Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Week 16 Studs & Duds + Championship Prep - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/23
Episode Date: December 23, 2024Semi-finals recap on today’s fantasy football podcast! Week 16 emotions and reactions for the biggest studs and soul crushing duds from the weekend. Plus, injury news, Ready To Roll, and Monday Pund...ay! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for December 23rd, 2024. Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: Ready to Roll presented by Nissan. Visit https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/crossovers-suvs/pathfinder/rock-creek-edition.html News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Welcome in!
The Fantasy Footballers Podcast, Monday, December 23rd.
Fa la la la la.
La la la la. la la la la la Christmas at all what a weekend it was about that
Devon HN run so I talked to somebody this morning that won their match on the
Devon HN run which if you didn't watch, the game was over.
The Dolphins had the football with under two minutes to go.
They could have, they needed a first down
to fully run out the clock.
But once they did that, they could have needed out.
And 50 yards from the end zone, it was one of those plays.
And it's ones we've seen before.
I remember very vividly,
identical situation for the Colts many years ago.
I had a victory secured and the ball was handed
to Jonathan Taylor on a third and one.
And the entire defense pushes up to try to stop him.
And he just breaks through the front line
and goes to the house and that's what HN did.
Ain't no sliding with my man.
Yeah, he know what, I feel like it's like,
his Nick chub has like gone down multiple times.
Well, that's what he absolutely should have done.
Yeah.
But he didn't.
Not my man.
He's like, we're six and eight, guys.
Where's the H-Han?
I'm taking my touchdown.
Was there a H-Han touchdown incentive
that we didn't talk about?
But that play, you know, if you were on sleeper,
where the projections, they control your emotions, right?
The percentage chance of victory.
If you were in that boat, this guy had 1%.
It was a 1% chance of victory in one play.
And then like a 13 point play or something.
And the other guy quit his job,
left his family and moved away.
No, so it was a wild weekend.
It was a lot of fun.
So a lot.
If it went the way that you wanted
and didn't have Jalen Hurts as your quarterback.
Oh yeah.
Oh.
That is unbelievable.
Because that is catastrophic.
Yeah, if you are listening to this show
and you're on the losing side of the Jalen Hurst things and you're here
You're like I need guys. I need I need a release number one. Just oh
my gosh that debt is
If you want to quit fantasy football, I don't blame you that's for those like oh come on everything
I got to my fault my quarterback doesn't that matter
You didn't make the wrong start sin. I feel like I would it might sound stupid, but I would rather lose that way
I would rather lose like
With no way. I mean if I'm losing I don't want to lose, but if I'm going to lose a game
I want to be able to say
my my star quarterback
Went out right at the beginning of the game. I got dude. I'm with you if I'm going to lose anyway
I don't want the a Chan touchdown at the end of the game to beat me
I don't want it to be a start-sit decision like like I don't want to be the guy that started Britain Strange instead of Chica
Conquo and have it cost you the win. Oh
Yeah, now would you rather have had?
cost you the win. Oh yeah. Now would you rather have had Jalen Hertz go out there and score five fantasy points or Josh Allen who played the whole
game scored 11 fantasy points. Not a lot of those people moving on. In fact
that the common denominator on all the championship games that I've seen this morning and who
I will be playing against in listener league because I'm gonna make it through,
is Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.
That stack has led Mike to a back to back appearance
in our dynasty league title games.
They're unstoppable.
And that combo is just really difficult if they do anything.
And Chase has scored in seven, so listen,
seven straight weeks, Burrow Chase stack
has resulted in a touchdown.
That's a record.
Seven?
Seven straight. It's a record. They showed it on the broadcast yesterday.
Well, I think they're liars because I'm showing no touchdown for Chase last week.
Well, maybe they were liars. Thanks for submarining that.
Well, I just want to bring the facts.
Okay, you're right. Yeah, they said 7 straight.
Maybe they're at home or something like that.
But Chase has 16 on the year and without a touchdown finished at 22 last week.
What was that, Brooks?
Let me know if you find that stat.
But that was one of the common denominators was Burrow has 7 straight weeks at 250 and
3.
250 and 3. That's how you get there and
stacks are so powerful this time of year you get it right it's hard to overcome.
In our league of record which many of you are following along it happened.
Here we are Al Borland sitting over there Blood pressure 220 over 180.
Owl got the Jalen Hurts fantasy football Christmas gift.
I did. It didn't matter.
He did emotionally.
Emotionally it was like.
Facing Jalen Hurts but still scoring 180 points.
Yeah. Yeah.
His team has been on fire.
Did you really?
And by, let me be the first.
Did you really score 180 again?
It depends on Jacobs tonight.
I think I've got like 160 something
and still have Jacobs. Oh my gosh, you're? It depends on Jacobs tonight. That's his projection. I think I've got like 160 something and still have Jacobs.
Oh my gosh, you're on fire.
And I have Green Bay's defense tonight.
Al's in the, he's in the championship game
for the first time.
There's a 16, 17 years we've been in league of record.
Yeah.
He hasn't been there.
I haven't been there that long.
He hasn't been there the entire time.
But your first opportunity at a title.
Yes, sir.
And the world will be with you.
I don't know.
Because I. You've got a lot of fans out there.
I snuck in and I have an opportunity to go back to back
and Al Borland has a chance to knock me off this week
and one of the little subplots in our matchup
that I was looking at, preseason in the draft season,
I traded Kyron Williams for Jameer Gibbs
and both got, you got Kyron Williams and I got Jameer Gibbs
who are both in the title game going into the final week. Both guys playing really well.
Why do you have any, do you have any thoughts? Do you have any thoughts on the matchup, Jason?
It's going to be, it's going to be an awesome matchup. You guys have to put your lineups
out there on X so that we can like have everybody follow along. It should be really, really cool.
