Fantasy Football Daily - How to Dominate XFL DFS with Jake Tribbey | Two-Point Stance Podcast

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

Winning at XFL DFS is on the minds of many of you.  We tapped FSWA Football Writer of the Year Jake Tribbey to ask about his process around XFL and how we can play smarter DFS.  We look at the players and schemes that are winning the XFL contests.  Jake shares knowledge from his Fantasy Points podcast and NFL DFS articles.  If you want to win playing #XFL #DFS this podcast is for you.   XFL articles, live streams, and projections are FREE for FantasyPoints.com subscribers.   Follow the Two-Point Stance on  Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeTribbey  https://twitter.com/FantasyPTS  https://twitter.com/FG_Dolan  https://twitter.com/DrakeFantasy   Jake hosts the Fantasy Points XFL Live Show with Chris Wecht on the Fantasy Points YouTube channel:  YouTube.com/FantasyPoints   Check out some of the articles that won Jake FSWA Football Writer of the Year: https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/season/2022/rb1-mccaffrey-or-taylor#/   https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/season/2022/2021-consistency-review-production#/   https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/season/2022/how-free-agents-fare-after-switching-teams#/   The 2022 NFL season is over, but the Fantasy Football season never stops at Underdog Fantasy, the EASIEST place to play Fantasy Football.   Right now you can draft in Underdog’s “The Big Board” tournament, with $1 MILLION in total prizes and $200K given to 1st place. Think you know which incoming rookies will burst onto the scene in 2023? If so, now’s your chance to draft them at a value.   All you have to do is join “The Big Board,” draft your fantasy team, and that’s it! In Best Ball there are no waivers, no trades, and you get the best scores in your starting lineup each week of the season. And whoever has the highest scores at the end of the season wins!   Just head to Underdog Fantasy dot com, the App Store, or the Google Play Store, sign up with the promo code “FANTASYPTS,” and you will get your first deposit DOUBLED up to $100. Oh, and there’s more. Sign up using the code FANTASYPTS at Underdog, and you get a Fantasy Points standard subscription for just FIVE DOLLARS.   That’s Underdog Fantasy, promo code, FANTASYPTS. And remember, new Underdog users who sign up with our code get a Fantasy Points subscription for FIVE DOLLARS.   #NFL #fantasyfootball #fantasypoints #scoremore --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle. From numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Across the fantasy universe, welcome one and all to the two-point stance. Powered by FantasyPoints.com. I'm your host, Brian Drake. Give me a follow on Twitter at Drake Fantasy. joined as always by my good buddy, Joe Dolan,

managing editor of FantasyPoints.com. Find him on Twitter at FG underscore Dolan. Joe, we're doing something fun tonight. We got a special guest, one of our great writers from FantasyPoints.com, and not just any writer. We got an award-winning writer, and I know as managing editor, that has to warm the cockles of your heart. And it's our good friend Jake Tribby.

So before we bring Jake on, this is good stuff here, man. You got award-winning guys working for you. Yeah, this is fantastic. We had Jake take down FSWA football writer of the year. That's like the writer of the year. Scott Barrett took down research article of the year. Drake, you were nominated for articles. Twice, lost them both.

West Huber was nominated for Football Writer of the year. So we obviously had a great showing for the team at the FSWA. And I'm really proud of that. Now, there are FSGA awards or were FSGA awards. I'm not really sure what the line of demarcation is, but I got one of those back there. But it's great to see Jake, just a young star in the industry,

get his just due because he earned it. So let's bring him in Jake Tribby. Follow him on Twitter at Jake Tribby. That's TRIBBE. He is the XFL lead for FantasyPoint.com. also hosts our XFL breakdown show weekly on the Fantasy Poys podcast and YouTube platforms. Jake, welcome to the two-point stance, man. What a year you're having so far, man.

Congratulations. Welcome to the pod. Yeah, thank you. Really appreciate it. It's been a fun last week and a half. And yeah, really glad to be on the show with you guys. So let's quickly talk about the award you won because you are a football writer. You cover the NFL for fantasy points during the NFL season, obviously.

So what awards did you submit? And we're going to have links to those in the show notes here on whatever audio platform you're listening on or on YouTube. What did you submit to win the award? Yeah. So I think the main piece that really got me over the top there was my McCart Christian McCaffrey versus Jonathan Taylor. You know, who's the rightful RB1 did a long deep dive there.

I thought it was the best piece. I wrote all season. I actually got nominated for article of the year as well, which, you know, Brian, I believe that was one of the categories you were. you were nominated for. It was for that award or for that article. So that was probably my best piece. And then I also did, I did a four-part series on player consistency revolving around, you know, usage, production and all that. I believe I submitted the production article in particular. I had a few really good blurbs, my favorite being on Debo

Samuel, given that he, you know, switched positions basically halfway through that season. But his, you know, production and consistency remains pretty much the exact same, which I just thought was, you know, totally fascinating. And then the final piece that I submitted was just discussing how free agents fare after switching teams, which is a piece that I will probably end up rewriting pretty soon here this offseason. I like it. You know, Drake, if something works, just update it. That's easy content for a managing editor to push out. That was pretty good last year. Just get it to me again. Just put, change a couple of names around. Maybe you'll win the award again next year. Jake, it's great to be with you, man.

