The Ringer NFL Show - The 2019 Fantasy Superlatives | The Dantasy Football Podcast

Episode Date: December 24, 2019

To close out the 2019 fantasy football season, we give out some season superlatives, including the Most Valuable Pick, Comeback Player of the Year, Waiver Wire League Winner, and the infamous Cool Uncle award. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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on the Ringer podcast network. My name is Danny Hyfitz, and I am joined as always by my co-host and my co-danny, the hero we need and the analyst we deserve, the Dark Knight himself. Danny Kelly! How are you doing, D.K.?

I'm doing splendidly. Splendid, splendidly. How are you doing, man? I'm fantastic. I'm glad that you're splendid. Craig, are you splendid? Sure, I'm splendid. It's the holidays.

Are you splendidly? It is the holidays, technically it's like not because we're recording this on Wednesday, December 18th, so we're lying. We're kind of coming from the not so distant past. For all the listeners out there, your seasons are all over. Ours are not yet. Yeah, no, we still have rays of hope and optimism. You guys excited for your championship weekend?

Yeah, because we're in the championship. D.K., are you excited for yours? Oh. Well, not in the Ringer League, but yeah, I am. Well, didn't Miner Combs you from your other playoffs too? Uh, yes. Thank you for bringing that up. I mean, that was a lot of fun.

Just, you know, want to make sure I'm up to date on your life. It's important to me. Yes. I'm just going to focus on the leagues that I'm still in. So that's been fun. Yeah. Well, good luck with that one. This is a fun show.

This is a fun show. We're doing superlatives. Thank you for Craig. Keeping us on track, as always. We are doing superlatives. Our seasons are not over, but it is never too late. We're just going to reflect. I'm going to look back on this season.

What we learned, really not really what made us feel. That's really what we're going for. What made us feel good. mostly what made us feel horrible. It's really like the airing of grievances. This is like the festivist podcast. Yeah, this is our airing of grievances. This is us complaining.

I have a question for you guys. Were either of you winners of any superlatives in high school? I got best laugh. Oh, you do have a good laugh. I was most likely to become a fantasy animal. No, most likely to become president, that old jazz. You got most likely to become president? I was, yes.

What were you like in high school, Dan? So this was like two years ago. A lot like this. Yeah, I was the class president Several years ago Do people like presidents? Like it's obviously like a great job and whatnot But like I think it's very polarizing

Especially right now No I mean like in general Like if somebody like if somebody like If the guy in your high school is like I want to be president one day Like is that guy cool Or is he kind of like Did you go to high school of Pete Buttigieg?

I'm just wondering like if you're the guy Who everyone was like Oh he's most likely to be president Was that a compliment? I think it depends on the guy Because there's like a lot of people like that's hard to generalize So what do you think? Was it a compliment for you?

Oh Oh that's where you're going with this That's where I'm gone Um, yeah. Yeah. Did you like when you got that superlative? We're spending too much time on this, but I mean, I was the class president, so like I, I, you know, I brought it on myself. Oh my God, he was class president.

I was class treasurer. You were the class treasurer? I was. What were you treasuring? So many things. Prom, rallies. So you were the social chair for your high school? No, I wasn't the social chair.

I was treasure. I was writing those fat checks. I don't think anyone cares about any of this. Disagree. Let's go to the superlatives. Let's go to who we ranked arbitrarily as our favorite people in certain categories. It's not arbitrary. You're measuring the heart, which is the most important thing that matters.

Let's roll. Did you do it arbitrarily? Do we get going, please? For the love of God. Yeah, there's only a few more of these. This is how you know we've got to wind down. All right. First up, the comeback player of the year award probably doesn't need much explanation.

D.K., who's your comeback player of the year? Going with Dalvin Cook of the Vikings, I basically have zero shares of Dalvin Cook this year because I was not super confident that he could stay healthy. For the most part, that's been incorrect. I mean, obviously he's dealing with the shoulder injury right now, but put together a very, very solid season. He was the RB 19 on per game points last week.

Sorry, in 2018, in just 11 games. He just didn't really look like himself until late in the season. However, this year, the RB2 through week 15, 20.9 pbR points per game. He's a freaking stud. And, yeah, he's just like one of the, I think he's established himself as one of the best running backs in the NFL, you know, one of the most fun running backs to watch, certainly. And so, yeah, I think Dalvin Cook's comeback year was just a lot,

a lot of fun. I was really glad that he got through it. Yeah, and again, we're recording this December 18th, so we don't yet know if he played in week 16. Maybe he won or lost you your fantasy championship. We don't know because that's Monday night and sorry in advance. But probably won't change his award. Probably won't change the award because he's been fantastic.

And stay healthy. and played through some injury toward the end until week 16 was exactly as good as we were promised he would be if he could stay healthy for the season. Yeah, I mean, he was just the perfect fit in that offense. He's super, super elusive, just a lot of fun. And yeah, he was an awesome fantasy player too. You know who's a lot more fun?

Who? Who? Craig's pick. Leonard Fortinet! Yeah, buddy! Comeback player the year! $100,000 richer. That is a week old news story by the time you're listening. but today he got his 99K back from Tom Crawford

and find him for sitting on the bench or something last year. I don't really understand how that's $100,000. Give him all the money. And he got us all our money because Leonard Fournett's the guy. Yeah, I feel like he was the Dannessy guy this year. I guess he made the leap. You know, I don't know, looking at his stats last year, he wasn't like as bad as it seemed.

