Fantasy Football Today - Fantasy Cops, 2026 Resolutions, Week 18 Tough Calls (12/31 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

We've got a little bit of everything on today's show as we look back at 2025 and make some resolutions for next season. First, your news and notes (5:00) with key injury updates ahead of this week's games. Then, Jamey gives his 2026 Fantasy resolutions (9:30) including avoiding players who are preseason holdouts and not overreacting to preseason injuries ... Heath and Adam share their Fantasy resolutions (24:35). How do we feel about players on bad offenses? Can we accurately predict which offenses will be bad? What should we do about great players with tough schedules? ... We hear from the Fantasy Cops (38:30) who are solving some Fantasy Championship conundrums before we look at Week 18 tough calls (53:55) ... Your emails at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know, some trips are just better when you can really unplug. Spend time with family, see friends, or hit the course with the guys on our yearly golf trip. This year, me and the boys stayed in a home on Airbnb, which happened to be a guest favorite, and it was right on the course. We could walk straight to tee off every morning, and it was just a short stroll to the local shops, bars, and restaurants. Staying in a place on Airbnb gives you plenty of room to spread out, cozy living areas to hang out in, and all the privacy you need. Staying somewhere like that makes everything feel more like a home than a hotel, and you get a real feel for the neighborhood. I'm already planning on how to go bigger and better next year. Luckily, there's so many options to choose from on Airbnb.

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Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome in. It's fantasy football today, presented by BetMGM, make it legendary. It's Wednesday, it's Hump Day, it's New Year's Eve. Good vibes, good mood, good friends. What's up, Jamie and Heath?

Hey, Jamie. You must be so excited today? Not really. Not yet. No? We have a New Year's party that's consuming all of my time right now. If you have a New Year's party and the game is not on, I'm going to kill you. No, everybody will be gone by the time the game starts.

A bunch of little kids and their parents. So, you know, but yeah, once that ends, I'll be pretty laser-focused. Dave is in Dallas or in route to go see the game. Oh, really? Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, pretty cool, right? Fantastic.

Yeah. How you guys? How are you doing, Heath? I'm great. I'm just really happy to be here. Super excited to talk about Week 18. We're not going to do a ton of Week 18, just a little bit of tough calls for Week 18. I have an email about Week 18.

I have some general emails about Fantasy Football. I've got the Fantasy Cops later. And Fantasy Resolutions, that's our topic today. What are we going to do differently next year? Lessons learned from this year. You guys are going to have any legit New Year's resolutions? No, probably not. Great.

Okay, good second. What about you? Yeah, I really, I really, really want to get a great at tennis. I really want to dedicate. I'm going to go to the gym where they have court by myself at night and just work on my serve. I'm going to be that guy. I'm going to try to do it without spending a ton of money on lessons. I'm just trying to think of like your wife's response to like the area of life that you'd really like to improve

is I need to spend more time at the tennis courts by myself getting better at tennis. I just am not. Screw these kids. I mean, I feel good about my parenting. I obviously can always get better, but I feel good about that. It's going to be at night. I'm going to get like a nine o'clock court and go by myself and just, and just serve, but I'm going to do that a lot, but I just want to be great at something.

I just want to be, I'm more than a year away from being great at something. I just want to be great at something. This is, I think a lot of guys, yeah, you're really great at this, but yeah, it's like that midlife crisis. Yeah. You're seeing that there's probably not many opportunities left in the future to be great at something. Yeah.

You got a little bit of a chance here. I've never been great at anything. I've never won. You are the male podcast to the host of the evening. It doesn't exist. It's a joke that was made up. It doesn't even exist that award. And, yeah, like, growing up, I never, I won one championship as the backup point guard on my basketball team.

This is a great, basketball team. Wait, on the backup point guard on your middle school basketball team? Yeah, we went undefeated when I was in eighth grade. This is a great idea. Can we do, like, one of the, like, can Paramount do a documentary on your year of committing yourself? to tennis? I'm sure. Right next to Landman

in the Paramount Plus library. It'll do great. Let's start small and see if HQ would do it before we go to Paramount. All right, let's get to news and notes here. Maybe even just Thomas following you around with the camera. Yeah, maybe I'll just do it myself. I'll get a selfie stick.

News and notes. Stefan Diggs is facing assault charges. We obviously serious allegations and we'll see what happens there and haven't seen anything about him not playing this week or in the future, but we'll keep an eye on it. JJ Watt could play this week. And Dallas released...

That would be really impressive. That would be really impressive. Like, he was so inspired by Philip Rivers that he's just, he's going to come back to. There you go. Dallas released cornerback Trayvon Diggs. He didn't get a joke. No, you said J.J. Watt. Oh, okay.

I see, I'm not great at anything. I'm not even great at news and notes. T.J. Watt. It's good you wrote that in red. Dallas released Stefan Diggs. I get that right? Trayvon Diggs. He may not play.

And he won't play this week. And Dak Prescott may not play the entire game. So we'll see what they do with their starters. I don't think the Cowboys want to give the Giants any chance of getting the number one pick. That's my gut feeling here. They might pull their starters somewhat early in this game. The Giants were always going to win this game. Yeah, I agree.

The Cowboys could have play all of their starters, bring back Emmett Smith and Michael Irvin, and the Giants are still going to win this game, and Jackson Darts going to have four touchdowns. Yeah, he's probably, he's got to be like a top five quarterback for you this week, right? It's got to be up there. He's going to win the rookie of the year. I think, I think Dak is chasing the franchise touchdown record, though. For a single season?

No, franchise. Oh, well, he's got, he's got time to get that. I think he lost his first game to the Giants, and he has won every, it's something like 11 in a row that he's beaten the Giants. It's crazy. So if he starts and then they lose, that's going to count as a loss for him. The Eagles could rest some starters,

according to Mike Garifolo. Riley Leonard's going to start for the Colts. Lamar Jackson is expected to practice today. We're hoping to get him back for the Sunday night game at Pittsburgh. We've got practice reports for the Saturday game. Seattle's top two left tackles. Charles Cross missed last week.

The guy replaced him. Also, they both missed practice. That's only the first one. I don't even think it was a real practice. but they both were listed as did not practice. And good news, though, safety Kobe Bryant was listed as limited. For the Niners, and they were game against the- Plus their linebacker that was suspended last week.

Oh, yeah, there you go. George Kittle and Trent Williams have a chance to play. We'll see. For the Bucks, Tristan Wirffs and Jamel Dean did not practice. And Rico Dowdell, as a toe injury, his status is uncertain. He is expected to play. That was an estimated practice report. They did not practice.

