Week 16 Studs & Duds + Monday Punday, The Owl and the Andy - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/27

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the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. We're back. Hey, welcome back, Jason. I'm happy to be here. Family's good. Family is healthy. I am healthy. I'm, you know, I'm putting on the pounds just to get healthy, you know. Protect yourself. Protect yourself. Polk up. It's bulk season. I'm happy to be here.

In honor of this fantasy football season, I am on COVID quarantine. I am healthy. We are healthy here. But you know how it goes. Christmas time. Lots of family, lots of friends. And look, I don't want to be in the same room as Jason. That's what it comes down to. I don't want to risk being in the same room as Jason Moore.

No, I get it. I mean, I get it. My wife says that all the time. So, uh, not, not the first time I've heard that, but I, I think you really don't want to be in the room with Mike and I who are destiny bound and back in the championship while you sit there on pins and needles against Al Borland. And your matchup is going down to the wire you could, one of you.

is no longer with us after tomorrow because you will melt into the ground and you will live in the sewers as ooze. Well, let me say this, and I'll tee it up for Al to chime in, but he made a good point on Twitter. And just to give you a lay of the land, I need the Miami defense to score nine points tonight against Ian Book and the Norland Saints. If they do, I win. And I go to the championship game if they don't.

Al is victorious over me and he, you know, is a happy person. But the truth is he doesn't have a job regardless because he either wins and is fired or he loses and quits. So that is the two possible outcomes and we are hiring an audio engineer. And so I'm putting the call out on Twitter. Are you doing okay, Al? No. Okay, that was.

You wouldn't even like, like that I'm feeling the personal vitriol from you and your co-manager because apparently I'm being called names in secret places. Like, you know, look, if I win, I'm better than you. That's all I'm, oh, oh, now the talk has gone back to winning. Ladies and gentlemen, if you could have seen what was happening in our company Slack. I've never seen.

More cowardice from two grown men back and forth congratulating the other person on their victory. How was dinner last night, Andy? Yeah. So I'm in the other room last night. I'm in the other room last night and my wife or my son actually comes in and he goes, why do we have pizza? Why did pizza show up at eight at night or whatever it was? And there, lo and behold.

Al Borland pulling out all the stops. Four pizzas showed up in my house last night, which if you go back in time about three or four years, Jason bought pizza for Brooks. It's a pre-congratulation. And it worked. I won, sucker. To jinx him. And suddenly pizza showed up, which obviously I know the rules of jinxing. I didn't eat any. I didn't eat any of the pizza. Wow. I want pictures of full pizzas in the trash.

Yeah, I mean. Just to send it to him.

I think I fed my kids. Don't worry. I mean, I think that that's okay. But I didn't touch the pizza myself, which nullifies the jinx. I don't know. Whereas Jason, you knew I was going to eat the pizza. Well, yeah, you love pizza. It was a trap you could not resist. And also, Brooks, congratulations to you. You are in the dynasty championship. And Fookland listening at home. We hope that you are in your championships. If not, I'm glad you're still listening. We'll get you there next year. This is a.

It's been a battle. It's been a battle. But all of us are still playing for something right now going into the championship week. And speaking of jinxes, it is confirmed none of us can attend Cardinal games. So they did lose with me there. I had the chance to meet a couple of Foot Clan people at the game. So that was pretty awesome. And of course, this was a wild weekend of fantasy football. As Jason said, we hope that you had some success.

I know for a Monday Punday that you all did not. Right. There were some strong reactions. So, of course, we put out the call for some Monday Punday entries, and it's time to get sophisticated. Yeah. I will begin. Just win, Jackson. How about Justin Jackpot? Touching. And then so impressive. Wee Higgins. With terrific.

Piggins. Oh, what about Rex Berserkhead? You've also got T. Rex Burkhead. And, um, yes. Rob Gromkowski. Some bad tight ends, maybe George Little. Oh, no. And then, of course, every week is Cooper Yupp. Yep. Yep.

And Saquan Barfley. Tyreek L? Oh. It's simple. It's simple. Whoa, Burrow. Oh, plug your nose because Matthew Staffart is coming through. Ammon, yes, St. Brown. Russell Rage. Oh, and Smelvin, Gordon. And my personal favorite of the day.

Ben Worthless Burger. Yes, you are. You know, watching Ben play yesterday. I know, I know it's been a ride for the last couple of years, but yesterday in particular, it felt like he was, he had, their football was a medicine ball. Like it had been replaced with a weighted ball that weighed probably 15 pounds. And it just took everything in him.

to get that ball down the field very unsuccessfully. It has really changed for me watching him from over the last couple of years being disappointed, being angry, making jokes to now it's full empathy. Right. Despite the Ben Worthless Berker moniker here, I watch and I feel like I'm watching my older uncle just do his best. He's just, he's trying so hard and I feel so bad for him.

I still, I have, I have a memory of when my grandfather shouldn't have been out playing basketball. Oh, no. And he came out and played basketball on Christmas one day. And he tripped and fell into a block fence. And, and, and every. And that was the end of grandpappy. And that was the end of playing sports for grandpappy. But I remember the way everybody felt. And it was, um,

Look, it's not far off from old grandpappy out there. He might as well have two cement blocks with his feet locked in them. It is, you know, as a Cardinal fan watching our team collapse at the end of the year, it is kind of strange having the two biggest rivals, in my opinion, where like the Cardinal fans hold the Pittsburgh Steelers in contempt for the Super Bowl and then see their dynasty ending. And then the other arch rival is Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks.

who seemed to, I mean, blowing that game yesterday was... Impressive. It was unbelievable. So now the real question is, did Matt Nagy, like, earn himself another year with that win? Oh, yeah, hopefully not. And just to wrap it up for Ben Roslisberger, like you saw all that happening, and yet still better than Mason Rudolph.

I know, I think the same thing. Like, he is clearly their best option. We're making all the jokes, but grandpappy in the cement block is the best chance at victory. All right. Let's catch up on some news. We've got studs and duds today, too. News and notes from around the league presented my sleeper. As I was commiserating with one of our listeners at the Cardinal game, we were both noting how, you know, you pull your hair out.

on a year like this where you head into the fantasy playoffs and obviously the COVID protocols and players. Like there is an element of preparation in fantasy football and putting yourself in the best position to succeed. And then there's, there is an element of just, just luck this year where you, you're waking up in the morning and you're glancing at your phone with maybe one eye open and you're hoping you don't see the name of your player show up on that news alert. And so,

This weekend, we didn't have Travis Kelsey, right? He didn't make it through protocols. We didn't have Mike Williams, who is now out week 17 as well due to COVID protocols. Gabe Davis was a surprise inactive against the Falcons. And so Tyler Huntley didn't play. Ramandre Stevenson ended up on the COVID list. And I'm going to make a prediction that we have the same level of anticipation fear.

Next week. Yeah, we definitely will. There will be more players added to the list. And week 16, though, it also reminded us. It's not just COVID. It's also the injuries right at the beginning or the middle of the game that it takes players out. James Robinson, the budding superstar running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He went down in the game right at the beginning and he suffered a torn Achilles.

We can pair that with some hopeful news because Cam Acres from the Los Angeles Rams, he was actually activated. He tore his Achilles in the preseason process. Unbelievable. The recovery process here has been wild, something we haven't really seen yet in the modern NFL. He was designated to return and then was activated. He did not play this week, but it looks like they're going to be getting him ready, Cam Acres ready for.