Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Week 15 Waivers & Streamers + Pee River Returns! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/9

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Dec 9, 2025. It’s playoff time! Waiver wire pickups for Week 15 and beyond! Plus, is Philip Rivers really returning to the Colts?! Get injury updates, playoff advice, and a fantasy football recap of Monday Night Football. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.(00:00) Intro(01:00) MNF Recap(06:15) NFL News(16:30) Waiver Wire(17:00) RB Waivers(21:10) WR Waivers(26:15) TE Waivers(34:20) DST Waivers(37:25) QB Streamers(42:25) Mailbag(43:00) Is Mike Evans startable?(44:35) Woody Marks or Emeka Egbuka?(45:35) Baker Mayfield or Trevor Lawrence?(48:10) D.K. Metcalf or Treyveon Henderson?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. Oh, welcome in. Hit playoff time! I was so hoping. Yeah. I was driving in this morning. I'm like, he better give us its playoff time. It is playoff time.

It's time. Let's get down to business. Yeah, welcome to the playoffs, one and all. Yes. Now your entire season hinges on one week. Or maybe not. One week at a time. Maybe you have a bye.

Oh, bye, bros. Yeah. Listener league. My week. Foot Clan. We did it. Mike and I and Andy, we are all three in the playoffs. So we're half, we're half of the playoffs in our listener league, 14 team league. If we win, that opens up another spot for you guys next year. And Mike and I, we're sitting on opposite sides of the

bracket on bye. Yeah, I think if I win, I face Mike. Yeah. Yeah, that is correct. So in other words, Ladd-McConkie didn't do anything last night. Because we knew that that was part of getting into the fantasy playoffs for me. That game. But don't worry. Gadsden did nothing either. And also, Quentin Johnson did nothing. I have never seen a game between 8 and 14 against 8 and 4 team with the, I mean, this is the week to get into the playoffs with so many fantasy players active in this matchup. I mean, we got 41 points. That went into overtime that was more boring and worse than that.

That game was a snooze fast. If I was facing Jalen Hertz last night and I got to experience the two turnovers in one play. Oh, man. For minus four? That's the thing dreams are made of. Only time in the history of the National Football League has happened. My boy. Through a pick, recovered a fumble, fumbled.

My boy was winning in in his league with his buddies. Winning in. Jalen Hertz. On his roster or his opponent? On his roster. Oh, no. Losing out. The final pick of the final interception of the game turned it into a tie.

What? He had just gone up on. that final overtime drive and then lost another two points. Which means he's going into that game where he's like, I just need like two points from jail and hurts. No, no, I'm saying over the course of the game, like a couple guys versus a couple guys. But the final interstate,

and I saw tons of tweets. It was just heartbreaking. It was the most appropriate ending to the game possible. I mean, when the penalty gave them an opportunity. Oh, the off sides? Yeah, when the off sides, it was like if that. The defender's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't do it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you know we have cameras, right? Yeah. But I mean,

No, I didn't do that. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. That's when it popped into my head, like an interception is the way this shit in. Yeah. And, um, and it did. And it did. And it was what, five turnovers by Jalen Hertz in that game. Mm-hmm. I mean, okay. I don't, I, this man is broken. I think Hertz is way better than this. Yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things where, like, everything is true all at once. Yes, I agree. Everybody that backed up Jalen Hertz forever is validated. Everybody that thinks he has holes in his game validated.

I mean, he's a Super Bowl champion. Like, they have now lost, I mean, again, they have lost three straight games that A.J. Brown has had 100 yards. I mean, this is. And Parkley actually had a good game, too. Yeah, yeah, the breakaway run, and he had a great game. And, you know, what's the recipe for success? I do not lay any of this game.

at the feet, I don't think it's fair to lay it at the feet of the offensive coordinator in this game because, look, I think overall in the whole season, he's not done a good job. But the fact that the design runs for Jalen Hertz are down to about half, that's insane. That's not what got you here. But Lane Johnson, look at the record without Lane Johnson. They're just not the same football team without him. And it requires your quarterback to do more and against a disciplined defense, doing more is hard. And it was still a game that they easily could have won. went to overtime. I missed field ball at the end. They win the game.

The defense is so good. 139 passing yards. That's all that. There's still a threat to win the Super Bowl. So here's a cool step. Yeah, because the defense is just so good. From opta stats, Justin Herbert, the only NFL quarterback in the Super Bowl era to complete under 50% of passes, throw for under 150 yards, get sacked seven times, have multiple turnovers, and win the game. No, a tie might have been the most appropriate thing, actually. but welcome in if your playoff bound congratulations if you want to call your shot and you

already going to win the thing just pick up a trophy fantasychamps.com trophies rings if you're the commissioner and you need something for your league that's where we send you use the code ballers uh we talked through monday night sayquan was the big positive story a j brown hit 100 yards sayquan's 20 for 122 and 1 Hampton looked pretty good he did I thought he looked I thought he looked I thought he looked good. That was like the best game you could have hoped for because I don't think that there was a world where they were going to give him 100% of the opportunity's first game back. He looked good. He got the work.

