Week 13 Waivers + Playoff Prep, Difference Makers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/26

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The fantasy footballers. Mike, the fantasy hitman, is here. I'm Andy Holloway, joined as always by Jonu Moore, and excited to have you with us on this fine waiver day. Jonu? How are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you. I like to be a part of this great show and ruin Tyreek Hill. Which he agrees with. I don't know if you, uh, yeah, everyone out there. I mean, we, we had our fun with Johnny Smith yesterday on the show. Uh, apparently a couple of people misinterpreted our, our playful argument as me believing John, who is more talented as a player than Tyreek Hill. That's what, that's what I heard, which I know it is what you heard. Uh, I want to set the record straight. I do.

Just by a small margin, believe Tyreek has been a better pro. I was merely saying from a fantasy output, Johnny Smith was producing more. But it was very funny because yesterday we had this whole debate. This whole discussion where I was sharing my frustrations with Johnny Smith saying that they shouldn't. be involving him as much in the offense because it's not as good for the dolphins themselves and it's worse for Tyreek Hill and Tyreek is greater sign, Johnny Smith, whatever. And then both of you guys just trying to dunk on me for my stupid, stupid takes. And then Tyreek Hill. Tyreek goes and tweets a meme, the, uh, the, the, the turning over your shoulder to look at another woman meme that was. Mike McDaniel turning his.

turning his head to look at Jonu and A. Chan instead of Waddle and Tyreek and he said that he basically agreed with it. Now, two things can be true. That's true. Which is most of your vitriol was birthed from the fact Tyreek Hill and mostly Waddle have been deleted. And that is totally appropriate. We have fantasy players are all angry about the fact that these two longstanding valuable fantasy assets. are not being utilized. And I would add a third in there, and I think it might even be more important, not necessarily more important than Tyree Kill, but Tua, Tua himself has not been productive. Now this week, I know, he was like the quarterback, too, was extremely productive. But again, going back to it, that was because it was the Patriots defense. Again, you're talking fantasy, though. Yes, yes, yes. Because productivity, Tua has been the single best. I don't care. He's been the best quarterback.

And the team is number one in scoring and number one in EPA per play. So the argument yesterday was, are they playing good football? They are winning all their games by scoring the most points in the league. And I think that's where me and Mike were making having our fun. Since Tua has been back from the IR concussion stint, he's averaging 26 completions for 255 yards a game and over two touchdowns, which. 77. Pacewise is 4,337. Don't care. 77% completion percentage, 116 pass a rating. So why hasn't he been good for fantasy outside of the terrible matchup against the Patriots? Why was he the quarterback 22, 19, and 22 his first three weeks back? That's all I just care about fantasy. I don't. Look, if you're a Dolphins fan, I'm happy for you. You're winning. You're scoring. And you know what? That's where you went wrong yesterday is because you opened it.

Not about fantasy. Yeah. You opened it up about how horrible Johnny was for the offense. You didn't say for fantasy. Can we pivot to something we all agree about? It's too soon. Can we talk about Quinn Johnston instead? Talk about last night's game. I mean, I do feel I do feel bad for him because it was a nationally televised game and because he had he had mostly buried the demons. Yeah, I mean, like he had been playing so well and the drop was just so significant last night and it was so. Drop? Well, no, I'll say the drop because one drop beget the other two drops. It was very clear that like that one was the one that sent Greg Roman's head backwards in absolute, you know, it was so significant. It was the difference in the game. It was.

You know, I lost my close matchup because Lamar didn't have to pass in the fourth quarter. Like that would have been a competitive game had he caught that pass. The ironic thing for Quentin Johnson is the gigantic awful collapse. And what happened last night in public eye is only as big as it is because he's been playing well. Because people have bought in and believed. started him in fantasy, changed how they view about the poor rookie season he had. It was because he's been doing so well that last night was this calamity. And I agreed with some of the commentary last night, and I've agreed with it for a while. We talked about the Chargers. It feels like they're one superstar away from being good. It felt that way again last night.

because of the drops, because of the fact that you have to lean on Ladd-McConkie the way you do. Because you don't have Austin Echler versatility in the backfield when you're leading runner. Like Echler is still a good player. He's contributing in Washington. You know, losing Keenan Allen, they didn't add enough. Like drafting Ladd-McConkie wasn't enough to equip Justin Herbert, who's playing out of his mind with the weapons he needs. I mean, we all watch, you know who's happy about the huge drops, like in a big way? Josh Palmer. Because Josh Palmer can't make a big play to save his life. Every competitive catch, Josh Palmer is like, eh, I'm too mid to do this. But Q'd dwarfed him in that capacity. So 3023, big game from, you know, Derek Henry 24 for 140. Foo. Guys, I mean, I mentioned it in our slack, but I just want to be on the record here. Thank goodness.

