Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Sam Darnold or Jared Goff???

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp discuss the comparison between the Vikings and Lions quarterbacks before their big game on Sunday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and it is the Purple Insider Fantasy Shope with Mike Shope from ADP Chasing, WGR 550, the deep end fantasy football podcast in whatever order you want those things. We do this every week and have a lot of fun, and we have gone through the full fantasy season, which we'll talk about in a little bit, just some of the trends for this year. And the fantasy season isn't really over because the playoffs are coming up and who would we want on our teams? But Mike, there is no other topic of conversation in the NFL that comes anywhere close to Vikings and Lions in Detroit Sunday night football.

I'm pretty excited about this one, Mike, to say the least. How are you doing? And Happy New Year. Happy New Year. I assume you have a ticket. Well, I have a press credential. Yes, I will. I will be there.

Yep, absolutely. So how let me can I sort of put this on you? Like, how big is this game? I was informed, and I appreciated it, by a WGR caller yesterday. I guess I might have said, in more of a throwaway fashion, the biggest Week 17, Week 18, I guess is the thing now, game ever. He's like, did you know, week 18, I guess is a thing now, game ever. He's like, did you know in 1967, the Baltimore Colts went to the final game of the regular season undefeated and they lost and they missed the playoffs.

That's a lot. They played the Rams. They had tied the Rams earlier in the season. They lose the game to the Rams. There were no wild cards, four division winners that year in the NFL, Super the game to the rams there were no wild cards four division winners that year the nfl super bowl two green bay which was kind of bad that year beat the rams beat dallas beat the raiders and repeated uh so this is big how big is it matthew what happens if the vikings lose this game well i don't think it could compete with 1967 there but i think if you have to go back

that far to bring some context to this that really tells you how important this is that's been the question of the week uh on the show and i had planned to ask you as well uh just the difference percentage chance that the vikings go to the super Bowl winning and losing. And I think it's pretty enormous that first round by the home field advantage, all of those things are so significant, but I think that they're even added to the significance for either one of these teams, because it's for Detroit, it's getting healthy. And for the Vikings, it's not having to go on the road. And I think you saw it against Green Bay because there's been a lot of throughout this season with the Vikings. Are they really for real?

Do we really need to pay attention to this Vikings team or is it just one score wins and they're kind of getting lucky? And I think the up close view has said to me that it's not that they're out playing teams every week. They've trailed less than any other team in the league throughout the entire season. They have the smallest amount of snaps that are trailing and they didn't trail at all against the green Bay Packers, but when they beat green Bay and the way that they did it dominating that game for the most part until the very end,

that was a real, Hey, this team could actually beat anyone because Green Bay was top five in defense. Their quarterback's been playing well. They have a great coach, great running back, all that stuff. And then they kind of whooped them 440 to 270 in yards and really controlled the game. And you saw the U.S. Bank Stadium home field effect. We know this.

Home field advantage has depleted throughout the years as teams have gotten better and better at dealing with noise and dealing with travel and all that stuff. But when you come into U.S. Bank Stadium against the defense that has all sorts of different levers, it's pulling constantly. It's just a different story. I think it's a 30 or 40 percent difference chance for them to go to the Superbowl between winning and losing. Do you agree with that? Yes. That might even be conservative because I think the loser of this game has a problem. If the Rams fall to the four, which they seem willing to do, like they're, they're arresting their guys this week. So if Tampa wins its game against New Orleans, come on. I mean, what an embarrassment if they don't.

The Rams are going to arrest Matthew Stafford, it seems, and a lot of their guys. And they're willing to play the loser of the Vikings-Lions game in the 4-5, which I assume will be on the Monday night of Super Wild Card weekend. The 4-5, every year since they did it three years ago, that game has been a 4-5 game. They don't want more uncertainty in terms of other teams planning for their matchups. So going into Monday, we'll know who everybody's going to play, regardless of who wins that game.

So 4-5, if it's the Rams against the Vikings or the Lions, that's a long trip. It's not a short week per se, but Sunday night with all the emotional energy invested in it, it's a lot. And the biggest deal with the buy is the, or the one seed is the break. It's not even home field as much as it is not having to play that first game obviously you can't lose then and you get the the benefit of the rest and everything else what Kansas City has earned in the AFC I mean the Rams could beat either team they beat

Minnesota and they went to overtime with Detroit in week one. They seem unafraid. And I think that's a little scary for the loser of this game if it ends up being that draw. Anything would be. You're looking at three road games instead of two home games, probably. I also think, though, saying all that, in the NFC, the 3-6 and 2-7 games are a lot more competitive looking, I assume they will be, than in the AFC. Green Bay at

Philadelphia? Okay. Washington at Tampa? I think those are both almost coin flip games in my mind. And if the road teams win either one, then they go to the one. If that's the Vikings, then that would be the divisional round game and the seedings get scrambled a little bit so it's definitely big um it's a really interesting it's been so wonderful being on with you every week here for this particular Vikings season to sort of ride along here with the purple uh the purple gang and we'll see how it ends. I mean, I have not been the utmost believer in them. I think most of that is Darnold, but he keeps trucking.

