The Ringer NFL Show - Fantasy Explosions, Kyler’s Collapse, COVID Chaos, and Week 12 Waivers

Episode Date: December 1, 2020

We lead with the disaster that was the Broncos offense, the COVID-related consequences across the fantasy landscape, and the highest scorers from the weekend. Then we get into our winners from the week, debate adding an unlikely player to The Ringer Fantasy Burn Book, recommend our top waiver adds after Week 12, and finish the show with a fun fact. Headlines (1:10) Winners: 49ers Offense (12:10) Austin Ekeler, Chargers (15:15) Tyreek Hill, Chiefs (19:15) Fantasy Burn Book (24:15) Waiver Adds (28:30) Email us: [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, we talk about Kendall Hinton? Dekke, how tall do you think Kendall Hinton is? I honestly don't know. I have no idea. I'm going to say 6-1-215. He is 6'1-95. So there you go.

The Broncos had to stoop to someone that D.K. didn't even know his measurables. We also talk about Tyreek Hill's first quarter, Derek Henry's first half, and Austin Echler's first game back. And we get our first sub... Whoa. What a...

Whoa! We got a voice crack for me in this... intro and our first surprise burn notice with why Kyler Murray might disappoint you in the playoffs. Stick around. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I'm Danny Heifitz. Danny Kelly and Craig Krollbeck have been ruled inactive. So I'm here with Kendall Hitton.

Kendall, how are you doing? They couldn't have called me third string quarterback for the charge? No, you were ruled out. You should have been wearing your mask in the meeting room, dude. Unbelievable. Can we all agree that that game was more fun in theory than it was in actual practice? It was just. Everybody was like, can't wait.

I was looking forward to it. I was looking forward to the chaos, but it definitely did not, like, live up to anything. I do have some thoughts about Kendall Hinton and the Broncos' offense in general. Go on. I think he should have thrown way more. Yeah.

He threw at 9. Like, they couldn't have scheme that. Like, all of his throws, he was, like, rolling out. He got hit as he threw. Like, why couldn't he have just done way more screen passes and, like, quick slants? And, like, a couple deep shots.

Run like the Madden all go. And he just, like, chuck some balls down to. So here's the thing. D.K. From a football perspective, in case everyone doesn't know, the Chargers' third string quarterback is a lie. Craig's not actually a third string quarterback. He's just a random dude.

And, D.K., do you think that the gap between Craig and Kendall Hinton is bigger than the gap between Kendall Hinton and, like, the average NFL quarterback? I honestly think Hinton was more competent than I thought he would be, which obviously it's a very low bar. So I would say the gap between Craig and Hinton is probably pretty huge. I only asked that because to your point, Craig, like it's not just like this guy had to play.

He found out at like noon on Saturday. Like they didn't even get to practice. They didn't get to run any routes. He just met with Pat Shermer, their offensive cord and was like, all right, let's see what you're even competent enough to do. They took what,

20 or 30 plays, which is like 10% of an offense. And you can't just do that. All right. So the other day, Ryan Day, who also tested positive this week, the head coach at Ohio State,

said they don't run a play unless the quarterback's practice it 100 times. They don't put it in the game. Just to give you an idea of like how practice works. This is as close as you're going to get in the NFL to some guy just suiting up and starting at quarterback. A social experiment was what this was. This is just like, what if we put someone who has not done any practice into the highest

level of the hardest sport? Because football, there's a reason football players practice five times more than they play. This isn't the NBA. This isn't other sports. Everything needs to be practiced over and over. and the quarterback is supposed to understand everyone else's jobs. You can't just do the quick hitch because there's a thousand details in there that they haven't even discussed.

I mean, in a way, it's like, yeah, to DK, the one completion versus two picks and honestly, there were also two other balls that were almost picked. It was just, it was,

I felt like it was going to be a performance art thing. Like this was going to be so bad, but in a funny way. Like that, what's that Tommy Wizzo movie, like the room where people make fun of it and it has a cult following? And then Kevin Clark will write an oral history of this, like 10 years.

later. No, it wasn't funny at all. It was just really sad. And it just, it was just depressing of like, what are we watching? And maybe you wonder why I just don't know why they didn't go full Madden with it. Like, I guarantee you he can just like chuck a deep ball. Like send Jerry Judy deep

four times and just like throw him deep balls. Why can't you do that? Any quarterback can do that. I don't know, man. It's not maddened. I think that it was just like, well like literally, I don't know why. More screen passes, more deep balls. Why can't you do that?

It would get picked off. Did you see all those deep balls? They were just like, they went one for nine for 14 yards. It couldn't get me worse. Just, why does well try some shit? I don't know. The bottom line is, though, for people who are hoping for the ceiling or, like, the Taysam Hillness,

I guess, of this start for Hinton, it's the opportunity. This is what we talked about all last week with Tatea Hill. It was like the opportunity to start a quarterback at the receiver position. He was listed as a receiver on Yahoo. It wasn't, you could start him at receiver on Yahoo or flex. And so, I know a lot of people

did that, hoping for kind of like, oh, he's going to rush the ball for whatever two touchdowns like we saw with Tase and middle. No, he actually ended up with negative points in half BBR. So first off, sorry to anybody that ended up starting him. I know that like it was really, honestly it was really tempting to do because it's like embrace 2020. This is like this is what we're doing here. How many quarterbacks do you guys think you would not start as your flex spot in the NFL that are current starting quarterbacks? Would you start Sam Darnold over your normal flex? No. I would. That was my

Mendoza line. I'm like, I don't think I would start Darnold. I mean, no, I think you'd probably start 32. I mean, even Mike Lennon, you're probably putting it flex. Because they could have a good day. I mean, that is, you're describing superflex. You're describing Superflex leagues where it's like, I don't know

what the actual number is, but you're at a massive disadvantage if you're only starting one quarterback. So, yeah. Here's the thing, though, this Broncos game is just one of the insanity. The other thing, which is not resolved yet, an ongoing phenomenon this Raven Steelers game, which might just last, it might outlast us in our lives and our corporal bodies.

