The Ringer NFL Show - Week 9 Winners, Losers, and Justin’s Field Day

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

We recap Week 9 by giving out awards for the biggest winners and losers of the weekend. We break down Joe Mixon’s historic day, Justin Fields’s rapid ascension as an elite fantasy football quarterback, and the mess that is the Packers offense. Then, we highlight how many tight ends outscored Kyle Pitts, lament the most disappointing QBs in the league, and induct our next player into the 2022 Fantasy Burn Book. Check out our Weekly Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm. Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame. But then what? This blew up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media stardom is made. It's a different kind of fame. That's not always as glamorous as it looks. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Melissa Boresnack.

You can listen to This Blue Up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For the Ring of Fantasy Football Show, my name is Danny Hyfitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck, and the Sunday of week nine is over. We're going to give out some awards. The Chiefs Titans' overtime game just ended. That was exhilarating, by the way. I don't know why that was so close. Yeah, how was that close?

I think I saw that the Titans did not have a first down in the second half. Their defense is just so good. Malik Willis had negative passing yards in the second half. And after all the sacks, I think he had negative yards, period. I also have to tell you, I think I'm going to be single by the time this podcast is over because I was playing my girlfriend in fantasy this week and I had Juju and the Chiefsty

and Shed Derek Henry and I won on the final two sacks Oh wow, that's brutal Like I literally went from down like one and a half to up half So I think But when we hang up I'll be single again You didn't give her any advice on who to start, did you? And like screw her over in that way, right?

Did you tell her to start Cadarious Tony? I bet you did. No, I wish. I don't even get me. You know, he had, he had a, Cadars, Tony, had a two-yard catch for the Chief, so he has more receiving yards than he did for the Giants this year. I love this.

12 yards today, baby. First catch of the game. He was on the first play of the game, and then, like, he barely played the rest of the game. Mahomes threw the ball 68 times. That's just, you know what? They're just getting Chiefs fans used to him. It's just like tantalizing, and then,

I liked it. I don't even know what happened to him. Just goes to. A moose, boosh for what's coming up? A moose boosh. Wet your beak a little bit. it. Such a weird turn.

Cadarius and Moose-Bush Tony. Oh my God. All right. Let's get to the winners of the day. First winner, this is the most obvious one with federal season. It's everyone who just had Joe Mixon on their team. Seriously.

Everybody. So obviously, Joe Mixon, Bengals running back. Five touchdowns today. 53 points in half PPR scoring. Sheesh. It is the sixth best fantasy performance by a running back.

in the Super Bowl era. And I'm curious, D.K., did you get flashbacks to when Alvin Camara beat, like, a bunch of your championship teams on Christmas last year? Oh, absolutely. When he started having, like, four touchdowns, then I was like, oh, shit, I need to look around and see if I'm playing him anywhere. It must suck to be you, D.K., because odds are you are playing every player in the league, right?

In one of your 22 leagues. 25 teams? I mean, odds are, yes. Yeah, you have to hope that you have Joe Mixon in more leagues than you're playing Joe Mixon, which I don't know if that. That's fun or not. Is that fun? Yeah.

I've told you guys in the past, like, honestly, I don't pay attention to, like, who I'm playing all that much anymore. This is an example, like, this is the only example out throughout there is, like, if a guy, like, Camara scores six touchdowns or Mixon scores five, that's where I'm like, oh, shit, I should look and see if I'm playing him. Otherwise, they don't pay attention. You can just see which leagues you're down by 60 points, and that's the one where you're playing Jim Mixon.

Right. I'm curious, if you guys remember, I want to go through this list of games where running backs had like 53 or more points because I remember where I was for a lot of these Clinton Portis most depends how you measure I don't really count the no shame to like Billy Sims for the lines but like if 1960 a it doesn't matter I don't remember where I was for that one exactly Clinton Portis 2003 he had 56 points Jamar Jamal Charles 2013 he had 56 Camara Christmas Day Sean Alexander had 54

and a half in 2002. D-K., I don't remember. I don't know what you were doing 20 years ago. I do remember the dominance of Sean Alexander, but I don't remember that specifically. D.K. was probably very intoxicated during that game. Yeah, that was like my second year of college.

Doug Martin had 53. I remember he was at an Italian restaurant with a bunch of my dad's family for that one. But I also, just a bunch of other things Joe Mixon did today. So most touchdowns in Bengals history, obviously, just the ninth player ever with five touchdowns at a game. That's crazy. He had four touchdowns by halftime. He had more touchdowns in the first half than Joe Mixon had in the entire season to that point combined. Yes. And he also had 45 PPR fantasy points in the first half. And I know D.K hits when I use the halftime stats, but the 45

PPR fantasy points in the first half, no player had that in a full game. this season. Oh, wow. And Joe Mixon did that at halftime. And so now, including everything today, a third of Joe Mixon's fantasy points this season came today. I was telling you guys during the games, like this, so this game for Mixon and Camara's game last week where he scored three touchdowns is like the physical embodiment of

regression, like positive regression, what we talk about for touchdown regression. Can we just like even it out a little bit? I know that like obviously Mixon probably helped a lot of people this week, but like, is he going to go directly? back to scoring zero touchdowns for the next six weeks now? Or what do we talk like here? I just don't like to feast or famine thing, but this is exactly

what we're talking about when it comes to positive aggression in the touchdown department. We've seen this the last two weeks with Camara last week, mixing today. It's a question of how you like your fantasy players to score points. It's almost like a cheat day for somebody who eats really healthy and like you just have one

Sunday where you eat like in and out and pizza and Taco Bell all day. The thing about mixing today, is it's nice because you guaranteed a win. Like if you had Mixon today, you won. But if you spread the 53 out over a few games and he has like 20 for three straight games, you could still lose that week. So I kind of like the 50 point guarantee a win.

I'd take that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's a perfect analogy, Craig. Also, if you or anyone in your league had Joe Mixon and you lost or anyone lost that Joe Mixon, can you just email us a screenshot of that to ringer fantasy football at gmail.com? He's now the running back four on the season, which is crazy, because, because he has 152 points in the season,

and like you said, a third of them came today. Does this game change your opinion on Joe Mixon rest of season? Where is he for you guys? Yes and no, because I think it changes the perception of him because the perception was who's disappointing. But this is why we said to trade for Joe Nixon.

And I know a lot of people who did were mad at us because he wasn't before. But this was the idea. The point, again, this was the entire reason we wanted people to trade for Joe Nixon, and the reason it made sense was very simple. Joe Mixon is the most snaps at the goal line

of any, like any player or any running back, rather. And he had like two touchdowns of the season. So that's like I mean, when you're Joe Mixing, you're going to get more touchdowns. We just didn't think that all come in one game. But yeah, this is exactly how good he is. Every week, he's

55 points. So last week he had 12 points in PPR, this week, 55. Like, I think you're going to get still highs and lows, but because of the volume, at least his floor is really solid. This isn't like a situation where I don't know if you guys remember this a couple years ago.

It was like Tyler Lockett had like 50 points in one game. And then you have like two or three points in like the next game. And it was just like I want off this roller coaster. I don't want to ride this ride. But like with Mixon, he has enough floor that it's not like you're going to be worried about starting him. You know what I mean? You're still going to start him every week.

Yeah. Please do email us if anyone actually ended up losing with Joe Mixon. please emails on your face, Football atchamilmo.com. But speaking of winning games and teams being better, Bears didn't win today. But they almost won, and Justin Fields was incredible.

Oh, my gosh. Craig, I'm more excited for this Chicago Navy Midshipment update than I've ever done. Well, I'm at a bit of an impasse here because do we promote Justin Fields and the Bears, you know, away from the Navy midshipman name?

Because the Bears are putting up points now. They're kind of electric. However, I mean, Justin Fields threw for 123 yards today and Navy threw for like 85. So it's still kind of close. However, Justin Fields went nuclear. Three touchdowns passing, like we said, only 120 yards passing.

Ran for 178 yards on the ground plus a touchdown, 42 fantasy points on the day. It is the most rushing yards by a quarterback ever. In the regular season. Also the most first downs by a quarterback ever rushing the ball. So Fields is felt like a flash of the pan for a couple weeks there. he's now put it together for kind of four straight weeks. He's been the number one quarterback in fantasy the last four weeks of the season.

