The Ringer NFL Show - The Jalen Hurts Era Begins. Plus, a Fantasy Playoff Mailbag

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

We lead the show by discussing the announcement that Carson Wentz has been benched for rookie Jalen Hurts, and what this means for the Eagles from a real life and fantasy perspective. Then we open up our first mailbag of the season to discuss playoff lineup decisions, fantasy court, and other off the wall listener questions. Jalen Hurts, Eagles (1:45) Mailbag (12:55) Fantasy Court (54:30) Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, we talk about Carson Wentz getting benched for Jalen Hertz and how this affects the Eagles for fantasy and also how it affects Carson Wentz's self-esteem. We also discussed Tyler Lockett and the Seahawks for the fantasy playoffs and how this also affects D.K. self-esteem. And we open up the first mailbag of the season and talk lineup decisions, fantasy court,

and all the other weird questions that you guys asked us. Stick around. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyphitz. I'm here with Danny. Kelly and Craig Corleback, are you guys ready for a fun fact? Yes. All right, this is from Andres.

The Apollo 11 crew that first went to the moon did not get life insurance from NASA. Couldn't afford it or how does that work? Neil Armstrong, Buzz Halsman, Michael Collins, the guys who went did not get life insurance. They thought about bringing it up. They didn't fight for it. So they just signed a bunch of autographs and gave them to their family. who would have sold them if they died. Wow.

I mean, yeah, it seems like it's kind of a dangerous line of work. I guess maybe insurance would cost a lot. I don't know what the premiums would be for that. Yeah, premium for going to the moon is huge. But anyway, speaking of insurance premiums paying off, the Eagles insurance policy is paying off, baby. Their Eagles have drafted, well, they drafted Jalen Hertz in the second round. They've benched Carson Wentz this week playing Jalen Hertz.

This is crazy. What do you guys think? Well, I guess their insurance policy is, paying off. However, they're also paying off the massive Carson Wins contracts. This is like having a life insurance. A life insurance policy pays off. That's great, but also you're dead. You can't enjoy the money. I think this is fascinating. Like, first of all, from a football point of view, Carson Wence isn't going anywhere for the next two season, or one season at least, and then possibly even two seasons, unless they can figure out a way to trade it, which I suppose

as possible. But it's just, I mean, this is a monumental decision by Doug Peterson to go ahead and start Hertz because they're really tied to Carson Wentz for a long time here. And a lot of money, they can't get out of it. They give him a $120 million contract extension that technically hasn't started yet

because it's an extension. So it begins now. It begins next year. I mean, this is a massive story. I do think it makes a ton of sense. Obviously, Wents has not played well. The offense just doesn't work when he's in there.

And there's a lot of reasons for that. There's many variables. I think the biggest one is that he just is taking so many sacks, man. It's a drive killer. He doesn't let go with a ball. Yeah, he doesn't get rid of it. He's not, he's not escapable or super mobile anymore.

And you saw it immediately when Hertz went in on Sunday. Like, he was escaping from the pocket. He was getting outside. You know, keeping, like, he was just giving this offense new life and making it so they can actually function a little bit. I don't think he's going to be like a huge, huge upgrade. But I see this as kind of a situation where they can get him involved in the run game.

As you've seen, like, Cam Newton do, Josh Allen do, Kyler Murray. Maybe Kyler Murray is like a similar comp, even though Kyler is much more quick and explosive. But the things that they can do in the run game, I think are going to be very interesting. Hertz's numbers at Oklahoma last year were just astounding, absolutely absurd. And that's both as a runner and a passer. So I'm excited about this, you know, from a fantasy point of view and from a real football point of view just because it's it's a massive story. Yeah, to Wednesday, he has pocket yips. Like, he has pocket yips.

It's not like, like the ability to move in the pocket and get away from rushers and see what's going on behind is not like a visible skill. It's not like throwing his second base or like Markhill Fultz's three point shot. But he has the yips for this invisible scale that you can't see. He has lost his feel for the pocket, which was ironically his one of his best skills in 2017. And here's the thing. To a certain extent, it's not that he's the same player he was. I do think that the underrated part of all this is that Frank Reich, who was the offensive coordinator for his best season is gone,

and Wence hasn't really looked the same. But even last year, when the Eagles were almost equally decimated, Wence looked pretty good. And I don't know how I feel about this whole, like Wence lost his confidence narrative. But it is kind of interesting to me, because the knee-jerk reaction is to blame the injuries and the coaching. But they didn't have Frank Reich last year.

they had almost as many injuries last year and once was pretty good like he kind of patched together a pretty solid season without any healthy receivers in no line now it's like holy crap like this guy is walking into sacks

he's seeing ghosts why is it hard for you to accept that he lost his confidence I feel like that's Hawkins' Razor like oh yeah just being in people's head pretending to be in someone's head I think the whole foals thing

winning the Super Bowl is probably just past chatting every hour they put his statute backup outside the stadium they get rid of the backup sign him to a deal he's like

who thank God that's over. And then they draft the guy. Like, I do see how he could have the confidence thing. Yeah, listen, as much as you can say, like, professional football players are, like, of a different breed. Like, we're still human beings. I'm sure it's tough for him every day just to, like, see more Foles' jerseys around the city than Went's jerseys. You know how you know if someone, an athlete reads the headlines about them? If they say, I don't read the headlines. That's the thing. I will say, I knew that this was coming a year ago when Carson Wentz posted to Instagram a video of his gender reveal for his baby. and he had a shotgun and his wife was throwing a football

and he'd shoot the football with the shotgun and he missed the first time and then they had to do it again and they brought like four or five footballs in case he couldn't hit it and they had a brigade brigade of like all his brothers shooting

so that is the level of confidence they did not have in his accuracy was they brought five footballs and four shotguns to hit one football that seems he has shot himself in the foot and now Hurtz is starting. How do we think this affects the Eagles from a fantasy standpoint? Who do we like? Who do we not like? How does this affect things? I think in Superflex leagues, he's a huge, huge

addition this week. So if you didn't already grab him off waivers, do that now if he's still out there. I think he's absolutely worth throwing in. I will say maybe wait a week, especially since it's playoffs, because they are playing the Saints this week. The Saints are a very good defense. That might be tough going for him. But like bottom line, the Konami Code, which you talked about all offseason, which is the rushing cheat code in fantasy football, which which says rushing touchdowns are worth more than passing touchdowns. Rushing yards are worth more than passing yards. It's a cheat code.

The rules of fantasy football are stupid. We don't have to keep calling it a cheat code. The rules are dumb. Whatever. Potato potato. But basically what I'm saying is he has that floor as a rusher because he's going to scramble. We saw that when he came in. He came in in the third quarter and he scrambled five times for 29 yards.

So I think if you can get, I mean, if he's going to get 30, 40, 50 yards a game scrambling. That gives you a very interesting floor. And then he also made some good passes. He wasn't like super sharp, but I don't think you expect any guy who comes in in the third quarter after not taking any first team reps in the during the, you know, maybe he did take some

first team reps actually since this has kind of been developing over a little while. But now that he's the official starter, he's going to get a full week of practice. I'm excited about this. I would say temporary expectations this week, but he's absolutely worth a add in, even single

QB leagues, I think, because shit, I've been starting Taysam Hill in my one QB league over Rathesberger. They play the Saints this week, which is a bad matchup, but the Cardinals and the Cowboys are the next two matchups. Those are, I mean, those are not exactly intimidating defenses to face. So I think this is potentially huge.

