Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - FANTASY SHOW: OK, NOW Jefferson breaks out, right??!?!

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Mike Schopp of ADP Chasing and WGR 550 in Buffalo joins for the weekly fantasy show to discuss if THIS is finally the week Justin Jefferson has the breakout week many of his fantasy owners have been waiting for, just in time for the playoffs. 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, presented by Fandul, and this is our fantasy shop with Mike Shope, WGR 550 and ADP chasing, and the Buffalo Bills have a game that we are definitely going to talk about, the implications of that one. But, you know, Mike, I'm going to step out on a ledge here. I'm going to give it a try. and one of these weeks I'm going to be right. I am going to say that this is the week

that all those people who have been dying with Justin Jefferson on their fantasy teams are finally rewarded in their fantasy playoffs by nine catches for 112 yards and maybe even a touchdown. Oh, 26.2. And here's why. Let's go.

Here's why. The marathon. Because Dallas's defense in their second. is atrocious. Now, they may get Trayvon Diggs back, but they are, right. I mean, that just hasn't been a thing that's relevant for several years. They are as bad as a secondary as you will ever find in your life. The opposing quarterback rating against them is 109, which would make you the MVP. So everyone who plays against Dallas becomes an MVP. If J.J. McCarthy cannot get sacked by Quinn and Williams. This is the week. Enough talking about how Justin Jefferson is a

great leader for not getting super mad at his quarterback. That wears out eventually. It's time to throw him the freaking football. I would love to see it. So would all of us. I mean, if you made it to your fantasy playoffs with Jefferson, which I've been proud to say in a few cases I did, because I was betting on him before the season, like we've talked about every week, the idea that McCarthy would be such a flop was not really in my range of outcomes. So really, I mean, we had Wentz for a couple of weeks there and we're barely hanging on. So it's gone that badly. But if you made it this far with Jefferson on your roster, it's your dream for what you just said to happen.

We had Dallas at Detroit last Thursday night. And Amon Rae St. Brown was like not even expected to play. And he goes out and what a player. He goes out and has a great night. against the Cowboys. We, I think we were starting to hear that Dallas's defense was rounding into form and getting better. And I'm not sure that that was wrong. Detroit can do that. Gibbs three touchdowns and St. Brown, even without Laporta and their, their offensive line issues, they can light you up. So I'm interested here. I'm excited to hear you say what

you've said about Jefferson because that makes me want to rule out most of the possibility that this whole thing is political with him and with McCarthy and just like it's it's too far gone i'm hoping that it's not too far gone the vikings have what to play for here in these fantasy playoff weeks maybe it's number job one is to recover to try to repair whatever this is with mccarthy and jefferson or just mccarthy period to get to a point where they can reasonably go into next season feeling like they have a chance with him um i don't know i mean that seems like we're going uphill on that one, but Dallas is a pretty good team, I guess, to play when you want to see that. And Dallas can really score too. So again, from a fantasy standpoint, you'd

like this to be the kind of game on Sunday night where Minnesota has to push it because Dallas is in the 30s. Well, and that's another part of my calculation is that as good as the Vikings defense has been, their one area of weakness is at cornerback and C.D. Lamb, who I'm not a doctor, but should not play. My gosh. But they might anyway because football and those protocols are just really, really working. But, you know, you might. And it really is.

It really is comical. And then, you know, George Pickens, I just see no one who can guard George Pickens on the Vikings. And Dak Prescott is as good as it gets when it comes to sorting out blitzes, rushers, zero blitzes, who's coming, who's not coming, that sort of thing. And their offensive line's been pretty good this year. So I think that they'll have chances to move the ball. And veteran quarterbacks have done really well overall against the Vikings defense this year. So I think that they've got a chance to move the football and score, which means that, you know,

the Vikings could be playing from behind and trying to push the ball to Justin Jefferson. And they can't cover anyone. I do expect it to be an exciting game. I think that what you touched on there that is tricky. and by the way everybody who makes Jefferson a topic every time he doesn't have a bunch of catches when is he going to demand out it shows up everywhere the answer is he's not not right now anyway not this off season anyway now we get into you know the future and next year and things then the contract starts to be a little more like that and he has been the good soldier but

there's only so long you can do that but it's all the people who are doing that two weeks ago or just premature, in my opinion. But I think with McCarthy, here's the tough part, is they play Washington, who is atrocious, and he has an okay game. They're going to play Dallas, who is atrocious. And then next week, they have a really, really tough opponent, the New York Giants, who are firing most of their coaching staff,

and their superstar young player top draft pick falls asleep during most meetings, it seems, or it doesn't even show up for them. So I don't think that this is the best representation of like what J.J. McCarthy is. But the funny thing is that we don't really ever properly factor for that when we evaluate football in general. It's just like what's their record? What's his stats? That's the truth.

