Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Who's putting up bigger numbers, Jordan Love or Sam Darnold?

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp of WGR550 and The Deep End fantasy football podcast talk about whether Jordan Love is considered a top QB now and whether Sam Darnold will outperform him on Sunday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and it is the Purple Insider Fantasy Shope with Mike Shope, WGR 550 in Buffalo, along with ADP Chasing and the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast. And this is a massive week, Mike. Most fantasy championships being decided this week. So we're going to get into some of the players that will decide fantasy titles around the universe.

But we got to start with the biggest game of the week. Bill's Jets. Yeah, Bill's Jets. That's exactly what I mean. No, I mean, yeah, Vinnie testaverti coming to town uh um no it is uh u.s bank stadium vikings and green bay packers and i don't know if we have spent any time this year in our weekly show talking about jordan love most of the discussion about the packers has largely been focused around their running back, Josh Jacobs, who they've had success with, especially if you drafted him in fantasy, you've done well for yourself.

And their receivers, which they spread the football out, they have done the multiple wide receiver thing and done pretty well with it. But Jordan Love, I think, is, I don't want to say flown under the radar because it's the Green Bay Packers quarterback, but there just hasn't been any debate, any discussion really about his big year, even though we spent the whole offseason with everybody talking about, is Jordan Love really that guy? Is he going to be able to follow it up? Because he got banged up from the beginning. It's like we didn't get the answer in the first three weeks.

He just moved on to other stuff. But I think that we might have the answer at this point that Jordan Love does have his flaws, but is still every bit as good as he was last year or at least close. That's how I'm viewing it. What is your opinion? Very similar. I bet Houston fans wanted to be able to trust what they saw from their guy last year or what Chicago might have thought it was getting. You don't really know sometimes, but I think Love is good. I happen to

put an MVP wager on him in the middle of the season. you're trying to get, or at least I would be, a good payout. So I'm not usually inclined to bet favorites. And, you know, looking at Love, they were winning games. He started the season with an injury. They played in Brazil, as you'll remember. And he got hurt in that game. And the preliminary speculation

was that he would miss weeks. And he might have missed one or two. I think it was two Malik Willis started games for them and that can derail an MVP candidacy, but, um, mid season, I thought there was a path there and then he might've had a couple of games that were just okay. And I thought on Monday night, like he missed Watson deep when that was there for a walk-in touchdown.

And the way he, this doesn't really mean anything, but the way he gets rid of the ball, it almost just looks like he's just dropping it. Like he just sort of throws it different. There's no spike to it. There's no real, I don't know, flare, if that makes any sense. Bottom line, I'd feel really good about his future green bay's future he does have last year's playoffs as well like it isn't a quarterback we're not talking about a guy who well you don't know what's going to happen in the big games i mean he's he's played in enough of

them they're in the shadow of the lions and to an extent also the vikings with the seasons those two teams have had so they're sitting 11 and 4 but in third place so that hasn't helped either thinking again in terms of an MVP award like the spotlight was really just never on them and these kind of injuries too can take a long time I mean you know players get hurt and we're not talking about their injury we might not even know about it but it can really affect them what we have talked about in terms of Green Bay, as you kind of said, is the parts and trying in fantasy football to figure out which way to turn there was tricky. And I think that proved to be correct. The cautiousness with Jaden Reed or Dobbs, Watson as well, Dontavian Wicks, like who is really going to get,

who's going to be the man in that passing offense? And maybe Reed would be on top. I think he would, but with no real distance. We compared the Packers to the Bills a couple of times, right? Like, who will be the guy you have to stop? Really, I think that's a sign of a good team, Matthew, and that's not obvious. So I'm with you on love.

He's a fun player and a lot of talent. And I think Green Bay should feel pretty good about it. Would you rather have Jordan Love or Sam Darnold in one big football game this Sunday if you're looking for who's putting up the bigger numbers? Fantasy? I mean, I think I would say Darnold with what has been happening there

the Jeff you're healthy right Jefferson Addison Hawkinson Aaron Jones I don't know if it sets up to be an explosion type situation uh because it's a good it's a tough opponent but um I think I would rank Darnold a little higher I think think so too. And it's really the Justin Jefferson factor that the last couple of weeks they have turned a corner. And, you know, when Jefferson had two catches against the bears and Darnold went off in that game throwing to everybody else, but there was a little bit of a discussion is wait, is he kind of decoying right now? Because defenses are putting so much attention on him.

