The Ringer NFL Show - Week 17 Winners and Losers, and Recapping Season-Long Predictions

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

We lead the show with Heifetz lamenting the Giants' last gasp at making the playoffs after a bizarre Eagles-Washington game before offering up our winners and losers from Week 17. Then we revisit our preseason top targets, preseason bold predictions, and midseason bold predictions to see how we fared. Finally, we read perhaps the greatest listener email in the show's history. Headlines: Giants (00:45) Winners: Justin Jefferson, Vikings (6:10) Jonathan Taylor, Colts (8:20) Derrick Henry, Titans (9:51) Chris Godwin, Bucs (11:30) Brandin Cooks, Texans (11:50) Marvin Jones, Lions (12:10) Losers: Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins (13:48) Ryan Fitzpatrick, Dolphins (17:06) Chris Herndon, Jets (17:46) Preseason Top Targets (19:52) Preseason Bold Predictions (33:10) Midseason Bold Predictions (50:47) Listener Email (56:09) Email us at [e-mail]! Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of the Ring of Fantasy Football Show, we give our winners and losers from week 17. Spoiler alert, the Giants are losers. We also recap our predictions from August and see how our bold predictions have aged. Some are fine wine and some are fine milk. We also argue about regression and Craig keeps rolling his eyes for some reason. Stick around.

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I'm Danny Heifitz here with Danny Kelly and Craig Quirlebeck. Guys, can I just vent for a second? I know what this is going to be about. I fucking hate the Giants. I hate the Eagles even more. I hate football. The whole thing's dumb.

I feel like a moron. I don't know why we root for teams. And the Sunday night football disaster. I don't know. Embarrassment, really it's a cluster fuck. That's the proper term.

It has made me reevaluate how I spend my time. Did you really want the Giants to go six and ten make the playoffs and lose? So I did. I did. Were you more mad at? My brother actually disagreed me.

I actually felt, I was like, you know what, forget the 11th pick versus the 19th pick. I wanted to win the division. I wanted to play Tom Brady again in the playoffs. I wanted them to make it. I would be lying. I was like worst playoff team, whatever.

I don't care. They literally would have been the worst playoff team of all time. Fine. I'll play Tom Brady in the playoffs. I don't care. Yeah, I think I would have been on your side too. I'd rather have made the best of it. You let hope into your heart.

I believe I had a moneyline parlay on the Giants and the Eagles. I had it all rolling. Shadow Fandle's Sportsbook. It was all going. And then Jalen Huron. Hurst was running the touchdowns in, and then when Nate Sudfeld came in, I felt like I had been friend zoned. Like, like, you know, like, you know what? Like, you know what you, like, you get friend zoned? Yeah. And like, in the moment, you're pursuing someone and you're like, oh, I have a

chance. Like, you know, it's a reach, but like, you know, I totally have a chance. And then it ends and you get friends zone and there was someone else. And then they ask about your friend. Yeah. And they're like, oh, wow, I was a fucking idiot. What was I thinking? What was I doing? Why did I think that this six and ten Giants team was going to do anything? And then the fact that I was rooting for the Eagles and then the Eagles turned around and were like, no, was a hollowness I haven't really experienced before because it's so bad enough to root for your division rival and then for your division rival to be like, actually we don't even care. I kind of I don't understand at all why Doug Peterson did what he did

but um I do I don't what are you thinking about you do The taking thing is too simplistic Oh it's fucking easy to understand They wanted to hire traffic That's it period like it's super easy

I don't think that's the difference between number nine and number six is like Evan Silva tweeted this It's like the 68th overall pick It's like a valuable jump like it makes 100% sense. I believe that that's possible and I think that the Eagles,

there's only three or four teams I actually believe would send a front office down edict of like we want this pick to do this, blah, blah, blah. But they went for it on fourth down to take the lead

and Jalen Hertz was like three yards shy of taking a 2117 lead. Like the idea that Doug Peterson saw that pass drop was like, I guess we gotta quit now. I'm a little dubious. Why wouldn't they just start Nate Sunfield then? Like why?

Yeah, it's like a Twitter discourse around tanking became like real life. It's like, it's too, good to be true. I honestly feel like in a way, the most realistic thing is he actually did want to see Nate Sudfeld's get reps. Yeah. Well, there's an explanation. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Like, honestly, the outrage over this is baffling to me. They're a fucking four-win team.

Who gives a shit? I gave a shit, DK. Were you listening to anything I said? It's a real F you to like Sunday night football, the fact that like they flex this game of Sunday night. And then Doug Biers is like, oh yeah, I'll see that and up you, uh, Nate Sudfeld. they sucked. Let me be clear. I know the Giants didn't deserve to make it. Like, don't go six and ten if you want to make it, but still, it still sucked. I thought it was funny.

A fitting end of the 2020 season. Washington almost lost, too. That would have been like the actual most fitting end, as if they'd done that and then Washington still ended up losing at the very end there. And they almost did. They tried to give it away. Okay. Anyway, I just had

to get all that off my chest. I just, I just feel so dumb. I also want to shout out Dave Gelleman, who's been in the GM of the Giants for three seasons, and they have three wins in that time over teams of winning records. Nice. Anyways, should we get to winners and losers of Week 17,

even though I'm clearly a loser in Week 17? Even though there's likely no real winners and losers of Week 17 because Fantasy doesn't really exist. Although, we did get some emails about people who have Week 17 championships, which is insane. It's a thing. It's a thing that a few people do. I don't want to, like, Fantasy Kingshame people,

but, like, I feel like a lot of people in Week 17, leagues are not really in it. Like they don't do it on purpose. It's kind of like their commissioner just a suit. Like first time commissioner and they're just like, oh yeah. It's a hat on a hat. Yeah. Anyways.

DK., who's your winner of Week 17? Wait, can we tell people that we're at least going to, we're going to have some fun stuff? We're going to get into all of our predictions. Oh, yeah, right. We're also, yeah, good call, Craig. Receipts. Yeah, you're the one of titles the episodes. We're going to go through all of our like bold predictions from August.

We're actually going to have some accountability on the show. I mean, let's be honest, the term is bold. So by definition, a lot of these are going to be incorrect. Just want to throw that out there. We're going to go over our bold predictions for the season and the halfway point of the season, as well as our top targets heading into the season and how those penned out as well.

All right, so we got that through. Justin Jefferson is my winner of the week. And for the most part, it was like a full season award. I think, you know, he ended up with 88 catches for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns. He ended up as the, that made him, the wide receiver eight in fantasy and PPR. But crucially, most receiving yards for a rookie ever.

