Anyone in position to pull off the Colston-Webb-Samuels Cheat Code Trifecta? (1 Viewer)

[zftcg]

With Jaylen Samuels looking set to be Pittsburgh's starting RB this week, and with him having RB/TE eligibility in Yahoo, I'm having memories of 2010, when I started Joe Webb at WR in my fantasy championship in a game where he was the Vikings' starting QB. I very nearly won the championship that year (would have if I had started the right defense). The other famous example is Marques Colston, who had WR/TE eligibility in his rookie season (I suppose you could also count Ty Montgomery 2016, but since most leagues have flex spots, dual RB/WR eligibility isn't nearly as significant. Also, Montgomery wasn't all that good that year.)

Anyway, I'm in good position to pick up Samuels when my waivers runs tomorrow morning, and assuming I get him, I will give serious thought to starting him at TE over Kittle. Unfortunately, though, I missed out on Colston, so I won't be able to hit the trifecta.

I know some people deride the strategy as cheating or classless or winning on a technicality, but I view it more as a savvy owner taking advantage of an infrequent quirk. If I had won that year with Webb, it would have been the kind of fantasy story I would one day tell my grandkids about.

Anyway, curious if anyone else is in position to check all three boxes.

 

[rockaction]

I'm getting him in one league. I saved my FAAB dollars. I don't know, but starting him at TE seems wrong. I wonder what people think; that's why I bid the last of my bucks on him.  

 

[ILUVBEER99]

yahoo is so stupid classifying these guys as RB/TE or WR/TE.  They shoulda learned back in the Colston days, but nope, they are still doing that shady stuff.

 

[Twenty-Four Eighty-Four]

If the league allows it do it. I just think it's silly that sites even have that as an option.

 

[[scooter]]

The frustrating thing about the Colston situation is that he was never officially listed as a TE. He played WR in college and he was drafted as a WR. But when he showed up at the first minicamp at nearly 240 pounds, the Saints talked about possibly switching him to TE. And that was enough for Yahoo to officially list him at TE. And Yahoo totally forgot about the switch because Colston was a 7th round pick who wasn't even slated to make the team. It was basically a clerical error/oversight by Yahoo.

And by the time Colston was announced as the starting WR in August, Yahoo decided that it would be unfair to remove the TE designation because most leagues had already drafted. Just a bogus move on Yahoo's part.

 

[The Frankman]

yahoo is so stupid classifying these guys as RB/TE or WR/TE.  They shoulda learned back in the Colston days, but nope, they are still doing that shady stuff.

It's not shady; he worked out as a TE during The Combine, so he was graded and scouted as a TE. This isn't the Colston situation.

 

[ILUVBEER99]

It's not shady; he worked out as a TE during The Combine, so he was graded and scouted as a TE. This isn't the Colston situation.

The Steelers didn’t draft him as a TE.  He didn’t play TE in offseason/preseason.  He hasn’t played TE all regular season.

he should have never been designated a TE in any FF league in the first place.

 

[zftcg]

The frustrating thing about the Colston situation is that he was never officially listed as a TE. He played WR in college and he was drafted as a WR. But when he showed up at the first minicamp at nearly 240 pounds, the Saints talked about possibly switching him to TE. And that was enough for Yahoo to officially list him at TE. And Yahoo totally forgot about the switch because Colston was a 7th round pick who wasn't even slated to make the team. It was basically a clerical error/oversight by Yahoo.

And by the time Colston was announced as the starting WR in August, Yahoo decided that it would be unfair to remove the TE designation because most leagues had already drafted. Just a bogus move on Yahoo's part.

Interesting. I had never heard the back story. Sounds like the Samuels situation may have been similarly questionable. 

The Webb one made sense -- he was supposed to be their QB3 and was a good athlete, so they planned to use him as a WR until their other two QBs got hurt. And the Montgomery thing definitely made sense, since he switched from fulltime WR to fulltime RB midseason.

 

[The Frankman]

The Steelers didn’t draft him as a TE.  He didn’t play TE in offseason/preseason.  He hasn’t played TE all regular season.

he should have never been designated a TE in any FF league in the first place.

Rules are rules. You know why Lamar Jackson isn't designated as a WR or RB? Because at the combine he refused to work out at any position other than QB. It also explains why Ty Montgomery took awhile to get dual designation.

 

[rockaction]

The Steelers didn’t draft him as a TE.  He didn’t play TE in offseason/preseason.  He hasn’t played TE all regular season.

he should have never been designated a TE in any FF league in the first place.

I don't know about you but our commish isn't going to dig through every dual designation to get to the bottom of it. It's a fun league in the FFA. 

