Fantasy Football Today - 09/01 BONUS: Dynasty Talk and Mailbag (Recorded Fri.)

Episode Date: September 1, 2018

Adam and Heath answer your emails with some draft strategy, some Week 1 rankings and some waiver wire talk. Then we are joined by George Kritikos of Dynasty League Football (33:48). George answers some general questions about dynasty leagues and tells you who he would take #1 overall in a startup and which rookies he likes, so if you're interested in the dynasty format you don't want to miss what he has to say. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It is a bonus edition on Labor Day weekend.

It is Saturday, September 1st. Happy September, everybody. It's football month. Adam Azer and Heath Cummings here. We are going to read your emails at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com and maybe talk a little bit about the well, the worst draft I've had

all draft season, Heath. We just finished our fantasy football today PPR draft and I hated it. Yeah, it was pretty bad. It was bad for me? Yeah, it was awful. Did you give me a grade on Twitter? Did you vote?

I did not give you a grade on Twitter. I haven't even seen your lineup. I just made an assumption. I'm sure you love your team. It's awesome. Best team I've drafted maybe all season. Did you draft Hopkins? I did not.

Because you always love your team when you draft Hopkins. Dave took him one spot before me, which I was actually happy about. This was my 15th draft that I'm playing out, and I have DeAndre Hopkins on a lot of them. I had zero teams with Odell Beckham on it, so I was happy to take him. Oh, good. Good for you. Smart man.

All right, so we just got a few news items to get to here. First of all, Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht did not commit to Jameis Winston as his starting quarterback in week four when he's done with the suspension. What do you make of that, Heath? Can I yawn

loud enough for the listeners at home to hear it? I think they heard. Okay, good. You don't buy it? No. Okay. That's a short't buy it? No. Okay. That's a short week, right? It's a Thursday game? Maybe. I think it is.

I think that was part of it. It's like, well, it's a short week. We got a Thursday game. No, it's not. They said it was – oh, maybe they have a Monday night game before that or something like that. But yeah, no, we don't buy it. So that brings us to Aaron Donald. Aaron Donald signed a big old contract. He is now the highest paid defensive player in football,

87 million guaranteed, six years, $135 million. By the way, it's Friday afternoon. It's 3.30 p.m. Eastern. So there's a lot that may have happened, cuts, interesting things like that, that we don't know about. So forgive us.aron donald signed his contract hooray and josh gordon will return to practice on monday do you have your week one rankings if so where's josh gordon josh gordon is currently way down my week one rankings i don't plan on starting josh gordon in week one now if he does return to practice on Monday and he's a full practice participant by Wednesday, then I'll probably move him up in the rankings a little bit. But as of right now, where I have him ranked

is essentially do not start Josh Gordon in week one. All right. So you know what it is about the draft we just did that I didn't like other than my team? My team's fine. There was that one pick that I felt oh that guy fell to me wow I lucked out I picked everybody where they needed to be picked but there was not one pick where it was like oh wow I got great value I can't believe this guy fell to me and that except maybe in a PPR league Julian Edelman

80th overall or 79th overall. But obviously you disagree with that. Yeah, that was probably – I don't think your team is that bad. I think it's actually a pretty decent team. That might have been your worst pick. Oh, that's my best pick on a bad team. You have it all backwards. I understand.

I'm not going to go through the team. But when you do a draft, it has to be one or two picks where you're like, oh my god, I stole this guy. That's what fires me up. Heath, who cares? Nobody wants to hear about our teams anymore, right? They want to hear about – give me one takeaway from your team, and then we'll hear their emails. I feel better and better about starting with two wide receivers

at the end of the first round. I got Lamar Miller, Kenyon Drake, and Mark Ingram as my top three running backs, and that was after starting with Beckhamham and keenan allen and ppr what is it about how bad mark ingram has been or not sorry lamar miller has been that that doesn't bother you he's my number two running back he has been that pretty consistently like i understand he has been bad and why we say that, but he's also a number two running back in fantasy. Oh, he certainly is, yeah. So I don't really – I don't know that there's a ton of upside there, but I don't think there's any threat in the first eight weeks of the season either.

Yeah, and I mean the upside is that he just starts – it's kind of like Melvin Gordon, but a few rounds later, he's going to get a ton of touches on a good offense. He just has to play a little bit better. And that could be a big pick. I know you really like Lamar Miller. I hope it works out for you unless you're playing me.

So we have an interview coming up. He's not going to be on that, on the podcast for that, but I'm going to interview somebody from dynasty league football. I'm currently in the middle of a startup dynasty draft with a bunch of guys from Dynasty League Football, and we'll talk about it, kind of what goes into a dynasty league, ideal roster format, how many rounds, how many of each position, that kind of stuff. And we'll just talk fantasy football, so that's after the mailbag. Let's start, though, with some emails

and tweets. We've got Jax in a city in Kansas. That shouldn't be hard for you. No, there are a lot of wonderful cities in Kansas. I will go with Lawrence. Dear Roger, Danny, Troy, and Tony, that also shouldn't be hard. I believe those are all Cowboys quarterbacks. You are right.

I drafted Mike Williams, but Godwin and Allison are available. Who would you take, Mike Williams, Godwin, or Allison? I'm taking Chris Godwin, and this is partially because of all the Chris Godwin hype and partially because I'm just not sure that Mike Williams is a starting wide receiver for the Los Angeles Chargers. Yeah, I took him in the draft we just did 10 minutes ago, but I wanted to take Calvin Ridley. Ridley went one pick before me, and then I settled for Williams. I would have taken either Godley or Allison probably, especially because I had Devontae Adams.

You had a little fantasy baseball faux pas there. What did I do? You called Godwin Godley. I knew it didn't sound right when I said it. Thank you. Yeah, Chris Godwin. All right, next email is from Dan. Dear Bill, Chuck, Joe, and Bill.

