The Season with Peter Schrager: Fantasy Football with Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, and Craig Horlbeck
August 17, 2023 • 43 mins
With fantasy football draft season upon us, Peter sits down with Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, and Craig Horlbeck from the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Danny, Danny, and Craig have a top fantasy football podcast and Peter hosts the ultimate fantasy draft preview with them. Topics range from their favorite sleepers, to the rookies they love, to the “old” guys they’re still taking in 2023. Then, they get into different league types, rules, and traditions. This should set you up for your drafts this month.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, This is
Peter Schrager. This is the Season with Peter Schrager, and
(00:28):
there is a special episode We're clear in the decks.
This is for you fantasy football heads. I really labored
on doing a fantasy football podcast episode because I don't
know the space a little saturated, if you will. Sometimes
I roll my eyes when I see people on TV
talking about fantasy football and I know that like, guy
it's a no munch, or that guy doesn't know it's
(00:49):
just reading something from something. But I think there is
a service to be done because there are a lot
of you who listen to this podcast who are walking
into a fantasy football draft this weekend and you don't
quite feel one hundred ready. We're gonna fine tune it
a little bit with three guests this week, guys that
I have grown to really like, and they have a
podcast of their own. Our guests guys who were put
(01:13):
together once they started working at The Ringer for Bill Simmons,
and since then their podcast has taken off. I really
enjoy listening to them. I don't even really care about
their football stuff. I love their personalities and their rapport.
That's what it's all about. With no further ado, the
gentlemen from the Ringer Fantasy Football Podcast, Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly,
(01:34):
and my former producer, Craig Hurlbeck. So our guests this week.
I have to be honest, I am huge fans of
their work. I typically I'm not the guy who's listening
to seven different fantasy football podcasts, but with fantasy drafts
coming up this weekend, in so many tweets and text
I'm getting about, oh Fantasy draft time, I thought it
(01:56):
would be fun to have on my favorite fantasy football
podcast host. These guys do it three times a week.
They do it over on The Ringer and I really
enjoy their poor and also their information.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Craig Hrlbeck, Danny Kelly, Danny Hifetz. Theyre the gentleman from
the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Gentlemen, Welcome to the season
with Peter Schrager.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Thanks for having us, Shregs. It's great to be back, Shregs.
I've missed you.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Let's explain. Let's explain our history. Craig, So, I really
love you. I think you're awesome at what you do.
And now I listen to you not only on this podcast,
but on you know, the Town podcast where you're always
giving your your thoughts to Matt Maloney and you're giving
like a little different generation than him, maybe maybe one
that's you know, more of the target audience at times,
(02:43):
but also on the rewatchable like you've blown up quite
a bit. You got married, you're a fully grown man.
But you and I we met two years ago at
the height of the pandemic, and if you want to
tell the listeners our relationship help blossomed, I'm here to
listen as well.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Sure. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
During the pandemic, we did a show called Flying Coach
with Me, Shregs and the one and only Sean McVay
on the Ringer podcast Network. Ten episodes with Sean shreg
and all the coolest coaches, all their best friends from
around the league, and it's still up on the Ringer
podcast never.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
You can go listen to it right now.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I highly recommend it, specifically the Shanahan episode. Great episode
and Tomlin.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So good dude. All fly Delta and they have like
a little section on the Delta and it says podcasts
and those Flying Coach episodes are sitting there on the
plane and I'm so proud of them. Yeah, it's crazy.
The story I love to tell though, is, obviously you
sent equipment to both me and Sean. I get the equipment,
set it up, no problem. Here's the NFL's coach of
the Year. And what had to happen.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
He needed a personal visit for myself to come and
set his equipment up, which, listen, I was happy to do.
I was happy to be there and help him out.
So he wasn't as bad as Pete Carroll.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Though, So pet Carrol the year before, you need a
little more savvy than Carroll technologically.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, both will be going at it in the NFC West.
All right, So your podcast, it's three guys. You talk football,
but you talk life, You talk all sorts of stuff.
And I like it because it's not so numbers banging
you over the head with the term ADP, and it's
not so much it's more about the lifestyle of playing
fantasy football.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
The best compliment we get is people ask us, oh,
so you guys were friends and they gave you a podcast.
We actually became friends doing the show, and it's we
all have like wildly different backgrounds, and I think what's
different between us and other fantasy shows. It's not better,
it's not worse. It's like, although fantasy shows are fantasy experts,
and we all, like none of us really came up
as fantasy football experts at all, So I think we
(04:35):
just have different kinds of conversations. The reality is that
fantasy football is the best way for adult American men
to stay in touch as they get in their twenties, thirties,
forties and beyond.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Like people, we talked about this all the time. It's
like our new religion is like it's the way we gather,
It's the way we.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Like hang out.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Nowadays we all sit in our houses online and stuff
like that. There's nowhere to like really congregate, and fantasy
football is the best way to stay in touch with
people who you don't live there.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Just people get married, kids, there's and then there's a schedule.
It's like the games. Everything's at the same time of
the year. It really is about like it's kind of
like the kitchen island where friend groups can stay together virtually.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yes, it is true, like you know you have that
calendar and it's like summer you won't talk to these
people at all, and everyone's on their trips and everyone's
work and whatever. And then that September first week starts
and the kickoff goes, and all of a sudden, you're
on a text chain with the same guys you've been
on a text chain with for twenty straight years.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
It's like you never left it is, yeah, all right,
but you guys do.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Follow it really closely day to day. So I wanted
to give up some topics for viewers or listeners who
are tuning in to be like, all right, I got
my draft this weekend. I'm not necessarily studying, you know,
every NFL network show and learning what Anthony Richardson's doing
on a down to down basis, but you guys have
put the work, and here's what IM gonna do. I'm
gonna give you some topics and I want answers from
(05:49):
each of you guys, which are going to service tips
and clues for my listeners who are doing their drafts
this weekend.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Are we good?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Let's get it all right.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Let's start off.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
We'll go Danny high Fitz first. Your Fantasy Football sleeper
of the Year is who.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Gave Davis for the Bills. It's the most classic. It's
the class going up, class type sleeper man Gabe Dave. Again,
he was kind of too hyped up last year, and
again he was going like a top sixty pick. People
saw the four touchdown game in the playoffs, thirteen second
game against the Chiefs, People including us, got a little
too over hyped. And the reality is didn't have a
(06:25):
great season, kind of had this nagging I think it
was groin injury or hamstring early in the season. He
had one great game against the Steelers as sorry, Craig,
and then honestly, he was pretty terrible. Here's the thing,
Gabe Davis is now going outside the top one hundred. Basically,
nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. He's still huge, he's
still fast, He's still the deep threat for the Bills.
(06:46):
The only thing that they've added is Dalton Kincaid, the
tight end, the first rounder, who, if anything, is gonna
help Gabe Davis by working underneath. But the reality is
this is still Josh Allen's deep threat. The only differences
He's going five to six, maybe seven rounds later. And
it's exactly the point in your draft where you're pivoting
from more reliable guys to actually, I want home run threats.
I'm trying to home run a strikeout when get outside
(07:06):
the top one hundred and Gabe Davis to me is
like the definition of people had him last year, We're
upset and now he's too cheap.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
They hold it against him for the following ers say
I'm not going to do that again. It used to
happen with guys who would get injured, Like you draft
Fred Taylor and you hope draft him in the first round.
I'm dating you, guys, is before you were born. Remember
draft Fred Taylor and you're like, he's good, and then
Freddie would get hurt like week eight, and you're like,
I'm not doing it again next year, and then you
hold it against him and it's probably not fair. Danny Kelly,
(07:33):
your sleeper of the year this year twenty twenty three,
is whom.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
I'm calling an audible today just because he was announced
as this team starter.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
Anthony Richardson, quarterback for the Colts.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
I think, so he's not so much a sleeper in
like the best ball streets.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
I think a lot the best ball people are kind
of all over him already.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
But in terms of just day to day you know
home leagues. I still think he's being really really underrated.
He brings legitimate, like top five potential at quarterback and
he doesn't even have to be a good passer. That's
the beauty of it. Like he could be terrible and
by the way, he probably is going to be terrible
as passer this year. If you look at what Justin
Fields did, he was a top five, top six quarterback
(08:11):
going down the stretch of the season he was.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
He lost ten games.
Speaker 7 (08:16):
They literally went to like.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
The Navy offense we joke about all the time on
our show, Like they passed the ball fewer than at
a lower rate than almost any team in the last
twenty years. You know, Anthony Richardson could be terrible at
passing and he could still be, you know, top three,
top five quarterback just because of the rushing. The way
that stats are set up in fantasy football, it really
benefits quarterbacks who run.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
These are the types of guys that are league winners,
week winners, and league winners.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
So Anthony Richardson, just because he can run, I think
he's going to be a big time webin for them
in the red zone, kind of like we' seen Jalen
Hurts over the last few years. Jalen Hurts double digit
rushing touchdowns last few seasons. I don't think that Richardson's
necessarily at Jalen Hurts's level yet clearly, but I think
they can use him in the red zone, kind of
like Cam Newton to punch it in.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
I think he's going to score a lot of touchdowns.
I think he's gonna run a lot, and.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I think he's going to be one of the best
late round picks that you can possibly make.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Love it, Craig, take us sleeper, who you got Johan Dotson,
the wide receiver and the Commanders second year.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Guy, first to first.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
People forget, you know, just because he was drafted around
Jet Wilson, Chris Alave, Jamison Williams, Treylon Burks.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I bet you if you ask.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Most people, they would not expect Johan Dotson to be
a first round pick.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Last year.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
He started super hot, four touchdowns four games, and then
he got hurt, and then he came back and finished strong.
So his season long stats aren't great, which is what
people look back on. Most average fantasy players are looking
back on the season long stats, and they would look
at Johan Dotson and go, oh yeah, he wasn't as
good as Terry McLaurin last year, but in reality, the
final five games of the season, when they were both healthy,
he was beating McLaurin and all the nerdy stats that
(09:44):
everybody likes. Your targets per route run, their yards per
rout run, red zone targets, share, all that stuff. Straight
up targets he had more than Terry mclauurin in the
last five games of the season. Now we've got Eric
bienemy In. I like Sam holland Burssett at least enough
to make a little bit of a jump, and receivers
typically make the biggest jomp between year one and year two.
Dotson's also just an eye test guy. When you watch him,
(10:04):
you're like, this guy has it and you can get
him around ninetieth one hundredth in your draft right now.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I love Dotson.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I loved the conversation you guys had on your podcast
last week, and you did it about guys who might
be in the twilights of their NFL careers, and because
people just want the young, fresh, new face, they don't draft,
but then year after year can still deliver. I'm gonna
call this the Keenan Allen Award where he's still around,
he still puts up numbers, and yet you look at
(10:38):
these top twenty wide receivers, Keenan Allen never in the list,
whenever year, finishing that high. Why don't we go around
the horn and you each give one of those names,
a guy that you know is going to deliver and
yet probably will not be drafted as high as he should.
Danny Hidefelz, I guess.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
You, bud, Travis Kelcey doesn't count because he's still a
first rounder. I do want to shut out that. The
only reason.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Would you take Travis kelce in the first round? Is
that happening people take on the first round?
