The Ringer NFL Show - The 2023 Fantasy Rewatchables

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

We recap the 2023 fantasy football season in the format of the popular Ringer movie podcast ‘The Rewatchables.’ We give out awards like What’s Aged the Best, the Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take, Apex Mountain, Picking Nits, Best Waiver Wire Pickup of the Year, the Play of the Year, the Winner of the Fantasy Season, and more. Check out our Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ringer gambling feat is your one-stop shop for all things betting throughout the NFL season. From week one all the way through Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas, we have you covered every which way. We've got our favorite futures. We've got props. We'll discuss the lines. And, of course, we'll throw in a few parlets. That's a given. So whether you're a sharp or square better, we'll be breaking it down in terms.

Hopefully everybody can understand. And we'll try to win some money along the way. and be sure to subscribe to the ring of gambling feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Today's episode of the Fantasy rewatchables is brought to you by The Rewatchables, which is a show that I produce. Hosted by Bill Simmons, usually Chris Ryan and Sean Fantasy,

rewatching everybody's favorite movies. It is Monday when we're recording this. It's probably going to be Tuesday when you're hearing it. That means a new rewatchables has dropped. I won't spoil the movie, but it's a very popular movie from the, early 2010s with a very big movie star and the movies on HBO right now. So that's all I will give you. We're also brought to you by The Ringer NFL Draft Show, which is our offseason program.

We're running every Wednesday. We'll be there this Wednesday talking national championship and a bunch of other things all the way up until the NFL draft. What else will be brought to you by the town? I'm just going to name things I'm involved with. Do it. Yeah. Hollywood Insider podcast hosted by Matt Bellany of Puck. Check out his newsletter. Yeah. He has a great newsletter called What I'm Hearing, the podcast is good. Check it out. Three episodes a week talking Hollywood business insidery stuff.

Craig, what's the segment at the very end called the call sheet? Call sheet, yeah. Yeah. So you get to listen to Craig, too. Yeah, Matt and I do a little thing at the end of every episode, like a little prediction Matt gives called the call sheet where he makes a call. With that said, without further ado, it is the 2024 fantasy rewatchables. All right. Craig's Bill Impression gets better every year.

All right, I'm here with Danny Hyphitz and Danny Kelly. From the ringer fantasy football show. Patriots, third pick in the draft. But anyway, no, we're here. It's a fantasy watchfuls. What's up, everybody? This is Danny Hyatt's his favorite show of the year. It's been, I don't know if it's been a good year in fantasy football.

I really don't. Like, I feel like last year and the year before that were much more fun. Do you guys feel like this year was one of the more odd football seasons we've had? There's been a ton of backup quarterbacks. There's been a ton of quarterback injuries. A lot of first round draft picks flamed out. First round fantasy draft picks. I'm talking about flamed out.

What was this fantasy season to you guys? D.K. always loves to quote, walk hard, Dewee Cox. He was like, wrong kid died. Like Titans trade AJ Brown. Wrong kid died. I feel like a lot of people look at their leagues. Like, wrong team one. Yeah.

I feel like once Nick Chub got hurt, everything was just kind of out the window. My team's cut in half pretty bad. Yeah, no, I was going to say the same thing. This year felt like. more variance than normal. And going back to like the championship weeks, or just all the playoff weeks, really,

it felt like a lot of like five and six seats were coming through and winning. I know in my dynasty leagues in particular, there was a lot of like six seats, five seats that won at all. So it was like, did you have a Mari Cooper in week 16? That was kind of the fantasy season.

But we're going to run through a bunch of categories, rewatchable style. We kind of convert the rewatchables categories and kind of look at them through an NFL fantasy lens. but first I wanted to talk about, just kind of give a brief overview of the season a little bit. Points were down across the board in not only real football, but also fantasy football.

And I went through and I looked at the last five seasons of quarterback. It is wild how bad the quarterback play was this year and fantasy in particular, because I went back and listened to last year's fantasy rewatchables and we were talking about how heading into this year, we were going to spend more than we've ever spent on quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Mahomes, whoever. and none of it really panned out except for Josh Allen.

I looked at the past five fantasy seasons, and Josh Allen this year, 2023 Josh Allen is the only quarterback whose 2023 season cracks the top 24 over the last five years. So if that sounds confusing, I organized the best fantasy seasons for a quarterback over the last five years.

And Josh Allen is the only player whose 2023 season cracked the top 24. That's incredible. I'm sorry, was that total points or points per game? Total. Okay, because I was going to say, Injuries wash out half the people anyway. That's part of it, you know?

Oh, actually, no, I'm sorry. It's points per game. Points per game. That's still crazy. Wow. I think that really tracks, though, with just like the state of the league. This is something we've been talking about all season long and, you know, beating a dead horse on it. But, like, scoring an offense, this was one of the worst seasons in over a decade for scoring and offense in general.

I did the final tally, 21.8 points per game, lowest since 2017, which isn't really that bad. But if you look at yards, 331 yards per game. per team, lowest since 2008. 5.3 yards per play, lowest since 2007. What happened if you remove the Steelers from this? Then how much do the numbers increase? It's actually the greatest season in NFLA.

Oh, I got some stats for you on that later, Craig. 2.3 touchdowns per game for team, lowest since 2006. And guess what? High Fitz's dream, 1.67 field goals made per team per game. Most, third highest ever. Yeah, well, the field kickers are the only people keeping us in business here.

There'd be no points of that. the freaking kickers. Anyway, my point is, across the board, one of the worst seasons for offense, and that obviously translates to fantasy points, too. In over a decade, like 15 years, really. So pretty wild. Pretty shitty, if you ask me.

I think that the season, I will say, we do frame this in a certain way where it's like we can also just say, hey, after the historically incredible pendulum shift toward offense, defense actually clawed its way back over the last year and a half. That is one way to say some of this. But the quarterback injuries,

it's like I don't know how to talk about any of this is that the quarterback injuries of, I feel like, I mean, I remember week, there were two moments where I feel like, I was like, wow, there's a lot of quarterbacks hurt this year. And we always are like, the shoes different. But one, when we broke the record for rookie quarterbacks

starting a game in week 10, like for a whole season in week 10. And then the other one was when we were like, wow, we've been talking about quarterbacks for a long time, like how many bad ones are playing now. And it was like week seven. And then like week 11 felt like like we had the whole lit, we power ranked the 10 worst quarterbacks in the NFL.

We had like, you know, Josh Dobbs and like all these guys, Clayton Tune. And then like two months later, we had a completely different top 10 list of different quarterbacks that had replaced different injured starters. And it really was a slow drip of it. There was no wave. It was just every week we lost one starting quarterback for 18 weeks. Yeah.

It feels like it's going to be, I don't know if it's going to be the norm. to see this level of like superstar quarterbacks get hurt for the season. But I mean, this was a problem we had last year, too. I remember at this time, exact time last year when we did this show, one of my big lessons or whatever was that there was 65 total quarterbacks that played last year, started games, which was a new record. You know, it was like a whole bunch of backups all year long. And then again, it felt like it was even worse this year.

So this is just like the new state of the NFL. I feel like backup quarterbacks are more important than ever. and teams are going to have to start investing in these guys because they seriously do not do that right now. I agree with D.K. I still don't understand how the Bengals didn't have a bet. I mean, Jake Browning did all right, but the team. He ended up being way better than we thought.

But the Browns, the Jets, the teams that did invest until it was kind of too late. But to your fantasy point, Craig, I think that the thing I want to take in it next year is get a quarterback with the rushing. Because the reality is a quarterback who performs for fantasy. You have to get a lot of yards, a lot of touchdowns. But it's so much game script dependent. Like, part of the, I mean, part of the reason Mahomes wasn't as good was that the offense was terrible.

The other part was the chief's defense was better than it's been. And so what he had to do was also lower. And so it's hard to predict correctly. Like the Texans are going to be incredible with the first year coordinator and coach and Stroud and also the Texans defense will be solid, but also Stroud will still have to throw. It's hard to predict all that. The rushing you can predict.

Josh Allen's always going to run. You know what I mean? And you look at Josh out. There are eight, there are almost 10 quarterbacks who are going to run next year. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hertz. They're going to get Caleb Williams in the league. Kyler Murray is there, you know,

Jaden Daniels, if he's a rookie at LSU. Like, we're going to have Anthony Richardson. There's genuinely like eight quarterbacks next year that could run for 1,000 yards or 10 rushing touchdowns and no one would blink an eye. Well, you know what's funny about that, though? We just talked about how this year was the year of like the major quarterback injury.

I mean, we all forget that we started with Aaron Rogers tearing his Achilles, Anthony Richardson out for the year, Joe Burrow out for the year. Kirk, Cousins, Justin Herbert, Stroud missed a crucial stretch. Except for Anthony Richardson, none of those guys are running quarterbacks. The running quarterbacks are Josh Allen, Jalen Hertz, and Lamar Jackson,

who are the top three quarterbacks of the season in fantasy. None of them got hurt. Right. So it's like, while I do agree with you, this felt like an outlier year in terms of the pocket passers got injured and the running quarterbacks did not. I think it's an excellent point, especially considering how many times the pre-draft,

we were like, Bryce Young's small, he'll get hurt. And he did get baked up little. But then Richardson got hurt immediately because he was huge and therefore reckless and trying to truck. guys. And he's the only guy was, you know, at some ways we have this backward where it's like, yeah, the guys who can't get out of the way are also getting hit as long as the mobile guys know, like they're the ones who can avoid hits as long as they know not to take them. Like, they're actually the ones who can avoid them better, maybe. Yeah, I'm also fully convinced that

Josh Allen is incapable of getting injured. So I won't say that. Never going to die. All right. Let's get into the categories here. We're going to start with, we're going to run through a slew of them. What states the best, which is the worst, most watchable scene. And then we're going to finish with the fantasy MVP and who won the year. So starting off here. Most rewatchable scene, which in our context is the most rewatchable play moment, we can keep it loose. I'm going to run through kind of what I have, and then you guys tell me what I missed what you thought. Okay. I kind of think one, wouldn't you guys agree that the most rewatchable, whatever, play moment of the year, kind of feel like it wasn't a play.

It was something else, you know? Like, I joke that two years ago we did the fantasy rewatchables. Maybe it was three at this point. And there was the D.K. Metcalfe chased down. of Buda Baker on the pick six. I saw a meme of that yesterday. That is still the most rewatchable play for me of this year even. I just was still, if I'm going to think about like the early 2020s, I'm going to think of D.K. McCaff. Did he get that running like Moes from the office?

He looks like Optimus Prime catching up on a human. It had to be, it had to be D.K. And like one of the smallest players in the NFL in Buda Baker. I don't know. Do you guys disagree? I feel like there wasn't like, the play this year? I, there was not.

However, there also was. And I have, I do think there was a play. We were just robbed of it. I think the Kelsey Lateral to Cadarist Tony was the play of the year. And if it had stood, I'm not, I actually went through. I'm not saying this lightly. If the Kelsey Lateral to Tony had stood and they had won the game, that would have been one of the 10 best plays in the history of regular season football.

This is what I wrote down. This was the prompt that we wrote down for when we were making these categories, quote, what am I going to pull up on YouTube the most over the next 10 years? The answer is the incredible improvisational hook and ladder. By the way, it was not planned, like pre-planned, or at least they practiced maybe a little bit. It seemed planned. In that situation, I don't think it was personally planned. It was ad-lid.

He chucked the ball like 20 yards. It was not like a regular hook and ladder. Anyway, it would have been one of the most memorable plays of all time. Oh, wait. Never mind. The rest. I went through the list. Because you can't compare it to playoff games, right?

plays the, you know, the Tyre helmet catch. But regular season, the Immaculate reception was regular season game. The Ken Stabler Raiders had the Holy Roller, Miracle to Medallands Part 1, which is terrible. The Miracle Melalanes part two. The Sean Jackson punt return. Steve Young had a 49-yard-scramble. The Odell catch. The Aaron Rogers Hail Mary to Richard Rogers.

The Dolphins had a lateral, remember where they ended up jukeing out gronk at the end of the game. The Saints blocked a punt the first game back at the Superdome. And the Kelsey Lateral. That's 10. Like, it lit, Kelsey Lateral. You throw on the stakes of like when the, if they had won the game, the Chiefs to beat the bills with Kelsey in front of Taylor Swift throwing the ball 20 yards. It actually was like the best play in years.

And yeah, that's too bad. So Craig, what else did you have on your list? Did you go ahead? In terms of play, I had, that was obviously, you know, probably the winner. But again, it's refrelated, you know, did actually happen? Okay, in terms of like moments, plays, going through, I feel like I will probably look back and think about Aaron Rogers tearing his Achilles four snaps into the game on the season opener. And then not only that, that game itself might be the most memorable game of the year for me,

honestly, because Garrett Wilson intercepted his own pass from Zach Wilson in the fourth quarter to win that game. I don't know if you remember that in the corner of the end zone. And the punt return by Xavierin Gibson and OT for the Jets to actually beat the bills week one without Aaron Rogers. So I have that, I have the T. Higgins catch. from a few weeks ago, which I thought was incredible. His like catch, reach back, windmill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have...

That was unreal. I have... The Russell Wilson touchdown in the corner of the end zone was probably one of the more improbable throws I've ever seen. I had the Bucks Texans game where the Stroud coming out party as just like the game I think I will think of in terms of like an overall performance.

