Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Playoff Primer + Trade Targets & League Winners - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/12

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Nov 12, 2025. Best and worst fantasy playoff schedules! With trade deadlines approaching in fantasy football leagues, find out who is worth making a move for! Plus, backup waiver wire options, rest of season outlooks, and a preview of Thursday Night Football. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.(00:00) Intro(05:24) Backup Options(09:40) NFL News(15:23) Thursday Night Breakdown: Jets at Patriots(22:36) Fantasy Football Playoff Primer(25:35) Quarterbacks(27:46) Running Backs(36:06) Wide Receivers(40:46) Tight Ends(45:26) Defenses(47:58) Mailbag(51:08) Who is Jonathan Taylor’s Backup?(52:46) Trade Pickens for Breece?(54:10) Trade TreVeyon Henderson for Bucky Irving?(55:35) Courtland Sutton or Alec Pierce?Connect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Hello, welcome in. And a special welcome to you, Jason. That's right. I'm back. I'm alive. You guys. He's in a better place. You guys were hoping you got 50%.

No, sir. We didn't even get to make 50% jokes that got so serious. You were actually legit. I was actually worried. Well, welcome in Wednesday, November 12th. It's a full house today. Jason is alive. It seems like most people,

most people on YouTube seem to think that we were covering for a hangover. That's what the majority opinion was That would have been way more fun What were we covering for, Jason? The vacuum That's what we call it when both ends Go out And then the vacuum exists in your insights

I hate to interrupt here But the deucers actually got you a little care package Okay It's kind of like an emergency kit in case this happens again We have a basket We've got a basket Oh thank you Wow there's a

Oh we got a clock There's an alarm clock because umbo could wake up wait a second let's walk through this jason why don't you tell the people on the podcast what you have in this beautiful gift basket is very kind guys yeah i really appreciate you we were worried about you brother theducers really care um well first of all it's impossible to open i can't get into it so let's just take a look at what's in there oh we got depends we got so now i can i can still show up and do it live right no you don't have to worry about who's doing depends now on on television uh hemmed well that's dion

Was it Deon? And Emmett. No, I thought it was Emmett. Peptobizmo, some tombs, and an alarm clock. Very, very. There's some barf bags in there, too. Oh, that's great, man. Because you cared about both ends.

The only thing that didn't arrive in time was your life alert device. Well, thank you, guys. You are very kind of. A round of applause for all the people love it. Jason today. Oh, they really love it. And this is just bad luck, right? just a run-of-the-mill, random food poisoning?

It wasn't my fault that the tenderloin I made was so good that I decided to eat it after it had been on the counter for, I don't know, eight hours. I thought the microwave would fix things. Oh, my, did you really? Yes. Oh, gosh. I'm on your side. I would have not thought twice about eating it. It was delicious.

That's a lot of hours on the counter. It was too many hours. There was too many hours. Oh, man. And look, do you have tapeworm? Somewhere out there, there are two helpful blinds installers

who also ate this meat. Now, it was a couple hours before I did. There's only one. But there's only one left. Yeah, Jay, you got them. Helds him with kindness. Hopefully, you guys are okay. Well, Al, welcome back.

Glad you're here. Refrigerator meat. oh man it only took 3,000 shows for somebody to just not make it and I know you felt bad but physically is what we're worried about we have a Wednesday episode of the show today Thursday night preview NFL news to talk about backup options mailbag and you got a gift basket so if you start to feel anything oh I got my pepto on lock you got it on lock uh congrats

Pook Nukem still in the lead of the Megalobole. No, reclaim. He's back. Oh, that's right. Smokey the Bear had taken the spot, but Pook Nukum, Smokey the bear in the lead for the Megalibol. If you don't know what that is, if you're new to the show, we have a tournament, a massive 20,000-plus player tournament that starts at the beginning of the year. It's one of an innumerable amount of perks for the people over at join the foot.com, including the new trade analyzer tool. And Pook-Nukum in the lead right now. He's all out of bubblegum.

Yeah. We have an Instagram. You can follow us. Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers. You can follow us on X. Catch this one. At Andy Holloway. Uh-huh.

That's normal. At Jason Moore. What? You are now at Jason Moore. Not Jason FFL. No, you are at Jason Moore. Jason Fantasy Football Week. That one never made sense.

Oh, you were able to. I thought it was fantasy football lover. Maybe it was. Maybe it was. It's gone. Jason was able to. the claim his name. And Mike, not so much. At FF. Hitman. Got my name. Yeah, you got you. You got your nickname. No big deal.

Fart, Fart, Hitman. Did you say fart, fart, fart, hitman? One of the best jokes ever made on our show. That's what the FF is. We got people confused. Poop, Poop, Simmons. Oh, man. We got to hit a button and go into it. Backup Options, presented by Progressive Insurance. Every Wednesday, waivers go through in your leagues, and we take a look at the most dropped players and make some suggestions, some backup options to pick up off the waiver wire. We call it...

Backup options? Well, we, no, I know we call it backup options, but every week when we say to check the waiver layer... Oh, drop it like it's hot. We say keeping on who people also released on... waiver day. The most dropped players on sleeper over the last 24 hours, Justin Fields at the quarterback position. Should always be the case. Every Wednesday, we should be dropping Justin Fields. Running backs, Isaiah Davis, after Reese Hall didn't get traded. Chris Rodriguez after the injury, Tank Bigsby, Jacorio Croski Merritt, Singletary, Emmanuel Wilson, some of these

for backup options. And then Kyle Monongai getting the drop. I don't like, I don't like that. You know what he's capable of. I think Chris Rodriguez and Kyle Monongai are weird drops. I'll also throw out Dalton Kincaid who's being dropped in a lot of leagues he's been too important at the time in position he doesn't appear to have a long-term injury I would not be kicking him to the curb

well if you didn't get the waiver wire ads you wanted here are some backup options I will go with the world's slowest yet effective tight end Dalton Schultz Dalton Schultz is on a run he's getting it done he really is he's been very solid over the last month

tight in eight seven and four in three of the four weeks Double digits in three or four weeks. Targets have been up there, 11 this past week, eight the week before. Maybe Davis Mills likes going his way a little bit more than C.J. Stroud did. But gotten to the ends on this past week, you know, you could do a lot worse than what, nine, six, seven targets, or sorry, receptions in those games. And so I think he's an interesting kind of emergency play at the tight-in position right now. Gadsden, does he play this week?

