Week 11 Waivers + Difference Makers, Awesomely Awful - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/12

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Made yourself laugh there. Yeah. Yeah, there's a little... Dude, it's intense around here. There's a little hiccup in the motor. Sometimes you try to start the engine and... Let me tell you, Mike, what's going on. Please do. And the people. I can't wait. The League of Record, our league that we obsess about too much, which built this fantasy footballer's podcast. That's where it all came from. Champ. Shut up. Our trade deadline is this week. We're going into week 11. And so this is a huge week for our league for fantasy football. Everyone has to decide, are you in? Are you out? I know about that.

Yeah. Well, so here's... I'm aware. Here's what's going on around you. Let me tell you more. Here's what's going on around you. Do you tell me how bad my team is, too? In this room. My team right now is basically a game out of the playoffs, and there's about four teams vying for it. And I have to decide, am I in or am I out? Right. I've dealt with so many injuries that... We've got Josh and the Falcon over Inducer's Alley who are out. They are just trying to sell and accumulate assets. We've got Jeremy who's in it. He's trying to get assets. And we got Andy who's trying to figure out what to do with C.D. Lamb based on the conversations of yesterday. I mean, all of us in this room right now are vying for trades. And we're all afraid of every other person in here. And we don't want to get left down. We don't want to get. So it's like I.

Do we want to shop around? Do we want to check the rest of the league? I'm freaking out over here. And I don't even know if I'm in or if I'm out. So I don't know what to do with my life right now. There's just such a, there's such an undercurrent in the room, Mike. You know, there's some things that happened this morning. Josh is back to his tactics of just condescension and gas lighting. Josh is insufferable. You don't want that player? Let me tell you why he's the best. That's why when you walked in the office today, Mike, he said, who'd you rather have rest of the season, Tyree, Killer, Jane Reed? And when you answered the answer he didn't want to hear, he said, quote, well, you had to think about it, right? Yeah. So that's the world we're living in. But like a lot of things I have to think about, you know, just because it's the right thing to do to put, you put some consideration in it. Don't just fly off the handle.

That's a good life advice. And I got to the right answer. Yeah. And so just because I had to think about it. Right. Well, yeah. No, I know. But I got to the right answer. We have. And your answer is still wrong. We have, I'm sure more stories this week will take place. And I expect nothing less. All I know is that last year, when two of the three deucers conspired to ruin my team, it led to me winning a title. So this can only be good. This can only be good. We have. waivers on today's show to talk about. None of which will help Josh's team. He's got no chance of winning with them without them. It doesn't make a difference. Sure. Difference makers on today's show. NFL news to talk about. Surgery's a plenty. And I'm sure it'll be fun. The energy is palpable. You can feel it in the room. And Mike, you're wearing the hoodie today. Yeah. It's nice and chilly outside. It is. It's hoodie season.

It's 50 degrees in Arizona. That's crazy. And Jason, have you noticed Jason is slightly colder this year than. Yeah, I have. I've seen him put some sleeves on. He's got less. Thinking about these joggers you guys are always talking about. Might need to buy pants for the first time of my life. This is a man who literally wanted to live in a ice castle at one point in time. I would still love to live in an ice castle. But, uh, but, you know, a little less, uh, insulation built in. anymore. Yeah, turns out blubber is a great way to stay warm out there. Those whales, they know what they're doing, man. Oh my gosh. We had a, we had a Monday night football game that was weird. It was very weird. It really was a defensive battle. That would be the best way to describe it. And maybe we should have known what was on the horizon when your first touchdown was, uh, Malik Washington on an end around carry.

that nobody started and not starting players might have been a good technique last night. We got bailed out. Tyreeks game was fine because he caught a one-yard touchdown. Kyron didn't get into the end zone, which is strange and weird, and he fumbled. Matthew Stafford was not good. It can happen. I was talking about this on Sunday Live of Matthew Stafford is just the strangest quarterback because he has these. I mean, he has two elite wide receivers, and they can still have good games. Puka's 9 for 98. Cooper Cup is 7 for 80. Of course, you always want more, but that's... Those are good games. That's a good game. You're like, oh, Matthew Stafford must have had a strong fantasy game. No, no, he did not. I think they said on the broadcast, this was either his first or in like hundreds of games where there were no touchdowns, not rushing or receiving the...

