Fantasy Football Daily - Drake's Super Bowl Trip and Reaction

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Our "Two-Point Stance" host Brian Drake found himself in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl thanks to winning an amazing contest. Hear about his trip, the celebrities he saw, and how much beers cost him. Plus, we break down the game and talk about what's next for these two teams heading into free agency. A fun look at the game from someone in the stands and at the parties. You won't want to miss this. It's never too early to get signed up for 2024 at FantasyPoints.com Right now, you can save over $80 on our All-In Bundle - this gets you access to our NFL content, College Football content, UFL content, NFL DFS Optimizer, AND, of course, the Fantasy Points Data Suite. https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Follow the show on Twitter (never X): @DrakeFantasy @FG_Dolan @FantasyPTS --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle. From numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. We lost the fantasy universe. Welcome one and all to year number two of the two points dance. That's right. We're running it back. It's your boy, Brian Drake, Drake Fantasy on Twitter.

Hanging and banging. I'm not letting that go as we start year two, the managing editor of fantasy points.com. My good friend, Mr. Joe Dolan, Joe, we made it. They renewed us for year number two. And by them, I mean you, because you own the site. So what's going on, brother? How are you?

It's been a little bit since we've caught up. We're talking plans for the podcast. Like, I feel like fantasy points and what we do, you know, I'm one of the owners. Our strategy has been kind of over the couple of years. You know, none of us are seasoned businessmen with the exception to Hansen. And Hansen basically has us so he doesn't have to do the business stuff anymore because he doesn't like doing it anymore. Our content strategy has been kind of effed,

which is why sometimes we have like some overlap and some stuff. So you and I have been talking behind the scenes about what we want to do with this podcast. And I don't think Drake, it's anything like wild. I think we want this to become kind of like an industry guest kind of a conversation show because we got Thomas Tipple and the guys doing awesome work with Dynasty points and, you know, Scott and Graham are going to continue two bars into the offseason. And obviously Hansen does his podcast, me and Browley will do some shows. But you and I, I feel like, you know, we got great reception on the show we did with Drew Davenport on auctions last August.

And I feel like that's kind of where we're going to go. We're just going to have conversations about life and football and what have you. And that's kind of what we're doing here. You and I are catching up post-super Bowl, a game you were at. And I feel like that's kind of the impetus for this. for this conversation we're having here today to discuss your trip and what happened and how you got there, how you got to Vegas and kind of not just the experience you have, but what you saw in person from the Chiefs and the 49ers.

And we have some news to talk about with the 49ers here today. But let's start by, look, everybody can recap the Super Bowl, Drake. A million podcasts have done so. I'm sure Brett and Steve O'Rourke are going to on Take Talk. But let's talk about your experience, man. How was Vegas? Tell the people all about it. So how I got the trip to Vegas is interesting. So I have not shared this with many people.

I don't even know if I've shared this with you is a number of years ago. If you guys have read my work that I put out, I talked about how my wife had breast cancer. And she recovered for that. She's fine. You know, everything's good. He's a teacher. And one of her students in 2020, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

And in 2020, you remember, I believe the draft was, yeah, the NFL draft was in Las Vegas and we wanted to go to it. For my birthday, we thought that would be a great thing. Let's go out to Vegas for my 40th birthday. She goes, Brian, I want to give this young girl in her family a thousand dollars. I want to donate money at school. I want to give them money. I know they need it.

Their family needs it. I want to give it to them. Okay. What am I going to say no? Be a douchebag? No, I want to go to Vegas instead. So we used the money we were going to take to Vegas. We gave it to this young girl's family.

I never thought about it. The young girl's fine. She's great. You know, God bless her, that she's doing great. So I never thought about it again. All of a sudden, you know, a couple years go by. I'm a serious XM subscriber. I've also hosted a show on there for a few years.

But I've been a subscriber since before Stern started in 2006. Thing popped up on my app. Hey, win a trip to the Super Bowl. Click here for NFL Radio. Boom. Clicked it. Never thought anything. think about it. Months, months, months go by. I get a call. I'm walking by my phone. It's charging

in my kitchen. And you know how it is, Joe, where you see a number and it's like an unlisted. It's like a New York City number. I'm like, what is this nonsense? Like this can't be real. But I'm in the process, you know, at the time of looking for a job. So I'm figuring this could be some recruiter. It could be a job calling me. Let me pick it up. Hey, what's up? This is Brian. Like, oh, this is so and so from Sirius XM. And I'm thinking, all right, maybe they're trying to up my subscription, whatever. Like, oh, you know, did you enter a contest to win a trip to the Super Bowl? Yeah, I think like six months ago.

Yeah, why? And they're like, oh, you're a finalist. I go, really? And you know me, if you guys have listened to this show at all. I love the talk. And I kind of talk myself into circles. And I think I almost talked myself out of this trip. Joe, I tell the woman, I go, oh, that's fantastic.

And I go, you know, I work there, right? Like I do shows and I'm a guest on other shows. I mean, Jesus, I was on two nights ago with Jim Coventry. And the lady's like, ugh, about that. Let me call you back. I'm like, oh, crap, what did I just do? So the woman calls me back two, three days later. I forget this is done.

It's out. So she calls me back. Okay, Brian, we talked illegal. It's okay that you used to work. Because I didn't work here this season, 2023. It was 22 when I did the PFF show. So she goes, not only is it okay, she goes, you're a winner. you and a guest are going to the Super Bowl, all expenses paid.