I don't know. Doubtful. Thankfully, the Gadsden injury was not some kind of season-ending big injury. The MRI was pretty clean. But, yeah, I mean, obviously, if you have Gadsden, you are maybe in trouble this week. I'm going to throw out a guy that you two should have talked about. I did listen to the show yesterday. Great job.

You are right. But Tyler Badee. Yep. Tyler Badi. from the Denver Broncos. He is, I mean, the injury right now to J.K. Dobbins, they are, it's kind of gone back and forth. It's like, oh, he might go on IR.

Now I think the latest thing is like, oh, he's probably going to avoid IR, but that's in the conversation, meaning he's not going to play this week. Like his foot is legitimately injured. I do not believe that Dobbins plays this week. I think that RJ Harvey will be awesome, a must play. type of player, but this is a system with Sean Peyton that they always utilize multiple backs. Tyler Badegh will be working. He's always liked him more than we thought he should or should. Yeah, for sure. He's still going to be the two-minute drill, the passing down back, who's

already been involved. So certainly a player that needs to be picked up. And what I'm seeing on, obviously, waivers are running this morning, but prior to these waivers running, zero percent rostered. So he should be out there That's a pretty low percentage. All right, I'm going with a situation where you can't play him this week but also, you know, waivers are going through. Let's get

ahead of it. Let's get those options ready for next week as well. So San Francisco 49ers, they will be playing at Arizona. The offense has been better. Jacoby Brissette. Apparently the only quarterback over the last four weeks who has been in the top 12 each

and every week. and then they get Carolina at Cleveland a byweek in Tennessee. So the upcoming schedule here for the 49ers DST, make sure you get out ahead of it because they'll be on the waiver show next week. All right, that was backup option sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive.com. We have news. News and notes from Around the League, presented by Progressive Insurance.

All right. Well, we did get the unfortunate update to the Travis Hunter situation undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a torn LCL. So no, no significant damage. Hmm. Yeah, it's, well, it wasn't an ACL, and it'll be a much shorter recovery and he'll be very healthy going into next year. But season cut short for the number two overall pit. I get that, but I'm not a doctor. I think the last L and L.

CL stands for a ligament. It's least crucial ligament. Oh, well, that's good. You didn't know that? I did it. I knew it was ligament. It's the least crucial. But yeah, it's unfortunate, but I'm glad it's not an ACL.

He will be a very, very interesting discussion going into next year, assuming Brian Thomas is still, you know, there and healthy and they're going into the season. There will be some people who will be all the way in on Travis Hunter. He had his breakout game right before being injured. He's obviously very talented. The draft capital is enormous. I think I'm going to be out. I think I'm going to be out on Hunter just because there are so many different avenues for

failure. We still don't know how much he's going to play on defense, maybe coming into next year. He, you know, his breakout game was like, okay, let's stop the defense thing. Put you on offense the entire second half, have that breakout. Next year, there's just a lot of question marks on how it could go wrong, whether it's Brian Thomas actually getting it together, whether he's playing on defense, whether it's coming off of an injury. There's a lot of like yellow flags to me. We have the J.K. Dobbins. We just talked about it, you know, not on injured reserve yet.

I'm still nervous about it. Honestly, I think he could end up there. But hip drop, tackle, foot injury, you know, this is the Bucky Irving situation too, where you had, you know, is he back soon? Is he not back? we'll see what happens with J.K. Dobbins. Can't report on too much more. James Winston is going to start a quarterback for the Giants. This is a breath of fresh air. Brian Davel would never. Well, Russell Wilson would never make me happy

if he was the starter. So James Winston. I don't think it's a coincidence. Well, perhaps not. But here we go. Darius Slate and Viable. Oh, yeah. Awesome. This is so great. I'll start Wondale Robinson. I'll start Wondale Robinson in a PPR league.

We're going to tell you about. I might start Jalen Hyatt. Who do you got? Who you got? I'm going to go Oleshefsky. You know who else he would start? The Alpacres D. Yeah. You would start the heck out of them. Yeah, no, that's why we love this move. It's so perfect. James is throwing 303 and 3. That's what he does. 300, three touchdowns, three interceptions. Does it make Theo Johnson more viable for you? Because we talked about Theo Johnson's a potential pickup. but he's only kind of been good with Dart and as like if we went back to Russ

I would imagine that Theo Johnson would not be correct really part of the offense so every we don't know where James is going to no James doesn't know where he's going to go yeah but it's going to be awesome I think it's just some hope I mean with dart out and if Russ was starting we'd all be just

deflated benching all giants yeah we would be super bummed out so what else do we have on the news front Chris Rodriguez is expected to play. Okay. The shoulder injury, not severe. He did get into the ends on this past week. It's still a three-headed monster when it comes to McNichols and JCM. And Brenton Strange, the practice window is open. What else is going on? Strong likelihood that the pack, this is off-season stuff, but the Cowboys, Strong likelihood that they franchise tag George

Pickens. Don't do this. I know. I saw this report. I was like, Don't do this. Come on, man. Don't do this. Jerry. Jerry. What do you may don't do this? You're saying pay him? I'm saying pay him or let him go. George Pickens on a franchise contract over the off season is going to be just barful-rific. Like, hey, is George going to show it's going to be the entire off season? Is George Pickens going to show up? Is he going to hold out? That's funny. I don't have that perspective on this at all. I think this is the best case scenario for Pickens and the Cowboys. It's the best case scenario. They can't afford to pickens. pay him and CD Lamb that money. And then he gets to stay in a great situation, playing for a contract, which I feel like

George Pickens' personality needs to be playing for a contract. But he's doing that right now. I know. I'm saying like he was a second round pick. He hasn't had his payday yet. I just, I feel like if he gets, if he gets put on the franchise, I don't think he's going to like it very much. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of money.

