Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down the matchups that matter in the NFL this week

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

Mike Schopp of ADP Chasing and WGR 550 joins for our weekly fantasy show to preview the top matchups that will help decide your fantasy playoffs this weekend. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. The show is always presented by Fanduil, and this is our Purple Insider Fantasy Shope with Mike Shope of WGR 550 and ADP chasing. And we have reached the point where if you are still alive in your fantasy playoffs, congratulations to you. And this is a big week. So we're going to look at big players, making big plays in big games.

We're going to go through some of the biggest games around the league and who matters the most. But I'm also curious, Mike, for those still alive, how they should handle lineups, how they should think about who to put in and who to not put in. And one of the things that's been striking me a lot this year, and maybe it happens every year in December, but I feel like it's been a little egregious this year, is some teams are down bad. and it feels like they may not be showing up for games, but they still have certain players that are going to matter in these

situations. Like, how do we deal with that? Yeah, that's a good question. I think when you're drafting, you're not really daunted by teams that you think might not have good seasons. The Jets come immediately to mind. Justin Fields, Garrett Wilson, Brees Hall, like, okay, well, if they are losing, then I don't mind because that means, I mean, for me, as a fantasy player, positive game scripts and I can get, you know, production from many of those guys week to week. But what happened? It went so south.

They benched fields. Wilson got hurt, and they have no real incentive to put him back out there. Maybe they will. And then Brees Hall has just really not hit because the team is that incompetent. So that happens sometimes. Atlanta is interesting here. I didn't expect Atlanta to go so badly, but you have Drake London who's hurt

and what is their incentive to put him back on the field. One thing that's interesting about Atlanta is that they traded their first round pick. So they don't have the draft capital incentive quite like the other teams might. But oh my gosh, I mean, there's so many of these. The Raiders have been such a disaster. Didn't get anything from Gentie.

I think we talked about this last week. Like what an unfortunate pick that was, one-two turn in drafts. Bowers is great, but there's not enough happening. They had 75 yards of offense against Philadelphia. Yeah. I mean, in the game against Kansas City,

who couldn't beat anybody else, they might have had the ball for 18 minutes and everybody's benched on both teams by the end of the third quarter, just inept. And that was a miss by me. They're one of my worst predictions for this year. thinking that Pete Carroll could not possibly have a terrible team with Chip Kelly and

Gentie and Bowers and Gino, like, okay, well, this is probably going to be at least, there's a pretty high floor, I think, with the Raiders and a good division, and there was not. It's really bad. So I think back to your question, the most important thing about right now in fantasy is basically disassociate yourself with anything you thought a month or six months ago. And if Audric Estime for the Saints turns out to be a better play projections-wise and sort of see the whole board

than Brees Hall, then go for it. I don't think you have to, you don't want to be afraid because, you know, fantasy players tend to think about their moves based on which decision I could make that if it goes wrong, make me feel, you know, better. Oh, well, at least I started the guy I was supposed to start.

I don't think you want to, that's scared money. You know, you want to win at this. That's the point. You're investing, you're putting your money into this so you can win bigger. And so, I mean, trust yourself and appreciate the randomness of it all and take your chances. It's so interesting to me about bad teams and when they get to the end of a season and

whether they have something to play for. The Minnesota Vikings, for example, are a bad team that has a lot to play for. And that would be how everyone feels about your head coach and your management and also your quarterback and trying to get just Jefferson on track with J.J. McCarthy because this has reached critical mass with those two not being able to get on the same page. And the other night, it felt like there was a hex on that relationship. You know, Jefferson's wide open and it's the one time all night McCarthy gets hit. Jefferson catches a touchdown, but then it's negated by an illegal formation of all things. And thank goodness the referees are right on top of those formations because what would we do if the running back was on the line of scrimmage and not one yard back? It would have been such a distinct advantage for the Vikings if Jordan Mason had that extra yard or whatever forward.

But still, like, you know, everything that could go wrong is gone wrong with Jefferson and McCarthy. but they have every reason to fix that. And I feel like another team that sort of has every reason to try to get every player to play as well as they can is Tennessee. I mean, they've got, you know, an interim coach and everything else, but they want to fight to show that there's something there. Their young quarterback is battling every week kind of thing. And, you know, there are some teams that their seasons were so disappointing

or their coach situation is so bad that they, you know, I mean, to just sort of have mailed it in. But if you're the interim coach somewhere, you want to really push it. And I was noticing something that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't look up the numbers, but like Tony Pollard's been really good lately. And that's, that might be a guy that you didn't think about at all, all year. And you drafted in the whatever, you know, 68th round or something. And then, all right, well, they're still playing. They're still trying, you know, to push a little bit. So I think that's something to definitely consider is like which teams look like they have just totally thrown up their hands.

