Week 14 Studs & Duds + Fantasy Burns, Playoff Time - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/9

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Amazon Prime. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Hi, welcome in. Monday, December 9th of Fantasy Footballers podcast, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Excited to have you with us, a reaction to the weekend, the studs, the duds, the news.

the puns. And then I'm out. I'm actually taking off. Oh, all right. I picked up the buy week in League of Records. So I'm actually going to take this week off, guys, if you don't mind. We don't mind. I got nothing to worry about. Do you mind, Mike? No, that's fine. Yeah, I'm cool with it. We should make a start sit tool for buy week teams. And it just no matter what players you put in, it just says it doesn't matter. Al, are you in? You like this frame of thought? I hate that you have the buy. Hey, you can still get the other buy, Al, if I just got a route for injury, which I try not to do. Yeah. But if Chase Brown wants to catch a cold before the game. Okay. Okay. That's not, that's a short-term, short-term thing. That's right. Take some cold medicine. Take the week off. That's what you need for the buy? Yes, sir. Okay. I don't think he's going to do that. Hey, I made the playoffs too, baby. Congratulations.

To those of us who backed in, baby. O and two on the week, don't matter. The Briggs truck is coming to the playoff. You got your socks blown off by Josh Allen. Yeah. You had no chance in heck, and you're still in. And I'm in, baby. Oh, boy. And you've got such a powerhouse team. You're just ready to run the table. I know people don't want to play me. Okay, because I will destroy your team with voodoo and black magic. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The way the chiefs do. Oh, my gosh. Oh my gosh, they have done this to themselves. There is no one left that likes the chiefs. Like I am, I like dynasties. I root for the big, you know, when it was the Patriots. Sorry, I liked it. I enjoyed it. I was like, I want to see them win another championship and like, be like I was part of that, you know, era of football. When you got to see it. Dude, part of it.

Yes, I was, well, I just mean like, that was, you know, the, I was the guy that drafted Bacheco. But the chiefs, the football that they're playing. It's so annoying. They can't keep doing this, man. This was not a destroy. What did I call it? A demolish it. That was not a demolishing. Demolishing of our souls and eyeballs. It's like. It's funny because you can go to Twitter and everyone points out every holding call that isn't called by the chiefs and blah blah blah blah blah blah but when you when you hit a field goal off the upright. It's not you can't script it like you can't pre-plan like it just happens to go off the upright and through. Of course it goes through. Yeah, you said so we weren't together when we were watching this and I think you were ahead of us at the time.

And I was with, I was with owl. We knew that they were about to kick a field goal to win the game, a little chip shot. And you said, oh my gosh, in Slack. And I was like, did it go against them final? Like, they're going to miss the field. This is crazy. And then they doinked it in. Unbelievable. You know what bothers me, too? The level of celebration after all of these crappy wins. They're always so. They won. I know they won, Mike, but they just like, bro, you've been in sports. You've been in competition at the, when the clock is at zero and you have won. That's when you're like, a win is a win. Oh, and I will celebrate it. I don't blame them. I don't blame them on that at all. But my point, and the point of all people.

outside of Kansas City or who aren't Chiefs fans. Congratulations to Chiefs fans. This is amazing for you guys. Happy for you. Just the rest of the world you need to know, the rest of the world would rather watch the Panthers right now. The Panthers are playing better looking football than the Chiefs and you just keep winning. Now Mike and I are living the Bryce Young experience every week. It's a great time. The Kansas City Chiefs have pulled like this is the ultimate heel turn. Yes. Like because everyone loved the Kansas City Chiefs. Oh, yeah. Patrick Mahomes is throwing for 5,000 and 50 butjillion touchdowns. No lookers. Behind the back. Love it. They can win every single game. Give me that level of entertainment. And now we're back to the doldrums. Like this, this is a day Hulk Hogan joined NWO. Yes, it is. And now we all just, we all hate the chiefs. I got, I, but the problem, your team is great. The problem. I hate them. Our hatred.

is fueling. I know. It's the chip on their shoulder that they need to keep winning these games. It's the same thing as the Patriots. Like when the Patriots would just barely or the Spurs. Barely beat teams. Yeah. Sound fundamentals. You get out of here with that bullcrap. It's far more the spurs. Give me 44-42 games like the Buffalo Rams game. Dirty, dirty wins, you 12 and 1 sons of guns. All right. I guess we'll react with your puns right now. What a weekend it was. I've got all your Monday Punday submissions from the Instagram from X. And away we go. And I got to start it all. Yeah, you'll enjoy this one. Jalen McMillions, baby. We called it. Shazam Darnold. Wait, he made it. Janu Swish? Yeah, baby. Overtime. Oh, my gosh, Alan. Oh, my gosh, Alan. Oh, my gosh, Alan. The Garden of Thielen. Oh, nice.

