Glenn Cully takes a dive into some of the nuances of what it takes to put together a championship season in your fantasy football league. Featuring Kobe Cassells and Nick Lavenburg as guest interviews, they get into quite a bit. Whether it be trading players based on byes, drafting rookie wide receivers or stashing defenses for playoffs, this episode will discuss everything you need to lift your trophy come January.
Transcript
*Soundscape of pulling up NFL Red Zone on a Sunday*
Glenn Cully
Those are the sounds of a Sunday in paradise. Cracking open a soda, kicking up your feet, pulling up an illegal stream of NFL red zone and listening to Scott Hansen say the magic word. 7 hours of commercial free football. • • That is a perfect soundscape of what it’s like to be a fantasy football fiend on a Sunday in the fall. And I’m not even including the extra game that you have on the tv that’s on mute because naturally you wouldn’t be able to hear that. Hey everybody, my name is Glenn Collie and welcome to lifting trophies.
*Intro Music*
Glenn Cully
On this standalone episode of lifting trophies, we’re going to be breaking down some tips and tricks for experienced fantasy football players that want to add to their metaphorical bag in terms of fantasy skills in an effort to help them lift their league trophy come the end of the season. Hence the podcast name. Um, before we get into that, you may be wondering how you can trust me. What makes me, Glenn Cully, a reliable narrator? Uh, what are my credentials for this matter? Uh, to put it bluntly, I’m addicted to fantasy football. I’m addicted to the grind. I’ve been doing it for I think seven years now, uh, and I’ve never been more hooked to it than I am right now. Uh, my screen time on the fantasy app spits in the face of the promises that I made to my mom before she got me a phone in middle school. I told her I wouldn’t use it in restaurants. I’ll get in a mock draft in a restaurant so fast it’ll make your head spin. I told her my screen time wouldn’t be too crazy. It’s like we’re doing • • at least an hour and a half a day in the fall and wintertime because that’s what it takes. That’s what it takes to lift trophies, which is what we’re here to do. • • • Um, those are means to an end. Uh, the ends being lifting the trophy, the ends being seeing my friend’s mom write my name and silver Sharpie on the trophy. That is glory. Uh, that’s what we’re all here to do. Um, which is why I’ve committed the time and I’ve put in the work • • • and it shows this year, uh, the hours have paid off. I was early on guys like Devon h Ann. I was early on Kyron Williams. I was early on tank dell. I was early on Jordan Addison. Uh, I made the playoffs in all three leagues. I’m in. Um, • • I’m 22 and 17 despite uh, a devastating back to back weeks where I lost by less than 0.3 points each. Yes, you heard me correctly. In a game where 200 plus points are scored every week, I lost by less than 0.3 in back to back weeks. But • • I love the grind too much. So we kept going, we crawled our way back, uh, and now we’re in a good position in all three leagues. Um, so, anyways, long story short, I care a lot. I care a lot. I know what I’m doing. I know what I’m talking about, and thus, I’m qualified to give you some tips. So, without further ado, I think the best way to tackle these tips, uh, and pallet these pieces of advice, uh, is somewhat chronologically. Um, so my first tip that I’m going to be giving out can and should be utilized during draft season all the way back in the beginning of the fall. Uh, we’re talking drafts. Um, and my number one tip is to draft rookie wide receivers. • • Rookie wide receivers time and time again are cheap to free on draft day, and time and time again, they prove to exceed expectations. • • Uh, they are assets. Not only. Not only do they exceed expectations early on sometimes, but the vast majority of the time, they are assets that continue to get better as the season goes along, as they improve, as they learn the offense more, as their connection grows with their quarterback, their stock grows as the season continues. • • With that being said, let’s look at some of the names that apply for this year. You got guys like Jaden Reed, Tank dell, puka nakua. Uh, these are all people that basically went undrafted this year, and all of these guys have been, uh, • • very much fantasy relevant in some form or function throughout the season. Whether it be a guy like Jaden Reed, that’s more of a stash and hope you play him on a good week. If you really need a flex or a guy like puka Nakua who was like a top three wide receiver through the first month of the season. Uh, they can come in all shapes and sizes, but at the end of the day, if you bet on rookie wide receivers, you’re not risking a whole lot, and the reward is massive. Moving on chronologically, my next tip ought to be utilized a few weeks after you’ve drafted, uh, your presumably smash hit in your rookie wide receiver to sell high on your bench pieces that get off to a hot