The Ringer NFL Show - Week 17 Recap: Jayden and the Rookie Saviors, Championship Murderers, Giants Hit Lock Bottom, and the Alligator Wrangler

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

The guys recap all of the NFL Week 17 action by going through categories such as “Who Won Week 17?,” “Intrusive Thoughts,” and “The Lucille Bluth Award” (1:43). Later, they add a name to the Fantasy Burn Book (102:01). Winners and Losers (17:24) Oppenheimer Award (40:10) Fantasy Murderers (48:33) It’s So Over/We’re So Back (66:35) Thanks for Nothing All-Stars (77:24) Intrusive Thoughts (79:49) Play of the Day (86:15) The Tyrique Stevenson Worst Play of the Day (94:37) Arthur Smith Award (95:07) The Lucille Bluth Award (100:03) Check out our 2024 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens Producers: Kai Grady and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? Chris Vernon here and welcome to a new season of the NBA and the mismatch. And huge welcome as well to my new co-host, Dave Jacoby. I can't wait to link with you twice a week every Tuesday and Friday right here on the mismatch to break down everything that's happening in the league. Who's playing well, who we loved, who we loathed, trade rumors, team dysfunction. We've got you covered right here. So follow us, subscribe and hit us with those five-star ratings on Spotify or wherever you get your. your podcast. And also don't forget to follow us on social media. That's at Ringer NBA. And check out the full mismatch episodes with the two handsomest podcasters in the history of

podcasting, right on the Ringer NBA YouTube channel. Football show. My name is Danny Highton and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Worldback and Sunday of Week 17. Fantasy Championship week is over. It's over. Unless you have Monday at football. Fantasy Week 17 is over. Were you on a championship? Were you on a championship each of you today? Yeah. Pretty good. All three of us in a championship.

Not bad. Comes a web where it's like, Jackie's Drake London catches a pass and she's like, is that good or bad? I'm like both. And it's really stressful. Fantasy's the worst. It's the worst thing that's ever been invented unless you won,

in which case it's like you might as well just die now. We're going to go over everything. We're going over a bunch of stuff. I mean, the giants of various fantasy people who failed us, some who made us happy, mostly people who are dead to us. I have to start with Sunday football. Washington just won.

in another walkoff win 30 to 24 in overtime. Washington, I believe this is Jaden Daniel's fourth game winning, maybe fourth walkoff touchdown or the year. Or at least third walkoff touchdown, fourth game winning drive, DK. Am I nuts and living in the moment saying Jaden Daniels is the best rookie quarterback I've ever seen or at least the best one since Andrew Luck? I don't think you're nuts, no. I think it's wild what he's doing this year.

And honestly, like, the whole time I was watching him today, I kept thinking this. I know that like they didn't, it wasn't like, like totally smooth from start to finish. But it kind of felt like everything is just so easy for them. Like the way that they incorporate him into their run game, especially, I think he had the most rushing yards he's had as a pro today. 16 rushes, 127 yards. I made the comment on Twitter. I was like, did the Falcons practice like defending a read option at all?

Like it looks so easy for them. I just don't understand how, I mean, I do understand he's just really, really fast and they have a very wide, like varied run game. Like they have little wrinkles on all. their little plays. It's so cool. And credit to Cliff Kingsbury for designing that up. And there was a touchdown play early in the game when they ran like a fake read option. And then he did like a little sidearm throw into the end zone for a touchdown. And those wrinkles off of what they can do in the read option game are so cool. So yeah, like everything looks easy for him. He's obviously put together

incredible, incredible season. And I mean, yeah, it's great. I don't think you're overreacting. Jaydon Daniels, most rushing yards by a rookie quarterback in NFL history. And it was funny, Craig, I don't know if you saw, but they had the thing of Robert Griffin III, his record he broke, and they were playing how similar the plays were of Robert Griffin the third to what Jane Daniels is doing. And all I could think was what D.K. just said, haven't the Falcon seen this? How is this new? That was like 12 years ago.

Why is this look so freaking easy? I remember when RG3 was a rookie. He was so fun because it was like the big plays he could do, but it was the easy stuff that felt hard. And Jaden is like, he can do the big play. he can like the deep ball, he can run for 40 yards, but also when it's just like third and four and he needs to like make a completion,

hit a slant over the middle, make the smart decision. He does that too. It's crazy how much he, how mature he is for, I guess it's, you know, he played five years in college. He's a super senior.

And I guess that maybe that's what that does as you build a little bit of maturity when you've played 50 plus games in college. But this team is like the mini Eagles, man. They're just like, yes. Churning out drives now. I think the Falcons touched the ball once in the third quarter.

It is just like 15 played drive after 15 played drive. And I feel like that is a product of also the mobile quarterback where it's like, it's a lot easier to get five yards on a rush. And if you can do that, you can, every third down, you can keep churning out first downs over and over and over. And this offense isn't even that good. I feel like we went into this year thinking this roster is pretty mediocre

and Jaden does not have a lot to work with and they already feel kind of unstoppable. That's what I was going to say, Craig, is like every time you want your instinctive reaction to defend Caleb Williams is like his surrounding cast. I'm like, Jane Dales is just throw into it. Alameda Zakias. Zakias is going off this year, like the last two games, I mean. If you took the Bears' offensive team

and put them just with Jane Daniels in Washington, they'd be probably even better with you take. Right. They'd be probably better than the current team. I mean, there's a world in which I think, yeah, that's true. And what you were saying about the Eagles really rung true to me to today, especially just because, look, they were 6 to 13 on third down, almost 50%,

three for three on fourth down. They are so good on third and fourth and short. because of what they can do with the mobile quarterback, getting him outside the pocket where he has like three or four different options that he can do. Most of the time he just keeps it because he's like way faster than everybody on the field. And he can just like a Lamar Jackson almost where he can just like run away from everybody. It's so easy. When they are able to dial it like basically they like steal an extra down.

This is exactly what I've been saying about the Eagles for a couple of years. That was a push push. They have this extra down. It's like the math, the math implication of that is so wild. in the NFL. I saw the Solek tweeted this. Washington's converting on fourth down higher than the Eagles this season,

which is insane because they're getting tush-push numbers without the push-push. Washington's 19 for 22 and fourth down this year. That's 86%. Dude, there's an inevitability to them. You know, when they get into the red zone, you're like, well, they're going to score. Top of my head, I think Michael Jordan

from the free throw line shot 83%. Washington's 86% on fourth down. They're like literally better than Michael Jordan at the free throw line. It always just, and again, going back to what I said, it just looks so easy. Every time, it's just, it looks so easy. It's so frustrating for the, if you're like a fan of the opposing team, it's like so frustrating to watch.

You know what? Didn't look? The only part of this game that wasn't easy was getting Terry McLaurin the football. I think that this was one of the worst fantasy murders of championship seasons I can remember of like Washington wins third, a third, it scores 30 points in Sunday football to walk off, legendary Jaden Daniels game. Terry McLauron had, I believe, one catch for five yards. That's correct.

He had one point. lost me my fantasy championship today. I don't know how to feel. I'm sorry. That's genuinely like the worst feeling ever. And I, for all the people listening, like I actually am sorry.

It's a terrible feeling. Are you sorry for me? Because I experienced that. It happened to me. That's what I'm saying to you. That's how I started since. I'm genuinely sorry. I don't care about that.

Look at me. Look at me in the eyes. I'm sorry. It was awful. AJ Terrell was in his back pocket the entire game. And they were trying. They tried to get it to him. Couldn't get open.

Absolutely brutal. Terry's been a great story. all year. I didn't even want him this year, to be honest. He was kind of cheap. I drafted him. He was actually kind of bad for the first two games of the season, and then he took off, and it's been a fun ride. And I know he's a really nice guy, so I'm not going to say anything bad about him. But it's really hard to take an L like this in the fantasy championship

and then fire up the mic and then talk about how good Jane Daniels is, you know? Especially because it's like... You didn't start, Zach hurts? There were two players in this game, though, that you're just like losing your mind over if you lost your fantasy championship, where it's like Brian Robinson, losing two drives in the second half to some like, mystery injury in the second half.

And then Chris Rodriguez coming in and looking like, I don't know. Like slow agent Peterson at the end there basically, Chris Rodriguez, it just looks like a superhuman. And then Chris Rodriguez ends up with 16 yards for like a touchdown. I swear it seemed like he had five carries for like 80 yards. And then Zakias, Zakias out here with what did he finish with? Eight catches for 85 yards at a touchdown. How did we not see, how did we not see the revenge game coming from Alameday, former

falcon? This is the dumbest sport ever. Dude, I was talking to you guys about this early in the game. And I was like, it feels like we quit Zach Ertz about three years ago. You know how sometimes you'll look up and see a show on Netflix or wherever? And you're like, oh, that show's still on? Like, that's still going. I didn't realize that they had like more seasons the last complete.

That was like, that's what Zach Ertz is. Zach Ertz had 72 yards and two touchdowns. The game winning touchdown in this game. He had a play. This is the most important part. he had a play where he broke a tackle and like ran for like 60 yards or something. I don't know what it was. 36,

but it felt like 60 for Zach Ertz. It's on a curve. There's literally a Twitter account out there, which is like my favorite Twitter account that exists. That it's like it's just did Ertz break a tackle and it's just like no for like five or seven years. He did it today. He, well,

I don't know if he technically broke a tackle, but he evaded a tackle. I thought he broke the tackle and I almost texted you. And then I watched the replay. He just outran his safety. And I was like, that's worse. I swore he retired three years ago

he's still out here like top 12 tight end top 12 top 5 I mean he's so clutch today he's gonna be like one of the best tight ends of the playoffs I guess 72 yards and two touchdowns for Zachrits today including the game wouldn't catch which I don't know about I thought he dropped it I saw that they caught a touchdown and I just very smugly turn to jack I'm like they're going to have to look at that

and I hit the ground and I was like the questions if they have possession of hitting the ground and then you look and it didn't hit the ground He stabbed it. Dude. Stabbed it. Also, like, I didn't love how quickly they came to that conclusion. Usually they take an hour to make a decision. This was the game-winning touchdown.

In about 10 seconds, they're like, we're good. Dude, but if you watched the right-play, maybe. The ball did not hit the ground. I know. But, like, give it a beat. Just give it a beat. Because then the other Zacherts play earlier on that same drive, I think he actually might have dropped the ball.

And, of course, Rahim Morris doesn't throw a challenge flag on that, and they're not reviewing it. I don't know. Zachert's, I guess, phenomenal hands. Maybe he's the best tied in the league. I'm not sure. DK, what is that TV show for you, the one that you're like, that's still on?

For me, that's young Sheldon. Is that still on? I don't know. I think so. I'm like, he's like 17 now. I mean, for me, that's not young anymore. For me, it's probably like Survivor.

I can't believe that they're still doing that show. That's perfect for Zach Ertz. He is literally the survivor of the NFL. He's the tight end date this year. I had through 17 weeks anyway. I had the reverse this week, which was I can't believe how long the show's been on. I watched Scrooge for the first time with Jackie's filming

for Christmas and in Scrooge on the television is Pat Sejack doing Wheel of Fortune. And I was like, are you kidding me? That's funny. Tanya Harding's in this movie. How is Pat Sejack also in this show? Anyway, speaking of which, though, just before we get off this game, I don't know why it's speaking, which I have no segue from Tanya Harding. That always works, though. You can just say speaking of which and people kind of don't process that. It's a really smooth transition. I'm going to do that from now on because then you assume that you, you didn't know what I, like, you know, picking up.

Right. Speaking of which, so the Falcon, the coaching at the end of this game, I love Rahim Morris. I know, like, he came on flying coach. He's the, he's the man, by all accounts. Brutal end of clock management. Dude, he did it twice. He did it twice today. It frankly was actually reminiscent of the Caleb Williams Thanksgiving versus the Lions,

like no timeouts, end of sequence without the also catastrophic play. But, like, it was very similar. It was like, at 35, 40 seconds of the clock, quick completion. two timeouts, and then Michael Pennix goes to spike it and you're like, oh, cool.

Then they run a play and I'm like, why are you calling a play? Like, why are you letting your rookie quarterback in his second career start step in and try to like, like you have two timeouts

and it went down to, what, 12? Yeah. 19, I forget seconds. It was like 33 seconds left when the play ended

and I think they had like 17 seconds left after they ran the next place. And then it took a while, yeah, and then it's like 12 seconds left. And it was 20 seconds. If they'd gotten six yards, they would have won the game

regulation because the field goal for 56 landed about 52 yards 100%. You know who else did this today was Kevin O'Connell. And I don't know, man. Like it was the same situation with him for the Vikings. He had two timeouts left. He didn't call it. He ended up not being able to use one because he ran so much time. Do these guys, do you think if it was a button they would call it quicker?

Do you think it's like a red button like Jeopardy or like a red button? It's cool to hit. Basically it's like a challenge. They should have a timeout flag where it's like they just throw it immediately. And then maybe that would be easier for them. That's such a good idea because like, Mike McDaniel loves to flat. Mike McDaniel through two challenges

and four plays today. And I was like, you're the, like, if you're my, of breaking bad, he was like, you're the smartest person I know and you're too stupid to see that you lost this challenge

10 minutes ago. It's like, I, but yeah, that's a good idea. Like, get them like a nether flag, make it a different color or something. Yeah, it's blue or purple or something, whatever. Just like give them.

