Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will the Vikings find a way to get Jordan Addison involved?

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp of WGR550 and The Deep End fantasy podcast talk about Jordan Addison's lack of targets and then discuss key players from upcoming opponents and Caleb Williams Purple Insider presented by FutureFans.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and this is the Purple Insider Fantasy Shope with Mike Shope, WGR 550 in Buffalo, and the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast. Mike, do you want to talk about TJ Hawkinson or something? Because I don't really want to break down the.j hawkinson or something because i don't really want to break down the jaguars vikings game anymore i'm trying to move on not only uh just to the next week but also emotionally from having seen that in person you got lucky but also

jacksonville got lucky to not get blown out. I mean, it was definitely, if it were gymnastics, there was no scoreboard. You're just watching the game, and after three hours, you and your fellow media members have to judge which team should have won the game, was the better team. Minnesota would have won unanimously. But, you know, football is more interesting and more random than gymnastics. So, fantasy-wise, it was really tough because we lost Aaron Jones. We never got close with Jefferson.

We never seemed to get anywhere with Addison anymore. Depending on your league scoring, the darn old interceptions could have been a problem. He was pretty startable in that matchup. But Hawkinson was, you know, that was fine. That might have saved some people when it came to the Vikings. But I got to a point on Sunday where I was watching that game, just hoping that they would win for my survivor picks.

Like just, I don't care about the cover fantasy wise. I'll take what I get. Jefferson is, you know, such a sure thing that you take for granted that there won't be games like that. But of course, again, the randomness there should be. So you won, shake it off, on to Tennessee. That's the only way you could really look at it. The one development that was kind of interesting, and I really noticed this as I was looking back at the coach's tape,

is that Jacksonville played their safeties deeper than I've ever seen a team ever do this ever that there are passes to TJ Hawkinson that Darnold is throwing when he is going to release the football. Both safeties are 30 yards away from him. They were so afraid of Justin Jefferson hitting on a deep shot. And I think part of it was, hey, we're going to make Sam Darnold throw underneath over and over and over again and see if he could do it without making a mistake. And I guess they won that bet because he did end up making the mistakes in the red zone.

But I am curious if there is something to this with other teams trying to do it to the Vikings and try to do this to Justin Jefferson. It's not like they've never thought of it before, but they did it to an extreme. They blitzed one time in 42 passes by, or 42 dropbacks by Sam Darnold. And I do think that that could impact the amount of explosive plays that they can get. No, sure. I mean, that's been the general trend in the league the last couple of years is just put the safeties in the proverbial parking lot and make your opponent drive the field. And

if turnovers happen, the game gets shorter because your drives are longer and you lose. One thing about Kansas City this year is like, they're not scoring. Everybody wants to know why, like what's the problem. They keep the ball and they haven't turned it over well they actually have with Mahomes but that's what that's the pitfall that's what you have to avoid and a team that's so minimized if that's a word on talent at this point and even incentive might as well play that way I think you might have been in Buffalo with me for a game in the Bills' many drought years. They went to Indianapolis one year

against Peyton Manning's Colts, maybe like 2008 or 2009, somewhere in there with Dick Duran. And they just were no match for the Colts, but they just slow played it and hoped to get away with it. And they lost 17-16, I think. So, you know, they gave themselves a lot of credit, and it all counted the same.

So for Minnesota offensively, what do you want? Hawkinson is really key here. You want an underneath option. You want pivots. Maybe Addison just really isn't it. Addison is supposed to be – I mean, I'm not here to tell you this, but he's supposed to be the player that can stretch the defense, And that's where you can get Jefferson on that intermediate stuff where he cleans up most weeks. So I don't know why that didn't happen. But that's what the Vikings would

probably want going forward. Some, some pivot that's easier and you avoid the interceptions. If you avoid the interceptions in that game what's the final score oh I think probably 27 to 7 I mean it would have it would have been a blow a complete blow and also they didn't finish the other drives too they had to kick four field goals so if they had scored even if they had scored field goals on every drive they still would have won by two scores at least if they didn't throw the interceptions. And, you know, I was looking back at the picks because of course this is the freak out in Minnesota is it, wait, is he going to do this every week with these interceptions? I would say two of them were, I don't know. That's just something that happens. He misread

which direction Jefferson was going after the play broke down a little bit on one of them. And then another is a tip that ends up getting picked off. And then there's one really bad Sam Darnold decision. But I don't think that it's something that's going to happen week after week after week. It's just when it happens like that against that team, it feels like a catastrophe. But the Jordan Addison thing is, is interesting to talk about because he puts up that on Instagram free three. So then everyone talks about, okay, is he demanding a trade or whatever, right before the deadline? And it just doesn't seem to be happening

with him, with him and Darnold. Darnold's first look is always at number 18 of course it should be that way and then he's got instant trust with TJ Hawkinson all right it's not deep where's TJ I'm gonna get him the football and there was one opportunity to hit Addison on a 20 or 25 yard pass that he just kind of overthrew they just have not ever gotten on the same page people were worried about suspensions with Addison. No surprise, they pushed the court date back. But I think it's more of he just doesn't seem to have Addison in the front of mind when it comes to each play.

