The Ringer NFL Show - Week 12 Recap: Josh Allen Appreciation Week, Inevitable Eagles, Blame Canada, and the RB Renaissance

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

The guys recap NFL Week 12, starting with another big Eagles win and how Josh Allen is underrated despite the Bills' loss. They also talk about how different the Steelers offense looked without Matt Canada, the crazy AFC playoff picture, and the return of the running back position. Then, they add a new name to the Fantasy Burn Book. Check out our Fantasy Football Rankings for this week’s positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hypertson. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. And Sunday of Week 12 is over, baby. We're giving out awards for the day. Reminders, TK's got a waiver column coming up, fantasyfewport.com.

That goes live on Tuesdays. Nice. Our rankings go live on Thursdays. And then we'll have a waiver show helping you out on Mondays for waivers. And we're going on our Sunday recaps and our Friday previews are going through the whole regular season. And we're doing the play. Playoffs, it's not just when fantasy ends.

Then we're going to the NFL draft show, we're doing the whole off season. Keep that in mind. Even your fantasy season's over, my bad, probably. But we go to the off season too, baby. Trades, draft, everything. So stick with us. For today, only one place to start.

Eagles beat the bills, 37, 34. Bills were up 10 points at halftime. Bills blew the lead. Then the bills took back the lead. The Eagles almost blew it at the end, but the Eagles kicker, Jake Elliott, makes a 59-yarder in the run. rain, which hit the back net.

Very impressive. Yeah. You could make the case it's the most impressive kick ever. Genuinely. 59 yards in the rain in Philadelphia. Yeah. To end the game to force it to overtime? I mean, that was an impossible kick. He snuck it in the right corner.

A piss rod. A pee rod. Yeah. Well, it was raining like inception when the rain makes a piece. So like, I don't know, maybe. But it hit the back net. So I feel like that's an extra 10 yards. So it was actually kind of like a 69 yorter.

But the fact that was raining. the trajectory on it. It was like just flat. Dude, it's like in golf, you know, I'm not good enough as a golfer to like play the wind. I'm like, how the fuck do you play wind? That's crazy. So he kicked it with the wind. But then there's only been 13 kicks in the 21st century that were made from 59 yards with five minutes left in the game. So you take that and I peruse through him. I don't know if the other one. Jake Elliott, his first, like, his actually second career game he made one against the Giants. But like five of them were in domes.

I don't think any of them were in the rain. So like, I think you're right. Craig, it was one of the best kicks maybe ever. Yeah, and you brought up such a good point, like four weeks ago, that we've all become desensitized to how good these kickers are now. And I didn't even really think about how, like, 10 years ago, a 52-yarder was a big deal. And now when I see 59-yarder, I'm like, oh, you know, he'll probably make it. But the fact that this guy just, like, booted a 60-yarder in the pouring rain to force overtime

is incredible. I mean, Tony Romo was out here being like, yeah, they can't kick this. They might have to do a Hill Mary. Like, it was insane. So that got in the overtime. time. And then Josh Allen basically, they should have won the game. Like Josh had the game winner touchdown to Gabe Davis. They weren't on the same page. Gabe Davis turned right. Josh, or Josh Allen threw it right, Gabe Davis turned left. So they settled for a field goal.

Bill's got three, but overtime rules now. Eagles get the ball back. Jailen Hertz gets the second chance. They go down, score the touchdown. Jailen Hertz gets winning touchdown. One of the five touchdown Jailen Hurts had on the day. So he got them the 37, 34 win. And the Eagles now have four straight games where they were down at halftime and they won the game, which ties in NFL record. It was such a strange game. I mentioned Jalen Hertz of the five touchdowns. He didn't really play well for a few quarters.

And then by the end, he was like the reason they won. And I'm curious, DK., he was, Jalen Hertz was the MVP favorite coming into the day. Do you think Jalen Hertz is the MVP favorite because the Eagles are 10 and one and we have to give it to someone? Or do you think Jailen Hertz is actually the MVP this year? A little bit above? Yeah, I was going to say, not just offensive, but it's like right in the middle. I basically think he's going to be maybe one of the weirdest MVPs ever.

This is something we talked about on Bill Simmons Show the other day. He's not even playing like his best ball. Like he's not even playing as well as we've seen him play in the past. You know what I mean? But he just keeps finding ways to get it done, finding ways for this team to win. And the argument that I would put forth for Jaylen Hurst being the MVP, it's not even like what he does as a passer necessarily. It's the encapsulation of what he does for that offense overall.

And a lot of that is the value brings as a runner. You know, they have the tush push, which is one of the most unstoppable plays, it completely changes the math for their offense. He's a good runner, you know, on design runs. The game winner was a basically draw play design for him to do it. And I don't know, man, like just the fact that he is such a good, effective, successful runner paired with the fact that he, you know, is a decent to good passer. He hasn't been as good as he normally is this year.

But he did have about three passing touchdowns in this game, even though I think he had like 33 passing yards like somewhere in the third quarter. It was not looking good for him. But the late game, Jalen Hertz is back. He's been awesome late in games. Fourth quarter is overtime. What strikes me about the Eagles this year is, man, you really got to play a perfect game to beat this team because it feels like they don't need to play a perfect game to win.

Every single week I watch the Eagles and I go, oh, you know, they can't really run the ball today or Harts looks a little gimpy. He can't really run today. Or, oh, he doesn't have it throwing it or, you know, the secondary is getting killed. And yet they win all these games. four of their last five games. They played the bills, the chiefs, the cowboys, and the dolphins, and they've won all those games.

And then none of them have I thought they looked dominant. It's funny. This comparison is way too on the nose, but they're kind of like rocky because it's like they just keep taking hits over and over and over. Taking so many punches. And the game ends and they won. And you're just like, how did they win? They didn't even look like the best team today.

Jalen Hertz is the start of 29 and 2. I think it's last 31 games. Shees. I believe that includes the playoffs, which is pretty crazy. easy. You know, it's funny. I always, I like there's a couple places, a couple of people on Twitter. I'm sorry, I don't have your names in front of me that do a great job of reversing one-score games and also reversing all game-ending kicks. And so I try to think about if Jake Elliott had missed that kick and the Eagles had lost what we would have said because I always think it's funny how we can switch the narrative based on whether Jake Elliott makes like the greatest kick we've ever seen. But I will say even then, it's like losing to this Bill's team. And then, you know, it's funny to think that the Eagles only real loss is the Jets. which what, Jill Hart's at three picks and it was the worst game of his career. Because I think you're right, Craig.

It's this weird mix that the Eagles are not as good as they probably were last year when they had 70 sacks and one of the most prolific pass rushes ever. But I think you're right that they are kind of the chiefs now in that it used to be if you, the chiefs were never a perfect team with Patrick Mahomes. But if you like gave them too much oxygen,

if they were the serial killer, that if you didn't kill the chiefs dead with like double triple tap, the Chiefs came back to get you. I think the Eagles have taken that where it's like if like the Eagles, they had to throw three, it hurts that to throw three picks

against the Jets to get it done or else they still probably would have won that game. Like the Eagles are the team that you cannot make any mistakes against. I think you're totally right there. The, but also this Bill's team, there's no shame in if they had lost to this Bill's team

because the bills played really well. Alan made one mistake. I feel bad for the bills. I feel bad for Josh Allen. I really do. Because I hope I, he's not going to get shit on this week because he had an amazing game. He had 40 fantasy points.

He was incredible. But I don't know. There's like a weird narrative going on or at Buffalo about his team. You know, leading the league and picks. Leading the league and picks. Like the bill is like their time is kind of over. I feel like is the narrative now.

Stefan Diggs is angry. He's tweeting. If anyone should be tweeting, it's Josh Allen. This man is doing everything he can to fucking win these games. The hate's got to stop. I mean, I think there are moments where I feel like he is the best quarterback. in the NFL. And I still feel that to this day. There are moments watching this game where I'm like,

this guy does literally everything for this team. It's like watching Yokits or Luca or something in the NBA. Every single positive play runs through Josh, more so than any other quarterback in the league. And he lays it on the line every single play. He's like the outfielder who sprints into the wall to try and catch the home run. He's a great passer. Yeah, he makes a dumb player to a game.