And the answer was no, not really. That was just for one week where Chicago almost cartoonishly put everyone around him. And even with the way Seattle defended him last week, there were a few man coverage opportunities and he just smoked his dude and scored touchdowns. I mean, it really is remarkable that teams can never take their eye off of Jefferson. You can't just leave him one-on-one at any point almost ever. And otherwise you're going to get burned because now they've had so many reps over this year, going back to training camp that they're on the same page on a lot of things. And when I was watching the tape back from the last game,

it was just remarkable to see that even, you know, Jefferson would kind of understand, all right, Darnold's going to get back to me on a certain read and I need to work into some space or he does things that are so subtly ridiculous. Like he was coming across the field and he realizes that Darnold's extending a play and he just stems himself out down the field a little bit to get behind a zone defender to give Darnold some space to throw the ball. Like this guy has the vision of a, like don't dogs see like a wider cone of vision, like certain animals, whatever animal has the widest cone of vision, the guy sees everything on the field. And it's unbelievable for Darnold to have that. And that might be the biggest difference between the two quarterbacks is that I think love

has a lot of really good wide receivers, but he doesn't have Superman on his team where he could do just about anything at any time. And he knows it's going to work. And by the way, Superman also has several X-Men that also play with him. I do think that there is a gap there. What do we make, though, from a fantasy perspective and just real life perspective about the biggest difference between these two guys is the sacks. And sometimes I think sacks can kind of be a little bit random. I mean, the other team, how often do they break through the line?

How often do you get taken down versus pressured or whatever, but over a long period of time, Jordan love is not taking sacks when he's pressured. Sam Darnold is. And I think that evens the playing field a little bit between these two. Maybe, you know, sacks are interesting in fantasy because they're not even necessarily bad. It's not good for your chances of extending a drive. You know, one seven-yard loss probably has a real effect on your expected points in a given drive. But it also puts you into passing situations that are good, you know, for fantasy.

So you can – I don't know the correlation exactly, but I'd expect there to be maybe a small one, quarterbacks that are getting sacked more often, but putting up yards accordingly. That might be the case. You know, it is the week of the season in fantasy, the week 17 underdog, best ball mania. All the money is this week.

Nobody really, have some self-respect. Nobody's playing next week. It's just too weird. So you're right. This is it. And in redraft, we're trying to figure out our lineup. Best ball, we're crossing our fingers. Right now, the sickos, as we happily call ourselves,

that are just constantly immersed in fantasy football, their minds are on, I mean, sure, it'd be nice to win. We'll see how we do. Their minds are on the playoffs. And what we're trying to do, these contests are up at underdog. We've talked about this a little bit with your drafts, that the gauntlet and the mitten are a couple of them. You're trying to build a team that can score in each week of the playoffs.

So if you, now you know in terms of Kansas City, that they will be the one seed, whoever you draft from Kansas City is getting a zero in the first week, and it resets every week. So there's a lot of skill into it, and it's a really fun format. Back to the Vikings with this. They have become a team that you could really lean into. I mean, they've caught Detroit, and Darnold is producing.

He's got to be a top- 10 quarterback this week in terms of projections. Jefferson, of course, they have, the season has gone along and they've been a little bit more in the background, not like Green Bay, but just the Lions were the talk of the league, right? And so Minnesota, okay, well, they're going to be in the playoffs. They'll probably play week one and I don't know, can they win? You know, they're going to probably be playing on the road. Not as maybe not as much confidence in that, but that has changed some. Now they have a real chance at the one they're going to play Detroit next week with a shot at

it. If they get this game and on the NFC NFC side, the Vikings, because they're such reliable producers, those top guys have become a real interesting team to bet on, so to speak, in the playoffs. Just in general, around the league, it feels like the last few weeks have given us the shape of this thing where throughout the season even with a team like Kansas City we're going okay I mean there's crazy wins and the the one guy's toe was out of bounds and the pass interference at the end of one and they block a field goal at the end of one and then as it goes on and on and on and it keeps happening and then they get some

guys back and then they blow out some teams and you go oh okay well that's who they really are and with the vikings i think that there was a probably a five or six week period where we were asking what are they really they lose the couple of games to good teams and then they you know have a couple of games where you're not real impressed against Jacksonville. You're not real impressed against Tennessee, not Indianapolis necessarily. And then as they've gone on and they've continued to do it in the last week at Seattle, short week, it's raining out there. It's crazy out there. I'm still wet from having walked 20 minutes to the stadium. But the environment and all that, and then they come through and find a way to win that game.

And I think we have the sense now that there's maybe seven teams in the league that could actually win this thing. And as, if you're talking about going into the fantasy playoffs, I would just be drafting every player from those seven teams. I mean, I think, I think we could agree on this.

