Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Drafting A Playoff Fantasy Team

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

As we look ahead to the upcoming Wild Card weekend, Mike Schopp of ADP Chasing and WGR 550 in Buffalo joins the show to preview the playoffs. Mike and Matthew also draft their playoff fantasy team. 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 in to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. The show is always presented by Fandul, and this is our fantasy show with Mike Schope of WGR515, Buffalo and ADP chasing. And this is one that we have been looking forward to for quite a while where we are going to pick our playoff fantasy team. And there's, Mike, there's a lot of different options here. And I think what makes this so interesting is,

that there isn't really a true clear cut. Oh, it's Tom Brady. Oh, it's Patrick Mahomes. And they're playing at home. And we know they're going to at least be in the championship games. We kind of don't know right now going into this, which I think should create some very interesting conversations as we put together our playoff fantasy team. So I'm excited, man. Yeah, good. Yeah, no doubt. That's the theme of this year. I'm in Buffalo on the air every day. And from a bill's perspective, it's that it's not so much how interesting it is or different that it is or as it is what an opportunity they have. I'm not saying that necessarily buying into the idea that this is like an easier road for the bills in the playoffs than other years when they've had a home game in the first round five years in a row. And okay, well, you have to beat Baltimore.

And that hasn't, that's happened. And then it's just been Kansas City and Cincinnati once this year. they're looking at probably three road games if they can hack it. So, yeah, I mean, from a fantasy standpoint or just a league standpoint, it's a super interesting year because, as you implied, the one seeds are not sure things at all, I think especially on the AFC side. And you've got some in the quarterback narrative streets,

some fun guys to talk about and play with. And for our purposes, building this team, there are almost, you know, just there are countless ways you can go. This is a fun tournament every year, but like as you're saying, there are usually maybe three or four pretty much locks, and your choice is whether to just sort of go with them and try to get the rest right or be a little bit more contrarian and leave some of those guys out. This year, there really isn't, there are a couple guys who top the list,

but it's not like in previous years, especially at quarterback where you could lock in, well, even Josh Allen. I mean, Josh Allen has been QB1 and he's looking at four games if they, you know, get on a roll here. But he's not been on the same kind of level production wise where you would assume he would easily be the top quarterback picks. So there are a lot of interesting decisions to make. All right. Well, why don't you explain the format and then we can get started? Well, it's at the FFPC. So my FFPC.com is the site. There are still openings.

The tournament closes at kickoff of the first game. That's Rams Panthers Saturday, I think, 435. So you can check that out. There are price points of $2.305, $200 and $35, different tournaments with different prize pools. We are going to pick only one guy per NFL team. There are 12 roster spots. So there are 14 playoff teams, two teams get left out.

We'll have to decide who that is as we go. There is a kicker and a defense. We call those soft fades. You're not completely ignoring the team, but you're going with the kicker and the defense, and that's not where you expect to get your main points. We're looking for big production from our skill guys. And it's just best ball scoring. So optimal lineup each week with Super Bowl points being double.

So that much more incentive on having two players in the Super Bowl. It can only be two. It's one player per team. And so from there, one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, one tight end, and four flex. You get a lot of, well, flexibility on how you want to divide up running back and receiver. So it's 10, including the quarterback, skill position players, one kicker, one defense, 12 players out of the 14 playoff teams. All right. We're in the $35 streets and it's $100,000 to first.

All right. Well, that makes sense? Yeah, absolutely. So do we just, do you want to start with the quarterback position and talk about what quarterback we want? Is that a good way to begin this? This is my first one ever. Yeah.

So I don't know what your process is usually like to do one of these. Well, I think that that's a fine starting point. I think of it like an NCAA tournament bracket where you, they say, want to pick it from the end to the beginning. You want to do it backwards. Yeah. So at the end of our process, it's going to need to make sense from, all right, well, this team wins, this team wins. You'll see how that plays out as we put the team together. You can show the screen if you want and we can just do it player by player. I can, you know, enter the guys as we decide on them. I think it's fine to start at quarterback, but we want to be willing to, you know, revisit that depending on who else we

want along the way. And I think what I've seen so far, and I've built a dozen or so of these teams already, is that I think the play is probably to have a quarterback on the AFC side because if you go through the NFC playoff teams, there are big, consistent scorers at other positions on most of those teams. Whereas, I mean, starting with Denver, if you wanted to include Denver on your team and you didn't pick Bo Nick. who do you want? I mean, is that R.J. Harvey is that Cortland Sutton? Is it someone else?