It was like 38, 36 Texans. I have Alvin Camara breaking that dude's leg on the sideline. Oh my God, the ref or like the linesman. Yeah, that was horrific. I have the Josh Dobbs like Linsanity. Oh, yeah, that was fun. And then in terms of like if you continue to, you know, I have the Cowboys, Dan Campbell,

two-point conversion fiasco. Yeah. And then a few media narratives. I have obviously Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift and then like the Brock Purdy debate. I feel like when I look back on this year, I'm going to be like that was the year that we burned everything down because we couldn't decide if Brock Purdy was good.

it also speaks to something about how we actually consume the idea of what's a rewatchable play or what's a rewatchable moment too where I feel like the other way it's not even like go to YouTube and watch but now it's like what's going to stop the scroll like some scrolling through whatever what am I going to stop on and I feel like it's just all the bejean Robinson jukes with the really cool camera angle they had I'm like that's a great call I cannot imagine scrolling past the bejean robinson juke compilation from this season well and they started to use like the TikTok camera on him where they were like the frame moves with him.

You know, those, that, like, new style of TikTok. The TikTok camera. Kyle was filming the Bijam. Yeah,

I think Kyle is actually the DP of every, uh, of every Falcons game. Um, but yeah, first three weeks of the season, I remember thinking I was like pulling a bill where I was like Bja on,

I was like Bja on, I'm since the best running back I've ever seen in my life. Right. Um, a couple that I would add here. I think the dolphins winning 70 to 20 was very memorable. Just like, the biggest ass kicking I've ever seen in my life,

probably. Like, it just was so easy. and obviously I was highly invested in Devon A. Chan running for 203 yards and scoring like four touchdowns. So that was really fun. And I can't even believe we haven't talked about this yet because it just happened. But the Saints driving the final nail into the Arthur Smith head coach coffin by running a fake spike touchdown with a 41 to 17 lead. Like that to me is just such an iconic moment, even though it was like a stupid thing.

They probably should have done it. feather in the cap for Arthur Smith there. So, like, look, I get, I understand, like, from the players' part of view, like, why it's, it's irresponsible and probably they should not have done that. But it was so funny in the context of this is the final play of Arthur Smith's tenure. He came over, screamed at Dennis Allen. Who had nothing to do with it. Dennis Allen did not call that play. He called a Neil and the team overruled him and ran that run to Jamal Williams.

And James Winston was the ringleader of it. Like, it's just so perfect from just. just a hilarity point of view. And it makes it even better that Jamal Williams is like the single most likable player in the entire NFL. That was his first touchdown. I mean, that was why they did it. Yeah.

So everything about that was hilarious. I do understand from like the player's point of view why it was irresponsible. But in the moment, that specific context, fucking hilarious. And I will remember it forever. So that play, even though it wasn't really even a real play. The only other one we didn't bring up, remember what the Patriots just used the Dolphins motion against them, but to block a field goal. and we were like, this is the future special teams.

And then we just never saw it again. They just were like, what if they got? I just timed it. And like, no one tried to get it. It looked like arena football. Like a wide receiver just sprinting towards the field goal kicker. Yeah, that's a good call.

Just can't believe that never happened again. So I what? Your guys is winner. I think we have to say it's a consensus here. It's the Cadarius Tony Travis Kelsey. I mean, would have been lateral. Yeah.

Two of the, two of the most like, like emotion-inducing plays of the season. I guess this makes sense, but it was like two complete fuckups by the refs or whatever. Obviously, you know,

there's maybe there wasn't a rough fuckup with the Cadarius thing. Caterius clearly was off sides. But like the controversy around both of those plays with the reps and everything, it sucks that those were two of the most memorable plays

of the freaking season. But here we are. All right, what's age the best? We'll start with you, Hyphitz. So what's age the best? I have Aaron Rogers's family not talking to Aaron Rogers.

Oh, God. He was invited to Thanksgiving. What did he do for Thanksgiving, Aaron? Going down Wikipedia rabbit holes about conspiracies and stuff. So it's like, what does Rogers not touch his family? And then now I'm like, oh, I get why the family doesn't talk to Rogers. And I'm like, you know what? I get it now.

Saying out with RFK Jr. I would love that there was like a holdovers. But for like football teams where like all the players are going home for Christmas and Aaron Rogers doesn't. And he's just like, he's left with like Tim Boyle and Alan Luzard. And it's just like the three of them. at the Jets facility for a week. It's like when Harry Potter

doesn't have anywhere to go on Christmas. Oh, God. Home alone. Oh, my God. But I will say, just the Packers moving on from Aaron Rogers, though. I mean,

the Packers got so much crap and Rogers drove a lot of it. And I mean, they really, dude, they timed this whole thing perfectly. Does any team look better than the Packers moving on for Rogers,

not letting Rogers be the GM, not letting, the Jets gave Alan Lazard $11 million a year for two years. for two years. Alan Lazard's a healthy scratch. They gave Dalvin Cook $6 million to be almost literally the worst running back in the league. And the Packers get a second round pick for a guy who played four snaps.

And then Green Bay made the playoffs to Jordan Love. And Jordan Love looks like the future. Like nothing. I don't know if anything acted from the season aged better than that trade. Even going back further, they draft Jordan Love. There's a huge hoopla. Aaron Rogers is so pissed. He's so mad.

He wins two straight MVPs. Then they move away from him at the exact right time before he tears his freaking Achilles. And Jordan Love is like one of the bright ascending stars in the sport right now. Like the Packers, this is like an all-time succession, like playing out, right? They did it twice. And I feel like it has to be related to the fact that they don't have an owner. It just feels like so impossible to be that there are 32 teams. 31 are owned by a functionally a family. And one is just owned by like a board or whatever, like a weird, a non-democratic. voting block, and that one's the only one that's done a quarterback transition twice.

There's also something funny in that all of the wide receivers and tight ends just immediately took off the second he left. Like Luke Musgraves good. They drafted like six guys that are really good. Christian Watson, Dobbs, Jaden Reed, Dontevious Wix. They're all just like good now. Both of their tight ends, Musgrave and Kraft are both good. So funny. That's the other. What other age the best. I just have old players. I have old players literally aged well. I got that. I mean, we talked about it up top, but Mike Evans, Keenan Allen, Adam Thiel and Rahim Most Edwards, all like 30 or almost 30. Craig, I feel like we're the winners here as we're

both staring down the barrel of 30. And we actually have data, science that 30 is through 25. That's like a literal fact. I feel great. Look, I'm at my prime right now. I'm playing in a wrecked basketball league. I'm at the top of my game. Yeah, you could run a 40 and 485. And I'm not doing three, you know, cryotherapy and red light therapy. So if I am great, you know, as long as your legs weigh the same, like Alvin Cameras, I think you're going to be fine. You can even keep going, though. Guys like DeAndre Hopkins still was like solid this year if he had a good quarterback.

We shouted out, we did an episode in August called the old players that will win your fantasy league. And in that episode, we shouted out, Keenan Allan, Rahim Mossert, Camara, Brandon Cooks, who had a productive year, Adam Thielin, DeAndihaner Hopkins. We even shouted out Odell Beckham, who for a while there was like a real waiver wire guy. So yeah, and look, next year now, I'm going to be screaming from the rooftops that you should be drafting guys like Keenan Allen, Mike Evans, Cooper Cup, all these guys again. All right. Next one here are one that I have. Everyone hating Matt Canada, I feel like that really aged well, right? We were all in agreement. Yeah, like everybody was like, this guy's terrible. And then he was worse than we thought for the first, you know, two-thirds of the season.

And they got rid of them, and the team immediately got better. So, like, that quite literally couldn't have aged better was everybody hating Matt Canada. I have here, High Fitz thinking Cadarius Tony is a joke. That did age quite well. Oh, come on. Craig and I both. It was, like, 70% a bit for me, Craig. Don't you dare.

Don't you dare try to. You fucking know. But, yeah. Don't you dare. We're just, we're just riling you up, pal. Just riling you up. Just winding up the toy. Let him go.

We're just puppeteers, hyphitz. I have what's aged well as avoiding early round running backs. It was brutal this year. If you look at ADP, I mean, guys like Austin Eccler, Nick Chubb, Bijon Robinson, Josh Jacobs, God, Tony Pollard, Naji Harris, Ramonji-Stief, and all these guys were, you know, top two round running backs. And it was essentially like a coin flip or worse. I mean, which is pretty scary considering that it's so funny that every year you end the fantasy season and you feel so good about all the guys at the top. Like you look at the top 10 and you're like, oh yeah, all these guys are great. And yet next year, like it will once again most likely be a coin flip.

Like last year, the top 12 guys, only six of them worked out. This year, I'm like, okay, let's look at ADP for 2024 now. Like, let's pre-plan for this draft. You go, okay, it'll be McCaffrey. It'll be Bejohn now without Arthur Smith. It'll be the Miami guys. Travis E.N. in an awesome year. You got the Lions guys, Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery.

You have Bruce Hall who was quietly incredible. But looking back on the history of the last three years, it's like half those guys are going to flame out and have terrible years. And yet this is why I think we get sucked into the first round running back thing is because it seems so tantalizing at the time because if you can actually hit on one of these guys, it's such a big deal. But people like Travis E.N. Devon A. A. Chain, Mostert. None of these guys were on anyone's radar, really, heading into this season.

And so it's tough. What's the difference between the Niners and the Ravens and other teams? They have better coaching. They have, you know, Lamar's incredible. They have great defense. But the reason they're at the cream of the crop at the end of it is the Niners and Ravens are healthy. And every year, I think we kind of like the two, there are eight teams that are really good. Two of those eight teams make it to the Super Bowl.

And then they're the healthiest teams. And we're like, well, we got to be like those teams. But actually, they were the healthiest of the eight. Honestly, fantasy football is the same way. It's like there are 10 or 12 teams that draft, four of those five teams are good. and then the healthiest of those teams actually make it, or the two healthies make it, and then, like, random stuff happens.

But, like, fantasy is kind of just, like, real life to me at this point. Like, the Bengals are looking here without Burrow, and I'm like, yeah, they're probably pretty pissed that they got banged up and the Ravens are crushing it. Yeah. Well, that's what I was going to say, too,

is, like, it does mimic real life in the sense that, you know, obviously, we're going to cover the draft really closely over the next few months. And as we go through, like, inevitably, I'll end up liking guys that at, and being really excited about players that just straight up bust. Like, they're just really, bad in the NFL for one reason or the other.

Straight up bust. Oh, sorry. This is your slang. It's a player is a bust, but a player, it's not a verb. A verb is different than a noun for a bust. All these players are going to skeet. Just absolutely skeet out of the league. From the window.

A sweat drop down by a ball. They're all going to skeet themselves out of the league and, you know, there's nothing we can do about it. It's like almost I've come to just accept that some of the players that I end up really liking in the pre-draft process will just not be good in the NFL. And there's nothing I can do about that. You know, like it just feels like super random. Are we going to change the word for draft buffs to draft skates?

I mean, they're going to skeet themselves out of a job, you know? Right. That'd be that, look, that's happening before, you know, in many walks of life, people skeet themselves out of a job. D.K., what else got for what state is the best? Do you have anything else? I was going to, why, I wanted to bring up the Jemir Gibbs thing because I remember that being something that I was like very excited about

Jamir Gibbs but I was also a little bit nervous about it because of his size and because of the coaching dynamics at play here like Dan Campbell, big time meathead. I was a little bit worried he was just going to continue to give David Montgomery like 75% of the workload all the way through the season. But after all the early season. Yeah, it was there was there was legitimately a game where he played like 20% of the snaps and I was like, what the fuck are we doing here?

And after all that bullshit, After all like that, like worrying, early, early season worrying and hand-wringing about it, Gibbs is the RB7 and half BPR through seven, like through the 17 weeks. Through the fantasy season, he was the RB7. He averaged almost 15 points per game, you know, and it was like almost identical to sort of, when I would look back at like the numbers, like this is the amount of volume that top 12 guys have gotten in the last 15 years or whatever. Like his volume hit like right at, right at that average, where he finished hit right at

average. Like finally something like to me it's just like finally the logic actually worked. Like he they picked him in the 12th overall pick and then they used him like a highly, highly talented playmaker that he is. Like to me it was just like very sort of validating that they actually ended up using him like they should. So I thought that aged well too. Yeah. Do you do you feel confident still about like first round running backs? Like I know that it's not smart, you know, four teams to take first round running backs. Do you but do you still feel like when one gets taken, they are like a sure bet in fantasy football? Yes.

Because usually the guys that are good enough to be taken in the first round are such good actual players. Like it's obviously, it's not always. It's not 100% I'm sure. But there's such good players. They're so explosive. There's such difference makers that coaches have no choice. But to use those guys or get fired.

So, you know, maybe that will be a lesson for future coaches, too. DK is going to rank Bejohn Robinson first next year in rankings just to spite Arthur Smith. Yeah. I can't wait to find out who they hire. This can be so fun. Like, I feel like a new lease on life. Like,

I could finally like these players and not have to be, you know, like the back of my mind just hating myself for liking these players. You know what I mean? Like, I can actually like them freely now. We're all going to be way too high on the Falcons. I'm already calling it.

