Playoff Primer + Trade Targets & League Winners - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/13

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in Wednesday, November 13th. The fantasy footballers Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for subscribing to the podcast. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being part of the Foot Clan. We appreciate you all. Welcome to week 11 as we venture into the near playoff territory. It's a big week. It's a big show. Because the playoff primer, we are talking about big week. It's big week. Yeah, I mean, this is, I think every year this is a show that helps take people from playing fantasy football heading towards the playoffs. And, and.

turns them into championship winners. I think one of the most difficult things for fantasy players, and I mean, this is just the competitive nature, is you can have really, really good performances year after year in the regular season, feel like you've dominated, feel like you made all the right moves, and you can fall short in the playoffs. I mean, it is a head-to-head matchup. We've all had the weeks where our players don't perform, and we get surprised, and a lot of the time... I think why people take a break from fantasy football is the kind of a rationality that you don't win it on paper. I mean, you can put the best team together and then just lose. Our League of Record, our League of Record, we have fixed things through the governing association of our League of Record and the rules and bylaws. Very large association. Over a thousand members. prestigious. But several years ago, I think we got to a place because it's a Keeper League where.

You ended up every year with these like super teams, like people who would sell out early the year prior, accumulate all the first round picks, get just this crazy team that you just feel like can't lose. And we had that. Just give them the trophy. We had that for a long time, you know, eight, nine years. And I think only one time did the clear and utter super team actually win. Because one bad week in the playoffs, you're out. The main thing right now is you've got to make the playoffs. Yeah. I mean, if you catch. Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, Lamar Jackson on the other side in week one of the playoffs. You could have a beautiful team on the other side and you probably aren't going to win. So I don't say all this to make you feel hopeless. I say this because people write us and say, man, I can't get over the hump. I finished second three times. The best thing that you can do, the only thing that you can do is give yourself the best odds to have success in the playoffs, which means.

doing more than just building that on-paper team halfway through the year or at the trade deadline, right? At the trade deadline is the time you can go and get those assets that look great on paper, but maybe you're not setting yourself up for success in the playoff schedule. And last year, it was Dak, it was Najoku. These were not, this, DAC was a waiver wire guy. Mm-hmm. Najoku was a. I'm sure through the beginning of the year, he was a waiver-wire guy as well. He was not good the first half of last year. Last year, it was Joe Flacco over those playoff weeks. A couple years ago, it was rookie who had done nothing for the Detroit Lions, Amun Ragh, St. Brown. I mean, you find guys who are peaking at the right time, guys who have a perfect aligned schedule, or as perfect as you can get, and like that does. It improves your probability. So that means.

What you've got to do right now. Focus on making the playoffs because you just got to get the – I promise you can't win the championship if you don't get into the playoffs. That's one of our – We've had nobody in our league do that. It's never happened once. And then once you're there, I'd focus on rabbit's feet. Oh. Four-leaf clovers. Okay. Boodoo dolls, if you want to go the other direction. You know, it's just going to take some magic in the playoffs. But for the Mark of the Beast guy, I'm not surprised. Are you voodoo dolling your – you're the manager? Yeah, the opponent. The manager. Not the players. Okay.

You're pro player. I'm pro player. Yeah, I mean, inversely to the good schedule is also just knowing that if you have a superstar that has a really rough playoff schedule, you might be peaked, right? Like, you're probably going to keep riding them, but maybe you can swap them at the trade deadline for a player with a better schedule. We can talk about that. That is what today is all about the playoff primer. You can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. That's where all the weekly rankings, the start sit tool. If you want any premium content from the join the foot.com community, which includes the ultimate dashboard, the custom waiver wire, the spot starts, the consent, the strength of schedule tool, the streamfinder, all of the resources, many of which we use to prepare today's show available to you as a member at join the foot.com. A reminder, there's a new dynasty podcast out today. Betts, Borg, and Mike did the dynasty situation room.