Let it be their, no, let them pick the color because it's like you make it their favorite color if they don't call timeouts enough and you make it their least favorite color if they call too many timeouts. Also, I just got to say, I know hyphenates this,

but some brutal calls today by the refs. The one holding call with the defensive end, like fell down. They called holding and then they bring in Terry McCulley. He's like, not a hold. And they're like, thanks, Terry. Anyway. Ever since you pointed it out, I do now see what you need. It happens so much now, yeah.

Terry, was that the right call? They're like, no, thanks. I do, I don't get how that's funny. It is funny how they kind of just like, they're like, they're like, cool. They do the quick referee expert guy that comes in. Because sometimes they'll like come in during a challenge and talk about it for a long time.

But more lately, I think, maybe it's a new thing that they're doing is like, Terry, what did you think of that? He's like, yeah, it shouldn't have been a foul. Okay, thanks, Terry. And then they just like move on. Terry, if you're a ref and it's so clear to you, why is it not clear to the eight refs on the field?

I don't get it. So the other part of this game, Michael Pennix Jr., I thought, looked really good. He wasn't elite, but I thought for his second start, he looked, again, it's like Jaydon Daniels. He looks 24 years old in season. On fourth down.

He's doing big boy shit for game two. I thought the best part of his whole, game, that sequence after the catastrophic snap that went over, they put Bejan Robinson the wildcat, ball goes over his head, he runs back, gets the ball, and then runs left, and I'm like screaming, I'm like, throw it, throw it, but he's left, and he's running back, so thinking, so he takes a 21-yard loss. I am so sorry to anybody who's going to lose your championship because Bejohn Robinson took the 21-yard loss there.

No, he's actually only minus two yards. It didn't go to him. They credited the fumble on the center, I think, and then he picked it up and lost two yards. But he lost 21 yards, though. No, because he recovered the fumbled 20 yards back and then lost two after recovering. Okay, never mind then. Cool. So hopefully they don't change that.

Wow. Yeah, it was that correction? Oh my God. But so Pennix comes in after that. What was it? Like third and 30? And he just comes. Something like that, yeah.

He was third and 21 yards. So it was like third and 25. It's like, and he comes in. And he just hits Drake London and get back most of it. And then he just rips the touchdown to Kyle Pitts of all people. the poise and the throw and he got Kyle Pitts to almost win a game that was those two pays to me

that's it that whole drive it's funny because he's like the opposite of Kirk with his arm strength being able to throw to the outside of the field earlier on that game tying drive he had like a fourth and 12 he hit Drake London on the sideline which was super nice he has a rocket he had a couple throw he left some meat on the bone too

like I think he has the potential to be really good but like he kind of airmailed a couple passes but I like the fact that he's just like pushing the ball down field. He's aggressive. You don't like with him, you're not like, oh, this is impossible now because they're too far away.

You know what I mean? Like that was the perfect example of like, let's get it back in two or three tries and like we're still in this. If that had been Kirk cousins or whatever, it's like, there's no fucking chance. So that's, that's a cool part.

Are we not going to talk? I wanted to talk because I get, Craig, it's funny because you mentioned Hyfit saying, I know you're going to be mad about this because I wanted to bring up the kicker, like short-arming the kick by about 10 yards. Oh, that's mean. It was 56-yard kids.

This is exactly what I thought you would do is, is you're going to defend him because kicking is hard, and that's true, and that's fair. Even five years ago, there's no shit. 56 yards is a long way, but now it doesn't feel that like long. He's short-length-hick by like a lot. You know, it's funny. He's the backup kicker.

Yeah, it looks good by a mile, and then it drops like in the middle of the end zone. Dude, that's one of those plays. like when you're watching baseball and it's like you think the guy hit a home run. Right off the bat, you're like, gone. And he pops it up to like short center field. You're like,

oh, fuck. Do you think that's what sex is like for women when it's like Oh, I thought you were just going to. Oh, it's a hot run, home run. You're asking us genuinely what sex is like? No, I bet. Well, whatever. Moving on. I get what you're saying. I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know, though. I don't. I get what you're saying in theory, but not

Literally. So speaking of which, I will say, so watching Panics tonight and Jane Daniels, and again, I really do think Jane Daniels is the best rookie quarterback since at least Andrew Luck. And watching this game, I wanted to ask us a crazy question about the rookies this year. I think that there's a chance that this is one of the three or four best drafts in NFL history, like this year's past draft. rookies in general. I mean, today put a real spotlight on it because so many shine. They're easily my winner of the day. I'm just going to run through some rookies who were fantastic today. And honestly, I've just been fantastic all season. Jane Daniels, obviously, 36 fantasy points today. Incredible. For the first time in NFL history, four rookies have all reached 1,000 yards receiving, which is Brian Thomas, Malik, Nebors, Ladd McConkey, and Brock Bowers, all of 1,000 yards. What about Marvin Harrison?

No, how did he do today? Dead last? No, yeah, yeah, he had a good day, though. He actually did have a good. He broke 65 yards for the third time this season, D.K. Yeah, the first time when a game didn't matter. He played well. Tide his career catches in week 17.

Did they win? Did they win? Can we rename him from Maserati Marv? Can we call him like minivan Marv or something? Yeah. He doesn't get to be Maserati Marv until he gets like over 100 yards four times. Mini Cooper Marvin Harrison. Yeah.

Yeah, Brian Thomas today, wide receiver one overall. in the fantasy playoffs. Last three weeks, number one guy in fantasy with Mack Jones. And not only that, dude, on this season,

Brian Thomas is the wide receiver four. He's the fourth best wide receiver in fantasy football this year. In total points. That's unbelievable. Say that again.

It's like Jamar. Justin Jefferson and Amon Rae. Yeah. Justin Jefferson and Amon Rae and then Brian Thompson. I saw that. Mike Clay tweeted that out and I was like,

there's no way. I literally had to go like double check his word. Not that he would lie about it, but I was like, that doesn't sound right. It is so true. It's weird.

Dude, also, I know we're just listing a bunch of this, but rookies with 100 yards and 10 touchdowns in the Super Bowl era, that list is Randy Moss, Adel Beckham, Jamar Chase, and Brian Thomas. Dude. A thousand yards and 1,000 yards and 1100 yards. Sorry, 1100 yards and 10 touchdowns in their rookie season. And he played James, Chase, Beckham, and Thomas,

which is also just like three LSU players in Randy Moss, but. And he played seven games this year without Trevor Lawrence, Brian Thomas. All these records, there's so many records that we can go through today. They're all legit records because they're 16 games, so they're real. Yes. Next week, they become not real. Yeah. Speaking of records, Brock Bauer, 77 yards today,

which broke Mike Dicka's record for most receiving yards by a rookie tight end. That was fake. Mike Dick could get in 12 games. Bad example right after what we just said. However, the reason why I brought up that stat is because that record has stood for 63 years, which really jumped out at me.

I was like, wait, how old is Mike Dicka? In my head, he was like 72. He's 85 and 86 or something. And I was like, I don't know, just hearing the phrase, this record has stood for 63 years in the NFL. I was like, wow. How old was Clint Eastwood when he set that record? Like 50.

There are not many passing game records left, ironically, except for passing yards in a game. There are not very few records left from more than like 20. But anyway, continuing, Brock Bowers had seven catches today, which broke Pooka Nukuwa's record for the most. Catches by a rookie, which is unbelievable. Wild.

And he set the record for the most receiving yards by a rookie for the Raiders, which is fun. So Brock Bauer's elite season, Malik Neighbors, Hyfittes' guy, playing with Drew Locke and Danny DeVito. He's been a top five receiver in the fantasy playoffs. 170 yards today, two touchdowns. Kind of beat me in the fantasy championship

because Malik and Drew Locke were the new Moss and Culpeper, so that sucked. And then Ladd-McConkie, 100 yards, two touchdowns today. Bucking Irving, the running back for the Bucks, 190 yards today, over 1,000 yards on the season. Jalen McMillan has had six touchdowns in the last four games for the Bucks. He's been awesome.

and then Bo Nix has been steady all year. And there's a ton of others, but like today specifically was a massive, massive day for rookies in the fantasy championship. You know, it's funny because DK., you know, the whole, and again, we're going to be the NFL drafts show going into next season's draft. And a lot of people, you know, your real life team's seasons over two, so we're going to be covering the draft and for each and two and stuff. And DK., you kept saying over and over again that this was a special offensive draft.

And then obviously most offensive players ever taken to start a draft. And it's immediately delivered. Like, to your point, Craig, the top three players in receiving yards are, I think, you know, it's like Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, and Citi Lamb, and the next three players are literally Brian Thomas, Brock Bowers, and McNebors. Like, those, they're fourth, fifth, and six. Three rookies are fourth, fifth, and six in receiving yards. And think of the quarterbacks, those three guys are playing with.

So here's the thing. And I know, like, I mean this when I say this, I really think that this is going to be one of the three or four best drafts ever. It has a chance. It's December. It's not even through the season yet. But if you think about it this way, six quarterbacks taken in the top 12.

Five of them seem like they'll be good. Like Jaden Daniels is good. Drake May is good. Michael Pennix, Jr., two games, looks like he's going to be good. Bow Nix. I mean, in a different year, you'd be a rookie of the year.

Caleb Williams. Caleb makes it. We haven't seen Jay Jim McCarthy play, but let's just say Caleb is good. Five quarterbacks that's a lot. That's why. Starting quarterbacks and good alone.

Nothing, no one else could play from this draft. And five starting quarterbacks in the first 12 pick. maybe six of McCarthy alone would make this a top ten draft if you get five quarterbacks. That's like, last time that happened probably 1983,

there's a 30 for 30 about that draft. But then you add in everything Craig just said about the receivers where Ladd McConk is the charges rookie season record. And Brock Bowers has all the tight end rookie records now and neighbors and Thomas, everything we just said.

That's crazy. Like it's going to be one of the best receiver classes ever. It's going to have Brock might be one of the best tight ends ever. And here's the kicker. All the defenders are good too. And I was going to say throw in a lot of pretty solid defenders in this draft already

too. It's like pretty wild. Lottu is good for the Colts's defensive end. Byron Murphy is good for Seattle. Quinion Mitchell and Cooper DeGine going to the Eagles. Jared verse and Braden Fist just weirdly replaced Aaron Donald. Like they got 70% of that, which is insane. Like this like, did you say Chop Robinson? Chop Robinson's had a good year. Chop Robinson and, um, sorry, no, the Vikings take on Blake, Dallas Turner. He's been good as well, yeah. At pass rusher. Chop Robinson is like six sacks

in his last eight games. The point being, the first 25 picks in this draft, 18 of them are either already already above average starters or have already flashed that they're good and a few were hurt. There's a lot of special draft.

Like Edron Cooper, Cooper de Jean, you probably mentioned him already. There's a bunch of guys, this is like reminding me, I think it was the 2012 class if you look back at it. It was like, you know, just Hall of favor or not Hall of Fame.

We're like, All pro, all pro, all pro. Like, just down the line, so many good players. And you're right. Obviously, like, a lot can change going forward. Like, some of these guys might end up not being good, like flashing the Pan type players. But I'm just looking at the 2012 class, Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin, Matt Khalil, Ryan Tannanhill, Luke Heakley, Stefan Gilmore, Don Torrey Poe, Fletcher Cox, Melvin Ingram, Chandler Jones.

I'm just looking at the guys who are all pros here. Like, in the first. round there's like seven or eight guys. Yeah. The misses in this draft right now are Caleb Williams and Marvin Harrison and Roma Dudesay. Like anyway. So the point is, good draft. The generational guys. Cool. Exactly. So and then

speaking of which, the Giants lost their way out of the first pick in today, which they won their way out of the first day. I hate them. The Giants, I think, are the biggest loser of the whole day, to be totally honest. Yeah, I was viscerally angry at the Giants today. You were, you guys were laughing at my misery.

The Giants won, I'm going to say this. This is a good thing for the Giants. That's my joke. Giants won 45 to 33. Sure. They won 45 to 33 today. They're 45 points. They had 45 fucking points.

The Giants have it at 45. First of all, it's the first home win of the year. They almost became the first team to ever lose nine home games in an NFL season. They have ordered that. Thank God. Dude, do you guys, I'm curious if you have any sporting memories that are equivalent to this. I watched Drew Locke. run in a touchdown to basically

rip the first pick away from the Giants and on my screen my split screen Sequin Barclay is passing 2,000 rushing yards to clinch the NFC East for the Eagles and these are happening at the same time and I really think it might have been the lowest I ever felt as a Giants fan I'm sure there are other moments the Jake Fromm sneak on third down will always

haunt me third and nine. But like, it was as low as I've ever felt watching, watching the Giants. If it makes you feel me better, just look literally, what were you just talking about for like the last 10 minutes? It's going to end up being the guys that are taking one, two, three are going to be worse than the guys taking four,

five, six or whatever. Hyvitz. But that's just because those teams are usually better. Also, Daniels went second and Drake May went third. So you, yeah, but not all these guys need quarterbacks.

So the Giants currently have the fourth pick. Is that correct? So as things currently stand The new and again obviously this can change Because if we learned anything It's you got to remember that like the things can change With one wing The Patriots currently have the first pick

Titans would have the second pick Browns would have the third pick Giants would have the fourth pick Jags would have the fifth pick Right I mean ironically The Pats The Browns I guess

And then the team right after Jacksonville Those teams all don't need quarterbacks In theory so in theory The Titans could take a guy too Shador or Cam Warren the Titans and Browns would not take a quarterback? You think the Browns are going to take a quarterback? Why would the Browns are going to take a quarterback?

