Fantasy Football | Biggest Surprises + What We Learned from 2024 - Fantasy Football Blog at Razzball.com

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What up Rasballers twenty twenty four in the books twenty
twenty five on the horizon. We can't get to the
horizon without going through the forest. Though, we are recapping
the twenty twenty four season. Heading into twenty twenty five,
we're gonna recap those rasball championships. I got Dave and
Matt with me. I'm Sky. We're gonna rock right now
with our what we learned from twenty twenty four heading

(00:25):
into twenty twenty five football show. What's up everybody? Good
evening and welcome back to the Rasball Fantasy Football Show.
Taking about a week and a half off, trying to
kind of give ourself a break before we jump right

(00:48):
back on the saddle and get you ready for twenty
twenty five. Hope everybody locked in that ras Ball Fantasy
Football Championship. We had a great time throwing it down
here in house. We did have some eight opportunities and
some titles one on our side, so congratulations to everybody
bringing home the Rassball Fantasy Football titles. I got my man,
Mattie star Cruz stepping in tonight. My name is Skyguasco.

(01:12):
I'm your host. You can find me at skyguasco on
x You can find Matt at Styles zero eight and
Dave Cruz available at Cruiser one two eight. The rest
of the crew is behind the scenes writing as always
diligent for your twenty twenty four recaps, heading right into dynasty,
into free agency talk, right into the NFL Draft, getting

(01:32):
ready as we recap twenty twenty four, heading into twenty
twenty five. So keep it locked right here to rasball
on the YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe and hit
that bell so you don't miss any of the opportunities.
We're also available on the podcasts as well. That's a
Rasball Fantasy football podcast. Go and find us as well,
available on ex at Rasball, NFL and everything available at

(01:53):
football dot rasball dot com. I know number of you
are jumping in already. We appreciate that. What's up, Jamie
Good evening and welcome everybody into the podcast. Let us
know if you got that championship and what your roster
looked like. We would love to celebrate those with you.
Matt Dave Good Evening. Tonight, we're rocking in our biggest
surprises for twenty twenty four, good and bad. Not all

(02:14):
surprises are great, but not all of them are bad.
Some of them are exciting. And we're also going to
talk about what we learned. It's really important to recap
what we learned in twenty twenty four so that we
can get better and move forward in twenty twenty five. Gentlemen,
Good evening, Matt. I'll start with you. What's one thing
that you look forward off script here heading into twenty
twenty five, Right, you need to recap twenty twenty four,

(02:35):
which we're gonna do for a couple episodes here. But
in twenty twenty five, like in the off season, do
you just tune out for a few months, enjoy some baseball,
come back to football in a while, or do you
kind of keep your nose in the books throughout the
off season? What's your general process? And welcome back. Happy
new year, my man, let's get into twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
A happy new year to you. Also, I have let
me hold on. Don't let anybody sign off. I have
something to show you.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Love it take a time.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
I forgot to I forgot to pick this up earlier.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
I saw the show. No, that looks nice.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Is that is that pure gold? It looks shiny?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, it's solid, solid, gold nice. This is not your
chocolate Easter bunny, buddy. This is solid. That is That
is the home league that I have been attempting to
get my second championship. I believe the first if you
can believe this was twenty years ago, two thousand and four.

(03:37):
I played a buddy of mine from high school in
the championship final. His last championship in the same league
was two thousand and eight, so, needless to say it
was it was a little dry around the saloon for
both of us for a while going into twenty twenty five.
Without being the guy with the spoiler alert, it reminded
me of our internal talk when Jamie signed in and

(04:00):
gave us a what up, guys, we have a we
have a surprise coming for the listeners. We don't want
to get too deep into it. But what I'm looking
forward to is right getting into some baseball drafts and
enjoying that kind of prep moving forward with with writing

(04:20):
for football. I enjoy the draft, right.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
The draft is fun.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Do we know where the draft is this year?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Anybody want to tell me? Uh? The draft?

Speaker 1 (04:29):
The NFL Draft?

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I think Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
The NFL Draft.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I was that's gonna that should be it should
be a way to highlight title town, which which should
be just awesome. I'm my guess is probably three hundred
thousand people into that small town for the draft. I
don't know that they can handle that many people, but
they's the economy. Yeah, they'll figure that.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Will multiply significantly.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yes, absolutely so with that, after we get through that,
and then we get to kind of into our fantasy
draft season through the summer. You know, we've got some
leagues that we're starting out. But all I will say
is for the loyal listeners, keep listening, keep commenting, stay
with us, and there might be some interesting rewards for

(05:16):
those long time listeners down the road as we create
some interesting league options. We'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
I love that absolutely. Keep a tune. And Jamie's popping
in here really quick. Let's give him his flowers, as
the kids say. Two thousand and four. Two thousand and
four was my first year playing, won the championship. A
little rookie success there, probably not. Jamie's a gamer made
it happen. Let's review the team gentlemen, Moose and Muhammad, Terrell, Owens,

(05:46):
Donovan McNabb. I'm thinking that's the Eagles stack right there.
You had Shady McCoy in that as well. You're looking
real nice. Maybe a little Brent Selick looks nice. And
then Ladanian Tomlinson helped bring home about a decade worth
of champion chips in fantasy football. So we love the
og Rosters. They're well done, Jamie, as always Day five.

(06:09):
In general, when you review a season, you head out,
you know, you dust off the old trophies. Matt, congratulations again.
Ye kind of spit, shine your trophy, get it nice
and pretty to show the friends. But then we got
to move on and win it next year. How do
you move on to another season? How do you spend
your off season?

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Generally?

Speaker 1 (06:24):
And happy New Year moment?

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Happy New Year? I Uh, I'm I'm still in a
in the off season football learning phase. I uh. Usually
by this time I've started shipping shifting my focus to baseball.
So I've got a few fantasy baseball leagues I still
play in, and I still love those, but I've got

(06:49):
to keep my foot in the water now.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
And as I kind of get more and more involved
on social media, I'm more around people that football is
there twenty four seven three sixty five type of gig,
so I'm interacting with those people more in the offseason,
and as far as my process goes, I do as

(07:15):
much by the seat of my pants as I is,
probably more than most people are comfortabale with. But I'm
going to be a little bit more organized going forward.
So I'm looking forward to ramping up and then getting
back into football right away.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
I like it absolutely, and I want to give a
shout out to our baseball family here at Rasball. Right
the baseball is the flagship. We're football guys on the screen,
but all of us are baseball guys at heart as well, right,
so we all love baseball. We playing a lot of
baseball Fantasy League. Some of us still play softball. Handful
of us has been trying to make it happen. So

(07:53):
keep it tuned right here to Rasball. Jump over to
the baseball side. They're also running podcast. They got articles
out as well, So when you go to the website
and you're checking out our offseason content on the football side,
spend three extra minutes click on the baseball tab as well,
and make sure you get those baseball championships. Also, there's
nothing better, I'm telling you, boys, if you play basketball
and hockey and all that stuff, awesome cool. I'm a