He just only played eight games and his rookie year was kind of disappointing. He had 10 touchdowns his rookie year, but he didn't really play that great. I feel like he actually made the leap as a player this year more than he did as a game. fantasy player. He's the RB7 this year and he's only got three damn touchdowns and he's already outscored his rookie year when he had ten touchdowns.

And he's just grown in so many ways, you know? He's like our son. He's grown up. He used to bring home crappy finger paintings and now he's bringing home papers that are really eloquently written. And he's really shined in every way, especially as a receiver. He's not paid for 83 catches this year. He's third in the league and catches right now

amongst running backs. I think that's got to be the most surprising part of this whole thing. A hundred percent. Yeah, because no one thought he would have any sort of value in that area of the game. And so that's been huge for him. Yeah, and if the Jags ever don't suck, he's going to be even better. So, comeback player, Lenny Fornes. I think he's going to be, I think he's going to positively regress next year in the touchdown. Category, and he's going to continue to get tons and tons of volume.

So I think he's going to have a huge year in 2020. Because he was like a third round pick this year, I would say, for most people in the draft. And he'll probably be like a late first round pick next year. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I got Leonard Fornette. for you in four numbers that can net you, Leonard Fournette.

Okay. Number one, there is 45 qualified running backs this year. Number two, of those 45, Leonard Fornett is 42nd in yards before contact. Of those 45, he is third in yards after contact.

I mean, that just is a direct example of how good he is. And number one, of the 45, he's the only one whose Twitter background is touching the hand of God. You really can't miss this year. That's a great stat. That's my favorite advanced stat is who's photoshop themselves onto the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Leonard Fournette.

Beautiful. God. All right. My, I love him so much, but my comeback player of the year. This is great. It's a controversial choice.

Everybody who has not, everybody who's left the yoke of Adam Gase. All of them came back. Every single player who escaped the vice grip of Adam Gase in Miami is the comeback of the year. Ryan Tannahill, the number four fantasy football quarterback since week seven. He has four rushing touchdowns this season.

Tana Hill had four rushing touchdowns in the previous six years. I can't believe. I say that out. He's a world, like, he's dominating, man. He's a world breaker. Kenyon Drake running back for the Dolphins had four touchdowns last week. He had never had more than four in his season in Miami before this year. Minka Fitzpatrick, the defensive back for Miami.

Shout out if you're in an IDP league or whatever. He had two interceptions as a rookie in 2018. He had five picks at his first seven games as a Steeler. And if you had the Steelers' defense of special teams, congratulations. But the greatest of all. Craig's other child. Devante Parker, who doubles as my Waver Wire League winner award. Devonte Parker last year was benched for so long

that his agent was in a prolonged public feud with Adam Gase over playing time. That they were literally like the headline of ESPN.com for like three consecutive weeks was just Devante Parker's agent sniping back with Adam Gase about Devante Parker cannot get on the field. This year,

Devante Parker came into the year outside the top 200 drafted fantasy players, outside the top 230 in PPR. In the last six weeks, Devante Parker is the number four fantasy football receiver. He's been incredibly. Michael Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins, and D.G. Moore. If you just cut, chop off the first three weeks of the fantasy season, he's the number

seven receiver on the year. Love it. Amazing. I want to ask you guys a question. This is an off-the-cuff poll. Who would you rather have coaching your team, your favorite team? Adam Gase, Jeff Fisher, or Jim Tom Sula? That's a great question.

Jim Tom Sula, for those who don't remember, was the four years. 49ers, like a really nice guy that kind of looked like he worked at, like, Staples would help you around a well-lit department store. I think he was just still in over his head on that one, yeah. I like, oh, no, it's not Gase. I guess it's Jeff Fisher. Jeff Fisher's the most likable. Jeff Fisher's like a cool guy. Yeah.

Like, he's nice. He's his ranch. All the players love Jeff Fisher. Not Adam Gays, that's my answer. The teams were incredibly, incredibly underachieving. Seven and a good. I mean, it's on the Adam. Adam Gase level.

I'm going against, no. Anyone by Adam Gase, that's my... Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that's very fair. It's nice to be a Giants fan because they'll always have a better coach than the Jets, as long as Adam Gafes is in town. So yeah, there you go.

Everyone who escaped Adam Gase is my comeback player of the year, and Sam Darnold will be the comeback player of the year in 2021 when the Jets eventually fire Gase. That's an amazing one, Danny. I'm going to go to my... Yeah, Waver Wire League winner. Go to my Waver Wire League winner.

Here, mine is Darren of the Raiders. It's kind of funny because Waller had quite a bit of preseason hype. People were talking about him during the offseason. I remember this. And yet he did end up going basically on drafted. He was the tight end 20 with an ADP of 177th overall. And then if you remember in week one,

he caught seven passes for 70 yards. And there's like a mass rush to pick him up on the waiver wire. He ended up finishing as the tight end three through 15 weeks, average 13.1 p.m.R. points per game. He did that all while only scoring three touchdown. So he was just a catch machine. Derek Carr was feeding him all the time. Obviously, it helped win.

Renfro ended up going out of the offense because he kind of – Renfro kind of ended up poaching some of his target share. But Waller was awesome this year. I think he was a huge, huge pickup for a lot of people because tight-in was just such a waste land again. Darren Waller, we're going to have a lot of fun. I do actually want to shout out. He has overcome quite a bit to actually have become the Raiders' number one option. Absolutely.