Look at that locker room scene on Sunday. I mean, is he going anywhere? Oh no, no, not at this point. They've just gone too far with Sam Darnold, but it is actually quite funny over three weeks. We've gone from

where's Sam Darnold going to play next year. He's having a pretty good season too. Should they trade JJ McCarthy? And I just think, don't you guys have something better to do? Uh, but you know, when I like this game is too big and yet that's what I see being tweeted out. Now teams are calling or we're going to call on JJ McCar. Okay. Well, they're not trading him either. So don't waste your time. But when it comes to Sam Darnold, I think that that green Bay game was quite a statement because that is a great defense who can get after the quarterback.

They've, I know they're missing Jair Alexander, but they've got a good defensive coordinator. He threw a lot of different coverages at Sam Darnold and he just, he just ate them alive. He just picked them apart. And the longer we go with Sam Darnold, we're always trying to identify, is it real or not? And this was the Brock Purdy thing from last year. Is it real or not? Because Purdy's not the biggest guy and he had to scramble around a lot and he had to throw some balls up that were caught. And it was a little reminiscent of case Keenum with such a great team around him. And I still think Purdy is a very good quarterback, but with Darnold, when he sticks the

cleats in the ground and lets one rip 25 yards down the field. And that thing is, I mean, that's like gestures at that. Like, is it for real with him? Uh, did you see what just happened? And that it's, he's getting more comfortable. He's getting better. He's captivated the locker room. And those guys have really rallied around what he's been through in his career, but none of it looks fake to me. You know who it looks like is all the other great quarterbacks in the league. That's what it looks like to me. Well, there's no chance of that amazing championship round bracket anymore of Darnold Mayfield, Alan Jackson, because the Bills and Ravens actually cannot play in the AFC championship based on the seedings.

But it's so cool. I mean, what has happened in Minnesota, Kevin O'Connell will be the coach of the year that's in the bank at this point. And, you know, it's a little bit of Garoppolo and Lance where you have the unknown high draft pick in the back who, like, he needs to play. This is our investment.

Garoppolo, in the back who like he needs to play this is our investment Garoppolo in the San Francisco example was older or not older than Darnold necessarily although everybody is but like more sort of we know who he is at that point game manager kind of thing and what do the Niners do they ended up dumping him and going to Lance and Lance got hurt right away and basically he's already done so you never know with there will be, I counted this the other day, six to nine teams. Actually, I included the Vikings. How many teams is it uncertain who starts week one next year? I counted nine, including Minnesota and the NFC. It's only the Vikings, the Saints and the Giants. Everybody else, I think we know who their starting quarterback is going to be. In the AFC,

there are a few more, including like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, where you might guess what they'll do, but we don't know. Yeah, I mean, just enjoy it, right? I mean, this is why we run all those laps. This is why we lift all those weights is to have this game Sunday night. And then what follows. But I think that the conversation where it crosses over with Sam Darnold is how much do you think it can keep happening, which is also applies to this week, this year, this playoffs. If you go into a matchup against Matthew Stafford with Sam Darnold,

how do you feel? I mean, because just Stafford with Sam Darnold, how do you feel? I mean, because just Stafford is a remarkably good quarterback and he beat them earlier this year. And if you go in with Jared Goff, who everyone acts like just doesn't. I will golf, but really, Dan Campbell. It's like, OK, the guy's got like one hundred and seventeen quarterback rating. And just, you know, the MVP conversation doesn't even talk about him remotely is very weird to me. I think some folks are still maybe struggling with the fact that they declared him down and out after he was traded. But anyway, if you go into both quarterbacks in

this game, I mean, they can relate to each other. Right, exactly. But when you go into a game in the playoffs with Jared Goff and Sam Darnold, there is no one that you go up against where you feel like he is going to be decidedly the inferior quarterback based on everything, skill, the way he runs the offense, the weapons around him, the play calling, what he can execute, what he can do when a thing goes wrong. To me, that answers all the questions about who's the quarterback going forward, because he checks all the boxes. And just like with Baker Mayfield in Tampa, it's like everyone just asks questions about you until they don't like the same thing with golf. There's four guys

