Week 16 Studs & Duds + Stages of Grief, One More Week - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/26

Foot Clan, we are here with you this morning, a brand new show reflecting on a wild weekend where some people ended up moving on into their championship. And congratulations. It made your Christmas Day all the better. And some of you, like myself, ended up on the wrong end of some studs with some bad performances. We go through all of them today on the show. We get you ready for next week. Enjoy. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Visit Samsung.com to learn more. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, whatever. Monday, December 26th. Why are we here? I don't know.

We're here for the people. For the people. I could have been nestled in my bed this morning. There's no one on the roads. Everyone else is nestled. There's a lot of nestling. I'm not nestling. What's the day after Christmas? You're snugging in your bed and you're probably not listening. Instead, we drag Brooks in here to sit next to that big old bear, the B-O-B. A-O. And nice Christmas, Brooks? Great Christmas. Nice fantasy weekend. Great Christmas. Yeah, yeah. Well, the epic finale of our Dynasty League, Brooks v. Andy, nobody's showing up. Brooks and I are both knocked out. Maybe next year. Maybe next year. This was, uh, this was a tough one. I mean, Brooks and I both reflected alone in the office this morning on how nice it was to have Christmas as a distraction for our. Oh, that's great. Devastating defeats. That's good that it didn't like I. Yeah.

You know, you have some people out there that I hope had that attitude because I feel like some people would be Christmas was ruined because they didn't get in. Well, this was, you know, a lot of people, look, half the people didn't get in. Half the people did. So, Merry extra Christmas. Yeah. Well, it, it will be a fun final week. That is why we're here. We're here because of the 50% who made it through. We've got a lot to play for. And, um, And we're there for the other 50% as a cathartic, you just suffer with us as the ship sinks deep into the ocean. Yes. And I think, and maybe I'm wrong, I'd much rather be on the side of losing due to the other person's players going wild. Sure. Then I would like to be on what I think a lot of people feel this weekend, which is losing because.

Like this was not a good weekend for these start your studs crap. Oh, yeah, this was start your scrubs. Yeah, when Cam Acres is the headliner, every year we get this stuff. Cam Acres is the headliner. Tyler Higby is the headliner on the victory side. And the Devante Adams and Stefan Diggs of the world. Yeah. I mean, the Ramandres, the Aaron Jones. I mean, we're going to go through studs and duds today. But there was, there was pain. And there were a lot of those duds that were in matchups that you thought couldn't be a dud. Oh, yeah. Like the Denver Broncos defense. Oh, my gosh. Who are unbelievable. They're one of the best defenses in the National Football League going up against the most depleted shutdown version of an NFL franchise I can remember, starting Baker Mayfield, no center, no wide receivers, everyone gone. And they put up 51 points to destroy.

The lock, rock solid, you know, absolutely perfect matchup. The defense you were stashing for this week, barf. Yeah. Mr. Goodell, you may want to look into that game. Oh, from the tank eponymous? I mean, Denver. I don't know from all sides. I know that it doesn't make logical sense, but it was like their defense. was a right-handed defense that all decided to play left-handed. Does that make any sense? They were that inept that. You didn't see. They actually did put their cleats on the opposite foot. Okay. Now that. Everyone's shoes were pointing outward. I think that really had an effect on the game. I think it did. I mean, my goodness. What a disaster. And, uh, well, we, uh, we took to Twitter as we always do. And we wanted to get your reactions to the weekend and, uh,

Mike, why don't you kick us off? Stefan Diggs, my grave. Oh, he did. He did. And Aaron Jones in for the off season. How about Tua turn the ball over? Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. T.D. Lamb. Hey, some good stuff. And we're back. DeAndre Flopkins. Oh, Ramandre, end my season, son. Oh, gross. What about T.J. Rockinson? Gardner Winshoe. Oh, yeah. Oh, busting fields. Or ignite with flames, Connor. And we're back again here. DeAndre hopping out of the playoffs. Scam Knight. Devon Tert Adams. And then my favorite pun of the week. Yes. I feel nothing inside. That's what a, what an excellent pun. That was an actual submission. If you are there to I feel nothing inside, I mean, you're lucky. I've already moved.

