Fantasy Football - The TRUTH: Top 10 Fantasy RBs + Wheel of Shame - Podcast for 1/22

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thursday, January 22nd. Welcome into the fantasy footballers podcast. Mike Wright is here, Jason Moore, the goat himself, Andy Holloway. I think it's the hat. Look at his hat. Oh, yeah. Self-proclaimed goat? It's just a Christmas present. I mean, I don't know if he's proclaiming he is a goat or it's just stating there's a goat on my hat. There's a goat. Only the goat would eat two hot dogs for lunch. Oh, baby, hot dog lunch. Hot dog lunch. I ordered three, so I had a lot of self-control. Dude. Wait, so you left the hot dog? Yeah, I didn't know how big they were going to be. I think that's a good strategy. Right? Order one more than you should eat. Yeah, because you know what? Jason did?

He didn't finish it. That's right. He was like, no, if I only ordered too much. If I only ordered two giant hot dogs and I ate them, then I eat. everything i ordered but if i order three and i eat two you showed self-control absolutely what a because here's the i was i was a way to make yourself feel better yeah it's not just to make yourself feel better i was asking no it doesn't make you feel good do you feel no i feel awful i feel like i ate two giant hot dogs but one of the tips for fitness that i was just getting from chat gbt was eat 70% of your meal oh

I'm at 66%. That's what I'm saying. How do I not lose weight if I keep ordering that much? It's pretty scientific. Oh, man, we figured out a pretty. I got a new diet coming out of America. Get ready. Your lunch could have been 1,700 calories. Yeah. But it wasn't. No way. Because you stop. Because I'm not going to go all the way and eat that bad. No. No, you did a great job. And we're glad you're here. There may be weird sounds emitting from your microphone, but that's okay. It's not from the microphone. We've got NFL news to talk about. We have the truth of the running back position on today's show. We have another fantasy face off and a Jason Moore wheel of shame dominating the wheel of shame during the playoff. This is not fair. During the playoff. This is not fair. I'm the shame every week, but what's happening everybody is I'm tying tying.

You're tying. Not with me. Yes, Mike won this week. Andy and I tied. And so we had to win. Yeah. Mike went two for three because one of this was a tie. Yes. Yes. He won. Anyways. Two out of three hot dogs for Mike. The last two times that I have been the shame. I have not been the sole shame. I tied and I lost in a pistachio throwing contest. Actually twice it was pistachio once you lost the tiebreaker. oh no you don't lose because yeah yeah i've just saying the the the pistachio off um which we're doing around the the studio throwing a pistachio closer to the wall i'm not as good as andy at that i'm just going to say it you're better at throwing a pistachio than i am i've been waiting for that for a long time but it sucks that now i get shamed you can you can pick a new game you can any oh if we have like anything you want to throw we'll throw it oh i don't do paper no no no i want to do tic-tac-tok

Well, that's just that's a lame. That's a lame game. No, it's not infinite. The point is, there's one way to win. Jason is getting shamed today. Yeah. So you can look forward to that. Is it more hot dogs? You will be in a hot dog outfit. No, we're bringing the third dog out. Yeah. Mike, still on the table. You've got an announcement for us. Yes, I do. Foot Clan. It's time to assemble. We have something we need to help, or we need you to help us out. Go to footclanvote.com. The annual FSGA awards are going on right now. It's the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association, you know, industry we're a part of. And every year they do a best social media award. And it is a vote award. So we really need you to go out. Click Foot Clan Vote.

or go to footclan vote.com click it'll be really really fast it's just like a survey monkey thing i promise it'll take you two minutes at the most and assuming we win with the foot clan who are strong and mighty matt the falcon our social media director doesn't get fired yeah so maybe don't vote is that what you're saying well i don't want to sway people to not yeah wait did i convince me i do i do feel like you talk people out of doing this now if we lose he will remain on board. Okay. All right. So if you want him out, go vote right now. Okay, there we go. Either way, go vote. Yeah. And we'll get rid of them. We'll do whatever you want. If you vote, totally up to you what you want us to do. If we win, I will put a poll up that says, should I fire Matt? And then I'll just whatever the poll says. That's what we do. Let's check him with Matt real quick. Oh, he's not here. Pre-fired. He's not here. Interesting. Footclamvote.com. Thank you very much. Quick question of the day.

