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Let's Fix Your League
15 Plays2 months ago
Week 5 has come and gone but don't worry Grant and Steve are back with another episode of the pod! This week the guys get away from the day to day tips and tricks of managing your lineup and take a look at some of the things commissioners should consider when building their leagues. Fantasy Football is all about having fun so Grant and Steve give you their three big ideas for how to make it more fun for not just the commissioner but everyone in your leagues. Grant and Steve also break down the ever growing injury news that you should be aware of and finish it off with the days Ultimate Roster.
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Transcript
Week 5 Fantasy Football Recap
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome back to the 25 yard line recapping week five action for this fantasy football season. I'm your host, Steve Johnson. Grant Freeman is here with me. What's up, Grant? well Everybody. Hey, we've, uh, we've made it a third, just about a third of the way through the fantasy football season. There's no way that Matt's correct. Probably not. Yeah. We're coming up on week five. We're, we're almost there.
00:01:03
Speaker
closing right in on it.
Enhancing Your Fantasy Football League
00:01:06
Speaker
So we we've got a fun topic today. We're going to be talking about How to make your league better. We've got a couple tips that we want to get into just ah a few really, really easy changes. We're not going to get in the weeds too much this episode, but we just, we have a couple of suggestions. How can you make your league experience more fun next season? Some of you may be closing in on Owen five and you're already thinking about next year. So we want to give you some stuff to talk about as it comes to
NFL London Game Surprises
00:01:39
Speaker
that. But before we get to that, there's a, there's some news we got to get to. grant Yes, ah it's been a busy, it was a busy Sunday afternoon if you were watching football yesterday.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, did you? So it totally slipped my radar that there was a London game this week. I woke up to our first news story. I woke up to Aaron Jones has been downgraded to out and I went, okay, well I better get him out of my lineup and I would go get him out of my lineup. And I was like, wait, he's he's already got four points. So talk to me about Aaron Jones's hip injury.
00:02:18
Speaker
ah Yeah, so obviously there was our first London game this past week.
Aaron Jones' Injury Impact
00:02:24
Speaker
So i the the London games are fun because I just set an alarm for like 6 a.m. and like wake up to double check my last lineup and then turn the game on and then go back to sleep. And then usually wake up by the time the fourth quarter rolls around and it's much better to watch just the fourth quarter because usually the first three quarters are just absolutely boring, right?
00:02:48
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. But, uh, for those of you, if you did miss it, uh, because you were happily asleep and enjoying, uh, that, that feeling, uh, era Jones did leave, uh, that's, uh, did not make it out of the first half this, this past Sunday, uh, over in London.
00:03:09
Speaker
ah He was ruled out with a hip injury as at this time we're not haven't really had a lot of details as to what type of hip injury. ah The thing that you do like to see is that Minnesota is on a buy this week so that automatically gives him a week to um that automatically gives him a week to recover. ah So looking like realistically could probably ah be, ah should be potentially good to go come week eight when they return from the bye.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, fingers crossed. I've got a lot of Aaron Jones this year, and I i cannot stand to be losing him at this point. So hopefully we get to see him back soon. If not, Ty Chandler has been seeing a lot of the football this year. And so I would say, hopefully you have him on your roster if you're an Aaron Jones owner. There was a couple of leagues I did not manage to did not manage to snag him.
00:04:12
Speaker
But assuming assume it was that Jones doesn't go, Ty Chandler would be your guy.
Surprising Draft Strategies
00:04:19
Speaker
It was interesting kind of some of people's draft strategy this year because there were times where I thought that I could get a handcuff a certain around and suddenly he would go like around before that, which was kind of what happened with with with Chandler.
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. Uh, obviously Aaron Jones is a guy who, I don't know if he's ever had a healthy season in his life. So he was one of those handcuffs that was going a little bit earlier than, than you'd like to take a
Dolphins' Offense Concerns
00:04:49
Speaker
handcuff. Thought he was going to come around to me in those leagues and just, just didn't, uh, well, let's move on speaking of running backs. Let's talk about Devon a chain and his concussion. Uh, well,
00:05:03
Speaker
I mean, first off, there were not really a whole lot of bright spots in the dolphins offense at the moment. Um, but now that a chain is, uh,
00:05:15
Speaker
is out with a concussion, you are like really less excited about the options that you have ah with that. um Realistically, he is probably going to miss week six. um And so I would make plans, ah begin trying to make contingency plans now if you have him. Yep. So is that is that default Mostert or?
00:05:44
Speaker
Well, what are we thinking? I don't, I don't even know. asney falls moster Because I think most of it's been out for the last two weeks. Yeah. Uh, he is not currently carrying an injury designation though. i No, he played on Sunday. He played on Sunday. Yeah. He came back in Sunday. Um, but you're right. He, he has been hurt. Um, like I Jalen, right.
00:06:11
Speaker
is a bit of a bump, but I don't, yeah I really don't know. I'm a little nervous about that backfield. it's It's not a situation where I feel like you can just slam in most. I i mean, if, if you're desperate, we're in the by weeks. I was one injury away from having to start most hurt in a league this last week, even with a chain on the field in a dynasty league where I've got them. And so obviously it would have worked out okay for me had I ended up doing that, but yeah um Yeah, Jalen Wright has kind of been getting work no matter what, yeah including including games with A-Chaining. So i'm I'm not super confident in enslaving Mostert in there. But again, if you're desperate, you might have to do it. um
00:07:02
Speaker
Cool. Well, let's move on. Speaking of concussions, let's go to Josh Allen. Uh, so did you watch any of this game, which by all means was the probably the second best game out of the early morning window behind. Unfortunately, unfortunately I did not.
