Hello, and welcome to the Dynasty Dude Podcast. I'm your host, Corey
Evans. Thank you for listening to this week's show. I'm mixing it up
a bit. This is not going to be a stat driven episode. Instead,
it's titled Fantasy Football Strategy, How I Scout Rookies. I want to
take you through my ten step process from during the college season to NFL season.
It's where we are now, Dynasty off season of How I Scout prospects
and rookies, so you get a feel for my process behind the scenes.
Figured to be good timing with rookie draft content ramping up across the industry before
we get to that, don't forget if you're a fan of my work,
please drop a five star review. Apple Podcast or Spotify helps me out a
ton as independent show. And also February still twenty percent off all roster calls
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me up and schedule one via social media. That's Dynasty do pod on Instagram
or Twitter, slash x Thedynasty Dude over on Facebook, even email Dinasy do
pod at gmail dot com. Let's start it off with how I Scott rookies
with number one watch college football or participate in a DeBie league to develop year
round knowledge. If you spend time watching college football during the regular season,
bowl games, even the college football playoffs, then it actually translates to less
work or catching up in dynasty. When becoming familiar with an upcoming rookie class,
you did a lot of the homework or film study ahead of time.
It's in your mind ingrained in your memory. Think about it like preparing for
a school exam or important work project. If you plan ahead and allocate time
beforehand to prepare instead of cramming the night before or even last minutes than the
end result, it's going to be different. Like most things applicable in life,
those prepare ahead of time tend to succeed as opposed to those who wait
until the last minute. Monitoring the progress and development of college players through their
tenures in school makes it that much easier to then evaluate them as NFL rookies
because you're already head of the curve, familiar with their playing styles and skill
set pros or cons instead of starting from scratch. Debbie leagues are the ultimate
sheet code since you can root for and track players stats like in redraft or
dynasty while players are in college football. So once again, watch college football
participate in a Davy league. To develop year round knowledge. Number two,
create a spreadsheet with all notable freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior prospects.
It's difficult enough to keep track of all college football teams based on the
amount of schools compared to thirty two NFL franchises, So in order to remain
organized and track early to players versus those who have completed eligibility, I recommend
using a list and updating it annually by position. Is how I do it.
Quarterback, running back, wide, receiver, tight ends columns and the
players are all the rows underneath. That makes the most sense with freshman,
sophomore, junior, and senior labels that associated with each name. Once you
implement a process, I promise you that your knowledge of prospects will increase substantially.
Having a master list of the top talent in the college landscape also makes
it a whole lot easier. You'll see the trend of making things simpler to
prepare for dynasaugey drafts every offseason. Since it's derived from a playerpool that you're
already aware of, You're not starting from that blank slate, and that is
going to be a recurrent theme when I talk about how I scout rookies.
Number three is track statistics throughout the collegiate season and make notes of big performances.
You can accomplish this in variety of ways. A few of my favorites
are watching weekly highlight reels of college football weekend, making note of players who
perform well. After a while, you become familiar with emerging your consisting talent,
like we do in the NFL. Of course, another option is to
scour box scores each week for the top performers from each matchup. My last
resort is to use Twitter slash x as a quick way to reach player stats.
If I go this route, however, I make sure to take detailed
notes to check back down. When assessing a prospects outlook. You can't look
at box scorers and see past the eye test of a player's skill set.
You have to do both. Due to the amount of college football teams and
games every single week weekend, it's virtually impossible to monitor all results find a
compromise to at least stay up to dates with news injuries that could account for
an increase or lack of expected production. But you'd be surprised at how impactful
tracking college player stats throughout the season can influence your scouting process. Number four.
Begin watching highlight reels and eventual game tape towards the middle to end of
November. If you track players throughout the season, then this step shouldn't be
as tedious or overwhelming as it can be for someone starting from that blank slate
during the Dynasty offseason with next to no familiarity or context of an upcoming rookie
crop. There's nothing wrong beginning with the baseline of player how that reels you
hear that's frowned upon when you're scouting. That is totally fine to start by
doing so, you'll see prospects at their best. However, you can't stop
there. That's the key. Watching multiple quarters of specific matchups has become easier
thanks to YouTube with editing candets clips. It's so much more accessible nowadays than
even three four years ago. Finding actual game film as supposed to just high
that reels. It's crucial to identify player straints and weaknesses during film study.
