Week 15 Studs & Duds + Jason's Demise - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/16

I'm still in, baby. Oh, so you're, wait, you said you're still in the playoffs. Is that what that is? Yep. Cool, man. You know, it was great because there were all these moments yesterday and I, you know, where it was really over. But I knew I could look over at Jason and I'd see him just, his eyes were on the screens with his players and, you know, that touchdown by Cincinnati that wasn't a touchdown. I mean, it's like he's all of us. I mean, we all stay. You have hope until it's completely snuffed out. And it's not over yet. So you just need Darnal to not use Jefferson to the tune of 50 plus. He needs to have a 50 plus point game without using Justin. Okay. And Bejohn needs to be hurt. Yeah. First play. So you're scared there, Al back there. You're really terrified? I'm pretty confident. Okay. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

Talk studs. This week's fantasy stud muffins. You know, it's not every week that Lamar Jackson can go out, throw five touchdowns, and score as many fantasy points as he did, and end up third on the week. But Josh Allen and Jared Goff outperform Lamar Jackson's five touchdown performance. Alan absolutely going crazy. Josh Allen. Two straight weeks. Not two straight weeks. Here's his run of his quarterback finishes over the last six weeks. Quarterback two, quarterback one, quarterback one, quarterback one. And then quarterback six. What a loser. He's playing well. He's going to be an MVP. They have so many weapons. And it's so funny because they don't have a primary weapon. You know, Keon Coleman, great.

Target, Mac Hollins, whatever, Amari Cooper, Shakir, Don Kincaid, Dawson Knox. James Cook, Ty Johnson. Yeah, Ty Johnson's involved now. Yeah, it's Ray Davis. It's very, it's very much, he's the, what do they call the one that leads the orchestra? Conductor. Yeah, that's, is that what it is? That's a, didn't sound that impressive of a name. The conductor. He is the conductor of the orchestra, and it doesn't matter what, you know, instrument he wants to play on any given game. He did go in for X-rays after the game, but from some kind of funky fall, he said, they appear to be fine. Yeah, he said he won a peace of mind. Jared Goff in a comeback effort in the same game, just behind Josh Allen. He had 500 yards and five touchdowns. That'll make for a good game.

See, he's going to end up a top 5, 6, 7 quarterback on the year, and yet... He had a bad season for fantasy. Yeah, fantasy-wise, his consistency rating on our side is D. That is 35% of the time over 20 points. And the ones that were over, they were way over. He had big games and can always do that. Lamar Jackson in three quarters, was it? Maybe less than that? Pretty much. 290 and 5, 6 for 65 on the ground. And I was thinking about this this morning. I don't know why I was thinking about it. It was just like a random thought that popped in my head. But the Steelers is the matchup next week. And T.J. Watt with the injury, that could be a significant change to the Steelers defense against Lamar Jans. Yeah, T.J. Watt did not return to the game. It was late in the game and they were already getting blown out. So I think he just knew he was done for the game. It was a low ankle sprain. They'll have to wait and see how it responds and swells whether he plays against Lamar this week.

I think the word I was looking for, Brooks, thank you. It was maestro. Maestro is much more, it's a much more impressive title for the head of an orchestra than a conductor. Is that an actual title or is that just like what makes a maestro? I think conductors are called maestras. Oh, okay. You never heard that? No, I have. I have, but I'm just wondering why there's two words for the same thing. A distinguished conductor of classical music is a maestro. So, so like everyone's a conductor and then it's like, no, they're distinguished. That dude's like a mice stroke. Because the other one, you could be, you could be like at the front of a train as well, right? Because you got to. Yeah. They conduct trains. Jalen Hertz, 25 for 32, 290 and 2, 1 rushing touchdown. And they haven't lost in a really long time. Yeah, they're playing some good football. You had AJ Brown, squeaky wheel, get his touchdown, although he did get.

hurt in this game. We'll have to wait and see how that goes. Baker Mayfield seemed like he got back on track and looked great, even though he threw a bad pick, turned the ball over a couple times. He threw four touchdowns. And McMillan, McMillians over there. He getting it done. He took all your slander. And then your motivation and your belief in him. And he says, I'm going to be a touchdown machine now. It wasn't time yet. I told you when I made the guarantee, it was it was time then. There's a time for everything, Jason. I can't believe how low on the weekly scoring Jaden Daniels was this week for how good he played. I guess he was a little disappointing in the second half of the game. But he's like unstoppable. I mean, you're watching these games.