Okay. So, based on, have you guys made any changes to your rankings based on, okay, now we're thinking this team might sit, their starters? I've not adjusted any Eagles yet or Cowboys. I've not adjusted any. I went into it thinking the bills are not going to play their guys for anything more than maybe a quarter. We know the chargers are sitting, Justin Herbert, so I didn't even rank O'Mary in Hampton or anything. of their wide receivers of significance. I think my highest rated Chargers receiver is Trey Harris at 60.

So for the most part, yes, but nothing new since yesterday. Okay. But we're going to keep an eye on certain teams like the Eagles and the Cowboys and see if we can get any hints. Offseason programming, we have three shows a week. I don't remember what days we do them. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, typically. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday?

Monday, Thursday? Yeah, I think that's... FFT Dynasty will be Tuesday and Friday. There you go. But that's starting in two weeks. There will be no show for the next two weeks. We did have Dan's Dynasty takes yesterday, and that was a fantastic episode

where I brought up his team that is named the greatest startup draft that is now three years into the league that hasn't won a championship yet. It is a good startup draft, but you got to finish the job. That's why you got to pay for the first place. The commissioner would reward for first place.

All right, yeah, so that's off-season. We'll have content for you three times a week, and Heath will have a dynasty show two times a week. Let's get to our fantasy resolutions. So, Jamie, you've got two resolutions, and I will, Jamie says, I will continue to avoid players dealing with contract situations in training camp.

I mean, Terry McLaurin is Exhibit A, right? I was very concerned that he was not going to have a good season. the history of injuries with these guys is very high. I just think it's an easy storyline to stay away from. Now, there's going to be examples of that where it doesn't work out. James Cook had a contract situation where he was hold in, got his deal, and was fine. So it's not just a guaranteed situation, Jamar Chase, two years ago as well. So it's not just a guaranteed situation across the board.

I wish I had the numbers in front of me. I apologize. But I believe there were seven guys in the last three years that had contract situations, hold-ins, hold-outs. And I think Chase, going into that year, going to last year, was the only one that did well. So now if you want to say McLaren and Cook, I believe were the two prominent ones, unless I'm missing somebody. So it's now two of nine guys that have done well or had good seasons.

It's just, I don't know what it is, the lack of practice time, the focus on your contract, getting paid and losing that motivation for wherever that's worth. They just do not have a good season. So for me, I'm just going to most likely be out at the, at the expected cost of what these guys usually are going to be based on their ADP. Yeah, and James Cook signed his contract on August 13th. So that's enough time. You know,

that's almost a month away from the start of the season, right? So I think we were concerned about him and then we kind of stopped being concerned about him. McLaurin went right up to the wire. I don't remember exactly when it was, but it was on August 13th. I'll tell you right now. August 25th. Yeah, go ahead, Heath.

No, I had a smart aleck comment. I'm just going to try it. Maybe my news resolution will make fewer smart aleck comments. But I don't know just point of clarification that I'm going to continue to do something I did before as a resolution. Wait, what? The resolution's got to be something you're going to do. Oh. Oh, yeah, that is kind of true, isn't it?

Well, you can do a better job at it. You know, I try to. No, I think, I think Jamie did a great job at it last year. He was really nailed the Terry McClurean situation. I think it's something that I'll probably, I think, what do we think? Three weeks before the season is the time when we start docking those guys for that? Three weeks is enough practice time to get ready. Four?

Two to three. But no, I think it's a good point. Yeah. And at the very least, you should expect to start. I'm going to continue. There's my resolution from Johnny Airport. Make more smart-ass comments. Okay, so that's a good one.

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Don't wait on the sidelines, join the action with bet MGM. Okay, I really like this last one here for Jamie, another resolution. I won't treat all preseason injuries as the plague. Yeah, the two guys that come to mind are Stafford and H-N and how the panic sort of set in for those two players, at least for me, you know, of, oh, crap calf injury for a chan and we know what that sort of injury has been and the the eventual in some cases leading to achilles uh injuries and also the calf achilles problems that we dealt with mcalfrey the previous year so i think that was on my mind as well and i was just uh it dawned on

me with this because uh my 13 year old who heath tries to make a good basketball player uh he is not anything of his doing that he's not as good as he could be he brings the best out of him in our father-son league where he did the draft by himself. He followed my rankings, and he took Derek Henry over Devon A-chan. Now, it obviously worked out in the fantasy playoffs. He actually won the league where Henry was a monster. But obviously, as the season unfolded, why did you have Henry ranked ahead of A-chan? Why didn't you have A-10 ranked higher, you know, caffindry?

And then the Stafford example as well, where the panic set in on Puka and Devante Adams and Stafford's having an MVP season. And so obviously all injuries are not the same. We know that. But I think just for me, it's not to panic as much and not treat all injuries the same. It's such a tough one. And all of these are, you know,

whenever you try to come up with a rule for how you're going to draft in fantasy football, there's always exceptions. And I think, you know, Heath, I remember a couple years ago, I believe it was the Cooper Cup preseason injury and it kind of derailed him. Maybe it's three years ago. I don't know.

you made it a point to say, I'm going to treat preseason injuries seriously. I'm not just going to, you know, poo-poo them. I think it was really good. But then, yeah, you can go too far the other way. Right. So from what I remember, the hard thing is that we don't always get the full story,

obviously. I mean, the Christian McCaffrey situation is a great example of that. And I do, it seems, from my memory, the dolphins were expressing very little concern about H.N. Right. It was just a minor thing. and they were just going to keep him healthy for week one, and it wasn't something they were worried about,

but it was the year after Christian McAfree's injury was not a concern. And it was a calf, which is connected to the Achilles. And so I think there were some valid reasons to be concerned there. I think I had A-chan at like pick number two overall for most of the summer and then dropped him to the second round. And I think my best team has mostly had him until the playoffs. I think that's part of it, is like, we weren't out completely on these guys by any stretch. It was just, whoa, be cautious.

And for the people that were aggressive with some of these players, Puka, because of not really worrying about Stafford's injury and A. Chan himself, you were rewarded with a great pick later than they should have gone clearly, you know, depending on where they eventually fell to. I think also part of it is, you know, to Heath's point, like we don't ever know how bad soft tissue injuries are for any player. and probably the team doesn't fully know until they see them back out on a practice field. You know, it's not just, you know, we also had the calf injury for Joe Burrow, you know, two years ago, I think it was, where he got hurt in the early part of training camp,

and then we know what the season was like for him, and then he eventually broke his wrist. You know, so it's not tried and true. There's no way to just to say, I think it's just a matter of, like, what he said about the dolphins, I think is the best part of this. Like, if the team is not expressing such huge concerns, we probably should. shouldn't also cool all right I had one more I couldn't really explain it the right way though but it was because there's no real rhyme or reason to but I was thinking about Justin Jefferson and like eventually Jerry Judy but Judy didn't really have a inexperienced quarterback to start

the season so it really didn't make sense but um like Calvin Ridley came to mind Justin Jefferson came to mind like if the quarterback is inexperienced we probably shouldn't be so unconcerned about the receivers. Yeah. Well, one of mine is about drafting players on bad offenses. I didn't expect the Vikings to have a bad offense. That's the, like, it's hard to put them in that category going into it. Yeah.