He passed up in Anquan Bolden, or I guess I should say in the modern era. He passed up Anquan Bolden, who had the record previously 1337. Jefferson had seven games with 100 plus yards this season. And don't forget, it took him a while to get involved in this offense. Like he was a rotating bit piece for the first like two or three weeks. So just a really, really impressive. by him. You know, he's got to be one of the most exciting rookie

pass catchers ever, really. I think, you know, he's looking like on this trajectory to be one of the all-time greats. So, wait, what do you mean he had the most rookie receiving yards in the modern era? Was Don Hudson out here in the 40s getting more receiving yards as a rookie

than Justin Jefferson? Since the merger. Since people started keeping real staff. Since the forward pass was a thing. No, I don't know. Since the merger. You know how we did the fantasy we watched was the last category was who won the movie, which was like, who won the year,

who won the fantasy? year. I think Justin Jefferson is like top five in that category. If you did your ranking, you know, I think we give it to Kamara, but, you know, I'm sure Josh Allen's there, maybe Kyler's there, Derek Henry. I think Jefferson's like five or six on that list. I mean, he was pretty remarkable story. Who would you give offensive rookie of the year to Justin Jefferson or Justin Herbert? Which Justin? If I'm doing it, oh man, that's tough. Well, they both set records, right? Herbert set the touchdown record. Probably Herbert, but still. It's hard with the quarterbacks. It's hard not to give it to a quarterback. It's really fucking difficult to

play quarterback. I'm with Craig where it's like if Joe Burrow did exactly what Justin Herbert would did, is there any question that Joe Burroughs getting getting the award? No. It's not even a doubt. No. Yeah. I'm giving it to Herbert.

That said, Jefferson, what he did is just incredible. I mean, he's already a top tier receiver in the NFL at this point in fantasy. Yeah. What about third, distant third, Jonathan Taylor? Any love for Jonathan Taylor? Yeah. I mean, I think he was my bonus winner of the week, and, you know, what he did in week 17. Man, it would have been more fun if he did this last week.

30 carries, 258 yards, and two touchdowns. Unbelievable. It's just nuclear. So many people who had him in fantasy are probably so upset. There is a thing in week 17 where when your season's over and you see the stats of all your players and you just get livid. Yeah, how about Jerry Judy, who I have? Oh, my God. The 250 fucking yards out of Jonathan Taylor.

I mean, that's probably like a top 20. Rushing Total all time in a game. He was sixth in rushing yards in the NFL because of that game. He finished sixth. No, he didn't finish. So he finished third. Did he? Yeah, he's third, believe it or not.

He finished third. Oh my God, maybe it was six before. Yeah, he went from six to third with that game. Dude, that is insane. Jonathan Taylor was in the burn book. We got him in the burn book. There was a minute there in the middle of the season where we were legitimately talking about Trent Richardson.

You know what I mean? Like no vision. He was just really struggling. they were using this committee. Okay. You know, it's one of those things where you just have to ride out those moments of in, like, of doubt, I feel like in some cases. Jonathan Taylor had 90 rushing yards once in a game until week 11.

And then he just went off. I think that speaks all to how many running backs got hurt. I mean, quite honestly. I think that there were just a lot of guys who didn't have really complete seasons. There's only, I think, seven or eight guys who ran for 1,000 yards this year. Yeah. Dying brief. The position is just, yeah, exactly.

It's so weird. Speaking of a thousand-yard rushers, my winner the week, Derek Henry, 2,000-yard rusher. I remember, I saw the stat that he needed like 223 yards to get to 2000. I remember thinking, oh, that's funny, he actually could get that. And then he had 200 rushing yards with 20 minutes left in the game. It was unbelievable. I mean, obviously, like, was he, he's one of eight guys to get to 2,000 rushing yards in his season. But that's not even the thing for me.

The thing is, like, he has all of these 200-yard performances. Yeah, what was the stat you gave last time? A week ago, I said that there's only been, what was it? There's only been like six, 200-yard games, and he had half of them. And now he had one, and Jonathan Taylor had another one. So, like, it's still true. He has half the 200-yard rushing games in the last four years. It's unbelievable.

And then the other thing I just want to shout out, Dan Rolovsky at ESPN, tweeted out this stat that Derek, so the rushing yard leaders this year. It's Derek Henry's first. And then second place is Dalvin Cook. third is Jonathan Taylor and then fourth would be Derek Henry in the first half. Sorry, Derek Henry in the second half. Wow.

Derek Henry's second half rushing yards were more than basically every other running back except two people. Body, body blows, baby, body blows. Like this guy and all his biggest games are in the biggest performances for the Titans. He had a hundred and, he had that 180, 200 yard plus stretch

for three games in a row when the Titans were in elimination game, playoff game, playoff game. He did this this week when the Titans were winning and in like he's doing all this when it matters most. It's like he's like the Robert Orrie of 200-yard rushing games. It's insane. Anyways, winner of the week, Derek Henry. What about you, Craig?

My winner of the week is the Glanbergs, the Glanzbergs of the wide receiver class this year. And mainly just on the year, not just Week 17. So I made me think about this because of, there were some crazy Week 17s at these random guys, Brandon Cooks, Marvin Jones. And I wanted to toss in Chris Godwin because I feel like he's been a Glansberg this year.

We never put him in the Burn Book, but he's been kind of disappointing. So if you look at the top 24 wide receivers this year, every single one is predictable except five. Justin Jefferson and Brandon Ayuk, but they're not Glansburgs. We talked about them all year. And then the other three that stand out to me in the top 24

are Chris Godwin, Marvin Jones, and Brandon Cooks. We didn't talk about them all year. They had huge weeks last week. Let me talk about the second half of the season for these guys. Chris Godwin was the wide receiver 29 weeks one to nine. Weeks 9 to 17 he was the wide receiver 13. No one talked about it. Brandon Cooks, after Will Fuller left, was the wide receiver three.

I'm sorry, can you say that again? After Will Fuller left in week 11, Brandon Cooks was the wide receiver three. No one said anything about it. Holy shit. It's unbelievable. Marvin Jones, from second half of the season, week's 9 to 17, was the wide receiver 5. Yeah, he went off.

Matthew Barry had a couple interesting tweets about Marvin Jones. Since week eight, only Tyree Kill and Devante Adams had more touchdowns than Marvin Jones. And this is now Marvin Jones's fourth season with nine touchdown catches. Wow. The only other list of active players to have that is Larry Fitz, Antonio Brown, Des Bryant, and Devante Adams. I like how Des Bryant's active. Right. And he doesn't even fucking count.

But like, I kind of just wanted to shout out Marvin Jones, Brandon Cooks, and Chris Godwin. Godwin's good, he'll be fine. But like, Cooks and Jones are going to be, you know, next year they're going to be there again. And like, no one's going to give a shit about that. Marvin Jones is a free agent. This can be very fascinating to see where he ends up if he resigns in Detroit or what happens, but he's definitely one of those players

in the NFL that's just perpetually underrated. You know what I mean? One, his name is Marvin Jones. Jones. And he's up there in Detroit on a shitty team. He might be the King Glansburg. He's been on the Bengals and the Lions in his career. Two like very weak, big cats.

King Glansberg, Marvin Jones. All right. What about losers of the week? DK? Yeah, so unfortunately, I got to throw to a Tungavalo in here. Really rough, rough way to end the season. You know, he's had kind of an up-and-down rookie season. There's been moments there where he flashed and looked pretty good. And then I think the overall piece is just not.

He didn't show anything that would tell you he's going to be like the long-time starter there. Ending on this note is especially discouraging. You know, he threw three picks, just looked lost. It makes you think that... I mean, it's one of those performances where if he'd played really well and the Dolphins had gone to the playoffs and then he'd built on that and done stuff,

like, he could completely change the story of his... Not only this season, but his career. And now you go into next season. Like, the Dolphins could legitimately draft his replacement at number three with Houston's pick. They have the number three pick in the draft. And now we don't even know if two is going to be the starter. Like, that is how...

how impactful this terrible performance could potentially be. It's just one of those things where it leaves such a lasting impression. If he played great and they made it to the playoffs and all that, there's this whole alternate universe that I could imagine, but it did not happen.