I mean, those could be Steelers coaches. No, I don't think so. They could be like some of the winningest coaches of all time. Yeah, I mean, it could be like Parcells, Knoll, Gibbs,'t think so. They could be like some of the winningest coaches of all time. Yeah, I mean it could be like Parcells, Knoll, Gibbs, Belichick. Let's go with that. 12-team league, there's always an unbalanced schedule after you play every team once. The solution is a royal rumble where the top six teams in points get wins and the bottom six get losses.

We do this for week one so you don't begin the year with bad scheduling luck, and we do it for week 13 so you don't end the year with bad scheduling luck. To me, this is a must in 12-team leagues. What are your thoughts on a Royal Rumble where the top six teams get a win and the bottom six get a loss? Dan, I've never heard of this before. I don't know how I've never heard of this before but this is outstanding you think so i i love this now i think there are some other ways to

not worry so much about your scheduling i don't know if you noticed but i changed the rules in the for the people podcast league as far as how his playoff teams are determined oh yeah i actually liked it what did you do? The top two seeds are the two best records. The number three seed is the team that scores the most points besides those two, and the number four seed is the team with the best record. After the top two, right? Right.

Yeah, okay, I like that. And it's a 10-team league. Only four teams make it. But I also think this is – I am all for different types of rules and little fun quirks. And this is one of the most fun that I've heard about. We did a league back in the Nando days. It was one of our podcast leagues. We played every opponent every week. I think it was 16 teams or something, and you played 15 matchups.

I hated it. I hated it. I don't know why. You lose kind of like the personal feel of the head-to-head matchup. Right. But it was kind of like this. I mean, it rewarded the teams that did the best. If you had the most points, you went 15-0.

And so on. I hated that. But this is okay. This is all right. I like it. All right. This is from Idiot Moron from a city in Florida. Let's say Coral Springs.

Hey, Carson, Alshon, Jay, and Nelson. Busts. Players he hates. I have the ninth pick in a PPR league in the mock draft. I usually draft either Hopkins or Odell with my first pick, or Melvin Gordon if he's available. Which will you guys go for on your first pick and if you take a wide receiver hopkins beckham instead of gordon um should i go for the likes

of michael thomas or keenan owl with my next pick or take either cook fornette or mcafree you know if you're an idiot moron from a city in florida then there is no question you should start with hopkins and or odell and then you should start, take another receiver with your next pick. In PPR, you are starting off probably with two of the top 10 or 11 point getters in that league, and regardless of position, not counting quarterbacks, so not regardless of position. And then you can get very solid high-end number two running backs with your next two picks. All right, so let's just, for this argument, let's look at our teams.

Because I had the seventh pick and you had the tenth pick. And Dave had the ninth pick. So I went with Gordon and Devontae Adams with my first two picks. I looked at A.J. Green's schedule before I took Adams over Green, and it is really good. It made me think twice about not loving A.J. Green as much as I do, and I took Adams over him, but I maybe should have taken A.J. Green. But anyway, I went with running back wide receiver, Gordon and Adams. And then I went wide receiver running back. And I ended up with Gordon, McCoy, Adams, and Cooper. You went receiver, receiver, running back, running

back. And you have Beckham, Keenan Allen, Kenyon Drake, Lamar Miller. So you could have had LeSean McCoy if anybody prefers McCoy or Freeman to Lamar Miller or something like that. That's an option. So there are two – I won't even read Dave's team. It will get confusing. There are two options for you to either go running back receiver, Gordon and Adams, and then get Cooper and McCoy, or do what Heath did and go receiver-receiver with Beckham and Keenan Allen and then take two running backs with Kenyon Drake and Lamar Miller, and you can decide what you like better. They're both good ways to start your team.

This is from Jack. So Dave and Adam do their funny tagline song at the end of every podcast. Jamie says, got to go. What about Heath? I would like to suggest that Heath end every show with the statement, I don't have a thing. Just a suggestion. Love you guys.

Nest. Nest? What is that? Nest. Nest? Yes. No ending. Nest? Yes. No ending sorry, team. No end of the show thing.

No end of the show thing. All right, Nest. This is from No Name. Hey, Steve, Deshaun, Charlie, and Trevor. I feel like those are Clemson quarterbacks with a Charlie Whitehurst in there and a Sean Watson. How do you feel about Jimmy Garoppolo against the Vikings in week one? Not great. I like him more than I like Patrick Mahomes against the Chargers in week one. But I do not have Garoppolo ranked in my top 12 or my top 15.

He's my number 18 quarterback for week one. We've got a couple of sponsors to talk about. One of them is to make you look better, and that is Harry's Razors. And the URL is harrys.com slash FFT to get your trial offer. Harrys.com is H-A-R-R-Y-S.com slash FFT, as in Fantasy Football Today. Yeah, you know I use my Harry's razor. You know Heath uses it now. He had that crazy beard going.

What do you got now? Yeah, a reasonable beard. You could still use a razor to trim that thing for sure. Use a Harry's razor. Look, it's a really good shave. It's a very close, comfortable shave, and you are going to save so much money. By selling directly to you over the Internet, Harry's can offer their blades at a price much lower than the leading brand.

How about $2 per blade compared to $4 or more? I mean, you are saving at least 50% when you look at it that way. If you don't love your shave set, they have a quality guarantee. If you don't love it, let Harry's know within 30 days. They'll give you a full refund. Right now, we want you to go to harrys.com slash FFT and get your $13 trial set. It comes with everything you need for a close, comfortable shave. It's got a weighted ergonomic handle.

It's got a five-blade razor with a lubricating strip and trimmer blade. Rich lathering shave gel. I love the shave gel. My wife loves the shave gel. It smells great. And a travel blade cover. Listeners of our show can redeem their trial set at harrys.com slash FFT. So make sure you go there, harrys.com slash FFT to redeem the offer and let them know that we sent you and help support the show. It's a great product. I think you're all going to really like it. Next up we have an email from Nick in Chicago. Subject is don't eliminate kickers.

