In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by New Era:

Get excited, people! This offseason (or “2025 preseason,” or “2025 dynasty in-season,” depending on your worldview), the Friday newsletter will be authored by our award-nominated duo of Kendall Valenzuela and Adam Ronis.

One loves Folgers, the other sends pancakes back at restaurants because they have powdered sugar on them. But they’re both fantasy experts here to debate, discover, and … deliver? We’ll work on that third one.

Without further ado … back from their week on Super Bowl Radio Row … Kendall and Ronis!

Ronis: I want to kick off our first shared newsletter talking about Chuba Hubbard, who continues to be undervalued. He was a bargain in drafts last season due to the pending debut of injured rookie Jonathon Brooks, who came back much later than anticipated. A lot of fantasy players were trying to sell high on Hubbard after his hot start, with the thought Brooks would cut into his workload or take over the backfield — and it turned out to be the wrong decision. Brooks will, sadly, miss most of 2025 and possibly the entire season after tearing his ACL for the second time.

But even the Panthers didn’t know Hubbard would be this good. Carolina drafted Brooks in the second round of the 2024 draft and Hubbard performed so well as the featured back the team signed him to a four-year, $33.2 million deal in November.

Kendall: Adam and I were going through ADPs on our SiriusXM show and were pretty surprised at where Hubbard was initially being drafted. We know we're sickos for even looking at drafts this early, but it does give us a blueprint of what drafts could look like heading into the 2025 season.

Ronis: In early Underdog drafts, Hubbard has an ADP of 48. Ian Hartitz has him as his RB13 in his early 2025 ranks.

Kendall: If Hubbard continues to go in this range then I will certainly be targeting him every single time, especially for Zero-RB builds.

The Panthers surprised a lot of people in 2024 with some of the turnaround we saw (mainly Bryce Young). Following his Week 11 bye, Young averaged 21+ points per game over his final seven games. Jonathan Fuller and Sam Wallace highlighted why Young is a dynasty riser right now, too. There's a lot of work the Panthers need to do this offseason to continue getting better (they need help on the defensive side and have to get Young some more weapons), but since Hubbard's knee/calf injury that ended his season won't require surgery, we should continue to target him for 2025.

Ronis: Hubbard rushed for 1,195 yards on 250 carries with 10 touchdowns last season, averaging 4.8 yards per carry. He caught 43 of 54 targets for 171 yards with a touchdown. And he put up those stats in an offense that was 29th in yards per game — and should improve.

Our conclusion? Hubbard is a great target based on his current price.


The latest analysis and insights from our merry band of football nerds:

👀 Kendall and Cooterdoodle have a show! We bought Kendall a carnival spinning wheel for it! You can see the first episode here —> Cooper Kupp is going where?

🙏 Forget what the Cardinals need. Fantasy managers want more MHJ targets.

🗽 Aaron Rodgers is no longer in a New York state of mind. How many wins?

🏈 New HC comes marching in. Did he even leave the city after the Super Bowl?

🏆 When you’re missing football, Ian has your pick-me-up.

👀 Ian and Dwain are having some fun with Thor. Wait, who are they saying could be Minnesota’s next QB not named JJ?

🤯 Pete’s leaving fantasy football for what? Muy bien on the Spanish read.


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Cam Ward vs. Shedeur Sanders: The Tale Of The Tape

By Gene Clemons

As a coach, people constantly ask me who I want between Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, the top two quarterbacks in the NFL Draft this season. Let me start by saying that I would love to coach either of these prospects. If you told me today that I was going to coach either I would be extremely excited. Saying that would be considered fence riding, however, and since I believe there are enough people tap dancing on the top pole I will do my best to explain who I would choose … and why.

There are myths about players and areas where each is even a tiny bit stronger than the other. First, let’s break down one of the myths.

“These two are not on the same level as the 2023 class”

Every time I hear this, it feels like revisionist history based on what we have seen the ‘23 class do as rookies, but before the 2024 NFL Draft there were a lot of discussions about Sanders and Ward being in the discussion with all of the quarterback prospects except Caleb Williams. People were questioning whether Bo Nix, J.J. McCarthy, and Michael Penix would even go in the first round. There were questions about Jayden Daniels' size and decision making when he broke the pocket early in the process. Sanders and Ward were both among those quarterbacks. Most of them came back to college to try and raise their draft profiles. So Sanders and Ward came back and had two of the best seasons in recent College Football history, but now with an additional season of production they somehow are worse than they were last season. It's a ridiculous narrative. 

COACH GENE’S COMPARISON BETWEEN WARD AND SANDERS


Offseason? There’s No Offseason In Dynasty Fantasy Football

By Jake Trowbridge

The 2024 season is barely in the rear view, and this is when most fantasy football enthusiasts take a long break to … I don’t know, what is it people do when they go outside? Rub sand?

But not me. And not you! Because you play in a dynasty league and, as Tom Hanks would tell you, there’s no crying in the offseason. And there’s no offseason in dynasty.

Dynasty leagues can get a little stagnant this time of year because no one knows what the hell is going to happen over the next few months. So most managers sit on their thumbs until the NFL industrial complex starts churning again. You don’t have to. Just bookmark the Dynasty page on fantasylife.com for the latest dynasty tips.

But now is the perfect time to scrape up extra value in your trades and improve a few of your roster’s weaknesses. The key is to anticipate how the next few months will unfold, rather than react to the events, and then go ATTACK. 

Here are three important times in the NFL offseason that will help you win when it counts most.
MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN THE OFFSEASON FOR DYNASTY PLAYERS