Fantasy Football Daily - NFL Award Ceremony and Pro Bowl SNUBS + Champs and Chumps of the Week | NFL First Read

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Welcome to First Read, your go-to podcast for the latest in NFL analysis and insights. Join hosts Brett Whitefield and Joe Marino as they break down "NFL Award Ceremony and Pro Bowl SNUBS + Champs and Chumps of the Week." Whether you're a fantasy football enthusiast, a die-hard fan, or just looking to stay informed on all things NFL, "First Read" has you covered. Tune in for expert opinions, detailed breakdowns, and engaging discussions every week. Don't miss out on the ultimate NFL podcast experience! Where to find us: http://twitter.com/BGWhitefield http://twitter.com/TheJoeMarino Find Our Podcasts Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ Use promo code - SCOREMORE for 10% off of your subscriptions Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Check out The Waiver Wire - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/the-waiver-wire-week-5#/ FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I charted my last coverage yesterday around 9.45 a.m. And I was met with such joy. And it's not because I don't love my job. I love my job, Joe. But when you've been grinding, I don't go to sleep on Sunday nights. You know this. When you've been grinding for 18 weeks.

And you've charted over 37,000, place. That's such a good feeling, dude. I ran outside. I opened my door and I screamed at the top of my lungs and let's go. And I, dude, it's, it was a great feeling. Anyways, how are you? I'm good, man. Was the let's go scream because of your excitement for being done with the massive charting responsibilities or was it because the Detroit Lions winning the number one seed in the NFC in convincing fashion while also making you look very smart along the way with Mr. Sam Darnold's performance. Oh, oh, you're not lying.

Well, I did that at about 11.30 p.m. on Sunday night. I went outside and did the scream on the let's go, which everyone knew what that was about, right? But my neighbors yesterday morning had no idea what I was screaming about. What's it like having a first round playoff by? What's that? Tell me about that. That sounds cool. It's new territory for me, brother.

I'm like, I keep looking at the schedule thinking, the lines of a game this week and they don't. So it's great. It's not for bad reasons. Right. Yeah. Not for bad reasons. A lot of teams don't have a game this week, Brett Whitefield. That's true. That's true. It's because they took care of business. So, no, that's great, man. It's great. So yeah, I'm excited. We're going to transition pretty much into some offseason draft stuff here. Obviously, with the playoffs to get through, but I'm really excited to break down prospects with you, Joe. This is the content in the next four or five months is going to be excellent day. Yeah, I'm excited for it as well.

But like you said, still got some reflection to do here on the 2024 season. And we're going to do that today. We're going to give you, of course, our champs and chumps of the week. We give you our end of year awards. We've done this at every quarter. So we're giving you our final answer for all the big ones. And then Pro Bowl snubs. Who doesn't love a good conversation about pound of the table for guys that should be in the Pro Bowl.

And I'm also going to tell you who shouldn't be. So if I give you a snub, someone's coming out. I'm telling you who's coming out today on this episode. So let's have some fun here today, Brett Whitefield. Champs and chumps, I've only got one of each this week. I don't have anything crazy here, but you feel compelled to go in on either of your champ or chump here to start things off. Yeah, you know what?

My chump, let's do my chump first. All right. My chump isn't super football related. So, oh, good. This had to be said. All right. I'm, uh, I like to, I like to say that I'm a guy who takes, you. know, I take criticism very well.

And I like when people come at me and say, hey, you were wrong about this. But if you're going to do it, you better be freaking right. You know what I mean? You better, you better have your facts straight. And BetGM. Did you see this last night, Joe? Did I have no idea what you're talking about right now? So BetGM.

Ripped off a tweet about 6.52 p.m. last night. It said, never forget when NFL Twitter cloned the lines for drafting Jamir Gibbs 12th overall. And in that tweet is a screenshot of one of my tweets that says, this is one of the worst scenarios imaginable for the lines. I am borderline speechless at the moment. Good faith from past drafts completely flushed down the drain. That was tweeted April 27th, 2023. But here's the thing, Joe.

That tweet was in fact not about Jemir Gibbs. Do you know who that tweet was about? I don't. It's about Jack Campbell. That tweet was sent out at 1016 p.m. But MGM, man, I love, I love being Raz. I love this, this thing we can do where we hold people accountable. That's great.

But you got to be right. This is ridiculous. You didn't even fact check this. My tweet doesn't even have Jemir Gibbs in it. So I want to know how they found the tweet, how they even came about this tweet to suggest, hey, this was about, this wasn't even about Jemir Gibbs. This was about Jack Campbell. You don't take Mike linebackers that are undeveloped in the first round.

That was just a. And I love Jack Campbell. I love Jack Campbell. No, I love to. I want, that was the guy I wanted the bills to draft in the first round that year. Really? Wanted him bad. What were you picking though? Like 30? 28th, I'm pretty sure. And everybody told me that it was a reach. So when the Lions picked

Jack Campbell, it was a 20 or 18? 18, 18. Boy, I felt vindicated because people told me that this isn't, you know, not even positional value, but like just not even a first round caliber prospect. And I'm like, I don't, I can't have this conversation. So we obviously disagreed on Jack Campbell. I was very jealous of the pick. So you got to look at it from two perspectives. One, I thought Jack Campbell was a really good prospect. My number one linebacker in that class checked a lot of boxes for me. Two, off ball line, and we've had this discussion on the show, off ball linebacker is just not a super valuable position. The amount of actual difference makers at that spot is so small to think you're going to be the,

team to get one in the first round is is sort of hubris to me i'm glad i was wrong joe and it's pretty clear i was wrong jack campbell is a difference maker and he's only getting better he's what 23 years old and he's absolutely balling out right now um but man i you know yeah whatever whatever my thoughts on jack i don't even matter i'm glad to be wrong on that but you know bet m gm coming after me for after me for something that was it's not even they're just wrong on the tweet here which is funny to me so So, MGM, I love you, but we got to work better. If you're going to, if you want to criticize me, let's, let's, I'll give you some actual material to criticize me with.

How about that? All right. I dig it. I like, I like the unique approach here for your chump of the week. My chump of the week is Jim Ursay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. And I'm not going to sit here and throw my arms in the air and act like I'm overly passionate that Shane Steakin and Chris Ballard deserve to be fired. but they deserve to be fired.