It would be shocking if anybody outside of Buffalo, Kansas city, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Minnesota, green Bay, Detroit, if anybody else won or even got to the super bowl, I would be completely shocked. Yeah. I mean, for, I was thinking this way for much of the season. And I thought there were five teams and Minnesota has earned its way into that group. And I suppose Green Bay has as well. There's certainly an argument. The Rams could be interesting playing at home. They've just, they've won before, you know, that's what, and they've got the guys too. They're another team in these best ball things to consider what What you just want to do, though, I think we talked about this before in those tournaments,

you have to pick which two teams or which story are you telling for your draft? Because if you sprinkle guys in from all these teams that might win, you're going down. Like you really have to lean into, again, to use that same phrase um which teams and really the draft kind of sets you down that path however it starts you know if you're going to draft josh allen then it's buffalo and we're going to pick a team from the nfc side where we can get who we need and that might be jefferson like that's what i'm saying that might have changed with minnesota i don't know where he's going in those i mean you can jump in one for three or five bucks and find out, but they've become a team that I think has earned that respect. And they're

probably not playing the first. Well, they might be playing the first week. I mean to say, and now we know the bills will be with the chiefs having clinched that, which makes them even more appealing Allen on down in fantasy tournaments because again they won't have a buy yeah if the vikings do win this is a scenario that you might want to toy with would be if the vikings do win the conference that means that detroit has to play and detroit's putting up huge numbers i mean it just draft everybody from detroit because they could go to the nfc championship and their gibbs is going to get all the carries and st brown is going to get all the carries and St. Brown's going to get tons of targets. And they're just going to have to probably, I mean, you saw it

against Buffalo. They're going to have to score 40 points to win. And defenses are very fickle. They're very unpredictable. It's funny. Cause if you asked a Vikings fan, Hey, what are you concerned about going into the playoffs? I don't know this defense. It's a little shaky. And then you call up the numbers. Yeah, they're the second best defense in the NFL in terms of points. Well, you know, they could be run on a little bit. Yeah, they're a top three defense when it comes to running. But that's just the nature of how it goes with defenses

where we might think Detroit's defense is a mess, but they might just randomly have a good game plan or match up against somebody well, surprisingly, or a quarterback make some mistakes that you don't expect. Like it's just a really difficult thing to sort through. But I think with Detroit, we could pretty definitively say that they are going to have to outscore everybody in order to go deep into the playoffs. Whereas the Vikings are likely to play a little bit closer games because they have a very strong defense and they might end up playing a game where they're

throwing underneath and stuff like that. Like we talked about against Chicago and for a lot of the Seahawks game, they did that too, where Seattle's trying to take away everything deep. They've got their safeties playing 30 yards off the line of scrimmage. So Jefferson ends up with 10 catches two of them are huge but the other ones are mostly short underneath type of stuff because that's what the defense was allowing so the matchups really play a big role in how it's going to play out very true what you were saying before about the Chiefs sort of the order of your games tells the story.

And if you reordered them, you know, it'd be a different story. And the Lions, their defense has all these injuries, but they're also playing the Packers and the Bills, you know, later on in the season. And those teams can light them up, and they kind of did. Detroit, back to the playoff draft strategy, it's really tough to pair the Lions because they're so popular in these drafts. Gibbs goes really early first round. You want Goff if you have St. Brown and you can't do that unless you just draw the draft slot.

I don't know. Five maybe is the one at 16s where you'd have a chance at that. Once I draft St. Brown brown at five you're at six you don't really want golf anymore because you you might have wanted to stack those two guys but you have to then maybe it's darnold and jefferson or something else so it's you you have to find ways to you know build up on a certain team but the the lions guys this is not true of the Bills. The Lions guys are so expensive that it really can box you in trying to build those teams.

The Vikings are great for it because their guys are so obvious and they just have not been as popular of a team looking ahead to the playoffs as Detroit has. But again, that's maybe changing. I think you identified the only team that I would go outside of the box with. If you were really trying to take a risk to win a playoff fantasy championship is the Los Angeles Rams. We've seen them up close against the Vikings and when they have Puka Nakua and Cooper Cup,

but you got to expect that most people are going to be thinking about those big seven teams for potentially winning championships. But I mean, they're going to throw thinking about those big seven teams for potentially winning championships. But I mean, they're going to throw the ball like crazy to those guys. And I am in the race here going into week 17 in one of my best ball tournaments from before the season, because in part of Kyron Williams, who is such a big part of their offense, they've got the skill players to put up big numbers. And if they win a playoff game, even if they get two playoff games or get to the NFC championship, surprisingly,

you're probably doing pretty darn well there because you know, their offense is going to have to light it up. I'd like to talk about the players who will determine fantasy championships from this week's slate. And some of them have already played. And my goodness, if you had Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson, you're feeling pretty darn good about yourself.

