Twitter has long been an excellent source of instantaneous news and wide-ranging opinions. We ran a series of interviews two years ago to help users new and old get to know some of our favorite tweeters.
Our series is back for 2014. Today we interview Jason Wood, long-time staffer here at Football Guys. Get to know him below.
McFadden vs. MJD in the preseason? BLARGGGGGH! That's fantasy expert talk for "must we?"
— Jason Wood (@fbgwood) May 19, 2014
Who Am I?
Name: Jason Wood
Twitter handle: @JayBWood (personal) and @fbgwood (football)
Tweeting since: May 2007
Number of tweets: 26,000+
Follower count: 4,200+
Hometown: Kinnelon, NJ
Day job: Portfolio Manager
Family life: Married, and three sons
Quick bio (who you are, site(s) you represent, etc.): I am a long-time contributor to Footballguys.com
What is something unique about you that few would know about? As fanatical as I am about fantasy football, I am 10x more fanatical about the world of comic books and comic book art
What you do for fun during the football offseason: Spend time with my awesome wife and kids, travel, host a podcast (about comics)
Favorite NFL team(s): I'm a Philadelphia Eagles season ticket holder (E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!)
Favorite NFL player(s): Reggie White = my all-time favorite. Brian Dawkins is a close second (Wolverine!). Among current players it's Shady McCoy.
What do you like most about Twitter? The 140-character limit challenges people to be concise and assertive. I love the ability to interact with people whose opinions on the world are both diverse and stimulating. My goal on Twitter has never been about growing an audience, but about fostering a group of colleagues who I'm as interested in reading as they are in reading me back.
Years playing fantasy football: 18 years and counting
How many leagues, typically? It can get out of hand, I've had in the 30s before. These days it's usually around 15-18.
I always knew that when I was bumping to The Chronic, I was listening to a future industrial magnate #dre #billions
— Jason Wood (@fbgwood) May 12, 2014
Inside the Guru’s Studio
What is your favorite fantasy word? Disconnect -- Ultimately we're looking to find disconnects in the market. Whether it be a generally held consensus view (e.g., draft RB/RB in the first two rounds) that we can disprove as an optimal strategy, or in the specific views of a particular player. To me success in fantasy football is all about identifying disconnects in the conventional thinking and pouncing on them.
What is your least favorite fantasy word? Sleeper -- There's no such thing anymore. In fact, if you look at our own early preseason undervalued players article, by the time we update the article late in August, almost every player that was a 'sleeper' is now going for either a fair average draft position or, in many cases, ABOVE where they should be going.
DC Comics or Marvel? -- Whoa! Now you're talking. I grew up as a Marvel zombie, so that gets my vote. But I can safely assert that there's no other fantasy football analyst you'll ever interview that knows more about either publisher.
What is your favorite film? -- It changes as the years go on, but I probably re-watch Trading Places more than any other film. BEEF JERKY TIME!
What is your favorite book? -- I'm a voracious reader, and could give you a top choice in just about every genre. But atop the heap would have to be Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Cake or ice cream? -- Cake. Let them (and me) eat cake.
Star Wars or Star Trek? -- George Lucas would demolish Gene Rodenberry in the squared circle.
What sound do you hate? -- Every now and then our home's security system decides to go off on its own...in the middle of the night.
What sound do you love? -- My kids' voices.
Film or Stats? -- If you're choosing, you're losing. To be an effective analyst you have to be able to marry sound film study with a deep knowledge of statistics both in terms of the historical context and their impact on different league formats.
Oh boy. Lattimore's dynasty owners just kicked their cats.
— Jason Wood (@fbgwood) May 10, 2014
Predictions and Advice
Favorite fantasy style or combination of styles of play (Dynasty, Redraft, Auction, Best Ball, Daily, Survivor, etc.): The longer you've been doing fantasy the more you crave new challenges. I play every type of league you can imagine, but find myself being most engaged in leagues that stretch the mental muscles. I still probably prefer redraft leagues to dynasty, but I prefer complex draft and scoring parameters.
Studs ‘n Duds or Value Based Drafting? -- VBD baby! When your good friends (and FBG head honchos) invented a concept, you follow it.
What's the biggest mistake you see fantasy players make? -- That's easy. Too many fantasy owners are slaves to the ADP on whatever draft site they're using. They home in on the grouping of players that are on the consensus list and choose from there. You need to be confident enough in your own views to 'reach' for players rounds ahead of ADP, and to let them fall (or not take at all) if you don't like them.
How much of fantasy football is skill? How much is luck? -- I would like to say it's 80% skill, 20% luck; but that's not the reality. Today's landscape is much different. Someone can literally pay no attention to the NFL until their fantasy draft night and still end up drafting a solid squad thanks to the deluge of up-to-date information out there from sites like Footballguys. The way I frame things is that if you are skilled enough to make the right decision 60% of the time, while most are at 50/50, you'll win more leagues than you lose over time.
Go out on a limb—give a wild prediction about the 2014 season that would shock the world if it happened: -- The Rams will struggle mightily, and Jeff Fisher will be shown the door.
Super Bowl XLVI Teams and Score: -- Eagles 35 -- Colts 27
2014 Fantasy MVP: -- Jamaal Charles
2014 Fantasy Most Improved: -- I'll give you two - Kenny Stills (WR-Saints) and Markus Wheaton (WR-Pittsburgh)
2014 Fantasy Bust of the Year: -- Alfred Morris (don't like the coaching/scheme change for him)