The pass rush is very Lamar Jackson. The pass rush is coming after him and no one can actually get him down because he's just faster than you. He's a maestro back there. And then not everyone can be a maestro. Okay. He's just a ordinary conductor. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I played against him this week from Owls' super team and it wasn't fun. You know what? It's going to be tough because I don't think anybody is going to bench him this upcoming week. Against the Eagles. But you're playing Philly where he was the quarterback 24 in week 11. Philly's defense is outstanding. You're going to have Jane Daniels McLaren stacks that you've got to worry about. No, Zach Hertz as a safety valve. No, you just need to hope that that game becomes a more, you know, high scoring affair in the division somehow. But I'm not sure it will. I think that could be tough.

You talked about Baker, and we'll move on to running backs. James Connor, the running back one on the week. Jamir Gibbs, the RB2, James Cook, the RB3. Those of you that stuck with James Cook, you know, it was tough after last week. You got scared. You got started shaken with fear, but if you stuck with him, you were rewarded. Yeah, I mean, pretty much if you stuck with any bill not named Amari Cooper, you were pretty happy. Mari Cooper killed people. He did. He went from 14 targets to nothing. His snap counts weren't that off of last week either. No, I mean, they just said no thanks. You want pieces of the bills. You want to take a shot. You know, I threw Keon Coleman into my lineup and he had a bomb that unfortunately was not a touchdown. What a throw. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I mean, Jemir Gibbs had an awesome game and this was the first time this season. It came at the expense of David Montgomery.

you saw the lions really start to get boat raced by the bills to the tune where you're talking an early fourth quarter onside kick. It's really dumb. Whatever. You could debate that. But my point is the lions were in a real, we've got to catch up mode. We've got to throw the ball. There's a reason Jared Gough threw for 500 yards. And that came at the expense of David Montgomery because Gibbs is clearly the better asset for that style of. football and um you didn't like um montgomery's five attempts for four yards i didn't i didn't love it as someone playing him no but he never dropped the ball right before crossing the goal oh man that is one in his corner uh chase brown yet again delivering a big game taj spears

after Pollard left Spears, well, early in the game, too, he got a goal line opportunity and Statue of Libertyed himself up into the stratosphere. That touchdown, if you haven't seen the Tajay Spears touchdown, just Google, because that's so funny. He does the thing where he jumps up and reaches the ball across the goal line and scores the touchdown immediately as soon as it crosses the plane. And then for some reason, the Bengals decide to help him celebrate. by lifting him up and carrying him for five yards deeper in the end zone as he just holds the ball up like a trophy. Josh Jacobs was awesome yet again, 26 for 94 rushing touchdown. He was kind of the whole offense in the first half, four targets, four for 42. He has been on fire, five straight top 10 finishes. And he kind of feels better than like you go into this week and like Derek Henry is kind of in a lull right now in the offense and they got Pittsburgh and.

How do you, I mean, you got to feel really good if you have Jacobs. Jacobs feels like a top five back, especially for this week against the Saints. You're going to be heavy favorites. Their run defense isn't great. So, yeah, Jacobs looks awesome. Championship week is where you get a little scared against the Minnesota Vikings and their great rush defense. But, I mean, you're not going away from Jacobs. He's been top five back in what, like 10 straight finishes, something like that. I don't want to leave it. I don't want to go bypass James Connor in a conversation there because he was 16 for 110. He had two rushing touchdowns. He caught five passes. And this is, I mean, he is so close to finish in the season. But next week is Carolina. They're the worst rushing defense in the league. And Trey Benson left injured. That didn't come back. That's why I wanted to bring it up. Trey Benson is out with an injury. Amari DiMarcato is already out. The Cardinals are in a very like Chuba and Carolina situation where there isn't backups.

You know, James Connor, this is what we said about his schedule. It was going to line up really, really well for running backs down the stretch. Carolina and then Los Angeles in the title game. Pay attention to that. And then like we said, you know, Spears is going to be really relevant. Pollard might miss. I mean, he just might not be able to play. Yeah. If Pollard can't play, Taj Spears against Indianapolis will be probably the pickup of the week and the pickup and play. Yeah. Anybody else at the running back position you want to talk about, Jason? Rico Dowdle. Mike's not here. We've got to give him the shout out. 149 rushing yards. Mike's start of the week. And he just continues to really help the Cowboys. It seems like if they had listened to Mike at the beginning of the season, maybe that they got off to a better start than, you know, Rico's been great. Rico has, he has taken, you know, 20 plus carries.

