Fantasy Football - Week 16 Start/Sit + Panic, Anxiety, & Playoff Decisions - Podcast for 12/17

Foot Clan, championships are right around the corner. It's time to get ready to celebrate fantasychamps.com. That's where you got to go for all of your trophies, your belts, your rings, anything you need to dunk on those fools in your league at fantasychamps.com. Use the code ballers and save a little cash. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. What is that? That's the anxiety. I thought so. Really? Yes. Yeah, it's the anticipation. He hasn't had a playoff game. No, I know, but Mike's been just soaring above it. That's not. Nobody's above for school. Nobody's really truly above. No, it's all pretend. The fantasy. No, it's, uh, I think it's an execution of like, you know, instill some confidence. Yeah, I can have the utmost confidence. Uh,

But there's Kyle Pitts out there waiting for this weekend. Right. Like, there are a lot of people in the second round that probably shouldn't be. There will be another Kyle Pitts type of performance. May it be Chris Oliva? From someone in football and you're just like it's, he's waiting. It's just what Jason said. I mean, you, you, you, you spend the time, the skill, the ability, the consistency, you make yourself a playoff team and then you lose. You need a little bit of, well, you need a little bit of luck. Yeah. And one, I mean, it's, it's shocking breaking news. I'm surprised that didn't hit the button, but one person wins the title. That is my, that is the thing that. You can have two good teams and they can both play well and one team's going to win. That's the thing that passes by everyone. They all got to, ah, I did this. I lost. It's like everyone loses. Literally all but one. The whole game we're playing is.

Everyone but one loses. I mean, we look at it like, oh, I want to be the winner. But the game is everybody but one is a loser. It's a good time to remind people that next week at this time, one of you two will be a loser. Yep. That is a fact. Because you are facing off in the League of Records semifinals. Well, by this time, one of us will have been a loser for at least a day. One of you will be suffering this time next. Yes. Now, I will be suffering this weekend, but also entertained, to listen to both of you. Mike is more quiet.

Jason, not so much. No. Like this weekend, you will be, you will be talking, you will be slowly walking us through everything that happens with extreme language. Yeah. You know, things like, you know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that I'm, I've already lost after the first catch of the game or something like that. I was, I was already congratulated yesterday. You were on my. You were. Well, I just, you know, look, the projections were pretty wide. So congrats. 13 points. Backup options on the show today, NFL news, Thursday night, preview, the mailbag. We're here for you. And it is semi-final week. So good luck to everybody in the Megalibol that is still alive. If you want to see your Megalobol standings, megalobole.com, you can go in there and check it out.

Find us on YouTube. We are a year-round podcast, YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Do us a favor. Subscribe, click the bell. We will have Sunday live. Now, I want the people to know. I'm going to just come out and say this. Mistakes might have been made by yours truly when planning our company Christmas party. Which it's unfortunate because you took the, you took the bull by the horns. You're like, I'm getting this. I'm going to get a schedule. I'm getting out ahead of it. It's a big day. We often are like, Oh crap. Get the company Christmas party planned. And he was like, no, this year I got it. I'm hosting. I'm setting it all up. It's going to be awesome. What are you doing, Jason? What are you doing? I was trying to make a waiver claim. Oh, okay. And then it turned out I have ineligible guys on my I are. And so Andy was going to take care of it. And then he planned it on Saturday. Right, which I thought was normal. But I guess it's not been normal.

No, because we have a Sunday live and... And that's early in the morning. Yeah. But not only is it early in the morning. Sometimes we celebrate Christmas late. Not only is it early in the morning after a late night party, but at said party, there shall be extra tilting because there is football games happening where they'll be on the TV. I'm kind of looking forward to that, though. I'm actually kind of excited that there will be, because we've got Al Borland and his Packers. Our Packers. Our Packers. Yeah, baby. Go, go, baby. Josh Jacobs Packers. And then me and baby Jake with our bears. This was a long way of me saying we will still have a Sunday live. But I think I'm going to fill in for Mike. I think I'll be there and take one for the team. Papa Josh, are you with me on Sunday live? I'm with you.

