Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Week 16 Waiver Wire and Injuries

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) talk top waiver wire adds for the week, with Dr. Edwin Porras (@FBInjuryDoc) discussing recent injuries and return to play timetables. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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to help you score more fantasy points. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the week 15. Oh, it's week 16. Oh, my. Thank the Lord. It's week 16 of the Fantasy Points podcast, fantasy points injury podcast.

My name is Joe Dolan. He is Dr. Edwin Porst, Dr. Physical Therapy, soon to be of the Minnesota Twins Doctor of Physical Therapy, but don't worry, fantasy points.com always comes first on Edwin's resume. Thank you, everybody, for joining us here.

We got some injuries to talk about in weeks. 16, most of all just fatigue for anyone. Week 15, you know, we always talk about how quickly things go around the season. It both wears on you and then it seems like it goes quick all at the same time. I don't like anybody on planet Earth plays fantasy football, follows the NFL, works in the NFL, would say week 15 went quickly. Hell, it's not even over yet. We have two games today on Tuesday because of postponements for COVID. the league has changed its COVID protocols in the middle of the season.

Edwin, first and foremost, I just want to get that out here. In terms of the COVID protocols changing, and I know, look, you're not an epidemiologist. You deal with injuries, but you also deal with availability issues with football. What do the new COVID protocols mean, essentially? Well, Joe, we don't know. Let's be honest. We don't know what these protocols are essentially going to result in, but we do know that if a player is test positive and is vaccinated, they can technically return to the team at this point

if they have another negative test within 24 hours. So you and I were having a conversation before we hit record. This is basically the NFL saying, all right, listen, guys, let's be honest. Some of this was for show. And, you know, it is what it is. You know, we can sit here and sermonize about what we think should be done, what shouldn't be done, what's high risk, what's not considered high risk. The NFL is thinking to themselves, okay, the finish line is right there.

So getting put on the COVID list at this point, if you're a skill player with fantasy football implications, doesn't necessarily mean it's a death, a death sentence to your fantasy team quite yet. So keep watching the COVID list. Keep watching my Twitter account at the injury doc. I try to retweet those as much as quickly as they come out. And just know that, for example, somebody like Travis Kelsey and Austin Eckler have a good chance of returning. The unknown wildcard here that still exists is that we never truly know if a player is symptomatic or not. If they're symptomatic, they still have to go through the same protocols, which would be like a supervised, basically progression of aerobic exercise

and be asymptomatic in addition to testing negative. So the only thing that change here is that if they're asymptomatic, they can still come back within 24 to 48 hours. So that just bumps up the time that they have to spend on the list. So that's something to just keep an eye on. Yeah, and apparently this is what the Washington football team, which obviously had one of the massive outbreaks that led to the post- opponent of their game. I think they said something like 21 of their 23 players who were on the list

were asymptomatic. So obviously this would lead to a huge number of guys getting back soon, of course, but it was not to be for week number 15. Okay, let's get into the real purpose of this podcast here, and that's injuries. And I want to start Edwin with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And they just got shut out. Tom Brady was shut out for the first time since 2006. And a large part of that was because Tom Brady's entire team drop like flies around him. Let's start with the first one, which is Chris Godwin. And I don't think this is necessarily good news. They come out and say, he looked like he wanted to get back in the game.

They come out and say after the game, MCL sprain, he could be back for the playoffs. He's going to miss the rest of the regular season. And then they get the MRI result that show a torn ACL. and I know how this works at this point. I've been talking to you for a while, and I just know how the mechanisms work. Very rarely does an ACL tear just kind of like show up and surprise people. So what could lead to that?

And Chris Godwin entering free agency, this is horrible news for him. Yeah, man, you feel terrible for Chris Godwin. I've always sort of rooted for him. He's always been one of those low-key, really talented players that, that goes out there, kicks ass pretty much every week. And he does his job. And so this is, yeah, and he's going to be in free agency now. When I watched the tape initially, the angle that I saw didn't necessarily imply a ACL at that point.

Now, I'm sure that the bucks were aware that it was on, it was something they wanted to test for. So yeah, that's probably not. It wasn't necessarily a total surprise. But maybe it was a little bit to a certain extent. You did see with Logan Thomas, for example, the on field testing. even though they're 98, 99% sensitive for an ACL tear, they're not always perfect. So that might have been what happened here. That's why they get the MRI.