There's a guy named Deshawn Watson with like $275,000 or $275 million in dead money on their roster. One billion dollars. Deshawn Watson is not going to prevent them from taking court. First of his, he's the worst quarterback in league towards Achilles. I don't know he's ever going to play for them again. I think if the Browns took Shador Sanders, there would be like a cultural explosion. Like that's too many things going on on one team to have Deshaun. Well, that's the thing.

Shador, Dion Sanders' umbrella hanging over in Cleveland. That can't happen because it doesn't make sense in my brain. So there's a world to this where the Patriots take like, you know, Travis Hunter because they don't need, or, you know, Travis Hunter because they don't need a quarterback. And the Titans, you know, take Shudder Sanders and the Browns take like Cam Ward. And the Giants, again, I'd be okay if the Giants don't necessarily, I don't think there's three quarterbacks worth taking in the top four picks in this draft. And I'm curious, because the draft show comes, like we'll get more to the quarterback class. And if the Giants' worst case take a right tackle and pair him with Andrew Thomas or like a, you know, a defensive tackle like Mason Graham and pair him with Dexter Lawrence, I'd love that. You could get a quarterback like, you know, the Michigan kid.

Will Johnson has just put him with Drew Phillips. This is what you want. This is what you want. You don't want to have to take Cam Ward or Shedura Sanders, who I don't think anybody's super thrilled about this year. This is great for you. Now you can be bad again. And again, the quarterback class next year is much better. This is what you want.

This is good. Now you don't have to take Cam Ward. And that's thing. So look, I think a lot of the premium positions, receiver tackle, defensive end cornerback, it's Noah's Arc. You want them in pairs. The Giants have one great receiver, one great tackle, one great detackle, one great edge rusher, and then one great quarterback, good quarterback.

And like any of those get to, that's a good start. I would say start from the trenches. Get me a tackle. Get me a detackle. Get me a defensive end. But having said that, I want you guys just take on this. I actually think what's going to happen here with the draft and what's going to happen with the Giants outcome here is the.

I kind of think Dionne Sanders is going to force Shadur to the Giants anyway. And I think that even though they lost the first pick, it's going to happen. Like this is the most history doesn't repeat, but sometimes it rhymes. 21 years ago, I think the Giants had the fourth pick. And then the Chargers took Eli Manning first. And he was a whiny little bitch on TV. And he was like, I'm not playing for them. And the Giants took Philip Rivers and they swapped Eli and Rivers.

I kind of think there's a very similar situation. Dion Staders has already said he's not going to send Shadur anywhere. He named Chicago. He's like, I wouldn't send him to Chicago. I do not think Dion Sanders would let Shudor Sanders go to Cleveland. I do not think that's happening. New England doesn't need him. So it's like, does Shadur want, or sorry, does Dion want Shudor in Tennessee?

If not, I kind of think he's going to call the teams. Like, yeah, we're not going to play for you. And if you take him, we're going to make your life like a living hell. He's going to go to the Giants. And then it's whether the Patriots or someone want to play chicken and hold him hostage for a trade. But I think there's, if the Giants like Shadur, I think there's absolutely going to be mutual interest because I think Shadr wants to go to the Giants or the Raiders. And the Raiders are currently going to pick eighth.

Can you still do that nowadays? Can you still be like, my son's not going anywhere except this team? Or I don't want him going to Cleveland. Can you do that? Yeah. Sure. Why not? So what happens?

The Brown select Shador Sanders and Deion's like, nope. Then what? What happens next? You basically are like... You forced them to trade you. How? It's really hard for a player or the family of a player to try to strong arm in NFL team and like not be intimidated by the prospect of the national media attention, the narrative.

Do you think Dion Sanders is afraid? I do not think Deon Sanders is afraid. Like he's one of the few people. He's again, Deon said, he's the Michael Jordan of Levar Balls. He's going to walk in in a private meeting at the combine and inform Cleveland. Don't take us. And if we do, we're going to embarrass you. And they just gave Deshaun Watson a quarter of a billion dollars. Those people can't screw that up again. So like the Browns are not in position to screw this up again. So if Cleveland, took Shadr Sanders to just be like, okay, that's too much. Like, we can't, yeah, we're done. We can't, we

the league is over. It's like a crossover when like two shows have the characters to be together in one episode. You're like, this is too many things going on. I don't like this. It's like family guy and the Simpsons are together. I don't like this. Hi Fids, this is ultimately good. I would, if you had the one of first

overall pick. No, it's not good. Don't do that to me. It's not good. That's ridiculous. This is like you're saving yourself on yourself. That's so dumb because if the giant do, if they do, like, Shadr, if they have to trade up for a quarterback and it costs them a first or two first, it's a disaster. Well, don't trade up then.

I'm not in charge, Craig. I know, but why would you trade up? These quarterbacks aren't that good. Don't trade up, stay at four, take whoever. It's in the first pick. You could have traded down and got a first. If you're at the first pick, you have the pressure on you to take the quarterback.

Everybody will, if you trade out of Shador or Cam Orrett and he's good, then that's terrible for you. So now you don't have the pressure of like, No one's pressuring you, like, you have to trade up and sell the farm to go get Cam Moore. That's not the case. So now you're sitting pretty. The quarterback classes next year. You take somebody in the trenches, like you said, and you don't have to have Cam Ward for in the next five years.

So you like that the Giants chose today of all days to have the three receivers scored touchdown in the first half for the first time in the history of the New York Giants who are 101 years old? Can I please read to you guys this Drew Locke stat that I heard that it was so crazy that I had to go corroborate it myself and it is in fact true, according to true media. So Drew Locke today, the Giants quarterback, went 17 for 23, 309 yards passing. He had four touchdowns, zero sacks, and he ran in a touchdown. No sacks? No sacks.

I had the Colts defense thin negative four points. They are my fantasy murder of the day. Hi, Fitz, are you going to be mad at the Colts for the rest of your life? Don't even get me started on the Colts having negative four points. No, I'm at, no, the Colts were just there. So first of all, if you had, if you started Drew Locke today in a fantasy championship, please email us because you deserve an award. Secondly, I saw a tweet from an account called Doug Analytics, and I wanted to make sure this was correct. But the tweet was, so on EPA per play, EPA measures how well a team performs compared to what's expected.

True Lock today, 1.18 per play, EPA per play, 1.18 points per play. Damn. That was the best performance of 2024 by any quarterback. And not only that, it was the sixth best performance by any quarterback since 1999. 2007 Peyton Manning, 2007 Philip Rivers, 2019 Lamar, 2002 Peyton Manning, 2007 Tom Brady, and 2024 Drew Locke. You don't even need a quarterback, Hypatts. Just keep this guy.

It was the best game in the history of Giants quarterbacks in terms of EPA for play. Honestly, if I was Hypatts, I would never forget. the Colts. I would just like fucking hate the Colts for the rest of my life. This is how I feel about the Vikings when they gave up six touchdowns to Alvin Camara. Like whatever it was three or four years ago on Christmas, I'm like, I will never fucking forgive

the Vikings for that. I hate them forever. You fucking idiots. How can you not stop him? Six fucking touchdowns. Are you kidding me? What is wrong with you? This is how I feel about the Colts today. Craig, I did the exact same thing as you. In one of my leagues in the championship, I dropped the Broncos, who are the number one

defense in football all year long, but they were playing the Bengals. Right. And I'm like, the Colts, they're playing the disaster giants. They'll at least get a few points. I'll be fine.

Just get by. Kind of like seven minimum I was expecting. People were joking. And the Broncos did fine. Seven days ago. Oh my God. And then the, and then the fucking Colts got like negative three

according to our scoring and negative four according to yours. Do you know how I felt at the end of this game? You remember the end of the second season of Piki Blinders when they're like in a ditch and like they've kind of like grabbed Tommy and they're like, they're like, the middle of a field and there's like a grave and there's like five guys with guns and he's like can I have a cigarette? And he just

takes a rip and he just looks up and he's like so close so fucking close. Oh and there's a woman God have had a fucking everything anyway. It's a good scene. Winston Churchill will be in touch. Oh yeah. Winston. Yeah. Dionne Sanders

will be in touch. This is just this is just step one in the archmaning process. I want to be on record with this. I would do horrible things to get Archmanan to be the Jacksonville. We don't even know if he's good yet. Come on.

Don't give a shit. Don't give a fuck. He's in the family. I don't care. I don't care. I will defend him till I die. Americans want he's like fast. Watching Jane and Daniels tonight, watching Jane Daniels tonight, I keep thinking. I'm like, I want a quarterback who could do that. I want someone who could do that. Every time it's just like,

oh, no one's open. I'm just going to run effortlessly past defensive ends. the most athletic people in the world. He proved it today. I mean, you can make the case Drew Locke had the best game in the history of the NFL for quarterbacks. Fuck, just keep it. Just stupid it.

Whatever, man. I would never forgive the Colts for this. I, uh, what the fuck, Colts? This is the dumbest sport. It's the stupidest thing. Anyway, winners.

D.K., we actually have to do an impromptu little fraud watch brought to you by FTX because I think the Vikings are frauds. No, that's not what I said. Not quote, that verbatim. Anyways, I did. kind of say that I wasn't sure if the Vikings are as good as their record and I take that back.

They are. They're definitely really good. My bad. I take it back. I'm sorry. Do you want me to self-flagellate in front of you? No, that's only every, if you like bought into Kyle Pitts today, then yes. Other than that, you're good.

Oh, I did, man. That was a confidence boost seed needs. I'm all back in on Kyle Pitts. No, obviously the Vikings were super, super impressive today. They did let the Packers kind of get back into it, but they dominated it for most of the game. And Craig, you mentioned it on our text change. They just have so many ways to beat you. They have a really, really good, balanced offense with tons of really talented weapons.

Sam Darnold is playing his ass off. Their defense is awesome. Their coaching is awesome. They're just a really, really balanced team. And they, I guess they shredded any, like, semblance of doubt I had in the back of my mind about them today. And I probably shouldn't have doubted them in the first place. But they obviously look really, really good. Now next week, they get to play the Lions.

the final game of the season for the number one seat in the NFC and the division. So that's gonna be super exciting. It's pretty epic. And that was flex to Sunday night football. Yeah. As it should be.

DK., dare I say, Sam Darnold, ripping it. Oh, you're gripping and ripping. I had an intrusive thought today about Sam Darnold. Just fucking ripping it

down the seams. Dude, Sam Darnold plays, he's in this Vikings' offense, he's basically like Brock Purdy, if Brock Purdy had way more talent. Oh my God. High Fitz.

That is so funny. you said that. I said that, or I wrote down that, at least in fantasy football, the way we thought about Brock Purdy heading into 2024 is how we're going to think about Sam Darnel heading into 2025. Where we're not going to exactly know whether or not this is real and we should invest anything, because I think they honestly finished like exactly the same. I think Sam Darnel is like the eighth best quarterback in fantasy this year. Brock Purdy was like the seventh or eighth last year. And it was kind of like, wow, are we doing this? Like, am I going to actually like spend a fifth round draft pick on on brook purdy at quarterback and then we all know how that went it was a tough year for

the niners sam donald is this weird like one year test case where he looks fantastic and i'm like wow no notes if he stays with the vikings and they give him a bunch of money i think we're going to kind of be in that exact same scenario of like do i trust it or is this too much of a flash in the pan where i want to stay away and i need to see it again i think darndle's playing well enough that you probably i think they're probably going to end up keeping him and you can't now i know this is i think this is going to be the most interesting offseason like decision or whatever. Just one pure decision for any team is like do they

try and re-sign Sam Darnold or let him go or I guess they could franchise tag him. I was going to say I don't want to ruin it for everyone but they're going to tag him and then work out an extension but I do not he's not going to hit free agency. I'd be shocked. But I think the question is like do they just go to their succession plan or basically be like look we can't. We just kind of not lucked into this but like this situation fucking worked out so well. We cannot move on.

They're 14 and 2. Of course, they can't go on. If they're the one seed in the playoffs, yeah. Yeah, think about that. Like, the fact you can't let him play.

What are you talking about it? The fact you can't get to play for the one seed and you're going to let your quarterback go. It's just you can't because at that point, the theoretical of, well, you could take the millions and move it somewhere else. It's like you're 14 and 2.

We've never seen J.G. McCarthy play in the NFL other than like a little bit in the pre- And he's got like a complicating knee injury, which I think can help them kind of like say they need to give him another year to kind of work back in. He's never played in the NFL. And that's the other thing. I think people defend what the Falcons did with Kirk Cousins and Pennix.

And it's like, well, it's the most important position to get two quarterbacks. The Falcons, my issue is they did that with a 36-year-old coming off an Achilles injury. How old is Sam Donald? He's like 21 years old. He's, yeah, he's Jason Tatum of football. It's like young Sheldon. Yeah, he's young Sheldon. Sam Donald's like less than three years older than Bonix.

He's younger than Joe Burrow. Is he really? He is like six months younger than Joe Burrow. I always forget that. Joe Burrow's sneaky old. I want to go to Oppenheimer right now because there were some players that absolutely swung fantasy championships

and were just frankly like legendary this week. Starting with speaking of Donald on the Panthers, I saw this crazy stat, sorry, Donald and the Vikings. This amazing stat that there's this photo of Donald and Baker on the Panthers two years ago. I know.

I think Albert Rich would do this. And it was like they had 760 yards, eight touchdowns, and no interceptions today. Baker or Donald. Speaking of fucking ripping, passes. Just fucking ripping in it. Every chance he gets, he's ripping a pass. Every year I think it's over for Mike Evans and every year I'm wrong.