Thank goodness after Derek ended that drive where he got him all the way down in the end zone and then scored. And they thought they were going to get away with that full crap illegal formation. You get illegal formations. You want, you know, what the, like three inches off with the line. Not, no, not my NFL. Thank you, Jason. I love Michael Keith. Big ref over there is loving it. I did love it. I did love it because I had Lamar and then he ran it in on the next play and I was thrilled. So freaking. Stupid. That play, Jason should love it too. That play literally won Jason as a week. Yes, it did because Derek Henry didn't get that touchdown, which he deserved. 24 for 140 on the ground and we can't get this man a touchdown. Mark Anders, 5 for 44 and a touchdown, which when he scores, everything's great. Ladd-McConkie 6 for 83. That is like every week. His line is going to be, you know, 6 for 57, 6 for 61.

Six for 83 last night. It's usually however many targets he has is how many receptions he has. That is really nice. He's a quality player. Six targets, his way, five targets to Quentin Johnson. You might not know that he had five targets because you see a goose. There were a lot of people that needed like one catch. So many. One catch from Quentin Johnson to win the week. Or vice versa. You needed him to be shut out. And you watch these targets in the ball in his hands. And yeah. So a little bit of a go ahead. Big story is J.K. Dobbins. J.K. Dobbins got his knee injured in the game, tried to come back, couldn't, was ruled out. I haven't heard any update. But obviously, this being a waiver wire show, that's a really impactful player, a guy who has, you know, on the course of the season been extremely important for fantasy, scoring touchdowns being, you know, I don't know where he ranks right now on the season, but he's got to be.

Dobbins? Yeah, I mean. Oh, very high. Yeah, he is the running back 14, and that's including last night's, you know, injured game. Yeah, and because of the drops and because of just not having enough weapons, you expected more from Herbert last night, production wise for fantasy because Baltimore was dead last against the pass. He had no touchdowns. He had a rushing touchdown, but yeah. Yeah, no passing touchdowns, 218 passing yards, and so a little bit disappointing. We'll move on. Welcome to Difference Makers, presented by I'm Sped Food. Well, I'm excited to talk about this set of difference makers because we see it each and every year, and maybe it needs to be kind of reinforced in the minds of fantasy players. I think it does. We're talking about the one-week wonders, the one-week winners, the fact that a lot of fantasy championships have been won on the back of the bi-week, or not the bi-week filling, but rather the one-week injury filling. We had Jared Patterson.

championship celebrations. Oh, baby. Years ago. And right now, we're in a position where you do have some injuries. And so we want to bring up some difference makers that could make a difference just for this Thanksgiving week, but maybe beyond. You can throw Gus Edwards right into the mix, right out of the gate because of the Dobbins injury going into the next week. But Brian Robinson, he is out. Austin Echler has the concussion. So Jeremy McNichols right away becomes. Very interesting for a Thanksgiving Day game. You have Josh Downs, who's now being labeled week to week. And suddenly, oh boy, I better hit this while I have a shot. Oh, yeah. Michael Pittman. We are so back, everyone. He could be back for a week. You have Romeo Dobbs out with a concussion. So suddenly Don Tavian Wicks could become relevant. And we just saw this happen. Like the waiver wire for running back has been thin. Yeah. Last week, people scrambled for Amir Abdullah.