You know, but here's what's funny about all this, trick. This guy's cleaning up football writer of the year, and he's getting nominated for these articles, and he's doing NFL articles, which, as you well know, are going to get the most eyeballs. But I guarantee you, he was way more excited to start writing XFL content than about, which means you're really just a sick pup. You're an absolute lunatic. But look, it's, it's, it's a, you're not watching right now and you should subscribe to our YouTube channel, uh, fantasy PTS by the way, um,

Jake is wearing a Philadelphia star's hat of the, of the USFL. So obviously this is a man who loves his second and third tier football. Well, he's really excited about XFL, Jake, and that's kind of your passion project. And I don't want to like,

this is not going to be the breakdown show, right? Yeah. We have the breakdown show. You and Chris Wecht host that. Yeah. But I just kind of want, want to ask you as somebody who, might be an outsider. As somebody who might be somebody, I always use this analogy, you know, my wife's out of time and I'm just scratching my balls on a Saturday. Why should, why should I play XFL DFS? Why is this your passion project? Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, at the end of the

day, I just, I really love football and I really love DFS. And one of the things that makes DFS so fun to me is, you know, winning, winning money. And, you know, obviously, NFL, we've got a great group of daily fantasy writers, myself included, and we grind those NFL edges and do our absolute best to provide value to subscribers. But the reality is that, you know, the edges in something like XFL or USFL are, I mean, man, probably 10 times larger than they are in NFL. So like, just to put it bluntly, it's much easier to win playing these, you know, these spring football DFS slates than it is in NFL. And, you know, While the quality of football isn't nearly as good, there is something that I absolutely love about, you know, all these guys getting, you know, a second chance or like a further opportunity to pursue their dreams.

I mean, the USFL gave a ton of players the opportunity to make and play for practice squads. And we saw the USFL MVP, Kivante Turpin, sign a three year deal for the Cowboys to be their punt and kick returner. And I thought, I mean, he didn't end up scoring any touchdowns on punt or kick returns, but he looked great. And I think, you know, they could really incorporate them in the offense and, you know, make him a solid gadget player, kind of similar to what you see, like I say, a McKenzie do for Buffalo. So there is some real potential for these guys to make an impact on the league. And I really love that sort of redemption story that that almost all these players are going with. I know that there's a lot of spring football folks out there that I've pissed off over the course of the last few weeks. And I don't apologize for that.

I hope they're watching the show. because I respect what you do. I respect what those guys are doing, playing the game. But this is why we're having the conversation. Sometimes people just like myself can just go, you know what, I'm footballed out. It's not for me. You know, I don't begrudge these guys for going out and playing and trying to make a living.

And people thought that I was saying, all these leagues are bad because, you know, it's bad football. Well, no, I'm saying the leagues do a terrible job of marketing. And I think what you're doing is helping the league. And without question what we're doing at fantasy points.com with the shows and the articles is helping bring awareness to the XFL and down the line USFL. The leagues literally just aren't doing themselves. So you're almost the marketing arm and the other guys in the industry that the leagues don't have themselves. It's free marketing for them.

So they should be all about this. And as I look over at the draft Kings board for this weekend, Jay, holy smokes, there is a ton of contests. There's one, I mean, 50-50s, the double-ups, single entries, 20 max entries, head-to-head, you name it. There's a contest for it for the XFL. There's even a $50,000 to first place contest I saw. And the reason that people should be watching this show and reading your work and listening to your preview pod with Chris Weck is because, as you said, there's edges to be had. You don't have to be an XFL savant to win here. And I think that that's the beauty of all. of this. And it's just you breaking it down. So what do you say to a guy like me who's just,

I don't give a shit about the XFL? I probably won't watch a game. But you know what? I'll listen to a smart guy like you and bet on it. Like, is it that easy? Can I just read your work and win? Yeah. I mean, so with NFL, there's really no shortage of content creators, right? But with the XFL, I mean, I'm not exaggerating. There's really only four or five of us, which means that like the edge that you can gain from, you know, reading someone like my work is, is pretty substantial. And like, one of the best parts about the XFL, at least to me, is that there's, you know, very limited data out there. With the NFL, you know, you can find pretty much anything you want if you look hard enough. But with the XFL, I mean, we're really limited to what PFF makes public.

