Hey, foot clan. Andy here and we got a surprise for you. It's a weekend release of a little bonus episode. In fact, a blast from the past. Every year we record a ten things to remember episode. In fact, we recorded one on February 29 this year with ten things we wanted to remember from the past season of Fantasy football. And we thought it would be a great time to give you a bonus episode, release it this weekend, and remember exactly what we remembered from the 2023 fantasy football season. We thought it would be helpful, so we're going to give you an abridged version of that episode starting right now.

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. Excited to have you with us. The Fantasy Footballers podcast. Jason Moore, Mike the fantasy hitman Wright. I'm Andy Holloway. Welcome in one and all. We've got a fun show, the ten things to remember episode, fresh off of a, as far as I'm concerned, fantastic season of fantasy football.

Oh, I know. Great year. Great year right here for the show. Great year for me personally.

Yeah. I mean, just, I had a good time, so there's lots to remember. I mean, Jason, you probably remember, I.

Remember the playoffs and I remember my championship. I think Papa Josh, 2020 was that.

Papa Josh, you probably remember a lot from this past year too, right? I mean, you were, you had a good time. It was a great time. Except for the ending. Yeah. So. So we're doing our ten things to remember. Jason, did you did all of your items this year on the show as we count them down later? Did they all come from your little black book?

Yeah, basically this, this year, it was one of those things where I wanted to remember them in the moment. Cause we never, we're all goldfish other than Mike. Right, Mike?

That's why I don't even remember your championship from 2022.

Right. Thank you. You know, so it's like when I see these lessons, in fact, one of the things that I am bringing up today was something I told Brooks on the show, mid show. I was like, hey, Brooks, you got to remind me to bring this up on the things to remember, because it was a lesson we had learned. And I'm like, this is something I can't forget. I forgot all about it.

So Brooks brought it up.

Brooks brought it up because his job, he was ordered to do it and he obeyed. Well. And so, yeah, thank you, Brooks.

So when Jay, when you are post mortem was, we'll put it that way, is use your little black book. Gonna be the thing that's auctioned off.

Yeah, probably. Probably.

You know, you like celebrity stuff or.

Is it just numbers and stats or in little notes or little memoirs in there?

No, it's all. It's.

It's a date. I got one for you. Okay. Today I traded cd lamb for Jalen Waddle. Yeah, it was that in there.

No, less of a diary.

Okay.

It's. It's just pictures of stick men.

Yeah. There's nothing in that book, man. There.

Oh, my gosh. That's the great trick. All these years later, no one has. You've never written anything in it, actually.

Seen inside, so you don't know what the contents are. And someday after I die, you're gonna go over there and you're gonna open the book and you're gonna turn page by page, you're gonna say, this book is empty. These are all blank pages. There's literally nothing in this book.

Just a few Braveheart quotes in there. Let's jump in.

Don't forget to remember these things.

All right. Well, this should be fun. I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys have in store. I have nothing previewed any of your different things to remember.

Number ten.

Number ten, quarterback loyalty gets you zero fantasy points. And that was really, really true this year. It's something to remember. It wasn't moving forward because last year we saw a resurgence in a willingness to draft some quarterbacks early. Right. For that. We had just come off the Jalen hurts Josh Allen Patrick Mahomes year. And it kind of reminded me of like, you know, Aaron Rodgers had like a ton of seasons at number one. And, and so he felt like a completely sure thing where you would draft him for a number of years in fantasy. So there was some willingness last year. But I'm going to tell you right here, right now, if you draft a quarterback early or even in the middle of the draft, it is very natural to feel like you are committed to that player. You're drafting a onesie position, so you only start one quarterback if you're non superflex. And a lot of times, you know, we spend months preparing for our drafts and we, we think we have conviction about a certain player and we take them. And if you take them at quarterback, you're naturally taking a big name, right.

These are the headline makers in the NFL. They're the ones that make or break games. And so, you know, even if you're taking a Justin Herbert and, and he's the 6th quarterback off the board, that's a big name, you feel committed to those players this year. Patrick Mahomes was the. Was the number one quarterback off the board. He was the quarterback 19 from week eight on. Now, Josh Allen was great. Jalen hurts pretty good, although it slowed down at the end. Lamar Jackson was the quarterback, 17 for a six game stretch. Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, both got hurt. Justin Fields missed time. Trevor Lawrence was not good. Deshaun Watson missed time and was not good. And was not good. If you show loyalty to players at the quarterback position for too long, you cost yourself. People won championships this year with Dak Prescott, who really didn't start the year well at all, was a 10th quarterback off the board in the late 8th round. And there were a lot of people hesitant to move on from players that they drafted. I mean, Russell Wilson was somebody that was a relatively interesting pick for people to make, you know, last year.

And if you had been loyal to Russell Wilson last year, when you saw things going downhill in Denver, he was that cautionary tale. Then this year, you had a number of those guys. TrevoR Lawrence, I think, would fit that mold a lot. He ended the year so strong, and people were probably starting Trevor Lawrence too long.

