Championship Studs & Duds + Lucky Breaks, Owl Wins! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/30

If he had played the whole season. Adam Thielen would have been irrelevant. Lad McConkie. Eight for 94 and two. Two. Dude. Lad McConkie. He's really good. Superstar. And every cult not named Josh Downs. Seriously. Alec Pierce. Six for 122. Michael Pittman. Nine for 109. I. Was. Given the news that Tua was going to miss. If you remember. On our DraftKings show. I stacked. Yes. Tua. With Malik Washington. Tyreek Hill. And. H. Yeah. Well. Our rule here is if a guy's getting bounced. You can only pivot that guy. Yep. So I pivoted into Joe Flacco. Pretty good. Ended up winning the week.

But Josh Downs wasn't a part of it. Jalen McMillan. Who had no targets. Until the final minute of the first half. Ends up with two touchdowns. Five for 51. He was freaking me out. Because I. I had recommended McMillan. Every way. We had really pushed McMillan on the show that week. And he was. He was still. He was a five catch guy. Five for five. He does. But. Two touchdowns. Every time. Brian Thomas Jr. Again. Seven for 91 and one. There's only three other wide receivers in history. With 1210. Moss. Beckham. Chase. He is that guy. Yeah. It's wild. He's the wide receiver four.

On the season. Yeah. Wow. And he's doing this. Yeah. Like Al made the wrong move. Like Al traded Brian Thomas to get Kyra. And he won a title. So it's never the wrong move. But from a keeper perspective. Like Brian Thomas is like. He could enter the chase. Yeah. Terror. He'll be like an early second. It's funny to think. And I know that there's been injuries to. You know. Krisha Kirk. And Evan Ingram. But also to Trevor Lawrence. Like he's been better with Mac Jones. Than he was with Trevor Lawrence. But. Trevor Lawrence is a better quarterback than Mac Jones.

He should. Have a higher ceiling. With the starting quarterback. Sure. You want to know what makes Brian Thomas great? He's never ever been covered by a defender. If you watch him play. Yep. He's always wide open. He's just. And you can. The big place. The little stuff. Yep. The little stuff that becomes the big stuff. Yeah. He's a superstar. That's what I love about watching his film. Is that he does it everywhere on the field. It reminds me of like. CD lamb. You can go. These deep shots. You can get a screen. The middle of the field is his domain.

There's. Which is kind of crazy for a player who really only had one year of production at. You know. In college. Him and neighbors man. Apparently. Do whatever the LSU wide receiver training program is. Yeah. And even Lockjaw got it done this week. Speaking of LSU. Did he score a touchdown? I don't know if it was a touchdown. Are you talking about Terrace Marshall? Yes. Terrace Marshall. Terrace Marshall was one for 28. Jay. Did he get a touchdown? No. But you should watch that 28 yard reception man. It was boss. Oh my gosh. It was boss. I was like. No.

I blacked out. I don't remember Terrace Marshall getting a timeout. Hold on. I started combining Marshall and Mingo together. I was like. Wait. Are you talking about Mingo? No. Terrace Marshall. Go look at his. What does he play for? Go look at his box scores and tell me that's not one of his best games all time. Okay. He got it done this week. I can check that. 28 yards. Honestly, when he caught that pass, I had no idea he was still in the NFL. I was like. No. He's still playing football? It was not one of his best games. That's TMJ.

28 yards. Yeah. It was. Clearly. Worthy and Nakua as well. Trey McBride got in the end zone. Number one on the week. Zach Ertz. Two touchdowns. He's still good at football. He really is. He has contested catches and important plays. He's been a key part of what makes Jayden great this year. And without him, I don't think you see that season. That's fine and well. But get out of the way next year, Mr. Ertz. It's me, Zachary. I am the Senate. Trying to get the old people out of the Senate. I get it. Zach Ertz has been great. Kelsey Conklin and Andrews rounding them out.

