Footie Award Nominees + Week 18 Recap, Brock Nasty - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/9

All right, the fantasy football season might be over, but this show never is. We've got the footy award nominations on today's show. We reflect on the season just a little bit, those week 18 performances, and we get ready for the NFL playoffs. Do not miss a minute. Make sure you like and subscribe. We're here all off season long. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Catch that exhale, Mike. Yep. Off season time. You watch football to enjoy football. Oh, man. This weekend was so great. It was so great. It is hilarious because I mean, look, clearly we love fantasy football. It is amongst my favorite things. But so is just, so it's football. And look, when you have now weekend and like the playoff games, we just, I'm watching this football game to enjoy the greatness of the game of football and hopefully see some good performances, but you're not keyed in on that one player. Yeah, I mean, they got to do well. They got to do well or I look like a, look like a schmuck. If you played pick up basketball and you love basketball, you love being out there on the floor. You love shooting, running, defense, maybe some full court press, but you know what else feels nice?

when you get like a couple minutes on the bench to drink to drink some gator egg get your breath and just watch it you know yeah and um this majestic this weekend i watched some football i did not watch every minute of every football game understood and um you know i i tweeted earlier in the week i am still having like some uh i don't know what you would call it but those internal reactions that happen about 45 times a day where i'm like oh i got to go check my team Oh, I got to go get a trade. Oh, I got to go make a tweak. The waiver wire. The machine hasn't turned off yet. No, no. But then I check my phone and I'm just the champion and I don't have to do anything. You know? Yeah. Like the work's already done. I get it. It's already been done, Al. Can you believe it? We're in the off season. Al's there. I'm here. He's, he watched football because his, his Packers got it done. They did. The good franchises, the Packers, the Steelers, they just find a way into the playoffs.

And then there's the Falcons. Oh, man. And then there's the Falcons. I'm sorry, Falcons fans. Kyle. I mean, no, I'm not, I'm happy. I'm happy for y'all. Because they've been freed from the clutches of the evil one. Number two. There is, there's hope. I mean, you go into next year, Falcons fans, the ones who are realistic and not just the, the. You'd put your head in the sand. My team is the best at all times. There is an opportunity to improve. Now, it's, I mean, your probability is still low because finding a good head coach, as you see every single year, it's, it's difficult. Finding the right quarterback for a franchise, finding the right head coach, it's, you're going to be wrong more than you're going to be right. For those who don't know, Arthur Smith has been terminated. Yes, he has returned to the force.

He has returned to the ether. Yes, this is the second time that one of our arch nemesis on the show has been fired. Adam Gaze was the first. It's a little sad because now I know that one of these other coaches, maybe a coach I thought I liked. We'll become the villain. There will be another number two. Yes. There is always homeostasis. Yes. There is at least one number two in the NFL at all times. Yeah. And on the way next year, we'll figure out who it is. But Arthur Smith is gone. Ron Rivera, gone. Black Monday. Foof. Already happened. And, you know, this whole offseason is going to be filled with Bill Belichick, chatter. Yep. And Jim Harbaugh chatter. And who knows? Who knows who else comes back into?

the coaching world. Right. So we are going to talk a little bit about the week 18 performances. Today's show is about the footy nominations as well. So all of our fantasy football awards, you can start voting on them. Brooks, what's that web address that they need to go to? Footy Awards.com. That was smart of us. That's a good place to go. Footyawards.com. Vote before next Monday. We'll go through all the nominations on the show today. But you can go over there and vote. You're going to be able to watch a video of all of the best show moments as well because we always have you vote for your favorite show moment of the year. And there are some good ones we'll go through today. I've had a sneak peek of the video. Yeah. It's a lovely, lovely walkthrough of the year. Everything's lovely except for that small portion of the video where I had recently shaved my face. And you know, YouTube, when you put a video up there,

They're measured. They're nice. I mean, but video, they choose like three random screenshots to be the potential. Oh, for the thumbnail? To be the potential thumbnail. And they did select one with my bare face. And I was like, you know, that wasn't a good time. Yeah. But yeah, Taylor Swift makes an appearance as well. Like in the history of humans, has anyone shaved their beard went yes. Oh, thank goodness. I should have done this forever ago. Brad Pitt. Probably Pitt. Yeah, well, because he does whatever. Yeah, you can do whatever he wants. He's like, oh, I should have been wearing this ratty t-shirt forever because I look great. Will there ever be a time when we officially just declare that all men are required to have beards? Like, is that in the Constitution? We could do an amendment, right? We could, but we, you know, there are.