Light, hotel, game tickets, all on Sirius X-M. Joe, I started crying to my car. I started weeping. Literally in my car, I'm talking to this woman. I couldn't believe because of the year I've had of losing my job and just the struggles and everything. And then I came home and I told my wife and she was so over the moon. And then she reminded me.

She goes, do you remember when we gave the money to that girl in my class? we were supposed to go to Vegas. And my wife's a big karma person. She goes, this is the karma for that. So is Hanson, by the way. Hansen's a big karma guy. Yeah, so he would buy that. That's fantastic.

Oh, God. He's a big, anybody who listens to Hansen knows he's a big body language guy and all that stuff. Yeah, he's a what goes around, comes around kind of guy. And it sounds like you just, I mean, I want to hear about the trip, but just the notion of you getting there is a pretty bad ass story. Yeah. So then now it comes up. All right, who do I take?

Now, I was just nominated for an FSWA award for article of the year, you know, humble brag. Go check out the Twitter. And it's the pin tweet. You can read the article I did about my son. He's really getting into football, loves it. I tell him, he loses my because he thinks he's going to go. He's like, oh, my God, dad, we're going to go the Super Bowl.

And I'm like, that'd be great. Let's go. I have to call the woman back. And I'm like, yeah, where's the Super Bowl? They're like, Houston or San Diego. She's like, no, it's in Vegas. I'm like, I'm not taking an 11-year-old to Vegas. What are you crazy?

She's like, yeah, he's got to be, the guest has to be 18 anyways. So my wife and I, after every guy that I know in Syracuse here, hit me up, slid in the DMs. I'm like, nope, taking the wife. And we decide to go out there. We're going to have some fun. So let's get to the trip. We fly out, you know, God bless her parents. So they came up and watched the kids.

We fly out Syracuse Airport, easiest in the world to get to. We go Syracuse to Denver, Denver to Vegas. And you get out there and it's just a sea of any kind of fan you want. It to me felt like, Joe, the NFL draft. I think you've been to a Super Bowl, right? You said? I have, yeah. I had the worst hangover of my life on Super Bowl Sunday, by the way.

We'll discuss that in a little bit. But yeah, anyway, this is your story, man. Get back to it. It's every fan you can imagine out there. It's not just, you know, the Chiefs and the Niners. So we get to Vegas. We go, we're staying at Mandalay Bay, which is the hub of everything going on with the Super Bowl. Because connected to the M to Mandalay Bay is their convention center where Radio Row is, the NFL experience, which is a fan event that's open to the public.

So me being the, you know, media guy that I try to be, I call serious back. And I go, hey, any chance I can get press credentials for this? The girl's like, let me see. She called it. Yeah, absolutely. We get your credentials for two days. So I have now media credentials for Radio Row. So I can go in.

My wife and I walk in there and she only wanted to go in there because she wanted something to drink for free. I'm walking around taking pictures. I see Eli Manning. I give him the head nod. When I first opened the door, you know, because there's just celebrities everywhere, you know, and me. I opened the door. Who comes walking at me? Nikki Glazer, the comedian.

I look at her. She looks at me. I can tell she wants me. I mean, it's natural. It's only, you know, she's only human. So I hold the door.

Here you go, miss. Have a great time. She goes walking out. And then I just start walking around looking at the, looking at everybody. You have to act like you're supposed to be there because in my mind, you know,

I'm like, I am supposed to be here. I am a media guy. Just it brought me back, Joe, too. And I think you've mentioned this before, this imposter syndrome that happens in fantasy where I'm walking around.

life, man. It happens in life. Yeah. You know. So I have a degree in journalism. I, you know, I've done media things and, you know, we do a podcast and I write articles and stuff. But to me, I'm just like, God, this is where I want to be. This is where I belong. I felt the same thing last year when I got to go to the PGA, the major in Rochester. We got to go into the media hub. One of my buddies is a news guy here in Syracuse. So I'm like, this is what I'm meant to do. This is where I'm supposed to be. And it just kind of lit a fire under me to say like, you got to follow these dreams. Maybe, you know, you were given this trip for a reason to kind of reignite your life, your passion for media,

just to meet somebody, do something to fire yourself ahead in the career that you're supposed to be doing. And, you know, again, if you're talking to Hanson, maybe he would dig that. So, you know, walked around media row, went to the NFL experience, which was really cool. And I found this out. Tell me if you had the same experience. anybody who's at a Super Bowl is either, number one, super rich, number two, they work or their family member works for a team or something to do with an NFL or you're a contest winner. Like there's no in between.

It's just everybody there is like, oh, my husband works for the Cardinals. This guy works for the Giants. I feel like there is a way to get there. I remember my wife and I were looking into packages with the Eagles last year. Ultimately, we decided not to go just because we were like, imagine if you pay this much money and they lose. lose, which is what happened.