And also what Chris Wecht, my co-host on the Fantasy Points XFL breakdown, what he can pull from the XFL's official play by play. So, you know, just combining that and, you know, keeping your tab, keeping a close tab on something like, you know, route and snap shares, which is, you know, something I obviously do in my content. You know, there's, there's a real edge there. I also watch all the games, actually twice, something I make a point of doing. And it's really helpful for injuries. In week one, we saw Cody Latimer absolutely dominate routes and targets for Orlando in the first half. He gets concussed misses the entire second half. You had a lot of other sites that projected Latimer as if he was only a 40% route share player. We had him as one of the best point per dollar plays of the slate because we knew he was going to be a full-time guy,

assuming he was healthy. And he ended up being on the winning team that won somebody 50K this week and was actually on a lot of my better teams. So yeah, it really like the edges are are absolutely massive, like I said. And, you know, it's it's pretty easy for someone like me to just go through all these, you know, relatively basic data points and to pull out the best plays. You know, Drake, I don't consider myself a DFS expert. And I'll tell anybody that in our, in our subscriber discord. And, you know, it's a different kind of fantasy. You know, people say, oh, for DFS, well, it's straight up preference doesn't work for DFS.

You have to rationalize it from a different way than you do from a season-long perspective. But also, when I'm talking about, like, if I'm consuming XFL content, I'm more, I think I am more likely to have success. Just from my perspective, well, I would consider myself a DFS fish. I am more likely to have success playing XFL fantasy reading somebody like Jake or listening to their show because there's no emotion in it for me. You know, I'm an emotional player. Like I think you can tell that through my content

that I'm an emotional guy. I'll wear my heart on my sleeve. You know, I'll try to come up with a zinger here and there. But like, you know, I play DFSPGA. Like there's two main sports I play, NFL and PGA. I follow those leagues, those players intimately, which means there's going to be players I don't like. There's going to be guys I love.

My God, I can't tell you the last time I made a lineup without Rory McElroy in it. Like, you know, like, and I think separating the knowledge that I have of the players and the knowledge that I have of the teams and the guys who have burned me in the past or the guys who I irrationally love might lead to better success for me. Just like let Jake do the research and I'm like, oh, this guy's named Dick Smack McGee. Oh, he played 75% of the snaps last week. That sounds good, click.

I don't know who he is. I don't know where he's from. You know, I actually think there's an edge personally, mentally for that because I can just like, all right, here's the, here is the analysis. I trust the analysis. I'm not going to interject my own personal biases into this situation. So I might actually just have more success doing that. Have you, Jake, to make this a question, have you found that the case?

If anybody reached out to you and said, yo, dude, I played XFL. I played USFL. I don't know anything about it. I didn't watch a second, but I won 500 bucks. Like, have you had that happen to you? Yeah, I don't know if it's been as extreme as I didn't watch a second. I didn't know anything. But I have had, you know, plenty of people week out, especially after this last week, we just, you know,

tried our hand at projections, which I actually used in my own lineups to great success. And yeah, I had quite a few people reach out who said, yeah, I won I won 50 bucks. I won 600 bucks. I won, I won X amount. Your, you know, your article, your projections was was a huge part of that. So yeah, I think, I think you definitely touch on on something there that's, that has some truth and that, like, it is, it is a little easier to be objective when it's a league full of guys that you don't really have, you know, opinions on already. A lot of these, a lot of these players, I didn't even know about until I wrote my XFL preview. So it does make it a little easier to just kind of sit down, look at, look at a lot of those raw usage numbers and make more objective conclusions as opposed to, you know, NFL.

I know, even even just from, you know, the combine and the draft with rookies, you know, you're coming in with a lot of, you know, predefined opinions on on a lot of guys. So yeah, I think it is a little easier to be objective in a sport like XFL. If you're playing on draft Kings, it's a little bit different than playing an NFL slate. you're going to have a roster of one quarterback, one running back, two receiver slash tight end, two flex and one defense. And you wrote in your XFL preview, Jake, about how, you know, that change is actually beneficial to what it was maybe a few years ago. So when you're constructing a lineup like this, let's talk a little bit more maybe about

your thought process that goes into building an XFL lineup on the weekend. Like I'm looking at some of these names here on this very antiquated. at XFL.com. John Corp Pearson is the number one receiver in the league. I have no idea who that person is. That could be a made-up name. But how do you go about building these lineups with these roster settings? Yeah, yeah.

So I think at the quarterback position, it's pretty straightforward in that you're really just looking for quarterbacks who are not in any sort of a QB split. Unlike the NFL, these Spring League teams are very willing to split reps at quarterback. and obviously that's a total killer for fantasy. So that really narrows down your quarterback pool just to the guys who are, you know, playing every snap. So I'd say that's a great point, by the way, because this is a developmental league. Exactly.

So they can be looking to say, hey, you want to get two, three guys some reps here. That's great point. Yeah, coaches are a lot more willing to give guys, you know, reps just to see what they're capable of where, you know, they normally wouldn't do that in the NFL. At running back, you know, these spring league, are, you know, oftentimes because they want to give guys opportunity, you really don't see a lot of bell cows. So at running back, oftentimes, you're just looking to pay up for, you know, the closest thing to a bell cow that you can get, which typically is a guy who's in that, you know, 50 to 70 percent snap range and hopefully is running roughly half the routes plus getting some red zone work. There's a handful of guys who fall into that group. There are also some interesting paydown options at running back, depending on the week. We've seen one of the Houston roughnecks wide receivers, a guy, named Nick Holly is actually listed as a running back. And he's been the min price in weeks one and two.

