The Ringer NFL Show - Power-Ranking the Players You Should Give Up On (or Not??)

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

We power-rank the players you just don’t know what to do with—the guys who are killing you when you start them but they’re too good to drop. Then we check in on Danny Kelly’s 22 fantasy leagues as well as the Ringer fantasy league before another edition of Fantasy Court. Power Hour (9:26) DK Fantasy Check-in (42:13) Fantasy Court (49:41) Sign up and compete against us in the Bad QB League on FanDuel here.  Email us at [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Danny Hyfitz. Before we start the show today, I just want to shout out the ringer gambling show. Feed. Ben Solek, Warren Sharp, go on Wednesdays. You just heard Ben go three for three on prop bets on this podcast last week

while I was at a wedding. Thank you, Ben, for that. I'm going to add that to my record. Also, Warren and Joe House give their picks on Fridays. Warren and Verna go over the games on Mondays. It's a lot of fun. It's very informative.

I learned something every week. You can find the ringer gambling show. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Go to the ringer gambling show. Feed. Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. get your podcast in Spotify. All right, let's get to the show.

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyfitts. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Quirlebeck. Today it is power hour every week. We'll be power ranking something every Wednesday during the season. And this week, we are power ranking the players that you just don't know what to do with anymore. You know who they are. It's Miles Sanders and A.G. Brown and Alan Robinson and guys that are killing you when you start them,

but you can't cut them and you can't trade them because you have to get like 50 cents on the dollar for them. so it's like, what on God's Green Earth do you do? We'll tell you, maybe. We're going to go through all that and tell you if they're a start or a sit or what are they. But first, we have to discuss Derek Henry from Monday at football. Like, this is crazy. The dude is ridiculous. He's straight up ridiculous.

He's literally larger than life. In, like, figuratively and literally, he's just like the biggest star in the NFL. It's crazy. He's literally the biggest star in the NFL. You know what's weird about Derek Henry? And I don't know if you guys agree with me, but I actually don't think he looks that good when he's playing. He doesn't look that fast to me.

He's not really very nimble. I'm not like, wow, he juked that guy. What a cut. He's just enormous. He's incapable of being tackled. He's like a cow going downhill. I'm not like, he's not like some like kind of like freak of nature, Cadarious Tony, Sequin, any of these guys.

He just goes straight and you can't stop him. I would say I agree with you 100% on all that other than he is fast. Like when he gets going, it's like a freight train. He is so fast. I know what Craig's saying though where it's like, he doesn't look that fast. I don't know what his skills are. He runs fast. And he doesn't get hurt.

Like when you describe him, you're like, oh, he doesn't go down. But like the lateral stuff, it's just the relentlessness is the skill itself. Like that first run he had where he kind of went through the hole and then just accelerated straight between two safeties for the building. that are 40 pounds lighter than him and somehow not as fast. I mean, again, so he's 143 yards and three touchdowns last night. He could have had zero yards and zero touchdowns. He was still the running back one on the season.

Like he entered the game as the number one running back. He has the 143 yards to three touchdowns. Just put this in perspective. He's on pace for back to back 2,000 yard rushing seasons, which has never been done before. And he actually has more yards per game than he did last season. Yeah, everything he does is so impressive, considering the context of this is the past happiest version of the NFL we've ever seen. You know what I mean?

It's just like, he's breaking all these records and doing everything that he's doing in an era that is designed for passing. It's like all the rules favor passing. Passing is so much more efficient. Craig, you said it a few weeks ago. The Titans are the one team in the world right now that come, they come back by running Derek Henry. Like, it doesn't make any sense. It's absolutely backwards. It's so weird.

Not only that, he's also on pace for 29 rushing touchdowns. Insane. So there's two things about Derek Henry. Number one, we joked a couple days ago about next year we're going to get Memento tattoos, like things that we just can't forget in the offseason. I'm getting tattooed on my body. And number one thing I'm going to get tattooed for next fantasy football season is draft Derek Henry by any means necessary.

Yeah. Like, get Derek Henry. I'm getting that tattooed right across my chest. I'm not, barring like a major injury, he is the unquestionable number one pick and fantasy next year. Yes, that's what I was just going to say. That's like easy. I guess my real question for you guys, and I really only thought about this last night, it occurred to me two things. I'm like, I guess he's like a first ballot hall of famer.

And I am now really just, I stopped. Last night I stopped thinking about him in terms of is he the best running back in the NFL. And I really just started thinking about him. I was like, where does he rank on the best running backs I've ever seen? Peter Schrager just talked about this with Dan Patrick, that if he didn't play another snap, he'd be a Hall of Famer. I think that's true.

And I also, like, I think Adrian Peterson's, that 2000-yard Viking season has been number one in my mind forever. I still think it is. But Derek Henry's, this stretch he's in right now,

this three-year stretch, I don't think it's any lower than two. Like in my lifetime, I can't speak to Jim Brown and like all these Walter Payton. I wasn't alive for that. Well, that's what I was going, going to say hyvitz too is like you know he's a throwback runner and i and i'm afraid to compare him to

some of the old guy like you said you know the the jim brown or whoever um but in our lifetime in our lifetime or at least the time the time i've been watching football he is a wholly unique player right like there's just never been anyone else like him um and so it's really fun to watch that i was just dying cracking up uh i don't remember exactly what point in the game it was when he got through the hole into the second level, and there's just a perfect video, there's perfect shot. I don't know, commend the cameraman who caught this, but it was like Derek Henry running down

Micah Hyde, and he had to fill the guy, he had to come down and tackle Derek Henry, like head on, like, Derek Henry was running full steam. And everyone, it looked like he was getting the way of a train. It really, it honestly did. Like those people who try to stop people from cutting down a tree

and they're like, you get in the way of like the construction, like construction crews. Yeah, it was like such an incredible, like, piece of physics to watch. Like, it was just actually just, I was dying. And it was so funny because I saw, like, everybody was talking about this on, on Twitter live when it happened. And I saw Evan Silva.

He was like, I commend Micahive for his courageousness and bravery. And it was just, like, just even attempting that tackle, you got to, like, take your hat off to Mikeahe. I think it was Mikeahe. Well, that's kind of what's so interesting about Henry is, like, he's not like the Leonard-Fornet at LSU, even like the kind of violent runners that we see, like the Nick Chubs where they're kind of like seeking out contact

and they lower the shoulder and they're running into the people. Marshaun Lynch. He's not like that either. He literally is, it's almost as if he doesn't even know there's anyone around him on the field. He's just like, I'm just going to run straight to the end zone and people will bounce off me like pinballs.

Like he doesn't seek out contact. He doesn't try to juke. He's just like, I'm going to run straight. Nobody can do anything about it. It's so awesome. It's like he runs with a blindfold. It's true. He goes from point A to point B and just not really anyone gets in the way.

It is unlike anything else I've ever watched. Craig, I really want to know this, though. Like, who do you think are the best running backs you've ever seen? And I'm not so much statistics because the statistics will love him forever. There's a couple amazing ones. I think the one. Like Frank Gore or whatever. He's on pace to be the first guy to ever do back to a dozen yards seasons when everyone says that's not possible.

But for me, I feel like Adrian Peterson is number one in my mind. But I feel like that's because I was younger. And if I were like a kid these days, who's like a cooler running back to see if you're like a 12 years old? right now. You can see every running back in NFL history through the eyes of 12 year old yourself. Derek Henry's very high on that list. Yeah, I don't, you know, it's Adrian Peterson. It's Ladanian Tomlinson, but that was because of fantasy. It was because he used to like throw a touchdown, catch a touchdown, and that was really cool. He wasn't as good though. No, he wasn't. I mean,

you could point out guys, I thought like Jamal Charles was incredible to watch. I was going to say Charles. Derek, it's, yeah, it's Derek Henry or Adrian Peterson. The consistency with Henry, though, is eclipsing these other guys on the list. And you know what's also. funny about this year is he's going to destroy his receiving records. Yes! They kept doing the screens to him and I'm like, this is over now. This is incredible. He already has the second most

receiving yards of his career. We're at the point now where, yeah, until he gets hurt, he's the number one pick in perpetuity. But he's going to be 28 next year. I don't know. You're right. A lot of miles. It's just like, I think that we should when we're like, hey, why does he work on the catching the off season? Maybe he works on just being an absolute

force of nature. Anyway, okay. We, yeah, Derek Kennedy, go to football. Okay. All right. Let's get to players you should give up on or not. Yeah. We'll tell you what to do. So I made these rankings today.