It is a great scenario for fantasy. You're saying you're just worried that he will be dissatisfied. Yes. And that is possible too. For fantasy football, I do think it would be great. Like for him to be a cowboy. If he plays on it. If he goes to the open market, he will be the highest paid.

Rader of all time. Yeah, exactly. He will make a lot of money and go somewhere bad and not be good for fantasy. Yeah, so maybe he would be okay with the money. Let's hope for that. That was news and notes, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers,

not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We'll take a quick break and jump into the Thursday night preview. All right. Can't go more than a few days without football, right? Thursday Night Breakdown. Well, the New York Jets. at 2 and 7 take on the New England Patriots who are 8 and 2.

So let me ask you, do the Patriots feel like an 8 and 2 team to you? Yeah, they do to me. What they've done the last couple of weeks has, they're legit. I mean, I know when we were talking on the divisional previews early this off season, I was pretty hyped on the Patriots believing in Drake May and Vrable. But I believe it. And it's, to me, it's all three phases. They're just playing really great football.

I am the most hyped about these Noreaster jerseys they're going to wear. Oh, we got some special jersey? Yeah, we got, oh, is this their... We have these Noreaster Patriots jerseys. They're going to win. What word are you saying? Nor Easter. It's a type of storm?

Yeah. Really? Yeah. Nor Easter. For example, let me use it in a sentence. You had two Noreasters going in the lower and upper half of your body yesterday. Where you might be confused, Jason. It's very specific.

It only takes place in the North and only on Easter. Oh, okay. It's a very specific storm. Oh, it's up there in the North Easter storm. What? Why are you British? I was just, what was that? That was really, in the Northeast.

Also, while we're piling on, Jason, grow your mustache back. I'm trying. It looks so bad. You looked like you shaved it again. No, man. Did you throw some of that up? No, I mean, what in the? I'm so sorry, everybody.

I mean, I should just miss, like, Two weeks. Or just wear a groucho marks little costume. That's a good idea. Put something on your upper lip. Yeah, I apologize. Okay. Sorry, I don't want to make us sick here.

New York is playing the Patriots. New York is fresh off a dub with 52 passing yards. Hooray. You want to play any player not named Breeze Hall on the Jets? Can we make this simple? Yeah, very simple. There are no. So we have our.

start sit tool on the website, the fancy footballers.com. We collect all the data from the start sit tool every week, and we have a, you know, what, a couple hundred of them that show up on the main start sit page as the most popular questions. There are zero players

in this game from our most popular start sit questions. There are not decisions to be made for the Jets. If you have Breece Hall, you play him. We don't have a sit-sit tool. No, the sit-sit tool would be on fire. It would be like, Do I sit to Rod Taylor or Justin Field?

Both. It's all the tool says. You sit both. On the other side, I mean, Drake May has been incredible. Travion Henderson, I think we are playing regardless of the status of Romandre right now. 100%.

I will say like, and I'm not, I wish I was, I wish someone else could bring this up than me. Because I just don't want to be like, I think there's a disbelief that I want Trayvion to succeed, which is fine. I've said what I've said about the real,

I've been realistic with how Vrable treats the running back room. Yes, and Vrable has so far done that. In that game, you had the breakaway runs. If you were to sum up everything else he did, he was at about 1.9 a carry. Yes. And we watched it. I mean, you and I watched the tape together,

and he had basically almost three breakaway runs. One of them, you know, you're not going to get the play at the end of the game most often. That was a goal line defense. They were trying to stop the run to get the ball back, and, you know, you break the first line of defense. You're going to go to the house, and he did that. he almost broke one on the first play of the game

you know the other stuff looked okay he's definitely not a pile mover I mean that is very very evident not that Devon A. Chan is or anything like that but Gibbs Gibbs can finish a run with power right Gibbs is in a different category to me A Chan probably a little bit more power from what I've seen a little bit more arm tackle breaking

than what I've seen from Trayvon so far they will use both guys if Ramandre is back I have I don't know I don't know what Vravo will do. I think it would be stupid to go back to it. I think the point you made yesterday, Mike, just to illuminate it. I want to bring it up again because you made the point of like, you only get a game like this from Chavion when you give him opportunities,

enough of them to pop something, right? Like his strength in the offense is the big play. You give him five or six carries. He doesn't go anywhere. You're depressed. And he's also going to try to hit that play. in each of those five touches which is like that it's like a Ken Walker

problem now of the guy he's like okay well I don't get on the field very much I'm going to show you what I can do the point was just if remand like Romandre against the box last week nothing close to that happens like if Ramandre is the one getting all those carries maybe he breaks through and you're like oh sick

a 10 yard run we did it so what will be able to do we just don't know Henderson's very nice 69-yard run this last week was longer than any run in Ramandre's 789 career carry count. So, yeah, that's not happening with Ramandre. I do think if he's back, he will 100%. This will be a split. This will be a split back. I think it'll be close to 50-50 rest of the way.

That still might be enough to allow you to weekly start Henderson. I would start Henderson over Ramondre if I had both. This is a perfect matchup in the sense that the general. Jets have, you know, they kind of purposely destroyed their own defense before the trade deadline last week. They're 12 and a half point home favorites. That's great for the running back. So, yeah, I mean, Trayvion should be in. We haven't talked about Sivan Diggs probably since week five's number five overall finish, or at least not that often. He's been the number 55, 26, 35, 26, and 22 since then. Double digits of the last two weeks, three of the last four, nothing ceiling-wise. But Kishon, booty, the hamstring, I would imagine they give him another week. off with the 10-day gap after that with the hamstring injury.

It seems like that. Stefan Diggs, he's fine as a floor play here. As they just keep proving it over and over of you aren't quite sure who it's going to be. Mack Hollins, if people weren't paying attention, Mac Hollins had 10 targets. He was six for 104 last week. Like he was the one who got the volume this past week.

