Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - 5 Ways to Become a Better Fantasy Football Player in 2017

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast 2017 Episode Summary: "5 Ways to Become a Better Fantasy Football Player in 2017"

Release Date: June 15, 2017
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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Introduction

In this special episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright delve deep into strategies aimed at elevating your fantasy football game for the 2017 season. Moving beyond basic tips, the trio presents five comprehensive ways to think differently and play more effectively, ensuring listeners gain both analytical insights and a holistic approach to fantasy football.

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1. Know Your League, Not Just Your Roster

Timestamp: 20:00 – 25:32

Andy Holloway emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamics of your specific league:

“Know your league, not just your roster. The way that your league mates play fantasy football... has an impact on your team’s performance.” [02:54]

Key Points:

• League Rules & Scoring Systems: Tailor your strategies according to unique league settings. For instance, different point systems (e.g., PPR for only tight ends or points per first down) can drastically alter player values.

  Mike Wright illustrates this with the Scottie Fishbowl league example:

  “Every year he changes up the scoring system... This radically changes things.” [22:08]

• Understanding Opponents’ Tendencies: Recognize how your league mates draft, trade, and manage their teams. This knowledge allows you to anticipate moves and exploit opportunities.

  Jason Moore adds:

  “Andy always takes advantage of the one or two guys that are very news reactionary.” [21:24]

• Customization Over Generic Cheat Sheets: Instead of relying solely on broad rankings, adjust your strategies based on how your league operates, enhancing your competitive edge.

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2. Find Your Quick Draw News Option

Timestamp: 25:32 – 29:22

Staying updated with the latest news is crucial for making informed decisions. The hosts recommend establishing a streamlined method to receive timely updates without being overwhelmed.

Andy Holloway describes:

“Find your quick draw news option... grab your phone and look at that source and see if there's any updates.” [26:10]

Key Points:

• Efficient News Sources: Utilize apps like Rotoworld, SleeperBot, or Twitter to receive concise and relevant updates. These platforms provide notifications for significant changes, ensuring you don't miss critical news.

  Jason Moore suggests:

  “Twitter has lists... you could just scroll through nothing but NFL beat writers.” [28:14]

• Balancing Quantity and Quality: Focus on quality updates rather than being inundated with information. A streamlined news source keeps you informed without consuming excessive time.

• Real-Time Updates: Tools like Twitter are invaluable for real-time status changes, injury reports, and other immediate news that can affect player performance and availability.

  Mike Wright emphasizes:

  “Twitter is crucial when you're following these beat reporters... look like all systems are Go for that player.” [28:46]

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3. Don’t Play Afraid

Timestamp: 29:22 – 36:34

Fear can hinder decision-making, leading to suboptimal choices during drafts and roster management. The hosts encourage a confident and fearless approach to fantasy football.

Andy Holloway states:

“Number three, don’t play afraid... you can’t play it afraid.” [29:37]

Key Points:

• Overcoming Fear of Mistakes: Whether it's drafting a quarterback later or avoiding handcuffing, confidence in your decisions is essential.

  Jason Moore explains:

  “Trust your gut a little bit when you're in that draft. Don’t... be reeling.” [35:07]

• Avoiding Common Pitfalls: Don't let concerns like bye weeks or handcuffing dictate your strategy. Focus instead on broader team needs and player potentials.

  Mike Wright discusses handcuffing:

  “We don’t draft our handcuffs... It’s a waste of a spot.” [32:39]

• Staying Calm During Uncertainty: Maintaining composure when early results aren't favorable can make the difference between a championship-contending team and a mediocre one.

  Andy Holloway ties it with another tip:

  “Trust the process... Whatever happens can happen in reverse.” [44:03]

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4. Community: Make Your Friends Better at Fantasy Football

Timestamp: 36:34 – 41:21

Building a strong community around fantasy football not only enhances enjoyment but also fosters mutual improvement among league members.

Andy Holloway highlights:

“Making your friends better at fantasy football benefits you as a fantasy football player.” [37:17]

Key Points:

• Networking and Collaboration: Engaging with fellow players allows for the exchange of strategies, insights, and support, ultimately elevating everyone's game.

  Jason Moore shares:

  “Surround yourself with more people that play or introduce them to it.” [38:20]

• Learning Through Interaction: Active discussions and debates within your community can reveal new perspectives and approaches to the game.

• Improving League Quality: Encouraging others to enhance their gameplay creates a more competitive and enjoyable league environment. This mutual improvement benefits all participants.

  Andy Holloway adds:

  “We learn from you, you learn from us... you need to have a community.” [39:20]

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5. Stay the Course

Timestamp: 41:21 – 45:25

Persistence is key in fantasy football. Staying committed throughout the season, even during downturns, can lead to unexpected successes.

Jason Moore narrates his personal experience:

“I was completely 100% gone. I just was like, okay, well, the NFL is over because my fantasy team is over... I kept doing that, and it made me so much better the following season.” [42:15]

Key Points:

• Consistent Engagement: Continuously monitoring and adjusting your team, even when not in playoff contention, sets the foundation for future success.

• Resisting the Urge to Quit Early: Many players give up after initial setbacks, but perseverance can turn weak starts into strong finishes.

• Long-Term Perspective: Maintaining focus beyond immediate outcomes helps in making strategic decisions that benefit the team over the entire season.

  Andy Holloway connects it with playing fearless:

  “Trust the process... if you start off on the wrong foot, stay the course.” [44:03]

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Additional Insights and Discussions

Throughout the episode, the hosts engage in insightful discussions and debates, providing listeners with practical advice and personal anecdotes.

Changing Player Evaluations:

• Austin Safarian-Jenkins: Mike Wright discusses his evolving stance on the Jets' tight end, highlighting the importance of personal development and second chances.

  “He's still very young. It's... he is rising.” [07:11]

• Terrell Pryor: Andy Holloway shares his reassessment of Terrell Pryor’s potential in Washington, considering the surrounding talent and offensive dynamics.

  “What is the ceiling really for Pryor... I see it more as one of those situations that could also go the way of Brandon Lloyd.” [08:08]

• Tyrell Williams: Jason Moore reflects on redefining Tyrell Williams’ value based on his consistent performance, challenging previous rankings.

  “He was really, you know, on a weekly basis, helpful fantasy player last year who is undrafted.” [13:20]

Draft Strategies:

• Handcuffing: The hosts debate the merits of drafting backup players. Mike Wright advises against it, emphasizing the loss of draft value, while also recognizing scenarios where it might be beneficial.

  “We don’t draft our handcuffs... It’s a waste of a spot.” [32:39]

• Bye Weeks: Andy Holloway dismisses the importance of bye weeks, encouraging players to remain flexible and not let them dictate roster decisions.

  “Unless I'm in a best ball league... It’s irrelevant to me.” [34:37]

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Listener Questions and Answers

The episode includes a segment where the hosts address listener questions, offering tailored advice based on their expertise.

Commissioner's Dilemma:

• Transitioning New Owners in a Keeper League:
  Listener Ryan from Bismarck, ND asks:
  “How do I handle the transition period for bringing in these new owners?... should I give them a clean slate and let all the players go back into the draft pool for the upcoming season?” [49:16]

  Hosts' Response:

  • Jason Moore suggests conducting a supplemental draft where new owners select from a pool of available players, ensuring fairness and maintaining league integrity.

    “Use a supplemental draft... it's a great idea.” [51:22]

  • Andy Holloway recommends establishing clear rules beforehand to avoid controversy, advocating for transparency and collective agreement within the league.

