Week 15 Waivers + Difference Makers, Playoff Bound! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/10

The fantasy footballer studio is brought to you by Amazon Prime. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, man. I really squeezed that one out. I thought we might get an end's playoff time. I wasn't sure if you'd just break us into the fantasy playoff. On Tuesday? I don't know. I know. I get it. I get it. This is. Today is the day where everyone can log into your platform, your fantasy platform. Look at your playoff bracket. Look at Marvel. Papa Josh can't. Oh, right, right, right. But I mean, everybody that's in the playoffs can't. Right. Like the people who listen to this show. I was actually just about to make the joke. Like, what's a playoff? Yeah, no. You know. Well, congratulations on your successful season. That's over.

But for everyone else, we're all in some playoffs here or there. And it's exciting. It's fun to go and look at the matchup and figure out how you're going to back your way into a championship. Well, that look, Jason, you slipped into the sixth seed with it. Oh, in two weeks somehow. Yeah, baby. And you'll be facing off against Al Borland in our League of Record playoffs. Al, you were feeling confident, I think. I like my odds. Yeah, you like your odds. Now, I don't know. if we'll have a producer if things oh man if i actually win you are very much josh will be here he's got nothing on the line no new video games have been released today yeah i've i've talked about a lot of my injuries my team at this point in the season it's hot trash it's just like this is nasty boy's season um and so and jeremy's team to his credit

It's the first time he's had a great team. Okay. So he's done a, he's got an excellent. You two I think are the are the two current front runners. Al Borland is the leader in points scored in the league. Yeah. And you are the leader in your own right of the least points against. Yeah. You got defense wins championships, baby. So going into next week, look, it will be, you're like Cinderella, but uglier. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. No, that's a good comp for me. So we got fantasy playoffs. Hopefully in some of your leagues, if you're tuning in, you're ready to get going, the waiver wire setting yourself up for these next couple weeks. Despite my bye week, I decided to come to work anyways. What a, what a hero.

And so we'll get into it. We had a fantastically entertaining, I think, Monday night football game. A lot of people out there with Burrow and Chase and Dowdell 18 for 131. My boy. Mike was. My beautiful boy. Let me say this. And no need to record it. And I don't say this lightly or often. I don't know what's about to happen. I know what he's going to say. But Mike. was right. Yeah, that's what I was. Hey, okay. I knew it. I knew it. Thank you. I mean, at every step of the way, it was always if Dowdell had a chance. Yeah. And it was always like, if he has a chance, this is my, it was our view that it wouldn't matter. And he has a chance and it did matter. He did not score a touchdown. Yeah, unfortunately. Much, you know, that was the only thing I got right about Dowdell this week.

but a career high in yards for the second consecutive week, 18 for 131. CD Lamb, six for 93 in a touchdown, wincing at every turn. Seriously. Jamar Chase, 1400 receptions for over 17,000 yards and 25 touchdowns in last night's game. Jamar Chase is unstoppable. I tweeted out early in the game. I was just why I'm like, how do you, how do you stop Jamar Chase? I don't have him in any of my leagues because. He's one of those players where you either get lucky in your draft slot, you know, or is not a fifth round pick. So you just get them or in our keepers and our dynasties. I don't have them. I don't have them anywhere. And it's a darn shame because I watch other people have so much fun with him. It's the time of my life. It's great. And Mike in our dynasty league has the Borough Chase stack. And I truly believe it's tasty. Because there's no way for Chase.

to do all of the points and them not come from the ball thrower. Do you know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. The ball thrower has to be involved. Now, I think that last night I'm watching this game, and here was my headline from it. There's about a minute left or whatever it was, two minutes left. The Bengals have to punt. And at that moment in time, it's fourth and 26, I think to myself as a Jamar Chase manager, oh no, because. The Cowboys are going to win the game. And that means that the Bengals are going to go to four and nine, which means that the Bengals are toast. And then they block the kick and they muff it and they win the game. If you're in fantasy football right now, you're thrilled at the outcome because the Bengals still have a puncher's chance. And you need that for Burrow and Chase to keep doing what they're doing. We also got interesting comments out after the game.