We saw Gesicki with a great game. He was an emergency pivot that was brought up if you lost, you know, Ninjoku this week. Kyle Pitts, four for 44 and a touchdown. A really good touchdown catch. There you go. Brock Bowers broke all the records. Yeah, he did. Most receiving yards by a tight end in NFL history. Rookie. Tight end. And most receptions by a rookie. Puka Nakua held that record for a year. And he's also nine receptions away from breaking the all-time record for tight ends. The Ertz record. Not just of a rookie, but like the best tight end season of all time.

The Ertz record. If you're the Giants, because Brock Bowers, you know, right now he has the rookie for a reception. Neighbors is not that far behind him. Right. I mean, how many screens can you call up for Neighbors? By the way. Try to steal that away. I mean, Brock Bowers is at fifth right now in terms of all-time tight end receptions in a year. Three of the top five seasons have happened since 2022. So, like, you talk about the haves and have-nots in fantasy. If you've got Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, who's up over 100 receptions, right? Yeah. Over 100 and 1,000.

Yeah. You have those kind of numbers. That's pretty hard to overcome in fantasy. Yeah, Brock Bowers has four touchdowns on the season, which is gross. That's not going to get good. I think McBride would be very happy. Trey McBride has what? Four receiving touchdowns. Three total? I think it's three total. So, four total for Brock Bowers, who is the tight end one. Brock Bowers. He is the number one. McBride has a fumble recovery. That's one, right? Yeah. A rushing. He does have a rushing? He has a rushing touchdown, a fumble recovery touchdown, and now finally caught a touchdown. He has double the rushing touchdowns than receiving.

But Brock Bowers is- And that was barely- I mean- The recovery? No, no, no. His touchdown in that game. Yes, it's a touchdown. I thought he wasn't getting in. It's a touchdown, but it's like- Wink. It's like we- It's not- It's bully ball. Yeah, it's not a route. I think I hit in the head. It's not a route. No, but it's- I'm bigger and stronger than you. It's- I have to get this guy in the end zone. Yes. So Brock Bowers is at 108. Neighbors is at 104. Wow. So, like- So the record will be one of them- One of theirs at the end of this week.

Potentially. They got a lot of- They got a long way to go. Huh? Hmm? Oh, you're talking about the rookie record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's already set. I'm sorry. I thought you were talking- It's like they- It's gone. They already got it. It's a long way. You guys want to talk duds? We have to, huh? We have to highlight a couple of them, Terry McLaurin. Let's do it after the break here. Pooped in his big boy pants. Well, the biggest pants you can put on are the championship pants. Mm-hmm. And that means that the- If you can't get to the restroom, that's a pretty big mess.

And there was two- Two pretty big duds. Jordan Love and the Packers offense. I know they ended up losing by two at the end of the game. But they're- The offense looked so bad and so inept. And the play calling was driving me crazy. And it's against Minnesota. Fantasy-wise, Jordan Love, before the game starts, Jordan Love's a great player. I get it. Christian Watson's out. But he still has Jaden Reed, who was- What, did he catch a pass? One for six. And Romeo Dobbs ended up being- He was an okay play. But it's like, this is a pass funnel. This is where we get it done against Minnesota.

And to come up with 185 yards and a touchdown is- When Darnold threw for 377. Exactly. It's devastating. Yeah. Both Love and Stroud this year- And Stroud was- Have taken some steps back. I think in terms of, obviously, efficiency. Some of the prolific numbers. Both of them came into the season as potential darlings for people that wanted to draft them. It's the danger of the pocket passer. Yes. You, like, for every- Like, and next year, everyone's going to be all about Joe Burrow. Which, Joe Burrow's an elite pocket passing quarterback. But Burrow's running so hot right now. It'll be Baker too.

Yeah, but, like, those guys, like, there is a chance that their touchdowns go down to low 30s, high 20s. And Jordan Love jumps back up to 35 touchdowns. It's- We've seen that roulette before. It's the- When you're in the draft, that's why it's so much about what is the market saying about these quarterbacks. The opportunity cost of going in on a pocket passer, knowing it is a gamble of- Sometimes they just don't come through. Just to give you- Thankfully on Baker, he's no longer a pocket passer. He has been running a lot. 300 rushing yards this year. Yeah, I'm still going to call it.

