The Ringer NFL Show - The RB Drought, In-Season Sleepers, and Midseason Fantasy Awards

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

As we enter the second half of the fantasy season, we give out our Ringer Fantasy Football Awards after the first nine weeks before getting into some Week 9 bad beats. Awards: The Leap Award (4:15) The Just Don't Watch Them Play Award (9:30) Matt Asiata Award for Biggest Vulture (14:35) Most Unexpected Breakout (19:00) The 'N SYNC Award (28:30) The Old Yeller Award (32:30) The Top Sleeper Award (34:00) Sleepers That Failed You (37:00) The Drunken Amazon Order Award (41:30) Bad Beats (42:30) 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 dish out our mid-season fantasy football awards, including the all-sleepers, the all snoozers, the guys who made the leap, and the guys who you cannot watch their games if you value your mental health. Also, I explain why the Steelers' receivers are like the band in sync. Stick around. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I am Danny Hyfitz here with Danny Kelly and Craig Krollbeck. Are you guys ready for a fun fact? Give it to us. Always. This is from John.

John. Yeah, hey John. Here's a fun fact for you. There is a mountain range in Antarctica called the Gambardsev Mountains that are similar in size and height to the Alps. But they are buried under an ice sheet so thick that the whole region basically looks flat. You could go there and literally be standing on top of a mountain and not be able to tell. Wow. Do you know how high is?

There's a mountain range under snow, essentially. Yeah, well, ice. I don't know if there's really a difference but yeah it's the same as the Alps what's your fantasy connection to this I'm trying to make one in my head right now we're gonna give people a new perspective

on the season today we're gonna give people like a 30,000 foot view and you know we're walking on the top of the ice yeah exactly no I was thinking just yeah new perspective so we're gonna go through fantasy awards for that midway point of the season week eight week nine

midway it's like the middle I don't know we're a little bit past that's fine who was focusing on midseason awards last week. Not us. Now we are. You know what I mean? Exactly. So we're going to go through everything, but like MVP and offensive player of the year, they're boring. We're going to do like fun awards that we made up for nothing but our own purposes. Because in reality, fantasy football, most people lose. Almost everyone loses except one person. So for everyone else, we want you to feel happy. So we're giving out awards. They're like trophies for participating. Did we come up with that?

That sounds like a good thing to give out. Yeah. You know, all these millennials needs handouts all the time now these days. Yeah. Can't accept a loss. Sorry, Billy, all right. It was T-ball.

You lost. You went O for four. You don't get a trophy. Over four. T-ball. Must suck. Sorry. Go ahead.

Well, before we get to the words, let's just briefly mention the Steelers have a COVID situation brewing. Vince McDonald's, one of their tight ends, has been positive. And Rothusberger,

among other Steelers players, has been deemed to close contact. So, you know, keep an eye on that, because aside from Ben Rothesberger having injuries to both knees this week, now he's on the COVID list and won't practice. So that's something to monitor. Ben sat next to Vance McDonald

on the plane. He has tested negative, according to Adam Schaefter. So it's just a precautionary thing. Hopefully he'll play this week, but obviously if he does not, it's the Mason Rudolph show again, and that is bad for fantasy football. And would you guys start like Claypool,

Deontay or Ju-Ju if, if Mason Rudolph ends up starting. My guess is you have to. Yeah. You're not going to feel good about it. Dude, Rudolph sucks, man. He's awful. You know what I will say is I think that

even if Ben plays, I think the Steelers lose this game. This is a Steelers fan talking, by the way. I do. I don't know any Steelers fans who believe in them. Also, the Browns are also in a bizarre situation because Baker Mayfield's now on the COVID list too. So keep an eye on that. Also, the Eagles had a staff member test positive.

Also just keep an eye on the entire NFL because they are just really, racking them up. So I think every week rest of the year, just like keep an eye on all of the teams. So with that said, time for some awards? Yeah. All right. Let's do that.

Let's start with the fun one. Players who made the leap or as I think of it, guys who that if someone tries to trade for them, you will just automatically say no. Like how dare you try to trade for this player? Who's on the other side of the trade? I don't care who you are sending me. How dare you? Because there's something so much fun about having a play.

player who like makes the leap on your team as they're making it like Lamar Jackson last year Odell back in the day, gronk if you had them like it's so different when there's like a player that's captivating the entire NFL and you're like, that's my guy. You can't put a price in that. It's the guy you name your team after. Yeah, you feel like you're kind of a part of it. You like invested in their progression. You have a kinship with them. And then as they grow years on, you're like, yes, I invested in him early on. Yeah, it's like being ahead of a band before they go mainstream, but it's like a stock because you're like directly profiting off of it. Right.

I was there before the IPA. Okay. So, I mean, for me, there's only one answer here. It's D.K. Metcalf. You stole my answer, but go ahead. I don't know if it's stealing. I think I just had, if it just came to the obvious conclusion. He's absolutely one of those players where like, I'm never even going to try and trade for

him because everybody who's got him on their team is like, you need to give me literally all of your team in order to get D.K. Metcalfe off me. You know, it's one of those things, especially since I live in Seattle. a bunch of Homer Seahawk fans that I'm playing with. No one's given him up for anything at this point. When he, I mean, he's the coolest player in the NFL. He became the coolest player while on your team. You can't give up D.K. McH.