If you think they suck, you can email us at ringerfinacy football at gmail.com or Dekin and Craig can speak for you live in real time as I, I'm, so I ranked them in order of how frustrating and confused. You don't, how much you don't know what to do with these dudes? Like how confusing is the situation, the angst you feel of like, do I start, sit, do I try? trade them away. Party wants to cut them. You don't listen to that party. There's a helplessness to these people. Yeah, the helplessness. And then we're going to go through these guys and we're going to go through, are they a start moving forward, are they a sit moving forward, or are you willing to like trade them away for like 50 cents on the dollar? Yeah. And you're like, you know, I'll take it. Yeah. So with that said, my number one,

I feel, I have no idea what to do with them players. I'm actually going to go one and two together. Or AJ Brown and Julio Jones. Yeah. The Titans receivers have been absolutely so infuriating this season. And the last night, the money into football game, in a way, somehow made me feel better about AJ Brown because he had like the Chipotle diarrhea, which was really tough for me to hear because I like had Chipotle while watching that game. So I didn't like, didn't like him to say that after. Chipotle, PR is just in crisis mode right now, by the way. I am serious.

They have endured through literally everything. They cannot be, they are the Derek Henry of fast food chains. If I was A.J. Brown, I would have DM them on Twitter and been like, hey, pay me like a couple hundred thousand dollars and I'll like not talk about what company it was. I'm just saying like it's worth, they wish they could go back in time and give money for that. You get pulled up on Rico, on Rico charges. That's not a crime? He's like, I'm going to talk about this. Wasn't there a whole E. coli thing with their lettuce?

That was never a virus like 10 years ago maybe. That did not stop me. I kept going. Yeah, me too. I mean, it's a massive company. Anyway, Chipoli's good. The point being,

I don't know if A.J. Brown is good. And this was his best game of the season. It was still fine. Lost in the food poisoning. Didn't Herrick County make a toilet paper joke? Food poisoning was very polite. Yeah, it was like he just, they made sure to get him a lot of toilet paper.

Lost in all of that was that he actually admitted last week that he's going to be on it. For the hamstring injury, he's going to be on a snap count the rest of the season. So, or not so the rest of the season until week 10. He's not going to do a, rotation till week 10. So I'm curious. I have my thoughts. Do you guys think A.J. Brown is a start, a sit, or would you trade him for 50 cents on the dollar going forward? And then we can't to Julio. If it wasn't for that second half, it was enough for me, man. It's the Michael Corleone Godfather 3. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. That is how I feel.

About AJ Brown. He's so electric to watch that it was enough for me to say, like, don't trade him yet. Yeah. I'm a firm. I'm starting him. I'm not. even hold I'm not even holding him. I'm starting. I'm going for it. I'm back in. I don't care if it makes me look stupid. It probably will. Look, he had he has a 25.8% target rate this year. Like that's still really elite. This is a this is an offense that is I still think it's trying to find it itself and like figure itself out. Obviously they have Derek Henry. They know that's what's happening. But like Tannihill to me has still been a little hit or miss. Even though he's, I think he's probably been pretty solid if you look at like the stats and like

the big plays and things like that. But like, I don't know, I just. think this offense has been fits and starts because Jones has been hurt. Brown has been out. He's been hurt when he's been playing. I think the snaps thing, high fits, to your point, this is what they did with him last year, too. It's basically like he's not playing on run downs. And he's running routes on passing downs. So like in other words, when the, when the Titans drop back to pass, he's running a route on like, I think it was like 80 something percent of those plays. So he's still getting the volume or he's still getting the snaps that you want, even though they're on they're limiting his snaps.

Isn't that just a massive tell for a defense? Yeah, but they don't give a shit. It's Derek Henry. It doesn't matter. They all know you're going to run Derek Henry. It's Chipotle. You're going to still eat there. Yeah.

So, yeah, bottom line, I'm keeping brown. I'm holding on to it. Kind of like hoping better days are coming with his offense in general. And just with him as he gets healthy, I'm not too worried about the snap count thing. And I think in fantasy, sometimes you just have to, like, have faith in the talent. And he's still an elite talent who is young and, like,

in his prime. he's declining, you know what I mean? So that's where I am. So we're on the same page with AJ Brown. You keep playing him. Julio Jones. Get the hell out. I'm out.

I don't even think he's his sit. I would trade him for 50 cents on the dollar. Yes. Like I don't want him on my team. He left, he entered this game of the hamstring injury, left it with a hamstring injury. I can't live like this anymore.

So I started thinking like who would I actually trade it? Like what would I actually, who could you realistically even get with Julio? And where I came to is he's actually the second guy you throw in for a better player. You know, like the classic like, oh, this guy and you got to throw in someone's second. I actually think Julio's the perfect person to put in that trade.

Yeah. Because one-on-one, who wants him? Yeah. Name value, maybe we'll carry a little bit, but like I put down like, you get Corey Davis. If you could get Sterling Shepard, if you can get. Oh, I would take both of those guys in a heartbeat. I put Lavisca Chanel. Yeah, Levisca.

Jalen Wattle, who's probably honestly too much, you probably couldn't get. Elijah Mitchell? Would you take, would you? Oh, my God, yes. Elijah Mitchell for Julio? 100%. It's always hard to even talk about running back for receiver trades.

And we should just remember this every time forever in that like, as much as we always talk about zero running back, you still do want a lot of running backs because in week five, everyone just wants running backs. And you cannot, like no one cares about your receivers.

Yeah, everyone in your league is running back needy right now. Exactly. So, but yeah, Julio is, I just, I can't handle them right now. By the way,

we didn't really mention the ding thing. The reason you just heard the ding now is we did four minutes for that. Julio and AJ Brown. It was two guys together. Okay. So we decided we're in, we're starting A.J. Brown. We're selling Julio. We're selling low on Julio.

We're getting 50 cents on the dollar. We don't give a shit. Okay. And he's injured, by the way, so good luck trading him. He can't finish a game. Listen, it's okay. I mean, he's old and he's in an incredible career. But like every third route, he limps off.

Yeah, we get Corey Davis for him. I like that. He still makes the most incredible plays, though. Like, for real. Don't care. Yeah. I mean, I get it. I get it.

I get it. Number three, most, I don't know what to do with this guy anymore. I put Alan Robinson. Bears receiver. I mean, Alan Robinson was drafted this season as on average, like the wide receiver 11.

Sheesh. He's currently the wide receiver 58. But there are a lot of stats I can give you about Alan Robinson. The only one that matters is he would be if he were on the Lions the third highest fantasy scoring receiver

on the Detroit Lions. It has fewer fantasy points that are Cephas and fewer than Khalif Raymond. That's all you need to know. So, I could talk forever about how bad he is.