I was thinking about the Giants for this this week against the Vikings. Like Jackson Dart has every reason to try to play his butt off and to try to get the ball to Wondale Robinson, who's had a really good year totally under the radar. Their tight end, Johnson is pretty good. Like there's some guys that will probably catch a lot of passes in this game as long as Jackson Dart can make it four quarters. Theo Johnson is another one of those names like I used Estimate earlier where you're just like, okay.

But with tight ends, you really do need a touchdown. Maybe that's the case with running backs like Estimate too. Yeah, really interesting to try to deep dive into those team incentives like the Titans. But you never really know. I mean, if Tennessee's ownership and management, which, like, what can you even say about it? Yeah. The level of competency there has an idea on Mike McCoy or they, don't or an idea, a plan for Cam Ward, or they don't, then you sort of have to roll the dice.

As it happens, the Titans really don't have any weapons at all. And so Pollard had a good game last week, but is otherwise this year been a bust. I mean, not usable. Even Tige Spears with his no ACL in his knee, nice idea. Again, this is a bad team probably. They get into negative game scripts. and then here you have a pass catching running back who can help you never really did.

So it's always still ultimately a guess. But like even the Giants, I was into that last week with Dart and Robinson and I think Slayton and Tracy was back. And it's Washington, a team you saw the week before get blasted by the Vikings. Then I sort of think about it as a, as a not a real like sports better. But I noticed that the Giants

were less than a field goal favorite in that game against Washington. Well, what is that telling you? It's telling you that you can't, you know, count on bad teams, I think is what it is. And Washington went, they got a punt return touchdown and went and won the game. So when you're dealing or swimming in those kind of waters with these bad teams, it can be very hard to predict what you're going to get. You'd like to be able to bet on the teams at the top with. their incentives. It's an interesting year though for this and a great week. We've got so many

sort of showdown games in the NFL trying to sort of, you want to assume that incentives are peak for the top teams. I don't know. I'm in Buffalo and they still have a chance after beating New England at the AFC East, but they're still almost definitely a wildcard team ultimately and who knows what their incentives will be down the stretch. Luckily, we don't play week 18 in fantasy unless you're a madman. And I think one more thing to consider is, and this I think can be really an edge when it comes to fantasy football is, or, you know, DFS or PRAPETs on Fanduel is contract incentives where you have players like Rico Dowdle is somebody who if he gets maybe, I think

it's 113 yards rushing for a million dollars or something like that. I mean, you have, you want to look for those online and see what. what players might have contract incentives that could maybe break a tie for you. I mean, that's going pretty darn deep, but, I mean, that's where we're at, right? It's the deep end. Well, why don't we get into some of these big games? And the best place to start here is a couple of teams. And, you know, I mean, look, I don't know who comes up with the idea to have Green Bay in Chicago only play like two weeks apart.

I don't really understand this. This happened with the, when was it, the Vikings and Lions, I think, at 2023 had the same thing where it was like, play the Lions. Then you get a different week. And then it's like play the Lions again. I don't really understand it. Tampa and Carolina are tied for first place. They haven't played yet. There's three weeks to go. It doesn't make any sense. But it does certainly create some drama as the Packers and the Bears will play again.

And their first game was a classic. It was, it was wonderful. It was messy field out there. It was one play. away for Caleb Williams, probably, probably eight inches away from going over the defender's hand and ending up as a game tying touchdown. That was such an exciting and fun football game. So they're going to do it again. And I think we're in a really interesting spot with both of these quarterbacks because Jordan Love has elevated himself to borderline MVP caliber type of performance. Caleb Williams, I feel like, has been very debatable this year of how good he's actually been versus what Ben Johnson is doing for him. And if you were the guy who picked

DeAndre Swift, just assuming that Ben Johnson was going to run the ball, then you were brilliant. So in this game, Caleb Williams over under on Fandul is 212.5. And Jordan Loves is 235. And I know we always talk about how you're an under guy. And yet it feels like to me with Jordan Love, I would want to go over here because Chicago can score. And with Williams, I would be. be a little bit more hesitant to go over because I think they're going to try to control the game by running against Green Bay. Hmm.

One and a half, 46 and a half. So 24 to 22 and a half for the implied totals, Green Bay as the favorite. I don't like, intuitively, yes, I'm an under guy. I don't like that Luther Burden isn't healthy. I'm not a DJ Moore guy. He had two touchdowns last week.

