The Ringer NFL Show - Week 15 Recap: The RB Playoff Collapse, Next Man Up All-Stars, and the Arthur Smith Burn Book

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

The guys recap NFL Week 15, starting a discussion about whether the Bills are the best team in the AFC despite their record. They also talk about disappointing fantasy playoff performances, backups who had big weeks, and the most valuable team for fantasy. Plus, they rename 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

What's up everybody? It's Awesome Rivers from Offguard, and I've got some exciting news. Offguard hosted by me and my guy Pasha Gigi is officially moving to our own podcast feed. We are now dropping two shows every week. Me and Pasha go way back and talk so much hoops already that we figured it was time to fire up the mics and let you in on these conversations. Every week, Pasha and myself will hit on the biggest stories happening around the league. Tap into the show twice a week on our new Offguard feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy football show. My name is Danny Hydefitts, and I am joined by Danny Killing Krik Borlebeck.

We are going to be recapping week 15. Close. Because the Sunday of Week 15 is done, as is the Saturday and the Thursday. There's so many days now in each week. Every day of the week. Yes. All of the days in the week 15 except Monday are done. But first, quick programming note, next Sunday, we're not going to be doing this Sunday recap show.

It's Christmas Eve Sunday, Sunday, Christmas Day, Monday. We draw the line at Christmas. All right, folks. We're not going to record. We're going to be giving you on Tuesday, December 26. We'll have like a combo, like a Sunday recap, waivers, trivia. We're going to get you all that stuff that we usually do,

but it'll be a little late. It's tough timing with the holiday. So we'll still get you. Our waivers help, but it'll be fantasy championship time by then. If you have any questions, we will add Danny Hyvitz's phone number in the pod description. You can text him on Christmas. Call him.

You should just use old-fashioned calling. FaceTime them. Just so you know it's not like an AI thing. Dude, Dula Lipa tweeted her phone number and was like, Is that real? Is that real? Well, I had to find out for journalistic reasons. And it was a texting community managed by a company.

So I'm shocked. It wasn't. But my number will be really it. Okay. Anyway, week 15, lots of get to. We're going to do a lot of complaining. A lot of really festivists, a lot of varying grievances. But first, we have to do a very important award, which is the best team in the

AFC is eight and six award, which we're giving to the Buffalo Bills. How about that? Yeah, they are the best team in the AFC. Like, I feel really good about that. I think I would pick them to beat any other team in the AFC right now. And I believe that they would be favored against any other team if they were at home. On the road, I'm not so sure. Even the Ravens?

If the bills, if it's in Buffalo, I think, I mean, they were just favored against the Cowboys. And they beat them by 30. So, yeah, look, I feel comfortable saying that the bills are the best team in the AFC, and they probably won't make the playoffs. They spanked the Cowboys. That was like a, that was never once in the, like, not for one moment was it close. Even when it was zero to zero. It was not close.

It was 1.301 to 10, but to Craig's point, it was really 31 to 3. And then the Bills, the Cowboys kind of scored a touchdown of a safe face. Cheap garbage touchdown. Do you think this was a worst loss for Dallas or a better win for Buffalo? I think it was a better win for Buffalo. Because the reality is, didn't Dallas clinch a play a spot anyway, even though they lost? It's like, the reality is Dallas had an uphill path for any of this mattering because even though they beat the Eagles last week, the Eagles can kind of just win out against their crappy schedule and like get the NFC East win anyway. And the problem for Dallas is that they're averaging 40 points per game at home,

but they're probably going to get the wild card and have to play a road game. They're averaging 18 points per game on the road. But Buffalo, even with this win, Buffalo still has to at least go three and one down the stretch to make the playoffs. And they probably have to just run the table. So this was huge for Buffalo because even if Buffalo doesn't make it, we're going to be like, wow, they're probably the best team they have seen anyway. I mean, if you guys had to power rank the league, I mean, you guys do power rankings every week. where are the bills right now, you think?

And the eight and six bills. I mean, I had them in the top five coming in this week. I mean, the 49ers are clearly first to me. I think even if you put the Ravens in second, I don't see an argument to put the bills lower than three. Yeah, that's where I've got them right now. I hope the Ravens just maybe like a coin flip above them. The Ravens dominated the Jags on Sunday Night Football.

We're not going to like get into that game, but that was a pretty impressive performance. Lamar has really dialed in right now, so I think they're a really good team. I think the Ravens defense might be better than the Bill's defense. They're more balanced, you know? But I think it's worth noting that how much, I think that this is true for Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes,

with the MVP stuff, which at this point, it's not even worth going into the MVP. Obviously, Dak was, you know, he was the co-favored Purdy. Dak had a terrible game. Purdy played great. We'll see if Purdy becomes the favor, especially with Tyree Kaley. He didn't play, so it's like he's going to get 2,000 yards or not.

But with Josh Allen and Mahomes, it's like there's a couple plays where you're like, if they just go differently, where nothing, Holmes or Allen did changes, we think about them totally different. You think about the Bills. I mean, again, Jake Elliott, the kicker for the Eagles, that Bills Eagles game makes a 61-yarder in the terrible weather

to prolong that game. The Bills almost beat the Eagles and the Cowboys this season. I think we would think very differently of this Bills team if they had beaten the Bills in the Cowboys in the last month. So kind of like everyone kind of gave up on the Bills. as good as we thought they were. I think I'm the most impressed with their defense. I think we all knew that the offense was solid and that, I mean,

their point differential was incredible. Josh Allen is playing really well despite some turnover stuff. But, I mean, they essentially held Dallas to three points for the majority of the game other than a garbage time touchdown. And Dallas was humming. They were the most potent offense in the league other than the Niners. And, like, Dak was the runaway MVP candidate, in my opinion, until this game. And I think the Bill's defense literally derailed Dak Prescott's MVP campaign.

and handed it off to Brock Birdie. Before we move on from the Bills, James Cook, I want to talk about him really quickly because I think he's been a big part of, like, their ability to run the ball and be like a little more balanced than they were early in the season is playing a big part in their sort of

renaissance over the last few games. Yeah, it's worth noting. They ran the ball 45 times today. The Bills ran the ball 45 times and they threw it 15 times. It gets down. Josh Allen had seven completions in this game. Seven.

And they dismantle it. the Cowboys. Yeah. So James Cook, 25 rushes, 179 yards in a touchdown, and then he added

two catches for 42 yards in touchdown. I think that's the second straight game. He's had a catch, touchdown reception. He's just playing

extremely well right now, and so I wanted to shout him out. I've always kind of thought he looks good and short spurs, but they're finally giving him sort of

like a featured role in this offense. He is right now, third in the NFL in scrimmage yards, which is wild to me, 1400 scrimmage yards right now behind

only CMC, and I believe Tyreek, I can't remember off the top of my head. I looked it up earlier. But yeah, I mean, he has 31 rushes of 10 plus yards, which is second only to Chris McCaffrey. So he's an explosive runner. I think he is like sort of a really good fit for their offense because they create space and kind of give him like these like delayed handoffs, these draw plays, and he's just really good at like sort of slicing through the defense.

I don't know. I just think James Cook is coming on and he's like looking like a star. Yeah, I mean, I think the bill's. came into the, like this season wanting to run the ball. The bills lost last year to the Bengals and in part because they were snowing and they just couldn't. They were so out physicaled. And the bills wanted to be a physical run.

I think in some ways this is the game that Buffaloes wanted to win the way they wanted to win it for kind of like two years. They wanted to run the clock out and run it down the throat. And also when the Cowboys lost to the Cardinals in week three, like they dominated the Giants 40 nothing in week one. And then I think week two, three, the Dallas just lost to the Cardinals. We were like, what happened? Cardinals ran it down the Cowboys throat.

And the Cowboys are kind of bullies, but they get a huge lead on you and you have to pass. but if you can take the lead in Dallas and run it, that's like the weakness in Dallas's team. It really is when you make Michael Parsons not have to just rush the passer, especially to Marcus Lawrence too. So the, but to Craig's point, I think you're right, Craig,

because the flip side is for fair or not, whatever, the Brock Party MVP thing, it is becoming a perfect storm because the 49ers were incredible. The 49ers beat the Cardinals 45 to 29 today. The first half was close. The second half was not close to close. Like, it was just, the 49ers offense in this, it was a hot knife through butter feels super fair. But Brock Brady had, he left, first he left.

I thought he was, I was worried he was concussed. The defender like ran into him. It was crazy. But Brock Brady, I think they called it a shoulder injury. He left. Didn't look like it bothered him at all. Bertie completed 16 to 25 passes for 242 yards, four touchdown passes, no sacks, no picks. And then Craig and D.K., you guys kept passing or texting back and forth.

and Craig is like, Brock Purdy is four touchdowns every single week and nobody gives. Every week. It's becoming a thing. It's become so routine and no one cares. Oh, what did Brock Pretty do? Oh, 310, four touchdowns, no turnovers. Oh, nine or didn't break a sweat. Does he ever look like tired to you or like he's even, he just is the most like monotone. He looks like he's thrown to his kids in the backyard. Just loving it up. There was a touchdown pass early in the game where Debo Samuel had 12 yards of separate. according to next-gen stats. Love to see that. He was so open on a touchdown that he had time to catch it,

fall down, get back up, and run into the end zone. It wasn't even like the smoothest get-up either. It took him way longer than you think of a guy. Like Christian McCaffrey would get up and start running. But anyway, Brock Purdy now has the league's most touchdown passes, 29 touchdown passes, number one in the NFL.

