THE UNOFFICIALFOOTBALLERSFAN ARCHIVE↗Transcript links use the exact YouTube video’s clock. Machine transcripts can contain errors.
The hosts insist that championship titles must be seized, possibly through a Trojan horse roster. They define Nasty Boys as unlikely waiver options who win titles, recall Jared Patterson, Sony Michel, Boston Scott, and Rashad Penny, and make Hassan Haskins the first emergency candidate for Jason's Derrick Henry-threatened League of Record final.
Jason remembers shopping for a car with a friend who pointed to its spoiler and announced that Frodo dies. Jason completely believed the lie and watched the Mount Doom ending convinced he knew Frodo's fate until the character survived.
The opening card credits Brooks/Judge Giamatti, Jeremy/Owl Borland, and Kyle/The Borgogon. At the waiver transition the desk says the whole crew is present, and the program repeatedly cuts to Brooks, Kyle, and Jeremy together beneath the DUCERS ALLEY sign, including again at the close.
Kyle says he is playing Jason and Mike in Dino Junior. Their shared team is identified as the back-to-back champion, while Kyle claims his roster becomes better if Derrick Henry sits. The champs answer with Hassan Haskins and JaMycal Hasty, then joke that a randomized lineup or an inactive Henry flex would turn Kyle into a puddle.
The annual poll reports that 95.4 percent of respondents hold championships in Week 17 and 4.6 percent in Week 18. The hosts joke about taking off or using a three-percent threshold, then admit they keep producing because the remaining Week 18 Foot Clan needs them. A funeral or parade for Jason's teams is proposed, and the closing share falls to 4.1 percent.
After correcting a Joey Chestnut joke, Kyle's exhaustion is explained: he lost his main-league semifinal on Michael Pittman's meaningless final catch, started coffee around 3 a.m., stayed awake searching both lineups for a stat correction, and admits superstition kept him from the game until he watched only the fatal final play.
Complete published-video review shows Mike, Jason, and Andy at the main desk throughout, dressed in ordinary studio clothes. The standard opening animation includes host cards and a WITH THE DUCERS card naming Brooks/Judge Giamatti, Jeremy/Owl Borland, and Kyle/The Borgogon. Later live cuts show those same three credited humans together beneath the DUCERS ALLEY sign; Kyle is identifiable in the center seat through the direct name, replies, glasses, and reference-photo match, with Brooks at left and Jeremy at right. The opening insists that Foot Clan titles must be seized rather than passively won, perhaps through a Trojan horse rostered with Nasty Boys. Jared Patterson, Sony Michel, Boston Scott, and Rashad Penny are prior examples, and Jason's threatened Derrick Henry absence in the League of Record final turns Hassan Haskins into the current emergency candidate. No Trojan horse, Nasty Boys art, or player vehicle is shown. During Russell Wilson discussion, Jason recalls a malicious friend pointing to a car spoiler and saying 'Frodo dies.' Jason believed the lie through the Mount Doom scene until Frodo survived; video stays on the desk with no movie image, lava, car, or spoiler graphic. The first waiver transition explicitly says the whole crew is present and cuts to the three-person booth. Kyle says he is facing Jason and Mike's back-to-back champion Dino Junior team, claims his roster is better with Henry out, and is told Haskins, a random lineup, or even starting an inactive Henry could reduce him to a puddle. The randomizer and puddle are spoken only. A yearly poll finds 95.4 percent of respondents using Week 17 championships and only 4.6 percent using Week 18. The hosts call themselves psychotic for continuing when industry friends stop, but say the remaining Foot Clan needs them; they invent a three-percent threshold and a next-week funeral or parade for Jason's teams. The poll is never displayed, and the funeral and parade are dialogue-only. Kyle then corrects a Joey Chestnut joke before the desk recounts his main-league semifinal loss: he drank coffee around 3 a.m., could not sleep, searched both lineups for a stat correction, watched none of the Chargers-Colts game until Michael Pittman's meaningless final catch, and lost on that one viewed play. The camera repeatedly cuts to the live booth while the hosts imagine a sword entering his heart and Kyle as a puddle; neither effect is shown. At the close, another real booth cut produces no additional news, and the poll falls to 4.1 percent. No fourth host, cardboard cutout, Jay Griz image, Jay-specific bear, Jay theme, or Jay sound cue appears; the generic animated bear in the standard opening montage is not identified with Jay.
