Trust Your Studs? + Hungry For More, Go the Distance! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/13

It's fantasy playoff time. We break down the Thursday night game, some big implications, big injuries. We talk about Keenan Allen and Devante Adams in the quarterback situations. We get into the mailbag, answer your questions as you get ready for the fantasy playoffs, and we try to get you ready to win that championship. Do not miss a minute. Subscribe right now. The Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The fantasy footballers back with you. Mike, the fantasy hitman right here, present, hoodying it up. Oh, baby, it's hoodie season. Yeah, you've been full-time hoodie. It's great. It's so cozy. Jason Moore is here. I like a good hoodie, but I need a zipper hoodie.

I don't like the pullover. I get it because it's a commitment. It is a commitment to the day and I'm wearing a non-zippered hoodie today. Yeah, you're locked in. Yeah, but you know what? The problem is I don't have. There's no front pockets on this hoodie either. I have one of those and. Do you miss them? Every time I wear it. Who did this? Yeah, who did this? Yeah, I'm normally on Jason's side. I need my root pouch. Yeah. You need your root pouch. Wednesday edition of the show. It is fantasy football playoff season. I was taken aback by the level of comments on the YouTube channel yesterday of people that, like I, you know, when you get to the playoffs, you see a lot of these comments coming through. It's like, yeah, I made the playoffs. I felt like 80% of the comments legitimately on YouTube were started. Oh, and four.

made the playoffs started one in five made the playoffs i had somebody reach out on on twitter and uh they they started one and four and i told them well if you get to seven and seven you can probably get in they got to seven and seven they got into the playoffs like those are the teams that go on to win the championships oftentimes because they got hot at the right time they're on the way up and it doesn't matter once you make the playoffs there's you know you need three wins that's it you win the next three games you're a champion

I have a question for you. Do either of you guys have any fantasy playoff superstitions that you've put into place? I mean, yesterday we were joking where, like, you bought Brooks. You were very nice to Brooks. You bought him a pizza the week you guys played in the playoffs. I remember many, many years ago, my strategy in the playoffs was I would change my team's logo to a player from my opposing team. that i hoped had a bad game yeah you tried you did that to robert griffin worked very well until i met mike in the finals uh do you have any like strategies for the playoffs other than playing the right players no i really think it's just being kind to your opponent making sure that they know how special they are how valuable they are how much you wish them the best you gotta get that you gotta get you know

You got to get the energy on your side. I started a new one this year. Oh, okay. I have a new tradition that I'm going to be carrying it out every year. Okay. Because I am in a very good mood this morning. I'm pumped up. I got the playoffs coming. And part of that is because I drove in and I picked a playoff song. Oh, really? Yeah. I picked a playoff song that's going to pump me up. It tells me the things I need to know. going into the place. Kind of like walkout music. Yeah, like it's inspiring. Like I feel inspired to win. And what was the song? Obviously it was, it was Michael Bolton. Okay. Obviously. Okay. It was it was go the distance. It was go the distance. It's a good song. Right. It's a great song. And if you listen to that song, it's pretty much talking about a fantasy football player heading to the playoffs. You know what, or Hercules. You know what either one. I believe you can go the distance. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm planning on it.

Wait a minute. Yeah. No, no, no. You don't know what just happened. Yeah, what just happened. Did you curse me? I am telling you, you're a fantastic man. Thank you. Great. Great. Walked right into a curse. All right. We've got a lot going on. We got hungry for more on the show today. Some mailbag to get into. We'll talk about NFL news. We'll talk about the Thursday night game, which has some big injury implications. We'll remind you right here right now. Drop it like it's hot. Your waiver wires have gone through. and you need to keep an eye on who's been dropped. There are people that are going to be forced to put some people onto the waiver wire today because you're living for today. And don't forget to continue looking at your opponent and what they need and what is out there that they should be grabbing that they will not be able to because you block them. Yeah. And there's a new Dynasty podcast out. So after you finish today's show, if you want to check that out, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast.

