Fantasy Football - Top 10 Things to Remember for 2026 - Podcast for 3/5

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast — Episode Summary

Episode: Top 10 Things to Remember for 2026 (Released March 5, 2026)

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Episode Overview

The Fantasy Footballers—Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright—gather for their annual “10 Things to Remember” show, recapping the most crucial lessons from the 2025 fantasy football season. They discuss trends, player management philosophies, and insights that will give listeners an edge in 2026 drafts, with relatable banter and anecdotes from recent NFL headlines.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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NFL News & Reactions

(06:20–24:21)

• Kyler Murray’s Release from the Cardinals
  • The team’s decision to release Kyler Murray set off a domino effect impacting free agency and fantasy projections.
  • Speculation on Arizona’s next step: "I think Arizona will make three splashes this off season—a QB (possibly Malik Willis), a splash RB (likely Travis Etienne), and a major defensive move." (Mike, 08:14)
  • Kyler is now an attractive free agent: "Kyler could go somewhere and be really important for fantasy next year. Not just himself but also the weapons. Justin Jefferson, heck yeah." (Jason, 15:52)
• Vikings QB Situation
  • Debate over whether Minnesota should give J.J. McCarthy another shot or pivot to Murray if available.
  • “You’ve got to give your Vikings fans hope—a camp competition, sure, but probably obvious Kyler wins it if he’s there.” (Mike, 12:25)
• Other Key Transactions
  • Breece Hall gets franchise tagged by the Jets, complicating Braelon Allen’s dynasty outlook. (16:25)
  • Bears’ center Drew Dahlman retires, shaking up their offensive line. (21:58)
  • Big trade: Rams send multiple picks to the Chiefs for cornerback Trent McDuffie, shifting draft and team needs (22:44).

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10 Things to Remember for 2026 Fantasy Football

1. Draft Like a GM, Not a Fan: Plan for Injuries

• (26:50–32:27)
• Injuries are inevitable—98% of NFL players show up on the injury report annually.
• "On average, three of the top 10 drafted fantasy players miss four or more games each year." (Mike, 27:20)
• Advice: Build teams with solid startable depth, not just upside stashes. Survive each season window by having playable assets ready to fill injury gaps.

2. Stand By Your Rookie Takes (But Be Patient)

• (32:29–37:48)
• Rookies often contribute most down the stretch, not always right out of the gate.
• Example: Travion Henderson looked droppable, but exploded from Week 9 on. "He was the RB9 from Week 9, averaging 17 pts/game." (Andy, 34:12)
• In rookie drafts, follow your conviction—don't let consensus or peer pressure sway you. "Pick the players you want... don’t let consensus bully you." (Andy, 37:21)

3. Is the Sophomore WR Leap Dead?

• (37:49–43:25)
• Recent trend shows fewer Year 2 WR breakouts; more WRs are producing right away as rookies.
• In 2025, none of the top five sophomore WRs improved; sometimes the “leap” is now in year three.
• "I'm not sold on just saying that in year two they're always going to get better as a wide receiver." (Jason, 41:57)

4. Bad Teams Can Ruin Good Players

• (43:28–47:46)
• Context is vital: Even talent can't overcome toxic offenses/franchises or bad QB situations.
• "Older QB, new coach, bad O-coordinator? Don’t force guys like Ashton Genti or Brock Bowers too high.” (Mike, 45:40)
• Example: Years of overdrafting Garrett Wilson on the Jets despite red flags for supporting cast.

5. Drafting 2 QBs in 1-QB Leagues is Now Sensible

• (49:02–51:47)
• Late-round QB breakouts and injuries have become common—drafting two mid/later QBs increases your odds.
• "When you leave your draft in a single QB league with two QBs, that's okay... it may be the smart play now." (Andy, 49:24)

6. Tight End Dead Zone: It’s All Dead (Except Two Studs)

• (51:47–54:51)
• Most TEs are replaceable; after top names like Trey McBride and Brock Bowers, avoid mid/late-round TEs—stream or waiver wire the position instead.
• "The gap between TE2–TE12 was 1.3 pts/game... it’s just not worth spending draft capital there." (Jason, 52:05)
• "Give me McBride or Bowers, then I’ll see you on the waiver wire." (Jason, 54:11)

7. A Good Waiver Pickup is ALWAYS Good

• (54:51–57:44)
• Never skip adding a top waiver player just because your roster looks set for that position.
• Examples: Those who ignored Harold Fannin, Parker Washington, or Alec Pierce missed out.
• "Just because you have it 'figured out,' if they’re good, sign them anyway!" (Mike, 57:13)

8. Targets Must Be Earned (Draft Capital ≠ Success)

• (57:46–61:55)
• Players who didn’t earn targets in college rarely develop into volume pros, even in great situations.
• Case studies: Keon Coleman (Buffalo), Matthew Golden, Xavier Worthy (KC) all had suspect college metrics and disappointed.
• “If guys aren’t earning targets in college, just because they go to a top QB doesn’t mean they’ll earn them now.” (Andy, 61:33)

9. Draft Class “Narratives” Are Usually Right

• (63:06–69:25)
• The “consensus” from scouts and analysts about a draft class’s strengths is often predictive.
• Last year, the RB and TE class delivered; this year, it’s a deep (but not superstar-heavy) WR group.
• “I’m buying into the paintbrush painted by the entire draft community. This year: weaker class overall, but deep at WRs, weak at RB.” (Jason, 65:13)

10. Fix Your League Now, Not in August

• (69:30–end)
• Don’t delay: address rules, remove inactive managers, upgrade your league’s communication, and start plotting “championship party” plans while motivation is high.
• "Flush the turds in your league... better to be a great 10-person league than a bad 12-person one with two turds." (Mike, 70:33)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On changing opinions:
  "That's a big part of the show is we always talk about staying water and adjusting your opinion.” (Mike, 03:13)
• Andy on fan loyalty:
  "I'll just play fantasy." (Andy, 19:36)
• Jason’s philosophy shift:
  "Now, I think that it can be really the move to draft two QBs, especially mid- to late rounds." (Andy, 49:24)
• Tight End Analysis:
  "The tight end dead zone is deader than ever. There’s some studs and then there’s death." (Jason, 52:05)
• On rookie convictions:
  "Pick the players you want. Don’t let the consensus bully you into taking a pick you don’t want to make." (Andy, 37:29)
• League management wisdom:
  "Flush the turds in your league... Make your league the best." (Mike, 70:33)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 06:20–24:21 — NFL News & Reactions (Kyler Murray, Vikings QBs, franchise tags, major trades)
• 26:44 — Start of “10 Things to Remember”
• 26:50–32:27 — 1. Draft Like a GM, Not a Fan
• 32:29–37:48 — 2. Stand By Your Rookie Takes (Patience)
• 37:49–43:25 — 3. The Sophomore WR Leap? (Trend Questioned)
• 43:28–47:46 — 4. Bad Teams Ruin Good Players
• 49:02–51:47 — 5. Drafting 2 QBs in 1-QB Leagues
• 51:47–54:51 — 6. Tight End Dead Zone: Only Draft Elite, Stream the Rest
• 54:51–57:44 — 7. Always Take a Good Waiver Pickup
• 57:46–61:55 — 8. Targets Must Be Earned
• 63:06–69:25 — 9. Draft Class Narratives Are Usually Right
• 69:30–end — 10. Fix Your League Before the Season

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Takeaways for Winning in 2026

• Plan for injuries and stay flexible with your bench.
• Trust your evaluations; don’t get peer-pressured out of “your guy” in rookie drafts.
• Don’t blindly chase sophomore WRs—the immediate leap is less certain.
• Context matters: avoid stars in dysfunctional franchises or chaotic transitions.
• Embrace single-QB leagues with two QBs—you’ll likely need both.
• Prioritize only elite tight ends; otherwise, stream and stockpile RB/WR depth.
• Ignore positional “needs” on waivers—talent and opportunity always matter.
• Don’t overrate draft capital if a player lacked production or target share in college.
• Let the consensus guide you—this draft is deep at WR, not RB.
• The best leagues are well-managed—use the offseason to improve your format and community.

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This summary captures the strategy, humor, and actionable advice the Footballers delivered. For deeper dives into their rookie prospect process, dynasty tools, or additional content, visit their Dynasty Pass or join their community at Jointhefoot.com.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

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[Jason Moore]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Andy Holloway]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

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[Andy Holloway]

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[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podc with your hosts, andy holloway, jason moore and mike wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome in.

