Fantasy Football - FootClan Titles + Week 18 Waivers & Motivation - Podcast for 12/30

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, crap. It's Mike Wright time. I didn't know you had a scepter. Yeah, the scepter really takes it over the top. Yeah, Mike is, this is what I expected yesterday. I guess you hadn't. I hadn't won yet, man. You had, though. Yeah. You had, but, yeah. There was no stress. The champ is here. Mike, right, crown, scepter, and I don't know how you could wear two crowns, but he'd have the right and ability to do so. I think yesterday the issue was you didn't know by how much will you have won because you hadn't had 10 million points? You hadn't had Bijon go yet. Never quite seen a performance like the two playoff weeks that Mike had in our league of record.

He looked back at the league history on Sleeper and the last two weeks in semifinals and championship are two of the top 10 highest scores of all time in the history of the league, including the number one. Well, take it away. The number one and the number eight highest scores of all time in our league. Which is going into, I just looked it up this morning. Next year will be your 20. Oh, baby. And two of the top 10 scores. So you left no doubt. Oh, baby. You had no reason to be stressed, even though you were, because you handled your business. As of yesterday, I wasn't. And then he, you know, tortured us all with videos of him dancing in the street. And I mean, you honestly don't have very good moves. Oh, what? I'm sorry. He's not wrong. Wait, those are bad? Nah. Which made it worse. You're just fanning farts. That's all you're doing. Yeah.

he's dancing the street sounds like non champ talk with uh fireworks in his hands um he had been kind of mild and calm and then now we have to do this show yeah not to mention i know something's coming on this show what what i know some kind of yeah it feels like we're just we're andy and i are just waiting just so like like You've got like this nice little glider that's going over the mud that Andy and I are waiting through as you're circling around us like a vulture. I know. I know stuff is coming on the show. Jason and I thought about just not coming in. Yeah. But we're going to have to endure it. But. Okay. What's going on? Hold on. Oh, I hate this so much. Oh my gosh. What's happening?

Jeremy, you allowed this. He probably facilitated it. After becoming the first ever super duper champ, by winning both the League of Record and the Ballers Dynasty League, the fantasy footballer's Ring of Honor is proud to re-induct the fantasy hitman. Oh, Mike Wright. I'm in again. Guys, I'm in the Ring of Honor twice. Sounded like you re-inducted yourself. Yeah, it's the same thing. Two times unbelievable. Congratulations, Mike. Oh, thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. The people love it. For those just listening, I'll describe. Oh, just a green hue. I'll describe the hell we're in. There's Mike Wright's name plastered on the back of the wall. Oh, Michael Timothy Wright. Oh, respectfully referred to as the FF Hitman as last year's League of Record Champion and the man which you destroyed in this year's Dynasty Championship.

It is with a little pride and immense sadness that I present to you for the first time ever the fantasy footballers championship trophy stack. Oh my gosh. He's got both of them. He's got both of them. Let's put that one right there. I'll just gear up. I'll just gear up, boys. This is the skis. if i had the outro button to this show oh i would hit it right now oh my goodness i was going to describe this to the to the listenership but i'm not going to subject you what they need to go watch unbelievable i i know i know that it would be bad for us covering my face here but i almost want to ask people to unsubscribe right yeah you know what i mean it's bad for our living i i really hope nobody sees this episode oh

ever what a moment I'll take your time producing this one today yeah if this one doesn't have a couple hours late if it doesn't hit YouTube due to processing difficulties I understand YouTube sometimes they've got issues I will throw that monetization in the trash oh for sure in fact find some music to play oh so find some kind of copywritten music yeah hit yeah play it can ruin the monetization I will look into it that's weird because you can't take my trophies away I'm tempted to knock it down and that's glass. Yeah, if that thing falls, we're completely big trouble. This day has been very bad for two years in a row for me. Because on this episode last year, I had lost to Allen the championship and he had my family taunt to me on the show. Yeah. And then today double. That's actually pretty great. Double Mike, insufferable Mike, which we knew was coming. Oh, man, two-time ring of honor. Nobody in the history of Ring of Honors has ever been reintroduced to the same ring of honor. I know.