He's dropping back thinking about pretty much two guys, and I don't know if that's ever going to change. You see ebbs and flows with guys that are number twos in terms of targets, but there's, there's only ebbs. There's no flows when it comes to Addison this year. Hawkinson makes that tougher. You know, there will be that there already has shown that. I mean, Addison has one game all season with more than three catches and Hawkinson top that what six, on Sunday like that's plan b now do you think just quickly do you think Minnesota would ever move Naylor into that spot is he just different body type or just is there a reason why beyond the draft capital stuff where they necessarily

wouldn't do that yeah that's an interesting thing because when Naylor was wide receiver two he was getting the football right and we were talking about it like oh yeah Jalen Naylor's kind of becoming this secondary option and then as soon as Addison came back neither one of them really got the football very often Naylor might have as many catches as Trent Shurfield over the last three or four weeks he has kind of become a ghost in this too. It's really just Jefferson or Hawkinson or Hawkinson or Jefferson on any given play. And both of them have kind of washed each other out. I think that Naylor might be a better fit for this, for this pure wide receiver two type of position, if you're going to play this way and I was thinking about the Los Angeles Rams

and where Kevin O'Connell came from in 2021 they just threw the ball the Cooper Cup every single time and Van Jefferson might sneak in a target or whoever else but it was very much a wide receiver one centric kind of thing just like it was in green Bay with Devante Adams. And that might be how things are designed to play. And then what do you do with Addison? Because at this point, I don't condone Instagramming your feelings when it comes to targets. I don't know. I've always been strongly against that, but I feel like you've done that many times. Yeah. I have, I have posted uh my own thoughts online just like everybody else that's true but um I think he's got a point I mean he's a first round pick he was a dominant player in college he scores 10 touchdowns 70 catches last

year he has to be looking around going am I just running a track meet out here? Well, right. And I mean, it's a cliche. It's well beyond a cliche at this point, but with wide receivers, I guess you really need to care about their feelings all the time. Addison, as you know, I mean, he's still only 22. It's just super young. He's probably, if he's like a lot of these guys, you know, just think already thinking about his next contract. He's on a team he's like a lot of these guys, you know, just already thinking about his next contract. He's on a team that's paid Jefferson, so it's maybe not going to happen there. And that could get sticky for a team.

From the Vikings side of things, look, I mean, they're 7-2. It's been a great ride so far. Darnold is working out. They lost, of course, their rookie quarterback investment before the season isn't started. And they're just running really well here. These last two games,

more so the Jacksonville game, but in totality, really not that pretty. What are the total yards? 817 to 370. Those are blowouts. If you run the sims sorry to get like ai on you but if you run the sims on games like that 100 times i mean the vikings win those games 95 times out of 100 if not more so i mean maybe so i think you know overall you have a team here where if i were if i owned it

or if i just sort of was in charge of it even if I just being the coach in sort of like a macro sense, I wouldn't be afraid to move around, you know, figure a new plan out with that wide receiver two position. Because your, your present right now is more important than down the road. And Addison could end up being somebody that just sort of gets kind of phased out eventually by the Vikings. In terms of fantasy football, you know, he's maybe an interesting so-called buy low. We're at the point of the fantasy season where leagues are starting to have trade deadlines. And, you know, with dynasty leagues where, you know where you always have teams that are winners and losers, contenders,

teams pushing for a championship. They might want to invest in older wide receivers. Calvin Ridley, maybe for Tennessee, who you'll see this week. And you have Addison. There are better examples, younger receivers on the other side of that. Trades like that happen all the time in dynasty and fantasy. So Addison could be somebody that a contending team was sort of counting on when the season started. And maybe now, I'm not saying you have to give up, but you could maybe try to turn him into somebody that's producing more regularly in the present. And I also think that sometimes we've seen this before

where a guy doesn't take center stage for a big part of the season and then all of a sudden does. I mean, if defenses are going to play Jefferson this way, there are opportunities to throw other people, and it doesn't always have to be TJ Hawkinson. I guess I'm really more wondering about Sam Darnold than whether he looks for number three or not as part of this. But I also think that when you have wide receiver ones, they're going to get consistent targets, at least 10,

12 per game and everybody else just kind of rides high or low. And this happened with KJ Osborne in 2022, halfwayway through the season at this point, we're talking about what happened to that guy. He just disappeared from last year. And then you look at his final numbers, and they're actually really similar to his breakout 2021 season because just that's the way that the cookie crumbled. This team also, if they're going to run like that,

which I promote, if you're running effectively, keep doing it. Keep hanging on to the football. There's no reason to make it easy on the other team. And you're going to throw short to Hawkinson. There's just only going to be so much to go around. And there's going to have to be weeks for someone like Addison where he doesn't get as many targets. So I don't know if there's an easy answer here.

It's another one, too, as we've talked about a lot this year, where the Vikings are too good to set up perfectly for a big play wide receiver because they're not in those game scripts. You can run five yards per carry all the time, but if I'm the Jaguars last week, I want you to do it. You're just giving me a better chance to punch you out once, make one play, and beat you. So that doesn't set up well for Addison. And if you think, and a better chance to punch you out once, make one play and beat you. So that doesn't set up well for Addison. And if you think, and I don't know why you wouldn't,

it's the Titans and the bears the next two weeks. I mean, that could be 10 points per max, who knows the way, the way the Vikings are playing. I mean, that doesn't sound even for Jefferson, that doesn't set up great. One more thing on minnesota unless you have like seven others which you might because this is actually purple insider uh you were saying all summer into the season they're just not keen on chandler and the one week when they went to la we had some fun with the pickums and you're like a cam acres touchdown here is not unreasonable because the coach loves him back in Los Angeles. That didn't happen. It was,

it was a different, closer game than it could have been. But what you saw Sunday was acres clearly running ahead of Chandler. So he's obviously at this point, the, you know, the, the handcuff to Jones.