Is there anyone else even in this conversation? I was going to say, in the exact same category, A.J. Brown. If there's a guy who's vying for the coolest player in the NFL award, I mean, have you seen A.J. Brown and it's Dolce and Cabana sunglasses. Like, the dude has some swag. and he's also extremely, extremely good at football. He scored touchdowns in, like, I think, like, five straight games. Yeah, he's just one of those guys.

He's just one of those guys where I actually thought of this because Ringer editor Riley McAtee sent me a AJ Brown. He tried to get A.J. Brown off me in the Ringer Fantasy League today, and I was just like, I don't think I would trade him for, like, anybody at this point, even though it doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it's just not as fun to trade him. Even if you, like, it's like Devont Adams. I just want to have AJ Brown.

Yeah, I'd rather just have them on my team. I don't even care who you're trying to, like, offer me in this point. By the way, no big deal, but I have D.K. Metcalf and A.J. Brown on the ringer team, so that's been fun. Where are you ranked in the league right now? I'm currently second. Oh. I was first coming into this week, but I lost.

It was a tough week for me. On the note of A. On the note of A.K. McC., McHuff, though. But on that note, I do want to say someone emailed us because we were talking about what Craig was mentioning last episode about receiving. receivers who just outdo their projections and someone actually Brian emailed in to say

it's actually the same beer prong Brian Brian emailed and they should be called wide deceivers Brian wide deceivers I kind of like that wide deceivers Wait so in a good way Yeah like the guys who outdo their projections

like Devontane is projected for 17 points Oh it's negative connotation Doesn't it sound negative? All right well we don't want to connote anything Like Tywy Hilton's a wide deceiver because you took him and then he just is nowhere to be found. Right.

So, hey, Brian, we love you. How about another one? As we say on the show, like, let's workshop this. Yeah, we can do better than this, I think. Absolutely. We can do it a positive connotation there. Craig, is there anyone else we should do for Leap? I think it's got to be Kyler.

I mean, if there was like a just who's won the year so far, it's Kyler, I think. I mean, he's now, I mean, he is the number. one fantasy quarterback, but he's so electric. There's something different about if he were just like a pocket, if he were just Matt Ryan but doing what he was doing, he'd be less fun, even if he had the exact same numbers. It's so much more fun to watch him.

Matt Ryan had eight rushing touchdowns? No, I'm just saying points-wise. Like, if Matt Ryan was the QB-1 right now, I guarantee you it wouldn't be as fun to have him with the team as a big one. Kyle Murray is the most points ever through eight games for any quarterback. My point is, is if Matt Ryan was doing that, The fashion in which Matt Ryan would be doing it wouldn't be as fun as Kyler's. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

There's just something about having him on your team that is untradable. Yeah, I think this is exactly the same scenario of having Lamar on your team last year. Like, if you had Lamar on your team and your team last year, like, a popular fantasy football analyst advice would probably have been to, like, sell high at some point because, oh, he could get hurt or whatever. But how many people that had Lamar last year actually, like, ended up trading him? I feel like probably most people are just like, I'm riding this. This is the most fun, like most fun player to have on your team.

Kyler's that guy this year, too. Speaking of which, is Matt Ryan the most boring athlete of our lifetime? No, Jared Goff. Joe Flacco. Oh, my God. Joe Jumper Cables Flacko? I think Matt Ryan's way more boring than Joe Flacko. He actually looks pretty good.

At least Matt Ryan doesn't have a, like at least Joe Flacco is a unibrow. Like there's a brand there. All right. Let's keep going with the awards here. Let's turn the table. here. This is the Just Don't Watch the Game Award. This is famously, this was Blake Bortles

had an all-time run here for like the three as he was quarterback. Don't watch the games. You'll have three points and then the fourth quarter will happen. He'll get like 20 in the fourth quarter. It'll be great. Mitchell Shribisky took up the mantle. But now who is the guy that you have on your team? But you just can't watch it if they're playing.

Just look at the box score after. Just a slog. Literally anybody, anybody anybody on the bear. The bear's offense is unwatchable. It is maybe the most unwatchable offense I can remember in the last three or four years. It's terrible. There was one point, the other game, where they got like two straight false starts. They're trying to do like a sneak. They got a false start. And then they got another fall start or like a delay of game. And I was just, okay, you know, you know the Jerry Seinfeld like that's it.

I'm done. I'm done. I can't watch this anymore. So basically my point is I'm going with David. Montgomery. I'm just going to spoil Craigs because it's Alan Robinson. Basically, anybody on the Bears, just tell me what happened at the end of the game. Tell me how many points my guy scored. I don't want to watch this. It's so boring. It's so frustrating.

Is Matt Nagy turning into kind of like Adam Gase? Ooh. Wow. I mean, no one would ever be quite on the gay-s level. What do you mean by that? The weird thing about the freaking bears is that, like,

they're not, they don't have the roster of the Jets or, like, Washington. Like, the bears have really good players across the board. They're awful to watch. It doesn't make any sense. They have a competent running back good receivers, like a decent tight end

and what we thought as a decent quarterback. And they're unwatchable. Alan Robinson is the most frustrating fantasy player to have this year. And I think it should be at the top of the list

for this award. He has more catches and yards in the fourth quarter than he does in the second and third combined. You know who's the most frustrated person about that? Alan Robinson.

