The Ringer NFL Show - Power Ranking the Players We’re Thinking About Dropping

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

Power Hour! Discussing the top players it might be time to let go of heading into Week 7, including Jahan Dotson’s talent, JSN’s upside, Zach Ertz’s volume, and much more (2:45). “You guys want to do some emails?” (53:07) Check out The Ringer’s Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings, waiver wire pickups, and much more! Fanduel.com/ringerffs is live! Matt Canada is ruining Najee Harris’s career (3:26) “You were the chosen one! It was said that you would be more than a bench WR, not join them!” (7:36) Maybe Steve Smith Sr. is right about Jerry Jeudy (10:43) Just because Jaxon Smith-Njigba has a cool name doesn’t mean he deserves a spot on your roster (14:06) What in the world is going on with Dameon Pierce?! (19:30) Can Jahmyr Gibbs still bounce back this season? (22:16) Stop trying to make Elijah Moore happen (28:18) Javonte Williams [sigh] (33:02) Zach Ertz had to fall off at some point. Are we really that surprised? (36:37) More like Dalvin COOKED, amirite? (38:40) Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What would you do if you got scammed? Would you suffer in silence, or would you do something about it? Well, I got scammed once, and this is the story of what I did. I'm Justin Sales, the host of the Wedding Scammer, a true crime podcast from The Ringer. And for seven episodes, we're hunting a comment. A guy with a lot of aliases, a guy who's ruined a lot of weddings. And with the help of some friends, I just might be able to catch him. Listen to The Wedding Scammer on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Ball show, my name is Danny Hyfitz, and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Corlebeck, and today it is Power Hour, where every week on Wednesday we are ranking something during the season. And this week, we are power ranking all the fantasy football players that you want to drop, but you probably shouldn't, and you kind of hate them now, but you're still. Or maybe you should? Maybe you should. Yeah. We'll let you know today.

Craig, I feel like when you have a player that you've drafted and you know it was a mistake, there's like all these stages that you go through. It's basically the five stages of. of grief. Yeah, I would even say there might be a six. I feel like the, I feel like the first stage, week one denial, right? Who cares? Week one, bad week. It's just one week. Just a bad game. Week two, you're like kind of mad. You're like, all right, this guy sucks. It's his fault. Week three, it's like maybe I can still cash in on his value, his pre-draft value, try to trade him. Hey, can I send you a Jahan Dotson for Adam Thielen? Remember how good Dotson was last year?

still a lot of upside. Week four, you're just depressed. I can't believe it took away, Judy. This is miserable. I think week five is stubbornness where you're like, you know what? I think there's a chance. I'm going to be patient, long run.

And that usually lasts one week, and then by week six, you've accepted it. This was a bust. Which is what these guys are perhaps today that we're going to talk about. To be clear, we're not saying automatically cut these guys.

It depends on your league, various caveats of who's in your league and who's on bench and what's your record and who's available? et cetera, et cetera. If you cut these guys and you shouldn't have, don't blame us. But if it works, you can give us the credit. But with that said, we're going to, to our best of our ability, actually separate which of these guys you're mad at that you can cut and it's fine. And which of these guys that you're mad at, but you should probably keep. And D.K. Kragut,

we all submitted guys. I am power ranking them. So if you don't like the order, blame me. I rank them based on how frustrated I think the people who have them are. And that accounts, you know, takes into account how high you took them and stuff. So we're going to do this power hour style. If you're not familiar with power hour, it's very simple. Every two minutes, you're going to hear this sound. Great song. Great song.

Love that song. Including if you're on Fandall and, you know, TomTom Club is not licensed. We have some wonderful license. Also love that song. From a library of rights. Fendell, get on that. Hit up Tom, Tom. We got to, we know some people.

We can know, you know, we'll figure it out. So without further ado, ranking all the players that you want to cut, and you probably shouldn't. But ranking by how frustrating they are and starting with the only person that we could start this with is, Craig, number one, Najee Harris is running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, Najee has been horrific. He's scored more than six fantasy points one time this year, which is pretty alarming. But you know what? Here's what I'll say, folks.

Looking into it more, I'm back on my Matt Canada. a BS. Screw this guy. He's ruining Najee. What are your thoughts on that? Oh, I thought you're going to say that you like Matt Canada. The only person that's a Pittsburgh fan that likes him. I love that, by the way, there's like Fire Canada chance happening at hockey

games. Things that are not even related to the Steelers. It's a grassroots movement. PTO like meetings. The Seth Myers rule of when people know your offensive coordinator's name and you don't have a good offense is like the worst possible sign. Yeah, that's tough. I will say this. Nashi Harris.

second on his own team in fantasy points at the running back position. He's not even the first highest scoring running back on the Steelers. Okay, okay, but I want to give you some numbers here because I would argue that Najee is just has a bad rap and has bad PR and Matt Canada's ruining his career. Najee Harris, the guy's damn near trying to be good. And we don't know if he's not, is my argument. This year, he actually not having that bad of a year.

He has his best yards per carry, best yards after contact, mistackles and explosive run rate of his career. Did you know that this year, Najee Harris is tied for second in the NFL and runs of 15 yards or more? He's second. He's got six of them. McCaffrey and A. Chamey and the only guys

to leave more than that. Yes. Which just goes to show you that when Najee actually has room to operate, he's not actually that bad. He's 12th in yards after contact per rush. That's ahead of Bijan Robinson, Saquan, Travis E.N. and James Cook.

He's just getting hit behind the line. the scrimmage because the offense is terrible and the plays are uncreative. What I'm hearing is that you went through the sixth stage and you went all the way back to one. It does reset. If the Steelers could have a lead in any game, maybe we'd see what Najee Harris could be. You know that they're dead last in plays in the first quarter. They're averaging 10 plays per first quarter, the Steelers, for 30 yards. What are we supposed to do with that?

It's the end of Memento right now. I'm like, who is this person? crazy. See of amnesia. I will say this, just to counter. Najee Harris has 31 fantasy points this year. Naghi Harris has four more fantasy points than Aaron Jones, who got hurt in week one and basically hasn't played since then.

Whatever. I'm like Robin Williams and Goodwill hunting. It's not Noggi's fault. It's not. Noghers was a tight end. He'd be behind Kylan Granson. God. Literally behind Kyle and Granson. It's not his fault. What's the verdict, though? Like, are you

cutting him? You can't keep him. You can't keep him. You're stuck with him. play him. You have to hold on. Yeah. When you can't trade somebody and you know they're talented and you spent like a top four pick on him, top fourth, you know, in the first four rounds, you have to just hold on. I'm sorry, but you do.

The best text I've gotten the NFL season was when Bill texted us that Naji Harris every time he does break one of those 15-yard runs looks like a linebacker who intercepted a pass over the middle. It doesn't really know. If you look up, you're like, wait, did the defense get an interception? What happened? Yeah. Why is this guy so slow?

He needs some time to get going. He's like, he's like a cow where it's like it's hard to slow him down once he gets going but it takes a while to reach top speed. Runaway beer truck. Yeah. Wait, I want to, can I give you, I know we blew past Tom Tom. I want to give you one more pathetic Matt Canada statistic. In the

Matt Canada era, when the Steelers have held their opponents to 22 points or less, they're 23 and 1. If they let up over 22 points, they're 1 and 15. Are you kidding me? We can't beat a

team that scores 22 points of more. One in 15, and that's a whole season of not being able to beat a team that scores 22 points in a game. That's tough. It's the largest shift in the NFL, by the way, if anybody didn't know that. I have assumed so. Yeah. It's incredible. All right. Next up here.

