Your Fantasy Football Draft Is COOKED If You Make These 5 Mistakes (2026)
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this video and kept the full transcript here for context.
45 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
No date
Published
17
Player insights
16
Players mentioned
Topics
J.K. DobbinsBaker MayfieldBrock BowersChristian McCaffreyDak PrescottJa'Marr ChaseJahmyr GibbsJoe FlaccoJordyn TysonJosh AllenJosh DownsLamar JacksonMichael PittmanPuka Nacua
Player analysis
Player insights
Baker Mayfield
PositiveValue40:16
Baker Mayfield is highlighted as a successful waiver wire quarterback pickup who provided value after filling in for an injury.
Insight pageBrock Bowers
PositiveValue3:33
Scott Barrett identifies Brock Bowers as a player he loves to draft in eight-team league formats. Additionally, the speaker considers Bowers a target at the 2/3 turn when drafting from the 1.01 position.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
PositiveProjection23:15
Christian McCaffrey is a league-winning asset due to the power law effect, having appeared on 60% of championship rosters in 2023 and providing a massive weekly advantage. Brett Whitefield prefers drafting him over Puka Nacua and Ja'Marr Chase in standard two-wide receiver leagues, citing running back scarcity, despite acknowledging this is a hot take.
Insight pageDak Prescott
PositiveValue3:38
Scott Barrett highlights Dak Prescott as a preferred target specifically in leagues that award six points per passing touchdown.
Insight pageJ.K. Dobbins
NegativeRole35:14
Brett Whitefield describes JK Dobbins as an aging and injury-prone player who is at risk of losing significant work to a year-two running back.
Insight pageNegativeRole35:14
J.K. Dobbins is viewed as an aging and very injury-prone running back, creating a vulnerability in his depth chart standing that allows for younger players like RJ Harvey to potentially seize a larger share of the backfield work.
Insight pageJa'Marr Chase
PositiveValue25:54
Brett Whitefield identifies Ja'Marr Chase as a top-tier wide receiver target at the 1.03-1.04 draft turn in three-wide receiver leagues, though he notes a preference for Christian McCaffrey in standard two-wide receiver formats.
Insight pageJahmyr Gibbs
PositiveProjection27:50
Jahmyr Gibbs is identified as a viable target for managers drafting from the 1.01 position.
Insight pageJoe Flacco
PositiveValue40:16
Joe Flacco is highlighted as a successful waiver wire quarterback pickup who provided value after filling in for an injury.
Insight pageJordyn Tyson
PositiveValue8:32
Ryan Heath suggests targeting players like Jordan Tyson specifically in leagues that include IR spots, as roster flexibility changes draft strategy.
Insight pageJosh Allen
NegativeValue3:26
Scott Barrett advises that Josh Allen's value is highly dependent on league size; he is a target in eight-team leagues but should be avoided in 12-team formats. Brett Whitefield uses Allen as the benchmark for elite quarterback scoring, noting he is the only quarterback who consistently outscores the late-round options he targets.
Insight pageJosh Downs
NegativeBreakout25:52
Josh Downs is a high-upside target who possesses legitimate high-end WR2 potential. While some analysts poke holes in his profile, his current ADP makes him a great pick because the market expectation is already very low, meaning the risk is already priced in.
Insight pageLamar Jackson
PositiveValue7:13
Scott Barrett moved Lamar Jackson significantly up his draft board in a league format featuring 0.25 fantasy points per carry, noting the scoring boost for rushing quarterbacks.
Insight pageMichael Pittman
PositiveValue8:57
Ryan Heath and Brett Whitefield identify Michael Pittman Jr. as a reliable, high-floor player who is valuable to target in deeper leagues where roster depth and lineup requirements necessitate consistent starters.
Insight pagePuka Nacua
PositiveValue25:54
Brett Whitefield identifies Puka Nacua as a top-tier wide receiver target at the 1.03-1.04 draft turn in three-wide receiver leagues, though he notes a preference for Christian McCaffrey in standard two-wide receiver formats.
Insight pageRJ Harvey
PositiveSleeper34:18
RJ Harvey is a preferred late-round target with a clear path to increased volume. While his median outcome may be limited to passing-down work, he has the potential to usurp J.K. Dobbins, who is described as an aging and injury-prone player, with only day-three rookie Jonah Coleman as additional competition.
Insight pageRondale Moore
PositiveSleeper25:21
Rondale Moore is a high-upside sleeper target; while the most likely outcome is a gross three-way committee, there is a 15% chance he smashes in the Jonnu Smith role. This specific upside scenario is valuable enough to justify drafting him despite the low probability, given his history as a productive college receiver.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Ladies and gentlemen, you are watching or listening to Fantasy Football Daily with Brett Whitefield and Scott Barrett.
0:08Except Brett is not here today. He is on vacation. What a slacker. Instead, I am joined by the Golden Boy, the apprentice
0:17who's become a master. I'm here with Ryan Heath. Ryan, today we are talking about the biggest mistakes people make
0:28in their draft. This is a great show for for newbies, but this is also a great show for veterans. Uh, talking about the
0:36biggest mistakes people make in their draft, how are you doing today?
