We're back! Season number two of the Snake Draft livestream every Friday afternoon right here on the FanDuel YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter pages. We're going to go through a Snake Draft, a three-person Snake Draft over on FanDuel.com, talk about our picks, talk about our thoughts on the main slate, and later on take your questions about week number one because it is finally here. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for NumberFire.com joined here once again by Brandon Gadoula and J.J. Zacharias. And Brandon Gadoula is the managing editor of NumberFire.com, my co-host on the Heat Check Fantasy podcast. Brandon, happy week number one. How are you doing today? I'm good. I can't remember how the Snake Draft ended up last year. It might have been like a three-way tie. I know you started off really strong. I know what happened. Don't do this. Don't do this to Jim. There's an ego boost. Yeah, because it was the last week and he won in the last week. We were tied going to the last week and I won the last one. I had to redeem myself. I was very close to just pooping the bed and somehow bailed myself out by being better than you. It's a common theme recently, Brandon, right, with the PGA head to heads too? Here's the thing. Jim, you're good. Can we get Brandon to quit mid-show? Is that like the goal? Here's the thing though. Brandon to back us up here. Jim won in the first three weeks and he barely, barely won. So that tells you that he just got off to this hot start. We're actually better than he is. J.J., would you rather have a 15-week sample or a 12-week sample? Which one do you prefer? 12. Okay, that's wrong. We're going to get J.J. to quit too. The goal is for me to be the lone person standing. We'll be doing that later on. I'll kick them out. We'll talk some baseball at 4.30 later on today. So if you're here for the MLB Q&A, I saw Tim asking about some MLB stuff. We'll be talking about that at 4.30. But first, we're going to do the snake draft. I didn't intro J.J. So that's J.J. Zacharyson, the editor-in-chief of Number Fire and FanDuel. We got Luke over on YouTube says J.J. Love you. So I guess I don't need to introduce J.J. But either way, we're here. J.J., welcome to week one. How was Thursday Night Football for you? Tiring. I have the East Coast dads representing. I understand us on the East Coast and those late night games. Here's the thing. It's not so much going to bed at 11.30 or midnight. I do that fairly regularly. You get your adrenaline going after a game like that, which was an amazing game. That was one of the best opening games that I think we've seen in a while. But you get your adrenaline going and then you can't fall asleep. And I'm just checking my fantasy teams for like an hour and a half. And then all of a sudden it's 1.30 in the morning and I have to get up at six because I have a three-year-old. And that's what East Coast dads is all about. So I'm a little bit tired. I hope it doesn't translate to the snake draft. But I'm happy that football is back. I hope it does translate to the snake draft. And you can overlook some good options here. I'll feel pretty good about that. Preferably, I'd like a win. I'd like to start things off with a good note here to redeem second half of Season Me last year and the calamity that was that. Before we get into the snake draft and launch things up for today, I did want to talk to you guys about the overall week one outlook. And I already talked to Brandon a lot about that on Thursday in our heat check fantasy podcast that you can find on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. JJ, we've been talking a bit on Slack about the way this slate breaks down. And I think that it's interesting because we got some running backs here specifically who are, I would say, under salary on Fandall for this week. We've got some guys who are in really good roles at lower salaries. So for you, what's kind of the defining theme for this week one main slate? We'll talk about the salary cap portion, not snake draft salary cap style. What's the theme for you for this week? I think that early in the season when we don't have enough data necessarily to make the folks that are making salary and whatnot, and they obviously published us a lot earlier than they typically would. And we don't have that information and such. But regardless, I think that a lot of weeks we can sort of section off players into very obvious tiers and be like, yeah, I'm either spending or not spending at running back. I'm spending not spending at wide receiver just based on the fact that there's like, you know, three or four studs that you absolutely want to get in your lineup at each of those positions. I don't know if that's really the case necessarily here. You know, I think that you can just go in a lot of directions with your builds because you have a lot of different tiers of both running backs and wide receivers you could go to.  You have Joe Mixon at 7200. You know, and then at wide receiver you have a lot of guys that are stepping up now because of injury, a lot of rookies. And I would say that there's a lot of players like even like T. Higgins at 6K. There's a lot of players where like, you know, we didn't know their role was necessarily or back when these salaries were created. You know, I think that the general thought was a little bit different about these guys than it is now. So you can just go in a lot of different directions going to allow people to have, you know, pretty awesome lineups on paper. I think going into the week, you know, you can fit in both an elite tight end and a really good quarterback while still having, you know, bell cow running backs and decent wide receivers. But that's my general theme right now is that there's just a lot of these tiers where you can fit in a lot of good players. Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's, it's fun to fill out lineups this week for sure. Obviously, everyone else will have fun too. So keep that in mind. But we do have Keelan saying that JJ, he's also on the East Coast and feeling it for today. Keelan, thank you for making it to four o'clock. Go to sleep, get a nap after this before Friday night. Brandon, I think the key thing we talked about a lot was identifying games we want to stack for this week. And that's, that's very, you know, in line with our process in general for DFS is identifying games. We think it'll be high scoring, loading up on players there. People who didn't watch or listen yesterday, what are the key games you are focusing on for this week? The big game that you and I are both ranking at the top unless things change for you is going to be the Titans and Cardinals game. That's a very easy one to stack because we have Kyler Murray and D'Andre Hopkins for the Cardinals. And then on the other side, Ryan Tannehill is in play as well with A.J. Brown, Julio Jones, Derek Henry. So basically, you know where the ball is going there. The Chiefs Browns is somewhat enticing. The Chiefs offense, obviously, we know where the ball goes in that offense. It's from Mahomes to Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey. The issue for me on the other side is just the Browns. But in my third ranked game, I think it's going to be the Eagles and the Falcons, which I know you're not quite as high on. But I think that Jalen Hertz and even just Calvin Ridley, like that stack alone has a lot of, like they could each finish at the top of their position this week. Yeah. I mean, it's not, I think that that game is a pretty clear path to an under, but I still think Jalen Hertz is the number four quarterback on this slide after Kyler, Tannehill and Mahomes relative to salary. So although you're right, I am a little bit lower on it than consensus. I do still think that Hertz specifically is up there. Ridley is obviously up there, too. The other thing that I think, yeah, in Kyle Pitts as well, the other thing that I think is interesting for this week is usually we do the snake draft. You have two running backs, two receivers and a flax. Usually that for us means we're drafting nine running backs. We're all putting a running back in the flax. This week, that's probably not going to happen. I wouldn't be shocked if we draft six running backs and have three receivers in the flax. Like that's how good the receivers are for this week. So let's get this snake draft started. JJ, I think you're the final one to enter. Yeah, pull it up and let's get this lighted. Let's do it. Entering now. And I I'm waiting for the draft. There we go. I got the three spot. Let's go. Brandon guaranteed I'd pick second because I said I wanted to pick third because I wanted to double happen. Yeah. No, I know.  I get first and I go Christian McCaffrey and then he'd probably just disappoint. Yeah, you actually did predict the whole order. I didn't realize that. You're right though. He did. I will say this though about three, Jim. I don't think I don't think the one of four maybe I don't know. Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. But I think that there's a clear I have a clear tier at one, two, three, as opposed to there being like a tier of four. Yeah, I think that I think that like I have the ranking of them, but like I would rather have two of them.  So I guess it's not like, you know, I'll wipe my tears with long balls from Patrick Mahomes if I have to. But I do think that for me at least it does kind of start off with those top four running backs and CMC, Davencook, Alvin Kamera and Derek Henry. I could see the logic for going a wide receiver above one of them. Like if we were talking about, you know, just ranking things straight up. Oh, the draft started on the clock. Okay. Didn't realize it had started. I thought that I had like a minute left. Hmm. Well, you know who you're picking. It's going to be Davencook. Yeah. I mean, I have, I didn't realize this. I was going through like my best ball drafts during the game yesterday. I didn't realize how much Daven I had and was a little afraid. I really need Daven to be good this year or else things will end in massive destruction. Okay. So JJ, you went, Kamera and Henry, any consideration for you going wide receiver there? Was it pretty locked and you did want to go with the two running backs? Pretty locked in. But like I said, I do think that Kamera, Daven and CMC are better plays more obviously than Henry just because the receiving component, but Henry's still in a great spot. I mean, we all love that game so much that it makes them go that direction.  So I'm going to go with that game actually here with my next pick. I think actually I should probably go Devante. Oh man. I could go digs Devante or Hopkins. Yes. Devante Freeman. Thank you. Man. I'm going to go Devante Adams. Is that stupid? Then I'm going to go Deandre Hopkins. Yeah. And I'm also get that stack though. I was, I was very much. Yeah. Go AJ Brown. Go, go AJ Brown. Do it. But here's the thing. Yeah. I mean, I really want to go AJ Brown. I'm also considering going Kyler here. That's what I meant. Yeah. Do that. Do that. Sounds great. Because Jim wants my homes. No, I don't. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to lock in Kyler. Oh, thank goodness. Okay. I was like, I was regretting after I picked Devante not picking digs. So I really wanted digs and was going to bribe you, but didn't have to thankfully. This means that I am going a wide receiver in the flex because I do have Tyreek Devante and digs in there already. That's fine at that. I think that Kyler JJ was the number one guy on the Slates at quarterback. So if I were going to reach for a quarterback, it was going to be him. I think that's the way I would have played. I just saw, I saw a lot of the, you know, I wanted the stack number one because we've done these drafts, you know, this is now like our 16th ish draft and we've done, we've done these drafts and I know that there are times where we want that stack and someone else steals it from us. Yeah. So I didn't want to really risk that. We just got an airport on ourselves in a situation where do I go? Okay. I could really stack that game. I kind of want to, I think I'm going to go around here. Okay, cool. I think that's a smart play. Honestly, and then I'm going to, I think because of the way that I've built this now, I'm going to go in a different direction and go Joe Mixon with my next pick. Okay. So you and Joe Mixon, which means I've decided between Najee Harris and Clyde Edwards-Elair, I'm going to go Najee Harris for the, the volume there. I was really close to taking CEH though. Like I, I gave that a pretty strong consideration going with CEH, just because I could have had all the chiefs there. And in a three person tournament, I'm okay loading up on one team. So let's talk to Brandon first. Actually, I have the highest projected lineup guys.  That sounds so well for all of us. Yes. So it definitely played out as expected all the time back then. Let's start with Brandon here. Looking at your line, if you got Calvin Ridley, obviously, I talked about DK Metcalf on the heat check yesterday as being a guy where I think that like many stacks of him, Michael Pittman are pretty attractive. Actually, I didn't talk about Jonathan Taylor, I probably should have. I think Jonathan Taylor is good for stacks with DK Metcalf as well. But you went with Travis Kelsey when we don't need a tight end, but I think that Kelsey does make sense despite that just because like the target projection is so good, the touchdown expectation is so good. Thoughts for you on your lineup? Yeah. So I mean, McCaffrey was the clear number one. So that wasn't really anything I had to decide. And I have Kelsey highest or I had Kelsey highest left on my board. So I went with him and I considered my homes to get that stack. But I didn't want to pass up Calvin Ridley. So I went with Ridley. And then with Aaron Jones, I just figured he was, he's kind of in that second tier for me at running back this week. And then I was debating between Najee Harris and DK Metcalf. I went with Metcalf just because the upside is there. But even though I don't have Josh Jalan as someone I'm really targeting in a salary cap format, I thought from a snake draft standpoint, even though I don't have any stacking going on here, I went with Josh Jalan. I thought it might be a little bit silly to pass up Josh Jalan in this format. So again, I'm not really looking to play Josh Jalan in a salary cap format this week, but without that factored in, I did have him rank third. Right. Like in a salary cap format, you would have gone Tana Hill, correct? Yeah. But like this isn't that. Like this is a three person snake draft where you don't have a salary cap. You get to pick your favorite because you were the last one to pick it. So I think that Alan makes a lot of sense in that scenario. And I think that the decision you were talking about of Ridley versus Mahomes, I think that Ridley was the right choice there because Ridley was like, I believe the last of like the big top end receivers outside of Metcalf. Metcalf, I think qualifies as that as well. But like Calvin Ridley, you talked about how much you liked that game. I think that like getting him was smart there as well. I talked to JJ about his lineup here. You got the Kyler and Nuke Stack running back with AJ Brown and also Derek Henry. So you're all in on this game, but I don't think it's, I don't think that's wrong to do it the way you did. Yeah. I mean, we all love this game. I think it's, it's the most attractive game on paper for sure on this slate. So I got Derek Henry. I think that, you know, we all agreed that he was the RB4. Camara for me was a pretty obvious pick at the three spot. And honestly, Green Bay is a team that you can attack on the ground a little bit more through the air. But Green Bay's defense, I mean, we were talking about this earlier, I'm a little bit afraid of that game. Just from an overunderstand point, I think it's a little bit high. I would not be shocked if that under hits, but even still, you know, with no Michael Thomas in that lineup, Alvin Camara should see a lot of looks in that offense with James Winston starting. So I'm cool with Camara, obviously. And then I went with Deandre Hopkins to get exposure to that game slash be able to have that correlation with him and Derek Henry. And then I wanted to stack Kyler already talked about that. And then my final two picks, you know, AJ Brown was just kind of sitting there. And I said, why not? Let's just go all in.  I really wanted to get a slightly better floor in case that game isn't as high scoring as we think it might end up being. And so it came down to like a, I think Justin Jefferson, maybe versus Joe Mixon. And I just went with Mixon because we know it's half BPR. You know, we often build with the three running backs. And I'm bullish on Mixon in general. He's going to see a huge workload. He's one of the few bell cows in the league. And so I went with the safety, but I think there's a decent ceiling there too, in a matchup that's not necessarily that scary on paper. I wanted to ask you, you think of that game overall, because I liked that game initially when I run like my projected offensive efficiency numbers, it likes that game a lot. I think it's like it's higher than I would hope for it to be in those numbers. But the total has come down. It was 48 and a half. It's now 46 and a half. That worried me. But I still think that I want to be high in this game. And obviously I've got Dalvin Cook in there. I love Justin Jefferson. I like T Higgins. Like, I don't remember who said it, but someone talked about T. I like all those guys. So seeing the total come down has me a little stressed. But JJ, what are your thoughts on that game overall for the Bengals and Vikings? Yeah, you know, I think it's one of those games, especially week one, where it's kind of attractive because we sort of know where volume is going to go. You know, you have two studs in the backfield. So you know, you can play both Dalvin Cook and Joe Mixon. Neither team really utilizes their tight ends all that much. So you all of a sudden have, you know, wide receivers. Obviously, Justin Jefferson could see like a 30% target share. I mean, he might see like a 30% target share across the entire season this year. But, you know, Justin Jefferson could see that 30% target share. So he's attractive. And then, you know, Jamar Chase has struggled a little bit. I think T Higgins is a really good play. You know, obviously when you account for salary at 6k. And so I, you know, it's just that it's a game where, yeah, it might end up being like a 46, 47 point game. But at the same time, at least it's a very, it's attracted from the standpoint that we know where these looks are being funneled to.  