And I think this is Jim Ursay, more than anything, saying that Pat McAfee's not going to be the decision maker for this organization. And I don't think he was able to take an honest look at what's been happening. Chris Ballard has had endless, endless opportunities to get a quarterback, and he's failed time and time and time again. The most important thing, you got to get figured out as a general manager's quarterback. This guy keeps whiff it massively, whether it's not participating in picking quarterbacks, whether it's the trajectory of Anthony Richardson, or if it's Philip Rivers, or if it's Carson Wentz, or whatever they've tried to do, it's been a disaster. And he's had cap space, and you know what Chris Ballard loves more than cap space? Roll over cap space

that he doesn't use to help build his roster. It's been a joke because he's charismatic and says cool things and there's good video clips coming out of the Colts YouTube channel. Everyone has this false idea of Chris Ballard actually being a good general manager. Look at the roster. And then Shane Steichen, how do you listen to things that are coming out of your most influential players, whether that's DeForest Buckner or Kenny Moore? That's the face of the Colts and who they are. Talking about accountability and effort.

Come on, man. On top of the McAfee comments, everybody sees it. And Jim Ursay is an absolute chump for continuing to stay on this course, especially when you consider his own decisions that he's made along the way. He's taking the Colts from a team that was, as he said, in the upper quartile of the NFL, into a team that is absolutely stuck in mediocrity, and he's the leading reason why.

Oh, man. Here's the thing, Joe. We talk all the time about the number one trait for head coach, is leadership, being able to lead men in Stuyken. I'm not saying it won't ever work for him. Maybe another job was down the road for him. Well, he doesn't need one because he's keeping this one, right? But you find out sometimes that these guys are just better off in coordinator spots.

And I think what you see is Stuyken was a good play caller and a good coordinator in Philly. And he's not so much ready to lead men yet. And I think I think you nailed it. I think that's a great jump call because there's a few around the league. like Rahim Morris and the and the Falcons could go wetting the bed, just completely wetting the bed. Not great. There's a bunch. The Maras for keeping Joe Shane and

Brian Daibel. I mean, what are we doing here, guys? That actually feels more digestible to me than what the Colts are doing, which is crazy. How about Shane Steichen's comments? Well, you know, not everyone's going to be on time. What? Yeah. What? That reminds me Cliff Kingsbury in Arizona, right?

Give them orange slices and sell. phone time as well. What are we doing here? No, yeah, the standard is the standard. No, it's when you, the way you do anything is the way you do everything. And if you don't hold your players accountable for being on time, blow it up, blow it up. You can't, you can't do it. Can't do it. It's like, hold them accountable for it too. It's like, easiest thing in the whole world. But it passes on not knowing the playbook or being in the wrong spot or missing assignments on the field. Like where, where does it end? If you can't even hold them accountable for the basic practice of get yourself where you're supposed to be on time,

there's no accountability anywhere. Yeah. It bleeds right into what those guys said. All right. So that's the, that's the champs of the week. Shall we get into the chumps? Excuse me, that's the chumps of the week. Shall we get into the champs?

Yes, let's do it. You go first. My champ of the week, Brett Whitefield, is the quarterback, the rookie quarterback, who had the best performance. of any rookie quarterback in a game this year. And I'm talking about Joe Milton from the New England Patriots. Come on now. This guy was on fire.

Drake May starts the game three and out. He gets sacked by Von Miller on third down. Zack, Von Miller gets a $1.5 million bonus. And then Joe Milton comes in to secure the number one overall pick for the New England Patriots. And he said, no, he goes 22 at 29, 241 yards, passing touchdown, rushing touchdown, took care of the football, had big time throws, got the offense out of some bad situations behind the sticks, ripping the ball down the field. I thought I was watching Josh Allen play against the bills with Joe Milton out there. And obviously Drake Mays their guy and all that. But if you're

a team thinking about a quarterback, team like maybe the Giants, go see what you can, go see if you can't get Joe Milton to come on over, give yourself a chance. He's got all the physical upside of the world. he just didn't make he was so inaccurate at michigan and tennessee like it was hard to reconcile and you're like i don't know is this guy going to be tyrie jackson or is he going to be logan thomas or is he going to be josh allen i don't know and we still don't know but my goodness that was one heck of a performance bro was more accurate the further downfield his receivers got at tennessee um a couple of my my charting guys actually asked me this question yesterday what actually do you think it would take to pry him from the Patriots?

I mean, they spent the six-round pick on him. They've invested a whole year into him already. They're going to have to recoup more than that, right, to give up on him. I know they're not saying they're not satisfied with Drake May, by the way. That's not part of the conversation for me. But it's like this is an asset they can keep probably building value with, right? Comes into preseason next year, tears it up again. I don't know.

Maybe you're looking at improving that value over time. And there's value to having a good backup, too. The Giants own pick 104. It's a fourth rounder. I think that gets it done. I think the Patriots say yes. Do you say yes? You're the Giants.

Yeah, I'd do it. Nice. I do it. It's a reasonable dart throw. If you're the Giants, now all of a sudden you're picking third in the draft, Tennessee and Cleveland aren't going to take these top two quarterbacks. You're not going to, I mean, what are you going to do?

Jalen Milrow, Carson Beck? Come on, man. That's my guy. I'm a dart guy. I still got to watch his dart. Yeah, we should watch them together. Joel Milton. A champ of the week.

I don't mind inexpensive dart throws a QB. Hey, even if you wanted to take a Jackson dart, why not also go grab a Joe Milton? I like that. Double, double debt, man. Would you say that Jackson Dart would be a dart throw? Ooh, yeah. Wow. Wow.

Yeah. Wow, we've peaked. Big dart throw. Yeah. Big dart throw with dart. I like that call. Joe Milton was that, bro, that throw he had where he was like, he broke like five tackles, then rolled out and then just threw an absolute missile to the pylon. To the left to throw on to his left.

Yeah. While he was like one of the yard from the sideline. Yeah. Dude. That was one of the greatest of the year and I have seen nobody talking about it. Wow. Here we are, Brett Whitefield. We're doing Joe Milton some justice here.

Awesome. All right. My champ, this isn't going to surprise anybody. It's the Detroit line. specifically. Oh, wow. Wow. We're starting.

Aaron Glenn. But for real reasons, guys, I mean, they, since the Buffalo game, since Malcolm Rodriguez and Alex Anzolone went down, this defense has been just a mess, just a mitigated disaster. Horrible. To the point where it really started to look like we had to have questions about what the ceiling was for the lions now. And there were a lot of people that picked the Vikings to win this game.