Right. And if somebody is looking for a pickup fantasy wise, and you have an injured running back or something like that, I mean, Aaron Jones was banged up again the other day with a rib injury. And he is he's not a big man. I can understand why he always has this kind of follow him because he plays recklessly and he's not a huge dude and doesn't run over people but it's clearly acres kevin o'connell loves acres he makes that clear he trusts him that's the biggest thing and honestly i would too in comparison when you look at the pass protection and uh just the fact that acres knows where to run i mean a lot of times with ty chandler if you could get him a pitch in space he can fly by everybody but that's really the only thing

he's capable of doing. So it is definitely Cam Akers going forward. Well, anyway, I guess we'll have to see about these next two weeks because I think they could also follow a low scoring type of script as well. They're just not playing

Kirk Cousins football games from the past where he's throwing 45 times and he's racking up 380 yards and still somehow you win 24 to 21 on a last second trial very different it's not happening but they will be playing against Kirk Cousins like the Viking schedule holy I mean is this ever perfect you gotta love playing the AFC South I mean, is this ever perfect? You got to love playing the AFC South. I mean, who doesn't win the lottery playing against the AFC South, you know, most years? Tennessee, which a Vikings win would mean sweeping that division. Chicago, this three-game road trip, then three in a row at home. Arizona, okay.

I think Minnesota right now this week would still be favored. Atlanta, Chicago again, at Seattle, Green Bay, and then at then at Detroit I mean what's the over under going to be on that like 11 and a half wins is that even conservative on Minnesota that's that's a playoff team uh so if Detroit's too good then Detroit's too good but if that's the case and we're sort of right on the Vikings you're the five seed oh yeah I mean they could be going on the Vikings, you're the five seed. Oh yeah. I mean, they could be going on the road to face somebody who's not as good as them and favored. Yeah.

I mean, Tampa, Arizona, Atlanta. I mean, all of that would be a very good situation for getting a win there. Let's, let's stick with that theme though, and talk about some key players on opponents that are upcoming for the Vikings, because I would love to hear your opinion on Chicago. I'm constantly talking about Chicago and what's going on over there because the NFC North, and I just can't believe they did it again. I mean, you just, I should have believed that they would do it again, but do you not learn the lessons of the past? Don't stick with the coach who's on the hot seat when you draft the quarterback.

That should be basic. You hire a coach for the quarterback. Try to make it the best marriage you possibly can. Instead, they stick with Eber Flus. Now, they're already firing an offensive coordinator and also I think that maybe the world that anointed Caleb Williams the next great Mahomes uh probably overlooked some things like he's not as big as Mahomes and he's not as good from the pocket as Mahomes and he's also 21 years old and is going to need a lot of development but I would love your opinion on what has transpired there. Right. Mahomes did get that first season to watch from the sideline.

And there is value in that. I think nobody says there isn't, but it's really more just the math of the rookie deal stuff. And also to your point, which I completely agree with, I'd always want to align my rookie quarterback with a new coach. And the Bears kind of incredibly have failed to do that three times in the last, what year was Mahomes? 17? In the last seven years. Trubisky went into a John Fox Bears team, which is kind of incredible. He's fired the next year for Nagy. That runs its course. Then Fields is drafted into a lame duck Nagy season. They start Andy Dalton.

That gets screwed up from the beginning. He's fired, of course. And now Williams, the prodigal Caleb Williams, gets another Matt. Who even is Matt Eberflus? I mean, when he was hired, everybody went, who is that? And he cut his hair and he trimmed his beard, which obviously I should also do, which would help my profile, but it doesn't really ultimately add up in success on the field, and that's doomed.

So I'm not, again, sort of in a fantasy context I am totally fine with Caleb Williams I'm not into curses I'm not into you know any sort of like overriding belief that the Bears can never do it but it's a it's a miserable first season now they have made that coaching change at coordinator. We've talked a couple times. It's easy to say, right, that the coach is to blame, but it's just like the way they're using DJ Moore, they're weird right from the beginning of the season, a purposeful effort to get Gerald Everett involved

when they had Moore and Odunze and Keenan Allen and even Komet and Swift. Like, what? Red flags from the first game, which they won against Tennessee. They sucked out and won that game. But, I mean, it's just a miserable thing. And their schedule, talking about Minnesota, you know Chicago's? I want to do this from memory.

Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit. San Francisco, Minnesota, Detroit, Seattle, and then Green Bay again. Like it's just, it's going to go bad. Buffalo, where I'm centered, is like an ironic maybe counterpoint to this idea because here is Josh Allen, who was drafted one year into McDermott. And so I never liked that. I mean, that was one reason why I was not betting on the bills to have that kind of success or anything close to what they're actually having. But McDermott had a very lucky first year where they were minus 50 something in point differential, but they made the playoffs on a,

in a franchise that had missed for 17 years in a row. Like that's huge clout. So he had, he had time to make it work with Allen. If that team goes six and 10 or something like that, which by numbers, they probably should have, then that's a different deal.

And maybe Allen gets played differently and who knows what happens. I mean, Darnold is a great example of just how fickle the whole thing is. So with the Bears, the coaching change is inevitable. Will they be willing to sort of, if you will, go modern with their choices next time and kind of just be sort of a cutting-edge team? That's a big question, and maybe Chicago is sort of loathe to that, but they need to do it to give Williams a chance

because one of the worst results I've had in fantasy this year is, you know, leaning into the Bears because it couldn't be going worse. Have you ever tried to explain football to a little kid? It can be near impossible to make it make sense sometimes, but there is help. I want to tell you about Future Fans, a new brand that helps little kids become big football fans with storybook-led activity boxes. Let me explain to you what that means. You get a football playbook that not only explains the game, but also has a ton of different activities to help better understand how football works. I have a good friend whose son is seven years old, and he's just getting into flag football, and they have loved playing Game Watch Bingo together during games and drawing up their own plays on the laminated play sheet that comes in the box.