Speaker two. Yeah. I think the best example from this last year of. Of remember this for next year, that things don't stay the same at the quarterback position is the Dak Prescott and Tua conversation. Cause the first five weeks of the seat, once you're five weeks in and you're going into week six, you feel like you understand everything. You feel like, oh, I got it. I know, I know who's. What's what. And Tua was, like, locked in every week. You've got to start him. He was the quarterback five. Dak, worthless. He was the quarterback 21. It's like you could, you know, we know. We know how this season's going to end. Tua is a superstar, and dak sucks. And then if you played that out and you just stayed put and you had the loyalty, the brand loyalty to the quarterbacks that started hot or that you drafted high, it did not work out outside of Josh Allen.

Right. And even Mahomes. Right. It wasn't just these, like, later picks, like Tua and dak. Like, Mahomes was the hardest on people.

Yeah.

Because you felt completely stuck. I know that, you know, a lot of people that had Mahomes also had CJ Stroud. Right. They picked him up off of the waiver wire, and then it was like, well, I'm never gonna start him over. Patrick Mahomes like, loyalty to the quarterback position year after year, unless you hit on the one or two guaranteed MVP's of that year, which do fluctuate. Right. It was Lamar. But how many years have we had undue loyalty to Lamar that actually cost you? I mean, the first two years after his MVP campaign, people started him no matter what, and they literally lost games because of it. So have a willingness. I would say it's not a necessity that you pivot because of one bad game. I'm not saying that. I'm saying having a. Have a willingness and hold, you know, have a loose grip on the quarterback you draft, be willing to play the field. And when you see these offenses change and become better, believe maybe a little bit that you can play those guys.

Yeah, I'm actually hit the number nine. I'm going to move one of mine around because it just, it kind of piggybacks on what Andy was talking about. And I'm saying for this one, don't get cocky. Your team always, always has to get better. And in what I'm saying in there is sometimes there are moves that you need to make that are not your typical move where we don't, you know, resource management of fantasy football. I don't like to roster two quarterbacks. I don't like to roster two tight ends.

You're saying don't get cocky with the.

With the team you have.

Team that you have, even if you're.

Having success and because there could be players out there available for you that you feel like my team is good, I don't need that player. I don't. And again, to piggyback here is I had the inverse of what the successful quarterback move was. I had Tua. I traded for Tua when, when things were looking good. And I talked on this show about my belief that Dak Prescott was about to go on a huge run because the schedule looked so fantastic for him. Dak was sitting on my waiver wire and I, like, I believed to my core of all my analysis that no, Dak is going to go on a run, but I don't need him because I have two. I don't need to go pick up Dakin. And that was idiotic, like I should have made, if, if nothing else, to block my opponents from getting a quarterback who I think is about to be fantastic. Thank you for not remembering I had.

One of those, Mike. I had a guy that was on fire. He was catching fire four weeks in a row. Looked like the real deal. His name was Josh Downs. And you made me a very easy trade offer to, oh, my gosh, I forgot to get Michael Pittman for very cheap. Very cheap.

But your team was good. My teammates do it.

I did not need to do it. I was solid and had I done it, I think your season looks a lot different. A lot different.

Like sometimes that is I should have just picked up the second quarterback. It's not a move I normally make, but I need to be prepared. Leaving more and more I'm getting comfortable with the idea of leaving my draft with two tight ends just for week one. Have a guy where that I believe in this player and then maybe a player where let's see what I like. I let's see what happens. Let's talk about the the beginning of the season. We did a and this is not supposed to be a full tut. Thing was we always do an undrafted gems got like, guys to look out for. They might be on your waiver wire after the draft is already overd and I might do Jake Ferguson and Sam Laporta. Both of their schedules to open are basically the number one and number two tight end schedule that we with the data we have. And both of those players went on to be really important and got off to, you know, pretty good starts and it's your team is not as good as you think it is. It takes one tiny thing to go wrong and if you're not prepared in on already making moves tonight, things poor.

Yeah, please.

I was just gonna give you another example, which is like a perfect example would be somebody who started the year with Kenneth Walker and Travis Etienne as their two running backs. It would be easy to say I got it figured out at at the running back position and not add or not build some depth behind them and then boom.

And that's my my kind of final point here is talking about the your fab or your waiver priority. You too often you have you as I'm talking about myself as well. I'll look at my roster. Well, I really need I got to figure out this wide receiver problem I have. I'm so good at running back, I'm not even worried. But the top two pickups of the week say are running backs and then I don't go hard after them because I think I'm good at that position. And someone else gets Kyron Williams in week one, you know, just as the easiest example because you think you're good. I don't need to go after Kyron, and that was an incredibly bad mistake because it just takes one injury to one of your two starting running backs and you're not. It don't get caught up and just don't, don't get overwhelmed and fall in love with the smell of your own farts. Looking at your roster. Always be trying to improve it.

Yeah, it is. It is one of the great illusions of fantasy football that what you're staring at, that perfect, beautiful specimen of a roster in week four, that's 40. The greatest illusion is that you are going to get to see what that team will do in the playoffs.