You guys, I don't think this is the Navy midshipment anymore. I can't disrespect them. Well, he's not just, he's literally, I don't want to gloss over that. He's literally the number one player in fantasy football for the last four weeks. Like total points per game, whatever you want to do. Also, in those four weeks, the leading rushers in the NFL, period, leading rushes are Travis E. T.N., Derek Henry and Justin Fields. Wow.

that's pretty crazy man I think so again you know go back to halfway through the season or I don't know how long it was like five six weeks through the season it was really looking bad for fields like there was a I have been like a strong

field guy throughout his career throughout his short career and even I was like okay he does not do anything well like he just looks completely lost he holds on the ball he takes way too many sacks he refuses to run the ball they don't design any runs for him like there's just

nothing good about how he's playing it was like he was like he was legitimately by far the worst quarterback in the NFL, whether it was like through four or five weeks. I can't remember. I was telling you guys, I picked him up in a Superflex league off the wire. Like that's how bad he had been early in the season. And so again, like I think the turning point was the fact that they started having him run. And I know that this is like simplifying it a little bit. But to me, like the running thing is a lot like just getting a guy in rhythm as a shooter,

giving him some free throws, maybe a couple layups, a dunk here and there. get the confidence going, get the juices phone, get in the flow of the game. I see it very similarly. And I remember, you know, not to compare everything to Russell Wilson, but like Russell Wilson halfway through his rookie season looked like he was not doing all that hot.

And then all of a sudden they started to run in with read option. And he looked like he had the most incredible second half the year because he just all of a sudden his confidence was through the roof. And the team's confidence around him was through the roof. So I'm kind of like rambling on about it right now. But like it's so fun to see him, you know, gain his confidence. And that's transferred to all parts of his game. game, I think.

Momentum. This is one of the most timeless arguments in sports. Does momentum exist? I don't know about momentum, but confidence, like 100% confidence matters. It's similar. Without getting into the entire momentum thing, because it's one of those annoying things where I think people use it. People are, but they almost won and the dolphins look incredible.

And that's the point is like the Bears' offense kind of kept pace with the Dolphins' offense. Yeah. With the Dolphins' offense later. But like, I think, honestly, D.K., if anything, you were too muted for that, because I thought you were going to go on your rant again of like, what have coach has been doing Justin Fields. Yes, Justin Fields was abominable for a lot of his career, but

one, this is a reminder to, among other things, we need to go back to the you can't grade drafts for a long time thing. I know even with all our urgency to Barry Zach Wilson, like the fact that Justin Fields was surrounded with such little talent and they're only now running him. Like Justin

Fields, they weren't running him, they weren't using him as a runner, and I'm not trying to say that Justin Fields hasn't played poorly to this point. However, when they put him in this, I It's not that different than Malik Willis with the Titans tonight. Malik Willis is so raw. He like, they do not trust him to throw the ball about as much as any quarterback I've ever seen play in the NFL.

And yet, when you actually have a guy that fast, you use the whole field and you make the defense's job harder. Except with Justin Fields, who's a great quarterback, it's like, as D.K. says, oh my God, the six-foot-four guy who runs a 4-4 and is built like a much, much like more jacked-back. Prescott is incredible. Like that touchdown run he had today looked like he was playing college football. That's a college football highlight. That was insane. I want to play a quick game with you guys.

Quarterbacks that you would blindly start over Justin Fields. Like, you know, let's just say next week or whatever, ignoring bias and stuff. Josh Allen, right? That's yes. Jalen Hertz, blindly start over Justin Fields. Lamar Jackson blindly start over Justin Fields. Joe Burra.

Yeah. Yeah. Kyler Murray. no that's where it starts to get kind of close you haven't said did you say my homes oh no i didn't say patrick my homes yeah yeah my homely okay would you start kiler i was like eh eh and not blindly that's where it starts to get pretty close honestly right there is at that kiler line i mean you guys said it like he's the number one quarterback in the last month i mean there's a reason for that it's because he runs for a shit load of yards this is like it's jalen hurts all over

again from last year would you start two over its fields i think that's close too i would say i'd probably lean two of most games. Yeah. But you know what's funny. So Justin Fields is the QB8 on the season, which is pretty impressive considering how bad he was for the first few weeks. QB8 overall on the season, he's averaging 12 completions a game. Is he going to be the best quarterback of all time to average that little of completions?

Like I can't 12 completions a game and this guy's good, the number one quarterback and fantasy the last four weeks? He has to be over Kyler-Marie. Like this thing, which is the number one quarterback, the entire argument for Kyler is that he runs a lot and he's going to score. And like, Carter's office is supposed to be good. Cardinals' offense is like still discombobulated. I guess they've played a little bit better today.

But then Fields is running way more effectively than Kyler is. So I mean, I think, I guess the big picture here, Josh Allen, Lamar, Jalen Hertz and Mahomes are like firmly in that like top tier. And I guess Joe Burroughs probably at the bottom of that tier. Justin Fields is right in the mix to be like the sixth quarterback at like worst. Like he's at worst the top 10 guy. Like you kind of probably, if you have Fields, you can probably start him. any week going forward you want.

Yeah. I wish I could go back. I'd have to scour the tape. But going back to a couple of years, last year when I was talking about, it feels like I think he, I remember saying he's going to have the same career arc as Jalen Hertz has. I could see that happening. Basically, year one, raw, not a good passer. Everybody's like, yeah, this guy's electric as a runner, but he can't ever lead a comeback.

He's just not good enough passer, not enough volume, blah, blah, like decision making, all that stuff. That happened after year two, even though the team. improved around him. He improved in a lot of ways as a passer. And then coming into year three, now Jalen Hertz has taken a huge leap as a passer because he's got so much skill around him too. And now he's

looked at, and I think that the Eagles look at him as their foundation, like, quarterback going forward. I think Justin Fields probably going to have a very similar career arc in the sense that going to go into next year, people are still going to be talking about whether he can throw or not, you know, and I think it's valid.

But if they can get some talent around him, they have a ton of cap space, they have a ton of picks, you know, maybe this will be like a very similar type of thing. But yes, going back to fantasy, he gets an incredible amount, an incredible amount of his production from rushing, period. All right. Next award here, TK. The Sunday scary is revised. I don't know if you guys listened on Friday. I talked about how I was afraid of what the Jets offense was going to do against the Bill's defense. I should have been talking about what the Bill's offense was going to do against this Jets defense. Props shouts to the Jets defense, man. They look incredible right now. They're

like one of the best defenses in the NFL, period. They are the best defense in the NFL by EPA per player of the, by EPA over the last four weeks. That's crazy. Literally number one. Meanwhile, they're passing offense is 29th in passing EPA. So Zach Wilson, I know Jets fans are going to be pissed where it's like, what is Zach Wilson's started now? Five and one.

And you know what I mean? And Jets fans are just mad. But like obviously when you watch Zach Wilson, it's like not up to par. But the defense is, they also bailed out the offense so many times. The first play, did you guys see the first kickoff for this game? I've never seen anything like it. The kicker tripped on the tee and basically did like an onside, but it was an accident. So the bills got the ball at like their own 50 yard line to start the game.

And then the Jets defense bails them out and get a pick. Josh Allen, I don't know why he threw it, but like the Jets defense bails him out, gets a pick. The second half starts. And then Zach Wilson threw a pick to open the second half. And then the Jets defense just gets another pick right. back gives them back the ball and then the Jets go back and score a touchdown. And then like the end of the game, the Jets are at the goal line. And if they score a touchdown, the game's going to be over, they can't punch it in.

Bills get the ball back and you kind of think the bill's going to drive down. Jets, they don't even give a first down. Like every point the Jets defense was in the sauce gardeners like might make a pro bowl as a rookie. Love Soss Gardner. He's already been, he's already sort of established himself as one of the elite corners in the NFL, like full stop. It's incredible. Plus, DJ Reid, who I think they signed in the offseason is a very good player as well. Quina Williams, who was a top five player from a couple years ago, is really good, too.

