THE UNOFFICIALFOOTBALLERSFAN ARCHIVE↗Transcript links use the exact YouTube video’s clock. Machine transcripts can contain errors.
Andy and Jason seek Mr. Rogers cardigan calm while Al's projection anxiety continues in Deucer's Alley; scattered Thursday and Saturday games are described as micro-doses of football points and matching doses of blood-pressure medication.
Asked to perform a Deucer's Alley combo mailbag, Matt screams into the microphone so loudly the hosts call it a car wreck and freight-train impact, say they can see sound, compare it to smelling salts, and plan to repair the audience mix or mute him. Papa Josh and Al disown the failure, and the close thanks everyone but the Falcon.
The hosts call pre-congratulation a common follower strategy opposite to trash talk: buy the opponent pizza, perhaps spell CONGRATS in olives or send a heart-shaped pie. Sending Brooks a pizza preceded a win over him, while forgetting Al's pizza preceded an 80-point loss and an on-air apology. The discussion itself makes the Falcon request pizza for lunch.
A waiver notification visibly derails Andy's answer. The hosts immediately report that Al played defense by grabbing Madison, Andy landed Jalen McMillan and Brenton Strange, and Kyle and Mike's League of Record team had already been eliminated for months.
Andy asks eliminated League of Record manager Kyle to settle Brenton Strange versus Cade Otton, but the hosts immediately call Kyle in love with Otton and identify him as an Otton truther whose answer is always Otton.
Andy and Jason host without Mike and open semifinal week by contrasting Mr. Rogers cardigan calm with Al Borland's continuing anxiety. The scattered Thursday and Saturday games become 'micro-dosing the football,' delivering small point totals and repeated doses of blood-pressure medicine across the weekend. The signature crew event arrives when the hosts request a Deucer's Alley combo mailbag drop. Matt screams into the microphone at freight-train volume; the desk calls it a car wreck, says it can see sound, compares it favorably to smelling salts, threatens to mute Matt, and assures listeners that the released mix will be repaired. Papa Josh and Al refuse to be lumped in with the failure, and the close thanks the Deucers minus the Falcon. A listener then invokes the show's pre-congratulation strategy: buy a playoff opponent pizza and shower them with kindness before trash talking after victory. The hosts recall that sending Brooks a pizza preceded beating him, while failing to send Al one preceded an 80-point loss; the prolonged discussion prompts the Falcon to request pizza for company lunch. Near the close, waivers process live, visibly distracting Andy. Al grabs Madison defensively, Andy lands Jalen McMillan and Brenton Strange, and Kyle—whose League of Record team with Mike has long been eliminated—is asked to arbitrate Strange versus Cade Otton before being exposed as an Otton truther.
Um... You are taking away our Jerry Judy. You are taking away our David Njoku if he's active. You are taking away Cedric Tillman coming back from concussion protocol who was going to be right in the lineup. And now, I don't know that you could start anyone outside of Jerome Ford. It's not a great sample because Jerome Ford has played a committee-back role historically with the Browns. His numbers are better splits-wise with DTR than they are Winston. But they're not good with either historically. I was trying to find some, you know, correlative, like, what do you expect? I mean, he caught more passes with DTR than he did with Winston.
It's small stuff. It's not really predictive. He's a starter now. He's not a backup. He is playable in this game. I do believe that the Bengals matchup is going to be very good for Jerome Ford. Yeah. I think DTR might run a decent amount in this game. And you've got to hope they give you a goal line opportunity for Ford because it's probably going to be one. One opportunity. Three points, 13 points, 12 points in three starts for him last year. Bengals playing for playoff lives. Browns are done. They're toast. We've got IR for Nick Chubb. And Jerry Judy, terrifying.
You're probably playing him. Oh, man. I mean, I'd play him over Mooney. Yeah. Wow. Just because of how good he's been and how elite he's been. How good he's been in the matchup against the Bengals. You know that they're going to have to throw the ball a ton in this game. The Bengals are going to roll over the Browns this week. Titans are also making a switch to a backup. Mason Rudolph taking over for the Titans. This is more of the can't get worse than it was situation. He actually, you know, Calvin Ridley had piles and piles of targets for Mason Rudolph when
he started this year. I think he averaged 12 a game. So could it be a little bit better for Calvin Ridley? I think so. Yeah, for sure. Because I've seen Will Levis play. I don't view this as a downgrade. This is, I don't necessarily view it as an upgrade either, but it doesn't change my outlook. Like, I'm hungry for more Tajay Spears. The matchup, you know, is really good against the Colts. And the quarterback change doesn't affect it at all to me. Aiden O'Connell trending upwards to playing this week. I don't know if you saw, did you see the comment?
