Fantasy Football - Week 15 Waivers & Streamers + Pee River Returns! - Podcast for 12/9

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Playoff time! We! I was so hoping. Yeah. I was driving in this morning. I'm like, he better give us its playoff time. It is playoff time, baby. It's time. Let's get down to business. Yeah, welcome to the playoffs, one and all. Yes. Now your entire season hinges on one week. Or maybe not. One week at a time. Maybe you have a bye. Oh, bye bros. Yeah. Listener league. My week. Foot Clan. We did it. Mike and I and Andy. We are all three in the playoffs. So we're half. We're half of the playoffs in our listener league, 14 team league. If we win, that opens up another spot for you guys next year. And Mike and I, we're sitting on opposite sides of the bracket on bye. Yeah. I think if I win, I face Mike. Yeah. Yeah. That is correct.

So in other words, Ladd-McConkie didn't do anything last night. Because we knew that that was part of getting into the fantasy playoffs for me. That game. But don't worry. Gadsden did nothing either. And also Quentin Johnson did nothing. I have never seen a game between 8 and 14 against 8 and 14 with the, I mean, this is the week to get into the playoffs with so many fantasy players. active in this matchup. I mean, we got 41 points. That went into overtime that was more boring and worse than that. That game was a snooze fast. If I was facing Jalen Hertz last night and I got to experience the two turnovers in one play. Oh, man. For minus four. So that's the thing dreams are made of. Only time in the history of the National Football League has happened. My boy. Through a pick.

recover to fumble fumbled my boy was winning in in his league with his buddies winning in jalen hurts on his roster or his upon his roster oh no losing out the final pick of the final interception of the game turned it into a tie he had he had just gone up on that final overtime drive and then lost another two points which means he's going into that game where he's like I just need like two points from jail. It hurts. No, no, I'm saying over the course of the game, like a couple guys versus a couple guys. But the final interstate, and I saw tons of tweets. It was just heartbreaking. It was the most appropriate ending to the game possible. I mean, when the penalty gave them an opportunity. Oh, the off sides? Yeah, when the off sides, it was like if that defender's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's when it popped into my head, like an interception is the way this shit end. Yeah. And it did. And it did. And it was, what, five turnovers by Jalen Hertz in that game? Mm-hmm. I mean, okay. I don't. This man is broken. I think Hertz is way better than this. Yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things where like everything is true all at once. Yes, I agree. Everybody that backed up Jalen Hertz forever is validated. Everybody that... thinks he has holes in his game validated. I mean, he's a Super Bowl champion. Like, yeah. They have now lost, I mean, again, they have lost three straight games that A.J. Brown has had 100 yards. I mean, this is. And Parkley actually had a good game too. Yeah, yeah, the breakaway run and he had a great game. And, you know, what's the recipe for success? I do not lay any of this game at the feet. I don't think it's fair to lay it at the feet of the offensive coordinator in this game because.

Look, I think overall in the whole season, he's not done a good job. The fact that the design runs for Jalen Hertz are down to about half, that's insane. That's not what got you here. But Lane Johnson, look at the record without Lane Johnson. They're just not the same football team without him. And it requires your quarterback to do more and against a disciplined defense. Doing more is hard. And it was still a game that they easily could have won. It went to overtime. The defense is so good. 139 passing yards. That's all that there's still a threat to win the Super Bowl. So here's here's a cool step. Yeah, because the defense is just so good. From opt to stats, Justin Herbert, the only NFL quarterback in the Super Bowl era to complete under 50% of passes, throw for under 150 yards, get sacked seven times, have multiple turnovers, and win the game. No, at tie might have been the most appropriate. Yeah, actually. But welcome in. If you're playoff bound, congratulations.