A covering addict. Yeah. Really, that one's actually very cool in real life, significantly cooler in real life than actual fantasy. And something that is not at all cool in real life,

but very great for us personally. Craig, who's your... What about you, Craig? My waiver wire league winner is... Well, I hate myself for this, but it's Austin Hooper, I think. Austin Hooper has been really good. He was drafted as a Tideon 11,

105th overall. He's the titan. Number three in points per game. All right, pretty good. From weeks three to eight, he averaged 20 points a game, which is like by far the most. He was the best tied-in in the league for like a good five weeks

before he sprained his MCL. I was already bummed when he caught a touchdown the Super Bowl. That was like the pinnacle of it when me and all my friends are like, damn it. Your middle school nemesis. Yeah, all my friends

who went to middle school with me were like, God, doesn't it suck that somebody in our class caught a touchdown the Super Bowl? It can't get any better than that, right? And then he like turns out to be one of the better tight ends in the league. but he's been really great

for everybody who bet on him this year. It was not me. Do you ever feel like you'll be the third best podcast producer per week in the whole country? I think I'm on that path. You had a good week

and he did the rewatchable's Godfather? Yeah, that was a biggie. Check that out. It's like nine hours long, but it's great. That's your Super Bowl touchdown, Craig. He'll get there one day. One day you can edit Austin's podcast.

I won't do that. That's a bridge too far. The burn too bright for this world award, which we should probably rename. Someone who started really hot and then completely dropped off. I'm going Sammy Watkins. Yeah, let's call this the Sammy Watkins Award. Nine catches, 198 yards, three touchdowns, 46.8 ppr.R points, which I'm guessing is, like,

if it's not the top one, the season, one of the top three. And, yeah, everybody who kind of skipped over him in the drafts because he's been injured all, basically his whole career, basically been overhyped his whole career were extremely crestfallen when he had three touchdowns in week one. It was finally Watkins year. I remember like this, you know, this overall, like, overwhelming thought that Watkins had finally right. And we were like, well, you know, this has happened before.

But we're also like, did you know Sammy Watkins is just 26 years old? Yeah. And it ended up being kind of the same story all over again. Yeah, it was the same thing. It was like nothing changed. Yeah. Through nine weeks, thanks mostly to his first week explosion. He was still actually the wide receiver 19 in per game average.

There was like a few solid nine and ten point PPR games in there. Since week nine, he's averaged 6.7 PPR points per game. He's right up there with massive fantasy names such as Kelvin Harmon, Isaiah Ford, Jacobi Myers, Willie Sneed, and Seth Roberts. So I think he has like a $20 million cap hit or something like that. Would you rather have Adam Gase be your head coach or Sammy Watkins be your number one receiver? Sammy Watkins. Oh, no, no.

Your whole receiving core is Sammy. Anybody with Gase. No, you have four Sammy Watkins clones are your receivers or Adam Gase is your coach. If I can, like, genetically, like, fix Sammy Watkins' hamstrings, then I would take Sammy Warkins. Because I do think he's really talented. Yeah, he's definitely really talented. It's just, God, the most frustrating fantasy player of all time, maybe, yeah. Is up there.

Mine, really, we could just rename this as deceiving yards because you look at like the season average total and you're like, oh, it wasn't that bad. And you're like, you remove like one week and it's just completely out of whack. For me, it's Cooper Cup is my drop-off slash deceiving yards person. Because you look at the whole season, it's one thing. Really, Cooper Cup, tale of two halves. First eight games, Cup is the number four receiver in PPR.

Second half of the season, Cup is the number 39 receiver in PPR. basically like Adam Thiel and Light from last year's first half. Cooper Cup has 239 yards in his last five games. He had 220 yards alone in week eight. He has barely surpassed his week eight total since that game. Yeah. Most of that came in one half too. And most of it came in one half.

And then even the numbers he has since then are kind of cheating because he caught one touchdown last week when the Rams were down or two weeks ago. Garbage time. When the Rams was like 44 to 7 or something or 44 to 14, there was like 20 seconds left. Cooper Cup. Tough year for Cooper, tough second half of the year for Cooper Cup.

Yeah, yeah. Everyone who has said is just nodding right now, really sad, glum. Cheer up, it's okay. It's the holidays. Speaking of cheering up. Yeah. The Matt Azjada Memorial Award.

We all remember when Matt Asiata had nine touchdowns in 2014 for God knows why. Who is the Matt Adiata of 2019? There weren't really any good ones, to be honest. Hyphid said no one, and I actually think that's the right call. It is. I threw out a couple ideas. Like, Darren Fells had, I think he scored seven touchdowns,

which was just taking away from the bottom line of Hopkins and Fuller and whoever. I'm going with Jeff Wilson, even though it was extremely short-lived. It was hilarious. It was a two-week stretch, weeks two and three. He scored four touchdowns on 18 carries. He's essentially the 49ers. like designated goal line ramrod. They basically just put him in there

and run him into the line as hard as possible. That was the game where Drita and Coleman both fumbled. I think one of them technically had like, it was technically an interception because they caught a ball and like fumbled it, but like it was technically caught it in air so it was like a pick. But they both fumbled so they both lost the goal line carries back to back and then Jeff Wilson got all four touchdowns

in the game. Jeff Wilson runs hard. Like there's, he's a great goal line back. He only, basically, they stopped using them because you can only have so many guys like active or whatever. Like there's multiple reasons for why they stopped using them. But for that short period, it was really funny because Jeff Wilson was like a popular waiver pickup just based on the fact he was getting goal line carries only. Craig, who's your Matt Ozziata light?