We have our friends out there who can't grow beers. Yeah, and those guys when they try. Yeah. Yeah, that doesn't look. That doesn't look so good. Everyone in here has some form of facial hair. Yeah, because we all have things to hide. Mostly our faces. If you didn't notice, Jason's not here today. Just taking a little break from 2024. The most Jason thing ever, we're a weekend. I'm out. I need them. I need a week off guys. No, he's doing some good stuff, but he's not going to be here this week. And so wait, Al, you, the amendment has a weight threshold. If you're over 210 pounds, you're required to have a beard. That's right. To hide stuff. Yes, sir. Okay. Uh, yeah, you either have to have just one chin or just one beard. That's the rule. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

A couple of quick reminders, if you brought home a title, go to fantasychamps.com. You use that code free ring over there, and they will give you a free $59 championship ring if you buy a trophy or belt. And right now, we also have the DFS pass for free. So $0. What? Yeah. We did this last year for the first time. It runs through the NFL playoffs. The DFS podcast is still going, but the DFS pass is now zero money. It costs you zero money to get it. This is something that we're really proud of. The DFS Pass has done a great job this entire year, great riders, great resources. So if you play DFS, if you're through the regular season and you want to give it a shot, it will cost you zero money. Or if you've never played DFS and you're like, hey, I want to jump in, maybe learn some things. Jump in for free. Yep, there you go. So DFSPass.com. You can go over there and enjoy it for the playoffs. They'll final four weeks.

And there you go. Because look, there aren't, we talked about, I like, we're at the point of the year where I can watch football and just enjoy football. Some people would rather have some skin. Yeah, and that will be me as well. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that I forgot we have all these, like on draft kings, I had some of those year-long bets, like the Garrett Wilson numbers where everybody was expecting great things. By the way, Garrett Wilson said, worst year of his life. That was a direct quote from Garrett Wilson. Yeah. But, yeah, let's talk a little bit of news first. News and notes from around the league. All right, Arthur Smith, goodbye. Ron Rivera, see you later. Yep. You know, both those jobs are not bad jobs. Washington has the number two pick, most cap space in the NFL, new ownership. That's a good job. And then the Falcons, the reason I say that's not a bad job is because. Because they have elite offensive weapons? And they have a winnable division. I mean, that division does not have any.

long-term dominant forces. Baker-Mayfield is not a long-term dominator of the division. Derek Carr, not a long-term dominator of the division. Bryce Young, Mike? Not a long-time. I mean, we were talking about that this morning. CJ Stroud continues to blow your mind every single week with how good he is. And then Bryce Young. He plays quarterback. Stroud and the Texans won the division, and Bryce Young hasn't, didn't scored. since week 16. The Cardinals have the Texans pick and when the season began they were the odds on favorite for the number one pick in the draft. That's how Vegas saw them. The Cardinals thought when they made that trade, I guarantee you they did not think they were trading for the 18th pick in the draft. No, I wonder if like you can do the hindsight analysis, get an actual honest answer from them and say now that that's settled and you've seen Will Anderson play.

who was the player that you bypassed by trading down. Is that still a good trade? No, it's not. And the Cardinals have done this before. Remember Terrell Suggs? Yeah. Yeah, we traded down, passed on Suggs. Who needs that guy? Hometown guy from ASU. Don't bring him into Arizona to be the most dominant past rusher you've ever had. We'll trade down. I think Calvin Pace was part of that trade down. Yeah. So careful what you wish for when you want your team to trade down. I mean, I think it's usually the right move, but. No, CJ Stroud is a super stock. When it fails, it fails bad. He doesn't even have Tankdale right now when he's getting it done. The Panthers, their owner, David Tepper, fired everybody. No GM, no head coach, no quarterback. Fire yourself. Yeah, well. Mike, you said it. I feel bad for Panthers fans. You traded everything for your opportunity at a quarterback. I wonder if that is, you know, if you're Chicago.

Let's just talk for a minute. It's the all season. We can do whatever. Let's go. Whatever we want. If you're Chicago, give the number one pick. You have a decision to make on Justin Fields. Didn't play well this week. Played well the week before. Didn't play well the week before that. It's how it goes. Now you have two cases. You've got the Stroud mistake. I'm sorry, the Stroud home run and the Bryce Young mistake. Both outcomes are possible for you if you move on from Justin Fields. You've got to make a decision on a 50-year option for Justin Fields. Do you end up with the Stroud? Then you're thrilled. You trade down. You keep fields and you end up with Bryce Young. It's a disaster. Right? Yeah. Is there any world? Let me ask this. It's a fifth year option, right? He doesn't have to get an extension long term. Yeah, he's going into year four. Will you write on that, Kyle? You hear Kyle? Kyle. Kyle fell asleep. It's 2024. He said correct. Yeah. We always have to make up something Kyle was doing when you don't hear from him right away.