They breezed past the Browns, but I don't want to bet on that. I'm nervous about either guy. Watson got hurt in Denver. They're saying, as we record on Thursday morning, that he thinks he's going to be okay. It's a pretty good story, Christian Watson, this year coming back, torn ACL and all the problems he's had physically,

but he's still a guy that's been, you saw the play probably in Denver, where he just sort of goes up for a content. tested catch and gets landed on, and then he's, he's writhing in pain. There's no other possible use for the word writhing, right, by the way? I've never rived in anything else other than pain. Other than pain, right. So, you know, it's the Packers and the Bears in December. I'm not eager to bet overs on anything in this game. Swift himself even is not 100%.

That was a report from yesterday, which makes Kyle Mononga interesting, not as a fantasy, start unless Swift misses, then he's obvious. But if he's active, Swift, then you really can't do anything with that. You've got to start him. Josh Jacobs in this game as well is compromised physically. Now you have Emmanuel Wilson and then Marshaun Lloyd is off IR for Green Bay. So it's kind of a quagmire for fantasy this game. But there's nobody, I wanted Kyle, no, sorry, Luke Musgrave to hit as Tucker Crafts replacement

at tight end and that hasn't happened either. So there's nobody I'm too excited about if I didn't make that clear. Yeah, for sure. Josh Jacobs has been an interesting one all year because it feels like he's just been banged up, banged up, banged up. And such is the case with running backs who carry the ball seven gazillion times the previous season. His over under for this game, not particularly impressive, 66.5 yards for Josh Jacobs.

And they must feel like at Fandul that Benangai is going to, get, you know, some decent work here, 42 and a half for his, but it is a little bit on the unpredictable side. I just, I think that in terms of an actual, like, football strategy, though, if you're looking at a team that does not have Micah Parsons, the number one thing that I would be thinking if I'm Ben Johnson is how can I wear down this front four? Because Michael Parsons is not a guy you can wear down. You don't just, oh, we're going to run at him all day and then, you know, No, no, no, no. It gets the third down. He's still going to destroy you. Some of these other guys are much more human than Michael Parsons is.

And now they're thin because Devante Wyatt is out too. I feel like it would be potentially a bit demoralizing for them in their first game without Parsons. They've lost Wyatt. And then here's this great offensive line that Chicago has built at running the football, just pounding and pounding and pounding away at you and then giving opportunities for Caleb Williams. So this feels like a big Chicago run game to me. I like that. I mean, we both remember how they looked against Philadelphia,

just what, Black Friday, and that was a dominant performance. So maybe, and it's a big game for both teams. We talked about incentives earlier, and there's no questioning incentives here. This is for the division, pretty much, especially if Green Bay wins with the, you know, having won the first meeting. So, yeah, I mean, I think if you're, again,

we're talking on Thursday, and I don't really like to, bet against injury speculation, but if you had any sort of reason or interest in betting against Swift, then Monongai, anytime touchdown, he's in position to have a huge day. And he'll, if there's no DeAndre Swift, the workload should really be a lot. So I like him. I wish I had burden to trust in this game. He was really coming on. Big best ball investment for me. But the injury last week has to slow you down a little bit. Loveland. I mean, who do we like here as a pass catching option? That's a tough one with both teams in mind. Romeo Dobbs went away when

Jaden Reed came back and then Watson started to hit. But if somebody misses and Dobbs has been a pretty reliable possession receiver and even a touchdown guy for them, maybe the price is going to be right on him. I don't know what to do. Well, I mean, if Watson isn't 100 percent, I feel like Jordan Love is a little bit different, if not a lot different without Christian Watson, if he's not playing or if he's just not the same. And then we've talked about this before with Green Bay and Buffalo's the same way where it's like, well, everybody ends up sort of next man up if the number one guy isn't there. And it's very hard to predict week to week who that's going to be. Just looking up the weather in Chicago for Sunday, a high of 29 degrees

and a low of 19 degrees in Chicago. Doesn't look like there's going to to be snow, but a lot warmer than last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like it's going to be fine. So it's Chicago weather. I was curious, like, will it become one of those, you know, messy battles? Everyone wear your seven studs anyway. The key is the wind, right?

I mean, Buffalo Cleveland has same kind of temperatures, but 30 mile an hour winds. So there's where you get sideways with your passing game options. And I saw that there was a big debate in the football universe about the weather and the feels-like temperature versus the actual temperature. And living in a place where it is very cold and windy, that thing is real. That feels-like thing is very real because it could be,

oh, it's 18 degrees out. And you can walk out there and be like, this is great. Like, this is totally fine, 18 degrees. Or if it's 25 mile an hour winds, that 18 can feel like in the negatives. No, that's fine. But what I've never done in my life, is walk outside on a winter day when it's 20 degrees and sit there and ponder,

does it feel more like 10? I've never done that. If it's windy, it's worse. That's simply it. I think that if you're looking at your app and you haven't been outside yet and it's pretty darn cold, there's a difference for why you're going to do dress-wise. If it says, I mean, 10 to 20, maybe. I mean, but if it's like if the example I gave is 18 but feels like three.