So if we go through his, like, you know, wide receiver arsenal, like, and tight end, you're probably starting Dallas Goddert and maybe even Zach hurts because tight end is a wasteland. But then, like, we got Travis Fulgum, we got Jalen Rager, who had a good game, but it was kind of Fool's Gold because he had one catch and returned a punt.

So who do we like on the Eagles? Are we starting anybody that we wouldn't have started or are we sitting anybody that we used to start now that hurts as the quarterback? No, I'm not starting any of the, I'm not changing anything at the receiver position necessarily. I don't, like you said, I think Rager, though I like him as a talent, this offense just isn't where it needs to be quite yet. So I don't think you would want to trust him in the playoffs, you know, the first week

of the playoffs or whatever. I like Goddard a lot. My big question, I guess, is how does this affect Miles Sanders, if at all? Because if they're doing more run game stuff, these quarterbacks with the ability to move and the ability to affect how the defense plays the quarterback, that can open things out. We saw this with Lamar Jackson. Obviously, this is a different player than Lamar Jackson, but it can open up gaps for your running back and make things easier in the run game. I'm just curious if this could be this hidden boost for Miles Sanders, who has been basically

unstartable for the last month. I agree, because the knee jerk when there's a mobile quarterback right now is to say that's worse for the running back, obviously, because the quarterback can be vulturing them at the goal line. But if the offense is moving the ball, that's better for Miles Sanders than the current Eagles offense, which is just getting on. They're like, oh, three and out again, it's better to move the ball, move the chains and get touchdowns. Here's the thing.

Could Jalen Hertz be vulturing Miles Sanders at the goal line? I would love to have a crystal ball and tell you that. The reality is, we don't know. It depends what the defensive end does. Does he crash down? or go out, they read him, move out. But here's the thing. It's not like it's going to surprise the Saints or anyone going forward. Oh my God, Jalen Hertz ran the ball. We had no idea.

They're going to play him on the read option. The odds that Miles Sanders gets a touchdown are still pretty good. It's not like anyone's going to get caught by surprise if Jalen Hertz doing a keeper option. So if the Eagles offense are moving the chains, I actually am more optimistic for Miles Sanders in the playoffs. Now, I know that's a low bar because he's been so bad. Yeah, I mean, I think that like saying, will he steal, will Jailen Hertz steal Miles Sanders touches at the goal line. The real thing to note there is at least they're at the

freaking goal line. Like, I'd love to get there as a Miles Sanders manager. It literally couldn't get worse for the Eagles offense. So like, you know what? Why not? And to a certain degree, I kind of respect them for making this move. Like, maybe they completely shattered their quarterback's confidence, but you know what? They did it. Speaking of couldn't get worse,

we haven't really talked about Travis Fulgum. Our man in the last four weeks has had four points total. Yeah, I mean, if you have on your team, you know, there's no reason to play him. for the foreseeable future. Like, you, you need to see some real rapport with him and Jalen Hertz to be playing him. The Fulgum thing to me is, and I've seen this as a talking point on Twitter and

blogs and stuff like that. And this is the thing is the Fulgum thing is an indictment against the Eagles coaching staff because the dude was balling out. Like, no matter how you put it, like, he just happened to get in because other guys were hurt or what. He was playing really well. And as soon as, like, Alshon Jeffrey got better. they start putting Alshon Jeffrey in,

stick with Folgum, man. He was freaking producing. He was actually playing well. And the fact that they went away from him, to me, it speaks volumes that, I don't know, this tells me why they're struggling so much a little bit. The Jeffrey thing's the opposite of it, right? The Jeffrey thing's like, oh, well, this guy,

we're paying a ton of money. We kind of need it on the field. It's the opposite of the one's decision. And I was going to say, I will say that this decision to start, to start Hertz took some balls from Peterson. because of all the money that they have invested in when it's the long-term implications around his confidence, you benching him officially, you know, there's just a million variables that go

into this. And I think it does take some balls to go ahead and just, you know, go to Hertz. And this is what we think is best for the team on the field. And so that's going to be fascinating. But yeah, the Fulgum thing is mystifying too, though. Who do you guys think leads the Eagles and catches this year? Are you asking who is currently leading? Who leads the team in catches right now? Probably like Boston Scott. I was going to guess Fulgum, but that feels wrong.

It's Greg Ward. Oh, my God. Oh, man. Holy crap. Yeah, so let's see here. Greg Ward has 44 catches. Dallas Goddard 2nd with 35, Fulgum 33, Ertz 26, who's played seven games.

That's crazy. Yeah. This is like worse than last year. All right. So let's, this is a mailbag episode. First of all, thank you to everyone who emailed us in. Like, Ringer Fantasy Football at Gmail.com. We got so many emails.

If we didn't respond to you yet, we're sorry, we'll get to you. But thank you to everyone who sent in. But let's start with the Carson Wentz email. Someone sent into us. All right. So to the Danny's and Tyrod Taylor's backup, I think that's that's right. Don't get stabbed. Yeah, he's third string.

Yeah, this is an email. I somehow made it to number one seat in my league in the first round by trotting out Carson Wentz as my starter each and every week. what the hell do I do now? It's a 14-team league with deep rosters. The waiver wire is a dark and scary place, and streamers do not look good for week 15, 16. I haven't briefly flirted with adding Mitch Drew Bisckey of all people.

Do I just roll with the broken down horse that brought me and hope I get to rub it in everyone's faces and they got beat by Carson Wentz. Or do I try catch lightning in a bottle with someone like Tua, Drew Locke, Daniel Jones, sincerely yours, Dan. Obviously, that was sent before he got benched. But the point is, for the people who now have to deal with Wentz getting benched

of the, you know, the options where it's not so easy of like, oh, Matt Ryan's on waivers. What, what of these, like, you're picking through the scraps here, Tua, Drew Locke, Daniel Jones. What do you guys think? I think it's Mitch Trubisky. Yeah, I think I agree. Honestly, in Trubisky, he's a bad, this is the, this is what we've talked about a lot with Trubisky. He's a bad real life player. He's not as bad in fantasy as you think.

And their offense has been pretty good the last two weeks. He's Bortles-esque. Yeah, he is. He's absolutely Bortles-esque. We talked about how the bears needed a spark, and under Foles, it was just not working at all. And honestly, they've kind of gotten that spark. I'm not saying Trubisky's been good, but the amount of yards they've been putting up, the amount of points they've been putting up, as much, I feel like it's a stark difference

from what they're doing with Foles in her center. So, you know, it's definitely not ideal, but go ahead and start, you could start Trubisky. I don't think that, too, is that bad of an option. I mean, he was one dropped 50-yard bomb from like a 350-yard game this last week. Obviously, that was against a bad team, but he's coming along. I think he's getting better. And they're a good, well-coached team overall. I don't know.

I definitely don't feel confident with Drew Locke, but he's a gunslinger. I mean, mentality-wise. I hate that phrase. Drew-lock just is bad. Like, Gunslinger can't just mean he takes unnecessary risks because he's overconfident in his arm. Like, that shouldn't be what it means. so I don't have confidence. That is what it means.