And I thought about how funny it would have been if the Vikings started out their season with Washington, Dallas, and New York. And J.J. McCarthy had gotten rolling. Then even if he had had bumps along the way, we probably would have went. like, no, no, no, we know he's really good. We saw that already. But our first impression has been not great. So now if he plays well, it's going to be like, we should still be skeptical.

It's tricky like that, Mike. Football always reminds you if you take stock of it and notice how long the season really is because all these conclusions are drawn in the middle. And then you get even, we're not even there yet. There's still four more weeks. But like, oh, well, this might not have been right what we thought before. I do want to say about the concussion thing. It really, it's sadly laughable.

I mean, it was always worthy of scrutiny because whose incentives are in play. The players want to play and the teams want the player to play. I've noticed not just with the bills, but probably with every team. And I first noticed this when it came to Josh Allen. Anytime he'd get knocked to the ground, somebody is right there to pick him up. They're not sort of putting a hand out to help him up. They're not looking at him and asking him if he's okay. They're just lifting him off the ground as soon as possible.

And this is now like what I see all the time around the league, all players. I think the point is to avoid that one or two seconds of is this guy not right? But we had a game here Sunday with Cincinnati. And T. Higgins literally is pointing his head. After getting bounced off the turf, our reporter for the bill's Sal Capaccio at WGR was right beside that when it happened. He's like, it made a sound. I brought up Marty McFly when his head hit the street and back to the future. Like, yeah, like that. And so if that's not one where the player is taken out of the game by the independent neurologist or whatever they go by, then what is? And

Monday morning, after Higgins had gone back into the game, he scored the touchdown for Cincinnati with two minutes left. He's on the field to the end. Monday morning, like, yeah, concussion symptoms are back. And he's going back into the protocol, which he had come out of for that game. So I don't know. This is not so much a fantasy take. It's just, I think probably what at the risk of having been cynical, too cynical about it, we kind of thought what would happen all along, which is, it's basically we're, they're all Brian Dable going into the blue tent, taking the guy out. And if there's a fine to pay, so be it. But we need our guys. So we'll see about Lamb. Pickens. Dickens is one of these players who can only stop himself, it seems. Really interesting how there were these signs on Thursday night that he didn't really want to compete. And that's not great. And he's up for a contract.

So he has been a huge win in fantasy this year. I mean, not an expensive draft pick at all. You're betting on the talent and the situation. And you certainly got that right to the Hilt. But as far as an investment that a franchise would make, I don't know. I mean, that was an important game in Detroit. And it was back and forth a lot of offense and he just didn't seem to really want to play. Folks, are you overwhelmed by the number of different options for hair loss?

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free online visit hymns.com slash purple insider. Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monoxidil and finesteride. Featured products include compound drug products, which FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. See website for full details, restrictions and safety information. He is a a very difficult guy to figure out because Brian Flores was talking about when he was in Pittsburgh, George Pickens was there, and he said every single day the guy made

catches that were just unfathomable, which is what he does in real games. And there was that video of maybe it was C.D. Lamb when he was injured on the sideline where he was like, oh, he's got man coverage. He's going to score touchdown here. And then they throw it up to him. And I mean, he is unstoppable when the ball is in the air. I don't know that there's anybody who is bigger, stronger, and has better hands in the NFL right now than him.

It's sort of like a little bit of a shrunken version of Megatron because Megatron was like six foot six or something. But it's sort of that same way where jump balls are thought to be not really a very high efficiency play unless you're throwing it to George Pickens. But the consistency of his personality and effort and, you know, he didn't play well in that game. And then I think Richard Sherman criticized him. and then he comes out with some absolutely insane Instagram message that was barely legible, but I think he was mad at Richard Sherman. And it was like, what is your problem, man? You're like, you're having a really good season here.