Like, I feel like people, yes, rich people, I think are overrepresented at the Super Bowl. But also, you know, Joe Fan, who happens to have some disposable income. And they're like, yeah, this is stupid, but I'm going to get one of these travel packages that, like, the teams, like, you know, that not necessarily the teams, but, like, um, ancillarily, and is that a word, associated with the team, like, fan groups run them. I feel like, I feel like that's how a lot of people end up going. You know, I always, like last year, I hit up my buddy CMAQ with the Eagles and he was like, sorry, dude, like, it's not happening. And not for free tickets, but, you know, to, I would pay, but like tickets were expensive and all that stuff. So, no, I mean, I feel like, if you feel like it's a once in a lifetime, I do still plan at some point, I want to take my wife to the Super Bowl.

but like it was you know it's a life decision that you have to make and for a lot of people if you're not like ungodly rich it's going to be a decision that's going to cost you like a vacation later on in the year you know it's something that that that certainly i was lucky enough to go for free um when i was when i was 23 years old um our our buddy matt camp actually um at least you know, my former co-host at Series XM, we won the Mike Francesa Trivia contest. Oh, they did?

He called in. He called that's how we got in. He called in and we were listening to the Francesa trivia contest. And the thing about Francesa was his questions, he would repeat questions, right? Yeah. But like he would always get to an audio as, as audio mongo on Twitter,

back when Francesa was doing his show, you would get an order your clip and you had to guess who said the clip and they are the most obscure quotes like just unbelievable quotes and like I remember one of them was Zach Daasi who was the long

snapper for the Giants like that's like so you really had to know like the giants well ours was a generic quote and quite frankly I'm just going to lay it out there sounded like a white guy and it was like you know I know everybody's kind of crowned them but they underestimated

us. We were a damn good football team this year, too. And nobody, you know, everybody counted us out and, you know, we're excited, blah, blah, blah. And so Camp and I are like, all right, this sounds like a white guy. So it's probably a quarterback. Like, literally, this is how we're deducing it. And this is, this is, this was Super Bowl 44, which was, which was Colts Saints. And so we're like, all right, who would have said something like this, blah, blah, blah. It wasn't, you know, one, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, somebody whose voice you knew or Eli. And we're like, and I just said Chris Chandler. Because I'm like, I'm going through and I'm like, all right, Chris Chandler, the Falcons beat the Vikings in the NFC championship.

Obviously, though that great Vikings team in 98. Turns out that was the answer. And so we ended up, we ended up flying down to Miami. We stayed at the fountain blue, which is Ritzie. But my first night there, I was having a drink at the, at the bar. and camp he turns to me He goes you know who you were having a drink between us between Nikki Hilton and Brandon Jacobs

So like like there's like a Just a complete randomness Like you said like just the celebrities that you run into And then I had the single worst hangover of my life On Super Bowl Sunday We went out we finally found a cheap place in Miami to drink Which is not on South Beach by the way But like and we found a cheap

And us 22 year old kids 23 year old kids We decided to go ham that night Oh my God. I thought Camp and Nico, who was actually my seat partner, Nico, who's now a cop down at the Jersey Shore, I thought they were going to murder me that morning because I had my phone going off because I shattered my phone in the middle of the street when we got back from the hotel. So I wanted to go to the Apple store to get my phone fixed. What was this? First beer? So I could contact somebody just in case, you know, things went wrong.

I had a horrible hangover. My alarms going off 150 times. But I, you know, I sobered up by the game. And it was actually pretty chilly in Miami. It was a beautiful night. Ended up having a great time at the game. It was a competitive Super Bowl, as was the one you went to. But anyway, yeah, that's how us poor got to the Super Bowl.

You know, we won a contest. But I got to ask you about the game, man. Let's talk about the game. What you saw? We got some news to talk about with the 49ers. Yeah, what's going on? what's going on? Where were the seats? How did you, how did you? What was the advantage like? Day of the game, we get to go to a, they hand just passes to this Super Bowl pregame.

They go, this is this NFL pregame you get to go to. They go, it's exclusive. Not everybody gets to go to this. Oh, okay, we'll check it out. We walk into this. And there's like red carpet going on. There's all these booths. You would think you're at the Academy Awards, Joe. And as we walk around, free food, free free liquor, whatever you want. And they're like, oh, yeah, see that stage over there? Gwen Stefani's going to do a full performance in like half an hour. Her and Blake Shelton are coming out. We're like, okay.

So I'm standing at this bar, or like a table, and everybody's walking around. We saw Greg Cosell was there. You know, I kind of walked by him. I'm standing next to some short guy. And kids keep coming up to this guy and they keep taking pictures with him. I'm like, who the hell is this guy I'm standing next to? My wife takes a picture and like Google searches it or whatever. He's some YouTube gamer with like 70 million followers.

And I'm sitting here like, I thought he's a waiter. Like, dude, can you give me another Mick Ultra? You know, the guy looks at me like, get lost, loser. So that was amazing. Just to be in that environment. We go in, go to our seats. We're in, it's like the second level. First and foremost, Allegiance Stadium, beautiful, right in kind of downtown loss.

Vegas at the end of the strip there behind Mandalay Bay and the Luxor, you can walk to it from the hotel. It's not that big of a stadium. I'm used to going to the artist formerly known as the Carrier Dome, the JMA Wireless dome. It's only like 12,000 seats bigger than that. And that's a 50,000 seat stadium. So there's really not a bad view in the house.

We're in the end zone, kind of in the kitty corner of the end zone, where all the action happened, where McCaffrey catches the passenger Juan Jennings, where ultimately a hardman scores the game winning touchdown. So we get in there. First thing I noticed, Joe, the line for the men's bathroom is out of freaking control. I don't use TikTok, but I made a TikTok. I go, if anything is going to go viral, it's going to be this bathroom line thing. 800 dudes are in line for the bathroom.