I think it was through Barstool. I mean, this is just. Dave Portnoy had talked to Antonio Pierce in an elevator the other day. And he said he was competing because he's a New England fan. He's like, he said, we're competing for like the number one pick. That's what Antonio Pierce said? Yeah, for first place or something like that. It was some kind of, you know, comment regarding the fact that like the Patriots and the Raiders are competing for the opportunity to have a higher draft pick. That's where they're at. So, I mean, if you're the Raiders. Aiden O'Connell should trend towards not playing.
Well, yeah, I don't think you win with either guy. But yeah, it was just one of those. Acknowledgements of the team's demise. Which makes it hard. I mean, Aiden O'Connell is much better than Ritter. However, Brock Bowers' confidence goes down with either guy. Yeah, all of them. I mean, you're still going to start Brock Bowers because he's a man of a lot. Jacoby Myers is the real start or must bench guy. It's almost like must start and must bench. If O'Connell was there, was he a better start to you than Adam Thielen with Bryce Young in Carolina? Yeah, for sure.
Really? They're playing against Jacksonville this week. Yeah. Who is 32nd, you know, against quarterbacks. And they give it up against wide receivers. You saw last week Aaron Rodgers look like Superman against Jacksonville. So, yeah, I would certainly play Jacoby Myers if Aiden O'Connell is the starter. Mahomes, full participant in practice. Yeah, that makes sense. He's going to play. Hollywood Brown, full participant in practice for the Chiefs. That's really interesting. The reports that he could actually be on the field in week 16 is surprising for a player who missed so much time and just got activated. You'd expect them to kind of pull the Pacheco where they activate his window and then give him a couple weeks of practice before he's out there.
But it seems like they really need him. We also got news that Brees Hall did not practice. Estimated DMP today. Oh, don't worry about that. I'm telling you, Brees Hall going to be awesome this week. And why is that? Because I am out of the playoffs in the two leagues I have him. And that's what he did to me last year. So, you have two years of pain from one man. Yes. It feels like four years of pain because it's the two main leagues. Yeah. It's four knives over two years. Right. Yeah. George Pickens, DMP on Tuesday, still dealing with the hamstring.
We'll monitor that. But that's a scary start as well. You know, if he's active, I'm sure you're playing him. Oh, for sure. Their offense has not been anywhere the same without him. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the preview. Thursday night breakdown. Well, semifinal week will begin on Thursday. Denver traveling to L.A. to take on the Chargers. Denver sitting at 9-5. Chargers 8-6. And slipping. They're slipping. The DraftKings Sportsbook line. Chargers minus 2.5 at home, however. Over-under is just 42. That's low.
Right now, they are both playoff teams. They are currently the 6-7 seed in the playoffs. And with a decent lead in those spots, but very important game. Both defenses are tied for number one in points per game allowed. So, you know, I don't know. Maybe, Kyle, you can dig up the health of Patrick Sertain. Because he twisted his ankle. I think it was a minor injury. But it's a quick turnaround. And that would be significant for the McConkie huge universe. Yeah, this is a real interesting game. You saw the... So, the Chargers defense, for the most part this year, has been very, very good.
Last week, they were very, very bad. Baker tore them apart. I think the Bucs put up 40 on them. This being a divisional matchup with two really good defenses scares me for fantasy points scored. I feel like they're going to be well-prepared for each other. And this could be a, you know, it's a low over-under that could not get there. Sertain is healthy, by the way. The latest report. So, Sertain will be out there. You know, Bo Nix. There's been a lot of trust there with Bo Nix and with Cortland Sutton. The matchup over the last six weeks has been much better.
Like you said, the Chargers have given up some points. They've been slipping. Part of it is that, you know, their offense is missing pieces and success and running game and, you know, short fields and mistakes. And Stone Smart has become a talking point in fantasy. That's not where you wanted to be if you were the Chargers. How bad is Joshua Palmer? Real bad. I don't understand because he was always so fine. That's the compliment. He was so fine whenever Keenan or Mike Williams went down. He had a 6-for-78 game two weeks ago. Good enough for 30th. He's had a wide receiver 23 week and a wide receiver 27 week.
But, no, not very many boom games. McConkie has been really the guy. He's averaging 88 yards a game since the injury or since week 8. So, you know, you can play McConkie. For sure. He is not the kind of player that gets, you know, followed all over the place. And he'll have his receptions. Quentin Johnson's healthy but scary. And I don't know if I'd really want to. I would not. This is why I like McMillan more than him and waivers. Yeah. And I get it. I would start McMillan over him as well. Looking into the specificity of the matchup. Low over under.