So the AFC is different from the NFC this year in that way. Okay, well, I'll share the screen here so we can take a look at our options. Maybe we should just start with a little bit of a discussion of who we think is the team that's going to play the most football, which I have been sticking on my pick of the Los Angeles Rams playing the Bulls, playing the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl. And I think if we're going to start with that, the player that makes the most sense from the Los Angeles Rams for me would be at wide receiver.

And that would be Pooka Nakuwa because you know he's going to, are you just making the pick? Because right? I mean, that's obvious, right, though. You can always change it, but yes. Right. Oh, okay.

I didn't, I didn't know if we like locked it in and we're all set. But my case would be to start there because I think that they're going to play a lot of football. they're guaranteed two games here, I think. I mean, if they lose to Carolina, it would be an insane, insane upset. That's just really hard to see unless Stafford throws,

you know, many interceptions or something. Nukua is a beast. He's impossible to stop. He's huge. I think that he's an easy, like lock him in and then let's start talking about the rest. Yes. The only question with Nukua would be how many teams in this tournament, also pick him, but I'm not afraid of that. I think you have to be able to eat some chalk,

as they say, and Nukua is up there with one other player, maybe two, I think, is likely to be the most heavily picked player. The thing about, you know, being different with the Rams, say with Matthew Stafford in mind is, and I don't think this is impossible, by the way, but can Stafford put up fantasy numbers with other guys, you know, to Adams? I mean, it is Devante Adams. He uses his tight end, you know, Parkinson last week and just there are, it's not quite the Eagles, you know. The Rams have a little bit more depth in terms of targets. So I think the answer is no.

I'm also, you know, heavily with Puka as a pick here. The reasons for doing it would be those. Like, can you get a Super Bowl, you know, run from the Rams and have Matthew Stafford outscore Puka. And I think one way to look at it, maybe that's even clearer, is what they call the 2v2. So if you like the bills and we get to Allen here, is Alan and Puka together likelier to outscore Stafford and I guess it could be James Cook. That's not a no-brainer, but any Bill's past catching target, it's easily Alan and Nukua over the other option. So I think this is a fine start. Well, I was going to talk.

talk about Josh Allen here for a minute because when you talk about trying to be a little bit different, Alan is maybe the most obvious pick on the board at quarterback. And I think, gosh, I mean, it's hard to go with Bo Nix if we think that Denver could get eliminated in the first game. But Nix does offer the running ability. Like he could run for a couple of touchdowns, their defense, they're playing at home. I mean, there's a very good chance that their defense just dominates. And if we have to pick somebody else from the Broncos, I mean,

who else do you pick outside of Bo Nix? And I also think that because there's so much skepticism around Nix that maybe a lot of people will not be picking him. And he doesn't have a wild card game. So you have to just kind of sit on that for one week. But you're guaranteed at least that game, at least a home game. I don't know. The Broncos to me for who to go with there is,

I think one of the hardest selections on the entire board. Yes. And I think what I agree with that. I think what it's coming down to for me generally is, all right, well, who do they play in the divisional round? And if the bills win against Jacksonville,

it would be Buffalo unless the Chargers win in New England. So I think you want to have a position on that game, uh, when you attack this. I mean, look, if your prediction, has been and is Bill's Rams.

The only other possible idea would be Cook, who did lead the league in rushing. So we can try it either way and then see how we feel. You want me to put Alan in or cook? Let's go cook and try to be different at quarterback. Okay. I like that. Now, this, I mean, if it's Buffalo or on, that's fine. Lawrence is an interesting play, I think, as well.

I mean, he's been so hot. And if the Jaguars only as a one and a half point underdog are able to win, and then they would get New England or the Houston Pittsburgh winner in the second round, they wouldn't play Denver in the second round. There's no chance of that. I think it maybe sets up, if they can get through the bills, it sets up well for Lawrence. The bills have been much better against the pass than the run. But that's an interesting idea.

And as you'll find building this, the fact that we have Cook now doesn't necessarily preclude us from Lawrence. I mean, there are going to be a few games here where we're going to lose, I mean, six teams are going to lose this weekend. And we're going to have, you know, up to six, six players, hopefully not all of them as we pick a couple of teams to fade. But, I mean, this is, this is fine so far. Folks, as you know, Purple Insider is always growing and changing. And I'm looking to take steps forward in 2026, just like you are. business. Now, I'm lucky to have a great crew, but as a business owner, I am well aware of the challenges of trying to find quality people to add to the roster. So if you're hiring for your

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Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocodil and venesteroide. Feature products include compound drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality, prescription required, see website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Right. So that's the thing is like I don't want to be overconfident in my pick, especially since I've never, ever gotten the Super Bowl right at the beginning of the playoffs. So I don't say, no, the bills are going. So Josh Allen's got to be our quarterback. When you talk about that path and not having to go to Denver in the next round, I mean, you could be if Jacksonville wins the game and they end up playing, well, if they end up playing Houston, then that's pretty darn tough.