So that's probably the main reason why I'm sort of more attracted to it. Yeah, I think that I, yeah, with Herb Smith injured, I think I'm a little bit too low on Adam Thielen because we've seen his end zone work be off the charts. And, you know, two touchdowns is kind of part of the recipe to just kind of erupting over, over his salary. So I wasn't high enough on him yesterday. One thing I will say is we talk about stacking games. We talk, Brandon, you and I use terminology. It's a no quarterback game and stuff like that. I think this might be a no quarterback game where I don't want to use Kirk Cousins or Joe Burrow, but I want many stacks of Higgins with Jefferson, Higgins with Cook, Mixon with Jefferson, et cetera, et cetera. And Tyler Conklin, I think, is actually playing. What are some more examples? I will list every possible combination. Drew Sample with KJ Osborne, the Vikings number three wide receiver. Let's see Jay Uzoma. Why not? Off the Achilles. Let's ride. I could use him in a Dynasty League, right? You have to start two tight ends each week. We are leaning heavily on CJ Osoma this year. Let's go to the questions. And I'm going to go in wrong order. So apologies to people who ask questions early on. I'll get back to yours, but I do want to start with this one because I think it's pertinent for everyone. It's Savon. Savon, of course, a staple for our MLB DFS Q&As asking for tips for new people coming to NFL DFS. Brandon, I'll start with you because we're pretty in lockstep when it comes to process with NFL DFS. So if you were giving like one or two tips to people who are playing NFL DFS the first time, what would you say are the keys to keep in mind before you fill out a lineup? Understand the contest you're entering. If it's a head to head or maybe a three person or like a 10 entry, you don't have to think that far outside the box. You can basically try to build the best lineup you can in terms of the best. You can check on Number Fire for our projections, our median projections. You don't have to get too cute there. But if you're playing a big tournament, you do want to try to look at things like Upside and I do publish range of outcomes every Friday. So you can check those out and see which players are expected to put up these like maybe lower floors but higher ceilings. But really the thing that can help most if you're brand new is check out Fandall Sportsbook and the Point Totals and just narrow things down based on the games with the highest totals. Jim talked in detail yesterday on the heat check about why totals really matter. And you can kind of narrow down your player pool really easily by cutting out a lot of the games at the bottom each week in terms of over under. Yeah, I think that's kind of the key thing that I would emphasize too is identify games, identify game environments, Sivan.  Basically what we mean is fine games don't have a lot of plays and have a lot of points. So for this week, I am looking heavily at Cardinals Titans, heavily at Chiefs Browns. I like the Vikings, Bengals game as we discussed. I do think that the Eagles Falcons game is a good one from that perspective as well. Packers, Saints, that one works too. JJ, anything you would say to someone who is starting off in the NFL DFS streets for week number one? Yeah, I mean, I think the other thing to add on, this is kind of a niche approach, but if you're building a lot of lineups, a lot of people will build around quarterback and sort of split things up that way, which is definitely not a bad way to sort of build. But keep in mind that you don't need to go and have insane exposure to certain quarterbacks especially. I think that you can get better exposure and find leverage with running backs and wide receivers and these kinds of games because quarterback scoring is just generally really tight to begin with. But they can completely torpedo your team as well. So it's just something to keep in mind is if you're building a lot of lineups, if you're just doing a single entry a little bit different, but if you're multi-entering, then that's very important to remember. Yeah, thinking about roster rates, last year, I think there was only one instance in which a quarterback was on more than 20% of rosters. That was Patrick Mahomes, week 16 versus Atlanta, where they totally imploded. So just for quarterbacks, don't need to worry too much about that. Darnell asked a question before we were even on air. So Darnell, welcome, we got to get back to you because you were here early, got to reward you for that. Thoughts on Tyson Williams, week one, the rest of the season. JJ, I'll go to you first. The Ravens running backroom, obviously a lot of unknowns there with Gus Edwards going down yesterday as well. So what are your thoughts on Tyson Williams, on Matavius Murray, Devonte Freeman, Levy on Bell, and everyone else who has been in the NFL since at least 2007? Yeah, look, I mean, so one of the reasons why I was down on JK Dobbins before the injury happened, and this is not a victory lap by any means, people, but one of the reasons why I was down is because Baltimore splits their backfield up so much. I mean, to more than any other backfield in the league. And there's evidence of two straight seasons with Greg Roman and Lamar Jackson, where they're splitting their backfield up. No running back over the last two years has seen a 70% snapshot in a single game for Baltimore. Every other team has had at least two. One since 2016 from them. Yeah, one since 2016. And the average among teams over the last two years, we've seen 10 of those instances per team over the last two years. So that's a thing. They also don't target their running backs out of the backfield that much. But the main thing is that there's usually a, instead of thinking of it as a starter and a backup, it's a 1A and a 1B. And so the reason why I was into getting Gus Edwards later is because he was still a 1B in that offense. He was a lot cheaper in drafts than getting J.K. Dobbins. Then obviously when J.K. Dobbins goes down, Gus Edwards gets elevated. And I felt like Gus Edwards became someone to fade because it's the same situation where it's just too much, it's too costly to buy into a player who's not going to see a lot of work through the air and who's likely not going to be a true bell cow on the ground. And so I feel very similarly right now with Tyson Williams, where if you were able to get him cheap, great.  I mean, every analyst was, right? And so it's different because the cost to acquire was a little bit different, but don't have these insane expectations that he's going to be J.K. Dobbins or he's going to see a lot of work through the air or anything like that. And I think that the Latavius Murray signing in particular, it's a little bit scarier than the Lavion Bell one or the Devante Freeman one. I think that the latter two are a little bit dustier. Latavius Murray actually had a pretty decent season last year. I know he's older, but he had a pretty decent season last year and I think he fits the Ravens offense fairly well. So I would still expect Tyson Williams to be the 1A in this offense, especially early on. And I think he has more upside than the other guys too. He's younger and he showed a lot in the preseason. But I'm not sitting here saying that he's going to be even an RB2 in fantasy. I think that you're looking more at like an RB3 in a PPR format. Yeah. I think that's important to keep in mind in the past catching probably not, I know that he's more of the past catching back than some of the other guys, but like just that offense doesn't tend to skew that direction. Darnell also asked Michael Pittman, LaVisca Chanel or Devante Smith. JJ, if you had to pick one of those three, Pittman, Visca or Devante, what do you got? I really want to, oh my gosh, that's tough, isn't it? It's a good choice. Good problem to have, Darnell. That's really tough. I think Devante is a little bit volatile compared to the other, more volatile compared to the other two picks there. I really, really like Pittman and I really want to say Pittman, but I think that Visca might be the best option of the three. Yeah. Those are all three very strong. All three