Top 10 Things to Remember + Mike’s Gripes - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/6

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary
Episode: Top 10 Things to Remember + Mike’s Gripes
Release Date: March 6, 2025

In this engaging episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright dive deep into the lessons learned from the 2024 fantasy football season. Combining expert analysis with entertaining banter, the trio breaks down their top ten takeaways to help listeners dominate their leagues in the upcoming year. Additionally, Mike Wright shares his list of "gripes"—complaints that provide a glimpse into his candid perspective on the current fantasy landscape.

---

Giveaway Announcement

Early in the episode, the hosts announce a giveaway for a signed Drake London jersey. Listeners are encouraged to enter by visiting footclangiveaway.com.

Andy Holloway [03:10]: "We're giving away a signed Drake London jersey, which I'm surprised Jason has not confiscated after his trade in Dynasty last year."

---

Quick Question of the Day: "I Told You So" Predictions

The hosts address a listener's question about predicting underperforming players that no one believed would fail.

Mike Wright [04:03]: "Mine is a homegrown negative—a bust pick for this season, Marvin Harrison."

Marvin Harrison Bust Debate:
Mike Wright argues that Marvin Harrison was unfairly labeled a fantasy bust despite decent rookie statistics. Andy Holloway concurs, emphasizing that while Harrison's NFL performance might have been disappointing, his fantasy output was not abysmal. This conversation highlights the discrepancy between NFL performance and fantasy expectations.

---

Fantasy Football News Roundup

The hosts discuss several key NFL moves and their fantasy implications:

• Saquon Barkley's Extension with the Eagles:
  The Eagles secured Saquon Barkley with a two-year extension, making him the highest-paid running back in NFL history.

  Andy Holloway [11:35]: "With 36 million guaranteed, the Eagles now have Jalen Hurts, Saquon A.J. Brown, and Devonte Smith all under contract through 2028."

• DK Metcalf's Trade Request:
  DK Metcalf has requested a trade from the Seahawks, leading to speculation about his next destination.

  Mike Wright [12:33]: "I'm still convinced DK Metcalf will get traded due to the weak draft and free-agent class."

• Christian Kirk and Devonte Adams Released:
  The Jaguars are expected to release Christian Kirk, and the Jets have parted ways with Devonte Adams, significantly altering their wide receiver corps.

• Chicago Bears' Offensive Line Moves:
  The Bears have made strategic trades to strengthen their offensive line, aiming to support quarterback Caleb Williams and enhance their running game.

---

Top 10 Things to Remember from the 2024 Season

10. Buy the Hype (Shoot Your Shot) [25:14]:
Andy emphasizes the importance of capitalizing on early-season performances to secure high-impact players before they become league-tight fixtures.

Andy Holloway [25:41]: "Buy the hype on somebody that you truly believe can be a difference maker."

9. Start at the Top [31:04]:
Trusting in coaches and their offensive systems can provide a strategic advantage when drafting players.

Jason Moore [31:04]: "Trust in that coach. I'm saying that like the Minnesota Vikings this year, if it's JJ McCarthy, I'm going to give Kevin O'Connell the benefit of the doubt."

8. Pendulum Swings [37:44]:
Understanding the shifting value trends in player drafts helps in identifying underrated talents.

Mike Wright [37:44]: "I think this year it's a little too early to know, but I do think that this year one of the lessons I want to learn is look for the value."

7. The Schedule is a Lie [37:47]:
Defensive matchups are highly unpredictable year-to-year due to coaching changes and player turnover, making schedule-based predictions unreliable.

Andy Holloway [38:00]: "The schedule is a lie in the sense that you can't repeat what you got last year positionally very often."

6. Drift Players [40:54]:
Players moving to better offensive systems can become valuable fantasy assets, though quality varies.

Jason Moore [41:05]: "It's putting just not over. Not never overdo anything in fantasy but putting a little bit more stock in if a player who is historically great goes to a team and replaces a mediocre mid-level starter."

5. Remember Mike's Advice [45:07]:
Targeting late-round running backs from high-quality teams can yield unexpected fantasy stars.

Mike Wright [46:49]: "In the late round when you're looking at running backs, target the good teams."

4. Plant the Seeds and Work the Room [48:57]:
Effective trading requires building relationships and strategically positioning oneself to make beneficial deals when opportunities arise.

Andy Holloway [49:12]: "You need to become a lobbyist of sorts... Send offers out, do the due diligence of what people actually need on their roster."

3. Rookie Wide Receivers [53:37]:
Despite some underperformers, rookie wide receivers remain valuable due to their potential upside and typically lower draft positions.

Jason Moore [53:37]: "Rookie wide receivers... They just continue to get it done and they still go. It's even better when they're going later in the draft."

2. Second Year System Leap [56:29]:
Players often see significant improvements in their second year within new offensive systems, making them prime targets for fantasy drafts.

Andy Holloway [57:44]: "There are some examples of teams I'm paying attention to coming up in 2025 who get that second year, that continuity from their offensive coordinator."

1. Act Now and Get It Done [61:01]:
Urgency in making trades and roster adjustments is crucial to securing key players before they become unattainable.

Jason Moore [61:05]: "Number one, act now and get it done. Get her done."

---

Mike’s Gripes

In a candid segment, Mike Wright shares his frustrations, ranging from mismanaged trades to managerial decisions:

Mike Wright [24:30]: "Picture of the airport tickets. Oh, Mike, never stop complaining."
Jason Moore [62:35]: "I'm talking about the turds. You got to flush them."

Mike elaborates on ineffective league management and the importance of maintaining a positive and competitive league environment. The hosts encourage listeners to address persistent issues and ensure their leagues remain enjoyable for all participants.

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Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, the hosts tease upcoming segments like Free Agent Frenzy and promote resources such as the Ultimate Draft Kit. They encourage listeners to stay engaged through their community platforms and participate in ongoing giveaways.

Jason Moore [66:00]: "Ultimate Draft Kit.com our new rookie mock draft is up."
Andy Holloway [66:21]: "Join our fantasy football community on JoinTheFoot.com and follow us on Twitter @TheFFBallers."

---

This comprehensive episode serves as both a reflective analysis of the past season and a strategic guide for the future, equipping fantasy football enthusiasts with the insights needed to excel in their leagues.

Transcript

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[Andy Holloway]

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[Jason Moore]

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[Jack]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome in Thursday, March 6th. Jason Moore, Mike the fantasy Hitman. I am Andy Holloway. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Fun episode for you today. We do it every year. Sometimes Jason has the assistance of a little black book that he writes in during the year. Things he wants to remember.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, my. You know, I don't do that remembering thing no more, so you really got to look back and take notes as you go along.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you the. Like, I know we're not the youngest, but we're also not the oldest.

[Mike Wright]

No, we're right where we should be.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. And are you one of the kind of people like myself that prefers to write on a notepad or like a sticky note versus the digital age?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I do prefer that process. Like when I'm scouting players. It's funny, you know, I've got my little black book and we've talked about that before. For running backs, I always use my black book. And then for the other positions, I do a digital. I just prefer the process for running backs. And I love.

[Andy Holloway]

That's weird.

[Mike Wright]

It is a little weird. I love the act of pen and paper and all that. I ain't got time for that with those other positions.

[Andy Holloway]

So we're sharing three things. Each of us are sharing three things and then we'll have one that we'll share together. It's our 10 things to remember episode, so that'll be fun. We got some news to talk about as well. We also have a giveaway. We're giving away a signed Drake London jersey, which I'm surprised Jason has not confiscated after his trade in Dynasty last year.