0:50>> I'm doing great. It's the beginning of September. The calendar just rolled over. I can feel it in my body. The
0:57season is coming. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I just can't wait to get into week one of the NFL season. We're right
1:05there. I can feel it. Let's do this.
1:08>> Yeah. Uh so on yesterday's episode, I talked about how it's it it reminds me of being like a sixth century farmer
1:15preparing for the winter and like hoarding all of your grains and being like there's a real chance I just don't survive, you know? So I I got to make
1:22sure everything's perfect here in late August. It's a little bit like that.
1:26It's a little bit like 25th hour but like but like a happy feel like you're excited to go to prison. Um but yeah I
1:35mean just can't wait for kickoff. U but always this time of the year is stressful. You we're we're trying to launch data suite 2.0 which is the
1:44sickest thing in the world. But uh let's let's talk about our our topic for today. The biggest mistakes people make in their draft. I put this number one.
1:55Brian, I put this number one. It's number one is know your scoring settings and how to exploit them. That's that's two things in one. You have to know the
2:06scoring settings. Is it PPR? Is it 10 team? Is it a team? In an eight team league, I love Josh Allen. I love
2:14drafting a Brock Bowers. In a 12 team league, I want no part of Josh Allen. If it's a if it's a six-point per passing
2:22touchdown league, I love Dak Prescott.
2:25In a four-point, I want a quarterback who runs. Um, and so like this is really important and you got to be careful of
2:32these snake like commissioners out here.
2:36I have a story, Ryan. So maybe like five years ago, um my girlfriend at the time, uh you know, worked for an oil and gas
2:46company and it was like a bunch of refin refiners and then the commissioner was an engineer like she was. And so uh we
2:56all go to the the person's house.
3:00Uh, it's a bunch of guys drafting off of magazines and printouts who like don't know anything clearly, but the commissioner knew who I was. The
3:10commissioner knew about Fantasy Points.
3:13The commissioner was a guy who does many FFPC teams every year. Uh, clearly the guy's a sharp surrounded by fish. And so
3:22the first thing I do, again, this is number one on our list, know the scoring settings, know how to exploit them, is
3:27like, "Hey, so this is just like a typical 10 team league, right? This is PPR." And he's like, "Well, yeah, it's
3:34PPR and and some other stuff."
3:38Well, what's the other stuff? It's like, well, it's it's 0.25 fantasy points per carry. It's tight end premium, and it's super flex. And so
3:49like all these guys drafting off their magazines are just like and and like my girlfriend at the time is like uh oh
3:56like are we in trouble, you know, I printed out my rankings already, whatever. I'm like no, this is perfect.
4:02This is awesome. The more you're unique your league is, the easier it is to exploit. Um it's just there's nuance here, like drafting off of my own draft
4:12guide, it gets a little bit trickier. I encourage you to DM me uh or DM Ryan.
4:17We'll we'll help you through it. will walk you out. Uh it's like in a standard league for the first three rounds, maybe
4:23don't draft off of my rankings. Just draft off of our our standard running back projections and just go three running backs in a row. But anyway,
4:33yeah, in this league, I drafted um you know, obviously jacked Lamar Jackson way up my board. I think this was the year Jaylen Herz was an Exodia,
4:43so we took him too. So where that extra 0.2 25 fantasy points per carry goes a long way. We got Derk Henry where he's
4:52boosted in that format. We got some some great tight ends and of course we dominated that league. And so yeah, this
4:59was my number one. Uh how do you feel about this, Ryan? Any comments on this?
5:05>> Incredibly important to know your scoring settings as you're saying also your lineup settings, your bench spaces.
5:12Do you have IR spots? I'm way more into drafting certain guys like Jordan Tyson in leagues where you have an IR spot.
5:20That makes a massive difference, as does bench size, as does lineup size. Uh the more wide receiver spots you have or the
5:28more flexes you have, the more you might need to worry about maybe not typical upside wounds championships types, but just guys that you know you can plug
5:37into a lineup. Your Michael Pitman's of the world are guys that you should think about in these deeper leagues. it. Yeah,
5:44it can be very different the strategy that that you should enter with depending on your scoring settings. The only other thing I would say to this is
5:53every example you just gave does really matter a lot in terms of how you would approach a draft and the order you would
6:00rank or draft players in. One thing that doesn't matter that much to me that I think people overthink like on the other
6:07side of this is PPR versus half PPR in terms of ordering running backs within the position differently in PPR versus half PPR. Ordering wide receivers
6:18differently within the position for PPR versus half PPR. it. There are not very many players where every single year you can go back and look in hindsight how
6:30big of a change was it in terms of was this guy the wide receiver 18 in PPR?