If they end up somehow playing Pittsburgh, then my goodness, like then you've got a chance to throw for 350 yards. you said there is a chance that they could go to New England or play New England. Jacksonville, yes. Jacksonville can. I mean, New England's defense is pretty good, but I don't think that they are like completely dominant. You saw what Buffalo was able to do the second time that they played. I kind of like the Trevor Lawrence idea. I'm just a little concerned about how where that puts us with the Denver Broncos because

Nick seems like so obviously the best pick. And even if we don't believe it. the team with the number one seed, they usually go to the Super Bowl, like the team that has the best chance is that team. So I could go back, I could go back and forth on Trevor Lawrence and Bo Nix. I'm not so sure about my confidence in going in with Josh Allen. Okay. Well, let's see where we go, where we end up when it comes to Denver. If Jacksonville wins, Denver would play either the Chargers or Houston, Pittsburgh. And they'd, of course, be at home.

I just don't see a ton of points. Nix has had games. I mean, on ADP chasing, we built one of these on Tuesday morning, and Nix was our quarterback. So I'm not closed to it. But I think a big difference maker in this tournament can be if Denver does sort of bang out low-scoring wins, who the guy is, even if it's,

the kicker or the defense that you want from the Broncos, but it could be R.J. Harvey. I mean, that's a guy who's been pretty explosive so far, or it could be Sutton or it could even be someone else. That'll be fun to figure out. But that's, I think so far, well, to this point, that can wait. Let's talk about one of the more interesting games here and what you do with these two teams. San Francisco at Philadelphia, Philadelphia is a four and a half point favorite it at home. And as much as I love and respect Kyle Shanahan and that offense,

I think it was pretty instructive to see them play the Seattle Seahawks and what that looked like. And if Trent Williams is not playing, man, that guy could be in the MVP race at times in his career. He is so valuable to them. They're just a completely different team.

This feels like, to me, Philadelphia finds it. But with whom will they find it with is the question here. I mean, AJ Brown, Devante Smith, do we like either one of them?

Because I think Philadelphia, because of their drama throughout the year, that we talk about them as if they are just junk, like, oh, they've fallen off. They're no good.

And then you get to the end, you look at their record. Oh, actually, no, they're really good. I would consider their defense for this, potentially,

if not one of the wide receivers. Yes. I think with defense, you really want it to be a team you think we'll probably lose. I know we brought up Denver for this, but A.J. Brown has been rolling. Yeah. And if we like the Eagles to win the game,

it's Brown Smith is viable, I think. I mean, he's had big weeks, but I don't think Brown is that chalky because of Barclay. Yeah. So Brown is my favorite eagle. And I think I'd probably, I'd include a 49er on this team, too, because their offense can be so good. And I don't really, I'm not that confident Philadelphia wins the game.

Like, they have their own problems. They're getting healthier. But it's not like they're the machine that we've seen them be in the past. So there are questions about the Niners. You raise them. So I would go A.J. Brown and then either McCaffrey or Kittled, probably. I mean, McCaffrey seems so obvious. So safe.

Yeah. What's, uh, maybe this is, maybe this is, maybe this is too far down the rabbit hole, but like, what's Joanne Jennings health status? Is he good? Because he had nine touchdowns this year. I don't know.

I don't know if he's injured. Let me see, let me see what Joanne. I just, I have to, usually you don't have to look it up, but, you know, the 49ers are always injured.