I've been voting against eliminating kickers, and here's why. If your league is for money and charges a fee per transaction, then you're reducing your pot by eliminating a roster spot that most people will stream throughout the year. Just my 25 cents. Well? I'm not going to respond to any type of obvious trolling by someone saying they would not want to remove a kicker from a league. I don't think that's obvious trolling.

I think it's a different scenario. We've never talked about actual cost per transaction. Then replace the kicker with a flex. This is from... No name. Mark, let's just say. Hey, Pete, Keith, Jay, and Charles. Google, Google, Google.

I have no idea. Pete, Keith, Jay, and Charles. The question is, thoughts on dominating one NFL team's players on your fantasy team? Oh, they're all Bill's tight ends. Oh. Charles Clay, Jay Ramirezma, Keith McKellar, and Pete Metzelaers. How did you get that?

You didn't get that, get that. They're all Bill's tight ends. Okay. Well, they all are. Oh! It's Reimersma, I believe. And he put it at the end of the email. P.S. They're all Bill's tight ends. Good job, Heath.

Way to read. What do you think about dominating a team's players? I have Brown, Bell, and Le'Veon Bell in a two-quarterback league. I was offered Le'Veon Bell. Oh, no. He has Brown and Bell. He was offered Bell in a two-quarterback league. I was offered Le'Veon Bell. Oh no, he has Brown and Ben. He was offered Bell in a trade for Christian McCaffrey and Josh Gordon. So would you give up McCaffrey and Gordon to get

a third Brown, Le'Veon Bell, on your team? I have no position on whether I want to have more than one player from the same team or whether I avoid or try to do that. I don't think it's necessarily smart to pay more than the value for a player so that you can do that.

But I would rather have Le'Veon Bell than McCaffrey and Josh Gordon. Yeah, I'd do that trade. And from Bowen Island Park, New York, do you have some combination of Duke, Dylan, Blaine, and Billy? No idea. Yeah, me either. Just finished my draft, 12-PR I had the 8th pick I went with OBJ

And Keenan Allen That said I held off until later to pick up my other Wideouts I have Edelman, Devante Parker John Brown and Josh Doxon Who has the most Upside of that group Because Geronimo Allison and James Washington are on the waiver

wire. So he has Edelman, Parker, John Brown, and Doxon. He could drop one of them or two of them for Geronimo Allison and James Washington. What would you do, Heath? I don't think I would drop any of them. The one that you could consider is Devontae Parker because things are

looking really bad for him. But I don't know that his situation, assuming that his finger is not broken for the rest of his life, is worse than that of Jeronimo Allison. I would rather have Allison than John Brown. You wouldn't? I would definitely not rather have Allison than John Brown. Or than Josh Doxson. Like, you really like the Ravens passing game, but the bottom line is they just

don't score that many touchdowns. Well, they haven't. They haven't. It's, what, 10 years of Joe Flacco. That's true. And he has one year, I think, with more than 24 touchdown passes. Well, Aaron Rodgers isn't going to throw 24 passes to people not named Devontae Adams and Jimmy Graham. No, but there is Crabtree there.

That's the thing I'm not sure about. I was really big on Crabtree before camp, before the preseason. I've had to lower him just a little bit. So it's not that I think now still that Crabtree is a definite top 24 guy in PPR and I love John Brown as a sleeper. I've dropped Crabtree a little bit and I've kind of made that more of a balance. And there's no Hayden Hurst there at the start of the year. There's also the sickle cell trade with John Brown, so keep that in mind. I have heard some speculation that that should be better in Baltimore than it was in Arizona.

I know elevation messes with that. I've heard that heat does as well, and early season heat shouldn't be as bad as it was in Arizona. I hope so. I certainly hope so. Flacco has a 25-touchdown season and a 27-touchdown season. Those are his only two with more than 22 touchdowns. And now that I said it, you know it's going to happen. He's going to throw 30 touchdowns this year. By the way, I really am embarrassed that I did not know Duke, Dylan, Blaine, and Billy.

I mean, pathetic. It was Blaine that threw me off, but it's Predator. And we should all be embarrassed. This is from Angie. Should I pick up Emmanuel Sanders and drop Nelson Aguilar? Ew. Nelson Aguilar is your worst player? Seems that way.

Ah. Ah. I, yeah. That is tough. I think probably so. Dropping Aguilar for Sanders. Yeah, that's a good team if that's your worst player. Brian from Colchester, Connecticut.

Greetings, Flattop, Pruneface, Bigboy, and Itchy. Those are Dick Tracy villains. They sure are. 12-team half PPR, live draft on Labor Day. Cool. I have the fifth pick. Figuring the top three will be Gurley, Bell, and Johnson. My buddy is picking fourth.

He's a big Giants fan. He hates the Cowboys, so he would never draft Ezekiel Elliott. So who do you guys take at five? I'm looking at Zeke, Brown, or Barkley, depending, of course, on who my friend takes it for. So in half PPR, I think it's really tough to decide between Zeke and Brown, but I would probably take Antonio Brown. If Zeke's

taken, I'm definitely taking Brown. If he takes Brown, I'm definitely taking Zeke. Okay, so you know you're going to end up with somebody you like right there. And I am definitely taking a trip to a college football or an NFL or an NBA

or an MLB stadium this upcoming fall and winter. And I'm definitely using SeatGeek to get there. It is just quite simply not the best ticketing app, but it's one of the best apps I have on my phone, if not the best. I absolutely love it. I use SeatGeek all the time, and you should too. And it does not just have to be for sports, okay? If you want to go to a live event, SeatGeek has plenty of tickets to concerts,

comedy, and theater in addition to sports. And it's really, you know, it's just perfect. Right now, you may not be thinking about the event that you want to go to, but maybe you are. And the next time you decide, hey, I want to go to see a Broadway show, or I want to go to a football game, a baseball game, whatever it is, download the SeatGeek app and just take a look. Search for an event. You're going to see the prices are really, really good. You're going to get the best deals because SeatGeek searches multiple sites. That's the key. You used to search multiple sites. Now you've got SeatGeek to do it for you. And here's what we want you to do. Download the SeatGeek app. get 20 bucks off your first purchase. Enter the promo code FFT. That is promo code FFT for