All right. Well, we'll take a break. We'll revisit that in a little bit. Let's take a quick break and get to Heath's resolutions when we come back on fantasy football today. Yeah, the lesson with Justin Jefferson, I don't even know. I mean, he is just one of the biggest busts that didn't get hurt that I can remember because he's such a reliable player. I mean, you could look at Brian Thomas Jr.

And say he was just as big of a bust, even when he was healthy. But he only had one year under his belt. Justin Jefferson, this is really hard to explain. I think that's part of fantasy. We can do our best to explain everything. Sometimes you just have to chalk it up to. Who could have seen this coming?

I didn't draft any Justin Jefferson because I was concerned. But I never could have seen something like this coming, Jamie. I mean, it defies logic for him to have a year this bad for fantasy. I just, I wrote all the superlative stories last night. They'll probably be on the site, maybe by the time you're listening to this. So the MVP and the top three fantasy teams, the all rookie team, the all waiver wire team, and the all bus team. And, you know, led the story with Jefferson.

And I think, you know, correct me up from wrong, but we all, to a certain degree had, oh, McCarthy can't be as bad as darn. Or McCarthy will be hopefully as good as Darnold was certainly one school of thought. Kevin O'Connell's been great with all these other quarterbacks. he'll still be okay, and Jefferson will still be okay. And, oh, he's too talented to have a bad season because of bad quarterback play. And those felt like the three kind of, okay, Jefferson will still be okay. Now, everybody had some concern, whether he was wide receiver four through, I think, 10. You know, he was in that range.

He certainly was in the top 10. And his ADP was, I believe, wide receiver three. Or no, yeah, wild receiver three. So it was Chase. It was Chase, who am I missing? Oh, it was Chase Lamb, Jefferson, was kind of the sentiment of who the top three receivers were. And it's just like, okay, how can you figure this out?

And then I was like, okay, who were the other young quarterbacks that came into the league this year? Well, Cam Ward, and we thought, okay, he's going to be better for Calvin Bentley. Remember that conversation? Because he was better with Mason Rudolph than he was with Will Levis. And Cam Ward can't be as bad as Will Levis. Well, maybe it's just really not good at this point of his career.

Maybe it's just Cam Ward wasn't ready to help his receiving core. But then I went to like with New Orleans with Tyler Shuck. And the minute he stepped on the field, now granted, he sat for half the year. But Chris Olavay was a monster. And so there's no real across the board situation. Like Jackson Dart came in and Wondell Robinson had a great season. You know, so there's no real, okay, take some time for the quarterback. Maybe again sitting for a few weeks.

I don't know. But there's no real. This is why I couldn't really flush it out. Sure. There's no real, okay, this is a definite young quarterback, inexperienced quarterback receiver is not great. Yeah, I think with Ridley, I brought this up a few times,

but I didn't even fully buy into it. Because I had, I thought there was some appeal to Ridley. He had had two straight seasons playing a full season and getting around 1,000 yards. And he was, what, 30? You know, so he just hadn't, he was outperformed by Christian Kirk when he was on the Jaguars. So Olave at least was kind of, you know, in his prime.

Ridley, I probably should have, I don't really regret anything with Ridley. It's not like we're spending an early pick up. No, no, no. I don't think regret is something that's appropriate for him. It's just why did he fail? And, you know, trying to find a common theme here with these, again, you know, first year starter and McCarthy, rookie quarterback and Cam Ward, but then looking at the other two rookie quarterbacks and, you know, one of their receivers.

were a receiver on each of their team was great once they became the starter there. So Olave's, you know, Olave, I feel like I have to really dig into this, but the last two, the last three games, I guess, have been massive. And how much of that is Velae getting hurt? Because his target share actually went down

when they changed quarterbacks, especially the last two games without Vali. It's 27 targets in his last two games. His numbers, at least late in the season, were pretty down in terms of his yards per target and all that stuff. His efficiency numbers were down. He's got 156 targets right now.

I don't know. Calvin Ridley, I almost forgot about it. It's been so long. Yeah, I wonder how Calvin Ridley would do right now with this version of Cam Ward, if he were healthy, you know, with this competent version of Cam Ward. But the funny thing is, is that the minute Calvin really got hurt,

and Mary D.K. took off. Took off to a degree, but nothing. Well, I mean, for day three wide receiver. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's go to Heath's resolutions now. Heath. Yeah, you gave me a resolution that I would do a better job of making

waiver wire ads in the podcast Leftovers League that we share, and we're terrible at, and I will not be keeping that one. But I am, I think my big. miss in terms of the projections was the Raiders and expecting a high-volume offense and getting the lowest number of plays per game. Now, some of that is the fact that they've run like 49 plays per game since they fired Chip Kelly, so it's been even worse in terms of volume. But I'm going to really try in the summer to make sure there aren't outliers.

In my projections, in terms of based on the offense, the coach's history, when there's also not continuity. Like, if you've got a team that's run 50 more plays than everybody else and it's the same coach on the same team with the same quarterback, then I think you can probably project that to happen again. But when we've got a coach coming back from college or a team that's drafted a rookie quarterback or those types of situations, not projecting outliers. when we don't have continuity. Okay, fair enough. And the Raiders were sort of the inspiration for one of my resolutions, which was I will try not to draft players on bad offenses.

There's a point in the draft where you draft anyone, you know. But two years ago, there were two jets being taken in the first 15 picks. Breeze Hall and Garrett Wilson, they were terrible for fantasy. This year, it was Gentie and Brock Bowers. I just, how many when you look, because you listed out for it, us, the 10 worst offenses. Yeah. And how many would you have, I mean, probably half of them you would have confidently thought

we're going to be amongst the 10 worst offenses? Well, right. So the 10 worst offenses are the Raiders, this is offensive points per game. Raiders, Browns, Titans, Jets. They're finished. Yeah, well, as of right now. Yeah. As a three week 17.

