Fantasy Football - Footie Award Winners + Early Hot Takes for 2026! - Podcast for 1/13

in fighting between Siriani and AJ Brown, which turned out to be a great coaching decision because the second half, AJ Brown really came on strong as he disappeared. I think he's, and I don't know what they do with that contract. Obviously, their office of coordinator, this is the day after and I can't believe we don't have news that he hasn't been fired yet, but it's coming. Never, everybody knows. Oh, you think it is? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, he's packed. Yeah. For sure. He's 100%. I'm ready to go. He's ready to go. And look, it's just, it's wild. AJ Brown, big drops, man. You want the ball? Catch the ball. Eagles fans, they agree. They're very, they're very impatient. At least the sentiment that I have seen from Eagles fans is they want to borrow our cannon. Yes. Because they want to load everyone into the cannon and fire them into the sun. Yeah.

Yeah, well, we've got more guys to send out before they can borrow it. And then the boring one, Patriot 16, Chargers 3. There was the, with the hot take, immediate reaction, the Patriots still haven't beat a good team this year. Kind of true in this one. I mean, I wouldn't say that the Patriots played well. No. I would say the defenses for both teams played very well. The first touchdown pass, the only touchdown pass at the game came with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter from either team. Drake May made plays with his legs. I thought that were awesome. I thought Ramandre was the best offensive player on either side of this game. They should have kept feeding him the ball. He was from the beginning to the end. He was so consistent and just a very... So good in the passing game. Yeah. He was very good. The Patriots defense was outstanding. Afterwards, after the game, there was reports that, like, Chargers were going and talking to, like, the Patriots defenders were going, like, we...

had no idea what your coverage was. And so it's a Vrable. Brable's a good coach. It's really hard not to see them getting through this next round, too. Because they're just going to play the winner of the Steelers, Texans, and anything can happen. I know. But you're going to be at home, right? Yeah. So I don't know. They look great on the defensive side. And if their offense can figure it out, I feel like a lot of our commentary on these games is going to make other fan bases mad. That's what I realized while I'm talking. Yeah. Oh, of course. People are, this is a sensitive time for a lot of people. Yeah. And when we make jokes, they can hurt. And so. Texan Steelers, we're recording this before the game is played. So we don't have a reaction. If I was going to have a reaction, I'd be like, oh boy. I'd be like, that's what happened. Here's my reaction. Okay. That's what happens when you have a pass rush against Aaron Rogers. That's what happens. Yeah. That's how I see it going to. Probably true. I, but this one might be.

Pretty boring as well. Yeah. We'll see. We don't know. We're talking about it. You already know what happened, and we'll talk about it again on Thursday. But the Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel. That's over. He has already interviewed for the Cleveland job. Was that what I saw her? Yeah, he's also interviewed. Isn't he going to interview for the offensive coordinator job for Washington? Or at least there's some interest there? Because he has a relationship with Dan Quinn, I thought. Which that one seemed interesting to me. I would... McDaniel with Jaden would make me happy. Oh, wait, they hired David. No, yeah, they hired David. I was going to say that that would not bring it in Mike. Oh, the Lions. The Lions. I'm sorry. The Lions was the one I was thinking about because they got their offensive coordinator. Sensational. If McDaniel can't find a Mike McDaniel's head coaching job, then he's already booked up like four plus head coaching interviews. And the fact that I think.

because he wasn't, whatever they call the Bloody Monday or whatever the Monday is where all the coaches are fired, he wasn't fired then, and it seemed like he retained his job. It feels like it gave him a boost of confidence around the league, like, oh, he wasn't supposed to be fired. It was only after Harbaugh was fired that they let him go, so let's scoop him up. I think he ends up a head coach next year. It's wild. There's a lot of, what, Stefansky, for sure, Harbaugh for sure, and probably Mike McDaniel, immediate fires the hires. Yeah. It's just teams that, like, they're, they just ran out of gas in that place. But everybody respects them and wants them to be a head coach. Todd Bowles is staying a head coach. So they're retaining him and firing everyone else. The Grizzard of Oz is. Yes. Gone. Yeah. It was, uh, didn't work out. So I think that's the main headlines, unless you guys have anything else you want to bring up. Matt LaFleur, he's not going to get fired. He's going to get extended in Green Bend. Man.