If you had Nico Collins or CJ Stroud, you are not feeling very good about yourself that. Yeah. Wow. What a complete disappearing act. If I may that Stroud just became such a bad bet this year and I don't know what you would say about how foreseeable that was I mean he was so impressive last year and what did they do for him they get tanked L back from a bad leg injury and

they add Stefan Dix like that just seemed so made to order for Stroud to take a step forward and now he's getting booed off the field at home like just rough I had a couple of big teams that went in on the Texans and that busted plus plus Collins missed five games uh in the middle so their season is not over yet but I was just thinking about that this morning like Stroud did not work out as a fantasy play at all it really tells you i think just how delicate these things are with quarterbacks that are not perfect uh there's only what do we think would you say three quarterbacks the league are perfect that you could put lamar jackson josh allen and patrick mahomes on every

single team in the league at the beginning of the year, they are playing in the playoffs. I don't think there's any question about that. If Brian Dable in the New York Giants had Josh Allen this year, they're in the playoffs. I think that's just true, but I only think it's true of those three guys and nobody else. And with CJ Stroud, as great as he is, you take away Ds halfway through the season you take away Tank Dell there in a really disturbing injury but also whoever coaches their offensive line needs to go they are an embarrassment when it comes to trying to block up stunts and twists things like that which everyone does now in the league you have to to have communication. You have to have plans. You have to have preparation.

And the Vikings in week two, three, whatever week it was, they played them. They were doing the same stuff that I saw Kansas City doing against them and Baltimore doing against them and just killing them. Stroud's getting sacked all the time. They're throwing these bubble screens that don't work. And you just, like, what are we doing here? So I think that what it showed about Stroud is that at this point in his career,

he is still beatable under poor circumstances and they don't have much of a chance to win the playoffs. I also think it does speak to how good he is that they're here because if he was less good than this, it would have very likely just crumbled their entire season and they would have won five games so you could kind of look at it through both of those lenses that the circumstances there were much much worse than any of us anticipated i picked the texans as my super bowl team this year because i thought well they're strong from top to bottom

they've improved on the offensive side around him but i didn't factor in the offensive line can't block it up and the injuries to the receivers and so forth so i i just think it it kind of shows you that it's there's three dudes and it's their world and then everybody else is shaped by what they have to go against and what happens around them. I agree. I mean, he got sacked like crazy this year. There's been quite a bit of scrutiny on their concept. You said it all. I feel like it's just been a really bad result for Houston,

which will be in the playoffs at home probably at 4.30 on Saturday in the first game that the AFC South winner always gets. So let's talk about some of these uh fellas who will determine your fantasy championships i am most interested on saturday in cincinnati and denver game with something on the line there but also because denver's defense and this just again with the defense is being up and down the overall numbers on denver's defense are very good, but they've also had some games where they have not been that good. And so you've got, you know, your Jamar chase Joe burrow on the other side. Uh, we've talked a little bit about Cortland

Sutton being the guy that Bo Nix can throw to, but I think this is one of those where it's at Cincinnati burrow has had an MVP caliber season on a really bad team the only thing I wonder about for this one though is is this like an anti-Bengals type of game because they've played shootouts all year long they're playing against a team that doesn't want to play shootouts with Bo Nix because as we saw last week against Herbert, they got into a shootout and they can't win that with Bo Nix. Well, we'll see. I mean, in fantasy, Jamar Chase has been one of the most valuable assets out there. So a lot of these kind of big decisions that you might be faced with,

that's one that you don't have to think about. You're going to play Chase. Pat Sertan for Denver makes that an interesting chess game. And maybe that's good for T. Higgins, who is more fringe. I would think T. Higgins would probably be in most lineups, despite what kind of challenge the Broncos present. In Denver, there's not a lot we can do with the Broncos. They have just not had the reliability in their offense past Knicks.

I mean, Knicks, he's borderline startable here. The Bengals' defense has been roughed up, and he's been pretty good, at least pretty good this year, and in a fantasy context. So it always depends on who you've got. But I think Knicks is, you know, it always depends on who you've got, but I think Knicks is, you know, you can see my expression. Like I could probably get there this week. It's just, it's such a challenging week. It's Christmas. We've got Wednesday games, leagues, usually most leagues

don't even run their waivers until Wednesday night. And so now you've got two games that have been played already. It's like the COVID year. There is a game tonight, Seattle and Chicago. There's three on Saturday. We still have a Sunday night game. We still have a Monday night game, despite being late in the year. And most of us are doing other things this week because it's that time of year. So Denver, Cincinnati is an interesting one.