To make it interesting for us. Yeah. Yeah. Tune in. Maybe what we'll do, because Jason's in some title games. We've got some things on the line. Papa Josh. Papa Josh is in the final week of the puppy over an underdog, giving it his shot over there. This might be like, you know, we might just be reflecting on Jason's emotions. Oh, man. I hope they're good. Maybe we'll have like a funeral if any of your teams lose or like a celebratory like. parade through the studio if you win. Also, I might not show up. Right. Now, which one is? I won't show up for the parade. Okay. I was going to say, if I win all my matchups, you're just not here. I'll attend the funeral. Okay. Yeah, you'll be here if I lose. Got it. It'll just be easier, you know, because I've been through some funerals. Yeah. I know that routine. All right. Let's dive into what running backs we are welcoming into the fold.
There's a number of names that we're just going to throw out really quickly. They're in our waiver wire page on the website, the fantasy footballers.com because they're not 100% rostered. They're not even 90% roster, but they're probably, if you're in a competitive league, they're probably rostered. Cam Acres is at the tippy top of the list, James Cook as well. Tyler Algiers is, I think, the top of mind because he gets Arizona. Yeah, and he's a little bit lower on the roster percentage. And Algier has been. The workload and the opportunities, 23 last week against Baltimore, this is their identity. And it's even more so with Desmond Ritter at quarterback. So Tyler Alger against Arizona. I love it, man. He's, he'll be great. This is a guy who I thought he was. And then he fell in the draft. And like the NFL made me completely second guess of what I was watching on Tyler Alger. I thought he was a complete three down, three down guy. And he's getting the work and he is succeeding.
We all really liked the talent of Alger in the NFL draft season. So it is nice to see the back half of this year like, ah, he is legit. That was the most, the last two weeks, the most opportunities he's had on this season. So it's ascending. They're at home. They're against Arizona. There's a lot to like there. And again, James Cook's Monday Night Football and what should be a shootout. That's a good opportunity. Gus Edwards is also rostered. Those are the four names that are in the. Just glance in case. Of course. You never know. Goodness. That Monday night football game. Championship week with the amount of players in Cincinnati and Buffalo for fantasy. I mean, usually, you know, most weeks, the Monday night game affects some people. This one's going to affect almost all the championship games.
Yeah, and to speak to these names, Acres was only started in 57% of Sleeper Leagues last week. That seems high. Like there was no chance I was playing Acres against Denver. Yeah, because Denver's not going to give it 51 points. And Acres has been terrible. And then Tyler Algier only started in 23% of leagues. But, you know, it's been his backfield. It's not been Patterson. So getting to the real meat and potatoes here. The real rancid stuff. The nasty. The nasties. I can't even say these names. I mean, Zach Moss. Yeah, you got to start with Zach Moss. Like, I don't think you could put Dion Jackson in a lineup. Jeff Saturday has told us with his actions who he will rely upon. So if you're going with anyone from that team, it's Zach Moss. But that is, even though the giants have kind of fallen apart on the defensive side of the football, that is.
