Studs & Duds + Week 17 Waivers, Amari Christmas! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/26

Jam-packed show today. We've got studs. We've got duds. We've got waivers as you go into your championship week and a special Christmas surprise for a troll. Make sure you subscribe and enjoy. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah! Welcome in one and all. Tuesday, December 26th.

Hope you had a fabulous Christmas. I know I did. Andy Mike and Jason, the fantasy football is with you. We've got a combo show today. We'll go through studs and duds from semifinal week. We'll go through the waiver wire as we head into championship week. I've heard from lots of you on Twitter. Congrats on your victories and getting through. We had some late night sweats in our Dynasty League last evening. And turns out Mike and I will be facing off head to head for that title. Indeed we will. But, you know, I'm normally a very humble winner. I mean, I think you guys would. Yeah. You guys would say that. And I'm not amongst the humblest. Amongst the humblest. No, I'm not, I'm not one to troll. But. Yeah, you're above it. But if my opponent whose name was the grumpy old trolls, Papa Josh himself.

on this buildup like i feel like it would be kind of disrespectful to somebody whose name is the trolls not to at least reflect give them what they deserve and enjoy so i mean we did invite josh for a moment to come into the studio if you want to take a look over there at deucer's alley for those watching i did get i did prepare him a gift and then in a nice like uh Oh, a nice loser frame. And there's a frame we built for him here on YouTube. Now, Josh, while you're over there, if you want to just open up your gift. And the box is a nice peppermint. Yeah. I mean, it's a beautiful box. It is. I'm just, if you just want to open it up here, I'll give you a play by play. I hope it's a turd. Now, what's the first thing you find in there. What do you got? Oh, I know what this is. It's a picture of Amari Cooper. Oh, man.

Oh, my goodness. Oh, there's more? What else is in there, Josh? Oh, oh, it's the return to sender. Oh, it's everything you sent me all week long, including. I need this one. The book healing after loss. And, I mean, pictures of, I mean, this weekend couldn't have gone more spectacular. Oh, more printouts. Yeah, he spent the week giving all of these things to Andy. Everything you dished out all week long, including a history of our games against each other. Yeah, it's going to need to be updated, Josh. Yeah, if you want to print that out for, uh, and a 0% win percentage down below there. So thank you. Thank you for the matchup.

I mean, that is just. The frame is incredible. I mean, you guys have anything to add? I mean, I know you were. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Too fast with the camera change, putting the loser bracket on me. How dare you? I'm a winner today. So we'll just keep some stuff up on the screen here during the show. Oh, man. I'm telling you this right now, Andrew Holloway. Oh. If you now have done all this and you don't win the championship this week. shame on you. Shame on you. You have to bring it home or all of this needs to come back upon you. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Amari Cooper. You are my hero. I was so disappointed that I couldn't overnight. I mean, it's Christmas weekend. I couldn't overnight in Amari Cooper jersey to Josh in time to make him wear it today. Do you have any thoughts? I mean, I'm sure the footclam would like to hear any final words from the great troll himself. Get out of here.

It hurts real bad. Yeah. He acted like it wouldn't matter. He didn't care. Now get out of the studio. Get. Get. Get. Get. Get from the land. He's leaving. Yeah. The rap scallions coming back. Yeah. Not welcome. All right. And yeah, we are keeping the score up the whole entire show. If you want to transition it to our more permanent fixture there, Al. We can do that. There we go. There we go. We're just going to leave that up today. on the screen. All right. Big weekend, lots going on. And if you're heading into the championship game, we want to remind you. You're going to need some swag. Fantasychamps.com. Use the code free ring, and you will get a $59 championship ring for free with the purchase of any trophy or belt. Fantasychamps.com is where we buy all of our gear every single year. It's where we get the main league trophy.

for our dynasty, for our League of Record, everywhere we're at. And again, put both items in your cart. Use the code free ring. It's a promo they do for us every year. Every year. You can check that out. All right. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Before I go through all of this news, I was really quite pleased with the level of vitriol from all of my friends towards Josh. I didn't realize how much all of you, Al, Mike, how much you wanted to see him go down. I mean, I wanted to be on the winning side. The good side? Yeah. Not the evil side. It was fun to root for you for the first time in my life. Oh, man. Oh, my gosh, Amari Cooper was so good. We'll talk about it. That's going to be real fun. Oh, I know. Jets next day. Oh, it's the Jets on Thursday. Oh, no, I'm just talking about.