You go to the ESPN panel with me and Times and all those guys. Every single one of them picked the Minnesota Vikings. That just shows you how bad the defense was playing at the time. And they show up with, I think, Aaron Glenn, this was, I call it the head coach protocol. How do you ensure you get a head coach job? You just go come up with the best game plan in your life. I love this, the game plan. He saw on tape what I've been seeing all year. Sam Darnold is a pumpkin. He, you pressure him. He folds. He can't throw accurately. here's some fun little just you know fantasy points data sweet nuggets on this game plan um let's see here the lines played straight man coverage or double bracket coverage on 34 of sam

darnell's dropbacks that's 74 percent they zero blitzed him 10 times that's more than brian flora zero blitzes people bro that is like insane just flat out zero blitz we are coming after you Um, in total the lines pressure Donald on 48% of his dropbacks, which resulted in two sacks, three scrambles for 10 yards, three throwaways and only six completions. Wow. They dialed up blitz on 50% of dropbacks stunts or twists on 56% of dropbacks. Um, schematically too, I don't know if how closely you watched the game or in this regard, but when they would blitz or stunt, they always had a delayed looper. attacking the space Donald would be escaping into. So as soon as he broke the pocket,

there was a guy on him immediately every single time. And he literally lost his mind in that game. Joe, he couldn't hit anything. And then the coverage unit was great on top of that. Just 18 of Donald's 38 aimed passes were charted with the pass catcher as open, which is 47%. For reference, the Lions ranked second in the NFL and preventing open targets on the season with the mark of 50%.

So even in a game where it looked like the coverage was really good, it was even better than you think. It would have been the number one coverage unit of the season. See, 15 of those 18 open targets were within five yards of line of scrimmage as well. So, I mean, they really just limited, startled in every possible way. And he kind of wet the bed. So Aaron Glenn, Detroit Lions, you got it done. You got the one seat, enjoy some rest, get healthy.

Aaron Glenn, you know, probably won't be coaching in the lines for the lines much longer, but we love you, man. You're the bomb. Aaron, Glenn, don't go to the Saints of the Jets, though, man. I know. I'm worried my Saints prediction back on the coaching episode we did. I'm worried that's going to come true. What's interesting about all these head coaching vacancies is that there's only one that also

comes with a general manager vacancy. And I think that's very interesting for these head coach candidates to convince. consider like you're you're going to go in there with without going in at the same time as the GM and I just wonder about that type of stuff so which which one is the open gym spot right jets that's right so and I've contended the whole time I don't think Ben Johnson goes somewhere where he can't bring it the GMs them so they didn't need they're not even going to request Ben Johnson because they know true true you got to go to bulky and the jaguars polls are staying with the bears yep Mickey Loomis is staying with the saints and the

Patriots are sticking with Elliot Wolf. So that's a lot to consider here in this head coaching carousel, which obviously we'll talk about as things unfold here on NFL First Street. Coming up next, it's time for us to deliver our final selection for each award. Stick with us. When you fly in Emirates business class and you're picked up by your private, luxury, chauffeur-driven car, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better.

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Please feast responsibly. For our Whitefield, it is time. Your picks and my picks for NFL MVP, offensive player of the year, defensive player of the year, offensive rookie, defensive rookie, and coach of the year. I'm excited to do this. I came into this conversation with you in the pre-show, and I said I've pivoted a lot on some things,

and I have some convictions on some things, and I'm excited to flesh this out. You're not just throwing new, names to be different, though, or you actual have actual, you have actual. No, no, I really, no, I have a full sample size. I have a full sample size to consider. And it's meaningful. So I can really, really ask myself the hard questions as to who I think deserves to win these awards.

Okay. Let's go. Let's start with, let's start with NFL MVP. I'd like for you to go first, because I, I, in particular, want to go first on offensive player of the year. This is where I have the most to say. Oh, okay. Real quick, NFL MVP, your picks wire to wire have been Josh out i've went sam darnald josh allen josh allen final answer i feel like oh there it is regis remember regis philman finalance yeah it's john allen okay um i you know i think down the stretch i was really starting to get on board with the joe burrow thing um i even rank

joe burrow number one in our qb rankings but they didn't get it done they had said they had 18 weeks to go make the playoffs they failed you know it's not necessarily joe's fault but you got to make the playoffs you're going to be the nflb MVP point blank uh josh allen you're you're the MVP this year congrats it's interesting that the primary contender for josh appears to be lamar jackson and you're you really i mean if you had a ballot you would put burrow as too not now no no if he would have made the playoffs absolutely would have been two maybe even one but uh yeah lamar you're right lamar's number two for me for sure yeah i have i have it josh allen one in lambs And one thing I'm not going to do is sit here and tear down Lamar Jackson.

He's had an unbelievable season and probably his best season. It's absolutely MVP caliber. But Josh Allen stepping into this stage with it being believed that it's the transition year, lost all of his receivers, Lamar gains Derek Henry, and for Josh Allen to lead the offense, the first offense in NFL history that had 30 rushing touchdowns and 30 passing touchdowns. The NFL offense that had the fewest turnovers in the history of the NFL with eight. And some of those were pretty fluky for them to have the most points scored, the most touchdown scored in the history of the Buffalo Bills. And for Josh Allen to do this,

while he's one of two pro bowlers and Lamar Jackson's one of nine, who brings the most value to their team? Right. That's what this is about. It's not who has the most correct. Raw statistical production. And that's what people want to cling to because if it was about Ross, it's a fiscal production. Dak Prescott's your NFL MVP last year. And it's not close. It's not. And Omar was statistically very, very middle of the pack last year. The player that meant the most to their team this year is Josh now.

I agree with you. Obviously. I also think, you know, there's value to Josh getting 13 and 3 with him as the quarterback. Obviously, they lost this week, but he played one snap. Yeah. get so he set up to where if they play the ravens it's going to be in buffalo you know i think that's important that matters to me and that i think you know more it matters more than the statistical profile to me so um i think we're in lock here all right i think the most interesting

debate is probably offensive player of the year and this is where i personally spent a lot of time trying to really figure out who i thought should get the award and i think there's contenders dude There are some great contenders. I think Joe Burroughs won heck of a contender for this award. I think Lamar Jackson's one heck of a contender for this award. Saquan Barkley had 2,000 rushing yards, had a great season. Derek Henry, 1900 rushing yards. He had a great season.

Jamar Chase, Triple Crown. Those are all great picks, man. I'd understand if you picked any single one of them. But the question that I asked myself when trying to navigate who I thought should get this was, individually who had the best season and how much of that was less reliant on circumstances. And I can poke holes in all of those guys, right? I can poke holes in all of them.

But the guy that I settled him is Jemir Gibbs from the Detroit Lions. This is my pick for offensive player of the year. Let me tell you why. Number one in the NFL, in EPA per rush. He scored the most touchdowns in the NFL while only getting 44.7% of his teams carries inside the five. If you're a subscriber to the Fantasy Points Data Suite, you can get that information. The most touchdowns in the NFL. Third, in total yards.

More yards per touch than any running back in the NFL that had at least 100 touches this year. Number five in the NFL and miss tackles force per 10. The only one's better than him, Ken Walker, James Connor, Bucking, and Ray Davis. I didn't say Saquan Barkley or Derek Henry there. Third lowest stuff rate in the NFL, better than Henry and way better than Saquan Barkley. Jock Gibbs, what he did with his opportunities

and the production that he had, to me, is more impressive than any offensive player in the NFL. He's my pick. Joe. Oh, my gosh. Thank you. I have, so I have two names written down. And I said pre-show, I'm thinking about just going complete Homer with this, but I don't want to.