And in the listener league, so people can root for Owl in the league of record. People can root for you
in the listener league because that gives them an extra spot. I guess even tonight,
what you you're down like a point or two. I'm down one point, but I have the Packers defense.
Right. So I'm good. Yeah, I agree. I don't care what I say right now. I'll set it all up.
I'll set it all up to come crumbling down
when the Spencer Rattler goes into Lambeau
and dominates the Packers defense.
But yeah, listener league, if I win that next week,
there will be an extra spot
for us to give away during the year.
And that's the goal,
as well as crushing the hopes and dreams
of every individual in that league,
which we, I think, are succeeding in right now yeah they seem pretty sad I
saw one of the managers with a binky or no a pacifier okay I don't understand
what's called a binky but either we have your reactions to the weekend there were
lots of them and we'll jump in you submitted them Monday
pun day on X on Instagram I guess we'll do that right now
mmm go ahead Mike oh I'm going to read it this way chubba hubba hubba oh not too
bad Brian Thomas senior Jaden Daniels or a salute to Captain James T. Cook!
Devon Yechan!
To Infinity and Devon!
Oh, Big Okonkwo!
Or Chig O'Gronkwo!
And Just Win Jefferson!
Jonathan Taylor Touchdown!
He made up for his mistakes!
For all the teams that aren't in the playoffs anymore say Kwan Narley
Jackson Smith win Jigba. It wasn't all good now Trey Mcguide
Yeah, Trey Mcguide to all of us Jerry duty. Oh
Jalen hurt yeah, oh there was Joe fiction on
Thursday and Patrick failure jr. all even below these are fifth
stringer Rashad light Rashad light Josh stalling oh just stalling and Cooper
crap oh no with pooper Nakua that's a lot of turds and I was gonna end it with
the innovative pun Kyle sucks but we'll go with Marvin Embarrassing Jr. because...
Dude.
Dude.
Not sophisticated, Mike.
The Cardinals, not sophisticated.
Marvin Harrison. I hate them!
Marvin Harrison Jr. I hate them so much.
Yeah, I can't stand watching the Cardinals.
They're the worst.
Kyler is not a good, he's just, he doesn't have it.
However, Marvin Harrison Jr., I believe,
has everything to be a star,
but the one thing I have seen absent way too many times
is effort.
Well, they x-rayed him, Jay. No dog? No dog. I mean
ain't no dog in there. There's no puppy. Healthy clear lungs. There's no
elderly dog in there. There's his complete. It's a pussycat. Yeah. Can they like feed
him a dog or something? How do you get dog in this man? So you are a hundred
percent right. Weak hands. We saw him late in the game overtime
They're trying to get back to the line of scrimmage. Who's the last man getting to the line of scrimmage?
Oh hum, let's go for a stroll down the lane. Everybody on the team was maximum effort running to the line get the ball to the ref
We got to go and then there's like Marvin Harris and like I don't I'm too cool for that
I want to believe that the problems of getting him targets has created this situation where mentally he's pressing
so the few opportunities he gets he's you know he's overthinking them I don't
know he's not as good as Brian Thomas jr. he's not as good as Malik neighbors
he's not as good as lad McConkey he might not be as good as Xavier worthy so
you're getting to right now you're getting to a place where this is depressing
And but the issue is oh man. We were so mad yesterday. It's the
Controllable thing like that's that's the most frustrating part. He doesn't come back hard on routes. He doesn't fight hard
That's where it's like you can do that you I know loud know that you can give 100% and you're not.
It's frustrating.
No, and he's now the wide receiver 35 on the season.
And a far cry from the screams that we got
from Mike Wright on draft day when he picked him
and he said to everybody,
no one will ever pry him from my hands in our keeper league.
I'm thinking you're gonna let people pry.
Well, it's weak hands holding on to him okay all right that's fair I thought they
were diamond their paper Cardinals suck Cardinals suck all right let's move on
welcome to ready to, presented by Nissan.
All right, I'll lead this one.
This week's Ready to Roll.
Final.
Ready to Roll.
It is the final.
We're going to keep this one short and sweet.
We're just going to highlight a couple of running backs here who sometimes there's
wild splits between how a running back performs at
home and on the road which generally speaking I want my running backs at home
I want my running backs in a in a over-under where they are heavily
favored but just sometimes it works out that guys are just much much better on
the road but a couple players to highlight who are at home and
have been just much much better by a points per game and these are you know
running backs who are types of fringe starters. Ramondre Stevenson who came he
had an okay game last yesterday against the Bills. The Patriots as a whole had a
pretty good game against the Buffalo Bills,
but Ramon Ray Stevenson at home has been over six points better on fantasy points per week.
15.4 at home, 9.1 on the road.
And he's at home. It's a tougher matchup against the Chargers, but he has been just like the work
and everything. He's just been such a better player at home
that I think it could give you a little bit of confidence
that he's in that flex consideration.
And then Deandre Swift, like I said,
these are lower tier guys
that you will be making decisions on.
And you're hiding,
these aren't the only players that have big splits,
these are ones that you're highlighting as fringe options
as we head into decisions.
Because Kyron Williams, there's no decisions.
There's no decisions, however.
Devon H. N., there's no decisions.
It's worth noting that Kyron Williams is significantly
better at home.
And for Andy and Owl's matchup, he's at home this week.
He's going to kill the sucky Cardinals.
Deandre Swift at home has been four points better
in those matchups.
He gets to take on Seattle at home.
So that will be an interesting one to watch.
And then on the road side of it.
Well, before you move to the road side.
Oh, you got one you got to highlight?
Yeah, I think Rashad White is worth highlighting as well.
Another player that's been much better at home.
And I think you're going to have decisions there,
especially after kind of a more down week,
but much better at home.
And it's against the Carolina Panthers.
