Late-Round Perspectives: Bob Harris Returns

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

Bob Harris is an analyst at Football Guys and host at Sirius XM Fantasy. He previously did work for well over two decades with football diehards. He's a Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Famer, he's my Peloton buddy, and he's just one of the best people in the fantasy football industry. These are his late-round perspectives.

I interviewed Oss Neckler for the show last week for perspectives. And there's the, you know, like, I had never talked to him before, you know, it was the first time chatting and stuff like that. And there's a sense of like, it's not uneasiness, it's just the anxiety of you wanting to make sure that things go a certain way or that you say the right things or that you connect in some way, right? There's something just so nice about a perspectives week when it's a friend, when it's someone I've done plenty of shows with, that I talk to, you know, and that's you, Mr. Harris. I'm very excited to do this show.

Bob Harris (1:02)

I always enjoy the invite. And by the way, Oss Neckler was all over the Fantasy Nation thing in Vegas a couple weeks ago, interviewing people, doing interviews, super accessible, super nice, super knowledgeable, really great guy. It was a really good event.

I hope they grow it and make it better. But Oss Neckler was a highlight for pretty much everyone. And I think he felt the same about all of us.

JJ Zachariason (1:26)

Yeah.

It's rare where like it's not... Because sometimes you get athletes and you get celebrities and such that are like, they're just kind of going through the motions because they're trying to push something or get something out there. He genuinely cares. I talked to him a little bit afterwards and stuff. Like he genuinely cares. You can tell that he genuinely cares. I think that's a really, really important part to all of that.

Bob Harris (1:47)

And he understands the game. I think that's always been the fascinating part to me of going back to the early 2000s when we were doing the fantasy sports publications magazines. We really started getting into the player interviews and leaning into them.

And some of these guys were like, really got it. Like Larry Johnson, I can remember just going, man, this fantasy football is what makes a Raiders fan, a Larry Johnson fan, a Bear, and he got it, and others did too. Sean Alexander, Priest Holmes thought, man, maybe after I'm done playing, I could get into this. And Latanean Tomlinson, of course, totally understood what we were all about and still does. It's just always good getting that connection with people who get what we're doing. Not all of them did.

Jake Plummer would like you to know, among others. But yeah, that was always interesting to see how they viewed us. Knowing how we viewed them.

JJ Zachariason (2:35)

Yeah. I gotta ask you, have you gotten your Peloton ride in today?

Bob Harris (2:37)

I have not yet today. It's gonna be a nighttime thing.

I'm starting to drift into the evenings more. The late night schedule on work is kind of keeping me from the early morning ride. But I will not miss, as you know. Yeah, I know.

JJ Zachariason (2:50)

Oh, I see you on there all the time, man. You're crushing it. All right. Let's get into just straight into some of the stuff that's been going on in the fantasy football world. As we, you know, we're now done with one week. We kind of learned a little bit, but probably think that we learned more than we actually did, because it's usually how this stuff goes. So we're in this weird spot where we want to react, but we don't want to overreact. So my question to you to kick things off is, what are you looking for early on in the season, whether it be week one, week two, to sort of help that balance of being reactive, but not reacting too much and going crazy because you drafted a lot of Jalen Waddle, and he was horrible in week one.

Bob Harris (3:27)

That's the biggest battle, right? I mean, you'll see these people fever dropping all kinds of players week one. Be ready.

First, watch your waiver wire, see who's getting dropped because people will do the craziest, most unexpected things. I think that the things that I noticed in week one was the scoring. It was great. Sunday's games averaged 53.3 points.

JJ Zachariason (3:46)

Crazy.

Bob Harris (3:47)

It was off the charts. Monday night came up a little short with 41 points, but the six games on Sunday saw at least 60 combined points, and one of them set a new bar. Thank you, Bears. Thank you, Panthers. Six points. Highest-growing week one game in NFL history. So it appears the offenses are ahead of the defenses. So again, week one is a big fat liar. We all know this.