4/27 MON
(7:49amET)
Today/tomorrow
-- The first wave of DRD rankings hit yesterday. Wave 2 hits today as we expand to the top 100, bringing in the IDPs, getting official contract info on UDFAs. We will likely push two updates today...
2.0 = Expands to the top 75 with more commentary added, and player valuations still being audited/calculated. This will post middayET.
2.1 = Expands to top 100 with more commentary added, and player valuations still being audited/calculated. This will post eveningET.
We’ll keep expanding the DRD rankings to the top 150, then top 200, then top 250, then top 300+ with commentaries added each day of the week next week. Then we’ll settle in at that 300+ level for the whole offseason and update weekly up to kickoff.
-- NFL DRAFT TEAM GRADES...will be out potentially on Monday. Tuesday is a hopeful worst case. Wednesday is not out of the question. The DRD boards are the priority.
Our draft grades are nothing like the mainstream ones where everyone gets an A or B or C (although there might be actual Ds from the paid-by-thing-they-have-to-critique because this was the stupidest draft on execution that I’ve ever seen in a draft in my career). We use calculations/algorithms to put real grades on the teams based on our perfect draft criteria and average draft criteria, etc., blended into a grade based on our valuations. There will be F grades (gasp)...probably several of them.
-- My post-Draft mock DRD series from the 12 draft spots/5 rounds will start Monday...two or more slots a day to get through all 12 slots by the weekend of 5/2-3 for those first DRDs going off.
-- The NFL Draft impact/changes to the Dynasty rankings...will be working on those all week trying to have the first wave of impacts considered/newly valued by the 5/2-3 weekend as well.
Busy week ahead.
This Week’s/Month’s Agenda…
-- DRD valuations/rankings top 300+ board updates/adds to everyday post-NFL Draft week and every week through the entire offseason.
-- DRD 5-round Mock Draft, 12-episode series begins Monday 4/27
-- Prospect grades by position and rookie rankings boards are being debuted, updated and added to daily/weekly up to kickoff 2026.
-- Dynasty and Best Ball rankings audits/updates daily/weekly. IDP studies trying to get done by end of April.
-- Holy series QB and RB done. Holy RB Handcuffs underway (on hold for draft, since we’re this close)
-- Full scouting reports on prospects from now until the NFL preseason.
-- Any FFM News & Notes or Special Reports during the day as I get them.
-- New coaching staff hire’s analysis series...going through the entire staff...I am working on the framework of how I want to present that. This will be a first ever series (for me) where I go beyond ‘just the new head coaches’. ETA in May/June to start it up.
== NEWS & NOTES & Xs ==
-- HEADLINE: Ravens’ Ryan Mink reports that team owner Steve Bisciotti was allowed to draft a player for the first time ever this year and chose former Clemson RB Adam Randall.
You have to now value Randall a little higher for FF consideration if the OWNER made the pick. Biscotti apparently knows the Clemson coach/es and did studies, and this was his first ever pick. And...well...now there is quite an investment in the young man.
From NBC: General Manager Eric DeCosta said in a press conference that selecting former Clemson running back Adam Randall was Bisciotti’s call. “When we were down in Florida, Steve was begging for a draft pick and he owns the team,” DeCosta said, via the team’s website. “I said, ‘Yes, Steve, of course you can have a draft pick.’ So, we decided on our last fifth-round pick. He did his research and studied the tape, talked to people. He has a really good relationship with the Clemson head coach.
-- HEADLINE: Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia will attend Ravens rookie minicamp.
Another Ravens’ noteworthy event today in the news.
It sickens me that no one gave Pavia a chance because, reportedly, he was saying he would come to a team’s roster and try to win the QB job. You should want that...but not in the frightened cat that is NFL management.
Rashee Rice is welcomed every day with open arms. Diego Pavia can only get an invite to try out. Totally ridiculous. Some of the guys who get invited to camp compared to Pavia isn’t even a comparison. What’s the harm of inviting him in for the summer and if he gets out of line, per their fears, they send him packing and his career would be over if his first chance team abruptly fired him. You have to take a chance for the price.
You can’t tell me Pavia is better for a team than ‘Snoop’ Huntley. Give me a break.
If the Ravens don’t officially have him on the 90-man roster after the invite to tryout, then I bet he goes to the CFL to draw money and try to gain attention...or maybe to the UFL or whatever minor league football is still alive.