Raiders, Browns, Titans, Jets, Saints. That's your bottom five. Carolina, Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, Atlanta. And the thing I would say is that you could guess who's going to be the best and who's going to be the worst offenses, and it's just like guessing anything for fantasy. You're going to get some of them wrong. So I feel a little more confident guessing offenses than projecting player stats in most cases. And I'm not saying, again, I'm not going to completely avoid because opportunities are great. I think Bowers would have a great ear if he didn't get hurt.

But the offensive line was so bad and Genty could not overcome it. and I think it should be a tiebreaker in certain cases, you know. So first round pick on a guy that could be on a really bad offense. This was brought up. I didn't think the Raiders would have that bad of an offense. I bought it to Chip Kelly.

I was just wrong. But a lot of people... Well, and we didn't expect Gino. Like, this, Gino was not this bad. No. But either. I think this is just tied completely to the offensive line to start

and then the snowball effect from that. Yeah. And then the question becomes, how good are we at guessing which offensive lines? I think we didn't expect the writer's offensive line be good. We didn't know it would be this bad. No, but I think I was naive in not, they did not finish was as a bottom 10 offense,

but the Texan's offensive line should have been more of a concern for me with my Nico Collins' enthusiasm. Because we knew it was going to be a bad offensive line. There was nothing to suggest it wouldn't be. And it's actually come together. I think they're decent now. But it was a big problem early in the season, huge problem. And Nico's been fine, but I would call him a, I would call him a, I would call him a, personally, not a huge bust, but, you know, I don't know if the passing game production is necessarily tied to the offensive line there. I think that is more about the run game and how bad they failed to run block. I think it's both, but certainly more in the in the running game.

I would agree with that. But I think it's funny. You mentioned taking two Raiders in the top part of the draft because you mentioned how the Falcons are part of the top 10 worst offenses, and their two guys were fine. But they're 23rd. I mean, they're 10th worst. They're barely in it. No, but I'm just saying like, I wonder if... It's bottom five for me. It's looking at the worst for me anyway.

It's like you could be the 10th worst offense and be fine for fantasy. We do want to avoid those teams that just absolutely suck offensively, especially in the early rounds. That's kind of how... But yeah, but honestly, it was a thought with Bijan and London. Remember we were saying like, I took Bijan around. one, London's available in round two. I don't think I want to double up on Falcons.

Sure. Yeah. Okay. I wonder that will be this year. It will be those two guys again. Yeah. I don't think Bowers would be a top two round pick. He may be back end of round two if the quarterback coach offensive line is all right.

My other resolution was being more open-minded to selling high on great players who have tough schedules, because it's really hard in season to look at Patrick Mahomes, who was the number one quarterback in fantasy in his first eight games, and go, damn, he's got at Buffalo, at Denver, the Colts, at Dallas, Houston, and the Chargers in his next six games throughout the fantasy championship, basically, or semifinals. And that's like four horrible matchups out of six. Patrick Mahomes was QB1. He averaged 28.8 points per game in his first eight games.

games. He was QB 20 per game in the next six, and he averaged 16.6 fantasy points per game. He threw five touchdown passes in those six games, and four of them were at Dallas. So he's one example. And then Jonathan Taylor was the other one. Jonathan Taylor was an MVP candidate. Could a running back win MVP? He was averaging 27.4 fantasy points per game in his first 10 games. His last six games at the Chiefs, Houston, at Jacksonville, at Seattle, San Francisco, and Jacksonville. That is a gauntlet. That was so tough.

He's averaged three and a half yards per carry. He's averaged 13.8 points per game. He's R.B. 16 per game. Heath doesn't seem like you agree here. No, I think you're right. The problem is, like, this one haunts me because I think my D'Andre Swift call in the preseason was pretty good.

And then like two or three weeks in the middle of the season, I told people, man, look at that schedule in the second half. I would be looking to sell D'Andre Swift. And he was the number eight running back in the fantasy playoffs. Yeah, I know. It's so annoying. Can we just get one thing

that's consistently reliable one piece of advice? This is the hard part with projecting end-of-season schedules. The Packers lost two of their best players on defense in Wyatt and obviously

Michael Parsons. Who would have expected, I mean, I'm sure when you were thinking about this, Heath, well, the 49ers defense will still be okay. Right.

And then they're just a shell of themselves, and DeAndre Swift has, you know, one of the best playoff performances. So it's very difficult to project that out in the middle of the season, let alone even three or four weeks out, because it's such a grind for these teams that they start losing guys or guys get worn down. Or in the case of like the Chiefs, you know, when there's a major injury got a playoff contention,

they just decide we're going to shut everybody down, same with the Raiders. So I think you're on the right track, Adam. I wonder if it's not just end of season schedules. it's also maybe you can add the surprise early season performances because like two guys that stand out to me are Emeka Abuka and Quentin Johnson because their first the first five games for Abuka and their first four games Johnson Johnson was averaging 19.9 ppr points in his first four games I think we all sort of saw that coming right this isn't sustainable but Justin Herbert was playing great Kenan Allen was doing well like maybe if the offensive line stays healthy these guys

continue to have a strong season but that was clearly an obvious cell high can Abuka was difficult because at that point, Evans first got hurt. Godman was still not back. And, oh, my God, this first round rookie talent, we know what rookies do at the end of the season, right? They only get better. And my goodness, he averaged 21 points per game, I believe it was, in his first five. You know what he averaged the rest of the season? 8.3.

Oh, that's good guess. 8.3. Like, one game with double digits and PPR, I believe it was. And he had that big spike game against the Patriots with 23 ppm. points like i was doing this with the rookie the all rookie teams this is funny because i did two all rookie teams really just for the purpose of recognizing tyler shuck the other three running back so i didn't put on the first team when the other three were judkins hampton and travion and tyler warren like i said this in the story i'm like there really weren't six good rookie

wide receivers so here's three guys that just are congratulations you made the second team all rookie team and that was jaden higgins um to marry dk and uh and if you believe this would you believe that travis hunter is third in points per game among rookie wide receivers no that can't be yes he had two good games he had one and what just one yeah he had two again so who's number one McMillan McMillan is it's first at like 12 point four or something like that abuka's like 12.1 um they're they're very close in terms of their points per game obviously not great seasons Luther Burden is fourth. He's just behind Travis Hunter.

And then Higgins and D.K. right there. I'm so mad at myself for not selling Quentin Johnston. I mean, they couldn't have been more obvious. It was so obviously. Quentin Johnson was on two championship teams for me. Really? He scored 34 fantasy points in the semifinals and finals.