And they got a good performance from Amir Abdullah for a one week step in, perform, and get you a W. You know, this happens each and every year. Players that you don't think are going to perform but have the right matchup. Schoon Man last week with Ferguson being out. This is not going to be the only week where you have a handful of concussions and twisted knees and rolled up ankles. It's going to happen here on out. And you are in the business of buying weeks, right? And Jeremy McNichols, like speaking of Amir Abdullah's success was, one, because he was getting all the snaps, but because Amir Abdullah is, he's still a good pass catching running back. Like that's always been a specialty for him. Jeremy McNichols, for those who have been in fantasy for a long time, he was a draft Twitter darling. Like years and years and years ago, it never worked out.

for a real full-time role, but people liked him partly because he has a past catching profile in his history. Now, we're talking ancient history, but this is kind of what we have to go on here, where, I mean, he did have a couple seasons in Tennessee, you know, 38 targets. He caught 28 of them for 240 yards. That's 8.6 yards per catch. Like, that's a good number. So if... And funny enough, he's playing against Tennessee this upcoming week. So the matchup is not great for McNichols, but he is the last man standing. Of course, they will bring another body up onto the team. You can't just go into an NFL game with one active running back. But McNichols has already been getting some run for the Washington Manders. He's ripped off a couple huge runs. He had like the huge – was that the Cardinal game? He had a huge touchdown run, if I'm remembering it correctly. But –

Like, he can make plays, but he can catch passes. Like, he can go right into and fill that void that Echler had, or the role that Echler was having for the manders. And on top of that, just get other touches. So I think McNichols, for a one-week spot start is looking like it's a really strong opportunity here. Yeah, if you're talking about the true difference maker this week, you know, Wicks, when he's on the field. has been targeted and he should be on the field more this week. But McNichols is, I think, the difference maker. You're going to have him with a lot of work in a matchup where, you know, the manders are projected to score a lot of points. And this is a team that loves to run the ball inside the red zone. You already have McNichols with four touchdowns on the year. So he's...

He is clearly a difference-making pickup this week. So some of these guys that will work into our waiver wire segment coming up shortly. But yeah, just keep in mind that you can win a week with a strategic pickup. That's why you should have, if you can, a little bit of fab leftover to be able to pick up one of those guys. And also just stay ahead of the game. Staying ahead of the game. So let me, I don't have the device to give you off the top of my head because I haven't, you know, we're just coming off of week 12.

the specific advice of who to pick up, who to look at. But here is the piece of advice that you need to go do some work on yourself. Prepare for next week this week. I'm telling everyone out there how next week is the final week before your playoffs start in the vast majority of leagues. Those matchups are going to be for a lot of people win and get in, losing your out. There are massive buy weeks next week. Look at your opponent's matchup. Go look at who you're playing. See what he has. Oh, his quarterback is on by next week. Let me pick up the quarterback with a good matchup next week this week. There are no buys this week. So I'm telling you, waivers are going through. And unfortunately, I don't, again, I don't have the week 14 great pickups ahead right now. But look at your team, look at your needs, look at your matchup, look at your opponent's needs, and plan next week this week, which is today.

For your waivers, I'm telling you it's going to make a difference between whether you make the playoffs or not. Well, I was going to say in particular, not this week, but next week is going to be your final shot, right? So it is the most significant week. Jason, you basically said your playoffs start a week early because you have to win your match. Yeah, I'm a half game back of the playoffs and next week I play the guy I'm fighting against. So it's like next week the playoffs start for me. All right, that was difference makers presented by IME's pet. When you choose IMS, you can see a difference in your pet with your own eyes. Healthy energy in five days, healthy digestion, and 10 days and healthy skin and coat in just 25 days. Feed Ims and see a visible difference. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, it wasn't just J.K. Dobbins having Monday night troubles. We had to Marcus Robinson.

Rams wide receiver arrested for, I believe, potential DUI on Monday morning in Los Angeles. So we will see what becomes of that. He was not often started, but. It's probably something that will have an effect next year as the legal process plays out, but worth knowing. What else do we have? David Montgomery was listed as a DNP. They did not practice. They have the Thursday game. He said he's good. He says he's good. I think it's important that we keep him in the questionable category in case the team makes a, as Dan Campbell said, bigger fish-to-fry decision, which they could potentially, you know, there's also a sad middle ground that no one wants to see, but that is the active but doesn't play quite the allotment of snaps. Probably not the case. But if the game gets out of hand, which.