Isaac Scorendo. The Charbonsoe. Yeah. And Devon Yee Chan. Oh, do you want winnings? And I like this. Bazooka Nakua. Oh, yeah. That's good. They weren't all good. You got Yucky Irving. Why are we doing that, damn? He got injured. Travis Smelsey. And Anus Winston. Oh. Nick West broke Akini. It finally happened. Yeah, of course. Oh, AJ Brownstains. And Jaden peed. Uh, how about Peepoo Samuel? Oh, won't Levis? That's good. Mike Mevens, and let's end it with Mr. Moore here. He is just where he's taking us all. Breece Hell. The, even Breece Hell couldn't stop you from making the playoffs. Yeah, because I could have benched my whole team. Jaden Reed being in this list.

surrounded by just people being annihilated like Anus Winston. And he's just Jaden Pete and he's out here. He gave everyone zero points. That's ridiculous. The best pun I saw on Jaden Reed was, uh, Jaden Reed sucks. That's a pretty clever because it's like they're using his name. Yeah. And it sounds just like Jaden Reed. Um, Jaden Reed was in. So Mike's, Mike and I's champ, champ, champ team. Yeah. Our Dino Jr. roster, we're playing for the bye week. And we had, well, it's not over here. We need 27 points from Joe Burrow. Oh, that's doable. It's doable. He's done it probably four or five times this year. It would have been doneable if we had not played Jaden Reed. Yeah, we had Jaden Reed in and Devante Adams on La Bench. That was a bad call by you. Agreed. Agreed. All right. We're ready to roll.

Welcome to Ready to Roll, presented by Nissan. Well, one of the things we sat on this show for the entirety of the 10 years we've been doing this is that you've got to stay water in fantasy football. We've learned that conclusions can kill, right? If you make a determination too soon, if you're unwilling to change an opinion, if you are suffering from fantasy burns from a certain player, and that carries on to, you know, you making a poor decision based on the fact that you were hurt in the past. All of these things can hurt you in fantasy. Jason, you've talked about wide receivers and how outside of the tippy, tippy top of the wide receiver position, you can go look at our consistency charts. They're all fairly inconsistent. Yeah, like a good grade for these wide receivers is to have a good game every other game. Like over a certain barometer, that's...

That's actually good. It doesn't feel good in the moment, but it actually is pretty consistent for a wide receiver. So I wanted to look at a couple of things here in our ready to roll segment. First, I wanted to take a look at the first impressions we got just as a little bit of a reflection and a lesson learned because the first three weeks of the fantasy football season are so impactful on our psyches that. Because you have all the buildup. We all drafted. We built our rankings. We've spent two, three, four, five months talking about players. We have expectations. And then the first three weeks. Well, after the first three weeks, Andy, you know now, now you know what's going to happen. It's all been locked in stone. Except it's not. In fact, this stat is wild. Half of the top 10 fantasy wide receivers on the year right now. Right now. Half of them were outside the top 30 after three weeks.

Outside the top 30 after three weeks. Here are some of the names as we look back at the beginning. Terry McLaurin, wide receiver 39 through three weeks. Jordan Addison, the wide receiver 104. JSN, Garrett Wilson and Brian Thomas, all outside the top 30. Jerry Judy, outside the top 40. Cortland Sutton, outside the top 50. Ladd McConkey, outside the top 50. And since then, McLaren is the wide receiver four on the year. Do you guys realize that? Oh, I realize that. I've got them in one league and it is, I just can't believe it keeps happening every week. And Addison, wide receiver 16. Jason is now the wide receiver five on the year. Garrett Wilson, the wide receiver seven. Brian Thomas in the top 10. Judy, in the top 10. Yeah, I mean, he's been, he is, he is a dominant.