6:36Maybe he was like the wide receiver 17 and half PPR. It's usually one to two spots. It's very rare that that actually
6:44matters within a position for a player's archetype. And I do see people ask about that and overthink about that quite a
6:50bit. So, that was my only other kind of addendum onto that. But overall, yeah, you absolutely have to know all of your
6:58league settings. And that's the first thing that I review every time I I get into a draft. I play in all sorts of
7:04different crazy types of leagues. I always double check the scoring settings before I even enter the draft room. As I load up Yeah. As as I load up Sleeper or
7:13FFPC or whatever it is.
7:15>> Yeah. Yeah. Another one too is Keeper League. That's, you know, Casey Conpsion is a great pick in most leagues. In a
7:23keeper, he's he's probably an Exodia. Um IR spots, like you said, you know, you you that that's a different way to game
7:31it. Another one, too, a sneaky slept on one, Ryan, is how many teams make the playoffs in your league, right? So, if
7:38it's if it's six out of 12 instead of four out of 12, you need to lean all the more into upside. It's really about just
7:47sweeping through your fantasy playoffs and winning those three or four matchups in a row as opposed to making the playoffs. Making the playoffs is kind of
7:55easy. Winning your league is really difficult. You mentioned uh leagues where that that go from two wide receiver to three wide receiver or one
8:04QB to super flex. That has to do with positional scarcity. We're going to get to that later on in this episode. And I
8:11want to move to the second one. But uh dude, what a dirt bag that commissioner was. time. He just he just thought he,
8:17you know, just a nice little $100 investment that's going to come back to him as as 1K in January. Felt so good
8:25kicking that guy's butt in the the fantasy championship that year. Um, number two on the list is near and dear to my heart, Ryan Heath. It's not
8:35knowing upside wins championships. Um, for those who don't know, this is my self-proclaimed magnum opus. It's not a long article. It's not a particularly
8:45brilliant article. It was just at this time more novel than it is today. It was guys, upside is literally all that
8:54matters. Like especially after round five, it's literally you need to be swinging for the fences with every single pick you make. I I I did a Reddit
9:04AMA yesterday, Ryan, and and one of the moderators asked me to explain Upside Wins Championship in as as few words as
9:13possible. And so here's what I said. I said, "The most likely outcome or median projection isn't as important as the
9:22bull case, and the bare case almost doesn't matter at all." Or upside is more valuable than downside is detrimental. Why is this? you have the
9:33the floor, the safety net of the waiver wire to fall back on. And then it's also the power law effect. Fantasy football
9:40is a game ruled by power law players.
9:44Basically, you don't win by being a little bit good everywhere. You win by having the right one to two amazing play
9:53players.
9:55Uh you can read this article. It's free to read. It's in the YouTube description. Uh, but one thing I noticed, Ryan, is is you have a uncanny
10:04knack for taking my thoughts and and saying it better than I could. So, so what are what what are your thoughts on
10:12this? Number two, not knowing upside wins championships. Would you frame that any better than I did?
10:19>> You framed it pretty well. I might frame it a little differently just from the perspective of understanding the range of outcomes of every draft pick that you
10:29make. So, especially when we get a, as you said, past round five or kind of what whatever spot in the draft that you
10:36want to pick to make this point, most of the draft picks that are being made in your league past round five, round six,
10:44and beyond, most of them will not matter much at all. Most of them will end up as 10 to 12 point per game players that are
10:54all kind of the same as each other. Uh this is especially true like at the wide receiver position, which is incredibly
11:01deep every single year with those types of guys, 8 to 12 points per game.
11:05Running backs are a little different, but a lot of them will just kind of get meired down into these committees where
11:13there's not all that much fantasy value on any end of it. There are just a lot more ways for a player to fail or for a
11:22player to not matter or for a player to be mediocre over a full season than there are for a player to really matter
11:30to separate themselves from the pack there. As you look back on your draft, if you look back at the end of the year
11:38in hindsight, there are always going to be a handful of picks, maybe five or six of them at in at most after the first
11:46few rounds where you're like, "Yeah, that was where that guy won the league.
11:50It was a handful of these picks." And so you might as well set yourself up beforehand by thinking entirely about
12:00how high can this player get, how well can he hit, what has to happen, how likely is it for him to hit an upside
12:09outcome. That's just the primary question that I'm asking myself when I'm ranking players, when I'm choosing which players to write up in my draft guide.
12:19That's the overwhelming thought behind most of my analysis is how how likely is the massive upside outcome and how impactful is it for each of these
12:30players. So for a running back that could win a larger role, for example, that could be really big for a wide
12:39receiver that has been in the league for eight years and he's finished between the wide receiver 30 and the wide receiver 20 every single year. very
12:47unlikely that that guy is going to matter. My rankings will probably be wrong. There are probably a lot of players that I have ranked that will not
12:56finish anywhere near where I have them ranked or they will finish behind players that I have ranked below them.
13:01But that's okay as long as the guys that I've buried aren't the ones that kill you, aren't the ones that have the
13:08massive upside outcome that you missed out on. That's what I'm optimizing for in my analysis, in my rankings, is rank the rank the guys high that could be the
13:20handful of difference makers. It is not at all me trying to rank the guys that will finish one fantasy point per game
13:27ahead of the guy behind them. That's just not how I approach it. So, yeah, really I I would just kind of relate
13:33this to look at our content, follow our draft guide, follow our rankings. Scott and I are thinking about this constantly. It really is all that
13:42matters in fantasy football. So yeah, go go check out all of our content at fantasypoints.com and subscribe.