So I'm not giving up on Tua in his career, obviously. I like him still. I think he has potential to develop into a good quarterback down the line, but just what he's shown the season and what he showed specifically in week 17, it was just not good. This is stupid that we're all worried about.

I mean, like, you have to give him a shot to play fucking football. Like, what are we doing here? Peyton Manning through 28 picks his rookie year. Like, he was one of the most touted prospects. Let him play a full season, another one. Like, look at Josh Allen. Like, shit happens. Like, let the guy play the sport that you drafted him to play.

You can't can him after like four and a half bad games. I agree with Craig. I mean, he broke his hip like 13 months ago. And then didn't it really have an option? I agree with you both. I'm not saying they should replace him. That's not my point. What I'm saying is they might replace him.

At the very least, it will be talked about. And even if they don't, he will go into the next season with all these doubts over him in a way that most quarterbacks drafted that I never have that much doubt entering their season two. It's also not like he was terrible for the whole season. He was just pretty bad last few games. And the Fitzpatrick thing, the yo-yoing of him out in and out of the lineup. And then Fitzpatrick gets COVID. And then he can't play this week.

And so Tua can't get pulled and then gets freaking. annihilated, although it's also worth saying that this game also probably cost Brian Flores coach of the year, because the dolphins were about to go from like the worst scoring defense to the best scoring defense, which hadn't happened in like 60 years, and then give up 56 points. I think I read that, I think I read the bills, I think actually Roger Sherman said this. Roger Sherman, our coworker, the bill scored the most points of any team this season, 56.

Correct me if I'm right, if you remember any of the other teams scoring. I also read that from. Roger. And then, and that was against the team who came into the, into the week with the best scoring defense. So like they're averaging 18.8 per game best in the NFL, dropped 56 on them. The bills are a buzzsaw, by the way. That should not be overlooked in this discussion. The bills are absolutely on fire right now. This is just such a weird situation. I mean, the other person just just want to shout out, just Ryan Fitzpatrick, who, I mean, it's kind of loser for the week for me. He's never made the playoffs. And this was just like the best chance they were going to have,

because even if they lost, there were like three other teams that could lose and they'd still make it. And they did. I just feel so bad for him to not be able to come into that game. It's against the bills. Obviously,

he played for the bills. Just if he retires, having never made it, just absolutely brutal. He's not going to retire, I don't think. I feel like he's having too much fun. He's a free agent also.

He sounded pretty freaking heartbroken. I'll take him on the Steelers. Let him have a day. He should take over from bed, honestly. It'd be a way better team. All right. Throw up.

The losers of the week. Okay, so I'm going to shout this guy out now because we're not going to get to it later. I just want to shout out the loser is all the people who drafted Chris Herndon this season. Which is partly our fault, right? There's this weird thing that happened with Chris Herndon. The first 14 weeks of the season, he had 24 points, and the last three weeks he had 33 and was the tight end six in points per game. For some reason, there's been some mini resurgence in Chris Herndon, and I'm telling you, you right now. I'm sorry to all the people

who listen to us, me, about Chris Herndon. However, I just want you to know this. It's going to happen again. It's going to happen again next year because there was just a glimmer of hope. It's like Godfather 3. Right when I think I'm out, they pull me back in. Who knows

what the quarterback situation will be like in New York, but like, just saying, I'm sorry? I think you're right, because the only thing worse than going in and Herndon it again and him burning you again would be being out on Herndon and being amazing. And you're like, oh, right. He's away from Adam Gase. He's great now.

Yeah, he's my Devante Parker. I stuck with Parker for a while. It worked out. I'm sticking with Herndon. Post type. The post type sleeper, baby. Herndon's going to give you a her. Anybody who escapes the yoke of Adam Gase is going to have a better year.

So we have to change the name of the, do we have to change the name of the burn book now that Gase is no longer a coach? They'll get hired somewhere. Alabama offensive court did Adam Gase. Let's go to, let's just recap like the R guys, like our favorite people from 2020 and how they did. Yeah, so these are like our August picks. And we're starting with these because these were not bold predictions.

We've been telling you how wrong our bold predictions have been all season. But these are guys that were like normal people who we just liked. So from the top 50, I believe. So we're going to run through that. So first up, I'm going to show up. I mean, I think this is someone we all really liked. I'll give the credit to you too. But Alan Robinson, we had him ranked pretty high in the ringer draft guide.

How do you do? He was the wide receiver 10 overall 13th and points per game. His ADP was 8. So he technically underperformed, which is kind of disappointing. Yeah. But he was right there. I mean, when you're talking about, like, he was two spots below, you know, his ADP, like, that's not a huge deal. That's not going to lose you at league.

It's the guys that are, you know, like way, way off. So I feel like people who took our advice, invested now in Robinson probably weren't super disappointed. The guy that maybe they were pretty disappointed about was Kenyon Drake for the Cardinals. I think all of us liked Drake going into the season. I had him as one of my guys. And, you know, I think there was a combination of the Cardinal's offense was different in terms of the run game. They just couldn't get their run game going as much as they did last year. And then I think Kyler Murray stole the rushing production more than we thought he would.

You know, we saw Drake start picking up. You know, in the second half a season. We didn't sit at 10 touchdowns for Kyler in this first like 11 games. Yeah. I don't think we predicted that. We didn't factor that in enough, I guess. And so Drake definitely was, you know, not. He didn't he that did not help his his bottom line in the second half of the season

Drake actually did kind of pick up and start getting some of that rushing production Start getting some of those like goal line carries that Tyler was stealing he ended up as the RB 14 it wasn't a total disaster but I feel like that was a swing and a miss on my part You know Drake just it didn't happen for him it didn't happen for the Cardinals run game like we thought it would Wasn't a it wasn't a massive massive mistake but I don't feel good about it it just goes to show how weird, like the running backs were, though, and just kind of are each year. Like, he was a disappointment, but like, he was the RB 14. Like, he wasn't a disaster.

If you started him every single game, like, you were all right. Right. Yeah, tough beginning of the season, tough beginning of the season for Kenyon Drake. You were clawing your way back to the playoffs. Definitely, definitely. If you stuck with him. My guy, one of my guys from the start of the season was Bobby Trees. And we all loved Bobby Trees.

Bobby Trees. He is 80P was the wide receiver 22. We liked him much higher. And he finished as the overall wide receiver 12. He was a wide receiver. one, so good for him. Pidymie of consistency, Robert Forrest.

Was yet, once again. Robert Forrest. The least flashy wide receiver one in the league. You could just go, you could, you could just watch so many Rams games and, like, not see his face.

It's unbelievable. It's really true. That was a, like, that was a tough joke. I mean, it was good. No, I'm serious. Like, he's like, if you're just watching a Rams broadcast,

it's like, Gough, you see Jalen Ramsey, You see Aaron Donald a lot. They even show you Cam Acres. They'll show you Cooper Cup. NickVe is on the screen all the time. McVeigh, constantly. Robert Woods is like the eighth ranked guy that they show.

It's like he's the number one receiver of the team. And like one of the best in the league. I thought you were making it or miss the forest for the trees joke there. Oh, no. Even by my standard. That's where my brain went. Wow. Okay.