That's a pretty big gap. 18 is five, three is two. What are you not wearing when it's 18 that you're wearing when it's three? You ever owned a snooed? You ever know a snood? Put it over the neck. I don't know what that is. Oh, you got, well, it's not cold enough in Buffalo to have snoods, I guess.

You got to, it's where you put it over you. We have balaclava. What is that? Is that something you put over the neck? It sort of covers your most of your face. Oh, that's the face. Yeah, I don't go that far, but the snood goes over the neck. Kind of covers up to not allow the wind to get into your clothes.

Well, I mean, if you're walking outside when it's 18 degrees with an with an empty neck, that's, that's a new problem. I've lived here long enough to 18 degrees with an empty neck is fine. Anyway, we sound like we're broadcasting a blowout, don't we? Yes. Is that the season? Well, John, the bucks are down 32. That was supposed to be Pat Summerall. Anyway, we've got Baker Mayfield here has had a, I'd say a bit of a rough ride recently.

and he is one of the more difficult quarterbacks to figure out because with Baker everyone wants him to succeed so badly and just if we look at his PFF passing grade let me sort this yeah PFF passing grade over the last four weeks he is 29th just ahead of Tyrod Taylor and not far ahead of Gino Smith I mean it's it's just going terribly for him lately

and I feel like it's the same thing that Cleveland went through and they get torched for not giving him a huge contract extension and so forth. And I guess I would defend Cleveland a little bit on that as it's, you know, they made bad decisions after that are separate from this. But I think the issue that they were having is one, if he's banged up at all, his performance just falls off the edge of cliff. And also, he's kind of an erratic player that relies on a lot of downfield stuff so you can have the, major ups and downs. His over under on Fanduil for this game is 228.5, which I think he's going to throw the ball a lot. But what are we supposed to make of him?

I mean, early in the season, it's, hey, could Baker win MVP and all that? And can you believe the Carolina Panthers and Browns once moved on from this great quarterback? And lately it's felt like, you know, he kind of falls into that Kirk Cousins of, yeah, of course he's a really good quarterback. but is he anything more than a guy who just gets you to potentially the first round of the playoffs? Yeah, that's an interesting question. I mean, there are a few guys in the league right now like this.

I mean, Sam Darnold is clearly one where we're always, I think we love the ride. Like it's an amusement park ride or something, but we we love the continuous analysis of who they are. Yeah. And what's going to happen is whenever they retire in five or 10 years, we're still not going to know. We're still going to argue about it. Like, that's the, that's the beauty of it. Mayfield is almost 31. Like, he, he's taking a lot of hits.

He's not a huge guy. We're having with Lamar Jackson right now conversations about whether he's physically compromised in like an important, indelible way. So we're at that point with this 2018, 19, Mahomes just tore his ACL, a group of quarterbacks who led us to believe there was nothing else that mattered in the sport. And now, all right, well, and then you have Matthew Stafford sort of working his way back through the side door in the conversation. I think it's right to point out that Mayfield has had sort of a difficult season. You can't blame it on the weapons.

And I know he had injuries, but he's got Evans now. He's got Godwin now and Abuka, who at one time was the offensive rookie of the year favorite. And he still has a chance at it. But every time I've seen him in the last month, he drops the ball all the time. Tampa at Carolina, it just feels like Tampa that they're just way ahead. They're way more than the Panthers to me. And I like, this is Narrative Street, but I like Mayfield for kind of the, you know, what's deep within him a little bit.

And it just would be surprised if they don't end up winning out here. I mean, not winning all their games necessarily, but winning that division and getting into the playoffs. So, you know, I do like unders, but I'm not so eager on Mayfield. Carol, this could be a game for Carolina where they just really just can't get anywhere. Yeah. Offensively, Ted McMillan is iffy. Everybody is at this point, I guess. But other than Doubtle and that contract incentive and they're still using Chuba Hubbard anyway, I don't really like anything about their offense. Bryce Young's over under on Fanduil is 204.5 to me. I would definitely go under with that.

Bryce Young is under for me. He's got two or three games where he, for some reason, goes for 400 yards. And then the rest of the year, it's 150. And last week is a great example of, you know, the QB wins thing is so complicated of a discussion. And to me, there's no stat that you just say, I'm going to throw it out entirely. I look at a game like last week where if you have a really good quarterback, you easily beat the Saints because that guy will just score one more time and take care of business when you got the lead and then the saints will have no chance at a comeback and when you have bryce young you better make that stop you better not have that penalty you better and we lived in this world for years with kirk where it was like we used to play the game whose fault was it anyway

where it's like if you get one more drive that team is just eviscerated and they have no chance to come back on you but you just didn't get that one more which seems to happen all the time with bryce young and if you're not running extremely effectively and you don't get the right defensive performance, then it's got to be one of those three weeks a year where he looks like a really good quarterback. It's just the definition of kind of what a replacement level decent starter is in the NFL. Have I ever told you my theory about how to rank quarterbacks? Not that I recall. Okay.