And this time it was sleeping. Yeah, so he'll be going into year four, which means they will have to make the decision very, in this off season, do they pick up the fifth year? But you still have, you have two years of a pretty cost friendly quarterback. So what if you don't pick up the fifth year? You still get them for a year, right? Well, you can, yeah, you'll have year four and then you can franchise. I guess I've never heard anybody tease out the idea of taking a quarterback and keeping Justin Fields. There is that at number one. Yeah. I mean, that's... You've got all the draft capital in the world already. You're picking at, what, eight as well, nine? That's old school NFL. I mean, we just, in the modern world, it's you're going to have so much pressure of if you take a quarterback at number one and the team is 0 and 3. I mean, it will be deafening from the media, from fans, everything saying put the rookie in. And...

I mean, I think there is, unfortunately there's value to letting some of these kids sit. I mean, look. I mean, the Green Bay Packers. It's probably. What Jordan Love right now, the fact that he got to sit. If Jordan Love goes from the draft into playing for the Packers, does he have the success that he's had that he had this year? I would say probably not. No. Especially with all the reports that we kept getting him, Jordan Love is not ready. Jordan Love is not ready. He was this year. Yeah, and I don't think you can probably pull that off with the number one pick. I mean, when you draft a quarterback second round or something, you can sit that guy behind field, see what you have as an asset. But just interesting. And then we had some, we had injuries in week 18. Yeah. The big one was Sam Laporta. I mean, this one, knee injury, bad hyper extension, hybrid extension with the bone bruise. That's devastating. It is. They're at home, right?

They're the three. See, it's hard because the immediate reaction of everyone is, and Twitter, if you jumped on, this is why you can't play your starters. You're playing in a meaningless game. But they technically had a chance to get to the two seed. And to me, going from the three to the two is a pretty big deal. If they were in the two seed, they would be hosting the Packers if they had been able to do that. Now, Dallas would have had to lose, right? Yes. That's what I said. Instead, they're going to be. facing the Rams. Right. And that is going to be a game to watch. No offense, Packer fan. I'd rather play the Packers than the Rams right now. I am worried. Yeah, I would be worried. You play to win, but it stinks to have your rookie sensation missing time now. Well, and the other big game that took place and concluded last night, the Buffalo Miami game, I mean, there couldn't have been higher stakes. Like Buffalo was already.

They had already clinched due to the previous activities of the day. But you win, you host the Steelers. You lose, you go, and you play in negative two degrees in Arrowhead with your high flying Miami offense. That's what's going on with Miami. And now you don't have Bradley Chubb. It's going to be rough for Miami. Goodness, I'd be shocked if they beat the Chiefs. And that makes me sad because I don't want to see new blood. I don't mind seeing Miami move on. We do have one of our devs here, Mr. Andy Schneider. He built a bracket maker for the playoffs that you can go to at myplayoff picks.com. It's just a free tool. It gives you a screenshot of your bracket. So if you in your office or at home or your friends, whatever, if you want to go make your predictions on who's going to win, the big game and all the other games. Yeah. And the medium games and small games. Thank you.

Yeah, all the different sized games. It does all the reseeding for you based on your picks. Brooks would like you to be reminded of that fact. And you could just go and... That's a problem. You ever done a bracket on paper? And you get to the end and someone's like, well, that's not a possibility. Yes. And you're like, oh, crap. So far, and I'm seeing only four of our office mates have put in their predictions. I've not done mine yet. I've not done mine either. But we've got three 49ers and one Ravens as the... Four champions so far. Okay. I got to get into it. I got to dig in. Got some cowards in the office. Yeah. Mike is going with the Steelers. Of course. Mason Rudolph, world champion with Mike Tomlin, Deontay Johnson. Yeah. Someone out there is. Crazy people. You can tag us on the social media if you check that out. What? At my playoff picks. Myplayoff picks.com.