The next guy that D.K. and I had on our list heading into the season was Adam Thielen. His ADP was the wide receiver 12. He finishes the wide receiver 8. overall, but then was usurped by Justin Jefferson towards the end of the season. He was just kind of a touchdown king. Yeah. I don't think I'll probably be making the Adam Thieland. I'm not going to tout him in quite as hard next year. He's just going to be really good, really solid. But yeah, Jefferson's going to retake his place or take over his place, probably.

I'm saying it right now. Adam Thielen is going to drop really far in everyone's rankings because he's like going to be 32. Jefferson's this big guy and he'll still be good. He'll be just fine. Absolutely. Craig's just staking his ground in the premature takes already. You're building a new list already. We're going to review this pod in August. Our early takes. What do you think?

This is the exact same conversation, I feel like. Tyler Lockett, everyone's going to be really disappointed with his second half of the season. He was essentially unstarted. I was actually slacking with you guys on Sunday when Lockett was going off. He had two touchdowns. He set the new Seahawks record for total receptions in a season.

He has 100 receptions this year, which I was completely... Weird a season. completely unaware of this fact. I had no idea this was even a thing. He set the Seahawks record for receptions in a season. He was essentially unstartable for half the season in fantasy. Like, what the fuck just happened?

Are our standards too high? I don't know, probably. Yeah, in fact, they were because I think we liked him. We liked him a lot. We all thought, I especially thought Russ was going to cook. He did cook for half the season. Lockett's 80P, he was the Y-Receiver 19. He finished as a wide receiver 13.

So he definitely outplayed his, stock tied for fifth in the NFL and catches. Lockett is a function of the Seahawks offense. So bizarre. What I learned this year is that I will not be trusting the Seac's offense to cook. Like whatever this happens to the Seahawks whether they go one and down or win the Super Bowl, we'll be hearing all offseason if they're going to let

Russ Cook or not. And spoiler alert, they're not going to let, it's not going to happen again. They're not going to let it happen. And so I'm not, I'm not bullish on this. Like, even DK Metcalf, I don't know if, like, there's too much hype around what his actual production will be when they're not actually interested in throwing. Like, like, the first half of

season is going to be so much more memorable than the second half when Pete Carroll just changed his mind. But it still worked. Like, like, D.K. McK. McKaff was the wide receiver seven. Like, everyone on the Seahks exceeded expectations, even though half the year they were dog shit. Yeah, but D.K. McKalph will be a second round pick next year. And I just, I think that the odds that in such a low, well, I don't know. We don't have to be, we start litigating next season already. But I feel like I'm, I'm probably going to end up taking Lockett in a lot of drafts because I think he's going to fall. I think he's going to fall really far. He's your Chris Herndon. He might be. No, he's not.

I'm also like going to be the person who's going to talk all off season about how Laca was hiding an injury for like six weeks during the second half of the year. Because he just didn't look right. And I mean, obviously he looked good yesterday. He looked good on Sunday and had two touchdowns. Both of his touchdowns, by the way, were incredible. I don't know. It's one of those things. He's one of those players that I don't know where I land on him.

Honestly, it's like, again, he was unstartable, but he also set the Seahawks record for reception. I don't know how to reconcile that. I don't know what... I don't know what to do with that. Yeah. Okay. So I felt about rooting for the freaking Eagles, man. Speaking of, I don't know what to do with.

What are my guys heading into the season? I did like James Connor, who I thought would bounce back. His ADP was the RB 18. He finished as the RB-25, which is still higher than I even thought it would be. But he wasn't good. I don't know if he's going to be on the Steelers

next year. I don't know. I doubt it. Disappointing season in general. They couldn't run the ball. They couldn't run the ball at all. Yeah. Yeah.

So it was a miss. Connor was just bad. I'm walking back my take that he's the third best running back on that group, though. He's definitely better than Snell. Snell suffers from the name thing. If his name was Benny Snow, everybody would think he's better. Benny Ice. And then I said I liked Mark Andrews, which isn't exactly bold, but he ended up being the Titan five.

drafted as the Tidon 3. I think he was disappointing. It might be a product of Lamar. He also kind of dropped a lot of passes. I still think he's good, but that team is weird. Yeah. That was a tough passing game to get behind in the first half of the season. They just weren't doing anything.

They had kind of like this identity crisis. And Lamar was struggling. It's true. No, that was just a strange. I think Mark Andrews is one of those where he's one of those players where the average doesn't really tell the story of his season. Like he just, yeah, a lot of ups and downs. someone who was very consistent. Calvin, I really like two players from the Falcons

this offseason, we're entering this season. It was Calvin Ridley and Hayden Hurst. I just loved both of them. Calvin Ridley was obviously amazing. Hayden Hurst was like pretty disappointing. It was pretty upset with Hayden Hurst because he was like, just couldn't, like he had a couple games where you're like,

I don't want to cut him. And you look at the Titan waistland and you're like, is there really someone better? But like, he just wasn't there. But Calvin Ridley was obviously fantastic. And even with Julio going out. I mean, we kind of were wondering whether Calvin really was going to be

Chris God one of this year. And he kind of was. It's kind of exactly what he was. He was a wide receiver four overall. I feel like that kind of go, that flew under the radar a little bit. He's amazing. He was just fantastic year for.

He kind of thought he would regress and he kind of didn't. Fantastic. That's been the story of his career. I think like he had, I feel like, just going off memory, he had like 10 touchdowns as a rookie and everyone's like, oh, that's not going to happen again. And he just keeps putting up stats.

My next guy is AJ Brown for the Titans. I liked him a lot. His ADP ended up being wide receiver 15. I think people were fading him, not because they didn't think he was good. but because they thought the Titans offense was going to be like really run heavy. You know, there's just not going to be enough volume to go around. And that turned out to be incorrect.

I mean, we saw what Tannahill did. He's throwing the ball around a lot. They obviously do lean on Henry. But I feel like the passing game is just so funneled between Brown and Corey Davis that it doesn't matter. Like, you can still depend on this guy. He had a good second half. He did get hurt early in the season. So miss some games.

We ended up as a wide receiver 14. But in points per game, he was wide receiver 9. So he was a good value if you got him at wide receiver 15 spot. My last guy that I loved heading into the season was Josh Allen, who's my favorite quarterback in the league. He's going to be next year. I'm going to be my quarterback two. He finished as the quarterback two overall, even though his ADP was a QB9. He was the QB4 in points per game.

Josh Allen is the best, probably the most likable quarterback in the league. I love him. More than Joey covers? Way more than Joey covers. What? I just, please. I actually have Josh Allen in a dynasty league. And when I drafted him, I was actually trying to trade him a couple years ago.

And I suggested that he would be as good as QB2 one day, like the second best quarterback. And the guy wrote in the group chat for the league. And he was like, if Josh Allen ever ends up as the QB2, I will do the last place punishment for the league. He says, screenshot it, write it down. Oh, my God. It won't happen. Keep the receipts. So I kept the receipts.

And when he finishes QB2, I did. dropped it in the league. Sweet. What's the last place punishment? Well, that's the things. We never set one, which is so fucking upsetting because it's like, what a, what a moment. But, honestly, just having the receipts was worth it. Anyways. Yeah. On the other hand, on the other side of the coin, I really liked Matt Stafford coming to the season.