It's what an honor. You're not the only champion in the world, believe it or not. In Zoe, we trust is the official Megalibol Bowl winner. Do we have an applause? I don't know. 20,000 entries. Congratulations. That's a big winner. And Matt Razka. Ooh, try that one on for size. Matt Razka? It seems pretty easy. That's what I was wondering. But, um, do. The listener league winner, Matt Rosca, Razca. So in Zoe we trust and Matt Roska champions. Also, Mike's probably bought out the inventory, but shopballers.com if you want to check out. There's a couple of scraps. If you want to check out the, we have two different shirt designs for champions this year. I tried to reply to as many people on on X on Twitter as I could. The champions are out there. We also saw the bad breaks. Yeah.

And if you had the courage and the ability to come and listen to the show the day after your bad break, I applaud you. I would not have that. Like I am contractually obligated to be here today. I'm here so I don't get fined. But we knew, I mean, if you have anybody like Mike in your league, you're suffering right now. And everybody wanted advice. I was on our stream last night. Mike was on there. And they wanted advice on dealing with the bad breaks. And the advice is you can't. It's to wait. It's just wait. Just suffer a little while longer. Just wait. And eventually you'll want to play again. What's crazy is oftentimes at the end of a football season, the hatred for this game we play is real and alive. And then by the time that the next season starts getting close, it's like, ah, I can't wait. It's been too long. It happens every year. This can't happen every year. This can't happen ever again. He's holding a ruby scepter. It's very heavy.

Is it? Let me see this. Goodness gracious. A weapon. Oh my gosh. It's way heavier than the queen of Narnia. What the heck is going on? Well, you're doing it right. Yeah. You're doing it right. If you won, haunt your league. Let's like if you have the pain. Look, I've, I've had the pain. Yeah. Like I've had big, big, big, big pain. Makes this so much better. That is the truth. It's so sweet. The highs are higher when the lows are lower. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. My goodness. We are going to talk about other things today. We have the Monday night football game, which was crazy and creates a horrific situation for Tampa Bay fans.

Oh, man. Because the Falcons upset the Rams. Should it took care of business. The Falcons were up 21-0 and then gave up the lead and then won the game, 27-24. Bijan unstoppable, a 93-yard touchdown. If you had him and needed him, that was, I mean, there were so many people that sent me messages yesterday. Bijan v. Pouca. That's their situation, right? Because those guys were on championship teams. And, yeah, Advantage Bejohn. Serious. Two touchdowns. Oh, oh, Mike did lose something, by the way. Oh, wow. He did lose something. He lost our head-to-head tiebreaker in prize picks. He is the shame this way. Oh, yes. Yeah. Oh, no. I don't know what I can do to him. Just to ran wrap his face.

Saran Rapids. Don't let it breathe. Oh my gosh. The go to sleep. Yeah. It's just called the sleeper. Yeah. That's murder. Nah. It's an accident. I'm going out on top then. Kyrin Williams ended up with the majority of the work in the backfield. Blake quorum got hurt in this game. I watched this whole game, guys. I have no idea what anyone did but Bijon. I have no. I have no. recollection of any statistics being gathered other than bison robinson you were dancing in the street mike puka was five for 47 and a touchdown almost one of the best catches you've ever seen oh my gosh that that catch which wasn't but mostly was absolutely the best non catch i've ever seen in my life he also had 77 yards on a touchdown called back on penalties right

Yeah, when that catch happened on the sideline that ended up not being a catch because it actually wasn't by the rules now, but the catch child would be like, well, I don't know. Yeah. It's a touch. But that just made me wonder what new scientific substances were attaching to gloves at this point. Because there's no one on this planet. Hands don't do that. No. And whatever the stickum of the Jerry Rice era also doesn't do that. That is a new. part of the periodic table that they are injecting into the gloves because that ball didn't move once it hit his hand. That was unbelievable. But here's the situation that it puts us in. The Falcons winning, and this is a massive algorithm of strength of schedule that comprises who makes the playoffs, but because the Falcons won, if the Falcons win next week against the New Orleans Saints and Tyler Shuck, which...

It's pretty impossible at this point. The Saints are on fire, right? But that's a winnable ball game. Sure. Either team could win that game. If that happens, then the Panthers, Buccaneers game that we thought would be just a heads-up matchup to make the playoffs would not matter for Tampa. Because if they won the game, they'd still be out and the Carolina Panthers would still win the division. Oh, just nasty. So the Falcons are. Early favorites, two and a half point favorites. Yeah, I mean, it kind of makes sense after the way they played this week. And they probably have the better personnel. So in the last eight weeks. So since week 10, the worst teams in the NFL, you have the winless Raiders. You have the winless hour Arizona Cardinals. Yeah. Oh, and eight. Oh, and eight. Then you have the one in seven Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh.