That is desperation. Yeah, the matchup against the Giants, they are allowing the highest yards per carry for running backs in the entire league. And Zach Moss is going to say, yeah? Okay. Check this out. I can help that stat out for you. Zach Moss or Hassan Haskins then? Assuming that Derek Henry is out, I would go Hassan Haskins. I would too. It really would be tough for me personally. to rely on Zach Moss player of outwardly. This Rolling Stone does gather moss. It's that slow. Yeah. It does gather moss. Although, looking at, I'm looking at our lads.com. They have, it's a great resource for, for depth charts. But so we got Derek Henry, we got Hassan Haskins, and then we have Julius Chestnut. Those are the only listed running backs.
and Hassan Haskins was, like, Haskins production profile. That's the guy that eats all the hot dogs. Yeah, it is. Yeah, he's the third string. Oh, man, good one. He's been bulking up, getting ready to play right there. It's the kind of prime material you'll get next week on the fantasy football. Oh, man. Week 18. Yes, Kyle, we know it's Joey. I just wanted to say it in case you forgot. That's why it's a joke. That's the joke. You didn't say Joey. No, I know. I know I didn't say Joey. Oh, man, next week. There's a little bit of a leap of person has to make for the, like, for the humor. If I just say, is that Joey chestnut, then I'm already laying it out for you. Yeah. We were there. Not for everybody. Kyle had a very difficult heart wrenching loss in his main lead. He did not sleep last night because of it. So, you know, he's, he's still confused this morning. But do you have any coffee? Do you start your coffee at 1 a.m.?
It was about 3A. Oh, man. Kyle, listen, listen, we're all in it with you, Foot Clan. Kyle is in it with you. Spent last night. He lost on the final play of the game. I'm just bringing up. Literally. Well, not the, not the Neil Dan, but the Michael Pittman catch that was not a first stand. Meaningless catch. I mean, just ended the game. He lost on it. Then he didn't sleep. Then he spent all night looking at. both sides of his matchup. As one does. To find out if anybody could get stat corrected to get him through to a title game. He also, another fun fact, because this is sharing time. Could you throw it to the deuce who can't? I appreciate it. Thanks. Yeah. This is sharing time. And Kyle, how many plays of last night's game did you watch live due to your nervousness? I watched none except for the final play with Pittman. No.
I didn't know that either. Oh, man. So he watched one play, which have you ever, I mean, we've all been there. I've had times when I am, and I'm not a superstitious person by nature, but sometimes you feel like when you turn the game on, it goes bad for you. Oh, yeah. And when you turn it off, like it can't hurt you. So I'll ignore things sometimes. And then Kyle doesn't watch the whole game. He turns it on for the final play of the game. That's ridiculous. To see the sword plunged into his heart. in a meaningless, meaningless play. That's like hiding from the swordsman and then finally thinking he's gone, coming around the corner and you walk into it. The sword was just sticking out. Yeah, you didn't even swing. So you're a puddle. I understand if you don't really pick up on any of the humor. That's okay. Yeah, I tried so hard and got so far. Oh, the end. And to be clear. Nothing really matters. Kyle. It's true. Kyle. Just so you know.
The hot dog guy's not the, he's not the third stringer. So Hassan Haskins. Yeah. His final year over there, you know, at Michigan, the production profile is at least okay. They're about to run the football. And like he hit the percentage of rushing attempts that we want to see. He hit the percent of touches that you want to see for, that usually translates into some success. So. I actually like this on Hackens. Yeah, yeah. And his film was pretty good too. So saying that the matchup against Dallas, that kind of stinks. The fact that it's Malik Willis is the quarterback, but he should see a good amount of volume should Derek Henry be inactive.
The poll is now sitting at 4.2%. Oh, we're almost. Oh, nice. We're almost. We can do this. We could get to, we could get next week off by the end of this show. I love it. This poll turns the right direction. And then a couple other running backs to pay attention to Justin Jackson for the Detroit Lions. Jamal Williams has the injury. We don't know the severity of it just yet. but Jackson was already somebody who was involved enough to destroy DeAndre Swift's value. As you say, we already, the thing we still know is that they don't want to give Swift the ball. Yeah. So Justin Jackson, I think you're looking at basically a 50-50 time sheriff, Jamal Williams misses. And then Jamichael hasty for the Jaguars, their.