So, yeah, Chris Godwin now is looking at a return. You know, we're really thinking late September, early October at this point at the soonest. You hate for that to happen to him as a free agent. And so really this recovery is going to be something that he's going to have to take his time with. We don't know if it's an isolated ACL versus any additional meniscus damage. But we do know that Chris Godwin. is extremely talented.

We do know that Chris Godwin is a wide receiver. And if you put both of those things together, he's very athletic, obviously. If you put those things together, he should have a pretty good outing. I'm just 25 years old right now. A pretty good outing in 2022. It's just going to be a matter of when he'll finally be available

when he gets cleared to play. So he'll actually probably, Joe, be on my injury discount list this summer. So be on the lookout for that this summer. I'm interested. It's going to be very interested to see what his market is this offseason. Two more Buccaneers. Both with hamstring injuries are Mike Evans and Leonard Fournette. Now, I know Ian Rappaport came out and said neither one looks to be serious.

Maybe they'll miss a little bit of time. I mean, for fantasy football, there's no solace than that. We only have a little bit of time left. But Evans and Fournette, I believe Evans has had hamstring injuries in the past, which obviously portends to potentially greater issues. Yeah. So if we start with Evans, surprisingly Ian Rappaport said that he, that injury to Mike Evans is less serious than it is to Leonard Fournette. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that Evans is going to be back in full force without any issues. You see what happens with Julio Jones. You saw what happened, for example, earlier this season with Sterling Shepherd before we get into his injury, obviously.

These injuries, and you saw with Christian McCaffrey, these hamstring injuries are fickle, Joe. They are fickle MFers and they don't necessarily go away. And the problem, what part of the problem is that players in coaching staffs and medical staffs try to bring back players too soon. You saw it in 2019 with Adam Thielen, who came back too soon, ended up missing like another five or six games. So even though, you know, we say, quote, it's not a big deal. And even though the average miss time is anywhere between two to four weeks for an NFL skill player based on hamstring debt over the last five years, we know that things can change on a dime.

And so this will automatically raise Mike Evans's, I'm sorry, he's going to drop his floor. it's going to sort of make him more volatile if he is active in week 16 at this point. But, I mean, if it is what it is, Joe, at this point, you're probably going to run Mike Evans out there considering, you know, everything that's going on with COVID and everything that's going on with injuries. And the flip side is with Leonard Fernette, his injury was a little more serious because he had a true mechanical stretching of the tissue of the back of his thigh as hamstring. he sort of got helicoptered around on a on a hit it was kind of an awkward hit he landed and he he sort of landed in the lunge position like the splits position and what happens is that that put a ton of strain through the hamstring itself ian ripaport is reporting that lennifer fortnight might miss quote some time this is a little bit more of sort of let tissues uh get back do their thing heal and do a little bit of rehab so because of that mechanical stretching of the hamstring they do want to sort of let it calm down, put the fire out, and then build him back up. So it'll be surprising to see Leonard Fournett back before the end of the fantasy playoffs,

just based on what I know about this specific injury. But, I mean, you can always hold out hope. You can hold out hope that he'll be back for the fantasy championship, which I'm not going to in any of my leagues, Joe, because I lost in all my playoff leagues. And I can sit here and be mad and tilted and salty, but I'm not, Joe. Graham Barfield kicked my ass in one league where I had, Dak, Prescott. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm just really, oh, no. Yeah, I mean, you asked me about Jacobi Myers, or I even forget the other guy, but I'm guessing it didn't matter. Didn't matter one bit. It didn't matter one bit. Jacobi Meyer scored 11 points. Jerry Judy had a goose egg. Oh, that's right.

Did you know that, Joe? Yeah, I did know Jerry Judy had a goose egg. Yeah. So I went with Jerry Judy. I went against your advice, and I was wrong. So maybe that's the last time I do that. Well, my first instinct was Judy, first and foremost. And then I read Wes Huber's article at fantasy points, and he liked the matchup for Myers.