[Mike Wright]

I did not realize I knew we were about to do a giveaway, but I did not realize that we had a signed Drake London jersey to give away. And I just saw that in the dock and that is I'm going to enter for sure.

[Jason Moore]

It's free.

[Mike Wright]

Where do I go? Footclain giveaway.com yes, I'm on it.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well, Jason will be competing against all of you. If you want to be in there, go to footclangiveaway.com it's free to enter, as Mike said. And you can find us over on X at the FFballers. The quick question of the day comes in from YouTube. ASW73 writes in what is your best I told you so player prediction where your prediction came true and no one believed you.

[Mike Wright]

So yeah, I'll kick it off because mine is a homegrown negative.

[Jason Moore]

I hated it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I mean everybody did. Everybody did. And based on where he was drafted, everybody hated it. Mine was Marvin Harrison being a bust for fantasy football, a bust pick for this season where he was being drafted. I don't. My whole take was that he is absolutely not going to be a bust. But there's just for him to return on the value of where he was drafted at the 12 turn felt outrageously high. And you know, on the Cardinals, the system, it wasn't a knock on his talent at all. But that draft capital was higher than we have ever seen any rookie wide receiver before. I think the second highest rookie wide receiver might have been Malik Neighbors last year who was rounds later might be right.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And so it just felt, you know, look, look back. Marvin Harrison did not have a bad rookie season and everyone in the fantasy football world thinks he was a bust of a rookie. And it was simply because the expectations were that he would come in and do what we have seen other rookies do. We've seen Jamar Chase come on. We've seen Justin Jefferson come on and be a top five.

[Andy Holloway]

He had a bad rookie season.

[Mike Wright]

Wide receiver. He did not.

[Andy Holloway]

That's my genuine. I genuinely believe that for the NFL it's a bad rookie season.

[Mike Wright]

For the NFL, that's a bad rookie season.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. When you're drafted that highly and your contribution to the team was that it lacked that much meaning over the course of the year, then yes, I do think it was a bad rookie year. If you were to ask him the question, he would say the same thing. The fact that there were press conferences on a near weekly basis about production utilization, that's a bad year for Marvin Harrison and the expectations and then obviously the Fantasy is the compounding aspect. And I read this question from YouTube and the when no one else believed you part was certainly true of this. This is where you went out on the limb on this show and it didn't seem like there was a path for him to have a year this bad. But yeah, 62 receptions as the number one in a cardinal offense, that's a failure.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know. Eight touchdowns as a rookie, that's a success.

[Jason Moore]

It was, it was weird because, like, raw production, 62 for 885, that's fine. Like, if that's. I think it's a little disappointing for a player being drafted in the top five at the wide receiver position. But those, those totals don't look horrifically bad. But it's when you start remembering the story of like, he had like three spike games and then you have just.

[Andy Holloway]

So many games under 50 yards, 54% catch rate, awful. 52 yard a game average, awful for the number one with Kyler, certainly disappointing.

[Mike Wright]

No competition, 100% disappointing. Disappointing to everyone. Disappointing to the NFL. But I just, I don't think it was bad. Bad would be, you know, another top five rookie pick at the wide receiver position, Corey Davis, who comes in and has 375 yards as a rookie like that.

[Andy Holloway]

It wasn't career ending. That's what I'm saying.

[Mike Wright]

That's what I'm saying. It wasn't objectively bad. It was just a disappointment for what the hopes were. I still think he's going to be very good.

[Andy Holloway]

So it's interesting because I'm looking at our entries for this little quick question, the best I told you so moment, and unfortunately I'm realizing, and maybe this is just the way it is, but it's all hate.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's all hate.

[Andy Holloway]

Like you, you're good at things. You went away from the consensus on Marvin Harrison. My entry to this I told you so was most certainly I was anti Anthony Richardson when the world wanted to anoint him and draft him highly and make him the guaranteed fantasy producer. And both of you opposed me on that. And it was like, so that's hate, right? It's going against the grain on the excitement. And Mike, your answers, all three of them.

[Jason Moore]

Hate. I mean, look, anger and hate are the powerful emotions, but it was, for me, it was kind of the three pack of. I was 100% out on Stroud at ADP, Travis ETN at ADP, and Rashad White. Like, these were guys I just. I had on literally zero of any of my teams last year. Where I was the primary drafter. So it is. And I mean, not that I saw it going as bad as it did, but like etn, I was like, yeah, finally. We finally got you. We finally caught up to you that you're. You're just. You can hit a couple big plays here, but other than that, you're incredibly inefficient.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I think it's worth noting on a 10 things to remember episode that sometimes knowing who not to draft is as important as knowing who to draft. Obviously, getting the right guys in the end is the more superior methodology, but if you can just avoid some landmines in those early rounds and you could be confident in that, and especially if you're playing in a multitude of leagues, you're not going to have that player anywhere. That's a huge one. But we're not all. We're all not.

[Jason Moore]

No. And it's not all hate. But in like, just to add on to your point, Jay is sometimes having the. A contrarian stance against a player leads you into another player. I wouldn't say I was the highest, like coming out of draft season like Bucky Irving. I wasn't wildly in love with anything from him. You know, he's a smaller guy. The production wasn't what I wanted. He was a lower draft pick. But I was so opposed to Rashad White that I'm like, oh, I'll give this guy, he's a rookie. I haven't seen him play in the NFL. I'll give him a chance. So sometimes it directs you to a better option.

[Andy Holloway]

Sometimes that's what, in some ways, disliking Richardson was what the path to Daniels was.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

To Jaden Daniels later, it was like, hey, take this, take this other player that's five rounds lower. Because everyone else is enamored with this unproven. You know, my point with Richardson was just that they're like the same level of experience.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. The ADP was so drastic.

[Andy Holloway]

They're both rookies. So.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think it's a good thing to remember as Emperor Palpatine, you know, said, let the hate flow through you.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And that'll lead you to good, happy things later.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's talk some news.

[Jack]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

Franchise tag deadline is over. We talked about Higgins on the last show, but Sam Darnold, they did not use the Vikings, did not use the franchise tag.

[Jason Moore]

I think it was only two tags this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it was a quite some time. So, you know, Sam Darnold, I think it was predicted on the Last episode. You know they're going to have an opportunity to let him go, test the waters, see what's out there. We all made our predictions. I believe Jason, you said he'd go back to Minnesota.

[Mike Wright]

That was my prediction. And someone had the Raiders.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike went with the Raiders. Yeah, I think I picked the Giants. So we'll see if the demand for Sam Darnold is there. This was, I don't know, an exclamation point on the season, I guess. Saquon Barkley, a two year extension with the Eagles.

[Mike Wright]

Hoo ha.

[Jason Moore]

They just signed him last year.

[Andy Holloway]

They made him the highest. He's now the highest paid running back in NFL history. Maybe this is how you make up for not letting him go for 2,000. You're like, listen, take a seat, secure a title and we'll make it up to you. With 36 million guaranteed, the Eagles now have Jalen Hurts, Saquon A.J. brown and Devonte Smith all under contract through 2028.

[Mike Wright]

It is fun to be an Eagles fan right now because they have so much money invested in this offense, including Lane Johnson, their offensive line, a lot of like this offense is under contract forever and so expensive. And then their defense, and this is why they won a championship. When you hit on so many rookies on one side of the ball for a couple years in a row now all of a sudden they've got this superstar defense that has rookie contracts for another three years. They are going to be a tough cookie to crack.

[Jason Moore]

A tough cookie?

[Mike Wright]

Is that a thing?

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Tough case to crack.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Tough cookie.

[Mike Wright]

Tough cookies.

[Andy Holloway]

Just tough cookies.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know. Me either.

