Latest / 3 Guys, 6 Balls NFL Podcast / EP 40: Playoffs?!?! Fantasy Football Playoff Talk With Fantasy Buff!

Transcript

EP 40: Playoffs?!?! Fantasy Football Playoff Talk With Fantasy Buff! · 3 Guys, 6 Balls NFL Podcast

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3 lifelong friends, 6 trusty balls and endless NFL ticks.
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Welcome to three guys 6 balls NFL podcast.
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Welcome to episode 40 of three guys 6 balls NFL podcast.
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I'm Joel your host and I'm here with my two Co host Will and
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Avery as always and joining us today, we have a special guest
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who's going to help us talk about fantasy football to
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prepare you guys for week 15, which is the first week of
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fantasy football playoffs. We have Steve, otherwise known
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as fantasy buff. How you doing today, Steve?
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Great. Happy to be here.
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Thanks for thanks for having me. Great meeting you guys.
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Yeah, it's great to meet you, too.
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Thanks for coming on with us to talk about fantasy football to
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get the playoffs started. Why don't you get us started
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today, Steve, by just introducing yourself a little
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bit and let us know where we can find you on social media.
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Yeah, so as you said, I'm, I'm Fantasy Buff.
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I run a fantasy football page on Instagram at Fantasy Buff 14 and
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on TikTok that same at fantasy about 14 on TikTok as well.
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Yeah, I've been posting fantasy football content for the past
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couple of years. Really just diving into, you
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know, start sick recommendations, really the
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draft prep in the beginning and then all the way through redraft
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season, just making sure we're staying up to date on start
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sets, waiver wire pickups and then in depth analysis as well
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of the players. And every week that goes on and
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I try to provide takeaways for everybody to to be ready and
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then switching over the dynasty soon as the season wraps up.
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So really excited about that. And you can also find me on
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Substack too, at fantasy buff on on Substack for in depth, even
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deeper analysis for writing articles there.
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So excited to to be able to showcase all of my my work
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there. And you just got on X too, is
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that correct? I did.
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I did. I added an XI.
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Honestly, it was because of you messaging me asking me if I had
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one. I was like, no, I I don't have
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one, but I probably should. I never really had an XI was
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always focused on like Instagram and TikTok and I was like, it's
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probably a good idea to have all the platforms.
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So I did. I did add an X which is at
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fantasy buff 14 there as well so you can find me through all the
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socials with that handle. All right, cool.
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Well, yeah. Again, it's good to have you on
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the show. And to get us started.
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What we're going to do today is, as I mentioned in my message to
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Steve, I said that every week in December I'm going to ask a
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Christmas question. So last week I asked the guys
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what was their favorite Christmas movie.
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This week the question is, what is your favorite Christmas song?
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And we're going to start with Will, because he has also told
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me that he would like to sing his favorite Christmas song on
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the show today. Oh, did you actually say that or
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is Joel just ganking us? No, I got nothing.
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It's not even the first Noel. It's just the first time it
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popped in my head, man. This First off, none of that
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happened. None of that.
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I didn't know the question. This is not a scripted show.
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If it were, we should be doing a lot better, man.
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Favorite Christmas song? Let me tell you what is no, I
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can tell you my least favorite way easier than I can tell you
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my favorite the Bruce Springsteen.
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Santa Claus is coming to town, that is.
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Just awful. That is, they skip every single
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time. Mariah Carey, I give her one
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play a year. How your Bruce Springsteen 0
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plays a year 0 As soon as it comes on, I wouldn't leave the
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store. If it comes on the grocery
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store, I would leave that store. Oh, I forgot something in my
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car. Wait 2 minutes, 37 seconds or
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however long that terrible song is.
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More like 18 minutes and then come back in.
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Now that's not the question you asked.
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OK. Well, I wouldn't recommend it
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0%. Recommend listening to.
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I'm going to listen to it right now.
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I would. You won't hear it.
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No, it's fair enough. What's it called?
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What's it called? I need Santa Monica to come into
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town. Bruce Springsteen.
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Yeah, my favorites. Man, you.
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You legitimately caught me off guard here and I have no answer.
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Well, at least I got you to sing.
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That's what really matters. I really like anything by
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Pentatonix when it comes to Christmas.
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Michael Bublé's rendition of Santa Baby.
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That's always going to hit for me.
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Yeah, that was, I don't know. I I do, I know.
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I know it because it plays where I work.
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So yeah, that. That song starts bad and gets
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worse. That is the worst.
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The worst Christmas song. I don't know some something like
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that. All right, cool, Avery, how
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about you? What's your favorite Christmas
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song? Oh.
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Yeah, I was glad you didn't take me first.