I feel like it's Malcolm Brown a little bit. It could have been a lot worse. Todd Gurley actually wasn't as bad as people thought this year. But Malcolm Brown did steal four rushing touchdowns that were all like one yard and in crucial moments. It really got started with week one when he had two And everyone was like, oh God, this is the year from hell For Todd Gurley And then he only had two more in the season after that

But he did have one in week 14 Which was week one of fantasy playoffs And Todd Gurley like ran the whole 99 yards to the one And then like Malcolm Brown comes in for the last yard So if I had to give it to anybody It would be him because every time he came in the game You were just so frustrated I actually like Darren Fells was a choice TK

Because the second string tight end of the Texans getting seven touchdowns and Deontra, like more than Diage Hopkins is kind of incredible. So there we go. This is not the category, but it reminded me of kind of just one that I want to talk about. Like the most disappointing, like the player that like did not live up to the preseason hype. And when you're talking about Malcolm Brown, I was just thinking of how disappointed I was that Daryl Henderson got like 12 carries this year or something like that. Like I was so excited about what he could do in the preseason. and, you know, they trade it up for him in the draft.

We keep hearing about Todd Gurley's decrepit knees, and then Malcolm Brown is the backup. And Todd Gurley ends up playing, like, you know, down the stretch and everything. I was just so disappointed that Daryl Henderson wasn't a bigger part of that offense. Daryl Henderson... A little aside. Like, Big Beto O'Rourke vibes. Heard a lot about him all summer.

All summers, all I could hear was this guy's coming up, up, up, up. and then just absolutely cratered by the time it's December. You don't forget it even exists. The Darwin Thompson Award for the Beto O'Rourke Memorial. This is the scapegoat. All right, next step, just scapegoat. Like, look, if your fantasy season, you lose,

you need to blame someone, right? Like, we can't take responsibility for our own choices. That would be, that is just a wormhole. Like, you can't go down that. That is not a choice. So, who are you guys blaming for your seasons going to show? this year. This is my

scapegoat for the ringer season, just going to shit. And that would be James Connor of the Steelers, who was Jackson and I's first round pick. He was a consensus first rounder in most leagues, in fact, and people were pretty excited about him generally. But he was constantly, and I mean constantly hurt. I think the games that he didn't miss, or the games that he played in, I think he came out of, like, 90% of them injured in some way.

He was the RB 25 after again being a first round pick RB 14 on a per game basis But again he just missed so much time and was constantly coming out of games That it was just excruciatingly frustrating to have him on my team So yeah that was to me the reason I lost the Ringer League And that one sucked because Jalen Samuels was a super competent handcuff And then Jalen Samuels got hurt and then he got healthy and then he, like, lost the job anyway.

So you probably didn't even have all the Steelers' carries when Connor was out. James Connor was, like, the fantasy player's fantasy player. You know what I mean? Like, it was like when they say, like, Tom Seguerra's a comedian's comedian. Like, everybody knows that Ezekiel Elliott's good. Like, anybody could, like, wake up, do a draft and pick Ezekiel Elliott. I feel like there was a lot of, like, people who loved fantasy who were really into it who were like, oh, James Connor sneaky at, like, pick seven or eight

actually could be like a top three pick in the league this year. Like it was like the secret fantasy analyst like first round pick. Yeah. And here's why the Steelers give their running backs just like full workloads. You know, there's never a committee or there hasn't been or whatever until this year. I definitely said that this August. I'm going to be real. But I.

But here's the actual quote that sums up the Steelers season and this in a nutshell, actually. Basically, Ben Rothesberger got hurt and Mason Rudolph came in. Mason Rudolph sucked. and Mike Tomlin said the most, honestly, this is the most revealing quote I heard from a coach this year. Mike Tomlin said,

when you've got a young quarterback in there, sometimes the best thing you can do is turn a 70 play game into a 50 play game. And that is what happened. This is our bottom three in the league and plays run. They literally were like,

we're just going to, as few chances to try to get this season over as fast as possible. Don't mess this up, Mason. And then same with Duck. And it's like, yeah, The reason James Conard had an awful year, in a nutshell, is Ben got hurt, and they're like, all right, you know how we like through the most passes in 2018? We're going to throw the least in 2019. Oh, yeah, that was the other reason that people loved Connor.

And I'm not, like, you know, absolving us because I think we hyped him up a little bit too in the preseason. But another reason people love Connor is because-I loved Connor. Yeah, they passed at an inordinate rate last year. And so a lot of people thought that they would kind of regress back to the mean in terms of their running volume. And so people are like, Connor is undervalued. He's going to get the entire workload, and they're going to run a lot more than they did in 2018. None of that materialized. And so, yeah, anyways, it was just excruciating to have them as kind of like your first round foundation, and it just didn't work out.

But at least Tomlin was honest. You know who I have trouble with? You know who I'm blaming? Cliff Kingsbury, the Arizona Cardinals. Well, I actually don't have David Johnson in any of my leagues, but anyone who has David Johnson, I will blame Cliff Kingsbury. on your behalf because Cliff Kingsbury said before the year, he was going to bring back the old David Johnson, the 2015 David Johnson,

the number one fantasy player, David Johnson. He's going to bring back 2015 David Johnson. And then basically benched David Johnson in the second half of the year. This was the most baffling occurrence this year. Why did David Johnson get benched? Insane because he didn't look healthy. What are you talking about? You want to say that he was hurt, right?

Like you want to look at him, be like, well, he's clearly not himself. But they took him off the goddamn injury report. He had a back injury. Then there was an ankle thing. Then he was just off the injury port. It's like, what's going on? I don't know. I don't really understand the logic of why wouldn't they be like, yeah, no, he's got an ankle thing.