[Mike Wright]

Thursday, March 5th. Very Special Episode for you today. Excited to have you with us, Andy, Mike, and Jason, the Fantasy footballers. Back with you, Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon over there in Deucers Alley hanging out with us as well. 10 things to remember episode today.

[Jason Moore]

It's a big episode.

[Mike Wright]

We've been doing this one for quite a while and you know, the season is long. The fantasy football world, the NFL, it all is changing and transforming and trends are emerging.

[Andy Holloway]

We're always teaching.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. We're always learning. I mean, there are now at least 120 things to remember over the last 12 years.

[Jason Moore]

I will say that you can't go back to the things to remember from previous episodes and have it be relevant. That's the point of why we're trying to remember what happened in the latest year, because things change. Some of what I'm talking about today are like, these are new trends. These are different than what we have. What I would have said five years ago. I wrote an article on pretty much the opposite of one of these things about five years ago. It's just changed. It's just as the data changes.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man, you look so dumb in that article now. You know what I mean? Everyone should pull it up.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. I mean the data was great then.

[Mike Wright]

No, you got to change your opinions. That's a big part of the show is we always talk about staying water and adjusting your opinion. Even like a bonus thing to remember for us is don't get take lock in February, March and April because a lot of situations you fall in love with players and you fall in love with, you know, where somebody signs and then the draft changes the way that their projection looks and spring training all of a sudden. Or spring training. Yeah, I got, I got base. I got the baseball cap on today.

[Jason Moore]

Yo, come on, man.

[Mike Wright]

Training camp now. I think I'm getting cheers out there. The people are at the spring training camp.

[Jason Moore]

There's a dozen people, people listening that are like, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And no, when training camp starts, all of a sudden you're like, wow, they don't believe in that guy the way that, that I did three months ago. And we have to, we have to remember this, you know, July, August, September. So. But it's a big show. We got 10 things to remember for 2025, lessons learned, couple other reminders. The combine just happened. And so we have our update to the Dynasty Pass. I don't think is the post combine update live yet, Mike. It's probably moments away.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it is very close. There's a chance that when you're hearing this that it is up, but it is being worked on.

[Mike Wright]

And yeah, talk to the people about the Dynasty pass and some of the upgrades and features coming out right now.

[Andy Holloway]

So the, with all this new information, we have risers and fallers. So you know, that article is. Or not really article, you know, just blurbs on players who's trending in certain directions of a new three round mock draft, which Jason, I think you guys also did a rookie mock draft on the Dynasty pod this week if you want even more access to that information. And then brand new this year. So this is, this is an announcement brand new for the Dynasty Pass. We are adding some scouting reports of like the bigger players, you know, so a specific blurb about that guy. Some strengths, some weaknesses. So the Dynasty pass always getting better. But look for, look for round two to be dropping very, very soon.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, and all that stuff will be there essentially today or tomorrow. I mean it will be there. And then we have some other stuff in store that I am super excited about, always cooking. But that's, that's coming, that's coming a little bit late.

[Mike Wright]

Quite a few things in that category of excited about future launches. We're always adding things to the Ultimate Draft Kit. And a reminder too, if you picked up the Ultimate Draft kit, maybe you participated in the promo during the month of February and you were trying to get into the listener league and you got the UDK from basically the moment you buy it until kickoff. If you want, you can expand that purchase into an ultimate subscription as well and we give you a prorated credit for what you purchase. So jointhefoot.com is the community if you want to do that over there. No, quick question. Today we got news to talk about. We got the 10 things to remember to talk about. Let's do it.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Mike Wright]

Well, the Cardinals have, they've informed Kyler Murray that they intend to release him on the first day of the league year next Wednesday. He put a post out.

[Andy Holloway]

This is a big domino that changes their free agency. It just, it changes everything. Like we did, you know, free agent predictions and I had talked about, we're like, hey, Malik Willis, what's going to happen with him? I had thought, I had thought the correct thing for the Cardinals to do would be keep, just keep Kyler Murray for one more year and then go reevaluate and go from there. Obviously, that is not what happened. I got that one wrong. But I was saying like, well, Malik Willis, I think there's two teams that are real serious, you know, that he could go to now. I think it's like, oh, Malik Willis will go to the Cardinals.

[Mike Wright]

I genuinely think, I think the Cardinal

[Andy Holloway]

and it will be dumb.

[Mike Wright]

See, I don't, I'm not in that camp. I'm not in that camp. I believe that there's not going to be. And we've talked about this a lot before. If we play the fantasy football manager, the dynasty league manager, we look at Arizona and we say we're going to plan for 2027, 2028. That's how we would build it out, accumulate picks for those years, maybe tank and get a quarterback that's a fantasy football manager. But there is not a, there is really no patience in the NFL for almost any franchise. The coaching staffs, the players on the team. There just isn't, you know, you bring in a new head coach and I talked to you about this. We debated it. To me, it was like Michael Bidwell saying, look, we're bringing this new coach in here. I'm not going to let Kyler be a detriment to a third head coach.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you were very correct on that. They were going to move on.

[Mike Wright]

It was gannon now they want a fresh clean slate for LaFleur. I think I'm predicting it now. I believe Arizona will make three splashes this off season. I think one will be the quarterback at a amount of money you guys don't like. But I like Malik Willis. I think he's a good quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

Is he better than Kyler Murray?

[Mike Wright]

I think so.

[Andy Holloway]

By a wide margin?

[Mike Wright]

No, not by a wide margin.

[Andy Holloway]

No. That's where it's a. I do not

[Mike Wright]

think the let go of Jacobi Brissette. Brissette will be there as a mentor slash backup. I think they will sign Travis Etienne or a splash running back, but he seems to be the one that I'm focused on and I think that they will make some significant move on the defensive side of the football via trade. Like I don't know if it's Max Crosby. I don't know if it's somebody like Trey Hendrickson coming in. I think the Cardinals will make three splashes. None of this is me saying it will work. It is just what I the vibe I'm getting out of Arizona. We live here. I think there is an impatience. I think there's a focus on competing this year with LaFleur. None of that will work, but I think that is what they will do via their actions. I know he hates the press, that he's the worst president in the land.

[Jason Moore]

Well, he is.

[Mike Wright]

He is and he will continue to be by swinging the pendulum in the public eye and trying to make a splash. That's what I believe will happen.

[Jason Moore]

One of the issues with them thinking that the patience has run out and that, you know, they're going to go hardcore this year to try to rectify things is they did cut Kyler early. So they are taking the the most of the cap hit this year, which says I think it's smart. It's like this is not a team that's going to win this year, be competing for a Super Bowl. So let's just take that money on now. The issue that I have and then why I booed this is because you could have traded him for a pick. The issue, I don't know why, you know, it was absolutely out there reported that basically the reason that we didn't have a suitor is because we were trying to trade the contract, not the player. We were trying to get another team to pay the money and that's why we couldn't trade him. So what ends up happening now is Kyler's a free agent. He gets all the money that he's going to be paid is 100% from the Cardinals now. And what happens is he's going to go play on a minimum contract because offset language in the contract would say, like, the only way that he would make more money next year, like, if another team comes out and says, I'm going to pay you 10 million, it's irrelevant. All that does is mean the Cardinals don't have to pay 10 million of it. Kyler doesn't get any more money, so he's just going to go to wherever he thinks is the best destination, and that team is going to get a smoking deal, which is why people didn't want to trade picks. I just wish that they weren't so stupid as.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, this happens all the time. Not just the Cardinals. This happens every year three or four times to players that were like, oh, my gosh, why'd they cut that guy instead of trade him? It happens all the time.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, it does. It really does. And it's usually the same franchises. And so we're not alone in being a poorly run franchise.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you can't. You can't. The way that the structure of the money works, we weren't going to be able to make a deal where we take some of it on and then work a deal for an eighth round. I mean, that just wasn't going to happen.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I agree. We would never get an eighth.

[Mike Wright]

But now, yeah, I always bring the eighth up because it's the invisible pick.

[Jason Moore]

The.

[Andy Holloway]

But now that the. Now that Kyler will be a free agent, it's like, okay, the. You know, the rumor.

[Mike Wright]

Vikings.