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I had to think about it. I.
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I stopped long enough for everyone.
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You should be ready by. Now, yeah, no.
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I I took the arrow, so you. Can yeah, you can stop stalling.
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You stalled. Thank you.
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Stalling achieved. No, but a room, I swear.
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I, I'll be honest, I'm really not a big fan of any Christmas
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song. And I think the reason is, the
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reason is, is I am one of those Christmas purists that I feel
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like Christmas should not only be after Thanksgiving, I think
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it should be like 2 weeks leading up to Christmas.
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I, I, I feel like the longer it's dragged out, the less magic
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it has. I don't want to see stuff all
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the time. I want it to be Christmas.
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And then you're like, oh shoot, I got to like lock in because
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it's Christmas season now. But now it's like October and
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I'm seeing Christmas lights. Like I love the Christian
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fervor, but like we can tell we haven't even gotten to
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Thanksgiving yet. Like we can actually at that
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point we hadn't even gotten to Halloween yet.
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That being said, I like hearing it when I'm in the Christmas
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mood. When I'm in the living room with
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the Christmas tree and some eggnog, then I'm like all right
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now I'm in it, but I don't want to hear it besides that,
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especially not at work. That being said, my song would
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probably just be like Canon and D by Pacho Bell I.
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Don't think I've heard. Of you guys I.
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Don't know. You've heard it.
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You've heard it, you've heard it.
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I don't think it's got a different, it's, it's definitely
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got a different. Would you like to sing it for
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us, Avery? Yeah, right.
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Nope, Canon and DI guess there's not a different name for it.
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All right, we'll look it up after.
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We'll look. It up.
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Yeah, you, you when you hear it, you'll know it.
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It's not like a trendy song. It's like bass, bass Christmas
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in my opinion. But it's I don't think it was
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made for Christmas. OK.
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All right, Steve, you're up. And since you weren't here last
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week, you can also give us your favorite Christmas movie if you
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would like to. Oh great.
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I love that one. So the the song I was going to
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say All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, because it
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was just top of mind because that song plays everywhere all
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December long. But we'll just crapped on it so.
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Yeah, that's an easy one to go with.
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I like Feliz Navidas, that Spanish song.
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Yeah. Absolutely.
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That's, that's a good one. That one's a banger.
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I feel like if that's on I'm I'm happy all the time.
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The the best movie I I hands down, I always say is Christmas
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with the cranks. That's my favorite Christmas
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movie. Had to give one.
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To you. Yeah, dude, my favorite.
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Christmas movie. One of the few books I've ever
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read in my life was was was called Skipping Christmas.
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And then they made Christmas with the Cranks and I remember
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watching it being like gay, maybe I'm going crazy.
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This is exactly like a book I read one time and then I look up
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it was like, oh, based on Skipping Christmas.
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I'm like, oh, got it. OK.
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I watched the whole movie and didn't fully piece it together.
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I had to. I had to confirm it first.
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I watch it, I watch it every year.
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They used to have it on Netflix, they just took it down which was
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unfortunate so I had to find it on a different streaming
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platform. But I will make do and make sure
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I do watch it at least every December.
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It's my favorite movie hands down.
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All right. Love it.
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Nice. Steve, would you like to sing
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your song or No, You don't. You don't have to.
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Yeah. Will you?
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Got it. Will's the singer on the show
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today. All right, so my favorite
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Christmas song. It's actually a fairly new one.
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It just came out last year. It's by Jimmy Fallon and the
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Jonas Brothers. It is called Holiday and we, my
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family has just listened to it just over and over and over
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again since it came out last year.
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So that's my favorite. People are coming out.
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People are coming out with new Christmas music.
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It's yeah, it's but who? Dude?
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It's a whole. Who?
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It's a whole. Industry, dude, it's by Jimmy
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Fallon and the Yeah said. Jimmy Fallon almost like like
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the the celebrity, the guy that doesn't sing.
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Yeah, they like, yeah, he's actually a pretty good night
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show. He is.
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He's actually a cool singer. He has Christmas songs with
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Meghan Trainer, he has a Christmas song with the Jonas
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Brothers, and he has a Christmas song with Dolly Parton.
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He has a few other Christmas songs.
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He actually has a whole Christmas album if you want to
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check it out. It's pretty good.
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He's got one with Justin Timberlake.
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I didn't know that. I did not know that about Jimmy
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Fallon. Yeah.
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Yeah, it's pretty good. One of her friends growing up
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has a Christmas album. Yeah, she does.
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I. Listen to that.
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It is terrible. It is horrible every single
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year. The problem is it's getting
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harder and harder to find CD players when you get there on
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Spotify. Yeah.