And, well, I mean, yeah, my guess was it didn't matter anyway. So anyway, let's get to another hamstring injury and another guy who put up a goose egg. Julio Jones, a disastrous trade for the Tennessee Titans. Man, I don't know what to say at this point because it's, it's frustrating for me, and I'm not even directly related or linked to Julio in any way, shape, or form. Since last year, these hamstring strains just have not gone away. I don't know what his offseason program looks like. I don't know what his strength and conditioning looks like.

I don't know what his rehab looks like, but man, I don't know what else this guy's supposed to do. I mean, he's, he's probably done everything he has to. He's 32 ahead, going on 33 years old, I think at this point, which doesn't help his cause whatsoever. Yeah, man, I just, I just don't see this going in the direction. Of course, I'm going to sit here and feel really bad for him and tell you how bad it is and then he's probably going to be back next week. But I don't know how you put Julio in a lineup at this point. It doesn't matter what position you're in, even if he's back next week. I just can't see it happening.

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Rondale Moors was difficult to see, sort of hidden, and it was towards the end of the game. We don't really know what's going on. We know he was going to get an MRI. We know that they think they're trying to rule out something ligamentous at this point if he had x-rays already. So it could be high ankle-ish. The mechanism was really difficult to see. So, you know, don't hold your breath for Rondale Moore. The Cardinals have, I mean, I don't know what to make of the Cardinals. First of all, Joe, I mean, they're down to the Jags and they lose the Lions. Like, I don't know if they're for real. I don't know if they're, if they're pretenders. But moral of the story here, now they're down, potentially another wide receiver for potentially

the rest of the fantasy football season. We're going to have to watch the practice reports on this one, I'm not entirely certain what's going on. When it comes to Joe Mixen, his mechanism was also a little vague. You could argue it was either a lateral ankle sprain, low ankle sprain, or you could argue there was a little bit of a high ankle mechanism on the front end of it. So again, another dude who Zach Taylor, who I don't believe for one second, said that he's going to be fine, that it's not a big deal. Another guy you're going to have to watch the practice reports.

If you remember Joe, earlier this season, Joe Mixing came out, they said he's going to have a full workload and ended up touching the ball, I think, like one time or some crap like that. So don't trust the reports coming out of Cincinnati. I'll do my best to try to decode those based on everything I know about those people. Ben Baby reports are usually pretty good. And I will continue to monitor this. It does lower the floor on Joe Mixon this season, or I mean, this fantasy football sort of playoffs. But I don't think you can go without Joe Mixon at this point. I mean, he's been one of those guys that has just been so consistent for you. And Joe, remember Remember when Joe Mixon was injury prone?

Now? I mean, he's not. No, I know. I know. He's had a couple of bad weeks in row, though, unfortunately, heading into the playoffs, and this injury does not help. And when Sterling Shepard tore his Achilles, unfortunately, that is a young man whose body has betrayed him at this point.

Yeah, he's got a lot. He's had a ton of soft tissue injuries this year. Cap, quad, hamstring. And it's not, I think it's interesting, just from a clinical perspective. I'd have to look at the research. typically you don't see strains progress to tears. I know we kind of saw that with Kevin Durant, but he did,

he was on the injury report with the calf strain before this happened. Now, he's young enough and I think that he, his position, uh, allows him, you know, he,

he plays slot, right? He's still slot guy. I mean, I know that the Giants have 18 slot guys. Yeah, he's, he's mostly a slot guy.

Um, he will play outside, but mostly a slot guy, yeah, because given all his positional demands right now, I think he could have sort of an Emmanuel Sanders type bounce back. Now, I wouldn't expect any more sealing years from Sterling Shepard, unfortunately. But given the fact that we don't know a lot about this injury quite yet,

the 28-year-old going on 29 in February, I think he'll continue to be an okay contributor, 14-team leaguer, and hopefully he can overcome this rehab. But it's not a slam dunk that he will. So keep an eye on that one this offseason. I'll be writing about it. And we talk about concussions a lot on this podcast, Edwin. And I mean, we don't get into the science of them.