Yes.

Because it doesn't happen. It almost never happens. I cannot remember a team. I mean, my dynasty team last year seemed, we were talking about how lucky I was getting with injuries. Week 1012 13 and the shoe finally dropped. Right. So, yeah, it is a good thing to remember that. Look, when the roster looks nice, take a picture. But it's not going to last very long.

Yes.

Prepare yourself, number eight.

This one's called smell your own farts. Good ain't bad.

Okay, sorry.

That's right. Good ain't bad. Remember that? Yeah. Young stud players who have proven themselves on the NFL field, they're like, they came out and they're like, wow. That. They're really good. They're sensational. They are not going to go away just because the team brings in depth and more talent. And that's a lesson I needed to learn from this last year, specifically to two players you just mentioned, Andy Travis Etienne and Kenneth Walker. Both of these teams went out and got a day two running back. High draft capital for a running back. Tank Bigsby comes into Jacksonville and it was like both Travis Etienne and Kenneth Walker, prior to the NFL draft were guys we were really, really, really high on. You know, we did our early rankings shows, and Kenneth Walker, he's just a stud. But then on in the second round, they go and draft Zach Charbonnet and you're like, he's ruined. Kenneth Walker's ruined.

I got.

Unreasonably mad.

Oh, yeah.

That was the maddest you'd been all year.

I know exactly where I was. I remember the moment I was sitting in my office and the news came through and I was a level of mad for a pretend game that I should not have reached.

Yeah, it's one, it's one of those things where I thought for sure that with that kind of draft capital coming in, that these running backs would not usurp the talent, but just destroy it, just destroy the fantasy value. And obviously, you know, at the end of the year, Kenneth Walker got injured and, and Travis et and slowed down a bit, but that wasn't because of this backup that came in, they were both workhorses. They, they were both workhorses because they proved themselves already. We saw the NFL team saw, they look, if you dominate on the field, then you're, you're good. You, you know, so I think about this year, like, well, who could that happen to, like Kyron Williams dominated this last year. If they go out and spend a day two pick on a running back, I'm still going to be in on Kyron Williams. The team needs depth. Every team needs depth. We just talked about, you know, don't rest on your laurels. You know, build. Oh, you're good at running back. No, you're not. You're never good at running back. Go, go add someone. And that's true for NFL teams as well.

So Nico Collins, Tank Dell, there's been so many rumors of the Texans going out and getting a wide receiver in the draft or going after Mike Evans if he becomes available or whatever the case is.

It's like, well, Alvin Camara last offseason seemed like he was set up for the worst scenario. You're going to miss time. We like Kendra Miller. Yeah. Jamal Williams, and it's Alvin.

David Montgomery. You know, they spent a huge draft capital. David Montgomery was still very good. If you're a very good player, you're a very good player. And when, and I want to be less afraid this season about oh, so and so added this player. So now my guy is ruined. No, if the guy's good, he's going to get his. The team is just better.

Who was ahead of Keyshawn Vaughn in Tampa when that happened? Because I remember people being afraid of Keyshawn Vaughn in Tampa Bay, but I don't remember who the starter was. I don't know if it was. It was probably four net at the.

Time that I think that checks out.

But, I mean, that was, you know, draft season is very fun. The NFL is the bright lights. It takes over the whole world. So I think it's very easy nowadays to lose perspective on the way a team is built and pay so much attention to six months worth of rookie and basketball drafts. To lose sight of the fact that these players not only perform well on the field, but they also establish relationships with those teams oftentimes. So, yeah, it's a big time good reminder to have, and we'll take a quick break and be right back.

Number seven.

All right, let's, let's look at number seven here. I've titled it lose a trade, win a title.

I'm excited for this one.

Look, I have a bit of a reputation around these parts as being maybe an aggressive, persistent trader. Would you? It's agree.

It's a, that's a nice way to put it, yeah.

I mean, and, and one of the things that I think holds a lot of fantasy players up is they are unwilling to lose a trade perceptively, yes. And I think that that's a, it's a pride thing. It's obviously trying, you're trying to do the work right. You're trying to make sure that you're on the perceived winning side. Everybody wants to win the trade. Right. But what do we define winning the trade as? And you know, for me this year, what I think is important is that you want to make sure that you're getting the difference making player on the roster. We've talked about that before in two for one, three for one trades. But early in the season, for me, what I recognized was that there were two players in my mind that were league winners definitively in fantasy football this year, and they were almond Ross, St. Brown and CD Lamb. And I know that a lot of players that we have in our league, opponents teams in our league, when you get into trade discussions, sometimes it's like they have to have the last word right. They have to have the last tweak to the deal.

They have to make sure that they have one little tweak or one little addition and it can disrupt the ability to get a trade done. And so the thing I want people to remember as they go into next year, if you have that conviction, the conviction that Mike had about Dak Prescott, the conviction that many of us have about certain players, as you get halfway through the year, if you believe somebody is going to be a difference maker slash league winner, what I'm saying is, is be willing to go out and lose a trade in the public's perception. Right. In your league's perception to get the trade done.