One in 15. You need a whole therapy. We can just do a whole power of Steelers' stats. Next up here, guys, 10 o'clock. We got Jahan Dotson receiver for the commanders. Brue. Yes. This is mine. This is one of the more, I think, frustrating players and fantasy this year.

A player that I think all three of us were pretty interested and liked coming into the season. He has been absolutely atrocious. And I actually don't think, this is another, maybe this is just all excuse making for these players this week. But I actually don't think it's his fault. I just think he is a product of the situation. So hold on. Let me first get your reactions to Johan Dotson before I go into it. I'm with you.

I'm stubborn. Dotson's two guys. So I will say the, the commander's playing the Giants. this week and Dotson killed the Giants. And I'm curious to see if this is this bounce back spot. I will say to your point, Dotson on the season has 17 catches for 140 yards, which is basically what Pooka Nekua did in week two.

It's like one game. Against the 49ers. Yeah. And to be clear, Dots at 140 yards in a touchdown. That is almost exactly what Tyree kill averages per game. It's wild. There are 81 receivers in the NFL this year that I've had 20 targets or more. Of those 81, Dotson,

is 70th in half PBR points per game. He's averaging 4.8 points per game. And that is all despite running the 10th most routes. So he's 10th in routes and 70th in points. And so that's not great. And again, I really don't think it's his fault. And here's why. I think it's honestly just a product of the system and the quarterback.

And I'm not saying to keep him. Actually, my verdict here, just like, like a little spoiler alert. I think you can drop him. I think he's absolutely dropable. Really? He's on the waivers probably for a lot of leagues already. But I do, I want to sort of defend him because I think this is a good example of a lot of times a quarterback receiver relationship matters in a scheme and receiver relationship matters. Like, look at Pooka Nikua.

Like if he had landed on any other team, I don't think he'd even be playing. But he landed on this perfect team with Matt Stafford, you know? And so basically to wrap up, I think Dotson's good. and I think he has a bright future in the NFL, but I think you can drop him this year. Wow. I got to say, I saw him on waivers in a league that I'm in,

and I was like, my eyebrows perked up. I was like, ooh. He's averaging 2.6 yards of separation per route according to next gen stats, which is like the same as a lot of very good receivers. Stefan Diggs, Devante Adams, Jordan Addison.

I mean, Curtis Samuel is out playing him. Yeah, he's third on his team in receiving. It's not clear. Terry McClureen started the year with turf toe, and Curtis Samuel gets hurt a lot. So I kind of think you should hold on to him. But again, I'm so stubborn.

If I liked somebody at the beginning of the year, I'm just going to hold on in forever. What's that line from the departed? Yeah. I'm Irish. I'll stay with this forever. You're going to be the one that has to end it. John Dotson's going to have to take himself off your team before you do it.

Yeah. He needs to walk into my apartment and drop him from my lineup. He's to like leave the stadium, get an Uber. Yeah. The guy who drove Antonio Brown away from the game's a private driver, so follow him on Instagram. One crazy guy, wild Instagram. Okay. Speaking of Dotson, though, next guy I got here.

Kai, start the clock. Jerry Judy, receiver for the Broncos, which this is perfect because I told the story the other day, but my friends, you know, like, oh, what should I do in my lineup? I'm always like, all right, screenshot who's on waivers? And I did it, oh my God, Jerry Judy's on waivers? He was like a top seven receiver in the final six weeks last year. You've got to add him. Flash forward. This week, Jerry Judy had four more receiving yards than Justin Herbert. Oh. Four. Not great.

Four more receiving yards than the Chargers quarterback. So do I tell this person stick with this guy? The only reason why you should is because I think Sean Payton and the Broncos are tanking. And there is a small chance that Jerry, not a small chance, actually, a decent chance that Jerry is on a different team in two weeks. I agree with that. I don't think you should cut Judy yet. And again, it's so weird because he didn't, I mean, he was worse last year. But the Broncos, Jerry Judy started horrifically last.

year too. I think he was on this episode we did last year. And then again, he was one of the seven, eight best receivers down the stretch last season. So we just saw this. He's still like 22, 23 years old. But I keep thinking, and again, he's behind, I mean, he's the fourth receiver in his own team. Like, he's behind Cortland Sutton, Marvin Mims, and Brandon Johnson, who we have yet

to confirm as a real person. He's behind Braxton, Perrios, Nelson Aguilar. And he's three points ahead of John Dotson. That's like the John Doe of a football name. Just like Brandon Johnson. It's like the Madden creative player. Like, that's the first name before you create your own. Yeah, exactly. But I keep thinking about the Steve Smith video. Like, have you, I actually got,

I hadn't seen the full thing. Did you guys see what he actually said? Yes. Yeah. I just love the, like, what's the M&M? I'm sorry that I can't apologize. It's like, Steve Smith's like, I'm sorry to saying you're just a guy. I'm sorry that you're saying you're an average receiver that they select in the first round that isn't doing anything. And I hope today you show up unlike all the other games. And then he had 14 yards. Three, catch him. Question, because we think, I think Craig and I have established that we think Naji and Jahan Dotson are good players in bad situations.

Just point blank. Do you think Jerry Judy's good? I don't think his situations have been nearly as bad as Jahan Dotson's and Noges, which makes me think, yes, he's the best. So when I look at, like, Kyler Murray for the Cardinals, I think Kyler's been the problem in the worst possible situation. Like the Cardinals, everyone's at fault. And I think Kyler's been at fault.

and the Cardinals have been at fault. I look at the Broncos, and the Broncos, obviously, have never put Jerry Judy in a position to succeed with, like, Drew Locke and Russ now. Having said that, as someone who really loved Jerry Judy coming out of the draft and he went over Justin Jefferson,

and I had Judy over Justin Jefferson, I feel really stupid, like, when I watch it play. I think that's what's... I think that is the reason people are holding on to this Judy dream is because he was a high pick. You know what I mean? I think, like, most people would have given up by now based on what he's doing on the field.

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he will, you know, finally break out. I think he's had a lot of injuries that have affected, of course, his play over the years. But I don't know. I'm starting to have doubts is what I'm saying. I got caught up by the footwork. You're starting to have doubts. Craig.

Just now. Three years in. Justin Jefferson's already had more receiving yards than any player in the history of the Chicago Bears. Oh, I'm not comparing it to Jefferson. I'm just saying I'm having doubts that he's ever going to be anything in the league. I could talk for a long time about Judy. All right. Next up, though, D.

Deke is speaking of first-term receivers who haven't done much. D.K. got Jackson, Smith, and Jigby, receiver for the CRR. first receiver taken in the draft this year. And how was that going for you? I'm getting a lot of panicked texts asking if this was, if he's a bust, which is not a great sign six weeks into the season.

He has 16 catches for 110 yards in six games. And let's go back to the stat I pulled up earlier. 81 receivers in the NFL have had 20 targets this season. He's 78th in fantasy points per game among those receivers. he's averaginging 3.8. I don't know what we're doing here. He should be on waivers. Why is he even on your team at this point?

Do you think he's in the right system, D.K., like, do you think he's in a system conducive to fantasy football? I think a lot of people assume because this was like a productive offense with a good quarterback that this was going to be okay. But did we actually overlook the fact that he's with D.K. McCaff and Tyler Lockett, who have great connections and like established roles with the Seahawks. Yeah, and I think in this offense in particular, it's a funnel offense to basically lock it in lock it and DK.