Speaker 5 (10:57):
Because here's the thing. Yeah, literally, the only argument against
Travis kelce literally is that he's thirty four years old
and people are afraid of him bottoming out. The reality
is Travis kelce.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Age is just a number.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Guys, look at you, Trager, You were better than conversations.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Is that when Craig and I were in our mid twenties,
we hated old, We hated players as the thirty. Now
Craig and I are almost thirty, and we're like, you know,
what's fine? Old players. Thirty is just the number.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
But it's like it's like George Clooney turned fifteen and
he's like, you know what, I'm gonna settle down, Like
I'm actually okay with marrying somebody over the.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Interest now is time?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, He's like, you know what.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
It's So it's like in my younger days, I was
pretty terrified to take Derek Kenry or Travis Kelsek because
I'm like, thirty, My god, he must have like a
mortgage or something. But uh, like Kelsey like hasn't missed
the game to injury. He's had he had COVID and
he had you know, they get benched in week seventeen
because they're always clinching playoffs.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Stop saying it.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I know, sorry, I'm not gonna win. I gotta Yeah,
but the Kelsey hasn't missed the game to injury, they're
not gonna what in a decade. It's like Jamar Chase
is going ahead of him. He missed it games last year.
Cooper Cup missed games last year. Like all these all
the players that are supposedly younger and safer have been
injured at some point. Kelsey hasn't, So I'm probably giving
him the kind of her as they would say, but yeah,
(12:07):
nice to me, Kelsey. It's like buying applestock. It's like,
this is the safest thing there is.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I'm here for the Yiddish Danny Kelly. What about you?
Who's the guy that you know? You see and you're like,
come on.
Speaker 7 (12:21):
My guy this year is Dedre Hopkins.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Really with Tannehill in that offense.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
So I actually like Tannehill. I think I'm the last
person on tannehill Island. I think he's solid. I don't
think he's like great. It was right there and I
freaking missed it your audio cut out, But yeah, I
mean to me, like he's he's really solid. I don't
think he's like great or anything, but he's still a
solid veteran. I think he's gonna feed a guy like
Dedre Hopkins. I think there's a lot of question marks,
(12:48):
you know, outside of Hopkins in terms of what we're
gonna expect from this offense.
Speaker 7 (12:51):
Obviously, Trailing Burks.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Is there, and he's an up and coming guy, but
he's still young, still very inexperienced, and and I think
Hopkins is just gonna get force fed in this offense.
Last year, this is this was wild to me when
I found this stat. Last year, in the nine games
that Hopkins played, he averaged ten point seven targets per game.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Really good.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
The only the only player, the only receivers who had
more targets per game than him are Chase Cup and
Jefferson like the first like the first four picks, first
five picks, So you know, he's definitely getting older. But
his game has never really been built on speed or explosiveness.
It's always about body positioning. Old man at the Y type,
you know, post a guy up and skyhook him and
(13:31):
fundamental that guy's footwork. Yeah, getting get low, low fatality,
you know, boxing out.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So I don't know.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
To me, he's just so good.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
He's I heard Tannehill called him vintage Hopkins the other day,
and I think he's just going to have a really
big year. And people are forgeting about him because's a
little older and he switched teams, which that's valid, But
I still think he's going to be the focal point
of this passing game.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Craig, tell me why Derek Henry is going in the
second round.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
What's changed?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Talk about it.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
He had three hundred and.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Fifty carries last year, played the entire season, was the
third best running back in Fantasy.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And everyone's just like, I'm good. He's twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
No thanks, Like Leodocaprio when a girl turns twenty six,
he's like, I'm out, give me a reason why there's
nothing's changed.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
He's still Dereck Henry.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
We're all obsessed with this idea now that as running
backs enter their late twenties, they just, you know, I
think it's a misnomer.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Essentially, we're betting on science, you know, we're.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Betting on these phenomenal athletes preparing their bodies and actually
taking advantage of the technological advance. And we have now,
and Dereck Henry is twenty eight years old. And if
I'm going to bet on anybody to actually make it
to their thirties and not fall off, I'm gonna pick
the guy who gets three hundred and fifty carries every
single year and continues to be a top five running
back of Fantasy. And he's just sitting there in the
second round now because he's old. It's age shaming, really,
(14:49):
fourteen ages, fourteenth.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Round starts rolling around, and it is now you can
take a little you already took a kicker. You already
tick your defense, you got maybe two more picks left
to go, and you want to take a rookie. I'm
gonna go around the horn. Craig will start with you
give me a rookie that might still be around then
that you're looking at. Maybe he's not the first or
second overall pick, but it's a guy that you've got
your eye on.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Interesting a rookie, can I go with? I think I
want to go with the tight end position here. I like,
I like, yeah, I like two guys. I like Luke Musgrave,
and I like uh yep, And I like Jake Ferguson,
Michael Mayer, Yeah yeah, Ferguson out of Okay and Ferguson, Oh,
Ferguson second year guy, Musgrave rookie.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
I'll stick with you with mus.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Grave Ferguson's Cowboys, right he was second year guy?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yeah yeah, sticking with Muskrave. Then, uh.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
When when you're getting a rookie tight end, they don't
typically work out. But what I like about Musgrave is,
unlike a lot of other tight ends, he's just playing receiver.
He doesn't have to learn the blocking half of the
of the of the offense. And I like guys much
like a Dalton Kincaid. We're gonna be split out and
are going to be running routes. And if you look
at the Green Bay offense, I mean it's an entirely new,
young offense. There's not a lot of established guys. You
got Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, and you got Musgrave. So
(15:55):
if you're gonna take a shot, if you believe in
Jordan Love, who's looked great this offseason, offseason and in
the preseason, uh, Musgrave is a guy who could kind
of sneaky start his rookie year hot, kind of like
a Pat Friar move.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Okay, who you got rookie?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
He got your eyes.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
Oh man, there's so many of them. I could just
go down the list. I'm going to shout out a
guy who's kind of gotten. People are not super excited
about him based on what happened in preseason Week one,
and that's Devon a Chain for the Dolphins because he
was playing he was like fourth or fifth on the
depth chart. In this game, he's playing into the fourth quarter.
Typically these are not great signs for rookie running backs.
(16:29):
But I will say, if you watch the games like
I did, like here a huge sicco and you watch
that game, he was running vertical routes. He caught four
passes for forty one yards. He actually led the Dolphins
in receiving this game. He caught a passed out of
the backfield up the like up the sideline for a
chunk gain. He caught a like a Texas route over
the middle of the field for like a ten yard gain.
(16:51):
He was being used in exactly the type of way
we want him to be used, which is vertical pass
catching role. And obviously, like Miles Gaskin's still there, they
still got Raheem Moster, Jeff Wilson.
Speaker 7 (17:03):
He's got some hurdles to clear.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I think they don't have Dalvin Cook, which is a
good sign. They must have liked what they had in house.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
I was a little nervous that Dalvin Cook was going
to come in and ruin my dreams. But even though
he was playing with like the fifth stringers into the
fourth quarter, I'm sticking with it. Devon ah Chain midway
through the year, I think he's going to start being
really really useful for them. And again he's being used
in the way that you want him to be used.
Which is as a pass catcher except Colladega speed baby,
(17:28):
So I just yeah, hot, nasty, badass speed and that's
what he's got.
Speaker 7 (17:33):
So I just love this offense too.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
It sounds so good coming out of your mouth, Danny,
what about you, my friend?
Speaker 5 (17:38):
There's a rookie. I really love Jordan Addison, the rookie
receiver for the Vikings. I think that he has not
been going as high. He's basically like a top one
hundred player depending where you look, depending on the platform
or website, use eightieth, one hundredth, one hundred and fifth,
seventy fifth. It's a huge range. But I think he's
really underrated because I think as a pure regular NFL
(18:00):
prospect he's undersized. I get all that he's he's not
a prototypical number one receiver. I think think he's being
unfairly dinged for that in fantasy because Jordan Adison is
the perfect compliment to Justin Jefferson. It reminds me a
little bit of when Juju Smith Schuster had an incredible
rookie season behind Antonio Brown Calvin Ridley. I remember Julio
(18:23):
Jones was incredible for the Falcons, but he couldn't score touchdowns.
Calvin really comes in as a Rooie as like five
touchdowns in like five games by Julio Jones. I feel
that Jordan Addison will have that type of impact disproportionate
to his skill level because he's refined, he's a precise
route runner, He's polished in a way that makes up
for his lack of physical gifts. That will basically pay
dividends immediately, and I think he's gonna soak. I mean,
(18:46):
Adam Thielen, no offense to the guy was a little
dusty last year, and I think Addison's going to come
in and just vacuum up behind Justin Jefferson. It's kind
of no, it's it's just an incredibly massive opportunity to
be around this guy. He's always doubled and I think
he's gonna just eat.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
It's built for him.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
Did you see his catch the other day?
Speaker 6 (19:06):
He had like a touch catch. They didn't even review it.
They called him out, they didn't even review it, but
he made the most incredible catch that just it's the preseason.
That doesn't counts, it doesn't matter, but whatever it was,
it was an amazing catch.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Speaking of preseason, you ask how being a fantasy expert works.
Here's how it works, college statistics, preseason plays. If they
confirm what you already believe, they're very important and representative.
And if they don't, if they go against what you
already think, then they're meaningless. And Jordan Adison had sixteen
hundred yards in college two years ago and won the
Best Receiver in College Football award and then had that catch.
(19:42):
So there, I must already be right.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm gonna give all the Zay Flowers might be the
best wide receiver out of this bunch. It might do it.
I don't know if he gonna put up the best numbers,
and I don't know how this helps for fantasy. What
I'm learning from Zay Flowers is that he's unguardable because
of his footwork and speed, and he might just be
drawing a lot of pass interference calls. Honestly, that's what
I'm telling. So, like, if you're expecting one hundred catches,
that might not be it, but he will be a
huge function of the Ravens offense. And I think I
(20:06):
see a lot of people drafting him really high. I
don't know if his numbers are going to be high.
I just know he's going to be a pain in
the ass to cover. And that's like one of those
things in fantasy where here's the arbitrage where yes, he
might be our offensive rookie of the year, but no,
his numbers might not be as crazy as Justin Jeffersons
or Jamar Chase's.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
I like that one too. He's so good.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
There's a reason a lot of people were comparing him
to like Antonio Brown when you're when you're watching the tape,
like his feet are so fast, his route running so
sudden and twitchy. I agree with you, though, like I
don't know exactly what his role is going to be
like in that Ravens offense. We don't even know what
this Raven's offense is really don't know what it looks
like at all. So there's there's a lot of variants
put potential there. But yeah, he's a really good player,
(20:47):
all right.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Strategy wise, say I'm doing my fantasy draft. I know
which players are good, but every year it's different. Some
year it's like you have to get those two running
backs early because there's a big drop off. Some years
it's you need the wide receiver one because after the
first few of them it's a drop off. Craig, I
know you've been studying the grids and the cheat sheets.