(08:15):
baseball football guy. Personally. I watched the other sports but
for fantasy, and my fandom is really in football and baseball.
Winning a fantasy baseball championship and winning a fantasy football
championship in the same year, there's just something about it.
A little extra frosting on the cake. So keep it
locked here a rasball and make it happen.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah. Rasball is the first fantasy side I visited outside
of the platforms I was playing on. There we go, Buddy.
I was in a work league Rotisseery work league, and
one of the guys came up to me one day
and he goes, you know what, you should go check
out this site rasball. This is about fifteen to sixteen

(08:55):
years ago, and you know, it was I'm going, wow,
this is great. It looked like people were having fun
creating content, and pretty much there weren't too many other
sites that looked like they were having fun. But Gray
and those guys, you know, Gray, Rudy, those guys, they
look like they're having a blast. So I gravitated here.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Well, Matt, you know what we say, you know, come
for the advice stay for the laughs. That's what we're
doing here at rasball. We got a number of slogans. Gentlemen,
great to see you both. We're ready to go. We're
kicking off the frosting. The rest of the boys will
be on the program as we go. Articles are written
and ready to go at rasball dot com on the
football tab again. Check out our friends over at baseball
as well. But we're here for the football side, boys,

(09:40):
and that doesn't stop. Let's get into our biggest surprises.
This could be awesome, this could be not so awesome. Matt,
I'm gonna kick it off with you and let you
kick it off. What was your biggest surprise in twenty
twenty four and in fantasy football? That was either like, hey, man,
I didn't see this coming and I was thrilled, or man,
I was hoping this didn't happen and it did not stoked.

(10:02):
What was your biggest surprise your first one? We each
have two. What was your first biggest fantasy football surprise
of twenty twenty four?

Speaker 2 (10:11):
When I started doing research at around draft seas, especially
Bestball season, I started delving deeper into I guess what
you'd call handcuff running backs or deeper running backs, you
know Kamani Baddell and Andre Esteem or estimate guys like that.
And I settled on three names. I settled on Bucky Irving,

(10:31):
I settled on Ray Davis, and I settled on Tyrone
Tracy Jr. Didn't know a lot about them. I knew
one had been a receiver, one was undersize, played at Oregon,
so you know there's not You know, the publicity is
wide at Oregon, but when you're on the East Coast,
you don't hear a lot about the eaches on the

(10:53):
West Coast. And I know you guys are West Coast
guys where you live now. I'm a West Coast guy
by birth, but I haven't been home some time. And
I will tell you that my drafting was backwards, and
I ended up with Bucky in most leagues by picking
him up or best ball drafting him extremely late. But
I prioritize, and you'll see this in my next example

(11:15):
as well. I prioritized those running backs that were drafted
higher in the NFL that I thought were in better situations.
Number One, I'm not a Devin Singletary fan. So Tyrone
Tracy was at the top of my list. I have
been a James Cook fader and thought Ray Davis might

(11:36):
come in and take some of those cares. He clearly
did not, and James Cook proved me wrong. But Bucky Irving,
by all reports and scoring, was a league winner. If
you rostered him and started him smartly, probably the last
seven to eight to nine weeks of the season, you
probably if you have anybody else to play quarterback and

(12:00):
receiver and whatnot, then you probably won your league with
a guy named Bucky Irving. So what I learned is
that they're maybe running backs that are drafted can make
a difference, whereas in the past rookie running backs usually
did not make a huge impact. So I will say
I will have my eyes on running backs as they

(12:21):
come down in the draft. I probably will not be
the young man from Noise State because that's too easy,
so we'll have to dig a little bit deeper. But yeah,
give me all the Bucky. If I was not drafting
Christian McCaffrey at one one point one in twenty twenty five,
it would be Bucky Irving.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Bucky Irving RB fifteen overall in PPR betteran points per game.
There Rashad White was that guy two years ago, twenty
twenty three. He was RB seven right, so a lot
of people were picking him early and often rightfully. So
he was one of my fades just because I don't
think he's a great running back per touch. But also
I knew about Bucky obviously, I'm a duck, and but

(13:02):
nobody saw what Bucky did, not even me coming this year.
But you grab him as a late round handcuff, like
and what the hell guy, And all of a sudden
you're like, waity man, the kid can play a little
bit number shod missus time. Baker Mayfield's better than the
top twelve quarterback. And all of a sudden you're like, oh,
we've got a diamond in the rough out here. So
those guys are so clutch, Matt, you had Pukinakua two
years ago, it's not that let that slide. Now we

(13:24):
got Bucky Irving. We'll find out who your late round
superstar is again.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
And the key for me if you pay for a
football subscription right for the TV, through YouTube or whatever.
For me living in the Tampa area, I saw Bucky
play every week. And it's different when you read a
box score than when you watch with your eyes. So
I what I saw weeks before the box score showed

(13:51):
it was the kid could play football in the NFL
and he can do it at a very high level.
So that's when I make the decision to drop names
that do you know, Blake Korham's another good running back
and he'll have his time, but he wasn't the guy,
and Jonathan Brooks was injured, was not the guy. You
could see that that Jonathan brook wasn't on the field.

(14:13):
You could see that Korum was not getting any carries
behind Karen Williams. But you could see if you watch
the games, don't just watch your favorite team, right, watch
what can help you move forward in fantasy and get wins.
And for me that was huge watching Bucky Irving and
the eye tests said he passes.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Totally agree, So shouts out Bucky Irving and a lot
of those other late round stashes. Well done, Matt Dave.
We'll move on to you. What was your first big
surprise in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Well, mine's a bit more specific. It centers around a
team that I had some belief that the offense would
be a lot more potent than they wound up being
and that was that was the New York Football Jets.
I I remember being on a show very very early

(15:06):
before the season started, around the RAS Bowl draft time,
with Matt and and Derek and me proclaiming very loudly
that Aaron Rodgers will be fine. Matt shaking his head
up and down. He remembers, I appreciate you not smashing
eggs in my face for for for being that guy.

