Week 16 Matchups + Tough Decisions, Happy Holidays - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/23

Happy holidays, everybody, on today's show. We break down that Thursday night matchup, which is really just, let's talk about Zach Wilson and how he stinks. Then we have the rest of the matchups, and we have a shame that is in the holiday spirit. Make sure you subscribe to this channel. Leave us a comment, enjoy, and enjoy your holidays. The fantasy footballer studio is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Visit Samsung.com to learn more. Merry Christmas. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Welcome in, one and all Friday, December 23rd, the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Thank you for following the show, hanging out with us.

Merry Christmas. Happy holidays to all of you out there. Our final show before. Merry Christmas. Happy holiday. Thank you, Justin. We are excited. We've got a lot to talk about. We got more matchups on the fantasy forecast today, news, Thursday night game that. Thank goodness I bench Jay Jones in. Oh, boy. That was a little bit stressful because. there's a psychological component to fantasy football, a big one. I mean, lots of them. What? Lots of them. But one of them is simply the fact that, like, the problem with process over results, that idiom that we bring, right? The problem with it is that it's not always right. So you will end up on the wrong side of it, is my point. Oh, sure. You can follow the process.

Which is what I did was Zay Jones last night, right? Like the emotional part of me was like, Zay Jones was the number one wide receiver the week before. He led me through the playoff matchup. He was awesome. And then, you know, I turned the game on last night. And I'm like, you know, I'm squinting to try to see the level of precipitation flurries, all of the different components, the wind. And I'm trying to determine if I would be so bold as to make a last minute pivot back into Zay Jones. And I followed the process. And now last night, I was rewarded by the process. We talked about it on the show. You guys made some wind sound effects. That was live. Very persuasive. And so it worked out. My point being, he could have caught a touchdown.

You know, you're down around the goal line. He could have caught one of those for a touchdown. And then, you know, you could live with regret and then you could be tempted to just not follow the process next time. So that's kind of part of what happens in fantasy. You just, you stack up process after process after process and you hope that more of them end up in your corner and you end up on the winning side. Yeah, you want to play probabilities. 60% hit rate is going to win out most of the time. So try to make good decisions. And if you go 6040, you'll end up with a lot of Ws.

Well, it is Friday, so we got a little something special to give away. Put Clan Friday. And no, that is not Zach Wilson's job. Today we're giving away a $100 gift card to Fantasychamps.com that goes to South Park Cowes over on Patreon. Oh, moo. So congratulations. Thank you for supporting us to join thefoot.com. You have $100 to Fantasychamps.com. I have a feeling fantasy champs.com will be getting a lot of visits in the next couple of weeks. There's going to be a lot of hashtag footclan titles going around from our audience. So get prepared with the trophy from fantasy champs. I don't know. We always talk about like last place punishments. But I don't know if I've heard of the one where like the last place team just has to buy the trophy for the league. That is so simple. It's so simple. It's elegant. Yeah. The problem there is you might end up with.

A less than trophy. I found one. I got one. I think it has to be. Six inches tall. It should be agreed upon. Yeah. Before the draft. Yeah. I don't know if we've ever talked about it before for last place or first place prize punishment. But I was reminded of the John Ham League. Do you guys remember that story? You know, I know he plays. Madman, Manman star John Ham. Man, man, man, man, man. Man, man. Man, man. Mr. Draper himself. In their league, the winner, like, at, he's not allowed to tell anybody. Everybody comes to the draft. They get connected to the Wi-Fi. They get their laptops out, and he kicks one person out of the league. Oh. And you don't tell them until.

They make them come to the... They have to come to the draft and then you pick one. So he talks about, like, battling traffic, getting to there, opening his laptop, collecting to the Wi-Fi, and then they go, Ham, you're out. So that's a little more savage. That's... That's not the Christmas spirit. Does that mean the champ, like, brings the new manager? I don't know. I don't know if it's like a one-year ban, you know, like you're out for a year, you're back the next year. I mean, they got to rotate it, so you got like 13 managers, right? That is rock. That's hardcore. I mean, that's a hard. I mean, that'd make you play pretty hard. But let's get into the Thursday night recap. Oh, that's. 19, New York, three. The wide receivers in this game were through and through players you didn't want to play. So you're talking about, I mean, just you would be devastated. It would be the worst start to your semi-championship week. Yes, as they call it. Garrett Wilson, Christian Kirk.

