10 Things to Remember from 2018 + FA Wishing Well

Oh, my goodness. By the way, I failed to mention at the top of the show, there's about a week left to get the, you can get the Ultimate Draft Kit all the way through the offseason. The pre-order. But the pre-order with the bonuses ends on March 1st. Bonus. And you get, if you pre-order at Ultimate DraftKit.com, not only do you get the world's greatest draft kit in existence. Mm-hmm.

But you get a couple of bonuses before March 1st. You get a $10 gift card to shopballers.com, free and clear. You get $10 to Fantasychamps.com, free and clear. You get, obviously, you get early access once the rookie stuff comes out, but you... None of that is worth anything by comparison. Yeah, I mean, you get a less... You'll be entered to win a listener league spot. Yes. And that'll be anybody that pre-orders before March 1st. You'll be entered to win a listener league spot. You'll also be entered to win a couple of...

uh fantasy football jersey so we're we're pulling out all the stops before march first get in there pre-order ultimate draft kit dot com all right news wise jason yes big news huge news charles clay former bill's superstar uh tied in former is correct one year three point two five million dollar contract with the arizona cardinals

Not necessary or very necessary. Not necessary at all. Look, Charles Clay, a lot of people, they look back. I saw the report saying, hey, six of his last eight seasons, he's been one of the top rated tight ends according to pro football focus. And that's a fact. But which six of the last eight? Because it, you know, when you get to a certain age and you get to a certain number of injuries and then you look up, well, he wasn't great.

And highly rated this past year. Because it was hurt this year. Well, that's part of the problem. He has 82-year-old knees. Now, why I think they're bringing Charles Clay in where he did actually succeed and was highly rated was as a pass blocker, not...

nowhere else, but he can still pass block and the Arizona Cardinals need that. Maybe they can utilize him in the line as a pass blocking role to open up maybe Ricky Seals Jones. Well, he is a capable pass catcher if the needs arise. The thing that is interesting about him is before last year, which was obviously injury marred, all the problems at quarterback, everything else. The previous five years, he had...

69, 58, 51, 57, 49 receptions. The Cardinals have never had a tight-in in their franchise history with more than 40 receptions. I think you're forgetting why he was Mr. Necessary. And he's only 30 years old. That's what I want to bring up to. He was Mr. Necessary on the Buffalo Bills because they had no one to catch the ball. And the Cardinals? And the Cardinals. They're not much different. Look, I mean, we got, Larry Fitzgerald, of course, in the possible ascension of Christian Kirk. But after that.

Charles Clay, okay. If Charles Clay is the third best pass catching option as of right now, are you shocked about that, Jason? Yes, I would be shocked. Because Christian Kirk, Larry Fitzgerald, David Johnson are the top three pass catcher options. This is way too much Charles Clay talk. All right, moving on. The Buccaneers have signed running back Andre Ellington. I remember him. He has familiarity with Bruce Ariens from Arizona. Yes. It was interesting. I considered picking him up in our Dynasty League.

I still did not do it. Okay. I mean, you know, if you're in a deeper league, look for him out there on the waivers. It might be worth it. He's no guarantee to make the roster. The Steelers will not use any of their tags, no transition tag on Lev Bell. Lev Bell is going to be a free agent, free to sign a contract of his choosing. He absolutely is, so we'll get to find out. Is Levy on Bell? Can he actually get the money that he thinks he's going to get?

And then more Steelers news. Antonio Brown did meet with Steelers owner Art Rooney. This news came out a couple days ago, and he's going to be moving on. These teams are going to find, at least just what's being put out there is they've decided look at trades in the best interest of both the team and the player. The Antonio Brown sweepstakes begins. What new quotes come out on Twitter from Antonio Brown? Mr. Big Chest. Who will know? Yeah, are we supposed to call him? Mr. Big Chest. No. I will respect his wishes. I will not respect.

you think you how dare you if antonio brown comes out and says i want you to call me mr big chest i do not have to do that what if like he don't you what if he said i'll shave i'll shave my blonde mustache if i do that mr big chest is here how do you how do you not lean into mr big chest because there's certain insanity hits home they're certain mr big belly is what i'd like to be known as from now on

Uh, hey, sports fans, as we close out the news and notes show. Uh, if you hate your fantasy app, I got a solution for you. Download the best free fantasy app on iOS and Android. Get the sleeper app today. Guys, it is time for the main event. You ready? Yes. Don't forget to remember these things. Right on point. Yes. Literal. Very literal.

We've got 10 things for you to remember from 2018. It's as simple as that. We've done this for the past, what, two years, Brooks? This is our third year doing it? Yes, sir. 30 things to remember. Yeah, I mean, some of them are probably variations of things in the past. But look, we took a fresh look at 2018, and I'm going to start here with number 10. Yeah, yeah, I remember the numbers, bro. You know what you're doing? Remember the numbers. Hey.

I'm going with, the end is the beginning is the end. I actually don't really know what that means as it relates to my point, but I did remember the song from the original Batman, I believe it was Batman and Robin. What's the Val Kilmer one? I think you've referenced this before. Yeah, it's Smashing Pumpkin song. Let's just spain yourself. All right, listen, here's what I'm talking about. Don't overreact to the beginning of the season. Through two weeks.

