Subscribe to our newsletter!
2021 WR Tiers and DFS Strategy with Chris Robin @DetroitBeastie
Intro 00:16
You’re listening to the good old boys fantasy football podcast. Now here’s your host, Kevin, Derek and Alex.
Derek 00:23
Alrighy, welcome and ladies and gentlemen to another episode of the good old boys fantasy football podcast. My name is Derek and I am joined as always by your co host Kevin and Alex guys How we doing tonight?
Kevin 00:37
We’re doing good the first couple injury dominoes have fallen after preseason week number two. So definitely some fall out there. Kudos to everyone who sat back and took James Robinson two to three rounds later than Travis etn. You now have yourself a top 20 running back for at least the foreseeable future until you know whatever happens there in Jacksonville. I don’t know if there’s a whole bunch right come out.
Derek 01:08
They put them on. They put them in a list Frank. sprain they put him on IR Well, at least well, of weeks. Yikes. Yeah. So yeah, we we had some had some interesting stuff going on there. Guys. We also have a very special guest coming to us tonight as well, all the way from Detroit. It’s Chris. The bs from Detroit, at Detroit bc on Twitter. You can follow him there, Chris, how you doing?
Chris Robin 01:36
I’m great. Thank you. And I can’t believe I didn’t notice this when we were chatting before you went live. But Kevin to me looks like he’s in some sort of institution in a padded room behind him. He needs a straight jacket. We’re
Kevin 01:47
good to go. Not exactly.
Derek 01:54
Oh, the good old basement there.
Alex 01:56
I love Hey, hey, before we get going and I know Kevin was talking about, you know, the injury news and the etn stuff and there’s other stuff that’s I’m sure coming out still even as we’re recording this. The best news was our Lord and Savior Carson Wentz back on the field doing cuts and running and nothing to worry about big Much Ado About Nothing.
Kevin 02:21
This is one of the few times I am on the same page as you Alex because I have high hopes for the Indianapolis Colts wide receiving Corps. So I need Carson Wentz to stay intact to fulfill my prophecy in the previous season.
Derek 02:37
I was gonna say Kevin, you’ve got you you had some very bold takes there about that, that wide receiver core so if he was going to miss some significant time that those hopes got dashed there but it’s looking like he’s still going to show up week one and plays is what I’ve been seeing on the reports.
Alex 02:54
I mean, did you guys see him at the practice? He was running around looking like it was did any any time before so I mean, he looked fine cutting and running and throwing I guess I didn’t see any throwing but he was moving around just fine.
Kevin 03:09
Well, and the truth is he needs to guys like the Indianapolis Colts schedule is brutal. And it really is from start to finish. There’s not really like a two or three week window like most teams have where you think, okay, we can get healthy, we can take a breath we can regroup and kind of figure out our situation. The cult schedule is nasty and it is from week one all the way through week 17 they got they pissed off someone in the commissioner’s office because they did not get any favors handed to them this year other than Jacksonville which they have to play twice.
Chris Robin 03:43
And I must say my my Michael Pittman Jr. Shares they were high they dipped and they got really low. And bam we’re back on the moon again with Michael Pittman. So welcome back Carson Wentz. I don’t think I’ve ever said that my life
Alex 03:57
back there its center. Everything’s gonna be okay there for the for the Colts.
Derek 04:01
Correct? Yeah. So we’ll have to see what that one looks like. I haven’t heard anything there. Lots of fun going on with the preseason, make sure that you’re watching following all the camp news. Adam Troutman was another guy that went down, seeing some positive things come out on that injury report that hasn’t fully been released yet. But part of the problem that you’ve got to is the fact that the teams don’t have to fully disclose anything when it comes to injury reports, things like that right now in the preseason. So as we start gearing up and as we start getting close for week one, we’ll really get a closer insight on what some of that stuff looks like. Guys, any other thoughts on some of the things that you’ve seen over the weekend?
Kevin 04:38
Uh, Jameis Winston? Is the starter for the New Orleans Saints and anyone who says different is obviously not watching football. He looked really freakin good. Last night guys like yeah, you know that year under Drew Brees in the Sean Payton scheme and working with them through you know, this one offseason and kind of last year but I don’t really count anything that happened in the 2020 offseason, due to, you know, the pandemic and everything else. But he looked good. He was reading routes like he didn’t force the ball like he took what the defense gave him at times. And then when he had the opportunity took a shot and Marquez Callaway looked like a baller for at least one game, right? Like his fantasy stock went from, who’s this guy to? Holy crap, he’s my wide receiver three. And we’ll see how that shakes out in the regular season, they obviously need to fill a hole with Michael Thomas being out for, you know, perceivably, you know, eight weeks at least depending on how his ankle recovers from all the ligament surgery, but at least gave people some hope that New Orleans will still have a passing game even with the absence of Michael Thomas.
Derek 05:52
Absolutely. So guys picking up some wide receivers there. Let’s go ahead and hop over into some wide receiver tears. And so, you know, we’ve been we’ve been kind of talking about this over the last couple of weeks at Tier based drafting is where you need to be at when it comes to your draft. It is a way that will help you not enter that tilt mode because anytime that you go into a draft, you will inevitably get sniped, somebody will will take your guy that you had queued up ready to go. So those tier based drafting will help you get away from some of that looks like we got a comment coming in there. pings pics says all the regret for not drafting Callaway late. There’s a lot of people in that same boat after watching that game last night with you paying one game. I don’t know dude, that’s they I don’t know who else are gonna throw the ball to right. We had that same conversation when we’re talking with the saints. So tre Quan Smith. Yeah, we’ve got to still see him healthy and go in there. But yeah, absolutely. They’ve got some they’ve got some past catchers. But I think there’s a little bit of sigh of relief after watching that game last night. So looking at it, you know, we talked last week about the running backs in the tears, how the running backs go and how some of this looks and breaks out. So now we’re going to talk about the wide receivers. And so the way that we did this is each of the boys went through and have their their rankings that we’ve already did, but we split those rankings into some tears for you. And we went all the way to our roughly our wide receiver 20 rank in there and split those into the tiers on how that looks. So some of us will be a little different than the others. But we’re going to start with the tier one and two here and this is how this kind of breaks out. So Alex has Hill Diggs Ridley Adams and Hopkins’s is tier one. Kevin has Adams Hawk begins and Hill as his tier one and I have Hill, Adams and Hopkins as my tier one. So Chris, kind of looking at this. What are What’s your thoughts as far as how these tiers break down? And how do they differ from from maybe what you have?
Chris Robin 07:51
Sure, my ranks are they look very similar. And when it comes to tiered rankings, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. The person doing the ranks and I love the idea of having you know, four or five guys in one tear Hill, Hill digs Ridley Adam Hopkins. Personally, I wouldn’t have Ridley in my first year, no offense, the idea of having three guys your top three Adams Hopkins Hill is perfect for me. In terms of what I have Davante Adams Hill I have met calf, third may be between and then fourth and fifth kind of different different opinions here. Diggs and AJ Brown kind of would be there too. But again, as I said, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Again, when you’re making tears, you can put you know, I guess it wouldn’t be you know, fair wouldn’t be a tier ranker system if you put 10 players in the same tier, but there’s no there’s there’s no Handbook, you can have three guys, you can have five guys, you can do whatever you please. So I don’t want people to, to kind of, you know, freak out right off the bat. Like I’ve seen a lot of people I look up to and trust only have three guys in a tier. But I also respect people that have six guys in a tear you do what you what feels right. When I rank, you’re going to know when the tear breaks, you’re going to know it right here and your chest right here in your stomach. So I like what I’m seeing here. I don’t mind you know, five guys in a tear. But I also don’t mind three guys in a tear.
Derek 09:09
Right? And so that’s one of those two that the tears for me actually separate themselves out like the A lot of times the further down you go and you start getting, you know, higher on those tier numbers, the more guys start getting to that tier as well. But you know, one of those that when you look at some of this, the guys will kind of separate themselves out and have maybe shorter tears when you have those those guys at the tippy top. Have a have a section there. So kind of going down into some tier two, right? You got Metcalf Jefferson brown Maclaurin and Robinson for Alex. Kevin has Metcalf Diggs and Ridley and his tier two. I’ve got Ridley brown Robinson, Metcalf and Diggs in mind. So what are your thoughts here on on tier two? Anything that you change any, any way that you kind of side a little bit there?
