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

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thursday, March the 6th. Jason Moore, Mike the Fantasy Hitman. I am Andy Holloway. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers podcast. A 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. Yeah, I don't do that remembering thing no more. So you really got to look back and take notes as you go along. Are you the, like I know we're not the youngest, but we're also not the oldest. No, no, no. We're right where we should be. 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. 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 it digital. I just preferred the process for running backs. And I love that's weird. It is a little weird. I love the act of pin and paper and all that. I ain't got time for that with those other positions. 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 episodes. 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. I'm surprised Jason has not confiscated after his trade in dynasty last year. 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, that is going to enter. I'm going to enter for sure. It's free. Where do I go? Footclayn giveaway.com. Yes. I'm on it. All right. Well, Jason will be competing against all of you. If you want to be in there, go to footclane giveaway.com. It's free to enter, as Mike said. And you can find us over on X at the FF Ballers. The quick question of the day comes in from YouTube. ASW 73 writes in, what is your best I told you so player prediction? Well, your prediction came true and no one believed you. So, yeah, I'll kick it off.

because mine is a homegrown negative. I hated it. Yeah. 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 one-two 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. That might be right, yeah. 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. He had a bad rookie season. wide receiver. He did not. That's my genuine, I genuinely believe that for the NFL, it's a bad rookie season. For the NFL, that's a bad rookie season? 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 was 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. I don't know. Eight touchdowns as a rookie. That's a success. It was weird because raw production, 62 for 885, that's fine. I think it's a little disappointing for a player being drafted in the top five at the wide receiver position. But 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 so many games under 50 yards. 54% catch rate awful. 52 yard a game average awful for the number one with Kyla. Certainly disappointing. 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. Yeah, that wasn't career ending. 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. 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. Yeah. It's all hate. We're good at the hatred. 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 it's going against the grain on the excitement and mike your answers yeah three of them hate i mean look anger and hate are they're powerful emotions um but it was for me it was it was kind of a the three pack of i was 100% out on stroud at api p uh Travis ETN

at ADP and Rashad White. Like these were guys are 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 just, you can hit a couple big plays here. But other than that, you're incredibly inefficient. 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 and 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. No, it's not all hate. But just to add on to your point, Jay, is sometimes having 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. 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 playing in the NFL. I'll give him a chance. So sometimes it directs you to a better option. Sometimes. That's what in some ways, disliking Richardson was what the path to Daniels was. Yeah. To Jane 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. Yeah, the ADP was so drastic. They're both rookies. Yeah, I think, I think it's a good thing to remember, as Emperor Palpatine, you know, said, let the hate flow through you. Right. And that'll lead you to good, happy things later. Talk some news. News and notes from around the league. 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. I think it was only two tags this year. Yeah, it was the lowest amount in 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 them 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. That was my prediction. Someone had the Raiders. Mike went to 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. Saquan Barclay, a two-year extension with the Eagles. Hooha! They just signed him last year. 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 let him go for 2000. 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 Hertz, Sequin, AJ Brown, and Devante Smith all under contract through 2020. 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. Is that a thing? No. Tough case to crack? Yeah. Yeah. Tough cookie to crumble? Just tough cookies? I don't know. Me either. Darius sleigh was released. Bradbury released and they've got them young secondary stars to go with. So Metcalf officially requested a trade. D.K. Metcalfe 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.

uh hurrah there in s n jsn currently expected for a 90% target market share of the wide receiver it the strange things are going on up there in seattle which i mean first shout out to tyler locket for i don't i know he's not done done he's not retiring but dad's he's entering the jordan wizard's phase of his career but it's it was an incredible run with seattle for tire locket this dude was Great for the team. He was very fantasy relevant for a long time. Oh my gosh. For fantasy, he was a hat tip to Tyler Lockett. Thank you for your services. Yes. 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, 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 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. He'll get a job. 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. Yeah, he will. We have spoke. And this is what's, this is what makes me believe D.K. 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 a pneumonia 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 week free agent class, Christian Kirk and Devante Adams, who were released, they.

They're hot commodities. You know, Kirk is so weird because now you've got seven years of Christian Kirk and you've got 1,000 yard season. 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 Devante Adams. They had the cursory. Hey, we're going to 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 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 game. Tyrod Taylor. Okay. Yeah, there was a comment that it would not be shocking if they started Tyrod Taylor. I don't think it's going to make a lot of Jets fans excited. or Brees Hall managers excited or Garrett I mean no no it's that would be you know who would be pretty excited though tie right yeah he'd be like yeah I'm a starter and then everyone else for two games yeah he will they're they're gonna want to address the backup position for sure Jamal Williams has been released by the Saints Gardner Minchu released by the Raiders CD Lam's contract restructured Nico Collins contract restructured though the Dem boys also I thought I saw they restructured