Okay. Lucky us. Merry Christmas. But that will be on Sunday morning before the games. We'll be with you, as always, to get you primed and ready. React to the latest news because you never know when Roma Dunes is going to be suddenly removed from rosters three minutes before kickoff. That one was brutal. If you are out there, and I actually saw a league that they allowed someone to swap out because the only player. Good. The only player that was, but here's the crazy part. The only player who would have been realistically swapped out on that team, and it was realistic, and it was not really the fault of the manager because it was announced minutes before him was Kyle Pitts. So they got to swap Rome out for Pitts. But they already knew Pitts's points. But, oh, is that what? I just looked at the post. I don't know. I mean, Pitts played on Thursday. Whatever they allowed happen. I'd be out of that league. Yeah. I was so with that. I'm like, dude, that's great.

Yeah, because you couldn't have made that transaction. Like someone could have been at, you know, church or whatever. And you're like, I have Rome in. Okay, we're good to go. And you don't, you're not able to react. So, I mean, allowing people to fix that. But you can't just throw the 40 points in there. No. That I would not stand for. No, you can't. Yeah, somebody was, somebody was asking about reseeding in the middle of the playoffs. Like, oh, it was an oversight. We didn't reseed. I want to just put it into place right this moment. And then they were like, but just to throw in like.

I'm the commissioner and it's my team in the semis. I was like, that one you can't do that, man. Also, how is reseeding not the default? Like, it's so insane to me. It's, well, not every tournament. Not every professional sports league does that, obviously. Who doesn't reseed? I don't think, uh, does the NBA reach, yes. Oh yeah. The higher seat always plays the lowest seat possible. Hmm. Because that's how tournaments work. Like you're a reward? No, the NBA does not reseed after the first round of the playoffs. That's what I thought. Oh, well, yeah. Only the NFL among the big U.S. leagues truly reseeds. Okay, well, football does it. And that's a good enough argument. I'm changing my argument. I will say the NBA doesn't reseed? No. That's why. You know, I kind of actually.

This might be contrarian, I don't know, but there is part of me that prefers to not recede simply because you can look at the bracket and know who's playing who. Whenever we're doing our playoff picks, which we'll be doing here in a couple weeks again, it's always annoying to be like, oh, okay, well, if this one wins, the bracket changes here. So now my matchup is this versus, you know. So your argument against rewarding us a team for having the better season. playing, winning, being great. Your argument is you at home when filling out your bracket, it's slightly more confusing. It's actually that you can, the same argument that I was making if you're making the argument side is actually that you can prepare for exactly who your next opponent would be. I'd rather prepare for the team that's worse. Well, unless you're the team that's worse. Then you'd rather be able to prepare. You're saying that because you got the buy and you're the one seed. What?

Why are we rewarding the bad teams? If you have a buy and your first matchup is not against the worst team as the best team, that sucks. That's why the NFL does it. The NFL's better. Well, we do it. And Papa Josh actually was the one seed. Yes, he was. He's getting the layup. So Papa Josh will be in the championship against one of us, Mike. So you're trying to jinx them right now? No, I'm just telling the truth. No, there's no way he's going to lose. Moving on. Backup Options, presented by Progressive Insurance. All right, we're into backup options for Week 16. The most dropped players on Sleeper over the last 24 hours. We'll look at them and tell you if you should grab them. There's a huge name that we didn't really talk about yesterday because we didn't necessarily think he'd be back. Right, we talked about the backup. Yeah, exactly. And Chris Rodriguez is practicing in full. He is.

One of the most dropped players on Sleeper over the last 24 hours. He has my backup option this week. He was my start of the week last week, which I really think would have worked out quite well. Yes. Considering Jacori-Kraski Merritt was dominant. He missed last week. They got him healthy. He had been limited in practice. Now he practices in full on a Tuesday. You know, it's crazy. Chris Rodriguez, for all the disrespect that his own coaching staff and the rest of the league shows him. Among 51 qualifying running backs with 80 plus carries, he ranks number one in yards after contact per attempt. Number one, among 51. Which that's good. The third and rush success rate is even more impressive. Yeah, and his upcoming schedule, fifth easiest for running backs, week 16, Philly. I know we talk about Philly all the time, believe it or not, over the course of the year, 1.1 points above expectation. They're not a bad matchup, and then Dallas is real bad. Do you...