He's projected as a fairly decent play if you really want to pay down. But for the most part, I'm looking at paying up for the most reasonable running back I can find. Where I really want to spend the vast majority of my salary, though, is on wide receivers. XFL teams, thankfully, are extremely aggressive throwing the ball. We have the league-wide pass rate at just under 70%. So that means league-wide, like your average team is much closer to, you know, the bills in terms of pass rate, then, you know, Seattle or something like that. So, you know, that's, that's awesome. And that means you can really load up on these wide receivers.

So on a lot of my lineups, I'm, I'm playing at most two running backs. That's actually a setting that I put into my optimizer when I optimize around the fantasy points projections is do not include any more than two running backs. Because you can play up to three with those two flex spots, but you just get much better upside with these wide receivers. I noted in my 2020 preview or in my, uh, in my, in my, uh, one preview that the 2020 XFL had, I believe, seven or eight wide receivers or tight ends who averaged more than 14 draft Kings points per game, whereas there were no running backs that averaged more than 14 draft Kings points per game. So these wide receivers are just going to score more fantasy points. And those are the guys you want to play. So yeah, and a lot of these

lineups, I'm playing one running back and four wide receivers. Yeah, and then just making my best guess at a defense. I want to talk about this kind of stylistically now. And I want to see if you have just theories on this. Is it simply, because in the NFL, you hear, oh, running backs don't matter. You can, you can pick a guy out of the XFL and he can be a good running back for you. And yet the running backs in the XFL aren't producing to the way that like a wide receiver is. Do you think that that's something to do with simply the play calling tendencies, the offensive line play, something in between, again, you've laid a lot more eyes on this than I have. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's tough.

I think, I think it has a lot to do with coordinator tendencies. I mean, being super pass heavy, plus almost every team, you know, having some kind of running back rotation, you know, really plays into that. You know, I also think that we don't, we don't have a tremendous amount of, of talent at the running back position in the XFL. I, one of the things that I noted was that XFL did tend to actually be some of the older players on rosters. of these running backs are, you know, 26, 27, 28, guys with previous NFL experience, there are definitely some recognizable names if you follow the NFL closely. So I think that could be part of it as well is that, you know, the guy that you would normally thrust into a traditional Belcal role, you know, a 23 year old college stud, he's, he's going to be in the

NFL, right? So, yeah, it's really a combination of factors there. Jake, I'm just looking at some data here on the XFL, looking at, you know, over, we only have two weeks of data right now. has scored the most points in the league. And I want to look at, you know, who's running the most plays. So San Antonio and Orlando, they're averaging over 66 plays per game. Do you look at the win loss record? Does that matter at all with these teams? Is there a big disparity in terms of the good teams and the bad team?

It's only an 18 league. Yeah. So I'd say it's pretty flat across the board. I do think that there is a significant disparity between the best and the worst teams. The Orlando Guardians are pretty clearly the worst. team in the league. They look completely incompetent. They're starting Paxton Lynch. I know a lot of NFL fans will be familiar with with Paxton Lynch. I believe he's the only player ever to get benched in the NFL, the CFL, the USFL and the XFL.

So that's exactly, exactly. That's a pretty fun one. And then, you know, on the opposite end, you have the Houston Roughnecks who are coached by Wade Phillips, who super sharp. They've, they've got an awesome offensive coordinator. And they're, you know, they're throwing the ball really efficiently. So I would say for the most part, you know, win loss record, stuff like that doesn't really matter much at all. And these teams are pretty flat across the board. I do utilize, you know, Vegas numbers, spreads and totals as a part of my, my DFS research. But especially in these early weeks, that's not something I put a ton of weight into because, you know, Vegas is still figuring out how to value these teams just like we are. Jake, we saw the USFL and I'll get to that

a little bit later. Excuse me, the XFL the last time. Put PJ Walker. He, he, was almost certainly going to win the XFL MVP. Yeah. Put him into the NFL. In the early going, do you think there's any quarterback here who might be playing himself into a camp next year just based on what you've seen so far? Yeah. So there are a couple guys on it.

The first one is a guy who has not earned his starting job yet, but I think will in the coming weeks in Dieric King. So he's, the DC defenders, they're rotating him and Jordan Teamu. And Jordan Teamu is a fine spring league quarterback. but he just hasn't managed to do anything in close to six quarters of play through two weeks for DC. But I mean, you watch these DC games. As soon as they put D. Eric King in, they go from, man, probably around three yards per play to around six and a half. And it's just because Dierrich King is the best athlete on the field.

I mean, this guy can really run. He's not a very capable passer. But I mean, man, he has really opened up their run game. And it just makes me think like he would be a real value add on a lot of practice squads. if only even for like scout team looks. I think a lot of teams could benefit from him. Yeah, being there. A.J. McCarron is is interesting too.

But honestly, I'm not sure if he would accept an NFL backup job because he says, I'm playing in the XFL so that my boys can see me play. He's got a, I think, a six and a four-year-old. And yeah, he said that he, you know, he turned down some NFL opportunities just so that he could, he could start in the XFL so that his kids could see him play. So he would be my other choice. but again, I'm not necessarily sure he's fielding calls from NFL teams at this point. You mentioned DC.