We did. We broke down. We sent the call out and let people say, here's my, here's where I am. Like, I am a contending team. Like, should I go after this player or I'm in a rebuild? You know, what am I doing? Just a lot of, you know, advice for all sorts of teams out there. Yep. So let's jump into Hungry for More. Welcome to Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats. All right, Jason, why don't you kick us off for this week's hungry for me? Sure. Look, I mean, if you've been holding on to him or if you picked them up late, for the most part, all season we've been hungry for even just a little, T.J. Hawkinson finally got back, got healthy, is on the field, is active, and is immediately the number two target that the Minnesota Vikings so desperately have needed. The first week back, limited snaps.

Still a pretty decent involvement in the passing game. But now this last week, nine targets, eight for 72, still on just 46% of the snaps. I mean, this is a need for this team. Behind Justin Jefferson, they have needed someone to step up. He was targeted on 32% of his routes this last week. Only Travis Kelsey had more first read targets in week 10 at the tight end position. And so I... I'm hungry for more of T.J. Hawkinson because I don't think that people remember how good he was last year as a Viking and how important he was, how impactful. And I'm going to leave it for the end of the show. But the playoff primer edition, you want to talk about a guy who's got a dynamite schedule in the playoffs is T.J. Hawkinson. So.

I'm hungry for more of them this week and the rest of the season, but especially, I think he's going to be one of those players that can help take people to championships. Yeah, I mean, Hawkinson looked great this past week. He looked great. He looked right back into the flow of what made him great. And he did look at towards the end of the game, darn tired. I felt bad. He's like, dude, you've got to give this guy a break. He was, he was, I mean, on his ninth target or eighth target or wherever it was. I saw him lay on the ground for at least a half second before getting up, not because of injury. It was just like, oh, man, this is, this game is brutal. Mike, who do you have? And by the way, you did point out, Jason, it might be trying to run up the value on Hawkinson for the trade deadline in our League of Record. What? Dude, I have Hawkinson in the League of Record? While that is true, and he is incredibly valuable for the trade deadline this week. And he is.

I want to remind you, uh, he was the tight end two and the tight end four of the last two years and now is going to be probably the tight end two or three rest of the way. Wow. But that's, that's happenstance. You didn't even know that he was on your team. That's coincidence. Okay. I mean, genuinely though, I don't want the foot clan out there to think that this is a. No, I'm in, I'm totally in on this. It is, it's both. I love to throw a bit on top, but this is true. Like, Hawkinson should be a really important difference maker down the stretch, much, much more different than the.

you know, the Jake Ferguson's and the Hunter Henry's and, you know, even Evan Ingram, who's now potentially lost his quarterback, I think Hawkinson is the only guy that's in that has not been a top tier guy who can now become a top tier guy rest of the way and join Trey McBride and join some of these high, high-end, you know, Kittle. I genuinely believe that's where Hawkinson lives. I was very happy to see the nine targets. The hope and everything for Hawkinson was we know when he will be back, but will he go back into a prominent role? It was a devastating knee injury. So to have him be back, he's only playing about half the snaps right now. So I'm in on that. The one I want to say I'm hunger for more for because this player has really only received nothing but.

slander, not from just this show, but how? I did speak for yourself? What? You've, you've enjoyed a slanderous moment or two. It's been very fun. Who hasn't gotten in on taking a cheap shot of low blow at Quentin Johnston, wide receiver of the last year. You know, in the past, that's been fun. The rookie year was as close to a shorefire bust first round wide receiver that we have seen in a very long time. And yet things have actually gotten better for him. He's scored in two straight games. In points per game, he's actually right there with Ladd-McConkie. Quentin's at 10.6. McConkey is at 10.5. And this team has really turned things around in weeks 1 through 4. They're averaging about 145 passing yards per game. Week 6 through 10. We're up to 262 yards per game and the upcoming schedule for the charges for wide receivers. It's actually, it's the third.

high or the third easiest for wide receivers and they have high totals over the next five weeks week 14 is the only bad matchup here for the for the charges pass catchers they take on the the chiefs in that time but bangles Baltimore falcons Tampa Bay these are great matches for him and the team is surging at the right time I think that he is a really interesting guy who could just like maybe he's a flex play for the rest of the season how do you see I've always loved him Yeah. That is sarcasm. But it's nice to see like we've reached the point where we're not wondering if the ball's going to be caught really. I mean, it is a man, the training camp videos of just him dropping passes combined with last year. It's like, this is this is hilarious. We didn't see enough of him last year.