Like, okay, that's totally understandable. Instead, he came off the injury port. The first seven weeks of the year, David Johnson was a top 10 running back. He was the ninth running back. He was averaging 20 points a game. The last eight, like from week eight through week 15, he's the number 77 running back. 77.

Now, I'm not great at math, but there's 32 teams. And two times 32 is 64, which means David Johnson, on average, is a third string running back. This is the fourth highest paid running back in football. He is behind, among others, Miles Gaskin, who I always forget exists, C.J. Ham, who is the Minnesota Vikings fullback,

although I think he might be Kirk Cousins' favorite receiver of Justivan Dix. Quadri Ollison on the 4th, Falcons and then Kyle Chushik on the 49ers who is also a fullback. I don't get this at all. David Johnson was like one of the most well-rounded running backs in the NFL.

It's not like he's old. There was a rhodo world blurb from like three days ago that called him like the veteran running back David Johnson is slowing down. I was like, what are you talking about veteran? He's like 27. He turned 28 on December 16th.

Dude, running backs fall off a cliff. But here's thing. It's out of nowhere. I think he's still good. Important to note. He's played every... He's slow. He's slow.

West Hills, who I had never heard of until this week, who was promoted from the Lions practice squad on Saturday, played on Sunday. First... One career game has two fewer points than David Johnson since Columbus Day. When is Columbus Day? God damn it. Early October, don't worry.

You know what? I just like, I think it's cooler when you throw a date in there, you know? Never mind. Don't worry about Columbus Day. Craig, who is your scapegoat award? Brandon Cooks. Brandon Cook, this is personal because he absolutely screwed me this year. I bet on cheap receivers.

I didn't want to go big. And Brandon Cooks is one of the guys that thought I could rely on. Because he had four straight 1,000-yard seasons. He's got 500 yards this year and one touchdown. That came in week two. He's had two games with more than four catches. His ADP was the wide receiver 15. He's the wide receiver 64.

And he completely fell off a cliff. And Robert Woods and Cooper Cup kind of didn't. I know Cup did it at the second half of the year. but Brandon Cook's murdered people this year. I think it's important to state that he also did suffer a head injury, which was a very serious issue. I am heavily reticent. He had three concussions in the last, in 2019 and four in the last 22 months.

Well, then don't play him in the game. I mean, like, he's playing all the, he's playing. That is a real criticism. Yes, he's playing 50 snaps every game except like three this year. So. I am a little confused why Brennan Cooks is playing football at the moment. I agree. He had two concussions this season and three.

year. I hope he's all right. Well, the Rams, the Rams, and to talk like schematically, the Rams, I think, have, their offense has completely changed since last year, and he's just not a focal point in that offense. When he is playing, he's not a focal point of the passing game. And then they did a lot more like two receiver sets. And so someone's got to come off the field. That's why Cup fell off over the last few weeks, too, is because he's just coming off the field for a tight end, which is weird as hell. But yeah, the Rams offense was just a cluster. Yeah, it was just not good.

good. Okay, I need help on this next one. It says, we got the cool uncle award here. I don't know what this means. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Craig? Craig explained it really well. Craig explained it really well.

Okay, we did this last year. I don't know if you remember, and you had the exact same response. Consistent. This is a fun podcast, all right? We're supposed to have fun with it. The idea is to come up with fun, interesting awards. And I wanted an award that embodied the idea of like every once in a while you need somebody, they show up,

They help you out. They leave. They're a good time. It's like when you hear you got to go to like a family gathering, which I would consider a bye week in fantasy purposes. And you're bummed because you're like, ah, dang, I got to go to a family gathering. Like, oh, Thanksgiving.

But then you hear your cool uncle Hank's coming. And you're like, oh, all right, Hank's going to be there. And then you go and you're like, all right, this wasn't so bad. And he teaches how to smoke a cigar on the back porch, but he's like, you can't tell your parents. Exactly. It's like, you know that it's going to be a good time when he comes. It's a bye week.

He's a filler. For me, it's Cole Beasley. Cole Beasley is the cool uncle Every time you go to buy you can rely on Cole Beasley He was a wide receiver 30 this year He was only 40% owned In 8 to 14 games this year He scored between 8 and 12 points

He's just old reliable He barely went below 6 and he barely went above 12 And it's just right in that sweet spot You can count on Col Beasley So he's your goal to the year Kind of yeah He's also the cool uncle who will like Like he wraps for you

When you ask and stuff He's like that cool Do you look an uncle who wraps? Cole Beasley is a rapper Oh I thought you had an uncle that rapped I was like Let's get him like

You're like to Maclemore? Yeah you know That would be amazing But I think Cole Beasley is literally The perfect one for this I had to dig a little deep on this I went with Royce Freeman

The Broncos and I'm stipulating That only for the first half of season Before he essentially got benched In favor of Philip Lindsay But for the first half of the season He was quiet the running back 23. He was just like a really,

really low ceiling, dependable RB2 option. He wasn't going to murder your lineup. He obviously wasn't going to, like, you know, lead you to victory, but he was just going to be like a good, like Craig said, a good solid eight to 12 points every single week. During that stretch, weeks one through eight,

he actually scored more points than Sony Michelle, James White, Leishon McCoy, Tevin Coleman, Joel Mixon, Matt Breedah, Duke Johnson, Kenyon, Drake. there's a long list of guys that he did better than he got like no fantasy love but he was basically just a solid unspectacular fantasy RB2

double digit points in five out of eight weeks to start the season and if you ended up drafting poorly at the running back spot he was like a good guy to just kind of like plug in there until you figure your shit out so that's who I want with for this one solid but unspectacular doesn't feel very cool uncle to me if you want solid but unspectacular

I'm going to give you Carlos Hyde that feels like That's a good one. That's a good one. Never lower than seven. Like, until last week, never higher than, like, 12. Yeah, you know, he shows up. He's never been married. But that's not the cool uncle.