So Diggs is fine for floor, but the roulette wheel will spin. All right. Anything else from this game you want to talk about? Any interest in Hunter Henry at all? If I had to start Hunter Henry or Mason Taylor, I would probably go to Hunter. Henry or Theo Johnson. I'm going to, I think I'll think I'll go with Hunter Henry.

All right. Get it out of the way on Thursday. Figure out what you got at the tight end position. Yeah. Get it out of the way. Okay. We have a special segment for you today as we wrap up the Thursday night preview. Let's get into it.

Playoff Primer. Well, the Playoff Primer, here we are. What an episode we have prepared for you. What is your overall perspective on the matchup discussion? Because we want to look over teams and situations positionally that look really good right now for the playoffs, right? You don't want to over-emphasize matchups. You don't want to under-emphasize it. But, you know, we had league winners in this category last year that had, that were dialed up for success. You had Jared Goff ending up as

the quarterback won. We kind of knew it was going to be good when he had the matchup, Buffalo, Chicago, San Francisco last year in weeks 15 through 17. You saw this with a great matchup for Taj Spears, who ended up a top 10 back in those weeks. You saw this with Brian Thomas junior who had a perfect schedule and then a perfect finish at wide receiver one over the last three weeks. Jalen McMillan right lower tier guys with good matchups broke out and had big weeks

even Chigga Conquo. I think our Conco is like that's the big one to also point out. It's like the matchup does matter and while we at this point of the schedule you can't guarantee a defense won't figure it out. You can see the Baltimore Ravens. But

if you find like you got to chase the trend at this point. Trade deadlines are coming up. Yeah, you've got 10 weeks of information. If you're wanting to take a shot on the schedule, now is the time to do it. And they do, it does matter. Like, guys just perform better against defenses that give up points to that position. Jason, maybe briefly talk about the schedule adjusted versus points given up.

We have a strength of schedule two on the website where you can sort by either just total fancy points given up to the position or schedule adjusted. And we default to schedule adjusted. So if you click off of that, you can see just the total. But Schedule Adjustment is a better way to look at it. What it's doing is you are factoring in who these defenses have played. And I think the easiest way to understand is looking at the tight-in position. Yes. Because some teams don't score points at the tight-in position.

They just don't even have one that they throw the ball to. You've got a guy, you know, it's like every week you're averaging like 20 yards to the tight-in position. So then when a defense plays against that team, oh, they shut down the tight end. They goose them. You know, it's like, well, everybody does. That doesn't matter. Did you play against Travis Kelsey? Yeah, it was a sample that week or something.

You know, so what it does is it basically takes a look at the average of your opponent. So, you know, I'm playing against the Cardinals. Trey McBride averages X amount of points per week. Did we give up more than that? Or did we give up, you know, less than that? And that's basically what we're doing. So all the data that we're looking at here is adjusted for the schedule. so we know how do they fare against the average at each position?

Well, you guys want to start at the quarterback position for 2025? Best quarterback schedules to put into your memory banks here to consider before the trade deadline or not consider based on your guys' thoughts on some of these names. But right now the best schedules on paper look like J.J. McCarthy to Atung of Iloa, who had the impressive week this past week, big plays to Jalen Waddle. Lamar Jackson, at least the first two weeks look really good Cincinnati, New England. And then Daniel Jones, I think that's a fun discussion. We could have the commanders, if they get Jaden back, which they might, if they could stay in contention,

are also one of the better schedules out there. So, I mean, I would be hyper nervous about J.J. McCarthy. I can't imagine I am putting my – I'm going to leave the door open that he impresses me from Weeks 11 through 14. Yeah. And if that happens, then maybe that, you swing the door open a little bit. Like Lamar is, that's just a, wow, that's swell. If I have Lamar Jackson, I look ahead that the schedule is great.

This is more for you don't have a total and complete solution at the quarterback position. You might want to, you know, piece it together. Where J.J. McCarthy, if you get some, you know, confidence in what's going on, We're just saying week one of the playoffs, he plays the Dallas Cowboys. And JJ McCarthy is, I mean, he's on a lot of waiver wires out there if you're talking single quarterback. And then, okay, well, I play McCarthy one week. And then the next week, hey, look, it's two against Cincinnati. So it's about piecemealing together these three weeks for the best possible quarterback play

with the best possible matchup that you can find. And so we're just trying to lay those out. Like the Cincinnati in the semifinals for Tua, that's great. And then Daniel Jones in the championship week, he plays against Jacksonville. They're giving up almost five points above expectation to the quarterback position. You know what I like about Daniel Jones schedule is the matchups while they're great on paper from a like fancy points given up to the quarterback. They are teams that could challenge and beat Indianapolis. Like I want these, I don't want there to be a possibility.

just because the team gives up points to the quarterback that Jonathan Taylor wins the game in the first quarter and he doesn't throw the football. When you're in Seattle, I expect that thing to go the distance. When you're playing San Francisco with the division on the line at the end of the season, I expect that to go the distance. So those are encouraging to me. Yeah. So listening to Mike, there's two different approaches, right? Find the quarterback that you're going to ride through the playoffs. Daniel Jones would be my favorite because when you're looking at the playoffs, aren't with the studs. If you're great, you're great, whatever. But you're looking for people in the Daniel Jones tier where you can have really good performances, but, you know, it kind of matters

the schedule. So that's one way to do it. The other way to do it is to get J.J. McCarthy, Justin Herbert and Marcus Marriota or Daniels and just play against Dallas every week. Sure. That's just target Dallas every single week. That's it. Yeah, you would, you'd be in good shape then. I mean, Dallas, uh, that's the, uh, that's, the commanders at the end of the season. That's Herbert in week 16. Yeah. So, you know, those are the highlight names. I think the Daniel Jones discussion is the most interesting one. If you're, you know, you can win a championship with Dana Jones. Yeah, I think we have, we have not seen the Cowboys since they made their trade, right? That's true. We don't know

the new defense. So I don't, I don't think that's going to solve everything. Yeah, you're talking about Quinn? Yes. Yeah, yeah. But a player of that magnitude can change some things up. So that's a nice thing is Quinnon is a run stuffer. And so great. Right. We're talking. Throw more on Dallas. The one quarterback to highlight that has a rough schedule that has been

somebody carrying your team and been very good. We should flag it, though, because he's been a letdown in seasons past, certainly. It's Patrick Mahomes. I mean, they have to play the chargers who are the fourth best against quarterbacks, giving up three and a half points less than the average. where they play at Tennessee, who can be defeated very easily without the passing game. And then they play, this is the most difficult one. They play Denver.