If you want to call your shot and you're already going to win the thing, just pick up a trophy, Fantasychamps.com. Trophies rings. If you're the commissioner and you need something for your league, that's where we send you. Use the code ballers. We talked through Monday night. Saquan was the big positive story. AJ Brown hit 100 yards. Seekwant's 20 for 122 and 1. Hampton looked pretty good. He did. I thought he looked. I thought he looked good. That was like the. best game you could have hoped for? Because I don't think that there was a world where they were going to give him 100% of the opportunity's first game. He looked good. He got the work. He escaped healthy. That's wonderful. And if you played Vidal, you didn't die either because you had a 60 yard reception. So, you know, a lot of people were like, which one of these two do you play? I was like, we were kind of go down with Hampton. Yep. I think you ended up more points for Hampton than Vidal, but it had to be close. McConkey won for 12.

I mean, it's all all chargers not on the running back squad. Yeah, I mean, it didn't matter if it was McConkey, Keenan, Johnston, Gadsden, you didn't have a good time. Yeah, I mean, McConkey, of their big, like, tri-force of wide receivers, he led the team in receiving with 18 yards. Yeah, crazy. News and notes from around the league, presented by progressive insurance. I did really enjoy the, like. cornerbacks in general get really hyped when they stop a play. You know, you got the strapped. Oh, yeah. And you got the bill or incomplete. You know, you do whatever you want to do. I might be the biggest fan of Cooper Jeans just double thumbs down. Oh yeah. Where they do that? Where he just, he's just like, nah, no, no, no, thumbs down. Was that play good? Two thumbs down. No, I mean, it's just hilarious. Do not recommend. No, no, no. I wouldn't do that. All right, guys. I never thought we'd be here. Oh, man. This is the greatest news.

I have ever heard out of the blue. This is just sometimes the world does stuff to make your show better. It makes no sense. But also it's awesome. The Colts are bringing in. Oh, P. River. Fill up Rivers for a workout on Tuesday. He's last played. Do you know when? Do you know the year? He's got to be what 21, 3, 4 years ago? 2020. Oh, man. I can't imagine how many kids he's had between then and now. But Philip Rivers, it's not a joke. He's coming in for a workout. Daniel Jones is on IR for the Colts. Richardson on IR. That is how bad Brett Rippin Farts is. I mean, Riley Leonard, if you didn't know, week to week with a PCL sprain and only Brett Rippin Farts is on the roster. So a combination of a quarterback room with P. River and Brett Rippin Farts, this is the fantasy footballers dream.

uh it's it's unbelievable and truly so obviously is this 44 year old two nickname winners oh my gosh you're right pee river won a footie yeah rip and farts one a footie wow a farty powerful team here um just pee in farts be in farts dun dun da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da how do we exist um here here's a thing we need clown Lights. 44 years old. Hasn't played in half a decade. Philip Rivers is not going to be good. No, there is no way this works. But for fantasy football, I mean, like, like, you know, I'm going to know, we got some. Yeah, we got. Yeah, we got clown lights. Those are clown lights. Boop, booh. The dump offs to Jonathan Taylor.

You know, I don't know who. It'll probably be Pittman, but I think this is great for the other pieces. Should it happen? Could he have a stool in shotgun? Would they give him a stool to sit on? Like a rocking chair that he just pulls to the next title? Yeah, I mean, just, you know, like if you're ripping tickets at the movie theater and you're over a certain age, they give you a stool. We go with the, no, we just go with the seven on seven rules. Like, you got five seconds. Oh, yeah. This is one banana, no rushes. Two banana. Yeah, I mean.