He went nuts. Yeah, he did. So he actually made the all waiver wire team. Twice. It was hard to find a third receiver that was consistent. The first two were easy, Michael Wilson and Wondell Robinson. But I struggled with the third one, was between him and Alec Pierce and the way that Quinn Johnson,

you know, the way that I kind of viewed it was, did these guys become at any point must-start players? And I think Quinn Johnston, in the first four weeks of the season, even after that, you know, he was still being started and had some, you know, these spike games here or there. But like, you're right, Heath, his two playoff games, 14.4 PPR points or more in the semifinals and the championship. So he delivered.

And one of those was against Denver. So, you know, a little surprise for, no, I'm sorry, not Denver, Houston. So, you know, if you still had the, the balls to start him in the fantasy championship. It had nothing to do with that. It had absolutely to do with not being able to find anybody else. Yeah. But it came down to him or Rybuka for me. And thankfully, I chose him.

You made the right call. I think that scenario that you just said highlighted how inconsistent. and disappointing receivers were over the course of the season. I mean, I can try to figure this out now, but let's see, wide receiver, let's say, wide receiver 18, 13.5 fantasy points per game. That's Cortland Sutton. Let's compare the previous three years. Wide receiver 18 last year, 15.2.

Yeah. Wide receiver 18 the year before, 15.5. wide receiver 18 the year before that 15 what did I say so and I don't even think that 13.2 unbelievable I don't even I don't even think that fully covers it

how bad wide receiver was because if you look at the guys who were ahead of Cortland Sutton who actually had played 16 games you've got T. Higgins who missed a couple games you got Garrett Wilson who missed half the season you got Malik neighbors who missed most of the season you got Rishie Rice who missed half the season

Like, even the guys who finished top 12, most of them didn't play 15 games. Yeah, you're right. You've got Drake London, C.D. Lamb. Yeah. Crappier. Okay. Let's take a break. Fantasy cops, when we come back, we got some good ones for you,

settling some league disputes on fantasy football today. This one is from Gerard. He's a longtime listener, eight to nine years, and this is his first email. He is emailing for outside counsel. We are not the fantasy attorneys. This is not Eisenberg, Azer, and Cummings here at law. We're the fantasy cops.

But it's fine. 14 team league with friends from high school. It's called the annexation of Puerto Rico. Do you guys know which movie that's from? Yes. It's a football play, right? No, Mighty Ducks. Nope.

Okay. No, it's... Little Giants? Little Giants. There you go. I was going to say Little Giants. Yeah, well, you didn't. Okay, anyway, the annexation of Puerto Rico has been running for about 15 years now.

Very competitive. Everyone knows their stuff, but one manager is extremely dedicated and has three championships. I have two, and we played each other in the championship round. This is really cool. Listen, this is. I needed two and a half points from Blake Corum to win my third championship. But he was injured one point shy of what I needed before he ultimately sat out for the rest of the game. In the third quarter, down by one, Blake Corum was.

on the sideline with his helmet on, and the opposing manager proposed making the championship to week 18, winner takes all, seemingly as a hedge that Blake Coram may have scored the one point I needed to win. At the time, it seemed beneficial to me because Coram may not have re-entered the game, but if he did, I needed one reception

and one yard to win the championship. I checked for stat corrections, and ultimately I ended up accepting the offer to make it a two-week championship into week 18. when I woke up this morning I had won the matchup without Blake Corum playing another snap which was because there was a stat

correction and Jamison Williams lost credit for, he said a tackle which reduced Is that what happened? I love that. It should absolutely get credit for a tackle. Okay, he lost credit for it which reduced his weekly total by enough to beat him.

After hours of group chat back and forth this morning the other manager finally admitted that he knew that the stat correction was forthcoming. and ultimately he conceded. What would you do? Stick to the agreement and play a week 18 championship

or take the W given the scenario. No, if you agree to it, you have to play it out. So I want to make sure I heard the last part right. So the guy who sent the offer to play week 18 knew the stat correction was coming. Yeah. And sent the offer knowing that he was going to lose. Yeah.

Total sneaky move. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Go ahead. Sorry. The other guy did check the stat corrections, though, and didn't see one. So he thought there was no, there was no stat correction forthcoming. Right. So probably two guys not necessarily acting in the best faith. I mean, I guess it's okay to check for stat. I don't know how you do that. Hold on. I got just one caveat to this. What if quorum comes back in and fumbles? Well, that is possible. But then doesn't it say? He admitted he knew that the stat correction was coming and ultimately conceded. So I don't think when somebody wins an election and the other person they're running against concedes, the person that has won ever agrees to a recount after that, they conceded. It's over.

What if they agreed to the recount before the concession? Well, I mean, listen, I think you should stick by what you agreed to do, except in this case because the other guy is already conceded. okay so he says take the win and jb says play week 18 i i played i played out i mean could have gone against you and how would you have felt that way like you agreed to it you you knew he also had the the the the he checked he had he still had the chance of quorum coming back in and the guy who was the other opponent is the commissioner so he was playing against the commissioner who did this. Yeah, yeah.

So the commissioner conceded. Yeah. Now, here's my question. How do you check for stat corrections? So stat corrections usually are posted, at least on our site. I don't check anywhere else, but are posted on our site the Thursday after the week is over. Right. So he's doing this on Sunday.

During the game, how is it Monday, Monday, Monday? It says that this is on a different site. Yeah. And so maybe, I don't know. First off, you need to change your rules where offensive players should not be credited for tackles. I like that rule a lot. Oh, I hate that. That's like, what was it?

Was it Jack? Our producer, Jack, had a league where interceptions were a hundred points? I'm sorry, picks. What was it? It was like quarterback tackles. Yeah. On interception, it was like 100 points. I don't think I was in that league, but...

I don't remember that. Because I'm in a league where return yards are heavily, basically just treated like regular yards. And I'm betting Shimred Ike was the number one rookie wide receiver in that league. Yeah, I would say so. Season for him, return. I would just think if you agreed to it

before the game was decided, you played out. Can I weigh in on this here? So if you want a tiebreaker, because I've never played on Yahoo. I haven't played on Yahoo in a long time. I don't know how to check stack corrections. How did this one guy commissioner know that the stat correction was coming

and you didn't? Did you both check the same thing and he just did a better job checking it and you messed up? Because in that case, I don't really... You both had the same opportunity to check the stack corrections. You just read it wrong.

In that case, I'm on the commissioner's side. If there was some other kind of sneaky way where he knew the stack correction was coming and you couldn't have known Then I'm on your side. That would be my time. The commissioner has access to information that you don't have access to. That is fair.

Yes. Then 100%. But, you know, it kind of feels like the year that I, I always like to bring this up, the year that I went undefeated in our IDP league and there was an asterisk put on it because of the Hamlet, Damar Hamelin game. But the site, when you go to it, it still says that I won that game. What was the score? I don't, I don't even recall.

