Fantasy Football Today - Mailbag and DFS Advice! (09/04 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: September 4, 2021Catching you up on the latest news (3:00) including the return of Wayne Gallman! What will his role be? And we'll fill you in on some players who are questionable for Week 1 and how to approach them f...rom a DFS standpoint ... We read your Apple Podcast questions (9:30) about TE strategy, Josh Jacobs, having too many players from one NFL team, IDP and more. Then it's on to your emails (27:30) about Miles Sanders, Zero-RB, bench stashes with upside and diversifying your Fantasy teams ... Need some general DFS tips or some Week 1 suggestions (48:00)? We've got plenty of that for you. Find out why playing DFS is so awesome and the best ways to build your rosters ... Your emails at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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
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with iGaming Ontario. This is touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck.
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to your Saturday mailbag here for Fantasy Football Today.
I got two awesome analysts with me.
I am Adam Azer.
We're going to read your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.
We're going to read your Apple podcast questions,
and we're going to talk week one DFS.
I hope you are listening to the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast. More on that in a moment. Let's bring in Frank Stample. What's up, Frank? How you doing, man?
Yo, what's going on, Adam? Great introduction. I appreciate that there's one great analyst here and then there's Frank Stample. So you'll get a lot of advice here from Sina Jad. And it's nice to be on this side of the table. Honestly, I'm very excited.
Oh, man. Being an analyst is so much more fun than being a host.
100%.
The occasional times when I get to be on the other side of the table, it's just like,
this is so easy. Sina Jad is also here. Sorry, Frank. Sina is on the Fantasy Football Today
DFS podcast with Frank. Welcome, Sia.
You can see why I like doing shows with Frank,
because he just fills me up with confidence with all the compliments.
So, Frank, thank you for that.
I'll see if I can live up to that compliment.
He's a complimenter.
He's a very nice guy, for sure.
We've got some news and notes to get to.
We've got a Wayne Gallman update.
I know everybody likes that.
And some Week 1 stuff. But this is We've got a Wayne Gallman update. I know everybody likes that. And some week one stuff,
but this is mostly going to be a mailbag show.
Anybody got
any drafts left?
Yeah, I have my two home league drafts this
week, and we're recording this on Friday. I have one
Friday night, and then I have one on
Sunday morning as well.
I'm probably going to do another high-stakes
league, something on NFFC. I haven't
figured out the date yet.
Maybe Wednesday night, like right before the season starts.
Okay.
Yeah, I've got two drafts to go.
One Tuesday night, one Wednesday night.
The Wednesday night one usually takes place in Vegas,
but because of certain COVID issues,
we decided to stay local.
But that's my quote, higher-stakes league,
so I'm looking forward to that one.
Where do you draft in Vegas?
Yeah, so we get a big suite,
like actually one that's not super expensive usually,
like the Vidara, for example.
They have these kind of big,
almost like business oriented suites that you can get,
which have several bedrooms.
And it's actually a pretty reasonable price
because the Vidara isn't actually attached to a casino.
It's next to a casino, but it's not attached to one. So it's a little bit more reasonable. And it's a
perfect place to draft. These rooms are like 1600 square feet. You get four or five guys in on it
and you're not paying much at all. Well, you could definitely be a salesman for the Vidara,
by the way. That was I like to sponsor us. Just walk. Yeah, I could walk to a casino. I can walk
across the street.
This is not really a problem.
All right, let's get to it, guys.
Here are your news and notes.
Carson Wentz, Ryan Kelly, Zach Paschal,
all off the reserve COVID list.
Now, these are news items as of Friday afternoon,
so there's a lot of stuff that's going to happen
between now and the time you listen.
Just keep that in mind.
Carson Wentz is optimistic about playing week one.
Atlanta signed Wayne...
Gallman!
Yeah, anytime something happens with Wayne Gallman,
people just think I'm like over the moon
because I get to play the music.
And they're right.
Does anybody see this as a threat to Mike Davis?
In fact, Heath, Jamie both picked up Wayne Gallman.
I was asleep at the wheel, or not really,
I was just asleep.
You know, not really thinking about this,
but I probably should have picked up Wayne Goldman.
He's not the worst player to add right now.
Does anybody think this is a threat, Frank, to Mike Davis?
I don't think it's necessarily a threat.
I think they were always going to use a second running back to some capacity.
Mike Davis, obviously the 1A there for the Atlanta Falcons.
We know Arthur Smith coming over from the Tennessee Titans.
He loved to run the ball with Derrick Henry.
He does not have a Derrick Henry in Atlanta.
So I think this is going to be some kind of tandem,
maybe not so much early on as Wayne Gallman kind of gets up to speed here.
But I think as the season goes along, he's definitely going to work his way in.
And he's a serviceable backup.
We've seen that before.
He's fine.
I think in some deeper leagues, you know,
I did a draft back in mid-August where I have Quadri Allison.
So I'm going to be dropping him and hopefully
adding Wayne Gallman as
a Mike Davis handcuff.
Saquon Barkley and Kenny Galladay practiced
and both are optimistic
about playing in week one.
Kenny Galladay basically admitting the Giants offense
could get off to a slow start because of all
the injuries, which is very
refreshing. Sia, what is your
week one take on Barkley or Galladay or, you know, these questionable
giants going up against a good Broncos team?
Well, sorry, probably a good Broncos defense, I should say.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not very optimistic.
Obviously, if it's DFS, I'm not playing him at all.
But if I have them in my year long leagues, you know, I feel like if you sprung on Saquon
Barkley, you almost feel like you have to play him
unless you really went heavy
with the depth at running back.
And then maybe you can sit him
depending on what you think
his pitch count is going to be.
I think come Sunday,
when that game starts,
I think we're going to get a really good idea
of how many snaps,
how much volume he might get.
And you're just going to have to make
that decision Sunday morning.
But I don't think it's out of the question
at this point
that you might have to
sit Saquon Barkley, depending on what we hear.
Fifth most expensive
running back on FanDuel, so I don't
see a reason to pay up for him there.
Carolina claimed Royce Freeman.
Frank, do you think this is a threat to Christian McKay?
No. Curtis Samuel expected
to play week one. See,
as a Washington football team fan,
this guy has dropped so much
in average draft position.
You could get him, you know,
round 11 in some drafts, Curtis Samuel.
Chris Towers, his bold prediction
is that Curtis Samuel will be better
than McLaurin, I think it was.
No, I don't think that's going to happen.
But still, people are forgetting about him.
What do you think about Curtis Samuel?
Yeah, I think they are forgetting about him a little bit. Obviously, if he's going in round
11, that's probably way too late. But there are other weapons to consider there. Obviously,
you got McClorn. Logan Thomas sucks up a lot of targets. Antonio Gibson's going to be catching
passes. J.D. McKissick's still on that team. So the problem with Curtis Samuel is we're not
exactly sure how Ron Rivera and company are going to use him. But I totally agree with you.
If you have him sitting there in the ninth round, he's a great value.
Would I take him in the eighth with what receivers are usually there in the eighth?
Probably not.
But in the ninth or tenth, absolutely.
Yeah, last ADP I saw for Samuel was around 130th overall.
Giovanni Bernard has a mild high ankle sprain, but apparently he's expected to be back for week one.
They have a Thursday night game against Dallas.
Brandon Ayuk is still out with a hamstring injury.
And Tony Romo loves Zach Wilson.