league winning type of fantasy wide receiver with James. So if you just put yourself in the in the boat of like if you reacted to those first three weeks, it probably costs you starting those guys another three weeks before you add any confidence. Things change very quickly. You look at common denominators in that situation. Terry McLauran with Jane Daniels, it transformed his fantasy outlook. Cortland Sutton with Bow Nix, a quarterback situation transformed everything. Jerry Judy, now that he got James Winston. It's transformed this whole season. So what are the implications of that? One, it's a lesson learned for the future, right? Don't let those first three weeks become, and it's, I'm preaching to myself here. It's almost impossible, but a three weeks stretch in the middle of the season doesn't feel the same as the first three weeks. No, it doesn't. And it doesn't in the sense that like we already.

have established what we think of these players. So it's like, okay, they're having a down week, but they've been good already this season. When it's at the beginning, it's 100% of the year. So it's 100% of everything you've seen. So it's much more difficult. But I think it is worth bringing up. If you're in a slump right now, if a player has had two bad weeks in a row, that doesn't mean, oh, it's bad from here and out. Like you can't view it that way. I mean, everyone was dropping Mark Andrews after the back-to-back gooses. And since that time, I'm pretty sure he's like a top three tight end. So I did want to point out four names based on the idea that conclusions can kill. We just talked about one on Monday punday. And I'm not going to pretend to know the future for this player. But I will tell you that the burns of this past week, they were number one. They are medical. Jaden Reed.

is a very talented player that has had stretches of games where he's been a fantasy darling this year. He just goose you on Thursday. His fantasy playoffs are the fourth easiest schedule for wide receivers. Another player that has made no impact on you for the course of the year that might make a big difference in the playoffs, Adam Thielen, who we just said, the garden of feeling. Jason looked up waiting for the point. I was waiting. I was waiting. But to be fair, It's like 9 a.m. R time. So I assume Adam Thielen was at his nap. Yes. Gets up around 4 or 5 takes a 9. He's already at lunch. I mean, Adam Thieland continues to get it done and looks great. And Bryce Young looks. Thank you. Healed a little. There will be starts at decisions this week in particular where you're going to be facing the, is it the player that's done well lately, Adam Thieland emerging with a.

a great matchup in two-thirds of the fantasy playoffs. Dallas, Arizona, and Tampa Bay. Or putting your confidence in somebody whose situation is a little bit murkier. You know, one name worth bringing up where it's like, hey, be careful. George Pickens. He just missed week 14 with an injury, precautionary. His first week in the fantasy playoffs is going to be against Philadelphia in Philadelphia. It's no problem for Adam Thielen. No, it wasn't. And then C.D. Lamb, he's averaging 9.2 fantasy points per game with Cooper Rush. You talk about one of those situations, Bo Nix, Jane Daniels helped McLaren and Sutton. Cooper Rush with now C.D. Lamb, the big name, the big pedigree, the big history, under 10 points of game with Cooper Rush, dealing with an injured. So if you go on to your fantasy playoffs with the conclusion about C.D. Lamb and what he should be, and he gets the face.

Two out of three really tough matchups. Your championship week, C.D. Land with Cooper Rush in Philadelphia against Philadelphia. How do you feel about that? At this very moment, not good. It might take some intestinal fortitude to win your fantasy championship as what is the message here. I wanted to lay out some of what's happened, but mostly just tell you it's the very difficult calls. that can win and turn the table in a fantasy championship. Now, Jason, you've got a look on your face. Are you just thinking about it? I'm just thinking about it. I'm thinking about how I'm going to try to scrap and claw my way through these playoffs with a garbage roster. It can be done. Well, I mean, look, I mean, there have to be people out there that played CD Lamb this week instead of Jordan Addison in that matchup. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there's going to be a lot of those type of decisions coming down in the stretch.

And I wanted to highlight some of the fact that, you know, there's these stretches of games that really changed the way you think about a player, but stay water. Be willing to let the burns go. All right, that was ready to roll. Thanks again to our sponsor, Nissan Adventure Calls, and the first ever Nissan Rogue Rock Creek. Visit NissanUSA.com to learn more. Intelligent all-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, Derek Carr suffered a fracture in his left hand. Into the shop. That is the fear. Okay, the car into the shop. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm with you. Yeah. He also might be in concussion protocol. It was a hand and concussion combination. He hit his helmet super hard with his left hand.

