The Ringer NFL Show - The Russell Wilson Problem and Championship Waiver Wire Must Adds

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

We lead the show with the disastrous win by the Jets and the long term ramifications if may have on the franchise. Then we dive into our winners and losers from Week 15, including Tony Pollard’s week winning performance, as well as Russell Wilson’s continued spiral. Then we send several players to The Ringer Fantasy Burn Book and recommend our top waiver wire adds as we head into championship week. Headlines: The Jets (1:00) Winners: Tight Ends (10:45) Jalen Hurts, Eagles (13:27) Tony Pollard, Cowboys (17:46) David Montgomery, Bears (20:32) Losers: Keenan Allen, Chargers (24:15) Top Tier WRs (26:27) Russell Wilson, Seahawks (27:38) Fantasy Burn Book (27:38) Waiver adds: QBs (36:50) RBs (44:08) WRs (56:40) TEs (60:44) D/ST (63:31) Email us for our Wednesday at [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 give you all the winners and losers of the fantasy football playoffs for week 15, and we hit all the waiver-wire players you need to win your fantasy football championship. Also, D-K gives his breakdown on Trevor Lawrence and how the Jets screwed up. Stick around. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Heifitz, and I am here with Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck. And we talk fantasy football.

Before we talk fantasy, we have to talk real life. The Jets screwed up the first pick. This is unbelievable. I don't mean to laugh. Sorry, Sean Fennessey. Don't apologize just because he's in charge of you. No, I apologize because it's just a human thing to feel bad because the Jets have just been this long-suffering franchise.

Nothing works right. The only good that was coming out of this slog that we've had of a potentially winless season is that there's light at the end of the tunnel. And no. Now they're giving up a chance to lose. to get Lawrence and it's bleak again. In the words of Darren Ravell, I feel bad for Jets fans, but this is tremendous content.

That's very true. You were right, Hyphitz, though. I was wrong. Teams are not tanking. They should be tanking, but they're not tanking. They should tank. How did the Rams lose this game? The Rams are supposed to be a good team.

The Rams got up so easy because everyone was like, La, la, la, la, jets. Meanwhile, no one was like, wow, the Rams freaking blew this. So they were trying. Aaron Donald, you know, like, the Hall of Fame, you can't enter the Hall of Fame for five years. I think Aaron Donald should have a five-year ban on defensive player of the year awards. Wow.

Because of the Jets game? Yes. It's not his fault. He's really the rules. DK, you're the draft expert. You spent so much of your life doing this. How big of the deal is? First of all, let's not make sure we jump the gun here.

The Jaguars can still totally screw this up and win a game themselves. And the Jets can still get the first pick. There's two games left. The Jags, I feel like they're good at. team to squeak one out. I feel like the Jets are way worse of a team and they won. So, you know, it's not over for sure. But it looks like now it's going to be Jacksonville with Lawrence. And I think, you know, I think Lawrence, it's early. Again, it's early. There's still a lot of this draft process to go. And, you know, I've just started doing all my study for the draft guide and all

that stuff. All those caveats apply. But Lawrence, to me, is just far and away the best quarterback in this class. I think Justin Fields is very good, too, and is going to be a good pro. And Zach Wilson is getting a lot of hype too. But to me, this is a massive, massive blow to the Jets franchise. It's a huge boost for the Jaguars. It makes me super excited for the Jaguars skill players next year. If he does end up going to Jacksonville, like DJ Chark, to me, that's a big bump up. We saw what happened with T. Higgins this year with Joey Covers, Burrow.

I mean, he didn't make that offense awesome right away necessarily, clearly. But he did kind of... He made it competent. And he made some of the guys on the team fantasy relevant, which is obviously what we're talking about. So I'm super excited about the future for that. I was less excited about the Jets. I think the Jets situation was going to take a while for things to,

for even a guy like Lawrence to kind of turn around. Do you guys think that the conversation in the Jets front office after this win is like, is everybody pretending to be happy because they're like supposed to be? Yes, I think that's exactly what it is. It's somber and yet no one can talk about, like you can't bring it up. And there's Zoom calls or whatever. I don't even know if they're in the facility. but you like no one's like openly like shit but also everyone has to have this fake tone of happiness

yeah i imagine that's what it was like at the end of like the soviet russia age i don't even know like it's just absolutely bizarre office setting soviet russia what yeah i don't know i guess i'm just projecting that was an interesting parallel but dk you have been shouting out bands at the end of these episodes and if you haven't been listening to deca shut at the bands then shame on you but What is it, how would you compare Trevor Lawrence to these other quarterbacks? What band is like getting tickets to have like Trevor Lawrence? And then you're like, you thought you were going to X, but now you're going to Y. Like you thought you were going to see like, I don't even know, the Rolling Stones and now it's like the chain smokers.

Yeah, I don't, I'm not, that is a tough one for me because I'm like not a good music thrower. Like I'm just not very knowledgeable about music. My first thought was it's like going to see, say the Rolling Stones, the real Rolling Stones. and then it's also, and then like alternatively, it's going to like the casino and seeing some cover band play on a Tuesday night. That's clearly not like the same thing. I mean, it's, it's not like he's a sure thing. But to me, he's like far and above the other guys. What are we doing here?

Don't we have amnesia every single year? It's almost like how I, every time I go to the beach, I'm convinced I won't get sunburned and then I get sunburned. But then the next time I go to the beach, I forget about that time. It sounds like a personal problem. It happens all the time. But it's like the same thing about how every year I'm going to convince myself not to draft Travis Kelsey. Everybody was like Joe Burrow, best quarterback in forever, said all these records, da-da-da-da. Honestly, Justin Herbert's probably better than Joe Burrow.

And like, yet we forgot all that. We forgot all of the negative notes and stuff we had about Herbert and how he's not a leader and he's inaccurate and whatever it was. And now we're doing the same thing again. We're like, Trevor Lawrence. You know, oh, my God, this is such a blow. All the other quarterbacks are such a massive difference. Is this that big of a deal? Do we know?

No, we don't know. We surely don't know. Isn't Justin Fields a better prospect than Justin Herbert was? He had a better first half of 2019. Yeah, he is, I think. He's probably, you know, in terms of the pre-draft feel and the pre-draft reputation and all that, a better prospect than Herbert. Lawrence or Fields is the better prospect? Fields is a better pre-draft prospect based on reputation, based on hype, all that, than Herbert was last year.

Yeah, people did not like Herbert. Herbert, okay, okay. People were pretty lukewarm on Herbert. 100%. I was lukewarm on Herbert. No, but to Craig's point, I think you're right. If there's no sports media, this wouldn't be that big of a deal of the Jets one. No, but I think you're right in Twitter, too, but there's something to be said about this week.

Marcus Mariotto comes off for the Raiders. That's the number two pick in the 2015 draft. James Winston, the number one pick in that draft, or sorry, 2015, is also riding the bench. And then you've got Carson Wentz just got bench for Jalen Hertz, who's the second rounder, who's way better than him. And then you got Jared Goff, who just blew it to the Jets. and quite honestly kind of sucks. I think Jared Gaff is in many ways the definition. He's the new Andy Dalton to me.

He just has more fun pieces around him. He's in a bigger city. But Jared Gough is Andy Dalton. And so that's the top two picks in 2015 and 2016 have been benched or probably should. Are we like, I know none of those guys were prospects at the caliber of Trevor Lawrence, but what are the odds we're just wrong? Like we are just predicting the future here at a certain point. I mean, there's, it's a possibility.

That's fine. And he, you know, Trevor Lawrence hasn't been like this perfect quarterback in his college career. But everything that he's, done, like over the course of his career, plus his skill set, he is, I would say, easily the most anticipated quarterback prospects since Andrew Luck. And you could even say maybe since way before that. I think that he, but how many guys have won a freaking national title as a true freshman and posted the numbers that he did? Craig probably pretends he did in his head. Craig probably thinks he could have. Yeah, maybe. No, but I think to D.K.'s point, I think part of the reason

that this is so funny is because it's, there's an emotional aspect to this. Jets fans are, I mean, This is the worst jet season. It is easy to gloss over that. This is the worst Jets team there has been. And there have been some bad Jets teams. And when you are watching this team and you're devoting four hours of your Sunday every week to this team,

an untold emotional labor, you have to believe there's a reason. You have to have hope. And Trevor Lawrence becomes more than a quarterback. He's an idea. He is an idea that I'm not wasting my life on this team. And then when 13 weeks into this, when you're windless, Trevor Lawrence has ripped from you.

