Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 17 Review, Studs and Duds, Playoff Preview, Mailbag

Steve Smith is 36. 36, Steve Smith. He's not coming back off of a big injury like an Achilles. If Aryan's 29, I think he can come back. I think he can come back. All right. Let's move on. Weekly rewind. You know what? Some of my favorite comments on Twitter are the people that get mad at me from moving the show along. How dare you, Andy? They're always like, get your eyes off the watch. I'm like, how long would this show be? You have to move on.

This is why we do more than one show. It would just be an everlasting episode. All right, we got some news. We're going to go through some of the things that have happened. We're getting buzzed all the time with coaching changes, right? Things are going on in the NFL that are going to impact your fantasy players for next year. And we are recording Monday afternoon. So there could be more coaching changes.

after we are done recording. Yeah, that's a worthy point. We record Monday afternoon so that we can release as early as possible on Tuesday morning for commutes and things like that. So coaching changes. I'll try to consolidate these a little bit. You guys tell me anything that you want to, fantasy-wise, implications, things like that. Mike McCoy is going to stay head coach of the San Diego Chargers. They have relieved Frank Reich of the offensive coordinator duty. Yeah, I think this is great.

I did not believe that McCoy should be let go. He's coming off of some very good seasons. A lot of injury. Injuries were out of control. Offensive line problems. So in Philip Rivers, everybody had left Philip Rivers for dead. I mean, Philip Rivers was awesome. He was a fantasy superstar. Then he hit a year or two where he just fell off the map. And then Mike McCoy came back and kind of resurged his career. So I think this is the right move.

for San Diego. We'll see who gets to come in and call plays. But as far as fantasy-wise, I think it's great for Philip Rivers that you can keep McCoy there who has a strong offensive mind. So I love it for Rivers. All right. You also had some other coaches say farewell. We've talked about Chip Kelly on the show. You have Mike Patton's going to be gone, right?

Yep. Yeah, they're gone. They've already cleaned house in Cleveland. Right. Because farmers gone, too. Yeah. Yeah, it's every other year. Right. It's on point. Tom Coughlin, no more. Oh, yeah, he resigned. He's one of my favorite coaches. Wink.

Weak, wink, he resigned. Yeah, but he's not retired. He still maybe would like to coach again. How about you give him his due? How about that? He wasn't fired. Why don't you give a two-time world champion his due? Hey, I actually think he's a good coach. I think that another team would be smart to grab him, but I don't blame the Giants for moving on from him. That being said, you're going to have a lot of questions, fantasy-wise, depending on who they hire, you know, trying to see...

What are the implications? I prefer, just like you were saying with the chargers, I prefer when teams stay the same. When there's changes, sometimes what we see is you get too much excitement. Let's say they go out and they hire an offensive-minded head coach. And we're going to elevate Eli or some of those guys probably too high and make mistakes in that. I prefer when a team has been rolling and they've got consistency and the coaching isn't changing or, you know,

players who have been there for a long time and not changing teams. I think consistency is important in the NFL. I would really hope they bring a defensive guy in and you let Bob McAdoo just keep, do what you're doing, man, because our offense is pretty good, especially even the last few weeks when they got a running game going. But with McAdoo, Eli's been, his career has also researched. These are some of the best years that Eli's ever put up. So.

Hopefully they leave him alone and they just bring a guy who can fix the defense. There have been over the last four years 22 head coaching changes. That's a lot. Over the last what? Four years. Okay. Over the last four years. And you have, you do have situations that I'm paying closer attention to than others, particularly what Drew Brees and his situation with his coach, is Sean Payton going to be gone or not?

And then the situation in Indianapolis, because you had a juggernaut fantasy offense with Hilton, with obviously Andrew Luck and what they do there. Those are two situations I'm paying close attention to. And obviously where Chip Kelly lands, you do have a certain amount of just offensive plays that are going to be run, a system that's going to be put into place. That will be something interesting to monitor throughout the season. So Jim Tom Sula is also out. Is that correct? That is correct. All right.

And it sounds the... He was set up to fail. We've talked about that. Yeah, Tom Sulla, poor guy. I mean, there was not much he could do. And the last I heard the Rumorville out of the Saints is that Sean Payton would be available for a second round pick. Yeah. And that he's been given, what, permission to talk to other teams? I hadn't heard that part. I saw that as well. So those will be interesting situations. In terms of other news,

of relevance. Gary Kubiak has declined to name his playoff starter. This speaks to what Jason said this weekend where he thought it was more of a controversial situation. It's not controversy. It's going to be, it's going to be Baton Manning. But I do think it's entertaining going into, they're the number one scene. Sure, sure. And you don't know who the quarterback. Is it too bold to ask you guys to give me NFC and AFC predictions on the show right now? Aye.

We can do it. Because the playoffs are established. This week we got the Seahawks at the Vikings, the Packers, at the Redskins, the Chiefs at Houston, right, at the Texans, and then the Steelers at the Bengals this week, and then Carolina, Arizona, New England, and Denver are waiting. So who do you believe will represent the AFC and the NFC and then ultimately win the Super Bowl? Because it would be nice to have these documented here. The AFC, my heart. I'm going to write these down.

Really, really hopes. The Chiefs are Houston makes it because I like to see funny stuff happen like that. That's funny stuff? Yeah, well, funny is the wrong word, but it's a lower seed team who no one thinks has a chance. But I would, my pick is the Broncos. I'm going with Denver. I think the defense is just too great. And Peyton Manning looked okay. I know it's only a very, very small sample size. And.