I'm just taking him now as a runner. I think I've decided. In my main league, I helped someone out one year before the finals in 2016 and wouldn't use Montgomery in our final and:

• I won
  
• Montgomery threw up a stinker at RB, even for a WR
  

But I'm still taking Samuels so nobody else is tempted.  

eta* oh, I see what you're saying -- the use of the word "league" was nebulous to me. Sorry. 

 

[[scooter]]

The Steelers didn’t draft him as a TE.  He didn’t play TE in offseason/preseason.  He hasn’t played TE all regular season.

he should have never been designated a TE in any FF league in the first place.

Rules are rules. You know why Lamar Jackson isn't designated as a WR or RB? Because at the combine he refused to work out at any position other than QB. It also explains why Ty Montgomery took awhile to get dual designation.

The reason why it took a while for Ty Montgomery to get dual designation is because the Packers continued to officially list him as a WR in 2016. If I recall correctly, they needed to get approval from the league to officially change Montgomery to an RB as long as he wore 88.

So, they could play him at RB but they couldn't officially list him as an RB. Some fantasy leagues (such as ESPN) decided to give him dual eligibility in 2016, while others (CBS) insisted on keeping him as a WR for 2016.

By the end of the season, the Packers officially changed Montgomery to RB, and now most sites only list him as RB.

 

[Ray Barboni]

Unfortunately I don’t own Samuels in either of my Yahoo leagues ..

but yea, both Webb and Colston cheat codes have worked in my favor back in the day

 

[Statorama]

The Dan Arnold thing is close, but not quite since the Saints actually roster him as a TE

 

[steelwind]

It’s bull#### and we all know it.  It’s flat out cheating.  If anyone here plays fantasy baseball on Yahoo it reminds me of when Edwin Diaz had SP/RP designation his rookie year.  When he took over closer role midseason you get to slot him as a SP but get those saves.  People were trading for him including 2nd or 3rd round baseball players because it was cheating and it was like finding gold.

 

[Stompin' Tom Connors]

So funny to see this thread as I was thinking this exact thing in re: trifecta, having taken advantage of BOTH Webb and Colston back in the day (got undying ire from the rest of the league over it both times, too).

Claim in for Samuels, but no way I am going to be able to land this trifecta as I'm the #2 seed with a bye. 

League is very twice bitten, thrice shy, so I think they're already on to this trick.

 

[Arodin]

I had Colston, missed Webb, but beat the Webb owner for the title playing Danny Woodhead at WR in a standard league, which felt like just as big of a cheat code...

 

[rockaction]

It’s bull#### and we all know it.  It’s flat out cheating.  If anyone here plays fantasy baseball on Yahoo it reminds me of when Edwin Diaz had SP/RP designation his rookie year.  When he took over closer role midseason you get to slot him as a SP but get those saves.  People were trading for him including 2nd or 3rd round baseball players because it was cheating and it was like finding gold.

It's not. At all. It's taking advantage of a true glitch in a system. 

I got Samuels. I'm still not taking advantage of it. I think -- think -- I'd rather lose.  

 

[Bri]

I don't like it and agree it's BS but ya can't be the fool complaining and not putting in a claim for the guy.

I wouldn't start him over Kittle because he gets like 14 targets per week but...I can see why

 

[zftcg]

Good discussion on Harris Football podcast today with Andy Behrens of Yahoo. First of all, he explained the double designation: Samuels was used as an H-back in college and worked out with the TEs at the combine. Also, Yahoo's policy is never to take away a guy's designation mid-season, which I agree makes sense since people will make roster decisions based on those designations. Personally, if I were in charge I think I'd eliminate double-designations altogether, but I think Yahoo's position was defensible. (I don't play fantasy baseball, but as I understand it it's much more common in that game.)

In terms of ranking, Behrens had him as the TE2 behind only Kelce. Harris had him TE3 behind Ertz as well. Not sure if they specified whether that was standard or PPR, but I don't think it makes a huge difference. Maybe bump him up a little in PPR since he could be in line for some dump-offs?

 

[rockaction]

I've rethought this. I may very well use him. He's designated that way, I saved my FAAB all year and blew it on him. I'm still torn, but he's in my lineup as we speak. 

 

[sportsphysio]

It’s bull#### and we all know it.  It’s flat out cheating.  If anyone here plays fantasy baseball on Yahoo it reminds me of when Edwin Diaz had SP/RP designation his rookie year.  When he took over closer role midseason you get to slot him as a SP but get those saves.  People were trading for him including 2nd or 3rd round baseball players because it was cheating and it was like finding gold.

If you play fantasy baseball, you would know this happens all the time.   It’s no different than using Rizzo as your 2B this past year despite never playing the position this season, it carried over from last year.

