Footie Award Winners + Hot Takes for 2025! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/14

we're letting them do their... Yeah, Josh Harris. Thank you, Kyle. We got out of the way, and we're letting these people who are good at their jobs do their thing. And then it goes to a cut of Jerry Jones. Oh, gosh. And they're asking him about... Maybe you don't want to be the GM anymore. He's like, get out of here. Essentially, like, no, I'm the GM forever. Well, that's what I was going to ask you. Like, if you... We can make fun of Jerry. Oh, I can and I will. Because he has put himself into a position where he is eligible for it.

Yeah, and he won't know. Jerry Jones is a winner. But here's what I'm... Remember the 90s? He said he did not buy a team. He bought an occupation. That was his quote. Because he chose to buy the Cowboys, and he wanted to do it for the rest of his life, which is his right. Yeah. To do... Like, if I bought a team, I might want to be GM. Yeah. I might not be good at it, but I probably would think next year I'll be good at it. I would, but how long do you... How long are you bad at it before you're like, I'd like my team to win?

But maybe you're okay being bad at it, but being it. Andy, literally, as we were talking, a statement came out from Jerry Jones. Oh, boy. Am I defending him, by the way? You were so... Big Raff, Big Jerry. You're not defending. You're just explaining his position. There's a lot of words in this statement of just, we did this, we looked at everything, the staff, and we... Whatever. But I think the most important part, the climax of this is, prior to reaching the point of contract negotiations, though, it became mutually clear that it would be better for each of us to head in a different direction.

This is Jerry Jones saying, this isn't money. This was not money. We decided before, before that. Before, talk about money. Yeah. Everybody. And everyone believes you, Jerry. Well, Deshaun Watson ruptured his Achilles again. Oh, man. He's now uncertain to play at all next year. Probably won't take another snap with the Browns, if you're looking at this situation. Have you seen all the... I've seen the videos. All the chatter of... He was seen on Instagram on a recent date without a boot on, which could make him eligible to have those years voided. If he did not follow protocol that the team put out there for his Achilles recovery, it

would have been under three months from surgery. They would get off the hook. Yeah. We don't know if that's in their protocol or not. And they also have an insurance against the cap for injury. I don't pretend to be an expert on this, but what I saw was that some of that cap money the following season would come back. So, yeah. Maybe they do get off the hook a little bit here. Thanks to the second re-rupture of the Achilles. What else? Tyreek Hill says now he's committed to the Dolphins after positive meetings with the team. And that might sound like, why is this news?

If you hadn't heard or seen him posting things all over about basically wanting out of playing for the Dolphins, including putting his face on the Antonio Brown photograph where he left mid-game. Peace out. Peace sign. Not a good look. Very funny. It was a delightful tweet. I very much enjoyed it. But I was, you know, you saw that and you went, ooh. Yeah. Ooh. And that's why he has to come out and say that, no, things are good now. That was today's news and notes presented, as always, by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break.

And we'll get into the footy awards. I'll tell you, before we get into the footy awards, I feel like there should have been an extra category this year, which is, it's like the best show moment, but it's the best off-air show moment of the year because we've had a couple things around the office going crazy. Are you sharing this? Yes. Including Cricketgate. Cricketgate just happened. I don't know that we have time to explain this. Our entire crew, programmers, ducers, y'all almost got fired today because there was someone put, and I don't know if you know this exists and if you didn't, congratulations because you

can really hurt someone with this information. There are little chirping cricket bugs that chirp anywhere between. You're talking about- It's a tiny little speaker. It's an electronic device. Yes. And it chirps at random between five and 45 minutes, and you can't find this thing. And after a couple days- You definitely can't find it when it comes from different areas. Yeah. And so we were like, Friday, we were threatened. What? You know, we just knew it was Papa Josh, of course. It's like, yeah. Okay, Josh. Yeah, it's the usual suspects. It's a good goof. Get it. I'm sick of hearing this cricket.