could be wide receiver twos this week. I wouldn't be shocked at all. All right. So that's a Keelan over on YouTube. Checking out the fade to a one PM only slate. Talking about Kirk Cousins, Raheem Mostert, James Robinson, Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, Kittle Chanel, DJ Shark and the 49ers defense. The one thing I would say there is I might try to get away from Kirk Cousins, try to get to both Tannehill and Kyler Murray are on that slate. And I think that the upside you can get from them is desirable. I don't know when is the Jalen Hertz game? That's the one PM games. That is also one PM. I would say Hertz above them too. So try to find a way to get up to Hertz to Tannehill or to Murray at quarterback to get some additional juice there. Mostert might worry me a little bit too, just because of the potential for them to like not try too much in the fourth quarter. Like I think that could be a trace sermon kind of quarter for them. That'd be my concern there. Let's go down here to DJ talking about Zeke Elliott. Should I try to trade Zeke after yesterday's performance or should I keep riding him? Brandon, I know you looked at some of the data on I think you did. Did I make that up? I might have. Anyway, we saw Zeke last night, played a lot of snaps, not a lot of work for him. Are you worried about Zeke after what we saw last night? I mean, yeah, it felt like Tony Pollard was more involved than he really was. Zeke still played a lot of snaps. They just didn't really get him the ball because it's a very tough front to run against. It felt like he was a clear afterthought. I mean, Dak Prescott, I think hit 40 passes like with 25 minutes left to go in the game. So I don't know if it was more game script dependent with his usage, but he was out there a lot. The issue, I think, is that if you try to trade him now, you're probably going to be selling him at a bit of a loss. So Jay-Jay might have a better feel for that because he's much more of a season long. Jay-Jay, you said you might have some concerns around Zeke potentially. I think there's some concern.  I don't think we just ignore that because Tony Pollard was on the field. I mean, they had a lot of two running back sets, which was cool to see. But the matchup wasn't great, sure. But I don't think this is an obvious buy situation, even though the schedule really opens up and gets a lot better. I am a little bit concerned about what his receiving work could look like. But I mean, in this offense, let's be honest, Zeke could still score 15 touchdowns this year and no one would blame. I think the two is, I think that it's almost like, it's not encouraging for Zeke's usage. It's encouraging for the offense, though, that Kellan Moore had the wherewithal to say, no, no, no, I'm not running on this front when Zach Martin's out. I'm going to throw this football. I think that was encouraging for the offense as a whole, maybe not for Zeke, but it's also not going to downgrade me on Zeke, either. Liquid Demon says, James Robinson has missed Salaried. I think that James Robinson is a tough guy for me to diagnose personally because I think the floor is great. I think the floor is very good, I should say. The matchup is great. The game environment kind of stinks. I'm worried about Carlos Hyde. JJ, what are your thoughts on James Robinson for week number one? I would agree. I think that I'll probably end up being underweight only because people are so, so into him this week, but I think that there are more concerns with him than other running backs that aren't that much more expensive. I say that with the context of what this slate brings where you can find a lot of values. Joe Nixon versus James Robinson, to me, it's easily Joe Nixon. It's not close just because we know the receiving work is going to be there. We know there's no competition for looks on the ground either because we might see them utilize Carlos Hyde more than we would like. From that perspective, yes, there's a decent salary gap there. It's like $1,300 or something like that. There's a decent salary gap there, but you can find value elsewhere. You don't have to just lock James Robinson in. Yes, I would use James Robinson this week. Don't get me wrong, but I don't think that he's someone that you need to have 50% or 60% exposure to. I would agree. Joseph is asking JJ, should he flex Deandre Swift or Elijah Moore this week with Crowder out and Keeling-Colis is questionable? Swift is a tough matchup and Taylor Decker, the left tackle is also out. I'm not sure if they're going to move Sue Well over to left tackle or not, but either way, it's a tough spot for Deandre Swift. Would you use Swift or Elijah Moore this week? If it's a PPR league, I understand that Swift catches a lot of passes out of the backfield, but you can make the case for Elijah Moore there. I think that Swift is probably the safer option of the two just because he's guaranteed volume. We haven't seen Elijah Moore in NFL action yet, but my goodness. Elijah Moore to me is a great, great play this week off your bench in DFS wherever. James and Crowder out. Elijah Moore is a slot guy. That's where he played a lot of his snaps in college and he's explosive. My comp for Elijah Moore entering the league was Tyler Lockett. Elijah Moore could have a very, very big game. I think I'd still lean Swift, but it's pretty close. Yeah. I think the workload for Swift, the kind of work I should say that he'll get is still enough where I would go Swift as well, but Elijah Moore is pretty fun. Give this one to Brandon because I know your answer to this. TrueLove3 on Twitch is asking, is Kyle Pitts too high salary to tighten on FanDuel? I know your answer. They don't. Give it to him. No, he's not for me. I think this might be the lowest that we get Kyle Pitts all season. He could very easily jump up into that George Kittle tier. I don't think he's going to get to Travis Kelsie range by any means. Nobody really will, aside from maybe Darren Waller or George Kittle himself, but for me, Kyle Pitts makes a lot of sense. My simulations really like him as the clear TE3 before a big drop off for this week. I mentioned this yesterday on the show and it took Jim by surprise, but I watched some film. He didn't play a whole lot in the preseason, but they did get him a catch out in space and he looked very competent, very much what you would expect from Kyle Pitts. I think that he's very much in play at $6,000. I don't think he's over salary at all. Brandon watched some film to determine the fourth overall pick is competent. Proud of him. Proud of him. Grind that film, baby. Grind that film. Aaron is asking, we're talking baseball soon? Yes. We will in a couple minutes here. Aaron will transition to MLB DFS in a second. Keelan is asking about that one PM only. Say, what about Trevor Lawrence? You think he might have a better game than Hertz or Tannehill and Cousins? I won't be going at Lawrence because I think that game is going to be pretty underwhelming from a DFS perspective. I would want more of a, I want games where both the offense as I can expect to score points. Really hard to expect that from Houston. So that's my concern there. Liquid demons. What do we do with Eckler? We have not seen the injury report from that game yet to see what Eckler did. He was apparently practicing. JJ, I feel like we kind of have to wait for more information than Austin Eckler, right? Is that kind of the case here right now? Yeah. I mean, in DFS, though, I don't really think you need to force it this week, especially there's a lot of good options that running back and it's not even a good matchup for Eckler. So I'd probably, you know, not forced from a DFS perspective.  Okay, let's go quickly here for JJ. On God is asking Jerry, Judy or Marquess, Callaway in the flex. Good options to have who you got between the two. So breaking news, Traycon Smith is apparently on the IR. I just saw that. So I mean, Callaway could see a lot of looks. I still think I would probably lean Judy. I just don't know what to expect from the New Orleans offense. That's really the main reason why would I be shocked if Callaway outscores Judy? No, but I think Judy is just obviously the better player. The environment is not as good, but the cornerback matchup for him is better than what Sutton is going to face in that game. So I'm going to move to Judy there over Callaway. One more for Judy here from Teprez18 on Twitch. Jivante versus Judy versus Visca at the flex. Jivante Williams playing his first game of facing the Giants. Tough defense, but you know, it's Jivante Williams got Judy in that same game or Visca JJ preference for you between those three. I guess Judy, I mean, we don't know how they're going to use the how they're going to utilize Jivante. You know, look, I love Jivante. He's one of my highest rostered players this year, but we don't know how they're going to utilize him. You know, Visca, again, we I'm going with the guy that I just feel best about his talent slash situation and the projected target here going his way. And since it's not a PPR league, you know, because I think Visca is like going to walk into like four or five receptions a game in that offense. I'm probably going to go with Judy there. It's close though. Yeah, I think that that's probably the spot where to go. I think the floor is established as being good. And I think there's a path to a better ceiling there as well. Julio says he's got Gaskin. He's got honey. He's got Sermon as well. Worrying about the approach going forward, but honestly, I feel like you're probably going to be fine with those running backs.  