Tony Romo thinks that Wilson is going to be in the discussion
of one of the top three to five quarterbacks pretty quickly.
He thinks he kind of compared him to Patrick Mahomes.
So, you know, it's interesting.
Nobody's really drafting Wilson as a potential rookie year fantasy star.
I don't think you should.
But if you're in a dynasty league, I thought the fact that he was probably,
correct me if I'm wrong, guys, but I think going fourth among quarterbacks,
he's definitely behind Lawrence and Fields and Lance.
Just because he's not going to run as much,
you might have gotten a bargain with Zach Wilson.
And we will see.
All right, Frank, tell me about the Fantasy Today DFS podcast.
Yeah, so in season, we're going to be dropping the podcast
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
The Tuesday podcast, more often than not,
is going to be a look back on the week
and kind of things that we learned,
maybe mistakes that we made, things that we did right. And an early look ahead to the slate. We'll be a look back on the week and kind of things that we learn things that we maybe mistakes that we made things that we did right.
And an early look ahead to the sleigh.
We'll take a look at some salaries and,
but on Thursday,
that's when we're really going to get into the games.
We're going to go deeper into the stats,
give you the players that we like,
the stacks that we like,
the players that we're looking to fade.
So Tuesday,
more of a recap,
early look ahead.
And then Thursday will be a really,
really deep dive into all of the games.
And you can find that fantasy football today, DFS.
And C, are you going to be able to sort of, how do you, I guess, how do you project roster percentage?
You know, which players are going to be rostered or started, you know, not started, but rostered in a lot of DFS lineups and whatnot?
Well, initially, you can ballpark it when salaries come out just by looking at salaries and looking at game total. So, I mean, I think a lot of times we'll see a
high game total, like let's take the Arizona Cardinals and the Tennessee Titans and we can
kind of, you know, that that's, I think like a 51 and a half game total, the chiefs and the Browns
are 53 for week one. So you can kind of ballpark where you think the ownership is going to be,
but, but I'll tell you, I believe sports line's going to have some ownership as well. So when
we're doing our FFT DFS show Tuesday, well, we won't have ownership
that early. Kind of no one will. And if they do, it's wrong. Thursday, though, I think we'll have
some indication as maybe where the shares are going, where the ownership is going. And then
we can kind of tell the audience, hey, maybe these guys are some guys to fade because of ownership.
Maybe this is chalk to, quote, eat, regardless of ownership,
that kind of thing.
Okay.
Later on in the show, after we do the emails and the Apple Podcast questions,
we're going to talk more DFS, general strategies, week one stuff.
That's coming up a little bit later.
Let's start with your Apple Podcast questions from Grant Witcher.
I tried to follow the great or late tight end strategy in my first draft,
and I ended up with Evan Ingram in the 12th round,
and now I really want an upgrade.
It is a 12-team super flex league,
and I can trade Ingram and Josh Allen for Aaron Rodgers and Mark Andrews.
It's super flex.
So Ingram and Allen for Rodgers and Andrews.
My other quarterback is Jalen Hurts,
and it's at Taysom Hill.
Is it worth it to do this,
or do I ride with Ingram
and possibly end up streaming all year?
I think this comes down to
who's available on your waiver wire right now,
so I would like to know that.
On the surface,
it seems like a pretty fair trade.
Obviously, going from Josh Allen to Aaron Rodgers
is a downgrade,
but I think going from Evan Ingram to Aaron Rodgers is a downgrade, but I think going
from Evan Engram to Mark Andrews is a substantial upgrade. So it's a fair deal. I would want to know
who's on your waiver wire, but if you don't want to worry about streaming tight ends all year,
Mark Andrews is just a plug and play. He's going to be in your lineup every single week.
Originally, I was a little bit worried about Andrews this year because I like Rashad Bateman,
the player. I think he's going to be awesome. But the fact that he's missing the first month,
I think Andrews kind of steps in. He's the top target in this
offense. They use him in the red zone right away. I would take this trade. So you don't have to
worry about streaming tight ends. So I got to push back just a little bit here because I do think
Josh Allen is maybe a little bit too valuable. The thing about Evan Ingram is he did practice
in full pads. I think it was either this morning or yesterday. So I think there was some question
with respect to his injury. I don't like Evan Ingram either. Of course, I agree that
Mark Andrews is better in several different ways. But one thing to consider with Aaron Rodgers is
that David Bakhtiari is on PUP and he's not going to play, I guess, the first six games. So the best
pass blocking left tackle in the entire league is not there for Aaron Rodgers. So I think you might
just slot Rodgers down just a touch.
And I just think Josh Allen is too strong here.
I'd take the risk with Ingram or the streaming personally.
Yeah.
The Bakhtiari thing is interesting.
He played without Bakhtiari for, I think, six games last year.
I think seven, actually.
I think five regular season and two postseason.
And Rodgers tore it up.
He was great without Bakhtiari.
But that doesn't mean it will happen again.
It still is a major injury.
There's no question.
They also don't have last year's center, Corey Lindsley.
The Packers are probably going to be starting two rookies
on their offensive line.
So yeah, that is a strike against him.
As far as the greater late tight end strategy goes,
it's catchy, it's great,
but last night, Thursday night,
I drafted and Gerald Everett is my starting tight end.
And I hate that.
I just missed out on Kyle Pitts in the fifth round.
I just missed out on Tyler Higbee in the ninth round or something.
I would have been happy with that.
These guys went one or two picks before me.
So I have Gerald Everett and I have Evan Ingram.
And I hate it.
But I am pretty solid everywhere else.
And I don't want to repeat this too much as I talked about this on yesterday's show,
but what I really have learned through the years is that we, you know, Vance McDonald was a guy
that we were excited about as like tight end eight in ADP or something a few years ago. And it's just,
this is such a horrible position that I'm not going to pass up a guy like Devante Smith or something like that to take Tyler Higby.
I'd rather just stream the position, and I'm not going to pass up players at other positions that I think can be great.
So that's why I'm at great or late, because you just, you get, oh, well, I can get Tyler Higby.
He'll be fine.
I can get Gerald Everett.
Like, you know, Everett you can get super late.
But Johnnie Smith,
the odds of them really making an impact
to me are very low.
And they won't be
that much better
than the waiver wire pickups.
So that's why
I just kind of
kept neglecting it
and settled on
Everett and Ingram
and see what happens
and I'll be fine streaming.
But I loaded up
at other positions.
Adam,
break the tie.
Would you take the trade?
I would do the trade.
I would do Andrews and Rodgers for Allen and Ingram.
I would.
But I see both sides.
All right, from The Steerage,
10-team half PPR,
one quarterback, two receivers, one flex.
I have the 10th pick,
and the second pick has offered me a trade.
It's his...
So this, by the way, is a dynasty draft.
I'm sorry. I think I... So this, by the way, is a dynasty draft. I'm sorry.
I think I...
I think that...
Yeah, it is.
So he has the 10th pick,
and he's been offered the number two pick
for his rounds one and two pick
and a running back of his choosing.
He would trade up to number two,
and he would get Kyle Pitts.
What do you think about that?
Like giving up pick 10?
I think this is a dynasty league.
So pick 10 in the first two.
Is this a rookie draft then?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
Okay, so giving up pick 10 and 11.
So that's the swing pick in a 10-team league.
No, I mean, it might be pick 1-10 and 2-10, you know?
Okay, yeah, it could be pick one 10 and two 10, you know? Okay. Yeah. It could be two 10.
Hmm.
