Week 17 Studs & Duds + Championship Talk, Monday Punday - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/2

17 for 69, 4 for 26 through the air. That was such a tough situation, whether or not to start with full confidence Jacobs and Devante Adams looking at your other options. Maybe I put someone in. But Jacobs came through and he even missed essentially the whole first quarter with, I don't remember what the injury was, but he left for quite a while. And then came back and was great. I feel pretty good about the running back recommendations from. the show last week because most of them came through. And, you know, it's a stressful week. Kenneth Walker, 23 for 133, had a huge run to start the game. And then Cam Acres, 19 for 123. Mm-hmm. He was, he looked very, very good. He's, he's someone that if you checked out on fantasy, I think going into next season, you might be slow on the uptick because he looks the part. Clearly, we're not worried about injury, um, that we're not worried about relationship with the team, which, you know, is like,

It was like a couple months ago. It was like they were done. He'll never play another snap as a ram. Now he's there, Belkow. It's wild because I feel like that situation. They actively tried to trade him. No one wanted him. So they tried to get rid of him. And then at some point in time, it's like everybody had to get in a room together and be like, look, we can't get rid of you. So you're going to be stuck here. I guess we'll play you because we don't have anybody else to play. So be better. So just play hard and try to be good and we'll give you the ball. And then they're like, okay.

Yeah. And he might have earned himself some cash money for the future. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, we talked about it. Mike started the week was Mike Evans. He took our touchdown guarantees for the last three weeks and threw them all into one week. I love him. He was the, looks like, fifth most points for a fantasy championship performance since 2000. Man, the people looking across the aisle, you're like, oh, look at this jump over here. Starting Mike Evans, I can't believe you're doing that to yourself in Championship Week. Then, oh, no. I know who I will be voting for in the footies on best performance of the year. Funny enough, I was thinking about that. What has been the performance of the year? Because you've had some really big ones, but. How is it not that? Tim for 207 and 3 in championship weeks. This was before the Evans game. I was trying to think back of like, what was that week where it was just, it made.

All of the difference. And now it's, I mean, we can just kind of skip that category. I mean, that was unbelievable. Devante Adams, 7 for 153 and 2. Ends the year as the wide receiver 3. So, you know, Adams is great. Yes. And we'll see what the quarterback situation is. I don't know what they're going to do. Obviously, they'll probably pursue some free agent options. They're not going to be in a position to draft a high echelon quarterback. So, I mean, you could mix and match some agency. And they have to. Well, they don't have to. But, I mean, they're probably going to trade car. So it's going to be fascinating to see how it all happens. Of course, we got the, you know, Derek Carr unfollows, Raiders on socials. Oh, I didn't know that. That's what you have to do now. Yeah, it's pretty. It's real cute. You let them know. Yeah.

Well, I mean, look, I wouldn't blame him if they literally said, hey, we're going to move on from you. Get away from the team. I mean, what are you supposed to do? Keep, yeah, Raiders starting quarterback in your bio. What a tough situation there. Have you guys seen the discussion about San Francisco might be positioning themselves for Brady? No, I have not. So that would be just the worst. Because, you know, you're talking about a situation where, you know, Jimmy Garoflo. injured now. Trey Lance, no. I mean, they're built to win right now. Yeah. And he's a free agent. There was rumors about San Francisco in the past. Just interesting. Trey Lance just had his follow-up surgery to remove the hardware from his ankle because it was bothering him. That's never a good sign. They say, oh, he'll be ready by OTAs, but it, you know, this is another surgery. I think Brady keeps playing. So we'll see.

Amari Cooper. Wide receiver 9 on the year deserves a ton of credit for overcoming every obstacle in his way. Multiple quarterback. Multiple quarterbacks. I mean, backup quarterbacks, dark wizards. Yeah. All of the above. Cooper's getting it done. Three catches, though. Hey. I mean, like I said, he had that one played down the sideline that was a giant massive bomb touchdown. And that takes your ability to catch more passes on that drive-away. Do you expect the Dark Wizard to ascend in terms of returning to form? I hope not. So my opinion on this, I do think that he will get better because he's been atrocious. Obviously, he had three touchdowns this game, so for fantasy purposes was fine. But, you know, still hasn't been great. The last few weeks has been awful.