And it's amazing. Yeah, I was going to say he was on the field so much. We saw enough and it was bad. That part is true. But remember, if you remember before the season, if you went back and watched the film, there were a lot of plays that looked promising from an after the catch standpoint from the way he was running routes. It was just his drops were so egregious and headline making. You just wonder what the confidence building ability of hardball has been. because he is yeah that's a very good point a players coach but he's detail oriented too if you haven't seen the the video uh that the chargers put out on x jim harbaugh building up herbert and talking to her it is it is a fun time i'm telling you put that on your to do list just just look up that video i couldn't watch this video without smiling he's talking to

Herbert, they're playing games with the opponent. They're, they're, they're, I mean, he's, he's apparently wanting to call him beast. You know, he's, oh, I'm calling him beast now. I'm calling Harbaugh, or I'm calling Herbert. Oh, yeah, he's a beast. You haven't seen this video, Mike? No, I didn't watch. You will love it. It's wonderful. I'm falling in love with Jim Harbaugh right now. It's great. And, um, uh, the cycle continues. We'll talk to you in about. Three years? Two to three years. I will be brief here. This guy's the worst. Get him out of here. I am hungry for more consistency from Kyler Murray. He has been. Okay. His great has been great. QB1, QB4, QB6, QB7 on the week. His bad? It's been bad. QB 30, QB 24, QB 25. And so the fantasy schizophrenia.

has been destructive to your weeks at times. I have been somebody that has him rostered in multiple leagues. One week I'm winning because of him. The next week I'm losing because of him. He has a good playoff schedule. Kyler has, like the Cardinals in general have a good schedule rest of season. And you have to look at the details here. One of the bad, the awfully bad games that I named, no Harrison. One of the awfully bad games, no McBride. He needs, I think we've seen this as Cardinal fans, analyzing this team, is that he needs every piece that's in that offense to succeed, every core piece. You don't, if you don't have Harrison, all of a sudden you are, your wide receivers are Michael Wilson and Greg Dorch. It disappears. It's terrible. If you don't have McBride, suddenly it's, we double team Harrison and it's over, right? So.

He needs every piece or it falls apart, but the schedule is lining up very well for him. He runs. That is a fundamental baseline for quarterbacks. Two touchdowns on the ground in the last week. But again, this is hungry for more. This is not saying Kyler's a guaranteed league winner. This is saying I am hungry for more of this consistency and this offense to do what it's been doing over the last three weeks in moving the football. His schedule has to be in today's show. It is. It is. Because it's not just, I won't go over the playoff weeks, but yeah, he's on the by week this week. The Cardinals are taking the old rest, but then Seattle, Minnesota, Seattle, Patriots, or I ran into the playoffs. Sorry. Don't tell anybody who they play. It's a wild run coming up here for Kyler and the Cardinals. No, I had traded with you, Mike, for Jordan Love in our League of Record. Yep. Because I had been so frustrated with the down weeks from Kyler.

And I just kind of realized like I can't let Kyler go. I need to play these guys off the good and bad weeks back and forth in terms of the matchups. Like you mentioned Seattle out of the buy. Like I'm sitting Jordan Love that week and I'm playing Kyler Murray that week. Gotcha. Because the matchups are just some of these are too juicy. All right. That was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats. The official on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Let's jump into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said George Kittle left Sunday's game with, quote, hamstring irritation that will be monitored through the week. Not exciting to hear that. Not unless you got Christian McCaffrey. Well, yeah, or Pierceall or Jennings. J. Hawkinson.

You know, there's so many ways. What is happening out here? Look, I'm just saying this is a worry, you know? Yeah. If your opponent is going down, build yourself up to go up. You know what I mean? It sounds to me like you are heading to a title. If you have Hawkinson, why would you ever move that guy? I could be. Aaron Wilson said the expectation is for Nico Collins to practice all week and make his return Monday night against the Cowboys. Which brings us to disclosing the trade that happened in League of Record because everybody right now on on X or contacting Jason. What? Mediocre signing of the week. You know what? I think maybe my pinky hit something. You think? I think that's, yeah, that's in the corner there. Let's go to our mediocre signing of the week here.