Arizona at the Rams on Saturday night. So, you know, the stars are obvious. You're playing those guys that got you to the fantasy finals. Somebody's, you know, if you pay a little bit less attention this time of year because of everything we just talked about, you might not know where we are with injuries. And this schedule is really challenging because there's so many games sprinkled out through the week. James Conner is hurt for Arizona, and I don't know yet what his status will be for this

game. We have to monitor that. But if he doesn't play and Trey Benson doesn't play. He's the rookie that he was inactive last week, didn't practice at all. The guy who moved in when they played Carolina last Sunday was Michael Carter, a running back who started his career with the Jets and was phased out, and he's been down on the depth chart in Arizona. But if I don't have Connor on my team, or even if, you know, whether I have him on my team or not, he doesn't play, I think maybe that's a dart throw you could talk yourself into, uh, because especially if Benson is an active either Carter could be somebody that gets 20 touches at the Rams, I think, or I don't know where the game is, but they're playing LA.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, at the Rams. And I, I don't know if the Arizona fans will take over the stadium. So a true home game for the Rams. But you know, that Arizona team was so much about Marvin Harrison jr. This year. And I don't know what you would, how would you like, if you were to use some words,

like three words to describe marvin harrison juniors first season i guess i might use like not too bad or all right yeah i mean he has 50 let me hold on i got this uh 51 catches on 98 targets which is not very good no that's a 52 completion percentage 726 for yards and seven touchdowns which is all just okay i mean that's kind of what you've gotten from someone like jayden reed and maybe even a little bit better from jayden reed puts you at the 30th best 35th best wide receiver in the nfl that's not what was expected of Marvin Harrison Jr. And I guess I wonder when you ask someone to make contested catches in college versus in the NFL, it is a totally different beast. And maybe that just requires adjustment. Maybe it's the fact that Kyler Murray

doesn't play in structure a lot. So you just are kind of at the whim of wherever the football ends up as opposed to hey we're going to dial it up to feed this guy over i mean you see this with with stafford and sean mcveigh they're just they're just feeding nakua and and cooper cup on purpose where so much of the arizona offense seems accidental and that's not beneficial to a top receiver although you know hopkins was great with that but i it just doesn't seem like they've ever truly clicked this year the way that we expected them to yeah i agree um i'm not like film watcher guy so i couldn't tell you too much about what isn't working i think you said a lot made a lot of good points. And I do tend to think that Murray is just not the quarterback you want your wide receiver one to have to need. He's good,

but accidental is a great word for what that has looked like to me as well. The bottom line on Harrison in fantasy just was not worth the price. I mean, he, he was an early second round pick at worst. That's when we could have picked Barkley or we could have picked a lot of guys that, um, we didn't because we were so excited about Marvin Harrison, even other rookies like Malik neighbors or Brian Thomas jr. Um, were much better fantasy bets just because they were not as expensive as Harrison, who, as you said, has done okay. But, you know, he's the kind of player that you're probably starting every week because you're just waiting for that to pop and you know the talent and the potential for that to happen are there. And that probably meant you went five and nine and missed the playoffs because you

really couldn't take Harrison out easily. That's me in a couple of cases. Frustrating. But, you know, live in this game, I mean, so is McBride. When it comes to the Cardinals, the total is one of the higher ones, around 48. Rams are favored, but that's a game where, you know, DFS players might lean into. Again, I keep saying the same thing, but potential for a shootout what about uh philadelphia

without potentially jalen hurts and as we record this he did not practice yesterday i think if you're the eagles you would be really dumb to push him back uh really fast knowing how he plays and and so forth and where they are in the playoffs uh But that may mean that they're leaning into Saquon Barkley even more. Kenny Pickett did throw the ball around last week. He made some mistakes, but he was able to get the ball to receivers. And if Devontae Adams, or I'm sorry, Devontae Smith just, you know, brings that old football in, then maybe the result is different there. But them and Dallas, Dallas' defense,

shockingly, if you have Micah Parsons playing, your defense is a lot better. So Zim didn't forget football down there in Dallas. He just needed his players back, which was kind of the story when he was here and maybe just the story of defenses in general. But this is one I've got my eye on because it feels like Saquon Barkley is going

to get the football a ton here and maybe try to make one last stand for running back for MVP yes we'll see what Dallas can do about it if it's if it's not Hurts and Barkley has gotten there pretty much all season against teams that of course course, would have been keying on him. But because of what Hurts can do, Brown and Smith, I mean, very narrow target stuff there. Very easy to trust those guys. Different story, perhaps, with Pickett. So that'll be interesting to see what, like, Barkley may be going for a rushing record if he has a good start in this game. But they also have the counterpoint just to be ready for the playoffs, and they still have a chance to sit up top in the standings, too.

