Week 18 Starts of the Week + Boom Boom's Epic Conclusion - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/5

Hello, fellow week 18ers. It's us the fantasy footballers. We are still here on today's show. We have our never not working segment. We're talking about some dynasty players, some contracts you need to pay attention to. Of course, we break down those matchups and the ultimate collusion to the boom boom kicker of the week. You do not want to miss a moment. Make sure you subscribe to this channel because we're not going away in the offseason. Like this video and leave some comments. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host. Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. We are still here. Oh, Mike. For some reason. Thursday, January 5th, 2023, the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Welcome in. Al Borland, Judge Diomati, the Borgogan himself, Deucer's Alley. Completely full today.

Of deuce. Eurs. Keep on deusing. The group is here. We're together. And we've got an episode of our podcast for you. That is correct. And today we will be great. Today we will. Yeah, it will. I mean, obviously. But it is week 18. So we will be covering those games towards the back half of the show. Got some starts of the week for you. We've got never not working on the show today. We've got news, some good news updates to share with you. And yeah, this is the final never not working segment of the year. A couple things at the top. If you already need of a trophy, ring, belt, anything for your fantasy league. Oh, I am. Tell me more. Fantasychamps.com. Mm-hmm. Going. The code is Jason sucks. Nice try. Not falling for that again. The code is free ring. Only once. The code is actually free ring and you will receive a free...

$59 championship ring with the purchase of a trophy or belt if you use that code. Fantasychamps.com for your league swag. Okay? So you just put the trophy or belt in your cart, put a $59 ring in the cart, put the code in, free ring, and the rest is history. And we do have a Foot Clan title t-shirt. We do it every year. If you want to celebrate your championship, go to shopballers.com. You can grab the 2022 Foot Clan title t-shirt. Or I guess we, not just t-shirt. We have a mug. We got a hoodie for the hoodie people. The hoodie world is a world. Love a good hoodie. I like the hoodie. I like the hoodie world. I like the hoodie world. I like the hoodie world. I just don't like the hoodie world. I just don't want to go over, like pull it over my head. I get it. It messes the hair up.

And when you take it off, maybe you accidentally pick up your shirt and you just show your belly off. That's true. Or a booty crack. Oh, really? Because of a hoodie? Well, maybe your booty crack. If it pulls your shirt up. Okay. Then you have potential that you're showing up. Mike, he sags quite a bit. I was going to say, I got bdonka donk, don't. But I'm usually full covered on the, you put on the old pants. Yeah. I'm usually wearing pants. Call me crazy. It's called plumbers crack. Guys, it just happens. When the shirt comes up. And the pants go down just a little bit. Get a little sneak peek. Yeah, I don't. Check this out. Check this out. Well, good. This shows off to a great start. Mike is going to share our final Never Not Working segment with us. Never Not Working. Presented by Head and Shoulders, Scamp Shield technology, available at Walmart. All right, we jumped into a...

Quite the dynasty conversation yesterday because tis the season where you start thinking about those things. And as your leagues are wrapping up or, you know, free agency has just reopened for some for your dynasty leagues. You got to pay attention to contracts. You got to pay attention to who is a free agent because here is where you find yourself some cheap players that you can stash on your bench and just see what happens. And like, Wild things happen on when you're doing this. I remember a few years ago. I brought up the name Rex Burkett, who was coming off of, I think it was his week 18 performance. And it was just, it was a huge game. And it was like, really? We're going to talk about this backup, like, guy who's done really nothing for the Cincinnati Bengals. And it was like, yeah, just.

Have a look just in case, and boom, picked up by the Patriots. Now Mike Gillisley factored in, but Rex Burkhead had very useful games for the New England Patriots, and he was just sitting on waiver wires, a guy that you could pick up. And so we just want to highlight some contracts here that you pay attention to. You know, like we have some quarterbacks could be, this could be a huge influx season for these quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson, still not extended by the Baltimore Ravens. You would expect that he would be back. He'll be franchised. He's not really a free agent. That is 100% true. He will be franchised. But then the more that this goes of the Baltimore Ravens aren't going to give if they don't give him the contract that he wants. I mean.