in the league who no one ever asked questions about. And it's Lamar, Allen, Mahomes, and that's pretty much it. Right. And everybody else is always, is it for real? Is it just his weapons? And I've always said, you want to be the team where the two talking head guys are on TV screaming about whether your quarterback is actually good or if it's your receivers, your coach, your line, because then you're like, oh, that means we got a really good football team and i think that that's what the vikings really have here is they have it all coming together by the way it's your show we could be those guys we could be a shouty show as sam and steve would put it at the 33rd team right we could be you know we could we could have a meeting and discuss it

because i don't know maybe that's the maybe that's the way to make the big bucks oh for sure the way to make the big dollars was to spend last offseason talking about who to trade Justin Jefferson to. You know what? I think it was a pretty good idea for this show to not ever talk about that. But let's get into this game as far as performances, because I know our friends over at Underdog Fantasy, promo code purple, are going to be getting a lot of action on these quarterbacks. So let me just give you their numbers for hires and lowers,

and we can break them down. So Sam Darnold's is 280.5 passing yards and Jared Goff's is 273.5 passing yards. I just would hit the over so hard I would break my mouse you're right exactly higher higher can I put more on higher for both of them yeah isn't it the highest total in years and any NFL game too uh this one so it's the it's the one game on the whole schedule that you don't have to worry about trying to figure out incentives or motivation for the two teams they both have it so how do they play Detroit is a fantasy football has been a fantasy football player's dream all year where you know they're going to score and you know they're going to get scored on in these recent weeks so that's perfect as we saw on Monday night in a game they didn't need at all against San Francisco, 40-34,

whatever that was. That was hilarious and great. And Minnesota, which has not been quite that, but they're one of these teams like the Eagles where you just always have confidence. I'm going to say this first. You always have confidence who the guys are going to be that are going to get the ball. Parentheses, good for you if you had Jalen Naylor somewhere in

a week 17 fantasy final, because that did happen. But still, Jefferson Addison, it worked. And that's the Vikings. It's tight, which we like. So, you know, know it's pretty I'm the kind of player that wants to go against narratives and this narrative is so easy that both teams are going to do on offense whatever they want um we'll see I think about the league's incentives too like I did well last week playing Tampa Bay because based on what could happen in week 18, figuring out the primetime schedule, there's no way, sorry to be conspiratorial, but in my mind, there was no way Tampa Bay was not going to be winning that game against Carolina and Mayfield was the guy you needed in week 17 in like a DFS format. So yeah, I mean, hires make sense. Jameer Gibbs was the only player, I believe, in fantasy football PPR this year

to score 10 points literally every week. And that's with there being Montgomery on the field with him for most of the season. That's insane. St. Brown is so solid. Laporta is getting his. And, of course, the Vikings studs are almost always going to come. We deserve the credit for Addison because we had to break that down the week it was almost time to give up. We had that conversation whenever week that was before Jacksonville, right?

He scored in Jacksonville. So, yeah, I mean, it's easy to like all of it. That's the short answer. Oh, yeah yeah i would agree how about this for uh you want a shouty show style question one football game you have to bet on one guy playing better than the other guy at quarterback do you put the money down on sam darnold or jared goff who would you? Me, it would be Goff because they're more undeniable like Detroit. That's just kind of what I would do.

And they're at home. Think about, you know, sorry if I'm getting booed for that answer, but think about their season if they lose. Like they were the talk of the league the whole year, Detroit. And Campbell is so much fun, and it's four downs. He's sort of reconfiguring the conversation, analytics stuff, you know. Like, we don't need the game. We don't care.

We're just going to go because my guys want me to go, and they expect that from me, and that's what we're going to do. Next question. You know, everybody loves that. They love it coming from a guy that seems the opposite of the stereotype for all that like the whole year with the lions has been we're bored with the chiefs buffalo's cute minnesota's cute philadelphia we kind of know detroit like that is and they have what the bills have to even more so which is like a history of losing. And Minnesota has a version of that too.

So the Lions have been like so it all year. If they lose, they're going to play three road games to get to a Super Bowl, really. I mean, just, that could happen. The line is what, three or something? I mean, Minnesota's good, but I would sooner get to, okay, this is still Detroit's ball game. And, you know, we'll see if I'm right. I don't know. I don't, I'm not confident they'll win or anything like that. But if you're asking like, which side would I take? I would take theirs. Well, the also fact that Jared Goff just doesn't take sacks or turn the ball over is an edge for them.