Yeah, if there was a mini a subcategory of the worst body language Warren. Alan Robinson like five years running. Sonters back to the line after every single play pissed off and literally makes every catch. He's that good. He's thrown in the ball. He makes every single catch. He just deserves to be in Kansas City. But no, to D.K.'s point about the bears, I can't stop thinking about what, I don't remember who said it. One of the announcers, I don't think it was Chris Collinsworth because I think we've been spared of having the bears

on Sunday in a football. But one of the announcers was saying that Nick Foles told them that Matt Nagy, when he's calling plays, didn't understand that like there's just not enough time to run certain plays. Like Nick Fools, here's the play coming in. It's like, oh, well, this won't work. This isn't going to work. Three seconds and I'm going to have one and a half. And then it's set after the game, like, that was taken out of context. Well, he kind of has to say that. Even if it was, like, I can't stop thinking about it.

If the head coach has a complete disconnect of what is actually feasible in the pocket, I mean, that is the ultimate, like, are you like calling Madden plays or running a team? And I just, Matt Nagy was supposed to be kind of a genius. the Andy Richard, Andy Reed offensive wizard tree, and instead it's like, he's to me become like the Ben McAdoe

cheesecake menu successor of just like, what are you doing, dude? Your quarterback's like hearing the play, like, that won't work. So, yeah, even the bears, bears don't want to watch the plays.

So we're basically coming to a consensus here as the bears. Don't want to watch the bears. Just tell me how they ended up at the end of the game. The other one that I wanted to throw out there and I'll get your guys's reaction to this because I don't know if this is like a hot take or not, but Drew Breeze.

Like, Drew Breeze is a QB1 this year. Technically, he's QB12 per game average right now. At no point in the season have I felt like confident that he can throw the ball more than like 10 yards down the field. And I know that that's like a narrative and that's been around for a couple of years. But it's kind of crazy to me that he is a QB1 at this point because it's like I don't have a lot of confidence. It feels like every time the Saints play, and this is a. exaggeration, but it feels like every time the Saints play, people are calling for James Winston, they got Taysam Hill coming in to, like, throw the long passes, and Breeze is a QB1.

Like, it doesn't, it just doesn't match up to me, like, mentally, I don't get it. You know when you're growing up and your dad lifts all the heavy stuff, and then eventually, like, you have to start lifting the heavy stuff? I feel like that's Taysam Hill. You know what I mean? He's the strapping son who just went through puberty, and he's now, like, helping the mom around the house. Yeah, Calvin's good effort.

As soon as he turns four, D.K. is going to have him doing all the yard work and everything, but that's Tase him help. So, D.K., but we have an old yellow award. Like, are you saying Drew Brees should be old yellowed, or what are you saying here? No, I'm not saying you should be old yellow. I'm just saying it's one of those things where I don't want to watch the game. Just tell me, like, what happens at the end. Their passing game is just like dink and dunk. Actually, you could probably put Ben Rosperger in this category, too. Why? Because he injured both knees last week. Yeah, it's just a bunch of dink and dunk stuff. and I'm looking at the rankings right now. Technically, in total points, Breeze is QB 14,

so I might have been looking at the wrong list there, but still, like, the fact that he's even a high-end QB2 is just, I don't know. Yeah, the way people have been talking about him this year does not suggest that. Okay, let's keep rolling here. Matt Asiata Memorial Award for the Biggs Vulture. This is one of those, like, if you're watching the team.

Can you let people know about who Matt Asiata is? Oh, yeah, this is the Vikings running back who would just always steal touches from Adrian Peterson at the one yard line. Agent Peterson would go 80 yards and need a breather and then like Matt Azata

would score three touchdowns. Yeah, love it. Infuriating. So I feel like 80% of people listening have no idea with Matt Azad it is and 20% are just completely triggered. He had 18 touchdowns

and four seasons with the Vikings, it looks like. It's a lot. For me, yeah, that is a lot. For me, I think the vulture of the year is actually Kyler Murray. He's eight rushing touchdowns. That's insane.

All the, I, for Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds, Kyler Murray is just taking these touchdowns every week. And if you have Kyler Murray, that's awesome. If you have one of the Arizona running backs, like for say, me, it sucks. Fuck Tyler Murray, is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah, I'm in an exact same category here. Josh Allen of the Bills is my Matt Oceado Memorial Award. Five rushing touchdowns on a year, which leads all bills. Zach Moss and Devon Singletary have four combined. So he's basically stealing all the goal line carries. And the worst part about like the bill's offense is it's a it's a pretty good committee. I mean, I think Zach Moss is actually kind of taken over for Singletary, but it's difficult to start either of these guys because number one, they're splitting reps and number two,

Josh Allen is stealing all the freaking goal line carries. So it just caps their ceiling and it makes them just like, you know, much, much less attractive, you know, probably like a low end RB2 type players that you just kind of like you'll get your 10 or 12. points and be happy with it, but you're never going to get the big, huge output from these guys. You know what's an interesting conversation is, who's the best running back? Who's the best fantasy running back on a team with a rushing quarterback? Oh, that is a good question.

