Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Frequently Asked Fantasy Questions, Part 2

you know, Kansas City had the 14th best offense and Carolina had the 15th and so you always go with, I mean, you have to be looking at it at the poll. I care more about, so you say offensive line, I care more about offensive line and offensive coordinator. Like that to me matters almost more than, you know, are they a good team or a bad team? It's, is this a risk-taking high power want to be offensive coordinator or is it a conservative run the ball?

coordinate those are things to take into account how many of each position do you want for your bench oh great question uh my rule of kickers my my rule of thumb uh i always have more running backs than wide receivers uh just that's the way that i play i almost never have a backup quarterback i almost never have a backup tight end and i certainly never have a backup

defense yeah i i would say until the playoffs we're talking yes of course yeah everything's going to change in in the playoffs we we don't love drafting handcuffs we don't love we would never draft the backup defense when you get to the playoffs even even the uh handker yeah even even even that but i would say uh i never

have a backup tight end. The only reason I would ever, ever, ever have two tight ends on my team when I finish drafting, assuming that you don't have to start two tight ends, obviously, would be if I drafted an injured, an injured guy. If Gronk gets suspended the first four games of the year and I draft him, I like how you went with Gronk. Grom suspended as opposed to being injured. What's what happened here? What's funny about that I prefer to have only one tight end. I talked about.

uh kind of like with the quarterback position you only have to play one tight end so the position scarcity so the position scarcity is different but the guys you need a backup tied in for are the guys that you have to pay top four round draft capital for gronkowski and jordan reed i mean that's just funny how that has worked out all right yeah i mean mike has proven over the years the value of getting back an extra running back in trades

To throw on his bench. Even if you think that, well, this is just a garbage player. They're a throwaway. Look at the players that have been spent. Have been Waverwire gold mines for people over the years. I mean, look, look at the money spent on fab budgets for Char West when an injury happens. These are the players that you kind of think are irrelevant.

But one injury makes a player extremely relevant for the next week at the running back position because of the need there. And that can be a difference maker for you. So you've definitely proven that over the years, Mike, to kind of get that throwing running back that nobody thinks matters. Let's talk for a minute about some trade strategy thoughts here. You know, before the show started, much to my chagrin. Ooh, is that mean you guys are going to unfurl the...

The actual draft the offers? I don't care. Yeah, peel back the curtain. I'll unfurl it. But, you know, I'm in the middle of a trade talk, you know, in our Dynasty League. And I'm over here just minding my own business. I've been chipping away at this, you know, wall for four days. And then I hear in the other room, I'm in the studio and Jason's in the office, and I hear this, what did you yell? You yelled something. I believe it was something like, Andy! Yeah, because I'm sitting here trying to trade for Pierre Garcin.

And in the other room, Jason is trying to trade for Pierre Garson, apparently, at the same exact moment. Look, when it comes to trades, they can make a humongous impact on your team, obviously. So what do you, I mean, where do you go to start? Because a lot of people ask that question. They go, I hear a few different things. I hear, well, my league just doesn't trade that much. And I hear, you know, I can't get replies from people. Or how do you even start? What's the strategy to get a trade in your favor?

And there's about 50 answers to this. But let's share some trade tips. All right. Well, trade tips. Stop coming after my guys. That's what I'm saying. That's trade tip number one. Tell other people to stop coming after your guys. So one trade tip we just alluded to it a second ago. Whenever you trade a running back, get a running back back back.

Okay, so like Mike said, if you are giving up a running back, get one of their bench running backs back, just make sure you don't end up depleting your depth at the position if you're in a redraft league. That would be a small tip. Here's a tip for going after a trade. Sometimes you need to knock people off their socks with the first offer.

Right off of their socks. Right off their socks. Not out of them. No, no, no. They're standing on top of their socks. They didn't want to get their feet on the dirty floor. So they lay out some socks and they stand on it. They don't have a shower mat. You want to knock them off those socks. Get them off the socks. Get those socks yourself. So knock, knock them off their socks immediately. And so what I mean by that is when you offer a trade thinking, I'm going to send this.

and they'll counter and then we'll end up somewhere when you end right you're going to the art of the deal you're starting the negotiation yeah you've got to start with a solid offer because when you come with garbage then a lot of times it's just either not responded to or instant rejected um i like that you're bringing this up because i feel like i've been pushing this trade strategy for a long time and what people don't realize with the trade

And I'm always in favor of the two for one, three for one in your favor, where you get the one better player back. Because what people don't kind of logically understand is that you're also receiving roster spots. Okay, you send off two or three players. You get the best player back. You get two opportunities then to take advantage of the waiver wire. And those two players you get off the waiver wire are just as much part of that trade as anything else. Only the other person's not sending them to you. So it doesn't appear to be in the, you know, as.

in your favor. So I'm all about overwhelming somebody if it means getting the best player in the deal and it means not actually losing something as tangible. Look, this happens a lot with bench wide receivers. I feel like I can go find a wide receiver, two or three, off of the waiver wire whenever I want to. Yes. In a lot of leaks. And so I like sending those guys this throw-ins, especially if they've had a recent successful week.