So he's a, he's a tough guy to figure out. And I guess if you're the Vikings, what you're hoping is that he stays on whatever he was on on third, you know, that Thursday night game and it doesn't really get the motivation to prove everybody wrong against you on Sunday night because if he does, it's something special. Those players are very, very challenging when it comes to the contracts. I think about this with Jordan Addison. And I don't think Addison has the same issue on the field or as a teammate or anything like that. But, you know, he did have to sit out a quarter for some sort of foe suspension. And he was suspended three games already. And here's your fifth year option. And here's your,

you know, your potential long-term contract. And he's a player you want. But, you know, I wouldn't say that he's been as good this year. That's hard to figure out with the quarterback play. But I, you know, I think he's dropped a lot more passes than we usually expect him to drop. So these players that have concerns for the future are very difficult to figure out whether you, you'll want to sign them or not. It feels like what you do is you sign them anyway, because someone will always trade for them if they, if they want, right? Like, even if, even if it goes wrong, some other team will be like,

oh, yeah, we'll take them. We're super desperate. And somehow they are all wide receivers in a weird way. It just so happens that they're always wide receivers. Yeah, I mean, in Buffalo, we have a team that continues to be the Super Bowl favorite, even if there are two games out in their division and going on the road to play the team in front of them.

It doesn't seem to matter. And for years, we've been crabbing about how there are not good enough receivers on the roster. And, you know, they're making it work. They scored 39 against Cincinnati throwing seven completed passes to wide receivers. The rest are to tight ends and running backs. And it might have been six the week before. It's kind of crazy.

So you can be envious. And I have been of Minnesota and, you know, Dallas, of course, with what they've got. They've got one of, they each have one of the best five receivers in the NFL maybe. And then an amazing wide receiver too. I know you know Eric Eager real well, and I'm thinking back a few years when before he went to Carolina was on my show on WGR all the time. And one of my favorite, I guess, theories or, you know, takes from him is how in the playoffs, the importance of the wide receiver too, because teams are better in the playoffs and they're familiar with you and they can figure out ways. they have a shutdown corner to take away your, in that case, Stefan Diggs, but then who do you have after that?

And you had Philadelphia with Brown and Smith, and you had Jason Higgins go to a Super Bowl and, you know, the Rams, the Rams, it was cup and Beckham that year. And Beckham gets hurt in the Super Bowl, but was still super important to their run. And that always made a lot of sense. Of course, it was also provable, but it also made a lot of common sense to me just like going to the playoffs, what do you have? And that's a concern for Buffalo. Dallas and Minnesota probably won't be in the playoffs.

So, you know, we won't be able to test, test that theory in their case. But I love to build a team like that where you have, you know, Addison, he passes the eye test, you know, as a really good wide receiver two, I think. Depends on sort of the state of the team overall and the money, the cap and everything like that as to what they'll do. Yeah, it certainly stands to reason about that wide receiver two thing. And even the Super Bowl champs from last year in the Super Bowl did not run the football very well, but they have Devante Smith and A.J. Brown. And though they have not seemed to really use them very well this year in the past,

they have been the ones who have propped up Jalen Hertz or given him an opportunity to be a Super Bowl champion. I don't think Jalen Hertz is Josh Allen, where he would be able to take teams deep into the playoffs if he didn't have those guys. It does, it absolutely stands to reason. but that's where things get interesting. And this week with the Buffalo Bills traveling to the New England Patriots, to me, this is game of the week, potential game of the year. I don't know. I mean, these are two great teams.

New England, I think, still has to kind of prove themselves in some way because they've had the schedule, which is, you know, a factor as we were talking about. In this game, we've got Drake May on Fandul, 233 and a half yards. and Josh Allen at the over under at 228 and a half yards, I would be looking at Drake May blasting through that number because the Buffalo defense is just not what they've been. They have felt like the, at times they've looked like the 2022 Vikings where it just no lead is safe,

no matter how many points the offense scores, the defense can find a way to keep the other team in the game. And then you need like a big interception or something or a big fumble recovery in order to win the game. I feel like this is, and Drake May was good against the bills the last time. They beat the bills in Buffalo. There's a huge win for them. That was kind of his, hello, Drake May is here.