Just say like some weird stuff could shake out for Baltimore with him. Where does Tom Brady go? Does he end up like the rumors are talking about that he ends up with the Las Vegas Raiders. San Francisco. You know, Daniel Jones and Gino Smith. Some of these guys, it's an interesting situation to pay attention to. But to me, the meat and the potatoes of this section is the running backs. Sanquin Barclay, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard. And to me, when I think about these names, it's not more so what do I do with these guys? So what do I do with the players who are currently sitting behind these big-time running backs? Like David Montgomery for the Chicago Bears. He's in a contract year. Do the Chicago Bears bring him back? They have Khalil Herbert, who's looking like he can be the guy, the one-two-down grinder. He's got a three-down skill set. But who's behind him? You have Ebner, the rookie. He didn't get a lot of play this year, but he's under contract, and he could become their de facto primary backup.

Take a look at the situation in Jacksonville, a move I made recently. You have Travis E.TN. He's locked in. He's the guy. Who's the backup? Hastie. Hastie's not under contract next year. But you know who is? Snoop Connor. And I just grabbed Snoop Connor off of the waiver. There is. Nice. Very nice. Because who knows? Are they going to bring back hasty? Or like there was a lot of buzz in the dynasty community about Snoop Connor coming into the draft season. But we all kind of moved on because he got buried on a depth chart, but he may be on the rise. Look at players like Alexander Madison. He may be earning himself a, I don't know how you feel about Madison, but he is a capable running back. And he has a chance to go out there and find himself a contract, which means Minnesota, they will need themselves another backup running back.

and I'm trying to pull up his name. Madison seems like the player that could go and the role for him might be the way Mostert and Jeff Wilson complimented as lead runners in Miami. Madison might be able to go someplace and as opposed to being a full backup. He could be a complimentary one-two punch with somebody. But there was a name throwout, a friend of the show, Paul Chartian, who's the locked-in fantasy guy, but he's a Minnesota guy. And he threw out a tweet a couple days ago that said, You should throw Ty Chandler on the back of your dynasty bench just in case. Just in case. So there are names out there to monitor. And we don't want to run through all of them. But it's getting you in the habit of the process of, you know, starting about the middle of the year, especially now, go to some of these websites that track the contracts. Find who the free agents are.

and start stashing their backup running back. Start finding some of these wide receivers who may be worth an addition. DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals. We got a tweet yesterday from Johnny Venerable, who's a plugged in Arizona guy who said, it's possible that Christmas Day was the last game as an Arizona Cardinal for DeAndre Hopkins. Hollywood Brown, Rondale Moore. The Dorch. The Dorch. The Dorch, I don't know what his roster percentage is in a Dynasty League, but like. He was on and off of the waiver wire throughout a lot of dynasty leagues, and he might be back on there. Or it's a trade target because you look at the situation and you say, who can I pick up on the cheap this year, pay attention to teams that have a lot of cap space to spend. Sometimes that's worth noting specifically for whether a value on that team could get replaced or get upgraded against. Like the Falcons.

You know, the number one teams of the Bears, the Falcons, Giants, Patriots have the most to spend beyond that. But, you know, if you're looking at the Giants, right, and you're looking at Isaiah Hodgins, and they have all this money to spend, and they have a need at wide receiver. He is not the player that you look at and say, oh, I'm going to go try to get as many shares of him because maybe he's up and coming. No, the more likely thing is that he is a player that will be supplanted by a more high profile talent on that roster. So.

If you can move him in a deal, that's kind of the type of salary-based decisions you might make. Yeah, and I would add that you can also trade away some of these guys that are about to be free agents before people realize they're free agents because they might not, you know, Miles Sanders, Devon Singletary. These are two players that, you know, they're on good teams going through a playoff run. They could do some really nice things in the playoffs look great. Like, oh, man, Singletary's. you know, on fire and then the offseason comes and, and you trade him. Maybe they don't resign him. Devin Singletary is not the type of player that's going to go get a, you know, a giant workload job some other team. And, and they're going to drop Bajon, you know, anyway. So it's like, um, actually I heard, uh, I heard Eagles this morning.

Hey, that's great. Just bye-bye, Miles Sanders, bring Bejohn into the Eagles. Oh, man, I would love this. Good offensive line. And then also paying attention of certain offenses, how do they function? Do they rely on the tight-end position? Like the Dallas Cowboys, the reason why I have my infatuation with Blake Jarwin back in the day was they used the tight-end position a lot, and they're going to have an opening here. He seems like he's the next guy up. Now, he got hurt. Dalton Schultz came in and took his milk money, but the process was correct of whoever the next tight end is for the Dallas Cowboys, I'm interested. And the way that the season started for Dalton Schultz, the contract negotiations stalled. He's on the franchise tag right now, Kyle, is that correct? Correct. So take a look. Take a look at who, maybe he doesn't resign. And I brought this up, I don't know, a couple weeks ago, but Jake Ferguson, Peyton Henderson.