Yeah, when-A-Sharp. When you have a wide receiver two or three that has a good week, I completely agree with you. That's when I'm packaging them. Pass it in. I'm packaging them with a decent running back and going after a really good running back. Something like that, taking advantage because to replace the wide receiver is pretty easy. I mean, it.

I've always found over the last few years that if you need to find, I mean, you picked up Cam Meredith last year and had a great run of time with him. You picked up so many guys every single year at wide receiver. And the thing is, is the position is so deep now with so many teams running three wide receivers that produce that even if there's not a guy that's going to be great, you can stream your flex.

with a wide receiver just based on matchup most weeks. I also would say I'm going to add this one in there. I don't know if we brought it up before. I'm going to call it look for a seam. Look for a seam. When you're looking to approach a trade with somebody else, don't be naive. They need to get something out of the deal. So look for the seam. And what's a seam? A seam is Chris Johnson is desired by the David Johnson owner, okay?

If you had Chris Johnson, he had a game, you've got them on your team. That's a scene. That's an attractive piece that you have, nobody else has, right? Hometown favorites. That's a seam. If you have a player in your league who loves the, I don't know, let's say the San Diego Chargers. Los Angeles Chargers. They don't love them anymore. And that player may be places a slightly higher premium on Travis Benjamin. That's a scene.

So look for opportunities to, because those are throwing pieces. That's not the headliner of the trade. But if you make a one-to-one trade and you throw in that little seam piece, the handcuff or the hometown favorite, that's how you can finish that trade. And I'll piggyback off of that because. Hop on. I will say this. Another really important thing, we get asked, this is frequently asked fantasy questions. And one of the most common questions we get asked that we can never answer and we'll never be able to answer is.

How did Jason get on the show? Why is Jason speak so bad? No, the question is, I need a blank. Who should I trade for? Oh, is I have this guy. Who should I trade them for? Yes, exactly. Who should I trade them for? You can't just go and look at a list of, let's say you need a wide receiver. You can't just go and look at wide receivers and go, oh, I want T.Y. Hilton.

I think he's a good value. I mean, maybe that works if the team happens to fit what you're looking for. But what I do, when I'm looking to make a trade, is I go, okay, I have a surplus of wide receivers. I need running backs or whatever the situation is. So I need to go find a team that has the opposite, a team that has running backs, but really needs wide receivers. Or I have...

depth and you're playing trade tetris exactly you want to be you're the straight line piece you're coming down you can't look you you can't say no to the straight line we got trademark that you're you're about to clear off five lines yes exactly so the trade tetris is perfect find the right partner where where you fit comfortably with get rid of those lines

All right, we're going to play a little bit of rapid round here with the frequently asked fantasy questions just as soon as I accomplished my goal on this side here, which is finish the trade. Are you going to play play? Oh, I know. It's still quiet. No, that's too quiet. He's trying to play Tetris over there. Oh, hey. Yes. Go to your league roster page. Okay. All right. Moving on. You're running backs.

Wait, did you write the lyrics for the Tetris music? I just did. All right. Real quick. Rapid round. Real quick. Rapid round. I'm going to give only one of you can answer. All right. So you can fight for it. How do you deal with an owner who continues to send terrible offers? Kick him in the face. Oh, gosh. Not that rapid. Not that rapid. I'm sorry. Kick him in the face. Okay. Jason, you take that one. Yeah, I'll take this one. I was the first thing that came to my. Is that good or bad?

I would say that's bad. That's bad. I think everyone would say that's bad. The fact that you have to ask if that's good or bad is an extra bad sign. All right, what was the question? How do you deal with an owner who continuously sends terrible offers? Other than kicking them in the face. Other than kicking them in the face, you have to decide if you want to get offers with them. If you don't, then you publicly mock them in whatever communication channels you have.

If you do, then you just need to confront them genuinely. Say, like, dude, I want to trade with you, but your offers you're sending me are constantly too bad. I know you want to, like, do the back and forth barter thing, but come at me with a good offer. Because the truth is, the owner that is doing that, that is sending you those bad trades over and over, they think they're doing something good for their team. And you need to just point out, like...

Your strategy is going to never help your team. It's a boy who cried wolf situation. Eventually, you just layer on so many bad offers. By the time you send a good one, nobody even pays attention to it. Any other basic trade tips? We already kind of cover that. How do you start the dialogue for a trade offer? We love communication channels like Facebook, whether it's messenger or a Facebook group. Texting is always great. Start the dialogue. I mean, it shouldn't just be, if you want to actually get a trade done, it shouldn't just be just grabbing, you know.

The ESPN system. Click two players. Click two players. That doesn't work. The answer is the question. Start a dialogue. Don't just send an offer. All right. Waiver questions. When should I use my waiver priority? That's an easy one, right? That's so dependent on throughout the year. Listen to the show. When we talk about guys on waiver, we will talk about.

fab budget what percentage are we going to go in on this guy are we going to be aggressive is it worth burning the number one priority to add this guy it's it's always so team dependent it's weak dependent that's you can't get an easy answer to that one don't forget more in-depth strategy draft strategy different questions are coming up in future episodes we'll have a lot of mock draft shows top ten mistakes top ten fantasy tips for this year