They look about like that. It's crazy how they have just collapsed. So they deserve to win in the final weekend, miss the playoffs. I mean, yeah, I mean, when you go one in seven, you shouldn't be a playoff team. No, that's why I said, just give it to the Saints. You're right. Award it to the Saints if they win next week. But that's your situation. Today we're going to talk about basically some of the playoff motivation levels in NFL playoff picture situations. If you are playing in Week 18, This will help you. If you're not playing in week 18, this is why you watch football. It's for, you know, some playoff spots on the line, some draft pick situations on the line. And, you know, we'll be talking the draft before you know it. So, and doing all of our collegiate scouting. The Dynasty Pass is coming out February 8th, which is Super Bowl Sunday. So lots going on. Let's talk some news.

News and notes from Around the League. Presented by Progressive Insurance. Well, we did have the injury to Blake Corum, which put him much lower in our waiver wire rankings for Week 18 than where he was, because they'll probably manage him in light of the fact that if they win, they can improve their positioning a little bit from the six to the five seed. But at the cost of your playoff success. It does matter. The Rams are playing for a much. better spot as far as who they play against. And McVeigh, liar, liar, pants on fire, McVeigh, came out and said that they are going to play their starters, which is not the usual McVeigh way. But I agree with you, Andy, that the guys who are currently banged up, like Coram, Devante Adams, you know, you know you're going to the playoffs. Yes, the seating could change. But if you are actually hurt, I'll bet they give those players the week off. Yeah, and the thing is, is they can win.

and not move a seat. And so that's a tough situation for them. If they win, but San Francisco wins, they accomplish nothing with playing these players and taking that risk. So we'll see if Mr. maybe the biggest liar in football is Sean McVeigh. It's unfortunate. Well, you know, competitive advantage, Mike. Right. But lying. Yeah. Just what he means to us in the fantasy community. Well, let's talk through the AFC playoff picture. starting with basically clinched playoff spots but little to gain by playing players this week. And we already know one of them is not really going to play their starter at quarterback. The Chargers, they're locked into a wildcard spot at the 5-6 or 7 seed. Jim Harbaugh already came out and said that Herbert will not start. They're 12.5.0 underdogs to Denver because Denver just needs to win to secure home field throughout the playoffs. So Justin Herbert's not going to play, huh? No. Oh, yeah.

We'll get there later. I mean, the year of Mike has to conclude. Trey Lance time, baby. I mean, we should have seen this coming two weeks ago. This is unbelievable. It's just unbelievable. I'm on a heater, baby. That's not a heater. That's like dark magic. Dark, dark, evil magic. Yeah, that's like toil and trouble or whatever. We've got to find someone who Mike loved who's not in the league anymore. who's still young enough and just bet money that he comes back because it's going to be well it was basically trey lans yeah i mean to start a game so is jeremy hill on the way back yes exactly um rg3 won mic a title a long time ago maybe he'll play again the bills are the seventh seed they are locked into five six or seven

They can improve the five seed with a win and losses by Houston and Jacksonville. Neither of those are likely. It does make you wonder if they're going to manage the foot of Josh Allen. I would do that if I were the bills. They can win. They're playing the Jets. You can win with your backups. Certainly. Like the Jets are, they're done. And Brees Hall banged up his knee a little bit. If I'm Brees, I'm not playing. I believe the Jets are, it's possible unless they. I don't think they intercepted a pass this weekend. No, they did not. So they could go zero interceptions as a team for a season after hiring the defensive guru and genius as their head coach. Brutal. And if you're wondering, well, how often, how, you know, how common is that to go a whole season without an interception? It's never happened. No, because you would imagine you would luck into something. A tip. A Hail Mary. Yeah.

