10 Tips & Tricks to Win Your League - LIVE in Minneapolis

beautiful starting roster and then you write about it in your diary and you hang it on your mirror and you look at it and you marvel at it and you love it and love hurts in fantasy football especially in dynasty and keeper leagues when you've held on to those guys with a hope and a prayer and you know that this is going to be the year right so you build that idealic roster and then this happens a little reminder

Aaron Rogers, Deshawn Watson, Odell Beckham Jr., Julian Edelman, David Johnson, Dalvin Cook, Greg Olson, Tyler Eifer, Andrew Luck, Carson Wins. Those were just the headliners. Injuries happen, they hit, and then all of a sudden love really hurts because you haven't built your team the right way. And I used to play this way. I used to build the powerhouse starting eight. And then one thing happens, and you know now, more than ever in the NFL, the injuries they hit hard.

So there are a couple of ways to combat that, right? You want to avoid love hurting depth. Mike, you've been missed a running back depth for years. Have players waiting in the wing. Invest in depth and don't look at it like, okay, I'm going to two for one every trade to build my starting eight and leave junk on my bench. That's step one to avoid that problem. And then just be willing to accept reality with those players if they don't pan out.

The expectations do not always come to fruition. You'll be cold-blooded. You do. You have to be willing to let somebody go, especially when you do those last three or four picks in the draft, and you're like, I'm grabbing that steel, right? This is the week. No, you've got to be able to cut bait. You've got to be cold. You've got to let go. You've got to find another love somewhere else on the waiver wire. All right. Love hurts. Yeah. Tip number eight. Love does hurt. Number nine. Number eight.

So on this one, you know, I was coming up with my tips for this season. And, you know, there was one tip that I just kept thinking, I've said it so many times. I want to be fresh. And the other two are. But I went back and forth. I was like, but we have so many new listeners. And this is so important because at the end of the day, the most important thing for the three of us is that you guys win hashtag foot clan titles. Like that's what we are really doing. We want to win titles.

So I was like, man, should I do it? Should I not do it? That's why we don't invite him to the listener league because that would not be possible. Right. So I decided. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, we got some hate blockers out there. I decided to throw on my hate blockers and say, I don't care. Okay, the tip is important. We want you to win. And you could say it with me, you don't win your championships at the draft.

Unless it's a best ball, in which case you totally do. Please play, play draft. No, so here's the reality for... Wait, are they staying on? Oh, this tip is full, full hate blockers. The whole time. I might get some hate. Can you see anything? I can see nobody or nothing. They're actually blacked out on the inside. Here's the deal.

I have, you know, every year we say this. You don't win. But the reason. Johnny Cash up here. The reason that it's so important is because there is a large faction of fantasy fans. This used to be me a long time ago. I mean, the draft is my favorite part of the season. It's probably everyone in this room's favorite part of the season. Yeah, draft day is my Christmas. And so, you know, you have so much fun. You do all this research, which builds a foundation for a championship.

But then as soon as the season kicks off and you get a week or two in, you kind of stop paying attention. You're not, you know, doing the same research. You're not having fun. You're not as involved because life moves on. And I'm telling you, if you do that, if that's like the route you want to take, I guarantee that you will not win the championship. It is impossible to win the championship that way. Last...

season, depending, actually the last two years, depending on if you look at NFL or ESPN, different leagues have different guys. But over the last two years, four of the top five positional players that were in common on championship teams, they are lower tier players. You also have, listen to this, the number one and number two, wide receivers, okay, the wide receivers that were most common in fantasy drafts, would you believe that it was Josh

Gordon. Title games. In title, yes, in title games. Josh Gordon and Devin S. Scrumptious. Those guys were not, you know, draft day winners where you, you know, those were waiver wire pickups. Alex Smith, you brought him up. Very entertaining waiver wire pickups. Quarterback four undrafted. Deshawn Watson undrafted. Second half of the year, Alex Collins, Kenyon Drake, they were the running back six and running back nine. A star is born.

So here's what I wanted to do. I wanted to share with you great news, great, great news, the listener league this season. We're going to be having submission soon. And once again, I made sure that another spot was open for you guys by winning the championship. But I want to read you my draft. Three people are very impressed. Too, too. Yeah. Well, look, if you play me again this year, I'm going to win. But this is my draft. I want you to either cheer.

if it was a good pick, or boo if the pick didn't work out probably this last season, okay? Antonio Brown! Yeah. How about Dalvin Cook? Did that one work out for me? No, it didn't. It could have, injury. Yeah, Marshawn Lynch. How was that pick? Yeah, I agree. It wasn't, not worth the third. How about Alan Robinson? How was his season? Well, I brought it back.

Why are we booing them? I like it. It's interaction. It's interaction. How about Danny Woodhead? Great pick, right? Boo. Oh, Randall Cobb was so good with Aaron Rogers last year. Oh, extra boo. Hold on. Hold on. This one is very interesting to see. Yeah, I want to see what they do. Richard Matthews? We don't know. It was, honestly, based on those other picks, it was fantastic. Right. Okay, how about Andrew Luck? He was really good.

