The TRUTH: QBs Part 2 + Playoff Reactions, Short Snuff - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/24

We got a great show for you today. We are going over all the incredible football from this weekend, and we're going to look at what the truth is about not the top 10 quarterbacks, but the next group. Were there any good players that you might want next year, or were they all like Aaron Rogers, who sucked? Make sure you like this video, subscribe, and enjoy. This is Kyle Ushik from the San Francisco 49ers, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers podcast, Andy Mike and Jason, back with you Tuesday, January 24th. Another truth episode of the show talking quarterbacks today. Deucer's Alley is full of deuce.

Yeah, yeah, you've got the Borgogan still swagging out with his falcon shirt. You've got the judge sitting in the middle trying to keep those two apart. They've been in kind of a fight ever since they... Just always fighting. Ever since Kyle made Al wear the Borgogan mask on the shame episode. And cut away with the delightful sleep mask. Yeah, and then Al is here and all black again, just blending in. What? Yeah. He's wearing all black again? I'm surprised. He's going on a cruise here pretty soon, a little vacay. And he normally spices up the wardrobe just before the cruise, just to make sure, I'm assuming that things fit and everything. Yeah, they don't. Oh, try to spruce it up a little this morning. Yes. Oh, man. You tried. You tried this morning? That is.

so great that this came out on the show unexpectedly because you're 100% right. Every time he goes on a cruise, we see him that week of. You see him teasing the cruise. And he is in full, you know, Hawaiian tourist mode. Margaritaville, you know. It's because of it. Oh, you're fair. Well, we love you out. Oh, another wonderful. You need the vacation. I think that's what we're learning right here right now. That's right. You need some time. I need an all-you-can-eat buffet. That's what you need, yeah. For seven days. That's right. Thank you for joining us today. Excited to have the crew back together. A couple of things at the top before we get into the divisional round and hop back into the truth about the fantasy quarterback position with some interesting names today. Number one, if you could do us a favor, just a couple clicks.

I mean, it might as well be a tiny trumpet. There, I was waiting to see what I get. Footclanvote.com. We've been nominated for the FSGA's award for best social media content. That's the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association. This is new and different than the recent Foot Clan vote you might have done a couple weeks ago. And Andy and I will be in Vegas to receive this award, so we expect. to receive this award. Right. Otherwise, what are we doing there? Right. And no pressure, Foot Clan, but this award has been in existence for three or four years and has been won by the fantasy footballers each and every year. What's Mike saying is the dynasty is on the line. That is correct. Yeah, Footclanvote.com. And then Jason is wearing, if you're watching on YouTube, the brand new footclan title shirt. Yeah. Which.

It's nice. Thank you. Not nice seeing you wear it. Well, it feels great. Let me tell you, if you want a comfortable shirt that's going to make you feel good, this is it. If you won your title, go get it. Yeah, I'm afraid we're going to have to see that a lot over the next calendar year. I got five of them, so one for each weekday. Good, good. So that's shopballers.com if you want to check that out. Nicknamed shirt is up there. as well. Our quick question, takeaways, reactions from the divisional round. It was a fun weekend. Many times I think this is my favorite weekend of the playoffs because you get multiple games on Saturday, multiple on Sunday. Some really entertaining games. The Chiefs knocked off Jacksonville. The Eagles trounced the Giants. The Bengals trounced the bill. Yeah. Lowest scoring game of the year for Buffalo. Something that.

Look, they dominated them from the beginning to the end. And this was one of those things Joe Burrow talking after the game. Like he said it. He's just like, offense defense special teams. We dominated from the beginning to the end. And it was. And then he said, next week will be fun. One of the best guys here. One of the best guys there. Offense defense. It should be a great repeat of last year's AFC title game. Yeah. Joe Burrow has my favorite swag in the league. He has exactly the right amount where he is so. kind of he's puffed up. He's just so confident, but it doesn't go too far. It doesn't go to where you hate the guy. It doesn't go to where it's undeserved. Well, Kyle hates him. Sure. I mean, some people are going to hate Joe Burrow, especially dependent upon what Joe Burrow did to you and your beloved teams. But I just, you know, that quote a couple weeks ago when he was talking about, you know, he was asked about the window. Is the window going to be closing soon? He's like, the window's my whole career.