But like, I think Josh Allen is underrated. right now for what he's doing for this team. I think the ironic part, too, is, Craig, if they would have won this game, it would have been like Josh Allen's MVP candidacy. Like, you know what I mean? Like his, whatever, coming out party or whatever.

Like, he's putting his name back into the hat as the MVP. If they would have won this game. Of course, they lost. So now MVP is so narrative-driven that it's not going to happen probably. But, you know, at the beginning of this game, during the game, we were like, oh, is he the MVP actually? Maybe.

Well, we talked to, about them as a sneaky Super Bowl contender. And I, like, still kind of agree. It's weird because the bills are in this weird situation where it's like, if they, if they make the playoffs, which they might not, I think they could get to the Super Bowl. But, like, they also probably won't make the playoffs. Like, when has that ever been said? It's like, if they can get into the playoffs, I think they're the best team in the

AFC, but they probably won't make the playoffs. With the new playoff rules, it's like the opposite lately. It's like, oh, my God, this team's getting into the playoffs. That's ridiculous. The playoff picture in both conferences is insane because if you look at the NFC, the Eagles are 10 and 1, so they're probably at the one seed. The Niners are going to win the NFC West.

The Lions probably going to win the North, maybe. And then you're like, the Falcons are going to win a division. They're five and six right now. And then you're like the Vikings and the Cowboys, like the Seahawks, like all these teams that, the Seahawks got battered on Thanksgiving Day and like the Seahks right now are a playoff team.

Then the flip side is the AFC. I mean, you look at the wild card. The wild card stuff for the AFC is crazy. The number one seed today changed chance four times in a single day. I don't know if that's ever. happened before, but I think the Dolphins editor is the one seed. They're under the four seed now. Then the Jags had it. Then the Chiefs at it. Now, the Ravens have the one seed.

But then the flip side, the wild cards are the Steelers and Browns, both seven and four. They're wild cards. The Colts are a playoff team right now. The Indianapolis Colts with Gardner Minshu are ahead of our beloved C.J. Stroud-led Texans, the Denver Broncos are to fight again when he's streak, the Bills, the Bengals, the Raiders, and the Chargers. Like think about that for a second, that the Texans, Broncos, Bals, Bengals, Raiders, Chargers, and of course the Jets are all behind the Colts for the last

playoff spot. I don't feel good about any of these teams. I'm telling you, if the top four seeds in the AFC, if the bills played these teams in a head-to-head matchup in the playoffs, I would pick the bills over the Ravens, over the Jags, over the Dolphins. The only team is probably the Chiefs. I think the Chiefs I would probably take and they should probably be favored. But it's like every team in the AFC, other than the Chiefs, I think the bills are better

then, and yet they're six and six and they're the 10th seed right now in the AFC. That is insane. And to be clear, though, the bills, they're 10, but the culture, so again, just as a reminder to everyone, there are seven teams from each conference that there are 14 playoff teams. They took away by, so now there's seven, three wild cards. So the cults have the last wild card spot. But they all have six wins. The Colts have six, the Texans have six, the Broncos six, the bills of six.

There's tiebreakers and also the bills are six and six. They're going on by after this. But the problem for the bills is the schedule, where they're the, The bills, oh my God, what is their coming schedule? It's so disgusting. Chief Cowboys next two weeks, I think? Yeah, that's absolutely disgusting. But the thing about how funny it would be if they beat the Chiefs coming up and then

didn't make the playoffs again. It honestly feels like a winnable game to me. Yeah. I mean, so I think you're totally right, Craig. And we should make that a running bit where we talk about some big game as if the game winning field goal had just not made it and just like do the narratives that way. Because you're totally right that Josh Allen would be talking about, wow, what a superhero or dragging this team to a playoff positioning with the bills.

It's like when the best movie doesn't even get the best picture nomination. It's like I actually feel like the bills are like a top four team in the league. It's like when Get Out wasn't nominated. And you're like, this is the only movie. Like we're not going to remember the shape of water. Actually, I think Get Out was nominated. Oh, whatever. Should have won.

But your point, your point remains. I know what you mean. But yeah. Edwarder and E has been tweeted the bills of the 40th team since 1970 merger to 500 yards, 10 third down conversions and a positive turnover margin of a game. I know it's a weird stat, whatever, but the 40 teams have done that, first team to lose. They were teams that had all those benchmarks for 39 and 0 entering this game. The bills came into this week, fifth in DVOA.

Yeah. It's just like, it's ridiculous. They're 10th in the conference. DK, other than the bills, maybe missing the playoffs, what is the most surprising to you when you look at the AFC standings right now? The Broncos, probably, winning five. five in a row. The Broncos are on fire right now. Who saw this coming? There was the time early in the season where we're talking about Sean Payton getting fired and them moving on from Russell Wilson and Wilson. This breakup was coming really, really quickly and how they'd wasted all these first round picks on Russell Wilson and Sean Peyton. It's like, all of a sudden, this team has jelled. They've won five games in a row. I saw the staff from Bill Barnwell. After giving up 70 points to the dolphins, the Broncos have given up a total of 80 points in the last five games. So obviously their defense has been a big, big part of their turnaround.

But I think Russell Wilson's playing really well, too. Like relatively mostly mistake-free ball. I wouldn't say that he's like carrying them necessarily. But, you know, they're a good team. And they beat a good, like, Browns. They basically picked a part of a good Browns defense day. I was like very surprised how easily they were moving the ball on the Browns. I thought the Browns would like, you know, just drag this game into the mud.

It would be like a really ugly game. And the Broncos move the football. I think it's one of the best Russell Wilson's best games as a Denver Bronco. He had an awesome game. He had 134 passing yards and 30 rushing yards. So if you look at the stat line, you're like, what are he talking about?

But he was awesome today. Like him rushing at the right times, I think he had the most rushing yards that he said all season or maybe the second or third most. But that opening drive, they marched right down the field and scored. Russ ran the ball. I think he kept it three times,

looked super spry and just really smart with the football. Made some awesome, like under pressure, deep throws to Cortland Sutton. It just looked like vintage Russ where like the stat lines weird, but he played great. Yeah, it's like after all the like let Russ cook stuff, it really was this game was like, here's how you're going to beat the Browns. It's don't turn the ball over and control the ball. And he kept doing throwing the ball to where they couldn't pick it off and letting his receivers try to make ridiculous stuff.

And instead of let Russ cook, it was like, hey, just micro, here's some leftovers, reheat it, don't screw it up. And he just did it perfectly. Like, you know what I mean? Like he just microwaved everything perfectly. Yeah, they've gone up against a bunch of hard defenses too. Obviously they played the Browns today. They have played Minnesota, who's been really stingy defensively this year.

They played the Bills. Before that, they played the Chiefs. Now they're stretched to playing Houston, the Chargers, Detroit, three teams that are like bottom 10 defensively. So I'm actually curious to see if this offense takes off even more. Like, Javonte Williams seems like fully healthy and background looks good. Cortland Sutton has emerged as like a real guy. P. Ryan looks good. The nice little running back trio.

Judy is getting three catches a game. Maybe he'll up it to four. We'll see. perhaps one's a dream. I also want to just shout out the Colts, the actual team who's in the playoffs right now. The Colts beat the Buckiners 2720. Colts have been incredible.

I actually weirdly think the Colts are one of the most fun teams to watch, which I never thought I would say, but Minshu is Minchu. I think Pittman, like, he's not like yards after the catch fast, but Pittman kind of drags defenders with him like a tight end.

Josh Downs has been so fun to watch that receiver, but he's good. Shane Steak and the head coach has done an incredible job. Austin Gale here at the ringer's been on this for a long time. But like the defense, the Colts cornerbacks are, in shambles. Like they started a seventh round rookie day named Jalen Johnson at cornerback.