Probably. Because they're going to get some unknown quarterback, whether they draft somebody or sign somebody, you know, who's like older coming off an injury or yeah, it's going to be like a Michael Panix or something like that. We're not going to know what's going on. We're going to weigh overvalue the fact that Arthur Smith has gone

and we're going to assume Bezon is going to have an incredible year. And like I said, my rule, my tattoo, I'm going to be like just the least amount of variables possible. I just want the least amount of variables possible. And there are still a ton of variables in Atlanta. It's like, yeah, sure you could draft Bejohn Robinson or I could just like draft. I don't know, Christian McCaffrey,

Greece Hall, Kyron Williams. Like all those guys are probably way safe for bets because you know exactly what they're going to be. I think I might honestly take those three guys before. Amir Gibbs? Maybe. I think he'll, yeah, he'll probably be like a late first runner, don't you think? It's hard to say.

The other one I wanted to bring up here, this is something that Jack reminded me of the other day. In the take purge, in our off-season take purge, I said Brock Curry's going to be a top ten. I'm pretty sure that file has been lost. Not when you're really right, though. You can talk about that. Um, I said, I could completely forgotten about this.

Brock Pretty was going to be a top 10 QB was one of my takes. And it was because you can't measure Dick Swagger. And I feel like, you know what? It fucking, that fucking aged well. You just can't, you just can't measure Dick Swagger with this guy. The haters can't account for that. Yeah. So top five.

Yeah. Brock Pretty. What did he finish? Like seventh? Yeah. He had a skate. He did his way to the top. Um, okay.

Not a ski. What's age the worst? I feel like collectively as a threesome here, we must begin with Tony Pollard and perhaps even change the name of the award to the Tony Pollard, What's Age the Worst Award. We went on the Bill Simmons podcast in August,

and Bill's prompt to us was, I want you guys to each bring your favorite pick in the draft, not who you would take first. We should have probably consulted with each other on this one. All three of us independently showed up with Tony Pollard as our favorite pick. And I believe I said on the podcast that I wouldn't have a problem

if he was taking first overall. Literally, I have what's age the worst as instead of just Tony Pollard, I wrote, taking players who broke their leg this year. Right. Literally in 2020. Endorsing a player who broke his leg this year as the number one player on the Bill Simmons podcast. I also think that we should.

We should instill a new rule where if three of us are completely in on one player, we have to pivot. There's something wrong. That's a good rule. I like, we should actually get that as a tattoo. We also need to, like, players who got hurt after week 16 need to be like, do not draft. Like T.J. Hawkinson, RIP to T.J. Hawkinson, he's been great and I underrated him coming into the season. But, like, T.J. He tore his seal in what, week 17.

I'm not taking him. Because guess what? You remember when Tony Pollard said in August, I feel faster. Red flag. Red flag. No, he didn't. That's not true, Tony. T.J. Hawkinson's going to be talking about how he's totally recovered. in August. Not true. The least reliable witness in the world is a player talking about his injury. Yeah.

We need to literally like the Odyssey, they put wax in there. They're not near the sirens. I don't want to hear what the players have to say. The only honest player I've ever heard of my life is Michael Gallup, who is actually going to play. He's like, probably not. It seems reckless. Yeah.

Everyone else is lied. So this makes me think, yes. And we'll all own that. Like, we were really wrong on Tony Pollard. It sucks. You know. It just sucks that he played. every game, you know?

Like, dude, he played 75%... He played all 17 games. He played 75% of the Cowboys snaps inside the five-yard line, and he scored five touchdowns all year long. Like, I feel like in theory, our thesis was somewhat right. He just really was not any good after breaking his leg. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it just sucks because he just was a completely different player.

I'm so mad. I was on top of this, and I just bent. And I, I'm never doing that. We kind of, like, chided you for being a worrywart. for yeah i was like i was like i was like i was like i was like i was like i was gonna say exactly we got to start listening to you about this stuff does does like the the horror of the injury factor in it all to you guys like like do you think nick chub if he just like tore his acel and mcel in a much like you know less disgusting way do you think that would change the way you feel about

nick chub going into next season because that happened week one like how are we going to feel about he he'll pretty much have a full year to recover from this injury i so no that when i saw him i i saw I feel like I could never unsee that. I'll never draft him again. My question for you guys is, what are you going to do with Tank Dell next year? Because Tank Dell was one of the more exciting players through the first half of the season. He broke his leg.

He at least had two months. The problem with Pollard was that he was carted off the goddamn field in the divisional round. Like that, you know what I mean? Right. It was late January. What were we doing? Tank Dell was what, October, early November. Highfitz did have this. Highfitz was on this.

But we talked about it. And then he told Bill Siggins his favorite player was Tony Pollard. I don't think you get that much credit. Other things, I have just Brandon Staley literally aged the worst. He aged like a president in office. It's a stressful job.

Yeah, the gray beard. I don't know why. Like, I feel like if you have a beard and if you don't have a beard, like typically like in your everyday life if you're not a beard guy, and then you start to go gray, I feel like you shouldn't then start growing a beard once you have a grape beard.

If you're a coach, you can't change your face. You'll hear midseason. It's absolutely reckless. But if you do, like, you can't do it more than once. Arthur Smith of the mustache, they were winning. It was fine. But then I personally think, if you haven't been a mustache guy and then you are, like, you grow a mustache, that's kind of a bit.

And you can't have, like, Arthur Smith shaved the mustache because they were losing. And like, it's kind of weird if you just grew a mustache and you're sucking. Brandon Staley grew the beard. and then shaved it and then grew up. It was so, like, I just, it was so sad. Like, he couldn't even decide what to do with his face. What's he supposed to do with the defense, you know? The Depression beard is, like, known in culture.

Like, that is, like, the trope in the movie when, like, the guy's down on his luck. It's like, he wears a nasty neck beard. In one game, he shaves it. Yeah, it's like, that's the scene when, like, the friends show up and the guy's, like, in the room, and he hasn't opened the blinds in like a week. And he's like got pizza on his chest and the nasty beer. Like that is what Brandon Staley looked like on the sideline every single game. Who and your guys?

Do you guys have anyone that you'd put on like the Mount Rushmore of all time worst neckbeards? The two guys that I'm thinking of are Jay Cutler, always had such just horrific neckbeards. And Joe Jumper Cable's Flacco. Flacco for a while there. I was like, how can you be a good quarterback if you can't even take the time to shave your neck? I mean, the fact that we're talking about Joe Flacco's neck beard and not the unibrow is a real come up for Joe Flacco. No one even talks about that anymore.

Dude, Andrew Lutz. You guys aren't big beard people, but the neck hair is incredibly itchy. I cannot. I cannot fucking handle it. Craig's right. Andrew Luck had it.

Andrew Luck had it. Andrew Luck hair was like a forest. Oh, God. Anurukes. Neck beard. Penis. What's it called the rainforest? What's it called the rainforest?

Like the understory? You know? I mean, it truly looked like like the thickest waft of pubs you've ever seen on the man's under chin. It's unbelievable. Oh, my God. So coarse and thick, I can't even.

It's like the water is just, like, beating off. I actually, that is one thing I have never understood about athletes is athletes who don't shave their beer. I don't understand James Hardin and I never fucking will. And like, especially with football, where you wear a helmet and have a strap. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He has been wearing a strap. Cooper Cup.

Like mushing the chin strap into your beard every play to strap the helmet on makes no sense to me. It's like the pubs sticking. out of your underwear. That one makes sense because Keenan Allen is like bald up top so he's got the Brian Dable you could kind of

flip his hair upside down and it can't be comfortable though no absolutely and it looks horrific. The neck beard Haynes that's 26

I won't question him but yeah the other thing that aged poorly dude Bryce Youngtrain yeah that was not good had some stats on him somewhere

where does he stand in terms of worst overall number one picks. I think it's too soon because... No, and just in their first season, though. I think the worst recently... It's really low. It's really bad. Jared Goff before McVeigh was bottom tier.

Like, that was really bad. Josh Rosen's probably the worst ever of my lifetime. Yeah, but I'm talking number one overall pick. Oh. I think he's in the Goff tier because Goff, I believe, is the first overall pick, right? Yes. Yes.

Goff got hurt, though. He only played seven games. Or did he get benched? No, he was benched because he was benched. He had one of the worst first seasons ever as a rookie first rounder. And thankfully, like, look, he's doing great. Like, I think that that is a reason to have hope for a guy like Bryce Young. But I was looking at some of the stats here.

You know, obviously, we know the eye test was very not good. But he also led the NFL in off target rate, 15%. Only Sam Howell took more sacks. Bryce Young had 62 sacks. Howell finished with 65. Bryce Young finished with the worst yards per. attempt among all pass rating qualified quarterbacks, 5.5 yards per attempt.

That is horrific. And he was also last in passer ratings among all those qualifying quarterbacks, 73.7. And then just to make it all worse and more depressing and sad and very alarming is that C.J. Stroud is already considered like a top five quarterback. So, you know, and then next year, if Caleb Williams and Drake Mayer like lighten it up, it's going to be real dark.

in Carolina. The only one worse than the Bryce Young. I actually think Bryce Young has a pretty decent chance to, like, be salvaged, and he probably will never be worth taking over Strouds. I still have hope. After saying all that, like, I'm still like, I still think he could, he could become, like, a good starter.

How many times we counted out Baker? And Baker is now, like, leading the bucks to a division, pretty sad, but a division title. Like, like, I think Bryce Young's have his career. The only one, age of the worst, Quentin Johnson, the charges took Quentin Johnson in the first round.

He was the second receiver taken. he was the 21st pick. I don't want to be like, it's been one season, but there's a chance. This is dark, but it's possible. That Quentin Johnson is not one of the top 21 wide receivers in that draft. Wow. The literal next, I'm not kidding.

Dude, do you, the list of guys who went after Quentin Johnson at wide receiver. I mean, you have Pook and Nukua and your Tank Dells and your Jaden Reeds and your Wings and Wings. Never mind. Like, Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison were the next two picks. So that's haunting. Don Tavian Wicks was a sixth rounder. He's easily, even unquestionably better than Quint Johnson right now.

Like the amount of players in receivers who are already better than him is like depressing for charges. This is what I'm talking about with when I was talking about earlier. Like sometimes just guys don't work in the NFL. He was a player that we, I think, had concerns over. I think a rule tattoo we need for this is if the concern is like essential to your job or like in the name, no. Quentin John, what's the problem? He can't catch. He's a receiver.

So how's that going to work? I don't know. It's like one of those things, though, that we talk, we talk out of both sides of our mouth with the catch thing. Because some of the greatest receivers in the NFL have like a high drop rate. You know what I mean? And so it's... Who, though? Tyree Kill. Drops passes all the time. He drops like really big passes every fucking game. Obviously that he's, I'm not saying he's Tyree Kill, but I feel like we talk out of both sides of our mouth of the drop thing. The drop thing to me is not a deal breaker. It's not a deal breaker.

Other than Tyree Kill? Because Tyree Kill is the fastest player than NFL. K Metcalf. There's a million ever, like there's so many top tier receivers that have a lot of drops. All the players you're mentioning are like literally 100th percentile and other things. Metcalfe is size speed,

100th percentileck is 100th percent down speed. Hold on. If you want me to really look, let's look up drop rate for receivers. Because I think there is, it's like, if you look at the list of players with most drops in a season,

it's almost always like the best receivers. Like a lot of that is, has to do with the fact they're getting targeted a lot too. but sometimes it's mental. Odell drop passes all the time. Obviously, he can catch. I just think larger point is it's like,

I don't know. We don't have to linger here. Yeah, we don't have to like get into this. But like, I don't think that one variable is a reason enough to ride off a player. I think that has really shown up already,

which is concerning. But it was more just like you, like we said this a million times. He was like really raw, like not a very good route runner. Like he basically just was surviving and thriving off of his athleticism and he just has not,

I mean, he had an opportunity here. Keenan got hurt. Mike Williams got hurt. Josh Palmer got hurt for a while, and he still couldn't do anything. This is with Justin Herbert. One more of what's age the worst here that might be the worst of them all is, Kenny Pickett's preseason hype. I don't know if you guys remember what that was like for those two weeks in August when he,

I went back and looked up what he actually did. He was 13 for 15, 199 yards, two touchdowns. And everybody declared him. the next guy. He had a perfect passer rating. I went back and I watched all the talk shows. Everybody was in on him. Yeah, we knew this would happen.

Look, you know, Pickett had a, you know, he got his footing, his rookie year. He's a smart kid. He's going to develop mentally. He's got all the physical tools. You know, I liked Pickett coming out of the draft. He's in a great situation in Pittsburgh.

He's fucking terrible. I'm obsessed with the Steelers. I'm more obsessed with Kenny Pickett facts. It's like, do you guys remember Chuck Norris facts back in the day? Yeah. Yeah. It's that. Kenny Pickett Facts are my favorite thing in the world.

I send them to Craig every time I see one because it's like, Joe Flacco passing touchdowns in five games this year, 13. Should we just do this now? These were my half-ass internet research ones, but I'm just going to do them now because they're funny. Kenny Pickett, so Flacko touchdowns in five games this year 13. Kenny Pickett passing touchdowns in his career, 13. Mason Rudolph, with a pass rating 112 or better in all three of his 20-23 starts.

Kenny Pickett starts. with 112 plus rating. Zero out of 24. Games with 250 passing yards. Mason Rudolph, two out of his three starts this year. Kenny Pickett, one out of 12 starts. Zach Wilson finished with more yards and touchdowns in 12 games than Kenny Pickett did this year in 12 games.

