My AI Prompting Process for Generating Fantasy Football Names

Step 1: Get a ChatGPT or Claude account (or both). I love both platforms for different reasons, but the prompt techniques that I am going to explain here apply to both chat apps.

Step 2: Start a new chat. Enter this starting text: My objective is to generate a fantasy football team name. Respond OKAY if you understand the objective.

Step 3: Use one of the following prompt templates by replacing the [BRACKETED] words:

• “Generate 5 funny fantasy football team names based on [PLAYER NAME]’s name or playing style.”
• “Create 5 clever fantasy football team names inspired by the [TEAM NAME] and their history or current roster.”
• “Come up with 5 witty fantasy football team names centered around [POSITION] players.”
• “Blend NFL references with [MOVIE/TV SHOW/BOOK] to create 5 unique fantasy football team names.”
• “Generate 5 punny fantasy football team names using football terminology and common phrases.”
• “Create 5 alliterative fantasy football team names starting with the letter [LETTER].”
• “Combine [CITY/STATE] references with football terms to make 5 locally-themed fantasy team names.”
• “Generate 5 playful trash-talking fantasy football team names that imply dominating the competition.”
• “Create 5 fantasy football team names that blend [PROFESSION] terminology with football references.”
• “Come up with 5 fantasy football team names that incorporate [HOLIDAY/SEASON] themes.”
• “Generate 5 appetizing fantasy football team names that combine [FOOD] with player names or football terms.”
• “Create 5 fantasy football team names that blend [MUSIC GENRE/ARTIST] references with NFL players or teams.”
• “Combine names of [HISTORICAL ERA] figures with football terminology to create 5 unique team names.”
• “Generate 5 epic fantasy football team names inspired by [MYTHOLOGY] and NFL players or terms.”
• “Create 5 geeky fantasy football team names that combine [SCIENTIFIC FIELD/TECH COMPANY] with NFL references.”
• “Come up with 5 colorful fantasy football team names incorporating [COLOR] and player names or football terms.”
• “Generate 5 wild fantasy football team names that blend [ANIMAL SPECIES] characteristics with NFL players or terms.”
• “Create 5 electrifying fantasy football team names inspired by [WEATHER EVENT] and football references.”
• “Blend elements from [FICTIONAL WORLD/UNIVERSE] with NFL references to create 5 fantastical fantasy football team names.”
• “Generate 5 multi-sport fantasy football team names that combine NFL references with terms from [OTHER SPORT].”

Step 4: Once you find a good direction or a direction that you like, ask the AI to generate more names. You are bound to find something that you like.

Example

I loved Deadpool and Wolverine. Others might want a fantasy football team named after the blockbuster movie. I will use this prompt: Blend NFL references with Deadpool to create 5 unique fantasy football team names.

I was pleasantly pleased with Mercs with a Mouthguard, since Deadpool is known as the Merc with a Mouth in the comic books.

Let me know what you come up with and what you learned. I am always interested in learning more way to produce great results from AI models.

Bonus?

Here’s the weirdest image that I have ever created with Midjourney.

Will I hoist the gold trophy?

Start by Googling, “DeAndre Hopkins or George Pickens”

I just searched Google for “deandre hopkins or george pickens” and as I typed it out, Google recommended this exact search phrase. I am probably not the only one in this quandary. Google returned some interesting articles.

Based on fantasy football experts weighing the week 17 start decision between DeAndre Hopkins and George Pickens, it is a no-brainer to start DeAndre Hopkins.

My work is done. Thanks for reading.

Wait! I haven’t even used ChatGPT yet in this article, so at least I have to do a little more investigating to make this decision. Remember, the stakes could not be higher in Week 17 of the fantasy football playoffs. I literally either hold up the virtual trophy or get ridiculed for all of the smack I have been dishing all season. I really don’t want my comeuppance.

Use ChatGPT to Get A Second Opinion

Why is this a tough choice for me? Well, DeAndre Hopkins has burned me. I basically started him all season, and he had some stellar games. DeAndre’s last two weeks (weeks 15 and 16) were terrible. He netted 3 points per outing. There are a lot of factors at play here. His team, the Tennessee Titans, is in total chaos with different QBs and key injuries. George Pickens, on the other hand, is playing for a team, The Pittsburgh Steelers, fighting for a lucky wild card spot in the NFL playoffs. The Stillers are in a must-win situation, but the starting QB job for them has been in flux. George has had to take passes with three different starting quarterbacks and play calling from two different offensive coordinators. I am also Pittsburgh-biased. I grew up watching the Steelers with my dad, and I have a deep love for the Black and Gold.