I saw a matchup that swung last night
on the Rashad White fumble.
Oh no, that play was infuriating.
That play was the most amazing play.
Like nobody this season has held themselves up
in the middle of a sack more than Baker.
Pushing off Joey Bosa earlier in the year, or Nick Bosa.
And then he breaks through five guys, gets the ball to his player, you're saving the
play, oh my god, the game's over.
Yeah.
The highs and lows of that play were absolutely insane.
Road warriors.
Just want to highlight, the guys from Seattle have, and we're talking about Zach Charbonneau
and Ken Bonewalker, they've been better on the road.
And they're on the road against Chicago,
which actually coincides with a plus match up here
for these running backs.
Kenneth Walker obviously back injured
because the dude is made out of wet cardboard.
Just every time he's healthy, he got a goal on Kerry.
Didn't get in, but got hurt.
I've never seen a player that I can remember ever
who didn't get to 10 fantasy points and had eight receptions.
He was he he had not targets.
I mean, he had eight targets as well, but he had eight receptions
and he did not score
10 fantasy points in half PPR.
How is that possible?
And he had seven of them in the first half.
Seven receptions, and Kenneth Walker now has an ankle injury.
So it's something where it's like,
this is not just a recurrence
of what they're dealing with, right?
I mean, this is just.
We need a lot of news actually from Seattle,
what's going on, because you had,
because look, Charbonne, if you missed this,
was listed as a captain for this team.
And then everything was Ken Walker and McIntosh.
Charbonne was the third guy in, so that'll
be something to monitor.
I would expect, if Walker is out,
then Charbonne is right back in, so being a great play.
And then it's a tougher matchup. It's your boy.
And coming off of just an absolute disaster of a performance for Rico
Dowdle where the Cowboys could get nothing going. 13 for 23 on the ground.
Like he was just as soon as he had the ball he was getting contacted and he
just he couldn't make anything happen anything special happen, but
Points wise at home Rico daddels under 10 points and on the road. He's been a 13 point per game type of a player He is on the road tougher matchup against Philadelphia, but the worst it's at least
Worth considering that they just he he's been better on the road last name to bring up only because it's an Andy and owls matchup
Joe Mixon. He has the largest
road split of any running back over the last decade, potentially all time. We just looked
at a decade and it's number one. He is the 10th most fantasy points per game on the road
for any running back. And so he's at home.
He's at home. I mean, if you look at who he played on the road, you'll understand why. Yeah.
I mean, you played Dallas and Indy and New England,
the Jets defense, Jacksonville.
He dominated in those matchups for sure.
This week it will be interesting.
This week is going to also,
I don't know how motivated they're gonna be.
It's gonna be-
The Ravens or the Texans?
Well, the Texans really needed to get a W in order to, now
they got what they needed from Pittsburgh's loss so maybe they'll still be motivated to
be able to slide into the three seed but they didn't win against Kansas City so that made
me sad. But this week is going to be unique because reminder there is games on Christmas, and Christmas is on a Wednesday.
Oh, that's crazy.
So we don't have data to say, you know,
like this is what's gonna happen one way or another,
but I think it's gonna be interesting.
Like, do you guys think that they're,
like the running backs,
you think that they will have a small edge here
that all the lines are tired, and the running backs, you think that they will have a small edge here that they're,
that all the lines are tired and the running backs
will be able to get a little bit more points here?
I don't know, I really don't.
With the Wednesday Christmas games, I mean,
it's gonna be another fragmentation that we had last week
where I think I've got four, I have five players, I think.
Five of my players will play on Christmas.
I don't think you have any?
You'll have to look into that.
I'll check.
It'll give you information for the weekend
on start-sit decisions,
on how the trajectory of your team is going,
play safe, play, you know,
play for the win.
But the- Jason, you're smirking.
Chief Steelers? I just think this week's gonna be
so much fun.
It's gonna be insane with Wednesday football happening and so many. Two Wednesday one Thursday three Saturday games. Wednesday is
Chiefs at Steelers and Ravens on Texas. Championship week the slow death or
victory like this week is going to be a brutal football week and a glorious
football week for a half of every championship matchup.
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Does that mean we've got Wednesday football, Thursday football, Saturday, Sunday and Monday
football? Correct. What are we doing? What are we doing? We're taking Fridays off. Yeah,
yeah. I guess that's what it means for us and our families. Friday.
Yeah.
All right, well, lots of news.
It was heartbreaking to watch.
Tank Del, devastating knee injury on a touchdown pass.
Awesome touchdown catch.
He was determined to dislocated knee cap.
Very.
Plus tacks.
I mean, we don't even know what the rest of it is.
So from what I've seen is the expectation with that might come with additional ligament
damage and if it does, which we'll know soon, that would be like over a year recovery.
Like 2025 might be missed now for Tank Del.
It's brutal for a player who broke his fibula and had a season ender last year, you saw CJ Stroud,
very emotional. That's his best friend and so tough for the Texans.
Both injuries were caused by his own players that he suffered. And this was a practice
squad wide receiver in the wrong place on a freak accident. It was devastating. It was
his best game of the year in spite of that. It was his number one fantasy finish of the season.
James Connor did a lot of work and then left in the third quarter with a hyper extended
knee, did not return.
Arizona was eliminated from playoff contention.
If you had to make me bet, I'd bet almost everything that Connor misses next week.
There is nothing, there is no reason other than
pride of wanting to play a full season or you know contract incentives
You know fighting with his guys. I mean
The likelihood of him being back is just very very low
Yeah, I mean we've talked about he's never finished season yet. We knew something might be coming
We were home most people are blaming us.
Well, that's...
Dang, if you think we have that level of power and control.
Yeah, we accept.
Yeah, okay.
We do.
And you're right.
James Connor, the tough part here,
Wednesday games, Thursday games.
