Week 18 Starts & Nasty Boys + Big Money Incentives - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/4

Welcome to week 18 where we have unlimited diarrhea. But it's okay because we're going to follow the money. We're going to follow the motivation and help you get your starts right. Make sure you subscribe and enjoy. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into the podcast. That's the fantasy footballers podcast, you nasty boys. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Andy Holloway is out today on family business, but that doesn't matter because I'm here with my best friend. Best friends. Best friend for life. Jason Moore. I am Mike the Fantasy Hitman, right? Jason, how are you today? I'm pretty good. I think things are happening, are happy, are well. The only downside that I see is that people

some people have to play fantasy football this week. The scoundrels. The scoundrels have to play fantasy football. And we're here for you. Yeah. And we get it. We know you're not the commission of that league. We know you are not the commish of that league. You better not be. Our listeners would not commission a week 18 championship, but you're in with your buddies and it's out of your control. So we're here for you. It's just, I'm so sorry. Just so sorry for who you're going to have to start. Yeah, week 18. as all final weeks of the NFL season is shaping up to be the nastiest of the nasty boys. Kyle is reminding me. Thank you. That last year, Week 18 heroes included the likes of Davis Mills, the QB1 on the week, Davis Webb, the QB4 of the West. Any other Davises? Michael Davis. Nice. I just made that up.

Yeah, maybe there's a Michael Davis out there and they got real excited that I'm talking about him. But welcome into the show. Oh, Zach Moss was the running back too? That was just a foreshadow of things to come for him. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. Some quick housekeeping things at the top of the show. It is the final day for Footclan giveaway. Footclan giveaway.com. We are giving away a signed Travis ETN jersey. You can enter completely for free. How do you do it? Well, footclaim giveaway.com, and then you just do a couple things to help support this show, including a couple votes for the sports podcast awards, which is a vote for us for the main fantasy footballers. Also, the DFS boys are up for an award as well. So it would be very cool if we can take those home this year. Mike really wants them. I love winning, man. You do. You're a winner. You're a winner at heart, but we need you guys to do that. So footlandgaveway. I voted.

Parts. I don't doubt that at all. I voted for us. Well, thank you. Thank you for your vote, Mike. Yeah. You think when people are running for president, they don't go vote for themselves? That's a solid point. I would hope so. I would hope they're like, well, I need to be democratic about this, so I'll vote for the other person. That other guy's way better. That's loser talk. Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm going to go vote right now. Thank you. Thank you. Bookclan giveaway.com, and then, yeah, you can win a Travis E, T, in Jersey for helping us out. And then those who are already champions like yours truly or you're about to become a champion. Fantasychamps.com. That's where you got to go to get the swag. I ordered the ring. I'm very excited to get that thing and have it displayed just looking Jason directly in the face. I'm going to adjust the light. So it's just a single beam right into your pupil. Right in front of our desks, like right above our desks, we have mounted our.

all of our rings like we've got the trophies elsewhere and they usually travel but every year we get the championship rings for whatever championships we've won and i was looking at them and i've just got a glorious display you have a very nice array and i'm like i can't it won't grow this year though it doesn't grow this year that's too bad for you but for everybody else fantasychamps dot com and if you are wanting to buy something for the league You can buy a trophy or belt. And if you use the code free ring at checkout, you can get a $59 championship ring for free. Again, with the purchase or the trophy or the belt. Just put both items in your cart. Code free ring. Join us on our Discord, ballersdiscort.com. Make sure you're staying connected with the show. Again, we don't go anywhere. But, you know, I mean, it's Dynasty time. And I will tell you, the Dynasty people on the Discord, they love Dynasty.

as much as we do. I'm very excited to get into prospecting so you can check that out. Anything other here at the top of the news, Brooks, or we're ready to get in the news. Let's go. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Starting quarterbacks as of now for championship week. This is a fun list. The Ravens will be starting MVP. No, no. Pro bowler. Pro bowler. Tyler Huntley. The Browns will be starting Jeff Driscoll. We'll see if he has a plan. The Chiefs will be starting Blaine Gabbard. The blonde bombshell is back. The Vikings will go back to Nick Mullins in their Hail Mary to try and make the playoffs. The 49ers, hopefully there's no ghosts on the field because Sam Darnel will be out there. The commanders, regrettably, will be starting Sam Hal, which I saw a note that.