[Andy Holloway]

Darius Slay was released. Bradbury release. And they've got them young secondary stars to go with. So Metcalf officially requested a trade. DK Metcalf from the Seahawks. And the Seahawks have agreed to explore other options. He's in the final year of his deal. They also released Tyler Lockett, who was kind of on his last hurrah there.

[Mike Wright]

JSN currently expected for a 90% target market share of the wide receiver.

[Jason Moore]

The strange things are going on up there in Seattle. It's. I mean, first shout out to Tyler Lockett for. I don't, I know he's not done done. He's not retiring. But that's.

[Andy Holloway]

He's entering the Jordan Wizards phase of his career.

[Jason Moore]

But it's, it was an incredible run with Seattle for Tyler Lockett. This dude was great for the team. He was very fantasy relevant for a long time.

[Mike Wright]

Oh my gosh. For fantasy, he was a Hat tip to thank you for your services. Because he got to an age where everyone doubted him every single season, and then he just kept producing. He was the wide receiver 15, 14, 9, 13, and 13 in a row. That is not many wide receivers in, like NFL history could say they were top 15. Five seasons in a row without missing, you know, a season due to injury or anything like that, all while taking.

[Andy Holloway]

Two hits along the way. That's how he's sliding down after every catch. Christian Kirk expected to be released by the Jacksonville Jaguars. This was something that we talked about on the show that we saw happening.

[Jason Moore]

He'll get a job.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, for sure he'll get a job. But he is not. I think Christian Kirk is. He's a role player that will definitely help a team.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he will. We have spoke and this is what's. This is what makes me believe DK Metcalf will get traded. The same reason Debo, you know, despite being older and really looking bad to my eyes last season, maybe it was an ammonia or whatever, but it wasn't a good season. He had a big contract, still got traded because there's just no other options. So this, the fact that this year is a weak draft class and a weak free agent class. Christian Kirk and Devonte Adams, who were released, they. They're hot commodities.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, Kirk is so weird because now you've got seven years of Christian Kirk and you've got 1,000 yard. Yet throughout the entire seven years, you always knew the potential of Christian Kirk, but he has not played enough games. That's kind of what it's come down to for him, too. Eight games this year, 12 games the year before. He had one breakout campaign in Jacksonville, but it's Brian Thomas time, and they're moving on. They're saving some money. 10.4 million. And right now they have Brian Thomas Jr. Gabe Davis and Parker Washington and Josh Reynolds on the roster. The jets said goodbye to Devonte Adams. They had the cursory, hey, we're going to go. Go find a trade, go save us. No, they released him. And so no Adams anymore in New York. No Rogers in New York, No Adams.

[Mike Wright]

And no Tyler Conklin either. Which is 32% of the jets targets being vacated. That's a pretty large number. And we have shown in the past that vacated targets, oftentimes the running backs step up into that passing game. So maybe Breece Hall, I mean, that's where he. That's where he thrives. Yeah, maybe he'll get back more involved in the passing.

[Andy Holloway]

Show me Their passing game.

[Mike Wright]

Tyrod Taylor.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Yeah. There was a comment that it would not be shocking if they started Tyrod Taylor. I don't think that's going to make a lot of jets fans excited or.

[Mike Wright]

Breeze hall managers excited or Garrett.

[Jason Moore]

I mean.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, that would be.

[Mike Wright]

You know who would be pretty excited though?

[Andy Holloway]

Tyrod.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Tyrod. He'd be like, yeah, I'm a starter. And then everyone else would be for two games. Yeah, he will. They're going to want to address the backup position for sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Jamal Williams has been released by the Saints. Gardner Minshew, released by the Raiders. CD Lamb's contract restructured. Nico Collins contract restructured.

[Jason Moore]

The Demboys also. I thought I saw they restructured Dak as well. Like, they're, they're, they're really trying to clear up some space for.

[Andy Holloway]

Cleared up $36.6 million.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Micah Parsons. Yeah, he's going to need to cost a lot of money.

[Andy Holloway]

And the Bears have back to back trades for Jonah Jackson and Joe Tooney.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

This is what you love to see.

[Jason Moore]

We love it.

[Mike Wright]

This is what you love.

[Andy Holloway]

So look, the Bears making quick adjustments to the offensive line. An offensive line that was a disaster last year. And you know, Caleb Williams does not have a shot if he's in the position he was last year. So they're making moves through the trading mechanism.

[Mike Wright]

It makes me wonder, you know, coaches come in and you have your system, you have what you thrive at, but then you also are inheriting a roster that are the players that are going to be on the field. So sometimes you, you tailor what you're going to do to the players you have, and sometimes you tailor the players you have to what you want to do. But it is interesting to me, Ben Johnson coming over from the Lions, where I think their real superpower, like we talk about Gibbs and Amon Raw and you know, the great office, but their, their superpower was their offensive line. That's what allowed Jared Goff to be so good. That's what allowed their running backs to score so many touchdowns. And so that was a big problem for the Bears, obviously taking sacks for Caleb Williams. Just a brutal rookie season in that respect. So this is just so great to see him coming in and be like, that's what we've got to address stage one. And I expect them to go after a running back too, and kind of just try to emulate what works so successfully for the Lions just to elevate Caleb Williams by saying, let's get an offensive line in a run game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Deandre Swift is not the answer in Chicago.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

He's not the kind of running back that is going to take pressure off of your quarterback. They need their Nick Chubb, their David Montgomery, their, you know, kind of grinder that can go out there and get tough yards behind a good offensive line.

[Jason Moore]

They should draft Trayvon Henderson.

[Mike Wright]

I mean there's their Gibbs. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

As their Gibbs.

[Andy Holloway]

There's going to be some, some options in the draft at running back and they're going to be well positioned to pick somebody up. But if you're in a dynasty league, if I have DeAndre Swift, I'm going to go ahead and play up these two offensive line acquisitions and ship that man swiftly out of town.

[Mike Wright]

Was there anything else you wanted to add, Mike?

[Jason Moore]

I do, I do want to. I do want to mention because Tom Pelissero is at it again.

[Andy Holloway]

He's your favorite guy.

[Jason Moore]

He tweeted which it was good information. Daria Goombawe, he's a good reporter. Just listen. Hold on. Dario Goombawale is re signing a one year deal with the Houston Texans. Like this is good information to have people like. I don't care about a gumbaw. That's fine. Why is this being brought up? Because Pelissaro called him a phenom in his tweet. Stop paying him. Oh man.

[Mike Wright]

You're saying agents stop paying Pelissaro. I don't think he's paid. I think this is a rub your back.

[Jason Moore]

This dude is elbow deep in the cookie jar. He is just fistfuls of cash.

[Andy Holloway]

You're saying that Daria Goombawale said special teams phenom that is yet to make a Pro Bowl. In the special teams area.

[Jason Moore]

They're re signing third down back and special teams phenom.

[Andy Holloway]

You took this very personally.

[Jason Moore]

I just.

[Andy Holloway]

Tom, what was the last one?

[Jason Moore]

Dalvin Cook.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Oh yeah, yeah. How'd that word work out, Tom? Did he even get a snap?

[Andy Holloway]

What did he call him?

[Mike Wright]

I don't.

[Jason Moore]

It was. It was egregious. Whatever it was. It was.

[Mike Wright]

I gotta look it up. Kyle find that it was the most ridiculous. It just seemed like it was cop copy pasted from the agent you know of. Like this is how they want their player talked about.

[Jason Moore]

I need to see Tom's tax returns. Language is on the take.

[Mike Wright]

Language you don't report.