Chris Robin 09:57
No, these are all fantastic. The one thing I do want Pointing out I love the addition of Alan Robinson in the second tier. Alan Robinson. He’s in my second tier. I don’t think it’s a reach, but I don’t think too many people are paying attention to him. He’s kind of ho hum. You know, does his job kind of quarterback proof just like Terry Maclaurin in his second tier there these guys played with some awful quarterbacks, but they still produced in looking at what you know. Excuse me what Terry has this season at quarterback? YOLO right. Ryan Fitzpatrick and now it looks as though Andy Dalton will start a week or two I don’t think that last we all know we all see it you know, Justin Fields will be that quarterback one, you know sooner rather than later here. So I like to have choices right? And in all the drafts that we play, and some of them are you know, 1416 I get messages guys playing in 32 team leagues, so I like to have choices and I think the more like four or five guys in a tier fits me better the way I draft Tom Who am I to tell you Derek Are you Kevin that I don’t like to have three guys in a tear that’s what you like to do. But the way I draft I like to pick and choose right and you said it before we went live Derek you don’t want to tilt aka you don’t want to make that panic selection. So if I have more guys than a tear that I feel comfortable with that’s what I’m going to roll with.
Derek 11:13
Awesome. So Kevin, Alex What do you guys his thoughts here yo can a baby break down some of the thought process here between your tier one tier two
Kevin 11:22
is so the reason as I’m looking at this and the reason I broke it out the way it did is just I love running backs so stinking much and that affects my wide receiver tears to a sense because outside of these six guys there’s probably double what 12 based off the last week right running backs that are in kind of that same tier level that that I like part of it because the system part of it’s because they’re you know the workhorse backs that you have and that type of situation. Derrick as you said as I get further down into my tears the group grows we’ll show the slide here in a second but my tier three is is much larger just because I think all these guys have a similar path to comparable output. But as far as this goes, I I will have to get really talked off the ledge for anybody to tell me Davante Adams isn’t the best wide receiver for fantasy football until Aaron Rodgers retires. The Hopkins and Hill are right up there. We know there’s their target share is through the freaking roof with their teams and Metcalf. The only thing that’s holding them back is still those random Tyler Lockett Big Three touchdown games where all of a sudden Metcalf only sees four targets and you’re wondering what the heck’s going on? Diggs A lot of people have him higher up I really think the secondary is going to be rolling safeties over the top of digs this year so it’s going to suppress a little bit of his output still very good he’s in my top five but I do think that he’s going to be suppressed slightly just because of coverage shifting over to them and the fact that buffalo can’t run the football
Alex 13:05
Yeah, so I guess my my tear breakdowns kind of went to I mean really I could have separated out my top three atoms in there as well throw atoms in there as well I taught for but really what it came down to me is any single one of these guys any of these top five I you could give me an argument that when it’s all said and done at the end of the year, they are wide receiver one and I would believe you no problem no questions asked any single one of those guys in my tier one could be wide receiver one when it’s all said and done at the end of the year. So that’s why I saw that now to two you’d have to give me some more convincing to say like one of these guys is going to finish his wide receiver one but they’re as you know, one overall, but they’re still going to finish in the top What do they have here? 12 I still think that they finished in wide receiver one territory in for me as I look at the wide receivers this year. It is such an embarrassment of riches because of how pass happy the league is now and because of you know the ways that some of these guys get creative. The reason, Kevin that you said you know Metcalf is not in my tier one is because of those random Tyler Locky games that has nothing to do with with DK Metcalf has everything to do with Russell Wilson is a great quarterback, he’s gonna find the open guy, and he’s not going to force anything. And sometimes Tyler lockets the guy and that’s that’s how they went there in Seattle, not to mention they’re on their 60,000 offensive coordinator since Russell Wilson has been in the league. So there’s going to be some some newness there as well which we’ve seen time and time again that it doesn’t seem to affect them very much but it will have an impact. So that’s how I broke out these tears was that top five guys like I have no problem seeing any one of those five guys finished as wide receiver one overall when it’s all said and done and then break down into mice. second tier and there’s a lot that’s I mean there’s just so much good talent in the wide receiving corps you know in the NFL now that you know I wouldn’t be surprised if any single one of those guys snuck up into that that spot either
Derek 15:15
absolutely so guys we did get the comments there no Callaway in tier one from pink speck on the on the question there so maybe maybe if you keep seeing that go on you might have to scoot up there you never know we’ll see how that works there. Look for the update
Chris Robin 15:31
next week pen hangs pics looks
Derek 15:34
like it. I like it already, guys. So let’s go ahead and talk on tier three, tier four. So again, where we kind of stopped these these rankings as a writer when we got to around wide receiver 20 overall rank is to kind of how we saw them finish there. So Alex went a little bit deeper on some of these so you’ll see his kind of stop at tier three. Where’s Kevin and I had a little I had another break in there. So for Alex on his tier three it was Cooper Evans, lamb more Jones, Godwin Thielen woods and cup. Kevin had his two three Maclaurin Robinson Brown, Jefferson, lamb, Godwin, Allen and Evans and my tier three was lamb. Maclaurin, Lockett. Alan Moore and Johnson. What are your thoughts here?
Chris Robin 16:21
I might be again raked over the coals here I have my rankings are up in front of me here. I apologize for not sharing them. I have locked it all the way down at like wide receiver 22. Like I would prefer Cooper cop and Deontay Johnson, Chris Godwin Thielen woods, you know in DJ more overlocking it’s just he’s just something about him that that drives me crazy. I have Kevin touched on it moments ago, you’re gonna have two or three games where they’re just insane outputs to 300 yards, several touchdowns. But good luck guessing which games those are in to me, that drives me crazy. And one thing I will say not about and not about any of your personal rankings here I learned it took me a long time to learn this. But I when I started ranking, it was just for me and like two dudes in my fantasy leagues. You know, the receptionist I gave her my rankings, people get so caught up in wanting to fit in and wanting everybody to like their rankings, that they don’t even believe their own process. And they don’t even believe their own rankings. They’re putting out all this content, mainly rankings and projections to kind of, you know, fulfill other people’s you know, minds and explore that. I’m telling you, right now you’re gonna get a lot of success, if you just rank for you, as long as you can be on a broadcast like we are now, or write an article or getting like a fight, not a fight. But in a spirited conversation with someone, if you know, in your heart of hearts, oh, I rank the sky, because this is what I believe I saw this, and this is what I did, you’re going to have a better time like the South Park episode. If you rank for other people. And for other purposes, you’re going to have a bad time. So I’ve not once ever put anybody down for their rankings because again, it’s such a delicate process. It’s time consuming. I respect anybody that takes time and to do tears, and to talk about it, it can get stressful, but it’s worth it. At the end of the day, you have to do it for yourself. Because if you rank for other people, it’s going to get messy quick,
Derek 18:17
right? When you if you french fry, when you should have pizza, you’re gonna have a bad time. So,
Chris Robin 18:23
Mark, and darsh you’re gonna have a bad time. I love it.
Kevin 18:28
I love it. And that’s, that’s part of the reason I like these tears, right? Because there’s not necessarily a rank that’s involved with these. And yeah, Derek, you did these off of our consensus rankings and kind of how we personally did it in our dock that we share. But that’s part of the tear, right is I can see any one of these guys like my tier three finishes out at wide receiver 14. Like it. So it really is out of the question that any one of those guys I believe can finish inside the top 12 and be a wide receiver one? Absolutely not. Some of these guys will absolutely finish there. Some might come up a bit short, and that’s part of football, but I guess that’s why I like the tears because it takes some of the fandom out. And I’m not associated with a number next to these guys. I’m looking at a draft board and building my roster. I’m looking at this group of players and then taking into account Alright, what’s their offensive scheme? Do they have a new offensive coordinator? How’s their offensive line been performing? like are they banged up? Or they’ve been together for the last five years in real a real cohesive unit? Does the quarterback like to sling it? Or is he super conservative? Like all those things kind of play into that? Even within tears? And so ultimately, like I said earlier, I can look at any one of these guys in a set of tears and the numbers are pretty close to the same. Would anybody be surprised if Mike Evans has 1300 yards 11 touchdowns? And outscores Terry Maclaurin no i don’t know that anybody would be surprised but No, at the moment, they’re on opposite ends of the tear break. But there’s not a number. It’s all the same. As I’m looking at it.
Chris Robin 20:08
I like to have wiggle room, right. That’s what you know, options I said at the beginning of the broadcast. And I love to have wiggle room, because the moment I kind of, excuse me, the moment I see people plant their flags on, let’s say, Kevin, we were in a spirited conversation, you said Evans is going to be better than Terry Maclaurin. Now, you were kind of setting ourselves up for, you know, a nasty conversation, you planted your flag on one guy, and there’s no real real wiggle room. But if you say they’re in the same tear, you know, people will back off and they’re not going to jump down your throat. And I like, I like that gray area. Maybe that’s just the strategic DFS mind of me. But I love having wiggle room and gray area where I can kind of talk my way out of any situation possible. And I’m not, you know, stuck to one kind of player. I’m not stuck to one mindset. And it’s, you know, not being open minded isn’t, it’s an awful curse to have when you’re ranking. Absolutely.
Derek 21:04
Alex, any other thoughts on the tears?