AFC teams. Just good defensive play. Like just luck into one good defensive. You have NFL players. Sure. Like just accidentally, you know, a bad pass to your defense. Impossible. No. AFC playoff bound teams that can improve their seating. Denver becomes the number one seed with a win. They're heavily favored against the Chargers now sitting players. Chargers are willing to give this one up, it seems. And so it's a big deal for Denver because if they lost, they could drop as low as the number three seed. Do you think? that Harbaugh and the Chargers, they view the Patriots the way that you do, Andy, in the sense that like... They'd rather play them? Yeah, because if they lose, they go down to the number seven seed, they face the number two Patriots. Maybe they're like, they haven't really been tested by many people. What is the most fair way to criticize a 13 and 3 team with an MVP? I know, right? What's the most fair-minded way to do that? The Patriots have defeated one team above 500.

The Giants have defeated two. It's wild. So it's nothing, like the Patriots are going, he's going to win the MVP. Drake May is going to win the MVP. Yes. And, you know, I don't know what Mike Rabel will do in this final week. I don't know if Stafford and May will both play this final week or not. If they won this week, that would mean they get the number one seed if Denver lost. But Denver's probably not going to lose. Now Denver's 12.5 point favorites. Yeah, exactly. So New England, not a lot to play for. Jacksonville, it's highly unlikely they would need Denver and New England to lose to get the number one seat. Otherwise, you know, they win and they clinch the division. Jacksonville has this wild, very unrealistic, but they could finish as the number one, number two, number three.

Number five, number six, or number seven seats. Really? Yeah, I mean, amazing different things have to happen. I think they're definitely going to play to win this game. They're obviously heavily favored. It wins them the South. It stops Houston from passing them. They're highly motivated. They are very motivated. They don't necessarily have the division in lockdown. Obviously, they're playing against Tennessee. So they should win this game when they're motivated, but Tennessee's been playing better. Houston plays at the same time. I was looking this up earlier. for C.J. Stroud motivation. And the Jags and the Texans play the 11 o'clock a.m. Eastern time. Usually pretty good about that. They've gotten better at that over the years. Houston's got this game in the bag as well because they're facing Riley Leonard now. Yeah. But if they win and the Jaguars lose, then Houston takes the division. That is correct. And DiMico Ryan's already came out and said that C.J. Stroud will start and that Houston, they've now won eight in a row.

And then the big game in the AFC is the Sunday night showdown between the Ravens and Steelers. It is for the AFC North title and the number four seat in the AFC. Fumble the bag. And so Pittsburgh, now three and a half point home underdogs. Crazy. We don't know the status of Lamar Jackson right now. It's up in the air. And yet they still favor Baltimore. Yeah. Yeah. It's, um. It's this one's the one true on the line game now that we have a little bit of variable in play with the Panthers, Buccaneers game on the other side. But that's your AFC playoff picture. We'll take a quick break. We'll talk through the NFC. It's also, unless you want to add something. Yeah, I just want. I know we threw like a fire hose of information out. And when you're making your lineups later in the week, you might be like, I forget. We have a week 18 motivation article on the website. All this information is there so that if you're like, oh, I forget, just go to the fantasy footballers.com.

go to the articles. Matthew Betts wrote up an article recapping this. All right. We'll talk NFC in just a moment. All right. On the NFC side, when you look at clinched playoff spots and little to gain, here we find the Packers. Seventh seed, locked into the seventh seed, zero motivation this week. Jordan Love coming off of a concussion. You see any reason for him to be out there? I mean, I think I would play him at least a half. Just. to give him some primer before playoffs do that you know stay in the routine prepare for the game go out get some reps they'll be facing the number two seat on the road which is currently chicago which would be a crazy repeat game in the playoffs in the playoffs

Green Bay has lost three in a row. They are not going the right direction. I feel like from the moment... That's why you play your guys. I feel like from the moment that we were like, you know what? It's probably going to be Buffalo and Green Bay. Both those teams just completely... It really felt like it was from the moment Micah Parsons went down. Yes. Yeah. And then they lost... I mean, they've lost other pieces as well. In the NFC side, when you're looking at playoff-bound teams that can improve their seating, you've got a big game. Seattle, San Francisco. The winner gets the buy. I mean, this is massive. It's like winning two games, right? Yeah, or lose and go on the road. Right, because they would become a fifth seat. Yeah. Well, that would not be fun, but they would play the NFC South champion, right? So that would be kind of seemingly a nice matchup. It's a nice consolation for having to fall so far in the seating. If we want to, based on what happens this weekend, like maybe we just don't even have a South.