And then it just kept escalating and getting worse and worse. And so this morning, after the weekend, it was like- I'm sitting in the office by myself. I hear it again, and I'm like, this is it. The company's over. Like, I can't work in this environment. I told Andy, we move offices, and we clean house, hire a whole new staff. Yeah, this is like Raiders-style stuff. You start all over. So we go out to the producers, and I tell Falcon he's fired in one hour. So it doesn't matter whose fault it is. One hour from now, he's fired. Just completely, like, I put a timer on my watch, and I don't care if it was Josh that did it.

We own this company. We ain't living with that cricket gate. Josh, you're going to have to have that on your conscience. And then we tell everybody, because we pay for lunch every day here at the studio, and then we tell everybody, we're not paying for lunches anymore. Not while the cricket's happening. No, no, no. This is serious business. This is serious. And apparently that, not firing Pingree, but threatening taking lunches away, allowed Jeremy to come clean. He gets his championship. He thinks he could do absolutely everything. It was- He will want me to explain the full situation. Yeah, there's a lot more to it than that.

Apparently, we had a fan of the show. This is the true story. This is what happened. We had a fan of the show who offered, who makes 3D printed trophies, to send us a few trophies. He wanted to send one to Al. Congratulations. And to Brian Ketcher and his co-manager, the biggest loser, a biggest loser trophy. And then he actually sent a trophy to the Falcon that has a toilet on it because, come on. Yeah. And apparently, without telling me, he embedded in the middle of the 3D print, a cricket device. And these guys had made up in their minds that I had secretly done this as a way to get back for you,

ruining my life on the show where my family came on here and congratulated you. Anyways, they had made up this whole story, and so that was getting back at us. He took the device out. They hid it in the rafters. He ordered more devices. He took it out and then was like, that one's not enough. I'm getting more. And then he put it in the drop ceiling. We're looking under desks. We're looking everywhere. Mike knew instantly that something was wrong, too. He's like, that ain't a real cricket. Yeah. So, anyways, congratulations to Owl, and thank you to our fans who have almost destroyed the company today.

Yeah, we almost burnt it down. These things are devious. I mean, it's really small. That battery's going to last for decades. For infinity. And it's going to be a cricket going off that you can't find. To the footies! Welcome to the Annual Footy Award Show. Featuring Performance of the Year, The Wafer Wire Wonder, The Poopiest Pants Award, And many more. It's the Annual Footy Award Show. Well, I don't know if it was as loud for everybody out there, but that was real. The horns were hitting. All right. We've got the winners. We do not know the winners yet. Thank you to the thousands upon thousands of Foot Clan listeners that voted for this year's footy awards.

I'm going to kick this thing off. I'm so excited. I know. Right here, right now. Now, do these, just so I know, since I haven't opened these yet, do I read the nominees, then open them? Correct. The nominees are not on here. Okay. We'll hit the drum roll and you open it. Why can no one say drum roll now? I don't know. That's the second time today I've watched it. All right. So, the first award is the Performance of the Year, which single week performance was the most impressive on the year. Our nominees was Josh Allen's Week 14 with 51.9 points.

Saquon Barkley's Week 12 had 44 points. Alvin Kamara had... Was that the butt jump week? Probably. I don't know. Probably, yeah. Alvin Kamara, 43 points in Week 2. Jonathan Taylor's Week 16. Important playoff game. Jamar Chase in Week 10 with 49.9 points. And Brock Bowers with 25.2 in Week 13. And the winner. Are you going to be the drum roll guy? What do you want? I think I want you to be the drum roll guy. I'll be the drum roll guy. Rail him. The winner is Josh Allen. Oh! Week 14. Josh Allen, 342 and 3 with 3 on the ground.

51.9 points. 44% of the vote. Wow. The runner-up. Pretty much a landslide then with that many people, right? The runner-up was not far off. Jamar Chase. That was my vote. That was my vote, too. That was mine. And when you started with Josh or the sound, I was like, Jamar Allen. Jamar Allen. Jamar Chase was the runner-up with 35%. But Josh Allen takes home this year's performance of the year. All right, Andy. Well, I will read this one for you, even though it is your award. Please do. This is the Fantasy Reapers. Man of the year. Which players injury hurt fantasy managers the most?