larger context of you have a multiple hundred million dollar man who has sucked. Oh, you're talking about for the... And you got dude off of the street who's lighting up the NFL. What do you do? This QB1 on the week, right? Oh, yeah. So far. Oh, no, we're down. It's Tuesday. The week with the Monday off on the I'm all thrown on. I know. I went and looked at our... QB1 on the week. QB1 on the week. Crazy. Flacko Bros for life. Yeah. And now he does have to play the Jets. Yes. Thursday. They are at home. That'll be part of our championship week coverage. The news that we got, I'll bust through this. I mean, the big one, Jalen Waddle, leg injury, looks like a high ankle sprain, went down with a poked eye early in the game. I mean, Waddle is just dodging bullets every game. I don't think he dodged this. He didn't. He finally got hit. At this one, you will have to be without Jalen Waddle for your championship week.

very, very little chance that he will play this week and probably until the NFL playoffs. Isaiah Pacheco, back from injury, back to injury. Early, he left the game with a concussion, didn't return. And it was gnarly too. I mean, if you'd miss the play. I did miss the play. Okay. Well, it was a Pacheco's helmet got ripped off and then he took, I believe it was a friendly fire. His own offensive lineman. Offensive lineman, a knee. right into the top of the head. I mean, Pacheco grabbed. Without the helmet? Yes. Yeah. So Pacheco was falling backwards while the offensive lineman was running forwards. I did see him fall off the training table break on him. There was insult to injury as he's concussed and they're going to check him. Goes to lay on the trainer table and that thing just implodes kind of a.

You know, just a nice little analogier, but I can't think of the right word of this is the way that the Kansas City Chief's game is going. It's not a nice Christmas in Kansas City. So Jerich McKinnon was placed on the IR. Oh, Clyde Edwards-A-Layer! Mike, do you have Clyde Edwards-A-Layer on your team? Yes, so you mentioned I'm in the Diasty Championship. I would be so afraid to face it. With Clyde Edwards-A-Layer where normally you can't beat. really excited about it I mean two weeks ago it was fantastic but he plays the Cincinnati Bengals who get ravaged by the running back position so that will be I mean he's he's still a running back right I technically speaking yeah and he had a couple of really good plays as well looked like a bowling ball of yeah he had good balance

So I'm sure we will talk about him as the number one waiver pickup this week. Yeah, Pacheco, we'll find out, you know, it's hard to come back from the concussions quickly, you know. Is that a Sunday game or a Saturday game? We got games scattered through the week. Sunday. Okay, Sunday. But also, I mean, he was hurt a day later. Yeah, he's heard on money. It's probably, I mean, he'll probably be out. Yeah, it's probably going to be Clyde by himself. Who else did they have, like Le Michael P. Ryan? Yeah, P. Rine's there. So Clyde will get the bulk of the work, assuming he doesn't clear protocol. And I also would look at your chin strap as well because Pacheco's helmet came off multiple times. Like that same drive multiple times. And we like to keep those helmets on. Yeah. Corlin's sudden concussion didn't return as well. So both of those concussions to watch, T.J. Hawkinson, knee injury, quote, not good. Getting an MRI.

there's a good chance he is done for the year. Yeah, that is really unfortunate at this time. And that hurt a lot of folks. Yeah. You don't have good waiver wire pivots for the tight end position. You know, you're in a championship. You might have gotten there because of having a T.J. Hawkinson. So we'll look at that. Maybe you've got Hunter Henry on the waivers coming back. I mean, it stinks. We don't. We haven't heard exactly what the injury is yet. Is that? Correct. Yeah, we're MRI today, but the report from Jeremy Fowler was that it doesn't look good. Yeah, and this, I mean, at this point, your late December, if it is what we all assume it is of a ligament has been torn in his knee, and now the beginning of next year for Hawkinson will be up in the year two. Yeah, that sucks. Jordan Addison also left.

early in the game, ankle injury, not considered major. We'll find out more from the team this week. Trevor Lawrence left with a right shoulder injury. Ian Rappaport said following an MRI, it's not believed to be a major injury. Lawrence has been beaten up. I mean, just from concussion to ankle to now shoulders. So DJ Moore. I feel bad for DJ Moore because I think he suffered from. being on Josh's team. He exited early with an ankle injury. He returned. He played a bunch of snaps, didn't do anything. Cole Comette was on fire in that game, but then left with a knee injury as well. Don Tavian Wicks ruled out before halftime, chest injury. Jaden Reed didn't play in this game for the Packers. They are just running out of wide receivers right now. And then Brock Purdy left Monday night's game with the Stinger, did not return.