Zach Wilson is better than Kenny Pickett. I have, I also would like to throw in that Tommy DeVito is more multi-touchdown games this season than Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett. So right, Check to Wars facts. Kenny Pickett's never thrown for 300 yards in a game. Jake Browning did it three times in December.

Oh. And my personal favorite, Kenny Pickett is the worst touchdown per pass attempt ratio of any quarterback with 500 throws and NFL history. Oh, my God. 350 quarterbacks. Kenny Pickett's dead last in touchdowns per attempt. What about preseason, though? What are the stats in August? Let's see that list.

Yeah, look, it's not great. Okay. We use a site called True Media to look up a lot of our stats. It's a great website. And I was going through all of the quarterbacks. And Kenny Pickett is just literally dead last in touchdowns on True Media among quarterbacks. And it just like, I kind of had to do a double take.

I was like, God, is he really dead last? And like, it's, I mean, he's behind Zach Wilson. He's behind Mac. He's behind Mac Jones, who like hasn't played in a month. He's behind Desmond Ritter. Dude, he has Jake Browning, who didn't come in until half of year the season, Jake Browning has double Kenny Pickett's touchdowns this year in three less games. It's just so bad.

You can argue they're like pretty similar situations too because like two pretty good receivers. Obviously, I think that Bagel's receivers are better. I still don't know how Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin just doesn't get. No one's second thought is perhaps this is the head coach's fault. Kenny Pickett had six touchdown throws in 12 games. Remember we were talking about his touchdown total before the year? Yeah.

It's like the 16. 17 and a half. 60s were like. Yeah. And yet the Steelers organization has already doubled down on him. And they said that he's our foodback. Yeah, he's our franchise guy. Departed.

Well, because we're all going to talk. I'm already, he'll probably be great in preseason next year. And we're going to talk ourselves into the fact that, you know, the second Matt Canada left, he started to improve. Then he got hurt. And we need to see him without Matt Canada. So, Craig, can I make you feel better? The only thing I think that might have aged. worse than Kenny Pickett hype was the Daniel

John's contract. So that one, that one didn't do great either. Have you finally agreed to the idea that the Giants made the wrong move there by giving him that deal? Yes and no. No, no, it's simple. The mistake they made, no,

the mistake they made was not exercising his fifth year option because they were so afraid of- That's what we were saying. That was the entire argument. We're like, why now? Why can't you just Frances tag him again?

The mistake was that if you tag in, like they didn't have an option. The problem was the fifth year option, that happened in 20, entering last season. So that was entering the 2022 season. My one, I know it sounds like coping, but here's the thing. Nobody who now is like, why did you sign him with the contract? Zero of you were like entering 2022, they should pay Daniel Jones $20 million at the end of next season. No one was saying that. And the Giants included it.

Then he played well and they were screwed because they had turned it. down. Why couldn't you tag him? I still don't understand why you couldn't tag it. Because then you lose Sequin in free agency and then you tagging it just delays the problem because then it's the same problem again. But who cares if he was. Yeah, but then if he's terrible that year like he was this year, then he's gone.

Yes, but like the if he's good though. And then how about you sign Sequin? I feel like I'd rather sign Sequin than signed Daniel Jones. Also like losing Sequin, no offense is like not a big deal. Okay, but try telling the Giants fans that when your other best players Darius Slate. Great. Then resign, then extend Sequin for however many years and use Daniel Jones as a franchise tag. And you get one more year to see if he's for real and then you ship him out. The problem with the tag is then Daniel Jones would be worth, the problem with the franchise tag is Daniel Jones is all the leverage.

So he'd be Kirk Cousins. He'd be hired. You'd have to pay Jones more money than my homes. For one year. You more money than Deshawn Watson. For one year. If you want to keep him, if you want to keep, if you want to, if you tag him, you might as well sign him. That's the point. Like it's marginally more expensive. to tag Jones for two years. What they did was they just signed the contract at that point because the upside of the tag

basically just goes to Daniel Jones. So that's what the contract was. So my thing is he's going to be the Giants. Jones would be the contract, the quarter of the Giants next year. I think that if they can get a quarterback, it would have been good to draft one and have them sit.

Jones plays next year and you bench him at some point. They can't get rid of Jones, but after next season you can. Heading into 2024, whose quarterback situation is worse? Pittsburgh's or the Giants? Both. He's like, I refuse to answer this question.

I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it. I think it has to be Pittsburgh because Tommy DeVito was better than Kenny Pickett with, and he doesn't have George Pickett's. How about Mason Rudolph? He might be the future. God, I don't want that either. I'm the only one not on board just because I can't get. Oh, I was kidding. People are actually thinking that. Yeah, a lot of people think he's good.

All right. Next award here. This is the Great Shot Gordo Award. And the rewatchable is this award is named after Gordon Willis, who is a famous cinematographer. He shot The Godfather. So we give this award to kind of the best, most cinematic shot from the movie we're covering.

But for this, we're going to do kind of like the best, you know, meme of the season, the best screenshoted meme of the season. What was everybody sending each other? What was going viral on Twitter? I got to start with Tommy DeVito's agent? that guy I had that too, yeah that guy was

straight out of the Sopranos as a background actor because of that picture that got like circulated on Twitter he is in the Italian American Hall of Fame now or something? Literally yes

I cannot tell you how fast I think the fastest I've ever seen culture move was the speed at which literally every single Giants fan that I text literally every single one started texting the two fingers emoji with the like,

hey, like, literally everyone started setting that to each other during Giants games for the rest of the season as DeVito played overnight. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I got caught up in it a little bit, you know? I mean, he was the closest thing we had in the NFL to, like, a literal cartoon.

And honestly, speaking of, like, the closest thing we had to a cartoon, Big Dom for the Eagles. I had both of these guys for Apex Mountain. Oh, my God. Oh, certainly. Someone put, someone put meekmill, the dreams and nightmares. They made a cut up of Big Dom, like walking and throwing people out of the stadium. By the way, didn't the Eagles slide start exactly when Big Dom got ejected or whatever?

Oh my God, you're right. Eagles were playing the Niners and we were like, they're going to be winning. They lost their mojo. Big Dom was their mojo, you know? Wait, hold on. That was the, what is the Eagles since the Big Dom game? I'm pretty sure that was one in four. They are one in five.

Eagles are one in five since Big Dom. Big Dom was the Glems. was the glue guy. He was holding them all together. 10 and 1 before Big Dom. One in five without Big Tom. Oh my God. I forgot about that, Craig. Thank you for that. Big Tom. Yeah, got a shout out, Big Tom.

You know, the obligatory, like, the Taylor Swift reactions, I mean, was a big deal, her in the box, in the booth reacting to everything Travis Kelsey did. Also, the tweets about Travis Kelsey, like being a simpleton. I felt like that really took off there for a couple weeks, but it was like...

No, all the retweets. The retweets from like 2011 or something. It was like all of the spelling. Spell squirrel. He would only tweet about it. Hard word, but it wasn't close. Yeah. He would just tweet about how excited he was to like eat Chipotle for dinner.

It's just so like genuine and heartfelt. Yeah, there was like that one report that he was going to take Taylor Swift out to like a fancy dinner. Everybody was like joking that he was going to take her to like a cheesecake factory and be like, babe, it's not just cheesecake. Anything. And it's not a factory. It's a rainforest and it's a campaign. Those are good. What do you guys have?

Hyphins, what do you got? I can't beat the DeVito agent. DeVito's agent, man. Honestly, it's the best moment of the giant season. Do we know his name? What's that guy's name? Sean something? Was he Italian?

He's in Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. Can you imagine if he wasn't? It'd been a scandal of the year. Devito agent. Google that. Why are we questioning this? He's in the Italian. Oh, his name is Sean something.

Sean Stalado. Okay, good. Yeah. Just double-checking. Dude, also, wait, do you guys, DeVito's agent is my cover photo on Twitter. That's how much I love that picture. It's literally my screen grab the ear.

This flew under the radar because DeVito kind of fell off. But he, DeVito hired a new agent, like weeks after that happened. You're trying to shake down a pizza place for 20 grand? Like a few days after that whole thing went, like viral. It's like the all time, like act like you've been there before Tommy DeVito. It's like he just shook down a pizza spot for 20 grand. I am not Italian nor an NFL player, but I am Jewish, which is kind of like Italian-adjacent

in American culture. And I will say I am from the tri-stair area. I cannot think of a more shame, a pox to bring upon my house than disgracing me and my family to the local legendary pizzeria. I can't think of a worse thing to do in your town than less cheap. Like the beloved pizzeria and you try to steal $20. And then they went public with it too, which is great. Yeah.

And on Facebook, now all your parents' friends saw that you did it. All your Italian aunts and uncles now saw that. Yeah, it's terrible. And then he had to go back with his tail between his legs. And he ended up doing a visit to the pizza place. It's like the soup, Nazi in Seinfeld. Like, you can't be banned from that place. D.K., did you have a great shot quarter?

Yeah, I mean, this one to me was, like, iconic. It was the still image that everyone was sharing. the night of and the day after of Cadarious Tony's head blocking the ball like with like the you know the line of scrimmage through the ball and Tony's head is just blocking you can't even see the ball just that angle just perfect cinematography

on that on that picture. You know what's stupid about that is it only blocks the ball for the viewer like the defenders can still see the ball because you're on the other fucking that's ridiculous are we doing this and those lines just because he was like it was the right angle you know he just like Kappa, it's a...

And he was lined up like that, 10 other times that game. My favorite point anyone made, like, of all the emails was that someone was like, I empathize with DK's belief that there are too many rules and there's too much enforcement, and the NFL's like a thousand rules. But if you deleted 99% of the NFL's rules, one of the five that has to remain is off sides. Like, which side of the ball you get to be on? Like, five-year-olds have mastered this. Mastered?

I don't know. some not in that moment let the boys play let the boys play that's all I can say and then the other one I thought that was really funny

was this was not necessarily a still image but Joe Flacco just nodding off on the bench in between like series I was like I've never been something more like relatable I've ever seen on an NFL field

they should get him his own lazy boy on the sideline instead of a bench he should get a lazy boy you know the the chairs that like massage your legs and stuff get the blood circulation. He should have like a TV tray

to kind of have his food on. A TV tray? Get a TV tray for him to be watching his film on, you know? Yeah. An old leather lazy boy chair. Does he have a tablet? He has like an actual VCR.

He's drinking like an old tab soda. Okay. Stephen A. Smith, hottest take a word. Hi, Vince. Word on the street is, You brought some heat. I want to do the darkness retreat.

Like as content? You just kind of personally want to go do that. No, for myself. Imagine Hyfitz not talking for three days. Are you not allowed to talk or are you just alone so you usually don't? I think you do whatever you want. It's not a silent retreat. I want Hypatts to solo pod from the inside of the darkness retreat.

The silo style. I'm just like rolling. Dude, you know, there's actually been like people. that have gone, you know, how in prisons and stuff, you have to go into, like, solitary confinement and things. And there's people that have done it. And you lose track of time because you don't, you don't have a clock, you don't have light. You don't have the sun to, like, measure when the day is. And you completely lose track of time. And then you start to think it's been like 30 days and it's been like eight hours or whatever. Like, imagine high fits just silent retreat in the dark.

That's what we need. I actually, yeah, I want to do it. Rogers had a tough year, but I think he was on the money on this one. It's torture. It's literal torture. Can you, is, are those doable? Like, is it like an escape room or like if you just go down into wherever a city you're in? Like there's like somebody offering a darkness retreat or are this hard to find? Oh, you're in L.A.

I'm sure they're easy to find. You got the freaking cryal therapy around the corner. I was, I don't know, I saw this meeting the other day. And it was modern couples in 2020. There's couples in 2020. And it was like, hey, honey, I'm home. How are your screens today? And they're like, my screens are great.

How were your screens today? I saw that. My screens weren't that good. I'd like to relax and watch the big screen. And someone's like, all right, I'll do that with you, but I might look at my little screen while you look at the big screen. That's every day. Look at both screens.

Yeah. I mean, and then tossing the fact that nobody commutes anymore and we all work from home. And it's like, I literally sit in one room and look at screens. And then when my days done, I go into a different room and look at screens, and that's like my entire day. True. We're a podcast, though. So there are probably people commuting as we speak right now listening.

Good for you. Keep commuting. Keep this country great. Just so you know, if you ever hate your commute, we also have somehow come to miss commutes. So it's fun. Okay. My hottest take, not as hot as high-it's, but I think Doug Prescott deserves the MVP, and I think he got the shaft.

One bad game. Yep. He had one bad game and everybody was done with it. I think this was the weirdest MVP year from like a media perspective that I've ever remembered. Everyone was looking for an excuse. Everyone was looking and searching for a reason to just check him off the list. I think this is crazy. Like from week 14 on, it was like every Sunday night game decided who would be the odds leader

and the MVP. Literally, it was like, oh, the Eagles are playing the Giants. Like, whoever wins that game, Jalen Hurts to Dak Prescott, MVP. Oh, Brock Purdy's playing Jack Prescott. Whoever wins that game? MVP. Dak has one bad game. They lose to the bills.