You had a four-pack here. Christian McCaffrey, Isaiah Pacheco, Chris Olave, and Chris Godwin. Oh. I'll be honest. Oh, yeah. The Christians. They all get hurt. Oh, that's right. And then the only one who wasn't named Christian is Isaiah. I mean, come on. You're not too far off there. All right. So, drum roll, please. And the winner with 88% of the vote. I think we know. No surprise, the first pick in your draft a lot of times, Christian McCaffrey. Who? Did you guys see the recent McCaffrey? That he's totally fine and could play in the playoffs? Yeah. If they made the playoffs, he was good to go.

That is going to help him stay near the 101 this next year. And you know it's true. He won't be the 101, but he will still be a top six pick. He'll be a first round pick. It's going to be who's the first one that wants to live dangerously. Right. So, like eight. Yes, because there are big names that I can't imagine passing on to go to Christian McCaffrey. That's fair. He won't be at the 101, but he'll be in the first round. You'll get to a point where everyone's willing to take the risk of – because you've had this

before. You've had Christian McCaffrey disappear for years. Yeah, and he did it two years in a row. Right. Well, look, time though. Yeah. Injuries. All right, Mike. It's up to you. We are at the poopiest – Your specialty. The poopiest pants award. Well, it's Jason's specialty to be fair. That is true. I have pooped in my pants. Despite high expectations, this player let down fantasy managers over and over and over again. This year's nominees, Travis Etienne, who was drafted as the running back seven. Marvin Harrison Jr., drafted as the wide receiver eight. Patrick Mahomes was the QB three. And Jalen Waddle, drafted as the wide receiver 18.

Rail them drums. The winner of the poopiest pants award is Travis Etienne with 52% of the vote. Marv and his woolly pants, he was second, 31%. You know, the crazy thing about Travis Etienne is that it did not – like, the pants were poopy, right? Yeah. All year long. Oh, yeah. But nobody else did anything. What do you mean? I mean, like, it wasn't – if you wanted to tell me, Rashad, why it's pants were poopy, I'd be like, all right. But Bucky Irving took over. Right. Oh, I see what you're saying. Travis Etienne's pants were poopy, and so were Tank Bigsby's pants.

Tank Bigsby got involved. I think Tank Bigsby did hurt Travis Etienne this year. But what is insane is that, you know, it's like – Tank Bigsby was awful. It feels like – No, he wasn't. He was awful. He was not – like, you couldn't start him for fantasy. But I'm saying, like, but his production. Like, he – Tank Bigsby was – ran for 4.6 a carry over the course of the season. Etienne wishes. His 3.7 – he played 15 games. Like, it feels like he missed half the season. He didn't. He only missed three games. Yeah. And he had 632 – I'm sorry, 558 yards.

Rushing yards across 15 weeks. Yes. Yeah, it was – Wait, he had 558? Yeah. So, yeah, Bigsby had 766 rushing yards. Yeah. On – how many attempts did Etienne have? Bigsby had 168. Etienne 150. Okay. So, they kind of took over. It's just you didn't have somebody that, like – Like, for him to be that bad with that draft capital and still not have somebody fantasy relevant in the backfield. I just thought that was interesting. Waver Wire Wonder. Which undrafted Waver Wire stud was the best signing? This year's nominees. Baker Mayfield was awesome. Sam Darnold. Juwan Jennings. Jennings. Darnell Mooney.

