Week 18 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, One More Time! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/5

On today's show, it is the final Friday show of the season. There's still a lot of matchups to break down, some really fun games to talk about, some interesting discussion about shopping carts, and then a final fantasy faceoff punishment you don't want to miss. Make sure you subscribe because we don't go anywhere in the off season. We still got some shows coming out. Subscribe right now and enjoy. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Friday, January 5th, the fantasy footballers podcast, Mike the Fantasy Hitman Wright. Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. The final Friday show in a while. Oh, final Friday till August. Because this is the end of the week 18 preview for the scoundrels out there that are suffering within a league in which the commissioner.

is inebriated. Or just old. Yeah. I mean, like, let's be honest. Most of the time what it is is it's old leagues that have a tradition that they don't want to disrupt because clicking renew is just so much easier. No, Jason nailed it. Like, if you are in a league or you have an unfortunate week 18 championship and you've been trying to get it to change, go to the commissioners and be like, it just, it makes you look really old. Mm. Like, nice. Young men. Yeah. Young women. They play till week 17. That's right. I mean. And that's right. It's not even a joke. And I'm not sure there's a commission out there who could withstand that barrage of like. Oh, the age barrage? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. A little age. Doesn't it seem like Papa Josh would do a week 18 league? He does. Yeah. He's saying, I mean.

Physical appearance, he looks like he would. He's a week 19er. We go to the playoffs. If the NFL's still going, we're going. Even Josh is offended by that comment. Happy birthday this month, by the way. This month. Yeah. Well, that's how Josh. That's how Josh handles birthdays. Some people, and I've noticed this. I mean, some people, the birthday, I think it's the first few years of your life. Like, Papa Josh, you're sitting in Ducers Alley today. Did you have, like was birthday? made very special for your first 10, 15 years of your life? Dude, we got sticks. We got rocks. It was great. No, but seriously, did they make a big deal out of it or is it the opposite? Oh, it was always a big deal. Well, like, I just think that's something to it. It set you up to... Take the day off from work for your birthday in your 40s. All right. None of us have ever done that, have we? Taking our birthday off? No. No. Not since the Peter Piper days. Right, right.

Yeah. Well, no, I would, I mean. Yeah, you still want to school. You still go to school if it landed on my birthday. My kids would always ask for that. They'd be like, can I just have the day off? And we're like, no, there's school today. Yeah. Just enjoy the attention at school. I got, I'm not taking that letter. That school's going to write me. Like, your kid's messing too much school. Well, I, um, I'm excited to finish up these week 18 matchups as, uh, quickly as possible. That's all about having a good time. There are, I mean, there are big games this way.

There are playoff style games this week. There are players that are certainly going to be reaching for thresholds that are reaching for playoff berths that are going to be on the field. And we'll talk about more of them today. You guys did a good job on yesterday's podcast. Yeah, we did. Going through the matchups that you covered yesterday. Did you guys have starts yesterday? We did. Yeah. Yeah. Good ones. Oh, the best ones. I didn't hear that part of the show. I imagine. Yeah. Fantasychamps.com, if you need a championship ring or belt, you can get, or sorry, a championship trophy or belt. You get a free ring with the code free ring. We just asked them to put that code right on the nose. And I was thinking maybe I should have ordered more than one ring. Like I ordered one for the league that I won. No, I just mean like, do you buy them for your like peripheral leagues if you win them? I took a couple extra leagues home this year. I just don't know. Do I get three rings? Yes. It's up to you.

Yes. No, I mean, as, I mean, have you ever won multiple leagues in a year and not gotten a separate ring for each league? I get a ring. Do you get them for every league? So do you just join like extra leagues every year just to? No, I just win more leagues every year except this year. You're like, if I don't in this sentence apologizing, you'll get it. I will. Twitter at the F ballers, you can follow us over there all off season long for those of you who have tuned in throughout the entirety of the year. Hopefully you've had a good time. We're back with two shows a week starting next week. And we'll get into the footy awards, which are always very exciting. When you just say footy awards, every single time that that phrase has said, I hear the music. It is so associated. I can recall it instantly. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Almost sounds like the, what was it, the Looney Tunes music, right?