The Matthew Stafford-led Rams did not score a touchdown in this game. And he accumulated a bunch of yards at the end, the last couple of drives with checkdown after checkdown after checkdown. But it was not a good game. Puka was 9 for 98. Cooper Cup, 7 for 80. They did benefit from some of those late drives. And then. You know, Jalen Waddle got involved with the first two passes the game. Excuse me, Dolphins leading receiver of the night. Jalen Waddle. That's, I mean, it's true. I think one of the storylines is the Tyree kill injury. He ends up playing. He only gets 16 yards through the air. Talking about a torn ligament, which is a sprain. They tied it into his arrest.

Getting thrown down on the ground in the broadcast. Which if that's where this injury came from, that means he's been playing with it the entire season. That was very early. What I read is he got it in training camp and then it was worsened after the arrest situation. Yeah, either way. The point is this isn't a new injury in week 10. This has been 10 weeks of dealing with the injury. You know, it's tough to know what to do with Tyree Kill. 16 total yards in this game is hashtag bad. Again, he got bailed out with that touchdown, but it's been... It's been a very, very rough season for Tyree Kill. He still looks just as fast as usual. What is going on? Three games with Tua. We all thought it would be fixed with Tua. In our league, scoring 10 points, 10 points, 10 points. So 72 yards, 80 yards, 16 yards.

This was a, this broke a touchdown drought of seven games. You know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't fundamentally freak out about it because they have, they got a pretty good schedule coming up, Las Vegas, New England, then it's Green Bay, then it's the Jets in Houston. Like, I think Tyreek will be okay, but it's clearly not the pace of last year. And the team having A Chan in the passing game and Jonu in the passing game. I don't know. It just seems slightly less Tyreek dependent. Would that be a fair summation? Yeah. The whole Miami offense was weird last night. They have these good running backs who, at least at the beginning of the game, that they were not utilizing them. I mean, HN ends with 12 carries. They were going with Jalen Wright, five carries for three yards. No carries for Moster. Moster didn't get a carry. He did have, I think, a couple catches right? Yeah, two for 34.

It was, like, I don't, the dolphins looked broken. Yeah, they won the game, but they won it on defense. And I don't, doesn't it seem somewhat strange that they're not utilizing Mostert? A little bit. Everything seems weird. Like the season that they had last year, some of these design, you know, the pitch plays where Moster picks a spot and seems really a fit for the offense. I don't know if he's hurting. I don't know what the story is. It's weird. But they did win. And, you know, if you're, if you're rooting for the rest of the season, week 11 on as a fantasy player, you should be really happy that the Dolphins won the ballgame. Because if they didn't win this game, they're two and seven. And I think, you know, the incentives for injured players to play, even any challenges with Tua's health, you want teams invested. And that division is.

It's the bills and nothing else. It's a competition for the wild card. The dolphins needed a win. Yeah, they did. I mean, both teams did, but the dolphins could have been on their way out already. Now they're still fighting for it. They still have belief as well because they were missing Tua for such a stretch of this season. They don't look at themselves indicative of what the record is. They think they are a playoff team and, you know, they still have a chance. But their offense has been broken since the second half of last year. The first. You know, two thirds of last year, they were on fire beating everyone up, scoring 40 points on the reg. And then this, you know, the end of last year, two of playing. I don't know if like NFL defenses have started to figure out this timing offense or whatnot. But I don't think that McDonald's has adapted yet since.

um since the second half of last year and i'm waiting and granted he's got the five fastest players in the NFL and so you you start to look at that and say there has been a lot made about how they beat up bad teams and that's true and so i'm looking forward to some dolphins against some bad teams on the schedule like i believe he's i believe he hasn't they haven't won as an underdog and i don't were they on underdog last night kyle Because I think that would have broken a streak if they were an underdog. I think it was like eight or nine straight losses as an underdog. Like they, to your point, Jason, they beat up bad teams and then they'd never show up against good teams. Is Kyle even with us? Is he dead? I heard an, uh. Yes, they were underdogs. Okay. You asked them a question, then you just kept talking. Yeah, my wife says I do that too. All right. Moving on. Welcome to Difference Makers, presented by I'm's pet food.