He had a good run. Jonu Smith. Bucky Irving. Oh, man. I know who I voted for, and this year's winner is – I don't know who I voted for. I know who I voted for. The winner is – Bucky Irving. Ah, yeah. That's who I voted for. 47%. The runner-up was actually Baker Mayfield at 27%. Bucky was my vote as well. When you get running back value late in the draft, it is a glorious thing. It is juicy. I wish it happened earlier in the season. We've talked about – and we've got the data to back this up. This has been a tip in the past that did not come true this season, which was that the waiver

wire is usually so much more valuable in weeks one and two. Those guys hit and stick oftentimes. And that is true over the last decade. It wasn't really true this year. Some of the biggest waiver wire pickups early on in this season, they just turned out to kind of be flops. Like Isaiah Likely was – you know, he was the – Big spin. The big spin. And it turned into not much. Bucky Irving was later in the year off of waivers several weeks in and totally worth it. All right, Jason, you are – I'm up with the fantasy quarterback of the year.

Remember, this takes into account the draft position, the big game performances, impact to fantasy teams everywhere. Last year was Dak Prescott with the winning award. And this year, the nominees are – Do I – oh, that drum roll comes after? Yeah, that's – Yeah, we don't read the drum roll for the nominees. We're on number five right now, dude. We've done this four times already. Also 10 years of it. I just woke up right this second. Did you blackout? Where's the rail? All right. The nominees are Lamar Jackson, who was the quarterback one. Josh Allen, also awesome, is the quarterback two.

Burrow, fantastic. Jaden Daniels, rookie sensation. And the aforementioned waiver wire wonder, Baker Mayfield. And the winner is – can I get the drum roll, please? The winner is – wow. Jaden Daniels. 39% of the vote. I thought for sure this would be Lamar Jackson. I thought it would be Lamar. That's who I voted for. I actually did vote for Jaden Daniels. But I – It's QB 14 all the way up to 40. Yeah, that's awesome. And he was a rookie. What's the percentage? The percentage was 39%. And who was runner-up? Runner-up was actually Baker Mayfield at 21. So people were taking into account –

ADP. Drafting them late. You know, because, you know, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, they were awesome. But you're spinning a second and third round pick for them. Yeah. If you had Jaden Daniels, you might have just won your championship because you got him so late. Owl, you had Jaden Daniels. You won your championship. I sure did. Against Lamar Jackson. So, I guess footies – Hey, Jaden. Oh, yeah. Your footie is in the mail. Yeah, you're a rookie in the NFL. You may not know that. Yeah, you don't know. We send them out by freight. Mm-hmm. Almost impossible to lift where they got to get craned in sometimes.

All right. Fantasy running back of the year. Aw, Christian McCaffrey won this last year. Yeah. That's cute. He could have won again, but he didn't play football this year. This year's nominees, we got Saquon Barkley drafted as the running back six. Derrick Henry drafted as the running back nine. Jameer Gibbs drafted as the RB four. Chase Brown all the way down to running back 40. Chuba Hubbard at running back 43. And Joe Mixon sneaking in here was drafted as the running back 15. Had some big games. All right. Running back of the year. This one's not really a surprise. It is Saquon Barkley with 54% of the vote.

Jameer Gibbs runner up 13%. Wow. So, that was a drubbing. An absolute – Thromping? Thromping. All right. The fantasy wide receiver of the year. All of those factors considered. Big game performances, ADP, impact to fantasy teams. Last year was CeeDee Lamb. This year's nominees, four names. Jamar Chase drafted as the wide receiver – or as the – yeah, wide receiver four. Is that true? Yeah. Okay. Brian Thomas Jr., a ninth-round pick. Terry McLaurin in the late sixth. And Malik Nabors in the fourth round. Let me make sure I got the right envelope. The winner is – unsurprisingly, but actually narrowly, Jamar Chase.

Listen to this. 49% of the vote, but Brian Thomas Jr. coming in at 42%. Wow. Ain't no one like Terry McLaurin in Malik Nabors. No. So, Jamar Chase takes it home. Your footy is in the mail. That is fantastic. Well-deserved. He was awesome this year. Fantasy tight end of the year. Last year, Sam Laporta, a rookie. This year might be another rookie. Brock Bowers, who was drafted as the tight end nine, finishes the tight end two. Trey McBride, drafted at three, finished at three. John O. Smith, undrafted, finished at four. And the always forgotten, never loved, tight end one on the season.