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has ever had and that probably wasn't wrong when you looked at the weapons that were around him and it's always tough for me with shane waldron i don't know his previous philosophies and why this worked or that didn't work or anything else. But I always struggle with, Hey, it's the coordinator. It's the system. It's the whatever, whatever, because a lot of these systems work the same with a little bit of tweaks. I mean, that's just the reality of the NFL. There's Mike Zimmer used to say this.

There's only so many things that actually work in the NFL. The game is so fast. The players are so good because they would ask him about, well, why don't you do this thing that they're doing in college? And that was his answer is that's phenomenal. And it would lose 10 yards in the NFL because they'll just sack you or whatever. And so I always struggle to think that Shane Waldron, who's here in the NFL calling plays is so far behind everybody else in what they're doing.

I think that the quarterback wasn't ready, and they had no choice because the fan base was down bad after they had to get rid of another draft pick. And Eberflus, here we are, hot seat. He's got to have the hype. He can't play some backup quarterback like the Patriots. They changed coaches. I think they did it great.

Play Brissette until you can't anymore. Give Drake May his time. Then he finally comes in without starting from day one, and he learns how things work. That was good. But also, the new coach gets the leeway there. And also, I think there are just some coaches who seem to be really good at galvanizing the team. And Matt Eberflus is not one of those dudes, beard or no beard haircut or no

haircut. He clearly, you don't see coaches that are good and have the team on their side, get called out the way that he did after that Hail Mary thing. If that happened to Tomlin, I don't think that we would have a bunch of players run into the media being like, they're stupid, see what they're doing? That was a lot of built-up frustration from everybody coming out after that Hail Mary. And then now it's just tumbling.

And Caleb Williams, what is to even be made of what's going to happen here going forward? Because he's going to have to have a new coach. Are they going to pick Lincoln Riley and then do that thing again? Maybe. You know, just but respectfully to the Zimmer point, there is also, I think, sort of like a basic, a fundamental belief or, you know, whatever it is.

DJ Moore, the Bills drafted, I'm always here with the Bills comp, but the Bills drafted Sammy Watkins. They traded up, you know, two firsts for Sammy Watkins. They had to have Sammy Watkins in a Beckham draft and Mike Evans. They had to have Sammy Watkins. So, okay, what are you going to do with it? And he really was just not at the center of their offense. He was not a decoy either, per se, but, like,

I remember being on the air that year, like, you need 15 targets a week or else why bother? And it was anything but that. So you make this great, massive investment at wide receiver. You steal Keenan Allen to see what he's got left. You get lucky with the Odunze pick, having the second pick, and then in the first 10 or whatever it was. And then DJ Moore, who you robbed from Carolina, you have to give into that. I mean, even if it's not your philosophy or whatever it is you think, it's going to get windy in December. No, there's

no excuse. Whatever the concepts are going to be, you have to throw the ball to DJ Moore down the field way more often than they do. They're using him like he's, you know, a third down running back or a tight end or something. And there's just no excuse for that. If you're going to go down, you can't, especially if you're a coach individually, this is your career. You can't not go down being sort of leaning into your best guys. And who would say that he's not, who would say that Gerald Everett is more, you know, dangerous or important to the offense than DJ Moore. So now you have Moore walking off the field and now you just have this, like you're saying,

this general distrust, if that's even being kind, in what the Bears are doing. And it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, it sort of makes sense. Eberflus, he doesn't have the good name. He's not Dan Campbell. You know, he doesn't have the good name either, where it's just like, all right, you know, he's tall and big and the good name, the good face. He tried with the beard and the hair, but it's not helping him with the good face. Yeah, they're going to have to start again. And I'm not giving up on Williams. He is so young, like you said, did not get any time to watch and learn, so to speak. So I'm still okay there, but it's a disastrous rookie year again. I guess the only question i have and i i don't know this i i need this will

be next week when i get uh bears reporters on the show is is it that there's no design to throw to k to uh dj moore or is caleb not throwing it and that's because i see him in the pocket take the snap eyes drop scramble or just or just get that ball out of my hands so fast. I don't want anything to do with this noise. And that's where, you know, when it comes out that some players, DJ Moore, want Tyson Bajan to start. I mean, I saw Tyson Bajan play. The guy has guts.

He'll throw it. He stinks, but he's got guts. And I think that maybe that's part of the point that made me think maybe it's not all the offensive coordinator but uh I don't know I just I wonder how many people get but even like Bryce Young like Frank Wright gets fired and then you watch Bryce Young play again and he's still averaging about five yards a pass when he's back there is it really the coordinator i i i always struggle with that and there's always the line too right i mean chicago's been down tackles they've been down

uh up front this year which never helps and it can be disastrous so yeah not great no it's not but uh an upcoming opponent for the vikings december 1st actually is playing great the arizona cardinals and this was one that you and I talked about a lot in the summertime. I wonder what Kyler Murray is going to be. And I've heard really good things, because he used to be here in Minnesota, about Jonathan Gannon. For multiple people have said, just give him time, watch him, don't worry about a few weird internet clips.

He knows what he's doing. I'm like, okay. And I think that that has come to fruition here, especially with that offense and they run the ball well, and he's got some weapons to throw to now. Kyler, I think lately is playing some of his best football that he ever has. Is this though a upswing for a guy who kind of bounces up and down? Is this Kyler now comfortable and looking good and his team being good? What's your take on Arizona and their group of weapons there?