No rookie year prospect is perfect, so finding those areas of improvement is an
important piece of the evaluation process in order to remain unbiased with all of our
biases. Because we're either a fan of a college or we watch a lot
of college football, we want to see a player go to the NFL team
because they're mocked there. There could be a lot different factors. I usually
ramp up tape evaluation and notes in my process come early December. Sure,
that's why the NFL season is still under way. It's my side project and
helps me prepare for my eventual rookie coverage for all you listeners free content or
paid over on Patreon come a few months later, which is where we're at
right now. If I waited until a start of the new year in January
or February, I'd be so far behind the eight ball that you'd hear it
in my discussion points of players, I would sound as if I didn't know
what I was talking about. That same concept applies within your league with all
your league mates. You know who is in the know or out of the
loop with upcoming prospects based on discussion you have valuing picks one point oh one
to one point twelve or the same applies to every round you have in RGIE
draft. When watching film, I consider a lot, but the main pieces
I look for they vary about position. So for quarterback, I'm looking at
mechanics, accuracy, footwork both inside outside the pocket. Do they have that
it factor of dual credibility? Running back, I want to see vision speed,
does that mean burst acceleration, versatility to be both a rusher and pass
catcher, and if the running back can catch passes, can they pass protect
important to keep in mind. And wide receiver tight end, I want to
see releases off the line of scrimmage, reliability of hands we're oute, running
speed at levels of the field, and willingness to block. Those are all
indications of success in boxes I want to see checked when going through my pre
draft process. Number five is create another spreadsheet for an NFL declare list.
This is when things get really exciting. Once you have a list of players
who officially declared for the NFL, the pre draft fund begins. Like your
freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior spreadsheets, I recommend structuring you're declared
list by position. Make it that much simpler to read and update when necessary.
Can use Excel, Google Sheets, whatever your platform or software of choice
is. Be sure to keep an eye out for any prospects who return to
school or make a late decision like a Meccha Buca or even Traveon Henderson from
Ohio States this past year, because you need to delete them from your declared
list, which is always an annual, ever evolving and changing process. And
then wait for the East West Shrine Bowls Senior Bowl as checkpoints you confirm upcoming
rookies. Both are milestones of the pre draft and scouting process because the most
talented or highest regarded players are invited each event to showcase their skill sets or
set of tools. And that's when you have a really firm grasp of the
full NFL declaire list and those that are on the highest of radars in NFL
draft circles. Time for a quick break. I'll be back with five more
of my steps when I scout rookies each and every off season Before I get
to that. If you're fan of my work, do not miss out on
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It's a very cheap entrance point. You get three main perks. One a
bonus episode per week each and every week. Two unlimited DMS direct messages for
any questions you might have great time to you to join for that access toomb
is it for texting when it comes to your rookie draft, picks, trades,
whatever it may be. In three, it's a newer perk that I
recently launched. It's fifty percent off roster calls whenever you want them, so
thirty bucks thirty minutes, fifty bucks one hour. Slice those rates in half.
For being a Patreon member to join, click on a link in my
show notes headapatreon dot com. You'll find me as Corey Evans, the Honesty
Dude, or find my Patreon link on any social media pages that I have.
You'll find it in my bio. Can click sign up through their time
for a quick break, and I'll be back with a few more tips on
how to scout rookies. Number six is use the NFL Combine invite list for
pre draft content on Patreon. That's my step so once I have the official
invite list from the Combine and then I can compare it to my freshman sophomore,
junior, senior, and nfldclare list to find overlaps or exclusions. If
prospects are not invited to the Combine, it's often a bad sign for their
chances to be drafted or become fantasy relevance. There can be outliers, of
course, more often than not, However, rookies are selected based on projecting,
draft grades and feedback from the league front offices decision makers. If you're
not invited to the combine, that means that you were not a part of
those conversations overall. The official Combine invitation list then provides with a big board
of offensive talents to formulate rankings of player opinions. Once I have that list,
I begin my preview series over on Patreon, which this past week was
Quarterbacks, this week running Backs. If you want access to that, you
know where to go. The main takeaway from that step is needing that NFL
Combine list to know which players and prospects to discuss during my preview series.