He's like not even the best Jalen Johnson defensive back in the NFL. Like there's another Jalen Johnson better than him. Jalen Johnson's are there. Yeah. Two, one won the seventh round. He was like the better of the two starting cornerbacks. Their defense has no real pass rushers. They cut Shaq Leonard, who was like their best defensive player of the last decade.

And they're still winning. They're the playoffs. Like with Anthony Richardson out for the season in Minshu, like Shane Stuyken has just done the incredible simplicity of what's this defense bad at? We're going to do, like, we're going to attack that. Like today, they just, the Colts, the Bucks are incredible stopping the run. The Colts were like, all right, yeah, balance, whatever. And they had, like, almost twice as many passes as designed runs.

Like, even though they have Jonathan Taylor, they're like, yeah, today, you know what, that's not going to be our thing. And they won the freaking game. They were 2720, and he went for on fourth and one on the drive that they took a 10-point lead and basically won them the game. Went for a fourth and one through a pass to Moe-A-Cox, the tight end. Shout-up VCU. That got 30 yards.

And I just Shane Stuyken's done an incredible job. And I think if the cults do hang. on to a playoff spot, he'll probably win coach of the year. It's pretty impressive that he started with Ricky Anthony Richardson and Zach Moss and made it work and the offense is good. And now it's Jonathan Taylor and Gardner-Minchu, and it's like a completely different offense, but it's still just as effective. We joked about the Saints.

We were like, oh, the Saints just win games and nobody talks about it. That's now become the Colts. The Colts are the Glansburg team. And Michael Pittman's probably the Glansberg player of the year, where, I mean, this guy is like automatic 15 fantasy points of game and we don't ever discuss it. It's a media thing where we can take the L where we're all like, oh, we're ready to talk about Anthony Richardson. And then he gets hurt.

We're like, all right, forget you. And then we're just Lucille Bluth for the next month when they keep winning. And it's like, I don't understand it. And I will not respond to it. I really hitched my wagon to Michael Pittman last year. Like, that was my guy. And then it was a huge flop. And then I jumped off the bandwagon.

And now he's great. So that's that kind of sucks. This is, I think, you know what the lesson here is? And maybe this has already been discussed a lot. But invest in a backup quarterback. Oh, my God. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like, Gardner Mishu, he turns the ball over a lot. That's, like, his main issue. But he's also pretty feisty in, I don't know, like, there's just something to him. Like, he distributes the football to his good players. He gets the ball out. And he just gives this team a chance where, like, so many teams, like, the Jets are the perfect examples, just fucking punted on the backup quarterback position. It ruined their season.

Yo, DK. This is, forget everything I said. That's a better assessment of the day. The Jets have two fewer wins than the Colts. Gardner and Minshu makes $1.8 million in Sally this year. His cap hit is $3.5 million. How many wins would the Jets have with Gardner Minshu? I feel like that I think they'd have seven, maybe eight wins with Gardner.

It'd probably be like 11 and 0. Like that's a great, it's again, at least the Rogers thing I get it. But again, it's like the Colts, in theory, could have traded for Minchew after week one. So. I mean, it's great. I mean, Dobbs and Minshu, the Vikings and the Colts, maybe the two smartest teams in the league. Look what happens. You go after a backup quarterback who's competent.

in your season that stays alive. I had somebody mentioned this. One of my buddies mentioned this to me today, and it's basically in response to how we were talking about how teams don't get backup quarterbacks from big programs and, like, guys that are actually good or, in theory, decent. It's like part of it is because they don't want the controversy

if the starter starts playing poorly, where they're like, oh, everyone starts clamoring for the backup. You know what I mean? But like at the same time, in this... That's so stupid. In this world where quarterbacks, you know, like, are getting hard. hurt really a lot. And there's also a big, like, concussion thing where, you know, you can miss a game or you can go out of a game early and then you can miss the next week because of all the new concussion rules. It's like, dude, that should not matter as much as it used to matter. Just get good players and just have and just be a good coach. You know what I mean? Like, just help be clear with the media who you're going to start or whatever. I don't know how it's going to work. But like, that's not a good enough reason in my mind for you to absolutely just have a, like, shitty backup. Like, it just makes no sense to me. No one wanted Garder Minchew. Like, Philly.

traded him to Jacksonville. And then I think Jacksonville released, I can't remember exactly how the order went. But like, nobody wanted this guy. It's bizarre. And he's like, his numbers in the NFL over the last, like,

a couple of years are like pretty decent. I think this is the other thing is like, not to get off track, but like what the Jets are doing with Tim Boyle versus Trevor Simian. It's like, why don't they start Trevor Simian? I don't understand this.

I literally couldn't explain it to you. The, you're totally right. It's like, the Eagles won the Super Bowl with Nick Foles and then we all just like pretend that never happened. And teams did not learn the less. The only team that learned anything from that was the Eagles who drafted Jailen Hertz behind Carson Wentz.

And look where that got them. Also, Craig, I told Jackie this today. And I'm going to tell you, Flex. Who's Jackie? Hi, Fitz. For the people who don't know at home, for any new listeners, who's Jackie? My girlfriend. Oh.

Steelers fan. Jackie is like, Craig. Do you know, Jack asked me, why don't the Steelers take Jailen Hertz? and I'm like, Jailen Hertz embodies a lot of the Tomlin stuff, like loyalty. You know what I mean? Like, Jailenherts not transferring after he was bench for two.

I'm like, that's some Mike Talman stuff. All the values and everything. Also, he'd be such a great Steeler. And I forgot that Steelers traded their first round picked for Minka Fitzpatrick that year. It's like the first time in like 50 years that and they were in the first. But four picks before in the second round,

the Steelers could have picked Jelan Hertz and instead they took Chase Claypool. So noodle on that. I mean, Claypool did have 10 touchdowns. rookie year. So, you know, call it a wash. But hey, you're nursing Rudolph at backup, so. I hate playing this game. It's so, it's so depressing. That was annoying because in the moment, it was,

that would have been a good pick for the Steelers. Like, in that, you're right. Josh Dobbs to the Jets, we didn't know that after one week. Minchew, that's real. What year was this in 2019? 20. 20. God. So it was like right in the middle of like washed up Ben Rothesberger,

Dukh, Dukh, Jans, Mason Rudolph. Dukh. Dukhages. I forgot about duck. Dude, yeah, that was, dude, learning that a grown man

was named Duck was like the wildest thing that ever. Duck Hodge's era. That was fun. Also, while we're going back in time,

I know this happened on Friday, but we have to, we're on time of the Jets. The Jets Hail Mary on the Black Friday game. Oh, yes. That was amazing.

Which I don't think it's the butt fumble because the thing of them forgets about the butt fumble was the Jets Patriots is supposed to be a competitive game and then the butt fumble happened but they lost like 40 to nothing or something. With that said,

is the Jets fail Mary with the context of everything around this jet season and Tim Boyle basically being Aaron Rogers' his friend that then had to start. And Zach Wilson going from first to third string and I'd be active with the game. Is this the second most embarrassing play that any team's had in our lifetime? Like any team. Like for those you know, didn't see it.

I would put it all the way up there. Tim World's right. They tried to have a Hail Mary at the end of the game. No, end of the first half. At the end of the first, sorry, the end of the first half. And the dolphins returned it all the way for touchdown, which kept the stretch where the dolphins through two picks in a row. The Jets defense got two picks in a row in the two drives.

The Jets, I think the Jets did a pick six. The Jets missed the extra point. So the special teams missed the extra point. The Jets defense gets another pick. The dolphins then get a pick six. So the dolphins make the extra point. So the Jets defense got two interceptions and back-to-back drives. And they netted out with a larger, like, deficit.

They went down an extra point because the Jets scored the six and the dolphins got seven out of it. So the Jets did got two. I bet that's never happened ever before, where defense got two picks in a row and went down more. So like, which I feel like it's the whole season. We're recording, you know, in different rooms right now. And Hyvetts put up a piece sign in balloons, virtual balloons surrounded him.