They only have 23 completions on this season through two weeks. So not good at all. Who are some other names out there that we might know that when fans are scrolling through DFS lineups, they might click on this. They go, oh, there's Josh Gordon. I know Josh Gordon and put them in. But maybe is that a mistake putting in some of these guys that you know from their NFL days? Yeah, I would say, especially in these early.

weeks. We've seen the guys with NFL name recognition, definitely get an ownership boost, but I think it's coming down a little bit. You know, DFS, obviously on the XFL side is much easier than NFL, but people are still, you know, fairly sharp overall. And I think they've come around to, you know, the fact that they were probably initially overvaluing some of these NFL names. Still, though, I mean, guys like Josh Gordon and Martavis Bryant are guys that end up in my lineups. And they, they are major contributors on their respective team. I mean, both of those guys are full-time starters on the outside and, you know, are getting six, seven, eight targets for games. So I wouldn't say, you know, don't click those guys, but I would say that they are probably overpriced relative to how we'll project them.

And, you know, they may still go overowned here in the next week or two before some of the more casual fans drop out. I know this has been a topic of discussion, Jake, but I saw McCarran, who you just mentioned, lead the wild ass comeback. Like they had they had the three-point conversion. And in case you guys don't know, there's a three-point conversion in the XFL. There's no traditional extra points, correct? That is correct. There are no kicks after touchdown. Okay.

So, Drake, so you could try a one pointer from the one. You could try a two-point or what, from the three, Jake? From the five. From the five and a three-pointer from the 10. Yep. And also, AJ, you got to go look this up. McCarran, I believe it was he quarterbacks the Battlehawks, and they were at San Antonio,

who were named after the Rock, the Brahmus. And they came back from like 193 down or like 183 with basically two possessions left. And they also converted a rule the NFL is yet again considering this year. I want to hear your opinion on this Drake after I get Jake's take on it. The replacement for the onside kick. You get fourth and 15 from your own 25. You got one shot at it.

If you pick it up, you can continue driving. If you don't, you turn the ball over on quote unquote downs. McCarren and those guys converted it. Jake, what do you think of that rule? Is that too gimmicky for you for the NFL? Or do you feel like, hey, as a fantasy guy, more offensive plays is good news? Yeah, I absolutely love it. At least the fourth and 15.

I think the, you know, the three-pointer from the 10, it probably is a little too gimmicky for the NFL, especially, you know, a league that's been around so long, what that would do to scoring. I'm not too sure I would actually like. But, I mean, yeah, that fourth and 15 instead of the onside kick, it really makes things quite exciting because onside kicks, I mean, I'm not sure if anyone's done significant research on this, but they feel completely random. Like, I'm not sure there's, there's a huge skill edge to be had there. I mean, I know certain kickers are a little better, you know, at the onside kick than others. But, you know, that fourth and 15, that's something, you know, teams can much better prepare for than an onside kick. So I think you'll see, you know, higher conversion rates than you would on a traditional onside. And it's much more exciting.

I mean, I think a lot of people would rather see an offensive play there than an onside kick, which you know is going to, you know, almost certainly be recovered by the receiving team. I think that the Eagles I read today on Twitter are proposing that exact rule. Oh, if there is a crazy rule proposed. at the NFL's competition committee, the Eagles proposed it. Like, they do this shit every year. They also propose that players should be allowed to wear number zero this year. I'm for it. Why not?

What? Let's do it. Jake, also for the uninitiated for the XFL, I think we're doing plenty well enough to convince them to play DFS. I am definitely playing this week. Again, my wife's going out of town tomorrow. We're scratching balls. I am scratching my balls. And with my other hand, I'm going to be setting DFS lineups.

can you explain the kickoffs in the XFL? Because I saw folks saying this, at first it looks stupid, but they're actually producing some interesting returns. And on top of that, it's limiting what I guess the NFL has determined are some of the most dangerous plays in the game, which are kickoffs with two guys going full speed at each other. What is the kickoff rule? is this a way to save the kickoff in the modern football game? Yeah, I mean, I've always loved kickoffs.

And, you know, I really hope kickoffs can can stick around in professional football, college football. But yeah, in the XFL, you know, the kicker kicks from, you know, where you would normally kick in the NFL in any other league. I believe, you know, the opposing 30. And then the both, both sets of outside of the returner, both sets of players set up, the returning team sets up on their own 25-yard line. And then the kicking team sets up on the opposing team's 30-yard line. So these guys are right next to each other, only five yards apart, and they can't move until the returner catches the kick. So that really limits those like full-speed collisions. I mean, I haven't seen any exact data, but it looks much safer.

And yeah, I still think it provides comparable excitement to a regular kickoff. We haven't seen a kickoff return for a touchdown yet in the current version of the XFL, but in the 2020, XFL, which had the same rule. We saw at least one. I think it may have been two. So, yeah, I like the rule. It almost looks like in a way, Drake, that you can, you can almost run an offensive play. Yeah.