I do not expect him to stay awful. I think that with an offseason, with kind of building around him, I do think he'll get back to being a good option in the NFL. I doubt that he gets back to where he was, though, prior to suspension. Brandon Ayuk ended up with a big game, nine for 101 and a touchdown. This was the kind of bounce away from Kettle over to Iyuk in this one. DJ Moore, Mike, you played him in DFS, which think, thank goodness, it's not me this week. Thank goodness it is me. I want to take this on because nothing could bring me. Well, Mike, you need to find whatever. Yeah, I'm on it. Shame. I'm on it. Situation is possible and entered into the wheel because we need, we need him landing on something disastrous. Plastic bag.

Oh my gosh. Wait, I'm going to die. Put it on, fat boy. Oh, we would never say that. AJ Brown, nine targets, one big play. He had 97 yards. I think 78 was one reception. That's AJ Brown. Devante Smith, 13 targets, nine for one, 15. They're going to end the year, potentially both in the top 10. That's where they're at right now. The Devonte Smith, I know he's been playing, you know, fantastic overall, especially when Goddard had the injury and he started moving up. But like, it's always fascinating when the new quarterback comes in and seeing how they play. And it was like Gardner Minshu loves Devante Smith. Their play style is just mesh really well. Devante Smith is a league winner. Like he is.

probably the most unheralded piece of my championship run, because you look at the last several weeks. He helped me get there with last week's monstrous performance as the wide receiver 2 was awesome this last week. But going backwards, the wide receiver 10 to 15, 17, and 10. Yeah. I mean, not even past being a top 20 wide receiver for the last five weeks, just absolutely incredible. And as the wide receiver 2 for his own team. Yeah, and this wasn't what we've seen from Devante Smith historically. We've seen big game, disappear, big game, and now he's been very consistent. CD Lamb, Thursday night football. Yep, he was good. Taking care of business. And we'll end it there, Justin Jefferson, the sad game. We'll talk about him later. Tight in, say, look at this. Look at this. Trey McBride, 10 targets, 7 for 78 and a touchdown. Wow. Yes.

Yes. He is one of six rookie tight-ins over the last decade with his 775 in a touchdown game. Please. So we haven't seen that very much. Please. But you were drafted to be this, Trey. I mean, he was the first tight-in taken in the NFL draft. And, you know, Mike and I in the team that we should be champ, champ, champ, champ, back to back, champ. We took Trey McBride with the last pick in the first round of our rookie draft because he projected to be a fantasy star. in the future and then just didn't have a rookie season. So having him pop up here at the end of the season and just flash, flash the brilliance that he was drafted to have is such a good thing for his future outlook. Yeah, that'll be an interesting situation with Zach Ertz, who's still under contract, I believe. He is. He just got an extension, three year, I think, at the beginning of the year. Doubt it lasts three years. Agreed. Yeah, I mean, it's...

Just the whole story of what are the Arizona Cardinals going to do? Because they tear it down. They probably need to tear it down. Darren Waller, five targets, three for 72 and a touchdown. Looked really good in this game. Mark Andrews, nine for 100. First game, over 65 receiving yards since week six. This is why people kept playing them. This is the week of bounceback for certain players. You know, on the Evans, Mark Andrews, some of these staples for your lineup that weren't. Good. 14 for 46 on the ground for Tayson Hill. That's a lot of carries for a tight end. Yeah. As he's not a tight end. Tyler Conklin, six for 80. Yeah. I don't know who the future quarterback in New York is, but I'm not sure they know it yet. Derek. It's Derek Carr. Yeah? That's where I think he's going to go. George Kittle, four for 23, got back into the end zone, into the year, three straight top 12 performances.

No thoughts, just dead silence. Thank you guys. Al, do you have anything on Kettle? No. When you said top 12 performances, for me, Titans top 12 isn't that big of an accomplishment. Yeah. Well, how about he was the Titan 1 and the Titan 2 and then he had a touchdown this week? That's great. Yeah. It's passable. Sorry to bother you with the Kettle stats there, guys. Thank you. It's great to see would have. would like to see him do these types of things when Debo Samuel is on the field so that we know we can actively draft him as the tight end three. He would add a 60-yard touchdown in this game if he wasn't. Brock Pretty threw a pick underthrowing him on another one of those plays that worked out the past two weeks. It is incredible his splits where when IUC and Debo are both active and play the game, Kittle is just not that big a part of this offense. They design. Shanahan.