Despite, that. I think he's a hold. For the simple reason that he's a sit. You can't play him until he starts playing better, but you also, I don't think it's a good idea to trade Alan Robinson for the inevitably deplorable offer that you will get in exchange. I do think he will get slightly better

as the season goes on and maybe eventually his trade values higher or eventually he could be like flex option. But I think basically his target share is still alright. The Bears will start passing more and A. Rob will have slightly more value. But I wouldn't play him yet. What do you guys think? I think you should just trade him for another buy-low guy. Like, flip him for another guy to another disgruntled manager who's upset with their player,

like Robert Woods or T. Higgins, A.J. Brown. Because I like the quarterbacks and all those other teams. You got Stafford with Woods. You got Burrow with Higgins and you got Tannenhill with AJ Brown. I think Alan Robinson might be fine next year. But I'm just not confident that Justin Fields is going to evolve that much by the end of this year. and I don't want to play that game. So I would rather trade him away to another guy who's a better quarterback

who's just not performing well right now. What do you think, D.K.? Yeah, and I think the story with Alan Robinson his whole career has been, he's quarterback proof, he's quarterback proof, he's quarterback proof. He always produces no matter what quarterback he has, which is why he was the receiver 11,

you know, in the preseason. But what we're finding out is he's not offense-proof completely. And I think it's the offense is the problem here. It's a slow, very, very, like, run-heavy, conservative offense. like they're not going to ask Justin Fields to throw it more than like 20 times a game, which is just really terrible. You're going to have all these like you might have a good week here and there.

You might have an explosion week here and there. But you're going to have tons of like five, six, seven point like outings. It's just going to be so frustrating. He has a 23.6 percent target rate. 18th, most in the NFL. He is 41st in targets. So that just kind of tells you this offense is just, my God. They don't throw the ball.

It's like pulling teeth. It's not even a bad passing offense necessarily. Like, it's just a slow, low volume passing offense, and I don't trust it. So I'm selling. No disrespect to the timer, but I hate when we're like trade this player without saying who. I'm going to just say guys, and you're actually going to say yes or no, you would trade Alan Robinson straight for that guy. Michael Pittman.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Jalen Waddle. Yeah. Henry Ruggs. Yeah.

That's like where it starts to be. That's the line. Pretty similar. Darnel Mooney. Would you trade Alan Robinson for Darnel Mooney? Oh, my God. Okay. I just wanted to give people an idea.

What about Tyler Higby at tight end? Well, that's hard. If you need a tight end, then yeah. So, like, the reason I did, I did same position comps and also cross-position comps just because I know a lot of people, a lot of times are not like trading a receiver for receiver. They're trading a receiver because they need a running back. They're trading a receiver because they need a tight end.

So I just want to throw out some names. Would you trade Tyler Higby for Alan Robinson? Would you trade Alan Robinson for Tyler Higby, I should say? Orkisic. I would definitely do it for Gisiki. I don't think you could get. I don't know if you can get Gisciki for L. No, you probably couldn't.

I think the guy who has Mike Gisickey is really happy. I would trade him from like Melvin Gordon. Yeah. What about Hunter Henry? No, that's why I disagree with you to. I don't think Alan Robinson's trade. I think you sit because we just said that out loud. Would you trade Alan Robinson for Hunter Henry?

That's the line for me. No, just sit him and wait and let the, once he has a good game or two, then like people will be more open to give you more. I don't think you're fair right now. Okay. Okay. Number four most, I don't know what to do

with this guy anymore player. Miles Sanders, Eagles running back. I think he's possibly the single most annoying player in all fantasy football,

maybe even more so than Alan Robinson. Miles Sanders has not scored a touchdown this season. And in half PPR, he has not cracked seven and a half points

since week one. The Eagles are so anti-running the ball this season that the Eagles fans actually did a mock standing ovation for them when they read the,

the ball in the second half. Like they were making fun of Nick Seriani because he called a run in the second half. Can you imagine that? Getting a standing O for calling a run? Having said that. In this economy? I actually think Miles Sanders

is actually a buy low. I would trade for Miles Sanders because there is a 98% chance that the person who has Miles Sanders in your league is fucking sick of him. And then I think you could get him for like nothing. Alan Robinson, I would trade him for Miles Sanders.

I think you could toss Julio for Miles Sanders. Chase Edmonds. I actually think Miles Sandler. he's playing, I think that he's actually a really good opportunity. What do you guys think? I agree. He's like, if you look at the last two weeks, he's been playing a ton more. I don't know if it's a Siriani changing his tune or what, but he is now, there was like

this whole Kenneth Gainwell, they're kind of splitting touches. That's gone. He's now playing 70, 80% of the snaps. I'm talking about Miles Sanders. And I will say, one of the things about Miles Sanders is like the schedule has been really hard. I feel like it hasn't really bode well for him so far this season. and I think it's going to get a lot better,

and you can kind of see in the way that he's getting touches that that might be the case. So, like, they're playing Vegas, Detroit, the charges who suck against the run in the next three weeks. And I mean, they just played Tampa,

they played Carolina, they put the Chiefs, they played Dallas. These are all teams that destroy them and they get down really early, and then Miles Sanders doesn't get any touches.

I think that might kind of change and things might even out a bit for Philly. So I kind of like Miles Sanders as a buy. And I think you should do it this week. Yeah. He's going to be cheap. That's a nice thing.

That's the thing. The person who has him is frustrated with him. Yeah. And I think Miles Sanders can still end up a top 50 guy rest at the season. Would you guys trade like Cole Beasley? Would you give up Cole Beasley for Miles Sanders? That's like perfect for me. Because receivers are a dime a dozen.

Like in that ideal world, you're doing exactly that. Like you're trading a replaceable receiver for a running back that will immediately shoot up in my mind back to like top 15, top 20 status. And like, that's what everyone needs. Everyone just needs running back. Everyone is too many receivers. I that's exactly what I'd like to do Yeah

Number five most I don't know what to do With this guy Do I give up on this guy Player I keep changing that Every time I do the player Whatever Robert Woods Our old Bobby Trees

Rob Forrest I mean he's been immensely frustrating Not only has he only Seriously he's only Top 65 yards like once the season More importantly Everyone who has him

And many of our Bobby Forrest Faithful here Probably have the Cooper Cup FOMO Because you might have taken Bobby Trees Over Cooper Coo Cooper Cup and you just want to slam your head into a wall.

I get it. Having said that, been there, been there. You have to stay the course. You have to, like, start him. You have to keep starting him in the next few weeks. What do you guys think? Yeah, I don't think, it's one of those things where, I guess they don't actually mind if you try and trade him and lose a little bit. I don't think you're going to lose, like, you're not going to lose 50 cents on the dollar with him, I think, because he's close enough to that really big blowup game.

He scored a touchdown last week. You can talk people into your people can talk themselves into this idea that he's in an elite offense, he's still going to have a big target share, and it's going to be fine. So I don't think you're selling him for like 50 cents on the dollar. So I wouldn't necessarily discourage you from trying to trade him if you have an opportunity to do so. However, I do think he is a hold because... I actually disagree.

I think you actively should not trade him away because the Lions, Texans, and Titans are the next three games. The Rams actually the rest of the season have the easiest set of past defenses that they're facing. That's a good point. Yeah, that strength is a schedule thing. Just wait two weeks. and Robert Woods has a really good chance at like a huge game in the next two or three weeks

and then you can train him but like I just I think Robert Woods you've come this far give it like two or three more weeks and then go from there. You mentioned his schedule I wanted to ask you guys this. It probably is not backed by analytics but am I crazy or do really easy

matchups against really shitty teams sometimes make you feel worse about a player's potential to go off that week? Like with what the Rams just did to the Giants when I see that the Rams are playing the Lions, I'm actually less confident that more players on the Rams can have a big day

than if the Rams were playing like the Chargers, where I know the game's going to be close. Does that sound right? When I hear, oh, they're playing Miami, they're playing the Lions, they're playing the Jags, I'm like, oh, great, they're going to get up early and no one's going to catch any passes and Cups going to have two touchdowns in the first half, and that's it.

I think there's a gray area. I think there's a gray area there. I think that for some teams, it might be specific. Like, if you're going against a team that has a shut down corner or like a really elite defensive secondary, that worries me. So, like, in that case, I would worry about, like, the strength of opponent or whatever. In terms of, like, you know, this is a good team they're going up against and they have an elite

secondary. I don't really want to mess with that, to be honest. Because then they could just end up not getting anything going. You know what I mean? Like, if you're playing a really good team and you can't get your offense going, that's much more scary to me than playing the Lions when I know at least they're going to how can, they're going to, like, score points in the first half before they kind of, like, take their foot off the pedal. Does that make sense?

