Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - FootClan Titles + Owl Hoots, Week 18 Waivers & Motivation - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/31

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

The fantasy football season is over! Time to celebrate and reflect on today’s fantasy football podcast! Plus, a look at NFL Playoff scenarios and Week 18 team motivation levels. Don’t miss today��s in-studio surprises, reactions, and more! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for December 31st, 2024. Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Was that the updated graphic that was a stupid updated graphic that any missed On the YouTube It didn't say with the producers like usual what it'd say said with the League of Record champions that I had the picture of the

champs well, there's a There is how Borland the king the king of giving the applause Jason I'm so happy for you He's got all the graphics ready. It's not fair when you produce the show and you're the champ. You get to just do a, oh, oh, get it out of there. I did expect some festivities here as he's in his. Good work.

He's in the crown. He's in the robe. Oh, man, so good. He's still ravaged with illness after, you know. Less. Not sleeping and probably cardiovascular issues going on this week but congratulations Al thank you I accept this was year 18 in League of Records which is shocking and that I don't feel like we shouldn't say that

out loud and feels like we're old as dirt 18 how old we are. Yeah, I know, but we're singing out loud. We're in our late 30s. Exactly. Gross. Our late 30s. Tuesday, December 31st, congratulations to not just Al, but all the champions out there. Yes.

Congratulations. But not Mike. Oh. No, I didn't win. I already gave you a 21 gun salute this morning because when you walked in, when we dragged you in, well first we saw you weeping in your car out front. Yeah, we had to go to the vehicle.

Pull you out of the vehicle and say, this is our 12 straight hours, I need an IV. I'm very dehydrated. You're the one person that is dehydrated from tears. But last night, with three minutes left on the clock, Dan Hitee Campbell and his Lions offense. This guy, he wasn't lying. No, he was not. He rolled out Jameer Gibbs

who went around the right end and ended. Three minutes left. Mike's season. He lost by. You got so close. He lost by two points. He went into the second half up 32 points. His opponent had Debo Laporta and Gibbs, none of whom had scored in the first half. And all three in succession scored in the second half to just eviscerate Mike's soul.

Debo, at least he had a fantastic game. He had a catch. Yes. He had a catch, guys. I, it was, yeah, he had an end-of-round run on a drive he had not been out there the entire drive. Only, I think, because- 100%. Because George Kittle came off the field

injured after a big catch. Yes. And the personnel grouping had to change But yes, Mike For those of you out there. They didn't win you have a friend. I'm dead You have Mike and I who both won last year both were back in the title games and both lost our repeat opportunities. It was There was a bad one that one felt like it was. All I could think of was that you will forever have the answer. Yeah, I do.

You'll have the answer to the question we get asked, which is what is your worst championship game memory or worst playoff defeat or worst defeat, any of those. You had to watch the whole thing with stress. Yeah. And worry. Yep. And it took the entire thing to make sure that you were.

And you were bleeding out point by point and you were right, I could feel it. What a brutal game we play. Yes, but at the same time, had that not happened, that victory was gonna feel so, so, so good. And unfortunately, I mean we're down to three minutes, and the Lions are having just an incredible drive of melting out the clock.

And they're going to do it. They didn't have to score. They just needed to eat the clock up. But then San Francisco is so inept on their rushing defense that Jameer Gibbs ripped off the 30. Every time Jameer Gibbs touched the ball- Has this been up here the whole time? Yeah, he threw it up early, the score of the-

We know, yep. All right. Every time Gibbs touched the ball last night was like- Terror. He could go. Yes, and he almost did several times. Yes. There are a lot of people that were on the other side of the Gibbs situation last night that won titles on the back

of Jameer Gibbs I have literally thousands of messages from foot clan title winners That just snuck by I saw somebody that overcame starting Cooper Cup three consecutive weeks Wow and won a championship with three weeks of Cooper Cup three consecutive weeks. Oh, wow. And won a championship with three weeks of Cooper Cup. And Mike, you came in, you were like, man, what if I had C.D. Lamb? What if C.D. Lamb hadn't got benched in this final week?

Yeah, that would have been cool, man. I mean, you talk about week 18, we're here. Or Ken Bonewalker? Or Ken Bonewalker. Yeah, that would have been cool, too. Yeah, I mean. You lost both of them right before the championship? Or Ford mid-game.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just a full game of Jerome Ford I would have won. And also, I mean, like a shout out to Sam Laporta, who, like if people stuck with Sam Laporta. That was an amazing end to the season. He had a massive run. The three playoff weeks, tight end one, I mean 14.6 12.3 15.4 Yeah, it was bored came through in the clutch when he was I mean halfway through the season

That he was like every single week is do I drop Sam Laporta? So I dropped Sam Laporta and he really I feel like held on you were rewarded if you had any player of Relevance in this game. Yeah, you were rewarded. If you had any player of relevance in this game, you were happy, other than maybe Isaac Gurindo, but even then, I feel like most people weren't relying on him since he was injured last week, and it was the last game of the week. I didn't see a lot of lineups that were like, oh, I need a big game from Gurindo,

but if you needed golf, if you needed Purdy, Gibbs, Amon Ra, Laporta, Jameson Williams, everybody came through. Gurindo is still the, he's scored almost 12 points. The, I'm gonna have to stare at that the whole dang show. Yeah, I mean the producers got a lot of power here. The last five weeks of the season, Laporta was the tight end.