Sam Howell is now the first quarterback to start every game for the Manders since Kirk Cousins. Yeah, that makes complete sense. We talked about this offseason how many quarterback changes they have had as a franchise. And what's crazy is they tried to change it. They didn't want him to play the entire season. But yeah, these quarterbacks this week, they are unlimited diarrhea. They are unlimited. They are unlimited diarrhea. However. There's one more quarterback. You haven't mentioned that. No, I was going to do it. I'm going to hit. This is just for you, Jason. Starting for the Rams. Yeah. Oh, baby. Carson Witts. Not Matt Ryan. The five-year-long bet of Carson Wins versus Matt Ryan. Who's out of the league first? I'm in the lead again, baby. Carson's playing. How do I turn this up? Do I hit the button again? Yes, sir. Yeah, it again. All right.

I didn't want to pull an Andy and have us sitting in the red light. The red light. But Carson Wentz, if you haven't, if you have not been a part of that, I'm sorry, you've missed out on the best bet of all time. Years and years ago, Jason and I made a bet who will be out of the league first? Matt Ryan. Carson Wentz. It was a roller coaster of emotions up. We have each won this bet. Several times. About five times. Where it's like clear cut Carson's done. He'll never play again. Or Matt Ryan's done. He'll never play again. So this is why yesterday when this news broke, Mike, you said, I'm waiting until the completion of next football season before I declare you the full victor. I think you have a really good chance of winning.

But Matt Ryan could Joe Flacco. Yeah. Come back halfway through next year, lead a team to the playoffs. I would say that's impossible if not for our bet. I think these two gentlemen know about our bet and have really been playing us the fools. Very possible. The Rams have ruled out Kyron Williams, Cooper Cup, Tyler Higby. All their stars. Oh wait. There's one guy that they decided not to rule out. Puka Nakua will start the game. because Pooka Nakua needs four receptions and 29 yards to break the NFL rookie record. And the press conference that Sean McVeigh was in, he said, you know, I think you'd like to be able to see him get an opportunity to do something special and then be smart with him. What he is saying, if you're not familiar with Coach Speak, is we're going to bubble screen him to four for 30 and get him the heck out of the game. Yep.

You should not play Pooka Nakua this week. If you have him, treat him like he's out. Now, that's not to say that once he gets one of these screens or one of these passes, that he can't have a 75-yard bomb and be fine for fantasy. He's a super awesome, good, talented player. But should he get to 4 for 30, that baseline, or he's at 4 for 35, they will yank him. He will not play another snap once he has these records. That's a done deal. So you better hope. that he's at 29 yards, you know, and still, or 28 yards. Right. And still playing and gets a bomb for a successful fantasy day. I view Puka as someone I'm not wanting to play this week. Yeah, I agree with that. Raiders head coach, Antonio Pierce, said Josh Jacobs is a game time decision. So we are at about a month straight of game time decisions for Josh Jacobs, which he has been on the outside of. He's still not practicing. So until he gets.

Full practices logged. I think you just got to assume he's still going to be gone. Rahim Moster did not practice Wednesday. It's a Sunday night game. We're only bringing that up because, like, Moster has not been practicing on Wednesday, but then he did it last week and it was nothing. No concerns here. Uh-oh. Brahim Moster is out. So if he's in your championship week, you better be paying attention. It's a super important game for the Dolphins. We covered that yesterday on the importance. And also if you didn't listen to yesterday's episode, we do talk about all the. implications of week 18. Who's motivated to play? Very important. Listen to that. We do have an article on the website. Should you forget, you know, throughout the week, life gets crazy. Matthew Betts has written up a beautiful article laying it all out for you, including some financial incentives of players that they could thresholds that they could surpass this weekend. But again, Rahim Mostert, because it's a Sunday night football game, you have to have a pivot.

Just in case mustard is out. And then in the San Francisco news, Elijah Mitchell, the number one waiver pickup of the week. This is back-to-back weeks that the number one waiver wire pickup was a running back who was set up for incredible success. But Elijah Mitchell this week, he didn't practice on Wednesday because of an illness. And then we got a report from the athletic that they believe Jordan Mason is going to see an expanded workload in week 18 instead of Elijah Mitchell. Interesting. Could be related to Elijah Mitchell has a propensity to get hurt, and you would rather not have him get hurt in a meaningless game. So those are all things to pay attention to. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usAA.com slash insurance. Let's try and talk about these games. Fantasy forecast. We got two Saturday games. The NFL just has.

said your week belongs to us now. Pittsburgh sitting at 9 and 7 they will be taking on a very relaxed nonchalant Baltimore Ravens sitting at 13 and 3 locked into the number one seed while Pittsburgh is fighting for a playoff spot. Pittsburgh is favored in this game. Minus 4 and the draft kick draft king sportsbook line has Pittsburgh favored by 4 in the over under an incredible 35 points. Yeah, this is the Baltimore Ravens benching a lot of their star players. Now, obviously, they still have to feel the lineup. They're not just benching everyone. This is a solid team front to back. I don't see this as a team in a divisional matchup that could play spoiler against the Steelers' rival. I don't see this as a team that's going to lay down. But obviously, the Steelers are favored to win. They still have Mason Rudolph, who...