Alex 21:06
Yeah, it’s just for me, when I was going through doing this, this tier three was like, I feel like these guys, you know, again, these are wide receiver to candidates, right? Like, that’s how I kind of looked at it was that these guys, again, they could they could very easily pop up into by receiver one territory. But to me, like these guys firm stranglehold on wide receiver to now wide receiver to territory, that’s a big, that’s a huge jump, that’s 12 to 24, or 13, to 24. And that’s a big, that’s, that’s a lot of points in between those two. But again, when it comes to wide receivers, in just how I’m viewing, you know, the league as a whole this year ish, I just think there’s going to be a lot more passing. You know, there’s, there’s gonna be, there’s obviously been more focused on the quarterback, it is so hard to play defensive back in the NFL these days, because you can’t sneeze on somebody, and not get flagged for it. So, to me, you know, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we’re gonna see big numbers out of these wide receivers. But the issue with wide receivers is, you’re only as good as the quarterback throwing to you, and you’re only as good as the game plan allows you to be. So you know, there’s a few guys that that first year of mine, like, those guys are gonna get theirs. These guys, they, they’re gonna need some consistency and some looks and you know, some things to go their way in order to sneak up into wide receiver one territory. But to me, like, that’s how I look at it, this tier three, these guys are all bunched up next to each other, and I’m okay taking any one of them as my wide receiver too.
Derek 22:43
I love it. So kind of the last thought that I’ve got, as far as the tears go here, right, like, and we mentioned this a little bit, but just kind of reiterate this as far as a strategic thing, something tactical that you can carry into your draft is if you’re sitting there, and you’re looking at your tears, and there’s only one or two like running backs left in a tear and you need and you’re sitting there trying to debate between a guy and you’re looking at two, you’re at the start of your wide receiver tear and that entire tears there and you’ve only got like two guys left on the running back here, well, there’s a good chance that when it comes back to you, one of those wide receivers will still be there, but unlike but it’s unlikely that one of those running backs will be there. And it doesn’t have to be those positional groups but I bring that up as just kind of an example there from the standpoint that you know, that’s one of the ways that you can you can help prevent some of the tilt when you’re in a draft right know where the board sits know the room and take a look at where that sits because if you get one of these guys it’s in the same tear there’s a good chance that on average, they’re going to put up roughly the same amount of points over the course of the season for you So whereas the guy in the next year down may not so that’s kind of one of the things that I have as far as a tip to help everybody out there and how I kind of look at that and view some of those things guys any other thoughts on some of the tears any of the players in here any
Chris Robin 24:02
the breakdowns here in all my years playing fantasy football I’ve noticed and this I’m not I’m not about to say anything profound you don’t have to you know pull out your phones and go oh my god Chris is gonna know what I’m getting at is that there you go. The first isn’t it being recorded anyway so there was a silly comment on my part but when it comes to to fantasy football draft from scratch, not talking you know picking up a keeper league or or just from scratch dynasty, redraft, whatever you have me personally, I have to hit home runs in the first five rounds, right? maybe six, maybe seven. So the tier system will get only get you so far. I mean, if you if you run into rankings that tear it all the way down to you know, top 250 or the top 300 in some of these, you know, expensive magazines you can find at the at the Walgreens or Walmart wherever it is. So I use the tier system to a certain extent after round seven after round eight and then right at that point, I kind of look at it like Like the space shuttle, the Rockets take you and then when you get so far, you’re gone, you’re on your own. So at a certain point in your drafts, let’s say round eight around 10, after you’re kind of on your own, and that’s when we’re left to our own devices. So if you can do your own ranks, or do your own projectile projections are, you know, very tumultuous, but at a certain point, you’re going to be left on your own and you need to be prepared. And so again, I love tiered rankings. I mean, we’ve been talking about this for years and people are still going by the 123 method and this guy’s four and this guy I mean, that’s kind of you know, old school right super flexes and now tiered rankings are in as well now so be mindful and be very prepared with you know, with your draft prep and what you’re doing on the draft board. COMM draft day. Awesome.
Derek 25:45
I love it. That is some great advice there guys. It is time for the sports me spicy take and when we went to sports me We were just asking more on some of their tips and their tricks and what the guys out there kind of utilize when it comes to some DFS maybe they might have a question we’ve got a DFS expert among us tonight so let’s go ahead and hit up that sports me spicy take
26:13
whatever up Derrick pings pics here,
26:14
man. I play vandals I play DraftKings a little bit here and there. But mostly vandals. I think the like half PPR I don’t like bonuses that much. I feel like they can kind of throw things off. But if I say a tip is go follow some of the best players, the pro guys, I give up these type of algorithms and the sub day they know what they’re doing. They win for a reason. And if you’re trying to take this like regular fantasy football, you’re probably not going to do well.
Alex 26:43
Yeah, so I’ve never played DFS, I’ll be honest. But if I were to I tell you exactly what I would do. I will go talk to a couple of my buddies, who are some of the best data scientists in that area. And I would ask them what to do. That simple. So that’s what I would do. That’s my tip and trick as someone who’s super smart and as an expert as a lot of computer models.
Derek 27:06
So we got some, that was fantastic. That was
Alex 27:11
nice Taipei dines a nice humble brag that I went to Harvard and I know a lot of data scientists.
Derek 27:18
So that’s that’s Derek over there at sports me he’s actually in charge of their tech over there. So he’s a good dude. Always Always chime in and commenting given us a some some ammo for the sports me spicy take and we’d love all the folks that hop on there. And and help us out with that. It’s always a lot of fun seeing those come through. So Chris, yeah, these guys had some had some thoughts there. Right. And so kind of, you know, this is your area of expertise when it comes to DFS. And so what any thoughts on on any of the things they kind of said there anything that that kind of came to mind?
Chris Robin 27:52
Yes. So a lot, not a lot to unpack there mainly about that typing head on. That was fantastic. I liked it. He had the I forget what kind of shirt that is where there’s buttons on the collar right there. Unbelievable. That’s a must. If you wear a tie keeps the knot tight, nice and close. And you go from there. But aside from the tie and paying in the Harvard hat, I would say that in terms of data analysis and algorithms, right, everybody in their mother has access to an optimizer nowadays, you know, if you’re playing on fanduel or DraftKings, or even some of the you know, I know Yahoo has a daily DFS thing here. You have to have an optimizer, right. But be careful which ones you use, because most of them if not all of them are using the same data, right? They’re using the same snap percentages of rushing rushing percentage. How long are you on the field? They’re using the same thing. So if all four of us are using the same optimizer, we’re all going to be tied at the top, we’re going to split money, and it’s just going to be like, oh, okay, it is what it is. So you I’d like to think of a case where you have to kind of dig a little bit deeper. And I know that’s not for everybody, not everybody’s into DFS, not everybody’s into crunching numbers. And truth be told, I’ve always been awful at math. I had a tutor in college and I still was bad at it. So math has never been my strong suit. But when it comes to DFS, and adding up numbers and fractions of fantasy points and yardage totals, it just clicks, and I’m there. So when you’re using an optimizer, be careful, research it because again, most of them use the same algorithm. I know when it comes to baseball, everybody uses the same thing. Era ISO, nobody uses exit velocity. nobody uses bvp you know, batter versus pitcher. Same thing with football. Nobody ever pays attention to what cornerbacks are going to be covering. You know what, what right wide receiver, what tight ends is the middle of the field going to be kind of roaming free. These are all kinds of things that you need to see you they don’t pop up in an optimizer. They don’t pop up in an algorithm so it takes a certain kind of person. Maybe I’m nuts, maybe I’m crazy. I enjoy it. That’s all I do. 20 473 65 if there’s sports being played, I’m playing DFS. So do your homework with an optimizer do your homework with with who you trust with your advice. I know I mentioned that 10 or 15 minutes ago, but as we know it on social media, there’s a lot of negligent advice going around. There’s a lot of people just kind of putting stuff out like, just verbal diarrhea, just saying stuff, because they think I’ll be prominent. I’ll be in the spotlight, if I say something wild. So be careful who you trust and just do your homework. It takes two seconds. Again, we talked about it since the start of the show. Everything is at your fingertips now. Everything is reviewed. Everybody has something to say about one person or another. So be mindful, be vigilant, do your homework and you’ll be okay. Number one thing I would say with DFS, and then I’ll leave you guys been talking for 20 minutes, is it’s all about contest selection. I know guys playing since day one on fanduel or DraftKings. They still messaged me, Hey, I put $102 in, you know, every weekend. And next payday. I’m still putting money and they still don’t know what contests to to choose. So if you’re paying all this money for optimizers, you’re buying lines, you’re building your own, and you still don’t know what contest to enter, then it’s a waste. It’s a wash. It’s a waste. So there’s a there’s levels to this. And there’s things you got to do. anybody has any questions or comments, you can DM me, I get back to everybody in anybody at Detroit, beastie. I’m sure Derek will field your questions. I’m sure Kevin or Alex, were field your questions. But hey, I’m the DFS guy. Do what your well,
Derek 31:31
gotcha. Well,
Alex 31:32
and your DFS questions to him not. I’m learning I’m learning right along with everybody else here.