Baker Mayfield, 27 of 32 today. For 359, 27 of 32. For 359 yards, five touchdowns, perfect passer rating, 153. I think that's perfect. I can't remember. You want to win your fantasy league draft Mike Evans and Derek Henry every year and don't listen to what anybody says. A hundred percent. Mike Evans, even with the injury, he got to 915 yards. today. I mean, how much money would you bet that Mike Evans is going to get the 85 yards to get to

a thousand yards next week? Like, he's going to do it. So I can't believe he did that again. But yeah, Baker was again, right now in the NFL, passing yards, Joe Burroughs first, Baker Mayfield's second and passing yards. Passing touchdowns, Joe Burroughs first, Baker Mayfield's second and passing touchdowns. Completion percentage. Two is first. Baker is second. Just ripping it. He's, he's scoring essentially, there's a half point difference in points per game. He's scoring the same amount points is Jane Daniels this year. Just as like a guy who's just ripping passes. He's not run around much. I mean,

runs around a little bit, but he has been one of the best fantasy values, like pure fantasy values this year. Oh yeah. Full stop. 4,300 passing yards, 3-9 touchdowns. He is the outlier that makes, that like ruins your draft because you're like, but what if I find the Baker in round 10?

That's a real like go home to your wife situation. It's like, no, they just draft Josh Allen, but you're like, but what if I find Baker? He was really, he was really good last year too. And we just were just, I think we just thought it was a flash in the pan. Yeah. It was weird. And so I bet that's the thing. I'm sure there are a lot of people. And then they lost. they lost his OC, the QB whisper and we're like, oh, he's going to, he's going to

flame out or whatever. No, he's even better this year. But to your point, I think that, because I'm sure a lot of people listening, listen to me, complain or like, shut the fuck up, you little bitch and like listening to Craig and being like, why are you so worried about losing the first pick in a draft with quote unquote bad quarterbacks? And my answer to that is, I think my main takeaway from this season is, everyone, but I'm going to start.

I need to be a lot more humble about quarterbacks because just looking at the season, you Sam Donald might be the number one seed in the, Sam Donald might go 15 and 2. Baker Mayfield, again, second in yards, touchdowns, and completion percentage. Bryce Young went from unanimous castoff to the Panthers don't need a quarterback in six weeks. Like you just look on and on and on down the line. The fickleness of how quickly the tides can change on quarterbacks. is so amazing that it's like, I don't give a shit

if a bunch of people agreed this isn't a great class. I'm like, clearly we don't know exactly how this works and I want to just throw my hat in the ring with the quarterbacks because that's my Baker Darnold,

that's my takeaway in the whole season. I think that's, yeah, that's, it's the only argument you can make is nobody knows anything so just give me a quarterback and we'll see. Take shit.

He's Dion Sanders fucking son. He plays quarterback. I want him. Isn't the lesson from this year not take it, well, it could be take a rookie, but it's also signed some journeyman guy and turn him into a stunt. Sorry, I don't mean to dismiss it.

The answer is, no, this is, the answer is to be, ironically, as they say, no, no, no. The answer is to be open-minded. Like last year, Brock Purdy, the last two years, Brock Purdy is the last pick in the draft. You know what? Woody Johnson did, the owner of the Jets, tried to get the last pick in the draft.

They had like the 20th, the last pick. Woody Johnson wanted to trade back because he wanted the last pick because he's like, well, that's who you get the quarterback. That's insane. The answer is to be open, mind you and take darts at quarterbacks. And it's like just like, no, you don't just take seventh round quarterbacks.

The answer is collect them however you can get them. And like now everyone's going to like, oh, just signed some failed prospect who like was, no, the answer is fucking take as many flyers as you can, however they come in the seventh round, on a Darnold, on a Gino Smith. Like, just try. Cooper Rush. Just try. Giant starter next year?

Cooper Rush has been weirdly good. Anyway, sorry. I know I'm ranting it. I think the lesson, there's a lot of lessons and there's no one lesson is the lesson. And I think situation obviously is going to be probably the biggest variable here. And the Giants are not a good situation. Scott McLuhan, my first job was for the Washington franchise. And Scott McLuhan said this.

He was like a crazy talented GM. And he said, Ron Wolfe, for the Packers once told him, if you can find one good quarterback out of every 10, you'll be in this business forever. That's the lesson. It's like get to 10 quarterbacks. Anyway, other players who went off, T. Higgins for the Bengals,

the Bengals, Broncos game on Saturday was crazy. But the T. Higgins arc in that game was insane. 131 yards and three touchdowns for T. Higgins. I love T. He's great. You said it early in the year when we were talking about T. Higgins. He just like his hands are so sticky and suction.

Strong. I think he's the best hands in the NFL. The way he just reaches out and snatches the football out of the air, like on his gay winning touchdown, it's just like, yoink, and he just grabbed it and they was over. He catches the ball as far away from his body as possible, and then holds it like a basketball. Yeah, yeah.

It's like, you know, when you, like, grab a rebound and you see it down and you're just like, whatever? That's like what he does with every catch. Just zeing it down. Did you guys see that? There was a TikTok. That was like a highlight of T. Higgins. and

Soss Gardner, the cornerback for the Jets, commented on the TikTok and says, pay the man in all caps.

Some random person then says to Soss Gardner tell him to come to the Jets and Soss Gardner says, I will not be telling him that.

That's funny. Even Soss is like, I would never do that to D. Dude, the Jets defenders turned on Rogers today. Dude,

D.J. The other cornerback was like, yeah, we should make plays. But like, I don't know. The offense should probably score. Rogers pulled himself today, kind of. Rogers, yeah. Honestly, I don't know if we ever see Rogers play football again. It's possible.

Nor should we. Yeah, but T. Higgins is awesome. I think he's going to get a lot. He got a lot of money. I still want him to stay with the Bengals, though, man. I think he should. Keep a good thing going. Yeah.

I have another rant on this. We'll hit it this offseason. It inevitably. Craig, who else is just an absolute fantasy world's destroyer this week? Trey McBride, my sweet, lovely, beautiful man really just lit up my Saturday night. I was at dinner with friends. I went to the bathroom, whipped out the phone.

Checking scores. Checking scores. I was like, 12 catches, 120. I'm like John Gruden in there. I'm like 12 catches? 12 yards at a touchdown. First receiving touchdown of the year for my boy, Trey did it in the fantasy championships.

He had 24 points. This guy was the number three tied end this year with one touchdown. If he had five, he would be the number one. Craig. He also had the game. winning the what could have been the game winning play go off his head which wasn't ideal. See, I missed that when I was at dinner with my friends. So that didn't matter as much. Late in the game, the Seahawks playoff, the Seahawks playoff hopes hanging in the balance.

And Kyler Murray, they like drove all the way down the field. They looked like they were going to go ahead and like win the game. Kyler Murray throws a pass hits Trey McBride in the head. It bounces off his helmet and is intercepted. It's kind of like red dot to the face. It was like, I mean, it was like not like it wouldn't have been an easy catch to make, but it sucks when it hits you in the head. He was so happy he caught the touchdown. He didn't really care. He was drunk. Yeah, 104 catches, one touchdown receiving for Trey.

Yeah, he had the touchdown. Too many tasks. Rich Eisen was like our national nightmares over. Also, every play, he just had three blocks. They just rent screens to him. Every play, he just caught it two yards down field at three blocks in front of a red 12 yards. It was like, he went four times in the drive. He's the under the radar best tight end in the league.

It's going to be Brock Bauer's number one next year. But I would argue Trey McBride is actually like maybe a safe. pick. It depends to the Raiders quarterback is. However, we have to hit fantasy murderers and the people who ruined your season and you'll never forget or forgive. Speaking of this game, the Cardinals,

the Cardinals, James Connor, I don't know if there's ever been more of a fart to an amazing season than James Connor because six touches for eight yards in this game. Well, he got hurt. This is the most snip, snap situation. I can remember because James Connor last week is 25 or 28 points against the Panthers.

Get you to the finals. Also, worth noting, of the best picks you could have made this season, the latest one was basically James Connor. He was the best running back you could have taken outside of the first 20-dix. I need to add something to what I said earlier. If you want to win your fantasy football league, draft Mike Evans, Derek Henry and James Connor, and don't listen to anybody else. The old. James Connor, better than a lot of second-round players you could have drafted. And you got him 70th and he got you to the finals.

And then 28 points, you're like, great, snip. And then he gets hurt that game. Snap. And then he's practicing limited participant on two. And you're like, great, snip again. And then it's like, and then he's like practicing on Saturday. And then you're like, oh, he's going to play Saturday. Awesome.

There was even a report, I think, that he's just going to get like a full workload. Dude, but this is the problem. Like, I'm sitting there on Christmas morning and like we're opening presents. But like the game, so it's like I have James Connor, but then like if, in the flex. And so if he doesn't play, the backups are like all playing at Christmas. Like, you know what I mean? It's like all gay guys and the Texans Ravens. Chiefs. I know. It's actually so awful.

This week. This week was so hard. And then I'm with Jackie's family. So like we're like at an amusement park. I'm waiting in line for like a roller coaster. And I'm like next to her parents ignoring them on my phone. And Jackie's like, what are you doing? And I'm like trying to figure out if I need to play Dionne's sweep before Thursday football. And I'm like like the most anti-social activity of all time. And I'm like, this is insane. Yeah. So then James Connor plays and then he comes out after like six touches for eight yards.

And this is like a tale as old as time. I actually just watched Friday Night Lights. because we're doing it for the rewatchables tomorrow, Monday. And like there's the guy, Boobie Miles, he like gets hurt, leaves the game, says he's fine, they put him back in, he gets even more hurt. I feel like there's always that element.

You could just feel it with James Connor. You're like, I know this guy's hurt. And I know he wants to play, and I know he's going to get out there. But it's still so hard to sit him because in your head, you're like, God, if I sit this guy who's been great all year,

it's absolutely brutal. And games, having games Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and Monday, I guess, is just, it's impossible. It's like, well, Jalen Warren's on Wednesday and then Zach Charbonnet's on Thursday. So I got to see what's happening with Ken Walker, hopefully before Wednesday, and then I can make my decision.

It's ridiculous. So finals week being in Christmas week, it's like, it's the worst. It's like, I'm out of adrenaline. It's really, like, it's really, it needs to change. Like, this is a problem. Like, back in my day, the fantasy playoffs go off. It used to be perfect. This is one of my intrusive thoughts.

We could just do it now. Let's just do, yeah. Intrude. used to be perfect. My intrusive thought this week was exactly what you're going to say. The fantasy schedule for the playoffs sucks now. Like with the new, it's the new 17 games schedule combined with the fact they do buys in week 14 and a lot of them.

It really restricts what you're able to do in fantasy football playoffs. It's hard because late in the season, everybody's kind of like banged up and stuff, but like it just didn't feel like it used to suck this much. I don't know. No, let me tell you about back in my day. The way it used to be was that the buy weeks would stop at week 12. And neither is to say you don't want the fantasy playoffs during the buy weeks.

That's insane. Right. So it used to go to week 12. The playoffs were beginning week 13. And you would do three rounds. Round one is week 13. Round two is week 14. And then week 15 and week 16 were the championship.

So the best two teams would beat and you get a two week final, which is nice because then like, oh, if James Connor gets hurt in the first quarter or whatever, like that doesn't decide your whole league. And it's an event and it's cool that there's a two-week matchup for the last one. And it's perfect. And then when they added the 17th game and the 18th week, players obviously were like we're playing an extra game, injuries, et cetera. So the NFL moved the buy weeks back to space it also for international stuff because they want to be able to put a game in Mexico City.

And then if you go outside the country, they have to allow you the chance to maybe if you want to have a buy after. So all that's aside. Now the buys go to week 14. So you either have this position of where we're at now, where it's like, well, we can't have playoffs during buy weeks. We all decided that the last three years. You're stuck to a three week window.

So we have three weeks to do it. You can't do week 18. So now we have this thing of like three weeks to do the playoffs. But then you have weeks like this. We're like, it's a little, I want, this is a flex. I won a few leagues today. And I'm saying this is someone who didn't lose any championships. I won all the championships I was in.

It feels a little weird beating someone because Terry McLaurin had one catch and James Connor got hurt. And it's like I did weird. And they shut down Cedi Lamb, the Chuba Hubbard, they shut down him, like, two is out, whatever. Like, there's just so many, like, I hate that, like, the culmination of a very long art, like, season where you did all these moves just comes down to, like, the skeleton crew of your team.

And I also, we're in a league where it's a two-week final. That felt better. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's a better win. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, all that's to say. I think my thought today was literally just like, if I was starting a new league, I might just honestly have, and this is like for a 12-man league, 12-team league.

I might just have four teams make it and two-week playoffs. And that's it. I think that's fair. Like go through 14, two-week playoff. Well, or you do a three-week playoff and have the finals be two weeks. Or we could do it that way. And I'm in a couple leagues where you only make it if you're like the top four teams. I think it also kind of is like puts more emphasis.

Like anybody can finish six in a league. You know what I mean? Like you 12, like whatever it is, like you can be a five. 500 team and make the playoffs. I feel less bad for you because you said you won all your championships. Oh, that's fine. I don't love that because I think the most important thing with your schedules, you want everyone to be engaged.

And if you look at the week, five weeks in and you're one and four and you're like, oh, four teams make it. Like, I have no chance. And like, you don't want people to tap out. I actually think about the point where it depends on the schedule. If there are six buys in week 14, which I think there were this week, you can't, there's nothing you could do. But like two years ago, I think there were two teams on buy.