Those would be the next two guys in line. They could be replaced in the draft, but right now you're just, you're trying to get some scratchers and see if any of these guys can pay off, get a move themselves into a bigger time role on the team next year. Is the, the quarterback that put up 38 fantasy points against the 49ers last week, one of those, one of those players? It's not going to stid them. Yeah. I mean, it's, he's worth, he should be on a bench just in case he ends up being the starter because the, the wink, wink.

reason that he's playing is because the Raiders want to evaluate the talent. They want to see what they have at the position. Crazier things have happened. Doesn't he seem just one more good game and he could be the starter for the for the Washington football team next year? Yes, absolutely. If he goes out honestly, if he goes out and he puts up numbers, he may end up as a stopgap starter somewhere. Like it's it's it is legitimately true. All right, get up to 100% dandaf protection. That is never not working with head and shoulder scalp shield technology available at walmart.com. Use it every time you shampoo and see the difference. News and notes from around the league. Yeah, I picked up Jared Stiddem and Dynasty. That was why I asked the question. But I have a team with no backup quarterback. So I was like, I mean, it was a drop of trace McSorley to pick up Juris Stiddle. I mean, you're everyone's dynasty bench out there because you have 30 whatever players.

You have five to seven spots at least that can just churn at any moment. And you should be very, very proactive right now. You know what is so funny about dynasty benches? Because you're right. You have three, four, five players that you can cut. And, you know, when I look at my dynasty rosters, I always see them like, oh, you know, these guys are worthless. And then when the moment comes to actually do the drop. I'm like, oh, I can see the path. Sure. Like every single time I can't ever drop anybody. Rahim Moster was one of those guys last year that you could not have traded him to anybody. It was gone. It was, it was zero. Like I probably had moments where I thought about cutting him for somebody else. Kept him on my bench and was like a crucial part of my team all year. You know, stranger things happen really, really quickly. All right. News and notes. This is a big one. Just broke this morning.

I'm going to read to you from the official Buffalo Bill's Twitter handle update on DeMar Hamlin. Per the physicians caring for DeMarne Hamlin at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, DeMar has shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours. While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact. His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress. We are grateful for the love and support we have received. Ian Rappaport expanded and said he opened his eyes last night, is responsive. And, you know, their family is endlessly appreciative of the medical care given to Hamlet on the field immediately and over the last 72 hours. It's great news. It is the news that we have just been wanting and hoping. And, you know, we hope it continues trending in that direction. That is such good news to hear that he's neurologically intact because that's, you know, the...

the biggest, I think the number one fear going forward. And now that's just so nice to have positive direction that this is heading. The commanders will start rookie quarterback Sam Howell on Sunday against Dallas, fifth round rookie out of UNC. Oh, baby. Look, I always have my third string backup worthless quarterback that I love. Now it's Sam Howell. He is very mobile, can run the ball, will be good for fantasy. And it's clearly going to be the next great Kyle Trask. So watch out, world. The Bears will start Nathan Peterman. Justin Field's season comes to an end. He's out with a hip injury, 64 yards shy of Lamar Jackson's single season quarterback rushing record, which again, he'll get it next year. Yeah, he'll get it next year with an extra game.

Well, think about the way that the season started. Justin Fields wasn't running. That's fair. But also not fair. Yeah. And I mean, we'll see if his body can hold up. I will say that. Yeah, he has been beaten up. Yes. And eventually they're like, okay, we're going to stop this. Yeah, I mean, part of it's going to be whether or not they're a good team, whether they're winning games. Because I don't believe that this is a situation where he couldn't necessarily play through some of these injuries. There's no reason to put Justin Fields out. worry about his health for the future when he showed, he showed you like he is their future. Yes. Speaking of Kyle Trash, Jason, Todd Bowles did say he has a good chance of dressing for Week 18. Oh, man. This is going to be great. Also, I mean, if Tom Brady leaves, it won't be Kyle Trash. They will be replacing him with some other. I was trying to give you some hope. Yeah, thank you. Nathan Peterman will come in there. Oh, gosh. All right. David Blow is going to start for the Card. For the Cardinals. Blah, blah, blah.