13:48>> Yeah, I just pulled up the stat from from Kyle's anatomy of a leaguewinning running back article. In 2023, McCaffrey uh was landed on a championship round
14:00roster in 60% of ESPN leagues. That's really the power law effect. It it felt impossible uh to win without him. it felt
14:10impossible to lose with him and he's done that many times throughout his career. Um whereas like the low-end RB2s are basically worthless. The low-end
14:18tight end ones are basically worthless.
14:21Why? Because the replacement player on waiverss is like yeah 1.1 fantasy points per game behind that. But but P Christian McCaffrey will average like
14:32seven fantasy points per game more than the RB5 in any given season. Um, but like what you really just was talked to
14:38is something that I you see all across the industry is a lot of these people I talk to and respect and and like you
14:46know you hear them talk and it's like it's clear that they're ranking these players based on the most likely outcome and they just kind of don't get this
14:55argument where it was like something that just came like from the start 10 12 years ago intuitively to me and I think
15:02it's like how you hear investors like contrarian investors like Seth Clarman and Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger talk about how it's like it's it's
15:11almost like a genetic trait, you know?
15:13It's just like some people cannot cannot comprehend it this way. I don't know why. Um but it's it's yeah, it's it's
15:21the most likely outcome doesn't always matter. Like we were talking Ronda Gatson like two months ago and I know this isn't the best example today but
15:30it's like okay the most likely outcome is this is like a super gross three-way committee but there's like a 15% chance
15:38um you know he smashes in the Janu role.
15:41He was this great uh productive borderline wide receiver in college and so like that that upside scenario is so valuable even though it's only 15% odds.
15:52you know, this is a player I like I like taking that chance on. Um, or maybe like another good one is is Josh DS who like
16:02I see legitimate high-end wide receiver two upside for him and and Brett Whitefield just keeps poking holes in that and I just keep having to tell him
16:11like it doesn't matter. It's it's priced in. Like you look at the range where he goes and drafts and the expectation is
16:21this guy is not going to be on your playoff roster 97% of the time. Not in FPC league, but like ESPN, he goes crazy
16:30late. He's not going to be all these players in this round, like none of them are going to be on these teams uh
16:38rosters in playoff time. And so that's the expectation. So then it's like all that matters, yeah, is that's exactly right, is the upside. And the fact that
16:47he has so much more upside than these guys going around him in drafts, I think makes him makes him a great pick. U, but
16:56I'm a I'm a more cogent writer than I am a a speaker. So um maybe check out that article uh for for a more persuasive uh
17:07argument. Next one on their list, Ryan, is I couldn't figure out the best way to say this, but it's it's drafting
17:16quarterbacks too early. That's like the biggest rookie mistake is, you know, people draft a quarterback in round two in their league. Uh, and the experts and
17:25pros really say, "No, no, no. You want to be waiting at the position." Uh, you really want to be pushing that. You want
17:31to be one of the last teams to take a quarterback. um taking tight ends too early or feeling pressured to fill out
17:40your starting lineup be be we don't do that. Ryan Heath and I don't do that. We we draft uh bench running backs and wide
17:48receivers before we ever take a quarterback. And like this is also tied into uh the fact that power law players, league winners are generally running
17:58backs and wide receivers. This also ties into the notion of positional scarcity.
18:04How would you frame this, Ryan? How would you uh what immediately springs to mind when hearing this topic?
18:11>> It really is as simple to me as the vast majority of players that are league winners, however you want to measure
18:20that, whether you do what I did in my article, Anatomy of a League Winner. uh just looking at players that got on to
18:27playoff rosters in over 55% of leagues.
18:29If you want to measure it that way, if you want to measure it by championship rate, any of these outcomebased metrics
18:36for how much did these players really matter in fantasy football this year, they are all pretty much just going to show you that the vast majority of guys
18:46that matter that are making all these playoff and championship teams are running backs and wide receivers. the minority of them pretty clearly are
18:57quarterbacks and tight ends. And if you beyond that, just the raw number of running backs and wide receivers that matter being higher. If you zoom in on
19:06the early rounds versus on the late rounds, the overall trend is it's easier to find the quarter or just as easy to
19:15find the quarterbacks and tight ends that matter late in your draft than it is to find them earlier. as as in you
19:23can pretty much only find really good running backs and wide receivers early.
19:28It is much harder to find them late.
19:30Quarterbacks and tight ends, you can find league winners at any point in your in your draft. So just optimal resource allocation there if you only have a
19:38certain number of draft picks uh in your draft is to use the most valuable ones on the scarcest assets on the things
19:47that you can only get with those premium picks which most often are just those league winning running backs and wide receivers. So, I agree with everything
19:58you just said. In your typical fantasy league, your one quarterback league with two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, and a flex half PPR at a
20:07full PPR.