And that's kind of like just how this offense works. It's how it goes. There's not a lot of targets to go around for the other guys. I will say, though, over the six weeks, we've seen his average depth of target gradually and slowly increased because early on the season, the big worry was like they're just throwing him these little screen passes from behind the line of scrimmage. And everything was within one or two yards of the line of scrimmage.

And we've seen that go up in the last couple of weeks. And by the way, his route participation, so the amount of times he's running routes based on how many dropbacks the Seahawks are doing has increased steadily over the weeks too. So he's slowly but surely getting integrated in his offense. And we probably wouldn't be having this discussion today if Gino Smith had seen him when he was wide open running down the left sideline in a game against the Bengals last week when Gino Smith basically got pressured and didn't see him.

It would have been a touchdown easy. It would have been a game winner. But that didn't happen, of course. And now we're like, is he a bust? So I think there's a little bit of both where I don't, I personally don't think he needs to be on your team right now. I think. D.K.

You're trying to live vicariously through everyone else. You're like, I wish we had a different player, so you should get a different one. What do you mean I wish we had a different player? Like the CBOx. You wish the CBOx. I'm not saying that. I think he's great. I think his main value is longer term.

It's definitely when like Lockett starts to slow down and isn't a part of the team anymore. He's going to be, you know, a great compliment piece to D.K. Maccalf in the long term. I don't regret this pick at all. I don't think it's a bust at all. Fantasy-wise, I don't think there's any reason for him to be on your team unless one of these two guys gets hurt. a DK MacK. Yeah, I agree.

This is the first true cut, I think, on the list for me. Love him, though. I love him. To be clear, I love Jackson-Smithin-Jigba. He's awesome. Long-term. I'm taking, we're doing intermission right now. He could be awesome.

He will. Projection is awesome. Intermission. This is Tuesday. I know you're listening this Wednesday, but we recorded this Tuesday. Last time was Monday at football. Quentin Johnson, TCU.

I'm sorry, Kai. Quentin Johnson, T-C. receiver, drafted in the first round. I'm like, remember, four receivers went back-to-back-to-back-back-to-back. Jackson, Spith & Jigba and Jordan Addison and Quentin Johnson and say Flowers. Quentin Johnson, you know, to start this season wasn't playing at Munchie, all right, it's a rookie, it's fine. Chargers go on by, come out of the buy. And not only is he not out playing Josh Palmer, who's a little banged up, but who was the other charges receiver that was getting play over Quentin Johnson?

It was Reheel. It was, oh, right. The funny thing is, I don't even know. He couldn't even, like literally people we've never heard of playing over a first run pick. You left out the fact that Mike Williams tore his ACL too. So, D.K. I know it's obvious caveat that we're six weeks into what might be a decade long career. And it doesn't.

However, Quentin Johnson has to be the biggest red flag for total bust of any first round or through the first month that after the season. Right now, for sure. And he was the guy that was a target on the game ceiling interception that Justin Herbert threw and basically got out physicaled by the corner and didn't. did not do a good job on the route. So it was like, I'm stopping short of saying it was his fault, but he did not do a good job on the route. Was Darius Davis, the other guy that you're talking about that was playing ahead of him? One of many, yeah.

Because he was, he was Quinn Johnson's teammate in college. That's so bad. He's the kick returner, right? Yeah, he's the little guy. But anyway, I think, so with Quinn Johnson, it requires context because he was always a developmental type player. You know, we talked about this prior to the draft. He's a little bit raw as a route runner. His hands are a little bit finicky, but he is a big, fast, really, really agile, insane athlete that they're going to develop.

And so, like, six weeks in, calling him a bust is like, this is exactly who he was and who he said he was going to be before the season. It's a little bummer that he's not done better so far. But I think it's too early to give up on him, even though this is a great situation where he could be thriving in theory if he was a little bit. What was your cop for him? Was it Martavis Bryant? I don't even remember. Hold on. Let me pull it up while you're.

It was one of them, yeah. But yes, I think, like, to be giving up on him already is probably a little bit too early. But that being said, it is definitely demoralizing that he hasn't been able to step up when he's had such a good opportunity to do so in this offense. Yeah, Martavis Bryant was the cop I had for him. All right. Next up here, sorry for the new mission. Just want to do back to fantasy players that.

It's just mean to Kai. Yeah, just be mean. Yeah, just want to get a pot shot at him. But back to fantasy players that you want to cut, you shouldn't. You should not cut them, but you're thinking about it. We got number five, got Damien Pierce running back for the Texans. This is a brutal one, Craig. Yeah, he's been so frustrating.

Tenth in the league in carries, 29th in yards. Last week, he got out carried by the nagging pimple of the NFL, Devin Singletary, who just won't die, won't go away. Rood. Is it rude?

Oh, my God. Well, he's ruining everybody's fantasy season. Whatever team he's on, he just ruins the starter season ahead of him. He outrushed him last week. What's most frustrating, though, I think about Damien Pierce, is that last year he was way better

on a much worse team. I know. Last year, he was averaging over four yards of carry. Yeah, through six weeks last year They were one four and one with Davis Mills at quarterback And meanwhile, Damien Pierce was on pace for 1,200 yards rushing Before he got hurt

This year he's averaging less than three yards of carry He's on pace for less than 800 yards The O-line's been a mess worse than last year And Singletary's now eating into his third-down usage He's just not quite on the field enough, Damien Pierce But they're still giving them the ball It's just not working out right now I don't know

How do you guys feel about Pierce? my official opinion is he's unstartable. I don't know if you should cut him though. You know what I mean? I don't think you can't. I have to keep him, but you can't play him. Look, he's talented. He's on an ascending offense. Like, you got to hold on. You're going to kick yourself if by weeks 10 he's running for 120 yards a game.

They have an easy rest of season strength of schedule for running backs. And again, like this offense is still jelling. And if it's not where, you got to hold on. You just got to hold on, right? I think so. Yeah. I mean, he's like, he's the type of player that he's borderline. Do you think he's good? I do think he's good. I still think he's a good player.

I think he breaks a lot of tackles. He has like an explosive element to him that I don't think Devin Singletary does. To me though, he's like so close to being on the borderline of a quote unquote roster clogger where he's just on your bench and you never use him. And it's just wasting a spot, especially for short bench, you know, leagues where you can only have like three or four guys on your bench. Because I play in a league where you only have four bench players. I'm like, I got to get, like, I got to bring other guys in for bi-weeks and things like this. It's like, it's just so hard to hold on to him if you're in a really short bench league.

And so, I don't know, he's borderline, but I would still say don't drop him. Who would you rather keep on your roster, Najee Harris or Damien Pierce? Pierce, I think. Oh, my brain just broke. I'd rather have Jaylen Warren than Najee right now. Yeah, Steelers running backs. You might not pick Najee. Yeah.

I don't take Pierce. You got to take the team with a better offense. Same. what's frustrating is if you told you everything about how good Stroud has been in the offense and Texas defense should be like, oh great. You'd be like taking him two rounds earlier probably.