have any concerns after last week's bill performance and the trajectory of the team they shut down jaden daniels is there any chance they just say let's see if bill can do it um i think they need to know about both of those guys yeah i was going to say chris rodriguez is 25 years old this is he i think they have to question who should be are running back next year yeah or part of the depth of the team next year so who do you guys have So I've got the Jaguars. I was shocked to see them as one of the most dropped teams. I have been looking at week 17 matchups and, you know, playing that two week ahead game where you're looking at your championship and saying, who could you play? Now, first of all, they play the Broncos this week, which is probably why they're so dropped. People are like, I'm not going to play them against the Broncos.

The Broncos are good offense sometimes, often times. They're very confusing offense, but they really aren't one of those teams you can't play against. I think you could play the Jaguars against them. They have been on fire. Their pass rush has been great. They're just a good defense. Yeah, they're just a good defense. And so that's why I'm surprised they're drop. But then you've got the matchup, and I know on paper when you look at the season totals, you go, oh, it's a bad matchup in week 17. But it's the Colts. Things have changed. Things have changed. And not only do, are you going to have film on the passing speed of Philip Rivers, but Philip Rivers is going to be coming off of a Monday night football game with a short week of rest. You know what I mean? Like at 44, it's like he needs all the rest. He needs extra rest, which he has one day extra rest going into this week. But for championship, you know, I would, I would be thrilled to play the Jaguars.

defense. I mean, the Jaguars aren't going to give up three touchdowns to Philip Rivers in the championship week. And they could, if you want to watch a predictable pick six opportunity, watch Philip Rivers throwout routes. It's like one is coming. He floats them. I also, I overheard this name that you're about to mention Mike when you were on a radio show yesterday. I thought it was pretty astute. And it could be one of those. You know, really, really surprising. You mentioned Kyle Pitts gives you the weird week. Right. Go ahead and... Is this what you're trying to pick up, Jay? Warms my heart to hear. It's Trey Harris. Love this man. Of the Los Angeles Chargers. And obviously, this is only if Quentin Johnston is hurt. We don't have the information on it right now. However, he is a good player. He's a second round pick. He's big. He had been on the field for 42% of the snaps on the season. But then last week...

With Cuge out, he ran the second most routes on the team. He had five targets, three for 49, and that was against a difficult Kansas City matchup. Now they get the Dallas Cowboys. While the offensive line will not be fixed and Herbert will still take some shots from the Cowboys, certainly. If Trey Harris is out there for the second most routes against the Dallas Cowboys, you have a chance for something just, you have a chance for a miracle to happen. You know, you got to. weighed through the crap of who could possibly do it. And I think if Q is out, Trey Harris is one of those guys that on Monday when we're in studs and duds, it wouldn't surprise me if you're like, holy crap, look what Trey Harris just did in the semis. Yeah, I think you could be right, especially even like DFS and stuff like that. That was backup options sponsored by progressive insurance court today at progressive.com. News and notes from around the league. Presented by Progressive Insurance.

Normally I kind of lay the news out and you guys break it down a little bit. I'm going to let Jason take this one. Oh, no! Okay. I'm up. Yeah, be a professional, Jay. Yeah, the dolphins are benching quarterback to a Tonga Viola because he has been playing poorly unless he's been throwing the ball to the tight end Darren Waller. That is worked. Excellent. And they are going to be starting Quinn Ewers this week. Eelers. against the Bengals. So this is a matchup I have been salivating over. I talked about on the backup options two weeks ago. It was pick up Darren Waller who had two more touchdowns. He's got like six touchdowns in in basically six games because he exited one early with Tua. And now the question is, okay, the world's greatest matchup for a tight end who's been great. Titans can be, you know, the best friend of a young quarterback.