designs. It's not enough to go around. You talk about system quarterbacks or whatever. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is here. Not take anything away from Brock Purdy, but CJ Bethard succeeded in the system. They just design up plays where it's like, here's what you're going to do, robot. You're going to do this play. Do this. And they don't design it up for George Kittle when they got two other good receiving options. And when one of them is gone, it's like, all right, kiddle, you're up. They're the first team where the quarterback position is actually run by. AI. And it's working. It's actually fully run by AI. Were they 12 wins now? Yeah, they've won nine in a row, I think. All right, that was Studs of the Week, presented by Madewell. Don't wait to upgrade your denim game. Go to madewell.com. Get $20 off your next pair of jeans. Use the code. Footballers, 20. I mean, it was a heck of a weekend. Man, the, uh, the champ, champ, champ, champ, Jason. Oh, yeah. I don't think we, like, we, we, we opened the show.

kind of celebrating Mike Evans and talking about your league of record situation. I don't know, I don't think Andy's acknowledging the champ, champ, champ enough. Yeah, the, the champ champ champ is, it's never been done in any of the leagues I'm a part of, the back to back to back. Right. Well, I mean, it hadn't been done. Hooked in his big boy pants. I was moving that. I don't, I mean, we've had enough. I'm just not in the league. You know what I mean? Sure. There's a lot of people that play in leagues all over the world that I'm not in. And I don't acknowledge all their championships because I'm not in it with them. You were. Yeah, you dropped out. You quit. I was never a quitter. I was never a manager in that league. Well, you were a co-manager. That's my co-manager. Post-draft. I got out of there. Yeah. I got out of there. You got out at the right time. I mean, I jumped in. You didn't want to be in this league with us. I jumped in with the biggest loser. I saw what he drafted. And I jumped out.

Yeah. You know, and I let you guys ride on into the champ champ, champ sunset. Feels good. All right, Duds, we got to talk about him. Trevor Lawrence. We talked about that one, 152, no touchdowns, one pick. Yep. Mike White looked awful. Super disappointing. I mean, I know we asked this question a few weeks ago. Like, do you think Mike White can be something? I don't. You said on record you do not believe he could ever be a Kirk Cousins. No, in this game tells me he might. He might have peaked already. I mean, I like it. Can he be a Kirk Cousins? No. Go to the next name. Kurt Cousins. I guess he can. This week he can. Kurt Cousins is a good quarterback. But he can do these things. That's part of his. All quarterbacks can do this. Yeah. And Kurt Cousins, he's got a flare for it. And it's just, I don't know what it is about the whole.

career of Kirk Cousins because even before his time in Minnesota when he's in Washington like it was just so he's just an easy guy to dunk on I guess he's a snowball man sure yeah he's a snowball when the momentum goes in either direction either direction so when you get this is how you accomplish the greatest comeback in NFL history is your snowball in the right way yeah but when it goes bad three picks on the road I mean this was the fear of Kirk Cousins last week and we talked about it like going into Lambo in a game that you could put the Packers out of the playoffs. That's not what he does. He's not built for that. That's where he collapses. And you said that last week, like you worried that he might collapse in the game. I would have been shamed if I put him in my DFS lineup. Really, really important game. Yeah. Justin Fields. This was very similar to last week. This is mind boggling. I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like this. He is on the duds. He did not have a good fantasy day.

He had a hundred rushing yards, rushing yards. 132. In the first quarter. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. What? How did he end up on the duds? And a passing touchdown. Maybe seven for 21 isn't so good. No. Maybe having no receivers isn't so good either. Cole come out was the only one giving him anything. I just, I. And Chase Claypool, that, that trade. Yeah. So far, I mean, you could work out later. Probably won't because we've seen Chase Claypool. He normally doesn't work out for you. The Steelers don't give away good players, right? It's kind of a, it's just one of those like you trust certain teams to make certain decisions around the league, right? And yes, everybody can make mistakes, but certain teams don't make many of them. Yeah, you know the Ravens are going to make good decisions with personnel, the majority of time. And the Steelers are in that club and they gave them away.

