Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Chris Wesseling

"Trying not to go overboard, but Julio Jones may be most explosive size/speed package after the catch in NFL. A bigger Nicks/Austin, TO-like."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

There once was a mythical creature called the Kraken. The creature evoked terror in sailors in part because there was no one could get a picture of one alive. I feel the same way about the fantasy football writer who actually makes a living at the craft. It took me 11 interviews, but I have discovered the Kraken. It turns out that the Kraken's quite pleasant.

Chris Wesseling is not elusive because he lives in the deepest depths of the ocean. He's elusive because it's the craziest football offseason on record and he's working reverse banker's hours cranking out the content for Rotoworld. He's one of those guys who probably watched every second of preseason football this weekend while simultaneously posting updates to the site and sending dozens of Tweets.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Chris's in black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I dabbled a bit in free lance work in the late ‘90s, covering University of Cincinnati basketball and a few odds ‘n’ ends on the Reds. After my girlfriend and I picked up stakes and moved to the Savannah/Tybee Island area in 2006, I had a lot of my time on my hands as I went back to school. I started a Dynasty Rankings thread on the Footballguys.com message boards that ended up functioning as the go-to internet home for spirited debate on Dynasty strategy (at over 300 pages and 750,000 views). The thread has withered on the vine of late as I've gone feet-first into Rotoworld, which brings us back to the original question. Gregg Rosenthal, then of Rotoworld and now of Profootballtalk, was doing a casting call for contributors in 2007. I submitted parts of the Dynasty Rankings thread and started the Sons of the Tundra blog. Gregg ran my Dynasty ranks on Rotoworld, one thing led to another, and three years later Evan Silva and I are shouldering the majority of the load on the Rotoworld football beat.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I grew up in Cincinnati rooting for the Ken Anderson-Boomer Esiason-Anthony Munoz Bengals. The legendary Paul Brown died in 1991. By the late ‘90s, it was clear that I was in a one-sided relationship with his son’s franchise. Paul Brown Stadium was the crash site of unrequited love. Stuck in the football fan’s version of a Catch-22, I broke up with the Bengals [Zach note: You go, girl.] and never looked back. Now my rooting interests lie more in predicting breakout players and teams on the rise.

Where do you live?

Beautiful Tybee Island, Georgia. Often described as Mayberry on Acid, it’s a true end-of-the-road town filled with dreamers, drifters, dropouts, artists, writers, bar flies, fishermen, idlers, runaways, painters, and pensioners. It’s the kind of place where you can belly up to the bar next to a millionaire and a pothead and not know the difference. As Charles Kuralt once said of Key West, "the place has no dignity but much style."

Tell me about your day job.

This is it. I spent a couple of years as a letter carrier in the mid-90s, then a decade as records manager of a prestigious law firm in Cincinnati (the late ‘90s were a boom time for those of us who were under-qualified for office jobs). In between, I racked up enough credit hours to make Blutarsky blush.

Since 2008, though, I’ve gone from free lancing to working full-time at Rotoworld. I’m certainly not in it for the money, but it does allow entrance to the Too Much Fun Club. As Hunter S. Thompson once said about sports writing, "After I first learned that it was possible to sleep late and go to work at Two in the afternoon, and still get Paid for it, I never did anything else."

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Good question. I suppose the end game would be covering the league as a whole the way Mike Florio and Rosenthal do on Profootballtalk. Mike Miller at NBCSports.com has been great about letting Silva and I pump out general NFL articles when we do get a break from the fantasy side of the ledger.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

Definitely a limit. I try to stick to two "experts" leagues per year. I still have a league with my high school buddies going on year 18 or so and another Tybee Bums league with the guys at the local bar Huc-a-Poos.

I also have one Dynasty league in year 13 and another in year three. I’m only interested in Dynasty leagues where the playoffs coincide with the NFL playoffs, which certainly helps when turning down requests. I don’t like getting caught with too many irons in the fire, so six leagues is my limit. Four would be preferable.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

My eight-year relationship recently went from "living in sin" to "it’s complicated." When we are together, she takes issue with the time crunch more so than fantasy football itself. She wishes I’d spent more quality time enjoying life with her and less time monitoring Twitter for breaking football news. It’s a fair point.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

We pursue that which retreats from us, right? When you have too much football in your life, you think about sex. When you have enough sex in your life, you think about football.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I don’t know about a season-sabotaging trade in particular, but Byron Leftwich sticks out in my mind. I loved his arm, toughness, and leadership coming out of Marshall. I know I had him ranked as a top-10 Dynasty QB for a period of several years -- and clung to hope even after the Jags cut bait. I didn’t realize until it was too late that the elongated throwing motion would kill his career. It’s hard for a receiver to do much after the catch when Leftwich is winding up and throwing darts at his chest instead of anticipating a spot.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

The Chris Johnson Hype Train in early August of his rookie season ended up as a big fantasy win for anyone who jumped on board. The one that may have worked out best in the long run was choosing Arian Foster as the No. 1 deep Dynasty sleeper in the 2009 Becket/Rotoworld fantasy preview magazine -- a few weeks after Forster went undrafted out of Tennessee.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

I have a small home office with a big TV (courtesy of the National Football Post’s experts league last season -- Thanks, fellas). Silva and I monitor Twitter and network preview shows for late-breaking news on injuries, depth chart changes, etc. leading up to the 1:00 kickoffs. Both of us usually take a pair of the early games and one late game to cover for news recaps and more in-depth analysis for Rotoworld’s Season Pass subscribers. That wraps up just in time to enjoy NBC’s Sunday Night Football without worrying about taking notes. By the third or fourth quarter, I’ve started research for my Morning After column. That process goes on through the night. Sometimes I catch a few hours of sleep at 3:00 a.m. or so. Other times I just burn the midnight oil until the sun comes up. Needless to say, I’m worthless on Mondays.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

I’m an inveterate reader, but my non-football books have been shunned over the past few years. I miss them. I don’t have an ounce of musical talent, but I enjoy the process of finding hidden gems. At 37, I still enjoy playing softball, though my body has started to fight back the past year or two.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Rotoworld has been my go-to home for news and analysis since the mid-to-late ‘90s, and nobody beats Gregg Rosenthal and Evan Silva on that score. I also spent a lot of time on the Footballguys.com message boards from the late ‘90s until recently and have a high regard for Matt Waldman and Sigmund Bloom. Mark St. Amant is another former Rotoworld writer (and author of the book Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie), who puts the rest of us to shame for pure writing and humor. More recently, I’ve come to enjoy Chet Gresham’s work on Razzball. I have a love-hate relationship with statistical analysis and those who do too much lamp-post leaning, but Pro Football Focus’ Mike Clay does a fine job of pumping out the relevant info.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

No question, long-term league with friends. Too much "going through the motions" in expert leagues whereas friends have shared history, inside jokes, and more lively debates. I had one draft just last night where we were bagging on the former commissioner (still an owner) who had mistakenly written "Sleeper = Todd Pinkston"on the back of the draft board for all to see about a decade ago. Another former commish still has dozens of classic voice mails from an angry owner who would call every Monday morning to rant and rave about the performance of his own team. You would have thought this guy was more invested than Steinbrenner. You can't buy that kind of entertainment in an expert league.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

The Rotoworld Draft Guide, my pride and joy, is now available. Come Week 1, the Rotoworld Season Pass will be active. Much of the work we do at Rotoworld -- including the always updated news scroll -- is free, so be sure to stop by even if you don’t have the money to purchase our premium content. You can also find me on NBCSports.com.

Thanks to Chris for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2