It's kind of not a lot. It's true. You guys would know my on-brand response to that, although he has not proven himself in the NFL yet, but like the first guy that came to my mind is like, Jay Dobbins is super talented. He just doesn't get the reps. He doesn't get goal on. But he hasn't done it. I mean, like, yeah, he has not proven. We were talking about how this week was a terrible week for fantasy running backs because there were two good performances from Cook and McCaffrey and then like literally the next 18 people all had between like 10 and like 16 points. And it's related to, we were talking about how the bills ran one of the past heaviest game plans ever in NFL history in the first half.

They had like 20, what, 28 passes and two rushes. The bucks got wrecked by the Saints and they had what? The fewest runs in NFL history. They had five runs and one of them was a kneel down by Blaine Gabbert. like four runs. So that is bad. And then also we've had this crazy shift where like 20 years ago

how many mobile quarterbacks in the NFL were there, five, six. Now I feel like there's five or six guys who aren't mobile. And the combination of all of that is teams are not only are they running less but every quarterback can run more that there's just so much less.

Even among rushing productions going down, the share of rushing production that is actually to running backs is going down too. Like I think you're right on the money here, Craig. Like there aren't that many great fantasy running. If the quarterback's pretty fast.

Maybe that's something to keep in mind as you move forward. Also, at the goal line, now there's one more option that, you know. My Matt Ossiana, this one doesn't really fit the mold too much, but I just think Malcolm Brown, man. No, he does. He only has three touchdowns this year, which isn't a ton, but like he just gets way too many carries. He's the carry Matt Oseata.

He's just on the field too much. He takes it away from all the exciting players and the ramps. Anytime Malcolm Brown gets the ball, nobody wants that. And they haven't really gone away from too much. Yeah, really, they do. No, I think spiritually that's the right call. Right. I mean, Daryl Henderson has three touchdowns,

Malcolm Brown, three touchdowns. Okay, let's keep rolling here. Most unexpected breakout. What do we want to call this? Because we're between the Victor Cruz Award for Unexpected Breakout, the Alfred Morris Award, or I was just thinking like the Pimple Award,

unexpected breakout, but I think we were going on different routes there. I don't know. I feel like the Pimple Award has a negative connotation, though, Danny. That's a good point. We're all about connotation. You're right.

If we're gonna make fun of Brian about his negative connotation. That's a good point. All right, yeah. Keep work shopping. Maybe I'm just the natural optimist. That's what's going on here.

I just see the good and everything. A pimple is your body is rooting out to toxins. Okay. No. No. Okay. Who's your unexpected breakout for the year? I got two guys.

Miles Gaskin of the dolphins. I think kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, was he on anybody's radar, really? I mean, people knew that his name. but he wasn't like someone that anyone thought was going to be. I thought he was kilometers Gaskin. Oh, that was a dad joke. That almost warrants me cutting that.

That was worse than a dad joke. That's the worst joke I've ever told. Yeah, I agree. And people laughed at it. Yeah, so anyways, he kind of just emerged because they signed Jordan Howard in offseason. They signed Matt Breda. And then all of a sudden, Miles Gaskin is the lead back. and basically the like a workhorse back for them in terms of like his usage he was getting he's just

getting a lot of targets in the passing game a lot of early down runs um and quietly before he got injured he's on the ir for a couple weeks now but through week eight he was rb 19 and half pbr so basically you know a low end rb2 that you can just plug into your lineup and and you know pretty much expect to get double digit points he was just behind david johnson you know through three weeks and ahead of guys with way more hype like Antonio Gibson, Jonathan Taylor, Kenyon Drake, and Melvin Gordon. So just gives you some perspective on like what he's done coming out of nowhere. DK., this is, I think the Miles Gaskin thing is so interesting. And also on this list is guys like, you know, like James Robinson.

But with James Robinson, it was a bit different because there was a lot of extenuating circumstances, right? Fourneck got traded. Right, right. Right. Right. Right. And that's what gave James Robinson an opportunity.

Miles Gaskin, I want to know. if you could go back in time, or not, I guess we can do it now. Like, if you went back and read everything there was to read about the dolphins during the fantasy precese during your prep, would there be anything that would show that Miles Gaskin would be a thing? That's a really good question. I'm trying to figure out if this is predictable and if there's a way to find the next Miles Gaskin next year.

Yeah. I guess the one thing I would say, it goes against basically, typically you want to like follow the money in fantasy football. Like they sign Jordan Howard to like a re- a decently large contract. They traded for Matt Breda. They're giving up that capital, and that would make you assume,

like these two guys are sort of in our plans. But the one thing I will say is that when they signed Chang Galey to be their offensive coordinator, that could have been a small tell. Because I think the reason they like Gaskin so much is because his offense, Shane Galey's offense is like about space. It's about using the running backs in the passing game.