00:07:26
Speaker
I did not see a single minute of it. Uh, well anyways, Josh Allen took a hit late in the fourth quarter and by every single replay Review that you angle that you could see of it. He clearly looks like he was knocked out ah once he hit the ground and then suddenly Takes him out for play and suddenly he's back in and cleared to go fortunately Fortunately the NFL has no history of putting players back in game when they're clearly concussed, of course not Yeah, they're their physicians have a perfect record
00:08:09
Speaker
Um, so it would, uh, not be surprising to me if Josh Allen ends up coming into the protocol by sometime late today, early tomorrow, uh, because he, he did not look right. Uh, with that after that hit. Yeah. However, he does bring in ratings. So I wouldn't be too sure that he won't miss time. He's currently not carrying an injury designation, but obviously They haven't practiced yet. ah Should he miss time, we get to see the great former bear Mitch Trubisky one more time. ah You and your former Bears quarterbacks have been having some great backup roles this year. Well, let's move on to Nico Collins, darling of the Texans offense.
Texans' Receiver Changes
00:09:02
Speaker
Dealing with a hamstring injury.
00:09:04
Speaker
um Yeah, legal college its owners were happy that he got you a touch just 70 like a 78 yard touchdown and a couple more catches before he left the ah game with his hamstring injury. Yeah, you're not mad at two catches for 15.8 fantasy points. and b yards Yeah. ah So it
00:09:31
Speaker
you're worried because on average wide receivers tend to miss 2.6 weeks ah in a season. ah But he was also dealing with this hamstring injury back in week three. So if it is that same injury ah that is now re aggravated, you could be looking more potentially ah like six weeks of him being out.
00:09:57
Speaker
which is obviously disappointing if you drafted him where you drafted him, but it's not disappointing if you're a tank Dell owner or a Fond Digs owner. Absolutely. Tank Dell obviously missed week four, but back week five ah for no K game. He did fine, but he stands to, he stands to benefit.
00:10:25
Speaker
A couple more to get
Player Injuries and Fantasy Strategy
00:10:27
Speaker
to. ah First is a Zach Moss high ankle sprain. Talk to me about the Bengals running back. um So yes, he did leave this game with an ankle injury at some point. ah He did return, but never fully looked 100%. We are still waiting to hear if it's a high ankle sprain or just a moderate sprain, but ah if it
00:10:57
Speaker
Realistically, as we're seeing right now with Joe mix in, uh, you could be looking at anywhere from two to four weeks, uh, missing Zach Moss, which means that if you you are a chase Brown owner, you really love it. Yep. Yep. This could be the end of Zach Moss being the RB one in Cincy, depending on how it affects it with how chase Brown has been playing. Yep. He's been earning time and when chase, and when chase Brown took over as the lead back, like.
00:11:25
Speaker
didn't have like a spectacular day, but he had enough to be be get get you what you needed. Now I did watch the end of that game. That was a wild end to the game with a blocked kick by Evan McPherson for the the Ravens to go down and get a win. The Bengals have to be the best one in four team in NFL history. Right. Brutal, brutal losses.
00:11:54
Speaker
So last but not least for our news section, reishi rice getting surgery Tuesday morning, as we're recording this, that's tomorrow morning. As you're listening to this, the surgery has probably already happened and he is recovering and we'll know more, but what are we hearing about reishi rice?
00:12:14
Speaker
ah So the upside in all of this is his ACL and his MCL look to still be intact ah The downside is that it's his LCL that needs to be repaired ah Which is typically measured a recovery for this is typically measured in months and is usually Turns into about a three month recovery process ah Which if you're lucky puts him back maybe for playoffs, but realistically your Until they go in and do the surgery on Tuesday morning, we won't know for sure how long that recovery is going to be. so Obviously, this is big if you're a Rashi Rice owner because of its lack of clarity. I think this is significant because i mean honestly, you were kind of hoping to hear that he's for sure out for the year if you're a Rashi Rice owner.
00:13:12
Speaker
Now, if you don't, with all the other injuries, I doubt you have, um,
00:13:19
Speaker
an IR spot available for him. I don't have any open IR spots and leagues there hill to the brim with multiple other hurt players on my bench. Um,
00:13:31
Speaker
Are you just dropping him or are you waiting until, so waivers are going to process Wednesday night. I doubt we're going to have anything. Is this the week you drop him and try to go get in on a replacement or are you going to hang on for a couple of weeks and see how recovery starts?
00:13:48
Speaker
If someone else in your league drops him, are you going to pick him up and try to stash him? Oh gosh. I think I'm holding on to him for at least a week.
00:14:04
Speaker
If I can afford to do it. Yeah. If you've got the roster space, I'm not mad at that. Personally, I think I'm going to drop them everywhere.
00:14:14
Speaker
By the time you would get him back, you're looking at maybe, maybe last week or two of the regular season. yeah I think I'm totally fine dropping him that bench spot. I mean, if you've got an open IR slot, feel for it, feel free, go for it. But in in a league where you either don't have IR spots, those bench spaces are just so valuable, especially going through the bye weeks. I don't know how your bye week was, ah but I got slammed. I got slammed this week with buys. I was, I was starting an and embarrassing a so assortment of characters. i am I had to start both Christian Kirk and b Brian Thomas in a league.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's not something that, that's not something you want to do in a super flex league. I, I started Christian Kirk at super flex and I started Rico Dowdle, which ended up being pretty good. And Emmanuel Wilson.
00:15:17
Speaker
That was my, uh, those are my starting running backs in that league because I am just, I am just absolutely slammed, but you know, I got that week out of the way. So hopefully that team will be good the rest of the season.
