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5 Tips to dominate your leagues in 2020.
- Load up on running backs early
- RB Depth is very important
- Wait on Draft a QB
- Stray away from the mainstream advice
- Have a balanced roster
The Counselor lays out some practical advice to give you the edge over the competition this year.
These tips are super practical, and you can apply them, and it’s going to give you a major competitive advantage over the competition, okay? Super practical five tips to dominate your leagues. All right. Let’s talk about the five tips to dominate fantasy football in 2020, five practical tips. Tip number one, guys, it’s very simple and you’ve heard me say this, and some people say, “Well, Joe, you sometimes say the same thing.” That’s great, fine. I want people to say that I’m repeating stuff. That’s great. If you tell me, “Joe, you keep telling me to load up on running backs, this and that. You keep telling me the same thing.” Yes. Do you want me to change what I’m saying? It’s stupid. That’s the stupidest thought process I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
People are like, “You need to change what you say.” That’s not lion mentality, right? If a lion knows he’s going to hunt and he’s got to go a direction to get the deer or whatever he’s going to hunt, he’s not going to go run around the entire jungle and then come up the other side unless he has to and he’s doing some sort of different strategy. But he knows where the deer is going. He’s going to take the path of least resistance and snipe the deer out, right? He’s not going to change his path just because he feels like it. If he knows he’s going to get the prey, he’s going to get it. So I know what’s going to work. I know the formula. And I’m going to keep telling you til everybody gets it, til the mainstream is completely dead when it comes to fantasy football analysis and that old way of thinking is gone.
1. Load up on Running Backs Early
So tip number one, load up on running backs. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s so important and crucial that you have a roster full of running backs, okay? Load up on them, okay? Early. Sorry, that’s what I forgot. Load up on running backs early. That’s tip number one. You got to get them early. Meaning, you got to get those running backs with minimal committees because if you don’t load up early, that’s the keyword here, then you’re not going to get running backs. It’s just a matter of time, right, before they’re all gone. And you’re going to end up with a Phillip Lindsay, you’re going to end up with a Jordan Howard, you’re going to end up with a Marlon Mack, you’re going to end up with guys that are in committees that I would never roster on my team. I would never roster a guy that’s potentially a running back two on their team. You’ve got to be very selective, especially when it comes to running backs. So tip number one, load up on running backs early. Got to get them early. You got to get your Leonard Fournette, your David Johnson round four or round three. His ADP’s going up. Your Todd Gurley‘s, your Josh Jacobs, your Saquon Barkley‘s, your Zekes. And I have a list of all of the running backs that I like in each round in the 16 round draft solution, you guys. You got to load up on those running backs early. Get them while they’re hot because they’re going to be gone. And then you’ll be stuck with a Jordan Howard, which is very, very depressing. And you’ll never see a running back like that on my team, ever. Very selective.
2. RB Depth is very Important
All right. Tip number two, RB depth. So, yes, load up on them early, but you need the running back depth. So what I mean by that, if it’s a two running back league, you need four to five running backs. If you’re starting with a one running back league, you need three to four. So always … Typically, leagues have two running backs to start. I have five to six on my roster. I load up and have RB depth. So tip number one, load up on running backs early. But also have RB depth. So, yeah, you can get … “Well, Joe, I got Saquon, then I went with Jacobs round two. He fell to me. I’m good.” No, you’re not. Because if Saquon gets hurt, you only have one running back. So you need to have RB depth. That’s tip number two. So you can see how crucial and important it is to have the running back position. Because I’ll tell you something, there’s a ton of depth at other positions. Literally, you can wait until the end of the draft and get yourself, Big Ben and Philip Rivers, as your quarterbacks, which is going to get you through the league, right? I mean, if you look at Big Ben, I’m not a fan of him, he may not be on my rosters, but I’m saying you could literally wait. Big Ben’s going undrafted as of right now. His ADP should start climbing. But you know why he’s going undrafted? Do you know why people are not drafting these guys? Is because of recency bias. It’s because Big Ben was hurt last year. He didn’t really rank, right? He didn’t rank top 10 or 15, so he falls off the radar. And that [inaudible 00:05:34] way. That is the way the mainstream analysts think. It’s a very stupid way to think, and you’re not going to win your leagues if you’re going off recency bias.