You didn't get that again. Did you say birthday or something? That was weird. I don't know. It was like the automatic thing on the iPhone where if you say happy birthday, it like does like an effect. Congratulations. Same with congratulations.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, seriously, like is that the worst play? I would say like on the embarrassing. I'd have to go back and watch the Duck Hodges year again. Yeah, but maybe. It just was classic.

It was just classic Jets. Switching gears here, Craig. Yeah, it's switching to a like a fantasy category here. I want to talk about good old running backs, good old veteran running backs, cold weather, it's December in five days. It's after Thanksgiving. This is when you need to rely on the old stick shift

stick shift truck that gets you up the hill. Running backs are back, baby. The final fourth of the year, it's always running back season. And today was like a real kickoff point. We had eight running backs with over 20 points today. Bejohn Robinson. Kyrin Williams blew up.

Jonathan Taylor, Derek Henry, good old Derek Henry. Josh Jacobs had a huge day against the Chiefs. Isaiah Pacheco was awesome. Mostert and McCaffrey on Thanksgiving. We're both great. This is what we talk about when we say running backs win championships and fantasy football.

Like, if you have these like stalwarts on your team, you just have a leg up. And like, the biggest one of today has to be Kyron Williams. He had 35 fantasy points. This was his first game back in a while from injury. And he's literally just Christian McCaffrey. Sean McVeigh, man, really knows how to use a damn running back. 143 yards on the ground, 60 yards to the air, two touchdowns.

He is literally Kirkland McCaffrey when he's on the field. Just like the one, just the amount of touches he gets. Like this guy plays 99% of snaps. gets the entire load, unless they're up a bunch like they were today against Arizona. But Kyron Williams is right in the mix for fantasy MVP, and he missed a month. I know the difference. I know that the, you know, this is the Cardinals, so like opponent obviously matters, but like the impact, the difference Kyron Williams makes versus like Daryl Henderson and

Royce Freeman last couple of weeks is insane. Like he gives them so much more juice. He's so much more dynamic. I remember watching, like, the Seahawks 49ers, the announcers were talking about like, oh, what makes Chris McCaffrey so special? And they couldn't really, like, nail it down. It's just that he does everything really well. I think Karen Williams, obviously, he's not Christian McCaffrey, but he falls in that bucket

where he's just good at football. You know what I mean? He's not especially big. He was not a big tester when he came into the NFL. Like, that was why he fell, I think he was a fifth rounder or fourth rounder. And he's just really freaking good at football. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

He doesn't have the speed, but he's just really good. He makes guys miss. Slow dolphins. But anyways, he's impressive. He's really impressive. Like you said, like the utilization's insane. Like McVeigh is just going to lean on this guy down the stretch. I mean,

is he going to be a first round pick in fantasy drafts next year? I know. I was trying to think about that. That's a great question. And honestly, if they don't sign it or draft it at the running back of significance, I don't know how it can be. I don't know how it can be. Why the hell would they draft or sign somebody?

he's like the best player in fantasy football this year. Well, I mean, the fact that they, he got hurt and then they'd have signed Daryl Henderson who like, they've waived and he never got another job without the other 31 teams. They can bring in like a solid backup, like a Devin Singletary type. But to me, I don't see them like signing some stud running back or taking a running back in the first two, three rounds, right? Why would you?

The control issues with the Shanahan tree is the single biggest inefficiency we've had this year. Like the fact that Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanning and don't trust anyone other than like this one guy in their team to do everything. And so McCaffrey doesn't come out of the game. And Kyle Shannon cares about his touchdown streak. And Sean McVeigh is like, all right, back from the high ankle. Cool. Don't come out of the game, please.

The treaty, like is Max Crosby here, but by force. So I don't know. I agree. Currently, probably is the first run pick next year. That's insane. It's probably be a second rounder. If everything holds, I bet he'll go on the second round. But like, why?

It doesn't come off the field. Because people are going to hold on to the fact he's like a fifth rounder in real life or whatever and he got hurt. Yeah. The flip side of Kyron is the other thing with the running backs today, as Craig mentioned, I think what, eight running backs had over 20 points today. There's been a lot of quiet bouncebacks from all the veteran running backs that were bi-located.

It's like a bunch of vets who started slow. Remandjo-Stevenson for the Patriots looked genuinely like injured on the worst offensive football for the first month. He's been a top five running back in fantasy over the last month. Jonathan Taylor with the cult who had this holdout. We didn't know if he was going to play. And then we didn't know if he'd come back. Jim Ersson was going to fly the whale.

orca from Florida in Northwest for $20 million. Then the orca died. This fucking storyline. Yeah. And then Jonathan Taylor got a contract. Did I dream that? I kept up a excuse. This is like the never,

never uttered sentences before. It's like, and then the whale, and then the orca died, and then they re-signed Jonathan Taylor. It's like you ever wake up and try to tell you partner the dream you just had?

You don't care as much as you? Like the rich guy wanted to move a whale from one side of the country to the other. and then he died, so then the best player on the team signed with the team. She's like, what about the salary cap? I'm like,

I don't know. It was, I don't know. Somehow it doesn't, it isn't related. Then the backup running back was still better than the guy who signed for like a month. Yeah. Anthony Richardson got hurt.

Anyway, but John to tell us been at top six running back over the last month. I don't know if the orca energy, but what? He's knocking down. Worker energy. I don't know. Big orca energy.

Josh Jacobs looks slow. As D.K. said, just play himself into shape for the first month. He looked like a guy who skipped trading camp. Yeah. Yeah. And today,

Josh Jenkins is a 63 hour touchdown, which was his longest play of the season. He's got, he looks explosive again. You ever try to do workouts at home? It's just not the same as a gym. It's not the same. You can do as many push-ups,

set-ups as you want. High knees. You're like, that's good. There's no chance you do sprints as hard when there's not 52 or at training camp, 89 other guys running alongside you. You know what's funny about that?

You know what I just learned? Quick tangent. Marathon runners, you know how you have a pacer, somebody running in front of you to keep you going? Yeah. Did you know that you can't have a pacer for like the final stretch of the marathon and you can only have a pacer for like four to five miles at a time

and then they leave and you have to swap in a new pacer? And then for the final like 10 miles, you're not allowed to have a pacer. Why? I don't know. I don't know if it's like they don't want, they think it's like an unfair advantage or it like distorts, I don't know,

your actual ability or something like that. But you don't have a pacer at the end of a marathon. No, email us to ring your fantasy football atchymal.com, if you are a runner and can explain the pacer thing to us. I'd never heard about this pacer thing. I didn't know this. So you can have some random person just come in and run like certain portions of the marathon with you?

I wonder if it's like baseball limiting mound visits or I guess it's kind of like, well, they shut the radio off for the head coach, you know, talking to the quarterback right before the play. Maybe it's like that, but for the whole thing. Because like the guy, Kip Chogi, the best runner in the world. He hasn't broken two hours. officially in a marathon, but he did break it on his own. But because he had a pacer the whole time, they don't count it.

You're in a marathon in two hours? He did it below two hours. Jesus Christ. It's like running an unofficial 40 time. That's insane. Dude. We have to go down the rabbit hole of marathon. How far could we get in two hours?

I don't want to know. Oh, my God. Dude, I drive up 95. I haven't gone 26 miles on my car in two hours. sometimes. God. And LA, no way. No, God. That would actually be a pretty funny,

they should have marathon runners on like the 405. They should shut down one lane. Have Kipchogi run next to me trying to get to the Spotify office on like a Tuesday morning. No, you keep the same thing. You just shut down the one lane and just see what happens with the highway.

And then he runs and see if... Yeah, exactly. Get America moving. That feels like a Nathan for you bit. That's incredible. But yeah, running backs bounce back. Also, Tony Pollard, who we made a lot of fun of. He's back, baby.

Endlessly. To the moon. Hope you got him. Hope you had those diamond hands, baby. Yeah, diamond hands rewarded. He had like 150 touches a row without a touchdown. He's got two straight weeks. That's two.