It's awesome. I mean, Philip Rivers, the only reason this is happening is because he played for the Colts. There were rumors about him. Go get Matt Ryan, you coward. He's bored. Yeah. And, um, and he's got nothing. I mean, you'd think you wouldn't be bored with. Oh, no, he's the opposite of bored. At this point, I'll bet they're talking. Get me out of here. Yeah. Save me. I got three of them. How many does Rivers have? I'm looking it up right now. Um, Philip Rivers child count. Maybe a baker's dozen? I love that one of the auto-complete questions is, what NFL player has 13 children? I was saying 10 children. 10 children. Okay. Double digits. Yeah, dad's got to go back to work, everyone. We got bills to pay. Zach Taylor said T. Higgins is back in concussion protocol. The writing was on the wall. Why was it on the wall? Because he was definitely concussed during the game. I mean, this is unacceptable. Maybe multiple times. I mean, this is.

truly like no jokes this is I feel like negligence everybody everybody watching the game saw the hits he took saw him hit the on a frozen ground not even just a nice soft supple normal grass no just frozen um and and you probably doesn't play again no I agree I think he will you if you have T Higgins and fantasy you have to be prepared yeah to have a playoff run without him he's I mean a lave last year Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people. That's one of the examples. I mean, if you had multiple. T. Tillman last year, just done for the year. Yeah, multiple concussions. And it's best for T. Higgins. And the team is out of it almost, but not completely. I mean, I know they have a shot. Yeah, we did the playoff calculator and pick the games. And there is a, it's like, it's like an eight leg parlay. But everything kind of makes sense that the tough matchups are lost and easy matchups are one. Steelers have to go one and three. And the bangles have to go three and one. And then the.

Ravens can't win out and then basically Cincinnati has all the tiebreakers. Cincinnati has to beat the bank. Don't they have to win out? Yeah, since he does. Sorry, I said three and one. Yeah, they have to win out. But yeah, T. Higgins probably not going to be a part of it. It probably hurts your Joe Burrow a little bit overall. Jamar Chase will be fine. Devon A. Chan, no fracture. It was a rib injury. He said he could have come back in. He basically fell on the football. And so. Jason, control yourself. I know. I just wanted you to take your time and get healthy. Devon A. Chan is needed for fantasy. If you remember yesterday, you're like, ah, you don't have to make a decision about Justin Jefferson because you're not in the playoffs. You're in the playoffs with Devon A. Chan. Yes, for sure. I mean, I, so when I saw this news and he's going to play, he is adamant that he's going to play. I'm sure he's going to be there. We'll monitor as it goes along because it's a money. He will. I, I just opened up his profile again.

And I was like, oh, dang it. He has been, he's been the most consistent player in all of fantasy this year. Yeah. So he should, he should be back, which is great news. Dan Quinn said Jaden Daniels is sore, but no long-term concerns with the elbow. Zach Gertz, Torny C.L. Keaton Mitchell avoided serious injury day to day. Shadour Sanders will remain as the starting quarterback for the remainder of the year. Good. It was the most positive comments to Fanski said. It was like he's continuously just. Mm-hmm. improving improving every single week so it's it's good news and it's exciting and fun and we'll see I mean there are opinions out there that he's better than the quarterback's coming in if you I think that there's a decent chance the Browns do not go quarterback because of their forced financial beliefs into Sean Watson combined with Shador Sanders and that combination they may feel is enough to add more important pieces at other spots on the team they made the brilliant trade

in my opinion, to get the draft capital and get Mason Graham and trade Travis Hunter and they have draft capital there. I don't know. Shador Sanders will stay the quarterback for now and through the remainder of the year. Todd Bold said Mike Evans has a chance to play against the Falcons on Thursday night. Okay. This is great. I shared in our company chat this morning in my ever-present desires to slightly defend a Mecca Abuka. This came through from JJ Zacharisa and he was sharing about Fantasy Life data. Pre-Monday night football, there's been 107 wide receivers who have run 100 of more routes since week 5. Abuka is 105th in catchable targets out of 107. So it's been both. It's been a both-hand. Like Baker's hurt. Baker's been much worse. Abuka is playing poorly on top of it. He's dropped some of the catchable targets, which is a problem. And then fewer than half of his looks have been catchable. We also watched through the film yesterday. There were five.