00:15:31
Speaker
exactly but's what your open before Let's move on to our standout player of the week is where grant. I will each highlight a player from the previous week's action that exceeded expectations on the field grant. Who is your standout player of the week for week five?
00:15:47
Speaker
Uh, so my stand up player of the week for week five, you know, we were talking about this team just a minute ago, how they may be the best one in four team in NFL history. Uh, and it was nice to see that Joe burrow and Jamar chase were finally on the same page this week. the second i miss he's in It was, yeah it was awesome.
00:16:08
Speaker
So ah Jamar Chase, 10 catches on 12 targets for 193 yards and two touchdowns. ah Really looked to that they had control of this game from start to finish just about until that block field goal.
00:16:25
Speaker
Uh, which you hate to see. So, uh, but Jamar chase looks to be back on the same page with Joe burrow and, uh, it looks to be like it may be a nice healthy season for those two as I got five touch pos five touchdowns in the last three weeks for, for Jamar chase. And they have the giants coming up this week. The only thing you are worried about with them playing the giants this upcoming week, I think is that they will be so far ahead by halftime is that they start to rest starters. And I think that'll be the only limiting factor for what they're going to pull off. Well, my standout player of the week this week is none other than Kirk cousins coming off of the best game of his career.
00:17:13
Speaker
Throwing four, these numbers are not typos, 42 completions on 58 passing attempts, 509 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, 34.36 fantasy points. um This is his first game with over 500 passing yards in his career.
00:17:38
Speaker
give it up for Kirk cousins, prime time Kirk showed up to play first time over, uh, first time over 400 yards since December. I'm sorry, since yeah, December of 2022, he did it in back to back weeks over 400 yards. And then Nada until now, 509 passing yards in a truly it's, we've had such bad Thursday night football games this year. and How exciting was it to have one like that? It was so weird to see a good Thursday night football game. Wild, wild.
00:18:24
Speaker
And, and on the shoulder of Kirk cousins too, he, he won that game in a highly competitive game against the Buccaneers. Baker having a great game as well, thrown for three touchdowns, no picks. But at the end of the day, captain Kirk came out on top. Well, Grant, should we talk about how to make fantasy football more fun?
00:18:48
Speaker
Let's do it. I like playing in fun leagues with you. I like playing in fun leagues with you and with anyone i I'll play in any fun league. Um, but we have three tips. We have three tips that we think can make your fantasy football league more fun, more enjoyable. If implemented the first two, I think are going to be very, very well received.
00:19:13
Speaker
The final one is shockingly controversial. i I get in arguments about this every year in leagues, both that I run it in leagues that I get into. And then even more so than that, I get people on my team.
00:19:30
Speaker
not in terms of drafting them to my fantasy team, but people join legs, join leagues with me following this rule and they are upset at first. And then a couple of weeks in, they go, you know what? That was a really good call. I had one of those conversations a week ago, but we'll get to that. Number one way to make your fantasy football league more fun, more enjoyable for everyone involved. Grant hit it.
Trade Vetoes in Fantasy Leagues
00:19:55
Speaker
It's a, I just think that voting down trades is silly.
00:20:00
Speaker
No trade vetoes. we're So we're we're currently currently in my work league. This is one of the few leagues that I ah still have the option to vote on trades. And this actually was like a huge like debate this week because there was there was a trade that happened. ah It was the likes of ah James Cook was traded away for Zach Charbonnet and DeAndre Swift.
00:20:33
Speaker
And suddenly I have all of these people looking at me going like, we need to vote this down, we need to vote this down. I was like, why? These people have clearly had every opportunity to make the the the decisions that they wanted to do. They have all the resources available though to them to research and make an educated decision. And if they still accepted this trade, they accepted this trade. Why were people even mad at that trade? I don't know.
00:21:03
Speaker
I don't, that trade sounds perfectly fine to me. I know. Um, wild. All right. Well, let's talk about what a trade veto is. So in some leagues and often in things like public leagues or ESPN default leagues, the default option is that there is a trade review period. So once a trade gets accepted, it's usually like two days. Yeah. Two days. Once a trade gets accepted, the players are not moved from the teams yet, which is
00:21:34
Speaker
go annoying. You spend all this time working out a deal. You finally come to terms with someone, you send it over, they accept it, and then you still have to wait for it to go through. So that's one whole portion of it. When you get a trade done, you want to start slotting players into your lineup and you want to start making it work. But a trade review period goes during that trade review period, people can vote on whether or not that trade should go through.