start. So let’s say you did draft this rookie wide receiver who’s got 20 points in week one and 17 points in week two, and everybody and their mom is offering you trades for him. You might think to yourself, what if he continues to do this. What if he’s just this good? • • • Should I be trading him away? But in my opinion and in my experience, it is so important to be able to capitalize on your bench pieces in order to improve your starting lineup, because • • • • bench points don’t win you game. Starting lineup points are what win you game. • • • Having a deep team is great, but being able to convert that depth into starting lineup prowess is so important. • • • • So if you are getting trade offers that value, one of these bench pieces that you drafted in later rounds, and you’re getting offers that value them • • • • • at, uh, their stock, which is a lot higher now that they’ve had a couple of weeks back to back to back of doing good, the worst case scenario is they continue to do that good and you’ve gotten the appropriate value for that caliber of player. So if you are getting offers for bench pieces that are exceeding expectations, you are getting offers that meet those expectations. And don’t just try to buy them for what you drafted them at the beginning of the season, it’s really important to sell high, uh, because worst case scenario, you’re getting an appropriate deal. And best case scenario, you’re jumping off the ship before it crashes. Now that you have drafted a team that has depth at the wide receiver position thanks to the rookies that you drafted, and then maybe even you traded a few of those rookies and improved your starting lineup, uh, the team looks good, you’re in a good position moving forward, • uh, and now you’re in a spot where you have • • • • • the meat of the regular season coming up. Um, • • • • you got to know, uh, what do I do? How do I respond appropriately? How do I put myself in a good position to progress as the season goes along, uh, and ideally make the playoffs. Um, and here is one of my biggest pieces of advice in that regard, is if things go poorly, do not panic. It is such a • • • • long season. There have been so many times where I’ve had teams that have started owing two o and three, one and three o and four, one and four. And then come playoff time, I’m right in the mix because things break a certain way and all of a sudden your team is hot and you win six of your last nine games. And it’s really easy to do that in fantasy football if you play your cards right and if you stay patient and if you don’t panic. Um, and for this specific instance, I actually, uh, brought on a friend, Nick, um, • Lavenberg, somebody that I’ve been in the league with for a long, long time. Uh, • I’ve played fantasy football with him for a long, long time. Um, somebody whose opinion I respect a lot. I go to him for trade advice. I see who he likes on draft day. Uh, as somebody • • who’s my own • • opinion, uh, • • of fantasy football, I value a lot. His is somebody that I value pretty, uh, • close, which says a lot. Um, so without further ado, to provide some more context on why you should stay patient, uh, if you get off to a slow start to the season, here’s an anecdote from fantasy football expert Nick Lavenberg. • • •
Nick Lavenburg
So, speaking personally, as someone who started off the season a little cold, I think it’s important not to overreact to things. So going into week four, I was one and three with a pretty tough matchup coming up ahead and what I thought was a hole at the running back two position in Damien Pierce. Because of that, I considered options like Austin Eckler’s backup. Since Austin Eckler was injured that week, um, Josh Kelly, he was projected more and he had a better matchup. Damien Pierce had been a disappointment thus far and I really wanted to win that week. • • Um, I ended up not doing the trade, though, for me, Damien Pierce ended up popping off that week and Josh Kelly ended up doing absolutely nothing. • • And • • on top of that, Austin Eckler, the starting back, ended up coming back rather soon. • • • I didn’t actually end up winning that week, but Damien pierce won me some weeks later on. So it really proved that projections aren’t everything. And starting off slow isn’t everything. • • • There is. It’s a long, long season. • • I would say my number one tip is if you start off slow to just relax and stick to your guns, there’s a lot of time, uh, • • • and a lot of games left in the season for you to make up for it. • • • • •
Glenn Cully
We, uh, love to hear that, um, projections are a trap I’ve certainly fallen into many times before. •
Nick Lavenburg
Yeah, speaking of projections going off that, I’ll give the people a good tip. • • So the only thing projections are good for is trades and telling other people that your players’projections mean anything because they absolutely do not. In reality, • they’re awful predictors, but people love them because big numbers make them feel good about their team going into the week.