    “If you're not in this situation, to establish what you're going to do in your league.” [52:18]

Keeper Decisions:

• Choice Between Ezekiel Elliott and Michael Thomas:
  Listener from Sarasota Springs, NY asks:
  “Keep one Ezekiel Elliott for a first-round pick or Michael Thomas for an eighth-round pick?” [52:42]

  Hosts' Consensus:

  • The unanimous decision leans towards keeping Ezekiel Elliott, given his high value and impact.

    “We will all agree to take the studs.” [53:30]

Rookie Wide Receivers Evaluation:

• Rashard Matthews vs. Corey Davis:
  Listener Cameron in Sarasota Springs, NY challenges the hosts’ rankings:
  “After the Titans drafted Corey Davis, you buried Rashard Matthews...” [53:30]

  Hosts' Response:

  • Jason Moore acknowledges the validity of the concern but explains that Corey Davis’s role could limit Matthews’s opportunities.

    “Just because Corey Davis may not produce at a fantasy stud level because he's a rookie...” [55:56]

  • Andy Holloway suggests re-evaluating based on ongoing performance and offensive developments.

    “Now, what was he over the first half?... seeing how things shake out and camp a little bit.” [56:56]

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Conclusion

The Fantasy Footballers wrap up the episode by reiterating the five key strategies to enhance your fantasy football prowess:

1. Know Your League, Not Just Your Roster
2. Find Your Quick Draw News Option
3. Don’t Play Afraid
4. Community: Make Your Friends Better at Fantasy Football
5. Stay the Course

Andy Holloway summarizes:

“Pick who you want and things will go better. Trust your gut a little bit when you're in that draft.” [35:07]

Listeners are encouraged to engage with the community through forums and the website (jointhefoot.com) to further refine their strategies and enjoy a more enriched fantasy football experience.

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Notable Quotes

• Andy Holloway:
  “One of my favorite things to talk about is knowing your league, not just your roster.” [19:39]

• Jason Moore:
  “Finding your quick draw news option can change everything about how much you know.” [26:10]

• Mike Wright:
  “We don’t draft our handcuffs... It’s a waste of a spot.” [32:39]

• Andy Holloway:
  “Stay the course... Whatever happens can happen in reverse.” [44:03]

---

Final Thoughts

This episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast provides a blend of strategic advice and motivational insights, equipping fantasy players with the tools needed to not only compete but excel in their leagues. By understanding league dynamics, staying informed, overcoming fears, engaging with the community, and maintaining persistence, listeners are well-positioned to enhance their performance and enjoy a more fulfilling fantasy football season.

Transcript

[Mike Wright]

What's going on? Foot clan. Before we start today's show, I want to tell you about a big, big hotness. It's hotness. The ultimate draft kit. You know that it's ready, you know that it's out there. You're in there, you're looking at it. Well, we just made another huge addition. We're talking consistency charts. We're talking not just the career, which you can have a look at that. How has Aaron Rodgers been every single year of his career? You can also look back at 2016 every single week. You want to know if Doug Martin was a running back too in week, boom. It's there for you. It's highly visual, easy to get through in the pinch, in the wink, in the blink of an eye. Ultimate draft kit dot com.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, the fantasy footballers.

[Mike Wright]

That's who we are.

[Andy Holloway]

Bring in the goodness.

[Mike Wright]

That's what we do.

[Andy Holloway]

Thursday, June 15th.

[Mike Wright]

That's the day.

[Andy Holloway]

People are gonna think we rehearsed.

[Mike Wright]

Welcome to the show.

[Andy Holloway]

It is a very special episode. We this show very much to me kind of sums up what we're about as a show. We, we spend the time and effort, we watch the film, we dig deep into the stats and we project players and we're highly analytical. But that is but a pie slice of the fantasy football experience. There is more to that and that is what the show is about. It is about your league. It is about having fun. It is about engaging with the sport beyond the statistics. And it takes thinking about fantasy football in different ways. Holistically. That's a good way to put it, to be a great player. And that is the thing that we've wanted to get out there. One, you should be having a blast. And we certainly try to reinforce that reality for your fantasy league. You should be having fun whether you win or lose. I need is way more fun to win.

[Jason Moore]

I was going to say winning helps.

[Andy Holloway]

A lot, but it should be a good experience and it should be. Well, it's going to be a great show because today we have a very special show. We have five ways to become a better fantasy football player. Now, that might sound like a basic title, but we think every single fantasy football player will get something out of today's show because this is not all about the basics. This is about giving you five ways to become better at playing fantasy football. Ways to think. And we think it's going to be.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, some of these engaging. Some of these you might have already done. If you've done them, then you will realize what a difference it has made when it comes to fantasy football for you. I know when, when the three of us sat around the room and, you know, tried to craft like, okay, what makes you better? What, you know, when you, when you, you know, it's, it's like in jiu jitsu, you know, you get the next belt color and then you get the next belt color and you keep leveling up. We sat around and thought about, okay, well, what do we do?

[Mike Wright]

Let's get some stripes on them, let's.

[Jason Moore]

Get some stripes on the belt. What things really helped level us up. And we, and those things that we've seen many other people like, okay, yeah, they're better. They have this in their belt. And those are what we're dealing with today.

[Andy Holloway]

And these aren't things that are okay. Draft a quarterback in the seventh round every single time. These aren't direct, strategic points of view necessarily. It's not like stat oriented. This is how to think about fantasy football. I would still call them strategy. But we'll get to it. We'll get to it very soon. On Twitter. You can find us at the ffballers. Mike told you the career charts are now live in udk.

[Mike Wright]

They are hot.

[Andy Holloway]

And if you already have the udk, this is just a little bonus.

[Mike Wright]

Bonus.

[Jason Moore]

I love Michael King.

[Andy Holloway]

And if you don't have the udk, this is a little pat on the butt. Go get it. Doesn't cost anything different, but some extra features.

[Mike Wright]

It really should, but it doesn't.

[Jason Moore]

Well, we talked to Mike. We said, no, no, no, let him.

[Andy Holloway]

Let him have it for free. Ultimate draft kit dot com. All right, quick question of the day, guys. What player have you been changing your opinion on lately? So a little temperature check. Is there a player you were bullish on that you're starting to fade or vice versa? Somebody you were like, man, I don't like him. And now all of a sudden you see a future in fantasy football 2017 for this player. Who are you changing your opinion on?

[Mike Wright]

I will jump in here first and the ultimate draft kits, you'll know that if you're in there, you see there is a blurb on every single player of note. And this player, who I am now starting to reevaluate my opinion on them. Austin Safari and Jenkins, I had, I had on the original draft was a one word blurb on him. It said, well, that was it. But then a lot of things started to Come out a lot of news.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason's face. Let me just put this out there. I am 1 million percent on Mike's side on this. So just so you're aware.

[Jason Moore]

No, I know you are. I know. I know you are. And the truth is I'm not completely against what your opinion is on Austin Seferrian Jenkins. I'm just saying it's gross to say. It's hard to say.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. For what he has done to fantasy players in the past. But all the news came out the guy had. He had a drinking problem and he addressed it. He is clean. He has lost 25.

[Andy Holloway]

That's not £5.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

That's a lot of weight.

[Jason Moore]

That's one of the best ways to tell as well. You know when you see the physical changes, it's like, okay, yeah, there's been a change.