Yeah, they're sticking with the hot hand. So far in his two starts has been pretty good. He's been better than the other quarterbacks. More impressive in the second game than the first game for me. The first game, a lot of that was just George Pickens doings. But he kept doing last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm saying like week one, I feel like it was like screen that he took, you know, super far. But yeah, so you're going to have no. Ravens to start. I mean. Maybe Melvin Gordon. Maybe. Yeah. Oh, man. That's that's that's bottom of the barrel. That's bottom of the barrel in a championship matchup, Melvin Gordon. We've, I've done worse things in my championship matchups. Oh yeah. We sure have. But so Mason Rudolph will be the starter. Najee Harris, Jalen Warren, both got it done last week. That was Najee's first 20 plus point game since week 11 of the last year.

Jalen Warren was the RB 11 last week on 17 opportunities. George Pickens is Mason Rudolph's dude, a 31% target share over the past three weeks, absolutely crushing. And Deontay, you know, 4 for 76 this past week. I feel like everybody's in play. Like the Ravens defense, their starters, you know, that's a strong unit. However, over the past six weeks, the Ravens against fantasy wide receivers have been 25th. giving up over 30 points a game. I'm not even going to bring up the tight end because Mason Rudolph just does not prefer Pat Fryermuth. But I think that everyone's playable here. It'll be tough for the running backs, but again, we don't know what the defensive starting lineup will be. But I think they're all in. Do you see it a different way, Jay?

Yeah, I mean, I would certainly rather start Noggi and George Pickens over Jalen Warren and Deontay Johnson. Okay? Like, I'm happy to start Noggi and Pickens right now. The other guys are just what are my options, even though Jalen Warren has, he's been getting enough opportunities to be fantasy relevant. He hasn't been super fantasy relevant. I mean, this last week, he was, but prior to that, it hasn't been a good stretch run. So hopefully you could do better. I'd play him over a Melvin Gordon on the other side. The Houston Texans 9 and 7 take on the Indianapolis Colts who are also 9 and 7. The Draft King Sportsbook line is Houston minus 1. Is that surprising to you? The road team being favored here? No, they're the better team. Well, they are, but I mean, they're both 9 and 7 and this is a playoff game. The winner continues. The loser goes home. Kyle says that the line has been flipping back and forth, so the betters are influencing that. Over, under.

47 and a half. We like that. Colts home games average 51 combined points per game between the two teams. We like that. On the Houston side, C.J. Stroud, an opportunity to get into the playoffs as a rookie. He has been cooking. He is certainly the rookie of the year. Quarterback 13 versus Indianapolis in week two. Week two. And, you know, we were just getting a glimpse of what he could become. How are you looking at the Houston Texan side of the ball, Jay? Who are you playing? I'm looking at the Houston, Texas side of the ball with love in my eyes and a full heart. Loving your eyes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the heart emoji. Oh, like Bugs Bunny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Exactly. This is the game of the week to me. It is the most quintessential playoff type of game, super important to both teams. And it's a matchup of two teams that.

We've been targeting all season for fantasy, both offensively and defensively. You can kind of see how this game's going to play out rather easily. Five of the last six games for the Colts have hit the over. The Colts are one of the, I mean, right now on the course of the entire season, they only have five games that haven't hit the over. They are usually going above that. And with C.J. Stroud on the other side, healthy and going. I'm very, very excited for this game. You've got kind of two different funnel defenses here. The Colts are a run funnel defense. We'll talk about Devon Singletary here in a little bit, just an awesome starting matchup. And then the Texans are the opposite. They're going to be passed on all game. More difficult to run on them. But it's not like you're not going to start Jonathan Taylor. So I pretty much want all the pieces in this game. Nico is in for sure. Dalton Schultz is in.