I thought he was going to be like a QB1. And man, the Lions are just such a cluster fuck. I still think Stafford is a good player and he has potential to, you know, depending on what happens either with the lions or if he ends up getting traded or something like that. I still think he's got a lot of life in him in terms of the fantasy realm. But man, he was just bad. He was a QB 16 overall, QB 25 in points per game. He wasn't winning many people games.

And yeah, the Lions just were terrible. And Goliday was hurt for the majority of this season. It just didn't, it felt like nothing really came together for him. So definitely a whiff on that one. I wasn't disappointed in how Stafford did. But I don't think I'm going to be totally off the Stafford train next year. I feel like he's still going to be a value because he's, he's just a good player and hopefully the system would be better around him.

Yeah, they could be a quick bounce back team. If Stafford gets traded, where would you want him to be? Like, where would you be happiest for his football destination? That's a good question. I mean, Pittsburgh would be fun with all those receivers. That would be really fun. The first place that my mind went was San Francisco and get him with Shanahan. I wouldn't like that as a Seahawks fan very much because I think that the biggest thing,

like that the NFL and the world needs to not do. is let Shaneahan get a good quarterback because we just can't have that. But in a fantasy world... They should I get Russell Wilson in San Francisco? I mean, that would be pretty sweet in fantasy world. But yeah, now I think put them with the Steelers. That would be sweet. Put him with the 49ers.

Put him really anywhere. I think he'd be all right. You know, just get him in a good system with a good play caller. Put him with Carolina where they have, you know, assuming Joe Brady doesn't leave, which he probably will. So who knows. Um, yeah, Stephart's like 32 or 33 years old. He's not,

he's gonna be around for a while. Okay. Last, and any other, any other, our guys we want to hit before Bolt? Um, sorry, I was reading something else.

Just casually reading an article. Are you just reading an article during our podcast? No, no. Um, so did you lie to us? No, I was,

I was reading, I was reading tweets, is what I was doing. You're scrolling Twitter? We're not important to you? What the fuck are you doing, man? Why are you on Twitter?

You guys, I'm trying to watch out for breaking news. I'm doing a very important thing right now. Are we boring you? Look, I was the one who was just talking, guys. You bore yourself. Yeah, as Stafford, anytime you talk about the lions, it was like starting to bore yourself.

He starts scrolling Twitter as he's talking to distract his own brain. Just trailing off about the lions. I think we should move on that. Bold predictions, bold takes. Sure, sure. Here we go, man. Let's see. what panned out here. We never came up, we should have come up with, like, your dynasty

league hyphids, we should have come up with like a, like an award. Yeah, we forgot to do the punishments. We forgot. Thank God, we didn't, because I didn't do so hot. The one that I will say I'm pretty proud of is I said Tom Brady would lead the NFL on touchdown passes, which at the time was a pretty massive, I was going out on a limb, I feel like, you know, it wasn't completely impossible, but he was coming off of a pretty low down year. People were talking about how washed he was. There was moments in the early part of the season where people were like, he is done. Like, he looks terrible. Tom Brady finished second, tied for second in the NFL and touchdown passes. He threw 40 touchdowns. It's the most he's had since 2007. Yeah. So I think that's a pretty goddamn good year.

And to give you some context, let's start out. Number one, I saw this that he is that he broke Peyton Manning's record for most touchdown passes for a quarterback in his first season with a new team. So that has to be taken into account. He was switching teams, switching offenses after spending 20 years with the Patriots. He switched and did all that. So that's really incredible. Number two, among quarterbacks who played in an age 43 season, Tom Brady

is obviously number one in touchdowns. He had 40. Guess how many of the second most for a person, for a quarterback in their age 43 season was? One. Well, not quite that low. Six. George Blanda in 1970 had six touchdowns.

He was first in yards. He had 4,600 yards, 4633. Second most for a quarterback ever in their age 43 season was 952 by Vinnie Testa Verde in 2007. And then if we just want to say for quarterbacks over 40,

Tom Brady's 40 touchdowns was second was the most. Second most was Tom Brady in 2017 with 32. He also had the most yards for anyone over 40, and his second most was also Tom Brady in 2017 with 4500. So, I mean, he set new records for a quarterback's over 40 years.

old and like just what he's done at his age switching teams i thought it was pretty incredible yeah that was a good prediction by you believe me i don't like praising tom brady yet he gets enough fucking praise let's be honest but no in a bizarre way he almost didn't get it that much press this year because there was other stuff going on like just the covid stuff like it wasn't i mean it was a normal season but at the same time brady being on the bucks somehow was never like the banner story it didn't feel ever present to me and in a way I think the reason why is because every time they played on prime time, they sucked. Well, yeah, I guess that's true.

Which, again, was probably the worst loss. A good team took all year. And the Bears game, the Giants game. Like, they were close on all those. And the Chiefs, the Chiefs, they gave up the 200 yards to Tyree Kill. Like, I mean, like I ended up being close at the end, but it just looked like the Chiefs were going to win by 40. Like, they just...

All the games where he put up, like, four or five touchdowns were, like, random 10 o'clock games or... Well, the Bucks just keep looking like a collection of parts instead of, like, a team. Like, they don't look like a congealed thing yet. And so I'm curious how they do it. the playoffs. But Brady has been really good. I have questions about like the rest of the team, like the kind of some of the Aryan

stuff, but I think Brady's been really good. Good call, D.K. My number two was very much related to my number one, bold take, and that was Mike Evans would finish number two in PPR points per game. He did not. He finished 14, 16.1 points per game, which is still pretty good. He finished

as the wide receiver nine overall in half PPR. And the key is like, he had a pretty goddamn good year anyway. 70 catches 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns. He had his seventh straight 1,000 yard season to start his career.

Didn't he get hurt the next play? Yeah. Yeah, somebody said, I don't remember if it was Kevin Clark. Somebody was saying that they were trying to force it to him to get him over 1,000. They were. Well, I mean, Brady was doing that to 1,000.

He got Antonio Brown the catches to get him the quarter million dollar bonus. But I... Let me ask you a question about the bucks receivers. If you had one game tomorrow and you could pick any three of them to be on your team, who's the best one? Any one of the three.

Oh, any one of the three. Godwin, Brown, and Evans. Who's the best receiver on the team? Like on your actual football team? Or your fantasy team? No, football team, real life. You think it's my dad? Yeah, I still think it's Evans, probably.

Godwin's really good, but yeah, Evans. Godwin's great, but there's also a little bit of Juju Smith-Schuster syndrome where it's like, okay, like he is the number two receiver on the team. And just like Antonio Brown leaves, and then Ju-Ju's like, oh, shit, he's not that great anymore. I think there's a little shades of that with Godwin. Like, Evans is still really freaking good.

Yeah, yeah. Let's move quickly through my last couple here. Oh, you want to move fast? Yeah, we're spending way to wish to do well. We don't even barely need to even talk about this. I had camakers finishing ahead of Aaron Jones. That was mostly just to like needle Craig because Craig loves Aaron Jones. And that didn't happen.

Let's just move on. Rahim Moster would finish as an RB1. Injuries played a pretty big factor in this, but he was disappointing. He was the RB 27 in points per game. So not a great season for Moster. He was one of those guys that, like, play half a game and get hurt. It felt like every week. And so it was just very hard to rely on him.