20 bucks off your first SeatGeek purchase. Once again, that promo code is FFT. SeatGeek, life's an event. We have the tickets. All right, we got some more emails here. Will has a question about a zero RB strategy when drafting with the second overall pick in a 14-team league. Now, Will, I'm just going to tell you this is not zero RB, but it's close enough. He's like, here's my zero RB question. I'm going to take a running back with my first pick, Gurley or Bell,

and then wide receiver or tight end for the next three picks, and then Ingram in round five. What do you think of that start? I like that approach. What I happen to find most of the time when I have one of the top three picks is that when I get back to the 2-3 turn, it's either Travis Kelsey or T.Y. Hilton where I'm taking a running back. Remember, this is a 14-team league.

Just keep that in mind. And so if Kelsey falls to you, that's great. I don't think there's another receiver I'm going to be thrilled about taking there is the problem. So you could take Ertz. What happens is Devontae Freeman, Jordan Howard are the guys that I usually target in that range, which is why I don't generally get a receiver early when I have a pick in the top three. I just want to point something out. 14-team league, I think this is relevant, important because I get a little paranoid about not having running back depth in 14-team leagues.

But everybody does, and that's why this works. But you can sit there and make a lineup, make a roster, and have a starting lineup and say, oh, I like this team. But when bye weeks come into play, when injuries come into play, I think you could be in a lot of trouble. And I want to look at the PPR draft that we just did, go to round 10 in a 12-team league. Starting with pick 112, want to look at the PPR draft that we just did, go to round 10 in a 12-team league, starting with

pick 112. These running backs came off the board with six of the next seven picks. Aaron Jones, Matt Breida, Austin Eckler, Jordan Wilkins, Ronald Jones, and Nick Chubb. Jones, Breida, Eckler, Wilkins, Ronald Jones, Nick Chubb. Devontae Booker went after that. Latavius Murray went after that. Ty Montgomery, Naeem Hines, TJ Yeldon, CJ Anderson. They all have one thing in common except maybe Jordan Wilkins. None of these guys are week one starters for you.

None of them. Whereas the wide receivers going around this point, Devin Funchess, Kelvin Benjamin, Randall Cobb, Tyler Lockett, Jeronimo Allison, Sterling Shepard, John Ross, DJ Moore, Calvin Ridley, Mike Williams, Danny Amendola. I mean, I like all those picks at running back, but they're all for depth. They're all for speculation. You can find players to plug in at wide receiver on the waiver wire.

You can find players to plug in at wide receiver at the end of your drafts. You cannot do that if you need a starter at running back. And I fear having a bad stable of running backs in a deeper league. Okay, you cannot find starting running backs in the last three rounds of the draft. I would agree with that. I think you can find week one starting running backs very late. Okay, Jonathan Williams, maybe. Is that who you're going to go with?

Well, I'll go Adrian Peterson. Let me just say, this is not the last three rounds. This is the last five rounds of the draft. Adrian Peterson. Okay, he was taken in round eight by you. Bilal Powell. Round nine. And I would say Bilal Powell was the last guy other than Jordan Wilkins,

and I don't know if Jonathan Williams was taken in this. I think Jonathan Williams. He was not drafted. You know what's really going to be frustrating? And I don't have it ranked this way. He's my number 41 running back for week one. Garrett Blunt's going to be a top 25 running back. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't think he was drafted either.

He wasn't. That's crazy. He probably needs a little bit more love. I mean, it was PPR. Right. But he can still fall in the end zone. Right. I don't know.

But do you agree with my premise, though, that it's so much easier to plug in at wide receiver than running back? Throughout the course of a season, let's say, if you're just playing winners. No? Because – and one of the reasons I'm against handcuffing – not against it, but I don't really get excited about doing it, I don't actively try to do it, is because I think a lot of those handcuffs don't survive on people's rosters until their running back gets hurt. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Usually the first person you have to drop. Yeah. And I think there are generally throughout the season, six to eight running backs that pop up on the waiver wire because of an injury and all of a sudden they're starters.

Right, but everybody's into them. I'm talking on a given week you could look at the waiver wire and find five wide receivers that you're comfortable with. You can stream wide receiver. You can find five wide receivers that you are comfortable with plugging into your wide receiver three range, but you're going to get crushed by my wide receivers when I play you. Oh, I know that.

I'm just saying if you're in a pinch, it's easier to get. If you suffer an injury at wide receiver, let me ask you this. Would you rather suffer an injury to your number one wide receiver or your number one running back, assuming you took them within back-to-back rounds? Well, it probably would have been which one I took first. Okay, you had the swing picks. So I've got Odell Beckham and Dalvin Cook?

Sure. I'd probably rather suffer an injury to Beckham and Standard. All right, we're going around. It really depends on my bench. This is kind of pointless. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It depends on my bench. All right, back to the emails here.

And now I lost my place. Nick in San Jose. What do you think about this wide receiver target strategy in your draft? Taking the number two receivers from teams that have an extremely good number one receiver. So taking Juju Smith-Schuster, taking Will Fuller. I think he's saying take both Schuster and Brown, or Smith-Schuster and Brown, and Fuller and Hopkins. Defenses will be double-teaming or focusing. Oh, no, he's not.

He's saying take the number two guy. Defenses will be double-teaming or focusing more on the number one guy, and it should open more opportunities for Juju and Fuller. I would rather have guys that are going to get more targets. But I still like Juju and I still like Fuller. They're very explosive players, and I understand what you're saying. I just don't think that they are necessarily values on draft day. Yeah, I think the hidden value there is that if the number one receiver on that team gets injured,

then you could have a real steal on your hands. But you can't really plan on that on draft day. From Ben, hey, Sean, Gus, Juliet, and Lassiter. That would be psych, psych. With McCaffrey rising and Cook falling, who would you take in a non-PPR league? 14 teams, Cook or McCaffrey? Cook, for sure. It's so funny that Cook was like this huge riser, and then preseason started,

and he got like two carries, and now the shine is off. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it is. It is. It's not his off. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it is. It's not his fault. Kevin in Philadelphia. Greetings, Vernon, Priscilla, Lisa Marie, and Gladys. Are they Presleys? Priscilla and Lisa Marie are.