So a lot to think about when it comes to Philadelphia. C.D. Lamb in that game, I was worried. I mean, as good as Lamb is and productive as he's been, when Prescott went out and they were just falling apart, the Cowboys, some of those bad home games, they're getting blown out and just the vibes are terrible. But Lamb has come through. And they were just falling apart, the Cowboys. Some of those bad home games, they're getting blown out. And just the vibes are terrible. But Lamb has come through with Cooper Rush. He's even been fringe starter at times, you know, with the numbers he's put up.

You don't want to have to do that at Philadelphia in the fantasy finals. But Lamb, you know, it's hurt a little bit. It's been a little bit nerve-wracking to think about what we're going to get from lamb down the stretch, but it's been really good. I always think about with backup quarterbacks playing, if they're competent, then wide receiver one should be fine. And here's why I think this, because I always, I've had Gus Farad on the show a few times and I always go back to what Gus

Farad said about playing with randy moss where he said i just tried to throw it to randy moss that was his what what was your strategy going into the backup quarterback when you play with moss us to throw it to randy moss and he said he would have an eye out there and if moss threw up the signal he's throwing it up to him every time i i think that backups lean even more heavily into that guy because they trust them more it's also the first read all the time so they're trying to get the football out and that seems to be what cooper rush has done a lot so cd lamb seems like a good uh well not play if you have cd lamb you're playing him but if you have him that there's some good chances here

washington at atlanta i'm ready to call it on jayden daniels watch out national football league this guy is a special quarterback he battled through some injuries and some downturns in the middle of the season the throw he made to beat ph, his team. I don't know if you're watching this game last week, but they run the ball with no timeouts and 19 seconds left and just run the clock out on themselves. And he has to run up there with five seconds left and throw this anticipation ball behind his own defender to a receiver. Who's not even good. And like, bang bang just nails if you went daniel you talk

about a guy like drafting him uh the rookie in the offseason just not really knowing what's going to happen there i don't remember where daniels was going but it feels like it might have been pretty high and or not that much or was it was it not that great? Ninth or 10th round, maybe. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was... At one point, I remember hearing an analyst make that has resonated is, why are we drafting Anthony Richardson way up here when Jaden Daniels, who might be the same thing,

is this much cheaper? And, you know, that seems prophetic. So, yeah, really exciting player. Dynasty teams that drafted Daniels over Caleb Williams, who also could be factored into that comparison, although he was around the same price as Daniels was in drafts. They've got to feel great about that. And McLaurin was not a comfortable click for me at all

because Daniels was such an unknown i like may over daniels coming into the draft too and washington has just been such a disaster for so many years and mclaurin's been around for a while so he's kind of boring and the uncertainty at quarterback made you nervous there round four maybe mclaurin still because there is the upside and that has definitely paid off i think dan quinn shows you i mean of course everyone's going to look smarter with jayden daniels playing as well as he is but dan quinn shows you the value of just having someone who knows how to do this and is he the best coach in the world probably not and i don't

think cliff kingsbury's the best coach in the world? Probably not. And I don't think Cliff Kingsbury is the best coach in the world either on offense, but just even knowing how to create a process for your team each week, a system for your team to, to be a leader, all those things. It's so hard in the NFL. And that's really the difference is that when they changed owners, they were able to get a coach there who had pedigree and knew what he was doing. And I've been very just impressed. You don't see too many teams with rookie quarterbacks looking like you don't want to maybe face them in the first round because they could be dangerous.

On the other side, they are playing at home against Atlanta. Atlanta desperately needs this football game. Michael Penix, how does one go about judging someone when they play a team that should be relegated? I mean, the New York Giants, I think Dayball is a smart offensive mind, but he's an offensive coordinator probably. That team is not playing for him anymore. They gave up a long time ago. And so Michael Penix is throwing a two-yard pass and Bijan Robinson walks backward into the end zone it looked like the early part of the uh little giants game against the cowboys

you know in the movie we're just getting steamrolled because one team cared and the other team didn't still Penix didn't fall on his face but I don't know how to judge what happened there versus you're going to Washington and having to play a really good team yeah um we don't know uh Bijan Robinson though did get their huge way in that game and there's a guy who was a first round fantasy pick where it's been uneven we still had to put up with more Tyler Algier is getting 14 touches in this game even though we have Bijan Robinson that has calmed down and Robinson has really been mostly a super fantasy asset, starting to feel good like we did when he came into the league about what he might be worth.