And then my fifth and final one, again, just moving right past the Camacres one. I just don't want to dwell on that too long. Joe Burrow would finish as a top six QB. That did not happen, obviously, he tore his ACL. However, I will say through week eight, like, i.e. taking out the game that he got hurt. He was the QB9. So not terrible. He was, like, doing pretty well.

There's a world in which he could have ended up finishing as the QB6 or better. So I'm not going to take the huge L on that one. He did not do it, but pretty damn good season as a rookie anyway on a terrible team. I feel like Craig does want to dwell on the Aaron Jones Kmakers. Well, it's one of my bold predictions, so we'll get there. Don't worry. Well, just do it now. I like, yours was one of my favorite.

I think yours was my favorite of the bold from this episode. Craig was basically like fuck regression. It's not happening. Well, the whole Packers team in general, none of them are My take was that Aaron Jones will just have the same year he did last year and that the only argument against him was that he was too good.

It's not the argument. I feel like you're putting words into our mouth. We're just saying, statistically speaking, regression is a thing. I'm saying the collective media's mouth. The fantasy intelligenceia. Yes. And like, I mean, it kind of was, right?

Like, what was the argument that, like, there's no way he's going to score that many touchdowns again because of how regression works, right? Yeah, that's the same. that's the one sentence. It was very unlikely, or at least unlikely, for him to have the amount of touchdown efficiency as he had last year this year.

Right. And my argument was like that, but if that's the only thing you can say, like, there's no other, there was no other arguments around his role and the team and what the team does that was like he's going to regress besides like, I don't know, he just probably will. And listen, he got it hurt this year. He did request in the touchdown total. But I said he was going to have the same year as last year. So you can kind of, however you want to say this, in 2019 he was the RB4 and points per game. He was the RB5 this year.

Yeah. So what did he finish? What did he finish overall? RB5, even though he was hurt. He's finished with the RB5 this year. That's crazy. So DK didn't hear you say that he was scrolling Twitter. Yeah.

And like he was like in 2019 he had, he averaged 18.1 points a game and this year 16.8. But like he had 11 touchdowns and 13 healthy games. He was pretty damn close to just being the same guy. He was drafted as the RB12. this year for no fucking reason and he finished even though he was the RB2 the year before that and this year was the RB5

so good for Aaron Jones I feel like you definitely were correct in this but it is worth saying like he did regress like the injuries are part of regression like injuries are baked into regression okay I suppose I suppose he did regress slightly however you were correct

it wasn't enough to make a difference he was awesome I don't know can't make cammakers not so much I think that injuries are part of regression when I said the player would be bad but if the player was good and they got hurt then like if I said they'd be good and they got hurt

that's just part of the game like nothing you can do about that when it helps your argument injuries are great I kind of think saying injuries a part of regression is kind of a BS excuse no absolutely not injuries what regression is saying is

all this stuff all these factors coming together like take Lamar Jackson for instance like there was so many factors that happened that it was like this perfect season. Regression historically just says like it's hard for all those factors to align exactly the same way the next season because of injuries, because of opponent, because of just like touchdowns are a random event in a football game. There's not very many of them relative to the number of like plays. All these things together just spell out the idea like all these factors together mean like it's just hard to recreate

that perfect scenario that that person had that outlier season. Aaron Jones is good enough to have, you know, he scored, like he said, 11 touchdowns in 13 games. Like his touchdown scoring was still really, really strong. However, regression was a factor slightly in this in this whole situation.

I like that answer, and yet Craig could not have looked less convinced while you were saying. I mean, I get it. It makes sense. Rolling his eyes at me. Rolling his eyes. You're right. I mean, you're totally right. I understand, like, in principle, that that is correct. But, you know, I try and look at it more just from like a skill and a scheme standpoint,

but you're right that, like, injuries are a factor. Craig watches tape. You should watch them tape, DK. That's the problem. Okay, let me blow through the rest of my season-long bullet projections. I said Brady would be a top two fantasy quarterback. He was not. He was the quarterback eight. He was good. I said Austin Echler would be a top five back.

He was hurt all year. He was not. He was the RB 14 in points per game. I kind of had a weird year with Herbert. I don't know if they figured out one another yet. We'll see how they go next year. I still like Echler a lot. And one of my big ones was that David Johnson would lead all running backs and touchdowns. This is a bold take.

He did not lead all running backs and touchdowns. However, he had 11 touchdowns and 11 games. He was pretty good. Did you enjoy having David Johnson in your team this year? Yes or no? No. But he was fine. Oh, my God.

The definition of David Johnson this year was he was fine. I mean. No, because it was a roller coaster. No one gets off a roller coaster. that was fine. You're either like, I loved it or I hated it. Well, he had like one game this year below double digit points. Like he was really weirdly consistent. He just

never exploded, but like, I don't think he was a disappointment. I think he was exactly what you got. He was better than what I expected him to be. I'll put it that way. He was the best of the, there was this group of old running backs that we all fate, well, except for Craig, like and David Johnson, when you convinced me. But

there was the old group of Levion, Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley's 25. Yeah, but he's old in our minds, let's be real. Okay. The age is not. Like he's 34. He's an old soul like you, Craig.

Yeah. Levion's 33. David Johnson's 40. They're all, quote, unquote, old guys. The guys with old knees, how about that? And David Johnson was clearly the best of the old running backs. I mean, if somebody would have told you going into the season that he would average one touchdown a game, how high would you have dropped him?

Well, I probably would have thought he played one game, but. I can only tell you he will average one touchdown a game. That is a funny idea. my last one is that Evan Ingram would be a top two tight end. High fits, how'd that go? I fucking hate Evan Ingram. I'm so dumb with that.

He better not be on the Giants next year. Pro bowler. Pro bowler. Pro bowler. Evan Angram broke through the plane of dropping passes to tossing them to the other team like he was setting a volleyball and that the Eagles could just pick

or the Cowboys could just pick the ball off. It was just so he also dropped the game winning pass against the Eagles in like week seven. That is the reason the Giants needed the Eagles to win this week is because they, dude, just don't even get me started at Evan Ingram, man. However you felt him in fantasy, I promise you, Giants Finns felt the same way. Just infuriating. Okay, Hyvitz. What are yours? No, I'm not done with Evan Ingram yet. You have no idea what it's like to just be explaining to my

grandmother, be like, hey, he's so great. He gets open. He just can't catch the ball. Well, he's going to be like incredible in the Cardinals next year. So, yeah. Anyway, sorry. My, my, my bolds, my first bowl was Devante. Adams would break the catch record. That did not happen, but he was the wide receiver one overall by a lot, even though he, like, didn't play 16 games. He didn't play, he played 14. So like, you know what?

Sorry, he bled leg and touchdowns instead, but so. Yeah, I mean, I feel like you can't, you can't say anything bad about Adams. Like, maybe he didn't reach your prediction, but he was like the most, he was the most dominant receiver in the NFL. Yeah. He was a, he took the crown. He literally started wearing crown on the sideline. And I like that.

