Players to Forgive + Dynasty Debates, Offseason Magic - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/22

On today's episode, we bring up some players that we are willing or not willing to forgive from last year's performance. And we jump into your questions in the mailbag. Make sure you subscribe. Don't miss a show all year long. Enjoy. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers podcast, Thursday edition.

Sitting here at the end of February. Is this one of them leap years? I haven't really looked at a calendar in a while. I believe so. So we get a bonus day? Yeah, the 29th. That means that's one. It is a leap year. It's one more day before I have to have my own birthday. Right? Oh, yeah. Which birthday? The one after 39. Yes, join us. So I get an extra day. One of us. One of us. Yes. You know, when you guys were going through, you know, your aging, you know, it was easy to make fun of you because you're older. Yeah. Old, really. And all the while, I'm thinking, you know, when I get there, what's a big deal? Yeah. I'm feeling that way anymore. Oh, no. You're looking at it down. He can smell it.

He can taste it. Oh, yeah, baby. I'm getting out. It's like the time now where people are looking at me a little different. They know. Oh, yeah. Just the people on the street, they know something's coming. Like, that guy is so close. A lot of people are just ignoring you. Yeah. It's like you just don't even exist. Different magazines coming in the mail for different things, you know, medical devices, you know. But now that I know that to leap here, I get an extra day to wait to put it up. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. There's not a chance they add like another 365 to the end of February. I'll look into it. Thank you. That would be helpful. Welcome in. We've got a fun show today. We're going to get to the quick question, which is a question about forgiveness. And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going to forgive Mike for his pick in that segment. The one that we haven't done yet? Yeah, in the segment you haven't done. It's a tease. I just... That's fine.

I'm not going to forgive you for who you're going to forgive. That's fine. Just saying. Ultimate draft kit.com head over there. Order by March 1st, get a chance to win a listener league spot. Tell you what Leapier has done for the people. All right. Oh, yeah. He wants people out of that UDK. Go on, Mike. No. I want them into the UDK. Oh, all right. And the slackers, the people who are putting things off, I'll do it tomorrow. Well, you get one extra day. You get one extra day to get into the UDK before March 1st because if you do, you could win a spot in our listener league. But you got to get in before March 1st. And then, of course, you get all the goodness of the UDK when it releases or the greatness of the dynasty pass right now. Ultimate draft kit.com. Thank you, Mike. That was solid. I shouldn't have doubted you.

You saw my name and you're just all hot and bothered and mad. You know, I was a little distracted because I saw that like there's this news that broke about Amazon Prime video where we've seen Amazon hosting several Thursday night football games. That's where the home of Thursday night football is. Might say all of them. Yeah. You might. Several probably like 18 or 17. Yeah. I mean, I didn't know for sure. They didn't host Thanksgiving, did they? Yeah, they did. They had a Thanksgiving game. Oh, man, that backfired. They really said that with a punch. But they're going to host their first NFL playoff game after the 2024 season next year. And it costs, see, I thought maybe we could host one. You know what I mean? Based on what it costs, I'm going to back out. I'm going to check my wallet. I think I got a couple Twinskies in there.

So I can chip in. It's going to be $120 million. Oh. I don't know if we could go fund me that. I don't know if the Foot Clan can come up with $120 million. But Amazon's going to do it. That's a lot of quiche. The streaming continues. One game, huh? Just one game. Oh, man. Imagine spending it on a game and you know you don't, I mean, you don't know who's playing, right? Correct. You're not out there. There's not like an eBay of these games where they're like, oh, the Chiefs Eagles match up this year. It doesn't matter. It does not matter. It's a playoff game. But you got to be rooting for something. Of course. But every single playoff game gets massive viewership. They're going to make money on this $120 million deal with ad revenue. Yeah. Apparently they passed last year. And that's why Peacock got the playoff game. Which was behind a paywall.

Yeah, which I guess Prime is on a paywall. So Mr. Bezos said, oh, not this time. Watch this. It is funny because I don't consider Prime behind a paywall. Because the entire world has Amazon Prime, it feels like. Yeah, if you get to a certain point, like where a certain percentage of people all have it, it doesn't feel like it's behind a paywall. Right. But there are people that don't have Prime, right? Of course. Yeah, there's got to be. Okay. That's true. That's why I didn't make that assumption. If everyone has it, why would you advertise ever? That's fair. There's still new people out there. They all will by this playoff game. All right. Follow us on X at the FF ballers. Here's your quick question. Maybe I can find some forgiveness for Mike within it. The question is who is a player you are willing to forgive in 2024? So somebody that did something last year, they had a performance that you were, look, it wasn't great.