It might outlast the United States of America. This will just keep going and going and going and postponed forever. We're recording this on Monday afternoon. By the time you're listening to it, it might have been played. It might have been canceled. Postponed, no idea. This was supposed to be the marquee matchup on Thanksgiving Day, postponed to Sunday, re-rescheduled till Tuesday.

It's just going and going. And Ravens, as of this moment, of more than 20 players in the COVID list, including Lamar Jackson, who has tested positive. I think half of their 22 starters have tested positive, including like seven pro bowlers or something. So, I mean, this is just absurd. And then you take away all that. The Niners are stadiumless.

Like the Niners got booted by Santa Clara County for a few weeks. So they have two of their next three games or home games. So they're going to have to play them in Arizona, which is a division rival. So get away from the absurdity of playing your home games at your division rival stadium that play. players on the team might not be able to see their families for like five to six weeks. Jay Glazer said that on Fox.

That's crazy, especially considering the time of year it is. This is just nuts to the point that all this Corona stuff is completely overshadowing the real football news. We're recording this on Monday afternoon. Patricia got fired. Bob Quinn got fired in Detroit. Dave Caldwell, the GM for the Jags got fired. You've got Jalen Hertz is apparently going to be spelling Carson Wentz a quarterback. Like he's going to Carson Wentz going to come off the field.

This dude got like $120 million contract like one. or two years ago, I don't ever remember, is getting just benched for the second rounder occasionally. I mean, the amount of stuff going on is astonishing, but it's more crazy that this is just completely enveloped following the league. I feel like following the NFL is now doom scrolling, especially keeping up with your fantasy team. Like, is this exhausting to you guys? Yeah, it's like way too much information to keep up. Not to mention the fact that the NFL itself, just the teams are just very hard to predict at this

point. It's like every week it feels like there's a few teams that are just Jekyll and Hyde. I don't know what to make of them. The Falcons, for instance, are good now, apparently. I don't understand what's going on with the Raiders. The Falcons Raiders game was the most bizarre game of 2020. I don't know what the hell happened. The Raiders, the last two weeks, put up 30 against Denver and Kansas City. They also look like the only team in the league that could beat Kansas City because they did and almost did a second time. And last week, the Falcons played the Saints. They put up nine points. They looked like crap. Yeah. They come into this game. and with no Julio, with no Todd Gurley,

and lay 43 points on the Raiders and only let up six points. I have no idea. No one could have predicted that. We have no idea what's going on. This is all random. Explain to me the Buccaneers, too, while you're at it. Like, what do we make of the Buccaneers?

I just think overall this season, you know, when you step back a little bit and just look at the absurdity of everything that has happened this season, it just makes my mind race. I don't even know how to like process. any of it. So that's where we are in the NFL. And I think that kind of just gives you the flavor of the season from a fantasy point of view. I mean, you know, I had multiple leagues this week where I actually

and I like I'm a fantasy football. I do this for a living. I messed up my fantasy football backup options because there was just so much information happening. Like I have like all these backup options for the Steelers game that's like may or may not happen. And I screwed those. up. I started some players that were sitting. Like it was just, I mean, that's just like where we are this season. It's like I had multiple players that weren't even playing this week. I started Dandre Swift in one league. I started

Goliday in one league. Like, what are we doing? I just, like, I've lost it. I just want to give a shout to all the commissioners who have to field all these bullshit text messages from everyone you're with. I'm like, just being like, dude, I've I've, I've, I've, do you Smith-shoster like, but can I design it a backup?

And like, they didn't sign up for this. This is like those election people who were, like, the polling and the auditors who were having people like booing and riot and like they were protesting them outside their offices and getting heckled and like stalked and they're like I didn't sign up for this I just wanted to count the votes as it's patriotic duty these commissioners

just are getting heckled and you know what I salute you if you're doing this and you're probably yeah shout out to the commissioners it's like Bruce Almighty when like he starts hearing all the emails in his head and he's like oh my god all the wishes come in his emails and thoughts oh man anyway so yeah also

I called them wishes just now I believe they're called prayers but I called them wishes That's a good point. So, the, this, do you guys have any Steelers, Ravens, the things that you're personally invested in and you're just really mad this game keeps getting postponed? And what should people do? I think the Steelers are kind of getting screwed. Forget the teams.

What happens to us if we're waiting on these guys and the game gets canceled? Forget the teams. Well, I have a friend who's in first place in my league and he has four starting Steelers. So I guess he just is going to lose. I don't know how that goes. I don't know what you do as a commissioner. What do you say? Like, sorry?

I hope he's designated backups because this is insane. the game, yeah, again, it's Monday afternoon. The game may still happen. We don't know yet. We'll see. Who knows? You just have to slot in designated backup points. So, okay, so this is just completely random and unpredictable and we're just on a

rocks floating through the gutter of outer space and just, you know, I just enjoy the ride. Speaking of unpredictable, though, I mean, this week's top scores are crazy. There was such high highs this week. I mean, this was the biggest explosion we've had all season, right? This was absolutely insane. So I'll just run through the top scores right here. So it's Deshawn Watson was the highest scoring QB. Mahomes was second.