Devin Singletary is in. Those three are... You're messing around with Noah Brown at all? Did not practice Tuesday or Wednesday. Yeah, he's been so banged up and had, you know, one big performance recently. I think you just assume that his health isn't reliable enough right now to make him a championship week start. That's fair. On the cult side of the ball, Jonathan Taylor, yeah, he's in. Zach Moss, you can't play him. And Michael Pittman, I mean, this game is pretty easy because Michael Pittman, his... had a fantastic year. Michael Pittman, the discussion that I'm looking forward to on him is forward thinking. Because he has to get a contract extension, which, yeah. Michael, if he is not given the bag by Indianapolis, he will be the most sought after free agent wide receiver. I don't expect him to hit the market. The Colts are going to keep him in. But this has been mostly, most of the production has been from Gardner Minshue. We had a.

You know, just a tiny glimpse of Michael Pittman with Anthony Richardson as the starting quarterback. And Richardson is, it's wild. Like, I feel like he's been deleted from memory. Yeah, from our mind. Just because of how the way that the NFL season goes, where Anthony Richardson was on the fast track to being a superstar quarterback, the story was going to be not C.J. Stroud. The story was going to be Anthony Richardson. So that's going to be very fun to talk about. Can Michael Pittman get it done with Anthony Richardson? Just as a reminder, week one with Anthony Richardson. Yeah, he was hyper. Yeah, he was targeting. 11 targets, eight receptions for 97 and a touchdown. So the answer is yes. But on the other side of the field for them, Josh Downs, what happened? Yeah, he's just, I mean. Has it been top 48 since week eight? And that includes some scenarios where Michael Pittman was missing time.

It's just, he's not a super great player. What happened here? But I mean, he was ramping up being very featured in the offense. And then he got, we know that he's been dealing with an injury the entire season. And then right in the middle of the season that really shut him down, 20% of the snaps in the game against Carolina, 25% against New England. And they've been kind of going back up. But his involvement has not. Yeah, this game's pretty easy. You're not going to start Josh Downs. Pittman is in. Jonathan Taylor's in on this side of the ball. The other side, Singletary, Nico Schultz are in. And of course, CJ Stroud's a great play this week. All right. We'll knock out the Sunday slate in just a moment. We will be right back. The Cleveland Browns are. Wait, wait, wait. I think this is the perfect time to tease something happening tomorrow. Oh, okay. Tell me about it. Andy's not here. Yeah.

And Andy's not going to listen to a week 18 episode. If he does, he's going to skip to like the starts of the week, see who we got or whatever. Right. He's not listening right here to the Browns Bangles matchup. And I want the footland to know. He lost four times in a row. I was the winner this week. And so I get to pick his shame at the end of the episode for tomorrow for the fantasy faceoff. I teased this when he wasn't on the podcast a couple weeks ago. Dude's getting a pie in his face. You're just going to full on tell people what's happening? I'm straight up telling people tomorrow. I'm pying them in the face. So stay tuned. Hey, foot gland. Don't tag Andy on social media. No, no, no, no, no. Come on. This is between friends. I trust. I trust the footland. I just, I'm giving you inside information so you can make sure you're there tomorrow. There could have been like a real big reveal and you're just telling everyone's happening. Oh, the big reveal is watching it. Okay. Yeah.

You're going to enjoy it. Well, that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm glad that it's not me. Yeah, getting it or giving it either? I don't look. I don't even know what you're talking about. Plausible denial. I've removed myself from this conversation. Back to the Cleveland Browns, 11 and 5. They're locked into the number 5 seed. The Cincinnati Bengals, they're 8 and 8. They've been eliminated from the playoffs. What a, what a game we're going to have here. Two teams. Nothing to play for. Players with stuff to play for. The last time they played was week one, Cleveland won 24 to 3 because Joe Burrow does not like starting hot. He is so opposed to it. Week one, disasters. That's kind of his thing. The Cleveland offense has been getting it done, but that's with Joe Flacco. And now it is Jeff Driscoll signed off the Arizona practice squad? Yeah. What are we?

What this? The game doesn't matter. People are people paid to go to this game. This is a sham. People pay to go to preseason games. I know and that's also a sham. Who could you possibly start from the brown side of the ball? Because the Bengals defense isn't good and you want to run on them, right? Yeah. But it looks like Jerome Ford not going to start. I would, I would imagine. I would imagine, yeah. I don't know how much they will use Cream Hunt. You know, it's Pierre Strong. Is he a title winner? I think he's a nasty boy. He's a nasty boy that could get the job done. I mean, it's a great matchup. But gosh, I mean, Cedric Tillman at wide receiver. It's just like Cedric Tillman. Yeah, he was okay. I liked him as a prospect all right, but he hasn't done anything. And he's been on the field a lot. Do you realize how much he's been on the field? I see the note now since week 9, 81% of the snap. I mean, since the, what did they do?