It's like the $11 thing you can get from Party City. I like that money hasn't changed him and then he just unanimous approval rating from everyone who's had him in fantasy I don't know I've not met one person who has Devante Adams and is just I'm not like I didn't like having my team I can't remember

someone complaining about him in a given week he's just like the most consistent person but he also has the highest ceiling in this in the game it's insane he's the most likely person to score three touchdowns in a given week even more than Camara and yet he just never is a bad game he's unbelievable uh the other one

I said Christian McCaffrey would not be a top five running back. What were we saying about injuries? Does that mean I'm right or wrong? Because this is like, I'm technically right, but I'm spiritually wrong. Telling you, injuries are baked into regression. I understand that. But He was saying that like from a, like when he's playing, he won't be a top five back, was the pick. So here's the thing.

The Devante one, he didn't break the catch record, but I'm counting it in my head as a win. And the Christian McCaffrey one, I was technically right. But in my head, it's a loss because I was just unconvinced that the Panthers is an offense. But if you added McCaffrey's game with Mike Davis, you get the RB4. That's a top five running back. I was wrong about the role. I'm not going to be like, oh, I backed ass first into his high ankle sprain. Like, no,

I don't want credit for that. I was wrong about Christian McCaffrey. If I'm like, Odell's going to suck this year and he tears this, you're not right. Exactly. Just vacuum up all the aggression. Yeah, but you're also not wrong. You're also not wrong. Oh, a little limbo.

I also said DeAndreinja Hopkins will not be a top 15 receiver. He was fifth. Vaughn into the windup in his first offering Just a bit outside He tried the corner and missed Okay Woof Just a bit outside

Well I think Yeah it's weird because The catches kind of saved him From like the The Cardinals just weren't as good as they seemed I just feel like they're the hype of where I think now they're getting corrected Because they didn't make the playoffs

But just Kyler Cliff DeAndre It's like there's just a lot of disappointment I think how Cliff is taking all the shine. Now he's getting all the blame, I think. But Hopkins, honestly, I'm still kind of out on him as a fantasy player. Obviously, in real life football, he's, like, amazing. Did you, did you see his, there's like route charts from NFL next gen stats?

Oh, he's always on the left. They didn't do this the whole year. They did, like, mix it up a little bit. But there was one game. I can't remember which one where it was literally just like, hey, go stand by the sideline on the left side. And, like, all his routes were like five-yard little out-routes to the sideline, just go stand over there.

We'll have Kyler just hit, like, just check down to you every time. It was ridiculous. And, you know, they did change things that I'm getting, like, used a little bit more. But I think that was kind of one of the, you know, markers or symptoms of, like, their offensive struggles.

Like, this is what his role is. There's a problem here. You know, it's bad because that's what Ben McAdoo did with Odell Beckham. So that's tough. Yeah. Other bold, I said half the tight ends in the top ten would not finish in the top ten. that happened.

Half the tight ends did not finish in the top 10. The guys who dropped out from ADP were, so Zach Ertz fell out, Evan Ancrum fell out. Hunter Henry is right on the borderline, but he fell out.

And then Tyler Higbee fell out and Jared Cook fell out. And all those... Nice. Right, and George Kittle, sorry. And then, yeah, Robert Tunyon, Hawkinson, Logan Thomas, Mike Gassicki, John Smith,

Jimmy Graham, bunch of titans that we didn't see coming. Top 10 guys. And then Levi-on Bell will be... My other last bold, Levion Bell will be bench for Frank Gore by Halloween. Ding, ding, ding, ding.

He was benched for Frank Gore I almost forgot that he was on the Jets this year. Yeah, just like a long time ago. Yeah, a long time when he was tweeting nothing wrong with my hamstrings. All right, so not bad. What do we all average two out of five or something like that? I'm at three to five, baby.

Good for you. Good job, good job. Batting 600 on the bolts. I mean, technically I didn't get any of them right, but I'm going to take a few, like spiritual wins. You were close, though. I mean, these are bold. It's okay, because you'll regress next year.

You're due for regret. I posit you, that's the other thing. You can positively regress. So that's what I'm looking at next year. There we go, positive regression on the bowl. Frank's just rolling his eyes at me again. We can also quickly. I'm not.

That's just his resting rolling eyes face. I don't know. He just looks perpetually unpleased. Real quick you can go through the second half bowl predictions we did. We don't have to spend long here. I said that James Connor would be a top five running back second half the season. I've never been so disappointed in myself because it wasn't even close to close. like I also screwed up other things

I said Chase Edmonds would be a top 10 running back that was wrong but at least sorry I'd be say top 12 running back at least Kenyon Drake was I was right about the running back position completely wrong about the role it's like okay we're sniffing it James Connor he's bad the Steelers offense is bad they can't run they can't block

that was awful so we have a doc for just a peek behind the grid we have a doc for for each of our episodes and high fits has a little like bullet points under James Connor one of the bullet points is just regrets well he was the I said he's top five in the month of November I was saying he top five after the trade deadline

and if you traded for him I'm sorry he was the running back 49 in second half of the season but in my defense if you go by points per game he was the running back 46 nice that's a little better so if you were in like a 23 team league he's startable yes

18 actually because flex oh right with flex I see one more on yours, Hyfitz. How's your mid-season polls? Hyphids, I see one more. Oh, I don't want to talk about. Oh, I said Calvin Ridley would be not a top 10 receiver for the rest of the season. I was technically right.

He was like top 13 or something. But spiritually wrong because he missed a couple games with the foot injury. But he was great. See, Hyphitz, you and I did the thing where we touted a guy early on. You touted Calvin Ridley. It worked out. And then you hedged yourself. I should never hedge.

Never hedged. I did the same damn thing. I said, I love Josh Allen going in. and then I said he wouldn't be a top 10 second half quarterback. That was super wrong. He was the QB1. Except last night I should have hedged on my Eagles money. But we also flipped.

I had the, my bolds were right in August, and then DKs were bad, and then DK crushed the midseason bolts. He did. DK., go ahead. Yeah, so I had David Montgomery as an RB1 and half PBR over the second half the year. He was, in fact, an RB1.

He was the RB5, and over the last six games, he averaged 20.4 points per game, which is second only to Alvin Kamara, who had a 56-something point game. So, for all intents and purposes, Montgomery was the guy in the second half at Running Back. It was the best possible person you could have traded for,

considering the value you would have took to acquire him. And I'm especially proud of this because I remember while we were making these guesses or these bold predictions, I was like, this is stupid. Like, this is dumb. I felt like, I was like, this is like a bridge too far. I'm really going to look like a moron for this. Turns out that was my second pick.

My second bowl prediction was the moronic one. Leonard Fernette R.B.1 over the second half of the year. Basically, I was betting to the point halfway to the season, it was like they were switching back and forth between Rojo and Fournet, and I basically put my money on Fournet, and that did not work out. It was Rojo for the second half of the year. Fournet basically became backup, and got to the point where he was a healthy scratch one week.

Fournette was a guy that actually, you know, you picked him up on waivers late in the season. He helped you out a little bit, but he definitely was not. He did not do what I thought he might do. My third one was that Brandon Ayuk would outscore all the other rookies receivers over the second half of the year. Actually, if you remember, my prediction was he was going to outscore everybody, but Jefferson, you guys were like, that's not bold enough. You have to say all rookies.