What's the strategy this year is in the first round,
(21:09):
is it important to get what? And when you do
that snake draft? What are you trying to come out
of here? Because I know there's a drop off at
each position at some point.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
So if you're playing in a league with one quarterback,
what we kind of like to do this year is
basically get an elite player from every single position group.
This year is a really unique year because running backs
are kind of going late, quarterbacks are hotter than ever,
and then you have Travis Kelcey, who's just miles away
from every other tight end. So we kind of suggest
is get one from each position. Start your draft with
(21:37):
the Travis kelce then move on get an elite running
back like a Dereck Henry. Third round, you can get
yourself an elite quarterback like Jalen Hurts or Patrick Mahomes,
and then you can still get a great receiver. If
you can start your draft with four players four different positions,
like a DeAndre Hopkins DKs guy. You could start your
draft with Travis Kelcey, Dereck Henry Patrick, Mahomes, and DeAndre Hopkins.
You get four Hall of Famers in four rounds, as
(21:59):
long as you're not an age bias guy like all
those out there. But I kind of like mixing it
up spreading the wealth this year specifically, can't you agree?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (22:07):
Yeah, totally. I really like this year's second round running backs.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
So I personally believe grabbing a guy like Kelsey or
one of the elite receivers in round one and then
getting a Pollard or Josh Jacobs in round two. I
think Jacobs has fallen because there's some uncertainty about whether
he's going to play.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
I think at the end of the day he's probably
gonna play.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
It'll be that so I think.
Speaker 7 (22:26):
But Tony Pollard to me, is.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Like my favorite second round pick right now. I just
think he has through the roof potential. He's such a
good player, so explosive, and they're gonna use him in
the right way. He was already, you know, such an
elite producer last year when they had Zeken tout, and
now it's his his offense and his his backfield. So
to me, Tony Pollard is sort of a lynchpin guy
that I just really like in that second round.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
So in the second round, Danny, what about you?
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah, I mean I agree with Danny Kelly where it's
kind of flipped. I feel like you used to take
your top running back in the first round and then
you get a great receiver in the second. Now it's
basically you can pretty much get an elite receiver in
the first round. You come back around Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs,
Derrick Henry, Nick Chubb, baby Sake one those guys used
to go in the first It's kind of like the
top twenty top twenty four, but now just the receivers
and running backs have flipped spots. That's like the simplest
(23:11):
way to explain it.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Because everybody realized that wide receivers exactly. You know, running
backs get hurt all the time, and you can you know,
you can depend right time. Justin Jefferson, your Tyree Kills,
your Jamar Chase is like, if you if you don't
want to lose your draft in the first round, you
take a wide receiver because you know, by the end
of the year, odds are one of the guys you
draft in the top five is probably gonna finish in
the top five.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah. And what about quarterbacks. I know you said that
you want elite, Like, is it crazy to take Josh
Allen or Jalen Hurts in the first round this year?
Speaker 5 (23:37):
First? Yeah, second, first round. We start our rank you
have Fantasy Football doc threear dot com. We have our rankings.
We have a top two hundred of upsides downsts for
every player.
Speaker 7 (23:46):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
And the bottom line and all these guys basically is
we have our quarterbacks right around the third round. Basically
we've got basically a couple dozen truly special players. It's
Travis Kelcey and a bunch of running backs, receivers, and
then at that point, as Craig said, locking those quarterbacks
where you're basically getting an elite floor. Jalen Hurts eighteen
rushing touchdowns in eighteen games last year, included the playoffs.
(24:08):
The floor, not just the ceiling, is crazy. Josh Allen
the running you know, he could lead the league in
rushing touchdowns or receiving or passing touchdowns. And Mahomes is
Mahomes And I think that at that point, elite floors
in the first few rounds, and then after that you're
chasing elite ceilings. So if you miss out on Mahomes, Hurts, Allen,
Justin Fields, Lamar Jackson in this new offense is an
(24:29):
elite ceiling. Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert. Those guys have truly
elite potential. And I think that if you're stacking that
at quarterback, Darren Waller has an elite ceiling at tight end,
and I think that's you know, Scott Barrett has done
great stuff at a great website called Fantasy Points, where
elite ceilings win you your league, they win weeks, they win leagues.
And I think elite floors in the first three rounds
and then next making up where you didn't get it
(24:51):
with elite ceilings.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Where are you guys at d Kale started? Where are
you guys at with Kyle Pitts? I think everyone took
him in the first round or second round last year
and now like it's almost like, yeah, you wouldn't be
able to touch them, you know, it's like how could you?
Speaker 6 (25:03):
I think at least for Craig and I think we
kind of hate him at this point, like nothing that
he's actually done personally that is his fault.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
It's just is.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Someone else's problem. You have them.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
I don't exactly. I'm just like washing my hands of
that toxic.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Relationship that I don't want to be a part of it.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
I just don't want to have to deal. I don't
want to have to think about him anymore. He might
be the best tight end in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Gotch Like I hope it for him, I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
Yeah, I think it's one of the best, one of
the best parts.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
I'm unfriend I'm like unfriending him on Facebook so I
don't have to look at his feet.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
You know this is like, yeah, you mentioned Facebook, I
got it. You know well, I think one of the
best most charming aspects of our, of the three of
us dynamic, is that DK, in his older wisdom, now
that he's in his forties, doesn't have the energy, doesn't
allow toxic people in his life, and doesn't Michael Thomas.
You know, Kyle fits people who just are kind of
a drain on your energy. DK, just like I don't,
(25:56):
I can't. I don't time for you anymore.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, all right, quickly, I'm gonna go around you guys,
tell me yay or na. I'm gonna mention some things
about fantasy football. I'm gonna put you on the spot
Craig will start with you auction draft yay or nay? Yay,
you gotta do it, explain, make the case for why
someone should just scrap the old snake draft. That takes
(26:20):
one minute and is you know, easy enough to do
to go to the auction thing which seems unbearable.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Let's say Justin Jefferson's your favorite player in fantasy football,
and then you're eagerly awaiting what draft pick you're going
to get. You're praying you get the first or second pick,
and then the hat, the name gets drawn out of
the hat and you have the tenth that terrible feeling
of well, I guess I want to have Justin Jefferson
this year. That doesn't happen. In an auction draft. You
can spend your money on any player you want. You
can get Justin Jefferson and Christian mcaffor you want. It's
a lot more flexibility every single every single pick you
(26:47):
are involved in.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I love it, okay, DK.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Individual defensive players are we yay or nay?
Speaker 7 (26:55):
I've been a nay on that one.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
I just it's hard enough, like keeping track of all
offensive players.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
I don't know, like adding all that.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
To to the to the plate is a bit much
for me. I just I don't track it enough and
I've ever really done it. I'm an old I'm an
old guy. Can't teach me new tricks.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
I don't really know.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I'm not into Danny.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Two quarterback leagues where there's two quarterbacks starting in yay.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
Or nay, I'm totally in. At the end of the day,
It's very, very silly to me that in real life
running backs can't get paid, and like, you know, Jonathan
Taylor isn't getting a contract, Will Jim er Say's trying
to fly in Orca to see world for twenty million dollars.
But in fantasy we have running back like ten twelve
running backs come off the board for Patrick Mahomes And
at two quarterback league, you know the first Pixar Patrick Mahomes,
(27:35):
Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts. That's real life. So I like
two quarterback leagues.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I love that. Craig ten team leagues, Yeah or nay.
It seems very light.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
That's as light as well go. Eight is ridiculous. Ten
is where I draw the line. Ten is okay, twelve
is ideal, fourteen is fine, sixteen is too.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Big, okay, DK non PPR leagues where we don't keep
track of receptions.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
We just do yards.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Strongly against Yeah, archaics totally here.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
All right, if you're into that, I hate.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
You, Danny.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I'm gonna tell you one that my league that is
a bit of part of for twenty three years. We
don't do flex. We don't believe in it. We think
it's silly. There's no such thing flex, Danny hiex flex position,
which seems like such a bailout. Yeah, r nay.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
I love no flex.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
We leading the witness.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
What is flex?
Speaker 6 (28:29):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
It's the dumbest This is a great take. It's like,
be decisive. Who are you?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Never know what flex would be good for?
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Flex should be like the four players who are like
quarter old Patterson can plain in the flex. That's it.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Sure, the actual.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Patterson, Taysom Hill, and Jamier Gibbs can be flex. I
hate the flex. I never heard of the flex until
like I came on a Good Morning Football and I
come on hearing the word flex. But what the heck
is flex? They're like, well, it could be any position.
It's take a wildcard, Like, well, that's not real. It's
the dumbest thing.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
I love this flex, all right.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Team defenses counting, Craig, Yeah, your nay, I go back
and forth.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I'm fine with it.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
I prefer a team defense over a kicker, So if
I had to choose, I'd take the defense.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Fun the route for a defense, Okay, DK, I'll ask
you counting every little thing, like a two point conversion
has a metric, or a batted down pass has a metric.
Like at some point there's got to be a limited the.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Forty yard completion bones, Yes, I hate that.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yes, sorry, I'm judging.
Speaker 7 (29:28):
I was going to bring that up.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
No, I was gonna say the like you get a
bonus for having one hundred yards. This is I've played
in a few leagues where like a running back, if you.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
Gets one hundred yards gets a bonus. I think there's a.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Time and a place for it for my home league,
for like most of my leagues, I don't really want that.
I do think it's fun to like sprinkle that in
every once in a while if you're like in a
tournament or something like that. But generally speaking, I like
pretty standard scoring setting that DK.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
How many of your twenty three leagues are do you
use the one hundred yard.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
Bonus probably none, right now, Okay, I would say I'm
open to it in like one or two leagues, just
because to.
Speaker 7 (30:03):
Mix it up and make it fun.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
All right, DK, I'm gonna go back on that one
with you. I just heard twenty three leagues. I know
it's being sarcastic.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
He actually is in twenty three weeks.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Actually he's in twenty two.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Pandemics like Sanity Project was just drafting Dynasty Fantasy not fun.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It's not fun.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
It's fully talking about it.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Fun about that, And the whole point of it is
you have a player in the league I found, and
you're rooting against every player in the league.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
But yeah, I mean I have so many I have
so many players on my teams that I'm like.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
But in your head, which team is which? I feel
like I wouldn't know who to root for.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
No, So you just I will say, here's the qualifier.
Here's the qualifier. Ninety five for cent of my teams
are dynasty leagues. So it's not day to day stuff
that you're doing. There's not a bunch of guys in
the waiver wire. Typically it's like you draft a team
and you develop it over years, but you're not It's
not like I'm spending a lot of time on this roster.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Can I day out you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Can I unveil a hot take on you guys right now?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'm out on dynasty leagues? Me too, Boom.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
You know what the best part about fantasy football is
the draft.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
Craig, You're in my dynasty league and time on it.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
He's playing it.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
He doesn't like it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Oh cool?
Speaker 4 (31:16):
I get to draft a fourth round run with you.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
I get this question all the time. Should I keep
two out of these seven players? I don't know? Draft
a new team. I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Draft a new team.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I don't want to be parsing through six round rookies
to figure out who has value.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
That sounds terrible. You know. I want to draft Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
That's fun, Danny, Danny high Fetz.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
People who draft in person versus people who draft online,
and the rift there of the arrogance and I'm an
on person guy, of those who roll their eyes at
those who are in a Yahoo Yahoo draft room and
consider that a fantasy league go on?
