Sometimes the smartest thing you can do with your fantasy football team is make a terrible fantasy football decision.
I've spent a big chunk of my adult life telling people to trust the numbers. Value-based drafting, average starter baselines, detailed stat projections. It's pretty much what we do and what we've built Footballguys on.
Don't fall in love with players. Don't hang onto your favorite team's backup running back for six weeks because you had a good feeling about him in training camp.
I've been banging that drum for a long time, and I still believe every word of it.
So understand I don't say this lightly: Sometimes, you should ignore the numbers.
Before anybody fires off an email, let me be crystal clear about one thing. At Footballguys, our projections, rankings, and advice are based on football, not personal judgments about players. Our job is to answer one question: Who's going to score you points?
Nobody here is sneaking a sermon into the rankings.
If you don't care one bit what a guy does off the field or what jersey he wears, great. We're your guys. You pay us to help you win, and that's exactly what we've always done and what we're going to keep doing.
We're not going to tell you who you're allowed to root for.
But here's the flip side: Nobody gets to tell you who you have to root for, either.
And I've been thinking lately that this freedom is one of the most underrated parts of fantasy football.
So much of life comes with obligations, expectations, and somebody else's opinion about what you should do. Isn't it nice to have this one little corner of the world where you get to make the rules?
For whatever reason you want.
The Low-Stakes Betrayals: Rivalries and Grudges
Consider Saquon Barkley.
Let's say you're a lifelong Giants fan. You spent six seasons cheering for Barkley, defending him through the knee injuries and the bad years. Then he signs with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now he's running around in that puke-green uniform, scoring touchdowns for the exact team you've spent your entire life hating. And somewhere out there, a fantasy analyst is telling you Barkley is a great trade target.
You know what? You can pass.
Maybe you don't want to spend Sunday afternoon jumping off your couch celebrating an Eagles touchdown. Maybe you've spent 40 years hoping every Eagles possession ends in a punt, and you aren't interested in breaking that streak now.
I completely get it.
College rivalries might be even worse. If you're an Ohio State fan, of course you hate Michigan. The uniforms, the fight song, the way their fans say "Go Blue."
Now you're supposed to put J.J. McCarthy on your roster because a projection model says he's a value?
Screw Michigan. Take somebody else.
Fantasy football turns normal loyalties upside down, and that's part of the fun. But you don't have to participate in every one of those little betrayals.
Keep your irrational grudges. Refuse to wear a rival's jersey. Hold an unreasonable grudge against a guy who dropped a touchdown pass in your fantasy championship three years ago.
Is that how you maximize win probability? Probably not.
But it's a lot more fun than cheering for something you hate.
And the freedom works both ways. If a player went to your favorite school, or met your kid at training camp, or does great work in your hometown, put more value on him. Even if our rankings say you're paying too much. Get your guys. And those are guys you enjoy cheering for on Sundays.
When It's More Than Football
Which brings us to Josh Jacobs.
You know the story. Jacobs recently pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and criminal damage to property following a domestic altercation with his girlfriend. He then had a touchdown celebration with his hands behind his back that some interpreted as mimicking handcuffs. Jacobs said it was a reference to a song. And last week, police records showed three other women had made allegations of their own against him. If you want the full breakdown, you can read the Associated Press reporting here.
Here's the thing: What you do with that information is your business. In fact, that's my entire point.
Today it might be Jacobs. Next month or next season, it may be somebody else.
Some high-performing players carry real-world baggage, and there will surely be another situation someday where a guy scoring touchdowns also has off-field stuff you find hard to stomach.
If you keep starting players like that because they score points, I get it. Roster decisions aren't personal endorsements of someone's character, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
But if it doesn't feel right to you, don't do it.
You don't have to force yourself to root for a guy just because a spreadsheet told you to.
You really don't.
Trade him. Bench him. Drop him.
Maybe you get less in return than you should. Maybe the guy who picks him up beats you in the playoffs. Our projections might tell you it's a terrible idea to move on from him. Ok.
And look, I know some of us play in high-stakes leagues where there's serious money on the line. Maybe you've decided you simply can't afford to make that move. Maybe winning comes first, and you're not willing to sacrifice that over something a player does off the field.
That's your call, too.
The whole point is that you get to decide what matters to you.
Fantasy football isn't a soapbox, and your roster isn't a press release. If you decide you don't want a certain player on your team, you don't need to post a manifesto in your league chat, and you don't need to demand that everyone else follow your lead.
We have enough grandstanding in the world already.
At the same time, you shouldn't feel obligated to set aside your own convictions just because somebody is projected for a bunch of points on Sunday.
It's Your Team
Make your call for a great reason. A terrible reason. A purely emotional reason. A reason that's been eating at you for 10 years or a reason that makes zero sense to anybody on earth but you.
You don't have to defend it, and you don't have to explain it to your league. And you sure don't need my permission.
Roster the guys you like and trade the guys you don't. Leave the ones you can't stand on the waiver wire. Root for whoever you want, and root against whoever you want, too.
And for crying out loud, have some fun with it.
It's your team. Act accordingly.
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