The TRUTH: Top 10 Fantasy QBs + Scramby Daniels - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/16

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in! The Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, and Mike Wright. Mike, the Fantasy Hitman, Jason Moore, and Andy Holloway. Hello. Today, we're going to set you free, because this is about the truth. Mmm. Oh, okay. And the truth. I got you. Yeah, you got you.

That's all I got it. Don't explain it. Okay. I know. I wasn't going to. We are excited. It is the truth series, the beginning of the truth series, the truth of the quarterback position today on the show. That is the main event. Our first truth episode ever, January 12th, 2016. And by the screenshot that I'm seeing, Jason was in Disneyland. I was not a part of that episode, but I'm pretty sure during that episode, I was the champ. Of the league, so I didn't care about you guys. Oh, is that what happened? Yeah. It was that long ago? I took off.

That you were the champ? Well, not my last championship. Oh. But I was still champ then as well. Did you look into this? No. Just speculating? Yeah. Okay. Sounds about right. Yeah. I'm not sure about that. Welcome in. Excited. A couple things here at the top before we jump into some news. I mean, I guess we haven't had the opportunity yet to. We're good, man. You got to go watch Sam Darnold in person. We're good. Nothing to report. Is he still holding the ball? No. There is nothing to report on the Minnesota Vikings game. People don't know that you had a rooting interest, I think.

You said you're going to. How do they not? Well, I mean, not everybody knows that about you. Yeah. It's not at the forefront. We're Cardinal fans. I wear a Minnesota Vikings hoodie on the show all the time. You wore a Minnesota Twins shirt, I guess that's true. Yeah, and I like the Twins. Yeah, but you are a Cardinals fan. I don't think most people, and if they're listening and they're not seeing your clothing, I think a lot of people did not know that the Vikings are like your number two team. You've got family from Minnesota, and you do root for Minnesota.

And so the game was here. And not only that, you're a Cardinals fan, so that means you're going to be anti-Rams in division. So you went there to really root for your Minnesota Vikings. I was going to say, I thought he meant ruin his Minnesota Vikings. That was a bad time. Let me ask you, Mike, since you had boots on the ground, the beautiful carriage of Sam Darnold, is it still a transportation device, or is it now a pumpkin? Did it turn back? I honestly, I would have to go and completely re-watch everything from the Hall 22. And because when...

He was criticizing the play call. I felt like everything was just, everything was being designed downfield. There were just too many plays where there was no real escape hatch for Sam Darnold. He probably should have ran more. Yes, he held the ball way, way too long on tons of them. But I felt like a lot of those sacks, we go look at the routes, and no one is actually open. So he's just, he's praying for someone to break over, but no one ever does. He probably would have helped himself in that game if he took off running a couple of times.

Yes. Because if they... They needed to change something. If they were carrying guys down the field, and like you said, where it was drawn up, you know, we've seen this in Arizona before. Sometimes there have not been opportunities to throw the football. There wasn't a release valve. He should have taken off and run a couple times to keep the defense honest. Horrible final two games of the year. Probably cost him $50 million. Yeah. It's a really... A year. Not just $50 million, but yeah. I mean, look, he's in the Baker-Gino category now. Yeah. I think he'll get a starting job, but it's wild.

It's three years, $75 million, or $110 million. It's wild to go from the locker room video that was circulating around, the whole team just showering him with champagne, and professing their love for Sam Darnold. It was like, oh, I guess that answers the question, everybody. The Sam Darnold versus J.J. McCarthy. There's no way that this guy isn't back. And then the game to win the division and the first game of the playoffs, it was a complete disaster, and it changes everything. Yeah. If two weeks ago, Sam Darnold broke his middle finger on his throwing hand, he would be so much better off.

I mean, he'd be the starter next year. He would. And so for J.J. McCarthy, I mean, this is... He's got... It seemed like he was supplanted and now was going to be needing to maybe find a new team, and now it looks like he's going to get a chance to be the future, most likely. Even if they sign Darnold and bring him back, it doesn't feel the same. On the season, according to NextGenStats, on the season, not just in that game, he averaged 2.99 seconds in the pocket, which is the longest time in the pocket in the entire league, and

the longest since 2016. So the offensive line's performance... You know, he didn't have an offensive line when he was in New York. That was part of the problem. You take away... You find a team that can scheme it or stop... The offensive line doesn't perform as well. You saw what you saw with Darnold. Season over. And just like that, 14 wins. Goodbye. Yeah. And that's the thing you have to remember, though. Sam Darnold and the Vikings won 14 games. I know the last two were a nuclear meltdown, but he won 14 games. And the two teams that he lost to at the very end of the season, those teams also beat him

in the regular season. So is this just a Dan Campbell and Sean McVay? And they know how to attack this team the way that they're structured. Because they looked... Sam Darnold wasn't great. He was missing throws. But they looked thoroughly outcoached in that playoff game. Maybe the pressure, Mike being present, being there at the game. The teams are doing that to me a lot lately, guys. Yeah, you're not great for teams when you show up. When I was leaving the stadium, I'm like, I think I might be done. Yeah. I might be done with live sports. You are. I'm just lighting money on fire to go home real sad.