Otherwise, sure, you have your declare list, but if they're not legitimate
names in terms of being viewed as Day one, Day two, Day three
prospects, then what's the point of discussing them. They could be late round
udfas we want to pinpoint who's going to be most impactful from a fantasy lens
in the early rounds of rookie drafts. Number seven is release my pre draft
rankings on Patreon as a combine is over. Once the NFL combined data is
really available, I've then combining what I learned from washing college football from the
previous year, plus my film study with player measurables and testing metrics at my
disposal. I like to create tiered rankings by position because it helps to group
players close and projected value of draft stock. These are pre drafts, so
I could be close, way off, or somewhere in between. That's the
beauty of ever changing and evolving tiered rankings in fantasy football. The same concept
applies to redraft or done startup drafts because tier based drafting is becoming increasingly popular
in the fantasy football space as opposed to relying on ADP to make decisions.
Think about it, how many times you've been on the clock. If you're
on ESPN, Yahoo, CBS or sleeper, you're looking at player faces or
names, and you are so stuck. You're pressured you're concerned, starting to
worry. What do I do? You panic and you select somebody you didn't
want to. If you used a tier based drafting approach, which you can
compile yourself or use other analysts their rankings or spreadsheets, you'd feel a lot
more confident and comfortable when on the clock. Number eight is look for ideal
rookie laning spots after NFL free agency concludes this year. That date is March
thirteenth, Even though we often find out about free agent transactions beforehand, then
it'll become official because if possible lead tampering, it could lead to fines or
draft picks being revoked. Once freegency is then over, we get pinpoints ideal
spots for ucoming rookies at quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end
to land at least what we like to see on papers that mean they're going
to ultimately drafted. There no but pre draft want to see that occur.
Situation verse talent subjective evaluation point. While sets and rookies both factors are important
in my mind, but I tend to favor talent over situation. Since situation
or in this case, fantasy football environment, laning spots can quickly change based
on a team's depth charter coaching staff. If more rookies or veterans are broad
in next offseason, coaching staft is depleted, a new regimes brought in,
then suddenly situation is less or more favorable. Whereas talent doesn't disappear overnight over
the span of a season or two. Betting on talent who land in a
favorable spot, that's a dream scenario for prospects each and every season. So
identifying where we want rookies to land once NFL free agency runs its course is
a great way to then post draft know, yes, this prospect or multiple
landed in this situation, it's favorable. I'm going to boost some of my
rankings. Or conversely, I wanted a running back or a while to land
in the spot they didn't, so I need to lower them a bit in
my rankings. Accordingly, number nine is enjoy the NFL Draft. It's the
most exciting part of the offseason scouting process. Everything comes to fruition this year
that is April twenty fifth to April twenty seventh, which will be here before
we know. It's all fantas football analysts like to think that they are draft
experts reality situation, as none of us know what kind of discussions are taking
place inside NFL war rooms with big boards and scouting departments unless you work for
a team. We can educate our self by reading as much information as possible
and collecting different subsets of data points. Yet all the research preparation in the
world won't tell us with the future holds for NFL prospects. We need to
let the ultimate decision makers, that being NFL GMS head coaches scouts make up
those decisions and we'll follow suit with our own. This is making process after
the fact that's up to all thirty TWINFL franchises. Once the NFL Draft is
over, we then need to re evaluate and shuffle rankings prepare for our rookie
drafts in dynasty, which leads to number ten and that is compare my pre
draft analysis with actual NFL draft capital results to construct my postcraft rankings on Patreon.
This should result and a lot of updates and serior fluctuation. Since no
pre draft content is perfect or set in the stone, you must you must
remain flexible and fluid with rankings and dynasty for both veteran rookie players or you
end up with sunk costs on your rosters because of personal biases. You don't
want to fall suspect to that digging your feet too deep into the ground and
the player burns you. And then you do have a player that no one's
going on trade for. You have to remain water and realize that player value
changes quickly. And that's why I like to do my preview series just giving
you a lay of the land of all prospects of all positions, then my
pre draft rankings, then post draft you get three different perspectives of my process
for an upcoming town pool of rookies draft capital in real life. In addition
to player age, NFL ad spot influence my post Draftikie rankings the most.