This is where ChatGPT can shine. ChatGPT doesn’t care about my nostalgia, the love of a team, or my enduring faith in anything possible; ChatGPT just tells me how it is.

Let’s start by asking ChatGPT what it needs to help me make this choice.

I am trying to decide between two NFL wide receivers to start in a fantasy football championship game. This is the final game of the season. What information would you like to know to help me make a decision?

ChatGPT needs the following information to make the best decision:

1. Player Names: Knowing the specific players you’re choosing between will allow me to analyze their recent performance, skill sets, and any relevant news.
2. Recent Performance: Information about their performance in recent games, such as receiving yards, touchdowns, targets, and receptions, would be crucial.
3. Opposing Teams: Knowing who they will be playing against is important, as some defenses are stronger against wide receivers than others.
4. Injury Reports: Any recent injuries or health issues either player has had, as well as their current injury status.
5. Weather Conditions: For outdoor games, the weather can impact a wide receiver’s performance, especially in extreme conditions like heavy snow or rain.
6. Quarterback Performance: The performance and reliability of their respective quarterbacks, since a wide receiver’s success is often linked to their quarterback.
7. Game Stakes: Whether their team is fighting for a playoff spot or in a must-win situation, as this can sometimes influence player performance.
8. Historical Performance Against the Opponent: If they have historically performed well or poorly against their upcoming opponent.
9. Team Offensive Trends: Whether their team has been more pass or run-heavy in recent games, and any strategic shifts that could impact wide receiver usage.
10. Expert Opinions and Analyst Reports: Sometimes, insights from fantasy football experts and analysts can provide additional context or information you might have missed.

This is an impressive list of contexts that ChatGPT is going to need. ChatGPT Plus includes Bing Search. I asked ChatGPT to research each of these for both players. This loads the AI with context so that I can ask ChatGPT to make a decision. This will take some time, as ChatGPT will only look up one player at a time for each dimension.

Research these areas with the following two players: DeAndre Hopkins and George Pickens.

ChatGPT started with DeAndre and looked up his 2023 NFL stats using Bing. It returned a short description of his stats. I asked ChatGPT to do this for George Pickens. I had to do this for the other questions. ChatGPT started to focus on the starting quarterback situation for both teams. The Titans have a rookie QB likely to start, and the Steelers have a veteran QB likely to start.

I next asked it about the game stakes. This is an important thing to understand. Do their teams have anything to play for? What is their playoff pictures? Do this prompt for both teams.

Continue with the research.

Research whether the Titans have been more pass or run-heavy in recent games, and any strategic shifts that could impact wide receiver usage.

As you are having this conversation with ChatGPT, you are building context that will help inform the decision.

Let’s look up the weather report for the week 17 games. Both games are in the elements. Again, do this for both games.

Let’s use ChatGPT to summarize all of the research in two paragraphs before we ask it to do a comparison and make a decision.

Summarize all of the research that we have gathered so far. Write a paragraph to summarize what you learned for DeAndre Hopkins and George Pickens. Add an introduction restating the decision that we want to make with this research. Keep it short.

Here’s a summary of what we are trying to do and what we know so far:

You’re trying to decide between starting DeAndre Hopkins or George Pickens for a fantasy football championship game. For DeAndre Hopkins, his performance with the Tennessee Titans in 2023 has been consistently strong, recording 61 receptions, 939 receiving yards, and 6 touchdowns. He showed significant contributions in key games, especially against defenses that are weaker against the pass. George Pickens, in contrast, has had standout performances, like the one in Week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals, with 195 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. Despite less consistency, Pickens has demonstrated the ability to make impactful plays, particularly in downfield passing situations. Both players offer unique strengths: Hopkins with steady performance and experience, and Pickens with potential for high-impact games.

Okay, that is a good summary. Let’s get to the detailed comparison and the decision. A trick that I have learned is to use something called a Pugh chart.

Create a detailed Pugh table showing each player and the relevant dimensions. Fill out the table with the research.

And, for the decision:

Be opinionated. Give me a start decision between DeAndre Hopkins and George Pickens based on the research and analysis from this chat. Give me a bullet list for why you would start one player over the other.

ChatGPT chooses George Pickens.