I'm not, to put it one way, above market on Kyler Murray and the Cardinals. They've played the Bears and they've played the Jets in their last two games and they've made it look easy, which is maybe to be expected looking back. I don't think we expected it necessarily before those games, but they ended up being easy wins. So what was it? They do have a nice win in San Francisco this year, to say the least. The win in Miami was even good.

That was a late game that they pulled out. So I feel like where I'm at right now with Murray is mostly where I've been at the whole time. I mean, there's some talent. I'm glad to see him running. There've been some explosive rushing plays from him this year, which we weren't seeing in the past coming off an injury. So that's happened with him. What I like the most for fantasy is when you know who he's going to throw the ball to. You know where the ball is going when it comes to Arizona, almost more so than any other team in the NFL.

Philadelphia is like that. Like there's just such a narrow target tree. It's McBride, it's Harrison, and then James Conner just cannot be defeated. Another of these old running backs that a lot of us knew to try to avoid very smartly and keenly in drafts all summer, but whoops. So Conner and Kamara and many others are basically crushing your soul if you're somebody that drafted in a very popular manner this summer trying to avoid guys like, oh, I have all the Trey Benson

because Conor, of course, will get hurt, and he's almost never on the field. So I'm okay on Arizona. I'm impressed, and I like for fantasy how easy it is. There's no second guessing. McBride always starts. They're on bye this week. Harrison pretty much always. He's developing more consistency in terms of his production.

Connor, of course, doesn't always feel great, but now like, OK, I just he can't be stopped. So I like that about them from a fantasy standpoint. Overall, I think they'll still have some bad games. I think so, too, and maybe one of them will be here. But I I've always enjoyed Kyler Murray. I mean, he, I think of, sometimes I try to think back of before I had all the analytics and before we only ever cared about the super bowl and everyone else thinks, uh, what would I have thought of teams and players? Kyler Murray, I would have played with Madden every single time if this was 2003, right?

He would have been one of my favorite players to watch in the league. So I try to keep that in mind as I'm watching him. But I also think that there's always going to be answers to Kyler Murray as long as he doesn't scoot on you. And he throws the ball kind of wildly up to his weapons. And if they don't catch it that week, it's trouble. And if they do, then it that week it's trouble and if they do then he's going to be great uh i respect that the no risk it or whatever but also i don't know if

that's the most sustainable as opposed to like just straight drop back completions uh one other one before we get to a draft that you did that you want to look at um the atlanta falcons so they lose to the saints another victim to the coach firing pop that always seems to happen where the players try to prove for one week that it was the former coach's fault uh bijan robinson having a great year i was a little bit wondering how that was going to go with them but you were huge in the off season on drafting Atlanta Falcons. Where is that sit for you in terms of that, that team and their group of players? Mostly. Okay. Really? Okay. If you got to Darnell Mooney, who's having a huge season and he would have been an 11th round or so pick. So if you, I mean, on underdog, again, we're, we're stacking, we're trying to win big

money in tournaments and playoff weeks. We care about those weeks, 15 through 17 match-ups, and then you're trying to piece together, you know, the best team you can. And like you said, we'll refer to one of these. Some of them can look really bad because if you're not thinking, I don't even remember all the week 17 match-ups anymore, even though we're like well into the season. But the day after the schedule came out, I knew them all. Like, that's just sort of we're drafting and we're trying to fit together. I'm trying to think as I'm talking who Atlanta plays and I do not remember in week 17. Mostly okay, Matt.

I mean, Bijan Robinson, it's not in terms of best ball underdog uh it's it's fine um lineups wise there are weeks where maybe if you're managing teams you get frustrated is it an Algier game or just what are they going to do Cousins is putting his numbers up. London, okay. Pitts, okay. You know, they're not killing it, especially Pitts, but at least there's a sign of life there. Mooney is really the one where you've just gotten a huge return on him. And I know the advance rates as they're called in underdog, which teams are going to survive top two out of 12 through 14 weeks to go into those tournament playoff weeks. I mean, he's somebody that you have a huge advantage over the field if you drafted Darnell Mooney, irrespective of what else, you know,

your team looked like, how many other Falcons. But you would have wanted Mooney on a Cousins team in those drafts. So they're interesting. I thought there was a possibility this year that they would, with their schedule, win 12 or 13 games. I think that's not happening. Last week's game for them was also an example

of the stupid randomness in this league because they never should have lost, even with how that game played out. They were much the better team. They would have won the gymnastics vote in the postgame there, but it doesn't work like that. So the Vikings got away with it.

The Falcons did not. Fantasy-wise, it's probably a B at least. Gifting is hard, but here's a hint. Give the gift of connection from U.S. Cellular. Not sure what that means? Here's a slightly more specific hint. You can choose four free phones and get four lines for $90 a month from U.S. Cellular. Your family wants new phones. How do we know? They told us. The good news is that compared to wrapping presents, you are great at getting hints.

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Catan brings a whole new level of competition and excitement to your game day. Visit Catanshop.com and use the coupon code PURPLE to get a 10% discount off Catan for a limited time. Again, Catanshop.com, coupon code PURPLE to get a 10% discount on Catan for a limited time only. It's really funny about Kirk Cousins that throughout his career, he has this way of making heroes out of that type of player, the Darnell Mooney. You could go back to Jamison Crowder.

