Week 15 Studs & Duds + Revenge of the Smith - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/18

So it's just at least something to pay attention to. Rahim Mostert is not stoppable. 18 touchdowns on the ground this year, two through the air, so 20 total. Next week is Dallas, then Baltimore. James Connor, big run against San Francisco, ended up 14 for 86, got back into the end zone. Two good weeks for Connor. Not sure how you feel about him on the road against Chicago next week. I... I feel probably about the same, if not better, than I would feel about him against San Francisco and their great defense. If he's going to be on the field and getting the carries and the opportunities, he's looking, he looks really, really good. So I know Chicago's run defense has been great, but it would be very hard to bench James Connor after back-to-back beastly performances. I'm terrified. Yeah, I mean, he played under 50% of snaps.

So at least with him in Singletary, I'm definitely going to lean the Singletary way. I don't understand what the Cardinals are doing on offense. It's called Michael Carter. He is there to disrupt what your plans were. And DiMarcato. Why are we not using James Connor as a pass catcher? Yeah, both those guys are getting a lot of snaps. It's absurd. Zemir White, 17 for 69 and a touchdown on Thursday. Nice spot start. Yeah, that worked out. Quick break back with some whiteouts. Well, let's start with the players you started and hoped for good things. Jalen Waddle, 8 for 142 in a touchdown with the surprise absence of Tyreek Hill. Against the Jets. Yeah, he murdered him. Cooper Cup, 8 for 1.11 and a touchdown. Amun Ross, 7 for 112 in a touchdown. Those three players are where your studs that you played and you hoped for a big game from. And Debo. And Debo.

Although he started hot, didn't really do much. Oh, he did score twice. Yeah, yeah. Two touchdowns. He got four. It's not fair. Like, he doesn't get enough volume to be as good as he is. He got four receptions and two touchdowns. Well, Debo's been on such a run right now. He's been a top 10 wide receiver four consecutive games. Would you say he's on a heater? I think you could say that, Mike. Yes. He's also had a rushing touchdown in three of four. He's had five receiving touchdowns in that stretch. I mean, he's on, that four games. He's on pace for like 33 touchdowns. So that's where he's at. He's on a heater, Mike. Rashi Rice, 9 for 91 in a touchdown. Devante Adams had the big game. The players that you didn't start that had big games. Or maybe you got backed into. Like Jordan Addison.

Goodness gracious. He was great. Two touchdowns. 111 yards. And this is the first time we've seen him with Mullins. I don't know if. Oh, Mullins looked awful. Yeah. Jason and I argued about Curtis CMO versus Terry McLaren. They were both great starts. I don't even know who had more fantasy points, but McLaren was six for 141 in a touchdown. Every single time that they put, they put Jacoby Brissette into the game. All Brissette did was stare down McLaren. and throw him the ball deep, except for the touchdown pass. He threw to Curtis Samuel. And there was, and McLaurin had a, like, a one-hander that he barely missed, too. That would have been another, like, 30 yards to his total. Curtis Samuel had five for 41 and two touchdowns, so three touchdowns between them. It was wild. The game kind of just prolonged. It just kept going. Like, it seemed like the Rams had it under control. They did come out and say Sam Hells the starter. They did? Yes.

You're sad because of Terry McLaren. Is that why? I'm sad for everybody else on the Washington commander team. Jacoby gets it done. I feel slightly validated because I pooed on Sam Hal this week. And he pooed all over his pants. But it should be Brissette. They play the Jets next week. Are you going to play Terry McLaren or Curtis Samuel with confidence against the Jets? Of course not. Yeah. I played someone this week that had tons of injuries. It wasn't a fair fight. They got backed into two starts that they never wanted to make. Jacobi Myers and Curtis Samuel and those guys had four touchdowns. Yeah. Cooper Cup, like I said, had a big game. Puka did not. Godwin, 10 for 155 out of nowhere. Yeah, hurt all week. You weren't supposed to be there. And he hasn't done this all week. I mean, all year. Yeah. Jason? Noah Brown. Eight for 81 in a touchdown with Case Keenum.

after two gooses. It was a nice match up against Tennessee and you hoped that the goose got loose. Well, you hoped that the first goose was because he's coming back from injury and the second goose was because he was playing against the jet secondary that doesn't give up much in the rain where CJ Stroud got injured. So what are you doing next week? Because you imagine. It's Cleveland. That's tough. It's Stroud probably. Let's say you've got Stroud. If I got no. Yes. If I have no Nico, no Tankdale, I'm playing Noah Brown. I'm fine with that. They're at home. It's not like Cleveland's going to give up nothing. Which Nico was pushing to play. I don't know if the reports of the morning. Don't push off his calf. I'm just saying like he was out there warming up. He could be ready to go. Sam Leporta, six targets, three touchdowns. He's on the cusp. He's on the cusp of being the number one tight end as a rookie. He's the number one tight end. Right now on the course of the season. Did you look it up in our player stats?