20:09You are massively incentivized to punt off the quarterback position and really the tight end position until you either
20:18have a value so amazing that you can't resist it and that it's not going it's at a point in the draft where it's not
20:25hurting you at running back or wide receiver or literally just wait as long as possible is also a totally uh viable
20:34way to go. the difference between the quarterback 7 and the quarterback 12 is often not that high in f in fantasy
20:43football. So you are you are always just incentivized to go for that that upside outcome at running back even if it's the
20:52second like the second running back on your bench if it's a guy that you think could kind of break through in a
20:58committee. An RJ Harvey is like an example of this for me this year where I totally understand the median outcome of
21:05an RJ Harvey is he just kind of plays passing downs. Maybe he's a low-end to kind of okayish flex, but the outcome
21:14where a year two running back takes over more of the work from a JK Dobbins, an aging, very injuryprone player, his only
21:23other competition is a day three rookie Jonah Coleman. I can paint like an upside picture there to where I would always just rather take that shot even
21:31if most of the time it's not going to pan out. I'd rather take that shot than getting one quarterback that I have
21:39ranked one or two spots ahead of a different quarterback if that if that's the decision that I'm making in say round seven of drafts. So that that's
21:46how I really think about it. I think at the running back and wide receiver position, the cliffs are just much sharper in that there comes a point in
21:54drafts where you can suddenly no longer talk yourself into really any upside scenario for any of them once you get
22:03like into these team RB2s, the clear contingent handcuffed guys or the the wide receivers that just don't have all that much talent, are buried on bad
22:12offenses, etc., etc.
22:15there comes a cliff at both of those positions. And there really is no cliff at the quarterback and tight end positions in your typical 10 to 12 team
22:23league with those settings I just outlined because yeah, right up until the last round of your draft, there are viable upside candidates and you can add
22:32viable upside candidates on the waiver wire in most of these kind of shallower leagues as well.
22:38>> Yeah. So, what you're saying here is there there's a lot of par at the quarterback position. And it's really deep. And that's that's exactly the
22:45case. If you look at it, like QB6 through QB 14 most years is like basically the same guy. There's like almost nothing separating them. So it's
22:56a high parody position. More than that, it's also ADP is really bad. It's every single year I have an Exodia quarterback
23:05in the double digit rounds and every year that quarterback outscores every other quarterback except for Josh Allen.
23:12And it's like I'm not I'm not a genius.
23:14I can't predict the future. It's just like legitimately, trust me, ADP is really bad. The quarterback position, I don't know how they don't understand the
23:22Konami code. We're in 2026, but we've done it again. I feel really good about my Exodia quarterback this year. Um, but
23:29here's like the crazy thing is like you're honestly going to be fine even if you don't draft a quarterback. If you
23:37leave your draft without a quarterback, you'll be fine. Uh JJ Zachares has shown this. He does the Living the Stream podcast is like over the last 10 years
23:48he's cobbled together on average QB7 QB8 levels of production streaming the position. What does that mean? It just means he just plays matchups and he adds
23:59and drops a different quarterback every single week. That also, by the way, doesn't even factor in like he doesn't allow himself to hold quarterbacks. So
24:08like last year he could have just picked up Matthew Stafford in week three and then held him all year and got the QB3
24:16the year before that Baker Mayfield Joe Flacco uh filling in for uh an injury and it's so like like yeah it's
24:24it's yeah this is this is why I say you know punt quarterback. Don't be afraid to punt quarterback. It's not that important.
24:33And so like all of this is tied into positional scarcity as we were saying before. Um where the math really changes
24:41if you move from a one quarterback to super flex league. And you could do the back of the napkin math with me right
24:48now. So in a one QB league there's 12 starting quarterbacks and then half the teams have a backup while there's 32
24:57starting quarterbacks in the NFL. So that means only 56% 18 of 32 quarterbacks are rostered. But in a superflex league, you have 32
25:06starting quarterbacks in the NFL. 24 starters in fantasy. Ideally, you want uh that superflex spot going to a quarterback because they score more
25:15fantasy points than the other position, which is why people make that rookie mistake, by the way. They just see them more fantasy points. They don't see it
25:22relative to their in positional peers.
25:25So 24 starting quarterbacks in in their fantasy league. Then 10 teams have a third quarterback and then two teams have a fourth quarterback. So if you're
25:34one of those teams with only two quarterbacks, your quarterback goes down like you could really get bullied. They could really uh price correct you. And
25:42so it's yeah, that's really, you know, what it comes down to. Same thing with wide receivers in a in a two wide
25:50receiver league, which by the way still today, Ryan, is like 70% of all leagues.
25:54Um, I would draft CMC over Puka and Jamar Chase. That's that's admittedly a hot take. Not a lot of people, including at
26:03Fantasy Points, agree with me on that.
