The Ringer NFL Show - Fantasy Superlatives and Week 9 Must-Adds | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 333)

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

The Ringer’s Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly offer up some “Initial Advice” after Week 8 (1:30) and recommend which players you should pick up off waivers heading into Week 9 (11:00). Then the guys give out their midseason awards to the fantasy players who have shined, flopped, and everything in between (21:30). Tweet your fantasy football superlatives to @Danny_Heifetz and @DannyBKelly on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, guys, it's Liz Kelly. The One Shining Podcast Tour with Titus and Tate officially kicks off next week on Friday, November 2nd. Chicago sold out, but there's still a handful of tickets left in Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and Bloomington, Indiana. You can find links to buy tickets at the ringer.com slash 1-shining dash podcast. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Danesie Football Podcast, brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. My name is Danny Heifitz, and I'm joined, as always, by my co-exam. host and co-danny. Danny Kelly. How are you doing, D.K.? DH. I'm doing excellent. Another good week of football. How are you doing?

I feel great, man. I'm liberated. The Hugh Jackson's gone. R. IP. R.P. to Todd. William's is the head coach. What a time to be alive. Is this worse? I feel like that's actually worse. If you watched them on hard knocks, you basically were like, oh, wow, this guy. Also super believable that he had a bounty scandal. But that's neither here nor there. I hear you have a contractor in your house right now. How's that going? Yeah, I am doing a bathroom

remodel, which is breaking new ground for me, so I'm kind of dealing with that. Did you say that I'm breaking new ground? That's not funny. Yeah, literally and figuratively. All right, well, if he has any fantasy opinions, let me know. What's his name? His name's Nathan.

Nathan? If Nathan has any takes, actually, at the end of this episode. We're going to get into some fantasy awards at the end of this episode, which I'm very excited about. I'll let you know who gets the Friend's Own Award. But before that, we're going to dive into some initial advice. So who's your first dark night for this week? Jack Doyle, I mean, he looks like the real deal in that Colts offense again. I mean, last year, he got 80 passes,

108 targets, 690 yards of four touchdowns. We didn't really know kind of how he's going to all shake out with Eric Ebron in the mix now. He came back this week. He played 57 snaps, 73 percent. That was far more than any of the other tight ends on the team. And in fact, it was kind of weird because if you've been carried by Ebron over the last few weeks like I have, This was definitely a disconcerting because Ebron only played 17 snaps. So he was saved by a touchdown. Doyle was definitely the kind of the main focus of that group. Team high seven targets, six catches, seven yards, a touchdown.

I mean, on the Colts, go ahead, fourth quarter drive, he had like four catches and the touchdown. Yeah, and he was fantastic. You know, obviously the Colts are on a buy this week, but he was so good and Ebron's been so good this season that it's probably worth grabbing him even before the buy because he seems like he could be a top five guy going forward. Yeah, I mean, he's one of those guys that he's just, number one,

he's going to get a ton of volume. And I think he also could be a big factor in the red zone. So take advantage of the buy and go pick this guy up when people aren't kind of paying attention because I think he could have a big second half. No, yeah, I agree that. I played against him and it sucked this week. Yeah.

Another thing that just kind of sucked, Will Fuller tore his ACL after Thursday night. Yeah. Another great game, which is too bad. but it seems like a guy who could replace him as fantastic is Kiki QT of the Texans. Craig, can we get the... It's Kootie.

Kootie? No, I don't know. Regardless, can we get the Kiki? Do you love me? I wanted to, but it's been vetoed. Jim's not even here. How can he veto anything? I'm sorry.

He's not even... Ridiculous. I knew Jim's going to veto that even before you asked. You still have to ask. It's like... You know what? Let's move. This is ridiculous.

Anyway, he had his own hamstring injuries missed last week with a hamstring injury. with a hamstring injury, but he's still like a really great candidate to get a lot of volume for the Texas going forward. Even this week, you know, the Broncos have a good slot quarterback, Chris Harris Jr. He might get traded before this game,

so that doesn't even really matter, maybe. And I think he's fantastic, and the Texans offense is going to have to rebound somehow. I think QT is like the Couty. Kiki? Kiki's going to be in line for a lot of work. Is Harris on the trade block? He is.

