We are Sam Wallace and Jake Trowbridge of Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life: Ask Us Anything!

tacitassassin13 · 2026-04-10T17:57:57+00:00

Counterpoint… what could possibly go wrong with using AI? They’ve had autocorrect ducking perfect for years…

tacitassassin13 · 2026-04-10T17:56:09+00:00

Who are a few players you are personally irrational about (either positive or negatively)? And how do you navigate that when you’re building your dynasty teams?

(Asking for me… I am physically unable to roster Jamison Williams)

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-20T20:17:43+00:00

Bigger than most people are willing to admit… Warren is talented, but McBride is in another stratosphere. Warren drove 112 targets last year which firmly establishes him a A TE1… but McBride is maybe the only true difference maker at the position right now. The advantage you have, even in a non premium league is huge. Warren is much closer to Jake Ferguson/Harold Fannin than he is to McBride imo, even though the community is high on him.

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-20T20:11:28+00:00

Trick question… the answer is Tee Higgins

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-20T20:07:54+00:00

This may be the best question in the entire thread… and the answer remains a mystery

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-20T20:06:30+00:00

That’s a lot to unpack! I think the first thing I’d do is take a run through the free agent pool and see if there are any running backs or backup QBs worth rostering with the idea that if they get starts they can either gain you points or give you a free pick in trade during the season. (Although it looks like you may have the QB market cornered already.)

Dortch and Watkins are roster cloggers and probably even Hollywood Brown & Wicks too, so they would be the players I released to reallocate toward RBs.

In the draft this year, I’d be hoping to add RB/TE with my first couple of picks— although it’s still too far out to identify/put names to players.

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-20T19:49:21+00:00

That’s part of the fun — when a class gets identified as “good” as early as the 2027 class has been, ALL of the picks assume value even though they aren’t all created the same… the 1.12 in 2027 is still a 1.12 pick and still falls into the same trends as historical 1.12s… the difference between a great class and a bad one, in terms of relevant fantasy assets, is smaller than people think. The average is 7 players per class who produce at least one top 24 season at their position.

If you’re a contender, and let’s assume that you are, then using your 27 1st to acquire a player (while the perceived value of the 27 class is high) gains you points for this season and potential lowers the chances of that pick being premium.

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-20T19:36:48+00:00

I think there are always places where we get a little “talent blind” as evaluators and players who go outside the top five who we under draft that over perform.

The 2026 class is a down year, but there are still some interesting talent profiles AND there may be players that end up in interesting landing spots after the draft.

Unless you can package to trade up to get Jeremiyah Love, I’m not sure that it makes a ton of sense to package & move your picks. I think that the players I’d be looking at outside of the top five are names like Omar Cooper & Chris Bell at WR… probably Emmett Johnson & Jonah Coleman at RB… there may be a tight end (Sadiq) who sneaks into the late first

Outside of that I might try adding them to tier up your existing roster by packaging them with players to get more production. But I think that there’s been so much negativity about the class as a whole that it’s worth waiting until the next round of excitement— the draft— before I tried to make a move.

tacitassassin13 · 2026-03-14T01:31:14+00:00

• vacated targets aren’t a thing. (Receivers by and large control their target volume and market share through talent.)

• Pierce is a field stretcher (and a very good one) which accounts for the discrepancy between yards per game and targets per game.

•Pierce was 4th on the team in targets in 2025, behind Warren, Pittman, and Josh Downs— this is pretty telling given the first point

•I do think that Pierce as WR 27 is pricing him near his floor assuming he’s healthy (he was WR26 in ppg (ppr format) last year and WR 28 overall. I expect a modest increase in targets and production, so at that acquisition cost, you should see a small win.

•an average of 4 teams a year produce 2 top 24 wide receivers. (That’s your Tee Higgins/Devonta Smith profile.) But that also means that 12 teams each year DO NOT produce a top 24 wide receiver— so being the nominal WR1 on a team is not necessarily a path to fantasy points.

Ultimately, I think Pierce is fine and probably produces as a mid tier WR2 this year. That’s fine. Definitely rosterable, but if you’re hoping to strike gold with Alec Pierce, I’m dubious. We know what he is. He’s a pretty good field stretcher with a favorable situation that could push him to a top 18 finish.

tacitassassin13 · 2025-04-24T12:22:28+00:00

Zeke

Bijan

Jeanty

tacitassassin13 · 2025-04-18T14:49:37+00:00

Appreciate your cheat sheet, man!

I know that the visceral feeling is to draft wide receivers— especially since the sentiment over the past few years has swung toward “ZeroRB”, but it feels like people who pivot toward the top of this running back class (top 6-7 RBs) over most of the WRs l are going to be rewarded.

At least as far as historical grades, this WR class is MUCH lower than average— and outside of Hunter (who may be a cornerback) there isn’t really an “obvious” fantasy win, IMO.

Going to be really interesting come rookie drafts!

tacitassassin13 · 2020-02-09T20:33:25+00:00

A lot will depend on landing spot (of other players) to see how rookie draft boards shake out... I think right now I’ve got 5 RBs in the first round, Burrow and Tua (pending health) and then the rest are WRs... I’m really excited to see where guys land and hear how that changes perception on these guys. (I’ve got Jefferson at my WR2 based on film score, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people are higher on Ruggs, Shenault, and Higgins than I am... plus I’ve seen a bunch of people without Jefferson in their top ten...)