This is, he can really put the exclamation point on an unbelievable season for him. Yeah. I mean, it's really interesting when you get this in the NFL or in sports in general, like one team is above the other in the standings, but the second place team is sort of more proven or a lot more in this case. And so certainly what you're saying is reflected in the Fandual odds. I mean, the bills are favored in New England. There isn't so much on the line here.

I mean, we still have a few weeks to go. The race is over if the Patriots win for the AFC East title. The bills still need New England to lose another game to Miami or the Jets with whatever they can do. in addition, including winning Sunday, to get to first place. So I don't think that really has to affect anything. I'm sure the bills will approach this as an important game. The only concern I would have about May and that number is if the Patriots can run it at will. Because teams have run it at will against Buffalo at times this year.

In the first game, I was in the third row for that game, the Sunday night game with the Bills and the Patriots in week five, I think it was. and the Patriots did not have that much success running. They basically hit a couple of big plays. They took the ball away three times and got out of their winning. So it wasn't a game where they did whatever they wanted on offense. But again, we've seen those games happen to the bills. And their run defense is still, their defense entirely is still like really questionable, I think.

So if that happens like in any game, you're not going to get your over on the passing yards. But I'm somebody who's not, like I don't get into the. lack of experience stuff very often in sports like good is good and may doesn't strike me as somebody who's ready to crack um even though they're going to play the best team on their schedule so i like the idea of the over i think that's the one game script though uh if it's it's going to be cold like if the patriots run the ball successfully where you might not see the passing numbers so right now drake may on fandu is plus 210 to win MVP Josh allen is plus 1400 he's fourth this seems like it's a two horse race between Matthew Stafford, who's the favorite at minus 180 and then

Drake May. This is the type of week where everyone's going to be hyping up this game. Everyone's going to be paying attention. Even Mike Vrable was asked about the Vegas line on this, which is, I would say that's unusual to be asking a coach about it unless it's really unique. So I guess that's the way that they viewed it. But this feels like a game, whereas amazing as Matthew Stafford has been, if Drake May absolutely lights it up, throws for four touchdowns, 280 yards, that it could ascend him over Matthew Stafford or right in that same sort of ballpark as being the MVP, even if Buffalo's defense isn't that great, like the reputation of Buffalo matters a lot to how this game is going to be viewed.

Yeah, I agree. Stafford moved back on top last week, partly because May didn't have a game. So that's how the numbers seem to go when it comes to this. I've said about the MVP for a long time because Alan has been, of course, a player in the conversation and he won last year. You kind of have to, you almost have to be a quarterback on a team that wins at least 12 games to win the award. Not always, but pretty much. And that's what's before May here Sunday would be a 12th win in 11th in a row and the AFCE's title to be over. So, you know, Stafford could still outdo that, but May would win otherwise, I think, even because like the rest of the season, they'll play for the one seed, but it'll kind of be

decided in that way. You never know. There's legacy stuff with the MVP last year, and I'm a huge Lamar Jackson fan. He had won twice, and I thought going into the season, there's just no way with the lack of playoff success they've had that they're going to give him a third. I mean, how many players have ever won three? It's Brady and Rogers and Manning. And then I think it would have been Jackson, maybe Mahomes,

but the absolute legends. And so I never thought they would do it. And Jackson put down a season that put that to the ultimate test. I mean, 40 touchdown passes, four picks, a thousand yards rushing. Like, now deny him that award. They still did. I mean, Allen had good numbers. His team won the number of games they needed.

They crossed the threshold. They won the division again. It was just kind of a little bit to me his turn. And that can be Stafford. We used to think this about Russell Wilson. Like eventually he would just win and he never did. He fell off the, fell off a cliff. But Stafford is kind of, if you will, do for it.

And May is so young. I wouldn't want to bet either guy because the prices are so short. I just hear from guys all the time watching different streams about having bet May at 80 to 1 or something before the seasons. So I'll just, I'll just be a spectator on that one. Yeah, I agree that, you know, I think it's really become also kind of a two horse race. So now is not the time to get in. If you're betting MVP's, it's probably before the season. And then you hope.