The women's room, there's no line. You could walk right in. Total roll reversing. It was insane. You go into the bathroom. I don't know what the ghost of Al Davis was thinking when he designed this place, but there's like four urinals and three. three stalls. It's a freaking NFL stadium bathroom and it can hold seven people at a time.

So just awful. But once you got out there, if you wanted a beer, Joe, no beer line. That's like not code. I feel like the code would have to have a support more, more about anyway, maybe there was another bathroom nearby. But oh, how much, how much was beer at the game? You need the trough. You need the old trough system where you can get 38 guys lined up next to be disgusting. But they have those at Bieber Stadium at, Penn State, or at least they did the last time I was there. They're absolutely atrocious. I hate them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're gross.

They still have that at Syracuse University. The, uh, the dome trough is legendary. So if you want a beer, it's not that bad. It was $18 for a Bud Light Mick Gulture. Because again, that's who sponsors the NFL. So that's all you can get. But if you think about it, they're 24 ounce cans. So it's nine bucks a beer. So to get like 18 bucks for two Budlights, whatever. Okay. I was fine with that. Best thing about it, $2.99 hot dogs at Allegiance Stadium. Yes. All right.

I had to get one. I wasn't even hungry. But if you know me, I'm not going to pass up a chance at a $2.99 hot dog. I'm like, I got to see how good this is. It was not good. But it was $2.99. So I was, damn it, I was buying it. We sit in our seats.

You know, you go through all the America, the Beautiful and the anthem and all that stuff. and I think, you know, because you and I doing a prop contest together, a guy comes up to me in the bathroom line. He goes, we heard Reba perform it three times yesterday, take the under. This guy was in the stadium like doing the rigging or whatever. I'm like, damn it, I wish I had time to go and bet this right now. Reba, you know, motorboats through the anthem and we're off. It was over, by the way. It was over.

She hit the over? Yeah. So I saw it. I saw it a couple of times. Some people graded it differently. Now, for our contest, it was dead. It was completely over. But she kind of like said brave and then like did it again.

Like she was like, brave, brave, you know, something like that. And some of the books actually graded it at the end of the first brave. And depending on what you got the line at, it was, it was different. But ours was 87 and a half seconds for our prop contest. And we were, and it was definitely 80. Like I timed it. I did it myself and there was no controversy there. So actually it did go over.

Now, if that line went up a little bit, then it very well could have hit the under, depending on what that guy was saying. But now if you hit over, because he said he goes, I timed it three times a minute 36. I'm like, oh, okay. So maybe that little bit extra.

Who knows? That's like about 10 seconds extra compared to where it was. But interesting. Anyway, whatever the guy said. So that was. on to see. And we're sitting with a bunch of 49ers fans, right? This kid next to me was a diehard Niners fan. A guy's behind me were, all right, I'm not a fan of either team. I wanted both teams to lose, to be honest. Yeah, I was going to ask that. Like, you're sick of the chiefs in general.

Like, people are sick of, you know, Mahomes and Andy Reid. You're an Eagle fan who obviously, you, you know that you basically know that Andy Reid was always the bridesmaid. And then, the 49ers who are the single biggest shit talking team in the entire NFL. Obnoxious. Cry babies. And so, yeah, you wanted both. I know you went, but you're like, you're, you're at a game. You want tickets for and you don't want either team to win the game, essentially. Yeah. My wife wore a Brian Dawkins jersey. I wore like an Eagles, like golf pullover type thing. And there was a ton of Eagles fans there. As I walked around, you heard Go Birds left and right,

which I also drunkenly screamed at Sale Palantoneoneo on the strip the night before the game. I'm walking out of a CVS because you can get dirt, cheat beer at those places. It was like literally is 24 ounce cans of, I don't think it was bud light or whatever, two for $5. So I hear I come walking out, think I'm the king of the world. Here comes Sal Pal Antonio coming at me. Sale pale, go birds. And I got two beers, man. He's like, who is this mutant? Get away from me, you loser. And he keeps, you know, scurrying down the street. I'm sure he's heard it a lot, man. I mean, the guy's on ESPN. So I'm sure he's heard it a lot. Yeah. So we it in, we, you know, get into the seats. Everything's cool. They're, uh, they're showing in between

the commercials because obviously they're very long commercial breaks at the Super Bowl. So you might wonder what do they do if you're a fan sitting there? There was some like goofy in-house DJ that they probably didn't need. And he was playing some music. And then they were just doing the classic like, here's the celebrities. And they were just show random people in the stands. So they showed back to back. This was great. Leonardo DiCaprio, literally picking his nose, couldn't be bothered, wouldn't look up at the camera. And then they go next, Jeff Goldblum. You would have thought Jeff Goldblum was just like a random dude on the kiss cam.

He sees himself, looks up, points, stands up, like takes his jacket off, starts swinging around a towel. He's dancing. He's high-fiving people. People will love it. They kept him on there for 30 seconds. Every time they showed Taylor Swift, people booed. I don't know why. Like, she's the biggest pop star on the planet.

Well, 49er fans were going to boo her, obviously. You know, yeah, I don't, I, you know, everybody's got to have an opinion on it. I'm not like team Taylor or anti-tailor. I don't know. She seems happy. Travis seems happy. Who gives a shit, man? Like, I mean, yeah, like 49er fans were definitely going to boo her, though.

