Can’t Cut List is our way of showcasing the friends, partners, and affiliates of The Undroppables. Fantasy Football has been a way for us to connect with people all over the world, allowing us to make strong bonds and friendships. Throughout the way, we’ve been fortunate enough to connect with the industry’s top upcoming names. Meet some of the brightest minds that have influenced us in our processes.
David Willsey, better known in the fantasy football community as The Willsonator, the creator of RBPC model and Unique RB analytics, is one of a kind. Not only is he a genuine, passionate individual, but he’s humble and one of the hardest working analysts I’ve met.
From Texas to the West
David has roots in Texas, but after spending the first part of his life in the Lone Star State, his family decided to head out west as his father got a new job. At the time, his family made the tough decision to uproot and head out west to Washington where he currently resides today.
Family Man
When David isn’t building pools for a living, which he states he’s been doing for too long, he cherishes time with his family. Who wouldn’t prioritize family with two beautiful daughters and a fabulous son?!
During his family time, David loves to play board games, go on walks with his dog, work in the garden, and build LEGOs with his two youngest children. With his oldest child, Willsey frequently has long, drawn-out conversations about things that nobody else in the world would care about, but he truly cherishes those talks.
Outside of family time, David enjoys hanging out with his friends who would describe him as a humble, hard-working, honest guy. After getting to know David over the past couple of years, I can vouch for that description.
Coffee is For Closers
Willsey is on the grind if he’s not spending time with his family of five. Even though his drink of choice is coffee, his children often find him asleep at his computer after long days at work, hours of fun with the family, and then grinding away on his running back models, sorting through numbers, and developing next level processes and analytics. He mentions that he probably spends about the same amount of time sleeping at his desk after long nights as he does in his bed. It sounds like he may need to have a Keurig closer to his computer to help keep him up.
True Visionary
A little known fact about Willsey is that he is actually half blind in one eye and two-thirds blind in the other. But as David confidently states, disability is only in the eyes of the observer. Through dedication and hard work, David has not allowed his blindness to affect his ability to be one of the top analysts in the game. It’s much more impressive that he is able to work with numbers, countless rows in spreadsheets and still produce the type of work he’s done thus far. He doesn’t draw attention to his blindness, which shows how humble he is.
Under the Influence
Throughout his time in the fantasy football community, David has drawn inspiration from the individuals who allowed him to believe it would be possible to be successful in this space. Some of the names that come to mind when discussing his influences include The Fantasy Footballers, as well as Matt Williams and Addison Hayes, who gave David his first shot at being an analyst and helped him grow tremendously through FF Statistics before it was acquired by DLF.
Unique Analytics
To date, Willsey has accomplished a tremendous amount including working for DynastyLeagueFootball.com, but developing his RBPC model is his crown jewel. By blending numbers and film analysis and through inspiration from a tweet by Curtis Patrick, Willsey is on a mission to build a model that is truly predictive for running back success. David has been busy in the lab, working those late nights, improving his process to unlock the secret to running back efficiency by analyzing workload (volume of carries and how that impacts wear and tear on a player and consequently his efficiency).
A key to David’s analysis is considering how workload is related to longevity and success in the NFL. Out of his tireless work, he’s decided to build a new site of his own, uniqueRBanalytics, which will set to debut later this year. On top of all the analytics work, David produces seasonal and weekly ranks and projections, which he’s done for the past two seasons. David has also recently launched his own podcast, Four Corners, which features himself and 3 guests at a time discussing a range of football topics.
It was truly an honor getting to know David better and I hope you have the privilege of doing the same in the near future. His DMs are always open and he’d love to hear from you, whether it’s about his RB model work or any questions about fantasy football or life.
Make sure to follow David on Twitter, where you can find him @willson8tor. Let him know Chalk sent you!