It's not about the logic of, well, maybe Justin Fields will be better. It reminds me of when the Knicks had Zion Williamson in their sights and then you end up with R.J. Barrett and you're like, well, what the fuck was that for? It's not just like the future look. It's what have I been doing with my life for the last year thinking about this kid? It's the vaccine. It's April. And they're like, hey, man, we're going to get the vaccine in a year, all right? Just hunker down. And you're like, all right, this is going to suck. This is going to be an 0-16-2020, but hopefully we get the vaccine.

maybe we should store Trevor Lawrence Can that be Trevor Lawrence Nicknamed Trevor the Vaccine? The vaccine? I was thinking Sunshine because he's just a dead ringer for Sunshine from Remember the Titans but I kind of like the vaccine better

Trevor Lawrence The vaccine. Really bake him into the year 2020. All right. Well, the vaccine's probably going to be the big winner of 2021 but like let's just get into the big winners of this week.

Top scores Jalen Hertz Unbelievable. Jailen Hertz is the QB1. Yeah. Ryan Tannahill was the key. QB2. Shout out Tanny. Shouts to Tannahill. We talked about him all week, so that was pretty fun.

Yeah, great time. Thank you, Ryan. Did us a solid. QB3 is Cother Murray. RB1 is David Montgomery. DK's just crushing this. RB2 is Tony Pollard. RB3 is kind of tied behind Dalvin Cook and Derek Henry. Wide receiver one is Calvin Ridley, followed by DeAndre Hopkins and Zach Paskill.

First time those three have ever been in the same sentence. Tighten one is Darren, then Travis Kelsey and Logan Thomas. and then the defenses was Dallas was number one, which is funny, and then Arizona, Indianapolis, and Baltimore basically tied for number two. This is a big week of scoring. Felt like a lot of high scores.

Huge. Huge. Huge. Wild. Receivers, huge numbers. I saw some massive, massive numbers in my leagues. And I play in a couple tight-end premium leagues, and those numbers were insane.

Like, Logan Thomas had 29 points in a tight-end premium league. So it's like, you know, we had such a big week from these tight ends. It was really affecting a lot of these semi-final matchups. and I saw, I think I said, J.G. Zacharison was tweeting about this,

and I think it's true, like a lot of people who were really favored to win in the semis, like players that came off of buys, lost in week, in week 15. Yes, I think that that's true. I think that's funny. A lot of my leagues anecdotally, that was the case. Weird week, fun week, and yeah, like really, really high scoring.

I'm going to cut the line. I'm going to go first because what you're talking about, Logan Thomas. My one of the week is tight ends. Because you mentioned that. I think part of the reason there was so much weirdness with this week

was after the whole season where we were like tight ends suck they're never they're the worst tight end is the position of fantasy entropy the random guy's score

it's never read this week was like all the tight ends were good Darren Waller had 30 points two of his best career the two best fantasy games of his career

were two of the last three weeks for Darren Logan Thomas had the best game of his career by receiving yards Travis Kelsey had 20 plus points which you know for him is whatever but still all faithful

Noah fan had the best game of his season. He had more than 20 points. Mark Andrews had 17. Hunter Henry had the best game of his season. Tyler Higby had the best game of his season. Tyler Austin Hooper had the best game of a season. Hayden Hurst had his best game of this half of the season.

The only tight end that you started that probably was like really disappointing was T.J. Hawkinson. Yep. Even Evan Engram was kind of solid. The most consistent guy like outside of Kelsey this whole year sucked. Yeah. So I think that probably contributed it because teams that had been getting just jacked shit from all their tight end position for months just actually got contributions, which I thought was pretty

landed and shout out Logan Thomas here. Logan Thomas is like quietly doing some crazy things. Since week 10, he's the tight end three. And on the season, he's the tight end six. And like, we really have not said his name more than twice all season. We haven't said his name since early, early on in the season, we were talking about him because he had insane target rates. And he was racking up a ton of air yards, but his production was just terrible. Like they couldn't, he couldn't link up with his quarterback. I think it was, um, I can't even. to remember who there started at the beginning of the year, Allen. It was Haskins, right?

Yeah, they cycled through many people. Because it started with Haskins. At one point, yeah, Kyle Allen. Anyway, regardless, Logan Thomas was getting all these crazy numbers. We talked about it, but he just kept having duds, and I believe then we just decided to forget about him because he kept just having, like, tons of targets, but no yards. Now, it's kind of working out for him.

Is he the best QB-turned tight end ever? Oh, I don't know. No, Travis Kelsey. Hello? was he was a quarterback in college? I don't know, he was definitely a quarterback in high school. They talk about every Sunday, that football. That doesn't call like, Travis Kelsey understands the routes and where to sit in the zones because, you know, he was a quarterback too.

Him and Mahomes have that quarterback connection now. So, they all play everything in high school. I don't count high school. Do you think this week of tight ends just going off is going to make everybody believe again next year that tight ends are going to be like this big deal and we're all going to buy in on the tight end thing? And then like three are going to be fantasy relevant? probably. Yeah, of course. That's what happens every year.

Time is a flat circle. Yeah. Yeah, what are we going to do? Change our minds based on evidence? It's ridiculous. Speaking, which, winner of the week? Dika, who's your winner of the week? Okay, so I got two winners of the week because I like to cheat in this one. Participation trophy much? Yeah, Jalen Hertz was another winner.

I mean, putting together back-to-back really strong outings and building his resume to, I guess, be the long-term starter for this team. You know, he's still not perfect and he's still throwing, you know, a few bad passes here or there. They're definitely scheming up his passes. It's not like throwing to the middle of field at all.

But I will say, 338 yards, three touchdowns through the air. That's hard to argue against those numbers. He should have had a fourth. He threw the game-winning touchdown, or game-tying touchdown, and Goddard dropped it. And then Goddard actually got his hands on the... What's that? Oh, it was good defense.

I shouldn't say drop. But it hit his hands in the end zone. It was a good pass. and you know so it would have been a bigger even bigger day for hurts if goddard had caught that pass and that game might have went to like freaking overtime and then who knows what would happen but um yeah so anyways hurts very strong second game he also added 63 yards and a score on the ground was the qb one and i think he's he's far far and away out like exceeded even what we who were hyped up about him thought would happen like we were like oh he could be a top 12 guy

down the stretch, go pick him up. He is the QB1 in the semifinals of the playoffs. Like that is a massive swing for, you know, everyone who got the balls to play him this week. So he was my winner and they get Dallas next week. So it seems like, you know, this gravy train isn't ending anytime soon. Yeah, when it's all said and done this season,

I think Jalen hurts, like if there's like a playoff award for like the biggest winner of the fantasy playoffs. I remember it was like Todd Gurley that one year when he went crazy. I think he averaged like 30 points a game in the fantasy class. Hertz might end up taking the trophy home this year. Yeah.

And so I was going to say, you know, we'll get to the QB streamers and all that stuff a little bit later in this episode. But even if you have a guy that you're not going to bench, like Kyler, Tanna Hill, Rogers, you know, I don't know if there's anyone else that I would play over. Mahomes, yeah.

He's pretty good. Maybe Lamar, yeah. So there's like five or six guys. But I would say pick him up regardless if you can, if he's still out there. Because I think he's still out on a lot of waiver wires even now. just so you're yeah Josh Allen's another good one but I mean go pick them up so your opponent can't play them

yeah I agree cock block him Jalen Hertz is the first player in NFL history with 500 passing yards and 150 rushing yards in his first two games first player in NFL history history 500 passing yards 150 rushing yards first two games that is astounding it's extremely relevant to what we do and but even forgetting the fantasy stuff for a second he's been one of the most impressive quarterbacks they've ever seen immediately from a demeanor perspective.