And I feel like, uh, I'm sure she, uh, I'm sure she anticipated that from 49. Yeah. We got to ask this question because several guys texting me, were you the streaker? And you could bet on if there were a streaker. There were actually two people who streaked at the same time right behind a play. And I didn't really notice it because I'm watching the play. And how do these guys, first of all, Joe, how do they get on the field?

This is supposed to be like the most secure place in the world. And two jackoffs can just run on the field shirtless and do wind sprits. Makes no sense. Don't understand it. That was like an important third down for Kansas City. and I don't think they made it on the play. And I remember telling the 49ers guy next to me, I go, if I'm Andy Reed,

I'm losing my mind to the official that we need to redo the down. And could you imagine if that, if they did and then they score or something happens, like what madness would happen there? Like if that unfolded, like, wow, what a situation. But again, don't run on the field, people, stop. I don't know. Did you bet the over on the streakers?

No. I actually didn't make a single wager on the game. I gave out that I like Brock Purdy multiple interceptions and we'll get to that. But I always throw a caveat out there because Tom Broly, you know, he'll tell you, Justin Barnes on the site, guys who do the prop bets, they don't give a prop bet out if they don't bet it themselves. You know, that's that, like, I feel like that's integrity in 101 if you're doing betting content. But if you say I kind of like this, but I'll always. throw in the caveat, I'm not in a legal betting state.

I just happened to, Tom happened to look this one up for me. And it didn't hit. So I wish it did because I would tout that. But I kind of want to talk about Purdy. Like you saw him in person. I know Greg Hosell went on the Ross Tucker podcast and said he did not play well in the divisional or the championship round. In the Super Bowl, you know, sitting at home, I'm like, dude, I think he was great.

Of course not. I thought he kind of handled himself decently well, certainly missed some throws. And I was pretty surprised, given how he played in the first two rounds of the playoffs, that he didn't put the ball into harm's way as much as I thought he was going to, which was why I gave that recommended bet out. And of course, he's still a young quarterback in his second year, you know, in the league. And that has to be graded on a curve. But, like, there's that one guy for the athletic who's like talked about Brock Purdy,

like he's the next Joe Montana, which is both a patently, patently ridiculous. Also, it's unfair to purdy. You know, like you got this guy saying, oh, my God, he reminds me of Joe Montana. Well, he already has an L in the Super Bowl, which Joe Montana never did. So, but hey, he started the Super Bowl in his second year in the league as a seventh round pick. And that's pretty impressive. Like, what did you see in person there? So you didn't see this on TV.

I kind of had almost an all 22 view from the end zone. And to me, it looked like, number one, he was holding the ball way too long. And again, I don't have the, you know, snap to throw, you know, the time to throw. We probably have that at fantasy points data. They actually had NFL next gen stats up. They had a board of it in the stadium. But he missed several throws where there were guys wide open. And I remember hearing people talk about him when he came out of Iowa State that he,

his decision making wasn't great. Maybe he held it a little too long. There were times where guys were open and he didn't pull the trigger to throw it to maybe an Iyuk, to maybe a kiddle. And Kittle was nowhere in the game. I mean, he did nothing. They totally wasted him. He just blocked half the time.

It to me looked like they left a lot of points on the field because there just weren't throws that he was comfortable pulling the trigger on, especially to Iuke. But there was a play down. I don't know if it was near the end of the game. I can't remember recall. He had three guys. wide open to the end zone and he overthrew them, which would have been a walk-in touchdown.

And I mean, they have this snap and I'm talking to the nine defense. I go, oh, my God, he's got three guys. And he just lobs it over all their heads. And I'm like, oh, my, you're never going to get that back. But yeah, I didn't think Purdy was great. He's fine. Like, if anybody said he was great, they're absolutely out of their freaking minds. But like, no, I don't think he was the reason they lost the football game.

You know, they had some mistakes. Obviously, Shanahan's decision making is going to get criticized. There are a thousand different podcasts for them to talk about that. But Drake, let's talk about the news that came down. They fired their defensive coordinator today. Kyle Shanahan fired Steve Wilkes. And you and I are probably bristling a little bit here. Because if the 49ers defensive performance was replicated by the Eagles last year,

the Eagles beat the Chiefs by three scores in the Super Bowl. And it just didn't happen, obviously, last year, because they couldn't get a damn stop. They couldn't sack Mahomes. They couldn't force a turnover. And Eagle fans still hate Jonathan Gannon to this day for it. But, you know, Steve Wilkes, he played some soft coverage. Obviously, there was some soft coverage out there on the final drive.

You're just giving the cushion to Mahomes and blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff. I don't know. Maybe as an observer who can't watch every single snap every week of their defense, it seems like this was a little bit unfair, but 49er fans certainly don't think so. my whole take is doesn't it feel like every team with the exception of like three the fan base just utterly hates the defensive coordinator like what teams love their defensive coordinator like what fan bases love their defensive coordinator and i and i would venture to guess it's not many because of how hard it is to play defense in the NFL yeah spagnolo is are the only guy that gets any love i know i spagg of course jonathan gannon last year or two years ago with the eagles and all they did was set the the record for sacks with 70. And I'm like, this guy's the worst. Like, I'll pack his bags. So, yeah, Steve Wilkes was not the reason they lost that game.