[Andy Holloway]

The Vikings is. That's the easiest one to go to and. Well, I mean, we definitely shall see. But it's like, that would be very, very interesting. Can like the. The Kevin o' Connell magic that has worked seemingly on every quarterback not named JJ McCarthy to the tune of great success. If Kyler goes there and you like, it changes. This was saying of this particular domino, you know, you know the meme where it's like the guy puts down the tiny domino and you're like, you end up somewhere that seems completely unrelated. Except no, it was. It was Kyler get released now. This did this, this did this, this did this. So it will be a very fascinating butterfly effect that will have really, really large implications for the NFL and for fantasy.

[Mike Wright]

We just talked about it on Tuesday. We brought up Kyler's name in Minnesota and how much different we'd feel about the Minnesota offensive weapons if Kyler was the quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

For sure.

[Mike Wright]

We talked about JJ McCarthy being the guy that got the audition that doesn't sing very well and everyone knows that he probably shouldn't play that role and they may give him a shot. And I mean, I don't see them cutting or trading him. I think it will be a camp competition. I think it will probably be obvious that Kyler wins it if he was there or whoever else they sign. You've got to give, you've got to give your Vikings fans hope. Even if you give J.J. another shot, you've got to give them hope that you can make a pivot quickly in the year and fix your season. Now, McCarthy did, to his credit, win five consecutive games to end the year.

[Andy Holloway]

And his, his final four games, which were not complete games because part of the, part of the knock, you're like, dude, McCarthy just keeps getting hurt over and over and over. Maybe that was very, very bad luck for one season or I guess two because he, he lost his entire rookie season to Meniscus. Like, but that is a factor. McCarthy did play better over those final four games. But I would, I get it. I get if the Minnesota Vikings are like, that was not enough. And we're going to go with Kyler Murray, which is, it's so. These situations are so wild of Arizona is like, no, Kyler Murray, you are not good enough. Get out of here. Where you know what we're going to do? We are going to eat a substantial amount of money that we will continue to pay you because you're, you're so bad for us. And then they're like, then they get to free agency and all the teams like, oh man, Kyler Murray's available.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's better than your. He's better than a. Just the bottom half quarterbacks in the league. He is clearly better. If you look at the Arizona Cardinals record, I don't have it pulled up in front of me. But he's almost 500 in games where he started on the Cardinals. And when he has missed those games were like four wins, 31 and nine

[Mike Wright]

with Jacoby Brissette, I mean Baker Mayfield, Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, teams, you know, it's a matter of running out of. Like I told my son, I go, you hear we cut Kyler or we're going to cut Kyler. He goes, oh, thank goodness. I go, what do you mean? He goes, yeah, it didn't work the last five years. Why do we can't keep trying to do it? And that's exactly why he's cutting. Yeah, it's like sunk cost fallacy. You're going to keep them for two more years and fail two more times with a couple more bags of Ls. I mean, I don't think it's moving on.

[Jason Moore]

I think it makes complete sense. The franchise pretty much had to move on for. Fans are sick and tired of it. But honestly, this episode is 10 Things to Remember. One of the things that we could very well have had as our, you know, an 11th thing to remember is that good players drafted well to bad franchises can turn it around when given another opportunity. You just mentioned Baker and Darnold and these guys who were top picks in the NFL draft and they, they flamed out. They didn't, they didn't succeed the way that they had hoped when they were drafted. But then you look at like, okay, it didn't work out for the jets, it didn't work out for the Browns, it didn't work out for the Cardinals. It's like always those franchises and then lo and behold, you go to the Buccaneers, you get a team around you and there's MVP chance. You go to the Seahawks and you have a team and a franchise around you. You win the Super Bowl. It's like that Kyler could go somewhere and be really important for fantasy next year. Not just himself, but also the weapons. I mean, Justin Jefferson, heck yeah. Or wherever he goes.

[Andy Holloway]

Or he could end up on the Jets.

[Mike Wright]

He could be on the Jets.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Yes. Come on, Jets. Do it.

[Mike Wright]

The jets are the best hope for the Cardinals to get offset money because I feel like for him to go to the jets, he may, he may get more than a year.

[Andy Holloway]

And if we, I don't want to speak for you guys, but I feel like if he goes to the jets,

[Mike Wright]

you'd be like, well, yeah, no, I. Good luck movie before we saw Justin Fields in the jets, right? I mean we, that wasn't the reclamation project that we hoped it would be. So speaking of the jets, they franchise tag Greece Hall.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

They.

[Andy Holloway]

This is. I had told, I told Jason in the, in the office. I was like, here's what I need the Cardinals to do.

[Jason Moore]

This was.

[Andy Holloway]

And this was before the Kyler Murray news broke broke. I'm like, I need the Cardinals to cut Kyler Murray. I need them to give Malik Willis a bag of money. Huge.

[Jason Moore]

Like.

[Andy Holloway]

And then I need to draft Jeremiah Love with the third overall pick. So then I could just. I will wipe my hands and I will be completely removed as an Arizona Cardinal.

[Mike Wright]

You'll be rooting for Jeremiah Love, you know.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, for fantasy. 100%.

[Mike Wright]

No, you'll be a fan.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't know Will, when. That. When the Cardinals are a top five pick again in the draft, I'll say,

[Jason Moore]

you don't know where Mike and I are right now. Yeah. You don't. I told Mike after he said that, I was like, dude, I had a daydream. I literally was daydreaming about this. And, Andy, this will make you big. Matt, I had a daydream about using this show and this platform. Look, my son is jacking to show

[Mike Wright]

that you can leave a team.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no, no.

[Jason Moore]

That's small potatoes, Andy.

[Mike Wright]

Worse than that.

[Jason Moore]

To leave a revolution. To tell people across this great country that you do not have to beholden to stupid, idiot managers because of where you live or were born. Why do I owe Bidwell jack freaking squat? He's stupid. I don't know. All I know about him is he's a bad owner and manager. I should not be loyal to him. He has done nothing to earn it.

[Mike Wright]

Okay?

[Jason Moore]

And I want every. I don't want to leave the Cardinals. I want all of us to leave the Cardinals. I want tens of thousands of people around here to just say, we're done. We are done.

[Mike Wright]

This is why you're a big Brazil fan in the World cup, huh?

[Jason Moore]

Huh?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you're big. You leave the USA and you go for Brazil, right?

[Jason Moore]

I have reasons to root for country. Why can't you go to country? Because a man. Bidwell, Michael. All the Bidwells. But Michael Bidwell is the owner of the car.

[Mike Wright]

We don't want you.

[Jason Moore]

It's like, it's not even the city or the state where I live. That's not ours. It's not theirs.

[Mike Wright]

Get out. And when they're good one time in the next 30 years, you don't get to celebrate.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, no.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, no.

[Jason Moore]

You know what I'll do? I don't know, 15 times the next year.

[Mike Wright]

Didn't you go to the super bowl in Tampa when the Cardinals were there?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Why?

[Andy Holloway]

Because they are.

[Jason Moore]

We are Cardinals fans. I'm just saying. I'm just saying the whole thing. Where I was born here, I was raised here. And so therefore, I have to give my team to a bad king. You know what I mean? Like, that's what it is. If you.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

You don't have to give your allegiance to Bidwell. People are fans of their home team while hating a lot of the parts of it. You just want them to succeed because they're your home team. That's all. Like you.

[Andy Holloway]

But we know There are very few

[Mike Wright]

franchises where you're proud of the. Every piece of the manager.

[Jason Moore]

All teams make mistakes, and you can't just like.

[Mike Wright]

So what are you going to do? You're going to go root for, like, another winner? I just pick a winner.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll just play fantasy. I'll just play fantasy.

[Mike Wright]

So you're leaving all allegiance to NFL to. To.

[Andy Holloway]

To fandom? Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

This is what you feel like you have to do to send a message to Michael?

[Jason Moore]

I think I would do a. I'm

[Mike Wright]

not going to get in your way of sending a message. Yeah, you do what you want to do.

[Jason Moore]

That's right. That's what I do.

[Mike Wright]

What you want to do.

[Jason Moore]

I'm still a Carlos fan, but I'm like.

[Mike Wright]

But we also know that you don't know what rooting.

[Jason Moore]

What is it?

[Mike Wright]

You don't know what rooting is. Good point. So I'm not really worried about you.

[Jason Moore]

But what does it say when, you know, it's like, oh, I got one foot out the door. Right. I got two feet out the door. So I'm not sure where I'm at.

[Mike Wright]

You're not even in the room.

[Jason Moore]

I'm not in the room.