00:22:03
Speaker
And then depending on your league size, depending on your settings, anywhere from if four people voted down at five, if six people vote no on the trade, then that trade will not be allowed to take place. It will be as though it was declined. The trade doesn't go. So for obvious reasons, this can be super frustrating, but
00:22:30
Speaker
I guess, so what's what's the biggest thing to you, Grant, in in why it's so much better to philosophically why do you not support trade vetoes? Because I know that you and I are 100% in line on this. Because at the end of the day, nobody's going to know the potential conversations that you've had with that other with that other GM of their fantasy team, as to why this trade works for them, it looks like it. It's basically an arbitrary, I don't like what I'm seeing, and so I am voting it down without knowing any of the the like behind the scenes details. like
00:23:11
Speaker
There there so I take this for example me I made a trade in one of our dynasty leagues this week with your lovely wife Melissa um woman Yes, ah but it was one of those things where it was like I kind of we had kind of had some conversations about figuring out a deal because I was in need of a tight end and I Kind of was like, okay. I need to need to make a move so that I can salvage my season since I had started 0 and 3, or yeah, 1 and 3. And so i made it I made an offer of Bijon, T.J. Hockinson, and Michael Pittman for ah Derek Henry, Pukadukua, and George Kittle. And it was like,
00:23:59
Speaker
but let her know that I had sent her a trade and wanted to see like, get a conversation going. And we had a nice little conversation and she's like, I think I really liked this trade because it helps me get younger. And so we did the deal and it was great because I then immediately had George Kittle to slot in at my tight end position because I did not want to try to start Mike Gosecki for a second week in a row. Uh, yeah, that's a great point. So I think the moral of the story is that owners should be allowed to run their team the way they want to run it, even if you disagree with it. yeah You may think a trade is foolish, but you don't know. Everyone has their own individual player evaluations. Correct. Someone may
00:24:49
Speaker
someone may be incredibly high on a player that you're incredibly low on. And I think one of the fun parts about trading is finding those overlaps where someone else has a player that they don't really like, or sometimes I'll get texts. I remember our our friend Steven, who's hosted the show many times before he at one point, um, he sent me a text about, um,
00:25:14
Speaker
I don't remember what player he was offering me, but he really wanted Tua from me. And I was thinking, all right, I'm going to need to pair someone with Tua in order to get this deal done to send over to him. And he asked me the question, like, who else would I have? Oh, it was for David Montgomery.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yeah. And he's, so he said, who else would I have to give you with David Montgomery for you to send me to a over and I'm sitting there going like, dude, I'm ripping you off with this deal.
00:25:44
Speaker
but um
00:25:48
Speaker
But I sent it over. I was like, dude, I would do that trade straight up. Is that what you want to do? And it was like, Oh, like absolutely. If you do that deal straight up, I would do that deal straight up. I'm going, okay. On the surface, someone might look at that and go, that's an unfair trade and veto it. Both of us are happy with that trade. Obviously literally the same day to a went down with a concussion. So Steven ended up a lot less happy than me. But in a vacuum, if two people are happy with a trade, then they should be allowed to make that trade. And where I've seen vetoes used in a way that just goes entirely against the spirit of fantasy football is when managers veto trades that they don't like,
00:26:31
Speaker
yeah because it makes maybe a team in their division that's really close with them better. Or maybe you and I were talking about doing a player and then you traded that player to someone else. And I go, no, I wanted that player. So I'm going to veto any trade that Grant tries to give that player to someone else.
00:26:54
Speaker
That's not my fault that someone else made you or that's sorry. That's not your fault. Someone else made you a better offer. That'd be a better offer. Yeah. I had that happen to me this week. A player put someone I, he put sake one Barkley on the trade blocks that he was looking for first and I went, I would love him. So I just really quickly shot over like, yeah, I'll give you my first next year for sake one Barkley. And then about an hour later I get a notification that he just traded sake one to another team for a player and a pick and I was going dang man, I should have thrown a player in. I should have taken the time to make a better offer because I think I could have beat the offer that he ended up taking and I would have been happy to do that. But that's on me. That's not his fault for accepting an offer before that. right And so if I go then and veto that trade, that's just ultimately worse for the league. It creates an environment of, of
00:27:49
Speaker
unkind competitiveness where it's like, it's like the, I want a golden goose girl in, in Charlie, Charlie charlie and the chocolate factory. If no, like if I can't have it, no one else can. And that's not what we're trying to create. That's not the culture we teams should be able to run their team the way they want, even if you disagree with it.
00:28:11
Speaker
because you um you never know what's going to happen in a fantasy football league. We had a guy in one of my leagues draft Alvin Camara at number one overall. We mocked him. We mocked him relentlessly. The guy who was drafting it too was like, how did CMC fall to me? Like this idiot drafted Camara first.
00:28:30
Speaker
Apparently he knew some, we didn't know cause compares the number two running back in fantasy and CMC hasn't played a game all season at the time. If someone had traded CMC for Camara straight up, we would have been screaming collusion. We would have been furious. You don't know what's going to happen. Everyone should be able to make their bets on the players they want to make bets on. yeah Don't get in the way. I'm sorry. i I cut you off. You were about to talk about collusion, weren't you?
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. So there is obviously, there are going to be obvious times where it is obvious to the league where there is some sort of collusion happening. At that point, your commissioner, if they are a good commissioner should get involved. It's again, should not go to a vote to the league. It should be the commissioner is actually doing their job and paying attention to what's going on and is making it is like stepping in and being like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like this is, this is clearly,
00:29:29
Speaker
There's clearly something wrong here. Yeah, absolutely. And if the people that made that trade are not receptive to that, then you don't want to play fantasy football with them anyway. Don't just don't play with them next year. Don't invite them back to the league. We, uh, there, there have been times I can think of one specifically in my life where there was a trade that was really bad and a bunch of people from the league texted me. It was a league I was a commissioner in and and yeah they were like, dude, this is, this is really bad.
00:30:01
Speaker
and i looked i mean i already I had already seen the trade and I just went, all right, I'm going to take a breath and see what happens because that looks like a really bad trade to me, but I could be wrong here. I got like four or five texts immediately going, have you seen this trade? um Yeah, I saw it. What I did is I texted both people in the trade and went, hey, I'm getting a lot of texts about that trade. Is there something going on here?
00:30:22
Speaker
and They replied immediately going like, no, like I kind of wanted to do that deal, but if it's pissing everyone in the league off, then like, I'm happy to undo it. And I left it totally in their court. I went, Hey, I just want you to know that people are pretty upset about that trade. It looks pretty not fair, but ultimately I'm going to leave this in your guys's court and they reverse the trade on their own. They traded it back and a lot of like, those are the kinds of people you want to play fantasy football with. Yeah.