It was, I will say this, it was terrible. Like that's a pretty big collapse. Sure. I felt like it was for the second time. It was a pretty bad mismanagement of the clock, the time, the play calls, things that you're responsible for as a head coach fall. It falls on you. But the totality of the work he's done in Green Bay is greater than the one game. That was going to be the point of, yeah, he had a bad game. Matt, like go Green Bay, please, fire it. Yeah, let's take him. It's irrelevant, man. I have come to realize that hoping that a great coach gets let go and is on the market is irrelevant. They will never come to Arizona. No great coach would ever be like, like we're not on Stefanski's list. We're not on Harbaugh's list. We're not like they're on the up and comers list. Yeah. We're on the guy that's never had the chance. Like you got to go there and turn that around if you want a job. We're on the Vance. Turns out no one can do it. The Vance Joseph list. Yeah. Oh. Cardinals are going to interview Michael Flores.

Yes. Any LaFleur? Any Coobes. What about Peter? Any Harbaugh. Any Harbaugh. Those are the names. All right. Are we good to go? Are we ready to. Oh, my goodness. Rock the footies? I guess so. Award show, featuring performance of the year, the Waver Wire Wonder, the Poopiest Pants Award, and many more. It's the annual footy award show. Oh, that's right. It is time. You voted. That was a live band, by the way. Yes. You guys don't have any room for bathroom break. Yeah, yeah. Well, we're going to need him in a little bit, so don't go too far. Right, yeah. All number ones. No, number two. Jason, I think we're going to let you kick it off. We got all of your votes. We've got all the footies set aside, ready to be sent off to the winners.

And Jason's going to lead the way with our very first. I see the first one, the golden envelope performance of the year, which is the performance of the year. That's what that means. Most impressive single week performance. So last year was Josh Allen. This year you got Gibbs, Henry, Jonathan Taylor, Trevor Lawrence, Pook and Akua and Cow Pitts all had monstrous performances. Now I'm curious. If you guys have thoughts on this, who did you vote for? I wanted to vote for Derek Henry because he helped carry my team to a championship. I gave it to Kyle Pitts. I did too. Oh, wow. I voted for that championship week, Derek Henry, because it was championship week. All right. And the winner is, drum roll please.

Derek Henry, week 17. The Yeti. Yeah, the Yeti scores 45 and a half fantasy points, 36 for 21% and 4 with 31% of the vote. And the runner-up was indeed the best tight-in performance of all-time Kyle Pitts in week 15. I mean the 25% to 31%? Yeah, that's pretty close. But the king, your trophy, is in the mail. Do they ship to Cabo? We should. We ship everywhere, Andy. In the footies, we should see in the, of like the percentage of people, how many people are champs? You know what I mean? I'm like, because, you know, the audience of the show, it fluctuates. Yeah. You should stick around because we're here all year long and we're giving out good content and good stuff. But, I mean. A lot of the people that stick around, stuck around because they were. Because they were champs. Yeah. So, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, if I'm a champ, you might want to vote for Derek Henry because it's like,

The Jamir Gibbs week was bigger. Yeah, that was amazing. It was week 12. All right. Fantasy reapers, man of the year, which player's injury hurt fantasy managers the most? Last year's winner, of course, Christian McCaffrey. However, this year, the nominees were Malik Neighbors, Jaden Daniels, James Connor, Sam LaPorta, Garrett Wilson, and Mike Evans. Which injury hurt us the most? Drumroll, please. Oh, Malik Neighbors. With a 70% crushing. He ran away with it? I think the runner. He didn't run away, limped away with it. Yeah. Or what's the way? With his cane. Uh, I thought Jaden was going to win. What? I did. No. Yeah. It's a, I don't know. If you have two canes is that officially crutches? Um, or could somebody actually have two canes? I think that's a walker. Because I think a cane looks really, I think a cane looks really cool. Right. If you have to have like a limp and walk with something, a cane is cool, but two canes.

Would you rather look cool with two canes, but you still have to lift yourself the way you do with crutches, but you don't get the... Oh, that would be tough on the arms. Yeah. Who won it? Malik Neighbors. Yep. 70% of the vote. All right. Our third award, the Poopiest Pants Award. This is the player who despite high expectations... Let fantasy managers down over and over again. And filled their pants. Yes. In 2024, the winner was Travis E.T.N. who ended up bouncing back having a great year. This year's nominees were Justin Jefferson, of course, in the first round. Lamar Jackson. Interesting. Brian Thomas Jr. Ladd McConkey, Marvin Harrison, Chuba Hubbard. And the winner is. It's a gross list. With 52% of the vote. Okay.

