ll have DK Metcalf in there, probably Hakeem Butler in the first round.” (09:29)

Running Backs Analysis: Alex Barnes and Devin Singletary

Mike expresses personal excitement about running back prospect Alex Barnes, whose combine performance has reportedly raised his draft stock to the third round (05:55–07:11). The discussion shifts to the broader running back class, with Jason noting a lack of standout prospects that could be first-round picks, making the draft unpredictable (07:38–08:45). Andy also brings up Devin Singletary’s disappointing combine performance, contrasting it with other running backs' prospects.

Jason Moore: “The draft is going to be so huge for this year's class because nobody to me stands out as just the... first running back taken.” (08:45)

Andy Holloway: “Pretty disappointing combine for Devin Singletary, somebody who had been in the top five at the running back position.” (08:45)

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Season News Updates

Jason Whitten Returns to the Cowboys

In an unexpected move, Jason Whitten announces his return to the Dallas Cowboys for his 16th NFL season after a brief retirement stint (14:53–17:11). The hosts speculate on his role, debating whether he'll be a significant contributor or merely a situational player.

Andy Holloway: “Jason Whitten to the Cowboys. Look, he's going to be a cursory tight end ad, in my opinion.” (16:11)

Ravens Waive Alex Collins

The episode covers the Baltimore Ravens' recent decision to waive running back Alex Collins following an arrest related to a car crash. The hosts discuss the implications for Collins and compare it to other running backs like Gus Edwards and Kenneth Dixon.

Andy Holloway: “The Ravens quickly released him. This is part of why we always talk about what capital does the team have invested in, especially running backs.” (17:20)

Todd Gurley's Knee Issues and Rams Considerations

A significant portion of the news revolves around Todd Gurley’s reported knee arthritis. The hosts analyze how this impacts his value and the Rams' potential strategies, including considering stem cell treatments or signing additional running backs like CJ Anderson.

Jason Moore: “If you have a healthy knee, you don't go out and get stem cell. It's not an option.” (20:19)

Nick Foles Potentially Joining the Jaguars

Les Bowen reports that the Jacksonville Jaguars are expected to sign quarterback Nick Foles. The hosts debate whether Foles will bring his Philadelphia magic to Jacksonville or fail to elevate the team’s offense, impacting fantasy values of receivers like D.D. Westbrook.

Jason Moore: “I do not think he is enough of an upgrade over Bortles to take the Jags and give them what I think they are hoping for.” (27:28)

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Commissioner Tips: 5 Ways to Make Your League Better

Andy, Jason, and Mike transition to a segment dedicated to enhancing fantasy league experiences, offering five actionable tips for commissioners.

1. Switch to Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAB)

Jason recommends adopting the FAB system, where each team receives a virtual currency (e.g., $100) to bid on free agents. This system promotes fairness and adds strategic depth to player acquisitions.

Jason Moore: “In a traditional waiver system... do you want to burn that spot to get this player?... A free agent acquisition budget... is blind bids.” (32:30)

Mike Wright: “There is so much fun to be had here... the fun of getting that sweet spot.” (33:52)

2. Implement Daily Continuous Waivers

The hosts advocate for daily continuous waivers, allowing waivers to process every day at a specific time rather than following a weekly cycle. This method ensures equitable access for all managers, regardless of their schedules.

Jason Moore: “It's so much more fair to let everybody have the same time of day...” (36:25)

3. Stop Vetoing Trades

Jason argues against the practice of vetoing trades based on perceived fairness, suggesting it stifles manager autonomy and discourages active trading. Instead, he supports allowing trades to proceed unless they involve collusion or are blatantly unfair.

Jason Moore: “The veto is to say that this is illegal... It's not collusion or one team tanking.” (40:02)

4. Keep Leagues Engaged Through Communication

Effective communication channels—such as Facebook groups, Slack, or league-specific apps—are crucial for maintaining engagement. The hosts emphasize the importance of regular interaction, mockery of trades, and updates to keep all managers involved and interested.

Andy Holloway: “Communication is king. You need to be able to mock the trades...” (47:44)

5. Eliminate Week 17 Championships

Mike humorously suggests removing the Week 17 championship, reflecting on the unnecessary complexities and diminishing returns of extended playoff weeks in fantasy leagues.

Mike Wright: “It creates problems that should not exist in the game of fantasy football. Just come on.” (50:52)

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Notable Discussions and Humor

Throughout the episode, the hosts engage in playful banter and humorous exchanges, adding an entertaining layer to the analysis. Highlights include Mike’s exaggerated recount of his failed keto diet (01:02–02:24), funny remarks about beatboxing (30:31–31:00), and light-hearted debates over league management practices (45:01–51:31).

Jason Moore: “I liked Andy's better than yours. What?” (45:10)

Andy Holloway: “How do I convince my league to stay engaged... Every commissioner, we get this one a thousand times a year too.” (45:35)

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with final thoughts on Melvin Gordon’s contract negotiations and memorabilia sales, leaving listeners with actionable insights and the promise of upcoming content (51:31–52:46).

Andy Holloway: “Check it out. Pristineauction.com Poor Todd Gurley.” (52:34)

Jason Moore: “Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast.” (52:46)

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Notable Quotes:

• Mike Wright: “DK Metcalf was the talk of the town when first he showed up like an absolute cyborg who allegedly has no body fat on him.” (05:03)

• Jason Moore: “The veto is to say that this is illegal. This is cheating... They’re not required to stick with him.” (40:02)

• Andy Holloway: “Communication is king. You need to be able to mock the trades...” (47:44)

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and humorous interactions from the episode, providing a valuable overview for both regular listeners and newcomers to The Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. Not only can you help support this [e-mail] by becoming a member of the official Foot Clan, but you also get access to our Foot Clan leagues. A chance to connect with fans across the globe. Yes. If you want to play online, if you want to play local leagues, whatever the case may be, you get access to foot clanleagues.com. check it [e-mail].

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the fantasy football podcast coming to you from pristineauction.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, welcome in. The band is back together again. Sure. How you feeling, Mike? Feeling good? Feeling right? Feeling tight?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, definitely not feeling tight. I don't know if you followed my adventures on social media.

[Andy Holloway]

You had a birthday back.

[Jason Moore]

Happy birthday.

[Mike Wright]

I have been very strict keto since January 1st.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you've been on the keto diet, but you.

[Mike Wright]

And then I was not. And look, I.

[Andy Holloway]

Give us the rundown. Give us the play by play.