Yep. Like I have Xavier Worthy.
I get to play him on Wednesday on Christmas
or try to wait for practice reports on James Connor.
It's impossible.
You know.
Wow.
It's gonna be brutal.
And Kenneth Walker left again.
We talked about it with an ankle injury.
It's a Thursday night game.
Goodbye, Kenneth.
Goodbye.
Drake London left the fourth quarter with a hamstring
injury didn't return their head coach Rene Morris said that he believe he
would have went back in I don't really care what he says about that right now I
care about what practice says because I've seen that before yeah for sure I
mean we that you can't go by the quote but it is at least helpful to know they
were blowing,
this was a game where they did not need Drake London anymore,
so it could have just been extreme caution to be like,
eh, if you tweak anything, just rest, we don't need you.
We have Jalen Hurts, the concussion, devastating.
He tried to go back in.
The league, the referees, they did not let that happen.
And they ended up losing the ball game.
Josh Allen, elbow contusion, didn't miss any snaps.
You could see him working on the sideline.
Yeah, he said he lost feeling in his hand.
Josh Allen.
He was shaking his hand out the whole game,
and he did not look quite the same.
Yeah, he only had 154 yards in one touchdown.
He also, for the first time in six weeks,
didn't have in one touchdown. He also, for the first time in six weeks,
didn't have a rushing touchdown.
He was coming off a 51.9 and 41.3 point performance.
And then this was obviously against New England at home.
You expected the fireworks?
Yeah, he got you.
Especially when they're down 14-0.
You'd think in that case, that would happen.
Josh Allen got everyone to the playoffs. But you have to have had a roster around him.
I took you into this world, I'll take you out.
Yeah, that's basically what he did.
So hopefully you have a good enough roster around him, or you were playing against Jalen
Hertz because, you know, Josh Allen teams were in all the playoffs, and that was a brutal
game.
Yeah, it was, where did he finish?
15? No, 11.2. 24 or something. Yeah, I think he was a brutal game. Yeah, it was, where did he finish? 15?
No, 11?
11.2, yeah.
Yeah, I think he was the quarterback 24.
And then George Pickens has a real chance
to play on Christmas.
George?
Some of us need you, George.
Oh yeah, yeah.
And then Justice Hill, DMP.
That was, there was also an estimated
do not practice for Zay Flowers,
but these are not.
The Flowers one I would not.
They play on Wednesday.
He'll probably play.
The Justice Hill one, I mean, he was,
that dude took flight and landed on his head,
and he was out cold immediately.
And with a Wednesday game.
With the limited time I.
No chance.
Yeah, which I mean, class half full is,
that's a lot more Derek Henry snaps.
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We'll take a break, we'll hit the studs.
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Let's go.
This week's fantasy stud muffins.
I was just distracted because I was expecting this entire show to be filled with you going
champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ champ
I wish I wish that could be the case that that it's a lot of fun to do our champ champ
champ team did exit the playoffs ran into who would you give the greatest thanks to
Justin Jefferson yeah Yeah. Yeah.
Jefferson was.
Thank you for your best game of the year there, Justin Jefferson.
Sometimes you can play great and just face great players.
That's what PlayUs is all about.
Speaking of great players, and really glad this one worked out.
Spent most of the week telling you to just ride.
Jaden Daniels, the number one quarterback of the week.
And it was that tough matchup, people were,
I mean we got Jaden Daniels or Kyler,
we got Jaden Daniels or Baker,
we got Jaden Daniels or Goff.
Daniels was the number one quarterback, five touchdowns,
fully healthy in this game against Philly.
Ran for 81 yards.
The whole thing is insane. They
lost their superstar quarterback and Washington had to keep pace with Kenny
Pickett. I mean I like I get yes Saquon Barkley was the one doing most of the
damage but that like it was a backup quarterback and you had to throw five
touch he had to throw a touchdown at the end of the game
Just so Washington could win
several good reasons for that beyond sake one like five turnovers by your offense and
But I'm saying the environment like generally when I have my quarterback and the other quarterback gets knocked out you're like
Yeah, well there Well there goes the points.
Thankfully they were already down a ton.
Yeah.
And then Saquon had that big breakaway run
and they kept turning the ball over
and giving them short fields.
Jared Goff got it done again.
Bryce Young was the number two on the week.
Wow.
Cause the Cardinals suck.
And Patrick Mahomes and Sam Darnold rounded out the top five.
You know, you go into next week and you say,
well, we think Hertz will be back, we don't know.
You know, you're looking at Sam Darnold
and what he's been doing with a healthy Addison
and a healthy Jefferson in a big game
against Green Bay on the docket.
And he's the quarterback eight on the year, like.
Darnold is playing awesome.
I mean like it's not just system.
You know I think the coaching has been outrageously good.
Setting these, the Vikings who we thought were in a rebuild.
You know they're tied with the Lions.
Yeah they're playing for the division. And're a 13-win team, and it's incredible, but it isn't all scheme.
Darnold, his pocket maneuverability.
I've watched these games because I spent weeks trying to target defenses against Darnold
waiting for the pumpkin, and you'd watch these defenders get right up behind them to the
side of them, grab them, and not take them down,
and then he completes a pass.
Obviously, having Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison
and Hawkinson, it's very helpful.
But he needs credit, especially from me,
because he's playing outstanding football.
Anybody else you wanna highlight
at the quarterback position?
I mean, Burrow got it done,
didn't have a prolific game, but a good game.
I wanna highlight the Jared Goff play.
The insane Ben Johnson.
Like, they, there was a play if you.
Barking dog style play.
Unbelievable.
They scripted a fake fumble on their offense
where Jared Goff, what happened was there was.
It looked like a mistake.
There was a play that the. The Pack was there was a play that the Packers had
where they did fumble and it turned out
that it kind of caused the defense to do one thing
and then they threw a touchdown on that play.
