Establish The Run artwork

Levitan's Solo Pod: Adam Makes Worst Mistake of the Season (Episode 1030)

STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.

28 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Oct 5, 2026
Published
Mon, October 5, 2026
13
Player insights
13
Players mentioned
Topics
C.J. StroudChristian McCaffreyEmanuel WilsonGarrett WilsonGeno SmithJa'Marr ChaseJacoby BrissettKenneth Walker IIINico CollinsPuka NacuaTee HigginsTrevor LawrenceTyson Bagent
Player analysis

Player insights

13

C.J. Stroud

PositiveProjection0:14

The source had a massive projection on Stroud for week four against Dallas; the Cowboys defense inflated quarterback scoring by 12.4% over baseline expectation, the most in the NFL. The game was indoors, Dallas plays fast and opponents run many plays against them, creating a high-volume passing environment. Despite initial hesitation due to perception that Stroud is not a good fantasy quarterback, the source emphasizes trusting the machines on this projection given the solid inputs and lack of volatile moving parts in the matchup. Stroud was only 7% owned in three-through-three on DraftKings, indicating significant contrarian value.

Insight page

Christian McCaffrey

PositiveValue9:00

Christian McCaffrey was $300 more expensive than Kenneth Walker on FanDuel but was better value on full PPR DraftKings where he was cheaper. The source played McCaffrey on DraftKings in week four, viewing him as the superior play on that site's scoring format.

Insight page

Emanuel Wilson

NegativeUsage3:56

The source had Emmanuel Wilson projected with a light workload relative to Helani in week four. Evan Silva thought the source was too light on Wilson's workload in projections, and Silva turned out to be right, making it a tough spot where the source's projection missed on the usage split between the two tight ends.

Insight page

Garrett Wilson

NegativeProjection6:40

Garrett Wilson was on the source's DraftKings cash lineup in week four, but the source considered pivoting off him to get to Puka Nakua. The source would have needed to find $700 more in salary to make the swap from Wilson to Nakua, which would have required downgrading at quarterback from Trevor Lawrence to Jacoby Brissette or Tyson Baygent. The source ultimately stayed with Wilson and Lawrence, a decision the source later regretted.

Insight page

Geno Smith

NegativeValue7:00

Geno Smith was considered as a potential quarterback option on DraftKings cash in week four. The source mentions that Smith was wide receiver one (implying strong passing volume), but ultimately chose not to pivot to him from Trevor Lawrence.

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Ja'Marr Chase

NegativeInjury9:06

Ja'Marr Chase suffered an injury in week four that benefited Tee Higgins's opportunity and production on the source's FanDuel lineup.

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Jacoby Brissett

NegativeValue6:40

Jacoby Brissette was presented as a downgrade option from Trevor Lawrence that would have freed up $700 in salary on DraftKings cash in week four, allowing the source to upgrade from Garrett Wilson to Puka Nakua. The source notes that Brissette's team was a couple points off optimal, which made the source hesitant to play him despite the potential upside of the Nakua upgrade.

Insight page

Kenneth Walker III

PositiveValue9:00

Kenneth Walker was $300 cheaper than Christian McCaffrey on FanDuel in week four. The source beat it and stuck with Walker instead of paying up for McCaffrey, which made a big difference in results. The source's reasoning was that McCaffrey was better on full PPR DraftKings and was cheaper there, so the source wanted to play Walker on the more touchdown-heavy FanDuel slate to create a natural hedge against CMC. This decision proved successful.

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Nico Collins

PositiveProjection0:14

The source had a massive projection on Collins for week four against Dallas; the Cowboys defense inflated wide receiver scoring by 7.3% over baseline expectation, the most in the NFL. Collins was paired with Stroud in a high-volume passing environment created by Dallas's fast pace and inept defense. The projection simmed really well on both FanDuel and DraftKings, especially on FanDuel where he was cheaper. Collins was only 12% owned in three-through-three on DraftKings despite the strong projection, indicating significant contrarian value.