[Mike Wright]

Sure. So I kicked it off Saturday night with Chipotle. I went full burrito with large chips and queso. In the morning, I had some cinnamon rolls.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yes.

[Mike Wright]

Then for lunch, we have a pizza place here called Oregano's. It's the best pizza place in Arizona. So had that, had the pizookie, then had a large bag of Sour Patch Kids followed by a raising cane's box combo.

[Andy Holloway]

Whoa.

[Mike Wright]

For dinner.

[Jason Moore]

Wow.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you stop there as.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

As I sit here, though, trouble, I feel as if I am the super volcano that rests underneath our national parks.

[Jason Moore]

Look, any minute, I don't know when.

[Mike Wright]

It'S gonna go off. I just know that it will go.

[Jason Moore]

Off, that it will have a great loss of life at some point. Fantastic.

[Andy Holloway]

This is how we celebrate your. Your birthday. You destroy your physical being, apparently.

[Mike Wright]

Totally worth it. Totally worth.

[Andy Holloway]

See, that's the thing people want to know.

[Mike Wright]

They go, it was worth it. Absolutely.

[Jason Moore]

Hearing this awesome story from Mike makes me realize that I celebrate my birthday daily.

[Mike Wright]

You just celebrate life, man. Every day.

[Jason Moore]

Is your birthday every day. I woke up today.

[Mike Wright]

Can I get the. Probably throw down an extra large cheese pizza.

[Andy Holloway]

Can I get the birthday menu, please? You get the free dessert every day. All right. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. It's going to be a great show today. We're going to talk some combine reaction. We had the big NFL combine over the weekend. Some superhumans doing superhuman things. We'll talk about that. And look, that'll affect how things shake out in the NFL draft and for your fantasy teams and whether we want certain players to go to certain teams and what they can do. So we'll talk about that here in the quick question. Check us out on TwitterFFballers on YouTube. YouTube.com the fantasy footballers. And don't forget, you can subscribe over on Apple Podcasts ad free on stitcher or on iHeart. We're on Spotify, wherever you're listening to podcasts. And on Thursday, this is the news that I have. On Thursday, we will announce here on the show the UDK presale giveaway winners. Okay. And that will be the people that won the opportunity to come sit in on a show, a couple of free jerseys, and then the first entry into the 2019 Listener League.

[Jason Moore]

Technically, I feel like we're the first three.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So fourth.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I don't want them to feel too special.

[Jason Moore]

They're going to be in our league. We need to start tearing them down immediately.

[Mike Wright]

You didn't even get a bronze fourth pretty. You almost got a medal.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we got in first. Our league.

[Jason Moore]

Yep. It's already embarrassing.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, here's the quick question that I have for you fine gentlemen. Well, what were your main takeaways from the 2019 combine? There was a lot of Twitter chatter. All right, Mike, I don't know if you saw it through the haze of meat and cheese, but there was a lot going on.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I saw it. I see everything.

[Andy Holloway]

You see everything. Okay, so what were your main takeaways from the 2019 combine?

[Mike Wright]

Well, I mean, DK Metcalf was the talk of the town when first he showed up like an absolute cyborg who allegedly has no body fat on his.

[Andy Holloway]

Was it 1.2%, 1.6 or something?

[Mike Wright]

Which is crazy.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, first off, that doesn't sound healthy.

[Jason Moore]

Well, it's not.

[Mike Wright]

It's 100%. Nah. But I don't know if it's accurate.

[Jason Moore]

Whatever.

[Mike Wright]

We already knew he was a superhero from the photo that's circulating around then. He absolutely dominated the drills. What? 433.

[Jason Moore]

433. His. At his weight, size, speed, he literally.

[Mike Wright]

It's not. It's not supposed to happen.

[Jason Moore]

It hasn't really happened since Calvin Johnson. So now you're getting all of the Calvin Johnson comps. The. Is he the next Calvin Johnson? The absolute dominant force. You can watch.

[Andy Holloway]

Hear a lot of Julio Jones as well. Comparisons.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, certainly you can watch his highlights and just see him dominate as he's running away from guys. Nobody can catch him stretching out, grabbing that long, you know, deep ball. But if you watch games, there's a. There's There's a lot to pump the brakes with in the film as well. So yeah, it'll be.

[Mike Wright]

The draft's gonna be really interesting when a player does that. GMs, they're, they're human just like us. So their, their eyes definitely perk up. But the number one takeaway for me, which is completely selfish and may or may not end up being fantasy relevant, but I've talked about in the office with you guys, the. My kind of running back crush has been Alex Barnes. And like he seems like a more, a little bit more of a long shot. No one's, no one had been talking about him up to this point. And then he came in and he had a great combine. Absolutely raised his draft stock. So if he can go, if he has gotten himself into that third round, then he's going to be very interesting for me.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you if you thought based on this combine performance, whether he would be somewhere in the third or fourth round.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I would really prefer third. If guys in the fourth round. It's pretty hard to break into the rotation, at least early on.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, that is so someone listening might say, oh, why do you want him in the third versus the fourth? And that's why. Right? Because early opportunity just basically the team invests higher draft capital on them and it seems like they more better odds that that player is going to work into the rotation soon.

[Jason Moore]

You have.

[Mike Wright]

It's pretty low odds. I mean you look at like Jordan Howard, right? If he was a fourth round pick. It took an injury to Jeremy Langford to get Jordan Howard on the field. And it was immediate. You go, oh, what are the coaches not like? Jordan Howard is a much better player than Jeremy Lankford, but it didn't matter. He just couldn't get on the field. So like I said, selfish just happened to be that player that I was very interested in. And then he kind of hit in the combine.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, there's, there's a lot of times you're looking at a certain player you love or a certain player you hate, hoping they improve or, or ruin their draft stock. To me, it wasn't player specific so much my big takeaway. It was positional specific. You know, wide receivers. To me, they improved their draft stock as a class.

[Mike Wright]

They're probably. I mean the first four picks in.

[Jason Moore]

Rookie drafts coming up, they looked great. You had guys, you know, running faster than you expected. You know, Andy, I know your man crush this whole last year had a great draft along with dk, metcalf while running backs. Yes, while running backs. I felt like really nobody. I don't feel like as a class that they really helped to solidify anything I've been, you know, as I've been going through and looking at all of them, the draft is going to be so huge for this year's class because nobody to me stands out as just the. Look, the odds on this guy's going to be the first running back taken, like it could be between like four or five different guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Pretty disappointing combine for Devin Singletary, somebody who had been in the top five at the running back position for a lot of people pre draft. I wanted to bring up Nikhil Harry, Arizona State University wide receiver, somebody that I think he was overshadowed by DK Metcalf, but had a very solid combine, 89th percentile speed score, did the exact same amount of reps at the same weight that DK Metcalf did, which, by the way, those two players at 27 bench reps, which was pretty unheard of for the wide receiver position. And look, like you said, Jay, the wide receivers in general move their stock up. I don't know how many go in the first round. I think Nikhil Harry. Nikhil Harry will sneak into the first round. I think you'll have DK Metcalf in there, probably Hakeem Butler in the first round.