Yeah, it's like a fire cell. Wow, that would be crazy. Yeah, the other thing is, like, when Fuller is out, that's huge for Kuti because actually if you look back at Kuti's first game this season he had he caught 11 of his 15 targets that week and a big part of that was because Fuller left in the second quarter and so they both have been kind of diluting each other's target rate and so this could be potentially big for Kuti going for it I like that one a lot. My next guy, DJ Moore, the Panthers. Number one, the Panthers are going up against the Buccaneers this week which is always a strong play of fantasy. wise for the opposing team. He kind of came out. It was like his breaking out party a little bit this week, DJ Moore.

And he had six targets, five catches, 90 yards, had two carries for 39 yards, one over 100 yards total. He, you know, had his highest snap count of the season. Big part of that was because Tori Smith was out. So you kind of have to monitor what's happening with Smith that he has an injury right now. If he's going to come back, I mean, are the Panthers dumb enough to kind of put him back in front of DJ Moore because Moore looked really good?

but I like more a lot. He's really explosive. He's kind of that, you know, he's like a bigger version of Golden Tate where you can pick up tons of yards after the catch, really, really strong, balanced runner. And I like him a lot going forward. Wow, bigger Golden Tate.

I haven't heard that before. That's... You haven't? Because that's pretty cliche, I think. Well, you know what? Well, every guy that can run after the catch is like a Golden Tate comp. We can call him bigger Albert Wilson if you want.

Now you're just saying names. God. Damn it. No, I like more, though. He's been fantastic for them. Someone I like more. Wow. Wow. In the same game, Ryan Fitzmagic is back. The long way has ended. My guy. Down with James Winston. He had four picks, including two of just the most disgusting ones I've ever seen. He is benched. Fitzmagic is back. He almost won the game. They were down 18 points. And it came in, like, he tied it up.

Yeah, he tied up the game, did the two-point conversion. He looked like a jet. eye, it was unbelievable. I don't have to explain this. Everyone knows. Bucks is, he's amazing. He doesn't even need an introduction. So, yeah, get him. He's just, your life will be better. This is what I always say. Your life will be better of Ryan Fitzpatrick's on your team. It's not often that, well, I don't know, I mean, in your league how it goes, but it's not often there's like a quarterback one on the waiver wires. That's potentially what he is. As Scott Barrett's kind of been tracking throughout the year, the Buccaneers are still outpacing the greatest show on turf in terms passing ads.

They are terrible and they have to pass a ton or whatever, but that offense has so much volume. I like this a lot. This is your guy preseason. I've always said Ryan Fitzpatrick is Kurt Warner and Connor McGregor's body. That's a longstanding opinion I've held. I've heard you say that, yeah. Who's your last guy?

This one is more of just a little bit of a dart throw because we don't really know what's going to have him going for. In fact, he could get traded before, you know, before too long here. Devante Parker, the dolphins, going up against the Jets. We didn't really know what was going to happen with the Kenny Stills injury and with Albert Wilson going out for the season. Who was going to emerge? Last week, we talked to you about Danny Amadola.

He actually did have a pretty good game. He threw a touchdown, randomly enough. But the big player in that offense to kind of like get a big boost was Parker. He had nine targets, team high nine targets, six catches, 134 yards. The long catch was a fluke, but still, he went from being in the dog house. to being the leading receiver of this team. I don't know for sure if that's going to hold up. I think it is worth kind of just grabbing him right now just to make sure.

He ran 39 Rouse last week, 23.1 target rate, which is the highest on the team. Osweiler has actually been decently okay, and his three starts, he's thrown the ball 112 times, which is 37 times a game, 860 yards, five touchdowns, three picks, 90 rating. So, I mean, obviously it's not great, but it could be a whole lot worse.