DeAndre Hopkins been ruled out. Oh, no. Christian McCaffrey didn't practice on Wednesday is dealing with a little bit of a sprained ankle. Game is important to the 49ers, but that doesn't mean, like I thought about... Doesn't mean they can't beat the Cardinals without him? Well, it's just the Jordan Mason question. Like, when you look at Jordan Mason this week, it wasn't to the degree that I was willing to put him in as a start of the week. Sure. But it was certainly one of those things where in DFS... If you're dealing with a team that has like a bunch of players that are not going to play, and Jordan Mason could be a flex-worthy guy this. He's a must-start top-10 type of options. They designated the missile again. Oh, is Elijah. Elijah Mitchell was designated to return. That doesn't mean that he will play on Sunday, but.

We'll have clarity by Sunday. Both Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason, need to be picked up for Week 18 rosters, put on your bench, and then should Christian McCaffrey be ruled out, we'll know who's active for that game. Whoever is active will be awesome. And if Elijah Mitchell is active and Jordan Mason is active, I'm going to be right back in Elijah Mitchell. We've seen it time and time again because he's gotten injured so many times. When Elijah Mitchell comes back, they're just like, okay. He's very good. You're cleared for takeoff missile, and we'll give you the ball 25 times. No more, no practice for Lamar Jackson. Man. And then we did have some schedule adjustments from yesterday's show. The Bengals Ravens game will now be played at 1 p.m. Eastern. If the Bengals beat the Ravens at one Eastern, the Chargers will automatically clinch the five seed without playing. The Chargers, I think at that point, would sit down a bunch of their options.

If they clinch the five seed, they know they're going on the road to play Tennessee or Jacksonville. You've already seen the line move in that game. So Denver's now favored. Go Denver. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's like almost a six point move, I think. Because it was three and a half. Denver plus three and a half. Now is Denver minus two and a half. Come on everybody. Let's root for Denver. And against the card. Well, you don't have to root against the car. Whoa. I'm just rude for Denver. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right. If Denver, Denver's pick. goes to Seattle. And so Denver has no like motivation to lose the game and get their pick to be. Except for spite. No, they have motivation to win the game. Yeah, that's what I mean. But I'm saying no motivation to lose the game. So it's good. Right. It's good for the Cardinals. Right. And not only that, it's an indivision pick. We need that number three. We have very little to live for as Cardinal fans. It's always fun to see the transition of goals. Yeah.

For fans. Yeah, from playoffs to full tear down. To the nubs. To the nubs, Cardinals. Last final big announcement. Now that the fantasy season is, you know, over, week 17 is in the books and there is the question with the Cincinnati Bengals Buffalo Bills game. People want an update for the Megalibul. The Megalibul here is what we are doing in this massive league. League. You thought I heard that something. We are waiting for official announcement on what they are doing with that game. If that game resumes, those points from that game will go to the final scores, and we do not know who wins yet. Should that game get canceled, then we have our winner. The team name is lamb and goat, and the user is reverby. I'm going to say it that way. Okay.

Because I nailed it. With 203 fantasy points had the Brady Evans stack. Oh, yes. And that would be a spot in next year's listener league. That it was. The winner of the Megalibals. A temporary congratulations. Yeah, it does seem to me like the trend is towards not playing the game, not resuming that game. You know, it's too complicated to say what's fair, what's not fair. I mean, it's like there's just a lot involved and you have a process. You have winning percentages. You have tiebreakers. You have those things to be determined. And this weekend we'll take place and we'll see where we're at. Things changing every day, of course. And we're not going anywhere. All right. We are into the fantasy forecast for week 18. Fantasy forecast. All right, gentlemen.