It was a bad time. Maybe it lets you down because you talked all about him. Well, I'll hop in here just to make us wait longer for Mike's unforgivable. Unforgivable take according to Andy. For me, it's Ramandre Stevenson. I mean, a terrible year. Just really, really, really disappointing. If you drafted him, you got off to a bad start. Those first five weeks were just he was meh or bad. the first month plus of the season. The end of the season, if you had traded for him, as I did in one of our leagues, well, he didn't play. He missed the last month of the season with injury. I don't believe he would have necessarily missed the, the Patriots at that point had kind of turned it in, folded up shop, shut down early because they were going for that top draft pick by that point in time.

But I don't think it was as bad as it felt in the middle of the season, even with a terrible, terrible, awful Patriots team and an offense that was completely inept. He had a six-game stretch there where it was like the guy that you were hopeful in coming into the season, you know, on pace for 1,500 all-purpose yards, 70 receptions. And he is in the last year of his rookie deal. So he's... He's a done deal. He's going to be their main starting running back. I don't believe they will go and this season aim to usurp him. They might add to him because obviously Ezekiel Elliott now is a free agent. I doubt they bring him back. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. But, you know, he was there when Remandre was still good. And you've got Alex Van Pelt coming in, their new office of coordinator coming over from Cleveland, a good, very running back friendly scheme. So I think.

I think Romandre's fine. So you forgive him. I forgive him. Players have bad seasons. Players deal with injuries. He was not bad. He was in a bad situation. I think it would be good if we each said whether we would also forgive the player you bring up. And, you know, this was a dumpster fire of a team. The one thing I'll say is there will be a variable of like, you know, new head coach, right? Jared Mayo. And, you know, sometimes you have favorites and stuff like, yeah, but Ramondre said he wants to be the bell cow. His situation last year felt like you were like, oh, Michael Carter's going to take some carries from Breece Hall, like we said a couple years ago. That didn't happen. And then this one was like, oh, Zeke could take some carries from Remandre, and it kind of happened. A little bit, but it did. But I'll forgive him. I will. I will forgive Ramondre Stevenson. Mike, do you forgive him? Yeah. Oh, I do. He can show out as a pass catcher. I mean, when he was given the opportunity, he came through for you. And it's just the team.

was so bad last year. All right, Mike. No, no, no. I was saying, I was going to say, hold it because Andy, you're up. Garrett Wilson is the player that I will forgive from 2024. He had the best, worst season. Jason's face is a little perplexed. I realized I don't forgive Andy for this take. Oh, oh, get bodied. It's too easy. Oh. Who isn't forgiving Garrett Wilson? I'm not even mad at him. Here's why. Who's mad at Garrett Wilson? Apparently Andy. I'll tell you who's mad at Garrett Wilson is everybody that drafted him in the second round last year and got this performance. He played 18 games and you won none of your weeks because of him. If he was on a winning week for fantasy, it was incidental. It was an accident. It was you saying.

Maybe this will be a week where he gets a bunch of targets. Oh, he did. But it didn't matter. He got a bunch of targets. He had 168 targets, and it didn't matter. It's kind of the wide receiver situation that we talked about with Sam Hal throwing the ball more than everybody in all the football, and it didn't help them have a running back or a whiteout do anything. They chucked it, Garrett's way. A lot. And it didn't matter. I mean, 11 yards per catch. Three touchdowns. And it felt like a player that, like, was wearing, trying to put the whole team on his back all year. But couldn't do it. Like sometimes you just can't. Not everyone's Greg Jennings. It's like you're playing Tuggle War. And it's just you versus the rest of the NFL on the other side. And he was pulling as hard as he could pull. I can tell you who has forgiven Garrett Wilson. Yeah. Who is that? The best ball community. All of them. Because last year.