[Mike Wright]

He's doing what he has to do to get back on the field. The jets still did not cut him despite he pleaded guilty for a dui. He is suspended for two games. But the jets have nobody left. They cut Eric Decker. They've anyone of value that we are used to. They've said goodbye. And now you are left with a bunch of rookie pass catchers, Robbie Anderson and Austin Safarian. Jenkins, who was an early second round pick, he is a monster of a man in stature. He's an athletic freak. His agility and catch radius are off the charts when you're looking at him on player profiler. He's just the potential is there for him. Things clearly off the field did not match what was going with his skill set. But if the guy has his life back in order and can move forward, he's still very young. It's. And the league has not given up on Austin Safari and Jenkins, I'm not calling for him to be at tight end one at this time, but he's rising. He's a tight end too. We picked him up in our fantasy.

[Jason Moore]

Pros, dynasty league, catch the ball in New York. I mean that's what it comes down to is with Eric Decker gone, with Brandon Marshall gone, you've got Quincy and Unwa rookies.

[Andy Holloway]

It's just an opportunity for him. If you were trying to come back from what he's coming back from and you said, hey, I need one more shot. The table is set for you. Asj, you had even with the issues in the past. He had four touchdowns on 21 receptions.

[Mike Wright]

He was a 15 in week one last year. He was a tight end one. I know that because the consistency charts. Thanks, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

You're welcome.

[Mike Wright]

But it's talent opportunity for Austin Safari and Jenkins, and I'm very excited to see what he does this year.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so you have asj as a player. You're changing. Your opinion on mine is going to be shocking. But I'm going to be honest, I'm very curious.

[Mike Wright]

Hold on. Do I need. Do I need, like a Gallagher plastic suit here? So.

[Andy Holloway]

No, but I'll play the sad diary.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, no.

[Jason Moore]

Is that going down? You're going down on.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, no, I really still. I still love you.

[Jason Moore]

Uh.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I still love you a lot. But I'm starting to. I'm starting to have a little bit of pause with Terrell Pryor.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah. This is so great.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I thought.

[Jason Moore]

I was so worried you were going John Brown.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, well, that one. That one I did a few weeks ago.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, but tell us more.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's all I'm going to say about trial prior. Look, the question's in front of me. I have to answer it. Who have you been changing your opinion on lately? Terrell Pryor is in a great situation. He came into a team with one of the more highly accurate quarterbacks in the league. An opportunity with DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon out the door. I think Charles Pryor is going to make a huge impact this year. But there are a lot of pass catchers I love in Washington, and the two that Kirk Cousins have the best built in rapport with our players I think are super talented. It would be one thing if Crowder and Reed. Crowder and Reed. It would be one thing if he went to someplace and they had some receivers and the quarterback had a report then, but I didn't think they were any good. It's another thing to go to Washington and have a player. I think Jamison Crowder is great. I think Jordan Reed is amazing, and I think Josh Jackson will have a role. And so because of that, I wonder what the ceiling really is for Pryor. I think things have to go in his way tremendously for him to be a top 10 type of wide receiver. Is it possible? Yeah. But I see it more as one of those situations that could also go the way of Brandon Lloyd. When he joined New England, he was a free agent coming off of literally a number one fantasy football season with the Denver Broncos, went to New England with a great quarterback and situation. And so the hype train was off the chain. Now you have kind of Pryor going there and it could work out. I'm not saying that, but my opinion is, man, I can see a Way for it not to work out now.

[Jason Moore]

So you've been listening to our previous episodes is what you're saying, and you've been hearing me say all those things for the last few months.

[Mike Wright]

Got it. I see both. The potential for Prior is massive. Everything.

[Andy Holloway]

The guarantee factor has changed. It says. Who have you been changing your opinion on?

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

My guarantee factor for Terrell Pryor. My risk rating for Terrell Pryor has gone up.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

He's higher risk than I originally believed.

[Mike Wright]

Every. Everything for me for Prior is tied into his adp, which.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Is flying up to a range where he's going to become actually risky if he stays and if you can get him in the fifth round, I still think that's well, well worth it.

[Andy Holloway]

Honorable mention to John Brown.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Who has gone down my rankings considerably.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I worry a little bit about my John Brown love as well. So he could have made this list for me. The player that I, you know, I just wanted to answer honestly and say who have I over the last week taken a look at and been surprised with and kind of adjusted my rankings? And that is Tyrell Williams. Terrell Williams is last. Last year he was the wide receiver 15 in half point scoring. The other 14 players of the top 15 at wide receiver are all being drafted in the top 26. Larry Fitzgerald is the lowest being drafted at 26.

[Andy Holloway]

You're saying for wide receiver. In the top 26 wide receiver.

[Jason Moore]

Exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

Gotcha.

[Jason Moore]

Terrell Pryor.

[Mike Wright]

Tyrell Williams.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Tyrell Williams is being drafted. If he's being drafted as the 60th wide receiver off the board, one of.

[Andy Holloway]

These things is not right there.

[Jason Moore]

It's not like, okay, Keenan Allen is coming to town. Right. That that happened. They drafted Mike Williams. It was actually Santa Claus that happened. And so now we're taking a top 15 wide receiver and just completely. It's not like, okay, let's move him. He's not going to be 15. Maybe that was an outlier. Maybe he should be more in the twenties. But now these other pieces come in. So he's in the 30s. Let's put him in 60. I can't imagine that the Chargers with Philip Rivers, who had such a good rapport. Tyrell Williams is a young player they were excited about. We talked about him early last year and.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me call you out for a second, though.

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Are you now saying that you believed he was a 60s guy?

[Jason Moore]

I am saying.

[Andy Holloway]

Because if you're saying your opinion is changing, you believe he was.

[Jason Moore]

I am saying that I forgot. I wrote him off okay, so you. When I looked at my rankings, when Mike Williams came to town and Keenan Allen came back, I did what most people did, which is just when it comes to Travis Benjamin, Tyrell Williams, just kind of discount them, you know, like they're like they're completely out of the league. And when I looked, it really was because of the work I was doing on the consistency charts. When I saw what Terrell Pryor did last year.

[Mike Wright]

Tyrell Williams.

[Andy Holloway]

Tyrell Williams.

[Jason Moore]

Good. All these Tyrells.

[Mike Wright]

You forgot him.

[Andy Holloway]

They're different names.

[Mike Wright]

You can't even say his name. Right.

[Jason Moore]

Well, he's barely on my mind. Right. I mean, he's just now coming back in a couple weeks. I will remember Tyrell Williams.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

But right now, Tyrell Williams, when I was looking through those consistency charts, I was blown away with. He was really, you know, on a weekly basis, helpful fantasy player last year who is undrafted. And that doesn't usually happen now. Could he go. Kamar Aiken, could he be just the beneficiary of, you know, injuries in front of him and he's going to go away. It could happen. But I'm. How could you not take that risk when he's. There is no risk at the end of the draft? I mean, the guys that are going in front of him.

[Andy Holloway]

59. Don't give me 59 names. Jason.

[Jason Moore]

No, I'm just saying. Zay Jones and Tyler Lockett and Kevin White. These are guys that are going ahead of him because of potential.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Now you have Mike Williams done it.

[Jason Moore]

He did this last year. So I would rather take my flyer on Tyro.

[Andy Holloway]

We need to move on. We need to move on from Terrell Pryor and Tyrell Williams and asj. All right, before I'm not going to do a whole notes segment today, news and notes segment, because I want to get into the main event. I want to talk about these five ways that you can become a better fantasy football player for this upcoming year. But real quick, John Ross has shoulder surgery. Bengals first round pick might not be ready for the start of training camp. Yeah, had surgery, is still recovering.

[Mike Wright]

That's bad news.