Yeah. But the site right now. else says that you won. I would do this. I think in good faith, I'm not a big split-the-pot person. I think you play it out through week 18. You do it with a 70-30 winner, whatever the split is, put all the money into it, 60-40, whatever the case you want to do, like winner gets just a bigger bonus.

Okay. Next one is from Tim. It says, Dear Eddie, Chris, Lane, and Kurt. that would be uh who's lane that would be eddie vetter chris cornell i'm guessing kurt cobane unless this was supposed to be their nirvana trio with eddie vettor um it's something along those lines let's see um lane staley i definitely should know who lane staley is is that alison chains Yes. Okay. Okay.

Our championship game came down to Monday night with the narrow victory of 0.3. Our champion had Cameron Dicker who missed a field goal of 0 to 39 yards. It was then that we all realized that for two years, a kicker that missed a field goal of 0 to 39 yards received plus 1 to their score

instead of minus 1. Oh, no. The loser is understandably upset. Because Dicker missed this kick and got a point instead of losing a point. That's the side of the championship. The loser is understandably upset but isn't demanding a scoring change. Is this something we should take a league vote on? Do we leave it as is and make sure it's corrected for next year?

Would love the fantasy cops to weigh in. You got to go back then. If you're going to change it, you've got to change every score for the season where this happened because it had to happen multiple times. Yeah, I certainly could have changed the matchups, but I don't know. What do you do here? It's weird to win a championship on a missed field goal. That's ridiculous.

That's, I, go ahead, Jamie. I wonder if the commissioner was involved here because if the commissioner was involved, there should probably be like, on the winning side, here's a little extra money to account for my mistake. But, yeah, you got to live with it. That's been the rule for two years. I believe me, I commissioned several leagues. Adam, I believe, has subtly been jabbing me for the last couple of weeks about my lack of one rule in one league to change. And I don't unfortunately check all the little minute details.

I think I said this with the leftover leagues. Like I have to change it to decimal scoring. But I do think that you should probably designate somebody in every league to go through the rules at the beginning of the season. Like someone you know who's just the absolute nerdiest of nerd people and wants to make sure everything is buttoned up and correct. And they should find out these little mistakes. Because I'm sure there's probably every league has a little mistake or two or something that could be tweaked.

Hey, let's put this up for a vote. Hey, you know, you did this. This is obviously a terrible, terrible thing that you're getting positive points for negative plays. I think this has happened to all of us in one way or another. Like I think in the Yolo Dynasty League, I've been wanting to correct a mistake that I made and didn't make dual eligible players on defense dual eligible. So all the edge rushers are stuck at linebacker. And I had Micah Parsons for two years.

And so finally, I just dropped Micah Parsons. And then maybe I'll change the rule because it won't benefit me. But it's like those types of things, I think this, I would just stick with what I said on the last one. What is the, what's the website say? Looks like that guy won. and yeah I agree with Jamie too I think the commissioner if it's within his means should probably try to make this up to the other guy

yeah I think yeah I think that might be the solution is to change the payout because give that whoever want I don't know I don't think it's if it's the winner got a hundred bucks and the loser got 50 you know maybe it's 9060 you're not doing anything dramatic right

just shade it a little bit more a little bit more percentage wise to the loser but you just fix it for season you can't do anything now really but why not like you know this you know this is it's two years though like how many things would have been changed over two years i guess so it's just so silly but all right fair to look and like if i if i lost on that i might leave the league i would be so irate if i found out that i lost because we had the scoring thing wrong for two years and it's partially my fault what do you mean if you lost like if we went and changed it and then retroactive no if i was the person

who lost that game because of Cameron Dicker getting a point for missing a field goal. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's ridiculous. Like, this is... Would you leave the league? Like, if it's all your, you know, your friends from home or all of us as coworkers,

like you actually leave the league? I mean, Adam was the commissioner for sure. But no, I'd probably, if it was all, like, people I don't see anymore except for fantasy football, I'd probably just throw a fit and pretend like I was leaving the league and then be back when it's time to do the track. This kind of happened in, the league that Jamie says I'm jabbing him about, the setting that I want Jamie to fix.

You could go do it right now, by the way. You could go right now and do it is there's a setting in our Superflex league where rosters lock, not lineups, but rosters lock at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. So if you need someone Monday night, you can't, you cannot make, or Sunday afternoon. You cannot add drop. You cannot add anyone after 1 p.m. I had that issue like week three in that same league. I think that's why I went 2 and 14.

Right. And so I was playing Robert Thomas, who runs our Facebook group and is in our chat a lot. And it was the night that the, it was Monday night, and he had the Washington kicker who got ruled out. And then he wanted to pick up the backup Washington kicker. And he couldn't. So he texted Jamie and then Jamie wasn't available. He texted Dave. And then Dave went and manually made the move for him.

And I was like, you cannot. do that. This has been the rule for years. It should be changed, but you cannot do it now. Luckily, the Washington kicker scored one point, I believe, in that game. So it didn't change the outcome. But I would have been so mad if the outcome had to change. Yeah, I would kick Dave out of the league. Dave's not in the league. Dave's not in the league. He just has commissioner access and he did it for Jamie without knowing the rule. Dave didn't realize what he had done. I didn't know the rule. Yeah, you didn't know. Right. You don't know it until it happens. Well, I think two things that have come as a result of that.

Adam is now going to be the commission. No. Congratulations. But yeah, it's, and this is something also that is worth mentioning. It's small thing. Like, I've inherited two leagues as commissioners of our analyst leagues, quote unquote, analyst leagues. And that's one of them. We know where I never even, you know, I played in the league for several years.

I never even thought to, oh, I got to check that particular setting. So that needs to be changed. And the IDP league is another one that I inherited that I never really checked anything. Because I don't care with the SD scoring. Is it what is what it is? But yeah, you should really have, I think, somebody in your league that is like, you know, you call them co-commissioner, you call them whatever you want to. But just make sure that they check all the stuff and like, hey, change this, take a look at this. Maybe we put this up for a vote, those type of things.

Like, you know, I think it just helps. I think the other thing is like and maybe there's probably some people in the chat are going to say they do this and it's not that big a deal you really shouldn't be a commissioner of 20 fantasy leagues you can't do a good job you really shouldn't be a commissioner of 10 fantasy leagues you can't do a good job what do you think about this suggestion

you need Adam you need an Adam in the league to check your stuff that's 100% completely inaccurate Adam famously once complained about a league he joined having all types of crazy rules that he didn't realize until after the draft because I don't want to go through and read the rules when I join a league. It's true. Like, Adam does not have the attention span to find the problems. He could have looked through the rules and he wouldn't have even seen this.