I was going to say, Craig, but when I say strength of schedule, what I'm talking about is, like, four fantasy receivers, they have the best remaining strength of the schedule. No, I know, but I, sometimes that makes me think that, see, when somebody says they give up the most points to wide receivers, that could just mean the number one wide receiver on that, on whatever team this defense plays goes off a ton. But Robert Woods is not the number one wide receiver on the Rams. So, like, that might just mean Cooper Cup will go nuts again, but will there be enough time for Stafford to spread the ball around

to get guys like Higby and Woods involved. That's kind of what I'm asking. Do you know what I mean? You'd still rather the pie be really big than like medium. Like I think I'd rather Dallas play the Patriots than play the Lions. Is that weird? I don't think I feel that way.

I mean, like you want more pie to go right. I mean, like you want Robert Woods to have a big slice of pie. So like you want a bigger pie. I think it's that simple. Yeah, I just, yeah, I don't know. I want the game to be closer, I guess. You want shootouts every week, which is, I think.

think the right idea. Yeah. Okay. Well, we have just grossly disrespected the timer this fall. Oh, no.

This week, we've been really disrespecting it. Borderline is insignificant today. I forgot it was there. Yeah, it's, we'll clearly have to replace the thing soon. We'll discuss that at the end.

Okay, number six guy that we don't know if we should give up on a chase Claypool, who has been absolutely maddening. He has one elite game and has, he just ghosted people this week and was supposed to be a good matchup. Gug was out for the season. The Seahawks were terrible. defense and yet he ghosted people.

I actually do not think he's a, don't trade him away. I actually think you have to keep playing. And what do you think, do you know? I'm still holding strong. I still think in this offense, it's going to be a funnel offense to Deontay Johnson and Chase Claypool with Jujo S masseuser out for the year now. And Nagee. Well, yeah, that's true.

Nage is getting a lot of it. But it's sort of like it's a different part of their passing game. The thing I'm, I'm actually curious by this, Craig. Because at some point last year, I think we all decided, and I'm talking about, like, people in the dynasty, like, community, especially, like, this is the next superstar receiver. Like, he is ascending to a new plane. He's, like, a top 10, maybe I don't know what he was, top 15 dynasty receiver, like, in the NFL. And I think ever since, like, preseason and, like, the first few weeks, like, that has really died down. Like, people are maybe, like, this guy might not actually be that good.

Where are we at with, like, how good Claypool is, just, like, bottom line? or is it like a function of the offense more? I think it's 100% a function of the offense. So you're not losing faith. That's fine. That's good. That's good. I mean, he's not,

I don't think he's actually been that bad. He's had 70 plus yards in three or five games. He's 17th in the league in targets. Like, it's fine. He'll come back. He's just been banged up. He's had the hammy issues, which is the perfect time for a buy week for them so he can heal up.

He does have a little bit of the Mike Williams, Julio vibes where like every time he like makes a play, you're like, oh, did he just hurt his hamstring? Yeah, yeah. But no, every time you watch him run a route, or take a jump ball, he looks like an absolute monster. Just like the alpha, yeah. He brings everything down.

I mean, he was like three inches outside of having like a 40-yard catch on that Sunday night. I don't know if you remember that deep on the left side of the field. He was barely outside. He caught some 50-50 ball. I mean, he still looks like a Mike Williams to me. So, no, I don't think we have to worry. I just think the offense is pitiful. So you're playing.

He's a start for you like you're not even sitting. I think you got to start him. The upside's too high. I think so too. He's getting so many targets. I get 17th in the NFL in targets. That's pretty good. Number seven, Terry McLaurin for Washington.

Drafted as the wide receiver 10 is wide receiver 17, which doesn't seem so bad, except if you have him, you know, he's had two blow-up weeks and four single-digit weeks. Now he's the hamstring injury, and it's like, is he just fine? Like, D.K., like, what do you do with Terry McLaurin? What do you do with this guy? I don't know, it's tough because the problem is his QB sucks. Like, you know, I think there was a thought for a little bit there

that Taylor Heineke could be like a frisky. could be like a frisky kind of like a Ryan Fitzpatrick style quarterback. I'm just kind of like at this point, he's not very good to me. Like I don't think he's very good. It's just too limited physically. 56% of Terry McLaren's targets this season, or sorry, over the last four weeks, I saw this from PFF, 56% of them are uncatchable. And that is the worst in the NFL among the years.

Did you say 50, like more than half of them are uncatchable? More than half of the passes in his direction are uncatchable. So he's getting all these prayer yards, you know, the air yards that are never have any chance of being completed kind of deal. So it's really like, it's a problem that we're going to run into with a few of the receivers on this list. It's just like, I don't trust the quarterback.

I don't trust him to get the ball like consistently. It's very difficult. If you have someone who is a big believer in McLaurin, I think he's a cell. But I also, I don't think, I'd lean, I definitely lean more like, hold on to him. Maybe Ryan Fitzpatrick will be back in a few weeks

and things will get better. Because I think he's a super talented guy. He has like an elite target rate. He's actually sixth highest target rate in the NFL right now. So like the volume is there. It's exactly what you want. The problem is the quarterback sucks. So I don't know.

I'm a hold. I'm still starting him because you have to kind of deal. But I don't feel great about it if that makes sense. Would you guys trade him for any of the three wide receivers in the Bucks? Wow. That's tough. This is a great question. Way to frame it because the Bucks problem is they're not enough targets.

Great quarterback, not enough target rate. I would, I mean, I definitely would trade it for Antonio Brown. I would trade him for Mike Evans because I think that. Or I trade him for games. Evans just had a bad game. I think Mike Evans is going to get much better. And then that's kind of like you just kind of trade red paper clip trade. I think this is the, this is the Chris Godwin line.

Like, I don't know if I would trade for Godwin, to be honest. Team X hard. Because he's also guaranteed to blow up on your bench and then be bad at your line. You got to start. So on that, all right. So on that note, though, let's just do the buck. because Chris Godwin is the emblematic one here. Chris Godwin hasn't done anything for a few weeks,

which wouldn't be a problem if, like, Antonio Brown was not eating Godwin's lunch. And the fact that Chris Godwin now just seems to just be lower in the pecking order for the buck's offense to Antonio Brown, even if that's not true, if you have Chris Godwin, it feels that way. Right. I actually think Chris Godwin is a start. I wouldn't trade him. I wouldn't even sit him.

I think Chris Godwin's time is coming. And he is going to get better. and it's like weather the storm, he's still incredible. What do you think, D.K.? Yeah, I really don't have the mental fortitude to bench Chris Godwin. I just don't. Like, I don't want to watch the Buccaneers score 40 points a game and be like, oh, I'm an idiot. I sat Chris Godwin.

Like, he had two touchdowns in this game. The problem is he is a little bit touchdown or bust, but this offense is so fucking good that he still might get a touchdown and it wouldn't be that surprising. You know what I mean? So it's like, you don't want to miss out on the explosion games. It reminds me a little bit of like Peaked Lockett when he's with Russell. Wilson, like you're going to have a few dud weeks, but you're also going to have some really good ones. Just to talk about the Buccaneers in general, like, the problem with the Buccaneers is, like,

most of the time you want, like, the offense to funnel through two receivers. This one really does funnel through three. All three is, Mike Evans, Antonio Brown, and Chris Godwin, all have under 20% target rates this season, which is terrible. Like, you, like, for an elite receiver, you want, like, 25%. And so that's, like, that's what makes them scary to start in any given week. However, I just love this offense. I want to be, like, I want a piece of the Tom Brady offense. So, yes, I'm starting him and they continue to do that. It's going to have a few down weeks.