So you have to check. Let's see. It does, I am not seeing, I am not seeing that Joanne Jennings is injured like every San Francisco 49. I'm kind of is that a fun idea is that too rabbit is that too far down the rabbit hole I mean he leads their team in in touchdowns no 55 catches 600 he was second in receiving yards he actually had more receiving yards than kittle although kiddle was hurt I think it's viable and it's not mcalfrey or even kiddle so if you if you hit on Jennings look I mean if what's the total in that game I got it right here uh 40 44 and a half yep 44 and a half at four and a half so it's 24 and a half so it's 24 and a half. after 20. The implied total for San Francisco is 20 points. If you get that game, but Jennings,

I mean, gets one, nine for 101, some kind of game like that, that's 25 FFPC points. And that can be a huge difference maker in a loss in our chances toward the end. D.K. Metcalfe in San Francisco a few years ago had a monster game in the wild card with Gino Smith. And a lot of people that year were fading the Seahawks because they were a pretty big underdog against the Niners. And Metcalf ended up being a huge piece in the end, even though they lost, it's sort of counterintuitive, but you got 30 points or whatever it was that day in the bank, and nobody else did that. So if you can see a game, even if like the Eagles offense hits and you get a garbage time

touchdown or something, if Jennings gets you two, I mean, he's going to be very low-owned. So I think that's kind of a fun idea. it. Okay. Well, let's, let's roll with that for now. Why don't we look at the Chargers and Patriots. The Patriots are three and a half point favorites on Fandul over under there is 46 and a half. I mean, I'm sure Drake May will be a popular pick. I'm not so sold on New England. I mean, I think that they will win this game, but I'm not so sold on them winning more than one game. I just don't know that they're there yet as a franchise. I would have said that about Washington last year as well.

I'm not, I'm not entirely sold that they're there yet as a franchise. If it's not May, I mean, Trevion Henderson is interesting because there's a very high end there. Is there a receiver option that we like for New England? Not really for me. Diggs would be the one. And I think it's Henderson, Hunter Henry, or Ramandre Stevenson, who had a couple of, you know, big weeks down the stretch. He got in the end zone. They've used him a lot.

So yeah, I think you can do a few different things with the Patriots, but there really isn't a receiver for me. So I'm a little intrigued by Hunter Henry because he had 60 catches and seven touchdowns, led them in touchdowns. Kind of the red zone option for Drake May. But maybe there's maybe there's just a better tight end option out there. Well, kind of who do you think about tight end? Yeah, that's really an interesting question this year because Travis Kelsey.

or even Mark Andrews were such, you know, they were giants and they're off the grid. So you have Kittle, which is a pivot from McCaffrey. It's an idea. You have Henry. I think Henry will be pretty popular in this tournament because of these points, what you said about his season and the lack of an obvious player at that position. One guy I like is in that game as well, and that's Arronday Gadsden, the tight end. chargers. If we wanted to play both teams in that game, you can even play both tight ends.

But I think Gaston is kind of interesting on a team where there is also no obvious choice. Henderson can give you like the home runs, right? He's somebody who's capable of hitting home runs for New England. Henry is fine. I don't see a super high ceiling, but there really isn't anybody else. Goddard could be somebody. We've already used the Eagles, though. Loveland. Loveland is good name. That's another one where there's, he's been coming on and I think he'll be pretty popular to another team that doesn't

have like an obvious other idea, Chicago. What does it say about the NFL that out of the nine top tight ends in receiving, I believe one of them is playing this weekend out of the top nine. And that would be Dalton Schultz, who also could be very, very good. pick maybe man he had 82 catches this year Dalton Schultz. Yeah, that's right. They're a super conservative team.

They love to just sort of check to the tight end. When we had Kansas City and San Francisco meeting in Super Bowls, we all made the opposite point, like how vital and under, underrated the tight end position is. I'm not sure that's not true anymore, but it's, it's different names right now. And Schultz is also a good name. That's a matter of, you know, what you might,

if you have a strong lean in that game, if it were Houston. Yeah, I think, I think he makes sense. I think I would rather go Schultz because Houston can win that game. And would you be surprised if Houston won another game? I wouldn't not with their defensive line and not with the way that their defense plays. That seems pretty well fit to win multiple games in the playoffs. But then that leaves us still with what do we do with New England and the and the Chargers? Right.

Well, I mean, there are a few, a few interesting ideas that we ran through. There's also a Marion Hampton or McConkey or Johnston, if you liked an upset there. That's another one where you can sort of push that off a little bit and see what else we might have stronger opinions about on the NFC side. Okay. I mean, Romandre Stevenson kind of makes a lot of sense for me just because it feels like a guy that in the playoffs, someone hands the ball 500 times to Romandre Stevenson. And he gets a touchdown. Like, you know, just one of those, hey, he's going to grind out this win for us. They get up by 10 and they're just pounding the football.

But, you know, Trayvion Henderson did end up with, you know, more yards this year. And as far as the Chargers, that to me is do you go with kind of the obvious Ladd-McConkey, he's going to throw him the football for sure? Or do you kind of take a swing at Johnston? Because what I notice about Quentin Johnson is he either just doesn't even play at all. Or he gets like, you know, seven catches for 110. Kind of seems like the big swing might make more sense there. If we're trying to be a little bit different.