The cool uncle is, like, huge. Like, you know who's the cool uncle? The coolest uncle would be Aaron Jones because every week was like 30 points, four. No, no, no, no. Because you don't see your cool uncle every single week. He only shows up once in a while when you need him. Have you ever not argued anything? I'm just trying to under.

Let's move on. Just curious. Class President Hyphitz. Fuck me. Let's move on. All right. I got this one. I threw this one in

without telling either of you. And I'm just going to riff. And this completely embodies, by the way, class president hyphitz. I'll let you go. John Snow and Danaris Targaryen award. Good God. Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.

Game of Thrones had a prophecy that a messianic figure would end the long night. And fantasy football. had one too. Chris Godwin, as we've discussed, has received a cult-like religious level of hype in the preseason. It was like nothing. He united all these kingdoms that I never thought could agree. Everything from PFF to football outsiders. Everyone was like, this is the guy. Even Bruce Ariens was like, this is the guy. Bruce Arons was like, this is the guy. Somehow Chris Godwin surpassed all of

those expectations. He was, I mean, through 14 weeks, he was the second fantasy football receiver. He was number two, high ceiling and high floor, more games over 30 PPR than under 10. He's the receiver that was promised. I think he's the only sleeper ever who has actually surpassed everything that was ever said about him. Everything. Except for Lamar Jackson, but yeah. Except for Lamar. But Lamar wasn't unanimous.

He was unanimous. But like the Game of Thrones prophecy, there were two people required to fill the chosen death states. John Snow is Godwin. And then you have Mike Evans is Denarius Targary. They both got really popular right around 2014, surrounded themselves with some questionable people, like Johnny Mansell and, like, all, you know, there were some real people trying to steal those dragons and stuff,

like in Carth, who's really tough. But both Danny and Mike Evans' seasons ended with a sudden injury at a moment they were trying to celebrate. Because Evans pulled up on a 61-yard touchdown and DeNaris is ruled out indefinitely. And then Chris Godwin decided, you know what? I'm not interested in ruling. You know what?

I'm really upset that I don't have my partner. I'm just going to go out into the nothingness, and then he seated his throne to Brasad Perriman, who was the brand stark of football. Okay. The punchline was good. That was a lot to get there. I was going to cut all of that until you said the brand stark part.

Yeah, that was pretty good. Okay, I'll take that. The Brashad Parriam, aka Brand Award, is amazing. Honestly, she hasn't been interested. Prashad Parraiman hasn't been interesting since he was a first round draft pick in the preseason or whatever with the Ravens. And all of a sudden, yeah. All right, superlative.

I kind of love this one. He's good, but he's bad. D.K., who's good but bad? Yeah, this is, this is like the guy who's a very good football player and very talented, real-life football player, but, like, not fun to have on your fantasy football team. And I went with Curtis Samuel to Panthers this year. Samuel ranked 10th in air yards this season, 1411. This is through 15 weeks.

But, and this is actually, this is a stat from week 14, but it's, it's still applicable. Players with a catchable deep rate, deep ball rate under 25% among 51 players with 10 such targets. So basically, the only two players with a catchable pass rate of under 25% on deep passes were Curtis Samuel and DJ Moore this year. So what does that tell you about Kyle Allen? It was just brutal.

Samuel was actually a very dangerous deep threat and he was getting deep a lot, getting open deep a lot. but Alan just couldn't feed him the rock. I think if Samuel had a good quarterback, a good deep passing quarterback, he could have gone for like over a thousand yards this season based on just like his usage and everything. So anyways, through week 15, Samuel was the wide receiver 34.

He was extremely touchdown dependent, boom or bust. Super exciting player, but just not great for fantasy this year. I mean, if they get another quarterback next year, like DJ, I mean, DG Moore is already, I think, the third, like number three fantasy receiver in the last like eight weeks or so. So he's already kind of making the leap and then you've got Curtis Samuel

if they get anyone who's not an undrafted free agent quarterback on that team would be kind of amazing. I think, yeah, and the point of this is I think both more and Samuel, depending on what they get at quarterback obviously, but like those guys are going to be huge, huge, like, not by low,

but like very good values next season. I just now that I was just talking about Carlos Hyde, Now I, the good but bad, it's got to be Duke Johnson for me. Oh, yeah, for sure. Every time Duke Johnson touches the ball, I'm like, wow, he's so good. I totally agree. And then you look at the stat sheet, Duke Johnson has had two games in his life where his, like, the box score reflected what he did on the field.

And they might have both been in college. I don't even know. Like, they're not, never once is he impressive looking at the game, like on paper. I haven't checked this in a few weeks, but for a long, long stretch, the vast majority of the season, he was leading the NFL in elusive radio. which is PFF's thing. That is based on essentially yards after contact and broken tackles. So, yeah.

The eye test is off the charts and the numbers are barely registered. So exactly. Well, yeah, that's tough. Sorry, Duke. Silent but deadly, which, again, no explanation needed. I think, so I went with John Brown on this. I wouldn't say that he was completely under the radar, but I don't think people really appreciated how good he was this season.