Derek 31:41
So I’m your Chris. It’s, yeah, there’s a ton of different platforms out there. And I know that you this has been something that you have, you know, really kind of planted your flag on in the DFS space for a while now. Where do you tend to find some of the best success when it comes to the DFS side of things?
Chris Robin 32:02
It’s always been fandel to me. And that’s just one of those things. Where, how can I put it where it would make sense, let’s say, like I’m born and raised in Michigan, you’re either a U of M fan or your Michigan State fan and how you you decipher which one you’re going to love is more than likely your father, your grandfather, your wife, who knows. Same thing with fat fanduel was the first DFS site I ever, you know, got acclimated for it was challenging. I very much enjoyed it since day one. So to me, it’s always about fanduel. But I know a lot of people are the exact opposite. Everybody likes some people like DraftKings. They hate fanduel some people and it just all it gets. It’s a muddied water people like they lose sight of it. But to me, it’s fanduel I find everything they do to be concise. I find everything they do to be cool and collected. And when you get to DraftKings, I’m not going to put them down them and I aren’t on the best terms right now. I’ll leave that be. But I just think that fanduel is is a better DFS platform. For me personally, again, I, as I told you about rankings, I never put anybody down for that. Never put anybody down for what platform they want to play DFS here, but to me personally, it’s fanduel.
Kevin 33:13
Now, I prefer fanduel as well, for the same reason. It’s kind of just what I got into first, I got into fanduel before DraftKings. And if I’m gonna step into the DFS arena, that’s that’s typically where I’m spending my money. And crossing my fingers for a
Chris Robin 33:30
pen. They are, you know, people, people just assume, right? If you’re a casual DFS player, or Heck, if you’re someone like me, he’s been playing since day one. You would just assume that it’s that it’s all even it’s all straight across the board. There’s a massive difference in terms of strategy and building lineups on both sides. If you notice fanduel prices are absolutely more expensive than DraftKings prices. And you will why is that because there are two different formats. And I believe on NFL contests. You have 60,000 fictitious dollars on DraftKings. I think it’s only 35. So that’s the disconnect. But that’s fine. You have to think in a whole different way site to site so it is really what do you enjoy? What do you enjoy the the most the best?
Kevin 34:16
Right on so so answer me This typically, with especially the the high stakes leagues that are on these DFS sites, like you need at least one if not to really kind of sleeper homerun picks that just kind of stand out and make your lineup separate itself from the pack. So that way you’re not tying with six other people who use the same algorithm to generate a lineup. So when you’re going through that, I guess, can you can you give some insight on how do you kind of find those sleepers like what’s something that you look for and kind of hammer in on? This is my guy this week who’s going to set me apart? And if this goes the way I think it is I’m going to be hitting pay
Chris Robin 35:01
Yeah, that’s a great question and I don’t know if you loved me that meatball but that your question is the exact reason why I created bottom of the barrel, my DFS kind of value picks here. It was very been very successful for me last season in terms of popularity in views and things along those lines. And we all know that the studs you’re going to want to get Patrick Mahomes in your lineup Christian McCaffrey when he’s healthy, but who are those guys that are you know, that the I believe the cheapest player on fanduel in an NFL contest is like 40 $500. To put it in perspective, Christian McCaffrey is like 10,000 Patrick Mahomes is 90 $700. And I get a cheapy. guy like Marquez, Callaway last season for an even 40 $500. So I look at, you know, I scroll all the way down the cheapest prices. And then I start writing stuff down who’s on the field more, right? If I get to a point where it’s Gerald Everett, or Tyler Croft, in Buffalo, who sees the more snaps because again, if you’re not on the field, you’re not going to accumulate points. So it’s a very simple process, but one that you kind of have to fine tune over the years what works best for you. And to me, it’s as simple as how much are you on the field. And we go from there, you got to look at quarterbacks as well, if no, a great rookie tight end in Kansas City, am I going to want to put someone like him in or am I going to want to put someone like Jordan Atkins, in Detroit, with Jared Goff, they’re both the same price at tight end, but who sees the field more, and who has the better quarterback? So there’s all these determining factors. And when I say out loud, it’s, it’s like two plus two equals four, it seems pretty easy. But I’ve noticed a lot of this process, people lost in the shuffle, you know, they see some shiny, some shiny object, and they’re they’re off, they can’t, you know, focus in long enough to say, you know, this is the two players, I have to compare. And this is what I need to do in terms of pricing, in terms of the offense surrounded him. And I know you’re you’re probably thinking Chris, you just install a lot of hot air, you’re not saying much. Because it’s it’s really that simple. When it’s broken down like that. I hopefully you weren’t expecting some, you know, MC equals three squared, or whatever the the theory of relativity was.
Alex 37:14
Just confirmed the needing the math tutor in college that was well done.
Derek 37:19
Okay. So, um, yeah, and, and, Chris, when you’re doing your stuff, I know that you do a lot of like lineup based deals like the fanduel, things like that. have, you know, one of the big things that I’ve kind of seen start to roll out there some of the prop based type of DFS stuff, is that something that you’ve kind of started to tackle over the last couple of years?
Chris Robin 37:42
Yeah, you know, what, I’ve always been into that, and anybody that’s ever worked, you know, like construction, or in a factory. I’ve always been into those. They’re tickets, right? And they look like this. And the player or excuse me, the teams are there. And each team is assigned a number and at the bottom, you circle what what team you want, and you cut that off, and then you hand that portion into the bookie. And the odds on the back, you know, for you four of them are like a one to 35 odds, and it goes from there. Right? So I’ve been into that since I was a little boy, my dad was born and raised on the east side of Detroit, always worked at a shop, he’d hand me a roll of these tickets and say, you know, pick your poison and go from there. So I’ve been betting on sports since I was probably eight or nine years old, my father got me into it didn’t never bet away my house or anything. But now that sports book is readily available, I love it is as degenerate as the sounds. I was on the fanduel horse racing app, like a whole full year or two before the sports book was made legal here in Michigan. So the sports book is unbelievable, especially this time of year. You know, right now, we’re like, what are we a week or two away from the football season, you can put all kinds of bets on Jameis Winston to win Comeback Player of the Year, Aaron Rodgers, that MVP, so there’s so much stuff you can kind of dig into and I do want to say don’t bet don’t get in over your head. If you don’t have it to lose, don’t do it. It’s all meant to be fun, right? I’m not making $1,000 bets $1 here dollar there. DFS is a different story, but I love that that that fanduel and even DraftKings has a sports book and I’ve been slowly kind of you know, implementing that in my content, right? People they they see what what you are and then if you change in any little way, you know, some people will leave or some people say that you’re losing, you’ve gone commercial or you’ve sold out Chris and you’re not the old so it’s all nonsense. So you just have to do what you enjoy the most and do what makes you happy. And I can have a steady balance of DFS and and sports betting.
Kevin 39:40
I like that for the record. This morning. Caesars still had the line of James Robinson rushing yard set at 650 and a half. A nice little plus 350 on that. So daddy like that one RMA. That was one just kind of scrolling through things like holy crap. This is still here’s like, okay, I’ll toss some money at this. But you know, it’s so cool because a lot of the folks we talked to and and generally how our show kind of is is so redraft slash, you know, we dabble with some of the dynasty things but it’s really about redraft and kind of in some of that week to week everything. So it’s really cool to see your mind work on the DFS side of things, because I know Alex doesn’t jump into it as much as Derek and myself do. But you know, Derek and I will be on a call or texting back and forth about some of this stuff. And you do make it sound a hell of a lot simpler than it looks when we’re looking at the screen going, huh? What do we think about this guy? This is like, is this the play? Is this not the play, but it made that’s
Chris Robin 40:46
my thing is it’s always like, I feel like I have like, I don’t want to say a gift. It’s not that but not It has nothing to do with fantasy sports or DFS, you know, a lot of people, when you’re when you’re alone, and you’re talking to yourself or your thoughts, a lot of people don’t know how to convey them, right? They starts in your brain, and how do you how do I explain what I’m thinking to other people so that they can understand what I’m thinking? How can I make what I’m doing understandable to someone who was a foreign to this whole thing? And I think I have, I just have something in me that it’s just really easy for me to kind of get out what I’m what I’m thinking and what I’m saying and I’ve always preached, you know, I like to be open and honest, make my intentions clear. So when it comes to DFS, I it’s insane to me that 10 years ago, I was writing all this nonsense stuff down in a notebook had no one nobody was asking for my opinion. Nobody was paying me money to for my bets or anything. I was just doing it because I very much enjoyed it. A lot of people they would work or they they build boats, I don’t know. I write everything down. Whether it’s DFS redraft dynasty, my service notes at work, I write everything down. And then who knew that if you fast forward, it was setting me up to where we are now, where I have everything written written down, 10 years back, all the contests I’ve entered, all the all the bets that I placed, and I’m able to kind of get that out to other people. Right. And I know, Kevin, you said, you know, you have different people. And I know a lot of people that that that bet DFS or they you know that their content is kind of behind a paywall. Not everybody is willing to give up their secrets are willing to give up their tips. And again, no offense to any of those folks, but I’ve never understood that if I’ve, if I’ve done if I’ve come before you and I’ve succeeded, why wouldn’t I kind of go back and give you the give you the blueprint to kind of succeed in here, because we’re all playing against the house. It’s not fanduel it’s not my money to give away. It’s the house. So it’s not like if we all tie at the top, it’s my money. So what kind of fool would I be if I wasn’t saying, Well, you know what, I saw this exact situation, DFS when they changed formats, or they added point percent. I saw this exact same thing about five years ago, and I have notebooks filled of what I did, where I had success. What kind of jerk would I be if I didn’t offer that to somebody else for free? Because it’s it is I can only keep what I have by giving it away. So helping other people, not only in DFS, but everything under the sun here, I’d be silly if I wasn’t, you know, trying to to the best of my ability to help someone else succeed.
