Late-Round Perspectives: Matt Waldman

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

Matt Waldman is a senior staff writer for Football Guys and the creator of the insanely in-depth Rookie Scouting Portfolio. He's been in the fantasy football analysis space for over 20 years. He's got more film breakdowns on Twitter than almost anyone else on Earth. He's got a great beard game too. These are his late-round perspectives.

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Now back to the show.

Like this is why I love doing Late-Round perspectives is because, you know, like I always reference Bloom's on the couch, of course, because Bloom has been doing this thing for years where he's just chilling, talking, and you've obviously been part of that journey too.

Matt Waldman (1:24)

Sure. I own a cushion on that couch.

JJ Zachariason (1:29)

There's a Matt Waldman butt indent on that couch.

But like I really wanted to do this show because, you know, I do the solo show with the Late-Round podcast. I don't have that many opportunities for guests and such. And like you and I have at least conversed on Twitter for like a decade at this point. Like it's been a really long time. It's crazy. And so I was, you know, very, very pumped. Like it was, this is the first year during draft season and I'm doing Late-Round Perspectives. And I thought to myself, this is the perfect opportunity, especially like, you know, I'm angling this and approaching the prospecting stuff through analytics. And I love, you know, I had Norris on the last perspectives episode.

Now you coming on, being able to give that other perspective on all of this stuff is really, really important. So I just have to say, all that being said, I'm so excited to finally sit down and talk to you about this stuff.

Matt Waldman (2:20)

And likewise, because when you reached out to me, I was like, oh, this is going to be awesome because we have talked on Twitter for over a decade. And I was like, you know, I've always respected the work that you do. And you've done a fantastic job of that. And I'm congratulations on, you know, I'm doing this as your own thing, as an independent thing. And having success with that, because as someone who does that as well on my own and with the RSP, I, you know, it's a small club of people.

And you know what goes on behind that. So, you know, it's nice to get a chance for us to chop it up.

JJ Zachariason (2:56)

For sure, man. You know, I just talked about how you and I sort of approach this stuff from different perspectives.

You know, you've been in the scouting game and doing this. Has it been like 20 years, I think I've seen?

Matt Waldman (3:09)

This coming year will be year 20 for the book. And it has been 20 years that I've been doing it, yeah.

JJ Zachariason (3:14)

That's wild. Yeah, that's crazy. And I feel like people out there listening to this, maybe you've done this in the past, people love to pit us against each other randomly on Twitter and such, right? Like it's like, oh, I have a take and then some other guy who approaches things differently has the opposite take. Therefore, you guys need to spend the next three hours on Twitter going back and forth about, it's like, let's just relax a little bit guys. Let's calm down for a second here. But I did wanna ask you, can you just sort of describe, I mean, look, your RSP, the Research Scouting Portfolio is out of control. I was looking at this year's and I can't even describe how much information is in that. Like I thought I was a sicko with some of this stuff. Like you, you're sick, Matt. Like there is a sickness with what you're doing. I mean, you went, cause like a lot of people that I'll talk to on shows and stuff, a lot of it is they haven't necessarily dug into the pseudo undrafted, seventh round type guys. A lot of it, especially early on in like February, March, a lot of it is like, yeah, I've taken a look at maybe the day one, day two guys, but you're not only what, cause I look at every guy that goes to the combine, right? So that's a decent amount. You know, it's like 80 guys or whatever, running back and wide receiver. But then I look at yours and there are players on there that I didn't even know existed on planet earth that you're analyzing. I'm like, my gosh, this is a true sickness. But I just want to ask, how would you just describe your process overall and how you're approaching this stuff?