Zay Jones. Let's put it this way. Christian Kirk was the, and Garrett Wilson were 4 and 30 and 3 and 22. But Garrett Wilson had a fumble. And it was the worst luck fumble in the history of the NFL. I mean, look, this is part of the playing in the rain and everything. So if, like, if you played a wide receiver, right? Yeah. You saw that the spinning kick? Yes, the bottom. I mean, I'd be kicking fumbles out if I could do it. I'm sure they would too in football, but they all were terrible, except for Schmevin, Schmangram. The game plan was perfect. I would have been very nervous to start him because I was nervous to start anybody in this matchup. But speaking directly to the process that Andy was talking about, like when you re-evaluate, okay, let's look back at the windy and the raining game. Like the fact that Evan Engram.

The guy who's always running the short routes, running crossers, he's the one who had the success. You go, okay, yes, that actually made sense. His particular skill set with the way that he is being utilized in this offense, it does make sense that he came through. Doesn't make sense to me that he came through with seven for 113 yards when the receiving high. Like Travis ETM was the second highest receiver on the team with 29 yards. Michael Carter, 5 for 44 on the other side. Like nobody had a good game through the air. And Evan Engram had a fantastic day. It was ridiculous. And that's because it wasn't really through the air very often. It was check it down to him. Misdirection. Great game plan. Perfect for the weather. And then he would run wild. I mean, I think he was like.

Ended up 16 and a half per catch. His average depth of the target was probably two yards. I mean, the back of his jersey just turned to pure green. Usually I have a really hard time with Zay Jones and Evan Ingram. Because it's 7 and 17. They're both big guys. And so I'm like, oh, it's Evan. Oh, no, it's Zay or vice versa. He did us a solid. by just ruining that jersey, turning it jet green. That was great. And there was, obviously, we talked a lot about the wind, how it affects the passing game drastically, and that it kind of helps the running game sometimes, at least the cold weather. But it was nice to see Travis E.T.N. As Mike coined last night, it's the only thing I could think of since then.

The work pony. Like, that was me bringing that back up. Like, how dare you? Oh, was how dare you? Was that an Andy? Yeah. Yeah. I've been, I've been ridiculed for. It's perfect for months for months. He really is a work pony because he gets the, the work. I mean, his utilization, you can't dream for better utilization, you know, 22 carries three targets. One more carry by the goal line would have been. Sure. Would have been, would have been nice if, if you wanted that. But, um, he's also. He's been banged up a lot. It just does not look big enough for workhorse status. So the work pony, but he got it done. He had a very nice game overall for this atmosphere. When you leave the game with 22 points, like not fantasy. The NFL game had 22 total points. He had a great fantasy output for that situation. Yeah, it was a Zonovan nightmare. Oh, man. He had, let's get this, six carries for negative two yards.

I think Mike had mentioned yesterday he was shocked they weren't establishing it on that side of the ball. I was too. But a disaster for Zach Wilson. He was benched. He had a pass rating of 41. He threw an interception. His completions were ugly. I mean, this was what we've come to know of Zach Wilson. And I don't think you see him start another game this year. I don't think it's guaranteed you see him start another game for the Jets ever. And this is a $34 million man, number two pick in the draft. It's not working. It's not coming together for Zach Wilson. And yes, the elements were tough. Trevor Lawrence showed you that you can do different things. You know, Zach Wilson is supposed to be a mobile quarterback. You're telling me he couldn't have gotten outside the pocket and made some of these evasive plays or at least attempted to the way Trevor Lawrence did. I mean, people that are still apologizing for Zach Wilson. I'm sorry.