Amazing. Wow. You've, the stages of grief, you're already, I'm all the way through. Wow. I'm already scouting player. I'm already 2023, baby. 2023. The ironic thing here is this is really, really. cathartic. I get that for Andy. I feel like most of the people, this is the day after Christmas. Most people who are like, I got to go listen. They're prepping for this next week. They won. They're excited. Their players came through. Oh, so we need to focus on that side of thing? I'm just saying, why don't you speak for a minute? Hey, I was happy enough to get through. I did not start the right quarterback. I went with Gino Smith, but thankfully I had other players. You made an incredible Sunday pivot that I thought was insane.

You put Devin Singletary under your lineup instead of Mike Evans. When I saw it, I worried for you. I worried that that would be the difference. Wait. You're the one who guaranteed the touchdown. Now that is a problem. You pivoted away from Mike Evans. Also start of the week. I did pivot away from Mike Evans. Sunday morning. The, yeah, Sunday morning. He made a, did you put this out anywhere? What? You just kept it to yourself, didn't you? I mean, look. This is a bit of a, wow. This is a bit of a thing that this will show up on Wikipedia as a controversy one day. It's not like Evansgate. I had inside knowledge. I just took a close, close look and with the weather. Why did you take one earlier in the week?

I mean, look, it was, it was really part of this was the weather for Devin Singletary. It was, it was me thinking they were going to run the ball a lot and that this would be, you know, a closer game. Devin Singletary would have his opportunities. And so this was as pro Devin Singletary as it was anything anti Mike Evans. That's the way to go. But obviously Mike Evans had an anti Mike Evans game. Oh, actually. No, checking the stat log. It looks like he had another Mike Evans game. I don't hold it against him at all. No, it's not his fault. No, he's, it's like DeAndre Hopkins. DeAndre Hopkins had an awful, awful game. Four yards. You go watch on 10 targets. On 10 target. We said, we said, oh, he'll get nine, 10 targets in this game.

They're unfortunately that they'll be coming from, you know. Trace McSarry also said that McSorley should not be on a football team. No. And oh my goodness. He should not and they suck. But, you know, the bucks, they done. Tom Brady is, he is expiring. The milk is getting old. You open that top of that. It's not a good whiff. And they're going to make the playoffs. Oh, they're still pouring that milk into the bowl. And it's like, what are you doing? Did you smell that milk? You don't want to eat this cereal. Your plop goes the curdles. What happens if you face a team that can guard Leonard Fournette out of the backfield? What does he do? What choice does he have with the ball? I feel like every play is I have to throw it into the flat to a running back or Kate Otten six.

inches from the line of scrimmage. The teams aren't guarding against that because it's awful offense. I mean, you have to do so much all the way down the field. Yeah, exactly. This is like, oh, dude, he's going to do it again. He's going to dump it off in the flat again. Check this out. Just let him do it and then tackle him for about three yards. It's, it's embarrassing to watch. And it nullifies Evans, you know, it nullifies Evans. And then Godwin isn't quite. himself yet, at least by his own admission. And so he, did you see something like he has 80, he has mid 80s on receptions on the year? Yeah, he's been a PPR machine. But do you know that 50 plus of those, it's like 53 are screen passes? 53 of 80 something. I mean, he caught, our screens. He caught eight passes yesterday on 10 targets and that turned into 63 yards. I would rather watch the Denver Broncos.

The Denver Broncos offense is a more enjoyable game because I cannot continue to watch purposeful, successful-ish. Just screen, throw it one yard, throw it one yard, throw it behind a line of scrimmage. It's not fun to watch. It is awful. At least with the Broncos, they get three plays, then the other team gets the ball. Oh, man. Sometimes fewer than three. That's true. They can turn it over on that first one. How bad is Russell Wilson? Is he the worst quarterback in football? In NFL history. Like legitimately as a guaranteed starter category, not the Tyler Huntley's of the world or whatever. Right. But as a guaranteed starter, is he the worst quarterback? In the NFL right now, absolutely. There's no like legitimate.

