Social Media has so much information and so many good Twitter questions are being put out there and then the advice is missed and lost forever in the Twittersphere. The goal of this weekly column will be to point out key Tweets each week that our UTH staff have answered so that you can really dive into everyday strategy questions that the UTH Staff sees on Twitter.
Chad Parsons (@ChadParsonsNFL)
Putting finishing touches on post-#NFLDraft dynasty startup podcast series. Expect it up on UTHDynasty by the end of today
— Chad Parsons (@ChadParsonsNFL) May 18, 2015
Other than sending out a shameless promotion for the site there is definitely deeper meaning to this tweet and that is what is the vision of your team? Are you a person who likes to target young running backs early or do you like to get that stud quarter back so that is a position you don’t have to focus on for a while, are you a UTHer in a draft, or are you just flailing through the draft hoping that a target player falls? DO NOT FLAIL! Be the person that makes moves around the draft board, acquire future picks, move around and steal other target players, know who “your guys” are, and know what you want your team to look like by the end of a draft. My board does not look like Chad’s or Doug’s or any other UTH contributor that you mention and that is OK. I have a clear vision of what my team is and the way that I want to build it. Yes, my teams do often fall in line with the UTH way because that is my vision and that is how I want to build my team. A great place to help develop that vision is with UTH’s start-up podcast series and to ask plenty of questions on Twitter.
Katie Flower (@FF_Skyler399)
@TimNFL this applies to FF as much as anything “you may beat me but you won’t outwork me” — Katie Flower (@FF_Skyler399) May 13, 2015
Simple enough philosophy, but how many people use it?
The way this comment came up was in a UTH hangout and we were all asked how we track all of the different leagues we are in? Everyone had their own way of doing it (Excel, pen and paper, etc.) and then Katie told us all what she does and how she uses all of the information that she get’s from the draft, trades, and other people’s rosters to develop a strategy for what she does. She then made the comment “you may beat me but you won’t outwork me.”
I recently made a deal for Matt Forte in a league that only cost a second round pick. I could tell that the offer that was sent to me was one of his first offers and I hit accept instantly. While Matt Forte is not one of my guys, he is still someone who I can get more value from than a second round pick. I knew, in that instance, I was going to work harder than the other owner to get a deal done. I ultimately ended up trading Matt Forte for 1.08 (Breshad Perriman) and a 2016 first round pick.
Create a watch list of people you want to pick up (at least 10 players deep), scout your opponents, be willing to outwork and make more offers than the other guys, and know what free agents are sitting in your free agent pool for your Rookie/Free-Agent drafts. These are very simple tips and this is a very simple philosophy, but are you willing to do what it takes to take your team to the next level.
SEA Nate (@AnOutragedJew)
It’s interesting reading new reports calling the “significant contract gap between Russell Wilson & the Seahawks” inaccurate.
— SEA Nate (@AnOutragedJew) May 18, 2015
I only started listening to the UTH podcast before the 2014 season and I still remember hearing during the pre-draft process and during mini-camps different reports about how good Isaiah Crowell and John Brown were looking in their mini-camps and that the buzz is good on these two players and they both would be good pick-ups since they may not have been drafted in rookie drafts or start-ups. In every league that I could, which was just about every league, I grabbed both players and knew that it was great to have a second set of eyes on the NFL news cycle and what the reports were coming out of NFL practices. Listening to the podcast also gave me a sense of what names were coming up more often from camps along with what I would read on Twitter, Rotoworld, and ESPN. Seeing those names over and over will make you more comfortable with them and lead you to who is either a potential breakout or who is the next man up if someone goes down.
For example if you were listening to Chad and Doug last year you would have kept buying the cheapest Broncos running back and would have ended up with C.J. Anderson, a top-5 round start-up pick, on your team for free.
Keep your eyes and ears open to everything that is going on during the off-season.
Make sure to check out my other UTH Twitter Columns:
UTH Twitter: Confessions, Mocks Drafts, Mike Evans
UTH Twitter: Rankings, UTH-2-Go, Devy
UTH Twitter: Julio Jones, Dez Bryant, Sammy Watkins, Orphans