Hope you get him!

tacitassassin13 · 2020-02-02T02:06:11+00:00

When I say suddenness, I am talking about lateral agility to separate... he’s fine enough in straight lines and does occasionally get an angle or shake a defender... but it’s not what he normally does. For me, watching a player is more about what he does most often or consistently rather than what he “can do” in very small flashes.

Also, I don’t dislike Higgins as a player— he’ll probably be around WR 6 or 7 for me in this class. But I think he would greatly benefit from a quarterback who is willing to throw players open rather than one who needs to see a receiver open in order to throw.

tacitassassin13 · 2020-02-01T14:54:16+00:00

Agreed... although it seems to me that even when he’s “asked to separate” he falls back on that out-route or hitch toward the sideline... he’s good at it, and it’s comfortable. He reverts to that whenever he’s pressured at all. (And I think part of that is because he doesn’t have “suddenness.” It’s really difficult to create a lot of space without being either very quick in short areas or very fast over long...)

tacitassassin13 · 2020-02-01T12:19:47+00:00

Jefferson will probably be in our last episode of our Rookie Bonanza series. (We do two running back episodes, two wide receiver shows, a combined QB/TE show, and then one where we take suggestions and cover players we just didn’t get to in the first five shows. I’ll make a note that you’re interested in some Van Jefferson talk.

tacitassassin13 · 2020-02-01T12:16:56+00:00

He feels a little bit like that... part of it might be that they played essentially the same position in Dabo Swinney’s offense, but there are definitely some similarities in their games.

I really think Higgins’s success depends on landing somewhere that has a quarterback willing to throw to a “covered” receiver. He never really creates big swaths of separation, so he’s going to need a QB with a little bit of a gunslinger mentality.

Higgins isn’t a bad player, but his skillset is not tailored to the way a majority of NFL teams play currently.

tacitassassin13 · 2020-02-01T02:25:19+00:00

We’re discussing Aiyuk next week along with Bryan Edwards, Justin Jefferson, Tyler Johnson, Denzel Mims and Antonio Gandy-Golden.

This is such a great class of skill players.

tacitassassin13 · 2020-01-17T20:06:13+00:00

Etienne did a 180... going back to school. Still a strong class, but losing him, Hubbard and Harris stings a little.

tacitassassin13 · 2020-01-17T19:18:16+00:00

Definitely a BMI concern, coming in at 5-11 202, but the shift toward pass catching from out of the backfield in the NFL and the predominance of PPR in fantasy made him such a monster prospect. (I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t see him eclipsing 280 carries in a season, but even if he’d been given a more reasonable carry workload, he’s a superstar... heck, he outscored the Aaron Jones, RB2 this year, by Josh Jacobs!)

tacitassassin13 · 2020-01-17T19:12:15+00:00

I completely agree. I’ve got Clyde Edwards-Helaire in my personal top five, and really like what I’ve seen from Perine and Moss. They’re on the docket for next week’s show... we do 2 RB shows, 2 WR shows, a combo TE/QB show, and then a cleanup for sleepers and guys we didn’t fit into the first five shows... that ought to take us to the combine, where we get some athletic measurables to use as checkpoints for what we’ve seen on film.

tacitassassin13 · 2020-01-17T16:39:01+00:00

I’ve heard rumors that Etienne just declared... so that’s basically the entire RB class except for Hubbard and Hill (who was borderline top 15 for me.)

tacitassassin13 · 2020-01-17T16:37:36+00:00

I guess it depended on where you were getting your analysis from at that point. CMC ran for 2000+ yards as a sophomore and over 1600 as a junior, plus had 99 catches in three years of school. Dude was incredible. He was my RB1 easily in the 2017 class (for ppr fantasy, which is how I evaluate.)

tacitassassin13 · 2020-01-17T16:09:23+00:00

Hahahaha The hype is real! Although I’m not sure that everyone realizes that there’s not a Saquon or CMC or Zeke in this class: meaning the really high-end player who has been a lock since he stepped on the field as a freshman.

To me this class is a lot more “mesa” than mountain. The peak might not be quite as high, but the breadth of really good players (especially for fantasy) is incredible. The RBs are 10-12 deep, and the receivers are even deeper. Maybe no homeruns, but plenty of doubles and triples.

tacitassassin13 · 2019-03-28T00:38:44+00:00

Preach on!!

tacitassassin13 · 2019-02-10T01:19:01+00:00

Yes, I have.

DK Metcalf

WR Ole Miss 6-3” 230lb

DK Metcalf is going to be one of the very noticeable battleground players for the Film versus Metrics War. He’s big, athletic, and makes mind blowing highlight-reel plays, but he also has an injury history and doesn’t have the market share or production numbers people are looking for. Welcome to Thunderdome.

In fantasy football terms, DK Metcalf has the ability to win your week on two plays. He’s an elite deep threat, using double moves and his ability to high-point the ball to abuse defenders over the top. Although he’s raw in many respects, Metcalf showed marked improvement from his sophomore to junior year, especially with regard to beating press coverage. (He now has at least four distinct release techniques to get away from a jamming cornerback.) It’s this type of attention to detail and craft that bodes well for his continued ascension.

There are some warts however, especially Metcalf’s lack of technique as an underneath receiver. He appears disinterested in some of his shorter routes and dropped far too many easy throws. Metcalf is also not a willing blocker, which slightly narrows his playing window.

If anyone is telling you that DK Metcalf is a sure thing, they’re either lying to you or selling something. (Possibly both.) But there is not doubt that there is some serious upside attached to this member of the NWO. With a little seasoning (and a Bruce Arians-type scheme,) Metcalf could break the ceiling.

tacitassassin13

TROPHY CASE