I love our difference makers this week. I really, really do. I think they're going to make a difference. Make a difference. So we're looking at, I mean, look, your trade deadlines, they're right around the corner. I did not know who Mike had pivoted to. I know Mike desperately hoped that he could pick Trey Lance in this second because he believed that the team would make the decision to go with Trey Lance, which of course, they didn't. No. Which. They might next week. I mean, they might, but they didn't. That says something incredible. So, I mean, this is Cooper Rush and Zeke's team. This can't be, this can't be Trey Lance and Dowdell's team. I've heard they're not living in the past with Zeke. I've heard. And, um, I've also heard that Rico Dowdell is PFF's highest graded Cowboys offensive player this year. Which on the surface sounds amazing.

But then I thought of- Oh, it's both, brother. I understand. Then I thought of who could beat him, and there was only one name. Now, it is impressive if he's higher-graded than C.D. Lane. Which he is. But the rest of the team, I'm not surprised. I mean. Yeah. I get both sides of it, but it's more of them. You're the best of the worst. Well, but I, you know, he could be very good if the offense was, if this was last year's offense and you just took Tony Pollard and swapped them for Dowdle and ran the offense, I think doubt, I think Dowell would be fine. Yeah. I think he probably would have been close to what.

Pollard was. And honestly, I feel like you were about to take a huge W. If Dak didn't get injured, if Dak did not get injured, I think this offense does figure it out in clicks. But with Cooper Rush, the scoring opportunities, the total yardage opportunities probably just aren't going to be there for doubt. Rico is not in this list. Well, the reason I said all that, Mike, was because the name that you wanted to bring up was a player that I actually made a trade offer for. Nice. Last night. Because I believe what Juan Jennings can bring to the table. San Francisco 49 or Juan Jennings. He returned from the injury to a full set of snaps. 11 target 7 for 93. I went back and watched every target for Juan and it's like it's fun. What's going like they're their manufacturing touches for him. They're taking huge shots with him. He is he is. Yes, he is fulfilling the promise that we that we had for Brandon Iyuk for this year.

This is totally what I expected for Brandon, but he never got it going, and now he's out for the year. And Joanne Jennings is the guy who is taking advantage of that opportunity. He has been absolutely bawling out when he's been on the field. And looking at the rest of the season, it's like they have some. They're favorite in every game. The matchups, it's not like, oh, baby, it's all green. But they are favored in every single game. They have totals of 47 or more projected. through the rest of the season. So these are competitive, higher scoring matchups. So I think that Joanne, who, he, like, he might still be on your waiver. Why there is a small chance of that. But even so, I, like, if he's on the waivers, I'm going really regressive after him. And I think that he is worth trading for. And he's like, he's this lower name guy. He's not a sexy name. Who is going to outproduce what you're like, oh, Joanne Jennings.

Some people know who that is. You can win a championship with John Jennings in your flex for sure. I mean, this is a role that the last two years has been a top 15 fantasy wide receiver. If you saw this schedule on the peripherals and Brandon Ayuk was on the team and you're like, oh, go get Brandon Ayuk. It would all make sense. Yeah. And you'd have to pay a lot. Which begs the question, like did the team make a mistake giving him that money? Obviously, injury notwithstanding, if John Jennings can come and be effective in this offense. where Brandon Ayuk went active wasn't. It does ask, I mean, Jennings just needed an opportunity. Yeah, he did. But, yeah, it's a great name. You guys have mentioned him. This is not really my name. This is just a name from the show. But the opportunity in front of George Pickens' rest of season, you know, this to me is more about, like with Jennings and Pickens, it's taking those two names and elevating their tier mid-season.

because you're not going to feel as, it's not going to feel as sexy starting those names, but there is a world where they're a better name to start than CD Land. There's a world where they're a better name to start than some of these other, you know, big name. I mean, it's obviously better than DJ Moore, right? But DJ Moore at one point probably felt really nice to slide that name into your lineup. Whereas Jennings and Pickens maybe felt more risky. You have to make those adjustments. Every single year championships are won on the back. of names that don't make you feel great about what you're seeing, but they perform. Yeah, I mean, Russell Wilson throws a moonball that is perfect for George Pickens. The yardage has been there every single week. The touchdowns have been there, you know, significantly with Russell Wilson. The schedule lining up for not just the next month. The next month is great, but pretty much rest of season. Everything is lining up for George Pickens to be.