Yep. And he has seven interceptions. Just four touchdowns every week. Like it's nothing. Just every single week. he has 300 yards and three touchdowns. He's also second in the league in passing yards. I don't know.

I don't even want to fall into the trap of whether Pertie is the MVP or not. The Niners offense is absolutely incredible. And just the whole thing works together so perfectly. It's honestly insane just the way it works with like McCaffrey be able to just be the best running back, especially now that Nick Chubb has hurt. McCaffrey's like the best in between the tackles runner, I swear to God. But he's also the best receiving back in the NFL. And George Kittle is George Kittle, but he also can block.

And all these guys can play. these different positions. The fact that Debo Samuel is Debo Samuel and went in motion and got as open as he was. Kyle Shannon, it's like he's playing Madden, but he actually knows how Madden works and he's playing. He's like Cardinal Jones. And every defensive coordinator he faces is that kid in the hospital. He's playing on easy mode.

Shanahan's playing on easy mode. I think I saw the static, and I'm sorry if I'm incorrect on this, but I believe Debo Samuel has 20 touches or he has seven touchdowns in his last 20 touches. like that's pretty good like efficiency. Just keep going like that, man. The Niners are so clearly the best team in the league that don't you think it's kind of like, if they don't win the Super Bowl, I don't, I'm not even going to award, like, whoever, if another team wins other than the Niners, I'm going to look back on this year and completely discount that win because I'm going to say the Niners are clearly the best team in the league.

And it's funny because I don't think, in my opinion, correct me if you guys, if you guys disagree. This is probably the most dominant team, especially offensively. since what? The Manning Broncos? 2015? Who lost in the Super Bowl? The 2018, the Chiefs of the Rams in 2018 were pretty out of control. That felt insane at the time. And then they had the 51, 54 to 51 game. But the Niners have this total ability of play.

I think that's kind of the difference to me where they feel is that you're kind of like, what's the weakness here? And it's like, I guess their defensive tackles are hurt. So they might be able not be able to stop the run if they have to. I mean, I think the fact that the Niners' defense, completely separately is also like maybe in a game to game situation could be the best defense in the NFL is just like crazy like the fact that they can they can run the ball and run out the clock they can score on three plays if they have to but then also they have nick boas is one of the best

pass rushers and fred warners like maybe the best linebacker in the lake like they just have so many things so Craig to your point though just like in and hyfe it's really like overall team quality i saw this tweet from aaron shats last week the 49ers are the the number five best team ever, tracked by DVOA through 13 games. Oh, so DVOA goes back like 50 years. Yeah. So, like, might as well call it ever.

And then now they won like 41 to 25. And like DVOA awards like blowouts, I think a little bit more just because we knew that dominant, like the DVA goes up. And so like this is legitimately, to your point, one of the best teams ever, like period. And on that note, the other, we also have to give an award to the only actually great fantasy

player award. The only good player in fantasy football award is Christian McCaffrey. He's the one. D.K.K. said that earlier and I thought it was so funny. He was like, Christian McCaffrey's the only good fantasy football player. And that's honestly, he's pretty much correct. Maybe Tyree Kill. But it's just like the essence of what you're saying, I totally understand. He's just the only one who's the best. McCaffrey had 187 yards from scrimmage today. He had three touchdowns, including the aforementioned, so open that he fell down and then got up and ran into the end zone really awkwardly. He had 42 points in full PPR scoring. And I think that what's

funny about it is forget point per reception. Christian McCaffrey was like barely, barely behind the pace for a point per minute in this game. He had 29 PPR points through 32 minutes. I think he had like 39 or 39 points through like 43 minutes. Like he was so close to a point per minute way later in the game than you should ever have something like that. Like he had 130 yards to touchdowns, two plays into the second half. And I won.

There's statistical arguments, but then I also keep thinking about I really do believe that Christian McCaffrey, and there's so many parts of this office, I think he really is the best, like, player talent scheme surrounding talent coaching. It's the best marriage of all that since Randy Moss and the Patriots. And I don't even know what the third player would be in my lifetime. D.K., you've been watching football longer. Like, I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, but McCaffrey on this team feels iconic in a way that we will, like, not allow people to just, like, compare other players to him.

Like he's going to be in this special box. There's definitely other guys that come to my mind. Like Sean Alexander in 2005 when he rushed, like he won the MVP that year. I'm sure there's Adrian Peterson seasons. I'm sure there's Ladania Tomlinson seasons. But like recently, certainly in the last like 10 years, this is in, you know, like a pretty unique situation for him to shine. He kind of, I was just thinking when you were talking about him, Craig. He's sort of like the LeBron of fantasy where it's like every year he just puts up the most ludicrous numbers.

It's almost to the point where we're dull. We don't even recognize anymore. He scores like three touchdowns and it's like no big deal. You know what I mean? Like, oh, yeah, that's normal. He scored 40 points in fantasy today. Like, yeah, that's expected. We thought you would score 41 points.

And I was just looking at some of the stats. He is averaging 25 and a half, half PPR points per game. That's almost five points more than the RB2. So almost a touchdown better than the RB2. And the median RB1, so like, basically like the middle of like the top group of running backs this year. He's averaging almost nine points better than that. So a 30-yard touchdown per game better than over another very good player.

You know what I mean? Like this is what you're dealing with when you go up against McCaffrey every week. He's scored 203 rushing fantasy points this season, which is of course first. And he's also scored 121 receiving fantasy points this season, which is first. He's basically scored the same amount of receiving points only. In HAPBR as Christian Kirk, he has more fantasy points just from receiving than Drake London, Cooper Cup, Justin Jefferson, Gabe Dave, Deonte Johnson, T. Higgins, like all these big names that we had coming into the season at Receiver. He has more receiving points in fantasy than those guys. So, I mean, again, it's just like, I think we're just numb to it at this point.

He's so freaking good every week. McCaffrey this year is what Travis Kelsey was last year. during the off season, I kept saying that in 2022, Kelsey, the gap, because sometimes we get lost. Like, oh, it's the fourth player. It's like, what you're saying, DK is that McCaffrey is in a tier of alone. And there's all, like, two through eight is their own tier in tier two. And like last year, Kelsey, the gap between number one tight end, Kelsey, number two, Hawkinson, was the same as the gap between number two Hawkinson and 22, Mike Issicky.

This year, the gap between Christian McCaffrey at number one running back and Rahim Moster at number two running back in fantasy is bigger than the gap between, Rahim Moster at number two and Jalen Warren for the Steelers at 22. That's how incredible McCaffrey's been this year. God, man. And Shanahan is just like showing no fear and giving them as many touches as humanly possible. Nope. Fourth quarter,

six minutes left, just pounded it. Pounded it up the middle of McCaffrey. This is what scares me about this team. They seem like the team of destiny. But oftentimes, the best teams in the league, the iconic teams, at least the last two times this has happened, in my opinion, the 2015 Broncos all-time offense, and the Moss and Brady

pats, both those teams lost. And so, like, I just, I don't know. I'm not, I don't want to jinx the Niners. I just, like, feel this, like, weird juju with this team where it's like, there's so clearly the best team in the league. And I feel like that never works out. It's kind of like when you're in your fantasy and you get a first jump by and your team is the most points in that round.

And you're like, I'm going to lose next week, aren't I? 100%. You drop like 80 next week. It's like, I wish that Joku hadn't scored 30 points twice in a row because now he's scored four next week for me and I'm fucked. So I mentioned Rahim Moster a little bit ago. I want to shout at Rehimoster too, who he's probably the fantasy MVP just purely because he's this number two running back and he went like 100.

Like value in terms of return on investment, yes. Yeah. So Moster just continues to be the fantasy MVP. The dolphins beat the Jets 30 to nothing. It was frankly, once again, sad even by Jets standards. But Reh Moster, which my God. But Reh Moster was at a great thing. So he's 15 carries 42 yards, two Russian touchdowns for Moster.

18 Russian touchdowns on the season past Ricky Williams for the Dolphins' single season record for Russian touchdowns. Wild. And then per Josh Norris at Underdard Mosterner. Most had had more touchdowns the season than he had in his career entering the season.

Wow, is that right? If you look at total touchdowns. He's running so pure. This is the purest run for any, like, running back, I feel like of all time. Just two touchdowns every game. He has 20 touchdowns this season. I mean,

there was a point in the season when we recommend him as like a sell high and he just never tailed off whatsoever like that that to me is like the crazy thing about his season is like almost every player like statistically like regression wise like he's going to tail off you know like you're not going to score two touchdowns every game but this guy has 20 freaking touchdowns this year which by the way is the second most all time among players that are 31 years or older so this is like an all time old guy season john riggins is the only one who scored more touchdowns Oh, Riggs, of course. To me...