David writes in from the website, among the remaining playoff teams, which players, teams, and storylines are you rooting for the most? We have the Patriots and Broncos game, Jared Stedham. We have the Seahawks and the Rams. I have got a reason. You left yours blank. I don't even know what it is. Because you don't know? I... You want me to go first? No, I'm not a lack for words. I'm just, I don't really... You don't care. I don't really want any of them to win. If I had to choose one, it's New England. I'd pick New England to win because I'm a Drake May fan. I'm a Mike Rable fan. But then in the back of my head, I'm like, they've had enough winning. They don't need more winning. Then there's only one team for you to choose. And that's the team that I am choosing. I want the Broncos to make everyone upset. I don't like Sean Payton at all. That's true. You don't. I do. I think Broncos fans are awesome. So I want it for them. Love the city of Denver.

It's delightful. It's a good place. And so I like the team. I like Bo Nix. That story of losing the story of having your backup come in Nick Foles-esque and like win a championship. I don't believe that the Broncos are going to win the Super Bowl. I think they can, but that's where it's like the most fun outcome for me. So would you say you're rooting for them? Would you say you're rooting for the Broncos to win? I say, I will open this can up on this show right now. There was a problem with the definition of a word. They're meaning something. We were defining rooting and Jason defined it in his own. No, I did it. His own upside down. Are you rooting? No, I just hope that they win. Yes, that's true. No, but the thing is, you were like, you think the realistic chance of a team winning is tied into rooting.

That's insane. All right. Hold on. If we're going to open. If we're opening the bag of worms, I do agree with me. I do agree with you. If we're opening the bag of worms, you got to get it right. This was, this was right after the injury. And my point was if I knew that the Broncos, let him do it, man. I know, just listen to my case. Just listen to the case. Okay. If I knew that the Broncos would win the Super Bowl, right? They like go forward in time. They won. That would be like my favorite... With Stiddy. With Stiddy, obviously. After Bonex goes down, that would be my favorite outcome. Because I don't believe they can win in the Super Bowl, I do think they can beat the Patriots. I don't think they'll win in the Super Bowl. I kind of... I don't want that to be the actual game I watch. I think the most fun game would be Drake May against Sam... Not Sam Donald. I would...

think Matthew Stafford, Drake May is the most fun Super Bowl. Therefore, I'm kind of rooting for the Patriots to win that game. I'm not actually rooting for the Broncos, but my favorite outcome would actually be the Broncos winning the Super Bowl. Both of those two things. The one that you hope is the outcome, you're not rooting to that team. Correct. Okay. All right. Now the people out there know exactly what we were dealing with. And by the way, let me just say this. Papa Josh immediately wrote, I feel like I'm looking in the mirror with a dumb argument, which should alarm you. It has very alarming. That should alarm you. You root, to me, rooting is all about, it doesn't matter the probability of winning. It's who you'd want to see win the most, which you said is the Broncos. You'd want the Broncos to win the most. I will say this. It is such a fascinating thing in sports when.

as soon as a game starts and no matter what you thought prior to kickoff all of a sudden you know exactly who you're rooting for this happened to me with the bears you realize that they were the team you wanted to win 100% last week I mean the game started and I had said earlier that I was that I was literally rooting for the other team but as soon as it started there was no doubt my heart wanted you don't know what rooting me It is pretty unanimous on that opinion. I think I can root for a lot of things. Mike, my heart is bigger than yours. We'll study his brain for science later on. I'm rooting for nobody. I'm bitter and Buffalo. I'm rooting for Buffalo. I'm rooting for Buffalo. I'm rooting for the Denver Broncos and Jay Stiddy just the chaos. The chaos that would ensue would be very, very far. I'm not rooting for any of the NFC West teams. I can't do that. Okay. So just jump Broncos. Sure. Sure.

uh i'm rooting for i'm rooting for ken bone walker uh who now has an opportunity to get the bag. Yeah, so is Andy. Get the bag. Go get a starting feature roll. You know what? Do it on the biggest stage. You just helped me figure out who I'm rooting for. You're rooting for the Seahawks, aren't you? You're putting it into fantasy football. I've got Ken Bone Walker on my main league team. That's my new, that's who I'm going for. Yes. How crazy is it to think that the incredible draft, the incredible NFL draft? My guy, Ken Bone Walker, Andy's guy. Yeah.