For Kyle Pitts and an RB of my choosing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would do that.
Yeah.
I mean, look, Kyle Pitts is one of those.
We were just talking about tight ends and I think that he has the best chance of those
mid-tier tight ends, you know, Pitts, Andrews and TJ Hawkinson to move into that elite territory
by next year.
We could be drafting him as a second or third round pick and redraft.on to move into that elite territory. By next year, we could be drafting him
as a second or third round pick and redraft.
I really do think that's possible for him.
So for years to come, I mean, by next year,
he might be the number one tight end in Dynasty.
He might already be.
I know Heath has his Dynasty ranking.
So yeah, I would do it to get Kyle Pitts.
Yeah, I agree.
All right.
From 5-4-2-6,
I hear a lot of concerns about
Josh Jacobs, but I haven't heard much about Kenyon Drake. In non-PPR, is Jacobs bad at the 3-4 turn?
And what is Drake going to take away? Sia, what's your take on this?
Yeah, I mean, Jacobs is probably bad on the 3-4 turn. I think it depends on who's there,
but I'm completely off Jacobs. Okay, a couple things. One is Drake got paid two years, $11 million guaranteed
with the opportunity to get up to $14 million,
which means he's making, just for the record,
this doesn't matter too much because Josh Jacobs is still on his rookie contract,
but he makes twice as much money as Josh Jacobs.
But any running back that's getting $11 million guaranteed for two years
is going to have a role.
Like, clearly the Raiders like him.
So I think they're going to use him quite a bit. And I think he could be vulturing more work from Josh
Jacobs than people think. Oh, and by the way, about a half an hour ago, the Raiders signed
Peyton Barber. And I know as a Washington football fan, the only reason you use Peyton Barber is to
take away touches in the red zone from Antonio Gibson. Well,
the new Antonio Gibson is Josh Jacobs.
It's just not a good setup for Josh Jacobs.
I mean,
he's going to have a couple of games where he has a couple of touchdowns
here and there,
but there's,
there's too much volume to go around with Peyton Barber and newly minted
Kenyan Drake.
Okay.
From Tyler,
what are your thoughts on having Derek Henry and AJ Brown on the same team? I have a trade in place. I can give up A.J. Brown to get Keenan Allen.
No, I would rather have A.J. Brown. I know it's tough to put all your eggs in one basket, per se, with the Tennessee Titans, but those are two super elite level players. So I kind of just look the other way on something like that. And I would keep Henry and A.J. Brown.
All right. Next one is from Toral C. Hey like that. And I would keep Henry and AJ Brown.
All right. Next one is from Toral C.
Hey,
Laszlo,
Nandor and Guillermo.
Let's go,
Adam.
The new season is out on Hulu.
I haven't watched anything yet,
but I am,
I'm probably going to,
I'm going to dip my toes in the water this weekend.
Is it not on FX?
Is it?
But it's on Hulu,
isn't it?
I don't know.
I mean,
I don't have Hulu,
but I have FX.
So,
you know, yeah, I mean, I believe it's aired on fx but they added to hulu okay okay this is really
i'm hoping so what we do in the shadows for the people like me that don't know what you're talking
about what is this this is what we do in the shadows i think it's such a funny show it's
i love it you have to watch it it's it's kind of like filmed in the office style of a sitcom, but it's vampires.
It's hilarious.
Very funny.
All right, PPR 10-team league.
I get Lamar Jackson and Kareem Hunt.
I give up Ryan Tannehill and Clyde Edwards-Elair.
And he would still have Eckler and Mike Davis
as his starting running backs.
He'd give up Lamar Jackson and Kareem Hunt.
No, no, no.
He'd get Lamar Jackson and Kareem Hunt.
He'd give up Tannehill and Clyde Edwards-Hiller.
That is...
That's a no for me, dog.
That's pretty close,
but I would keep Tannehill and Clyde Edwards-Hiller.
Yeah, I think I probably would, too,
because I think Clyde Edwards-Hiller upside...
I don't know what his floor is,
but I know his upside is pretty high.
So I think I'd probably hang on to that.
Also, he has Julio Jones as one of his wide receivers.
So he has that connection with Tannehill.
Oh, yeah, the stack.
All right, Celeste in the land of the lobster roll.
I don't know anything about geography
or anything like this.
So when you normally throw this stuff Dave Richards way
and he could just, he just knows it, I mean, the guy's a genius,
I have no idea.
Where do they eat lobster rolls?
Maryland? I don't know.
Maine. Lobster rolls are Maine.
Grab cakes I know are Maryland.
If you say so, I believe you.
Well, Google says so.
All right.
Celeste from Maine needs trade advice.
Full PPR, 10-team league.
Should I trade Gus Edwards to get Aaron
Rodgers straight up?
At running back, I have Eckler, Aaron Jones,
Mostert, and Jamal Williams. At quarterback,
I have Jalen Hurts and Trey Lance.
No.
Also no.
Yeah, I say no. I mean, I draft
Edwards ahead of Rodgers.
I love Jalen Hurts, too.
I'd say what you want about him as a passer,
but we've talked about him on the DFS podcast
a few times already.
He's going to run a ton.
I think he can run for 1,000 yards.
So if you miss out on that,
Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson group,
I think Jalen Hurts is that next one up
in terms of rushing potential.
And Gus Edwards is the number one running back
on a team that rushed for 192 yards a game last year so i just i don't care
who it is you could literally it could be gus edwards which is like the most normal name ever
you could literally say the guys like tom jones or whatever it is and i'd be like yeah like i don't
know who he is but he's got a great opportunity gus has a great opportunity yeah i'm pretty
optimistic about gus edwards and it's full ppr, but you know, yeah, don't do the trade.
All right. From Drickus. I have Alvin Camara, Aaron Jones, Melvin Gordon, AJ Dillon, and Tony
Pollard. All right. Camara, Aaron Jones, Melvin Gordon, AJ Dillon, Tony Pollard. It's half PPR.
Not sure how I got Aaron Jones and Camara, but I did. I'm not sure either. Good job.
Should I drop one of the running backs to pick up Xavier Jones Jr. Now, but I did. I'm not sure either. Good job. Should I drop one of the
running backs to pick up Xavier
Jones Jr.? Now, he means Tony Jones,
so let's just make sure it's Tony Jones.
Should I drop
one of the running backs to handcuff
Camara with Tony Jones?
Obviously, you're not
dropping Camara
or Jones or A.J. Dillon,
so would you drop Melvin Gordon or Tony Pollard for Tony Jones?
I would,
I wouldn't.
I mean,
we don't even know for sure that Tony Jones,
I know they said it on the preseason broadcast,
but Latavius Murray is still on the team.
As far as I've seen,
I know that there was a lot of cuts that happened this week.
So he's still there.
I think,
you know,
if anything happens to Kamara,
it's probably they're going to use both of those running backs.
And if something happens to Zeke,
Tony Pollard is instantly a top 10 running back. So I'd rather have him.
Yeah, totally agree.
All right, Percy Harvin, 12.
10 team, full PPR
league. Only have to start one running back,
one receiver, one tight end, but there are five
flexes. Should I just focus
on drafting as many wide receivers as possible
and not prioritize running back, seeing
how I only have
to start one a week 100 in full ppr yeah i mean i'm like 84 on that fray i'm not quite as gung-ho
well there's a lot of pass catching running backs so i mean i i think you might get value created
there regardless of the running back position because of that mindset. But I mean, the problem is receivers so deep.