Kevin 43:23
But that’s a very good point. And I think a lot of the I’m going to say casual DFS players, because I’m not going to speak for the professionals. But how you put it right? It’s everyone against the house. It’s very much the golf mentality, right? You’re not playing against your buddies. You and your buddies are playing against the course. And that’s what you’re trying to beat.
Chris Robin 43:44
So like the blackjack dealer at the casino?
Kevin 43:46
Yes, absolutely. So ceremony. I like that analogy a lot. And you’ve, you’ve done a very nice job of clearing up some murky waters, at least for the casual or beginner DFS players. I know. I’m nowhere near expert level. So I’m not going to get into even trying to formulate some sort of high level question, but I really appreciate the insight and the time and passion that you have about this.
Chris Robin 44:14
Absolutely. Thank you. And again, nobody really ever anointed me a DFS expert. I kind of put it in my Twitter profile one day, and I said, You know what? Maybe I am maybe I’m not I’ll let my followers decide, right? So if I say I’m a DFS expert, and they go, yeah, I kind of trust what he’s doing, then I’ll leave it if I called out or someone said, you beasty you know, your content is pretty good. But I don’t think you’re an expert. I probably would have gotten rid of it. But I’m getting away with it so far. So let’s keep it rolling.
Derek 44:43
Awesome. Well, Chris, I know one of the things that you do that you did last year, and I’ve seen you do it with some of the other sports there as well as is you’ll bring out some of the kind of the value plays things like that. Is that something that we can expect to see this year?
Chris Robin 44:59
Oh, abs bottom of the barrel is now going to be put on at team riser fall. Mitch is the owner CEO over there. He reached out to me a couple months ago he said what would it take to get you here on our website? right because at that team rise or fall is predominantly DFS I, you know, we’re doing seasonal fantasy videos and everything. But they have so many DFS tools for every sport PGA US Olympic swimming last I looked, I mean, whatever you want to do DFS, you can find it at team rise or fall in my number one calling card Why, why why he wanted me at the website was bottom of the barrel, that exact kind of, you know, value picks, right last season, I’ve been writing that article for probably seven or eight years, and nobody ever gave a crap about it. But then last year, for some odd reason, but it picked up some steam, it garnered some success, then week four or five, almost every guy mentioned at cheap prices scored touchdowns, and it word of mouth started carrying around. And here we go, it did all did just over half a million cumulative views throughout the season. So I’m looking to keep that momentum rolling into this coming season. So bottom of the barrel, without a doubt, every Tuesday afternoon, you can set your clocks by it during the NFL season.
Derek 46:14
I will I already made the note to hop in there and check that out on Tuesdays. Because I really enjoyed seeing that last year. And I know that some of your picks for some of the sports that I don’t necessarily dabble in, have done really well for folks out there as well. So that’s something that I can’t wait to see and and enjoy that content as it as it keeps coming from.
Chris Robin 46:34
I think though, sorry to cut you off. I think the reason everybody connected with it, I the place could have been dog crap. But every blurb I write under a player. It’s really nothing. Nothing profound. It’s not like yeah, I want to play, you know, TJ hawkinson this week, because this, I just thought, you know what TJ grew his hair out, he’s got a beard. And I think he’s gonna score a touchdown this week. So it’s all just from the gut. But it’s kind of a little, a little wit from me. And I think that’s why people connected to it most because you can find, you know that, as you said earlier, the algorithms are like the, like the analytics content anywhere, especially in an optimizer. But where can you go and you’re like, you know what? This guy makes no sense. But that, in fact, kind of makes sense. So let’s roll with with Chris.
Derek 47:18
That’s awesome. I like it. I like it. I like it a lot. Chris, is there any other? Yeah, we’re getting ready to move over into our home league and talk about that. We appreciate you coming on. Is there any other tips or tricks that you want to kind of leave the viewers with?
Chris Robin 47:35
Yeah, really quick, I won’t take up too much more your time because I know Alex hasn’t talked in about 20 Min, 2030 minutes. So once I get out of here, once I get out of here, you guys are going to be stuck with Alex for like two hours as he’s as he’s chatting here. So I would say you know, if you’re a casual DFS player, start slow. Don’t get in over your head. You’re not people have like this, this glitz and glamour idea where if they put 10 bucks in, they’re going to hit for a million bucks the first week they play, it’s not all about that you had to have more luck buying a lottery, scratch off tickets. So start slow and find your put 10 or 20 bucks in but and don’t be afraid to use it across different contests and with different players. And all that would be as kind of research and development plan on losing 10 or 20 bucks. But in the process, you will have found a method that works for you. I like cash games more I like GPS more. I can’t do that for you. Sure, I can give you advice or you can go to an optimizer but I can’t you know kind of tell you what is best suited for your your playing needs or your playing action. So start slow, sprinkle some money in all different contests and see what you get. What is the most enjoyable to you? Because I know that gets lost in translation all the time. I know everybody says it. We’re like Win win. If I’m ever out have something to say I go well, fantasy football should be fun. But that’s that’s legit. Same thing with DFS. Right? It shouldn’t be kind of like, you know what I got to wake up this morning, I got to do my notes. The morning I wake up and I feel that way. That’s the moment I’m walking away. I’m already excited about tomorrow’s baseball slate. So when if you can kind of jump in now a week or two before the season starts. You have a couple weeks of trying things out and seeing what goes from there. So start slow contest selection is huge. And again, there’s no amount of content or broadcasts I can do to kind of make that decision for you. That’s up to you. So start slow contest selection in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy yourself. It’s entertainment. That’s the whole idea of this thing.
Derek 49:32
That is awesome advice. very much appreciated. Chris, thank you very much for coming on tonight. We appreciate all the knowledge that you gave us with some DFS. And you guys make sure that Tuesdays you’re checking out his his bottom of the barrel coming out. He’s got he’s got a lot of good stuff coming over there. Team rise or fall. And it’s the it’s the beast from Detroit. He’s at Detroit bc give him a follow, Chris any final any final words for viewers.
Chris Robin 50:01
No, thank you so much. And I’ve been I guess I don’t know if it’s my calling card. But I always say this now, like, individually, we can only do so much when we come together. We can do anything under the sun. So let’s help each other. Let’s support each other. And we can all meet at the top.
Derek 50:15
I like it. I like it, Chris. You’re welcome back anytime. Thanks
Kevin 50:18
so much, man.
Derek 50:20
Absolutely Have a great night brother. All right, guys. So that was that was the Chris for the Wow. Wow. That was Chris. Detroit DC on twitter. gima. Follow? Absolutely. One of my favorite people on the on the Twitter space, he’s very positive. sends a lot of really just great vibes out there. And he’s always a lot of fun to have on the show. So thanks again, Chris. Guys, we have a little bit of homely to talk about. So for everybody out there listening, you may have known how we kind of got our start things like that. But I’m gonna let Alex kind of kind of give the he is the best story behind this podcast in the start of it. So Alex, away you go.
Alex 51:03
Sure. So for those of you like debt dealers, who’s chime in in there in the comment section, welcome aboard. we’ve, we’ve been doing this podcast now we’re going into our third NFL season, right? Third NFL season, we started this podcast up actually, I wasn’t actually supposed to be on it. It was the brainchild of Kevin and Derek. And by happenstance, a miscommunication led to me, co hosting the first episode with Derrick, which that maybe don’t go back and watch or listen to that, Oh, my God, good, like any good. Any good series, the first season, you gotta you got to kind of trudge through before you really get to season two, and then and then it starts to get good. But yeah, as we were trying to find our space. So this all started because we’ve been playing in a fantasy football league for years and years and years. Something that I even joined late to the party, you guys had it going for a couple years before I got involved in I think 2008 was my first year joining this league. And so that’s what this whole podcast started around. And so if you’ll indulge us for a little bit, we’re gonna go back to our roots a little and talk about what we did through the first couple episodes of the podcast. And that was talk about our home Lee. And, you know, we’re all good friends in that league. And while we’ve seen some faces change, there’s nothing better than then messing with each other and giving each other some some grief throughout the course of a fantasy football season, which I think is, you know, the root cause of fantasy football as you get together with some buddies and, and you can talk trash to each other.