Again, you got to look at the fact that he's 10th in the league in carries and like hold on to that. Well, we're talking about, well, speaking of someone who's outside the top 10 in carries, but a young, exciting running back. Chameer Gibbs for the Lions. Got him at number six. So, again, Shamir Gibbs, first round pick in real life.

probably first four-round pick. Not even first-round pick. 12th overall pick, which is a whole different ballgame than just first-round pick. In fantasy, Jemir Gibbs is the 40th running back in points per game behind Camakers. So he's, Jemir Gibbs has been worse per game than the George Costanz of the NFL. Oh, man.

It sucks because this felt like, remember week one against the chiefs opening night for the NFL and Gibbs played? And he got like 10 touches, but it looks like it was the tip of the iceberg. And you're like, wow. like we saw it proof of concept he looked electric like this is just the beginning and then our boy dan campbell went full arthur smith and is like i'm good so i yeah you ever seen gips at his own no i actually think that gibbs is not only um don't cut i actually think he's a buy low i think that he's like the perfect trade target it's hard to find these guys more as we get

close to halfway through a season that still check all the boxes of negative blurbs so the person will trade him away and like insanely talented injured like all this stuff but he So the first month of the season, he wasn't playing as much as people wanted. And people were mad, but guess what the lines are five and one? So who cares? And then he has this hamstring injury

that kept him out the last two weeks. The thing is now Montgomery's banged up. Whoever has Gibbs is frustrated because he hasn't done it much in your lineup. And he's hurt. And Montgomery's crushing it. Whoever has him is FOMO. They're like, I can't believe I took this guy four rounds

before Montgomery. I could just had him swoop in and the person's going to be relieved to get rid of Gibbs. But Gibbs, the talent, the second half of the season, it's like the exact kind of person you should be kind of swooping in to like just, he's kind of like Deontri Swift after week one, honestly. That's what he reminds me of.

Yeah, but don't you think that it's going to be hard to trade for him? If Montgomery was healthy, I would say it would be easy to trade for him. But now that Montgomery's out, I think a Gibbs owner is going to, you know, get that, get that optimism back again. And they're going to think, all right, I got a little more shot. So, Craig Reynolds has 25 carries and two touchdowns. That's one thing. You got to wait after this week.

If Craig Reynolds dominates touches, then you trade for Gibbs. And then they give up. Yeah. Well, honestly, but the flip size. the person might be like, I'm going to get rid of this guy now. Well, someone's interested. So I think Gibbs is, I'm actually pretty optimistic for the final couple months of the season. He, I will say, it's worth noting he has a 29% target per route run number, which is a really strong.

And so it's the top five among running backs this year. So when he's out there running routes, he's earning targets. He's a big part of the passing game when he's out there. The problem is, and the problem has been, he's playing like, I mean, I think I saw as low as, this was only a couple weeks ago. It was like 25 to 28% of snaps like that. This guy they took at the 12th overall pick. I think it's fine. This is my hot take.

I think it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. He should play more. But I think that the anger is, he's just, you wanted him to be like Sequin in his rookie year. No, yeah, I agree. Like, I would say it was probably not the smartest thinking to think he would be as

widely used as some of the quote unquote like big backs, 220 pound guys. And comparing his particular. potential numbers to those guys was probably a, like, pointing people in the wrong direction. But there have been a couple other running backs that are around his size, Christian McCaffrey, for instance, like 200 pounds when he came into the NFL. And they utilized him a whole hell of a lot more than the Lions did. I still think it's wild that this is the way that the lions are utilizing Jemir Gibbs. I think that's the biggest mistake that people made, honestly, with Jemir Gibbs.

You know why? It was the fundamental mistake with the fantasy, like, drafting Jemir Gibbs. was the same group of people who would say taking a running back 12th overall is insanely stupid for your team. Like it's a really dumb decision to make. It's actually probably the worst position you could pick in the first round. And the same group of people saying, but this is how he'll be used when clearly you guys don't see the world the same way. And that's what I feel like I fell under the trap of being like, I know how these people think. No, we don't.

We've no idea. By the way, they picked Jamison Williams a year earlier. They trade it up in the first round to take Jameson Williams at like, number 12 overall, I think. So like, or somewhere right around there, number 10 maybe. Um, and he's playing 20% of snaps.

This team just doesn't care. Like, they don't, they don't care about playing their like, quote unquote best players. They just, I don't know, this is a,

five and one. It's like completely disconnected from, from the front office. Oh my, okay. Top five team to leave. Lions best 16 game stretch in the history of the Lions is the one they're in right now.

Yeah. They're doing fine. I understand what you're saying. This is doesn't, I don't think this absolves them of like making the decisions that they've made and personnel. Like, you can have both conversations. I think it might.

I think it might. No, it's a hundred percent. It does not. I really don't think it does. Isn't the, I mean, the ultimate goal of football is to win games. If the Lions win the Super Bowl, not, but if they win the Super Bowl, not playing Jamir Gibbs and Jameson Williams. It's two separate conversations.

It's opportunity costs. How much better would they be if they actually had players that they could play on the field? It's hard to say better than when they're five and one and one of the best offense in the league. I mean, I think they would be better if they had players that were playing and they took them in the top 12. I mean, I don't think there's a best team in the NFL.

Do you think they have nowhere to go but like down? I'm not saying that, but I'm saying that clearly what they're doing is working right now. Okay. I mean, I think we're having two different discussions. I still think there's a massive opportunity cost from decisions they've been making. I don't think the fact that they're five and one absolves them of these bad decisions. I think I finally got a window to know what it's like when I argue with DK. Because honestly, you guys never do that as frequently as I do with one of you.

And I will just say this. I agree with you, D.K. That the Lions taking a running back in the 12th overall as a process can be as a bad, net, a bad decision while they're still 5 and 1. I will also say, the reason you feel so strongly about it

has nothing to do with the purity and sanctity of the Lions process and purely because you like Gibbs this year and they're not playing them. So I think it's like, that's kind of like the way I'd look at it. That's true. That's true. Well, speaking of which, my number 7 here, God, things get heated.

We're barely halfway through the top 10. guys that you want to cut, but you probably shouldn't. Elijah Moore, receiver for the Browns. Elijah Moore, the original Jemir Gibbs. Elijah Moore's fetch. He's not a thing. Everyone's stopped trying to make him a thing. He's the original, like, wow, 34th pick, basically a first rounder.

Why don't the Jets play him? Why don't the Browns use him? You know what? He's 66th and yards per route run. He's right there with Skymore. You got the Moors. The Sky Moore, everyone agrees is bad next to Elijah, everyone's favorite son. You know what?

You have to keep him one more week. You got to see what he happens when he comes back. If you had them still this long, you got to give it one more week and see what happens if Deshawn Watson comes back after a buy. And then you know what? The Brown's passing game? The Browns have 864 passing yards this season.

That's almost what Tyree Kill has by himself. It's like the Brown's passing offense is bad. Deshaun Watson's bad. Elijah Moore, like, sure. I don't know. I'm done with this guy. Give it one more week. I mean, yeah, this is another guy.

I think that it's totally fine if you cut him. I don't think anyone's really going to look like blink at that if you cut this guy. I will say what you said. how they only have 800 yards passing. I think the reason people are holding on to them and holding out hope is that it's going to get better in theory. But I don't know.

Like at this point, if you drop him, I don't think anyone's going to be like, oh, I got to go pick up Elijah Moore. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think the reason why I would still hold on to him is,

one, annoyingly, I'm still, I still have like the preseason anchored in my brain where he was playing really well. Two, I like that, I like the way they use them.

