Pump the Brakes, Playoff Q's + Collusion Confusion

I believe Kelsey is in another stratosphere. Yes. I mean, if you look at him on pass catching points on the year, he's like eighth. I mean, he would be a beast wide receiver. That's what I'm saying. All past catchers, he's number eight on the year. I'm with you with Ertz and Kelsey for sure. Man. I just think that when you get guaranteed production like that, I mean, Kittle can become beholden to Nick Mullins having a good game or something of that nature. Now, Kittles great, but I.

Jalen Samuels is going to get guaranteed work. So let's talk about the times here then. For Jalen Samuels, are you projecting James Connor level work? No. RB2. Back end RB2 work. That's your expectation for J.N. Samuels, at least mine. I expect him to be a better tight end than a running back for your team. Let's put it that way. Now, he's playing Oakland. They are on the road. But go back to the first part of that statement where I said they're playing Oakland. Yeah, that part's nice. That part is real nice.

The Raiders, speaking of Oakland, they've signed C.J. Anderson. I don't know why. I don't know why you do. You sign an old veteran at the end of a season. They've got to get ready for next year's tank job. Oh, gosh. Deonti Foreman, running back for the Texans, activated from the reserve PUP list. This is not important, in my opinion, if you own Deonti Forman, nor do you go get Deonti Forman. This is just kind of like a...

piece of sand in your eyeball if you're a Lamar Miller owner. Yeah. So, AJ Green on injured reserve, Greg Olson on injured reserve. The Bills, this is a surprise, I guess. The Bills have waived wide receiver, Kelvin Benjamin. If you needed somebody with a tight-in designation, he'd be the one to look at. Yeah. Hook that up, Yahoo. So, I mean, Calvin Benjamin is gone. Sianora. I don't know where he'll land. I don't know if we care.

He's not that good. I don't think we do care. No. But I guess you can, you know, Zay Jones, for whatever you want to say about Josh Allen, Zay Jones is receiving more than a quarter of his team's targets. There's only a handful of players in the league that do that. Yep. No, it's not bad. All right. Well. Strange news section. Yeah, I mean. CJ Anderson is throwing everything off there.

We're going to list Jalen Samuels, by the way, in our rankings in both departments. We are? We are. Yeah. What? We are. How are we going to do that? Because he's in both of our – he's already in both. So they'll be in our running backs and our tight-ins. Because we need to – Speak for yourself. A lot of people play on you. I get it. But hopefully they just listened and got the assessment. Now, you would think twice if you had Gronk or Samuels, or are you playing which one? I think I would play Gronk. Okay.

I'm playing Samuels in quarterback, running back, tight-in, and whiteout this week. He's going to count 4X, 4X, Jail and Samuel. Right. We're going to get into the mailbag, answer some listener questions. I doubt Jay Gris is going to help very much, but we'll throw a few questions to him. Before we do that, I want to thank 23 and Me for sponsoring today's show, now through December 25th. 23 and Me DNA kits are on sale. You can give the gift.

of genetic discovery you're always looking for an original gift this one's pretty cool because if you sign up and get a DNA kit you've got all your results and then if you gift it you guys can all share your results together it can be a very fun family experience um with their 23 and me ancestry composition report you can explore where your DNA is from out of 150 plus regions worldwide you can learn your role about gene i was just telling mike yesterday i looked at my report

And I was looking at some of the health markers. And one of the things I'm more prone to by my genetic profile is like age-related macular degeneration. So down the line. And now I can go buy vitamins that kind of complement my eyes. Right. I mean, that kind of insight is pretty incredible. And, you know, I've been a big fan. We've all had it done. Now through December 25th, get 30% off any 23-Me kit.