00:30:50
Speaker
like can that could view that thing, go, all right, I guess I could see how people did that. it was ah It was an experienced player and a newer player. The newer player didn't really know what was going on. So the experienced player, I wasn't trying to take advantage. It just, all right, i guess I guess I could see how people perceived it that way. So I'll undo the trade. yeah Totally fine. All right, let's move on to our next one. and You got anything else on Vito's? No, i think we i think we've I think we've really hit it on the mark. Yeah, darn right. Darn right.
00:31:19
Speaker
Well, let's, uh, let's talk about point number two. How can you make a fantasy league more fun and enjoyable to play in?
Adding Excitement with Bonus Points
00:31:28
Speaker
I mean, the simplest way is just add fun bonus points.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah. Give me a couple examples of fun bonus points. Is this like a ah field goals worth 70 points? No, no, no. Uh, this is like, Hey, for you, you want to, this is, this is like, we want to see the big plays. We want to see that running back, break off a 40, 50 yard road. We want to see that quarterback make that huge downfield 40 yards, 50 yard pass, things like that. So it's like, Hey,
00:31:59
Speaker
for every completion over 40 yards by your quarterback you get an extra point or an extra two points for every touchdown over 50 yards for your wide receiver, you get an extra point like things like that because it's like the thing about that makes fantasy football so great is when you're sitting there and you're like on the edge of your seat because you're waiting for a big play because that could swing the game in your direction and suddenly you get it and then there's nothing better than seeing not only did you get the six points for the touchdown but I also got an extra bonus point because it was a 50 yard plus touchdown like that's pretty fun.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's super fun. And it's like, we're not talking about insane amounts of points here. It's still a very legitimate fantasy football league. And it's just points here and there. So like Jamar chases, huge touchdowns, huge plays. It also gives a little bit more oomph to like, when you see your running back runs, was it Derek Henry?
00:33:00
Speaker
on derek henry are and Sunday. Yeah. That's 70 yard rush for a touchdown. That was not, no, no, no, no. That was the touchdown one when he got chased down and got tackled on like the three after a huge run. It still gives you a bonus point. You're like, all right, I'm running back. Got a 49 yard rush for not a touchdown. You get one bonus point. It's not like I did hear about a league that it was like a hundred points for a quarterback tackle. So if a quarterback threw a pick six and then happened to be the one who tackled the defender oh my god or or on a fumble return or anything like that, quarterback tackles are worth like a hundred points. So you just basically immediately win your week. If your quarterback tackled somebody,
00:33:47
Speaker
That's not the kind of league we're talking about. Cause that's obviously an unserious league. That's not a league I'd want to play in with money on the line. That'd be a fun like joke of a league. I'm like, Oh, I'll add a 10 league where I'm just like crossing my fingers. I'll draft Caleb Williams. Cause we know he's going to throw 25 interceptions this season and maybe he tackles one of them.
00:34:06
Speaker
But it just gives you a little bit of extra excitement during the game. When your player gets a big play, you're getting one extra point. It's not game breaking, but having a few extra points available on the board can make it more fun. Yeah. And there's and then there's also other like fun points to do when somebody has like a career night, like ah In one of my leagues if a quarterback passes for 400 plus yards like that's that's an extra four points But it's like when like how often does that actually happen?
00:34:38
Speaker
like if you' cousins nine times in your career, nine times in your career. Yeah. Which again, that's in his career that has happened nine times. It's not something that's happening every single week. And so it's fun little things like that that like ah potentially can even like put you over the, like put you over the hill and get you that win in a week because they had, they just had, they would like, you had a player that finally had a like a statistically magical game for you.
00:35:08
Speaker
That one specifically is also super fun because four points really helps bridge the gap between the the pocket passing quarterbacks and the mobile quarterbacks. So it's not every week, it's not every game, but it's obviously you get you have like a Justin Fields who can give you a significant fantasy day by running for 120 yards. And that's not like insane for him to do or maybe not 120, but let's say 80 yards in a week for Justin Fields is not that wild. But if you get a Matthew Stafford, who's never going to get 0% chance of him getting you yeah a game of that size on the ground,
00:35:57
Speaker
he can still be a guy that goes off on a week with those, just those extra four points. Think about that's the difference. Kirk cousins this week, zero, zero carries for zero yards and zero touchdowns. He's a great example, but that makes his 34 fantasy points, 38 fantasy points, which is not, again, it's not a huge gap, but that helps close that a little bit more. Yep. I'll separate him from Joe burrow, who only threw for 392 this week was only one and a half ah less than one point behind Kirk cousins gives a, it gives those big games a little bit more excitement.
00:36:39
Speaker
Well, let's move on to our final, our final point of the, uh, of the topic. and this is ah is a busy doozy. This is the one that causes some controversy in league. I've never understood why this is such a controversial like, like take. so So let's yeah, let's just, let's stop beating around the bush and let's get into it.
Rethinking Kickers and Defenses
00:37:04
Speaker
Get rid of kickers and defenses. You don't need them in an offensive sport.
00:37:11
Speaker
We play fantasy football to watch offense yeah with individual players. You don't need team defenses, team special teams and freaking kickers.
00:37:25
Speaker
yeah So we, I guess, so Grant, try to make an argument in favor right now. Uh, in favor. Oh gosh. Um,
00:37:39
Speaker
Well, but I mean, what if I have a defense that's a top tier defense that week in and week out gets me a solid eight to 15 points and is, I could count on to be that team. That's a great point, gra Grant. Grant, you don't.
00:37:57
Speaker
you don't. And let me tell you why. So I'm comparing right now, ADP of defenses to draft position. And I'm i'm only going to do this for this season because I didn't have time this week to go and do this for every season over the last 30 years, but it will always come out this way because drafting defenses is stupid.