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You know, The thing is with Christmas music, it's actually
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like a bracket. It's like a, it's like a, you're
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trying to break into like the Canon of Christmas music.
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Like every year there's hundreds of songs that go out and it
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really just comes down to like which radio station or who's
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playing one of the songs the most.
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And then people like, I like that song.
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So Joel right now that Jimmy Fallon song is probably going to
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break into the Christmas zeitgeist.
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Like eventually that will be one of them.
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Like Mariah Carey, the year, the first year that she put that
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song out, it was like, hey, there's a whole bunch of new
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songs. Which one is everyone going to
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gravitate to? And if you get it, then you
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don't have to do anything for the whole year.
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You can be frozen and then they thaw you out in November and you
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go out and play your song one time for Will and that's it and
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you've got it made. Everyone's trying to get into
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that Christmas money. All right.
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Well, Will, why don't you go ahead and give us your Week 14
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wrap up and then we'll get into the fantasy football talk.
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So it should be no surprise on this show that I started with
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just absolute hate and slander towards Bruce Springsteen and
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Mariah Carey. I hate everybody on this show,
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not people that do the show. I'm just a general hater of
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people on this show. So let's keep it going to Week
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14 wrap up because let me tell you, there was some quarterbacks
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that I don't like that did not play well Week 14.
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Let's start with Cowboys at Lions Thursday night.
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And it must win for both teams winning the playoffs with
11:04
offensive stars all over all over the field.
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Dallas defense just doesn't do enough.
11:08
Brandon Aubrey hits three different field goals from 55
11:10
yards or longer, but doesn't matter when your team scoring 7
11:14
and you're scoring 3, you're just not going to win the game.
11:17
30 points is enough to win most games in NFL this year, just not
11:20
against the Lions. Titans versus Browns and the
11:23
game that should have been The Who carries game of the week may
11:26
have been the second best game of the weekend, but it happens.
11:30
This is what happens when you put two really bad teams up
11:32
against each other. I truly think that both
11:35
franchises should walk away with hope.
11:38
Titans hold off the Browns in a late fourth quarter, come back
11:41
they were trying to make should work, played well.
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Kim Ward didn't look the worst. Overall positive things and the
11:47
Titans should be well pleased. Miles Garrett only got 1 sack
11:51
that game. Falcons at Seahawks.
11:54
I hope they're really Seahawks fans in Atlanta because they
11:56
were the only ones who decided to play offense and defence.
12:00
Seahawks win big, increasing McDonald's Rd. win record to 12
12:03
and two in his first two seasons.
12:06
Colts hat Jags. Colts lose again and in a big
12:09
way. Indiana Jones tears his Achilles
12:11
while having a fracture fibula. Other teams are getting healthy
12:14
at the end of this year, but not this Colts team.
12:17
Don't worry though, Grandpa Rivers is here to save the day.
12:20
And yes, the Colts did sign Phillip Rivers today.
12:23
That did happen. They will need the Colts will
12:25
need to win probably 2 of their last four games to make the
12:27
playoffs and they only play the Seahawks, Niners, Jags, and
12:31
Texans in the last four. It's totally doable.
12:33
Tough going for them after a really hot start.
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Jags. Jags win here.
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He's good for the Jags. Good for them to get their first
12:40
round loss in the playoffs out of the way early this year.
12:43
Vikings are commanders at Vikings.
12:45
Vikings shut up the commanders the week after being shut up
12:48
themselves. And I figured out how Kevin
12:52
O'Connell threw away his playbook.
12:54
Just threw it out. He went up to Michigan and said
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give me your playbook because it's the only way JJ can win.
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And they handed the ball off at a 1 1/2 to one ratio.
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They handed the ball off 1 1/2 to 1.
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So everyone in 1/2 plays, they're handing the ball up and
13:09
throwing it once. It was almost 2 to one ratio.
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He did have 33 passing touchdowns, and we were, but he
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threw the ball 3 for three touchdowns, right?
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26 total yards on those 3 plays. Let's not act like he was out
13:21
here throwing 70 yard bombs, All right?
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The dude sucks, but Kevin O'Connell made the right
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coaching play. This is how he wins.
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Let's play that way. The Clanders just have a bad
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enough defense to give the Vikings running backs enough
13:35
yards to win. Bengals at Bills, Josh Allen
13:39
would not be denied to win an absolute total effort from the
13:42
man and two late picks on back-to-back plays from Burrow
13:45
seal this one away. Saints that Buck St.
13:48
Steeler win and ruin their draft spot.
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And again, it only matters for pride.
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It was a divisional game, but the Bucks that game truly didn't
13:56
matter. When it comes down to the end of
13:57
the season it it may matter, but right now it doesn't.