There's going to be some disappointments along the way, but there's also going to be some really good weeks. And he's going to win you games, probably, too. So, yeah, I'm holding him and starting him. Yeah, he basically has the, if you look at these three guys, they pretty much all have the exact same amount of yards and the exact same catches. The only difference is that Chris Godwin has two less touchdowns than Antonio

Brown and Chris Godwin. He has four more targets than Antonio Brown. So I think it's coming. I think it's just been a little bit of, you know, bad luck. Would you rather have Chris Godwin or Terry McLaurin? I think I would rather have Chris Godwin. I think I'd actually go McLaurin. Yeah, like I said before, this is like the line right here.

I don't know what to choose. Chris Godwin's the wide receiver 24 in the season. I mean, that's not terrible. He's a wide receiver, too. And he's been bad. Well, this, I'm already sorry to have Vance DK. Okay, the number nine, I'm pairing them together. Number nine and number 10, guys.

Let's make this four minutes, Greg. Number nine and number 10 guys that you don't know what to do with anymore. It's Tyler Locker to DK Metcalf for the Seahawks. I mean, this is really tough. Like, they were doing well. Maybe not like exactly what we wanted, but it's like they were doing fine. And then Russ is out. And I mean, Tyler Lockett feels borderline unplayable.

And DK Metcalf should be a start, but feels like he isn't. I mean, D.K., like, I'm just going to cede you the floor. Like, Locket, let's do Lockett. first. I feel like you can't play lock until Russell Wilson comes down. Yeah, he's unfortunately going to be like on my bench, yeah, I would say. And I wouldn't blame you at all if you try to decide to just trade low on him right now. Maybe you could like pour a little honey in someone's ear and be like, hey, look, Russell Wilson's coming back in week 10. Then they're going to have to like air it out and they're going to be coming back from behind a lot. Their

defense sucks. It's going to be shootouts, blah, blah, blah. Maybe you could tell people that. And hope for hope that you can convince someone like the Seahawks in the second half are going to which, you know what? It honestly could happen. But for now, I would just say he's more of a hold and sit on your bench type player. I would not start him as long as Gino Smith is starting. We've mentioned this before. It's like, Gino Smith is not Russell Wilson in terms of like the 70-foot or 70-yard touchdown bombs down the field, which made Lockett such a great play so many times is because

Russell Wilson, Tyler Lockett, Mind Meld, it's been established for years now. It's just not the same. And I think he's honestly still probably still a little bit banged up, which makes it even worse. exacerbates everything. So, yes, he is a sit. Would you rather have Tyler Lockett or Devante Smith? Shit, I might even, I might take my chances with Devante Smith.

It's that bad. Would you rather have Tyler Lockett or Henry Ruggs? Locket. I think I'd still hang on to Lockett because Russell is going to come back. Like, he'll be back in a month. What about Tyler Locker to chase Claypool to both of you?

I think I would go Claypool because he's going to help you more in the next few weeks. I think so, too. What about switching positions here? Would you trade Tyler Lockett for James Connor? No. No.

Would you trade Tyler Lockett for Damien Harris? No. I hate Damien Harris. You hate him? I'm sick of that. Can we switch to Metcalf? Would you trade D.K. Metcalfe? What's the deal with D.K. Metcalfe?

D.K. Metcalf is not... I would not trade him. Oh, you think he... But his value has to have taken a hit. I was going to suggest... Yeah, his value took a hit. He's definitely not going to be like a top five or a seven or whatever. We considered him earlier in the C.

season type guy. I'd say he's like a high end wide receiver two type player, but I'm not trading him. I still think he's going to have value. He's going to score touchdowns. He's the more dominant guy. I want to do the trade thing, though,

just to give people an idea of what to expect. Adam Thielen or DK Metcalf? I would still stick with D.K. To more Chase or D.K. Metcalfe? Probably Chase. Wow. Okay. DeAndre Hopkins or D.

Probably Metcalfe. Hopkins is concerning because Hopkins is his target rate, you guys, did you guys realize this? like 17%. It's like the lowest of his career. He's surviving on touchdowns. He's surviving on touchdowns, which it's tough to like, you know, continue at that rate. Maybe his target rate will go up.

But it worries me. And DK Metcalf, meanwhile, has like one of the best target rates in the NFL. He's 22.9. I agree with you that Hopkins is a really good trade candidate because he has huge name value and he's good enough. And he's done well enough this season. He's coming off a big game. I actually, if you can get a deep, DeAndre Hopkins as Hall, I would trade DeAndre

Hopkins. Back to D.K. Metcalfe, D. Maccaught for Marquise Brown. Oh, God. Why do you always make me decide on Marquise Brown? I feel like every time I talk about Marquis Brown, the opposite happens. Like D.K. Choosing a son.

Yeah, sure. Yeah. I'd take Marquise. I would take Marquise. Okay. I just want to give people in it. So you basically, we're all starts. So DKs just start.

Lockett to sit. Probably don't want to trade either yet because when Russ comes back, fantasy playoffs, they'll probably both be really good. Is that how all the three of us feel? Yeah. Okay.

Right with the bell, baby. I love hearing the thing about how most people, after the mallet finger injury that Russell Wilson had can bend their finger by 10% after one week. He's at 75. It's like, of course he is. Yeah, it's the micro bubbles or whatever they're called.

All right, number 11 guy, I don't know what to do with anymore. I think it's Darren Waller, which, not that you're not playing him, but he's the tight end five, but it's a disappointing tight end five because that technically means like Gronk is behind him, but like Gronk obviously outperformed him per game. I think you don't really have a choice. You have to start him. Because I also wouldn't trade him low.

But basically I feel like there are probably Darren Waller people looking at the rankings and be like, couldn't I trade him to the Dalton Schultz guy for Dalton Schultz and like a better running back or something? This is the only, I don't agree with this ranking. I don't think he should be on this list. I don't think he's a guy you don't know what to do with or if you should give up on him. I mean, come on. He's a tight and five. I mean, yeah, I think to be real, he's like an auto start. I'm not thinking about benching.

Oh, so bad list. Okay, you know what we can. All right, should we do like a congressional hearing? Like, I cede my time on Darren Waller back to the chair. Yes. All right, I was just scrum from the list. Screw it. Okay, fuck.

All right, goodbye, Darryor. All right. Just keep dealing with Darren Wall. All right. Fine. We'll erase him. Screw your last one in the list. Odell Beckham.

Is there a ding? This one works. Erase the time? Yes. This one's good. Yeah, we ding to erase the time. This is a perfect one, though. Odell is great.

Odell Beckham for the Browns. I mean, he's 30 points in the entire season. I mean, how many 30-point games have you seen this year? I mean... Tattoo all over my entire body. Don't watch Odell Beckham highlights and don't draft him. You just open up the wormhole

because let me tell you what I was looking at the other day was Odell Beckham's tattoos. He has the Joker from the Dark Night directly next to Barack Obama on his right leg. He should have Sammy Drinkis on his other leg. Well momentum. So like here's the thing though,

realistically, you're not going to start to Odell. I don't think he's startable. There's also so little upside involved. Baker's hurt. The offense is a mess. Odell's hurt. Even when they're all, everyone's healthy.

there's no chemistry there, which is one of those narratives that has become totally true. And there's no upside long term. But like, oh, well, he'll trade him? Who's trading him for? So I was thinking, what is actually the best return

you can get that I would take? This is a fun one. And I actually felt like it's like a Hunter Henry-esque tight end. I was going to say Dosson Knox. I don't think you could get Dals. I do not think you get Dalson Knox. There's no way.

That's sad. You can not get DOS&X for Adele Beckham. I mean, not a guy who throws a two-point, what do you call that? A two-point conversion? say two-point touchdown. That doesn't make any sense. He did you guys see that? He threw a two-pointer with a broken hand. That's amazing. Yeah, I guess depending. I don't know, Donald Knox's hand is today. Also, that whole charade was

completely, like, unnecessary. Like, Josh Allen could have just run in easily by himself, but that's fine. I don't care. I jotted this down. What do you guys think of Odell Becker for Tyler Boyd? I would do that. I don't think the person of Tyler Boyd would do that. What about C-E-H? I don't think the person with Clyde would do that Jerry Judy You're probably right Oh hell yeah Like none of these people want O'Dell Beckham

Like he has 30 points on the whole season Okay let's actually It's rough It's rough Let's do this though The buzzer just went But this is the last We're giving the minute from

I see it at the time We had a minute in 18 I don't remember from the Waller thing We got a minute extra Would you give up O'Dell Beckham for Christian Kirk Kirk? Man, maybe

Yeah I think I would I mean I feel like there's a chance in some leagues people just added Christian Kirk from waivers. I have like negative trust in the Odell Beckham on the Browns thing. I don't know why. Like I have zero, I have zero shares of that.