 

[zftcg]

I must confess, I get why people don't like it, but I don't get why anyone would consider it "cheating". Every team had an equal opportunity to pick Samuels up, and he's been listed that way the entire season. Particularly with the explosion of information in recent years, anyone who's making a reasonable effort to keep up with their fantasy team should have had a good idea of who Samuels was. (By contrast, I remember Webb being much more of a sub-rosa thing. I was tipped off by a plugged-in coworker.)

If you don't want to take advantage of it yourself, fine. If you want to change your league rules to prevent double designations, that's fine, too. But I don't think it's fair to cast aspersions on people who are playing by the rules set out by Yahoo.

 

[simey]

I've rethought this. I may very well use him. He's designated that way, I saved my FAAB all year and blew it on him. I'm still torn, but he's in my lineup as we speak. 

 

[rockaction]

Still torn. Would you use him? Did you bid on him as an RB? Be honest.  

 

[simey]

Still torn. Would you use him? Did you bid on him as an RB? Be honest.  

I bid on him as a RB. I have an injured Melvin Gordon on my roster.

 

[rockaction]

Okay, I'll take you at face value and not use him. Fun league and it doesn't matter if I lose. Still came around to the other point of view though. I knew not only of him but his designation. Plus you guys got every good player early in the year by blowing through FAAB, and I was in position to use my FAAB on something like Samuels and Jackson because I saved it. So, I'd sort of absolve my own temptation.  

I'm still going to win.

 

[simey]

Okay, I'll take you at face value and not use him. Fun league and it doesn't matter if I lose. Still came around to the other point of view though. I knew not only of him but his designation. Plus you guys got every good player early in the year by blowing through FAAB, and I was in position to use my FAAB on something like Samuels and Jackson because I saved it. So, I'd sort of absolve my own temptation.  

I'm still going to win.

I ain't your mama, you do what you want.  It's your karma you are risking.   I didn't even know he had a TE designation in yahoo until I read this thread.  He isn't a TE though. I would have bid on Jackson too, but he was picked up the week before, and I didn't realize he had been dropped. You bid more money on him anyway, so I wouldn't have had a chance with the pocket change I had left.  I bid on Wilson, but lost out on him too. Zilla and I bet the same amount, but he had higher priority on the ww. I did get Ridley. Don't know if I will play him or not. I'm going to have to talk to my magic 8 ball about my lineup. In the meantime, my voodoo doll of you is complete. I have an assortment of pins to stick in it, but if you play Samuels in the TE position, I think I'll use a machete. 

 

[rockaction]

I ain't your mama, you do what you want.  It's your karma you are risking.   I didn't even know he had a TE designation in yahoo until I read this thread.  He isn't a TE though. I would have bid on Jackson too, but he was picked up the week before, and I didn't realize he had been dropped. You bid more money on him anyway, so I wouldn't have had a chance with the pocket change I had left.  I bid on Wilson, but lost out on him too. Zilla and I bet the same amount, but he had higher priority on the ww. I did get Ridley. Don't know if I will play him or not. I'm going to have to talk to my magic 8 ball about my lineup. In the meantime, my voodoo doll of you is complete. I have an assortment of pins to stick in it, but if you play Samuels in the TE position, I think I'll use a machete. 

 I know you ain't my mama. 

No, I'm clearly uncomfortable in this thread about it. I'm just hearing that everyone's using him and figuring it's standard practice. 

But it's not how I want to operate. He's an RB, and we know it. I've had this dilemma before and went with what my gut told me and I'll do it again. I changed him out of the lineup in my other league, too. I think, even if you hadn't come along, I would have switched him out in the end. Actually, I almost know it. Winning a fun league isn't as important as keeping one's integrity and sense of ethical purpose.  

So don't sweat it. Consider yourself a moral conscience reminder rather than a mama. I only gave my rationale because you're pretty darn cool all the time and didn't want to be thought less of. 

Easy on the voodoo doll; I've had crazy foot cramps lately that are causing me little to no sleep (true story). Have you already begun using it, perchance?  

 

[rockaction]

He may be my W/R/T flex though, which is eminently fair.  

 

[simey]

He may be my W/R/T flex though, which is eminently fair.  

Absolutely. I would have used him in that space. As a NC State fan (and ECU), I watched Samuels play in all of his games at State. He is a jack-of-all-trades really. I can see Ben dumping off a lot of passes to him, cause he has great hands. 

 

[rockaction]

Absolutely. I would have used him in that space. As a NC State fan (and ECU), I watched Samuels play in all of his games at State. He is a jack-of-all-trades really. I can see Ben dumping off a lot of passes to him, cause he has great hands. 

It's Samuels or Golladay. And I forgot you were a fan of NC State. What song do you pick for him (Samuels)? I picked Superchunk from Chapel Hill, which I bet makes you happy. Uh...