Oh no. Oh my god. Spontaneous congratulations. Yeah. Hey, this is Bree, Andy's wife. Oh! I want to give my biggest congratulations to Owl Borland for winning the League of Record title. Yes! It was a close call, but you came out victorious in the end

like a true champion. Congrats. Oh, babe. Bree? Absolutely wrecked it! That was so sweet. Oh, that was Get absolutely wrecked. Get embodied. That was so sweet. Oh, that was so sweet of her. And after I beat her in the family league to take her championship, she still came through. Andy, I would ask how you're feeling, but your face is down on the table, very far from

the microphone. Does that feel like Gibbs ran a 30-yard touchdown with three minutes left? Oh. Oh. That was very sweet of her. Into left. Oh. Ha ha! Oh. That was very sweet of her. That was so kind. There's really no, we didn't need to come to work today. It's New Year's Eve.

You know, I hope it hurts a little bit, because I've been kind and gracious and you're still having to do this. You have been a very kind loser. That was my wife, congratulating you on our podcast. That's great. That was awesome. Ex-wife. But yeah. I mean that's, you can file that right? Oh the papers are drawn up now yeah. Like this is just cause. I think even in the Bible they do say that is grounds for divorce.

Yeah very few reasons but calling in to a massive show to congratulate your opponent. Fantasy football adultery of some sort. 100%. Well, cool. I think I was saying something about Sam Laporte when I was destroyed publicly. Oh, man.

Congratulations, Al, once again. That was my sixth, that was my sixth League of Record Championship game loss. Oh man. And impresses me. Six losses, three wins, which means in 18 years. 50% of the time I'm there and yet I impress. So you are like officially the best loser in the league.

Like the number one. And the most wins too. Yeah, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Speaking of best losers, Brian Ketrin is my co-manager and now co-champion. He's done a full rebrand from biggest loser to biggest winner. Oh, well, he was almost the biggest.

I don't feel like this is my podcast anymore. He was also the co-manager of the losing team for the... He was in two championships. You know what? He won one of them. I know. The important one. I know that Al Borland and company shopballers.com

we got the footclan title shirts. They've been flowing the people. You gotta swag out. You gotta swag. You gotta make life insufferable. You gotta do what Al's doing right now. He didn't have the courage to do it yesterday up 60. But once Gibbs didn't score an all-time

record. I think he had the plans for what we are experiencing now, and he couldn't possibly do all of this yesterday. No. Yeah. So, all right. It all makes sense. So shotballage.com for title shirts, fantasychamps.com for trophies, use the code

free ring for a free ring. And that's why the code is free ring. Right. You have to add the one of the $60 rings to the cart. Just add that and the trophy or belt that you want and then put the code free ring in and the ring price will disappear. Congratulations to our medleable official winner, the first member of the listener league next year, Darryl Montgomery. And you know thanks to everybody that participated in the Megaloboal this year, the largest fantasy football tournament in the known universe, and I just want to say the record, I thought this would be interesting right because

You know you had a lot of really spectacular records the record for the winner was 22 and 10 so got to the got to the playoffs 240 points a Team with just perfection up and down burrow Ir, Irving, Kyron, neighbors Higgins-LaPorta, McConkie, B-Rob, and the Tampa defense who put up 17. So congratulations. I mean they're tied as the first person in next year's listener's league. Because the listener league winner, team name Boomin Newman, username Jared Actor, which we have not got to the bottom of. Is it Jared Actor?

I'm not sure if he's an actor or if this is a dinosaur thing. Yeah, is this a pterodactyl reference? But Jared. Probably a dinosaur reference. Jared Actor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had Burro Dobbins, Cook, Chase, Bowers, Higgins, Superstacks. So congratulations. A lot of winners out there. Robin's, Cook, Chase, Bowers, Higgins, Superstacks.

So congratulations. A lot of winners out there, some hard luck losers like Mike. A lot of people that are going to have a lot of fun with their titles, and some that are gonna wanna quit the game, and I just say give it a couple weeks to calm down. Yeah, and then you have everybody who is quitting the show. Say give yourself a couple weeks or wake up to an alarm and

come into work and talk about how awesome it was that everybody won a bunch of championships. Oh man. One of those things you could you could choose to do. There weren't many words from Mike from that moment. No. Once Gibbs ran it in, it was like, it was over. Because once you get like- There was a fumble by Deebo, which I was like- After the Gibbs touchdown. Guys, Mike's final words were dead. He said dead and disappeared. I of course finished watching the game just in case they did an end around with Debo and he fumbled it. Because it would have been enough to win. I know! Of course I'm gonna watch through. Yes. But yeah. I got a really bad feeling there's more spontaneous congratulations coming. I would be really disappointed if there weren't.

I'd be shocked if there weren't. I don't think there is. Alright, we'll talk news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. All the drops. I don't know if you just saw that. Oh, did that one get changed too?