Speaker 7 (31:50):
All right?
Speaker 5 (31:51):
So this is this gets to what we were saying
earlier about like fantasy football is about keeping in touch
with your friends people different places. Obviously can't control that.
You always want to draft in person if you can.
If it's your friend group, you want to be in person.
It's incredible. At the very least, though, you have to
show up for the dre You can't auto draft. Got
auto draft? Is it? Look? If you have children, you
(32:11):
too understand. It's better than me. We can talk wedding.
Otherwise it's weddings and funerals. Or you better be there,
even even.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
If it's on zoom. That's okay. You just can't auto draft.
That's unaccepted. It's un America, I think.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
No, the hardest part of any league, and you know
now we're just going off because I got so many thoughts.
The hardest part of any any league is finding a
draft time that works for everyone. If you get one
of those Google doodles going and everyone you come up
with one time, I don't care if it's five o'clock
on a Wednesday, you better not the day of say
I just can't make it. That's unacceptable.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
You're out.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
You're out. We will find a replacement.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
The two people can also pay your league dues before
the draft. If you're a commissioner of a league, require
everyone to pay their league dues or they can not trist.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Is that a thing people pay the league? Do you
get to chase them down for the for the vendors.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Yeah, I gotta go hire like a fixer. I gotta
go hire Ray Donovan to go get the money from
this guy.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yeah, there's always one of them.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
There are two people I hate in a fantasy league.
I feel like Austin Powers and I'm like, there's two
kinds of people I hate in this world. Yeah, but
what the people who don't fill out that doodle, as
you were saying, and then at the end, once like
nine people can make it, you're like, oh, that day
doesn't work for me. My mother's visiting, And I'm like, dude,
that's what we made the doodle for. The Other one
is the people who think that they get to veto
(33:27):
other people's trades just grinds my gears. Like in real life,
where I don't know if you've noticed, there's a lot
more stakes to the real life sports leagues. There's been
one vetoed trade in our lifetime, and it was the
Chris Paul trade because the NBA owned the league. Office
owned the team and they were like, all right, this
is weird. Literally, like thousands of real life trades have
(33:47):
been made. They all go through this is America. You
have the right to be stupid and make dumb decisions.
It's not your job to run other people's stuff it.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I love it real quick. There's a whole craze in
the last ten years of like punishments and making it
go viral. And this guy ate a waffle every day,
every hour for twenty four hours. This guy I had
to poop in a sandwich and eat it and we
all laughed and we put it on YouTube too. Sophomore
silly or you guys all for this craig, We'll start with.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
You if you're coming to me.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
It's definitely not too sophomore. I don't know how other
people feel, but I'm all for it.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
In our league right now, are the current rule is
we have the loser on the trip next year. He's
our butler and he has to wear a outfit hell
the whole weekend. He like serves us food and he
gets the worst bed. And I'm all for it, you know.
And we've actually employed a last place tournament at the
end of the year for all the guys whose teams
suck in like weeks twelve through seventeen, we have a
(34:44):
last place tournament to determine who gets last. So I
think last place is just as fun and as first
place in terms of end of year suspense.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
DK, what's the craziest thing you've heard in that regard?
I mean they come up every year, they're more and more.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Man there's I had a couple of friends who under
their leagues, they're like punishment for last place was yet
the to go like be a busker on like a
sidewalk and like play music and and try and get
tips and things like like what's a busker is like
when you're like you're on the corner, like playing like
music and like try to make.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Money that way. The open guitar, I want to.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
I want to tell you one great I want to
tell you one great rule that we have in in
one of my leagues is if you get a zero
in any of your spots in any given week, you
like a player.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Like a guy got to help change your lineup?
Speaker 6 (35:41):
Yeah, goose egg. Yeah you have to shot. You have
to record yourself shotgunning a beer and send it to
the rest of the league, and that I think is
one of the more fun rules.
Speaker 7 (35:50):
That I have in any of my links.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Like it, Danny yourself, the craziest thing you've.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Heard, there's some I mean the craziest stuff is there
are people who there are leagues that you have to
get it to too. I mean, that's crazy that. That
to me is the wildest, the wildest one we do.
The one that I think works the best, and even
as you get is our league gets a beer mile
because we Thanksgiving, there's always a We do a flag
football game on Black Friday. And it's funny because as
everyone gets older, the game gets earlier and people show
(36:16):
up with more knee braces and everyone's stretching more and
more of a year. But then at the end, thy brother, yes, wait,
at the end of the game, though, we do the
beer mile, which is great because there's like me who's
not the most fleet to foot, but I can drink
a beer versus like this guy who ran a four
and a half minute mile in college but like can't
chug and like, all right, this is actually even now.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Craig correct me if I'm wrong. Bill Simmons is league
and they always talk about the Shakey's League. Yeah, the
winner gets to vote off any person in the league
and they have to miss a year. Right, I think
that's pretty drastic.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
This is the funniest one.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yes, so it's a twelve it's a twelve team league,
but there's but there's thirteen members and every year, thirteen
people have to show up to the draft and the
previous year's winner then sits down like a dictator and
goes you you're out, and they have to get up
and leave the draft.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
I'm not kidding. I guess it was during the pandemic
and I was listening to Simmons a lot, like twenty
twenty maybe twenty twenty one, and I think there was
real friction between him and Sal over it. It felt like,
oh there was salout and Sal was very angry.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Bill.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Well, when Bill got voted out one year, he started
a new league.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Bill was.
Speaker 5 (37:27):
I'm not just saying this because you know, we worked
for Bill Simmons. I think I actually think Sal must
have come up with that. I think that is the
that is the rule that I actually think it is
the best. It is incredible, it's.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
So good, and they, yeah, that's great. All right, guys,
we're wrapping. Uh, fantasy football is on the way. Where
can we find the podcast? And what is it called?
Craig for everyone who listens to this one and wants
their hardcore football news but had a draft this weekend
and is like, wait a second, my pants are not
ready for this. I need to get ready. Where would
you go for it?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Sure, the show is called The Ringer Fantasy Football Show.
It's anywhere you can find podcast. We prefer Spotify. There's
a lot of fun features on there. You can look
at our guide while you listen. But yeah, The Ringer
Fantasy Football Show with us three three days a week
and four days a week during the season.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I wish you guys well for Danny Hifetz, Danny Kelly,
Craig horlback, guys, this is awesome. We really appreciate you
coming on. This is great.
Speaker 7 (38:19):
Thanks Pete, love you, Shregs.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I love those guys. I think they're cool, they're funny,
and they've got a great friendship that you can tell.
And that's the key to any show or podcast, And
obviously fantasy football is the thread that keeps them all
together and going with the pod. But Their podcast talks
about all different sorts of topics, including movies. Aaron, I'm
going to tell you in nineteen ninety nine, I was
(38:44):
in a fantasy football league with my friends from high
school at the time, and I signed after week one
a gentleman named Kurt Warner, and I went on to
have a team that had Kurt Warner. Isaac Bruce, I
think I had Terrell Owens on that team. And I
tore up my fantasy league and ran away with a victory.
(39:06):
And I will tell you that is still one of
my greatest achievements, the amount of points that my team
won by in the East Coast Stream Team league back
in nineteen ninety nine with all my buddies from Freehill
Township High School. That is the importance of fantasy football.
It brings you back to nineteen ninety nine and we're
here in twenty twenty three. That's me. Do you have
(39:28):
a fantasy league, Aaron. Wan Kaufman, my producer who I know,
has a lot of interest and it's very eclectic. Does
fantasy football fill in the ven diagram shaded area of
you and me?
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, very much so. I actually got into fantasy same
thing with a bunch of friends from high school, middle school.
Then also like the same year when I was starting,
that one also started two others.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So I had like three leagues.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
In my very first year of playing Fantasy. And my
favorite part, like the guys were saying like you were saying,
is just keeping in touch with friends and like sending emails.
And we have won my league with like the high
school school friends, the four of us that are like
the tightest one of the guys has still not won,
(40:12):
even though he's the one who's.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
This is like fifteen years you guys have been in
this right.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
It is yes, yep, and it is just a I
just I never let him forget it. It's always just
like in the chat, I'm like, oh wait, isn't there
someone here who's never won our league. I forget which
one of us it is.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I do have strong takes, as you could hear, like
I really resent the auto draft thing. I think that's real,
Like if you can't give me two seconds of your time,
then you don't belong in our league. I actually look
in my whole life, I was in one league. I
hate the idea that people don't get together, and I
know that's selfish. And now that I've got a family,
it's nearly impossible, like on the weekend. But like, I
(40:48):
hate these leagues that it's just random people that you
don't know, and Danny said he has. When Danny said
he's in twenty three leagues, I almost wanted to like
chop my hand off. That was the crazy, like that
is not fun. That sounds like hell.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I have decreased the number that I've been in and
especially like the more that I've worked with NFL all stuff,
the less I want to be in those leagues because
it's just it, it is too much to keep track
of and like you were saying, at some point, you
are rooting for every player and against every player, and
it's like I need I need Jonathan Taylor Discord, but
(41:20):
not more than sixteen, but he can't do more than seventeen. Yeah,
it's it's wild. But yeah, the I've been really lucky
that you know, we've had a couple of drafts that
have been in person. But I have I have one
friend who's a doctor and he one time he did
a draft, like hope, so during that run in and out, yeah,
(41:40):
not during surgery, but he was like on call and
would like run in and out of the like doctor
rest area that they have. I don't even know what
it's called, but he was like in the hospital doing
the draft.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
I also it's a I think it's like it's like
I don't give a about anyone else's fantasy league either.
Like when someone comes up to me and starts talking
to me about their team, I you, there is nothing
I'd rather talk about mathematics or like the future of algebra.
I don't care. I know it sounds rude. I do
not care, and it's the question I get the most.
(42:13):
If I'm ever recognized on the street or in an airport,
someone will shove their phone in my face and they'll
be like, who would you start this week? And I'm like,
I don't care, don't care, and I'm really rude. Sometimes
on Twitter or someone will be like Shrag's PPR league
twelve teams flex and I just right back, don't care,
don't care. I don't I don't care, And that's my
take on that.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I'll be sure to text you during one of my
drafts and ask you, I mean, tregger, I got I
got a twelve front's sleeper for me here. I do
care about my friend's leagues or my friend's team. If
it's I'm in the league too, then I care because
I wanted to do poor.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
The best is when you know you're in a live
draft with your friends and there's one guy, and again
not an advocate of bullying, but there's one guy that
no matter who he takes, everyone will go eh, and
it's like no, no, no, no, no, like it just constantly. Yeah,
that's it, Aaron, Good luck in your fantasy drafts. I
think we time this. I think they're going to be
this weekend, next weekend, and then of course up until
(43:09):
Labor Day weekend. But with preseason and full swing, now
is the time the rare fantasy football podcast. We went there,
I chartered those waters, and I'll tell you what I
think we survived. Thanks for joining, buddy, Have a good weekend.