== QUOTES & QUOTABLES (pulled from an internet A.I. search, I try to make sure it’s accurate but some of it is ‘trust in AI’) ==
-- “If you had a gun to my head, I’d say AR [will be the Steelers’ quarterback],” Mike Tomlin said. “I just think being around him for the 12 months I was around him, he’s got as love affair with the game of football. And not only the game, but the process. The informal moments of the development of younger guys. The interaction with teammates. I think he has an addiction to that, and there’s only one way to feed it…”
-- NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is reporting that UAB running back Isaiah Jacobs, brother of Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs, is going to get a tryout opportunity at the Packers’ rookie minicamp next week. For those not in the know, rookie minicamp is a week of practices when the team gets hands-on work with its rookie class, but it’s also the only opportunity for teams to have tryout players in for a full practice without them being members of the offseason roster.
-- Drew Allar is an in-state draft pick, his connection to the Steelers dates back to when he was in high school and Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth recruited him while he was the head coach at the University of Akron.
“I’ve been watching Drew since he was probably 14 or 15 years old,” Arth said after the Steelers drafted the Medina, OH native. “[I] offered him [a scholarship] as a college coach. And it’s just amazing to see how far he’s come.“
When discussing the traits he loves about Allar, Arth raved about his arm talent.
“He throws it as well as any quarterback in this draft class,” Arth said. “He has an effortless arm. He can make every single throw on the field. And he’s a better athlete than I think [he’s] given credit for.”
-- In 2025, Hall of Famer Deion Sanders finished his third season as the head coach at Colorado. His most recent team produced no NFL draft picks.
None. Not one. Which doesn’t speak well of the recruiting efforts, either from the high school ranks prior to the 2023 season or from the transfer portal via one- or two-year players.
-- “It wasn’t that we intentionally didn’t draft a safety because we feel good about them [Joseph and Branch]. I feel like they’re both trending in the right direction, but it just didn’t line up,” Lions GM Brad Holmes said. “Just like it hasn’t lined up at other positions in the past, we didn’t ignore it. There were some good ones that were out there that just got picked before we were able to, but it just didn’t quite line up. I didn’t really think that class was as deep either, so it had to line up and you had to strike right.”
Your moment of Zen for this day...
(20+ minute video and you will enjoy it...a good time waster/enhancer at work today)
https://youtu.be/2JdufPA5EWU?si=6c_f7RlMTz9ebL3j
== New Short-Term Daily Series ==
This is gonna be an odd short series but consider it a Public Service Announcement...another PSA story from me this year, and this PSA may be worse than my other PSA (prostate cancer) issue.
My PSA for the next few days will be about...Identity Theft.
Someone made an attempt on me and I’m going to share how it unfolded and my journey into learning about what to do and the nightmare of things I had to do.
Part 1: The Intrusion...
So, before I go to bed every night...I spend 30-60 minutes on my phone. Two primary functions doing that...(1) Catch up on the world news of the day that I might have missed in my football cocoon all day, and (2) Clear all my personal/non-football emails...look for key emails and read them and then possibly send them to myself to deal with the next day.
So, Sunday night I was clearing my emails when I saw a Credit Karma alert...about an inquiry into my credit by some company. I thought ‘that’s odd’...I didn’t recall anything that would trigger that, but I wasn’t immediately thrown/shook by it...until I read the email and saw it was an inquiry from a Credit Card company that I have no association with. Then...it was FREAK OUT TIME.
I wanted to intervene before the inquiry turned into an official account. I was in a frenzy.
The inquiry on my credit report gave the number of the credit card company, so I called and eventually got to their 24-hour fraud alert line and...and to say they were less than helpful would be an understatement. Four transfers/four different phone numbers people from ‘International Call Centers’ gave to me to call. None of them came up with anything useful for my investigation.
I knew I should probably just call in the morning (Monday) when the full staff would be around.
I did a GEMINI research into what to do about a fraud breach... And it came back that I should urgently/primarily check all the three credit reporting agencies and consider freezing my credit.
So, I started to do just that... I had to make online accounts with the three credit bureaus, at 1am...dog tired but heart racing to the point of fear of a heart attack -- the meds I’m on for the cancer fight mess with my heart if I put any strain on it...I thought that was just a concern if I did something physical, but this mental freak out moment was making my heart hurt bad.