All the drops have been changed. Wait, wait, I want to see it. I didn't know if you just saw that. Oh, did that one get changed too? All the drops have been changed. Play it again. Wait, wait, I want to see it. I didn't even notice. Is it going to work? You got to fire that one off back there. Yeah, yeah. Al has. ["Around the Lake Theme"] News and notes from Around the Lake, presented by USAA Insurance.

I don't think, I don't know if our sponsor's approved. When your co-managers. Two ugly guys on that drop. Your co-manager is the graphic guy, so No, that's a good point. It's a producer with the guy who does the graphics. That's a pretty good combo for some celebration All right, I'm gonna blitz the we have other segments on today's show unfortunately we have waivers Brock Purdy left with a elbow injury dude. It's not great heading into contract time. No, like.

He's had this issue twice now. Well he had the. UCL, right? I thought it was. It was the UCL. I thought he had the Tommy John surgery. He had UCL and then I guess the UCL's okay. But it's a nerve issue.

His face on the sideline. He was almost crying. Was like, because I'm sure inside his brain he went, it happened again. Yeah. It happened again. Yeah. I'm trying to sign a contract to be the franchise

quarterback for the 49ers, and it freaking happened again. And he's a good quarterback. And deserves a contract. We really hope that he's OK. Let me see here. Chase Brown, Bengals offensive coordinator, hopeful he can play. but they've said they have trust in Khalil Herbert. It's a must-win game against the Steelers. I don't know how

the, do we know how the timing works out? The NFL usually adjusts the schedules on week 18 to make sure that they do. There is some weirdness though because the I think there this are they a Saturday game? I know the Steelers play before the Ravens Kyle is that is that correct cuz like there's some weirdness of no the Ravens and Browns play Saturday. Oh, is that oh, I had it flip-flopped Okay, so like yeah, they play the Steelers will know if they have a chance to win the division or not, right, right And they won't. No, because the Ravens are 18 point favorites. Right, right.

And they could win literally with their hands tied behind their back against the Browns. Maybe Jaylen Wada will come back, I don't know why they do that, but they are right on the cusp, so I guess they'll try. Status in question, Aaron Jones, able to participate in the team's walkthrough. They need Aaron Jones.

James Connor, TBD, took a shot to the same knee. I think for him, what he's looking for is to start the game and then get out so that the game log says I played a full season. Senator Tillman on IR, he will not play, he hasn't played since week 12. Goodness, dude. With the concussion, there is an article on our site,

we're gonna go through some of the team motivation situations, but there's a great article by Matthew Betts himself, week 18 playoff motivation player incentives on thefantasyfootballers.com if you wanna go through in detail. Otherwise. player incentives on the fantasy footballers.com if you want to go through in detail Otherwise, oh there we go. There we go. Hey spontaneous. Congratulations Hey guys, this is Caleb and his son

Graduate Al Borland on the amazing win and For beating my dad Victory yes for you is a win for all of us. Oh Yes, oh One of the best episodes of all time here on New Year's Eve Oh Andy has to be so happy Tonight at the stroke of midnight we turn to a new year Because you are getting straight, you know, it's wild cuz I was like we were talking Mike was super tilted going to the week for His repeat I really wasn't I was like you know what whatever happens happens. I now really wish I had won

It would have been much man. You're raising a good kid there Thank you very much, but you know the problem is I got more kids I have too many family members. Brock Bowers needs nine receptions to break the single-season all-time record for a tight end. This week Anthony Richardson if he's healthy he'll start in a meaningless game for the... It's not meaningless for Anthony Richardson. No it isn't. Tajay's spear status up in the air. Tony Pollard. Bonuses on the line but. I don't know. With. I don't know if I'll be out there with the injury to Spears. I mean if Pollard he's eighty

three rushing yards away from eleven hundred to get a quarter of a million dollars to rushing touchdowns from another quarter of a million dollars You know, I mean TBD if he plays but if he's active, I think they'll try to get him those You know what I'm supposed to do right after work today You are supposed to get your son his driver's license. Yeah, that's the son. I think plans have changed I don't think he's gonna be driving any time soon Yeah, whoops whoopsies. There's consequences. Bad timing.

Consequences for your actions. Free speech. You say what you want. Yeah. I'm one of those drive at 18 guys now. There you go. A couple years. Did you say the part, Andy, of the Titans

have said both Mason Rudolph and Will Levis will play? When you got two quarterbacks, how many quarterbacks you got? You got zero. You got zero. But when you got Will Levis, play? Yeah. For the, I mean. When you got two quarterbacks, how many quarterbacks you got? You got zero. You got zero. But when you got Will Levis, you have zero. You also have zero, you have one. Just no matter what. What are you, Callahan, brother, you know.

You've seen enough. You know. You saw it week one, and you're like, that's all I need to know, because then it happened again in week two. Like, this is not the answer. We'll take a break, collect ourselves, and be back in a second. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to

$75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. The Titans have- I'm so tempted to shut the show down. Oh. Just hit the outro button right now. Well, the problem is the outro graphic. I don't think you're gonna wanna see it.

Crap. There's no escaping. So the Titans right now are sitting with the number two pick But that really is for their purposes kind of the number one I mean it as it stands the Patriots have the number one pick and they're not gonna go with the quarterback after drafting No, no way. They are only behind Drake may they could trade it. They could trade him. They can trade me They're not trading May. No, May will be their quarterback next year.