[Mike Wright]

Like my room with my hand out

[Jason Moore]

the door holding the.

[Andy Holloway]

You can be in the room with two feet out.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, are you doing.

[Jason Moore]

You're playing a little like my hands on the. On the door sill. You know, I'm like leaning on the door.

[Mike Wright]

What does Michael Bidwell have to do to, like, bring you sell the team?

[Jason Moore]

That's what he has to do. Okay, I.

[Mike Wright]

Nobody needs to hear any more of this. Breeze Hall.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, people are loving it.

[Mike Wright]

Breeze hall to the Jets. This is a situation where they open the door for Breeze hall and they're like, get on out of here. And then he tries to walk and they've chained him to the room.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, they hate.

[Mike Wright]

They hate this guy and he's like, can't you let me leave? They say they're working on a long term deal. Okay, this is not good for Braille and Allen Dynasty managers.

[Jason Moore]

No, they put the version of it where he can technically go out and try to get a contract. They did the transition tag.

[Mike Wright]

I thought it was a franchise tag.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, that is a franchise tag.

[Andy Holloway]

No, but you specifically say you cannot

[Mike Wright]

do that with a franchise tag. You can only do that with a specific. With what they gave Daniel Jones. Right. Transition tag.

[Jason Moore]

Right. I'm just saying you have like a. Basically a hierarchy of options for who you franchise and how you franchise them. I don't know if it's technically called the franchise tag, but the transition, if you transition tag someone that is using your franchise tag on that player. But that would require another team not only signing Breeze but then sending two first round picks. So he's not going anywhere for sure. He is a Jet and that is unfair to him. He came out and said, I hey, I don't mind betting on myself. So hey, the good news for fantasy, he's in a contract year.

[Mike Wright]

Show me the money. Yeah, transition tag for Daniel Jones, it comes in at 6 million cheaper than the quarterback franchise tag. So the transition tag is going to save them some money. Jones can go out and get an offer sheet. The Colts would have a right to match. But it seems like Daniel Jones will be there. You talk about domino's falling. Daniel Jones not being on the free open market is a significant deal. And then we got two more pieces of news.

[Andy Holloway]

One of them, one's breaking right now.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, one of them is big news. Yesterday, the Bears, I mean, Drew Dahlman, Pro bowl center for the Bears, incredible offensive line at 27 years old who signed an extension last off season. He's retiring.

[Jason Moore]

Bears Twitter spent the entire morning thinking that was the day they were getting Max Crosby. All the betting odds were like, we're the favorite. Something's coming down. You know, and then they're like so excited and it's like, boom, you lost your Pro bowl young center.

[Mike Wright]

That was star center. So that's huge. And I think there was reports, I don't know the name, but they're already like bringing in other centers to talk to right now also. I guess this is breaking news.

[Andy Holloway]

It is as of right now,

[Jason Moore]

breaking news.

[Mike Wright]

Huge trade. The Rams have traded a first round pick in this draft. 29, a fifth, a sixth and a 20, 27 third, which is a lot of their picks. They, you know, Les Snead is always, I don't care about them picks.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's you and Brooks of dynasty managers. They're like, let me go get a vet. I don't want picks.

[Mike Wright]

They he traded all those picks to the Chiefs for all pro cornerback Trent McDuffie. They were apparently one Trent McDuffie short last year from. And they might have been. Yeah, they might have been a Trent McDuffie short.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, they were able to score on the Seahawks no problem, but they couldn't stop them.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So that's a big trade.

[Andy Holloway]

This is probably a great trade for both teams.

[Mike Wright]

Chiefs are going to end up with another first round pick.

[Jason Moore]

It really probably is because the Chiefs let go their offensive tackle that played like start of the whole season. So they have to replace a tackle in the draft. They've got the ninth pick. A lot of people are saying, oh, if Jeremiah Love is there, they would grab them. Hard to imagine that when they.

[Mike Wright]

More flexibility.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, exactly. It allows them to fill other needs.

[Andy Holloway]

And they, I mean they're, they're at the point where they have to just do the rebuild so that they can go for three more.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Where like don't.

[Mike Wright]

For the Chiefs.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. Like don't be, don't be splotchy and like, hey, we're sort of good. Like no man, like rip it down real quick. So you could do a real quick rebuild because you have. You got Mahomes.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So like you can still tread water.

[Andy Holloway]

You can remake the playoffs really, really fast. So trading one a great player. But into all of those options, that's man, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

I'm trusting T Mobile. They have the best network and if

[Andy Holloway]

we end up in bumtots nowhere, well

[Jason Moore]

we've got T satellite for backup.

[Andy Holloway]

Whoa. I don't trust my carrier that much.

[Jason Moore]

We'll just use your phone as a flashlight.

[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

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[Jason Moore]

Don't forget to remember these things.

[Mike Wright]

All right, it looks like I am going to kick us off with number 10. All right, number 10. It is titled My Players Are Going to Get Hurt AKA Draft. Like a General Manager, not Like a Fan. Look, injuries. This is these are a foregone conclusion in fantasy football. You have to embrace it. In spite of what Mike and CMC managed to pull off this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Sometimes there's magic.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, sometimes Mike can turn on the mad magic Mike turns on the setting in Madden. The injuries are now off, but historically that's not the case. Look, 98% of all NFL players show up on an injury report every year. So you're talking about everybody. It doesn't mean that being fortunate with injuries is not going to determine success for fantasy football. Obviously it does. Mike. Yeah, I mean, he stayed healthy. You won a championship. The NFL.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't stay healthy. But McCaffrey did.

[Mike Wright]

No, no, McCaffrey did. But in the NFL, it's the same way the final four teams in the NFL that made it to, you know, the final four Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and the NFC 25 players combined on the injured reserve. The Cardinals had 22 alone on their team. So injuries make a big difference in the NFL as well. But when you look at fantasy football, I just want to give you some context. On average, three of the top 10 players drafted every year in fantasy missed four plus games this year. If you look at, we got a little bit more lucky with the top 10 this year. But look at the second and third round. When you go beyond or outside the top 10. Basically, Malik neighbors 13 games Ms. Nico 2. Jacobs 2. Puka 1. Brian Thomas 3. Achan 1. Drake London 5. Buck Irving 7. AJ Brown 2. Brock Bowers 5. Lamar Jackson 4. It keeps going. Hampton 8. Daniels 10. Tyreek 13. Kittle 6. Those are the like sequential picks in the second and third round. You need to start building your fantasy football team like a general manager does in the NFL. They are building their rosters not based on perfect health. It looks the best, right? We love it when we put the perfect starting lineup together.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And what you'd love to be able to do on paper is build the perfect starting lineup. That looks amazing, lock them in and then spend your entire bench on upside. Right. Not a player that's already established and guaranteed production, but a bunch of upside players. But general managers in the NFL, they build their teams on attrition. They understand that they're going to miss players now, maybe not 22 like Arizona. You can't build a team strong enough to withstand 22 injuries on Arizona or on injured reserve. But it is obviously Bidwell, he, Nancy Kerrigan, them.

[Jason Moore]

Have you seen the grades for our training facilities?

[Mike Wright]

The training facilities may play a role as well. We didn't put them next to a power plant, but it's not good. But look, don't overstack your bench with all upside stashes at the expense of playable depth. I feel like Mike has been pretty, pretty gifted in this department for years. Where he builds rosters, I look at and what I actually, I think the most actionable thing here is let's say you put. You make good picks later in the draft and you put some nice bench assets, free agency or, you know, you go onto the waiver wire, you add some pieces and they perform. That's my moment.

[Jason Moore]

Generally where you flip them into.

[Mike Wright]

I flip them. I take a starter and a bench player that's performing and I try to turn them into somebody better and I do it all the way through the bench. Then I use the bench to fill up on more waiver wire pickups. I think that for me, my thing to remember is I need to adjust that a little bit and really keep some solid startable assets. Not look at them all as trade chips and trade bait and really plan on those injuries to happen so that I can survive. Mike talks about another thing in years past, you know, kind of getting through the season in different phases. Right. There's different parts of the season that you need to get through. Players are going to get hurt, survive every window of the season to make the playoffs. If you want to Consolidate right around the trade deadline a little bit, if that makes sense. You've survived a bunch of weeks. Sure. But don't just stack your bench with upside stashes. And then all of a sudden you got to put a player in that has no potential to play. It's a rookie that hasn't started. You need to be able to step in. Those guys are going to get hurt. It's guaranteed.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, Mike had like Jalen Warren and Charbonnet just kind of resting there.