No, he's famous, Craig. He's... He's not close to us. John Riggins, what's his deal? He was a fullback. Greatest, one of the greatest players in Washington history. Oh, he was born in 1949. Okay, never mind.

I thought he was, like, recent. I think Rahim Mostert is the perfect example of why you always want to draft a running back on a good offense. Because it's not... Look, Rahim Moster's run for over 100 yards twice this year. And yet, he's having a career year because this team is constantly in the red zone because their offense is extremely explosive. And McDaniels always is designing ways to punch it in the end zone with Mostert.

And I always like teams that run inside the five. I just think that's the smartest way to go and it's safe. And if you can design runs the way that the dolphins can, you get the perfect storm with somebody like Mostard. This is why I have a problem with drafting guys like, you know, Derek Henry on a team with Will Levis or, you know, Brees Hall on the Jets. It's like these guys are just as talented. And if Brees Hall was on the Dolphins, he would probably have 20 touchdowns right now. But this is why, no matter what,

like when you were in a draft and you come down to two different running backs, I'm always going to go for the guy on the good offense because it's just a, it just lifts the floor. Because look, do I think Rahe Mostert is like a talent of rainback? Yes. Is he like a top 10 talent in the league? No.

But this is what you get when you're on the dolphins and teams like this. And the other thing I have to say is that the Dolphins punter was thrilled. I guess the Dolphins Punter has Rahimoster. on his fantasy team and tells Rahim Moster to keep scoring touchdowns and he's like, all right, sure.

But there you. I think it's up to, I think it's up to Rahim. Yeah. I think we have to give the MVP like the most valuable team to the Detroit Lions. Like the Lions,

they probably would have gone to the Texans, but then the Stroud and Tankdale and Nico Collins, they all got hurt for the playoffs, right? So it's like the Lions, meanwhile, just nineers are up there. Yeah.

I mean, dolphins are certainly up there too, but yeah. For this week, although I think, especially because Tyree Kill left for the dolphins this week. He didn't play. which is brutal.

We will get to Jalen Waddle fine with showing up later. But sorry to everyone had Tyree Kiel. My boy. That rat bastard. I was just bathing in it. I was loving it. Sorry to everyone who had Tyree kill

and just like had a scramble. I kind of couldn't. They were like, yeah, it's up to Tyreek. And I kind of thought that meant like he'd play. Yeah, I thought he would play too. Yeah.

He jogged into the stadium but he didn't look like he was limping. You know, he looked good. He was standing on the sideline the whole game. Like, if you have a bad ankle, why he's standing the whole game? That's just my side. I think if they were playing the bills, he would have played.

I know, I know. It was probably the right move for them. In both, like, foresight and hindsight, it was the right move. But, like, still, it's kind of disappointing. But I want to give the MVP to the Detroit lines, because the lines destroyed, decimated, atomized, annihilated, whatever word you want to book, the Broncos on Saturday. This was 42 to 17.

It didn't feel that close. And it was Jared off at five passing touchdowns. Jemir Gibbs running back for the lines had 108 yards and two touchdowns. Amman-Riss St. Brown had a hundred and 112 yards in a touchdown. Sam LaPorter, rookie 10-ended 56 yards and three touchdowns. Jamir Gibbs was the top three running back. Amonra St. Brown was a top three receiver,

and Sam LaPorter was the number one tight end. And this is the kind of game that won for Detroit. You're like, wow, this is really cool if you're a Lions fan. And two, if you're in fantasy, this kind of game, the rare Saturday game that you wake up on Sunday, and if you're playing against these people, you're like, oh, I already lost entering a Sunday. You never feel that way.

I will be, if we do the Memento tattoos, at the end of this season. I'm going to be tattooing Dan Campbell's face on my chest so that next draft season when it comes around, I am just going to name my fantasy team the Detroit Lions, and I'm going to draft all five of them, and I will win my league. The super stack, yeah.

There's going to be one buy week. That will be tough, but other than that, it's going to be a great year. And look, we can talk about Leportis specifically, if you want to hone in three touchdowns. I have him on my fantasy team. I love this man. I have been all in on him all year.

He's done so much for the rookie tight-end position. Tight-ends this year, a complete reversal on tight-ends. We are now drowning in tight ends. But I truly believe, I'm willing to say this, I think he's the number one tight-end in fantasy, and I think I would take him over Travis Kelsey next year. I don't even think that's a hot take, really. I mean, I think Kelsey's still going to be good going forward,

but, like, Sam Leporta in points is literally the number one tight end this year. Like, he's barely behind Kelsey in points for game. Obviously, Leporta scored 26 points in the first week of the playoffs. Kelsey had one of his worst games in forever. He had five. It kind of felt like a passing of the torch moment. And the way that Leporta was doing it, too, wasn't just like, oh, he's a product of the system. You know, they're passing to their tight end a lot.

Like, Leporta is really good. And you can see that. Like, the things he does in the field, it's reminiscent of, like, a George Kittle or whatever, because he's bowling dudes over. There was one sequence in the game on Saturday where Leporta, on a kid. he third down, chipped a guy to the ground. I can't remember who it was, the defender, got up, ran over, caught a third down catch, and then, like, two plays later, he caught a pass and, like, broke a tackle and, like,

bowled through three guys and scored a touchdown. I'm like, this guy is, like, one of the best players on this field, and he's a rookie. He's putting together one of the best rookie seasons for a tight-in ever. And so, yeah, basically, like, the numbers, however you look at it, the numbers or the eye test, I think he's just, like, he's just awesome. So it is one of the best

rookie seasons for a Tident ever and just to underscore that. Leporta second most fantasy points for Rookie Tident ever through 14 games and that's actually

second to Mike Dickett in 1961. And I actually think fantasy football was invented the year after that. So really it's the most fantasy points ever for a rookie. Yeah. For a rookie.

Most touchdowns by Rookie Tadins since Mike Dickett in 1961, Gronka 2011 for a rookie. And this is basically just what we thought every rookie tight end would do that's been drafted.

You're like, oh, no, a fan. Like, T.J. Hawkinson, like, every, like, it just never happens in rookie year. Even Kyle Pitts, it was like, oh, he had a thousand yards as a rookie. And it's like, this is why football is insane as a sport. Sam Laporte had five touchdowns in college at Iowa for four years at Iowa. He had five touchdowns. Sam Laporta has nine this year as a rookie. Yeah. It's a crazy sport.

And then meanwhile, to your other point about Craig about, has he surpassed Kelsey? You just want to play two tight ends? outscore Travis Kelsey and a lie. Ooh. Feels like we're dancing on his grave a little. Jeez. He's doing just fine. He's having an okay year.

He'll be okay. I feel bad. Like, it's, I told everyone to draft Travis Kelsey and you know, what I feel like, Craig? I feel like I told, I feel like I was like,

hey, Craig, this is like the best restaurant in the city. You got to go. Like, you're credible. And then you and Liz go. And it's like expensive. And you're like, it'll be worth it. And then you go and you're like,

it's good. Yeah. It's good. Chicken was a little dry. Yeah. And you're like, could have just had David and Joku for like, you know, a quarter of the price. It's good. So a lot of people who had Travis Kelsey.

I'm sorry. Five, wait, five points today? I mean, he's still the tight end won in points per game. I was just saying, yeah, but he's fine. He's doing fine. It's not what I told. The gap, the cliff drop is no longer there. Like, he's averaging 12 and a half.

Laporte is a little over 12. Hawkinson's at 11. And Mark Anger's at 11. Like, there is now a big tier of like top tight ends and he's not, no longer on his own. Yeah, you paid to for exactly it's, you paid for the Michelin Star and you're like, the whole point is it's not supposed to be like whatever. But two tight ends that outscored Travis Kelsey

is going to lie. I have a bunch of these, but Noah Gray, who's also on the Chiefs. Oh, no. That's always, that's always a classic. I hate these. Moe-A-Cox on the Colts and co-keefs. He scored on the bucks. Co-Keefe. Co-keef's also scored. His name is Co. So it's got to be... K-O.

Co. What is his real name? Like, his full name? It's just Co. I'm going to go Noah Gray did not outscore. It is no gray, yeah. His full name is Co. That's, yeah, you know, I don't know. That's a cool. I have another one way.

Two tight ends who outscored Travis Kelsey in a lie. Cardinals tied in Trey McBride. Cardinals tied in Jeff Swame. Cardinals tied end, Elijah Higgins. Elijah Higgins, who was a rookie and he was a receiver in college. Did they all outscore him? I'm going to say they all did. No, it's Jeff Swame didn't.

But Elijah Higgins, the rookie did. Swam. Oh, wow. Swam, you let us down. I can do this all day. Juan Johnson, Jimmy Graham or Foster Moreau, all tight ends up to say.

There's a theme here. Jimmy Graham has six catches on the season and has four touchdowns. Which is almost as ready as Kyle Pitts. Kelsey has five this year. Jimmy Graham is four. Kyle Pitts is five in his career. God damn it. I don't really understand what Jimmy Graham's doing,

but it's cool. It's cool to see. He's going to shoot gum and score touchdowns. He's here to chew gum and score touchdowns. He's all on the gum. Craig. You know how the saints just roll all their money over and try to relive the glory days? It's like they literally brought Jimmy Graham back.