pretty much a must start, like I think a wide receiver won rest of season. He is an absolute top tier wide receiver rest of season for me. And to be fair, in the beginning of the season, when he was not doing great for fantasy, he was awesome on film. He had so many incredible catches called back on penalties, so many just barely misses on touchdowns for different reasons. So I think this is, it's not something has changed. I believe he's been this good all season. Something changed. I mean, it's a quarterback. Freaking Mike Tomlin. He's good. Does it again. Moves from a team that is winning what Justin Fields. He's like, eh, I'm going to put Russ in here. And now the last three weeks, 37 points, 26, 28, three straight wins.

Let's see how Baltimore goes this week. I love Mike Tomlin so much. You do. You are the biggest Tomlin. I wish he was my son's father. You know what I mean? Then he had a chance to be a good man. Yeah, exactly. I wish he had a better father like Tomlin. So the last name I want to bring up, this is one that is for anyone trying to make the playoffs. I mean, everyone's trying to make the playoffs. But if you're not necessarily guaranteed yet and you need extra points, you're fighting for that last spot. someone that is going to score a lot of fantasy points up until the playoffs, who is available for you. I believe after Waivers run today, 100% of leagues, they will be available. I'm talking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense. Yeah. They just played Kansas City. So.

They're probably on waivers already. But if not, they're on by week this week. Like, you can't use them. These are the stashes and this is the time of year that I think you need to pay attention to this. Because if you need extra points and you've got to get those Ws, we've got four weeks left before the most league's fantasy playoffs start in week 15. So you're going to be on by this week. Pick them up and stash them because the three weeks leading up to playoffs are the juiciest best matchups you could possibly have. They're playing against the Giants and Daniel Jones, sacopotamus, pickopotamus. Probably Drew Locke. Maybe Drew Locke. Yeah, no, I mean, even better. Yeah, I mean, I don't care. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Then they go and play against Carolina and the Panthers. And who cares what the quarterback is there? If it's Dalton, I mean, it's not going to be. It looks like it's going to be young. And then the Raiders. So you've got three juicy super plus matchups. Those are the type of matchups you target. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense.

They're not elite, but they're not bad. This isn't targeting some bad defense against great matchups. This is just a good team playing hard football right now, trying to make the playoffs still against awesomely awful offenses. So I think that's someone that's going to put you over the top. Awesomely awful. Got it. And so this is the team to help you make the playoffs. I completely agree. I. set a reminder in my Slack a month ago. Oh, did you? And it reads, and I pasted it to you, Jason. It was a month ago, and it just said sign Tampa Bay defense. And it was all built around waiting to sign them until now. All right, that was difference makers presented by IMS pet food. When you choose IMS, you can see the difference in your pet with your own eyes. Healthy 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. I have to read your comment. I have to read your comment, Mike, because as I'm reading, as I'm closing down difference makers, and I'm talking about healthy energy in five days and digestion in 10 days and skin and coat in 25, you write, I need Ims for people. Healthy gut in 10 days? It's not possible. Oh, man. If they come out with a product that's just called I'ms for people, I'm for people. And I want 10%. I think you've come up with a great idea. Now, we just got breaking news that the chiefs, you know, the long-suffering 9-0 chiefs after two titles.

They're planning to designate Isaiah Pacheco to return from IR this week. This is wild. I think it's great news for everyone not named Kareem Hunt. But this is also the expectation right now of his timeline, his recovery. This is the opening window for practice. I fully 100% expect him to practice a couple weeks. before he is take to 21 before he's on the right maybe not 21 maybe 14 okay but i don't think he plays active in the game for certainly not this week i don't think two weeks maybe in three weeks he'll be he'll be inactive in the in the lineup but the window's open so it's got to be in the next three weeks for sure well the uh the chicago bears it's been bad um but they have fired Shane Waldron Shane Waldron is toast

How bad has it been? They've gone 23 consecutive drives without a touchdown. Here's what I will say. There is one negative to this move. I am playing the Packers defense this week, and I really wanted to face Shane Waldron and his ineptitude. The Bears fans are, this is your, he's already dead. It's like they are so demoralized right now. You had an offseason where you, loaded Caleb Williams up with talent. And I can tell you right now, it is the knife twist is how well Jane Daniels and Cliff Kingsbury are performing. It is always, it's like last year with Bryce Young. Bo Nix. And Bo Nix. Like Bryce Young last year with C.J. Stroud. It would have been bad if Bryce Young was just who he was. It's way worse when C.J. Stroud is having a great year. Should teams be aiming for the number two pick?