[Mike Wright]

I'm like, why isn't he trading these guys?

[Andy Holloway]

It's the, you know, like if you hear people Talk about the 0rb build, like it's. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's what it is, is it's going on the philosophy of. That these players will get stronger as the year goes on, because I know that the guys drafted in the first round or they're going to miss time. So it's being. Being aware of that. I think the, you know, combining that tip, Andy, with the. The understanding the nuances and the differences of the time of year, what your team needs through the first four weeks and then what you need through the next four, it all holistically plays a part in creating your best chance at winning a championship.

[Mike Wright]

No, it makes sense. And I'm just looking from picks 111 through 406, so I think that's 28 picks. Six of the 28 didn't miss a game. So you're going to miss time. So remember it and plan accordingly. All right, Time to move on.

[Jason Moore]

Number nine.

[Andy Holloway]

So be willing to stand your ground on your rookie takes.

[Jason Moore]

This is a chance to do.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's actually. I have a couple different ways I want to talk about this because it's. Rookies are. It's such a wild and like, it's not a straightforward path for rookies in fantasy football. And yet if you've been playing, you know, for at least five years or so, you understand that rookies are often a humongous part of fantasy football success now because rookies get better as time goes on. And then like the guys who are making impact, impact players over the second half and in the playoffs, a lot of time we see that it's a rookie, but it can take time. And this is where it's difficult because to get those players on your team, if you want to draft them, you got to draft them early, but you're drafting them early knowing that there's a chance that this might. May not start working at least for like two months into the season. So Travion Henderson was it, you know, through the first month of the season, it was an absolute disaster. And then through the net, through the first two months, a catastrophe. You know, he was on our. Our show Docs a week six. We bring up, like, drop candidates. People wanted to drop Trayvon Henderson, and it was. I don't really have a. Like, I can't convince you not to drop this player who's not getting any opportunity. It's all Ramon Dre, all this. And then, of course, Ramon Dre misses some time. And then you have the magic there right in the middle of the season where Trayvon Anderson is winning weeks by himself. You know, the. From Week 9 on, he was the running back nine, averaging almost 17 fantasy points per game. And then that span, Week 9 through 12, with no Ramon Dre, I mean, it was. It was ludicrous. The points he was putting up, Tedaro and McMillan. It was a slower start for him. And then he ends up being the offensive rookie of the year. It started out slow, but the target share was there. In fact, he was one of six rookie wide receivers over the last decade to finish with a 26 or 26 plus percent of the targets. And it just. It can take time. So that's why I say when you draft those rookies, it's hard because you got to draft them early, but you know that you're drafting them for a certain time of the season. Of course you want them to hit right away, which does happen sometimes, but you got to be ready. And then I also wanted to talk about this from the standpoint of dynasty. Rookie drafts are coming up. You do not have to be beholden to. This is how you're like, I'm the 105. I'm slotted for this player. Like, it's okay. You know, it's okay to. To take chances on the guys that you prefer because it's fantasy football. It's wild, man. Stuff goes sideways. It goes haywire all the time. And you're looking at the like, oh, well, this wide receiver got drafted in the. In the top of the second. I had the 108, so I couldn't possibly take him.

[Mike Wright]

Just do it.

[Andy Holloway]

You're like, because you know what? If I draft that player, everyone's going to make fun of me.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You ever looked at the.

[Jason Moore]

They're going to.

[Andy Holloway]

They're going to mock my rookie draft,

[Mike Wright]

and I'm going to.

[Andy Holloway]

They're going to hurt my feelings, and I'm going to feel real ashamed that I did that. And they're telling me I'm going to

[Mike Wright]

take Royce Freeman because they told me to.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

You just.

[Andy Holloway]

No, man. If you don't want to take that guy, don't take him. Take someone else. It's okay to withstand the peer pressure of you have to take this guy.

[Jason Moore]

Right. And there is a really important distinction here because I think it is important that we say it is totally acceptable and good to mock and make fun of people picking something that is against the. Against the game grain. That's what you want to do. Now, if you're the person getting mocked, you have to ask yourself one of two questions. One, was this a player I believed in? And I like this pick and I'm getting mocked. And so I don't care. Great. Or why am I getting mocked? Oh, I didn't. I had no clue. I didn't know. You know, then it's like, look at yourself.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm saying, yeah, don't Raiders this thing and draft a kicker in the first round. That's not what I'm saying.

[Jason Moore]

I thought you were going with. Wasn't it the Raiders.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Who just drafted 10 years ago drafted the wrong human being. They called the guy with the same name that wasn't the one they wanted to draft.

[Mike Wright]

That might go in your bucket of bad franchises do bad things.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

So I'm saying rookies can take some time, but also specifically for your rookie draft, man, pick the players you want.

[Jason Moore]

It's.

[Andy Holloway]

It's okay because maybe you're wrong. Maybe you're wrong on that player. But follow your own path.

[Jason Moore]

Don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't let the. Don't let the peer pressure and consensus bully you into taking a pick you don't want to make.

[Mike Wright]

It's extremely painful. If you don't take the player you have conviction about, you take somebody else due to consensus.

[Andy Holloway]

So much sense.

[Mike Wright]

And then that player turns out to be something great because, you know, you didn't stand on it, so it makes sense.

[Jason Moore]

Number eight, this one is a question on trends in the NFL. My question is, is the famous sophomore leap for wide receivers actually dead? This is over the. This is what I was talking about at the beginning of the show where in 2021 I wrote an article. It was basically a cheat code. You looked at the previous five and ten years and that year two wide receiver was like, just draft them. Even if you're not sure, even if you don't believe. The year two is when most of these guys are really breaking out. Now, what we've seen over this last five years and the Last decade is that more and more frequent? Is it that wide receiver ones break out in year one, the alphas come out and they get the opportunity from day one to just be on the field at all times. And it has had a reciprocal effect on the year two breakout. I was, I was noticing this trend over the last couple of years, but this, this last year really put a, put a nail in the coffin. So in 2021, the you look at the wide receivers that were drafted in the first eight rounds, five of six of them improved in their sophomore year. That's great. 83% fires like, yeah, sophomore bump. Yeah, the sophomore bump. The article was right. But then as time has gone on 2022, only three of six improved. And some of those, like Johan Dotson, he was the hotness from his rookie year.

[Mike Wright]

He went hardcore the other way.

[Jason Moore]

He went hardcore the other way. Christian Watson went down. Garrett Wilson, who was the number one drafted there, he had a down year, didn't even score 10 fantasy points per game that season. The following year, the 2023 class, two of five improved. So now we're sub 50% actually being better than they were their rookie season.

[Mike Wright]

You know, certainly it rebounded last year.

[Jason Moore]

It certainly did. It rebounded all the way to zero of the top five improved in the 2024 class.

[Mike Wright]

So Malik, Neighbors, BTJ, McConkey, Marv, and

[Andy Holloway]

this one was brutal. I mean, they burned too bright.

[Jason Moore]

And so that is part of it, right? You can't just be like, here's a trend. It's like here's a trend. Why? Part of it is they dominated rookie. Yeah, exactly. They dominated rookie years, lad, McConkey, BTJ and little neighbors were all fantasy wide receiver ones. They were top 12 in their rookie season. So it makes sense that it's harder for them to take that step up and go, but it's happening more and more frequently now. You look at this year and I guess what this is to me, what I want to remember is that I have gone into old drafts, you know, three years ago, four years ago, where even if I really didn't believe in a player, if he's a year two wide receiver at a place where, you know, I'm just pulling the trigger. I'm just shooting on probabilities this year. You got, you know, Igbuka, who was the hotness this year coming into year two, is he going to get better? Mike Evans might leave. There's going to be a lot of reasons. I'll bet if Mike Evans leaves, he's going to shoot up Draft boards, people will forgive him and be in. Matthew golden sucked his rookie year. Had all the opportunity, but he's still a first round wide receiver on a good offense. Year two wide receiver go all in. You know, try to. Luther Burden was the hotness at the end of the season.

[Mike Wright]

It was like, wow, how many guys can be the hotness?

[Jason Moore]

Well, there's different parts of the season. You know, it's like if you're in Arizona or if you're in New York, there's summer and there's winter. Right, that's what I'm saying.

[Mike Wright]

But just summer here though.