a keep trade cut episode, Kyle Borgononi, Matthew Betts, Jason Moore, and some good discussions. There were some really good discussions, debatable player archetypes where it's like this guy, that guy or the other and some really good conversation. This guy, that guy or the other. How's that for a tease? You don't even know who we're talking about. Before we jump into Hungary for more, this is championship season. So we want to remind you about fantasychamps.com. You need a trophy. You need a belt. You need a ring. You need the swag. I plan on getting it all this year. Yeah, it's great. Presenting it all to Jason later on. But there is a promotion that they've been doing for us every year. You get a $59 championship ring for free if you buy a trophy or a belt. So maybe you're getting something.

for the league. It's a good deal. Like a trophy. Yeah. And then you get something for yourself as a champion or for the winner, like an individual award. And you put the coat in free ring. And you put the ring and the trophy in your cart. And you will watch the $60 ring become free. And also those rings are awesome. That is every, every championship that I have over the last decade. I have one of those rings from Fantasy Champs. Mike, we've got them all in front of where we work. Oh, I dread when they arrive because I know you'll be displaying them right next to me. They're gorgeous. So, yeah, free ring at Fantasychamps. Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eads. And I won't look back. Are you holding the lyrics? I can go the distance. Are you holding the lyrics to the song? And I'll stay on track. No, I won't accept defeat.

What is happening right now? I'm just holding a piece of paper. I have the lyrics printed out. That's all. So you just for inspiration? Like words of affirmation throughout the day, you're just going to pull them out and read a stanza or two? I'm just going to read a stanza from Michael Bolton. It's a normal thing for the playoffs, for your playoff song. Like you keep saying, it's Michael Bolton. Michael Bolton did not write that song. There's no way. No, he sung it. Yeah. That's him giving him credit for all of it. Wait, wait, wait. Michael Bolton wrote plenty of music.

You tell me Michael Bolton didn't write his own music? It's a Disney song. I bet he didn't write much of his music. You think he wrote, I thought I loved you, but I lied. It was Alan Menkin. I mean, the dude writes everything. Yeah, it's a Disney, uh, it's a Disney song. There's also a rock version for the, I mean, it was a long drive-in, so I had to go through all the covers. Also, lyricist David Zipple. Don't want to leave him out. Oh, yeah, good old. No, they're the one that they wrote the words. Michael Bolton's just, just a voice.

You only like me for my voice. Yeah, and the hair. All right. Hungry for more. I'm not surprised that Mike's picked this week. Yeah, baby. I went to put him in and Mike at him first. Yeah. Drake London. Arthur, this is how we do it, my man. This is how we do it. Drake London, 10 for 175. You feature your alpha number one wide receiver and he is. Every part of it. He is a fantastic player. He's averaging two yards per route run. Apparently the dino, I did not hear this discussion. We had London, Garrett Wilson, Chris Oliva. That's a fun one to go through. But Drake London is just, it's been a frustrating season knowing, like just watching Drake London and knowing what he could be doing if he were in a different circumstance. They gave him this opportunity against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It gets 175 yards, monster game. So hopefully, and it wasn't just London. It was also Bijon, Kyle Pitts. Like the big three were finally the feature part. It wasn't just, oh, we'll distract them with our really good players, and then we'll give our tertiary options the ball. Keep doing this. I need more Drake London in my life. This was what you wanted to see. I said it could be the coming out party. The problem has been not Drake London ever. The problem has been. Can the ball get close enough to the area where he could catch it with his hands? Because, I mean, you're literally coming off a game where he caught 20% of the targets. So that's the problem. Can Desmond Ritter continue to put the ball anywhere near his gigantic frame? And, you know, he caught 10 of 11 targets this last game. He has never had a game with that high of a catch percentage. He's been a 63% guy in his rookie season in this year before this past week. So, yeah.

Let's do it again. Yeah. Although they lost. So they may go back to Algerian Patterson. That would be a travesty as they did not lose because of the offense. They lost because the defense. Yeah, that's fair to note that like it wasn't their offense that lost them the game. They deserved to win based on what the offense did. But it's also fair to know like it's probably unrealistic to think that all the targets are going to be catchable. They haven't upgraded their quarterback. And so, you know, we see plenty of these middling quarterbacks have good games from time to time. Jason, get out of that toxic group think. Okay, that's right. Yeah. Jason, who's your hungry for more candidate this week? It's a player I loved coming into the season, started to get hot on fire, got injured, came back and has been running a ton. It's Justin Fields, and I am hungry for more Justin Fields. Since returning from his injury, he's been running like crazy, 18 for 104 rushing yards.