The window is always open. I just love his confidence. Yeah, I was telling you guys today, Jamar Chase is 22 years old. So that window is going to be open for a while. The breeze is going to be coming in. And then the 49ers, they took care of it. They took care of the Cowboys. Unfortunately, Tony Pollard in this game, fractured his fibula, needs surgery for it, is a free agent. Jason mentioned here in the studio, this may be the one path to him, you know, It has to increase the likelihood that he would return to Dallas, especially as we've seen Ezekiel Elliott really degrade from a production standpoint. They've already, the whisper from the bushes have already floated the franchise is in play, the franchise tag for Pollard. Oh, I could, that makes perfect sense. It sucks for Pollard. I think, I could be great, though. I mean, he needs money. The truth is that they might not need.

that anymore. I mean, they're going to let him maybe test that open market. And I don't know that he's going to get a giant payday now coming off of this injury. And if that's the case, if they can bring him back on a reasonable deal, you know, that's where if you are the Tony Pollard manager, there's the temptation to say, man, I hope he goes out and becomes the dude for a new team. And I don't think that's his best fantasy output. I think his best fantasy output is staying on the Cowboys as. The best dude on the Cowboys. Yeah, exactly. As Zeke gets older and slower, just let Pollard continue doing what he did this year, only more. And this is a, at least I haven't heard anything about this injury that would indicate a complexity level that would be on par with it. You know, an ACL tear. That's why I think he'll still get the whatever offer he was going to get. I think it'll still be out there for him because it's he'll, the, I've heard that the three month timeline that's been floated has been.

kind of an optimistic timeline, but he'll be good to go once the season starts. And he's, he has enough tape that he's a sensational player. Yeah, Betts said for, for an athlete to return to, you know, pre-injury performance, it's usually going to be about nine months. So you're talking about really close to the start of the season where when he's out there, he might make it to week one. But he might not be at full strength. We see that a lot where it'll take him a couple of weeks into the season, maybe a couple of months into the season before he's at full strength, not necessarily finally able to do activity. He'll be able to do activity before then. 49ers play the Eagles on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern Bengals Chiefs is the night game. Looking forward to it. Yeah.

And I think, did you both have Buffalo to win at all? Or was that just Jason? I have, I had Chiefs Eagles. Okay. So you're still winning. Still in play there. My final tour. And honestly, like one of my bigger takeaways here from just these four games, small sample, but like this is the highest of, highest level of competition for the NFL, you need to have two wide receivers. on your team. Or have Patrick Mahomes. I mean, that certainly kind of covers things up when you go. You can have zero if you have Patrick Mahomes. When you have the best quarterback in the league and one of the best offensive coaches, you can call him the best, but whatever for Andy Reid, that certainly changes the narrative. But it's like the Eagles have two dominant wide receivers. DeMonte Smith is playing out of his mind. They're both ones. Outproducing A.J. Brown.

The Bengals, even though T. Higgins didn't have the monster game. Like it's just, it changes what the offense can do where the bills. Diggs isn't enough. Like just when you run into an elite defense playing as hot as the Bengals were playing, having Justif on Diggs is not enough. Well, that statement in and of itself is one against Gabe Davis. Yes, it is. Yes. So the future for Gabe Davis and the consistency of Gabe Davis, and I'm sure we will look at him. on the truth episodes, but it wasn't there this year, and he did not step into the big boy pants. No, the opportunity that Gabe Davis had is what was as good as it gets, even to fruition, the targets he had, the amount of, you know, the whole season, he could have been something really special. He did not step up into that next level of.

I'm here to dominate. I'm here to be, you know, a great wide receiver too for the team. That was just a guy that really let Josh Allen down too often. He should have been a contested catch king. And instead it was like if a defender can really get in there, he's going to knock it away. That's what it felt like. Yeah, and obviously San Francisco, they have Debo Samuel, Brandon Ayuk, George Kittle. similar to the chiefs, you know, where Kelsey is a centerpiece of the passing offense. They use their running backs. Both of those teams use the running backs like a wide receiver many times. And the Cowboys had C.D. Lamb and nobody. You know, they really needed someone else. Michael Gallup didn't get it done. And what's really sad is thinking about, I think the Cowboys could have been a Super Bowl winner with a Murray Cooper on this team. Their defense was good enough, but their offense just missed.