[Andy Holloway]

That is important. Because if Daria Goombawale and Dalvin Cook are phenoms, then what's a really good player?

[Mike Wright]

They don't even. Their agents don't need them to say those superlatives.

[Andy Holloway]

It was a marquee edition.

[Jason Moore]

A marquee edition. Dalvin Cook, did he take a snap last year?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Did he?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Cook was waiting for the right opportunity and always felt it was Dallas. A marquee addition in big.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, he did. He had nine opportunities. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I knew it wasn't much more than one. All right, we'll take a break.

[Jason Moore]

I'll be back, Tom, because I'm sure there's more tweets coming.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I can't wait. Mike versus Tom is going to be. Oh, a great theme.

[Mike Wright]

This is. This is great. There's more here from Pelissaro. Going back. Dalvin Cook, just talking about last year, said he never had a chance to establish a rhythm with the jets, but had a long run for Baltimore in the playoffs. One of the top free agents still.

[Andy Holloway]

Wait, that's recent.

[Mike Wright]

No, that was back. It's just the series of events where you're talking about four time Pro Bowl Dalvin Cook. This guy is like, he's a cook stand. Maybe he won a championship.

[Andy Holloway]

He signs one year contracts with these agents. I don't know. We'll take a break. We'll jump into our 10 things to remember, our lessons learned from 2020 24.

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[Jack]

Perfect.

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[Jack]

Hey, can I get your number?

[Jason Moore]

Oh.

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[Jack]

Don't forget to remember these things.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, it's. We've done this show for a while. We know each other very well. It's always funny when something gets stuck in Mike's crawl. You know, he is not a let it go man. No, he's a forever and always man. He is probably, you know, like his eulogy may end up including this great battle with Tom Pelissero.

[Jason Moore]

It's going to be. And now a list of people that Mike hated.

[Andy Holloway]

We used to have, no joke, a channel in our company, Slack.

[Mike Wright]

Wait, did we get rid of that?

[Jason Moore]

That was still here.

[Andy Holloway]

Hashtag Mike's gripes.

[Jason Moore]

I just.

[Andy Holloway]

Because he needs to share things with the world.

[Mike Wright]

Just a private channel for your complaints.

[Jason Moore]

I feel like too many people muted and left that channel. So I take my complaints to the big, big boy channels.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm browsing the channel and it's like, you know, Brooks jumps in there for a minute. He goes, what's the deal with all these late afternoon games? That's a Mike's gripe. We've all got them. There are still people on that channel. I'll be darned. All right, sorry. I'm looking back. You know what chaps my cheeks Trying to enjoy a morning coffee outside. And freaking flies won't go away. That's what Mike is posting in there.

[Mike Wright]

That's so good.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, dude, that's great. All right. I hit the drop, didn't I?

[Jason Moore]

You did, you did.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so let's jump right in.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you know what slaps my saddle? Mike says when your manager books a flight, spells your name wrong. Picture of the Picture of the airport tickets. Oh, Mike, never stop complaining.

[Jason Moore]

I need. I need to. Don't they have those, like, super subs on Twitter?

[Andy Holloway]

You just need to move to a city that's not Arizona where kids play outside. So you can go. Get off my lawn fully.

[Jason Moore]

What'd you find when you can't read?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, some not safe for work gripes in there.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, that is. That's fun. It does start with no, no. Go on, go on. What's number?

[Andy Holloway]

Let me know.

[Jason Moore]

My sub stack is coming soon, everybody.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we will jump into our 10 things to remember. This is always fun. We've all picked out some things from this past year and am I the first one up? Yeah, I am.

[Jack]

Number 10.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. 10 things to remember. Number 10. I'm going to call this one buy the hype. Or you can subtitle shoot your shot.

[Jason Moore]

You usually sell the hype. Very profitable.

[Andy Holloway]

This. This is more a little bit of a strategy storyline here where if you have a signal that a player may be on their way to a career season in the first few weeks of the year and you have the conviction, you are the believer in this player. I want you to remember this will be the only opportunity and chance that you have to get the player before one of those legendary seasons begin. Let me explain Because Saquon, Chase, Lamar, Bowers, these were players that became entirely untouchable on people's rosters over the course of the year. And look, we all go into week one with a tremendous amount of anticipation. But the only way that you're going to get true game changers onto your roster would be early season trades before those seasons get solidified. Now, I am not pretending that that is an easy thing to do to buy into a week or two of performances or the way an offense is running, but players do become untradeable over the course of the year. And, you know, I can kind of think of two years ago, after a few weeks, some people, they sold CD Lamb when he was sitting at number one. That was a bad idea. If you bought CD Lamb, you got a league winner early in the year because you bought the outlier season that ended up being a full outlier season. One of the reasons I want to focus on this too is there's a lot of performances earlier in the year where, you know, we talk about week one. There's certain players that pop off and have an incredible week one that aren't going to keep having great weeks. Sometimes it's the best time of year to make a 3 for 1 or 2 for 1 trade for a top tier talent because your roster is filled with players that have had kind of, okay, it's a good week here, a good week there. There's a lot of guys on the free agent market. You make a splash, you trade two for one, you trade three for one, you buy the hype on somebody that you truly believe can be a difference maker. They're actually acquirable right then. And you can go out and pounce on the most valuable time in the waiver wire to fill those other spots if you trade a three for one or two for one away. So to me, it's what's our objective when we play? It's to win the entire league. It's not to be somewhere in the middle.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

If you do have a conviction, you see Saquon through a week or two. And it's, it's more than the fantasy numbers. It's, whoa, that offensive line, whoa, that, that he looks like vintage Saquon. You're not getting them later.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you can learn a lot through those first few weeks and obviously sometimes it's going to misdirect you. You're going to get a Sammy Watkins and you can get that wrong. But it's also, it's, it's not too hard to tell the Difference sometimes. Like, for instance, after week one last year, we came in and had a quick question of, like, what. What were you just completely changed on in one. In one week? Brock Bowers was one of those things where it was like, Brock is. He's legit.

[Andy Holloway]

You knew it. Week one.

[Mike Wright]

You knew it. Week one, Brock Bowers, you just went and watched him and you're like, oh.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, that's not an eighth round draft.

[Mike Wright]

No, that is a great, a great player. Halfway through the season, you couldn't pry Brock Bowers off of anyone unless it was their cold, dead body.

[Jason Moore]

And so even then, you may not be able to get him.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Because he had Brock Bauer's strength gripping that player. But, yeah, I would say that this is a good strategy because to win the championship, you go back and you look at the players on championship rosters, you're going to find a lot of Jamar Chase, you're going to find a lot of Lamar Jackson. You're going to find those players who had the dominant season. So, yeah, you take a swing and you miss and you didn't get that player. But the, the. What that player does for you is not the same as two good players.

[Andy Holloway]

It's way more valuable and maybe a way to narrow that down because obviously Sammy Watkins having a great week one, that doesn't fit the category. The category to me is if there's a group of players in the first two rounds that you could make preseason arguments of, okay, their best case scenario is they're a top three guy, even though they're being drafted at wide receiver five or six. If you have those storylines and you start to see that validated early, that might be the only opportunity you have the entire year to put a Jamar Chase. I mean, I had a better opportunity later, but it might be your only chance. And so that's.

[Jason Moore]

And it's like, we're, it's so ingrained. And look, the, the, if you look around fantasy football shows, everything is, oh, trade, trade, high. And it's like sometimes by high they go higher. Sometimes. Yes. Like, you're like, I'm. Right now it looks like I'm buying, like, NFL terms. Like when, when Patrick Mahomes got his contract extension, it was, oh, my goodness, look how much money Mahomes got. And now we're, you know, a handful of years later. Like, Patrick Mahomes is severely underpaid compared to what he means compared to the market.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And again, it gives you opportunities. If you are moving multiple players away for one to go, take advantage of the free agent market early. So making early season trades is hard for people to do because you get attached to your draft capital. So if you have guys struggling, just remember things change very quickly. Something we'll see more and more throughout this top 10 list.

