Fantasy Football - Playoff Time! Week 15 Start/Sit + Jason's Rivers Dreams - Podcast for 12/10

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The fantasy footballers podcast, Jason Moore, Mike, the fantasy hitman. I'm Andy Holloway. It's Wednesday, December 10th. Welcome into the podcast. Once again, we have a great show for you. We have news to talk about. We've got... A Thursday night game to preview your fantasy playoffs are here. Unless you're on by. I know, I mean, they're still here. I noticed appropriately in the comments that the buy, the first round buy folks were, they were a proud bunch. They're a very, they're a proud, but where my buy people at? As they should. The bye week bros, the by week boys and girls, all who have buy weeks. Yeah. We shall celebrate. I did respond to someone.

I did respond to someone on the Twitter sphere because they were like, man, what do I do? You know, doing a humble brag of, I got the bye week. Hey, Jason and Mike. I'm like, no. Yes, yes, you're right. You don't just sit back and do nothing. You are 100% right. You have an opportunity right now to be fully prepared. Everyone else is like this week, this week. You get to look at next week. Last week when I had clinched the playoffs, I did feel like it was the most real bye week I'd ever had because we were still a week away from the playoffs even starting. If you are on by, you pay attention. Do not take this week off. Be active. Make waivers. Look at the future weeks. Look at your opponents. Figure out who you would be worried if they win and what their weakness is and snipe them. Yep.

Be proactive. Mike is so infuriating with this. Like you, I hate that you don't rest on your laurels. I really wish you rested on your laurels. When you're up high. They're not that soft. When you're up high, laurels are very rigid. I feel like you work harder than broken glass. Yeah. If you're just like, you know, tread and water, if you're skimming, the season's going average, whatever. But if you're, if you're coasting, if you're up at 30,000 feet with no turbulence, you're like, right. I'm looking for a new route. How can I shave time off this flight? One of the reasons Mike has had some time to plan ahead is he's been locked in for like six, eight weeks in the playoffs. That does help. Brooks is calling it the block block block stash dash dash. Yeah. No, I mean, it's the right thing to do, but also. Just make sure that you don't. You still need to react to what happens this weekend.

Because if you make all your plans and then something changes, defensive injuries for the defense that you fell in love with that you stashed, opportunities that are brought forth by injuries, just make sure you're also reacting. And that's why we're still here. I mean, if you're new to us this season, welcome. Yeah, hopefully you've enjoyed the ride. We are five days a week all the way through the end of, yes, week 18. Sorry. But then we are still a year-round show. We're still with you twice a week all the way through the off-season. And the footie awards are on the way when we get to celebrate slash dunk on our favorite and least favorite players of the season. And then we launched right into a series, we call it the truth series where we really look back because it's never, it's honest, it's never too early to get ready for the 2026 fantasy football season.

don't you don't want to leave the season with a distorted view of who was actually good because sometimes guys show up they're in the top 15 and so you're like well next year i'm i'm gonna be in on that player did that player actually help you or did that player just like how did they get call that the dj more yeah did they spike did they have three spike weeks and then just a whole bunch of other crap that devastated you and you kind of forget about it so we want to We start preparing. We lock in. We remember the truth. We examine what happened. Yeah. And then we'll be into, I mean, draft season is not far behind it with, you know, free agency, the draft season, player prospects, all the stuff that we get primed up. And you get into the dynasty pass in February. So we're not talking about a huge break. We're here year round. Make sure you click that subscribe button on YouTube. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Subscribe. Click the bell.

and follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you're listening, and stay with us all offseason as well. So the website, the Fantasy Footballers.com, all of our weekly rankings for the upcoming playoff week, StartSit Tool, Ultimate Dashboard, StreamFinder, all of the resources that have gotten better and better over the years. Shout out to the dev team, tirelessly working to make them better and to put them onto the mobile app, Fantasy Footballers mobile app as well. All right, we're going to jump right in. Backup options presented by Progressive Insurance. So apparently we really needed a backup option at the lighting. I'm just going to come out and say it because I don't want the comments to be just littered. Mike noticed right before we were starting the show that I look a little red. And then I was like, oh, am I like getting sick or something? What's going on?

hit the tanning booth no you're getting that red light therapy yeah we record and so then i was like okay we dealt with it we realized one of the lights is broken and then of course first thing like brook says is and he's not in here you know he's just like is there a red light on andy so i know what's coming in the comments yeah and the answer is technically yes how does a light break but not stop working just say i'm red now like i have changed my colors like Your lights and home when they break, they just turn off. Do we know it's broken or should I point out that Al Borland isn't here for one day in Dozers Alley. Coincidence? I think not. I tried to fix it. It's broken. That's our point. That's our point. That's our point. I tried to fix it after I broke it. I said it to red and it hasn't been able to. No, so I am apparently redder today. I tried to fix it, but I don't know how. All right, backup options. We like to look at players that are most.