Give you another example last year, okay, everybody was saying Baker Mayfield’s a top guy. That’s what they said. High-octane offense. He’s got, Odell. He’s got, Landry. First and foremost, I was saying Landry is better than Odell. He outperformed Odell. We all know that. Then everybody thought I was nuts. I mean, I took to social media and said, “Josh Allen will do better than Baker Mayfield.” They’re like, “You’re nuts, Joe.” I’m like, “Well, I’m looking at the last couple weeks of the 2018 season,” or whatever season it was, 2018, yeah. And I was like, “Okay, Allen outperformed Baker near the end of the season. In 2019, it’s going to be a Josh Allen show over Baker.” “You’re nuts, Joe. The mainstream is telling us, Baker Mayfield.”
Baker Mayfield was a top-five quarterback. Now he’s fallen off a little bit, right? Because of the recency bias. But everyone is saying, “Oh, well, Baker Mayfield, this and that.” Buying the Odell hype. And they’re so damn stubborn [inaudible 00:06:30] they put Odell in the first round three years in a row and he busted three years in a row because he’s a big name. So they buy recency bias and they also buy popular names. So going back, guys, RB depth is very, very crucial and you need to load up, okay?
3. Wait on Drafting QB
And then you get to number three, wait on a quarterback. There’s a ton of depth at quarterback. Just to recap here, you got to wait on a quarterback. You can get a ton of guys. Mind you, in my 16 rounds, I talk about having an ace quarterback, as well. And you can even wait up until the seventh round and get yourself a Josh Allen, sixth, seventh round, a Russell Wilson, other guys I like. I explain all of that in 16 rounds. So it’s okay to wait.
Do not invest a second-round pick on Lamar Jackson. The decline is imminent coming off a pinnacle year, and a lot of those yards came from rushing. He was sixth in rushing, guys. Lamar Jackson is a quarterback, was sixth in the rushing yard among running backs. I mean, he rushed more than rushing guys than everybody else except for like five guys, which were like Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, and a couple of other guys, okay? So there’s going to be a decline eminent with Lamar Jackson, so do not invest a second-round pick when you can get yourself a Matt Ryan or Russell Wilson in the seventh round and back him up with a ton of other backups, okay? All right, so wait on quarterbacks is number three.
4. Stray Away from the Mainstream Advice
Number four. We’ve already talked about this. I’ve already kind of dove into it. Stray away from the mainstream consensus rankings and the sheep. Now, I just purchased a magazine just for fun, because I purchase these magazines because I get a good laugh. Last year, I had a magazine, I won’t say which magazine it was. On the cover was Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, I can’t remember who the other guy was. But anyway, they’re telling you guys, “Draft Antonio Brown round two, Le’Veon Bell round one.” And they were just going back to that name, right? And I said, “No, listen, Le’Veon Bell, stay away. He’s on a new offense. He was a product of the Steelers’ offense. That’s why he did so well, right? He’s not that he’s an elite player. It’s that he was a product of the Steelers’ offense. Because I keep saying this, but DeAngelo Williams, when he played, James Connor did just as well with the same opportunity as Le’Veon Bell. So Le’Veon Bell is not that special. The same thing I’m saying with Dalvin Cook. Madison does just as good with the same amount of carries as he does. In fact, Madison averaged 4.6 yards per carry last year compared to the 4.5 Dalvin Cook did. So they’re a product of the offense. They’re not that they’re elite running backs, okay? They are good, but they’re not ultra-elite, okay? They’re not your Saquon, Zeke, Derrick Henry, CMC caliber kind of guys.
So when I say stray away from the sheep, do not listen to the consensus rankings. Do not draft based on ADP. Sometimes you’ve got to reach to get a player that you know is going to really succeed. For example, this year, David Johnson, I might be comfortable grabbing him in the second round because he’s going to be a top-five running back based on volume and opportunity, okay? So you got to look at the opportunity. You got to look at talent. You got to look at the situation. And you can’t draft on ADP. I stayed away from Odell round one three years in a row, and I’m doing good. Okay, so stray away from the consensus rankings. Get the 16 round draft solution. Subscribe to this channel. Because again, this is not your mom and pop [inaudible 00:09:29] shop, okay? This is the real deal. This is the future of fantasy football analysis. I’m here to trail blaze, and that’s what I’ve been doing the past couple years, and I do it for you guys to win. This is about you guys, okay? Genuinely, I’m obsessed with winning. I’m very competitive. I’m ultra-competitive and I want you guys to win. It gives me huge satisfaction when you guys win, and that’s what I’m all about. I’m held accountable for ever pick I have.