Because of this setup. Like, you can do an interesting blocking scheme. You can, I don't know, it's, I don't think the, the thing that I think the NFL is going to have to look at is you don't want to make the kickoff too overpowered for the return team. Like a kickoff return for a touchdown every now and again is fun. But like you go to see quarterbacks throw the ball and you go to see running backs run the ball. You know, like you don't go to see a kickoff return every game. It's a novelty thing.

But a way to keep it in the game while also keeping it safe. I think that's one of the, you know, one of the main reasons to watch the league. And I think the rock and the powers that be in the XFL, there might almost be a wink nod, yeah, type situation with the NFL. was like, yeah, we're not affiliated, but, hey, guys, you mind trying this out? This might work because the XFL is not going to succeed unless it starts putting, well, number one, it's got to get eyeballs, but number two, it also has to put guys into the NFL. So they understand the kind of relationship they need to have, but I don't know,

there's been a couple of the things that have really have caught my eye about the league. And I agree with Jake, the three-point conversion, I don't need to see that in the NFL anytime soon. We don't need to change the way the game's played there. But the fourth and 15, the kickoff rule, I can see some variations of those in the NFL. What's killing me about the XFL and any of these spring leagues or any minor sport, really, and you're starting to see the PGA tour coming with it with their full swing show on Netflix. What does the NFL do before the Super Bowl? They know they've got people watching this long-ass pregame show.

They do features. So your wife, your grandma, the guy who doesn't watch foot football, football figures out who Jalen hurts, who Patrick Mahomes is. What do they do with the Olympics? They know nobody has a clue who the skier from, you know, Finland is or whatever, but they have a human interest story and they suck you in and they tell you why you should root for this kid. And that's what the XFL and the USFL have to do is they have to create stories.

The only thing anybody remembers about the first XFL was he hate me, right? It's Vince McMahon coming out and the fireworks and the cheerleaders and all that nonsense. but he hate me was all you really remember. Let's give these guys. Give me a reason to care. So now I can tune in and say, you know what? I like Ben Danucci. He's playing.

I'm making this up. He's playing for his sick brother and blah. Give me something, you know? That's what I really want to see from the league. I mean, are they getting any of that, Jake? I mean, and give you it at a good time. Don't give me at 5 o'clock on a Tuesday like they tried to run before the season started. Yeah.

So that's the thing is they actually are. doing a show where they dive into a lot of these player stories. I believe it's called Player 54, Chasing the XFL Dream, something along those lines. It's a really good show, and I've really enjoyed it. But yeah, it is, I think it airs, you know, 5 PM on Thursdays. And they might, you know, nobody's finding that. You can pull it up on Hulu, so that's nice if you have ESPN Plus. But yeah, it's not, they don't necessarily make it, make it super easy to find or watch.

But I've found it really enjoyable. I mean, a lot of these player stories are, are super inspirational and, you know, a bit of bring a tear to the eye. So I really liked it. But yeah, not the easiest to find. Jake, are you going to do USFL too? I mean, I'm the managing editor of FantasyPoints.com. I probably should have asked this before we put you on air. But the schedules overlap, correct? Just by a couple of weeks? They do. Yeah. So that'll be tricky. I think at the end of the day, it'll just come down to what these prize pools are. I'm not particularly optimistic for USFL prize pools. I imagine people will be pretty burnt out by the time USFL kicks off.

But if we have, you know, big prizes for USFL, I will definitely cook something up, cook something up there. I think that could be a lot of fun. And, you know, I did really well on USFL last year. And I really enjoyed it. I was at the playoffs and the championship in Canton. I thought it was a ton of fun. So, I mean, you would have to imagine that there was a player pool overlap here, right?

I mean, how many guys are, are, is there, is there enough players to support two spring leagues? I mean, we've gone so far. And one hasn't been able to get off the ground. Although I, although I would think the XFL would still be around if not for COVID. Yeah. Would have still, I think it would have continued. I think it gained some traction. But is there, is there player pool overlap?

Is there, especially at the quarterback and the line positions, because I think line play is what a lot of folks have complained about. Are guys planning on playing in both of these leagues really get as much tape out there? What have you heard about this situation? Yeah. So I don't believe it's possible for somebody to play in, you know, the XFL this season and the USFL this season. We have seen plenty of guys who were in the USFL last year who are now currently in the XFL this year. So yeah, you won't see, I don't think you'll see anyone playing like 18 spring football games. And then trying to make an NFL roster.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think I think that's a bit too much. But you do bring up a good point. I'm not sure there's enough secondary talent out on the market to really support two leagues. So I do kind of kind of, I think for, you know, long term purposes, you will see it be sort of like a winner take all type scenario. In my ideal world, honestly, you know, why couldn't the leagues merge and just form, you know, a 16 team super league? And then that can be, you know, the spring league. And then we can get, you know, everyone who's deserving of a shot in the same. one league and, you know, get one TV network deal and have it be, be nice and set. But, you know, it might might take a year or two before we, we reach a conclusion. I've already come up with the name, the UXFL. Oh, there you go. I mean, come on, Drake. I mean, there you go.