Let's go all right on behalf of Aaron and all
the crew here in New York and La enjoy your weekend.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Everybody.
Speaker 8 (43:29):
Football regular season is almost here.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts,
The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, This is
Peter Schrager. This is the Season with Peter Schrager, and
(00:28):
there is a special episode We're clear in the decks.
This is for you fantasy football heads. I really labored
on doing a fantasy football podcast episode because I don't
know the space a little saturated, if you will. Sometimes
I roll my eyes when I see people on TV
talking about fantasy football and I know that like, guy
it's a no munch, or that guy doesn't know it's
(00:49):
just reading something from something. But I think there is
a service to be done because there are a lot
of you who listen to this podcast who are walking
into a fantasy football draft this weekend and you don't
quite feel one hundred ready. We're gonna fine tune it
a little bit with three guests this week, guys that
I have grown to really like, and they have a
podcast of their own. Our guests guys who were put
(01:13):
together once they started working at The Ringer for Bill Simmons,
and since then their podcast has taken off. I really
enjoy listening to them. I don't even really care about
their football stuff. I love their personalities and their rapport.
That's what it's all about. With no further ado, the
gentlemen from the Ringer Fantasy Football Podcast, Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly,
(01:34):
and my former producer, Craig Hurlbeck. So our guests this week.
I have to be honest, I am huge fans of
their work. I typically I'm not the guy who's listening
to seven different fantasy football podcasts, but with fantasy drafts
coming up this weekend, in so many tweets and text
I'm getting about, oh Fantasy draft time, I thought it
(01:56):
would be fun to have on my favorite fantasy football
podcast host. These guys do it three times a week.
They do it over on The Ringer and I really
enjoy their poor and also their information.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Craig Hrlbeck, Danny Kelly, Danny Hifetz. Theyre the gentleman from
the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Gentlemen, Welcome to the season
with Peter Schrager.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Thanks for having us, Shregs. It's great to be back, Shregs.
I've missed you.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Let's explain. Let's explain our history. Craig, So, I really
love you. I think you're awesome at what you do.
And now I listen to you not only on this podcast,
but on you know, the Town podcast where you're always
giving your your thoughts to Matt Maloney and you're giving
like a little different generation than him, maybe maybe one
that's you know, more of the target audience at times,
(02:43):
but also on the rewatchable like you've blown up quite
a bit. You got married, you're a fully grown man.
But you and I we met two years ago at
the height of the pandemic, and if you want to
tell the listeners our relationship help blossomed, I'm here to
listen as well.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Sure. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
During the pandemic, we did a show called Flying Coach
with Me, Shregs and the one and only Sean McVay
on the Ringer podcast Network. Ten episodes with Sean shreg
and all the coolest coaches, all their best friends from
around the league, and it's still up on the Ringer
podcast never.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
You can go listen to it right now.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I highly recommend it, specifically the Shanahan episode. Great episode
and Tomlin.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So good dude. All fly Delta and they have like
a little section on the Delta and it says podcasts
and those Flying Coach episodes are sitting there on the
plane and I'm so proud of them. Yeah, it's crazy.
The story I love to tell though, is, obviously you
sent equipment to both me and Sean. I get the equipment,
set it up, no problem. Here's the NFL's coach of
the Year. And what had to happen.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
He needed a personal visit for myself to come and
set his equipment up, which, listen, I was happy to do.
I was happy to be there and help him out.
So he wasn't as bad as Pete Carroll.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Though, So pet Carrol the year before, you need a
little more savvy than Carroll technologically.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, both will be going at it in the NFC West.
All right, So your podcast, it's three guys. You talk football,
but you talk life, You talk all sorts of stuff.
And I like it because it's not so numbers banging
you over the head with the term ADP, and it's
not so much it's more about the lifestyle of playing
fantasy football.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
The best compliment we get is people ask us, oh,
so you guys were friends and they gave you a podcast.
We actually became friends doing the show, and it's we
all have like wildly different backgrounds, and I think what's
different between us and other fantasy shows. It's not better,
it's not worse. It's like, although fantasy shows are fantasy experts,
and we all, like none of us really came up
as fantasy football experts at all, So I think we
(04:35):
just have different kinds of conversations. The reality is that
fantasy football is the best way for adult American men
to stay in touch as they get in their twenties, thirties,
forties and beyond.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Like people, we talked about this all the time. It's
like our new religion is like it's the way we gather,
It's the way we.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Like hang out.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Nowadays we all sit in our houses online and stuff
like that. There's nowhere to like really congregate, and fantasy
football is the best way to stay in touch with
people who you don't live there.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Just people get married, kids, there's and then there's a schedule.
It's like the games. Everything's at the same time of
the year. It really is about like it's kind of
like the kitchen island where friend groups can stay together virtually.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yes, it is true, like you know you have that
calendar and it's like summer you won't talk to these
people at all, and everyone's on their trips and everyone's
work and whatever. And then that September first week starts
and the kickoff goes, and all of a sudden, you're
on a text chain with the same guys you've been
on a text chain with for twenty straight years.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
It's like you never left it is, yeah, all right,
but you guys do.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Follow it really closely day to day. So I wanted
to give up some topics for viewers or listeners who
are tuning in to be like, all right, I got
my draft this weekend. I'm not necessarily studying, you know,
every NFL network show and learning what Anthony Richardson's doing
on a down to down basis, but you guys have
put the work, and here's what IM gonna do. I'm
gonna give you some topics and I want answers from
(05:49):
each of you guys, which are going to service tips
and clues for my listeners who are doing their drafts
this weekend.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Are we good?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Let's get it all right.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Let's start off.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
We'll go Danny high Fitz first. Your Fantasy Football sleeper
of the Year is who.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Gave Davis for the Bills. It's the most classic. It's
the class going up, class type sleeper man Gabe Dave. Again,
he was kind of too hyped up last year, and
again he was going like a top sixty pick. People
saw the four touchdown game in the playoffs, thirteen second
game against the Chiefs, People including us, got a little
too over hyped. And the reality is didn't have a
(06:25):
great season, kind of had this nagging I think it
was groin injury or hamstring early in the season. He
had one great game against the Steelers as sorry, Craig,
and then honestly, he was pretty terrible. Here's the thing,
Gabe Davis is now going outside the top one hundred. Basically,
nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. He's still huge, he's
still fast, He's still the deep threat for the Bills.
(06:46):
The only thing that they've added is Dalton Kincaid, the
tight end, the first rounder, who, if anything, is gonna
help Gabe Davis by working underneath. But the reality is
this is still Josh Allen's deep threat. The only differences
He's going five to six, maybe seven rounds later. And
it's exactly the point in your draft where you're pivoting
from more reliable guys to actually, I want home run threats.
I'm trying to home run a strikeout when get outside
(07:06):
the top one hundred and Gabe Davis to me is
like the definition of people had him last year, We're
upset and now he's too cheap.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
They hold it against him for the following ers say
I'm not going to do that again. It used to
happen with guys who would get injured, Like you draft
Fred Taylor and you hope draft him in the first round.
I'm dating you, guys, is before you were born. Remember
draft Fred Taylor and you're like, he's good, and then
Freddie would get hurt like week eight, and you're like,
I'm not doing it again next year, and then you
hold it against him and it's probably not fair. Danny Kelly,
(07:33):
your sleeper of the year this year twenty twenty three,
is whom.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
I'm calling an audible today just because he was announced
as this team starter.
Speaker 7 (07:41):
Anthony Richardson, quarterback for the Colts.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
I think, so he's not so much a sleeper in
like the best ball streets.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
I think a lot the best ball people are kind
of all over him already.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
But in terms of just day to day you know
home leagues. I still think he's being really really underrated.
He brings legitimate, like top five potential at quarterback and
he doesn't even have to be a good passer. That's
the beauty of it. Like he could be terrible and
by the way, he probably is going to be terrible
as passer this year. If you look at what Justin
Fields did, he was a top five, top six quarterback
(08:11):
going down the stretch of the season he was.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
He lost ten games.
Speaker 7 (08:16):
They literally went to like.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
The Navy offense we joke about all the time on
our show, Like they passed the ball fewer than at
a lower rate than almost any team in the last
twenty years. You know, Anthony Richardson could be terrible at
passing and he could still be, you know, top three,
top five quarterback just because of the rushing. The way
that stats are set up in fantasy football, it really
benefits quarterbacks who run.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
These are the types of guys that are league winners,
week winners, and league winners.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
So Anthony Richardson, just because he can run, I think
he's going to be a big time webin for them
in the red zone, kind of like we' seen Jalen
Hurts over the last few years. Jalen Hurts double digit
rushing touchdowns last few seasons. I don't think that Richardson's
necessarily at Jalen Hurts's level yet clearly, but I think
they can use him in the red zone, kind of
like Cam Newton to punch it in.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
I think he's going to score a lot of touchdowns.
I think he's gonna run a lot, and.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I think he's going to be one of the best
late round picks that you can possibly make.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Love it, Craig, take us sleeper, who you got Johan Dotson,
the wide receiver and the Commanders second year.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Guy, first to first.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
People forget, you know, just because he was drafted around
Jet Wilson, Chris Alave, Jamison Williams, Treylon Burks.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I bet you if you ask.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Most people, they would not expect Johan Dotson to be
a first round pick.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Last year.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
He started super hot, four touchdowns four games, and then
he got hurt, and then he came back and finished strong.
So his season long stats aren't great, which is what
people look back on. Most average fantasy players are looking
back on the season long stats, and they would look
at Johan Dotson and go, oh yeah, he wasn't as
good as Terry McLaurin last year, but in reality, the
final five games of the season, when they were both healthy,
he was beating McLaurin and all the nerdy stats that
(09:44):
everybody likes. Your targets per route run, their yards per
rout run, red zone targets, share, all that stuff. Straight
up targets he had more than Terry mclauurin in the
last five games of the season. Now we've got Eric
bienemy In. I like Sam holland Burssett at least enough
to make a little bit of a jump, and receivers
typically make the biggest jomp between year one and year two.
Dotson's also just an eye test guy. When you watch him,
(10:04):
you're like, this guy has it and you can get
him around ninetieth one hundredth in your draft right now.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I love Dotson.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I loved the conversation you guys had on your podcast
last week, and you did it about guys who might
be in the twilights of their NFL careers, and because
people just want the young, fresh, new face, they don't draft,
but then year after year can still deliver. I'm gonna
call this the Keenan Allen Award where he's still around,
he still puts up numbers, and yet you look at
(10:38):
these top twenty wide receivers, Keenan Allen never in the list,
whenever year, finishing that high. Why don't we go around
the horn and you each give one of those names,
a guy that you know is going to deliver and
yet probably will not be drafted as high as he should.
Danny Hidefelz, I guess.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
You, bud, Travis Kelcey doesn't count because he's still a
first rounder. I do want to shut out that. The
only reason.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Would you take Travis kelce in the first round? Is
that happening people take on the first round?