[Andy Holloway]

Gio Bernard might be held out of the first couple regular season games. To. In my mind, I think Gio Bernard at this point can be nearly written off. Man, if he's coming back from that significant of an injury and you mix that in with Joe Mason, Jeremy Hill in the mix, not written off, but severely discounted, I think it's going to be hard for him to break in three, four weeks into the season. Into whatever rotation is going on. I do.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I completely.

[Andy Holloway]

Especially coming off an ACL where it might take you extra time. Look at Dion Lewis. He didn't come back with a vengeance last year. All of us. Did you. Did you ever really feel like Dion Lewis was back?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

There was a week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So I. I think there'll be a week of Geo, but I think you're never going to really feel like he's back. And then Orleans Dark in terrible.

[Mike Wright]

Smash Jackson news.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Smash Jackson took off.

[Jason Moore]

This is actually. This is Paul Perkins news. This is not Smash Jackson news. When the. When the news goes bad.

[Andy Holloway]

When the news is bad. It's Paul Perkins.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, Orleans Dark was a. It is. Are we in agreement there?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, it's a great name.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Orleans darkwa. Extensive first teamwork. This is the problem. Shane Breen, Orleans Darkwa. Wayne Gallman.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, Shane Vereen. I get now.

[Andy Holloway]

Wayne Gallman probably works in accounting with Paul Perkins.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, for sure. But Orleans Dark was solving crimes. That guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that because you're making a Darkwing Duck connection?

[Mike Wright]

It could be.

[Andy Holloway]

You didn't even think about that. That's just underneath. All right. So much to read into that. Not. Not. Not a lot for me. Other than the fact that Orleans Darkwood did come back after being a free agent. They brought him back. He's getting some reps. I don't know why.

[Jason Moore]

Was Arlene's dark healthy at the end of the year when Paul Perkins took over?

[Andy Holloway]

No, he got hurt.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So that. That does matter then.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it does. All right, we're going to get into the main event here. Before we do, I want to thank Today's sponsor, pristine auction.com. we could not be bigger fans of Pristine Auction. You can see them right on our wall. There's a brand new Diggs jersey. I don't know if there has been a. An autographed jersey that we have switched out on the wall that has gotten more praise and attention than the Diggs jersey. People like them on YouTube.

[Jason Moore]

People love the purple.

[Andy Holloway]

People went crazy about this. We have a Pristine Auction autographed jersey. They are the leaders in sports memorabilia sales on the web. They're local to our area so we visited their warehouse. We know their team. Absolutely amazing company. Check them [e-mail] youm can join for free, browse their auctions. Hundreds of daily auctions. It's really satisfying when you go in and browse daily auctions because you know you can participate and see the end result right away.

[Jason Moore]

I saw someone Just posted the famous Karate Kid Crane kick assigned poster. That was.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow.

[Mike Wright]

They have more than just sports. They have anything you need.

[Andy Holloway]

So when you sign up over there, pristineauction.com p r I s t I n e auction.com just let them know that the fantasy footballers sent you. All right, time for this next segment. We're probably going to have a debate about this. Drop. I'm not dead. What? Nothing. Is your ninepence. I'm not dead here. He says he's not dead. Yes, he is.

[Jason Moore]

I'm not.

[Andy Holloway]

He isn't, but he will be soon. He's very ill. I'm getting better.

[Jason Moore]

Well, there you have it. The weirdest drop for an intro we.

[Andy Holloway]

Need to talk about. So Mike. Mike goes home and to his credit, you spend time at your house for the company. That's right, drop. And I don't want to.

[Jason Moore]

You make all the drops.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't want it. I don't want to destroy you on this, but when you. When you played that one for me, I didn't get it, man. I.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I understand that. I do things sometimes that are too high concept for you and you can't wrap your brain around it. The person who is saying, I'm not dead, that's the fantasy player, okay?

[Andy Holloway]

That's our audience.

[Mike Wright]

They're saying I'm not dead. And the man, the oppressor is saying, yeah, you are. Get out of my face. You have nothing to offer me and this fancy person. No, I'm getting better.

[Jason Moore]

So what is this would not have.

[Andy Holloway]

Made it into the show if Brooks hadn't liked it. I support. Yeah, but that's because you like the movie. So if we just put a quote from any movie you like, you're going to be on board. Perhaps that's how life works.

[Jason Moore]

It sounds like this show of five ways to get better. We are the cure for the black plate.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Now we have to lean. Now we have to lean into it.

[Jason Moore]

Incredible.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Five ways to become a better fantasy football player with Monty Python. All right, let's go with number one. One of my favorite things to talk.

[Mike Wright]

That's the best place to start.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure. You can't count down, Mike. You can go 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[Mike Wright]

I like to start at the beginning.

[Andy Holloway]

You ever done a podcast before?

[Jason Moore]

I don't think these are weighted.

[Andy Holloway]

No, they're not. They're not weighted. They're number one. Number three, they're just five tips. This is my favorite one to talk about and it is this. Know your league, not just your roster. Okay. Know your league, not just your roster. And this can be explained in any number of ways. And you guys can jump in and share what you think. But the way that your league mates play fantasy football, the way that they sign players, the way that they think about players, the way they think about your team, the way they draft, all of that has a, an impact on the way you play and the way your team performs and what you can do during the draft. And that may seem like, well, duh, but a lot of players don't play that way. A lot of players play with a cheat sheet out in front of them. I'm on an island, you're on an island. You're in a vacuum. You've got your cheat sheet and your blinders on. And I'm going to tell you from years and years of playing my biggest wins, trade wise, strategy wise have often come from knowing the people in my league, not just the players on the field.

[Jason Moore]

Certainly. I mean, the first thing that comes to mind when, when we talk about this is, and I think we mentioned this, we alluded to it a couple episodes ago when we were talking about our pet peeves, but is taking advantage of the news guy. There's the, you know, if there's someone in your league that is the new, like he sees the news, he thinks he's got it first and he's going to go out and immediately before thinking things over, he's going to trade for.

[Andy Holloway]

The guy, Orleans, Darqua coming to that guy's roster tomorrow.

[Jason Moore]

You know, you make sure that he's seen that link and you go trade him Orleans Darkwa or you know, get Paul Perkins from his team super cheap, those type of things. You do this all the time in our league. You're speaking to me, I am speaking to Andy. Andy always takes advantage of the one or two guys that are very news reactionary. And I say good for you.

[Andy Holloway]

And this has a lot of different impacts. One of the ways you need to think about your league and not just your roster is filtering the advice that you get even from a show like this. Your league may have unique rules.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. That means unique ranking, scoring system. For example, if you, if you're not aware of the Scottie Fishbowl, it's this huge mega tournament that Scott Fish shout out to my man Scott Fish, who puts this thing on every single year. It's massive, epic. It's like 500 players or something in it. But every year he changes up the scoring system. For example, this year there is no PPR for wide receivers. Or running backs. However, there's PPR for tight ends and then there's a point per first down. So this radically changes things. And we frequently get questions of people saying, well, if it's, we have a PPR league, but I'm also getting, you know, a half points per carry. You're like, well, holy crap, man.

[Jason Moore]

Changes some stuff.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that changes everything. Your David Johnson's a left belt. They go even further, further into the stratosphere. And so it's. You have to know your scoring system. Do not enter your draft without making sure you know exactly how everything is going to be scored.

[Andy Holloway]

And I'm going to give you another example. Let's say you play in a league and we get these type of questions all the time. You play in a league where, I don't know, maybe you're not big Patriots fans. Maybe everybody in the league isn't a big Patriots fan. Well, if you draft just based on our cheat sheet and you put everybody right in their ADP line, that's not knowing your league better than that's not knowing your league. It's knowing and using it to your. And using it to your advantage because maybe you can get those Patriots two rounds later. Maybe you can trade a guy to the humongous, I don't know, the, the Charger fan in your league.