And you look at the last three weeks, 112 yards, 131 yards, 149 yards. The offense for the Cowboys has looked better. And you think back to the beginning of the year when they were losing games and RICO's out there getting, you know, seven, eight carries for 26, 30 yards. And they're giving Zeke some work and they're mixing everyone they can loopie. Yeah, I mean, it's, and there's that Carolina defense that I was just talking about with James Connor giving up a nice 149. 112, 131, 149, Dowdell is trying to break his own record every week. Rashad White got into the end zone again, start of the week, 15 for 64. Bucky was great. Just didn't score. Yeah, yeah, Bucky is so superior to Rashad White. I mean, he really is. When you watch these two guys run, it feels like they need to give Bucky the ball more. I feel so bad for Bucky the man, though. He is.

He is playing through it. He is toughen it out. That is a man. Well, they're right there for the playoffs. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, this guy's not going to be walking. He's going to be in a wheelchair being wheeled to practice. But he'll get back out there by Sunday. Drink your protein. Getting a hyperbaric chamber. Do what you've got to do. Yep. Wide receivers, top scores. Oh, man. My really crappy backing into the dynasty playoffs, six seed team. Uh-huh. has Devante Adams and Mike Evans. So Mike and I's, uh, champ, champ team has guys. Devante Adams and Mike Evans. And that's a nice combination. Yeah. I played against Devante Adams on, uh, Jeremy's team. I didn't like it. No. Jeremy, why didn't you play Mooney instead? I told him early in the morning that day, you're like, mm, I don't know. I mean, you obviously made the right call. I said I could see a world where Devante has a monster game and I could see a world where he gooses.

He had the monster game. After kind of a slow start, nine for 198 and two, amazing to see what he's still capable of. Oh, and the drive, the game winning drive was all Devante. It was three receptions, one of which was like this huge scramble, but nothing was better than the needed pickup for the first down where he toe taps an unbelievably impossible toe tap. He was. He was old, not old. He was legendaryly former vintage Devonte Adams in this game. Yeah, he was, every time I got to be third down, you knew where the ball was going and it didn't matter. Mike Evans, nine for 159 and two. He was, he was outrageous. He showed you the kind of ceiling that he can give Baker because he has an elite weapon. Alman Ross St. Brown, it was a weird one. There he is. That was a weird one. This is not the way.

This is not the way the Lions want to play football. They don't want to throw the ball 18 times to Al Monra. But when you do, 14 for 193 and 1 is in the cards. And this is a big game for him. Brian Thomas, 10 for 105 and 2. Brian Thomas, if you haven't been paying attention, is, I mean, I think he's the best rookie wide receiver. Like you talk about going forward, him versus Malik neighbors. I would rather start Brian Thomas. You mean for this season? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not saying all time. I would still have both Malik and Marv ahead of Brian Thomas. But right now, he is the centerpiece of their offense with Mac Jones. He's getting targeted like crazy. And he's just super talented. Las Vegas next week, not scary. Then Tennessee. So Brian Thomas, strong finish. Terry McLaren, two more touchdowns. And so many missed opportunities.

He had two bomb, wide open bomb, bomb touchdowns that were just overthrown. And then he had a couple others. Like, he could have had on those, those, he had 10 total targets. The three that he missed were probably worth more than the 73 and 2 that he caught. Yeah, he's been, he's been outrageous. Devonte Smith and A.J. Brown both got it done against Pittsburgh. It's a big performance. I mean, 23 targets between them. Yeah, you love to see the consolidation of targets. And if you've got two truly elite wide receivers, just do this, quarterbacks. They can't guard both guys on, you know, they can't double cover both guys every place. So just find the one with the easier coverage and throw it to them every time. Um.

Malik neighbors 10 for 82 and 1. Rashad Bateman, two touchdowns. He's always a threat down in the field. CD Lamb, 9 for 1, 16 and 1. Keeps getting it done with Cooper Rush. It was nice to see. I can't wait. He's on our League of Record team. I can't wait for his shoulder to be healed and back to be back next season. And then Dobbs with two touchdowns last night on 40 yards. This one was interesting to me. Xavier worthy with 11 targets. I thought that was interesting. He had a pretty good. performance and it's the most receptions he ever had. He also had three carries, which his utilization in the running game is amounted to a handful of touchdowns on the season. The question, though, with the health of Mahomes, you know, I don't think you're going to be relying on Xavier Worthy this next week. There'll be a lot of unique, schemed plays for Carson Wentz, and we just don't know who those will involve. Nico Collins scored twice.