from Joe Burroughs saying, like, in so many words, T. Higgins is going to be here. I mean, he doesn't write the checks. Right. But he, I mean, he's saying like, no, basically he was telling the team, I'm the captain, you are going to figure this out. You're going to keep T. Higgins here with me. And that he'll do whatever he needs to do. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if that's a like a restructure or anything wild like that. But for him to be. so forward, like with the media of... Right away. Putting the team on blast saying, no, you better get T. Higgins back here. Because they need that two for 23. They need that two for 23 on the way back. It... T. Higgins doesn't produce every single game, but he makes an impact on every single game. Well, he helps Jemar Chase tremendously. Exactly. So it's... And like, I think the, you know, in fantasy football, we're all trying to...

project where are these guys going to go? It was like, man, T coming back to the Bengals is such low odds, probably even closer to zero. And this helps. It was Joe Goodberry on Twitter who is like a real Bengals guy. He had tweeted out the other day that in his opinion, he's like, oh, I think that the Bengals will actually franchise. Yeah, they'll just franchise him again. A bunch of cast base and it was like the double franchises. I mean, that's something that I hadn't even. considered to be a possibility, and yet it makes so much sense of making sure that Higgins is back one way or the other. There was also a report yesterday about the Patriots basically offering the sun, moon, and stars for T. Higgins, this free agent period, like going into next year. So I thought I'd mention that too, because there was a report that they're going to do whatever it takes.

to Lanty Higgins. Well, and remember, Jamar Chase did not get the bag of money, so they're going to have to pay Jamar Chase. The idea of giving both of them, the contracts that they need from a franchise that has historically been ran not the best. I don't know if they would do that. But the franchise for one more year, that makes sense. That could happen. It's so much money. It's $25 million. I know, but they're going to give Jamar Chase more than Justin Jefferson. That'll be, maybe they look at their roster this year and they're like, man, it went so well. This offense. These guys this year. Let's re-up this for a ton of money. Their offense. No, but it did. Their offense is worth. It's a championship offense. Yeah. I'm just saying they maybe need to spend on their defense. They made me just spend some money, period. Yeah. Fair. That's, yeah. So that was last night's game. By the way, we will be going through team motivation levels in the coming weeks.

We will take care of that for you, let you know which teams are incentivized to, I guess, you know, step on the throttle. Like keep it going because it does matter. It matters on how they are going to rotate in youth. And it's certainly going to matter if teams have the one seed locked away if you're a week 18 title game, which hopefully you're not. Motivation is. very important and real in football in whether you're betting, playing fantasy or whatever. There are, you know, next week we're going to also take a look at on a player level and see who has incentives, who has bonuses, who's, you know, 200 yards away from a million dollars or whatever. Those things matter. You hear after the season is over, you always hear these coaches talk about, ah, we had to get this guy a touchdown because I wanted him to hit his bonus. That's real. It happens.

And we're going to break it all down. And motivation does matter. That's one of the reasons why I'm going to do a really piss poor job hosting the show this week. Because I don't really need to be here. So why weren't you motivated last week? Are you implying that I did a bit? Swish! Goodness gracious. All right. Let's jump in. Welcome to difference makers presented by I'm's pet food. Well, today I wanted to do a little, you know, do something different with difference makers. I'm going to throw out six names, and I'm going to throw them out to you guys. And I need a yes or no. Do you think that this player that I mentioned will be a difference maker rest of season for fantasy playoff teams heading into the most important time of the year? You can be brief. Give me a reason yes or no, why you believe it. But let me start with the quarterback, Brock Purdy. Difference maker, yes or no? No.

I think we're at the time of the year where the best teams are in and you need monstrous performances. I don't think he's going to give that to you. Debo is not who he once was. Obviously, Iyuk is gone. Debo said he's good. Oh, really? Just needs the ball more. I mean, he deleted that he said that. But he said, no, everything is good. I'm just not getting the ball. Okay. Mike, difference maker, Brock Purdy, yes or no? I'll go with. No. I don't want it to sound like I think that Brock Purdy is a bad start. The schedule is not the greatest, but I think Brock Purdy is still a start, but a difference maker at the quarterback position. I don't think so. 49ers playoff probability right now is 8% sitting in 11th place with the remainder of the season. Brock Purdy's chance of buying a Scrooge McDuck vault, very high. Yeah. Yeah, and I don't, you know, that's a tough one. Really?