That's a streak. Count him. So, yeah, all the bylaws are delivering on the running back side. But there was, we're kind of buried the lead here. I feel like the biggest news of the day, at least for this show. Craig. It's so pathetic that the Steelers beat the Bengals by six and everyone's like dancing naked in the streets.

But nonetheless, the Matt Canada era is over and the Steelers broke their 400 yard. Immediately. It's great that it's like literally immediately. The first opportunity when he's gone, they went over 400 yards and actually looked like a competent offense. Who knew?

50 plus games with Matt Canada. They never broke 400 yards. They had 421 today. It was the most in a game since 2018. Pet for Armourmouth has 120 yards. Pickett has his highest yard in total of the year. He throws for almost 300. They're taking shots.

Yeah, man. Six explosive plays, best of the year. Steelers are back. It's wild what can happen when you, like, activate the other 85% of the field, you know, to operate in when you're talking about the middle of the field. Like, everything was to the outsider short. I think we were making fun of hyphitz or whatever. For someone the other day for, like, picking up Fryer Muth and the waiver. show and it was like they don't throw to the middle field why would that why would you pick

him up turns out they can't throw to the middle field can he pick it is capable uh i wouldn't say kennie pick it was like amazing in this one but it's solid it opens up the game it just opens up their offense so much it's it's it's he started six for seven in the first quarter and they also use so they used three tight end sets these friarmouth and conor hayward and darn darned Washington, our beloved what if LeBron played football experiment altogether at the same time with three tight-in sets because the Bengals are good guarding tight ends, which, you know, wow, not rocket signs, do what the other team's bad at. And so, Kenny Pickett had more yards to tight ends today than any game in his career. However, on one hand, I want to be like, wow,

great job Steelers, 33 pass attempts, 33 rush attempts, what balance Zen? On the other hand, I also want to do the field goal thing and flip it and be like, what if Matt candidate coached this game were we going to be like, wow, 400 yards, great job. Matt, are we like, wow, he's got 16 freaking points against the Bengals who, like, didn't have Joe Burrow. You know? They should have had 23. Deonti Johnson dropped a wide open touchdown in his lap.

That was a nice show from the ticket. He dropped it, but Tomlin actually should have challenged it, which he got the third step down. And then I think Gene Sterector came out when he landed, though. Gene Starrator explained that the third step nullifies the need to survive the ground. Yeah, you don't have to survive the ground anymore. It's very bizarre. The rules are in the end zone, technically,

right. The third step in a catch. the end of the play. It's the equivalent of the ball crossing the goal line on a run. You know what's funny about that? Once again, that belies what I feel like by just watching the game. Like, to me, I watched that play and I was like, he dropped it. He fell to the ground and he didn't hold onto it. Now that's a catch. Don't make me go on my catch ran again. My two sentences, there's 10,000 catches a year. And if you want to rewrite the rule, you're going to end up, you rewrite the rule around the 20 plays a year that bother you. And you've got to rewrite the rule

and you're actually going to capture more than 9,980 plays you didn't think of. That's all. They're doing a good job. That's my hottest take. The catch rule is great. The Steelers season started today. 58 regular season games in a row without 400 yards. The day, the literal next game after they fire Canada.

I mean, come on. Over 400 yards. I love this. It's fucking great. That's so good. We have to celebrate that. This is just the South Park. Blame Canada.

Blame Canada. Man, look, they're at it. They're playing the Cardinals at home next week. The week after that, they're at home against the Patriots. So very realistic shot, they're 9 and 4. Then they play the Colts, the Bengals again, and then Seattle, and that's it. I mean, Steelers could be 12 at 5. What a world we live in.

Oh, my God. Steelers are the weirdest team in the NFL. Easily the weirdest season of the year. I don't know who's second. of the year. Easily the weirdest team and having a weird season. I know who's second. I know who's second. So the New York Giants completed their trilogy

against the New England Patriots and won and or lost the bizarre Super Bowl at the Patriots today. I feel like the Giants won the battle and lost the war because they just I mean, they beat the Patriots I've never, 10 to 7 which is so brutal because that just

sounds like a quarter, but it was the game. And I can't tell you how hard I was rooting for the Patriots in this game. And I'm so upset. So the Giants are three and eight now. They have the third pick. The Giants are four and eight now.

I have the fifth pick. I believe the Patriots have the second pick. Do they have the second pick now? Unbelievable. Oh, no. Sorry, sorry. Sorry. They have the third.

The problem is there's like Arizona and the New England. There's like seven teams tied for the fourth pick. So the Giants could get the like, or for the four wins. Giants get the fourth pick, but they're also like one one away from the 10th pick. So it's like terrifying. Tommy, freaking Tommy DeVito

is out here doing like the hey with the two fingers like hey like with the touchdown with all the offensive line and his dad's at the crowd wearing the TD chain and like, hey!

And I'm like got like this everyone's doing about the Sopranos and A.J. Sopranos is kind of the quarterback but I'm thinking of the wire like there's a line of the wire was like this sentimental motherfucker just cost me money and it's like this sentimental

freaking Tommy DeVito is going to cost the Giants freaking Drake Mayor Marvin Harrison Jr. And I I it's fine, like the Giants won the two Super Bowls, but I don't know. It's my brother and I have such different feelings about this. It's fine, the Giants won the two Super Bowls.

He's like, that's all that matters. So here's my question. Am I being ridiculous? email us or your fantasy football at gmail.com, you have thoughts on this. I don't know who wants to jump in first, but am I being ridiculous, like rooting for my team to lose

to theoretically get some pick when this deep drive? My brother is like, let's just win and figure it out later. And like, I get that. You want to build cultural stuff. But parties like, is winning games, am I being ridiculous? Like, is winning games bad or is winning games good when you're clearly as distraught directionless as the giant saw?

It's weird that they only start moving the ball when they need to lose. I don't think beating the Patriots 10 to 7 with Tommy DeVito is building culture. You should be wanting to lose. Yeah, but here, let me pose it to you this way. Do you think that Brian Dayball and Wink Martindale are the men for the job? and they should stay, and it would be good if they were the long term.

So, you know, like offensive and defensive, like leaders. There's some friction between them personally, I think, but I think,

frankly, that's kind of like the frustrations that happen when you're very complaining. You're losing. Who made the playoffs

that are having the worst season of their careers. But having said that, unquestionably, I think that Daible and Shio Shane and this whole brain trust and wink,

everyone should stay. The defense is incredible for the Giants. How many turnos they have in the last two games? Like eight? No, no, almost 10.

Turnovers in last two games. The defense should stay. And Daibled, we're not getting rid of Daible. Like, I think that's crazy. I don't care what's happened this season. Like, everything's gone wrong. The Giants of no good skill players is like, I get, build a team. And so I don't think they should change anything.

They should change the quarterback. I don't know. I'm like, I land somewhere in the middle where I'm like, Craig, I'm with you. This particular win is not like building culture. But at the same time. It's culture in the way that American culture is like we have blue is a flavor here. But at the same time, I do think things can get so ugly that it really sets you back more than like, oh, it will come back next year and be good kind of deal.

You know, like, it gets, gets into you. It, like, gets into the fabric of the team. And, like, you start to, like, just be losers. You know what I mean? Losing leads to resentment. Resetment is poison. Yeah. And I don't, so I don't know exactly how to, like, say that.

But I do think there is something to the idea that, like, if everybody, like, if you're losing on purpose, everybody starts to hate each other. everybody like lose their confidence. No one's jelling. No one likes each other. Like that will, that can carry over to the next season. But then it's like, oh look,

Trevor Lawrence is here. I agree. I agree. It's kind of like, Deke, I hear what you're saying. Deke and I agree. Like I am.

I'm talking about in a vacuum, not necessarily specifically for the 2024 NFL draft. You know what I mean? I am the champion of beating the drum that like the quarterbacks to succeed disproportionately go to teams that have winning culture.