But can you really play Darren Waller when he's playing 50% of snaps with a seventh round rookie quarterback? Probably not. I can't. Probably not. It sucks. Just to follow up. I mean, it sucks because it's not like we didn't just see variable production from tight end against this defense last week. We saw Isaiah like Lee and Mark Andrews. If they had gone out and both dominated, maybe we would be so overwhelmed by the three consecutive weeks with the triple bills and double ravens. And look, there's a. opportunity for Waller to be productive. They don't really have pass catchers. I can't believe. I literally can't believe they made this decision. I mean, they just won four games in a row. And then they go and play in freezing cold weather and he has a bad game. Quarterbacks have a bad game. McDaniel is just he's done with it. He is like, you have to be able to play in every scenario. You also need to know what you have here in seventh round. Like he's not the backup.

Ewers was the third stringer. You know, Zach Wilson was the backup for the majority of the year. They made the decision. They know what he is on film. Yeah. You need to go see what Quinn Ewers has. They have ways out with Tua Tunga Viloa's contract. Expensive ways out. It's going to cost. I mean, technically everyone has a way out. You can cut anyone. I think he is like more than 50 million guaranteed next year for Tua. Cutting Tua would leave the dolphins with 99.2 million. How do you make this move if you're not planning to move on from him?

That's what I'm curious about. It really felt, you know, like we were training that. Two of won't be part of the team next year. It just has accelerated here. And for Ewers, I think the biggest thing is just the touchdown opportunities. Can Ewers be that good? I mean, the matchup for a guy who's making his first start, you're at home against the Bengals. Okay. That seems like a positive scenario. We've already seen the line move from 50.5 down to 47 and a half while Cincinnati gained two points on the spread. So this is a big move. I actually think it hurts. I actually think it hurts Cincinnati quite a bit. And I know you won't want to hear that with the. It's possible. But like you just talked about it. The line's coming down. I got Chase Brown too. No, but it's not just that. It's like.

Touchdown opportunities for the defense. Total points. It's Cincinnati's defense being able to do stuff, maybe turn them over, maybe score. There's no better bet for a defensive score in football than a rookie start at quarterback. Oh, yeah. I see what you're saying. If Cincinnati, you want every possible possession for them to put up points, it's not something you're going to overemphasize or change your start sit. It's just I'm less excited about the game, period. But it's like Waddle. Well, I mean... Oh, Waddle is in huge trouble. I mean, A-chan... A-chan, you should... A-chan, you keep starting. I keep starting. I'm just trying to think through it of like... Hopefully Ewers. Hopefully Ewers is like, I'm just going to keep checking it down to A-chan, like I saw two would do it, but he's a different quarterback. We don't know what his tendencies will be. We've seen the dolphins with bad quarterback play and what that did to A-chan. It was...

nowhere close to the superstar that we've had all season. The helpful thing is that A-Chane has been so good on the ground. Like, it's not just what it was like last year. But if a defense doesn't respect a passing game at all. Absolutely. They'll crowd the line for sure. But I'm looking at, you know, the game logging two weeks ago, he was the running back eight and he had one target. Three weeks ago, he was the running back four. He had one target. He can do it on the ground. Yeah, the Darren Waller starts-s-it questions are already piling up. Those are...

You know, it's Colby Parkinson, I'd go Parkinson. There are a lot. Tyler Warren, I'd probably go Warren. We had. Harold Fanon, I'd go Fanon. So our team was already prepared for this. We knew that the rumors were in the bushes. So we had all of our waiver claims. I've got four waiver claims in already on four different tight ends that I'm happy to start any one of them. And they're, this is a good week for streaming tight ends, honestly. There's tight-ins I would start over Tyler Warren that are in my list as well. Are you trying to block it like it's hot Mike? I don't think he could. No, I don't have bench space. Josh and Mike combined can't block my four guys. Remember we had the discussion. That's why I'm willing to be free. This is why we had the discussion the other day and you said you changed your opinion on things is because when you have wide open waivers and you, in a redraft league that has no dynasty implications, if a bunch of other managers.

jumped into the scenario right now to block you. And that would be, that would feel crappy and biased. It would be collusion. I mean, if there is a sensational player out there that could be a. I didn't tell no one to do nothing. Yeah, it's not collusion because there's not a collective effort, but it's still disadvantages one team over the other, which I don't think is fair. Right. You know, and if it was a keeper worthy guy, okay, but the tight ends on waivers aren't keeper worthy players. We'll find out what happens in about. 30 minutes. Bam night on injured reserve for the Cardinals. We kind of knew that. Jeremy Ruckert signed to a two-year extension for the Jets, tight end. And then Saquan did not practice on the Tuesday walk through dealing with the stinger. Hold on. You breezed past workhorse. Oh, yeah. Workhorse, Jeremy Rucker. Oh, man. At least according to Ian Rappaport. I mean. Jeremy Ruckert, everyone. He's a workhorse. That's what you think of. When I think of a workhorse, I think of Jeremy Ruckert.