I mean, you go to like between like 60 and 100 overall,
and you're still getting high quality receivers.
So I think you could maybe load up a little bit on running back early
and maybe take advantage of some people who are loading up on wide receiver,
not realizing that there's plenty of good talent at wide receiver later as well.
Adam, I know you talk about this a lot on the podcast and you brought up multiple times this
draft season, how, you know, we're often drafting the ninth or 10th running back where we're
drafting the third wide receiver and in full PPR. I mean, the value just doesn't add up. I mean,
we're usually doing that because we have to start two running backs in a situation like this,
where you only need to start one and you have five flex options maybe i jumped the gun 100 is too much but if if running back falls to a good value in
your draft sure you could take one and throw them in the flex you don't you have to completely look
the other way but i just think that there's so many awesome wide receivers especially like
that top tier the top 20 to 30 that i would look that way in a league like this. Yeah, I don't know that it would change
my first round all that much.
It would probably push Adams
and maybe it would push
the top five receivers up a little bit.
But I guess I would say
the reason why we take 10 running backs
before we take a third wide receiver
is because we still think
a guy like Saquon Barkley
has 25 point per game upside
or something.
And no wide receiver really does in PPR.
So I think once you run out of the guys
who can really be true superstars,
then you could pivot to being more...
You don't have to take Clyde Edwards-Ziller
over Keenan Allen or something like that,
which I don't know that I do anyway.
But I'm still...
The first 10 or so running
backs that I still think have a chance to be uh true superstars I don't know if there are 10 but
they're close to me there's I'm looking at ADP the last week on NFFC to me the cutoff is 13 so
once you get into like Saquon Gibson Najee Harris Joe Mixon that group right after that yeah you
have Clyde Edwards Elair David, David Montgomery, James Robinson.
Those guys are fine, but for me,
that top 13 that ends with Mixon, Harris, Gibson,
that's kind of where I would draw the cutoff line.
And I don't really think Mixon and Gibson are in that.
I think they're just after Harris and Barkley.
And I don't think they're quite superstar potential,
but a lot of people do, so that's fine.
All right, a few more here from Apple,
from RI Lighthouse.
I have McCaffrey as a keeper in a 10-team half PPR league.
Who should I take with the fifth pick,
Barkley, Eckler, or Kelsey?
I have McCaffrey, Barkley.
Half PPR, 10 teams.
I would take...
Kelsey is tempting
there because then you just have that elite tight end.
I would still go with Austin
Eckler. Yeah, it's between Eckler
or Kelsey for sure. My lean is
always going to be with the running back there,
but I wouldn't argue with Kelsey, but I would
probably take Eckler as well.
Orchids of Asia has a
12-team PPR league,
two flexes, and
it's one quarterback, one tight end,
two running backs, two wide receivers, two flex,
kicker, and a defense, and an IDP.
One defensive back and one
linebacker, so two IDPs.
Not exactly the deepest roster.
It's pretty standard, I guess. How important
is it that I get a top IDP
player? Do you guys have any
IDP experience or thoughts?
I don't. I would love to play in an
IDP league. I haven't really had the opportunity
to do so, but seeing as how you
only start one defensive back and one linebacker,
I don't think there's going to be as much of
an emphasis put on that early in your draft.
I think once you get into the middle rounds, maybe you start to look at it. But
I think the difference makers are going to last pretty long because they're only starting two
IDPs here. Yeah, I agree with that. So I would say this, that you all probably know, I don't know
if you were listening, but the one IDP league I play in starts nine IDPs. It's crazy.
And we have 10 bench spots on top of that.
So I don't really care that much about the IDPs.
They just don't make that much of a difference.
It's a full PPR league, and they obviously don't benefit from that.
It's a six-point-per-passing touchdown league.
They just don't.
Like I said, the top-scoring IDP last year scored as many points as Todd Gurley, basically.
So I was just like, I'm not going to invest too much in it.
So I got, I think, Zavin Collins at one point,
and then my last eight picks were my other IDPs.
We'll see how it turns out.
But in this format, I would prioritize it a little bit more because you can make a difference with
your IDP spots. It's a bigger percentage of your fantasy points, I think, in this scenario. And
there aren't as many interchangeable parts like there are in my IDP league. So what I would do,
and I'm not the best at this, I don't really know the tiers that well. I would do some research
and figure out how many elite defensive linemen there are, how many elite defensive backs there are. There's probably like six and six or something.
Who knows? Something like, I think it's probably going to be around there and try to get one of
those. I would not be the last person in your league to take an IDP at both spots. I would try
to get an elite one, you know, like, like pretend for example, you won't, you, uh, pretend this is
quarterback and tight end, you know, and you, uh, pretend this is quarterback and tight end,
you know, and you want a top five or six quarterback and you want one of those six
tight ends. That's kind of how I would approach it, uh, with IDPs, except they're going to go
later in the draft. And that is it for Apple podcast. We're gonna take a break. When we
come back, we got some awesome emails, fantasy football at cbsi.com back after this.
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Welcome back. Adam Azer with Frank Stample and Sian Ajad talking DFS in just a little bit.
Here's an email from Brad in a city south of Nashville. I'm going to give you all the geography ones, Frank.
Let's go with Mobile, Alabama.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.
That better be south of Nashville.
I don't know.
Yeah, that's south of Nashville.
I was going to say Cancun.
It's technically south.
Yeah, of course it is.
Cancun is for sure. Okay.
Hey, Brian, Darren, Dion, and LaShawn.
Those feel like Eagles.
Eagles running backs?
Yeah, okay.
Oh, here we go.
Miles Sanders is a guy I think is being penalized
because he failed to deliver on lofty expectations.
Basically, this is just a
what do you think about Miles Sanders question.
And you know what I'm going to do right now?
I'm going to go to my two quarterback league
and I'm going to offer my Josh Jacobs
straight up for Miles Sanders
and see what happens.
Because I'm sick of this Miles Sanders.
I'm sick of this Miles Slanders.
Okay?
Nice.
This Miles Sanders slander is pissing me off.
We have not seen him in the preseason.
They sat him.
They played barely anything because he's a starter,
and they value him.
The other guys on the team are not better running backs than him.
Kenneth Gainwell is going to be a third down back perhaps.
Boston Scott will get in the mix.
Miles Sanders is their best running back.
He had three carries of more than 70 yards last year.
Running backs just don't do
that. So he's going to be their goal line guy. Of course, I'm guessing about all of this, but I feel
confident. I like him better than Josh Jacobs. I think we've gone too far. What do you guys think?
This is perfect because I'll let Sia take it. I know that he's all over Miles Sanders. This
emailer also brings up Raheem Mostert in the email. So Sia, if you want to talk about both
of those guys, I know you like both of them a lot.
Well, I, you know, check out FFT DFS for all, like almost every show.
I say something about Raheem Mostert, especially from a DFS standpoint,
but I'll say this.
I think Miles Sanders, it's a classic case of recency bias.
It's just what people see and they just glom onto it.
And they're like, well, this must be what's going to happen.
Week one, week two, week three, and so on.
Miles Sanders is a really good running back. And to Adam's point, he's so much better than
everybody else on the roster, including Kenny Gainwell. By the way, he played, I think,
only in 12 games last year, behind a very banged up, injured, bad offensive line,
and still averaged 5.3 yards per carry. I know Adam loves YPC. And by the way,
the crisscross references during the draft-a-thon were priceless, Adam.