Dynasty, this isn't where we're at exactly right now, but I think he's got to be top five running backs. So that looks exciting. Tonight, if I can jump to this game, speaking about running backs, we have Seattle and Chicago. So when Kenneth Walker had been injured recently for Seattle, Zach Charbonnet took basically all the work.

It was prior to that more just like Walker, but Charbonnet would get a touch here and there. He took all the work and it was an explosion in fantasy. Walker comes back for the game you went to against Minnesota, and he got all the work. Like Charbonnet didn't touch the ball until the second half and really didn't have a role in that game at all. But then Walker got hurt again and will not play tonight. So you're talking about in the category of guys who could make the difference in your fantasy finals. It is Thursday night football. It is in Chicago where it's probably cold, but that's not so bad anyway for a running back.

Charbonnet is exciting to me. If you look at the underdog pick'em prices and odds, like maybe the most favored player in the game to score tonight would be Charbonnet because we know Walker will not play. So he's somebody I feel like I want to trust in fantasy final. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they are probably,

I mean, Chicago's going to be on television. So I would assume they're going to try a little bit harder but they were on tv against the vikings and once they got down in that game it was kind of over which is really plays to your point if you get chicago down they will give up they know their season was over a long time ago and you could just run the ball over and over and rack up huge yards i also wanted to say coming out of that Seattle game that, wow, Jackson Smith and the Jigba is good at football.

I mean, I know he's got huge numbers, but that's one that if you were buying into going into the season saying like, hey, he's going to take this big step forward. Lockett's going to step back into a different role. You hit the nail on the head. Yeah, because he has absolutely crushed it. And this is not a hot take. He's got the fourth most receiving or fifth most receiving yards in the league but just uh he looked like a special player to me it's going to be good for a long time let's talk about monday

night football a little bit okay uh detroit san francisco this is one vikings fans are going to be watching pretty closely. San Francisco is another team we could talk about. Did they, is it just a calamity? Have they given up or is it just too many injuries or whatever, whatever, whatever. Like I, there's like a million explanations for it, but I think that what happens when you're really good for five years is eventually you just hit a wall. And that's what happened to San Francisco. Do they have enough left in the tank?

They have enough fight for Kyle Shanahan to hang in this one. Or is Detroit just too desperate and will steamroll? I honestly don't know. I'm not thinking about what their effort level is. I really don't know. I'm not thinking about what their effort level is. I really don't know, but it would make sense. They lost Ayuk for the season early after he wasn't in camp, and eventually he gets signed, and that's a big blow. They lose McCaffrey, who misses the first nine or ten games,

kind of like last minute anyway, and then he's gone. Trent Williams missed time in the 49ers. He's the one guy where they're the most different if he's he's gone Trent Williams missed time and the 49ers he's the one guy where they're the most different if he's not on the field and they just didn't have enough the game in Buffalo Sunday night game in Buffalo just and they turned the ball over like they were moving the ball okay I would expect them to move the ball in this game too um even with those injuries and Debo Samuel looks maybe he's hit a wall himself. Kittle is still getting there for fantasy and running back.

They're down to their fourth guy. Like they lost McCaffrey, but then also Jordan Mason. And then also Isaac Garendo, although I'm not sure of his status for this game. He wasn't put on IR or anything, Garendo. So that's one to watch. Um, I would not, I don't see the 49ers as as a team that's just going to throw in the towel here. It's a big spotlight game against Detroit, even though they're eliminated. So you might see some juice from the Niners.

Definitely would play Kittle. Juwan Jennings had a phase this year where he was a great find, but not so much since that. And the running back, it's just, I don't know. I think they are so far down on the depth chart where it's this is where running backs do matter when you get to the replacement level guys right if you're pulling somebody from the xfl or something then uh you're you're in pretty bad shape there there's there is a gap i that defense has also been strained more than usual

and it feels like detroit being that they will be desperate to make uh week 18 matter for them uh would have an advantage here they just it feels like everything just went wrong for san francisco is just one of those years so what do you want to do uh for pickums because i feel like thursday night football by the time uh folks watch and listen will probably be over with. I was thinking, I was thinking we could do some from, from that game for the,