[Jason Moore]

So I don't think it is quite the guarantee and I don't. I wanted this to be a little shorter and have this be a question and a conversation piece on whether or not we should stop just automatically assuming that in year two these players take a leap forward. That doesn't necessarily always happen. However, the data is starting to say year three, which is it has been more and more frequent. That was jsn, that was Zay Flowers. After a down, year two got better in year three. Some of these guys are starting to, you know, even, even somehow Puka was significantly better in year three, even though he was great already. But I'm not sold on just saying that in year two they're always going to get better as a wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

I mean unfortunately, and it's a, it's a cop out to a degree. But I mean trends are based on context. You talked about how insane the numbers were last year for those guys. You weren't Malik, neighbors hurt or not, was probably not beating 14, 6 points per game or it was going to be tough to do it. Brian Thomas Jr. Certainly, I mean those numbers lad McConkey all alone there. It was going to be really, really hard. And there's. So there's going to be nuance. There's going to be. What does it, what do you define improving as? Right. And how much does that matter in the, in the equation? So you know, there are players that, you know, you talked about it. Luther Burden, it's like that's not a difficult one to see him having a better sophomore year because he barely got it rolling.

[Jason Moore]

Slow start.

[Mike Wright]

I mean he really didn't ever get it cooking for, you know, consecutive weeks. So that one's an easy one to see now, you know, Obuka, lot of variables in the equation. Matthew golden, he better improve or he's in the ufl. So it's good to look over a long period of time and see what the trends are so you don't just lock into a strategy that is eventually going to burn you.

[Jason Moore]

Tetero and McMillan was really good as a rookie, and so he's the one. And you look and it's like, well, he's going to take that. That leap forward. And he's being drafted almost as a wide receiver. One he's right now, it's too early to know. Based the wide receiver 13. It reminds me a lot of his comp for me was Drake London. Well, he showed and it was like year two, it took year three before he really hit.

[Mike Wright]

It's a perfect transition to the next one.

[Jason Moore]

All right, number seven, which is bad

[Mike Wright]

teams ruin good players.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

And bad owners ruin good franchises.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Bad teams ruin good players. Ask yourself, if I remove the player's name and just describe their situation. Right. Like a new quarterback, an uncertain offense, a transition year. You got to ask yourself, would I draft that player in the first two rounds or at their adp? And usually you would say no if you remove the player's name from the situation. So I'm going to describe a couple situations to you and you tell me how in you are.

[Jason Moore]

All right?

[Mike Wright]

First one, a wide receiver on an offense with the fifth starting, different starting quarterback in five years with an offensive coordinator that you openly hate. On a team who has fewer scoring opportunities inside the red zone than anybody in the entire league. Does that sound like I'm out? They're worth the risk of a top two second or a top two round pick.

[Jason Moore]

No, that sounds like a bad bet.

[Mike Wright]

That bad bet we made for years with Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson was that bad bet. We did it in 2023. He was drafted as the wide receiver nine. It was Aaron Rodgers. It was Nathaniel Hackett. That combination, we still went in on him at adp.

[Jason Moore]

We're Tackett now. Yeah, I know.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's here. In 2024, we did it again with Garrett Wilson, wide receiver 7 off the board. Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback. We didn't have a lot of confidence in that. Last year you finally got an adjustment in the adp. We wisened up a little bit. How bad were the Jets? The jets over the last three years? Dead last in those red zone plays. Tied or trailing on 93% of offensive snaps. You have to pay attention to the context these guys get drafted into. Let me do one from this year. Older quarterback who was cast off from his former team. New head coach born before the invention of the transistor radio. Offensive coordinator who hasn't been in the NFL in more Than a decade. Oh, wait. We drafted two players this year in the first two rounds of fantasy. Obviously, that was Ashton Genti and Brock Bowers did not work out for fantasy managers in the.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, Bowers did. Other than the injury.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, second half, he was very good.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I mean, I think there were still some underwhelming vibes with some of what he was able to do. You know, you started the year before the injury and maybe that was, you know, playing through it and stuff like that. But it was. It was tough. It was tough. When you have to look at all of these risk factors, quarterback transitions and changes, offensive coordinators, lack of faith in a coach, and then say to yourself, well, it's all just going to work out because this player has talent. We did this. We did this game with a lot of players that we liked over the years. We did it with Tara McClaurin. We did it with DJ Moore. We did it. You know, if you don't have all those externals, you have a lot more to overcome. And you just need to factor that in and ask yourself whether the risk outweighs the draft cost.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Is the team environment so completely disgusting and gross that it can ruin a great player? And it is very possible to do that. And so you need to be careful. I need to be careful. And when the draft happens and these sexy players start going to teams that we don't have confidence in, you need to make sure that those situations are not going to destroy them.

[Jason Moore]

This is where the transition from Tetaro and McMillan as a year two wide receiver. I love. I love Tet. I think he is great. Yes, I think he is. Garrett Wilson, I love. But it's a. It's a good point. He's going into year two. It's not a guaranteed leap forward. He's on a team that you don't expect to be great. They don't care about the quarterback for sure, but the quarterback is not prolific at the very least. We can all agree on that, correct?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So it puts a little pause in there.

[Jason Moore]

Obviously, the jets project to be bad. Who are the other teams that like?

[Mike Wright]

I mean, Cleveland on offense right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You draft somebody. Cleveland on offense, Arizona on offense without a quarterback. The nice thing about Minnesota, if it's JJ and no one else, the nice

[Jason Moore]

thing about the Browns is they've done us a service and they have no one really worth drafting. You know, I mean, they're like, let's not fan.

[Andy Holloway]

It's Judkins.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Depending on the injury and his timeline back. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

How dare you. Harold Fannin.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. You are Mr. Fannin.

[Jason Moore]

I do.

[Mike Wright]

Used to be.

[Jason Moore]

I do like Fan and over the other guys. But we'll talk about whether I'm Mr. Fanon or not in a minute.

[Mike Wright]

That's actually why we have Fan and lower than the other two of the sophomore tight ends. But let's take a break and we'll. We'll keep going. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays.

[Jason Moore]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

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[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

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[Mike Wright]

awards among all trucks in the J.D. power 2025 U.S. vehicle Dependability Study Awards based on 2022 models. Newer models may be shown. Visit J.D. power.com awards for more details. Chevrolet together. Let's drive. All right, we're back in the 10 things to remember. Here we go.

[Jason Moore]

Number six.

[Andy Holloway]

So speaking of philosophies that change over the course of time is. I am now firmly in this area, you know, we have dabbled, talked about this strategy. I don't know just how like rubber stamped I would have said that this strategy was, you know, when we started this show, you don't do this.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

And now I'm like, you know what? When you leave your draft in a single quarterback league and you draft two quarterbacks, I think that's okay. I think it's not only is it okay, I think it. There are situations where it is in fact a very smart thing to do. You know, you're increasing your odds of finding a difference maker for that single quarterback position. The opportunity cost is like, okay, do I hit on one of these sleeper wide receivers who is. He's fourth on his depth chart or it's the, it's the RB3 on a team, you know, where we've seen great returns for that it's a game of probability. Just always remember that for fantasy football, there is no, there is no binary black or white. Everything is gray, everything is probability. And the way that things have gone lately, hitting on a later round quarterback where that guy becomes a potential difference maker for you, it is the odds keep going up every single year where it used to be. These are the quarterbacks who will be good. We've nailed it. We know they're going to be great. But it's like this past year, you know, you had going late. Dak who. Dak just always goes, Dak always goes late. And you should just always be grabbing Dak as a second quarterback. But Caleb Williams made the jump. Drake May, you know, almost the league MVP, was going in the, in the 12th round as about the 18th quarterback or so. It's a, it's a strategy where it felt like a misuse of your resources. But now I think that it can be really the move that you need to go to of. And I'm not talking when you, you've drafted Josh Allen, when you've invested heavily one of your very, very high lucrative draft picks on a quarterback. We're talking if you get a guy in the middle, why not, why not take a player late? Because so many times now we're seeing those are the quarterbacks who are taking the jump and they're becoming the player that. It's a week to week thing.

[Mike Wright]

It does fold into the all your players get hurt situation. Yeah, I mean that does happen at the quarterback position. They're not immune from it, obviously. So. But saying that that's okay. That is a transition from where we used to be.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, it is for sure.