I'm almost like just have the playoffs start in week 14 and everyone knows before the draft that those teams are going to play and like they just move them down your ranks because I think that might be better and maybe that's crazy and we're overthinking it but I do I do nothing's perfect but I think that that's the thing

is like in the moment it feels crazy to have like oh Washington's up buying the playoffs but if everyone knows that going in then like all right also my memory is shot but like did we used to have games every fucking day of the week during Christmas week no that's new too that's like it's too much

Well, I do think it's unlucky that it's Wednesday. I do think they like really figured out how to jam this shit together. But next year, Christmas is a Thursday. So you're going to have three games. You're going to have all day games on Thursday. And they might do the Wednesday thing anyway. They'll find a way to do it. God, if they do the Wednesday thing again.

They did Christmas Eve two years ago. I don't see a reason they would change it unless they think this was a failure. I don't think they did. I don't think they did. Dude, they beat college football. They destroyed college football ratings. I think they loved it. So next year, you'll probably have the same thing.

Well, they'll do Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Christmas, Christmas Thursday. It's probably going to be seven days. There's going to be a game every day. You shouldn't be checking your championship lineups on Christmas. It's insane. My take is that there should be no sports on Christmas. Get out of here.

That's actually my take too. But you probably like your family. If people don't like their family, that's whatever. It's all you got. To me, the whole schedule with the NFL now feels very anti-climactic because normally during the whole season, I am so fucking dialed in to every game, watching every game. watching every play.

And then on Christmas, I'm like, look, I've got stuff to do. I'm going to catch up with this game later and I'll rewatch it for my job. But I'm not like watching it during the game playing. Like giving up your, it's like Christmas Day, there's two games. That's already an issue. And then like the next night, of course, they jam in another one. It's Thursday. And my dad's like, Thursday night game?

You're traveling back and forth to different family. My dad is like a legit NFL fan. Had no idea there was a Thursday night game. He just assumed that Wednesday was the only day, which is a reasonable thing to assume. And then not only that, so they already jammed two days into your week, Wednesday, Thursday. Then it's also Saturday, just competing with... And Sunday and Monday. It's too much.

It was too much. This is my job. But like, this was too much. This is the first time in my career. I felt like this is too... The NFL went too far. I'm speaking more, honestly, like, from this point of view, I'm speaking more of like as a fantasy football player and fans.

Not as like my job. Like, it's pain to my ass as a job thing because it's like you're literally working like every day during Christmas week, which isn't like a day. deal. But from a, from a fan point of view and fantasy fan point of view, I'm like, it just like waters down the thing. It does. Like it feels like I said earlier. It's like my adrenaline is out by like Thursday night. Like it just feels like there's too much like waiting for things to happen. Like there's another fucking game tomorrow. You know why? It's, it's a quiet thing. It's fantasy football is not just magically popular. Football's popular. But fantasy football works in, I think in large part,

because the perfection of the NFL schedule, it's rigid. And it's like Sundays and like they added Thursdays, which is a little annoying, but like it's perfect. Once a week, you check your line up once. Thursday, now you have to check it like twice. Fantasy basketball doesn't work in large part. Exactly. Every fucking day.

This week was fantasy basketball. It's insane. And this week felt like the two years I tried to do fantasy basketball. And I was like, I can't keep track of whether Markisol is playing today. Like I can't replace my center. And that's how this felt. It takes away the, or it's like, I don't know what the word is, but it's just like anti-climactic in a way because it's just like the games are so spread out. It's like hard to track like whether you're on track to win or not.

You know what I mean? You're like trying to follow your other like your opponents, players. And at some point I was just like, I don't care. Like just tell me what the score is at the end of the week. You know what I mean? Like I'm tired of like trying to figure out like, am I on track to win or not? I don't know. And obviously like I don't think personally like all this.

program or the all systems that like hold the fantasy playoffs like their projections are always just total bullshit and like lead you like you know you have a 73% chance of winning like no it's gonna be that's like projecting it's like going to be 165 to 100 that is like not 7030

like I want to kill the projection sometimes when it's like Sleeper it's like Bejan Robinson has 12 points and they're like he will finish with 16 I'm gonna shut the fuck up sleeper I know anything dumb bitch so I try that to pay attention to like the projections but my point is basically just like, it's like too much.

There's too many games. There's so like an over the course of too many days. I don't like it. Keep going. Make it worse. Have games in like Saudi Arabia on Christmas Day. You have to get up at three in the morning to watch it. Oh, my God.

Soon. Other fantasy murderers. I mean, like FIFA. Oh my God. Yeah. Just sell it. Other people killed your team. Craig, you mentioned the Colts defense.

D.K. you texted earlier about Josh Downs and just, you know, various people murdered teams. we didn't even get to the fact that the whole Christmas slate led to nine games on Sunday. More than half the games today were backup quarterback versus backup quarterback. You had Kenny Pickett versus Cooper Rush. Nasty. You had Joe Flacco versus Drew Locke, which I guess best game in Jackson Street. Like it was awful.

Dude, it was Tyler Huntley versus Dorian Thompson. So like the starts sit questions today were unbelievable. I've never gotten disgusting starts sick questions like today where it was like Jonu Smith versus Foster Moreau. You know what I mean? Like for your championship on the line. So I,

that was fantasy murder. Just I feel bad for everyone who to decide your championship and you're like, do I play someone with Spencer Rattler or not? That was awful. Wait, I want to mention one.

Please. I got to tip my cap to C.J. Stroud. One last fuck you from C.J. Stroud. Oh my God. That was awful. Against the Ravens. Against the Ravens' secondary seven points. The Ravens beat the Texans

31 to 2. Two feels worse than zero. You know? It like draws attention to it. You like linger on it more. You're like, your brain's like, what? The defense really had to help you guys to give you that too. Seven points against the Ravens.

James Winston had 24 against the Ravens. Gardner Minsch who had more against the Ravens, Bo Nix. Oh, by the way, this is like... C.J. Shroud, couldn't do it. This is either really bad for C.J. Shroud or really bad for Caleb Williams, depending on how you look at it. I was looking at the stats on PFF. for both of those guys this year.

They're essentially like shockingly close statistically for both of them in so many ways. So Caleb Williams and CJ Stroud both have 19 passing touchdowns this year. CJ Stroud has 12 interceptions. Caleb Williams has six. Big time throws, CJ Stroud 23, Caleb Williams 24. Big time throw rate identical, 4.1%. Turnover worthy play rate almost identical, 2.5%. They're A.D. almost identical.

They're just a percentage of completions almost identical. The drop rate's very close. Caleb Williams took way more stacks and that's like a huge huge red flag but they're time to throw almost identical they're pasturating 86 to 87 like it's wild how close like CJ Stroud essentially played

almost exactly like Caleb Williams this year that's either really gross for CJ Stroud or like potentially really like I don't know if that's like encouraging I don't know who you're insulting I don't know what to think of this I just again again again information like they have almost the same exact season

after again, we spent a long time in this very conversation talking about how Sam Darnold's about to be the one thing in the NSC. I feel really confident saying that C.J. Stroud is not the problem after what we saw last year. And I still feel pretty confident saying I do not watch Caleb Williams and think the problems Caleb Williams. I think the problems the Bears who have never had a quarterback ever. That was good. Like the succession family with the 10 kids who all have 4%. They're the fucking problem. Yeah.

Anyway. I don't know. I don't have to think of either of them, honestly. Like, I go back and forth on both of them. Like, God, is CJ Stroud just absolutely broken? And I feel the same way. I'm like, is Caleb Williams actually just suck? Like, maybe he does just suck.

Maybe, like, I was really, really wrong on it. Austin just texted us here. Will Levis is the only quarterback with a worst success rate than C.J. Stroud since week 10. I see, that means nothing. God, I, what the fuck happened with CJ Stroud? How does that mean nothing? It doesn't mean nothing.

I guess I just can't get over the fact that. like Bryce Young was benched and everyone like in NFL media but also real life that I talked to I didn't find anyone

that disagreed that he's just not an NFL player is he that was like a unanimous take in like October he looks so different November no one thinks they even need

a quarterback but what are you gonna do now just everything you watch me like well Bryce Young came back there's actually no difference between good and bad Craig yeah no I'm saying

I'm not sold on Joe Burrow yet. No, it's the opposite. I'm saying that if you've seen any sustain success. How long does somebody need to be bad before you're willing to admit they're bad? I think that is the new question. I think it's not just that. I think it's the opposite actually. How long does someone need to be good?

He hit us with two actually. I know I did. In a minute. Two, that's a record. How long does someone need to be good until you dismiss a cold streak? Well, I asked you to Joe Burrow question, and you said it's the opposite. So which is it? I understand what Hyphus is saying, though, honestly.

Like, you can say the exact same thing about Donald. You can say the same exact thing about Mayfield this year. Like, they were really fucking terrible when they were on those other teams. We made fun of them now for those. Like, I was making fun of the Panthers earlier this year for letting both Darnold and Mayfield go. But when they were playing for the Panthers, they sucked. So what question are we asking?

Is it like, so is it how long does Baker have to be good before we decide he's good? that's my point. I'm like after watching Baker, I just, like after watching Baker, I feel like clearly the, in Darnold, I feel like clearly the Panthers were the problem.

The, like the Jets had Gino Smith, Darnold. Like, like, like, I'm clearly the jets are the problem. And like,

I'm not saying, it's like, oh, Burrow was, I'm saying nothing matters. My point is, if the relationship, timing matters, guys,

and situation. It's a team sport. And if you saw someone be good on a decent team, and then they're bad on a bad team, We just blame the player. And I feel like we've never gotten more signal ever that the environment is really important to your success. These are like, don't work for shitty companies.

Like that's what we're talking about here. Anyway, that's sorry. I know I keep repeating myself, but I'm like, I don't know. So my point is, the Texans are the fucking problem. It's an impossible question. It's an impossible question. Is this guy good? I don't know.

I don't know. I think, I don't know if I agree with you about the C.J. Stroud thing. Like, it's the Texans that are the problem. I'm not absolving him of all, like, everything he does is perfect. and like only the, but like I just look at the team. They're in third and ten. Isn't that their job is to not put?

He's not in a position to succeed. I don't know. Hey, we can talk about this for it. We have the whole option. But then you could argue that he's part of the reason they're in third and ten. It's like a chicken or the egg thing. So I think that stat is now overblown. I think they're like middle of the league in terms of third and longs.

I don't know, dude. He had Joe Mixing. I know all those receivers got hurt, but it's like, there are plenty of quarterbacks who aren't as good who are doing more with less than CJ's draw this season. They're 30th and average third down distance. So still very bad. That's not.

I saw some other stat. I don't know. You can always find a stat that confirms your bias. All stats don't matter either, Craig. All stats are the same. There's literally nothing. No difference between good and bad things, Craig. I think there's difference in good and bad teams.

That's what I'm trying to say. It's so over. We're so back. Are the Texas a bad team? I'm confused. They're like, yeah, they've won nine games this year. Speaking of which, we're so back is the MVP race. because for better or for worse,

primetime television and who's in like a big spot has a lot to do with it. We were part of the people who were kind of like this MVP thing's over with Josh Allen like three weeks ago. And I don't think it is anymore. Josh Allen's still the favorite, heavy favorite.

Mine's 300, Lamar's plus 250. But this is now a race. Ravens won 32, 31 to 2 on Christmas, on Netflix. I do think that matters. I think this is one of the tightest boring game I've ever seen in my life.

It was pretty awful. I think it's one of the tightest MVP races ever, though. And it's weird because it's actually like an even tighter version of like the Janus or sorry, not Yonis, the Embed Yokic argument where it's like Yokic had won two MVPs in a row and then it's like Yokic Embed and it's like well

Yokic won two so give it but he's better and so it's like Lamar's one back to back MVP's and it's like having a better season this year than the ones, sorry than the first two MVP he won. So it's like weird to not give it a Lamarer but Josh doesn't want it yet which I actually hate that logic.

I think it doesn't make any sense. it's like, who cares? Like, it's an award about this season. Who gives the fuck? Like, why does, I don't know why the past is relevant, to be honest,

in terms of like, who's won the award or not before? This is why he's so upset about Oppenheimer all the time. Yes, honestly, yes, it's exactly the same thing. He's so mad about Robert Downey Jr. Winning an Oscar.

Sorry that the voters didn't want to give the Marvel an award. So they gave it him and fucking Christopher Nolan because they were too hoity to-oity to admit they liked the Iron Man because it made too much money. But it's the same thing.

I'm like, I don't, I don't like that logic, but I think I'm wrong because people do it all the time. Oppenheimer made a billion dollars. Yeah, but it's, you know it's the different. It's different. It's because it's a very commercial film. Yeah, it's, yeah.

But they like the commercial film and admitted it later. You don't like the career, the career achievement awards. Like they gave Jamie Lee Curtis the Oscar for everything everywhere at once, and it was like, you've had a good career, you haven't won one yet. It might happen to Ray Fines this year. They do that a lot in the Oscars. I get that in movies more so because it's like, I get it more so.

And I also think it's a solid tiebreaker. If it's like, you know, movies are not sports. Like, they're different things. Didn't return of the king win an Oscar for Best Picture? And in my opinion, is it's the worst of the three? I think it may, yeah, it's probably, yeah, no, that's actually very similar. They'll never award the middle movie. Right.

Like, Dune 2 won't win. Maybe Dune 3 could win. They'll never award the middle movie. I never heard that. No, they don't do that. Because it's like a table setter almost. Oh, my God. They won't award a part one.