He escaped healthy. That's wonderful. And if you played Vidal, you didn't die either because you had a 60 yard reception. So, you know, a lot of people are like, which one of these two do you play? I was like, we were kind of go down with Hampton. Yep. I think you ended up more points for Hampton than Vidal, but it had to be close. McConkey one for 12

I mean it's all all chargers not on the running back squad yeah I mean it didn't matter if it was McConkey Keenan Johnston Gadsden you didn't have a good time yeah I mean McConkey of their big like tri-force of wide receivers he led

he led the team in receiving with 18 yards yeah crazy news and notes from around the league presented by progressive insurance I did really enjoy the like cornerbacks in general get really hyped when they stop a play you know you got the strapped oh yeah and you got the bill or incomplete you know you do whatever you want to do i might be the biggest fan of cooper jeans just double thumbs down oh yeah what they do that where he just he's just

like nah no no no thumbs down was that play good two thumbs down no i mean it's just hilarious do not recommend no no no i wouldn't do that all right guys i never thought we'd be here Man, this is the greatest news I have ever heard out of the blue. This is just sometimes the world does stuff to make your show better. It makes no sense. But also it's awesome. The Colts are bringing in. Oh, P. River.

Fill up Rivers for a workout on Tuesday. He's last played. Do you know when? Do you know the year? He's got to be what, 21, 3, 4 years ago? 2020. Oh, man. I can't imagine how many kids he's had between then and now.

But Philip Rivers, it's not a joke. He's coming in for a workout. Daniel Jones is on IR for the Colts, Richardson on IR. That is how bad Brett Rippin' Farts is. I mean, Riley Leonard, if you didn't know, week to week with a PCL sprain, and only Brett Rippin Farts is on the roster. So a combination of a quarterback room with P. River and Brett Rippin Farts, this is the fantasy footballers dream.

It's unbelievable. and truly so obviously is this 44 year old two nickname winners oh my gosh you're right pee river won a footie yeah ripping farts won a footie wow a farty powerful team here um just pee and farts be in farts dun dun da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da how do we exist um here here's a thing we need clown lights 44 years old Hasn't played in half a decade, Philip Rivers is not going to be good. No, this is, there is no way this works. But for fantasy football, I mean, like, like, you know, I'm going, we got some.

Yeah, we got, we got clown lights. Boop, boop, boop, boop. Booh. The dump offs to Jonathan Taylor, you know, I don't know who. It will probably be Pittman, but I think this is great. for the other pieces. Should he have a stool in shotgun? Would they give him a stool to sit on? Like a rocking chair that he just pulls to the next title?

Yeah, I mean, just, you know, like if you're ripping tickets at the movie theater and you're over a certain age, they give you a stool. We go with the, no, we just go with the seven-on-seven rules. Like, you've got five seconds. Oh, yeah. This is one banana, no rushies. Yeah, I mean, it's awesome. I mean, Phillip Rivers, the only reason this is happening is because he played for the

Colts. There were rumors about him. Go get Matt Ryan. you coward's bored and um and he's got nothing i mean you'd think you wouldn't be bored with oh no he's the opposite of bored at this point i'll bet they're talking get me out of here yeah save me i got three of them how many does rivers have i'm looking it up right now philip rivers child count maybe a baker's dozen i love that one of the auto-complete questions is what NFL player has 13 children i was saying ten children

Children. Ten children. Okay. Double digits. Yeah, dad's got to go back to work, everyone. We got bills to pay. Zach Taylor said T. Higgins is back in concussion protocol. The writing was on the wall. Why was it on the wall? Because he was definitely concussed during the game. I mean, this was unacceptable. Maybe multiple times. I mean, this is truly like no jokes. This is, I feel like negligence.

Everybody watching the game saw the hits he took, saw him hit his head. frozen ground, not even just a nice, soft, supple, normal grass. No, just frozen. And he probably doesn't play again. No, I agree. I think he will. If you have T. Higgins and fantasy, you have to be prepared to have a playoff run without him. I mean, Olave last year.

Yeah, I mean, that would be the, that's one of the examples. I mean, if you have multiple. Timon last year, just done for the year. Yeah, multiple concussions. And it's best for T. Higgins. And the team is out of it almost, but not completely. I mean, I know they have a shot. Yeah, we did the playoff.

and pick the games and there is a it's like a it's like an eight leg parley but everything kind of makes sense that tough matchups are lost and easy matchups are one Steelers have to go one and three and the Bengals have to go three and one and then the Ravens can't win out and then basically

Cincinnati has all the tiebreakers. Cincinnati has to beat the bank the don't they have to win out? Yeah since he does sorry I said three and one yeah they have to win now but yeah T. Higgins probably not going to be a part of it. It probably hurt your Joe Burrow a little bit overall. Jamar Chase will be fine.

Devon A. Chan, no fracture. It was a rib injury. He said he could have come back in. He basically fell on the football. And so, Jason, control yourself. I know. I just wanted you to take your time and get healthy. Devon A. Chan is needed for fantasy. Remember yesterday,

you're like, ah, you don't have to make a decision about Justin Jefferson because you're not in the playoffs. You're in the playoffs with Devon A. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, so when I saw this news and He's going to play. He is adamant that he's going to play. I'm sure he's going to be there. We'll monitor as it goes along because it's a money. He will. I just opened up his profile again. And I was like, oh, dang it. He has been, he's been the most consistent player in all of fantasy this year.