I don't think that's happening. But someone could trade up to get the number one pick. We'll see. We'll see. You're probably right. It would be insanity. Drake May looks like he has a future. All right, let's talk a little bit about the situations here going into week 18. the game. I'm not a fan of the Christianity. I'm Drake may looks like he has a future.

All right let's talk a little bit about the situations here. Going into week eighteen because if you are playing in a week eighteen title game first of all. I feel worse for you than I even do for Mike. Thank you- but if you're there

let's talk about motivations the chiefs will start Carson Wentz. Gonna rest a ton of their starters're playing a Broncos team that is now 10 point favorites who desperately need to win and will win this game at home. There was further reports too of like, Wentz might not even play the whole game. Yes, they're gonna potentially go with McNeay

or something like that. I don't remember what his name is. I think it's McElbow. Yeah, yeah. Good dude. It's McGroin. Thank you, yeah. Wait, there was a Matt McGloin. Remember? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. With further orders. Yeah, that's a big groin Wait there was a Matt McGloin

Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, that was a good time all things come back to groin index calm The bills are the number two seed Josh Allen has a consecutive game streak He'll start and be out quickly in that game the old Cal Ripken. Mm-hmm Yeah, I mean I started I Get it. Well, here's the here's the truth. The truth is that those consecutive game streaks should be reflective of a player's durability. So in that respect, the fact that you were gonna

lose it because your team's rusting a player, that's not fair. I would love if they don't even hand the ball off. Take a knee. On his one, just on his one snap, just have Josh Allen take a knee, lose a yard, and then run off the field. It would be electric. I want him to throw an 80 yard touchdown. That's like first play, just take a deep shot. You got one play.

Take a knee or go for it. Yeah, that's fine. No handoffs,. No handoffs. No weak handoffs. Papa Josh just left the studio momentarily. He went to get Jason a drink, but I saw the fear in your eyes. Go get Jason a drink.

And I'm like, what the hell's happening? Am I about to get slimed? Here comes the bouquet. Yeah, I don't even know if he's really getting. I'm like checking out the rafters above you right now. This is a real problem But you know what I would expect nothing less for your last day as executive producer of the show The Texans are locked in to the number four seed the Eagles

They clenched the NFC East already the number two seed Saquon Barkley needs a hundred and one rushing yards They clinched the NFC East already, the number two seed. Saquon Barkley needs 101 rushing yards. Schefter was saying he would be shocked if Barkley plays in this game. I mean, it's TBD, I think we'll have more information as we get closer to the week, but it's no guarantee. I was talking about this to Mike, it's like,

if I was the head coach, I would not know what to do. Because this is- I asked Barkley. Yeah, sure, yeah I was the head coach, I would not know what to do, because this is- I asked Barkley. Yeah, sure, yeah, you asked Barkley, and I guess it's up to him. So I guess the question is, if I'm Saquon Barkley, I don't know what to do. I know what he'll say, because he's such a good guy,

he's gonna say, Super Bowl's what matters. He shouldn't play. He shouldn't, he really shouldn't. He won't want to, and the team won't want him to. Because if you get hurt in this game, you're done. You're toast. The season's over. Super Bowl goes away.

It's just too much. It's 101. If it was like 50. Yeah, 35 yards, 45 yards. I can see him going for it. But they're locked in. Which, ironically, it could be 30, 45 yards. I could see him going for it, but you know. But they're locked in. Which ironically, it could be 30, 40 yards. Yeah, it could have been.

If earlier in the season, remember when he was going for his career high and the coach, and he asked him. He was just beating the crap out of the defense. I mean, it was so easy. And he's like, hey, you want to get your career high? He's like, no, I'll let the other guys get some work. Which, that's fine and dandy.

You didn't know you were gonna be on track for breaking the all-time record, but if in that game he just kept going, he could basically almost be there right now. Atlanta really needs to win because Tampa needs to lose. Tampa needs to win to clinch. Detroit, they're locked in. They're playing Minnesota for the number one seed next week.

Everybody will be playing on both sides. That's the biggest over-under we've seen in quite a while. I think it's 57. Washington's locked in. They'll be the six or seven seed. Green Bay, same situation. The Rams are locked in. They will be the three or four seed. And yeah, so Atlanta- Tampa, big games for both of those teams. In the AFC, Baltimore's locked in, they need to win to clinch the three seed in the division. They have to play the Browns,

they will play their starters for a while, but I imagine that game, if it gets out of hand, they'll bench them in the second half. Yeah, it would seem so. And Pittsburgh's battling, same situation, to try to win the North, but they'll know. Pittsburgh, I mean, we should just call it right now. Like Pittsburgh has nothing to play for.

Because by the time their game happens, the Ravens will have won. You know what I mean? Obviously, if the Ravens lose to the Browns, whatever, it will change, but. Yeah, I don't know how Tomlin will handle it. Chargers are locked into the playoffs battling for their wildcard spot. Denver, Cincinnati, Miami, all battling for playoff spots.

Right. So those are the big teams with the big opportunities. Broncos, they're winning in they if they win, they're in. Coraline Sutton has 82 receiving yards that he needs for an additional 500 grand. He'll get it. Yeah, I mean, he should be able to get it done, although that game could get out of hand if they score defensively.