Hasty, hasty. Yeah, Jamikilicious. That would be the nastiest of nasty. See, he's my favorite. I'm so excited for it. Nasty. No, that's not good. If we knew, if we knew going in, you know, to the matchups, which obviously it's difficult because Thursday is going to be Derek Henry. But if we know that Derek Henry and Travis E.T.N., basically for the exact same reasons, if those two running backs were sat in both matchups, I would. I would play Jamichael Hastie. Yeah, I would actually like it quite a bit. You're playing against Houston. Jamichael Hastie and his few opportunities has been good. We saw him in week 12. He's a pass catcher. Exactly. He was a pass catcher. He had 67 receiving yards and 17 total opportunities. Not a great, you know, world beating running back, but I think the matchup is there. And, you know, the team, if they sat.
ETN and did not sit for a full game, Trevor Lawrence. The scenario, though, for Jacksonville isn't the same as Tennessee. Correct. Because Jacksonville can still find their way in by winning this week. So there may be, there's a little bit more on the line for them. Agreed. Yeah. As of now, while we're putting in waiver claims, I personally, I expect Eric Henry to not play and Travis ETN to play. There you go. Okay. Let's look at some tight ends, guys. Stare at them tight ends. Evan Ingle, probably rostered. If he's not silly, silliness, you got to roster him. What am I saying? Can we end the season? Oh, yeah, just embrace. Schmevin. Schmevin takes on Houston. Schmevin's about to get paid some money. Oh, it was one year, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm guessing Jacksonville probably franchises him. Don't underestimate his ability to undermine himself over the back of the year.
Tayson Hill, probably rostered. Tyler Higby, actually more rostered than you'd expect. But he's the last man standing here against the Chargers. And I'm cool with it. I think you have to be water, right? You've got to make adjustments. You've got to be willing to shmevin your way to a title or Higbeast your way to a championship. I think you can. Conk your way there as well. Can you? Yeah, you can. You've got Mike White. Mike White's back, baby. Mike White's back. We have targeted the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks's matchups the entire season. Yep. Oh, get ready for you, Zama. Yeah, yeah. Get ready for you. Yeah. But yeah, Conklin's an opportunity this week. Yeah, I, I, you know, you look at the last two weeks, you've got Conklin with two targets and four targets. But the last two weeks, those have been Zach Wilson games.
Prior to that eight targets, seven targets, perfect matchup. Conklin is available. If you are getting nasty, I think you can conk conk. Yeah, so if you, let's say these guys are either on your roster or your waiver wire and you have to put them in order. Are you playing Ingram against Houston or Taston Hill against Philly? Engram. Okay. Are you playing Taston Hill against Philly or Tyler Higbee against the Chargers? Ooh. Probably staying with Hill there. Yeah, I go, I personally go Ingram, Taysam Hill, Higby, Conklin, Kemet. Okay. And no offense last week got into the end zone, but not a lot of targets. They face the Jets. It's a little risky, but without Goodwin potentially, without Lockett potentially, Noah Fant is a talented enough player to, he could be this week's Higby for all we know and surprise a little bit.
in a must-win game for Seattle. Like Seattle's fighting for their playoff lives as well. There's a lot of NFC scenarios where like the Giants are in the driver's seat right now at 8, 6-1, but there's a number of 7 and 8 teams that are in contention, Seattle, Washington, Packers, you know, that are competing for playoff spots. So there's a lot on the line in the NFC. That's what you want. You don't want these Derek Henry. We could just sit them. It doesn't even matter situations. No, no, I don't want that. Some defenses. To look at, boy, Kansas City takes on Russell Wilson with an interim head coach. Please play Kansas City this week. Yeah, I'm in on that. Yeah, I mean, three picks last week for Russ? They offered the head coaching job to their defensive coordinator. And he said, nah, no, dude, I'm good. Wait, is that a real story? Yeah. Yeah, that's real. That happened. He's like, I just really want to, I think it's.