Like he's the guy in the TV show that like shouldn't be back. They're just out of ideas. They're like, oh, remember when we had Jimmy Graham? Let's just reboot Frazier. People like that show. Exactly. It doesn't, Frazier, what's his thing? Does he have a pilot's license?

Jimmy Graham does. He just has a radio. He's in Seattle. He's a radio therapist, right? Oh, no? I don't know. I never watch Frazier. You never watched Frazier? Actually, I think I probably did. I have seen a few episodes though.

Frazier's great. That's not true. Okay, so spiritually, is Leporta the new tight end one, the new top dog, or is it Kelsey still? This guy's played 14 games in his career. He's got nine touchdowns. He's the number one overall tight end. Travis Kelsey's 34 next year. Well, Rishi Rice had a little debutante. And Rishi Rice leads the team in touchdowns. I will say, though, if the Chiefs get anyone else at receiver that commands any kind of respect. No, I mean, I don't if you guys saw this, but Cadarious Tony, once again,

like, hockey assisted another interception today. He's he is like, no argument, like, the funniest player in the NFL. He is literally the Steve Urkel of the NFL. It's the, it is the funniest player

to watch in the NFL, by the time. I'm actually shocked he's on the field at this point. It's becoming, I'm actually now pivoting towards it's Andy Reed's fault for playing him. It's negligence. I feel like with Cadarious, Tony, he has to have the record like has to have the record

and I mean this in NFL history maybe just football history for assisted interceptions per snap like he probably has the total record for the season like he's done it five times this year

he's bad at the past and a defender's arms but he only plays like 12 snaps a game and he's done it like six times it's like a very rare play and he does it a lot shockingly like shockingly inefficient oh my gosh

He's kind of like a double agent. You know, like, when you're playing basketball and you're, like, on defense and you're trying to get the rebound and you actually knock it back in the hoop? Like, he's just doing that every game. It's our own goal. Yeah. Oh, my God. So funny. Like, they shouldn't play him.

Like, he just needs to change the scenery. I don't know what it is, but I genuinely think they should not play. Another change the scenery. He needs to change a sport. He should play volleyball. Oh, my God. All right. So the lines of the MVP,

because, I mean, we talked about LaPorteur, but also Monroa Gibbs has been phenomenal. Gibbs? The lines of the MVP. I would give a kidney to a Monroa St. Brown. That guy is just absolutely. Anything he wants? My momentum tattoo for next year,

my lesson from a Monro, my momentum tattoo next year is people who have produced at an elite level in the NFL, but weren't first-run picks, and you're surprised by it. just accept it. Accept the performance. Stop looking for holes.

Bukkah, Kairn Williams. There's like a lot of guys, I think, particularly this season, that you're going to be like, like Amon Ross, the poster board for this. It's just accept that Amon Raust St. Brown is absolutely a steal at 15th overall in fantasy and just take that. That's my lesson.

I think he's the new Keenan Allen. That's kind of how I see him. Not like exactly stylistically, but just in terms of like what he is viewed as, like his perception is kind of like, oh, you know, security blanket. We'll get the job done, not flashy. And it's like, that can all be true.

And Keenan Allen was kind of all those things. But no one ever had a bad time or a bad season drafting Keenan Allen. And I feel the same way about Amon Ra. He's also like in a sport where sometimes you can make some moral compromises with the players you pick. Amon Ra St. Brown is straight up one of the coolest and most interesting people you can have on your team. Like he can name every, there were 30 receivers draft ahead of him. He recites the list every single twice. In French and German.

Yeah, he speaks three languages. He reads the list out loud. from memory of the people who are drafted ahead of him every twice before he goes out to every practice. I got to say, that's wearing a little thin on me now. Everybody does that. I know. Yeah, fine. Somebody needs to come up with a new thing.

Yeah, it's true. Just do it backwards or read the names. It's like, Jalen Hertz can name all six quarterbacks who went ahead of him. I'm like, this is no longer impressive to me. It's just root memorization. Wrote, sorry, wrote memorization. My favorite one is was Jamal Adams,

who's now a Seahawk, D.K. I was like, before I go to bed every night, I list the names in my head of everyone draft ahead of me. And then Marcia Lattimore, who's drafted like the same draft, was like, dude, you went sixth overall. I was not a long list. It's like five guys. You must fall asleep quick.

I feel like every time, Amaratta St. Brown touches the football, he's running at full speed. I've never not seen him running at full speed. Like, even if it's just a little slant, he's running at full speed at all times. And the ball just sticks to him. And he did like an Olympic flip today into the end zone.

I just like, I will, every single year I will be drafting him. I don't care how much it costs. Ben Johnson, the offense coordinator for the Lions, is probably going to be one of the number one head coaching candidate. And he clearly knows that it put good players in good situations. I think we know where he might perhaps be the LVT. If the Lions are the MVP, I think we can give the LVT of the season this year. The least valuable team were given to the Atlanta Falcons.

The Falcons lost to Carolina 9 to 7 in the pouring rain. I don't want to be dramatic, but I think that this Panthers Falcons game was the kind of game that drives a wedge between man and God. Like, it was in every sense, like a travesty. And then fantasy football wise, Bjaude Robinson, the eighth pick in the draft this year, had 10 touches for 12 yards. Drake London, who was the eighth pick in the draft last year,

had two catches for 24 yards. Kyle Pitts was the fourth pick in the draft a couple years ago, had three catches for 37 yards. And for those who can do math in their head, and some, London, Bijin Robinson Calpitz, combined 75 yards in this game that the Falcons, if they won, they'd be tied for first place in the division. Instead, they lost to the worst team in the NFL

and are now, ironically, in line for another top 10 pick. Arthur Smith, I think might get fired. But worst of all, D.K., Bijon Robinson, in half PPR scoring, had negative. Point one points. negative. Oh my God. I saw this from JJ

Secreason actually. Bejohn Robinson had a 58.8% snapshot today, which is a season low if you don't count that game where he only played like a few snaps at the very end because he had a headache. His 27% running back share,

so he got 27% of the rushes in this game was also a season low. He got a fourth of the team's carries. The guy who they took with the eighth book. I think Arthur Smith thinks sees, like, Professor Moriarty from, like, the Sherlock Holmes movies and books. Like, the Napoleon of Crime.

He thinks he's the Napoleon of Scheme. He just, he fucking outsmarts himself. What are you doing? I truly don't understand this. Three top ten picks. It's not fucking hard, man. Their backup running back had 14 carries in this game. And I can't even remember his fucking name off the top of my head,

because I'm so mad right now. This reminds me of, like, what's this name? I feel like this is, I don't know, it's like, Alger, Tyler, it's like Craig gets a bunch of Le Cruise from his freaking wedding and then it's just like,

keeps cooking with like, I don't even know, your boiling pasta. I would never, I would never go against Lake Crucet. It's like, but you know what I mean? Like he thinks he's out smarting everybody.

He thinks he's smarter than everybody. And it's like, dude, give the ball to your best players. It's really actually not that complicated. Look at what the lions do. Look at what all the good teams are doing. They just funnel the ball to their best players.

Pass the ball to the end. Italians. Pass the ball of the Italians. That's the essence of good coaching. I do think that Ben Johnson on the Falcons would be incredible because he'd be like, wow, look at all these talented players. Look what I can do with these guys. Genius. It's like he has take lock, you know.

He's just like, I can do this my way. And I'm going to do it even if I like get fired for this. I said it half as a joke. I think I cracked the code that because Arthur Smith, son of the founder of FedEx and got his starting coaching through Washington and FedEx Field, his father was a mom. minority owner of the team at the time. And then his next job came in Tennessee,

which is where FedEx is like, you know, FedEx, I believe, founded, yeah, based at Memphis. I feel like there's like a deep-seated, even though he earned the job later, kind of like, this wasn't handed to me, he said about the thing that was handed to him. And I think that he really just like deeply doesn't want to hand anything to anybody.