There was someone out there who bet Matt Ryan in 2015 and then just had a windfall there. But with Matthew Stafford, I do agree with you that if he just gets to the end of the season and plays regular Matthew Stafford football, probably a little bit of a lifetime achievement award. Also, there's some of with Stafford in general, like, oh, yeah, so we kind of called you a mid quarterback for a really long time. And then now since you've been in L.A., you've been much more of an elite quarterback, although, you know, I don't know that that was really true for them last year. I think Devante Adams has completely changed that offense.

I also think McVeigh made a lot of amazing adjustments to how they run their offense, going with bigger personnel, and that Stafford is protecting his body, more than he ever has, which has turned him into a smarter player. Like, I don't, I, there's this a little bit of, oh, he was always this good, but we just didn't know it because Detroit, I don't think that that's actually true. I think that he's gotten better into his 30s as we often see quarterbacks do. I want to talk about the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers, talk about lines that are kind of funny.

The Kansas City Chiefs are not just favored in this game on Fan Duel, but they are favored by five and a half points over the Los Angeles Chargers at home, despite a, you know, just the performance against the Houston Texans, which, you know, a lot of people, the bills and, you know, most other teams have looked bad against Houston. But for them, it's like, they will not let it go. The odds makers will not let it go. Like, no, admit it. Admit it. It's not the same. And, you know, even the three year, I'm, I'm curious of your opinion on this, because I see it getting talked about all the time. I saw Buffalo fans going after some writer who said Mahomes is still better than Alan because of MVP's or Super Bowls or whatever, you know.

And it's really been now three seasons where Patrick Mahomes is just a good quarterback and not a great quarterback. And there are some theories that I could come up with. And then there's something that I just don't know what to do with. So let me, let me present it to you. You can give me your tag. My one theory is when a. quarterback dominates the way that he did from 2018 to 2021. There are 31 other defensive coordinators who get paid a lot of money to sit in offices and figure out ways to stop that person.

Every defense right now, that's the big topic in football, is like these defenses, they're so complicated. It's crazy what they're doing. And the reason is 1-5. Like that guy is the reason. They all spent. They did not sleep for several seasons trying to figure this out. And they figured out some answers. all of them, but they've figured out some answers to stop him from hitting the deep balls from

stop him from getting outside of the pocket and making plays. There are schematical things they've done. And I think that's number one. That's the one I can explain. The one I can is that he doesn't throw the ball the same anymore. It just is not, it doesn't look like it did. It doesn't have the velocity that it had. It's not very precise. The touch. Right. The touch is not there. The accuracy. It flops through the air sometimes. and that I don't know what happened if it was like so many hits that he took over a couple of years or there's

some mechanical problem, but there are guys who are open and he's just missing them in ways that he never did before. Yeah, that was a lot of last year and much of this year too. There's an instinct to blame the receivers. Who are these guys? I mean,

is worthy good. Who's Tyquan Thornton? These sort of plays where they're open, but the ball is not where it's where it needs to be. And that was a case I was making a lot last year, is really this is Mahomes missing more than it is, whether it's precise route running or scheme or whatever it was that was getting blamed for it. And of course, they were 15 and 1 going into a meaningless last game

and made the Super Bowl again. So I don't really have anything to come back at you with in terms of his technique or his actual, the execution of throwing. It's not something I've really noticed or thought about. It is, though, you know, we're getting up to a point where Mahomes, Alan Jackson, 30 years old, that doesn't mean the end for a quarterback. 40 is closer to the end for most of these great quarterbacks, but Jackson is breaking down physically a little bit, and Mahomes has struggled that you can't deny it. So we'll see what the future holds for these guys. Joe Burrow is talking yesterday about how he's not having any fun.

I mean, he's getting hit a lot, and they're losing a lot, and he seemed miserable yesterday. So maybe, you know, we're at a turning point. And then if you, if we get Philip Rivers looking at all good in Seattle, we're going to ask all the questions about where we're at this position, I think. So when it comes to Kansas City and that spread, you said it. We just can't quit the chiefs. And you have two things at work there. You mean, you've got the betting public, which is going to have some pressure, put pressure on the numbers.