12 rushing attempts for 59, 12 for 58, and the Bears are winning. They're winning ballgames. The team looks good. Justin Fields has looked better. The involvement of DJ Moore has finally been making sense. Their defense has stepped up. In his last six starts, Justin Fields, four of those six matchups have been a top 10 quarterback on the week. That's what we need. Three of those six. have been a top three on the week. We're not talking about like, oh, that was good. That was a week-winning type of performance. Now, he plays the Cleveland Browns. And this week, that seems like not the matchup you want. But I want to highlight something. The Cleveland Browns, through the first 11 weeks of this season, were the best defense in the league. And specifically against quarterbacks, they were the number one hardest defense. But they have dealt with injuries.

Ward has been out. Miles Garrett has been playing, but clearly banged up. He is not the game wrecker he was for the first 10, 11 weeks of the season. The last three weeks, every single week, they have given up more to the quarterback than that quarterback's average. They are instead of the first, as in the best defense against quarterbacks for fantasy, they are in the last three weeks, the 24th. They aren't quite as strong. And with flacko in tow, you know, he's had a lot of good coming for fantasy. You know, you could trust Amari Cooper. You could trust David Najoku a little bit more. But he also's had just a few like, what was that pick? And that sets up the other team's offense to score. So I am hungry for more Justin Fields. I want him to run. I want him to succeed. I want him to help people win fantasy championships this year in the playoffs. This week will be a big test.

going into Cleveland. Denzel Ward didn't play last week, could be back this week. If he gets it done this week, that'll be the proving grounds for the Arizona-Atlanta explosions. And as someone who may end up facing Justin Fields next week, not looking forward to that. Don't want to do that. He's also been protecting the football a little bit better. No interceptions for three consecutive games. Only one interception in the last five. He did fumble a little bit, but last week, no turnovers. He only has two multi-touchdown games throwing the football out of nine, and he's still putting up those numbers. So that's kind of a nice place to be when you're quarterback. Those multisks are four apiece, though. I know. If you throw a second touchdown, though, like Justin Fields throwing a second touchdown, automatically puts him into the top five every week. Yeah, because that's a strange thing. It's a strange thing when you can just throw two.

And then you're like the best quarterback on the week. And they've won three or four games. So I like that one. I just realized. So you and you. You're thinking about the Bolton song? Yes, I am. And this is the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow. No, I was talking about the odds, you know, any given Sunday, anything can happen. But the odds are right now that next week you will play Papa Josh in round two of the playoffs. And you will have to face Justin Fields, who you basically orchestrated getting to his team against the Cardinals. Right. Oh, man, that's going to be must-watch TV. Continue, Andy. Who's your hungry for more? It's a two-pack. Oh, you're starving. David Najoku and Amari Cooper. Joe Flacco, 44 and 45 pass attempts, the last two starts. Did either of you guys see his post-game interview?

I did not. It was somewhat, it was pretty endearing because it was, you know, this is a guy who was watching football like three weeks ago. And he's, he's just kind of in a yolo zone of like, I feel like I'm 10 years old again getting to do this. Like he knows how valuable it is to get to play in the NFL. That had to have been brutal. For someone like with Joe Flacko, watching what has happened this year. A quarterback? With all the backups being awful. And he's like, Guys, I can do this better than you. I mean, we all, you know. Yeah, we say that type of stuff. Like Cam Newton says that all the time. Yeah. No, and he cannot. But Joe Flacco can. Well, and he had a very good game. This is the first time last week, David Njoku, two touchdowns. First time in his career, he's had two in a game. Second highest yardage total of his career with Joe Flacco. Amari Cooper.

Season high, 14 target, 7 for 77, would have been dealt in a better game if he hadn't fumbled. Chicago Houston, the next two weeks. These two players, I think, can be Kikogs in a fantasy football championship run if you were so lucky to have them on your roster. And I'm hungry for more. I can go the distance. You can, man, believe in yourself because you are good enough. Thank you. All right. Uh, that was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. A defense? No. Deodorant? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you can order now on the app. Product availability may vary by Regency. The app for details. Um, finally, Echler finally put some deodorant on last week. Yeah. Smelled a lot stinky. Smelt a lot better. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance.