I don't know, Heath. Kevin wants to know if he should drop Ronald Jones. No. For James Conner. For James Conner. For James Conner. No. This is from Artie. Dear Jimmy, Kim, Mike, and Nacho.

Ooh, I know this. Good. You watch Better Call Saul? No. I watched a couple of episodes. I watched all of Breaking Bad and really loved it. I watched a couple episodes of Better Call Saul and I just couldn't get into it. Really?

I love Better Call Saul. It's great. It's very different than Breaking Bad, but I think it's great. Although I haven't started this season yet. I think that kind of makes sense. Like you would like it and I would not. Why? We both like Breaking Bad.

Yeah, but they're not the same thing. I'm not insulting you. I know I do often. Yeah. But it's a little more over the top what better call saul or breaking yeah better goes off um it's a little much for me i you know what after that first episode it really stopped being like that i think as i recall it's kind of a lawyer show it's. We're kind of waiting for it to get into meth land. There's a little bit of that.

I love lawyer shows. Yeah, I think you'd like it. It's sort of calmed down. I'm going to league with my wife, and after our draft, we both think we're going to win this year. Let us know who is right. We have to settle a marital debate, Heath. He has Watson and Ben. It's 12-team PPR league.

Watson and Ben. It's 12-team PPR league. Watson and Ben, Gordon, Ingram, Kerryon Johnson, Peterson, and Chubb, Beckham, Cooper, Landry, Edelman, Ebron, and the Rams. She has Garoppolo and Rivers, Hunt, Drake, Jamal Williams, and Brita, Demarius Thomas, Drake. Oh, she's got such a better team. Hunt, Drake, Jamal Williams and Brita. Demarius Thomas, Stefan Diggs, Hogan, Cup, Jimmy Graham and the Ravens.

I like the wife. So his quarterbacks are a lot better. Watson and Roethlisberger compared to Garoppolo and Rivers? Yeah. Okay. Her starting running backs are certainly better. Her receivers are better. Well, he's got Beckham.

She has Diggs and Demarius. She has Thomas. I don't know. Maybe I was hasty. Oh, if it's Michael Thomas, then forget it. I don't know why I thought it was Demarius. I don't see another second-round pick. It has to be Michael Thomas. It's Michael. Forget it. I don't know why I thought it was Demarius. I don't see another second-round pick. It has to be Michael Thomas. It's Michael. Forget it.

She wins. The only way she doesn't win is if the worst fears on Kareem Hunt are realized, and he's a bust. But assuming he's fine, she wins. Go her. Three more from Kevin. Yo, Bart, Brett, and Aaron. Packers quarterbacks.

Oh, you're right. I am pathetic. I was going Boones. I just pathetic. I was going Boone's. I just figured maybe there was a Bart Boone. You're terrible. Short bench. I didn't draft a kicker. Three receivers leagues and it's PPR.

Who do I drop for a kicker? Chris Hogan? No. DJ Moore? Duke Johnson? Sonny Michelle? Peyton Barber? Jordan Wilkins?

I hate to say it, but probably DJ Moore. What about Jordan Wilkins in PPR? Well, he went to great pains to tell us he was deep and list all of his wide receivers. He did not do that same thing with his running backs. Okay, yeah. Well, he's Kareem Hunt now. Okay. From Tyler.

Oh, no, it's from Billy Bob. I really wanted to grab the Rams DST, but someone took them the round before me. I am considering trading the Chargers DST and Austin Eckler to the Gordon owner for the Rams DST. Do not do that. And Michael in Northern California. I haven't heard anything anywhere about Jordy Nelson besides Gruden saying he's running like he's 28. What do you think of Jordy Nelson's potential? I am not particularly interested,

but I have heard a couple of smart people over the last couple of days start to talk about how maybe we're underrating him. And so it's possible. Like the potential is that he catches eight or nine touchdown passes and goes for 750 to 800 yards. I don't have any Jordy Nelson. He went in the ninth round, fourth pick of the ninth round, so that's somewhere around 100. And I think it might be 100 overall in this PPR league, two-receiver league, just ahead of Robert Woods and Chris Godwin.

I also have zero Jordy Nelson. I think I have zero Robert Woods. I don't feel great about that. I just never know what to do with the Rams receivers. But he was a steal. He was like 101st in this draft. I'm trying to think if I've drafted a Rams wide receiver.

Yeah, I don't know that I have either. No Brandon Cooks. No Cooper Cup. I have Robert Woods on one team. Wow. I do believe I have Woods somewhere, but I don't know. Hey, Heath, we will party on Monday at Buffalo Wild Wings in Coral Springs, Florida. Come join us for our telethon.

We're there from what time? Four to seven? I think we're on from five to eight. Five to eight. Five to eight, yeah. We'll probably be there a little bit early. I'm sure you and I will hang out and drink some beer afterwards. Sure, we'll watch the Seminoles game.

We'll watch Virginia Tech, Florida State. Big weekend of college football. Enjoy it, everybody. But fantasy football is in full swing, and the season starts next week, so get excited. I'm going to stick around and talk Dynasty. That's Heath Cummings. Thanks to Heath. Enjoy the weekend, everyone. Nest. Well, I got to tell you, I am taking part in my second dynasty league and we did a startup dynasty league with some real experts. Started a couple of weeks ago, I think, and we're finishing it up now. I am joined by one of those experts, George Kretikos of dynasty league football. And it's

great to have you on, George. Thanks for coming on. Happy holiday weekend to you. Yeah, same to you. And looking forward to some good college football this weekend. Oh, yeah, dude. I don't talk about that at all on our podcast because, you know, it's fantasy football. But what a weekend.