[Jason Moore]

Number five. All right, this one will affect Fanon a little bit. The tight end dead zone is deader than ever. It's all of them. It's just the whole position people, there isn't a dead zone. There's some studs and then there's, and then there's death.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if everybody listening would understand what you mean by a dead zone. When you talk, we've talked about RV dead zones. Maybe we should.

[Jason Moore]

So the tight end dead zone has at times, you know, changes based on the year. But you know, the fifth, sixth round. Tight ends historically have always been just terrible bets, just awful waste of picks and you're, you're ruining opportunities to draft relevant players at other positions. But what I'm calling the tight end dead zone, especially this last year, is if you're not Trey McBride. I mean, you could Throw George Kittle in there, but he got injured and Bowers in there, who got injured. Everyone else sucked. The difference between the tight end two, this is fantasy finish. At the end of the year, tight end 2 and tight end 12 was 1.3 points per game. It's irrelevant, people. It is completely. That's the tightest spread in six years. Fannin was good down the stretch. He was on the waiver wire. End of the year, Loveland was like, oh, hey, he's breaking out. Waiver wire pickup. He was drafted and then he was a waiver wire pickup because he was averaging like 2.3 fantasy points per game. Kyle Pitts, the number two tight end, waiver wire. Dallas Goddard was a waiver wire pick. And here's the thing, all the. So basically my strategy is this. What I'm going to remember is I am, I am. I would love to draft Trey McBride, I would love to draft Brock Bowers and then I'm checking out. I'm not going to fall victim to this player's good. That player's good. I like this name. I like that name. I'm going to let everyone else go. Here's why. Laporta was the Titan 4 drafted last year. He was drafted over wide receivers and running backs like Jameson Williams and DeAndre Swift. They made differences. Kelsey and Hawkinson were the next tight ends drafted around later they were drafted over Chris Olave and Jalen Warren. They made impacts on fantasy football. Mark Andrews was next, drafted over Travis ETN and Emeka Buka. Mark Evan Ingram was next, drafted over Judkins and Javante Williams. Like we didn't love Javante Williams. There's a reason he was in the 9th, 10th round, but there's opportunity. There's lots of misses in those rounds. But I want to take shots at these guys who actually could make an impact. These tight ends in the middle and late rounds, they're not making an impact. Najoku drafted over Scatterboo and Pittman who were looking good. So for me, give me Trey McBride and Brock Bowers and then I'll see you on the waiver wire. I'm going to keep taking shots at all the running backs and wide receivers. I can stock up. Maybe I'll grab that second quarterback like Mike's saying. And it's going to. It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay. Because the gap, the difference between these guys, they're really not all.

[Mike Wright]

Never forget David Najoku, TJ Hawkinson. Back to back on our league of record Fifth round.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, wasted picks, just delete them from the earth.

[Jason Moore]

Take a shot on someone that could actually break out. These tight ends aren't going to be it. And, and, you know, I know Tyler Warren had looked great before the Daniel Jones injury. That's great. He was 10.7 fantasy points a game. That would have been.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that would have pretty good. That would have counted.

[Jason Moore]

But that's a, that's 0.4 points more than what Dallas Goddard scored.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, you can find value there.

[Andy Holloway]

So number four.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I'll keep it short. I'll make it simple here, but this is number four thing to remember. A good waiver pickup is a good waiver pickup. Sometimes we, sometimes we ignore players on the waiver wire because we think we have those positions figured out on the team. This goes into the staying water. This goes into the acknowledging that injuries are going to happen. Player performances, the rookies that Mike talked about, their performances change over time. There were a lot of players that performed really, really well last year. They were sitting on the waiver wire and you might have thought to yourself, I don't need that guy because I have this guy. Harold Fannin was rostered on 6% of teams in Week 2. On the waiver wire, if you had Brock Bowers, you were going to pass on the opportunity to pick up Harold Fannin because you had the position figured out. Well, an injury happened and you didn't, and that would have been a big, big difference because he was the tight end five for the rest of the season. Same thing went with. Remember how hot Baker Mayfield started? This goes to your point with two quarterbacks. If you had Baker Mayfield at the beginning of the season, if you had Bo Nix because you invested draft capital in him, you're like, I got my position figured out. Well, Drake May was a streamer in week two. Like, I know he got drafted in a lot of leagues, not every league.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And maybe he got dropped after they lost in week one. There are opportunities on the waiver wire and you might pass on a guy because you think you have the position figured out. This is a way of saying, like NFL GMs, they go into the draft and they draft position over neat or over best on the board. You need to go best on the board sometimes on the waiver wire. Even when you have a player that is doing the job in that position this week because things change too much, you might have thought you had plenty of wide receivers and you passed on Parker Washington or Alec pierce in week 10 waivers where they were on less than 30% of teams. Both of those guys were basically wide receiver ones from week 10 on for your roster. If they're good, if you believe in them just because you got it figured out, sign them anyway.

[Jason Moore]

It's funny because we do this elsewhere. Rookie drafts. We have learned lessons over the years of just take the best player, take the best player available. Yeah, you need running back, but that's, you know, he's just not. It's not as good a pick, you know, at that point in the draft, this wide receiver versus that running back, just take the best player because it turns out it's going to help you the most. Even if it's not the position you think.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you can, you can. If you have two amazing tight ends, that's fine. You can figure out what you want to do with that at that point.

[Jason Moore]

There's good problems to have and bad problems to have.

[Mike Wright]

Agreed.

[Andy Holloway]

Number three targets still have to be earned. And I want to bring this one up because we talk about young breakout hopeful wide receivers, you know, draft capital opportunity on a, on a good NFL team. So this is. It almost is a, you know, just an inverse of what you were talking about, Andy, of bad teams can ruin good players. Well, bad players going to good teams doesn't automatically turn that bad player into a good player. And I'm promise you, I'm talking into Amir right now. So. Of when we're talking specifically about.

[Mike Wright]

Straight to me, but whatever.

[Andy Holloway]

No. Well, people say we look like brothers.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

There's that whole thing when you. This is also believing in your rookie takes Keon Coleman. Right? Keon Coleman goes what, 33rd in the, in the NFL draft. Right. The beginning of the second round. Keon Coleman wasn't a player that I particularly liked. My process didn't love him, but he went in the top of the second round to Josh Allen. And that I allowed that to completely sway where I was willing to draft Keon Coleman because of course this makes sense. He is a. They need a wide receiver. They have Josh Allen. How was this they. A plus B. Yeah, like Stefan Diggs is gone. We need someone to soak up targets here. Well, did Keon Coleman earn targets in college? No. No, he didn't.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

But now, but now it will definitely work. Well, like his final college season. Talking to Keon Coleman, targets per route run 23%. Which that is. That is the. In the 22nd percentile mark among day two wide receivers, as in he was not earning targets for a second round wide receiver. And look where Keon Coleman's career has gone. It's been a complete disaster. Matthew golden, first round wide receiver team that desperately needs a wide receiver team that they don't draft. They don't draft guys in the first round. And they went in on Matthew Golden. Well, Matthew golden certainly earned targets as a, as a prospect, right? No. His final season targets per run 17.7. That is the lowest of any first round wide receiver over the last decade. Shocker. It has not worked. He had. He wasn't able to earn targets in college. He's not earning targets now as a professional. Xavier Worthy, Kansas City Chiefs. Holy crap. Same exact thing. I did the same exact thing with Keon Coleman that I did with Worthy. I didn't like this player as a prospect. Like the, the production profile. I don't, I'm just, I'm not seeing it. I'm not seeing it working. And yet, Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes gets a first round wide receiver. Of course it's going to work because of course he's first round wide receiver. Right. He's earning targets in college. No 37th percentile mark for round one wide receivers. That's where Xavier Worthy was. And it just, it hasn't worked out. So draft capital is incredibly important. Incredibly important.

[Mike Wright]

So sorry, Mike. I'm so sorry.

[Jason Moore]

I'm sure you had a good point.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know.

[Jason Moore]

We've just been playing around with the bookshelf. I don't know what's going on. The bookshelf light behind you.

[Mike Wright]

Apparently the bookshelf was lit at one point, but it's been a while. And then I guess it turned off and so he turned it on while you were like talking.

[Jason Moore]

He fixed it. Right.

[Mike Wright]

And he walked back to his seat. The second he sat down, it just turned off. It was just.

[Jason Moore]

Our set is a work in progress right now, people.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, they're working during the show.

[Andy Holloway]

But.

[Jason Moore]

But good points. Good points.

[Mike Wright]

Good points.

