Week 12 Waivers + Old Man Strength, Difference Makers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/19

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Tuesday, November 19th, the fantasy footballers, back with you. Mike, the fantasy hitman, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. Deucers Alley is Deucin. ABD. Pro deuce in this show right now. It's hard to see in the shadows there, but I believe we do have a new little trophy for one of our deucers. What? That should actually... Is that a toilet? It is a toilet trophy and it should go to Papa Josh because that... He is the reigning. He is the raining. He is the raining. He had to leave the show to take a dump. That's the most recent. The most recent dump. Get that in the camera. Yeah, get that in the camera.

Yeah. Yeah, all right. Let's see. Yeah, we need to. Where did that come from? Can we spotlight that? The internet? I don't know. Like, did we get it? Yeah, I may have. All right. May have looked into. Well, we like to reward the staff. Yeah, whoever most recently reneged on their obligations to the production of the show due to Bell, you know. bowel planning issues. Is that the most formal way to put it? I think that is, it's accurate because you can plan a little better. We know when the show is going to record. That's true. Yeah, it's the same time every day. And the Falcons bowels also know when the show is. Yeah, they get itchy. They start, they start going, ooh, that sounds good. Itchy. Yeah, you know. And itchy bowel? They got that itch. They got that itch to take that squat. Well, emotions have been high.

Oh, yeah. We had our trade deadline in League of Record. Many of you had trade deadlines this week. There are a thousand thoughts and emotions and opinions and trades and attitudes and consensuses and conclusions. You know what's fun in our league? Our trade deadline, and I don't know what the platform allows or doesn't or what time, but what we do is it's basically whatever week it was for us. It was week 11 that just concluded. Our trade deadline goes right up until. the end of the Monday night football game. Yeah, triple zero is on the clock. But it means that during the Monday night football game, while weeks have pretty much already been established, everyone is feverishly trying to like figure out the last maneuvers. I got to get a pick. I got to sell this guy. I got to buy and go all in. It's, it's, it's, it makes for a wild and crazy time. And that Monday night football game was the 34 to 10 thrashing, uh, by the Houston Texans over the now three and seven.

Dallas Cowboys. I didn't see until this morning that Mike had attempted to channel some sort of fantasy favor. I tried. I tried everybody. He committed five bucks a touch for Rico Dowdell donating to fantasy cares. Every touch Rico Dowdell received. You missed that. I missed that. So you didn't have to donate very much, huh? I went over. I broke my promise. He did. He went targets. I was like, I went touches, but Rico's like, I don't know how to catch anymore. This thing that I've been doing great all year long is no longer part of my game plan. So like if it touched his hands, which I think all five did. Oh, yeah. I just, I counted them all. Well, he was 10 for 28 on the ground, two for five targets. Dallas is. And like benched. Yes.

Well, I mean, look, the, yeah, Deuce Vaughn got four carries. Yeah, the second half was very little. I don't know what the actual snaps were in the second half, but it was like, oh, Rico Dada was gone. Did you see the past attempts for Cooper Rush? They were. Yes. And that led to 8 for 93 for CD Lamb. If you don't have a running game, I guess you'll just keep chucking it. You also had, go ahead. Cooper threw for 354 yards, and honestly, I don't think he looked that bad. Neither did I. He was throwing some tight ropes and using the tight ends. We'll talk about the schoon man here in a bit because Ferguson went down to a concussion. It's going to be a short week for him. Doubt he plays this week. But Cooper Rush looked obviously better this week than he did last week, which is great news for C.D. Lamb. So Dallas couldn't really.

get it done, couldn't finish drives, and it was wild because they did. They looked inept, and yet the game's 34 to 10, ends up as a blowout. The game in the third quarter was very close. Yeah, I think there was a chance to go to halftime 2013. Halftime was 17. Yeah, well, Aubrey slipped on a kick. I mean, they had the. The unfortunate mistakes of the Cowboys were plentiful, but it was 17 to 10 at halftime, and then at the end of the third quarter, it would have been, what, 20 to 10? So, I mean, this was, for most of the game, it was very tight, but then the Texans kicked the, kicked the doors down. How do you feel about seven targets, four receptions, and 54 yards? What is the? We're in on that. You're in on that? Yeah, I mean, last night we're in on that for.