Kirk Cousins was third. the last time they'll ever be the three of them will be in a group together. And then Derek Henry was the highest scoring running back. Antonio Gibson, because D.K. just keeps stomping on me, was the second high school running back. And then Nick Chubb and Latavius Murray combined for the third

high scoring running back. Receiver was Tyree Kill, which, oh my God, we'll get to that. Will Fuller, let's go. And then Jarvis Landrew at the top of the receivers. Tarvis. Robert Tunyon. Yeah, Jarvis. Oh, my God. Robert Tunin Craig, Shadow, who predicted he'd be top five. Evan Engram had a tight end two.

gronk tight in three and then defense just hilarious Falcons were the number one defense by lot they were rostered in 2% of ESPN leagues which was hilarious and then the Panthers were two in Washington was three Craig you picked Robert Tunyon so who's your winner of the week you get to skip DK this week oh wow

what an honor my winner of the week is the 49ers offense man I mean kind of felt left for dead the last few weeks they've had so many injuries and we kind of talked about them in our trade deadline episode about like who to snag if you can, Rahim Moster being one of them.

And then we even talked about like, you know, if Debo Samuel was on the waiver wire at him while he's hurt. Basically, they came back, they looked pretty good. They beat a Rams defense that has been probably the best in the league, especially in the second half. Since week three, the Rams have averaged giving up four points per second half. And the Niners put up 16 against them. Debo looked great.

He came back from a hamstring injury. He had 11 catches, 134 yards. Mostert handled the bulk of the carries at a touchdown. Jeff Wilson, Jr. was back, had 12 carries. And the Niners next four weeks, man, they got the Bills, Washington, the Cowboys, and the Cardinals. Like, it's a pretty good lineup here,

and it doesn't look like the Niners are dead yet in the NFC West. So I really like the Niners, even with Nick Mullins. Debo looked good, man. He looked really good. I think he said Thibault for a second. I was like, no, he didn't. He should have played for the Broncos.

He should have. But Kyle Shanahan is just so amazing to me as a coach, especially because they showed this funny graphic during the game that was like the Niners have 25, have had 25 guys on IR at some point. And they've missed a total, they've players missed a total of 171 games combined, both of which are the most of the NFL.

I was like, holy crap, that is so much. Like you get lost in the Titan stuff and the Raven stuff of these outbreaks. But the Niners just desks and also all of their best and most important players, all of the injuries. It was not just like random dudes. It's Richard Sherman, Nick Bosa, Garapolo, Mostert, Debo. Debo. just everyone, not to mention Emmanuel Sanders left.

George Kittle. George Kittle, like all their best players of the guys in that 171. And, like, they're out there whipping the ramps, just crushing them. And, like, I know the, like, I was really impressed. The fact that they were even up that much was so impressive. Mm-hmm. But, man, can you imagine this offense with all of its actual players? Like, Debo, I think we've, I kind of forgotten how good Debo is, I think,

just because it seems like it's been a while. since we've seen full speed, full health, Debo, and he just looked fricking untackleable. Yeah, he had AJ Brown vibes. Yeah, for sure. And then add in Moester, who I think is still kind of coming back. He played, you know, they played in a pretty strong rotation. But like Mostert put in Brandon Ayuk who's really flashed this year, obviously Kittle.

I don't even really care about the quarterback situation, honestly, like Mullins versus Grappolo. Grappolo is probably better. But like, yeah, but man, with all their weapons, this offense with Shanahan's, Eve, that is going to be so much fun to watch when it, well, I don't know if they'll even happen this year, but like, man, it's easy to, it's easy to forget that this team was in the Super Bowl last year. Like, this is a good offense. It's a different team, but they're the same. All right, Dika, who's your winner of the week? My winner is kind of like along the same lines as Craig's. It's basically players that came back from logging absences from injury. And I'm going to use

Austin Echler as the headliner here because Echler looks awesome. Um, coming. into the week, there was reports that he might just kind of like get eased in, but he ended up playing career high in snaps this week, 60 snaps. He had a career high and touches. 14 rushes 11, 14 rushes

plus 11 catches for 85 yards. He had 18 and a half, half ppr points. He was back to the old Oste Nekler that we know and love. Looked explosive, looked really dynamic. And I mean, he was like the guy in the Chargers offense. Like, he led the Chargers

in rushing attempts, rushing yards, targets, receptions, and receiving yards. The return of Echler actually kind of hurts my Keenan Allen prediction from a couple weeks ago because now he's just like getting peppered with targets and that kind of takes away from Keenan Allen. But the bottom line is if you had Echler on your IR and you kind of survived long enough to get him back,

like this guy to me looks like a potential league winner for you because, you know, again, like if you're going to make the playoffs without him and then have him, added into your team like now, man, that just makes some teams really, really dangerous. And going forward, the schedule for the, for the Chargers is not too shabby. New England, Atlanta. Atlanta, I guess, is like better than we thought, but still. Are they the worst defensive in the league or the best? I can't tell. Right. New England, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Denver, and Casey is the stretch run for the Chargers.

And so I think Echler especially is kind of script-proof in terms of whether they're behind or ahead because he's either going to be rushing it or catching a lot of passes or both. So, yeah, I loved Echler. Add in guys like Debo, Moster. Mohamed Snew even kind of came out of nowhere. Lazzard had a touchdown this week. Guys coming off an injury had a really strong week. So you said Echler had a career high in touches?

That's what I saw, yeah. How many people do you think have ever come off injured reserve and had a career high and touches? Well, I actually wanted to talk about this. Is this bad coaching to do this? I'm like stunned by that fact. Like, why is all logic. I don't know.

You couldn't have 17. You needed to give him 25 touches right off like a long extended hamstring injury. I'm not a doctor, but like it's not like the Chargers doctors or doctors either. So like I'm not really. I don't know what the deal is. Like I don't mean to belittle anything,

but at the same time from the staff that brought you, we stabbed our starting quarterback in the chest comes we're giving our like second best offensive player a career heavy workload off of like injured reserve. Like, I don't know. Not a lot of people are praising Anthony Lynn for his coaching skills this week after that. Just cluster fuck of a coaching decisions in this game. I will say, I want to touch on one more thing about this Echler point.