But no, I totally agree about Miles Sanders.
I think Miles Sanders is going extremely undervalued.
Can he flop?
I guess.
But a lot of these running backs that are outside of the top 10 absolutely have some
question marks next to them.
And I think Miles Sanders is potentially a league winner for people.
And I think something else that people haven't really taken into account is that the fact that
he's going to be playing alongside Jalen Hurts, where we've seen this all throughout the past
really decade, right? Or really since Michael Vick has come into the league, because he's
kind of changed the position. But anytime a running back has played alongside a rushing
quarterback, it opens up running lanes. It makes things more efficient for that player.
So if the offensive line is better,
which it's expected to be,
the offense overall should be better.
They bring in Devontae Smith.
They still have both tight ends.
Jalen Hurts is going to be running.
That opens up running lanes for Miles Sanders.
I agree.
I mean, I think people have gone too far the other way.
I was never in on him as like a third round pick
when that was happening,
but now he's being pushed all the way down
into like the fifth round.
So if you get him as your
RB2 there, sure. Why not?
I am going to take Gus Edwards over him.
But I
was on the clock and I was like, Jacobs
or Sanders? Jacobs or Sanders? And I would think
I was doing a FFT
and 5 podcast at the time. So I took Jacobs
and I regretted it. And
I made the trade offer. Let's see
if George Maselli accepts.
I make a lot of trades with George,
so I have some confidence here.
Next email is from Dave.
In a two-receiver non-PPR league,
you don't need to take a wide receiver
until round five or later.
That's all it says.
Two-receiver non-PPR league,
you don't need to take a wide receiver
until round five or later.
That's true.
I don't know if it's necessarily around five. I would probably
try to get three running backs in my first four or five picks in a non PPR league. But if that
means taking a wide receiver in round three, like a Terry McLaurin or one of the Cowboys guys,
something like that, I would be okay with that. I mean, I would still, even in a non PPR league, I would want a top 12 to 15 wide receiver on my team if I can afford to do so. But yeah,
I mean the first two picks, I'm probably looking at running back in this kind of format and then
probably trying to add another one as my flex, maybe in like the fourth or fifth.
Yeah. And I, I agree. I like to take one of the top eight receivers with, with one of my first
two, two picks, but to his point, you don't need to do it.
And I think what he's trying to say is, yeah, I mean, Frank and I might have a different
drafting strategy.
But if you were to go quarterback and tight end early and grab three elite running backs,
for example, you can get away with filling out your roster at the receiver position with
guys like Robbie Anderson, potentially Chase Claypool, Devante Smith, Jalen Waddell, Michael
Pittman.
I mean, I could literally name Tyler Boyd, Michael Gatling. I can name 10 or 15 more guys that if
you're elite at other places and you're taking shots at upside rounds five or later for your
next, let's say five picks, a few of those are definitely going to pan out. And you're looking
at a team with a ton of upside. Yeah. You know, it's kind of funny. If we talk about the hero RB or the anchor RB in a PPR league, you take one running back later and to say like A.J. Brown,
Justin Jefferson, D.K. Metcalf.
Let's say the top eight wide receivers in non-PPR.
It's deeper in full PPR
because you can throw
Keenan Allen, Allen Robinson,
and McLaurin in there.
I don't know how many touchdowns
McLaurin's going to score.
I want one of them.
I really do.
But yeah, I don't have any non-PPR drafts.
I have one non-PPR league, but it's a dynasty league.
And, you know, look, having good receivers,
I have Stephon Diggs, Terry McLaurin, and Robert Woods in that league.
It really helps, even though it's non-PPR.
So I wouldn't neglect it completely,
but you can definitely focus on running back.
From Todd, not intended, but I waited on running back,
and I feel like this is a good team.
10-team PPR, 10th pick.
Okay, so for those of you who have a late pick in a 10-team PPR league,
this is what your team could look like if you pass on running back.
He took Mahomes and Hill.
We would never take Mahomes in the top 10, but a lot of people would.
So Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, that's fun.
A.J. Brown and Keenan Allen with picks three and four.
DeAndre Swift, and he passed on Carson.
Yikes.
Gus Edwards, Sanders, Gaskin, Jacobs.
Okay, so he took Swift.
Okay.
And Kyle Pitts.
So at this point, he has Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown,
Keenan Allen, Kyle Pitts, and DeAndre Swift.
Then he took Henderson and Mostert.
Then he took Trey Sermon and Sutton.
I think that's terrific.
Yeah.
I do think that having Mahomes and Hill is awesome to have that combo,
but the opportunity cost of taking Mahomes there,
you missed out on getting an elite running back.
I would have done that personally,
taking a running back there with Tyreek Hill
because while you wound up with Swift
and Henderson and Mostert,
and hopefully one of those players emerges,
it's a 10-team league,
so you want to stand out at positions
as best as you can.
And if you're behind the pack in running back,
I just don't love doing that myself.
I probably would have, instead, I would have taken a running back in the first two rounds. And then where you took Swift or Henderson or Moser, you probably could have still gotten a really, really strong quarterback there.
So it's just the opportunity cost of taking Mahomes that early.
Yeah, I agree. I think he made a mistake with Mahomes, but I do think he kind of made up for it with the running backs that he got.
I like how he tried to secure the 49ers backfield with most certain sermon.
Just one watch out there is Jeff Wilson probably will be back by week seven.
So that's going to be a lot more muddled,
assuming everybody's healthy come the middle of the season there.
Okay.
And yes,
you also have a team name behind the back at running back behind the pack at
running back.
So good job,
Frank.
This is from Alan,
10 team PPR.
Can you weigh in on later round strategy?
Do you take still handcuffs and upside players,
or do you pick stronger positional players
since the pool of players will be there in a 10-team PPR league?
Yeah, that's a good question.
Do you still take handcuffs in 10-team leagues?
I'm going to pull up a 10-team draft.
It was a super flex draft,
but I'll pull up a 10-team draft we did last night for reference. Go ahead, Frank, or see
if you want to weigh in. Yeah, I think in a 10 team league, again, you're like you're trying
to separate as best as you can. So I think I probably looked the other way on handcuffs there
and I'm probably just trying to grab as much upside as I possibly can. And it depends what
you do early on. Right. So if you're a little bit more running back heavy, maybe you take more shots on wide receivers late in your draft
to see if you can find one, a gem that kind of just like pops off
early in the season and becomes this breakout player.
If you take wide receivers early, maybe you do the opposite.
And you don't necessarily have to take the handcuff on your team.
Earlier, we talked about A.J. Dillon and Tony Pollard.
Aaron Jones, as great as he is, he's been injury prone.
If something happens to him, A.J. Dillon has league winning upside. Ezekiel Elliott has been pretty durable in his career,
but if something happens there, Tony Pollard, I believe has top 10 running back upside. So
you don't necessarily have to take the handcuffs for your team, but just take the highest upside
handcuffs is I guess the point. Yeah, I love that. And I also love taking handcuffs of other teams
too, because it becomes
really good trade leverage. If you want to throw that handcuff in, you know, let's say week three
or week four with, with something a little bit more valuable to get something back. I think a
lot of people really like to, they get really nervous that they don't have the handcuff and
they give up a little bit more than they should. Yeah. Looking at our draft last night, again,
it was super flex, but it was still 16 rounds. So, you know, that's probably like a 14 round 10 team league without the super flex. You still have a mix of Mike Williams, Elijah Moore, some backup tight ends. But then you have a Tyson Williams and Alexander Madison mixed in with
Mikko Hardman and Henry Ruggs.