Yeah, but I mean, that's one of those things where, again, we brought this up a couple weeks ago. All the players, all the teammates, all the coaches know these guys' incentives incentives they're gonna go into this game and say you know if he ends up I don't agree I don't know I mean it's it's not an opinion it's literally not an opinion all of these people know it after every year we're gonna hear about it a week or two from now I try to get this guy the ball I don't agree well how can you not agree with coaches who have

in the past come out and said we we were trying to get this player the ball because he has an incentive? Because that happens only in games that are of non-consequential situations. It doesn't happen in games where it's, if you lose this game, you don't make the playoffs. They're not worried about a player's incentives for Denver trying to make the playoffs.

Yeah, but that wasn't- They just need to win the game. That wasn't what I was saying. I mean, in this game, it is of consequence, right? Like this is a, you lose and you probably don't win the game. That wasn't what I was saying. I mean, in this game, it is of consequence, right? Like this is a, you lose and you probably don't make the playoffs, you win and you get in. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, so it's a game of consequence where they need.

I'm saying they don't pay attention to incentives in games like this, because they need to win the ball game. So it's not about the individual players' incentives in these games. They will focus on winning more. It's about winning the game. If they do it with three yards for Carlton Sutton, they won't care.

That's what I'm saying. I agree, but my point is, let's say through the game, you're in the fourth quarter and he's got 60 yards. You know what I mean? It will, yeah. At that point, if he's close, you'll have a player or two called up for him. That doesn't mean he's gonna get it.

They knew it with Trey McBride for weeks, and you saw it every time they got around the goal line. It's like the play is for McBride. Didn't mean he got a touchdown. Right. But they certainly try to do those things. You see the John New Smith one? So it's John New Smith can earn an additional 400 grand if the team has top 20 points scored or net yards. And he plays 59% of the snaps. To get there, he would have to play 100% of the snaps this week. So we'll see on that one.

And they're playing for a playoff spot too. Yeah. But it's like. If they take him off the field one time, he loses that? He'll be out on the field just laying down, belly belly just going up and down. 12 man. 12 man again. I'm not leaving the 12 man again.

They're moving back. John-u get up. I'm not getting off the field. Yeah I mean I. He starts playing defense. You got 400 grand? He plays defensive snaps. They bring him in at the end of like B safety because. You could do that. They got a lot on the line too. They're the next up if Denver loses somehow. Are they above the threshold for the team scoring though? I don't know. Because obviously if they're not then they're not. They've been scoring a lot of points. They've been scoring at your seems like it.

Yeah, they've been good on offense, yeah. We have the full article, all the player incentives, all the motivations up on the website. Like I said, thefantasyfootballers.com. Matthew Betts put that up there. That was today's News and Odes, presented by USA Insurance. Learn more at usaa.com slash insurance.

Let's talk waivers, briefly. Welcome to the waiver wire. Oh man, these graphics are getting better and better. If you're not on, you know, today is the day for YouTube. Go over to youtube.com slash fantasy footballers and just enjoy the drops. Yeah, you know what? You should be doing this and it'll be good for your resume. Did Brian just stay up 48 straight hours? Oh, they had this prepped.

No question. No question. We didn't because we- No, you did. Well, the idea was prepped, but we also had versions of everything with Mike in them in case he won. Oh, that's so sad.

In case you lost? Hey, you know what? Sometimes you don't have to tell everybody everything. You can just be like. I was telling you that to make you feel good. We wanted you in there with us. Wait, wait, wait. You were trying to make me feel good by reminding him.

You need to evaluate of what you think would make people feel better. Yeah, my bad. Because telling me, I would have been in the graphic had Jameer Gibbs not run a 30-yard touchdown with three minutes left. It's like telling someone, if your mom was still alive, she'd love this moment. My bad.

I told you that to make you feel better. They also remember her anyway. Yes, right. It's right over like that. They paid for a big cake too. They threw it out, but they paid for a huge cake for you. It would have been great. Oh, I feel way better. All right. Thank you.

So the waivers. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It would have been great. I feel way better. All right. Thank you. So the waivers Spontaneous congratulations This is Alyssa Andy's favorite daughter, but I'm not here to talk about my dad Owl you are the greatest fantasy football champ in the world. Congrats on your victory over my dad. Oh Thanks, sweetie I don't there's one more to go. I don't think we've ever had more kids. I am dead. I'm dead I Mean the show moments of the year. We're we're at the very end of the year and I don't know

how this doesn't get towards the footies. You know how the Oscar people they put their movie out in December? Like all the Chalamet talk for the Bob Dylan movie or whatever it's called. And they're like oh he's going to win best actor. Yeah, we just kind of sneak it in at the end. Because that's when everyone is not really paying attention, but you are. You guys want to talk waivers?