You bring up a great point, Joe, because my thought on the, the spring leagues has always been people don't like watching bad quarterback play. And if you get it in the NFL, I mean, Jesus, we've seen some of these like Thursday night games and you get to the end of the season. and you're like, this is unwatchable. And now you're watching not even backups or third straight. These are like guys who would be like fifth string NFL quarterbacks out there, you know, throwing a ball into the stands.

So it's a good point on that. I also think as we go down the road, there has to be some sort of NFL and U.S.F or XFL tie in with the teams. So if you say you're a team, I know there's not enough teams to get 32. but you can have a team with, hey, the Texans, the Cowboys, and the Saints are all in on the roughnecks, right? And that's kind of, so then if you're a fan of the Cowboys or the Texans or the Saints, you're going, you know what? I'm going to watch this team now because maybe these are some of our practice squad guys, or we could call them up or they could make the team.

You've got to give NFL fans something to care about that relates back to their fandom that eats up 365 days of their year. And you know what else guys are doing when they're not cheering on their XFL team, Joe? They're drafting best ball teams over at Underdog. The 2020 season's over, guys, but the fantasy season, it never stops at Underdog fantasy. It's the easiest place to play fantasy football. Right now you can draft in Underdogs, the big board tournament. There's over a million dollars in total prizes and 200K to first place.

Trippy, we got to get in on this, brother. Think you know which incoming rookies are going to burst out on the scene in. 2023. So draft them in a value right now. We talked about that on our two-point stances for the last few weeks. So go over, join the big board. Draft your team. That's it. Set it. Forget it. No waivers, no trades. You get the best scores. You're starting line up each week. That's best ball. You guys know how it works. Go to underdog fantasy.com, the app store, Google Play, wherever you get your apps. Sign up with the promo code. Fantasy PTS. You'll get your first deployment. doubled up to $100

and Joe is giving the house away. Listen to this folks. You sign up. You deposit at Underdog using code fantasy PTSD. Not only are we going to double that first time deposit, you're going to get a standard subscription to FantasyPoint.com for $5. $5, folks. That's more than they pay me to do this show.

It's unbelievable. Underdog promo code Fantasy PTSD. Remember Underdog new users who say, sign up with our code get a fantasy point subscription for $5. We're burying the lead, as Joe said last week. How many more, how many more viewers would we have gotten on this show if I told you that 36 minutes into it, we were going to create $155 out of thin air? Because that's what you're doing.

Like literally, you go, you sign up on, I mean, we don't want to make no rompopee infomercial here. I think I used that joke last time. But yeah, literally, you make $100 deposit and you're a new user on underdog. you get a $5 standard subscription at fantasy points, which is a $60 value. And you get the FSWA football writer of the year. You get the DFS article in a year. You get a guy like me who, you know, I didn't win any awards,

but I was nominated for two of them, damn it. You get Wes Huber and all his great work. Graham Barfield, he's got best ball rankings on the site right now. I was reading the article earlier today. And don't forget the guru, John Hanson, you get all his great work, including his lessons learned that are live and free on the site right now. All right, Jake, let me know. Give me the best plays for week three here.

Just give me anybody who's got a pulse in the week three. Like who are the good players? I should be trying to get into my lineup going into week three. Yeah, so I still haven't done a full deep dive yet, but there are definitely some guys I'm looking at. At quarterback, like I said, we just want these guys who are playing every snap and ideally you have a super high pass rate. So Ben Danucci and Brandon Silvers would certainly fall into

that category. Hopefully we get news. Deerrick King is the full-time starter for DC this week, but I'm not necessarily holding out hope that'll come. I still think we're going to see a bit more of Teyamu, but those are some of the guys that I'm looking at off the bat. Running back is really tough. You have a lot of decent options to pay up for, but the main guy that I'm looking at is Morgan Ellison. He's only 4,600 on Draft Kings. We thought Brandon Knox was going to be the lead running back for Seattle. Ellison ran really great last week on a 69% snap share, which I believe led all running backs in week two. So, you know, he's going to be a super popular paydown option, but I mean, it's for, it's for great reason. He's a really strong play. At wide receiver, you know,

kind of similar to quarterback. We're just looking for guys who are running a lot of routes on teams that are throwing the ball a ton. So, you know, that would include a guy like Josh Gordon. Really all of these Seattle Sea Dragons wide receivers are in play. They're June Jones is their offensive coordinator. They're running a run and shoot offense, almost an 80% pass rate. And they go for three every single time after they score. So there's a ton of potential for fantasy points there. So yeah, that's Jacor Pearson. Blake Jackson is going to be another great play. And then the Houston Roughneck receivers, I mean, pretty much the same boat. Deontay Burnett and John Trey Kirkland are all going to be pretty strong plays. I'll have more

contrarian options available for you guys after I, you know, really do a deep dive and get a better sense for ownership and actually write my article. But those are some of the guys that I'm looking at, you know, right off the rip here. That's a good tease, Jake, because you got the Friday show with Chris Wax. Exactly. That's where we'll get into the real galaxy brain stuff, the 2% owned XFL plays. Those are the real fun guys to talk about. And these are a lot of guys, too, that you probably had drafted on some dynasty team somewhere. You picked him up on the waiver wire.