The mediocre signing of the week is that the Raiders are expected to make the change to Desmond Ritter at quarterback. No, no, they're not. No, they're not. That's real? That is, according to the athletics of Victor. No. This isn't April 1st? That's the mediocre signing of the week. Brilliant stroke of button pushing, Andy. Yeah, well, I was just setting you up for the news I didn't know about. That is, how can we do this? I will not tolerate any toxic group think. against Desmond Ritter in this podcast. Okay, so can we make, okay, so Miami's defense, Denver's defense, Kansas City's defense, Tampa Bay's defense, Atlanta's defense, Jacksonville, New Orleans, and the Chargers. You would like those for the next seven weeks. I mean, Ritter's not going to make it seven weeks, but yeah, for the next couple. If you're Desmond Ritter and you've been cut from multiple teams and you end up falling bass backwards into this starting opportunity, that's your moment, man.

Sees it. All right, let's go back to Nico. Right now, any Nico related news, Jason is getting tagged, and it's important that the world knows. That tag needs to move to Andy. So our situation in the League of Record, we're on our trade deadline if you haven't figured that out yet. And we've talked a lot about CD Lam and whether you make a move. I've been tagged a lot. Are you sticking with it? Are you riding it out? And with all of the answers maybe. Yeah, all of my injuries, I am on the outside. It would be a struggle to.

get over the top against some of the better teams in the league of record, so I'm having to choose to trade or sell now. And so I traded Nico Collins for a pick swap in my favor and CD Lamb to play. It's a hedge bet. CD can be okay this year, but more it's a play for next year where I, you know, Nico could easily be ahead of CD Lamb and startup drafts next year. If I had to put a dollar on it right now, I think CD will be ahead of Nico coming into next year. They obviously have a...

brand new contract for CD, brand new contract for DAC. So I think next year, CD will be ahead, but it's a risk. Nico was the number one wide receiver before he got injured. Also a brand new contract for him. The move for me, just so I can help the fantasy community with this is I was not going to force it with CD Lamb, but I was looking. Here's what I wasn't going to do. I wasn't going to go neutral because CD Lamb, I think, you know, if you're in a keeper league, obviously you want to hang on to him. I turned down Pooka Nakuwa for C.D. Lamb. Maybe that's a bad move, but Pooka Nakua has the single worst wide receiver schedule rest of season in terms of schedule adjusted fancy points against. That was too neutral for me. It could be the right move, but it was too neutral. I turned down Jaden Reed and a pick, right? Like that was, I don't need to trade maybe some inconsistency with Cid LAM with definitely some inconsistency with Jaden Reed. I was.

looking at Malik neighbors, but you're messing with quarterback problems in the same exact vein, right? Drew Locke does not inspire me anymore than the Cooper Rush Tray Lance situation. So I wasn't going to go neutral. Nico to me was an opportunity to potentially upgrade CD Lam without a quarterback without DAC. So that was the move. And everyone's got to make that choice. And it also depends on how crucial CD Lam's high end output was to your fantasy team. Do you have other players that are giving you high-end fantasy production? Because C.D. Lamb's going to be good for 10 points on most weeks, I believe. Now, Mike, you like the move for me because you feel like you said 99% chance in your mind that Nico outperforms CD rest of the season. Yeah. And I was just, you know, being courteous to Jason's absolutely ridiculous trade that he made. Okay. I want 100% agree. I want.