You know, they got some guys on this defense, and they're playing really well, playing really confidently. Obviously, it's like, what are they, six and three now, six and two? They're like, they're going to the playoffs. They're six and three. Well, that's, speaking of playoffs, okay, you guys want to know the bizarro world that we're living in. We have to talk about, well, first of all, if the playoffs happened today, or next week, all, the entire AFC East would make the playoffs except the,

the New England Patriots. We're in the upside down. That's weird. And once you accept that we're in the upside down, I want to ask you guys, like, how seriously do you take the Jets as a, like,

as a playoff team? Not even to make the playoffs. Like, I don't, does Zach Wilson kind of negate any confidence you would have in this team to win a game of substance in January? Yes.

We're getting, this is way too overblown. The Jets defense is good, but like the bills lost to the Jags, 9 to 6 last year. I mean, stuff happens. All right. The Jets played a good game. They had a good game plan against Josh Allen. I am going to put a lot of money on whoever the Jets are playing week one of the playoffs. Zach Wilson will be one of the worst playoff quarterbacks in a long time. He's not good. I'm sorry to the Jets fans. Maybe he'll develop. Maybe things will change. But I think one of the

what's going to be really hard for Jets fans for the next two years is they have this fantastic defense. They have so much talent around them, Breece Hall. Garrett Wilson is a star. And we usually sometimes have a category called like the best catch. no one saw. Garrett Wilson had that today. He had a one-handed catch in the ends on that. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Which was unbelievable. Yes. But I just have zero faith in Zach Wilson. I wish he was good. I really do. But I'm going to bet against them swiftly in the playoffs. Also, we do have to, we have to mention that the sky cam went down and delay this game for 11 minutes.

Dude, I was like watching, I had a bunch of games on earlier. And then all of a sudden, the Jets game turned into like the Dolphins game. And I was like, what the hell's going on? The guy wrangling the cable. a lot of air time. Good for him. Like, what the hell is that? They didn't know what to do.

It was like the TV version of Will Ferrell and Talladegh saying, I don't know what to do with my hands and all these TV people. I don't know what to do with my camera. They eventually just abandoned it. They were like, all right, no sky cam. We're just going to move on. Oh, is that right? Oh, wow. Well, I was like, why don't they just cut it?

And then I guess the answer was because there's like a 10% chance they'll just like electrocute a fan. Oh, my God. I was like, what's so hard about this? Just cut the thing. I was like, I don't know. You really can't have that. You can't have... Yeah, can't.

You can't electrocute fans. Can I add another Sunday scary? Please. Yes. We should create a new category. So, you know, we have the rainbow strip, the turbo boost rainbow strip for Friday, which, you know, it's when a team is playing. Like, the lions, it used to be the Seahawks when a player is playing a shitty defense.

We call that the rainbow strip. I think we should have the opposite of that. I don't know what we call it. Maybe the spike strip. The banana. No, the Mario Kart banana. The banana. The Mario Kart banana.

Don't they, like, make a noise when they spin out? Sorry, Deca, what was that again? Honestly, not bad. I was always Donkey Kong. Maybe that's just Donkey Kong that makes that noise. No, no, I think. The banana kind of caught. When you spin out on the banana, I think it does make this one.

Okay, anyway. I'll do it again. Can you actually do that a fourth time, please? People are going to be pissed. Let's just not. Hey, with Craig, who's the banana? Titans' defense, especially against running backs, man. Titans' defense in general looks fantastic tonight.

Yeah. It had Mahomes and fits until the last drive when he, like, turned into Lamar Jackson. but, dude, the Titans are allowing 82 yards rushing per game, first in rush DVOA, first in defensive success rate. They're giving up the fifth fewest fantasy points to running backs, and like I said, they're allowing a league low, 82 rushing yards a game. Here are the running backs they face this year.

Jonathan Taylor, Sequin Barclay, Josh Jacobs, Damien Pierce. Those are four of eight games. They've played this year, and they're the best run D in the league. If you have a running back going up against Titans, I don't think they're playable. I think Collinsworth nailed it when Collinsworth was like every time that Andy Reid calls to run, Mike Vrable's like, thank God. Okay, I want to read out some stats here really quick.

Isaiah Pacheco, five rushes, five yards. Clyde Edwards-Hleare, four rushes, five yards. Derek, we kidding. Three rushes, four yards. That's it. And then Patrick Mahomes said all the yards and scrambles, right? Patrick Mahomes said 63 yards on, mostly scrambles. He threw the ball 68 times.

That's a career high. 68 times. But speaking of the Titans, I do you want to shout out Mike Vrabel. I think Mike Vrable for having not one of, it's probably the best coach in the NFL to have not won a Super Bowl. I cannot believe in these games. I don't know.

It's insane how they always play like this. All right. Today's rookie mistake award is presented by Snickers. Sometimes you're out of sorts and you make a mistake that could have been avoided. If you just had a Snickers, today, I made the terrible decision. the last minute lineup change. You know, you have your thought, and you're like, you know what?

You put your time into it, and you make a nice, well-reasoned sound decision. And then, like, it's 10 minutes before kickoff and you're like, nope, I'm going to change my mind. I'm afraid. I benched Justin Fields for Gino Smith today. That was a really big mistake. I also, at the last second benched Tyler, or benched Isaiah likely and the Ravens for Tyler Higbee. That's more brutal, I feel like. I added Tyler Higby off of waivers.

because someone cut him and was like, wow, what a steal. And I just will put him into tight end right now. And he had no catches. So rookie mistake by me. Brutal. Any of the rookie mistakes from you guys? I started Cadarius, Tony. My eyes were bigger than my stomach.

Rookie mistake by me, you know, maybe I was a little bit fantasy hangary. Maybe I needed a Snickers and I would have come to my senses and not start a player who has played like three games in his career and is on a brand new team. So rookie mistake by me. He played seven snaps tonight, Craig. Sorry to say. Got the first cast, though. Got like three targets, though.

Rookie mistake, maybe you just need a Snickers. Snickers, the official chocolate bar sponsor of the NFL. Check out Snickers.com slash rookie mistake. It's time for the Bad Trip Award for Aaron Rogers and the Packers. Everyone's making the ayahuasca jokes. You know, Aaron Rogers' stats since he's taking ayahuasca, blah, blah, blah. Well, no, no, no. He took the ayahuasca.

He admitted it this year. He said he said he's, took it two years ago and then he won the two MVPs in a row. Right, but it was like since he admitted it. But yes, I'm kind of, I'm really enjoying this guys. I really am. They've lost five in a row. We just were talking about the turbo strip, the Mario Kart turbo strip. They played the Lions today. The Lions are giving up 32 points per game.

They're the worst defense in the NFL. They've never allowed less than 24 points in a game this season. And the Packers, and Aaron Rogers, the back-to-back MVP, they scored nine points. He threw three picks in the red zone, two of them in the first half, like on back-to-back drives to open up the game. The Lions... Well, they weren't even in the red zone.

They were like all in the end zone, they were like, yeah, two yard liner. The Lions had two picks all season. They had three today against Rogers. I'm sure you guys saw Lil Wayne voicing his opinion. Should have gotten rid of him. Shouldn't got rid of this guy

in the off season. I don't know. I kind of love it, though. is hilarious. They've lost five in a row. That's a little lions. This is also funny and it's a good time to bring up all the reports that came out this morning or last night. That was like, oh yeah, the Packers really tried hard

to trade for all these guys, Chase Claypool, Darren Waller. That's like me saying, that's like me being like, well, I could have played D1 basketball, but my coach hated me. Coach wouldn't put me in. Could have played the State if it wouldn't have been for my knee. Yeah. It's like the Packers, like hypothetical team is, is an all-timer.

We should build the Packers' Hypothetic team. All the people they tried to get. Darren Waller. Also, Darren Waller, they're like, we could have traded for Darren Waller, who was out for the Raiders today. I didn't play for them either. But I have two takes about this game.

One is a take, and then I have like a mega take, but I want to start. I love that phrase, mega take. I have a mega take. For today, I actually think Aaron Rogers

played pretty well. What? I rewatch this game because I was so fascinated by this game. And I actually rewatch, because the slate, there were only two games on in the late slate. And I actually,

I, because she's usually just scrambled. Yeah, I just had time. And I just like put it, I just rewatch this game. Yeah. And one,

this will not get talked about enough, but Romeo Dobbs, I think he got hurt on like the first play. Yeah, like he hurt his ankle. And he's on crutches after the game. Aaron Jones is in a walking boot after the game with an ankle injury.