Two players. Yeah, because both Nico Collins and take Dell. I don't think I've ever seen identical stat lines like that across the board from two wide receivers. Because we got host again by big ref. First play of the game. It was a legit penalty, but it's also. Dumb. Nico Collins had a 77-yard touchdown in the first play of the game that ended up. He looked so fast. He was so fast. You know, it was like the nightmare, though, for the handstring. It's like the last thing you want to do is say go sprint 77 straight yards. He played limited snaps last night. Yeah. He was the leaving. Because he was tired from his 70-yard touchdown. Well, they did need to be careful. They also didn't need him. I mean.

Do you realize the number one running back in football is now Joe Mixon? Has to be. Joe Mixon is the number one running back in football. Three touchdowns, 24-109, looked amazing, looked great through the passing game. Had big plays called back on penalties during the game. And now is above Sequin, Henry, Camara and Gibbs in points per game on the year, 23.6, the running back won. Over 100 yards, three touchdowns, and involved in the receiving game. 44 receiving yards. He's the engine that's moving this offense, which is a real problem for C.J. Stroud. C.J. Stroud is. It is legitimately. It's great for the Texans. Great for CJ Stroud, the man. Bad for C.J. Stroud, the fantasy quarterback of your roster. More Nico will lead to more positive Stroud production. You will not have all rushing touchdowns.

Old man strength at the running back position. This year? I mean, it's mixing Sequin and Henry are the top three. Camara. And Camara. And Camara. Bejohn. Bejohn's too young, man. Bejon and Gibbs are like the young bucks trying to crack into the top three. They just got to wait six, seven years when they get their man strength. You don't know why is because the opportunities per game. It's, you know, 25 opportunities a game. Mix is getting more than Henry, more than Barclay, more than Camara, more than Gibbs. Then like the old man's strength is the right way to put it. These are just like put the team on their back. You get every snap and you hold up lately. So it's wild. Ryanbacks have got whatever the year of 2024. Yeah. The diet that they have undergone, whatever nutritional supplements they are taking.

is working because star running backs don't get injured anymore and it's it's great you i mean you you have other old men by the way in the top table here in the top 20 you know that james conner and and you know what kareem hunt per game has been good it's it's kind of wild so let's go ahead and uh we've got waivers on the show but first some difference makers welcome to difference makers presented by i'm's pet food well today's difference makers uh You know, we have three names. It's really one. Yeah, it's one thing. It's one thing. And it is the Chargers offensive weapons. Specifically, the Chargers passing offensive weapons. Big Erb. Big Erb, baby. Ladidi, McConke. Yeah. Oh, my little lad. Ladd. Ladd McConkey. And then Kewch, who, uh... I didn't realize we had three dumb nicknames. Yeah, three.

Horrible names. Yeah, they're not, they're not our best nicknames, but what is funny is there were so many worries coming into the year about G-Roe and hard dogs run schemes. There's two more nicknames. Does anybody know what we're talking about at this point? We didn't do G-Roehrone. Greg Roman, John Harbaugh, Ladd-McConkie, Quentin Johnson, Justin Herbert. Okay, those are the people we're talking about. Also, Look, we're going into week 12 here. The people listening to this podcast right now, they've been with us. They know these people. There was so much hullabaloo and worry about the run game and the defense that the Chargers wanted to do. Which was founded, yes. It was completely, you know, if you avoided them in the draft process, you know, if you drafted Herbert, Giant L. However, they have really opened things up for, I think, a multitude of reasons.

They've been good at it. And they're like, oh, wow, Justin Herbert is a great quarterback. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Let's utilize him like that. And two, the running game has faltered. J.K. Dobbins, early season, explosive nature and big runs that he was trunking off every single game. That's kind of gone away. His efficiency has not been there. The touchdowns still get there when they get around the goal line. But now you combine those two truths. with the next month of matchups where you want to talk about a difference maker. I think that this passing game is going to be really important for the stretch run leading up to the fantasy playoffs. I want to give you some numbers just so you understand where the trajectory is because you don't, at this point in the year, and this is what we do with a lot of our tools on the website that join the foot tools. You can sort by last three, last five, last eight. You're no longer looking at just the full sample of the season when you want to look at trends over the last five weeks.