I mean, C.D. Lambs should not be as good as Nico rest of season. No chance. This was a move for next year for me. And, yeah, Al, you offered me some combo of Devante Adams and Sutton and Mooney, and I said, no, thank you. Nico Collins, guys, has not been in a football game since week five, where he played 13% of the snaps. So he basically has not played since week four. He is currently the wide receiver 17. Yeah, like I said, he was the wide receiver won when he went down to injury. He was better than everyone. And now here's the real, the real news is that now that he's not on Jason's team, those of you with Nico can relax. Yeah, seriously. Because moments after he traded him to me, we got the news that he's going to practice all week and he's going to play on Monday. And we've got him out of your clutches. Yeah, I'd be afraid if you got Seedy. That shoulder injury about to put him down. All right. Trevor Lawrence ruled out already.

but might come back after the buy. He needs to come back if you have Brian Thomas. That is the number one reason I want Trevor Lawrence active in the NFL right now is to give Brian Thomas Jr. a chance. Because if he's not back, Brian Thomas Jr. went from up and coming star to terror to start him to me. So he's out this week, then the bye week. Then comes. Oh, my gosh. Breaking news. No. No. Well, there's a lot of quarterback moves being made out there in the NFL. What is happening? Colts are making another quarterback move going. They are promoting second string quarterback Anthony Richardson back to being the starter. Did they, did they look at Bryce Young and go, I kind of worked for Bryce Young. Yeah.

Wow. It's the path? He just said that Flacco was the starter until he said otherwise. I told you. He said otherwise. He is in a awful position where he can't say anything else. And they were in the playoff hunt. Richardson was not getting it done. Joe Flacco has officially pumpkin. The father time seems to have caught Joe Flacko finally. They said for the rest of this season. Wow. I don't know why you'd say that. Just stop talking? Yeah. Stop talking. I like, I want to be on record here. I think Shane Steichen is a very good offensive mind. I really do think that he runs a good system and with the right player personnel can get the most out of them. This isn't someone that I think was built on the laurels of Peyton Manning like an Adam Gaze. But with his current head coaching prowess of.

The leadership structure of I'm brave enough to make a move. No, I'm not undue. No, both were forever. Arthur Blank. Yeah, I mean. Oh, Arthur Smith. Oh, yeah. It's, you know, I don't know, maybe Stuyken will be a great office of coordinator. He seems a little in over his head right now. Hmm. I mean, this is. That's comical. I made the, I coughed the wrong name at first, but Arthur Smith with the Ritter and the rotation at court. It reminds me of that last year. Like. Here's the truth. And maybe this lets you forgive Shane Steichen for his somewhat strange behavior. Neither quarterback's good enough to get you to the playoffs. I agree. That's the truth. The truth is you don't have him. You had to find out with Flacco. Like the run that he went on last year, you have to see if did he have that magic left? At least right now, that magic. He does not. The magic is gone. Richardson is back. And, uh, no.

Good luck with your Colts wire receivers. Do you guys realize what this means from my dynasty team? I have Kyler and Baker on by and I had Flacco as my last quarterback. Oh, no. Didn't you also trade for Josh Downs? Yeah, he certainly did. Oh, goodbye. Yeah, I wish I traded him yesterday. Can I ask you a question for a friend? Sure. Cooper Rush or Mac Jones? Oh, Mac Jones. In a vacuum, I don't remember their schedules off the top of my head. And Cooper Rush is Monday night. I'll tell you that much against the Houston Texas. Cooper Rush against Houston or Mac Jones. Against Minnesota. Against Detroit. I'd stick with Mac Jones. You're not going to be happy either way. I'd stick with the poison you already got. Wow, what a news segment. We got to take a break because we got more news to talk about. Did you want to add something, Mike? I was just we have more quarterback news. Oh, boy. Back in a minute.

All right. On the other side of the break, I do want to ask you, do you think this is the right move with Richardson at this point? Yes. I kind of feel that one. Based on what we saw from Flacco, like when Flacco came in and looked like he moved this offense, it was great. I understand making the move to Flacco. What we've seen since he was announced as the full-time starter and given the opportunity to truly lead this team, I mean, he was abysmal. It was weird, too. It was like he wasn't letting go of the ball when... He always has. He just was holding on to it, getting sacks. Yeah, I think at this point, if you're not going to make the playoffs, let the young guy in. The crazy thing is that, I mean, he still threw for 272 yards last week. Adonai Mitchell, Alec Pierce, Josh Downs, all had okay games. All of a sudden, that's off the table now, it seems with Anthony Richardson. Not that you can't start downs. It's just like Adonai Mitchell, like I'm going to go delete my waiver claim for him. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Adonai Mitchell,