(15:28):
I I just couldn't have been more wrong. I thought,
I thought Breecee Hall had a real shot at not
maybe not being the running back one. Turned out, both
of the guys that I thought would be running back
one weren't even close. Uh So the Jets kind of
were letdown. And it got even worse because I was

(15:49):
I invested fairly heavily in Garrett Wilson, and as soon
as as soon as the Jets traded for Devontae Adams,
my heart sun I knew. I knew it was only
going to be a matter of time before Davonte and
Aaron started just playing pitch and catch. For the most part,
I mean, Wilson had had a pretty good season, I mean,

(16:12):
no question, but after watching him this year, I wonder
if he's ever going to be even close to the
level a guy like Justin Jefferson is. I mean, there's
just it's at this point, it's night and day. You
see it year after year, and a guy has a
catch rate under sixty percent, you know, it doesn't matter

(16:33):
if he's getting one hundred and sixty one hundred and
seventy targets a year if he's only catching you know,
one hundred of the balls. Right. So I thought this
would be a great year for him to take a
step forward. He had a more had presumably a more
accurate quarterback throwing him the ball, and that team was
just a dumpster fire from the beginning. And you know,

(16:57):
so I got kind of burned loading up on guys
like Garrett Wilson and Breis Hall, and I'm just wondering
if Breece is ever going to be, you know, the
same guy he was before he injured his knee. Right,
So that was a little bit of a hard lesson.
I invested in those guys very heavily, and I usually

(17:22):
wind up looking back on a season and going, I
probably should diversify my portfolio, you know, but I end
up gravitating towards the same guys usually at the top
of the draft. So I mean my next one that
I'll talk about is the flip side of that.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
So yeah, fair enough, And again it's it's tough to
get away from those marquee names, right. Breece Hall is like,
you take the risk, right if you're like, Okay, this
guy's top guy. Everyone's drafted first round or second or
maybe whatever, we know what the potential is. But he
had the injury, so if I fade him, it could
come back, and so you go for it and then
it blows up in your face. Now again, he wasn't

(18:04):
hurt this year. That's the trouble, right, Christian McCaffrey got injured,
burned everybody that picked him number one. It happens, he
got injured.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
It happens.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Breece was healthy quote unquote almost the entire season, but
they had other running backs coming in and I'm looking
right now, Davante Adams in the playoffs playoffs wide receiver seven,
right wide receiver seven for Davanta Adams. Of course, a
huge forty three point game in your wild card round
there to help you move on. So that was massive.

(18:32):
But then we saw a final game of the season
week eighteen, when most of us weren't playing at all,
Him and Rodgers just go nuts. Garrett Wilson again, great player,
But I think that'll change Dave moving forward without Aaron
Rodgers in New York or New Jersey, whatever with Davante Adams.
But they just once they meant it. And you and
I were on an episode for trade Targets one week
this week, I don't know, I'll make it up week

(18:53):
nine to ten or whatever when the trade happened and
I said I was trading Garrett Wilson, and it was like,
that's not you know, Hiro Wilson's playing well, do worry
about DeVante yet. It did take a week or two,
but after that, you know, Garret Wilson wasn't trash or anything,
but he was not what you drafted.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
And that was tough.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
So we don't know what's coming on draft season, but
that was tough in trades.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, you drafted Wilson. You drafted Garrett Wilson as a
top six wide receiver for the most point, and he
wasn't even close to that down the stretch.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
He was not. Unfortunately, all right, My first biggest surprise
was the rookie quarterbacks. The rookie quarterback class this year
was a lot of fun. We did not really expect
early in the draft season that so many rookie quarterbacks
would be drafted in the first round. However, of course
they were now in the playoffs. Specifically, Jayden Daniels was

(19:46):
the number one quarterback overall thirty one points per game
in the Championship, just ahead of Jared Goff, Lamar Jackson
and Baker Mayfield. Overall. On the season, we had a
number of our rookie quarterbacks do very well. Jayden Daniels
was number four overall. This is six point touchdown leagues,
but he was even better in four point with the
rushing upside. He was number four twenty two and a

(20:08):
half fantasy points per game. Bo Nicks for the Broncos
was at eighteen points per game. That's good enough for
nine there. Caleb Williams, I know Matt and I throw
shade and rightfully so A's a bear for Matt bees
usc for me, and I just didn't think the kid
was number one. We both had Jadendinials ahead of him.
I rest my case he was number fifteen. Now, didn't

(20:28):
he didn't destroy your teams necessarily, but the number one
overall pick and where people were drafting him with the upside.
It wasn't what we thought. It was what we had
with Anthony Richardson last year he got injured and then
we had Caleb Williams this year. He was healthy. Fifteen
and a half points per game is just not what
you need from your QB one. He faded to a
QB two later in the season, but people kept running

(20:49):
him over there first couple games of the season seven, nine,
nineteen eleven and then nine to nine to six. We
just can't have that. In the playoffs, he was nine,
twenty two and seven, and as he went from a quarterback,
it's almost tough to do. So. The rookie quarterbacks overall
were top heavy and they played well. Drake may took
him a minute to start, but he played well and
had some ups and downs on a very bad team,

(21:11):
and then you had other guys coming through right. Obviously,
JJ McCarthy lost to the season unfortunately very early. So
had a nice run for the rookie quarterbacks and I
think that we're going to be much better moving forward.
Of course, Michael Pennock's getting the start later on. We
didn't see enough of him, but a little bit we
did see. There's a lot of promise there. So we

(21:32):
rooted for fantasy points. We don't root for Huskies, So
shout out to Michael Pennix moving forward. But the rookie
quarterbacks were a surprise for the positive Jayden Daniels, bow Nicks,
and Michael Penix for what he played. And you know,
obviously Drake May and the couple spurts he played well
with We'll see what happens in New England with firing
their head coach and whole thing. And then unfortunately it
was kind of disappointing as well, Kayleb Williams and JJ

(21:54):
McCarthy getting injured as well, So kind of a you know,
sixty percent joy for two percent disappointment. But I think
overall this class of quarterbacks in the top played very
very well in general, and I expect big things from
them in the long term. So very excited about these
rookie quarterbacks overall. That was my first big surprise. Matt.
What was your second big surprise?

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Goes hand in. Well, first of all, I think you
mentioned a guy named Bo Knicks. What college I'm gonna
look at what college your bicks go to he went to,
and they might be right. Where did he end his
college career?

Speaker 1 (22:32):
He ended. He ended with Oregon, and he had the
second most starts before this year's Oregon quarterback. Uh Gabriel
passed that up. Also fun fact which is not fun
at all. It's actually horrendous, good thing. I like Bo
Knicks now. Bnick's first college start ever was at Auburn
against Oregon, and he beats Oregon to upset them, which
we don't love. Two years later he comes to Eugene,

(22:53):
we all love him now. He played very very well.
Of course the rest is history. So shouts out to
my boy Bo Knicks and kind a tough matchup this
week in Buffalo. But I'll tell you what if J
Shillen's not one hundred percent, I think the Browns or
Bruckett sorry Brown's Buccaneers Broncos are a little bit a
little bit exciting this week, all right, Matt? What was

(23:13):
number two here for you?