He has zero touchdowns and one pick. And from then on, he was just forgotten and discarded. Meanwhile, they're the two seed in the NFC. They won the NFC East. They're tied for the second best record in the league. He had, it's the best record of his career. He threw for the most yards of his career. He was one TD shy of the most touchdowns of his career.

best touchdown to interception ratio of his career and led the league. And if you look at the difference of him two years ago versus now, because two years ago he had 37 touchdowns and 10 picks. This year he had 36 touchdowns and nine picks. But the difference now is that nobody else did that this year. This was an alarmingly weak year for quarterbacks in terms of passing. And DAC was like the only guy kind of like still putting up the 2020, 2020, 2021 numbers. And when I look at Lamar, it's like Lamar's had a great year that the number one seed,

whatever. But if you look at his 2019 MVP season, I mean, he averaged 27 fantasy points per game that season. This year he's averaged 20. Like he's avered seven less points a game. Like he's done for 12 less touchdowns. He's run for for 380 less yards. I'm just like, I can't believe Dak had one bad game and we've just completely thrown away the idea that he had an incredible season on a great team that is the two seed in the NFC. I think that the MVP discourse this year, like the discussion of it, Carlos just messages that the betting discourse has like ruined the MVP odds. I think yes and no to that.

This is a great. I disagree. I don't think it like ruined it. I think that if anything, the betting odds are not based on anything other than like what we're, they're just kind of a summation of what we're reading. It allowed you to know where everything was. Like it allowed you to know who was second, third, and fourth. So I would say this.

Instead of formulating your own opinion, it's just like, oh, yeah, this is the odds. I'd say the opposite, though. don't think it ruined anything. I think that this year, a week year, exposed how the MVP process is the tail wagging the dog in the NFL, because at its core, no one actually, even in the most advanced analytics, even in the tape, no, it's very difficult to separate who gets credit individually in a team sport. And this year exposed the tail wagging the dog, no one's good at it. And I would say that I really think the actual problem with the MVP is the NFL doesn't have enough awards. Like college football, there's a Heisman, which is basically MVP. And then there's best

quarterback, best running back. And like this, the NFL had that. McAfrey would have won best running back. Trent Williams for the left tackle Niners would have been best offensive linemen. And then the best skill group, but they had best MVU, most valuable unit, the Niners past catchers would have got MV. If we'd given those awards, zero people or reasonable people would have been like, even Niners fans would have been like, I know we have the best running back tackle and skill group. But on top of that, the most valuable person in the whole league is Brock Purdy. Like the lack of awards, it's like we're arguing about the rainbow and we only have words for like two colors.

And like the, so there's all these things get put onto this award that aren't about the award. Yeah, I think the term like, we should just change the name of the award because it's not most valuable. It should just be like best season. Who had the best season? It should be MVP, but we should have best court. Like we should, first of all, if quarterbacks are the only ones who are going to win it.

Like, it's insane. Offensive Player of the Year is either a quarterback. It's like, we just need awards for other positions. Even defensive player of the year is just usually who has the most sacks. It's pretty stupid the way we do all this. Yeah. So anyway, that's my pitch for Deck Prescott. I think you should be the MVP.

All right, casting what is? Things that could have happened, sliding doors, moments. Hyfitz, what do you got? I mean, the obvious one is what if Rogers had not gotten hurt? We just kind of beat this into the ground. But like, I can't say it enough. The Jets defense was incredible.

And I actually think the Jets, they were paper thin. And like, Nate Hackett's a fake offensive coordinator. Having said that, Garrett Wilson's so good. I actually think the Jets would have been exactly as good as we thought they could be, which is like a 7 out of 10 offense

with a 9 and a half out of 10 defense. I think the Jets would be tier below the Raven's Super Bowl favorite. And to continue that, imagine how much less bullshit we probably would have gotten from Aaron Rogers had he just been like playing all year. Yeah.

No, we probably would have to say him out. He just was bored. And then like, meanwhile, we don't have to do it. What if Roger didn't get hurt? What if they just signed Joe Flacco? I understand the Jets offensive line's not as good is the Browns.

But the Browns offensive line, if you hadn't noticed, is like they're down five tackles between left and right. Like, they're not doing well either over there in Cleveland, but they have a real

offensive coordinator, which helps. But it's like, Joe Flacco would probably have been a little better than he was with the Jets the last time. It's crazy to think that this guy was on. There's a million options.

Dops, whoever. Anybody else? Literally anybody else. Yes. Tim Boyle, give me a fucking break. Mine is that, I think it's actually good

that Atlanta didn't get Lamar Jackson because then we'd have four more years of Arthur Smith. Oh, that's good. That's good. Also, what if Anthony Richardson get hurt? When he had like 18 points in 15 minutes, I remember thinking he's going to be the number one quarterback and the best fantasy pick ever and then he got hurt.

But I wonder if he had not what would have happened. But the other one that I really, I want to ask you about, what if the Panthers took CJ Stroud and the Texans took Bryce Young? Yeah, I had that written down. Like what would Bryce Young look like on the Texans, TK? I don't think he would look like Stroud. Twitter that. I think Stroud would look worse.

Who would be closer? I think Stroud would look worse on the Panthers than he does now. But would Stroud be closer to current Bryce Young? Or would Bryce Young be closer to current C.J. Stroud? I think Stroud is better. The question confuses me, so I'm going to refuse to. I think what we're trying to say is that... I think Stroud would look better on either team.

I think Bryce would look worse than Stroud on the Texans. But Bryce would not be as bad. Yeah, but if Stroud They have four wins though, even with Stroud. Yeah, like if Stroud were on Carolina, would they be like a 500 team? I think they'd be a lot better. Yeah. Stroud to me is an elevator.

Like, he's a player elevator around. And Bryce cannot, he has not been able to do that at all. I'm not trying to take anything away from Stroud, but like Nico Collins is actually really good and Tank Dell is really good. And I do not think the Panthers with Terrace Marshall Jr. and Leviska-Chanal would start looking like Nico Collins and Tank Dell. I hear that. there. And like, it's a perfect storm of the Texans lines better. The Texans receivers are better.

They probably had a better quarterback and they definitely have a better coaching stuff. I mean, Strav and Noah Brown looked like a fucking pro, like all pro. Yeah. I mean, it also factor in like, D'Mico Ryan's and Bobby Sloak are just like such better coaches. I'm obsessed with nature and nurture and it's tough because all the variables are different. The line is better. The receivers are better. But also the quarterback's better. But I'm like, I don't know. If they switched, I'm kind of fascinated. I know. It would for sure be a very interesting like experiment. I would love to see what what the difference would be. And again, like Bryce Young, I feel like we have to say he had an awful year.

But I do think he has still potential in the NFL. What if the Chiefs have just been adults and signed DeAndre Hopkins, like adults? Like, I just, we don't have to belabor it. But it's like the Chiefs won 10 and 6 this year and three of the losses were because of Valdos, Scantling and Tony. And it's like, if the Chief signed Hopkins, they beat the Lions in week one. The Chiefs would beat the Packers in week 13. The Chiefs would have beat the Bills in week 14. She's probably go 13 and 4.

They get the one or two seen the AFC. I think Mahomes might even be in the MVP. conversation. Hopkins still looks good to me. He still got like that pep in a step to me. He had 75 catches, over 1,000 yards, 7 touchdowns with the corpse of Ryan Tannahill, Malik Willis, Will Levis, Billy Jeans, like

Billy Jeans. And he still's the best hands in the league. The offense that doesn't throw the ball. But he has the best hands in the league and Tony and Veldo Scintley have the worst hands in the league. This is the same one I wrote down Hyvitz. I think this, like that to me is one of the biggest sliding door decisions of the season.

And it like meets such a huge impact on the season. Hopkins is just like I don't know it's like sucks too because Hopkins still has it I think yeah well he's probably not on the Titans next year right

he's probably going to be on somebody right decent I hope so okay the Ruffalo Hannah Rubenick Partridge overacting award let me know if you have any questions about that but this is

essentially who is fools gold the guy crazy over the top plays put up some fantasy points but isn't actually good a.k. you know overperforming overacting overreporting over performing.

There's one answer for this, right? It's Josh Dobbs, right? Yeah. No, Flacco. No, it's Dodbs. How dare you? It's definitely Joe Flacco. No.

Flacco made the playoffs. Fleco's winning games. I know he has the best evens in the league, but... The difference to me is that Dobbs did this on like two different teams this year, which is like, I think Flacco, it's like, wow, he's old and like, it's weird that he's doing this well. But also he is throwing picks that are getting dropped and stuff. But Dobbs, it's more like...

So you just corroborated everything I'm saying. No, no, but I'm saying, but, okay, but Josh Jobs won a game without practicing with the team. Like, that is the most inexplicable thing you could argue that's happened since I, since I started covering the NFL. And, Dicke, you've been covering it longer than I have. Has any actual game been harder to like, like more truly like unbelievable than a quarterback being traded the week of not practicing with the team, learning the cadence on the sideline, coming in on the, basically the first drive of the game and then winning. Right. No, I mean, I'm not saying, yeah, I'm not saying Dobbs is not a good option here. But he got benched. You know, he's like, he's not playing anymore. But that's what he proved he wasn't actually good. He proved he was fools gold, you know?

Yeah. So my interpretation of the question is like who is playing well but is not actually good. Yes. I feel like we already have the answer. Dobbs is not actually good. I feel so good about this rewatchables. Right. I feel good about doing the rewatchables because I feel like it's not really. a rewatchable's episode until there's some kind of question of like, what's this category again? I know. Now I feel like we're doing that. Fool's goal to me is like we haven't already determined that it's not gold.

Okay. Next award here, this is the award we added. This is the biggest leap award because we're going to get to the fantasy MVP's, but we feel like we needed to shed a little bit of light on the guys who like took that leap, went to the next step, but they weren't quite fantasy MVP level. I think my number one here, it's got to be Nico Collins, right? Like, Nico Collins, year three of his career. I mean, this guy had like 500 yards each the first years of his career and is now, like, one of the best wide receivers in the league.

He was a top eight guy in fantasy. And now Stroud and Collins are probably the best young connection in the entire NFL. It's like Burrow and Chase, Stroud and Collins. Like, they're probably in that conversation now. Yeah, 1,200 yards, 7 touchdowns. It's 1,300 yards. Sorry, 1,300 yards, 8 touchdowns. I was looking at the wrong person.

Yeah. And he's like surprisingly just good at all three levels. It was like, you know, he's not like he's just like a guy that does one thing really well. Like he's, he's so good going deep. He's good at the catch point. He's got the yakability. He's just been incredible. And just going back to the Stroud conversation a little bit, it's like, did any of us think Nico Collins is going to be a big superstar this year?

No. Nico, in the past, it's been, in last like five, ten years, it's kind of been, if you're a receiver, even if you're a receiver, even if you're drafted late, you're usually good pretty quickly. Like, your first year, like, if you weren't good in your first two years, no matter where you were drafted, you performed in the first two seasons. And Devante Adams was kind of like one of the only exceptions. Nikol Collins emerging is going to get a lot of guys who are bad paid. Like, it's just the one great comedian as far as 10,000 bad ones. Like, this is against the rule? And people are like, oh, is this the new rule? I'm like, no, this is just like a weird thing that happens sometimes. The other guy I want to shout out is David and Joku.

DK, how many years do you think David and Joe who's been in the NFL? It feels like three or four. He's been in the league for seven years. He was the 28th pick in 2017. That's what? 2017, that's wild.

2017, this is seventh year, and he was the tight end seven this year. And he is, I think, the all-time example of, no, no, he's got talent. This is the year. And then it actually fucking happened. Yeah. I remember having discussions with my buddy during the offseason about drafting in Joku.

And it was just like, well, like he's flashed, but he's never really done it. And he's been in the league forever. He's just never really done it. And now I'm like kicking myself because he did it. But it does feel like, I mean, he's going to be 28 next year when the season starts. And that's young for a tight end. Like, tight ends can go, he's got another five, six, seven, eight years to do this. Tidens are like soup.

You can't have them immediately. You got to wait. Njjoku is one of those players that looks bigger than everybody else on the field at any given time. You know what I mean? Like it's almost an optical illusion. He just like runs people over.

Yeah. All right, D.K., who do you have for biggest leap? I had Nico. I would throw out, and this one's like a little more subtle, I guess, or whatever, but C.D. Lamb, I think, took a leap into like the superstar, really, really superstar stratosphere of receiver.

Like top three, top five guys. And I think it was, like I said, it was a little subtle because he's always produced. But this year he looks like one of the best receivers in the NFL. In the past it was like, oh, yeah, he's getting a lot of volume. I don't know if he's necessarily like a guy that's going to elevate the entire offense kind of player. And this year I thought he was. Yeah, he's kind of a guy where like he's the most recent guy where like the flashiness of college actually finally translated to the NFL. And like he is as good in the NFL as he looked in college.

He put up 1,749 yards, 12 touchdowns. I mean, he essentially put up the same numbers as Terry Kill, but he played one more game, but their numbers are pretty close. And not to mention that they run CD Lamb. He had 113 yards rushing two touchdowns. Hyvitz, who do you have for Biggest Leap? Nothing to beat those. Nico has to be the answer of just,

it's been a while since a receiver who wasn't a rookie came in and went from two years to one year like that. And then, D.K., I think C.D. is a really good call. Every team who took a player ahead of C.D. Lam, except the box of Tristan Worst, like, probably wishes they had C.D. Lam. All right, Dionne Waiters Award here. Best Waiver Wire guy of the year? I think my nomination has to be, I mean, it's two guys on the Rams.