Derek 52:50
Absolutely, absolutely. So when we Yeah, that was Alex hit the nail right there on the head, right? When we first started this, this show, it was very much centered around the home league and going through that. And the reason we’re kind of bringing that full circle again tonight, is the fact that our home league draft, it will take place before we see you guys, again, where that draft takes place this Sunday, we’ve got some exciting stuff going on there. A little different format there. Because it’s been a keeper league for several several years. And this year, we we changed some platforms. And Kevin can kind of go through some of that, as far as you know, some of the changes going on and, and kind of the reasoning behind those. And it Kevin, if you want to let everybody know.
Kevin 53:35
Yeah. So through conversation with the league and just kind of over, we’re going into year 14 1314, something like that with this. So yeah.
Derek 53:48
So I think it’s more than any more than that. 17 I use about 6006
Kevin 53:54
Yeah, last year was first started the damn thing and I don’t even know.
Derek 53:58
It’s been a long time. But, um,
Kevin 54:01
so we had we’ve had the site or the league and we’ve been running it through the same site for the entire time. Kind of going through the process. Some years we were all able to get together when we were all kind of more centrally located. Most of us were, you know, hell were college or just out of college. Then we kind of essentially gathered up now everybody’s kind of spread out all over the place. We have Alex down in Texas, our buddy David’s in Louisiana. One of our friends for I guess a couple years ago, it was out in Washington, DC. He’s now back in Colorado. So we are spread out a little bit. But it’s one thing that we can kind of get together with every year and talk a lot of trash, and it’s something that we all enjoy. It had been a keeper league for her and I guess technically still is a keeper league. But what we did was after 15 seasons, we made the league vote to change platforms. And the biggest driver was, you know, part of the user interface. A lot of us agreed that this new user interface interface that we’re going to be doing is is a little bit more conducive to combining all the things that we had into one. So we’re moving off of ESPN over to sleeper, and it killed two birds with one stone for us in the fact that we were also using GroupMe as kind of our group chat to kind of banter back and forth. The ESPN chat board didn’t flow very well, and people weren’t really using that. So we’d always use group mean, because in a 12 team League, you couldn’t have a group text message with 12 people, someone was always getting left out. So joined on the group me then you know, we got hooked on a sleeper a couple years back. And as sleepers continued to to develop their interface found that it’s really user friendly. I love the draft board on sleeper like I like seeing where these guys go. It’s just something that you couldn’t get from ESPN. And I like the fact that you have all the different channels with sleeper that you can get into and the more you dive into sleeper, the more you can kind of get out of it as far as real time information, because I’m getting updates from sleeper 1015 minutes before ESPN releases it from Adam schefter. Now, Chef,
Derek 56:23
does it ourselves or sponsors? No, I
Kevin 56:25
won’t know. But it’s just being transparent. Right? I I still have leagues and ESPN. So if we just move this one over. So it is what it is. But you know, getting that real time information is super nice. Like, holy crap. You know. Today, Travis etn, is had a mild foot strain. It’s a Liz Frank injury, they believe they put them on IR he’s going into surgery later this week. Now that hits sleeper 10 minutes before my ESPN alert came through. Both are both are apps. Both I have notifications sent to me. But it’s that real time thing. So it helps when you’re hitting the waiver wire when you’re looking at start sit right before game time, like all those types of things. So I felt that was the group and the group felt that it was just going to be a better interface. So long story short,
Alex 57:18
and we started to Oh, God, sorry, no, no, you’re done. I can be done, I’ll shut up. Well, I was just saying part of it too, with with the change of platform. You know, we were we were doing almost like a modified dynasty, in the sense that once you got a guy on your team, there was no penalty for keeping that guy on your team as as a keeper, that he was just on your team. So essentially, we had two keepers, essentially, what happened was, the first round of the draft was essentially the third round of the draft, because everybody already had two players on their roster, and there was no penalty for anybody anywhere for it. So we were doing kind of this modified by dynasty, you know, small scale with two players. And so when we moved, we moved. Well, what the issue that we kept running into is we’d have people, you know, one or two people every year would kind of go in and out of the league, we’d have kind of a revolving door for some of these teams. And so they take over these teams that they had no say in when it came to drafting them. And we tried to do some things to make it as fair as possible and, and do all that stuff. But this was a good time to hit the reset button. Everybody slate is wiped clean. There’s no keepers involved, there will be penalties for keepers now, which is a more fair way of doing things so you don’t have Derrick end up with Adrian Peterson on his roster for 15 years. And I’m still
Derek 58:40
bitter about that. You have to bring that one up. If you’re gonna get it right it was the left Bell with the with the late pick. It was the Devonta Freeman with the super late pick it Yeah, I’ve had some I’ve had some big winners on
Alex 58:56
they stay on rosters and they don’t leave unless you’ve got some moron who just gets rid of Alvin Kamera in the middle of his prime.
Derek 59:02
By the way, go back and watch the first episode for Alex explaining that if nothing else,
Alex 59:07
but but those players would never come vailable so this is nice. Now that we’ve got you know, a clean slate we’ve got everybody is available to everybody. And with the change in platform, we’ve also had our first I believe our first ever complete draft position swap in league history between two players, where they have swapped every single one of the draft pigs straight up.
Derek 59:34
Yep, yep, that did happen. So guys kind of looking at it right like this. It wouldn’t be complete us talking about our home league without kind of going in and you’re calling your shot before the season even begins. So you’re looking at it I’m curious to know who you guys are thinking. You know, because we know where our draft picks are. We know where our our draft position is. So kind of Looking at it, who’s your favorite to have the best team coming out of the draft. And Kevin, if you say yourself, I’m going to say that you got to pick somebody else.
Kevin 1:00:10
I have to pick somebody else.
Derek 1:00:12
But you can pick yourself. But then I also want to know who your second places that
Kevin 1:00:16
I’m gonna pick myself, I love, I love, you’re good at nine, they’re drafting at the back end of these drafts, there is so much depth, and you can do so many different things. Now, this is the first with us resetting. And last year switching over to a superflex there are some different plans of attack, right, that we wouldn’t necessarily implement in years past and and with a lot of our league having not played in superflex leagues until last year, it it’s going to be very interesting, the first couple rounds to kind of feel people out, are they going, you know, best player available. And you know, they’re just going to hit hard on on running backs and quarterbacks or sorry, my hats all screwed up, I can’t fix it. Or, you know, is it gonna be running back heavy, like it traditionally is in our league. So the first couple rounds gonna be interesting. So I don’t have a set game plan for the first couple rounds, you know, drafted out of the nine hole. But based off of mock drafts, and all the other drafts that I’ve been involved with, I have a really good feeling of who’s going to be around there and feel good about my team. You know, I, I like the trade. As much as it annoyed me, I like to trade I was I was talking to one of the guys who traded back, and he traded back from the third from the third spot, all the way to the 10th spot. And it was prepared draft whatever. And I was talking to him about it Friday at our at our softball game. He said, You know, he said, it really doesn’t bother me. He said the board’s completely cleared. He said, there’s no keepers out there. He said, there’s tons of options available. And he goes, and I can now do this and get two players in the top 15. So I can have two of the top 15 players to start my roster, as opposed to two of the top 22 players. And for him that the value that he saw at the beginning of the draft was beneficial enough for him to make the swap. Yeah. And again, I have been against league voting and vetoing trades for a long time, unless they’re just completely bogus asinine things. So whatever works, more power to them, he has a reason behind it. Both guys agreed to it. And off we go. So I think Kyle will have a pretty good draft. It’s been a long time. So yeah, him and I haven’t drafted back to back for a while. So it’s gonna be kind of my goal in life to just mess with him a little bit. And to see how many of his picks that I can, you know, kind of foil up. Alex, coincidentally, you’re going to be right there to 11. So I’m going to be hammer and Alex and Derek at the top and all by himself.
Derek 1:03:12
I don’t mind that. Going into that I was sitting there. And Kevin and I you were talking, I was like, You know what, I just hope because typically, when Kevin and I enter the same draft, we end up getting a draft like back to back on it, you know, with each other more often than not. And for those of you that that have listened to a few episodes, know that Kevin and I tend to draft very similarly, when it comes to a draft. So inevitably, when Kevin and I are drafting back to back, it’s, he’s sniping me All right, before I get to pick and I’m sniping him on the way right back. And it just continues that way all throughout the draft. So I was very excited when I looked at that and went well, I won’t be on the other side of the draft, I don’t necessarily have to worry about that as much.