I'm glad you did it for me, so I don't have to do it because I agree with that take. I'm going to throw another name out there for the sake of conversation. But Jock Gibbs is the, is the offensive player of the year to me. I don't, another state you didn't throw out of yards after contact per carry. He ranked higher than, than, than, uh, than, uh, Sequin Barkley as well. I think that's important to note. Creating more yards on the zone. 6.3 yards of carry on zone concepts as well.

Just insane. Just an incredible season. What he means in that past game, too, as an outlet for Jared Goff is incredible. And you really saw that part of his game ramping up to as the season went on. Man, what a season. I'm glad you did it, Joe. I'm so glad you went there. I just want to get away from the group think, dude.

And like I said, every one of those guys is deserving. Like, I don't want to do this. but like my number two probably would have been Joe Burrow. Yeah, I don't do QBs usually for offensive player of the year. I tend to like that as well. But yeah, like the MVP award is a QB award and then offensive player of the years for the rest of the guys. So the other name I wrote down was Jermar Chase. Just triple crown winner, you know, yards, receptions, touchdowns.

That's a low-hanging fruit. It's easy. He means a lot to that team, obviously. I mean, in any real close. critical situation this year where, you know, they were trying to make a comeback or get ahead. It was, it was Jamar Chase always. So, I definitely, yeah. It's a great pick. Would you like to know why I didn't pick Jamar Chase? Would you like my rationale there? Yeah. Be weird if he said no, right? The reason I didn't pick Jamar Chase,

and I think he's unbelievable and had the best season of any receiver, obviously. I thought that he benefited from Joe Burrow being his quarterback, obviously a long history there. and Joe Burroughs, like we talked about, I think he's the best quarterback in the NFL. I think the best player is Josh Allen. But when you have that combined with the defense that is not getting stops, I felt like his statistical production was a little bit inflated because of those things. Great player, deserving.

I have no issues, but I'm telling you why I went with, why I didn't go with Jamar Chase. That makes sense, especially if you're juxtaposing to a Jock Gibbs, who did what he did despite having a running back teammate, go over a thousand scrimmage yards and 12 touchdowns also and a non-rushing quarterback in jared goff right who like you know those rushing quarterbacks really lighten the box for the the running back there so okay that was the big one that i was excited to get to and it didn't pick it to make you happy i legitimately went through a very detailed experiment and i came to jog gibbs

is the answer okay defensive player of the year brett whitefield who you got yeah and just back to the homer conversation this is why because my defensive player of the years is a detroit lion And so I didn't want to go, Jock Gibbs, and then come back with a defensive player of the year that's a line. So that's Kirby Joseph, Joe, leads the NFL interceptions, leads all safeties enforcing completion rate, the versatility he brings. A lot of people view him as just a deep safety. Well, he moves around every bit as much as Xavier McKinney does. He comes down, he'll play over a slot, he'll play over a tight end in the box. He's physical and aggressive in the run game.

he's a good blitzer does everything joe and in a seat typically this award always goes to pass rushers this is the season to not do that there wasn't that one dominant pass rushing performance there was no 20 sat guys there was no you know if aden stayed healthy for the whole year he probably gets there right and that's the trajectory he was on anyways i just really think this was the perfect year for a guy like Kirby Joseph to win a defensive player of the year award. I think he means so much of that team. Oh, this is the other thing, too. Five of his nine picks were game-ending interceptions. Five of his nine picks were also interceptions in the end zone, I mean, like, taking an offensive team out of or off the field that's in scoring position. I mean, that's, these are insanely

valuable moments for a team that at times really struggled on defense because of the injuries and the fact that he was so good, so consistent all year long, I'm just, I'm pretty sold on it. Kirby Joseph is Brett Whitefield's pick. I think it's a worthy selection. Your pick last quarter was Trey Hendrickson, Dexter Lawrence before that, Aidan Hutchinson before that. I went Xavier McKinney first quarter, Dexter Lawrence,

then I went T.J. Watt, and I'm going to have a new pick this time around. By the way, an offensive player of the year, I went Collins, Nico Collins, Derek Henry, Sequin, Barclay, Jock Gibbs. You went Derek Henry, Derek Henry, Jamar Chase, Jamar Chase. my pick for defensive player of the year is Miles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns. And that's the other one. Yeah. I'm glad that you thought if there was a defensive lineman worthy, it would be Miles Garrett, who, I mean, I know Hendrickson led the league in sacks.

Obviously, Miles Garrett had only 14 and a half. I think he leads the league and maybe force fumbles. No, that's T.J. Woppe. He had more force fumbles than Hendrickson. Leads the league in tackles for loss. That's the number that I was looking for there. 22 or something? 22, yeah.

That's crazy. Yeah, he's a monster, dude. And I'm biased towards the defensive lineman. I love the one-on-one nature of that and, you know, beating blocks and like how protection schemes have to account for you. And I just, I don't really see anybody that impacts football games quite to the level that Miles Garrett does from a defensive perspective. So not a great year for the Browns, obviously. And I think even that speaks to Miles Garrett and the C. that he had where a lot of the assets they thought they were going to have alongside him on the

defensive line really didn't materialize. You know, they tradeaways at area Smith about midseason and Miles Garrett still is an absolute wrecking ball. So he's my pick for defensive player of the year. All right, we got to get to the rookie of the year conversation, the coach of the year conversation here on the other side of it. Folks, be sure to stick with us. All right, Brett, it's time for the rookies. and we'll get into offensive rookie of the year next. My picks have been, I've been Jaden Daniels one, two, and three. You went Malik Neighbors, Jaden Daniels, Jaden Daniels. I guess it's my turn to go first.

Yeah. I'm sticking with Jaden Daniels. I think that he's been the most impressive rookie quarterback for the longest this season. I know Bull Nix had a surge. I still think that Jaden Daniels efficient. was better than Bo Nix. And I think that Jaden Daniels is doing more with less. I think the offensive line that they have in Denver is superior to Washington.

By a lot. Yeah, I think, and I would even argue that the skill players are better in Denver than Washington. And you're also talking about Sean Payton, who's, you know, had some good quarterbacks that he's developed to this point in this career. I'm just more impressed with Jaden Daniels than any other rookie quarterback. Now, what's interesting is like you look at some of these other position players and it's like, man, Brock Bowers has at a historic rookie season. Malik Neighbors has been unbelievable. Bucky Irving has been unbelievable.