So they emulated it and in practice,
Jared Goff came out and talked about this.
This was actually, because I saw people
right after the play thinking,
oh did they do that on purpose?
And I was like no, yes, they did. Jamir Gibbs falls to the ground. Jared Goff
acts like he drops the ball and stumbles. And then he turns around and throws the touchdown
to Sam Laporta. It was like, when you are, when you are at the stage mentally, where you are playing around with plays like that,
you're on fire as a play designer.
Yeah, there's been a big differential
between Ben Johnson's performance this year,
coming off of his candidacy,
and what you've gotten in Houston.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Houston, I mean, the play calling there is driving me insane.
Last year, Bobby Sloak and Ben Johnson,
those were the two names.
It was like those are the, you know,
cause CJ Stroud had his breakout campaign.
Sloak's play calling is not good.
It is, the amount of runs on second and 10 are disgusting.
And I mean, they've now lost two thirds
of their super wide receiver room now.
Yeah.
Ben Johnson will be like whatever job out there if he wants that job
yeah he will be able to go and take that. He should be able to do that with a job
that's not open. You know like genuine like he should be like you know maybe he
likes Kyler. Fire that guy. Yeah you should fire him I'll take this job. I'm
bringing that up as like
the structure of the Detroit Lions, you know, like the arc type of what kind of head coach
Dan Campbell is. Dan Campbell's not the X's and O's drawing up creative offensive plays.
I'm sure if slash when Ben Johnson leaves, that's going to be a heavily talked about point into the off season.
Yeah, I push back just a little.
I know he is not the one doing it right now, but he was a tight end.
He was an offensive guy.
He has done some of that in the past.
I don't think it's the same as the defensive coaches that lose, you know, that when their
offense is good and they keep losing their offensive coordinator to head coaching jobs,
now you're like,
re-roll start over.
But that'll be the argument of, are you concerned about it?
Yeah, yeah, I think it's Chicago time for Ben Johnson.
Jonathan Taylor, number one on the week.
Goodness gracious.
Just showing you what he's capable of,
ran all the way through the back of the end zone
with the football in his hands,
and was just outrageous. Chuba Hubbard, number two in the week. Devon Aitchan with the breakaway
run. Barclay, Cook, all these guys, all five of them. Breakaway touchdown runs.
Chuba finished off overtime and James Cook keeps getting it done despite
rotating on and off the field. Eleven touches, 11 runs. Wow. It's a two touchdowns.
He literally only had 11.
Think he's had 14 rushing touchdowns this year, 14.
He was so good on a per touch base.
I mean, he had 100 yards rushing.
The team's validating this strategy.
Yeah, keep that fresh.
By the results.
I mean, Ty Johnson's making plays,
James Cook is making plays, Ray Davis is making plays.
There's no evidence that they are making a mistake there.
But when there is, I'll be here to talk about it.
Yeah, Jameer Gibbs, 23 for 109 and one.
Also four for 45 through the air.
We knew he was gonna be good, could have been better.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like-
I mean, as silly as that is, it could have been better.
I genuinely feel disappointed in that result.
He wasn't a top five back.
He was awesome, scored enough, was great.
Not good enough.
Like, not, we need more, Gibbs.
Bijon and James Connor got it done this week.
Jerome Ford was the start of the week
and took care of business, TCB.
Jerome Ford, if you started him and if you watched the game it was
so frustrating of
Jerome Ford literally started the game with a 60 plus yard run and then it was like
Multiple
Multiple possessions later that he's even up to three carries and they kept like in Deontza form in the goal line
They gave foremanman the goal line. They gave Foreman the goal line carry they were like enamored with we try to get we got
to get DGR throwing the ball like what are you doing and then every time Jerome
Ford touched the ball it's like four or five yards. He was so good he was great
when given the opportunity given not enough opportunities. Yes you know who's
been outrageous is a wide receiver by the name of Keenan Allen
Jefferson led the week to touchdowns Keenan Allen 13 targets for the second straight week
third top 10 performance in five weeks
How many of those yards were in the second half probably all of them? I mean he Caleb does not
Come out to play. There's actually twins, and one twin plays. Oh, is this like, the prestige. The prestige.
One twin plays the first half,
the other guy comes out in the second half.
I would just use the second half guy for both halves,
that's what I would do.
I wonder if that first guy should learn
how to play football.
He's afraid of the introductions.
Ah, that makes sense.
No, Keenan's been good in what's crazy.
His target pace is 183 over the last five games.
What's crazy is Keenan, at his elderly statesman games. What's crazy is Keenan at his elderly statesman age.
Hey, it's me, Keenan.
He is doing really cool stuff.
I mean, his hands haven't gotten worse.
You have a couple of these plays where I don't even know how he
saw the-
Like cartwheels and somersaults and juggling?
I remember he was basically on a slant,
defender blocking his vision of where Caleb was was Caleb throws it right behind him and somehow he reaches his hands out and snags a ball
But I don't think he could have seen but a millisecond before it was there. I mean obviously Kenan is you know he's an all-timer
He's great, but he's showing no you know
No, let down on the skills side.
Brian Thomas Jr., 13 targets, nine for 132,
another touchdown where he was opened by 30 yards
from the closest defender.
Absolute beast.
Wide receiver, six on the year.
I thought he helped me crush you in DraftKings
because I had him in my lineup
and I didn't realize that that HN run at the
very end that took you back so you actually won. Yeah I ended up sneaking by. Just a cool 208
target pace with Mac Jones. That the 208. There will be plenty of time in a whole
entire offseason which ladies and gentlemen if you're new to the show we
don't shut the podcast down in the off season we are year-round we have two at once once
January hits we're still two episodes we're still breaking things down that's
when the fun stuff we think Al's still coming in maybe maybe Papa Josh
definitely I think Al's coming in with a crown on his head but the we talked
about the truth of what happened this the past year and then it looked rookies tons and tons of great stuff but the the the
the conversations on Brian Thomas are going to be fascinating of he is
absolutely dominating right now but 10 12 14 13 targets these weren't this was
not the treatment that he was getting from Trevor Lawrence.