And also, Daniel Jones, I'm wary of a guy with little pocket presence who now has a hamstring injury, because I'm worried if he isn't running as much with the hamstring injury, and he can't escape the pocket as easily, I'm a little worried about that recipe. I mean, obviously love the Giants,

but he's a guy that is the high risk, highest risk, highest reward of this group because I wouldn't be shot. I mean, he could get hurt, come out of the game. There's a lot that could go there. So I agree with you, D.K., I think that Shibotsky and two are probably the top two options here.

All right, should we start firing through these emails? Rest of the mailback, let's do it. All right, this is from MD. Since the Seahawks have gone from only letting, well, my God, I completely messed up. Can I read? I don't even know. Let me try that again. Since the Seahawks have gone back to only letting Russ microwave TV dinners,

should we consider other options at wide receiver? D.K. Metcalfe will likely still get his, but I'm considering Brandon Ayuk or Devante Parker over Tyler Lockett. I mean, I say Ayyuk for sure. I like Ayyuk. His target rate has been sensational. He's a playmaker. The way they use him is kind of like all over the field.

He's being used deep down the field. Also on, you know, the yak stuff that the 49ers love to do. I definitely think I would feel more confident in Iyuk going forward than hoping for that massive explosion game from Lockett. The CX offense just, I don't know, man. It's just not working right now. and DK is the clear, clear number one. That game against the bills, he was just open often.

Like, he just kept getting open. He's, he is surprisingly polished for, I mean, he's just finding pockets. It's impressive. Good route runner, super athletic.

He has extremely long arms. He is awesome. His, like, frame is built to be a receiver. So, yeah, I think, I think, Ayuk is a really, he absolutely,

you know, like Michael Phelps has a long torso, long arm. webbed feet. And then like short legs. He's just, he was born to be a Olympic swimmer. He's like half porpoise.

Yeah. So like he could say the same about Iuke. He's just, you know, he's built for this. So I definitely don't know, guys. I think I'm, I think I would stick with Tyler Lockett.

I mean, he's pretty much averaging nine targets a game for the last four games. He had a touchdown. I mean, they just play the Giants last weekend had a bad game. They play the Jets.

Really? We're not doing Tyler Lockett and Russ against the Jets? The Jets thing is, is, what makes this difficult. Yes. You have to play Lockett

against the Jets, but over the two weeks after that is where I get concerned. Okay, so are we getting like, let's fence it, are we going to fence it this week and say start Locket this week? Yeah.

And then Iuke the following two weeks to like down the stretch or whatever. And if Fitzpatrick comes back, I'd be considered doing Devonte Parker over all of them. I mean, again, this is the Sealks conundrum in general. They play the Jets this week

and then it's the Washington and the Rams. The Washington defensive line looks unbelievable. Yeah. And then the Rams defense is one of the best in the NFL. The Rams defense have the Seahawks number, I feel like, too. Yeah.

So, I, yeah, I think, I mean, it's a total cop-out and totally gets us out of accountability and being blamed. But I like Lockett against the Jets, but I also think you're well in rounds, well-in-bounds to bench him after that. Yeah. Especially if he doesn't do anything against the Jets. That's super concerning. Okay.

This is from Jeremy. Hey, guys, huge fans of the show. I'm in a guillotine league. What an incredible way. Amazing term. Where whichever team scores the fewest points that week is eliminated and all their players get dropped. There are only three bench spots. Added back into like they get added back into the pool?

Yeah, there's only three bench spots per team. That's pretty amazing. I'm one of the three teams remaining and I have Kyler as my QB. Some free agent QBs include Herbert, Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rogers. Should I pick up any of those guys, start them and keep Kyler or is Kyler too much of a risk to keep on my bench and I should drop him? It's pretty interesting question. So if you look at the last three weeks, Deshawn Watson has been the top scoring fantasy quarterback, Aaron Rogers third, and Kyler Murray 23rd. I mean, I don't think I would do Herbert.

I think I would probably take him out of the conversation. But Deshawn Watson, Aaron Rogers. Yeah. My initial reaction to reading this email was absolutely go get Watson. Dude is bawling out. And as far as we know, as far as we can tell, it seems like Kyler has an injury. They've clearly started playing differently, you know, over the last three weeks. And so I think that to me is enough of a tiebreaker to say it's not coming back.

Like what he did earlier in the season is likely or it's less likely to happen than to him just be like continue to kind of be middling, I guess, in where he is right now. Watson's balling out. I love this league idea. I love that. A guillotine league where you get, like someone gets axed every week. I love that. Well, yeah. And then whoever wins the league, like your team is nothing like what you drafted because you're just adding people off waivers.

It's just this fight for waivers. When you guys were in college in like orientation, did you ever do that rock paper scissors game where like everyone in your class has to play rock paper scissors and then the person who wins, you follow the person and then there's like 20 rounds, but at the end there's like two teams

of like thousands of people go against each other. No? I've no idea what I'm talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. All right, well, never mind. Okay. Here's what I'll say. I'd say Deshaun Watson's like probably the right call.

However, he plays the Bears next week. Aaron Rogers, on the other hand, who's been the third best fantasy QB in the last three weeks, Lions, Panthers, Titans for A-Rod. Not, I don't know. I mean, not bad. Deshawn has since Chicago and then Indianapolis.

Would you guys lean Rogers, or are you sticking with Watson? Yeah, two good defenses. Kyler's got New York. He's got the Giants who just confounded the Seahawks, Philly, and then San Francisco. It's not the easiest. It is not the easiest. I think I would lean Deshaun still because he's just been pretty match-up proof

for the most part. but Rogers is also I mean literally both of those guys I think with only three bench spots would you drop Kyler the point is cut Kyler because you have to nitpick at this level of quarterback play you have to nitpick when the guys are this good and if Kyler keeps being bad

for you you feel pretty dumb okay let's keep rolling here this is from Jake from Fort Worth although just reading that I just thought I just instinctively was like Jake from State Farm how big of an impact down the stretch does playing for a team that doesn't give a shit anymore have on players. For example, I have Austin Echler, but that Chargers team is absolutely dead and

has no motivation to win or put up points. So I did a little bit of brief, you know, surface level research on this. Half as internet research. Yeah, half as internet research. I looked at the top 12 running backs and wide receivers last year from weeks 14 to 16 just to see who was there and what the team records were. So the top 12 running backs last year in the final three weeks of the season, I won't read them all out. But six of the 12 guys, were on teams with below 500 records, well below them. I mean, the top three guys all had shitty records. Kenyon, Drake, Sequin, and CMC, all had great records.

Devonte Freeman was in there. Joe Mixon was on the terrible bangles. He was in there. And then for receivers, eight out of the 12, top 12 guys in the final three weeks were on bad team. So I kind of don't think it matters. I mean, Hunter Renfro was in there on the crappy Raiders. Terry McLaurin was doing a lot on Washington.