another option. And then Cooper went out to Cleveland and balled out in tough situation with different quarterbacks. So, yeah, Cowboys fans are left in the same boat. How long has it been since they've been in a title game? You mean like the NFC championship game? Is that 90s? I would think so. Kyle, do you know off the top of your head? I'll look it up. They won it in 95, so that's the last time they won. I think that's the last time they were in the title game, legitimately. I think so. Yeah, I mean, our resident cowboy fan there in the middle. Are you just numb at this point, Brooks? Like, do you have any... Were you watching with hopes and expectations or just... I was watching. You were watching. Yes. No, I didn't... I thought they would get upset last week against the bucks, so... And what do you think of moving shifting Zieg to center? Do you think that that's an option? Maybe avoid that.

What was that play? That play was so much fun and so funny. It looked like a comedy movie. Like the execution of it just was so great at the end. And I love your tweet, Andy. Like people are so upset about that play. There is no play that was going to work at that situation. Why didn't she call the good one that was going to score? It doesn't matter. So I'm so happy they went with Zeke at Center, had him just get mauled because he's not an offensive lineman and then throw the ball to a guy. that gets immediately tackled. It looked like high schoolers playing against the college team. It was a lot of fun. I think we ran that play in our flag football league at one point in time. But no, the 49ers, you know, they've got a task here. Going into Philadelphia, it's going to be very difficult. Trying to put up enough points against Philadelphia on the road. This is the time where it's going to be on the back of Brock Purdy. And you're going to have to try. And he's, he's.

playing good football. Yes. But you're going to have to put sustained drives together against Philadelphia. But yesterday, Brock Purdy would not have beaten the Eagles. No, I don't think so. No. And, you know, he didn't get a lot of help. I mean, CMC played through a calf injury. You know, it'll be interesting. Cincinnati's going to have a lot in their corner going against Kansas City with the Mahomes injury. the ankle injury where he may have limited mobility. That part sucks so much. And the Bengals are, they're on fire, right? I mean, there was not a big gap between them and the Chiefs in the regular season. The Bengals are 12 and 4, Chiefs 14 and 3. The Chiefs have lost three straight games against these Bengals. The Bengals have their number, and now you have an injured Mahomes. It's going to be very, very difficult to beat these Bengals. They are so good right now.

Yeah, well, we'll be watching, that is for sure, along with the Cowboys. Yeah. Yeah. All right, into the truth we go. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Do you know how many times, Mike, I'm going to have to watch that videographic? A lot more of me in that wig, which I don't think I look that good in that wig. You don't? No. I thought it looked better. Yeah, well. I'm just saying you should give it a try. Okay. All right. We'll think about it. That could be a, I'm sure I'll get shamed another 50 to. Nice powdered wig. Yeah. You never went. The judge wig. No. No, the old and then the, what are they? Snuff. Whatever the was the powder.

I don't remember. What are you talking? You're on your own here, bud. I'm trying to help you, but I don't know what you're talking about. Just back in the day where they put the powder on? No, no, they would, uh, I think they would snort that powder. This is the new information. Hey, man. History class. You're talking about the old powdered wigs. No, no, no. I'm just talking about that time period. You're saying, you're saying that the founding fathers had huge cocaine problems. No, but it was, no, no, it was not that. It was something else. Okay. I'll look into it. All right. We don't need you to look into it. I mean, at this point, we kind of need to know. All right. Into the truth we go. Last episode, which was last week, we talked about the top 10 finishers. We're looking at the top final scores and total fantasy points. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen, Jalen, Joe Burrow, Gino Smith, Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins, Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, and Jared Goff.

So we're into the second episode on quarterbacks. You know, we talk about this statistic every single year. There were 45 different quarterbacks that had top 12 performances. That is the second most over the last decade. This is part of the foundational argument of how you can get by with the streaming quarterback is just the sheer amount of quarterbacks that participate. They have opportunities. So many teams turning to backups or even third options this year. But we're diving into what we view as the truth about these players. And this second group is very interesting because there are a number of names that obviously were in the top 10 finishers last season, players that weren't there because of injury. And we're looking at how many great games did they have? How many good games? Great games are 26 or more points. Good games are 21 or more points. Bust games. How many times did they actively hurt you? 15 or fewer points.