If you didn't see the play, it's wild. The coach said he might be. How do they not? That seems like something you should know. I feel like this happened like with Harbaugh a couple years ago and we're like, what do you mean? Are they or are they not? That is, that's a strange thing. So Derek Carr, I mean, first reactions to that injury and what it means for, you know, Camara and other options in the offense. It will be very. bad for the Saints. I mean, we saw this already. Week 6, 7, 8 when they did not have a car there. It was not great for the Saints. Now, 6, 7, and 8, you look at, they weren't like, Camara's so involved, but they were three of his worst games. Not like he was just outright bust. You know, he scored.

14 points, 5 points, 15 points who's okay. But if you look at all of his massive games, they've been with Derek Carr. So you hope Carr can clear concussion protocol if he's in it. And I don't know, man. If you've got a fractured left hand, obviously it's not your throwing hand, but you still have to catch snaps. So we'll monitor that. We did get news this morning. Isaac Grindle left Sunday's game against the Bears with a foot injury. Kyle Shanahan said x-rays were inconclusive. We'll have more imaging on Monday. Concern is the foot sprain. Garindo himself said the exit was precautionary and quote, I feel great. Yeah, well, we'll see. Feels great about his performance. I mean, if he's out, then we've gone CMC Mitchell, Mason, Garinda. Kishong, boom, baby. Patrick Taylor. Both of those guys. No, but it'll be, it'll be Grinda.

Wild. Bucky Irving left early. This one hurt, literally. Bucking barely played. His final touch was the beginning of the second quarter. Yeah. Precautionary is what they're saying because he got banged up last week. They were winning. That's a scary one because he's been playing so well. Jonathan Brooks. Oh, man. Left with. A non-contact right knee injury. This is the same knee that Brooks had surgery on for a tornacea. Yeah, I mean, we'll wait to see what happens. But when it's non-contact and then he was down and he tried to get up, tried to leave the field, had to get back down. Man, for a player that took this long to come back, you hoped that this was like the process of allowing the body to just heal completely fully.

um we don't have any other information but it makes me question if there was some setbacks along the way of the recovery and that's why it took so long the fact that he's back out on the field and now the same knee says whoopsie doozles this could be this could be like major major issue well disley left injured shoulder injury sad montana yeah uh justin herbert was playing through injury edin o'connell Looks like a season-ending injury for Raiders quarterback Aiden O'Connell as the team circles the drain and is nearing the number one pick. I believe they're at number two. And that will be brutal for Jacoby and Brock. Yes. That is another one of the – I wanted to bring up Brock Bowers in that Radio Roll segment. That was the first name that came to mind of, okay, maybe now that the quarterback change happens, that's really – but it's not going to impact.

fantasy because I can't, no one's going to bench Brock Bowers. No, no. But your expectations for Brock Bowers need to be extremely measured. Oh, for sure. You're going to have, I mean, when you go to the third string quarterback on a bad team, I mean, it doesn't matter how good you are. Look at, you know, Malik Neighbors is great, but you can't always get it done. And I don't know that Brock Bowers is going to be able to. I mean, Desmond Ritter, Kyle Pitts and Drake London and the players he had in the past, I mean, too bad they don't have Johnny Smith, you know? Yeah, a lot of people in the playoffs have Brock Bowers, and he's helped get you there, and he might help you exit. Correction to what I said, the Las Vegas Raiders are now their number one in the draft order. The Giants are number two. Strength of schedule. Congratulations. Oh, man. Brock and Dynasty?

Get him the number one pick at quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. DeMarcus Robinson left with an injury for the Rams. Dallas got it was placed on IR. And I think that's all the news I got. That's all we got for now. I'm sure we could find more if you want. No, I'm trying to see a breaking news button. I'm checking to see if Jalen McMillan scored another touchdown. No, just the two. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com. slash insurance. We will take a break and come back with the studs. The Jalen McMillan thing on Sunday was one of the most hilarious possible. It was a good time. Starts to a Sunday ever. Because he did it so quick. There was no sweat. Yeah, it was a great start to the Sunday morning games. We had Kendra Miller in the end zone. Oh, yeah. You got into the end zone. And Jalen McMillan in like the first five minutes of action. It was a.