Glenn Cully
Thank you to Nick Lavenberg, uh, for his insight into keeping a cool head if things aren’t necessarily going well to start your season, uh, • as well as, uh, recognizing useless stats in projections. Projections are such a useless stat. • • I’ve said it a million times before I said it in that interview. I’ll say it again, projections mean nothing. Uh, every single week, • • half of the league is gonna. There’s gonna be upsets in terms of projections. The underdog that’s projected less is gonna score more than the. Than the. Than the favorite that’s projected more. Because projections are a guess. They are projections. • They aren’t concrete in any way, shape or form. Uh, all they are are averages of what’s happened in the past combined with matchups, combined with recent trends. And • • • • • • it can help you get somewhat of a range of who to start, who not to start. But at the end of the day, if you’re really evaluating players projections is not the way to do it. • • • • • Another piece of advice that I have that is particularly important for the meat of the regular season • • involves trades, the trade market, uh, how are you going to dominate it, how are you going to improve your team through it? Uh, • • • • • • and my number one way to do it, because I mentioned before, uh, • • • • • when it comes to improving your team, what you want to do is improve your starting lineup. • • • So that means taking pieces off your bench and turning them into better pieces in your starting lineup. So I mentioned maybe taking that depth. Wide receiver that’s had a hot start to the year, you get a good offer for him, for somebody that would start for you over him. You take that offer ten times out of ten, but a lot of times, that’s a tough offer to come by. And so my next tip is the value of two for one deals, which is what I like to do a lot of times in those situations where I do have a guy on my benches overperforming, I like to take that guy on the bench. Uh, • let’s say it’s tank Dell. Tank Dell got off to a super hot start. He looks amazing. • • He’s probably on most people’s benches, though. Let’s say I have a hole at running back, too. Let’s say I’m starting Gus Edwards there, and I’d like to improve that position. I’ve got one less running back than I need and an extra wide receiver that I don’t need with another person in the league that’s willing to pay for that wide receiver. What I do is I combine the two for one. So the two for one deal, I think it’s extremely valuable. I take that piece that I don’t need in tank Dell, and I combine it with Gus Edwards, the piece that I’m looking to improve. And then I get a better running back, and I fix that hole without creating another hole, because I’ve already gotten rid of a position that I do not need. Um, that is an extremely, extremely valuable trade tactic. It’s one that I use. • • • • • That’s how I look to improve my team throughout pretty much the entire season. My entire season is spent either building my bench up so that I can offload my bench and improve my starting lineup, or I’ve just improved my starting lineup, and now I’m back in the process of building my bench back up through a waiver claims or smaller trades. Uh, • • • • • • • there are various ways to do it, but I’m constantly somewhere in the cycle of either improving my bench to improve my starting lineup or having just improved my starting lineup and having to now improve my bench again as a result. • • And sticking on, um, the note of rebuilding your bench, uh, especially through trade.
Glenn Cully
Uh, one of the things that I’ve picked up on, I actually learned, uh, from a friend, Kobe castles, another individual that I consider a bit of a fantasy expert, if you will. Uh, another person that I love going to for opinions. And he taught me a good lesson • • in terms of fantasy trades. Just this year, actually, just recently, uh, we both learned the value of this, um, because we found ourselves in similar situations. Uh, but to discuss the idea of trading to improve your bench • • here, uh, • is Kobe castles.
Kobe Cassells
Yeah. So one thing that I’ve noticed, and I think I mentioned this a bit earlier, was, uh, just the depth of my team. Uh, is one thing that I’d like to improve on. So when I was drafting, I was just focused on building a stack starting lineup because • • that’s what will get me to playoffs and that’s what has got me to playoffs. But looking back, if I had been a little more active on waiver wires, like, if I had saw the Dalvin cook situation a little beforehand or something like that, then maybe, oh, I’m sorry. I mean, Kareem hunt. The Kareem hunt situation, like, if I had foresaw that, added him earlier, instead, he got scooped up in my league real quick. But things like that would have gone a long way to make me be able to be a little more maneuverable with my trades and whatnot.