I just never wanted it. I never bought into the hype in the offseason. I was just always like, this is not going to work. Odell was like Miles Gaskin if Miles Gaskin was really, really famous and also if he did not have that 30 point game. Would you trade, would you trade Odell Beckham for Darnell Mooney?

Yes. I'm serious. I would. This is like, this is absolutely sealing the fact that O'Dell is just going to go off down the stretch now. I love it. But I agree. How low can we go? I think Gallup.

I guess, no. I don't think the Gallup's going to do O'Dell. I think people also, it matters if they like O'Dell. Some people hate O'Dell. What about Zach Moss? Yeah, I would love to do. There's no way the Zach Moss gives you O'Dell. There's no chance.

What about Donovan, Donovan People's Jones? What about A.J. Dillon? Oh, that's a good one. That's the line. I probably would probably keep a good one. Odell. But like even then, I don't know, man. Dude, that's my point, man.

AJ Dillon's got more than 30 points this year. Do you have any Odell Beckham on your teams? I haven't been Dynasty because people are going to send you some garbage-ass trades. Yeah. Back when Adel was like the darling of the dynasty world and I was a Giants fan and I was still am,

but he was on the Giants. I felt so great to have O'Dell in my team. It's the worst fucking thing in the world. My favorite thing right now is the O'Dell Beckham Ewing theory stuff. I actually saw a tweet from Scott Barrett our buddy. In 2020, with Beckham off the field, Baker Mayfield had, he was the QB7 in EPA per attempt with OBJ on the field. He was the QB24.

This year, with Beckham off the field, he's the QB1 in EPA per attempt, and the QB17 with Beckham on the field. It's incredible. I love the shit. QB1 is, that's pretty stunning. Okay. All right. So, all right.

So trade O'Dell for, I don't know, Hunter Henry. Sure, go for that. Okay, let's get to DK's all 22 men's in 22 fantasy leagues. And for Craig and I wouldn't really understand how that works. DK., how'd you do in your 22 leagues this week? This was actually a very good week in my fantasy leagues, which I'm happy to report. So yes, it was a great week. Basically, all the teams, all but one of the teams that I'm really good in, one.

So I was happy with that. It's a good week. Let's do it. Let's keep it going. do you check this on? Do you check, like, do you have like an e-trade account and it's like a portfolio and you just like see where the net wins? I think there's, I think that there are things that do that. I don't have that. I just check the different sites. D.K., have you ever, like, been on vacation or out of town or away from the internet and you

realize that you can't get to any of your 22 teams and you need to make changes? What happens then? Panic sets in. Do you, have you ever reached out to somebody, giving somebody a login and been like, I need help? In nine of my leagues, Matt Ryan's on by. Here's the problem. I don't have a life during the NFL season. I just like sit at home and look at my computer for six months straight. That was the legendary problem with the Ringer Fantasy Football League three years ago, was that D.K. was doing a live panel with Mina Kimes or something. Yeah, he was doing a live show. Yeah, he was doing a live podcast during the draft. And the draft, and so your co-owner was going to draft for the team, but Yahoo!

She could like in security, like it's like the department of defense, except it's probably harder to hack Yahoo than did the DOD so that you can't actually draft of your co-owner. You can't log into someone else's account. And so the whole leak had to be restarted because you were right there. It was Claire McNair. She couldn't get into the login for whatever reason. Anyone who has Yahoo like knows this though. Like the getting into your Yahoo account is so crazy for something that I only use for

fantasy football. You need like four devices to cross check and get in. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. What do they think I'm going to do on there? It's like we have sent an email to your uncle. He must verify that it is your email. the next 10 minutes and you're like, what the hell?

You're like, we need your security questions. I'm like, but I gave you my password and I approved you from a different device. I don't know. Yahoo's wild. Okay. Want to get to some emails? What are we going to talk about the ringer of fantasy football league in which I am in first place and you two are in ninth and tenth?

I don't see that. I see Danny Kelly's team in first place. Yeah, Craig. I was actually going to ask you about that. I think I see Dan. Now that he's in first place, he's going to change his name back to Craig Hefe. Or Craig Hefe. It's Craig Horrobex team.

Are you going to keep your Danny Kelly? Of course. I want them to literally send you the money when I win the league. I'll take the fake clout. To be clear, when you say ninth and tenth, we're like three and, what are we? We're three and three and three. There's just like a bizarrely, there are seven teams that are three and three. Yeah, but I think you guys are 10th and 11th and points or something like that.

I mean, I don't think that that really is relevant. Okay. I have AJ Brown. I have AJ Brown, Craig. That's why. It's this fucking episode, this whole episode. Also, I didn't know we were doing a Super Flex league until like round three. and I'm still in first.

This actually maybe is like a learning experience. Maybe we shouldn't be taking quarterbacks early. How are you in first place? Yeah, baby. I'm riding with Jalen Hertz and Matt Ryan to the promised land. Nice. I'm just taking all the credit, though. It's good vibes.

It's my name. It is. It's the good vibes team. Do you want to fix the ding? DK., did you have any notes on this? So we got a really, we got a ton of emails about what the ding should be. And there's a lot of really good options.

I spent literally like an hour compiling. a bunch of emails. People, thank you for sending any emails about the ideas for replacing the ding that we use between each segment in the power hour. A few of them that I thought were funny, and you guys can give, we can maybe vote on this or we can like narrow it down at some point. A ready break, like we're breaking the huddle. The doink off the goalposts, which we've mentioned before. Payton Manning yelling Omaha. I like that one. Oh, that's funny. Omaha. That's kind of funny. This one might be like a my generation thing. Only it Did you guys watch shit?

And I can't even remember the name of the show now. Oh, I love that show. Did you watch He Man? No. When you were growing up? Definitely not. This was definitely like an early 80s generation. I was watching SpongeBob.

Someone sent out, I have the power from Heeman. People have watched that. We'll know what that is. A referee whistle, which I think no, because that's going to be too annoying. No offense to whoever sent that. I think it's a terrible idea. Whoa, no. There are no terrible ideas.

You're right. Sorry. There's just terrible people. I don't want more referee whistles in my life. Air horn, which seems even more annoying than the ding. Foghorn. That's kind of funny. Which is slightly less annoying.

The horns, no, I don't want horns. This one actually, by the way, this one's my favorite. Kirk Cousins got caught on camera. I don't know when this happened, but when he was giving the Hutt at Hike thing, you know? Oh, what he was like, hot? His voice cracked. Like, can we play that, Craig? Wait, can we play that sound?

Oh, hot, hot. Boy, high-pitched, pot. He's going to fly. flag, did his voice crack? I had actually never seen this before, and I was just dying laughing. He's like, hi. Did you get to the video of Kurt Cousins from last week

where he's just awkwardly sitting on the bench and there's like a siren going off in the stadium? And he's like trying to talk to Justin Jefferson, like trying to be friends of them and no one's really acknowledging him. It's really awkward. I did not see that. Oh my God. Did you know that Kirk Cousins looks exactly like Gary from Team America World Police?

You were the one who put me on to that, yeah. Okay. Oh, my God. I forgot about that. I'm going to look that up right now. Continuing with the noises, Kirk Cousins, the Kurt Cousins,

you like that? I don't really like that one because I'm not a big... No, I don't want to hear his guy. I like the voice crack. What is hilarious. I'm not a big...