Speaker 2 (23:14):
For the number two for me is the fact or
my opinion, that fantasy football players get caught up in
draft type for wide receivers based on where those receivers
are really drafted in the NFL versus actually going out
and looking at tape, looking at opponents, looking at the

(23:35):
structure of the offense they come from. I said from
the beginning, everybody that wants to take Maserati marv at
the end of the first round or the middle of
the second round can have all of the Marvin Harrison
junior that they want. They can also have all of
the elite neighbors they want. They can also have all
of the Xavier Worthy they want. To me, the best

(23:56):
receiver coming out of this class and the guy that
I was targeting in in the ninth to thirteenth round
was Brian Thomas Jr. He comes from the tree that
says LSU produces defensive backs in the past and currently,
but it produces wide receivers like there's nobody's business. So
for me, it's trust your eyes, but also realize that

(24:19):
there are certain colleges that kick out nflready receivers. Right now,
for me, that college is LSU. I believe Ohio State
can become that with the group that they have. Now
that the freshman that they have, I think his last
name is Smith, Jonathan Smith just an absolute baller. And
Egbuka is also a baller, But I don't think they're

(24:42):
going to overtake what LSU has brought.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Now.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
LSU's not going to kick out a receiver like Brian
Thomas Junior. But again, I go back to you don't
necessarily have to draft your fantasy team based on where
that player was drafted by the NFL. Marv manned to
have the best career of all of these this rookie class,
but he's also in an offense where a quarterback runs

(25:08):
a lot. He's also in an offense where the quarterback
is smaller in stature, and he's in an offense that
didn't have enough to throw the ball down field all
the time. And by the way, their offense was led
by James Connor. That guy was an absolute beast. And
all of us that drafted James Connor, we said, well,

(25:28):
if he can stay healthy, the Jaguars had Sunshine throwing
the football while he was healthy, and Evan Ingram everything
from there was going to be Brian Thomas Junior. And again,
like I said, with Bucky Irving, if you waited him
out and you watched with your eyes the same as
Brian Thomas. The reason Brian Thomas didn't have nine ten, eleven,
twelve catches in a game is because Mac Jones is

(25:50):
not good at football and Trevor Lawrence was not being
protected and was not able to get the ball to
This guy would have had an amazing rookie season above
and beyond what he had if he would have had
mediocre to average quarterback play consistent throughout the season. So again,
I repeat it for the third time, do not necessarily

(26:13):
worry where the person gets drafted by the NFL teams,
Look at the team they get drafted by. Make a
decision based on film that you've watched and feedback that
you hear from real analysts, to be OC's college coaches,
and just watch the tape and you will know that
Brian Thomas was the best receiver along with Malik Neighbors.

(26:35):
And by the way, Moore did they come from. Both
came out of LSU, so probably the two best. And
by the way, don't sleep on lad McConkie. But I
was wrong on him, so I won't.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Bring him up.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
There we go. Yeah, I agree, man, these wide receivers
I'm going to talk about a little bit further here
in a second. Dave, how about you biggest surprise number two.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah, for me, it was again, it was more specific.
So apparently I misunderstood the homework assigned. So if you
want to put me in the corner with the conical hat,
I'll go sit there. But I I fanned on the
dynamic in Los Angeles between Pooka Nakua and the Cooper Cup.

(27:15):
I thought Cooper Cup coming back this year was going
to have a much bigger year than he wound up having,
and I thought that might come somewhat at the expense
of Puka. So I was kind of unwilling to pay
the price that Pooka was going for. And it's kind
of ironic because he's one of my probably one of

(27:38):
my larger Dynasty steals. I've got him. I got him
at the I get him early in Dynasty drafts, in
the fourth round, and he's just a steal at that price.
But I was pretty sure that Cooper Cup was going
to come back and be more like twenty twenty one

(27:58):
Cooper Cup and less like twenty twenty three Cooper Cup.
And it just didn't materialize. And I got to tell you,
Pooka is probably going to be even more coveted next year.
I may not want to pay that price again. But
I can guarantee you I will not overlook him next year.

(28:19):
He didn't. He missed some time this year, so the
year wasn't what it could have been. But when he played,
he was just he was everything that Cup was In
twenty twenty one, he was getting just targeted all over
the field. He would catch everything that was near him.
He was just a He was just a complete stut.

(28:39):
So I can absolutely say with a straight face that
I missed on Pooka Nkoup this year.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, fair enough. And again, you know, shouts out to Styles.
A couple of years ago, before we all knew who
Pooka was, Matt did throw him at the end of
all of his lineups and the rest is history. This year, Dave,
I was with you. I'll piggyback on this. I'm actually
going to piggyback on both of yours with my next
one here. But first, Dave with you. I'm a Cup
guy from the beginning. Anybody that plays on red turf

(29:07):
in college, I just have to believe. In so Eastern
Washington shouts out. The Cup has been amazing his entire
career when healthy, Yeah, he was incredible. He set the record,
he set number of records, right won the Triple Crown
in twenty nineteen. Blah blah blah. When the Super Bowl
do all this stuff comes back, he gets injured, but
now he's healthy. In preseasons, I'm like, you know what
I'm all in. Then he was a draft day steal

(29:29):
in my opinion. So I'm like, this guy's a first
rounder if healthy, and he's like the end of the second,
third round. So I got him everywhere. It was great
while it lasted, and it was horrible, and it was
great for a little bit, and then it was bad
again and it was really tough. And obviously he literally
single handedly lot like kick people out of the champion.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
I can guarantee you I probably personally did as much
to drive his price up over the course of the
entire draft season as anybody I was drafted. When he
was going in like the fourth and fifth rounds, I
was scrabbing him everything.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Of course, Matt and I did mock draft Mondays every
Monday for about three months, and aj Brown, Cooper Cup,
some of these guys. We drafted Alvin Kamara in the
seventh round. We were getting these guys non stop, like
this is ridiculous. And sure enough, those draft day prices
panned out for the most part. But anyway, yes, pooking
a Coupa is the real deal, and we're gonna see
that moving forward. This isn't an official thing. I am

(30:28):
learning moving forward because I've known this for a while,
but something to remember for everybody. Matt Stafford as a
quarterback finds this guy locks onto him, and he becomes
that dude. It was Calvin Johnson for years and years
and years in Detroit. It became pookin a coua or
I'm sorry, it became Cooper Cup. And now it's pooking'
coua and it's Cooper Cup when healthy, but Cooper just
getting old fast. So now it's pooking' to coua. And

(30:51):
so keep an eye on them moving forward. All right, gentlemen,
my seconds, and our final big surprise here is rookie receivers.
I talked about rookie quarterbacks. I'll piggyback on Matts. It's
rookie receivers. He mentioned Brian Thomas Junior and Melik Neighbors
and Lad mcconkee. Jalen McMillan was in that as well,
and Marvin Harrison Marvin Harrison, of course, was kind of

(31:12):
a dud for us, unfortunately, but the rest of them
really did really well. Brian Thomas was wide receiver four
overall in PPR. He would have been a little bit
lower if Ceedee Lamb played the last game of the season.
Milik Neighbors missed a couple of games. Laden McConkie missed
a couple of games, so so Brian Thomas probably would
have fallen a little bit in points per game. But

(31:32):
overall he did stay healthy and that matters. He was
wide receiver four, and he was number one folks in
PPR in the playoffs. He came through with you when
it mattered the most, and he dominated one people's leagues.
We'd love that Brian Thomas was a wide receiver four.
Malik Neighbors with whoever the Giants wanted to send out
a quarterback, was still wide receiver six overall Fantasy points

(31:55):
per game, Wide receiver four in points per game though
at eighteen in PPR. That Lad McConkey also took him
a minute to get going in LA, but once he
did after the bye week, he finished up as wide
receiver twelve and PPR played well in the fantasy playoffs.
In the championship game, put up a thirty burger for

