Fantasy Football Podcast for Week 15/16

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Welcome, welcome. That's the championship horn. Is that because we're in the championship game? Well, yeah. Or for all of our listeners that have made it. Yeah, it was more for everyone else. That was a little early to start talking about us. No, it's never too early to talk about us. Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast. Coming to you live-ish. Live-ish recording. It is Tuesday, December 16th.

207 p.m. in the afternoon, Arizona time. So if you're listening right now, then it's live. Yeah. My name is Mike the Fantasy Hitman Wright. I'm joined by my co-host, my fantasy compadre, my... The Destroyer of Dreams. Andy Holloway. Welcome. Yeah, welcome to the show. I am Andy Holloway, and it's our...

privilege and honor to be with you once again in week 16 of the NFL season oh my goodness we're here some say it's the best week of the season yeah about uh what percentage would that be uh the five percent or so who make the fantasy title games yeah i mean um the nice thing is is you mean in a lot of our leagues we have players that are maybe they're out of it but they're in another league so a lot of people play more than one league so

A chance of being fantasy relevant down the line here. If this is not your championship week, and week 17 is your championship week, stop it. I was going to say there's only one thing to say to that. Enjoy playing backups to the backup next week to decide a title that. You should never have to worry about that for your title. If you're the commissioner of a league that has a championship game in week 17, go home. Just stop.

But Week 16, that's where it's at. Yeah, so for most leagues nowadays, this is your championship week. And so for us, this is, we're bringing it yet again, going to deliver some of the news and notes from around the league. Yes, we do some writing for Fantasypros.com. I'm going to, have you seen the rankings, the top correspondents lately? That's you. You're the top correspondent. I'm, I dropped down to number two, but I've been killing it lately.

Yeah, with the football coverage over at Fancy Pros. If you do not know what that is, it is a fantastic tool online where you can get all kinds of advice from multiple sources, multiple experts where they will take a consensus of experts around the league and kind of average them out. So you're not just taking one person's opinion. You can get the views of kind of the fantasy community.

and see where people's heads are at with rankings, who should I start, who should I sit, all kinds of fantastic, juicy information. Yeah, and they have lots of news and information. They do have that as well. Breaking news and things like that. You can get on that. Lots of good news on the Cardinals from yours truly. That's right. That's right. Mike is a fantasy correspondent for the Cardinals. Is this too early to talk about ourselves yet, or no? No, now is the time, my friend. Now's the appropriate time to let people know that. That's right.

That's all we do. For the third consecutive year in our main league, Mike and I are taking each other on in the championship game. I like that pause. It was nice. Yeah, pretty good, right? So kind of against all odds, we were the five and six seed heading into the playoffs, but we face each other again, which is pretty validating for our podcast and things like that. And it's fun. It's fun to face off. We looked at it. We're a lifetime three and three against each other in the,

Fantasy League. And it's tremendous for us because the, like you said, it's the third time in a row consecutively. And our league mates are just so discouraged. This is the best part of fantasy football. It's gloating over a team that you quote unquote own. And this, let's say I end up getting second.

It would be the most satisfying second place of my life. Just because the rest of the league is so fed up with our crap. Yeah, it's pretty funny. And if you can imagine, we are very vocal about winning, especially me. When I win, everyone knows it. You're the New York Yankees of the fantasy world where maybe one or two people are your fan.

That lives close to you, and then everybody else wants you to die and never win. Yeah, that's very valid. So, yeah, maybe we'll talk a little bit about our matchup. Yeah, it's getting into helping everybody else. Sounds good to me. News and notes from around the league. All right, let's start with the injuries from this previous week, 15. Yeah, we'll take a look at some things that might affect you heading into the championship week. Peyton Manning, who was new. He was also dealing with flu.

Apparently, a really bad flu. Yeah, ran off the field, got an IV. Yeah, you heard his quad at some point during the first half. It's not thought to be serious or limiting him at all, but it's just something to keep in mind when you're making your decision for your champion quarterback. Yeah, T.Y. Hilton actually left the game on Sunday, much to the dismay of his owners, with a hamstring injury.

And you'll want to keep an eye on practice reports. Right. I have not heard anything yet. Yeah, I haven't heard anything that said he's going to be out this week. But those type of injuries, them heading into the playoffs, I'd be watching those reports closely because we've had guys like Hilt. I'm sorry, Julio Jones this past week who, you know, all I know about Hilton is his MRI was negative. So he should practice this week. It's just a matter of, is he good enough to go? Yeah, hamstring.

Injuries kind of suck for wide receivers. Yeah, certain guys respond differently too. Frank Gore, I'll do both these because they're kind of connected, but Frank Gore got a concussion. He was knocked out. And then his backup, Carlos Hyde, hurt his back in the game. This is like the second time this year where, you remember this happened with Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller? Yeah. Where, like, the first guy goes down. Saw the owners of the handcuff probably rejoice. Yeah. And then, oh, dang it. I don't even know who the third string guy is. I'm embarrassed to say that. I do.