the 49ers and lions. Okay. If your game, I'll give you some here, but first I got to remind our audience that we do our pickums on underdog fantasy. Of course, the easiest place to play fantasy sports and the fastest growing fantasy app in

the industry. And if I must say, uh, it is the also easiest app I've ever used in my entire life, truly like just two seconds and you're playing. So you got to check out the pickums to play along as we go forward. They're going to have everything. Uh, if you were watching basketball yesterday, you could have done a ton of action there on those games as well so all across all sports sign up with the code purple claim your special pick and first time deposit offer up to $1,000

in bonus cash to play along with us must be 18 or older terms apply concern with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org again the promo code purple and we thank our friends at underdog fantasy for doing this show together all

season long Mike it has been a really really fun time that we've had we I appreciate it very much I'm looking at the pickings for that Monday night game it's still a few days away so you don't have quite as many options as you would have like

when the game is tonight but of the players it's just the stars who are listed I would like St. Brown the most I think oh higher than 73 and a half receiving yards we talked about Kittle but 67 and a half seems a little high for my taste and you have no David Montgomery now with his injury so Gibbs is listed at 92 and a half rushing. That's a pretty healthy number. I'd rather have maybe a rushing plus receiving yards number when we get closer to the game. If I can give you two more thoughts on week 17 here before we wrap.

I mentioned Charbonnet with the Seahawks. I guess maybe people will know how that went. So fingers crossed. And then Jerome Ford is interesting in the same kind of context for Cleveland. No more Nick Chubb. They're playing Miami at home. This game was flexed out of Sunday night

to a one o'clock slot in Cleveland, but Ford should be in a position for a lot of volume if their offense is at all functional. And I like, and I've liked it going back to when we were drafting Best Ball Mania and Week 17 is all that matters. The schedule comes out. Tampa and Carolina. I ended up with teams that were heavy into the Bucs.

Godwin left us, but Evans, Jalen McMillan has been somewhat productive for the Bucs there. And of course, Bucky Irving with Rashad White, that has been money all season. And Carolina is alive enough to make it possible that that game just kind of blows up. Bryce Young has looked really good and you've got Phelan there, Jalen Coker, Chuba Hubbard

got you through last week on his back 35 fantasy points. So we know the Bucs can, they would love to throw the ball. Their offense is really good, and you want to have Carolina be able to sort of keep pace there, which I think could happen or should and for carolina this is only funny to the most hardcore vikings fans but if i say the words dan trusena caught a pass for carolina that means something here because he played at penn state he was a track guy then played basically one year at Penn State

as a special teamer, caught three passes, came to the Vikings, was number 90 out of 90 at training camp, made the team as a gunner because he's one of the fastest people I've ever seen in my life. And the guy is sort of bounced around after that and ends up with Carolina. And then I'm watching red zone or whatever. And I see him make a catch like what Dan just said is making a catch in the NFL. So if you want to go super deep,

that is super deep. This is your turn to make up a name. Then that's what we're doing here. This is your turn to make up a name. Three college catches at Penn state. So you need the guy caught one in the NFL. Yep. That's, that's all here. This is your turn to make up a name. Three college catches at Penn State. That's all you need. And the guy caught one in the NFL. Yep, that's all he needed to show off.

So, oh, just to circle back to the Monday night, there isn't an opportunity for me with the randoms because they don't have the randoms up yet. But that one, I wonder about whether Jameer Gibbs will be leaned on that much if they get ahead. Will they put in somebody else knowing that they've got to go back and play Minnesota in Week 18?

If he gets 75 yards and they're up by 21 points, I know that Dan Campbell is a psycho with this stuff, but it feels like they know that they've got to lean so heavily on him. So I'm kind of interested to whether he would actually get that many yards. By the time we get to Monday, you'll have a chance to go higher on Sion Vaki, uh, if you want, uh, in case that scenario plays out or Reynolds would be the other one. I think Craig Reynolds. Is that right? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, yeah go go find your favorite backup detroit running back if what you just said happens and there was a guy there was another guy now i can't remember his

name for tennessee who had like nine catches last week that i had never heard of in my life uh not tajay spears shit chig someone chig a conco yeah there you go chig a conco fight end there you go get deep into thatonkwo. There you go. Get deep into that one. Okay. Well, you shouldn't want to have to start him this week, Tennessee Jacksonville. Right. You know, maybe, maybe it can work. Anything can work.

All right. Well, uh, this show has worked all season long and we'll continue to go into the playoffs as well. So thank you, Mike, for your time. Thank you. Underdog fantasy is always promo code purple, and we will catch you all very soon. Thanks for listening.