That could be a real, I mean, we just watched Denver and the Raiders battle to a 10-7 fart fest. Yeah, that division. Part-fest hitman. When you're in division with good defenses, which obviously Denver has one of the best in the league, you could end up with a very, very disappointed. Like, if I had Mahomes, I have no doubt that you could ride him to the championship in that last week. Yeah, you're not going to try and move away from Mahomes. But I feel like.

I feel like in championship week, I might. If I got there with him, I still might look to, if there's another better option, that game scares me pretty bad. Well, let's turn the page. Let's talk about running backs. There have been a lot of names, a lot of streaming type of situations that have worked. out recently. Players like Tadje Spears, you know, players looking, you look to Tyler Badegh. Menangai has been in a lot of lineups, demarcato, right?

There's a lot of the middling tier. Again, you play your studs. You're not intimidated by playoff schedules for, let me give you an example. We'll start with the worst on this one. Worst schedule is probably Gibbs. You're not benching Gibbs. Right. It's worth, no.

Oh. Breaking news. Please don't be bathroom related. Marvin Harrison Jr. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just had surgery for appendicitis and is out. And is out this week. Yeah, so that usually you can be back within.

You can be back soon. It's much better than. Dang. But, I mean, out of the blue. When it happens, it happens. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Crazy. No one's safe from the appendix. No, that's, uh, anytime. That was a surprise. I guess people who have already had it are safe. Yeah. Yeah, those people are perfectly safe. We will never have to worry about Marvin Harrison, Jr., missing another game for appendicitis once he's back in.

No, you'd have to put an appendix back in and then you'd have to take it back out. Circling back, Gibbs, worst schedule. James Cook, bad schedule. Those two, those are players you're playing. It's worth knowing that you're going to have to play two road games for James Cook in New England and Cleveland. And there have been games where Cook has disappeared. Those are not going to be easy ones. But, again, they're in the upper echelon.

You're not worried about them. it's those middle guys that are interesting. The best running back schedule right now, you know, it's kind of a couple of committee situations. The commanders have a great schedule towards the fantasy playoffs. The Patriots do, right? And that could be a full committee at that point in time.

And the Cardinals have a good 16 and 17 as well. Trey Benson is. He's hiding. I don't remember where we discussed him, but he is a sneaky go trade for right now. Man, while he's still hurt, it's not a guarantee, of course, because he had the meniscus repair. You don't know exactly when he's going to come back.

You don't know for sure that it'll be full strength, but this is just a, it's another scratcher that you can grab. That semis against Atlanta championship against the Cincinnati Bengals. And I think once Benson is back, he will dominate the opportunities for Arizona. Yeah, have we heard anything new about, Benson that we can... Maybe Kyle if you want to dig up any

new intel, but I haven't heard anything. Yeah, I haven't either. The fact that we're local and we haven't heard anything on Tre Benson. Two minutes ago, we got a... Real recent. Theo Mackey, Cardinals Beat Reiter for Arizona Central. No update from Gannon on Tray Benson or Bam Knight. Okay, so we...

So the update from two minutes ago is no update. Yeah, perfect. Well, pay attention to Benson, though, because that's a few weeks away. Chan, good schedule. The Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason. This is one to flag because it's Dallas, New York. Aaron Jones seems to be getting the most snaps, and

you know, he's just not on the radar, I think, as maybe a league-winning type of start. Yeah, and I don't know that he will be league winning, but certainly be valuable. He was very good this last week. When I'm looking at the schedule and how it softens up for certain

positions, you talk about those middling guys but also rookies. You know, last year, Jalen McMillan had the breakup. But it was also against a really soft schedule, which I think benefits rookies. And there's two different rookie running backs that I think Trayvion Henderson had his breakout this week. Hopefully he retains more work going forward. But his playoff schedule is so nice. And Quintan Judkins, I think all three weeks of the playoffs are great for him. Those two guys to me are exciting to get primed for the playoffs. Yeah, that makes sense.

There are a number of backs where that can make the difference. Make sure you are ensuring the great ones, too. I mean, we talked about this yesterday. Get yourself some Brian Robinson, Jr., and those guys and tank. Also worth noting from a bad schedule standpoint, the Bears are, they have a really, really rough first two weeks of the fantasy playoffs. So the Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah.

Where Jalen Warren, which we had a nice puff piece about Jailen Warren. Some people are getting more excited about the touches. But Jalen Warren semis on the road against Detroit. Finals on the road against Cleveland. Those are brutal. That's not great. And I love this because you currently have Jalen Warren in our League of Record. You're going to have the buy week.

So that first week in the, you might. I presume you'll have a buy week. and if you do, you get a great schedule that you don't need. And then once you're back in the playoffs, Mike, tough, tough schedule. I love that. You love that about Warren, you're just going to get him to make a trade. We'll take a break.

We'll talk wide outs. The best wide receiver schedules are playoff primer, taking a look at what we know right now. Minnesota, Jefferson, Addison. It's often the... Hawkinson. It often correlates with the quarterback schedule. Certainly.

And so you have... Not always. You have JJ and Addison. You have Waddle with Tua. I mean... Waddle could be a league winner. He does feel that way for sure. And then, you know, the 49ers also have a really juicy schedule.

Not that we expect to know which wide receivers are going to play that week. We've had Kendrick Bourne has been relevant on this team this year. We've had Ricky Pearsall start the year hot. We had Joanne Jennings have a nice week. We have Brandon Ayuk who, my goodness. I saw videos of him running around the field six weeks ago, and he looked great. So this one feels a little bit more interpersonal than it does injury recovery at this point. But he could be back.