Is Echler bad news for Justin Herbert? Two of Justin Herbert's, the two worst fantasy point scoring Herbert games have been with Echler healthy. And do you think it's because he's just checked down city now? I don't know. I need a bigger sample. This is a cutting edge fantasy narrative from Craig. Because now Herbert's going to decline, and everyone's going to say it's like the lead catching up to him.

And Craig's like, no, it's Austin Echler is the problem. Take away the checkdowns. You need running backs who can't catch. Well. There you go. Craig's ahead of the curve. I'm just saying he had like his lowest air yards of the season last week. I don't know.

Something to be. We'll see. That is something to watch. The other one I'm going to add, and this is obvious, because we have to talk about this without, like, moving on. is Tyree Kill just had an absolutely ridiculous game. Obvious winner for the week. Did he?

I didn't see what happened. He had a Clay Thompson third quarter performance. He had Clay Thompson quarter. He had 200 plus yards in the first quarter. The most since 2006, the most in like 14 years. He ended up with 13 catches, 269 yards, three touchdowns. The first receiver, he became the first receiver to break a thousand yards this season in the game, which is kind of hilarious considering he came into the day.

day was 750. Well, Roland is kept joking about him having a thousand of the game. So at one point, actually, I

looked at the end of the first quarter, he was on pace for more than 800 yards, which is just funny. Obviously, it's not going to happen, but it's hilarious to think about

because basically they played him like in man, and they were like, yeah, there's the single high safety will get to him, and then they didn't. And I mean,

it's one of those moments when you check your fantasy cast or whatever thing you're using on your phone, and it looks broken because he's like the number one score in the whole league, and it's like,

there's like 45 minutes left in this game. Dude, he almost had outscored Derek Henry in the first like six minutes of the game or something ridiculous. It was crazy. It ended up with 57.9 PPR points. So 58. And that is the third,

I think this is the third most of any player since 96, the most ever for reference. Jerry Rice in 1990, caught 13 passes for 225 yards and five touchdowns. Usually I would say that was like before the internet. so like it doesn't count for fantasy football but then Bill Simmons was very mad when I say that

but as far as I'm concerned fantasy football doesn't count in 1996 if you think about the Tyree kill quarter and the Clay Thompson quarter when he scored 37 is a very good point I think it makes me really appreciate what Clay did more because this seems way easier

like what Tyreek did is way easier than what Clay did it's not even close Tyreek essentially just ran three routes caught the ball each time and scored a touchdown Yeah, I guess that's true. Clay had like eight threes in eight minutes. Well, didn't he have more made threes than dribbles in that quarter? Yeah, something like that's true.

I actually agree with you because at the end of the day, it's like, really what happened was the bucks were like, we're going to play this defense that doesn't treat Tyree kill like the fastest player in the NFL. And the chiefs were like... He runs those routes every game anyway. They just happened to, he just happened to be targeted and he caught all that. Yeah, the chiefs were just like, holy crap, they're just going to keep doing this and they just kept throwing it.

It's kind of a high school game where, like, you've ever been one of those high school games where they just run the same play? 11 times in a row, get six yards a clip and just keep, and then scored touchdown. It was kind of like that, but the whole first quarter

until Todd Bulls adjusted. But I just want to shout out. My winner is just blowouts in general because the Chief's first quarter was a blowout. The game didn't end up being a blowout, but that looked like it was going to be 35 to, it looked like it was going to be the Saints game all over again for a little bit. So Tyree Kill was like started like a blowout.

Derek Henry, like he had three touchdowns in the first half and then the Titans grew up 35 to 14. Like that game was over as soon as it started almost. And then the Thanksgiving games or just blowouts. I couldn't believe it. Like if you looked at the props and the games, the odds to like any, like any of these teams to score 40 points is like 8 to 1, 9 to 1.

The freaking Washington got to 40 points because Gibson had two touchdowns. And then they had this insane sequence where, I mean, they just, the Cowboys went for this fake punt that was awful, got stopped. And the next play, Gibson just ran in for the third touchdown, which was just this funny icing on the cake when the game was already over. and then Will Fuller and Watson had this like fake trick play that was also ridiculous just to get him another touchdown

when they're already up like 20 points and then Alan Robinson last night cut a touchdown when the game was just so freaking over in the fourth or I can't remember the fourth third quarter I mean that game was over at halftime and if you just look at the top scores the amount of touchdowns that just scored in garbage time was hilarious Alan Robinson

I just saw this from Rich Rebar Alan Robinson is the most fantasy points in the fourth quarter among all non-quarterbacks which I find is funny. Just the Bears of the Kings of the Park. Perfectly in line with what Craig has talked about all season long. Talk about bad body language. No one's ever been less.

No one's cared less about scoring two touchdowns than Alan Robinson. He literally couldn't give a shit. He was liking a whole bunch of fans' tweets saying that he should leave Chicago after the game, by the way. He should be cheating in himself. No, I will say, though, the Tyree Kill thing, I mean, we talked so much about the Tyler Lockett explosion, like the other month. Tyree Kill did that in, like, the first quarter. I have to say, I cannot leave this conversation

with Craig being like, oh yeah, Clay Thompson's was easier. That was one of the biggest games ever. 203 yards in like 13 and a half minutes. So let me check, he must be the wide receiver one by far, right? Yeah, by like 20 points.

He's a wide receiver one by like the wide receiver 10 is the gap between him and the next person. The wide receiver won by 35 points. That's like a Will Fuller. Anyway, that's pretty good. Absolutely insane game.

Okay. Burn book time? So yet again, I don't know if it's just the fact that we're heading into the latter half of the season, but I feel like we already know who we're burned by. But DK should get a couple minutes to talk about Jarvis Landry, who we just added last week. Yeah, I think it's freaking hilarious that I threw him in just because I was like, I'm sick of thinking about him. I'm sick of having him be a person I'm making a decision on, like about starting him.