It's a tough discussion because that's also natural
for a rookie to progress to that point.
So you become a dominator, you know,
the OBJ rookie season and the chase.
And like these guys are, like I'm gonna be so in
on Brian Thomas because I loved him in college.
I loved the skillset.
He, you know, it doesn't mean it's always gonna translate.
It did translate.
They found something here.
They found something where other teams invested
in other names and this guy was right there.
It has coincided with the injuries to Krisha Kirk,
to Evan Ingram.
Gabe Davis.
There's so much.
So it's like there's all these reasons
that these numbers for him are inflated.
And while that is true, I can't wait for people next year
to be not as in as they should be on Brian Thomas
because of those ancillary reasons,
because y'all should be soups.
He is awesome.
Jameson Williams, huge day.
5 for 143 and one.
Was it like a 90 yard touchdown?
He was 82 or something like that.
Thought he had two touchdowns.
No.
Oh, Jameson Williams.
I heard Jameson, and I was thinking the name
that we have forgotten forever.
Oh, you thought Crowder?
Jameson Crowder.
Oh my goodness.
Who did have two touchdowns.
And he still plays football.
If you want to use an old man voice Mike
That's your old man that
Jameson Crotter has been in the league since the late
1960s yeah, he played you know that he played for the Chicago Cardinals
Yeah, and you know what his he's three years younger than Adam Phelan. That's not possible
Is not wait, is that real his real? His locker is a casket. He's 31 and a half years old.
James Mcrouter cannot be that young. That man is, who was the guy that that lied on his birth
certificate? Oh Cameron artist Payne. James Mcrouter is 600 years old if he's a day. Amazing. Deebo Samuel, thanks man.
Oh yeah.
Really appreciate it.
There it is.
Yeah, no one played you.
Terry McLaurin, got it done, five for 60 in a touchdown.
Sunday Live, we kinda just said like,
can you live with yourself putting that dude on your bench?
Yeah, so I'm so thankful he continued to do what he's done this year in such a difficult matchup,
because people had to play him and he came through. It was good to see.
Jay is in. Now the wide receiver is seven, keeps getting it done, scored again.
They use him in every way, and I love that. There's no part of the field like he gets deep shots,
but he gets screens behind the line of scrimmage
and jet sweeps and middle of the, you know,
they're just getting the ball to him wherever they can.
If you spent the rookie 101 on Marvin Harrison Jr.,
JSN is, just hold onto that hope,
because JSN's rookie season was a disaster.
And the beginning of this year was not much better.
So have some hope.
It's like, look at this.
Look at the career path of that wide receiver who was like,
the regrets of people who took JSN over Jameer Gibbs
had to be just an uncountable number.
Yeah.
But we're back and he's elite now.
Tight ends on the week.
Number one, 15.4 points Brock Bowers.
No surprise.
He had Aiden O'Connell there and he is the best.
Yeah, 13 targets targets 11 for 99
Just always always open and then number two
That's yes, let's go
so
important
Dude, it became a thing that I didn't even really want it to be that pro what a call
What a number two on the week, Chig Okonkwo,
tied with George Kittle for number two on the week, nine for 81, 11 targets, a two point
conversion and I think. You had two leagues where you got to the championship. Yes. And
in both of those leagues you put Chig in, right? Yes. And in both of those leagues if
you had not moved to him,
the one championship I'm in, Chig was in the lineup, thank you. I had Strange in, made the
pivot. You know what? That's awesome that you made the swap. Who is your other options?
Britain Strange. Yeah. A con quote, and you know what? The thing here is I think we get another
weekend. I agree. I think against Jacksonville next week, who guess who?
Brock Bowers just played and had 11 for 99 and the flats are open all day long.
I think Chick gets one more week of this.
100 percent. I mean, the like pecking order of targets.
He was very, very involved.
He had four catches in the, you know, early on.
And it was it never it never stopped.
Eleven targets this week, ten the week week before and this is the loving it but why what are you why now
Tennessee like we we were we were banging the drum for this guy last year
I love like this is a player who should be a featured part of your offense he's
got the he's got the skills the ability for a for a tight end in the NFL, especially for fantasy football. Athleticism is like
it's super overrated for almost every other position, but the tight end
position, it matters so so much and this guy's been on the team all year. Yeah I mean it's a
little bit like what happened with Nj at times, where he would disappear.
Let me tell you something.
Every game that Mason Rudolph has started,
he's had 20 plus completions.
Do you know the last time that Will Levis
had 20 plus completions?
It was week three.
You know how many times he did it all year?
One time.
He hasn't done it.
He's under 20 every game.
He completes eight passes.
How can Chick do anything with that?
Will Levis is a buh-bye.
Oh, he sucks.
Oh yeah.
Buh-bye.
I mean he's the one quarterback.
Buh-bye, banana-rama.
Buh-bye.
He's the only guy I would prefer Kyler to.
All right, that's not true.
But yeah, so Concho, I think it goes on for another week,
but not if Rudolph isn't the starter, which we expect.
He will be the starter, Rudolph will start.
I would expect him to be, it's Jacksonville. So let's go.
Sam Laporta got it done, got the touchdown.
That's what the bet would be.
Hunter Henry scored, Mark Andrews scored,
Isaiah Likely scored.
David Najoku was good.
Heavily targeted, DTR does that.
Miami next week, Najoku will be okay.
Yeah, it was good to see he was a real question mark.