Show me something. Yeah, I mean, there's no, he's not good. He's just not a good quarterback. Straveller came in and moved the ball, no problem. Off the practice squad. Yeah, Flacco has been better. Obviously, Mike White, I think might be legitimately okay as an NFL quarterback. So, yeah, Zach Wilson is time to hang him up for a while. and, you know, work on yourself and your game, and then hopefully you get another chance in the future and capitalize. I don't want to see him on the field again until there's facial hair. Okay, so we're talking like six, seven years. Not everyone gets to grow a beard. Yeah, but we can get further than he's got. And also, Mike, not everyone gets to play NFL quarterback. That's fair. You get that sweet looking baby face. Maybe don't take hits. I, the New York Jets, I don't know what they possibly do.

with Zach Wilson because the contract situation is you, if you're going to cut him, you are eating so much dead cap for multiple years. You won't cut him. No. And you can't cut him. You can't play him. You can trade him. You can trade him. I mean, if they're going to Osweiler him away, maybe they could do that. Because I don't know that in an end of, there's not a franchise that is looking at what he did and say, yeah, we're going to. We're going to take that contract on who. Matt Rule's not a coach still, right? Correct. Not in the NFL. Yeah, I was going to say Sam Donald couldn't have been traded, but he was. Desperate times, right? Some coach somewhere will be arrogant enough to think they can fix them, and they won't be able to. Yeah, and if you remember back a couple of years ago, the Adam Gase era, how it ended.

He won his last two meaningless games to fall to the number two so that they could, so that the Jets did not get Trevor Lawrence, but they got Zach Wilson. Imagine that team with Justin Fields. Yeah. Who they passed on, you know, with that defense and the ability to run the football. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Sorry, Jets fans. Yeah. Jets are going to jet, unfortunately. I mean, well, the consolation is that Mike White looks capable. He's unfortunately not healthy enough to play football right now, but there's a lot of quarterbacks like that. I like Mike White, but he is not going to get it done in the end. Yeah, he's not winning a Super Bowl. No, no. He's competent, right? You can throw him out there. He's like, you know, Fitzpatrick maybe. Could he get to Kirk Cousins level? No. You don't think so? No, I don't. I don't think so. And I like Mike White. I think he's got maximum grit.

But I think, I don't think he has enough elite skills to get you to where you want to go. And I'm, he's so much better. I mean, this is a team that went to the AFC title game twice with Mark Sanchez. So can he be Mark Sanchez? They were elite defense with Mark Sanchez. All right, let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. All right, Nick Chubb managers can exhale. Remove from the final injury report. He's going to play. Hooray. The weather. Yes. Frightful. Should be a lot of carries for Nick Chubb in this game. Kind of frightens me being somebody playing against Nick Chubb. I know the overrunner is not high, but how is this game not like 85% running on both sides of the ball? Yeah, I mean, obviously the teams are going to be selling out to stop the run. To me, this comes down to Nick Chubb's actual health. This was not a rest day given. This is an actual foot problem. He has not been.

his usual Nick Chubb efficient awesome self in the last couple of weeks. And if he is dealing with a foot problem while teams are selling out to stop the run, I do think you have a chance of Nick Chub having a somewhat disappointing fantasy game. You're not going to bench him, though. No, you're not. And let me just give you the updated weather there for that game. You ready for this? Yes. I'm looking at the, from kickoff through the fourth quarter, it's the same throughout. So let me just break it down. We've got a nine degree field temperature. which with the wind chill will feel like negative 12. Oh, brutal. The wind is sustained 2627 for the duration of the entire game. Yeah, that's. So you're not going to get, it doesn't look like you're going to get any rain because the wind blew it away. Crystal Lave won't be playing in that one. So he'll be warmer on the sideline, ruled out with the hamstring injury.

Jarvis Landry went from maybe going to play to IR ending the season. You are out of wide receivers. I mean, legitimately in Saints country, you have what? Treyquan Smith. Is he available? I mean, I know Rashid Shaheed is available, but I can't remember if Treyquan is healthy right now to be right now. Rashid Shahid would be the absolute wide receiver of choice if. this weather wasn't what it is. With the weather, what it is, I mean, we just talked about with Trevor Lawrence playing well in bad, but not this bad of weather with Christian Kirk and Zay Jones really couldn't get it going. The passing game is going to be screens. Who's catching screens? And that's not going to be enough for fantasy. So you just stay away from all receiving options in this game. Yeah, I mean, maybe a Joanne Johnson gets opportunities the way that Evan Schmevin did. Yeah, that's true.