For you, you're saying it's a little bit, it's a little bit tough. Yeah, because I think Brock is, he's kind of in that, he's kind of right now in the Lawrence category of like not worth the money, but you're stuck paying the money. Like he's not quite worth, he's not worth league record money. I don't think he's going to get league record money, but he's, he. absolutely is worth his weight in gold as a franchise quarterback. I think he's a franchise quarterback. Yes, he really is. I just see, I could see things going south for the team. Oh, that is for sure. And so I guess you're just kind of like if without Shanahan structure, without CMC, without some of these, you know, Debo playing up to level. I don't know. I just think we could look back in a couple of years and say Brock Purdy is okay. And that's expensive for okay. That's all. It's like Donald.

Where. Yes, it is. Like Darnold in Minnesota is worth franchise money. Darnold somewhere else? Probably not. That's exactly how I see it. You're right. Difference makers. Sincere McCormick running back for the Las Vegas Raiders who just had another 18 opportunities. Yes or no? I think yes. Okay. I am a yes as well. The reason I think I'm a yes is because if you are a. a playoff team that needs sincere McCormick, which one of mine is, do you really need them? Like, you know, there are very few players who have come from nowhere late in the season and at this point going into the playoffs, you feel like might have a chance to score a lot of fantasy points that, you know, when you dealt with an injury late in the season, you know, Breece Hall.

I don't know if he's back this week or not, but if you lost Brees Hall and you're in the playoffs, you might have a gaping hole. And I think Sincere McCormick has looked good. And he has found a lot of success. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay. I said gaping hole. All right. Let's just call a spade a spade. What? What are you talking about? These doosters can't handle it. You silly little boys. He. Is that the yes for sincere McCormick? Not only, it's a yes for me. It's not only the, is he getting the opportunities? And I do, I really think that he's going to keep getting him. Even if Madison is back this week, I think that the Raiders should and will be like, no, let's see what, let's see what McCormick can do. And the fact that he is against Denver, it was only five carries, but against Denver.

6.6 a carry against the Kansas City cheese, 5.3 a carry on 12. This past week against Tampa, 15 carries, 5.2 yards per carry. Like, this guy is bringing actual juice to the opportunity. This isn't the, oh, I stumbled into a guy who's going to get volume, and I really hope he gets 20 carries and a touchdown. Like, this dude's making the most of his opportunity. Let's make it more difficult. Zach Charbonnet, difference maker, rest of season, yes or no? Mike, you go first. I felt like that one would be the most difficult name that I'm going to bring. Rest of season, I will say no, because I think that Ken Bone Walker will be back. It may not be this week, but I think that he'll be back. And if Walker's back, it's Splitsville for Sharps. I agree. And you've also got, you know, two weeks from now, he plays Minnesota. I cannot imagine Charbonnet having a great game against the Minnesota run D.

So I don't think he is a, I don't think he's the difference maker rest of season that he was this last week. He easily could be. Like we may not have information on the Walker injury and it's like, oh, we were joking. Walker was going on the IR. And then Charbonnet is truly a difference maker. The three games that he's played without Ken Bone Walker, 14 for 38 and a touchdown with five catches, 18 for 91 and two touchdowns. with three catches and 13 for 134 and two rushing touchdowns with seven catches. So when Walker is out, Charb Cooks. Yeah. Difference maker, Grandpa Theelin. Adam Thielen. Yes or no. Yes. Yeah. He is. He's going to be one of the guys we're talking probably the highest about on the waiver episode today is Target Share with Bryce Young, who's playing good ball. Yeah, he is.

And honestly, so I went back, I watched every single snap for Bryce Young. And when, you know, we've seen this with a lot of quarterback wide receiver combos. When he throws the ball to Thielen, they're in sync. When he throws the ball to Legat, there's. No, I was going to bring that up. Like Xavier Legat is a disappointment. Yeah, for sure. Like that, his performances have been a disappointment and his reliability is. going the opposite direction of what Thielen is right now. I think it's just being a rookie. I mean, you see this with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kyler. They're out of sync a little bit, and some of it is because they are playing like a rookie. But let's give them a little bit of credit because they're a rookie. So it's okay. They're going to make these mistakes. Adam Thielen is a vet who is always in the right spot. I think he's going to be a real difference maker. Really impressive catches, including one that didn't count.