Christian Watson, who had a concussion last one, week was checked out for another concussion today. So, like, that's their three best pass catchers after Alan Lazzard, period. Aaron Jones, Dobbs, and Christian Watson. Their only receivers left are Alan Lazzard, who was banged up. And then you've got Sammy Watkins and, like, Samari Toure, and then Amari Rogers, who's literally just a special team is that Rogers kind of hates.

Like, Aaron Rogers kind of hates a mart. Sammy Watkins had one catch and five targets. The other, like, he ran the wrong route in the end zone twice, and the other two were drops. Samuel Watkins was fucking abominable in this game And like meanwhile, Aaron Rogers I just have to give Like no one's gonna give Rogers in the world credit

Everyone saw the game Everybody knows he played poorly The first pick was tipped Whatever, it happens The second one was bad But he converted today a third and 10 He converted a third in 18 A third and 17 a fourth and two

And a fourth and three That was like overturned on a replay And no one watching it live even thought It was incomplete because it was so close So he had a He basically had like three bad throws in this game I feel like the Packers are exactly as bad as we all think. Rogers is fine.

This is everyone around him's fault. Maybe, okay. Let's entertain your take for this week. Are you talking about for this year, though, like he's been fine? Like, I don't think that's true. I don't think he is, like, playing well. And, again, he has his thumb injury. And, like, I do, he has not been playing as well.

However, I think this team, it is much more the, pieces around him are messed up. Like the offensive line is in shambles. I didn't mention this, but like David Bakhtiari, who he was aiming for one of these his left tackle also was banged up in this game. He also lost John Runyon, who's also a pretty important piece of their offensive line. This is a, like, Sammy Watkins is like an integral, like basically a starter for this team. That doesn't make any sense.

He doesn't know the playbook. Like this, what, it's the dead dove. What did the Packers front office expect? I don't know what they were expecting to build with this team and so I feel like it seems like a foregone conclusion Rogers won't be on this team next year, right?

I would assume so, yeah. Actually, so look, I don't know if I necessarily agree with your take that Rogers played great, but I do think it is very, very... Let's say he played great. I think he played like... He played an abomination.

Everyone around him was kind of failing him, honestly. This is something that I've been noticing I feel like all year long and maybe I've just noticing it more because it's really prevalent this season for especially the older quarterbacks, but like, we get too caught up in like how good a quarterback is.

Like, I understand and I agree that the quarterback is the most important position on the player on the field. But like he has to, these guys have to have help. These guys have to have good players around him, supporting cast, good coaching.

Like, there's so many variables that have to like click at the same time for an NFL team to like even move the ball at all. It's always crazy to me. I tweeted this a couple weeks ago. It's always crazy to me how sometimes it looks in insanely easy for teams to move the football.

And then other times it's like, this is literally impossible. There's no way in hell this team is going to like score any points today. Like they just suck. I think it's all there's so many variables that have to click into place where you have offensive line that's blocking up. Receivers that are making plays for their quarterback. You have, you know, coaches drawing up plays that best utilize their player's skills. All that stuff has to come together.

And even the great quarterbacks, obviously Aaron Rogers, back to back MVP, even the great quarterbacks can look terrible sometimes if their sporting cast sucks. Like we saw it with Brady. We've seen it with Brady. Brady seems like he got like a get right. That last drive is like maybe this is going to be the thing you really needed to like get out of his funk. Who knows?

And the two drives today between Brady's last one and Roger's last one are like the difference in their careers really. They're like, you know, at the end of, even when the chips are down, Brady just wins. Rogers has not done that. So, but anyways, this is something I've been thinking I feel like every week is, maybe I think overrated how important quarterbacks are but like you just need guys

like to come around and make plays for the quarterbacks too yeah it's not like a it's not like a you can't just drop a quarterback in and they fix all your problems like look at Justin Herbert I mean he's suffering the same thing completely agree but these things are all the same thing where the bucks the Packers they like maximize their rosters to win the Super Bowl last few years the Rams did the same thing

and they're kind of paying the bill now for these top heavy rosters and the guys had to leave and now the Brady and Rogers are stuck on these teams that are kind of like husks and shells of like Stafford. Yeah, exactly. What used to be like really great team. The Rams, it's more like when people start getting hurt on a top of your roster. It's like, oh, it's almost like this team traded away their picks.

But so here's my mega take. Wait, I can. That wasn't your mega take. Got it. No. We're all, I think we're mostly on the same page. It's like Rogers on a better team would probably be great. Well, yeah.

The Jets should trade for Aaron Rogers in the, offseason. Basically, forget the contract. He would only be $15 million in the Jets cap next year, and he's going to be $40 million dead hit cap to the Packers, even if he retires. If Rogers wants to play, literally every part of the Jets team is better than what the Packers currently have. Like, they could put Elijah more in the trade, too. It's, I mean, Garrett Wilson is better than anyone Green Bay has right now. I don't know. I feel like if Aaron Rogers is on the Jets right now, the Jets would be like a Super Bowl contender, easily. That'd be fun. Oh, man. Oh, I thought I'd get more play from you guys in this.

No, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. I don't disagree with you. I mean, there's... I kind of think it might happen, though. I don't know if the Jets... The Jets aren't going to move on from Zach Wilson. I think they're going to be too stubborn. God.

If they can get Aaron Rogers, you can sell that. Well, I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong. I just don't think... It's hard to imagine the Jets doing that. I think it would probably be the right mood for them to do that. If you're Aaron Rogers, where do you want to go? If you go to the front office, you're like, I want to get traded. And...

They're like, all right, well, you have to find an AFC team because we're not trading you in the conference. Fair. Steelers. No, you can't do the AFC North because literally everyone in the AFC North is accounted for. The Ravens, the Bengals, Browns, the Steelers, they've all made an investment, like, extremely recently, massively at a quarterback. The AFC South, Texans and Colts suck too much. The Jaguars are just, they just have Lawrence, and then the Titans aren't really

mistake that makes sense. I don't think for Rogers. Maybe you can put them in the list. And then the Broncos, the Chiefs, they're too committed. the charges are committed. The Raiders aren't good enough, honestly. The dolphins, the jets, I don't think Rogers want to go to the Patriots,

the Bills, the can't do. It's really kind of just the Jets, and depending how you feel, the Titans. Like, if you're Rogers, who are you looking at the NFC that you're like, I would play there? The Jets are obviously the best place. Anyway, we can tell me this house.

All right. Fodder for the office season. Yeah. How's the ayahuasca, New York? Good? Am I crap? I mean, I feel like, yeah, you could probably get some good stuff there.

All right. You laugh, but find me one single team that makes more sense than to drop Aaron Rogers onto than the Jets. There isn't one. I look through every team. You can't trade them to an NFC team. No, realistically. Even the Falcons, like, why?

It has to be a mix of like, would the team do it, would the Packers do it, and would Aaron Rogers agree to it? Even though he doesn't have a no trade clause, it's like. What would the Jets have to give to the Packers other than Zach Wilson? Like two firsts? I think that two firsts is the floor. But I don't necessarily know if they would get the Russell Wilson package because of, depends how long Rogers is going to commit to play.

Like they gave up two firsts and two. Rogers is better than Russ, but Russ was like, I'll play for you for like seven years. Rogers, if he's playing. But regardless, two first, two seconds gets you it. That seems just like an absurd amount for a 39-year-old guy. No, it's so worth it. Absurd amount. I mean, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that's not going to be the going rate.

I just think it's crazy. Honestly, no price is too high, in my opinion, if you could get Aaron Rogers on the Jets for the next two years. I, dude, all right, we can talk about this another time, but I want to throw it out there. Or they could just rewind the clock and just have undone the Devante Adams trade. That would have probably worked for them. All right, next award here, Craig.

Well, here, this one's, speaking of me thinking the price is maybe too high. The Sad Trombone Award goes to the Bucks Rams game, which are both guys that were traded to teams, did really, really well for their team. for like a little while. The last two teams to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, right.