00:38:22
Speaker
It's so dumb. here here here's Here's the best example. San Francisco 49ers are the closest thing to working out for that strategy that you just talked about, which is the is the main argument for.
00:38:36
Speaker
um they yeah They were going 155 overall in ADP this year. Let me read some names that they were going in front of in that room. 155. Again, we're using the same thing. We always use fantasy pros. They went ahead of Baker Mayfield. Let me just let that sit in for a minute. The Niners defense ahead of Baker Mayfield ahead of Darnell Mooney.
00:39:09
Speaker
ah ahead of Isaiah likely who has had some games ahead of Jordan Mason. Yeah. Ahead of Justin Fields.
00:39:24
Speaker
These are just the teeth the guys that they went ahead of in, in the, in that close area. Um, they've had one great game. So that they were the top defense off the board this year. yeah And they've had one great game against New England, 23 points. Other than that, they've had three games of single digits and then 10, 10 points. And they, they were going the earliest. Let's go to the next defense.
00:39:51
Speaker
Only 10 picks later, the Baltimore Ravens were being drafted. They are currently outside of the top 20 in terms of fantasy defenses. Their highest scoring game was week four against Buffalo 10 points against Cincinnati negative one against Dallas two against Las Vegas nine reasonable against Kansas city three 21.
00:40:18
Speaker
being drafted around those same players. I just read off. Let's keep going down the list. The Dallas Cowboys were drafted. Um, Oh, I apologize. They were ahead of the Ravens. They were, they were number two, the Dallas Cowboys defense currently position rank 19, including one game of negative six points, one game of negative one point.
00:40:41
Speaker
The defenses that are doing well right now, number one defense in fantasy. You want to take a guess without looking at your screen. Uh, is it the commanders? No, it's the Minnesota Vikings. Minnesota Vikings, 21 fantasy points, 12 fantasy points, 14 fantasy points, three against Green Bay. Not great. Every player has a down week and then 18 points against the jets this past week.
00:41:08
Speaker
Do you want to guess where they were being drafted? I think they were going undrafted. They were going on drafted defense number 27 with an average draft position. Um, like it's honestly, it's, they don't even go that much on every platform, but, um, 275 pick number 275 overall that's undrafted.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah, that is undrafted. The Broncos were the, are the next defense currently to 95, the bears defense number three on the season and they were two, two 63 overall defense number 12. So it, I mean, every year we say just wait and and grab a defense.
00:41:58
Speaker
you get lucky every season. It always works out like this. The number one defense that people are grabbing in the 10th round never returns that value. It's literally just, who do you get lucky with if you wait and draft a defense later? Yeah.
00:42:15
Speaker
i i I play, I spend more time just playing kicker, a defense roulette on a week to week basis than actually trying to get ah a top tier defense. Yeah. I just said it and forget it. yeah i I couldn't even tell you what do you, I know I have the bears defense in one league.
00:42:38
Speaker
and I could not tell you who my defenses are. I look at a matchup on a given week and just go, yeah, that seems fine. And I throw it in there. Now you can push back at me and say, all right, if you're in a league with the defenses, that's on you to not try harder. 100%. It is. I don't care. I don't care.
00:42:55
Speaker
I'm in third place in one of those leagues without looking at my defenses. It doesn't matter to me. It's pointless. yeah yeah cute You're not going to protect it. And there's a reason because it's a team activity because
00:43:11
Speaker
It's not like an individual player where your player goes down, you throw them on IR, and you get a replacement. You draft the Steelers high, TJ Watt gets hurt, or you draft the Niners high, and Fred Warner and Nick Bosa get hurt gets hurt. And it's a different entity than you drafted that is still playing on a week to week basis. It's literally like if you if you draft a quarterback and they tear an ACL,
00:43:40
Speaker
And that quarterback still has to roll out there with a worse ACL or put them in a cast and they still have to go play. You're not, you're not getting the same. It's, it's so fundamentally different than every other position in fantasy football. We're dealing with injuries, dealing with quality up and down, dealing with what a good game versus a bad game is.
00:44:08
Speaker
You really you're really just weighing on who's gonna get a fumble return for a touchdown or who's gonna get a pick six and whoever obviously the good defense to do that more times throughout a season But everything that happens in between is is just unpredictable It comes down to luck and I truly believe fantasy football is a game of skill We can remove as much luck yeah as possible from the equation and and Let's be real at the end of the day you can you could take those spots now and turn them into fun flex spots Like you can have a super flat like you turn a league into a super flex league you could do a wide receiver running back like flex you could do a Full wide receiver running back tight end flex like you could turn the like we're not saying that you have to get rid of the actual like roster like the actual playing like but like
00:44:58
Speaker
playing positions, like we're just telling you to turn them into something more fun. It's more fun when I'm getting to root for the likes of Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr., because I'm playing both of them in a week. Throw in some extra flex spots in their place. Throw in, play in a too tight end league. I don't care. Just don't play with the defense. Yeah. All right. Make an argument for kickers for me.
00:45:23
Speaker
Uh, but what if I, I have a kicker that is like automatic from 40 yards plus and I'm always getting four to five to six extra points and I can count on him to do that. Great point, Grant. I believe you are referencing Justin Tucker, who was being drafted at 136th overall. That is.
00:45:46
Speaker
a 14th rounder and attend team league. He is currently kicker. Mind you, he is the best kicker in the history of the NFL. Not one of the best, the best kicker in the NFL. He is currently kicker 16 averaging eight points a game.
00:46:04
Speaker
Yeah, including two games of five or fewer points. Harrison, butker kick number two. i I do honestly believe that he was only drafted so high for one of two reasons. One of those reasons is if you really liked what he had to say about women. And the other reason, the other reason is if you really liked the name, butker.