I should finish out the season with this defense and focus. My energy is there. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. There's 30, what, 32 of these jobs? And he's like, no, I'm good. No, I'm good. I don't need the blame at the end of the year. I'm doing real good with this defense. Let me just, you give me credit for what I've done on the defensive side. Just not last week. Do not attach me to Russell Wilson. Yeah, not last. Hey, that's, that's. That's a smart man. So I see Jacksonville on this list. I am not in on Jacksonville's defense at all. Yeah. Really? No. Houston has been, they figured out a little bit of a system in recent weeks. They've demoralized, not demoralized, but they've made it a non-plus situation for three consecutive weeks. So Jacksonville's defense is nothing that impresses me. They make plays here and there. They just gave up, what, 34 points to Dallas? Jacksonville's defense.
for fantasy purposes, has been on fire. You know, in our scoring format, I'm looking at 16, 12, and 14 points the last three weeks. So in a matchup against Houston, to me, I would be absolutely fine playing. Obviously, Houston has stepped it up. Like, they have really competed the last three weeks, but this is still a team that can... Turn the ball over. You know, with Davis Mills give up a lot of sacks for fantasy purposes. I'm okay with this in a divisional matchup. So, but I hear what you're saying about Houston not being the auto punching bag that they were a month ago. Yeah. I mean, they did dominate Zach Wilson last week. Yeah. Jacksonville did. And they could definitely, you know, sack Davis Mills in this game. And maybe they score the way they did against Dallas.
Chargers take on the Rams. I don't know what happened with the Rams last week, but the Charger defense has been making a lot of plays. They've been playing well. The secondary has been working out. I don't think Bosa gets back this week, but there's a chance he's practicing. Chargers against the Rams at home opportunities there. The Giants against the Colts. At home for both teams, basically. I like the Giants one a lot. I mean, the fact, if they go with Nick Folds again, I guess we got to stay tuned to see. It'll be Elleniger. It really doesn't matter. That's my guess, by the way. I don't know it for sure. But seven sacks, three interceptions. If it's Nick Foles again, I think that the Giants can.
QBR of three. Can do some serious damage. Yeah, I would imagine that they name a starter soon. And if before waivers go through, we know like, hey, we're going to stick. It's Jeff Saturday. He's putting himself in. He's living his dream. Stick with Nick Foles. Then the Giants move pretty much to number one. Because it looked like Nick Foles has not thrown a football or watched football or done anything. football related since the Super Bowl. Super Bowl he won. I mean, that guy was not prepared to play in the NFL any longer. Yeah, started getting first team reps last week for the first time all year. Yeah. So that'll make you look like it. Make you unprepared. Arizona at Atlanta. Sure. Opportunity there. Cardinals defense has been opportunistic this year. Atlanta is not a, you know, with Desmond Ritter mistakes can happen. JJ Watt wanted to go out with the, you know, he's about to retire.
Go get them sacks. Yeah, Cardinals' defense ended up losing an overtime last week. But number six overall defense against Denver the week before, that's an opportunity as well. So that was welcome to the fold. Presented by Samsung Galaxy, Galaxy, unfold the edge-to-edge screen of Galaxy Z Fold 4 to maximize your game viewing experience on championship week. Wherever you're at, visit Samsung.com to learn more. Full stream ahead. Streaming quarterback options, really important this week. And it's not just, you know, it's not just injury situations. It's player versus player situations. It's do I go back to the well with Justin Herbert and trust that he can, you know, put up more than single digits? Or do I go with a player like my stream of the week? Jared Goff against Chicago. It's the highest total of the week. Bears are allowing the second most fancy points to opposing quarterbacks.