I'm sure we've all done it, the left home without the deodorant on mistake. Oh, yeah. We've been there. How long, what's the average time to remember, do you think? Like moments from, like, you leave the house, you forgot. How long does it take? It's either five minutes, like right away, or it's a problem. Because then I'm either a smell or a feeling. It's either I remember, and that's right away, or I am reminded. And that's a problem. That's like, oh, wait. Oh, no, that's right. What are you doing that situation? Do you hit the Walmart? Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. You got to make a little pit. Mike lets it ride. Mike's got the look of a. It's disgusting. I mean, he's got like two or three shirts on. That's true. He's insulating. I've got a barrier. Dude, hoodie season, man. You just throw on another layer. I'm like, I am not. Sweat more. I am not opposed to, you know, a run to the bathroom.

A couple of times. You got to soap and water it up. Oh, a full cleaning. Yeah. Hmm. Look, desperate times. Yeah, yeah. All right, news and notes. The Vikings have named Nick Mullins. They're starting quarterback against the Bengals. Makes sense. Jason said he was pretty much sure of that yesterday. It was their plan from the moment that, you know, Kirk Cousins got injured. Dobbs was brought in to be a backup while Mullins was recovering from his injury. It just so happened. Dobbs was thrust into... He won that one game. Yeah, he was thrust into a game. He wasn't supposed to play. One, won the hearts of the Vikings and was given more opportunity than he really deserved. He is the, and I hate to say this, but he's the, like, the drunk guy at the bar who thinks the girl's real pretty and then the next day. Oh, no.

He realizes he did not go home with the girl he thought he went home with. That's what we thought of Dobbs. That's what happens every time guys that people see Dobbs the first time. Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota. This guy's pretty good. And then you wake up the next morning. You're like, who is this? He's not. Alexander Madison, non-participant on Tuesday's walkthrough. I assume we're all in a very doubtful state about Alexander Madison. That's where I am. Currently very doubtful, expecting him to miss, but we'll be monitoring it until Sunday. And Jefferson will be monitoring that as well. Or Saturday. I mean, you talk about a real gamble. Justin Jefferson last week, you know, he basically was the equivalent of the week you played A-chan alpha of injury. Yeah. Got nothing. You'd waited forever for him. Now you have a new quarterback in Nick Mullins. I think it's better.

Yeah, it is definitely better. Mullins is an upgrade over Dobbs for the passing game. Mullins is not as good as Dobbs if you're playing that player as a quarterback because Dobbs has that rushing floor. But this is an upgrade. And if Justin Jefferson is active, I'm 100% still starting. Jamar Chase, non-participant ankle injury, monitor that. Tyree Kill, day to day. You know, Tyree Kill is not a guarantee to play, but I think he'll be playing. So we'll see what happens there. And we got a report this morning, a couple reports this morning. Nico Collins feeling better, making progress. Stroud still in concussion protocol. Houston, a complete unknown right now. Don't know the quarterback. Don't know the wide receiver group. I think that's the best way to say it. Houston is a question mark. They should be, you know, I don't even know if the line is active for that team, but I don't know how you would. You're just making a bet on injuries you don't know about right now.

And then Shane Siken did mention yesterday that Jonathan Taylor will play again this season. Well, he said that's the plan. So we'll see if that is your fantasy season. I mean, people make plans. This is a team that is. Plans change. Playoff contending. Like they are fighting to win ball games. They did not put him on the IR. He has already missed two weeks. So in theory, they believed that this injury would not be a four week injury. They want him back. This would be the third week. I don't imagine he plays this week, but it's realistic that he could be back for next week in the playoffs. That's against Atlanta, the following week against the Raiders. That was today's news and notes, presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a quick break and come back with the Thursday night preview. Apparently, Jason, all those thoughts you had on Jonathan Taylor coming back made Papa Josh very excited. That's great.