(32:15):
you at the wide receiver position. We love that. And
then Jalen McMillan again took a minute for him with
the Bucks, but we saw him blow up as soon
as Chris Godwin went down, and he played very well
also down the stretch though, and Mike Evans was out also,
so once again, we don't root for Huskies, but we
do root for fantasy points. We love that. Another Husky
Roma Doonze just not his fault. I mean, Caleb Williams

(32:38):
was overthrowing guys constantly. Matt and I threw shait on
Caleb Williams for personal reasons because we're jaded. Then the
football season started and it was like the kids talented.
He can throw out of the pocket and he's got
great weapons, but he's overthrowing guys like his intended air
yards was one of the worst in the NFL constantly, right,

(32:59):
And he made this comment that his punter we don't
need him, and then his punter ended up with more
yards kicking than he did throwing. Not a good look
for the young man. But unfortunately Kayleb Wills just wasn't
it that ended up falling on Roma Dunese there as well.
So I think Rome is a great talent. Jayleen McMillan.
Both those guys went to Washington beat my Ducks three times,
thank you very much, Very very good talents there. I

(33:20):
think all these guys are gonna be awesome moving forward.
Marvin Harrison will be better moving forward. Cardinals got to
get better or Kyler's got to figure it out, but
he'll be fine moving forward. But these guys were awesome.
The first two is specifically though, Brian Thomas and Malik
Neighbors doing it on the teams they did with the weapons,
they did very impressive. The Jags were horrendous otherwise, and

(33:41):
we know what the Giants were not doing. So those
two guys are stars, you know, coming forward here. So
it's kind of impossible to right now to compare anybody
to Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, but three years ago, right,
they were kind of the same gig. So we'll see
what happens with these two young guys if they can
get steady quarter play moving forward. All right, that's gonna

(34:02):
wrap up our biggest surprises. So once again, just kind
of a quick recap. It was, in no particular order,
the Jets offense, rookie quarterbacks, Bucky Irving, Marvin Harrison, the
dynamic between Pukaakua and Cooper Cup, and then the rookie
wide receivers as well. We're gonna take a quick transition

(34:23):
here and get into what we learned. But first I
want to throw it up to Jamie, who's been in
the comments section, just throwing down a handful of notes here.
We're gonna throw a bunch of these up and then
we'll get moving down the line here. Only baseball that
he watches, gentlemen, is Ricky wild Thing Vaughn playing for
the then Indians. Of course, nowadays it's it's the Guardians.

(34:44):
But we don't keep it PC all the time on here.
That is going to be the Cleveland Indians of the
Pedro Serrano.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
We got Dorn at third base, Willie, I mean, hell
of a catch, don't ever can do it again? Yeah,
I mean Lou Brown at the helm rip, great squad.
We got Joe Boo in the locker room with the vibes.
Great move there. Cuba Hubbard and Chase Brown two of
his biggest surprises as well, everybody drafted him as starters.

(35:12):
We did not expect them to end up as RB
Top twelve. Maybe with the Bengals, but Jack Moss was
in town early and then definitely not on the Panthers.
Tuba had a great season. Quinton Johnson actually catching some passes,
throwing a little shade there like that. Quinton Johnson next year,
I love it. Josh Palmer was my guy. Quinton Johnson
will be this year. The Browns winning more than one

(35:35):
game and by the way, beat the eventual Super Bowl
winning Baltimore Ravens, which was very impressive. Then we got
Brian Thomas junior, who we just talked about as well.
Jamie was also high on Cooper Cup as we all were. Unfortunately,
Marvin Harrison almost the exact same stats of his dad's
rookie year. Marvin Harrison's senior, I believe, ended up being

(35:57):
pretty good later in his career. So we'll see what
happened with Marvin Harrison. For the kids out there, google
Marvin Harrison Senior for one of the best wide receivers
of all time. And is it a true Oregon Ducks
mascot based off of Donald Duck That is correct and
a lot of people call the Duck Puddles, which is
his street name, but the Duck is the official name

(36:20):
of the mascot, which is pretty ridiculous. Okay, gentlemen, let's
get into the what we learned styles. I'm gonna kick
it back to you. What's the first thing you learned
at twenty twenty four that you're gonna be carrying with
you into twenty twenty five?

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Speaking of puddles of you, I know you guys are
music officionados. If you have not treated yourself to Puddles
Pity Party, google that when you have chance. Wow, Yice,
Puddles Pity Party is an absolutely frightening sight to see.

(36:56):
With an absolutely amazing voice. Yeah, Puddles Pity Party.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Shout up by by Michael Dyer. Go ahead, got it
for me?

Speaker 2 (37:05):
Do you know Puddles pretty Party?

Speaker 3 (37:06):
There, Dave, I do not, but I will. I will
take your I will take your recommendation to heart and
check all out.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
All I'm gonna say is, don't judge a book by
its cover.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yes, if you've seen the movies or the posters for
a movie called Terrifier, which I've watched about five minutes
and I thought it was terrible, but a lot of
the youngsters apparently like it as a slasher, blood and
gore type movie. Yeah, don't judge a book by its cover.
And I'm with Jamie. I don't like clowns either. I

(37:38):
don't believe Puddles is a full clown. He does have makeup.
I don't know that I would call him a clown.
But just listen to the voice. Maybe just cover your
eyes when you do it. But I digress.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
To me.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
One of the things that I learned moving from twenty
four to twenty five, and I don't we don't have
a lot of time to go into the eaches. For me,
I think that I learned that the offensive coordinator, especially
with younger players, is probably more important for fantasy than
the head coaches. And I look at the fact that

(38:13):
I think Dan Campbell is a really fun story for
the Lions, but the Lions are not the Lions of
twenty twenty four without Ben Johnson. So for me, OC
might be more important for you to look at when
considering your fantasy assets moving forward. And I'll leave at that.
If you guys have other examples of OC's that you
think are more important than the head coach, I'm more

(38:35):
than one here, but I know we've we're kind of
running along at this point.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
All I'm going to say is, I think it really
depends on what type of head coach. The head coach is.
So an OC for Kyle Shanahan, Yeah, maybe an OC
for Sean McVay, maybe Matt Lafleur maybe, but an OC
for like Bill Belichick, right, Dan Campbell, some of these
defensive guys. Brian Dable, Sure, the play call or in

(39:00):
general is very important and that you know that OC. So, Matt,
I totally agree with you, and we'll see Ben Jonson
obviously the top commodity. But the coaching episode we have
every year on this program. Bob did such a great
job with those episodes. We're gonna have to fill big
shoes on that one. But the coaching changes episode on
this show is always one of my favorite to do,
but it's one of my favorite to watch and learn

(39:21):
from because those coaching changes mean so much when you
get the continuity of rolling throughout the NFL. Dave, what
was your first thing you learned in twenty twenty four
heading into twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Yeah, it's not something that struck me in the face.
It's just kind of a continuing lesson when I play fantasy,
and that's loading up on a position is not necessarily
a big benefit. I tend to when I'm drafting, I
tend to go where people aren't. So if you know,

(39:51):
I see a draft heading heavily to running back, I'll
start drafting more receivers, and if I see the vice versa,
then I will go the other way. So a lot
of what I saw this year was people loading up
on wide receivers more so than usual, and I think
that kind of was detrimental for me. It didn't complete.