There's some non-quarterbacks that have been impressive, but if you have a rookie season at quarterback like Jane Daniels, I think that trumps what those other players do. So I'm leaning into the quarterback here and going with Jane Daniels. Yeah, as much as I'd love to go with the Brock Bowers, just the impact. I mean, Jayden Daniels took a terrible football team playoffs in year one. Yeah. Honestly, there's an argument he's an MVP candidate, Joe.

A candidate, not a, not a, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's a. Sure, sure. I mean, they have, other than Terry McLaren, they don't have any talented players on offense. Sam Cosby, the right guard's not bad. 40-year-old Zacherts isn't bad either, I guess. You know, it's still functional gets open. But point being, man, he has overcome. I mean, he has carried that team on his back the entire season. I mean, shoot, that was like, when they hired Dan Quinn, that was not their first choice. There was a lot of talk about that just being like a lame duck set up.

Like, oh, let's just get a bridge guy. We'll start building the team, get a bridge guy, and then we'll get our coach. Well, no, Dan Quinn's had a great season. A lot of that is because of Jane Daniels. Some fantasy points, data suite numbers, ranked six and catchable ball rate as a rookie. I mean, Bo Nix isn't even close to him. Bo Nix is like 14th. I'm setting the threshold at 300 dropbacks, by the way, if you're wondering, that's,

um, yeah, he takes a turnover really throw rates under 2%. Hero throw rates over 4%. I mean, these are, these are really good numbers for a rookie, like outstanding. Just, uh, just completion percentages in the top 10 as well. Um, and what I think is really impressive to me, Joe. And I get, you don't really consider this when you're talking awards, but I do because I'm a nerd. when I look at his deficiencies coming out of school and the things he still had to work on,

playing within structure and rhythm a little bit more often, getting that ball out quickly and not taking so many hits in the pocket, he did all of that. And he did it very well. His time to throw was routinely in the bottom 10 all year long. You could argue there's some diminishing returns there too, right? Well, like maybe he should be a little more patient and hold that ball, but he was covering up that offensive line.

People don't have any idea how bad that offensive. line is because of Jaden Daniels. That offensive line is terrible, man. Breton, I love that you said that. I love that you said that because you know his offensive lines terrible as well, Drake Mays. And you look at Drake May and Jaden Daniels and what they were able to overcome at offensive line.

And look at what Caleb Williams did in Chicago. He made that offensive line worse. May and Daniels have made their offensive lines better. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, not to spend an hour talking Jaden Daniels, but I'm just so impressed. Like I said,

I thought about going Bowers, just because the statistical nature of it's insane. Someone's got to catch the ball, though, you know? Someone's got to catch you. You know who? Sorry, not to deviate. You know who had a low-key good season, though? Jacob Myers.

Yeah, yeah, I was looking at their stats the other day. I was like, oh, well, well, nice little player. About like six, seven years ago, Joe, I called you one off-season morning, and I was like, I have a take for you, and you're like, what is that? I was like, Jacoby Myers is this better.

than Calvin Harmon. Well, you know I was a big Jacoby Myers guy coming out. Yeah. But I also like Calvin Harmon, so I guess there's some egg on my face there. Nobody was saying, no, I wasn't trying to egg you. I'm just saying nobody was on Jacoby Myers. That was my bigger point. Like, nobody.

Oh, oh. Four game winning drives for fourth quarter comebacks for Jaden Daniels this year as well. Pretty good. Pretty good. Okay. Uh, your turn to go first year, defensive rookie of the year. the table here. My picks have been Jared verse. Um, no, I went Kamari last at her first quarter. Then I went Jared verse, Jared verse, Jared verse. You went Jared verse, Jared verse, Quinnion Mitchell.

Final answer. Final answer is Jared verse. I'm back to the verse. You know, Quinyon definitely earned the three quarter nod for sure. He's falling off a little bit. I think his worst two games of the season came after the last time we talked about this. So versus having an insane season, though. I did pull data on him, but my sheet just decided not to load. So let me, uh, tons of pressures, run stops. I mean, yeah, yeah. The power in his hands, dude, like, it's such a fun combo with Byron Young and

and Braden Fisk, who these guys are, you know, athletic guys. You can stunt and twist with. And then you got verse setting the edge. and being powerful. What do you end up with six sacks, right? Six sacks. Pass rush win rate. I charted him with 21% pass rush win rate.

That's outstanding, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's like top 10 in the league as a rookie. So I think it's, I mean, it's easy pick for me, honestly. What's a you? This was the hardest one yet. I think it's between Quignan Mitchell and Jared first. I'm going to roll with Jared verse because of the consistency of me leaning into him. If you picked Quineon-Mitchell, I would have zero.

issues with it. And I don't, I mean, what, he didn't have an interception. I don't know that I really actually care about that, especially in a zone match defense with Vic, year one, a lot of transition on that defense. And he was able to stabilize that corner spot in a big way. So Quignan's very, very deserving. But my, my D-line bias is going to lean towards Mr. Jared verse, which gets us to coach of the year. And there's only, what's that? Sorry, I don't want to, I'm not trying to throw a flag, But here's the stat. I just got it for Quinn and Mitchell. The reason I pivoted off, since week 12,

he's given up a passer rating of 125 in his coverage. It's not great, Joe. That's not great. So first 12 weeks of the season, great. Since then, he's been beat up a little bit. Understandable. Sorry.

Okay, so we're getting the coach of the year. Let me set the table here. And I've gone, Kevin O'Connell, Dan Quinn, Dan Campbell. you've went Dan Quinn, Dan Campbell, Dan Campbell. So we're going to give our final answers here. It's a two horse race. It's Dan Campbell and it's Kevin O'Connell.

In my opinion, I don't think that anyone has a more compelling case than either one of those two players. And I think they're both deserving candidates, but one guy coached against the other guy twice this season and beat them twice this season. And so you could talk about the individual circumstances of each individual situation and what you're more impressed with. Fine, like whatever you want to cling to.

They played twice. Dan Campbell won twice. Dan Campbell's my coach of the year. Yeah, that was the best way to frame it, Joe. Kevin O'Connell, I've talked about this. He's, I love him. Second favorite coach in the league for sure. I think he's that perfect marriage between a Dan Campbell type with the way he relates to the players, being a former player, but also has that X's and O's brain like a Kyle Shanahan type. So really, really great coach. individually, it does seem like what he did was a little more impressive on its face. Circumstantially, I think their win total in Vegas is six and a half. You know, they get to 14 wins or whatever it is.

I mean, that's impressive. No one thought you were going to be a set win or a better team and you went to 14. That's, that said, in the heat of the moment on January 5th, on Sunday night football, the Detroit Lions, I think Dan Campbell put that to bed that he's the coach of the year. Dan deserved it last year, in my opinion, and got, I wouldn't say Rob Stefanski was also deserving. So I think this, him doing this now, this will be the last chance I think Campbell has to win this. Yeah, because now everyone knows you're good, right? Exactly.