It's happened. What were you saying? How incredible is what? So was I think the 2018 draft where Josh Allen was drafted, I think was Lamar in that draft class? Yes, he was. Yeah, like 20. Baker. Yep. All right. That's my point. Who's going to win the first Super Bowl? Is it Josh Allen or Lamar? No, it right now it seems like it's Sam Darnold has the best chance. It's not Josh Rosen. No, he was. Oh, man, there were a lot of wins and. One Josh Rosen in that draft. We will go ahead. What did we get? That one. News and notes from around the league. Well, we'll have coaching news probably every show for a while. The more exciting offensive coordinator options out there, Mike McDaniel of the formerly the Dolphins head coach. The report, was it Shepter?

It's out there. It was a little bit of everybody. The expectation is he will become the Chargers next offensive coordinator. This is good. Greg Roman was let go. Very disappointing playoffs once again for Herbert and the Chargers. If Mike McDaniel ends up with Miami, or sorry, with Los Angeles, I think that's pretty exciting and everyone would agree on that. Yes. Yeah, I mean, you- Makes me happy for Hampton. It's like Hampton and- And Gadsden, we just talked about Gadsden on today's Dynasty podcast, which we recorded that yesterday, so we didn't have this Mike McDaniel news. And it's like, it's nothing for sure, of course, that McDaniel would come in and be like, oh, no, Gadsden, I need to, I need to have some real offensive packages surrounding him. Like he, you know, we had a few of those in Miami. It's not for sure, but you have.

You have hope because you have proof of concept that there were great players on the Miami Dolphins. And then out of nowhere, Jono Smith is the one who's just dominating. So this is super exciting. The Herbros around the nation are, they should be celebrating. Yeah, I mean, a couple of seasons ago, Tua led the NFL in passing. We don't even really think of it like that, that this Dolphins offense was. the most passing yards in the NFL. And so getting Herbert and the weapons that this team has, which, you know, other than Keenan Allen, are very young and explosive. I'm very, oh, I love Trey Harris. I love what he did even this season with the running game in Devon H.N. in Miami as well. I just feel like his running schemes, they work out. So that makes me excited for the whole offense. We found out.

I guess this would be what criminal charges are not going to be filed against Jordan Addison. Which that's great. He's preparing for a civil claim arising from the wrongful arrest. Oh, he's going to file his own civil claim against what he's alleging to be a wrongful arrest. Brandon Bean said Josh Allen may need a procedure on his foot, but if he does, he will be ready for OTAs. This would be the Buffalo Bill superstar general manager Brandon Bean. This is not in the dock, guys, but... It's too amazing to me. This whole, like the fiasco of McDermott being let go and Brandon Bean retaining his job. Promoted. Promotes. Thank you. Improving his job in spite of the fact that Brandon Bean when it comes to drafting has not been good. He has not been good for the Buffalo Bills. And then more stuff starts to leak out that, oh man, there was like.

Him and McDermott kind of got a little heated of McDermott thinking, I don't have the right staff to win a Super Bowl. That would upset the general manager I get. And then yesterday, you had everything coming out of there was a press conference with Brandon Bean and the owner of the bills. And the owner starts going, hey, because Keon Coleman comes up. And it's like, you guys need to leave Brandon Bean alone on that one. The coaching staff wanted Keon Coleman. This was not Brandon Bean's guy. This was the coaching. He's like throwing the McDermott and crew under the bus. And since then, we just have a steady trickle of draft videos behind the scenes of Brandon Bean highlighting who's the guy that we're going to draft. It is for sure. Who gets the kind of if Keon Coleman had been great. Oh, dude. Brandon Bean does. Brandon Bean's a genius there, huh? Like.

this what's craziest about that situation to me now it's really funny looking at the receipts that are coming out yeah showing that this was obviously not just like you're a liar coaching staff you're a liar but but the craziest part is Keon Coleman is under contract. You're bodying your own player. Like, oh, dude, the general manager did not want Keon Coleman. That guy sucks. He's your wider. He's under contract. He's probably watching your press coverage. It's definitely gotten back to him. Brandon Bean. Mr. Bean, which is his new name. Oh, we're going Mr. Bean. That is his name. Exactly. Totally for this. It's respectful of us. Mr. Bean. There is no other.