Yeah. However, I agree with you, Craig, where it's like, it's not winning culture. The Giants had six takeaways against Washington,

and they had three today. That's nine turnovers. Damn. And functionally speaking, the Giants really won the Washington game by five. So that means that they have a margin of victory of really, I mean, the pick six at the end,

but they really won the last two games by eight points and they had nine turnovers. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's not impressive. That's not a good. And so I,

like, yeah, it's like the problem is actually when you get the quarterback purgatory forever. I don't know, TK. Let's just say right now, the Patriots get this first pick or something.

Look, it's November. The college football season isn't done. The draft process has barely started. But if you had to pick right now, for whatever weird reason that I'm making up, if you had to make the number one pick right now, would you do Drake May, quarterback at the UNC,

Caleb Williams, the quarterback at a USC, the one of California, or just be like, either Marvin Harrison Jr. Ohio State, who would you pick for the Patriots? I think, and to be clear, I'm not sure yet, but I think I was, yeah, bow necks.

I still think I would pick Caleb Williams. I think just like the things he can do that are rare to me are like what kind of sets him apart from Drake, maybe at the same time. I think it's just going to be a stylistic difference. And no one's ever going to agree on this because they're completely different styles of quarterback. And Caleb Williams does everything out of structure.

He has like this playmaking genius. He has a huge arm. He can make any throw off platform. He's actually a really good runner too. Like there's so many things like about Caleb Williams. But Drake may, I would say it's like trying to choose, and this is how it's going to be framed. It's like trying to choose between Justin Herbert and Patrick Pahombs stylistically.

Like, what do you want? You know? So I don't know. I still lean Williams, though, I think. You know, everyone's annoyed with the idea of the Patriots potentially getting Caleb Williams. They're making the Spurs-Wemby thing. Like, oh, great. The last time we wanted to get the best prospect of the last 10 years,

the Spurs, they got them. And now the Patriots, a team who's been fantastic for the last 20 years might get Caleb Williams. Do you guys think if Belichick leaves the Patriots and now Belichick and Brady are gone, that the Patriots still retain that hatred among all fans? Or you no longer care if the Patriots get Caleb Williams because Belichick has gone and Brady's gone. And it's just like a new team now. Or do you think that will still kind of persist in people, the hatred of the Patriots? Like if they hire Mike Vrable and they get Caleb Williams, will anyone be like, oh, great,

the Patriots got the best quarterback again? Or is it like, oh, well, Belichick's gone now. so it's not really the same thing anymore. People hate teams fans more than they hate the team. Well, that's because, I mean, they have no relationship to the team. Like, yeah, the only way they interact with the team in their everyday life is with fans. That's the thing. It's like I don't want to generalize, but I feel like think about the teams you hate.

And it's like, are those the teams that you hate because they either beat your team or are the teams you hate because you're to deal with the people who like that team? And so I think that as long as the Boston people in your life, life or sad, you won't care, but the team's bad. But as soon as the team's good, you're like, no, I don't want these people to be happy. This is something that came up. I saw this on Twitter. I apologize for I didn't, I don't remember who I saw it from. But basically, right now the bears are on track to get the first pick.

And their choices this year are going to be Caleb Williams, who his main principal issue is he doesn't play on time, which is like the biggest issue that Justin Fields has. And are they going to be like so like having PTSD from Justin Fields like not. getting the ball out on time that they're going to decide to go another way. And their other option is Drake Bay,

who comes from North Carolina, which is where Trubisky went. Like, is this guy another fucking Trubisky? No, the bears are just sitting there like, it's like, it's like,

is this a trap? Yeah, like, what do we do here? Are they just, they should just put and take, this is the case of the where they just take Marvin Harrison.

It's like a fucking edipus complex. It's like, you want to fuck your mother and kill your father. It's like, you want to just draft Justin Fields or Mitch Trubisky? Like, you got to do,

one of them. What is it? So unbelievable. Oh, my God. This is why I don't think the bears should be allowed to draft either of those guys. So do they panic and trade up and take both? Or do they panic and just take neither? Oh, my God. Well, there's this, maybe they'll panic and just keep Justin Fields and like trade down again, you know? Yeah, Fields is going to finish the season strong and they're going to trade down to three and get Marvin Harrison and stink for the next three years. And Justin Fields is going to get sacked like 90 times again. Yeah. that's all right so yeah we're an NFL draft show we'll get into all that yeah just a nice little plug there stick around don't touch that dial for the next two months one month right

one month right one month right couple belated thoughts on thanksgiving um jordan love and deck prescott had absolutely went off packers beat the lions lines or cowboys destroyed washington Craig lord jordan love check in i waited to talk about jordan love till he was good again i skipped the situation I was going to say, right? Never the back time. This is your victory lap moment. I mean, yeah, he looks, he looks good. The poor Lions, just, God forbid, they win a game on Thanksgiving.

This is the one time they were favored against the Packers who have historically been fantastic for the last 20 years and they still lost. God forbid. But all the skill players on Green Bay looks really good on Thursday. And they're all like 23 years old. And they look like a team where if they're going to, stay healthy and stay together for the next two, three years. I don't know.

Look, I don't know if I think Jordan Love is that good still. I think he seems serviceable and maybe he can, you know, quarterback like a solid offense. But I think Matt Lofloor is an awesome coach and a great play caller. But yeah, look, I'm willing to eat my words and say Jordan Love's not the worst quarterback in the league. I think that the Jordan Love thing this year for me has been a very good microcosm for something that just kind of happens in this space.

and fantasy and in draft coverage and basically just NFL coverage in general, which is you're, you can be right for a little while and then you're really wrong for a little while, and then you get right again for a little while. Like there's no, like, you're never just right. And then the next season,

we look at the average and we're like, well, and it's like it's never the average. It's like you're right or wrong for a little while. And then you're right or wrong again for a little while. But like my take on Jordan, because like basically what, you know, obviously, high if it's like Jordan level out in the off season,

he played pretty shitty from like week three to week eight. I said he'd be better than Rogers this year, which was correct. Yeah. Sure. Well, we'll see when he returns. You're wrong. You're right for a while until he comes back. Yeah.

That was true. I was wrong for four plays. But I would say generally, I'm pretty impressed with Jordan Love. I think, honest, like, from a process point of view, I think I'm with Craig that he's never going to be like a superstar type receiver or type quarterback. But as a guy who's a facilitator of this offense and distribute the football and when they need to go deep, he can throw it deep. He's been way more accurate throwing down the field.

His touchdown pass to Jane Reed on Thanksgiving was insane. He, like, threaded the needle between like four defenders and got it right to Jane Reed at a goal line. But yeah, I've been overall pretty impressed. I'm relatively bullish on him right now until I, until he proves me wrong in a couple of weeks when he starts sucking again. Yeah, he beat the Chargers in the Lions defense. Congrats.

All right. I think the overall point still is such a young team. It's like it's just also, it's hard to. know why things happen. Sometimes, like, he's missed for sure. That's deep. Yeah. No, but I'm just saying, like, why are we here?

It's just a literally chaotic system when, like, every skill player on the offense is not old enough to, like, rent a freaking car. You know what I mean? That's all. Imagine if God came to you, Hyphitz, and he's like, I can answer one question. And you said, why do things happen in the NFL? How do you really know if a team is good? email us at ringerfinacy football at gmail.com what you would ask god if you got the one question but like wrong answers only

you know what i would ask here's a little transition is dac prescott actually the MVP of the NFL that's what i would ask our lord and savior right there if jalen hurts tears his ACL next week dac prescott's the MVP in my opinion remember the four game stretch in 2020 before he he broke his ankle when he was having the hottest start to any career ever he was on pace to break the passing record. He was averaging 30 fantasy points a game. He's like kind of been doing that for the last five weeks of the season. He's averaging 29 fantasy points a game, over 300 yards a game, three and a half touchdowns per game. He is a 17 to two touchdown to interception ratio over that stretch. Granted, they haven't been playing the best teams, the best

defenses. But DAC is quietly the number three quarterback in fantasy football on the season. Really? Has been a bit, yes. And has been a bit of a Lansberg. I got to. That's pretty crazy. DAC was the ultimate bylaw at quarterback. Yes. He really was. They had a couple awful public prime time collapses. And then since then, for like five weeks now, they've been destroying teams and

DAC's been putting on a clinic. So I will say this. I don't think he's the, I think fantasy, he actually is probably the MVP of the last six weeks, just because if you, you might have been able to get freaking DAC for like Kyle Pitts or some shit. Like, DAC was uncutable. But for real life, the teams that the Cowboys would be, They beat the Giants 40-0-0 in week one,

and that was like the defense item up to 60-0 before Dak walked in the field. They beat the Mac Jones Patriots where the Patriots scored three points. Bryce Young and the Panthers. Zach Wilson and the Jets. The one real game they had was the Chargers where they played Herbert 117.