Now, lots of people last year said, “Oh, well, Joe, you took David Johnson first overall in a couple of your leagues.” Yes, I did. But he was a top-five across the board. So if I wasn’t going to take him first overall, I was going to take him fourth or fifth anyway, or someone else was. So it’s not a big leap from first to five when you look at it. And he was primed, and he got screwed by Kingsbury because Kingsbury wanted a new offense. Now he’s bringing [inaudible 00:10:14]. I think he’s going to be a bust this year. I understand the ceiling’s high, but I’m not sold on it. So you got to stray away from the sheep is what I’m saying. Think outside the box. And hey, yeah, in some of my leagues, I went Saquon Barkley. In some of my leagues, I went Christian McCaffrey last year because McCaffrey was top four in my rankings last year. But I had depth. Going back to point number one, load up early on running backs and load up RB depth. Point number two, RB depth. Derrick Henry was there and Josh Jacobs was in my third round. So I had David Johnson, Henry, Jacobs. I was good either way, right? In some of my leagues, I had CMC, Henry, and I had Montgomery. Montgomery busted. Fine, I had CMC and Henry. I’m good. And that’s what I did, guys, and it’s about loading up on those running backs, loading up on depth at running back, okay?
So again, let’s recap here. Load up on running backs early, one. RB depth, two. Wait on the quarterback, three. Stray away from the sheep, four. And finally, number five, balance your roster with safe guys and breakouts. Particularly breakouts, okay? Now, there’s no such thing as safe in fantasy football, but I will tell you this, okay? It’s very simple here. You can try to load up on those guys that are secure. Your Zekes, your Christian McCaffery’s, your Josh Jacobs, those guys, early. Davante Adams. The guys who can get the volume early on. You always want to do that, yes. But then you want to start rolling the dice on some guys that could break out. Round five, I may roll the dice on Cam Akers because there’s a high ceiling there. Later in my draft, I may get AJ Dillon. He may steal the job from Aaron Jones, who has only finished one out of the three seasons he’s played, right? So Dillon could come in, step up, right? So you got to know when to take some risks. A guy that I could take a risk later, a sleeper, a fantasy football sleeper over here for you guys, Allen Lazard. A little bit of a risk, a little bit of a wildcard, and who is the guy that’s a wide receiver two on a throw-first offense with Aaron Rodgers. I think they’re going to throw more this year.
5. Have a Balanced Roster
So you got to balance your roster and look for those breakouts, okay? That is tip number five. A good balance of guys that have a high ceiling and a balance of guys that are your safe ace in the pockets kind of guys. You’ve got to have a balance. You can’t always play it safe. Now, I see it all the time in drafts where players typically just draft names, right? So they’ll go with a Phillip Lindsay round seven. At that point, I’m taking a quarterback or something like that. Or I’m taking a guy that’s got a higher ceiling. I’ve loaded up on my running backs early. I would never take a safe guy like Jordan Howard or a Phillip Lindsay like that, right? Melvin Gordon’s there. I would always go for the guys that have the highest ceiling and guys that could potentially be the RB one or wide receiver one or QB with a high ceiling on their team. I never, ever draft players that could be second fiddle to anybody. Ever, ever, ever. I always aim higher on the depth chart.
And I talk about all of this in 16 rounds, and you’re going to get a feel of who I like in each round, okay? So I implore you guys, get the 16 round draft solution. I want everybody to win, okay? Those are your five tips, guys. Simple and easy and practical. And I dove in there and give you a fantasy football draft strategy with each one, gave you some tips and strategies and fantasy football advice to really help you guys get the competitive edge. Keeping it short and sweet with you guys here on a Saturday. And I really appreciate you guys. Make sure you guys smash thumbs up and follow FTFN. We’re taking over. And leave your comments below. I’ll try to answer as many fantasy football questions as I possibly can. Thanks for being here, guys. I am out. Have yourself a great weekend.
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