[Mike Wright]

Paris Campbell will be the interesting one. He ran a four, three one. He's going to be a bit of a wild card because teams just love speed so much.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I, you know, when you look at the, the kind of warts on a guy like Nikhil Harry or DK Metcalf, who. What he had the major injury. They should call Dr. Schultz for the warts.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, yes.

[Andy Holloway]

That is. That's what I was going to say. New sponsor of the show. No, but, but I think I'm looking at what teams those guys go to, obviously. I mean, if it's, if it's so narrow between those two players, you know, you want a person with a better quarterback and a better opportunity and sometimes going in the later first round for one of those. Superior.

[Mike Wright]

Totally agree.

[Andy Holloway]

Is the best case scenario. So lots to take away. That'll transition us a little bit into the news.

[Mike Wright]

Well, and real quick, Noah, fantastic.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah, he went tight end.

[Mike Wright]

He went absolutely nuclear in all the testing, which you knew he was going to do that, but it's just, it's great.

[Andy Holloway]

Best tight end combine ever.

[Jason Moore]

One of. Not George Gasicki, Mike Gasicki, George Kittle.

[Mike Wright]

They both had outrageous. Measurables but it's just great to see that we have at least, you know, at least one just up and comer.

[Jason Moore]

I'll tell you, man, Iowa's. Well, this is a, this is a really across the board, like it was several years ago when you had the O.J. howard, Evan Ingram and Joe could draft. This is a really good tight end year. I mean, you have two guys that could go in the first round from Iowa alone, which thanks, George Kittle, you have really helped. You know, he.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, that's how they do it. They only rotate states. You can only draft tight ends from certain states on certain years.

[Jason Moore]

Well, it's a good year for Iowa.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why. Yeah, I wanted to mention this too. Kyler Murray didn't run. Kyler Murray stood in front of a microphone. That's all Kyler Murray did. Not to run. But the Kyler Murray also had a lot of, I don't know, applause for showing up at 510, for showing up at 207 pounds. And look at a lot of chatter about Kyler Murray, the Arizona Cardinals, the relationship he has with Cardinals new head coach Cliff Kingsbury. There have been swirling rumors, either the greatest smokescreen ever or a reality in the fact that Kyler Murray, you know, according to draft insider Tony Pauline, which you need to take with a grain of salt, by the way, because there's a lot of misinformation right now. But he says that Kyler Murray to Arizona is a done deal. That's been the report by several different journalists at the event. But we don't know the thing. The thing is it would be very exciting to see that offense turnover.

[Mike Wright]

I'm just happy the Cardinals are doing something because it, at least at the beginning, you know, a couple weeks ago it didn't look like they were even going to play the game.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Even if you want Rose, we might take Kyler Murray. I mean, you, if you're in Arizona, you have to do this. So if you like, Andy's very excited. He wants Arizona to draft Kyla Murray. I would be real hesitant because this is what the team they 100% have to do this. You have to drive up the value for your number one pick no matter what. Even, even if you're going to take it, you still have to drive up the value.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I don't disagree with that. And I had a lot of Twitter conversations with the Foot Clan and listeners of the show and people that were talking about Kyler Murray. And look, last off season, I wasn't happy with Josh Rosen to Arizona, if you're a, if you're a Larry Fitzgerald owner, if you're a David Johnson owner, that's the number one probably to think about Christian Kirk. All you want is the offense to be driving towards improvement. They were the worst offense in football by a wide margin last season. Yes, the offensive line was terrible. And my argument is not every player is going to end up the Jared Goff, Mitch Trubisky story. Some of them end up the Jimmy Clausen story or the Blaine Gabbard story. There are other tales to be told. So whether or not if you believe in Josh Rosen, and I think there are GMs in the NFL that believe in him enough to go and get him. And you know what, if you want to win in the NFL, guess what you do. You have a quarterback on a rookie deal. And whether Josh Rosen's in Arizona or somewhere else, you could go get him on a rookie deal. So I think that'll be attractive to certain, you know, Washington, Miami, New England, Pittsburgh, teams with San Diego, sorry, Los Angeles, still San Diego on my mind. So I think that it'll be very interesting to see what happens. And look, David Johnson, he's a buy low to me right now.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you agree with that?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I definitely agree. David Johnson, I mean we saw this with Todd Gurley several years ago when, when the coaching problems happened with Gurley and their offensive line was bad. He was the running back 17. He had a worse year than David Johnson had this last season. They improved. It got McVeigh in there and all of a sudden you had the number one guy. He was still the same guy. It wasn't like Todd Gurley forgot how to be a running back in that in between year. And it's not like David Johnson slowed down and stunk last year. It was just the situation around him did not allow him to be as fantasy relevant as he could be. I think David Johnson is a very good by low candidate.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's get into the news.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league presented by Sleeper.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, the Sleeper app was bouncing all weekend, but this one was not expected. Jason Whitten has decided to end his retirement and return to the Cowboys for his 16th NFL season. The one year in the booth was enough for all of us.

[Jason Moore]

Too much.

[Andy Holloway]

A little too much.

[Jason Moore]

So Jason Wade are most of us.

[Andy Holloway]

Back back in Dallas. And here's the thing, look, this is good context. In 2017, the last year he played, he was the tight end. 1063 receptions, 5 touchdowns, 87 targets. Look he helps. He helps Dallas if he has anything left, because they didn't get a lot from that position.

[Mike Wright]

If he has anything left. It's very interesting because there are the whispers from the bushes that they're already talking about. Jason Wynn will get 25 snaps a game or whatever. I mean, it's. I don't know how you would have that information already.

[Andy Holloway]

Jerry Jones came out and said that's not true. You know, Jerry Jones came out and said he's not going to play a bit part. He'll be a main part. So what do you believe?

[Mike Wright]

Well, remains to be seen, but Whitten, he did it. He. He found his way out with.

[Jason Moore]

With dignity.