Yeah. So he should, he should be back, which is great news. Dan Quinn said Jaden Daniels is sore, but no long-term concerns with the elbow. Zach Ertz, Torny C.L. Mitchell avoided serious injury day-to-day. Shadour Sanders will remain as the starting quarterback for the remainder of the year. It was the most positive comments to Fansky said. It was like he's continuously just improving. Improving every single week.

So it's good news, and it's exciting and fun, and we'll see. I mean, there are opinions out there that he's better than the quarterback's coming in. If you, I think that there's a decent chance the Browns do not go quarterback because of their forced financial beliefs into Sean Watson combined with Shadur Sanders. And that combination, they may feel is enough to add more important pieces at other spots on the team. They made the brilliant trade, in my opinion, to get the draft

capital and get Mason Graham and trade Travis Hunter, and they have draft capital there. I don't know. Shador Sanders will stay the quarterback for now and through the remainder of the year. Todd Bulls said Mike Evans has a chance to play against the Falcons on Thursday night. Okay. This is great. I shared in our company chat this morning in my ever-present desires to slightly defend a Mecca-A-A-A-A-Bucca. This came through from J.J. Zacharisa, and he was sharing about Fantasy Life data.

Pre-Munday-Night football, there's been 107 wide receivers who have run 100 of more routes since week five. Abuka is 105th in catchable targets out of 107. So it's been both. It's been a both-and. Like, Baker's hurt. Baker's been much worse. Abuka is playing poorly on top of it. He's dropped some of the catchable targets, which is a problem.

And then fewer than half of his looks have been catchable. We also watched through the film yesterday. There were five, five just missed touchdowns. Some were Abuka, some were Baker. Everything that was working those first five or six weeks, you know, my son asked me, do I think Abuco will be fine? I'm like, I don't think you can do what you did in those first six, seven weeks without being fine. It's just right now.

The combination of the offense struggling, Baker struggling, Abuka struggling. there's a lot. And I think maybe what we underestimated was as a rookie maybe you want Mike Evans on the other side to take some pressure off. Maybe that's the best thing for Abuka. It reminds me

a lot of what's going on with Rome. Well, I mean, Rome's hurt now, but you know, you just, you had Rome had the hot start as well, where he was scoring a bunch of touchdowns. Yeah, Rome and Abuka it seemed on sustainable. Through four weeks, you would have felt invulnerable. And the, and then he had a couple like real high profile drops. And

then you have those combined with the production disappearing and you go well it's all the wide receiver well then when you dig into the data like Rome about half of Rome's targets are catchable but when you that that concoction of uncatchable targets plus a few real nasty drops it turns your opinion on someone when it probably shouldn't and both of these guys had an injury that kind of coincided with when their play started going poorly the hamstring the foot right now for Rome that you found out he was playing through. I mean, if you are, it's one of those things where it's like, is it the quarterback, is it the wide receiver?

If Ibuka is slowed down or Rome is slowed down and the target is uncatchable, is it possibly because he's not where he usually would be? Right. You know, there's so much. Both of those players I don't have any different view of in Dynasty Leaks. I agree. Than I did weeks ago. Yeah, they're awesome.

And if one or two of those touchdowns works out for either guy, we don't even have the conversation because you don't see such a run. It's just the way it is. Other news, we just got an update. Trey Benson facing deadline Wednesday to be activated from IR before he would be inactive. Oh, did we talk to Gannon about it? Yeah, Gannon said... What did he say?

Well, I mean, because it's... He had very insightful information. He said, we'll see. Not sure quite yet. Yeah. I want to see him out there. Did he have his arms crossed? He's like, no, no. Yeah, he did.

I don't see. You'll find out Wednesday. We don't like you. Jake London listed his DMP again. He might miss again. and so it definitely seems like he is not going to play as of now yeah yeah yeah yeah that was news and notes sponsored by progressive insurance quote today

progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers not available in all states or situations coverage subject to policy terms limits and conditions it's waiver time welcome to the waiver wire It's a little lean. Hopefully you got some guys before now. It's a little light on the waivers. Yeah, I mean, I made the joke when we were putting our waiver rankings together yesterday

that it just feels wrong to have anybody ranked really high in a lot of these positions. Everyone has, like, you have to, someone has to be third or fourth by the way rankings work. Math, but no one deserves it. No, I mean, I would say at running back right now, it is, if you need a start, there's just two names that matter to me. I mean, it's Chris Rodriguez, who was great again on the ground in his limited work. It wasn't amazing for fantasy. I'm not saying it was.

It's just he's going to have 10 plus touches against the Giants this week. He has scored in a lot of his recent starts, and Chris Rodriguez is only 60% rostered. He will be playing for me in multiple playoffs. I think he's a fine play this week. Yeah, the Giants is a good matchup. And he's not going to catch passes. He needs the score. The next week is Philly.

I would have far less confidence than that. but for a one week type of a situation. Dallas is three weeks from now, so maybe, maybe. But I think it's, I think it will be a lot better for Rodriguez this week. You have, I mean, they're not playing Jaden, are they? I don't doubt it, but either way, either way. Well, I think it's better if they just. Just play Marioata?