represent. For the NFC? Yeah, you just give a double buy. Don't even send one. Can we give it to... That's a lot of extra fees and hotel rooms and things like that. Yeah, it's a lot of extra cash. Yeah. Seattle, San Francisco. Who do you think wins that game? It's in San Francisco. And by the way, San Francisco, they win this game. It's home all the way out. I think Seattle is the better team. I think San Francisco by a lot. But I think San Francisco wins this game. Being at home. I'm going to go with them. Kyle says the line is moving back and forth, but currently it's at Seattle minus one and a half. They're trying to get some people back on that side. Goodness. That game will be awesome. Yeah, that's crazy. I think it's going to be fun. Chicago, they are right now the number two seed. They're trying to lock that up. Philly, if they lose to Washington, or if Chicago wins against Detroit, they lock up the number two seat. Hmm.

If they lose and the Eagles win, they drop to the three. That's not locked up. No. They don't know. They've got to win the game, and it's Detroit, and there's a lot going on. That's a two and a half point line right now. Detroit, a lot of pride there, divisional matchup. What game was it? I think Al will know this. Wasn't it the final game in the season when Detroit knocked Green Bay out of the playoffs two years ago? Do you remember this? Detroit had nothing to play for? It sounds familiar. I don't know. I'm surprised you don't know that.

off the top of your head. Not a Packers fan. I think that's what happened. No, we just block those things out. That makes sense. What's Philadelphia situation right now? Third seed? If they win Chicago loses, they become the two. I don't think that they are extremely motivated. The Eagles team, to me, seems like one that might still rest people. Nick Siriani said we're still thinking through whether they will play their starters in week 18, so they could end up just not playing them at all. Um, probably not going to see Marioada in this game, Josh Johnson. I mean, they can win without their starters against Josh Johnson. So, uh, Jeremy, did you find the answer to my question? Yeah, it was the 2022 season. And the lions knocked the Packers out of the playoffs. They had nothing to play for and beat them at Lambo 20 to 16. Correct. That was what they had to play for. Yeah. It just feels like Detroit's going to be highly, highly motivated to send a message to Chicago. That's got to feel good.

If you're like a team or you're knocked out in your final week, it's the Lions Green Bay. And you're probably looked upon like, no, Green Bay is going to go right through. And you beat them, they don't go to the playoffs. Yeah. That handshake at the end of the game with Aaron Rogers. You're welcome. Hey, good game, Aaron. See ya. And then we talked about the Rams. They're locked into the five or six seed. So not a ton. You know, they got some players they need to get healthy. Devante Adams, we're not going to see him. We probably won't see Blake Corum. So on the NFC side, fighting for the playoffs, Carolina, Tampa Bay. We talked through that entire scenario. You know, Carolina can make it easy. Just win. And then we won't, just win the game. Then we don't have a sub 500 team getting a home. I am, I like divisions. I think it's fun in football in the, in the actual NFL. A sub.

500 team should never host a playoff game. I believe that with all of my heart. I feel like they shouldn't play a playoff game. Okay. You're going a further step. I do. I think that a team that like you're in a division that was bad, meaning you had an easier path. You played easier teams within your division that you won with a sub 500 record. You are taking a playoff spot away from someone who is a better football team. It's bad for the fan who wants to see every team in the playoffs with a chance to make some noise. You don't want there to be a game where it's like everyone's hoping they play against this matchup. Thankfully it's not, I don't think it's really egregious this year. Sometimes you get someone being held out. Obviously you rotate the divisions that the divisions play. So sometimes they get tougher divisions that they play against. And then sometimes there's a lot of parity within the division.

So you end up eating yourself a little bit, right? Like all the different teams within the division. The snake. Yeah, there's no dominant team. So the records can bounce around a little bit because of that. Who is their, who is their AFC division that they played this year? Do you know off the top of your head? I do not. We can figure that out. No, no, we can't figure it out. It looks like the, it was the, they played the East. I like that. Jason was going to go figure it out. the king of divisions yeah you don't even know who are in the divisions who's in the a fc east jason i know every every single division every single team who plays against every team in the division i just don't ever remember the names so who's in the east that's all i'm asking that's who they played this year i'd like to know the east the afc east yeah you know the ones on the eastern side like the steelers you were like look down you're like yeah i'm going to figure this out oh he