I mean, that's where he is, I think, really exceptional is picking apart defenses, throwing to the right place, executing the offense. I said this the other day, and the person co-hosting with me that day didn't find it to be ridiculous that I said he's kind of playing like Tom Brady, like the same style of just the ball comes out and he's never seeming to be under too much duress. And it's getting to the weapons and the playmakers. They can have these long drives. They're not reliant on just hitting deep shots like the Vikings were earlier in the season. They've done so much better of a job of that recently of sustaining drives. I think they out-possessioned the Packers by like 10 minutes in that game. So they've improved that. And the Vikings, if they do that to the Lions, will make their life much more difficult because they'll just not be on the field.

But the way that he's playing is, I think, the hardest to stop in the NFL when there's no volatility to it. It's just drop back, find the right guy, deliver the football over and over and over and over again. And for a long time, people debated how good Brady actually was because there were there was no highlight reel. It wasn't all he scrambles around and he flings it up in the air and does something crazy. There was we never relied on highlight level plays until maybe Randy Moss got there. And then, you know,

with golf, it kind of feels the same way where the consistency is really what kills. Yeah, that's right. And I would say perhaps his signature play of the season was the fourth down against the Packers where he trips getting the snap and like are they going to really snap the ball here this is just an act right I mean like so many teams on fourth down and he trips getting off the center and still gets the ball to Montgomery on that play

for the first down and it's game over so you have to be impressed with him and sort of like what the consensus was when he was traded and what has happened since. But like Darnold, there's still something left to prove. And, you know, most quarterbacks in the league in the playoff tournament have the same job, so to speak, because Mahomes has won three out of four and the other was Brady who's retired you know probably retired or at least at the moment retired and so nobody else has one and Josh Allen has this task even within the confines of the AFC Lamar Jackson absolutely has this one thing left to show that he can do because really reasonable people have for years had nothing else to question about, about his quality and golf and hurts. And of course, Darnold and Mayfield from the 18 class deck Prescott kind of belongs in this room, but he's

hurt and they're not there. You know, you've got a number of guys here where that's the, that's the thing is, can they win win it and we know how cruel that can be because it's a team game and there's a lot of luck in it there's just things that the quarterback cannot control but um goff and darnold themselves that division this season 27 and 4 28 and 4 going into this game is insane and we gotta love it it. If there's one edge, just to wrap the point on Darnold versus golf, if there's one edge that Darnold has, it's that when things break down, he can make something happen.

And I don't, I think I've seen a little more of that from golf this year, but I don't think that's ever going to be his thing. And for Darnold to have the touchdown, like he had against Seattle to win that game, that's where, okay, your offensive line gets beat instantly. The receiver runs a different route than he's even supposed to. And it's a 40-yard touchdown. I mean, that's something that you just only see from the Lamar Jacksons, from the Josh Allens of the league, which golf, I think it's always held them back just ever so slightly that he just couldn't make that one extra play where he can't scramble for a first down very often when the defense gets to

him. The other thing is too, and I'm curious about your opinion on this because as a long time enjoyers of the numbers and things like that, what we know is that defense is pretty hard to pin down, right? There's just so many things going on. And the Packers came in with the top five defense and they're playing so well and they give up 440. Are we sure that the Detroit Lions defense is really that horrific? I am. I'm just curious about your opinion because that's another advantage. Sign significant advantage, Darnold, is who he's going against. This is not happening in a vacuum. No, I mean, we are of the same sensibilities when it comes to that.

We might have talked about this last week. I think you really want to be careful trying to predict that, you know, what a defense is. Many of their guys are gone, though. Their injuries, McNeil, of course, Hutchinson, a lot of those are just season over kind of things and if you're playing backups you're playing backups here in Buffalo the Bills had a look at Kansas City in the playoffs last year to put it mildly like they kicked a field goal to tie with a minute left and they missed their their defense was really

banged up partly because they had to stress or to strain to get to that game. They had injuries in the Week 18 game that they needed to win and then in the wildcard game too. So they were depleted. I mean, Kansas City is Kansas City, but they were nine yards of play in that game and still barely won. So I don't know.

I would not disagree that Minnesota looks at least sturdier on that side of the ball than the Lions, but Branch shows up and makes one play and just cancels all of it. I mean, you can't know. Right, and that's kind of what they did against San Francisco the other night where it was two plays, and that's the difference with them. So can't can't wait for this game. I wanted to switch gears a bit and talk about since it has been a really fun ride for us tracking the trends and different rising and falling players throughout the year on our fantasy show. Maybe some nominations for the fantasy players of the year, the guys that won leagues for you if you were sharp enough to go all in and pick them and maybe some of your

takeaways. But I wanted to just throw out a couple of names of guys who I think if people pick them early in the year, the best ball, whatever way you did it, you probably did really well for yourself. Jaden Daniels came to mind for me as I was watching him the other night. Caleb Williams had a lot of buzz, but always with rookie quarterbacks, you're not sure who's going to play, how much are they going to play. But Jaden Daniels has had an unbelievable season that probably, I mean, I think there's maybe a case for him for if you picked him, then you had a huge advantage over whoever you were going against and might have won your championship because of it. Yeah. Our friend and former colleague, Andrew Filippone in Pittsburgh, texted me Monday morning. He was so excited.