And then you have the book who is trying to figure out, well, how much money are they taking in on both teams? This is especially relevant when it comes to those futures, those awards markets. I mean, how much do they have on each guy? And you sort of set the line, I don't know everything about that, but accordingly, that would make sense. Five and a half at home against an L.A. team that's now nine and four. Great win Monday night. What are we saying? We're saying Kansas City's defense is excellent.

Most, I mean, at least pretty good. They looked great against Houston too. They just lost. So you have that. Chargers on the road in the cold. Maybe Justin Herbert's injury a little bit factoring into that. But this was, this is a rematch of week one where the Chargers beat the chiefs in Brazil, kind of setting the tone for this Kansas City season or the season for each team.

Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of different theories that have bounced around like that Andy Reid has maybe become a little predictable and that's crazy because that's sort of been his thing through the entire time. But things happen so fast in the league. There was this huge discussion with the Vikings and Kurt Warner about these pure progressions, which gets so deep in the X's and O's weeds and Kevin O'Connell decided to let us know just how deep in the weeds it goes in his press conference. There was a little bit of like, I know what I'm doing with this and I'm going to use as much terminology to make everybody's headspin as I can.

But I don't doubt that he knows what he's doing when it comes to this. But the point about the whole discussion was that they've had to invent a system to deal with the fact that coverages are so complicated now. So has Andy Reid sort of updated that to work with this offense? Or is it just that the receivers are yards after catch guys because they switched to all this, you know, underneath stuff? and their route precision isn't very good. Like there's so many moving parts to figure out when it comes to that. But I do think it drops too. Right.

They leave the league of drops. Sunday night, they should have, they should have beaten Houston. Houston is everybody's favorite now. Everybody's darling now. But the Chiefs should have won that game. He's just got Kelsey volleyballing the pass to the defense and all the rice drops. I mean, those weren't long distance plays or anything.

Trump plays, as they say, but still important. It could also be that. simple that they used to have a really awesome offensive line and they used to have the best tight end in the world and they used to have the best deep threat in the world and now they do not. And they don't even close. Right. They don't even have anyone who can go deep.

So Detroit, by the way, is playing the Los Angeles Rams. This to me is cinema. These two teams are so good and also flawed in their own ways, but especially Detroit against the Los Angeles Rams D-line. that matchup, I think, could be pretty tricky, but the weapons versus maybe a flawed secondary for the Rams. Love this. On Fandul, Pooka, just to show you how sick this dude is.

His over under is 99.5 yards in this game. And Amon Raseh Brown is 75.5. Amon Raseh Brown is a freaking superstar, and his over under is 20 yards lower than Pooka Nekua, who I guess could be the MVP. of the league as well. This one I just cannot wait for. I agree. It's a road game for golf, but it's indoors. It's a Rams defense. It's pretty tough. I mean, fantasy playoffs. I think he can be a tricky start. Gough and Stafford, I mean, just like having these guys on your roster

this year, when you probably also had someone else as a compliment to them, it might have made for some tricky lineup decisions. I have Jackson and Gough on one team. And, when Jackson has not been inactive, which he missed a string of games, but it's tempting to bench him at times. I mean, Justin Fields is somebody, we're talking about this yesterday,

Fields and Stafford as a tandem was the dream. Because I didn't really want to draft Matthew Stafford. He was in that truck before the season. Who knows what was happening there? Is he even going to play this year? And now you've got the MVP. So hard to know sometimes. But I love this game too.

Nakua is incredible. Adams, you said it. I mean, he's been important there and he's such a touchdown machine as well. So love that. Really impressed with what the Lions were on offense against Dallas as we talked about earlier, St. Brown playing at all and then putting up, you know, what you have there in fantasy is, geez, looked like maybe a high ankle sprain or an ankle sprain against Green Bay. They say he's going to play. Is he going to be a decoy? Is he going to be just somebody that plays in an emergency? What will they do? He ends up going, maybe eight for 90 or something like that in that game. Awesome. So hopefully you got him in there and guessed correctly on that. Yeah, great matchup.