Yeah, the expectations will be Super Bowl or bust from now and forever. So I think, I think it's Dan Campbell. One thought here. Yeah. For Kevin O'Connell, like, I think if you wanted to make the argument, obviously there's a Sam Darnold conversation. You know, they overcame not having Christian Dara saw, who's so important to them. You know, that's obviously not 27,000 defensive players that the Lions have made do with.

But if you wanted to really go in on Kevin O'Connell, do you think it's a compelling argument to hold Dan Campbell's non-play calling role against him? Like, if you really wanted to say, okay, it's Kevin O'Connell, because Dan Campbell has these two great coordinators that everybody wants to be their head coach, and he's just got to manage games and be the rah-rah guy. Is that is that what the Kevin O'Connell people would say? Maybe, but who hired Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson? Yeah, I agree. I'm not clinging to that, but I'm just trying to wonder, like, if you wanted it to be Kevin O'Connell and you just didn't sleep in purple all the time, you know, like, what are you pointing to? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a fair

argument. I would say, Dan Campbell's way more involved in the play calling than people realize. Like, Ben's the play caller. I don't think Dan would ever like step on his toes publicly as far as that goes. But Dan is absolutely influential with that. With the game planning, with getting to the plays they want to get to with the scripted plays. Dan's fingerprints are all over that stuff. The identity of the team. You know, I think if we're up to Ben Johnson, he might throw the ball 60 times a game.

So it's there's like, yeah, Dan, Dan absolutely has his fingerprint on that offensive game plan. He is an offensive guy after all. He was calling plays after he fired. who was the first offensive coordinator of this regime? He was a Buffalo guy. Former Buffalo head coach went to the Chargers. Oh, Anthony Lynn? Anthony Lynn.

He wasn't a Buffalo head coach, but. He was for an interim coach for like a game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, when they let Anthony Lynn go, Dan Campbell was calling plays until the following season. All right, and Ben Johnson didn't have like a super robust resume at the time. Right. Right, right, right.

You know, so you forget about Anthony Lynn being part of that. Oh, go ahead. Sorry, no, you go ahead. I was going to pivot, so you go ahead. I was just going to say something that I think is hilarious, by the way. Ben Johnson has been fired once in his coaching career. Do you know who fired him? Sean Payton.

I meant to start the show with this, totally forgot. No. Brian Flores. Oh, I forgot that he was in Miami for a minute, wasn't he? That's right. Yeah. When Brian Flores got the job. It's like a tight ends coach or something.

Yeah. Yeah, past game coordinator and tight ends coach. Yeah. He fired Ben Johnson, who then took a job with the Matt Patricia Lyons as like a quality control assistant. But I think it's hilarious that Ben Johnson absolutely freaking owns Brian Flores. Oh, wow. He's dominated him in all four games they've played against each other since that moment. I think that's fascinating to me.

I wonder, no one's asked Ben this. I wonder if there's a little, he comes with a little extra juice to those games. like this guy fired me. Let's let's, yeah, let's get after it. So my little point I was going to make is the bills own the Viking second round pick. And so when they got that, I was thinking, oh, this is probably top 50 pick. Come on. Yeah, I need them to go ahead and lose in the first round here so we can maximize that

draft. All right, coming up on the other side of it, we're going to close out our conversation today with some pro bowl snubs. Brett and I have that for you next to be sure to stick with. this. Okay, Brett, the Pro Bowl rosters came out last week and congratulations to all of those players, right? It's meaningful in terms of contract negotiations, especially like the rookies. You talk about the fifth year option. If you're a rookie and you get on the Pro Bowl, you get a nice little bump. So hat tip to like Brock Bowers and who else? Was there other rookies

that made it? Jaden Daniels made it. I think there's one more whose name completely escapes me right now. But so yeah, it's, that's important. And I know there's a lot of popularity with it. And it's what, a third fan vote, a third player vote, a third coach vote. Like I get all that type of stuff. But the bottom line here is we're here today to tell you who the snubs are. And I've got my top four. And I'm curious, you say you have four as well?

I have four. Yeah. Okay. You were suspicious that we'd have some overlap. That's probably true. But what I did is I didn't think about who was Brett going to pick or not. I said, who are the four players that I, am most bother didn't get in there. Okay.

So my, okay, this is hard. Okay, I think my number, let me give you my number one snub. Okay. My number one snub is Brian Thomas. He says like, is he third in the NFL and receiving yards, second in the NFC and the AFC, if I'm not mistaken, and Zay Flowers gets in over him. Joke. Like Zay Fowers is a great player, and I don't want to sit here. and like bash him. But when you compare the statistical output, it's not close.

And then when you layer that with Zay Flowers has Lamar Jackson, who's obviously an MVP candidate, and Brian Thomas had Trevor Lawrence and Mack Jones. Like a fair amount of Mack Jones this year, and he had that production. I think he had like, was it 12 games of more than 50 receiving yards or more than some kind of crazy number like that? He became the guy for this offense.

and like Zay Flowers is like the fifth thing you have to worry about for Baltimore. Like what do we like I just there's no even right like honestly even Ravens fans are like yeah and I don't know about that. I've had multiple Ravens fans DM me that work at the company and say how did say say Flowers make the Pro Bowl. That's right. Come on man. Like what are we doing here? I think Kyle Van Nuoy like I don't have Kyle Van Nuoy down but I think like if there's a Raven that should get in and didn't it was Kyle Van Nuye.

I thought he's been unbelievable this year. So that's my number one snub. It's Brian Thomas and mostly because we got to get safe flowers the heck out of this thing. Yeah. You, you, I mean, that was one of mine for sure. I actually misspoke. I think I have like five or six. I have four I felt really strongly about though.

Okay. But Brian Thomas is a great call. You know my number one though, obviously, right? Kirby? Kirby. Yeah. I mean. I figured that when you called in the defensive player of the year.

And my only thought was, don't say that he didn't make the Pro Bowl because I'm betting that Brett has that queued up for his snubs. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we got to get Buda Baker out of there. I know they do free safety, strong safety. Just miss me with that. McKinney's deserving. Branch is deserving. But the NFL leader to interceptions didn't make it.