I sat him in all my leagues this week. I started some pretty bad players over Jarvis Landry. And he lived up to the burnbook status by just absolutely going bonkers and going off this week. Let's see here. He had two catches for 23 yards last week. Comes out here this week.

Eight catches, 143 yards, and a touchdown. And he looked awesome. I mean, like, I like Jarvis Landshy as a player. Like, he's a really good player. And I think he's had issues a lot with this week, or this season with injuries. He hasn't been fully healthy. The last, like, month of Brown's games

that have just been hurricane. cane, Gaines. Yeah. So that's obviously hurt him. So anyways, I just think it's hilarious

that I randomly threw him in the burn book last week, and then he totally just goes off this week. I think that's actually kind of perfect. That's like the perfect

representation of the burn book. Because now I'm going to start him in a bunch of leagues this week. He's going to have two catches for 23 yards next week. Don't forget Jonathan Taylor coming off his best game

than landing on the COVID lists. That's also just, I have to say, so there's something that we haven't burned yet, which is kind of amazing. we haven't burned the Rona. I feel like we should really put Rona in the burn book.

Yeah, that goes about saying though, I feel like. Yeah, we're burning Rona. Yeah, we're burning Rona. Because the conversations that I had, like, you know, like people text you and ask you for advice or people, whatever. And that the questions I got this week were just stranger than anything. It's like, should I play Alvin Camara and Latavius Murray? Because the Saints will be up so much at halftime because the Broncos don't have a

quarterback that Murray will get all the second half carries. And I'm just like, like, I just had different football thoughts. And I was like, you know what? I'm sick of this. This is annoying. some burning runner I want to put somebody on burn notice really tentatively on burn notice

I think Kyler Murray could potentially murder your fantasy team this year this is a very interesting one because we were talking about this during the games yesterday and I mean this is out there this is not like a mysterious thing

or anything but it feels like he's hiding injury he's got that shoulder thing and it's affecting the way he's playing right Kingsbury's basically no one's acknowledging it. They're basically saying, like, he's at full strength. We wouldn't be playing him if he wasn't.

He denied, yeah, he denied it. But he's not running. Like, the first run of the game, I don't know if you saw it, he, like scrambled left, and somebody went to hit him, and he backed up, like, five yards and just ran out of bounds.

The game before that, he had the least amount of rushing yards he's had all season, and he had, like, 10 yards and three carries. He's not running inside the red zone. He's giving every ball to chase Edmonds or Kenyon Drake.

But the thing is, you're not going to not start Kyler Murray. They play the Rams next week. they play the Giants the week after that. I think there's a chance that Kyler could tank your fantasy team. This is a great take. I'm honestly, I'm jealous of this. Because, no, I mean, I think we talked to this a couple weeks ago where it's insane to criticize

the guy because he's like the number one fantasy quarterback or did Mahomes topple him this week. I don't even know. I can check. Probably. But he's been so good for you. And he had the Hail Mary, which is like one of the most untouchable plays I've ever seen. So it's hard to explain. he's just not been that good of a pastor this year,

which feels insane to say, but it's kind of true. And that's, I don't know, I feel like the perception of him has so gotten kind of far from like where he's at that I agree. That it's just,

it's not necessarily his fault. I think you're right about the potential for an injury. I mean, he's had his two lowest scoring outputs in the last two weeks. But at the same time, what are you going to do?

Bencham. That's the thing. That's why he'll burn you. That's why it hurts. He's got the Rams next week. He's got the Giants. And the Giants' defense has been playing all right. So,

Craig just said that. It's got two tough defenses coming up. I just want to say. I just said that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I had to say.

I have a voice. Sorry, I was reading. I was reading when you were talking. I apologize. Scrolling Instagram. Okay, let's move on. Waiver Wyatt time. Okay.

Also, playoff time. This is, I mean, in many leagues, either playoff starter, I think most, this is the last week of the regular season and then the playoffs begin.

So this is very important. Scary. Scary. Injuries. Daniel Jones. My God, this was terrible. I mean,

just for me, personally. But he had a hamstring injury. Ian Rappaport tweeted that he has an outside chance to play. There's some conflicting reports. A lot of conflicting reports. The realities, I don't think they know. So I would definitely think on having another option.

But the reality is I think it affects the other giant skill players more. The Evan Angrims, the Sterling Shepard, I think that, and Wayne Gawman did a good week. But so Daniel Jones hamstring injury, Dalvin Cook had an ankle injury. He returned to the game, but it looked bad, and then he came back, so it's okay. Josh Jacobs also had an ankle sprain. He might be able to play this week. He might not.

not clear either. Philip Lindsay with the Broncos, he had a knee injury, and then DJ Moore for the Panthers. He has a calf-slash-ankle injury. So with all that said, let's go position by position here. Streams and stashes, the Bucks and Panthers are on by this week for the record. So, D.K., what are the running backs you're looking at

to pick up on waivers? So there's a few this week that actually are pretty interesting. Cam Acres, I think, is probably at the top of the list. He had 84 yards on the touchdown this week. It might be happening, although I will say, like, it's not like he was totally, dominating snaps or anything. It was a pretty good rotation

with him and Henderson this week. He did bust out like a 61-yard run, so that helped a lot. And then he got the goal line carry and got a touchdown. So it looks a lot stronger. That felt like a good job by McVeigh. Like, oh, good run.