Five just missed touchdowns. Some were Abuka, some were Baker. Everything that was working those first five or six weeks, you know, my son asked me, do I think Abuca will be fine? I'm like, I don't think you can do what you did in those first six, seven weeks without being fine. It's just right now. The combination of the offense struggling, Baker struggling, Abuka struggling, there's a lot. And I think maybe what we underestimated was as a rookie. maybe you want Mike Evans on the other side to take some pressure off. Maybe that's the best thing for Abuka. It reminds me a lot of what's going on with Rome. Well, I mean, Rome's hurt now, but, you know, you just, you had Rome had the hot start as well, where he was scoring a bunch of touchdowns. Yeah, Rome and Abuka, it seemed unsustainable. You would have felt invulnerable. And the, and then he had a couple like real high profile drops. And then you're, you have those combined with the production disappearing and you go, well, it's all the wide receiver.

Well, then when you dig into the data, like Rome, about half of Rome's targets are catchable. But when you, that concoction of uncatchable targets plus a few real nasty drops, it turns your opinion on someone when it probably shouldn't. And both of these guys had an injury that kind of coincided with when their play started going poorly, the hamstring, the foot right now for Rome that you found out he was playing through. I mean, if you are, it's one of those things where it's like, is it the quarterback, is it the wide receiver? If if Ibuka is slowed down or Rome is slowed down and the target is uncatchable, is it possibly because he's not where he usually would be. Right. You know, there's so much. Both of those players I don't have any different view of in Dynasty Leaks than I did weeks ago. Yeah, they're awesome. And if one or two of those touchdowns works out for either guy, we don't even have the conversation because you don't see such a run. It's just the way it is. Other news, we just got.

An update, Tray Benson facing deadline Wednesday to be activated from IR before he would be inactive. Oh, did we talk to Gannon about it? Yeah, Gannon said... What did he say? Well, I mean, because... He had very insightful information. He said, we'll see. Not sure quite yet. Yeah. I want to see him out. Did he have his arms crossed? He's like, no. Yeah, he did. We'll see. You find out Wednesday. We don't like you. Jake London listed his DMP again. He might miss again. And so... It definitely seems like he is. not going to play. Yeah. As of now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was news and notes. Sponsored by Progressive Insurance Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers. Not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits and conditions. It's a waiver time. It's a little. It's a little lean. Hopefully you got some guys before now. It's a little light on the waivers. Yeah, I mean, I.

I made the joke when we were putting our waiver rankings together yesterday that it just feels wrong to have anybody ranked really high. Yeah. In a lot of these positions. Everyone has, like, you have to, someone has to be third or fourth by the way rankings work. Math, but no one deserves it. No, I mean, I would say at running back right now, it is, if you need a start, there's just two names that matter to me. I mean, it's Chris Rodriguez who. was great again on the ground in his limited work. It wasn't amazing for fantasy. I'm not saying it was. He's going to have 10 plus touches against the Giants this week. He has scored in a lot of his recent starts. And Chris Rodriguez is only 60% rostered. He will be playing for me in multiple playoffs. I think he's a fine play this week. Yeah. The Giants is a good matchup. And he's not going to catch passes. He needs the score. The next week is Philly. I would have far less confidence than that. But for a one week type of a situation, Dallas is.

Three weeks from now, so maybe, maybe. But I think it's, I think it will be a lot better for Rodriguez this week. You have, I mean, they're not playing Jaden, are they? I wouldn't doubt it, but either way, either way. Well, I think it's better if they. Just play Mariotta? Yeah, it just will be like, hey, this is what we're going forward with. It's going to be Marioota. This is the game plan. We don't have to switch anything for, based on the quarterback. Just move forward with Marioota, and Rodriguez would be. a perfectly acceptable flex running back two type of play. And then Blake Corum. Blake Corum is the other name that we have been talking about for probably six weeks at this point. Blake Corum only 49% rostered. Yeah. The Lions. He plays the Lions. He does. He has had double digit opportunities in four of six games since the buy and it's not the Cardinals. He doesn't play the Cardinals again. It should be a shootout though. Isn't that game 55 and a half point over under?

