10 Tips & Tricks to Win Your Fantasy Football League - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/18

Now I can look at this grid and I can go back and figure out what position can I take a gamble on with the ADP. It's a next level of helping you track what your other team. When you're talking about quarterbacks and tight ends late in a draft, I use this every single draft I'm ever in because sometimes it says, oh, these three teams need a quarterback. I'm about to go up and so I'll take my quarterback. And sometimes I look and I say, oh, man, 10 of the teams.

already have a quarterback. Right. So they're not drafting. I don't need to worry about this anymore. I always look at the positions of other teams and how they've filled up before I make my pick. Yeah, because taking the gambols, those are calculated risks when you pay attention to the roster of your opponents. Number four. All right, number four, I'm calling it intestinal fortitude, which could have helped me get through Mike's first tip in and of itself. Look, we made it. We did. We got there. You didn't blow chunks. This is the good chunk.

But I'm calling this in Tesla 4-2. Oh, yeah, that was the good one. Because one of the most difficult things for fantasy football owners to do is to take a deep breath. All right. So this tip is about avoiding reaction or tilt, trades, signings, drops, all of those things. This is every single year this happens, especially in week one, where players either bomb or they dominate.

And we have this temptation to validate all of our offseason opinions or invalidate all of them in one week's time. And last year, that would have meant burying James Winston on week one when he came out and was awful. He provided great fantasy value later. It would have meant celebrating and sliding Sammy Watkins into your starting lineup each and every week as well. I may have celebrated that week one. Yeah, that was tough. And I'm not saying it's easy to see through and you're going to get some things wrong.

But it's more about the reaction. Do you go out and trade for that player? Do you bury Aaron Jones? He had an awful week one last year. You know who had a great week one? Malcolm Brown. And we had this offseason of always Todd Gurley going to get the work. Is he not going to get the work? Let's make a final conclusion on one week. I want to know how many fantasy owners went out and acquired Malcolm Brown, or better yet, went out and shopped him.

and got something great for him because he had a 17, 18 point week one. You can't let a singular week throw off your center as a fantasy player. That's the major point. Namaste. Yes. Intestinal fortitude, Mike. It means avoiding the very, I think, you know, Al Borland, he does a little stock work in the background. Sometimes he shows up and does a little day trading. Do you do the buy, high, sell low strategy?

I really try not to. Try not to do that. That's what I'm talking about. You don't want to go by high, sell low traditionally. With the intestinal fortitude, one thing I'll add to that, not just the overreaction from week one, but when you start losing, if you start losing. Oh, man. Do not bail. Don't bail. I mean, yeah, don't bloke. That's what I was talking about. It's every single year. We have so many listeners who are like, I started 0 and 4, I found your show.

I stuck with it. I won the championship. You can do that. Do not quit because here's the thing. A third of your league probably will quit. Easy wins. Yeah, that's exactly. And then when you break the season up, like Mike had said, I've seen people do the reaction in the tilt trading over and over again. And it becomes something where obviously you want to pivot. You want to make adjustments. You want to trade. You want to try to see through.

you know, a one week performance and make smart moves. But when you're unloading your whole roster, because you think you have no hope in this life after one week. It's, it's your, these players that you have no control over what they're doing on the field. And then you're like, man, I got to, I got to shake things up. That'll really get them going. We need a different locker room over here. What? We need a different attitude in the locker room. Yeah. So that is it for my tip. Number three.

I call this the skeleton key. This is something I do every single year, and it gives me an enormous edge. What is a skeleton key? What is a skeleton key? Is that like a real, like one of those big giant? No, a skeleton key is a like a universe. Is it a secret key? It's a universal key that unlocks like every door. I didn't know that. Really? I don't know what a skeleton. I do now. Well, there you go. You never played a video game when you got the skeleton key.

Oh, yeah, skeleton key sounds cool. Anyways, it's going to unlock a lot of doors for you. I was busy playing Tony Hawk instead of whatever games you're playing with skeleton keys. That sounds like a challenge. So here's what the skeleton key is. We always talk about mock drafts. Mike, you've been talking about it this episode. They're very, very helpful. But ADPs suck. I mean, they just do. We have been pulling our hair out because every episode we're like,

This ADP says this, this platform says that. How do you know what a good ADP is? We do our best to try to have accurate information here, but it's difficult. This is basically an offline mock draft. It's a one time only. You're not going to try different strategies while you're building your skeleton key. And if you are in a keeper league, this is a must. You will have such a leg up on your...

league mates, your opponents, the villains across from you. Villains? Do a mock draft. That's how I view my opponents. You're the hero? Of course I'm the hero. And you're the hero of your story. And you're the hero of your story. I'm the over of an anti-hero guy. Okay. Well, then I'm the hero of your story. But what this is is doing a single mock draft.

not using a platform, but where you pick every single pick. You know the play, you know, Andy, you were talking about knowing your league mates. Do a draft and put who you think Jeremy's going to take in his spot with his team, with his history, and draft everybody. And then as you're drafting, use the positional grid and say, okay, this team already has.