And I guess, like, if you look back, it makes a little bit of sense that Jordan Howard wasn't really good. kind of be a big part of that. I don't understand why they signed him, to be honest. Yeah. You know, because like it's more about space. It's more about passing game usage and things like that. And what I gather is it's just like gas can just really fit that offense like a glove and Howard clearly did not. So yeah, I don't know. Like it's honestly like probably not. There wouldn't be too many signs other than, you know, that very, very nuanced take on like he's going to be used in the passing game.

it's the most untapped part of fantasy football is like, yeah, I can go back and look at the numbers on Robert Woods and see that, you know, he's going to regress back to the mean and that he's actually getting more targets than people may think. But like the Miles Gaskin thing is something that if you could somehow figure out

how to find those guys, that's how you win fantasy football. I think there's also, that's also a casualty of just we didn't have reporters on the ground at doing as much reporting as we would in a normal offseason. Reporters just watch practice a lot and they tweet, wow, this guy looks great. We just had less of that because of Corona and who was actually allowed at,

who is allowed to talk to players and who impresses you, et cetera, I think that that makes it even harder than a normal year. I think the lesson here to me is, and it's not a lesson, but like it's a good illustration of something that we talked about a lot in the offseason is this is why it's smart to, you know, take flyers on uncertain backfields. Because when we're going into the season,

the assumption was that Howard would be part of a committee with Breda and whoever, but there was no clear hierarchy there of how it was all going to play out. So that's why it's like, you know, there's an expression like take the cheapest guy in the Patriots backfield or whatever. Like that's why you take flyers in the last round on guys that are in uncertain situations and just kind of hope it pans out. Most of the time it's not going to pan out. But for people that took a chance on Gaskin, yeah. It's free though.

It's basically free to try. That was J.J. Zacharison's big thing this offseason was like invest in uncertain backfields. That's why he was like, honestly, Darrell Henderson, like, there's not a lot of buzz about him. He had a bad year last year, but, like, there's three running backs. No one knows who's going to be good. He's cheap. I'm going to get him, and it panned out.

And sure enough, yep. Exactly. So to me, that's, yeah, that's the big lesson here. And then moving forward, one other guy that would have been absolutely, like, no way anyone could have predicted this is Travis Folgham for the Eagles. Like, he just came out of nowhere. And I want to say he was cut from the Packers in the preseason and somehow ended up in,

Philly. Obviously, they had a bunch of injuries. Jalen Rager got hurt. Sean Jackson got hurt. Alshan Jeffrey never even came back. I don't think. Did he play? I don't even know if he played at all this year. He didn't, but I actually was going to bring him up right now. So last night, we didn't mention him on our Monday show, but Alshon Jeffrey is expected to be a full participant in practice this week. And I'm curious, apparently he's projected to be the number three receiver behind Fulgum and Rieger. Are we sure Al Sean Jeffrey's a real person? Or is he just like an accounting loophole? Is he like that guy that, Andy made up in Shawshank? I don't think he's real. That's how my friend always thought that about Virgil Green. We always heard Virgil Green things.

Did he ever play? Did it ever happen? What happened to Virgil Green? That also reminds me about Folgum that the Packers got so much shit for not drafting a receiver and really they should be getting shit for cutting their second best receiver.

Right. I know. He's legitimately been really good too. I think a lot of people are just trying to decide, you know, especially in like the dynasty world, like is he the real deal? is he's someone that actually is going to have value multi-years or is it just going to be kind of a flash in the pan?

I don't know the answer to that, but he's been really impressive. He, since week four, when he merged, and, you know, he's been the wide receiver six. He's been like a really good fantasy option for people that have stuck with him. And, you know, to be honest, I picked him up in a couple of leagues,

and I've been too afraid to play him, which is stupid because he's just produced every single week. Well, he was like Richie James' week one, and you're like, all right, this isn't going to happen again, kept doing it and you think you're going to get burned the second you start. Yeah, it's like, exactly. Big Richie James vibes.

I don't know, man. Like, it's like, it's one of those guys that, like, rewarded the people that had the faith and or had no other option. Faith and or desperation, often interlinked. Okay. Craig, did you have an unexpected breakout?

Yeah, I wanted to throw out Chase Claypool's name and you could make the argument that he's an expected breakout because he's on the Steelers and they draft four receivers so well. But he was the 11th wide receiver taken in the NFL drafts. And you could argue, I don't know, maybe him, C.D. Lamb are one of the best two. His average draft position in fantasy leagues was 259, and he's the current wide receiver 19. But I kind of wanted to touch on a broader point that the rookie wide receivers in general are a massive, unexpected breakout. If you go back and look at the 2020 NFL draft for wide receivers,

literally the first 11 or 12 wide receivers all worked out. You have Judy, Lamb, Rager, Justin Jefferson, Brandon Ayuk, T. Higgins. Michael Pittman, you could argue, has been decent. Lavisciches-Chinnell. KJ. Hamler's fine. Chase Claypool's pretty good. Denzel Mim seems to be all right.

I guess you could say maybe Ruggs hasn't hit yet, but literally the first 13 receivers are all good. Yeah, the draft media intelligentsia complex that DK is so proudly a card-carrying member of kept telling us that this was the best receiver draft of all time. And immediate returns are, yeah. And if you go back to the year before, just so that people know that it's not

always the same. Last year it was Marquis Brown, yes, I suppose. Nikhil Harry, no. Debo, yes. A.J. Brown, yes. McCleardman, no. J.J. Whiteside, no. Paris Campbell, no. Andy Isabella, no. D.K. Metcalfe, yes. So, I mean, it's like a 50-50 hit rate normally. This year, it's been 100. I think the very fascinating and fun part about all this is historic. I was just saying this from Scott Barrett from Fantasy Points of Pointe's Point This Out. Typically, like, historically, rookie receivers get better in the second half of their rookie years. So there's a ramp up periodically.

