without a huge rushing output. Granted, he had a rushing touchdown. Yeah, 16 rushing yards, lowest of his career or future forever. But one rushing touchdown, one passing touchdown, 200 yards through the air. No turnovers, which helps. So, yeah, I mean, it was a really down week for quarterbacks. And the reason why is because it was a pretty darn good week for running backs. If you had a running back,
Week 15 Studs & Duds, Rising Stars, Cute Fruit
Week 15 Studs & Duds, Rising Stars, Cute Fruit
Play original audio ↗RSS timestamps belong to our exact archived audio capture. The publisher’s current playback may have different ads and timing. Machine transcripts can contain errors.
Inside the episode
114 passagesthey pretty much performed. Yeah, we had some really strong running back performance. Todd Gurley continued, although, I mean, this will come up on the waiver show. Todd Gurley missed an entire series. Now, while he missed the series, he was quite jovial on the sideline, laughing it up, having a good time. Jovial having a good time, but also while he's having a good time had a very...
significant wrap on his knee and then came back in the game and you could see there was a noticeable limp I can't imagine he misses next week but yeah due to them losing they they need him they need him to play and I'll bet he's back out there but Todd Gurley owners have to be holding their breath yes they do Derek Henry oh my goodness hey hey Derek it's real
Oh, it's real now. Well, it's real because of one reason. I'm a real boy. I mean, look, Andy pumped the brakes on him last week. I said I was worried that, you know, this could end up becoming the type of guy that wins you championships in the playoffs because what if that performance tells the coaching staff, let's get him the ball. And it did to the tune of 33.
carries. Yeah, big time. That's insane. 170 on the ground, two touchdowns. Dalvin Cook, what we, we mentioned at the beginning of the show, just an absolute dominant performance. If you haven't seen the spin move into the touchdown waltz where he chucks up the deuses and just lightly jaunts into the end zone, it was unbelievable. Damien Williams, Jason Moore. Yes. I was not here for your reaction to.
To Damien Williams dominating. Yeah, he dominated. 10 for 49, 2 on the ground, 6 for 74 through the air. Hey, it's just like I said he would. I will credit myself with that because he's not good. Damian Williams is not a good football player. I mean, everyone in the NFL is good, right? Everyone. The worst player out there is the greatest football, is in the 1% of best football players on the planet. But compared to other NFL running backs, he's not good. But I was.
I mean, you know, people, it's funny. My Twitter timeline was like, oh, you know, everyone was like, thank you. You gave me the push to start him because you said he was going to be top 12. And then other people would come and be like, you said he sucks. I'm like, yes, he does. But he, his opportunity was so good. His opportunity is unbelievable. Joe Mixon, great game. Marlon Mack. Oh, my God. This is the one. This one was, yeah, not really part of the, when you are saying, okay, let's go through the process. All right, Marlon Mack.
versus the Dallas Cowboys who have had a very stingy defense, runs absolutely buck nasty, 27 for 139, two scores on the ground. He looked great. I've been a big Marlon Mack fan. I've talked about the talent of him, but this last week, Mike, you were gone, and I was so down on Marlon Mack in this matchup with the linebacking core that Dallas has. That first half, the fact that they had the ball 20 minutes, they being Dallas. I mean, it.
It was crazy. And the difference, I believe, was that the starter, the center, Ryan Kelly, was back in this game. And if you look at the metrics between when he's there and when he's gone, the yards per carry of all the running backs jumps significantly. So even with the great defense from Dallas, yeah, Marlon Mac is, he's completely for real. Chris Carson had another monster game.
remembered that he's playing for a future contract for next year. I think the Arizona Cardinals helped remind him. Sure. But a major, major game for Kevin Coleman, then some honorable mentions. Wendell Smallwood. Heck, yeah. Two touchdowns. Josh Adams was kind of, he left the game at one point, somewhat injured. And so you really saw a three-way split. But down near the goal line, surprisingly, it was Wendell Smallwood.
Some guys that we could be talking about for next year on this list, Peyton Barber continues to have a very solid fantasy season, 19 for 85 with a touchdown. That was against Baltimore. Yeah. So he's someone that people are going to be very interested in, I believe, next year. Then welcome to the NFL.
Kalin Belage, the Bellagio. The Pelagio. The Pelagio. They put all their chips on black and it hit. Big time. He had a monster game, 123 rushing yards with a touchdown. Because Frank Gore, I don't know, we may have missed this at the beginning. That's my fault. But Frank Gore also left the game with an ankle injury. I believe the X-rays came back negative. So we don't know the full extent of the injury for Frank Gore. But.
But Frank Gore is not long for the Miami Dolphins. I mean, I can't imagine him being there next year, but I feel like it's in his contract where he's allowed if he so chooses. Right. Like if he so chooses, you can't say no. You can't say no. We won't bring you back. But yeah, Gore was gone. Drake, my pump the brakes is last week because of his injury. He got one carry. I mean, so it was Kalim Belage's opportunity and he showed well.
We'll talk about him, I'm sure, on tomorrow's waiver wire show. Yeah, I'm sure we will. Jamal Williams. Another guy we're going to have to talk about tomorrow. Yeah, we will. He filled in admirably, admirably. There we go. Second try. First try. He had a solid game for the Green Bay Packers. At the wide receiver position, DeAndre Hopkins had himself a time, 10 for 170 and 2, a monster performance.