Speaker 5 (10:57):
Because here's the thing. Yeah, literally, the only argument against
Travis kelce literally is that he's thirty four years old
and people are afraid of him bottoming out. The reality
is Travis kelce.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Age is just a number.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Guys, look at you, Trager, You were better than conversations.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Is that when Craig and I were in our mid twenties,
we hated old, We hated players as the thirty. Now
Craig and I are almost thirty, and we're like, you know,
what's fine? Old players. Thirty is just the number.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
But it's like it's like George Clooney turned fifteen and
he's like, you know what, I'm gonna settle down, Like
I'm actually okay with marrying somebody over the.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Interest now is time?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, He's like, you know what.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
It's So it's like in my younger days, I was
pretty terrified to take Derek Kenry or Travis Kelsek because
I'm like, thirty, My god, he must have like a
mortgage or something. But uh, like Kelsey like hasn't missed
the game to injury. He's had he had COVID and
he had you know, they get benched in week seventeen
because they're always clinching playoffs.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Stop saying it.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I know, sorry, I'm not gonna win. I gotta Yeah,
but the Kelsey hasn't missed the game to injury, they're
not gonna what in a decade. It's like Jamar Chase
is going ahead of him. He missed it games last year.
Cooper Cup missed games last year. Like all these all
the players that are supposedly younger and safer have been
injured at some point. Kelsey hasn't, So I'm probably giving
him the kind of her as they would say, but yeah,
(12:07):
nice to me, Kelsey. It's like buying applestock. It's like,
this is the safest thing there is.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I'm here for the Yiddish Danny Kelly. What about you?
Who's the guy that you know? You see and you're like,
come on.
Speaker 7 (12:21):
My guy this year is Dedre Hopkins.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Really with Tannehill in that offense.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
So I actually like Tannehill. I think I'm the last
person on tannehill Island. I think he's solid. I don't
think he's like great. It was right there and I
freaking missed it your audio cut out, But yeah, I
mean to me, like he's he's really solid. I don't
think he's like great or anything, but he's still a
solid veteran. I think he's gonna feed a guy like
Dedre Hopkins. I think there's a lot of question marks,
(12:48):
you know, outside of Hopkins in terms of what we're
gonna expect from this offense.
Speaker 7 (12:51):
Obviously, Trailing Burks.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Is there, and he's an up and coming guy, but
he's still young, still very inexperienced, and and I think
Hopkins is just gonna get force fed in this offense.
Last year, this is this was wild to me when
I found this stat. Last year, in the nine games
that Hopkins played, he averaged ten point seven targets per game.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Really good.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
The only the only player, the only receivers who had
more targets per game than him are Chase Cup and
Jefferson like the first like the first four picks, first
five picks, So you know, he's definitely getting older. But
his game has never really been built on speed or explosiveness.
It's always about body positioning. Old man at the Y type,
you know, post a guy up and skyhook him and
(13:31):
fundamental that guy's footwork. Yeah, getting get low, low fatality,
you know, boxing out.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So I don't know.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
To me, he's just so good.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
He's I heard Tannehill called him vintage Hopkins the other day,
and I think he's just going to have a really
big year. And people are forgeting about him because's a
little older and he switched teams, which that's valid, But
I still think he's going to be the focal point
of this passing game.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Craig, tell me why Derek Henry is going in the
second round.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
What's changed?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Talk about it.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
He had three hundred and.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Fifty carries last year, played the entire season, was the
third best running back in Fantasy.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And everyone's just like, I'm good. He's twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
No thanks, Like Leodocaprio when a girl turns twenty six,
he's like, I'm out, give me a reason why there's
nothing's changed.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
He's still Dereck Henry.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
We're all obsessed with this idea now that as running
backs enter their late twenties, they just, you know, I
think it's a misnomer.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Essentially, we're betting on science, you know, we're.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Betting on these phenomenal athletes preparing their bodies and actually
taking advantage of the technological advance. And we have now,
and Dereck Henry is twenty eight years old. And if
I'm going to bet on anybody to actually make it
to their thirties and not fall off, I'm gonna pick
the guy who gets three hundred and fifty carries every
single year and continues to be a top five running
back of Fantasy. And he's just sitting there in the
second round now because he's old. It's age shaming, really,
(14:49):
fourteen ages, fourteenth.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Round starts rolling around, and it is now you can
take a little you already took a kicker. You already
tick your defense, you got maybe two more picks left
to go, and you want to take a rookie. I'm
gonna go around the horn. Craig will start with you
give me a rookie that might still be around then
that you're looking at. Maybe he's not the first or
second overall pick, but it's a guy that you've got
your eye on.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Interesting a rookie, can I go with? I think I
want to go with the tight end position here. I like,
I like, yeah, I like two guys. I like Luke Musgrave,
and I like uh yep, And I like Jake Ferguson,
Michael Mayer, Yeah yeah, Ferguson out of Okay and Ferguson, Oh,
Ferguson second year guy, Musgrave rookie.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
I'll stick with you with mus.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Grave Ferguson's Cowboys, right he was second year guy?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yeah yeah, sticking with Muskrave. Then, uh.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
When when you're getting a rookie tight end, they don't
typically work out. But what I like about Musgrave is,
unlike a lot of other tight ends, he's just playing receiver.
He doesn't have to learn the blocking half of the
of the of the offense. And I like guys much
like a Dalton Kincaid. We're gonna be split out and
are going to be running routes. And if you look
at the Green Bay offense, I mean it's an entirely new,
young offense. There's not a lot of established guys. You
got Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, and you got Musgrave. So
(15:55):
if you're gonna take a shot, if you believe in
Jordan Love, who's looked great this offseason, offseason and in
the preseason, uh, Musgrave is a guy who could kind
of sneaky start his rookie year hot, kind of like
a Pat Friar move.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Okay, who you got rookie?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
He got your eyes.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
Oh man, there's so many of them. I could just
go down the list. I'm going to shout out a
guy who's kind of gotten. People are not super excited
about him based on what happened in preseason Week one,
and that's Devon a Chain for the Dolphins because he
was playing he was like fourth or fifth on the
depth chart. In this game, he's playing into the fourth quarter.
Typically these are not great signs for rookie running backs.
(16:29):
But I will say, if you watch the games like
I did, like here a huge sicco and you watch
that game, he was running vertical routes. He caught four
passes for forty one yards. He actually led the Dolphins
in receiving this game. He caught a passed out of
the backfield up the like up the sideline for a
chunk gain. He caught a like a Texas route over
the middle of the field for like a ten yard gain.
(16:51):
He was being used in exactly the type of way
we want him to be used, which is vertical pass
catching role. And obviously, like Miles Gaskin's still there, they
still got Raheem Moster, Jeff Wilson.
Speaker 7 (17:03):
He's got some hurdles to clear.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I think they don't have Dalvin Cook, which is a
good sign. They must have liked what they had in house.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
I was a little nervous that Dalvin Cook was going
to come in and ruin my dreams. But even though
he was playing with like the fifth stringers into the
fourth quarter, I'm sticking with it. Devon ah Chain midway
through the year, I think he's going to start being
really really useful for them. And again he's being used
in the way that you want him to be used.
Which is as a pass catcher except Colladega speed baby,
(17:28):
So I just yeah, hot, nasty, badass speed and that's
what he's got.
Speaker 7 (17:33):
So I just love this offense too.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
It sounds so good coming out of your mouth, Danny,
what about you, my friend?
Speaker 5 (17:38):
There's a rookie. I really love Jordan Addison, the rookie
receiver for the Vikings. I think that he has not
been going as high. He's basically like a top one
hundred player depending where you look, depending on the platform
or website, use eightieth, one hundredth, one hundred and fifth,
seventy fifth. It's a huge range. But I think he's
really underrated because I think as a pure regular NFL
(18:00):
prospect he's undersized. I get all that he's he's not
a prototypical number one receiver. I think think he's being
unfairly dinged for that in fantasy because Jordan Adison is
the perfect compliment to Justin Jefferson. It reminds me a
little bit of when Juju Smith Schuster had an incredible
rookie season behind Antonio Brown Calvin Ridley. I remember Julio
(18:23):
Jones was incredible for the Falcons, but he couldn't score touchdowns.
Calvin really comes in as a Rooie as like five
touchdowns in like five games by Julio Jones. I feel
that Jordan Addison will have that type of impact disproportionate
to his skill level because he's refined, he's a precise
route runner, He's polished in a way that makes up
for his lack of physical gifts. That will basically pay
dividends immediately, and I think he's gonna soak. I mean,
(18:46):
Adam Thielen, no offense to the guy was a little
dusty last year, and I think Addison's going to come
in and just vacuum up behind Justin Jefferson. It's kind
of no, it's it's just an incredibly massive opportunity to
be around this guy. He's always doubled and I think
he's gonna just eat.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
It's built for him.
Speaker 7 (19:03):
Did you see his catch the other day?
Speaker 6 (19:06):
He had like a touch catch. They didn't even review it.
They called him out, they didn't even review it, but
he made the most incredible catch that just it's the preseason.
That doesn't counts, it doesn't matter, but whatever it was,
it was an amazing catch.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Speaking of preseason, you ask how being a fantasy expert works.
Here's how it works, college statistics, preseason plays. If they
confirm what you already believe, they're very important and representative.
And if they don't, if they go against what you
already think, then they're meaningless. And Jordan Adison had sixteen
hundred yards in college two years ago and won the
Best Receiver in College Football award and then had that catch.
(19:42):
So there, I must already be right.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm gonna give all the Zay Flowers might be the
best wide receiver out of this bunch. It might do it.
I don't know if he gonna put up the best numbers,
and I don't know how this helps for fantasy. What
I'm learning from Zay Flowers is that he's unguardable because
of his footwork and speed, and he might just be
drawing a lot of pass interference calls. Honestly, that's what
I'm telling. So, like, if you're expecting one hundred catches,
that might not be it, but he will be a
huge function of the Ravens offense. And I think I
(20:06):
see a lot of people drafting him really high. I
don't know if his numbers are going to be high.
I just know he's going to be a pain in
the ass to cover. And that's like one of those
things in fantasy where here's the arbitrage where yes, he
might be our offensive rookie of the year, but no,
his numbers might not be as crazy as Justin Jeffersons
or Jamar Chase's.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
I like that one too. He's so good.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
There's a reason a lot of people were comparing him
to like Antonio Brown when you're when you're watching the tape,
like his feet are so fast, his route running so
sudden and twitchy. I agree with you, though, like I
don't know exactly what his role is going to be
like in that Ravens offense. We don't even know what
this Raven's offense is really don't know what it looks
like at all. So there's there's a lot of variants
put potential there. But yeah, he's a really good player,
(20:47):
all right.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Strategy wise, say I'm doing my fantasy draft. I know
which players are good, but every year it's different. Some
year it's like you have to get those two running
backs early because there's a big drop off. Some years
it's you need the wide receiver one because after the
first few of them it's a drop off. Craig, I
know you've been studying the grids and the cheat sheets.
What's the strategy this year is in the first round,
(21:09):
is it important to get what? And when you do
that snake draft? What are you trying to come out
of here? Because I know there's a drop off at
each position at some point.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
So if you're playing in a league with one quarterback,
what we kind of like to do this year is
basically get an elite player from every single position group.