Insight page

Puka Nacua

NegativeInjury4:06

Puka Nakua was dealing with an injury heading into week four against Philadelphia but both Schefter and Glazer reported Sunday morning that he would not have any restrictions. The source had a tiny doc (doubt) on Nakua for injury risk in projections, but in his heart of hearts thought there was a good chance he wouldn't be limited at all. The source emphasizes that there was significant FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) spread on Twitter about Nakua's injury status, with many quotes from Sean McVay taken out of context and Twitter doctors spreading absurd speculation about snap counts and limitations. The source played Nakua in cash games on DraftKings, viewing him as a strong play when healthy with Matthew Stafford at quarterback and priced below AK on full PPR.

Insight page

Tee Higgins

PositiveProjection9:06

Tee Higgins was part of the source's successful FanDuel team in week four, paired with CJ Stroud at quarterback. The source got lucky with the Ja'Marr Chase injury, which would have increased Higgins's target share and opportunity.

Insight page

Trevor Lawrence

NegativeValue6:40

Trevor Lawrence was the source's quarterback choice on DraftKings cash in week four, but the source regrets not downgrading to Jacoby Brissette or Tyson Baygent to free up $700 to upgrade from Garrett Wilson to Puka Nakua. The source notes that Trevor Lawrence ended up 70% owned in double-ups, making the decision to play him even more questionable in hindsight. The source struggles with playing off-optimal lineups in cash games, even when the risk-reward might justify it.

Insight page

Tyson Bagent

NegativeValue6:40

Tyson Baygent was presented as a downgrade option from Trevor Lawrence that would have freed up $700 in salary on DraftKings cash in week four, allowing the source to upgrade from Garrett Wilson to Puka Nakua. The source notes that Baygent's team was a couple points off optimal, which made the source hesitant to play him despite the potential upside of the Nakua upgrade.