26:05But yeah, in a three- wide receiver league, yeah, of course, I want Puka and Jamar Chase uh at the 103 104. Uh, but
26:13generally most valuable position in fantasy is running back because again, it ties into that positional scarcity thing. There are 32 starters, but like
26:2210 of those are in worthless, you know, 5050 committees at least. Uh, and then there's 24. I mean, with a flex, there's
26:32really like 32 you want to be starting every single week in your league. So, um, yeah, I I think we I think we nailed
26:39this one, Ryan. Next one on my list is not doing drafts before you draft. And I think this is the best way I could frame this, Ryan,
26:50is is asking you a question is how do you prep for your leagues? Let's say you're in your home league tonight.
26:58You're in an FFPC main event tonight.
27:01How are how are you preparing for that?
27:04What are you doing?
27:07>> So, first, as I mentioned, I'm always reviewing the scoring settings as the first thing I always do. Second, I find
27:16out my draft position, assuming hopefully I know it at least like an hour before at at worst the draft starts. I figure out my draft position
27:25and from there I pull out my rankings and I start mapping out roughly what I think my first few picks could be. If
27:36I'm drafting at the back end of round one, my rankings right now are probably going to push you toward a running back
27:44running back start a lot of the time from that position. If I'm toward the front end of the first round, if I have
27:50the 101, cool, I can get Jir Gibbs and I'm kind of expecting to go wide receiver, wide receiver or wide receiver
27:57plus Brock Bowers at the 23 turn. And from there, that's step one. Now I know, okay, in round four and round five,
28:06because of where I've already spent draft picks at these positions, maybe I'm looking at this group of players at this position because now this is more a
28:15position of need. Of course, in the actual draft, I want to remain flexible.
28:21I want to be very open to uh value falling down the board. I'm always happy to pivot if I'm presented the
28:29opportunity, but I going into a draft, I want to know kind of the base expectation of where I'm drafting each position because that knowledge, just
28:41knowing further down the board, there's going to be this pocket of running backs that I like two rounds from now, that's
28:47valuable information when I'm on the clock making a decision between a running back and a wide receiver or however else you want to set that
28:55example up. So, yeah, review my settings, figure out my draft position, and kind of just run through either with my rankings or in literal mock drafts,
29:06which I think you should be doing. If you're in only one league and it drafts tomorrow, you should be in mock drafts
29:12today. Uh, drafting from that spot, just getting reps in, getting practice in, and kind of understanding what your possible decision points could be at
29:21each point in your draft.
29:23>> Yeah. Yeah. So, so what what do I do is, you know, I well, I do have an FFPC draft today and and what I'll do is
29:30I'll, you know, export to CSV, my own personal rankings. I'll I'll export to CSV, FFPC, ADP, or just really copy and
29:39paste from the draft room. Um, and then I'll have my my draft spot. Let's say I'm drafting from the the 112 uh Ryan.
29:49So that means I have pick 12, 13, 36, 37, etc., etc. So I list that out. I in
29:59my spreadsheet, I just I just mark off, you know, here's the 12, here's the 13, this is where I'm liking likely drafting
30:07from from my rankings from ADP. I'll probably do a VLOOKUP and merge them actually. But um and then like I'll plot
30:16out my perfect draft. Oh, and and by the way, I'll I'll like in red font, I'll make sure I highlight in some way the
30:23exodas, the mustdraft players, the players you want to build your draft around. And so, uh, so I'll look at,
30:31yeah, again, the 112, the 2011, the 30, uh, the 312, the 401, who's most likely available there. Um, do I want to reach
30:42on this one Exodia here? And so, like, I'll plot out my perfect draft.
30:47typically starting from the middle with the the clear extreme values more than anything and then um yeah and then I I
30:55just kind of look at who's likely to be does it make the most sense for me to start RB RB I think this year Ryan we
31:02both agree it's it's really optimal to start RB RB uh but yeah I'll do this I'll do a bunch of mock drafts I'll go
31:09crazy um uh because I you know I really want to get the best edge possible um but you don't have to do that Ryan
31:18because this leads us to number five on our list. Um, and I I mean this with no hint of like I'm not being a shill here.
31:27It's it's number five not subscribing to fantasy points. This is really a tremendous major edge. Um, I have helped so many people over the years who do not
31:38know uh who've never watched a game of football, including the Super Bowl, who do not know what a cornerback is, don't
31:45don't know what a wide receiver is even, not just win their leagues, but absolutely annihilate, absolutely dominate their leagues. Uh, and and
31:54really all they need are three things.
31:57One, my rankings andor my draft guide.
32:00And by the way, you don't even need that anymore, Ryan. I don't know if you saw we we released a new feature with our
32:06ball knowledge AI. Um all subscribers have access to this uh or ball knowledge AI. You could just um screenshot your
32:17draft room as you're drafting and click Scott mode and it tells you exactly who I would draft. Like it's not going to be
32:23perfect, but it's like pretty damn close to having me over your shoulder while you're drafting. But this is what I I
32:30all you really need is my rankings or my draft guide or ball knowledge one and then two in season is read the our
32:41award-winning waiver wire column every week to know who to add drop and then three make your start sit decisions based off of our projections. We had the
32:50most accurate projections in the industry last year. And uh yeah, so that should give you confidence when making these start sit decision. It's really
33:00that simple. And so Bruce Jacobson asked um he'd love to hear a story or an anecdote about how I helped a non-
33:09football fan crush their league using fantasy points. And yeah, so shout out to my friend Cece who, you know, daughter of Chinese immigrants, never
33:19watched a game of football before, never cared about football.