The excitement for Garrett Wilson was at a fever pitch when he was the wide receiver 10. Currently in basketball, the wide receiver 8th. The upside for Garrett Wilson is unbelievable. Yes, great player. If you took this season where Garrett Wilson was a disappointment, he was 95 for 1,000. If he had 10 touchdowns this year, he's got a great year. And so I think some people see the upside and they say, look, I'm going to, I'm going to. pay up for Garrett Wilson's upside with Aaron Rogers. I drafted him at the one-two turn in my most recent best. How'd you feel about it? And why don't you forgive me? Oh, because you say it's too easy. Yeah, yeah. So you forgive him as well. Yeah. Well, kind of like Mike said, I have nothing to forgive. If you drafted him in that spot that you just talked about where he went in baseball, you're coming back and taking him at eight this year? Yeah. I think a lot of people aren't. Well, the average.

people are but the average people you're saying 11 out of 12 didn't take him last year yeah i i mean i will say that in our main league of record the the you know the one we care about the most i didn't experience the heartbreak and the frustration of having him mike had him for a while and he has him in dynasty yes i did i had him in dynasty which at the end of the year was truly a delight of like Do I actually play Garrett Wilson in the playoffs? That was a great decision. Oh, as in it was terrible. It was the worst. You couldn't decide whether you wanted to play the wide receiver 59, 43, 30, 67, 43. Yep, that's the one. All right. So you both forgive him. Apparently, I took too easy of a route. It's okay. He's a great player. Can I have a bonus? Real quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Little mini bonus. Patrick Mahomes. Okay. Will you forgive Patrick Mahomes? Yeah.

But by forgiving this, I mean, you'll then look at him to be the QB top three quarterback next year. No, no. If that's what forgiving means, then I don't forgive him. You don't. Yeah, I don't either then. Okay, all right. Glad I went with Wilson. All right, Mike. All right. It is a player who I still think can be good, so I will forgive him because last year was a total disaster. It was Tony Pollard of the Dallas Cowboys, the excitement. People were so pumped for Tony Pollard. Zeke is gone. His efficiency metrics have been off the charts, and it was awful. It was truly, truly awful for where you drafted him, converted just three of his 16 carries inside the five-yard line. He's going to be a free agent, almost 27. But why I'm willing to forgive Tony Pollard is a couple things have come out now, where a good friend of the show, Matt Harmon, like,

actually talked to Tony Pollard and was talking about the injury because lost to time is Tony Pollard was coming off of a devastating injury. And unfortunately because we look at football players as these are modern day superheroes, gladiators, impervious to pain. These guys play through things that I can't even imagine going to work with this. And they're out there. having 300-pound men tried to destroy them. And you forget that Tony Pollard was hurt. And so Harmon was talking to him and said, you know, when did you actually finally feel all right? And he said, the Carolina game, which was week 11. And then on Twitter, Andrew Erickson from Fantasy Pros, he pointed out, and I went and I vetted this. He echoed what Harmon said of Tony Pollard. He said he didn't feel great until week 11.

Pro football focus, their highest graded runner from week 11 until the end of the season was Tony Pollard. So this didn't turn into huge fantasy points. And look, I'm not going to get into the PFF discussion about grading. But just the point being the people watching Poller's tape said, no, this guy is back. From week 11, he was the running back 15 on. It wasn't like world changing or draft saving production, but. In that time period, points per game, he's right along the lines of David Montgomery, Travis E.T.N, Devon Singletary, who went on his heater. Those were the guys he was around in points per game. So the point being, I'm willing to forgive if he ends up in another great situation, this much further away from the injury recovery, I think that there is still something left for Tony Pollard. I'm not going to boost him up to being, you know, what we hope for last year.

But I think he has something to offer. Now, there's a follow-up question here from Tony P. on YouTube. Is it crazy to trade away Tony Pollard for Kendra Miller and the 201? Oh, okay. What's your level of forgiveness here? Obviously, Pollard's a free agent. We don't know where he's going to go. Dynasty is so different because 27 years old is like that's when I'm looking to get rid of players at least a year or too early. I mean, that's a... a wild swing for Kendra Miller who will be, he should be a backup, at least for this year. Maybe he takes over for Alvin Camara. Doesn't seem like it. Yeah, it's not likely. It's in the range of outcomes. It's something that could happen. In the 201, I don't think it's crazy. You would be really trying to get out in front of something. So, yeah, I think I might do it. I might do that. Do you forgive Tony Pollard, Jason?