So I guess it did work for them. But now they're, like you said, now Hyvin says they're paying a bill on this. I don't know. I actually think Brady's been playing pretty well.

I do not think Stafford's been playing all that well. Dude, you want to hear something fucking insane? Tom Brady is leading the NFL in passing yards. Actually, I don't know

that with the Mahomes games tonight, but before the Sunday night game, Tom Brady was leading the league in passing yards, which makes no sense. Well, I think it makes sense in that the bucks

have like a historically bad running game so they have to throw all the time. I think that's the only reason it's happening. No, Mahomes isn't first right now. Yeah, so he's second. But it's still like, it's not like every week, Brady's dropping like 375 in garbage time.

To me, it still seems like he's like struggling to get to 200. I don't know. I can't believe that. But it's not, it's because, well, I think you just earned fantasy. Yeah, I don't know. It's really weird.

Anyway, we were texting because there's only two games during the afternoon slate, which is just, why the NFL do that? Why does the NFL do this? I don't know. But man, that game was depressing. Well, it's because they thought Bucks Rams would be like a de facto prime time. True.

Really important game. Like there's some world where maybe they thought both teams would be undefeated entering that game. And instead it was awful. It was hard to watch. It was literally hard to watch for most of the game. The last little bit made it fun. I don't know. What the hell is going on with Brady's receivers?

They keep dropping balls like at an insane rate. Even Mike Evans is like dropping the hell out of it. of balls. It's like really annoying to watch. Yeah, like Brady's having to rely on Scotty Miller on the game winning drive because Mike Evans can't catch a goddamn pass. Scottie Miller dropped the freaking game winner earlier. Oh, yeah. No, Scotty Miller dropped the game winner in the end zone with like 20 seconds left.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Anyway, these two offenses are just, it's like just the sad sack. I was like the physical embodiment of sad trombone. Like, wow, wow, wow, wow. Can we also talk about today was the essence of like revisionist's history. right now. Yeah, DK, wow.

On point. But we have to talk about how when the Bucks got the ball down four, Craig texted the two in our group chat, where he was like, there's zero chance Brady's pulling this out. Five minutes later when they score and they win the game, and Craig's like, never a doubt. The goat. Yeah.

Goat. This is what he's made for. It's the first I've ever drafted Tom Brady. I'm so invested in every game, and it's like pulling teeth watching him try to matriculate down the field. He's throwing five yard out into the ground. Dude, K. Dotton, baby. Get K. Dotten more involved. God. That's the key right here. Did you see

freaking Godwin? What are they turning Godwin into? What is this offense turning Godwin into? He had, hold on, I'm trying to pull it up. He had like seven catches for 30 something yards today. This is what the bucks are now. Same with the charges. They just run. Every receiver runs like a little five yard ends. That's it. Well, they can't block and they can't run. This is all these teams have the same problem. The bucks, the Rams, the chargers, and The Rams are like 270 yard completions today. Give me one of those. They did, but it's just Cup. It's just because of Cooper Cup, but they can't block.

They can't run the ball. And then when they drop back to pass, they can't protect. And so they just dink and dunk. But they're not that good at dinking and dunking. It's just Cooper Cup. He's the one who gives you. I was watching the game.

I was like, it felt like every five seconds Godwin was catching a pass. Like, oh, hell yeah. Godwin, Godwin, Godwin. And then I looked on my team and I'm like, he has 10 points. How many fucking, he had like 10 catches, it felt like.

He had seven catches for 36 yards. Brady threw 58 times. What's crazier? Mahomes throwing at 68 or Brady being 45 years old and almost throwing it 60 times? 58 attempts, 280 yards. That's really wild. I'm glad he won. Did you see him in the post game presser?

He was like, that was fun. That was fucking fun or something like that. He said, that was fucking awesome is what he said. That was fucking awesome. I feel like that was like, all right, I'm over my divorce. Let's ride. Yeah, let's ride. Let's ride.

You should just take the Russ catchphrase while Russ is on pilot week. Just see what happens. Also, Brady wears like hoodies that like 28 year old YouTubers wear. You notice that? Well, he has this, no, this is an obsession. Nora figured this out. And also, Austin Gale, have you been, speaking of all the merch stores, the TB12's merch is awful.

If you looked at the TB12s, it is so expensive. Unlike Skyler Thompson does not go to charity. goes right in the Brady's pocket. It's alimony payment. $400 hoodies that are just like... That was too much. Plain beige color. And I'm just like,

who you try to be here, Tom? You want to buy the native weight protein from TB12 for $60? I'd give it a shot. Oh, my God. These hoodies are disgusting. He's still like, we just said it.

He's still throwing 60 passes in a game. Maybe something, maybe he's got things figured out, guys. Romo was very effusive about Brady today. He was saying he hasn't lost his step. It's all the receivers. follow us the offensive line. Brady is still at the peak of his game. It's true

though. We just, I've been Flo, we are so, we are just sheep. Like, eight months ago, we would have just, anything that Brady did, we were like, we'll never doubt this man ever again. Everyone gets hurt around them and we're like, man, Brady must suck. It's like, no, I think Brady and Rogers, sure,

maybe they can't throw it quite as far as they could. But, like, I don't know. I'm just We've been trying to predict the Brady Cliff for like literally a 10 years. Maybe the teams that collapse around the guys who are credible is the problem. With that said, the Bucks are first in the NFC South. Exactly.

Also speaking of quarterbacks, yes, they're winning in the division. DK's always shocked by the standings in the NFL. DK's never heard a team being in first or last place and been like, oh, wow, that makes sense. I think my memory literally gets like wiped clean every week. It's like brand new week, clean slate. I don't know who's winning. I don't know who's in first place.

Speaking of disappointing quarterbacks, though, I'm giving the we're not mad just disappointed dad award. it's Justin Herbert for the charge of God, you're just, I have Brady and Herbert this year. You're just killing me. It's miserable. Justin Herbert was outscored this week by Baker Mayfield,

and Baker Mayfield entered the second half of the Panthers game because they were down by like 40 points to the Bengals. Our boy Phil had a tough game. He had really tough game. He had negative points in fantasy. Herbert's had one good game since he hurt his ribs in week two, and Craig, I have to ask you, like,

if you cut Justin Herbert this week, Put aside the fact that like whether you should or not. Do you think you would actually look back six weeks from now and regret cutting Justin Herbert? Like in a one quarterback league? Yes, in a one quarterback league, if you just released Justin Herbert. I'm not saying you should,

but if you did, do you think in too much you would look back and feel dumb about it? I think there's a decent chance. I will say, I don't think the rib is an issue anymore. I obviously have no idea what's going on with Herbert's like medical life. I don't actually have any insight on that.

However, it's been eight weeks. He just had a bye week. He looks fine. He doesn't look like he's like shielding it or anything like that. The offense is just broken because for all the reasons we said a million times, they literally have no wide receivers. Josh Palmer looked great today. Good for him.

They have DeAndre Carter. Gerald Everett dropped two of the most catchable passes I have ever seen. Palmer dropped a pass as well that led to Herbert's pick. He has so little help that what you're watching right now, you have to block it out and not let it influence your opinion about Herbert. But the reason why I'd say you should not drop him is because, and why I'm not, I mean,

I have him and Brady. So I've been getting water tortured watching these two guys dink and dunk for nine weeks. But Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, I think are going to come back. I think that the week's 13th or 17 when the Chargers are making a playoff run, because what are they, five and three? Like, I think there's still chance for this offense to rebound. Don't ask me.

And you got to just fight through it right now. I don't think you can drop Justin Herbert. At what point is expecting Keenan Allen to return go from science to faith? Yeah, it's like I'm doing like a rain dance. I have no idea. No, you're just like, it's a second coming. He's coming back. Keated Allen.

He'll fix this. On the third day. I'm betting on a 6-5 wide receiver coming back from a high ankle sprain and a 32-year-old wide receiver come back from a torn hamstring. That really is faith right there. It just made it worse during the high-wrecked. This is a new religion. Yeah.