I mean, maybe Steve Wilkes actually knew the overtime rules and didn't say, you know what? We want the ball third. What was that bullshit? We want the ball third in overtime. Like, what are you talking about? Like, is this a marketing spin that you're giving us here? We want it third. Like, just admit you don't know the rule.

You think you're going to give him a home's the ball second and you're magically going to win this game. Like, that's either I'm the smartest guy in the room and I'm going to show everyone how smart I am or you don't know what's happening and you just thought you're going to go score and win. Yeah, I mean, look, it was it was one of those where I thought, you know, look, the 49ers scored 19 points in essentially five quarters. That's not going to beat Patrick Mahomes. And yeah, Christian McCaffrey messed up, Jake Moody messed up. You know, they had the block. They didn't, they didn't, after multiple chief turnovers, they had no points off of

turnovers. That's on the offense, in my opinion. And then, unfortunately for them, they didn't, they did not, they did not capitalize. So the 49ers have a little over $500,000 in cap space for next season, which means they're going to have to rework some contracts. They're going to have to, you know, see, they're going to extend anybody, you know, you could be up for an extension. And we've seen on social media, his brother, I hate with. the family members get involved. Oh, it happens all the time. Yeah, what was it?

C.D. Lam's mom was calling out Dak Prescott, you know, like, like just shut up. Nobody wants to hear from you. And it just creates fake drama. But I mean, I'm sure Ayuk is, look, he's entering his fifth year. There is a chance that he's gone, you know?

Sure. So on the defensive side, since Steve Wilkes is gone, Randy Gregory, I mean, he didn't really do much of anything. He's aging anyway. So he made a ton of this year. He was on the hook for $14 million. He's gone, you know, whenever they picked him up. Chase Young, but they got him in that trade from Washington. He's a free agent, as is Javan Kinlaw, Tashon Gibson, and then, you know, some backup guys, Cleland Farrell, Orrin Burke, so little of the

depth they're going to have to work on. But when you get tight against the cap, Joe, that's when you start losing the depth. And we saw that with Philadelphia. You had to pay a quarterback. The depth kind of shrinks a little bit. And, oh, by the way, you're going to have Drey Greenlaw, coming off an Achilles injury, or, you know, who knows what he looks like coming into camp next year, you know, Aaron Rogers wanted everyone to think that you can, you know, come back from it in two weeks, but he might not even be the same guy next season. So, you know, some work to do for the 49ers as I believe they open as the betting favorites for the Super Bowl next year in New Orleans. I don't know how anybody besides the Chiefs opens as the betting

favorites because, like, you and I would both agree. I think the Chiefs would probably agree. this was not max power Kansas City Chiefs, right? They didn't have a number one wide receiver. Rishie Rice might become that, but he certainly, I mean, he had six catches for like 35 yards in the Super Bowl, you know,

like he's a two. He could be a damn good one. Well, no, Devante Smith's better than Rishi Rice, but no, I know, but he's like,

remember the year before they had him. It was just kind of Devante Smith, and you're like, ah, right, they need another guy. And then they got A.J. Brown.

That's what can't, I mean, Kansas State doesn't need to do anything. They kick ass with me and you, their receiver. But if they could kind of even get that big alpha, maybe a big X. And kind of, I think that's what's going to happen is Andy Reid is so smart. And they're going to, you know, Kelsey's still there. We think, for at least another year or two. You know, Kelsey leveled up during the, you know, Kelsey leveled up during the playoffs, though,

but how much more can his body hold up, right? Yeah. I think it was Rob Grunkowski pointed out that Kelsey's older than drunk. Wow. Yeah, like, I think he pointed that out. And like, you're like, wow, that's kind of wild when you think about it. And considering he was a guy, by the way, I don't know if you remember. He came into the league with a micro fracture problem. Remember when micro fracture surgery was like the scariest term you could get? And then all of a sudden he ends up, Travis Kelsey ends up being just an all-time great tight end. And injuries really have not been part of his career.

You wonder how much longer he can hold up. And part of the reason that they were able in the last couple years without Tyreek Hill to get by with, I mean, let's flat out face it, bad receiving groups. Yeah. Like this receiving group, if Tuatonga by low is the quarterback, we're talking about how terrible they are. But, you know, Patrick Mahomes is that floor raiser. That's why I think they kind of will shift their focus and we'll talk about the genius of Andy Reid. Yeah, I completely agree. They're going to have to try.

win next year. We'll go, oh, see what they did. And they brought in this, you know, some receiver. And he was the, who knows, Hollywood Brown or somebody will sign there and, you know, become the greatest receiver of all time. The chiefs have about 22.5 million in cap at the moment. They could rework Mahomes' deal, which has been rumored out there. Do they pay Chris Jones, who's going to be entering his age 30 season? He only made 19.5 million last year. you know, they're going to have to do something at the receiver position as, you know, Hardman's up and, you know, everybody else is kind of a jag. But they don't have a ton of pressing needs outside of Legerius Sneed, who is could possibly just break the bank at corner, a 27-year-old corner who this past year, Joe, made less than a million dollars based salary is an unrestricted free agent. Yeah. Look, like, yeah, Legerius Sneed, they're going to have to try to retain him.