And the only other stud who leads us into the Duds
perfectly would just be the Raiders for winning out
of the number one pick.
Good job, guys.
Just like we called on the show.
We're like, who's the worst coach?
That's who's going to win the game.
It might be the worst owner.
Because did you see the news report
about Mark Davis was celebrating with the team
like crazy in the locker room?
Yep, the big win. Congrats.
It's such an impossible situation.
No, it is probably great though because-
How about you lose though?
If history is, you know, if recent history is good, you want that number two pick. You
want that Jaden Daniels, that CJ Stroud.
All right. We'll talk duds in a second. Uber app for details. As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having
your unused data roll over to the following month, every month. At Fizz, you always get
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Details at Fizz.ca.
I got to ask Al Borland real quick, you know, after that performance how afraid of
Chigga Conchua are you now? I mean they took a deep they were gonna take a deep
shot to him. I don't know if you saw this in the game. Rudolph's arm got hit. I mean
it was probably gonna be like a 200 yard touchdown. I'll trade you Trey McBride
for it. Okay. All right that works. We'll get to talk about Trey McBride. Oh yeah, let me hit this button.
Pooped in his big boy pants.
You know what?
No, that's not fair to him.
We're not there yet.
No, no, no, we are.
We'll start with tight ends.
Trey McBride, three for 20, in a game against Carolina
where the Cardinals needed to win to stay in the playoffs.
Why use this guy, guys?
All he did
He's a no-one. He was run wide open all
game long. I mean Mike and I and our I mean he's the he is basically the reason that we lost in the champ champ champ
League and we're watching the entire game. He is in front of Kyler's face
wide open, and Kyler launches it to some uncatchable
area to someone else all game long. The overtime, it was so infuriating. He walked off, looks
at the camera, says some expletives. He was very unhappy.
Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah. Yeah, I would be mad if I was used for 20 yards
in a must-win game with overtime.
You got five quarters.
TJ Hawkinson, two for 27, Kelsey five for 30.
Bzzzz, bzzzz.
Yeah, I guess we made the wrong decision
to start McBride over Kelsey.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, they both were awful.
And I think a lot of people felt backed into them. Shout out to Kyle Pitts
Play most awesome Kyle Pitts play Kyle. Are you on the line?
You big Kyle Pitts fan right now
Would you you're saying you'd rather have like Jamar chase who was drafted right after
him. Um, but if you didn't see the play, Michael panics coming in first, first game looked
pretty darn good. I thought he's driving down, gets in the red zone, gives a nice pass to
cow pits, hits cow pits, right in the hands around the, I don't know, three, four yard
line, something like that. Cow pits turns and throws the ball to the opponents
It was so silly looking and it was an interception. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was bad
If you look back now at the quarterback disappointments, we already talked about him Jalen hurts the injury Josh Allen the disappointing game
they still
You know, they still pulled it out to a tongue of I Loa
Wait, does that mean sorry going back to the Jamar chase being draft? Does that mean Penae Sewell?
Was also drafted after cow pits. Uh-huh. Yeah, because that was the decision the Bengals were making no, but they were with pits
Matthew Stavrid to a disappointing games Joe mix in the Thursday game 14 for 57
We knew that was okay. I mean it really wasn't that Joe Mixon, the Thursday game, 14 for 57.
We knew that was gonna be tough. It was okay, I mean it really wasn't that,
it was as much as you'd expect against Kansas City
on the road on a Thursday after an injury.
Yeah, and he didn't destroy you the way that some guys
can just make it to where you have to overcome them.
I don't think you felt like you had to overcome Joe Mixon,
you were just disappointed.
Yeah, Isaiah Pacheco, It has not been a special return. 3.7 per touch.
You wonder if he came back too soon.
Well, and also you got Hunt who is very involved. Kareem Hunt. It looked like-
16 fantasy points.
It looked like the, you know, the, the, the first game,
it was like Hunt was still getting more of the work, but then Pacheco,
the second game Pacheco took over the lead role and then you thought it would
even escalate from there, and instead,
it went the other way.
I mean, you're talking about 13 carries and 11 carries
the last two weeks for Kareem Hunt, so part of the reason
I love Pacheco coming into the year was he was the only guy,
he was gonna be a workhorse back.
That's not, I don't even think through the playoffs.
They're gonna use Kareem Hunt and Pacheco together,
not good for fantasy.
All right, Tony Pollard, eight for 35 on the ground.
Pollard was playing hurt.
Yeah, the injury was an issue.
I don't know why they keep trying to make him play.
Brian Robinson, two fumbles, 10 for 24, a disaster.
Absolute disaster.
He is the guy that I think people you had to overcome
Yeah, because I've seen a lot of time. We didn't play I have a I have my you know in the expert league where I was the number One seed I had Brian Robinson who I had to play because I lost Camara and could not overcome him
You didn't like that having the 72nd ranked running back on the week. No, I did not
No that matchup already sucked and then he's, here's minus four on these fumbles.
And then basically got benched, rightly so,
for a long time and got very few opportunities.
Doudle was 13 for 23 on the ground.
He couldn't get it going.
Philly's a brutal matchup.
Philly is the team that just played Brian Robinson,
where he was 10 for 24 so Dowdle is not
Dowdle has been very good in his opportunities but the matchups he's he's not we talked about at the top he's not a must start he's going to be a very difficult uh i mean his three big games
in a row were Giants, Bengals, Panthers three of the worst defenses in football so Philly's going
to be uh try to find somebody else, in my opinion.
DeAndre Swift was bad, ETN, this is a lost season
for Travis ETN, maybe the biggest bust in fantasy football.
A season where you're gonna finish maybe,
maybe if you're lucky in the top 36, probably not,
for a guy that was drafted so high.
How many top 20 finishes, guys?
On the year? I don't know, how many?