Oh, my God. All right. Well, speak to you. This is my least favorite and also favorite time of the show, Craig. Take over. It's time. This is the tight ends who outscored Kyle Pitts in one who didn't game. I'm going to read you a collection of players this week at the tight end position who outscored Kyle Pitts.

And one of them actually did not. I'm not lying this time that one guy did not outscore Kyle Pitts. I will never ever believe you, but okay. Yeah, go ahead. This is a long list, unfortunately. And these names, I wonder how many people listening know a single name on this list. These people outscored Talpitz today. James Mitchell, Luke Farrell, Tegan Quittoriano, Josiah Deguara, Shane Zilstra, Tommy Trembal,

Chig Akonquo, Noah Gray. Good guy. Okay. I'm going to do well on this. Shane Zilster's the Lions Tide End who freaking got the touchdown instead of Jamal Williams and Swift. Okay. So he's real.

And Tommy Trembal also, I was annoyed. I was yelling at the Tia channel that Red Zone showed Tommy Trembles touchdown because they were down 40 points and I was annoyed at that. Chagachau's that Titan, the Titans guy who randomly got all those yards. Yeah. It was better than. First play of the game. Outscored Cowboys.

That was, yeah, that was him. He's a rookie, by the way. He's a rookie. Noah Gray had those two catches. DeGuara's Luke Farrell is he like an actor Yeah I was gonna say I don't actually know who Luke Farrell is I'm gonna say him

He is a real player he did not outscore Cow Pits But he is a real player Okay You're right he is a tight end for the Jags Okay wow And I mean he actually caught passes today Like he was close I'll give you that he's close to outscoring Kyle Pitts

I will say for the record I only know Shane's. I would have picked Shane Zilstra if I had not been like, who is Shane Zilstra when the Lions threw touchdown? The only reason I know that who Shane Zilstra is, because apparently him and his brother both got activated to the active roster today for the Lions. I mean, what about Tegan Kitoriano? Who the hell is that? I just knew that because you wouldn't make that up. That would be so bold to just make up Tegan.

Somebody tweeted this out on Thursday because this was a Thursday night game. Somebody was like, when you ask your mom who directed Polaroly. fiction and it was just a picture of Teigen That's really funny. That's like when people couldn't pronounce Benedict Cumberbatch, John Travolta. And how he couldn't do Adina Menzel?

Can I just say for the record? Obviously, we are just like so down bad about the Kyle Pitt season. Like obviously we were way too high on him, all that stuff. All those caveats. Anyone who said to draft Kyle Pitts was too high in him? Yeah. However, yeah, God, that's sad to say. Yes. You literally

really shouldn't have drafted him ever. He had a probably would have been a 75-yard touchdown and freaking Mario to just overthrew him. He was like wide open down the field. And Mario, Mario da, overthrew it by like 10 yards. So that's fun. I also want to throw out that,

the leading receipt, like in case you think other people are taking or drinking his milkshake, the leading receiver on the Falcons stay at 27 receiving yards. That was carpets. So he led the team with the one catch of 26. He was their leading receiver. So I think that the Falcons are the new Navy midshipment, right? I think the Falcons have taken the mantle.

I think you're right. For the first time, for the first time all year, I don't even want to say this. For the first time all year, I was like, okay, I kind of get why they don't throw that much. Are you kidding? I'm like kind of walking back by like rants because like, God, Mariotta, man. Like he was just missing guys like so bad. And I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. But like maybe play something else.

DK finally being like, all right, this Falcon team. I tried to have a little bit of empathy for what they're doing. And yeah, Mario, at 12 out of 23. I don't know. Maybe I was just like, I tuned in at the exact wrong minutes or moments when Mario was like way over through pits for what had been a giant touchdown or there's a couple other plays

where you miss guys, but I was just like, ugh, this passing game's gross. Also, the ending in this game, I don't know if you guys saw, but where Austin Echler.

These are the two cursed franchises The Chargers are the Falcons The one that blow games And like it was the most blow game Like Austin Tucker runs and the Falcons And they fumbles The Falcons pick it up And the Falcons fumble back

That was the most falconsy moment Of all time was the guy Was running and he didn't No one touched him He just literally just dropped the ball These are the same teams The Falcons and the charges Are the same team

They have different offenses But they're the same vibe spiritually There's like you know Ancient cultures have these mythical stories Like the sun and the moon would argue over who got to illuminate the world and then they decided to split it. And it was like the universe couldn't decide whether the Chargers

and the Falcons would blow this game. And they're like, they both will on the same play. Brandon Staley might be Arthur Smith's son for all I know. Oh my God. Craig, next to Ward here. Cooper Cup Award. Player, you wish you had more in fantasy. Tyree Kill. Every week I say this.

Waddle too. You can toss him in. The dolphins are just just intoxicating. I can't if I can pick any offense to watch in the league, It is the Dolphins. It is fascinating to watch Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle get opened by 20 yards every single play. And Tua underthrows them, but they still catch it. This year, Tyree Kill has played nine games.

He has 1,104 yards receiving through nine games. His current stat line right now, halfway through the season, would have been the wide receiver 27 last year, total, where he is right now. I think back to at the start of the season, you know, wide receivers changing teams, it's dicey. Historically, it doesn't go super well. Tua, we kind of had no idea what to expect. If somebody would have told you,

hey, Tyree Kills is going to have 1100 yards this year with Tua, you'd be like, all right, I'll take him in like the what, third or fourth round, maybe? And he's done that through nine games. Him and Waddle are the wide receiver three and wide receiver 10 right now.

And Tyree Kills the best wide receiver pick in the draft. It's not close. No, it's not close. And also, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure. I think Tyre Kill just has the most receiving yards through nine games, like, period. And it also, it's also like yards per route run, which is probably a better stat indicative

of where players are, like, just actually how much they're winning every time they try. It's basically the best receiving stat we have. Tyree Kill is like easily having the best season ever by yards per route run, at least like in the 15 years. Ben Solich wrote a great piece for the ringer this week. Like, yards per out run. Tyree Kill is number one. It's the best mark on record.

Jalen Waddle is third this season. Like literally, they're both top three in yards per ret run. That's never happened. Nothing like that has ever happened. And then Tyree Kill yardage-wise, he's just ahead of where Calvin Johnson was when Calvin Johnson had the 1900 yards last year. He's just ahead of him.

He's very close to being projections-wise, he's on pace to beat the yards record. And he's also extremely close on breaking the catch record, too. Well, and again, again, I keep saying this, but if you just take out week three, which is like the heat, the game of the bills players were killing over from heat

and the dolphins ran like 35 plays and then week five when Tewa was out and Teddy Bridgewater got hurt after one throw. And those are, Tyree kills only bad games. Take those out as flukes. He's averaging 146 receiving yards per game. And the craziest part of this is,

it's, this really is probably the best usage of any receivers ever. I mean, you maybe go back to Jerry Rice. read the Ben Solic piece in the ringer. It was great. But also, he actually could get, like, assuming, obviously he might get worse over the second half, he could also get better because he only has three touchdowns.

I was going to say, doesn't he, like, do for more touchdowns face-done. Because the dolphins don't actually have that many plays inside the 10 because they're scoring from so far out. Yeah. The Tyree Kill, even if he does a few yards, he might score more. So, yeah, no, Tyree Kill easily, like, league winning wide receiver this year, and Jailad Waddle was right there. Tyree Kill's gone over 140 yards five times this year.

Jesus. Every week. It's funny because when this trade happened in the dynasty world in particular, both Waddle and Tyreek saw their value drop pretty bad. They're like, oh, there's not going to be enough to go around for these two. Tyreek going from Patrick Mahomes to Tua, like, blah, blah, blah. It's like terrible, obviously. And now they're like both top ten.

They're like shake and bake. They're like Ricky Bobby and Cal Notton. But this is what happens every year, like these breakout things. it's when there's overlapping uncertainty. Tua was the overlapping uncertainty, overlapping with Mike McDaniel, who, again, Bill always points out, every announcer's talking about Mike McDaniel

like he's an alien. It turns out that he's actually is the genius. Everyone said he was, at least in terms of designing this offense, and Tua was able to execute it. And it's... Yeah, I want to give Tua credit to you. Like, I like watching Tua.