Because Vonte Mac, no matter what.

Vaughn. Yes.

Yeah.

I'm saying you go. I mean, you go Costner.

Yes.

If you have, I don't care if.

I would number one right to do.

It, but, you know, do it, just no matter what.

Don't get bogged down in the tiny minutia details. Don't get bogged down in the little asks and the pesky additions to the trade if you want to get these players that are very hard to get. For me, it was waiting for a couple of teams to kind of get on the fringe of contention and then throw the kitchen sink at them to guarantee that I can get one of these players onto my roster. You know, we've talked about the philosophy. Obviously, if you do a two for one, three for one trade, you get to go right to the waiver wire and pick up a couple extra names if you've traded three for one. I think sometimes people get worried that they're going to be criticized for the trade that they make. But if you have the conviction, like I did, that cd lamb was a must add if I wanted any chance at a championship. Be willing to lose the trade in the public perception. If you want to win a title, it can, it can make the difference. Don't get bogged down. It's not like every player at the moment a trade is being made of is going to play the exact same way the rest of the season.

I think sometimes people just get stuck and that's why deals don't get done.

Yeah.

That's fair. Sometimes it's because we're just cowards.

Yeah. And I think that that is. It's like the fear of the loss is more powerful than the potential of the victory. But we're not playing to win second or third. And I think it's really important to be willing to, to throw something else in to get the player you need.

And it's. I would even tack on a thing at the end of be willing to, to lose perceptually lose the trade and just be willing to be, at the end of the day, swing. Like, you may be wrong. I mean, it works for you this time.

Yeah, but. Oh, I've done those trades and they get hurt the next week. I mean, that kind of stuff. But happen.

The point of you're playing to win, you're playing for first place, you're not playing for second, you're not playing for third. So you have to be willing to take some gigantic swing because if you strike out, whatever, man. What it, it's not the difference between, but if you hit, it's. You're talking about a forever championship.

You are. Is very hard to win a title.

Very hard.

Very, very difficult.

Number six.

All right. If the risk is, this is not a catchy title, but it's just, it's right to the point. If the risk is already built into the ADPD, don't be afraid. And we have too many players every single year that we're all nervous about a new situation that has happened to that player. But it's, it's fantasy football is the game of economics and things that happen. We get afraid to draft players. Their ADP goes down and now the risk of everyone being correct. I, it's already baked in there. It's our, it's already in there. Some examples. Stefan Diggs with Minnesota was an emerging player where his final three years with the team, what? Finished as wide receiver 20 in 14 games. Wide receiver eleven and 1521 in 15 games. He gets traded to the Buffalo Bills, which I still think at the time with the information we had, Josh Allen did not look like a franchise quarterback. He was coming off of, I believe, two straight years of being the most inaccurate quarterback in the league. And so we all got nervous about Stefan Diggs, who Stefan Diggs looked like a rising superstar who just got banished to a land of mediocrity.

And at that time, then he was going in the 6th round as the wide receiver 27 and he has a massive breakout campaign. He has a, Josh Allen has the huge, massive breakout campaign. So those that had the courage which that, my point being it would not really courage. We were all scared to draft him and he went in the 6th round. He's drafted as the wide receiver 27.

It's like a real Jameson Williams type of risk.

That's what I was talking about earlier. It's like it's baked in.

If he's in the 9th and that's why I'm in, I like I'll draft Jameson Williams on the 9th. If I'm wrong, I don't really lose anything. Jamar Chase as a rookie in 2021. It's laughable at this point. The risk was baked in. He was being drafted in the 7th as the wide receiver 30 and that like, that seems, that seems so ridiculous that that couldn't have, that couldn't have been possible that we were all so dumb. We let him go into the 7th.

He had a lot of drops in pre, did he?

And he couldn't catch the ball.

And yet he just like Jameson Williams.

He was 81 for nearly 1500 yards and 13 touchdowns. Geno Smith takes over as the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. Russell Wilson's out. There's panic in the streets. DK Metcalf, who was just the wide receiver twelve, was being drafted in the back of the fourth. Tyler Lockett, who was the wide receiver 13 previously plummets to the wide receiver 40 because it's impossible. We, these guys can't, there's no way to do it with Geno Smith. They're both fantastic. Mike Evans this past year. The risk is if it's baked into the ADP, you have, you have very little to lose and you have so much to gain.

It's a lot like the way the stock market moves when you're talking about the risk or the situation baked in, because in those situations. Exactly. People had played the season out already in their minds.

Yeah.

And then come up with the worst possible outcome for all of those players, and then that's exactly where you're drafting them. That's, you know, it looks nice now, but that's why Mike Evans was the, the strongest I've ever been convicted about a my guy ever, which, I told you guys that in the studio.

It was like, said that on the.

Show, and it was because he was so undervalued and everyone had anticipated a guarantee that this is how the season will play out with Baker Mayfield. There was just not a lot of risk to me in, you know, turning to a player like that. And those examples you brought up are great ones. And identifying those in draft season.

Yes.