Insight page
Full transcript

Episode Transcript

290
0:00Hello and welcome to Episode 1030 of the official EstablishTheRun.com Podcast.
0:04My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR and we are coming off of a, the machine new kind of week.
0:14Yes, that's right. All week I stared at this massive CJ Stroud projection we had at this big Nico Collins projection and
0:22my pathetic, tiny, human brain just couldn't get my head around it.
0:26A lot of other people couldn't get their head around it either.
0:31Lowering the ownership, making the Stroud, Nico Collins stuff sim really well on both sites, especially on FanDuel where they were a bit cheaper.
0:39And I saw that, you know, I saw Nico, Stroud stuff simming really well.
0:44And of course, I not waived it because in my pathetic head, Stroud is not a good fantasy quarterback.
0:51When the Texans play well, it's through dominant defense.
0:55CD Lamb has a difficult matchup here and is very expensive.
0:59But of course, all that ignores why the projection on Stroud was so good.
1:04The Cowboys play so fast. Opponents run so many plays against them.
1:08This game is indoors. Cowboys defense is inept. I mean, if you look at our defense versus position stuff, and by the
1:16way, you can see that table in the data section of the NFL tab.
1:21Our DVP stuff had the Cowboys inflating quarterback scoring by 12.4% over baseline expectation.
1:26That was the most in the NFL. Same with wide receiver, 7.3% inflation, most in the NFL.
1:32So it's tough. There's some nuance here between like what I think we should be trusting the machines on and what I
1:40think are more spots to IKB, to I know better.
1:44I think this CJ Stroud, Nico Collins, CD Lamb play from week four is an example of one where I really do want to trust the machines on.
1:54When we have a really good projection on star players, when the game total is higher than my initial gut would have been on it.
2:03And yet people, including me, don't really want to click it.
2:07For example, in the three through three on DraftKings, Stroud was 7%, Nico 12%, Lamb 7%.
2:13So I know I'm not doing a good job of describing the difference here.
2:18I think the place where there's more room to IKB, to I know better than the machines, the better place to do that is in more volatile situations.
2:28There were not a lot of moving parts in Dallas, Houston.
2:32But in other situations, certainly there's more volatile spots.
2:36For example, Silva thought we were too light Emmanuel Wilson workload in projections relative to Helani.
2:42Turned out Silva was right. You know, that was a really tough spot.
2:46I'll talk more about Puka Naku in a minute, but we had a tiny doc on him for injury risk.
2:54In my heart of hearts, though, I thought a good chance he wouldn't be limited at all.
3:00That was a spot where you could IKB. On Dontavian Wicks, is he good enough to score fantasy points against Trent McDuffie with Jalen Hurts at quarterback?
3:10That's another one you could IKB. And so I guess my point is that the Dallas-Houston projections, there wasn't much to IKB.
3:18You know, I could say, well, I think that C.J.
3:21Stroud sucks. That's not an IKB. That is not an input.
3:25All that is baked into all the data already that the machines know, that the modeling knows, that the sims know.
3:33So on the Dallas-Houston projection, it was just rock solid.
3:37There was nothing tough about it on the input side.
3:40And that's the spot where I want to lean into the sims the hardest.
3:45So yes, I should have had the Stroud-Niko stuff in tournaments.
3:49Shout out to the people who did. I know there were a bunch of you got a bunch of messages about people winning some really nice stuff.
3:59Shout out to you. And by the way, unlike the spots to IKB versus where it's solid, I would think that it's pretty easy to figure out.
4:09But one of the reasons that we started that projections context show and Leonie does the lineup building show and why we
4:17talk about inputs on pretty much every show is to try to put context around it.
4:23So if you want to IKB, you guys know exactly how we're projecting these tough situations.
4:29As for cash in week four, man, I blew it on DraftKings.
4:33Like, I really, really did think Puka was going to be perfectly healthy.
4:38I talked about it a bunch. And it was such a big game for the Rams.
4:43They didn't want to fall to one and three.
4:47They hate the Eagles. I'm just such a Puka guy in general.
4:51He's so incredible. Anytime Puka Nakua is healthy and the greatest wide receiver kingmaker of all time, Matthew Stafford, is also healthy.
4:59And Puka Nakua is below AK on full PPR DraftKings.
5:03I want to be playing him. And, like, I don't get into those, you know, every slate is different.
5:10I agree. Every slate is different. Every spot is different.
5:13Every matchup is different. Every situation is different. But, man, if there was, like, a flow chart, Puka's healthy.