This year is a really unique year because running backs
are kind of going late, quarterbacks are hotter than ever,
and then you have Travis Kelcey, who's just miles away
from every other tight end. So we kind of suggest
is get one from each position. Start your draft with
(21:37):
the Travis kelce then move on get an elite running
back like a Dereck Henry. Third round, you can get
yourself an elite quarterback like Jalen Hurts or Patrick Mahomes,
and then you can still get a great receiver. If
you can start your draft with four players four different positions,
like a DeAndre Hopkins DKs guy. You could start your
draft with Travis Kelcey, Dereck Henry Patrick, Mahomes, and DeAndre Hopkins.
You get four Hall of Famers in four rounds, as
(21:59):
long as you're not an age bias guy like all
those out there. But I kind of like mixing it
up spreading the wealth this year specifically, can't you agree?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (22:07):
Yeah, totally. I really like this year's second round running backs.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
So I personally believe grabbing a guy like Kelsey or
one of the elite receivers in round one and then
getting a Pollard or Josh Jacobs in round two. I
think Jacobs has fallen because there's some uncertainty about whether
he's going to play.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
I think at the end of the day he's probably
gonna play.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
It'll be that so I think.
Speaker 7 (22:26):
But Tony Pollard to me, is.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Like my favorite second round pick right now. I just
think he has through the roof potential. He's such a
good player, so explosive, and they're gonna use him in
the right way. He was already, you know, such an
elite producer last year when they had Zeken tout, and
now it's his his offense and his his backfield. So
to me, Tony Pollard is sort of a lynchpin guy
that I just really like in that second round.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
So in the second round, Danny, what about you?
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah, I mean I agree with Danny Kelly where it's
kind of flipped. I feel like you used to take
your top running back in the first round and then
you get a great receiver in the second. Now it's
basically you can pretty much get an elite receiver in
the first round. You come back around Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs,
Derrick Henry, Nick Chubb, baby Sake one those guys used
to go in the first It's kind of like the
top twenty top twenty four, but now just the receivers
and running backs have flipped spots. That's like the simplest
(23:11):
way to explain it.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Because everybody realized that wide receivers exactly. You know, running
backs get hurt all the time, and you can you know,
you can depend right time. Justin Jefferson, your Tyree Kills,
your Jamar Chase is like, if you if you don't
want to lose your draft in the first round, you
take a wide receiver because you know, by the end
of the year, odds are one of the guys you
draft in the top five is probably gonna finish in
the top five.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah. And what about quarterbacks. I know you said that
you want elite, Like, is it crazy to take Josh
Allen or Jalen Hurts in the first round this year?
Speaker 5 (23:37):
First? Yeah, second, first round. We start our rank you
have Fantasy Football doc threear dot com. We have our rankings.
We have a top two hundred of upsides downsts for
every player.
Speaker 7 (23:46):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
And the bottom line and all these guys basically is
we have our quarterbacks right around the third round. Basically
we've got basically a couple dozen truly special players. It's
Travis Kelcey and a bunch of running backs, receivers, and
then at that point, as Craig said, locking those quarterbacks
where you're basically getting an elite floor. Jalen Hurts eighteen
rushing touchdowns in eighteen games last year, included the playoffs.
(24:08):
The floor, not just the ceiling, is crazy. Josh Allen
the running you know, he could lead the league in
rushing touchdowns or receiving or passing touchdowns. And Mahomes is
Mahomes And I think that at that point, elite floors
in the first few rounds, and then after that you're
chasing elite ceilings. So if you miss out on Mahomes, Hurts, Allen,
Justin Fields, Lamar Jackson in this new offense is an
(24:29):
elite ceiling. Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert. Those guys have truly
elite potential. And I think that if you're stacking that
at quarterback, Darren Waller has an elite ceiling at tight end,
and I think that's you know, Scott Barrett has done
great stuff at a great website called Fantasy Points, where
elite ceilings win you your league, they win weeks, they win leagues.
And I think elite floors in the first three rounds
and then next making up where you didn't get it
(24:51):
with elite ceilings.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Where are you guys at d Kale started? Where are
you guys at with Kyle Pitts? I think everyone took
him in the first round or second round last year
and now like it's almost like, yeah, you wouldn't be
able to touch them, you know, it's like how could you?
Speaker 6 (25:03):
I think at least for Craig and I think we
kind of hate him at this point, like nothing that
he's actually done personally that is his fault.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
It's just is.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Someone else's problem. You have them.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
I don't exactly. I'm just like washing my hands of
that toxic.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Relationship that I don't want to be a part of it.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
I just don't want to have to deal. I don't
want to have to think about him anymore. He might
be the best tight end in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Gotch Like I hope it for him, I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
Yeah, I think it's one of the best, one of
the best parts.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
I'm unfriend I'm like unfriending him on Facebook so I
don't have to look at his feet.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
You know this is like, yeah, you mentioned Facebook, I
got it. You know well, I think one of the
best most charming aspects of our, of the three of
us dynamic, is that DK, in his older wisdom, now
that he's in his forties, doesn't have the energy, doesn't
allow toxic people in his life, and doesn't Michael Thomas.
You know, Kyle fits people who just are kind of
a drain on your energy. DK, just like I don't,
(25:56):
I can't. I don't time for you anymore.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, all right, quickly, I'm gonna go around you guys,
tell me yay or na. I'm gonna mention some things
about fantasy football. I'm gonna put you on the spot
Craig will start with you auction draft yay or nay? Yay,
you gotta do it, explain, make the case for why
someone should just scrap the old snake draft. That takes
(26:20):
one minute and is you know, easy enough to do
to go to the auction thing which seems unbearable.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Let's say Justin Jefferson's your favorite player in fantasy football,
and then you're eagerly awaiting what draft pick you're going
to get. You're praying you get the first or second pick,
and then the hat, the name gets drawn out of
the hat and you have the tenth that terrible feeling
of well, I guess I want to have Justin Jefferson
this year. That doesn't happen. In an auction draft. You
can spend your money on any player you want. You
can get Justin Jefferson and Christian mcaffor you want. It's
a lot more flexibility every single every single pick you
(26:47):
are involved in.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I love it, okay, DK.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Individual defensive players are we yay or nay?
Speaker 7 (26:55):
I've been a nay on that one.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
I just it's hard enough, like keeping track of all
offensive players.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
I don't know, like adding all that.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
To to the to the plate is a bit much
for me. I just I don't track it enough and
I've ever really done it. I'm an old I'm an
old guy. Can't teach me new tricks.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
I don't really know.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I'm not into Danny.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Two quarterback leagues where there's two quarterbacks starting in yay.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
Or nay, I'm totally in. At the end of the day,
It's very, very silly to me that in real life
running backs can't get paid, and like, you know, Jonathan
Taylor isn't getting a contract, Will Jim er Say's trying
to fly in Orca to see world for twenty million dollars.
But in fantasy we have running back like ten twelve
running backs come off the board for Patrick Mahomes And
at two quarterback league, you know the first Pixar Patrick Mahomes,
(27:35):
Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts. That's real life. So I like
two quarterback leagues.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I love that. Craig ten team leagues, Yeah or nay.
It seems very light.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
That's as light as well go. Eight is ridiculous. Ten
is where I draw the line. Ten is okay, twelve
is ideal, fourteen is fine, sixteen is too.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Big, okay, DK non PPR leagues where we don't keep
track of receptions.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
We just do yards.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Strongly against Yeah, archaics totally here.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
All right, if you're into that, I hate.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
You, Danny.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I'm gonna tell you one that my league that is
a bit of part of for twenty three years. We
don't do flex. We don't believe in it. We think
it's silly. There's no such thing flex, Danny hiex flex position,
which seems like such a bailout. Yeah, r nay.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
I love no flex.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
We leading the witness.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
What is flex?
Speaker 6 (28:29):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
It's the dumbest This is a great take. It's like,
be decisive. Who are you?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Never know what flex would be good for?
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Flex should be like the four players who are like
quarter old Patterson can plain in the flex. That's it.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Sure, the actual.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Patterson, Taysom Hill, and Jamier Gibbs can be flex. I
hate the flex. I never heard of the flex until
like I came on a Good Morning Football and I
come on hearing the word flex. But what the heck
is flex? They're like, well, it could be any position.
It's take a wildcard, Like, well, that's not real. It's
the dumbest thing.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
I love this flex, all right.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Team defenses counting, Craig, Yeah, your nay, I go back
and forth.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I'm fine with it.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
I prefer a team defense over a kicker, So if
I had to choose, I'd take the defense.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Fun the route for a defense, Okay, DK, I'll ask
you counting every little thing, like a two point conversion
has a metric, or a batted down pass has a metric.
Like at some point there's got to be a limited the.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Forty yard completion bones, Yes, I hate that.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yes, sorry, I'm judging.
Speaker 7 (29:28):
I was going to bring that up.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
No, I was gonna say the like you get a
bonus for having one hundred yards. This is I've played
in a few leagues where like a running back, if you.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
Gets one hundred yards gets a bonus. I think there's a.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Time and a place for it for my home league,
for like most of my leagues, I don't really want that.
I do think it's fun to like sprinkle that in
every once in a while if you're like in a
tournament or something like that. But generally speaking, I like
pretty standard scoring setting that DK.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
How many of your twenty three leagues are do you
use the one hundred yard.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
Bonus probably none, right now, Okay, I would say I'm
open to it in like one or two leagues, just
because to.
Speaker 7 (30:03):
Mix it up and make it fun.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
All right, DK, I'm gonna go back on that one
with you. I just heard twenty three leagues. I know
it's being sarcastic.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
He actually is in twenty three weeks.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Actually he's in twenty two.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Pandemics like Sanity Project was just drafting Dynasty Fantasy not fun.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It's not fun.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
It's fully talking about it.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Fun about that, And the whole point of it is
you have a player in the league I found, and
you're rooting against every player in the league.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
But yeah, I mean I have so many I have
so many players on my teams that I'm like.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
But in your head, which team is which? I feel
like I wouldn't know who to root for.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
No, So you just I will say, here's the qualifier.
Here's the qualifier. Ninety five for cent of my teams
are dynasty leagues. So it's not day to day stuff
that you're doing. There's not a bunch of guys in
the waiver wire. Typically it's like you draft a team
and you develop it over years, but you're not It's
not like I'm spending a lot of time on this roster.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Can I day out you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Can I unveil a hot take on you guys right now?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'm out on dynasty leagues? Me too, Boom.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
You know what the best part about fantasy football is
the draft.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
Craig, You're in my dynasty league and time on it.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
He's playing it.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
He doesn't like it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Oh cool?
Speaker 4 (31:16):
I get to draft a fourth round run with you.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
I get this question all the time. Should I keep
two out of these seven players? I don't know? Draft
a new team. I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Draft a new team.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I don't want to be parsing through six round rookies
to figure out who has value.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
That sounds terrible. You know. I want to draft Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
That's fun, Danny, Danny high Fetz.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
People who draft in person versus people who draft online,
and the rift there of the arrogance and I'm an
on person guy, of those who roll their eyes at
those who are in a Yahoo Yahoo draft room and
consider that a fantasy league go on?