They didn't want him. They traded him and he's made zero impact in Chicago and maybe next year. I mean, they have to pay him now, right? No, he has one more year. Oh, he does have one more? Yeah. Yeah, wait for him to hold out. Speaking of the Steelers and Mike Tomlin, is he going to do it again? It just, it's unbelievable. I was rooting for him last night. I was too. I found myself rooting for him to continue the streak. It sucks that, you know, we've got the extra game on the season because he got. He did it. You know, he got $500. What's the match it for the final week? I do not know. Oh, Browns. Yeah, done deal. I mean, it's just, it's just crazy. In Pittsburgh. That's over. With this rag tag group of putrid performances for the Steelers are going to, they're going to come out about 500. Are you talking about Kenny Pickett who has six passing touchdown? I laughed. Yes. I laughed at, yesterday Jason was in the middle of his battle and he.

You know, it was looking good. But he's like, I'm going to, I'm going to go above and beyond something that we encourage the Foot Clan to do. I'm going to, he had the opportunity to drop a bench player and pick up a quarterback. So he dropped a bench player. Who did you drop? I dropped Romeo Dobbs. Okay. Well, then it worked out still. But it worked out to the degree of like, last night, look, can he pick it at five points? And it was like, you added a quarterback to your bench. But yeah, that touchdown at the end changed the game. Dak.

It was disappointing for that. Gardner Minshu was a nightmare until one big play. He ended up closer to 20 points at that point, but that game was trending in a direction that had Jason on. You know, he had to have been looking for prescription drugs at that point to soften the blow of blowing his entire championship with Gardner Minshu. They had almost no opportunities in the first half of that game. And without that one big play, you'd be more scared tonight. But he got it. Let's go through some tough names here in the running back room. Dalvin Cook. Man, since week 11, Dalvin Cook has been pretty much a disaster. He has since week 11, so you're talking, you know, seven games. He had a top 10 finish against the Jets. He was number two against the Colts in that incredible comeback.

It's the second straight here. That is... Championship week, he's submarine titles. Last year it was three points. This year it's five. Like remembering the Colts game, I know he was getting goal line vultured, but it was like that, whatever, it was the 70-yard receiving touchdown that gave him the real, you know, the points back against the Colts. But other than that, he's finished outside of the top 25. I mean, he is killing people. Yeah, the... I think the player who was worse this week for fantasy managers was Sequin because Sequin got you there. Dalvin Cook managers, like you just said, he's kind of not been great over the last stretch of games. Yeah, but you're playing him every week. If I told you that that Sequan Barclay would participate in a game in which the Giants scored 38 points in one in a blowout. Right. And then I told you he finished the RB 40.

which was his lowest finish of the year? Six fantasy points in half PPR scoring. It was awful and it wasn't his fault. He did nothing wrong. He ran 4.8 yards a clip. Daniel Jones vultured a couple early touchdowns. Next thing you know, the game is over. I mean, they blew the walls off of the stadium for the Indianapolis Colts. The roof fell down upon them. Got it. No, put it together, man. Yeah, I got there. And so, I mean, Seguan didn't even, you know, play towards the end of that game. You had Matt Breda just do a mop-up, dude. He was so unfortunate because if you relied on, like, I had Sequin in our Draft Kings lineup. That was my biggest submariner. Everything looked like it would. And we're back. Everything looked like it was great for him. And.

It was too great. No door, there's no walls on the stadium and there's a submarine right in the middle. My, my bigger question for this just mini discussion is Dalvin Cook next year, because we're forward looking now, do you feel like you're going to be looking at Dalvin Cook as an elite fantasy option? Not a, I mean, probably pretty similar to this past year where he was being drafted. He's the RB eight on the season. Yeah. And, you know, it was bumpier at the end than it was at the beginning. But yeah, I think you're not going to look at him too much like Mixen or Dalvin Cook next year. He'll, yeah, I mean, I would probably go Dalvin Cook. But I mean, it's the same. Yeah, I think that's a great comp. Like those guys will be back end of round one.

or maybe fall into the early part of round two, and that's probably exactly where they belong. He's going to start next year at 27 years old, so he hasn't aged out of anything. Camaro will be interesting, too, in that group. Sure. Yeah, and he'll probably be carrying a suspension, so I'm guessing that he'll drop a few rounds. But yeah, that group of, and Zeke, ironically, who's been awesome. It's the former top five. Right. That are now still playing with these same teams that will be really interesting. Because Camara has lost a little bit. I mean, there's also a scheme and a quarterback situation there. But, you know, when you look at stability, Cook's going to have more stability than Camara will. And will be, like, the wild card for the Minnesota Vikings will be, what is the backup running back situation? Because Alexander Madison's going into free agency. I can't imagine they've, well, I mean.