We don't get into the ethics of them. I mean, we have such a short amount of time. It is a fantasy football podcast after all. But both Pat Friermouth and Teddy Bridgewater have concussions. Now, the Teddy Bridgewater one was incredibly scary. I think Vic Fangio has already ruled him out for this coming week. But it is important to note. And, I mean, crude as this may sound, just because it looks awful.

on the field doesn't necessarily mean it's going to take longer to recover from Teddy, Donald Parham, I'm looking at now. Teddy, they've already ruled out for this coming week, but he's out of the hospital. Everything, everything's looking good, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's going to miss extra time just because of how scary it looked. And quite frankly, Edwin, fluky. I mean, Donald Parham and Teddy both get these awful concussions and they were barely contacted. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things that it really goes to show, I often talk about Joe with

my patients, especially like your body is really tough. Your body's really resilient. Your body's really robust. Those types of injuries really show how fragile to a certain extent these types of contact sports can be. That's the reason we have athletic trainers on the side. It's the reason why we have orthopedic surgeries on the side. It's the reason we have PTs on the side constantly evaluating.

We have an. ambulance ready. It just, it's a sobering reminder that we are putting, you know, two to 300 pound, sometimes 400 pound humans on a field. We're telling them to play this contact sport for this ball and make sure you don't hurt each other. So it's just a sobering reminder. He hardly got contacted, like you said, especially, you know, even Donald Parham's like you were mentioning. But that sometimes that's all it takes. So yeah, back to what you were saying, Teddy has been ruled out. He did have a concussion earlier this season. week four or five, I do believe.

And so he's been rolled out sometimes, though, when it's that scary look, you know, when a situation is that scary, we can't discount the emotional, mental, intellectual mark that leaves on coaches and players. And so I think that it's a good idea to have him sit out just based on what I saw and what I know. But yeah, this doesn't necessarily mean that he's not going to, that he can't bounce back for this, you know, in weeks, week 17 or 18 or whatever that might be for the Broncos. He is Dr. Edwin Porris. Follow him on Twitter at FB Injury Doc.

He has been fantastic here. We're going to talk to him again next week. Edwin, thank you so much, my friend. We're going to talk to Broly about some of the injury replacements on the waiver wire. After Ben Cucanus, Edwin, have a great one. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Edwin. Welcome, Tom.

Welcome to the Waverwire section of our injury and Waverwire podcast here at FantasyPoint.com and the Fantasy Points podcast. Tom, let's get right to it. The Waverwire article of FantasyPoint.com is massive, and it has all kinds of guys you can add in it from both short term to long term, but there is no long term right now. Unless you're in a dynasty league, there's no long term ad for the waiver wire. So we're going to focus on the short handful of guys here, Tom, who might be able to contribute to your fantasy team now, because that's all that matters. Now, now, now. I think back to that scene from Lincoln, where he's like, now, now, and he's got to get all the votes to abolish.

slavery. That is a horrible comparison anyway. I'm delirious right now, Tom. So, I just know. Yeah, I mean, and if you've been working the waiver, you're probably won last week based on, you know, what, you know, the fantasy football scores out there. So this might be another week where, you know, you might pick up a guy or two that might lead you to a championship here. It's chaos out there. It's just seeing some of the scores. So, you know, there's certainly some guys out there. There was a couple of key injuries and some key spots that might be able to help you here this week. Yeah. So let's get into it. and let's start with the running backs. There's two guys out there who have a shot to start.

I think one is more likely than the other. Ronald Jones and Samajai P. Ryan, Edwin said he'd be surprised if Fournette is back before the end of the fantasy playoffs. We, everybody hates Ronald Jones. but Tom Especially us We really we really despise Ronald Jones Not personally Just kind of as a player But if he's going to get the opportunity

I mean at the very least They trust him more than they trust Kishon Vaughan Ronald Jones has a shot to be a bell cow here Remember Giovanni Bernard is on IR Like he's he's done too So it could be Ronald Jones The rest of the way Ronald Jones RB1 season

The last two weeks Yeah and yeah Four Nets been in that spot where he was kind of the bell cow here. As you said, Giovanni Bernard is on the injured reserve here, you know, through, I think, the end of the, at least through week 17. So through the fantasy playoffs,

I think the expectation was for him to be out until the playoffs. So they're down to just Ronald Jones and Kishon Vaughn in this backfield right now. And the way Tom Brady was given stares at Kishon Vaughn during the tail end of that game on some of the routes that he was running, it could be a lot more Ronald Jones than you'd think. He's been primarily a runner throughout his career, but he could be thrust into a very important role here. And tough matchup against Panthers this week.