(40:16):
It wasn't a terrible strategy, but it didn't completely work out.
So I like it when I can have a more
balanced draft. I like to mix and match positions, and
you know, even to the point of if i see
like a top top quarterback fall, then I'm going to

(40:38):
grab him, even if I don't really want to do
that in a one quarterback league, you know. I mean,
I think having a guy like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson,
even in a one quarterback lead, is a huge advantage
if you can get on like later than the second round.
So I mean, for me, loading up on a position

(41:00):
just isn't always a great way to go, and I've
got to kind of, you know, mix and match better
when I'm drafting.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
That's a great one. I'm gonna talk a little bit
about roster stuff here in a second. We have some
dedicated episodes everybody coming up later this spring, specifically on
roster construction, what it looks like, what the terms are.
You hear things like zero RB your hero rb QB
heavy tight end, premium, you know, super flex for anybody

(41:32):
new to fantasy football. For the Ogs, it's all commonplace.
But for anybody new to fantasy football, some of that
stuff is a new language, right. So we're gonna go
through all that kind of stuff. But to Dave's point,
it is important to diversify your roster with players, but
also the way you draft positionally. I like that one
a lot. We'll go deeper into that one as the
spring comes along. I'm gonna piggyback on that one here
just a little bit and get into just playing with fun,

(41:57):
funky roster and league settings. Now, I've been doing this
for years and years and years, so it's not something
I learned new this year. I'm just more committed to
doing it. Certainly in the leagues that I commission. So
if I got a group group of buddies and I'm like, hey, guys,
let's do a fantasy football league. I'll take care of
all the semantics. You guys just need to pay me
money and draft, I'm gonna really bat for you know what,

(42:19):
Let's do an entirely flex league. Every position is flex.
We still start nine guys, ten guys, whatever, but we
do like super flex, but three quarterback positions. We do
seven roster spots, but they're all flex. You could do
seven wide receivers, you can do six tight ends, you
can do seven running backs. I don't care what you do.

(42:41):
But you can play up to three quarterbacks in the league,
and you can do all other flex positions. The drafts, guys,
are so fun. People go like eight running backs in
a row. They don't draft any tight ends. It's a
lot of fun with those. So that's a funky one.
Like the full flex is what I've been really digging.
If you have a smaller league, like you can't do
more than twelve with this. But I've been doing three

(43:03):
quarterback leagues. I do two quarterback minimum and then a
super flex option as well. So you have a lot
of teams starting three quarterbacks and you're like, WHOA, who's left.
That's the point. That's twenty four quarterbacks started every week,
but then you have you know, thirty six even you
do them backup. Sometimes it gets really disgusting. But that's
the point of a super flex is you can do
a non quarterback there as well. You can do all

(43:24):
sorts of and dropping other positions. Right, I'm gonna get
into one specifically from my last one here to end us.
But maybe you just flex it up and drop positions entirely.
So for me, funky settings, do a bunch of points.
I used to do a league. I didn't do this
because guys like Eli Manning were winning championships and I
just couldn't stand it, so we got rid of it.
But we used to do a point per completion for quarterbacks.

(43:48):
Matt Styles will love this one. I forget what year was,
twenty eleven. I'll make it up. I don't remember. Matt
Flynn from LSU played one game for Green Bay when
Aaron Rodgers decided to take a day off. Right, unbelievable
six touchdowns. Okay, he scored like ninety fantasy points in

(44:08):
this league for completions, touchdowns, bonuses, all this stuff. Mike
Vick the Knight that he blitzed Washington on with the
Eagles ninety four points right with our bonuses and our completions.
I was like, okay, Eli Manning, Yeah right, those guys
were averaging sixty points in game exactly. So some of
those things are kind of ridiculous, but we made it fun.

(44:29):
Sometimes you have like running backs or tight ends. Only
if you play with tight ends, they do not get
points for PPR and anything, but they get ten points
if they score a touchdown, right, So like they get
a zero or a ten or a twenty or a thirty, right,
So like that's a big one too. Just some funky
weird stuff. Make sure you do it before the season.
Do not change things mid season. But anything you do
is universal. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Dave.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
You have a couple comments about roster construction before we
get into Matt's second.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Okay, now I'm thinking I'm the one that's off.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
It's okay, you froze a little bit. Go ahead, though
he can hear you.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Okay, am I back? Or was I gone?

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Or you you froze on your screen? But just keep talking.
We can hear you. No worries, We got your back.
You're all good. Go ahead, okay, when you get us,
let us know, Dave, Matt, go ahead and let us
know your your second what we learned, and Dave will

(45:29):
come back to you here and just a little bit
looks so we've got a little bit of a delay.
So styles, if you're ready, give us your second what
we learned for twenty twenty four. You gotta unmute yourself.
Oh check your on mute Matt.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Full mute. So we've had two strength two for us
for the show tonight, no problem. I will tell you
that I was not sold on running backs going to
new teams, except I'm knew. I didn't know. It looks
like I knew. I touted my running my number one

(46:07):
running back for the year to be sae Quon Barkley
overseem see over guy other guys, and most of the
time I wasn't drafting at the top, so it felt
better to say, oh, well, my number one guy is
sa Kwon Barkley. So oh look, he just happens to
fall to kind of where I'm sitting in the draft order. Shaw,
I'm good with that. And by the way, I think
he's going to be the best. Well, it turns out
he probably was real close to being the best. Derrick Henry,

(46:30):
Jamar Gibbs. There's some other guys that put up insane
numbers as well. But I think that what we what
we learned is if if, if a running back is
a stud running back, and maybe they were in a
less than perfect situation Josh Jacobs with the Raiders and
they moved to the right situation. I think they can

(46:52):
be league winners. They can stay healthy, they can get
the good carries, they can get the catches they can get,
they can be the focus of the offense. And by
the way, they can put a big number. So you've
got Josh Jacobs, You've got Derrek Henry, You've got Saquon Barkley.
There's a name escape to me. There was a third
big name, Joe Mixon. It was an absolute stud at

(47:14):
the beginning of the year.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Aaron Jones running back for Daron Jones.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Aaron Jones mixing and Jones went through a little bit
of injury here and there, but if you look at
their per game, their per touch over sixteen games or seventeen,
they've put a elite fantasy numbers. This was Aaron one,
Aaron Jones' best seasons, and I didn't want record to
say it was probably Josh Jacobs best season and it
wasn't close. You and I talked about the over under

(47:41):
on Derreck Henry touchdowns being twenty. Where did he land right?
I mean, just smash that influment and Saquon was Eric
Dickerson light. So to me, don't fade running backs, but
also don't get caught up in zero running back, hero
running back any of that. I think it what you
what I learned again is you draft the way your