So, you know, the next two guys on this list, one of the reasons they're here is because their offenses did not challenge defenses down the field. They settled for the short stuff, or as Michael call it, the short snuff. I found out what it is if you want to talk about. All right. It was a tobacco. But they'd snort it? Yeah. Wow. And you knew this. Yes. And it was called snuff. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, now you know. Now the world knows. Like if you ever, if you ever see. You need to kind of dumb down the level of joke to kind of more common history. I, I apologize. I thought this was a common thing that people dozers. Deucers. Were you in on the snuff knowledge? Yes. I have. Yeah. All right. My man. Cruise line knew what was going on. Like if you're ever watching a period piece and we're back in the time where they would wear the wigs and you see they open up like a little box. They snorts them and then they have a sneeze.

Apparently it was tobacco. That's a good time. Brooks, were you in? I don't know if it's a good time. No, I was not. Kyle? I've heard of this. Mike's not crazy. All right. Justin Herbert is at 11. And it was just a real... I can't believe he's here. It was a really bumpy ride for Justin Herbert and the Chargers. Look, I had him on several fantasy teams. And he was one of the biggest reasons that I had some teams struggle because you had to pay third round price for him. And I can tell you from watching, my observation of both of these next two guys was every game felt like you were just hanging on for dear life. You were kind of kicking against the goads. You were constantly wanting vintage Justin Herbert. And yet every drive felt like pulling teeth. It was never. And it makes sense because if you're checking the ball down, he was 31st in average depth of target. Okay. Despite completing the third most completions in NFL history.

That's wild. It feels that way when you, if you are barely throwing the ball, short completion, short completion, you have to put so much together to get all the way to the red zone. It's not coming quickly. And so Keenan was hurt, yes. Mike Williams was hurt, yes. But what were your takeaways here? He was the 17th in terms of our truth data, which looks at that consistency level. He was 25% good games, 6% great games. That is not like Justin Herbert. No, and that's certainly not like anyone that you should be drafting in the third round. If you're drafting a quarterback in the third round or higher, you have to have great games, weak winning performances. And he just didn't provide those very often. I think two really good games over the course of the entire season, not going to get it done. And it was very frustrating. There's a big question here because their offensive line was okay. It was not as...

terrible as some of these quarterbacks thrust into a position where they are going to have to check it down immediately or is going to be lying on his back. They certainly dealt with injuries and had certain periods of the season. But the question to me was, is this a scheme problem? And they have fired their offensive coordinator. They are in the search right now for a new one. And they're going to have better developing routes down the field. The reeds will be, you know, challenging the defense. Justin Herbert just taking layups too often and really being afraid to push the ball down the field. Now, I don't understand why either one of those would happen given what we saw the previous year. I think you have a couple of good explanations for why that would have happened, though. Please. Well, I mean, the absence of weapons is one of them, right? They didn't have Jalen Guyton. He was a downfield threat. They didn't have Mike Williams for parts of the year and Keenan Allen for parts of the year. But in the games when when.

Keenan was there and Austin Eklund was, Echler was there, and Mike Williams was there, and we were waiting. Like, oh, the matchup is good. He's got all of his weapons back. And you just did the same stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think it was it was kind of what the offense built without those weapons. And they didn't, you know, it's one of the reasons they fired Joe Lombardi is that he did not adjust. And you had the rib injury in week two for Justin Herbert. Our injury expert, Matthew Betts, he came out that week and said, look, these things can linger and they may start planning quick passes. And they liked what they saw. I think that there's something to be said about, and look, you're a Gabe Davis fan. You were before the year. I'm a Mike Williams fan. But there's also something to be said that those guys didn't step up either. You know, Mike Williams is a player that will be very.

difficult for fantasy managers to evaluate for the future. And Gabe Davis is in that category as well because you've seen them both make huge plays, but then somehow these guys cannot be part of a game plan. The best players in football, they're always part of the game plan. You don't erase them. And we had games where Mike Williams was gone. Nowhere to be found. I mean, that's been his whole career too. He got the big bag of money, but he just vanishes multiple times throughout the season. I also think that Justin Herbert is the cautionary tale against drafting someone like Joe Burrow next year, very, very high. Joe Burrow can be great.

