The Ringer NFL Show - RIP Will Fuller, Playoff Stashes, and Slumping Fantasy Superstars

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

We lead the show by discussing the fantasy implications of Will Fuller’s devastating season-ending suspension before offering up some waiver-wire players and defenses you can stash for the fantasy playoffs, debating and analyzing players who worry us going into the next few weeks, and holding yet another COVID-related Fantasy Court. Waiver-Wire Playoff Stashes: D/ST (12:00) RB (20:00) TE (25:00) Slumping Stars Lamar Jackson, Ravens (28:45) Kyler Murray, Cardinals (30:30) Russell Wilson, Seahawks (34:45) Tyler Lockett, Seahawks (37:50) Alvin Kamara, Saints (40:40) Tee Higgins, Bengals (43:00) D.J. Chark, Jaguars (43:48) Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette, Bucs (45:40) Fantasy Court (48:40) Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, Will Fuller is suspended for the rest of the season, and we are devastated. We also go through players and defenses to stash on your roster for your playoff run, and we discuss how worried are we about Alvin Camara's connection with Taysam Hill and Russell Wilson's connection with Tyler Lockett. And Kyler Murray's literal connection with his throwing shoulder. Stick around.

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyfitz, and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. Are you guys ready for a fun fact? Yes, sure. All right, well, there's nothing fun about this. It's not a fun fact. It's a devastating fact. Will Fuller has been suspended for PED use.

For the full season, for the rest of the season, and one game in 2021. This is terrible, terrible news. There are so many long-term, short-term implications. Right now I'm not interested in any of that or any analysis. What is your emotional level right now? How are you guys doing? Are you guys all right?

You supposed to check in on your friends in these moments of devastation? Well, I only have two fantasy leagues. I believe two is the perfect number. I have Will Fuller and both. I bet on him. It's paid off. And now I'm absolutely screwed for the playoffs. So not happy about that.

Secondly, I think this is just BS. Listen. What? What is BS? I don't know what the substance is he took. Do we know that? Has that been disclosed? I don't think it was, he didn't disclose it.

He didn't mention it from a trainer. Yeah, something to do with his off-season rehab. Yeah. Right. Okay, here's my gripe. So Will Fuller is having the first healthy season of his career. It might be because of whatever the hell he took that his doctor prescribed. There is a correlation.

What is the problem with that? Like, okay, if it's anabolic steroids, it's going to turn him into Optimus Prime, don't do it. But like, if it's something to prevent recovery or prevent injury and if it hydrates your muscles so they don't tear as easily, like, what is the freaking problem with that? Hydrates your muscles? If you. Muscle hydration. Well, that's what he should have put in his. I was just hydrating my muscles.

Like, okay, riddle me this. Tommy John surgery, to this day, still, many Tommy John surgeries are when you get a dead guy's elbow and put it in your own. You get a dead guy's ligament. Technically, you're a cyborg. You're telling me that's not a performance enhancing procedure drug. You're literally getting a different human beings ligament in your body so you can perform again. However, medicine that makes your hamstring not pull.

No, that's, you can't do that. medicine. Medicine. So people should be able to do performance-enhancing drugs. No, all I'm saying is, I think the NFL needs to widen its scope a little bit

on what is allowed. Again, I don't know what he took, but generally across the board, like, if it's just like preventative stuff that makes these guys not get hurt, it doesn't turn them into the Hulk, but like, can we like extend this line a little bit? This is ridiculous.

You take your ACL, they put bolts in your knee. Sometimes you get a dead guy's new knee and then you can go back under the field. Why is that fine? I see what you're saying, because here's, the thing. I'm not going to pretend to know what Will Fuller took. Craig is fired up. There should be a line of what drugs you should take and what you can't. I'm not going to pretend to know what the line is and I don't know what Will Fuller took. But here's the

thing. It is amazing where the current lines are drawn. The current ones are wrong. Right now, I mean, the NFL just dealt with this. But for so long in the NFL, you were not allowed to smoke weed, but you could take like opioids like before every game. One of them is like an actual epidemic that was before we had the pandemic. We had like an opioid epidemic. and players are more likely to become opioid, misuse opioids in their post-playing career. But you couldn't use freaking weed in a sport where there's head injuries and collisions and pain constantly.

Josh and Jordan is still on the freaking... It's like backwards of how life should be. And I don't know, certain guys have back problems or certain things. I think it's amazing that, yeah, sometimes HGH helps with that stuff. I'm not going to know about HGH. Again, anabolic steroids and stuff

that like a lot of the guys were taken in like the 80s that, like, you know, changed their life and, like, completely messed up their bodies and turned them into these superheroes, that's not okay. But preventative stuff that helps people play for a longer amount of time or not get hurt on the field. I just don't know why that's, he's suspended for six games, really? Coffee is a performance-enhancing drug. Like, there are- Honestly, you're dead right. Caffeine. Caffeine legitimately helps you do better. It helps you produce. Why isn't that illegal? How would you feel if like everyone at the ringer was not

allowed to, like, take caffeine? Well, Mallory Rubin would be let go. caffeine. You drink. Well, oh, yeah, Craig. I forgot you didn't even drink coffee. No, I don't drink coffee. Craig also looks down on us for drinking coffee. Is that what you're taking a moral stand?

I think it's just for the mentally unmotivated. This is, this feels like cognitive, cognitive dissonance. No, I don't think that. I don't think that. Honestly, caffeine makes me jittery. I stopped drinking coffee because I realized that,

well, coffee is just a lie like it doesn't really do what you think it does, but we don't have to talk about that right now. It's so good though. I just, I do want to mention, well, first of all, let's directly address Will Fuller right now, because I know Will Fuller is definitely, listening. And Will, I just want to say that we're not angry. We're disappointed that you got caught.

Will. Please next time, don't get fucking caught when, funny, you know he's Will Fuller the 5th? Right now he's the 5th wide receiver in fantasy. So he is willful. He's going out as like the wide receiver fee. Damn it. So next time you're a top 5 receiver and setting your career highs in every category, don't get caught, my man. Come on. Like, didn't you watch that documentary in that Flicks, Icarus, you can get away with this stuff. Yeah, like, if you're doing the thing that Lance Armstrong did where you, like, you like reconfigure your blood to where, okay, but honestly, he even think about that. Well, the problem with that is he lied about it and ruined everyone's way person in his

wake who tried to be honest. That was the problem. He basically took something that allowed his blood to use as much oxygen as possible or something like that. He was adding water to his muscles. A smart podcast host told me that. He was hydrating the muscles. He was hydrating his muscles.

With blood. That was what Lance Armstrong did. Listen, if you can make your blood work better, why can't everybody do that? No, we're in a crazy. Look, do you want me to play the devil's advocate here? There's a slippery slope, number one. Number two. First, you're not devil's advocate.

We're the devil's advocate. You're like a normal person. I'm fairly certain. I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure this is all collectively bargained with the NFLPA. So it's not just the league saying you can't take this stuff. Like, it's all collectively. Yeah, well, no. And also, there should not be an arms race among players to just be on as many,

like drugs as possible until you get that thing from Dodgeball where someone's on like a beaver tranquilizer or whatever. You don't want that. But just like, what a crappy thing that like you go to a doctor, your doctor's like, you should take this. This is fine. No, let's be real. And you go, okay, great.