I don't even want to pretend to think Mahom, and I don't mean, he's not like the most talented, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Like, obviously I'm not comparing him to like Mahomes from 2018 or whatever. Sure. But the way he commands the offense, like the confidence he has on the field,

I've never seen from a rookie. It's just ice cold. He's ice cold. The demeanor he had at Alabama, I mean, his first true freshman to start ever under Nick Saban, which should speak everything. The demeanor he's had,

the reputation, I've never seen a reputation translate into reality as thoroughly as Jalen Hertz, just completely in command. And I remember feeling that way at the end of the Cardinals game, they lost, but I thought they were going to win. I was pretty confident. And he got the ball again with less than a minute and left.

I thought they were going to do this. And I just can't believe how in two games we went from, you know, Carson once has some issues going on. And then back in my mind, I'm like, well, maybe we're being harsh here. The offensive line's bad. There's Jaylon Hertz steps in. And the Eagles playing like this, the Eagles would be a dark horse Super Bowl contender

if it had been like this the whole year. He's unbelievable. Yeah. I'm very excited about what he can do. I don't want to overhype it too much because I still think, you know, obviously he's got to learn. If you look at his passing chart,

it's like all stuff down the sideline in short. There's nothing in the middle of the field. So they got to figure that out. They got to unlock that part of their offense because you can't do that long term. I mean, he's not working with a ton of talent, though, and he's not like I had a ton of practice time. I'm pretty optimistic.

I'm very optimistic. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying, like, let's not crown him the next. This is definitely going to be the biggest story of the off season, though, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's insane. Absolutely.

And where Donald goes, but that's neither here nor there. All right, Craig, who's your winner of the week? Mine is Tony Pollard, man, and the handcuff principle. It paid off for people who have been holding on to their handcuff all year. We've kind of been mentioning this for a long time. Now, even at the start of the season, we talked about, like, the best handcuffs to have in how it's kind of a strategy just to hold onto them the entire year. I had a friend who had Tony Pollard on his team for the entire season and won in the

playoffs this week because it paid off, and he played a guy who had Zee. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, I stashed him a couple of weeks ago. and one leg that I'm in, and he freaking propelled me to the finals in this. Yeah, I mean, it's some Warriors light years ahead shit where you're just, you just, you know

what, it's worth it to just waste a bent spot on a guy. And like, Pollard outscored Zieg in pretty much every category. He scored 28 points, which is more than Zeeks had all year. He had more yards than Zeeks had in a game all year. He had the longest run than Zieg's had all year. Pretty much every metric, Pollard is better than Zeeke, and Pollard's

even better than almost every running back. Somebody, one of you two added this stat that Ian Hart said that Tony Pollard is first and missed tackles per rush and yards after contact. I mean, the guy's fantastic. Dallas has got a massive problem on their hands. I don't know if this is going to become like a Nick Chubb-Kareem Hunt situation with the two of them. But unfortunately, Pollard might not be startable next week. I think Zeke was close to playing.

So like, it's going to stock. They're playing the Eagles. We thought he was going to play all week. There was indications that he was like, you know, slower, slower at practice than he was last week, all that. But then for him to be a scratch in the morning, I know I was talking to you guys like, who do I start right now? I was having discussions about some pretty, like, Kareem Hunt.

I sat Kareem Hunt, even though with Kareem Hunt had like 29 points in PPR last week. I sat Kreme Hunt for Pollard and it paid off huge. That was the kind of decision we were making. And I was talking to my buddy of mine and he was like, if you had Zique, would you start Zique? Yes. If you had,

do you think Pollard is potentially better than Zique? I was like in fantasy, yeah, I do. And so I was like, okay, I'm doing it. And I went for it. And for people that did that, went through that process and started him, like, congrats because, you know, he was one of the top running backs this week. So that was awesome. Listen, these guys, these running backs are absolute physical specimens. But, like, it's not that hard to pull a hammy.

Like, and it makes a huge difference. Like, the Alexander Madison is so valuable. And it looks like no huge running backs got hurt going into Week 16. So it paid off for everybody who, like, didn't get handcuffs and had an extra bent spot or whatever because it looks like Henry and Cook and all these guys are still healthy. But I think it's still worth it. And it's a huge part of fantasy. Yeah, it's like shorting your opponent.

It's kind of fun. Yeah. All right. Well, not everything's fun, though. Let's get out who lost the week. Hold on. Real quick. Do you want to do my other winner?

Oh, right. You have your second winner. You cheated. Who's your participation? Millennial. The only reason I want to bring him up is... DK talked about this guy every episode. To do like a little...

I was right about David Montgomery. Can we just rename the second? D.K. was right. Hey, everybody at home, Dave Montgomery was good again. All right. D.K.

Gronk spikes the football about his David Montgomery takes. Continue. Sorry, we cut you off. I don't know if you remember going back to, I don't think it was mid-season.

I can't remember exactly when it was. It was about a month and a half ago, maybe a month ago. I had one of my bold second half takes was David Montgomery R.B.1. I remember in the discussion we were talking about this, Craig and I were like, have been David Montgomery

Montgomery is actually good, truthers this whole. whole season. And earlier on in the season, this was a very tough take to, like, have because he looked terrible. He was getting all this volume. He wasn't doing jack's shit with it. And, but I made the bold prediction that he was going to be in an RB1 throughout the

rest of the season. And largely it was based on their schedule. And that has absolutely panned out. Over the last four weeks, he has had his four highest scoring games of his career. I kind of think it's, like, just the schedule. You know what I mean? I feel like every bear's player's been good. I think that's part of it.

I think it's definitely a variable, but I will say just watching him, watching the Bears' offense, the things that they've done, so Bill Laser took over as their offensive coordinator for Nagy, and they've done things that absolutely helped the run game. Number one, they went back to Trubisky,

who does, because he's an athletic guy who can move, gets outside the pocket, does all that stuff, he can help open up the run game a little bit not in the same way that Jalen Hertz does for the Eagles, but you know what I mean? It's just harder to guard, it's harder to defend a team

that has a mobile quarterback. Number two, they've been using a lot of motion and things like that, which help open up run lanes. There's schematic variables that go into this. And I also just think if you're watching him run, man, he just runs with more confidence, I think, than he had earlier in the season. We've been talking about this with Jonathan Taylor, how Jonathan Taylor looked kind of timid, dancing a little too much, wasn't really sure what he was seeing, things like that. I feel like David Montgomery has had kind of a similar, you know, terms. over the last four weeks in his decisiveness.

It almost feels like a light bulb was gone off for him a little bit. So anyways, I just think it's really cool that that's all kind of come to be. Because when I said that take, I was like, this sounds stupid. This is going to be like a huge, I'm going to have my foot in my mouth on this one. But Montgomery has been a league winner for a lot of people potentially. And, you know, going up against an easy schedule has obviously been a big part of it. But I think just the overall, the offense has been way better than we thought it would be. he's been way better than we thought he'd be

and congratulations if you have him on your team because he's just been on an epic run like two overall RB1 weeks in the last four weeks yeah you're right maybe the playoff belt is him and hurts neck and neck okay so we won't crown Jalen Hertz but we will crown DK

is that what I should take away from that day yeah whatever it is DK wins well now we're going to do losers of the week and I'm going to make DK go first so that you can have some humility oh yeah so this this one was tough Keenan Allen that Thursday or what was it Thursday night game I can't even remember.

Was it Saturday night or Thursday? It feels like forever ago. Okay. Thursday night game. Keenan Allen, we were talking about this all day long. Do we start Keenan Allen? He was limited at practice all week. It sounded like the Chargers were not optimistic.

He was going to play. Then, like, with a few hours left in the game, it came out that he was going to be active. And then even then I was like, I don't know, this seems really sketchy. He's got this hammy. He's going to be on a pitch count. Oh, God.

That's the worst thing in the world. It's the worst fantasy decision. when your player's going to give it a go, and you're like, ugh. Oh, God. Have we put handstrings in the burn book? I'd love, I wish we could find the stat of, like, every time a player has been a game time decision because of, like, a muscle injury, how they play.

I'd love to know that. That would be good. That's the Vincent Jackson. Yeah. Anyhow, I was planning on starting Tyron Johnson until probably like 20 minutes before the game. And then Keenan Allen looks into the camera in warm-ups and says, don't sit me to the camera.