Not the easiest defense, but, you know, I was just going through some of the stats and trends for, you know, our game hubs. And, you know, the Panthers have played over the total in four straight games. they're starting to give up some points and their offense has been horrific and putting them in bad spots. So there's a chance. They're entering as 11, 12 point favorites in this game that we could see a lot of Ronald Jones running the ball late in that game, especially considering just the way the Buccaneers receiving core.

I'm sure we'll touch on that a little bit later. But, you know, Chris Godwin's done for the year. You know, there's a chance. Mike Evans sits out a week here to let him get healthy for the playoffs. So they could be, you know, working with next to nothing at receiver. So if they build a lead, we could see a lot of Ronald Jones late in that game as big favorites against the Panthers this week. Joe Mixon picked up an ankle injury. Samajey P. Rine, Tom, is a guy who's got a shot to be a temporary bell cow here.

And you know what? At this stage of the season, if you get one good week out of somebody, thank you for your service. Samadjai P. Ryan has a chance to do that. Yeah, not the easiest matchup the next, you know, a week or two. got Baltimore and Kansas City. But, you know, one other time whenever Mixon left the lineup early this season, and back in week five, he kind of stepped in as the main guy and produced 59 rushing yards on 11 attempts, four for 24 and one receiving.

So that will get it done for us this week. If he gets that kind of workload. Chris Evans has been the third guy, but he's been pretty much invisible over the last half the year. I would think, you know, if Mixon does sit out, maybe he would get some, some snaps, but I think they're going to ride P-Rine, especially this is a, this is for all the marbles in the AFC North. I don't know if they want to go put Chris Evans on the field for 30% of the snaps in a pivotal game against the Ravens here this week. So I think we're going to see a lot of Samaji P-Rine if Mixing is out of the mix. So, you know, he could be like a fringe type of RB1 type

this week if he's, you know, the complete lead guy here, if mixing is out of the lineup. So let's go to another running back who, I mean, let's just talk about 2021 in a nutshell. Duke Johnson has a career game. And they side him to the active roster. Tom, this is the best game a Dolphins running back has had in years. Yeah. Unbelievable. And, you know, I'm just looking down. I don't know about you, Joe, but I'm probably not chasing this. You know, they had the easiest matchup against the Jets this week. I mean, I'm thinking back where Sean Penny was completely dead for two years and went for 150 yards and two touchdowns a couple of weeks before that.

So I'm not chasing it personally in this backfield. They just, Malcolm Brown's going to be back in the mix, Miles Gaskin, Selvin Alkmaud, Philip Lindsay. I mean, they're literally five deep at the position right now. I think maybe he has bolted to the top. but I think this is going to be a bit of a major committee going forward here. And look at that schedule. They go from the Jets to New Orleans and Tennessee Titans,

the two best teams against the run. So they have the two worst matchups here. So personally, if I'm in the fantasy playoffs and I see my opponent pick up Duke Johnson this week, I'm going to be smiling. I'm going to be like, please play Duke Johnson against the Saints and the Titans. Maybe I'll be eating my words on that one. But I'll be pretty excited if I see my opponents. two guys I think we should touch on real quick as handcuff types, Dontrell Hilliard and Justin Jackson.

We got the news yesterday that Austin Echler is on the COVID list here. You know, the new rules, you know, basically shave off a day. They just need one day of negative test instead of two. So, you know, we're going to see a few, you know, it's going to help get these guys back quicker. But he's definitely, you know, very fringy to play this week. We saw a all the Browns guys, they were real hopeful that they were going to get them back to that Monday night game. And even, you know, even new rules couldn't get them back. So, you know, he's very much up in the air. Justin Jackson, we were kind of wondering how they were going to break down that backfield.