I mean, Pearsall's injury is one where he's already come back from it wants him been hurt. So you need to keep the Jennings, Iyuk stuff on the radar or Bourne or other players. um debo and terry that correlates with the mariotta and jaden daniel situation and then the eagles who i just watched a j brown on a on a live stream i saw he's like if you have me in fantasy just drop me that's what he said he that's how that's how he's feeling contributing to this team he's not happy and i love that with my wide receivers i want them to be displeased displeased when they're not getting enough stats it's fair and they're seven and two and just won another game Zay Flowers, nice schedule for the first two weeks

as well for the Ravens. Amon Ra, you're playing them no matter what, but guess what, Jameson Williams, who's been really hot right now. Great schedule to start the fantasy playoffs. He feels like Waddle Light on a league-winning potential where this offense is cooking. We had Jared Gough, the number one quarterback,

last year in the fantasy playoffs. Jameson Williams can be on your radar and probably could be picked up, if you believe, at the deadline, much cheaper than a lot of these other players. So if you had to go trade for someone right now based on the playoff schedule that you think is acquireable at a decent price, like who would you target? To me, to me, it is Waddle.

AJ Brown. AJ Brown is the, if we're talking, you know, everything baked into one, the risk, the reward, the cost. AJ Brown is where I would go. Maybe Terry. It, like, will it work for AJ Brown? I mean, we had a stretch run where the eagles were actually throwing and doing some fun, cool things. It could, that's the thing,

is you've at least seen it a little bit this year in a snapshot. If that timed up and came back for your fantasy playoffs, it would be incredible. I think it will, and I think you have to just, context is key, right? This was a player who had number 23 and number three finish, then got the hamstring injured, then comes back and plays Green Bay,

and this was a defensive battle through, through on the road. It just didn't happen. I mean, they went, they went fourth down. They went fourth down bomb to A.J. Brown. You know, that, that play happens. You're on a three game run and you're not probably talking on Twitch about how unhappy you are. And, and they, they have a good schedule. So that's the top of my list. Okay. I feel, I feel like, you know, you'd love to say Zay Flowers, but to me, Zayflowers has shown us through three years that if you stare at him too intently, he will disappoint you. And we haven't had a ceiling games are just no top 24 games.

He is a fine play during the playoffs. He's not the league winner. He's not going to go out there and put up 30 points. Conversely, are you worried about any of these guys because of schedules? We talked about Mahomes, so Rashi Rice has a tough schedule. You have Marvin Harrison. That one is probably one of the most difficult because Marvin scares me. I don't know that he is good enough yet in his career to just be one of those guys where it's like,

hey, you dominate the tough opponents. You really overcome the hard matchups. The fact that week one, week two, week two is at Houston on the road, and then the Atlanta Falcons, obviously we don't. Atlanta sometimes shows up, sometimes doesn't. But that's, he's like that perfect tier where he's a really important player to your team that is not always going to get it done. And it looks to me like it's going to line up where he's not going to get it done in the playoffs.

What about Abuka, who has a tougher schedule, Atlanta, Carolina, Miami? Because of a stud. Yeah, I mean, you don't like the schedule, but he, I wouldn't, like, I'm not doing the trade away Abuca for someone with a better schedule. Yeah. Agreed. Well, let's look at the tight end position. This can be one of the most important things you do is make a decision on your,

if you're not in the upper echelon tier, nothing makes a bigger impact than these matchups for tight ends. I mean, Chigakonkwa last year, winning championships. Nojoku the year before, winning championships. The dolphins have a great schedule. We don't know if Darren Waller's going to be back, but it's worth. If it's not Waller. You still have Waller on your team, Jason?

Oh, yeah. Come on, baby. Get healthy, Darren. I need a walrus in the playoffs. That schedule that we love. I mean, obviously, we like it for the passing game to a Waddle Waller, hopefully. And if it's not Waller, then Greg Dulcich could be a streaming candidate through the playoffs. The Mark Andrews situation for the Ravens.

It's very good the first two weeks of the playoff, Cincinnati, New England. A little pat on the butt here for Tyler Warren. Great schedule. You're always going to be playing him. Sam Leporta, great schedule. Worth noting, Leporta can make a huge impact. That one jumps out to me as maybe the biggest one here because you don't know if Waller's back.

Andrews would make me nervous even in a good matchup. Could get it done. But Leporta, that one jumps out to me. Yeah, he tends to show up in good matchups. And so, you know, we were coming off. a, what, three of the previous four weeks. He was number four. This past week still five for 53.

You can't complain about that. Just didn't get into the end zone. Starting to look like a little bit more of a consistent play. Wait, so we had a good game from Leporta and Jameson Williams and Amonroe. Thank you, Dan Campbell. Yeah. Dan Campbell just, his press conference was amazing. Because he's just such a no-nonsense guy.

And he also just doesn't play into the drama. He's just like, look, guys. We needed a change. It's like, we just made a change. It's not like it's not collaborative. We just needed to do something different. It worked this week. That's what he said. 44 points. It's like, just, you know, good. That's called coaching.

Coaches change stuff. Bad coaches. Just let Drew Petson keep calling plays. How about this? You worried about any of these names that have the worst tight-in schedules? Brock Bowers. No. He's got one of the worst. Travis Kelsey. Yeah.

A little bit. A little bit. Those are the real big ones. And not that every single game is the same, just talking for the Chiefs. They do play, they play Denver this week, right? Yeah, no, you get a little preview of them. Yeah, they're on the road against Denver. So you'll get at least a snap, you know, just a quick picture of what does it look like?

That's right. And have some confidence if Kelsey goes out and has, you know, six for 50, okay, I'll be all right with that. Yep. And then... Or you could just be terrified if Kelsey goes out there and does nothing this week. Yeah, those ones are, you know, jumping off the page. If you ride like

Gadsden and Dr. Schultz and Goddard into the playoffs, know that they have tough schedules, so don't, maybe don't bank on them, maybe have an option to go somewhere else. I feel like maybe Greg Dolsich isn't being talked enough about it. I haven't heard anything on Darren Waller,

which isn't necessarily bad but obviously it would be great to hear like oh he's he's healthy he's running he's ready to come off the IR and since you're not hearing that the route participation has been going up and up for yeah the snaps and everything just it looks a lot like Waller

I mean not the same exact production of course but the they're working him in and he and then over the next couple weeks he could be a focal part of the offense focal part point, whatever. I said the wrong word. I thought I might have heard something.