So I'm like, all right, fuck it. Wait, I missed that. Life is short. Kind of an unbelievable move by Keenan Allen. Wait, so this is the opposite to the Josh Jacobs thing. Where Josh Jacobs posted Instagram, hey, I'm not playing. Sorry, JK, I am playing. And then Keenan Allen is, 10 minutes before warmups telling the television audience,

play me in fantasy, and then has a terrible game. Meanwhile, he probably knows he's going to play like 20 snaps, and he's like, this will be funny. Well, he did play a lot of snaps, but he didn't do jack shit. He had one catch for 17 yards, 2.1 points. absolute nightmare scenario and you know what I mean like lost a lot of people

there's semifinals probably so a lot of people do you mean you he was not on one of my team in the semifinals but in one of my dynasty leagues we do this thing where we we get comp picks in the in the toilet pole so like the losers bracket gets a cop pick and I was really depending on him

because he's like the one good player on this dynasty team and I was like god damn it 2.1 points now I'm not getting that compick now my team is going to be just mired in mediocrity for years to come because of this game. So anyway, that sucks. So that was my loser of the week. Hyford, who's your loser? Well, my loser of the week is similar to that.

It's just receivers. This was a weird week for dancing with the receivers who brung you. Like, we talk about that so much. And it's not like you could have known to bench any of these guys. But it was like a real boom-buffed week. The guys who did well did really well. But otherwise, Devante Adams, who's the second best receiver in fantasy, he had his lowest game since week two.

And that was the week he got hurt. and then D.K. Metcalf is his third lowest game of the whole season. Keenan Allen had his worst game of the season. Adam Thielen had his fewest receiving yards all season. I mean, he kind of helped with the touchdown, but he had two catches for 11 yards. Mark Cooper had his worst game of the year. Robbie Anderson had his worst game of the year. And that doesn't make good, like, Julio missing the fantasy playoffs altogether.

So it's kind of the opposite of the tight ends. It's like if you had Calvin Ridley or DeAndre Hopkins or Tiger Kill, those guys did really well. But honestly, other than that, a lot of, there were like basically a third of the top 20 receivers this week. they didn't shit the bed, but they didn't really help you. This is why so many teams with by is probably lost last week. Yeah. Not to mention Lockett,

who we will, well, yeah, I was going to say, the other guy that probably helped a lot of teams coming off a buy lose was Russell Wilson, which is Craig. Sorry to ruin,

sorry to like steal your thunder here, but that's Craig's loser the week. Yeah, and I think we should just parlay that right into Burnbook because Russ, not only was he terrible, yesterday at 13 points.

He's been bad since like week 10. He's, since week 10 on, he's averaged 16 points a game. Just gloating about things we were right about. Remember when I asked if Russ was to sell high in week five or six? And you guys were like, no, idiot. And I was like, I don't know. Is this sustainable? And you guys yelled at me.

We're just going to gloat. I feel like I kind of won that one. I feel like this is revisionist history a little bit. You said Calvin really was a cell high too. I'll take one for two. Fine. It's also revisionist because we were like, I don't know, like it could fall apart.

Yeah, I'm going with Russell. It wasn't like calling you an idiot. It's not at all. It's unequivocal, but this is neither here nor there. No one cares about this. Craig, continue how the Russell Wilson sucks now. I think pretty much across the board, if the question is, should I sell high, the answer is yes. Yeah. Just like, if there's ever somebody who's playing well on your fantasy team, trade them away.

Because it's not going to continue. And get somebody who's not playing well. Maybe that should be the general. But, yes. Oh, my God. Russ has been bad, right? 16 points a game since week 10. He's been terrible.

The whole Seahawks offense was in disarray. the question is, one, do we put him in the burn book? He's been bad for six weeks, or five weeks or whatever. Do we pair him with Lockett in the Burnbook, who's been on burn notice for a while? He's in there. And we'll get to this in a little bit later. We don't do it now, but what do you do with Russ in Week 16? But anyway, so I just want to ask now, is Russ and Lockett in the Burn book? Well, they have the best connection in football. We've been talking about that all season. So they have to go in together. They have to go in together. They have to be connected. They have to enter together. The mind mel. The mind mel. The mind mel. The mind mel.

can burn. I think we put him in. Russ killed me. He killed a lot of people. I didn't even realize how bad it was until I looked at the rankings this morning. He was the he was the QB 27 in week 15. You want to name the quarterbacks who finished below him? Oh, it's almost, oh, I was going to say

who's ahead of him. I was like, all of them? It's almost the whole league. Literally here are the quarterbacks that finished with fewer points than Russell Wilson. Drew Locke before he got hurt. Cam Newton. Well, yeah, Derek Carr counts because he got hurt, but it's literally Cam Newton, Drew Locke, Colt McCoy.

Oh, boy. Oh, my God. And then a bunch of backups. So here's why he deserves to get burned. On Friday or Wednesday, I can't remember. Craig brought up this question from a reader of whether someone should start Trubisky or Russell Wilson. And I yelled at Craig to be like, why are we listening? Why are we reading this question on this podcast?

We're not entertaining the idea of benching Russell Wilson for Chubisky in the fantasy playoffs. And then Trubisky outscored Russell Wilson. Yeah. So you have to get burned. Oops. There's no. Whoops a daisy. I saw this.

stats from J.J. Zacharison on Twitter today. Wilson has one top 10 performance since week 8. He's averaging 203 passing yards in the last five games. And now he gets the Rams this week in championship weekend who have allowed

two top 18 performances all season long. They're the worst defense he could be facing other than maybe Washington. Obviously you're benching him. I think so. You cut Russell Wilson. Just cut him. You know what's interesting about cutting him? It's the last week. is you make somebody else go,

should I start Russell Wilson? Yeah. You make the guy in the championship. Bella Chekian right there. That's Belichickian. Here's the thing about Russ, though. This is why he should be in the burn book is I'm already prepared for him to go nuts against the Rams.

I mean, the Rams just lost to the jets. Let's be clear. It would be the greatest trick he ever pulled. It would be the funniest thing if he caught Russ, your opponent picks him up, and then Russell's like best game of the year, six touchdowns. Like, it would just be unbelievable.

Yeah. So we'll talk about that on our Wednesday show about, you know, whether you should start him or not, but we'll get into who you should definitely add in waivers to make the, you know, to just their house. If you're not going to start him, you can cut Russ. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Like, why not?

Like, if you're not going to play, like, it's, here's the thing. Could Russ have a great game and you feel really dumb? Yeah, sure. Sometimes the Jets beat the Rams. Sometimes the broken clock is right. But in reality, will you feel more dumb if he goes off on your bench? Or if you play him against the Rams and he gets. six points.

Yeah, I think the latter. Yeah, that would make you feel stupid. You're like, oh, right, as Craig said, they have allowed two top 18 performances, or D.K. said whoever. Yeah. That's crazy. The Rams are very good against the Seahawks,

generally speaking, over the lap. Always happened. The Rams always give the Seahawks tough time, it feels like. Also, Russ played the Rams in week 10. He had 11 points. There you go. There, yeah.

And also, they're playing worse than they were at that time, like significantly worse at basically every position. Here's the deal. The Seahawks went from being like this high-flying, high-octane chiefs offense, where they're passing on first and second down at a higher rate than anybody in the league, literally. And all of a sudden, Russell Wilson halfway through the year decides that he's just going to start turning the ball over like four times a game. And then Pete Carroll pulled the plug on it. He's like, yes, we're done with this.

We're going back to Carroll ball. We're running the ball, controlling the clock. We're not, most importantly, not turning the ball over. And that's why the big plays, the big time. touchdowns have completely evaporated from the Seahawks offense. I think that's a simplistic way of looking at it. No, it's not simplistic at all. It's 100% right. And it also coincided with the defense getting better, so he was more comfortable to make that decision.

Pete Carroll was. They had the choice to do this, yeah. I know, I'm very confident in that because Pete Carroll, I just heard this story today. Pete Carroll, when he walked in to the Seahawks, like the first day or whatever, he explained his values. And one of them was they were 53 and O at USC when they won the turnover battle. Yeah.

he's long talked about turnovers just being the biggest factor in so many games and I mean there's other things obviously that happened in games but those turnovers are backbreaking you know and so

I know I'm a Giants fan I root for Daniel Jones they can play yeah seriously that's why actually it's like James Winston or Daniel Jones I'm like I have very strong doubts either of these guys are going to be

long term starters unless they can figure out how to stop turning the damn ball over like starters at all even you know what I mean no it's not it's not I think. On that note, I think you can cut Russell Wilson this week. I don't think it's a smart person to, I don't think it's smart to play him. And then if you're not going to play him, it's the last week of the season, you might as well cut the guy and add someone else. So if you're cutting Russ before Week 16, he's certainly in the book. So Russ Lockett, you're in the book. We have a couple other nominees here that you guys have. Yeah. Well, I had Lockett. Hi, it's who'd you have? I'm also Bernie Jerry Judy. I'm just devastated Jerry Judy. He was my favorite receiver in this draft class. And it's insanely frustrating. I think this is karma because the last two or three years I've argued with D.K. About rookie receivers being effective as rookies or not.