Order your DNA kit at 23andMe.com slash footballers. That's the number two, three and me.com slash footballers. Again, this 23 and me.com slash footballers. Want to thank RX Bar for sponsoring today's show. Ourx Bar is a whole food protein bar that actually tastes delicious. You'd likely recognize RX Bar on the shelf that the ones who label the core ingredients on the front of the package. If Brooks hasn't got him, he might have got them all. We'll get to that. The 14 delicious flavor varieties.

Great seasonal flavors, whether you like sweet, savory, chocolate fruit, there's definitely an RX bar for you. There's no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, preservatives, fillers. They get you what you need. Throwing in your bag for a snack, plane, bike ride, whatever. Or then now check out the RX nut butter, which contains nine grams of high quality protein. Put it on fruit, rice cakes, pretzels, right out of the pouch, whatever, you name it. Our man Brooks. Every day Brooks is like,

Hey guys. You guys, I can't work right now. I got to down this blueberry Rx bar. His favorite is always talking about it. For 25% off your first order of the bestseller variety pack, visit rxbar.com slash footballers. Enter the promo code footballers at checkout. That's rxbar.com slash footballers and the promo code is footballers. You're going to get 25% off your first order of the best seller variety pack, valid in the U.S. only, and for a limited time.

It seems like something you would say, you know, with someone that sponsors your show. But while you were doing, while you were talking about RX bars, I, I, I, I, DM'd Brooks on Slack and I asked them if they are seriously in the kitchen, because I'm, I am, I am so hungry right now. I did not eat breakfast. I've got that rumble. I have some. I have some. They're yours? I mean, I always do, is what I'm saying. You know those guys? You didn't buy them with the company card is what you're saying? No, they're just guaranteed always going to be ours bar. How many do you have? Around me. How many do you have?

I got a 12-pack, fresh. Present? Like in the studio. Yes, sir. So I can buy one off you. You can peddle them to me? Yeah. You've seen, you know, I want one. The guy in the cities that got the trench coat. That's him. They open it up and they just have watches. Yeah. That's Brooks except it's blueberry protein bars. But they're by prescription. Of course. All right. We're getting into the mailbag. I think it's going to be a Jay Gris plus Mike situation. Let's go ahead and get into the mail bag. Mailbag. Mailbag.

Mike, I hope you're not offended. I gave Jay Gris the close-up cam on that one. Okay. All right. Mike, I know for a fact. I know Mike. He's pretty pissed right now. Look, well, it's not just me who's mad. It's the people watching. Yeah. Being deprived of my close-ups. Yeah. Because Mike got a haircut this past week. He's trim. He's looking as not indigent as he can look. Look.

People noticed that hat week was going on again. Hat week was going on. Yeah. All right, let's jump into the mailbag. We're here to help you win this upcoming playoff week 14. I'm excited. I'm excited for you. It's time. It's time. Time to get it done. Send in your question. The fantasy footballers.com click to submit a question button. You can dial our voicemail hotline. We've got some voicemail questions on the show today. That number is 302464 TFFB.

I wonder if Jason would call the hotline. I think we would be safe from whatever sickness he's dealing with if he called the hotline. Let's start with a voicemail question. Bonjour. I have a quick question for you, fellas. I got Brady and Gronk on my team. I also have Luck and Ebron. I was wondering which stack I should go with going into week one of the playoffs or if I should just mix it up and go with one from each team. Love the show, guys. That's a great question, because Ebron,

I have Eberon one spot higher than Gronk this week. I don't want to be blinded by the name, and it's ironic you bring up Brady and Gronk in light of my pump the brakes today. Indianapolis is on the road against Houston. That is not as juicy of a matchup as the Miami matchup. Miami is a divisional game for New England. They traditionally – those can do some different special things. Where do you sit? Do you split those guys? I mean, would you go Brady-Ebron? No. Or would you go Luck, Gronk?

The Texans Colts, I mean, it's a divisional game as well. Yes. I'm just, they're both on the road. Right. Both of those offenses. I just think that maybe the matchup isn't as juicy as we think. I would go with Andrew Luck, Eric Ebron. Just double up on the Colts. I mean, the matchup is brutal. I'm with you. I'm with you because of the reliability and the doubt. This is the situation you can solve with the pump the brakes. It's not a matter. Look, he has this choice. Yeah.