It's a little bit loony. All right. It's Friday. Foot Clan Friday. Foot Clan Friday. The last Foot Clan Friday for a bit. Can't have a Foot Clan Friday if there's no Friday show. No. And this week's winner, we always give away $100 to Fantasychamps.com on Friday. And this week's winner, a supporter to join thefoot.com. Terry Bernardino. Congratulations. So congrats. You can swag out for free over there. And we appreciate everybody that supports the show. That is where you get an extra episode every week at join the foot.com for the whole offseason, the footcast available to you there. Talk some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, the Ravens have added Dalvin Cook to that illustrious roster, including Melvin Gordon and Justice Hill.

Dalvin Cook joins a potential Super Bowl competing team. He was linked there this offseason, right? There was Miami or was it just Derek Henry? Yeah, Derek Henry was, I remember Henry being linked there. I mean, they obviously have a need after losing J.K. Dobbins. There's a team that wants to replace the week one injury and the final week of the season. I'm saying when the Derek Henry news was coming up, it was like they had. hardship there. And now since then, they lost their budding star rookie running back. So this makes sense. It's just a matter of does he have any juice left? Do you have anything to give? And at the very least, they can bench more of their regular starters this week. It could just be like, Dalvin, I know you just got here. You don't know the playbook, but we don't care about this game. Here's the ball. Go. It's the right kind of signing for what the Ravens tend to add to their backfield, which is aged veterans that know how to pass block.

Don't have much left in the tank. I mean, we've seen what, Devanta Freeman and Kenyon Drake. LaShawn McCoy and Melvin Gordon. Like McCoy was a Ravenius Murray. Oh, did I say LaShawn McCoy? Yeah. I meant Levyon Bell. Oh, okay. Although McCoy would have been a perfect. Oh, he would have. Oh, he's still out there. That's true. He played for, what, Tampa at the very, very end? Kansas City and Tampa to end his career. The end of running back careers are like, just but a whisper that you totally forget what happened. But yeah, like. Without this news, most people don't remember. Wait, Melvin Gordon's a Raven. There's a decent chance Delvin Cook doesn't take a snap next season for anybody. Oh, for sure. I'd put those odds pretty high. Yeah. I mean, not like Carson Wins not playing a snap high, but Noah Brown ruled out. Robert Wood's questionable. Christian Kirk. Feeling good about Christian Kirk being back on the field. He's been practicing. Trevor Lawrence, shoulder injury, limited, probably going to play. Zay Jones, the hamstring. Don't know about that one.

We know that Trevor Lawrence is now listed as questionable. So probably going to play. And then Alvin Camara did not practice the ankle injury. T. Higgins didn't practice the hamstring. We did get, there was a blurb at least over the social media that Jamar Chase said, I'm going to play. Which we were talking about yesterday. Like with a shoulder injury and nothing to play for, there is a chance that he doesn't. But he says he will. Any other news we need to get into? Devante Smith didn't practice. Rahim Oster didn't practice. Yeah, it's just the most hurt one again is it's Sunday night football. So if you are counting on him, you better have a pivot. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. All right. Yesterday you guys covered eight matchups. Yeah, we did. I was really hoping you get through them all.