[Jason Moore]

Good answer. Good answer.

[Mike Wright]

We did this with Tyreek Hill in Kansas City as well.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll do this. We'll do the, the TLDR right here. If guys aren't earning targets in college, just because they go to the best quarterback or the second best quarterback in the league does not automatically mean that player will start earning targets. They just. You, you need proof. You need proof. I don't care about your athletic traits.

[Mike Wright]

I think what is just to. I agree completely. It's something to remember. I think what is difficult for fantasy players and managers is the team's confidence in that player is persuasive.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So when they spend draft capital to bring a player into an obvious need position, it is very difficult to not find a way in your brain to make that work. I mean, to some degree that was the case with Clyde Edwards. Allaire not looking in the target department, but just looking in the running back department. You're like, oh, maybe I didn't love the film. You know, you guys, I don't think loved it as much, but then it was like, well, he went to Kansas City. Yeah, it's got to work.

[Andy Holloway]

It swayed me. I had the first pick in our rookie draft that year. I freaking loved Jonathan Taylor. I was like, this is the guy. And then Edward Zilaire goes to the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round and how do you not automatically make that guy the first pick? It would be foolish. So, I mean everything today is just really working in a symbiotic. Yeah, symbiotic way of all these things need to be taken into account.

[Mike Wright]

We're just finishing each other's sandwiches.

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you.

[Jason Moore]

And it goes into this next one too. Number two, draft class projections are real. They really are. We've learned this lesson over the last few years, but this last year showed me. So we do NFL and fantasy football. When we're going through the NFL season, we don't have time to just grind college film. I don't, at least I don't know if.

[Mike Wright]

In the season.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, in season. So we're not. Our attention turns to prospecting right now. You know, we just don't have time during the season. But we always hear the rumors, the whispers, the projections of a whole draft class right. In 2024. It was supposed to be this great wide receiver draft class year. Oh, and then it was. I know Marvin Harrison Jr. Was disappointing as a rookie. Still not bad historically speaking as a rookie. Malik Neighbors was a breakout. Brian Thomas Jr. Lad McConkey. Just an amazing draft class. Seven first round wide receivers, most over the last decade. That was what we heard about it. That came out to be true last year. We were told this is a running back draft class that's loaded and a bad wide receiver draft class. That's what we knew going into like, I'm going to go start looking. We were told it's a running back and tight end draft class. And it really, really was. You had Genti, Hampton, Judkins, Henderson, Harvey. The second most total touches and yards from scrimmage for rookies over the last decade despite major injuries to Hampton and Judkins and Scatter. Boo if they, if they had stayed healthy, it would have been, you know, the craziest rookie running back season and wide receivers. Last year we were told it's kind of a. It's kind of a down year for wide receivers and it really kind of was. There wasn't a lot of massive production. You know, we just talked about Tet was okay. Ibuka looked like a big stud breakout and then disappeared. It just wasn't great. So what is this year? I'm going to buy into the paintbrush that's painted by the entire draft community

[Mike Wright]

which is some are stronger here, some are stronger there.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. It's different every year and this is what this year is. This year is overall a weaker draft class in general top to bottom but its strength is in wide receivers is a very weak running back draft class and a pretty deep wide receiver draft class. And why this matters is because if you look at last year, last year's a really strong running back draft class and very deep. If you took shots on those rookies, it really did pay off. And even the late round picks, the guys that weren't the studs but they were just in a loaded running back draft class. Cam Scatterboo, Woody Marks had an impact at one point. Kyle Manongai at the end of the season was startable. Bill Crosky mattered because it was just a really. That was the strength of that class. And then, and then the tight ends and you had the three rookie titans that were you.

[Mike Wright]

Are you going to remove Makai Lemon because he's so creepy?

[Jason Moore]

No, no. I, I do think that once the interviews are. Yes, he's. I'm a snake man.

[Andy Holloway]

It was.

[Jason Moore]

Dude, his so creepy.

[Andy Holloway]

But let me so. Because that was kind of the overall, you know, thought of Lemons interview was unique. It was, it was an interesting. You think you're looking cool talking like this situation. Go, go check the tape, man. I don't think you looked as cool as you thought you were going to look. However, we, we want wide receivers thinking they are that diva town. Oh yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Terrell Owens. I come on down to my team. Antonio Brown, you're welcome. As my starting wide receiver. Yeah, you could be crazy.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't, I didn't interpret that as bad because I'm like that's a guy who when he gets in the huddle he's going to say throw me the ball. Throw me the ball. I'm open. I'm always open.

[Mike Wright]

So don't pick up my kids from school.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to tease something here that this has been what I've been working on the entire off season. It is. We're going to be rolling it out to the Dynasty Pass at some point in time. The Felix model is a. I mean this is. I'm so excited about this. I'm going to put out an article detailing it and information to come. But this is more data than I've ever had access to in my entire life. Machine learning backdate tested an incredible prospecting model to try to project fantasy football success at the next level. Backdating it looking at last year it's looking really. It would have had Jackson Dart as a 90th percentile player Cam or down a little bit lower last year. I wish I had it look Caleb Johnson, he was a 26 percentile Felix score. Maybe I wish I had this last year. Okay. It's, it's, it's getting things right in a way that is genuinely impressing me and when I look at just that Felix score projection and and these aren't locked in yet because we don't have the NFL draft hasn't happened. These are projected draft capital which is everything will change. But just to give you an idea of the lay of the land for this coming draft class, 90 plus graded Felix score athletes from last year at wide receiver there were two of them. This year there are five wide receivers graded in the 90th percentile or better 80 to 90 which is still good. Last year there were five of those players. In last year's draft class there's 12. So this is a loaded 17 players in this wide receiver draft class right now pre NFL draft. So it will change are. This is where the depth is. So later in my drafts this year I'm going to be focusing on rookie wide receivers.

[Andy Holloway]

In my rookie draft I think it's also this draft class is deep. I think we're just going to be getting though like some strong twos.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I think it's depth more. I don't know that we're.

[Andy Holloway]

We don't have a jamar. Well I mean people like I think Tyson.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

There's. There's a handful of guys who could. I just think that the, the depth is more of a. You're going to be a Shore. You'll be able to shore up that bench and have players who can go into your flex spots.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

There's one more number one.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not reading that first one because that's not. I mean that's for you, Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh.

[Mike Wright]

But number one is to we always

[Andy Holloway]

want to remind people get your league Right. This is the time of year to get it going. Don't wait until August and be like, ah, crap, we didn't fix this. We're in the same situation. I guess we'll think about it again next year. Kickers, like, if you got issues in your league, 18 championships, take care of it right now. And the note for me, if you're the champ, start plotting. Know what you're going to do on draft day? I've got my ideas floating around. I have. I've applied for another mortgage so that I can.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, no, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Fund the championship party.

[Mike Wright]

Like, I'm looking forward to the draft. I'm so not.

[Andy Holloway]

My bank account is not looking forward to it. Man, I got to. I got to figure. So I got to figure it out. Me and Kyle, we're working on some things. Some, some ideas are floating around, but now is the time to start thinking about.

[Mike Wright]

Flush the turds in your league. If there's a bad manager in your league that just doesn't add anything, isn't active, it's better to be a great 10 person league than a bad 12 person league with two turds. Okay? Get rid of the bad managers. Make the changes you need to do. Do it all right now. New rules, new scoring settings. Set up a new way to communicate. Whatever you need to do, get it done. Make your league the best. It's the. It's the one repeatable thing to remember. We bring up each and every year. So that is going to do it. For today's episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast, you can find the Dynasty Pass, the aforementioned Dynasty pass@ultimate draftkit.com you weren't talking about the feline model, right? Because Mason. Oh, Mason Taylor was 100 percentile. No, this is different.

[Jason Moore]

The Felix.

[Mike Wright]

Goodbye.

[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, the FFballers.

[Mike Wright]

Instagram teen accounts come with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more about teen [e-mail] teenaccounts

[Jason Moore]

having

[Mike Wright]

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[Jason Moore]

life's biggest milestones makes all the difference. Like a friend who's there when you're house hunting or checking out a new ride.

[Mike Wright]

Stay free.

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State Farm is there too, helping you choose the coverage you need.

[Mike Wright]

With a State Farm agent, you know

[Jason Moore]

someone is there to help you along the way. And with so many coverage options, it's nice knowing you have help choosing a plan that fits your needs. So you can continue celebrating all of

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