Yeah. I thought he was, I didn't think he was there yet. Right now in half PPR, he is the tight end one on the season. So Travis Kelsey is about, what, Travis Kelsey is at 162.9. And Leportas at 169.7. Yeah, Kelsey has one fewer game plate. That's what I guess what I was looking at. He's slightly higher in points per game. Sure. Then Leporta, but I mean, it's like neck and neck. Like, who would you rather start next week? Sam Loporta or Travis Kelsey. Hmm, man, Kelsey. Kelsey got banged up at the very, very end of that game. It's worth paying attention to this week. I think he was, like, grabbing his knee, but it was right at the end. So it wasn't like he exited the game. So we'll have to monitor that. But it was one of those things where it's like, you know, we benched Trey McBride in our champ, champ, champ, because we got Kelsey. Right. You know, you don't bench Kelsey. He's Travis Kelsey. But then it's like, oh, man, should you be?

If you've got these other great options. In points per game, let me just give you this for perspective. Because I think this is a huge discussion. Last eight games. Here's your tight end list. Okay. Last eight games. Points per game. Points per game. Number one. Sam Laporta. Okay. Number two. Oh, it's David Noghoku. Oh, yeah. Okay. T. McBride. Yeah, I would say Nukoku could. Number three is tied. Hawkinson and Kittle. Wow. Number four then, or number five, I mean, is Najoku. Then it goes Ingram. Then it goes Ferguson. Then it goes Kamat. Wow. Here we are. Travis Kelsey, number nine. It's because of, it's touchdown. Just ahead of Dalton Schultz. Let's see. Travis Kelsey. That's one touchdown in that last eight weeks. Kelsey has five touchdowns on the year. Yep. With three weeks left. That's unexpected.

He's got one more than Jimmy Graham. Oh, my goodness. He's got one more than Jimmy Graham. Yeah, Jimmy Graham, I think they were saying he has eight receptions on the year and four of them are touchdowns. Foot Clan, let me know if you can find whether Jason and I agreed to that bet again before the season. I need to know how much money Jason owes me. I can't remember. Can't remember if we re-up the bet. Does Disley have any touchdowns? No. Is he playing? Yeah. I mean, sort of. All right. Moving into the tight-in position, Laporta, like we said, three touchdowns. David Najoku, 14 more targets. I had a game where I was facing Flacco, and I played Cooper, and I played Nojoku. And it's like, that worked out. You know, that's a hard situation because you're like not rooting for the opponent's quarterback to do well, but you are rooting for them to do well only to your guys. And I think I think those two guys in our league, in a half point, outscored.

Joe Flacco by like 15. Oh, yeah. So it was perfect. They crushed. I mean, that is, those are the two players that he's looking for. And that's it. I mean, I wonder what the percentage of his targets were that went to those two guys. That late Cooper touchdown was delicious. We talked about it. Like, I made a big trade deadline trade. And I snuck David Najoku into the trade. And I was saying, I think this might be the key of the entire trade at the time because it's, tight-in schedule something, Jason, you look into and you look at as a huge indicator if a team can defend the tight-end position. Njoku's is the best, and it was the best from the trade deadline. He's the tight-in two in two straight weeks. He's averaging nine targets a game, and Joe Flacco was willing to throw the football and bring them. He brought him back to victory again. And he threw three picks. He's a wild man. Ugly picks. Ugly. Like, what are you doing? I was watching.

Stephansky, right? Their head coach. And I'm watching him in the press conference after the game. And I'm going to Jason. I go, he looks a lot like Joe Flacco. And then you look up his age. And they're two years apart. They might as well be brothers. They look like their brother. They're gray beard combo. Kyle, do you know, someone did like a face meld of the two. And it just looks like Stefansky. And it just looks like. Yeah. I think there was something out there. Looks like both of them. Hunter Henry. Our Scotty Fish champion of the century. He did leave with a knee injury. Scored again. Nine targets for Henry McBride. Yes. Ten for 102. 10 for 102 against San Francisco, who's good at stopping the tight end. And he missed some time. The guy was, he was clearly hurting. He is. He's hulking out right now. He's the only guy. He's the only player on the Arizona offense who can do anything. Jason said, does Kyler suck?