Chef's Kiss. I mean, those are the moments we live for, right? Third, fourth, fifth string, Tampa Bay touchdown guarantees. I just, I can't wait for that next Troy Franklin touchdown this year. See what I mean? That's the good stuff. That's where it matters. This week's fantasy stud muffins. All those names we mentioned reminded me of studly performances. So let's jump in here. You know, normally on a week like this, we're talking Sam Darnel. Because what a performance from Sam Darnel. Five touchdowns. Genuinely, what a, like, it wasn't luck. It wasn't a screen pass that he looked outstanding. Every single throw, you know, we weren't together. I was with Al watching the games. And that's just like the whole, I'm like, he's on fire right now. Moving in the pocket, Sam Darnel. Getting everybody in stride, down the field, everywhere. He was so good. He had a couple.

mind melds with Addison where it was like that that was a short ball that Addison read properly. And to be fair, Atlanta's DB slipped on a few banana peels. But 22 for 28, 347 and 5, that would normally have been your storyline, move great in the pocket. It's also a storyline that they've negotiated nothing with Sam Darnold about the future and is likely at this point he's priced out of their. Yeah, he's playing for a good contract. He's going to play. for somebody else and be their starter next year. That's what's going to happen with Sam Darnold. Yeah. I wouldn't negotiate it for ever, Sam. You wouldn't negotiate? No. I would be like, no, we're going to finish out the season. Don't worry about it. I'd gamble. However, there was this guy. Excellent. Josh Allen, three rushing touchdowns, three passing touchdowns, the first player in history with a three plus three in a loss, 42, 40.

Four in a, it was an amazing game. No interceptions. I find the coaching of McDermott to be atrocious at the end of that game. It was the worst call I've seen since Iberflus. I don't know if you saw the end of that game, Jason, but their decision to, with a minute on the clock, attempt a quarterback sneak with three timeouts that they already had. They failed it. It forced them to use one of their timeouts. And by using one timeout that eliminated their ability to call three timeouts and kick the ball deep. It was insane to me. Just absolutely insane. But Josh Allen, fantasy darling, absolutely incredible. And you didn't win if you played against him. Correct. After last week, Jason and I had started the show, you know, talking about the snow game of, hey, snow people. Which one do you prefer?

Oh, well. Which one do you prefer, snow people? Snow people. I like 150 total yard. Yeah, he scored a bunch of touchdowns. He threw himself a touchdown last week. I get it. It's weird. Which one do you prefer? I get it? And I prefer this. But I prefer this the way that every meal that I eat isn't a four-course meal, right? If every meal was a four-course meal, none of them are four-course meals, right? These are special games because they're amazing. The snow game? That's its own special thing. None of them should be all the time. And I want more of these. I'm just saying that the variability is what makes it fun. Otherwise, it's a arena football. Which is, yeah, it's a pretty good game. It's pretty fun game. You ever been to an arena ball? It's great. I don't think the ratings say what the NFL's ratings say is all I'm saying. So you got to mix it up, Mike. I'm just, this was awesome. 44-42. It was a great game. It was a great fantasy game. Pooka Nakua, Cooper Cup.

Stafford got it done, Alan got it done. There were lots of beneficiaries. But Josh Allen's going to win the MVP. That's what's going to happen. And look, they're going to go play Detroit next week in Detroit. That's a fun game. Yeah. I mean, if they win that game, if the bills win that game, I mean, Josh Allen will be minus 10,000 to get MVP. I mean, it. that will give them a record competing with the, you know, the number one in the league and, and Josh Allen's been the best player. Him, Lamar, they've basically been the best. Yeah. And when you watch Kyler Murray play quarterback and then you watch Josh Allen play quarterback as a Cardinal fan, you realize that you are, don't need to say that. That you were stuck at an eight and nine peak for the rest of Kyle Murray's careers. Yeah. Jalen hurts. Another rushing touchdown. This guy.

This game was weird. He passed for 100 yards. He did not play well. I watched the all 22. His wide receivers were open all over the place down the field. AJ Brown is furious right now. Like if you saw his post game conference, it was, he is, he is so unhappy. Is he cryptic tweeting? No, he's just, his face is not cryptic and it says, I hate my life. I mean, he is cardio out there. with 15 yards of separation and Jalen Hurts won't throw the ball down in the field. I mean, look at the evidence here. Carolina could have won this game easily. This is a mirage if you think it was a good game for Philadelphia. This was not a good game for Philadelphia. This was a bad game for Philadelphia that they figured out how to win because Carolina is a bad team. Yeah, but the Carolina has been figuring some things out as of late. And then just because.