He said he was in four leagues this year and he had Daniels in all four and he won them all. So, you know, that's Andrew for you. Daniels, Burrow, and I suppose Darnold, if you did that early enough or in a best ball, like my best best ball teams had Darnold on it because there was enough time between the McCarthy injury and the season to pivot to him. I don't think I drafted him at all before McCarthy was hurt because we're playing for the end of the

season on underdog. And you know what happened with New England, for example, you're going to get to your rookie eventually and then get a zero from the guy who was holding court or holding it down until the rookie moved in. The idea with the premise with the Vikings, though, was they would get scored on a lot and lose in a tough division and thus make that change. And they couldn't because of the injury. And of course, the rest of that was wrong, too. So Daniels, I mean, was not expensive. The elite quarterbacks, to focus on that position here first, did fine.

Allen, Lamar Jackson, Hurts, Daniels, and Burrow. That was the top five in fantasy performers this year. And three of those guys, and just behind that, Burrow, were the first quarterbacks picked. Mahomes kind of bombed quarterback 10, not the worst, but you hated having to start him every week. You probably felt like you had to, you were not going to cut them. That didn't feel good. And Kyler Murray was right along with Mahomes in that way, but yes, Daniels and Burrow were the two, uh, big wins at that position. How about, uh, for running back? We know that if you picked Saquon Barkley and bought

into that, you had a great time. It's one of the best seasons we've ever seen from a running back. Who else? Who else would be? And this was a discussion throughout the year about older versus younger running backs. But would even someone like James Cook get a little bit of a nod here for, you know, you're never really focusing on Buffalo running backs because Josh Allen's just going to do a lot of the running himself, but he's had a very good year for them fantasy wise.

And just in general, is there another running back that you thought if you picked this guy, well done, congratulations. That wasn't Barkley. That wasn't, I mean, everyone thought Derek Henry

would do stuff in Baltimore who else though there were two the the big two in this way in the same way that Daniel's price made him you know if I lose I lose doesn't really cost that much the big two were James Connor and Alvin Kamara who for most of the season were outstanding and Barkley and Henry, and even then to Mixon and Jacobs were more to the, like to the expert fantasy community about how you wanted to build your team. We wanted the receivers up top, usually most of us. And, you know, you bet against older running backs so Barkley and Henry mostly both of them became the story of the season which made us all want to give up because like we would never

draft those guys and Jalen Waddell flopped and most of those receivers in that range really just didn't pay off and then you had Barkley and Henry shoving it down your throat every week and you know we went broke uh Mixon and Jacobs and Aaron Jones and those guys, you know, were plenty productive and you liked having them, if not loved. Kamara and Connor were, what were those bets? Those were mid round, like round seven or eight round bets. And well, we, we should probably expect these guys to be their team's number one

um with the Cardinals to a lesser extent with the Saints the offense you can tell yourself a story that it's going to be good and if they don't get hurt you've got something and I was the type still to avoid those guys too more so Kamara than Connor but still like just it never felt good. You'd rather draft their back. You'd rather draft Kendra Miller and Trey Benson as their backups on underdog. And then you're going to get to the playoffs if you make it and those guys will play. And that part of it also like in kind did not really happen this year. A lot, Jonathan Brooks never happened. He got hurt again. You know, so many of those young running backs we were betting on never got there. Two that did would have been Bucky Irving in spades with Tampa and Tyrone Tracy,

who was really like a last-round dart throw with the Giants. Nobody liked their offense. But, you know, maybe like every team has a guy like that. And, you know, if you happen to be like sort of a player takes guy and you like them in college and draft capital wasn't there, but maybe. So Kamara and – those were league winners. And one more name for this would be Chuba Hubbard, who was also like a throw-in kind of draft pick pretty late,

but ended up being a bell cow for Carolina. And Brooks went away until you got to week 17. And then suddenly right before the game started, they announced he was out for the year, which was Connor and Hubbard. It did not end well for, or Camara who didn't play either for those guys, but they got, they got you pretty far at least. Yeah, for sure. And I was also thinking about Kyron Williams for this. I got Kyron Williams in one of the leagues in the middle of the draft. It seemed like he was kind of a forgotten guy when it came to putting up numbers, so much attention on their wide receivers and their quarterback that he just sort of cruised