Adam also is the worst commissioner and just does things arbitrarily. No, I don't think I do things arbitrarily. I am a bad commissioner, but I don't do things on purpose. Yeah, that's your fault. I told you you had a deadline. You didn't meet the deadline and I removed the player. That's on you. Let's get to some week 18 tough calls for some reason.

Trayvion Henderson against Miami. Anybody want to start Trayvion Henderson against Miami? You know what I noticed about him? He has three good games this year. Three games of more than 12 fantasy points. And in two of those games, he had multiple 50-yard touchdown runs. Two of those games, Remandre didn't play. Well, at least one of them.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Two of them Ramonre didn't play. Yep. And the one time he had a good game with Ramandre, he had two 50-plus-yard touchdown run. But he is getting a lot more. work than Ramandre, although most of it was in the second half. Stevenson didn't have a carry in the second half last week against the Jets.

So dolphins are, you know, they're kind of up and down against the run. Anyway, who wants to start Trayvon Henderson? I will start him as a number two running back. Yeah, I can't say that I want to start anyone in week 18 because I don't want to set a lineup in week 18, but he's in my top 24. I don't really know where this segment is going. It's going, like, I don't know. How do you feel?

You know what I'd really like is if somebody would, like, send us a well-thought-out email of, like, why they want to play Week 18. Yeah, even if you want a two-week championship, I don't think Week 18 is the week to do it. So I guess I'll just ask, how do you feel about Travion Henderson? Optimistic, Reluctant start. Remember who's that term? Reluctant start. Okay. He's an RB2.

All right, I think the 49ers-wide receivers are tough calls. Seattle is six best against receivers. If you're not Pooka Nakua, you have a hard time doing well against them. I mentioned Colby Bryant, their safety. He was limited, listed as limited in practice. I also don't really love the trends with Joanne Jennings. Last two games, he's had a very low target share when Ricky Pearsall's been on the field. Pearsall played most of the snaps last game, and he's got, you know, two games in a row with 85 or more yards.

But Pearsall never gets red zone targets. It's rarely gets red zone and end zone targets. Jennings gets them all the time. But Heath, how do you feel about the Niners in this big game, but tough matchup? Niners receivers against Seattle. You know, I think if I was playing in Week 18, I would really prefer to have guys on teams that I knew cared.

And I knew we're going to play the whole game. And both Joanne Jennings and Ricky Pierce all fit into that category. And so I think that even with the touch tough matchup makes them borderline wide receiver twos, low-end wide receiver twos, or high-end wide-receiver threes. But like I said, I think you get really nervous about teams that they don't have anything to play for. Jamie, your thoughts on the nine or something?

Well, 100% agree. And, you know, I think what you look at with Seattle's defense, it is great. And especially when you look at the other teams in the playoffs, not just the NFC, it is great. But when they have faced good passing games, those passing. games have been good, just not as good as they typically are when they're not facing bad opponents. And so Stafford carved them up. I think Brock Purdy will have a good game, not five touchdown good, but with the way that he's playing right now in what feels like could be a high scoring game because San Francisco's defense is not very good, I think you have to say I'm going

to trust Juan Jennings to hopefully have the type of game he had last week where it wasn't great until he scores. And that Ricky Pierce saw in his last two games and the game that he played against Seattle went for over 100 yards and it was week one but still I'm starting both those guys I've got a Brock Purdy question for you Adam because you always are the guy presenting like what they did last year and then setting us up

for questions and you're great at it great host at the end of the when we get into the next year if Brock Purdy holds on to his current QB1 status are we going to say Brock Purdy was the QB1 last year playing in nine games is he average is he

currently he's currently QB1 and fantasy points per game. Yeah, I will say that. And so nine games is enough? Yeah. I think it is. Is that the minimum? That's unbelievable.

I didn't realize he was, I don't know what the minimum. You know, remember. Stafford had that year with eight games where he was right up there. Remember that? I think he's played eight so far, pretty yes. So I think this will be his ninth. Can I double, can I check on this here? Remember that Stafford season, eight games?

Let's see, that was nine games. 2022? No. No, it was eight games in 2019, I think. Oh, my gosh. He threw 19 touchdown passes in eight games. Let's take a look at, yeah. So, sure, I will recognize them as QB1 that year.

Okay. Matthew Stafford, no, QB3. That was Lamar Jackson's 31 point per game year. And then James Winston was QB2. Stafford was QB3. I think so. I'm fine with it. That's why.

Did he make your top 12? I think he was in my top 12. Yeah. He's in my top 10. I was thinking he was 9th or 10th, but I don't really remember. Right. Okay. Yeah.

He's only had, I would say, two tough matchups this year at Seattle and at Cleveland. He scored 19 points and 21 points in those two games. The Steelers running backs against Baltimore. Jamie, your thoughts there, Gainwell and Warren coming off terrible games, or they both had fewer than seven PPR fantasy points? Yeah, I'll go back to Game Mall for sure, just because I expect a lot of dump-off passes and, you know, Rogers to lean on him in the passing game with another game without Metcalf, which is what I thought last week, but just didn't materialize. Jalen Warren will be a little bit tougher to trust, you know, so touchdown dependent, low-end number two running back, gainwall more of a top-20 option. Okay. And anybody want to start Terry McLaren against Philadelphia at Philadelphia?

Not in a two-receiver league, but he's close. You know, the tricky part with the Eagles is they have to win and the bears have to lose to get the two seed, and I don't know how much that will matter to them because they're still playing wild card weekend. So we'll see if they start to pull guys. The, I'm guessing those games are at the same time. I would assume so.

Chicago, Detroit is at 425, Philadelphia. Yeah, 425. Eastern. Just keep in mind that McLaurin did not have a great game against the Cowboys. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't look like, it's going to be Josh Johnson again, it looks like, right? Yep. Not feeling that. I got an email, emails from, first ones from Paul.

It says, Ken Walker or Parker, Washington, have PPR. Go Washington. Sure. That's what I said, too. By the way, I have a sleeper for this week. Oh, good. Darius Slayton. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cowboys. Darts going to have four touchdowns.

Right? He is going to kill it. All right, from Joey. He says, Dear Huey, Dewey and Louie. Oh, he said Huey, Louie, and Dewey. Oh, that's terrible. Can't get the order wrong. Right? What is this, Alvin, Theodore, and Simon? I was thinking the same thing. Right. Yeah. Can't do it. All right. Well, anyway. You can't go Larry Moe Curley. Yeah, exactly. It's ridiculous. You can't go. J.B. Adam Heath. I wanted to give my thanks again for a great season. Well, sorry for crapping on you,

and now you're thanking us. I've just won my fourth championship since I started listening and reading your content 10 years ago. That's very good. Nice success rate. You guys have been talking a lot about the fantasy MVP lately.