Alex 1:03:54
I will say this too, with the changing platforms, the division, Scott got a little shaken up as well. And so previously, the three of us had always been in the same division. And that that was always super annoying for me, because these guys are very good at what they do when they draft. And then I would just have to kind of, you know, eat my way through and hope to make some noise in the playoffs. But you could always guarantee that there was going to be one or two just unbelievable losses that you’re gonna have to suffer throughout the course of the season. But now the divisions are a little shaken up. So I’m still in a in a division with Kevin. Derek has found himself out of the division. But I will say that division that Derek is in has people drafting at eight. Derek’s at four. Brian’s at seven and Taylor is at six and that is going to be a tough division if those drafts you know those are those are pretty good draft positions right there. I think if the draft you know, they all hold serve throughout the draft. That division is going to be tough.
Derek 1:05:00
So a question coming in. So this is coming from death dealers and it’s how many titles do each of you have? So death dealer
Alex 1:05:06
is one that’s the only thing that matters.
Derek 1:05:08
So death dealer. I’m going to, I’m going to, you know further kind of clarify this question. We’re just going to talk titles in this league. So Kevin has the most Kevin how many titles you got now?
Kevin 1:05:21
Is it I believe it’s the fibers fibers five or six and 15 years.
Derek 1:05:27
I’ve got two of those and a couple of Heartbreakers in the title game on top of that, and then Alex is the most asked to work for Matt Flynn. You’re welcome for that. So Alex is the is the current champion and and and death dealers does clarify there that yes, it is for this league. So I Kevin’s got a I believe Kevin’s got six now that I think about I think you’re at six I’ve got to Alex has one so out of that league. The majority of the championships are sitting here on that screen so but it is a lot of fun and it’s a league that we definitely all enjoy and look forward to playing in each and every year. So um guys any other thoughts for the league? Any any trash talking that needs to take place for for the league members watching this?
Kevin 1:06:20
champ? I’ll let you take the floor and call out all the contenders.
Alex 1:06:28
Yeah, just you know, it’s tough going into a season as a defending champion. You know, everybody’s gonna give you their best week in and week out because they want to knock off the king so this is gonna be it’s gonna be a fun year. I’m actually it’s kind of funny with the people that we have that I have drafting around me is Kevin right before me. Excuse me, not Kevin. But Kevin, then Kyle, then myself then Craig. So there’s gonna be a lot of text messages that are gonna be flying come Sunday night. Probably a lot of profanities that we won’t share with you here.
Kevin 1:07:04
But I’ll share I have no shame. You guys know this. Over the course of this. I have no shame. Let them fly.
Alex 1:07:11
Fun. The trash talking has already started, including some of our newcomers, including my buddy Keith, who we’ve brought into the fray who can dish it out with the best of everybody so it this is going to be a fun year, I think for everybody in the good ol boys Fantasy Football League, as we kind of go into this new era of of the league, and hopefully it’s gonna be fun. We do not have penalties for last place. killers. Thank goodness because oh boy,
Derek 1:07:41
Alex is uh, Alex has had a few of those. Actually, though. I’m still
Kevin 1:07:45
a proponent of the Waffle House challenge. Like out of all the like, I don’t need the tattoo Lee like I’m not I know some guys that’s some for some people and and others aren’t for that. And that’s fine. I love the Waffle House challenge. Like that is one of the best last place penalties I’ve ever seen. And I would love love love if our league would vote to implement that and have someone record their experience getting through Waffle House for 24 hours. Because
Alex 1:08:18
mine is waffles. YUI Yeah, so entertaining as hell. Yeah, no, we don’t have we did for a while to eliminate tanking in this league. We did have Yep. If you won the loser’s bracket because only the top What was it? top eight made it and it’s a 12 team league. So the bottom four would go play in the loser’s bracket. And if you won the loser’s bracket, then you were guaranteed the number one overall pick, which was essentially again, the third round because of everybody’s two keepers. You’ve got to come on that. Yeah, I want that a bunch. I was real good and mop up duty. So I was I was the best of the rest several times.
Derek 1:09:04
Well, and one of the other great things about kind of the way that set up, right, like a lot of folks. I’ve been in other leagues where they they kind of get on that while you’re letting three quarters of the league into the playoffs to play for the championship. And you know, a lot of folks have have an issue with that where they only want six teams 14, something like that, where it’s a very small contending crowd that gets into it. But in this league, we’ve seen the eighth seed win the championship as many times as we’ve seen the one seat win the championship, and oftentimes, the balance actually shifted last year with Alex knocking off the number one seed there and who was me? Oh, yes, me. I’ll own it. I lost that one. No shame here. I played good enough for a number one seed and then gave it away in the week 14 there so but
Alex 1:09:56
this way, how much fun is it when you see you know, your work? Madness. And you see the 16 given the one a run for its money, and when we now we’ve seen it two years ago, three years ago, whenever that tournament was, we saw 16 beat one think of how much fun that is when you have somebody who has no business being in that game, put up an absolute monster and knock off the number one seed, and then it makes the rest of the playoffs wide open.
Derek 1:10:23
Yes, absolutely, yes.
Kevin 1:10:26
Then it’s fun, right. And one of the other changes we made this year is the championships going to be a two week right. So this is one of the things that we implemented with the NFL scheduling. Going out. So playoffs will still start week one, we’ll have our quarters, we’ll have our semies and week 15. And then 1617 will be your finals. And then 18 will be the dead week. Right. So we’re still not gonna do that. So the quarterfinals are going to be interesting, guys, because there are teams who have their Bye, week, in week 14. So we’re gonna see how some folks handle this. I think the NFL did a disservice like to fantasy players not that they care crap about us. Right, but just in a sense, like, Why in the world? Are you going to have a team play 14, freakier 13 games, sorry, it’s week 14. So play 13 straight weeks, and then give them a buy. Like that’s brutal for the NFL team. Like whichever franchise it is, let alone it screws up part of our fantasy playoffs. So it is something that it’s going to be interesting that people pay attention to that, is that something that they’re looking at during draft day? And thinking that far ahead of Hmm, I’m between this quarterback and this quarterback as my superflex if you will, by second quarterback. This guy has a bye week in week 14, this guy has a bye week in week nine, like, Okay, well, I expect to get into the playoffs. So I’m going with the guy in week nine to you know, try and increase my chances further down the road.
Derek 1:12:01
It’s gonna be out. Yep, that’ll be interesting, because there was some prominent names when it came to the, to those week 14 buys. Now you’ve got Indianapolis, Miami, New England and Philadelphia all with buys in week 14. So it could be very, very interesting there.
Alex 1:12:19
There’s a lot of starters for a lot of people.
Kevin 1:12:23
And coming down to crunch time, right Carolina has it in 13. The Packers have it in 13 and the Titans have it in 13. Right as well as the Browns so there’s a lot of fantasy talent that last week of the season that if you’re not careful could cost you a playoff berth if you’re if you’re on the fringe, right. So it’s it’s something just to be mindful of that dealers. Thank you so much for tuning in, man. We appreciate you for stopping by. You know,
Alex 1:12:55
check out my website,
Kevin 1:12:58
the website, the socials, the whole shebang. We’re glad that you tuned in and listen to us ramble on here for the past hour plus. But yeah, so I think the drafts can be super interesting in our own league. Obviously. We’ll give a brief recap next week. Derek, I’m gonna go off script a little bit.
Derek 1:13:18
Okay. It has to do with a deal with a draft that we just got done doing it does because I was gonna go there too. So
Kevin 1:13:26
yes, if you have it pulled up, we’re gonna pivot off the home league. And we’re gonna give Alex to anonymous teams. Or you can give him three anonymous teams Derek government you want but just tell him who the owners are? Yeah, Alex, I want you to tell us which team you like best heading into a just a redraft to season.
Derek 1:13:50
Okay. Alrighty. So, team one. Pull that one up here. All right, there it is. Team one. Has the team of Joe Burrow. Sam Darnold as your quarterbacks Chris Carson Raheem Mostert Damien Harris as your running back. Robert Woods, Amari Cooper, Jarvis Landry, Michael Thomas Jacoby Meyers and Terrence Marshall as the wide receivers and then Travis Kelsey Darren Waller, Hunter Henry as the tight ends. So that is team one. Team two is Ryan Tannehill. Jalen hertz, Cam Newton, as the quarterbacks Ezekiel Elliott, Austin eckler, James Robinson, jd mckissick naheem. Hines for the running backs, DJ more. Mike Evans, Kenny Golladay and Tonio brown as the wide receivers, and Dallas Goddard and Rob Gronkowski as the tight end. And then looking at team three. Come here, team three. Team three has met Ryan Aaron Rodgers as your cubies Derrick Henry Devin Singletary, Kareem Hunt, DeAndre Swift, Jamal Williams as the running backs, and Tonio Brown, Curtis Samuel T. Higgins. Jalen
Kevin 1:15:15
brown can’t be on the same.
