Matt Waldman’s RSP Cast Ep.85: Gaining Player Insights From the NFL in August

Matt Waldman shares insights he's gained as well as those he gained from a conversation with J Moyer on what's worth gleaning from August in the NFL. 

J Moyer and I had an excellent conversation that expanded on my recent article, How I Evaluate Football In August. Unfortunately, we experienced technical difficulties with the audio and due to time and content budget restraints I re-recorded the podcast as a solo effort.

Still, it's close to 40 minutes of insights well worth your time that I've gained as a watcher of practices for over 20 years as well as J's work as an analyst and football coach:

* Warm-ups, drills, scrimmages, and games: Why the differences matter and what you can and can't glean from them.

* How to use a pre-draft scouting report as a tool for determining which practice buzz has substance.

* Which plays look a lot better in practice than they actually are to coaches and teammates?

* Putting mistakes in context and how to gain value from them.

* Fantasy Focus: When to use buzz about players, especially wide receivers, to your advantage in ways you may not have considered.

* Fantasy Focus: How to view August and September as an incremental process for your evaluation of talent.

* Fantasy Focus: Why the draft isn't the end-all-be-all of creating winning fantasy teams and why practice coverage plays into this fallacy.

Hopefully, this information will help you maintain a more even-keeled perspective about August football and ultimately maintain a steadier compass for evaluating players.

For the most in-depth analysis of offensive skill players available (QB, RB, WR, and TE), get the 2019  Rookie Scouting Portfolio. If you’re a fantasy owner the Post-Draft Add-on comes with the 2012 – 2018 RSPs at no additional charge.

Best, yet, 10 percent of every sale is donated to Darkness to Light to combat sexual abuse. You can purchase past editions of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio for just $9.95 each. You can pre-order the 2019 RSP now (available for download April 1).