Like they're actually like designing touches for him. they kind of use him like the commanders use Curtis Samuel. Totally. It's not like conducive for big plays, but they're like manufacturing touches for him, which I like. And I'm like, it's not like Donovan People's Jones is having a great year ahead of him or anything. It's pretty much just Amari Cooper.

So I'm just like banking on the idea that like if Deshaun Watson comes back and put it together and the Browns can actually have a decent end of the year. I think more will be good if the Brown's offense is good. And I still have a tiny bit of hope that the Brown's offense could be good. When you're at this point in the season, there's lots of buys, there's lots of injuries and you're on the waiver wire and you're trying to find a guy to plug into your lineup that has a little bit of a floor.

You're looking at like target rate. You're looking at touches. You're looking at, I just don't want to have a guy that's going to be, you know, basically having to have one big play to do literally anything in fantasy. Like guys that are getting two targets at game. The one thing I think that's nice about Elijah Moore

is he's averaging almost six touches at game. So he's getting the football. Well, decent amount of time. Can I quibble with that? Sure. It's one game with nine catches, but the other three games in the last month, he doesn't have more than three. It's four catches, two, nine, three. Yeah, but he also has rushes in those games.

He's getting schemed touches in the game. Oh, okay. Which, again, it's like, there's an element of like beggars can't be choosers. I do think for a guy, if you're trying to plug him into your lineup when there's injuries and bye weeks, having a guy who's getting touches is like the bare amount of what you're looking for. So I will say that. Obviously, I don't think it's a huge deal if you decide to cut this guy. But I would say that's the one advantage he has over, you know, a lot of the other people that are out on the waiver wire right now.

I only laugh because two weeks ago against the Ravens, he had two catches for 20 yards, but then he got to carry. Do you remember when he kept running backward and backward? So he lost 20 yards and his only carried a day. He lost 20 freaking yards on it. So he ended up with just two catches for scrimmage zero yards. But then, of course, when PPR he gets two yards, even though he gained zero. Two points. My best argument is that it can't get any worse.

Kind of. That's true. What are we doing here? I won't fight that on this list, yeah. Although that might be a Memento tattoo for next year This can always get worse. It can't. 100% is going to get worse now.

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Fandall.com Javante Williams running back for the Broncos. I put this one lower down because I feel like he gets a little bit of a pass because he's gotten hurt, but he has done nothing. Yeah. I think I think Joliel McLaughlin is why fantasy football is so annoying. But it's kind of also why it's great, but mainly annoying. We were all waiting for the Javante thing that happened. He's a year removed from the ACL. He gave him a buffer period, a month or two.

He actually hasn't looked bad. He's, like, averaging over four yards to carry. But then, you know, he dings up his quad, misses a game. And then Jaliel McLaughlin, undrafted out of Youngstown State comes in. By way of Notre Dame College, right? No, Youngstown State. It's Kyron Williams, right? No, no, no.

You were never going to get this right. Byron went to real Notre Dame. Oh, right. Jaliel McLaughlin went to Youngstown. I know, but before that, he was at Notre Dame College. Oh, okay. Sorry. We don't talk enough that Juleau McLachlan is the all-time rushing leader for NCAA.

It's like we've brought that up yet. Yeah. That's something we should mention. Again, it was at a lower level. He's like the Tyson Baygent of running backs. 100%. Yes.

Yeah. All these records he broke against Frost, Frostburg State. 5 foot 7, 187 pounds, by the way. And that, look, what I'm kind of banking on is that like Sean Payton is going to be using, you know,

McLaughlin might be his Camara now. Samajip Ryan got hurt. So it's like, if Giovante is the, Mark Ingram and McLaughlin is the Camara. I'm hoping this can still work. I mean, the office is a disaster. My recommendation to anybody is like, if Giovante has a single good game, trade him.

Right. But the upside's not really there in my opinion. It's like 10 to 15 carries a game, maybe 70 yards. Like that's what you're hoping for every week at Javante. Yeah, Somagie Piron is absolutely a cut. And then Javante, yeah, you have to hold on to him. But yeah, McLaughlin, would you guys, do you guys think fantasy would be better if it was just a team running back? You just got the whole backfield?

I don't know. less anguish on a week-to-week basis internally. Would you be so addicted to fantasy football if there was less anguish? I don't know. We talked about this on the show last show. And I think there would be a nice little compromise between bestball and the way that we play where we just do lineups where maybe you have like one guy that goes in, we call him the ringer. And he can take over for a guy that really sucks on your team.

So like modified best ball, I will say if you really just want to have like a team's running backs, Just play basketball. That's fair. I don't get it, but that doesn't fix it. You can draft all three of the guys on a team, or you can just have other guys that will fill in if one guy gets hurt. I know, but that also makes it worse when people get hurt, right? Like, it almost, because you can't even actively acquire running backs.

I'm saying, like, what if you actually just got the whole backfield? Like, you could draft the Denver Broncos team, and that was just your running backs with the Broncos. Well, I think the implication was that it's bad when the lead guy gets hurt. I thought that was the implication. Or are you just saying you want to have commas? committees. You want to have the whole committee. Well, I'm saying that it's so, I think the worst part in fantasy is when you're specifically with a running back position, your guy gets hurt,

the backup comes in, plays better than you thought, and now the guy's original role as the starter is gone. And Hife's being saying, wouldn't it be better if you could just draft the entire team's backfield? I think it would, yes, but I think there is still something in like the autonomy of having the like ability to pick the running back yourself in a draft and like feeling like you can predict which guy is going to be good. Also, Setting lineups. Setting lineups is still like it's anguish, but it's also a huge part of the game. I don't know. You know what I mean? Like there's a, that's like where the vast majority of the strategy goes in and in the latter half of the week is like, okay, who do I start this week? All right. Well, on that note, next up here, we got Zachertz tied in for the Cardinals.

Zacherts, D.K. Is he just a cut? I mean, obviously, defense who the other tight ends are. But yeah. I think so at this point. By the way, this is just a picture. this is meant to give you a picture of what the tight end position is right now. There's three tight ends in the NFL who are averaging 10 plus half BVR points. Three. Three total. John Smith. He's getting up there. The big three.

So Zach Hertz, I think to begin the year was a big target for me because he was getting a massive amount of targets. He was getting, you know, 30 plus percent target rate in the early part of the season. he was still obviously a big checkdown option for Josh Dobbs. But the problem is, number one, he was never very good anymore because he's coming off of a major injury and he's like 32 years old. He's just not very fast. He never was a kind of guy that was dynamic after the catch.

Like there's literally a Twitter account that tracks how many broken tackles Zach Hertz has and it's like maintained at zero forever. Like he's never broken a tackle in his NFL career. I think at the end of the day, like Zach Hertz, he's on the way out in terms of we saw, we saw his target rate, or sorry, his snap rate

has gone down gradually over the year. They're starting to play Trey McBride, who's the second round pick a couple years ago a little bit more. I think the Cardinals

realized mercifully, mercifully, mercilessly, mercilessly. Mercifully. No, mercifully.

Mercifully. They're a rebuilding team and it makes no sense to play Zacherts. Like, what are they doing? Get your young guys some experience.

It's merciful to us that they're not playing Zacherts anymore. more. It's what I'm saying. And they're fans. Like as the, as the viewer at home. Right. Stop pretending to be like a contender.

Why are we trying out 32-year-old Zachary Tso. This is what I'm getting at. So anyways, bottom line, drop him. Does it matter? Life is pain. Eat Arby's. On that note. Next up, last one.