The most dropped list on Sleeper over the last 24 hours. We always talk about, I mean, we had bye weeks last week, players that have hit the waiver wire, desperation pickups. The one that I was the most shocked at from a roster percentage standpoint. I love this. It's kind of the forgetfulness of Kayshan Booty in New England. Can't forget that booty. That's my point. The guy's coming through. That's right. So Kashon Booty had the bye week. was coming off of an injury. The snap counts are back where they used to be. He has scored so many touchdowns this year. This is like a situation where I saw 45% rostered for Kayshan booty. That's kind of crazy to me. I mean, you had a wide receiver 4, 20, 11. Then he got hurt, came back, played 80% of snaps, didn't do much, and then scored again last week against the Giants. You have Buffalo, Baltimore, New York. You have some big games. He's a big time player.

I, you know, I look at what Drake May has been great at. Number one in deep passing in the NFL, where is the Bill's defense this week? 23rd. So I think Kashan Bouti is one of the best bets on a touchdown this week. Do you worry? I don't know if you've seen this, but Stefan Diggs, his contract was very incentive-laden, and he has all, he's like, he can make like more than $2 million from here on out if he's about to squeak. I couldn't. I couldn't care less about it. Yeah, I do agree. Diggs doesn't have the notoriety to the name and the team has some very serious things to play for. We will have some information on incentives as we get close to the end of the season. Those things really do matter. We've heard from coaches. Like, I tried to get this guy, the ball. I mean, it doesn't always happen. It is no guarantee. Yeah, the gravity of the game matters whether they make it a priority. If the game doesn't matter that much, they might do it.

The Mike Evans thousand from last year. Oh, it's so gross. Wasn't they, awesome. Weren't they supposed to be kneeing the ball out? Yes, I think there was a play. They basically went and got like, they needed like five more yards and he got like eight more yards. And it was like you would usually need this out. Yeah, it's like, uh, 14 targets. But they took the risk. Week 18. They said, we're going to get you there. Yeah. And that's going to be harder this year. These are human. Yeah. These are human beings, um, friends and. They care about their contract. So it's legit. Yeah, I don't disagree that Kashon Booty is a good pickup. I just basically wanted to bring up the digs reality that he's going to be a squeaky wheel, want that ball, wanting him yards. I'll go with mine because it should be pretty quick, pretty quick and easy. It's Darren Waller. We talked about him a lot yesterday on the Waiver Wire show, and you might be going, well, he wasn't on my waivers. That's my point. That's why I'm bringing him up today. Check today, because he's on the most dropped list. So when your waivers run through, he might have been dropped.

And this is not necessarily a pickup. He's very high up on that list. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's, he had a very down game. They ran. Check on Britain Strange, too. I bet you both those guys are together. They are. They're right back to back. Oh, is he on that list as well? Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, Darren Waller, this is a beautiful matchup next, not this week, but he's got the Bengals next week. And if you've got enough roster spots, you can do double duty here, Mike. I want to talk about yours after you do. Just to be clear, Waller has the easiest schedule of all tight ends the rest of the way. Number one. He's targeted on 57% of his routes inside the 10 this year. That is number one in the NFL. So he's a great pickup. This week for Waller is still a plus matchup. It's not as great as next week. But it's good. 26th. The matchup that Waller has next week, Isaiah likely has this week. Now, I haven't been in the starts of the week dock lately because I put my guy in. I imagine that Mark Andrews is probably.

listed by one of the two of you because he should be. But Isaiah likely. Oh my gosh. This dude could have been the talk of fantasy football right now. Multiple weeks in a row he could have been. Yes, this is what I mean. He had two touchdowns taken away. One by him, one by the reps. It's been a very disappointing season overall. I think for Mr. Likeley, should you have made your wager that he was going to take over the job from Mark Andrews, that did not happen. That did not happen long term either, as Mark Andrews got the bag of money to be a Baltimore Raven for a few years. But Isaiah likely plays the Cincinnati Bengals. There's more than enough tight-in production to go around. Mark Andrews can still have his game. Should you not have a great option at the tight-end position this week? Just look at the bills of last week. Dalton Gincade, awesome game. Dawson Knox. Who does not.