And I said, I don't know, man. I'm like the line sucks. The backfield sucks other than Connor who plays half the snaps. There are no wide outs. Yeah, no one can get open. And here's Tray McBride just ripping the ball out of the air. He had a catch in that game that was a complete overthrow. I mean, he was just, it was airmailed. And he went up and grabbed this thing from the heavens, came down with that ball, got, like broke the tackle and just. you know, did the Hulk scream on the sideline. He is really awesome. Like, buy in, I mean, you know, it's, I think people are buying it now, but it's, it's real and it's going to last. He is, he is, uh, one of those freak type of human beings. Tucker Kraft scored as well for 57 for the Packers. And, um, that's it for the.

The studs. Thanks to NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV for sponsoring this segment. NFL Sunday ticket is now to $79 for the rest of the 23 season when bundled with YouTube TV. Sign up now at YouTube.com slash fantasy footballers. That's the lowest price on YouTube TV with the base plan. Rest of the 2023 season terms and embargoes apply no cancellations. Poopped in his big boy pants. Now I don't want to just sit here in the poop and wallow in the feces. Okay. It's one of mine. That was our dud section. So, let's turn this prescriptive. Okay. If they dutted, if they laid an egg in thy pants, we discuss whether they'll have a clean pair of drawers for next week, all right? All right. Dak Prescott, things went sideways quickly. The bills ran the ball. They basically evaporated quarters. Yeah. I mean, Josh Allen.

Six attempts did not do very much. Or sorry, six completions into the fourth quarter for Josh Allen. Yeah, he didn't need to. And the question is like next week at Miami, great matchup, right? High scoring affair. But you kind of thought that about the Buffalo Bills. If you're the Miami Dolphins and you just watched the drubbing beat down that the bills gave, it was so clear and obvious what the game plan was. You don't have to be a football mind to look at what they did and go, oh, okay. So you just run every play? We should do that. You can beat the tariff of them. And if there's a team set up to be able to just run successfully, I mean, so long as A. Chan's toe issue is fine between Moster and A. Chan, could they just employ this same strategy and just keep Dallas off the field? They can try, but I mean, Dallas is committed to one thing in this league.

and that is lopsided performances on either side of them. I mean, they either dominate or give up the early lead. Call it off. Let them win. I mean, think about the Arizona game, right? Like all of a sudden, they were dominating the first two weeks. Now, this is two straight duds for DAC. Do you have, Mike, do you have concern with the Miami matchup? No, I will be, if I have DAC, I'll go right back to him. Sam Hal was replaced. He went 11 for 26. That is, um, That might be a record. Yeah, and if you want to talk prescriptive, you've got the Jets and the Niners as his next two matchups. Bye-bye. So you're done with the Howell Experiment. That was a fun run. Justin Fields was not excited about this matchup against Cleveland, 19 for 40. Two Hail Mary interceptions. Didn't run the ball well. Fumbled twice.

He threw for under 175 yards. But Moon, he almost caught it. He was obviously not good. But it's such a shame that he goes down with two interceptions. Like he didn't throw an interception in this game. He threw a Hail Mary at the end of the half. Okay, it got picked. He threw a Hail Mary at the end of the game, which should have been caught for a touchdown. That's a quarterback penalty for not being in a competitive game. Sure, yeah. But even like the first half, that's not that you're not in a competitive game. And actually, I would argue that.

If you're throwing a Hail Mary, then you're in a competitive game. It's a chance to win. Like, he would have won the game. Would he have gotten credit for the touchdown of Mooney caught it? Yeah. Okay. Then we count the interception. I know. I'm just saying it's like, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, no, I feel like those should. Like tip passes sometimes too. Kyler Murray. Oh, but prescriptively of Fields. I'm playing Fields this next week against Arizona. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We move forward. Thank you. Kyler, though. Kyler was a. He was at three fantasy points until his little throwaway drive at the end of the game. He can't do it with this group. And I don't know, man. The Cardinals, the Carolina won. Now I want the Cardinals of the number one pick again. And I don't know. I am, what is it? Prisoner of the moment. I really am with Kyler. Yeah, I am. Sometimes I watch him and I'm like, I'm done. I don't want to watch him anymore. I'm more concerned about Kyler than I am about Fields for fantasy purposes.

Ironically, this next week, right, they play each other. I will play Fields over Kyler in that same matchup. Fields is at home. The Cardinals' defense is worse. Chicago's defense is getting much better. That's an easy one. But now, Kyler versus the Jake Browning, that's a different discussion. Those are when you start to just, like Kyler Murray's not been. He's been bad. Yeah. Yeah, that's the word for it, isn't it? I mean, 11 fantasy points, 13, 20, 21, 17. I don't think he has a receiver that can catch a touchdown, man. How many multi-touchdown games does he have so far? Kyler? Yeah. Now, does rushing count? No. Then none? None. None through the air. I mean, what is that? Four games, five games? Five games. Four passing touchdowns, three rushing. It's a scary start. Let's say that. Running backs.