I think you just stick with your guys. Hunter Redfro was the number four receiver down the stretch of the playoffs. It's amazing. Tyler Boyd was another good. one. This half-assed internet research based on one season, which I'm fine with using as a sample, confirms kind of what I was thinking, though. It confirms my suspicion that the teams might be out of it, but these players have so much to play for personally. They want to put good tape out. They want stats because those stats get them paid. Their teams might not have anything to be

playing for, but those stats are massively important, especially for offensive skill players, getting paid down the line. So these guys are playing for their livelihood. So they're going to be motivated regardless of where their team is. You know, maybe they'll make a business decision here and there. But I don't think it's going to be enough to be like they're not going to get how many ever like fantasy points that they want to get.

Effort can become a thing. It's harder. There's two things. One, it goes both ways. Like, defenses are the ones who have to tackle guys as it gets cold out. Like,

that can go both ways. Sometimes a skill player in a bad team can like dice through. defense that doesn't care anymore. But more accurately, I think that every team goes into every week trying to kick the other's ass. I don't think you see a lot of those things happen in the first quarter. It's when things really go wrong at the end of the fourth quarter where those things pop up and they stay in your mind.

But in reality, trying to predict when, like, a team is going to, like, kind of give up at the end of a game is pretty hard. It's hard enough to predict the future, but, like, predicting what's in another man's heart and soul is, like, basically impossible. I barely know what's in my own heart and soul. So, I don't know. these guys usually try their asses off. Also, yeah, bad teams can rack up points pretty easily.

Okay, this is from Philip. Phil. He's asking. What? You said hello to Phil. Phil. Phil. I like how that's a thing that we do.

Phil. Phil Woods. No, it's not Phil Woods. I just say Bobby Trees, but I don't want to pretend that that was like his last name. It's not his last name. Okay. Does the volatility of this year change your draft strategy for next year? I go three running backs in the first four rounds.

unless there's a super value on the board, but the emergence of guys who weren't drafted being fantasy relevant like James Robinson or Justin Herbert or people and Antonio Gibson, should I just draft the best player available position be damned and then just work the waiver wire super aggressively. Okay, so like, you know how zero, I mean, this guy's essentially saying like, should I go zero RB, right?

But I think we also, I think we did like a halfway check in about like how are the top 20 guys faring, you know, midway through the season and it was like not that good for kind of wide receivers and running backs? Should we just go like zero all positions where you just like, you don't draft anybody who's projected to be in the first three rounds? You don't want to get players. You just get all the guys in the fifth round.

Just draft fifth rounders for the first five rounds. Just trade back. Do the Belichick. You just want third and fourth round picks. You want compensatory. That's all you want. I would love to see a guy do that and get like five fourth round picks and just see what happened.

That's actually pretty interesting. I did that once in a league a long time ago. I had the first pick and someone had the seventh and wanted it really badly for some reason because they were obsessed with Adrian Peterson. and I just traded, I just took like their third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round pick and the guy didn't care. And honestly, it was pretty mediocre in the end.

Like, it just, because I would think that was the Asian Biederson was unbelievable. I think to answer his question, though. Well, we'll just be more in the offseason, too, because this requires a lot of thought, to be honest. Yeah. My initial reaction is, to answer your question, Philip, is, yes, just pick the best players,

because you don't know who's going to get hurt. You don't know how things are going to shake out in a lot of cases. and when you're going, when you're like 3RB or bust out of the first four rounds, if you choose to go that route, that means you're choosing like, you know, the 14th best running back instead of, you know, maybe the seventh best receiver or something based on like rankings and consensus everything. So like you're passing up a guy like maybe DJ, a DK Metcalf this last year to draft some RB2 or whatever because you think you need to have that third RB, you know what I mean?

So I think honestly, just go with the guys you think are going to fucking ball out. And don't worry, don't worry too much about, oh, I need a third running back here because the running backs are, you know, scarce. I think this year is, and obviously we'll change our mind. I feel like we'll change our mind every year based on kind of like what happens. But this was the year where running back was a fragile position. A lot of guys got hurt. You could get a lot of guys really late and on the waiver wire and all that stuff.

And so it was a very good, I think, example of the zero R.B method this year. Yeah, but at the same time, you do need to take scarcity into account because you can't just pretend you're going to get to James Robinson because in the reality, you're trying to blend value and scarcity

with tears into something that you feel comfortable with. But as a general rule, getting good players is the idea. There's no simple, yes or no response to this. The problem is that McCaffrey got hurt, Sequin got hurt,

Michael Thomas got hurt, and like, you know, even the best of plans just get screwed sometimes. Okay. Pick the right players. Pick the right players who stay healthy. It's not that hard, people.

What else do we have to say? Phil. Phil? Phil. Phil. Are you guys seeing Groundhogs Day? Phil. Phil Conners?

Come on, Phil. Yes. Pick the healthy players. Okay. This is from Alex. Danny Senior, Danny Jr. Oh my God. They call it a senior junior.

Geez. The greatest third string could you be in Chargers history. What is the shadiest thing you've ever done as fantasy commissioner? That was shade, by the way. of Billy Volick. Shea Billy Volick. Famous.

He might have been a backup, actually. Yeah, I don't know. He might have been third string at some point. But yeah, anyways. I did something super shady as a commissioner once. Same. High Fids, you go first. Like a long time ago.

This is actually not fantasy football. This is fantasy baseball. There was, uh, this was 2007. And I drafted Jose Reyes for the Mets, the shortstop, like fifth overall or something. And then the Mets at the time had this double-a catcher whose name was Jose A. Reyes. But he was on the Mets farm system though, so he had the little NYM

acronym next to his name. So I picked him up and I traded him to my friend for Jimmy Rollins. And then Jimmy Rollins won the MVP. That's underhanded. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What happened to immediately once you traded him and the guy was like,

oh, this is not the Jose Reyes. He was so mad. He was so mad. And you didn't trade it back? No. You were just like, Screw you, dude. You got to do your due diligence, bro. Sorry, got to do your due diligence in the paperwork, bro. Oh, my God.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have allowed that. That's what we would call bad faith these days. You rule with an iron fist commish style. Yeah, that was sketchy. What did you do, Craig? The fascist commish method? I swear I've changed in the last 13 years. I think I've said this on the show before, but in case we have new listeners,

I'll briefly go over what I used to do. I think I've done this for multiple years. When we first started our fantasy league in high school, with everybody who'd come over and we'd sit around my ping pong table in my garage and draft on a big whiteboard and I would print out rankings for everybody but I also said you can bring your own rankings

but there will be rankings provided for you should you need them. I'm not going to have time to cross reference. I used to drop some of the guys that I liked lower in the rankings so that they would fall in the draft. This is straight up CIA style like misinformation.

This is, yeah, this is a whole campaign. legally legal, right? Well within my rights, but... It's not like putting the nerve agent in someone's tea, but it's pretty underhanded. Immoral, I would say. Certainly immoral. Maybe morality is not the right word. Not a lot of integrity in that choice. It's dirty politics. I got second that year. You better freaking win when you're messing with everyone's rankings.

You know what that reminds me of actually how all the NBA teams would eat at Michael Jordan's steakhouse except the Lakers because Magic Johnson wouldn't let him go. Like everyone's using your rankings and Michael Jordan's trying to get him as full and hung over

as humanly possible by sitting him free drinks. And then the Lakers of the team is like, I'm not using Craig's rankings. Absolutely not. Yeah, that would have been wise not to use my rankings. I was going to add one.