I look to make everyone excited through the playoffs. I believe that everyone out there can be a winner. Not everyone. Yeah, I mean, it's. Well, not everyone will win, but everyone can win. Well, not everyone. If you made the playoffs. That's all I'm saying. I mean, if you didn't make it. And half, half of the people every week are not winning. Mike, did we make the playoffs? You're darn right. Darn right, we did. Yeah, we did. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. James, champ. Yeah, the most important league. Yeah, darn right. All right, let's jump in. Thursday night breakdown. All right, the falling down the hill, Los Angeles Chargers at 5 and 8, take on the... Stay strong little roots. Stick on the falling down the hill, Las Vegas Raiders at 5 and 8. The Draft King Sportsbook Line, Las Vegas, minus 3. This is the part that is so sad. The overrunner is 34, and that is not a number you would have ever seen.

for a matchup between these two teams with those weapons if they had quarterbacks. They had quarterbacks and they had running backs and they had wide receivers. I mean, Josh Jacobs, certainly in question. Kyle, I don't know if you can look up and see what the line was, the over under, before the Jacobs injury. I'd be curious if that was accounted for at all. But, you know, the Chargers have lost four of five, the Raiders have lost three in a row. Neither team is hitting the overs. Raiders are home favorites in this one. The hockey sticks at quarterback for Los Angeles, Easton Stick. And it's Aiden O'Connell who had a zero point game. They're 30th and points per game since he took over, 31st and points per plays per game. Yeah, this is a bar fest for fantasy. The Raiders defense has been legitimately pretty good. The Chargers defense has been legitimately pretty good. And that is.

awful when you consider how bad both offenses are and now losing Justin Herbert. I think these teams are going to have a hard time scoring. The line at 34 is very low, but I could easily see them not getting to that low line. I, you know, I don't know. I'd be curious the Max Crosby status right now because I think that that was up in the air. That obviously is the Raiders defense in a lot of respects, but. Yeah, I see what you're saying. I mean, Aiden O'Connell and Easton Stick is not the matchup you were hoping for on Thursday night football. And, you know, these are two teams in the top ten of the NFL draft right now. Even worse, is Keenan Allen playing? Yeah. I mean, did not practice. Was he a full? Did not practice on Tuesday? Was he missed it? Correct. He was, or whatever it is right now, because it's the early game, so listed as that. And if you recall,

There was the very famous playoff Keenan Allen. Was that in the playoffs? Oh, yeah. The fantasy playoffs? Oh, yeah. Oh, Mike would remember. Also burned into Mike's memory forever. Yeah, because Keenan Allen shouted, it was to me. He looked right in the camera into my eyes. We had a moment and he shouted with full confidence, don't sit me because he was coming off an injury. Did you know it was this exact week with this exact matchup? Yeah. All right, that part I did. Same week, same team in Las Vegas. And you know who didn't sit Keenan Allen that week? This guy. Because he said don't sit me. Yeah, if you don't remember the story or you're thinking Mike is making some hyperbolic statement by saying that he looked right into Mike's eyes. Keenan did look at the camera pregame and say don't sit me. He was telling people don't sit him.

And then a goose. And not only goose. No, no, no, no, no. No, he had one for 17. Yeah, he had a catch. But what did he like? And then left the game. I was going to say he didn't play much that game, right? There was something that was, it was like outlandishly bad. He was just a decoy. Some, some have considered his comments. Maybe he meant it like, don't. Oh, sit me. Yeah. He's just, he has a problem. He has a problem articulating punctuation. Yeah, punctuation is an issue for Keenan. Alan. Um, so. So. So. Christopher Walken situation. Don't sit me. Wait, hold on. Hold on, man. Wait, what do I do? What are you saying? I've said what I need to say. Well, the fact that it's lining up that way again, and let's be honest, Keenan Allen's a top five fantasy producer. He has a different quarterback. He'll be completely needed in this game if he's active.

Let me tell you this. Push comes to shove here. We need to look at some names. Yeah, we do. And by the way, for those in need of roster spots, I'll tell you what I did. Because I don't know if it's prescriptive or not, if you guys would have done the same. After paying for Joshua Palmer last week with Fab, I jettisoned him into space yesterday. Because I will never, I realized I will never have the confidence to play Joshua Palmer. If he comes out and has a good game, I will not have the confidence to play Joshua Palmer moving forward. So I just.