It's time to blitz these week 18 games. On Saturday, the Chiefs are 13 and 3. They're taking on the 6 and 10 Raiders. The DK. Sportsbook line, Kansas City, minus 9 and a half. The overrunner is 52 and a half. Kansas City needs to win to lock up the number one seat. They're motivated. They're playing the Raiders. So you could have a situation where if the game got out of hand, you know, they could put their, put the guys on the old bench. But right now. Not the expectation. No, it's not the expectation. The Raiders are very motivated as well, not because of playoff seating, but this is a divisional matchup where they've got, you know, the new quarterback, Jared Stidham coming into attempt to have a job, have a career, have a future. You have a head coach that really needs some positivity and a win. Playing spoiler here to the Kansas City Chiefs, getting the number one overall seed would be massively important within that division. So I like the options.

in this game quite a bit for fantasy. There's nobody I am afraid to start of the big names you're used to starting. The real question mark to me comes just like, are you playing with a wide receiver? Are you playing with a wide receiver for Kansas City? They're only going to throw for about 700 yards. Can you play a wide receiver in fantasy? I don't have any confidence to do so. That's insane because it's 100% where I'm at. Like, how do you... confidently throw Juju in. We had the, like, mini breakout of Cadarious Tony this last week. You can't throw Cadarious Tony in. Marquez Valdez Scantling should have had a monster game. Didn't. Won't. So it's like, you just check out. Not sure how much work Josh Jacobs will get in this game. He is a high risk play. Very high risk. Darren Waller, on the other hand, I think he will get his opportunities coming back. One final game, had a rapport with Jared Stittam.

Devante Adams, I imagine you're going to start him. Yeah. Jacobs is the only one. He didn't practice on Wednesday, and I saw some quotes around, you know, what was it? It was something to the extent of, you know, you're never going to be surprised when Josh Jacobs can get out there and, you know, go to work. So Josh Jacobs, I mean, just for personal motivation stuff, he's sitting at 1,6008 rushing yards in first. Second would be Nicholas Chubb at 1448. Derek Henry is at 1429. So unless Derek Henry has one of his 200-yard games, Jacob seems pretty safe for the rushing title. Titans are 7 and 9. They take on the 8-8 Jacksonville Jaguars. This is a pretty exciting game. This is the good one. DK Sportsbook line Jacksonville minus 6 over under is 40. All players on both sides that are active in this game are going to be.

great options for fantasy if you were relying on them previously. So Trevor Lawrence, Derek Henry, Travis ETN, Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Evan Ingram, and then you can, look, you can glance at Trailerks this week with the amount of missing players out there. And you can take a little, you know, a little bit of side eye towards Chig Aconquo. Sure. You do need to keep an eye on Traylon Burks just to make sure that his status is okay. He wasn't on the injury report yesterday. Then there's just some kind of incomplete information of maybe he got, maybe he tweaked his groin. During the, during the practice. You looked like you were so obligated. Like it was involuntary. It's like breathing. Trying to make a normal sentence out of it. So just pay attention to his practice status. The one thing I would say, Travis Etienne to me is.

Look, he's great. He's going to get the work. His opportunity is there. You have to play. I don't think you have to play him. I think you have to. I think he's questionable. I mean, we saw him against Tennessee is, you know, obviously they're playing for the life here, but they're coming off a bye week, essentially. They rested all their important players last week on both sides of the ball. Last time Travis E.T.m played the Tennessee Titans. He had 17 carries scored three fantasy points. I'm not saying you must bench Travis E.T.N. I'm saying if. If you pick up, you know, Elijah Mitchell off waivers and you're sitting there and he's active and Christian McCaffrey is out and you can make that switch at the end of the week, I would rather play him because I do have some fears. I think Trevor Lawrence is going to throw the ball all over against the Tennessee Titans and their running game. I think that's a pretty hot take. It is. We can't eat Spice. Travis E.T.N. Running back five and a half last week. Really good performance against the Jets run defense.

He's in there for me. Yeah. I'm just throwing out out there. You would start it off the injured reserve Elijah Mitchell. If he is active and Christian McCaffrey is out, absolutely. What if he's not active, but it's Jordan Mason? It's not going to just be him. I mean, like Jordan Mason would be involved too. If he is not active and Christian McCaffrey is not active, I would start Jordan Mason as well. All right. Wow. All right. Let's take a quick break. Get back into the Sunday games. Tampa Bay 8 and 8 taking on the 6 and 10 Atlanta Falcons, the Draft King Sportsbook line Atlanta minus 4 over under is 40 and a half. That tells you all you need to know. You need to do your best to sit down your Buccaneers. They have nothing to play for. Todd Bowles is a liar. So, you know, maybe it's a quarter. Maybe it's a nothing. I mean, there's a chance you go out there and Tom Brady is not active. There is a chance that they play the whole game.