There's some potential volume to be had there with Parker going forward. He was a former first-round pick. I mean, the team's got to feel like they want to get something out of them. How do you feel if he gets traded, though, because I'm very skeptical about receivers getting traded because so much of the pro game is about timing. And the issue is that whether it's a Mark Cooper or Demeris Thomas if he gets dealt, maybe even Golden Tate if it gets dealt, which is just smaller DJ Moore, I guess. And if he, the issue is that if they have a dud the first two weeks,

you have to write it off as, look, they just got them. they're still learning names. Like, it's not going to be that easy. And then suddenly you're around fantasy playoff, fantasy crunch time, and you're holding onto these guys. So do you still like Parker if he gets dealt or no? Well, I mean, obviously, it just depends. Like, what if Parker gets dealt to the Patriots, for instance,

like there's a rumor right now that they're looking for a number one guy? I'm not saying Parker's a number one guy. His profile is that of a number one outside type guy. So I don't know. If he went to the Patriots, maybe. But if he goes to, you know, some team with the middling quarterback, Obviously, I'm down on them again. So it just depends on kind of what happens this week.

That makes sense. Yeah. Before we move on, though, DK, let's take a quick break. Unleash the most powerful pixel ever. On the network chosen by Google, Verizon. Pixel 3 is more than just any camera. It takes group selfies, snaps in portrait mode, and helps you always pick the perfect moment with Top Shot,

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slash NFL. All right, T-K, now we're going to run through a little waiver-wire lightning round of guys who think worth grabbing or maybe might be worth grabbing or maybe had big weeks and aren't worth grabbing.

But first we're going to do a little mini, mini-l lightning round within the lighting round like lighting round inception. Just to look at guys who might be able to benefit based on if there's a trade. The trade deadline is Tuesday at 4 Eastern,

and we're just going to look real quickly at guys. There's a bunch of rumors floating around. So we're going to start. One guy being rumored as to be traded is Pierre Garsohn on the 49ers. What did you think about Kendrick Bourne? Obviously, he had a big week against Cardinals this week. So what do you think of Kendrick Bourne and if Garsohn gets dealt? Yeah, I mean, he's not like a guy that I know a ton about.

He's a small schooler out of Eastern Washington. Second year. Eastern Washington, that's your territory, man. Yeah, I should know, I guess. He's one of those guys whose name keeps coming up. Last week, obviously, like he said, he had 10 targets, 7 catches 71 yards. He's benefiting from some injuries with the team right now.

Garcone and Dante Pettis have been hobbled. He actually leads the 49ers in target rate over the last four games. I'm talking about Boren now. He's run 88 routes, which is second only to Markey's Goodwin, has 18 targets in that time, which is actually a team high. So he's kind of just getting that volume. that I think a lot of us expected from both Pettus and Goodwin. You know, maybe he's just got a good connection with C.J. Bethard, I don't really know.

But bottom line is, if Pierre Gerson is gone and or if he just continues to be banged up throughout the rest of the year, he could be an option just in PPR leagues for a guy, you know, if you're really desperate for that flex on the back end, he's gotten some looks. Yeah, no, I think he's a legit sleeper, as full-time Craig would say. The one I like this week, Demaris Thomas himself said, I think it might be like 50-50 if he gets dealt. If he does, I love Cortland Sutton on the Broncos. Hitchie led the team in receivings this week. He had four targets for three catches, 73 yards.

Just three fewer snaps than Demarius. So it seems like he's getting a bigger role, whether or not Thomas is clearly not a part of their future, whether that's next year or this week. So he's being primed. And then if Demaris is gone, I think he's just a fantastic option for the rest of the season if you need to receive. He makes big plays. I like him. He looks the part. And, you know, even just going forward, even if Thomas doesn't get traded, he's a guy to definitely keep in mind. One more guy for the trade deadline is if Lashon McCoy does get dealt from the bills, it's not really looking like that's going to happen, but you got to keep an eye on it. Chris Ivory would be a pretty good option in that case because, you know, just physical runner. He can make plays out of the backfield as a past catcher. We saw that last week. So yeah, I like him a lot just going forward, you know, if McCoy gets straight. If he doesn't, then I'm not picking a backup running back on the bills team, frankly, but

yeah, going for it. He's got to keep in mind. Exactly. I think it's unlikely McCoy gets dealt, but I think Ivory could be really good if he does. Ending trade speculation and going to even something a little more morbid, which is injury speculation. Handcuff City. We have to have a real

responsible conversation. Just basically Todd Gurley is on a Ladainian Tomlinson-esque Pace, Riley McAtee of The Ringer, is writing about this this week. And at some point, you're like, if you have Todd Gurley, you should add his backup. Malcolm Brown, he barely gets in and carries, but he's clearly the backup to Gurley. He's the only running back really getting any snaps this season for them.