Mike Williams really, really stepped up for the Los Angeles Chargers for the absence of Keenan Allen. I mean, is this is this finally the breakout? I mean, I feel like we've asked this question several times for Mike Williams. Was this the breakout for Mike Williams? I, what was he like seventh overall? Yeah, he was his top 10 pick. He's a phenomenal player.
Andy wrote up before the season he could have 10 touchdowns. I think he might be there on the season. I don't think this can be his breakout game because I think he's already had his breakout game. What it is is he's not the number one target on this team while Keenan is there. But if Keenan misses next week, Mike Williams is, you know, he's going to be. He's got Baltimore. Look, you can have Baltimore. But if Philip Rivers is throwing.
Three touchdowns, two touchdowns. There's a great chance that one of them goes Mike Williams way. And while he won't be a top 12 must start type of guy, I still think you can start him at home against Baltimore. Two fellows decided that they wanted to show up. I'm sure they're on a handful of fantasy benches. Doug Baldwin.
Four for 77 will two scores. And then Alshan Jeffrey, A for 160. The Zachert's owners were sad at Nick Foles. Nick Foles came in and said, my number one target is not Zackert. It's actually the number one wide receiver. And every which way, when he needed, you know, an outlet, when he needed, pressure was coming on him and he needed to find someone, it was always Alshan Jeffrey deep.
shallow. Well, to be fair, one of those was actually, I think, Nelson Agalore's ball. It might have been, but Alshan said, I'll take this too. I've never seen a play like that because, you know, usually when two wide receivers are running near each other down the field, something went wrong. But it wasn't just they were near each other. There was both of them beat the defense. They both beat them and were like, oh, hey, bud, you beat them too? And then he just threw it to both of them like when you're playing 500. I wish we had miced up.
of that play because I wanted to, like, did Alshan, did he go? I got it. I got it. I got it. No, I got it. I got it. I think if, if you're Nelson Agalore there and Alshan Jeffries right next to you, you go, I'll let you get it. Yeah. Robbie, Robby Anderson of, did you have more? I was just going to have Nelson Agalore takes. No, nothing on Agalore's. I was going to bring up Kenny Gallaudet, who shocked me. Yeah, Kenny Galladay, Brooks, you actually played him.
Yeah, it was a bit of a deeper league. You start a lot of players. All right. Oh, yeah. Against Buffalo 7 for 146. And then a, like I said, Robbie Anderson, absolutely monster game. And then Robert Foster yet again, four for 108 with a score. And then, hey, check out these stud muffins at the tight end position. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Garrett Selig. Oh, so good. Congrats to everybody starting. I had him just outside of my top five.
Just, just out. Trey Boo Boo, Tray Burton decides that he's going to come through. Oh, man. And then Evan Angram, this one you could have actually seen coming. This is my start of the week. Because of the injury to Odo Beckham, 12 targets for Evan Engram. Eight for 75. They have to figure out a way to get Evan Engram and O'Dell Beckham going at the same time.
Their offense would be better. And then I would throw in, I'll go ahead and throw in a Sequin. Get all three going. Yeah. I feel like there's got to be enough production to go around for those three guys. And then, of course, Kaimi. Unfair, Baron. Yeah. It's not fair what he did to everybody. Five for five field goals. They were deep field goals. If you're scoring is like, oh, you get bonuses for 40 and 50 yards. Then he put up like 20.
plus points and was one of the best players on the week. Yeah. He would have been like, based on how bad quarterbacks were, he would have been like the quarterback five. But enjoy your kickers. Hey, on a bright note, want to think, uh, simply safe today as one of our sponsors, they've been supporting our show. They are one of the best.
things out there for this holiday season. We use them at this studio. We protect our studio with SimplySafe. If you're out there, you've been thinking about getting a SimplySafe home security system, but you've been waiting for the holidays when all the tech deals are out. Well, you've made a smart move because right now you can get a great deal on SimplySafe. If you go to SimplySafe.com slash footballers, that's the only way to get it. Go to Simplysafe.com slash footballers. They very rarely do deals because their prices are already the best. I mean, CNET.
PC magazine, wirecutter, they all say, Simply Safe is the best security system. There is. They get great reviews. There's no contract. There's no hidden fees. I mean, it really is a great way to protect your home and family. So if you're looking for a security system, you want a great deal. Go to Simply Safe. That's simply with an I. S-I-M-P-L-I-Safe.com.
footballers to get the offer. Make sure you use that URL. It really helps the show. Simplysafe.com slash footballers. Simplysafe.com slash footballers. And hurry, the offer does end very soon. Rising Stars of the Week. My rising star of the week, I, if you would ask me about this at the beginning of the season, Mike, do you think that there is any chance at all that a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills makes it?
On to the rising stars list for anyone this year, I would have said, nay. What if I told you that, well, what about, what about this, Mike? What about if week 14 and week 15, their quarterback throws for like 200 yards? I would say nay. Yeah. But Robert Foster, here we are four of the last five games. He has at least, at least.
94 yards. It's been an incredible surge for Robert Foster. He has emerged as the deep threat. If we knew anything about Josh Allen, it was that he could throw the football over the mountains. And they have found the guy who can run over the mountains and catch that ball in Robert Foster the past two weeks.
He's accounted for about 50% of Josh Allen's passing. I mean, to have, to have the numbers where you're, you're basically every week getting over 90 receiving yards and the quarterback is throwing for about 200. And they, the bills, they dumped the wide receivers that they had. They dumped Kelvin Benjamin, Andre Holmes. They put the faith in Robert Foster and he has rewarded them. And this is, this is really good news, not just for the Buffalo bills.