Steelers, Ravens, Texas, Colts, Browns, Bengals, Vikings, Lions, Jags, Titans, Jets, Patriots, Falcons, Saints, Buccaneers, Panthers. They would have put them in. I would have done them. Yeah, you would have. I would have Ron Bergen deed the heck out of that. I would have kept rolling. Yeah, I appreciate you guys. Yeah. Chicago, 7 or 9, Packers, 8 and 8. DK. Sportsbook line, Green Bay minus 3 at home at Lambo over under 45 points. Bears can play spoiler. Packers can. just terrorize their own fans by being eliminated two years in a row on the final game of the season. But look at Jordan La. Look at Jordan La. Look at him. He's getting it done. Look at this little guy. Look at him go. He's been good. I mean, you look at his numbers and you compare him to all the top tier quarterbacks and football. And it's pretty comparable. I mean, you look at him against Patrick Mahomes's numbers. And, you know, what is he? Whoa. Do you say top, you said top tier quarterbacks? That's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, Mahomes. So like Justin Fields. Yeah, okay. The career's kind of done for Mahomes. It's really taking a dump. The Bears, best record ever for a team holding the number one pick in the last 40 years. So they have the opportunity to. Is that a Kyle stat? Of course. This is ridiculous. Yeah, Green Bay beat them in week one. They've been playing really good football, four and one in the last five games. You know, there's been all these scenarios where Chicago can trade the number one to the number two and the number two to the number three and stack up more piles of picks and still get a wide receiver for Mr. Justin Fields. But, you know, this game, it's a big one. I mean, Jordan Love and Company playing for their playoff lives. Jaden Reed, big week last week, limited on Thursday. It is a...

This is like one of those convalescent homes during World War I. Like everybody is resting on a bed right now. I mean, Khalil Herbert limited with a back injury. Deontiform was a healthy scratch. DJ Moore with the ankle was limited. Colquette is limited. Jaden Reed, Don Tavian Wicks, Christian Watts, and Luke Musgrave limited. Aaron Jones, guess what? Limited. Are they doing a limited? Are they like seeing what the other practice support is putting out? Yeah. You know what? Our guys are limited. Are they battling? Maybe. Seeing who can rest more. We got no one out there today. We're not even going to be able to field the full team. What's funny is I think that most players on both sides of the ball will play. This is an important game for both teams. The bears are on a roll. They're playing good football. They actually look like a team on the rise. Like you said, Andy, they're four and one in their last five games. That's since Joseph Fields came back from his injury. They're playing to.

be the spoiler in a divisional matchup. So this game matters to them. And obviously the Packers win and in. So it's a very important game for both sides. The only guys that I'm, I'm not sure Cole Commet, you know, his health is a little bit scarier to me. Obviously, Musgrave is I don't think playing. But most of the players, I think, are going to suit up. What was annoying about Commet is that he had such a good first half against Arizona two weeks ago. And then he just fully, he only played 18% of snaps last game and didn't. have a fantasy point. So yeah, I agree with you on that. Makes perfect sense. Anybody else? Kalil Herbert? You have confidence? Yeah, I mean, he's been so good the last couple of weeks. Green Bay is a good matchup. I think you can play Kalil Herbert. I would love to see a practice report where he's like, he's full today at practice. I would give me more. He's like, oh, he's stuffed. You should have seen him at the buffet. That's all I heard. I suck your face when I said. I'd love to see that a report to Kalil Herbert is full.

He's eating again. He's trying to put on the pounds for Sunday. But the last two weeks, man, 22 opportunities, 21 opportunities, top 10 fantasy running back both weeks. Good matchup. Have we heard anything on Foreman? Like, he's, he's toast. I'm saying like, but we don't know the specifics. What's going on here? It's listed as a personal reason and he's tweeting out cryptic. disappointments. And what's crazy is he was so good. It looked so good before then. But I don't think you can rely on him after being a healthy scratch two weeks in a row. The Broncos are eight and eight, taking on the seven or nine Raiders. Draft King's sportsbook line, Las Vegas minus three at home. Over an unders 37. Both of them eliminated. Really low scoring game the first time around. Jared Steadow made no Connor. Josh Jacobs, four straight game time decision.