I just changed my starting lineup for the championship. I am going to put my money where my mouth is and use the advice from ChatGPT. DeAndre Hopkins is now on the bench. George Pickens, FTW.

How Do I Feel About This?

As I wrote this blog post and did the research, I had some mixed feelings. ChatGPT, just like me, has recency bias. The last two weeks have been bad for Hopkins, and for one week, George looked phenomenal. AI might be picking up on recent failures and successes and weighting that too much. Maybe ChatGPT is a huge fan of the Steelers like me. ChatGPT was trained on a lot of our text. Surely, there are more Steelers fans in the world than any other sports team. I am in my coozy bubble, I know. Am I cheating? What does it mean to get an edge? Seriously, I would do anything to win this championship. I started playing fantasy football six years ago and got to the championship game to lose at the last minute to like 100 Todd Gurley carries in garbage time. Like I covered in my previous fantasy football posts, I am using this as an opportunity to learn as much as I can about generative AI and ChatGPT. Fantasy football is often about close calls, and stats and context help make tough decisions. I hope this gets you to want to try out ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot or Google Bard and see what you can learn.

Good luck this week in fantasy. I hope you are playing for the championship and not like those others who are playing for consolation prizes.

Update: December 31, 2023

I woke up to thousands of visits to this blog post. It seems others were researching the decision between George Pickens and DeAndre Hopkins as well. It turns out that the decision to start George Pickens was the correct play. George had a great game, filled with explosive routes, dynamic catches, and stiff blocking. Great game, George.

In other news, I won my championship! I have to admit that I am a bit giddy. Each one of my starts proved to be important. My biggest mistake was starting the Raiders defense instead of Baltimore’s. I lost 20 points on that choice, so I was happy to have had the small advantage of George and Rice to overcome the difference.

One of the most surprising aspects of ChatGPT, and specifically GPT-4, is how they can take a list of data and analyze it in almost any aspect that you want. I found the Top Fantasy Football Team Names on Bet Texas and pasted the list into ChatGPT.

Without any additional context, ChatGPT started processing and categorizing the list. It told me that the list was a series of puns that involved football players, and that most likely they were fantasy football team names. This is actually pretty remarkable. There is nothing in ChatGPT that is programmed to do this task. Just like a human, it figured out from the start that it was a list of football players since some of the names were well known, even outside of sports circles. ChatGPT was able to pick up that they were mostly puns and probably fantasy football team names.

Here’s the breakdown of the 35 fantasy football team names as analyzed by ChatGPT.

Player Puns

• Call of Jeudy (Jerry Jeudy): A play on the video game series Call of Duty.
• Hooked on a Thielen (Adam Thielen): A play on the phrase “Hooked on a Feeling,” which is a song by Blue Swede.
• Mojo Rojo Casa House (Ronald Jones): A play on Ronald Jones’s nickname “Rojo” and the term “mojo.”
• Geno 911 (Geno Smith): A pun on the TV show Reno 911!.

Movie and TV Show Puns

• Tyreeky Blinders (Tyreek Hill): A play on the TV series Peaky Blinders.
• Carrdians of the Galaxy (Derek Carr): A pun involving the Marvel movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
• Dude, Where’s Lamar? (Lamar Jackson): A reference to the movie “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

Music Puns

• Tua Lipa (Tua Tagovailoa): A play on the singer Dua Lipa.
• I’m Sorry Ms. Jackson (Lamar Jackson): A reference to the song “Ms. Jackson” by OutKast.
• Kittle Big Town (George Kittle): A pun on the country music group Little Big Town.

Literary or Historical Puns

• Sherlock Mahomes (Patrick Mahomes): A play on Sherlock Holmes, the detective character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
• The Mixon Administration (Joe Mixon): A nod to presidential administrations, given Joe Mixon’s last name.

Catchphrases and Popular Phrases

• Zeke and Destroy (Ezekiel Elliott): A play on the phrase “seek and destroy.”
• Bakes on a Plane (Baker Mayfield): A pun on the film title “Snakes on a Plane.”
• Rudolph the Red Zone Reindeer (Kyle Rudolph): A play on the holiday song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Not only did I get a categorical breakdown of the names, but I also got a solid rationale for each category. TIL what Peaky Blinders was. I didn’t have that TV series in my frame of reference.