And if Gurley gets hurt and you miss out on your championship, like, you need Brown on your team. You just, there's no reason I can imagine that you don't have them on your team. We were talking about this underrated, man. Yeah, I was going to say, we were talking about this offline. And you and full-time Craig are both kind of handcuffed, you're pro-handcuff. For Ledanyan Tomlinson, yeah. Like, plug Malcolm Brown into this. If he does 60% of what Todd Gurley doing, then he's a top 10 running back.

I love handcuffs. I own Dallas Goddard because I got Zach Erds, baby. There you go. Handcuffs are underrated. You know what? Sometimes you get to play it safe. That's fair. My guy David Moore with the Seahawks, another big game.

This guy, all he does is catch touchdowns, honestly. He's, I think he has, like, 13 career targets or something around that, and he already has, like, four touchdowns. So the guy is just produced at an incredible. incredibly efficient rate right now with the Seahawks. He is playing on the outside primarily for them. Last week, he had four catches, 97 yards, and a touchdown. He played 45 out of 54 snaps, so he played a lot.

That was only behind Doug Baldwin. And it looks like Russell Wilson's starting to really trust him. He threw it up to him a couple different times down the sideline. He's that ex-guy for them. I mean, he plays in multiple positions, but he's definitely sort of that deep sideline threat that I think they wanted Brandon Marshall to be. Marshall is basically not, you know, he's not a factor at this point. And Moore has sort of slid into that role.

Going forward, is he going to be a big enough factor in the fantasy world? I don't know because the Seahawks don't throw a ton. Like right now, obviously, they're running the ball an insane amount. Russell Wilson actually only had 17 pass attempts this week, which is kind of crazy to think about. I mean, he had three touchdowns, but they just are leaning so hard on the running game. I don't know if he's worth an ad. I like him a lot. I do think he's a really good player.

As an entirely unbiased opinion from just that sexy adult Danny Kelly. I mean, have you watched him though? Like he actually makes legit plays. I was excited about him last preseason too, which is like incredibly dorky, but he looked really good in like training cam and things like that. Love the casual dropping of the have you watched him. I'll be honest. You know what?

I don't have a ton of thoughts on David Moore. You know what? Put on the tape, bro. I did just remember a thing I was going to say about Malcolm Brown. Quick tangent. I was moving the other day. I had to get a U-Haul. So I put everything in the U.

Hall and I'm signing the papers and they ask me if I want insurance. I say, how much is the insurance? And they say it's $11. And I say, yes, I would love insurance. I get the $11 insurance. I do it, you know, don't scratch anything. Come back. You might think it's a waste of money.

And I come back and someone who I rented the identical van that I had just ahead of me has shattered, shattered the back window of this U-Haul van. And instead of having a 150 max deductible, this man, this poor man, was out $5,000. Oh, geez. What does it that's to do with Malcolm Brown? I'm so glad you asked. The bench spot you're spending on Malcolm Brown is the $11. And the odds of losing Todd Gurley for the fantasy playoffs is the shattered window in the U-Haul.

That's a good metaphor. Okay. Anyway, on to the next one. Let's move on. Who's your next guy? The Browns are a dumpster fire right now. And I'm rethinking this is even as I'm saying it. We'll see if they have any competence going forward.

But here's the thinking, they're still playing the Chiefs this week. They still have a really favorable pass-god. coming forward. Calloway's not been getting it done. They're still going to have to pass. They're still going to need this offense going forward, but Richard Higgins, who's had an MCL injury the last few weeks, is hopefully going to be back this week.