How do you describe Jemir Gibbs? So his overrunner in this game is 72.5, but he's always capable of going for like 200 against somebody. I'll try a comp for Jemir Gibbs. You know, of course, since he plays for the Lions, it's like Barry Sanders, I want to try Marshall Falk for Jemir Gibbs. Gibbs. Now, offenses, offenses don't throw to the running backs like they did then. They would run everyone down the field and check to Marshall Falk and he would end up with

a hundred catches or something. So he doesn't quite put up those types of numbers. The only team that still does that is with McCaffrey. But in terms of how he can actually catch it, his explosiveness, his dynast, dynicism, whatever that word is. Dynamism. Okay, sure. Is that a word? No, probably not. He can do it a lot. lot of stuff except pass block as the Vikings found out but every single time he touches the ball he is the fastest most explosive most unstoppable player in the entire NFL and it's super fun to watch i don't know how you describe him other than that no he's great to watch he might be i don't want to fall into a trap here like a little bit deceiving for how strong i think he is yeah

because you do have the house calls and the sort of the elite fantasy profile catching the ball everything you said, but he can turn a nothing play into five yards, you know, just between the tackles. And around the goal line, he's money as well, like that you've gotten, you see the touchdowns happen. I think it's Jamal Charles sometimes when I watch Gibbs. But what a great draft pick he was. We've talked about Lamb today. We've talked about Jefferson every week. You know, that he was right, McCaffrey, right in that pocket, like picks four through seven in the first round this year. I draft so many teams that I wanted to make sure I had everybody, but I ended up more of a structural decision, if you will, like wanting the receiver in the

first round than maybe Bucky Irving or Chase Brown or Josh Jacobs in the second round and playing it out from there. And, you know, Jefferson Irving teams got crushed this year. But Gibbs and, you know, even a second running back there, that was a home run. There really wasn't the right receiver in that second round. That was what my thinking was. Like, get the receiver in the first round because then I'm drafting, I don't know, T. Higgins in round two or somebody like that.

Of course, JSN in the third round became the league winner. Jonathan Taylor met, even in that same second round range. So you want to start receiver running back. I digress. Gibbs is fabulous. We've had the David Montgomery issue for a couple years.

And even with Montgomery playing valuable snaps for the Lions, Gibbs has been a home run. Over 1,000 yards, 13 touchdowns rushing 5.7 yards per attempt. I mean, there are running backs now who are so efficient that it challenges the, like, it's better to pass than to run. I mean, you have Devon A. Chan averaging almost six yards of carry. Same with Gibbs. Same with Taylor.

James Cook is over five. Dobbins is over five. you have Bijon Robinson this year has had a really good year. You know, we had that conversation with Ian Hartett's at the beginning of the year. Like, is he, is he worth it? Is he really that great? And Atlanta stinks, but not Bijon Robinson. Maybe he doesn't get in the end zone quite enough. But then there's another, there's another 12 running backs who are at least at 4.8 yards per carry with over 150 carries.

And they are such explosive names as Javante Williams and Rico Dowdell and DeOdell and Deion. Andre Swift. It's just been an odd year for maybe it maybe it's not odd. Maybe it's predictable with running backs that it would be those guys. And Derek Henry has just been okay. And, you know, some other running backs. Right. Probably, I mean, is Ashton Genty the most disappointing player for a first year? And I know it is not his fault. I've seen the, the guy, the kid who does the film breakdowns. It loses his mind over the Raiders offensive line. But that has to be as of this moment, like one of the worst draft picks that any team could ever make when your team is absolute garbage and you take somebody like that who there's a shelf life on.

Yeah, that's a really interesting one for me. It's one I've thought about a lot because I drafted a lot of Bowers in that same second round section we were just talking about. And Genty was late first, early second. You know, there were, there's always two ways to look at a team when you're trying to forecast a season. One was, hey, is a Pete Carroll team ever been bad? Yeah. And look at the talent. You've got the best tight end in the league, arguably. You've got maybe one of the new best running backs in the league, too, as well as well in Gentie. Gino Smith, so accurate and what he did to resurrect his career.

Chip Kelly, you know, a good name at least going into this and like, all right, well, this seems live. I can justify drafting Genti and Bowers at their prices and all of it. Even Jacobi Myers, who was a nice player. Like he was their top receiver going into the season. Then the season happens and they lose week after week. And it's like, wait a minute, I remember now, I thought Pete Carroll was done a long time ago. Right. I thought Chip Kelly was done a long time ago.