Wow. Oh, yeah. Well, my wife is an Alabama alum, so, you know, there's a very heavy slant in this household in terms of who we root for. So you're rooting for Washington this week. That's right. Yeah, there's some great college football. And as a Dynasty guy, how much college football scouting do you do? I do a lot of it. I really enjoy it, and I'm sure we'll get into it. But I play in a good number of Devy leagues, which includes

the college players as part of your taxi squad. So it does pay some dividends in terms of my fantasy leagues. Yeah, man. I love fantasy football. Before we get into this, why don't you just introduce yourself, where we can find you, Twitter, all that stuff. What do you do? Tell us about yourself, George.

Yeah, so you can find me on Twitter at Rotohack. Ro-t-o-h-a-c-k just for the the lovely irony of how good i write uh you can find me on uh dynasty league football as you mentioned i i co-host the player raider podcast with with ryan mcdowell i used to write for pro football focus uh as well so uh traveled a little bit around. And my main focus is Dynasty, but I like to play a lot of college fantasy football, Devy Leagues, and Redraft as well. So I like to think of myself as a Renaissance. Yeah. Hey, why not? You can throw that tag out there. Why not? Yeah, look, you play in a lot more leagues than I do, and it's unbelievable. And I thought I love fantasy football.

I don't play in leagues where we have a taxi squad full of college players. So how do you feel about just like a normal seasonal redraft league? I mean, you know, I love those too. I mean, just like everyone else, I got the home league that's been running for about 15 years. So we get to do that live every year. And those are fun too. And I think it's a good way to stay grounded with the Dynasty Leagues because people always kind of take the long-term view with Dynasty Leagues. But just like a seasonal league, you're trying to win championships at the

end of the day. So it's nice to kind of have that balance between both types of leagues. So we have got this 10-team Dynasty... Or no, 12-team, isn't it? It's 12 teams, Dynasty League. It is PPR with a super flex and like three regular flexes. I'm trying to remember all the roster spots here. I think it's like 26 rounds. Do you know how many rounds we got? I think we're going 22 on this one. So it's a little light for the Dynasty League football group,

I'm sure. Yeah, probably. But it's, oh, you're right. 22 rounds. That's good for someone like me. And we're getting, we're wrapping it up. We're almost done. What is, let me start with some basic questions. Difference between a Dynasty League and a Keeper League. Yeah. So Keeper League, I mean, you know, it can be anywhere from just a couple of guys that are kept to maybe, you know, a third or maybe even half of your roster. With the Dynasty League, everybody gets kept on your team. So you're really only drafting rookies every year and maybe some waiver wire veterans. So that kind of makes trades more important.

It makes kind of the longevity, as I mentioned, become more of a premium versus maybe some of your established veterans. And then kind of what I mentioned, roster sizes tend to be bigger. So a typical redraft league or even a keeper league is maybe anywhere from 14 to maybe 20 rounds if you're going into a deeper league. But with dynasty leagues, I mean, I've seen some that go 30 plus rounds. So you have a lot of roster spots there. And if you get an IDP, obviously you get even bigger. And then I think the league scoring can be a lot more creative just to kind of make sure that all positions are valuable within a dynasty league. Because you know, in a redraft

league, certain positions you tend to give a premium to over others. And it's the same in dynasty leagues if you're not careful. Just like any deep league, for me, I think handcuffing is important, more important here because you can't get that guy on waivers. If your running back goes down and there's a backup that you want, he's taken. Do you feel that way? Oh yeah, definitely. And if your handcuff is a young guy, like let's say Nick Chubb to Carlos Hyde, for example, you're probably going to draft Nick Chubb before Carlos Hyde. So the handcuff actually goes first. So depending on the talent level of the guy,

I mean, the starter might go later than the backup. So you really do have to be cognizant of who those backups are and what their potential is. And even the quote-unquote bad backups, they still have the upside. So you really do have to be mindful. Yeah, and in this draft, I took Todd Gurley with the first pick, and John Kelly was taken by a different team in round 15, and then I took Malcolm Brown in round 18, I believe.

So, yeah, you've got to be aware of that. Some more kind of general questions. Let's say someone wanted to set up a startup dynasty league. Give me the perfect format in your opinion. Oh man, perfect format. All right. Well, I definitely think you want to either include the rookie picks or the rookies themselves as part of the draft. I know that there are some dynasty leagues that will still leave them separate in the first year, but I think you really have to include them because otherwise you're getting two drafts that are going to be randomized.

And the guy who might have the first overall dynasty league pick could end up with the first overall rookie pick. And that can be a huge advantage if you start with, let's say Todd Gurley and, and Saquon Barkley, you know, as your, as your picks.

I mean, that's, that's a little bit heavily leaned towards one owner. So that, that, that you kind of have to be careful with. I definitely think things like super flex, tight end premium, flex spots, all those things I think people should be really creative with.

PPR, I tend to prefer as a scoring format, but there could be a pretty good argument for going standard or even going point for first down or something like that instead, just to try to balance certain things out. And then like I mentioned mentioned, you know, the deep lineups, both the lineups and the rosters should be taken into account because you should be able to make some bets on some young guys, even if they're like third string, for example. I always think it's good to kind of lean on the side of going a little bit deeper. And then that just encourages people to trade

and to be active with each other in that league because that's ultimately what a dynasty league is supposed to be, is just a really active, not just the waiver wire is active, but the trading is active all throughout the offseason. Yeah, and I am in two dynasty leagues with big rosters, well over 24, 5, and 1, and this is, I think we said 22 rounds. This one I prefer because we don't start that many guys in my other league, and that's kind of annoying.