Patrick Sertan on the other side. A prime time game. You know, it's like, how's Quentin Johnson going to do in prime time when that ball's in the air dropping to his hands? You know what I mean? Like, this scares me. Because it's a mental issue. Extra cameras can distract. Yeah. So, I would be shocked. I mean, he's an athletic guy that could get a bomb touchdown from the most beautiful thrown ball that there is in the NFL from Justin Herbert. But I, in the playoffs, I can't start Quentin Johnston in this matchup. I mean, the Broncos are number two against wide receivers.
So, Ladd, I'm okay with just because what he does is kind of, you can't really guard against it much. I mean, he's a more PPR guy. I would expect he's going to have at least, you know, five for 55. That's the baseline. And then you hope it ends up more like eight for 100 and a touchdown. But I don't, he's not the type of player that I think can go out and goose. Corlin Sutton's in your lineup though, right? Because this is a situation where you trust the alpha on this offense. But beyond that, I mean, you don't have probably Julian McLaughlin anymore.
So, Javante and Estime. Just Sutton. It's just Sutton. You can't, I'm not going to start Javante or Estime. I'm not going to start Bo Nix either. You know, he has thrown quite a few interceptions recently. Looked a little bit worse than when he was on fire. This is a tough matchup. Corlin Sutton is fine, but that's it. It's basically just Corlin Sutton on that side of the ball and no one else. I think we're due for a Ducers Alley combo mailbag drop. Oh, well, that sounds delightful. Let's get the camera over there. I never took a dump on air. No, I mean, it's just, but you're, you're, you're, you're, I got you.
You're in the, you're in the alley, man. Here we go. Mailbag. Oh my gosh. Holy moly. Car wreck. I'm. Do we allow him to fix that? Yes. Yeah. He can lower the volume. Okay. I could just mute Matt and it'll be fine. Oh my. Lanta. So is that who screamed into the mic? Like a freight train. Okay. So here's what the. He's turtle. Audience. You won't, you won't, you won't understand because we will, we will do you a blessing and we will fix this. So you will never hear what I just heard. Right. We're pretty deaf, but I'm like, you know, those smell insults.
Yeah. Dude, we got something better. We got something better for. Yeah. I am awake. I can, I can see sound. This is incredible. Yeah. That was, um, that's as close as I've been to being hit by a train. Yes. Yeah. I mean, honestly, really, really good work back there. You knocked the wind out of me. Um, good job. Now Papa Josh says he doesn't want to be lumped in with the other trash back there. That was terrible. Now that, but, but I think Al doesn't want to be lumped in either. Yeah. I, I killed it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, this, that's the, uh, it signifies the mailbag, Jason.
We are into the mailbag. And if you have a question and you want to subject us to that drop again, by the way, get back, get, get well, Mike, get well. Uh, we need you go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click that, submit a question button, dial the voicemail hotline 302-464-TFFB. And, um, we have a lot of questions about Jane Daniels this week. Uh, there is a significant worry about Daniels versus the Eagles. And the most asked question by far is what quarterbacks would you actually start over Jaden Daniels, who was the quarterback 24 against the Eagles last time.
The Eagles defense is very healthy. The offense for Washington is not healthy. Noah Brown is gone. Zach Ertz probably out. Zach Ertz is a very nice safety blanket underneath for Jaden Daniels moving the football. Um, this one is a tough one. You've got a rookie quarterback in a difficult situation, but he's been so good. Mm-hmm. Jordan Love against New Orleans or Jaden Daniels against Philly. That's a really, um, that's a difficult one. Uh, obviously that could be a situation where you have those two players. Jaden Daniels wasn't a highly drafted guy. So maybe you held onto both. I'm not moving away from Jaden Daniels in this week.
Uh, they, they, they played earlier in the year and Jaden had a down game. He had like 13 fantasy points and that could happen again. But Jaden got me there. Jaden Daniels is great. He is, he is very, very good at football. We watched last week and, um, this is an important game for them. Now the Eagles defense is really, really good, but it's not like they don't, it's not like they, you know, Lamar just put up 25 fantasy points against them a couple of weeks ago. They, they aren't some defense that is impossible to score against. This is a divisional matchup.