Derek 1:15:16
I’m sorry, AJ, AJ Brown, my bad. AJ Brown, Curtis, Samuel t Higgins, Jaylen Waddle Omari St. Brown as the wide receivers and john smith and Logan Thomas as the tight ends.
Alex 1:15:29
I like the quarterbacks from team. Three better, but overall, team two.
Derek 1:15:37
Okay. So the reason though, this is a choice was a super flex, it is a super flex
Kevin 1:15:45
flex and the Titan premium. We should have told
Derek 1:15:46
you and it’s a running back,
Kevin 1:15:48
running back perception premium. Okay,
Alex 1:15:50
I’ll still take team two, I think.
Derek 1:15:52
All right. Well, team two was your boys here. Kevin and I drafted that one in a charity league that we’re doing. And, and those guys did a great job putting that on there. But yeah, we just had to get a another opinion. They’re kind of a blind player comparison on on what you thought that of the team make up there. So I’m glad to see that. Hadn’t you?
Alex 1:16:13
Feeling Kevin had a hand in team two because there was 9000 running backs on that roster.
Kevin 1:16:18
We didn’t know actually, we didn’t go running back. We went we went week seven. But in the week two, and then how we didn’t pick up Robinson until what six or 770 we waited five rounds without a running back.
Alex 1:16:33
Yeah. And that that value shoots way up now.
Kevin 1:16:36
All for all three of those guys. Zeke, Zeke eckler and Robinson all have week seven buys,
Alex 1:16:45
which is gonna be tough.
Derek 1:16:47
That was the only reason we picked up a mckissic at Heinz is because we went Oh,
Kevin 1:16:53
yeah, I start pounding Derek we’re like in round 12 or 13. Something like that. And I’m texting Derek. I was like, dude, we need to look running back. He goes, but yeah, but, you know, I like, you know, Pittman was still on the board at that time. That was the guy that we kept tossing back and forth. Because we all liked Michael Pittman. He has Yeah, but Pittman’s out there is like, dude, you need to look at this, like all of our buys are on week seven. Like we have to put up more than just a goose egg. He goes, Oh, crap, you’re right. Okay, running back. It is which one of these guys do we need to reach for?
Derek 1:17:21
Because, and Kevin and I were talking earlier today to right. And so it’s, it’s one of those that I told I told Kevin something is kind of you know, how I’ve used some of these things. And why I don’t even consider by weeks when I’m drafting a player. I might not homely because if I draft a player in week 14, I am notoriously bad in week 14. Yeah, I have a really good job of getting the number one seed and then losing in the first round. So that’s something that will definitely be on my radar. But I don’t look at by weeks on this. And it’s a very simple reason. I have gone undefeated in seasons and gotten to gotten to championship games. And I’ve, I’ve yet to ever win a league championship, that I was undefeated, I’ve won many, many, many where I was lost one or two games. So inevitably, when I go through that, I am just going to put the best players that I feel is going to build the best roster construction on that. And by you’re going to lose one or two anyway, is it kind of how I have that mindset? I might as well pick that week that that that loss is going to come and put up the best fighting chance on every other week that I can. So that’s kind of just how how my thought process worked on that one. But
1:18:36
that’s pretty that’s one.
Kevin 1:18:40
Damn, it’s maybe the reason this popped up is the gracious host of this charity league. Did everybody kind of cool solid? Like he went through there to division teams. And he’s going through and breaking down all these rosters and ranking them, you know, one through 24, based off of the analytics that he’s looking at some of its, you know, personal favoritism towards players or what have you, which is all fine. well and good. But yeah, he started comparing these teams and Derek and I were we were a little disheartened about where our ranking was with that team. And so now, we’re on a Warpath so much to prove him wrong. But it’s more so just to dominate every single possible week in that league. So that way we can, you know, go back and go, huh, that’s where you had us, huh? Huh? That’s where you had us, huh? Like just just to kind of trash talk a little bit because for the record, where did he rank you?
Derek 1:19:40
We were ranked 10th out of 2014. Yay. So we’re playing and to be fair, we are playing up against I don’t know that there’s anybody out there that isn’t a fantasy analyst doesn’t have a podcast or doesn’t writer. There is a lot of really, really good competitors in that
Kevin 1:19:57
they’re not scrubs. These guys aren’t Right,
Derek 1:20:00
this is a very high level competition that we’re playing against. So, you know, they they’ve done a fantastic job, this is probably one of the funnest, funnest or it’s one of the more fun charity events that we’ve done. You know, just kind of how they put it on. They’ve done a fantastic job with it. So kudos to them. But that was one of those. I just, I had to get an outside opinion there. And it was kind of interesting. Kevin, I don’t know if you saw that. When we first started drafting. It was this was how we started off our first six rounds, double running back, double quarterback, double wide receiver. So it was just kind of an interesting breakdown how it went because it was something so different than what Kevin and I typically will do
Kevin 1:20:43
now. And it wasn’t intentional. But it was just, again, reading the room. Yeah, we’re running backs pushed or heavy early. And so that allowed us to kind of get those quarterbacks late. And Derek and I were texting. So we picked up Tannahill on the third. We wanted Brady Brady with one pic before us. So we weren’t attached to Hilda, which is fine. And then it came back around at Derek and I were going back and forth. I was like, dude, I was like the quarterback runs coming. I was like, look at all these guys that just don’t have quarterbacks? You know, do we want a guy who’s just middle of the road? And kind of be taken flyers and forced to take that third quarterback earlier than probably what we want to? Or, you know, do we do we just want to take the second quarterback hat now and feel comfortable with it. And we kind of landed on the fact that you know what, we like Jalen hertz enough. And we like him as that second quarterback, there’s a lot of rushing upside. And so that’s where we ended up taking it and, and running with that one. So we were really happy with it. And then we got Mike Evans in the in the fifth. And DJ more in the sixth. I mean, we were just, we were really happy with how this played out. And then we saw the rankings come out today. And we both of us went. Like, really? That’s
Derek 1:22:10
right. It’s, it’s and so it’s all for a good cause. And it’s all for a lot of fun. So it’ll be a blast to go through on that one. But guys, I think that’s going to kind of bring us to the end of this thing. Do we have any final thoughts for the listeners or the viewers?
Alex 1:22:26
I can’t wait to embarrass you all on the dry No, I’m probably gonna be on the kicking myself after after Sunday. And I’m sure what the text message is flying.
Derek 1:22:36
Kevin what round is Alex Tilton
Alex 1:22:39
what really happens happens when I draft Carson Wentz and like the third round that’s when the tail goes
Kevin 1:22:46
i think i think it’s gonna be an odd round right? It’s gonna be an odd round towards the back half of the draft
Derek 1:22:55
that’s why it’s gonna be an awkward
Kevin 1:22:56
it’s gonna be an odd round because it’s gonna be me and Kyle and then you and I think the two of us are probably intentionally unintentionally whatever obviously us doing the show together and no like kind of like the mock that we did right like so it was just completely unintentional just me filling out the best lineup I could and just putting up there. You’re gonna be on tilt pretty early.
Alex 1:23:18
Because a lot of sniping my dude’s
Kevin 1:23:21
sure that I’m just gonna end up taking guys Alex goes, God dang it.
Alex 1:23:27
So are you are Kyle does it and then Craig follows it right back up. So it’s gonna be a couple. I’m not I’m not really pleased as the the GIF or GIF that I said.
Kevin 1:23:39
Honestly, you You and I are drafting pretty close to where we would have been drafting anyway.
Alex 1:23:43
Yeah.
Kevin 1:23:44
Because I just we’re finished was right. So you, you won. So you’re one pick ahead of where you would have been. And I think I finished third last year.
Derek 1:23:56
Yeah. So you would have been drafted right where you are anyway.
Kevin 1:23:58
So I would have been picking at 10 instead of nine. So each of us kind of moved up a slot. But honestly, we’re in the same position. Derek’s The one who made out with it. He went from, you know, having a
Derek 1:24:10
six six to 404
Kevin 1:24:13
Yeah, so he made out so which is all good. It’ll be fun. We’ll do the recap. You know, best of luck to everybody in the league. And and you know, we’ll talk some talk some trash you this weekend.
Derek 1:24:29
Yeah, it’ll be a lot of fun. So Well, guys, I do believe that that’s going to take us down to the end of this. Thank you very much for tuning in and watching this and then also indulging us in a lot of homely talk not something that we normally dive that deep into but it’s always a lot of fun to go back and and reminisce and kind of hit our roots and how this whole thing started. So thank you for indulging us on that one. Make sure that you’re hitting us up on the socials. We’re Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at good old boys FF. We’ve do the live stream on Twitch, on Twitter and on YouTube. You can make sure you’re hopping on to YouTube hitting that subscribe button the good old boys fantasy football YouTube channel. Make sure you do that. click that bell for all the notifications to get that websites got all sorts of great stuff GoodOldBoysFF.com for Kevin and Alex. I’m Derek. Have a good one. Be safe.