Yeah, it just will be like, hey, this is what we're going forward with. It's going to be Marioita. This is the game plan. We don't have to switch anything for, based on the quarterback. Just move forward with Mario and Rodriguez would be a perfectly acceptable flex running back two type of play. And then Blake Corum. Blake Corum is the other name that we have been talking about for probably six weeks at this point. Blake Corum only 49% rostered.

Yeah. The Lions. Play is the Lions. He does. He has had double-digit opportunities in four of six games since the buy and it's not the Cardinals. He doesn't play the Cardinals again. It should be a shootout though. Isn't that game 55 and a half point over under?

It is. Very, very high over under, but... They will give him touches. There's just no way that they're not going to do that. But if he gets 10, 11 touches against the Lions, I don't know that it's going to be a really good game. You'd play Rodriguez over him? Yeah, I would.

I think it's touchdown or bust for Corm. And then don't forget about Devin Singletary. He had the byweek. Yes. Talked about him. He was running well. We have an injury to Tyrone Tracy Jr., which seems to always be part of the story.

But he has two top 12 finish. is in his last three starts speaking of Devon Singletary with three touchdowns in those games. 12 for 68 last time against New England. That's not a easy matchup and he got it done. 17.2 fantasy points against Green Bay. That's not an easy matchup and he got it done. Singletary is pretty sneaky. I'd play him over Blake Korn.

I would as well. And that's a Washington matchup. You might, depending on the Tracy News, you might want to play him over Chris Rodriguez. Yeah. I think he may end up being number one if Tracy is limited in practice this week. I mean, him and Tracy were already splitting. Singletary was getting the high value touches. Splitting, but getting tons of work. It was weird.

They both every week were like 15 carries. I don't know how they had that much work to go around. Jalen Wright is another name. I know that Devon A-chan is going to presumably be okay, but he is hurt. He left the game. And Jalen Wright was out there 24 carries over 100 yards. so should the news turn bad this week?

You've got to be prepared. And then another one to mention, it's gross. I don't like mentioning it. But I don't think Trey Benson is coming back. We'll find out soon, Mr. Gannon. And if he's not back... Oh, don't do it. Bam Knight is going...

Against Houston. No, I wouldn't play him this week. Oh, okay. But Atlanta, Cincinnati, the next two weeks is awesome. That's fine. That's fine. And part of your job as a fantasy manager in the playoffs is to also defend against your opponent. Yeah, you've got to block it like it's hot. Yeah, block it like it's hot.

If there's somebody out there that helps them with a spot start, put them on your roster if you've got the room. You need to go ahead and play for every single possible point in your matchup, in your competition. So Bam Knight will be a starter, and you don't want to see that guy on the other side if somebody needs somebody. Unless it's this week.

Unless it's this week against Houston, let them do it, I guess. So let's take a break and we'll talk some whiteouts. this is when it gets even harder guys seriously you know again you've been building your roster towards the playoffs for weeks if you've been listening along we've been trying to help you do that what happens if you are like you know mike you just talked about having double concussion universe with cd lamb t higgins in one of your leagues going into the playoffs if you're looking for a spot start and jerry rice isn't available who plays for the cardinals what are you doing

so there's a few names at the top Ryan Flanoy of the Dallas Cowboys it makes sense he had the 13 targets huge game 9 for 1 15 in the score last week with CD Lamb missing time and George Pickens doing whatever George Pickensy stuff

he was doing on the field but they do number one the last we heard about CD Lamb was that he was progressing what was the quote like nicely through the protocol so there is a chance he has extra time you got to remember this right right it was Thursday yeah so flanoi is you can only play him if cd lamb doesn't play and then on top of that it's against minnesota which dac and company will get some things done against minnesota i'm not worried about that but how much because that defense

is still very very strong it would be a terrifying start it would it would it would we had three games earlier this season without C.D. Lamb. And so we've seen this. And Flannoy was the wide receiver 12 on one of those weeks. Was awesome. 114 yards, nine targets. The other two games was three points and four points. So it is not like a guarantee that he's fine. Right. Jayden Reed to me is the most interesting name for now and moving forward because this offense, four touchdowns and three touchdowns. Matthew Golden doesn't get snaps. I mean, Bull Melton has out snapped Matthew Golden at this juncture. Important ball games.

It's Denver. You don't like that. But Jaden Reed will have, this is what I'm looking for myself in the playoffs. Guaranteed touches. Give me guaranteed touches. Like Ryan Flanoy, if you played him and C.D. Lam is playing, you could have zero. Luther Burden, does he have guaranteed touches? Probably.

Luther Burden probably gets two or three. But I think Jaden Reed has the most guaranteed touches of this group personally. I think, you know, this was his first opportunity back. He still had six touches in the game. opportunities. I would not be shocked if he is a integral part. The outside wide receivers facing Denver, Patrick Sertan, move Jaden Reed around, give him the ball in short area space in his second game back. Personally, that's my favorite pickup, even though the matchups difficult. He's difficult. I think he's a difficult start because it's Jaden Reed,

week one was great, and then he got hurt. So it was the, what's going to have, we don't know what would have happened this season for Jaden Reed in terms of fantasy usage. But like 2024, he did the same thing. Week 1 was hot. Disappears. Has a good game? Disappears. My concern for Jaden Reed is why he's guaranteed. I trust his talent the most. Yeah, that's why he's so difficult. And there's no Tucker Kraft and there's no Matthew Golden right now. He's an excellent player. Jordan Love is playing at a very high caliber right now. Reed, I think, though, while the ceiling is there for Reed, I think the floor is extremely low. And Jane Reed could go out and give you two for 15.