Remember the huge numbers that he put up in Washington. And then I mentioned KJ Osborne, who just can't even get on the field for the new England Patriots. And he was getting 50 catches because that was a guy that for whatever reason, Kirk cousins like to throw to. And so I'm not surprised, but I mean, that's maybe the biggest fantasy surprise of the year is someone like that. I mean, darnell moody was just an afterthought completely coming into the season and now he's one of their top wide receivers uh let's uh let's have a look at this uh draft that let me see if i can get this right oh i know how to do it hold on hold on we'll get you back and here's how we'll do it there we we go. Okay. So, one thing...

We want it like... Let's look at it that way for a minute. Yeah, please. One thing about Underdog is you can't access when this draft happened. And that's something that I probably could have taken notes or something with each Best Ball Mania draft. When was

this draft? Anyway, I was team 7 out of 12 here. This is a best ball mania five draft, like the one I was just describing where you're trying to win week 17. I see Chris Olave. I know it's Saints Raiders in week 17. So Matthew, if you're looking at this here too,

which I hope you are, give me through the first six picks, Brees Hall, Olave, Derrick Henry, Christian Kirk out for the year, Calvin Ridley starting to wake up, Roma Dunzay, not much is happening there. How do you think this team is probably doing? It looks like a pretty tough scene outside of one player, which would be Derrick Henry. It looks like everybody else has scene outside of one player, which would be Derrick Henry.

It looks like everybody else has kind of gone bust on you. So I can scroll down so you can see a little more, right? I can do that? Yep, yep. Here we go. Rounds 7 through 12. Alvin Kamara, Brock Bowers, Saints Raiders in Week 17. Burrow, I don't know why.

I don't have Bengals here yet. Caleb Williams with Odunze. Chase Brown. Burrow, I don't know why, I don't have Bengals here yet. Caleb Williams with Odunze. Chase Brown with Burrow. Dalton Schultz, that's Houston Baltimore, so that correlates with Henry. Then on to Jermaine Burton in the 13th round, which, I mean, that's two picks before Darnell Mooney.

Right? We're just talking about that. Noah Fant, a player who reportedly plays for the seahawks in the 14th round on we go troy franklin can barely see the field for denver denver cincinnati i'm remembering now is week 17 khalil herbert who was traded to the bengals nothing has happened at all tyrone tracy who's done a nice job for the Giants, and then Greg Dulcich. One more point. As you look at this team's wide receivers, now we're going to just scroll back up.

So from the bottom up, I think I have six. Franklin, pretty much a zero every week. Burton has been a zero every week. Odunze, okay. Ridley, a little bit lately. Kirk, out for the year. Olave, out for the year. You start three receivers in this format every week. This team is in first place.

Well, Bowers. Yeah. I mean, Bowers is crushing. Henry and Kamara are starting every week. Sometimes Brees Hall in the flex. Bauer is sure. Wide receiver, I'm literally guaranteed to get at least one zero each week for the rest of the season. Believe me, this team is not winning the top prize. Like, this team will do well to make it to the playoffs in week 15 because I don't have some Tyrone Tracy version at wide

receiver whoever that is the point is it's almost it's really it's much harder to find receivers late in drafts that are going to matter that would have been Naylor or Ray Ray McLeod in Atlanta somebody but it's still not much it's only the occasional sort of 10 point week and it's not winning you much whereas at running back Tracy at the end of that draft is massive like there's a lot of value in that he is the Giants running back one he looks great and really just one other part of that is in that format, there's only one flex position, which, you know, maybe there's not even room for Brees Hall in a given week. And the next guy drafts Bijan or Justin Jefferson, and you're losing that 1v1 all the time, too. So I just think it's funny. This year has been mostly a disaster so far for players, which was like sort of the

intelligentsia, if you will, in fantasy football is like, oh, we have to draft wide receivers all the time. And incredibly this year, many of these receivers who are not really replaceable have gone down to injuries, including Kirk. I mean, what are they doing instead? He's not even great, but there's nobody taking those points, really. Now they've lost Lawrence. So it's just a flop. And at running back, it's the same list all the time. Henry Kamara, Mixon, mostly Aaron Jones, certainly James Conner.

These old running backs that you want to bet against, or so we thought, have held up. And that has has Barkley. I mean, that has just really flipped the field this year in, in fantasy football. So it's funny, right?

Like that team, there's so many duds zeros in it. Jermaine Burton. I'm just trying to correlate with give, give burrow a receiver. It could still happen that by the playoff weeks, there's something there. That team doesn't have chaser Higgins so if there's an injury maybe i get sort of lucky with that but the things that make sense

you still sort of need that injury luck to to go right and i don't know that team has had not good injury luck but is still um in the money so far, I mean, it's a really funny draft because you end up with the best player at a couple of spots and then just a lot of nothing. You are Ryan Howard at the plate striking out over and over and then hitting a 475 foot home run. I did ask someone in the national football league about this running back thing because i'm just curious what people in the league are making of the fact that there are so many older running backs succeeding the theory and this may not hold up in the long run but we'll see is that we've reached a generation of running backs who were not used the way that the previous generation was so they may last longer i mean when you look at

aaron jones this guy never has 250 carries not even close he rarely even gets 200 carries they paired him for his entire career with somebody else and he gets to this point and he has so much less mileage on his body than he did before. And there could be another part of it too, where quickness may have reigned supreme in bigger boxes, bigger linebackers, but now it might be following your box and a little bit more intelligence and understanding what they call the Vikings called tracks that you're supposed to be running on. That might be part of it too. And you know, reaching the safeties, breaking a tackle, something like that, as opposed to you got to be Chris Jones or not Chris Jones, Chris Johnson,

where you run a four, two and just outrun everybody for a touchdown. There's a lot more, there's a lot more grinding. I mean, Aaron Jones last week ran for 5.2 yards a carry, and his longest run was 13 because they're playing the safeties way back. So if he beats the front, he gets tackled eight yards down the field. That's a great play. It's a great run. I would be interested in explosives if explosive runs have gone down because this was an Adrian Peterson thing. They would load the box.