And it's not like he just had interceptions, right? Like I think we've seen that. We've seen players, oh, you got to, you know, you're a ball magnet, but you gave up a billion. Trayvon Diggs that one year. You know what I mean? Like he didn't tackle. anybody you didn't cover anybody you just hunted the ball yeah no Kirby does it all Kirby does it all he does it all he's it's funny they list you know like buda baker as strong safety when you look at like

his positional splits between Xavier McKinney and Kirby Joseph they're like all the exact same they all do the same thing so that's just i just found that funny but um anyways Kirby joseph i think is the number one snub to me he's he's been awesome um literally every metric, whether we have it or PFF or SIS, Kirby's like the best in everything. So whatever. My number two snub is going to be James Cook. Yep, he's on my list. And we're bumping Joe mixing out of this thing.

Come on the hell off this list. What are we doing here? Whose idea was this? Joe makes him that a great year. James Cook got a better year. Yeah. I mean, if John Gibbs didn't go out and score a billion touchdowns against the Vikings, James Cook's the leader in the NFL in touchdowns this year.

Way more yards per touch than Joe Mixon. I just, this one's not hard. This one's not hard. And that's one I don't see talked about a lot too. Like I've listened to a couple Pro Bowl snub shows. I'm like, no one's mentioning James Cook here. All right. Yeah, Joe Mixon's gone.

James Cook, I owe this man an apology. I said in August I thought Ray Davis is coming for his job. You're not wrong about that, Brett. You're not wrong about that because I had similar thoughts, too. James Cook got better this year. Yeah, he did. I know the statistics were better last year, but watch the tape. Do you think the statistics were better last year?

Well, not the touchdowns, but I think he had more volume and more yards. Yeah. He had 1,500 scrimmage yards last year. I don't think you didn't get that this year. He looked more physical to me this year. 100%. A little thicker in the lights, maybe. Yeah, he's put on some muscle.

He's been much better after contact. and he's lethal on that cutback zone. Boy, he's... Do you remember him of? Who? His brother. Oh, weird. I mean...

Right. Not going to dominate with yards after contact, but, boy, it's vision in that lateral quickness to go. That burst, too, dude, is exciting. I never thought one time watching James Cook in college or even early in his NFL career, he reminded me of Dalvin. Not one time did I think that. This year, though, holy cow, it looks like Dalvin.

And the home runs, they're absolutely there. And then, like, he's become a better short yardage back. And I think it's because he's learned a little bit how to, like, his vision's been better, but also he knows how to win with speed a little bit more. He can outrun. He can, he can win pursued angles. Yeah. So he's been a little bit more willing to kind of bounce, but not like C.J.

Spiller, I'm a, you know, coward bounce. But like, hey, I can actually beat you and there's a, there's no room here. You know, I'm not going to try to, like, bash my head against a wall. Yeah. Been very, he's been, he's navigated space a lot better. And the drops are gone, the fumbles are gone. Yeah, that's big too. Yeah.

All right. I'm teed up here. Can I do a two for one? Yeah, absolutely. I think the boat was totally missed on the AFC cornerback room, like badly. And so I got two. I'm dropping two guys and I'm picking two up. This is incredible.

Marlon Humphrey and Denzel Ward, you're gone. Okay, I was wondering because I'm like, I think Sertain and Stingley should definitely. be in there. Certain and stingly for sure in. I'm bringing on Trent McDuffie. The best corner in the entire NFL this year was Trent McDuffie. You want to look, we have the ass stat.

You want to reverse engineer that? Look up who's given up the fewest separation. It's Trent McDuffie. Is this coming next year for the world to see? Reverse ass. I actually announce it, but reverse ath should be here next year. So I'm not, we're like 95% there. You know, we have a long list of priorities.

things we want to get done and get out. We're hoping that's one of them. But I like to speak with management. Yeah, expedite this request. I think for the nerds like us who don't just care about fantasy, dude, this is like, well, actually, it matters for fantasy too. Playing your DFS matchups, your prop bets. Yeah, you want to know what cornerbacks suck and what you don't.

So anyways, Humphrey and Ward are gone. I'm bringing Trent McDuffie and my guy Christian Benford on. Ah, there it is. Brett Whitefield. Christian Benford, I didn't want to do it, but you did it for me. Yeah, that to me, you want to just the four best corners in the league this year, Sertane, Stingley, Benford, and McDuffey. And then I don't care who's in the NFC, whatever.

But those AFC guys, that's the best four of the entire league. So we got this wrong. I don't know how we got Humphrey and Ward. I think they're always on the list, maybe. That's why they're in. I don't know. Christian Benford is the Ammanra Saint-Brown of corners. Like where you know, like you do.

you know you're in for an absolute brawl. Yeah. For like, and every, and what was funny is Christian Benford stripped Amon Ross St. Brown. I'm like, there it is. Like you have to. Dog, you have to. Dude, it's so good. It's so, like, I want, whenever I watch Bill's Dave, I just watch Christian Benford because the way that he competes is like, it's just the way you're supposed to play the game, man. Like, if you're going to be challenged, you're going to target him, you better squeeze that ball and you better have it pinned because he's common.

dude yeah like the teach teach tape with a lot of man coverage he's so good in zone i'm unbelievable tackler unbelievable effort thank you for understanding the gospel of christian benford my pleasure thank you thank you so i don't have to i don't have to go in on him okay uh the next one jack allen zach allen denver broncos yeah we got to get him in i forgot about him dude he's i'm adding him you know who we're you know who we're bouncing let me guess hold him i got to guess all right you go in defensive end or interior interior Matabweke. Yeah, get out of here, Mattabweke. I mean, he didn't do a thing for the first eight weeks of the

season. Oh, that defense was terrible, largely important because he disappeared. Right. What, what happened here, man? What happened here? Zach Allen, dude. Like, I know that he's not the most stout run defender, but you can't deny the splash plays and his ability to shoot gaps and how he's part of their pressure looks that produced like the number one EPA defense in the league, the most sacks, the highest pressure rate, the highest sack percentage. He's at the core of all of it. Yeah, Nick Benito having his coming out party, which great, by the way. A lot of it's Zach Allen. The way they have Zach attack, those twists and stunts.

Yeah, Zach attack. Yeah, Zach attack. Come on. Darts and quarter, you're on a heater today. Completely on accident. Yeah, I, Zach Allen's huge for them. Also, my boys looking thick, bro, compared to when he was drafted. He was like kind of tall lean for a detackle. Yeah, I thought he needed to be a tweener, right? kind of between her. He's looking thick. Yeah, yeah. He's got to figure it out.

He's in the right spot. Yeah. You got any other ones? I have one, I have one, but I'm starting to want to talk myself out of it. Can we flesh it out together? Yeah, let's do it. I have this written down, but I'm not saying it with my chest. Okay.

The snub is Baker Mayfield and I'm pulling out Jaden Daniels. I feel bad about it. You like seeing the rook in there? because, you know, we've already talked about. But I do think how are we leaving Baker Mayfield out of it? Right. I just like how are, like, how are we doing? You know, I'm not pulling out golf.