That's what we said. And he actually ended up outscoring all other rookie receivers except Justin Jefferson in points per game. In total points, it got thrown out the window. he ended up missing three games with COVID, so he didn't come close. But in points per game, he was really, really strong. He had 14.5 points per game, which is second only to Justin Jefferson, who had 15.1. So Iuk had a great second half season, so I felt pretty good about that one, too. Okay, my second half predictions real quick.

I said that Josh Jacobs would not be a top 15 running back in the second half. In the second half, he was the RB 15. 10 points per game. There you go. So technically wrong, spiritually correct. my next one was that Antonio Gibson would be a top 10 RB in the second half in points per game

he was the RB 9 he got hurt but when he played he was a top 10 and then my last I did the Josh Allen one and then my last one was that Tua would get bench for Ryan Fitzpatrick did I get that one twice yeah you get double points for that it would have been three

except for Fitzgerald had to miss that last game or Fitzpatrick sorry had to miss that last game with COVID so yeah what's three strikes in a row called in bowling a turkey has anyone gotten Bench three times in a season. Probably. I don't know.

It would be weird to come back each time. Three times is a lot. It wasn't like he was getting benched. It was kind of like he was, you know, it was like a reliever came in to like let him finish up. Brian Flores was the one who used the ninth and enclosure analogy. Like you think that's something like, that's like a sports media hack tank. That is some 2021 ass participation award, Gen Z.

Yeah. He got benched. That's not new school. It's old school. It's baseball. You don't think any, none of these Gen Z kids know what baseball is. That's true. but he's tiptoeing around to his feelings here.

You know what? There's no content of TikTok on? There's no baseball. We've never heard of it. That's very true. Okay. Fantasy court time? Yeah.

It's not really fantasy court this week. It's just a reader email that I wanted to share. Okay. Sweet. This is from Brian. It's actually from Beer Pong, Brian. Remember Brian who sent in the Beer Pong email about whether we, like, the house rules?

Oh, yeah. He sent in an email. Oh, yeah, like the sink two balls in one cup type of deal. I can't even I can't even remember it. Yes. Yeah,

yeah. Some beer pong Brian. Like most fantasy championship participants going against Alvin Camara,

I watched on Christmas Day as my hopes of winning were mercilessly smashed while he picked up touchdowns like most people pick up cocktails

at a holiday party. Camara ended my week before it began with an almost insurmountable 55 points. But going into Sunday, the gravitational pull of Camara's

performance started making me rethink everything on my roster. Lineup decisions were consuming me from the moment Camara scored his sixth score until 12.50 p.m. Sunday when something unexpected happened. My wife walked down into the basement where I was playing with my two kids getting ready to watch Red Zone. And she kissed me, smiled, and handed me a positive pregnancy test.

Ten minutes before the 1 p.m. games kicked off. Wow. I was handed the world's greatest excuse to not care about how my fantasy team shakes out. Yeah. I had done what I could, making small moves throughout the week. It was time to just enjoy the moment. Fantasy was stiffed armed on the list of life priorities, temporarily. Sunday was uneventful.

None of my players outperformed their estimates in a way that could really give me a chance. Monday morning comes, and I do what all commissioners have to do. And I recapped the championship. I noted, quote, I don't think Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs can get the 80 I need to win. And I congratulated my opponent. Allen and Diggs would need a historic performance for me to win. I come upstairs and watch the game and after the second touchdown,

I texted some friends about how it is still a long shot, but at least interesting. And I got a couple emails in the fantasy chain about whether the Camero owner was nervous. Then Josh Allen hit Diggs for his third touchdown. I go up by 0.6 points. Alan is immediately pulled from the game. Fantasy game over. I throw my laptop off my lap and jump up screaming.

to say that it was improbable as a slap in the face of probabilities I would have had a better chance of catching a bullet with my teeth as I went to bed that night the game was over the win was secured my house was quiet

and my wife had long gone to sleep I still have enough adrenaline to fight a medium-sized bear running through my veins and I open up my phone to Google sheets and I look at the baby name sheet I have with my wife

there in the the dead of night with the light from my phone being the only light source in my house. Fourth on the list of baby names is Joshua. This is unbelievable. I selected the row and slide Joshua to number one. Put my phone down and went to bed. I always liked the name Josh. This is fantastic.

This is such a good email. So how did you get your name? That is going to be one hell of a story right there. My dad won fantasy championship and Josh Allen My dad won $800. The Monday miracle. The Monday night miracle.

That was crazy when they just went off. I actually, I was the other end of Beer Pung Brian. I was up like 60 with the team with Kamara for third place

and lost because of Josh Allen and Diggs. Why did it feel like if you had Josh Allen you also had Diggs? No one just had one of them. Everybody had them both. Yeah.

I just, you know what? I just, I cannot wait. wait to meet beer pong brine son Josh beer pong Josh baby beer pong Josh so who would I name my kid who would I name him after this year who is my guy Bobby trees Tree trees Robert Robert Forrest yeah Cole Beasley middle name Cole Beasley just call just name him Cole Beasley like full name

Cole Beasley Cole Beasley holbeck Cole Beasley holbeck Like the new girl thing would they name the kid again Dan Bill or Batman Shalupa Oh my God That was good Thank you for that All right

Brian unbelievable email Thank you so much And if you guys want to emails Ringer Fantasy Football at gmail.com And if you want emails Our next episode for the playoffs We're going to be doing A fun format for the playoffs

We're all the three of us going to make individual Fandole lineups Before each episode We're not going to share them And we're going to go game By game for the playoffs And we're going to share

whether any players we have in our lineups or in that game. And if we have the same player, we're going to do a tiebreaker. We can only, not everyone can have the same player. So we will fight over a random trivia question and the loser has to pick a cheaper player. We want everyone to email us

the trivia questions. Yes. So please email us. You know, I don't know if you're listening right now, you've likely listened to other episodes because it's week 17 on Monday and you're listening to the show. So you must like us. So if you remember that time we did the, was it Detroit to... It was the distance between Austin and Detroit and the distance between Austin and

L.A. When it was like a two mile difference or something ridiculous. We want emails of like, we want questions of like things that none of us could know off the top of our head. Like, what's the population of Canada? You know, just like things where we, no one could know, so then if we're previewing the Brown Steelers game and we go, all right, does anybody have anyone in this game? and D.K. goes, I have Donovan People's Jones. And I go, crap, I have Donovan People's Jones. We got to go into this. How many zoos are in California?

I have no idea. But like something we have to guess. And we're going to use those as tiebreakers. And we also don't know what's going to happen. Whoever wins this Fandle competition, we don't know. But that's the plan for the playoffs. Also, email us ideas for what the loser of the competition should have to do. We don't know what we don't know about that.

Anyway, ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, regression. Thank you, Lord. You, Taylor Swift. Does I already do her before? Oh, yeah, I think you did Swift.

I feel like whenever more came out. I got like nothing. Who else? Who do you mean who else? I never know. I seriously never know who to do on this. I'm just going to. Make a Google Sheet with bands.

Thank you, Vampire Weekend. You know what a Google Sheet was bands is? It's called Spotify. I literally, I'm not kidding. Open Spotify, D. I opened Spotify and looked at the first band I could find. Spotify's got the wrong name. If they were Google Sheets with Bands, they would really take that.

No, they should be called Joshua. It hits the SEO right there, yeah. All right. We'll see you guys on Friday.