He breaks one tackle. He is gone. There's no one to chase him down. Now you have safeties 30 yards down the field. I just wonder if the quickness thing is less valuable than knowing where to run and how to run. Yeah, those are all really good points. I mean, also, don't forget Christian McCaffrey

missed the first nine games, but now he's back and that could still work out really well for his drafters. But it's probably been a tough season if you spent the first overall pick on him. They're all really good points. I'm thinking of one of my friends and the smartest guys in the fantasy space, Davis Maddock, who was talking about this. We're all talking about this. Like, why?

What does it mean? What are we doing next year about what has been flipped here in fantasy football? He's like, I like how he thinks. He's like, remember though, this is just one sim. Like Rashi Rice went down because Mahomes threw a pick and then bumped into Rice on the return and he's out for the year. The injuries are still so random. One misstep by any of these running backs we're talking about, which could still happen, sorry for the sort of bad vibes, but then we're kind of right back where we thought we might be when it comes to that. So I would tend to just the way I

am not, when is it overreacting? When you're wrong? Like if you're right, then you're just reacting and thinking. If you're wrong, then you were overthinking or overreacting? When you're wrong? Like if you're right, then you're just reacting and thinking. If you're wrong, then you were overthinking or overreacting. I guess it sort of works in reverse. But it really is quite a story this year. And I love the point about the workload because the teams that are benefiting from that, if that's actually a real important cause of this, are different teams. I mean, Tennessee moved on and green Bay with Jones, right.

Giants with Barkley, these guys, Cincinnati with Mixon, they're all sort of the teams paid up for those guys too and are winning for it. Right. I mean, teams may have moved on based on a curve that was not about the future, but rather about the past. I mean, if you're talking about, well, the age curve says that guys fall off then, but those guys

carried the ball 300 times or Larry Johnson, 400 times is Larry Johnson's 400 carry season, a data point that we should use here when looking at what future running backs in today's game are going to do. Right. So that's, that's why the studies and everything else, they're all based on the past. It was kind of like when all those small receivers got drafted. I asked Casey about the tank Dell, the Addison, the Zay flowers. And he said, we just don't have data points. We don't, we don't really know because they've never drafted receivers this small before, and we're going to have to kind of make a bet going in blind, but it worked out. Right, and sorry.

Also that's different from those days is the number of quarterbacks who can run and how that changes the efficiency of the older running backs. I mean, Barkley with Hurts there and what he is as a runner. Barkley's not getting the touchdowns, but it's just an easier life. Henry with Jackson, oh my God, versus Ryan Tannehill.

Or just like, it's such a difference. It just makes the running back's life so much easier. And back in the Larry Johnson years, we didn't have hardly any quarterbacks who would ever run like this. So it's a different game and that's what makes it interesting changes. Yeah, it certainly does. Uh, well let's, uh, get to the pickups real quick here is a really always a fascinating discussion. Uh, we're doing our pickups as always on underdog fantasy,

the easiest place to play fantasy sports i did a little draft yesterday that took about eight minutes i think uh so the no surprise the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry the other thing is too sometimes people will say ah you know i don't want to spend a lot of my money i think my draft yesterday was seven bucks which is half of what i paid for taco bell so uh anyway, pick them are super easy. You pick between two and eight stats, get 20 times your money, but there's all sorts of different options for drafts for the week. Sign up with the code purple, which a lot of you have done. And I appreciate you get your special pick and first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash must be 18 or

older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800 gambler or visit ncp gambling.org um yeah luckily uh no uh no inflation on what it costs to join a battle royale which is what i did uh yesterday so what have we got when are we scrutinizing that draft i mean i just showed you mine yeah i guess after we could do it next week and see how I did. And then we can talk about how that didn't go well, probably. So anyway, what do we got for pickums this week? Yeah, there's so much out there and it can be overwhelming, but you can really what the benefit is. You can be this madman that drafts everywhere and everything maxes out

or just really pick what's right for you. Be more judicious. And that, you know, that's a fun tournament. So tomorrow night, we have Washington at Philadelphia. And similar to last week when we had Cincinnati-Baltimore, as we record on Wednesday morning, there's one key injury that we don't know about yet, or at least I don't, that's reflected in the pick-em options,

and that's Brian Robinson. Whether he plays for Washington, he's missed the last two games. There are no options, or at least there weren't two hours ago, for Robinson or for Austin Eckler in that Washington backfield. So I did place a pick-em nonetheless, but I left the Washington backfield out of it. It sounds like with Robinson that could go either way. I think it was surprising even two weeks ago that he didn't play against the giants and he missed last week's game too. So, um, you might want to wait to find out what the deal is there and then react accordingly. But I am, this is sort of the chumpy kind of, uh, move here, Matthew. Like if you're somebody who just picks hires,

then I think you're not well-respected in the pick-em community. You want to be sort of more on the lower side. But nonetheless, I went higher on five different pick-em options here. Let's say no Robinson, even if he does play, I kind of like him, by the way, if he does play for a touchdown bet. I mean, touchdown bets are always pretty random, but I think Robinson is sort of positive in that department. But I'm going higher on Daniels passing yards, 226 and a half.