And then a lot of times you see a big breakout in their second year. So like the idea that these guys are just scratching the surface of their potential is wild to me. So they're all like Tesla stock where you think it's high now. Right. Yeah. Just wait until Elon starts tweeting again.

The crazy thing to me has been the rookie running backs have sucked and the rookie receivers have been great and that's just not usually how that goes. But while we're on Claypool, though, I want to stick to Claypool. I have a very important award. This is the InSync Award. Because we all know that the Steelers receivers

are like really good. They're always coming bunches. There's always a bunch of them. You could say that like, they're like a boy band of sorts. And so if you drafted Juju this year, you obviously thought that Juju was like the Justin Timberlake of the Steelers receivers.

It turns out he's not Justin Timberlake. He's like Lance Bass. You know, he's like there's, he's famous, he's going to be famous, but there's not enough talent there to be the leading guy. Okay. Shockingly, though, Chase Claypool out of nowhere,

shoots up to be the Justin Timberlake of the Steelers. He is leading the team of receiving yards, leading the team in touchdowns. He's clearly the smart bet. He's the star. He's the star going forward, and he played at Notre Dame, got that gold dome in college,

just like Timberlake had the gold top when he was within sick. Deonté Johnson, obviously, J.C. Shazez? Obviously. Obviously that's him because he can like handle lead vocals, but like not really like the consistency, not there. Eric Ebron is Joey Fetone. I don't think I have to explain that one.

That's obvious. We can move on. Very clear. Honestly, the same thing with James Washington, who's clearly Chris Kirkpatrick of this group. Funny. Did you guys know, I don't know if D.K., you might be a little old for this, but Hyvitz, did you watch the fairly odd parents? Yes. Oh, yeah.

Chip Skylark, the guy who sings my shiny teeth and me, that is Chris Kirkpatrick. Chip. What? Chip Skylark is Chris Kirkpatrick That makes so much DK has never been more lost You guys are talking about During the show for three years

And DK is just gone Just way over my head So there you go The other thing occurred to me I was doing this exercise Was that that means Kevin Calvert The guy who always pulls receivers

Out of nowhere is the Lou Perlman of this exercise But we don't have to go into that Let's not go there We need to go back That was really good job Danny, I think. Your millennial is showing, Danny. If you were a Gen Zer, you would have said

one direction, but... For K-pop, I'd be into. Oh, my God. Shout out, Kate Hallowell. By the way, this is really off topic, but have you guys ever seen this as the end? Oh, of course.

You know the ending with Backstreet Boys in heaven when they all do the dance? It's like the best ending to any movie of all time. I was going to say, Hyvitz, if you asked me to make this Boy Band Award, I would have picked the Backstreet Boys. I was a Backstreet Boys guy.

This is the end. makes the ending makes so much sense. The ending explains the ending to the 40-year-old virgin because the 40-year-old virgin is that weird music thing and it doesn't really work

and it took 15 years for them to perfect it and it was worth it because it's the best ending to any movie. I straight up I will never forget watching the end of that movie.

Of 40-year-old virgin or this is the end? I remember thinking that I was myself in heaven like it was a self perpetuating I oh my God speaking of people

we need to send to heaven wait wait wait wait wait wait we need to mention we skipped over one guy for the most unexpected breakout, aka the Victor Cruz Award, aka the Alfred Morris Ward. We can't leave without talking about James Robinson, I have to say.

James Robinson. This is your guy, Hyfitz, come on. I thought we mentioned. James Robinson, I just briefly, but no, I do want to shout out James Robinson for, I mean, this dude was literally fifth on the Jaguar's depth chart. It was Fournette, Raquel, Armstrongstead, Chris Thompson,

it was Zigbo, and then James Robinson, and then this cavalcade of uncertainty happens to them. And now, he went from fifth on the Jagger's step chart to top five in fantasy football in running back. That's crazy. And he's the first undrafted rookie to like start week one. So just good for James Robinson.

Shout out. Yeah. Although I respected Craig's amazing segue there from. Oh my God. Now that now I'm seeing what Craig, I ruined your segue. I'm sorry, Craig. This is good.

Just say it again. It'll still. There's also a segue in that this is the end scene when like Seth Rogen's like, I can have whatever I want. They're like, yeah. And he's like, oh, a segue. That's me and head.

I just want segue. So I'll do it again. Speaking of people we need to send to heaven. I totally ruined that. It's a little dark. How about speaking of fantasy players, we need to send to fantasy heaven? There we go.

They get to go freaking dance with Backstreet, boys. This is like a good thing. Well, first of all, we need to tell people this is the old yellow award. Take him back behind the old fantasy barn. I got Frank Gore, man. He's 37. How long were you to keep doing this?

Sneakly, though, I will say that. Isn't his kid like playing? playing college football? I think so. Oh my God. If, oh, dad and his son

are in the NFL at the same time playing running back? We're all looking forward to like LeBron doing this with Brani and like that will be very cool and one of the coolest things ever

and cement LeBron is better than Jordan because he'll win a chip with his son but Frank Gore playing as the third string like third downback his son starting would actually be way more impressive.

That would be unbelievable. Do we know, D.K., have you done a scouting report on him? I haven't scouted him yet. I haven't scouted him yet. He's, I believe he's a Southern Miss, it looks like here. He's a freshman.