00:46:28
Speaker
which I helped multiple people draft that don't, don't watch a lot of football. And they go, Oh, I gotta go. But cur but Harrison, but Kerr, yeah. Kicker two off the board drafted at one 43 overall. Let's see where he is. Keep scrolling, keep scrolling, keep scrolling. Oh yeah. Here we go. He is one of those rare kickers who got hurt.
00:46:57
Speaker
Oh, I guess he still played though. Uh, kicker 21. Now that is before Monday night football, because as we're recording this, it hasn't aired yet. So maybe he moves up to kicker 14 or 15 or something, but we, we can do this all day. Brandon Aubrey is the kicker one right now and he was drafted third. So I guess good for you. If you drafted Brandon, Brandon Aubrey there, but at the end of the day, at no point, at no point, at no point do you ever get back the value that these guys went at in the draft?
00:47:28
Speaker
like I'm looking at, I'm looking back at some of my drafts and like I had, there were defenses that went as early as like the fifth, the sixth, the seventh round when there were still such good wide receivers and running backs available on the draft board. Like it's wild to see how much of somebody's draft strategy gets completely thrown out the window because they decide to go with a, they think that they have to take a top tier defense or a top kicker and they take them too early. Every single league that I had to draft a kicker and a defense in, they're my last two picks. Absolutely. Last two, not last three. Cause you don't need backups cause you can just stream up.
00:48:09
Speaker
Uh, some of the names in overall ADP on fantasy pros, uh, round these kickers that were the first off the board are Ty Chandler, Tyler Algier, yep Mike Williams, worth a shot in a lot of leagues. Cole commit who has been surprisingly not too bad. Rico Dowdle.
00:48:28
Speaker
pack Charbonnet that we talked about earlier, he was just before Tucker, but it was yeah the same range. These are not the same range of players. Like the, like you are, you are sacrificing drafting potentially your handcuff at running back to go get a kicker or a defense that will not finish as we're seeing this
Drafting Handcuffs Over Defenses
00:48:47
Speaker
year. And as we're seeing this year, it is way more important to have the handcuff than it is to have that kicker or defense.
00:48:54
Speaker
Yep. Thousand percent. I have one more point to make on kickers. You are essentially drafting a, think of them in terms of fantasy points that you have to think of them as an offensive player yeah because they're not part of the special team score. You are drafting an offensive player that doesn't get to impact field position until they're on the field. So you, you are drafting,
00:49:21
Speaker
You're drafting Brandon Aubrey, trusting that a group of players when he is not on the field is going to get him close enough to be capable of doing his job, but that they will not do their job so well that he can't do his. Yeah. You're trying to get a kicker. You want a kicker on an offense. That's pretty good.
00:49:46
Speaker
but not great because great offensive score all the time. And then you're kicking extra points, not worth it, which I guess Brandon Aubrey is the best example of that this year because the Cowboys don't know what they're doing in the red zone. If they're not turning it over, they're kicking field goals. So it's working out great for him. Good, good for you. If you drafted Brandon Aubrey.
00:50:04
Speaker
But you're you're getting the Justin Tucker. So you do, the kicker's ability does matter to a degree that you want them making field goals when they're in that 40 to 55 yard range that are automatic.
00:50:17
Speaker
but you're still drafting a player who will be sitting on the sidelines, hoping that the offense of that team does good enough, but not too good. yep And that's, man, if you're hoping for someone to do too good enough, but not too good, it's because you're in too many leagues and it's a running back that you have. And also you're playing against, and that's its own kind of thrill that is way better than having a kicker.
00:50:44
Speaker
Yeah. So like to give you an example of the absurdity of this in in a league that you and I are in, like the, there, there always starts, there's always somebody that starts the run on kickers and defenses way too early.
00:51:00
Speaker
and everybody freaks out yeah and everybody has to go grab in a kicker in a defense. And so in round 11 of this draft, there were one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight kickers or defenses that were drafted. And Jerome Ford fell to me at the eighth pick wild.
00:51:19
Speaker
Two rounds later, there were one, two, three, four, five, six kickers and defenses that went in this round and Khalil Shakir fell to me in at the eighth pick in this one. Like there is such good quality players that people go looking over because they think I have to get a kicker or defense right this minute.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yep. Which is another great point on why you always stay away from positional runs in draft. As we've talked about draft strategy in the past, always avoid positional runs for that reason, because you're the fourth person trying to grab a kicker. That means you're reaching like three or four rounds. Yeah.
00:52:01
Speaker
or realistically you're reaching seven rounds for where you should be taking them and you're going to miss out on good players. Yep. Absolutely. So, um, this is just something I w if you've never played in the league without defenses and kickers, 95% of the people that I have ever forced into leagues like this, uh, and, uh,
00:52:25
Speaker
admitting that they were wrong. I actually, I had a conversation like a week or two ago in my work league. I really didn't want to be the commissioner because I'm a commissioner of way too many leagues. I was like, I just want to leave. I can play in, right? have To worry about news and do all that. But, um, we just, no one else stepped up to do it. We had 12 guys that really wanted to play in a fantasy football league, but no one wanted to run it. So I went fine. I will do it. And half the league was yelling at me when First off, it was their fault. They didn't look at the draft rules until they started the draft, which is on them. ah We're mid draft and I'm getting all these texts and messages going. I can't find kickers on the sheet. I had a dude literally in the eighth round go, why can't I find kickers and defenses? And I said, why are you looking in the eighth round for kickers and defenses?
00:53:13
Speaker
And he was like, ha ha ha ha. No, but seriously, where are they? And I like made a couple of jokes and he called me. I was like, no, seriously. I think my app has a glitch. I can't find them. And I'm like, no, dude, like we're not doing them. If you want kickers and defense next year, you'll be the commissioner. But if I'm the commissioner, we're not doing kickers and defenses.