Yeah, we'll do ours and we'll bring them up on the Thursday show. Jalen Hertz dislocated his right middle finger, not fractured day to day. A.J. Brown was down on the ground writhing in pain. Do we know anything about the knee injury? I've not heard anything. He went into the tent. He wasn't carted off, I don't think. Gabe Davis left early, Romeo Dobbs, chest injury, Packers, wide receivers, keep hurting their chests. I don't know why. But it doesn't matter because. as soon as Romeo Dobbs goes down, then there's just someone else to jump right in there and be great. So our first matchups, this upcoming weekend, what do we have? We've got the big weekend, right? Six games. Yeah, super wildcard weekend. Cleveland? Super. Super, yeah. Because they've expanded. Oh, we can say super there, huh? Yeah. Cleveland taking on the Houston Texans, that should be a game. Miami in Arrowhead against Kansas City. Kansas City's favorite.

Cleveland's favored by two and a half. Pittsburgh going to take on Buffalo. Buffalo favorite by nine and a half. By far the biggest favorites of the week. Green Bay taking on Dallas, Dallas seven and a half point favorites at home. Los Angeles taking on Detroit. Detroit three point favorites. Double revenge. Right. It's incredible. And then the Eagles taking on Tampa Bay. Philly's two and a half point favorites. Oh, because Tampa's at home. Tampa's at home. Oh, you thought it was too low. I just was, yeah, I still think that's a little low. That tells you that, I mean, the momentum for Philadelphia right now. Yeah. And not good. No, no, it is not. All right. Let's take a break. We'll talk some studs and then we'll get into the footy nominations. So let's dig in here, some studs from week 18. You may have had them, you know, it's good to talk about because some of you won championships in week 18. Yeah. Scoundrels out there. Yeah.

And then sometimes these last week performances get ignored, and then you don't know the trajectory of some of these guys heading into next year. This week's fantasy stud muffins. But here's how I want to do it. Okay. I just want you to tell me who you care about at each of the position groups of what they did in the year. So, you know, at quarterback, the big weeks, DAC, big week. Josh Allen ends the year as the quarterback one again. Derek Carr had a four touchdown week. What do you care about? I care about all three. We wanted to see Dak finish strong. 31 for 36. I mean, 279 and 4. I mean, he's just absolute dominant stretch of football and fantasy football. Josh Allen, you know, staying as the quarterback won on the year. And then the Derek Carr one is just like, hey, you can do it. Derek Carr, we.

We knew it. We knew you could run this out there. Look, but out of the last four weeks, quarterback seven, three, 17 and one. I mean, it's, it's inside of you, Derek Carr. It's there. Yeah, no. You just got to believe. Yeah, I don't know. You got to see Kendra Miller for the first time. Yeah. Really? And he had himself a game. I wonder what the future will hold for Kamara. Would you, uh, I think Kamara's there next year. Yeah, but would you rather, do you think Camara or like in drafts? You think Kendra Miller or Camara is the better pick? Oh, man. Let's just ask the question now in the quarterback section of studs where it belongs. Let me, how old is Camara? He'll be turning. He'll be 29 in July. Kendra had a good game. The thing about the age cliff for running backs is. And he's definitely not as efficient on the ground at all.

But it's, yeah, he can still be a great pass catcher. But you, you think it's, you think it's not coming. Even though we know every time it will, it comes for everybody. Yeah. It came for Austin Eckler this year. The number two overall fantasy pick. And then just poof. It seems to be gone. That's, that's the, the hardest part about it is if you are right, like you went on, Derek Henry, it's not, like. He still helped you all year long, but you also know the future. Yeah, there was a couple of dud games, but he was still had a great, great year, great final game. So it didn't poof, but when it goes, it's, it's immediately gone. So depending on where they go in draft, I think because Camara is such a skilled pass catcher, I'm still okay with it, but I'm not okay taking an early pick on him. Yeah, I wonder what the offseason will look like for that team.

in a lot of facets. But speaking to running backs, has anybody been as impressive as James Connor over the last five weeks of the year? Just a beast. His last five weeks, fifth, 11th, fifth, third, first. Absolutely dominant. Brought his yards per carry on the season up to five. That's how he ends the year. First thousand yard season of his career, despite missing four games. So with those four games factored in, he would have ran for almost 1,400 yards this year. So he didn't hit 1,000 that year in Pitt? That blew my mind. But I mean, James Connor utterly dominated. Yeah, he did. Defense is over the last five weeks of the year. He's also turning 29. I know. Now, at least he was a case of like, didn't he have a little bit later start than others? No, not really. No, not really. And it doesn't, I don't think the Agecliff cares. Well, um.