No, I'm not. But, like, I mean, if you look at the history of Tom Brady, that's kind of an example. Yeah. Quarterback 3, 34 touchdowns. And these are all 16-game seasons. Quarterback 13, 25 touchdowns. You know, quarterback 2, 36 touchdowns. Quarterback 14, 29 touchdowns. So, you know, you do- You run the risk. And when you do draft those guys, you're obviously kind of locking yourself into them for quite a while. So, it's just- It is a risk. You know, Aaron Rodgers was the worst anybody's ever seen a quarterback play. Dude, like legitimately- Like, statistically, it was one of the worst games in history.

Garrett Wilson getting that touchdown from Tyron at the end had to feel pretty, pretty good. He's the most sacked quarterback in history. Seriously? And we've heard that, like, you know, Garrett Wilson doesn't want to be back if Rodgers is back. Which is- I mean, that's- That's basically what was insinuated, is he hasn't asked for a trade, but he might. We'll see what happens with Aaron Rodgers. It's like, normally, you'd be like, oh, if Rodgers isn't back, I don't want to be there. Right. It's the opposite. And at this point, it's like Rodgers and Adams are chasing their own glory. That's how it feels.

Yeah. It doesn't feel like they're really about this team's success. They're above the team, is the way it feels. Or they think they are. Well, like for- For both players. For Adams, though. Like, the season was basically lost by the time he got there. You ever seen Larry do that? He was in a lot of lost seasons. A lot of lost seasons. It's never been about my touches. I just don't respect that kind of what you put out there. And for Garrett Wilson, a 24-year-old superstar, to not want to play with you- Yeah. It says a lot. You know, you go out there and you go 12 for 18 for 112, two picks, a late hit.

And look, I'm- Oh, man. That was funny. I'm willing to be the, like, partial apologist for Aaron. Like, I think it's always more complicated than the media narrative. Because if you go- I brought this up last week. Like, if you go and you- LaFleur and McCarthy and, you know, his high school, college, coaches- Most players, too. Most players. Great teammate. Great leader. Hyper-intelligent quarterback. But, you know, when you struggle and you fail, there's an accountability that comes with the words you say. That's all. Sure. And the faces you make. And when you play well, you will get credit. And when you play poorly, but you talk a big game, you will get blame.

And for- And millions of dollars. For the love of all that is good in this world, can we get Garrett Wilson, a quarterback, just so we can see what happens? No. You need Rodgers to come back then. Because you want Garrett Wilson- Yes. You want- If you want Garrett Wilson to have success, I think you need to get him off the Jets. It was a sputtering in for Mixon, for Brees Hall, for Rashad White, for Devon Achan. Yeah. For Ramondre Stevenson. Stevenson, who had .3 fantasy points for me in my listener league title game. Oh, that didn't help. Well, he did get two carries.

Which was- The Stevenson one is really bizarre. Because it was all week. Oh, he might get benched for Gibson. Who's going to be the starter? Mayo does not know what he's doing. And then- Mayo does not know what he's doing. He didn't get benched at the beginning. But then Gibson was the primary running back. McLaurin, Jaden Reed, one catch for Jaden Reed. These two guys who are in a lot of championship lineups. Especially McLaurin. Because McLaurin helped get you there. So hopefully you were just able to overcome having McLaurin on your roster. He's been so great this year. You kind of-

Because he's been so good, you just give him a pass. Say, I forgive you. Forgiveness comes in a couple months. Yeah, I mean- You can be bitter and upset now and just say, well, I did what I was supposed to do. That's all you can do in championship week, is just put the best players out there and hope it works out. Any of us benching McLaurin in that game? I don't think so. No, I would not have. I mean, the weather was a concern, but it didn't affect Jaden Daniels putting up 40 points. Flowers and Bateman weren't needed. Cooper Cup, we talked about it.