[Jack]

Moving on, number nine.

[Jason Moore]

And I'm calling this one start at the top. And it was just watching last year, like there are some coaches out there that we just, we need to trust this coach. We need to believe in that coach's offense. The thing that really spurred this for me was Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota. The, the doubt over Kirk Cousins leaving and getting the huge money from Atlanta. It's like, well, now what do we got? Well, we got J.J. mcCarthy, we got Sam Darnold. What's going on here? Justin Jefferson, the best wide receiver in NFL. Fine. Jamar Chase, that's fine. A top two. But like, he would slide in first rounds because we were so nervous about who's going to be throwing him the ball. I just don't trust him.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you remember how negative the offseason for Minnesota was overall?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, my gosh.

[Andy Holloway]

Where Addison got in trouble and it was like the team was falling apart.

[Mike Wright]

And then McCarthy injury.

[Jason Moore]

So Addison's another huge piece of it. It's not just Justin Jefferson, who I saw in some drafts go late first round. So I know there's some leagues out there. Like, yeah, he still got drafted as the second wide receiver. Yes. But there were leagues out there where he fell real, real far compared to where Justin Jefferson would have gone. If you're like, if Kirk Cousins were back, he would have been the first or the second overall pick. And it's, look, look what Kevin O'Connell had done with Minnesota. You know, Cousins was in 2022, the QB7 in 2023. Through the first eight weeks he was the QB4. But then we saw Josh Dobbs be a top five quarterback in his first two games. Nick Mullins was a top 12 quarterback fantasy wise in three of four starts. Like O'Connell had proven to us that he can get it done. Now, yes, it's okay to be somewhat pessimistic and have some doubt, but for these coaches who are just great for the offensive side of football, trust in what they're doing. Because like Jefferson, yeah, he slid a little bit. Addison was left for dead in drafts and Addison was a very usable player, especially over the second half there. So it's when there is a coach who has proven that they can get production and production when you feel like there is just absolutely no chance that it's going to be able to happen. Trust in that coach. I'm saying that like the Minnesota Vikings this year, if it's JJ McCarthy, I'm going to give Kevin O'Connell the benefit of the doubt. Guys like, who are your coaches? Yeah. So O'Connell is in there for me. Sean McVay is in there. Shanahan he, Kyle Shanahan is in there and Matt LaFleur is in there for me, for Green Bay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Andy Reid should be, but he is. Andy Reid has figured out I can, this is how I can win Super Bowls. So it's not always going to be a high powered offense for Andy Reid. I trust that he's going to figure out how to win a football game. But I'm speaking specifically for.

[Andy Holloway]

Maybe he learned a little something this year.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, maybe.

[Mike Wright]

I wonder. I'm on the bubble, you know, it wasn't the. For Sean Payton. Sean Payton to me is.

[Jason Moore]

He's on the bubble of. You just trust that he's going to be.

[Mike Wright]

He's been historically a great offensive producer and this year with a rookie, yeah, they figured some stuff out and they had a good passing game. So their running game was trash. But he's to me, like, if you want to be a little early in that and add him to the list. Yeah, I think he applies.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, your turn, Jay.

[Jack]

Number eight.

[Mike Wright]

I call this the pendulum swings. Fantasy football. We are so binary. It's like this or that, you know, it's like there's, there's not enough nuance. And you don't always take advantage of where you see people overreacting. Swinging the pendulum too far. Based on what happened last year, perfect example. Here you look at quarterbacks over the last several years, it was always elite quarterback or you'd have Breeze and Brady and Rogers, their high draft picks in the first round or whatever. And then people started to figure out like, no, no, it's late round quarterback. That's how you win. That's the soup. And then Mahomes and Lamar Jackson came and then, you know, they were late round picks. So now everyone goes and does the late. Now it's a game of chicken. At your drafts, you're like, who's going to go last? I'm not even going to draft quarterback so late.

[Jason Moore]

I'll waiver wire him.

[Mike Wright]

And so looking at the last couple of years at the first two rounds, there's been kind of this battle between is it better to have, you know, first round wide receivers or better to have first round running back? So you go back to 2020, that's the year Christian McCaffrey, you know, broke fantasy and wide receivers sucked. The following year was like 10 running backs in the first round, one wide receiver. And a couple years ago or two seasons ago, there were a lot of running back injuries and wide receivers were very, very good. This last season in PPR leagues, there were only three running backs that were drafted in the first round. You had CMC that didn't work out, Bijon Robinson, great and Breeze, and that was it. And then the rest was chock full of wide receivers. And so what happened this last year was that the value, because the pendulum kind of swings too far. The value was now in the running backs that were. That were pushed down, the really elite running backs that weren't there. So when I look at teams that won championships, Saquon Barkley, Jameer Gibbs, Kyron Williams, Derek Henry, these were monstrous values because they didn't cost you that top five pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Because of the pendulum.

[Mike Wright]

Because the pendulum. They weren't bad picks. They were great running backs. But everyone wanted to get in on the wide receivers. I think it's going to happen in reverse. I think this year because of the success of those running backs and some of the failure of some of the wide receivers, you know, you've got the Marvin Harrison busts at the very, you know, you're going to have a little bit more fear. Yeah, Tyreek. So now I expect this year it's a little too early to know, but. But I do think that this year one of the lessons I want to learn is look for the value. The really good players who positionally are getting pushed down into the second round. I think you are going to find real value on stud wide receivers being pushed into the second based on last year. So this is like a thing to remember over a couple years.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Makes sense. Number seven.

[Jack]

Number seven.

[Andy Holloway]

See, it's number seven.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Told you.

[Mike Wright]

You called that the second guy was better.

[Andy Holloway]

I got these buttons and I said it. Anyways, here's what I want you to remember, that the schedule, it's a lie.

[Jason Moore]

What?

[Andy Holloway]

The schedule is a bit of a lie because it just.

[Jason Moore]

Cake is a lie.

[Andy Holloway]

Is it? The cake is a lie. Nice. It's just not that predictable year to year to look at matchups defensively and forecast too far in the future. There's too much turnover on defense year over year. Just take a look at this. From 2023 to 2024, if you went into last year, you thought that you had tough matchups for quarterbacks. If you played the Panthers or if you played the Ravens or if you played the Chiefs or you played the Cowboys, Panthers were number one against quarterbacks last year, 31st. That was the swing from one to 31. Ravens number three against quarterbacks, they swung to 22. Cowboys eighth best against quarterbacks, dead last against quarterbacks last year. This is true for all the positions. You have massive changes, personnel. You know, we just went through a coaching changes episode, right? And coordinators on both sides of the ball changed tremendously year to year. It's just a mixed bag. And so if you are starting to look at your early season schedule and think you have guaranteed production from certain players or as you're manufacturing trades in the beginning part of the year and you're saying, well, this guy's got a tough playoff schedule, it's just probably a lie. And we've only had one fantasy defense going all the way back 24 years that has repeated as the number one defense in back to back years. And only six times in that entire stretch have they even finished in the top five. Like, it's just very difficult. Injuries, right? There's just so many changes that happen. You do not get a lay of the land. And we don't even put our strength to schedule, tool up and update it with the new stats until a few weeks into the year. But until you're into week six, week seven, you really don't know what the playoff matchups are going to look like. You talk about adjustments, right? Remember the Denver Broncos defense and it gave up 70 points to Miami, which by the way, destroyed their metrics for the entire year. And then they became a shutdown defense over the back half of the year. Defensive coordinators make adjustments, injuries happen. And so one of the things I think is valuable to remember is just that the schedule is a lie in the sense that you can't repeat what you got last year positionally very often. All right, we'll take a quick break and we'll come back with the top six.