Those guys can get by for you. DJ is asking for thoughts on Jordan Akins and Jalen Waddell this week. I feel like from a DFS perspective, neither is on the map because those games are both pretty unanticing. JJ, would you be considering Jalen Waddell for a season long league? Like how desperate he to be to use Waddell given that it is a pretty tough game for Miami? I mean, again, it's just really tough to trust these teams like Jacksonville to some degree, but even Miami, who has a tougher matchup than Jacksonville does, where we just don't know how to accurately project these players' target shares. We're going to have a better idea even after just one game and we get some data on these guys to know. So I'm just sort of avoiding that ambiguity. I think it's fine to just play it a little bit safer in week one. Okay. Quick one here for Brandon, our CEH and Carson fan dual cash game options. I feel like the Chiefs always run early in the season only. I think CEH is a consideration there is the way I'd phrase that. I don't think Carson is. What do you think on those two guys? Yeah, I would say CEH definitely more viable this week for a cash game format than Carson, who, I mean, that game has a high over under. Seattle should have a high implied team total themselves. But with Najee Harris, if we're talking cash games with Najee Harris, 6500, even James Robinson with that salary savings, I think that CEH of the two makes more sense for cash games, but probably not going to play much Chris Carson at all this week. I think I can justify it, but I'm not going to get there over the other guys who are available. Like I can justify it. I'm not going to do it myself though. I just realized it's 436. I got to get Brandon and JJ on their way, but Brandon, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for swinging by. We'll talk to you again next week. Yeah. We'll recap everything Monday. Looking forward to it. 9 a.m. on the Fandall YouTube page up on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast. After that, JJ, good luck to you in week number one. I hope your teams do well. We'll talk to you again next week. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it, man. Alrighty. Let's transition now to the MLB DFS Q&A for today. And I will say, if you are lingering here after the NFL one, you want to ask NFL questions, I'm not going to say no. Just throw that out there. So if you want to get more NFL questions in, don't sweat it. Feel free. I will take those as well. But let's focus here on this Friday night MLB DFS slate. As always, no matter where you are watching, you can get those questions in. We'll get you set for tonight's slate of Daily Fantasy Baseball. And there has been a change since this morning when we were talking on the solo shop, because I was honestly having some trouble trying to identify a lot of teams that I wanted to stack. It was difficult to get to three, four or five teams. There was one change, though. And that change to me was pretty impactful. Tyler Alexander is now starting for the Tigers versus the Rays. Matthew Boyd is really going to pitch. And Boyd has done a decent job this year suppressing our contact, whereas Alexander has not. This is over his past 10 appearances. 45% hard hit rate allowed and a 41% fly ball rate. The Rays, I prefer them heavily versus righties over lefties, but they still have good numbers, a 110 WRC plus. So that's been the big change for me. The versus this morning is bumping up the Rays batters for today. So looking here, I don't want to go Jordan Luplo. I don't know. No, I won't do that. But like all four of the top guys, Franco has been unreal, unreal recently when he's 20. I'm 10 years older than this dude. He's been on base like 97 straight days. Very upsetting. Yanni Diaz been hitting for power recently. Nelson Cruz, Manuel Margo has a couple of pads outside. So I do think the Rays got bumped up quite a bit in terms of my stack for today. Liquid Dreams on YouTube says, play Robbie Ray. Yes, could not agree more Liquid Dreams. It is the, for me, the one easy discussion on the slate, the one easy decision is that I just use Robbie Ray. Robbie Ray, as you can see here, is a standout pitcher on this slate. His most relevant sample strikeout rate, which is his past six starts with his velocity going down is 38%. Nobody else is higher than 28.1%. That's Joe Hiotani, who's facing the freaking Astros. So the gap between Robbie Ray and the field is Barkers. So we're going to go over here, Liquid Dreams. We're going to put Robbie Ray in a pitcher and all the discussions we have in terms of stacks are going to revolve around that. I do think that Julio Arias is in play. I could go to him. Tyler Malley is an option. I'd be willing to consider, but like, I think for me, it really is all about Robbie Ray for today. Savan is asking, how would you stack Oakland? Oakland is facing Glenn Otto. I think Otto is kind of okay. Honestly, he's been suppressing hard contact, keeping the ball on the ground a bit in the big leagues. It's been two starts, I think. So like it's not a huge sample. I'm not going to say no. So, you know, again, it's a small sample.  So I'm not saying we need to avoid him, but that's the reason why Oakland is not quite as high on the list for me. Let's go through this here.  Let's check out Oakland's lineup. Steve, it's in. Probably not. It's not. Okay. So let's go over here and check out the projected lineup for Oakland. Again, under the assumption, we're going Robbie Ray because I really want to get there on this slate. I think I can probably with the A's. Josh Harrison, not a guy who hits for a lot of power versus righties. Jan Gomes tends to do more versus lefties than he does versus righties. But let's just double check here to make sure I'm not crossing him off before I should. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm probably going to wind up recommending Jed Lowry here. Do I feel good about it? No. Do I feel like I have to if I'm going to go Ray with the athletics? Yes. So I'm probably going to get to Jed Lowry. One 88 A's was actually not that bad. He's more of a doubles guy than a home run guy, which is kind of uninspiring, I would say, but like, hey, you know, beggars can't be choosers. We want to get to Robbie Ray. So we'll put in Jed Lowry there. Tony Kemp, I've used him a couple times this year, is more so when he was batting higher in the order. 159 A's, so is not terrible. Jan is at 133. Let's see here. Harrison is at 139. That's actually better than I expected. It does have six to one base. So okay, you can justify using Josh Harrison on this slate. I would also say in terms of, you know, looking at guys who want to prioritize here, Matt Olson is always number one, but Matt Chapman rising because he's been absurd recently. So many barrels. He has more barrels than like the past, I don't know, like four weeks than Yuli Gouriel has the entire year. Like just a bunch of dingers for Matt Chapman recently. He's back. Our boy is back. So I would bump up Chapman in terms of prioritization. Still Olson won, but then Chapman clearly to me, number two. Sivan looking for the best value hitter for today. So I think that comes down to the best matchup for today. Best matchup for me at least is the Blue Jays facing Chris Ellis. So let's check out the lineup here to make sure our boy Corey Dickerson is in there. No lineup yet. Nope. Okay. I'm guessing they're probably checking George Springer's knee to see if he can play. I think it's encouraging that they haven't released a lineup yet because that to me says they're not like writing him off yet. So maybe George Springer is able to go. If he can't, we can see Corey Dickerson bat lead off again, which is something he did earlier this week when Springer was out. I'd be okay with Dickerson lower in the order. That's fine with me because he's accessed a really good lineup, $2,600. I think that that's something we want to get to for sure. So I would say Dickerson is probably going to be up there. Let's check out all 100 Kirk's numbers versus Righties assuming that he does. I think he DHed because Jansen was in there yesterday. They both played, but I think Jansen may have been catching while Kirk DHed. Kirk versus Righties, 202 ISO, 48% fly ball rate. That's awesome. So I would say both Dickerson and Kirk are in play for values on the team. So we got