And we saw last week with Echler playing through the ankle injury that it was Justin Jackson that was the main guy. He, you know, he actually ran pretty well, had 86 yards on 13 carries. For some unknown reason, they had Joshua Kelly trying to plunge in from the one yard. line. Of course, he fumbled. So, you know, that is something to watch here. But Hilliard is also a little bit on the radar here. Foreman, Deonté Foreman picked up and he got his ankle foot rolled up on at the end of that game against the Steelers there. So, you know, it seems like he is going to play. But, you know, they play on Thursday night against the 49ers. It's a quick turnaround. So if you've been using Deonté Foreman, I would probably want to pick up Dantrell Hilliard.

to back up for him just in case he is unable to play on Thursday night. Again, Tom, this is a focus on who can help your team now, and it's guys that you can start right away. Two wide receivers who I think are, I mean, this is not speculation. They have produced in recent weeks. Amon Ross St. Brown and the Lions, Gabe Davis of the Bills. Yeah, I mean, Gabe Davis has been, you know, he stepped into the lineup there. Emmanuel Sanders was out of the mix last week.

right away, two touchdowns. It's been kind of bizarre. Emmanuel Sanders' production is really trailed off here since their by, mid-season by. It's like, why aren't they playing Davis more? Every time he steps onto the field, he seems to be making plays, especially down in the red zone here. So he's going to start factoring in here, even if Sanders would happen to come back this week. I think he should stay above him.

We'll see if the bills coaching staff feels that way, but he's been really productive, especially down in the red zone. And Almond Ross, St. Brown, he's four plus catches in nine out of his last 10 games. He's been really active as the slot receiver here. Of course, he had the touchdown on the final play of the game against the Vikings a couple weeks ago to give them the winning,

you know, their first win of the season to give Dan Campbell is first win as a head coach. And I think ever since then, there's just been a confidence between Goff and Ammon Ra going forward here. And he's starting to really emerge here. He's knocking on like wide receiver 2 territory

with the way he's played. I know it's tough to trust this Lions passing game. Got to keep an eye on Jared Goff status this week. He was another guy that landed on the COVID-19 list on Monday. So he's going to have a tough. You know, it's, you know, 50-50, I almost would put these guys that are landing on this list on Monday to get back for Sunday. So, you know, if it's Tim Boyle starting, I probably won't want to go there.

But if Jared Goff is able to get back and on the field, it's been, you know, a pretty strong connection here in recent weeks between those two guys. Tyler Johnson of the Buccaneers, Chris Godman, obviously, horrible injury, suffers the torn ACL as he heads into, obviously, both the playoffs and to free agency. see Tyler Johnson, though, he was a slot god in college, and he's going to have an opportunity to make an impact here for the Buccaneers. Yeah, Antonio Brown is the top priority. He's owned in most leagues. He was sitting at 62% over the weekend. But, you know, maybe if you're playing in a smaller format, he might be out there in, like,

an 8 to 10 team league. You know, I play in a couple 12 team leagues and have been holding him for God knows how long of Jesus. I think it's almost 10 weeks since, you know, he played a game. I think it was that Eagles game. on Thursday night football, which seems about like last summer or something. But, you know, he's going to be back. We'll see how much of a rule he has.

He's been in the doghouse, obviously, for his vaccine card, you know, shenanigans there. And he did have an injury. So Tyler Johnson was kind of the guy that was, you know, featured the most with Evans and Evans and Gobwin both going down in that game on Sunday night. So Johnson always profiled more as a slot receiver, but, you know, Godwin is one of the all time, you know, one of the best in the league here at this stage of his career. So, you know, this is almost a little bit of an audition for him, too. Chris Godwin's, unfortunately, you know, he tears his ACL and he's going to be heading back into free agency this year. So we'll see what the Buccaneers do here. So this is almost like a little bit of an audition here for Tyler Johnson.

and if he plays well down the stretch here, and obviously he's going to get some postseason snaps. So he's going to want to put his best foot forward here. Mike Evans is also up in the air for this weekend. So there's going to be, and we know how much Tom Brady loves the throat. So there's going to be a lot of targets potentially out there for some of these backup receiver types in Tampa Bay this weekend.

Just two more guys, Tom, to touch on. We should get a quarterback and a tight end out there just for, for completion's sake. Tyler Huntley, Tom, the answer to who your Lamar Jackson replacement should have been wasn't Jimmy Garoppel. It wasn't Justin Fields. It wasn't Ryan Tannahill. It was Tyler Huntley.