reasoning to me other than he has, you know, in Aladdin, Jafar has his staff, right? Yeah. And the sultan is just under the spell. That's the only thing I could think of that is going on for Brandon B's like, no, Sean McDermott wanted Keon Coleman. And he's like, yeah, but I'm watching this video. No, you are not. Sean McDermott wanted Keon Coleman. Oh my gosh, Mr. Bean. Can't want to follow this. It is good stuff. Pretty unprecedented when the player's still on the team. To talk about how much of a whiffy is. It's an unredeemable pick at this point. The only thing is fun is the Mr. Bean GM situation is the Giants GM situation where they hire Harbaugh and Harbaugh. This has been such a fun time. Yes, it really has. And this is why John Harbaugh does not work for.

bidwell and the Cardinals. A hundred percent. And so the hardship in getting the contract signed was apparently he needed to know that he has final say over who is a Joe Shown. Joe Schmo. Joe Schmo. Joe Schmo. That's right. And then the quotes that have been coming out from that guy. First of all, when he introduced Harbaugh at the press conference, he looked like the most nervous man on the planet. I have presented. I've given speeches in the midst of a panic attack. That's what it sounds like where you just, you can't talk. You can't catch your breath. You can't get air. Yeah, you can't catch your breath. And then he was asked later. I just surprised he's not excited. Right. Well, because he's. Why is that a nerve-wracking one? I think you've had a lot of other. How about the press conference when you're like, I traded Sequin? That one you should be hyperventilating. He is holding on for dear life for his power. Did you, yeah, did you hear what he said?

about the... I'm still very important here. When he was talking about, well, you know, question about Harbaugh's can... This was the hold of the final say and he's like, yeah, it's really no big deal. Yeah, it's just a thing on paper. It doesn't really matter. It's just a thing on paper. It's just a contractually binding thing that says, I don't have the final say anymore. But I am still a very important person. I drive a Dodge Stratis. Dude. It's the, it's, uh, I'm one of the people here. It's Star Lord and Thor. Yeah. He's like, he's like, oh no, we all, we all know who's in charge here. Of course. Of course it's the 49ers announced they want to resign Joanne Jennings and John Lynch said it's safe to say he's played his last snap with the 49ers. Speaking of Brandon Ayuk. Oh. Yeah. Brandon Ayuk is, uh, yeah, we know he's not. I don't know if he's ever going to play football again. I think he's going to lose so much money. He's going to need to play football again. Probably right there. But, uh, that'll do it for the news.

We will take a break and jump right into the truth. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can handle the truth. Well, the last couple of episodes we've looked at the quarterback position. Today we're looking at the top 10 running backs and looking at the truth. If you're new to this series, we are basically taking a look at how fantasy players finished at the position and what their true value was to your team. by way of consistency, week in and week out performances. And, you know, we have a different threshold for what a great, a good, and a bust game are for each position group. And so we walk through and tell you what we found. Kind of a post-mortem on the season, a chance to look at the reality and the truth of the situation. We like to give a little bit of overview information every year. We did this with the quarterback position on how the running backs performed over the course of the year.

Interestingly enough, this was the second most total rushing fantasy points, so not talking about running backs performing in the passing game, but the second most total rushing fantasy points for running back since 2011. So that was a big year in terms of just rushing the football. Rushing touchdowns, too. Yes, yes. It's the second most rushing touchdowns by running backs in that span as well. 23 different running backs hit 7 plus rushing. touchdowns. The average over this last decade was 17. I thought it was also interesting, though, that the running back position has been less efficient as a receiver. It's the fewest running back receiving yards since 2011. I don't know if you guys have thought processes as to why that's happened. I mean, I think that there are more zone. More zone defense? Yeah. I mean, I think there's some also some highly prolific pass catching running backs that have phased out of fantasy.