I wanted to throw in my piece. I am making an app where a user automatically has the entire history of their league imported and comes out with their own personal pro football reference. I made a metric that goes by your league's rules and roster habits to make a war equivalent for fantasy.

I call it league-adjusted measure above replacement, or Lamar. For my league, the Lamar MVP is easily Christian McCaffrey. We are two running backs and a flex and half PPR. The value McCaffrey gives over what you expect on waivers for running back is unmatched. I know you bring up Trey McBride, but you can normally find some Dalton Schultz type who will give you 7 to 8 points, so McBride really only gives you 10 points above replacement, whereas McCaffrey is closer to 18 extra points per game.

McCaffrey is actually something of a superhero. He has the three best Lamar seasons in my league's history going back to 2014 and is a four-time champion in my league. Best ever is Le Damien Tomlinson in 06. This is fantastic, fantastic news that we found the guy to go through all of our leagues and figure out if our scoring is right. I think I...

I don't know that you can compare an RB1 to a waiver wire running back. That's why you start two running backs, you know. You only start one tight end. I'm not sure I buy that argument that McCaffrey is better than a replacement running back in a more extreme way than McBride is better than a replacement tight end. You know what I mean? It's like you have to start two running backs, two wide receivers. You only have to start one tight end.

Does that make sense? I'm going to trust this guy's research. over your instinct. But for Lamar, who can't get the order wrong on the ducktails, McCaffrey was the fancy MVP. Oh, is voted on by, or according to you? As decided by me, yes. Oh.

No, I thought it was a really close debate going into last week, and I thought McCaffrey won it. And who's second for you? I thought Puckoo was in it. I thought McBride was in it, and I just think McCaffrey was the winner. I had four candidates going into the final weekend, and I included five because Bejohn's playoff run was incredible. So I think those five guys were deserving, the four you mentioned Heath and Robinson. So that's why we gave honors as first team, second team, third team honors, and all those guys

are on the first team. All right, McCaffrey, wow, 25.3 fantasy points. per game. I think it has to be. Yeah, I was going to say Jayes. The third best season of his career. I was going to say

JSN, but he's four points better per game than JSN. Well, JASN isn't even the best receiver. Right. But he's a third round pick. I think he's been the most valuable receiver because of the draft. Although Puka was going in some,

like Puka went at the two, three turn in one of my leagues because they had the Stafford injury. People were freaking out about that. And Devante. And yeah, but he was he was at first round pick, before the Stafford injury.

Well, I think there was some legitimate concern about is Devante now going to be the best receiver for the Rams and touchdown-wise he was. Okay. Next email is from... Oh. Eric! From Maine.

Hey, Apollo, clubber, Yvonne, and Tommy. See, this guy put it in the right order. The Rejaf League, I'm the commissioner of, is talking about making it into a Dynasty League. What's the best way to go about making a redraft league into a dynasty league? Just one draft to start or do two separate drafts, rookies and veterans? Should we allow keepers from this year? Blah, blah, blah.

Heath, what do you think? I would start fresh. I would not, I mean, you didn't go into the draft last year thinking about keepers, so I don't think it's fair to say now, okay, we're going to keep our best players. So start fresh. I think it's easier to do one draft. you have to get a little bit creative if you're going to do two

I kind of like doing two just because drafting is fun so the easier way is just do one and include the rookies and everybody in that what we did most recently not most recently two drafts ago was we did a startup draft before the NFL draft

and then we did the rookie draft after and there's ways you can do that you can either do opposite orders for those two drafts or you can include the picks So when you're drafting, if you get to the 10th pick and somebody wants to take the 2026-101, they can just take them with that pick in the startup,

and then they'll have the 101. Oh, interesting. I would hate the idea of doing two drafts personally because having the first pick in the rookie draft is so much more valuable than having the first pick in the startup draft, especially if it's superflex. I don't even know that there's really an advantage

in a Superflex league to having an early pick. Do you think there is? So you're saying that, this year you would have rather had it would have been a big advantage to take ashton gentie or cam ward over being able to take josh allen yeah because you're also getting are you snaking that rookie draft or no i i i don't think it's that way at all i don't think there's i mean in a super do you think in a superflex dynasty league that there's really an advantage to drafting early does i think it's different every year based on the values i think

I looked at it, because people asked this question last offseason, and, like, based on my values, the third and the ninth pick were the two most valuable in a startup, just based on where the tiers were early on. Okay. I think it's, so I just go back to the Yolo League and how that benefited me greatly to pick last or second last in the, because you did a veteran draft and a rookie draft. and so to pick you did the reverse order of the first round in the rookie draft and

getting McCaffrey second of the in the second part of the draft was huge he would not have made it to me yeah well I would have had to take him earlier

excuse me in the if it was a total a draft in totality one thing I think we can all agree on is if you're going to do a Dynasty League do a Superflex League more fun.

This email comes from an utterly defeated fantasy manager who says, what's the point of all of this time, energy, and effort put into this hobby if every year people can pick up randoms like Michael Mayer last minute and win it all? You build a super team that outscores everyone in the league and it's completely pointless. You can spend years, decades of your life playing this game just to have some guy who auto-drafted cook, oh, some guy who auto-drafted cook you in the first round of the playoffs. Sorry to bother you. I just can't be more enthusiastic right now.

just so tired. I feel you, man. We've been there. Been there, bro. We've all been there. It's about the journey. Yeah, it is, right? And then it makes the victory so much sweeter.

You'll get it. And this is from Jeremy. Talking about what to do with week 18, I'm running a bonus round in my guillotine league. The winner gets extra fab for next season. I unlocked all the teams, gave each manager $1,000 to claim their entire team off waivers. That's cool.

That's fun. Yeah. I mean, if you have a league full of guys who want to do that, then sure. I wouldn't mind doing some like Week 18 challenge. I guess we'll do a DFS. Can we do like a little DFS group thing? No. Sure.

Set it up. Do you think I could maybe invite the listeners? Sure. But they're going to have to pay, which is, you know. Really? You can't do one for free? I don't know. I think you could do one for free.

I don't. Go ahead. I mean, you're not sending any money. It'll go through whatever site you use. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll use Fandall or draftings or something. All right. Have a great day, everybody.

Happy New Year. No show on Thursday. We'll talk to you Friday. Yeah, I'll see you next year. See you next year. All right, everybody. It's been a great year. Thanks for making 2025 so memorable.

We'll talk to you in 2026. Thank you.