[Mike Wright]

With dignity. With class. So.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, God. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know his intentions, but this was. This was a very savvy move.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, no, it was. And I know it's a little bit later in the career and more difficult, but I would. I would recommend that Booger look to make on retirement as well and get back in the league. And we could just have a great Monday Night Football broadcast team brought in. Ground up.

[Andy Holloway]

You want to let. Who's the last guy? He's the vanilla.

[Mike Wright]

I don't even know.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, nobody knows. Nobody knows this.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just picturing him.

[Jason Moore]

I like him.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm picturing him standing there by himself like he doesn't have any help. I don't know. Maybe Greg Olson finds his way into the booth, huh?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Greg Olson. Tread lightly.

[Andy Holloway]

Tight ends haven't worked out like Tony Roma.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so Jason Whitten to the Cowboys. Look, he's going to be a cursory tight end ad, in my opinion. It doesn't mean you're going to get a bunch out of him, but at the position. Step one, no Blade Darwin's way, I'll.

[Mike Wright]

Tell you that much.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, gosh.

[Jason Moore]

It's very good for Dak.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Jason Moore]

And honestly, for the Cowboys, I mean, you pick up a couple more third downs with a. You know, with the hands of Jason Whitten, those situational plays, I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

Can you get the hands back in shape? He's been blade hands for an entire year.

[Jason Moore]

That'll be tough.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. The Ravens waived running back Alex Collins just last off season. We were talking about Alex Collins quite a bit. He was drafted very high. And what a difference a year makes. He was arrested in Baltimore following a car crash Friday morning. The Ravens quickly released him.

[Jason Moore]

This is part of why we always talk about what capital does the team have invested in Especially running backs. The Ravens had very little invested. He was someone cut from Seattle, picked up off the street, paid very little money. If this was someone that they had drafted with a first round pick or a second round pick or even a.

[Mike Wright]

Fourth round pick like Kenneth, I was.

[Andy Holloway]

Gonna say just look like what the loyalty they've shown to Kenneth Dixon over these years.

[Jason Moore]

But if there's capital invested, then, you know, you, you roll with some of this. But when, when it's not, I mean, you know, we. This was always the worry and this is the worry now. Like, I love Gus Edwards. I think Gus Edwards is a going to be great if he's the guy. But I have the exact same worries. Like Gus Edwards could just be kicked to the curb.

[Andy Holloway]

It's 100% a mirror situation when it comes to the required loyalty of the team. Gus Edwards will be a good fantasy running back for as long as he's a good fantasy running back, which sounds ridiculous, but as soon as he's not good, they do not. They're not required to stick with him. That's why Gus Odors has a job today. Right. Because they weren't required to stick with Alex.

[Mike Wright]

Well, technically he doesn't even have a job because he's not under contract yet.

[Andy Holloway]

Gus Edwards is restricted though, right? He.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, because I think he isn't. He's that ERFA exclusive rights, which means he. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like the Ravens haven't signed him yet.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but their head coach has come out and talked about him as the starter. So when you're, when your head coach comes out and says he's the guy right now, which is what Jim Harbaugh or John Harbaugh has done. He said, hey, Gus Edwards is our number one running back right now. So you have Gus Edwards, you have Kenneth Dixon, and then you probably have something in free agency in Baltimore. We'll try to sift through all of that over the course of this offseason. All right, guys, I need your reaction. More big news. We're going to be talking a lot of news today. Jason Locanfora says the Rams are going to consider stem cell treatment for Todd Gurley. There was a lot of reports talking about Todd Gurley, arthritis in the knee. This is the. The ACL repaired left knee. Jeff Howe from the Athletics said that he has arthritis in the knee. I mean, I mean, put yourself in the shoes of a girly owner right now. How do you feel?

[Jason Moore]

Well, I don't. I think you.

[Andy Holloway]

Because I can't. I can't Relate.

[Jason Moore]

Andy is gloating over here because he unloaded Todd Gurley for a haul about a week ago.

[Mike Wright]

Mere moments before the arthritis.

[Jason Moore]

No, we did not have inside.

[Andy Holloway]

I was going to say it was so close to the news breaking that I felt if we had insider info.

[Mike Wright]

We would have put it out on the show.

[Andy Holloway]

You're darn right I want my Twitter account going up. But it was so close that I actually felt like apologizing, but of course did not.

[Jason Moore]

The truth is good for you. If you've got a healthy knee, you don't go out and get stem cell. You don't even consider it. It's not an option. To be fair. If are you. Then you don't have a healthy knee. That's how I know. I mean, if you're considering this, it's bad news. And that that means it's more likely that they. That I think the Rams do sign another running back.

[Mike Wright]

They're Anderson.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean, maybe they pay up for cj.

[Mike Wright]

His workload. I don't think you even have to pay up for cj.

[Andy Holloway]

Pay down. Pay down for cj.

[Mike Wright]

You'll get him back, but his workload will be cut back to the point that maybe now he's the number three pick, the number four pick. I don't think this does anything that crushes him because he's still going to be the touchdown monster, but on a great offense. But maybe now you're looking at Zeke ahead of Todd Gurley.

[Andy Holloway]

There is doubt in the minds of Todd Gurley owners because it's not just, you know, will he be great? Maybe it's 90% chance he'll be great. It's just there's more unknown to his dynasty stock. If you have arthritis in that knee, there's unknown on what treatments he will actually require. This is. This goes back to when they started working in CG Anderson that heavily and all the denial, denial, denial about injury. And you say, guys, this doesn't make any sense. He's the highest paid running back in football. He's an MVP candidate. You don't play him half of the super bowl or less. So something's wrong. That's all we know. All right. The jets have assigned a second round tender to free agent Robbie Anderson.

[Mike Wright]

So he will be a Jet.

[Andy Holloway]

Did I hear you talking about Robbie Anderson earlier today, Jason?

[Jason Moore]

No, I was talking about my personal man crush at the rookie running back Rodney Anderson. Maybe he'll go. Maybe the jets will, you know, draft Rodney Anderson and they can be Rodney and Robbie.

[Mike Wright]

Rodney, Robbie, Rodney.

[Jason Moore]

Rodney. Rodney and Robbie.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Excuse me there, but Robbie Anderson, do you think anybody signs him for a second year?

[Mike Wright]

No. For a second? No. He'll be, he'll be a jet.