And that's what makes it more precarious on the San Francisco side of the ball, though, right? Because eventually, look, you and I, Brock Purdy's not Joe Montana, but he just started a Super Bowl and took him to overtime in his second year in the league. Yep. He's going to have to get paid, right? Barring Brock Purdy, like completely collapsing next year, which I guess could happen. But, I mean, the 49ers are going to have to start making some decisions for the future because, as you know, look, your quarter. He's on that cheap deal. We're Eagle fans.

Like, you know, when, when they went to the Super Bowl against New England a few years ago, Carson Wentz and Nick Foles were together less than most top quarterbacks in the league. Because Wentz was on his rookie contract. Foles was on a veteran backup. Jalen Hertz was on his rookie contract last year. You know, there's, it gives you a lot of flexibility to build those juggernaut rosters. And when the quarterback ends up getting paid, and he's not a force multiplier the way that Patrick Mahomes is, things can get kind of tricky.

Now look, John Lynch has done an amazing job. You know, the 49ers have been to two Super Bowls under John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan. They've lost both, but they've been to two. And I feel like there's a lot of fan bases out there that are like, you know what? Two Super Bowls in what, five years? Yeah, we'll take that. We'll go to two Super Bowls in five years. But they do have some very interesting decisions to make coming forward, no doubt about it.

Yeah, I'm looking over here. the average for 2024 of salaries for quarterbacks. And, you know, this ties in, you know, salaries, cap hits, all this stuff. So it's just kind of on average. There's 12 quarterbacks next year that make $40 million or more. So that's incredible. And one of those guys is not Aaron Rogers or Kirk Cousins. So you're going to wait another year before you have to pay Brock Purdy.

And they're going to be good again next year and could go to another Super Bowl. So two years from now, who knows, you could be paying Brock Purdy, Jalen Hertz type money of $50 million a year, which is incredible to think for a guy who is Mr. Irrelevant, but that's going to come down the line. And oh, by the way, you're paying Nick Bosa $34 million a year. So you got to win in these windows. This is why it's so crushing as a fan base. When Mahomes does it to you again, like he did last year to the Eagles fans, he just did us 49ers guys. it's because you've got these short windows.

And when the window closes, it closes hard and you lose the depth and the players that you've built up to win that damn day. And I think that's going to come due sooner than later for these 49ers because you can't pay everybody in that defense. I'll tell you what. By the way, and I think this is what, not to make this about the Eagles, we already did that podcast last year. But this is probably what Chaps, Eagles fans, asses.

Because the performance I saw from Mahomes last, well, this past weekend, three, four days ago, was way more impressive than the one last year. There was so much more resistance from San Francisco's defense, so much more pass rush from San Francisco's defense than Philadelphia had last year. Mahomes didn't have to do anything against Eagles. You know, he made some scrambles on that bum ankle, which is another reason why people were cursing Jonathan Gannon

because Mahomes was completely healthy for this game. But what I saw against the 49ers was, in my opinion, of Mahomes's four Super Bowls, this was by far the best performance. You know, I think you can make an argument that for, in Mahomes's three previous Super Bowls, and I'd just say, make an argument, at the very least in the first three quarters

of the first 49ers Chief Super Bowl, Jimmy Garoppelow outplayed Patrick Mahomes. Now, Garoppel obviously missed the throat to Emmanuel Sanders. That could have won them the game. Tom Brady obviously outplayed Patrick Mahomes when they went head to head. Mahomes was under fire that entire game.

And with the exception of the fact that Jalen Hertz basically just dropped a fumble, which obviously is the one play of his football life that he'd want back, he outplayed Mahomes last year. Like this might be the first time that Mahomes so far and above outplayed his opponent in the Super Bowl. And this was, and that's not to take away from him. It just is just for me to say how impressive he was in that game, where he truly did feel inevitable. Like I think you were there in the stadium.

You said you were surrounded by 49ers fans. Everybody had to know, right? Oh, yeah. I said with like six minutes to go in the game. He got that ball after the 49ers couldn't convert the touchdown and they had to kick the field goal and you're like, oh, this game's over. I said it with six minutes to go in regulation. I looked at my wife, this game's over.

He's going to do it again. And Andy Reid, you know, made a little too close for comfort with his use of timeouts or not use of timeouts down the stretch. I'm like, what is he doing? You know, like Andy, call some timeouts here. Oh, how about the series where they called a timeout and then ended up punting anyway? Yeah, it's, Andy's never been a, a guy. Mahomes makes up for a lot of those sins of Andy being just awful in terms of running the clock. You know, he's not good at. He's never been good. But if Mahomes, I'll be honest. Let's be completely honest. Donovan McNabs is a borderline Hall of Fame quarterback. I don't think he gets in.

He's a borderline Hall of Famer. Go back and try to mentally put Donovan McNabb into those offenses with Kansas City in those four Super Bowls that Mahomes is played in.

They might be 0 for 4. Like, certainly this one, certainly this one against San Francisco, certainly last year, against the Eagles, although we'll contend that Mahomes honestly was playing on easy mode against the Eagles last year because they had no resistance. And certainly, look, Mahomes got outplayed himself for three quarters by Jimmy Garapolo in the first one. You know, like, that's the difference.