Josh Downs, Zilch, Mooney. The Mooney one's disappointing too. And then the trifecta in Chicago. You know, Chicago is one of those teams that the offseason is going to be crazy. We'll see what they do to help Caleb out. And then the two Seahawks on Thursday night football. It was a disaster. Oh, that whole game. That Chicago Seahawks game was just- It deleted a game out of the week. Dalton Kincaid did nothing. Neither did Tucker Craft or Hunter Henry, who was goosed. This is Hunter Henry. He can always show up on a certain week and disappear on another one. But that was championship Sunday.

It was, all in all, I thought it was, at least it was a great weekend of football. Like, we've had several weeks throughout this season where we show up on Monday and we're like, well, some guy scored some points. It was a good week. What's the post-mortem on the weather stress? The weather- It seems overblown. Well, it was. It didn't turn out. Or blown? Because the wind didn't blow the way we thought it was? I get what you're saying. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, give it a five. Okay. It was, I mean, it affected the Jacksonville game for sure.

Like, if you were looking, I know Brian Thomas still had his humongous game. But, like, the conditions were, it was, they were losing footing. I can't remember who it was. But, I mean, the Washington game. But, yeah. The Cincinnati game. That's the issue with the weather is sometimes you can have games where it's raining and these teams aren't phased by it. And then there's times where the weather comes in and you're like, of course I should have benched these guys. Because this is a mucky disaster. I would say overall, the actual miles per hour on wind and rainfall that happened in these games was not at the fear level of earlier in the week.

Earlier in the week, it looked like some of these games were going to be, you know, massive, torrential. Like that 49ers-Bears game. Yeah. And that just didn't happen. You know, thankfully that didn't happen. And we knew, you know, if you were on Twitter Sunday morning, you could see that some of the things had calmed down. Like we had a lot of fears over the Bengals game being a really, really rainy, windy game. And then we knew that morning they got that it was pretty good weather. That game was funny because when they first, when the game was starting, that was a Saturday afternoon game.

And when they go to the stadium on the cameras and you see the full state and you see in the distance, it looked like it looked like it was a horrible thunderstorm just waiting to come in. Like you could see how close it was to being a major problem. It's like the clouds from stranger things hiding in the background. Right. But thankfully we were all right. We were all right. Tomorrow we'll celebrate with you, commiserate with you yet again. Monday Night Football recap. Playoff scenarios. Team motivation for week 18. I'm not. I pre-warned my wife. Yeah. I never talk. I think you win.

I never talk fantasy stress with my wife, but last night I was like, just letting you know tomorrow night is going to be a very emotionally taxing event for me. No matter what. I think you win as well. 47.1. I think you'll know you're going to win by halftime. Well, I appreciate. I appreciate the hope. Dan Campbell, you can't win a Super Bowl without Jameer Gibbs. Rest him up. I'm just letting you know. He certainly can't win this game without him either. You. It doesn't matter. It does not matter. You can't win a Super Bowl without Jameer Gibbs. Well, look.

Half a game is fine. I have a funny feeling. A lot of our. I'm a giving man. A lot of our listeners might be on the other side of this one, Mike. That's what I was telling Mike. But I have the microphone and you will listen to everything that I have to say. Put him down. Well, not like, no, don't put him. Rest him. Rest him for half. Don't put him down. Play the whole game and score fewer than 47.1 points so that the rest of the Foot Clan can get their full game. The way you don't want to lose is you don't want to.

I was telling this to Mike. If you've got Jameer Gibbs and you need 20 points tonight and he goes out and puts up 18 points the first half. And they don't play him. And Craig Reynolds is on the field and you go, where is he? You can't lose. You can't. You can't lose that way. That's too much. Not for me. If there was ever a coach that would completely go all out all four quarters, it would be Dan Campbell. And by the way. Remember when Julian Edelman tours ACL in a meaningless game? You shut up now. It is New Year's Eve tomorrow.