They played the Rams in the game that I believe that Stafford got hurt. And now they've, they beat Sam Howell in Washington and now the Giants again. So it's like, maybe, but the Bill's game coming up, if you have an argument for DAC, it's this bill. They, what the Cowboys play,

the Seahawks coming up, right? I think next week. Then they play the Eagles. Sorry, yeah, right. Then the Eagles. Like that to me is the DAC. That's the DAC stretch. I mean, yeah, look, like,

is he the most important quarterback on a team this year? No, it's obviously Mahomes and Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts. But if you base this off statistics, who is having statistically the best season at quarterback this year? I mean, there's a strong case to be made that it's him. We'll see. Look, whole thing with the Cowboys is they're like the reverse

dolphin, or they're kind of like the dolphins too. But Seahawks, Eagles, Bills, dolphins, lions, that's a pretty, we'll see about that. The dolphins have a similar thing. He did have 400 yards and three touchdowns and no picks against the Eagles three weeks ago. But yeah. All right, maybe.

Yeah, this is another great example of your right for a while and then wrong for a while. It's like, you guys bullied me into taking Purdy over Dak a couple weeks ago. And now Dak is like back. I'm not actually blaming you, but do you remember when I think it was when the 49ers played the Cowboys in like week four or five.

I can't remember exactly what it was. And like Purdy just sliced them and diced them. And then that was when Hyfitts and I were like, okay, fine. We accept that Purdy is good. Craig left for like one episode. And we were like, ah, the Purdy. And then I was forced to be like, okay, I guess I would take Purdy over Dak. But now I definitely don't feel that way.

It was our Rumspringer from Craig. I was just like, yeah, I was just going with the flow. But, you know, again, this is another reason. Like, I feel like the narratives on DAC changed. like the wind blows. It's just like every, every couple of weeks, it's like totally different.

What, what, either what Dallas fans feel like or nationally what people feel like, is Dak even the guy for the Cowboys? Like, I feel like early in the season, people are like, oh, they're going to move on from Dak.

He's not even their quarterback. That being said, like, no matter how, if Dak wins the MVP this year, I will still be betting against him in any playoff game scenario. Well, honestly,

the MVP for the Cowboys this year is Daron. The MVP for the Cowboys this year is Daron Bland, who is a freaking, fifth round pick last year. Defensive back is a fifth round pick out of, what, Sacramento State and Fresno State in college. And now he has five pick sixes on the season,

which is already an NFL record, even though it's not even December yet. And the stat of the weekend that so many, thank you to everyone who added us, we got so many tweets. That Duran Bland has more touched, a freaking defensive back has more touchdowns this year than Kyle,

Kyle Pitts has in his entire career. in his career. Kyle Pitts has four touchdowns in his career. This is his third season. He is almost averaging one touchdown per season. God damn it. Craig, I looked it up today.

On a per game basis, Kyle Pitts is the tight end 19. He's one spot below Johnny Smith in half PBR points for game. You know what the fuck? He's so funny is how often did I read that stat in like the preseason that Kyle Pitts was not the number one fantasy. tied-down on the Falcons last year. And like, I was so regret not being like the take purge.

Like that'll happen again. I know. Is averaging six points a game? So we do, we do two truths in a lie. And usually I do two tight ends who outscored Kyle Pitts this week and a lie. But I want to do, I'm going to do five players who have more touchdowns over the last three years than Kyle Pitts and a lie. So these are players over the last three years in the NFL have.

scored more receiving touchdowns than Kyle Pitts. I'm going to list you six. One is actually a lie. I know sometimes I usually just make them all. Still don't fucking believe you right now. No, I promise. So six guys here. Five of them have more touchdowns over the last three years

than the fifth overall pick in the draft, Kyle Pitts, whatever he was. Fourth or fifth? Yeah. Over Chase. Okay. Jarvis Landry. Remember him?

That's how he played. Last year, I guess. tight end Michael Pruitt. Oh, God damn. Tight end Adam Troutman. These are people who have more touchdowns than Kyle Pitts in the last three seasons. Running back Alexander Madison

just as a receiver. And Clyde Edwards Hilaire just as a receiver. And tight end Robert Tonion. Oh, my God. So the second string tight end on the Broncos. So didn't Tony have like, didn't Tony have like 11 touchdowns in 2020, but then like,

read his, like, how many games has even played since Kyle Pitts under the league? So, funny thing about Robert Tonin is you are correct in that he had that giant year, but that was 2019. 2019? Oh, my God. Sorry, it's 2020, but it was not the last three seasons. Michael Pruitt must have more because Michael Pruitt was the other Falcons tight end who finished ahead of pits last year.

I'm going to say Troutman. I think Troutman's a lie. even though he scored a touchdown today. Oh, no, he scored a touchdown today. Oh, my God. You think that's one in to five. I bet Tanya is the lie because he was hurt. And Michael, Michael, I don't know.

This is so hard. I don't know. Go with Jarvis because he's retired. Hold on. First of all, let's frame these questions. This is the backup tight end on the Bears, the number two tight end on the Bears, the blocking number two tight end on the Broncos.

the running back, I can't even remember who the other guys are. These are second string blocking tight ends and third string and teaming tight end on the Falcons. And backup running backs who are catching touchdowns. And Clyde Edwards-Lare is like one of the biggest buss ever. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to say Troutman. Yeah, okay. Adam Trowman has more touchdowns and cowpitz.

God, the answer is Robert Tonian. Oh, my God. Who barely plays. Who has four touchdowns, who has the same amount of touchdowns as Cow Pets and last three years. We should just name it the Kyle Pitts Memorial Burnbook, which also Burnbook, hello, Mean Girls is back with the musical.

Still, no, the answer. The best email we got explained the Mean Girls thing was that people who want to see musicals will find the musicals without the trailer. People who don't want to see musicals, don't want to see it in the trailer. That actually, it makes sense. Yeah, yeah. But we just kind of weird. Mean Girls, I know it is weird.

Burnbook, Kyle Pitts Memorial Burnbook. Week one, we burn Drake, London. The Falcons, Week 2, burn Kyle Pitts. Week 3, Nasha Harris, the Steelers. Yep, he's back. Yeah, week four, Dallas got it for the Eagles. Kind of forgot about week five and six. Things fell apart.

Week seven, Damien Pierce for the Texans. Week eight, Miles Sanders, running back for the Panthers. Week nine, we doubled up. Tony Pollard for the Cowboys, Dek and MacKee out for the Seahawks. Week 10, we did Trevor Lawrence to the Jags, the Jags, George Pickens and the Steelers. Trevor's back, baby. Yeah. Trevor's back.

Gabe Davis back. Should have caught the game with a touchdown. Gabe Davis back. Week 12. Do you guys have one? I have a very strong candidate. I think I do as well. If it's you go first.

first. I would like to burn Cooper Cup for the rims. That's who I have. That's who I was thinking, even though I have my reservations, but... Cooper Cup has not had seven PPR points in 40 days. It's a nightmare. This is a nightmare season. Absolute fucking nightmare. I'm in a waking, I'm in a waking nightmare. Please, make it stop. You're in purgatory, because what can you do? You're not going to not start Cooper Cup if he's, if he's practicing and playing. You have to, because he's always, there's always a chance. He has 30 fantasy points.