You do, huh? Yeah, it's our good buddy. Alfonso Smith. Is it really? It is. Ex-Arizona Cardinal. So we'll talk about him because I actually, he's got some juice. Yeah. Well, if he's the only guy going. If he's got the opportunity. How funny. Keenan Allen, this news apparently broke today. He was dealing with an ankle injury that we knew about. And I guess you're saying he broke his collarbone as well. They said he broke his collarbone, which is kind of unexpected. And so.

Uh, what's ironic, or not ironic, wrong word. What's weird about this is they haven't ruled him out for this week, but that's expected to happen any day because of the dual injuries. So, uh, Rashad Jennings continues to, wow, he's hurt. To provide me fodder and to, you said it all year. To rejoice in my proclamation. Uh, not that he's hurt, but I just didn't trust him for an entire year.

His ankle, he re-injured it. I don't know if you can, I would not be trusting Rashad Jennings in my championship game. Yeah, I agree. Ryan Fitzpatrick went from six touchdowns to a broken leg in record time. He broke his leg this past weekend, and then Tom Savage came in. Looked horrible.

Looked like a savage. Yeah, he looked like a blind savage. And he went down as well and hurt his knee. So this week it is going to be a wonderful opportunity for Thad Lewis in Case Keenum to compete for playing time. Unfortunately, I hear it's going to be Thad Lewis. Yeah, and it's ridiculous that you have the only quarterback. Stream the Ravens defense. You have a quarterback on the Texans who has won the only Houston Texan playoff game in history.

in Mr. Keenum. Yeah, this is not convincing. He's not convincing. Yes, the guy off the practice squad of the Redskins or wherever he was. Jake Locker, another stalwart of health, is injured yet again, and his days in Tennessee are over because he's an unrestricted free agent and he's been put on IR. Colt McCoy re-injured his neck, which gave, that was much to the chagrin of Jay Gruden, who.

was forced to put Robert Griffin back in. Man, does that guy hate Robert Griffin? And Jay Cutler. He's just... He was ruthless. Jay Gruden is a... Oh, you said... Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I was thinking of... I thought you said John Gruden. Oh, no, no, no. Because I was listening to Monday Night Football and listening to him completely destroyed Jay Cutler. I'm talking about his clown coach. Oh, yeah. Clown show brother who is masquerading as an NFL coach. He did not like him either. I do not.

Like him. The only thing that I like about Jay Gruden going forward is the hopes and dreams. They've committed to him going forward. Yeah, because he has a five-year deal. Is the hopes and dreams that somehow he trades for Giovanni Bernard so he can leave my sweet, sweet Jeremy Hill all by himself in the Bengals. There you go. He wants to ring him over from when he coached him? So that's the only...

The only use I have for Jay Gruden, the clown. We need a clown sound effect on this board. I agree, because we call people clowns all of the time. One of the biggest injuries, which for some reason is at the bottom of our list, DeMarca Murray, the number one running back in... Because I wanted to build up to it. I see number one in fantasy or Levi-on past him? Levion has passed him. Okay, so he's been...

one of the best running backs this season. He has a finger fracture. Yeah, he has not been ruled out, which is just, that's fantastic. It's something that Emmett Smith missed one game on, but it's not on his dominant hand. This injury isn't, so I just don't think he'll play this week. Yeah, I don't think so either. I don't know how you play him. So Joseph Randall needs to be right at the top of your list, which takes us to our next section. Yeah? Yeah. All right, let's do it.

Put me in, coach. Like I briefly went over at the beginning, we like the website, Fantasypros.com. So we go to them for our waiver wire information. Fantasy Pros gets together, I think four or five experts and then just has them make a list and then they rank it. So let's take a look at the list. On top, of course, is Joseph Randall. That's right. If you're... Now...

If you're a DeMarco Murray owner and you are listening to our podcast at all and you still didn't have Randall on your bench, shame on you. Yeah, not good. Not good fantasy playing. Not good general managing of your team. There may or may not be a fellow in our own fantasy league who was right to Michael Murray and did not have Joseph Randall on his bench.

Yes, and had he been going to the championship game, he'd be in a world of trouble because he'd have to start somebody else because Randall would be picked up. Probably another guy from this list. Yeah, so that's rough, but Randall is the guy who will get the carries if DeMarco misses. So if you have him handcuffed, just be ready watching that. Right now, Jerry Jones came out today and said it came time decision. Yeah, that's ridiculous. Why Jerry Jones came out and said it? I don't know because he's Jerry Jones. Because he's the MC, man.