As I made accounts with the Big 3 credit places...I started to discover there were a total of five other hard inquiries...four for different credit cards and one for Carvana, but the Carvana one was attempted 4 different times/locations. All of it happening on Sunday 4/19...which is a good day to make a run at someone because who's working full steam at places on a Sunday?
If I was panicked before and my heart was stinging me a bit...once I discovered all these other attempts, my heart was in real pain, I could hardly sleep. I was stuck in the wee hours of the morning Sunday into Monday with this knowledge...knowing I needed to go after it on Monday morning when these places had staff I could talk to. But I did freeze all my credit at 1-2am, so the spigot was at least shut off...but the existing attempts were live wires/active volcanos to deal with.
Advice-to-you #1: The Credit Karma App is free, and I’ve had it for years and it has been very good alerting me to things I knew/was OK with. This was the first problem...and thank God I had them give me an alert or I would have had no idea it was happening.
If you don’t have it already: YOU NEED the FREE Credit Karma App (or equivalent) and you need to get the notifications flowing and you need to take their notifications seriously, just to be sure. It’s the first line of defense-for free.
Tomorrow we’ll pick up tomorrow with Part 2: Monday Morning Phone Call Mania...
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Part 2: Monday Morning Phone Call Mania...
So now it was MY job to call all these credit card companies and Carvana all Monday morning...so, I did.
Trying to scout draft prospects, write draft reports, deal with radiation sickness...and call all these corporations in desperation to find out info and stop the bad guys/gals...what a wonderful day.
So, I called every one of the companies to follow up on the ‘Hard Inquires’ (someone applied for credit in my name)
Carvana = Gave me an email to their fraud department. Couldn’t contact them direct. So, I emailed and waited for a response. Credit to them they emailed back quickly for additional info and said they would look into and get back to me.
Two Bank Credit Card companies, bigger names = Transferred to 1-2 other departments/people. No record of anything (apply or actual account)...but I could clearly see there was an application at least. What could I do? They had no info.
Crypto account/credit card = Transferred to 4 different divisions. One person in the chain told me, “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. We are constantly getting people trying to open up fraudulent accounts.” My heart was about to explode when I found out this was a credit line to buy crypto. No records of anyone with my name/last 4 social. Seriously? I can see the hit/inquiry on my credit!
Credit Bureau = I thought 4 attempts at different Carvana’s was bad. Then I thought the Crypto account thing was really bad. Then when I realized they may have tried to buy my credit report from one of the Big 3, it made me sick. They tried to use my identity info/credentials to buy access to my full credit/everything. Think about the ramifications! Devious/smart on their end. Made a person fighting cancer on a lot of chemically altering meds the most anxious, heart-pounding he’s been since I first got the information I had Stage 4 prostate cancer.
And then get this...contacting the credit bureau to see what happened and if the bad guys got access -- it was the least inviting/able to access anyone company there was.
I felt like the clock was ticking to contact all of them at this stage because I had no idea if they actually got lines of credit or access to my full credit/history or what? I was calling them all to find out info, stop things...I leapt into action. And what did that get me? Basically nowhere. Constant transfers or giving me phone numbers to call...speaking to outsources in other countries, so I had a hard time understanding/following the conversation...I never really got ‘real’ information. Not one company, on the spot, could tell me if an account was opened or attempted to be opened in my name. Not that they wouldn’t...they didn’t have systems or headcount or concern in place to be able to tell me anything. Their fraud departments were ‘nothing’, in my opinion. Except one, which we’ll get to in a bit.
SUNDAY = I got alerted.
MONDAY wee hours = I froze all my credit.
MONDAY all day = Constant calls, transfers, on hold, dead ends, really not one real piece of info from anyone.
Now what do I do?
Tomorrow we’ll pick up tomorrow with Part 3: Credit Protection Firm Shopping...
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Part 3: Credit Protection Firm Shopping...
When I got the first alert of an identity issue very late Sunday night, I asked GEMINI what I should do given the situations...it told me to set up FREE accounts on the Big 3 credit bureaus and (1) Freeze my credit with all 3, and (2) Put a Fraud Alert on my credit bureaus accounts, so I did.
Freezing means NO company can see your credit. You have to go in and unfreeze it if you’re really going to apply for credit for something. Freezing closes the gates 100% from any fraud attempts going forward...but the ones prior are still alive.