Thank goodness. He only had four catches for 17 yards. Yeah, 17 yards and you're happy with the game. Mike always says touchdowns are worth too much, but Mike is an eco-Collins guy, so he didn't think that this week. Did you say Jerry Judy? No, Jerry Judy, 11 for 108. He's unstoppable right now. He looks great. He looks outstanding. He's the wide receiver six on the season. With James, he is perfect. If you look from the buy week, he's been the wide receiver four. The water shooter 21, the water receiver 1, the water receiver 19, the water receiver 11. Consistent. And this is coming up against Pittsburgh, Denver, Pittsburgh, Kansas City Chiefs. So like this coming week, it gets the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah, it should be, it should be good. I just, there's part of me that's terrified that the Winston benching. I just don't want that to. I was so happy to see Dorian Thompson, Robinson, come in and struggle. Look awful and throw a pick of his own because I was like.

James played his way to the bench. But I just, I was like, please tell me he's not playing his way to the next week bench. Yeah, yeah. No, it was it was while tight ends, Johnny Smith, Sam LaPorte, Trey McBride, Britain Strange. If you don't know who he is, that's because most people don't. He's the tight in for Jacksonville after losing Mr. Evan Ingram. Yeah, he had. You know, 11 for 73 on 12 targets. That's kind of wild. Yeah, I mean, you know, the role is. It'd be a strange name to have in your lineup when semi-final week. Yeah, the role is there. We'll have to, you know, make sure that Evan Ingram is out again before you play him. But when Evan Ingram has not been there, strange has been involved. Um, we've got a lot of disappointing performances at the tight-in position. But Pat Fryer, me, got back into the end zone for a third straight week. So that was nice. We'll take a break. We'll talk duds.

Well, it's commiseration time, Mr. Moore. Let's do it. Pooped in his big boy pants. Evan Ingram is on IR officially. So Brenton Strange is a name to know. Yeah, we actually did announce that. Great. I have to pee really bad. No, I know you do. I know you do. And I know that the deucers are over there hoping that at any moment you choose to get up. See, I wasn't sure if I should bring it up. Well, now you message everybody. Relief could be yours, Jason. Um, yeah, Jason. The toilet trophy will stay yours, Papa Josh. Oh, nice. Um, yeah, let's talk about the duds. Let's really go to the bathroom before the show. I mean, after all these years. I do, but I'm so hydrated, man. Let me see your coffee count over here. Well, you got, you drink most of that coffee. Yeah, the coffee's almost gone. I'm still, I'm, look, I'm still drinking coffee. Oh, come on. That's too long a drop that lasts forever.

Um, just go, man. Just go. Oh, that's just. Now, for the record, Al is being real nice. If I go in my pants here, I don't get the trophy, right? It's only if I leave the show. I guess theoretically if they win in, well, no, I don't want to incentivize them to go in their pants. Okay. Because they would. They would do that. They have no pride or decorum. Yeah. They are no maestros. All right, Duds. Brock Purdy, Kyla Murray, Tuatung of Iloa, who turned the ball over four times. Yeah, Kyler and Tua were expected to have big games, and they really, you know, Kyler did again, this is the second time where he's played in a game where it's a blowout victory. It wasn't like he was bad, 30 to 17 victory, but for fantasy purposes, let you down because James Connor took over. Tua, on the other hand, was bad. Tua played like crap through the ball to the other team.

This is kind of what- He's really pissed the game away. This is what we were talking about. And my concern for him, you know, he was great against the Raiders and great against the Patriots and great against the Jets. And it's like the dolphins have basically in the entire Mike McDaniel era, they have beat up on bad teams. And they just can't hang with actual good teams. I believe the number is three and 13. So against teams over 500. Yeah, and so it's ironic because coming into this game against Houston, I wasn't sure if this was a good team. I was like, is this a really good team or is this kind of an okay team? And now they go up against another team where you go, is this a good? It's the San Francisco 49ers. It's like, are they a really good team or no? Well, you know, Houston was about 500. Maybe it's not just really good teams. It's just if you're above 500, you've got a bad shot. The 49ers are a game below.

Sounds right. So Kyla Murray, can you even trust him against Carolina on the road next week? Trust is not in his DNA, no. James Winston got benched. He played really, really bad. I mean, just really, really, really bad. There were plays that you were just like, oh, gosh, James. It's like this is embarrassing. Yeah, it was a bad weather game, and that is the only bright thing you could say about James Winston. He was who, man, he was the... James usually comes with like, he's two-faced, you know, and he's flipping the coin and, you know, you just don't know how it's going to come up, but he had a two-sided bad-faced coin in this game. It didn't matter what side came up. Both sides were awful. Will Levis got benched. Oh, Will Levis made James Watson look good. Yeah, Will Lovis sucks. He sucks. I love his quote last week. He's like, we're not going to worry about the results. It's like, what? Yeah, he had a quote last week.