I'll let you stick in there for the red zone carries. I will say he has been more efficient and more effective than Henderson. You know, so maybe that has, that will lead to him having more carries down the stretch. I think he's worth a stash at the very least that if they end up riding him down the stretch.

and he's a good player. He's a second rounder. They obviously had a big plan for him. It got derailed early in the season, but now we'll see. So pick him up and, you know, see how it all goes. Savon Ahmed for the Dolphins is still rostered in only 39% of Yahoo League. So he's out there in a lot of leagues. He missed week 12 with a shoulder injury. And there's definitely some uncertainty going forward when Miles Gaskin can come back next week.

If he will be this, it's unclear who will be the starter going forward, but I still think he's worth having, like, on the end of your bench just to see how it goes. Because when he's been the starter, he's been effective and getting like a good 12, 14 points per game. So I like him. And then with Todd Gurley getting declared out relatively early this week, it was the Brian Hill and Edo Smith rotation in the backfield. Neither guy looked particularly great.

And it's actually pretty tough to figure out which guy to pick up here. So I don't know. What do you guys think of this? What do you guys think of this one? Brian Hill ended up playing more snaps, but got way fewer points. Edo Smith got five targets, and he had a touchdown, so he scored 15.5 fantasy points. Brian Hill, only five. Eno Smith's line was kind of helped.

It was the 80 yards in a touchdown, but it was kind of helped by like a 25-yard touchdown or something that really kind of inflated it. And the thing with this game is that the Falcons were up so much so early that you think that if they couldn't really get a lot of work in this one, that it's a little concerning that they couldn't, like, run the ball for kind of more here. but Brian Hill is the guy who improved a lot in training camp. I would probably grab Hill first, but if you're in a deeper league, I don't mind grabbing both.

But the reality is like, it's so hard to trust the Falcons for like more reasons than I can discuss here that I'd way rather have camakers than either these guys, although I'd rather have both of these guys ahead of Salvan Akhm for the Dolphins. Has there ever been a team that has a worst fantasy day that scores 43 points than the Falcons? The Falcons scored 43. Matt Ryan at 185 yards passing. No one had more than 65 yards rushing

and no one in the leading receiver at 50 yards. How did they score 43 points? The Raiders said like five turnovers. Yeah, it's just unbelievable. Like no one on the Falcons even played though. They scored 43 points. Yeah.

Dizarre. Weird. Going down the list, Alexander Madison for the Vikings, we said it briefly. Daven Cook did leave the game and it looked pretty bad. He like limped off the field and had to have help from two guys,

but then like five minutes later he's running around on the sideline. And he came back into the game. So I don't know exactly what. his situation is. Ankle injuries, I feel like sometimes you can run on them in the game when you get your adrenaline going and then like the next day the swelling comes

and it gets a lot worse and then maybe you know, have like a little bit of a setback. So I think Madison is worth grabbing. That was what happened when I was playing beer pong. When you were celebrating? Yeah. I just think the adrenaline just kept me going

and then I woke up. So basically the same as Dalvin Cook. No, but Madison's a really important pick up. If you have Dalvin Cook, I think you 100% have to add Alexander Madison if you have not already. Do whatever it takes. I agree.

And I would spend, if you have, you know, if you're doing the salary cap auction league, I would spend most of your money on Alexander Madison if you have Delvin Cook. And then from there, a couple of like lower level guys. Royce Freeman came in and played, he looked decent,

you know, coming in relief of Lindsay. If Lindsay misses time, Freeman's probably going to get some more carries. Again, I'd probably not going to trust the Broncos offense all that much, even when they get their quarterback back. But if you're desperate, Freeman's a guy that you can pick up this week.

and then anybody else? Devante Booker on the Raiders just in case Josh Jacobs can't play and then one other thing I want to just talk to out there is depending on how you know everything goes with COVID

I think you should add Benny Snell one James Conner's injury prone alone like even without the COVID stuff but like Benny Snell the one game where James Connor didn't play got the bulk of the carries had like 20 touches and he's good and like I even think if you don't have James Connor

just in any scenario if you can kind of like if you have the room I would just add Benny Snell just in case something happens in the next three, four weeks to James Connor. Yeah, I think that's... Because, well, James Connor has Corona. Right, yeah. So...

But I'm saying even regardless of that. Let's tier these guys. So I think... I'm going to throw... I think the top tier here is Cam Acres and Benny Snell and Devante Booker, if Jacobs is out for Devante Booker, for the Raiders. But I think it's...

So, yeah, so it's Cam Acres, Devante Booker, Madison and Benny Snell. Madison specifically because if either you have Dalvin Cook or the best team in your league is Dalvin Cook, either way you probably want to have Alexander Madison and your team. But do you guys agree with that that's the top tier

of those four guys? And then the next tier is Brian Hill slash Edo Smith where you're kind of rolling the dice, to be honest. Edo Smith is faster. Brian Hill is kind of just a better all-around player if that means anything for you. So you can kind of go at GameScript.

And then I actually would go, that's just the tier. And then third tier to me is Royce Freeman and Salvin Ahmed. I probably would have Ahmed in the second tier, but Yeah, I would say Royce Freeman's at the bottom. It's a mess. Royce Freeman's at the bottom.

He's been at the bottom for his whole NFL career, so that's okay with Royce. All right. Harsh. Dagger at Royce Freeman. You know what? Having my Dynasty League, it's a whole, I don't want to talk about it. Receiver time? So there's a few retreads on here.

We've been talking about these guys for a few weeks, but people aren't picking them up quite as much as you think. Debo Samuel's still out there in 45% of Yahoo League. So, you know, off chance he's still available in your league. He's absolutely the top priority this week, I would say. And then a couple other guys to think about. Alan Lazard, he did end up getting knocked out of the game briefly, but he was clear to come back. He had four catches, 23 yards in a touchdown.