And then it's not. And then you get suspended for just trusting your doctor. That's not what happened. He took something illegal and he knew it. Let's be real. So, but regardless, we don't know what Willfollow is. We don't know what was in his head. We don't know.

But the reason we're so upset is because here's the thing. Will Fuller's having a career year in Houston. And his career in Houston might be. be over. Like we actually can right now take a second look at the Will Fuller era in Houston. Yeah, he's almost a free agent now. Right now, he's a free agent at the end of the year, might not return to Texans because there might have a new GM and a new coach this off season. So they have no connection. Bill O'Brien loved Will Fuller. He tried to recruit him when he was at Penn State, didn't get him. So that's why Will Fuller is even in the Texans. So I just want to take a

second. Will Fuller right now, after 11 games, played his most games since he was a rookie 2016, but even though he's suspended with five games left in the season, has like basically set the career highs in every category. He's already set the career highs for catches, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, yards per reception of first downs this season in 11 games. So what do you look back on like the Will Fuller era? Like what do you make of this experience so far? Because we love him and now he's failed us. I feel like this is right in line with the Will Fuller experience that we've had the last how many ever years, four years. Yeah, he just missed games in a different fashion this year. It's always something. I

I mean, there was that one game, remember where there was apparently a hamstring injury, but then he was never on the injury report, and he just didn't have a catch in that one game. Oh, he forgot to take his meds for that game. Oh, so that was when he forgot, now he took too many. The other thing that people reminded us on Twitter about, I think we saw this from multiple people, so it was pretty hilarious. It's like Fuller was talking about how in the off season some coach taught him how to run correctly so he wouldn't get hurt. That's what they're calling it. Dude, let's be, fuck.

For fantasy, for fantasy, what are the implications here? Because obviously, it opens up a lot of opportunity going forward. DeShon Watson's playing some of his best football of his career right now. And so I guess the question is, is there someone that you can use to replace Fuller on this team? And, you know, who is the biggest target coming out of this situation? Because keep in mind, Cobb is on the IR. Kenny Sills was just released.

Yeah, it's crazy timing. Now there's like no namers, literally, like, Kiki Kootie, who we know about, but was in Bob's doghouse for a long time, and now he's starting to emerge a little bit. And then rookie... Bob is Bill O'Brien. You can't just use acronymses. You can't pronounce an acronym.

My bad. And then Isaiah Colter, a rookie, has a chance to potentially be a big part of this offense down a stretch. So I think both these guys are pretty interesting from a fantasy point of view. Obviously, I'm not going to trust Colter to do anything. But to me, he looks like an interesting stash because he plays that field-stretching role. that Fuller plays in that offense. Realistically speaking, I think considering we don't,

the unknown here, I think I want Jordan Aiken's. Like, I know Jordan Aikins was like the only Texan did not do something in that Thanksgiving game and we liked him, but I think that this is not necessarily

the next clang off his hands. Yeah, that was really tough. But still, he's getting open. And also Tim Kelly, who's calling the plays now for them, I mean, he was a tight ends coach. So I think there's going to be continued opportunity.

They need to see what's on this roster. I don't think Darren Fells, who's in his 30s, is quite the same guy in terms of figuring stuff out. So obviously, Obviously, Brandon Cooks goes up in value, if you're debating playing. Brandon Cook seems like locked in receiver now.

And then I don't know, I wouldn't, I think Kiki Kutti is an ad. He's kind of their slot guy that has Ebden Float. We'll see what his role is now that Bill O'Brien's gone. I would add him. But I would really play Jordan Aiken as a dice roll at tight end more than any of these receivers. I'm not trying to add Isaiah Coulter yet unless you're in a deeper league. But in the 10-team league, I'm probably not yet. So you guys think that the number one non-Brandan Cook's receiver, pass catcher, I should say,

on the Texans. Is Aiken's and not Couti? I think he's got a more established relationship and more established connection probably with Watson and he's more established in this offense. But Couti, if you remember, I think his first game in the pros, he had 11 catches. Yeah, 14.

And so, I mean, that's obviously something that's anchored a lot of fantasy players to him and maybe has made fantasy players think he's better than he actually is. Are you saying fantasy players when you mean us? Because I feel like you're talking about us. Fantasy managers, correct. but I. But, no, I think the real answer to there was Duke Johnson, too.

Like, Duke Johnson had his first, his best game of the year on Thanksgiving. He caught a touchdown. But I think in terms of just who will catch the most passes for Houston going forward, it's probably Cooks, Duke Johnson, and then I think probably Aiken's or Couttie. I think Duke. But I think Duke Johnson is now, you want to flex Duke Johnson and you want to be playing Cooks and probably Aiken's, I think. And we'll see about Couti.

But we'll see how it breaks down. Okay. For a segue, I do want to say, Isaiah Coulter or the rookie is an interesting Stash as the playoffs heat or as the as the as the fantasy playoffs draw nigh um and that's going to be what we're going to talk about in this next segment is you know with the waiver wire we we did this waiver wire uh episode on monday afternoon and then i realized after we finished it and got it published that waivers don't actually run this week until friday because of this game that's moving this game is moving to wednesday afternoon this uh steelers and uh we're going to have the first week 13 game

for week 12 in fantasy. Wait, quick, straw poll. How do you guys feel about the Wednesday afternoon game? I've run the full gamut and I'm kind of like,

yeah, sure, fine. I like it. Sure. I don't like it. I'm not into it. I don't, I think I don't like it. I don't even know what to feel anymore.

Who knows? Do I like it? It's going to happen. I'm kind of done having, I'm kind of done having opinions on things. I'm like, you know, let's just get to 2021.

That is absolutely not true. Just tell me what to eat, tell me what to do. Exactly. I just want to just want to just cut to the chase and I want to just get to the point where I start paying taxes to Amazon. And I just want my Amazon citizenship card

and I want them to just send me things that I quote unquote paid for and I just want to get over there. If you're going to pay taxes to, does that mean that I'm in the capital right now because I'm in Seattle? Yeah, yeah, no, you live in the capital. The capital's a digital state.

No, yeah, anyway, the warehouses of the fortresses. Okay, the playoff stashes, obviously it's late in the season. We're at the point where if you're a playoff team and you've clinched this week, we want to go through a mix of, I mean, people who are important for this week, and we try to hit that yesterday more with an emphasis on like this week.

But if you're like, no, you're in a playoffs and you're trying to win your freaking league and now you have this weird benefit of like an extra few days to think about it and plan ahead, we wanted to just hire a few people. And an extra roster spot or two, potentially. And an extra roster spot or two, if you guys have COVID spots or whatever.

Just people you can stash for the next few weeks. So, yeah. I'm, you know, I'll just, I'm just going to start with defenses. Or do you guys want to do running backs first? No, defense is a good one because, yeah. Honestly, like, defenses are so match. sensitive, that sometimes it's honestly a smart thing to have just two defenses on your roster.