Three running backs. He's going to go wide receiver here and draft. And at the end of this mock draft, you will have a skeleton key that will tell you two humongous things. One, it will give you the value of picks. If you have pick trading in your league and you don't know what a fourth round pick is worth or what a sixth round pick is worth, you look at your legitimate mock draft and you say, I would trade this player and this player for that player.

Well, I know it's an advantage because you did one of these about a week or two ago. I haven't, I hadn't done one in this league. And I'm asking you, like, who went where? I'm like, oh, wait, where did this guy end up going? Who did I end up with in your draft? Al Borland, may I kick it to you? Did you recently ask if you could take a peek at this because you wanted to know the value of our keeper league?

Yes, yeah, we're working on a trade, and I wanted to know what those, I wanted to put some names with those picks. And did I grant your request? Nope. You're darn right, I didn't. That's my skeleton kid. You're the villain. He's the villain. He's the bad guy. And here's the thing, Foot Clan. I am going to make the tool that I use.

I have a spreadsheet that I use that pre-populates teams in. I'm building that today for you. Go to our social media. What a gentleman. Look at the, we'll put an article out with this episode. You can grab that tool and do one of these yourself. I'll have the instructions on there. It's a huge leg up. And if you're in a keeper league and you could put people's keepers already in place, it's monumentally important. Can I ask a more important question? Does this skeleton keep, can you get into the aviary with that?

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's... Is it locked? Well, I lock my aviary. Well, then we can get in because we have the skeleton key. Okay. Gets you in anywhere. Just making sure. Number two. That means you can use the peloton, is what I'm saying. If you have the skeleton key, you can use the peloton. I can use anyone's peloton with my skeleton key. Which is... So long as it's behind a locked door. Yes. This door is open. My key is useless. All right, number two.

Know your type, and this is a huge shout out to Rich Rebar here because he brought this idea to my attention a couple years ago where, look, tier-based ranks, that's how we do things here on the fantasy footballers. We have found it to be the absolute best way to go into your draft. It's not just the top 200. It helps you make better, more informed decisions. Part of the UDK, foundational to the rankings. Yes. If you want our tier rankings, they are available in the ultimate draft kit.

And this idea is builds upon that where you classify the type of player and you break them down and then you can kind of move these guys, rank them in that type. And now, because when you're building your team, you know, it's like making a nice meal, a nice soup. You need different ingredients in the soup to actually make it taste good. Have your list of, these are my high ceiling players. Here's my high floor.

players here's my my breakout rookies my my my super studs these are like my locked these are these must have guys my i'm going to reach around yes the absolute must have guys and when you tear them and you're and you can look at the players in this uh in this format

It really just brings a new mentality to the draft, a different way to look at the draft, potentially giving you an edge of players who are... That's reach space A, space round. Yes, absolutely. And, like, it... Reach one round. Thank you. Thank you. Like, it helps you that you're not going to overload on the salt. You are, like, you're those weekly volatile players. You didn't accidentally take too many of them because, like, maybe they were the best available in just...

in tiered, and then you go, oh, crap, I didn't really want three of those players. They were just the best guys on the tier. So it's, it's another method of looking at players when you're going into the draft. Yeah, and kind of categorizing them and having, it's about preparation. I think a lot of what these tips today have brought out is if you're a little bit more prepared for what your contextual league is like, if you're a little bit more prepared about what.

Jeremy's going to do with his picks in the third round. We didn't want to have a show called One Tip. Right. Be prepared. We had to break it down a little bit more. No, if we had one tip and it was just Don't Blow Chunks, this show would not deliver. Yeah, imagine the downloads, though. Yeah, that'd be weird. Number one. Buy the UDK. Okay. Is that what it is?

Is that the tip by the UDK? Well, I mean, look, if you want to dominate your draft, you need the ultimate draft kit. That's what I use personally. That is not the real. I'm the champ champ. That's not the real number one. It is a good tip, though. Can you flip to the real number one there? Wait, this is. He put buy the UDK up on the work. The real number one tip. I'm going to call it you get what you give. All right. We've had different ways to talk about this in the past.

Sometimes we say it's get your house in order. But really, this is the time of year right here right now before your draft. Make sure that... The new radicals? I was trying to figure out who's... Oh, is that the song? You won't get what you give. Don't wake up. You don't remember that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know that. And not the music in me. All right. Yeah, I'm in. And I do not apologize to everyone that's now stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

make sure, you know, what you put into your league is what you get out. That's why we facilitate leagues with the Foot Clan, get the right owners, the right settings, the right platform, the right tools. This is the time to set the table for a good year, and you don't want to be in one of those leagues where you still have the two guys that have always been there that play for, they're at the draft sometimes, and they play the first week, and then you're changing their lineup around for them, and it brings the level of competition in your league down.

significantly. This is the time of year to get things right so that you get the best possible season out. Yeah. If you're looking for someone to fill those spots, you can go to footclan leagues.com, find a good foot clan listener.

uh to join your league and maybe you're making the tweak about your waiver system you're putting fab in there maybe this is the year you get the better communication system set up for your league whether it's a slack channel or a facebook group or you know some way that you guys are talking trades guys and gals are talking trades talking trash which is just as fun as trades it's crucial if not more fun um and maybe this is the year you set the the twitter feed up and you follow your favorite you know