Yes, or you just leave them out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A Stevenson game is 24 to 10. Yeah. You know, and I think I think we could leave the chargers out on this one. We still have the two one seeds and the Green Bay Chicago game to play through too.

Okay. Let's do Green Bay Chicago here. Green Bay is a 1.5 point favorite on Fanduil. And the problem with the Packers is always a little bit of, you know, they try to throw it to a lot of different people. But Christian Watson was really coming on before Jordan Love got injured. And seems like the super obvious pick here. It's Watson or Jacobs probably.

Yeah. He says he's feeling better. I like having a Packer on these teams this year because, As the seven seed, they might be a little bit slighted. I mean, the seven seeds, they're the only seven seed since the league went to seven teams per conference to win a game in the playoffs. When they blew out Dallas a couple of years ago, every one of these two seven games has been a blowout almost through the history of it. But this year is different. I mean, again, like the quality in the playoff field is more even.

So you've got a charger team that won 11 or 12 games. And you've got Green Bay that did about the same as seven. and Green Bay is a small favorite on the road in Chicago. So if I'm right that they get sort of downplayed because of being the seven, then I think that gives you a little bit more of an edge if you get the Packers right, if they come through his favorites. And I think Watson is the guy unless it's Jacobs. I mean, Jacobs is a touchdown machine when he's healthy.

But Watson is big plays. So I'm happy with either one. And it just seemed like Watson was so. much on the same page with Jordan Love that I would probably lean toward him. Okay. This one. You know,

if you look at what San Francisco was able to do against that Chicago defense, that Chicago defense is really underwhelming against the past. So I would go with that. I'd love to go Luke Musgrave or something, but he just, he just never, it just never really happened. Did not happen. What about?

There's one more name I want to jam in here, Matthew. And that would be JSN. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that seems that seems obvious, right. Like Puka, he's going to be super high owned, but really, what else can you do with Seattle? And we don't want to leave them out. So I just wanted to fill one slot with him as we as we talk. And we also just to go back with the one seats, because we have one flex spot left here. Like, do we want someone from the Broncos? Or do we think the Broncos are just going to lose in that game and go with their defense. Feels like we should have somebody from Denver.

We could do either of those things or the kicker, Lutz with Denver. I think I'd probably rather have Chicago represented in the flexier than Denver. But if we don't like their options, I mean, they've met, Green Bay and Chicago played twice in December. And there was plenty of offense in both of those games. You sort of have the reputation maybe of a frozen tundra kind of soldier field, butkus, snitchki kind of vibe. But I don't know, like when they've met this season in the cold, there was a lot of scoring.

Yeah. So for the bears, you mentioned Loveland. I think Luther Burden is a fun, high upside play. And there's also D'Andre Swift. I said on a previous podcast in building one of these teams, I want O'Donzee to be available. It's just we forgot about Romo Dunzee and there's a high upside here with this player too. But he's got a stress fracture in his foot. And I don't quite have enough confidence or courage to do that yet.

I mean, we know that they want to run the ball. And no one ever likes DeAndre Swift ever. And yet, you look at the end of the day and you go, oh, well, actually, you know. But burden is one that you could see. going off. I mean, just the connection at the end of the year between him and Caleb Williams really seem to be coming alive. And he's got yards after catch all day. The corners for the Green Bay Packers are banged up and not that good. It feels like they're going to throw a lot. And Williams will throw it over people's heads sometimes, but they're going to keep going back to it. I, yeah,

I don't know. You're right. If it's, if it's high scoring, they're going to have to throw the ball. I think I would rather go Luther Burton here. This is a big call. And it's really hard. It's really hard to know. Even like if you want to get super funky, Monong guy in that backfield too. I mean, think of the game that Bears won in Philadelphia. That would be the second round if they both won.

And they were just so physical and so superior. There's DJ Moore as well. I never think about DJ more. Let's say burden for now. All right. Yeah, DeAndre Swift just looking at his numbers this year, a thousand yards, nine touchdowns,

five yards of carry. I mean, not bad. It is not bad. Okay. Will Lutz. I look forward to not drafting it all next year again. Yeah, right.