I feel like people forget about these sometimes. Yeah. It's good to like just add a week 15 and 16 defense right now because they're probably available. So defenses, we'll just run through three. So the Browns is the first one. The Browns are playing the Jets and the Giants in week 15 and 16. That's a dream matchup for your fantasy semi and final in your championship. Now here's the thing. The roster in three quarters of leagues. So they're probably not available in your league. So sorry. But the next two games are the Ravens and the Titans. So I'm kind of wondering if they're going to get cut in your league. So I don't know if that'll dip below, but just keep an eye out if anyone cuts the

Browns, scoop them up immediately. The next one is the Seahawks who similarly owned in, like, rostered in half of leagues now. They just played the Eagles. They did a really good game. They got the freaking Hail Mary to Richard Rogers at the end of the game killed their score. Because they dropped to like tied for 11th. I think they covered.

Top five or so. Yeah, the cover. That was crazy. And then also in throwing a scoffin pelt after that because he always does bad beats. It's hilarious. But anyway. The Seaharks, their next four games are Giants, Jets, Washington Rams. Obviously the Rams in week 16th is not great, but Giants, Jets, Washington, unbelievable. If they're still around, grab the Seahawks. But for everyone else who probably doesn't have the Browns and the Seahawks available in your league, there's one team I actually think could be a

fantastic addition as a defense stash for the playoffs. It is the Houston, Texas. Wow. Despite Bradley Roeby. Despite Bradley Roeby, who like Will Fuller, was also suspended. And here's why. Here's the Texan schedule for the next four weeks. Colts, Bears, Colts, Bengals. So obviously you're not going to want to play them against the cults either of those times. But holy crap, they're playing the Bears. I don't care if it's Tribisky or Nick Foles. If you have watched the Chicago Bears, they are so inept.

And if it is Trubisky, Trubisky, you know, let's just say, doesn't protect the football. Two turnovers a game, easy, I would say? The Texans are bad. They're not a good defense. But when you're playing the Bears, you are a good defense. Congratulations. And then championship matchup, Texans, Bengals. You're either going to be getting Brandon Allen or Ryan Finley at quarterback.

I mean, JJ Y. Like, I just think that that's a great stash. And if you can make it your championship game with the Texans against the Bengals, I feel like that's a dream. They're available in like 90% of leagues. So I feel like that's a good stash for you. Let me toss out one more defense for just for week 16. The bears, the bears are only 59% rostered.

And they're playing the Jags week 16. So that's another one to keep it on. And if you just want a championship defense. I wanted high fits and DK. I wanted you guys to rank these because picking up, a defense is really tough. When you have two that you're deciding between,

it's just kind of really hard when they're both playing crappy teams. You see Texans playing the Bengals and you see, you know, Chicago playing the Jags, and you're just like, I don't know what to do. So can you rank maybe the best guys

for week 15 and 16 for us? Well, I think it's Brown Seahawks, Texans, but that's the order they're rostered in. I think that's for a reason that the Browns are in three quarters of the roster, Seahawks are in half, and then Texans are 10th.

I would just watch to see if the Browns or the Seahawks get cut, but they probably won't. So like, would you other have this in week 14, this is the first week of a lot of people's playoffs. The Seahawks are playing the Jets or the Texans are playing the Bears. Oh, the Seahawks against the Jets. Yeah, the Seahawks, maybe.

The Seahawks, honestly, we've shit on the Seahawks defense a lot this year and for good reason for a vast majority of the season. But they honestly have played a little bit better over the last like three or four weeks. I picked them as a streamer for defense last week, not to teut my own horn, but two, too. And there's a reason. It's like they're getting a little bit better and their opponents are getting a lot worse. They had six sacks against the Eagles. They're evening out.

And they're playing the Giants this week. And everything could get Daniel Jones. He goes one game is out of turnover and everyone's like, oh, he's getting better. And then he's either that guy's going to get hurt who's turned it over at 95% of his career games. Or it's going to be Colt McCoy, who you're like, oh, veteran presence. No, he sucks. He almost threw a ball. He had what I call a Trubisky, which is when you throw a ball directly into the chest of a linebacker and he drops it because he was shocked the ball came to him.

McCoy had like a couple of those. So I think whoever you get, the Seahawks defense is a great play this week. Also, if you picked up the Searx defense because I recommended them last week, don't drop them. Just hang on to them. Figure it, no matter what you do, don't cut them. Who do you guys like better, week 16? Texans Bengals or Bears against the Jags?

The Bears. Yeah. Yeah, the Bears. Bears are a good defense, legit. Even with Minshu back in Jacksonville, a little friskier? You want the bears. Well, the question is, will Minshu be back, I guess? And we'll get to that.

Because he was one of my stashes at the quarterback, position just in case if you're in the Superflex league and he's out there and that's actually what I did in the Ringer league which is a Superflex league I just stashed him just in case because he's like a top he's like a top 14 or so QB in when he's playing my question is are the Jags just want to stick with Glennon because they actually do want the number two pick it might happen you know for whatever reason man I'm still believer I'm still a Minchu mania guy I don't think he's going to be their starter next year unfortunately because

because they're probably going to draft Justin Fields. But we'll see. At the running back position, a couple of guys, I think, to keep in mind, you know,

just as stashes, I think a lot of playoff teams are like the types of teams who have sort of like their starting lineup set, and they have a little bit of flexibility with their, with their,

like, low end of the roster. And Craig, you talked about this on Monday show, Benny Snell and Anthony McFarland, I think, are really smart stashes at this point in the season.

For the Steelers running backs. Steelers running backs. James Connor was, he did test positive for COVID. We don't know exactly how that's going, but if he ends up missing some time and he could, then obviously you get a potential belcal back in Snell. I think that they'll probably try and see what they can get from McFarland as well a little bit.

I would prioritize Snell over McFarland, but I think either of these guys might be worth a stash. Even if Connor comes back, we know that his injury history. The other guy that's about ready to come off the injured reserve or the PUP list is Rashad Penny from the Seahawks. Craig's guy, San Diego State guy. And I don't, honestly, I don't know how much they're going to use him. They got Carlos Hyde's running pretty well right now.

But if you go back to last year before he got hurt, he was looking really good, really quick. They were using him and Chris Carson in a pretty good rotation. The Seahawks seem very hell-bent on kind of getting back to their roots at this point in terms of offense and running the ball a little bit more, being more physical. They really want teams to feel them. That's as Pete Carroll would say. You want teams to feel you. I want our listeners to feel us on this pod. You want to feel like you played a football game

after you played the Seahogos. Craig, when you produced Pete's podcast, did you feel them? Oh, yeah. We were feeling each other, for sure. Yeah, just two NorCal guys viving. Okay, so what about receivers? Are there any receivers here? Any playoffs?

Craig, do you have any? No, honestly, other than like Kiki Kootie, I mean, we don't have to get into like the Jets guys, like the Mims Paraman stuff. I honestly don't see. when you talk about stash, it's usually people who can like emerge. Mims and Paramount are kind of what they are. I do have a couple of running backs that I think are interesting

and they're kind of in the same vein as the Benny Snell category is if you have Derek Henry or Zieg on your team, you got to do this, but honestly, even if you don't and you have the space, this is what I've been doing in my leagues. Deontay Foreman on the Titans and Tony Pollard on Dallas. Tony Pollard is 19% rostered. And he's just, you know, he's probably just as good as Zique right now. and his seat goes down.