But regardless of that, doesn't matter. I think that I have a big proposal for you guys this week, which is every week we burn a player. We put it in the burn book. Me and Girls the musical, which isn't a musical or it is, I don't know. Burn book. I actually think for week 15, we should just rename the burn book itself, the Arthur Smith Memorial Burn Book. And just burn Arthur's... The first two guys

on the list this year were Drake London and Kyle Fitz. Should we burn Bijon? We have to burn Bijan for having negative points. I mean, we have to burn Bijan for having negative points. He had to season. He had to see the last. Snap rate and carry rate. Come on. This is the playoffs. Yeah, we go above Bijjohn. said we burn Arthur Smith. It'll be a good way. It'll be a good way to keep Arthur Smith like, you know, in the discourse because he's super getting fired

and will probably disappear from football. So it'll be nice to have his name permanently, you know, situated on a segment every week for us in perpetuity. All right. Wow. There we go. Arthur Smith, welcome to the word book forever. Yeah, we can't say Arthur Smith, you're in the book. Arthur Smith, you are on the book. You are the book. Oh my God. You are. Okay. Other than Bijon, which is, it's sad. Negative point. Really? Negative. But there were a lot of other players, though, that were incredible. And frankly, we have higher expectations for that did horrifically this week,

especially if you were allowing them to win in the playoffs. Yeah, these are the guys, these are the guys who left bad taste in your mouth. I liken it to, like, I used to love chewing sunflower seeds growing up. Oh, it's also weird that you say chewing sunflower seeds because you're like spitting. But anyway, I'm playing Little League baseball. I used to always love sunflower seeds. But then every once in a while, you get one that's just like pure rotten. And I don't know why there's always like one rants.

rancid seed in the bag. Yeah. But if that, you know, if you're unlucky and that's the last seed, you're just walking around for the rest of like the game with the most disgusting rancid flavor in your mouth. And it makes you, you know, it makes the whole bag not worth it. And there were so many stars today who produced rancid numbers. And we actually put together a lineup here of truly like first and second round picks exclusively, maybe a third mixed in. And you could have this entire team. And if you did, please email us or tweet us if you had this team. So, Dak Prescott, MVP of the league, perhaps, seven points today. Derek Henry, three points, Sequin Barclay,

five, Austin Echler, five, Jamar Chase, eight, Travis Kelsey five, Stefan Diggs, eight, and the Dallas Cowboys defense, the best defense in the league, zero points today. You could have started, yeah, so Dak, Derek, Henry, Saquan, Echler, Jamar Chase, Diggs, Kelsey, and the Dallas Dek could have got you. I think that's 40 points on the nose. for half PPR. 40. Truly despicable. So please let us know

if you had even a majority of that team. I think the running back specifically, this kind of goes back to what I was saying with Mostert, right? Like a decent running back on a good team is better than a good running back on a bad team. Derek Henry today. Derek Henry versus the Texans

is usually one of the most bankable matchups in fantasy history. Derek Henry, O.J. Simpson, and Adrian Peterson are tied for the most games with over 200 rushing yards. They all have six. Four of the six for Derek Henry are against the Texans.

And they actually all happened one after the other. From 2019 to 2022, Derek Henry had four straight 200-yard games versus the Texans. His most recent game versus the Texans, he had 126 yards. So going into today, fantasy playoffs, you're probably feeling great. He had 20 touches for 10 yards today. What the fuck? Leading into today, he had 20 fantasy points, 24 and 17 the last three weeks. Literally, three points today.

10 yards for Derek Henry. This is what I'm telling you. This is what you can't. You can't bank on these guys. Saquan Barclay, 14 rushing yards today. Third lowest of his career, which honestly kind of shocking that there's two other games worse than that.

But I do remember there was one game. I had him in fantasy. A couple years ago, he had one yard. I think he had like nine carries for one yard. Every time Derek Henry touched the ball today, he, like, got tackled around the ankles and fell really hard. Just like slammed into the ground.

Like every single time he touched it, bam. What was the month, Derek Henry looks like an elephant in mud, you know? Once a month, I'm like, I don't understand how Derek Henry like is at all good at football. And then the other three games, I'm like, he's the best running back in the league. Yes, 100%. But yeah, Sequin was a disaster.

And then Echler, you know, it's like they got rocked by the Raiders. They can't run the ball. He hasn't scored more than seven points. He's four of his last five games, he's had less than seven points. The Easton Stick thing is a disaster. If you have Echler and you're still alive, like you have no hope right now. So again, all these running backs on bad teams, I hate it. And it's another memento tattoo I'm going to give myself.

Only running backs on good teams. So on the Derek Henry stat, I mean a pretty amazing stat that he had. Derek Henry has got this from Ryan McDowell. Derek Henry has the fewest scrimmage yards on 20 touches in NFL history. 10 yards on 20 touches. No one had ever done that before. No one had ever been below 15. 10 yards on 20 touches.

That's never been done. I mean this seriously when I pose this question. do you think I could do that? No, absolutely not. Zero, zero chance. You know the guy could get half a yard on 20 touches, every touch? Even though I think you can run a 4-8? No, absolutely not.

But I have to tell you guys, it's a very special thing that happened to me. You would get snapped in half on the first play. You know what? You know, not another team movie when the guy gets cut in half. Talk about things that Nate Ty, Nate Tyson was on our Friday show, and it was a really fun preview,

if you guys want to listen. but Nate Tice, when we asked him, I was like, can't you just be- For all you sickos who want to go back and listen to a preview show of the days that I've already occurred. But I was like, can't you just be Easton Stick? And he was like, dude, I'm not athletic enough to like get drop back fast enough. And I was like, I've never thought about that. That's incredible to think about. But I have to tell you guys, a journey I went on.

Because when I saw that stat about Derek Henry having the fewest scrimmage yards through 20 touches, I was like, all right. I was trying to play around. I was like, got to find some of these names. What's the, yeah. So it's like, what's the fewest yards that anyone's ever have? on like 15 carries. Don't Google this. I know you guys think.

Don't Google this. No, I didn't. There was a guy who had negative 50 rushing guards in a game. Negative 50. Craig, I bet you can do that. Negative 50. Negative 50. I can do that.

Negative 50 on 15 carries. His name was Whizzer White. Whizzer. I don't go. I don't want to Google. Whizzer white. And whizzer. Whizzer up the middle for negative eight yards.

into the gentleman's piss club. Whizzer White. Our mascot. I cannot tell you. Wizard jerseys? Are you kidding you with Whizzer on the back? What team was he on? So I'm like, who is Whizzer White?

So I go down the greatest wormhole I've ever found. Whizzer White was an all-American halfback for Colorado. Like where Dionne Sanders is right now, Colorado. Came in second place for the Heisman Trophy in 1937. 37. 1937. Drafted fourth overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates. I thought you're going to say into the army.

Well, that'd be cool. Fourth of all. The first overall pick in the United States Army. Wait, that's like, we should think of that. So here's the thing. He got drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, which I also think is funny,

the pirates with the team. But he had a problem. He was the valedictorian at Colorado. And he had one of the, a road scholarship. So we had to go to the road scholarship. He had go to the road scholarship. This guy had three jobs.

Yeah. Can I defer this to play football? They're like, yeah, sure, whatever. So he plays football for the pirates, leads the NFL in rushing in 1938. And then he's like, you know what? Including that game? Yeah. Minus 50 yard game.

Wow. Exactly. So I'm like, I'm going to do his opponents like a lead there. Yeah. So he's like, I'm going to do this road scholarship thing. Doesn't play football in 1939. Goes to the road scholarship. The friends, the American ambassador, because he's,

to American Rhodes Scholar in England, Joseph Kennedy, who was JFK's father. Jesus. Plot to freaking peeky blinders or something. Yes. He leaves Europe because there is, you know, World War II starts in Europe. He has to leave England.

Goes back to America and he's like, you know what? I guess kid to the road scholarship thing. I'll enroll at Yale Law School. Enrolls at Yale Law. Number one in his class among the freshman, highest GPA among all the first years at Yale law. And then it's like, hold my beer, Yale. I'm going to play football again.

Signs with the Detroit Lions. becomes the highest paid player in the NFL, leads the NFL in rushing again after taking a season off. What year is this now? 1940. Oh, God. We're not even to World War II yet. 1941, mid-season, Pearl Harbor, quits the NFL, joins the Navy, serves in the Pacific theater for World War II, earns two bronze star medals.

War ends, goes back to Yale Law. Graduates first in his class at Yale Law. this is all Frickin Whizzer White High achiever this guy First in his class at Yale law Has a distinguished law career

You're making us look bad out here Whizze Go on a walk Watch the TV show The Deputy Attorney General of the United States Under RFK Jr. Whizzer

And then JFK nominates him To the Supreme Court And he serves on the Supreme Court For 31 years Shut the fuck up Supreme Court Justice

Whizzer Did he go by Whizor When he was on the Supreme Court? Wyrin Whiz I hope he went by Wiz That's awesome. You know, you know, Jerry West is the logo for the NBA?

I feel like we need, like, just a logo for America, like a guy. And it should be Whizor White. Whizor White. It should be his silhouette is the American logo. It's like what you put on U.S., the United States socks. Yeah. And basketballs. It should be whiz, whiz white.

It's, dude, it's wild how all these guys were just like. He's like fucking Captain America. What the hell? So the first part, I'm reading all this, I couldn't believe it all. His older brother was also a valedictorian. also a Rhodes Scholar, and he was a medical researcher and physiology expert focused on the atomic bomb. Jay Robert Oppenheimer. Dude, literally, his obituary.

His obituary is a medical researcher who studied the effects of nuclear blasted people, died April 26 in Albuquerque at the Lovelace Medical Center, which he helped establish in 1947. And the nature of his work was that when the atomic bomb changed warfare, his name's Dr. Clayton S. White foresaw how the types of injuries of concussive blasts would incur injuries that had never been considered before. Nevermind, did people know how to treat them and just start at a center to figure out how do we treat the people injured by explosions? Well, not enough people. This reminded me when you were talking. I mean, my brother works in advertising, so that's pretty impressive, too. Whizzer White. This guy negative 50 rushing guys.

Did any of these guys have a podcast? I mean, come on. When you were talking about that, High Fitz, it just reminded me of how, like, Ted Williams is, you know,

one of the greatest, if not the greatest hitter of all time in baseball. He's also generally regarded as one of the greatest fighter pilots of all time. Like, he was just insane. Like, he was partly because, like,

he was using the same skills as a fighter pilot and as a batter because he had, like, incredible hand, eye coordination and incredible vision and he could anticipate and all this shit. Anyway, wild.