So I want to hear it. My theory is that you can categorize all. quarterback's starting quarterbacks into four sections the first section is this guy will have 10 chances in his career to compete for a Super Bowl which to me means like winning 11 or more games yes ups and downs with the team he's just going to keep going through it doesn't even matter this is Josh Allen this is probably a top 10 pick this is like yeah right so this is your elite of your lead he's going to be Aaron Rogers or something many many many chances they might not win one like Dan Marino, but Dan Marino had many chances to win a Super Bowl.

The next level down is your Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, who will have probably five shots at it. And if they get lucky, then they'll win one or two like Eli. If they get unlucky, then Matt Ryan will lose one. Certainly not his fault that his team blew a 28 to 3 lead, right? But he'll play 15 years and you'll get five shots at it. And there will be some years that go down and some years that go up, but he's going to play for a really long time. the next level down is one time in that person's career they're good enough to be a starter in the league but one time they'll have a legitimate shot at really winning a Super Bowl this is a

Kirk this is like a hey that flacko that flacko might be in that same category too like a 2022 Kirk season where everything goes your way that's probably your best and only shot at it maybe 2019 would be for Kirk you wins a playoff game then they get some injuries in a tough matchup and they lose like that's his one shot right right. probably 19 was his best year, I think. Okay. And then you have your quarterback that it would take a Trent Dill for As Miracle in order to do it.

And we'll talk about it for 20 years how this completely random person won a Super Bowl. And I think you can plot almost every quarterback into that. And there's not a lot of movement within it. Like I think Stafford has moved within it to be like, I thought it would probably be the one shot. And it's end up being multiple shots because the guy's 38. But I think everybody else you can kind of. a plot that way. And like a Jordan love to me is a guy who gets five chances at it. And a Baker

Mayfield to me is a guy who needs a miracle. Well, some of that is, I mean, of course, the draft capital, but then the contract. Like the Packers have already leaned into love. He's a great example. He's a great discussion point for this because they drafted him in the first round, barely, when they had Aaron Rogers there. And that was itself controversial. And now they've given him the money so he should get all the chances you know like some of these guys um have that advantage so to speak in this in this context well it's all very smart like this will be a very interesting year these playoffs for how to turn the page on that if we want to like what what do we learn this year about this what's bow nicks what's trevor lawrence what's darnold i mean

darn old in the Rams tonight and they're the one seed if they win Seattle like that that's right there for them so and that's a huge advantage in the playoffs and we're not baking that into this sort of thinking or analysis I mean that's just a big it didn't used to be like that when Dan Marino played where one team only per conference got the buy yeah you know the rest and everything that came with Bo Nix say what you want is beating Jacksonville and then the Gardner, Minchu led chiefs away from resting, my understanding is that's it. That's all they need. Yeah. Resting week 18, then the buy, and then you have to go to altitude and beat them in that defense. And so I don't know if that makes him Dilfer if they win or just what. I don't think so. What an opportunity you think he's above Dilfer.

I think he at this moment is probably a one-shot guy. and this is his one shot. Like, if it doesn't, if it doesn't work out this year for Bo Nix, I don't see him getting five more chances for it to work because I think there's a ceiling on his actual talent. And as we know from defenses, this year, you've got an amazing defense. Next year, you might just be okay. And that happens all the time.

And, you know, I feel like Jalen Hertz is a one shot guy who got two shots because his team was so good. So it's not, it's not absolutely flawless. but would you ever, would you be surprised if Jalen Hertz never, ever came close to the Super Bowl again? I would not, even though I think he's really good. And those are guys, if a guy can give you a chance to win a Super Bowl, you usually keep him for a really long time. And especially if he wins one. But those quarterbacks will frustrate the heck out of you because they usually can't get you there by themselves with a great performance or elevate everybody.

It's like they have to have Sequan Barkley run for 2008. and completely healthy going into a Super Bowl, which almost never happens. And a bad division, you know, and maybe a weather advantage or whatever else, like, hurts has enjoyed. Sorry,

the first time they went to the Super Bowl, Brock Purdy tore is UCL or whatever in the game. Right. So it's like, and they played the Giants instead of the Vikings. So, you know, a lot has to go right.

Well, that's what we're here for is these, these fun, I think, interesting, never-ending conversations about quarterback. Not only is it the most important position in sports, as everybody says, but it's also the most interesting to discuss. Oh, yeah. Like, everybody's different every year.