Darren McFadden, Eric Ebron, Derek Carr. We found the Ebron person. Soulmates. Jonathan Williams. I mean, you didn't draft anybody. It was Antonio Brown, and then the Eagles with my last pick. That's the only two serviceable picks. And you won. And I won the championship. Which means we picked the right people to play in that league. Ah, yeah. So my point is, stick with it.

Do waivers. Pay attention. Keep up to date with the news. Because you won with that roster. Make trades. Well, not that roster. I've won with a completely different roster. But yeah, you didn't necessarily win at the draft. All right. Number seven. I want to talk about the House of Horrors. Because there are... Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you. There are situations all over the NFL for fantasy that fantasy players...

seem to want no part of. It's the scariest thing they've seen. You can't decipher it. I want nothing to do with that. But I want to remind you that these type of situations, that's where you can find that piece of coal. You get enough pressure. Boom, dime it. Right? There's a little geography. Geology. Geology. Oh, yes. It wasn't me. Deal with that.

That's a little geology lesson. I'm learning Jason's prescription is very strong. Yeah, I'm blind. So these are gross situations that people want no part of, and here's what happened last year. The Green Bay running backs. Last year, Ty Montgomery, three top ten weeks, Jamal Williams, six weeks straight as a top 24. Aaron Jones had two top five weeks.

Players don't want to draft these running backs because they don't know what to do. You have to take a shot. So there we go. Me and this guy. Jacksonville wide receivers. Mark Eastley, five weeks as a top 24 quarterback. Keel and Cole had four straight weeks as a top 20 wide receiver. Didi three times in the top 30. These are very usable guys. The Washington wide receivers. This one blew me away. Did you realize that James and Crowder actually had five top 24 weeks?

I've been telling you. He finally got it together. Doxon was a wide receiver three six times. And a wide receiver three. You need a wide receiver three, people. You can't have Odell and Antonio Brown is your only wide receivers. The Miami wide receivers. This one's little gross. I get it. Devante Parker was a wide receiver three eight times. Kenny steals the man. Top 24, five times. There is a Jarvis Landry-sized target hole.

If you get your hands dirty, you can wash them. It's okay. You've got to go in on these situations. You've got to take your shot because these are where league winning types of players show up because they were. Alvin Camara, no one wanted anything to do with Super Camaro because he was buried. You're all liars. We've seen all the letters. I dropped Camario right before the breakout. Yeah. Because he was buried.

You weren't sure what was going to happen. But there's magic to be had in these house. In the house of horrors. All right. I like it. Number six. This one is inspired. Well, first I said love hurts, right? And now we're moving on to fear hurts. Okay. Fear hurts. You cannot play scared. Mike, you quote them all the time. Yes. What does Ice Cube say? If you're scared, go to church. Go to church.

Look, scared players make the worst fantasy football decisions possible. Scared players, they look, and they will not draft players with matching bi-weeks, right? We cannot have that happen, even though we're going to enter into this league and we're going to make a thousand waiver pickups because we drafted like Jason did last year, and we make a thousand trades, and your whole roster is going to turn over before the bi-weeks even hit. So scared players pay too much attention to the by-weeks.

Scared players, always draft handcuffs. Don't draft your handcuff. We've been saying that on the show forever, unless you're talking about the not really handcuff handcuffs, like Kevin Coleman, right? Or maybe... Handcuff. Who is much more of a handcuff? Handcuff. And I really should have invited everyone to participate there.

But no, don't use a roster spot on that guy hoping that the wheels fall off and somebody gets hurt in the first couple weeks because you're going to, what's going to happen is you're going to draft him? And then you're going to drop him in week two anyway. Don't waste a roster spot. That's a scared mentality when you draft in fantasy football. Scared fantasy football players, they focus on filling your starting roster. And they do that because when you go on any platform, if you're on ESPN or Yahoo, that's the way it shows up on the screen.

It's scary, right? You see it. Very scary. Oh, if I draft another running back, he's going to the bench, and then I don't have a tight end yet. And I don't have a quarterback yet. And so scared players fill that roster and then move on to the bench, and it costs you. You don't have depth. You don't have opportunities there. So you cannot play scared. Don't play scared. Fear hurts. Aw. I know. I'm very depressing. Number five. I'm pretty sure you said I'm very depressing. And I agree.

Look, this tip is not just an important tip. This is also Michael Gallup's favorite tip. It's saddle a stud, okay? You need a stud. Jay, I'm going to let you keep going. Thank you. But you need to rain it in. Yeah. So here's the deal.

I feel like this room full of people, the people watching on the stream, listening on podcasts. Andy is holding back so many horrorspuns right now to the point of physical pain. You guys are never going to let me go. I know it. You need a stud. I think you deserve a stud. I think you want a stud. And here's the truth that I don't think everybody necessarily agrees with, but it is the truth.

A stud is a running back. Sorry, it's not always the top flight wide receivers. I want to give you some data here so you can understand. And this isn't to say that you can't win other ways. ZeroRB is a great strategy. The anti-fragile theory is real. If you play in, you know, if I were to be in a full point PPR...

three wide receiver, two flex league, I would probably adopt that. But I think that the majority of leagues that we are playing in are in our home leagues match kind of what the ballers do. And according to that, the consistency is what you need to win games. Okay, you can have, look at Julio Jones, right? Julio Jones, a lot of people feel like this last year. Julio! A lot of people feel like Julio was a bust.