You know, more of a challenge, you know, trying to find those players that, because they're scary. Yeah. They already, they should be scared.

And it feels when you're, when you're there and you're at their adp, you're like, am I going to be the guy to, to draft this player that's fallen so far from where they were? Like, doesn't that mean they're old, busted and I've got to be wiser? But, but you're right. Like, if the risk of them failing means they finish where you're drafting them.

Right.

Great. There's only upside.

Number five.

Number five. Draft enigmatic backs.

Say that again.

Draft enigmatic backs.

Is that one word?

That's one word.

It is.

Enigmatic.

Enigmatic. Becks, you want to draft enigmatic backs. And what I mean by that trademark. Yeah.

Go to that domain.

Enigmatic backs.

Enigmas. Enigmatic backfields are scary. The ones where you just don't know who's the guy? I don't know the situation there, but.

Yeah, so I just, I don't want to go in.

Yeah.

Like someone else figured out.

Exactly.

Someone else will figure out this. We're not even sure who the running back is, so I don't want to take the shot and then just burn the pick. But the thing is, is most of those backfields don't cost you a heavy pick, and there are always emerging assets from that type of backfield where you're not sure who it is. If you look at this, last year, you had the Miami Dolphins, you had a new undersized rookie and Devon a. Chan coming in, and you had a super old veteran and Raheem Mostert, it's a good offense, but, like, I don't know, I don't know who the guy is. I don't, I'm just going to let someone else draft him. That's why they were drafted as the running back 42 and the running back 45. Turns out they were, they was okay because they finished as the running back 24 and the running back two.

Even if they hadn't, like, even if Raheem Mostert had not finished as a running back two. Of course, hindsight is so easy, but looking back, we all had kind of projected Miami would be a high powered offense and it's someone, some running back is going to score. It will not be the running back, 40 something.

Yeah, but you didn't know who it's going to be, so how would you draft them? Just take, take your shot and maybe you're wrong like this next backfield. I was, I was wrong on this backfield, but I don't, I don't have any problem right admitting that because I saw, I saw the shot for one of these enigmatic backfields. The Rams cam Akers and Kyron Williams. You had Dan Graziano on August 4 write this quote. They look at Cam Akers and Kyron Williams as their top two backs, likely in that order. The Rams believe both can pass protect, but they like Williams a little more as a pass protector than they do acres. So while Acres is likely the nominal starter, Williams could carve out a role and be the guy they lean on in the run game if something were to happen to acres. So it's like one of those, something happens. Something happened. I liked Akers. He was the running back, 21. That didn't work out. But, Chiron, if you took him, which some people drafted him very late or most people picked him up off of waivers, obviously, we know what happened there.

He was a sensational superstar. You, you've got these situations, and it's not always like the Kyron Williams and Raheem Mosterhead, number one back coming out. But the, the commanders last year, is it going to be Gibson? Is it going to be Brian Robinson? You know, they were drafted. Brian Robinson was drafted as the running back, 36. Because of that. It's like, you know, it's a muddy backfield. And you always, you, you pretty much because of the value of the workhorse, the Christian McCaffrey's and the Saquon Barclays, you're only looking for like that. And I think that's sometimes a mistake because there's only a few of them but there's a lot of running backs you need. So it's okay to take part of a committee where you're not sure who's going to be the lead guy because it's probably a value in the draft. And they will. They will rise out of that. Brian Robinson finished as a top 24 running back.

Well, I think especially in the cases of Miami and Los Angeles, the extra layer there is that you have teams that you had tremendous confidence in the running game. You didn't know which running back it would be, but you knew that the Rams could run the football. You didn't know which running back it would be in Miami, but you knew that they were going to have an offense that could run the football. And so I think if you wanted to add an extra qualifier there, you could say, like enigmatic backfields, you know, on teams that have a history of being successful or coaches that would be successful there. All right, we'll move on.

Number four, is this.

It is my turn, right?

It is. If it's not, it is now.

Well, look, I'll be quick. I've titled this one the Little Things kill.

It's my favorite bush song.

That is from. That is from a bushel.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That is your little things.

It's just little things.

Yeah.

All right.

And look, this is the ten things to remember. This is something that I literally did halfway through this season. And the reason I'm bringing it up in part is we are going into season ten next year at the fantasy footballers. And, you know, I think that there's probably a few people that are a little bit like me in our league of record, where.

Ugly.

Ugly.

Smelly.

Smelly. What else you got, guys?

What else? Too tall.

Bad clothes.

Very much too tall.

Smelly.

We're.

No, you already said that one.

But really smelly.

You started off real hot. Look, I had a couple of championships early in the league of record. And if you were listening to the show for a long time, maybe. Maybe you started to take your league over like I thought I was. And about halfway through this year, I. Look, I've been in the midst. I was in the midst of a pretty decent drought of winning championships in league of record. I had had so much success. Me and Mike played each other in championship games three straight years a long time ago. Things just felt easy for a while, and then they didn't. You want to know why?

Because we started giving them our information.