What maybe we're at a threshold with, like I said, this sort of crop of quarterbacks who are nearing or already at 30 years old, Mahomes, Jackson, Hertz, Alan. Alan is sort of still thriving, but he's going to have to go on the road, probably and win three games to get to his first Super Bowl. The bills have not won a playoff game on the road since a game that was literally between Kelly and Marino in January of 1993. Like they're going to have to win three of those.

And fine, Kansas City might not, well, we know they're not going to be in the tournament and maybe neither will be the Ravens. But okay, go to Jacksonville against that defense, go to Foxborough, go to Denver, win them all with a suspect defense of your own or else we'll continue to talk about Alan like there might be some flaw that we're missing. I really don't know what it would be. But that's the nature of quarterback narrative stuff.

Yeah, I mean, I think with Allen, the difficult thing there is, and this goes from a Holmes too, is both of these guys' rosters peaked around them at a certain time, which was 2018, 2019, 2020, for Allen, it was probably 20, 20, would you say? It was the roster peak where they just, they get digs and, you know, a lot of maybe good defensive players that they've got there in their primes.

And with the homes, like you look at that roster now. That roster is bad. I mean, it is a bad football team. And it's been pretty mediocre for years, the roster around him. And, yeah, I mean, the contracts, everything else, the league is kind of built to work this way where, you know, they're not drafting high. They draft Clyde Edwards Allaire one season because they think it's the final piece to the puzzle and you're like, well, but these teams do stuff like that, right?

They give away draft capital every single year to try to bring in players to help them and fill spots to compete for Super Bowls and eventually it catches up with you. And every time, yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt, but this can drive you crazy. Yeah. Right. I mean, you could just get lost. It's fun until it isn't it. The Ravens drafting Lamar Jackson with the last pick trading up.

The Vikings did this with Bridgewater previously. Yep. They had just drafted Hayden Hurst. Yes. You can't give the Ravens any sort of credit for. No. We know what's important. This guy should have won the Heism.

He might have maybe deserved to win it twice. But yeah, we're just going to draft Hayden Hurst. And then, you know, that last pick of the first round every year is like somebody's on a vendor. Yeah. Well, it's, sometimes something great comes from that, though. And just to circle back to your Lamar point,

and how they age is going to be super interesting because Patrick Mahomes, they have to, I saw RG3, who always has something to say, bring up that the, that Mahomes should sit next year, which of course is ludicrous and is not going to happen. And why even say that with your face?

But when you think about it, though, if you were living in a perfect philosophical world absolutely you would do this if you were the chiefs you would say to patrick he would never agree to this but you'd say pat why don't you take a dive next year just sit out the entire season we will tank we will win two games with gardner minchu and then we will trade away everyone and draft at the very top we'll get you an elite pick we'll get you you know what the lions did What the Lions did with that draft where they took Jemir Gibbs and Leporta and Campbell and like all these, all these players. They had 19 picks out of the first 20 or something. That would be the right way to get Pat back to the Super Bowl as fast as you possibly could. I mean. Well, are we going to see that day where it's like so overt? Are we are we there yet?

Not really. Like it was always we talk hockey in Buffalo a decade ago, the Sabre, went to the bottom on purpose. We all knew it. It was pretty blatant. But when we talked about it in terms of other sports, like, well, football would never. And I don't know, like I watched the Giants. This is a couple weeks ago now, but the Giants Patriots Thursday night game where Troy

Aikman was, I mean, he never gets past first base. He's analyzing game management decisions from the Giants. Why would you go for two there but not here? Because they don't want to win. They're not playing to win. It's an interim coach, and they want to go to the bottom. And that's their, why would you even wonder that when they're handing the ball off to Singletary on every play down 20s? What are you really trying to figure out?

So I don't know, like the Jets, the Giants, the Falcons, a number of teams maybe depends on, as we all, as we know, we've talked about a little bit here, like what their coaches status is, if that even matters. And what do they really want to get out of the end of the season? And the Giants, or rather the Jets beat Atlanta. That was super smart. The Titans beating Cleveland. Okay, good for you. Momentum. Yeah, maybe this gets worse before it gets better.

Don't a lot of these all-time great quarterbacks who are not Tom Brady, but even a little bit, Tom Brady, they kind of have two lives in the NFL, right? Like I was reading something on the internet the other day that I have no idea if it's true. So if you are a brain study person, don't. Hopefully, I didn't write it. don't get into the comments, but that your cognitive ability, your reasoning and maturity or whatever sort of peaks at 32, or it takes until 32 to get to where your noggin is fully formed,

which makes complete sense for quarterbacks because in the beginning of their careers, it's often the physical element of it. And then in the back end of their careers, this is what we're seeing from Stafford, watching Stafford play now is art. I never would have said that before. I thought it was chaos before when I would see him play against the Vikings. Freak arm, crazy strength and everything, but like, what are you doing?