Through week 15, he was very, very quietly, the wide receiver 15, high-end wide receiver 2 in PPR. Very reliable 50 yards or a touchdown, including one week where he had a passing touchdown in all but one game this season through 15 weeks. And so he was just, you know, the high floor, obviously he wasn't super high ceiling because he just didn't get a ton of hype. But very high floor, just reliable, dependable guy every week. And 50 yards in a touchdown, the only other person who did that is Michael Tom. Thomas, I believe. Is that correct? I don't think anyone did that than Mike. I don't have the top of my head, but it sounds right.

Can't guard John or Mike. I actually think Devonte Parker was the other guy to do that this year. I think it was an all-ball. Oh, yeah. No, I think it was like 55 yards. Yeah. My son. God damn it. Craig, who's silent but deadly for you?

I think it's Austin. But deadly. Thank you. I think it's Austin Echler, who still is perennially underrated and is not talked about as a top fantasy player. is the running back three this year. And that is insane, considering Melvin Gordon came back in week five. And he was the running back 27 last year in points per game. And now it's the running back three this year. I don't know if it's because he's in a timeshare with Melvin Gordon or if it's

because he's not very physically imposing like when you watch him play. But he should be drafted as like a top 10 to 12 running back. And I guarantee you again next year, he won't go that high. I don't know why. Are we doing this like VMA's style where it's like if you win the low award, it means you're not winning a better award? Or can he just sweep like all the categories he's in? He should because you could argue that he's the most valuable pick.

Because here's my, well, no, I'm arguing something else. Austin Echler is the 2019 guy you were not supposed to worry about. Yeah, totally. Which I think that's the most prestigious award we have on this podcast. It certainly is. Is he going to be the first back in that running back field next year? is, imagine Gordon's

like coming back. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure, they need to get somebody like a Carlos Hyde to like spell Ackler, I would imagine.

God. It should be hide. Yeah, I mean, I had to learn to spell Echler. It's kind of, you know, get the E and then the K

and then the other E, but then there's a third E late, wait, like waiting later in it. And, you know, stuff. Sure enough, there it is.

Pouncing from the shadows, yes. Wow, we are, we were getting loopy. We're ready for, we're ready for the off season. It's been a long season.

Tortoise and the hair, starting slow, finishing strong D.K., who's your tortoise and hair? So I cheated a teeny bit because DeAndre Hopkins are the Texans. I wouldn't say he necessarily finished strong as so much as he just started slow. And through five weeks, people were starting to freak out a little bit about DeAndra Hopkins. Because of the Darren Fell's touchdowns. Right, exactly. If you go back to our week five podcast, I bet we were like, what the hell is going with Hopkins?

He was the wide receiver. We said trade for DeAndre. I will give us that pat in the back. We did say trade low for him because he was going to come back. And sure enough, he absolutely did. He was actually the wide receiver two from week six on behind only Michael Thomas. But through week five, he was the wide receiver 17th. He was the wide receiver 17, 94th overall.

Players like Larry Fitzgerald, DeMarcats Robinson, John Ross were ahead of him. also his teammate, Will Fuller, had scored more points than him. So it was getting kind of scary for a while there, for people who sunk a top five pick into Dondrey Hopkins. However, he came back hard and finished the season really, really strong. And like I said, wide receiver two since week six. So he was awesome, awesome player again this year. Yeah, basically the exact same thing that George Kettle,

people freaked out in the beginning. George Kittles thing was a little longer. It's more like six weeks, seven weeks. But he's been fantastic the last six weeks. And kind of the same with Zackertz, the first half of the season, he was the Titan 7. The second half the season, he's been the tied in one. There we go. See?

So my question for you guys, based on this award, like, does these, for each three of these guys, like, does picking them, wherever we picked them, because each of these guys probably first or second round pick, right? Kid on Earth's probably second round picks, but Hopkins was a top five pick. Does picking them, was that a bad pick? Because you probably got yourself into a little bit of a hole in the first five weeks or whatever because these guys were You're saying was Hopkins a bad pick?

Yeah, because of the slow starts. Like, did that ultimately hurt you enough? Or was what they did in the second half of the season more than enough to kind of make up for that slow start? Like, did you lose enough games in the beginning of the season because of Hopkins that you couldn't recover? Yeah, I mean, this is very anecdotal, but

I'm just curious. No one here's why. The top 12 or so picks, Sequin was a bust. McCaffrey was a fucking home run. Comearo's up. God, the first round was in mindful. Hopkins was, I mean, he is the wide receiver two or three now or whatever, has been the wide receiver two since week five. David Johnson was awful.

Again, number 77 running back the last eight weeks. Devante Adams got hurt and then hasn't been great. Levion Bell, awful. James Connor hurt and bad. Michael Thomas, exceptional. Culeo, really mediocre for a lot of the year. Odell, awful. Gurley, fine.

Juju, disaster. Kelsey, great. Tyree kills, been solid, Dalvin Cook. Like the first 18 picks, DeAndre, if you redrafted and you could get the season, like, but you only had the top 20 because we're not going to pretend you would have known this stuff. DeAndre would still go where he's going.

Well, that answered my question. I like that. Yeah. I'm just kind of curious, like, kind of what, because I had Kittle in one league, and it felt disappointing, to be honest, but he did finish wrong. So, I don't know. Hopkins is amazing.