I think Gabriel Davis for the Bills is an interesting pickup this week with John Brown injured and out for the foreseeable future. He came in and played 60 snaps, which is tied with digs for the most. He had three catches, 79 yards in a touchdown. The rookie's been pretty impressive. He's a bit boomer bust clearly, but in this offense with Brown out, he could play a pretty big role. And then again, like,

just some guys that we've been mentioning in the last couple weeks, Thirling Shepard of the Giants is still out there. He's like a solid four play that will get you eight to ten points every week, it feels like. And then Craig's guy, Denzel Mims, plus Prasad Perryman are, you know, good for a couple chunk plays in every Jets games, it feels like.

And so... Hi Fates. What's up, dude? Mims, yet again. How many points are you have? How many yards of the F? 67. It's like 60. He gets three catches for 60 yards.

He's like 65 yards a week. He is a good flex play. Dude, you're not going to get me with this. Miss me. No. No. So Highfitz isn't going to add memes, but Craig definitely is.

I'm just not adding Jets players. Like, like you want to not be super biased against bad teams, except like the worst teams where you do want to be biased against them. Darnold just looks bad. still.

If there's one thing doing this podcast that don't have Adam Gase's players in your team. I don't know. Mims and Perman kind of been all right.

Yeah, they've been all right. I don't think they're the worst receiving core in the NFL. That's the starting point is the problem. That's where we have to begin the conversation.

That's a good point. I'm just saying, I don't think they are. Speaking of players that are technically in the book, because we have Adam Gase in the burn book,

T.W. Hilton of the Colts, is he someone that you guys are willing to pick up, is he staying just on waivers? We can only recommend him as an ad if we remove him from the burn book. No, we're not recommending him as an ad

because anyone who's had T.Y. Hilton this year is just so immeasurably angry with him that the thought of... No. IMO. All right. Anybody else? Colin Johnson for the Jaguars is like a deeper league potential stash for people out there because if DJ Chark and Connolly missed time,

he could potentially continue to see a lot of targets. He led the Jags and targets and yards, this week with eight for 96. He's a big target. He was like a big preseason star. And there's this sort of backup connection narrative working at play right now with Mike Glennon passing it to Colin Johnson,

like the two guys on the scout team that are familiar with each other. I think that's super real. I think that's very real. So this is contingent upon Chark and Conley missing time because otherwise I don't think Johnson's going to play a whole lot.

But honestly, he's been pretty impressive to me. this is definitely a deep league deep cut type guy okay so we can get to the deep cuts in a second but what's the top tier of ads here Debo is obviously number one if he's available in your league obviously but if deep was not who are we picking up here who's the priority

I think you gotta go Lazard too right yeah I would put Lazard and Gabe Dave I would put Davis up there in the short term Sterling Shepard is tough if Colt McCoy's playing Colt McCoy looked bad for the John like he looked real bad I don't want Sterling Shepard in my lineup if Colt McCoy's playing I would say Lazzard, Gabriel Davis, and...

You've got to do it, dude, you just got to put a jet in there. And Mims and Parrot, man. Honestly, dude, I would... Instead of... So instead of Mims, I guess I should propose a solution instead of just pointing out a problem. Jacobi Myers, who is Cole Beasley East. He's just Cole Beasley in New England.

Like, he's going to get you like 10 or 11 points a game. East, Cole Beasley is plays for the Bills. But, you know, Foxborough is more east of Buffalo. Buffalo's west of New England Like the next East City is Buffalo Except well that's a holiday But like he's more east of Buffalo

I'm just saying like That isn't the category you should have gone with Like two teams in the Northeast Yeah I just thought of a geography I don't know man I didn't put too much thought to do it I just said east I don't know you could have picked

I don't know a different thing Colby's Lee New England I just I don't know Not location was just like Not the strongest choice there but Okay you know what The point is that I'd rather If you'd rather of Jacoby Myers

and Denzel Mims And if you want to do some obscure bet about Joe Kobe Myers rest of the season over Denzel Mims, I'd be happy You want to talk about who looks bad at passing? We talk about Sam Darno?

How about our boy Cam Newton? Cam Newton looks like one of the worst throwers in the NFL. Except when he's thrown to Jacob Myers. They have a special, special connection.

All right. One other kind of like dart throw if you're really struggling is Darnel Mooney with Chubisky. You had 11 targets for 155 yards last week? Are you throwing darts?

Or is you're throwing darts? Both. Yes to both. D, all of the above. Can we talk about Craig's Craig's analogy on the two Buffalo or the two Chicago

quarterbacks from last night Craig, give us the difference between Foles and Chubisky. I said that Mitch Chubisky is like having a puppy and Nick Foles is like having a 13-year-old golden retriever.

Oh my God. Oh, my God. I don't know why, but this makes so much sense in my head. I have a very old dog right now who's just decided that shitting in the house is fine. She just doesn't care anymore.

That's when Nick Foles excited on the Bears. Several times a day, just like, oh, there's shit in the house. But then puppies are no better, really, because they're having accidents all the time. They're just more high energy, a little quicker. They're both shitting in the house,

but for very different reasons. The old dog has earned its keep, and you respect it because you remember what it's done and what it used to be, and it has earned the right to shit in the house. Whereas the puppy, it's like, you better not think that this is what it's going to be like. This is not okay, and you're going to have to learn that.

Maybe one or two is okay, but like after a couple years, It's been two years of shit in the house and you start to dawn and you like, what if it never changes? Like you just thought, oh yeah, it would come. And then you're like one day like, oh my God, like Mitchell Chubisky's still shitting in the house. This might be recency bias and this is probably going to be like a terrible take. But despite Mitchell Trubisky's just awful game, I honestly felt like the bear's offense was better with him under center. I think the only difference, the only difference is that Trubisky can move.