It's Kyron Williams and Pooka Nakua. And I'm probably going with Kyron Williams. Me too. I think actually, not only are they waver wire guy of the year, I think that it actually goes back to why there's a weird sense that a lot of teams who had the one seed maybe ended up losing in the semis is because the player, I think the teams that were best in the playoffs, lost games in the middle of the season

when Kyran was on IR and then Puka was struggling because, you know, Stafford was hurt and there was like a weird in-between period and I feel like those teams that had Pook and Kairn, those guys coming back down the stretch, those teams got so much better that I really do feel like they were disproportionately,

they were on about as many teams that won the championship as I can remember. It's also rare that like Kairn Williams had two touches downs in week one and Pooka Nukuha had like 10 catches for 120 yards. It's so rare when those guys just continue that pace throughout the entire season. Like it was like usually like the week one waiver wire ad is usually somebody where you got to be wary.

You don't want to spend too much of your money. But it was like this random Pooka Nukua and Kairn Williams. If you added them, they were literally the best player on your team for the rest of the season. And I would fade it next year. I actually think a really good just general piece of advice without the context of week one is that everyone's going to be like, who's the next Kairn Williams, who's the next Bucca Dukua reading articles and being like, who from this week is going to do it? And I actually would just kind of Warren Buffett, like, sit tight and be like, I would bet

on that really rare thing not happening again and let everyone else blow and just like watch how the season unfolds because everyone's going to try to see the same thing happening. The other Dion Waiters, I want to just shout out Zemir White for being like begrudgingly just replacing Josh Jacobs and like three weeks in a row being like he's probably going to play and then he didn't play. Yeah. And then also Brandon Aubrey for the Cowboys Kicker, most points in Cowboys history. Brandon Aubrey.

Wow. That's a great one. And he's like number one kicker on the year. Just an incredible rookie kicker. Just like bopping kicks from the Cowboys logo. Like it's nothing. Obviously, I'm sure people are shouting at us about Devon A-chan. He's on the list.

We don't think he's number one just because you probably actually didn't start him for many games when he was actually going off. But he's on the list. Shaden Reed also last month of the season. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. On the Packers. Okay. Half-ass Internet Research.

We've already, we've done a bunch of things here. I'll start with one that continues to be wild. This is now 19 consecutive seasons without a repeat NFC East champion. Wow. Oh, wow. That is weird. That's unbelievable.

And I know what you're thinking. How, like, is it just going back and forth between the Eagles and the Cowboys? There's some commanders in there. There's some Washington. There's some New York. But yeah, it's just been... Not saying the Giants was so mean.

When's the last time they won at High Fits? Dude, I'm not going to lie. That Eagles game was... It was so weird because the... I think the Giants had like two wins versus the Eagles in like six years. It was so weird that they were running the game. It's been a while.

Which team visually for you two is like the hardest to like, except that they are good now? Like is it the Jags? Is it to the Texans? The Browns? The bills who've gotten over, I actually think no one talks about, the Bengals were the worst team when I was a kid.

The Bengals were the worst team for a long time. And it's weird to me that it's like, damn, the Bengals missed the playoffs. with a catastrophe. Like, I'm still getting used to, like, the raised expectations there. It's kind of, the lions are, it's a little weird. It's, it's just like a little strange

for them to be so good, you know? That's, and I love the lions, to be clear. Like, they're one of my favorite teams to watch. I think it's Jacksonville. I still think the Jacksonville stench lingers on that team. I can't quite watch it off yet. Yeah, that's true. Oh, man.

I still think, I, I, we never talk about this, but, um, I really, do think the NFL's plan for the Jaguars was they were going to move them to London for a portion of the season and they were going to be a global team like a Jacksonville London team and the pandemic ruined that and they were like we'll begrudgingly play in Jacksonville but I don't think they wanted to be there and then so they hired Urban Meyer to be like all right I guess we need to like be in Florida now do you think if they went to London they would change their mascot no jaguar they just say it differently jaguar are there jaguars in Europe no but they say it cool also I don't know Are you sure about that? You said that no pretty fast I thought he's going to say England I don't fucking not

Probably not in England Space pornographer Are there Jaguars in England Jaguars are you do that half-fest internet That's half-est internet research There you go They're not known to live in the wild In the UK

I'm just trying to think of what the best Like British mascot would be If the Jags went full Brit Emails at ringer fantasy football Gmail.com If you know what the Jaguarish is say some like really stereotype stuff there. Bangers and Mash.

That's their, they're the Jacksonville. Bangers and mash? Beans and toast. A lot of British listeners may need to be coming. No, I know. I love England. I was just there. You're going to, and you're headed back to see the pipe organ.

Yeah, my pilgrimage. My half-ass internet research. I got to see this pipe organ. Got to get my hands on that organ. D.K. should make his own national treasure. but it's him stealing the pipe organ. I need like a fucking crane. I'm going to steal the pipe organ.

I'm going to steal the world's largest pipe organ. Can you imagine the logistics of this? Have they done the rewatchables for National Treasure? No. I love that movie, man. All right. That's definitely on the list of movies Bill probably hates them. We should try to snipe.

Yeah. That's... Okay. Anyway, what do you guys have, half-ass internet research? I already said on mine. There were five field goals. That's so funny.

There were five field goals made this season from 60 yards. And there were four field goals. It's his favorite thing in the world. This is his fucking. There was five kicks made from 60 yards. All the kicking this year. He fucking loves them. Five kicks made the season from 60 yards.

There were four kicks made from 60 yards in the 20th century. What about the 21st? There's only been like 37 ever and like a third of them are the last two seasons. A third of the 60 yard kicks ever are like the last two and a half years. Where are you willing to pick a, kicker that you would know would be like Brandon Aubrey. How early?

That's the other way around. I think the fact Brandon Aubrey was even drafted. It's just like, just get me some Australians till I'm banging 60 yards from the logo. Let's get a team in Australia. Don't never draft a kicker. I just gets mad at me for saying busting. You're banging 50 yarders. No, that's not the same.

It's not the same. Come on, Craig. Because you're saying a player is is busting. Yeah. I haven't saying you're banging 50 yards. I'm just saying a player is banging something. But banging 50 yards hasn't really hit his hard

I know look fine This is like the impotent thing Yeah it is I'm potent Like I know I'm wrong but I don't fucking care All right Field Yates tweeted this out Montes Sweat is the first player

NFL has traded to lead two different teams in sacks In the same season That's wild That actually turned into pretty good trade it feels like Yeah I was been really good He's been like a force multiplier for them Yeah he saved Matt Evan Fluss's job The other one I have is Tyra Kill's not

going to break Calvin Johnson's receiving record. Like, we were wondering if he could get to 2000 or whatever. Calvin has like 1960. But Calvin Johnson had 300 or 300 more yards, but he did it on 200 more routes. Tyree Kill at four yards per route run. If Tyree Kill ran as many routes as Calvin Johnson did, he would have been on pace for 3,000 yards. He would have broken Calvin Johnson's record by a thousand yards.

He would have broken it. Yeah. That's really wild. Imagine if all those deep balls were actually caught in stride and he didn't have to turn around for them. Yeah. The other one. This is a random one.

Carlos is seeding. Carlos produced this episode season. Darius Slaten has led the Giants in receiving arts in four of the last five seasons. Wow. That is a great one. How fucking weird is that? That's a great one. Is he good?

I don't know. The Giants desperately want to cut this guy. The Giants have never wanted to date their slating. And then he keeps leading them in receiving. The other one, this is, I got them to CBS Sports. Every team in the AFC North finished the season with a winning record. The last time that happened was in 1935 when there was a division called the NFL West. Yikes.

That's fun. Any others? No, I should have pulled some, well, the NFL West included, the NFL East at the time included the Brooklyn Dodgers. Wow. Which I think is so fucking funny. Can we think of new names? We're just all playing at the baseball fields. Okay, Apex Mountain here, the easiest to understand of all the categories.

Who is having their career year professionally, personally, who's got the most juice right now or had the most juice right now in their career this year? I think first ballot Apex Mountain, 23, Tommy DeVito, not even fucking close. Yeah, opening a set case. Yeah, Big Dom, Tommy DeVito. I think honestly Italian Americans in the NFL are having a moment. I would give it to Christian McCaffrey. I'm giving it to

Jack Prescott I would say it's probably his Apex Mountain rookie coach quarterback combos Dermico Ryan's and C.J. Stroud what do we think? That's an interesting one.

I feel like... I think they're one of three teams ever to make the playoffs the first year, rookie quarterback coach combo. Both the rookie, both the coach and the quarterback are rookies. Okay, yeah. Troy Aikman nailed it when he's like,

when Troy Gman was drafted. He was a rookie quarterback with a rookie offensive coordinator and a rookie coach. Jimmy Johnson and they won one game. Yeah. I mean, I think it's rare. It's probably really rare just having a rookie quarterback have the type of season

Seesy Strouda's period. Like, and then you add in the coach element. It's like that's really, really unheard of. Yeah. I have, um, Tyree kills impact like on an offense. It just kind of feels like despite how good he's been this year for, somehow he has like exceeded, uh, like any other year of his career in terms of his impact. on the field.

Drew Locke? Sure. I would say yes. Drew Lock's Apex Mountain was the postgame interview after that game. He knew he'd never be heard from again. He soaked that in, you know. He like let it wash over him.

That was a very great interview, though, by the way. What about this one? NFL celebrity relationships. I mean... Has to be, right? How are you going to get bigger than this? We had Romo and Carrie. Underwood, right?

It's not even remotely close. I think this one's bigger than all the other ones combined. Got it. Well, you're dancing around it, but are we going to do the Kelsey's or not? The Kelsey's, to me, are the Apix Mountain. The Kelsey family, it's Travis, but also Jason Kelsey being fucking, like, nominated. He's a center. He's a center.

And arguably not even the best offense alignment on the Eagles. And, like, he's the sex he's made a lie for People magazine nominated him. And their mom is there like three different commercials. I agree that the Kelsey family, easy, yes. I'm not sure it is for Travis Kelsey. That is insane. Well, if the award is he's having a career year both professionally and personally, he's not professionally and the team is the worst they've been in five years.

The vibes are terrible in the actual sport. He plays. Fair? It's a little, it's weird because like there's a... He's more famous than he's ever been. And but maybe he probably has more juice. Obviously he has more juice. personally outside of football than he ever has.

Apex Mountain's a weird category because if a movie was like kind of not great, but made an insane amount of money at the box office. And like Travis Kelsey is like on the field is not, it's actually like the worst year of his career. It's Kyle Pets, Death Valley, honestly. But professionally like, Taylor Swift did in fact put him on the map. Here's my question to you, Craig. How many athletes in America that are, not Tom Brady, because he's retired,

How many active American athletes are more famous than Travis Kelsey right now? The Bron James, probably. No one in baseball, no one in hockey. And I would say maybe other than Aaron Rogers, I don't think there's another NFL player is famous Travis Kelsey. So it's just like LeBron and one of their basketball players. Maybe Steph Curry. Yeah.

So I was what I'm saying. It's Kelsey on the Mount Rushmore of famous active athletes. Like, yeah, I think he is. What about show hell, Tony? Yeah. Maybe he's up there. internationally. But like, I don't know because I'm thinking,

there's different ways to measure fame. Like there's being starstruck. And then there's just, do you know that person is? And I'm like, do you know that person is for Kelsey this year is like, insane? I mean,

yeah. I mean, look, my mom knows who Travis Kelsey is now. That's kind of like the easiest way. Does your mom know who Otani is? No. She put,

tells us, we put them on the map. I don't know. I feel like if that's not Apix Mountain, maybe I don't get what it is. You're probably right. You're probably right. You're probably right.

I have feel-good backup quarterback stories. This year, we have had Joe Flacco, we had Drew Locke, Dalliance, we had Tommy DeVito, we had Josh Dobbs, and even you could toss in Mason Rudolph. Like, we have had a lot of great backup QB like flings for like a month.

We get so obsessed with these guys. It's on the table. There's something very American about it, but it's on the table for Joe Flacko. I will say, I'm not saying this is going to happen, but just like we were talking about all the bad playoff scenarios, we actually got the best playoff scenario.

We haven't talked enough about what is Joe Flacco's before this year defining trait? What was his defining trait? It was an absurdly amazing Super Bowl run in 2012 for the Ravens he never replicated. Can you imagine for a moment that what if Joe Flacco just kept being as good as he was

and just kept having three-jured or passing games like playing amazing, looking faster than he did? And what if he beats the Ravens in the playoffs? He goes to the Super Bowl. Can you imagine if he did that? If he wins a Super Bowl, do you think he's a Hall of Famer? Yes. Just because he'd all have two Super Bowl wins?

Yeah, maybe not. I guess I'll take that back. But, like, it's Eli Manning's in the weird category. Is Eli Manning better than Joe Flacco is the question? I don't think either will get in. But, like, Eli is like going to be the- You don't think Eli will get in? I thought he was already in for some reason.

I don't know why. Your memory is awful. No, I just like, for whatever reason, I'm like, yeah, he's Manning. He's in. There's hand them out like participation trophies to Mannings. It's like, you know, it's like a legacy thing. It's a, you get into the fraternity if your dad was in it or your brother. Talk about age the best.