Dalvin Cook running back for the Jets. I'm sorry for the pun. Dalvin is cooked. Like, he's done. You can cut him. The Jets should probably cut him. I could go through all these numbers, but I just keep coming back to,

I cannot believe, this is the danger of letting Aaron Rogers pick players. I was going to say, did they sign him just because Aaron Rogers was like, hey, I like him. They're just stuck with him. They gave Delvin Cook 14 carries in week one,

and he's gotten 13 carries in the last three weeks. Like, Brise Hall is 10 times better. Served his purpose. He's getting paid. Which was a bridge between the beginning of the season and Brise Hall getting healthy. Okay,

Damien Williams just signed with the Cardinals. It's like a practice. Why, Dalvin Cook is getting $7 million this year. I mean, what purpose did he serve if he wasn't good at all? I mean, week two, he had four carries for seven yards. What purpose is that serving? Sorry, I won't. I take it back.

He hasn't served his purpose. Seven million dollars. One million dollars per yard in week two. Getting raked over the colds here for saying he served his purpose. He failed to serve his purpose, is what I'm about to say. Podcasts are so much harder than writing because the second, well, guess that's not true in many ways. But the only way in which it is harder is that if you just say something that pops in your head,

it's just out there now. And we can just jump down your throat. You can't like back you up, delete, delete, delete. Coffee editors. Yeah. I haven't had a thought about Dalvin Cook in a year. I haven't thought about him once. Yeah, I hope you don't have him.

If you do Godspeed, I certainly hope if you drafted him that he's gone. But if you still have him on your team, whatever you're thinking of, maybe you got hit in the head and think it's 2019. He's definitely not one of the old guys that have made it from the old guy team that we built. Seven million? Dang. Seven million dollars. I mean, the Colts didn't want to pay Jonathan Taylor like, what?

Like, what? Like 12 a year? I think I'm a little surprised that Zique has more juice than Dalvin. I don't know why. He's so much more juice. In theory, Dalvin and Zika's same situation. And in reality, he's getting half the points that has, I, that's enough of Dalvin Cook. Zeeke had like a 50-yard touchdown run called back.

and he outran the entire defense last week. I kind of feel like Zeeke doesn't have that much juice, but I'm just going to leave it at that. I feel like we're over. I think we're overstating his juice at this point. Well, he has more juice than Del and Cook, but they're both very low on the juice scale. Low bar.

I think that you know what it is? It's Zique looks like he is juice because he has just as much juice as Rommandre, but Rommandri is like not healthy. Something is, yeah. The least explosive running back in football. And so Zik, by comparison, you're like, oh, yeah, he still got it. if you put him next to like,

Breesol, Zeke would look ancient. Oh, 100%. Speaking of ancient, that's our power hour, but I want to mention Julio Jones signed with the Eagles.

Yeah. Are you, did he really? Yeah. I thought it was like, I literally was like, wait, is it April Fool's?

No, this is nowhere near April Fool's. What's going on here? I was like, is retiring with them? Oh, I know. He never played for them.

Right. Here's my first thought. I forget how good Julio is now. Purely in terms of aesthetics, and nothing else. Julio Jones and AJ Brown in the dark visors and I was saying this as a Giants fan

I will admit Julio Jones AJ Brown in visors in Eagles uniforms is one of the best aesthetic receiver duos ever in NFL history I mean just keep going like round out the whole team

DeAndre Swift is like one of the coolest looking running backs Jaylon zero yeah and Devazzi Smith now is like the perfect slim reaper guy yeah yeah it hurts

yeah they're really and then Dallas Goddard's there It's kind of hanging out Yeah his name's Dallas But he doesn't play for them Hey He catches screens He's frisky

Sometimes he like Pretends to catch the screens Like actually AJ's open Points you up It's like Jalen hurts his traffic cop Oh man And then Dallas Goddard's there That was good

Oh my God All right You guys want to do a little fantasy court Yeah Yeah All right. Today's fantasy court is brought to you by Jack Link's protein snacks. Let's go.

Let's go. The same without snacks. So feed you wildsouth. No, it's not. Beef jerky and beef sticks shop now at jacklings.com or find out your local retailer. Jack Links, Craig, it's your team name, isn't it? Actually, it's my fantasy team name in one of our leagues. Is it?

I'm just, every week I'm happy to be here with YouTube beef sticks. We're eating Jack Links, beef jerky. I'm having a great day. Any day with Jack Link's is a good day. And that's today. Thanks, Craig. Appreciate it. All right.

So before the, you know, there's a huge deficit in, you know, local governments. And I just think that we should get court sponsored. You know, not a thing that would affect the court. But like Jack, like beef jerky sponsoring your court, that doesn't seem problematic to me. We got to sponsor more things. I have no problem with that. Like, I want like. No one ever.

Who cares? I want to fly on Jack Link's airline. Whatever. Oh my God. All right. This is from Nick. Nick comes before the court. Nicholas.

Nicholas. Welcome. Nicky. Right before our draft in August, we voted on a bunch of proposed rule changes for this year. One of them was making every field goal three points regardless of the distance. But we were split on it, so we made a compromise. What?

And field goals, 59 yards or shorter, would be worth three. And the rare ones, the ones over 60 would be worth four points. Okay. However. It's assinine. You never see people vote the other way. It's usually like, we need to make field goals worth more if they're large. That is like a regressive rule.

That's like going back in time. That's like saying we voted for points per completion. However, our smooth brain commissioner forgot to fully change the settings in our ESPN league settings. So the 60-yard field goals were actually worth nothing. Okay. We didn't realize this until Harrison Butker kicked a six. 60 yard against the Broncos this Thursday. And Bucker got nothing for the kick.

And what ensued was... It's worth nothing? It doesn't like auto fill as three? No, the commissioner like screwed it up. He like unchecked it completely. He just... Because he tried to customize it. He did it wrong.

Anyway, we discover this mistake actually changed the outcome of an earlier matchup where a league member lost by three, but his kicker made a 60 yard field goal that gave him nothing, but should have given him the four points. So should... Oh, Fantasy High Court.

Should the mistake be fixed and the guy be retroactively awarded a win because of the four point rule change, which was everyone's expectation under the season, or should we live with this mistake and let it ride with 60-yard field goals being worth nothing? I like that.

Is 60 yards worth nothing? I think it's like a fun birth mark on the league, you know? It's like, this is just something we have. 60 yards are more, zero points. This is our league. Oh, man. I was going to go the other way with it. Me too.

Give him the win. This is crazy. he ever agreed on it, the commissioner screwed it up. At the very least, the commissioner should be like... Obviously, yes. If your league wants to do a bit, it's pretty funny. It's a good bit. It's a great bit. Or maybe like retroactively,

give them the points this week, but like next season maybe do the zero 60 thing. It's kind of funny. Yeah. Okay, so yeah, given the win. I mean, yeah, to be clear, yes, you should go back and vacate the championship for that particular week or whatever. because if it was like they messed up the amount of points you get for a touchdown,

obviously you're changing what happened before, right? Even though this is just feels like lost. I don't know, the ink of history is dry. I don't know. Don't think about it. Hopefully no one notices. Speaking of the bit, though, this is from Sam. This is incredible. Sam.