And then now my favorite rookie receiver is the only one who's not been good this year. And this week was like the chef's kiss performance from him of just, he had like two or three points. I can't even remember. He had one like important third down going through his hands. And I wanted to be like, oh, well, he's 21, whatever. But Justin Jefferson's 21. I can't believe. Jerry Judy's done nothing.

It's just infuriating. Jerry Judy's in the book. It's tough. It's tough. I got one other nominee that I feel like somebody probably has emailed us and been like, why isn't this person in the burn book? And he totally should be. Todd Gurley might be atop the burn book.

Remember when he was a startable fantasy player? Yeah, dude. The first nine weeks of the season, I'm looking at his line out. He just got all these touchdowns. He just kept scoring. But it's not like his yardage was that bad. He was getting like 15 to 20 touches a game, putting up like 80 yards a game in a touchdown. He was going like 14, 18, 20, 21, 12, 10.

And literally since week 10, he's going. on 30242. He is just daggering you every single day. You cannot start him. He had one carry last week. Well, he simply had nine touchdowns in his first nine games.

And he said zero in his last four. Worst signing of the offseason by any team. Well, no, they only paid $5 million for him or whatever. I mean, it's girly, I don't want to be like it's sad because he got paid like $40 million. So that's not the word.

But he was really good. He had this knee injury. and he wasn't the same, and there were people just conflated it with him being bad because the Rams were so opaque about whether he was healthy or not. I kind of pretended he was healthy,

so people were like, does he suck? I was like, no, his knee just changed, and it's unfortunate, but he's not the same player right now. He was probably like top three picks. If we did preseason burn predictions,

I feel like Gurley was in every analyst. Gurley and Levyon were the two most obvious burn candidates, I can remember in some time. They will not make you happy. And I think it's the bigger surprise that girl even made it half a season of being pretty relevant.

Big week for the burn book. Big week for the burn book. Well, it's easy to burn guys with one week left. Guys just pissed us off week 15. All right, let's get to the waiver wire. I mean, this is what it's all about right here. You know, because you tell stories and tales

and legends of championship teams and you remember forever. And you remember the great players and your great picks. But the reality is championships are won by the random defense or tight end that you streamed in week 16 that got 11 points when you needed seven. That's how wins are won and lost.

So let's get into the waiver wire. Sure. You start out with injuries first, I guess. Clyde Edwards-Dlears suffered what looked like a really bad injury. Extremely painful. He basically was forced into the splits. It was not a good-looking injury. However, it sounds like the, I guess, imaging or x-rays or whatever was negative.

And he didn't break anything. or anything. Well, he's probably out for the rest of the regular season. He's, I think we can assume he's certainly out for week 16, which in all, you know, effect is the end of the season. So you're going to find a solution if you had Clyde Edwards Relair as you're, as like an RB2. James Robinson, another big injury that's kind of flying under the radar.

I haven't really heard much about it yet. This is Monday afternoon, so keep this situation in mind. But you probably want to have a backup plan for Robinson. He had an ankle injury. He did not come back into the game after he suffered that injury. Rahim Moster basically happened exactly as we predicted. He started the game, was kind of going strong, and then he dinged up his ankle and missed the rest of the game.

I mean, that was one of the most predictable things. I'm so pissed myself because I started him in one league, even though I said the exact thing that would happen. I ended up surviving despite that, but trying not to make that mistake again. Jalen Rager of the Eagles hurt his ankle, and Treykawin Smith of the Saints hurt his ankle, which the only reason I bring that up is because Michael

Thomas is also out. And so that could make, you know, maybe Jared Cook gets the boost there. I don't know what they're going to do in their passing game. Well, Emmanuel Sanders. Yeah, Emmanuel Sanders is probably the big winner in that. So, yeah, those are the main ones, I believe, unless I'm missing any. All right, so let's get into the Who Do You Play Over Rust Bowl here? Everybody.

So there's four, I think there's four main names. Jalen Hertz, he's playing Dallas. obvious. Marcus Mariotta is Derek Carr's pretty much out. So Marcus Marita is going to be playing dolphins. Mitchell Trubisky against Jacksonville and Baker and the Browns are going against the Jets.

What do you guys think? Obviously everyone in there, that group of Jalen Hertz, Marioita, Trubisky, and Baker. Everyone but Baker can run. But Baker probably is going against the worst defense. So who would you guys want first out of that group? Well, Hertz is a clear one.

If I'm going second, it's close between Mayfield and Trubisky. I would say Marioo would be like my last ditch one, because number one, he's going against a good defense, the dolphins. And number two, I just don't know if I'm ready to trust him in championship week, despite what he did. He looked awesome. You know, he came in, and I think he probably, honestly,

earned himself a chance to be a starter again in this league. He's only, like, 26 years old or 27. So, you know, I think that was kind of like the big storyline. He might be a starter down the line. But for this week, I'm probably not going to be trusting him, even though he has that rushing upside. Trubisky's been playing pretty well. They're going against the Jaguars,

which is a really good matchup for the quarterback. Mayfield going up against the Jets. I honestly think both of those are good options. Jalen Hurts's number one. Trubisky and Mayfield are in that next year for me. And then after that, you know, you could have a guy like Matt Ryan

who played really well despite not having Julio Jones, which I think that was maybe one of the biggest surprises of the week was how well Matt Ryan played missing Julio. I mean, the Falcons blowing the lead to the Tom Brady again. It was just... Classic. It was somehow so expected

it wasn't even resonant with me. It just kind of felt like nature's healing. Somebody tweeted, somebody tweeted at me literally, because I tweeted, what's your deal, Bucketeers in like the second quarter or something like that?

And someone tweeted at me, they got up just where they want them, and it was like 85% win probability at the time. And of course, just classic. The Falcon should be studied by science. Yeah.

Or honestly, statistics should be studied by science, because one of them is just off. Right. What about, there's a few other. So, like, what about Gardner Minchu going up against the Bears? Would you start him?

No, no. Did you hear those two words together in the same sentence? I mean, the Bears actually haven't really been that great. I think he's, he's on the list. He's on the list

of potential streamers. He had, I think he had like 20, he had like 20 points against the Ravens. He did, but like, I feel like, I mean, I'd rather have Marioota

than I would, Garder Mitcho. I would rather, I feel like Trubisky, Mariotta, Baker, these guys are out there. I don't think that this is, like,

these guys are available. Well, what about like Matt Stafford going up? Matt Stafford is only 50% rostered. Would you start Matt? I don't know about Matt, because he's, he's banged up.

I mean, he came out of that game pretty early in that Lions Titans game. And I'm not, I'm not thrilled with that situation. I'm pretty, like,

if he plays against the Buck, sure, but I, I'm not, like, I mean, again, he came out of the game against the Titans.

The Buck's defense a lot better than the Titans. It's not a good matchup. Are they? they just gave up a shitload of yards to Matt Ryan, who's just been an absolute corpse the last like three weeks. You're asking the Bucks defense is better than Tennessee's? No, I'm not saying, I'm not comparing them in anything,

but I'm just saying the Bucks defense isn't as scare me. I think statistically in like the bladder half of the season, I think the Bucks defense, past events, has been worse. Oh, forget statistics. The Bucks gave up 200 yards to Tyree kill in the first quarter. Like, sorry they played the Chiefs and the Titans didn't. Like the Bucks are just a better, every eight of the bucks,

11 defenders are better than the people on the Titans. No offense to the Titans. They've given up the second most points in the last five weeks, just saying. Well, that's because they played the... I don't want your freaking numbers here. My point is that, you know what statistic?