Trying to not get that first. I don't. What happens if Cliff comes to Chicago? You know, I do want to know, like, is it, how much of it is Waldron's absolute grotesque? Like, you can't do worse if you didn't know how to play football. No, we talked about this from the off season and through the season. I think the clearest indication of how Shane Waldron was was the interview with JSN. Oh, yes. And we talked about this a lot. More in the, less in the context of Caleb Williams, because we weren't, we weren't excited for a rookie quarterback here with a lot of targets to split up anyways. But we were excited about the possibilities for the Seattle offense with Grub system coming in because Waldron was leaving. And, and JSN was asked, I think it was on Super Bowl week to kind of the Bears fans about, hey, what can we expect from our new coordinator coming over from Seattle, you know? And he was like, is this live? He goes, uh.

His first comment is, yeah, good luck to y'all. The first comment was, is this lie? And then he says, good luck to y'all. And then he says, he's a good person. It's like the system is outdated, old, and can't work in today's NFL. So this is great news for the Bears, but I don't expect it to make an immediate impact. You can't implement a completely different system overnight in the NFL. for a rookie i i don't green bay yeah i mean this isn't going to be something where everything is turned around right now it is wonderful that going into next year honestly i feel like if you are a bears fan you're probably hoping that iber flus has gone he's got to because you want one of the predominant great up and coming you know offensive minds

to want this job. I mean, this is a, you've got weapons here. This is, if I'm, if I'm a coach and I'm picking my job, the bears look appealing. You've got a good defense. I don't know if they do. I don't know if Dave Canales, Dave Canales had his opportunity with Bryce. Yeah, I, it's scary. Oh, I'm not saying that it is a guarantee that it is a good job, but you have pieces. You got a, you would want a potential franchise quarterback through nine starts. Caleb Williams has 100 more yards than Bryce had last year, same touchdowns, 2% lower completion percentage, slightly higher passer rating, taking two more sacks. The Patriots, I believe, had 16 or 14 sacks on the year. They sacked them nine times. So I'm not trying to twist. I hope it gets better. I like Caleb. I want the team to succeed. It looked like they were getting on the right track. They don't have the right leadership. But this is a turnstile of play caller since 20.

18. Nagy. Bill Laser. Nagy. Laser. Nagy. Lazer. Gatsy. Waldron. Here we go. Let's try it again. We'll take a quick break. Get back into the news and then we've got your waiver wire for this week. The Giants, Mike, they're evaluating things when deciding whether Daniel Jones will continue starting. Will they be using any film? Daniel Jones hopes not. The The situation, if you're not up to speed, is Daniel Jones, his contract situation is, should he get hurt right now and be unable to pass a physical? It's sometimes in the early off season. I can't recall what the date is. But that triggers next year's money for Daniel Jones to be fully guaranteed. This is something we've seen a couple times. I think we have sought with, was it Derek Carr?

car might have had that happen when he got benched their car Russell Wilson had it happen and it's the the team knows we're out like we're we're not winning we're not going to the playoffs we're not making any noise is Daniel Jones the future of this team who has the number one overall pick do you want to lock up or risk locking up a bunch of money to Daniel Jones and so the I think the appropriate thing for the team to do is you put Drew lock in yeah so they're they're going into a week 11 buy coming out of that, if you had to put a dollar bet, I think you're betting on Drew Locke right now. Yeah, so if you're in, Drewlock is a guy who probably should be rostered already in Superflex because we've known about this stuff. But if you're in a Superflex right now, I would move Drewlock up the list should you need a quarterback. James Winston is the team's QB1 heading into week 11, Jelflako, going to remain the quarterback one until Steichen says otherwise. He will still get asked every week.