DAC as well. They're really trying to clear up some space for something. Clear it up $36.6 million. Yeah, Mike Parsons is going to cost a lot of money. And the Bears have back-to-back trades for Jonah Jackson and Joe Tooney. This is what you love to see. We love it. This is what you love. 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. 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 they're real superpower. Like we talk about Gibbs and Amman Raw and, you know, the great office, but 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. Yeah, DeAndre Swift is not the answer in Chicago. No. 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 kind of grinder that can go out there and get tough yards behind a good offensive line. They should draft Trevionn Henderson. As their Gibbs? Yeah, as they're Gibbs. There's going to be 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. Was there anything else you wanted to add mine? I do. I do want to mention because Tom Pellissarro is at it again. He's your favorite guy. He tweeted, which it was good information. Daria Gumba Wale. He's a good reporter. Just listen. Hold on. Darya Gumba Wale is resigning a one-year deal with the Houston, Texas. Like this is good information to have. People are like, I don't care about a Gumbulli. That's fine. Why is this being brought up?

Because Pellissarro called him a phenom in his tweet. Stop paying him. You're saying agents stop paying Pellasaro. I don't think he's paid. I think this is a rub your back. This dude is elbow deep in the cookie jar. He is just fistfuls of cash. You're saying that Darya Gumbawale, special teams phenom that is yet to make a Pro Bowl in the special teams area. They're re-signing third downback and special teams phenom. You took this very personally. I just, Tom. What was the last one? Delvin Cook? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How'd that work out, Tom? Did he even get a snap? What did he call him? I don't, it was, it was, it was egregious, whatever it was. I got to look at it. Kyle find that. It was the most ridiculous. It just seemed like it was copy, it copy pasted from the agent, you know, of like.

This is how they want their player talked up. See, I need to see Tom's tax returns. Language is on the take. Language is. You don't report that. Is important. Because if Daria Gimboale and Dalvin Cook are phenoms, then what's a really good player? They don't even, their agents don't need them to say those superlatives. It was a marquee edition. A marquee edition. Dalvin Cook. Did he take a snap last year? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Did he? Oh, yeah. Cook was waiting for the right opportunity and always felt it was Dallas, a marquee edition in Big D. Oh, he did. He had nine opportunities. Yeah, I knew it wasn't much more than one. All right. We'll take a break. Oh, well, I'll be back, Tom, because I'm sure there's more tweets coming. Yeah, I can't wait. Mike versus Tom is going to be a great theme. This is, this is great. There's more here from Pellasaro 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 available. Wait, that's recent? 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 building cook up. He's a Dalvin'Cook stand. Maybe he won a championship. Maybe 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 2024. Don't forget to remember these things. You know, 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 is a forever and always, man. He is probably, you know, like his eulogy may end up including this great battle with Tom Pelliserra at some point in time. It's going to be. And now a list of people that Mike hated. We used to have no joke, a channel.

In our company Slack. Wait, did we get rid of that? That's on this. Still here. Hashtag Mike's gripes. I just, I, because he needs to share things with the world. Just a private channel for your complaints. I feel like too many people muted and left that channel. So I take my complaints to the big, big boy channels. 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, that's a Mike's gripe. We've all got them. There are still people on that channel. Oh, I'll be darned. All right. I'm 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. That's so good. Oh, dude. That's great.

All right, I hit the drop, didn't I? You did. All right. So let's jump right in. Oh, you know what? Slaps my saddle, Mike says when your manager books of flight spells your name wrong. Picture of the airport tickets. Oh, Mike, never stop complaining. Oh, man. I need to. Don't they have those like super subs on Twitter? 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. What are you fine when you can't read? Yeah. Some not safe for work gripes in there? Yeah. Yeah. That is, that's fun. It does start with. No, no. Go on. Go on. What's the number of, what? My substack is coming soon, everybody. All right. We will, we'll 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.

Number 10. All right, 10 things to remember number 10. I'm going to call this one, buy the hype or you can, you know, subtitle, shoot your shot. You usually sell the hype. It's very profitable. 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 Sequin, 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 untradable 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 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 three for one or two for one trade for a top tier talent because your roster's 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 acquireable 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. Yeah. If you do have a conviction, you see Sequin through a week or two, and it's more than the fantasy numbers, it's, whoa, that offensive line. Whoa, that, that he looks like vintage Sequin. You're not getting them later. 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. It's also, 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 week? Brock Bowers was one of those things where it was like, Brock is, he's legit. You knew it. Week one. You knew it week one. Brock Bowers, you just went and watched him and you're like, oh, okay. That's not an eighth round draft. 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. Even then, you may not be able to get him. Yeah, because he had Brock Bowers' 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 Jacks, 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 what that player does for you is not the same as two good players. 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?