33:23She is like a working New York City as a VP of something, surrounded by genius geniuses who like love and are obsessed
33:34with football. They go watch Thursday Night Football together as a as a company every single week. and she she doesn't know anything and she's like,
33:42"Hey, can you help me out with this?"
33:43I'm like, "Yeah, you really just do three things. You read my draft guide, draft off of the rankings and ADP." Uh
33:51so so you get the the best value you can. Should have said that in the last one, but uh and then two uh read the
33:58waiver wirecom. Honestly, just skim through it. It's pretty simple. It's we have a TLDDR section for you. And then three, uh you know, make your start sit
34:08decisions based on our projections. She destroyed them, Ryan. These This is not a soft lead. These were like elite balln knowowers, but she she destroyed them.
34:17She didn't lose a single game. She had a perfect undefeated season. She and Nile, they were like, "Oh my god, you are like
34:24the best fantasy football player. You should be the next Matthew Barry, CeCe."
34:28Uh she really got into it like in the halfway point and and and kind of fell in love with football and fantasy
34:34football. Uh shout out CeCe. And so yeah, that's one of my favorite stories.
34:39Uh, but really like in most leagues, like most home leagues, I really do think it's it's that simple. Um, what do
34:47you what do you think about this one, Ryan? Do you disagree? Do you think people shouldn't subscribe to fantasy points? You think they should subscribe
34:53to to football guys? Is that what you're saying?
34:56>> No, Scott. People should absolutely subscribe to fantasy points. I want to like one up, probably not one up, but I
35:04want to match your anecdote here with another anecdote that I find very funny.
35:09So, I have a close friend who had never played fantasy football before, didn't really know much about football, had been to maybe one tailgate ever in his
35:21life, but for whatever reason, he was invited to this league and he said, "You know what? I have a friend, Ryan Heath,
35:31that works at Fantasy Points that I'm sure would be able to help me out or would know what to do. So, I'm gonna
35:37join. And I set him up with basically exactly what you just said. Yeah. Read the draft guide. Use the rankings against ADP. Follow our projections.
35:48Follow the content. This is what you've got to do. He absolutely destroyed the league. Came in first place. was dropping like 200 points every single
35:58week in the playoffs. It was the Brock Party plus Chase Brown fantasy playoffs experience that this guy got to have from last year. And this year, I just
36:08heard from him recently, he said he got kicked out of this league because he told them he had never played fantasy
36:15football before. Came in dominated with the fa with the fantasy points recommendations. And now he's like, "Now you need to get me into other leagues.
36:25What What can I do here? I want to keep playing. This was so much fun." But these guys kicked me out of their $50
36:31league because they [laughter] thought that I was a fish or whatever that I I was going to be easy competition. So
36:37that if that is not like an just an amazing recommendation of of fantasy points and everything that we
36:46can do here, I I don't know what is.
36:49Yeah. I just really believe in this product, in this company, and everything that we put out in terms of just making
36:58it as easy as possible for you to dominate your fantasy football league.
37:02Every single person here is so bought into that mission, cares so much about it. It's so fun and energizing to work
37:10and to be in that environment, but it really shines through and it it does show up in the results of the people
37:19that subscribe, the people that can follow our content. So, yeah, I I can't recommend subscribing to Fantasy Points uh more than that, I don't think.
37:28>> Yeah, I I want to be transparent here.
37:30Like, it's no sure thing. I can't promise you a guaranteed championship, but like in these softer work leagues or home leagues, like I'll say I personally
37:39outside of my league where all my friends draft off of my rankings, >> outside of that one, uh I I probably win
37:45these 50% of the time. I win the championship 50% of the time, which like on average it's what it's supposed to be
37:51what 12% 8%. So, uh certainly like well above your expected rate. Um although like it's not the case that like I lose
38:00the championship 50% of the time. Some of some of the time like these are these are teams that don't make the playoffs.
38:06That's kind of like intentionally our strategy tying back to upside wins championships is like like if you look at my teams in October, it's
38:16I I I'm usually not the best team. I'm like I have more one and four teams probably than 4 and 0 teams even or one
38:24and three instead of 4 and 0. uh that very well could be that's just like an intent intentionality with how I draft
38:31or how I've historically drafted. I've tried to adjust that a little bit this year. But um but yeah, still like yeah,
38:37win the championship like 50% of the time or better. Um and that's really the goal. Like it's it's it's not to make
38:44the playoffs. That's easy. It's to win the championship and building a team capable of sweeping through the playoffs, winning all those games in a
38:52row. That's that's really hard. But yeah, certainly fantasy football is a blend of of luck and skill and so you do
39:00need a to be a little bit lucky. I'm sure CC got lucky that year. Um I I'll get the plug in now and then then we can
39:08kind of wrap up, Ryan. But uh I I I just genuinely want to know your answer to this question is what do you think it is
39:16that makes Fantasy Points great? What makes us special? What makes us the best? What is it?