Well, yeah, we do. Started a podcast and told them all of our information. But the truth is, is that many of you, maybe you had success early on listening, but the competition does get better in your leagues. And I wasn't, honestly, I wasn't willing to accept that. I believe that if I just kept going on the exact same way, it would just all work out like it always had. I'd grown a little bit complacent, and I had to have a meeting about four or five games this year with myself, and it was literally.

Did you schedule it?

I did schedule it. It's in my Google calendar.

A mirror.

I know.

Zoom.

We did zoom.

Oh, yeah. Incredible.

So there was zoom in a mirror, right? Yeah. So, look, I had the one on one meeting with myself, and I said, like, I can't keep doing the same thing I've always been doing. I have to pay attention to the little things if I want to get back over the hump. For me, that meant a little extra free agent prep every week, which, look, on this show, we try to help you with a little bit more persistence on the trade offers or finding those players I think can be league winners. Sometimes it's not just about trading a bunch. Sometimes it's about doing the work to figure out who you need to trade for. Not activity that doesn't lead anywhere, doesn't help you. I'm sometimes just paying a little bit more attention to some of the dirty work. That's not very fun, like playoff schedules for players and future schedules for players. Some stuff is more fun in fantasy than others, but it all helps. Those little things help lead to victories, and they add up over time. And so I think a lot of us here, maybe we've had success in the past. Maybe you're like, man, I want a title, but it's been four or five, six years.

What am I doing wrong? For me, it was belittle things. It was a willingness to reevaluate a few small areas, and it led to success this year. It's obviously very difficult to win in fantasy, so I think those things do add up. The little things. Kill.

Got the. Went back to the fundamentals.

Yeah.

Really doing his push ups, grinding.

That's right. It was the meeting, though. It was the one on one.

So, basically things to remember.

Schedule something.

Self meeting.

Self meetings. Yeah.

Number three.

Let's talk a little dynasty fantasy football here. We're gonna call this one. Know the thresholds.

Hmm.

As in dynasty. One of the harder things to make a decision on is young wide receivers who aren't immediately superstars. When do I know? When do I know that this. I drafted a lemon and I need to move on. When do I know? I got to give somebody some paper, some patience here, like Jameson Wayne's. Do we need to give him patience to grow into the player that the Lions hoped for when they drafted him?

Okay.

And so we talk about targets a lot on this show as it's an earned statistic, because if a player is, is getting open, is building that trust with their quarterback, they're going to get a target. A route gives context to just the opportunity that the team is giving them. But players can be out there. MV's style, running routes on every single play, cardio kings getting like three targets a game. And I, you now see where MV's is. He is looking for a new job. As they're saying, sir, you have not earned enough targets. We need to look elsewhere. And so we looked back over the last decade. These are what wide receivers drafted in the first three rounds. Because still, draft capital is the king of signal to, well, will a player actually be good or nothing? So here, here are the metrics. This is a little heavy in statistics, but bear with me. Through two years, on average, a first round wide receiver averages about a 20% target per route run and a 1.68 yards per route run. Second round wide receivers, their yards per route run at about 1.55 on average and the third round wide receivers at 1.4. Now, these are simply benchmarks to help guide your decisions.

It is not saying if a player is under it, they are 100% toast, but it's. You may want to think about this because honestly, through the last decade, the only player who has really resurrected himself from the grave was Devontae Adams. Was Devon. Dude sucked Devontae Adams through two years.

Remember how hard I was on him? Oh, we, we were always like, he never had a thousand yard season because he was at 997.

Yeah, I mean, it was just, it wasn't even, even just that. It was through his first two years, it looked terrible for him. I believe it was year two that Jordy tore his ACL like right at the beginning of the year. And it was, thank goodness they have Devontae Adams. It's your time. And he did not come through. So it was, no, this is never going to work out. And now Devontae Adams over the last, however long, has been one of the best wide receivers in, in the league. So we're going to take a look back of, of what we've seen. Now, this is two years ago because you're collecting the data at the top of the class. Drake, London, Olavi Garrett Wilson. They're at the benchmarks. We're not worried about it. Both Christian Watson and George Pickens are sitting above the threshold and they're volatile. Definitely. It doesn't, I don't know if we're going to see them turn into studs, but we're okay. Watson and Pickens, yes on Christian Watson, here's now where it gets a little sketchier. We're calling this one keep the light on because there could be some hope. So maybe if you're there on your roster, you're just in a hold position.

Jameson Williams, he is at one. The light on is at 1.42 yards per route run, which is under the threshold. We want. Again, the threshold is just a kind of a level that you're hoping they're above trail. And Burkshen, he's at 1.28. He's sketcher. And Wandale Robinson, he's there with Jameson Williams at 1.4.

Honestly, just putting Jameson Williams with those other two guys, it really, it does not give me a lot of comments.

Jameson highlights where because I don't believe.

In those other two at all.

Keep a dim light on. You know, I mean, like he's at.

The top of that group, right?

He's tied with wondale and. But Wandale was also not a first round wide receiver, so he's over performing compared to Jameson Williams. Jahan Dotson is on the cliff.