What am I missing here, Kyle? What was the change? I traded Donovan People Jones. That's what it was. Yeah, yeah. They traded him up to Detroit. That opened the spot for Senator Tillman. It hasn't turned into production. But he's an interesting rookie that maybe can do something for, I don't know, maybe a DFS lineup. Maybe. On the other side of the ball, Jake Browning, he's in contention. Like you can start him. He has been. Hot and cold for fantasy, but QB 18, but then 4, 4, 8, 21, 8, he's getting after it. Yeah, I think you could start the Bengals. I mean, you know, it's one of these things where a lot of the teams this week have nothing to play for, but they have had nothing to play for. And so they're still playing ball. They're not trying to keep guys healthy for the playoffs. They're just like, hey, this is our last week. Let's go out and, you know, play some football, whereas the teams that are playoff bound and have nothing to play for.

are wanting to rest guys. So I think Jake Browning and Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, Joe Mixing, they're all starting here. And you aren't as afraid of the, you know, I don't know if you start Denzel Ward and Miles Garrett. No, if they play a whole game. Yeah. The, the sketchy thing for the Bengals is remember that Jamar Chase is still healing from his shoulder injury. He gutted it through because they still had a chance to get into the playoffs last week. So Jamar not playing. That would not surprise me at all. Pay attention to the news. And then T. Higgins in that game tweaked his hamstring to the point that even the head coach, like there was a quote from him saying, I thought that Higgins was going to be out for the rest of the game. And then all of a sudden he's back on the field drawing a defensive pass interference. Yeah, just just. So maybe he plays. You just got to be prepared.

for them to sit these players. But if they play, if they start the game, this isn't one of those situations where it's like, well, they're going to get a quarter and pull them. That would surprise me. Yeah, I can agree with that. The Minnesota Vikings 7 and 9 take on the Detroit Alliance. The Drag King Sportsbook line is Detroit minus 3 and a half. The over under is 45 and a half. Minnesota, the note we have, they need a lot to happen to make the playoffs. We're not even going to lay it out. They need a lot to happen. The Detroit Lions.

after uh what are we what are we calling that uh what happened ref gate i don't know yeah um eligibility eligibility eligibility gate really rolls off the tongue just it's it names itself mike eligibility eligibility gate man uh they still can move into the number two seed they have to win i think they need like the eagles and the cowboys to lose something like that so it's a long shot but dan campbell's high tea I think his players are going to play, but if this game gets out of hand, which is very possible. If it gets out of hand, then I imagine that the starters would be pulled from the game. I think this is a game where you can start players without a massive fear of playoff implications. Like, I'm more confident in the Detroit players than I would be the, you know, like Jamar Chase and Higgins. Yeah, yeah. Finishing the whole game. Nick Mullins is back.

He is an absolute wild man. Thank goodness for Justin Jefferson. I mean, Justin Jefferson is going to have, he should have a super good game here. The Detroit Lions, they are last on the course of the season in schedule adjusted fantasy points given up to wide receivers. You have a banged up Jordan Addison at best. You have no Hawkinson. And you got Nick Mullins who's just going to go and try to get Justin Jefferson injured across the middle of the field. Jay Jets needs 120 yards or so to get to a thousand. Yeah, he'll get it. So it wouldn't surprise me if Jefferson's in the huddle reminding Nick Mullins, counting down the yard. Even with all the games missed, there's no way that Jefferson is going to want that thousand. Oh, for sure. And he should get it. I mean, Justin Jefferson is, you know, he should be a start of the week, but everyone should automatically start. Where are you with Jordan Addison? Jordan Addison.

Without T.J. Hawkinson there, you can have a little bit more confidence. He played 92% of the snaps last week when we thought he wasn't even going to play. So I'm not too worried. I think because of the matchup against Detroit, Jordan Addison is an okay play this week. All right. And then Detroit, just business as usual. Goff isn't the greatest start here against the Minnesota defense. Gibbs will be in Montgomery, you're going to play him. Both those guys, Amin Ra's in. And I think that's it. I think the only question is the running backs from the Vikings, the Ty Chandler and Alexander Madison. Madison was up to 40% of the snaps last week. And Detroit is very difficult to run on. So if I can avoid, if I've got a pivot option away from both Ty Chandler and Alexander Madison, I would. I would rather start Jalen Warren.