Going Further

Now that we have an analysis of the list in ChatGPT, I can keep the conversation going with ChatGPT and go further. This actually the power of Generative AI. By supplying a list of names and having it do some analysis, we have primed the conversation. This analysis is now in memory and we can pull on it. According to Yahoo Fantasy Football stats, Anthony Richardson is 86% rostered on teams and was a top 5 quarterback week one. Let’s say you go sneaky and picked up Anthony Richardson on the waiver wire to replace AAron. Now, you want your team name to reflect that change in leadership. ChatGPT does not know about Anthony Richardson (yet), but we can generate new team names by using the context that we built up by interacting ChatGPT.

Using the "Catchphrases and Popular Phrases" category, generate 10 fantasy team names for the player, Anthony Richardson.

Here’s what ChatGPT returned:

1. Richardson or Bust: A play on the phrase “go big or go home,” showcasing confidence in Richardson’s performance.
2. Breaking Richardson: A play on the TV show title “Breaking Bad,” emphasizing a breakout season or game-changing performances by Anthony Richardson.
3. The Richardson Express: Based on the famous “Polar Express,” symbolizing a high-powered, unstoppable offense led by Richardson.
4. All Systems Go-Richardson: A spin on the phrase “all systems go,” implying that with Richardson, everything is in perfect order.
5. Warp Speed Richardson: Referencing the “warp speed” from Star Trek, suggesting that Richardson’s game is out of this world.
6. Live and Let Richardson: Based on the famous James Bond movie title “Live and Let Die,” emphasizing the idea that your team lives and dies by Richardson’s performance.
7. Richardson to Infinity: A play on Buzz Lightyear’s “To infinity and beyond,” highlighting the limitless potential of Anthony Richardson.
8. Locked and Richardson: A play on the term “locked and loaded,” meaning that your team is ready to go, largely thanks to Richardson.
9. May the Force Be With Richardson: Borrowed from the Star Wars catchphrase, symbolizing a wish for Richardson to be powerful and successful.
10. Unleash the Richardson: A spin on the phrase “unleash the beast,” implying that Richardson is a game-changing player who can be unleashed for dominating performances.

Okay, admittedly, I am not too impressed with any of those team names. The conversation is not done! You can keep trying.

Try the Movie and TV Show Puns category. 

ChatGPT returned, “Richardson of Anarchy” as its best team name. It’s based on the TV show “Sons of Anarchy”. Not too bad.

Try the Literary or Historical Puns category.

I love some of the options that ChatGPT returned for this type of fantasy football team name. The best one and the one that I am going to use, I mean hypothetically use, is “Richard-Sun Tzu“.

What are you learning?

I started by pasting in the fantasy football projects for week one. Mahomes is facing the Lions with a point projection of 22.46 points. This is based on last year’s matchup, but ultimately, this is what FantasyData.com wants to project. Mahomes will be without Travis Kelce, the league’s best Tight End and Patrick’s go-to option. Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts looks ready to go. He has everything stacked in his favor and is behind Mahomes in the projects with a modest 22.28 points. ChatGPT processed the data that I pasted in and let me know that it understood what I gave it for context.

Next, I am going to try to figure out which way to go. In my guide for using ChatGPT to win fantasy football, I mentioned using any additional context that you can give ChatGPT to help you make a decision. I realized that Hurts was going to play New England, in my backyard, and I know that it is supposed to rain over the weekend.

I found the weather predictions, pasted them into ChatGPT, and asked the AI to help me decide between the QBs with this additional information.

The weather forecast for the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Detroit Lions game on Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 8:20 PM ET is partly cloudy with a low around 63 degrees. The predicted daytime high is 88 degrees, and the nighttime low is 63 degrees. The forecast also calls for a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 7 PM. The chance of precipitation is 20%. The winds are predicted to be around 8 mph.

Google Bard about the weather for the Chiefs home opener

The weather forecast for the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA is mostly cloudy with a high near 80 degrees. There is a 40% chance of precipitation, with a 88% chance of rain and a 53% chance of thunderstorms. The projected daytime rain accumulation is 0.26 inches. The rain is expected to slow down during the first half and dissipate by halftime. The rain is expected to continue throughout the afternoon.

Google Bard about the weather for the New England game

Of course, it was going to be cruddy in New England. As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I wouldn’t put it past Bill to have some control over the weather. He had complete control over the Steelers for two decades.

ChatGPT did factor in the weather, but weighted skill and past performance higher. ChatGPT said Mahomes was a lock even without Kelce.

Mahomes seems to have the better weather conditions, which are generally more favorable for a passing game. Hurts is facing potentially trickier weather conditions, although if the ground game becomes more important due to the weather, his rushing ability could be an asset.