And now I'm like, am I watching Peyton Manning out there? Like, it's crazy. And I think that that's going to happen to all of those quarterbacks. The one I would be worried about a little bit is Lamar because you cannot take the running out of it as great of a passer as he is. That has to be a factor. but we did see Steve McNair change from a completely running quarterback early in his career to MVP with the Ravens, right, or whatever, in the MVP race. I think he had a great year with the Ravens where he didn't run, he didn't run at all.

He shared an MVP with Manning one of those years. I think they tied for the award. Right. So he didn't really run at all when he was at the end of his career. So I wonder about that for all these guys. Like, you know, Pat is going to have to play a little differently. Alan may not have to because the guy is a moose, but like, I don't know. I mean, it'll be interesting to see.

Let's talk about New England and the Baltimore Ravens this week. What a matchup this is. Lamar Jackson, his over under on Fandul, 212.5, and Drake Mays is 237.5. What is your feeling on the Drake May dialogue as it relates to his schedule this year? well i think you can't really scoff at any of it i mean what good teams do when they play an easy schedule is they beat everybody and you know usually cover and the patriots have mostly accomplished that so i've got no holes that i think of when it comes to may like even last week uh i thought the one thing i would say in buffalo i host the post game shows here and watching that game pretty

closely was when it came down to the final opportunities in that game, I think the bills kind of dared him to run and he didn't run. They dropped their edge rushers into coverage and like, all right, take it. They had to go 90 yards or so in that last drive. And it just didn't add upright for him in that, but that's a, that's a game situation and that's no, I would say, flaw in his, you know, portfolio or whatever. So, you know, he could still win the. the MVP if they went out.

This game is not hugely critical to New England, maybe ironically, because of their position. Like, they win the AFC East if they beat the Brady Cook led jets and then the Quinn Ewers led dolphins the following two weeks, no matter what else happens.

Like, that's all they need to do is beat those two teams and it's theirs. That's not the one seed necessarily, but, I mean, that's, you know, massive for them if they do it. It's a bigger game for Baltimore. I like, I mean, everybody likes May, and I'm no different on that. In fantasy, he's been a great pick because that's a mid-round pick. You get some rushing.

You're getting, I mean, he's been on the field every week, which is not something you can necessarily predict, but he's got that. And he's been a great pick. in Dynasty fantasy, I think Alan and May are one too right now. I mean, Jaden Daniels has kind of broken down. Jackson older, Hertz position is somewhat tenuous. I don't think there's anybody above Allen. And Alan has to still be up there because look at what you get.

But May is right beside them. Imagine riding the Travion Henderson and Stefan Diggs roller coasters this year. Stefan Diggs has really faded into the background now in New England. And, you know, of course, I'm always on the hunt for Stefan Diggs quotes because I've, you know, you put a microphone in front of him. You never know exactly what you're going to get. But he was talking about, you know, his snap counts going down recently. But man, if you saw the first game in Buffalo, you would have thought, okay, he's going

for a thousand plus this year. And Trayvion Henderson, you would have expected him to never play a game in the NFL ever, about halfway through the season. Like, what does this guy got to do? And now he's one of the most explosive weapons in the NFL as Buffalo. He's the favorite for offense of rookie of the year. Yeah, right. And halfway through the season, I'm playing, right?

When did that happen? So that I think is worth watching not only just for this game, but also into the playoffs because it feels like they have found money with him. Well, that's right. And that makes me think of my single favorite fantasy event or tournament or format, which is the playoff challenge, which is coming up where, and you can just do this at home. I mean, you can do this on a bigger site too, but there are lots of these, and they're really great thinking experiments where it's 12 players, but only one per team is allowed.

Yeah, I love that. And 14 teams are in the playoffs. You have to decide which two teams to fade. And if you're playing in a tournament, you're also trying to compute, well, what is everybody else going to do. And how do I be contrarian in this? And I mean, Matt, this year in the NFL, both conferences, it is so wide open. I mean, there are going to be dozens of playable options when you get to it. And I thought of this when you were talking about digs because I know I would never pick him. Maybe Henderson is the right pick, but he's still in a timeshare. And with the Patriots,

I might want Kishon Booty, who I think is probably their best receiver or you just take May. But again, these decisions are predicated upon how far do you think they will go. You have to sort of build that team like you're picking a NCAA tournament bracket, which is from the finals out.

Like, who's going to win? And then how do I take it from there? You have to build it, you know, backwards kind of. But it's just so much fun. If you wanted to do one of those, I would love to have you. I would split one. I would like that and I feel like we should do it on the show.