Obviously, monitor his status. But if he plays, he's had actually maybe the best rapport with Baker of like any of their receivers somehow. Him and Jarvis aren't on the same page, it seems. And Higgins could actually end up being maybe the most productive fantasy receiver on the Browns for the rest of the season, which is kind of wild to think about. But I think there's a really decent chance of that,

And he's just chilling on almost everyone's waivers. Yeah. I mean, Calloway had a touchdown last week. He still doesn't, he still just not has, he hasn't grabbed that in the true role. He's yet to pass the eye test. He's yet to pass the eye test. When he gets open, he messes it up. And it, like, it never looks clean.

It never looks easy. Totally. Yeah, exactly. And so I just think, I mean, Higgins is a little bit of a roll of the dice or, you know, whatever. But, I mean, there's just, the volume is still to be had in that offense. I'm just, you know, I'm hoping that Mayfield can kind of start to get it together. Who knows what Freddie Kitchens is going to do for him? I don't know a whole lot about Freddie Kitchens

Other than that's an awesome name. Is that a fake person? I thought it was a fake tweet. I thought it was like one of those like fake Adam Schaefter Twitter accounts when it was like Freddie Kitchens. I did look six times like, oh my God, this is a real person. No disrespect to Freddy Kitchens. Great name.

Good old Freddy Kitchens. But yeah, look, I more than understand it, especially with all these firings if you're going to leave Higgins on the waivers for this week. But if he has a big game, I think it's legit. Yeah. Next guy on the list, Jordan Thomas of the Texans. He had four targets, four catches, 29 yards and two touchdowns last week.

He was filling in for Ryan Griffin, who was out with the Nillis. So going forward, I'm still just kind of like waiting this one out. I don't know. We have to see kind of what the Will Fuller injury kind of does for the, you know, the target distribution in this offense. I think Griffin will probably come back sooner than later. And then Thomas might just end up being kind of irrelevant. But going back to the Kikikoo-T thing, I think that, I think, if anything,

the Fuller injury is going to benefit Kuti more than anything. So you don't think the two touchdowns were so legit this year? Because obviously it's always hard to chase those kind of scores. I mean, yeah. I don't know, like four targets, 29 yards. Like that doesn't stand out to me as like, whoa, this guy's a huge piece. It was more probably just like game flow type thing. And so we'll see what going for.

It was a random game. Even Joe Buck didn't want to be there. But it was more about Deshaun Watson. That was pretty funny. Jordan Thomas. Last one, you know, I know there are some leagues in ESPN that have a head coach spot. You can actually have a head coach that gets points. I want to recommend Greg Williams as a free agent pick.

Freddie Kitchens is the sleeper. If you actually play coaches in your fantasy football league. Let's move on. But before we move on, let's take another quick break. Football season is underway, and I already have major regrets about my season-long fantasy teams. Since I started bragging, we are 0-2 in the ringer league, which is wonderful.

I'm sure most of you fantasy players feel this. Yeah, I hate you. I'm sure most of you, fantasy players feel the same way. You spent all off-season researching and get excited for the draft, and then comes the pain because you have the third most points in a 12-teen league, and you play someone who dropped 180. That's why I'm so excited to be playing on Fandul all season.

Over at Fandle, you get the excitement of researching and building your team each week, regardless of the outcome. Plus, Fanduel has never been more fun or easy to play. We've been playing in the Grid Iron Pickham contest each week. It's a free contest where all you need to do is pick winners, no spreads, and then $10,000 is split amongst the top pickers. It's not as good as the billion dollar powerball, but it's probably the best thing you got going.

Trust me, if you're not a fantasy expert, then Fandul is clearly the place to play. Plus, new users get a $5 bonus when they make their first deposit. So come play with us at fanduel.com slash the ringer. That is fanduil.com slash the ringer. All right, DK.

And full-time, Craig, since I need you to hop in here. It is week eight. It is the mid-season mark. and it's time for some awards, man. It's award season. And we're going to give away some awards to the people who've earned it this year.

I'm very excited at this. So, yeah, let's kick it off. Well, let's kick it off. The only person who deserves to kick this off. Todd Gurley, the prince that was promised, D.K. Did you have, by the way, this was a little aside. Did you just have such amazing?

Well, first of all, do you have Gurley on many of your teams? No. I didn't have the first pick in anything. I had such a strong, how do you say it, shot in Freud? Yeah, yeah. When Gurley decided to just, you know, take a seat instead of score the touchdown, I was like, oh, my God. Anyone who's complaining about Todd Gurley fantasy points right now, it's just rich.