Like, because Andy Reid's always been a great offensive play designer. That's never been the problem with him. Some of the same Andy Reid foibles still show up year after year, even in these big games. and Mahomes, bailing him out, I don't want to, Andy's a Hall of Fame coach, okay? Like, every franchise would love to have any coach with half the resume Andy Reid has, okay? But like, Patrick Mahomes is kind of the level razor for Andy Reid, where even with Andy Reid making his old, oh wait, giving up the run game or not investing in wide receiver and calling bad timeouts, it still doesn't matter because of the homes. It's the same almost roster that he had in Philadelphia back in those days when you think about the James thrash Todd Pinkston teams. You know, and then carried by the defense.

Yeah. And now he didn't have, McNabb did not have an all-time great tight end. Okay. Yeah. They had some good ones. Obviously, Chad Lewis, you know, Brent Selleck was a good tight end for a while. And then, of course, the year they had T.O. is the year they do go to the Super Bowl.

And so, yeah, Patrick Mahomes has. in Philly, Andy often didn't get out of his own way. I still don't think he gets out of his own way in Kansas City at times. It's just that Patrick Mahomes pulls him out in front of the train right before it hits. And this game was another example. Do you think they get the three Pete? Is impossible as it is to win once in the NFL? It's hard. It's hard.

I'm going to say no. Like, I mean, yeah, because there's 31 other teams in the league. Right. And, you know, Kelsey might not be healthy, but I mean, am I like, do I, am I putting money on the 49ers as the favorites? Hell no. Of course not. No. Yeah, I mean, you're going to get back next year. Joe Burrow will be healthy. We'll see if the bills can bounce back. You know, the Ravens are still very good. See where Cousins lands. He could help a few teams get over the hump. But we've got a whole off season ahead of us, Joe, to look forward to free agency to the. the draft. If you're excited about the draft and you like mock drafts, go over to Fantasy Points.com right now. Brett Whitefield has his mock draft 1.0 out. And the name at the top

might surprise you folks. If you think it's all Caleb Williams all the time, it ain't in Mr. Whitefield's draft. So when you edited that article, Joe, were you like, is this right? Is he with us? I talked to Brett at the Senior Bowl, so I knew how he feels about this particular player who's number one in his draft. Now, look, this player. All right, go read. It's Jason McCarthy. I'm not going to do that. But he's getting first round buzz from a lot of time.

Now, Brett's the only got to put him at one. Well, let's see what happens at the combine. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I love that. And I loved last year we did our dream free agent landing spot show. And I'm sure we'll get to that again. But it's just this is when the fun begins, guys. If you're a fantasy football or just an NFL fan and you're listening,

you know, we'll be here with you. We're going to have some fun. Keep it casual. Hit us up on Twitter. let us know some topics you want to hear i'm at drake fantasy jo's at fg underscore dolan uh you know we want to have some fun as the off season goes on and and hit the topics that you guys want to hear about because if you're listening to a fantasy podcast in february and march you're a freaking die hard so we love you we're so happy that you're rolling with us uh and no we're going to have a lot

of fun here again on the two points dance anything fun happening over at fantasy points joe the people need to know about i know hanson's uh lessons learned is up yeah uh ryan Keith just sent me a new article called Statistically Significant, and he's diving into some of the most significant stats for fantasy, and he's going to take a look back. He already did kind of a lessons learned article of his own and try to project forward, and he's got one on fantasy points per dropback that I'm diving into.

That's going to be fantastic. We got a lot of content coming to you this offseason. We're not going to overwhelm you, but we got a lot of content. Brett Whitefield, by the way, his prospect guides in the works. He's going to start publishing some of those scouting reports, you know, once the combine hits, It's draft season, man. It's free agency season.

I can't believe it, but that's what we do, right? We prepare for next season. Absolutely. And you guys are riding with us, preparing to win a 2024 fantasy championship. I can't wait. We'll be doing drafts before you know it. Joe and I've got that, you know, dynasty team in the FFPC that we get the most ridiculous trade offers for every day.

Dude, our team sucks. We're not giving up picks. Like what the people think we're doing? We got an email today. I opened it up and it's, hey, you have a trade request or whatever trade offer this guy and he gave a great rationale you know that's when it's total bullshit is when the guy has like write you a reason to sell the trade he goes you guys have nick chub i'll give you jerome ford just in case chubbs not healthy uh you give

me back a second round rookie pick i couldn't hit delete fast enough i don't even respond to these guys yeah terrible if you guys do get out to Vegas i i have to recommend i went and saw the michael Jackson one Cirque de Soleil show at Mandelaide Bay. It was awesome. If you like Michael Jackson music, pretty cool. I got to say this, so, Joe, people kill me with these damn cell phones. All show long, the woman comes down the usher, and she has to, like, shine the flashlight on people because they can't put their phone away.

They're trying to record the show. And they tell you up front, guys, don't record the show because the performers don't like it. We just don't want it out there. Like, don't record it. but people have to be idiots and just keep trying to record the show. There is a cool point during Man in the Mirror where there is a hologram Michael Jackson singing the song. It was pretty kick ass. I recommend that.

But, who, Joe, I've got to catch up on some sleep, jet lag, I guess is a real thing and just detox for a few days. So thanks for listening to my story of the Super Bowl. Not a problem,

man. I'm glad you had a good time. And maybe we'll get back there at some point, you know, maybe when we all have money. Yeah. Tell Hansen. Team retreat in Las Vegas.

Let's go. I'm ready. All right, folks. For Mr. Dolan, I'm Drake. We'll see you next time in the two-point stance. 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.