I want you to know, Ladd McConkey and Quentin Johnson are top. They're wide receiver ones. Wow. Ladd is at 14.1 a game. That's the wide receiver 11. Q is 13.8. That's why. How many? Five weeks. And then Justin Herbert's to QB seven in the last five weeks. So you have three guys that are making that move. And yet this is a juncture where you say, well, do you believe it? It doesn't make sense. And we're saying when you look at the schedule for these guys, when you look at what defines the difference maker, and you're facing the 30th ranked passing defense in Baltimore, and then you face the 27th in Atlanta, and then you, week 14 is going to be tough against Kansas City, but it's a divisional matchup. And then you have the 31st ranked defense against Tampa Bay as the playoff start. So your playoff matchup is great. These are players like McConkey, who rookie, more established, begins to ascend.

and matchups, and then your quarterback with the trust, the yards per attempt, everything is changing in the direction of the passing game, and then they're winning ball games on top of it, and they're incentivized to try to make the playoffs at 7 and 3. Yeah, to try to make the playoffs, but they've won four games in a row, and now this is the Harbow. We got Harbaugh against Harbaugh. The Baltimore Ravens are coming into L.A., so this is a home game for the Chargers, and sort of. Well, sure, yeah, I know it's Baltimore. Those don't really exist. Yeah, especially being Baltimore. We've called them Baltimore West since the whole offseason. They took, you know, revenge game for who? Everyone. Literally J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards and G. Roe. So it'll be great. But Baltimore, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay are three of the next four weeks. They should make a huge difference. You did in your efforts to capitalize on the trade deadline, Jason.

let go of Ladidi, me, Conque. And bigger. I traded them as a package deal. And, you know, it was one of those things where I was looking, I mean, I didn't have many assets, but I was looking at Ladd as a, you know, there's tons of buy weeks, by the way. This week. Next week is the bypocalypse. Like, teams are being, you know, thinned out. And having these players at these matchups, it's a big deal. They could be huge difference makers. All right. That was difference makers presented by IMS, Pat Food. When you choose Ims. You can see a difference in your pet with your own eyes. Health and energy in five days. Healthy digestion in 10 days and healthy skin and coat in just 25 days. Feed IMS and see a visible difference. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Did you find the Ims for people yet? No. For your healthy digestion in 10 days? No. Is it out? It's not out. I asked if it's out there. I don't think it's out yet.

Gabe Davis knee injury news out for the season. Dave Canales said Adam Thielen expected to play this week. Thielen will be back. Jonathan Brooks will also make his debut for the Carolina Panthers. It'll be exciting to see. I mean, I don't think the expectation is that Jonathan Brooks is a leadback here. They paid Chuba a lot of money and they have taken it beyond slow with Jonathan Brooks. So, but all eyes, all eyes in the fantasy world, I think will be on Jonathan Brooks to see how he performs. And my hope, and again, my expectation is that he will be used significantly in the past catching role. If that happens, then he can be.

you know, a flex option even while Chuba's there. Isn't there a trickle-down effect then to Chuba if you think his involvement's going to ramp up as we head into the fantasy playoffs? Would you be concerned or not really? I would be a little bit concerned. I expect Chuba's involvement to go down a little bit. We saw them try to do this split with Miles Sanders. They wanted, they had the package for a couple weeks where it was like they did. They were using him as that kind of third down roll. And he just was so bad at it. They couldn't stick with it. So if Jonathan Brooks is good, which he should be as the first drafted running back in this year's draft class, you know, he'll impact Chuba a little bit. Concussion protocol for Taji Spears and Jake Ferguson this week. Gardner Mintry will start again because the Raiders have no choice. They have given themselves the ultimate.

Minchu only choice when Desmond Ritter is your only other option? Coach Pierce, it was. It was not a ringing endorsement. No, it wasn't. It was like, yeah, he's the quarterback this week. Yeah, for now. And then Sean Payton, Mike, this is such, you know, this is for you. When asked about the Broncos' usage of running backs, he said, well, figure it out each week, though, and kind of plan accordingly. It is hot hand. It is hot hand, and Giovante Williams is the starter, which. Like, Giovante looked okay this week. I know it's a severe ebbs and flows of, is Giovante going to look good on any particular week? But this just, it makes it pretty impossible to start Giovante or Adric Estime, hoping that one of them is the hot hand. If there was a coach that wanted to Galaxy Brain giving one running back two weeks of rest every single game.