Yeah, he's the next tier. And it looks scary.

And then the guys where you're just where you. I think you can pretty say goodbye, just move on, unfortunately. John Metchie, Houston Texans Taekwond Thornton, Alec Pierce, Skymore and the sky people. Why are we putting Bayless Jones in here? That's just mean to him. Jalen Tolbert at David Bell, who once upon a time was hoped to be the next guy for the David Bell.

Sitting in our dynasty waiver wire, if anyone's interested.

But we have a, we do have a huge article coming out here highlighting all the thresholds and things.

But it's just, it's a met in the dynasty pass.

It's in the dynasty pass. Yeah. Thank you. It's a, it's a metric for you to be aware of because what's nice about dynasty wide receivers, when you draft them, even when they stink in their first year, more often than not they at least hold their value. Like Sky Moore was. It was atrocious that first year and there was so many glaring red.

But now that envy us is gone.

So many glaring red signs saying it's not going to work for Sky Moore. I know the draft capital is there. I know the team is there. It doesn't look like it's going to work, but the hope was still there. Like, there were still things of, you could trade sky more over that first offseason. I'm not sure you're gonna be able to trade sky Moore this far into the process. So be aware how a wide receiver, where they were drafted compared to how they're performing through the first two years to help you make it a real educated decision about do I wait this out or do I try moving?

Oh, and I'm sure, like you said in that article, to get into all the details. I think the big headline that I took away from that, from practical advice was that if you pay attention to those thresholds, you know, whether or not your belief in a player is, is justified by the metrics or is going to be an uphill battle. Like, I think that's what fundamentally I would be saying. Like, if this player does break out and have success from this point forward, they will be doing something that is unexpected and that is saying something for the odds are not in their favor.

Yeah. Historically speaking, it, it's, it's so wild how you can look back in history and find these numbers. Like, they still, like, they hold, they hold true.

Yeah.

The, the Skymore example is the example because we, we knew it. We talked about these metrics, about how he was on the field as a rookie quite a bit, and he was really, really bad in that, in that, you know, targets per route run, yards per route run. And so it's like it, you know, it, it never works out. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but, but it might work for us. Let's get that, let's get that quote back in here again. People always think it, but that's the time to get out because, because there were people still thinking it's going to work.

There's a Tobias funk in your, in your league right now who you can find one of these metrics and trade a wide receiver to them.

We'll take another quick break and come back, Jason, I hope you're ready.

Number two.

All right, thanks, Brooksie. This is the Brooksie special. I call it the preseason pretenders. Don't get fooled. I give.

Every year we get fools so hard not to.

It's so hard because we're so excited for football and we want to see things. And I went back and we want.

To, we want to trust people, Jason.

We want to trust people and we want things to matter in the preseason.

Things to go on. We watch these games, follow the signs.

We're looking for something that matters because, I mean, one that's, that's our job. Like when preseason rolls around, I'm watching these games whether I want to watch them or not and I'm trying to look for something tangible and I need to remember to stop. I need to stop. We do so much research through the off season. We have so much historical data. We go through so many training camp reports that are in depth and long winded and watch coaching press conferences and, and we develop as solid of opinions as we can based on the information we have. This last year I was so out on Damien Pierce. We had like three shows where I had a tangent on how that fourth round running back, you know.

Yeah, we argued about it.

Yeah, it just doesn't work. And then a new regime came in and brought in a Devon singletary, a veteran running back who's a quality back. Like, oh man, I was so out on.

Sounds like you talk about Kyron now though. What if Devon sing up there he goes to the Rams.

Yeah, well, I've got two things to remember.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, and then, and then all of a sudden in a preseason game. Oh, oh, baby. 89% of CJ Stroud snaps at preseason. Week two went to Damien Pierce. He's the dude. He's going to be the pass catcher. But he was not. And I got fooled in. Andy, thank you. I had the 12th pick in that draft because I was the reigning champ. And yeah, I took Damien, but I was good. I was totally gonna take tv appears. I was so angry with you, David Pierce, because of, because of just a preseason game. And let me illustrate how the preseason.

And the season before, but go on.

The preseason game is not always indicative of future success. The Steelers offense was amazing in preseason. The Steelers first team offense had five touchdowns on five drives in preseason. They looked great. Jerome Bettis is talking about Kenny Pickett has the potential to be a superstar, but he was not a superstar. There are so many, you know, examples of this, the Gervonta Williams injury that we knew the timeline like we knew it. We knew it couldn't work.

That one still hurts my feelings.

We knew it's just like medically impossible for him to be a rock star. But he got out in preseason, he played and it was like if you now we do learn things from time to time for preseason. Who was the orange Julius?

Julius Thomas.

Yeah, Julius Thomas. We, we saw that breakout coming because of preseason utilization, the tight end that year. But what it wasn't is it wasn't a change of strongly formed and informed decisions that we had made over the entire offseason. If you have a really well informed opinion that you believe in based on a lot of evidence, don't let. I'm talking to myself here. Self meeting. Well, I did on my. Get me on my zoom.

Thanks. Tank Bigsby was another one.