That should have counted. Yeah, he's got great hands. Oh, that was ridiculous. And I went back and watched all of Thielen as well. Like, there were more times had Bryce looked at Thielen first that there would have been easy catches for him. Like there was room for growth. Yeah. Jokes aside, don't be embarrassed to put Thielen into lineups. Yeah. And the schedule is good. Jordan Addison, difference maker, yes or no? Jordan Addison has been cooking. Yeah. He's not consistent, but he's getting there. He's been having a lot of really good games lately. Six touchdowns in the last six games. He has 12 targets, six targets, nine targets, eight targets. What do you think? I'm going to go. I'm going to go, yes. Would you rather have Addison or Darnell Mooney rest of the season? Oh, great question. I think I would go. My vote would be Addison.

Because he doesn't have Kirk cousins. Yeah, I mean, obviously Kirk has not been great, but Mooney just had a good week this last week with Kirk. Mooney has been solid, and I believe the, yeah, I'm looking this up. Mooney has more yards than Drake London. The Raiders, the Giants, and the commanders are left. I'm going to stick with Mooney, but it's close. All right. So do you guys think yes on Addison? I do. I think he should have a couple big games down the stretch. The fact that we're. It seems like in the last month that we're getting an uptick in targets. Maybe they're finally like, hey, we need to actually focus on getting him the ball, not just every once in a while. Okay. And just in case, Roma Dunezay, he had two touchdowns four for 42 this past week against San Francisco. Hard to argue with the schedule coming up for Chicago. So I'm going to bring him up. Roma Dunezay, difference maker, yes or no?

No, because I don't think people are going to be able to start him. I mean, to have the confidence of a player who just got four catches after just getting two catches, he could absolutely have a big week this week. I like Caleb Williams a lot this week. The matchup against Minnesota in the passing game is pretty good. But he's not going to be a difference maker because I don't think people are starting him. And I don't think you should start him because you're basically saying, I hope he gets the touchdowns that he might. But that's just not the way to, you know, that's not the way I want to play. Yeah, he's a no, but he, my opinion hasn't changed of. I think he should be on a bench just in case, like over these last few weeks. If either of the other two went down, I feel like your communist level would start to go through the roof with the amount of yardage that Caleb's putting up. Yeah, there's that. And there is a world where over the last few weeks the with nothing.

to play for. And it's, I mean, I don't, I'm doubting that Keenan is back for the Chicago Bears. So they may say, hey, over these last four weeks or three weeks, whatever, let's, let's see what happens if we focal point roam. All right, that was difference makers presented, as always by IMS pet food. When you choose IMS, you can see the difference in your pet with your own eyes. Healthy energy in five days, healthy digestion in 10 days, and healthy skin and coat in just 25 days, feed times and see a visible difference. We'll take a break. We'll hit the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Some sad news. Jonathan Brooks re-tore his ACL in his right knee. That is the same knee. So he will be done for this year.

He will be on basically the same timeline as last year. I believe this is a later tear than it was last year, and it took him until week 10 to get here. I mean, it's not good. He could never be the same. This could be like Giovante Williams, who was a sensational athlete. Well, there's two sides to it, right? One is just like, can you ever perform at that level? But the bigger piece for me is just, Could a team ever have confidence in him as a bell cow? And that is a much, much further place to get to and a very, very relevant one for fantasy outcome. So if you, in a dynasty league invested in Jonathan Brooks, I mean, the pathway for him to get to where he delivers on what you thought he was going to be. We went from a preseason where as soon as he got healthy, you thought he's their future to now they signed Chuba Hubbard long term and he retires his ACL.

