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Late-Round Perspectives: Rich Dotson artwork

Late-Round Perspectives: Rich Dotson

The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast

May 23, 2025

Rich Dotson of Dynasty Nerds joins JJ to talk about the thing dynasty managers get wrong most frequently, the 2025 rookie class, trade calculators, dynasty strategy, and so much more.

Speakers JJ Zachariason, Rich Dotson

TopicsFantasy SportsSportsFootball

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

Rich Dotson is the co-founder and owner of Dynasty Nerds, who's also done work for ESPN Cleveland. He loves all things Cleveland sports, he's a Buckeye, a snowboarder, a Stephen King fan, and he's not afraid to make bold moves to win now in Dynasty. These are his Late-Round perspectives.

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Rich Dotson (2:37)

That's fine. I literally just put away my Pittsburgh Pirates t-shirt.

JJ Zachariason (2:41)

Oh, wow.

Rich Dotson (2:43)

That's really crazy. You say that because I literally just put away that I bought at Pirate Stadium like a couple of weeks ago because like I grew up out. My grandfather was a big Pittsburgh fan and he got me into the Pirates real early. So my National League team is the Pirates. Don't come closely, but like Big Paul Skeen's fan and reminds me of my grandfather. And I'm not one of those guys that says like, man, listen, if you're from the area that your team, I have no qualms for them. Listen, you should be more just as passionate as you are about Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay or wherever as I am about Cleveland.

I have issues just with people like, hey, I live in Cleveland. I'm a New York Yankees fan. And Dallas is a Cardinals fan. And they're like, come on, bro, come on.

JJ Zachariason (3:24)

I can't back that. But here's the other thing though, too, is were you born and raised Cleveland? You were just in Cleveland forever? Yeah. So I was born and raised Pittsburgh. I haven't lived in Pittsburgh for 14 years at this point. So I'm born and raised and I went to Pitt. And then ever since graduating college, I've been, I lived in Cincinnati for a little bit. Now I've been in Charlotte for about a decade. But to me, Cleveland and Pittsburgh both are the kind of cities that it is just in your blood when you were born and raised in that environment. So it's even crazier when people, I remember when people would come to school in a Broncos jersey or something. I'm like, what do you, who don't even have ties? There's no familial ties to it or anything like that. I'm like, what are you doing, man? What are you doing? It's crazy.

Rich Dotson (4:06)

Yeah, have some loyal to the city you're from, or at least like say you grew up, like I have a buddy who's from LA, born and raised in LA, and he's a diehard Chiefs fan, but has been forever because when Joe Montana got traded to the Chiefs, he was a Joe Montana's fan. So when he was little, that makes sense to me, right? And nothing, prefab my homes, the Chiefs were terrible. So it makes a lot of sense. But yeah, I'm a big hometown guy. Sports is obviously runs through my blood. And Pittsburgh and Cleveland are very similar cities in so many different ways, or so many of the same ways. And sports is one thing that really ties those cities together.

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