He just snaps off throw so quickly. He's so fast. He's such a great processor. Yeah, he does... How much is going to process? Tyree kills wide fucking open. Get him the ball. Okay.

Well, have, do you think this would be the same offense if it was like Skyler Thompson or freaking Teddy Bridgewater out there? No, but I think that I'm not trying to take anything away from Tua. You are, you literally just are. Actually, yeah, I'm just saying, I think he's good. He's really good for this system. He underthrows literally every, there's like five touchdowns he left on the field because he under threw Waddle and Hill.

But it's to what you were just saying like earlier, D.K., about how we overrate quarterback's performance compared to what's around them. I kind of think 20 people could do this. I mean, 12. I just think that Tua's been really good at running this system. So whatever. We don't have to relitigate Tua right now.

But yeah, I think it's a lot of fun to watch. Like, I think Mac Jones could be doing what Tua is doing right now if he was in the Dolk. I kind of, yeah, I kind of know what you made. Okay. DK, who's the player you wish you had drafted more of this season?

Travis E.T.N. The Jags. My God, this guy is absolutely going bananas. He's the RB2 over the last three weeks. Like he, obviously when you watch him play, it's very clear. This guy is extremely explosive, one of the most explosive running backs in the NFL. But they're also giving him an incredible amount of volume. He had 28 carries today.

I just never really expected this in his career. I just think he's awesome. It's really fun to watch. He is emerging as a superstar, like as we speak. So anyways, just want to shout out Travis ETA. He's looked awesome. Yeah, ETN's absolutely incredible. I have an award here that I wanted to add new one today.

It's called the Establish the Run Award for the return of the running back. QBs suck now, and running backs are really good. Brady is second in the league in passing yards. I don't know what's going on. I wanted to read you guys. Here are the top six quarterbacks right now

in passing yards per game in the league. Number one is Josh Allen. Number two is Patrick Mahomes. Number three is Joe Flacco. Number four is Matt Ryan. Number six is James. Winston. They've all been benched. And then Tom Brady.

No, that actually tracks. I think it's that way. It's because those it's those are the best quarterbacks and the quarterbacks on the teams that are losing by the most. Like all those James Winston numbers and the Matt Ryan numbers are when they're down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I hear what you're saying. However, I don't know if that's super normal that the top six passers, three of them are guys who played four games and then got benched. That is unusual. I give you that. Yeah. I actually, I want to, because I

I want to go back. Let's look at last year. Last year, the leaders in passing yards per game, Brady, Herbert, Stafford, Mahomes, Derek Carr, Burrow, DAC, Josh Allen, Kirk Cousins, Aaron Rogers.

Like, this is weird. Like, who's who of the good quarterbacks? Yeah. You guys, how many quarterbacks do you think through for less than 200 yards today? Not this week. Week 9.

Actually, quite a bit because Mario did, Fields did. You don't actually have to count through. Just give me a guess, and I'll tell you. I bet it's like six, because I just thought of three. 12 quarterbacks.

Jesus. Less than 200 yards. Tell me how many of those one? How many of those one? I don't know that. Do you know how many games were played today? There's 12 games. 12 games are played.

And there was 12 quarterbacks who threw for less than 200 yards. 11 of the 12 games today featured a quarterback who threw for less than 200 yards. 11 of the 12 games. There was only one game today where both quarterbacks threw for more than 200. It was the Jags versus the Raiders. Derek Carr and Trevor Lawrence both through for more than 200 yards. I keep expecting Craig to say,

this man is ruining golf. No, but it is. I think that the too high thing, we've probably done a bad job explaining it. The philosophical thing with the defense is was, we need to stop allowing big plays. And it is like the baseball thing with the shift. I didn't like that analogy at first.

I think I was probably too literal with it. But it really is like, it's like grounders are. gone. And so these, I don't know, it's almost like if baseball teams would be more effective at stopping home runs. Like obviously baseball, now they're trying to hit him runs. And it's like,

now that they're taking the home runs away, it really is like you can just win without hitting the 200 yard mark way more. I'm also curious because a lot of these passing offenses are so anemic now. I wonder if there's way less parody in fantasy football. Like when I look at a lot of my leagues, there's like four really good teams and like

five really bad teams. And the middle is completely gone. And I remember last year it felt like there was a million teams were all five and fours and fours and fives. But because there's like, you know, three or four really elite offenses, if you have a dolphin, if you have a bill, if you have a chief, you're doing really well. That sounds weird when you say it that way, though. If you have a dolphin. If you have a dolphin.

You have one dolphin. Draft the dolphins makes so much sense to me. Draft a dolphin is. Can I just, I just want to go through quickly. Just hear how weird this sounds. These are from all of the games that were played today. Malique Willis, 80 yards. Matt Stafford, 165.

Tyler Murray, 175. Taylor Heineke, 149. Zach Wilson, 154. Mack Jones, 147. Ellinger, 103. Jared Goff, 137 yards. Baker Mayfield had 155. Justin Fields, 123.

Marcus Marriota, 129. Davis Mills, 154. Like, what are we, what's going on? Part of it is, honestly. that there's like kind of a lot of backups playing right now obviously heineckee ellinger willis walker uh mayfield this year this year's been there's been a lot of injuries at the quarterback position so that's part of it but overall like your point stands for sure and to counterpoint that there's been a lot of really fun running backs this year obviously

there's the elite guys your mcalfrey saquan cameras and stuff but i feel like there has been such an inordinate amount of running backs who have kind of broken into the scene this year damien pierce is like so fun to have. Travis E.T.N. Remandre. Miles Sanders has broken out. Josh Jacobs is a huge breakout. Before they got hurt, Brees Hall and Javante Williams,

Kenneth Walker. There's just such a massive crop of these late round fantasy running backs that have all kind of burst onto the scene. And they've, honestly, every week now, the top 12 running backs and top 12 quarterbacks are almost equal in scoring,

which is not how it used to be. But these are the same conversations, right? We're at this point where if offenses want to pass, they have to dink and dunk their way downfield. And defenses have basically, defenses are basically like, the offenses that are really good,

like the bills and the Bengals when they're at their highest level, are going to be able to get chunk plays. Because again, the part of this that doesn't get said enough, if you get a single play of 20 yards on a drive, your odds of scoring on that drive go up like five times. And so what the defense is saying is that philosophically, we try to stop you from getting the 20-yard play,

we bet that half of you in the league are fucking posers. Like, if you don't get that, you're not actually good enough to dink and duff and get seven first downs in a row and score three times. You just can't do it. And like a lot of these teams were posers. They were just trying to get the big deep shot and they kind of, like they can't do it.

But then the flip side is, I don't know. A lot of these teams that are running, like are having more success. I don't think it's an accident that the way the league is now. I don't think it's weird that they're, the Seahawks are not that it is weird but Kenneth why all the emergence of all these running backs goes hand in hand to me with the quarterbacks yeah I'm looking at a pro football reference right now and I don't have a fact checker checking list but I'm pretty sure in 2022 teams are averaging 120 yards

per game 120.6 and this is before this week 120 rushing 120 rushing yards per game sorry and that is the most of any year in the 2000s so anything this century so far. They're averaging 4.5 yards per attempt, which is the most in NFL history, or if it would carry on, this would be the most in NFL history. So I think there is a little bit of resurgence. Obviously, I don't think you're going to ever hit the volume of like the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, but you also have to factor in the fact that there's so many more Russian

quarterbacks now, right? Yes, 100%. Yeah, that's a big part of it. I'm going to just tell you, this is, I'm doing this off the cuff, but there's an average of four plays this season of 20 plus yards, 4.7. And I'm just going to pick a random year. But in 2017, yeah, there was 6.1. It's a pretty big drop.

That's almost 50%. Well, I can't do math in the fly. I'm bad at a percentage. So 33%. Yeah. But when you factor in that every one of those plays increases the odds of scoring a touchdown on the drive by like five times, it's actually a pretty big drop.

Definitely. Okay. All right. We got really serious there at the end. I was, I, I, I, I just wanted to talk about how Dax Millney scored a touchdown for Washington. And that's the guy who was Zach Wilson's college roommate. And then Zach Wilson's girlfriend broke up with Zach Wilson. And because allegedly she said that Zach Wilson was having sex with his mom's best friend.