Go ahead. Sure. We can start at the running back position. Again, because this is week 18, there's a bunch up in the air, and you're in a championship matchup, there's not a ton of names. I would say that the number one name right now, Khalil Herbert, the backup running back for the Cincinnati Bengals now. Again,

this is up to Chase Brown's health. Chase Brown is healthy and he's going to play. Cincinnati needs to win this game. Then Khalil Herbert's irrelevant. Amir Abdullah is the other name. He was so great last week, they decided that he should be the guy at the end of the year instead of Alexander Madison. You know, you could have done this the whole season. Amir Abdullah was there. A couple other combos. Michael Carter, Trey Benson, if Connor sits,

even if he doesn't, Carter might be okay. Pier Strong, Deontay Foreman. Foreman had much more of the ground work, a lot of the goal line work, Peer strong, the targets. In Cleveland in a meaningless game. And Raheem Blackshear. Sure. Have you any wool?

No, he is completely shaved clean. However, Chuba is on IR. Oh, the season's over, guys. This is one of those where if you have to make a decision. Now, he might be the name to pick up on waiver day because you know he's going to be getting work and then wait later in the week for Khalil Herbert. Amir Abdullah got injured as well. I haven't seen anything on that.

Oh, God. I haven't either. But those would be the running backs of of note Wide receivers Alec Pierce if flaco starts if flaco doesn't start I wouldn't start Pierce Dobbs 7 for 58 last week for Green Bay Marvin Mims Hubba Hubba Jason gave me his hundred dollars I sure did and for 103 last week Marvin Mims is very interesting You know if you look at the last it's not been a top six receiver two or four weeks the last four weeks. You know if you actually look at the last six games he's on a I don't know if you even are

aware of this. Some big plays in there but he's on an over thousand yard pace for a full season over the last six. So he's been more involved in this as, again, a must win for the Broncos. The snaps, Mims is hard to trust. It's a little janky. But the snaps the last two weeks are at 47% where he's been a mid-20s type of a player. So has he solidified that spot? I don't think we know for sure. It's sketchy. Malik Washington, last week five more targets. If Waddle doesn't play and the Dolphins need to win,

it's the Jets game. Yeah, and I mean, we're still waiting on who is the quarterback. You're waiting on Jalen Waddle. The last news I saw on Waddle was actually more positive that he might play. And the news on Tua is seemingly negative. Yeah, they are going to split first team reps, but they're going to give more first team reps to Tyler Huntley this week.

So I think the expectation is that Tua is not able to go with that hip injury, and they can win this game without Tua. So if you're going to make the playoffs, it would be better to have a healthy hip for Tua. It would be a big punch to the A-chans if you get Huntley back in there. I don't know why I motioned that. Chigga Conquo at tight end, last week seven more targets. I tweeted it. He just missed a 32-yard touchdown. He did.

He didn't miss it. I don't think that's fair to Chick. Because when you're like, yeah, there you go. So he didn't look super fast though. He had his guy totally beat. Yeah, he had his guy. But it's also, you gotta give him a shot to make that catch. But the grass was destroyed. Yes, it was raining.

Players were slipping all over the place. Do you, is your O'conquo belief and faith still strong if you're like, they're going to be rotating, guys? It's not amazing. I'd rather play Zach Ertz if he was out there 6 for 72 and 2 last week. Although, again, what's the consequential situation there for Washington?

Dizzley back out on the field, they need to win. Fire Muth, Pittsburgh, he was 7 for 60. For Washington. Dizzley back out on the field. They need to win. Fire Muth, Pittsburgh, they... He was seven for 60, that's an option. The matchup is great again. Both Dizzley and Fire Muth this week have very, very good opposing defenses at the tight end position. And by that I mean they are poor.

Right. They give up a lot of fantasy points. Defensively, there are a lot of options. Again, all the waivers for week 18 on the website, we've been sorting through them. TheFantasyFootballers.com, the waiver rankings. Defensively, you've got the Dolphins must win facing the Hapless Jets offense.

Dolphins defense has been pretty good lately. What, they gave up three points last week, they were a big scorer the week before. Broncos against Kansas City's backups. The Buccaneers must win against nobody. I mean the Raiders put up 12 fancy points against New Orleans last week. The Falcons against Carolina, Falcons must win. And then you could go with Houston against some Will Levis. Some Will Levis in that game. And some starters for the Texans. That was announced that they're going to play their

starters. Maybe at the end of the game they get benched but a half against some banana Rama is enough for you do you prefer Broncos Buccaneers or Dolphins they're all their roster percentage is pretty I prefer close I'd prefer the I prefer the Dolphins I prefer the Buccaneers the Buccaneers I think are who I'd go with but I mean, dude, all three of those are just neck and neck. They're good. None of them should Colts you this week. Yeah.

I wouldn't necessarily hit this button this week, but I feel like I've got to. I got to see it. Full stream ahead. Jay, we're still on the train. We were on the train with the champ. That was a pretty good ride streaming quarterbacks How bright are they covered our tickets? Yeah

Bryce Young against Atlanta. I like him. Let's do it now Mike pointed out yesterday That recently Bryce Young has had much better numbers in CJ Strauss since the return from the benching He has been a much better fantasy quarterback. How wild would it be? And I don't expect this to happen, but let's say you look back five years from now and Bryce Young is the clearly better pick than C.J. Stroud. That'll be an important lesson learned. It was a zero percent chance last year.

It's at least a 10 percent chance now. Don't underestimate the return of Adam Thielen's and the factor that that was in Bryce Young's success over the back half of the year. Adam Thielen has been available, performing, constantly scoring, even with LeGette hurt and other players hurt. Thielen said he is planning to play into his 50s. So. So a couple more years? Couple more years. Yeah.