Like, he's of quality starting running back on your playoff team. And then Deonté Foreman, man, like, I know Derek Henry seems like impenetrable, but if he does go down, Foreman is like fully recovered from that Achilles injury. He, like, looks pretty good.

He's clearly their backup. Like, he is there between the tackles running back. And their week 14 to 16 for the Titans is really easy. And, like, it could just completely change. Imagine if you were playing the guy who had Derek Henry and you have Foreman sitting on your bench

and Henry tweaks his hamstring and he doesn't have Will Fuller's meds on him, so he's not going to play. And then you just get to, you know, slot into Deonté Foreman. It's like a 20-point swing in your matchup. Yeah. I think that that's a good one.

And on that note, I think that one of the reasons, I don't think that this is a season where there's going to be stashes so much, because stashes implies something's predictable. The reality here is that the opportunity changes are going to be COVID-related, middle of the week.

Star Player X has tested positive for coronavirus. and that their backup is now the guy. Or both the starter and the backup are and the third string running back is just the guy. And then if you're in one of those leagues, which is most but awful system, that you can just pick up whoever, whenever, this is like the ultimate stress test year for that

because it's like, oh, Ingram and J.K. Dobbins are both out. And then someone just sees first and picks up Gus Edwards on a Wednesday, and that sucks. But I think that that's really going to be the thing that swings it. And if I can give you, and everyone listening, like a real, This is like a real massacist advice, but it could win you your league. And this won me my league once.

But if you set Adam Schefter's Twitter account to push notifications. Oh, yeah. This is good. Like if you set, there's a little bell eye. If you have Twitter on your phone, there's a little bell icon. And don't do this all year round like I do because it's very bad. No, you do it year round? I don't want to talk about it.

But if you set his. He tweets a lot. I mute all my texts. I can't even know. I wish. So I'm a sight. Remember when I said, I watched the social dilemma, I was like, oh, push notifications.

Just someone tapping on your brain like, hey, pay attention. They're awful for you. But if you want to win your league, the surest way to just be ahead of everybody and pick up someone first is to add Schefter's Twitter notifications to your phone. And then, truth story,

I won one of my leagues a couple years ago because, like, I think the Carlos Hyde got traded from the Jaguars to somewhere and started. I don't remember you. The Browns, I picked them up immediately, 30 seconds later. and that's where you're going to learn that by the way Ronald Jones and Lenderford for when I have Corona and that you should pick up the third string bucks running back

So listen man this is what it takes You know what I mean? Sometimes you got to get down into dirty That's the real stash though Shafter Schaefter's my stash I like that one I got one more that I'm going to throw out Just because I saw this on Twitter

And it reminded me And I'm actually in a league or two That he's on waivers Because he's on IR right now Is George Kittle If he's out there If someone dropped him He says

he says he wants to come back in two weeks. He's supposed to be out, allegedly, for another month. But the dude is Wolverine. He's not Wolverine. He's the Joker. He's got a tattoo of the Joker on his wrist, like a giant forearm tattoo of the Joker the day before his wedding. He goes, Google pictures of his wedding.

His wrist is in saran wrap with the Joker tattoo. Well, that's interesting. What I meant, he has healing power. And he's, he can, like, come back way earlier than he, that he ever is supposed to apparently. And so I don't know. If he's out there, he's a good stash too because I think a lot of people

have sort of written him off this season and he might be back. He wants to come back. He says he's very optimistic that he's going to. Okay, so stashes, Brown's defense, Seahawks defense, Texans defense, bears if they're available somehow. Maybe Kiki Kee Kee Kutti, maybe Mayazzaa Coulter. Rashad Penny, Benny Snell, Anthony McFarland, Gardner,

maybe if you're in two quarterback lead, Deontae Foreman, and if you're a psycho like me, set out of Twitter. Twitter to push notifications. What an unbelievable piece of information. I don't want to talk about it. Also, for the record, it's terrible for your mental health. Don't really do it.

But it will help. Okay, let's get to players who are really good, but also disappointing. This is kind of the dance with who brung you a conversation because there is a lot of concern for some big name fantasy players. Right. You know how like in March Madness, the teams who usually wins are the teams who just like get hot right before the tournament starts? These are the opposite of those guys.

Yeah. There's longstanding things. fantasy advice, generally speaking, if you ask us, hey, should I play good player X who I drafted high and has been good, but is recently cold, versus random guy who's hot now. Ian Thomas. Ian Thomas. Yeah. Or that's like the Zulander thing.

Like, oh, so hot. Hansel, so hot right now. So hot right now. We're always going to pick Zoolander because it's like, you dance with who brung you. It's like, we don't care that Dalvin Cook has had five points three weeks in a row. You play Dalvin Cook. You dance with who brung you. But there are a few guys this year that are kind of concerning.

So let's just roll through some of these guys and let's just broach daintly. Like, polite, gently brooch. Yeah, it's just a little fantasy therapy. You know, we're just talking it out. Talk it through. Yeah. We're not telling you to bench these guys. These are for all the people who are debating it.

They're like, man, do I got to start Lamar? It's a safe space for you. Because, like, you tell someone else about it. They're going to be like, idiot. But for us, you can trust it. So let's start here. Yeah. Do you bet, if you made the playoffs with Lamar, congrats.

Should you, like, be thinking about benching Lamar Jackson sometime soon? DK. Yeah, so this one is tough because, number one, we're just going to assume that he comes back pretty quickly from, he was, he tested positive for COVID. So he's out at least this week, and then we don't know exactly how far that that will take to get him back. But assuming he does come back. He will be eligible for the Tuesday game if he's, if he's negative. Next Tuesday?

Is that one, they're playing next Tuesday now against the Cowboys? day. It's like the first day he's eligible to be back. If he tests negative. Anyhow, yeah, so I don't know. I feel like I'm still going with him. He's like the one guy on this list who I feel pretty strongly. Like, I'm not going to just abandon ship at this point.

I feel like he's been underwhelming relative to expectations, but he hasn't been a bad fantasy player. Going back, overall this season, he is the QB10 and points per game. The last four games, not including week 12 because he's not playing this week. So,

from week 8 through 11. He's still rushing a lot. He's the QB9. He still leads all running or all quarterbacks and rushing yards in that stretch. The only problem that's kind of cropped up with him

is he's just not scoring the touchdowns that he had last year. And so, you know, we've talked about this ad nauseum. Touchdowns are very random. It's hard to predict when they're going to come. We're seeing this with Tyler, with Kyler Murray right now.

I don't know. I just kind of have this hunch that Lamar is going to start getting some touchdowns and bunches going down the stretch. assuming he plays. And his schedule is actually lining up pretty well for that to Pan out. He has Dallas at Cleveland, Jacksonville, the Giants,

and then if your team's, if your league plays in Week 17, then they finish off Week 17 at the Bengals. And, you know, toss in the fact that the Ravens, like, need to win. Like, this is crunch time. That was going to be my other point. They have their backs against the wall at this point. And, you know, there's really no more holding back, whether they were trying to, like, get him to,

learn to play a little bit more from the pocket or whatever. I feel like they're just going to go, no holds barred. They got to just, they got to win games at this point. They're really like in a slump right now. And so that could be really good for Jackson's overall numbers. So my,

my bottom line, I think, and my take on this is that we are going overboard a little bit with the Jackson concerns. I still think he's a must start at quarterback. Okay. Tough times don't last. Tough people do.