ChatGPT assessing Mahomes or Hurts based on weather forecasts

Why Am I Spending So Much Time With ChatGPT and Fantasy Football?

I am using Fantasy Football as a way to learn more about how to leverage ChatGPT and learn as much as I can about its limitations, what’s possible with prompt design, and how data can be used in large-language models. I will get back to blogging about important applications of Generative AI, but feel free to use what I am doing with fantasy football for your hobby. You should be thinking about how to apply this technology to your interests. Let me know what you try and what you learn. Let’s explore this together.

Why learn all of this AI if you can’t taut your fantasy football acumen over your friends, family, and coworkers? I am here today to teach you how to use the most powerful language model ever created to gain this competitive edge and WIN at fantasy football. Stop being the embassrement of your peers and go DIAMOND.

Your “Average” Approach to Fantasy Football—And Why It’s Lame

So you’ve been playing fantasy football for a while now, and you think you’ve got it all figured out, right? You’ve got your spreadsheets, your late-night ESPN sessions, and maybe you’ve even paid for some premium “expert” advice that promises to make you the Bill Belichick of your league.

News flash: That average approach might work when you’re tossing a football in the yard, but when it comes to fantasy leagues, it’s about as effective as a screen pass against the ’85 Bears. You know what I mean—predictable, easily snuffed out, and usually ending in disappointment.

Average Strategies

The Gut Instinct: Ah yes, the good ol’ “gut feeling” about a player or a match-up. Sometimes it works, and you’re the hero of the week. Other times, you’re left wondering why you didn’t just flip a coin.

The Bandwagon Jump: Your friend won last season by drafting a rookie quarterback who blew up, so you’re all in this year on the latest hot prospect. Except your “sure bet” is now on the bench, and you’re searching for scraps on the waiver wire.

The Analytics Nerd: You’ve got spreadsheets, pivot tables, and Python scripts analyzing every player’s yard after catch, and still, you lost to Terry who picked players based on their astrological signs.

What makes Fantasy Football interesting. Or, what makes it ridiculously frustrating.

Injuries: Your star player tearing an ACL doesn’t care about your spreadsheets.

Bye Weeks: Forget to adjust your lineup for bye weeks and watch your points take a nosedive.

Underperformers: Stats can’t always predict when a star player will suddenly become a benchwarmer.

Game-time decisions: You can’t always be online checking for last-minute changes. Well, maybe you can, but should you?

Meet ChatGPT—Your New Secret Weapon for Fantasy Football

I bet you’ve never heard of ChatGPT… non-stop for the past 8 months all of the time, on every channel, media outlet, and cooler conversation. I have used ChatGPT to create sophisticated chatbot applications to write a letter to my car repair shop. In all cases it has been helpful.

ChatGPT is a generative pre-trained transformer. It generates text in response to a prompt. A prompt is an input that you type in that can vary from a simple question to thousands of words of context.

Before you start planning your victory parade at the end of your season, keep in mind that ChatGPT isn’t a magical crystal ball. It’s a tool, and like any tool, it’s only as good as the person using it. But unlike your lucky rabbit’s foot or that weird pre-game ritual you have, it actually provides concrete, actionable advice.

10 ChatGPT Strategies for Dominating Your Fantasy Football League

1. Optimized Drafting: Use ChatGPT to generate a custom draft list tailored to your league’s rules and scoring system. Ask it about sleeper picks, risk factors, and team-by-team analysis for a fully optimized draft experience.
2. Real-Time Lineup Decisions: On game day, query ChatGPT for last-minute lineup adjustments based on player injuries, weather conditions, or other game-day variables that might affect player performance.
3. Trade Evaluations: Before pulling the trigger on a trade, consult ChatGPT for a data-backed analysis of the players involved, taking into account your current roster composition, the schedule ahead, and the long-term value of the trade.
4. Waiver Wire Wizardry: Each week, ask ChatGPT to identify under-the-radar players who are ripe for the picking on the waiver wire, including those who might benefit from upcoming match-ups or injuries on their teams.
5. Performance Projections: Use ChatGPT to get weekly player performance projections based on current stats, upcoming match-ups, and historical performance, helping you make informed choices for your starting lineup.
6. Bye Week Balancing: Consult ChatGPT for advice on how to navigate the tricky waters of bye weeks. Get recommendations on which free agents to pick up for one-week stints and which players are droppable for short-term roster flexibility.
7. Trending Players Analysis: Ask ChatGPT which players are trending up or down in value. Knowing who’s hot and who’s not can be crucial for trade negotiations and roster management.
8. Rest-of-Season Outlook: Midway through the season, consult ChatGPT for a “rest of season” analysis for each player on your roster. Make data-backed decisions for the second half of the season based on projected performance.
9. Social Media Sentiment Analysis: Inquire about the general sentiment around certain players based on news articles, social media, and other public opinions. Sometimes public perception can influence trade value, and you can use this to your advantage.
10. Fantasy Playoffs Strategy: When the fantasy playoffs are on the horizon, use ChatGPT to get a detailed strategy for your potential path to the championship, including which players to target in trades or on the waiver wire, and strategic advice on match-up plays.

