Pump the Brakes, Playoff Q's + Collusion Confusion

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Ah, welcome. It's Wednesday, December 5th, 2018. 2019, just around the corner, Mike, based on my ability to count. 2018. That's, that's well done. 2000. Yeah. Yeah, Brooks is here. How you doing, Brooks? Excellent. You ready to ring in the new year? Yeah, I guess so. Okay. Neutral on New Year's.

Brooks is neutral. Jay Grizz is back. Hey, Bear. Mike and I have got this thing. We've got this. You're darn right. We do. No one can preview a Jacksonville, Tennessee game like Mike. Oh, yes. Right? I mean, that's our wheelhouse. This reminds me of, I think it was two years ago now. We had this exact same matchup on a primetime slate and no one cared about it. I thought you were going to say it reminds you of eating like,

Bread without butter. No, because I'll do that. I mean, that's, that's fine. Bread's good. Bread is always good. So is this worse than that? Yes, it certainly is. I guess the Jacksonville, they're six and six. I'm sorry, the Titans are six and six. So they're still in the, yeah, the playoff hunt. But for the most part, this isn't a game that the country is very interested in, except.

For fantasy football players. So we'll preview that on the show today. We have mailbag, pumped the brakes. Catch you up on the latest news. I'm sure Mike will say some very eloquent. Very interesting things about Mike Tomlin today. Oh. We'll get to that. I'm just predicting that's coming. Jason's out again this morning. So we've got it on lockdown. Check out Footclan giveaway.com. When assigned, DeAndre Hopkins, Jersey, Sequin Barkley, Jersey, Michael Thomas Mini Helmet. Head over there.

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You know, Jason's not here, so I'm going to lean on Brooks a little bit for this. It's Wednesday. Wednesday means, oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly. O'Reilly. Auto parts. Oh, Jason. Wow. Jason's got Brooks beat. Brooks, that was. That was incredibly bad. I do it. I can't, guys. The thing about Brooks is he's always here. He doesn't miss. Jay Gris has never once.

Never once manned the producer desk, nor could he, being a cardboard bear and all. Doesn't have opposable thumbs. No, no. Or thumbs. I imagine we would just come in here. We'd set them up over there. And Mike and I, we would record the show, or so we thought. We would just do the show. And we'd just be talking to no one. And then it'd be over and we would think it was up. And we would think it's on YouTube. And we'd go about our day.

Until we realized that nothing actually happened. Yeah, then the timeline would be flooded. Where's the show? We're like... The bear. It's on the bear. All right. Pump the brakes with O'Reilly Auto Parts for today. Mike, who do you have as your pump the brakes candidate this week? This is playoff time. Yeah, I'm pumping the brakes on Chris Carson. And to speak to his ranking currently, let me get it exactly.

I have Chris Carson at running back 23, so he's still a playable guy, but pumping the brakes on my expectations for a guy that when he's played, I mean, he's been a pretty reliable fantasy guy, but he gets Minnesota. I don't like the matchup against the defense, the finger injury. He's going to play, but you don't know what that. It's a variable. Yeah, well, it's certainly a variable. If he gets hit and it gets dislocated again, re-injures, then you have this.

slight emergence of Rashad Penny looking capable, looking like the player that they drafted. So I'm just pumping the brakes on what I expect Chris Carson to do in my desire to lock him in as a running back two. Matchup, the finger, Rashad Penny having the first game of his career where he actually looked better than Chris Carson. Right. No, I see the logic behind that. I struggled to isolate a New England patriot.

that for this segment and again this is pump the brakes this doesn't mean you you know you bench all of these players but i'm just i'm pumping the brakes on these scary playoff patriots in part because um i you know i watched this the matchup is good the matchup is good against miami all i mean is let's let's talk about a few players one tom brady in and of himself over the last few years has been

A killer of fantasy football players in the blast. He loves it. Now, he's obviously not conscious of this world. Oh, no. He loves it like he loves vegetables. Oh, you think so? Yeah. Burning down the fantasy player? It's just part of the Patriots allure. Well, let me highlight a few things. When I was watching the Patriots game, we know this. We've known it for a long time, but Bill Belichick is not beholden to our expectations for his players. Devlin stole two touchdowns this past week.