[Andy Holloway]

Jets are going to be interesting.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Robbie Anderson, he's a good player, but he just, he has so much off field stuff that you can't possibly give up a second round pick for him and a second round pick and a contract and feel confident about it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I completely agree. Hey, before we get into the rest of the news, I want to make sure that everybody out there, all the Foot Clan, knows where to get tickets for your sporting events, for your comedy shows, for your music concerts. Where we get it, where you should get it. It's SeatGeek. Getting tickets online, getting geeky with it. Getting geeky with it. Look, it could be too complicated. You're not sure if you're getting real tickets. You're not sure, you know, if they're guaranteed. But everything on SeatGeek, look, they're pulling millions of tickets in one place so you can find great prices. They color code it, make it so, so easy to grab it, and every ticket is fully guaranteed. We've done it. Best of all, our listeners get $10 off your first SeatGeek purchase. So now you're just saving money. All you have to do is download the SeatGeek app, enter the promo code ballers today. That's promo code ballers. And you'll get $10 off your first SeatGeek purchase. SeatGeek Life is an event. We have the tickets. Make sure you download it now. You will not be disappointed.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, yes, I'll read this one because I'm out. Because Jason is the one who has to react. Chiefs GM at the combine talking about Damian Williams, saying how he does everything great on the football field. That's why we extended him and right now quotes. It's his job to lose.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you buying the hype on Damian Williams, Jason Moore?

[Mike Wright]

You know, I'm buying. I've, I've said all along, you look, you don't give a guy an extension to two to three games into his starting career if you're not going to have him be the absolute, the absolute top chance that he can get to be the starting running back.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason, how you feeling?

[Jason Moore]

Well, I feel, I feel less good about.

[Andy Holloway]

Less good.

[Jason Moore]

I feel less good, less gooder. My confidence that Damian Williams will not be the primary bell cow running back for Kansas City Chiefs, I feel less confident in that. Hoping they take that shot at Rodney Anderson. But no, I Mean, look, I went back, I watched the whole press conference because I wanted to see the context, wanted to see what was said.

[Andy Holloway]

Of course you did.

[Jason Moore]

Well, yeah, no, of course I did. Because I want to. Look, you have to be able to change and adapt if. I mean, because he was talking about a lot of different players, I wanted to see how he was talking about everybody. And, you know, when he's. When Justin Houston is getting brought up, you know, is he just saying good things about everybody? And the truth is, I think you have to take him at his word right now that he. I mean, he's clearly. I mean, obviously, contractually he is the starting running back. It looks solid for him. His stock certainly has to move up. For me, in Dynasty and, you know, redraft will set itself by the time that the season comes around, but in Dynasty, I'm more confident that he is the guy. I still believe. I still believe that if they do draft, they're going to bring in a running back. They need a third running back.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, they'll bring someone.

[Jason Moore]

And if it turns out that on their board, their big board, a guy that they like drops and that's where. Personally, I think a guy like Rodney Anderson, who could easily drop to the fourth or fifth round because he was out with an ACL tear, if they were to bring in a very talented guy, even with less capital, that's when I will be back on saying that I think he'll take the job because he's better.

[Andy Holloway]

What about Frank Gore, who said today he wants to play again?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I do as well. I mean, he's going to have to find someone that agrees. Agrees.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

Sounds difficult.

[Andy Holloway]

ESPN's Dan Graziano, Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Inquiry report that the Jags are expected to sign Nick Foles. That's right. Had him. You think this comes true?

[Mike Wright]

It was by far the most obvious landing spot. They're going to have to make some things happen with the salary cap. They have to make some things happen with Blake Bortles, so. But it's the obvious choices in where there's not a lot of landing spots for Nick Foles to be the starter.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you believe that Nick Foles at quarterback does enough for that offense, is enough of an upgrade from the Blake the Snake to afford better fantasy value to guys like Keith and Cole or to D.D. westbrook.

[Mike Wright]

Does he bring his Philadelphia magic with him?

[Andy Holloway]

I doubt it based on his prior to Philadelphia performances in the NFL, because.

[Mike Wright]

That'S the big question for me.

[Andy Holloway]

But he does find, you know, he's Found magic for spits for parts of different seasons.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's done it multiple times, but.

[Mike Wright]

I Can he rip the boards up from the apartment overall and bring it with him?

[Jason Moore]

I do not think he is.

[Andy Holloway]

You are permitted to do that? Yes.

[Jason Moore]

I don't think he is enough of an upgrade over Bortles to take the Jags and give them what I think they are hoping for, which is the guy that could put them over the top. Go on a championship run with that defense and with an offense that can move the ball and come back if you happen to be down. I don't think Foles is the guy. I believe they'll be disappointed.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you believe more in Foles to Jacksonville than you did in case Keenum to Denver last season?

[Jason Moore]

I would say it's similar situation.

[Mike Wright]

I believe it, but I don't think even Nick Foles knows who Nick Foles is.

[Andy Holloway]

Looks in the mirror like he can.

[Mike Wright]

Go out there like he did in the super bowl in the playoff run where he's an elite level quarterback or he can go out like he did a few times this season and just stink.

[Andy Holloway]

There are talented wide receivers in Jacksonville that need an opportunity from a quarterback that will consistently be able to get them the ball. That's what we as fantasy owners would like to see. Right?

[Mike Wright]

Certainly you got really like it for Dee Dee.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I like it for. For Dede for sure. And you could. You're not bringing back Dante Moncrief.

[Mike Wright]

Not likely.

[Andy Holloway]

No, not likely. So opportunities could be opening up for what? DJ Chart?

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

DJ Chart. Do do do do.

[Andy Holloway]

I was just waiting. All right. Demaryius Thomas was arrested for vehicular assault. Right then that's not good.

[Jason Moore]

Especially for a player that is up there in age dealing with a injury. I mean, I don't know. We could. We could have seen the last Chargers.

[Andy Holloway]

Looking to extend Melvin Gordon potentially.

[Mike Wright]

That's great that they're already talking about it.

[Andy Holloway]

Doug Baldwin underwent shoulder and knee surgeries.

[Jason Moore]

That's good.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. Guess what, Doug? We knew you were lying. We knew you were lying when your performance on the field didn't match what you've done in the past. And you kept saying I feel great.

[Mike Wright]

Like Travis Kelsey also went underwent a cleanup procedure as well. If you didn't hear about that. But he's expected to be back by training camp.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Pete Carroll also confirmed a 1, 2 punch at running back with Chris Carson. Rashad Penny. That's why we like Rashad Penny right now, at least. All right, that is it for the news today. We've got a cool segment coming up. Be sure to switch your Dynasty league over to Sleeper. Grab the Sleeper app. You get all those news alerts. You can load your league in there. You can play on Sleeper and we recommend it. All right. Now, Brooks, do we. Do we have an actual drop for this segment?