(48:03):
team best suits your mentality for fantasy football. Whether that
means who you want to watch play, who you think
is going to be We're all amus, We're all guessing
at the end of the day, right we have analytics
behind us, But it comes down to who you want
to watch play each week and who you think is
gonna bring the best return. So I tend to like
slow drafts where I can make that decision. By the way,

(48:25):
Editor's note, I am not the eight hour clock dude,
never will be. I prefer two hour clocks at the longest,
but can live with a four hour clock. So that's
what you get from me. Trust your running backs when
you know again what your eyes tell you. Right, Josh
Jacobs a pretty good running back, played for a pretty
crappy team for a few years, so give it. Give

(48:47):
him a shot.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
And I faded Josh Jacobs every year. I was on
here hating on him every summer, and it's like, oh,
but he he was RB seven, he was our I'm like, yeah,
I know. He scores touchdowns. That's what he's good at.
That's awesome. He's not a great running back by himself,
goes to the Packers. I immediately jumped on when free agency.
I was like, guys, guess what. I'm a big fan
of Josh Jacobs now because he can beat Josh Jacobs

(49:09):
on the Packers and dominate. And he sure did. Matt,
I'm gonna throw a couple more to you, and then Dave,
we'll get back to you. You are back and ready
to go. My man. JK. Dobbins now he's holding up
the rear here at twenty four RB twenty four, but
he missed four games and he's coming off that catastrophic injury.
But JK. Dobbins was awesome throughout the season right, and
he's much better than RB twenty four and PPR in

(49:30):
points per game because he missed four weeks. Unfortunately. Another
couple guys here, DeAndre Swift started off super hot for
the Bears because of course they couldn't throw the ball
for a while. He ended up at RB nineteen. Not
a bad season from him. We just mentioned Aaron Jones
and Joe Mixon thirteen and fourteen in PPR there as well,
So again, let's keep track of that when free agency

(49:51):
comes up, Guys, we have guys starting to float around
a little bit. We're gonna cover all free agency obviously
and break it down to you, but let's not forget
about the running backs. Much easier to just say, hey, dude,
run over the left tackle when I say hike, okay,
and do it. You're not learning a playbook necessarily. Right
Wide receivers, tight ends especially, they got to learn a
lot more than running backs do. So when you get

(50:13):
a guy that's just a stud go into a team,
especially an upgrade in the offense, I like that a lot, So, Matt,
that's a great one there, Dave. I'm gonna dial back
just a second for you, because you had a couple
of comments on my last one, and then we're going
to dive into your thing that you learned the most here.
But we were getting into just kind of roster construction,
some funky plays. Give us maybe thirty seconds on that,
and then let us know what you learned here in

(50:34):
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Okay, So one thing I learned is that when everybody
else freezes, they're not the problem. So that's when.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
I bank technology one oh one, great job when.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
I bang on the broadcast and come back with a
fresh start. So nice. That was my little one b
thing I learned. Am I going to my number two
thing now? Or are we back to number one? No?

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Sure, go ahead, you're what you learn there.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
We don't. We don't go to number two till after
the show, but you can go into your second what
we learned.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Fair, got got it.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Man, I'll hold it until then. So uh what uh?
The thing I I learned and again it's a it's
a continuing education type of thing. Is once you once
you get into draft season in fantasy football, especially when
you're about when you're around a bunch of people that

(51:33):
that are really smart about the game, is what ends
up happening is somewhat of a group thing situation, so
especially around rookies, so you start getting people like getting
real hyped and and things like that, and it just
snowballs and everybody's talking about them, and you know, it's

(51:53):
just a guy like Kamani Vidal. I can't say I
was ever real high on them, but I know a
lot of people were. You know, it's that kind of situation.
I never really heard in the real world people talking
about how good this guy was and how pro ready
he was, but in the community there was this big

(52:17):
groundswell further that guy and other guys like him. It's
really a lot about rookies and some and this is
no shade on anybody in particular. There's a lot of
wish casting that goes into this business, and you know,
it's picking and choosing which guys and Matt what Matt

(52:38):
said really makes a lot of sense. Trust your eyes,
you know, do the work, do the leg work, trust
your eyes, watch the games, watch the film. You know,
you can do a lot in a spreadsheet, but do
as much as you can around the game itself and
formulate your own opinions. And that's uh, that's something that

(53:02):
I'm continuing to work on.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, Skuy, let me piggyback on that real quick. I've
seen this especially in home leagues, but now I've seen
it in leagues where we kind of cross pollinate and
see these folks go back and forth into different leagues.
Dave and I ended up in I don't know, three
or four leagues without even knowing it. Stop rushing to
be the guy that looks smart with your draft pick.

(53:27):
Right if you draft Marv at one point oh nine,
because you're gonna be the guy that gets to brag
about it, Well, who did you pass up on? You
passed up on aj Brown and Saquon Barkley and Houka
Nakua and Josh Ally right, et cetera, et cetera. So
don't try to rush to the draft board to be
the smart guy. Just let the draft come to you

(53:49):
and in all cases and you will probably end up
with much better teams if you just fade, fade the noise,
don't get too hyped on one player, and let it.
What is Derek Oi saying, don't let it put you
on tilt when Marvin Harrison goes ahead of where you
had ing sladd.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
And it could be a really tough pill to swallow, Like,
we don't get all the things right, but we do
get a lot of things right that other people got wrong.
Whatever right, so be careful. I would much rather say,
you know what, Marvin Harrison is incredible in college. He's
the number one wide receiver. I know the eye test
tells me all that I did, the film, the analytics,
the stuff. Marvin Harrison is the dude, and I've seen

(54:29):
what rookie wide receivers have done. Do I trust the Cardinals?
Do I trust Kyler Murray? Do I trust the offense?
Not really? I certainly don't trust the Jaguars or Giants
more than the Cardinals preseason, But Marvin Harrison was like eh,
And then what Matt said is the most important. It's
not Marvin Harrison, it's who's around him. I know what
AJ Brown's gonna do. I know what Saquin Barkley could do.