you know, not even franchise quarterback, but like this is our quarterback that is worse than. He was really rooting for Zach Wilson to earn that job. Yeah, he was. I mean, it will be one of the unsolved mysteries. We will get into stud. So we'll be talking about a lot of positive performances, get you ready for your championship week, but some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Jason might win a title, but it will not be. without adversity. Yeah. His quarterback, he survived. Now we have a couple of other players that are going to directly impact him and your teams. Christian Watson, exited with a hip injury, did not return to the game. Yeah, he knew, I mean, there's video of him on the sideline early when people weren't sure. He's like, yeah, I'm not coming back in. So that does not bode well with the, you know, if it's a hip flex or whether or not he could play next week.

uh is dicey and i need him because we just talked about i have mike evans so thankfully oh you could be one of those guys that has to play mike evans yeah that's not good i would be one of the few in the championship that gets to play mike evans thankfully i have the yety uh well let's talk about that oh what so very interesting information uh finding this out this morning we want to bring it to you because i don't know derrick henry's he was my fantasy MVP he's been pretty great. And he's been awesome. He's gotten a lot of people's championships, myself included. And what's the situation, Mike, with the Tennessee Titans playoff scenarios? Well, the, the, the playoff scenario is the winner of the Titans Jaguars game next week. That will be the person who wins the AFC South. So this coming week. So this week has no implication for the Tennessee Titans. Let's be clear there. Since we still got a Monday night football game, you're talking about.

Yeah. Oh, yes. We're 18. 18, yes. Week 17, aka your championship week does not factor into what the Tennessee Titans are doing for their NFL. So they lose that game. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Actually, it does matter because now they get a better pick should they end up losing. In week 18, right now. That's some chess. Right now they're sitting at pick 13 and outside of the playoffs if they were to start today. Okay. They can improve. If they lose next week, like let's fast forward two weeks from now. They lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars, so they're not in the playoffs. If they actually lose this game in between now and then, they've got a really good pick. They've lost, what is that, six, seven in a row to finish the season and they get a good pick going forward.

So that's the best case in error for them as a franchise is if they lose this week. Right. Because if they win, it doesn't do anything. All it can do is affect their draft pick negatively if they lose that game against Jacksonville. So I don't know what will happen whether or not they will rest starters this coming week. It's possible. Or take it easy. I mean, you- 319 carries on Derek Henry's body so far this year. Yeah, the worst thing you could do for your playoff hopes. is injured Derek Henry this coming week when you need him stored up and ready to go and to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in week 18. So yeah, I could see them, I could see them resting. The only hope that I have is the fact that Ryan Tannahill, he went and got a surgery quietly here this last week with specific hopes that the timeline would allow him to be back.

for week 18. Should he not be able to be back week 18? And it's looking dicey. The last thing I saw... They basically said he cannot. Exactly. The last thing I saw was that he's not going to be able to make it back during the regular season. It would be the playoffs now. That's right. If that's the case, look, Malik Willis is not good. You're going to have to beat the Jags with Malik Willis, which means you need to go out there and practice trying to win a game with Malik Willis. I agree. Get your offense working. I agree. So that is my hope. Eric Henry sat out in 2019 against the Saints when the game had no impact on the standings. I didn't look back and see if that was just the final week of the year. It was week. Let me, I had just looked at it. And he was out with a hamstring was the designation that he had. Yeah. But so 2019, it was in fact your championship week 16. If I'm Tennessee back when which by the way, they lost to Houston. If I'm Tennessee, I need to get it going.

genuinely like this is not just sure this is not just you know like trying to talk up the derrick henry managers if i'm the head coach if i'm the head coach i've lost a bunch of games in a row i have to get it going with malick i have to give him more reps and more opportunities i don't know if that means you have to give derrick henry his normal workload that's the concern so it's something we're going to have to watch and and pay attention to the beat reporters around tennessee because unfortunately this week Doesn't matter to Tennessee. If I don't have Jalen Hertz and Christian Watson and Derek Henry, I'm going to have a bad week. Yes. Jason's Monday next week may feel, feel bad. Jamal Williams leg injury did not return. I saw him limp off the field on that one. Doesn't matter. The Andre still can't do anything. Join. Join me. Join me in my hatred. The Patriots. Tideon Hunter Henry exited. Johnny Smith exit it.