Matt Stafford came out of the game. I don't like Matt Stafford. Let's make some quick tiers. Also, he cost me a game, so I'm a little bit more. Jalen Hertz is in tier one, clear by himself. Go get him if he's still out there. He's a league winner.

In the next tier, I would put Trubisky in Mayfield. I agree. And then third year... Even if Matt Stafford's in this list? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Because of the matchups.

Although you make a good point with the second most points in the last whatever, five weeks. So maybe we put Stafford in that mix. And then from there I'd put Ryan and Breeze. I would not feel that great about starting either of those guys. Particularly if Julio's not playing for the Falcons. Yeah, Drew Breeze is 80% rostered. So, like, there's a good chance he's not anywhere. However, people, you know, may have dropped him when he was hurt.

they had a different option and now that option is better than they've dropped your breeze. I don't really know how to feel about Breeze. He kind of looks terrible and really skittish but had 20 fantasy points. I don't think he can play him because he's not even,

he's like the running back who gets all the carries between the 20s and then subs out in the Red Zone. I don't want a quarterback who's getting subbed out at the five yard line. Yeah. Like Tay's, you know,

it's kind of like having Camar of Latavius Murray was just taking all the goal line carries. I don't love Breeze. Let's get a running backs. I feel like this is the real meat here. There's a lot. there's a lot there's a lot in here because you know injuries and shuffles of the lineup and everything

there's also a lot of these guys are probably already on teams some of them are i think most of these most of these guys on this list are around 50 or less percent rostered so let's cycle through here we got tony pollard for the cowboys obviously you want him but the the problems we don't know zik's going to play so that's the obviously if zik is out tony paul is like number one but we don't even tony pollard but not have to be relevant next week solvin amette for the Dolphins, who was fantastic this week. But Miles Gaskins coming back from COVID list. Obviously, we don't know how I think Miles Gaskin is from COVID.

You know, Ahmed could lose a lot of those touches. He could stay the start. It's just a risky play. Yeah. Jeff Wilson, same deal with the Niners. If Rahim Mostert every time I get this wrong. You got it that time. Oh, okay, great.

Rahim Moster has an ankle injury. Again, if he doesn't play, Jeff Wilson could be a top 15 play. And if Moster does play, then we don't know. Jeff Wilson could just get 12 carries again. We don't know what he does with it. I doubt most of her plays, honestly, but we'll see. We'll see. So the point is monitor all these.

Tony Pollard is a monitor. Salvin Ahmed is a monitor. These are pickups, though, in the meantime, because you've got to do it early in the week. Exactly. The best one of the week, to me, is Levyon Bell, who is really out there in half of leagues. The difference with this is that it's not that, I mean,

he's the best running back. Clyde is out. I think you can cut Clyde. If you have Clyde, he's not coming back. And Rappapaport, Report, fan of them from that work. He's probably out the next two weeks. He's definitely out this week. I think you can cut the guy if you really want to hold on to something.

And Levy on Bell's the pickup, because he's going to play for the Chiefs, and the Chiefs are matchup proof. And even if you're in a deeper league, you can take a flyer in Derell Williams. I think you could, because you know, maybe you could do worse if you're in a 14 team league or something. Then there's Divino Zygbo for the Jaguars, who remember August when we didn't remember really, really know who James Robinson was. I barely remember August. Yeah, exactly. James Robinson is an ankle injury.

I don't love this one at all. I'm worried about this. Zigbo and Ogimboale. Yeah, Dari Ogumboale might be the actual start. We don't really know like the line of secession here. There's too many variables with the Jaguars. The team's bad. You're basically betting that the bears go so much up on them

that they do garbage dime points like the Ravens did, which I don't really want to bet on with the bears. They're not competent enough to blow someone out that well. But they're good enough to not let the offense get points the normal way. and then you don't even know it was going to play anyway I think the Jaguars is a stay away from me I think they're the last in this list

Ty Johnson and Frank Gore for the Jets Frank Gore is just part of the old guy brigade that was relevant this week Larry Fitz scored Des Bryant scored Frank Gore scored it was kind of unbelievable like a TBT oh I forgot Des Bryant scored that was fun yeah it was unbelievable just the old guy brigade

but Ty Johnson's the interesting guy to me if you know full PPR league Ty Johnson had six catches it's a lot of catches that's J.D. McKissick level catches that's interesting to me especially because the Jets are playing the bills this week?

No, it's the Browns. Sorry. Oh, yeah, right. We were just talking about this. It all bleeds together. But I like the Jets being behind a lot and then having to pass to come back and checking down to Ty Johnson. I think that's actually intriguing if you're in a PPR league. I think that's I would, I mean, honestly, if you

don't have to, I'd probably avoid the Jets overall. But I think, yeah, like in PPR, especially, Ty Johnson's interesting. There's a couple other players that are sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel here. Zach Moss of the Bills has had 13 carries in each of the last two games. So he's kind of the lead, at least early down guy for them.

Sony-Michel is a potential play if Damien Harris continues to miss time, which I believe he's going to. And then I'm just throwing this name out here because of what happened with Pollard this week. But Derringen Evans of the Titans, you never know if Derek Henry is just going to pop his hamstring in like the Friday walkthrough, and then all of a sudden you've got a league winner on your hands. but if you have just a roshy spot that you're not planning on using in week 16 in your championship like this guy's not going to be in your lineup drop him pick up darrington evans just because you never know what could happen you could have a tony paulers situation on your hands and you know in the off off chance which it's probably not going to happen but you never know that derrick henry can't go this week evans came in guerrilla warfare d danny kelly right there this is this is like i mean honestly this is what i did with pollard last a couple weeks ago and it happened so you just never know.

All right. So we just do a lot of names at people. So I want to rank these because this championship week. Obviously the caveat to everything we're saying

is with the exception of Levion Bell, we don't know which of these guys are going to play. We know Clyde's out and Levion's going to play. Other than that, you're going to have to monitor all these guys.

You're going to be following Schefter on Twitter. Your psycho like me, you can be like setting it through push notifications whatever. But as of right now, you've got to make these decisions

without knowing this stuff. So with that said, who's the number one ad you want this week? For me, it's Pollard. Pollard. Tony Pollard. I think it's Pollard because his upside is just astronomical.

I mean, he showed what he can do. See, I'd rather have Levion because it's as simple as this to me. I'm not going to pretend no if they both start who's going to have a better game. What matters way more to me is that I know Levion Bell will start for the Kansas City Chiefs. Yeah, I agree. I'm almost certain of it. Tony, here's the thing, Zique almost played on Sunday. Jerry Jones said Zeeke would play.

Like, they were confident enough that they thought he was going to and said it publicly. which makes me think they give him another seven days he's going to play. If Zeeke plays, even if Tony Pollard's getting 40% of the carries, 50%, I'd rather have Levion Bell for the Chiefs. Not to mention, like, Levion last night or on Sunday, was getting a lot of carries. Like, before Clyde got hurt, they're essentially splitting time. Like, they do have, they kind of have been using him more and more each week, and he'll probably get close to 15, 20 touches.

The Saints did the thing, the Chiefs offense has been impossible to predict this year because what they've been doing is the defense, way defenses have played them is basically some defenses try to like, oh, we're going to stop your running game and like, we'll see if you can pass on this. And that's what happens when the Buccaneer, like the, hubris, really. That's when the Buccaneers give up 200 yards to Tyree Kill in the first quarter

because they're like, oh yeah, we'll just play Tyree Kill one and one. You can't do that. The flip side is that other defenses just give them the running game. And they're like, you are so impossible to defend passing wise. We're putting two safeties, 25 yards downfield. We're like a big 12 game. And if you want to run, it's five yards a clip, fine. Eventually you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll not make a third and two,

and we'll live with that. And Mahomes literally said, it's unbelievable. Yeah, and the Saints did that. The Bills did that. All the Chiefs big games where Clyde had a big game, every time the Chiefs have run

for like 200 yards, it's because the defense is playing two safeties back. So what I'm saying is Leveon could actually have a bigger game because if they don't do that, he could get more involved in the passing game.

So I'm kind of interested in that. But either way. Let me, okay, I think you're right. You're probably right. If you need a running back to plug into your lineup, for sure.

week and you're like you don't have an RB two. I think Levi-on-Bel is an option. I want to ask you this, though, who would you be more afraid of going up against? Tony Pollard, if Zika's out or Lev Bell? Pollard is Tony-Pol. But as of Tuesday, when we have to make these decisions, I don't know if that's going to be the thing.

