July 1st 2020
The official Start of the 2020 fantasy season for Mitchell Dohm (Owner of the Mitchell’s Lobos and overall good guy).
So, I know what you’re thinking, “what separates July 1st from June 30th?” Excellent question. I learned pretty early in my fantasy career that if I care about the NFL 365 days a year, eventually I will hate it. I don’t have the ability to like anything that much…uh… except for you Hanna… yea…. Anyways, so here’s what I decided long ago, I wouldn’t start reading fantasy articles, listen to fantasy football podcasts or even start looking at my 2020 roster construction till July 1st… Again, I know what you’re thinking… “Didn’t you make a trade this off season?” Well… yes, LOOK I AM NOT PERFECT! STOP JUDGING ME.
Here’s what I am going to do here, I am going to give you everything I use between July 1st to mid-August to get ready for our draft. Yep, you read that right, I am going to give you the secret sauce that leads to my first-round exit in the playoffs every year. Lucky you.
I am going to give you a tagging system to help you people who don’t read my stuff anyways things that are title in GREEN are easy, basically the least you can do. The stuff if ORANGE are more intermediate, for those trying to catch the jacket this year. I am also going to give you three different mediums too. Podcasts, websites and twitter follows. I keep twitter for one reason, that’s for fantasy football and the sweet follows… Alright y’all ready to do this?
Let’s start with a whole orange section, if you are really interested in winning a jacket or if you’re running multiple leagues, there’s nothing better than Mathew Berry’s Roto Pass. It’s a package deal that gets you insider access to several fantasy websites that have season long and daily fantasy articles and line up builders. Basically, some of these websites are so good, you can just give your ESPN account to them and they will manger your team. They will tell you who to start, who to pick up, who to trade for… When I was really going for it, Roto Pass was a must buy, it’s like $120 but I’d make that back and more every year.
PODCASTS
Okay, now that we have some orange out of the way, let’s talk podcasts. The green podcast I have picked is super basic but it in it’s “basic-ness”, it’s perfect for everyone. Someone looking to just listen to one podcast a week and be done or someone wanting fantasy content every day. Drumroll please… My green option is Fantasy Focus Football Podcast*. *Just the Friday episode*. I know you half-assers out there don’t want to listen to hours of podcasts a week, I have good news, just listen to the Friday weekend preview episode of ESPN’s flagship fantasy podcast. It will tell you everything you need to know in about 40 minutes. For my orange option, this one is head and shoulders above the rest for me, The Audible Podcast. Is it the most entertaining? Not really. BUT the information is well worth the pain. This podcast became one of my favorites when we switched to a keeper format because they give more perspectives on players than just the basic re-draft.
WEBSITES
Now, on to websites. Sometimes you don’t have the time or the drive to listen to a 40-minute podcast, you just want to scroll some articles. Don’t worry daddy knows the feeling and he is here for you too. To start with you green people, there is no excuse… NO EXCUSE to not read ESPN articles. They’re on the app, they’re on the website, the are no extra work for you. So, GO READ THE ESPN ARTICLES. I am a Cockcroft believer, I like Mathew Berry, I like Mike Clay, it’s all good, just read it. Now, for you Orange people out here, here’s 3 websites that I have saved to my favorites that I read every when I am bored. The first is an all time favorite for several reasons, it’s footballguys.com. You have to deal with a slight paywall, but if you click around it you can still get to most articles and they have a morning news email that I get every morning that has all the top headlines boiled down to 3 sentences each. During the season, you get to practice updates from every team, you get updates on who carried the ball the most, who got the most targets, ect. It’s well well well worth it. Next is the fantasy page of Pro Football Focus, http://www.pff.com/fantasy. There’s always an article or two to read while you’re taking a poop. Finally, rotoworld.com this is NBC’s flagship fantasy site and it provides you with a different prospective than ESPN. Because so many of us use ESPN, getting a different prospective can give you a huge advantage.
TWITTER FOLLOWS & A BONUS
Finally, some twitter followers and a bonus for my Orange people. In no particular order… Evan Silva, Matthew Freedman, Ian Hartitz, Adam Levitan, Matt Harmon, Peter Jennings. Some of those are daily fantasy guys too, but for the most part, they are put out pretty decent content. It also goes without saying, go follow all the ESPN basic too. Field Yates, Matthew Berry, Mike Clay, ect. For my orange people, you get a bonus, go download the Fantasy Life App. Turn on notifications and then enjoy. You get push notifications for everything major that goes down, well worth the free download.
Alright folks, get to reading and listening, the draft is right around the corner (shockingly it actually is right around the corner).
Ps, Mason and I will be putting out an offseason podcast this week (probably)
The MFL 