[Jack]

All right, it's back to you, Mike, number six.

[Jason Moore]

All right, with this one I'm going to highlight and I'm for, for today's show, I'm calling them drift players. And with the type of drift I'm talking about, I'm talking about in racing.

[Mike Wright]

So now, not Tokyo Drift, though. Not like the wheels are going crazy in the back.

[Jason Moore]

I'm talking about the actual. You are in NASCAR and you're drifting. And if you're not familiar with that term, that means that the. You slide your Car in just behind whoever's in front of you. And it's physics. That car in front of you has a much higher wind resistance and the player in the, and the car in the back is using less fuel, less power to go. And then you're able to pass because you have, you're able to generate a little bit more speed and you're letting the person in front of you do more work than you. And it's maybe I'm bringing it up to like have a little bit more faith in these type of players. It, I mean it, it hit like a, like a son of a gun last year. Like so Derek Henry, Barkley, Jacobs and even Stefan Diggs, they all change teams and changing teams at that point in your career is. It's not always great. And I mean these guys have that crew of four except well, Jacobs isn't really that old but like age was a, was a question for them and that was the reason for the doubt. And now in hindsight we're like oh, of course Saquon Barkley on the Eagles. But I'm bringing this up of who are they replacing and the player that they are replacing was that guy the engine or was this already a super high powered offense? The Baltimore Ravens. You know, we had Gus Edwards score a bajillion touchdowns two years ago. Gus Edwards was not the foundational engine of the Baltimore Ravens. He was just a part of it. Same with DeAndre, he was drifting. Yeah, DeAndre Swift two years ago with the Eagles we all, you know, were shocked of this resurgence of why is Swift doing so good. Then you see, oh well, look at the size of the gap the offensive line has opened up for him. So of it's of course Saquon Barkley is going to work. I was a huge doubter of Stefan Diggs. I thought now that it's like there's a reason Buffalo got rid of him and he's going, he's washed. While he wasn't a superstar before the ACL tear, he was still very usable and was a great draft pick up to that point. So I'm going to, I don't have the list of players yet because their free agency hasn't happened, the draft hasn't happened. But it's putting just not over. Not never overdo anything in fantasy but putting a little bit more stock in to if a player who is. Has been historically great goes to a team and replaces a mediocre mid level starter, you should be even more excited about it. And in hindsight I get it. These all sound real super obvious, but Derek Henry and Saquon Barkley were not. They weren't top three running backs being drafted. I think Barkley was like RB8, RB7, RB8 right around there.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what's kind of valuable in the context of that argument, Mike, is that there are 32 teams. But. But a lot of them are genuinely actually dumb. And sometimes, sometimes we give too much credit when they let go. Like when Derek Henry gets to leave town and Saquon leaves town in New York and these players leave these rosters. Sometimes we can be like, well, they must know something we don't know. The truth is they're stupid.

[Jason Moore]

We all watch.

[Andy Holloway]

They're dumb.

[Jason Moore]

We watched the Giants Hard Knocks.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, they actually are.

[Jason Moore]

It didn't go well.

[Mike Wright]

They ruined Hard Knocks off season for everyone else.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it was such a good idea.

[Mike Wright]

It was cool to see those things. But then they were so bad at those things that no team allowed them to be recorded during the off season this year.

[Andy Holloway]

And there's probably a bit of a truth here, Mike. You're talking about these players joining offensive systems that are very good.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, the offense is already cooking.

[Andy Holloway]

But also, like, if a player leaves a. An overtly bad system and just goes to a neutral system, but they produce in the bad system, that's probably indicative of some success as well.

[Mike Wright]

Well, this kind of all rolls into my next point, which is.

[Jack]

Number five.

[Mike Wright]

There you go. See, I set you up perfectly.

[Andy Holloway]

I know you did.

[Mike Wright]

I missed.

[Andy Holloway]

I missed the box.

[Mike Wright]

All right, number five, I call this. Remember Mike's advice?

[Andy Holloway]

Remember Mike's.

[Mike Wright]

Remember Mike's advice?

[Andy Holloway]

What?

[Jason Moore]

So it was a good one?

[Mike Wright]

It was a good one. And it actually was something I was paying attention to all season. And what advice is that? It was from a tips and tricks episode where Mike was talking about how to target late round running backs. And it really worked out well. It makes sense. It goes completely with kind of more of what you're talking about. Good offices, good teams, avoiding bad teams. But it's a really important, you know. You know those, those guys that you draft late? They've all got giant question marks, they've got warts on them. There's not a reason they wouldn't be drafted late if. If there was not clear and obvious problems. So what do you pick? Do you pick the talented player? Maybe. But I think the right strategy is pick the talented team, pick the good quarterback, pick the team that could score points. Because here's. Here's basically how it works. Every year, some running backs are drafted outside the top 24, but they finish within it. Over the last five years, eight and a half teams, actual teams don't have a top 24 drafted running back on their roster. However, five players from those teams on average exceed the expectations of finish of the top 24. So how do you decide? And if you focus on the better teams versus focusing on the player's talent, I think you have a much higher hit rate of that happening. And you look at last season, you know, it was like now you might have gotten it wrong if you went Zach Moss. But Zach Moss, Chase Brown, this is.

[Andy Holloway]

All in the framework of late round, late round running.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

I just want to lay that out there. When you said, remember Mike's advice? This whole conversation's around identifying running backs in later rounds.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. In the late round when you're looking at running backs, target the good teams. Because Chase Brown became a league winner, was one of the best fantasy assets for where you got him. Obviously it took Zach Moss going down, but what it also took was a Joe Burrow led offense that scored nonstop, that opened up the running game. Other targets. You know, last year you had Dak Prescott on the roster and a projected good offense. And then Rico had a good season. You had J.K. dobbins coming back. Okay, he's injured, he's coming back from hardship, but he's got, he's got Harbaugh and Herbert together. Like that's a team that clearly could be good. So I was looking a quick run through of this year's ADP just to see a good example because all the guys going late. You got tank Bigsby, running back 38. What do you think about the Jags? I mean, I'm not, I don't personally view Trevor Lawrence as a superstar.

[Andy Holloway]

You're just saying, do they profile as a winning team? Probably not.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Tajie Spears right around the running back 40. Doesn't appear that way. Charbonnet is the running back 32 to me. The Seattle Seahawks maybe without. Maybe Lockett, maybe. But I don't look at them as like, yeah, that's an offense I really have to have a part of. Brian Robinson, the running back 35 right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

He's got Jaden Daniels. This is an offense that looks like on fire, like that's good. Maybe I'll lean towards the guy that could be part of a special offense. There are those players going in the late rounds. I'm going to remember that advice from last year and target high quality team running backs, high quality teams. When I'm Targeting running backs in the late rounds.

[Andy Holloway]

I like that. And I like the example from this year already, seeing where players are being drafted because, you know, people get fatigued to certain names or, like, I don't think anybody is out here saying, okay, Brian Robinson is a. Is the physical talent of some of those other players that you mentioned, necessarily. But the team situation is so much more promising. So that's good advice.

[Jack]

Number four.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, I'm going to call this one Plant the Seeds and Work the Room. Okay, I got a little bit of. I got a little bit of.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you.