Unfortunately, that's how I view the rest of these dudes in the list. No, I think there's one other really decent pickup. Rookie wide receiver, Jaden Higgins. He has been five of the last seven games. So this is, I mean, this is rookie season. Five of the last seven games, he's been a top 36 wide receiver. And the only two that he wasn't a top 36 wide receiver was against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos. really tough matchups. Now he's got Arizona. Sure. I'm fine with that. He's been getting it done.

He's, you know, looked at around the end zone. I think he's just a good player. Yeah, I can see that. I mean, I think Arizona, the matchup is what jumps out to me. Yes. How do you compare? I'm still on the read. I'd probably go read Burden Higgins in my top three. And your side lot is going to bring up Yoshivas. Yeah, Yosh. of just any replacement for the Cincinnati Bengals. You want to believe in that, but it's a little bit tough right now. With other, you know, Gisiki was heavily involved.

He, he, I'd rather flex Gisiki over Yoshivas. Okay. If you're talking about that situation, you know, with Mitchell, with Tinsley there as well, it just makes you feel a little bit nervous, nervous. Depending on the quarterback situation for the New York Jets. which really, really matters. Adonai Mitchell, still had six targets.

It didn't work last week. One for 24, but six targets. Gets Jacksonville on the road. He should see six or more targets again. It's just how quality are those targets. This is why talking about these wide receivers is tough. It's very painful. I think we can move forward.

At the tight-in position, we've got a reminder that Sam LaPorte is eligible to return in week 15. So if things get desperate and he's sitting on the way of a wire and you think you need to stash a tight-in for a surprise late, he's at least eligible. It doesn't mean you should play him. But, you know, there are names at the tight-in position to me. Harold Fandon should have it all to himself, which should do are Sanders.

I would say the last thing we heard was Dan Campbell said on December 4th that he's unlikely to play again in 2025. Okay. So even though he's eligible, he's probably not going to be back. Yeah. Like he just don't worry about it. If they go deep in the playoffs, maybe he can make it back. I don't think La Porta plays regular season.

season. Harold Fanon, he's the top pickup of the week. He's my number one of all players. Of all positions. He's probably not available in your league, but there's 35% of leagues. He's still sitting out there. You've got to check. If he's out there, pick him up. I would even flex them. I also think that we want to be, we don't want to be so recency biased that we forget the big name of last week, which I still believe in the opportunity for Darren Waller. I think you need a game script where they can't be so successful on the ground. where they are not leading, you know, they're what, six and seven right now?

Is that right? Six, seven, yeah, something like that. Sorry. I'll see myself out. Please leave. Get out of here. Goodness gracious. Thank you.

Climb under the death. He's gone. Jason is left. Jason is left. You're old. You're old, man. My bad guys. Darren Waller, 42% rostered.

Andy, this is the only one. way we can stop the youths. By doing it? Yes. You have to. They won't want to do what we do. You have to make it as uncool as possible. It was like, it's fine. Young people. I get it. We did. We had stupid phrases and saying that we did all the time. Ad nauseum. But we're done. We're done. We're moving on. My 11 year old daughter is walking home from school yesterday. A UPS driver passes that was going to our house. She gives the six, seven to the UPS driver. The hands. The hand. The bobble. Yeah. Who, who the, who the

You know, they have the UPS assist. He's 6-7 to the ball. You have a UPS assistant right now with the holidays. That person looks so confused. Yeah, the driver does it back. Then the driver gets out of the house and she walks and she goes, yo, you got to dab me up for that and dabbs up the UPS driver for the 6-7. Nice.

I was like. Kyle's reminding us up. What is that? Yeah. Yeah, getting back to Darren Waller. What's that? Waller might be dropped. We're bringing that back.

I think Waller will get dropped by a lot of people today. Yeah, so, I mean, he is an excellent pickup. Even if you're not going to play him this week. See, it's fun. I went under the table. Yeah. I feel like, I feel like we shut the lights off. No, no, man.

We're doing vintage jokes. These are authentic. They didn't feel like it. From the 90s. Next week is the Bengals. The Bengals are on pace to give up the most yards, the most receiving yards, the most touchdowns, the most fancy points. of tight ends of all time. And so, I mean, he is like a must play next week. Right. And I would be

fine picking him up even to not play him this week. I'd be fine to even pick him up to play him. I think Britt and Strange and Waller are the two that people were hyped about that didn't deliver for one week. And let's remember, tight ends are not consistent. Very few of them are. You just want ones that have the opportunity to get you a touch in and perform and be a high target share. And both of those guys still are in that category. I'm good with Strange if you cannot get Harold Fanon, and then the name I will throw out for this week in particular. Theo Johnson, New York Giants, we're off the bye week. Jackson Dart hopefully had enough time to shake the cobwebs from the massive hits,

and maybe, just maybe get a little bit of that coaching input of, dude, just go out of bounds. It's okay. Theo's not that bad. No. He's not that bad. He's, he just missed a massive touchdown two weeks ago. He's the tight and 14 on the year. And since week five, and again, we had a transition.