It would be Sean Payton. It's just like every other week. Like a new strategy. You're like just giving the week off. Well, I'm just saying like this week you're the starter. He's the backup. Next week you flip so that your legs are fresher for the, you know, every single game the rest of the season. Brock Purdy dealing with right shoulder soreness. He is day to day. George Kittle expected to practice after missing last week. I think that is all the news that we have. Got to monitor to the Purdy situation. But anything else that. that we got? Oh, I mean, speaking of Broncos, the eligible to return from the IR Tyler Biday. The Badee is back. The Badee is back. See if he can leave his mark on the Broncos. Yeah, I mean, Isaiah Pacheco, expected to be healthy enough to play in week, 12, but it's a coach's decision. They may table that for another week. But you're talking about, he fractured his fibula man. How's it? Yeah. This is wild.

Yeah, I mean, there you go. All right, that was today's news and notes. Presented, as always, by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the waiver wire. All right, let's jump in. A lot of bye weeks. Welcome to the waiver wire, presented by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. Just three weeks left in the fantasy football regular season before we head into the playoffs. This week, the Buccaneers come back, hopefully with not just Baker Mayfield, but maybe Mike Evans on the outside. Giants, Cardinals, Panthers also returning from the buy. And this week, this week we lose the Bengals, Bills, Falcons, Jags, Jets and Saints. Goodness. And if you want to know how that impacts your team, just load up this week and you'll see how many guys you have to.

Juggle. And we've been talking about like guys to put on your bench, insurance backs, defenses to double roster to play it up for the playoffs. The jigsaw puzzle is, it's a tough one this week because if you've got a binge full of by weeks. It doesn't always work out. You might be dropping some of those stash plays and hoping you can pick them back up. Try to drop them at the time when someone else doesn't notice. What's the ideal time to drop? So there's a couple different ideal times. One is a couple minutes before waivers run. Oh, yeah, so it gets washed out by the whole waiver running. Exactly. I think that's the best time. And then a couple of minutes, you know, before kickoff. I was going to stay on the weekend. Yeah, that makes sense. But then don't worry, no by weeks for week 13. Oh, are we done? Yeah, we're done with by weeks. Phew. Until the week 14 by, which by itself, a week 14 by, that is way too late in the NFL. You shouldn't have any.

Well, you know, you won't have Lamar and you won't have Jaden and you won't have Henry and you won't have Mixing and you won't have Nico because the Broncos, Colts, commanders, Ravens, Patriots and Texans all going by in week 14. That is insane. Someone in scheduling is not a fan of fancy football. Yeah, you know, we really need priorities, Mike. We're building the NFL. Yeah, it's really true. And they know it. Yeah, most of them know it. Do you mean us, like us, our show? The three of us. Yeah, that's what he's talking about. You did. Andy, you tweeted out a graph today about showing like sports because you were saying a little piece about MLB and their lack of parity and salary cap and how stupid of a stupid sport it is. It is such a stupid thing. But there was the graph of the NFL revenue, which was steadily climbing.

But then, I don't know if you guys saw. There is a, there's a correlation. There is a year in there. It just explodes. Where the fantasy football bars podcast started and all of a sudden the NFL just is a rocket ship. Coincidence? I don't, you know, we'll leave it to you. Yeah. Yeah. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but. I yeah. Based on this graph, we doubled their billions of revenue. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. Good job, fellas. All right. We've, you know, doing our best. Does that mean that you would work for the MLB to help their revenues, Jason? I would never do anything for the MLB. That's not true. I was going to throw out a first pitch. I would do that. Other than that, I would never do anything for the MLB. Boring, broken. How does your first pitch end up? Like were you? Oh, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's sailing into the crowd? No way. Right into the glove, but it's like a football pass. It's going, I'm throwing a moonball.

Oh, you're going up. I'm going up. Russell Wilson? Yes, sir. Up and down, but in the gloves still. Yes, sir. Are you going to rookie of the year this? No, I'm overhand. I'm over. I'm going to do a drop, a three-step drop back. Oh. Yeah. Actually, that'd be funny. Take the snap. Uh-huh. I'm taking the snap. Dropping back onto that mound. Let a rip. That's pretty good. All right. Running back waiver pickups heavily rostered at the top of our list. Jonathan Brooks with the opportunity as a rookie towards the end of the season and then Jalen Warren. The forever who's a forever waiver wire guy. Nine point man. Yeah. If you need to, if you need to lose your matchup by less, Jalen Warren's your dude. If you need nine points at running back, a lot of people do this way. Hey, Jay's your dime steam. Do you wish you had Jalen Warren? If it.