I'm not excited about this game. For fantasy purposes? Yeah. I mean, Zemir White? Yeah. Is he playing? Zemir? Yeah. I mean, is he the starter? Is Josh Jacobs going to play? I would imagine what Jacobs, you know, the month-long game time decision is still going and he is still not practicing. So, yeah, I'm going to go with Zemir White. And Adams was a monster last week with 21 targets, so you can go ahead and play him. It's just. It's just not a game, I think, is going to be very exciting. 37 point over under. We talked a lot about Javante earlier in the week when we were looking at players that kind of dutted out this year and may not have the best long-term future. You know, Cortland Sutton finally came back from practice, but he's not playing with Russ. Russ is the one that had the kind of laser vision on him in the end zone. Jared Stidham's going to get the opportunity to try to earn a starter position for next year.

I would play the kind of core players you've been playing in this matchup and probably move on. So the question. Adams and White. I was going to say the question then is Cortland Sutton had been a core player. Does the change? It looks like he's progressing through Kukasha Protocol. I expect him to be there. If he's active, would you play Cortland Sun or does the Russell Wilson change, say, let's bench him? I mean, I was never that excited about Sutton in the lineup. I was. Always hopeful for that touchdown, but I would not plan. Okay. Stidham was 20 for 32, 22, 224 yards in a touchdown against the Chargers. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen. Okay. I'm saying if you're playing Davis. Cortland Sutton or Gabe Davis? Yeah. Gabe Davis. Pooka Nakua, who will get missed? No, no, no, Sutton. I don't like the Puka situation. What is it? Four for 29? Yep.

probably he'll probably go for 200 uh philly at 11 and 5 take it on the 5 and 11 giants dK sports book line philly minus 5 and a half the over under is 42 how many losses in a row for the eagles i know they've lost 4 of 5 isn't it uh i think they won two weeks oh that's right yeah but 4 of 5 yeah the giants they were 10 and 1 now they're 11 and 5 and all right philly's fighting for that number 2 seed they need the cowboys to lose to go ahead and win the division Giants are playing spoiler. It is the divisional game, and they've had some competitive matchups recently. I'm not sure that's an almost upset to me, but I'd be a little bit on the, yeah. Oh, all right. Andy's almost upset of the week. It's a five and a half point line. The game's in New York. I mean, a chance to keep the Eagles out of the division. Looks like the Giants lost by eight last time on the road. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Jalen Hertz, weeks 1 through 8, 206 to 1 passing yards a game. From week 9 on, 207 passing yards per game. He still gets the tush push at the goal line, though. So his fantasy finishes have been pretty good, top 10 in the last three weeks. I wonder if that is something, though, that is, and you're 100% right. He scores a billion touchdowns on the ground. He has 15 of them. But 23 touchdowns on the year through the air. I mean, Jordan Love is four more passing touchdowns than Jalen Hertz has at this stage of. of the season. So I mean, yes, that's true passing. But I mean, 15 rushing, you're, I think you've got to look at it in totality. 38 total touchdowns from Jalen Hertz. That's a great number. Yeah, 15 rushing touchdowns from a running back, you would be losing your mind. Of course. Yeah, I was just making the point in the passing game. If you're throwing for 200 a game, like last year we came out and we were like, hey, they should be able to start throwing the ball more and AJ Brown is going to raise the ceiling and it happened.

But to see it dip back down at the back half of the year not be as successful and have Devante Smith banged up and A.J. Brown, there was a little bit of rumbling about locker room problems. Yeah, I mean, AJ Brown, to start the season from weeks three through nine, every season, I mean, that is a long stretch. That's a stretch of seven games in a row where his worst fantasy finish on the week was the wide receiver 13. He was a wide receiver one every single week. He hasn't been. in the top 13 since that time in week 10. He's actually been a pretty big disappointment for fantasy. I mean, he's still getting enough targets. You're not going to bench him. But that's the story to me for the Eagles is A.J. Brown has disappeared. And whether that's schematically or, you know, obviously he's pitching a fit and causing issues in the locker room. Maybe he thinks he's not getting enough targets. But it's been really bad for him. I mean, you know, since that byweek, the time you mentioned,