Let’s get specific

ChatGPT doesn’t really know about your specific situation or even current data, but you can provide context that will help you rationalize a decision. In my league, Jeff is always offering me trades. I 100% assume the trades do not benefit me. This year, I am going to use ChatGPT to evaluate the trade and see which way the trade favors. In order to do that I would have to enter as much of the context as possible to have ChatGPT reason on the trade.

Trade Evaluation Example

Let’s say that I am being offered Trey Lance for Justin Fields. ChatGPT has no idea about their latest stats, so what I do is past in some stats from Fantasy Data. I tell ChatGPT that I have been offered a “fantasy football trade” and identify each player as “offered QB” and “my QB” and paste their associated stats. The 2023 season hasn’t started yet so I just pasted in their fantasy stats from the past two seasons.

ChatGPT quickly processes the pasted data (even if it not formatted well) and provides an analysis and a recommendation.

ChatGPT tells me that Jeff is trying to cheat me which is what I have always thought. NO THANK YOU, JEFF.

Based solely on the numbers provided, keeping your current Chicago QB appears to be the better option. He’s currently performing at a high level, especially when it comes to fantasy production. However, if there are other elements to this trade not provided (like additional players or picks involved), those could change the evaluation.

ChatGPT on Jeff’s Fantasy Football Trade Offer

In other words, keep your garbage, Jeff.

Step-by-Step Guide to Unfair Dominance

I assume that some startup is about to launch to make using Generative AI and Fantasy Football easier, but I still think you should explore this directly from ChatGPT. Learning how to write effective prompts, refine, and interrupt results are transferable skills. I implore you to try this out with any hobby or activity and build up this experience.

Access ChatGPT

First things first, go to the OpenAI website or wherever ChatGPT is accessible from. Sign up or log in, and you’ll be greeted with a chat interface. It may look basic, but you have just accessed a very powerful chatbot that can help you with anything. This is the blessing and curse of ChatGPT, it will speculate on anything that you type in. It is always helpful—use ChatGPT to get a rationale, clues, threads that you can research. In each case, provide as much context as possible. You can have it compare abstract things like weather data, times of day, social media posts, or whatever you can find about your players. The blessing is that it will try to make an analysis with anything that you provide.

Name Your Team

As I previously explored, ChatGPT is awesome at Generating the Perfect Fantasy Football Team Name. Try some options and get creative with your prompts and keep trying until you find some gold.

Draft Queries

Start the real work by asking questions to help with your draft. Remember to paste in specifics. Use ChatGPT to learn about drafting, strategies, and scenario planning.

• “What are PPR draft strategies?”
• “I am drafting 5th in a 10 team league, what advice to do you have?”
• “Who should I draft first in a PPR league?”
• “Tell me sleeper picks for this year’s draft.”

Weekly Line-Up Picking

Your main fantasy football management, is picking a lineup for each week of your league’s season. You will have roster of players on your bench and have to pick your starting lineup. You are going to get yourself into a lot of 50/50 situations. I have turned to Google, Twitter, and random voices on Yahoo forums to figure out who I should start.

• “Who should be my starting QB this week?”
• “Which two WRs should I start this week?”

ChatGPT will give you a rationale, a framework if you will, and might help you find which player is the better start.

Waiver Wire and Trade Assessments

On Tuesday or whenever your waiver wire opens, it’s time to consult ChatGPT again about the waiver wire or trade offers. To me, this is where you win or lose fantasy football seasons. Picking up players on the waiver wire fills in your bad draft spots and also is the place you find sleepers who are ready to perform.

• “Who are the best waiver wire picks for Week X?”
• “Should I accept this trade offer: Player A for Player B?”