It's devastating. It's heartbreaking. I feel terrible for the young man. This is a team that went out and signed Miles Sanders to a big contract. Used a second round pick on the first running back drafted, just signed Chuba Hubbard. My point here is that running backs matter to this team, this general manager, they want a couple of good running backs. I wouldn't be shocked if this offseason they bring someone else important in because they're not going to have Jonathan Brooks. They can't rely on him and say, you know what? This coming season, we're going to get Brooks back. They just did that experiment and lost. So, yeah, whether the team can wait around and make him a big part of the game plan is sad. It will, it would be surprising if Jonathan Brooks plays any meaningful stuff next year. I would, yeah, I'd be shocked. Will Disley expected to miss a couple of weeks. So Montana on the end. And then, uh,

Kenneth Walker, additional tests being done on his calf. Yes, I hadn't heard that yet. It's a calf injury, and they'll know more in the next day or two. I don't like the sound of new tests coming Tuesday, Wednesday after you missed the game. That sounds pretty ominous for week one of the fantasy playoffs. That sounds ominous for the rest of the season. But this is a team right now that they're in first, right? I think they're leading the division. I mean, they want him back for for sure. They're not going to just put him on the shelf and say we're done. It does make Charbonnet more appealing. Aiden O'Connell avoided the season ending knee injury that we heard about and has a bone bruise and has not been ruled down for this week. So he went from his he was air casted, you know, which is almost always. He was he was pronounced dead.

Like he was in the morning. Time of death. They put him in. Oh, he's in the bag and he's trying to get out of the bag? Yeah, they put him in. Then they just heard of, uh, hello. Guys, guys, I'm actually, I'm really okay. It's freezing in here. And I'm hungry. Derek Carr did not suffer a fracture. I'm sorry, did. All right, hold on. We're just going to go everyone is fun. You know what? Jonathan Brooks back on the field this week. No, no, no, sorry. I wish I had that news. Derek Carr did suffer a fracture in his left hand in concussion protocol.

We'll miss time. I saw it reported that, yeah, I mean, he's planning to definitely miss a couple weeks. Not IR though. Right. He has, unfortunately, a contract situation where if he can't pass a physical coming up here in the off season, it's something like 30 million. Kyle, I don't know if you'd have this off. Yeah, Carr has 30 million injury guarantee for 2025. If he can't pass the physical. He would be guaranteed $30 million. So that will factor in. Also, we did just get a report straight from the source, boys. The Nuch. Ben to Nucci is back. He has signed with the Saints. Cool. Reports I didn't need to know for 5,000. Yeah, we did. Nicknames I don't want to hear. The Nuch? Yeah. No. No, thank you. Yeah, I'm out on that one. All right.

It's no Jennings. Yeah. The support you received from the world, Jason. I'm so happy I got in at the end. I'm happy I'm still out. Oh, no. Cedric Tillman. That's because you haven't been saying it. Brother, you're pushing up against a crowd. Jenang. Try it out. Jenangs. Yeah. That's pretty fun. You had a good time, right? Yeah. You know what's fun? The newch. Just saying. All right. I'll try it on. Well, we all got to be willing to try new things, guys. All right. Try new things. Uh, Senator Tillman Romeo Dobbs both still in concussion protocol. Dude. That is sad for both of them. Tillman's been a long time. It has. Um, you know, the waiver wire today. When I was looking at it yesterday, I was like, I kept moving him up and up. I'm like, you know, if this is the week he's back, when he's back, he looked so good. He's got the, the size speed combo. And, but this is.

It was week 12 when he got the concussion. They didn't put him on IR and it looks like he's going to be out a while. George Pickens not expected to play in week 15 against the Eagles. He is dealing with a grade two hamstring injury. My looking into it, it's, yeah, I'm expecting him to miss this game, but then I think he'll be back for week 16. It's Baltimore. They. That could depend on the stakes too. It could. But the way that the Steelers were talking and Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin was, I think, being earnest and honest about, no, I think that George is going to play. We're going to test them out in the morning and we'll see how it goes. So their plan as a team was for George Pickens to play on Sunday. And then they just reevaluated and said, we don't want this to, basically they didn't want to Mike Evans it, put him out there.

for limited snaps, have him injure himself and be out for four weeks. So it's just saying, grade two, that sounds really scary. But I don't, I think he's back in a couple weeks. Yeah, I mean, I, I think he misses the two weeks. I don't think it's a great sign personally that you go from he might play to a ruling him out for another week. It's the, it's the rule of two here. So I think that he just misses the two. I'm following it. All right. Any other news that we need to cover? We didn't have a practice for Garendo. We're waiting to hear about him. The reporting on the quote from Shanahan on Garendo was very funny to watch because we were simultaneously getting glasses half empty, glasses half full from the same exact quote. But essentially, Shannon had said if we had practiced, Grendo would not have been able to do it.