Fraud Alert means = when a business sees a fraud alert activated on your report, they are legally required to take "reasonable steps" to verify your identity before granting new credit. This usually means they will call you at a phone number you provided when you set up the alert. I wonder how hard they really try to get a hold of a person...
But then I asked GEMINI to recommend an identity theft monitoring company that insures me for losses. I thought LifeLock was the leader, but it insisted it is a company called AURA, insisted it by a mile from the other options. So, I signed up with them and am just getting started...but apparently they would have helped me make those individual phone calls to all the businesses that the thieves tried to sign up for credit with by having access to a ‘white glove’ service where they will help me dispute the ‘hard inquiries’ if I want them to.
If anyone has good or bad experience with AURA, drop me an email–I’d like to see what real people think. Online, everyone pretty much has AURA rated #1.
I thought I could get away with not having paid-for credit protection since I had the free Credit Karma that does so much, but they just alert after-the-fact...they don’t defend and/or assist.
I am going to have them assist me later next week when I get past the NFL Draft processing crunch. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Tomorrow we’ll conclude with the ‘outcome’ of all this: Part 4: So, what happened to the thieves attempts to open all these accounts, how much money did they get?
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Part 4: So, what happened to the thieves attempts to open all these accounts, how much money did they get?
Well, I thought I was in the clear. I checked my credit stuff multiple times a day looking for bad accounts that were opened. Nothing. I thought maybe all these companies caught the fraud with ease. Each day of the week that went by clean was a little relief for me. But then...
I was really sick all day Saturday...one of my worst days since I’ve been back from radiation. Out of the blue. I just stayed in place. Limited my movements. I didn't walk the dog, which means I didn’t get the mail Saturday. I still felt bad Sunday, but I needed to get some fresh air and sun, so I took an abbreviated walk Sunday...then got the mail on the way back in, and there it was -- a ‘welcome to your new credit card’ letter with an attached card to activate (from one of the places that had a hard inquiry).
What a way to start a Sunday.
I started panic-calling. I eventually got through to this major bank’s fraud department. I gave them the info on the situation and the card number, and they said...sorry, we can’t help you...you gotta call the ____ company. It was a credit card for a retail company thru this major bank as the issuer, which then means the bank issuer is hand’s off...you gotta contact the retailer’s finance department. And of course they aren’t around on weekends.
It’s smart of the thieves...direct accounts with major banks would likely catch the fraud with several steps to being able to use the card. Major retailers not in the real banking system can’t wait to open an account and make a sale…they must have much lower credit standards and less protection of the consumer.
I now have to take another Monday morning change of plans to play phone tag with this retailer. Also, I need to take a meeting with AURA protection company to see what they can do because this may be the first open account I’m alerted to with 2-3 of them to come/already happened but I don't know it.
I thought the story was over/had a lucky ending by today...but now it’s still alive and really kicking. I’ll end this little series here but will update the final events as they happen.
But I wanted to suggest, in the end...
1) Be sure to take advantage of the FREE Credit Karma App (or equivalent, but I think they are the top dog). Enable the notifications, etc. I would have had no idea what was happening until I opened that ‘welcome to your new credit card’ letter a week after things had happened...a week they would’ve had to do more damage.
2) Sign up for an identity theft/credit management protection agency proactively. I can’t give you a real review of AURA yet, but an FFMer did email me to say they had good experience with and recommended.
AURA also has it where you can get a family plan and get a spouse and up to (I think) 3 other family members included. And a million dollars each insurance on any breaches, issues, theft, etc., with AURA...and for each family member on the family plan.
3) Whether you sign up for pay-for credit monitoring or not...from everything I can tell from research and discussions with people in credit/finance (among the FFM nation), at a minimum, you should consider three FREE things...(a) Credit Karma App and (b) making an account with the three credit agencies (which is the typical username/password sign up but with some minor identity questions/confirmation) and FREEZE your credit with all 3. You can temp ‘unfreeze’ your credit with them with ease, to allow a real inquiry through then have the gate close/credit refreeze automatically. But (c) the first thing to do after seeing my recommendations -- have a conversation with ChatGPT or GEMINI, etc., about your situation and recommended options that fits your needs and is highly rated and why, etc. It’s like a free financial advisor in your pocket or on screen, etc.
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