Yeah. My brain said point, but I said part. I heard somebody. Was it McAfee? Somebody said litmus test. Oh, no. Somebody said it like Jason. Good.

Somebody in media. My mind virus is working. Yeah, somebody in media got suckered in. It's a litmus test, everyone. Once you do things like that and you talk, all of a sudden, I know that there's people out there that every time they're going to say litmus, they're going to, wait, wait, Is it? No, which one? Yep.

Suckers. Gotcha. Another big position that is maybe the most crucial to make sure you're set up for. It is the defensive starts for the playoffs. Who's got the best defensive schedules right now? I think the Texans are one that I would target because you want the combination of a good defense with good matchups, right? Like the Saints have maybe the best, you know, schedule out there. Are you really going to bank on the Saints defense?

No, no. The Texans, they've been going back and forth on waivers I've seen in leagues. You know, they're acquireable. But Arizona at home, the Raiders at home, those are great matchups to start your playoffs. Buccaneers have been a team I've added in my playoff-bound leagues. The Buccaneers, they get to play at home against Atlanta. Love that. They get a play at Carolina, love that even more, then at Miami.

But the Buccaneers defense, we know what it is. They can have big performances. They're interesting. The Chiefs are interesting. The Steelers have been, so here's, so the Steelers go Miami, which is a pretty good matchup for fantasy points scored on defense. Then Detroit in the second week of the playoffs, you're obviously not going to want to start them then. And then the worst, you know, the best matchup for defense special. teams is the Cleveland

Browns, who they have in championship week. If you ride the Steelers, they will kick you out of the playoffs. It will not work. But if you find yourself in the championship, please pick them up, because I do think that they'll be one of those league

winners. There are a couple of defenses you're probably going to ride into the playoffs, maybe three of them that have tough playoff schedules to be aware of. That would be the Broncos who have to start their playoffs against Green Bay. Then Jacksonville. Those are not good matchups.

And then Kansas City. And the Packers, they have to play Denver, Chicago, Baltimore. That seems nerve-wracking because we love the Packers defense. We love the pressure they put on the quarterback. But if you tell me you've got to go into Denver and play at mile high, then you got to play Chicago, you know, in their building. And then you play Baltimore in the championship week. That makes me a little nervous.

Same with the Vikings tougher schedule, Chargers, tougher schedule. All four of those teams. Even the Seahawks who have been really good. They've got to play Indianapolis and the Rams. I don't like that. No, the Chargers, Seahawks, those are, you can't go into your playoffs with them. You just, you cannot start those tier defenses against those opponents. Well, that's, uh, that's it for the playoff primer.

Let's talk some mailbag. Mailbag. Begful bag. Presented by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. All right, into the mailbag we go. I just heard some clinking cups. He's got multiple mugs. Why do you have so many cups?

I just, I had a coffee and a water. He's a little dehydrated. Yeah, I got a hydrate, man. He's a little dehydrated. I was half expecting him to pour the full bottle of Pepto in one of those. Pour that as a coffee creamer. I just go straight from the bottle. Oh, do you?

Oh, yeah. In a moment like that? Yeah, just swig. Did you say on this show you were seriously considering making another one of those steaks? Yeah, yeah. they're so good it was it worth it oh yeah no no it was not it was not worth uh what i went through eating the eight hour leftover steak but yeah i mean that i'm gonna make it again it's great you just just be careful tenderlo yeah leave the uh the bacteria out yeah that's the real

i'm gonna use the how long how long was the microwave uh journey uh like 40 seconds oh it was just a warm up and i think is there a certain amount that you could do that 20 seconds like would it is there an amount of like... Yeah, if you microwave that thing for 10 minutes, there's no chance. Is it all get nuked? Well, it's temperature. Yeah.

Like it has to get to... Isn't there like a bacteria though, like on rice where, like you can't twice reheat rice because that's a tough thing to say. White rice. You can't reheat white rice twice. White rice twice. Because you'll die. I've heard...

Yeah, you'll die. No. I mean, Al's looking at me like I'm crazy. I promise you if you look this up your valid. I promise you'll die. I've definitely reheated rice. Look up what I'm talking about. And I'm alive.

I think I've heard that as like an old wives tale. It's not an old wives tale. There's a bacteria that is there and you can't get rid of it. And if you reheat it twice, I'm telling you, you could die. No. Yes. No. The whole entire internet's coming for all y'all after this show goes live.

I think there is some hyperbole happening here where maybe there's bacteria that can survive a, white rice reheat twice but it's not going to you don't die it's called reheated rice syndrome and it is a severe I mean there people have died many times and it is a very serious thing so be careful with your reheated rice is what I'm saying I'm trying to save lives trying to save some life it is called bechilius serious yes yeah Mike just cast the spell okay I um do your own research man I'm telling you. I'm telling you it can happen. This will be your next one. I'm saving you from the next.

I don't want you. I don't want. I'm never reheating white rice again. All right. Into the mailbag we go. If you have a question for us, go to the website the fantasy footballers.com. There's lots of good stuff up there, including amazing articles by the writing staff coming out each and every day. You can also dial our voicemail hotline if you have a question, 302, 464 TFFB. I don't think we have any voicemails today. We'll start with a question from Wesley in Omaha. Baller Bros. Who is Jonathan Taylor's insurance backup? P.S., glad Jason is alive. You and me both, brother. DJ Giddens.