Yeah, but we don't know. That's the point is we don't know. So do you want one of your opponents, say your opponent to get Tony Pollard? Yeah, but you got to like evaluate your risk here. I would bet heavily that Zika is going to play. Yeah. I mean, that's where it comes down to me.

I don't know if I would. I don't know if I would. What's the point of playing him at this point? I guess trying to make the playoffs. It's this simple. Jerry Jones said last week he was the best player in the team. And it's Jerry's team. It's Jerry's fantasy football team.

Did we get to the bottom of why he actually didn't play after basically saying that he's going to play all week? I just says, Hammy didn't feel good in the morning or something. We don't have to agree on this. But I think what we are in, we are in regards, Lev and Tony Powell are to the top two. So let's, but those are both gone. Who's third for you? For me, it's Ahmed. Savon Ahmed with the Dolphins

who I think honestly even if Gaskin returns and I don't think it's a sure thing he returns he's been on the COVID list so you know he could have adverse effects from test. Did he test positive right? He tested positive. Miles Garrett's been talking about how he's had adverse effects. I mean it's certainly obviously

possible. If I had to guess like I think the odds are that Ahmed is the starter and the lead back in this next performance. I was advising people against starting Ahmed this last week because I just didn't know how the The carries were going to be divvied out. He was coming off a shoulder injury,

but they seemed to like him enough to give him a pretty big carry. He had 23 carries to give him a pretty big workload, I should say. He had 23 carries, 122 yards, a touchdown, added a two-point conversion. It was the best rushing performance by any Miami back this year. And he looks good, honestly. I think he's looked explosive. He fits that offense in the way that he kind of like can create with a little bit of space. and they're going against the Raiders, aren't they?

The run defense kind of sucks. Yeah. I think the best bet, and all of these are risky, if you're going to try and start them. We'll find out more later in the week, but to me the best bet is Occman's going to be the starter for the dolphins this week. So I like him next.

I like that. And then I think the next one for me is probably, I'm biased because I love Jeff Wilson. I think Jeff Wilson and Ty Johnson, I see the case. I think that both of them are similar in that it's a little risky because you don't know how much volume

they're going to get. with Ty Johnson, you're betting on the Jets to be competent, which is, you know, you try to go for two in a row here, you know, brace yourself for failure.

And then I think the Jets are, you know, almost a lot to deflate themselves from this week. Like, I can't, they're going to crash. But then with Jeff Wilson, it's the same thing

where I think that you're, unless Moster doesn't play, you're kind of banking on a touchdown. He's gotten that each of the last couple of weeks. The difference thing is that Jeff Wilson is a good coach and a smart team. And I think I'd rather bet on that necessarily than Ty Johnson on a bad team.

I've had Jeff Wilson way above Ty Johnson I think Yeah also like the nineer season's kind of over Like maybe there's no point in playing most dirt And they end up just giving Wilson more work Not a bad point I said if it was me I put Pollard and Bell in tier one I put Wilson and Akben tier two

And then everybody else is just a toss up And I'd say throw in Throw in Darrington Evans if you're you know Going for the gusto or something I think that makes sense And then yeah I would throw Zach Moss Sony Michelle Sony Michelle who I don't like I have to say if Damien Hairs

doesn't play I mean, Sony Michelle got 10 carries this week for 74 yards. Like, it's not hard to imagine Sony Michelle getting a touchdown. It's not hard to imagine him getting two touchdowns. I know the passive had trouble moving the ball. But it's not hard to envision Sony Michelle having a big game. So if you need someone, there is, you know, you could do worse than, you know, first round pick who doesn't have a ton of competition for like first and second down work.

But first round pick. I like how bad. Yeah, I guess that's like the ultimate, like, analyst. Like, I have nothing else nice to say about this guy. So it's like the meaningless draft stock. former first round pick who is really not even good, but that's fine. That's like such a cliche of just like,

well, I have to, that's like how if you don't have anything good to say about a player, you talk about their size, but if they have discernible skills, you talk about the skills. Sure. Big guy, 6-2, 220. Yeah, if you're someone's leading with that, they have nothing else to say about the player. Yeah, that's like when you ask your

friend like about a potential date. Like, how are they? Like, they're really nice. And you're like, oh, fuck, they're ugly. Good person. Good person. It's like with waiver wire pickups. Super, super nice. Really good personality. Really good personality. Yeah, that's the Sonny Michelle.

Great personality. But the point is, don't just do this if you have running backs. Also, like, try to cock block your other, your opponent. Like, whatever position they need, they need running backs. Add all the good ones. If they need quarterback and tight enough. So I'm having a championship right now. And I have Jalen Hertz.

And I'm so stoked that whoever I'm playing can't pick him up. I have Logan Thomas on a band. I need other players. I'm not dropping because I have Darren Waller. I'm not going to play Logan. Thomas, but I'm not letting my opponent get Logan Thomas. Screw that. Also, like, if you have the free agent, if it's the free agent auction bidding thing and you

have more money than other people in your playoffs, add all the people, even if you don't need them that other people would want. Like, just outbid everybody. Just make your bid a dollar higher than theirs just to get all the guys that they could need. Take five minutes to figure out the math on that. And like, take, honestly, you can win your championship if you take 10 minutes to figure out who they need to add and then bidding more on that.

player. That's so Machiavellian. You're the one who's like, add Derrington Evans in case Derek Henry like gets hurt on Friday. Yeah, you're going to like call it. You're going to call a hit on Derek Henry on like Thursday. Judge me. Okay. Receivers. A blow dart into his hammy. Yeah, you have Jason Bourne go take him out. Oh my God. All right, receivers. Emmanuel Sanders

to me is the top out of the week. Michael Thomas is on injured reserve for the rest of the regular season. He'll be back to the playoffs. Doesn't mean anything for us. The Saints were down to Emmanuel Sanders and practice squad guys. someone named Joanne Johnson led the Saints in snaps this week dude it always makes me feel better when you've never heard of someone because when I haven't heard of someone I wonder if I'm doing my job properly because I mean I've heard of them but I know I know zilch about him yeah yeah it's like can you do you know how

tall he is if not he's not a relevant person so Sanders is the top guy I don't think he's a ton of upside because just the Saints offense is weird right now but he's pretty high floor yeah probably like 60 yards it's just it's safe it's a safe flex you could do a lot worse than a manny sanders also russell gage if hulio stays out i mean i think this one's solid rock solid so he had he had five catches 68 yards and a touchdown this last game played a team high 59 snaps per pf which is one more even than ridley and his third straight game with double digits and a half ppr he had uh 16 points in week 14 he had 13 points in week 13 and this is contingent on hulio missing time but if hulio's out gage is the number two behind ridley and they just get fed

target. So I think he's a rock solid, like, wide receiver three flat. The Falcons always have a good number of three wide receiver. When it was like Roddy White and Julio, remember it was like Justin Hardy? Was that his name? Remember that third wide receiver? Well, he used to be Sunu. Who's New used to be good. Yeah, they had a name Hardy earlier. I don't know. I feel like they always have a good third guy who's like, actually not bad. Harry Douglas. Oh yeah, Harry Douglas. You remember him? It was, it was Justin Hardy. That is, he was. Justin Hardy. Taylor Gabriel. Yeah, they're all kind of frisky. Okay, stick it with receivers, though.

Let's say you can't get Manny Sanders or Russell Gage, who I think are the top tier, right? Yeah. Then next is your guy, Lund Bowden, D.K. Bowden. He didn't do as much as I was hoping this week in terms of points, 7.6 points, but he did have six catches for 37 yards, played 65 snaps,

still has receiver and running back versatility or interchangeability or whatever on Yahoo. He's kind of the... He has to kind of wait and see what happens with DeVante Parker, because Parker was on scratch this week. But I still, I think even if Parker plays next week, Bowden is still going to get used. I think they're liking what he's doing and giving them some versatility. All right.

Other receivers, Tyrone Johnson for the charges as we discussed the Keenan-Hallon replacement. Chad Hanson for the Texans, who continues to track up points, like extremely serviceable, random Chad. What's more 2020 than that? Greg Ward for the Eagles continues to be good. Shout out the AAF, especially just reborn with Jalen Hertz. good rapport. Zach Pascall with the Colts, Michael Pittman kind of sucks.