Like we had a lot of years with like Echler, right, where he was just one that comes to mind. But that makes sense. Only seven running backs this year caught 50 or more passes. That's really surprising. I feel like in the modern NFL with them throwing the ball so much more, you would expect it to not be going that way. But it's actually been a trend over the last few years. It's kind of been lower and lower each of the last couple of years. So I expect when you look at a long enough chart. Those things ab and flow and they go backwards and forwards. So I would expect an uptick in receiving for the running back position next year over what it was this year. I would also expect the health to change because running backs can't stay healthy predominantly for like the history of the NFL until the last two years. They are incredibly healthy once again in 2025. You want to look at the games played from the top guys.

you know, Bijon a full season. Saquan, Gibbs, Christian McCaffrey, Derek Henry, Ashen, like everybody was just healthy the whole season. Well, you guaranteed it. I did for Bijon and, you know, I don't see enough of those clips. And Mike was 100% sure CMC would be healthy the whole year. Yeah, he sure. Never end out. But yeah, it was why, I mean, I remember this show over several years where we are talking about. that how few players usually like in the top 20 running backs, only two guys played a full season. Right. Like that is more normal than what happened last year and this year, which I do think, you know, now that it's back to back seasons, maybe this pushes running backs even further up draft boards next year because you just think whatever just happened will happen again and it usually doesn't. Yeah, I do think the defense is and what they're doing right now in the NFL played a part.

I also always like in a neutral situation where you're not swinging the pendulum back and forth. I think that since this show started, I much prefer taking running backs in the first round of the draft. That's how I want to build my team. Injuries can like sway your emotions year to year. But in a situation of true neutrality where like, look, let's be honest, anybody can get hurt at any position at any time. And I can, we're all going to blow picks in the first. you know, 10 to 12 in the draft because some injuries are going to happen. About 50% of the first half, first round will be bad. Like, I mean, I think this year is a perfect example of like the power of the dominant running back was on display. Why? When it works out, when you take that chance on that position group, and we'll be getting into the truth of the wide receiver position and maybe your opinion will change on it. It just showed, I think, you know, Christian McCaffrey this year, Bejohn Robinson.

Difference makers, Devon H.N. on a week-to-week basis, Jonathan Taylor, for the majority of the year, when you take those players and they are healthy, you're very, very safe and secure on a week-to-week basis. Now, looking at the running back truth data, thresholds, great games are 21 plus points, good games, 12 plus points, bus games fewer than seven. We don't count miss games against their consistency score. We don't have to spend a long time here, but we might because there's a dude sitting across for me that might need his time to celebrate. Number one in total fantasy points, number one in consistency, number one in the first half, number one in the second half, at 29 years old. Yeah. 47% great. So almost 50% of the time he gave you a performance of 21 or more fantasy points. That's absurd. Zero bust games and 88% good games. Arguably the most complete performance of his career, even if not the most dominant.

Christian McCaffrey, 311 for 1202 and 10 on the ground and a nice 102 and 924 and 7 through the air, two positions in one. I mean, what can you say? Unfair. Unfair. I mean, it's just literally two positions in one. If you just use his receiving stats only and he doesn't touch the ball on the ground, he would have been the wide receiver 11. He would have been a wide receiver 1. and then he also gets all the rushing stats that on his own would be i mean it's just it's outlandish he didn't really score too many touchdowns no it wasn't like number one everywhere but this was 10 rushing touchdowns i think he had seven receiving he had seven received that's not crazy those numbers are not crazy for the volume correct i'm just saying for the volume like you talk about well a couple of years ago they were giving him the like what was it the the

cumulative games in a row with a touchdown they were forcing this year because he was breaking records i mean he he's uh he's he's ebbed and float on the ground and but like his last full healthy season he was at 14 on the ground um that same season he had seven through the air third highest season in touchdowns if i'm doing the quick math yeah yeah he missed he when he's healthy though yeah like when he finished number one at the position let's put it that way he finished number one this year right his previous two number one finishes 15 and 14 on the ground

It was just... It was not nearly as effective on the ground. Not a lot of big plays, right? Injuries, yeah, especially the big plays on the ground that we saw that were used to as a San Francisco 49er. Those really were not there. Yards per carry, do you know what it is? It was 3.9, I think. Yeah. So that that stinks, especially when you wouldn't, you know, two years ago, very, very small sample, but I think he was at four in that year. Kiddle did miss a lot of time. He was at 5.4. Oh, he was at 5? Two years? Last year in his like barely limited work, he was at 4. That's what I was thinking of. His last healthy season was 5. It was only four games. And when Kittle was out for the 49ers, it's a really, really big deal, which going into next year. It'll be a big deal for next year because he'll have the Achilles injury. He should trade them to me. McCaffrey's inefficiencies. He next year will.