Zero.
Oof, wow.
Zero, on the year.
And these are the players, when you say big bust, to me.
Well, sometimes you say other things,
but it's players that you would lock into your lineup
for a while waiting for it to finally happen
and it never happens, and then he got hurt.
This was a huge bust.
Nodgy, Patrick Taylor.
Patrick Taylor did nothing.
Yeah.
Patrick Taylor did absolutely nothing.
Process was right, he was the only running back utilized.
He got five targets and he was just not,
he's just not a good enough running back.
When you are that low on the depth chart, there's a reason.
You're just not good enough to actually have that role. Debo was really the running back you wanted in this game,
but I don't think you can use Patrick Taylor going forward. And I don't know if the Niners will try to get, you know,
do they look towards Keishon Vaughn or do they look towards is he after seeing that Patrick Taylor?
Just kind of didn't have the the stuff
What was grandeur status?
We'll see if he's back. Yeah
So I'll be curious if this continues for Cooper Cup
Three catches for 24 yards a week after zero catches and I was not worried at all about Cooper Cup one bad game
Is like so what who cares if this continues the offseason narrative around cup is gonna be insane. Yes
Thankfully Arizona Cardinals this week now that's not really a great matchup for wide receivers, but they do suck
and That's not really a great matchup for wide receivers, but they do suck.
And that's really the headline of today. Khalil Shakir, just two catches.
Mari Cooper, invisible.
Just the bills.
Keon Coleman, nothing.
Judy, it didn't work with DTR.
You got humped.
I mean, you got, he's out of your lineup.
You guys like that one?
No?
Wasn't expecting it.
Unexpected is really the...
That's because you guys didn't play him.
He was also in that lineup with Brian Robinson.
He has to be...
So you didn't win?
No.
Like, it's so strange, because I get it, that Jameis Winston is...
That's a first.
Like, Jameis, yes, he's throwing these
back-breaking interceptions.
I get it.
But you can actually win.
Right, you can win.
You can win.
DTR put up six points.
Yeah, but look, Cleveland's at the fifth pick right now.
Yeah, I mean, yes, they don't wanna win.
If that is the goal, but I'm saying,
if you're Jerry Judy,
you've been waiting your entire career for this and you has it happened
it's happening. For what? You've been waiting for what six for 142 in a
touchdown or six for 85, nine for 235 in a touchdown, five for 64 in a touchdown,
11 for 108 or were you waiting for two for 20?
Like this is dead.
I mean, if I'm.
This is the Jamis experiment.
I mean, this is the NFL.
They've never seen somebody like Jamis before.
Jamis is so good for fantasy and so bad as a quarterback.
You're Jerry Judy in that locker room,
knowing that the coaching staff is like taking this
opportunity away from you and they're giving you maybe DTR at some point in
his career can turn into a starting caliber quarterback he's he's nowhere
close to that right now and if you're Jerry Judy that's got to be just an
absolute kick in the pants well Winston wasn't even active. Was it an actual injury for? No. No? Sore shoulder.
Yeah I mean they might write something. Sore from throwing picks. Harrison, this one sucked.
Juaun Jennings. Yes. I feel you know, this is two weeks in a row.
I mean, this is one of the biggest playoff fantasy
end of season busts, without question.
I mean, four of the last five games has been a bust,
and no secret sauce anymore.
This was a game where Brock Purdy
could have turned to him more, just four for 51.
Detroit next week.
I mean, I think recommending him is gonna be hard now.
It's gonna be hard.
The difficult thing is how good the matchup is
against Detroit with the banged up secondary and...
Stop me.
What's your faith in the 49ers
who have scored 17 points, six points, 38, 10, 10, 17.
This offense is... Very little without a running game. have scored 17 points, six points, 38, 10, 10, 17.
Like this offense is. Very little without a running game.
The offense is broken.
And they're eliminated.
Their priorities now are different.
They cannot make the playoffs.
This is where, at least on Wednesday this week,
I really wanna focus on some overt motivation issues
for teams.
Not every team in the entire league,
but the three or four most impacted teams
by playoff scenarios.
That's actually really cool.
Mike, what are you doing on Christmas?
Oh, okay.
He's gonna be going through motivations.
I'm open gifts.
Yeah, maybe Wednesday's the wrong day for that.
Open gifts.
You do you, man.
Why don't, cause tomorrow's gonna be in abridged
waiver wire.
It's not gonna be this big, extensive waiver wire.
Most of the, you know, the big names, a few of them,
we should talk about that tomorrow.
We'll be through the week, the Monday night game
will be over, let's, abridged waiver wire plus
big time team motivation decision making stuff
so that you can start thinking about that
while you open your gifts Jason
and we got to preview the Wednesday games because
There's games. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah waivers will be waivers would be quick. We'll get you some big names
Quentin Johnston Corliss Sutton on Thursday didn't get it done and
That'll be it. Like I said tomorrow. We'll talk a few waiver names
we'll talk about Christmas football games, two of them,
and we'll set the stage for Fantasy Championship Week.
Do want to say thank you to everybody supporting the podcast
at jointhefoot.com.
All of you out there who clicked that follow button,
who subscribe over on YouTube,
who have been with us throughout the year,
as Mike said, it's a year-round show.
This is our 10th season. We started said, it's a year-round show. This is our 10th season.
We started this thing as the first year-round fantasy football podcast because we knew that
there were other thirsty people who wanted more fantasy football talk throughout the
offseason. So, you know, we will get into it all tomorrow, set the stage for some fun
championship weeks,
and I'm sure we'll remind you
that the cardinal's sucked tomorrow as well.
That is it.
You know what I've got one thing as the show concludes.
I just wanted to say,
Al, congrats. Congratulations, Andy.
Oh, he beat you to it.
Oh, yes. Goodbye.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.
Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com
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