So whatever suits your team.
Yeah, those are all great picks.
Great.
And just talking a little bit more on
10-team leagues, Adam, I know that recently
you guys did a podcast on
strategy. How does it change 10-team versus
12-team and 14-team and 16-team?
And Jamie brought up a really good point in that you want to
differentiate yourself at quarterback
and tight end. So if it means reaching on those positions
a little bit earlier in your 10 team league
to make sure that you can compete with other
teams, it's worth it to do that rather
than maybe just drafting
a quarterback late and you know that you're going to have all
this depth on your team, running back, wide receiver depth.
It's so hard to make these two for one, three for one trades
in 10 team leagues because everyone's team is stacked. So you think that, Oh, I might have this
awesome depth. I can, Oh, I can just make a trade at some point in the season. It's not that easy.
Like I've played in 10 team leagues and okay, I have this awesome bench, but more often than not,
people don't want to make like two for one or three for one trades in those types of leagues.
Yeah. Interesting. And yeah,
we,
Heath and I shared the team in the podcast,
the podcast for the people league.
We had seventh pick and our first two picks were Kyler Murray and Lamar
Jackson.
And I saw that on Twitter.
That is,
that is hot as you would.
It was hot.
And I just like,
you know what?
This may not be smart,
but it's fun.
Let's just go have fun.
Let's see what we're going to do.
That is fun.
Okay, next question is from Zach.
Dear Steve, Eddie, Frank, and Derek,
at first I was thinking this is Family Matters,
but I think this is actually Tennessee Titans.
Hmm.
I started thinking Tennessee Titans as well.
Steve McNair, Eddie George, Frank and Derek.
Oh, Derek is... Derek Henry.
Yeah, but...
No, he's spelled it differently.
Oh, yeah.
And then I'm not sure.
Hmm.
We are failing.
No, yeah, Frank Wycheck.
That's what I was thinking. It's got to to be Frank that's why I thought it was Titans
anyway
12 team PPR
and pick 8
what am I doing grading this team
okay grade the team
12 team PPR
2 running backs 3 receivers and 2 flex
Dak Prescott
Aaron Jones Melvin Gordon.
Yeah,
that's the one I know he drafted him yesterday and in a zero RB approach,
I just like cannot get excited about that,
but okay.
Aaron Jones,
Melvin Gordon,
Dak Prescott,
Ridley,
lamb,
Julio,
Judy Pittman,
Kyle pits.
He also has a J Dylan,
Devin Singletary,
J.D. McKissick on his bench,
and Savan Ahmed and some others.
What do you guys think about this team?
It's pretty damn good for a 12-team league.
It is pretty good.
I will give it a B+,
with the obvious downside is the RB2 being Melvin Gordon,
but considering it's a full PPR,
you have great wide receivers, Calvin Ridley, C.D. Lamb.
You have the hookup there with Lamb and Zach Prescott.
Julio Jones is your wide receiver three.
Jerry Judy is your four. He's going to be one of your flex options.
That is awesome. And then you have Kyle
Pitts, who I'm all over. I think
again, he could have a lead
upside. So yeah, B-plus
for me. We'll figure out the RB2.
Yeah, I agree. Tim from Denver.
I have the eighth pick in a 12-team
half PPR league. I'm hoping to pair a first-round
running back with Hopkins or Ridley.
I have Ridley ranked higher, but sometimes
Kyle Pitts and Mike Davis make it back to me
in round five. I like both
of them, but I don't love having two starters on the same
team. Do you ever take that into consideration?
I think, you know, we answered
earlier with the Titans having A. having AJ Brown and Derrick Henry
I think it's a little bit different when you're talking about the Atlanta Falcons and then we're
getting into players who you know with Mike Davis where he's not really an elite player like like
AJ Brown and Derrick Henry are so Ridley and Pitts I think I would be all right with but once
you get into like Ridley and Mike Davis I don't know if I want that many shares of the Falcons offense so
I think it's team dependent the Titans I'm all right with it yeah it's definitely team dependent
I don't know I mean it depends do you really think Hopkins a lot of people have Hopkins ahead
of Ridley if you like Ridley a lot more I'm not gonna mess with my second round pick because of
my potential fifth round pick you know what I I mean? Correct. That's the way
to look at it. So just take whoever you have ranked higher
personally. And I
would take Ridley over Hopkins, but it is very close.
Alright, this is
from Bryce from Columbia, South
Carolina. Go Gamecocks.
When you do your drafts, do you intentionally
diversify your different teams to give yourself
more possible outcomes of great teams?
Or do most of your teams end up looking similar with a lot of the same players?
I try not to think about what I drafted previously. And so usually what that ends
up meaning is that I usually have a lot of overlap. I mean, if you have different draft
positions, that's probably not going to happen until the later rounds. Maybe you'll pick some
of the same guys. But I really, you know, people do fantasy for fun. So, I mean, I think diversifying makes sense.
I can tell you from a DFS standpoint, you know, you don't want to, you know, you're doing this
weekly and that's diversification enough because you have new teams each week. So, you know, if
you believe in certain players, you need to play those certain players. So I think in year long,
it makes sense to diversify. I don't really try to do that. For example, a couple of the drafts that I've done,
bigger drafts that I've done,
I've got Jonathan Taylor in both.
I've got Calvin Ridley in both.
It just turned out that way
because I didn't try to consider the other drafts.
Yeah, so I usually do a good amount of drafts.
And I would say diversify early on in your drafts,
if you can, because it's hard.
It's hard.
It's like hindsight is 2020.
Last year,
I had the first pick in like three of my most important,
expensive leagues.
I took Christian McCaffrey and all of them,
and it absolutely crushed me.
But I mean,
I think you ask anyone,
they would have taken Christian McCaffrey first overall.
So I don't think that that's necessarily a great example,
but if you play,
if you have like mid round picks and you want to diversify,
I'll take Austin Eckler in one, I'll take Aaron Jones
in another. I would
diversify early, but if you have
mid-round targets or late-round targets that you
love and you feel really passionate
about, I would say make sure to get those
players on all of your teams.
I would just say if you have picks
5, 6, 7, 8 or something like that,
5, 6, 7, 8, in several leagues, I wouldn't take Zeke in every league.
I wouldn't take Aaron Jones in every league.
I would probably, since I think those guys are pretty even,
and I think they all have the same chance to be superstars,
you know, between Kelsey, those two running backs, Devontae Adams,
I'd probably diversify there.
But, you know, overall,, there's no right answer.
Just have fun with it and draft your favorite players.
Adam, can I interrupt a second?
Was that 5, 6, 7, 8?
Was that a Laverne and Shirley reference or something else?
Just a music reference.
Ah, okay.
I've never seen it.
You're too young for Laverne and Shirley,
for everybody listening out there.
That 5, 6, 7, 8 goes back to 80s sitcom trivia right there.
Actually, I grew up watching Nick at Night every night. there that five six seven eight uh goes back to 80s sitcom trivia right there oh i actually you
know i grew up watching nick at night like every night and uh i remember a little laverne and
shirley not i mean not very clearly but the intro song has the five six seven eight anyway
is that how's the rest of the song go go ahead sing it well it's the words after that are like
super confusing it's like schlemiegel. Yeah, okay.
They did a parody of that in Wade's World.
Oh, okay. Or Wade's World 2
or whatever, whichever one it was.