Very, very high over under, but... They will give him touches. There's just no way that they're not going to do that. But if he gets 10, 11 touches against the Lions, I don't know that it's going to be a really good game. You'd play Rodriguez over him? Yeah, I would. I think it's touchdown or bust for Corm. And then don't forget about Devin Singletary. He had the byweek. Yes. Talked about him. He was running well. We have an injury to Tyrone Tracy Jr., which seems to always be part of the story. But... He has two top 12 finishes in his last three starts, speaking of Devin Singletary with three touchdowns in those games. 12 for 68 last time against New England. That's not a easy matchup and he got it done. 17.2 fantasy points against Green Bay. That's not an easy matchup and he got it done. Singletary is pretty sneaky. I'd play him over Blake Korn. I would as well. And that's a Washington matchup. You might, depending on the Tracy News, you might want to play him over Chris Rodriguez. Yeah.

I think he may end up being number one if Tracy is limited in practice this week. Because, I mean, him and him and Tracy were already splitting. Singletary was getting the high value touches. Splitting, but getting tons of work. It was weird. They both every week were like 15 carries. I don't know how they had that much work to go around. Jalen Wright is another name. I know that Devon A. Chan is going to presumably be okay, but he is hurt. He left the game. And Jalen Wright was out there 24 carries over 100 yards. So should the news turn bad this week? You've got to be prepared. And then another one to mention it's gross. I don't like mentioning it. But I don't think Trey Benson is coming back. We'll find out soon, Mr. Gannon. And if he's not back, oh, don't do it. Bam Knight is going. Against Houston. No, I wouldn't play him this week. Oh, okay. But Atlanta, Cincinnati, the next two weeks is awesome. That's fine. That's fine.

And part of your job as a fantasy manager in the playoffs is to also defend against your opponent. Yeah, you've got to block it like it's hot. Yeah, block it like it's hot. If there's somebody out there that helps them with a spot start, put them on your roster if you've got the room. You need to go ahead and play for every single possible point in your matchup, in your competition. So Bam Knight will be a starter. And you don't want to see that guy on the other side if somebody needs somebody. Unless it's this week. Unless it's this week against Houston, let them do it, I guess. So let's take a break and we'll talk some whiteouts. This is when it gets even harder, guys. Seriously. You know, again, you've been building your roster towards the playoffs for weeks. If you've been listening along, we've been trying to help you do that. What happens if you are, you know, Mike, you just talked about having double concussion universe with CD Lamb, T. Higgins in one of your leagues going into the playoffs. If you're looking for a spot start and Jerry Rice isn't available, who plays for the Cardinals, what are you doing?

So there's a few names at the top. Ryan Flanoy of the Dallas Cowboys. It makes sense. You know, he had the 13 targets, huge game, 9 for 1, 15 in the score. Last week with C.D. Lamb missing time and George Pickens doing whatever George Pickensy stuff he was doing on the field. But they do, number one. The last we heard about C.D. Lamb was that he was progressing, what was the quote, like nicely? Yeah, nicely through the protocol. So there is a chance. He has extra time. You got to remember this. It was Thursday. Yeah, so Flannoy is, you can only play him if C.D. Lamb doesn't play. And then on top of that, it's against Minnesota, which DAC and company will get some things done against Minnesota. I'm not worried about that, but how much? Because that defense is still very, very strong.

It would be a terrifying start. It would. It would. We had three games earlier this season without C.D. Lamb. And so we've seen this. And Flannoy was the wide receiver 12 on one of those weeks. It was awesome. 114 yards, nine targets. The other two games was three points and four points. So it is not like a guarantee that he's fine. Right. Jaden Reed to me is the most interesting name for now and moving forward because this offense. Four touchdowns and three touchdowns. Matthew Golden doesn't get snaps. I mean, Bull Melton has out snapped Matthew Golden at this juncture. Important ball games. It's Denver. You don't like that. But Jaden Reed will have, this is what I'm looking for myself in the playoffs. Guaranteed touches. Give me guaranteed touches. Like Ryan Flanoy, if you played him and C.D. Lamb is playing, you could have zero. Luther Burden, does he have guaranteed touches? Probably. Luther Burden probably gets two or three.