Sometimes you can just block and do your job at tight in and be. Since the buy, 53% of snaps, 44% of snaps, 34% of workhorse. Workhorses don't work at night, man, they still sleep. What sucks is like, I'm, this is not, this has nothing to do with Jeremy Rucker. This is just the idiocy of what is happening with social media posts. Yes, and from their agents. So, like, our audience right now. what set the line over under the amount of the percentages of our audience that knows what team Jeremy Rutgers played for before we just said this. Let me do one divided by 32 because maybe that team's fans. Workhorse Cup. We got to be better about this. 3%. I think 3% of our audience. It's so frustrating. Christian Watson, Josh Jacobs did not practice on the Tuesday walkthrough. They play on Saturday.

Josh Jacobs intends to play on Saturday. You had some really fun public comments where they came out and said, like, look, he re-injured his knee immediately. We kind of saw it on the film. He had to stop them from taking them off the field. He says he's gotten into arguments with their head coach multiple times about it. And he's like, and normally I have a good game. Yeah, it goes at this point, I think you just trust me that if I say I'm good to go, I'm going to go out there and help the team. And he followed that up and said,

it's easier for me to play through pain than to watch on the sideline. And that is music to my soul. That's what you want your players saying. And the truth is a lot of NFL players, there are just injuries you can't play through ever, no matter how tough you are. Right. But there is a middle ground where you look at these injury prone players that are sometimes like, you know, a little softer. And it's like they just, they're, they're, they're. They're not going to be willing to play through things that, you know, if the coach gives them an opportunity. Yeah, I mean, Marshaun Lloyd. Marshaun Lloyd is made out of paper machet, those hamstrings. Him and Kendry Miller are just begging for a car. I don't think he macheted. It's just newspaper. Yeah, it's, goodness. It's going to be a dog fight. It's Packers, Bears. That helps. Yeah. It helps a lot.

for Jacobs being out there, but we'll keep monitoring those guys. Luther Bird and Rome, Adunzei did not practice. Come on, Luther. Luther, I think, will play. Adunzee, I think won't, but that's just my gut on Wednesday. And that was News & Node, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers, not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We'll be back in a minute. This episode is brought to you by... prize picks the weather might be changing but the feeling of being right never gets old and right now on prize picks you can get fifty dollars instantly in lineups when you play your first five dollars prize picks is the only app that offers stacks meaning you can pick the same player up to three times in the same lineup you like josh allen this week how much

More on passing yards, more on rush yards, more on touchdowns. Well, you can do that, but only on prize picks. And now they have a new feed tab where you can go follow your friends. You know, you can directly copy their lineups and one click. Maybe you want to follow along with us on the footballers or just someone whose picks you like. You can do that on prize picks. We've been having so much fun this season in our head-to-head battles here on the footballers. And you know what I really like is... Making the beginning of the game really interesting. Like this past week, I had Giovante Williams. I took the less on his, in his first five rushing attempts, will he have more or less than 18 and a half yards? Bryce Young, will he have more or less than seven completions? You know, things like that. It makes the beginning of the game truly an event, extra special, extra fun for your fantasy football weekend. Download the prize picks app today and use code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

That's code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play that first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right. Well, we have Saturday games, but we also have a Thursday night game. Thursday night breakdown. And it is the first ever Thursday night game between two teams with 11 plus wins in history. Los Angeles, 11 and 3. Seahawks, 11 and 3. That would be the Rams, not the Chargers. Vegas line, Los Angeles Rams minus one and a half. The overrunder is 43 and a half. The Rams won 2119 in week 11. The Seahawks had the ball for over 37 minutes in that game, but Donald had the four picks. Both teams are basically guaranteed to make the playoffs. Right now the Rams, I believe their odds are 63% to win the division.