5:20Stafford's healthy. He's below AK. He's a good play.
5:24And I also knew a lot of people wouldn't play him because of all the ridiculous FUD.
5:30There were so many quotes this week from Sean McVay that were taken out of context around Puka Nakua's injury.
5:37So many Twitter doctors spreading absurd FUD. Headlines on Twitter about snap counts and he'll be limited.
5:43That just wasn't the case. Both Schefter and Glazer said Sunday morning Puka would not have any restrictions.
5:50It was just more of the, you know, the field, Adam, the field.
5:54More of that hysteria that I talked about last week with the game down in Rio.
6:00And so, like, a huge edge these days in today's media landscape, in today's overall landscape, a huge edge where there's just information, information, information.
6:09A huge edge is just cutting out the ridiculous overreactions and FUD when it's warranted and knowing when the FUD, when there's reason to be scared.
6:19And I pride myself on that. And I knew it, too, on Puka, you know.
6:24In the last-minute live stream with Silva Sunday morning, I talked a ton about that Puka spot.
6:30You know, Wiggins told me that I convinced him.
6:34He was watching last-minute live stream and he had the team that I played in on DraftKings.
6:40He changed it to a Puka team. So, why didn't I get off Garrett Wilson, find the 700 more to get to Puka?
6:48Because of quarterback. And this goes for everything I, this goes against everything I stand for in DK Cash.
6:55For so long, I was playing cheap quarterback and having tons of success.
7:00In this case, it's like, oh, God forbid I don't play Trevor Lawrence.
7:05You know, like he's some lock. Could have easily gone to Brissette or Baygent and then gotten up to Puka that way.
7:13You know? I mean, $700 to play Puka Nakua with the greatest wide receiver stat producer ever at quarterback.
7:20Or I could play Geno Smith. Wide receiver one.
7:23And, you know, I looked at it and I just didn't pull the trigger.
7:28So, pretty frustrating. You know, no excuses. Just really, really bad on DraftKings Cash this week.
7:34Still somehow won like 40-something percent of my head-to-heads.
7:37But, yeah. Just hate playing bad. And I know I said this last year.
7:42I think at the end of last year. But, I got to be honest.
7:47You know, it did cross my mind. Part of me did not want to play Jacoby Brissette or Tyson Baygent because those
7:55teams were a couple points off optimal. And if I, I can't be it like that in such a big spot in
8:03cash, if I try to do something quote-unquote above the rim, well, I'm not sure that's the right thing to do.
8:11Even if it's right for me personally on a risk-reward of doing something like getting off Trevor Lawrence.
8:17And, by the way, Trevor Lawrence ended up 70% owned in double-ups.
8:22Like, it would have been risky. I thought it was, you know, in hindsight, obviously, I think it was right.
8:29But, yeah. It's just, it's hard for me to play stuff that is off the optimal and then show up and talk
8:37about it and be like, yeah, this was my gut feeling.
8:41I'm not sure that's right. But, it's a constant struggle with that stuff.
8:46I'm not complaining. Like, hey, Adam, didn't you see this combo or why didn't you consider this play?
8:52And it's always this off the board, above the rim stuff that, you know, is risky and like might be losing more than winning.
9:01I'm just trying to explain kind of why. I hope that makes sense.
9:06Yeah. Good news was on FanDuel, found a really good team with Stroud at quarterback.
9:11Tee Higgins at wide receiver did get lucky there with the chase injury.
9:16But, one of the biggest things on FanDuel for me was I had the 300.
9:21On FanDuel, McCaffrey was 300 more than Kenneth Walker.
9:25I had the 300 to get to McCaffrey over Walker.
9:28But, I beat it a little bit there and stuck with Walker, which made a big difference.
9:35I thought that was, you know, a somewhat easy call to leave the 300 on FanDuel because it gave me a natural
9:43hedge against CMC, who I thought was better on full PPR DraftKings and was cheaper on full PPR DraftKings.
9:50And then, I wanted to play Walker on the more touchdown heavy FanDuel.
9:54So, yeah, I was happy with that decision over there.
9:58Anyways, four weeks into the season, always like to check on results here at kind of the quarter poll.
10:05ROI on DraftKings head-to-head so far through four weeks, 41%.
10:08I mean, way above expectation. ROI in FanDuel head-to-head so far is 26%.
10:13Overall combined, 37%. Again, 37%, way over expectation. Best year I've ever had is 22%.
10:19And I think these days my expectation is probably closer to 10% or 15%.
10:24So, yeah, most likely if regression rears its head, which it almost always does, most likely I'm going to be experiencing plenty
10:32more losing as I regress off this 37% ROI so far this year.
10:36But we'll see. You know, hopefully not. Reminder, this free show is brought to you by Polymarket, one of the world's largest