I'm going to steadfastly maintain this wasn't a shady thing to do as a commissioner. However, a lot of people got mad at me about this on Twitter because Mina Khyams brought it up on Twitter. In our dynasty,

a league. Mina was playing my buddy Laif in the finals and I can't remember how exactly it went but one of them needed a running back because the running back had gotten injured that week. So I traded one of, I think I traded Mina

or no, I traded Laif a running back and then Mina was like, what the fuck? And so then she had to go out and like trade and so like basically I created this this new market for trading literally championship week of the playoffs. And by the way, this was all official 100% legal in our league.

There's no trade deadline in our league, therefore not actually shady. I think that this is the most ridiculous shit ever. The fact that there is no trade deadline during the playoffs is fucking insane. And anarchic, that is as close to fantasy anarchy

as there is. Other than adding an 11th team in the middle of the season, I don't know what could be more anarchy than just making trades in the championship league. I'll admit it did create chaos because there was like

legitimately Sunday morning trade action. That should not be allowed. The Warriors can't like just trade. Like adding Kevin Durant in the offseason is bad enough. Imagine if Durant just joined the Warriors in the middle of the finals. And we're like, yeah, we have Kevin Durant now. He's traded for James Hard.

Let me put it this way because High Fitz has, High Fitz is going to blow a gasket about this again. We've covered this on the pod before. High Fitz believes no trade deadlines or shady. Therefore, this was something shady I did. However, I will say it's 100% under the rule. according to our league. Well, then your league was set up wrong,

and then if you're a commissioner, it's still, by the way, this league still has no trade deadline, so suck it. Fucking anarchy, you should fix that. That's not said to be proud of. Okay. Nope. This is an email from Jack H.

This is unbelievable. I drafted Sequin, and I'm in last place in the toilet bowl. So I made an offer to the person who I'm playing in the toilet bowl. This guy offered to do a fantasy trial by combat. unbelievable. This is amazing.

This is Achilles outside. Let's agree to go one player versus one player. And whoever's player does better, that team is not last place. This is Achilles. Achilles outside the castle yelling for Hector, Hector to get his ass out here. Achilles. Oh my God.

And then so Jack writes that we settled on filling the championship position trial by combat with either an RB2 or an RB3 or a wide receiver two or I receiver three. So they didn't put their best player. and they agreed to not do one of their best running backs or top. So the guy had like Mike Evans, but that wasn't allowed

or Calvin Ridley wasn't allowed. Sure. So these guys played in the toilet bowl. He said screenshots and the lineup is unbelievable. It is just Jonathan Taylor in a flex against Brandon. I can a flex with the bench of like 16 players deep. Mono a mono.

And it actually ended up being really good matches. It was close. Taylor scored 21 and a half and how you can't 18. But this is the funniest thing I've ever heard. A trial by combat and fan is, I think this is like a perfect idea. This is awesome.

This is awesome. I like this idea. Was there a question in there? Was that just the fun? No, I just wanted to share that because I thought that was unbelievable. Question, is this awesome? Yes.

Yes. Okay. This one's a little ridiculous. We got an email. Which current NFL player is most likely to one day become president of the United States of America? I'm not asking who would be the best president,

just who is the most likely to become? president. Not asking who would be the best president. It's got to be a quarterback, right? I think it's Larry Fitzgerald. I think Larry Fitzgerald could become a senator in Arizona. I was going to say this and I don't want this to happen and I don't want it to sound like I'm being a homer, but like I actually think Russell Wilson might want to be the president

so he could actually run. That's a good one. I could see him actually running is kind of like my point. That's actually a really good one. enough people like him and know his name that I don't think it would be necessarily laughed out of the, laughed out of the building. I think Gase would be great.

Oh my God. Stop it. Adam Gase would, do you think, do you think Tom Brady would run for president? No. No, Giselle would shut that down.

But I think Adam Gase, because if he does the Florida thing, Adam Gase would fit right into Florida politics. That's, like, just seamlessly. Okay. Let's,

let's, I want to narrow this down, narrow this down to quarterbacks. What quarterback would you vote for? for for president. None of them. Not a one. There's not one

quarterback in the NFL. I would vote. Joey covers. Oh my God. I'm looking down the list. Justin Herbert won't be eligible to run for like 25 more years. Herbie fully loaded.

Herbie fully loaded. You know who would run for president is Taysam Hill and he'd get some traction. Tassum Hill. Gadget player. He could go all over to executive branch. You can do all these different jobs. You know, you know,

Department of Education, Department of Homeland, you can just do whatever. Swiss Army Knife President. Okay. We got an email from Martin. You want to ask about the home alone player, and the home alone is a player who you were once terrified to match up against, but now is I'm not afraid of you anymore.

Has Danny seen home alone? Is he where Kevin became no longer afraid of the bad guys? I have seen home alone. I have not afraid anymore. I have seen home alone. I also forgot that scene completely, so I actually had a YouTube bit, but I have seen the movie.

But who are the guys that you were once afraid of of and are not afraid of anymore? I feel like there's one king of this category for 2020. Zeke. Yeah. That is good. Yeah, that one's definitely good, but I still feel like there's these games where he could get 20 points. I was going to say Michael Thomas, which is kind of cheating because he's been hurt.

But like, I've seen someone Michael Thomas in their flex the other day, and I was like, oh, really? You sure? I'm just not even phased by it anymore. Mike Evans? Mike Evans? Thomas would be like Mike Evans Mike Evans still can have the 30 point game it's just rarer but like I know it can happen

what do we call these guys who could blow up do we call them wide outs? Yes. Did we? I can't remember what we decided on I got another one for you Antonio Brown well yeah but I mean he was the guy that would just go you know 25 30 40 points the other one he's still technically in the league this probably doesn't really apply but Levi on Bell

yeah I mean this is like Todd Gurley you know what I mean. Todd Curley's playing like 30% of his snaps now. That's just because that's just sad. Alex Smith. No one was ever afraid if I've ever. Let's see here. Cole Beasley is the opposite of this. I'm afraid.

The person who's like, I'm afraid of you now is Cole Beasley. Okay, this is an email from JJ. J.J. A deep bench is great, but what happens when you end up with too many viable options to start? This is a guy. It feels like a recipe for second guessing and disaster. my question is that come playoff time,

are you better off having less viable options to fill your flex spot, leaving you with less room to overthink and overtinker with your lineup? I find myself with Miles Gaskin, Cole Beasley and Brandon Ayuk, wishing I just had one of them so I wouldn't have the opportunity

to play the wrong one and ruin my season next week. I actually think this touches on a really deep nerve. Well, yeah, it's difficult to make these decisions, but you want to have good players. Having good players their team is always going to be better

than not have a good place. This is definitely a real phenomenon that you go through and you're like, I have no, I mean, I pretty much slack you guys every week about these four running backs and I can only start two running backs and it's miserable. But like, I'd still rather have that than just have two running backs that I have to start. Like, especially for injuries and stuff. Like, as many good players as you can as the best pet. This email reminded me of a TED talk.