There's a world where they bring him back, but there's also a world where Alexander Madison. Somebody will give him more money than Minnesota. Tries to go get the bag, possibly a starting job if one becomes available. And then what do the Vikings do to replace that backup? Do they bring in someone who actually has the juice to eat into his snaps more? Probably not, but maybe. I mean, Alexander Madison has the juice. Alexander Madison, to me, looks like a Michael Turner type of player. Oh, stop. I'm just saying that where back of the day where L.T. was... Madison's not Michael Turner. I'm saying back in the day when L.T. was everything. And you had this guy behind where every now and then he'd get an opportunity, a miss game or something, he'd be like, man, he's great. When he went out and got his own starting gig, he came through and was good. Michael Turner was at some...

otherworldly back. But that's what we've seen from Alexander Madison is when he's gotten the opportunity to have a full game in lieu of Dalvin Cook, he's been great. So I'm curious what, you know. I think he'll get Damian Williams type of money to go someplace. Probably. But I'm saying like we always look at starting running backs like Dava Cook of that team's good. There's no way they're drafting a running back. And then round two, they shock you and they take one of the top tier guys. All right, let's look at David Montgomery, but just for a second, because if you look too long, you'll cry. This was a disaster of a game, the team. They were awful. They couldn't move the football. We just talked about Justin Fields. Now Montgomery is being talked about. Romandre, eight for 42 on the ground, four targets. I mean, this was. People are going to be mad. RB 63, RB 43, the last two weeks. Collapse eponymous. I mean, this is, this is a guy who got you to the playoffs and then showed you the door.

Well said. Leonard Fournett, Tim for 28. Leonard Fornett was barely on the field in the first half. Four targets, four for 19. Scored, then had it called back. I'm sure Jason's thrilled about that because you'd be more nervous tonight with another eight points on the board for your opponent. Miles Sanders, 12 for 61 on the ground. No targets. Deont de Foreman, we're back. I mean, Deont deformed had to be the most. Difficult to project situation. You didn't know when the offensive line for Carolina would just like take some of Michael's secret stuff and be great or when they couldn't run the ball at all. I'm looking at some of these weekly bounce back. Yeah. Running back five. Running back 42. Running back nine. Running back 48. Running back three. Running back 70. It's like it is the most boom or bust feast or famine.

wild play where it's like you're you're lighting a stick of dynamite and it could do so much damage right that wick is so short you better be able to throw it and if you can you're gonna have a good time if you can't watch that really bad time yeah nothing from the jets backfield zonovan knight eight for 27 yeah Michael Carter, one for two. Nice. Wide receivers, Justin Jefferson was the headline 1, 415, so frustrated on the field you saw him, rip his helmet off, looked like he was about to hit a ref with it. Jair Alexander gritted on his grave. Yes, yeah, I don't know if you saw that particular play, but there was, I mean, maybe Alexander affected the play, but Jefferson looked like he should have caught it and hits the ground. Alexander just.

walking away, hitting the gradient. And this was like at the beginning of the game. It was so good. Because I made the comment. I'm like, whoa, Alexander, I know you're really good, but you really, you want to be poking the bear at the beginning of the game. The bear, the bear was. The bear went to hibernation. Oh, my gosh. He shot the bear with a bear gun. I mean, if there is such a thing. I mean, that's, people were worried about what he said before the week. Yes. that was that dude good for you alexander goodness gracious letting them know these two teams could play in the playoffs they good what's funny is this game was so good for alexander and so bad for Justin Jefferson that the record that has been talked about for the last several weeks about Justin Jefferson obviously is going to break the he's not he's not going to do it anymore because he only got 15 yards here he needed what like 209 yeah

So he basically still needs 200 yards? He could technically do against Chicago. Yeah, yeah, he could, but, you know, what do they do as a team that's, you know, are they still fighting? Yeah, I mean, they're not eligible for the one seat anymore. Are they out? They should be with the loss. Yeah, I think that's true. So, I mean, in that situation, why do you risk Justin Jefferson's health? I don't know. D.K. McCaff, Tyler Lockett, this was the Jets. Passing defense, they're too good. Jay and the Waddle, three for 52. Really not that bad considering what happened at quarterback. Garrett Wilson, 11 targets for three catches. 11 targets. Not a good. I mean, that, that, that line, 11 targets, three for 18, that's basically what happened with Greg Dorch. Yes. And those, those were.