[Mike Wright]

This was the one.

[Jason Moore]

You.

[Mike Wright]

You coward.

[Andy Holloway]

I also had it subtitled People are Dumb.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's the real tip.

[Andy Holloway]

But I remember that I'm calling it Plant the Seeds and Work the Room because I. Look, I've been doing this a really, really long time, and I don't know if there's anything that gives me more joy that doesn't, you know, that warms the cockles of my heart. Like the disgust of my friends when I accomplish a trade that they find to be improbable, unlikely, stupid, if I can pull off a trade that makes them want to leave the league out of their frustration, which I feel like I've done to you many times.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you have.

[Andy Holloway]

It brings me great joy. And people are like, how does this happen? And I made the point this year on one of my trades. Look, I just hit accept. But you see, the truth is, is that the key to successful trading. What I want people to remember is that you need to become a lobbyist of sorts. Why do lobbyists get what they want is because there's a time investment involved. It's not volume. Like, there was a time in my trading past in which I might have accomplished some trades by just being more active. I don't send out as many offers as I do. I'm too old for that.

[Mike Wright]

You mean as you used to.

[Andy Holloway]

As I used to, yes.

[Mike Wright]

Because you do send out as many offers as you do.

[Andy Holloway]

As I do. Right.

[Mike Wright]

Like, I just. Exactly the same number.

[Andy Holloway]

You need to. You need to plant the seeds and work the room. From the beginning of the year. Everybody has these problems. How do you get trades done? How do you accomplish trades? Send offers out, do the due diligence of what people actually need on their roster. Plant the seeds of the type of talent you might be willing to give up. Figure out who they're fans of, who's their type, what's their tempo, you know, plant the seeds early and keep conversations warm and pounce when the Time is right. It takes a long time in fantasy football to build relationships, and you need to actively seek the benefit of both sides. You need to have conversations about trades that don't end in trade offers every single time, but in, hey, you know what? A couple weeks from now, let's come back to this conversation in case your team is doing poorly then or better than, and I'm doing poorly, hey, this might meet both of our needs because in two weeks from now, you might be selling for next year. And what I benefited from this year, be active in association with the NFL News that is transpiring. Things happen when news breaks. When Amari Cooper gets traded to the Bills and Josh Allen, it starts to rekindle some of the conversations that happened earlier in the year. And the truth is, we know this from 15, 20 years of playing this game. Value is subjective. Everybody makes a determination when a trade goes through. You won, you lost, and they're wrong all the time. Trading is a dance. And you need to be in a position where you have built relationships with people and you have understood their teams. And it's sometimes too much of an investment for people to make. And that's why some people get trades done and some people don't. And also, when a good trade comes along, smash the accept button. Don't freaking, don't freaking sit there and go back and forth on minor parts of the deal. I never do that.

[Mike Wright]

You clicked that accept button. Now, to be fair, if you get a deal like that, everyone's going to click accept because they're going to see the nonsense that it was.

[Andy Holloway]

But afterwards, people are, I know people listening are like, what are you talking about? I traded Nijoku, Amari Cooper and a second round pick for Jamar Chase when the Cooper trade happened because I had been talking with a manager in our league for many weeks about whether they'd ever trade Jamar Chase. They said no. And then the Cooper trade happened and they got excited about cooperation.

[Mike Wright]

Cooper goes to Buffalo. Josh Allen.

[Andy Holloway]

They sent a very. What do you call that? Like, not impromptu, but impulsive. They sent a quick, impulsive offer and I wasn't going to mess around with fine tuning the offer.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, it was funny because you click accept and then afterwards, afterwards you're like, I wish I had. Like, should I have, should I have changed my tight end? The answer is no, no, no. You just needed to make sure that that deal gets done.

[Andy Holloway]

But build, start having conversations around players that you, you might like and just wait for them to come to fruition.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Another way you could say that. Just if you're taking it from your example is trade bad, worthless players for Jamar Chase. Just do that. Remember to do that.

[Jack]

Number three.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

I'm still pissed about it.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't win. I lost in the title game to Al Borland over there.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you did. Number three. We're going rookie wide receivers. They're still a good bet and bargain shop them.

[Andy Holloway]

So look, the rookie wide receivers.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, rookie wide receivers. And we're talking about in your, in your draft. Yes. Marvin Harrison did not work out. Malik Neighbors certainly did. And then guys who went later, guys who were not the headline rookie wide receivers last year. You know the sensation that is Brian Thomas Jr. Lad McConkey had a great year. And like later, later rookies that were going, you had Ladd, Keon Coleman, Brian Thomas Jr. And Adnai Mitchell. Yes. Two of those guys were catastrophic busts for fantasy football. Not every single one is going to hit. But the, the, this is a game of probability and increasing your odds of success and knowing where and when to take your chances in the draft. And it's rookie wide receivers, man. They just, they just continue to get it done and they still go. It's even better when they're going later in the draft because your investment. Oh, the voice of public opinion.

[Mike Wright]

But Mike.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

I thought this year's draft class of wide receivers is no good.

[Jason Moore]

That is true. That definitely is true. And you know what? I bet we see that in ADP when we're all looking at where rookie wide receivers being drafted. People are like, they all stink.

[Andy Holloway]

You want to know one of the reasons why they're still going to be NFL players? It's going to happen forever. It's going to happen forever because they go to the worst teams. Jalen Waddle. Jalen Waddle went in the top 10 in the NFL draft. Everyone was disgusted by Miami's office. They were like, oh, there's no chance Brian Thomas Jr. Goes to Jacksonville. Oh, you know, he's a good player, but it's Jacksonville. It's going to happen forever.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

It just last year, you know, Thomas McConkey before that, Rasheed Rice, Puka, Garrett Wilson's rookie year. And like do remember Garrett Wilson when he was a rookie. People didn't want him.

[Andy Holloway]

Nope.

[Jason Moore]

And he still, and while he wasn't, he wasn't Brian Thomas Jr finishing top five, he still finished as a top 20 fantasy wide receiver. Amen. RA the year before that, Jalen Waddle. The year before that, like it just keeps happening. And they are they are good bets and more often than not they are lower adp. So the investment, the risk when you're drafting is not high, but your reward is so great, especially over. And remember when you draft a rookie, look for signs, but over the second half of the season, that's generally when they really start to shine.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, absolutely. Makes sense.

[Jack]

Number two.

[Mike Wright]

Number two is the second year system leap. This is a lot gets made about the second year wide receivers taking that leap, but not enough is thought about with the systems that people play in, the continuity that matters. And if you look back at this last year, first of all, you don't realize how insanely year to year these offenses are really changing. 21 of the current offensive coordinators have been with their respective teams fewer than two years. That's a, that's two thirds of the league. The longest tenured offensive coordinators in the league at Green Bay, Miami, Minnesota and the Giants are in their position for just three years.

[Andy Holloway]

So it's just like there's, I mean, you're really talking about not a play caller. Not a play caller, not a play caller.

[Mike Wright]

Right. That's why they've been able to help. That's why they've been able to hold their job.

[Andy Holloway]

All four of them, their head coaches have been the play caller.