But the last five weeks, three, one, five, four, five. What are you supposed to do? Cooper Cup is literally just a quieter Aaron Rogers where he's also trying to come back from this injury way too soon, but he doesn't talk about it. Like, do you remember when Sean McVeigh said

we're putting Cooper Cup on IR just because we don't want Cooper Cup to, like, convince us to put him in a game? So we're going to do, like, it's literally like when you hide like chocolate from yourself and you're like, I don't want to eat this later. Like they just hid Cooper Cup from themselves. And it came back.

And now he keeps getting these ankle injuries and these injuries when he comes back in. And it's like, it is not better if you'd be hurt. I'm not saying that. But like, Justin Jefferson being on IR means you have a different player in your lineup. This has been worse than having a different player in your lineup. This is like after a breakup, you have to like cut all social media, delete their number. I don't want to be tempted to put this guy back into my lineup. I think the frustrating part about Cooper Cup for me is not only that he just keeps getting dinged up and he's just not doing anything.

I mean, he keeps like not being effective, but he's had like really gross, ugly drops, too. Like, he's actually playing bad. You know what I mean? Like, every time I see him, he's like fucking something up. It's like so frustrating. I know. He's like clearly hobbled. He hit cuts.

Yes. Yeah, but I agree with you. He caught a pass at the start of the game today and like could barely get up. He was like grimacing on the sidelines and yet he played the whole damn game. Craig, he made the point that there's something funny and poetic about the fact that toughness is bad in fantasy football because in real life, it's great to. grit out an injury. And in fantasy, it's actually terrible. Like guys like Amarri Cooper, grid out injuries, you're like, God damn it, Amar. Like Cooper Cup's playing for the Rams and we're

like, God damn it, Cooper. Yeah, like they've won the last two weeks. And Cooper Cup being on the field means the defense has to account for him. They're doubling him. He, you know, Sean McPay can use him as a decoy. But the decoy is one of the single worst parts of fantasy football. He's averaging 25 yards a game the last five weeks. Me plugging Cooper Cup into my lineup every week reminds me of the Jets starting Zach Wilson for like half the fucking season. I just need to let it go. I need to just accept that this is a sunk cost.

They're playing the Browns next week. God damn it, dude. What a nightmare. I hate this. What a nightmare. 2-2-Out well, big game today. Oh, my God. They're running back at like six catches.

So funny. All right. Yeah, Cups got to go in. All right. Cooper Cup, you're in the burn book. Very terrible about this. Which, you know, judging off how things have been going for the burn book candidates.

He's going to have a huge week next week. Yeah. There you go. Dude, in our defense, Gabe Dave had like, Gabe Dave had a zero and then like a two and then like a zero after that. Like he had to go in. He had to go in. There's our football analysis for the Sunday.

We have to have a very important conversation, guys. I would like to have a 60 second take purge. some, you know, like a safe space, if you will. Like, just, I would like a safe space. Okay. I sent you a video earlier today because you guys had not seen Dolly Parton's halftime show where she performed.

Where was this? And when was this? This was the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day. And it probably tore families asunder across America. I have one question for both of you. I'm going to start with you. They say age before beauty, but I guess sometimes you don't have to pay.

Dolly Parton, would you? Oh my God. No. But, I mean, she looks great for 70 or whatever. 77. 77 years old? 77. Get the fuck out of here.

That's insane. Man, she's up there with some of the all-time greats in terms of looks for her age. Craig? I'm a married man, Daniel. No, it's outside the context. of that. That's not what we're talking about. Then, sure. Sure.

Worst case, great story. Worst case scenario, great story. Hell of an icebreaker, you know, at parties. Icebreaker. Who's going to start with that? I mean, it's a good way to like, you know. How are you doing? You ever heard of the song 9 to 5? Oh my God. It's so funny. Like, did we have this discussion on or off the pot? I can't remember. But like, when you look at Clint Eastwood, like, when you look at Clint Eastwood,

40 years ago, he was still old back then. Yeah. And like what Dolly, what Dolly Parton is? Like, she's been around forever. She was old like 30 years ago. She still looks great. You know she's five feet tall. What?

I knew she was very short. Tiny. Did you know that she has a book? I don't even know what the program is. Like, she sends us books every month. Who's us? Like my family. Oh.

You can like sign up for this thing. and it's like she like sponsors these books and she sends you free books. Kevin loves these books. It's like his favorite books every month. Also, she's funded a Dara vaccine, which is just an incredible footnote. She's an American hero. She's like, she's the best. She's a institution.

She is. I went back and I watched the halftime show. You know what I was really impressed by is I actually don't even know if you can lip sync at a halftime show? I'm assuming you can, but maybe it would be hard. I don't know. She wasn't lip syncing clearly. And I'm like, this woman is 77 years old.

and put on like a 20-minute performance in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium and just wasn't lip-sinking and sounded pretty good. Show Jack Harlow how it was done. We're at an all-time apex for super old people performing at concerts.

It has never been like this. Mick Jagger goes up there for the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards and you're like, I can't believe these people are still alive. ACDC is performing. Like Rolling Stones are performing. Axel Rose is still out there performing.

I can't believe. that these like dudes in their mid-70s and they're Paul McCartney's performing. Elton John. There are so many people out there still going. They don't look like that. Well, okay, let's call a spade of spade here. All right.

Dolly's was built in a doctor's office. She's built div. No, I'm saying, I mean, look, built things. She's had some work done, is what Craig is. Really? Yeah. I would say a couple things have been done. You think so?

A couple alterations, I would say. You sure? So it's like, yeah, she looks good, but like, you know. Still would. Oh, man. So the non-the-married guy definitely would bring this segment up on a pod. I just think the fact that like this 77-year-old woman looked hot on Thanksgiving as like millions of dudes with their families watching this was like the funniest thing. I get you.

So you think it was that big of a, it was that striking where everybody was taken aback by her beauty as she performed. I don't know whatever else was doing. I know what I was thinking about. I don't know. I don't they speak for myself. Email us. Your favorite, your hottest octogenarians and your hottest septuagenarians.

This is the next power hour? Yeah, we're going to power. It's like Helen Mirren 1, tear drop. Heather Locklear? No, how old is Heather Locklear? She's not even a boomer. They have to be. They're not even boomers.

She's 62. Doesn't qualify. That doesn't count. They have to be at. they have to be eligible for Social Security. My fault. My bad. At least.

They have to be where if you see that their name is trending on Twitter, you have to wonder, oh, God. That's the bar. Oh, my God. Brigger Fantasy Football at Gmill.com. Thank you, TK. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Carlos, for producing this episode.

Thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, Dolly. Dolly Parton. 9 to 5, by the way, is my wife, Liz's favorite song on the earth. On the earth. Yeah.

Not on Mars, but on Earth. She loves it. It's a great song. It's a great, great song. I think Dolly Parton is also written. Hasn't she written a bunch of songs for people, too? Yeah, she wrote, I will always love you.

Oh, that's what you're saying. Yeah. There you go. Do the, have you seen her perform, because obviously, she's, what, Milo Cyrus is godmother, right? And have you seen,

they do a wrecking ball duet into I will always love you? which is like a line in Recky Ball and it's like the scene is pretty great that's sick I like that yeah Dolly truly is a treasure thank you so much Dolly 77 years

let's keep it going maybe we should all go to a show is she performing is she on tour Hi Fitz I'm sure you know when is she coming to do something You had like real Vince Vaughn Is she in the house

She's still around Is she in the house Where is she? She butter butter That was like that energy. You sailor, you. They bill for speed or bill for comfort. I don't know if she's still touring.

Luckily, Dolly Parton Tour in 2024.com. Oh, no, they want my Facebook login. Oh, no. Disaster. Disaster scenario. I don't think she's touring again. All right. Goodbye, everyone.