I mean, there's like, I guess outliers, but they, like, Wicked Part One. That's why they don't even name movies part one anymore, honestly, because it looks bad. It lets voters know there's a second half coming that should be better. So that's why it's just called Wicked. And then the second one's not called Wicked Part 2. It's called Wicked for Good. Oh, dude. These invisible rules are wild.

I didn't know any of that. That's actually insane. They won't, they, wow. Did Godfather Part 2 win Best Picture? I don't know. I think it did. First sequel to win best picture. But that wasn't expected to be a part three, right?

No, that happened like 15 years later. Right. Okay. So maybe 20 even, yeah. 92. Speaking of which. Craig, do you still think Josh Allen is definitely the MVP? Where are you waiting?

Yeah, I think I do. But honestly, I think I've succumbed to the like, he deserves it. He's been like one of the best two quarterbacks for the last four years. He deserves it. Like, I just feel that way. I don't love, there was a weird narrative in the game today where it was like they were trying to force him.

him touchdowns. Even the announcers were talking about it. It was like a first and goal in the one or a second and goal in the one. And they were like, well, they got to get Josh's touchdown here and he handed it off to James Cook and they're like, wow, weird move. It's a tight MVP race. I think it was Romo. And they were like, I know, you know, you don't want to like force stats to kind of earn an MVP win, but you know, sometimes that's important to voters. I don't love that we're headed down that territory where it's like openly discussing that he needs more stats. But I do think it should be him. I do. D.K., do you still think Josh should be the MVP?

I don't know. You guys know that I think about this the least of all of everyone at the Ringer, probably. That's true. You don't care, which I respect a lot. I like to look at it. I agree that in retrospect, it's like a cool thing to, I just don't really like arguing about it. It's such a narrative award. You know what I mean?

And I'd like to, I just sort of take myself out of that. But I, I think I, I still would give it to Josh, though. I mean, look, there's still a chance that the Ravens don't even win their division. I feel like you got to win your division. Oh, but here's the... I guess, yeah, just to compare the AFC East

to the AFC North feels a little... You know what I mean? Like, with the bills have even won the AFC North. But, you know, it's funny. I think exactly 20 years ago, or 22, Peyton Manning and Steve McNair split an MVP, which is just a quirk of voting. I kind of think they should split it.

And I know that's a cop-out, but I look at these things... That's the lamest thing you've ever happened. I know, but where I'm at my mind is like, I still split the Heisman too while we're at. Maybe split the Super Bowl. Let them tie. It's a good game. Well, I don't know.

Because I look at it and I'm like, I agree. But here's the thing. As much as I hate that, well, Josh, Josh is one on any. Lamar is too. It's like, to me, that's a participation trophy argument. I'm like, oh, fairness. Who gives a fuck? It's about this season.

However, my argument's also kind of whack. Because I look at it. I'm like, dude, if you think that nobody has a shot, like if Lamar doesn't deserve it or Josh doesn't deserve it, it's crazy to me. It's like clearly they're both heavy. I think they would have beaten Rogers for the MVP, like a few years ago. Like, these are strong MVP seasons. They would have won in 2017.

Like, these MVP seasons are better than others. As the Bill Simmons rules, like, this would be the biggest, the Stanley Cup of MVP seasons. Like, Josh and Lamar is superheroes, which defensive player of the year would be the Wimbledon runner-up platter. But I look at it as the simplest thing I keep coming back to, because I think Lamar has statistical, probably, like, slightly better argument. And I'm like, the Ravens added Derek Henry and the bill's lost to Fond Diggs. And that seems like a good enough tiebreaker to me. You know what I mean?

Like, I think Lamar got added to his plate because the defense got worse, which is fair. But the bills, this was supposed to be like a step backward or at best to step sideways into a new offensive identity, all based around Josh Allen being a game changing force. Whereas Lamar, they were like, we need to add more to make Doravans offense better. But they did add more. And I'm like, to me, that that's enough for me to be tiebreaker where I think it's still Josh. But I don't have an issue if people think it's Lamar. Like, they're both pretty incredible. Yeah.

It's like it's when you just step back and think about like, how different the Ravens' offense would be without Lamar or how different the, how different the Bill's offense would be without Josh Allen. It's like, holy fuck. Like, it would be so completely unrecognizable. And if the Bengals made the playoffs, we'd be talking about Burrow.

And it's funny because we can't give offensive player of the year to the runner up in MVP or to Joe Burrow because the offensive player of the year has to go to Sake Juan because he hit a 2,000 rushing yards, but he can't be MVP, but he has to be offensive player of the year because he has 2,000 fucking rushing yards. It'd be wild.

if Lamar didn't win the MVP and did win offensive player the year or Borough either. It's just like giving it to Sequin because he ran for a bunch of yards over the two like playing it like an infinitely harder position like it's really stupid. I don't know. It's really dumb.

Anyway, yeah, congrats to Seekwan. Christ. Okay. He's living his best life. Speaking of these things. Who else is so that's speaking to which Pro Bowl. I think three guys go. one of these guys

doesn't get to get voted at the Pro Bowl Patrick Ron's Joe Barrow Lamar Lamar Jackson Josh Allen One of those guys They all get invited And say no

And then Yeah that's true Tyler We'll go to the Pro Bowl Kyle Murray's gonna have A great time At the Pro Bowl this year DK speaking of

We're so back though You were texting The Chiefs offense Unfortunately The Chief's offense is good again Just in time for January Who could have seen this coming But really like

It does feel like they're hitting their stride in a lot of different ways. I think Travis Kelsey kind of like picking it up once the playoff comes around, it was always predictable. This is always going to happen. And lo and behold, he had eight catches, 84 yards and touchdown in this last game.

But I think when you add in Xavier Worthy, who has really come on strong lately, he had another touchdown in this last game. Marquis Brown is, is back and healthy. And so he's coming on strong. Like it does feel, and I think Craig,

you mentioned this the other day. It feels like they have like an actually good receiver core. No, they kind of have an abundance of guys. I'm like, oh, you have DeAndre Hopkins, you got Travis Kelsey, Xavier worthy.

Different styles of guys. This is the best group they've had at skill position since they had Tyreek kill. And it's probably the most diverse one they've ever had. Because even those ones

were all kind of Tyreek Kelsey and like, I mean, you know, Sammy Watkins or like a weird third guy. But this is like, yeah, it's weird that you look and you're like

everybody on the field's actually good. Yeah. So they dominated the Steelers, 29 to 10. This was so long ago. I can't even remember what day it was. Was this on Christmas? Christmas. This was. Yeah. Okay. What a great

day that was. You know, this week ruined Craig's Christmas. Six days ago during this stretch of football. Patrick Wilhomes, 29 or 38, 320 yards and three touchdowns. That is a Patrick Mahomes line, ladies and gentlemen. Thank God. He's back. And I thought he just looked like really in control the entire game. You know, and

this team is the best in the NFL on third downs. They just conferred everything. They just feel inevitable. And now, like I mentioned, like they actually have weapons and offense that makes you start to fear them again. Before it was like, oh, their defense will carry them to the Super Bowl. Now I'm like, okay, this team has a really good offense again and their defense is really good too. And also, but the defense did kick the shit out of the Steelers who had George Pickens and the defense did not have Chris Jones, which is also pretty terrible. I mean, I think the Christmas games were a reminder to me.

There are so just, there's a tier of teams in the AFC that Chiefs, the Ravens and the Bills are so much better than everyone else. the Steelers, the Texans, all those teams are just second class. And when it matters, those teams can't compete, to be honest. So what I've been saying all year about the Steelers, they are a wildcard team. And they were overperforming,

because they were beating up on a lot of bad teams in the middle of the season, and that's why they were eight and two or whatever they were. What is the prospect of Russell Wilson signing a long-term contract due to you now? I know. To be honest with you, this sounds bad,

but like if they got destroyed in the wildcard round and Russ played like shit, I don't know if I'd be super upset if that meant maybe, it's not time to re-sign. Hey, Craig, you know who might be a free-aging quarterback? You guys could sign? True lock.

Drew Locke. Just ripping it. He had a better game than Ben Rothesberger ever had. So maybe we should go get him. Oh, my God. All right. It's so over. The Jets Aaron Rogers run it back.

That's over. RIP to that. Thanks for nothing, All-Stars. Mentioned Marvin Harris and Jr. It's funny to have Michael Pittman have 100 yards. Man, Michael Pittman. Thanks for nothing, Michael Pitman. Nobody started him, so it doesn't matter.

Nobody started him. He had two points last weekend, fucking 109 yards and a touchdown today. A guy who, like week five, it was like, he might be on IR with a back injury. And then he just didn't miss a game after that. Dude, I was like actually excited that Joe Flacco was named the starter because I, in a championship game, I have Josh Downs on my team. I'm like, hell yeah. Josh Downs is like, Joe Flacco just makes him the kick. going to target him 12 times. No, instead, Alec Pierce, six catches, 122 yards and a touchdown.

Josh Downs had three catches for 22 yards. Absolutely worthless. He didn't have a catch until like, I think he had like one catch until the fourth quarter. I was just like, I hate, I hit the Colts. I'm never going to forgive the Colts for this day. Negative four points. Mainly for high fits, but also for me personally. And also it's good for Hyphitz. Don't worry. Well, first of all, Michael Pittman reminded me of, you know, Chang and community where they always have plans and they're like, wait, you're here? You've been here the whole time? And like, that's Pittman.

Like, you've been on my team the whole time? Tobias Harris, yeah. Yeah, Tobias. We didn't even, we even talk about the Colts just shadow benched Anthony Richardson again and then realize they're supposed to lie. And I think that's the, remember Anthony Richardson really got benched because he was like, I'm tired and told the truth. I think the Colts realized they have to lie too.

Because they said when they brought Richardson back from that first benching, he will be our quarterback the rest of the season. I think Shane Steakin was like, I mean, Anthony Richardson had seven completions last week. And Shane Steichen was like, I would like to play Joe Flacco. And they're like, but I kind of went up and said, I wouldn't. And then Anthony Richardson had back soreness. Oh.

So this is a conspiracy. I kind of don't think that's what happened, to be totally honest. I think that Anthony Richardson was informed he had backsortis. And then Joe Flacco started. And then the Colts fucking lost to the Giants. So how embarrassing for everybody involved. Intrusive thoughts. how many Steelers players can get the same foot down twice in one season?

George Pickens, I've never seen this in my whole life. Then George Pickens did it, got the right foot down twice, and we're like, doesn't count. Then George Pickens did it again. And then on Christmas Day, Mike Williams did it. I've never seen this from any other team other than the Steelers this season. So you tell me, Terry McCauley, what happens if George Pickens catches the ball and he's bouncing on his right foot? And for 40 yards, he bounces on his right foot all the way down the field. into the end zone. Is that not a touchdown?

It's a fair point. And to your point, it's kind of ableist, probably, if you have one leg. But I think, you know what's funny is Tomlin is on the competition committee? And I kind of think he'll bring it up. And there might change the rule. But then, you know, what's going to happen? You're going to have a bunch of guys learning to just, like, kick their one foot twice. Yeah, but you're athletic enough to do it. That's way harder.

That's way harder. You've seen how they do it. You don't think Justin Jefferson can teach himself if you're unable to get the second foot down to just tap it twice on the way out. Like, I don't know They should change it. I don't think they need to do this. Oh, they should. No. It never happens.

It doesn't happen enough for it to be a factor. Well, there's like 900 rules in the NFL. Add another one. You're opening up Pandora's box. Exactly. The catch rule is like fine now. They got it right. They got it right.

So you think it's correct that you could catch rule is better than it has been in the last week. You think the same foot twice should not be a catch. You don't think that's a catch. Yes. What about three times? Is that a catch? Three pumps. I'll give you four.

That's ridiculous. Three pumps is a catch. What a joke. It's got like one cheek is two feet. You're basically catching the ball, jumping and landing again. And we're not counting that as a catch. You're right,

but you're capable of catching it and jumping three times on the same foot, you should just put your other fucking foot down. If people can start spamming the catch rule by somehow jumping on one foot after catching the ball, then hats off to you. It should be a catch. That's ridiculous.

What are we talking about? Justin Jefferson's going to start cheating by hopping on one foot while catching. If he can do that, that's great. This is the pass interference revealable thing just because the Saints game happened. And it's like there's 15,000 passes a year. And we're going to change the rule

because we saw this thing one season, one time. Twice. Three times. But like, that's not enough. You go outside. Go catch your football on the sideline with two feet and then do it with one twice. And you tell me what's harder.

It shouldn't change. I think it's harder to get two feet down. Any other intrusive thoughts, Craig? I'm so mad about this, actually. This is so stupid. You guys are dumb. To deacon's point, the NFL couldn't define a catch for 10 years and you want to change the things. They haven't thought about this yet.

They didn't know it was the thing until this year. It should be changed. You adapt and grow. You admit, oh, wow, this should be a rule. You make it a rule. No. My intrusive thought couldn't be lower stakes. I don't know. I was watching the Vikings game today.

And Cam Acres, their running back was looking pretty spry. And I was just like, man, we really missed an opportunity with who Cam Acres could have been. I remember doing foreign coach and Sean McVeigh before the season was like, Cam Acres is a fucking missile and he's incredible. And I drafted him and he tore his Achilles. And then he tore his Achilles again two years later. And this guy is like 26 years old, still out there looking good and like a viable backup. He scored a big touchdown today.