Just talking about a league committed a bit. Samuel. I have been involved in an injustice and I seek retribution. We have a rule at our league called president slash scum. President Scum Top point score every week

is able to force a trade with the person with the least amount of points that week They can do any trade they want So there are some rules This is like Kings Cup There are exceptions It must be a player

In your starting lineup They must be the same position As the person you're trading way And the president cannot force The scum to take an injured player The player has to be healthy That they're sending them way Having said that they have to take

A starting player A healthy starter at the same position. Now that I know the nuances of the rule, it's less egregious and it's kind of fun. It's essentially like white elephant, but for fantasy football. It is, but think about if you beat someone with Travis Kelsey

and they're the lowest scorer, then you could just swap Musgrave for Travis Kelsey and just have him now. Yeah, but I want maybe like a watered down version of this. I think this is maybe a little too extreme still, but I do like something within like, if you're in first, you get to force this trade. I love this.

Also, discouraging people from being the, like, this is incredible. So Sam writes, I've been struggling all season. I've arguably the worst roster in the league. I was off to an over for a start. But this past week, I became the president. Woohoo, Sam writes. On Tuesday, I sent the forced trade to the scum, which, and it was accepted. Long story short, the player that he sent that on Wednesday got a questionable tag on the

injury report, the commissioner changed the rules saying, not only is the player not not have to be hurt, but they can't be hurt entering the next week. So the player that he traded away wasn't hurt at the time But then later was listed with an injury The commissioner basically undoes the trade And Sam's question Well it basically says I appreciate the rule The rule was written maybe not in spirit of the rule

But player was healthy when he's traded Should the rule be changed after this instance Or should it just retroactively be applied? Like is it fair? Basically Sam's like I'm the president now. My start at 0 and 4 I want my freaking scum trade This is tough There's a fine line.

here. I'm curious how this player got hurt. Did he get hurt? Was it like an injury that they found after the fact? It went questionable. Do you get hurt at practice? I followed up with discovery for the exact player and we did not hear back, which I mean really is on the plaintiff to

provide the court with the evidence. This just goes to like, does the trade go into effect at the end of the week or the beginning of the week? You know? Oh, wait, he responded. It was Josh. He forced trade of Josh Jacobs from Miles Sanders. This was last week. and then Miles Sanders was listed on the injury report later.

Interesting. I feel like there's no way he could have known that. You know what I mean? Yeah. But then I think, but the spirit of the rule is you're not giving someone an injured player for the next week, right? I think he should just be forced to make. I think he just has to make a different trade because I do kind of agree with the injury rule. I think the player has to be healthy going into next week.

So just make him make a different trade, a different president's scum transaction. I just think a league where they have a rule called president. scum is it like huge on like the integrity of you know what I mean? I'm like are they really worried about fairness in a league where everyone voted a majority was like yeah take the worst team's best player yeah like that's crazy this is tough this is maybe the toughest fantasy court we've ever had because I really don't know what the best answer it is like we're dealing with an anarchic system this is a crazy league part of me is like he has no way of knowing that Miles Sanders is going to end up on the injury report and so when he

made that trade it was in good faith so they should just keep it I don't know what to do. This really like, this really like bifurcates the league. Like, I feel like all this does is create like a really strong upper class and a really shitty lower class. You know what I mean? It just makes the worst teams worse and the best team is better. Yeah, it's kind of like, yeah, it's just a friend group that's like codifying that,

you know what we're going to kick our friends with their down as a rule. Yeah. We're to take theirs. Wow. Cutthroat league here. All right. So what are we deciding? High Fitz.

You got to, I think, I think I'm on the side of he, I think the trade has to stand. because he didn't know at the time. I said, yeah, I think the trade stands, and then going forward, they can change it. There we go. This was very tough, though. Good question. Great rule.

A good fantasy court. Incredible rule. Last fantasy court here, I'll be real quick. This is from Stephen from Lake District in England. Longster short. Steve. Steve. They have a dynasty league and teams are tanking

because they want a better picks. And so he wrote in being like, I don't know what to do because everyone follows the rules of good faith. And basically, however, there were two, the two tanking teams faced each other. And he said, I don't know what to do because they technically followed the rules because they played everyone in the lineups. But the score was 23 to 42.

And I just want to read you, the lineup decisions that people made trying to tank. One team played Malik Willis over Jerkoff. Oh, no. They played Pierre Strong. They played Mikul Hardman over Chris Olavé. They picked up Gronk just to play him over Evan Ingram. And I'm just looking at it. Someone played at Trent Sherfield over Nico Collins.

And then someone, the person who won was because they thought it'd be, they played Kyle Pitts over John and Smith, which is hilarious? Wait, hold on, but isn't the rule that you have to field your best theoretical team? But what does that mean? That's the, how do you enforce, like, field your best team versus, that's the thing? How do you enforce that? Like logic? Like, projections.

If Rob Gruncowski is starting? Do they undo the score to reverse the matchup and force? Like, they're not trying to win. But how do you write a rule to enforce people to win? It all depends on the rule in your league. But like, for instance, my league has this rule too where you can tank. In other words, you can trade away all your best players, but you still have to put a lineup that would be in theory or defensible as like your best line.

Optimal lineup. Right, optimal lineup, yes. Because you don't want to just put in a bunch of guys that are going to get zero. Like that what are we fucking deal with? You know what I mean? So that, I think to me, that's the rule. That should be the rule. It's the spirit of the rule.

and I don't know. Like it just depends on how you want to do it, how the rule is written, but that's how I would do it. And I agree with Hyphids. Take control as the commissioner. Commissioners have, they're the commissioner for a reason.

That's why they make the big bucks, you know? All right. Today's fantasy course brought to by Jack Links. We've all got a wild side. Feed it with Jack Links, beef jerky and beef sticks. The perfect go-to snack for Game Day and Beyond made with 100% beef and no BS. That's BS isn't bad stuff. Shop now at jacklinks.com or find it your local retailer.

Jack Links. Jack Links. Okay. Emails? Emails. I mentioned we get the email sponsored by Jack Links. Have to start with last week. We talked about Return of the Mac.

Or not last week, like this week. And Return of the Mac peaked at number two on the Billboard charts because it was stuck behind him. Mbop. Mbop. Which is incredible. It all comes back. It all comes back to the fucking inside jokes on this show.

I don't know. It's weird. I keep hearing about Cloy's Box. I've heard about Cloy's Box about 50 times. since we talked about Cloy's Box at zero times before that. What is that phenomenon called where... When you hear about something,

for the first time and then it starts popping up everywhere in your life, it's called something. Once we find out the name, we'll hear about it all the time. Yeah, yeah. We should power rank names from the... We should just power rank random old people names.

The Bader Meinhof effect. We've talked about this before. We have. Okay. We definitely have. Wait, Hyvitz, would you have said that teenagers was not as big as Return of the Mac?

Because I feel like you wouldn't have. Probably not. I feel like you would have been like, oh, return of the Mac. That was bigger than teenagers. Yeah, I would have. Because that song is still in pop culture. Yeah.

Return of the Mark. Great song. All right. Derek emailed in with an idea for the Kai eating challenges because Kai Fieri. Derek said at the end of the waiver episode, Kai should select any of the fantasy players mentioned.

And if the player, I don't know, it doesn't, score well something we can find beats the projection whatever it is kai has to try a new food the next week and we can call it kai's guys i feel like kai's gonna quit if we make him do this over my dead body here's what kai should do we should make kai on mondays pick one of us three our waiver guys like he should have to pick who he thinks is going to have the best week next week so he can take dk's three guys crags or hyphitz's oh nice and then if he's correct he doesn't have

to try anything but if he gets last or something then the other two get to decide what food he has to eat. That's actually really good. As long as there's some sort of checks and balances on what the food is. No. No. Oh, okay. I guess I'm game anyways then.