I know if you if you had picked them. Well, the thing about that was you knew they were going to run with Ben Johnson. They built their entire offensive line to do it. But I'm good with Lutz is the kicker. I want to say just because I'm starting to get into next year mode already. And I had some Swift, but Swift and ETN, two running backs with new coaches that I just can't bring myself to draft those. guys. Like it's just they're not efficient and they're getting older and here's some hot rookie with a new regime. I just always, I have a tough time. I got to do better at that next year.

It's really a flaw in my game that the mid-veteran running backs can be league winners. I mean, ETN finished badly again. He seems to always do that. But he had a good season and Swift did too. And that was Camara two years ago and Connor and these guys that are just so boring as fantasy picks. but there's a lot of value. Even Zeke was this once. Like there's a lot of value in those guys. Their teams trust them. Like that's one of the biggest things is that their teams believe in them and they trust them.

So even if they're not perfect, I've long learned this about football coaches. They would much rather have someone that they trust than a more skilled or more talented wild card type of player. So let's, uh, well, we could consider Lutz there as the kicker. And then which team do we have left that we could put in for. defense. I don't want, I think it's easy to leave Carolina out of this. For me, it's pretty easy to leave Pittsburgh out of this conversation. And then the only other team left is the Chargers. And then the Chargers. So we don't want Carolina, Pitts, well, Pittsburgh could win the game, though.

I just feel like the Chargers are just not going to win this game. I mean, you know, of course, you know, could be completely wrong. But the, the Chargers are shot with their offensive line. it would take a heroic effort for them to win. I could see Pittsburgh surviving the Texans defense and finding a way to win. But the Pittsburgh defense is not inspiring. No, but there are playmakers and C.J. Stroud on the road. True.

On a Monday night, by the way, where Pittsburgh has not lost at home on a Monday night since 1991, 23 in a row. What's the more amazing stat? Pittsburgh is on a 23 game home Monday night football winning streak or that Jacksonville, I got this one yesterday, found this one yesterday, in its history, in games where the total was 49 or higher is 1 in 25. Oh my gosh. And their win was the first of those games in the 1999 opener. They beat San Francisco since they have played 25 games where the total was 49 or higher and

they've lost them all. They were underdogs in most of those games. They've been largely pretty bad. Yeah. But they've lost them all. And this game is 52 with Buffalo. So they would need to break that street. Which is the more amazing stat that Jeff Hostetler is the last road quarterback to

win in Pittsburgh on a Monday. Wow. Yeah. Is that, uh, when is that like 95 or? 91, 91. 91. Wow. Oh, the giants.

Wistler. Yes. Okay. I think that one is probably crazier because usually if you're talking Monday night football, you're thinking a good matchup. Right. So, okay, I like the Pittsburgh defense idea there. So if we, uh, run down our, our entire squad as of right now, we've got Trevor

Lawrence a quarterback, James Cook and Ramandre Stevenson are running backs, Puka, Nekua and A.J. Brown wide receivers are flex players are Jackson Smith, the Jigba, Juan Jennings and Luther burden along with Christian Watson. Our tight end is Dalton Schultz. Our kicker is Will Lutz and our defense is Pittsburgh. The only thing that I keep thinking about because, yeah, Seattle is obvious. And if you don't pick Smith the Jigba, the rest of the world picks Smith the Jigba and just gets all the points and you get nothing. So I, like you said, you got to be a little chalky. The only thing that I'm coming back to a little bit is just Denver could make the Super Bowl. Like, and we got there. kicker. We don't have anybody else. Yeah, that's we're, we're betting on them not making the Super Bowl.

We're betting on Denver losing in the second round to, I guess it would be the Texans or the Jaguars. It'd be, no, it would be the Texans in this build because we have Houston winning. We, I guess have Jacksonville winning. Doesn't have to be like that. We don't want only one game from our quarterback. This is a bet on Jacksonville. Yeah. And then New England winning also because the charges are not represented. So it would be the top four seeds winning. Then you, get Houston at Denver in the second round. And bring it on. Like, I don't know.

What's the total for that game going to be? 40, maybe something like that. Yeah. You know, I can, I can, I can live with this. I hear you. The good news for you in this case is we have a second team. Oh. I forgot we have a second team.

If you want to do one, it will come more easily because we've, you know, just been through it. Yeah. Why don't, why don't we, why don't we, why don't we, uh, do our second team as well here. Then you can get what you wanted at Denver. Okay. It just feels because the history is so good for teams that have that one seat. It just feels like, uh, pretty risky to not have somebody there. Well, in, in our second team, well, why don't we have Bo Nix as our quarterback and make our bet on we'll just go the opposite, the opposite bets from what we did in the first one. Mostly. Mostly, mostly. You know, I think, The other one to consider would just be Josh Allen since we didn't do that. Right.