He made like a really hard catch to kind of seal the game. He scored a big touchdown. That was a very hard catch. I'm like, man, I wonder if Cam Acres is just like a Torell Davis before he could get started even. You know what I mean? Just the what could have happened. What could have?

That's a really good. He could have been awesome. That's a great call. Like, he should have been in the defining offensive system of our era, basically, with the Rams. And I love that. This is how I feel about, this is how I feel.

I feel very, like, passionately that J.K. Dobbins would have been a superstar if he hadn't gotten hurt so many times. J.K. Dobbins in the Derek Henry role, essentially. He would be averaging like nine yards of carry and score 22 touchdowns. Email us at Ringer Fantasy Football at gmail.com, but there's other examples of of this of guys that should have been like two or

three or like just 10 or 100 times bigger than they were. They got it. Craig, that's a great call that Cam Acres is like if Terrell Davis never happened. This is close to the local Luke Reddauer, but like who is the guy who you think would have been a like absolute superstar if they had got her. We'll take more of those

two because those a couple years ago. DK's Deke was somehow Luke Ridenauer was like the greatest athlete you ever seen and thought he'd be Michael Jordan

and he just like mystical status where I grew up email is like the amount of people emails like Sam Decker You mean mystical?

Mystical and mythical mystical and mythical mystical and mythical He was magical and mystical. Yeah honestly yeah email us and bring your fantasy football at gmail.com

for the camakers is guys who should have got going and we want the local Luke Ridenhours. The amount of emails we got about Sam Decker and Wisconsin those are fun honestly

like they never get old to me. We'll take more of those. My intrusive thought is just, I was thinking about, so I'm in a league. I thought I was going to lose a league today because Will, I don't know, but he didn't, to be clear, he won all of his leagues.

I won't, I won't all the leagues. But Vikings kicker missed two field goals. I won't lie, I was pretty distraught. I was going to lose this fucking league because I had the Vikings kicker. And I started thinking about my whole season

and what I could have done differently. Change your mind about kicking and like variability or whatever it's called the, no, it's fine. No, but what I started thinking about, was, can you imagine being like an NFL player and like you lose a Super Bowl because you're a kicker?

And like that's your life now. Yeah. Like I literally was like, I was so impacted by like a fantasy kicker losing me a title where I was like, have you ever really thought about like working your whole life to win a Super Bowl and you're like 31 and it's your last season? And like, like, you know, you go to and then they just miss the kick and you're like, well. I mean, they made a movie about this. Ace Ventura.

Yeah. But he's the kick. But like imagine you're not the kicker. Yeah. Some guy in Cade York misses. it and like, God, damn it. And Devo Samuel's like, fuck, Jake God. Die, die. So we didn't go to overtime.

The laces were out. Dude, like, that's why the diners fell apart. Laces out. Your kicker misses an extra point. You know when it's a kicker. You know when it's a kicker just based on the name. You know. Yeah. Cade York. Cade York. He's not playing in any other position.

Cade York. What's the most kicker name? Cade York's up there. Dude, Cade York's pretty good. Who else we got? Will Lutz? Oh, Will Lutz. Eddie Piniero.

Who missed the game? Wait, is he still the most accurate kicker. Will Lutz is the winner. That's good. Oh, my God. All right. Play of the day, I mean, Joe Burrow having three game winners.

Chad Rylund. I mean, there's a guy named Cameron Dicker. I think it's Dicker the kicker. Oh, my God. Jake Moody? Wait, that reminds me. Did you guys see the Gus Johnson? Someone called a Gus gasm?

Did you guys see Gus Johnson had another orgasm? Oh, I did. I did. What game was it? The hero. I cannot find the clip right now. We can play it next episode. But Kai, Carlos, do we have the old Gus Johnson clip?

Warren, looking. And it's intercepted at the goal line. Unbelievable. Oh, Jeff, so I know. I like that he comes back. It's like a rewatchable. It's a clip. Every time I listen to it, I pick up something new.

Yeah. I love that he comes back to his voice with the hero. He's doing like that, wow. Where he's like still inhaling. And then he finally has enough air to come back to his Gus Johnson voice. The hero. I think the hardest he's ever made me laugh is when he said Gus Johnson sounds like he was eating a big yay. Wait, what is that?

I think the hardest you ever made me laugh is when you said Gus sounds like he was eating a bignet We gotta go eat bignets for a Super Bowl. Unbelievable. Oh yeah, bignay's. Oh my God, when we're at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, we should announce plays eating bignets.

We should have a bignet category where we just have to eat bignets and then talk. We see bignay. I'm sure that'll be really pleasant eating a bignet. So who do you think's going to win? Kelsey. Oh, my God. Okay, that's really good. Someone write that down.

Hero. Okay. Yeah. Speaking of college, though, other play of the day, the Pop-Tart Bowl, which is the most last pure fun I have left on the internet is the stupid Pop-Tart bowl where the Pop-Tarts are like, eat me, and there's a grave. And Craig, you're making a face.

If you don't like this fucking Pop-Tart Bowl, I'm going to kill you. I'm over it. It was cool last year now. I'm going to kill you. Dude, all the memes. Now it's too much. They leaned in. Now it's not cool anymore. It became its own meme of like guys texting their wives and the like the videos and the wives texting back.

Okay, you give two more videos you can send me and then we're done with the Pop-Tart thing. Which I also love all those text exchanges. I do so they did they do this last year where they actually serve a giant real pop-tart that the players need to do. Yeah, and then they eat it. And then mascots like eat me. It goes in the toast. It's great. I would love that.

Yeah. I just felt like they were forcing it down my throat this year. That's all. literally the pop-tart the giant fucking pop-tart the art but making sports guy got a bag though he definitely got Span Khan

to like do the bowls that one was laid on like oh he were pure yeah because he yeah yeah he definitely got paid it for me sucks I know it's pure

everybody's got a price the Facebook movie where he's like oh don't you have the thing that like is the most important thing in business you're still cool you know

you don't start advertising anyway this episode is brought to you by Oreos Pop-Tarts, if you want us to like it next year, you know what you got to do. Oh, yeah, dude, throw me in the toaster. I'll go in there. Other plays of the day, dude, Big Dom getting the Tanner McKee's

first career touchdown pass back after A.J. Brown tossed it in the stands, and Big Dom just went and recovered that ball. Imagine Big Dom pointing out in the stands. You! I'd love to hear how Big Dom... Joke's scared. Seriously. What would you guys ask for?

Would you guys negotiate or would you just give it back and help they take care of you? They wouldn't take, I wouldn't trust anybody. They're not taking care of you. Remember, the show hey, Otony, homebrun. He came back and signed a jersey, took his jersey off. Craig, Craig is, Craig would ask for a two-year lease for a Toyota Tacoma. I would. I could use that now, maybe.

He's like, fuck this. Not when I'm 19. Yeah. I love that the dealer probably like heard that the kid had, made the half court shot and was like, are you serious? And they're like, yeah, you're going to get him a car? And he's like, fuck, yeah, what's he going to do about it?

There was no fucking doubt for the moment it left his hand. I should have sued. The dealer definitely was like, what's you going to do? Oh, shit, I know. Other play of the day, the duck on the field in Tampa Bay that led directly to a block punt and that ended the Bucks Panthers game? Did you hear the interview

after the game? Jalen McMillan, the Bucs announcer was like, I mean, the Bucs wide receiver was like, I hate ducks. Ducks is so weird. I hate ducks. That has to be because he went to Washington. I was going to say, I think it's probably because he's a U-Dub guy. He hates ducks. Ducks are so weird.

They were like, oh, that was funny. A duck was on the field. Pretty funny. He's like, no, it wasn't funny. He's weird. Ducks suck. I hate ducks. I was like, definitely an Oregon thing. Who hates ducks? Dude, I will say, I saw a video the other day of ducks eating fish in a container. Ducks are fucking monsters.

I'm wearing a duck tic for you. Hode right now. Oh, wow. Yeah. Ducks are cute though Best mascot in college sports I think Like the actual mascot?

You'd have to give me time to think about that. Yeah, like the actual mascot Because we have this whole conversation Where some people, there's logos There's I'm talking about the physical guy in the costume Yeah, I think the dog's the best in college football

He's top tier He comes down from the roof He's doing pushups He's like acrobatic He's awesome I don't know if He's the most talented. No, I just think he's a great

Fetacey Football at gmail.com. Please email us and nominate other mascots you think could be as good as the duck. I'm sure there's some small school mascot who's like the Portland pickle who's doing crazy shit. He's like a fucking Olympic gymnast. The duck is pretty cool for a famous mascots. Like the quadrants where it's like, you know, pressure. He's a one seed. The duck is a one seed because it's like the scale of like being the Oregon mascot's a big deal.

and how good you are. Like he's in the top right of that graph. Yeah. You're like, wow, it's actually paying off. It's like an unconventional animal, and they nail it.

I think they do a good job. The Alabama one sucks. You're an elephant, which one, what the fuck is that? And then, like, you're the tide.

And then two, it sucks. And it's like the trunk's all limp. The duck is great. I don't want a flaccid trunk. The duck's funny commercials. So here's the question of, does LSU bringing in a weird tiger

or like, do Texas bringing in the actual longhorn bevo? like does that count like what's the live animals are different right? Completely different. Not the same thing. You need, I need a guy in his suit. That's what a mascot is.

College football is fucking wild. I was just thinking about like the, I think it's for the suitors where they bring like the fucking like covered wagon out on the field and they've dumped it. Like people are like, so they spot out. It's like the shit. It's like the shit they do in college is wild.

I always wonder if the every time that, because I feel like it happens every few years when they spit that thing out I'm always like that gets hammered, right? Like he's drunk driving

that one of just hammered drunk. Probably. Leonard Skittled with an angel band. I look forward to the 190 emails we're going to get about how the duck is not the coolest mascot. But I look forward to them. Tell me what's the best one.

Bring it on. I do think the duck's top tier. I don't know if anything's definitively better than the duck's cool. Okay. The commercial of him like sitting in an office at a cubicle and looks out the window and there's ducks in a pond and he's like,

oh, that's the best sports center commercial. Oh, dude, if people want to email us other sports center commercials, I don't know if they would translate to a podcast, but that's my favorite. I will once every two years sit down and watch every sports center commercial and it were. Did you guys see that the Vikings defense did the high school musical were all in this together coordinated dance?

Dude, their dance, how do they have time to practice? They get that shit nails. Yeah. I also just love the stuff they choose. Like, why did they pick that? That's awesome. I agree. They're purposely picking like the silliest,

kind of like, kitsiest thing to do. I think it's great. Worst play of the day. Dude, Tray McBride pass going off, you know, I don't want to give it to him,

but, God, that was brutal. Yeah, that wasn't great. It sucks when the past, the losing pass goes off your head. Yeah.

Generally speaking. Can worst play the day go to Drew Locke's game-winning touchdown? Is that okay? Yeah, I like that. The best QB performance of the season. Ever? Of the worst.

The worst thing's ever happened to me. Arthur Smith Award coach that pissed you off. I mentioned Mike McDaniel burned two challenges in four plays. Incredible work. The clock management by Atlanta at the end of the game is bad. Zach Taylor, that didn't bother me as much as it bothered everyone. Zach Taylor,

like the way the Bengals handled it because it was weird that Chase Brown got hurt right at the end of that Saturday after the game. That was weird, but like I don't want to kill him for that. I thought the worst coach thing of the whole week. Mike Tomlin punched and fourth, punted on fourth and two, and it's like, why your start is in.

I thought the worst coach thing of the whole week, Geron Mayo, the Patriots head coach, Bill Simmons has been complaining about all year and he's right. Gerard Mayo said 20 minutes before the game started

that Antonio Gibson will start at running back. And then 20 minutes later, Ramandre Stevens started at running back. I can't remember that ever. I love it. Apparently they like talk to him about it all week too.

And like the announcers on the game were talking about it before the game and then Ramandria's just out there for the first play. I think it is like, it is weird because it's like, what is this communicating to your team? I would respect it more if I thought it was like a plan. And it's either a really bad plan or he just doesn't know what's going on. It's a really weird strategy.

I will say he got two carries for one yard in the game. So he didn't do a whole lot. So why did he start? I don't know. The charges will never see this coming. It's just weird. Got Jim Harbaugh on that one. fall the fast one on him.

Oh my God. Worst referee moment. I will say I noticed more and more, Craig, the bad call. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Terry. Yep, that was wrong. All right. Tom Brady, Tom Brady's Magic Johnson tweets as an announcer, Craig.

How did Tom Brady do this week? I actually, once again, bad day for Tom, in my opinion. Don't think he improved. Damn it. I thought for a second there you were going to say it was good. No, he stumbled through a, you, he was like, if you can lead a fish to, if you can teach a man to fish,

I mean, if you give a man to fish, you feed him for a day. And then if you teach him to, right. And then he made some quarterback analogy with that that he stumbled through. And then KB's like third and eight.

Yeah. KB's like, and the next play's already over. He had, today he said, um, anytime a QB is pressured, it forces errant throws.

And you do not want errant throws over the middle of the field. I remember that one, Craig. I clocked that in the moment. I learned something today. You don't want, you don't want bad throws over the middle of the film. I would argue you don't want it. It's really crazy.

And then you watch Tom Brady talking. And then like you watch Sunday football and Collinsworth is like, wow, look at this play. They got the guy in motion. They're going faking this way. They're pulling these two players and he's got to tell them. Look, J. Danos, three blockers against two guys. And I'm like, thanks for showing me something immediately, Chris.