Yeah, it's like 700, like 750 and 7 is his pace since. I think they were saying on the broadcast that it's like his best friend. Like on the team? Yeah, they're actually like close. It makes sense. Like you got, Theo Johnson was an, he was an exciting rookie. Well, he's, he's the most athletic tight end of all time. And that's, you want to chase that stuff.

One of one. I feel like his biggest weakness is he doesn't, he's too late to go up for the ball. sometimes. If you watch his film, sometimes he just, just a little earlier. But he gets Washington, you know, Singletary off the wire is fine. It's just Giants players in general are, they're going to be okay this week. Minnesota, J.J. McCarthy, 9, guys, Mr. 9 himself, who had just been awful, looked great against Washington. Yeah, how, this is a bigger discussion, I think that will help people.

How out will you be on Tyler Warren? Because we're having a waiver discussion. Oh, man. Oh, no. How out? I'm like, Jason, are you trying to find a non-pitman option for this week? Oh, yeah. Right. With, without knowing, you know, if Philip Rivers is actually going to sign is going to play this week. Right now. That is the craziest. It is the crazy statement. I mean, a five-year older, five years without football.

It can't. If Philip Rivers is not making me better. If Brett Rippin' Farts is the quarterback, which as of this moment, he is the quarterback this week, then there's no chance I could play Pittman. Like, I, that's, I, every, everyone, everyone, every, oh, he'll be in my lineup of P. That's what. If he gets hit, he will turn into dust of five years. I don't know, man. I think at this point, he's so jelly that it's like half a decade, it's just kind of

like, boing, exactly. Half a decade since he's played football in the NFL. I did, the Colts are, shame on them for even putting this idea in our head. Nah, this is great. Now, the craziest thing is. they're looking to sign them to the practice squad. I'm like, Philip ain't hanging around in the practice squad. He just wants to get out of that house.

Why is Brett ripping on your team? If he can't play? Like these situations, they pop up. Like late season, you know, a quarterback injury goes down. Okay, we got to go get this guy who's been retired for three years. Why are the other guys on your team? Because if they're not good enough to play. At practice, you have to, those guys over there on that field have to do something.

And the retired guys like, I'm not practicing. They do have to do something. so we have named quite a few tight ends haven't even talked about Colson Loveland who I think has been showing out Rome being gone gives me a little bit of hope but with like the four or five names we talked about we didn't even yet bring up

the guy who is going to win everybody's championship please don't bring him up we got to bring it up I can't believe you did I feel like it's a Senate if Mike's Midas touch this year comes to a completion of this season

season. It will be with Ben Sennett. I mean, it's just, it's inevitable. John Bates is inevitable. Double the snap. But John Bates, so here's the thing. We see this a lot of times with running backs. There's, there are roles. We've already seen it with Ben Sinnett. Bates is absolutely going to continue his role. He plays, he's the blocking tight in, the in line tight in. There is, he will not, Bates won't change one snap. He will be doing what he has been doing. Ben Sennett now takes the Zach Ertz roll. And this was exactly. exactly what happened in the Cliff Kingsbury offense for Arizona back of the day when Zacherts toward that exact ACL and this guy that we loved, Trey McBride, who had done nothing in his

career, was like thrust into action and it's like, do you see? He's awesome. Ben Sin it's a guy we loved, Mike especially, who now is being thrust into the situation. I am not playing Ben Sinit this weekend, but there are certain leagues out there where I might throw him on the back of the bench. just in case. All right, defensive options this week. Championship week against Dallas. I know. Looking ahead to week 16 and 17 matchups on the defensive side,

give me some names. Oh, there's so many. I mean, the most widely available team, because they were on the by week, is San Francisco, and they play Tennessee. And the Indianapolis matchup right after that, which was like, well, I'm just a one-week rental here for the 49ers. You might get two weeks out of San Francisco.

they are they're 35% rostered and sleeper and then the other low rostered team it's the Saints which we have brought up a few times they play Carolina the Saints defense is good I think they're not a bad defense I think they're a good defense I'm not going to call them great

but they're good Carolina is a weird team of some every once in a while a Bryce Young game happens and then you're going to be bummed that you play the defense but I think the Saints are a pretty safe matchup this week. Yeah, I'll throw out the Jaguars as well.

Their defense has been getting after it, sacking the quarterback a lot. They play the Jets. They're at home. So the Jaguars, the Niners. Man, if it's, what's his name, Cook? Yeah. For the Jets, then... You're going to be cooked, and then the Jaguars would become very strong.

And they're obviously not available. I think they might be the number one scoring DST so far on the season. But the Seahawks, if they... Oh, my gosh. Yeah, just in case. If they play against ripping farts. Crazy. Yeah, that's one of those, like, defenses that you didn't see that matchup as a good one until recent events.

Like, you can make a bunch of plans ahead of time, but be not so locked in that you don't take advantage of the best possible startup for some reason they're available. All of the waiver wire rankings are up on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Make sure you take advantage of all the tools for these important matchups, streamfinder, strength of schedule tool, ultimate dashboard. Like I said, all the rankings are up there. The starts hit tool as well. So, you know, don't miss out on your opportunity to nerd out for playoff week. We'll throw it out because this is the time people ask, like, should I have multiple defenses?