Unbelievable. He's 37 years old. He's got to have to play another season after this if he's a freshman. She, well, Gores got too worried him. Yeah. Easy. My old yeller is Ty. Oh, that's sad.

I know. He had a great run, but, you know. Speaking about him in the past tense. He's coming back this week, by the way. Sure he is. Yeah. He had a great run. great run. I feel

bad about this category. Can we just move on? Yeah, this is just dark. It's just dark. Let's go to say a little better. The all sleepers, let's just go to the sleepers who actually hit. I don't know if the sleepers who woke up. I don't know if sleepers are supposed to stay asleep. I don't know what the negative connotation is. Keep sleeping

or waking up. I don't know. But the ones who worked, I just want to shout at James Robinson. And then also Antonio Gibson, who, again, I was very against, and D.K. was very far. And I was extremely wrong. And I just want to shout out and Antonio Gibson has like almost three times as many carries in the NFL than he did

in his entire time of Memphis, which is nuts, but that worked out. And also, D.K. was right about Justin Jefferson, who was the fifth most receiving yards ever for a rookie in their first eight games. So good job, DK. Anyone else? Jefferson's good, man.

Shout out. A couple guys that I had on a list that I, an article I did before the season as post-hyped sleepers, Curtis Samuel and Eric Ebron. We already talked about Ebron. You know, he's not like super exciting, but in the tight end,

realm or whatever, the landscape of the tight ends right now, he's serviceable, right? He's the, if you go back to just from week two on, he's the tight end 12 and half BBR, so, you know, he's not like going to win you any leagues, but he's also not going to lose you any leagues, probably. And then the other guy, Curtis Samuel, who, you know, can we talk about him. Yeah. Ebron is the Joey Fatone of the backstree boy, or in sync. Curtis Samuel for the Panthers has emerged, I think, as a really good player. Like Craig said on the last episode,

I'm still a little bit worried that he's just kind of like the bottom's going to fall out again. But he's the guy that we talked about all last season as, you know, his air yards are really strong, like underlying stats are really strong. The production is just not there. And he's starting to finally hit in, you know, the production that you want.

So those are two, I think, post-type sleeper type guys that ended up being pretty serviceable in the fantasy world. So they're not like super deep sleepers or anything like that. But we also, we can't talk about Curtis Samuel without shouting out robbing you. who's fourth in receiving yards, which is pretty amazing, third in catches.

He only has one touchdown, which, again, like only a couple more touchdowns would really vault him way up the rankings, but fourth in receiving yards. Craig, sleepers that worked. Noah Fant has been pretty impressive.

He's this tied in seven in points per game, which, you know, it's pretty solid. And he was like a top three guy before his ankle injury, and I think that he'd be higher than seventh in points per game

if he had a healthy ankle. And he's a part of like a burgeoning Denver offense. that over the next few years, like I think it's probably just going to get better and better and Fant, I think is probably going to be like, I don't know,

the fifth or six tight end drafted next year? Yeah. And he was not a top 12 guy going in. I'm worried about the injuries, but there's no doubt that he's really good. Yeah. All right, let's go to the ghost award, Sleepers who didn't work.

I think of this more as the airing of grievances. Sleepers who didn't wake up, maybe. Speaking of Seinfeld, this is the airing of grievances. Like, this is festus. This is just, I mean, I'm just going to start with, I mean, Marquis Brown, who we've, who won the poll, by the way? Bakersfield Brown. Okay, good.

Bakersfield Brown. Run away. Run away. He's on my list. Like, he was like way, like no one else got even close. I was really hoping for Stockton. Thank you to everyone who voted. It was a very important election.

Bakersfield Brown. You can still vote. You know, the poll's still up. Go back and vote. We're only counting the legal votes. That's true. I got a few write-in requests on my Twitter account that I want to like just throw out there. Burbank Brown

What do you think? The B, the illiteration is nice. Yeah, Commerce Brown. Commerce? Is there a city of commerce in L.A.? There's a chamber of commerce? I don't know where that's a city. And then also, someone got mad at Kevin

for not naming the correct South Florida city. It should have been Highalia. I will not let anyone dispute Kevin Clark's knowledge of random Florida cities. He's literally been preparing for that his entire life. And then said,

Kevin, we need a random Florida city, and he hit us with like nine. I really regret that we were not recording for that conversation because Kevin listing Florida, we were in tears at the random cities, Kevin was shout out Olds Mar. Okay, other sleepers that failed you, the guys though. Craig, sleepers who failed

you? Let's just, I'll blast through mine. Chris Herndon. Fucking yikes. Yeah. You guys more fumbles than games over 25 yards? He does? Yeah. Wow. What happened there? Who knows, man?

See, the thing is, we'll never know if it's just because he's trapped in Adam Gase's web. But he just straight up did not work out. Preston Williams, I was so in on. I still think it's there. I'm not leaving the hill whatsoever, not selling a single share. He's had a weird year. The quarterback change. He just got hurt.

He's had flashes. He does look good in certain cases. And then I like James Washington as kind of like a sleeper, stealer guy. And he's been all right. I mean, he's got some spike weeks. Chip Skylark. It's kind of like the David Moore on the... Yeah, that's a good...