Whizzer White. What a story. Make a fucking movie about that guy. Can you imagine when I was scrolling through and I was like, oh, this guy's the Supreme Court Justice. Anyway, a 30 years. Okay, shout out Whizzer. Great find.

Yeah, Derek. Great find. Wow, he died in 2002. Yeah. Long life. It was a day before the 40th anniversary of him being nominated to court. but anyway, yeah, Derek Henry, future Supreme Court Justice.

Anyway, Derek Henry. The flip side, all these stars who are really good today, or really bad, is the next man up all stars, which is, you know, whereas your team of Derek Henry and Sequin and Austin Eclare and Jamar, and James R Jason Diggs had 40 points, there's also the star of all these random backups that would have had like 200 points. Yeah, and they were like, not only were they productive in fantasy, also real life. These were guys that actually like truly just like stepped up in the absence of

their, their starter. And these are also dudes that like I think probably got a lot of run in fantasy lineups. Like these, this was not as we say, fantasy entropy, which is just like points that go into the ether that aren't used by anybody. I think a lot of these guys were probably started by people. So we gave that lineup before that, that star lineup that had about 40 points. This lineup that I'm about to read, 152 points out of this lineup today. Joe Flacco, Zemir White, Clyde Edwards-Hilaire, Noah Brown, Josh Palmer back from the dead, Ty Chandler, Trey McBride, and the Dolphins or the Raiders, D, have your pick.

152 points out of that squad. Oh, my God. You could have, like, pretty legitimately gotten this entire lineup on the waiver wire. Of all the stunning things that happened on today's day of football, I think that number one for me is Clyde Edwards-Layer, mossing another player, and just, like, I literally, I didn't know he could do that.

You can't really tell if it was like just a normal play that was made incredible because he's incredibly short. But he had such a great catch in the back of the end zone. He's just like, well, first of all, it was a great throw by Patrick Mahomes. He like spun around and chucked the ball into the back of the end zone. And Clyde, Sky, Edwards-Hillard went up and grabbed it with like in traffic. It was an incredible catch. I never would have expected that a million years from Clyde. So got to give him his props for that.

he's likely going to finish as one of the RB ones this week. 18 points. Did I ever tell you guys about Clyde Edwards-Dillera in the locker room of the Super Bowl earlier this year? No. So Mahomes is, I'm in the locker room of the Super Bowl because we had gone there and then Mahomes is just kind of sitting there after like,

you know, hitting up everyone. And then he's like on his phone, which I just thought was hilarious. Like it's just checking your phone. Like, you know, we all need dopamine breaks. Millennials. And Clyde Edwards-Halear comes up to him and just taps him up.

And he's like, hey, what's up, man? And starts pointing up. And I was like, what the hell is he pointing out? And Mahomes is like, yeah, yeah, sure, man. Yeah, go for, of course. And I'm like, what are they talking about? And the Clyde Edwards-Aler reaches over Mahomes

and grabs the nameplate off his locker and keeps it, and takes it back and puts it his back back. I love when players, like, I love when teammates are like, yo, dude, do you mind if I take this? Like, this is going to be worth something here. Yeah, literally. That's incredible. Can you sign it?

I remember thinking, I remember watching that thinking he'll never play the NFL ever again. He's resigned. Got a touchdown today. That's amazing. He kind of looked good. the last couple of games. I mean, he's not, obviously not ever going to live up to where he was drafted,

but I don't know, he's got a little wiggle. He looks healthy for the first time in a long time. The other guy, Ty Chandler for the Vikings, 23 carries, 132 yards in a touchdown for the Vikings on Saturday, 157 total yards. Top four running back in fantasy on the week. Ty Chandler had more rushing yards in this game than

Alex Madison had in any game his entire career. Coaches. Love him. So much clearly better than Madison in every way. to the point where this one, especially considering Cam Acres got hurt so early in the year, they traded for Cam Acres. He didn't even get on the field because they traded for Cam Acres.

The Tichan, there's so much better than anyone else they played at running back this year. It's unbelievable, frankly, that this guy has not been playing for them more. That's why I was touting him in the preseason. I love this guy. I did not expect this to happen, though. I thought because it just felt like he was just going to continue to get buried

behind really, really average running backs. But yeah, he's got some juice. He's explosive. I don't know if it's going to last because what is Madison supposed to be back? I don't know if he's going to come back to this. They might just kind of send him off like Lord of the Rings on a little boat. The return of the guy, Craig. Return of the guy.

The two things. The two buildings. Two buildings. They send the guy over the waterfall. Yeah. Honestly, like if, you know, once long, long time down the line when this podcast finally retires, like maybe my favorite moment of the. entire podcast is going to be the two buildings.

Craig calling it the two buildings. I'm not even kidding. That was the fucking funniest thing I've ever heard. I'm glad I could entertain you. Drew drew like a movie poster of the two buildings. The movie expert. One of the rings, the two buildings. Such a simple thing, but so profoundly different.

Yeah. Good shit. Speaking of Viking funerals, though, the Raiders Chargers game. You mentioned earlier that. actually discussed this, but for the purposes of this, like the next man up, Zimir White, just getting 69 rushing yards nice and a touchdown. But

we didn't talk, the Raiders, 63 to 21. Most points in Raiders history, I feel like it was 21-0-0 in the first quarter and it was like, everyone's like, ah, Stelis going to get fired at halftime. Then it was another 21 points of the second quarter? Wasn't it like 42 to zero? What did he say at halftime, genuinely? What did Stanley tell the team at halftime?

I was wondering, Craig had the same question. I feel like it was like, we're not going to win this game, but you have to go out there and like have pride. Yeah, it's like, do this for your own self-worth here, all right? Play for your next contract, I guess. I don't know. And then also, like, they allowed another, like, it wasn't 21 points in the third, but if it was the third quarter plus two plays, then it was another 21 points.

So they fired Brandon Staley after Thursday in football. They also fired GM Tom Telesco, who had been there a long time and frankly, they had put them in a bad spot with the cap. I don't know what the, I don't want to do some big takeaway from the charges, but I just feel like the point is, like, if you're a lot of, defensive head coach, maybe don't have like one of the worst defenses in living memory. And not that they were that bad, but the way I think about this Chargers era, Justin Herbert had to deal with, I don't know I'm counting the other night because he didn't

play it. But Justin Herbert has had to deal with 12 different games where the Chargers defense allowed 34 points. Like think about that. Like Justin Herbert had to surpass 34 points 12 times since he entered the league in 2021. Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen combined have dealt with that 13 times. So like Justin Herbert alone

has had as many 34-point performance as he had to beat as Burrow, Herbert, Mahomes, and Allen. I feel like that's what Staley got fired in a nutshell. I think the funniest scenario would be Bill Belichick coming to the Chargers and bringing like a really shitty offensive coordinator and the offense is just kind of the same. Oh, I hate that idea.

Damn it. Yeah. I was trying to think of who the best coach to go there would be. Ben Johnson's, of course, a really hot name. But I'm almost like I don't want Ben Johnson to go to the Chargers because I just feel like the Chargers are doomed to be who they are. Somebody needs to break the curse, though. He's going to do it.

I know. I know. There's been a lot of talk lately about, like, is Herbert actually good? You know what I mean? But my automatic response to that almost always is just he's on the Chargers. Like, this is dysfunction. He should demand a trade. He should be like, look, this curse thing is too much.

I need to get out of here. Honestly, Archie Manning being like, yeah, Peyton, going back to college, not going to the Jets, and then Eli, you're not going to the charges. Yeah. We're not doing that. All time dad move. All time father move. But, yeah, so that was brutal. We'll have a lot of off-season talking about the charges and stuff, but that was brutal.

For this week, there were a bunch of, I, Craig, I hate this term, but some debuts. Yeah, mature. Came of age, if you will. Truly horrific. A couple guys really came into their own today. Should we talk about him? David and Joku on Browns tight-in for the Browns. He's been an absolute menace lately.

He had 10 catches today for over 100 yards. He's the number one tight end of the last two weeks. Flacco clearly loves him. And it's just cool that this finally, like it finally paid off with Injoku. We were so close to like giving up on him. He was in the Irv Smith, Noah Fant. Like, one day it's going to happen.

He's in a different team every year. Like, I know he's always been on the Browns, but like there was that class of tight ends where it was like, no, no, Irv Smith, he's really athletic. Like, he's been hurt. This is the year. And it's awesome that, I mean, this is like four years in and Joe Gu is finally kind of taking off.

And I got to say, he's like a runaway train with the ball. He almost reminds me a gronk, a tiny bit where, like, the way he moves. He doesn't really, like, run. He, like, falls. He rumbles. He rumbles. He's always falling forward, and he has that, like, I'm about to trip over myself kind of, like, gait.

But he's so big and athletic that he's just, like, constantly barreling into people. Defenders? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, every time you see him running, it's like, it's just like, like, just bowling through. Human pinball. Yeah. But he's been so good.