It's like why have so many roster spots if you're not going to start them? It's two running backs and three wide receivers, whereas this is two running backs, two receivers, but three flex and one super flex. So we're starting three more guys, which is really good, and I just accept no DST. Do we have DST and kicker in this league i don't even know no no no kicker no dst and i think most dynasty leagues tend to shy away from it to be honest sure so i just think if you're gonna have huge rosters at least make it count and have more starting spots uh yeah yeah absolutely that makes sense um and what i noticed about about this league, it's like me and a bunch of people who do a whole lot of dynasty leagues.

I basically clicked accept on the invite, and I got like 15 trade offers in my inbox giving me the 2019 first round rookie pick and this and that. And it's like, whoa, you guys love trading draft picks. And even throughout the draft, I've been offered two or three times multiple picks trading back for someone to move up. And what is your take on trading draft picks, basically? Yeah, I think in terms of trading draft picks, I'm all for it. I mean, obviously, what you're talking about is trading your startup draft picks, which are right in the beginning of a league when you're just starting the league off. I think that can be a lot of fun, especially because, you know, you want to get the guys you want, you know, you're going to have, you're going to keep them at least for a little while. Obviously you can always trade later. But, but it's a fun way to kind of move around the

draft board. And, and, and, you know, again, the idea of fantasy football has some roots in the idea of mimicking what the NFL does. So, you know, trading draft picks is a pretty common occurrence. So I think that can be fun. And if you're well prepared, you have your big board, that's a good way to kind of grab that guy that's off that last tier while moving around the draft board. If you think that the next tier, the next two tiers are going to be a lot bigger. And then you know obviously the other uh trading the draft picks is for rookie picks you mentioned you know someone offering you a 2019 first uh yeah people really look forward they're very forward in leagues where they require deposits for you to trade a draft pick that's two or three years down the road so you don't happen

to quit before uh that that season actually happens so yeah it's just fun to do. I think it's another nice wrinkle that exists within these leagues. It is fun, but I really find such a difference in those rookie picks, first-round picks. You don't know what pick that's going to be. You've got to play out the whole league before you know what it's going to be for a season. There's a huge difference to me between the third pick and the tenth pick

in a rookie draft. And I'll get to another question after that. But do you agree? Because that's why I was hesitant to accept any of those deals offering me rookie picks just because I don't know if it's going to be the first overall pick or the twelfth overall pick in the rookie draft? Yeah, I think some people will assume that it's a middle of the round, you know, and just kind of take the variance into account and say, you know, let's just value it as a sixth overall pick in a 12-team league and look at it that way. And that could be an okay way to analyze it, but, you know, every draft is different. But the one thing we do know is that a draft pick always increases in value from the moment it exists until the moment

it is used for a selection. So, you know, it's insulated from injury, it's insulated from, you know, any kind of ups or downs. So that's why I think people really like to involve them in the trades and why some people like to hoard them because they're pretty safe, you know, assets for a player. But you really have to know what your strategy is. And if you're a team looking to compete right away, then maybe trading for a 2019 first round pick is not the best option. I had the sixth pick in the draft. I traded the sixth pick and the 54th pick, so my round one and round five pick, to move up to number one overall.

Would you have done that, or would you have stayed at six and kept your fifth round pick? I think I would have made that move. I think that with that top end, I really feel like there's three or four guys up there, then a little bit of a tear break. Then when you're talking about trading off the 54th pick, you're probably looking at a guy like Sammy Watkins, who I'm not super excited about. So for me, I'd rather move up, get the guy that I really like. But I do know a lot of people who like to move down, accumulate the extra picks, and just really play the upside game of just grab as many guys and hope that some hit. It was Nick Chubb. Nick Chubb was taken with that pick in round five. So, hey, maybe that'll work out.

I took Todd Gurley number one. Who would you take number one? And I was surprised to see Le'Veon Bell go number two. I feel like just because of age and a little bit of wear and tear, he's usually behind some of the other guys. That's actually – I thought at six that I was going to have to choose between Bell and Brown and somebody like Kareem Hunt or something like that, and I didn't want to have to make that decision.

It turns out Bell went second. Yeah, well, who would you have taken number one? For me, there's two guys really that stand out at the top of the class, and it's Todd Gurley and it's Odell Beckham. I know some other people might look at it differently. I've seen DeAndre Hopkins as a guy who's been at the top of the board. A few Saquon Barkley selections that I've seen DeAndre Hopkins as a guy who's been at the top of the board. A few Saquon Barkley selections that I've seen at first overall. I'm not that bullish on him.

It's hard to pick him over every other player in the NFL. But I think historically we've seen it be very wide receiver heavy, but with the resurgence of all these young running backs, it's become a little bit more mixed. So guys like Alvin Kamara, David Johnson, Le'Veon Bell, all these guys are coming in the first round. We really haven't seen that in the past. So for me, it's Gurley, Odell Beckham. There's a slight teardrop. Then you get into some of these other young running backs and young wide receivers. But those two, to me, really kind of stand out

at the top. I mean, Gurley is 24 and Barkley's 21. So how big of a factor is that? Yeah, you know, I think some people factor really, really largely. And I just don't think that's really fair to do because one, we haven't really seen what Barkley's been able to do. And I feel more confident in the Rams offense than I do in the Giants offense. So at this point, I think it makes more sense to go Gurley. I think you know that you're going to get a handful of really good years out of him, whereas we don't even know how Barkley is going to be used in that offense yet. And I wouldn't want to hinge my entire dynasty team on Barkley, especially at the 101. Okay. Well, I feel better about my pick now. So you picked, it's PPR, you picked Tyreek Hill over Dalvin Cook.

What up with that? And Christian McCaffrey and Melvin Gordon. Yeah, I tend to go pretty wide receiver heavy in a lot of these leagues, and I think I went five wide receivers to start off my draft, if I remember right. Oh, my goodness. So I definitely went Michael Thomas and Tyreek Hill in round one and two. And then you went Amari Cooper, Brandon Cooks, and Dak Prescott.