[Mike Wright]

But that second year, that second year, we can see players take that leap forward. For instance, remember two years ago, oh, Todd Monk is coming to Baltimore. So excited. He had a track record of massive offensive output. And we were so excited to see what Lamar Jackson and the run game, the pass game could do in this Todd Monkett system. And you know what? It was okay. Yeah, it was okay. But that second year, when they were in that system for a while, all of a sudden every player on that team was, you know, Lamar Jackson, Rashad Bateman, Rashad Bateman was resurgent. Derek Henry was great. Lamar had the most top 12 fantasy finishes in a single season. 16 of 17 games, you had Buffalo. Now, say what you will, maybe you know, Joe Brady in his second year in a system, I thought maybe he would get figured out. You know, he gets figured out sometimes. But it turns out that his run game, that he wanted to establish the second year in that system, you had James Cook go nuts. He tied, tied or broke the rushing franchise record for touchdowns, which that was the knock on him. Even Denver, Sean Payton there for two years. And a good offensive mind gets his quarterback who fits his system. Corlen Sutton is great. And so I think that there's very few opportunities for that second Year because a lot of times people are replaced after one year. So here are some examples of teams I'm paying attention to coming up in 2025 who get that second year, that continuity from their offensive coordinator. Atlanta, you got Zach Robinson there. Maybe Kirk Cousins was holding him back. I mean, in the final two games of the season, Michael Pinnicks, they were averaging 31 points per game, 69 plays per game. That is so nice. In the top five, they've got a great offense.

[Andy Holloway]

If Pinnicks forward, that one will be interesting because it's sort of Pinnock's first year in the system. But not really.

[Mike Wright]

But not really.

[Andy Holloway]

He's there in practice.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's there the whole season. I mean, that's like Mahomes played, you know, one game his rookie year, came out next year, did not look like a rookie by any means. And so you've obviously got talent there with Bijon and Drake London and Kyle Pitts.

[Andy Holloway]

You think they're happy they drafted Michael Penix?

[Mike Wright]

I think they are right now happy they drafted Michael Pinpoints.

[Jason Moore]

Pretty, pretty good inverse. You think they're happy they gave Kirk Cousins all that money? No, no, that was the problem. Both couldn't be true.

[Mike Wright]

You have Carolina going into the second year with Dave Canales and they seem to figure something out with Bryce Young at the end of the year. So maybe that is an opportunity for a leap forward. Yeah, Greg Roman and the new Los Angeles Chargers, the Ravens west going into year two. You saw this, Herbert. The first half of the year was not utilized right. They were figuring this out. It was the first year in the system. That's a team to me that I could see going into the top five as far as scoring on a regular basis. They've got a great quarterback. They're going to have continuity this next year.

[Andy Holloway]

And then maybe they'll have DK Metcalf.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And then the Washington Commanders, Cliff Kingsbury gets year two. They've added Debo Samuel now an improved offensive line and Jaden Daniels could become an MVP type player. So those teams I think are. They have the chance to be hyper, undervalued because you don't see the leap forward. So I'm going to remember last year's second year offensive coordinator leaps and try to replicate it in 25.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Mike, help us bring it home with our last thing to remember.

[Jason Moore]

Number one, act now and get it done.

[Mike Wright]

Get her done.

[Jason Moore]

We, we as human beings, we like to. If there's something I can do tomorrow. You darn tootin. I'm doing that thing tomorrow. I am not doing that today. And then tomorrow shows up and like.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I could probably.

[Jason Moore]

I could swing this next week eventually.

[Mike Wright]

You say I should have done that yesterday.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

So, yeah, we're interested in you having fun in your leagues.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So, you know, like just like my diet one of these days.

[Andy Holloway]

Tomorrow.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. But it's been pushed off for a very, very long time after tomorrow. I usually go with Monday until.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, it was your birthday week, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

And then, you know what I mean, everything's okay.

[Mike Wright]

Birthday month.

[Jason Moore]

We're talking about your fantasy football league. And yes, it's. It's early in the off season right now, but this is when you really got to start thinking about this stuff. If you're the champ and you got an in person draft. Be working on it right now, mister.

[Mike Wright]

What do you mean? What do you mean working on? What am I supposed to do?

[Jason Moore]

I mean, you're. You're setting up your celebration. How you're going to rub it in. Al, do you need to take out a loan or something? No, we got it unlocked. Okay.

[Mike Wright]

You've already planned.

[Jason Moore]

He's already thinking about it.

[Andy Holloway]

We do. I'm a little. I'll be honest, I'm a little worried about what he's going to do.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I'm very excited. I am very excited. But that's it. Get. Get things ready for your celebration because the draft will just like everything else. It'll be here before you realize it. If someone in your league shouldn't be in that league anymore.

[Mike Wright]

Now is you're talking about the turds.

[Jason Moore]

I'm talking about the turds. You got to flush them. And right now is a great time to do that. Like going up to someone.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

I know you've been in the league for a while in our drafts in two weeks. But we're going to replace you doing it right now. I think that it's easy.

[Andy Holloway]

They're already sick of it.

[Jason Moore]

This is the best time emotionally to handle those types of things if you want to start figuring out what your new rules or scoring settings that you want to implement. So just look at your league. Whatever it is that you want done to make it better, start actually doing that. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Take your league to the next level. And we. If you need to find non turds Footclan leagues dot com. Our Discord community. You can find people on there to replace the turds in your league. And look, look. Some people are turds. Yes. Some people are just aimless though. You know what I mean? Like they're they're just in it because they're in it. And maybe they're begging you to say, hey, you know, if your heart's not in, I release you. I release you from this obligation of this thing. You have to check that you don't want to do. And every Look, a great league can be brought down by one or two absent managers. So, you know, get your house in order, get things organized, make sure you're happy with what your league is for next year. So that'll be our last thing to remember here. And if you have your own, you know, little tidbit of information, something that you're wanting to remember for the new year, feel free to share it in the comments. If you're watching over there on YouTube, you can leave comments on Spotify if you're following the show there. And guess what? Free Agent Frenzy next week. Oh, my goodness, we already have an opportunity for teams to, you know, Monday they'll get to tamper legally. We got to come up with a new way to describe that.

[Jason Moore]

It's just early negotiations.

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, that's what it should just be called.

[Jason Moore]

The NFL, the people who called it early tampering.

[Andy Holloway]

I know it's like, ooh, you can't tamper normally, but here's it. But here you go.

[Jason Moore]

Tampering. It implies negative or it implies an illegal activity.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you're a massive.

[Mike Wright]

I think the legal word actually implies, like, it's the fact that it's legal tampering. Like legal murder, legal stealing, period.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah. It's the first hour at the store. You can legally steal.

[Mike Wright]

If you just called it tampering, period, it'd be okay. Ish. But legal tampering means it's like, wait a minute.

[Jason Moore]

I like it when it's more. It was tampering because you're like, I'm getting.

[Andy Holloway]

It's happening.

[Jason Moore]

I'm getting away with something.

[Andy Holloway]

So next Tuesday, we'll talk about Free Agent Frenzy. We're going to record and release that show early Tuesday morning. And then on Thursday, the Free Agent Frenzy will continue. We'll talk about all the moves that have been made. We got the mailbag. So, yeah, lots going on. And a reminder like the Dynasty pass within. The Ultimate Draft Kit is getting its post combine update and gotten. It's done. Yeah, and it's done. So the next update is live ultimate draft kit.com. it's part of the UDK plus, if you're playing Dynasty, if you're interested in these rookies, if you're interested in the team opportunities and all of what's going to happen in free agency. Basically, anything going on in the fantasy football world from right now until draft season, you want the Dynasty Pass. And that's available. Discounted preorder pricing.

[Mike Wright]

Ultimate Draft Kit.com our new rookie mock draft is up.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I. I jumped into the number one spot in that mock draft to build the suspense. You don't know who I took? Gonna have to find out. All right. Footclangiveaway.com if you want a chance to win that signed Drake London jersey, just go to footclangiveaway.com free to enter over there. We'll catch you soon.

[Jason Moore]

Goodbye.

[Jack]

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 FF Ballers.