After having one carry on the season. I mean, come on. How does that feel as a Sony-Michel owner? One is whatever. Two? Two. Come on. So let me ask you this, Mike. Do you know whether James Devlin is going to receive goal-line carries in this game? No. Okay. So do you know whether Sonny Michelle is a great play or an okay play? I think he's a good play. Okay. James White? Seemed like the only offense. I mean, Josh Gordon was completely shut out in the first half, right? Rob Grunkowski has yet again been a

Uh, not reliable tight in the Patriot offense. And real quick, uh, shout out. If you, if you saw the video of, we, we put a video up of me. Oh, yeah, going down with the ship with the grunk boat. People ask, that was baby Josh. Yeah. That was his work. So credit where credit is due. He finally did something good. Yeah. And, and when do you leave baby Josh? Not soon enough. Your internship's over in like a week. So. So we expect one more great video. That's right.

I want you to get that baby brain churning. But if you haven't seen it, go check it out on our Twitter. It's really good. It's really good. But again, this is tempering the reliability that you have on these Patriots to give you something amazing. Now, Josh Gordon is a great player. And obviously he ended up with a touchdown in that game, but he was very rarely targeted. There were a lot, Mike and I were watching this game. How many times was he not on the field?

I mean, there were piles of formations that were James White and Philip Dorset-oriented formations. The usage of Dorset was strange. It almost seemed like the punishment that never came from weeks ago. He had just delayed it until the media was off of it. And then let's just throw Rex Burkhead in the pot. In Quinsuocha. As I.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean... If you're familiar with Ace Ventura. So it's a matter of can I guarantee production from any of the Patriots? No. I can't. Do I still play them? We can look at our rankings and decide where we're playing guys over other players. But the matchup's good, but I would not be surprised if after this week we have some people bemoaning the Patriots in their lineup after they've been eliminated from the playoffs on behalf of them.

Yeah, so just or because of them. Took a quick look here. I mean, Josh Gordon for the past, what have we got? Six, seven games is averaging mid-80% of snaps. And this past week against Minnesota, 65%. Yeah. So Bill Belichick took the glove off, smack you across the face with him. Well, this could just be part of the game plan. He felt like someone had an advantage. It was James White. Baby Josh. You can avoid having to make one more.

video for us if you can get the game plan from Bill Belichick before this week. And if we can mention it on the show, I know you're a Patriots fan. I know you probably, you're very small as a baby. You can sneak in there. You can get the game plan. All right. Let's get into the news. By the way, that was pump the brakes with O'Reilly Auto Parts, better parts, better prices every day. News and notes from around the league. Adding to the comedy of my elimination in our dynasty league with my amazing team.

That, by the way, ended the year with the second most points scored in the league. I've mentioned that only 7,000 times. Adding to the humor of that, I have tried to solidify my roster over and over and over again with wide receivers in that league. Mike, you know this. I do. And then Sammy Watkins, you're out. I had Marvin Jones, knocked out. This past week lost a number of players. My last two remaining guys was Deshaun Jackson, and then I had Ryan Switzer. Deshaun Jackson now, according to ESPN Bucks reporter, Jenner Lane.

It's quite possible they hold him out the remainder of the season. And then Switzer took a concussion. He's in the concussion protocol. I think that Deshaun Jackson's time in Tampa Bay is coming to a close. Yes, yes. So he may be out the rest of the season. The James Connor news. Now, Mike Tomlin came out and wanted to thwart. He was very strong. Yeah, why don't you get into that? So Mike Tomlin was.

Very heavy-handed assuring everyone. No, no, no, no. There is no ankle problem for James Connor. It is merely a contusion. And he will be fine. It is a minor injury. Oh, more testing is done. James Connor has an ankle sprain, and he's out this weekend. When that news broke yesterday, got the sleeper alert that James Connor was going to be out. I had a very visceral reaction because I'm so...

sick of these coaches lying. And he wasn't just... I believe you screamed liar. You screamed liar out into the universe. It's... Mike Tomlin. Look, I will never understand this weird advantage you think you're getting by lying about it. And being so angry about it. Getting mad at people. How dare you ask you people who pay my salary? Pro football doc on Twitter immediately was like, oh, that's an ankle sprain.

And then Mike Thomas, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't listen to television doctors. Oh, weird. Weird. They got it right. So Tomlin said the Steelers' intention is to use the running back by committee. That means we're talking about Jalen Samuels. That means we're talking about Stephen Ridley. And we've brought it up on the show this week. Jalen Samuels is a running back and tight end in Yahoo Leagues. Now, the reason is Jalen Samuels tested with the tight ends at the NFL Combine.

They have a running back tight-in tag, and they came out yesterday. Yahoo Fantasy Sports did, and said he's had running back tight-in eligibility all season, and they're not changing it. So Jalen Samuels, as far as I'm concerned, if you don't have Travis Kelsey or Zach Ertz, I'm starting Jailen Samuels above every other tight-in, including Eric Ebron, Rob Gronkowski, George Kittal, yes. Yes, I am.