There's this TED talk that's amazing called the paradox of choice, which is basically, we all assume that like, I mean, it's the ethos of like modern business. It's like more choices, more freedom, more happiness. And then they did all these studies and they're like, that's not true. More choice. People are miserable when they have choices. It's the same reason you go through Netflix and you can't pick anything because

you're like, shit, how am I going to get the right choice out of a thousand shows to watch? Am I, like, you're just constantly worried if you made the wrong decision. And then when there's just one thing on and you have to watch that or there's one pair of jeans to buy instead of a hundred, you're thinking and you get it wrong. When there's only one option, you're like, oh, well, the world screwed me. I didn't do anything wrong. It's Kyle Shanahan's fault or it's Brandon Ayuk's fault. Is this what it is?

There's this theory that Americans miss the monarchy and the yearn deep down to bring back a monarchy. Is this kind of where that's coming from? All people want in life is to be told what to do. Yes, it's true. People just want to be told what to do. You know the Avengers when Loki comes down and is like, you are obsessed with freedom,

but freedom's terrible? He has a point. Like, they never heard him out on that thing. Freedom is great, glad we have it, but also kind of soul-sucking. You ever heard of Burden's ass? the thing where the donkey you never heard of Burdine's ass

Burdine's ass No No I'm not gonna Google it Because I've learned that the hard way This is a good fun fact It's a paradox about a hypothetical situation Where a donkey is Equally hungry and thirsty

And they're placed midway between Like a stack of hay And a pail of water And he dies because he can't decide Which one he wants to do That's me trying to find a TV show Honestly I sit on Netflix for an hour And I'm like I don't know what to do

No but I watch the TED Talk Paradox of Choice It's really like fucking mind-blowing because his point is that, like, there is a middle ground of, like, choice and not having any, but we have just blown past it in every facet. So if you have, like,

eight guys on your bench that you can't pick from every week, I don't know, make a trade, consolidate. But no, it's a real thing, and I've always found it amazing in the playoffs when you lose and there's no roster combination

that you could have had to win. It's so much more peaceful than when you made the wrong decision and you could have advanced, but you just made the wrong choice. Just think about it forever. Yeah. So there you go.

The point. No regrets. Go out with no regrets. Or just freedom is a lie. Okay. It's an email from John C. Clearly everyone... This one got me. This is funny. Clearly everyone's podcast is confused by what a burn book is, but we'll let it slide because you can't take people out of a goddamn burn book.

That's the whole purpose of a book. He wrote that at all caps. That's fair. But I digress. My question is, does Craig still have the Tacoma that he won with the half court shot? I've been super curious about what process is like. when you win a car. Would love more dates. Craig, can you clarify this story?

Yeah, can we get a little background? If you Google, I don't know what you have to Google, but Craig, there's a video of Craig on YouTube hitting, first of all, he's hamming it up to the crowd, pretending to do an underhand, like, granny shot from half court. Just freaking playing it up to the crowd. What a guy.

And then he just nails this half court shot. It's like half-time at a San Diego State basketball game. Is that the background? Yeah, you got it. Is that V.A. Has Arena. A Google SDSU student hits half-court shot wins Toyota truck. You tube that. Can we put that in the show?

Description. So let me tell you, John, I never got the Toyota Tacoma truck because they claimed in the advertising, you know, at the arena that, you know, hit the shot, you get the car. And that's kind of all it was, right? It was just like this simple phrase, hit the shot, get the car. We're like, all right, I get randomly chosen. I end up making the shot. And before I had walked out there to shoot, I asked one of the guys.

the organizers, or whatever. I was like, so what happens if I actually make it? He's like, no, no, no, man,

nobody ever does. And I was like, okay. So I hit the shot. And then in the ensuing days, you know, I was cool that night. I thought I was going to get a car.

And the ensuing days, I found out, so it was a two-year lease. Oh, my God. It was this big battle because basically, like, there was like potential legal action

that could have been taken and because I basically claim that Toyota lied. And like, they didn't advertise that it was a two- two-year lease I would be, you know, inheriting. So we ended up settling on a financial reimbursement. You got cold hard cash. Yeah, I got cold hard cash. That's a metaphor for what we were

talking before about freedom. The American dream just ends up in a lawsuit. Right. All things just end in lawsuits. That's the story of this country. One lawsuit at a time closer to the city upon a hill. But yeah, that's what happened. I never got the car. That is, I wish I didn't hear that. That's so depressing. Yeah. Oh my God. Honestly, I didn't need the car. I was a freshman.

I only walked around campus. You don't really need a car at SDSU's campus. This was fine. I have to give you some props. You made the shot, you kind of Damien Lillard when he made that like 30 footer in the playoffs last year. Like, you just put your hands up,

but you're not freaking out the way I thought you would. Like you actually did you like I have to. Just dead eyes. I played it cool. I didn't really plan on it. But like, you know, I just kind of act like you've been there before.

You know what I mean? Like you've act like you've hit a. a half court shot toward a car before. I mean, come on. Is that how you got to settle with Toyota? You're like, I just act like I've sued a major car manufacturer before. Exactly. Okay.

This is a deal with Jonathan. This is completely nothing new with football. If you could change the size of any animal, what animal would you choose and what size would you make? Oh, my gosh. I'd make Austin Echler 6.3.230. Can you imagine? Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. He would be really good. I mean, he already is really good. Would he lose his explosiveness, though? Because you still have to have gravity and physics and whatnot. I imagine I'm ant-manning him where he's just saying, oh, I see her? Ant-manning him. Yeah, but when he's big, he moves really slow and he gets tired, like, immediately.

I like that we chose animals when we were doing players. I would like to make Baker three feet shorter. No, if we're doing animals, I want, like, orcas. I want killer whales to be really small. Oh, my God, I thought about this. I want killer whales in a fish tank, like piranas, but smaller even, like little turtles. And I want a bunch of them. and I want to feed them like baby.

Like, you know, you feed them over snake mice. I never had one because I'm not a snake guy. But, like, I want to feed, like, this is. I want to feed a little tiny seals to a little tiny orcas. What about a little baby panda? No, well, they're in danger. I mean, that'd be cute as hell. I'm not saying I'm going to kill the panda.

I'm saying I would just make the panda smaller. The pandas are overrated, man. I'm like, like, we're just kind of propping them up for no reason. They're cute. I don't know. Don't you think a grizzly bear with, like, the size of a puppy would be a lot of fun? I imagine they'd be just, like a Tupacabra. Tasmanian devil.

You know how like puppies gnaw in your hand a little bit? And it like doesn't break the skin. Dude, did you see Tasmanian devils are bioaluminescent? Like if you shine them under like a black light, they shine like it's like a neon rave. You know, this is an amazing fact. I saw the bioluminescence like a few months ago. I actually was at the ocean watching it happen.

It was incredible. No shit. It's crazy. Yeah, the red algae. Nature is nuts. Nature is metal. Nature is so metal. Go look at that Reddit thread.

Also, can you imagine if a little baby gorilla was running around? Like, I'm talking like an eight inch tall gorilla. Little guy. That would be incredible. Oh, my God. We could go on about this. Yeah, this is pretty amazing. Thanks for the question, Jonathan.

Yeah, that is a great question. Okay, this from Zach. Hey, guys, this year, one of my brother's friends offered me Seekwan Rahim, Moster. I keep saying it wrong. Mostert. Moster. Shit. Sequin, Moster, and DeAndre Hopkins for Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb and O'Dell Beckham. The trade got vetoed, luckily.

