Week 15 Studs & Stinkers + Along Came Pollard, Hurts So Good - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/21

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saline-based moisturizing formula, and you can swab it out with XI-CAM's nasal all-clear. It's available on Amazon. Search for XI-C-C-C-L-C-L-C-E-A-R. Hi, this is Eric Dickson, NFL Hall of Famer, and you listen to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. Andy Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballers with you, Judge Giamatti Al Borland, turning the dials, pulling the levers. That was one of them. Yep. Yep. Monday, December 21st, it's Christmas week. Merry Christmas to Mike, the fantasy hitman, Wright, who swooped himself into the...

League of Record Championship game. Oh, fellas. Keenan Allen could not stop me. No, they couldn't stop Tony Pollard. Oh, Merry Christmas. You got a special present under the tree. You were not. You were a very good boy this year. That was a Christmas miracle. You were able to pivot from Jeff Wilson. Yeah, who was fine? To the number one running back.

On the week in Tony Pollard. I was watching the games with my son, and I had stepped away from the television. Actually, I don't know, I was grabbing water, and my son screams, Tony Pollard touchdown. I was like, don't, what? I was like, really? And then he goes, a 40-hard touchdown. Oh, man, I just started.

I just started dancing, doing some high kicks. Yes. I'm 50. And Andy, congratulations to you as well. Yeah, we'll see. Well, I'm just saying congratulations. You thought you were out. Oh, U.T. Yeah. And you are playing for the championship tonight. You need 11.2 points from Deontay Johnson. 11.3. Oh, 11.2 for a tie. That's fair. That's fair. 11.3 and a half PPR. Yeah. And you're in the championship. I hope he doesn't drop the ball for me. And I can make it into the title. Literally.

Um, but I mean, we've been, we've been on Twitter. We've been listening to the foot clan and all of their stories. Congrats to many of you. And if you didn't make it through, congrats on getting this far. It's not easy to do. No. Um, and only one team wins each and every year. That is the, that is the hard part. That's the hard thing to wrestle with is like a, you know, your average 12 team league. 11 out of 12. Yeah. 11 12ths.

We'll lose, and that sucks. My wife got to endure more fantasy tilt this week than she's ever experienced. I've been able to compartmentalize most of it. You're no Jason. Well, just the fact that the Keenan Allen was, it was a island game. So I'm at home watching the game and experiencing that in real time. And I couldn't hold those emotions back.

So the wife got to experience where I conceded my loss. Sure. And then she actually kept checking in, like, you know, how's it going? Wellness checks. Yeah. I'm like, well, I might actually win. And she brings up how different. It used to be just all I cared about was the Arizona Cardinals. Sure. You know, everything was, did they win or they'd lose them?

She's like, and now you've got all these players and everything. I'm like, yes, there are so many more different ways to be disappointed now. Yes, it's a good point. I remember the same thing. Before we did the podcast, the Cardinal success would change my Sunday mood. And now a lot of it really comes down to, we want to.

Be right on our projections, too. And the players that we're talking about starts the week, things like that. Jason and I had some moments in the studio. Mike wasn't in the studio yesterday. We had some moments where our players from League of Record were having success on the field. And we just... We're both out of the playoffs. Oh, AJ Brown's. Oh, it's irrelevant. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore. So sad. All right. Let's get some Monday-Punday reactions to the weekend. Yes. Let's start off with...

The number one reply that we got. Jalen, hurts so good. Oh, it's so good. Uh, how about those Los Angeles shams? Oh, yes, uh, scam makers. Cam Flakers? Cam Faker. Oh, no. Cam fakers. But Marwin Jones, Jr. Sabby Anderson. Oh, Mr. Limited. David Mopper, Tuna, whee. Oh.

Payne Galman. Jared Puk. Lump of Coal Comet? Oh, yes, and along came Pollard. Okay, I like that. Leonard Scornet. And, uh, D.K. Mekath. Yes. Oh. My, my personal edition was Money Pollard. Very nice. Uh, not really, though. That was pretty terrible. Uh, you know what was not terrible?

playing Tony Pollard. My son kept calling him Leonard Fournett. Oh, yeah, which I think is an improvement because he feels more like a Leonard. You know, it's like, that game was so frustrating to me. Tom Brady is my start of the week. And he had a great week. Oh, he got 390 and two touchdowns. Yeah. But he had two more that went down at the one yard line. And then Leonard Fordet can he was able to get the one yard. It was like,

I believe the quote on this show when we were talking about playing Leonard Fournett was, well, he's on, it's a good matchup, he could fall into two touchdowns. Yeah. And he legitimately fell into two touchdowns. He went out after the game with Adrian Peterson and they had a few drinks and celebrated. This is, it's exactly what Peterson did for two straight weeks, fell into two touchdowns. But that's how it works. Jason wished Tom Brady could have been the number one overall in the week because if he had.