Chris Collinsworth is 65 years old. and the second the play is over, he's like, okay, I'm so excited to tell you about this play. Let's dig into this. So he does this and he moves here and I'm like, you got a guy right here. He had two seconds to process that. And Tom Brady's trying to make a fish analogy for 40 seconds.

Oh my God. I think, like, would you be giving him as much shit if he hadn't made that commercial, Craig? No. Like the promo where he's like, fucking getting ready to go to war. Did we even talk about the commercial? Craig, this bothered you so much.

I don't think we even talked about it on the show. It's an unhinged commercial. It's an unhinged commercial. I've never seen a hype video for a fucking announcer. It was, there was a, it's him walking and he's listening to the haters in his head talking about how. Fucking listening to Craig is what's happening. Oh, since Michigan, no one, he's always been a loser. He's never been, he's always been doubted.

There's like his own hand with the rings is on his shoulder. And it's like, you got this. And then it's like him standing next to Kevin Burkart. He's like, are you ready, Tom? He's like, ready. What are you doing? I love the idea that if he actually does listen to haters, he at some point will have to see Craig's impression of him, number one.

And two, do you think he has? What are the odds? I've been hoping his son would show it to him. That's kind of our best hope, I think. Look, I don't want to be mean to Tom Brady, but he's not good at it. Dude, well, that's the thing is, like, Tom, Tom Brady's probably going to take it like, oh, they don't believe in me. No, Tom.

The whole point is we're super. believed in you, dude. Like, if Michael, like, imagine if Michael Jordan started announcing a game, and Michael Jordan was like, oh, Victor Webidiama, he shoots the ball, he misses. Got to get the rebound there. You really wanted to try and get the rebound on that one, but the offense got an offensive rebound. LeBron James has.

And now I still have the ball and the shot clock restarts. That's really not what you want there, KB. LeB. LeBron James has had such a great career, Marv. Such a great player. It's a transcription. Okay, Lucille Bluthy, I don't understand the stat line. I went respond to it a word.

I saw this on Twitter from Seth Walder. Aaron Rogers had a QBR today, ESPN's QBR, which is out of 100. Aaron Rogers' QBR today was 1.2 out of 100, which is the lowest QBR in a game since Davis Mills for the Texans had 0.8 in 2021. I'm starting to think maybe the run-it-back theory is not correct. 12 for 18, though, not bad. There was a report this morning that said, Garrett Wilson is going to request a trade if Aaron Rogers is back next year.

Do you imagine the Jets trading Garrett Wilson and then keeping Aaron Rogers? Dude, Brick Johnson would lose his shit. By the way, Garrett Wilson scored a touchdown immediately after Aaron Rogers benched himself. Oh, you're a tired of? He just immediately, he did what he was doing. He just immediately threw to Garrett Wilson. Very, very quickly scored a touchdown. Dude, we can't even do

two tight ends outscore Kyle Pitts in a lie this week because it's all just good tight ends in the Kyle Pitts. Is there a more fitting end to our season for two tight ends who outscore Kyle Pitts and or Jalen Waddle and the Lie than Kyle Pitts catching a really promising touchdown from Michael Pennix and us being able to talk ourselves into

Kyle Pitts with Michael Pennix next year? Could there be a better end of this? No, it's perfect. Dude, looking at Kyle Pitts, Since week 11, 1.0 points, 1.4 points, 1 point, and 12. He dropped a pass earlier on, I can't remember if it was on the same drive or like an earlier drive that would have been like it was a fourth down, deep down the sideline and he just like kind of dropped it. It wasn't like an easy catch, but someone we know made the joke that imagine how good Michael Pennings will be when he learns that you can't trust Kyle Pitts. I know, he keeps throwing him.

I kind of like that. Cowell Pitts is back. All right. This is important. What's up? So, I got one in mind. I actually don't think it can just be for one bad game today.

Like, I don't think it should be Terry McLaren. Yeah, like James Connor, McLaurin, guys who like helped you get there truly and then like just had a bad week. You're not just mad at this guy for one thing.

It needs to be somebody who was good all season, sucked in week 14 and 15, or sucked in week 15 and 16, and you still bet on them again. and they screwed you again. So I have a couple guys, two guys I'll mention. One, Jaden Reed last three weeks, eight points, nine points.

Today he had, or this week he had one. The other guy, Joe Mixon, who at the start of the season was like maybe the best pick in fantasy football and the last three weeks, eight, seven, and this week he had five. Joe Mixon's a good one. I was going to say Jane Reed.

I was going to say, I kind of can't believe Jane Reed's not in here. And like, Mixon's a good candidate because, like, Mixin has definitely quietly, like, killed you the last two weeks. Dude, Jaden Reed, three weeks ago, it's zero. And then one and a half today. Dude, Mixin, all of his healthy games this year, 25, 26, 25, 21, 16, 16, 34, 7, 19.

That was his season until the fantasy playoff started. Anyway, 875. By the way, this is kind of a tangent, but I think you could make the argument. Cooper Cup has been the most, like, destructive fantasy player of the last two seasons for people that picked him. Because he just died late both times. Based on where you picked him in 2024,

2023, he was one of the most destructive players because he was like a super high pick, missed a bunch of time, came back, had like some, like had like a really good game and then had like a bunch of bad games.

So you're like playing him in all these bad games and then he got hurt again. This year, he basically absolutely disappeared in the fantasy playoffs. Zero points in week 15. 3.9 points in week 16, 3.4 points in week 17. And he's Cooper Cup.

So of course you're like going to play him because you're like, oh, this week he's going to go off. I think he might be the most like actually destructive isn't the right word. What's the word I'm looking for? I like destructive. Just devastating to your fantasy hopes. Is the word. I think that's a really good call.

That's a really good call. Like there's probably nobody that's been in your lineup and scored fewer points that like, less than a triple crown winner. You can't bench the triple crowd winner. Is it Jover for Cooper Cup? I don't know, man. Probably. That's a really good call.

I do think, looking the math right here, I think we have to bench Jaden Reed because you know what I just figured out? Jaden Reed, unless I did my math wrong, has less than 200 receiving yards in the last two months. He's been really bad for like 10 weeks. So I think it's Jaden Reed. But you're right, D.K.,

that Cooper Cup might quietly be the winner of the burn book because let's go through this backwards. Cooper Cup is the guy I'm like, I pity you if you have him on your team because you have to play them and you're just, God knows what's going to happen. This is in order we burn people. Week one was Deshawn Watson. Week two is Christian Kirk. Week three is DeAndre Swift. Week four is Kyle is Mark Andrews. Week six is Mark Andrews. Week six is Marketer. Week seven is Marketer. Week seven is Marketer. Week seven, we did a Mario Cooper Cup. Week 15 is Najee Harris. Week 10 was DJ Moore. Week 11 was Debo. Week 12 was CJ Stroud and Tank Dell. 13 was Marvin Harrison. At week 14, we did a Mori Cooper Cup. Week 15 is Najee Harris. Week 16, she didn't read.

I think, wait, did I miss a week? No, I think that's it. Yeah, you did only 16, but... What week is it? It's week 17. It's week 17, but you said it weeks. You should have just said by... Oh, wait, yeah.

That makes more sense. No, wait. There should be 17th. We forget someone. We did. There's a missing week in there. We must have said somebody out. Oh, no, we must have skipped it once,

and then I think that's why we did Stroud and Tank Dell. I don't think so We don't we wouldn't have skipped Oh shit Oh shit Well There's a missing There's a missing person in there

DK. METCheff To throw him in there Oh Did we do that? We should throw in Metcalf He's been bad Throw him into the fire

Metcalf also cost people Some money I think that's fair But you're right though DK Cooper Cup is the one Who you probably played the most Like all these other people You learned the lesson

For the most part It's easier to give up on these other people. It's Cooper fucking Cup. Yeah. All right. It's tough to bench that guy. We have,

so just a recap here, we're going to email for your fantasy football, Gmail. For guys like Cam Acres who got hurt but could have been really special, emails for your local Louvrecht nowers

who are like the best player in the history of wherever you're from who are like, mystical. And mythical. But you thought we're going to be incredible. And or the guys who also ended your athletic career.

Like you thought you were going to, they realized, you realize you would never be an athlete because of this. person. Emails, mascots better than the Oregon duck. I'm going to get cooked on that. And also, email us.

We're doing our memento tattoos this week. Our New Year's resolutions, Memento tattoos. We're not going to have a Friday preview episode for Week 18, but we will have Memento tattoos coming to you this week. Email us your Memento tattoos, things you want to tattoo on your body that you do not forget for next season. Yeah, it's basically lessons that you've learned that you do not want to forget by the time drafts come around next year.

People don't forget. Yeah. But people do forget. All right. Thank you, DK. Thank you, Craig. Thank you,

Carlos. Thank you, Kai. Thank you, everyone for listening. Thank you for emailing, reading your fantasy football at gmail.com. We hope you won.

And also, if you did win your league, I'll retweet it. There's a great list of charities for, like, players that they're personal causes. And if, you know, any of your players helped you win,

then I recommend, you know, their charities. I would humbly suggest that a player's personal charity is not probably sufficient with your money as like larger-scale ones. But, you know, if T. Higgins dragged you the fantasy, you know,

consider donating some of your winnings to some of their stuff. I'll retweet that one. Thank you, Lorne. Lauren. Thank you, Lana Del Rey. Nice. The king. Queen? Yeah, the queen. You a fan of her work?

I don't know that much of it, to be honest, but I appreciate that she makes it. Right. And Del Rey means from the ray, from the king, I don't know. Of the king. Of the king. She just got married to like an alligator wrangler or something. You mean the Georgia quarterback?

Look, I know that sounds crazy. Lager. I thought he's like a swamp to her guy. Alligators. Okay. But does he actually wrestle with alligators? He's actually. an alligator tour guide?

Yeah, but is he wrestling the alligator? Whatever. It's close enough. You wouldn't expect that from Lana Del Rey, Pop Star. I'm not going to call I'm not going to like, well, Craig, he doesn't wrestle any alligator, so you rogue. That's funny. I kind of thought you were joking.

When somebody's headlined Coachella, I don't expect them to just kind of marry a tour guy in Louisiana. But hey, love is love. Good for her. Actually, it's probably the best person to marry, not some other pop star. That's probably miserable. So good for it. I'm reading the Daily Mail,

which generally I don't recommend. But the unlikely couple exchange vows by the water, and I'm not going to say that. Del, it's French, Day, Alam, I can't say that. Somewhere in Louisiana,

the same bayou where DeFrain operates as popular swamp boat tours. Yeah. His last name's DeFrain. Should we book a tour with him when we're in New Orleans? Should we go on a tour with Laudelre's husbands with alligators?

And then we'll bring Vigiers. And we'll get to make bank during the Super Bowl. Andy Dufrein That's all I think about when I hear Dufrein I know Morgan Freeman's Remember hope is a terrible thing Could be the worst of things

Hyfitz DKah like that you knew That she was married To a tour guy We've talked about this Have we? Well I don't know if we've talked about it But it's been on the text chain

Did you guys see the Georgia back quarterback Carson Beck got surgery So the Georgia quarterback Who seems way better than him if he had experience. He's from like 90 minutes north of Athens, Georgia, and he literally just, like, he's wrestled alligator. I don't know if it was like a Gainesville, Florida a bit,

but like he posted a photo if he just has an alligator like around his, like neck and he just. It is kind of wild that like Florida and the South in general, there's just fucking alligators everywhere, just wandering about. Like could eat your dog or fucking eat your child? I'm terrified of, I'm terrified of gators.

And they're like my biggest fear. It's like I was thinking about the, Oh, no. Archer line where they're like, they survived the KT extinction, Cyril, 300 million years. But perfect killing machine. They're the most terrifying fucking killing machines in the world. And they grab you into a barrel roll.

They stand upright. But in Florida, they're like, yeah, they're like dogs. You throw on marshmallows. I love the idea. It's just wild to me. Built diff down there. Domesticated. They're like, yeah, there's nothing.

I love the idea of just like you're on a par four and you're walking up to the green. And there's just like a 12-footer next to you. You're like, wow. Dude, it's fucking crazy. It's like we got like coyotes around here. Yeah. I know.

You got to like, you could kick one if you had to. You got one eye. Fuck all the other emails. If anyone listening has gator stories. Oh my God. Please emails at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com with any alligator stories. Unless someone died.

That's sad. I don't want to hear that. You got one eye. He looks into the pond. Chubs You got one eye The fucking thing When he like elbows it's like just like clearly a floating

Like inflatable We're talking about Happy Gilmore for the record Great movie You got one eye I watched the teaser for Happy Gilmore 2 by the way Went in extremely skeptical I'm in

I'm gonna have to watch that We should do that I'm gonna watch the hell out of it We said we would do it for Enigma The Aaron Rodgers doc We should watch Happy Gilmore 2 together Everyone's always in on the trailer I feel like it's going to be bad and disappointing.

It was a teaser. It wasn't even a trailer. It's just a teaser, but I'm already back in. He like kisses. Don't tell me. I'm going to watch it. It's a teaser trailer.

Yeah, Julie Bowen. And then fucking shooters. I don't watch trailers from movies I know I'm going to see. I try not to as well. It's not a trailer. It's a teaser. There's literally like nothing happens. It's just.

Also, it's fucking happy Gilmore too. Like I get not wanting to watch the trailer for like Conclave. I don't want to watch the trailer for like Conclave. Any spoilers for having to kill more too. You're going to be watching it on your couch half looking at your phone. It's fine. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas

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