Speaker 7 (31:50):
All right?
Speaker 5 (31:51):
So this is this gets to what we were saying
earlier about like fantasy football is about keeping in touch
with your friends people different places. Obviously can't control that.
You always want to draft in person if you can.
If it's your friend group, you want to be in person.
It's incredible. At the very least, though, you have to
show up for the dre You can't auto draft. Got
auto draft? Is it? Look? If you have children, you
(32:11):
too understand. It's better than me. We can talk wedding.
Otherwise it's weddings and funerals. Or you better be there,
even even.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
If it's on zoom. That's okay. You just can't auto draft.
That's unaccepted. It's un America, I think.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
No, the hardest part of any league, and you know
now we're just going off because I got so many thoughts.
The hardest part of any any league is finding a
draft time that works for everyone. If you get one
of those Google doodles going and everyone you come up
with one time, I don't care if it's five o'clock
on a Wednesday, you better not the day of say
I just can't make it. That's unacceptable.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
You're out.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
You're out. We will find a replacement.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
The two people can also pay your league dues before
the draft. If you're a commissioner of a league, require
everyone to pay their league dues or they can not trist.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Is that a thing people pay the league? Do you
get to chase them down for the for the vendors.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Yeah, I gotta go hire like a fixer. I gotta
go hire Ray Donovan to go get the money from
this guy.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yeah, there's always one of them.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
There are two people I hate in a fantasy league.
I feel like Austin Powers and I'm like, there's two
kinds of people I hate in this world. Yeah, but
what the people who don't fill out that doodle, as
you were saying, and then at the end, once like
nine people can make it, you're like, oh, that day
doesn't work for me. My mother's visiting, And I'm like, dude,
that's what we made the doodle for. The Other one
is the people who think that they get to veto
(33:27):
other people's trades just grinds my gears. Like in real life,
where I don't know if you've noticed, there's a lot
more stakes to the real life sports leagues. There's been
one vetoed trade in our lifetime, and it was the
Chris Paul trade because the NBA owned the league. Office
owned the team and they were like, all right, this
is weird. Literally, like thousands of real life trades have
(33:47):
been made. They all go through this is America. You
have the right to be stupid and make dumb decisions.
It's not your job to run other people's stuff it.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I love it real quick. There's a whole craze in
the last ten years of like punishments and making it
go viral. And this guy ate a waffle every day,
every hour for twenty four hours. This guy I had
to poop in a sandwich and eat it and we
all laughed and we put it on YouTube too. Sophomore
silly or you guys all for this craig, We'll start with.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
You if you're coming to me.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
It's definitely not too sophomore. I don't know how other
people feel, but I'm all for it.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
In our league right now, are the current rule is
we have the loser on the trip next year. He's
our butler and he has to wear a outfit hell
the whole weekend. He like serves us food and he
gets the worst bed. And I'm all for it, you know.
And we've actually employed a last place tournament at the
end of the year for all the guys whose teams
suck in like weeks twelve through seventeen, we have a
(34:44):
last place tournament to determine who gets last. So I
think last place is just as fun and as first
place in terms of end of year suspense.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
DK, what's the craziest thing you've heard in that regard?
I mean they come up every year, they're more and more.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Man there's I had a couple of friends who under
their leagues, they're like punishment for last place was yet
the to go like be a busker on like a
sidewalk and like play music and and try and get
tips and things like like what's a busker is like
when you're like you're on the corner, like playing like
music and like try to make.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Money that way. The open guitar, I want to.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
I want to tell you one great I want to
tell you one great rule that we have in in
one of my leagues is if you get a zero
in any of your spots in any given week, you
like a player.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Like a guy got to help change your lineup?
Speaker 6 (35:41):
Yeah, goose egg. Yeah you have to shot. You have
to record yourself shotgunning a beer and send it to
the rest of the league, and that I think is
one of the more fun rules.
Speaker 7 (35:50):
That I have in any of my links.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Like it, Danny yourself, the craziest thing you've.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Heard, there's some I mean the craziest stuff is there
are people who there are leagues that you have to
get it to too. I mean, that's crazy that. That
to me is the wildest, the wildest one we do.
The one that I think works the best, and even
as you get is our league gets a beer mile
because we Thanksgiving, there's always a We do a flag
football game on Black Friday. And it's funny because as
everyone gets older, the game gets earlier and people show
(36:16):
up with more knee braces and everyone's stretching more and
more of a year. But then at the end, thy brother, yes, wait,
at the end of the game, though, we do the
beer mile, which is great because there's like me who's
not the most fleet to foot, but I can drink
a beer versus like this guy who ran a four
and a half minute mile in college but like can't
chug and like, all right, this is actually even now.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Craig correct me if I'm wrong. Bill Simmons is league
and they always talk about the Shakey's League. Yeah, the
winner gets to vote off any person in the league
and they have to miss a year. Right, I think
that's pretty drastic.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
This is the funniest one.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yes, so it's a twelve it's a twelve team league,
but there's but there's thirteen members and every year, thirteen
people have to show up to the draft and the
previous year's winner then sits down like a dictator and
goes you you're out, and they have to get up
and leave the draft.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
I'm not kidding. I guess it was during the pandemic
and I was listening to Simmons a lot, like twenty
twenty maybe twenty twenty one, and I think there was
real friction between him and Sal over it. It felt like,
oh there was salout and Sal was very angry.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Bill.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Well, when Bill got voted out one year, he started
a new league.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Bill was.
Speaker 5 (37:27):
I'm not just saying this because you know, we worked
for Bill Simmons. I think I actually think Sal must
have come up with that. I think that is the
that is the rule that I actually think it is
the best. It is incredible, it's.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
So good, and they, yeah, that's great. All right, guys,
we're wrapping. Uh, fantasy football is on the way. Where
can we find the podcast? And what is it called?
Craig for everyone who listens to this one and wants
their hardcore football news but had a draft this weekend
and is like, wait a second, my pants are not
ready for this. I need to get ready. Where would
you go for it?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Sure, the show is called The Ringer Fantasy Football Show.
It's anywhere you can find podcast. We prefer Spotify. There's
a lot of fun features on there. You can look
at our guide while you listen. But yeah, The Ringer
Fantasy Football Show with us three three days a week
and four days a week during the season.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I wish you guys well for Danny Hifetz, Danny Kelly,
Craig horlback, guys, this is awesome. We really appreciate you
coming on. This is great.
Speaker 7 (38:19):
Thanks Pete, love you, Shregs.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I love those guys. I think they're cool, they're funny,
and they've got a great friendship that you can tell.
And that's the key to any show or podcast, And
obviously fantasy football is the thread that keeps them all
together and going with the pod. But Their podcast talks
about all different sorts of topics, including movies. Aaron, I'm
going to tell you in nineteen ninety nine, I was
(38:44):
in a fantasy football league with my friends from high
school at the time, and I signed after week one
a gentleman named Kurt Warner, and I went on to
have a team that had Kurt Warner. Isaac Bruce, I
think I had Terrell Owens on that team. And I
tore up my fantasy league and ran away with a victory.
(39:06):
And I will tell you that is still one of
my greatest achievements, the amount of points that my team
won by in the East Coast Stream Team league back
in nineteen ninety nine with all my buddies from Freehill
Township High School. That is the importance of fantasy football.
It brings you back to nineteen ninety nine and we're
here in twenty twenty three. That's me. Do you have
(39:28):
a fantasy league, Aaron. Wan Kaufman, my producer who I know,
has a lot of interest and it's very eclectic. Does
fantasy football fill in the ven diagram shaded area of
you and me?
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, very much so. I actually got into fantasy same
thing with a bunch of friends from high school, middle school.
Then also like the same year when I was starting,
that one also started two others.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So I had like three leagues.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
In my very first year of playing Fantasy. And my
favorite part, like the guys were saying like you were saying,
is just keeping in touch with friends and like sending emails.
And we have won my league with like the high
school school friends, the four of us that are like
the tightest one of the guys has still not won,
(40:12):
even though he's the one who's.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
This is like fifteen years you guys have been in
this right.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
It is yes, yep, and it is just a I
just I never let him forget it. It's always just
like in the chat, I'm like, oh wait, isn't there
someone here who's never won our league. I forget which
one of us it is.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I do have strong takes, as you could hear, like
I really resent the auto draft thing. I think that's real,
Like if you can't give me two seconds of your time,
then you don't belong in our league. I actually look
in my whole life, I was in one league. I
hate the idea that people don't get together, and I
know that's selfish. And now that I've got a family,
it's nearly impossible, like on the weekend. But like, I
(40:48):
hate these leagues that it's just random people that you
don't know, and Danny said he has. When Danny said
he's in twenty three leagues, I almost wanted to like
chop my hand off. That was the crazy, like that
is not fun. That sounds like hell.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I have decreased the number that I've been in and
especially like the more that I've worked with NFL all stuff,
the less I want to be in those leagues because
it's just it, it is too much to keep track
of and like you were saying, at some point, you
are rooting for every player and against every player, and
it's like I need I need Jonathan Taylor Discord, but
(41:20):
not more than sixteen, but he can't do more than seventeen. Yeah,
it's it's wild. But yeah, the I've been really lucky
that you know, we've had a couple of drafts that
have been in person. But I have I have one
friend who's a doctor and he one time he did
a draft, like hope, so during that run in and out, yeah,
(41:40):
not during surgery, but he was like on call and
would like run in and out of the like doctor
rest area that they have. I don't even know what
it's called, but he was like in the hospital doing
the draft.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
I also it's a I think it's like it's like
I don't give a about anyone else's fantasy league either.
Like when someone comes up to me and starts talking
to me about their team, I you, there is nothing
I'd rather talk about mathematics or like the future of algebra.
I don't care. I know it sounds rude. I do
not care, and it's the question I get the most.
(42:13):
If I'm ever recognized on the street or in an airport,
someone will shove their phone in my face and they'll
be like, who would you start this week? And I'm like,
I don't care, don't care, and I'm really rude. Sometimes
on Twitter or someone will be like Shrag's PPR league
twelve teams flex and I just right back, don't care,
don't care. I don't I don't care, And that's my
take on that.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I'll be sure to text you during one of my
drafts and ask you, I mean, tregger, I got I
got a twelve front's sleeper for me here. I do
care about my friend's leagues or my friend's team. If
it's I'm in the league too, then I care because
I wanted to do poor.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
The best is when you know you're in a live
draft with your friends and there's one guy, and again
not an advocate of bullying, but there's one guy that
no matter who he takes, everyone will go eh, and
it's like no, no, no, no, no, like it just constantly. Yeah,
that's it, Aaron, Good luck in your fantasy drafts. I
think we time this. I think they're going to be
this weekend, next weekend, and then of course up until
(43:09):
Labor Day weekend. But with preseason and full swing, now
is the time the rare fantasy football podcast. We went there,
I chartered those waters, and I'll tell you what I
think we survived. Thanks for joining, buddy, Have a good weekend.
Let's go all right on behalf of Aaron and all
the crew here in New York and La enjoy your weekend.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Everybody.
Speaker 8 (43:29):
Football regular season is almost here.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts,
Host
Peter Schrager
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.