It's not going to be like durian or goat sheep or kidneys. It's going to be like, I don't know. Haggis. Fish. You know what that is. Haggis? It's going to be stuff people eat in normal. Things that you can find out of menu.

Yeah. Or at a supermarket. Yeah. Haggis. No, look, we'll probably start soft, right? We'll start with like a pistachio. Is this something like I'm eating beforehand and then coming with my opinion or live? No, you're coming live. Live. Okay. So I have to acquire the food prior to. Yes. You can expense those foods and bring it on the show and we're going to force you to eat a Brazilian nut. Proof on our assumption. On live podcasting. That way, if you have an allergy, we can do something to.

Munster cheese. Again, low stakes. Cheese is an absolute, like, that's where I draw the line. I will not try any type of cheese. Cheese is the deal breaker. That is legitimately, I will not do that. The greatest achievement in Western culture. He didn't blink at eating whatever the fuck Haggis is.

It's like an intestine something or other. What about us? What about cheddar cheese? No. Swiss cheese. No. Cheddar cheese. The thing we put in everything for things we don't want to eat.

Cheese is like my least face. It's like what started at all, I think. Like, it just started hating cheese. Is it the texture or the taste? I think it's both, the smell. Like, I'm legitimately kind of scared of it in a way. Like, I don't like being nude. I don't like smelling it.

Like, it's... You want me to describe Haggis really quick? Please. Well, maybe not if you want me to try it. He's open to eating Haggis. He will eat Haggis. It's not what I said. Kai, we're not going to make you eat haggis.

I would not eat haggis. I don't know what it is. I'm scared. It's a Scottish dish consisting of sheep's or calf's awful, which is entrails. Internal. organs mixed with suet. What's suet? The hard white fat on the kidneys

of the loins of cattle. This sounds awful. Oatmeal and seasoning. Like a fear factor thing. Boiled in a bag typically made from the animal's stomach. That's, yeah, that's rough. Would you rather eat that or a craft single? It's close.

I have a follow up. I have a follow up. What about the cheese? What about artificial cheese flavor? Doritos, Nacho cheese, cheddar goldfish. Will you do that? It's a good question. I don't like nacho cheese Doritos, but I think it's not like a visceral disgust. It's just I don't really like it. I don't like Cheetos, but I will eat like cheeses or goldfish. And then the biggest curveball is that I will eat cheese on pizza. I just won't eat it in any other context.

Melted cheese. That makes no sense. Now I have more questions than I did to start. I'm down for this, though. I've been down. We'll see how long. Look, it'll be safe. You're going to try like a radish or something. It's not going to be anything super weird. I can't wait to tell my parents this and they're just not going to believe that I'm trying anything now.

We're going to be truly shot. We're going to have video proof of it. That's true. That's right. We're going to do a power hour or just 10 food items that the fans ranked for Kai to eat. Wait, that's the best idea we've ever had. I love that. Just shower cheese is off the fucking menu.

There's no way he's eating that. No, legitimately. Unless it's from Domino's. And it's just a slice of cheese pizza. He's cool with that. He's afraid of the cheese. I am. You talk about cheese the way some people talk about birds.

They're like, I had a bad experience when it was younger and I'm just afraid of them. I know it's weird. That's exactly right. I couldn't have put it better myself. My girlfriend will be eating something with cheese and I'm just like, like, please, I just can't do this. Can you go do that in another room? Oh, my God. All righty.

As always, thank you, Kai. That was illuminating. Can I just say the Quintoneton-Johnston segment? That was unnecessary. All right. Bullying. Okay? I just felt like I needed to get them off.

Teres Davis. Wait, no, that's not his name. Oh, that is his name. Oh, that is his name. Yeah. He's the kick returner. Cool. Really electric guy.

Anyway, I'm sorry. TC propaganda is done. He eats pizza. It's like when I was a kid, I had really strong opinions on the shapes of pasta. I was like, they taste different.

I won't eat the other ones. I think you should have strong opinions on the shape of pasta. No, it does make a difference. Yeah. Wasn't like, I prefer Oricetti for this pasta. It was like, I'll eat the wagon wheels of the alphabet noodles, but that's it.

Yeah, I like the ones that were shaped like SpongeBob characters. I was a kid. All right. Emails Carter, in honor of Frostburg State. Carter, in honor of Frostburg State, New Dame College, I think you'll miss a big opportunity. We'll talk about Craig Reynolds, the Detroit running back on the waiver episode. Craig Reynolds went to a college called Cutstown with a Cuts Town. Cuts Town.

Come on. Cuts Town. All right. I thought the Google. I read the email and I literally out loud. It was like bullshit. Craig begrudgingly is going to Google this. But he's not happy about it.

What state do you think it's in? And if you've looked it up. Ohio, just because I don't, Ohio. Did you look it up, D.K.? It is Pennsylvania. I just guessed. It sounds like Pennsylvania. Cutsown.

K-U-T-Z town. It's like the Notre Dame. People just put University of Pennsylvania in the rest of. made don't say it's the cuts down chapter. Their first game was against Assumption University. What?

What are we assuming? This is the whole point of going to college but you don't assume about assuming. Oh my God. I can't feel this is real. Dude, Cuts Town, 7,300 students. Worcester.

Assumption. Oh, my God. I that's actually stunning. Men will just spend four hours looking up small schools. Cuts town. Cuts town. All right, that's all we got. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Kai. Watch out for the cheddar cheese, Kai. He eats cheeses. Yeah, it's in the name. Doesn't make sense. Haggis. It doesn't make any sense. Thank you, everyone.

Behind the scenes. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Tucker. Thank you, Lorne. Lauren. Thank you, the Bee Gees. I'm sure we've done this before. We had an email or a tweet.

I can't remember because we were discussing how the BGs were named after Barry Gibb. And then we're like, what if our podcast was just named the Danny Kelly podcast or Rigger podcast or Rigger podcast, whatever? It'd be weird. It would be the D-Ks. Right. But apparently, I was told it was named after the brothers Gibb, not Barry. Oh, you know what? I think that's probably right.

I watched their documentary on HBO. It's very good. I recommend it. That's probably right. I doubt they just gave it to Barry. Barry's not that special. I love the Bee Gees. More than a woman is one of my top five favorite songs ever.

I feel like I heard that at your wedding. Can you confirm? You definitely did. Yeah. Night fever, also one of my favorite songs. I think they're great. Check out that doc. There's also a documentary on,

that the ringer films made called Mr. Saturday Night about Saturday Night Fever the movie and the BG's made all the music for that movie and it blew up and became like the highest selling album of the year. I think it was the first movie soundtrack

to be the highest selling album in a year. Good doc. BG's Doc on HBO also good. I'm trying to confirm that this is correct. BG. I'm sure it is. Yeah.

Also a lot of great, there's a great S&L sketch that they've done many times with Timberlake and Fallon where they play Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb? Have you seen that? I can't remember it not off the top of my head, but I've seen it. Timberlake plays Robin Gibb and doesn't speak, and it's just Barry Gavey yelling the whole time.

I'm Barry. Have it in Gip! That's how our planning means for the show go. It's just high fits. All right, goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states, Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit fandul.com slash RG in Colorado,

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