And Eric Ebron will 100% get targets. 16 last week. A game where they were shut out. Yeah, it sucked if you played Andrew Luck, but Eric Ebron was still great for the tight-end position. If Houston could be exploited anywhere, I think Eric Ebron should be able to take advantage. But what I was going to say to monitor, monitor health of Andrew Luck's offensive line. I'm sure we'll have some more information on that when we.

preview their actual matchup but they have uh they have some problems at the center position yeah yeah i mean they were shut out last week which doesn't give you great confidence but it was jacksonville all right another voicemail question hey ballers this is jasper calling from wisconsin uh this is my first crack at the foot clan title and i have the first round bye

but the other guy on the other side of the bracket is an underfeated juggernaut. So I was just curious if you guys had any inside information or strategies to kind of combat that situation. Any advice will be helpful. Thanks for all the great shows. I do have my thoughts, and Mike can contribute as well. At this point in time, Mike and I both have the buy in our league of record. We're both 10 and 3. We're both the one and two seat on the other side of the bracket.

The way I think about it when I'm... So what are you doing to take me down? Yeah, I'd realize... I'm not undefeated, but I am a juggernaut. I realize that I would be revealing my strategies that I would use against you. But like I said, I'm the one seed, Mike. You're the two seed, so I'll turn the question to you two seed. I'm going to play my best team. Here's the thing. You have a buy week to play around with the waiver wire. I would be doing...

everything I could to make sure that I am hijacking not only the defense I want to play, but a defense that my opponent, the juggernaut opponent, might start in week 15 or 16. Maybe you, I don't know if you're going to play him next week or the week after. Take his options away. If you, every little advantage matters, and why not be granular with that decision making right now? Even if you got kickers in your league.

Why not be granular about, you know, we say maybe it doesn't matter, but you need to give yourself every single chance at any micro advantage against your opponent. Yeah, I agree. You want to steal his handcuffs? Yeah, I don't think there's big things you can do at this point, but the moves I would personally make would be looking at the DSTs and the handcuffs. That's, sure. I think that's your...

biggest haymaker you can throw. And if you really feel like it's a massive gap between your team and this juggernaut, then maybe you're looking, you know, we had the waiver show yesterday, maybe you're looking at names that have a lot higher upside than middle of the road type of starts, right? This question comes in. It's a league ethics question. This is always something I like to get into because we want to...

Cover the full gamut of fantasy questions on the show. Been in New York City. Hey, ballers. I love the show. I have James Connor, who is out for Sunday, and I plan on picking up Jalen Samuels off of waivers. Of the teams that made the playoffs, I have first dibs on the waiver wire. Do you think it is fair for another team who did not make the playoffs to pick up Samuels just to screw me over? I need your support in case I have to throw a fit tomorrow.

We have discussed this on the show. Look, Ben, you will get no, no support here. There will be no one in your corner over here. Yes, they can screw you over. This is what fantasy football is. It's not always about winning. Sometimes it's about making sure other people are not winning because that's all you have left. And I would tip my cap and I would commend those in your league.

if they actually picked up Samuels just to throw some spite into your face. Well, you want your lead to keep playing and to be active. I'm not a fan. If your opponent was openly recruiting your opponents? Yeah, that's a little Bush League. That's Bush League. That's the best way to describe it. But I, look.

It's not screwing you over. It's signing the best available player. Right. That's the thing. You don't have an inherent birthright to Jalen Samuels just because James Connor got hurt. You should have had them already. Agreed. Right? Yeah. All right. This question comes in off of Twitter. Gronker Jared Cook. In absolute crisis mode, he says. He thinks the answer is Cook. As does my rankings. It has... What? Yeah, I told you...