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

Or we. I employ the late round quarterback strategy. I know that there are other guys in the league who, they'll take theirs earlier. But let's say you would. You play in a league where everyone takes their quarterback early. You can still wait, but there's going to be an earlier point where these guys are starting to take that are backup quarterbacks. And you go. And you know that you have to jump in. You can't just wait infinitely because. Oh well, my strategy says I'm not going to grab a quarterback until the 14th round. You have to play to the room.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And you learn the tendencies of both of your league mates and how they think and how they play and you.

[Mike Wright]

Know what, write these things down.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's not a bad idea.

[Mike Wright]

When you're in a draft. Just pay attention to what these people are doing.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, some of them. The more years you play with the same people, you're going to get to know that the two things that really come to mind are the news guy and then the fan guy. It's just natural to me. Now I know the guys in my league and I'm going to go immediately. First, if I'm trading with a certain player, I'm Going to go, do I have any Green Bay Packers? Because they will be so much more valuable to him and he wants them. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And there's also the veterans guy and the draft picks guy and things like that.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, the draft picks guy. The young guns guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And sometimes when you mock draft with players from your league, you learn their tendencies that way. And you can be so surprised sometimes you're so into. Like if you listen to this show every day or you're reading rankings every day and then you go mock draft with a random person from your league, you might be shocked at where players are going and where they value them. So that is tip number one. Know your league, not just your roster.

[Jason Moore]

Tip 1B is all the. That guys take advantage. Don't be those guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't be those guys.

[Jason Moore]

Be the guy that you go, oh, yeah, that guy's good at fantasy football.

[Andy Holloway]

That's right. You don't get anything by him. All right, number two, very important. How do you become a better fantasy football player? Oh, Jason's doing the guns with his hands. He's doing the guns.

[Mike Wright]

What kind of, what, bullets, what kind of ammunition do you got there?

[Jason Moore]

There's a quick draw. It's just a.

[Andy Holloway]

Find your quick draw. This is what it's written up as. Find your quick draw news option. Find your quick draw news. And what we mean is potty news. Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Right. I mean, that's really what we're talking about here.

[Andy Holloway]

Explain it. Explain this hot tip.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

The hot tip explanation not needed.

[Jason Moore]

You could call it the.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't visualize this one.

[Jason Moore]

It's the quick draw news or the potty news or whatever you want, but basically, find your app or whatever. We don't need your news source. Yes. Your news source. That's quick. That's just, you know, when you're doing something that is normally in your routine, whatever that is, grab out your phone and look at that source and see if there's any updates. You know, there's several different options for this. You don't have to obsess. People say, I don't have the time for fantasy football.

[Andy Holloway]

That's one of the intimidating factors for people even joining is thinking they're going to have to spend hours and hours studying.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. They don't want to have to look at the news every time they do something. That's why we're saying the quick draw, the short news for years, quick access, you just get in the habit of look at it every now and then when you're doing something that's routine. It Will change everything about how much you know about fantasy football. Now we're doing this show right now in June and you're listening to it. If you're listening in June, you probably have these apps.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we might be your quick draw source.

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely. So what are some good quick draw sources?

[Andy Holloway]

For years, for me, it was just rotoworld, the Rotoworld app on my phone. Boom. Little refresh every time I was doing something. I love updating, I love checking, but I don't have time to obsess and neither do you. I understand. Not everybody has time to obsess 247 about fantasy football. We've talked about the SleeperBot app. That's another great resource.

[Mike Wright]

It can be used quickly and they also have notifications. So maybe you didn't have time to check. Boom. They blow you up.

[Andy Holloway]

If something big happens and it's quantity, it's quantity. I mean, sorry, it's quality over quantity.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't have to be checking all the time. Just make sure you don't miss something important. And you can do that with a quick draw news app. Twitter.

[Jason Moore]

Twitter is a great one.

[Mike Wright]

I want to stress the importance that is Twitter. Beat writers are on Twitter.

[Andy Holloway]

Say this, though, Twitter's great and you should be on Twitter. But if I had to choose between Twitter and the Rota world from an efficiency standpoint, I'm not gonna choose Twitter because you'll miss stuff on Twitter. You will never miss something. If you're looking at a headlines oriented app, I agree.

[Jason Moore]

But let's say you're the person who. Oh yeah, I use, I use Rotoworld. I open that up sometimes. But you want more and you want to take that step forward. Twitter is the way forward and what you can do, you know, I mean, if you like. If you look at my profile, you could see what lists I'm following. There's a list of beat writers and so Twitter has lists. You could just follow that list and switch over to look at the lists and you could just scroll through nothing but NFL beat writers Twitter accounts and see all sorts of stuff that never make it onto the headline. Only apps. And it's still a quick, easy, quick draw.

[Mike Wright]

I'm talking not just right now, in season, Sunday morning, Twitter is crucial when you're following these beat reporters who are talking about you had someone who was questionable, well, they're gonna, they're going to give you an update on how that person looked. Were they running gingerly? Were they favoring that leg? Well, did it look like all systems were Go for that player.

[Andy Holloway]

Is it blowing 40 mile an hour winds?

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And weather, late weather updates, they're just. There's so much information available on Twitter if you use it properly.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so number two, find your quick draw news option. All right.

[Jason Moore]

Number three, this is my favorite. Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And it's, it's all encompassing and very, very important for a player looking to get that extra stripe to level up their fantasy football play. And it is a simple overview, but we're going to dig deeper.

[Mike Wright]

There is no fear in this dojo.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Jason Moore]

The only thing to fear is fear itself.

[Andy Holloway]

Do not play afraid.

[Mike Wright]

And bees.

[Andy Holloway]

But you can be afraid of bees. That's totally fine. Number three, do not play afraid. Okay. In fantasy football, there are things that you're supposed to do, there are things that you're supposed to pay attention to. And what we're saying is when you want to level up from generic fantasy football player at the office to challenging competitive player going for a title, you can't play it free.

[Jason Moore]

No, it's never going to work if you, you know, there's a lot of different ways that it comes forward. Let's take the draft, right? That's one part of the season. A very important day in the life of all Americans. But at the draft of the world, you know, maybe you're afraid to. You're in the fifth round and you don't have a quarterback yet. There's that fear. And maybe you draft one not because you think it's the right strategy, but because you're afraid to miss out or afraid of what would happen.

[Andy Holloway]

Or in a sense, you're afraid of making mistake. That's what it comes down to. You're afraid of making a mistake. You're afraid of not handcuffing. You're afraid of the bye weeks that are coming up. You're afraid of not filling your starters or not having a quarterback soon enough. You're afraid of the strength of schedule. The strength of schedule is going to push you all the way off a.

[Jason Moore]

Player, and it is great. But he's got the second hardest schedule this year.

[Andy Holloway]

And what that comes down to is it's, it's being afraid of making a decision that might get you ridiculed because you're not going with the norm or the normative option. There is the safe choice, and then there is the one that gets you bad feedback. And I think the key to fantasy football is not being afraid. And that comes from a lot of different things. Talk about like the handcuffing situation, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

This is Great. I wanted to talk about handcuffing on the show. This is a perfect place to do it because if you're following the industry and Twitter, there's a lot of handcuff chatter going on right now and we talk about handcuffs a lot on this show. So I want to spell out, this is exactly how we do it. We do not draft our handcuffs. As much as fun as it is to say handcuff handcuffs and feel like you're, you're safe and you're secure your running back position, we don't draft them. It's a waste of a spot. You are preventing ceiling. You are preventing late round flyers who give you value on a week to week basis for, to gain value on your bench. They waste that bench spot and they always end up being your first cut. After week one, you're like, oh, well, I got to go get this new waiver hotness. Who's going to go, oh, my handcuff. So you have removed taking a shot in the draft for this guy that you're going to eventually cut. At the beginning of the year, you think you know who the handcuff is.