I think we probably have to be on Cook here then. I think that's right. Unless you wanted to go Khalil Shakir? No. No, that's a no. Okay. Six for 35. I'll pass.

Yeah. Yeah, I know. Kincaid maybe. Kincaid. Yeah, Kincaid. Let's start with Cook. Okay. I mean, he's 100 yards a week.

The key there is that Jacksonville has not given up more than 75 yards to any running back this season. They played Taylor twice. They played San Francisco. That's been their max. And, you know, really, that's kind of incredible. But Cook has been 100 yards a week. So should test. Should we roll with Christian McCaffrey here? Yes, San Francisco. Okay. Yes. Because if we're trying to kind of do the opposite of what we did before, I went ahead and put Puka and JSA. Yeah, you got it. You got to do that. Um, Chargers maybe if they can surprise me,

and win this game? Are we thinking maybe McConkey here? Is he getting targets? Like that was a big surprise to me with how they had those line injuries. And he didn't really ever pop in fantasy. Johnston did. I'd be afraid of Johnston. Hampton is okay.

Like if they turn the Patriots over a couple times and can run it, then it's sort of the inverse of the other scenario we talked about with that match. or New England's a 24 to 10 kind of game. Can you see that? I could. My jaw kind of dropped when I was just looking at their targets that Keenan Allen led them in targets. Yeah. I did not realize that.

I mean, I love Keenan Allen. What a player. But that is Keenan Allen interesting here? I don't know. Interesting at best. I mean, 118 targets, 81 catches. is I, Gadsden is probably your better, your better play. I, I can get to Keenan Allen.

He's somebody that I forget about. He's sort of adjacent to the point I made about running backs, you know? Yeah, it's like, he's boring. I just can't, I just can't believe he had 118 targets this year, but he played every game. So he'll be in there. That's a story in itself. Right. I know.

Yeah, that's why I'm saying that I was very shocked to see that. I mean, and there, there are only three and a half point favorites on Fanduel, or underdogs. Yeah, that's right. I like that point and we can fade or soft fade New England this way. Yeah. Because we're betting on Denver. One player from the AFC side that we have not mentioned yet today is Parker Washington.

Oh, yeah. In Jacksonville. Slot receiver had three huge games down the stretch for them. And Taryn Johnson has been a very good, if not great slot corner for the bills over the years. But I think he's slowed down this year. he's been injured a little bit. And if I'm Jacksonville, that's a matchup that I want. Benford is really good on the outside, on the boundary for Buffalo,

whether that's Jacobi Myers or Brian Thomas. Thomas is an idea if we wanted to play Jacksonville because of what last year looked like. But it's really been Washington lately, and he shouldn't be highly owned. Or there's E.T.N. or Brenton Strange. You have a few different interesting kind of probably low ownership options. with Jacksonville. So we haven't picked a tight end yet. Right.

That is kind of an interesting idea. I mean, Washington feels like I, Lawrence is a guy that will take risks down the field. But historically, he hasn't minded just throwing underneath to his tight. Brenton Strange is kind of an interesting pick here because he feels like a guy. I mean, 46 catches in 12 games is a pretty good rate.

So I'm kind of sold on that. I do think Washington is a good pick. So we'll either go kicker, defense, or fade New England. And we have Houston and Pittsburgh as well. We wouldn't want to, I think, fade both or even soft fade both, like Houston kicker, Pittsburgh defense. I think you want one flex from one of those teams. Okay.

Let's go with Patriots defense then, because Herbert threw like four interceptions last year in the playoffs. Yeah. They couldn't. They couldn't block for him. Who would be kind of interesting for Pittsburgh? Metcalf. So people have forgotten about him. He was suspended for the last two games.

Both running backs are interesting too. They split up the work, Gainwell and Warren. There's no one else. Yeah. I mean, Warren, yeah. For some reason, Rogers seems to love Gainwell. And it feels like if he gets under pressure, he'll just check it to him a million times. He let Gainwell led the team and receive it.

How about that? He looks great, too. That's funny. Why don't we go Gainwell? Okay. That seems like a guy no one will think of. It starts with that Pittsburgh will be probably the second most faded team entirely behind Carolina. Yeah.