He's not used as a pass catcher. So my start of the week is Charlie Kohler. So here's here's a cool stat from Ryan Heath of fantasy points. He was pointing out that the tightened two against the Bengals is scoring on average eight fantasy points per game, which isn't like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. But we're talking about. The backup tight, the second tight in for their routes run. The list is like Isaiah likely. Remember when Austin Hooper had a good game against Cincinnati or Jono Smith or Dawson Knox? It's like, you want to know why? It's because the first guy's so tired. So exhausted. I can't catch any more passes. So here's. Help. Here's. This is always tough when we want to say things, but we don't want to say them on the show. We're coming. Oh no. This is from my life, my heart. Oh no.

Tell me if I am crazy or not. I want, I have Mark Andrews. Yeah. I want to drop Mark Andrews and pick up Isaiah Likely. I want to play likely over Andrews. I think that he is a better matchup, has a high floor of yards. He had 90 plus yards against Cincinnati a couple weeks ago. He's had 10 fantasy points two weeks in a row. And he is so much more. He is the perfect play against the Bengals. I want to pick him up and play him. I'm worried that my opponent is going to pick Isaiah Likely up. He's got.

Don't Cicade so he probably he probably won't but like that scares me and I'm is that insane for me to want no I went to do it this morning as a defensive move or to play no to play him instead of Mark Andrews okay yeah I mean I don't I don't think that's crazy at all I went to do it feels this morning unfortunately coin flip but yeah I feel like the bigger game potential is definitely with likely right yeah yeah if you want to say one of these guys ends up with like 18 fantasy points, probably likely because the yards will be there. Mark Andrews, because he could easily have two touchdowns and end up with a great game, but he's probably not going north of 60 yards, whereas if you want a hundred yard game, that's Isaiah likely. I do think if you're struggling, great pickup to play this week. And it turns out I can't, because I had two guys in the IR who are now ineligible. Oh, no. So I'll just roll with Andrews, but. Okay. The newly financially minted, extended Mark Andrews. Yeah.

That was backup option sponsored by Progressive Insurance Quote today at progressive.com. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by Progressive Insurance. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is all I want to talk about the whole show. Yes. Big Phil. Phil Rivers has a very real chance to start week 15 against the Seahawks. He was signed to the Colts yesterday. This is incredible. This is incredible. It doesn't even matter how it goes. It doesn't matter if he goes out there. Well, this is real gladiator thrown to the lion's thing. Yes, I want to see somebody conquer a lion or you see them eating by one. And either way, you buy a ticket. Yeah, you buy a ticket because it's like, I've never seen someone eaten by a lion. Right. But also, what about the power of man if he overcomes? That is a great analogy. I mean, he, this is a 44 year old who hasn't taken a hit in the NFL in half a decade. This could go real bad. I mean, if you.

There's this AI or this bit parody thing going around about Philip Rivers, this quote. Don't believe that on this fake radio show. But he did go on Dan Patrick earlier this year and talked about the reason he had delayed signing a one-day contract with the Chargers to retire a Charger. And it was because in 2021 and 2022, he was working out. He was in... playing shape. He was ready to go. There were teams that almost signed him at the end of the year. Basically this kind of perfect storm. Yeah. Team, you know. Except still three years ago. I know. Team you know, coach, you know, offense, you know. And I mean, to be very clear, this reeks of unconscionable desperation. This is Jeff Saturday all over again. I mean.

It's awesome. I mean, maybe Saturday would play center for him. I mean, maybe that. No, no, we did get a report from. Oh, he's not doing that. He will not come out of retirement. Oh, wow. But I mean. Because I think the quote was because he knows, I know my place. My guy. My guy. You jumped into a head coaching position for. Oh, you would do the same. I'm, yeah, but then I'm not like, oh, I know my place. I don't know. Right. You don't know your place. You can't have it both ways. Yes. That's all I mean. Philip Rivers is apparently the.

the player they want to send to Seattle to die. It's going to be amazing TV. I am... This is as bad of a matchup you could ask for to go into Seattle off of five years of not playing football. Two touchdown dogs. Monday night football the following week is the Colts. And now we don't know if... Wait, is the Colts? All his games are the Colts. 49ers? No, I'm saying they're on Monday night football the following week. Oh, I got you. So this is primetime great television. We don't know if Phil Rivers is going to start this week. He might not live by then. He might not. Um, you know, it's, it's crazy because I see it as like a what rag now I six. Yeah, I see it as a 60 40 where it's like.