It was a compelling case, and given the incoming rookie running backs, I think that the free agents this year will have an easier time than last year. So I'm willing to forgive him. Now, what that means is he needs to go to a good home. He needs to get a contract. You go out and get a contract, I forgive you. Yeah, and I don't know how he'll do that exactly. I have a policy in my life. I don't forgive people that have been doubtled. You know what I mean? It's just a family rule. Right. If I, if someone has doubtled me, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, that's bad. That's dangerous. That is very dangerous thing. You don't want to be Rico. No. Well, Rico, yeah, you don't want to get Rico laws either. Right. Tony Pollard was so hurt that the team did nothing in the offseason and handed him the ball a billion times for the first 11 weeks. I understand he was better in the second half, but let's not forget the narrative street, the reality.

of why we liked DAC and CD that time of year. The schedule was nice and the team played well and he still couldn't get into the end zone except for one time in that entire stretch of games. Well, no, not in the second half. Yeah, in the second half he scored one rushing touchdown, right? No, in the second half from week 11 on is where actually four of his six rushing touchdowns happened. Yeah. And the numbers honestly for him weren't like outrageously better. The reason I won't forget him. But they were better. is because he's going to switch teams. He's getting older. And last season's situation should have been pinnacle opportunity for him. So trust, how can I forgive and trust a player that's done this? If he's back with the Cowboys, that would be, I guess, the best scenario. But if he's back with the Cowboys, do you forgive him? No. Okay. No, no, because he was in the top three most detrimental.

fantasy selections that you can make. And I don't have a reason to forgive him. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I need, we need Garrett Wilson to deliver, right? Yeah. And you have a reason with Aaron Rogers not being like maybe hurt, maybe not hurt. He was gone. I can't imagine. Everything else in the Cowboys stayed the same, right? The same head coach and an offensive situation other than defensive coordinator. So this is a, this is a coach that has like, they're like, I'm going to dowdle down at the goal line. You know what I mean? No, so he's probably going to be like, I'm going to do something. I understand. I'm going to do something else. And I think that a lot of the community will feel the same way. And that's why you're going to be in. This is really interesting because I find myself right on the, right on the border of forgiveness or unforgiveness. Did the doubtle comment make any? It puts some doubts in my mind. Oh. Oh. Yeah, maybe. Boston. I want to, I want to pull Ducon's Alley on Paul. Jason. Jason.

Yeah, give it to me. I had a note here. I remember it. Yeah, you made fun of my jokes. Yeah, because it was bad, bad. And I made a note to point out your jokes to you. Give it to me. You just made a doubtle into a doubtle joke. Yeah, baby. Oh, yeah. Oh, baby. The people love it. I'm just checking in. I'll check in from time to time. Thank you for checking in. See how you feel about them? I want to check it with Deuters Allie. That's when their podcast began to decline. On the, uh, on the Pollard forgiveness or unforgiveness. Who are you checking on? With Deucers Allen. I want to check with the producers because right now they are the people.

that I could talk to. So what you want to? Forgiveness or unforgiveness on Tony Pollard based on these conversations. We'll start with Owl. I'm not ready to forgive. Okay. Okay. Unforgiveness. Okay. A hard man. I know Brooks. I know Brooks. Brooks. I'll forgive him. Yeah. Yeah. All right. He's got hope and love. So the rap scallions breaking the tie here. Oh, crap. I'm with Al. I'm not going to forget her. Yeah. There you go. And also Mike's joke was better. Oh, get wrecked. Get it. Get it. And Jason. Jason is out the seat. He hasn't plugged his headphones. He's sleeping. Oh, someone called the police. Jason. Wow. Jason is giving him the business. Wow. Sorry, Jay. It's true. Hey, you don't have to apologize to nobody. Uh, people on YouTube. Come rescue me. Okay. All right. Tell the truth. Oh.

Well, it seems, you know what? It seems like a good time for a break. Let's take a break and talk some news. Did you get a chance to kind of settle down, Jay? Yeah. This show is about forgiveness. Yeah. Scali and I forgive you. There you go. News and notes from around the league. Well, we've got an update from Baltimore. Yeah, always the best news to talk about. ESPN's Jameson Hinsley reports the Baltimore County Police are suspending a domestic assault investigation. into Zay Flowers without charges. The NFL is still monitoring the situation. The NFL has the right to do their own investigation. Yeah, that's always the takeaway here is, yes, the actual legalities are done. But if the NFL looks into things more and they say you have besmirched the shield, they have the right to step in. Jordan Schultz from Bleacher Report talking about Mike Evans and the Buccaneers, that they are.

still far apart on a contract extension. I saw some additional context on this that kind of dismissed the idea of them being without hope to reach an agreement. They seem to think it was still possible, but we'll find out of Mike Evans returns or if he will find a new home. He is officially fantasy football's favorite player. to Photoshop into other jerseys this off season, I feel like, because everyone's like, oh, Lamar and Mahomes and Josh Allen, what if they had this guy? It would be good for them. And then we have a report that Deshaun Watson, on track and his rehab schedule will begin throwing in March. So not ahead of schedule. On track? That's a bad sign? Yeah, that's bad news.