And then you could take Gainwell like we're doing from their options. But they won't be, they'll be faded by more than half the field, I think. All right. So what? what do we have left here? This one's a little funky. We have Green Bay, Chicago again, and we might

want, we don't have Philadelphia yet. How about? Carolina. We should go Jacobs. You wanted Jacobs before, right? We should go Jacobs. Okay. And we don't have a 49er, right? I don't think so. Okay. Well, I mean,

just going a little chalky with either Kittle or McCaffrey here. Oh, we did pick McCaffrey. Oh, we did pick. Oh, yeah. Okay. Sorry. Yep. Okay. We don't have the Eagles. We don't have the Panthers. We don't have the Texans. And we don't have the Bears. Okay. Um, let's see. Bears. Let's go Swift with the Bears. And with the Texans, we went Schultz before. Now we're down to kicker or fade. So if we're playing gain well, that's fine when it comes to Houston. Oh, they're leaving off their kicker's good.

Sorry. Their kicker is good. Fairbairn? Yeah. Mm-hmm. At Pittsburgh, though. Oh, yeah. Versus.

Is that a problem? It can be. Did anything happen there recently to suggest that could be an issue? Who's the team I'm forgetting about that we don't have. Philly? Philly. Chicago, do we got Chicago? Oh, we got Chicago.

Yeah. Philly. Yeah, Philly. Oh, their kicker stinks. Are we comfortable with a team that doesn't have an eagle? Or do we have to sacrifice somebody to get? Probably, yeah, probably not. We got to have Pittsburgh or Houston in there.

So it can't be Gainwell replaced. I wouldn't replace Gainwell with an eagle. No. You could replace, we have the Chargers winning. What are we doing? We have the Chargers winning. We could move to the Chargers kicker. Cameron Dicker.

No, we have them winning, I think. Oh, we have them winning. Right. Yeah, that's why we're going. Okay, right. I don't know. Should we just go Philly kicker? We could leave out Philadelphia and they lose and McCaffrey is a big win.

Sure. Okay. So who's our kicker? Elliot will be our kicker. Okay. Unless we want, really it doesn't have to be Philadelphia. We could have New England there. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't trust Elliott, but he'll kick some field goals. Okay, let's run down the second, the second team real quick here. Bo Nix, a quarterback, Christian McCaffrey and James Cook running backs, Pooka, Jackson, Smith, the Jigba wide receivers. Our flex are Josh Jacobs, DeAndre Swift, Kenneth Gainwell, Keenan Allen, our tight end is Brenton Strange. Our kicker is Jake Elliott and our defense is New England.

How about that? Right. Well. This one's a little funky. It's a little funky. But you know what? We had a lot of fun putting it together. It's a really interesting discussions,

and I highly suggest that people give it a try. We didn't touch on Carolina at all. Oh, yeah. They didn't beat the Rams not that long ago. And I'm sure, especially at the $35 level of these tournaments, you're going to see some Tett McMillan and some Jalen Coker mixed in there, just in case. It's something I think to consider because it's

different. And again, they don't have to win the game for you to get paid off there. Right. Metcalf is a version of this. The Seattle Metcalf example. Keenan Allen might be this, you know, somebody who who can give me 100 yards, maybe two scores. If that's out there, you want that almost no matter who the team is. I like Coker for that. It just feels like that's somebody that Bryce Young has trusted all year long and they made the team kind of out of nowhere and it becomes that guy. So, uh, okay.

Well, that's a lot of fun. Yeah. I like, I like drafting the team. This is a great tournament. It's one of my favorites. And if you can run hot and get to a point where you turn on the Super Bowl and you've got a look at, you know, a big prize, Jalen Hertz in the first Kansas City, Philadelphia Super Bowl that the chiefs won, went for 90 fantasy points.

it's double in the Super Bowl, 90 points. You know, if you didn't have Jalen Hertz, you were dead that year. So it's exciting when you can land a team that gives you a look at some, you know, some money on Super Bowl Sunday. So maybe Jake Elliott will have five field goals in the Super Bowl. We don't want that. Who's our Super Bowl MVP? It's McCaffrey.

Yeah. Everybody's going to have him, but I don't know. It's not going to be Keenan Allen probably. Maybe. Yeah, you never know. Can't predict ball. Mike, this is, it's been a lot of fun. I can't wait to get into the playoffs and follow our team and break down the games and everything else.

But I love what we did here and can't wait to talk about it next week. Good luck to us. We'll see how we stand next week. The Bo Knicks team will probably be in a great position in the standings, given that he's not playing this week. But maybe the Lawrence team will shine. All right. We'll see.

Thanks for your time. And we'll catch you all later. Thank you.