Still on pace for 160 targets in that span, but it would be for 92 for a thousand and two. That's just a guy. Yeah, and no finishes inside the top 12. With 160 target pace, you should be AJ Brown. That's on AJ Brown. I mean, you're getting that many targets. Don't tell him that. I would never. I would never. He would just squish me into a jelly. Yeah, I mean. Just 200 yards to go around though right now in this passing offense. And, you know, Dallas got it. Was your start of the week yesterday, Jason? Yeah, he's very involved. And I think Devante Smith, his injury is kind of what leads me to believe that, you know, as I said yesterday, he's higher in targets per route run than Devante Smith and even more than A.J. Brown. It's squish you into a jelly, huh? Just a little. Yeah. Look, you play Sakewan?

I like Darius Slayton with Tyrod Taylor. I like him against a passing defense that is giving up potentially on pace for the six most passing attempts against them of all time, the Philadelphia Secondary. And this was a very competitive game last time out. Tyrod almost brought them back. So do you guys agree? Do you like Slayton? Yeah, I think he's worth the dart throw. We talked about him yesterday of the Gabe Davis archetype of player. Would you go with him or Slayton? And I lean Slayton because of the match. Yeah, it's exactly what you called last week. I see it again this week. It was a perfect call against the Rams who give up the big plays. The Eagles do too. So Darius Slayton is the waiver wire guy you want if you're the underdog. Where are you with DeAndre Swift this week? Comfy? I mean, yeah, I'm starting him. Yeah, for sure. The Giants get beat on the ground.

They're still favorite even though they're on the road and there's an almost upset call here. It's a matchup you would play Swift. Five rushing touchdowns on the season for D'Andre Swift. What was it, 15 for Jalen Hertz? Yeah, I mean, I don't know how much hurts pace. I mean, there's at least five, I believe DeAndre Swift going down on the one, so which the touchdowns then went to Jalen Hertz. What if it's one of those things? You know how like if you try to take a shopping cart out of a. Oh, yeah. You crossed that yellow line. He crossed the line in a parking lot and shuts them down. They've got like an ankle monitor on him that when it gets to the one yard line just zaps his legs. Straight down. Awesome. Has there ever been a larger lie in the entire world? No, no, no. I've tried to cross that line. They shut them down, man. Oh, 100%. They locked the wheels. Yeah. Wheels go break. Yeah, there's something built into the, uh, no. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. How many of these have you stolen, Mike? None. Yeah, because you can't.

Lots of putting in a truck. They locked the wheels, man. So they put, they, they spend that amount of money. It's not that much money. What is doing? Is it a magnet? Yeah, it's like a, it's a very, like, it's not a high tech situation. They just like put something in the ground and then they paint a stripe over it. And then if you go past that. What happens if you pick the card up? I don't know. Let's find out. Let's find out for science. I feel like for some reason Al Borland should know this. Do you know anything about this? No, I've definitely.

experienced it, but I don't know how it works. And I don't know what happens if you pick it up. Yeah, locked in wheels. Anyways, Swift's wheels get locked on the one. Oh, you thought it was just like, what they're just telling the like, almost population. They're just, oh, if you take it past his lines. They're going to do it anyway. They can't. Yeah, exactly. You know what? That reminds me of the painted. How many shopping cars do people in this office have that aren't speed bumps? Have you guys? been in parking lots like that. Wait, they're fake? They just paint basically a big yellow area where it's like a speed bump. Do they shade it? Sometimes they put the stripes on it, sometimes they don't. But you slow down every time. And then you roll over and you're like, wait, there's no bump. Oh, that's, that's funny. See, that's where I thought the sign was. Electronic and magnetic systems are used for this purpose. So there is a thin wire which locks the wheel clamp as the cart passes over. It's magnetism. Just a little wire cutter, you're fine.