Lamar Jackson, tough enough for the salty spatoon. Wow, that was a nice little nugget. What do you guys think? Do you agree? Yeah. What about you, Craig?

I think what D.K said about, like, the Ravens kind of just need to, like, hunker down and do what they do well. And even if it's, like, a little bit predictable, like, just go back to what you know. Play the hits, you know? When you see you're at the Journey concert, like, we want to hear, don't stop believing. Like, don't do any of the new stuff. Speaking of Play the Hits, Kyler Murray, was not taken hits. I believe had the most fantasy points for any quarterback ever through, like, eight games or whatever.

I mean, just literally the best fantasy performance we've ever seen. Yeah, until he played and got hit, and now he doesn't run anymore. We don't know this. They all deny that he's hurt. You're just out here saying Will Fuller is blah blah blah. There has to be some commitment to truth here. Based on what?

Every NFL analyst tweets stuff It ends up not being true anyway. What are we talking about? I watched him play and he looks different to me. And I think it's because right after he got a really bad shoulder injury, he's looked different. So I don't know what else you need. Yeah.

So do we have the numbers here on how different he's been? Well, I don't have the numbers on like his overall scoring or right in front of me. but I just want to look at his rushing numbers only from weeks 1 through 9 when he was the QB1. He rushed 76 times, 9.5 rushes per game, 543 yards in those games, which is 67 per game, and he scored 8 touchdowns.

In the last three games, he is the QB5. So again, it's like, this is all relative. He's still doing well. But his rushing has gone way down. He's only rushed 21 times, so it's seven times per game, 107 yards, half, basically half of what he's. was doing earlier per game in yard. Is this like fantasy gout where it's like

you just, you know, gout you get it from like eating just eating wine and like the King's Disease and all this stuff? Is this like fantasy gout where Kyler Murray goes down a little bit? We're like, oh no! And like this is like the problem of I used to have the best fantasy quarterback of all time. And now he's not that. Yeah, I'm sure everybody's a little bit upset that he's like regressing back to the meme. But I just don't think it's,

I don't think it's natural regression. His last two games, which I believe are the only two full games he's played injured. He's been the quarterback 14. So like, if that's where you're living, for the next four games of this season and his schedule is not super super easy. The thing about that is it's not random. So basically in the beginning of the season

they were doing so many designed runs and so many options and stuff. And Kyler was keeping it. That's why Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmunds kept getting cock blocked in these runs. And that's how Kyler Murray had freaking, what was it, 10, 12, 10 rushing touchdowns and like his first 9, 10 games or whatever because he kept keeping the ball on the options.

And now in the last couple games, it's the opposite. Teams are making him hand the ball off. and also they're blitzing him a lot. The blitz rate over the last four games has doubled. We're blitzing him like basically one in six times. Now they're basically blitzing him one and three times. And why do you think that is?

I mean, I don't want to pretend to be in the head of these defensive coordinators, but I think it's probably a combination of many things. One, they probably don't want him to be able to escape the pocket the way that he wants to. I think they want to disrupt him immediately. I think they probably are questioning his ability to read downfield. And I also think that they're trying to hurry him and get the ball out of his hands faster. I think Cliff Kingsbury said that this was part of like a longer, like a larger league-wide trend of making quarterbacks not run the ball

and blitzing these rushing quarterbacks and stuff. But whatever the result is, there does seem to be a difference in how the Cardinals have been played by defenses and they're going to have to develop a counter. Again, like, are you really going to bench Kyler-Murie? Like, probably not. But it is a little concern. I'm not going to lie, like, I'm concerned and I'd like to see it again.

So, I mean, also, they're playing good deal. I mean, their next games are the Rams, good defense with a good defensive coordinator. Again, we talked about how they're the best second-huff defense. The Giants who, you know, they're not that great. Solid defense. The defense has actually been kind of impressive. The Eagles, which, who knows what to make of it, their defense is good sometimes.

Good front line. The Niners who are very well-coached and getting healthier in defense. And then the Rams again. That's pretty good. And that's week 17, but still. And that's what's tough about Kyler is because they're denying his injury or whatnot. You're never going to know when he is going to bounce back. Like, there's never going to be a report that Kyler's feeling 100 percent,

and you can feel reassure. because he's already saying that. So I think what's tough is you have to start him because at any given moment he could pop right back to being Kyler. Because let's be honest, when he was in the red zone, he was a little Russell Westbrooky

where he'd like get in front of Stephen Adams and get the rebound where he was he was taking those little one-yard touchdown runs a lot instead of handing it off to his running backs trying to pad those steps a little bit. And that's revealing that he's not having he's not really having that many 300-yard days. It was all about the rushing.

I mean, again, it's not that touchdowns are a bad thing, but defenses are like, we're not going to let Tyler beat us anymore. And then the scoring flows elsewhere. And Kenyon Drake's been it being be way better. So it's a little concerning, but you're going to have to play them. Last one, quarterbacks. Russell Wilson. Yeah. This one's hilarious because we were talking about this, you know, planning the show.

And then I saw a tweet from JJ Zacharyson. This is also funny because we were talking about how we all hate Kirk Cousins and he's going to be in the burn book and he's just going to trick us. Kirk Cousins, this is fantasy points per game since week six. Kirk Cousins 20.3, Russell Wilson, 20.9. They're basic, Russell Wilson has turned into Kirk Cousins over the last like six weeks. into Russell Wilson. That's kind of actually more, I think, the case. Because I'm telling you, he's been on fire. Like, he's got Justin Jefferson. I think he's going to get feeling back here pretty quick.

I don't know. But the point is, Wilson, who went scorched, absolute scorched earth early in the season. Like the Let Russ Cook movement caught on. They had a downstretch where he turned the ball over. I want to say like 10 times. I just said let Russ Cook movement. Like, it's like some chapter of history and activism that, like, was finally got to the negotiating table and like

achieved like you're some historic like achievements that you want. To be clear I say that tugging cheek but it is absolutely a movement. The whole let let us cook thing is that's like a verbal movement. Everybody says let so and so cook now. But the Russ Cook thing infuriates me

a piece of me dies every time I hear let Russ cook. Yeah that's I think that's actually happening with Seahawks now too. But the bottom line is like the Seahawks have taken their foot off the gas a little bit when it comes to that. They're trying to be a little bit more Pete Carroll's team, I think. And I don't think it's like a, it's not, it's not a huge, huge departure. But Wilson's clearly not been as good as he was early in the season.

And Pete Carroll truly believes at his core that a balanced team is the best team. Absolutely. Says Pete Carroll's producer right there. If we want to get into Pete Carrollosophy or whatever, honest, and I've read his book, I used to cover the Seahawks, so I feel like I know his philosophy pretty well. The one thing he did when he came back to the NFL is he promised himself that he was not going to let either the front office, the ownership, or fans change anything about what he believes. He's going to go down doing what he believes. And this is like

going back to, I mean, dude, the dude's been coaching for like 40 years. Going back to when he started coaching, like this is the all-time great way to win football games in his opinion. And so even if the NFL is changing, I think it's changing. I think that the, you know, passing on first and second down more often is a good thing. I believe all this stuff, but like, I guarantee you Pete Carroll is like, we're getting back to Pete Carroll Ball. Like, this is the only thing I know it's just not working right now.

