Week 17 Waivers + Christmas Football Preview! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/24

We have tank Dell diagnosed with dislocated knee torn ACL, additional damage, probably gone for all of 2025. big time. Bummer. Deontay Johnson. Hopefully it's just 2025. Right. Deontay Johnson. It was signed by the Texans. That's a smart waiver pickup. Apparently there were a couple of teams that put in a waiver claims on Deontay, but yeah, cause each team wants to find out personally what the problem is. Like we're not sure what the issue is. Maybe it will work for us. It was funny though, because one of the other teams that put in the claim was the chargers, which is another Harbaugh.

You got to think he like, I don't know, called his brother and was like, dude, should I put in a claim or, or what? Yeah. And he was like, totally. Yeah. You're, you're going to the playoffs, right? We can beat you. Yeah. Pick them up. Yeah. No, no, he's great for your locker room. We have Dorian Thompson Robinson dealing with a calf injury. I know a little tiny hope for Jerry Judy's. And honestly, I'm not sure if, if Jamis would start, Dorian Thompson wouldn't be there. So what is their depth chart even? So it's Bailey. Oh yeah, that's right. That's right.

Zap, zap, zap. Yeah. It's probably Bailey. They're, they want to lose. Probably not going to have Xavier Leggett back out there for the pain. Panthers. So, uh, Adam Thielen still in play. Mike McDaniel said, basically, you know, we don't know what it's going to look like for Jalen Waddle. If Waddle misses, you could take a shot with Malik Washington. And if you're desperate, if you have injuries, he, he was involved, played 83% of snaps, had targets. Zay flowers did not practice on Monday, dealing with a shoulder. Harbaugh said pretty optimistic. He'll play big game for them. I'd be shocked if flowers wasn't out there.

I agree. Um, George, George Pickens, George, he's Christmas day to play George. he's going to play. Yeah, but I need him to play very well. And he's going to play well. Yeah. You're going to play him. Yeah. Do you need to? Yes. Jerome Ford. Uh, who's the quarterback. And so you play Pickens over Ford. Uh, currently that's how I would do it. Yeah. All right. There you go. Uh, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA insurance. Learn more at us. A.com slash insurance. Let's take a break. Then we'll hit the waiver wire. All right. It's time. Big names,

big week. Waiver time. Welcome to the waiver wire. Man, I was, I was really having a hard time finding the proper levels of motivation for this back-to-back championship. But now that we've kind of unraveled the double duty, doocer deceit situation, like two doocers. Now you actually want to win two doocers, twice the deceit, twice the titles for me. I like the way that the script is being written. I like your confidence. Yeah, no, I, I'm, I like my confidence too. Um, all right. I said confidence, but I let go of the, you weren't pushing the button very confidently. Um, all right,

we will, uh, here's our abridged important only waiver wire segment, running backs, guys, Tajay Spears, lots of snaps dealing with it. And then you've got the JK Dobbin situation in LA. You've got the Madison Abdullah in Las Vegas, and you've got the, if Connor doesn't play situation in Arizona, I can tell you for me as a Connor manager, I'm going to go with other options than I am the roulette of the backfield of Arizona beyond Connor. Like I don't want to go, I'm not going to try to get like Benson's hurt. Benson is hurt. If he plays, he will be a committee back.

There is no question. The Cardinals made Connor a committee back to their own demise this past week. There's no way Benson gets more work than Connor. I agree. Um, if Benson is active, it makes everyone a sketchy start. We just brought up that the bills have been shutting people down recently. If he doesn't play though, Michael Carter should have a backfield pretty much to himself. And he could volume his way to DJ Dallas. Yeah. I mean, if you want to try to win with Michael Carter, go ahead. I don't, I don't. I'm just saying, but I guess my point is I view like if you were in the situation where you got to pick one of those guys up,

I would rather pick up Carter's your guy. I would rather pick up Carter because I do not expect Benson to play. And if Benson does, he'll be in a definite committee. And the, but the like Alexander Madison, you would play him over, over. No, no, I would play Alexander Madison. Yeah. That's yes. I would, I would play Madison over not James Connor, but over the remaining Cardinals should Connor miss. Yeah. I'm, I'm trying to avoid that backfield too. Madison, Abdullah, Tajay Spears. I mean, if they don't score a touchdown, if those two guys, neither of them score a touchdown, you're doomed.