to find some values in order to stack the Jays with Robbie Ray. So I would say Kirk is up there, Dickerson up there, trying to get there. I do think the Twins have some good values, Yvonne. See if their lineup is out yet. Ryan Jeffers batting eighth. That's annoying. Thought he'd be a little bit higher. Brent Rooker batting sixth is fine. So I think that Rooker's good. I would still use Jeffers personally despite the fact that he's batting eighth. I still think that like the power he has is going to justify that. Rob Ross Snyder, he's fine. He's not the biggest power guy, but batting third. I think this lineup is pretty good for tonight. So I would say Rooker, then Rob Snyder, then Jeffers. I'm going to bump Jeffers down a bit because I love you bet seventh. So a little bit annoying that he's batting further down. I think the Twins have some value. Other value stack that I talked about this morning, trying to remember. I don't mind the Marlins. They've got some guys who could work. It's very risky because if Ian Anderson suddenly is healthy again, then it could go poorly, but hard to guarantee that. Other value guys. Oh, yeah. I talked about the Reds. So Stevenson, Farmer, and not really a Kino, but maybe a Kino. He's batting sixth, actually. That's better than I thought. Is there no Farmer? No. Farmer is not playing today. Disappointing. Okay. So that's one last value play on the Reds. But either way, I do still think they work. Savannah says, I want Tampa Bay and Toronto together, but it's difficult. It is. It is very tough. I think that Toronto with anyone, unless they're a true value stack is tough. I would say the Marlins are a consideration. Like if you want to get to Ray and the Jays, the Ray Jays, we'll call them, you might want to stack the Marlins. I know how uncomfortable that may be. Let's put Hayes with Sanchez in there. Let's put Lewin Diaz in there. Let's get Chisholm in there. Put him at shortstop. And then I'm probably going to put Brinson in there too. If I do that, oh, Brinson's not playing. All right. Just kidding. I couldn't be San Diaz. Alfaro has not hit for a lot of power versus righties. Don't really want to outjack. So probably just going to three-player stack, put Dickerson in there, assuming that he does play today. If we do that, where are we at? We are at 3350. Let's do Kirk. I'm not going to stop after this guy because I need to quit. But like 35, 67, you can probably make that work well enough. You have a lower side one off. So I think stacking the Marlins is actually something I'm going to do today to get access to those Jays to make it easier for you, Siobhan. Jerry, my stacks are Colorado, the Rays, and Milwaukee. What are your thoughts? I like the Rays. Definitely in there. Colorado facing a bullpen game for the Phillies. And I think that that does put them on the map, Jerry. I'm probably not going to use them because it's the Rockies and they're pretty bad. So that's the main thing that will keep me away. But I don't think it's like a, I don't think it's out of consideration. And I think that you can definitely do that. I won't be doing it because I just don't trust Colorado in general. But against that bullpen, that's totally fine. Milwaukee. So I mentioned Eli Morgan as being my favorite value picture for today. I'm not going to use them because I don't want to use any value pitchers at all in this slate. But I do think you can use batters against him because this is the reason why I couldn't be more confident in him. Look at this fly ball number. 52% in the starts with his velocity being up, 40% fly ball or a hard hit rate. So Jerry, although I mentioned Morgan as being my favorite pitcher below $9,000 for today, I do think that you can justify stacking the Brewers. I think they're risky because Morgan has been pitching a lot better recently, but I think that there is still a path to using them. So Jerry, I'm not saying no to any of your stacks. I think that that's fine. I would say of those, the Rays are my favorites. I would probably go the Brewer's second and then the Rockies third. But I think they're all fine for me, Jerry. Good selections for you today. So if I'm asking if there are any under the radar stacks, let's go over here and check out some implied totals. I think it's possible the Marlins are overlooked. It's because they're the Marlins and also they probably should be overlooked, but also, again, Anderson has not looked good since he came off the aisle. No strikeouts across two games. He's gotten rocked. They're in Atlanta. Pretty big park factor upgrade for the Marlins. Really low implied total. I think that they could get no hit. It wouldn't be just Anderson. It'd be a combined no hitter, but they'd get no hit. But I think they're interesting and have some upsides. I don't know, man. I'm going to try some Marlin stacks. It might go poorly. You can laugh at me if they get no hit, which they might, because they're the Marlins. But hey, we'll give it a shot. DJ is asking, Marco Gonzalez, are you all in and how would you stack Seattle, Milwaukee, Houston, or Minnesota together? So I'm not in on Gonzalez. He's actually, I don't think he's officially announced a starter tonight. Let me check that because he wasn't as of before we started the SnakeGraf Q&A. So let me double check to make sure. Yeah. He's still not officially announced the starter for Seattle for today. So keep that in mind. He may not go, but just a low strikeout guy. I have no interest in low strikeout guys. You can find better options elsewhere. Spend up to get to a better guy who does get strikeouts. I think Seattle does work for stacking DJ. Madison Bumgarner just faced him last week. He got rocked. He said he couldn't get a grip on the fastball, but it's been a thing for a bit now. He's really struggled for a while. So Mitch Hanniger, Torrens, I think, is in play there as well. Ty France could be a consideration. So I don't mind stacking the Mariners personally. They're pretty risky, but that's fine. Don't want to stack Houston at Shohei Otani. There's no reason to do that in a 13-game slate. Minnesota, yes. I'm on board with them. And Savon asked, how would you stack Minnesota? So let's do that right now. Let's keep Ray in there and build out a twin stack to see how much salary we can save with this line of the way it's constructed. Let's go with Russ Snyder first. He's low power, but I need the savings. Need him bad. And let's go. Whoopsies. Let's go here. Let's go to Jeffers. So now actually at 32 is not terrible, but I got to get my boy. Got to do it, you know? Got to get Byron Buxton in there. Polanco being at $43 really does help me go with Buxton. I would say though, like, if you are not as much of a mindless Buxton truther as I am, Josh Donaldson at $3,100 does make a lot of sense too. So I would say, Savon, like, if you want to maximize salary savings in order to load up on Jays and stuff like that, go with this stack.  And I'm a mindless truther. So that's where I'll be going. But if you want to maximize salary savings, go with Josh Donaldson. Savon says I like both sides of the Casey and Minnesota game. I do too. I think that they do work. I have kind of gotten, I've used a lot of Royals recently, which is fine. I don't mind using them again. Jax has been better. Actually, no, he hasn't. I lied. He has not been good. So you can definitely go with the Royals. The one thing I'll say is their salaries are really high. Even Ben and Tendi has been, has had a salary jacked up.  This is why I was on the twins over them for today. But, you know, Santana specifically $2,900. That's fine for him. So I would say the Royals work, but for the twins, given the salary savings they give us. Okay. Michael posted the Toronto lineup. The Toronto lineup is... Oh, so George Springer is in there. Simeon, Vlad, Bichette. Teo Skars in there. Okay. So Kirk is catching. Gareel. Jake Lamb. Oh, buddy. Oh, baby. Jake Lamb back in our lives. He's with the White Sox really on this year. And I got to got to go back to the Jake Lamb days, which was really a trip. Let's go over here. Let's do it. Why not? Let's party, baby. I know there's no Dickerson, which is kind of a bummer, but also we get Kirk betting sixth, and we get Lamb in there for minimum salary. Let's do it. Let's ride, baby. Okay. So I think this one works. And as far as the other guys within the stack, it's going to be tough to try to identify how we can get here without blowing all of our salary. Where is Teo Skars at? 42. Yeah. I'm probably just going to get to Vlad. Honestly, I know that means I'm burning my catcher slash utility, but it's worth it for Vlad. And then I probably want Teo Skars. I know 2575 is tough, but like you go for a snider, you get Rooker in there, you can make it work. So I would try to work with this, and I think you can make it work. Maybe you use, I don't know if there's a minimum salary due to elsewhere, like some of the Marlins guys, I think you make this work. I try with Ray. It's at least worth