Goff at home has been incredible. Goff is a must-start quarterback this week over, you know, look, if Lamar Jackson's back, I'm playing Jared Goff over him. Yeah. If, you know, I'm playing golf over Aaron Rogers and any hopes that he takes advantage of Minnesota's defense. So, you know, Minnesota, San Francisco, and Dallas are all still in contention for the number one seat in the NFC, just for the record. It's not just... You know, one team vying for that position. There are three teams vying for seating. So I think golf is going to have a really, really strong week. Golf is great. And it's worth noting, like, when you're streaming in championship weeks, it's probably streaming from your bench as much as streaming from waivers. You might notice if you made it to your championship that the waivers are pretty bare. You know, real.
Smart managers have been looking ahead and hope, you know, if you've been listening, you're one of these guys and golf has been someone that we've looked at this matchup for a while. I can't imagine there's many quarterbacks I would want to start more than golf this week. Sure. I'm going to talk about one that is more widely available because of new injury. Who might not start? But Gardner Minchew, should he start if Jalen Hertz is out, he obviously gave you enough last week against Dallas in a tough matchup to prove that with those weapons, you know, A.J. Brown and Dallas Goddart and Devante Smith, Gardner, Minchu can get it done. I am fine starting him championship week. And that's probably what I will be doing as the Hertz manager. And he is still widely available. He's rostered in 28% of Yahoo Leagues, 27% of ESPN leagues. Knowing your situation with Jalen Hurst having Devante Smith on your team, I'd imagine you need the upside of that stack, of the Minshu, Devante Smith stack.
If you are without Derek Henry, you know, you need some more opportunities for, you know, those guys come together like they did last week. That would mean a lot. I'm so sad. Minchu was great last week. I mean, there have certainly been weeks where Dylan Hertz is... Had fewer fantasy points than what Minshu put up last week. Yeah, Minshu came through. I'm going to throw up Brock Purdy. He gets to take on the Las Vegas Raiders. That's San Francisco's Brock Purdy. They are six-point road favorites. Vegas 31st and schedule adjusted points to the quarterback. And Brock Purdy, while he's not giving you, you know,
top five numbers, but QB8, 14, 13, he's thrown two touchdowns in all four of his starts. His touchdown percentage is 7.5%, which is just ridiculous. So seven and a half percent of his attempts from turning into touchdowns right now, he has fully unlocked George Kittle, and he's letting the cast around him carry him and. and really give him big time production. So I think that he makes sense against the Raiders. I agree. And I think, you know, the gravity of Christian McCaffrey, everybody's looking to him on every play. The play action, it can't work better than when you have Christian McCaffrey. Not to mention you play action and McCaffrey's still in the play as a receiver. It just, it makes a mismatch like Kittle really valuable. Like Brandon Iyuk has not been.
taking advantage of the lack of Debo Samuel. It has been George Kittle, who has done that. So, you know, if you're staring down the decision between Mike White and Aaron Rogers this week, let's throw those two names out there. Mike White is, I could go Mike White. That's me too. Mike White's a good start. He was okay for fantasy before the injury, and he's taking on Seattle. Seattle's a matchup that I think you can target. And so, yeah, he's okay. Anytime you've got. you know, Garrett Wilson is unbelievable. And Mike White can actually get the ball to him. You've got two weeks of pent up energy, Garrett Wilson, Elijah Moore, Corey Davis that they didn't get to use out on the field because of the Zapp guy. Right. So the Jets are two-point favorites against Seattle in Seattle. That would be the only challenge they're going into Seattle and taking on a team trying to survive.
Yeah, we did. And then it's an update here. Tony Pollard will participate in today's practice. So that's good news if you got Tony. Okay. All right. Any other news from the Deucer's Alley? Any other information? Nothing. Nothing. Well, we'll be back for a show tomorrow. How about that? Let's check this poll out. Yeah. Are we down to three? We have 4.1% down. Lower that. I got to go vote. So 4.1% of our staff will be here next week. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers.