The TRUTH: QBs Part 2 + Deep Dives, Pendulum Swings - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/21

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in! Tuesday, January 21st, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the Fantasy Footballers back at you. It was a good weekend of football. I don't know if I'm looking forward to, I mean, it was.

It was a good weekend of football. It was a wild weekend. Lots to talk about. We've got our truth series going on right now. Part two of the quarterbacks. But I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Buffalo, Kansas City. Very much. I re-watched the epic. Oh, the comeback? Every time I watch that, I'm still blown away by the reality of it where they throw a touchdown pass. And there's 13 seconds left on the clock for the Chiefs. And they give up two plays. You know, you stop one or you make one short. It's over. There's no chance.

The fact they won. Those, man, those were the good old days. Because I don't think that's what we're going to get at all. Those two teams are not the same. No. And one of those two teams is the worst. Just the absolute worst. I don't. Full turn. Yeah. I don't want to always go with kind of the mob mentality when it comes to, oh, the referees. And, oh, look, we should appreciate greatness and all this stuff. Like, no. They're really annoying. Like, Patrick Mahomes dives. Yeah. He's flop. Oh. It's a flop. Dude. This is. The flop at the end where the ref didn't call it.

And it was just. It was full soccer flop. Shameful. That's. Like, that is shame upon your house and shame upon your name. That. Get that crap out of here. We need. Harsh penalties for flops. Yes. Quick through. We've got to get this through of the. We can take the New York. New York can look at face masks if they happen. If they didn't. The helmet to helmet. The call on that Mahomes did get. And you're like, oh, I can see what the ref saw with the whiplash of the head. But he was nowhere near it. That. And then flopping. Flopping is a 15 yard foul.

Flopping should be penalized for sure. So that you don't. Nonsense. Incentivize doing it. Because in truth. It's a smart play. Like, he should do that. Oh, yeah. If this was. If I'm a Chiefs fan. I'd be like. Why didn't you throw your hands up and fall over? Because. Draw the penalty. There's nothing to lose. Only 15 yards to gain. Yeah. First down. A hundred percent. So I put a poll out this morning. Because I love. I love greatness. I. I grew up. I mean, we all did. We grew up diehard Phoenix Suns fans. Like in Arizona, that was all there was.

And. Our Charles Barkley era. We. We didn't get a championship. Why? Because of Michael Jordan. Mm-hmm. Michael Jordan stopped us from having enjoyment in life. Dude, I love Michael Jordan. Everyone loved Michael. You didn't get tired of watching Jordan Jordan. You were like. That's greatness. I want that. I wasn't tired of watching the homes win championships when it was fun. And when they were like an entertaining team that didn't seem like this boring, plodding, villainous, villainistic, you know. That's new. Type of team. So I put a poll out this morning. I said in the year 2025, how do you feel about the Kansas City Chiefs?

Three options. I'm a Chiefs fan. Mm-hmm. I still like the Chiefs. I can't stand the Chiefs. And 76% are on I can't stand the Chiefs. I mean, there's always going to be a vote for jealousy, right? Yeah. When another team is doing well. But this is, you know. Chiefs fans got to get it, right? I think they do. Mahomes doesn't control the late hit call. He doesn't control the sliding. I mean, that call was terrible. The slide. The half slide. Texans players colliding and they call the pin. That was a terrible, awful call. But he doesn't control that call. He controls the one on the sideline, the flopping.

He controls the Vlade Divac. And that part is kind of eye-roll. And they just, they seem to win these games in ways where it's slow and plotting and the other team just barely falls short and you just barely get it done. And... Well, I've got good news for you. Right now, it appears to be 23 degrees and 17 mile-an-hour winds for the upcoming contest. So I don't think we're going to get that crazy, amazing back-and-forth affair. All we need is one where the Bills win. Yes. So, but I mean, that was not, you know, the Chiefs beating the Texans was not the surprise

of the weekend. The surprise of the weekend was the legend that is being built in Washington. The Commanders, 45. The Lions, 31. The turnovers. The performance of Jaden Daniels. I tweeted it, not to twist the knife, just the reality. I mean, the Commanders are everything that people thought the Bears would be. Yeah? With... Wow. You know, they... They really are. They are. The rookie that could lead you to a Super Bowl. The defense that was, you know, that performed well and they are... And that has to hurt. I know it hurts for Bears fans. I got close friends that are Bears fans and I'm sorry.

You just got Ben Johnson. Yeah, you got the bell of the ball. And hopefully that... I mean, you did everything you could do this offseason now, getting Ben Johnson to give yourself a shot. But the... There's just this quick finality with the playoffs. It is just hard. It's just like 15-2. Yeah. The line... And it's just over. It's just done. The whole season. And now no offensive and defensive coordinators. They'll both be gone. Yeah. They're about to get... They're about to lose everybody. And when... Like, how is no one else at the quarterback position? Doing this VR thing. That... It keeps coming up.

Of like, right at the beginning, Jane Daniels, we put him on this VR regiment, which... Yeah, he runs reps at 1.75 speed. Like, it's... It is brilliant. Like, the hardest part about being the quarterback is getting actual live reps. Because even when you're in training camp and you're going against your team, like, they're not... Like, they're instructed. Don't touch the quarterback. They're... You know, like, there's just... There's things that are not... It's not full game speed. No matter how much you want to compete against your own teammates, it will never be the ferocity of which another team could do. So, finding another way to just get...

See defenses. React. Try and make the right call. It's... It's amazing. I'm sure there's other quarterbacks and teams using this. I think it comes down to just... People can't explain what he's doing. Yeah. And it comes from hard work. Whether he's doing the VR or showing up early, whatever the case may be, he's been working his butt off. And he is so unflappable. 45 points against the Lions, regardless of the defensive injuries. The fourth down play is so impressive. Always seems so calm, under pressure. The moments don't seem to get to him. He does not appear rookie-like in any way, shape, or form.

And I know, you know, going back to the VR thing, he credited... Like, when we were talking about him as a college prospect, he was talking about that was what he was giving credit for. His transition from the ASU quarterback we saw to the LSU sensation, he said it was the VR stuff. So, I didn't know until this weekend that when he was... And Malik neighbors. Well, sure. And Brian Thomas Jr. The weapons certainly helped, but, you know, he doesn't have them for the commanders. It is interesting. I'm sure next year, a lot of programs will be picking up the VR headsets, putting them on,

saying, less Call of Duty, more VR. Oh, boy. The hit that Jared Goff took there on the interception. Oh, my goodness. I think if that were Patrick Mahomes, like, they would have called the game. Yeah. They would have said, no, that's an instant forfeit for the Washington commanders. You can't do that to Patrick. And Jared Goff's over here, just like, no, no call at all? Okay. Cliff Kingsbury getting it done. He'll have offers. Whether he takes them, I don't know. The Rams, they lost to the Eagles 28-22. Exciting game. It was. It was an exciting game. And then. Hopefully, Jalen Hurts is okay.

The two-point conversion heard around the world. Oh, man. Buffalo 27, Baltimore 25. You know, the game was not lost. I mean, it was lost on that play, but it wasn't, right? Like, you know, you had the. It was lost on the Mark Andrews fumble. And the catastrophic fumble by Lamar Jackson, too, that put him, you know, in position to win. It's just sad because, like, I've already seen the tweets. You know, you knew they were coming. It was so predictable that, like, oh, Lamar can't win in the playoffs. It's like, Lamar, that was not. I know Lamar had the fumble, but Lamar was there.

He was. You know, they could win the game if he just. If Mark Andrews catches the two-point conversion that was in his hands. He did play great. He missed throws. He didn't have the weapons in the wide receiver room that he needed. Like, you know, you look at what I think John Gruden came out and talked about the fact that, like, Mark Andrews was put in a position where he has to be everything for these drives. That final drive was. I mean, Zay Flowers missed the game. And then that final drive, Bateman was out, right? Yeah. And you have, like, why should your tight ends being, have to run clear out routes?

Like, you're going to be exhausted at that position of the game. You need more players. Look, Lamar could have played better. Lamar missed Derrick Henry down the left sideline. That would have been a guaranteed touchdown early in the game. Um, you know, it's always a play or two. It's not, it's not generally like catastrophic failure and three turnovers to zero. Yeah. You lost. Same with Detroit. The turnovers. Five turnovers. Were huge this week. If you look at the losing teams, all four losing teams outgained the winning teams in total yardage. The Texans, the Lions, the Rams, and the Ravens all had more production in yardage, but lost the game.

Yep. All right. Uh, let's talk some more news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, the Bears did hire Ben Johnson as their new head coach. Best you could do. It was a, uh, a mad dash to see who could get Ben Johnson. Jacksonville wanted him bad. The Raiders wanted him bad. Um, Cowboys were like, nah, we're good, man. They got the rise on somebody. Yeah. So we hear. Yeah. Brian Schottenheimer. Uh, the bear. They can't possibly. Oh, they can. They can. No, they can't. If there's anyone that can do it is Jerry. Uh, Ben Johnson goes to Chicago.

He is prepared to bring in Jason's favorite head coach of all time. Dennis Allen as their defensive coordinator. That's fine. His defensive coordinator. And, uh, the Colts hired Lou and Arumo as their DC long time bangle DC who had a, you know, a great run, had a Superbowl run with a good defense there. Falcons, uh, hired former interim head coach with the most, uh, manicured gray beard of all time. That is a Jeff Ulbrich. It is a very fancy gray beard. You don't usually see the gray beards. So manicured. That is from the commercials. The people. Oh yeah. He, yeah.

He could get a great like beard dye. Yes. Commercial. Yeah. But then he doesn't have his great beard anymore. Exactly. I bet he, I bet he likes the great beard. No, they, they have the dyes that accentuate the gray. Oh, the, uh, you know, a salty touch of gray, touch of gray. He could be a touch of gray guy. Um, D'Amico Ryan says it's too early to put a timeline on whether tank down can even play in 2025. Oh, brutal. It's brutal. You know, I want to give a lot of credit to Houston going into Arrowhead. They were actually in a position to compete.

They moved to football and it was a play, a couple of plays, you know, and, and what, what else is new for the, and they didn't have digs. They didn't have tank Dell or the refs. Yeah. It was, it was, it was tough sledding, but yeah, I mean, I think right now you have to, you go into next year, assuming you don't have tank Dell. Certainly for fantasy football, he's not going to be on the radar. And then we had Cooper cup who was basically deleted from the offense over the last quarter of the, of the season. Quartile. I've seen that word used a lot.

Quartile. Last quartile of the season. Oh, we're fancy. And, um, you know, what was the word you used earlier? Um, villain, something villain villain is a shit. Yeah. But Cooper cop said he plans to play next year, but not sure of his future with the Rams. So maybe there's some discussions have already happened. It sounded like he plans to play next year, but not sure how well, you know, he's not sure, you know, what type of player he is anymore. It was so weird. Cut candidate. Yeah. They would, they would save money, but they could also just rework things. He could def.

I, I, I think he could go Adam feeling somewhere. You know what I mean? Go and be a productive player for someone and he's going to break. Sorry, Coop. We love you. Uh, big Cooper cup fan, but, but we got it. We got. Touch of gray. Touch of gray for Cooper. He will be 32. Jokes to be made. You know? Yeah. Welcome to the club. Yes. That was today's nudes and notes presented by USAA insurance. Learn more at usaa.com slash insurance. Let's jump back into the truth. You want answers. I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth.

You can't handle the truth. Okay. I look, we've had the truth graphic there for a long, long time. Right. But I saw something for the first time. And look, if you're listening, you didn't see it. But if you're on YouTube, you saw the graphic introducing the segment. Okay. I saw something for the first time that made that graphic even more. Did it have to do with your hair? Yes. That's the first time I've ever seen it too. So the first clip of me. Yes. So for those listening at home. And I'll hit it. I didn't see it. I'm going to hit it again.

And you will watch. That's amazing. So for those watching at home, there's two scenes of me wearing a judge's wig. Okay. So before I reveal the problem, I want you to watch again with close. Oh, gosh. Eyes, Jason. See if you can notice. No, you'll see it. You'll see it. See if you can notice the problem. You want answers? I think I'm entitled to you. You want answers. You want the truth. You can't handle the truth. So did you. Oh, yeah. There is no. No effort? No effort needed to see. Well, here's the thing. In one of the scenes, you're wearing the wig.

Yes. Like a person would wear a wig. The other one, you're wearing it like a hat. A wig hat. I cover. I mean, that's not even true. That's not even true, Mike. Our graphics guy put so little effort into that. That they just put a wig over my hair. But like half my hair was showing. Half your hair was showing. Like you. It's a Photoshop thing. You just. Oh, my God. You just move it down. You just move the hair. Brian is dying right now. Push the down arrow. You know, hold shift. Push down like three times. And you're good.

That. This is not hard. I can't believe we all saw that for the first time. This is going many years. Wow. Well, enjoy that, Foot Clan. Well, we're into the truth. Part two. Our last episode. If you missed it, go back. Listen, it was the truth of the top 10 quarterbacks. Today, we're in part two. We are looking at the next tier. And there will be a lot of debate on today's show about the future of some of these guys. Because, you know, what was the truth about their potential? We'll talk about it. 45 different quarterbacks this year finished as a top 12 quarterback.

So, had at least one top 12 quarterback week. A quarterback one week. Right in line with what we're used to seeing. 46 last year. 45 the year before. 49 the year before this. We bring this stat up every single season in the draft time. When you're talking about quarterback strategy for the streaming option for the late round quarterback people out there. And in here, there are options from the waivers that you will never think of. For instance, Malik Willis. Yeah. Had a top 12. Drew Locke. Drew Locke had the epic game. Man, if anyone played Drew Locke in that game.

I was going to say, some were not predictable. Marcus Mariota did it twice while not playing a full game. Yeah, he didn't start either. So, no one for fantasy purposes started. We should really have this number be 43. Okay. But it's kind of there to highlight the reality that there's contributions well beyond the prototypical starting options. Just so you remember from last episode, what we're doing is we're looking at their fantasy finish and we're contrasting it with their consistency. And we're evaluating consistency on the basis of how many great games did they have? 26 or more points. How many good games?

21 points or more. And how many bust games? So, you're over 15. And so... Under 15. Sorry, yes. Under 15. Kyler came in at 11 in the fantasy finish. He was drafted as the quarterback 8. He is one of the Mount Rushmore of busts to me this year because of the... You took him in a spot where he needed to be your guy. And he wasn't quite bad enough to let you pivot off when you should have and not quite good enough to win you games. Now... Outright busts are easier to deal with. If you got Travis Etienne, you moved on.