He was medically cleared. I guess they just, you know, Darnold had led a touchdown drive and they just let him finish the game out. It was a low odds comeback anyways. Brock Purdy, we'll talk about him shortly. I'll put press pause there, but hopefully he didn't start him. Let's just put it that way. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people did. Well, Baltimore match, it might have put some people off of it. Yeah, but it's just more of a. Hopefully it didn't destroy your week, which I've seen. I've seen many tweets of it. My sister. My sister was in an impossible to win semi-final matchup. The only way to win, she won by less than a point facing Brock Purdy. It took four interceptions and, and him leaving the game. She had gotten down to one point. He's out with injury. He doesn't come back in.

She wins by less than a point. So she needed Brock Purdy to score fewer than three points. Yes. Yes. And she got it. And she got it. Against an arch rival. I mean, that was a, there will be people who rage quit fantasy football because of that. It was bad. And I don't blame you. Yeah. And I mean, not all four of them were Purdy's, I would say, like his fault necessarily, but. Somewhere. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. This week's fantasy stud muffins. All right. We'll have an abridged studs and duds on today's show. Just some shoutouts for, well, really the starts of the week. I mean, Joe Flacco, 368 and 3. They had to bring them back in the game.

Because they pulled all the starters. Yep. Pulled all the starters at the top of the fourth quarter. They weren't even going to play it down and then Houston scores twice and they had to put them all back in. But Joe Flacco, quarterback won. Since joining the team, he has got them rolling. Amari Cooper since week 10, number one in the NFL in yardage at the wide receiver position. Joe Flacco, three straight top 10 weeks. And, you know, if you are in the mire choosing quarterbacks, it's hard to go away from him. But this is a tough matchup against the Jets. That being said, I mean, the Jets almost blew this game to Jacoby Burset leading the team down the field. Someone tell me how to feel about this Flacco matchup on Thursday. I would not be playing Joe Flacco on Thursday. I think that Flacco has... Even at home. Even at home against the Jets, Flacco has been great. He's been allowed to throw the ball so much. He's been hyper-targeting Cooper. They can't run. All things that are great, and he's going to need to do that again.

The pass rush and the cornerbacks, I think this week, Flacco will be exposed and, you know, it'll be a good week for Deshawn Watson. The, this is, yeah, the data says you're right. If you go to the streamfinder tool on our website and you look up matchups for quarterbacks, the Jets are the worst matchup by so much, they haven't given up any games above. expectation to the quarterback position since week five. Oh, they're, they're brutal. And it's not just, it's not just that they, um, they're, they're holding their opponent to their average or that they're making their opponent score a point below their average. They're shutting whoever they play down. Which goes for wide receivers as well. I mean, they are number one against wide receivers in that stretch, minus 18 points against expectation, minus 28 points against expectation.

Yeah. They're basically making, I mean, is there a world where you bench from Marty Cooper after a 50-point game, basically? I think he could still PPR his way to a relevant floor, but I mean, it would always matter who you have that you could pivot to, but the Jets are an absolute brutal, brutal matchup for wide receiver, for the passing game. Cleveland is favored by seven and a half right now. Wow. 36 point over under. The Flacco, that's a different conversation. But like for Amari Cooper, the fact that Flacco and the team, they're just, they're challenging downfield so, so much, it just takes one of those where a defender happens to have a misstep. Like the Jets have to play perfect, which they could. But if I have Amari Cooper as of right now, I'm still going to play him. Baker, Mayfield, Justin Fields, Jordan Love. More studs at the quarterback position.

You know, Justin Fields, it could have been better if he had a healthy DJ more, but he still had a really, really good game. I mean, he had 97 rushing yards, which I believe was his second highest total of the year. He scored on the ground. He scored through the year. They won the game, which is their... He's QB4. Yeah, I mean, that's a big week. And then Baker, once again getting it done, they talked about the team wanting to bring them back. Pretty good game for Baker if you were in a pinch. Jordan Love as well. I think Baker's like, well, what, what are you guys doing with Mike Evans? I'm not coming back if you don't bring Mike Evans back. Oh, yes, he would. He would, but it will not be good. No, no, it would not. Running back studs, Breece Hall. Hey, there he is. Yeah, there he is. Big game for Bruce Hall against Washington. Thanks, guys. Thanks guys. Are you speaking to Breece Hall and Bijon? Yeah, yeah, really could have used you last week.