Boy, there were some big names and big dumps. Oh, we had fun with Derek Henry. Andy's laying on the couch. We knew Derek Henry had a dud. I ask him, I go, hey, Derek Henry had 16 carries in this game. How many yards did he have? And Andy starts at like 35. I knew where you were going. So I'm like, I'll start at like 30. Like lower, lower, lower, lower. And he just kept lower. And he couldn't get all the way down to. He had nine yards on 16 carries. He had four receptions, not targets. Four catches. He got a yard. Shout out to Ryan McDowell. He shared this. Derek Kennedy is the first player in NFL history to have at least 20 touches in a game and produce less than 15 total yards from scrimmage. It's impossible. Amazing work. Well, and it was against the Texans. It's historically bad.

Who, you know, that used to be the... That's Derek Henry's matchup. Now, there was no snow on the ground in Vermont. I was going to say. Dry, hot. I think it was rainy, but just no snow. But listen, Bijon, Henry, Barclay, A-chan, Breece Hall, Pollard, ETN. Wow. So I am reading you a list of players that got you to the playoffs. How many of those are you actually concerned about for next week? Matchups. Bejon plays Indianapolis. Derek Henry, Seattle. Barclay, Philly, A. Chan, Denver, or I'm sorry, Dallas, Breece Hall, Washington, Pollard, Miami. There's not one of these players that you're not going to start. The one that I would be concerned about, I do think ETN has had a stretch of bad games where if he's not getting touchdowns, he's not been efficient this year. He's just not. Might have Bethard. Yeah, I mean, we, yeah, we don't know if Lawrence will go through the concussion protocol.

quickly or not, but either way, like, he hasn't, ETIN hasn't actually been good this year. He has been good for fantasy because he's scored so many touchdowns. But he's been, and he does get volume. And past catching. But he's been very, very ineffective on the ground. At least four catches every game. He's been very ineffective on the ground and he's playing against the Buccaneer. And I know end of season ranks are, they can be misleading, which is why we. We produce our truth series, the truth about how players got where they are as soon as the regular season is over. Do you know where Travis E.TN currently reside? I do. Number three. Yeah. No, and I disagree with the contention that he's not been good. Okay. I agree with the contention he's not being efficient. I think Travis Euton is an excellent player. You know, you can't put up that level of touchdowns and effectiveness in the red zone and catch that many passes. Like, I think that he's done a lot.

this year to impress. It's just when he's not scoring lately, it's been a problem. I mean, if you had him, he carried you. Yeah. I mean, he was like the RB1 through the first eight weeks. Yes, in the beginning of the season. Well, he had that stretch run. And the matchups have been tough. I mean, you got Cleveland, Baltimore the last two weeks. He, he had that stretch run where every single week he had two touchdowns and it was, it was glorious. But like, it's like, I have ETIM, right? My dynasty team that was set to be a by week team and now is about to.

exit um a large part of that is etienne do you think that since the by week since we've played poorly though i do i like when you watch him when i watch him i i i don't i don't think he's played like i don't think travis eton sucks i don't think he's a bad player none of that but he doesn't get he leaves stuff on the field he has not looked special to me he hasn't looked he's looked like a volume play and they use them around the goal line, and he gets receptions, and that's fine. So do you think he's a dynasty trade? Yeah, I mean, if he finishes at three, you could trade him for whatever you want. Yeah, I would be happy to do that. Since week 10, so since their by week, which is a good strike, that's six weeks, he's been the running back 18. And so it's like, that's not murdering you, but that's not, you know, you talk about he's the running back three on the course of the season. He's, you know, behind.

Brise Hall behind Bejohn during those stretch. Yeah, 42 rushing years a game. Tuba during that. 42 rushing years a game in that stretch. Yeah. Some really brutal. I mean, they've lost four of six. You know, they were winning all those games where he was scoring. So like the winning side running back generally does a lot better. And they lost to San Francisco and Cleveland and Baltimore. Tampa's good on the ground. So yeah, that's fair. I think I'm worried about Barclay, obviously. When you take on Philadelphia. Yeah. But you're not going to sit them down, right? I mean, no. Now, players, you can sit down. You can think about Giovante. You can think about nausea. You can think about, I mean, those two guys had big dud weeks that you couldn't count on. What do you think about Zeke? Zeke was very disappointing, but he's still, you know, 87% of snaps. 17 opportunities. 17 opportunities, six targets. Just play him.

