Navigating August News as a Dynasty Manager

You know the drill by now. It’s August. So, naturally, your eyeballs are getting blasted with fantasy-related headlines on an hourly basis.

Injuries! Signings! Contract extensions! Constant reminders that the Browns quarterbacks are still bad!

It’s hard to know what to do with all this information as dynasty managers. If you act on all of it, you’d literally never stop making trades and waiver transactions. It would be a full time job.

So let’s figure out what’s actionable and what’s not, so you don’t have to quit your day job.

Noteworthy vs. Noise

First of all… what is “news”? Sorry, I don’t mean that in a late night, incense-filled dorm room “what even IS the universe, man?” sort of way. But rather, what qualifies as newsworthy?

Is it news when a player slims down? Or when they bulk up? Is it news when a player is “exceeding” a coach’s expectations? Should that automatically bump up that player’s value? What if we don’t know what the coach’s expectations were in the first place? Maybe they expected that player to flop around on the field like a fish that washed up on the beach.

The point is, there’s a major difference between actual, relevant news and coachspeak that was only uttered because they had to say SOMETHING at a press conference. The former deserves your consideration, the latter can often be overanalyzed.

Speaking of which…

Don’t Be Fooled By Hyperbolic Headlines

Remember when this little blurb from August 2020 fell on us like an Acme anvil…?

That headline spawned thousands of (terrible) trades from panicked Justin Jefferson managers. And Bisi Johnson wasn’t left on a single waiver wire worldwide.

BUT if you read the full article, the assertion that Jefferson was behind Johnson in the pecking order wasn’t coming from anyone on the coaching staff. It was the assumption of a Vikings beat reporter.

Don’t get me wrong, beat reporters do great work and we shouldn’t ignore what they’re seeing in practice. But we also shouldn’t take it as gospel. Context is crucial!

How about this tasty little morsel that came out during the preseason of 2021?

Oh no! How would this man ever survive in the NFL?? Does anyone know where Ja’Marr Chase is working these days?

Okay it’s easy to make fun of this years later, but that wasn’t some flimsy headline from a bored writer. It was spawned by a legitimate quote from Chase. The rookie told reporters he was dropping balls in preseason action because an NFL ball is bigger and “doesn’t have the white stripes on the side so you can’t see the ball coming from the tip point.”

Obviously, this didn’t end up mattering one damn bit. But it wasn’t something we could completely ignore, either. A wide receiver had a tough time performing a pretty key part of his job (catching the ball), and then blamed it on the ball design, which no one had ever done before. We had reason to be concerned.

React, Don’t Overreact

Every situation is unique. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to interpreting player news.

But here are a few things to consider before you make any drastic decisions:

• Is the person talking about this reliable? Some coaches just like to hear themselves talk. Some will hype up their players no matter what. Others purposely give bad intel for competitive reasons. Not every source can be trusted.
• What else have you heard about this player? Has that other stuff followed a similar narrative, or is this an outlier? Focus on the whole picture.
• What’s the worst thing that could come from this? What’s the BEST? Picture both extremes and then work your way back toward the middle, which is usually the most likely outcome.

Dynasty is all about the long game. Big decisions shouldn’t come from any individual piece of news. Overreacting to a single headline or a social media highlight can set your team back big time.

A lot of times, you’re better off doing nothing.

Screw It, Have Fun

Everything I said so far in this article is sound, logical advice. But like… FOOTBALL IS BACK BABY, GET EXCITED!

Who am I to stop you from losing your mind and making a massive trade just because you saw a one-handed catch in a non-padded practice.

August is one of the most exciting times of the year for this wonderfully stupid game. Enjoy yourself (responsibly). And maybe let the trusted authors on this site guide your hand.