Archie Manning saying Peyton's not going to the Jets or going back to school and go to the cults. And then Archie Manning being like, no charges for you lie, we're going to the Giants is like, I bet to say this earlier, but like the, it was kind of age the best or apics, maybe Apix Mountain for dads who are living vicariously through their sons to fulfill their own dreams. like Amonra St. Brown's dad is insane and just like raised them to like be like him to his dad. It's kind of like that.

And then Caleb Williams? Caleb Williams maybe. But the other one, the Harbaugh dad, Jack Harbaugh has his son. Both Ravens of the One Seed, Michigan's in the playoffs. I'm like, maybe they're right. You should push your children to achieve your dreams.

And that should be their only purpose. Jim Harbaugh's dad looks like Jim Harbaugh is just wearing makeup. He looks like Captain America In an old suit. It's like shocking to look at how similar. It's like the Maestro movie, Bradley Cooper. Like they make him like they make like old Leonard Bernstein. And you're like, yeah, but that's just Bradley Cooper in there with like wrinkles.

And I feel like when I saw Jack Harbaugh speaking after Michigan 1, I was like, where is Jim right now? Because I'm pretty sure we're staring at him. Anyway, so what do you guys have for Apex? It's the Kelsey's for me. If it's not Travis, then you guys. then you've got to give it to Jason Kelsey or Donna Kelsey. Yeah.

Shoot. Craig, you had some good ones there too. Well, I was going to include Purdy. Yeah. It feels like everything went right for Purdy this year. He averaged like 9.7. What is it here? 9.6 yards for attempt.

Anytime anyone averages like 9 something yards for attempt in any given season, it's like regression inevitably hits. Yeah. I also think it was Apex Mountain for, I also think it was Apex Mountain for Wynn dresser Win, dresser win, dresser win, sorry, dresser win dresser. The Elks guy, the Ramsider, the practice squad for three weeks. And remember that line of Pites of the Caribbean, it was like, you're the worst pirate I've ever heard of. But you have heard of him. You have heard of him.

We've heard of dresser win, man. Jake Browning? Yeah, sure. I wanted to add Rahim Moster, too. Oh, yeah. That's probably true, yeah. All right, Kyle Pitts, Death Valley. this is the opposite of the Apex Mountain.

I kind of think we have to start with Kyle Pitts. God damn it. Every year it gets worse. He had one touchdown as a rookie. He had two last year and he had three this year. So I feel like he's on pace for four. Okay, sure. He had 600 yards this year in 17 games.

Yeah, I guess it's not. Maybe. I'm not sure. But it's certainly close. I think there's one person and one person only to give this, too. Is it Matt Patricia? That one's, I think you could include, but it's Bill Belichick. I agree.

I thought I had him too. I mean, it's truly like his worst season as a coach, by far. What about refs? Oh, yeah. I was thinking about this. That's actually good. I think it can't be Deaf Valley for them because the replacement ref thing was wild, but also. The replacement reps were not real race, though.

I can't believe that happened. That was a fever dream. Oh my God. That and then also the Des Bryant caught it with the Rams championship game. That like literally the NFL owners meeting was overtaken by Sean Payton and Bill Belichick being like, no, we're changing the rules. So like I think that it wasn't even the worst thing that's happened. Yeah, you're probably right. Probably right.

I will say in Craig's like in defense of that like take, I feel like there were more defining moments relative to the total. amount of defining moments this year of just refs fucking up. You know what I mean? Like maybe this year didn't have as many like huge defining moments, but it feels like two of the biggest moments this season were the two ref situations. I mean, it was literally the pick for

most rewatchable moment. So I think that's an honorable mention, but Belichick, it's got to be Belichick. People think he's not a good coach now, which is just fucking wild. Yeah, I agree. Belichick hasn't had this few wins. Like, if you take out Week 18, because he's career so long. Isn't it? This is the worst team he's had been on

since like 40 years ago when he started with the Detroit Lions like 40 years ago. Yeah, wow. Also, to your point, thinking about no one thinks he's good, Justin Sales wrote a solid column for the ringer that I would,

I don't actually know if it's up yet, but I took a peek at a draft and he had a stat that Belichick, since he started coaching in the NFL, has just, as an assistant, has been in one out of every four Super Bowls that have been played.

Jeez. Wow. over half a century. It's just wild. Yeah. Personally, I would like, I would say I've gone on record in the past saying he's one the best GMs of all time too. And people think he sucks as a GM.

Like it's just every, the, that's recency bias. Yeah. It's, well, it's the, you. No, it's draft picks that he's messed up. But every year for 20 fucking years, you put together a championship caliber team, that's a good GM. I don't care if you missed a few draft picks. Everybody misses draft picks.

I think he was the, good GM for the first 10 years and he's been a bad GM. The Patriots have not re-signed a draft pick they took in the first round in 10 years. I think, yes. I think there's more to being a GM than it being a good drafter. So if you're talking about best drafting GMs, he'd probably not be up there. But he builds championship caliber teams every single year. And they've had good defenses.

He's like been on the cutting edge for like the way that they utilize free agents. They trade away guys at their peak a year or two. Like, he's defined team building for 20 years. So I agree with you that, like, his drafting is very suspect. He can't draft a receiver to fucking save his life. But on the whole, like big picture, GM, building a team that will compete for a Super Bowl, it's not just Brady. Like, it's been, he's had good teams.

He's had all pros at multiple positions every year. No matter what, there's no doubt that this, he's the Death Valley guy. It has to be. All right. Best racehorse name from this season. this is going to be fun. What you got, Craig? I heard you got another hot one cooking.

Mr. Fizer. Oh, Oh, man. Rogers is just mad that Kelsey's more famous than him. Mr. Fizer. Mr. Fizer's really good. I like flaco is backo. I put Waka Flacco Flame.

Oh, that's great. I also had Kenny Pickett Fax Tommy Cutlets Tommy Cotlets Tommy Big Dom Big Dom

Oh my God I want to buy a racehorse called Big Dom no We gotta get a horse Let's talk about getting it on racing guys I got a horse I had

Pretty Pretty pretty pretty pretty good That's good Pretty pretty good is good. Long live the tush push. Oh,

tush push is a good one. Yeah. And brotherly shove. Touch push. Touch push down the... What if the... I don't even know what he says. Down the stretch.

Best quote of the season. I personally feel as though... Well, I guess you could make the case for two in my opinion, unless I'm missing one. I think my favorite is week two Lions Seahawks.

with the referee saying, I'm talking to America here. Oh, yeah. Intentional rounding. Offense number seven. I'm talking to America here, it's a 10-yard penalty and a loss of down.

It's second down. Oh, my God. I forgot about that. That's a great one. That's the one I will remember the most from the season, probably. I love that one. I think of it every time that guy talks

or is shown on TV, it's all I think about. And I love it because I remember when we recorded after that show, and D.K. was like, this just so perfectly, like, encapsulates, like, who a referee thinks he is, like, what they think there are places in the game and, like, in the scope of, like, the entertainment product that we're watching, that they are, like, kind of the main character. Oh, my God. A referee should be like a Milford man, neither seen nor heard. That's right. I don't know if this counts for best quote, but I, because this one, it didn't

happen this year, but it came out this year, but the Sean McDermott, 9-11 stuff. I'm just going to remember that. Yes. I totally had that too. I literally, that literally, the thing about the McDermott 9-11 thing was that it was so, like, in this true sense of the word, absurd, that I didn't actually believe that it was real. And then they apologized for it.

And I was like, hours later it was like, oh my God, he did that. My intent in the meeting that day was to discuss the importance of communication and being on the same page with the team. that's a great one. However, I mean, it did turn their season around since then, so I mean, I don't know. They're 5 and 0. Teamwork. They got on the same page.

Teamwork communication. Do you guys have any others that you think are in contention? I got a couple. Hefe, that's what you got? They're not as good as that, but the one, Josh, when Antonio Pierce gave the speech about the giant, like, he was like, when I was on the giant season seven, we had to believe we could beat him. And Josh McDaniel took him, so I was like, never talk about the Patriots like that. I also just love Tyson, Beijing. I can't get out of his own way.

Oh, my God. I'll also have Tyson Bejant being asked if you were in an NFL quarterback, what would you have done? And he was like, I don't know. It's like would have got ripped on CrossFit and coach and like taught Jim at my high school. Yeah, that's great. My two were from the same person. The first one. Under, like, flew under the radar probably more than it should have, but the Jonathan Gannon fire in your gut speech.

Do you guys remember this? Yeah, you got fire in your gut. Welcome back. Who drove over here? Quick, let me see your hands. Who took the bus? Did you have fire in your gut? Did you?

We're here for a reason. Don't get that twisted. Okay, we're here for a reason to win games. So if you didn't have that fire in your gut, you better light the fire pretty fast. It was the fucking weirdest speech I've ever seen of my life. And I can say, like, truly everyone is like, what is this fucking guy talking about?

I don't understand how he has this team feeling so good, especially because they didn't win very many games. He's got some magic going because this is the weirdest, most awkward person I've ever seen in my life. Like, I truly, legitimately, can barely watch it.

It's so painful. It hurts me to watch. I barely, like, I had to rewatch it for this show. And I was like, this is painful. I need to turn this off.

I desperately wanted to turn it off. The other second one was Jonathan Gannon, the time he was introduced to Rondale Moore. And he just, he's just going like, Yeah, this guy. And he's just like, peop, pew, pew, pew.

Shots. Explosive. I sent it to Carl. I sent it to Carlos earlier, and he was like, this is like office season one level cringe. It's genuinely one of the worst things I've ever seen capturing on a camera.

It's so bad. It's painful. It's Kendall Roy-esque to me. Yeah, for sure. He is Kendall Roy, Michael, Scott hybrid. Shots. It really is.

Explosive. What are you doing, dude? But he's doing a good job, which makes it better, I feel like, for some reason. I think it's because he's so earnest in who he is. Like, he's so, like, he is, like, very unapologetically himself. So I think everyone's like, yeah, he's a loser and he's, like, fucking weird, but he cares so much. But he's our loser.

He thinks he's Ted Lassow, but he's Michael Scott. So weird. Poo, pew, pew. What are he doing, dude? It's like the British office. Like Ricky Jervais. He is, oh my God, going back and watch some of those, it's actually like, I can't watch it. It's so good, so bad.

I forgot this one, but the quote that came out, the report, but David Tapper admitting that sometimes when a waiter is rude to me, I think about buying the restaurant just to fire that guy. Oh, yeah, that's a great. Jesus Christ. I mean, yeah. That aged well. Okay, picking nits here. honestly my picking net on the season

we could just grab the argument of all of us about Cadarious Tony going outside you could just add that right here and that's my biggest picking net of the season just place that conversation right here just play that clip where do you guys feel on this months later where do you guys feel I am still like you know what he probably

should have been on sides I think it's equally as ridiculous I feel exactly the same way yeah I mean I never changed my opinion that like I thought it was a tickey tech call in the two minute drill And he'd been doing it all game. Yeah. And then Jalen Waddle did it like the next day.

That didn't help. It was weird to see it literally the next day. And like not, you know, I was like, oh, I can't see the ball. That's odd. What are you, what are your biggest thinking of? If my, if I have any regrets about that whole thing, it's that I chose the wrong moment to take that battle to like die on that hill. like the the Lions

declare yourself eligible debacle would have been a better moment for me to be like these reps are ruining golf kick them off the tour like I hate referees like it just drives me to say

that would have been a better battle for me to like you know like go all in on I think because that one was much more clear but yeah that's my only regret I love that people were like I know Bill and Sal were talking about like

well you know they were trying to trick the refs they were having to have having the guy run to kind of get the lines in autopilot and you load the ref in the autopilot too. I'm like, yeah. It's where they handed a written diagram of the, like a drawn diagram to the ref earlier. I don't know. It's just like, damn. Also, it's like, just don't fuck it up.

We're just apologize. I actually met the point where I'm like, just do it right instead. How about that? I still keep thinking about the, the ref who messed up the Detroit Tigers's perfect game and he just was crying after him. I was like, I'm sorry. And I'm like, just admit it. What was that picture's name? Like, Armando.

Armando Gallagalaga. Garaga, yeah. Like just admit it. And guess what? Armada Garago get over it. I was like, thanks. You're right. It's not the big of a deal.

Like, you know what? Dan Campbell totally would have been like, if you just admitted it and been like, I'm so sorry. I'm wrong. Like, you're right. I screwed that up. Like, just fucking be a man. What do you have? No, I'm pretty good on the season.

Okay. I got some nits to pick about the structure of NFL scheduling. Oh, really? Because it's like perfect in the engine of the success. I think we need to get rid of Saturday games. It's too much. There's too much. There's too many days of the week where there's,

there's like football to watch. I do agree with you. I think it waters it down. I think we should get rid of Thursdays as well. I keep it going. I think this weekend, wildcard weekend, I think Saturday,

Sunday, Monday for Wildcard is ridiculous. And you're monopolizing our time and I don't accept it. I hate the black Friday game. I think it waters it down. It waters down. In my opinion, one of the best parts about the NFL and football

and being in this industry and doing it is like, it's an event. The shared experience with everybody. You're talking about it. Your friend, you're on Twitter. You're talking about your friends. it's like you said, it's like a tent pole event.

Now it's on every fucking day. You know what I mean? Like it just doesn't feel as fun and special. The Monday night playoff game, the Wildcar weekend, especially just feels like a cash grab. Like there are football games as often as our, as often as your favorite basketball team plays, like every week, which is insane.

Like the Warriors play like three, four times a week, max, and there's four NFL games a week. It's ridiculous. Completely agree, D.K. But the other thing that that's never going to change because, you know, that's the NFL. But like, the thing that I really get annoyed about, that I don't know if it could change

because I think it has to do with, like, TV rights and shit. But I never understood why there's, like, eight to ten games in the early slate and then, like, three in the afternoon slate. I hate that. It's so weird to me. Like, why can't they spread it out a little? Week 18 was, like, they had six at the early slate and then seven after it. And it was like, wow.

Yeah, this is, yeah, this would be different, wouldn't it? It keeps me engaged. I feel like after the morning slate, it's like you're exhausted. I think it must, is it a ratings thing? about after I believe the short answer is that that's how they juice like that metric you see every year is like the one o'clock is to get your attention with the the flotsam games like falcons panthers you're not going to watch but they put them all at the same time and then the 4 p.m. They essentially create another primetime window at 4 p.m. Eastern 1 Pacific where like that's where

they stick Chiefs Bills. That's where they stick all the Cowboys games. There's a reason all the Abbas games are at 4 p.m. And they want three there because they're like half the country will watch Dallas, half the country will watch like this great game. And then half will watch like the job. And like that's how they get the peak programming and whether or not. I agree though. It's kind of weird. But I think that they kind of balance monoculture with everyone can watch their games at one and then they'll watch these big games afterward. Yeah, that's my quibble. I just wish they'd spread it out a little. All right. Probably unanswerable questions. I just have, are the Brown's worse if no one got hurt?

What's the Isn't the Lombardi quote is like You're a couple of injuries Way from being a good team? Yeah. Yeah, I'm just like Nick Chubb I know doesn't really matter like they're obviously

probably better with Nick Chubb but in general like right now if you could take Deshawn Watson and Nick Chub or Joe Flacco and Jerome Ford like who are you picking? Like heart of hearts like deep down what are you doing? That's a good one. I think Flacco man. You probably are.

Like, you're probably saying right now, if you're a Browns fan right now, and it's like, hey, well, you can snap your fingers and Deshawn Watson's healthy. What are you doing? You doing it? Was it the last team that made a big trade

and it was like good idea. That Sean Watson trades like a disaster. The Rust trades a disaster. Yeah. The trade up for Traylans is a disaster. The trade up for place. Yeah. Who's the last team that was like,

I'm going to go get this solid asset for a lot of things? What was the last time that worked that well? Not counting receivers, like quarterbacks. Just thinking about the Seahawks trading two first round picks for Jamal Adams. Who, like, actively makes them worse.

Derek Carr to New Orleans, dude. He threw for 25 touchdowns this year. Check the stats. He had a great year. Exciting. I have, is this the worst our backups have ever been? If you look at the back, if the people who played meaningful minutes this year

and left a mark on the season, it is a remarkable amount of people that just mucked up the season. Josh Jobs, Aiden O'Connell, Jake Browning, Will Levis, Joe Flacco, Tyrod Taylor, Tommy DeVito, Nick Mullins, Bailey's Appie. It's crazy. Every time I mention a name here, you're like, oh yeah, I remember that. Easton Stick, Tyson Bajent, Trevor Simeon, Mason Rudolph, PJ, Mitch Trubiskey, Drew Locke, Jared Stidham, Dorian,

Andy Dalton, Tim Boyle, C.J. Bethard, Sam Darnold, Case Keenham, Brian Hoyer, Davis Mills, Brett Ripian, and Clayton Toon. Holy shit. All of that. That's 27 quarterbacks. You're like, yeah, I remember that week. Brutal. I just can't

it's never been this bad yeah the problem is there's like 13 really good quarterbacks on planet and then everyone else is just like fucking you know fight for the scraps went to eastern western Mississippi University and now they're starting

okay any other probably unanswerable questions of you guys this one to me is just a it's kind of like the nature and nurture thing that high fits always talks about like the situation that you're in has dictates so much with like your production and your ability to like self-actualize and all that.

My question is, if you take Matt Stafford out of the equation, does Pooka and Akua catch 50 balls? Is he starting? Is he like, he, he set the rookie record. Does he even have a career? He set the rookie record for receiving both in catches and yards. One of the great, like, the greatest rookie receiving year of all time, probably, all things to consider. Obviously, statistically, yes. But like, he was amazing. He was awesome. He was their best receiver. But, and I don't take this to be slander because I love Puka. I think he's very good.

But like situationally, this was the absolute ideal landing spot for him. Absolutely ideal. A offense with Sam Braffert, who is the fucking kingmaker, all time season with Calvin Johnson, all time season with Cooper Cup, all time season with Pook and Akua, funnel offense, a genius play caller, injuries to Cooper Cup, no one else on the roster that is good net receiver. Like, to me, it's like, this is such a great example of, like, a good player landing in the ideal nuts situation and absolutely capitalizing on it.

I just think this has nothing to do with how good is Pukinakua. But, like, I just, I would be very interested to see how good he would have been on any other team, literally any other team. And if there's, like, other guys like him that have been buried in other rosters and we just had that idea. Yeah, like, who's the Pukunakua who landed on the fucking. That's my other question is. Or whatever.

Yeah. Who are, like, Pickens would have Pickens have been to the. the Rams, you know, who are the other guys like Puka that never got to shine? And again, to be clear, I'm not slandering Puka. I love him. I just think it's just, it's such a fascinating question. Like, this is the best. It's like kind of like the Devon A-chan thing.

Like if A-chan had landed anywhere but Miami, would he even been playing? You know what I mean? Like, the situation is just like perfect for him. So I just like those kind of questions. I have an unanswerable question. I have, I have a big one. Okay. Do you guys think Jonathan Taylor killed Jim Merce's whale?

That is really funny. That feels like an East Ventura movie. He does. Because here's the thing. All I'm saying, Jim Mersey was going to pay $20 million. The timing is suspect. Yeah.

Jim Merce is going to pay $20 million to fly in Orca from SeaWorld. Was that whale old? Yeah. It was. Sea World to Pacific Northwest. The whale dies. Jim Mersey saves $20 million. then Jonathan Taylor gets a contract extension and do you know how much money Jonathan Taylor got guaranteed at signing in that contract?

20. 19.8 million dollars. Oh my God. I'm just saying. This is some of your best work. I really enjoy this for you. How you get a kill a whale? How are you going to kill a killer whale?

Yeah. Pitch this to Jimmy. Also, killer whales are in. This is a script, Craig. Killer whales are in. They're sinking boats or whatever off the coast of Portugal or Spain or whatever. You think there's any connection there? Get this.

I don't know. This goes deep. This is like a global. Yeah. Yeah. This is a script too. We got to write this one. Interesting.

The sequel to Cocaine Bear? Cocaine whale. Can Rogers do some research on this? Get to the bottom of it. Oh, we didn't have that for best quote. Oh, yeah. You should look that up. You should look into that.

But even though that quote is from like five years ago. But yes, right? Yeah, it's 2018. You should look into that. One other unanswerable question. Is Brock Purdy good? No, we're not doing that. Moving on.

It's too late. That's like how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tutsy pop? Like we just, one of those things that we'll never know. All right, final two categories here. Just one Oscar who gets it for this show.

Just one fantasy MVP who gets it. I think I'm going to make a controversial pick here. I think one of you guys, or both of you, are going to say, Kyron Williams. And I think even though he was drafted first overall,

I still think it's Christian McCaffrey. I agree. It has to be. Almost half the people in Yahoo who had McCaffrey made the finals. There's a reason why we left this season saying McCaffrey is the only good fantasy player. You can't give anybody else the MVP in my opinion. He's the only dependable player in the league where you can draft him and say, I don't have to think about this at all.

I'll go step further, Craig. He's the only player that if you drafted a Christian McCaffrey this year, you're like, I want to play fantasy next year. That's great. Like, everyone who had him is like, I'll do that again. He has, like, reinstilled faith in the number of. number one overall pick. Like where it's like, oh, like, I used to be like,

in the office of number one pick. Yeah. Like, who gives a shit? I used to be like, I don't give a shit about the number one overall pick. It's not the best pick. I'd rather have the eighth. And I could be,

I can get cute and pick Sequin Barclay. And it's like, no, actually the number one pick is the best pick. And that's because of Christian McCaffrey. D.K. I don't have, I don't have any, no, I don't have any strong reservations with that.

I put, I put, I put Kiren. I would be interested. I did not look at the numbers of this. Like, the actual numbers of which player was on the most championship winning teams because I think it might be Kairn.

But I agree. He did miss four weeks. Kairn did. Christian McCaffrey was good every single fucking week of the season. And he was like really good. Except kind of the championship. But yeah. Right.

Okay. The only time Shanhan was like, yeah, we should take McCaffrey out. It was literally the second half of the final game of the fantasy season. All right. Final award here. Who won the year in fantasy? Now, this is not who scored the most points. This is when you're going to, when you look back at this year, and it might be the guy who scored the most points, but when you look back on this year, who are you going to think of in fantasy?

I think the nominees, I'm going to give you some nominees, add more if you want. McCaffrey, C.J. Stroud, Puka Nakuwa, Rahim Mostert, Kairn Williams, Brock Purdy, Sam Leporta. It's, for me, it's McCaffrey. Hi, this is, this is tough. if it wasn't fantasy, I think, but in real life, Kelsey won the season.

I think Travis Kelsey, like unambiguously won the season. In fantasy, if we're saying it's not McCaffrey, like, because he's the MVP and then who won, I kind of think, I think it's Puka and Kiron together.

I think they get like the duo, like they, we didn't even mention the sliding doors of if McVeigh had retired. Like, they're like, the bedrock of like the next error of Sean McVeigh is like,

and at the very least Puka Nakua. And then Kairn was like, you know, after McCaffrey, the most valuable player. So I think together, like, it has to be them. And they've been with your team the whole since week two. It's tough. I'm split. Because I do agree that, like, there is something.

I think, like, the power of them together makes them maybe the winner. But I think if you have to give it to one person, I think McCaffrey still outshines just Puka and just Kiron. That's what we call it just one Oscar. Goes to McCaffrey. But it's who won, I guess two people can win the year. I know. One person's got to win the year.

the year. I'm still taking Christian McCaffrey. He, it's, it, when's the last time we were like, I think a position player should win the MVP? Yeah. I, I'm fine to give it McCaffrey then. I think Kelsey wanted off the field and McCaffrey wanted on the field. I think that's the simplest way to say it. I don't know. I kind of like quibble with your guys. Well, Hyphitz, your Kelsey take that he like won the year. Like, I feel like people thought he like kind of sucked this year. Like I understand. Yeah, in the lens of fantasy football. It's like any publicity is good publicity thing. It's like he's just like, The publicity is not that he sucks.

The publicity is he's dating Taylor Swift, who's the most famous person on earth. I understand that. I'm just saying, like, who won the fantasy season? No, he didn't, Kelsey did not win the fantasy season. I'm saying Kelsey won the season off the field. If you're talking about on the field. I still would quibble with that. It would have been a lot better if he played it really well.

But that's on the field. D.K., who do you think won the year off the field, Rogers? I mean, we talked about him every goddamn fucking week, so sure. Yeah, there you go. Okay. He got his wish. He got his wish. Yeah.

Yeah, no one had unanswerable questions. Whatever happened to Rogers' Achilles come back. Um, I think we all know. Not enough darkness retreating. He was too busy on Pat McAfee every week. He should have been in a dark cave. All right. Well, that concludes it.

That was a gauntlet, boys. We did it. The 2020, two hours. Two hours. Pleasure to be here with you both. The season is over. Enjoy the playoffs.

D.K., who's going to win the Super Bowl? Ravens. Wow, I'm going Niners. Hyphitz. Ravens. Wow, okay. Cool. Great.

All right. We'll be back on Wednesday for the NFL draft show. We'll be here all offseason. Stick around. Don't touch that dial. Are we doing Lauren? Do we do Lauren on the Fantasy rewatchables? I don't know if we do.

I mean, I feel like we got it. Well, yeah. Bill Simmons is the real, Lauren. Thank you, Lauren. That's right. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody else on the rewatchables. Thank you to

Chris McCaffrey for making this a palatable fantasy football season because if it wasn't for you this would have been a disaster thank you Lauren Hyvitz you have to yell Lorne now Lauren!

Bill! Thank you Lenny Kravitz Oh DK is Lenny Kravitz is who DK says when he wants, he didn't think of it ahead of time

but didn't want to do a pop star so he's like who's cool and then his brain goes to Lenny Kravitz. Have I done Lenny Kravitz before? Damn. Yeah, three times. Lenny Kravitz was at the Golden Golds. Exactly.

Three times. He does Lenny once a year. I really respect that Lenny Kravitz refuses to take his glasses off, no matter what he has sunglasses on. He was at the Golden Globes last night in sunglasses. It's like the Vendigram of him and PFT commenter is just like sunglasses and doors. Do you think like when he looks at a menu at a restaurant and it's dimly lit, he's just like, fuck, nope, I've committed to this bit.

Give me the burger. I'm sure you got a steak on the menu. I'll have that. Is he vegan? That might not work. I have no idea. Color State. Okay.

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