to a nice little 1300 yard rushing season. And my thought then when I picked him was who's their other running backs. I mean, I saw a quote from Sean McVay where he was saying, you know, we're, we're interested to see what Blake and Corey are going to do this week. And I was like, Blake and Corey, who are those people? And I think it was the guy from Michigan and the guy from Missouri. And you're like, okay, well, that's fine. Talking about resting the starters,

but that tells you who their backup running backs are. It's nobody. So Kyron Williams got leaned on heavily just for what? Sorry, go ahead. If I may on him, he, a couple of things. He was a third round fantasy pick. So that was a little pricey. And, you know,

you could have picked Derrick Henry at the same time, like they were going kind of near each other in underdog drafts and Corum was a day two draft pick uh the thing with McVay though he's always kind of loved having one guy so that the bet on Kyron Williams was and he was always on the field last year he never left the field last year for the Rams but has never been like that efficient, was not the best prospect. So there was a lot of back and forth on him last year. I never felt great about picking him that early in drafts, but he did pay off. Okay. So it must be, I got him a little bit later than he was going overall, because I remember feeling like I had gotten a steal from the wide receiver position. If you want tight end is a sore subject on the show.

So you could throw that in there if you like. But I think that Brian Thomas and Jackson Smith and the Jig Bar are the biggest winners from this year. Both guys that you'd have to kind of make a bet on. We didn't know with rookies, you never know. But if you were the one picking Marvin Harrison and then Brian Thomas outperforms him significantly, uh, that's pretty good win for you. And then with Smith, the jig, but you just didn't know because they still had those top two receivers.

Is he going to be a big part of it? And then this year he really emerged as a star. That's right. And they were picked. I think JSN would have gone earlier than Thomas, but mid-rounds, and again, it's just not, by the time you get there, your season's probably already, on underdog, in a best ball world, your season's probably already been decided mostly by who you

picked in the early rounds. If you went Chase Barkley, which was a very doable one-two punch, if you had like the 105 in drafts, you won. I mean, I've been looking at best ball results all for the last few days since it ended, and championship teams had a bunch of zeros at the bottom. Guys who just never played. Elijah Mitchell, you know, just out for the year.

It didn't hurt. It didn't matter to teams that had that start. And tight ends kind of didn't matter either because the big tight ends never got there. I mean, McBride had a great year. He didn't score a touchdown, but he had a great season. But Laporta didn't and Kelsey didn't. And Andrews was just touchdowns only, kind of strangely. Kincaid flopped. So if you had that nails kind of start, Chase, Barkley, or even Henry, some combination therein, you won. And that's cool.

Then if you added Brian Thomas in like the ninth round or whatever, then you won Best Ball Mania 5. The guy who won best ball mania five had Chase, had Thomas, and won $1.5 million on underdog. I mean, really? So Thomas, yes. Malik Nabors gave you 35 or 37 points in the final. That was nice of him. He had a very exciting real-life NFL season.

But the story of the year at wide receiver after Jefferson and Chase up top, and Lamb. I mean, those were all top six, seven picks who paid off, to say the least. Even Lamb did. You and I talked about him last week. I gave him a compliment. Then immediately, like five minutes later, he was, oh, we're not going to play him anymore. So that didn't happen last week. But wide receiver was largely a struggle in those rounds, like two to five, where you're trying to build your team. St. Brown worked out. T. Higgins worked out in like round four.

Great week 17 for him too. And the Bengals, the Bengals stacks. I co-run the deep end invitational with 48 different industry experts. And Matt Schauf from DraftSharks won it with a Burrow Chase Higgins team. Not surprising. I think also if you may have bet on Tampa Bay throwing the heck out of the football, you probably scored pretty well there,

but really it was not the year of the wide receiver overall. And, you know, just snarking a little bit more about the trade justin jefferson stuff maybe not maybe just don't because uh they have a deal in what they paid for justin jefferson so what one guy one guy matt by the way if i can just throw this name into that was not a comfortable click. We loved Olave, right? I mean, Young, and we loved Garrett Wilson, who had his moments. These guys were like Harrison, you mentioned, even Cooper Cup. We had these guys that were our favorite picks.