the effort. DJ is asking if you're starting Ian Anderson. I am very wary. Very, very wary. Don't think I can do it. He's just looked so bad since he came off the aisle. I love Ian Anderson. I think he's a really good pitcher, gets some ground balls and stuff like that, but he just looks so bad. I can't do it, DJ. Julius, top two pitchers for tonight. I think it's for me. Robbie Ray is one, Julio Arias is number two. And I've only talked about him a lot. So let's do that quickly. I don't like the matchup because the Padres are a low strikeout team, but they're not, you know, playing the best baseball right now. Not a super high WRC plus, not a big power team versus lefties. And the Rios has been awesome. This is over his past day, it starts with more curveballs, 27% strikeout rates, a 24% hard hit rate allowed. The league average is about 40%. Rios has been awesome. He's number two for me. But I think that I want to get to Ray when I can. Like, if you want to get to more J's, Rios, fine. I'm on board with it. But, you know, I think it's really Ray first. Liquid demons, why are they playing Springer? That's just plain, plain dumb. Yeah. I mean, like it's tough because you do want to have your healthy players in there. I kind of get it because like they're pushing for a playoff spot, like they're right there. They're in the thick of it. So like, if they think that George Springer gives them the best chance to win, I get it. I also get why you're, you know, concerned. I get it. But I mean, playoffs are high pressure. So that's, that's tough there for sure. DJ is asking about Paul Blackburn. Nope. Need more strikeouts. Just a 14% strike area and four starts. No chance. Also pretty low pitch count for him. Jerry, do you like Harrah Marquez? I worried about pitch count. I know we went 99 last time now, but he went 81, 83, 49, 89 before that. So I feel like because there's not a whole lot on the line for the Rockies, I don't know if Marquez like getting 99 pitches his last time out is going to be indicative of what we should expect going forward. So that's my concern there. Jerry is that he's probably not going to go, you know, he's not going to go 110, which I think Robbie Ray could. Robbie Ray did that three, three starts ago. I know there's a big salary gap there too. So I'm not saying it's like an apples to apples comparison, but that would be my concern there with Marquez is that I don't think he has like the same ceiling because the Rockies have nothing on the line. Nothing like concern there, Jerry. It's just that. As far as other stuff to note for today, trying to see something else, a couple pitch count guys, I would note in case you're like running through the player pool, trying to identify players you want to use. Some guys, well, I would expect to have lower pitch counts for today. I don't think Rodan has been officially confirmed on MLB.com. They said he will, like they said, that he'll be the starter, but he's more of a pitch count there. Tanner Hauke has not gone longer than 90 yet this year. I don't think if you count the minors or the majors, I think he's gone longer than 90. So pitch counts an issue there. Anderson, probably not going to go super deep just because he's been pretty in effect so far. Rod is an 83 in his first game back. He wasn't hurt, but he missed a lot of time, nothing to play for there. I don't expect them to push him super deep. And they didn't do that before. So that'd be the concern there. And then Marquez again, just worried about lack of motivation. Finally, Michael Walker sounds like they are going to be piggybacking him with Chris Archer. So if you're looking into Michael Walker, looking into Carlos Rodan, Tanner Hauke, Ian Anderson, and I think that that was the full list, I would be wary due to pitch count for those guys specifically. That is all that we have here for today on this Fan to Alive Q&A. But next week, we're going all in on football because we have an NFL show at 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. We'll still have baseball 430 all those days. Baseball will be at 4 on Wednesday. On Monday, it'll be Ryan Williams and me talking about Monday night football, the Ravens and the Raiders. We'll talk about Tyson Williams in there, I'm sure. Quite a bit. So we'll talk about that on Monday. And then again, 430 for MLB. Our waiver wire show, myself and JJ, is on Tuesday once again next week. So make sure you are subscribed on the Fan to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter pages. Also check out our DFS podcast week number one with myself and Brandon. Check that out by searching for the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, hit subscribe, rate and review the podcast. We appreciate those of you who have done so. Big thank you to JJ Zacharyson and Brandon Gadoula for joining me earlier on. JJ is on Twitter at LateRoundQB. Brandon is at Gadoula13. I'm at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. If you've got more questions, hit me up over there. Big thank you to Joy Affleck, who has been a trooper all day today. Flying solo for the entire day and just did a full hour long stream all by herself. Awesome job, Joy. Have a great weekend. Thank you all for tuning in. Good luck to you in week one. Good luck to you tonight with MLB. Good luck tomorrow with NASCAR Richmond. We'll talk to you once again next week. This has been the Fan Doing Live Q&A.


Are you looking for a 3D depth sensor but perhaps the resolution is too low or the ranging distance is too short or the power consumption is too high? Well, ST is a great solution for you. It's called the VD55 H1 and it's the first 0.5 megapixel indirect time-of-flight in the market. We've been able to make it so small because we used ST's latest 14mm stacked wafer technology. 3D depth sensors are fancy devices that enable a real-time distance mapping of the environment. So let me show you what it can do. As you can see, you can see details in the foreground and at the same time range at 5m in the background. We've got a state-of-the-art 200 MHz modulation frequency which gives us an excellent depth precision performance. We have also optimized the power consumption and it can be as little as 80mW in some modes. Our sensor has been designed to fit into miniature 3D camera modules like this one. We've developed a full reference design including the software package to help you with system integration. So, if you want to know more about this product, please reach out to your local ST representative or visit the dedicated product webpage on ST.com. And don't forget, we have a full range of depth sensing solutions including direct time-of-flight, indirect time-of-flight and global shutter-based 3D sensing. Talk to you soon!


Bonjour. I'm very sorry for my French accent. Je suis désolé. So I'm so happy to be here. I'm so grateful for the chance to come and talk about the early days of Kubernetes.  It's been a few years since I was here at KubeCon because of COVID. And it has been so wonderful to be here, reconnect with old friends, meet some new ones. So my talk here, I was thinking about it's easy to believe that from all the people here and the success and all the amazing things that have happened with Kubernetes and all of the ecosystem of projects around it, that success was guaranteed. But it wasn't. And there were definitely some moments. And I wanted to talk about some of those moments. This is maybe a little bit too dramatic of a title for this talk, but this really is stories I like to tell at dinner about Kubernetes. And after this, I really am going to have to find some new stories to tell because I will have actually told everyone. So very good. All right, so 2014, I was working at a small carrier. And we were doing edge deployments. We were building a thing that we weren't even really calling cloud at that point. And this t-shirt, which I'm sure many of you see, this was our lives. It worked on my machine. It worked in development. It didn't work in production. We were having lots of operational issues. We built a whole orchestration system. We weren't using containers. So this t-shirt was definitely our lives. So I had been invited by Google to come and give them a talk. This was before GCE launched about what it was like to build and run applications on the public cloud. And as a result of going and doing that little talk, I met Joe. And then Joe was telling me about this thing they were working on, introduced me to Brendan. I was involved. I'm still involved in this really amazing organization in Seattle, Seattle CTO club. So we asked Brendan to come give us talk. And I don't know. There was maybe a dozen of us in the room. It's a pretty small group. And so he's talking about it. And the light bulb went off. We had had this big orchestration problem. And at the same time, there was this guy on the team there at this little carrier working with Aaron Krickenberger. He eventually was on the steering committee. And he's talking in the office about there's this new docker thing. Wouldn't this be amazing?  