Zach Pascual's great. I actually think he's secretly the best receiver on the team after T.Y. Hilton. And then Jacoby Myers for the Patriots. Of these guys, who would you most want to bet on for this week?

I kind of lean Greg Ward against the Cowboys, but what do you guys think? Brutal. Oh, boy. Honestly, if I'm trusting anybody, I might trust Chad Hansen. That's terrible to say.

Holy crap. I think if if Kenan's out I might pick Ty Johnson Yeah Yeah well Process of elimination Zach Pascal is

I mean if you're in a deeper league But they're going against the Steelers You kind of don't want that Even though he was the third best receiver this week I wouldn't chase that against Pittsburgh I don't like that either Because he's it's every other week That someone on the Colts has a big game

It's like they rotate Whoever is the star of every week So I don't trust that The tight ends are like that The running backs it's a good point Yeah Jacobi Myers just the Patriots passing game does not deserve your He's been like kind of okay though

You know he that's like 50 yards a week And then every fifth week he has like a hundred It's it's tough Of this though I think I think I think Ty Johnson if Keenan Allen's out I think definitely makes the most sense And if not damn maybe it is Chad Hanson God damn

Although I kind of like to bet on Jalen Hertz Indirectly by betting and Greg Ward I kind of just like Jalen Hertz Yeah if Rager's out All right tight end real quick Logan Thomas he's you know he's only around of two-thirds of league's a third of leagues but obviously go get him like we don't have to talk about that. I think the streamer if you have to stream a tight end this week the one I like the most is

Austin Hooper. The Browns are playing the Jets. The Jets have given up the most fantasy points to tight ends this year. The Rams even though they got beaten Tyler Higbee scored a touchdown last week I think the Rams and Browns have similar reliance and play action obviously that might not sound super great because the Rams lost but I think that Tyler Austin Hooper is has a really good chance to have a decent game and not suck unlike every other tied-down on waivers. And then if you're really desperate, I think Cole Komett for the Bears, because despite last week, you know what, the Vikings are better defense. They're playing the Jags.

I think the Bears are going to romp against the Jags, and I think Cole Komet could just really just do well. The Jaggs don't really particularly defend tight ends well either. Yeah. Craig, are you coming around on your Baker Mayfield sucks take at all? Or are you still holding strong of that? Um, I don't know, man. I feel like he is obviously...

Coming off the hill a little bit. He's playing better and stuff, but like... I think it's just a product of great coaching. It's like whenever golf looks good, I think everyone kind of convinces themselves, but it's really like the team and the scheme and all that stuff. I don't know. We'll see how he plays in the playoffs if he like is down 14.

I think the question with Baker is he's not doing it under pressure. Right, yeah. I think the thing with Baker is the same thing at golf, yeah. The best quarterbacks right now are creators. Yep, yep. Like in basketball, like you have to, the best players are the ones who, when the play breaks down, can you like just get a bucket?

Can you just make a shot? You create one at a thin air. quarterback's the same way. It's like the best part, the reason we like Mahomes, Russell Wilson or Herbert, is they can just create a shot when everything goes to shit.

Deshawn Watson, guys who just get buckets when they need one. Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Gropo don't do that. Jared Gough cannot do that. I'm not sure about Baker yet. I think he's better at that

than Gough, but I don't think, I haven't seen it consistently where he's, when something goes wrong and he's making a play. And you're kind of only sticking with guys who are mobile

and I think you're kind of speaking it speaking about it from a sense of like when a play breaks down can they move outside the pocket and make stuff happen exactly but the guys that are like peat mannings in the in the tom bradies like even though they weren't super mobile they would like throw guys open like if somebody if somebody wasn't open they would be so accurate and so good that it just like didn't matter they would drop it right in there baker really can't do that either i feel like you know what i mean no you're you're not wrong i think it it's like a dying breed right like those guys are going out of style like the dinosaurs yeah

dinosaurs are going out of style a couple years ago Dude, dinosaurs were in. Dude, when I was four, it's all anyone was talking about. They made too many bad Jurassic Park movies. No people don't like dinosaurs. Land before time was a big deal. Oh, man. Love that show.

What a human-centric version of time, please. Okay, wait, we got to get to the... Honestly, this is the most important waiver is defenses. Yeah. These might not be relevant for everyone, but they're stunning. The Browns and the Bears are available in, like, 40% of leagues. Are people aware that Browns are playing the Jets this week, and Bears are playing the Jets?

Jaguars. I mean, go get those teams. I don't know how else to say it. I mean, check right now if those defenses are available and do whatever it takes because, oh my God. Other than that, though, it's not an awesome week for streaming defenses. It's one of those where you might just actually be better off holding on to what you have. The best one out there is probably the Chargers against the Broncos, which is really just betting against Drew Locke. And you can also, otherwise, it's kind of a tough week, to be honest. I feel like you either have a defense that you've been sitting on or you kind of don't,

but I don't love a lot of the streaming options this week quite frankly. But check of the Browns and Bears are out there. It's really funny because the Rams scored

two points against the Jets. So I found an amazing Jets debt this weekend. The Jets have, like, betting-wise, the Jets have laid the most points

against the spread over the last three years, like by a lot, like almost 290 points combined they've gotten against the spread. And despite getting the most

points. They have the worst record against the spread in that time. Wow. They're just bad man. Which is incredible. And you know what's weird about the Jets? The Jets have scored first on eight of their 14 games this year. That's, which is bizarre. First possession score.

That is weird. It's so bizarre. Maybe it's like Adam Gage just spends all of his time thinking about his script for the first like 12 plays. And then he just, he just doesn't know what to do after that. Because he knows people turn off the game after the first 20 minutes. He's like, well, maybe I'll just do the first drive. I feel like this is an interesting, actually interesting discussion about like what a play caller

does because, you know, I mean, I think relatively speaking, scripting up a cool drive is a hell of a lot easier than figuring out how to counter what a defense is doing to you in real time, you know, from the sideline or from in the box or whatever, like trying to figure out, it's like play sequencing and adjusting to little nuances that this team is like prepared all week to like confuse you on like that's where the the best play callers really separate themselves is their ability to like like this is where belichick is like god right like see what this coach what this coach is doing to you and then figure out a way to beat that so that's that's very fascinating there's not many people who can come up with an NFL game plan there are fewer people who can

create one that's very good to start with and there but the real difference is the people who can go in a half time or the next drive and figure out what they're doing and how to counter it yeah on Monday morning versus in the moment. Like that even between coaches is just a different dimension. That's where Andy Reid is incredible, Belichick's incredible. Brandon's Daly of the Rams defensive coordinator. We talked about those halftime splits for the first half of the season with the Rams where they went like eight weeks or seven weeks without allowing a touchdown at the second half.

It's pretty amazing. But not everyone can do it. It's hard. Everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth. Anybody can make a good pod segment, but like try doing a whole show. Try doing a whole tangent about the SpongeBob fault lines between millennials. That was not in the plan. That's all happened with the top.

That's some Mahomes shit. You know, we're improvising. It's third and long in that situation. That's us throwing left-handed, except we did it for 10 minutes in a row. We don't know if we got the first down. Yeah, we got a penalty. Yeah. Maybe if Sean's still listening to us, he'll tell us that that was a terrible idea.

I don't know. Yeah. If Sean made it to minute 67. Sean probably turned off the podcast when we started shit talking to Jets. 100%. All right. Well, let's turn off the podcast right now. Thank you, D.K.

Thank you, Craig. Thank you to everyone for listening, including Sean, if you still made it. Best of luck in your fantasy championships. Please email us your heartbreak or your glory at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. We are rooting for all of you. Thank you for sticking with this season. And, like, honestly, best of luck to everyone. And of course, obviously, thank you, Lauren.

Good luck this week, Lauren. I'm sure you're playing fantasy. Thank you, Chieftons. Lauren, send us your team. All right, we'll see you guys on Wednesday. We will not be dropping an episode this Friday because it's Christmas and we will also not be dropping an episode the next Friday because it's New Year's Eve or day or whatever. We're taking those off, but we'll be coming to you on Mondays and Wednesdays for the rest of 2020. And then we'll let you know about the 2021 schedule.

So thank you.