One click that did not feel good ever was Terry McLaurin. Like what's going to happen with quarterback there? And he was a big win. So that was the, that's the story of the year in fantasy football is these so-called uncomfortable clicks were actually, we should have wanted to do that in most cases. Well, as I said to you the other day, that's why they play the games. Because I hate that they play the games. They shouldn't play the game game they should just let the run the simulations and then pay us come on

exactly uh let's uh before we wrap up look at the playoffs here because there are playoff opportunities for fantasy leagues and you know there'll be pick'ems and all throughout i am just curious about some of your favorite picks going into the playoffs. We've talked about it a little bit about how obviously you're trying to pick somebody who's going to play a lot of football and might have a chance to go to the Super Bowl. But also, if you're just picking Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, you're not really getting an edge on too many other people because they're also picking Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson. If you're doing it, you know, in a bigger type of thing. So who would you be looking at if you were to make a list of the most interesting or top players going

into the playoffs? So on underdog, they have the gauntlet, they have the mitten, they have the big mitten, which is a hundred dollars. They have the bigger mitten, which is $500. We're already to the mitten too, because the first mitten filled, um, most fantasy analysts seem to say that this is really where you can find the biggest edge in all of best ball drafts because there is a, generally, there is a simple point that many players miss, that they don't miss drafting for the regular season. And that is the only way to win these tournaments is to have many of your players make it to the Super Bowl. And that's where the big money is. And if you're not playing to make it to the Super Bowl. And that's where the big money is. And if you're not playing to make it to the Super Bowl, don't play.

Because really, turning $5 into $7, I mean, just don't. There's no reason to do it. So you're trying to build Super Bowl teams and stacks. And thus, who you pick really starts with where you pick. Because if you're picking 101, Josh Allen has been the most popular 101 this whole time. You can't get frozen out at quarterback. And if you pick someone else at 101 or 102, you're going to have a problem. Like Jackson goes, Goff goes, Minnesota guys are starting to go.

But now you bet on them and you're playing behind thousands of other teams who've already drafted that picked Minnesota guys at the end. Like, so that's not plus EV. Jalen Hurts, you're not, you have a problem if you pick Barkley or Gibbs, say like early in the draft. You almost really have to pick a quarterback first, no matter what. And then you can try to stack them because once you pick that quarterback, that team's receivers are less appealing to everyone else in the room. I've seen a comparison. It was a great, great thought yesterday on Twitter. Somebody tweeted these playoff best ball rooms are much like blackjack where everybody benefits if everybody

at the table knows what they're doing. And, you know, the sniping and sort of like sort of the best player available mindset is not really applicable. It's not ideal or optimal for these tournaments. So you're asking me who I like. It starts with, well, where am I and who can I get? And then if I can get to Allen, great. The Bills are easy for filling in later on. And then you want one or two NFC teams. I think Green Bay, outside of the obvious favorites,

is kind of cool. Like the Bills, and this has been a talking point of ours all season, not really knowing where the ball is going to go with the Packers. So you can play around with Tucker Craft and Dontavian Wicks. They'll probably go to Philadelphia in the first round. That's a coin flip game, I think. I mean, the Packers could easily win that game. And then you're off and running. I think on the AFC side, the one team that nobody really would usually think about as

a Superbowl team, because everybody can see the Chiefs and the Ravens and the Bills. I think LA is kind of an interesting long shot there. And if I were the Chiefs, they would be the team I would not want to see in round two. They've had so many close games, two this year. The Chargers are a little bit just too familiar and too capable. I'd much rather see the Texans if I were Kansas City or Pittsburgh or Denver. I don't see any of those teams beating them. I could see the Chargers beating them. So you want it to make sense. Whatever you're building, if you start with Detroit or Minnesota or Philadelphia, Minnesota, again, tricky because if you draft the Vikings high,

you're playing against teams that drafted them later already, unless you find – start in a new tournament, like the Mitten 2, you start something. I know this is a lot, but you really have to – you to know all this so they're a little bit different for this but detroit and philly are teams where you know you want to see 102 103 gibbs barkley hurts aj brown or golf st brown those kind of obvious stacks the chargers a fun, less desirable plan for your AFC side. You draft the NFC guys one, two, then you want maybe two AFC teams to try to build stacks of three or four. I'm pretty down in the weeds here, Matt. Have I lost you? No. I think that there's two different kind of strategies you could take in something like this, which would be to try to go for a favorite and then get as in the nfc championship like no anybody in the nfc

you could basically pick even tampa bay they've been a problem in the playoffs before baker mayfield's hot and is always capable of getting blazing hot they have a good line a good offensive coordinator a good defensive coach like you might kind of go all in on one of the teams that everybody's not picking if you're doing uh one of these tournaments but it does lead into a very important final question as we go into the uh the last week of the season not not the last week of the show though i think uh we want to keep breaking down playoffs if that's good with you um but uh who do you think is going to be in the Super Bowl? Matt, you know, just answer it. Don't think too hard. Don't don't give me a million different

permutations. Who do you think is going to be in the Super Bowl? I would say Kansas City, because on that side of it, they have such an advantage with the one they're going to have three and a half weeks off between Christmas when they clinched and their next meaningful game. And I think for that team, especially in two ways, that's huge. One is Mahomes, Kelsey. Mahomes has an ankle. Kelsey with his age, you know, Chris Jones missed their last game. They need that rest. And what team is scarier when you give them three weeks off to go into the lab than Andy Reid and the Chiefs? Like, they've played all these teams before.