But I think Jaden Reed has the most guaranteed touches of this group personally. I think, you know, this was his first opportunity back. He still had six touches in the game and six opportunities. I would not be shocked if he is an integral part. The outside wide receivers facing Denver, Patrick Sertan, move Jaden Reed around, give him the ball in short area space in his second game back. Personally, that's my favorite pickup, even though the matchup's difficult. He's difficult. I think he's a difficult start because it's Jaden Reed. week one was great and then he got hurt. So it was the, what's going to have, we don't know what would have happened this season for Jaden Reed in terms of fantasy usage. But like 2024, he did the same thing. Week one was hot, disappears. Has a good game, disappears. My concern for Jaden Reed is, yeah, he's guaranteed. I trust his talent the most. Yeah, that's why he's so difficult. And there's no Tucker Kraft and there's no Matthew Golden right now. He's, he's an excellent player.

Jordan Love is playing at a very high caliber right now. Reed, I think, though, while the ceiling is there for Reed, I think the floor is extremely low. And Jane Reed could go out and give you two for 15. Unfortunately, that's how I view the rest of these dudes in the list. No, I think there's one other really decent pickup. Rookie wide receiver Jaden Higgins. He has been five of the last seven games. So this is, I mean, this is rookie season. Five of the last seven games, he's been a top 36 wide receiver. And the only two that he wasn't a top 36 wide receiver was against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos. Really tough matchups. Now he's got Arizona. Sure. Like I'm fine with that. He's been getting it done. He's, you know, looked around the end zone. I think he's just a good player. Yeah, I can see that. I mean, I think Arizona, the matchup is what jumps out to me. Yes. How do you compare? I'm still on the read. I'd probably go read Burden Higgins in my top three.

And your sidelaw is going to bring up Yoshivas of just any replacement for the Cincinnati Bengals. You want to believe in that, but it's a little bit tough right now. With other, you know, Gisiki was heavily involved. He, he, I'd rather flex Gisikki over Yoshivas. Okay. If you're talking about that situation, you know, with Mitchell, with Tinsley there as well, it just makes me feel a little bit nervous, nervous. Depending on the quarterback. situation for the New York Jets. I mean, which really, really matters. Adonai Mitchell still had six targets. It didn't work last week. One for 24, but six targets gets Jacksonville on the road. He should see, like he should see six or more targets again. It's just how quality are those targets. This is why talking about these wide receivers. It's tough. It's very painful. I think we can move forward. At the tight end position, we've got

A reminder that Sam LaPorte is eligible to return in week 15. So if things get desperate and he's sitting on the way of a wire and you think you need to stash a tight-in for a surprise late, he's at least eligible. It doesn't mean you should play him. But, you know, there are names at the tight-in position to me. Harold Fannin should have it all to himself, which should do are Sanders. I would say the last thing we heard was Dan Campbell said on December 4th that he's unlikely to play again in 2025. Okay. So even though he's eligible, he's probably not going to be back. Yeah, like he just.

If they go deep in the playoffs, maybe he can make it back. I don't think Laporte plays regular season. Harold Fanon. He's not top pickup of the week. He's my number one. Of all positions. He's probably not available in your league, but there's 35% of leagues. He's still sitting out there. You've got to check. If he's out there, pick him up. I would even flex him. I also think that we want to be, we don't want to be so recency biased that we forget the big name of last week, which. I still believe in the opportunity for Darren Waller. I think you need a game script where they can't be so successful on the ground, where they are not leading. You know, they're what, six and seven right now? Is that right? Six, seven? Yeah, something like that. Sorry. I'll see myself out. Please leave. Get out of here. Goodness gracious. Thank you. Climb under the death. He's gone. Jason is left. Jason is left. You're old.