So anyways, that was such a, that was a really fun moment. Yeah, it's kind of like the descendants of like a billionaire who were complaining about like estate taxes. Right. Like, I'm inheriting $12 billion. He had 30-something points yesterday, too, so, yeah. It's, yeah, it's, although it did swing the over as well, as Cousin Sal explained. I didn't, I didn't like, I wasn't like really, you know, everyone losing their money. I was just more happy with people who.

Sounded like you went to people losing their money, just with extra steps involved, as Rick would say. This one, I love this award. I'm giving the Bitcoin award to James Connor, D.K. Oh, my gosh, yes. The early investors have reaped absurd profits. Now, think about how cheap you was in a lot of those in auction leagues. Free, literally free. Yeah, God.

I mean, even a week before the season, we got him in the last round of our draft. And look, perhaps the people who were on this first, who saw this coming, they were probably a little nutty, right? You kind of had to be a little out there to see the whole wave coming. But they were just ahead of their time. And they reached this value that was once thought incomprehensible. Bitcoin got to just under $20,000. James Connor is like the number three running back on an average weekly basis. Yeah, he's amazing.

He's really, really good. Above 16,000. Connor has gotten above 16 fantasy points and all about two weeks this season. And like Bitcoin, I hope you were able to sell high because Bitcoin's worth about a third of what it was when it peaked.

And when Levi-on Bell comes back this week, James Connor might get about third of the touches for the Steelers. So do you think he is going to come back? Yeah. Well, this is a whole other hour podcast. We were going to give him an award and we were just going to talk about him

for like three hours over the next two weeks. Yeah, I think he's coming back. But this might be outdated as you'll listen to this. So who knows. We'll see. The next reward. We learned our lesson because he came back the last time we recorded a conversation about him and had to change everything and that's going to happen again. Spent like an hour talking about him.

Yeah. The next award, always a bridesmaid, never the bride, Julio Jones. He is now second in the NFL and receiving yards. This is pre-Mundon-Ni-Ni at football. 812 yards in seven games, no less, which is one less than many of these players. Still no touchdowns. Ian Hartitz was throwing these stats out. He's one of six receivers in the NFL this year with 80 plus target.

one of seven with 15 plus targets of 20 yards or more. And yet they cannot figure out how to get him the ball in the end zone. I saw this actually from my old site, field goals on Twitter. The next highest receiver in terms of receiving yards without a touchdown is Adam Humphrey. He's with 296 yards. He's in 78th place in yardage.

It's like, what in the hell? So here's the thing. I love Julio Jones. I think he's really, really good. This is not. This is not a novel analysis. Sorry, I keep going. I can't remember who was talking about whether it was Sunil or Calvin Ridley,

but they were just talking about how Julio completely changes the complexion of their offense. I mean, he draws double and triple teams almost every single play. That being said, can they just figure out ways to get involved in the red zone? I wanted the awards name to be most likely to break out in hives in the red zone, Julio Jones. Well, no, because Julio Jones doesn't break out ever. Okay, good. Your puns. I'm just on my game today, man.

Speaking of this one's kind of dark, but you know what, that's where you're going. Fantasy's dark, man. Not all fantasies are great. The Old Yeller Award to Larry Fitzgerald. You know, he had a good game this week, but maybe that means, you know what? Go out on a high note,

and it's just time. He's had a wonderful career. We're blessed to have had the life and the career that Larry's had. And I think it's time we put his fantasy career out of misery. Just end it. We just got to end it.

I certainly made the mistake of drafting him in a couple of my leagues because, you know what, I think there's something nice about having a seasoned experience guy you don't have to worry about. And then suddenly, you know what, I let my guard down. And he had 100 yards this week, and I think that's where we should draw the line. So, goodbye, Larry. He was good. He was good this week. I'm holding on.