I certainly do. No breeze, no ETN, no Bejan. Yeah. And no backups. They're all on by or injured. So I will be dynasty waiver, starting someone. Yeah, a lot of running backs available out there. I mean, that's wild. There's a lot of leagues like this. Like there's a league that I'm looking at right now. And it's like, man, the next guy on this list, he's my target. Rocheon Johnson. Yeah. Got the goal line opportunity, scored a touchdown, had 11 touches. He was. Beggers can't beat choosers on byweeks. So, Rocheon is probably the most important name this week because Jalen Warren, Jonathan Brooks, most likely taking into your leagues. I agree that they would be the clear pickups if they're available. And really, everyone should go check for Jonathan Brooks. Should be Roger, but if you're in a league that doesn't have an IR, he very well might be on waivers. But Rocheon was.

really heavily involved in this game, and you have to remember, Shane Waldron, their offensive coordinator, was gone. Their entire offense looked better, the way that they were using DJ more, the way that Cole Commet was out there running like 95% of routes, and Rocheon's involvement, and, like, I know DeAndre Swift ended up with an okay game because he had that big long run, but it looked like, oh man, they're kind of moving a little bit away from... from Swift and going to Rochon after they got rid of Khalil Herbert. Rochon is, I think Rochon has a higher odds of getting 10 points than Jalen Warren does because around the goal line, they might just use him. That's fair. DeAndre Swift had 16 opportunities. That is his lowest of the season since week one. So 16 opportunities for Swift, 11 for Rochon. Yeah, with the brand new offensive coordinator, like you said. This was far more.

our BBC. One thing that was happening before the buy week was you were seeing Trey Benson and Arizona get more opportunity. 28 and 27% of snaps, nine opportunities, 12 opportunities and doing a lot with him, with those opportunities. 6.2 a carry on 10 carries. He actually could be an emergency start at the running back position as the Cardinals have the single easiest running back schedule rest of season. There's a world where Trey Benson could. be an emergency flex during these by weeks and is sitting out there representing this insurance back that might not be just an insurance back. The last two games, average 10 and a half fantasy points. And with it being after the buy week and. And Connor being an older bat. James Connor being so important to the Cardinals are in the playoffs right now. And if the Cardinals are going to make a playoff run, they have to have a healthy James Connor. It would not surprise me to see more.

Trey Benson here over the stretch run as they try and get in with a healthy corner. The scientific issue here is a conundrum because James Connor has... Get into the periodic table, Jay. Let's go. We know that James Connor can't play 17 games in a season or 16 if the season is 16 long. He has not done it once. And we're getting near the end of the season. So it seems like a scientific fact that he will have to miss a couple games. Interesting. So, yeah, Trey Benson of all the, like most of the waiver wire pickups this week, I mean, you can go through the giant list of Benson, Brayland, Allen, Cam Acres, Blake Corum, Ray Davis, all the insurance backs. But Trey Benson is the number one, not just because you might be able to start him, but because the guy ahead of him just has never played a full season. It's going to be interesting because we started this show talking about the old man strength. And their diets.

And how, you know, these guys, Derek Henry, like, they got Mitchell back and Justice Hill gets involved, right? There was a part of this game against Pittsburgh. Henry's just standing on the sideline without a helmet, staring out onto the field. When you talk about older backs and playoffbound teams, like Mike just said with the Cardinals and with Baltimore, you might see the workloads go down. So Justice Hill, you could get an emergency start there, especially with the targets. You could have. opportunities. Whereas some of these other guys like Braylon Allen, Blake Corum, I don't know if the Rams are going to be in the mix. Those are not necessarily situations where they have to be worked in. I would put Braylin seconds behind Trey Benson in terms of like a guy who you might throw in there and he ends up with 12 opportunities on a given week where it's like, I mean, is Corum doing anything? Not really. 19% of snaps, which was a season high last week. That's five carries.

So this is insurance running back order, which we have put on the website at Running Back. We have all of our waiver wire rankings. If you are a member at Join the Foot, you get the custom waiver wire rankings as part of the suite of premium tools and the ultimate dashboard. Check those out and see how we are prioritizing these backup insurance backs. But that's the rest of this list. For better or worse, I'm going to go better. They're staying healthy. The main backs are staying healthy. So we're talking about the Jalen Warrens and the Trey Benson's and the Gus Bus every week because there aren't frontline high fab spin opportunities to go get guys. I would agree with that. One that I will say could play his way into more of a starting role and does not require the injury ahead of him is Jalen Wright. Him being a rookie, this is the rookie running back for the Miami Dolphins.