Justin Jefferson. Oh no. Whose pants have been filled in part by his quarterbacks. Yeah. 52% of the vote. That is not your poop, Justin. Take those pants off. That is not someone has pooped in my pants. That's right. That's right. Do you want to guess the runner up? Several people pooped your pants. Multiple people. Um, runner up was Brian Thomas. Brian Thomas Jr. 36%. I thought Brian Thomas might take it. Jefferson had a few games for us. Yeah, well, too little too late. I mean. And too little even on the good ones. Yeah, for sure. Could you imagine like going into this season that if I said Justin Jefferson plays 17 games is not injured and will win the poopiest pants award, the booty for the poop. That seems impossible. That's right. All you got to do is play, but apparently you got to have a quarterback. Yeah. All right. Next up.

The Waver Wire Wonder, this is always one of those picks that wins championships for people, which undrafted WaverWire Stud was the best signing. He had a ton of options here. Trevor Lawrence, awesome after he got picked up. Jacoby Brissette, we couldn't believe how often he was still allowed to be a streaming candidate. Rico Dowdle, Woody Marks, Kyle Munungai. Do, do, do, do, do, do Christian Watson, once he returned from injury, was very good. Wondale Robinson. Uh, sneaky good this year. You had Quge, Michael Wilson, Alec Pierce, and Harold Fanon Jr. Do you know where Wondale finished? I want to say it was like wide receiver 17 or something? 19. And he didn't play in the final week. Crazy. All right. Well, let's see if he won. Drum roll, please. He didn't. Oh. The winner was, by a wide vote, Michael.

Jerry Rice Wilson with 54% of the vote runner up to give you an idea of there's a lot of different options here with that many names to have someone get 54% is surprising the second highest vote geter Rico Dowdell at only 11% of the vote so this was Michael Wilson just ran away with Michael Wilson was the best waiver wire pickup this year all of those other names literally every single other name hot and cold from the point of pickup Michael Wilson only hot pretty much. Maybe that's why. That's why I give it to Wilson. I'm surprised that Rico got that far up there. Boy, he had a beautiful little three game run. I mean, you won those weeks. All right. The fantasy quarterback of the year. We're talking the draft position, the big game performances, the impact to your teams. Last year's winner was Jaden Daniels. I miss him. Yeah, please come back, Jaden and be.

good at football. This year's nominees Josh Allen, Drake May, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes, and Matthew Stafford. Drum roll please. Your fantasy quarterback of the year is of course with 52% of the vote. It's going to be Drake, isn't it? Drake, Drake, Drake, May. It's gonna, gonna. It's going to be May. Matthew Stafford was the runner up with 21% of the vote. You know what? He's very deserving of that honor. I mean, Stafford was generally undrafted. May was late round. Yep. And I think Trevor Lawrence is equally deserving. But I think Stafford could have been in the waiver wire wonder. The best thing about Drake May is he was one of those easy to target. Like we talked about this going into this season that our.

our two late turn round targets later were bow nicks and drake may because they were young guys who ran the ball they could break out and if you targeted him not only did you have a great season and he he exceeded all expectation but through the playoffs and especially championship week he finished you know he he did what you dream of which is help people win championships Fantasy running back of the year, guys. Don't let me down. We know this story here. Last year, it was Sequin. We'll be quick here. McCaffrey, Taylor, Gibbs, A-chan, Bejohn, Cook and Henry, Cook leading the league and rushing yardage, by the way. It's going to be CMC. Bejohn's the only one that could... Barely need a drum roll here, but let's do it. It is... Oh, wow. Closer than you thought? Bam Knight.

Christian McCaffrey with 63% of the vote. Bejean number two. Bejean number two, but with 11%. Oh my goodness. Man. That's even, that's a wider gap than the Michael Wilson. Yeah. Can you imagine? It took me so long to remember Bam Knight's name for the joke too. That's about how relevant he was. Can you imagine a fantasy team with both those guys on the roster? I can. It would be a person who won both of their leagues. Yeah, that's, uh, that's very. Very helpful for fantasy. The fantasy wide receiver of the year, I feel like there's a two-man race here, between JSN and Puka Nakua, but also in the running are Amin-Raw St. Brown, George Pickens, who, when you factor in, draft capital, where they finish versus where you draft them, he should be high up there. And Jamar Chase, awesome studs, but the wide receiver of the year for the footy can only go to one. And I don't know who it's going to. Oh.