(54:51):
I know what Devonte Adams is going to do on
a bad team, and what if he does go to
Aaron Rodgers eventually? Right, I know what like George Kittle
can do at my tight end. Maybe I want to
lock that up. I'm gonna fade Marvin Harrison this year.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
He's coming in and out. Dave, we lost it too.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
I'm back. Team's gonna laugh me out of the room.
And I totally understand that if you end up missing,
but fortunately you can recap it again next year if
that's something that you want to do. So that's gonna
be fading the noise from Dave. I totally agree. My
last one and we'll get out of here is just
maybe getting rid of the tight end position. I've tried
for years and it's just exhausting. I'm probably just gonna

(55:46):
get rid of the tight end position at this point.
I mentioned earlier that I want to have some cool,
funky roster situations. I'm gonna do that. Tight Ends are fun.
If they click and you end up with Brock Bowers
on accident, awesome, You hit George Kittle in the ear,
he stays healthy, Awesome. Trey McBride is so great without
a touchdown, awesome. But then John new Smith, zach Ertz

(56:08):
comes back to earth, Tyler Kraft comes out of nowhere,
David Njok who finally pops off, Pat Freiermuth Hunter, Henry
kid Odden, all these guys you don't expect in preseason.
They go off to the tight end position is rough.
Either making a tight end slash flex so you don't
have to play dining end and you can grab the
tight end the top end guys if you want to,
or just get rid of the position and add another

(56:28):
flex so you can add a tight end if you want,
but you don't have to play them. The other part
of that, though, is Sam Laporta, Mark Andrews specifically, even
Travis Kelcey were droppable. Jeff came on the program like
week five when Matt had a waiver article and Jeff said, oh,
I picked up Mark Andrews on waivers this week. I'm

(56:50):
sorry what you picked up Mark Andrews on waivers for
free when everyone drafted him in the second round? Yeah,
because he was terrible. He was droppable with two back
to back don't nuts after three and nine fantasy points
he went zero for zero. But guess what he ended
up as the tight end six on the season because
he's Mark Andrews. Travis kelce was, Uh, let me see,

(57:11):
I just had it six one seven. That was his
fantasy points of PBR before he became Travis Kelcey. He
ends up as the number four tight end in PPR,
hang on to the studs if you're gonna draft your
tight ends. Otherwise just let it go. We can't go
We can't predict health, but we can't predict who's good
and what offenses target the tight end.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Matt go ahead, Isaiah likely is Mark Andrews if he's
not on the Ravens. But go back and look at
the amount of fab dropped on Isaiah likely heading into
week two.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Yeah for one week, yep, yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
And the crazy thing is like, if again, if you're
gonna play tight end, go big or go home. That's
my thing. If you're gonna play tight end, you have
to have a tight end. Get your guy. And yes
they might have a dud early on, but you know what,
it's a tight end. Nobody saw John new Smith come
in until it happened for six weeks in a row
in week thirteen. So either got him on waivers that
you did in right. Zach Ertz was out of the

(58:11):
NFL last year before he ends up on Washington. He
ends up as a wide receiver seven because that offense
targets the tight end position. So that's what we're gonna
get into in the offseason as well. What these schemes
look like in the positions that we love or hate, right,
So get rid of kick or get rid of the
defense if you want to maybe start fading out tight
end two if that's something that you want to do.

(58:32):
A couple more comments here from Jamie and Genlemen, we're
gonna get out of here. Jamie's got a lot, which Jamie,
we always appreciate you jumping in. We're going to read
those on the back end. But to share with the
public here, I think that some of the fun ones here,
we're basically just getting rid of the tight end position
and implementing tight end premium to balance out. So that's
one point five points for catches for the tight end position.

(58:52):
I like that. And then he's been implementing a roster
of one quarterback, one running back, one wide receiver, mandatory positions,
six flag and a superflex and then a tight end premium,
bigger points, more flexibility and your roster, more flexibility on
your waivers, and the drafts become totally unpredictable. I love
that in Jamie's last thing here, the RB dead zone
may not be that dead, right. A lot of these

(59:15):
guys you end up getting in the four or five
six rounds a few years ago that was the case.
Running back is coming back now, so you end up
getting some of those like dead zone players. James Connor
was drafted in the sixth round this year. He was
a league winner down the stretch. Keep an eye on that,
all right. That's what we learned in twenty twenty four
and those are our biggest surprises as well. General. We
got one long end the tooth here to kick off

(59:36):
the year. I love it. Anything else, we'll go around
the horn here. Matt's start with you. Then we'll go
to Dave and I'll rally us out. Anything else you
want to mention off script, any comments that you have
lately before we get into the thing, and he shouts
out to the website, a tool, an article, anything you'd
like to set. Closing out twenty twenty four, heading into
twenty twenty five, Matt, the floor's yours.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Kate up into the San Francisco Giants. Big somebody on
me a hat seven and a quarter. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
You got a Kate Upton custom Bay Area. Do you
want like? Do you want the what is it? The
Thursday night? You know, the the alternative hat, the fog
hat we have or do you want just the old
school black with.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
The orange SF old school fitted obviously right, just like this,
I got you and I'll wear it maybe when I
when I put my Kate Upton poster up on the wall.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
All sure, yeah, big big acquisition anyway, Yeah, buster posey
making moves there. Kate Upton heading on a one year
proven deal with her husband who is justin Verlander, I believe,
but they're both adding in the Bay Area for this year. Dave,
anything else you'd like to add here for the TWI interim.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah, Now that I'm done crashing the program, I just
like to say thanks a lot to Jamie for hanging
with us tonight. I love reading your comments and it
was it was. It's great having you on. Thanks so much. Man.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Specifically shout out to Rasball and their slot versus wide
tool helping me win the championship. Can we give Jamie
just a just an easy kind of a golf clap
of thumbs up. I'll even give it to give him
a five bucks from Sunday morning, whatever you want to do, Jamie,
Big moves. Man, appreciate you and the shout out to
your tools. And also Jamie runs his own podcast and
YouTube channel, ladies and folks, so please make sure to

(01:01:25):
go support our good friend Jamie and he is right
the slot versus wide tool home and away splits. We're
gonna have ADP tools, We're gonna have trade analyzers. We
got all of it available for you for free at
football dot rassball dot com. Even more so, though, if
you'd like to, this is really the bang for your buck.
Go ahead and subscribe to the tools. Our good friend
Rudy on the back end makes all these tools. There's

(01:01:47):
even more available to you. But it's too much to
just give away for free. We can't give away the
house for free, folks, So go subscribe as well to
those tools and get a subscription to the ras ball
that's Football Baseball as well. Check that out. That's incredible
tools that will help you in the offseason, help you
into the new season twenty twenty five, and bring home
that fantasy football championship again. You can find everything on

(01:02:09):
rasball NFL on X. You can find styles at stals eight,
Cruiser one two eight for Dave and myself sky Guasco
on X as well everything available at Football dot rasball
dot com. You can find the podcast and the YouTube
channel at the Fantasy Football Rasball channels. We appreciate everybody
hanging out for us. That is Jamie hanging out there
at the Going for two and the RPO Fantasy Show.

(01:02:32):
Not a sponsor, but a good friend of the show. Jamie,
we love you, buddy, Thanks so much for everything. Once
again and at congratulations to your titles. We're gonna be
with you handful of episodes. I'll be back with you
tonight might be a solo run the old school style,
getting into a mock draft heading into twenty twenty five,
So check back with me tomorrow evening that is Thursday
here in the States. Once again, folks, we have the

(01:02:55):
Rasball Fantasy Football Show for my good friends Matt and Dave.
I'm your host, Sky Guass. We'll get you next time
on the ras Ball Fantasy Football Show. Be good to
yourself and each other. We are out of here.

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Fantasy Football | Biggest Surprises + What We Learned from 2024

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fantasy Football | Biggest Surprises + What We Learned from 2024