That's a good comp there. I like that. So I went back and looked at our preseason show that we did on some of our favorite sleepers coming into the air. And Craig, you named a few of those. I want to talk about a few of the other ones that we were hit and miss on. Stephen Sims for Washington, that's a big nope. But also, he got hurt, but also when he's been in, nope. Jay Sternberger, the Packers, my God.

He got taken over by Robert Tuning. Cunning, who's clearly kind of like one of Aaron Rogers' favorites. I still have hope for Sternberg long term, but this year it's not happening. Gerald Everett for the Rams. I think that one was like a little hit and miss. I mean, he's not been completely irrelevant, clearly,

but he's not also, he hasn't been like a league winner by any means. Threat Cohen got hurt. Naim Hines. That one looked really good in week one. And then it looked really bad, basically, every other game except for, I think, like, two weeks ago. Golden Tate,

speaking of the old Yeller Award. Oh! He has not been good and now he's like in the doghouse because he's been complaining and stuff

about how many targets he's getting and all that. He actually, I think got left behind in the last game. Hyfitz, you're the giant thing. Yeah, he said,

he looked at the camera, said, give me the ball. You can Google, like, Golden Tate wife Instagram story for like some funny things

of just what she was post. I mean, she's not wrong. Like, she was like Daniel Jones, thrown up my freaking open husband. Like she was right.

But Golden shouting the camera, give you the ball, I think didn't play well with Mr. Joe Judge. So he issued a verdict. But the other sleep person wanted to mention is Damien Harris, who I was huge on in the offseason. I think he's, I mean, he got that hand injury in the beginning of the season that kept him on IR. I think he's definitely been their best running back, but I think he's in that group of

running back casualties of with the running quarterback, right? Like, I didn't think Cam Newton was going to be as physical of a runner at this stage of his career, which clearly I was wrong about that. But I think Damien Harris is in that category of guys where, You don't expect him to get vultured. It's bad enough to have Rex Burkhead and James White and all those guys in the vulture category. Adding Camp Newton has been tough because I think Harris could be pretty solid if not for that. And then also Jordan Howard, who we talked about earlier, but again, got $5 million and he's been a healthy scratch for most of October.

So, I'm believing to live in a dream. Okay. Yeah. I want to give the drunken Amazon order award to Kenyon Drake. Explain. You ever order something drunk on Amazon? And then it shows up and you're like, why did I buy? buy this.

Because Kenyon Drake is something that we all, like, we talked ourselves into. And then, like, you have a month in and you're like, why did I draft Kenyon Drake in the second round ahead of, like, Aaron Jones? What was going through my head where that seemed like a good decision? Like, why did I buy a 24 pack of slim gyms

two in the morning? What am I doing? I want to, like, retroactively award this to other players. Like, I remember when Rashard Mendenhall was, like, the eighth pick in fantasy drafts. And, like, week four, you're, like, what the fuck was I doing on draft day? What was I smoking?

Yeah, no. Stephen Ridley was a top 12 pick? Stephen Ridley. Yeah. You do better. Chris Herndy is a lot of these. Okay. Bad beats. Are we good?

Any awards? Anyone else you guys want to shout out? Should we just, I mean, should we give some real awards to like good players? Well, we did at the top. Yeah, okay, fine. All right, bad beats. Yeah.

All right. I want to shout out one person to email this name Ben, who won. because the Jets defense got negative four points which allowed him to win a quarter of a point. I thought that was hilarious. But I want to read an email.

This is from Spencer. Spencer. Hi, Spencer. My bad beat of the week. Well, actually, it was last week, but I couldn't find you guys email on the internet no matter how hard I looked. I guess we should like make that more accessible,

shouldn't we? Yeah. All right. You can tell people right now what it is if you want. The ringer fantasy. Sorry, fantasy. Oh my God. Maybe that's why I can't find it.

Ring your fantasy football. At gmail.com. I'll start putting it in the show description. Yeah, let's write that in text. Email ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Fun facts, bad beats. Questions. We'll try to get back to you.

All right. So Spencer, I got drunk on Halloween with my roommate and was raving about DJ Dallas and how he would be a great pickup because he had Chris Carson, who was out for the week. We proceeded to have a fun night,

and then when I wake up the next morning, I forgot who my matchup was against for the week. My roommate. He put DJ in his running back one slot just to spite me. And the running back he would have played scored six points. And DJ Dallas scored 24 or whatever. I proceeded to lose by 15 points. Wow.

Congratulations. Savvy roommate moved by that other guy. Is it savvy or it's just the other Spencer was kind of dumb? Like he was like, hey, person I'm playing, you should pick up this dude. Just being earnest and nice is what that's called. He's just drunk. I'm surprised you go on Amazon and order a bunch of slim jims. Oh, that's sad.

Sorry. This is funny. Sorry, Spencer. No, I'm not sorry. Spencer. Learn from your mistake. Talk about your all-time backfires. Yeah, that's tough.

Okay. All right, let's get out of here. Do you guys want any awards? Do we have any awards for each other? Yeah, what, let's do that. No, all of the ones I just thought of are hurtful. Let's just get out of here. Thank you, Craig.

Thank you, D.K. Thank you, everyone for listening. Thank you, everyone for emailing us. Ringer Fantasy Football at Gmail. dot com. Spencer, that sucks, man. Geez. We'll see you guys on Friday.