Those guys are, yeah, you're doomed for both of them. I mean, Abdullah had the better week, more efficient, had the touchdown, had the better passing game numbers. So, you know, Madison looked terrible, fell into the end zone. That's kind of what he's looked like. Oh, I know. I'm just saying like, that's the gamble you're playing with those two guys is either one could score. And the nice thing is they're playing against that saints team. You know what I mean? The saints are so bad that I think they're, I'd rather play cream hunt than any of those names. I'd rather take the chance on the better team where he's looked better,

where he's gotten into the end zone that if I'm betting on a touchdown for any of those guys, I'm betting on cream hunt. That's fair. I don't think that's a, a bad process at all. The, the two guys I have at the top would be, and they, they are probably rostered. Uh, Tajay Spears is rostered in 57% of leagues. So, but that there's still a lot of leagues out there. He's available. He's number one because Tony Pollard is super banged up, keeps trying to play through it and get those incentives. He hasn't. The matchup against Jacksonville is perfect. It's the type of game where you could throw a backup in and championship week and have a two touchdown game.

He's been doing it. He's been a running back one the last two weeks on the back of touchdown. So Tajay Spears, I think he's a great play. Um, and then Dobbins, who's even more rostered, but if he was dropped and is active for this game, I, I fully expect if he's active after the month off, he, he is the starter that he was when he left. They need him. I know Gus, I wish you wouldn't have said the part where he's the starter that you want when he left. Well, I'm, I'm saying that work, work, workload. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I,

I got spears. I got spears at the top and then I would, I would play Madison over Dobbins. Yeah. And Kendra Miller has fallen out of consideration for me. Unfortunately, the Vegas matchup is good, but Kendra Miller or Michael Carter. I mean, I, if no Benson and no Connor, I'd play Michael Carter for sure. Okay. For sure. He'll catch passes. And we do have more targets, five catches in the game with Connor. Yeah. We, I, there might be people out there in a championship matchup that are like, I have to, I have to ride super dirty. We have more, uh,

waiver names on the waiver wire tool on the website. So you can go to join the foot.com and look at who's available in your league for deeper settings. But for the most part, we're talking about only the guys that you can really play in a championship here. More names at wide receiver to mention Jalen McMillan, 50% rostered. I love him this week. He has been a, uh, just an outstanding wide receiver. 19.9 fancy points, 16, 14, the last three weeks, seven targets, six targets, seven targets, four touchdowns in three weeks, playing Carolina. Carolina has been able to move the football.

That's what you hope for in this Tampa game. Carolina putting up points against Tampa. I think they can do it. Tampa's defense has struggled. You want to shoot out. You want 300 yards from Baker. And there's just, look, it's, it's Mike Evans. And it's Jalen McMillan. Shepard's hurt. Otten's hurt. You know, it's going to be Jalen McMillan to some floor. In my opinion, this week, I am, I'm pretty excited about him. Yeah. It took me a while, brother, but these last three weeks, I've been Mr. McMillan. You've, you've been on him. And the truth is this, this, we've seen this play out for really good players in the past where their rookie season,

it took a couple of injuries in front of them. And then they got the opportunity and they did something great with it later in the season. You know, we saw that with Alman Ross St. Brown in his rookie year. And that was obviously to a much greater degree, but these guys, I like that. You're essentially calling a shot here, Andy, because if the next two weeks he puts basically four star weeks together, we're going to go into next year thinking of Jalen McMillan as someone, you know, that needs to be drafted high. And yet right now we're only two weeks in.

So you've got to call your shot. You've got to say, he's going to do it a third week in a row or he's not. You're saying he is. You actually said before the show that you're going to, that you want to play Jalen McMillan over James Connor if he's active. So that's, I mean, I don't, you can change your mind on that, but that's what you said. So that's kind of how bullish you are on McMillan in this really perfect matchup. Yeah. I love him this week. I loved what I saw in film from Hollywood Brown. To me, they obviously limited his work,

but when he was on snaps, yeah, yes, it's snaps. When he was on the field, they drew up plays for him. And I thought he looked great. You got to remember Brown's injury was not to his legs. His explosiveness is the same. He's 27. He's got Patrick Mahomes. They are desperate for targets. He got eight targets last week in limited snaps. 27% of snaps, eight targets. He looks to me. He looked the best of the receivers last week. When I watched the film, it's, it's a weird, hilarious wide receiver room there because you have the kind of recombination of Hopkins,

Hollywood from the days in Arizona. So, you know, Hollywood looks good to me. He's a sneaky desperation play. If you want a touchdown play and you just hope you get the big one because you got to get the big one with him. But Rashad Bateman against Houston, that would be your desperation play. And then I mentioned it. Malik Washington played a bunch of snaps for Miami. In week 10, Rashad Bateman caught a touchdown, had a great week. The next week, no touchdown, bad week. The next week, touchdown, green. The next week, red. This is very Christmassy. The next time he played,

two touchdowns, then a down week. We're back to green, baby. Christmas. Ho, ho, ho. Well, he did score last week, though. I will say that. He still scored. The reason he's on this list is because there's not a ton of players that are widely available on waivers where you can really take a shot and say, 80 and a touchdown is totally reasonable. Yes, it is. Totally reasonable. A little bit like Jameson Williams. Yeah. Do you, if you had Lamar Jackson, would you play Bateman or would you play McMillan? I think I would go for the shot of, of Bateman there because you're stacking together and championship week.

And some of it depends on, are you a super favorite or are you an underdog? Like if I'm an underdog, I would throw Bateman in there and hope that if Bateman has one of his good games, it correlates with Lamar doubles up my scoring opportunity. Nelson Aguilar may miss again. So. Jalen McMillan. Helps with snaps. Last three weeks, wide receiver, 11, better than AJ Brown, Keenan Allen, Jamison Williams, Devante Smith, Malik neighbors. he's been touchdowns on fire. It's because Baker is just, he's such a volume quarterback. So you talk about who do you want to play in those weeks? Some confident quarterback receiver combinations at tight end.

Chigga Conqua. Yeah. There's one. Yeah. In the list. That's who you want. He's still available in 91% of leagues. He is out there. And the 9% he is rostered in. I am pretty positive are the people listening to this show. So you even, you've either already got them or you can go get them. If you want to go beyond a Conqua, which you shouldn't, I think Dalton Schultz is the sneakiest play. You have lost digs. You've lost Dell. You will not have Deontay out there. And Dalton Schultz had eight targets last week. That's the play to me beyond Chigga Conqua.

It's, it's a Conqua and Schultz. I'd go Hunter over Dalton Schultz. And I would go Zach Ertz over Schultz. But I mean, the nice thing about this is we're all saying Chigga Conqua is the play. The matchup is there. The utilization is there. Everything is great for it. And it's not one of those names where it's like, well, Chig, Chig is available. Go get him. Yeah. And Chigga is someone that like, no, I mean, would you be playing Chigga or Kelsey? Chig? I've seen that question a lot. I mean, it's a legitimate, I mean, Travis Kelsey has just been terrible.