You will be able to complete some passes, but to be close to the line of scrimmage. No need for Shaheed this week. Correct. Ken Walker, DMP, DMP, DMP, now dealing with back spasms along with the ankle. And yet the team has said he is expected to play along with D.J. Dallas. And they got rid of all their other running backs. They have no Travis Homer. Well, I don't know what's going on with Homer. I don't know. The tweet. from, I think it was from, from Field had put that out, and then he deleted that tweet. Ooh. So like, I, I think there might have been some cross communications about that they, uh, they did cut Tony Jones. Okay. Or wait. Oh, gosh. Is that his name? Yes, it is. Okay. Yes. I think we did. And, uh, so Travis Homer might be on the team. I'm not, I'm not exactly sure. Right. I, there was a report, like you said, that they, uh, they waived him. Yes. So, I mean, that's being reported.

Is that like, who knows? Does anyone in Seattle know who's on the team anymore? I think it was a mistake. I think what you're saying is true. I think Travis Homer is still there technically and Tony Jones Jr. was waived. But like Yahoo Fantasy reported that too. Yes. So it might have been a mistake. It makes more sense to not cut Travis Homer who's been a major contributor when you have injuries at the position. Jason, you made Ken Walker your start of the week. Are you nervous? So I think that you have to have a little bit of nerves when you've got a guy who could miss the game. That being said, other than the back spasms that are now new on Thursday, the ankle issue I am not too worried about because this is not a new ankle issue. This is an ankle issue that he was resting on last week, played in the game, played very well, and then they rested him this week. So I'm not like I'm still starting Kenneth Walker, but I did take him out of my draft king's lineup.

because it's a cash game. We just need to be safe. And in that situation, there is always the chance that a player can, can, you know, reaggravate an injury. Pete Carroll said he expected Ken Walker, no offense, and Marquis Goodwin to play. Goodwin, who was a DMP, he twisted his ankle in practice, expected to be out there, but a nerve-wracking play if you put him out there. Yeah, but Pete Carroll's a filthy liar. That is also true. The good thing, it's a morning game, so you'll know. You don't have to hold out hope for, like, the. Like the guys, if that were a Sunday game and the main slate of Saturday, I would be freaked out. Hollywood Brown added to the injury report with a groin injury. Limited session. Stay away. Brandon Cook's questionable, expected to play. Hayden Hurst, questionable, probably too risky, but desperate times. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Quick break and back with the matchups. All right.

All right, we are going to dive into the remainder of the matchups. Yesterday, we covered the bills, bears, saints, browns, Texas, Titans, Seahawks, Chiefs, Giants, Bengals, Patriots, Lions, Panthers. Fantasy Forecast. If you notice anything kind of going more wrong today on the show, it's because we have a tag team of very interesting. Deucers over there in Deucers Alley. The tag team includes one human and one cardboard bear. That is correct. Yeah, that is correct. So, you know, the human is doing a lot of the work. The bear is there for additional fantasy analysis. But, uh, yeah, we've got a, got a holiday crew today. Has Jake Grizz ever dused? Uh, every day. Yeah, a lot of berries. Well, if you, you know, if you haven't seen it in the woods. Yeah.

But is this his first? No, he's been out back here before. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Although normally, isn't this the time of year they'd be sleeping? Yes. Yep. Atlanta, five and nine taking on the nine and five Baltimore Ravens, the Draft King Sportsbook line here, Baltimore minus six and a half. The overrunner is 35 points. 35. We would be talking. Now, this is one of the catastrophic weather games, right? That's why that overunder is so low. Catastrophe of another sort. We have catastrophe at quarterback. Tyler Huntley, Desmond Ritter. We'd be talking about this line. We would be talking all. If it wasn't for the Cleveland game, this line would be making all of the headlines this week. 35 is so low. Both of these teams are going to run, run, run the football. This is why Mike loves J.K. Dobbins, I do too. He's off the injury report completely at this point. But, you know, Baltimore is favored. Atlanta is.

projected with 14 points. Their number one in rush rate. Baltimore is dead last in points per game over six weeks. And they said, hey, let's just take Devin Duvernay out of the equation as well. Let's eliminate weapons. So it's going to be the tight ends, Mark Andrews, Isaiah likely, and DeMarcus Robinson, who will have targets in this game. So. Fantasy-wise, though. Fantasy-wise, it's not good. The passing game for both teams is one with the quarterback situation. And there is, you know, the weather is not outlandishly bad and impossible, but it is not good. You're talking about, you know, it's going to be in the teens with wins just under 20 miles an hour of 15 to 20. So I'm not interested in any Desmond Ritter targets. I will say that Drake London.