Is it? Yes, I think so. So I mean, it doesn't, you could argue it's not, but. Yeah, I, early in the season, it was very clear that it was DJ Giddens. Like, he was involved when, whenever the games were, you know, out of hand and they basically sat Jonathan Taylor in the fourth quarter. it was Giddens and so as the Jonathan Taylor manager I made sure to roster DJ Giddens and I have since moved on because I'm not super confident their use of Tyler Goodson was the one that got a snap last game that's the problem I don't think you'll know for sure if it's Giddens or

Goodson so do you just I actually think it could be Abdullah abdula we've seen he might be the most productive I don't know they'll get the most snaps should Jonathan Taylor go down I don't know that you're going to have a guy. I don't know that you're going to have Abdullah or Goodson or Giddens really be great for fantasy. You might end up in a time share. It's kind of like you look at the Colts and the last couple years, they have had an amalgamation of tight ends. They didn't have a stud tight end. So it was like, oh, it's Mo Ali Cox. It's, you know, everybody just kind of worked in a little bit. And then they went and got a stud and it's him. You know, I think that's what's going to happen with their running back room. If their stud goes down, they're just going to work in the average

Joe guys and everybody gets a couple carries. That sounds like reheating rice twice. You just don't want to do it. You don't want to mess with the running back room. Sven. Sven in Germany. Oh, bonjour. Bonjour from Germany. Would you trade George Pickens away for Brees Hall in a full PPR league? I am stacked at wide receiver with Pucanico and Rice as my style. Rice. As my starters and could need some help at depth at running back. I mean, I think it's fine. It's fine. It's a fair trade.

Yeah, I would do that if you need a running back for sure. Yeah, I don't have a problem with it. Definitely the same tier. I think that's what you look at when you're talking about a wide receiver for running back trade is like, are they the same caliber within their position? And then it's just team needs. Can I throw a new backup option out there real quick? Sure.

Michael Wilson of the Arizona Card. with the news that, you know, we're going to have no Marvin Harrison. Zay Jones just tore his Achilles, by the way. That was confirmed. And they don't have, I think they have three healthy wide receivers on the team. So Jacoby Brissette is throwing for $250 a game. Oh, Tray McBride. So, I mean, Tray McBride is going to cook.

You're going to eat. But. The fillet's hungry. You're so hungry. Michael Wilson. Amari DiMarcato in the receiving game out of the backfield. Backup options for Arizona. The dork.

maybe i don't know yeah i mean maybe it's a backup option a backup to the backup yeah it's not it's not a top option all right here here's the question i've seen actually a few times i have answered it on x nick in minnesota do you shop henderson travion right now for an upper tier option or do you hold on to him some of the trades i saw getting floated um they were they were wild and i i was like you i would trade trade on all the situations that I had seen. Yeah, I see one asking, would you trade Trayvion Henderson for Bucky Irving? Straight up, because there's so many questions there.

And I would definitely do that. Bucky was back at practice today. They were, he was, he was spotted. He was, he was present. It's a real fuzzy photo. Yeah, fuzzy photo. I mean, I don't know if he's. Would you trade, would you trade Trayvion for Bucky?

Just straight up. Um, I think, man, it's a tough question. If I have, if I had, so this question is I got McCaffrey. Whoa, what? McCaffrey, Johnny Taylor and Judkins, then sure. I'm okay with that because you can make it through, uh, like you don't need Henderson this week and you can wait a couple weeks for Bucky. Okay. Um, okay.

Uh, what do we got here? Stephanie and Idaho, I've been sorely disappointed with the Nick Sutton stack. Yeah. you and Mike both. I hear that. Do you recommend Flacco or Nixon week 11? Also, is it time to bench Sutton for Alex Pierce after his buy? Who's that?

Alec Pierce after his buy. Thank you. Thank you, litmus. Goodness. I just didn't know who Alex Pierce. There's nothing that feels worse than when Jason corrects you're speaking. But yes, Cortland Sutton for Alec Pierce. I'm open to it.

This is a. So this week, okay. Week 11. I mean, I would play, I would play four. I can tell you I have both, and I will be playing Joe Flacco on the road against Pittsburgh. Yeah, I'm really, I'm kind of into Joe. I told you, I had an irrational belief in Joe Flacko, and Joe Burrell's going to mess it all up. Bo Nix right now is my quarterback 22 on the week.

So if you're in a single quarterback league, I would not be playing Bo Nix. I agree. He's playing the Chiefs. Yeah. It will be shocking to me if Bo Nix has a good game. He can run, so there's always the potential to save your week and have a nice big, long touchdown run, but the process says try to find someone else.

Louis in Ohio, should I trade Justin Jefferson for Devante Adams? Oh. I don't think I would do that. Hmm. I don't think I don't think I would do that. I don't think I would do that. You hope that JJ's just going to be improved in time? I just don't like the Devante injury oblique situation.

I think it's a bigger question if he didn't have that. Do you disagree? I mean, I think Jefferson is, you're trying to win this thing, man. Yeah? I don't know working it out right now in my head, but I don't know where you guys sit with that one. I think that's very close. I mean,

trying to see what the Rams schedule is to finish the season. The Rams schedule is Detroit, Seattle, Atlanta is the... I don't love that. No, but Adams has been... It's touchdowns, but it's like... I'm formally answering no. All right, you're going to keep Jefferson. I mean, you have this situation on your team, Mike.

I know, I'm thinking through it in my head. If that were offered to me, the keeper league makes it harder so I would our league in particular I'm going to keep Jefferson that was today's mailbag watch every game every Sunday with

NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV visit YouTube.com slash fantasy footballers local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out of market games base plan required excludes digital only games commercial use excluded no refunds and we have starts of the week tomorrow we've got matchups

and we've got the wheel of shame? Oh, man. Won't be me. Thank goodness. I didn't need this hot. I didn't need a hot streak in that department. We don't know who it is between us.

It's you. Just take it. Andy's face says it. You might need to take it. You missed work yesterday. Yeah. You didn't show up for work. I guess that's a tiebreaker.

That's the tiebreaker. If you don't show up, that's a tiebreaker. That sucks. And you know it. I do know it. Yeah, you do. It's fair. But let the record show.

You tied Mike. Yeah. Yeah. You both. I tied so much better, though. Yeah, you did. You tied way better. All right, that is it for today's episode.

Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow. 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 the FF ballers.