The big thing was not necessarily the passing on first and second down. The big thing was turnovers. And I think Pete Carroll is absolutely allergic to turnovers and that's why they took and put the restrictor plates a little bit back on Wilson because he was making bad decisions. And I think that was the big

thing, not just like passing frequency. I mean, Russ had more fumbles in like a three week period that Patrick Holmes has in his career. So that was bad. The defense of the same time has gotten better, and they don't feel like they have to turn it loose the same way that they were at beginning of the year. So a lot of variables.

So if they're passing lists, how does this affect Tyler Lockett? Because Tyler, obviously, D.K. Metcalf has gone to another planet. D.K. Metcalf has more receiving yards against the Eagles in the last two games. He's played against the Eagles than, like, J.J.R. Segal Whiteside, who the Eagles took over, D.K. Metcalf, more than R. Seagre White's out has in his entire career.

So it's like, D. D.K. McHughf is great. But Tyler Lockett has kind of disappeared since his insane implosion for 200 yards. Kind of. Yeah. If we didn't love him so much and we're insanely biased for Tyler Lockett, we would probably be talking about him. I think, Craig, did you dig up this stats? Someone put that he's the wide receiver 37 since week eight. Okay. So he's the 37th wide receiver since week eight. They're playing less. He's just, we always talk about the connection between him and Russ. There's just less of that. So are you confident playing Tyler Lockett over the next few weeks if he's on your team in the playoffs.

No, I'm not. Here's the thing. And you guys remember maybe like a month ago, we talked about the scariest guys to have across from you on the other team like that you're playing. And Lockett was one of them. And I was like, man, I don't know. But at the same time, like, he did have that 45 point game in week seven. So, like, he has that ceiling.

And it could come at any point. But at this point, he's become, I feel like he's become a little bit. untrustable. I wouldn't blame you if you keep him in your lineup. And I would never want you to like bench him just because I say he's like struggling. But I'm just going to give you the facts. Like he's wide receiver 37 since week eight.

He's still averaging plenty of targets, 6.8 targets a game over the last five weeks. That's that's when he's the wide receiver 37. But he only has one touchdown in that time. Russell Wilson clearly trusts DK Metcalf down the, down the field. And DK Metcalfe is, you know, taken over as the team's

like obvious number one guy. And not only that, like, even when D.K. Metcalf gets, like, Shadowed. Like, Darius Slay was all over D.K. Metcalfe. Didn't matter. He got, like, 15 targets. Like, they just didn't stop throwing him. I want to just, and just to give you some perspective of, like, where Tyler Lockett is since that week seven explosion. You know, you can't erase that game.

But since then, the five games since, Willie Sneed, Michael Pittman, Demir Bird, Prashad Perriam, Marcus Valdez-Scaneling, and Jacoby Myers have all scored more fantasy points than Tyler Lockett. two Patriots wide receivers. Again, I'm not saying to bench him, but I wouldn't blame you if you did. Even though he has insane upside. Insane upside. It's just, man, it's tough to have a four or a three. Like his finishes, week 8, 5.3, week 9, 6, week 10, 9.

Week 11, he did have 17.2. This week, 3.8. It's just tough to get those, man. He's almost in like the Jarvis Landry range where it's like he could go off. He might go off. but do you really trust him to go off? I don't trust him anymore.

Honestly, a couple guys I don't trust anymore. Lockett and Russell Wilson, a couple of Seahawks. There's also a couple of saints I want to mention. Alvin Camara and Michael Thomas, let's be really, probably not benching these guys, but I do want to mention Alvin Camer is no longer like this lock in top two running back. Yeah, it sucks.

He's just playing less. He's just playing less. It sucks. He has like one catch for negative two yards in the last two games. He was averaging like nine catches a game for the first like, however long in the season, the first 10 weeks. He might be the most talented receiver at the running back position,

and he's not really a part of the receiving offense anymore, which is really tough. He had, what was it, 84, 84 catches for like 4 years in a row? Or 78 catches, three years in a row. I think it was like 84, 82. Whatever it was. It was a lot, and he had the same number, and now that consistency's gone.

And then Mike Triplett at ESPN, covers the Saints, wrote that it's fair to lower your expectations for Cameras' fantasy production in the passing game while Drew Brees remained sideline, but don't be too concerned about a growing timeshare with Latavis Murray after Murray's first rushing guard game of the season.

Let's be real. You're not going to bench Camara. It's not happening. But it's great, you made a face, Craig. Are you benching Camara? No, we're not even having this cover. There's no one's benching Camara. I was just going to say, like, depending on your options?

No way. No, we're not even entertained. I'm not even entertained this. This would be the saltiest movie in the world. I'm not even entertained. Michael Thomas is also something at 100-yard game when Tassam Hill came back and then had a Taston Hill at a bad game last week. You're probably also not at the point with Michael Thomas,

but we'll just say they're on watch. They need to have a lot of, like another bad game or two each till we talk about it. But we're concerned about it both of them. If you're a, by the way, if you're in Sean Payton's ads on Twitter, he was asked about this on the radio

the other day about Alvin Camara and the distribution between him and Latavius Murion and also just the fact that like Tays Mill does not pass him the ball. He's like, I'm all for the fantasy fans having their success and winning their weekly pools. Hey, thanks, Sean. And yet I also really don't

care about them. So he's not going to get your sympathy. Yeah. We really got to just keep an eye on. If you have Kamar on your team, you got to really focus on Drew Brice, who, like, they think maybe week 15

is looking like when he's going to come back. I'm not, I don't know he's coming back. I don't think he's coming back. I don't think this is like, yeah, it's coming back. It's just the writing's on the wall.

11 ribs. 11. A lot of ribs, almost half. Double digits. Other people worried about T. Higgins, Bengals receiver, was really good. Yeah. Yeah.

Now it's Brandon Allen a quarterback. He caught a touchdown that saved his line at the end of this Giants game. I don't think you can play him going forward. I mean, obviously you can if your options are bad. But if you have another option, at the end of the day, I just don't want to go. You don't want your ship to sink because of Brandon Allen. Like, if that's the person who's plugging the holes in your roster and you lose, you're going to like, shit, I relied on Brandon Allen.

And maybe Higgins works out because he's really good and he is impressive. But I just don't want to bet on Brandon Allen, dude. This one's dangerous to me. Brandon Allen had 17 completions for 136 yards in this game. Yeah, and T. Higgins caught all of his targets, something that's probably not going to happen again. Yeah. So RIP to T. Higgins' candidacy as a nice under-the-rader guy. DJed Shark for Jacksonville, quietly done very little.

Yeah, I wanted to throw his name out because I think he's living on name value right now still, at least in my mind. I'm still like, man, he's a good player. He's really... He's a Glansberg of the season, very under. Very Stephen Glansberg. He is. But he's also a guy that is, I would say, on, I don't know if I'd feel comfortable starting him in situations unless I absolutely had to. He's had in week four, he had 25 points, but since then, week 5, 3.1, week 6, 8.