I don't let group think or ADP persuade me. I want to stick to
my guns. All the work that I put in, I want it to
be a true representation of how I view prospects. That's not to stand out
as clickbait or generate a ton of views. Instead, you're hearing my thoughts
about all rookies most relevant oppositions, right or wrong, and apply to eurokie
drafts. Even in the NFL, people are played one hundreds of thousands,
millions of dollars in terms of scouting each and every offseason are incorrect more than
they're correct. So hitting on prospects is a losing battle. However, if
you do the research, you put the homework and time in, more often
than not you're going to succeed in the form of selecting prospects that pan out.
Now, in terms of taking a deeper dive into my rankings, my
favorite way to compile them is creating a list of all players in question.
I then literally go one by one by position, and then when I do
my top one hundred or top one fifty, I will decide who would draft
between two options. So we'll say player A, player B. Player A
is the one I chose, all right, it's type of player B and
player C. That process is repeated until tiers and a full set of rankings
are complete. Is it type of tuoming? Absolutely? Even so, it's
a time saving approach instead of staring at an ADP list when you're on the
clock. I want to go back to that example during rookie draft, while
being unsure if who to select when the time comes, that means that you
were not prepared enough I like to look at it with a tier based approach
that here's a group I'm comfortable with in the first round, second round,
third round, fourth round, fifth round. However long your rookie drafts are
in dynasty, and when I'm on the clock, I know I'm selecting from
four or five names to ten or twenty I see on a screen. You
can use my list, you can use other analysts that you enjoy content wise,
But if you're going into a rookie draft or a startup draft, even
redraft leagues using an ADP list, you're going to struggle or feel a bit
overwhelmed. I think that's most true and applicable to rookie draft because it's fresh,
new names that if you're not a hardcore college football fan or doing that
extensive research months ahead of time, you might not be all that familiar with.
That's why I like to start the scouting process for rookies well in advance
by watching college football ramping up mid to end November and really taking flight in
December to get ready for this time of year come February March, when it's
wheels up for draft season. Hope you all enjoyed this strategy based episode discussing
how I scout rookies one through ten my process once again as a recap are
Number one, watch college football or participate in a debbie league to develop year
round knowledge. Number two. Create a spreadsheet with all notable freshmen, sophomore,
junior, and senior prospects. Number three track stats throughout the college season
and make notes of big performances for begin watching how that reels and evctual game
tape towards the middle to end of November. Number five create another spreadsheets for
an NFL declare list. Number six. Use the NFL Combine Invitational list for
pre draft content over on Patreon. That's for me. For you, application
wise, it could be to have that reference point of those invite to the
combine. Number seven release predraft rankings on Patreon as a combine is over.
Number eight. Look for idealogy land spots at the NFL Frankingcy concludes, that's
a huge one because if we have a huge map of possible situations, we
want to see prospects land based on opportunity or available touches. Number nine.
Enjoy the NFL Draft. It's the most exciting time in the offseason scouting process.
And then number ten. Compare pre draft analysis with actual NFL draft capital
results. Construct post draft rankings from me. It's on Patreon for you,
could be my rankings or whatever you're doing on your side. Hope you all
enjoyed that insights to see how I work behind the scenes ending process and that's
what makes dynasty so fun. If you have more questions on my tenstat process
and you want more details on how to construct them on your own, or
if you want to start your own scouting process, I don't know where to
start that, reach out to me. I'll help you out because I promise
you it's a very rewarding process. It's time with assuming sure yet small price
to pay. If you're a hardcore don see player in more than I'd say
two or three leagues. Since we're always so engaged in gross with the NFL
season that the college season could be an afterthought, let alone the super Bowl
hits ends and suddenly we're all back on the clock with the new NFL league
you're beginning. Thank you again for listening. If you enjoyed this strategy based
episode, you want to hear more of them different applications of course, then
please let me know. Give me feedback, I could certainly start to throw
these in more of my episode content rotations, opposed to just statistics or player
evaluation. Until next time, this is the Dynasty. Check it out.
I will talk to you all next week. See you