He's got two more seasons. You're going Flacco, eh Rich? Yeah, I think the matchup against Jacksonville, you know, Joe Flacco, Anthony Richardson, whoever is going to be there should have enough fantasy points to throw into your lineup. I mean, motivation matters to a big degree, but really it's just a matter of, all these games are going to get played. So if you know who's going to be playing, and in this game you will,

you'll know whether Anthony Richardson is healthy or whether it's Joe Flacco. You're going to have enough points scored here. And I'm going with Russ against Cincinnati. You've got to be locked into the news of what Mike Tomlin is saying is going to happen because we laid it out. They will know if they need to win the game or not to try and get the division, but the matchup is there. It's the second highest total of the week right now. Dude, Cincinnati, this is the team we want to play against. Yep, yep.

Those are your streamers this week, week 18. We'll take a break, we'll do some mailbag and we'll shut this thing down! You know, the only thing better than Mike being dragged in here is having to muster the energy for this Mail bag How does you not make Jeremy do it He's the champ I do what I want And it's not that oh it was interesting. Oh man the britches are getting big the britches the bridge I britches were prepped. I mean, you can do whatever you want on your final day at work.

Boom shakalaka. Yeah, yeah. Al, that's at producer Borland for those that want to send their congratulations. I know, I think everyone in the world was rooting for you. So, and you know, they have this saying, act like you've been there before. He hasn't, he doesn't know how to act.

He doesn't know. Am I doing it right? Yeah, unfortunately. You're doing a great job. Unfortunately, you're doing it really well. Mailbag. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I got one more kid. Spontaneous congratulations. I knew this was coming. Hey, Al. This is Nathan, Andy's son and League of Record co-owner. I may have lost the championship to you, but to be honest a better man one You may not be my dad, but you're my hero Yes, why would you do that? He's the one that should have rejected the

The fame thank you so much Nate. Oh my gosh Such gracious losers. Your co-manager that just lost the championship. Wow. I mean, is he still the co-manager in 2025? That's an update we're going to need to get a hold of. The Holloway blood is thicker than water. I mean, that changed rapidly.

Yeah. They sold you down the river I thought this show was got water in them beans. I thought the show was gonna be about Mike's failures What failures all I see is a champ? Sparkling over on the in the alleyway. Yeah, I've already unless I have a kid I don't know about it should be over with you got to be thankful that at the you know at a certain age our parents probably can't figure out how to like record something. Oh my gosh. Get that in because that would have taken it over the top. Oh my god. You did not write that for

him? I did not write any of these. Yes you did. I promise you I did not. That's my wife. You raised them right. You really did. I'm not sure about that. Tim writes in from Instagram for our mailbag here because we're doing a mailbag In your League of Record is there anything else you guys compete for than a trophy? Well this is a good example This is what you compete for. So that you can do this. There is no money on the line in the League of Record 18 years of People are always shocked about that. It is actually very detrimental to your wallet, to your win. I spent thousands of dollars two years ago. He saved me thousands of dollars. When I won the championship and had to hire a Marilyn Monroe and buy 20 foot banners.

We're getting written up by the complex saying that we're not allowed to put banners up. Don't tell me what I can't do. I'm the champ So lady yeah, you you win negative money. Yeah, but I had already looked into like but it's marching bands Yeah How if I could rent a few cheerleaders to cheer every pick? Yeah, I don't know the civilian capability of getting a flyover But I mean, yeah Luke Air Force Base is close Yeah, I mean a flyover make it bring everyone outside So oh man, I know we play for pride we play for pride Okay this question is that all day

All all day besides trophies and other championship swag Okay, this question, is that All Day? All day. All day. Besides trophies and other championship swag, how do you, do you fellas have a tradition or ritual that you, when you take home a fantasy title, we do, we got, in our office, we got shelves with the rings, the fantasy championship rings. I've got a banner that I hang up for draft day.

Mike has one, Jason has one. There are some years in Specific spots where like I got a Mike Evans jersey Because when you know he scored 47,000 points in week 17 and single-handedly won the championship if there's a player like that you might go out and get their jersey Mike had a Rg3. Oh, yeah. Like, mural, really.

Yeah. But there you go. Bobby MacArthur, where do Brian Thomas and Brock Bowers go in next year's redraft leagues? To me, they are both. Bowers will be a one-two turn player. He'll be right at the end of the first round. And I think Thomas is right there, too.

I do. I think they're right next to each other. Some leagues, people will reach at the end of the first.. And I think Thomas is right there, too. I do. I think they're right next to each other. Some leagues, people will reach at the end of the first. Otherwise, they'll be mid-second at the latest. I'm not positive which of those two goes before each other. They're both superstars. I think Bowers will go ahead of Brian Thomas.

Next year, we enter a new phase in the fantasy tight end universe. It's called Bowers and McBride. That's the new era. It's not Andrews and Kelsey. It's not Gronk and Kelsey. It's Bowers McBride. That's the new era. It's not Anders and Kelsey. It's not Gronk and Kelsey. It's Bowers McBride. And somehow, Kittle will continue to be disrespected

and drop to be the fifth tight end. And I'm sure the- You're right. That will happen. CMC will come back, and Iyuk will come back, and he will be- All the reasons. It might be a good reason.