They were fine against Pittsburgh, could have won that game, but I just sort of vibes based here thinking that there is like maybe a little bit with a rookie quarterback, you're kind of always waiting for the next shoe to drop, you know, like it's just going to eventually turn badly. I don't know. Like he's still a top six or seven MVP candidate. And I like him to put up a nice game here in a tough spot he did it in Cincinnati early in the season in prime time I doubt he's going to be daunted by the spotlight here so higher on Daniels and then with that I'll go higher on Terry McLaurin who's had a very nice season also not a real popular fantasy draft pick before the year but they're consistent results

from McLaurin higher four 4.5 receptions. And in a Zach Ertz revenge game, higher 3.5 receptions for Ertz. Daniels has really leaned on him quite a bit this year. I'll go, I think this is kind of an easy one, higher on Saquon Barkley 1.5 catches. And so I placed those four, and the payout was just not that exciting because they're a little bit lean toward the likelier side on maybe all four of them. So I'm throwing in, no pun intended, a Jalen Hurts pick higher than half an interception in this game. Five for five, 10 pays 109. Okay, my random one. Philadelphia is going to run the ball.

They're going to run the ball with their quarterback. They're going to give it to Saquon, which means Bobby Wagner is going to be involved. And I don't always see linebackers on underdog, but they've got one here. I am going to go with the higher on 4.5 solo tackles for Bobby Wagner. He's going to be a madman in this game. He's going to be all over the field.

By the way, before we wrap, I like that pick. Are you ready for some breaking news? Are you sitting down? Oh, what's that? The Colts went back to Richardson. Rest of season. I mean. Can you believe that? mean can you believe that what can you franchise what a franchise wait I've got a Colts I'm trying to make sure that my my Buffalo friends notice this is not just me repping Kansas City I mean Kansas City at Buffalo we got the Colts Colts Jets Super Bowl three back here I am

just shocked I love it I think it's Bowl III back here. I am just shocked. I love it. I think it's what they should do, but I am just shocked. I watched Indianapolis Buffalo last week. You saw the Colts the week before. The most criminally egregious thing about them is that on third and one, they don't use Richardson. The politics of it all, we can't use our freakishly great athletic quarterback on third and one. We're going to make your job as a defense

so much easier. And the Bills had a couple of key stops in a relatively close game because there's no threat from Flacco to move at all. It's just going to be Jonathan Taylor or a dropback and that just did not work. Richardson should be kind of like a guaranteed first down in those spots. They don't use him. I can't

wait to read into this or read up on this to see what happened. But, I mean, what a team. I've got an idea. Relegation. There's several franchises in this league just need to go play each other for the right to be back in the NFL. The Indianapolis Colts, in the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts, the Chicago bears, the Jacksonville Jaguars, uh, the New York jets, just go play

each other all season for the chance to return, to play the teams who have any clue about what they're doing. I mean, you, you know, and if they had said, if they had actually come out and said like Carolina did, we are going to give him a break because it's just become a little overwhelming. And I think he needs to take a step back. They named Flacco the starter for the rest of the year and then took him out a few weeks. I mean, you just look like a total clown show after doing that. The messaging would have made it make so much more sense. Like, Anthony just needs to take a step back he needs to watch some film he needs to work in

practice a little bit and he needs a mental break right now because he's overwhelmed because he's really young that's fine no one would have even questioned that he was okay that makes a lot of sense play him for three weeks bring him back and it's fine to do it like no he's a star for the rest of the year anthony rich Anthony Richardson is dead to us. And then, well, we actually saw Joe Flacco play, and now we're going back. I mean, that is bad. First drive of the game against the Bills,

the fans were booing Flacco. They were booing the Colts. I mean, the cliche is always like, if you listen to the fans, you're going to sit with them. Not usually. Usually fans kind of know. Their interests are the same as the owners, at least in theory, which is like the long term where the coach is going to be fired

if he doesn't win. It's just contrasting motives, really. And so the fans had a point. I thought it was funny last week. Flacco, I think, had four turnovers in the game. And even Monday, man, this coach, I don't know what he's – I can't wait to see what he says. Even Monday, Steichen reaffirmed, like, Flacco is going to play.

And now it's two days later, and he's not. It's amazing. And then Jim Irsay told him, no, actually, he's not. Yeah, man. I'm sorry. They are at – I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They are at the Jets. I don't know how startable Richardson is.

I mean, you've got four teams on by. Flacco is really not startable in that spot. The Jets haven't been great. Newsflash. But they're still, fantasy-wise at least, let's hope there's progress and we get to a point with Richardson where you get the player you drafted and they drafted, which is this incredible runner who can do enough in the passing game to survive, to win in fantasy,

to make, hopefully, not make Josh Downs irrelevant and the other pass catchers, which was a simple Flacco plays. You start those guys. He doesn't. You don't. So that's another thing here, but I'm glad for it. I've just heard over the last two years such good things about Anthony Richardson from his character perspective and all that,

and the way that he dealt with this, what I thought was really good. He didn't go demand a trade or put it on Instagram or whatever else. He said, I, you know, I need to work on things and everything else. You just get, you just get angry.

Like at this point, you just get angry. Like what? Like stop ruining Anthony Richardson, please. Maybe I'm sure bears feel the same exact way about Caleb Williams, but once you've lost the RCA dome, that means you got to make a change.

O'Connell with Richardson was really nice. Yep. Yep. It definitely was. So anyway, well, we'll do it again next week and who knows what quarterbacks will be ruined by then.

So appreciate your time as always, Mike, the deep end fantasy football show is your show. And we'll talk to y'all later. Football.