And it could really help us. And so the first time I ever installed Kubernetes was we had a little set of Intel knocks hanging around the office. I installed it. And then I really knew that we were on something. So after that, I went to work for Samsung. We didn't call it this to begin with. But eventually, we figured out that what we should do is call this team the Cloud Native Computing Team. I was hired to be what we called, ended up calling the Cloud Native CTO. This is a picture of the initial team. There's Aaron again.  And so he came out to kick us off. We built this little team, this little office near Fremont so that we could be near the Google office. And that had two advantages. We wanted to make sure we could go and talk to Kubernetes folks there at Google anytime we wanted. And we also loved scheduling meetings with them at lunchtime or breakfast. So we could go score off the amazing free food at Google whenever possible. So at any rate, we did a full evaluation. We looked at everything in the very early days. We knew that what we were doing at Samsung was charting the course for the next five or 10 years back then. And it was really important that we make a choice for the future. And we thought Kubernetes was going to be a thing. But there were a couple of obstacles. And this is where maybe things could have gone a little bit differently from those days. So two things, one of these a little bit more technical and one of these a little bit more organizational. So the technical thing that we had was we knew that to use Kubernetes at Samsung scale or at any big scale for a big enterprise, that we were going to need to run some really big clusters, that we were going to need to run a lot of Kubernetes. And the project at that time was testing to 100 nodes. Like 100 nodes was considered to be the limit.  It was designed for 100 nodes. And so I'd say good open source behavior here is we decided that we were going to engage. And so we had actually hired Joe as a consultant just before he did the Heptio thing. And he and I started the first SIG in Kubernetes, SIG Scalability. And it was because we knew how important it was that we'd be able to really run Kubernetes at scale over time. And the couple of slides I have here were from the days when I was SIG chair and I would put together the slides and we'd go through and discuss. And these are, I found these in my Google Drive. And you can see here, maybe the font's a little small. The main thing we were worried about was Kubernetes is only good for 100 nodes. Meme, which was everywhere. So we put a lot of effort into that. I think the Samsung team, we decided as one of our goals we were going to start running 1,000 node clusters. This is in the very early days, even like three 1.0 territory. And so I think we were the first team to actually run a 1,000 node Kubernetes cluster. And that was a compliment. We were very proud of it in those days. Okay, so second issue. This was a bigger one and a more important one, which is we were not willing to make a bet on Kubernetes unless it was community governed. So, Kubernetes was open source. I think this is true to this day. Open source is not enough. Open governance really, really matters. And Kubernetes was always a multi-org project, a multi-company project. So many companies involved in it. One of the folks I really wanna make a shout out to here is Clayton Coleman, who really built the confidence with us that you could be a leader in the project and he's influential to this day. Works for Google now. But Clayton was really the one that convinced us that we could not only use Kubernetes, be part of the community, but we could be a leader there if we needed to as well. So we pushed Google pretty hard to take what was I'm sure a hard step for them, which was not just to have open sourced it, but to actually release it to the community. And the foundation, the CNCF Foundation, which Chris was just talking about was part of that. So thank you to Google and all the folks that were involved in that. That was a big moment, that's what. And I've got one more moment that derived from that decision as well. And so as a result of that, we were able to make this big bet and Kubernetes was very excited to be asked to be part of the Kubernetes 1.0 launch. This T-shirt I'm wearing is the T-shirt I was wearing on stage at the Kubernetes 1.0 launch. So I've worn this T-shirt twice. Once then, and I found it in my special swag drawer, so I thought it would be fun to bring it out here. And then standing on stage there with me is Richard Kaufman, who is also part of the cloud native team there.  I was so nervous about wifi at the conference that we dragged a whole pile of cabling out and I demoed Kubernetes live and it worked. So very good. All right, so another story here. So there was in those days some tension going on between the Kubernetes and Docker communities and I was definitely a participant in that. I wrote this piece which kind of went viral talking about should we fork Docker? Obviously that would have been a bad thing to have happened and I think this was one of the contributions. Dan made many contributions but one of the big contributions he made was he pulled together a nice collaboration in Seattle that included me and a bunch of other folks from Docker, Kubernetes, Mesosphere, the AWS ECS folks were there, pulled together a nice collaboration and we were able to work through all those issues. So I think thanks to Dan, I think this is one of the really important things that the CNCF, CNCF leadership, folks like Dan, folks like Priyanka really bring to the community to help us all work together. So thanks to Dan and thanks to CNCF for doing this. This is also another really interesting moment because I think this was the first real specification driven thing that we did here in the Kubernetes community. More broadly, upstream is great, forking is not a good idea, but you also sometimes need specifications that ever we can run to and the OCI was really a critical specification. Okay, so open governance meant that AWS was willing to launch Kubernetes service and so they had hired me to be the GM of EKS and we built it and launched it. I have here some pictures that were behind the scenes of the launch. We launched EKS not at reinvent, which is where AWS loves to launch things, but we couldn't wait. And so we did what I think was the first ever live streaming on Twitch product, major product launch at AWS and so you're seeing the behind the scenes here and the little studio. And I think a couple of things to point out here on this picture. One is there's Arun Gupta, who's now the chairman of the governing board, CNCF. So he was there and part of the team. And the other person I would really like to call out here is Yusor Bala, who ran the initial engineering team runs. EKS engineering to this day did just and that's such an amazing, fabulous job of leading that team and had such a huge impact on Kubernetes, on EKS. And I think he deserves a lot more recognition than he gets. So that was like, this was a great moment. And again, without open governance, we could have never done this. And EKS was the last of the big three cloud providers to launch a Kubernetes service. And I think that was really the moment where everyone realized yes, Kubernetes is really the standard. That was the final moment in that journey. So I wanted to use my moment on stage here since I have the mic to give some recognition to the BuildPacks team. I see Terrence sitting down there. So thanks Terrence for all the leadership, open source leadership you bring to the Heroku team. So, and by the way, there's both Heroku contributors and Heroku is part of Salesforce. They're both Heroku contributors and Salesforce contributors to BuildPacks. So we're very excited to support this. And if you have been tracking the work that we've done here, been doing here, you may have been wondering if we were going to do this. And so I'm letting you all know today here that we are in fact rebasing Heroku on Kubernetes. This is a project that's in progress. Heroku was one of the OGs of cloud native. And for Heroku at least, I would say the circle is now complete. Heroku had a lot of influence, I think, on Kubernetes and some of the other systems that came along. And now Heroku is rebasing on Kubernetes and we're very excited about this project. So I just wanted to say thank you again CNCF for this chance to come up and tell some of my stories. But I think you all need to thank yourselves as well because there has been so much toil that has been saved, so many pagers that have not gone off, so many systems that have scaled up and down. I think that everyone here needs to take a moment and celebrate for yourselves all of the good things that you do, all of the innovation that's happened here around this. So give yourselves a hand, please, please. Thank you, thank you all. Awesome.