Who's the other quarterback? Dude, I'm brain farting. Is it Darnold? Is it Darnold? Oh, it might be. It's, well, statistically, it's got to be Darnold, right? It's got to be Darnold golf and Daniels. But I'm putting, I'm putting, I'm putting Mayfield in.

I just am. I'd go, you know what? I'd be willing to pull Darnold out. I bet you would, bro. well stunner the stunner of the show here when am I allowed to victory lab that my my tarnel takes all year when am I allowed am I allowed to do that now

dude you put me in a bind with that because I've tried to like copy some of that like I kind of see what Brett's saying here and I like go I guess like to watch a game of my brother talking you know another you know the things that I do and I'm like yeah I don't know what Sam Darnold then he just keeps going out there and lighten it up I'm like come on Brett it's like I see what you're saying situation

but it doesn't show up enough, you know? It's because the Vikings are a very good football team. All right, I got one more, I think. All right. I'm putting DeNeil Hunter in, the Pro Bowl. Who are you pulling? This is where it gets hard. I think you're right.

He deserves to go in. I'm pulling Max Crosby. Oh, is he in? Yeah. Oh, okay, then that's easy. Because I don't think you can pull, you can't pull Garrett or Hendrickson, right? No, no, can't pull Garrett or Henderson. But Crosby had a down year by his standards.

like a very down year by his 100% yeah even play what five games or something either yeah they should definitely trade him to the bills yeah for sure and Garrett to the lines exactly you nailed it um uh yeah

denille though is awesome dude and I there might not be a more fun pass rusher to watch his 1V1 reps in a game and the way he set stuff up I again that's not a stat they count for pro bowl but I just I freaking love Denial Hunter, man, and he's, uh, year one with the Texans just been awesome for them. So, uh, one of the few bright spots on what they would consider a down year over there in Houston.

So, um, yeah, I'm going to Neil Hunter is my last Pro Bowl stuff. They can sit, well, I thought their defense was really good this year. I like Houston's defense. If their defense wasn't what it was, they would have been very good. Like they're all completely failed. Defense and division, you know. Yeah. Oh, you know what?

I have one more. Okay. Do you have any thoughts on? No, I'm with you. I think I took for granted that Max Crosby didn't have a great season, and I thought four was a good number to come in for the second. So I didn't feel, I had the four that I had, and I didn't feel super inspired to go deeper.

There's a Pro Bowl snub here that I'm not sure we can call a snub because the NFC running back room is nuts. But how we leave Bejan Robinson off this list? I don't know who you pull out, though. You can't pull out at Saquan or give. and that leaves us Josh Jacobs. But Jacobs had a monster season too, man. So like maybe we ditch the fullback for this exercise.

I don't know. Can we get right? Yeah, some of that stuff gets goofy. Like even those slot corners get discriminated against in the pro bowl. Yeah. These are full time players. Like what are we doing? Some of the numbers are goofy.

I mean, with Patrick Mahomes isn't a pro bowler. Well, it makes sense. I mean, I kind of get it, but you're not pulling Lamar, Burrow, or Josh. Yeah, the three MVP final. The AFC is always, someone's always going to get stiff-armed. It's been Josh before. Yeah. But yeah, so I don't know how we get Bijan on this list.

We got to find a creative way, though. So Kyle. Offensive weapon. Yeah, offensive weapon. There we go. We can get one, who has between a receiver, a tight end, because sometimes tight ends. Like, um, there's a tight end. Jono Smith, I thought about like, you know, should he have gone in over Kelsey?

I think there's a strong case for that. But like, you only have room for two. Like, why? especially when like Kelsey was a role player for most of the season where there were there was a long stretch where John who was the Miami offense like the past their resurgence right like yes historical season like the greatest tight end season in the history of the dolphins um so eight of Bijan's last nine games he had over a hundred yards from scrimmage by the way and in that stretch he scored 10 touchdowns 10 touchdowns over the final eight games a hundred. 100 yards from scrimmage and eight of nine of those final nine games on unreal end of the season like they finally figured out he was the guy but it was too late and they started losing games so they I wonder I wonder if the timing of the balloting it kind of impacts things I mean like fan voting was shut down like a month ago you know what I mean like they announced it with like two games ago

you're like does this make sense like you're still got meaningful data points here and you're not considering them and they they matter like it moved the last stretch of games moved verse over Mitchell for you and depot. Bejohn Robinson probably has a more compelling case, right? So it's like we're just going to pretend like the last three, four weeks in the season, no matter when they're probably the most important. Yep, that's a good point. By the way, this was the year of the running back. Right. They made a massive comeback. I mean, Barclay, Henry Gibbs, Bejohn, about 1,900 yards from scrimmage or more all of them scored 15 plus touchdowns that's insane josh jacobs 1600 yards

and he scored 17 touchdowns right am i reading there right 15 touchdowns jonas jonathan taylor tanner had a good season pro baller jonathan camara had a big season erin jones was back i mean yeah camara bucky irving monster bucky irving man so yeah year of the running back um running backs matter joe i guess they do after all james connor had 1500 yards and 12 touchdowns karen williams juba hubbard was good a lot of people have been saying connor should get that josh jacob spot i've seen people have that take pollard was good mixing was good nausea eras i mean it's great it's been it's something's happened something's happened in the nfl here yeah i think the stat i saw was like there were 18 running back

that had 1,200 yards from scrimmage or more. That's, here's a fun stat. For the fantasy crowd, Rashad White last year was like RB4. It was like whatever his average per game was. That average per game this year was worth like 8, RB18. Wow.

ridiculous, like massive jump from year over year from how much running backs mean. And that's like the old school fantasy model, draft those running backs early and, and prosper, you know? I think you look at three guys. Christian McCaffrey, you mentioned Rashad White, and Travis E.T.N. As guys that were, like, big time,

top 10 yards from scrimmage, double-digit touchdowns. I mean, obviously very quiet years this year for those guys. Yeah. Wild. All right. We should get out of here. Oh, I got a couple things, though. I want to get off my chest.

We're into the off season now. The plan for the Fantasy Points podcast feed is we're still going forward with that, which means, Very soon, you won't get this podcast on the Fantasy Points Now Feed. So if you want to listen to it, you got to go to the first read feed. You got to subscribe wherever that's you listen, but that's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play. It doesn't matter. You got to go get it done if you want to keep getting this content.

Joe and I are going to have all your offseason coverage on lock. So we're doing everything, coaches, free agency, draft. I mean, it's going to be a ton of fun content. We'll do all of our suppliative list through the whole thing to, you know, ranking whatever, this, you know all the fun stuff we like to do so make sure you tune in next or sorry Thursday we're doing our all pro list so make sure you come back for that all right we good we're good remember folks no matter what develops we will always be your first read thank you for listening