I don't remember. I feel like you are like a 20% winning percentage. For who you want to win. For whomever you want to win. Yes, correct. So we'll keep that in mind. We do have an announcement. Jared Goff just popped on the screen. It's not related to Jared Goff. But he will be talked about on today's Truth episode. We have an announcement to make, though. We are hiring yet another position. Recently, we put the call out for the developer position. We are down to the finalists on that job. We are hiring a graphic designer and also somebody to join the team and support in some of our community areas.

Primarily a graphic designer. That's the number one discipline here for this job. A couple things I want to let you know. You can go to the fantasy footballers dot com slash careers to see the whole job posting. And number two, it's not a remote position. You need to be in Phoenix. You need to be nearby. The job is in studio. It's a full time position. We're hiring and adding to the team. Yeah, this is basically. I mean, we're calling out to a national and really international audience here. Yeah. But we're just looking for the one that is here. That is Canadian.

Need not. You've been in our backyard. You know, you've been listening to the ballers for a couple of years and you're an unbelievable graphic artist. We're not looking for like, oh, I believable. I know how to. Yeah. I like. Oh, I could totally believe you could make that in Photoshop. No, I want to be like, what? I can't believe it. You didn't do that. The fantasy footballers dot com slash careers. And we always we put the call out on the show because we want somebody that knows what we're about. And we've been doing this for a long time. So there you go.

Did you want to add anything to that? No, just be great. Be fantastic. When you when you go do the application, you'll have some things to make there so we can see your style. And, you know, hopefully you are one of us and you're in our backyard and it is a great work environment. All right. Let's jump into some news. News and notes from around the league presented by USAA insurance. David Montgomery says he's ready to go for the divisional round practiced in full. Crazy. So, you know, that's exciting. I don't I honestly I couldn't tell you how crazy it is or isn't just on the basis of like I feel like it's juxtaposed to our initial reaction, which was, oh, he's just going to be gone for the year.

But I didn't have surgery. Didn't you know, he's he's back. Yeah, I mean, he's gone far enough. He better not get hurt. Right. I know. Seriously, if he re aggravates that same injury, it'd be it'd be a lot of finger pointing. But Andy's kind of right in the sense that he's healthy. He's fine. He's able to play. So this isn't like crazy news. What is so crazy about it is that I believe his first two doctors said, yes, no, you require surgery. And now he's playing later. So shame on someone. You know what I mean? Like if he's fine, those two doctors got it wrong.

Don't get your advice from surgery dot com. They advise surgery on everything. They got too much skin in the game. Yeah. Big surgery. I prefer groin index dot com. The Browns are promoting tight end coach Tommy Reese to offensive coordinator. OK, this one's kind of exciting for me. We don't know much about him. He was the Alabama O.C. in 2023. He's a former Notre Dame quarterback, but he's a young up and comer who's kind of flown up. And everything that people talk about around him is that he's got this brilliant football mind. So getting rid of your O.C. and then immediately taking someone that, you know, in house and promoting them.

And especially, you know, it's not like he was the quintessential next in line, you know, like, oh, we've got the guy in the wings. This is a tight end coach. It was just like that guy's got some special. So a little bit of hope there for the Browns who, you know, need a quarterback. But hopefully exciting. Deontay Johnson is no longer a member of the Houston Texans. Holy crap. So we've got what? The three team dealers, the Panthers, the Ravens, the Texans. Texans are still playing, by the way. They're still in the playoffs. It is. It's technically four rosters in a full calendar year because he was on.

He was a part of the Steelers until March. And yeah, this is a team that really needs a receiver. And Deontay Johnson is not going to be a part of that because they the the whispers from the bushes were just him being very disappointed in his role. After they won a playoff game and he had just gotten there. It was like this is so weird. You know, the Aaron Rodgers documentary where they kind of followed him. I wish there had been cameras over the last year on Deontay Johnson because. You know, it's one of those fool me once or strike one, strike two.

If every single team out there who is in desperate need for your services, they really need you. Does not want you a part of the team at all. You got to look inward. This is this is a you problem, man. I think that's it by way of news. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA insurance. Learn more at USA dot com slash insurance. Let's go ahead and get into it. You want answers. I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Oh, another year. Same graphics. We are looking at the. Do we mention we're hiring a graphics person?