And the last game, the eyeball test was like, whoa, out of sync. Like I've never seen Mahomes and Kelsey out of sync. Turn in the wrong ways, not being in the, you know, the right spot of a zone. You've got a lot of players here where even like David Njoku, we don't know who the quarterback is right now. It is also banged up. If it's DTR, would you, you know, would you play him over David Njoku? Would you play him over Hawkinson? who kind of has been disappearing? I would, yeah, I think Okonkwo is like, it's 10 targets and 11 targets.

That's, those are, tight ends don't get those types of numbers. And the perfect matchup. And the, and the matchup is there. And it's, it's still Mason. Like I would play Okonkwo over a lot of tight ends this weekend. I've got him as my, like if, when you're clicking him in like over Kelsey, I get it. That's going to feel real yucky. Yeah. You got to make the decision. We're just saying if it was my decision, I would put Okonkwo in there. He's my tight end six on the week. Um, okay. And I can tell you right now, beyond, beyond Okonkwo,

I think Schultz will be my start of the week at tight end. Okay. Nice. Uh, I mean, do it two times in a row, brother. I am. I'm, I feel really, really confident about Dalton Schultz. He's been the tight end seven and four, three, two out of the last three weeks anyways. And now no deck tank Dell. You just don't, I mean, who are you going to throw the ball to? Nico, Nico's there. Robert Woods, the Ravens. No, I don't think so. Ravens are 31st against the past, uh, defenses. You like, talk to me, uh, defenses. I like against, sorry,

I was on a different page. We, we, we both were, um, the, the Colts, um, they're, you know, playing against the giants who is, are, are as good a matchup as you can get. Drew lock is so bad. And, and the giants team there, they've just imploded. I also think, the dolphins, um, defense is actually a good defense and they're playing against Cleveland with maybe a banged up DTR or a Bailey Zappy. even if it's Jameis, like Jameis is the one weird quarterback where it's like, I don't mind if my defense gives up 30 NFL real points. They're still going to score a ton because Jameis is going to pick six a couple of times.

Did you guys watch the game last night? No, I mean, we kind of, I watched a little bit of it and it was like, no, I'm not, I'm not doing this. It's, um, it's, uh, the, the Raiders defense is the play to me. Um, new Orleans is capped on what they're capable of doing. And the Raiders have made it very clear. Antonio Pierce has made it very clear. They don't give a crap about losing the number one pick. They're going to play. He's not going to be there. They're going to play this season out, um, as hard as they can.

The Raiders last week, they played Jacksonville, um, had a good week. And you got the, they gave up 14 points to Jacksonville. And now you got Spencer Rattler and Kendrick Miller to worry about. I would throw the chargers in there as well. The chargers are one, another one of those good defenses. That's the thing is like the, the Raiders defense isn't good. The dolphins defense is good. The chargers defense is good. Both have very good matchups. The chargers playing for their lives against Drake may and the Patriots. That one is on the road. Almost all of these, I ever, every defense this week that we like the Colts,

the dolphins, the Raiders, the chargers, they're all on the road. Um, the saints on the other side of the Raiders. Okay. Like they're at home and it's a bad match. matchup and whatever, but they're just scared of short fields, man. Yeah, I know. Really? I scared of short fields. All right. We'll take a break. Then we'll hit the streamers. All right. Just in case, uh, Jalen hurts. Isn't there. Full stream ahead. Jason has bone next. Mike has Anthony Richardson against the giants. And I have Matthew Stafford. Um, if I was putting them in order, there it is. That'd be my order.

That is bone Hicks, Richardson, Stafford. Yeah. That's all. If I was without Jalen hurt, we are unanimous that, uh, that Denver Cincinnati Bengals game is must win for both. They are going to, they're going to do everything in their power. I think it'll be a back and forth game. The Bengals just give up so many points. And Bo Nix has been scoring points. He's been running. He'll run in this game. Anthony Richardson against giants. You could have three rushing touchdowns and the Cardinals suck for Stafford. So that's the order. Um, okay. Well, uh, we'll move on to Christmas day football.