[Jason Moore]

Nope.

[Andy Holloway]

Thanks, man. Cool.

[Mike Wright]

I didn't even know we were doing this, but it's amazing.

[Andy Holloway]

So we're doing a commissioner tips segment right now.

[Mike Wright]

Look, do you want to. Do you want to drop? We can do a live drop.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I want to hear it for sure.

[Mike Wright]

No, it means you're beatboxing, Jason.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, God.

[Mike Wright]

Commission.

[Jason Moore]

There it was. There it is. The best drop of What? It's like February 5th happened to Roni Brooks.

[Andy Holloway]

Where do we go from here? Where do we go? I'm glad we didn't have a drop ready.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, nowhere to go but up, Andy.

[Jason Moore]

Nowhere to go but up.

[Andy Holloway]

So this is kind of like, why don't you explain what we're doing, Brooks? You know, we get a lot of.

[Jason Moore]

Questions sent in and a lot of the same ones. So this is for the commissioners that.

[Mike Wright]

Write in saying, how do I convince.

[Andy Holloway]

My league to blank? Alright, so this is a segment with that beautiful intro that you think you could maybe cut up into a. Into a clip on YouTube that you.

[Mike Wright]

Can spice it up.

[Andy Holloway]

Brooks, you can send to all the people that have these questions that we'll get throughout the season.

[Jason Moore]

You're just gonna want to make sure you cut it up after that drop so that the other people viewing this video.

[Andy Holloway]

It's amazing what beatboxing and you hyperventilating. How similar those two things sound.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, yeah, they're very. I almost passed out.

[Andy Holloway]

That's the sound I hear every morning when I go to workout with Jason. All right, all right, here we go.

[Jason Moore]

Number one.

[Andy Holloway]

Here is the number one Commish Tip. Switch to fab.

[Jason Moore]

People need to do this, and people want to do this all the time. All the time. I mean, Mike, you. Long, long ago, you tried for years to get our league of record. We were stuck in the mud. We're like, no, we don't know how to do that.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that. We were like that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean, it.

[Mike Wright]

You're 100% man.

[Andy Holloway]

We sound like idiots.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I knew that.

[Jason Moore]

So people. People want to switch our leagues to fab, a free agent acquisition budget, which is. You have.

[Andy Holloway]

So compare that to a traditional waiver system so that people understand the difference.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. So in a traditional waiver system, what happens is usually it's based on your record. And, you know, last place gets first crack. When waivers open up, you put in your claims on your players. And if you're ahead in the waiver priority, you get them. And so do you want to burn that? If you're in that number one waiver spot, do you want to burn that spot to get this player? Is he worth it? Do you want to hold on? Do you want to pick up no players when the waivers open, yada yada, or, you know, there's this great guy to get, and whoever is the worst team in the league gets them, even if it's after one week. Who you know, in a great team just had a bad game, they get the crack at those players. A free agent acquisition, budget. Every team is given a fake virtual currency. $100, 200, whatever. Whatever you know, you set it at. And the waivers are blind bids. So you bid on any player you want. Everybody in the league gets to bid on every single player that they want.

[Andy Holloway]

So, for example, after week one last year, Philip Lindsay maybe looks like a nice pickup. Okay, every team in the league privately bids on that player on Monday. Right. Or, I'm sorry, on Tuesday. On Tuesday. And maybe I have bid $20. You guys don't know that I bid that. Mike, you bid 15. Jason, maybe you bid 21.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, on Wednesday morning, when the waivers run, all is revealed and Jason begins gloating about paying just the perfect amount. And I weep and cry because I could have just put two more dollars and got.

[Jason Moore]

There is so much fun to be had here. The nonsense of people overpaying by 50 bucks and being able to mock them. The fun of getting that sweet spot, you know, me paying 21 when Andy pays 20 and grabbing that right person. And there is still, you know, there is still the tiebreaker of records. So, you know, if. If we both bid $5 on a. On a guy, then whoever's the worst team gets, you know, gets that if they're, you know, in at the same value.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly. And so a lot of the times people want to know, how do I convince my league to make these moves, to make the change? It's more fun. It adds another level of intrigue during the course of the week. Right.

[Mike Wright]

And it's just fair.

[Andy Holloway]

It's more fair.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, everyone has a chance. If you want to go get a player, you can go and get them. And just as we always say, make sure you turn on zero dollar bids.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Because frequently the default is one dollar. And if you have the one dollar, that's the same as having a transaction cap, which is the absolute worst.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you run out of.

[Mike Wright]

You are the worst.

[Jason Moore]

You run out of money. You, you don't get to make any.

[Andy Holloway]

More moves if you need added ammo. If sending your league mates this part of the podcast isn't enough, there's a great article by Eric Ludwig on our website, the fantasy footballers.com. it's titled, your league needs to change your waiver system asap. It will reinforce these points and we do recommend that it's another commissioner tip because we're here to make your league more enjoyable, more fun all season long.

[Jason Moore]

Well, let's continue on to tip number two, because it's just pretty much an extension to switch to daily continuous waivers.

[Andy Holloway]

So in a lot of leagues you will have a one time waiver period. Tuesdays you place your bids or your waiver priority Wednesday goes through and then.

[Mike Wright]

Players are all chaos breaks out, open.

[Andy Holloway]

And available to be picked up at any moment. Sometimes in those leagues, once you release a guy, they're on waivers till the next day. But basically, why don't we want this? Why do we want daily continuous waivers, which would be that every day at a specific time, waivers run and then that's the only time that you can sign players.

[Mike Wright]

Once again, it goes back to it being fair. Not everyone is able to just pull out a device or you're sitting at a desk like.

[Jason Moore]

Or you work at fantasy football for a living.

[Mike Wright]

You do fantasy football and it. Look, maybe someone in your league's a police officer. You think that they shouldn't have a chance to grab Nick Chubb because the news broke and they just happen to be out or sleeping or you're sleeping.

[Andy Holloway]

They work various ships. A lot of firefighters are sleeping during parts of the day. Okay, you could be a doctor or.

[Jason Moore]

A nurse, that's fine, jump on out of the hole.

[Mike Wright]

But I mean, look, if you're in.

[Andy Holloway]

One of the leagues, I was with you, Andy. I've got friends who are police officers.

[Mike Wright]

It just was very funny if you.

[Andy Holloway]

Were in a league all the time.

[Mike Wright]

If you're in a league that had open waivers, how did the team do? They added Nick Chubb because they added a top five running back for free because they happen to be the fastest to the computer.