And Flacco just loves throwing to him. And he's, like, one of the few tight ends in the league who's like a real yards after the catch guy. Like, he feels like a guy you can throw on a crossing route. and he'll get you 30 yards at the sideline and break like three tackles. Yeah. He's been awesome. How old is he? He's only like 26 or something like that still.

Yeah. A couple other guys I want to talk about. This is another tight end who has been absolutely ludicrously good since he essentially became the starter for the Cardinals, and that's Trey McBride. I feel like if Sam Leporta wasn't doing what he's doing this year, we'd be talking about McBride a lot more because since he took over as the starter in Arizona, which, by the way, we've been advocating for all season long. I don't know why Hertz was in there in the first place.

He is the tight end two and half BBR points per game. 13.1 points per game. Only Laporta has been better in that stretch. So basically like, you know, almost half the season. 29% target rate, 29 first downs. He's been incredible. He had 10 catches for 102 yards today against the 49ers. Another great, you know, great defense.

So like that's saying something. So I don't know. He's another guy that I'm going to be very interested to see. where he's drafted next year? Like he's going to be a top five, maybe higher, top four, top three tight end in ADP next year. What do you guys think about that? I'm telling you that tight end is fixed. Even if like literally if Kelsey retired, like he said he would, like let's say Kelsey retired.

You have Mark Andrews, T.J. Hawkinson. You have George Kittle. You have David and Joku. You have Trey McBride. That's five. You have Dalkin Cade. That's six. Evan Engram is seven.

Lapporte? Is eight? Yeah, Sam Leporter. Right. He should be way higher than that. It's nice. Like he's somewhere in there. Isaiah likely today.

Oh my God. Isaiah like freaking likely had what? Five catches, 70 yards of touchdown, including like the terrible throw by Lamar that Isaiah likely bailed him out. But it was like he treated like, oh, screw it. Like Isaiah down there somewhere.

Like the amount of tight ends that have entered the league and become good is so. I mean, Kyle Pitts is straight up like where he should be, which is like the 17th tight end next year. So the tight ends, thank you on behalf of all of us for the maturing. receiver now, I feel like, is the position that most frustrates me. Yeah, today was a tough day for a lot of the most disappointing receivers in the league who you probably drafted it in the third, fourth, fifth round, you were excited about this guy.

They got a great track record. You're Terry McClorens, you're Chris Godwins, you're Chris Godwins, you're Jalen Wattles. They're terrible all year. And then just as you get eliminated from the playoffs, Chris Godwin, Chris fucking Godwin, has the audacity to have 10 catches. for 155 yards. Meanwhile, he's been eating, Mike Evans has been eating his lunch

for 14 straight weeks. And now Chris Godwin decides to show up with a pulse. Oh my God. Back from the dead? It's the Otane Award for it's like, it's like, you think it's going to be great? And then it's like, oh, it's just completely backloaded

until it's like useless for me right now. Yeah, Chris God was like, I want to defer all of my fantasy value until week 16. 2034. I, and I'm like, you know what,

at least Chris Olave for the Saints had the decency to just, to just be out this week and not show up instead of dropping like 30 points of the Giants for your team that's in the toilet bowl. Chris Godwin, just having the best game of season. Jalen Waddle for the Dolphins, who we have argued about so much this year.

Tyree kills out. Love him. Jalen Waddle finally delivers exactly what we had thought. Oh, he'll be like a one beat in Tyree. No, he's basically Isaiah likely when Mark Andrews was out. Isaiah Lik's good. Like, that's all Jailen Wadle ever was.

He's just like, Tyree kills out. Cool. Career high, 142 yards in a touchdown for Jailen Wals. career high eight catches tied with the last time Jalen Waddle played the Jets. And if you have Jalen Waddle in the playoffs, awesome. In reality, you're in the toilet bowl and just looking at this freaking guy and you're like, I could have just had Josh Allen and I took Jailin Waddle. Talented player.

I want to say, Craig, Craig was like legitimately pissed at Godwin today. He was like texting us during the day. Every time Godwin had a catch, he's like, come on. I started this fucker legitimately for 14th street weeks. I started in every week the entire season. I narrowly missed the playoffs and then watched him have 155 yards.

Worst case scenario. It's so insulting. The other guy kind of like this is T. Higgins for the Bengals. They really are all like the Cal Norton. Like they weren't allowed to be number one. It's like because if you win. Ricky, what if what if I win one? Yeah, but then how would I win?

If you won, how would I win? Literally like Godwin behind Mike Evans. Waddle, all that gets to do it with, freaking Tyree kills out. And then freaking T. Higgins, Jamar Chase gets hurt in this game. And then Tegan's is like, okay, all right, Callis, your time.

Has two touchdowns in this game, including one of the best ones. We have solved this in a second, like one of the best ones in the year. But then T. Higgins had four touchdowns this year. He had two touchdowns in September 17th to kind of reel you win. And then exactly two months went by

and he had another two touchdowns in December 16th. And that's his entire year. I really feel like T. Higgins has like taken a hit publicly. I think people no longer see him as like the talented receiver that he really is. And I truly think next year, he's probably not going to be in the Bengals next year. A good team needs to sign T. Higgins. I'm sure he'll get a healthy contract, but I think he's going to be like incredible.

Yeah. Or like, dude, put him on the fucking chiefs for Christ's sake. Please. He's going to go to the Panthers and play with Bryce. I don't want that for him. But if he is healthy on a good team next year, he will, I think, immediately be a top 10 wide receiver in the league. And people will remember quickly how good he is. that catch he made where he reached back, it did like a windmill past the pylon with his back facing the end zone.

I know we joke about game of the year every week, but like I actually think the two best catches of the year with this week. I think T. against that was the catch of the year. It was honestly, you know what it most akin to? It was basically a spitting back fist like they do with the UFC. Like he was like, and he just spitting backfisted the ball like a punch before a touchdown.

Over the pylon. Yeah. Yeah. It was ridiculous. By the way, first he had to go up high and, like, catch it over two defenders. And then he'd landed with two feet in at the sideline. Toadrags swar like matrix. He pirouetted back, you know, back punched or whatever you call it, like over the pylon. It was so freaking incredible.

I can't even, like, half of these receivers in the NFL can't tell if they're like in bounds or not when they're by the sidelines, you know, like catch it with one foot out. And then, but this guy has the audacity, just arrogance to catch it, get his feet in, spin around and score touchdown. It was amazing. And stuck it in front of the pylon cam, which is my new favorite move. He put it right in front of the camera with the ball. He just looked bigger than everybody else.

You know when there's like, you know what like the extended family gets together for a holiday? And then like the kids are playing football in the backyard. And there's like one kid who's like 10 years older than the rest. It was like he was playing three flies up. And like he's just like all the little kids are hanging all over his arms. And he's still like going up and like catching the ball and like reaching back over the end zone. He just looked like an adult playing with boys. Like camp counselor is playing with all the kids.

Oh, yeah. And he's like, catch is like, I'm just going to reach. there was a there was a funny clip i can't remember where it was from um maybe in like japan it was i can't remember but it was like a video of there's like a hundred school children on a soccer field and there was like five or six like adult soccer players like and they kicked it down the field and like score there's like a hundred or like 200 kids it was like hurting sheep they would just like move them in the directions that they want it was like trick them yeah and this was like the equivalent of that on the

field. Jake Browning, to his credit, threw the ball up. He was just like, fucking, he's down there somewhere, chucked it up to him. We should do that. We should have 60 Higgins' as catch passes over 100 of manual forbs and just see what happens. Yeah, that was so good. But the other catch, I have to say, catch of the year, catch of the week, Dalton

Shultz for the Texans. Oh, I didn't even see this. I forgot to look. I missed this. Tost up this, like, prayer over the goal line. There was like, I think two or three minutes left in the game, and the Texans were down seven. And Case Keatom threw up a prayer for Dalton Shultz, kind of like what Lamar did, likely, but terrible decision.

And the Titans were going to pick it off. And Dalton Schultz kind of goes up and like meets him in midair and kind of looked like an action movie. Like, if it was a movie, it never would have believed this happened. And he just kind of took the ball from him, landed on top of each other and he gator rolled the ball away. And then like, he intercepted it. He intercepted the ball.

But like, I want to stress that both for the Teagan's one and this, but this one specifically, the Texans were down seven. And they would have threw a pick. Instead, they kept the ball, scored on the next. play to tie it, then went to overtime, then won against the division rival to stay in the wild card race. At, because they were, what, they're now, are they eight and six now? Like, if the Texans make the playoffs, it's straight up because of this play.

And kind of ditto for T. Higgins, because all these teams are trying to fight with like eight other teams in the AFC who have the same record. And so the Schultz T. Higgins plays weren't just crazy. They won the game that could be the definitive game in their season. So I, I like that, I like the term, I like that you're using the term, Gator Rolled it away because he really, I'm just watching it now. He really just like goes like, yoink and like rolled away from him. Give me that. The other person, we have to shout as Terry McLaurin is also in this category of just the show, the backloaded, useless 2034 backloaded. Just no use for this line,

Terry. We're not 141 yards for Terry McLaurin for all the people in the playoffs starting Terry McLaurin. Nope. These are day old bagels, man. We don't need them. You do a day old, but this is like a week. I have Dale bagels right now. They're great. You can't keep them in the paper bag. You have to put them in a plastic bag as soon as you decide you're not going to eat it. I just thought of an idea.