He's kind of annoying. Kind of weird, dude. The draft noise when NFL teams are ready to draft, do, do, do, do... God's probably a copyright problem there. I know.

I think it's from ESPN. Chris Berman's whoop. Whoop. That's a good one. This one is actually, like, by far my favorite, although we can't do it. The start of Careless Whisper by George Michael. Oh, my God. It's the best.

It's an extremely good idea. I better be easier to contact George Michael than Moray Carey. Yeah. Do we ever hear back from the guy whose uncle is Moray Carey agent? I think he lied to get us to that fantasy question. Where is that guy? Come back. If you're listening.

A horse name? I don't know about that. Why? I don't know. Craig. Craig and I actually, sorry, Craig told me about this weeks ago.

And I think several people actually said this too in the emails. The Oscars wrap it up song, which I think is the best idea. Oh, that's funny. That's like getting a shoot off stage. No, that's better because we can play D.K. Off when he just goes,

blows by the timer. And it just goes louder and louder. Again, though, I don't know. There's copyright issues with that one. No, I found, I found, like, stock copyright-free versions of that. The only thing is, is, like, 12 times hearing that music coming. It just might be kind of a lot.

Could we do Kirk Cousins? I feel like I would laugh at every time, though. The Hutt voice crack, but it gets louder and louder. Like, we're playing them off, but it's with the Kirk Cousins voice crack. What we need is, we need, like, a live radio, like, situation where if somebody goes, like, a minute past the buzzer, then they put in the Oscar music, you know? Something like that. Yeah, I like that.

we'll get that going. All right. Well, we'll figure it out. We'll workshop this. All right. All right. Fantasy court. Court is in session. Going to the docket.

From Ashley, she seeks to petition the court. I am in a league where someone is claiming collusion for a trade that has been made. It's on sleeper, so it gets sent out to the league group chat. A member of the league who literally cries about waivers every week, a lull. commented within seconds that this trade was collusion. The trade was Cortland Sutton and A.J. Brown for Jerry Judy and Michael Thomas. I'll say that again.

Cortland Sutton, A.J. Brown for Jerry Judy, Michael Thomas. It seems fine to me. Right off the top. A bunch of disappointing and injured people for each other. It's fine. It's two disappointing guys for two injured guys. There are a bunch of injured people. So he claims it's collusion because I'm setting two active players and receiving two inactive players

because Jerry Judy, Michael Thomas, and I are. I'm taking the gamble. It will work out for me late in the season. I don't believe this is collusion at all. I also wanted to draft Jerry Judy. And the other person who got Sutton, so she got Suck. So she got Sutton but wanted Judy, and the person who got Sutton,

or Judy got wanted Sutton. That was really confusing. But it seems normal. She says, note, I am the commissioner, and I'm dating the person the trade is with, and I think that's why they think the end. Oh, just slipped in that at the end. I know, just like, totally at the end being like,

are you kidding me? Side note. Side note. By the way, he's my boss. You're like, whoa, okay, okay. That was a hilarious note. By the way, I'm dating this person I made the trade with. I actually think, ironically,

despite the fact they're dating, this is like a totally fine trade. Yeah, this doesn't strike me as, it doesn't strike me as an unfair trade because, look, Michael Thomas and Jerry Judy could both go off in the second half. Like, they're coming back. They're coming back in like two weeks. Wasn't this an episode of the league where the married couple was like, she was like, you make this trade for me? Yeah.

Yeah. I don't say like this. This doesn't feel super, super uneven. I mean, obviously, A.J. Brown has like a lot of name power, but he isn't like been, obviously, as we talked about earlier, it's not like tearing the, cover off the ball, as Craig likes to say. Yeah, I think this is fine. Also, who cares?

Like, this isn't, like, if this was really, really atrociously uneven or whatever, then I guess they could try and get it overturned. But like, don't veto trades, right? That's our general rule. Don't veto trades. Well, I mean, so I think this is really about the part

that's about the relationship. Yeah, because I'm sure whoever's claiming that this is collusion thinks that perhaps there's a back-end deal going on here. Would you guys collude with your significant other on a trade? Yeah, probably. Like, what's more important to you?

Like, your relationship with your significant other or your fantasy football league? If it's, like, not your most important league. If it's like, you have like a third tier league you did with your friends and you significant other isn't with you, would you collude with that? Is it my most important girlfriend? First tier girlfriend, third tier league. Hmm. Yeah, first tier girlfriend, I'm colluding.

Yeah, I would, uh, that's right around where I think about it. D.K. is appalled by my joke. No, I was just actually thinking, because I'm in a family league, and I just think it's always funny, like, when, so, like, for instance, my girlfriend will make a trade with her dad. And I'm just like, this doesn't seem fair. Like, her dad is lording over

the fact that he's her dad, you know, and, like, that, like, exerts pressure to, like, make the deal because, you know, the relationships, because she loves him. It's emotional, like, pressure. Would you... No, I'm not saying would you entice your girlfriend to make your team better? Would you, would you, would you

off, would you give away your players to them to make them happier? Oh, no. No. I would not either. I thought that's what you're... No, I would not do that. I thought that you were saying what D.K. was saying where I would come up with an idea where somehow in the end I win by colluding with my girlfriend, but I'm not just going to make her team better just for shits and giggles. Maybe this speaks to...

This is also an amazing test for whether there are significant others listen to these podcasts. This is like the test right here. There is no way that Liz is on minute 65 of power hour. I think it's funny out this week Liz is literally on the podcast sometimes reading ads and intros and things which she doesn't listen to the very end

but Craig does the third-tier girlfriend listen to the podcast? Oh yeah, she's tapped in. Yeah, I figured it. Okay. All right. Wait, I want to tell you guys one thing I know the pod's running long, whatever. Okay, have you ever done this before?

I'm going to, I think I'm going to do this this week in my league. I have so many players on by and I like every single one of them that I might start an empty spot because I don't want to drop anybody. I saw J.J. J.J. Zachary's in tweet this and it made me realize this is even worse. I saw J.J. Zachary's in tweet like, I've been doing fantasy football for 20 years and this is the worst by week I've ever felt, which I actually resonated with me because that was my gut.

I didn't want to say it because like you always feel reactionary at the moment. It does feel up there, isn't it? Like the worst bi-week, like a by-pocalypse. I have cowboys. My whole team is essentially the Cowboys and the Chargers and I'm screwed. Yeah. So who is the cut candidate? Michael Gallup. So you're considering dropping Gallup to fill that role or not? Could you cut a kicker and start an actual player?

No, we don't do kickers or defense. I mean, to be honest, what I'm going to do is I have two spots that I can't fill. But one of them is Cole Beasley, who's on by, who I'm like, okay, I'm going to drop Cole Beasley, even though that sucks because he's kind of good. And I'll add somebody else to fill in. But then I'd have to drop Michael Gallup to fill in the second spot. And to be honest, I don't know if I want to do that. Is it worth it? I'm first three and three, but I'm number one in points.

This is tough because on the other hand, it's kind of like, you kind of need wins. Three and three is a rough spot to be in. Like, if you were four and one, that's different. Yeah, it's like the flip side is it's like, in theory it's cool to have Michael Gallup, but it's kind of better to be four and three instead of three and four. But I'm first in points and the five and six seeds that make the playoffs are by points only, not record. Okay.

Okay. That's interesting. So what's your waiver system? Like if you were to try to get Gallup back, is it you're definitely not? Would you have to spend a bunch of budget? And there's no way. I don't have that much money I couldn't afford them.

That sucks. It'd be right as he came back. And I guess you can't, you can't, really, the answer is like, can you swing a trade? But like everyone's probably is the same problem. I'm trying to trade him right now.

So this is actually, this is, we got another fantasy court this week, which real quick. But basically the question is, it's the specific one, honestly, this from Brad, love you, Brad.

The specifics don't matter. Everyone knows what, loan trades are. Like, I'll give you this guy for a week. And then, like, I'll give you this guy for a week. And we're going to undo the trade at the end of the week. Like, my tight ends up buy. You're running back.