[Jason Moore]

And so usually the argument made is the one you just made, which is fairness. It's so much more fair to let everybody have the same time of day, you know, to make competitive balance. Competitive balance. But I would argue even more than the competitive balance. Right. Like this last year in our work sleeper league, we actually had it where it was not on continuous daily. And once the main waivers ran, it was open. And that was pretty fair. Like everybody here had, you know, we're here through the day and it's pretty fair. Everyone has the same opportunity. The alert comes and everyone scrambles out the phone sleeping. But, well, thank you for your service. But the point is that it's so much more fun every time that waivers run. It's so fun to look and see who bid on who, who dropped who, you know, paid up too much or not enough or all of those things. And you get to do that six days a week when you turn on continuous waivers.

[Andy Holloway]

Now, I will acknowledge the point that many people make in the negative for continuous waivers is simply something like last minute injury issue, need to add a guy. And yes, you do have to be a little bit more regular on planning for those situations. You need to make sure that you have bids in before waivers process on Sunday morning so you can fill in for an injured guy. But it really isn't that proportionally it's not that much of an ask compared to the benefit.

[Jason Moore]

In the last, you know, six, seven years that we've had that system, I can't think of one time where it's ever been an actual problem. It's just this hypothetical what if problem that you can always play around.

[Mike Wright]

The problem that comes up is more along the lines of not wanting to drop a certain player. Like, you know, you got to add a backup to be prepared. And it stinks when you add the backup because you forced to. To be ready for the afternoon games and then your guy actually goes. So you made that acquisition and you didn't actually have to. But like you said, it's. It's still worth it. That one negative does not take away from all the positives.

[Jason Moore]

All right, number three.

[Andy Holloway]

Number three. It is a simple command. Stop. Stop it. Stop it.

[Jason Moore]

Stop. Stop it.

[Andy Holloway]

Stop vetoing trades.

[Jason Moore]

The veto is not.

[Andy Holloway]

Stop it.

[Jason Moore]

A fairness police. That is not what the veto is for. The veto is not to say, is this a fair trade? No. Doesn't it? Nope. This. The veto is to say that this is illegal. This is cheating. Someone is taking advantage of someone who doesn't care they're out of the league. They're just selling all their good players for bad ones. And now it's going to ruin a league.

[Andy Holloway]

I feel like the VOPO would probably have some thoughts here, but.

[Jason Moore]

But guys.

[Mike Wright]

But why are you a chicken?

[Jason Moore]

But I've seen players that are really good they make better trades and they always win. And I don't want that.

[Andy Holloway]

So you're not happy with the results of trades, so you'd rather there just be no trades?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, well, I want to have good.

[Andy Holloway]

Trades so those can't be vetoed. Here's the thing. It's a slippery slope when you put in a veto and respect a veto on the basis of fairness. Here's why. You might be wrong. Even if it's unanimous that a trade is not fair, all of you could be wrong because we can't see the future. We don't know what play or injury or scenario or depth move or whatever the case may be. If you traded for Carlos Hyde last year and he was then traded to the jags and had 0.0 value, guess what? Everything changed about the context of that trade. If you let people vote based on fairness, you're just going to end up wrong a lot of the time. If you let people veto based on unanimous for collusion, I'm fine with that.

[Jason Moore]

We get asked it during the season, literally hundreds of times through the season, maybe thousands of times, hey, this trade just happened in my league. Should this be vetoed? Or, hey, this trade just happened. We vetoed it. What are your thoughts? And I can tell you, it's. It's 99%. Like, it's. It's so close to 100% of the time. That's like, no, this trade should go through. This trade should go through. That's not me saying, oh, this is a great trade. It's just, no, it doesn't look like it's collusion. It doesn't look like one team's tanking. And one team, if both teams want to make the move and they think it's making their team better, then let them do that.

[Andy Holloway]

And here's the thing. I mean, you are trying, as a commissioner, these are commission tips, right? You're trying to facilitate a league that is the most fun, engaging league possible. And I believe that the most fun and exciting leagues are the ones in which the GMs are responsible for their team, right? They're responsible to make the moves, to have ownership over those moves. If you veto trades based on fairness, you will discourage teams from making moves. Now, look, if a team's out of the playoff hunt and it's a week before the playoffs and they trade seven of their great players to some other guy because they don't care about the league anymore, that's not allowed. That's different.

[Jason Moore]

That's illegal.

[Andy Holloway]

But if you are making a Trade that, you go, man, it might work for them, might not work for them. You got to let it go. You cannot have one of these situations where three or four people in the league because you put the veto in. I remember this from years and years and years ago. You put the veto in and it's a majority veto. And guess what? All of a sudden you've got people recruiting, trying to find another. Oh, you come vote no with me because it's not going to help you.

[Jason Moore]

You've got people fighting, you've got happening in your league, you've got anger and all these things that go like our league, our league of record for years we had just like every league has, you know, the 24, 48 hour period where a trade goes through and you vote and then it's either approved on majority vote or it is denied. And when we had just that voting system, there were arguments, there was bad feelings, there was hurt feelings, there were rejected trades since we got rid of it. And so that's part of this tip is get rid of the waiting window.

[Mike Wright]

Instant trades.

[Jason Moore]

Instant trades. When a trade is accepted, then they're on the other players, other teams, rosters. It speeds up transactions. It's wonderful. Since that happened, the same group of humans, we have made, I don't know, 100 trades in the last five or six years since we went to instant trading. And there's never any fights that like, you know, once you know that every.

[Andy Holloway]

Trade is mocking, they're not fighting certainly. And that's what you want. Mocking is great. And that. So the caveat there is enable instant trading. Make sure that these things process right away. There's no need for a voting period if you don't veto. And look, we can convince your league to do that on the basis of autonomy. We're all pretending to be owners of a team. That's the whole point. We're all pretending. Let the team take some ownership. They will, you know, you have more investment when they can accomplish what they want to accomplish with their team. Win, lose or draw.

[Jason Moore]

All right, number four.

[Andy Holloway]

How do I convince my league to stay engaged? This is a tough one now, is that with their. You probably need to get another.

[Mike Wright]

You need Picard.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, gosh.

[Jason Moore]

I liked Andy's better than yours. What?

[Mike Wright]

Andy's was bad.

[Jason Moore]

Andy's was not.

[Mike Wright]

Judge, Judge, give me a ruling. Which one was better?

[Jason Moore]

Let's go with which one was worse.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's probably better.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, what do you got there, Judge?