You know how stale bread you can often turn it into like croutons for a salad? Yeah. Oh yeah. Do people ever make croutons out of bagels? A bagel crout. I've never thought about that. I can literally get to be awesome. I feel like because bagels are so dense, it would just be like a brick.

It would be like biting into a rock. Yeah, like a brick. Yeah, like it's. on that. I'll noodle on that. Okay. I'll get back to you. We're going to make Kai eat a bagel crouton

tomorrow. I'm just going to break his teeth. The only thing we have to, the only way to end here is the flip side of catch of the year, is the almost catch of the year, turned into the worst play of the week, which may be the worst play of the year,

which is like perhaps the perfect metaphor for the Chicago Bears, which is Justin Fields throwing a perfect Hail Mary to win the game, beat the Cleveland Browns, perhaps save the Justin Fields era in Chicago. And the ball gets batted down on the Hail Mary.

Dornell Mooney, perfectly so smart, waiting for the ball. The ball lands literally, like, in his crotch. Like, the ball lands in his arms.

It's like it twixt his arms, like a dog or a cat. And he hot potatoes it out. And he hot potatoes it out to his feet, kicks the ball away. He does the cell phone thing. What I'm talking about, where you're dropping something so much,

you literally kick it or, like, punch it. And it goes flying. 30 feet? He did it. What is wrong with that? His iPhone is definitely cracked. And DK, it's funny, because like an hour before that play happened,

DK texted both of us being like, I just feel like Mooney has lost his mojo. He's just not, I don't know what happened. It was like a primitive. He's not anymore. Oh, my God. I'm like, I told you. Mooney.

He kicked the ball away. He literally like punted it. The man put it duster. That was like, I put him back. That was kind of the perfect Hail Mary like scenario. Like that is how you draw it up, right? Like everybody goes up and kind of bats it down and you're waiting below.

He did actually do a good job of position. So if you can see as he's running down there, he's like, oh, there's a whole group of people. So I'm going to like sort of like stand on the outside, wait for the bounce, wait for the caram. It was perfect. Sports are so unfair. And then he punted it. It was in his lap. And if he just catches that, it is literally the greatest play of his career in Darno

Mooney is, even he doesn't have a great career, like he will be a legend in Chicago forever. And honestly, maybe the Bears, it moves the needle slightly enough that maybe a decision about Justin Fields changes. And instead, he'll just think about that every day for the rest of his life. Before we go, I saw some video a couple weeks ago about how everybody's running the Hail Mary incorrectly. Did you guys see this? This guy's idea was that basically you should have, you know, let's say you have five

receivers running into the end zone, that you should have four of them run to one side of the end zone and attract the majority of the defense. And then you would have your best receiver, or maybe your second best receiver, to run to the opposite side of the end zone and attract like only a double team probably. And you throw it to that side because if you have a DeAndre Hopkins going up against just two guys, like the odds of that coming down. T. Higgins even. Exactly.

Versus like a, like a, you know, a mosh pit of like 10 people trying to bat the ball down. Plus, it's probably more likely you can get a PI call. I just thought that was a really interesting idea that you should actually just be throwing to one guy rather than five. I agree that that's probably, like there's some innovation to be had. The reality is coaches probably don't want to practice this, but you're right that it's probably not the best way that they do it.

It's just kind of like, that's what we do. But because you really, they're going to key on on the Kelsey, right? You probably want to have your mid-tier receiver do it. And you could change the arc of the ball because if you do the current one, all the guys can run to the other side.

Yeah, you just have a missile. Yeah, and then you just throw it. But like, you know what it's like, it's like that James, weird touchdown he threw and relief of car to A.T. Perry through like 80 guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just do that. No, you're right that. I should just hit a hole in one at every try. So it's easier. You can put him.

Teams should just have Hail Mary designated quarterbacks where like they just draft guys who have just an absolute nuke for an arm. And then you can just bring him in on the last play of the game. And then he can just throw a missile across the field to the corner and get it there before the rest of the defense can follow. Well, that's a question too. It's like, could ball, ball just catch a Hail Mary? Could he just do that? There should be a Hail Mary unit.

Like there's a special teams unit. There should just be a Hail Mary unit for teams. It's the 50. It's the game day roster. It's the problem. You just bring in Marcus Russell and like Mike Williams and you're better than half the teams in the league. Yeah.

It's not a bad idea. All right. Arthur Smith Memorial Burnbook. We'll have waivers for tomorrow. up since this week and again, Christmas, we'll be, you know, Merry Christmas to everyone. You listen to this on Sundays. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Carlos, for producing this episode. Thank you, everyone. Emails for your fantasy football at gmail.com. If you have thoughts on Whizzer White? If you have thoughts on him. The story of Wizard White. Wizard White. The legend.

The logo. The logo of America. Weird things that happen in fantasy. I'm sorry if your team's lost, email so your team's won, email so you hate fantasy football. You love it or you probably hate it. But if you think it's a, Okay.

If anyone is a graphic designer, if you could make America's logo with the silhouette of Wizard White, we will send you a gift. We'll send you some merch. Thank you, Lauren. Lord. Thank you, Nerf Herder. Is that a band? Bless you.

Oh, my God. Speaking of Bless you. This was from either Saturday night or Thursday night, the sneeze and chew. There's a guy. What was it? What was the fact of? was like essentially something to do with the beat down. It was the

it was the Raiders Chargers game because the Raiders said of the most points or whatever like the point differential was the largest since the 34 whatever, Yankees, Giants, Cardinals. No, the team was the triangles. It was like the Memphis Triangles or something. It was the Dayton Triangles.

The Dayton Trials. And the running back was the halfback was sneeze a chew. Like the Robin Hood had been a touch. Sneeze a chew from the 1927 Triangles. And his position was listed on pro football reference is just a slash, like a backslash. That means he's a dual threat. It's a slash.

It's shorthand for a dual threat. Yeah, he's a slasher. That's what we should call Dibo. He's just a slash. It's like a multi-hyphenate, you know, in the professional world. There's so many good, so many good facts. I tweeted this on Thursday.

So many good facts came from this. Hold on. I got to pull this up because it's incredible. You know that if you look him up, Walter Tin Kitt, a chew. His name is Walter Tinkin Kitt, Sneez a Chew. I think he was the first player of Chinese, uh,

ancestry that played in the NFL. I can't remember though. He's the first person of East Asian descent to play in the NFL. Got it. Sneez-a-choo. Sneeze a chew. There was all these, there was all these funny facts about this, like this Dayton team.

The Dayton Triangles. I didn't research it for the show, but my God, it was incredible. The Dayton Triangles. The Dayton Triangles. logo is pretty badass. Come on. Look this up.

I'll just text it to you guys. That is sick. Dude, if that was on a T-shirt. Oh, speaking of. Yeah. Do they sell Dayton Triangle merch? That is so cool. Yo, they do sell Dayton Triangle merch.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Stop it. I'll buy this right now. They were a traveling team. And they were like a road. team always. They didn't have a home field. So they used to be, they're, they're, they're, they played in the Ohio league.

I don't know what that means. They're in their team history. Their first name was they were the St. Mary's cadets. And then they were the Dayton gym cadets and then the Dayton triangles. Triangles. Oh my God. I love everything about the Dayton triangles. Email is trivia about the Dayton triangles or anything related to that. Yeah, whiz, you know, whiz, what was his name again? Whiz.

Oh, so they relocated. They relocated to be to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1930. The football Dodgers. Uh, yes. That's fun. Like the Pittsburgh Pirates was a football team. Whizzer White, Sneez-a-Chute, Dayton Triangles, whatever. Emails, trivia questions for trivia.

This is clearly the theme. Hold on. Hold on. There's one last fact. So when Ben Oship sent me this, or Lo-ship. In 1921, the Tonawanda Cardex, got beat so bad in the first the only game in team history that the team immediately folded thereafter and it wasn't nearly as bad

as this game. That was the original team that Steve played for. The team just opened up and then they just got beats the best of that. They played one game lost and that was the end of it. That's like the equivalent of like when you're playing like a board game and you're about to lose you just like flip the board and leave. You unplug the Xbox

before the Madden game ends. You never did that. Fuck this game. I think quitting a immediately is hilarious. I think like when you just, like your first attempted something and you stink and you just immediately quit,

they just think that's fucking amazing content. Fuck it, I'm out. This game's stupid anyway. Fuck the lemons and bail. A couple names on the team that they beat. Jug Earp. Two bits homin.

Two bits. Holman? Oh my God. I wish we, I wonder if there's, like a 1930s name generator website where we can like punch in your name. There's a Twitter account called actual

names and it's like just actual names. Oh, I followed that. It's incredible. I would love like I just want to punch in my name and get like tin can Wilson or something. Domless. This is Dom. Sorry, Doc. Oh my God. Tint can.

It's two bits. Jug. Goodbye everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fando is offering online sports wagering in Kansas. under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fandul.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia.

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