I'm holding on to hope. Hope's a bad thing, Red. One more This is the Ryan O'Hanlon Memorial Award to Ryan who just ended his time at the Ringer last week and he has Rob Grancowski

in the Ringer Fantasy League Rob Grancowski of course This is before Monday in football But entering this week Had less fantasy points this season Than Austin Hooper Middle school rival Of full-time Craig

Less points than Austin Hooper Not even because of the injuries Because the Patriots just stopped throwing to him this season And use them differently and maybe he's not the same player. So I asked Ryan what it was like on Slack, and this is what he slacked me back about what it's like to own Gronk this year.

He said, quote, it's like buying a ticket for one of those Miami Heat games where they randomly benched LeBron. And then when you realize that you don't want to go anymore, you realize you can't even give the tickets away because you don't have any friends and all your family members are dead. It's so dark.

Moving on. I love it. Next, D.K. Okay, the Never Draft a quarterback high award. For all those of you who were worried about Patrick Mahomes, potentially throwing picks and stuff like that, I'm not going to say I was that guy, but maybe was a little bit.

Right now, the top five quarterbacks by ADP, or going into the year, the top five quarterbacks by ADP were Rogers, Cam, Russell, Brady, and Deshaun Watson. Now, the top five quarterbacks are Mahomes, Luck, Newton, Matt Ryan, and Jared Goff. What do you think of that? I want to give a special shout out to Matt Ryan,

because I think a lot of people were really in on Mahomes this year, and it made sense. Matt Ryan was the one year removed from being the MVP of the league and was just openly shit on by everyone. And very few people were banging the drums. Like Matt Ryan, it's going to be the number two fantasy quarterback. It was really cool to be on Mahomes thing. Very not cool to be in with Matt Ryan.

Yeah, don't draft quarterbacks, hi. It's dumb. It's kind of crazy that luck is number two right now because, I mean, even going back to the beginning of the year when everyone was, I was one of them, like worried about the fact that he couldn't throw the ball down the field

and now he's just slanging it. And that he's literally going to throw more passes in a season than literally anyone has ever thrown passes in a season. Yeah.

That's the big part of it too. Yeah. Well, I get points. On that note, just one more thing of like don't draft quarterback's high. The seven of the top ten running backs by average draft position

are still in the top ten in points scored this season. So don't try to work for a guy. Your opportunity costs of drafting a quarterback that high is a lot. Wow. Are you an Econ major? I was not.

Oh, wow. We'll drop an opportunity cost here. This is the best one. This is the addendum to the don't draft quarterback. This is the Don't Watch and Play in Real Life Award, and that's going to, are also known as the Blake Bortals Award. We're giving it to big Mitch Trubisky. fifth best fantasy player per game this year.

Possibly, this is, this is Danny editorializing on our doc here. Possibly the fifth worst real life quarterback. We could have this debate very quickly. Quarterbacks that are worse than Mitchell Chubisky, C.J. Bethard, Eli Manning, Bill Starter X, whoever you want to name him. And I put Derek Carr above him.

And then suddenly like, it gets, he's number five. Well, I would need a little time to think about this, but you might be... Oh, and Bortles. That's four. It's Bethard, Eli, Bills, Bortles, and then Trubiskey's five. Portals. What about Flacco? I guess Flores... Even Keenham, man. Regardless, it's not crazy. What about Osweiler? Fine. He's not really a starter per se. I guess, yeah, fine, as long as he exists. Fair. All right, but we have one more fantastic award, but we have a couple suggestions from the chopping block from full-time Craig that

I really want to get in here. All right. The Fantasy One Night Stand Award. Tyrell Williams. Everyone's had a Fantasy One Night Stand with Tyrol Williams where he hops in your lineup. 50-yard TD, you drop them and you never look at him again. Wow. I know that with Mike Williams also.

Oh, everyone on the Chargers, I guess. Yes. Yeah, well, you know, Mike, Tyrell, you know, the first names, you know. It's easy to forget. Another one is the Matt Asiata Award for Biggest Vulture this year goes to Lageret Blount. Asiata. I don't know if you guys remember Matt Asiata, but the dude has scored it. He's only started 16 games in his life, and he's ran for 18 touchdowns.

And he just consistently ruined people's fantasy days by helping no one when he scored. I love that. And that's what Lagarets been doing to Carry on Johnson this year. Yeah, he's their short yardage guy. He also ruined the idea of handcuffing because people said Jerich McKinnon was the handcuff for Peterson, and then Mattis, he had to score all the touchdowns. Just four rushes for four yards and three touchdowns. I think he did that one game.