This is half PBR. Week 7, 3.1, week 9, 24, week 10, 7.6, week 11, 6.1. And he's out last week. So we don't even know himself his health. He's had more than 8 points one time in the last six weeks, is what you're saying. it. Yeah. And...

Well, it's... Isn't that directly tied to Minshu, right? It was Minshu, and then it was Luton, and now it's Glennon. Vladimir Luton.

I just don't... Yeah, and they have their games at Minnesota, Tennessee... Tennessee's a bad defense, but then at Baltimore and Chicago. Like, that's what you end up with.

So that's tough. I don't know. Chark is, to me, just probably going to be on the bench for most of my game. Is it game based on Minshu or Mike Lennon playing, or you just kind of out

to you see it again? I don't know, because, honestly, remember, he, like, hates Minchu. Do you remember this? Like, it was the bad body language award when Minchu was a guy. He's in Charg and Alan Robinson need to get trade to the same team next year. Just not with Minchu.

The spiritual Alan Robinson. Yeah. I think Chark hates Minchu. So, like, even if Minchu does come back, even though I think Minchu is a good player, they're just not on the same page for whatever reason. They hate each other. Well, Chark hates Munchin'i. I don't know about Minchu hates Chark, but, yeah, he's just, like, glaring.

Every time he threw him a pass, he's just, like, God damn it. He just like sulking. One last one we want to go for trustworthiness here. Trust issues. Rojo and Leonard Furnett, I feel like people who have one or both are just like at a loss. Ronald Jones just looks like he's better.

Leonard Fonet's getting carries. Ronald Jones is just makes huge plays, but then he's liable to get benched if he fumbles. What do you guys make? Like, I feel like you have to be playing Ronald Jones at your flex probably. Yeah, you do. You do, but it makes me nervous.

It's nervous, but you have to do it. And then Fournette, honestly, I probably wouldn't play. He just doesn't look as good. Bruce Ariens said on Monday that Ronald Jones needs to have 20 touches. But here's the problem. He said that four times about four different backs in the last five years.

He said that about like, I can't remember the name. Oh, it's like, oh, no. Kirchon William, I can't. He said it about people who didn't get 25-Kirwin. Curwin Williams. Guess what? Kernel Williams never got to 20 touches a game. Spoilerly on.

So I think that. Andre Ellington? him saying that in the past has been shout with the Ian Hartets of like pro football focus for pointing this out. That's usually a heart like a Harbinger, Harbinger, I can't say words out loud. Harbinger that he was about to lose touches But you have to play Rojo until it happens so

I think we should get rid of the word harbinger Yeah no one's yeah it's just no one knows how to pronounce it Sure, you kind of sound weird saying Dude there are so many words that are only used in like one phrase too That I want to get rid of like they're ever going on the hottest take again High Fitzger and I Our hottest takes have been buried and are just waiting to resurface.

They will one day. Well, you know what it is? We let the hot takes lie fallow. Like, you know, like a field. I think that we should respell a lot of hard words. Oh, that's good. I think that's really good.

They're a ridiculously spelled words. That's really good. I completely agree. It's like turning them into audibles, like the one word audibles in the NFL, you know? Like instead of saying like a seven or eight word. Right. Let's just go back to phonetics.

Like, teradactyl, get rid of the pee. I couldn't agree with this more. This is an absolute excellent take. I mean, it's ridiculous. Like, you just you shouldn't have The silent G's is insane. I think that, like, the fact that a Q has to be followed by a U and not a W is insane. You know what we can change?

Orders. We're just going to change that. I don't know. I've never been, you know, that's a French way. I haven't been able to spell that because you can't get to, I had, that's a word. It's the only word I wasn't even able to get close enough to the Google correct thing. Hors D'O.S. But when I didn't know it was French, the first time I Googled it.

I remember this being in high school, I'm trying to Google hors dors, and no idea to spell it. And I couldn't even Google it. I was there a word. I can't even Google. I know. I think this is a good point. Let's save this for the hottest steak. Let's get to special fantasy court.

Oh, rise. We have special fantasy. We have an emergency injunction request. I think this applies to a lot of people. It's basically about Gus Edwards and this, can we say cluster fuck on this podcast? I think this is a special cluster fuck.

I say it all the time. I mean, the Steelers, Ravens, cluster fuck situation where they're playing this game on Wednesday in the middle of the day I think has messed up even the this ridiculous situation of like the people designate a backup

even that situation is in limbo right now so here's the email from Josh from San Antonio in our league we allow managers that have COVID-affected players to announce a backup on the group chat in case their game gets canceled or whatever one manager who happens to be the commissioner decided to start Gus Edwards I know I know

decided to start Gus Edwards in the flex and play deep as his backup. Now that J.K. Dobbins and Mark Ingram are playing again, the commissioner is arguing that Debo should now be his flex since he started Gus Edwards thinking Dobbins and Ingram were out.

What is your ruling on this? So to be clear, the situation here is that Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins because of the protocols where they have to be, they're automatically out of the game because of how they were exposed

and there's a window of when they're eligible to play. The fact that the game was moved from Sunday to Wednesday now, Sunday they were not eligible to play. Wednesday they are now. So what do you guys think about this? I know where I lean on this. And this is probably going to be, I think people will be mad about this, but I actually think... He should get Debo? He should be able to make his lineup based on what he would have done if COVID wasn't a thing.

Honestly, and this is why I think of this, number one, COVID sucks, man. Like, this whole thing sucks. It's very confusing. There's a lot of... Can we trust this person, though? To be honest about, oh, of course I would have started debil it. Well, no, in this case, this is unambiguous. And the reason I wanted to do this fantasy court is because I think it applies.

We got a lot of emails about this topic, basically that Gus Edwards, something, something, and then J.K. Dobbins and Mark Ingram can play now. Like, they were, not like they were ruled out by injury. The league mandated that those people are not fucking allowed to play in the game. Right. And then you made a decision. And then something changes, and now they're allowed to play in the game. I'd lean, lenient.

In my league, that I'm a commissioner, and we actually had a very similar situation. with this and I allowed a change to be made and most of the league agreed like a few people were dissenting but overall it's like I think overall people are understanding that if COVID wasn't a thing like people would be making these decisions based on like players it's a whole different process this is whole this is wholly unique in this year and I've leaned on being lenient based on all these COVID things like you know they're getting declared out but then they have to wait a certain amount of days like we don't know any of this stuff we don't know who actually has COVID or who was like within range of COVID or whatever, like within proximity.

There's just so many moving parts. I've leaned towards being lenient on letting people start what would be like a reasonably optimal lineup based on like if COVID wasn't a thing. Is that make sense? And so I definitely would understand. Benefit of the doubt. Some leagues, I would definitely understand if some leagues just say no, like it's not going to happen. And I have no problem with that because I really can see both sides. But for the most part, I've been leaning lenient as a commissioner because COVID just sucks.