Didn't need these amazingly great performances. Good job, though, fellas. I'm a big fan of your work. Anybody make it through to enjoy these? Yeah, so actually I... 16 targets. One of the leagues that I just don't care about. I am in the championship. And in that league, too, I have both guys. So three different leagues, I have Bijon and Brees. And we did get through in one of the three. Jamir Gibbs, two more touchdowns. Jamir Gibbs is the running back three since week seven. So I know... went out in like the second quarter in this game. Yeah, he did. And so Jemir Gibbs got pretty much all the work from then on out. I'm not sure exactly what was the injury. I don't know. I feel like they didn't even talk about it. He just, it was all Gibbs. And after a while, he go, wait, wait, hold on. Where's Stephen Montgomery? Since Gibbs came back from his injury, so the last nine games played, he has nine touchdowns in that span. So 17 touchdown pace, 1,300 yards on the ground.

70 reception pace like he has been a machine and I know I know how bumpy it was at the beginning of the year and the fear and the endorsement that we had for him and you know to start the year when you look at it now it really wasn't that bad I mean yeah I mean it's like running back 36 24 23 29 before the onset but it wasn't this and that's what you hoped for every week is an eternity in fantasy football it's just a reminder It is every year. The first three or four weeks, the impression, the weight of the off season upon your back. And if something doesn't pan out, but this is like arguably the best, I mean, outside of CMC, you know, and a small group of running backs, he's been the best running back in football. I think a lot of people probably had the opportunity to trade for him. I mean, it was week seven before he scored 10 fantasy points. Yeah. And so if you drafted him, you felt like it was, it was, it was, yeah, an L.

Goodness gracious, he was, I mean, he is a revelation since then where if you drafted him and stuck through, he got you to the playoffs. He's going to help get you a championship. And if David Montgomery can't play. Which Kyle saying David Montgomery was possibly a concussion is the whispers. Yeah. So that, I mean, weird that he came back in that game then. Did he come back in? I thought he came back in the game. I don't. I don't remember. That's what somebody reported to me, but I didn't see it with my own eyes. So you guys can double check it. Kyle, are you there? Do you know if he came back in?

For any snaps? I'll look it up. Yeah, take a look at that play log in the fourth quarter just in case. I'd like to know because if he came back in, you'd imagine they cleared him from the concussion. Correct. James Connor just keeps getting it done. James Connor, it doesn't matter the matchup. Chicago's a terrible matchup. San Francisco's a terrible matchup. They finally threw to him. Yeah. I mean, he had 5 for 67 and a touchdown. He's 12 for 45 on the ground. Guess what next week is? Terrible matchup against Philadelphia. But he's had three consecutive weeks where James Connor...

is doing James Connor stuff and this team, they don't have weapons. Like three straight top 12 weeks, two out of three those top five. I mean, are you just trusting James Connor at this point? I can definitely trust him with the receiving work added in. I mean, he was hard to trust coming into this week. I know I was Singletary over Connor because they weren't involving him in the past. Which is what I did. I played Singletary over Connor. He still won. But if they're going to. target him. And I don't know if this was just because of the injuries to the wide receiver core, you know, not having Hollywood. Maybe they were forced to it. And so we'll have to see if Hollywood is active this next week. But he has never, this whole stretch, even when he wasn't great for fantasy and his utilization wasn't perfect, he's never once looked bad. He breaks tackles. He's 4.9 a carry this year. He's been awesome. 4.9 on the Cardinals offensive line in case you're curious, it's not good.

And they've got injuries up front. Yeah, but it is bad. But it is bad. So James Connor is just like, he's entering the category of just like whatever the matchup is. Just play him. Zeke, start of the week by Mike, 11 targets, nine catches. Hopefully you have PPR out there. Derek Henry. Derek Henry, you guys said you expected the bounce back. He gets to reap. He has to play Houston next week. Houston who Houston shut him down two weeks ago. Yeah, you play him. Games in Houston. Yeah, you got to play him, but the fact that there's more than one outcome now for Henry is scary. But Bejohn, Jason started the week as well, 12 for 72 on the ground, 10 target, 7 for 50. Aaron Jones, I was very, very excited about Aaron Jones this week. He ended up with 127 on the ground. The more wide receivers they lose, he looked healthy too. That was the other part is he actually looked like himself. Wide receiver studs.