You're running back. You give me this extra tight end. And we'll undo it at the end of the week. Do you guys think that's kosher or not? Because a lot of leagues are fine with it. A lot of things think it's, like, illegal. I think that it's, like, kind of the definition of collusion, isn't it? No, no, no.

Not at all. Because collusion's about bad faith. Collusion's like something outside of my interest, what is best as my team is influencing my decision. my girlfriend, like, I will take my girlfriend out to dinner if she sends me Zichael Elliott in this deal. That's outside the interest of my league. Or collusion is like, I'll Venmo you 20 bucks if you loan me, Michael Gallup for

it. It's not collusion. Like, like, if what's driving it is this is what's best for my team. If we make this, that's not collusion. I don't know. The way that I look at collusion, and especially in, like, in a fantasy league, is like two guys that are two of the players that like each other for whatever. Like, maybe they're in a league with a bunch of dickheads, and they don't like those dickheads.

They get together and say, we're going to make ourselves better and fuck everyone else. That's collusion to me. I don't think of it that way at all. I kind of look at it as there's two ways, I guess there's three ways to handle it. One of like you can't make the trade

that's going to get undone. But I guess it's never really been explained to me why you can't do that. I think the two, like I really haven't. If you have an argument, I'm all for it. I look at it this way.

There are two ways to look at it. Should we do the office space thing and just Google collusion? No, but you're entering a contract. Collusion. And so basically you're like, okay, you'll do this or the commissioner's like,

you have to trade the guys back. Or you're like, okay. And if the other person doesn't want to trade the other guy back, you don't have to. It's like, you made your handshake deal. But like, I really genuinely, what is the argument for like, these two consenting teams can't do this? Because like, they wanted, my philosophy,

the conclusion is like, let people run their teams. And if you have, if you think they're not only considering what's best for their team, that is outside, that's bad faith. But the trades are done in good faith. It feels like a loophole kind of. I'm against it. Imagine if you and another team, let's say like there was one of the team

that you weren't playing until week 12 and you guys just had an agreement that throughout the entire season you would like each week swap guys back and forth like oh if I have too many receivers this week I'll give you and you can have them that week and you give me a running back

and you just ride that all week until you play and you give up. This feels a lot like the the U.S. Postal Service team back in Lance Armstrong days. Like lots of like helping each other out helping Lance get to the top type of deal. Okay.

Did you just conflate like the strategy of helping one person win with more doping. This is a 100% shaking thing. This is Ricky Bobby wasn't the cheating part, right? I know the blood doping, but this is literally

Talladega Knights. This is Ricky Bobby and Cal Notton Jr. I wasn't even talking about blood jumping. Yeah, but that's not against the rules. That's like their problem. It's lame. That's just like what, like. It's lame.

I can't believe D.K. just conflated like the team being like Lance is going to win the race for the team with the actual cheating scandal, which had nothing to do with that. Right. No, I was actually just, I know that it was legal. I'm just saying, like, this is a totally different sport, I guess. So it doesn't matter. And that was legal in that.

I'm just saying this is what it feels like to me. Like, let's get together and we're going to do this thing. That's collusion. No, but specifically to Craig's point. We're making themselves the best teams by helping each other out. That's like they're colluding together to do this. Wait, say that again, what's your definition of colluding is? We're getting together to make ourselves, like, better than the rest of the teams in the league.

That's not at all what I, but isn't that also the definition of like a, regular ass trade? No, because you can't reverse it like immediately. It's for the rest of the year. So both guys have, both players have inherent risk in making that trade. Yeah, I guess I'm just saying like if Craig is like, if Craig has two tight ends, but a buy at running back and another guy has zero tight ends because everyone's on buy and too many running backs and they make a trade and Craig's team is improved and the other

guy's team is improved and then they flip back. I genuinely don't understand how that's cheating because they just made. made a trade that's like, this will help me and it will help you. That's the, that's what trading in capitalism is about. Like, it helps me, it helps you, we'll both do it. And then it just happens to be something that we undo a week later. I don't get how that's cheating. I think it's, am I think it's against the rules in some leagues for sure. I know that there are, there are some leagues that have like, you can't trade back, you can't trade back the same players or you have to wait a few, like three weeks at minimum or something like that. I don't know. I think it's, I think

regardless, there just needs to be a rule. Like, I understand both sides. It just, you just need to be, like, firm about it. Like, it's either legal or it's not, and every league should just figure it out. But, like, it should be consistent. I get that it feels taboo, but I lean with hyphen's here. I think this is just kind of what trading is they just like, it's just a smart decision. This is loaning.

It's not trading. It's loaning. It's like, let people run their own teams and, like, mind your own fucking business. And, like, if you think someone bought them like a 30 rack in exchange for this trade, come to me. Otherwise, I don't really want to hear about what you think. they should be doing with their team. DK., what if they didn't, what if it wasn't alone?

What if they actually made the trade and then three weeks later, they organically were like, hey. That's fucking funny. I actually want it back. That's different. So it's all about the intent. Three weeks later?

That's different than one week, for sure. No, the intent matters. I agree with them there. The time period matters. What I'm saying is it makes no difference if they're agreeing to loan or agreeing to just permanently trade. There's no difference.

Either way, they're making their team better. Even if it's alone or if it's a straight trade, what's the difference? It's just making your team better. This is interesting because this is easily the most space that's ever been between us on a fantasy issue that actually affects like every league. I kind of feel like I'm taking crazy pills that you guys are okay with just loaning a player for a week and then like I'll get them back after the end of the week. Well, maybe you're, but see, here's like, are you looking at it like one team is getting the loan? Because I'm looking at it like swap.

Both teams need someone. Not like, hey, I'm just doing you a favor. I'm looking at like one. I guess I honestly have never I haven't thought about it that much because I don't this doesn't happen to any of my leagues to be totally honest so I'm not I don't want to make you feel crazy because I think a lot of people about but like it's that it doesn't kind of defeats like the game of fantasy football in my mind for whatever reason are we not why I like go play DFS if this is the way you want to play I don't know I stand by the fact that it's

lame however I think it's legal and okay it's lame for sure yeah I just feel like again I just keep coming back to like if you are doing what's best for your team And that's all you're thinking about. I don't get why you can't do it. I can't, don't get why you can't make a trade. I agree with Hyvet. If both teams feel like they are improving,

you guys are going to open Pandora's box. That's what I think. All right. It's going to be free trade. I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. Well, that went a lot longer than I thought. That was interesting, though.

Okay. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Dick. Thank you, Brad, for almost tearing us all apart right there. Thank you, Ashley, for your fantasy court. You can email us fantasy court questions. at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. You can email us showdown time questions or trivia questions at

RiggerFantasy football at gmail.com. You can play us in the bad quarterback league on fandle.com slash bad QB. The lineup should be up. It's Wednesday. Check that out and fill out your roster. Or go to the Fandul app, NFL, game styles at the bottom is bad quarterback league.

You can play against us there. And we do green room starts it on Sundays at noon, but I guess, noon Eastern, but I guess we can hear about that later. And yeah, anything else. to plug? I think that's that. Just thank you to the one and only Lauren. Michael's. Are you George Michael? You can't just take the thank you

Lauren for me. What the hell? Well, you keep forgetting it. I don't know. Well, we did the plugs and then thank you Lauren's like the last thing. I didn't want to do plugs after thank you. No, you thanked me and D.K. Then went into plugs. That I remembered we had to do the plugs, but I didn't want to do the thank you Lauren after

before the plugs. I just, usually you do all the thanks in one bucket. You moved on from it, so I thought you forgot. In the past, if I forgot that you said you forgot something, but now you're just doing it in your own. This is not the time to have this conversation

in a minute 80. Thank you, Lord! I already said it, but thank you, George Michael. Okay. Damn it, I wish I could play that song as the outro. It's so good.

I'm going to have it in my head now. Goodbye, everyone.