Justin Herbert can be great. But when you don't add any rushing volume, rushing touchdowns to your fantasy output, if the touchdowns, the passing touchdowns don't come. I mean, Austin Echler happened to get just again a million, you know, touchdowns on the ground. Those just destroyed Justin Herbert's fantasy production on certain weeks. And so if you aren't a mobile rushing quarterback, what do you have? I think sub 150 rushing yards this season. then I'm not going to spend high, high draft capital on you unless you're Patrick Mooms. Yeah, I mean, it's a good point to make because you look at those top finishers. I think Burroughs in a slightly different category. When you have multiple elite weapons, like you could easily make the argument that the Chargers have none. Like Keenan Allen's not a Jamar Chase type of player. Correct. And Mike Williams is not. So, you know, I think there will be a little bit higher baseline for a guy like Burrow.

But look at the top finishers. I mean, Josh Allen, Jalen Hertz, Justin Fields, you know, even Trevor Lawrence runs the ball a little bit more or is a threat around the goal line. So you're always going to run that risk. We talked about it. Matt Ryan had elite weapons, right? He had Julio Jones and Roddy White in the beginning of his career. And he had some up seasons, some down seasons in terms of total touchdown. So can definitely happen to Burrow. It happened to Justin Herbert this year. He only had two top five finishes. He was a lock for those last year. So it was a bumpy ride. I don't think anybody thinks Justin Herbert really isn't still the guy. No, he's a great quarterback. That's why I comp the Joe Burrow comp. Joe Burroughs fantastic. So is Herbert. But if.

touchdowns get ran in more than you want by running backs and you're not participating in the running game, then it's just going to be up and down. It's going to be like Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan had great fantasy years, and he had terrible fantasy years. It's just what you get with the pocket pass. It is funny, too, because Andy Reed changes that game for Mahomes. He does so many creative things inside the 10-yard line, even the tap passes that go to Mahomes. Yep, yeah. There runs, but. Hey, let's give you the stat. Yeah, there's, there's 10 tap passes or shovel passes every year that are basically handoffs at the goal line, but they count as a passive touchdown for a moment. Which, real quick, on the tap passes, I mean, thinking about just the overall, you know, like the logistics of the play, it is, it has to be much safer to hand the ball off.

Yes. Right? Like it feels like... Because if a drop happens, it's an incomplete pass? Well, no, I'm saying like the timing. That is a factor, I guess, of if you screw up the exchange that it's then technically an incomplete pass. But I'm saying holding the ball out and letting a player grab it feels so much safer for the play to execute than actually tossing the ball into the air. Oh, you're saying that it's not safe. Right. And so like when they introduced that, maybe the incompletion is a part of it. But how is... How is part of it not like Mahomes going, you know, if we do it this way, I get yards. I don't know. I mean, maybe Andy Reeves just as benevolent as he seems. Maybe. We'll get into a couple names here, the old guard in just a minute. Tom Brady comes in at number 12 on the year. I don't remember what.

adjective you used Jason to describe Tom Brady's season before the show began, but it was a good one. Do you remember what you said? I think it was sucked. Now, I could be wrong. I could be missed remembering, but I think it was useless. I think useless season for fantasy. Thesaurus it up because you can't say useless. You're saying just because of Week 17. Because when Week 17, you're the number one overall quarterback, not that people were. A ton of people playing Tom Brady, but there were people playing Mike Evans and company. If the boy cries wolf, what, 16 straight times in a row? No one helps him the 17th time, Mike. You tell that to my championship ring, my friend. You saw this in the votes. Both of you happen to play Mike Evans in week 17. Yeah. But you were very, very alone on that bandwag. Kyle was Tom Brady useless.

No, I died because of him. Yeah. No, I'm not arguing he was useless. I'm arguing that if he was on your bench, he was useless, which... If he was on your bench, you were making the right decision. Yeah, exactly. But Tom Brady, let's get back to it because he finished at 12 in total points scored. And one of the reasons we bring up these names in this order is because you'll be hammered with player ranks all offseason. You will see, you know, you'll get away from football. The Super Bowl will be over. You'll take a few weeks off. And then you'll come back to things whenever it is, June, July, August. Maybe you're with us and maybe this is not you. But for a lot of people, you'll come back to these numbers and you go, oh, man, Tom Brady was a QB1. Okay, let's pick him up. He'll be better than that. And we will be, we'll be victims to this too in some regards. You know, there are times on the show when we'll be like,