The wide receiver won. Is this the biggest performance of the year, probably? Yes. Yeah, I mean, DJ Moore was close. Let me go look what he is. DJ Moore had three, huh? Three touchdowns? Let me see. Amari did have a two-point conversion, two touchdowns, 26 yards, and 11. Yeah, DJ Moore was eight for 230 and three. He had 45 points. Yeah, we have them down as 46 here in half ppr. Really? Yeah, because he had the two-point conversion. Okay. So this is the number one. Yeah. I think so. And just being honest with you, I welcomed it. I really did. I received it all with love and affection. It was the greatest Christmas gift I've ever received. He has a 200-yard game now with three different teams. Oakland, Dallas, and Cleveland. I believe he has the most. Could you imagine Dallas right now with a Marri Cooper and C.D. Lamb? Dumbies. George Pickens.

Went magma, 4-4-195 and 2. Yeah, what? We had a team that got in one of our leagues that got eliminated last week. Starting two wide receivers was Amari Cooper and George Pickens. Oh. Can you imagine facing two 200-yard and two touchdown receivers? And Mike Evans, boys. Yeah, wow. Seven for 86 and two more. He's the wide receiver three. He's, he's. maybe the best pick in all of fantasy football this year. I mean, if you grabbed Mike Evans where you were getting him. It's him and Rashad White. Yeah, ironic. Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean, those guys just, Evans has 13 touchdowns, and there's time left, and they're fighting for playoffs. So Calvin Ridley, negative points in the first half, ends up six for 90 and two, almost knocked me out of the playoffs. This guy. And one of them was with C.J. Bethard. He had negative points.

Yeah. He does all of his work in a half. He did it in the first half of that first week. He did it in the second half of this last week. He just likes to save up his gas tank and explode. And who else? T. Higgins? Yeah, baby. Five from 140. Mike started the week. And then DJ chart got it done with two touchdowns for the Panthers who, look, they could have won that game. They could have won that game. They could not spike the ball at the time. Yeah. And then tight ends, not a big list, but David Najoku and Evan Ingraham, both starts of the week, got it done, six or 44 in a touchdown for Najoku. If you want someone that you can count on on Thursday, that's the name. Yes, yes. The Jets are bad against tight ends. I did think about that earlier when I said really all the passing game against the Jets is bad. It's really not true. The middle of the field, the tight end is where they allow passes to go. So Nojoku should be absolutely fine.

this week. In fact, he's probably a great play. Ingram was 10 for 95. They have lost a lot of wide receivers there. And, you know, Carolina next week. He's had a great year. Evan Ingram's had a consistent year. He didn't, I'm curious what his highest has probably had a, yeah, he's had a number one finish. So the first eight weeks of the season for Evan Ingram, it was just kind of like. slow and steady and you forget about it? No, no touchdowns, yeah. No, no touchdowns, never finished inside the top six. But then the last four weeks, I mean, he's doing what he did last year. Yeah, I mean, the last five games, you'd be on pace for 10 touchdowns and 1100 yards. Who are the top tight ends over the last five weeks? Can you look that up in points for game? I'd be curious. I mean, we're losing Hawkinson now. Kelsey has been on a tailspin. And you know what? I don't know how much of it. I mean, Kelsey's getting older. He's had some drops.

He's getting frustrated, right? Like, yeah. There are players like Metcalf and Kelsey, like you get them rolling the wrong direction. You make a mistake. There was a, like, a little spat on the sideline of the Kansas City game of, I'm trying to remember exactly what happened, but almost like Kelsey didn't grab his helmet and Reed got mad at him and then like Mahomes. I mean, you know, like a competitive. They're not used to this. Like, what are you doing, man? Like, let's go. Let's go try and win this game and stop being a crybaby about it. So it has been a rough stretch for Kelsey. Most losses ever by Mahomes in a season. Yeah. And honestly, Mahomes look terrible. Like he, you know, people have bad games. He had one. Yeah. Top five over the last five weeks at the tight end position in points per game. Sam Laporte is number one. David Adjoku's number two, Evan Ingraham number three, Trey McBride, number four, and number five, Isaiah likely. Okay. There you go.