Glenn Cully
Yeah, depth goes a long way. Depth goes a long way. Thank you. To Kobe. Uh, and just to went, I went through the same thing this year. Uh, didn’t make enough moves where the goal was to get a better bench piece to, then later on, get a better starter. • • Got, uh, a very near sighted approach to only • • consider, uh, • • a trade if it’s improving your starting lineup. • • I really like the idea of kind of taking it smaller steps at a time and, uh, doing a two for one, with two garbage players on your bench to get a decent player on your bench and then two decent players on your bench to get a top of the bench type player. And then all of a sudden you put yourself in a position where you can make a two for one type of deal like we talked about before. • • Um, the last piece of advice that I’m going to give in terms of trade, • • uh, • • • is this. It is the value • • of, • • uh, trading players • • to teams that you are going to play in the future based on when the players you are giving up will be on by. So what does that mean? Let’s say I have Kyron williams, Rams running back on my team. He’s um, on by week ten. Let’s say week six rolls around and I see three, four weeks from now I’m going to have to deal with a Kyron Williams buy. What I will do in that scenario is I will look to see who I am playing week ten and then I will offer trades with Kyron Williams in it to them. So what does that do? That does a couple of things. Number one, • • • • • • • it puts me in a position where I’m always looking to improve my team because I am always sending trades out there. I am always proposing things where I think I am getting the better deal. And the vast majority of the time you’re going to get no’s. But the times where you get yeses, it’s going to be awesome, it’s going to be a nice surprise. And if you’re sending them out consistently and you’re only sending out things that you really trust and like, you’re not doing yourself any harm. So I like having, uh, a constant prompt to send out trades and this tip serves as that. Not only does it do that, but it puts yourself in a position where if they do accept the trade, you are putting yourself at a massive advantage to win the week that you play them because you are gifting them a starting player that • • • will not be available for them the week that you play them and you are taking some of the players that would have been available to them and they will now be available to you and that player that would have been on buy for you is now on buy for them. So you are setting yourself up for a lot of success in that specific week and assuming that you’ve offered a trade that is good for you regardless of the fact that you are putting yourself in a position to win, this is a smash hit tip for me. Uh, I think it makes just too much sense. I try to do it at least once or twice a season, uh, • • and it always pays off. I feel like I always win that game where I’ve set myself up for success. • • • And wins are priceless in this sport. They’re absolutely priceless. So • • sticking, uh, • • in chronological order, uh, • • we’ve made trades, we’ve ideally improved our team. Now, uh, we head into the playoffs. Um, this last tip that I’m going to give is about approaching the playoffs. Because playoffs are everything. You can go undefeated in the regular season. Then if you lose in the first round of the playoffs, who cares? And in a game as fickle as fantasy, anybody can beat anybody on any given week during the playoffs. Uh, so it’s important to look ahead and make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success. • Uh, and the way that you do that is by having foresight in regards to your matchups, uh, your scheduling and specifically your defenses. So you’re going to want to stash a few defenses on your bench as playoffs get near. Having, uh, • • good players on your bench becomes less and less important as playoffs come up and bye weeks are no longer a thing and you’re starting a more consistent lineup. Having a good bench doesn’t become as important anymore. And with that in mind, as playoffs approach, it becomes more acceptable to drop some of the pieces on your bench that you’ve held onto throughout the season. Uh, when fantasy playoffs rolls around, it becomes much more acceptable to drop these players for defenses. Specifically because, uh, • • having a good defense in a fantasy playoff matchup is so important to setting yourself up for a win. It can be the difference between a player slot that’s giving you negative four points and one that’s giving you 15 points, which can oftentimes swing the entire game and change your entire season. Uh, it can be the difference between you moving on and having your season be done. So just to recap, looking ahead, like probably a month before the playoffs if you’re in position to make it, and looking at some of the guys on your bench where it’s like okay, earlier in the season it was okay for this guy to be on my bench. He’s an investment. Maybe I’ll trade him later on. But now that we’re at the part of the season, there’s not much time for guys to improve at this point. And even if they do, maybe the trade deadlines passed or um, there’s no room in my starting lineup for anybody to crack it. At this point, it’s more valuable for me to drop this guy and take on a defense that I will be starting come playoff time, and it’s especially important to make those decisions early on before any of the other teams in your league do. So you have your pick of the patch in terms of which defenses and which matchups you want to target. • • Uh, and lastly, on a somewhat similar note, uh, making sure you have good matchups for your specific position players. So, uh, trying to get good defenses for your running backs, for the playoff stretch, for your wide receivers, uh, • • • • • • uh. • I wouldn’t blow the team up if you don’t have the good matchups that you’re looking for. But it’s certainly something worth noting. If you have a borderline flex, uh, who has especially bad matchups for the playoffs, it might be worth looking into moving on from him, uh, in the weeks leading up to it. Um, so on similar notes, uh, defenses, player matchups, just being prepared for the playoffs, looking in the future, uh, you always want to be the guy that’s one step ahead and not one step behind in your league. Um, • • • so to recap • the entire episode and some of the tips that we’ve talked about so far, uh, making the right decisions in the draft to set yourself up for depth and then using that depth to improve your starting lineup. And then sticking to your guns throughout the season with your guys without panicking or making any moves that are unnecessary, and then having the foresight to set yourself up for success comes playoffs. This is all a very important and easy to follow path for fantasy success. So if you do all those things and you stay plugged into the trends within the fantasy community, you’re going to give yourself a really good chance to improve as a manager, which is what the aim of this podcast is to help build championship teams. Uh, so hopefully we’ve helped you get closer to that goal today. Um, and thank you for your time and have a great day.
*Outro music*
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