It's kind of like when they honestly, it's not that different. than when Foles was replaced by Gardner Minchew, where the Bears and Jaggars both had a pretty bad offensive line, and then Minchew could just move, so like the plays just lasted longer and more shit could happen. Right. That's a good point. The difference is that Minchu is still looking down field and trying

to do stuff, but he's kind of careful with the ball, and Shubisky just bless his heart, I don't think he sees the board. He can't read the defense. It's the most polite way I'll say it. I just bless the man. Foles and Matt Ryan have to lead the league in like third and

11 sacks that they just take on a four-man rush. And it's just so brutal. It's just demoralizing. Yeah. Okay. Let's just, so, okay, so pick up, fine, pick up the Jets. Jesus, whatever you want to do. Tight ends real quick.

Again, wasteland where you're just throwing a dart, speaking to throwing darts, just throwing a darts, hoping to get a touchdown. Only guy, Trey Burton, Colts. It's like that's the only pickup here. And I hate doing this because I just keep missing on, I just keep whacking a mole on these Colts tight ends. but Trey Burton seems to be the most consistent one. He has five touchdowns.

Yeah, well, he was involved in the Philly Special when Frank Reich, who's the Colts head coach now, is the offense coordinator for the Eagles, and I think that the history there has translated to the cults, and they just use them a lot. And Frank Reich loves to use tight ends, just loves to use tight ends in his offense. It's been kind of whack-a-mole, but he's been good.

Only, like, the last three weeks, Trey Burton has been the Tid End 7, which is as good as it's going to get. All right. QB streamers. Yep. So what, Brady's? on by, Bridgewater's on by.

You got Philip Rivers is playing at Houston. Kirk Cousins is playing versus Jacksonville. Baker is going against the Titans and then Fits. Ryan Fitts Magic if he plays for Tua is going at Cincinnati. Which of those four would you want to stream if you had to stream one of them? I kind of like cousins.

I kind of like cousins there. He's been on fire lately, it seems like. I think I would take Fitz. Well, with Theelan out, though, I guess maybe that's the big question. I would probably put Cousins on Burr notice. I feel like he's going to get streamed this week, put a 5. and then we're going to burn him. Yeah, Cousins has been really flirty lately,

just kind of tricking everybody into thinking he's... I would play Fits. If Fits plays for Tua, we don't know the deal yet, I would play him versus the Bengals. The Bengals looked awful. You too. Devonte Parker, also, if people traded for him like we recommended, with Fits,

he's way better. He had like 130 yards this week. All right. You got a fun fact for us to send us out? Oh, you want me to do the fun fact now? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Where on the street?

You got a fun fact. I got it from TikTok. Did you really? God damn it. Yeah, I did. I just fucking hate you so much. Why is that bad? I don't know.

Just the hilarious. Fine, you're right. Oh, my God. Maybe I hate you because I'm secretly jealous that you're more hip with the culture. Basically, the whole thing is about, this fun fact is just about the difference between a million and a billion

and how we don't give it enough respect. Like, I think we think they're way closer than they are. I think I know what you're going to say. Do you? I think I saw this. All right, so basically there's two examples of how crazy large the difference is between a million and a billion. Here's the first one.

Is it about seconds? Yes. Yeah. Oh, I think I saw the same TikTok as you. One million seconds is 11 and a half weeks. Okay? One million seconds is 11 and a half weeks. One billion seconds is 34 years.

Yeah, it's 1986. It's 1980s. Is that real? Yeah. Did you fact check this? Yeah, I did. I would have said like, I don't know, three, four months or something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. It's 11.5 weeks versus 34.75 years. I, first of all, I saw the same TikTok, which is amazing. I got another one for you. This one I think is even crazier if you think about it. If somebody paid you $5,000 a day for six and a half months, you'd be a millionaire. $5,000 a day for six and a half months. To be a billionaire, you'd have to get paid $5,000 a day for 547 years.

This strengthens my belief that I'd rather be a billionaire than a millionaire. that's what you needed you didn't have enough evidence of that that's crazy that's unbelievable that actually does blow my mind I would I have never of no that doesn't compute really

I just kind of think we just throw around like when someone's a billionaire we're just like oh yeah someone says a billionaire like oh that's cool you kind of think it's just like a little bit better than like a super millionaire and it's way better

literally incomprehensible your brain did not evolve to do math like it's literally incomprehensible and I have to say on that note that I actually have a hot take about this because we are, because D.K. and I, you know, we write words on the internet. And I actually have a take about this.

Part of the reason that it's so hard to comprehend is that we write the word because you write 100,000, you write out one zero zero, comma, three zeros. And then million, you write out the word millions instead of the zeros. And then billion is just one letter difference. How are you supposed to process what you just said,

11 and a half weeks of seconds versus 34 years? I think you need to write out the zeros. I think we need to start writing. You're 100% right. Like, you need to write, the Rams are, because you read, the thing that I always got me was that Dak Prescott was paid $6 million to be the Cowboys quarterback for his first four years, but the Cowboys like went up in franchise value from like three to five billion dollars. So, oh, you got paid $6 million in that time they went up $2 billion.

It's like, you can't comprehend. Like, that's insane. That is an insane thing. But you can't really process. So I don't know. Bring the zeros back. That's what I'm saying. I like it.

I'll talk to Craig Gaines about this. That's the copy chief. That's your counterpart. Bring the zeros back. Okay, bring the zeros back. Except for Kendall Hinton. We're glad you got the one instead of zero completions. Okay.

Kendall Hinton, thank you for being with us on the podcast today. That joke was terrible. But Craig, thank you, Craig. Thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Lauren, what would we do with you? We'll see you guys on Wednesday.

DK. Didn't do a band. Oh, shit. DK., do the band. It's not too late. What's a good band? Dude, that's your job. You got to be locked and loaded with the band.

Fuck, I forgot. got. Shit, thank you, Beyonce. Did I already say her? No, I don't think you did. All right, thank you. Thank you, Beyonce. All right, thank you, Beyonce. All right, goodbye, people listening.