Pretty wide, pretty. I thought this would be closer. JSN was 62% of the vote. Your footy is in the mail. Yeah. Puka Nakua down at 29%. There was no other choice for me. Their stats were so similar by the year. The draft spot was just better. That's fair. That's fair. You drafted Puka in the first, really, in the back of the first to be what he was. And JSN was like you hoped, but as many people hoped. felt like he couldn't do it with Arnold. You have a very tough category, Mike. Oh, the fantasy tight end of the year? This was going to be rough. Trey McBride and then a bunch of jabronies. I want to guess, guess, goose this with the percentage. Oh, okay. Assuming it's Trey McBride, which we don't know. I don't know. Okay. So we think, so McBride, Kittle, Pitts, Goddard, Warren, Fan, and were the nominees.

I'm going to set the line at 86% of the vote. Okay. I'll take the over. 86 is a good thing. Foundational line there. Yeah, I'm going to go over. Okay. All right, drum roll. What, that one guy? Voterferkid. Oh, that sucks. And the winner is shocking stuff here. It is Trey McBride. What's the number? Okay, so the runner up was Harold Fanon Jr. Okay. Shout out to him. He had 4%. Oh, I'll take the over. Are we about 90 then? 90% for Ray McBride. All right. There you go. Okay, I vote for Harold Fan of Jr. I get it because it was like, nope. This is an undrafted player, but no. The most receptions ever for a tight end.

Come on people. Yeah, Tray McBride, 126 receptions. All right, we'll take a break. We'll come back with the rookie of the year, the breakout player of the year, the steal of the draft, the comeback player of the year, and some of the other big awards in just a moment. All right, we're back into the footy awards. The rookie of the year. Jaden Daniels took this home last year. A lot of nominees. Jackson Darts, Scataboo, Gentie, Trevo, Trevo, Elmaryon, Hampton, Quinn, Macmillan, Egbuckah, Fanon and Warren. And amazingly, amazingly, one of the best fantasy rookies not even nominated for maybe the future in Colston Loveland. Oh, yes. There's not even in the list. Yeah, he didn't deserve to be in this list. All right, the winner is. That's why I think it'll be. Yeah. You're just winning at me. With just 21% of the vote showing how tight it was, Trayvion. Yes. Henderson. Wee.

21% of the vote. Runner up was, do you want to take a guess? The runner up was. Tedaroa McMillan. With 16% of the vote. Hey-oh. Hey-oh. I voted for Kim Scataboo. You got to vote with your heart. That's right. The heart wants. And honestly, when I went back and looked, the Scataboo run was longer than I remember it being. Yeah. The NFL was better when he was playing man. It sure was. I mean, the, the Cam Scataboo run, you felt like it was three games. He didn't get injured until week eight. Yeah. Man, that did. It felt shorter. He was awesome. He is awesome. I guess because there was a time period of like him becoming. Yeah. The dude. And it was rough. And then he was great. Yeah. All right. All right. We are up to breakout player of the year, aka last year's Brian Thomas Jr.

There's no guarantee of future success. But the nominees for this year are... You need disclaimers. Are Drake May, Giovante Williams, Jalen Warren, George, Chris Olavay, and Michael Wilson. That is George Pickett. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I know... The breakout player of the year. There's an argument for a few of these guys. There is certainly. I mean, I would say there's an argument for everyone on the list. I don't even remember who I voted for. Probably George. All right. Let's find out. All right. Drum roll, please. The 2025 fantasy football breakout player of the year is Drake May with 42% of the vote. Wow. It was a pretty clear winner there. Runner up, George.

at 21%. I sort of, yeah, I get it. I mean, quarterback's a tough one because it's so impactful. But I feel like George was very deserving as well. Yeah, I mean, they both broke out into the top five at their position. What did Drake may finish? Remember he had that long run where he wasn't really finishing above nine or ten on a weekly basis? Yes, but. And then he finished so strong that it kind of wiped out out. Finish the season as the quarterback three. Did he really? Yeah. Okay. That's pretty good. The issue with George was George finished as the wide receiver five. We had the, what, the back-to-back weeks where it was like, oh, week 14, 15. There he is. There's George who doesn't care about football and putting effort in. And then he was very good again. All right, the steal of the draft. Which player was the absolute best value in the draft compared to their ADP? Last year's winner, Brian Thomas Jr.