I'm sure there's going to be plenty of discourse of, well, is Bowers going to Laporta? And to me, the answer is absolutely not. Laporta, it was a really low scoring, tight end year last season. And it was not done on volume. It was done on touchdowns. Where Laporta's coming through in the playoffs,

because he's scoring a bunch of touchdowns, where Brock Bowers is, like he is a new Travis Kelsey, where he's the focal point of the Raiders' office for the foreseeable future. Yeah, it's not just the touchdowns, it's the ability to do other things. Yeah. Like if you look at Laporta, it's like,

well, okay, they don't need him. Like if Laporta had a season ending injury Not one point would be different in the Lions outcome I it's sad to say that it's not trying to say Laporta is not a good player He's a very very good player, but they just have a nut. They have another Too many other options. I'm in rock and step up. The running game is great The the other receivers now all of a sudden Tim Patrick becomes a thing.

Brock Bowers has. Alan Robinson. Yeah, he did, he's catching passes. Brock Bowers has no competition, I mean none. It's like Jacoby Myers is the next best. They might have more after the draft. But even if they do, Bowers. They'll have a rookie quarterback too,

that'll be something that you'll have to factor in. Bowers. They will have a new quarterback. Bowers has 1,150 yards with a game left. And Laporta, last year, finished the season at 17 games with under 900 yards. There's no world where you take McBride next year with Bowers with a rookie quarterback over.

Is McBride a first round pick then? He could be close. This wasn't an argument of McBride. He's not going to Laporta. I think some of the... I get that. It's funny, Laporta and Andrews were very similar this year where the starts of the seasons and the ends were very different. I completely agree with the fact that he's not going to Laporta.

He's a PPR guy. But I do wonder, because Bowers and McBride are together. The times that we saw Gronk and Kelsey go in the first round, as high as five or six, was because they were kind of, they were alone. And so I think that puts Bowers and McBride more in the mid-second round range. You might be right. I think that's what, well,

because if I were going into the draft genuinely, I would just take the cheaper one. Sure. It's not like McBride and Bowers. What's the reception difference between them? I mean, 108 versus 100? Yeah. Or something like that?

Despite the touchdowns not coming for McBride, you would think that there will be more touchdown opportunities with Kyler at quarterback than a rookie quarterback. McBride has 104 receptions. Bowers is at 108. And also McBride is one game fewer. So McBride's at 15 games played.

If you take the midpoint of the season, McBride's pace is 143 receptions. Bowers' pace is 123. So both of them have even been stronger in the second half of the year. And McBride will score in the future if you want to look at that positive regression narrative. Yeah, we talk about touchdowns not being a sticky stat. We'll talk about it this offseason, the fact that McBride doesn't have touchdowns.

That means nothing for the future. Best example here is James Cook. He's like, oh, well, he's a good back. He just doesn't ever get touchdowns. And now he's about to possibly break OJ Simpson's record for most rushing touchdowns. And then like the beginning of Travis Kelsey's career, five, five, four, then it went up and you had a run

where he's hitting double digit touchdowns. Last one here, Jonathan wants to know, I'm thinking about my keepers, Jalen Hurts, do I move on to Jaden Daniels? He has both on the roster. Wow. I had to ask this one. It's like a great question to set the table

for an off-season of shows where these type of questions will be popping up. I don't. I would rather have Jaden Daniels going forward. I do not doubt at all that Jaden Daniels goes ahead of Jalen Hurts next year. I would rather keep Hurts simply because we have enough years, year after year after year, where we know that Jalen Hurts is going to be good. We know what his weapons are, his offensive line, the system. If you go,

well how does it fail next year? Okay, if the tush push gets outlawed this offseason I would be willing to change it. But for the most part, we know he's going to be great. There is the potential that next year things get figured out or things get worse in the sophomore season for Jayden Daniels. So it's just a safety thing because both players are awesome. I lean to Hertz side. I will lean Daniels by a hair.

Fantasy points per game this year, 25.1 to 23.4. There's always the opportunity for a rookie to get better. We do have a piece of news that actually is important for waivers. Brown's running back, Pierre Strong, is in the concussion protocol. Deontah Forman slides up the waiver list. Deontah Forman is, I mean, he's in a really, really bad situation. But the running backs are right now a flow chart of injuries where you know that Foreman's going to get the ball a lot.

Can he do anything against the Ravens? Eee. I don't know. There you go. All right, week 18's tough, guys. Week 18's tough. Not as tough as getting through this show. It's been great.

But we did it. I think you redeemed Mike this show. Ah, it's been great. But we did it. I think you redeemed Mike's spirits. Oh, I'm cheered up. I'm good. I'm on to 2025. Do I have permission to close this out, or do you have any relatives of mine that you have summoned up?

My parents aren't here to walk in and. I did text your daddy and he responded. Oh my gosh. Somewhere else that, man. Probably thought you were spam. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Somewhere else that man. Probably thought you were spam. Probably blocked you. Goodbye everybody. Congratulations Al. New Year's tomorrow. No show. We'll be back Thursday. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com

and follow us on Twitter at theffballers.