Behind schedule? On track is definitely behind schedule. The only way you're on schedule anymore is to be ahead of it. Yes. To be on time. To be early is to be on time. So that's a bad report. That's how I'm choosing to read it. Now March is quite a bit earlier than the season though. So I think he'll be all right. Justin Fields. Oh, this is fun. We always like watching this is where we're at. Welcome to February. Welcome to the future. It really is. I mean, there's something to be said. It doesn't mean it always leads somewhere, but let me get to it. It does. It always leads to stupidity. I'm going to unfollow you for that. Justin Fields has unfollowed the Bears on Instagram. Oh, no. And has followed apparently guys he wants to play with. Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Bejohn Robinson. You notice they didn't report a quarterback he followed because he wants to be their quarterback.

I say let's get the deal done. I think this makes sense for all parties, and I would love it for, I think for pretty much all parties, not Pitts. Nah. I would like it for London. DJ Moore was fine. This is one of those relative situations, right? Relative to what they have, yes. Yeah. That's all we can go with, I guess. Yeah, if we can. But I mean, if Justin Fields is a running quarterback. If we can turn Drake London into a top 24 wide receiver, then I'll be happy. Yeah, you're right. I mean, DJ Moore is the example. He's the wide receiver six. Six. Yeah. I mean, it was boosted by some real spike games, but those. All right. I'm in. I'm in. It's better than nothing. It's better than nothing. It's better than where things are going. They really had nothing last year. So, yeah, we'll find out if.

You know, did Justin Fields have a conversation with someone in Chicago and they disclosed? He's probably not going to be there. Who monitors social media this close? Are there bots that just alert teams of people when follows and unfollow happen within NFL players? Like, it always blows my mind. There are bots. They are called interns. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was going to say it's called Reddit. They think those are the bots. You think the Redditors aren't on top of this? It is. You know, it's hard because this is the time of year when everyone's getting interviewed. So you don't know what like Justin Field responded to, Justin Fields responded to like, you know, did somebody from the Bears say something in the media that made it seem like they weren't interested in him? Is it, you know, you saw an interview with DJ Moore. Did you more? Did you more want some bat? Maybe the Bears account just sucks. Have we thought about this? Oh, like bad content. Yeah. It's a bad follow. He's like, I, my follows are worth a lot and I'm not going to waste my time.

Bears social media. Get it together. There was a time last off season that Kyler Murray didn't have a lot of Cardinals on his social media. Do you remember? Yes. Yep. Who does he play for? The Arizona Cardinals. All right. That'll do it for the news and notes today. Let's jump into the mailbag. Mailbag. Mail bag. All right. Lots of questions from the people. If you have one yourself, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click the submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline. 302464 TFFB. Let's start with the voicemail. Ask about, why not just add another roster spot? All I hear you guys do is complain about how the IR spot isn't that great, especially because they don't designate people out on time. So why not just add the other spot? I'm not saying you're wrong. I just want to hear the other side. Thank you. I mean, I think people, you can add as many bench spots as you want, people will still ask for an IR spot. Because, mm-hmm.

If you add another bench spot that is 12 times 3, 36 additional players that would be available on the free agent pool, that won't be because you don't leave a spot blank and you're not waiting for an injury. So you go out there and you will have 36 additional players taken away from, you know, teams that need to pivot and sign somebody. I like a bench size that forces managers to have, you know, they'll have enough room to hold some players, but not. so much room that they don't have to make tough decisions. And not so many players that the waiver wires bear and boring. And you don't have, you want to fight on the waiver wire, right? You want to like have that competition every time that the waiver day comes around where it's like, who got this guy if, you know, otherwise it's a dynasty league where, you know, or that feel where waivers are, you know, that's a lot of players, 36 additional players that, you know, you want people to be.