There is no guarantee of future success. This year he stole your draft. Yes. Oh, goodness gracious. The thief of the draft. Yeah. Brian Thomas Jr. All right. So the nominees this year, we got, we had James Cook in the third. Trey McBride in the middle of the third. J.S.N. at the back of the third. Devante Adams back of the fourth. George in the sixth. DeAndre Swift also in the sixth, Chris Olive in the seventh, Travis E.T.N. in the eighth, and Javante Williams at the back of the ninth round. So many good names. The steel of the draft. Drumroll, please. So many good names. Woo! It's tight. I hope it's my guy. The winner was 23%. The runner up was 20%. Oh. Jason and Pickens. Pickens? The winner of the steel of the draft was Jackson Smith and Jigba with 23%. And the runner up.

was Giovante Williams. Okay. So late. Okay. Okay. Man, the steal of the draft being in the third round. That is, that's tough to do. All right. He was very good. The comeback player of the year, which fantasy player amaze you the most in their return to relevance last year. J.K. Dobbins won this award in his great one season in Los Angeles. He's eligible again next year. Yeah. Nominees were Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence, Javante Williams, Chris Oliva, Kyle Pitts, and Dallas Goddard, who. Also got it done in the playoffs as well in his one game. The drum roll, please. This has got to be Stafford. It's not. The winner with 29% of the vote. Chris. Oh, hey! Yes. The runner-up, 28% of the vote. What was the Lave? Basically a tie. Alave is 29. Wow. You know who it was? It was Javante Williams. Yeah. The people were loving Javent. I mean, that's a huge comeback.

yeah story well i mean chris olave was unwanted and yes you assumed was one injury way like it was like if i draft olive that's fine to get started at the course of the season but like yeah let's be playing for later with exactly yeah but javanti was a keeper for you papa josh is that correct we mocked that so profusely we were so happy so happy we're like oh man A keeper spot? You had to waste it with Javante? And then he led him all the way to the quarterfinals. I heard an audible laugh from back there. Semi-finals. Yeah, I know. Respect the man's third and fourth place finish. I like disrespecting it. Yeah. Sorry, the semis. Good job. Good job, Andy. All right, we are on to the playoff king who drove managers to championships during the coveted weeks.

15, 16, and 17. Last year was Jemir Gibbs. He did not do that this year. This year, you had the two best quarterback performances in the modern fantasy football playoff stretch of Trevor Lawrence and Brock Purdy. You had Derek Henry, including that week 17 championship. Christian McCaffrey. Dog. Bejan Robinson, running back four, running back seven, running back two in those weeks. Unbelievable. Mr. Olave? had two wide receiver two finishes in the playoffs, Pook and Akua, Trey McBride, dog, and Kyle Pitts with, of course. And then Kyle Pitts. And I'm do knees. He had the tight-in-one performance in week-old. I love tight-in one. I mean, almost everyone that played Kyle Pitts was an automatic win in that first week. Yeah, so you go on to the next round. Tight-in three.

Championship week. Let's get it done. Kyle Pitts, tight in 38. There are 32 teams. All right. Drum roll, please. Playoff King. Playoff King. I'm guessing was going to be on Mike's roster. Winner Bijon Robinson, of course. Yeah, that's my guy. When you are the running back four, followed by the running back seven, followed by the running back two on a week. And that running back two was like 40 points. I mean, Bijon was awesome, got 37% of the vote. Brock Purdy was 17% of the vote was great, but Bijon just did what he needed to do. Bejohn, your footy. It's in the mail.

All righty. What a guy. Keep checking. We have four more awards. This one is brand new for this year for the footy awards. We got the bummer of the year. Ah, this is good. It's not the biggest busts of the year. It's not the poopiest pants of the year. This one hurts the most. But it's just a bummer. Yeah. The way that it turned out. It's like a sick tummy. Right. That's a bummer. A mecca abuka. It was the best of times. Oh my goodness. Brian Thomas Jr. He was the worst of times. It was the worst of times. Caleb Johnson. It was no times. It was no times. Oh, you didn't see Kenny Gainwell coming, huh? Bucky Irving. He had that kick returned. And Travis Hunter. The winner of the new bummer of the year ward goes to.

He's back baby. Bryant Thomas Jr. Your footie is in the mail. He just, he knew last year after what he did and he won all those footies. It's going to be hard to win more footies this year. It really is. And then he's like, wait, wait, wait, I can control my destiny if I suck so much. If I bomb everyone out. Yeah, I can win. I mean. Comeback player of the year is in contention. Now it's easier for you. We do have a new award this year. One more new award and it may be just, it may just be one year. I've been dying to know. I know a lot of people with anticipation. The new Meow Man of the Year award, nominees included players such as Mason Taylor, tight end for the New York football jets who had one reception all year while the jets were leading and broke no tackles. Other nominees include.