Oh, maybe some video work is just a bonus. Top 10 quarterbacks from 2024. Looking at the truth. What is the truth? We're looking at the big picture for these players. Right. Consistency. What did they actually bring to your team? Not just staying on the surface level of what their end of year finish was. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes. And this is a good time of year to evaluate so that we can go into the next season with the right mindset on all these players. We're going to go through all positions. We take a look at what is the truth of the position as a whole and then break it down per player.

Because at the end of the year, you just look and you say, oh, this guy was, you know, the quarterback eight. That's a pretty good finish. But did he actually help you in fantasy? Was he consistent? Was he inconsistent? Did he have these crazy bus games? And so now's the time to kind of refresh the mindset and make sure that we have, you know, a true vision going forward. Now, I will say this. It's different every year. But this year, the main top quarterbacks, they bounced back a little bit more than in recent seasons. So this was a better one for the truth being closer to what you imagine.

Or what you might have hoped for if you drafted certain players. This year, as you said, big rebound in terms of injury problems, right? Like last year, you had Burrow, Herbert, Watson, Rogers, Richardson, Cousins. Tons of injuries. Yeah. Fields missed four games last year. This year, they stayed much healthier than in 2023. The quarterback position as a whole, they tied for the highest completion percentage of all time at the position. They had the highest touchdown rate, which is the percentage of touchdowns per throw, per pass attempt. It was the highest since 2020. The fewest interceptions and lowest interception rate over the last 15 years.

That's cool. And the most quarterback rushing attempts in rushing yards. That would make sense. Thank you, Jaden Daniels. Welcome to the party. Just league is changing. So, you know, if you want a refresher on how these guys were drafted before we get into the most consistent quarterbacks, Josh Allen was the highest off the board as a late second round draft pick. Jalen Hurts in the middle of the third. Mahomes was the middle of the third pick. Late third, really. Lamar was a fourth round pick. And just saying these out loud, refreshing, walking through them. Some of these are going to hurt.

Yeah, they're not so good. The back-to-back fifth round picks, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson. Whoops. And just throw Kyler in there because all three of those under. Well, Kyler wasn't as devastating as Stroud and Richardson. But under ADP. And so Stroud, Richardson, Murray, and then Burrow was great in the sixth round. And then Jordan Love in the seventh also underperformed relative to ADP. Your big injury of the year was Dak. He was in the seventh. And then Purdy and Daniels. So we'll be talking about them. Jason, in terms of the weeks covered, the data we're looking at, this is weeks one through

17, right? Not looking at week 18. That is right. So we decided this year it's the first time we've done this because a lot of times we've cherry-picked. We've removed some people who, you know, the Josh Allen goes in and takes a knee. You're talking cherry-picked relevant weeks. Right, exactly. So our fantasy season is weeks one through 17. A lot of times these teams, the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Bills, really important teams, the Eagles, we oftentimes see the week 18 irrelevancy for a lot of the top players. So we just decided let's look at the actual fantasy football season. Weeks one through 17.

Get a lay of the land picture there. I think it's a little bit more clear and it's kind of intellectually more honest with the data. We're, you know, we're chopping off week 18 just looking at the full fantasy football season. And so one of the things we do is we break down the season for each quarterback into three categories. Great games. And we classify those as more than 26 fantasy points. The upper echelon. This is four point per passing touchdown, by the way. Good games. So 21 or more points. Or games that we define as bust games. So that's 15 or fewer.

So yes, that does mean that there's a middle, you know, there's a space between them. A mess between them. Between 15 and 21. So that's why you're going to see percentages not add up to 100 total. But Lamar Jackson comes in at number one. This was a, the fourth quarterback off the board, late third round, number one in consistency by those metrics. Number one in the first half of the season. Number one in the second half of the season. 38% great games. 81% good games. 21 or more. And just 6%. So probably one game, right? One bust game. Week 11 against Pittsburgh.

So that is outrageous. 81% is tied for the third highest among all quarterbacks since 2017. So since we've been doing this. He was so consistent. Yeah. I mean, he was the most consistent fantasy quarterback in the history of the NFL. Yeah. 16 games in the top 12. He really was. You know, the only season that might be as good as this season going back is actually Lamar Jackson's previous great season. 2019? Yeah. He played two fewer games. Didn't score as many fantasy points because he played two fewer games. The season was one game, you know, shorter. And then they rested him in the last week.

But he was 27 fantasy points per game that time. But Lamar Jackson this year was perfection. I mean, if you had him, you got far. You were probably in your championship or at least thought you might get there. And what's crazy is I don't remember. Maybe Josh Allen did this last year. I don't think so. But it's very rare for a consistent player to be the number one most consistent in the first half and the number one most consistent in the second half. There was no letdown, drop off, improvement. No change. He was just great all season. And what was insane about that, maybe it's Derrick Henry.