00:53:32
Speaker
tell you what, we're all having a great time in that league this year, but one of my coworkers came up to me and he was like, dude, I was pretty skeptical. I was definitely on the, on the team that thought you were crazy, but this is a lot of fun. little Thank you. Like yeah it's just give our fun. Like us get she fantasy football is more fun when you can score points. And so the best way to score more points is to have more positional players.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yep. Thousand percent more positional players charge it in the direction of offense, move in the direction of offense. That's what, that's what fantasy football is built around. Now, if you are one of the people who wants to play in like an individual defensive player league and IDP league, that's a whole different ball game, which is super fun in its own, right? If that's what you're into, I would definitely recommend go that route. That is not your every man's league.
00:54:27
Speaker
No, you most people don't play in leagues like that. And a lot of people that try to play in a league like that end up struggling. So take that we read into those waters carefully. We, we tried to, we tried to make a league like that one year and we totally messed up the scoring for it. And it was hilarious to watch that Milano was scoring like 65 points in a week for me. It was awesome. But Well, that's what we have for today in terms of the main topic, but we do have time for a little ultimate roster. I did not preload this, so I'm going to go ahead and type in ultimate roster.com to my browser.
00:55:15
Speaker
The modern AFC East must have played for the AFC East since 2002 stats will only be applied while on an AFC East team. Uh, so obviously for our listeners that, um, have better things to do with their life, the AFC East is the Patriots, the bills, the dolphins, and the jets.
00:55:39
Speaker
where this gets tricky is that stats only count while on an AFC East team. So the game for Grant and I here is gonna be which non-patriots need to be on this list.
00:55:52
Speaker
because obviously the quarterback should be Tom Brady. Yeah. We go Brady for quarterback with no question. We go Gronk for tight end with no question. So we're locked in on two. We just need to decide if there are wide receivers and running backs better than Julian Edelman, Wes Welker. I think at running back, that's going to be, we got to go another direction there.
00:56:19
Speaker
AFC East. AFC East running. Gosh. So is there a wide receiver? I know it was only a like a, what was it? A four year run. Is there a wide receiver that had a better four year run than Stefan Diggs and the bills? He feels like he could be a flex player to me. He had like four straight years where he was a top three wide receiver. Mm-hmm.
00:56:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah, but it's. I'm not trying to think back to the early years of dolphins, bills, Patriots and Jets players. Yeah, I mean, it just it just makes it tricky. So Wes Welker, I feel like is a is a pretty strong contender, a wide receiver for me. Patriots wide receiver. Career, 2004 to 2015, he played his last couple of years in in Denver, but obviously phenomenal career with Tom Brady. Yeah. Do we? Do we go that route?
00:57:44
Speaker
I wish March on Lynch was better in Buffalo. Yeah. that That would have been a really fun pick, but he wasn't there for very long. So that's not an option for us. Um, we should put a timer on this. I think we get another minute to process through these. Um,
00:58:03
Speaker
I've got Brady Welker, Brandon, Brandon Marshall. Yeah. He came to mind. I don't know how many years he was a jet for.
00:58:15
Speaker
What did he leave? What?
00:58:27
Speaker
Yeah, man, I don't know. I mean, I'd be willing to throw him in there at Flex. I think Brandon Marshall at Flex.
00:58:42
Speaker
So I got Brady Welker, Gronk Marshall. I'm trying to think of a running back that's been in one spot for a consistent amount of time in that division.
00:58:57
Speaker
Jet cycled through running backs like a carousel. The bills cycled through running backs like a carousel. Devin Singletary was around for a minute.
00:59:11
Speaker
How much Jones was there for some time? How much Jones was there for like three seasons, but I don't know if it was enough. Lamar Miller had a pretty solid career in Miami.
00:59:30
Speaker
I might be willing to go that route and just press submit and see how wrong we were. Lamar Miller.
00:59:41
Speaker
Did you go West Walker? Yeah. I got Brady Welker, Lamar Miller, Gronk, and Brandon Marshall. I'm pressing submit. We're seeing how we did here.
00:59:53
Speaker
I'm going to swap. I'm going to swap a Welker for Edelman. Oh, that's a good call. That's a good call. Oh, duh. Yeah. We had some terrible. Yeah. Fred Jackson was the one missing.
01:00:08
Speaker
All right, well, ultimateltima optimal roster is Brady Welker, Fred Jackson, Gronk, and Edelman. That was foolish of us to leave out Jackson. But I still feel pretty good. I feel pretty good. I don't know why I didn't think Welker Edelman. I feel like I was deciding between Welker and Edelman for wide receiver. I landed on Welker and then pushed Edelman entirely out of my mind when obviously that was a better choice than Brandon Marshall. Yeah.
01:00:36
Speaker
All right, well, we got an A minus. Only missed by, well, I only missed by 1,300 points. I'll take it. A minus. We're doing pretty good on these, Grant. We're doing pretty good on these.
01:00:54
Speaker
Well, I think that is what we have for the show. Great. You have anything to say to our adoring fan? Well, no. I think we're good. Just for for next year. just Just try it. Just try it without kickers and defenses next year. Just give it a shot. Just give it a shot. Well, that's what we have. We'll be back next week. Enjoy Monday night football. Obviously, when you're hearing this, the game's already over. But I hope you're enjoying it as we speak.
01:01:19
Speaker
But ah if you have any questions, feel free to hit us up on Twitter at the 25-yard line or shoot us an email at the25yardlineatgmail.com. And we will see you next week.
01:01:34
Speaker
Yo, Saints.