Mid-Week Check-in

Check in mid-week to ask for any updates based on practice reports or unexpected player news. Paste in some news, have ChatGPT evaluate it. Paste in some of your Thursday night stats, and ask for advice. Etc.

• “Are there any must-add players before Sunday?”
• “Any of these injuries should I be concerned about?”

Real-Time Adaptations

While watching the games, keep ChatGPT handy. If your key player gets injured, ask:

• “Who should I target on the waiver wire as a replacement for my injured player?”

You’ll be first to react, leaving your league-mates bewildered and jealous.

Playoff Domination

Before your playoffs start, do a comprehensive strategy session with ChatGPT.

• “What’s my best strategy for the fantasy playoffs?”
• “Which players should I target for a strong playoff run?”

Victory Lap (Optional but Recommended)

After you’ve won your league, feel free to thank ChatGPT or ask for some epic one-liners to drop in your league’s chat to celebrate your well-earned victory. Revel in your glory—you’ve earned it!

With these strategies in hand, you’re not just playing the game—you’re gaming the system. Let your league-mates scratch their heads and wonder how you became a fantasy football oracle overnight. The answer, my friend, is ChatGPT, your unfair advantage on the road to fantasy glory.

I logged into ChatGPT today and noticed a change.

ChatGPT had these starter prompts on the GPT-4 model start screen. One of the new options is a prompt to brainstorm fantasy football team names with a frog theme. Now, I pride myself on coming up with clever fantasy football team names. “Shake it Goff” is one of my favorites, although I ended up in 3rd place that season.

Can AI beat the master?

I am not likely to use a frog theme, but here is my favorite human-generated idea: Justin Ribbit. AI came up with pretty straightforward names.

Let’s try some other prompts. I asked ChatGPT to generate ideas for team names that also use a player name.

Incorporating an actual player’s name can be a fun and unique spin. Here are a few ideas based on some well-known NFL players’ names up until my last update in 2021. Please keep in mind that the relevancy of these names will depend on the current players and their popularity.

1. Patrick Ma-hop (Patrick Mahomes)
2. Lamar Jack-jump (Lamar Jackson)
3. Froggy Fitzpatrick (Ryan Fitzpatrick)
4. Leapin’ Leonard Fournette (Leonard Fournette)
5. Toad-ally Todd Gurley (Todd Gurley)
6. Bullfrog Brees (Drew Brees)
7. Hopkins’ Hoppers (DeAndre Hopkins)
8. Ribbit Rodgers (Aaron Rodgers)
9. Croakin’ Carson Wentz (Carson Wentz)
10. Tom ‘Bog’ Brady (Tom Brady)
11. Kermit Kittle (George Kittle)
12. Derrick ‘Bog Bounder’ Henry (Derrick Henry)
13. Julio Jump Jones (Julio Jones)
14. Froggy DK Metcalf (DK Metcalf)
15. Swampy Saquon Barkley (Saquon Barkley)
16. Tadpole Travis Kelce (Travis Kelce)
17. Deshaun ‘Swamp Sprinter’ Watson (Deshaun Watson)
18. Michael ‘Muddy Pond’ Thomas (Michael Thomas)
19. Frogger Russell Wilson (Russell Wilson)
20. Ezekiel ‘Pond Escape’ Elliott (Ezekiel Elliott)

Let’s get away from the frog theme and generate ideas for physics-inspired team names.

OMG. ChatGPT came up with the best name: Heisenberg Hail Marys

In American football, “Hail Mary” is a term for a long, desperate pass thrown towards the end zone, typically at the end of a half, when a team is too far away to execute a more conventional play and hopes for a touchdown. The term implies that the play’s success is unlikely, and the team is essentially “praying” for a positive outcome.

“Heisenberg Hail Marys” cleverly blends two seemingly unrelated concepts: one from the world of quantum physics and one from American football.

1. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: The name “Heisenberg” in the context of physics refers to Werner Heisenberg, who is best known for his Uncertainty Principle. This principle states that certain pairs of physical properties (like position and momentum) cannot both be precisely measured at the same time. The more accurately you know one of these values, the less accurately you can know the other.
2. Hail Mary in Football: As previously explained, a “Hail Mary” in football is a last-ditch, high-risk play where the outcome is uncertain. A team throws a long pass towards the end zone, hoping against the odds for a successful catch and a touchdown.