I feel like we should go do our drafts there. Okay. Last one for big players in big games. I'm laughing because it's Philip Rivers, so I'm going to talk about here. His over under against San Francisco. And you talk about a year of a schedule for San Francisco. You were on top of this much more than me early in the season.

I'm always into schedule unpredictability, who they rank before the season. It's probably not going to be right. but San Francisco they're just cruising against Tennessee last week rolling along and they will play the Philip Rivers as opposed to the Daniel Jones, Indianapolis Colts and Rivers over under on Fanduil for this game is 154.5. I'm not sure I've seen a lower one all season long and I would still go under. I think that this is going to go horribly for Philip Rivers. I feel like you can have and, you know, I do the show with a former NFL player, Jeremiah Searles,

and he'll talk about sometimes when a random guy comes in and has a great game. He'll talk about sometimes, like, yeah, there's like a thing that that guy gets thrown into it and it's this crazy adrenaline rush, but by the next week, that's all kind of gone away and the other team has seen you and prepared for you. This feels like nine for 23 with three picks to me for Philip. I feel like this is where it gets sad. whose body is in better shape right now, yours or Philip Rivers? I mean, it just looks like, that's why you stopped playing in the NFL, man,

because when you fall down, you can't get back up. Well, I love that it's on Monday night so we can see it. I know, I know. I mean, his number last week in Seattle was no higher. Yeah. And he threw for 120. And they almost won. Yeah.

Great defense. They were a long field goal away from winning the game. So, yeah, I'd like that they're at home to give him some hope. As we've been speaking, it was reported that the Colts have opened the 21-day window on Richardson. Oh, okay. So if they are eliminated, they're 8% to make it right now. We'll see what happens Sunday. They play Monday night.

If they're eliminated, we might get Anthony Richardson again. I mean, who knows what his injury, it was a facial injury with like a band or something that hit him in the Who knows with that guy? Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not eager to, you know, bet on Rivers. It's been an interesting story. We're all resetting our Hall of Fame clocks at this point. Yeah. You know, in terms of the Niners and their season and their schedule,

I don't know if they're great, but they still have a look at the one seed. If Seattle wins, they get to play Seattle in a couple of weeks and might end up still being on top, which, holy cow, this season has never been about that. I mean, what San Francisco was always about their injuries. Christian McCaffrey did it again. I'll tell you this quickly as we wrap. Six years ago, I started a dynasty league called an Empire League where if one team wins two in a row, the league is over.

And it did end up being ended by Mike Leone, who's kind of famous, established the run. He's also a Buffalo guy. He won the league two years in a row last year and ended it. There was a woman that I knew. a bartender who was into fantasy football. And sometimes I would see her at her bar and we would talk about fantasy football.

And I said, why don't you jump into this league that I'm starting? He's like, oh, I don't know. Like these guys are all really good. I don't know, but you can learn. And then she said, I don't know what to do. It's an auction draft against, you know, Adam Croutwurst and I mean, me,

Leone, different guys. And I said, listen, how about this? And this is something I would never do, right? Which I should have done. I should have taken my own advice. But I said to her, no matter what it costs, just win the bid on Josh Allen and Christian McCaffrey and then figure the rest out. And she cashed in that league. Like she did that.

She landed both of those guys. And I don't know, it was a bunch of darnel Mooney's after that. But she did win money ultimately. And like, oh, I would never do that because I got to have all these other rookie running backs and whatever it is. But Allen and McCaffrey, you know, like if you're playing Dynasty fantasy going back five or six years and you have those two guys, you probably did pretty well. Yeah, I would say so. And, you know, McCaffrey, when they get into the playoffs, if they were to go deep, like how many catches does that guy get when we're talking about that that would be a hard one? Like, do you draft him and believe in the 49ers or not because you'd love to have him for as much as he's going to touch the football?

But you really believe in him. in that playoff format. Yeah, if you were doing that playoff format. Like, he would be an interesting conversation. We should do that on January 8th, right leading up to the, we can do that. McCaffrey, the question with him will be ownership. Yeah. Because there's no one else.

I mean, it's Kittle or it's McCaffrey on San Francisco and we'll see what kind of seed they get. But that that's somebody, there are a few guys this year, Alan will be another one or cook. Like guys that when you decide on them, you know, if you end up only drafting one team, in like FFPC, these kind of tournaments, do I want to take the chalk on McCaffrey or go elsewhere? So that's a really fun, never-ending kind of process trying to put those teams together. They're great.

These last couple weeks should be extremely fascinating. We'll have a lot of breakdowns of big players and big games, I'm sure of that. Mike, thank you for your time as always, and we'll talk again next week. Loved it. Thanks, Matt. Thank you.