Okay.
Last email here is from Aaron.
I like to make the most of my bench
running back upside stashes. Guys who
could get some work but are an injury away
from being the waiver wire out of the week.
Looking for guys
available on waivers in most leagues the list i have so far is some mix of jerek mckinnon justice
hill kenneth gainwell tony jones jr and justin jackson how would you rank those guys in ppr
and who would you add to the list with them and so this is players available on waivers it's not
aj dylan and alexander madison they're drafted apparently in this league. But who are your favorites from that
list? McKinnon, Justice Hill, Gainwell, Tony Jones, Justin Jackson.
I think Kenny Gainwell stands out for me. I know we spoke about Miles Sanders. I do think
Gainwell is going to have some kind of role. Maybe it's four to six touches early on. But
if something happens to Sanders, I could see him gaining a bigger role. And then it's probably Justin Jackson. I know that we're still trying
to figure out necessarily the depth behind Austin Eckler, but I think he's the next running back up
for the Chargers. So I would go Gainwell and Jackson. McKinnon is interesting if anything
happened to Clyde Edwards either, but yeah. I think I'd go Gainwell, Tony Jones,
then probably Justin Jackson,
then Jarek McKinnon.
I would take Justice Hill off the list just because I think Tyson Williams
has that number two job
and I don't think he's being drafted either.
I think you could add Wayne Gallman to the list
because he's, we talked about it
at the front end of the show,
he's behind a 28, almost 29-year-old Mike Davis
who we're not really sure about.
So I think that makes sense too.
I think Tyson Williams, by the way, is a great call,
and he's probably someone who's available.
And let's throw Wayne Gallman in that mix, too,
who we spoke about earlier.
You just said that, Frank.
Oh, my bad.
Come on, man.
I do that a lot on the baseball podcast.
I'm looking off at rankings right now,
and then I zone out and I don't listen.
It's bad.
Only play Wayne Gallman in home games in the Dome at Atlanta
because if there's a stiff breeze he could potentially get knocked over that same thing
with kenneth game well guys five eight he's shorter than i am or you know roughly the same
height but uh that's why he's not like he's not going to be their primary running back
okay dfs talk so first things first let's say I don't play DFS daily fantasy
sports. I don't play on Fandle or DraftKings or anything like that. Sell me on it. Give me your
sales pitch, Sia. You already did it for that hotel in Vegas. So now do it for DFS.
Well, so the cool thing about DFS is, I mean, I obviously love year long and I love DFS. I think
people should play both. DFS just gives you a little bit more,
we used the word diversification earlier. You can kind of pick players depending on matchups
a lot more. You're going to pick players in year long depending on matchups, but that's sort of
within the confines of your own team. In DFS, you can just kind of look at games, look at matchups.
Like for week one, you got Arizona, Tennessee, or Philly, Atlanta, or the Chiefs and the Browns or the Packers and the New Orleans Saints. These are high scoring
games where you can just grab shares and kind of play GM just for a week. And you have the
potential at like, you know, big cash prizes if you want to play some of these big tournaments
that are admittedly hard to win and hard to cash in. Or you could play double ups and double your money
and usually around 50% gets paid in those.
It's just another fun way to play fantasy football.
It's obviously very popular
with the advent of DraftKings and FanDuel.
I can tell you for the last, I don't know,
seven, eight, nine years,
I've been doing year long and DFS
and they work really well together.
And frankly, a lot of the DFS research really plays well with your year-long research and vice versa.
So it's really good to kind of study and play both because it's going to help both avenues out.
I find myself caring, not caring more, but following more closely my DFS lineups on Sunday than my season-long.
I don't know why that is.
It might be because I have so many season long
and I don't play quite as much DFS as the pros do.
But it is really fun.
I mean, it's really fun to just be able to put together these kind of dream teams
and try to find those diamonds in the roughs,
know the sleepers that have a low price.
So with that, let's talk about just a little bit of general strategy
and then we'll turn it ahead to week one.
Frank, why don't you host this segment?
You're the host of the DFS podcast.
I'm going to kick back.
All right, so look, we've basically done eight podcasts at this point,
Fantasy Football Today, DFS, and all of them,
we've featured some kind of strategy segment.
So you can go back and listen.
You can listen to all that.
But if we're just doing a little bit of a synopsis here, I would say the main points
that we hit on were figuring out your goals, playing within your means, right? So look,
don't worry about what other experts and these big DFS players are doing and how much money
they're putting in. Play however much you want to play and figure out what you want to do.
If it's throwing a lineup in the Millie maker every week, you have to realize you're probably not going to cash, but if that's what you want to do, if that's what you
find fun, there's nothing wrong with that. And then the other things are, when it comes to lineup
construction, we're paying close attention to stacking and correlations and things like that.
So I would say for me, it's figure out your goals, play within your means. And then, you know, once
we get into actual players and stuff, it's kind of making sure that your lineups make sense is the correlation. Yeah. And I'll add to that because
you kept saying stacking and correlation. I think for especially the beginner, the person who's
barely played NFL DFS or barely played DFS in general, there is a kind of a steep learning
curve, at least at the beginning, which is why FFT DFS is probably really important for the
listener who's maybe
somewhat new to that because the correlating, the correlating your lineups or stacking your
lines and stacking, of course, means you're stacking the same players on one side of the
ball. And the correlation part is you're correlating that game or you're correlating
players in that game on the other side of the ball. You have things like secondary stacks to
consider in other games that you think have high fantasy value potential. You have the punts that you're going to pick apart from one or two
games here and there. Just that whole process and maybe the statistics to kind of look at,
whether it's red zone target share or target share or just sheer volume touches, things of
that nature. Those are all really helpful. And kind of once you get the hang of that,
you can start to kind of see, well, where are the gold mines week to week?
Let's get definitions here just for people.
So let's do an example.
Let's say I want to stack.
Let's just do the Chiefs.
Okay.
Patrick Mahomes, week one against Cleveland and Tyreek Hill or Kelsey.
What's a stack in this scenario and a correlation? week one against Cleveland and Tyreek Hill or Kelsey or like,
give me what's a stack in this scenario and a correlation.
So if you wanted to use Patrick Mahomes with Tyreek Hill,
by the way,
both of those,
both of those players are very expensive. So this is a salary cap system that we're playing within.
So you have to find players that are lower cost salary if you want to
spend up on those.
But basically you can,
you put,
you take Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill,
and then on the other side, you think this game is a shootout.
The Browns are expected to be playing from behind.
You correlate that game where you take a Browns pass catcher,
someone like Jarvis Landry or Odell Beckham,
and the next thing you know, if this game winds up being 42-35
and Patrick Mahomes threw two touchdowns to Tyreek Hill,
Odell Beckham has a big game, then you have an opportunity to move
up the standings by having correlated
players within that same game.
Okay, yeah. So just wanted
everybody to know, just put it into
an actual example. Mahomes, Tyreek
Hill, Odell Beckham.
Alright, you guys want to get into week one or
what? Some of your favorite plays?
Sure.
Okay. Go for it.
So I think the focus initially, I mean, typically, you know, salaries will come out on like a Tuesday, for example, and you'll kind of scan, you know, what games you like, what salaries you like.
I think the first step is usually looking at what games you like that you're going to want to concentrate on.