39:25>> I kind of just hinted at it in what I was saying earlier. I I think it really is that every single person here,
39:32whether it's people that are in content, people that are behind the scenes, producer Trey, everybody just with in every job and every role that exists in
39:44this company, just cares so much and just really wants to put out a worthwhile and valuable product of whatever it is that they're working on.
39:54and and all of it is ultimately in service of we want to be right. We want to help people win their fantasy
40:02football leagues and all of us just live and eat and breathe it and it's just so much fun to to every single person. So,
40:11I think that really just it I don't know, maybe that's like a corny answer, but I I think it really is that having
40:17worked in other industries, doing other jobs in my life, I've never been in a workplace that's anything like that where everybody really wants to be there
40:27and really cares and is really invested in everybody's success. That just is like a very rare thing in my experience.
40:35And that's exactly what we have at Fantasy Points. I I think it really shines through in terms of the results that we get for our subscribers.
40:43>> Yeah. So, that's a that's our culture and I'm really proud of it is like we we're we're genuinely feel like we're chasing
40:50greatness. We're pursuing excellence. We have an extremely high bar. And that high bar is our moat where like if someone gets hired by fantasy points or
41:00someone writes an article for fantasy points, we're like, "Whoa, that's so impressive. That's really hard to do."
41:05It's like, you know, any Joe Schmo could just drop an article, but to to get published on fantasy points, and that
41:11was like kind of the case with you and me, Ryan, where like I was so hard on you. And it like I described it as like
41:18something out of an anime where it's like, okay, there's a 50% chance he dies, but if he doesn't die, he's going
41:25to be a Super Saiyan. And that's exactly what happened to you.
41:29Uh, and so like, yeah, that's that's really important where it's like like why are we doing these things? It's not it's not so we can make more money and
41:38gouge our our customers, which is what all these other companies are doing.
41:43It's like they're all beholden to to venture capital. I think like football guys, by the way, I wasn't taking a shot
41:49at them. I hung out with Sig Bloom last week. Was on the phone with Joe Bryant.
41:52I love football guys. They're the best.
41:54um they they're not beholdened to venture capital or private equity money, but like all these other companies around the industry are. So like they're
42:03very short-term profits oriented. Whereas with us where you know who owns fantasy points, it's all fantasy football legends. It's
42:13myself, it's John Hansen, Graham Barfield, Brett Whitefield, Joe Dolan, Tom Broly or developer Brock and that's it. And so like we we're not beholdened
42:24to outside you we could we could just build sick products and not have to worry about money and paying off investors. Um and so that like like the
42:34data suite 2.0 everyone I've showed it to is like this is literally what the NFL teams pay six figures for if not
42:41better except you're charging 1 1th the price. You're an idiot CEO. Like you're stupid. This should have been a B to B
42:50product and you should have charged $50,000 a year for it. And it's like, why did we do that? It's not so like,
42:56oh, we could destroy the competition.
42:58It's not so we can make a ton of money.
43:00It was literally just like you, me, and Chris just like, hey, what? How could I build like the sickest tool that could
43:07make doing my job easier, can make like, you know, finding good bets easier? uh breaking down a game easier and like as
43:17quickly as possible and like and that's how it came into existence and then it's just like the money is secondary. It's
43:23like hey let's just let's give this to people and build cool [ __ ] Like when you're writing articles you're like oh
43:29Scott's going to love this one. Scott's going to think this is really cool. When Kyle writes an article it's like oh I'm
43:34I think I'm going to really impress Ryan with this this round of edits. And so like I legitimately think that's our
43:40mode is like we just care more. And it's also just downstream from the incentive structure. I say this on every podcast
43:47is show me the incentive, I'll show you the outcome. If you leave uh if you leave sugar on the ground, like you know
43:55what's going to happen? Ants are going to come. And so it's like we're just building cool [ __ ] and love and are
44:01obsessed with fantasy football. And then like I think everything comes comes after the fact once you once you have we just like want to just like we just want
44:10to build the sickest football site that's ever existed. Uh >> that's a mic drop.
44:16>> If you if that sounds interesting to you, cool to you, uh encourage you to join the Fantasy Points team. Uh use
44:23promo code Exodia for 15% off. EX O Dia A. Um basic subscription is $60. before that 15% off, you get access to my draft
44:33guide, Ryan's draft guide, our conjoined draft guide. Uh, and then in season, we got the best projections, we got our waiverwire com, Ryan's everything
44:44report. Um, and, uh, you know, if that's not for you, if you just want to be a free rider and check out the YouTube,
44:51we'll we'll take a uh a subscribe, we'll take some comments, uh, and some likes and and whatnot. So, just thanks to
44:58everyone who who tuned in for this and uh we'll see you guys next time.