I do think there is a chance. You have 40% that it goes well? I do. What is the opium? It's the hopium. It's the hopeium of having Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman. Put it down, brother. I need it to go well. Stop it. Get help. Yes. I want it to go well. I want Philip Rivers to go out there and sling the ball and throw for 270 plus yards and two touchdowns and be fine. I mean, that's the dream. And I'm giving it 40%. But the dream for Indianapolis is he. is still good at handing the ball off and throwing four yard four yard outs if you think he's threatening down the field the first downfield throw from phill of rivers with his little shot put throwing motion this is this is why no out for michael pitman no out route oh michael pitman i think it's the best for nobody and i think 18 yards that's downs 10 i don't know down that's that's warren it might be it might be worn and and hopefully jonathan taylor gets

five checkdowns. Oh, man. It's amazing. Alec Pierce is going to be so pissed. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Alec, you're back to run and win sprints. He's going to be so tired and have zero targets. It's so, it's so wild. What is the weather like in this game? Likely rain. It's so entertaining. Anyways, that's the most must watch thing in maybe years. Because I, it's, it's a science experiment. Like, we have these kind of thoughts where it's like, what if? You know, what if the science on aging is already in, Jason. Right. But not aging. Then coming back to the NFL after five years. This is a fascinating. It was, I mean, this is you are 100% right, Mike. This is exactly like when the Colts hired Jeff Saturday, where you go, could you just hire someone who's a great leader and have him come in as a head coach who's never had coaching experience? Maybe, maybe. And it turned out. Rivers is four years older than his coach, I think.

He is older than, I think, 12 head coaches in the NFL right now. It's amazing. It's amazing. Because it's a little bit, all right, Brady. Like, literally, it's way less weird if Brady at 46 came back to do this. Yes. Because Brady is TB12. My body is my temple, you know, like, Philip Rivers. Two years, three years ago said he was a little too heavy. Yeah, he was like, Dan asked him, could you come back and play? He's like, absolutely. Which was nice to hear him say, like, I could go play a game. He's like, I'm a little heavier. Okay, strike one. But then he followed it up and said, you know, I could sling it. I might be in a wheelchair on Monday. That's, yeah. I know the difference of getting hit at, you know, 43 or getting hit at 38. It's bigger than you think. Yeah. Mike Tomlin said DK Metcalf should be able to play in week 15 against the dolphins. I think, I think it might.

Be a good week for him again. Drumford on Inter Reserve for the Browns, and 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. We'll take a break. We'll ask the producers to put like a green light on Mike and a blue light on Jason. And we'll be back in a minute. Yeah. Lowe's nose, Sundays are for football. So. Tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances. Select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products and more. Then once your to do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's official partner of the NFL. What was the drop that...

was too red for you that you couldn't handle? Oh, the panic alarm. Is that what that was? Maybe that's what caused the problem. Yeah. Ironically, the one light that doesn't turn red when you do that? Not joke. I wish the people could see. Yeah. Every light in here turns red except the one that is red when you're not doing the panic alarm. You can't turn red if you read. Fair. You can turn white. But apparently the light can still go white because it turned back to white. I don't know what's happening around these parts. It's breaking down. Jeremy. The season's almost over. Let's talk Thursday. Thursday night breakdown. All right, breakdown. Perfect segue into this team. Atlanta, four and nine. Tampa Bay, seven and six, and just very thankful. They're thankful for the division that they play in. Tampa is. Oh, yeah. Because they've been on a, you know, a rough stretch. Yeah, I mean, Baker is clearly, hopefully.

dealing with some kind of injury because he's not been playing very well. His catchable rate on his passes is not good. They're not throwing the ball that much either. Both of these teams right now rank bottom five and pass rate over expectation for the last month. I don't know if that's because of the play. Maybe getting Bucky back has helped as well that you can run the ball more, but this division will be either the Bucks or the Panthers in the playoffs. And fascinatingly, two of the next three weeks, they play each other twice. So that's fun. Well, we do have news this morning. Mike Evans could play this week on Thursday. We might see him back out on the field. It is a very positive matchup, arguably the most positive matchup possible for wide receivers. Am I asking you to forgive and forget with the Meccaabuka? Yes, I am. That is what I'm asking you to do. The targets are something we are paying attention to. We talked about the lack of connection, right? Baker.