Oh, there you go. So four, not five. So four of them, not five. So I cheated a little bit there. But yeah, I'm a big Tyreek Hill fan. I think there's just a lot to like there. Mahomes is kind of the perfect quarterback for him. And I like Delvin Cook and I like Christian McCaffrey. I have a little bit of concerns with Delvin Cook's longevity just because of all the injuries he's had with his shoulders and his ankle and lower body injuries. And so for me, he's a little bit of a risk. So Tyreek's a little bit safer for me. And then in terms of McCaffrey, I love McCaffrey and that's the other guy I was torn on. But I always tend to go wide receiver, and that just always tends to sway me. And Hill's a guy I just really like.

But how are you going to compete this year? Because I'm looking at your team. Your running backs are Darius Geis, who you're not going to start this year. By the way, when did you take Darius Geis? Do you remember? I believe he was the eighth or ninth round. He was pretty deep in there, and I felt really good about that pick. I was pretty happy with that one. That was third to last pick of the seventh round, so almost eighth round. All right, so still happy. I'm still happy.

You could be great next year. Darius Geist, Ronald Jones, Deontay Foreman, C.J. Procise, Theo Riddick, and Mark Walton, and Jordan Wilkins. Yep, I'm taking a lot of young running backs with some upside and some future potential. And I feel pretty good about it. Yeah, the week-to-weeks could be a little tough for me in year one, but I feel like part of it's building beyond just year one. I also have Hunter Henry on my team. He was my first tight end I picked, so I won't be starting him this year. Two of my quarterbacks are rookies in this super flex league. So yeah, it'll definitely be a little bit of a tough uphill climb in year one. But I like a lot of the young talent I had,

and I tried to stay pretty consistent by picking guys who I felt like I'd be able to build around beyond just year one. So do you expect to be good this year? I am not sure if I'm going to be good this year, but I expect I will be very good in year two. Yeah, I mean, what an interesting strategy. I don't know if I have the guts to do that. Because I have a much more 2018-centric team. Ben Roethlisberger is one of my quarterbacks, and he's an antique.

I think Sam Bradford might be my oldest player and I think he's 30. I'm honestly happy with the way my team turned out. I have Roethlisberger and I have Dalton, but I also have Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, T.Y. Hilton, and Doug Baldwin. That's kind of the core of my team.

I have Marlon Mack and Calvin Ridley. It was like mixing in young and old. I mean, Larry Fitzgerald, let me take a look at where he went. In a PPR league, he went in round nine, middle of round nine. That's obviously dynasty-specific. It's never going to happen in seasonal. But I have Michael Gallup. I have Calvin Ridley.

I'm happy with it. I am, and it was really, really fun. And you have to sometimes – I mean, you obviously did this a lot You're building for the future But for someone like me, maybe a little more mainstream Who can't just sacrifice a bunch of positions You have to build for the future Like for example, my starting tight end is Benjamin Watson

That's not great But I have Hayden Hurst And I think I took, no I didn't take Clive Walford. Maybe I'm going to try to. Maybe I just gave away who's in my queue. Well, I think you pick before I pick next, so I think you're safe. I don't really think Clive Walford's going to have that

great of an NFL career, for what it's worth. That is one tight end I did watch a lot in college, but you've got to take him, right? You've got to take just about every rookie, right? It's true. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. You got to, you got to go after the rookies. I mean, you know, and, and, and let me put it this way. I'm not confident enough in my team to trade off that 2019 first round pick. I'll be hanging onto that one. Assuming that, that it may be one of the first picks in next year's draft. I love Calvin Ridley. I think he's

got a huge future ahead of him. What do you think? So like I mentioned, we're an Alabama household, so Calvin Ridley was on the TV Weekly for us. And yeah, he was a technician. I know that the past offense wasn't necessarily the strongest. Jalen Hurts, not known as a gunslinging type of quarterback. So the numbers can be a little underwhelming, and some people didn't like that he was a much older college player. He actually was too old for high school at one point where he had to stop playing in his senior season because he aged out. So he has kind of an interesting background, but I like him. You know, he's a smooth player. I think the Roddy White comparisons are inevitable being on the Falcons. But, you know, you look at that team and outside of Julio Jones, I mean, he really is the But you look at that team and outside of Julio

Jones, he really is the next best option on that team in terms of pass catching. Who are some rookies that you really like? Oh, yeah. I mean, I could cheat and just go with the early guys and say Barkley and things like that. But I think everybody likes Barkley. It's hard to find anyone who's a naysayer there. Outside of Barkley, which is that obvious one, I would say, you know, Cortland Sutton's a guy I really like. I think that his situation in Denver with Damarius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders potentially being out in the next year or two, that's going to open things up for him. And he was a high school safety, so he's really just learning the wide receiver position, but has all the physical skills. So he's a guy

who's going to be a lot of fun, I think. Lamar Jackson, obviously, is a lot of fun in his own right. We'll see how he develops as a passer. But this actually was a really good quarterback class. So guys like Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, I mean, it's going to be a good quarterback class. So doing super flex leagues like this make them more valuable. They'll go in the first round of a rookie draft versus maybe the second or even the third round of a one QB league in terms of a dynasty rookie draft. Yeah, so a couple wide receivers I'd point out. Traquan Smith from the Saints, he could be the number two next to Michael Thomas. Deshaun Hamilton also in Denver could be a nice option. Obviously, people are interested in Michael Gallup because he has all the opportunity in Dallas, even though I'm not necessarily his

biggest fan. And I think Dante Pettis is a nice sleeper in San Francisco as they're trying to sort out their wide receiver group with Jimmy Garoppolo there. All right. Hey, thank you so much, George, for hopping on. And good luck. Thank you for kind of forfeiting 2018 for people like me and the Dynasty League. I appreciate that. But I fear you in 2019. Yeah, well, you know, I figured let's make it a little easier to make it an 11-team league for one year, and then we can expand back out. I'll be the expansion team in 2019. Perfect. That is George Kritikos of Dynasty League Football. You can follow him at

Rotohack on Twitter. Good stuff there. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. Hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend. We'll talk to you on Tuesday on Fantasy Football Today.