And this is supposed to be fun. Like, this is supposed to be our escape from COVID, you know? I think that's a really good point. I actually don't see, well, I do see both sides here, but I think one side's wrong. And here's why. If you're saying that this person should have to be forced to play Gus Edwards, who's now a third string running back in this game when you thought he's a primary, you're basically saying that the rule we made where, like, eligible people are able to be designated as backups

in case someone's diagnosed with coronavirus. You're taking that very literally. Well, Gus Edwards doesn't have coronavirus so that he can't be used it. But that's not why it was created. You didn't create it just for this. You created it for, as you're saying, DK., a pandemic has disrupted the season. And guess what? Never in fantasy have they just been moving games, willy-nilly.

And so the fact that someone made a lineup. Yeah, it's raging through the league right now. When something is tecto-like now it's happening so often it seems commonplace. The fact, in terms of the NFL schedule, moving a game days before is tectonic. that is insane, especially for fantasy football. So I think if there was something that, hey, a game freaking change days, and it's being played in the middle of your Wednesday work day now because of the pandemic. And subsequently, the first string running back is now the third string running back

is completely within the spirit of, yeah, you designate backups for that stuff. That shit happens this year in 2020. That's what the whole system's for. So even it's not what was designed for, that makes sense. Question. I have a follow-up to Josh from. San Antonio's fantasy court because I am in a league

I'm in two leagues, but the one I'm talking about now, I'm not the commissioner in. I literally have an identical situation. However, we do not have it set up that you announce a backup for COVID. It's just like you kind of just do whatever. Just you're the bad commissioner. No, I'm not the commissioner. But you're not.

You do whatever, meaning like you sit Claypool because you're not sure if the game is going to happen. Right. Like people just, we don't do a thing where you announce backups in this league. I have Gus Edwards right now slotted in as my flex because I thought

he was going to be the lead running back. I am down 11 points. The other player on my team that I would have likely started if Gus Edwards was a part of a three-man committee

is Debo Samuel who scored 18, so I win. That's funny. Well, no, you guys have had three months to come up with a system. No, you don't have the system in place by now, then it's like, why don't have you guys had the system in place?

But even though I wouldn't have played Gus Edwards if the other two running backs are playing, I should still take the loss. In this situation with this fantasy court thing, the league has the system. When all this COVID stuff started rescheduling games, and maybe the Bill's Titans won't be played or whatever, or Steelers Titans, whatever it was,

a lot of leagues adopted the precedent that in these specific situations, you can designate a backup. But if your league is three months into the season, it doesn't have that system. You can't just start it now because you would win. Here's the thing. And yeah, I think I agree with that. Here's the thing.

In this email, Josh from San Antonio, says the commission decided to start Edwards and designated Debo as his backup, right? Yes. Meaning, he was on record saying, if the game gets canceled, Debo goes. Meaning, he was going to play Devo. Like, there's no

ambiguity here about, like, he's saying, oh, Debo did great, so that was definitely the guy I was going to play. You know what I mean? So that, to me, is like, that's the thing that kind of matters here. But, Dick, I think your overarching point is right in that this is supposed to be fun. And at the end of the day, I think when we do

fantasy court things. We're not trying to just interpret legalese. Like you're trying to preserve, we're not trying to give rulings here at the expense of the fun will be sacrificed, but the rules will be fought. Well, it's wild that fantasy court has become such a significant part of this season. This was a bit we came up with two years ago because we thought we'd be funny and now it's like the most important thing we talk about every week. Yeah, we thought it was about like shit talking your friends and now it's like serious problems. Yeah, it's like we actually don't. There are actual issues deciding the league and tearing friendships apart. And I think the point is, if you're a commissioner, when in doubt, the benefit of the doubt in the year of 2020 is worth giving to people in many walks of life.

And fantasy football is just one of them. So give people a freaking break. On that note, bad beat for this week. Yeah. Okay. There was some fucking bad ones this week. There was hilarious ones. I mean, obviously we got so many.

I mean, the Eagles meaningless Hail Mary. Oh, my God. Hilarious. the first, we got so many people lost on that with the Wendst thing. That was a great catch by the defense. Dick Rod. Dick Rod. He's caught with...

Good hands. He snagged it. Well, he's got one before. Okay, so obviously a lot of bad beats from that. Obviously, we got a lot about the Tyree Kill stuff and him having his crazy day. I just wanted shout out. One guy had scored 202 points, but lost to the guy who had Tyree Kill, Jarvis Landry and like an insane

insane game. I also wanted to... So, got an email from Will from Portland. Will. Well. I know a will in Portland. My favorite third string Chargers quarterback, Craig. I've been streaming quarterbacks

in my 10 team league basically every week and have had so, so luck so far. This week I turned back to the waiver wire where I rolled the dice on Derek Carr, who of course managed only 0.6 points against the supposedly anemic Falcons defense.

This would be bad enough, except my margin of defeat was 1.8 points. So leaving aside the fact that Carr holding on to any one of his four turnovers would have saved me, Here is a list of available quarterbacks I could have picked up who would have won me the week in descending order. Kirk Cousins, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Tannihill, Carson Wentz, Mitch Trubisky, Baker Mayfield, Mike Lennon, Philip Rivers, Andy Dalton, Jacoby Brissette, Daniel Jones, Nick Mullins, Sam Darnold, Cam Newton. If you played Russian roulette with two revolvers and one bullet, you'd still be more likely to lose than I was this week.

fantasy football makes no sense. I love that he could have started the backup quarterback on the Colts and he would have still won. That's incredible. By the way, can we talk about, this is hilarious first of all, thanks to the email. Can we talk about how funny it is that Jacoby Percent is like playing the

Tayson Hill role in the Colts offense? But he's like just as slow is Philip River. Oh, it's like so slow. He's just not Philip Rivers and that's the only qualification. You know how like John Lester wouldn't, like he couldn't pick people off? So he just refused to do it

baseball. That's like Philip Rivers refuses to quarterback sneak. He's like, I've not missed a game since like the Jurassic period. I was trying to think of a different dinosaur period. Do people get hurt Kubey sneaking? I feel like that's not a thing. I don't know, but he won't do it. That's the thing, you won't do it. So he's like the John Lester of like, nope,

that one part of the game that's very specific but important, not doing it. I think there have been quarterbacks gotten hurt doing it. Wentz Torres ACL diving into the end zone. It wasn't a sneak, I don't think, but. Yeah, that was like a scramble. Yeah, it was similar. mechanism, if you're going to use

like a trendy term. He plays football. I don't want the first down. Sorry. I don't do that. You basically just told me he got hurt running. Dude, that's like that feeling. He got hurt diving into the end zone. It's like that famous story of like Randy Moss when they, someone in the Raiders asked him to like run over the middle. He's like, oh, I don't go there. But like, all right. Okay, to summarize, Will Fuller, next time you do PEDs, please for our sake, don't get caught.

Despite that, pick up the Texans defense. as a stash for your playoff run. And if you're a psycho, then turn on Adam Schaefter's Twitter to push notifications. You'll win your league, lose your sanity. Will Fuller, man. Just get a dead guy's hamstring. Put that in your leg. That's okay.

You should get Tommy John, but like, we'll call it Tommy Fuller. She should get Tommy John for his hamstrings. Yeah, just get Tommy Fuller. Okay. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you to everyone for listening. Not whatever the opposite of thank you is to Will Fuller's doctors.

And thank you, Lauren. Lorne. Thank you, Moray Carey. No. Christmas time. Wow, there you go. Okay. See you guys on Friday.