Manning has many flags upon him. And I didn't know you had the Broncos. I feel like you've stolen my pick. We don't have to have separate picks. No, we don't. And I agree with you. My pick is the Broncos. The Broncos are behind Arizona, Carolina, New England. In Vegas, they are five to one favorites to make the Super Bowl. I'm sorry to win it. So I'm actually taking the Broncos out of the AFC as well. Well, I'll give my AFC pick then. I'm going to go with Superman.

which is just basically going with the tried and true Patriots. Superman's in the NFC. Well, sure, sure. I will actually be going that way on the NFC as well. Yeah, give me your NFC as well. Well, it's going to be Carolina against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. I think that Carolina's team has shown on both sides of the ball to be unstoppable. They've got the home field advantage through, so I've got to pick them as the favorite. And in the AFC, you just have too much experience and too much.

like desperate desire to stick it to the NFL and win a Super Bowl this year from the Patriots. Since last year wasn't good enough. Correct. So who's your Super Bowl? Who's your Super Bowl champ? My Super Bowl champ will be the Carolina Panthers. Ooh. All right, Mike, who's your NFC? NFC? I think that Seattle will run.

through a couple matches. They will play the Cardinals in the NFC title game, and Seattle will win. Oh! And Seattle will go to the Super Bowl. Broncos are Seattle. And then in the Super Bowl, I will take Seattle. That's so painful. I know it sucks. So painful. Highway's actually going to say, I'll just be, we need one homer on the show. Yeah, thank you. So I'll just go ahead and take the Arizona Cardinals. Yes. I do believe the Cardinals are set up to...

have a very good playoff run because they have the buy and then they're going to essentially get Minnesota they cannot get Seattle so they'll get Minnesota Washington or Green Bay or Green Bay and so that home game I think they'll win it and then they'll face probably Seattle or Carolina in that title game and because they'll be at home against Seattle I'll just give them I'll give Bruce Ariens credit for preparation for that game and I'll take I'll take Arizona I like it I like where your head is that more than mine

We got Seattle, Arizona, and Carolina, because I've always said this, and Jason and I used to do this in basketball, when you make predictions and you don't predict your home team, the regret that you would feel if they finally won. I will feel zero. I'll be the homer. No, you won't feel any. Yeah, it hurts. Seattle's playing great. I got to give them credit. So, all right, you guys want to get into the stuff muffins? I, yes. Jason? All right.

How about I, I think I muted, muted our sound. Let's try again. No, it's not working. How about you, Andy? Would you like to get into the fantasy stud muffins? Oh, we're frozen. How many times have we done this? Oh, 165 this year. This week's fantasy stud muffins. So you get into the pre-season, the off season, and now you're off your game. And everything breaks.

Is it because we're recording after lunch? Yes. Yes, we haven't got adjusted. The iPad had a very unhealthy. I tried to push it. Well, speaking of Superman, the number one quarterback this week of all time, was also the number one quarterback of this season, who was also the number one fantasy player of the entire year on almost all scoring formats. And that was Cameron Newton. Oh, I thought that was Brian Hoyer.

No, close. He was 78. But Cam Newton just finished off an incredible year. He let a lot of people down on that week 16 championship, but he came back in week 17, redeemed himself, had 293 yards on only 21 completions. I don't even think he threw the ball 30 times, which is crazy, had two touchdowns through the air, and then added two more on the ground. No, Jonathan Stewart, no tight game, didn't matter. Devin Funches, big game. Cam Newton, taking care of business, 15 and 1.

And he will be the MVP. Yeah, I think that's a foregone conclusion. Not bold prediction of the week. Some other guys that had huge days, Matt Stafford, Matt Stafford, since the offensive coordinator change up in Detroit, and they picked up Jim Bob Cooter. They've been great.

Everyone's favorite name. They've been great up in Detroit. I believe they're six and two in their last eight games. Six and two, 19 to two touchdown to interception ratio for Stafford over the last eight games. That's crazy. That's including a couple games without Calvin, really. So looking forward, we don't have doubt about Cam Newton's fantasy value in 2016. But Matt Stafford, with this back half of the season, I know your career dislike of Matthew Stafford. What does this make you think about with him next year?

I know you're not going to be drafting him high, but is he somebody that you're looking at? He, yes. Yeah, I'll put him back on that list, assuming Calvin Johnson is back in Detroit. Very fair. There's a salary cap situation up there. But I believe that Stafford has, over the last couple years, proven to be a much better real-life quarterback than we all thought he was. I mean, even last year, his touchdown to interception ratio was very good. I believe it was 2 to 1.

And so you factor in what he did with the last half of this season. He's got to be on that list of late round guys to look at. All right. You also had Big Ben. Mike texted us during about halfway through the morning games and said Tom Brady and Big Ben are killing people's fantasy teams. And just to preface, that would be again. Yes, again. Week 16, they already did that.

And Big Ben got the message and turned it around. It finished the game. I paged him. You texted Martavis, who was on the bench and could be texted. He's not a lot of headkeepers there anymore. Martavis. Yeah, Martavis might be in our next section of Booth those big boy pants. And Ryan Tannehill came through with a big game against the Patriots. I haven't looked at the finishing numbers yet, but I was reading a tweet that said,

Ryan Tannenhill's numbers are actually very close to last years, even though it does not feel like that's even remotely possible. So I thought that was a funny little note. You want to know what else is funny? No, there's nothing funny about this. There's nothing funny about the next guy. The greatness. On the great of the fantasy stud muffins quarterbacks, everyone who played him won a championship. It is...