[Andy Holloway]

Andy's is worse.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, the law has spoken.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Engage in case.

[Mike Wright]

How do you see is fun?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well, I certainly.

[Mike Wright]

I won, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Look, I'm a next generation type of guy, so this is good. But. And really you can't, you shouldn't keep people engaged because eventually they should get married once they're engaged.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

I mean engaged forever.

[Andy Holloway]

There was, there was a point to this. How do we get people to stay engaged with their leagues? Every commissioner, we get this one a thousand times a year too. How do I get a league that has high investment, People are interested, people come back, people don't give up, people stay engaged. How do you do that? Now we, you know, I didn't even know this one was on there. But one of the things we try to do is look, it starts with the people. So we try to facilitate [e-mail] with the foot Clan leagues. If you need more people in your league. But once you got them, how do you keep them engaged?

[Jason Moore]

Well, first, we've talked about this before, but you need a communication channel that is just a centered around the football league. The, you know, whether that's a Facebook group, a Slack channel, whatever chat service you currently use as the commish that you like the best.

[Andy Holloway]

Because every single AOL chat rooms.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean it could even hey, if.

[Mike Wright]

You want to kick it old school.

[Jason Moore]

I mean just a group text, you know what I mean? That it's got everyone in it and you know, whatever. Just some.

[Mike Wright]

Don't do a group text because I will mute that thing immediately.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. I mean I would not want that one. But I would rather have a group text, you know, place where I can communicate than nothing. And so many leagues out there have nothing. The only place might be on the message board within the app, within the platform that they're using. And half the people don't check that. There's no place to really.

[Andy Holloway]

I will say fun Banter Sleeper does a good job of creating which is nice because you need it. Communication is king. You need to be able to mock the trades, not veto them, mock them.

[Mike Wright]

Get them gifts going.

[Andy Holloway]

You got to be able to post a gif. It's a place where the league commissioner, as much as you want to do, you can go put some weekly awards or you could do a league newsletter or you could, you know, it's just a place to have a central discussion about what's going on in the league.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, the write ups. If you have someone in the league who is just gung ho and absolutely lives breathes fantasy football, which by my calculations, if you're Listening to a podcast on March 5 about Fan, you do all that's you. So you should probably take up the mantle. You got to carry the sword on this one. The write ups are so fun that on Tuesday or Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, you go in, someone has broken down all the matchups, you get all flustered and mad reading about someone trashing your team. And it just, it creates that engagement. It keeps people active.

[Jason Moore]

I've never had that. I've only had. I've only read those and been like, man, I love what they're saying about my team, how I'm going to dominate. Sorry, Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

Dan Kerber wrote what you read last year.

[Jason Moore]

No, not last year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, got him.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. No, it's fun. So let me ask you this. What is better to you? What do you enjoy more? The matchup write ups or the power ranking write ups? Two totally different theories of just, you know, nonsense write ups for your league. But I am a power ranking guy. I love seeing the power rankings after.

[Mike Wright]

Power rankings is nice.

[Andy Holloway]

Power rankings can be a sweet salve when you have a bad beat and somebody's looking at your, like, total points scored and how you're performing. Look, Dan Kerber from our listener league wrote up write ups every single week. Last year in our listener league, they were super fun. A lot of people don't know this podcast began because Mike and I started a podcast for our league. So that is something you can do as well. The barrier to entry there, grab a microphone, press record, put out a podcast, even, you know, we did it like 30 minutes once a week. All we did was mock one another.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And by one another. Everybody but ourselves.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, we had the microphones.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we had the microphones. So it's also a place. Communication is a great way to make the league expectations clear so people don't, you know, do something that's against the rules or against, you know, what you're trying to set up and get a.

[Jason Moore]

Waiting list that getting a waiting list, like, you brought up, the very first thing was the people. Right? How do you. How do you keep people engaged? We don't need to. Like, in our league of record, this isn't a tip. We can even apply. Like, how do I get them to stay engaged? Everyone is fully engaged all the time. But that is not. That wasn't always true. What happened is as years went on and the less engaged people slowly got more and more, okay, I'm thinking about dropping out. Well, we had like a waiting list of people that like, oh, man, I want to get in Your league. It sounds fun. It sounds cool. A lot of times they were co owners with our current, you know, so they're kind of halfway in the league already. One foot in, and then you end up just slowly replacing one at a time just with better and better, more engaged owners. And eventually this. This isn't a tip you ever need.

[Andy Holloway]

It also makes it easier to boot bad owners when you have a waiting list, because you can kind of say, hey, if you're not all in, it's no big deal. We got somebody who wants to step up and grab your team. Right?

[Jason Moore]

Number five.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, you guys can take this one. Number five. Our final commission tip for the show.

[Mike Wright]

Beating the dead horse. Let's make it quick. Just get rid of your week. 17 championships.

[Andy Holloway]

But no.

[Mike Wright]

No public chicken.

[Jason Moore]

But, guys, more football's better.

[Andy Holloway]

Nope.

[Jason Moore]

But we've always done it this way. No, but 17 is bigger than 16.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's true.

[Jason Moore]

I'll see myself out.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, you got me on one. You got me on one. Look, it's. It creates problems. Problems that should not exist in the game of fantasy football. Just come on.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, just fix it.

[Jason Moore]

Just stop.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's. Let's go ahead and close this thing out. All right? He's talking new contract. Melvin Gordon signed Los Angeles Chargers speed mini helmet just sold on Pristine auction yesterday for $65.11. Oh, he's gonna get a contract for much more than that.

[Mike Wright]

I have seen more than $65.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, yes.

[Andy Holloway]

My sources tell me.

[Jason Moore]

Might want to tweet that out just so that, you know, breaking news.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I've seen Gordon do more than $65.

[Andy Holloway]

You heard it here.

[Jason Moore]

That take all these mini speed helmets signed and they make like a. Like a, you know, like a pyramid. Like, they've got a place where they put all these helmets and they look so awesome. And it's just one of those things. 1. Once you see a bunch of those, like, signed memorabilia stations, you just. It seems impossible. Like, how could someone have all of this stuff?

[Mike Wright]

One helmet at a time.

[Jason Moore]

One helmet at a time. But it's so cool.

[Mike Wright]

I see we got Mr. Arthritis up on our wall. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Check it out. Pristineauction.com Poor Todd Gurley.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we'll talk to you on Thursday. Coaching changes and a whole lot more. Thanks for tuning in and listening.

[Mike Wright]

Good.

[Jason Moore]

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 theffballers.