Yeah.

Because it was like, you know, you guys, you know, he had an opportunity in the preseason, looked pretty good.

I really want to play your earlier one, but I do not over emphasize preseason.

That's, that's the key because you do need to emphasize it. It's just a matter of like in fantasy football, I think our tendencies, because we want stuff to talk about is that you go from witnessing something to making a pronouncement about it rather than just factoring it in. Right. Like you could say, look, I'm not really a believer in Damien Pierce. He's looked pretty good this preseason. But fundamentally this is still my concern. But it's easy. It's so easy to go from, well, we were wrong. He's got a. This coach loves him. But yeah, I mean, it is.

I'm going to de emphasize I am because my natural, my natural human nature will automatically emphasize everything I see. It was just. There's just no way I'm going to go in and try to de emphasize it this year.

Just say in your head to say, you sure about that?

Yeah, whatever.

You see every. Sure about that?

Yeah, sure about that.

That's why.

Okay. And yeah, there are many examples of situations like that. The preseason, you get vanilla offenses. Right.

And defense.

Vanilla defense.

And you get vanilla defenses and you get different first team, second teams playing each other. I think in part the preseason has become less and less of an indicator over time as well produce the total amount of games. We don't play starters very much. We want to see different things from different players. And you go out there and you're not executing what, you know, a normal game plan.

It used to be the third week of the preseason. You're seeing two teams really prepare for the season with their main personnel packages. Now you've got to do heavy research even to see like, wait, okay, is this player going against the first team defense or is this. Is that cornerback? They're there, they're back up. You know, it's like.

Yep. No, it makes sense. Makes sense. All right, we've got one more because we always share one at the end here.

Number one.

Now, Jason, you titled this one.

Yeah, well, I'm a big fan of the movie remember the titans.

Yep.

And this is a. There's a show about remembering.

Okay.

I want you to remember the turds. Remember the turds.

Remember the turds in your league. So what are we saying? We're saying that.

I don't know what we're saying.

Well, we don't. Yeah. I mean, we could have said it differently, I suppose, but this is the reminder that the things in your league that cause you to have a bad experience, which may include a handful, a couple, single. There's all sorts of turds. But if there's some managers in your league that didn't add to the experience, if there were rules in your league. League formation settings. Week 17 or 16 or 18, championship games. Sorry. Week 18, title games. This is the time to kind of remember what went right, what went wrong. Make the adjustments, get them in place. Maybe there's leagues that you were saying, man, I wish our league was like, that league over there, or I wish that this one manager set their lineup ever. This is the time to make the adjustments, to. To boot out those turds.

Mm hmm.

And to get things right for your league.

Lace up them boots now.

I usually go with the flush.

Oh, we could have flushed the turds.

But I saw you guys.

No, we don't.

You're actually, like, drop kicking a poop.

I'm drop kicking it straight from the source. Never. Never hits the ground. It's incredible. That's.

That's quite the image. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a backwards kick.

Oh, it's like a mule kick.

Yeah, it's a mule kick. Yeah, when I'm camping.

You gotta boot out them, too, when you're camping.

Yeah, well, I'm not doing it at home. I got a. Got a bidet.

Wait, you do this for yourself?

This is a joke.

No, I know. He's like, stop. Stop. You're the one who said camping.

Well, I mean, where else are you gonna kick turds? You. I mean.

You doing good, Brooks, how you doing? Oh, I'm doing great. Did you learn anything from that last one? That's. That was the most important one. That was definitely you. You needed to remember. I know. I'm putting you on the spot. There's anything from this past year that, like, do you remember, you guys, how old your dynasty team is? Yeah. Starting to remember that. Just in general, not playing afraid, which is a lot of your guys points summarized. That's my problem. I was out of trades and I go to hit offer and I don't offer them.

You know, I think that's a good self acknowledgement because I look at several people in our league, and it's usually the people that are hard to trade with. And I just watched. I literally watched them hurt themselves. Like, it's annoying. I'm annoyed that they don't accept this trade or can't trade with anybody. But, like, I often think, like, I.

Feel like you're, like, presetting them up.

Like, no, I genuinely have had the thought before of, like, dude, you. You are such a coward that you don't help your team with the trade with you. No, no, no.

Specifically all these cowards out.

Not taking my deals.

Take my trade. Coward.

That's a good trade method. That's often worked.

What are you?

What are you, a chicken yellow?

I get too attached to players, certain players do. You know what?

I have that problem, too, Brooke.

That's a really easy thing to do with these long offseasons where you fall in love with certain players. It's hard. It's my.

It's my beautiful fantasy baby.

I found it feels better when you find them. I made you feels better when you find them, and then they have success and they're yours. Yeah, no question. All right. And that was a blast from the past. Some things to remember from our February 29 episode earlier this year. We wanted them front of your mind as you head into 2024, as you get ready for your draft and for your season. And so we thought we'd deliver you a little bonus episode this week and hopefully you enjoyed it. And we'll catch you with a brand new episode coming to you on Monday.

Thank you for listening to, to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the ffballers.