I thought Gino Smith was done a long time ago. And you're drafting a running back at six, which I hate. Yeah, this probably won't go that well. But I mostly took the other side of that when it came to the Raiders. I play a lot of Dynasty fantasy as well. I'm not trying to trade or sell Ashton Genty, but I don't know that I want to buy them. Maybe you can.

If you're a dynasty player, you can find the Genty owner in your league that's kind of fed up. Maybe not the time of year for it, but once you get into the off season, there probably will be trades like that. Genty for, who knows, a first round pick or something like that.

I'd be curious. I feel like there's still a good player there just needs a much different situation and with the raiders will that ever come before we wrap up give me one quick take on packers at broncos the packers are two and a half point favorites here and the one thing about jordan love is just when we get to a point where we're like all right he's he's he's elite he's fantastic he's a superstar quarterback he'll always have a bad game every time that we just get to that point. But I got to say, I think he has grown throughout this season and is playing awesome football.

This will be a true test. That is a tough place to play. And that is a really tough defense. I'm a fan. We've talked about him a lot. Talk to know where the ball is going. You have Romeo Dobbs put up three touchdown games. Then bagel last week, he'd win zero for zero in their game.

You know, talking about the MVP stuff, Love is still in the room when it comes to this. And matchups and perceptions play a role. If May stumbles against Buffalo, which is believable. It's plausible. Stafford against the Lions isn't his best day. Love wins in Denver.

Now there's maybe a three-man race there or four, even with Allen winning in that scenario. So I think it's so interesting that Green Bay is favored on the road. New England and Denver have the two best records in the league and they're both home underdogs in December. It's like we're not sure about the Patriots and we're definitely not sure about the Broncos. The Packers get plenty of respect when it comes to the markets, but minus two and a half at Denver says something. When it comes to the Chiefs and the Packers, these examples this week, I'm the kind of, if I'm going to bet games, I'm the type to just sort of believe it. give me Kansas City, give me Green Bay, because the spreads can seem conspicuous.

But that's where I would lean in those games because of the spreads. I think it's a lot about just no one thinks Bo Nix is any good. And we've just, we've had a lot of these teams maybe in the last two or three years. But like this year, I think there's a lot of it where like C.J. Stroud is not playing particularly good football. And neither did Davis Mills, but those guys got wins because it's a certain type of environment right now. and the same sort of thing goes for Bo Nix. And it feels the Bo Nix thing is to me, Alex Smith in Kansas City, where remember those crazy numbers where they won the turnover battle

or were even for like 700 straight games with Alex Smith or something. It's like if we do not turn it over, the defense is so good and the kicking in the NFL is so good. If we even get to midfield, we'll get like three points. And then, you know, the other team is already in trouble because our defense is so, talented and that's usually not a way to play for the Super Bowl but then there's this other like Jaylen Hertz won the Super Bowl last year argument where it's like well if you have this right now can you do that like I don't know maybe we're going to find out with the Denver Broncos I tend

to think that a main reason for Knicks is that Sean Payton has set this up to play to exactly how he played in college which is just don't mess it up like just short passes completions and every once in a while if you hit something good. I would be curious if someone had turned Bo Nix loose, like he would probably make a lot more mistakes. But if you never take sacks and you never throw interceptions and you have the top three defense of the league, like this is where you're going to find yourself.

So that will be such an interesting battle, especially since Green Bay has gotten Christian Watson really going. And now it feels like that's the turning point of Jordan Love is that Christian Watson is back and is playing extremely. extremely well. And read. What, oh, right, yeah, for sure. What, what a week in the National Football League,

so many games with a ton of juice and the Vikings are on TV for everyone. I'm excited to watch Minnesota. Yeah. On Sunday night, I don't watch them like you do, but I want to see it. This is really an interesting opportunity for McCarthy and Jefferson, like we started with today, against a beatable defense. Can it, can it look okay? Absolutely.

All right. Well, we'll do it again next week. A lot of fun, as always, Mike. and we're marching toward the end of the season. So it's, here we are. Great stuff. Good luck in your, good luck in your fantasy playoffs, everybody.

ADP chasing will be back early January that first Tuesday. But my guys at ship chasing are doing a lot of content all the time. And you can always reach out to me if you have a question like a lineup thing or a roster thing always. All right. Thanks everybody for watching and listening. Football. Bye. Thank you.