Yeah, 2018. So how old is he? He's going to be 29? Yeah, he is 28.7, according to our website. So he's going into year seven, yeah, for all intents and purposes. Breece Hall dominant, again, 37 for 178. I don't know that giving Breece Hall 37 carries in a meaningless game in the snow against New England is a good team process. Did you see, though? Robert Sella, he said that they had got the math wrong. He ended the year with 994 rushing years, but he thought that he had gotten Breece Hall to 1,000. Oh, no. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect job. You couldn't even get him to 1,000. Is there no one on that team that can do simple math? I guess not. It's addition. Jonathan Taylor, 34-188, Joe Mixon, had a huge game. He ended up running back five. That's pretty wild.

Sequin Barclay, two touchdowns again. So the Sequin offseason is going to be very strong. Do you want to read this tweet? Pat Leonard. He was asked, Sequin was asked, you know, kind of about the end of the season. And Barclay said, I'm not going to go do the exit interview with power move here. But then he said, quote, talking about the franchise. They did it last year, so I'm numb to it. I don't have any feelings toward that at all. If you're going to do it, just don't wait until March 5th. Get it over with. If not, let me go. Simple. No feelings. He said the giant. No feelings. Yeah, right. That's like a Papa Josh didn't care of you. One or lost against me. Why do we have to pretend that we have? You like, no, I'm not mad about it. It's like, yeah. You mean, if you're going to, if you're going to actually answer the question and not just, no, a PR speech about what you're, we'll see what happens. If you're going to actually answer it, don't pretend you're not, you don't have feelings toward it.

You're mad. Put these guys in order of older running backs you'd rather have. Okay. It's going to be a task. Okay. Because we just talked about him. Henry, probably a new home. Yes, for sure. Camara, age cliff. Okay. James Connor, under contract for one more year in Arizona. Yep. Sequin Barclay. If I had to guess, I think he's back in New York, but it might be franchise tag. Oh, man. But he won't have any negative feelings. No, I mean, he played. He played well. Henry, Camara, Connor. I was writing the names down on this board. Okay. And I wrote Henry, Camara, Sequin Barclay, and then I wrote James Contract. So that's not his name. James Connor under contract. Put him in order. Of those, I'll still go, I'll go Barclay. Barkley? Then Henry is just impossible because it's like, if Henry is a Baltimore Raven.

That'll be exciting. I mean, his touchdown upside will be incredible. But based off of the information I have right now, I would go Barkley, Connor, and then I'll bet on Henry and then Camarra. Okay. What about based on the information from the future? What would you do then? I will let you know when I have it. Bejohn, he ended with only 11 for 28 on the ground, but he had seven for one. He had the huge touchdown reception. Seven for 103, big 70-something yard reception. Finish as the quarterback or as the running back nine. But if you had to qualify, like if you had to be binary with your decision on whether he had a good or bad season. If you have to say. Happy or sat? You have to be binary. I will go, I'll say happy. Okay. I'm going to go sat because I don't think that teams that had Bijan Robinson got what they needed this year from where he was drafted. I get that.

And I would be very curious how many teams ended up in the title games with Bijon Robinson as your first running back selected. The thing that, and we'll talk about this and we'll have an upcoming top 10 things to remember. So I guess just a preview of one of the things that I've really been thinking about is the making sure you don't look at your roster and you're always happy about it. Because the first month, honestly, would have been great for Bijon. You're the RB8. RB8, 25 against Detroit, understandable, and then RB10 against Jacksonville. So that's really a full month of a top 10 running back. That's a fantastic start. And as long as you were still diligent in making sure that you're like not just, I got Bijan, I nailed the pick, see you later. I'll see you in the championship suckers. As long as you're still active and moving and making sure that you're building up some running back depth to weather that middle storm that happened.

I think you were happy with him. Naji, end of the year, very strong, 26 for 1, 12, and 1 against the Baltimore backups. Derek Henry, snow model, undefeated, 19 for 1, 53 and 1. They knocked Jacksonville out of the playoff. Yeah. So maybe, you know, Mike Tomlin gave him a call, said, get it done. Henry looked great. I mean, he had a really a vintage long Derek Henry carry. What was not vintage is he didn't finish the touchdown, but also then. on his touchdown run, it was perfection. I mean, it was like following the, you know, not rushing it, following the block, setting up a defender with a, with a juke. And it was like Henry is an outlier. We already know Derek Henry's an outlier, but it's going to be very difficult to gauge him for fantasy next year. Wide receiver standouts for week 18, Justin Jefferson, C.D. Lamb, do. Doing work. Did what they did what they have been doing.