10:44prediction markets and one that is now available in every U.S.
10:48state. You can go back to episode 1018 for more on my take why prediction markets make sense for people like us.
10:56But the bottom line is really two things. First, price.
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11:58So if you're interested in checking it out, Poly is offering new users a $25 bonus.
12:04If you deposit $10 with promo code ETR. Again, promo code ETR at Polymarket right now.
12:10Deposit 10, get 25. All right. Let's get to everyone's favorite portion of the program.
12:15The listener questions. Bruce or Luke, hit the theme music.
12:19All right. Appreciate the questions from everyone. Going to do three more here today.
12:24Question one from Timmy. He says, how did you meet the big dog, Evan Silva?
12:29Not that crazy of a story, Timmy. This was probably 2006, 2007 or so.
12:34I somehow got a, you know, per hour, hourly job doing NFL and NBA news blurbs at Roto World.
12:41Silva was already there. I believe as a full timer.
12:45He was also blurbing. He was doing NFL only news blurbs.
12:49And, you know, that was just a crazy time for fantasy and sports information.
12:54It was crazy intense because there wasn't really anyone else surfacing the news that people cared about.
13:00Like people relied on us so much for information.
13:03So we read newspapers, you know, online newspapers all day and night, basically.
13:08That was like the only way to get info.
13:11We blurbed 24-7. So all of us, you know, myself, Silva, Wesley, Rosenthal, Pat, you know, Mencio, all of us.
13:19I'm sure I'm leaving out a ton of people.
13:22We would all chat online all day. But we still worked from home, you know, not in the NBC office.
13:29We all worked from home. So the first time, so, you know, not that interesting of a story, you know, how I met Silva online.
13:38The first time I met Silva in real life, though, was in Vegas a bunch of years later.
13:45NBC, who owned Roto World, they sent us out to Vegas for some conference like FSWA or FSTA or something like that.
13:53Silva was winning some award. There was a bunch of talks and networking stuff going on.
13:59Obviously, we had no intention of going to the actual conference.
14:03But anyways, I show up. I text Silva. I'm like, where are you?
14:08He says to meet him near some restaurant. I walk up to this restaurant and I walk up and I see Silva
14:16on the stage in front of the restaurant, like dancing.
14:19Not with a group, just on stage dancing while other Vegas mouth breathers are just eating or walking by.
14:26He's like 6'6", 260. It's so absurd. But anyways, I'm not going to get into too many details here, but I'll never
14:34forget two things from that first Vegas trip. The first thing is Silva wins this award, right?
14:40It's like maybe 11 o'clock in the morning. The ballroom is full, hundreds of people.
14:46And somebody on stage is like, congrats to Evan Silva from Roto World.
14:50Come on up here and accept your trophy. And he's just stone cold not there.
14:56He's sleeping in the room. Man, I was laughing so hard.
15:00That was so good. The second thing from that trip, we had NBC credit cards.
15:05Horrible idea by them. I have no idea why we had them.
15:10Actually, I don't even know if I had one, but Silva did.
15:14So while we're in Vegas, he's using this NBC credit card on everything.
15:19I'm not going to get into exactly what. But anyway, we get back home and our boss just sends an email to us with one sentence.
15:28It said, either you can explain all these charges to me or you can write a check to cover it.
15:36Man, that was such a great email. It was so good.
15:40It's just all too much, man. And those were the days that was so good.
15:45Question two from Winning Streak. He says, true or false, AI should not be used for predictions.
15:51So Winning Streak, I'm not sure exactly what you mean here by predictions, but I think these kind of AI questions are
15:59similar regardless of what problems you're trying to solve.
16:03If you just go to Claude or GPT and say, hey, here's this week's games.
16:08Show me the best bets. You're going to lose in the long run, right?
16:13Like, just like in any business, this lazy mega shortcut way of using AI, it's not going to work.
16:20You know, lazy shortcut way of doing anything is not going to work.
16:25But yes, our team is using AI relentlessly to make improvements to our modeling, to backtest things faster, to find leaks easier,
16:33to code faster, to build things better, to see where we're, you know, messing up in projections.
16:39All that flows through to us making better predictions.
16:42You know, I'm certain of that. But what we aren't doing is just letting AI run without a knowledge base behind it.
16:50Like, people who are already great modelers use AI to do it better.
16:55And they know when something doesn't make sense. Same for developers.