Is that okay? Because at the beginning of the year, what are you doing? Wasting a roster spot with extra defenses. Right now, 100%. I have two defenses on my team that's going into the buy week. So the Kansas City Chiefs, I guess, are widely available. In two weeks, they play Tennessee. The bills available in about half of leagues, they'll play Cleveland in two weeks.

Do you believe in J.J. McCarthy? Is it real or not? If it's not real, the Giants play Minnesota in two weeks. And should you pick up the Saints for this week? I mean, their stretch run is crazy. Carolina, Jets, Tennessee. Yeah, no, that's the one that. Get out in front of it.

Yeah, no question. Let's take another break and we'll get into streaming quarterbacks. All right. If you're streaming a quarterback right now, good luck to you. And that's not... These things happen.

That's not always the case. But you might have been, you might have been riding. with Daniel Jones. Yeah, absolutely. So give me a name. I'll go ahead, Jay. I'll kick it off with CJ Stroud. I talked about Jayden Higgins. I like the matchup against Arizona. This is a very, very, very, very cold week. There are games that are going to be like 12 degrees. This one's in a dome. Great matchup. Over the last month, the Cardinals. Temperature. The Cardinals defense fallen apart. I mean, they're dead last in passing touchdowns allowed. 29th in

yards per pass attempt 28th in pressure rate 24th in schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to quarterback so stroud's looking really good this is a team that is a nine and a half point home favorite not enough not enough it's not enough you think it should be more it's going to it's going to be a bloodbath yeah the cardinals are good for losing by 20 might be 40 I mean I don't know I don't know what they can do in this how many points to the Texans score 30. Then they lose by 30. Yeah. I mean, here's the only way that the Cardinals do stuff is Houston thinks

it's going to be super easy, which it will be. But then they light up. I'm going with Trevor Lawrence, who I don't know, guys. He played really well. He played really well. It wasn't just last week. We've had at least a couple weeks in a row now where you're, maybe we have some hope

for Trevor Lawrence moving forward, at least to give us some fantasy value. They're 12 and a half point home favorites against the Jets. Since returning from the week A-bye, he's the QB-7 in total points. He has five rushing touchdowns on the season. That's fourth most for quarterback, and Kyle also wants to point out that is as many rushing touchdowns as Sequin or Bijan, because we can't have nice things.

But Trevor Lawrence is, he's in play. I'm of the position of, you know, you see the 12 and a half. Some people go, oh, well, I just only want the running back then. I don't want to. No. you want the quarterbacks in there. How do you think they're going to get up and beat and win the game by 14 points?

I'm going to say this name out loud. Hold on. We're going to here too. Thank you. No, that's appropriate. I took a look at the streamfinder because I wanted to see if the streak is still valid. Teams that play Dallas. Teams that play Dallas still

Dallas has never given up fewer points against expectation to that position or to quarterback. Even the Detroit game. His expectation of points might be a little low, so we're going to need him to go really above. It's J.J. McCarthy. It's J.J. McCarthy against the

Dowell ass Cowboys defense. Dallas Cowboys defense who still, no matter what happens, even when you give up only one touchdown to Jared Gough, they give up more fantasy points than expectation. No other team that I

can see has I mean every other team is at at least four matchups where they have like held a quarterback where they've done decent where they've held a quarterback below expected fantasy points I just don't see how a few things I don't I don't see how Dallas doesn't score points on Minnesota at home

I don't see how they're not forced to let J.J. McCarthy throw the ball more and look it could be horrible but let's see it this is the stretch run for the Vikings that determines his entire future I will say they the Vikings game plan

they did what they needed to do of who cares about winning this game I mean of course you care but I'm saying your goal here is simply that J.J. McCarthy has to get all the opportunities and when they got down to the goal line Jason and I are watching the game and I'm like they better play action this

like run because the world knows. Don't run it in you got to play no I'm saying you got to play actually because you need to get J.J. McCarthy has to get reps at every possible scenario. And next play, it was the play action pass. I also do not think Shador Sanders is a bad start this week against Chicago. It's a plus matchup for him. I agree. The bears are, you talk about the Cowboys and how much they struggle. The Bears are fifth

in the league. In schedule, just the fancy points giving up to quarterbacks, he's kind of having to do everything. You know, if you're talking JJ, you can talk Shadour. That's all I agree. so to me that's scary and you probably don't have that problem so let's do a little bit of mailbag mailbag um we do have

Papa Josh back in the building today I don't know if you knew that he came to work what's up everybody he came to work how are you I'm quite well how have the video transition's been today

smooth smooth you've been doing all the Doubtful. We'll see if the chat agrees. What the listeners say. Into the mailbag we go. If you have a question, head to the website, the fantasy footballers.com.