[Andy Holloway]

A lot of times you don't.

[Mike Wright]

But Nile Davis was not the handcuff, even though that, that guy was drafted for years. Now, on the flip side of that, there are times when I'm okay. When you're drafting a handcuff, your player is suspended. Doug Martin, and you know who the starter is going to be. I mean, even Doug Martin is. We're pretty sure it's Jaquez.

[Jason Moore]

I am. Yeah. But it could be Charles Sims.

[Mike Wright]

It could be Sims, it could be Jeremy Nichols. I mean, we, we aren't positive on that. The only place you're more than positive is Pittsburgh because it's always one guy gets the entire job. However, while we're, we don't draft them as the season goes on, you're in week six. That's when it's okay to start picking those guys up because you're getting ready for a playoff run. The waiver wire is mostly picked clean. These guys who are the backups start to emerge as who will be the leader of the timeshare. You pick them up, get ready for your playoff run, and that's how that's when you do it.

[Andy Holloway]

And just to add to what Mike said, let's say you don't take your handcuff and somebody else takes their handcuff. Guess who their first cut is.

[Jason Moore]

It's their handcuff.

[Andy Holloway]

They're laughing at you until the end of week one when they then drop your handcuff and you can pick them up.

[Jason Moore]

I love love in week three. Week three is always the time when someone who has my handcuff is desperate to trade him to me because he wants to cut them so bad, but.

[Mike Wright]

He just thinks that's an excellent point.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, they just always, I'll give him, just give me anything for him. It's like, no, just cut him and I'll pick him up.

[Mike Wright]

When people come at you with trade offers for your handcuff in weeks two and week three. No, no.

[Jason Moore]

They're getting ready to drop that dude.

[Mike Wright]

And then I just want to. In dynasty leagues, though, I handcuff in the late rounds. We're talking late teens. Yes, I will draft my.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, take a team in terms of bye weeks.

[Mike Wright]

Being different.

[Andy Holloway]

Afraid of bye weeks. Another question we get all the time, oh, my goodness, do I take this guy? He has the same. But I'm going to tell you right now, I don't pay attention to bye weeks.

[Jason Moore]

I don't either.

[Andy Holloway]

I would say zero point. Unless I'm in a, you know, a best ball league. Sure.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Super strange league where I don't get that many transactions or something. It's irrelevant to me. It's something a lot of people pay attention to. It's irrelevant to me. I make enough transactions, I move enough players on my team. By the time my perfect bye week, I may draft to a perfect bi week. What are you going to do? Not trade players because you have them lined up perfectly. And what is perfect? Is it better to have them all in the same week? Is it better to have them all staggered?

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Just ignore them. Don't be afraid of them.

[Jason Moore]

No. And I think after my draft last year in our league of record, I had like three wide receivers With a week nine bye, it was like, oh, no, that's an eternity. And fantasy football came up because by that time my roster was different. You know, you just don't want to feel like you have to make pick X because of reason why. That's what you want to avoid. Just be confident in your knowledge. Don't be afraid. Pick who you want and things will go better. You know, trust your gut a little bit when you're in that draft. Don't. Don't be reeling.

[Andy Holloway]

Agreed. So have we kind of grabbed that one? I believe so exhausted it. I mean, we could talk about things like not being afraid to fill your starters.

[Jason Moore]

Certainly. Yeah. I mean that's. That's one where, okay, you get your running back.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a draft benefit.

[Jason Moore]

Running back, wide receiver now. Okay, maybe I take another one in the fifth. Right. So now my flex is full. Well, that means that your quarterback and your tight end need to be your next two picks is the early fantasy football players mindset, at least if they haven't already got their quarterback by then. But it's okay to keep drafting great bench options for the more important positions and not fill your starters just because you're afraid that you don't have a starter yet. It's not that big a deal. The more you listen and the more you do all the other tips, the less fearful you will be naturally.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. All right, so know your league, not just your roster. Find that quick draw news option. And number three was don't play afraid. And we covered a number of areas where that applies. There are more than that, by the way. There are other areas where I think sometimes fear takes over.

[Mike Wright]

Fear makes cowards of us all.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure. There you go. Monty Python again, right?

[Mike Wright]

I think that was me.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I know. Number four. We've named it a couple of different things. I think the gist is this. It's. It's the community of friends that you have. So how do you become a better fantasy football player? It seems strange, but I think making your friends better at fantasy football benefits you as a fantasy football player.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And I'm saying it in the same way that maybe competitive people in business have realized this long ago. How do you get better at your craft? Well, you don't just absorb a book and hide in a corner. The best business people in the world, the best people at whatever trade they do, they network. They network for advice. They network to see how other people have played before them. And they learn from that. Not only that, but it becomes more fun. And you all learn by osmosis to some degree, and you have a better opportunity to improve your game. As a fantasy football player.

[Jason Moore]

There's several ways to go about actively doing this. Because, you know, for us in, you know, yesteryear, when we worked at our video game company, we would go to lunch and naturally be around four or five of us from the league. And maybe that's your situation, in which case you understand the benefit of always talking about it and just having fun and talking about different players who suck or who are great or whatnot. But maybe you're in the position where you don't have that yet. Either the people that are in your league that you're playing with, maybe they don't know enough and. Or they don't Play. If you want to get yourself better at fantasy football, surround yourself with more people that play or introduce them to it or. I know this sounds backwards and crazy, but if you're in a league with someone who really stinks and they're not good at fantasy football, help get them better. I'm telling you, it will make you better. Not just because you have to, you know, be better to beat the best, but it's because now you can have conversations with them. Now you can talk strategy. You can learn from more than just yourself and the ability to converse intelligently with those around you about fantasy football or anything. Like you were bringing up business. Yeah, you're going to make yourself better.

[Andy Holloway]

We've always believed that the community of fantasy football players is the best situation for any player to enjoy what they're doing and to learn. And that's why we've gone out and we've set up our [e-mail]. that's why we've set up the forums on the website, our community, so people can talk. I mean, we learn from you, you learn from us. We. We try to teach you how to think about fantasy football, but we don't have every answer in the book. And so you need to have a community of people to talk about as you develop your paradigm, how you think about the game.

[Mike Wright]

Well, when you're playing punch out and you're beating up on Joe Glass.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. How does that feel?

[Mike Wright]

How many times do you do that until you're. Yeah, I'm bored now.

[Andy Holloway]

See, Jason's the only person who actually gets satisfaction whooping anybody at anything, no matter what.

[Jason Moore]

Really true.

[Mike Wright]

Jason still find beating up on Soda Popinsky.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, I love beating Mike Tyson, too.

[Mike Wright]

But beating Mike Tyson with a cheat.

[Jason Moore]

Code for Jason but wins a win. My man, you're ruining my point.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, go on. You're basically saying, hey, the satisfaction of competing. Look, I don't like seeing those horrible trades go through in leagues where some player is getting taken advantage of it over and over again. It made. But everybody, they keep their secrets close to the vest. Ooh, I'm gonna hide my podcast. I'm gonna hide my magazine and my secret cheats secrets. And I get that. I mean, I get wanting an advantage. You're trying to win, and people are probably listening and going, well, yeah, duh, like you want, but. But thinking holistically about creating a great league. If you want a great league, I think you need great players. And I think more often than not, people come to us and they say, you Know, I'm in this league and I always win it, but, you know, three of the guys don't show up to play, and then two rosters. I mean, sure, if you want to win those leagues, go ahead, but you're not having fun. Otherwise you wouldn't be writing us, telling us that you can win those.