Last week, you had two weirdly different things happen. You had Drake London, kind of have a pretty good game, get all the targets. He was who. Seven for 70. Seven for 70. Seven for 70. Desmond Ritter did not throw for 100 yards if my memory is serving me. And that's kind of crazy. So it's like a 70% market share of the yards. So I'm not playing. Drake London because of Desmond and Redder. It was a 42% target share. And he had 100% of the wide receiver yards. Yeah, it was just insane. So I don't think you can start any Falcons receivers, any Ravens receivers not named Mark Andrews. I know, Andy, you're in on Isaiah likely. But I'm just looking at the running games. And I think both running games can be started. Yeah, I mean, 97 yards for Ritter last week.

Because of the wind, are you eliminating DeMarcus Robinson from contention? Because he's been a six target or better guy in recent weeks, and Duvernate's gone. For me, I am eliminated ham because of the weather eliminating him. Eliminate some ham. You say six targets. 6, 6, and 8 targets. That has turned into 3.9, 7.7 and 7.6 fantasy points. If it were Lamar, I'd be more interesting. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Isaiah Hodgins in the Minnesota game. Would you play him over DeMarcus? Yes. I would. Yeah. Like, if I'm getting, if I'm getting crazy at all in this Baltimore Atlanta game, it's, it would be like, do I think that the game script is going to get out of control and that the Ravens are going to be able to run a ton? And like, Gus Edwards.

is going to come in and get, I don't know, 35%. Maybe he gets a hot hand. He gets up to 40%. I think he is the only, like, sneaky play from this matchup for me. Yeah, and they, I believe Kenyon Drake was a healthy scratch last week. So they really did make this. They turned this into a two-man rotation for the most part. The Washington Commanders, 7, 6 and 1 take on the 10 and 4 49ers, Draft King Sportsbook, Lions, San Francisco. minus six and a half the over and a half is just 37 and a half in this game. It doesn't give the commanders a lot of points either, 15 and a half projected. San Francisco's defense is a problem. It's going to be a problem for Taylor Heineke. It's hard to make the decision about Terry McLaren this week. What are you doing with Terry McLaren knowing that, you know, the 49ers defense?

In terms of total fancy points giving up to wide receivers, that is the area where there is some to be had. Is McLaren in your lineup? McLaren is in my lineup. Yeah, he's still getting the targets. He's obviously an extremely talented player. And if you're going to beat the 49ers, who I expect to be up in this game, you're going to have to throw the ball. So, you know, a DFS dart throw on Jahan. I'm not relying on him in a fantasy playoff week, but I do think that Terry McLaren There are worse matchups than the 49ers for Terry McLaren to go up against. Yeah, since week seven, that's when Taylor Heineke came in. I mean, he's been north of a 20% target share every week, averaging a 30% target share in that time. I know that Dotson is back, so we saw 22% target share for Heineke this past week, but you give me those, you give me that amount of the passing attempts with what Terry can do on the field. He's...

He's still in play. You're not playing him going, yeah, Jerry McLaurin's a top 12 guy this week. But I think that he's in as a lower end, too. Other situations in this game that you're looking at, Brian Robinson facing a stout and difficult San Francisco defense. You know, McCaffrey's in your lineup. But Brian Robinson. Non, non pro bowler Christian McCaffrey. Yeah. Yeah, what did you think of that? Uh, It's just nonsense. Yeah. I mean, like a big snub. I understand in sports, we get, you know, you get tired of greatness, which is a strange thing. And it's, I mean, it happens to all of us. You can't just give it to Jordan every year. Right. Right. But the fact that he is leading the NFC in scrimmage yards at the running back position. And he didn't get in. And then the other guys behind him all made it in.

It's very strange. Very strange. Yeah, Miles Sanders, Sequin Barclay are the rushing yardage leaders by a good margin over him. I think that's what they focused on, unfortunately. Which is weird. I know. They're like, eh, those receiving yards? Who needs those? Man, I'm not saying it's right. I'm just telling you why you did it. Well, I'm saying it's wrong. I do think that you can consider benching Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson because this matchup is. Okay, well, let's go ahead. We'll find some names here. This matchup is really brutal against, you know, the best or the second best defense. And if you're going to have, you know, you've got 15 and a half implied team total points from Vegas.