16:59They're pushing code faster and maybe better. But as someone with no real coding background, I'm not just going to jump in
17:07there and start doing it with Claude and expect good results.
17:11You know, same with the ball knowing team. Like, we're using AI to do better research to try to figure out exactly
17:19what the split will be between Helani and Emmanuel Wilson.
17:23We're finding information better and faster in so many ways.
17:26So, yeah, I know I talked a lot about GPT and AI around the thyroid cancer stuff.
17:32I think medical slash health is one of, if not the best use cases of AI.
17:38But no matter what you do or what's going on in your life, I'm 100% confident you should be using it if
17:46you have some knowledge base in the subject already.
17:49Like an example, I'm coaching my younger son's basketball team this winter, third graders.
17:55I uploaded the rules from the league to Claude, described the skill level of my team.
18:00I asked it to suggest defenses to play, inbounds plays, you know, some offensive actions.
18:06If I had never coached before or if I had never played basketball, I wouldn't be able to implement what it was saying well.
18:15But since I have a knowledge base already, it's just a huge help and I can sort out what makes sense and what doesn't.
18:23But, yeah, if you're trying to use AI in sports predictions, I'd just be sure you're following kind of the same path here.
18:32We're going in with some knowledge already and expanding on that and iterating on that.
18:37All right, question three from Jack. He says, got a solo pod question that's been on my mind and curious for your take.
18:46He said, I love how much you guys talk about the business side of ETR.
18:51I'm a casual fantasy player but totally addicted. I don't have the time to grind my cock off to be plus EV on DFS and gambling.
19:00I just love the player takes and strategy for season long.
19:04It feels like most of my favorite fantasy people are gradually going more and more behind paywalls.
19:11I totally see the value for guys who are grinding to make money.
19:15But how do you think about casuals in your paywalls and pricing?
19:20I know we're not the target market and don't expect to be catered to.
19:25Just curious how you all have thought about mass market, if at all.
19:30Yeah, I appreciate the kind words and the question, Jack.
19:33This is all really hard. I don't claim to have the answers and we don't claim to have the issue solved.
19:41It's just really complicated. So Jack loves fantasy football.
19:44He loves season long fantasy football. I'm sure he enjoys all our shows.
19:49You know, shout out to us. But he's a normal human.
19:53He's not a stone cold virgin. Maybe he plays in a $25 buy-in fantasy league with his buddies.
19:59He wants to win, but he's not that intense about it.
20:03We know there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people like Jack out there.
20:09Our DraftKip Pro is $54.99 per year. Considering what comes inside that, you know, all the stuff leading up to the draft
20:17that our entire team dedicates months to. But also during the season, Thorman ranks and waiver wire and redraft trade calculator and
20:25rest of season top 150 and dynasty trade calculator and dynasty ranks and more.
20:30I personally think that DraftKip Pro, which again is $55 a year.
20:35I think it's worth $200 a year, $500 a year.
20:38I don't even know. But definitely way more to me at least than $55 a year.
20:44The reason we make it $55 is frankly to give more casual people like Jack a chance to interact with our content behind the paywall.
20:53We're confident if you do so, at a minimum, you'll want to keep subscribing.
20:58Now, I totally understand. There are tons and tons and tons of people who don't want to spend $55 a year on
21:06fantasy football, even if they think our stuff is great.
21:10That's totally cool. We aren't offended in the least.
21:13Totally get it. I do find it funny when people get pissed off about this.
21:19Like, hey, fuck you, Adam. This should all be free.
21:22Like, first of all, it's RIP. We can do whatever we want with it.
21:27Second of all, here in America, we operate in a free and fair market.
21:33If you do not want to buy our products, then don't.
21:37If enough people don't want to buy them, then we will go out of business.
21:42That is the way the economy is supposed to work.
21:46Now, I suspect Jack, when he says mass market, is thinking about another kind of business model.
21:52One where everything is free, but the business operates off of advertising revenue and sponsorships.
21:57Certainly viable. I'm sure there's companies out there that are doing it.
22:02However, I don't think most people understand how many downloads, viewers, YouTube subscribers, etc.
22:07you need to make real money off advertising. Like, the general public underestimates how hard that revenue path is.
22:14Like, yes, Mr. Beast is killing it on advertising and sponsorships.