Deshawn Jackson, Kirk Cousins, Blake Bortles, and Andy Dalton were all in the upper echelon. Blake Bordels was? Of fantasy football performances. I don't remember this. Here's who was outside the top 200 in 2018. After two weeks, Kareem Hunt, Amari Cooper, Lamar Miller, David Johnson. Did you mean 100 or 200? 100. Okay. Yeah. You said 200, but... I did? Yes, but it was two weeks, so...

Yeah, if you took 100 and then you added another week, that's 200. No, outside the top 100. Look, remember how Kareem Hunt started the season? Yes. David Johnson, who I know, disappointed fantasy owners. Number three, running back off the board, finished at number 10. Finish at number 10. Right. Not outside the top 100 after two weeks. A constant reminder that we need to get fantasy owners is you've got to breathe. And what happens is you've got this.

long off season. That begins even now. If you're listening to the show, you are primed. You're ready. You've got your suit on. You got your fedora. Jason does. Tip low. You're ready to draft. You've got your team. You're ready to rumble. And then something goes sideways. And you freak out. So you can name this whatever you want. Maybe a better name would be, hey, don't go shopping after week one. Or maybe don't shop after week one. Look, there are some things that happen. Matchups. Players figuring things out. Rotations.

Give yourself a couple of weeks. Kirk Cousins, it didn't really pan out over the course of the year. Mike, I mean, it didn't cost you through the whole season, but there were times that I'm sure you started Kirk Cousins. Yes. Because of the first two weeks of the year, later on where you said, hey, I'm going to get some more of that. Well, that wasn't the whole template for Kirk Cousins. So that's my reminder. Don't necessarily go shopping. Take a breath after week one, week two.

Yeah, week one especially. It ruins some fantasy people. I completely agree with that. Number nine. Number nine, this is my number one personal thing to remember because this hits home for me. It was something, it was top of all of my pages of, I cannot forget this, I'm buying in, I've kind of had this, I've had this logic for years that I have just simply never obeyed.

I'm just, you know, you know the rule. You know what's, right, exactly. My diet might be a mean to you. No, I love you. You know, it's one of those things where you know not to do it or you know it could backfire, but you just don't obey because you think, you think you're going to. It's juicy. It's tantalizing. You think you're going to get it. And my, my tip here is stop buying the injury dip. And now what I'm talking about here is that the best example, last.

year early in the season, I bought into the injury dip in the value of Doug Baldwin. He was missing some of camp. He was missing some of preseason. He was sliding down into the third round. And I scooped them up everywhere because I was getting a value on him because people were afraid because of the injury. And that was a mistake. Because guess what? He was injured.

He was hurt. He was struggling with this, and it showed up when he got in the games, and it kept him out of games. And I want to make, like, you know, so it's don't buy the injury dip. When a guy is injured. Especially a hamstring. But that's where I wanted to go. This is the amendment, you know, part B, part due to this is watch out for hamstring injuries. I started doing a lot of research for this show.

Looking back, it's a little older now, but a massive study done in 2011 on professional football players and hamstrings. It's incredible because something, like almost half of the hamstring injuries that happen in the preseason training camp time. Like, you know, early draft season, people are dealing with hamstring issues. And it's so common, and we saw it this year, we see it every year.

But hamstrings are one that I will be avoiding. I will be completely avoiding next year. It's not that people who have hamstring problems can't come back and perform later on. I mean, Dalvin Cook, right, at the end of the season, he was great. Maybe I'll look for him next year unless he's dealing with a hamstring issue. But when you grabbed a player who was currently dealing with the hamstring issue, first of all, you have...

more than a 16% chance at re-injuring the hamstring. So if you grab a guy with a hamstring issue or you want to trade for a guy or you want to hold on to a guy that's dealing with a hamstring, what's going to happen is you're going to miss time, so he's going to score nothing for you. Then he's going to come back finally. You've waited. So because you've waited, you're going to put him in your lineup. And there's almost a 20% chance, a 1 in 5 chance, that he's going to get...

a re-injury. Now, if that happens, first of all, it's not just he misses more games, it's you probably started him. He probably ruined the game that he was in your lineup for. He's taken up a roster spot that whole time. Hamstrings are 2019, I will not deal with hamstring problems. And if one of my player has an early season hamstring issue, I will probably look to move them.

I mean, I'm not going to get full value. You don't want to mess with the hamstrings anymore. But I just don't want to mess with it. Okay. There you go. Number eight. Number eight for me is the perceived wide receiver three, and by that I mean on a team. The perceived wide receiver three ignoring the fact that players get better and they can become the two on their team. Because once, look, training camp happens.

The, we're all putting our labels on what, what is this guy on the team? Where is he in the pecking order? Even if I really like this player's talent, like, ah, there's roadblocks for this player. But this year in particular, there were quite a few guys where I had little shares of them coming out of the draft, even though I loved all of these players. I mean, highlighted by the smooth one himself, Kenny Galday, but he was the wide receiver three.

on his team coming into the season. Tyler Boyd was buried, at least in fantasy football terms, he was buried behind AJ Green and first round pick John Ross. You had, and Tyler Boyd was the wide receiver 118 in drafts. Like Tyler Boyd was not being drafted. Chris Godwin, Mike Williams, which.

And to be fair, for Mike Williams, a lot of people had him as the two. But to me, he was still behind Tyrell Williams, just on the depth chart, the guy who had already been there. And you just, when you believe in the talent of these players who are at the end of drafts, I'm not going to be wasting my time taking the guy who I, oh, I think he's the two, but he's on a crappy team. I'm going to be investing my draft capital in guys who, maybe they are threes, but I believe in that player. And they're on.