Gotten those other two, he would have been. Twitter at the FFFBallers. If you want to follow the show, the fantasy footballers.com is the website. Join thefoot.com is the community of thousands of foot clan members, supporters, and champions of the world. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Let's get into the rewind. Weekly rewind. When you talk about Mr. Irresponsible, Drew Locke.

You can't help but talk about Mr. Irresponsible Deontay Johnson. Sure. And that is a terrifying place to be to rely on somebody who is now known for dropping the football. You're good. We're good vibes. Yeah, I'm excited. I told my son, which I know, Mike, you're in this boat too with your son being in our family league on the cusp of the championship. Being able to share that with our...

boys this year has been so much fun. I revealed, you know, my son went to bed. That's the funny part. They go to bed before these games in sometimes. So he wakes up and I tell him that, you know, Nick Chubb didn't have an outlandish game. Wayne Galman struggled and he couldn't have been more excited about the potential for a title. And I know your son's excited. Yes. It's fun to make it a family. Go juju. It's better that the whole family can be excited or depressed together, right? Yes. Yeah, that's the key. All right. Michael Thomas didn't play. Now he's on.

Injured reserve. Yep, they're getting him ready for the playoffs, which is not good news for fantasy football playoffs. Is he the most disappointing bust of the season now? Michael Thomas. I think he is, without a doubt, the biggest bust. I mean, you have the injuries at the top, which I never really consider those bust. Obviously, if you pick Sequan Barkley, it was a huge bust. Christian McCaffrey is more of a bust because...

You held on to him the whole year, and he missed so much. But you had three games where you played him. He was in your lineup, and he was awesome. Michael Thomas has had games where he's been in people's lineup, and he's stunk in every single one of them. He's been all right a couple times. He has. He has. Has he even had a touchdown this year? No. Yeah. No, if that's your bar, then no, he hasn't. You drafted him to not be okay. I would say. You drafted him to be the number one wide receiver, and he's, he's.

been irrelevant. I think it's a compelling case that he's the biggest bust. I know injury derailed him, and obviously it persisted through the games he was active. He was active six times. His highest finish was 16 overall. He had three games outside the top 48 in that stretch where you probably were tempted to play him. He also had other injuries he was dealing with. He went from a Hall of Fame, the most accurate quarterback of all time.

To taste some hill. So I'm not blaming Michael Thomas. I'm not saying Michael Thomas is not a good wide receiver or he's bad. I'm just saying for fantasy purposes, I mean, what you just illustrated, Andy, he was six games active, never once a wide receiver won or top 15 on the week. Yeah, I would, I mean, we're supposed to be talking about the news, but we're talking about this. I would put my vote to Christian McCaffrey, not because I blame him for the injury, but just in fantasy football terms.

People were actively trading for Christian McCaffrey for the finish. Betting on him coming back for, yes. Well, let me ask you this. And people traded really high value running backs to upgrade, perceptually upgrade to Christian McCaffrey for the playoffs. Is there any chance Christian McCaffrey wins people championships next week? Yes. And redeems himself. There is a chance. Okay, cool. I might have them on my bench. I will say this. As someone who, uh,

got to the playoffs and was counting on him. I did not make it to the championship without him. All right. Here's some interesting news. Stefan Diggs left the game late against the Broncos foot injury. NFL networks, Kim Jones reporting that is not believed to be serious. I'm going to be honest. That game was so out of reach. And I had Josh Allen in my dynasty league and I wanted him to keep playing. But I was shocked he was still in the game. And I was shocked to see Stefan Diggs still in the game.

And I was shocked to see Trudevius White, who went down hurt still in the game. It was one of those cases where you almost, you looked out on the field and you're like, man, this game is gone. I want them out there, but what are you doing? Yeah, if you're a Bills fan, you certainly wanted them not playing football. And while this is, you know, not believed to be serious, you have to monitor this. I think this could be a big deal because wasn't he carted? Yeah, well, that's where it looked bad because he was carted off, but he did.

Come back to the sideline, if I remember correctly. And they're saying it's not serious, but you've got to monitor it. James Robinson got hurt, ankle injury in week 15, looked very serious initially, didn't make it back out on the field, could miss next week. We don't know. Right. And it would be Daria Gumba Waleigh that probably gets most of the work, not all of the work, Ziegbo would be there too. But that could be a situation to monitor against the Bears. Clyde Edwards Aller didn't return, suffered a leg and hip injury in the fourth.