22:18Joe Rogan gets zillions in ads. Zillions of money for ads on his podcast.
22:23We do not. Like, yes, these shows are somewhat popular in the scheme of hardcore fantasy football.
22:29They are not popular whatsoever in the grand scheme of media.
22:33The advertising revenue we generate from these shows does not come close to pay our operating expenses.
22:39It's like a fraction. And that's fine. It is a conscious decision by us to do work and create content that attracts the most serious people.
22:49Like, I don't have a desire to get up in the morning and go to work and tell people that Chris Olave is a good start this week.
22:59Or that the Lions are bad on defense. Or that, you know, if Kenneth Walker goes down, we need to pick up Emmett Johnson.
23:08Like, that's not me. That's not us. I wouldn't enjoy this job if I wasn't living in a world where we're talking
23:16about stuff to the people that are grinding down to the nub to try to win.
23:21You know, I used to actually talk to Al Zeidenfeld about this when we were on the DK Pro team.
23:29You know, he always wanted to try to reach more people.
23:33I frankly didn't want to try to reach more people.
23:36I just wanted to create hardcore, the content that I think is right and helps people win, and the products for the hardcore virgin.
23:45I wanted to create that and not worry if we ever hit mass market.
23:50Which you're not if you're operating in this really hardcore niche space.
23:54So, it's a really tough balancing act on pricing.
23:58You know, there are tons of pros and semi-pros and rec-plus people who use our stuff to make four, five, six, seven figures a year.
24:07Those people would pay insane amounts of money for our stuff in some cases.
24:12And then there are some people who use our stuff and they play smaller.
24:17They would not pay insane amounts. It's tough. What I do know is that, like, our goal and what I think we've
24:25done is to create a if-you-know-you-know situation. The actual sharps know who is doing the best work, what that looks like.
24:33They know who has the goods, who's for real.
24:36They know what's valuable. And they know, like, the truth is if we stop doing the best work, those people would move
24:44on, look for another product, and we'd be out of business.
24:48And to that point, we absolutely, positively have to stay ahead of the market and be beating it in every product we sell.
24:56That is not easy. It is absurdly expensive and difficult.
25:00And no way could we afford to stay ahead of the market based on human capital and all the expenses that we have.
25:08There's no way we could do that through advertising revenue.
25:12And so, yeah, we have to charge for products.
25:15And on some products, we have to charge a lot.
25:19And I think we deserve to charge a lot, if I'm being honest.
25:24Like, if we just got on here and fired takes from the gut and that was what was behind the paywall, we
25:32gave some takes, we watched some games, and we gave some takes.
25:36That's not worth very much. But, again, I think what we do is very valuable to the people that are hardcore enough
25:44to use it in the right way and understand it.
25:48It's just expensive to make it. So, yeah, I understand that what I just said there squeezes out casual people like Jack.
25:56And that sucks. I get it. But, again, if I'm being honest, I just think that's right for us specifically.
26:03I think I said on a show in August something along the lines of, like, ETR isn't for everyone.
26:10It's for the top 1% to 5% of fantasy players.
26:13I think some people got pissed off about that.
26:17It wasn't really meant to be a controversial statement at all.
26:21It was just a short way of saying what I just said.
26:25It's a hard thing for me to explain well.
26:28It's just I think of ETR as for the people who are serious enough about this stuff to want the best numbers and want the best info.
26:38And then also for people who know what quality in this space looks like and don't get tricked by people sticking their
26:46chest out and victory lapping all their takes when they have a million other bad takes just like everyone else, etc.
26:54So, and the people who meet those two things I just said, it's not a huge percent of the people.
27:01Like, yes, I get it, Jack. Tens, hundreds of millions of people play fantasy football.
27:07How many of them are actually willing to grind their cock down to a nub to play a well?
27:14I don't know. I'm guessing one to five percent of them.
27:18So hopefully no one takes offense to what I'm saying here, but just is what it is.
27:24All right. That is going to do it for another edition of the Solo Pod.
27:29I'll be back Tuesday evening with Silva for Team by Team.
27:33For Bruce and Luke, for Jerry, the most beautiful beast in the world, I am Adam.
27:39Good luck, everybody. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck.
27:42Good luck.

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