This is one of a series of articles on how our community likes to play Fantasy Football, and what advice we can share with everyone from our own experience.
This week’s article comes from The Samantics Listener League, and focuses on several questions about how to better manage your roster in Fantasy Football; it can be confusing as to what to do at times, or what the most efficient way to maximize your points is. Today, we’ll break down everything you need to know in a seriously funny and useful way. As with all our advice, it usually starts as a serious question that gets answered incorrectly on purpose, and then others love to take that and run with it.
The system we are discussing today was born out of fondness for the show, ‘What We Do in the Shadows, starring none other than one of my personal favorite actors, Matt Berry. In this show, he plays a Vampire by the name of Laszlo Cravensworth, but uses the pseudonym Jackie Daytona to hide his identity. We combined his pseudonym with the infamous D.E.N.N.I.S. system from another favorite show, ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,’ and voilà: The J.A.C.K.I.E. D.A.Y.T.O.N.A. System for Roster Management and Opponent Obstruction was born. This system is made up of two critical elements: useful roster advice, and how to mess with your opponents.
Of course, we had the part on how to mess with your opponents down immediately. In fact, none other than our former co-host, Adam Lein, quickly came up with The D.A.Y.T.O.N.A. System for Opponent Obstruction!
D = Dish out advice THEY think is good
A = Always accuse someone of collusion
Y = Yell at your League everyday
T = Tell them their opinions don't matter
O = Obstruct any constructive criticism
N = Neglect to tell them it benefits only you
A = Annoy the Commish when things don't go your way
I think the D.A.Y.T.O.N.A. System for Opponent Obstruction is self-explanatory, and a great way to mess with your opponents and interrupt their game plan. However, be smart when deploying these tactics as you could easily stray into being a dickhead territory.
Now for the hard part: how do I give useful roster advice that fits the starting letters J-A-C-K-I-E? A challenge I was born for!
J = Just keep trying
A = Acknowledge your Roster’s shortcomings
C = Cash is King
K = Keep your Flex Spot, Flexible
I = Information is your Weapon
E = Enjoy Yourself
Let’s break down what The J.A.C.K.I.E. System of Roster Management is all about.
First up, J = Just Keep trying. The best thing you can do for your team every week is to login, look around, and see what’s up. Make sure to actually set a full lineup and watch out for any weird timezone games.
Next is A, A = Acknowledge your Roster’s shortcomings. When you accept that you can’t get it right every time, you free yourself to make positive changes. Learn from your mistakes, think about why you drafted a specific player, or started a player over another. Then, you will want to honestly look at your roster and see where your weaknesses are. Keep working the Waiver Wire and see if you can try and make a trade to address your team’s needs.
C = Cash is King. C.R.E.A.M., get the money, Dollar Dollar bill, y’all! IF you are in a League that uses Free Agent Acquisition Budget (F.A.A.B.), then you need to learn to use your budget wisely. First, don’t be afraid of it. It’s actually designed to make the competition over valuable free agents more fair and keeps everything out in the open; full transparency. Don’t be afraid to drop serious money on a Waiver Wire Darling. For example, this year Kenneth Walker became a Top 10 Running Back only after Chris Carson and Seattle’s Rashaad Penny got injured. He is what we call a "League Winning player." And, you could have got him for free, or for easy purchase around week 5. I personally dropped $55 in 3 leagues to try and get him. I won 2 of 3, and was outbid by another $25 on the other. A player like that doesn’t come around often and you need to have funds around to make it happen. Be smart with your budget! You can make $0 bids, and keep in mind you’re bidding against other people, so ‘The Price is Right’ rules for bidding definitely apply here.
K = Keep your Flex Spot, Flexible. I get this question more than any and it always confuses people. The entire goal of your flex spot is to have flexibility at all times. There will come a day when, right before game time, a player gets ruled out, you don’t have a good substitute, and worse: your flex spot has already been used. You now have little options to pivot out of this situation, will get less points, and likely lose your matchup. That’s why you want to keep your flex spot flexible. If you have a player that you want to START, AND they have a weird time game- like Thursday Night or perhaps a European Timezone game where they start at 930 on Sunday morning our time- you’ll want to move that player out of your Flex position and place them into the appropriate starting spot based on position. For example, let’s say you’ve decided you’re going to start 3 WRs this week, and one of them is Mike Evans playing at 930 AM in Munich. Instead of playing him in your Flex, move him up to your starting WR spot and then move a different WR down into your Flex. This way if anything happens, including but not limited to, injuries and shit-the-bed games, you can pivot out and start another player. This maximizes your possible points and gives you a winning chance.
I = Information is your Weapon. Or, buy the rumor, sell the news. This is also an extension of J, which is Just keep trying. Within Sleeper there is a section called Channels. I would highly recommend adding the Fantasy Football Alerts channel. You will receive all breaking news, injuries, and Sleeper information. I would also recommend checking your notification settings, as well as following some prominent Football reporters on Social Media. You would be surprised how much of an advantage this can give you. I can count dozens of times where receiving and seeing a fresh news article quickly allowed me to pick up a critical player before everyone else.
Finally, we get E = Enjoy Yourself! It’s a game! Relax and have fun with your friends. Be a homer and draft 4 Colts players. Go wild and add nicknames to your players and change your team name! Giving it a touch of your own personality and way of doing things will not only make the entire experience more enjoyable, but you’ll learn a lot more.