Greg Dulcich exited, did not return, was ruled out immediately, hamstring injury. He got a touchdown first. He did, he did. Marquis Goodwin. That was, it was bad. It was bad if you started Marquis Goodwin. He exited, did not return, was a goose. The Eagles were unable to. But also Travis Homer, who is back on the team. Never left. He never left. Just misreported. Just reportedly was waived by the team. But now he unfortunately suffered an ankle sprain. Eagles did not win, therefore they did not clench the number one seed. The Vikings did win, which helps that narrative. So Jalen Hertz could push to play in week 17 against the Norland Saints. Yes. Come on, buddy. So that game, man, that Eagles cowboy game was insanity. It was all over the place. Taylor Heineke was bench for Carson Wentz. I'm back on top at our.

Carson Woods versus Matt Ryan bet who's out of the NFL first, the best most fun bet of all time. Snip, snap, snap, snip, snap, snip, snap. I mean, yes, like you would think in the type of a bet of whose career is, like who's out of the NFL first of Matt Ryan versus Carson Wentz, you want your guy starting. But I think that the more that Carson Wentz starts, the more or the sooner. that he is out of the NFL. Right. I was done a blessing by having him not be seen. He's like, shh, just forget. Just forget the last time you saw me. If they can blend in as a backup, you can last a long time. Just ask Chase Daniel. But good news. The commanders are going to decide on a starter by Wednesday at the latest. So we'll find that out. Today's news and notes brought to you by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

Studs of the Week, presented by Madewell. There are some. So believe it or not, yeah, as you say, there were good performances this week, including quarterbacks, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow. And my goodness, saving himself over the last two drives of the game. A disaster game for Josh Allen turned into a respectable enough game. Yeah. Because. inexplicably they went for it on fourth and three and threw a touchdown in the last play of the game basically. Yeah. And Gardner. Let's throw Gardner in there, though. Some good performances at quarterback. The two quarterbacks I want to talk about. First is Jared Goff. He was someone that, you know, he's had a lot of big games. We kind of recommended him over most of the streaming options talking about, you know, the guys I was having to pick up and play wishing I could have Jared Goff on my roster. Thankfully, he goes out there, has a great game. I mean, didn't start that way. You're pretty sad with the past catchers.

for Detroit, which doesn't make sense when you have 355 and three touchdowns. But all three touchdowns went to Zilstra. So, yeah, that part sucked. But Jared Goff had a great game. The other quarterback I want to talk about, this is personal. I am terrified of Joe Burrow, who is playing great, has great weapons. 40 for 52. Do they even need a running back? 52 passing attempts. Another. couple of touchdowns, you know, three touchdowns in this game, four touchdowns the week prior. And next week, it's him v. Josh Allen. Sure. In a championship matchup that like when you were playing best ball mania three and you're in the off season and you're targeting, you know, in draft season, the week 17 matchups to target that you want to bangles, you want to bills because of this game. And of course, I'm playing against them next week.

Yeah, well, Burroughs looking great. I was going to say if you played Burrow this weekend, you're actually, like, you should be really, really happy that he's up here in this list. But it was three touchdowns, I believe, in the first quarter. And he ended the game with three touchdowns. Joe Burrow and the Bengals are kind of magma right now heading into the playoffs. Somebody was asking me over the Christmas day, you know, you see your family. Who's your? Super Bowl picks. It's tough. I mean, the Bengals are right there with the Bills and the Chiefs in the AFC. Yeah, they look great. And, you know, he's now second in MVP odds. And when you throw the ball 52 times and you complete 40 passes, it's really impressive. So your hope if you're facing Joe Burrow next week is that you get a kind of, you know, there's always the chance that Buffalo steps up. Their defense has the ability to do that. But you're meeting.

the Bengals where they're playing very well. I guess the nice thing. So as of right now, I'm in two championship matchups. Mike and I are Dino Jr. team we talk about, the team of destiny. Yes. Our back-to-back championship team. We are in in Dino Jr. We have Joe Burrow there. Yeah, that feels good. So hopefully Joe Burrow does enough either direction to just win me one, baby. Running back studs, Cam Acres against the Denver defense. I don't, you know, you might have played him, 23 for 118 and 3. Unbelievable. And that game last night, it swung some matchups in ways that were inexplicable. We had one matchup where the defenses faced each other.