What are you going to worry about then? The process. And the process for him was three interceptions. I don't worry about it all, man. He threw three interceptions, Andy, and he only threw 12 passes. That's incredible work, Will. Running backs. We had some down weeks from the top three running backs. Derek Henry, Sequin Barkley. You know, they were, Sequin was. I mean, these are okay games for the ordinary player, but not for these guys. Oh, and Derek Henry was expected against the Giants with like a two and a half touchdown spread. I mean, you expected Derek Henry. I put a bet on Derek Henry's over at 100 rushing yards. He only got to 67. Saquins was a little bit more concerning because he got injured in this game. And he did come back and he played.

But he never looked the same. No, he kept going down quickly. And then they kept getting Gainwell involved. Gainwell was really involved as the game went along. So I want to hear more about his injury, but it's a little bit more concerning. Like Derek Henry, I am not concerned at all. Derek Henry, Lamar Jackson just annihilated the Giants and they didn't need Derek Henry. And then in the fourth quarter, they didn't play Derek Henry. Yeah, and it's Pittsburgh next week. So, you know. These are guys you're playing. These are just moments of, you know, like James Cook last week, where you were like, oh, oh, this is not great. Do I have confidence? Well, you're going to play your stars. Joe Mixon is going to be a tough one, too. 12 for 23. He did catch five passes, but it's against Kansas City next week. I don't think it's tough. Joe Mixon is a, he's absolutely got to be started, and I think he'll be fine. Chuba Hubbard, this was disappointing. Dallas is a weak run defense, but they're getting stronger.

10 for 32 on the ground, though. That's chubby Hubbard. Yeah, I mean, you had a really bad game from Bryce Young. He looked like the Bryce of the beginning of the year, and that put them in a hole, and then that wasn't where they could run the ball and give Chuba another 31 opportunities. Montgomery, we talked about it. He did catch four passes, but he ran for four yards and was barely on the field. Only the second game below double digits all year for Monty. They play. 30% of snaps. Yeah, they play Chicago next week. That should be your saving grace if you have him. Chicago, they'll be heavily favored, and that's a plus matchup. And it's always a good revenge game for Monty. Tyrone Tracy Jr. did not play well. 10 for 31 against Baltimore, one catch. The touchdown went to Singletary. The one catch was the real problem. I mean, he had 10 targets the week prior. Obviously two quarterback changes, and it's hard to know what you could bake on from that. But his involvement in the passing game is what allows him to be good.

Naji Harris had a terrible, terrible, terrible game. This is the Philly matchup. You know, next week it's Washington, right, facing Philly. The running game for Washington, I'd be terrified. Philly gave up 14 yards to Naji and 12 to Jalen Warren and a fumble for Naji. It was a disaster for your team. Yeah, very, very ugly. A wide receiver, Cooper Cup, Guest you, Debo and Juan Jennings on Thursday. We talked about this game. Very disappointing. And here we are with Tyree Kill after a 20 plus point week last week, two for 36. Yeah, I mean, he hasn't been good pretty much the whole season to, like I said, played like garbage. And it's very difficult to do well when your quarterback is thinking. I'm just curious, Andy, would you rather have Tyree Kill or Lamar Jackson? I like Lamar more. Why do you ask? I ask because someone gifted you Lamar Jackson for Tyree Kill.

a couple weeks ago and i mean it wasn't straight up no no there were lots of other pieces that was that was the primary yeah like you got zay flowers back in that trade too right uh yeah and i gave up some picks i gave up some picks um yeah i love i love that you guys are so stuck on these trades that i've made like i'm proud of the trades that I made. I would be too. And the results as the year goes on, I'm more proud of them. Because when you make a trade, you hope it works out in a way where your friends hate you because of the trade. I would be so, if I were you, I would be so proud of how fast I was able to click accept on getting Jamar Chase for Amari Cooper. I'd be like, man. See, you guys. My pointer finger was like, it was incredible. Y'all take the like the other parts away because you just, you're so overwhelmed with my greatness.

Who won the title last year? Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. I hope you pee yourself, Jason. Me too. D.K. Metcalfe is in the midst of a full disappearing act. Yeah. I mean, he's been not good, not medium, horrible. 32, 37, 41, 44, 57, and now might not have Gino and playing Minnesota. J.S.N. is. for sure the wide receiver won for this team. He's overtaken at the very least since DK Metcalf's injury. DK McHav looked good in the beginning of the year. He got injured, missed a couple games, had the buy weeks since that he has come back and he's on pace for 74 for 924 and no touchdowns. It's not, I mean, 924 yards is, that's not like, oh, you're a bum, a worthless NFL player, but you're not great for fantasy. And if you're not getting touchdowns, which he has had none since.