I'd have to go back and check. Incredible. Yeah, one more in here. I got one more in here, and it's the Catfish Award. It goes to Derek Henry. For years now, Derek Henry has looked great on tape and on draft day. And then you show up week one and you're like, what the hell, what did I do? What did I, what was I seeing?

Does this person exist? He's just the whole, even the Titans offense in general is just a big catfish. Everyone on that team has a killer Tinder profile and then the season starts. Oh my God. And then we're just like, what are we doing? Oh, my God. A killer Tinder profile. Wow.

Can we get a good example of what a killer Tinder profile is for next week? Let's not. That's fair. Just a good fantasy Tinder profile. Right, right. Oh, my, you got one more here? Of course you... Yeah, the player most likely to break up a podcast

because his raw talent is too much to handle for some people goes to Rashad Penny this year. I am not always right. Despite what you guys may think, I'm not always right. I'm wrong often. I've never been more right about anything this season than Rashad Penny just being trash. I had...

I just not deserving the starting role in Seattle. So I had this premonition last week during the Seahawks by that for some reason the Seahawks were going to Elevator Penny to like the 1B with Chris Carson. And so I picked him up in the Ringer League and I talked to Jackson about this. It was just like, I got a feeling, man. I got a feeling.

He played one special teams snap. I don't get it in the game. Well, to be fair, by Pete Carroll standards, if you play special teams, that it actually means you might be starting the next week. So, all right, I got one more and I'm very proud of this. And then we'll get the hell out of here. The Friend Zone Award. Amari Cooper.

Explain. You think you can make it work, even though everyone around you knows it is never going to happen. You've had your eyes on them in your draft, even though there were plenty of other strong options that you ignored, and you're still obsessed with that one night that was more than a year ago for 210 yards and two touchdowns against the Chiefs.

And you think about that despite all the signs that it's not happening again, which under 70 yards in 10 of the 13 games since that night. You make up excuses for why it's not working. Maybe it's the long distance. You know, the Seahawks game was all the way in London. Or that the timing just isn't right because the pass rush is getting around, you know, Oakland's rookie left and right tackle and is throwing car off his rhythm.

And you make excuses about bad behavior on trips to Miami and a trip to Los Angeles where, hey, three catches, 27 yards combined against the dolphins and the charges. And now that person is moving halfway across the country and you're trying to convince yourself a change of scenery will fix it. No! The problem isn't about it. Mori Cooper. The problem is there's no chemistry. It's not happening. Move on.

Save yourself. I think I'm still in the friend. I am too. I've got high hopes for this Dallas thing even though I know it's not going to happen. Oh man, bud. I think full-time Craig is an Amari I don't know what you want to call it. Apologist?

I am. I'll be starting in week 10. Our friend zone. When you guys escape, let me know. I'll shoot me a text. I'll buy with you. I'm just in so much denial right now. If you have any ideas for fantasy superlatives, like we're giving James Conner the Bitcoin Award, send them to me,

tweet at me or Danny Kelly on Twitter, or I'm Danny underscore hyfitz. I'm sure you can spell that, but it's probably in the podcast description that you're reading right now. Tweet that at us and I'll try to include it on my list that I'm writing for the ringer.com. Thanks, D.K. Yeah, I'll see you on Friday, man. Just really

just take a look in the mirror, man. yourself of Marri Cooper is really it's going to work out. I feel like that. Yeah, I will. See you, bud. Thanks again to Fandul. We are so excited to be playing on Fandul this football season because over at Fandul, you get

the excitement of researching and building your team each week, regardless of the outcomes, so you can get burned by Amari Cooper over and over. Plus, they have tons of ways to play like the Grid Iron Pickham contest, where you just pick winners, no spreads, and then $10,000 to split amongst the top pickers. Trust us,

if you're not a fantasy expert, then Fandul is clear. clearly the place to play, and new users get a $5 bonus when they make their first deposit. So come play with us at fanduil.com slash the ringer. That is fanduil.com slash the ringer.