And then she dumped Zach Wilson. And then she started dating Zach Wilson's roommate in college who scored for Washington today. That was kind of how I thought we would kind of go to the end. It was like the vibe I was going for. Also, somebody wrote in the doc that Rahim Black Smear outscored Deontay Foreman. It's not Black smear, but that's really funny. Black smear. It's Rahim.

Yeah, it's like a bagel. What is his name? You didn't know his name. No, I've like lost. What is it? Black Shear. Black Shear. Black Shear.

Black smear. Yeah, it's not like a bagel. Okay. Anyway, he outscored Deontay Foreman today. No, it's not smear. It's black shear. I yeah yeah you wrote I know oh smear I see

okay anyway that guy out scored Diante Foreman today so that's that guy anyway that guy all right oh boy we got to do the burn book for someone

anybody come to mind we burned AJ Jill a couple weeks ago I feel like we should just burn the Packers period no we can't just start burning teams I feel like we run out of players quick We burn this dealer We can't do wholesale burn All right, fine

You want to burn Justin Herbert This guy isn't helping You got outscored by Taylor Heineckee today I mean, okay Are you gonna, you'd rather burn Herbert than someone say Like Matt Stafford Oof

But like yeah Because Matt Stafford The whole point of taking Matt Stafford Was you probably didn't take You could That's true Take them like 10 to 12 If you took Herbert, it was to be as good as Lamar Jackson or as good as Mahomes.

I actually was listening to a fantasy pod, and I apologize. I can't remember which one it was. They were like, Herbert was maybe the worst pick in fantasy drafts. I think that you could argue like Kyle Pitts probably up there. Jonathan Taylor? Jonathan Taylor, maybe. I think Jonathan Taylor. Honestly, we could burn Jonathan.

I mean, he's out. He's not practicing. We're not going to burn Taylor. He's heard. I'm just saying even when Jonathan Taylor was playing, though. Remember when we burned remotes? turning like tore his knee and a half in week one. We're like, fuck you, Mr.

That was like our, not our best moment. Last year, yeah. But if you guys want to burn Herbert, I get that. We could burn her. Who are you suggesting instead? I don't have one. All right, let's do Herbert. It's been exhausting watching him every week.

I know it's not his fault. I think Staley sucks and he has no receivers, but still. Oh, but we can't say that about Aaron Rogers. Whose receivers are? Justin Herbert's five and three. what Aaron Rogers just lost to the lines what's what's the excuse Herbert's at least pulling out wins

I forgot the charge just won today you know what Bernard Rogers I know I know we have the Bill Barnwell is great at this and this is a very popular thing but we have like the record in one score games we need to go a little more granular than that

I kind of want to completely take out from your record teams that win on field goals that are like longer than 40 yards like when you really don't know if the kicker's going to make I hate how the narrative on a winner Like the Vikings did you see Kirk Cousins

No shirt wearing those chains on the plane Like an asshole Yeah And I'm like mother and he's like in the locker room He's like you like that and ever I'm like dude You can't you needed you were down so much to Washington They won on the field goal on the last second to Washington Like you should be a Super Bowl contender

And they needed to make like a 43 yard field goal To beat them when it's time expired How are they celebrating like? like that. They're seven and one. What are you talking about? I know there's seven and one, but my point is, if he misses the field goal, all we're talking about is how embarrassing it is.

That the, like, the whole narrative is completely different. You could do that a million, you could do that a million times with every football game. That's my point. We should take these games where it's- good as it turns out. Any field goal beyond 45 yards. Think about the Bucs Patriots game where Brady B. Belichick.

The Patriots are like a 55-yard or to me. it to win it. And they just, like, the outcome at that point, it should just be like as spiritually as a tie. It's ridiculous that whether the kicker makes it or not completely changes the outcome on everything. No, I don't like this. It's hard to win a football game. Like, if you expect the Vikings to just win every game that they're favored in all season,

like that's very hard to do. Like they, no, I know, I know. What I'm saying is everyone that we care about had nothing to do with the decisive play. But we judge. There's a million plays throughout the game that matter. I know, but what I'm saying is if the kicker, they're basically outsourcing the result, and we're outsourcing, like, how we judge all these people based on this kick.

But I understand, I mean, look, you could, do you want to just like look at your DVOA or whatever and like go by that? Like, no, I want to just say if all these players that we care about, if you, if you couldn't handle it by the final play, I'm just saying the extremes of either like the extreme sadness or like Kirk Cousins wearing the chain on the plane, I just think that's all. The teams rallying. The teams rallying around it.

I thought this was benign. I'm surprised this is even... I'm just too tired to process this take. I'm still not even sure what your take is. I don't love it either. I mean, okay, yeah, if they missed the field goal, then they go to overtime and they could lose. Okay.

I guess that one's a bad example because they were tied, but... I don't know. Hockinson looked good. Is that what we're talking about? I'm just mad at Kirk Cousins. Don't besmirch, Kirk. Kirk's seven and one. Craig, after all that, Craig says, Kurt is seven and one, not the team.

Exactly. He is. Anyway, all right, let's get the hell out of here. Okay. All right, thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you, Sam Smith.

Oh. The Sun Holy Song. It's everywhere, you guys. Yeah. It's very catchy. Sam Smith really cranks out. Catchy ballads. Yeah.

You know who else does that? You know who else has a huge song? D.K., I wonder if you even know who this person is. Do you know who Megan Trainor is, DK? Yeah. I mean, I know of them. I don't know if I listen. I don't celebrate their entire catalog.

There has never been an artist to come out with more hits that sound exactly the same than Megan Trainor. They're all good and they're all catchy. Is she like Cordarral Patterson, where every time she's on the field, she's just scoring a touchdown? She just comes every year. there's just one song that no one on the planet goes,

you know who's my favorite artist, Megan Trainor? But she always has a song in like the top 10 once a year, and it's always catchy, and it comes on on the radio, and you're like, this song's not bad. It's unbelievable. I don't think I could pick it. I don't know any of her songs off the top of my head. I'm sure I've heard them.

They all sound the same. You could actually just sing the lyrics of every song to any beat from any one of her songs, and it works. You could just slot in the lyrics, and it works. It's like how the ABCs is, the same tune as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yes. That'll blow your fucking mind. That's what she's doing essentially. And listen,

nothing against it. I actually, like, her songs are catchy. Good for her. She's making it work. But, man. She's got a formula over there. A trainer ink. You guys ever say that there's this video of the country music and they just take the number one country song from like 2012, 13, 14, 15 and put them

in the garage band and they cut them all up to make them one song and they all sound identical. Indistinguishable. Yeah. Oh, man. He's coming after country music right now. I love country. I love pop country. I love bad pop country that like real country fans hate and then people don't like country hate. It's like this hated pop

country that's the country I like. But it's all the same. One of my takes is that top 40 music is great. Yeah, it's great. It's like all people hate it because it's popular. But like it's popular because it's good. You know, I'm going to be totally honest with you, Craig, right now. I've been trolling the

trawling, trawling the top 40 list lately because trolling or trolling. Trolling or trolling. Trailing like you're a fisherman. Whatever. I've been looking at them a lot. I don't know what the word is. I've been listening to a lot of these songs because I feel like I'm so out of touch.

I'm like I need to catch up with. What are the kids listening to? You just Google. You've come full circle. Dude, literally I'm doing that. I'm like, what's popular? Top 100. This entire too long conversation we have at the end started because D.K.

would just name like way too popular people. Like, thank you, JZ and Taylor Swift. And then like slowly just started naming people he listens to. and now we've come all the way back. Yeah. I mean, I found some great songs, too. People are missing out, like, all the people who are, like, just, like, hate Katie Perry.

I'm like, you know what? You're missing out on last Friday night. It's a fun song. Just like, enjoy your day, listen to a fun Katie Perry song. Why do you have to hate that? You can like Crung Bin, but you don't have to also hate Katie Perry. I agree.

Although I am kind of a, I'm kind of a crumagent sometimes, but I'm trying to expand my mind. So there you go. Also, the kids aren't listening to Katie Perry. So. Yeah, that's definitely like a while ago. All right. Thank you, everyone again.

Goodbye, everyone.