Not playing the MVP level football he was at the beginning of the year. For whatever reason, injury, out of sync, lack of Mike Evans, lack of whatever. It hasn't worked. I personally have no problem with Abuka this week. I'm not playing Evans on the way back, but I'm watching closely. Are you guys risking it in a great matchup? Mike Evans is someone that I am willing to play over, you know, like it. If I'm toying with like Devon Vele or someone that we talk about Al-Auca himself. Oh, yeah, we've got a match up where we are starting Mike Evans. We currently are strongly considering. I would say it's the most likely thing we're going to do. Should Mike Evans be active? Over. Over DJ Moore. With no, O'Donzie. Well, just because more is just over DJ more. No, no, no. I get it. I'm just saying you're not buying into any hope that that gets better from more. He should have scored in the last game.

I mean, wide open on that target to Loveland in the back of the inside. There was no, Dunezay, the last two weeks, right? And he's had two catches and one catch, DJ. I think of Dunezay's missed one so far. But, yeah, no, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just curious about the perspective. That's currently how we're playing it. The matchup is last six weeks, Atlanta 32nd against wide receivers. So that's the, but you'd play a Bucca over Evans. Yeah. Oh, yes. So, and Godwin, the target share, it's been there. I'll still play Abuka over Godwin, too. Yeah, I think my order in that game is Abuka Godwin Evans. Yep. Yeah, I can agree with that. Yeah, we don't have KDOT in practicing right now, so you may need the wide receivers a little bit more. Kyle Pitts has been good on the other side. He has. 34% target share last week. I don't know if we see Drake London again the rest of the year, unfortunately. Yeah, it feels that way. I don't know that you would want to rush him back.

You know, it's a knee injury, so you don't want to make it worse. This is a situation where you've got, he's played four games with Kirk Cousins. He was a tight in nine, the tight end six, and the tight end seven, and three of those four. So would you rather go Kyle Pitts or would you pick up Isaiah likely? I would rather go likely. Okay. I have the Kyle Pitts, Dalton Kincaid decision this week in listener league. And I am. You know, with the little bit of news that Kyle Pitts was being limited, but then you got the Thursday game, that's probably why. I'm probably going to go Pitts. Really? I think so. I think so. I would lean Kincaid. Just telling you what I would do. Look out angry Andy got there. It's so red. Red Hulk. Here we go. Didn't we have this happen one time on one of our cameras? I think it's happened. Around the NFL tweeted this out. I think it's interesting.

for just for watching purposes. The Buccaneers playoff chances rise to 80% with a win on Thursday and they drop to 54% if they lose. So this is, you're, you're in must win territory now. And it's a divisional game. So this, you know, Atlanta, a lot of times you're like, well, teams that don't have much to play for, they want a better pick or whatever. When they're playing these divisional matchups, they're trying to play spoiler. And just like the Cardinals tried to spoil the Rams last week. And if you're curious about the 54%. It's because of the Carolina Panthers. Guys, the Panthers might get into the playoffs. Yeah. A scenario I think I have not allowed myself to even think about until this moment in time right now. I mean, they're about 500. Yeah, it's very possible. They play Tampa two more times. It's perfect for this division. I mean, it's you get head-to-head control of your destiny. Yeah. Both of them basically, if they win both of those games.

Whoever if Carolina does, they're in. If Tampa does, they're in. Yeah, and I don't know that I really put their odds that low. Carolina is up and down this year, Tampa Bay up and down. Tampa Bay defense is not, you know, there was a time we were looking at them as the defense to grab for the playoff defense. They're not good enough. New report, Bull said Mike Evans has shown everything he needed to show in practice to get activated and make his return Thursday. Oh, man. Looks like he's in. Okay, there you go. Bucky Irving, two games since his return, RB 14 and RB 12. Plenty of touches. Looks great. Bucky is in. Thank you, Bucky. I needed you really badly for my playoffs. A lot of people. He's not finished lower than running back 19 on a week while he's been active. And Bijon, of course, you play him. I don't think a lot of people are feeling up to playing Baker-Mayfield, but this would be a matchup that on paper looks like.