Now I find myself as the number one seed and the person with the most points in the league. If I win is my championship meaningless because I tried to make the trade. It's a decent point. I would say every championship's meaningless anyway because we're going to die. It's just the meaning you put in everything on its own anyway. Listen, there's going to be an asterisk and all your friends are going to call it BS and you're just going to have to live with it.

But I don't know. Yeah, it's real, I guess. It's inside the rules of the game. He also has this karma correcting the mistakes made earlier in the year. And I would say, you know what? The universe operates for a reason. That's what you say when you're doing

when you're successful. Like when something goes right, you're like, yeah, the universe just wanted to help me. You definitely saw that on a TED talk. Who said that? This talk, if anything, this teaches the rest of the league not to veto trades. Stop vetoing trades.

I agree. If two people agree, there should be no vetoes. These are consenting adults. Stop vetoing trades. It's the disputing election results of fantasy football. It's just like stop firing cases in Michigan for fuck's sake. Okay. Last one, this is from Josh.

I don't even see you guys slip this one in. Did you be able to buy another other playoff spot from them? Like buying someone's bet slip before the result is complete. So I'm confused as to what this means. Stock market or whatever. So does this mean that you inherit their team or is your team now in the playoffs? Look, here's the deal. You buy their team.

Say they're like the four seed or something. You're buying their team for a set amount of money in the hopes that you will win first and whatever the prize to say it's like a thousand bucks or whatever. So you'd have to set the price based on like the seating and the team and all that. This is like very normal thing. I don't know if anyone ever does it. Normal thing. I've never heard of it. Wait.

So you're essentially. You buy ownership of the team, and you are now the owner of the team. You're buying equity in someone else. So you say, so like this happened to explain. In the betting market, let's say you have a bet on Patrick Mahomes

to win MVP at 15 to 1. And now it's like 2 to 1 and you can sell it for like, you know, you sell for some number in the middle to make a profit, but you don't want to take the risk. It's like hedging.

You're saying that you actually sell an equity. You sell like your stake. So the prize is $1,000, the buy-ins $100, and you sell your team for like $300. And someone else, runs your team. Wait, hold on.

The question is, should you be able to buy another owner's playoff spot? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So do you bring your team with it? This is crazy.

Obviously, you can't just pay your way into the playoffs because that'll be like every other... You can do whatever fucking you want, depending on the league.

I know, now I'm kind of down with this. The idea of buying the team is kind of funny. Like, because here's the thing, at the core of it, if it's your team,

it's not America if you can't sell your shit. We're so hardcore to like manifest destiny in this point. Wait. Well, also, I imagine everybody else in the league, I imagine everybody else in the league

would be happy about this or be okay with it because if you're buying into the playoffs, it's likely that your team is kind of crappy so that you're removing a decent team and adding a crappy team, so I'd be okay with this. Well, you shouldn't be able to buy your team. The team has to stay.

It has to be the same team. I don't know. This is saying you buy the playoffs spot. I don't think you plug your team. I think the team that made it has to there. You have to transfer. This is just like when a rich kid throws a party to have like a bunch of friends come over at like his dad's yacht.

He's like not actually cool, but he throws the party anyway. Everyone's like, I guess we'll go. It's the same thing. Some rich guy buying his way into the playoffs. Yeah, free AirPods. It's like in a book smart. Well, this reminds me of how fantasy is just becoming like a little too stock markety. Like there are leagues where there's like a hundred copies of each player and you can have like an actual portfolio of people.

So it's like, oh, I have, you know, I have a lot of Russell Wilson equity this year. Got a lot of shares. Eight hundred Russell Wilson copy. Yeah, you shares. a bit much. It's a lot. To answer this question, though, I think you would have to agree, like, to be fair, your league would have to agree that this is an option at the beginning of the season.

You can't just do it at the end. The more I think about it, the more I'm like, if the players stay the same, like, why not? I'm okay with that. I'm kind of hilarious. I like the idea of as it, like, if you go in as a 5C and you're like, I don't like my chances, I'm going to sell my team to try and, like, make up some of the buy-in. Isn't this what Jeff Wilbon did with the mess? He's just like, I'm broke, dude.

I need some, I need a cash infusion, baby. Not feeling, I'm not feeling my team down the stretch. Therefore, I'm going to sell. Yeah, if you're the fifth seed, you're going to pinch. Sell your team. It's probably good because the person who would do this probably wasn't the finest donor anyway. So it's probably fine. Sell the chat.

Sell the team. That's pretty funny. Okay, let's go through. We got a couple fun facts that are fun, so Dika hit us. All right. So this one's from Scott, which I think was fun from a language nerd point of view. Scott says, I don't think this rises to the level of fun fact. I do, Scott.

But he says, but Hyphitz was definitely wrong in a recent show. Not only can acronyms be like words, they must be words. Things like NFL or DVOA where you say the letters aren't acronyms. They're initialisms, technically speaking. So I think that was pretty good. He ends the email by saying whose English degree isn't paying off now, Grandpa. Was he talking to you when he said Grandpa?

No one knows your age, so it's hard for him to tell. All right, I'm not going to lie, it's blew my mind. I actually didn't know what an acronym was. I thought NFL was an acronym. I thought that as well. Apparently it's an initialism. This blew my gourd. I had no idea.

Is that why in the Wall Street Journal, they have little periods after every letter? Or is that New York Times? Oh my God, that is why. Oh, my God. That is the New York Times. Holy shit.

Anyway, second, quick, fun fact, I thought was fascinating. A honeybee's sense of smell is roughly 50 times better than dogs, which is something like a thousand times better than humans. Honeybees can be used to detect landmines and explosives and are supposedly easier to train, although I'm honestly not sure about that last part

sincerely a beekeeper named Ed. I love that. First of all, as I was saying earlier this week, the bees are dying and it's a huge problem. Second of all, bees are easier to train than dogs is the hottest take that will ever be said on this podcast ever. I only hope to

top that one day. I googled it and there was some definite indication from scientific journals that this is correct. And they can be used to detect landmines and explosives. This guy's a beekeeper. They can be taught. I don't know what that. exact term was, but like complex duties or tasks or whatever. It's pretty crazy. I mean, they all acted

in a movie. You guys see B-movie. That was crazy. God damn it, Craig. You know, I was watching being in the car was getting coffee the other day, the Seinfeld. And Jerry Seinfeld was like, if I ever do B-movie 2, then the president will be Jeff Bezos. Jerry's still got it. Oh, my God. That's like the whole reason to do the movie, I think, right there, that little one-liner. Okay. Fantasy court? Let's do fantasy court. All right.

All right. This is from Sean. Here's the scenario. I am in third place heading into last week's slate at seven and five. While I am in third place, I have more points

than teams ahead of me who are both eight and four, so one team better in the standings. The first and the second teams are playing each other in the final week of the season. About 30 minutes before kickoff of the 1 p.m. Eastern Slate

both the first and second teams playing each other empty their lineups with the intent of each team getting 0.0 points and a tie putting me at 8 and 5 and each of them at 8, 4, and 1. Well, I understand. Oh my God. So they preserve their first round buys and the third place guy gets screwed.

Well, I understand the goal. This is like where ties are worth slightly more than. So while I understand the goal is to do what you can to put yourself in the best position to win a league title, I'm wondering if this is obvious collusion here that crosses a line. Holy shit. This is fucking crazy. And let me start by saying,

this is collusion. Yes, 100% cut and tried. However, brilliant. It's so creative. It's very brilliant. It's so smart.

Brilliant collusion doesn't become good. Well, it's like the collusion that's happened in other facets of, you know, the year back in January when the world was different. That collusion was like so dumb that you're like, It's like they don't even get bonus points for it. This collusion is like,

I'm not even mad. I'm impressed. I think if one person did this preserve their spot in the rankings, that's like one thing. But how do you play? Can't plan a tie so that it wouldn't even matter. No, this is this is collusion.

I think it's pretty obvious. I'm kind of, it's two guys, it's two of the players in the league deciding that they want to have first and second place. But is it bad faith? Yeah, you're operating within your rights to,

to put yourself, I'm going to bench my lineup. You want to bench your lineup? Like, what's wrong with that? Like, seriously, what's wrong with them being like collusion? Because it's not, it's not like, hey, I'm going to pay you $30 to bench your lineup. It's like, hey, it's probably in your interest to bench your lineup. Like, if the Ravens in the last week of the season were like, hey, like, we should both bench our starters.

Is that like against the rules? It's just like underhanded, but how is that illegal? I have a, I'm having this strong urge to Google what collusion, like the definition of collusion. like, Webster's Dictionary defines collusion, man. Look at us. Googling money laundering here. I don't know. This feels like collusion to me.

I agree. However, I'm down. You know the Supreme Court thing where it was like, you don't, you can't define pornography, but if it feels like pornography, it's pornography. I know it when I see it. This feels like collusion. Yeah, you know, that's right. You know it when you see it.

I think I'm okay. Because another example of this, another example of this is in leagues with the way system. Sometimes after the trade deadline, two teams will swap one player, they both cut a player that's good, and then they have the top two spots and they swap the two players, which is like a way to subvert the trade deadline. That's like obviously making a trade, but that's a creative workaround within the existing system. There's a difference to me to be working together to navigate within the rules versus blatantly breaking the rules. Both can be for your benefit, but this operates in the system. It's like, I'm a lot of benchment

players, you're a lot of venture players. I'm not paying you to do it. I'm not buying you beer to do it. I'm not like saying, hey, the $200 you owe me, don't worry about it to do it. I'm not buying your team for equity so I can have a playoff run to do it. It's just like, hey, you should probably do that. And they agreed on it. It's like, it's fine. I mean, it sucks. If you're the third place team, this sucks, but I'm kind of okay with it. I mean, I, so like, I'm going to be the dissenting vote here. You guys are saying this is okay. Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Oh, my God. Really creative. This is, this is bad. I think that he'll end up winning because I think that this is where karma shines down The court's reputation is getting tarnished.

I think the cowardice of the other two teams will perhaps not be viewed favorably by the fantasy gods. I think you guys are sowing distrust in the court system here. Okay, I got one more quick one. This is basically just a simple fundamental question about fantasy football that we should talk about. This is from Jimmy from Ohio.

He says, I'm about to snap a five-year playoff streak in my top priority league due to my stupid friends' insistence on keeping the head-to-head tiebreaker instead of the much more civilized points for. Two teams that I have outscored this season, one of which I have outscored by over 100 points, will make the playoffs instead of me. We vote on this tiebreaker every year, and I need to swing two votes this off-season. I need some ammo to change their mind.

Okay, the head-to-head thing is ridiculous. If it's up between two teams, you've got to make the team with the most points. Head-to-head doesn't mean anything. You're not actually playing football against one another. If he needs ammo to change their mind, you probably want hollow points, right? You probably want what? Hollow points. It's a gun.

You're a liberal state. No guns. never mind there's a good joke don't worry about it but no if you change your mind it's like I mean points should be the you know what's funny about this is that points is obviously the better tiebreaker and yet I almost respect leagues that stick

with the head to head out of like the grittiness of it I almost respect it the irony about this all is that we all still stick by like records usually like oh the top four records make the playoffs even though that has nothing to do with points I believe in blending you two but like yeah it's weird here that we're like oh, that's ridiculous.

This should be points four when we're still like, oh yeah, whoever has the best record makes the playoffs. I'm going, here's the thing. It's like,

as much, look, points four obviously is more indicative of the better team. It's, there's, obviously. But I also,

honestly, I'm still kind of sympathetic to like, I beat him in the regular season and we're tied now. Like, that still resonates with me. It's kind of a dumb argument.

Yeah, but then you're giving that victory double points. Like, does that make? sense? No, obviously it should be points for. You're counting it twice. You know how I know this? If Jimmy, Jimmy needs

ammo, then this is the ammo. It should be it's ridiculous. It should be points. Yes. Because here's the thing. If you beat someone head to head and you have fewer points, you want the head to head record because it helps you. And if you have, but if you have a points advantage and you lose, the injustice is so insane

and absurd clear that it's hard to argue for the head-to-head thing if you're like in a neutral situation. Let me ask you this. Doesn't it annoy you a little when you look at the standings in your league and the third place guy has like the eighth most points?

Yeah, you should play these terms better. In principle is annoying. He's a really good special teams. Yeah, yeah, hidden yards. Hidden points. You got to get on the fantasy special teams. Yeah, it's like fine. It's like the margins.

It's just good coaching. Jimmy needs points. All right. That's all we got. Yeah, paradox of choice, American dream, mixed feelings. Is that our main thought from the show? Sorry, Carson Wentz.

There was a lot of good fun facts in this one. So thank you for the people that sent those in. Yeah, and really seriously, thank you to everyone for emailing. Keep emailing us. Ringer Fantasy Football at gmail.com. We'll try to get back to all of them. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm. Sorry, Carson Wentz.

You know, America will keep dreaming. All right. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, Lorne. Lord. Oh, God, I got to come up with a band. Thank you, John Locke, who Thomas Jefferson totally, like, just plagiarized the Declaration of Independence.

John Locke. DK. Band. DK. Band. Thank you, the band. Thank you the band. Oh, the band. They're a great band. The band. Yeah. Wow. Nice. My son Calvin loves the band. How much has your music

taste changed with Calvin? Like, is it just all Wiggles now? Oh, yeah. So basically, you know how we did the... Can we do... You know how we did the Spotify? The Spotify, uh, what's it called? Where it's like wrap, wrap, wrap up the whole season, or the whole year. For the second straight year, it was

my top song was the same song. It was this dwarf. Baby shark? These dwarves singing from the Hobbit movie. And I actually got someone, I said this on Twitter. I got someone who else who said that this actually helped their child calm down too. It's crazy. It's like a hypnotic sort of like low guttural, I don't even know what you would call it.

But these dwarves singing, and every time Calvin was crying from the age of like two or three months, if you turn that on, he would just like go quiet and listen to the song. You think the Eagles should play that in their stadium so Carson once calms down in the pocket? It's like, you get some back to neutral. I mean, why not? I want people to tell me if that song or whatever else song works for you, let me know. Especially though the dwarf song from the Hobbit movie, if there's more people that that worked for, let me know. Also, you should give it a try because it works like a fucking charm.

All right, well, I have no idea if any of this made into the episode. We'll find out when we listen to it. We'll see what Craig did.