[Mike Wright]

Win those two.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Also, just get in a league with better players. So, yeah. Have very good, fancy football players around you. If you don't have them, make them.

[Andy Holloway]

Build them out of clay. Yeah, it doesn't seem possible. All right, number five. Number five. Jason, you brought this one up well.

[Jason Moore]

This was the one that, for me personally, actually leveled me up the most because I saw my problem, which this tip is learn to read. Reading is so vital. I couldn't use Rotoworld. I couldn't read these great articles coming out because I couldn't read. And a good friend of mine sat down. William Forrester taught me how to read. No, it's to stay the course, Number five. To stay the course throughout the season and beyond. Like, so here's what I used to do. I used to run a business, and, you know, I. Fantasy football was very, you know, secondary. Even though I loved it. I loved it so much.

[Mike Wright]

Contortionary.

[Jason Moore]

But here's what I ended up doing. A month before the draft, I would just. Oh, I'd gather everything I could. I loved it. Draft day was still just the best day of the year. And then the day after the draft was just this downward, you know, like, okay, I'm checking out more and more and more and more. Then the season hits week one, I'm back active, and then I just kind of trail off when it comes to actually whether it was listening to podcasts or checking the news stuff. And especially so when it came to if I didn't win the championship, if I got to the playoffs and was out week one, which is week 13 in the NFL, or I don't make the playoffs, it's week 12 and I'm out. I checked out. I mean, I was completely 100% gone. I just was like, okay, well, the NFL is over because my fantasy team is over. Other than my hometown team, I'd watch that. But I didn't follow any fantasy stuff. And going back, you know, a decade from that point, that was pretty much what happened, was like, I'd get to the playoffs and be out week one so often. And it wasn't until I finally went, I'm going to keep paying attention even when I'm out and I'm going to. I'm going to, you know, press forward because I still enjoyed it. I loved listening to the podcast. I love, you know, reading the articles and checking the news. I don't know why I just checked out, but I kept doing that, and I did that through an off season, and it made me so much better the following season. So right now, if you're listening in June, maybe this is the first time you've done it, or maybe you plan to do it, but don't give up. Stay the course. You know, don't bail. That would be what I think would level a lot of people from a competitive player that's casual to a championship contending team.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah. Stay the course. Keep fighting through it. I think it ties in a little bit with number three when we say don't play afraid, because I think you have a choice in week three or four if things are going bad, to either bail entirely or to freak out and make a big trade because you're afraid of how things are going. I think staying the course helps the don't be afraid part of it, too. Just kind of. It's almost like what they say, as a GM of some of these teams, you know, trust the process a little bit because there are a lot of things outside of your control. So if in week three or four or five, how you saw things playing out, trust me, it's not over. I make the very famous comment on the show, whatever happens can happen in reverse. So if you start off on the wrong foot, stay the course, don't bail. It can go the other direction. We got. We had so many Foot Clan titles written into us last year of people saying, I started the year one and five, and then I started thinking better about this and I won my league. And I'm not just saying that.

[Jason Moore]

They actually wrote in, oh, the last two years, what happened there. We've had so many of those. Yeah, that's another one. Stay the course. When you're losing because you can still win. Unless the playoffs are next week, just keep fighting.

[Mike Wright]

Bad beats happen. They happen to all of us.

[Andy Holloway]

I hope they happen to you a lot this year, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

I resent that remark.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I'll get you for that Monty Python drop. I will. I'll get you.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Twitter will get you.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's the sad part. The sad part is we do know that everyone's going to come to your defense because it was great. Because they love Monty.

[Andy Holloway]

No, they want to. They want Mike to think they're cool.

[Jason Moore]

Mike's the cool Guy, you are cool, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Look at me with my man bun.

[Jason Moore]

I think you're a cool dude.

[Andy Holloway]

And my cool tattoos.

[Mike Wright]

I had a man bun long, long time ago.

[Andy Holloway]

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna call for the foot clean. You stand up right now and you say no to these jokes. You say no to that drop, and you say no to gangbusters from Jason, and you take a stand right now.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, God.

[Jason Moore]

Gangbusters.

[Andy Holloway]

Now, Smash Jackson, I give respect to.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you got to take the good.

[Andy Holloway]

The first great nickname of 2017 out of thin air. Smash Jackson.

[Mike Wright]

It makes no sense.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, much like your drop, you should love it. You know what's funny is after we talked about how Paul Perkins wasn't giving the love because of his name, and so we. Because Perkins, you know, Old man Diner.

[Mike Wright]

When things are going bad, you rebrand.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you rebrand. So we rebrand him. Smash Jackson sounds awesome. We spend a lunch watching all this Smash Jackson film. Worst name ever. When it comes to actually matching a player, it's not that he was bad, it's just that he is not a he. I think his. I think his parents named him pretty well.

[Mike Wright]

But to be fair, we rebranded him Smash Jackson. And then the owner of said Smash Jackson in our dynasty league, interest in that player did pick up.

[Jason Moore]

That's true. They got two straight offers.

[Andy Holloway]

When. If you're struggling with a player.

[Jason Moore]

Rebrand.

[Mike Wright]

Rebrand. All right, well, run through the five again for everybody.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, let's run it back here. Number one, know your league, not just your roster, all right? Pay attention to your league mates, how they play. It's going to make a big difference for you as a fantasy player. Number two, find your quick draw news option. We know that you do not have time to necessarily be obsessed with fantasy all day long, and we don't necessarily think you should be to that degree. If you've got time to do it, go ahead.

[Jason Moore]

But everyone potties.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, everybody goes to the bathroom. All right? So number three, don't play afraid, all right? Don't play afraid of not taking a handcuff or not, or paying attention to the bye weeks or filling out your starters or drafting a quarterback earlier, the strength of schedule or a thousand other things that people tell you you have to do. Form your own opinion. Don't be afraid to play with some confidence in fantasy football. Number four, it's all about that community, about making your league and your friends better. Network. Get out there. If it's to the website, the Fancy Footballers.com, you check out the Forums, introduce some people. Yeah. All right. And number five, stay the course no matter what. Don't bail, fight through. Stay the course on these decisions. You're going to look like you're wrong sometimes because that's how it works.

[Jason Moore]

We're all wrong sometimes.

[Andy Holloway]

Some more than others.

[Jason Moore]

Jason, it ain't me.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so that is. That is the five ways to get better as a fantasy player in 2017. Whoo. How do you feel?

[Mike Wright]

I feel almost electric.

[Jason Moore]

I feel like he feels like he wants to sing a mailbag drop.

[Andy Holloway]

Sounds good to me.

[Jason Moore]

Mailbag. Mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, time to answer questions from the Foot Clan. If you have a question, go to the website the fancyfootballers.com, click the submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline 302464, TFFB.

[Mike Wright]

When your team starts off slow, you know you're one in four. You look in the mirror and you say, I'm not dead yet. I'm getting better.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well said.

[D]

It's bonjour, fellows. This is Ryan from Bismarck, North Dakota, and I've got a commissioner question for you guys. We've had a few league owners drop out recently and my question is going to be how do I handle the transition period for bringing in these new owners? It's a keeper league. Should I allow the new owners to capitalize off of the results of the previous owners draft and trades, or should I give them a clean slate and let all the players go back into the draft pool for the upcoming season? Love the show you guys do. Awesome. I listen to it every week. I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

[Andy Holloway]

Thanks. I'm going back and forth on this one a little bit because I pretty sure if you put this to a league vote, if these teams are in a fortuitous position, the league's just going to vote their players away.