You know, those can always turn into a slug fest, but I, I want the Jalen hurts versus Jaden Daniels. I'm not moving away from Jaden Daniels. I think he's going to run the ball a lot in this game. You know, not having the safety blanket of Zach hurts might just mean you got to take off and run and for fantasy, that's fine. So over love over golf. Yeah. Again, Chicago over two against San Francisco. Definitely. Um, well over Darnold against Seattle. They're back to back in my rankings and I've got Jaden Daniels ahead of them over Baker against Dallas. That one, I might go Baker Baker against Dallas.
Um, is so right now my, my rankings go Baker, Jaden, Sam Darnold. Okay. Um, let's jump into a voicemail question here. Hey, what's going on fancy footballers? This is Tristan from Texas and I need some quarterback starting advice. I'm in between Kyler Murray or Bo Nix. So, uh, Tristan is between Kyler Murray and Bo Nix. Kyler has the Panthers. Panthers are a great matchup for quarterbacks. The Broncos. We just talked about it. Chargers Thursday night, low over under. Um, I would play Kyler. When, when the question started with, should I play Kyler or I was locked and loaded to say the, or you were on the, or I was on the, or, but I don't like the matchup for Bo Nix.
Uh, both of these players have the ability to dodge. Both of these players have the ability to actually have good games. I mean, Kyler is as untrustworthy as it gets, but he still had a handful of really, really good fantasy games. And this matchup against Carolina. They're favored by four and a half. Yeah. Broncos are underdogs by two and a half. I I'll, I'll play Kyler in that matchup. Uh, really big popular start sick questions, uh, around Jalen McMillan, Jaden Reed and JSN. So the Jays. Okay. Um, first question from Munoz says, are you worried about JSN? Uh, this is a Geno Smith, uh, question probably about his health.
I mean, I'm not worried about JSN, um, in general. If Geno is not playing, then JSN certainly takes, uh, you know, a couple steps backwards. The matchup is very good against Minnesota. This is a team that's going to put up points. You can't run on them. So they're going to have to throw the ball. I would not say that JSN moves to like a must bench level. He's been too good. Um, I, you know, they, they said that, uh, the knee is like structurally okay for Geno. Right. So Geno is also as he's tough as nails. I think he'll be there, but I'm probably going to be playing JSN.
So that would be JSN over McMillan. Yes. I would play JSN over McMillan. That'd be Jalen McMillan or Keenan Allen for an underdog. I'm going to go from Ben shark. I'm still going to stick with JSN. He wasn't an option. It was Jalen McMillan or Keenan Allen. Oh, Jalen. Yes. Or Keenan Allen. Oh man. That one is really tough. How are you feeling about Keenan Allen? I still feel like I have a hard time trusting him. He plays against Detroit this week, which is, which is wonderful right now with the way that Detroit has sadly lost its entire defense. Man, do I love Dan Campbell.
Just listening to how he talked about all these injuries. And, and I guess it was even more on the offensive side of the ball. He's just a solid dude. I would want that to be my, if I was a player and I could pick my coach, Dan Campbell is who I would want to play football for. He might not even be the best coach, but like, I feel like Dan Campbell would get in a fight for me. And so I'd want to play ball for him. Yeah. What other coaches? You've been a Tomlin fan. Oh, I loved, I loved Tom.
You'd rather play for Dan Campbell. But if I'm getting in a fight and my head coach has to come in, I want it to be Dan, I want it to be guns Mahoney. Not Tomlin. Tomlin will just give him the dad stare and stop the fight that way. I want, I want punches thrown. You ever see the story about Andy Reed when he was an offensive coordinator? Yes. And, um, he had to pretend to be yelling in a player's face. And he was saying, he was basically saying calmly, like, I'm going to be really demonstrative here. And I'm going to, I'm going to say a bunch of stuff.
I needed you to act like I'm yelling at you, but I just wanted to like tell you that you're doing fine and you're doing good. But the coach, it was amazing. Yeah. It was the, the old head coach for the Seahawks was, um, an angry ornery guy. And so the expectation was that the home grand was it. Yeah. I think it was home grand. And, um, yeah, it was Hasselbeck. Yeah. And he's like, I'm going to come out and pretend I'm yelling at you. But you actually did that. You ran that play pretty well. And, and, um, I like what you're doing.
And it turns out that like people respecting their coaches, it kind of matters. Human beings. Uh, I think we like to respect people we work for. Yeah. And the tough part about being, you know, the players coach versus tough guy versus all that stuff is it's mostly about when you need to be what. Yeah. And that's like kind of emotional intelligence from a coach as opposed to pretending. Like if you decide as a head coach, I need to be tough right now. You've already lost the battle. You should know that already. And if you're like, Oh, I need to be a players coach right now.