I remember seeing Deonté Burnett. and let's Marcel Aitman Yeah, Martavis Bryant is out here I just saw him You know, a guy that the Eagles had in camp And they, I believe they drafted Andre Killens

Super fast kid who plays for the renegades Hakeem Butler's in the league Hakeem Butler at one point was We had Matt Waldman on my old podcast And Matt Waldman had him as the number one receiver coming into the league that year and the guy's playing in the XFL right now. So some of these guys really do have some talent. Yeah. Yeah. Hakeem Butler actually looked great. And I mean, he's a guy, his combination of

size and speed is really unmatched in a league like the XFL. So I wouldn't be surprised if he became a full-time starter in short order for St. Louis. I mean, we saw him score 16 draft Kings points last week, had a long touchdown reception. I'm pretty excited for him. And I think he could, you know, play himself onto an NFL practice squad. He needs to convert to tight end, doesn't he? And just become a big because the Philadelphia brought him in for that. Yeah. That's kind of the vibe that I get. But I mean, in the XFL, he can certainly be successful as a receiver.

But I do think, I do think tight end is probably in his, in his future if he's going to play in the NFL. All right. Before we get you out of here, Jake Triby at Jake Triby on Twitter, fantasy points.com writer, do an NFL, DFS, do an XFL, USFL, your local high school team. He's got scouting reports on those guys. So before we get out of here, we're just going to wrap it up. What do we need to know about the XFL if we want to create lineups and not just waste our money,

sitting on a toilet, flushing it down, you know, I want to win. What do I need to know about the XFL? Well, I would say, like, I pretty much cover it all in my weekly articles. And we also incorporate, you know, every single piece of information that we can find into our projections, which are live over at fantasy points.com. So, you know, just by using those projections, reading my article, watching the fantasy, Fantasy Points XFL breakdown with me and Chris Wecht. You know, that really will give you everything that you need to know in order to make good

lineups here. And, you know, on a final note, I would also just pay attention to inactive last week we saw 5.6% of lineups in the largest draft Kings tournament play an inactive player. So if you can simply avoid, you know, missing inactives, then you'll be in a great spot. And that's something, you know, we obviously incorporate into our projections. I'll be, you know, tweeting about that. You know, I'll be in Discord if anyone has questions about optimal pivots or anything like that. So, yeah, it's, it's, you really don't have to go, you know, super galaxy brain with, with the stats like you might have to in, in NFL to be successful at XFL.

And you almost cashed a big tournament last week, right? We're going to get you there this week. Yeah. Not me and Joe. We don't know anything about this. The, I did actually almost win the $15. I think I had three lineups in the top 100. I had two with a really solid chance to win.

I needed 11 second half draft Kings points out of John Trey Kirkland and Sal Canella. And they both posted second half zeros, which was pretty awful considering they combined for, they combined for 15 draft Kings points in the first half. So I was, man, at halftime, I was, I was rubbing my hands together. I was like, oh, I got this. All they, you know, if they can just recreate that first half, I got, I got 50K in my pocket. But, yeah, it wasn't meant to be in week two. But I'm, I'm very optimistic.

I did use the fantasy points projections in an optimized. to make those lineups. So yeah, I'm very optimistic about the future, considering how well our first run of projections did in week two. I'm loving it, Joe. Just get over to Fantasy Points. Hey, guys, if you just want to get in there, again, go to Underdog, deposit some money in there.

You might as well make it $100. We're going to double it. Fantasy PTS is the code $5 subscription to Fantasy Points. Get all this great XFL data. All right, Joe, let's get out of here. We'll get Jake on his computer. He can start creating all of the content for the, the XFL of this weekend. Jake Tribby, what a pleasure it was to have you on the two

points dance. Give Jake a follow on Twitter at Jake Triby and go win some XFL money this weekend, folks. I'm going to put some in. My word right here, Joe, I'm playing XFL DFS. You and I, we're putting some money in. We're going to play and then we'll tweet Jake and the audience and we'll let you guys know how we did. Yeah, I, I can use 50K. So it seems easy to me. So yeah, thanks Jake for everything. This was a lot of fun. Drake, we got to come in here and chop it up with somebody who knows a shit ton more than we do. I love it. Basically all the time on this podcast.

But I had a lot of fun, Jake. Congratulations on the award. Thanks for providing the XFL content. By the way, with the exception of the projections, Jake's XFL content is free. The projections are for a standard subscription. But tying that all together, you go to Underdog Use of Code Fantasy PTSD PTSD. You get one of those for $5 anyway. So turn $5 into $50,000.

There you go. That's the play. All right, guys, we're going to get out of here. Make sure you're subscribed on the YouTube channel. Leave us a comment here. Let us know how much money you won in the YouTube comments this week on XFL, DFS. For Jake and Joe, I'm Drake. Take it easy, folks, for the two points dance.

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.