I also saw him actually at L.EX once because he was on a flight to Houston, and nobody recognized him on the flight. really? Yeah, no one who's in the Hudson newsstand and I just made eye contact and I was like, huh, what? And I checked his Instagram story

and it was just like, on my way to LAX. And I'm like, oh, I think that's the Andre Hopkins and I just like give him the nod. He's like, yeah, yeah. And then I was like, please for the love of God

don't say anything because then I'll get my mom put this flight. All right. One random fantasy football fact that I had to throw into this episode. This is a superlative for my favorite fantasy football anecdote

of the entire year. Okay. This is from Peter King's Football Morning in America column, which itself is coming from Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Bean, who drafted

Kyler Murray ninth overall in the 2018 baseball draft, and then obviously Murray spurned him for the Arizona Cardinals. Billy Bean drafted Kyler Murray in fantasy football this year. And Bean texted Kyler Murray saying, I got you again.

That's faith right there. That is my favorite story I've heard of the entire year for fantasy. Maybe he'll be back on the A's one day. Who knows? It's incredible. Or maybe, yeah. I just, the thought of that happening is unbelievable.

All right, but it is time. MVP. Most valuable pick. Yeah. Who's your guy? Lamar Jackson, baby. It's Lamar. Yeah.

Yeah. Ravens are the best rushing team in modern football history. Like, we don't, it's just that simple. Since the merger, number one in rushing yards per attempt, Baltimore Ravens. Lamar broke Michael Vicks rushing record for a quarterback. We know this. But like the year Rick did that, Vic set the quarterback rushing record. He ranked 21st in rushing.

Lamar ranks eighth in rushing. He is ahead of Leonard Fournette in rushing yards, even though he has 91 fewer carries. He leads the league in passing touchdowns, but through the first 14 weeks, he had more rushing yards than Sequin, rushing touchdowns than Sequin, Kamara, and Leveon Bell combined. It is unbelievable. D.K., I'll give you credit. You wrote before the season, Lamar Jackson could break fantasy football. And Lamar Jackson broke fantasy football. He was truly maybe one of the most unique seasons of all time.

Like, it was just astounding at what he was doing every single week. Not just fantasy, it was just like real life football. What he was doing was so amazing. But fantasy, obviously, too, he was just incredible. And the best part is you got him in like the 11th round. And so, you know, the first 10, especially like the first round guy. Like, you're getting a first-round player plus Lamar Jackson. So, yeah, I think he would be my MVP, too.

And I put Christian McCaffrey kind of just like to be a devil's advocate a little bit because maybe like... So MVP is always a little bit how you interpret what valuable means. I think Lamar was certainly the best return on investment this season. However, if you look at Tristan Cockroft released a list of the player's most commonly found on ESPN championship entries. And Christian McCaffrey was actually number one, 54.7%. He was on the most fantasy championship teams in terms of the two teams that are in the championship round. I can't really get over that.

Half of leagues on ESPN's website, Christian McCaffrey is in the finals. And so you could interpret that to say he was the MVP of fantasy football this year. I think he was the most valuable player. He carried the most teams to the championship. to the championship. And, I mean, the reasons are obvious. He outscored everybody, first of all. That's always good.

He scored seven more points per game than the number two running back. Not like some guy down the list. The number two guy. He scored an extra, like, essentially touchdown plus every week than the second guy. So he was just absolutely dominant all year long, incredibly, incredibly consistent, too. And not only did he dominate the. regular season, outscoring every single running back by 84.5 points during the regular season,

weeks 1 through 13. He's also been dominant in the postseason as well. Obviously, we're recording this before week 16, so we don't exactly know how he does in week 16, but the first two weeks of playoffs, he's averaged 26.4 PPR points for game. So he's been an absolute foundational player for 55% of the teams in the championship round. Fifty-five percent of teams in championship rounds. Lamar Jackson is second with 47% of the championships. He's on one of the two teams. Austin Ecclard, the guy you're not supposed to worry about, is number three. And then I have to shout out Michael Thomas, the Saints receiver,

we've somehow not mentioned yet, might have already broken the single season catches record by the time you hear this. And if not, we'll probably do it in week seven. Incredible. If you're in PPR, Michael, Michael, no one's actually been aided by PPR more than Michael Thomas because I think ESPN shifted to PPR three years ago. Yahoo shifted their default to half PPR two years ago.

Michael Thomas came into the NFL 2016 and has more catches in his first four seasons than anybody in NFL history by a lot. So good timing for Michael Thomas. I want to, just before we sign off here, because I know we're out of time, but Lamar, if you had on your team, Lamar Jackson, Christian McCaffrey,

Austin Echler, and Michael Thomas, please send us a screenshot of that team because that is incredible. Or if you're... You can host this podcast. If you send us that screenshot. Or if your team is equally awful, we also want to hear that too. If you drafted everyone wrong, if you have David Johnson and just O'Dowd everyone, I would like to see that too.

All right. Wow. You know what? I have superlatives for you guys. You guys are the best. You guys are my favorites. That's the only Christmas gift I need. Also, I mean, notice how Marquise Brown wasn't on this list.

That was my Christmas. That was my Christmas gift. I will give you the award for the award for the most prolific arguer. So thank you for that. I call it facilitating conversation. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K. Thank you to everyone for listening.

Happy holidays. And we will be back. We have our DFS show on Friday. And then Craig, run us through our little playoff schedule. We're going DFS for the playoffs. Yeah, we're just going once a week for the whole playoffs. Every Friday morning, we'll be coming to you to talk daily. Beautiful.

Sweet. All right. Happy holidays.