That was the answer. That was the right answer. He was, Tom, I think he was the number one quarterback this week. Yeah, he's honestly been, I mean, the way Lamar has played over the last six weeks. He's been kind of better. I mean, Lamar is their franchise guy. he's going to be in the lineup if he's ready to play. But, you know, from listening to reports and stuff over the weekend on the Sunday morning shows,

it sounded like it was a bone bruise more than anything else that was really holding back Lamar Jackson. And sometimes those can be, you know, really fickle. I mean, you just never know how their, you know, how your body's going to respond to it. So we'll see. I would put Lamar like an 80 or 90% chance of returning this weekend. but if he doesn't, Huntley's like a top 12 option. I mean, if I was rostering Lamar, I would probably, you know, drop whatever quarterback I picked up to play this past weekend.

And I would go pick up Huntley and handcuff myself that way. So, and even if you've been playing like a fringe, you know, you've been kind of screaming the position and you're real frustrated, maybe Huntley is a type of guy just to pick up, you know, see what happens with Lamar over this week. You know, you can follow the practice reports, but, you know, if he's practicing full by Friday and he's going to go, you can drop him and pick somebody else up. But just in case he doesn't go, I think Huntley is a top 12 type of quarterback this week with

the way he runs the ball. And one of my least favorite players in all of fantasy football has a matchup with the Eagles coming up. They just lost Sterling Shepherd to a torn Achilles. Evan Ingram, Tom, Jake Fromm at quarterback. Good luck. But, hey, you've been wishing for good luck at tight end position all. year anyway. I don't see how this is any different. Yeah, it's just ugly at the tight end position.

Now we probably don't have Pat Friarmouth now, you know, for this week. He just suffered his second concussion in the last three weeks. So the position just keeps getting uglier and uglier. If you don't have Mark Andrews or, you know, we also had Travis Kelsey join the COVID list on Monday. I almost completely forgot about that. So, you know, some of you might be really hurting out there at tight end. Unfortunately, we're not bringing good news. There's not a lot of great options out there. You know, maybe some of these guys on Monday night, Foster Moreau and Cole Comette had solid games and some funky game scripts last night. But Evan Ingram's a guy, you know, Jake Fromm is going to be the new starting quarterback. You know, he's got a noodle arm. He's not going to push the ball much downfield. He's going to live in the underneath areas in the middle of the field here, which is where Evan Ingram, you know, basically plays at this stage of his

career. So I'm sure he's not going to get you too excited here, but there's just not a lot of great options. And the Eagles defense has been one of the better matchups for tight ends this year. So cross your fingers with Ingram. He's not going to score touchdown. You know, the Giants, they score like one or two touchdowns every week. So if you're looking for touchdown upside, Evan Ingram is not going to provide it. But maybe he can get you four catches for 40 yards. and you just hope that your other positions, you know, carry you through the week here. All right, T-Bro, thanks for breaking down the waiver wire for us. You can check out the full article at FantasyPoints.com.

If you guys are listening, obviously, you're still in the playoffs here. It's put up or shut up time. I mean, it's been that for weeks, but obviously you're not holding on to anybody for any long-term reasons right now. You are simply looking to win right now. That's the way it is. I want to say, Merry Christmas to everybody, too. Oh yeah, Merry Christmas. Happy holidays, whatever you celebrate.

You know, if you've been listening this far, you're into Week 16. You're at the end of the Week 16 WaverWire podcast. You're die-hards. Thank you. Thank you for, you know, being with us all year. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. If you don't, you know, if you're not around for the next one.

So just thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for listening all year long here. And just thanks, everybody. Make sure you take advantage of that early birth special at FantasyPoint.com. It is 30% off right now. for a full 2022 subscription. You're going to want to get in now because, well, once May hits,

you have to pay full price. So pay now. It's Christmas time. Maybe you're waiting to give somebody a gift. I think that would be a great one. My name is Joe Dolan at FG underscore Dolan on Twitter. He's Tom Broly at Tom Broly on Twitter. Follow the site at Fantasy PTSD on Twitter.

Follow Edwin Porist at FB injury doc on Twitter. Thank you, everybody. Have a great Christmas. Have a great holiday. And have a great week 16. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.