[Mike Wright]

They're going to vote selfishly.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly right. So as a commissioner, you do have a responsibility to do what's in the best interest of the league Here.

[Jason Moore]

I think you can go one of two ways. And he gave us two ways. No, but I think the decision as to which route to make is pretty clear and obvious. If you're replacing one team, then someone needs to come in and just take over that team. But if you're replacing multiple teams, you know, if you've got two or three teams, some teams are better than other teams. How do you decide which of these three guys gets them first? The first one gets them first. The second.

[Andy Holloway]

That's fair.

[Jason Moore]

What I'm saying is if there's multiple teams, you take the players that were on those rosters only, not the other league owners that are staying and you do a supplemental draft. You just those owners choosing from that point, you got three new owners. You put those three owners in a supplemental draft where they will draft their keepers based on the rules of all the players that would have been able to be kept from those teams.

[Andy Holloway]

What about the picks? You put those in the choice too?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I would say all of the players. Basically you have this really unique one time draft where every team had their rules of where they drafted guys. And so, you know, flip a coin, do whatever to pick who goes first. And you do snake draft and you say, I think the best. You know, my. At the 101 spot, I'm going to take Melvin Gordon in the seventh round off of that team and then it goes to the next player and they draft. That's how I would do it.

[Mike Wright]

I thought that was a really good idea.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I did too.

[Mike Wright]

I was gonna say I'm going with whatever gets quality owners, you know, and that might be. Or more likely is okay, you have keepers. Instead of washing out, you have no keepers. Meanwhile, everyone else has these values. So I think that's a great idea. Pool all the possible keepers.

[Andy Holloway]

Pretty neat.

[Mike Wright]

And then have the new owners do a supplemental draft.

[Andy Holloway]

It also would be good if you are not in this situation, to establish what you're going to do in this situation in your league. So before it happens, it's always good because then you can take a vote because you don't know who's leaving. So you can take a league vote and say, all right, when we have to replace somebody, somebody's just taking them over or doing something different. And then you have agreement and no controversy.

[Jason Moore]

There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

Belichick in New York. Bill question comes in from Belichick in.

[Jason Moore]

New York, not New England.

[Andy Holloway]

Keep one Ezekiel Elliott for a first round pick or Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas for an eighth round pick.

[Mike Wright]

Oh my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

Not. It's, it's not a tough choice for me. I realize I want one of the big three and I do, but it looks like this is a single keeper league, meaning your draft pick in your first round is going to be very valuable. You're talking about a second round draft pick.

[Andy Holloway]

So what if it was? Yeah, you might end up with Michael Thomas in Melvin Gordon instead of Zeke.

[Jason Moore]

Exactly. And so I would take Michael Thomas in the 8th.

[Andy Holloway]

I will agree. Based on the one keeper thing.

[Mike Wright]

I will also agree.

[Andy Holloway]

Triple agree. All right, Voicemail Question. Here we go.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, this is Shaggy from Fort Wayne. Love this show. Lifetime listener. Quick question about keepers. I can either keep Julio Jones and ODB in the first and second rounds or get Thrill Pryor and Belay Powell in the 11th and 12th rounds. Let me know what you guys think. I was feverishly writing down. I was writing down the options and then I stopped writing down as soon as the options were have incredibly great players or mediocre players, but a value with a value. And to me, I'm going with the combo of incredibly great players. It's a great question to come on the heels of the Ezekiel Elliott or Michael Thomas? Because Michael Thomas to me is still a great player.

[Mike Wright]

Blau Powell is a lot of potential.

[Andy Holloway]

What if I told you what I agree and what you're saying is to go with Julio and odb.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

What if I told you because obviously he's not going to lose his first and second round pick if he went Prior and Powell. Right.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

So what if I told you he would end up with either Julio or ODB for that first round pick?

[Jason Moore]

I would say that would be great.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, because that might be the situation. These two are going to go back in the draft.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. So if.

[Andy Holloway]

Or would you ever take Prior and odb, would you ever do something like that? Try to take. Take ODB in the second, Prior in the 11th? Probably can't do that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I was going to say both.

[Andy Holloway]

First, I'm going to take the.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to take the studs. Are you first and second?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, I guess if you've got. If it turns out that you are the second pick in the draft and so you know that Julio and ODB would be there, then maybe you pick the other two and one of those guys.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Cameron in Sarasota Springs, New York says, hey guys, love the show. Earlier in the offseason, you posted an article about how unproductive rookie wide receivers have been historically. However, after the Titans drafted Corey Davis, you buried my man Rashard Matthews. He was the 15th wide receiver in standard 22 in PPR and most of his production came in the second half of the season after he had developed a solid rapport with Marcus Mariota, particularly in the red zone. At the time of my writing, he is your consensus wide receiver. 46 and half point per reception leagues. Explain yourselves.

[Jason Moore]

I think this one is fair.

[Andy Holloway]

Fair question.

[Jason Moore]

It's a fair question. But it's easy to explain. Just because Corey Davis may not be. May not produce at a fantasy football stud Level because he's a rookie. It doesn't mean he's not taking every single one of those snaps possibly away from Rashad Matthews. If he comes into that role and eats into his snaps, into his. His ability to produce. Even if you said, okay, Rashad Matthews, if he's in that role, would outproduce Corey Davis in that role this year, they won't do that because they're going to put their future superstar in that role right now. That's kind of where the Titans are at now. I agree. Maybe we've dropped it too much because Rashard Matthews isn't going to disappear. Maybe he will go, you know, and be the two in the wide receiver. Two sets, maybe drop them too far.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I don't look at those as interchangeable. I just looked at it the way you did. I. Last time that I had checked, we had Corey Davis like consensus 49.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

And we have. So that means we have Matthews higher. It's just a matter of, you know, seeing how things shake out and camp a little bit. These situations with the rookies in particular, you've already seen it in Los Angeles with Mike Williams getting a little banged up, Tyrell Williams getting adjusted here. There are targets going to. That are going to go.

[Jason Moore]

Corey Davis, he brings up the fact that Rashad Matthews did most of his damage the second half of the year. If you actually look at when that happened, it was when Andre Johnson.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Andre Johnson retired.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. When Andre Johnson left the scene, then all of a sudden Rashad Matthews came into a good role.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, now, what was he over the first half?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, nothing. I mean, about 46.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So, I mean, we could have him too low. That's fair. I'm waiting a little bit. I want to see what Corey Davis starts to look like. I want to see what else they do in the offense.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And there's. There's certainly upside with Matthews. Nine touchdowns, though.

[Jason Moore]

Outlier.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think that's an outlier for Matthews. As much as I like him.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, we've always liked him.

[Mike Wright]

I like he's a good player, but it. The Corey. Matt. Corey Davis was one body blow you had to absorb and then you had Tay one Taylor just a couple rounds later. It might be just too much for Matthews.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Aren't they saying Taylor. Taylor's looking really good.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So if there's one thing we know from Rashad Matthews is he can play well and then get completely kicked to the curb. Yes. It's happened before.

[Andy Holloway]

He has the ability. All right. That is it. For today's podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in to the show supporting the podcast. Don't forget to check out Footclang giveaway.com if you want to win a Lev Bell jersey. And if you're in the market for a trophy for your league, check out fantasyjocks.com use the code footballers.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our Fantasy Football community community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter the FFballers.