Click the submit a question button. Dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. Kevin writing in with Mike Evans coming back now, how confident are you starting him if it's his first week back? I'm considering playing him in my PPR league over Brees Hall. Oh, man. That is a, that is a courageous, that would be a courageous start. Brees Hall against Jacksonville on the road with no quarterback. I mean, he has been,

he has been good. He was number six against Cleveland when they had that matchup. He's been mostly good. Mostly good. I think, I think if you're looking for baseline fantasy point guarantee, I still feel like Brees is a better bet. Yeah, 15 opportunities, obnoxious that they are not throwing him the ball more. Do you think Evans is going to get like 100% allotment of snaps in his first comeback? No, no, I don't. I think he will, he's Thursday. He's a okay like I don't see it I don't see it where you can't play him um but you cannot expect him to come out and in his first week have the exact same utilization he had when he's fully healthy like you you saw this with godwin they they they brought godwin back put him out there

but not as much as recently so he's always good to catch a bomb touchdown and then you're fine for fantasy. It's Jets quarterback related. Like, you're going to, I would take this thing down to Thursday. And if there's, if all the signs are that fields won't be playing, Taylor won't be playing, I'm okay switching over to Mike Evans at that point. Jack Seville's got a good defense. And if all, if you're going to get 15 opportunities, but you're just going to be running

into a fully stacked box, I might shoot for the upside. Jake and Kentucky Hey, Baller, should I start Woody Marks against Arizona? Yeah. Or Emeka, Bucca against Atlanta and my flex for the first week of the fantasy playoffs. Woody Marks. I mean, that's an easy one. And that's not saying that you should be sitting at Bucca at all. Feels like Woody Marks could be a top five this week.

Absolutely. Woody Marks, I mean, he's been. Especially with Chubhurt. He's been very good. He had 26 carries this last week. 19 carries the week before. He is getting so many touches. and then you have a matchup where right now the Cardinals are 29th

against running backs like Woody Marks is an awesome play. What'd you do? What's wrong? I just, I was quickly going to the Thursday showdown. You're trying to put in some starts of the week, huh? Just one. Oh, but I guess he was taken, huh?

He was. All right. He was. He was taken. Swish. Spoiler. Yeah. It's one of those two guys.

Or maybe it's both. Maybe it's both. Zach and Minneapolis. Which will not help Jake. I somehow made it to the playoffs with Laser Mayfield. Can I trust him in the playoffs or do I need to look somewhere else? Like T-law. The numbers have been really bad for Baker.

Real bad. Forever Lawrence. So Baker hasn't given you a, if you want to talk ceiling, he's got one week this year inside the top eight, seven, sorry, inside the top seven. On a fantasy finish on a week. I mean, the week before that, though, he was 23 points. He was Q8. Okay, let me give you another one.

He hasn't scored, he scored 20 fantasy points one time since week five. Yeah, okay. Does that hurt enough? I mean, it's just that either he's hurt. I mean, one or zero touchdowns other than one game since week five? I mean, it's just. So Trevor Lawrence or Baker Mayfield? I feel like it's Trevor Lawrence and you jump into the flames right now.

Yeah. Jacoby's great. Brian Thomas Jr. is going to do well. They have Britain Strange. They're past catching. running backs are looking good. They're on a roll. Baker's going the wrong way. I'm going with Trevor Lawrence because it wasn't just

it wasn't just production in a plus matchup. It was the last couple weeks he has looked better. Maybe he's figured something out. So I would. I'm going to go with Trevor Lawrence. It's crazy.

Yeah. Will and Virginia. A lot of credit goes to this guy, by the way. Duval. Great play calling. he's a weirdo playing hard for him they bounce back from tough losses and Trevor Lawrence looked like a he looked like a different quarterback last week dot after dot after dot and bad weather Brian Thomas three for 87 man he brought a done he said it couldn't be done ever thought we talk about it that way um but here we are Brian Thomas Jr. I mean he is

still a bigger play threat than when Parker Walker Washington's out there or somebody else. It's like, it is, now that Thomas is healthy and getting back into it, the, you know, their addition for, for trading and, oh my gosh, now his name is Jacobi. Jacobi Myers. Yeah, all I could think of was Brissette. I was like, man, where's the beef? Yeah, Brissette was the only name.

But anyways, that helps. Like some, some guys are number ones in the NFL. some guys are number ones who they need someone competent on the other side of the ball. Last one here, Will and Virginia. Trayvion Henderson against Buffalo, D.K. McCaff against Miami in the flex

for the first round of the playoffs. Wow. Oof. I feel like I'd play Metcalf. I like both of them this week. Yeah. Well, I like Henderson this week. I like what happened last week with D.K. Metcalfe.

Does that continue? It's hard to know. We got Hendo's in over under 50 and a half points. I'm definitely going Hindo. Are you? Yeah. Easily Hindo for me. He still had 15 opportunities.

This last game, the matchup against Buffalo is actually pretty good. Right now on the season, they're 27th, and fantasy points given up to running backs. He is a rookie who is coming on strong, and D.K. Metcalfe is not that good. He had a huge game.

He was good last week. He did. Tons of yards. Important. If D.K. McHaff gets 10 or more targets, then he will be a great play. I think I might be most excited for Buffalo, New England, this week. Yeah. What is the line of that game?

50 and a half. No, I'm sorry. What team is favored and by how much? The Patriots are favored by one point. Yeah. No, that makes sense. I think Buffalo, I think they killed him. Oh, wow.

Oh, oh, it's the anti-patriot bias. Wow. I've been wrong about everything, so I'll probably be wrong about that. Wednesday, we got backup options Thursday night football, preview, the mailbag, starts of the week on the way. Mike's claimed all my guys already, and the matchups on Thursday as well. We'll talk to you then. Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.