Every Lions game lately has been getting out of hand. And they're the first Thursday game. So they have the shortest week imaginable. And Dan Campbell mentioned that Alman Ross St. Brown is also banged up right now and didn't practice. So we'll see what happens with those practice reports today. It's being reported that Jake Ferguson is a long shot to play on Thursday. So Schoon Man could be relevant once again. Brandon Cooks. limited still cd lamb limited he's been limited and just goes out and catches like 10 passes for like 15 yards yeah i mean if you're in full ppr i think you're still happy with cd lamb but it's uh his his uh his uh a dot his you know targets or yards per out run those things have just plummeted like crazy even though he's still getting oh my gosh 16 targets i think last week last week was 12 targets a couple weeks 17 12 10 12 12 12

The only way you catch 10 of 12 targets from Cooper Rush is if they are close to the line of scrimmage. Yeah. That's a great catch rate. Yeah, 83%. Because they're handoffs. Josh Downs, long shot to play this week. So that's why we mentioned Michael Pittman. Aaron Rogers, no discussion has been had by the head coach or the coaching staff about Rogers being shut down. He's starting Sunday against Seattle. This is encouraging probably if you are a Wilson Adams manager that doesn't want the variable of a new quarterback. complete punt of the season by the Jets, although they are, they might as well. So there you go. And we're waiting on news about Isaiah Pacheco too, right? We are the news for the Raiders, the Aiden O'Connell, because it's kind of been all over the place, but the most recent thing that I saw was the Raiders are preparing for it to be Aiden O'Connell. I think it's gone beyond that now. I think they said that he's starting. Okay, so maybe a full announcement. And then the Daniel Jones, uh,

sweepstakes, if you want to call it that. We're getting a report from George Sulz that the Raiders have been eliminated from signing contention. By Daniel or? I don't know. I think. Yeah, so Daniel Jones has eliminated. I'm going to say something that he's. Okay. Is, is 100%. You don't have to. It's 100% true. Daniel Jones is so much better than so many backups in this league and he's so much better than what we got to see in New York. 100%. Yeah, I mean, you are correct. He is not ever going to be a franchise quarterback, obviously. He never was a franchise quarterback won't be. And in my opinion, I don't think he should go to a team like the Raiders where there might be a team out there where he can go and start this week or next week. I believe his best situation is go to a well-run franchise with a Super Bowl aspirations and be a backup.

learn and be the protective layer to, you know, actually go in and maybe Nick Foles something where. Yeah, Philly, San Francisco, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City, any of those places. Exactly. And you give yourself a shot. And he could win games for those teams if their starters were out. I would go to the books and just see who the Super Bowl favorite is. Just start, just go in order. And that's the order that I would go in. You want me? Yeah. Look, I mean, his, they don't have to pay nothing. Like he, the one restricted free agent now, right? He should really go to the Eagles. But I'm saying he can go. Oh my gosh. I know. Sequin. That's Seekwan. Oh my gosh. In division. It hurts gets hurt. And Jones leads them to a Super Bowl championship with Seekwan. Oh, baby. I am here for that. And the Giants fold their franchise up.

And sell it off. Some men just want to watch the world burn. And I would love to see that happen. Oh, my gosh. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We will take a break. We will jump into the waiver wire. Before I jump into the waiver wire, I do want to comment one more. I got one more thing for Monday night. Okay. Which is a simple question that I want to submit to the winning team. Baltimore. To the Ravens, okay. Why did you trade for Deontay Johnson? Depth, man. Why did you do that? Oh, but why? Why? Because it costs the franchise absolutely nothing. No, I understand. I'm just a little bit surprised at the lack of integration into the offense. Like Deonti Johnson, the player is not a depth backup.

caliber player. Now moving midseason, that's hard to do. See Amari Cooper, you know, it's difficult. But it is a little surprising how he is, what, six snaps? Yeah, six snaps. I mean, yes, it can be difficult, but this, what I had, when the trade happened, and I was bringing up the NFL teams have, they, at least with their actions have said, Deonti Johnson is not as valuable as us nerds. Think that he is. He can go out there and put a huge production. Steelers didn't want to resign him. Got traded for not a ton. The Panthers were good. We'll trade you away. Ravens trade nothing for him. Don't play him. There's something that we don't know. Well, I mean, you try overtaking Nelson Aguilar. You know, that's a hard one to be better than. All right. Let's jump into the waivers. Welcome to the waiver wire.

Presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. Sounded like you caught some 1900 tuberculosis there, Jason. That's right. Nelson Aguilor has somehow turned himself a fine career. The production is not massive, but I'm saying the average lifespan of an NFL player is what, like two and a half years? Uh-huh. The dude was a complete total busting yet he's... He's still around. Still getting a paycheck. Have you seen the video? This is year 10. This is a decade. That's an incredible NFL career. A decade of playing. And he's playing half of the snaps. He's 46% of the snaps for a Super Bowl contender right now. It's crazy. He is the idol. He's the idol of MVS. Like MVS looks at that career and is like, I can do that. He's, Kyle, he's made about 50 mil? Yeah. Correct.

He's doing great work. He can thank Bill Belichick for some of that money. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. They rushed out and signed him to a big contract. He was going to fix the Patriots woes. He didn't. Also, having played 50% of the snaps for a Super Bowl contending team with the MVP of the league in Lamar Jackson. I just want you to know he has so far been on a 17 game pace. Like if he keeps playing as well as he has this year, he would finish with 18 receptions. Production is not there, but 290 yards. Those checks clear, Jay. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't, they don't get paid per catch. He must be an excellent blocker. Have you seen the Josh Johnson video, the quarterback, the backup, the perennial backup where he goes through and the quiz him on how many teams? Because he's played, he's played for 14 teams, but he's played for those 14 teams. It's 24 transactions. So he's played for Baltimore three times. He's played for the 49ers like two times. Like,

He goes through and he tries to go through his career and name them all in order. But you imagine 24 changes at the NFL level? That's just... That's insane. I mean, that's life. I mean, you're living in different cities. Yeah. And then a couple XFL stints in there. But did I hit the Waver Wire button already? You sure did. Let's talk about the two big running back pickups. Go ahead. Jeremy McNichols and Gus Edwards. Those are the, you know... Yeah. The Gus Bus. will be thrust into a very relevant. Oh, a Gus thrust? A Gus thrust. Oh, you. You said, I feel like you led the train there, the bus. Look, here's the problem with Gus and thrusting Gus. There's a lot of, trusting Gus. A lot of problems. The problem is that Gus is not a good player. And you, and when I watch him play, he's not a good player. And he hasn't been all year.

I'm worried about him catching the ball. I don't think is going to happen. And then I worry about it being like, if he scores a touchdown, you get your eight points. And so I'm a little just concerned about productivity. I'm concerned about it as well. In the context of how much you spin in fab. Like he is, I would, between him and McNichols is very tough? Because we don't have the information on Dobbins. Is Dobbins really going to miss this week? Is he going to miss multiple weeks where McNichols just feels like a, This is a locked and loaded. If I desperately need an RB2 for this week, I can go get Jeremy McNichols. But the Chargers, they were already using tons of running backs. I mean, Hassan Haskins is getting snaps for the Los Angeles Chargers. Vidal Sassoon certainly will see an uptick in work and draft Twitter will lose its mind. But it's, while Gus is at the top of the waiver list, it's hard to.

Like you're saying, Andy, it's hard to know what would you actually spend on him. Should you burn a number one priority on that? If you have Dobbins, I get it. And if you need a running back, these are the two names. But they aren't without their red flags, is all I'm saying. Mick Nichols plays the Tennessee run defense that just shut mixing down, which is why Mike, I think you're focusing on the passing game works. But both of them have, they're the best of what is out there. Well, missed, I mean. Some leaks has Jalen 10 points Warren out there still. I'm just going to throw that out. You look like you had something to say, Jay. I did, and then I almost threw up. No, I would put McNichols ahead of Gus Edwards because I think there's more clarity on the injuries around him. I would be very, very, I mean, there is still a little bit of nebulous. We're not 100% sure with B. Robb if he's going to be back.

Usually what that ankle injury looked like and the progress is that I'm confident that Brian Robinson is not going to be available. And we know that with Echler's concussion and it being multiple concussions, he's going to be gone. So I think Mick Nichols and the passing work would be my number one, Gus would be my number two, and Warren would be number three. You also can bring up Amir Abdullah. I don't have an update on Zemir White. who in and of his own right, you know, should be considered four waivers. If he were to be active, you would expect it to be kind of a one-two punch. The nice thing that we saw from Amir Abdullah is that they didn't trust another running back. Right. You didn't know coming in. Laobie. Yeah, if Laobie was going to get a lot more work or just be involved in special teams, Amir Abdullah played 90% of the snaps. So.