Right. That's kind of how I feel too. Single terrier, Zeke, though, then you're a different discussion. Sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously it's who else do you have to start, but. We do have confirmation here, a little bit of breaking news. Breaking news. Kyle, you are, you're on the microphone today. I'm here. Jason, you owe Andy $400. Wait. Yep. I knew it. Wait. How was this established? on the show live. I said this? Yeah, he did. I knew you did. Yeah. See, Mike, Mike's been covering for you. My man. Mike's been covering. Wow. Wow. To be fair, I was also then the one in Slack who's like, Andy, I think Jason knows you money. Oh, I take that high five back. It's too late. It's on my hand. It's fresh. It still stings. It's all right. I already sent him 100 for losing a DFS. I think I sent him like 100 a couple weeks ago for a bet. We just have an escrow that we just passed.

Sometimes you have ownership of it. Sometimes you don't. It's just like $500 that swabs between people. Yeah. Never actually gets spent. That's big news. Thank you, Kyle. Your commission is on the way. Thanks, Kyle. Jimmy Graham still got opportunities, right? For the rest of the year. Oh, man. Jimmy Graham's terrifying. You got to get out of this bet. I'm going to say you've got to get out of this. I'm going to end this bet tomorrow. Pick which kid you don't want to go to college. Maybe Desley gets a touchdown tonight. I can get 100 back. Ooh. Nice. Thanks for the money. Well, you have received your money now. Thank you. You just did it live. All right. All right. It's panic in the streets at wide receiver for Stefan Diggs at this point. I mean, the recipe for this team has been to run the football. It has caused major issues. Diggs 4 for 48. The game started and I was a little optimistic. But here's...

Yeah, he looks great and then they decided we can just run the ball. Yeah, here's what I will throw out. Josh Allen completed seven passes. Stefan Diggs caught four of them. Well, you know Gabe Davis isn't going to catch any of one. But the point being like, Diggs is still the guy. The market share is outrageous. Would you ever sit him down? No. No. Not against the chargers. Okay. I'm just saying like there might be people like Noah Brown. Yeah. If Nico Collins doesn't play and it's Stroud, do you sit them down for Noah Brown? No, I would go. I would go, DeVonte Adams or Diggs. I don't know Adams matchup for next week, but that would be a matchup play. It's Kansas City. Oh, then I would go Diggs. Yeah, I agree with that. Diggs has a great matchup next week. And really, if we're being honest, Diggs looked great to start that game. When they were throwing the ball,

It was to Diggs, and he made great receptions. There was nothing on film that said, like, there's a problem here. What happened is what we already discussed. They were like, we're going to run the ball 110% of the time and keep Dallas off the field. They can't stop the run, and so they didn't need to throw. And so it sucks. But that has been a multi-week thing with Cook, right? He's been a top, he's been the best running back for four weeks at the expensive digs for four weeks. Right. So I guess if they like the recipe, maybe the ceiling goes away? Possibly. I mean, if they're able to run the ball effectively and just annihilate their opponent that way, then, yeah, obviously Diggs is going to take a hit. If you look at like the Chargers matchup coming up, because the Cowboys, they're great against wide receivers. You know, they've got a good secondary, good pass rush, but they're not great against the run. Whereas the Chargers, their secondary is terrible. They're not great against the, insert word here. Yeah, that's true.

It could get out of hand pretty quick, though. That's a good point. Yeah. Brandon Ayyuk for the first time in a long time. Five targets, three for 37. Yeah, honestly. Purdy missed him on. Pretty just missed him on a couple of deep touchdowns. He did. Pooka Nakua, five for 50. This is another reason I lost in our DFS. I pivoted from McCaffrey and Cup in a lineup. Whoops. And switched over to Bejohn Robinson and Pooka Nakuwa. What did Bejohn score officially in Draft Kings? Negative 100. Like, was he negative on there too? I don't think it was negative. I don't think so. I think he had like half a point or something. DJ Moore, down game against Cleveland. Hopkins, nine targets, inexplicable drops. It was weird. Bombs that he caught and then you should have seen the play, Mike. Did you see the 42-yarder where he got up.

and he's in the middle of the field. And the first thing he does is, and if you're watching on YouTube, he does the reception. Yeah. Like, to the ref, like, I caught it. I caught it. So most players, when they catch the ball, they don't get up and say, I caught it. No. And then he starts going like this real quiet. He goes, he starts, he does the finger thing where it's like, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. It was like a thief that was caught red-handed. Diggs did it too yesterday where Diggs had a ball. And then he goes, hurry up. I know I didn't catch that. We're going to need to get this snap off quick.