So just a few that stick out to me. I mean, Philly Atlanta is very interesting. Arizona, Tennessee is very interesting. These are
all games that have a 48 point total or higher, by the way, Seattle, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh,
Buffalo, and then you round it out with Kansas City, Cleveland and New Orleans Green Bay. So
you want to kind of focus on that doesn't mean you can't grab players in other games. That doesn't
mean there's not contrarian stacks, can play, like the Jets in Carolina.
It's only got a 44-point total, but in my opinion,
I think the over's coming in there.
That game could, depending on how that game flow goes,
especially with all of Sam Darnold's weapons,
you could easily stack, let's say, a Sam Darnold with a McCaffrey
and a Robbie Anderson and bring it back with a Corey Davis, for example,
who in DraftKings will get a full point per catch.
So those are kind of more contrarian snacks.
But you do want to focus on those higher scoring games because Vegas usually does have it figured out.
So let's talk about, for example, a game I've mentioned a couple times on FFT DFS, Arizona-Tennessee.
That's one of my favorite games.
Tennessee is favored by three and a half.
It's got a 52-point total.
Something I might like there is you could play
Kyler or Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill's a better DFS value than most people think. But let's say I play
Kyler Murray with DeAndre Hopkins. And let's say I throw out Rondale Moore, an inexpensive guy that
will kind of help out with getting some more expensive guys in my lineup. And then on the way
back on the Tennessee side, I take, let's say I take Julio Julio Jones over AJ Brown,
because I get some sort of discount there. So I've paid up a lot there, I found some,
some good, you know, pricing with guys like Rondell Moore. So that's sort of my main stack.
And then I go to another game I like, let's say it's Seattle, Indianapolis, I do a secondary stack,
I grab I grab a Tyler Lockett. And let's say a Jonathan Taylor, if I can't afford Taylor,
then it's maybe a Michael Pittman who's a lesser value.
So now I've built out most of my kind of core lineup
and I can go to a couple of other games I like.
Maybe I grab a share from Kansas City,
a cheap one like McCole Hardman.
Maybe I grab a share from that Buffalo Pittsburgh game,
maybe a cheaper receiver like a Gabriel Davis
who's gonna give me some salary cap relief.
And boom, I've built a lineup.
I've built a stack. So hopefully that stack and secondary stack, hopefully they're high scoring
like Vegas thinks they're going to be. And hopefully the shares I've grabbed here and there
are also profitable. And I will point out that the rookies are really cheap in week one. So
Kyle Pitts is $4,400. He's going to be very popular. That's called a chalk play in DFS.
Someone who is projecting to be rostered on many teams.
But for good reason, obviously,
because the opportunity is there for Kyle Pitts.
Devontae Smith is $4,500 in week one.
I like him.
And then just some cheaper plays.
Mark Quayle Calloway, $3,400.
He's going to be very popular as well.
Seems to be the wide receiver one for Jameis there.
Marvin Jones, assuming that he's healthy,
he is under 4K, which is very cheap.
3,600.
Looked good with Trevor Lawrence in the preseason.
And Sia, you mentioned the Cardinals and the Titans
has a very high total.
Chase Edmonds is 4,600.
He's obviously very cheap.
It's full PPR.
He can catch some passes.
We'll see what the breakdown is between him and james connor but i think he's a a lower cost running back if if you need one
and adam i got a surprise for you you ready yeah yeah are you ready for this because i trust you'll
be playing dfs week one seattle indianapolis 48 and a half point total you know pretty high not
the highest but in that ballpark where it's just kind of a difference of a point or two here and
there gerald everett is only 3400 i am going to be playing him week one. I'll just tell you
that right now. I actually like Gerald Everett this year. And I think in a game like that,
that's a pretty good value because he could be sneaky and really nobody's going to be on him
because nobody really trusts Gerald Everett at this point. I am currently making my lineup for
the FanDuel Millionaire Contest. And I'm just doing it based on, you know,
I've got Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Odell Beckham.
Okay?
So I started with that.
I went with Najee Harris, who is only 6,500,
and Chase Edmonds as my running backs.
I went with T. Higgins as my third receiver.
George Kittle is my tight end. And I have the Broncos DST. So I need with T. Higgins as my third receiver. George Kittle is my tight end.
And I have the Broncos DST.
So I need a flex.
And I am deciding between DJ Moore against the Jets
or Chris Carson at Indianapolis.
And in my mind, if somebody said,
hey, who should I start, Carson or Moore?
I would tell them to start Carson.
Fandles have PPR too. So I feel should I start? Carson or Moore? I would tell them to start Carson. Fandles half PPR, too.
So I feel like I should go Carson.
But then again, you know, the Jets could be horrible defensively.
The Colts won't be.
And yeah, what should I do?
Carson or DJ Moore?
I think in a vacuum in the half PPR, I probably would prefer Carson.
But the fact that you're putting this lineup in a millionaire contest,
you want to differentiate. You want to do something a little bit different. So, uh, the fact that there's three wide receivers on Carolina,
people might be trying to figure out, well, which one should I use? You might get DJ more at a lower
roster rate in week one. So because of that, I would go with DJ more. He's probably a little
bit more contrarian than someone like Chris Carson. You know, I was actually going to go
with Robbie Anderson with the revenge game, but, but I,
but Higgins was a little cheaper and I just love T Higgins.
So,
and his price is great.
I'm not looking at the Fandul one,
but I assume it's equally great because on draft Kings,
he's very cheap.
Yeah.
It's 6,000 on Fandul.
Uh,
you know,
it's cheaper than Robbie Anderson.
You might want to look at the James Robinson.
I think he's super cheap.
You're right.
He released this pricing before the injury to Travis Etienne.
And he has a great matchup against the Houston Texans.
So, I mean, he's going to be very popular.
It's a good point.
You're absolutely right.
And, you know, on DraftKings, it's a little harder to make a lineup.
It's a little deeper, right?
Well, I think the pricing is a little bit stricter on DraftKings.
Not in week one.
It's actually, you know, pretty soft pricing early on in the season.
But what I've noticed
just years of playing
is that I always feel
a little bit better
about my FanDuel lineups
because the pricing
is a little bit more loose
on FanDuel versus DraftKings.
Yeah, I think it's easier
to put it together
like a dream team.
So sometimes on DraftKings,
do you feel like you need
a deep sleeper on DraftKings?
And would Carlos Hyde
potentially be a deep sleeper?
Or is that too low end?
It's probably too low end. I mean, I'm all for the deep sleepers, like the sort of punt plays
that might win you a Millie maker. Um, I, if I was going to like, typically the punt pays that,
that are going to win you a Millie maker are probably on the receiver end because they have,
while they might not share the volume of running back might have, but they do have like a greater
upside, a greater ceiling.
So I don't think Hyde has the ceiling you're looking for
in that type of contest.
Yeah.
For example, Kendrick Bourne was a name we brought up the other day
as a super cheap punt play on DraftKings,
because slot receiver Mac Jones is his first start.
Maybe he leans on someone over the middle of the field early on,
and I think he's sub- 4K or something in week one.
All right, guys.
Well, thank you for much more advice.
Check out the Fantasy Football DFS podcast.
See ya.
Frank, you guys have a great weekend.
All right, man.
Thanks for having me.
And you too, Adam.
Thank you.
I haven't really been talking a lot this season.
I think so, man, especially with that hat you've got on.
We got a lot of text messages to exchange.
Let's go.
Okay, everybody, enjoy your weekend. And this is your last weekend without football. So do
something on Sunday because your Sunday is going to be tied up for the next 18 weeks.
And we'll talk to you soon on Fantasy Football Today.