and the Rams scored 21 points and the Broncos scored negative 4 and it won the game for the Rams manager by less than a point. Yeah, and that one. Can you imagine going into that game saying, I have a chance? You don't have a chance. Oh, you did have a chance. That one at least like can make rational sense to me of you're going to play the defense against Russell Wilson and his offense because they stink. The one though that we saw that was. The manager that lost had the Denver Broncos with negative points. And on the other side was Tyler freaking Higby. It was a 30 point swing to lose the matchup like by less than a point. By less than a point. Like that was that was the worst one I've seen of the season that to even start Tyler Higby this week against the Broncos with Baker and then have it end up like that was.

I mean, that was just, what is they? You have to vomit. You go into the matchup up 29 with the Denver defense against Tyler. Yeah, that's a, that's a 100%. You bought the banner. Yes, you bought the trophy. You, you are wearing the robe. Disgusting. Shocking. But Cam Acres. Yeah. You know, monster week against Denver. Chargers next week. You got to keep playing him. He looked. He looked much better than he's looked all year. Sequin. You have a weekend with Deonta Foreman. Dude. Oh, freaking Gianta Foreman. It's Team Achilles weekend. Yeah. And Chuba Hubbard next to Deontza Foreman had all of a sudden Detroit, who has shut down every running back. They're the number one on the season. You start this game. And I think I blinked twice and they had 150 rushing yards. Yeah.

I really, I don't remember if that was in the first quarter or not. It was very, very quick. It is unbelievable. Chunk run after chunk run. Could not stop the run. Like, Foreman after. I mean, if you made it through last week playing Foreman when he scored essentially one to negative points and like he was a full bench for me. So of course. This is this is where we go, 165 and a touchdown. And it didn't even look like it was his game. It looked like it was Chuba's game. Yeah. Yeah, I, I benched, uh, I benched foreman in the Megalobole league where had I actually played him without my quarterback, I could have gone to the next round, but there's, there's a foreman on the bench. Yeah. Sequin Barclay, 14 for 84 in one, 10 targets. You love to see that. James Connor.

I'll say this. On a team that is spiraling the drain, week in and week out, James Connor runs harder than any running back in football. 15 for 79 and 1. Eight targets, 7 for 41. There was no play in the entire game that the Tampa Bay defense didn't expect James Connor to get the football. And he still had a... really good week. He has Atlanta next week. He could be a lynch pin for championship teams. Absolutely. I mean, you know, and you could get Cole McCoy back to move the offense. For sure. James Connor will be a league winner. I mean, I can't imagine. With his utilization, it really doesn't even matter whether he's. Against the Falcons next week. Yeah, whether he's efficient or you can have a touchdownless game, which seems like a realistic outcome for the Arizona Cardinals.

where he still has a good fantasy output because he's on the field every single play. He's involved in the passing game. He's the running back four since week 10 despite Arizona struggles. Yeah, because he's on the field, literally 90 plus percent of snaps. He's one of. And he looks good. I'm like watching him play. This is the best I've seen James Connor in a long time. Yeah. I think. Sorry. Last year he was a touchdown centered running back who still, I mean, he still looked good. But he's just winning at the point of, you know, contact every play he goes forward an extra three or four yards. I think physically he looks incredible. His vision to me has been questionable at times running into the back of linemen. He's making it harder on himself frequently, but it's not stopping him. But he is going to be such a brutal player because, like, you know, in places that you drafted James Connor, the beginning of the year was so.

Bad. You're like week one, running back 17. Then after that, outside of the top 25 for four straight weeks, misses three games. And by then, like, was James Connor really part of your plan? Did you move on? That'll be a tough one for a lot of fantasy managers. Leonard Fournett turned into the dump truck again. Nine for 90, 20 carries. dominated the work. Rashad White got into the end zone. So if you played him, you got bailed out there. But Fournette seems to be taking the majority of those snaps. Devin Singletary had the big game, 12 for 106, Alvin Camara. We can talk about that game too. Oh. Which was just Nick Chubb and Alvin Camara exchanging handoffs. Yeah, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the amount that Amari Cooper was able to.