Again, what have you pick it up? That leads me to believe that you could pick it up. But those are heavy. Shopping carts? For one person to just grab. But it's only the back wheels. So you just need to raise the back. Now what are we doing here? We're ruining shopping guards are going to go wild now. Yeah. We've let the people know, go get them, people. Go get your shopping cards. If a shopping, if the way around your security system is just to slightly raise it for, I don't know. Three to five inches of movement. This is not good. It's no different than the... You thought it was all fake, Mike. Yeah. It's no different than, you know, the little alarm when you walk in that checks the sensor. You know, you just lift it over to that when you're leaving out the door. It's the same exact principle. That's fair, but they will see you. Like, part of being a good thief is they don't see it happen. If you're running, we're going to come out. We're going to put the stuff over your head. Catch me, cubby! Alarm didn't go off. It's...

It's free. It's mine. Yeah, get the UTK, the ultimate theft kit. All right. Darren Waller. Yeah. Wow. Well, you can't have like a tremendous amount of confidence, but six, five and six targets, I mean, five for 50, you only show up as the tight end 16, but five for 51 is like it could go way worse. Yeah, I think he's a fine middling guy that if he gets touch on, you're going to be happy. And I do think he's got a baseline that's six fantasy points. Brooks, have you stolen any shopping carts? I have not in my day. Okay. About to say, if you enjoyed that little back and forth there about shopping carts, make sure you check out the spitballers comedy podcast. No, we talk about shopping carts exclusively from about a shopping cart podcast. I need to see this happen. Mike, you're going to go try it? Well, I just, I have, look, there's.

There's multiple people on the set telling me it's true. I don't believe you. It's not every parking lot. No, no, no. It's got to have. Walmart, definitely. Yeah, I mean, you can tell because you look at the carts and the back wheels have the little thing on them. The magnet locks. Yeah, the magnet locks, as we call them. Oh, man. I'm looking into this. Mike thought it was a lie all these years. Yeah. All right. Quick break back with some more matches. Look, you know when you're driving on the freeway? Yeah. And they're like, speeds. monitored by aircraft. Yeah, that's no, they aren't. That's nonsense. No, they are not. Where does that come from? So I believe that they do do that, but they've got to do it once. You know what I mean? Like they've got to take a plane, snap it, you know, see that they're speeding, snap the license plate, and then they're like, we did it. We can put the sign up. We monitor by aircraft. You know how they do the cameras on the freeways sometimes? Certain jurisdictions allow that, and then they give you tickets off of it. Mm-hmm.

If the goal is just to have people not speed, I don't know how much that camera system costs, but I know it's hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, to implement those on freeways all over the, you know, wherever you're living. Right. If you just put a non-functioning police vehicle with lights on wherever one of those cameras was. There ain't nobody's speeding there. Yeah, that's true. You just think somebody's pulled over and you're, oh, gosh, I got to slow down. I've always heard the best traffic safety device is a rearview mirror with a police officer in it. Yeah. That's for sure. Can they build those into the mirrors? Yeah. It's like a little sticker you put on for your teenagers. Oh, that's nice. This cops been following me everywhere. He won't lay off. Normally I'd apologize for these side, side hustles here on the show.

But it's week 18. All right. It's week 18. And again, you can visit our shopping cart podcast that we resume. It's hard to go back to football. Seattle, 8 and 8, the Cardinals, 4 and 12. Draft King Sportsbook Line, Seattle minus 3. The overrunners 48. I said a prayer this week that the Cardinals would lose this ball game. For goodness sakes. Seattle has something to play for. I think that Seattle is a really good chance of being in the playoffs. I mean, if they beat Arizona, And the Bears beat the Packers. Seattle's in. And Al's sad. I believe Gino Smith, what is it, like a million, two million dollars. It's a huge bonus. For playoffs? If the Seahawks make the playoffs. So, you know, he's going to be fighting. Not that he wouldn't be trying to play his best anyways, but super important. He's going to try to win now. Yeah, I think the Cardinals win this game. No!