Rookie RV writer Jesse Cohen recaps the results of his 2025 columns and shares a few thoughts going into 2026.
Rookie Season Recap: Masked Profiles and Dynasty Dealbook
Masked Profiles
In my debut article for RotoViz, I leveraged the Advanced Stats Explorer to identify a group of buy-low targets with masked profiles.
That cohort, which had an aggregate -176.1 FPOE in 2024, finished the 2025 fantasy season with an aggregate +91.5 FPOE — led by strong performances from George Pickens (+59.9 FPOE) and Dalton Kincaid (+41.5 FPOE) — for a total swing of +267.6 FPOE or +12.2 FPOE per player. For context, that’s about the same positive FPOE that Tetairoa McMillan (+13.1 FPOE) and Davante Adams (+12.1 FPOE) had this year.
The results look even better if we exclude undraftable players who got swept into the model like Jalen Tolbert (-7.0 FPOE) and Brandin Cooks (-4.4 FPOE). As explained at the time:
The “Masked Profiles” list is not a “breakout score” or a “fantasy hack” — this is still buy-low bin shopping and your discretion is required — but maybe, a helpful nudge in refining mental buckets.
In addition to Pickens and Kincaid, we got a surprising number of useful best ball weeks from model “hits” like Christian Watson (+36 FPOE), Alec Pierce (+29 FPOE), and Tre Tucker (+6.8 FPOE). Other cohort members saw their dynasty value rise despite being model “misses,” like Rome Odunze (-6.5 FPOE), Troy Franklin (-4.8 FPOE) and Adonai Mitchell (-23.6 FPOE).