It'll be – it would be a close game, right, at worst for Kansas City against Buffalo, Baltimore, whoever in the playoffs. Will they have two or three new things that both sides of the ball, their defense is great at this too. It's Bagnolo. So the one seed is such an advantage and I would have to say them, you know, no disrespect to our bills on the NFC side. I'm up for a long shot. I like the Rams idea, you know, Minnesota green Bay, I wouldn't get to Tampa. I don't think I could get to Washington, but Detroit is vulnerable. Philadelphia, in a betting sense at least, I would like the opportunity available to bet against those favorites because I do think it

is really, it's a lot closer and deeper on that side of it. Of course, I'll say the Vikings, ultimately, and we'll have a Super Bowl IV rematch. How about that? I'm not going to let you. On my show, I might say Bills, Rams. On yours, I'll say Vikings, Chiefs. It didn't go so good. It did not go so good in Super Bowl IV for the Minnesota Vikings.

My friend Patrick Royce likes to tell a story that the reporters arrived that day and were watching warm-ups and Jan Stennerud, the all-time great kicker in warm-ups was hitting 50 yarders and they went we're in trouble. If they got a kicker who can make it from that far, we got

problems and they did. He made three. You've seen that NFL films show, I'm sure. Get it up in the air, Jan. Get it up in the air. I guess he did. Yeah. And you know who it didn't go well for in that game was whoever was on that hot air balloon.

Yeah. Luckily, the person, the kid was okay. But it was dicey. He landed in a lake. That could have been pretty scary for him was that was that the super bowl the super bowl was also there was like a balloon i don't think it was a super bowl i don't think it was a super bowl there was a different balloon incident where the balloon caught fire in the crowd yes right in super bowl four didn't that happen too what is with the vikings and balloons uh i don don't know. Let's hope that we don't have another balloon incident.

Let's hope. Which is my ska band, actually. The balloon incident? Yeah, that's it. Let's make that a team name next year. I'm going to write that down. You can spell that different ways. Can I say, please, before we go,

I think we've hopefully done a good job for Underdog, and these playoff tournaments are really popular. You can also play Week 18 stuff if you're dog enough, as we say in our house, for that. But, you know, your Blake Corums and your Cody Schraders are going to be relevant

for that, and that's great. It's more like a DFS sort of mentality. But I just want to recommend the Dynasty format to any of your fans who have maybe had their interest in fantasy football grow through our conversations. The best ball season ended when the Lions 49ers game ended Monday night, but that's also the beginning of the Dynasty season.

And Dynasty is a whole new world where you're betting on, you're not betting on, but you're drafting rookies and you're building teams. Nothing in fantasy sports is more fun than the dynasty startup. Anytime in the off season where you're just drafting from scratch and even in an auction format, especially. And the fantasy football world, again, your viewers should know, is so sophisticated that these formats are available online everywhere. Like you can play Dynasty.

You could probably draft this week, maybe. I don't know about this week. But trading, I know on FFPC, trading is open once you pay your entry fee for next year, you can start trading immediately. And that's exciting. For those of us that eat, drink, and sleep it, yeah, the best ball season ends. It's a little bit of a letdown. The money gets paid out. But here comes dynasty to the rescue and who's the 101 do i want ashton gentia what's he worth you know what do i have who can i trade who's got like that's how the machine keeps running and i would recommend anybody who wants to you know have more particular advice on this can can tweet me or whatever email me show up at wgr550.com that's like my favorite subject

very good very good well uh it has been a fun fantasy season which as you mentioned more or less came to an end officially in week 17 but there is so much more ahead of us to talk about can't wait and a reminder to uh go over underdog fantasy, use that promo code purple, and you can get a special pick and up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash to play along with us with these pickums or the number of different fantasy leagues. A lot of fun over there. Super easy to use.

It will not take you any time at all to learn how to do it. Must be a 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800 gambler or visit ncpgambling.org. Thank you, Mike, for your time. And we will know very soon who the number one seed is in the NFC. Can't wait. Thank you, Matt. It's been an honor to be with you all year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you and all of you for listening and watching football.