Both concepts revolve around the theme of uncertainty. Just as the outcome of a Hail Mary pass is unpredictable, so too is the precise measurement of certain pairs of physical properties according to Heisenberg’s principle. The blend is clever because it unites the unpredictability of a football play with the foundational concept of quantum mechanics.

Okay. I am pretty good at coming up with names, but ChatGPT is really good at taking a crack at any variation, theme, or style. It doesn’t get tired and just goes with the obvious one or the first reasonable name. Have fun this season, give AI a shot, and good luck as long as you are not in my fantasy football league.

Update: September 2023

Your fantasy football season is about to start, and you have already named your team, so you are ready to dominate. I just published a fantasy football strategy guide: Win Your Fantasy Football League with ChatGPT. I share tips and tricks that leverage ChatGPT for drafting, trade decisions, and waiver wire pickups. Have fun this season—the action is just about to start.

Update: August 2024

It’s that time of year again… The preseason is just about to start. Rosters are getting solidified. And your fantasy football leagues are setting draft dates. Besides the research on players, the most crucial part is naming your team. I created a Fantasy Football Name Wizard for you at the OpenAI GPT Store. This is a custom GPT that takes ChatGPT from zero to hero. This GPT knows how to be punny or make alliteration with a team or player name.

Access the Fantasy Football Name Wizard at ChatGPT for all of your AI generated fantasy football names. And, let me know what you think!

The Problem

Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) for football is about picking a lineup of players across all of the NFL teams under a set salary cap and competing against other players doing the same thing. It’s easy right? Just pick all of the best players! Profit. Wait up. Everyone else is doing that too. The secret is to use player projections, maximize your utility of the salary cap, and add some chili pepper for your signature taste.

The Solution

Dust off your math skills and remind yourself that everything is a math problem, but others have solved them for you. An optimal DFS lineup is just an optimization problem. I am going to pick optimal DFS lineups using MATLAB and its Optimization Toolbox.

Get the Data

In order to optimize a lineup, you need to get some data. You need a table of players with their positions and score projections. I recommend getting the latest player projects from Daily Fantasy Fuel. They give you access to a table with everything that you want and they update it daily with the latest projections from Draft Kings and Fan Duel. Projections are subjective but they take into account past performance, team matchups, and weather conditions. You can adjust each row of the table with your own projections and put your thumb on the scales so to speak. Maybe you got some insider info that the Rams are not going to start Cam Akers so you adjust their projection down.

• Go to Daily Fantasy Fuel and click on “Download Projects as CSV”
• Save the file to your computer as “DFF_data.csv” into a new folder

A CSV file is just way to save data as a table. It might look intimidating if you open it up, but we are going to import the data into a nice clean table using MATLAB’s import tool.

Access MATLAB

You might have MATLAB installed on your computer, so all you have to do is open MATLAB. If you don’t have MATLAB installed, you can use MATLAB Online at matlab.mathworks.com by signing in and clicking “Open MATLAB Online (basic).”

Import the Data

First, we need to get the data into MATLAB.

• Right-click on the “Current Folder” and click “Upload Files”
• Select the CSV file that you downloaded from Daily Fantasy Fuel

Second, we need to import the data from the CSV file so we can work our fantasy magic.

• Right-click on the DFF_data.csv that we uploaded and click Open
• Click “Import Selection” and “Import Data”

These steps will bring the data into MATLAB in a nice and useable way. All of the default options will work perfectly.

Enter the Code

First, let’s create a new file for our optimizer code.

• Right-click on the Current Folder area, click New, and then Live Script
• Name it “dfs.mlx” and open it

Next, we need to get the code into MATLAB.

• Copy and paste my MATLAB code from GitHub into your new MATLAB Live Script.
• Click “Save”

The next thing that we need to do is select a “Salary Cap” and run the code.

• Change the salaryCap variable to the salary cap to optimize for. 50,000 to 60,000 is a common range.
• Click the Run button on the Live Editor tab

If everything goes to plan, MATLAB will output a table of optimal starting players based on the projected data.

Profit

There’s still some luck involved. Projections are projections. Now that you have a baseline, you can experiment by using different projections data and tweaking individual player projections.

Let me know how you do and if you made some improvements to my optimization code. Good luck.

Resources

• Source code at GitHub – https://github.com/nothans/dfs-optimizer
• Daily Fantasy Fuel – https://www.dailyfantasyfuel.com/nfl/projections/
• MATLAB – https://matlab.mathworks.com/
• Optimization Toolbox documentation – https://www.mathworks.com/help/optim/