14:00
Shark didn't work half bad though.
14:02
Didn't work half good but didn't work half bad.
14:04
Steelers at Ravens. Aaron Rodgers looked like Aaron
14:07
from 10 years ago when he was moving around that field.
14:09
The Steelers pushed the Ravens out of the playoff picture.
14:12
And did anybody else see the Aaron Rodgers scrambling
14:15
touchdown first scrambling touchdown he had in two years?
14:19
Good for him. Dolphins at Jets, Dolphin wins.
14:22
Who cares? Broncos at Raiders.
14:24
The Broncos do whatever it takes to make sure they play in the
14:28
ones score game no matter who they are playing.
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The good news is for them is they keep winning.
14:34
They have, they have 4 tough games for this season.
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It's like Colts. No, not Colts.
14:42
Yeah, Chargers Chiefs. And a couple other guys.
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I don't remember who. Yeah, they've got.
14:48
They've got a tough schedule going forward.
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There's one score of steps about to run out for him.
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Maybe not, but their defense is quite good.
14:55
Rams at Cardinals, Rams went big.
14:57
Pook, his offensive player of the year, Stafford's MVP.
14:59
What else is there? Moving on Packers at Bears and
15:03
the game has started gritty with no points in the first quarter
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finishes with Kayla Williams making a high school JV
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quarterbacks throw 3 yard short of his receiver in the end zone
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throwing a pick to see the game. The loss for the Bears in
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Lambeau. Let me tell you Kayla Williams
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did not play well. Watch the game if you don't
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believe me this this Bears team is crumbling and Kayla Williams
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is the cornerstone here of their crumble.
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They will miss the playoffs. They just dropped this week from
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1:00 to 7:00. They they are not looking good.
15:31
And this is what happens, right? First year head coach.
15:34
He's an amazing job. Ben Johnson should probably win
15:36
coach of the year. I'm not trying to take anything
15:38
away from him, but this whole the magic has worn off and
15:42
people are like, oh right, Kelly Williams isn't that good.
15:46
Get him out of the pocket, get him moving, but keep him behind
15:48
the line of scrimmage. Make him throw the ball.
15:51
Dude's not great. Texas at Chiefs A defense wins
15:54
championships and the Texas have the best one in the NFL right
15:56
now. The Chiefs don't look great.
15:58
Their run may be over, but at least you have something to
16:01
finally work back on unlike the Vikings.
16:04
Eagles at Chargers and probably the worst overtime game played
16:07
of all time. With the worst quarterback play
16:09
from both teams, one just have to be way worse.
16:12
Jalen Hurts threw a pick and fumble the ball in the same
16:14
play. That is that is real.
16:17
I don't know if you've seen the play.
16:19
Jalen Hurts through interception and also fumble the ball in the
16:22
same play. Yeah, Hertz has five turnovers
16:26
and the Eagles still took the Chargers to overtime.
16:28
I would not feel great if you're a Chargers fan.
16:31
So that was week Week 14, we fancy Robert.
16:34
Didn't feel good he got didn't he get fined for?
16:37
Not his pain is broken, no. Yeah, after the game, the lady,
16:42
the lady tried to come up to him.
16:43
He was like, I'm trying to celebrate with my team and she's
16:45
like, I know, but can I just talk to you for a second?
16:47
He's like. I guess and then he gave her the
16:49
interview and then he got fined for not giving an interview.
16:53
I was like, dude, yeah, fine. I didn't know that.
16:56
That's what I saw. I.
16:57
Didn't there's a possibility that could have been just some
17:00
Instagram slop, but. Now.
17:03
What does it? Mean showed 0 emotion when they
17:05
got that game-winning interception and overtime
17:08
literally 0 emotion. He just like they won.
17:10
He was like walked on the field like nothing happened.
17:13
Yeah, I don't know trying to celebrate with my team like
17:16
maybe I guess, but also he's got a broken hand and he was he was
17:19
pushing equals defenders away with that hand to get out of
17:23
here mind my broken hand. Good golly, he's he just wanted
17:28
to. He just wanted to go find
17:30
Madison Beard. That's all he wanted to do.
17:31
I. Mean I don't blame him.
17:36
All right, well, let's get into the fantasy football talk to
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help you guys with your first round fantasy Football Playoff
17:43
matchups. So to start us off with this,
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Steve is going to give us three starts and three sits for week
17:50
15 to help you guys win your first round playoff match up.
17:54
So, Steve, the floor is yours. All right, appreciate it.
17:57
Yeah. So week 15 is a big week.
17:59
You got a lot of, you know, fantasy.
18:00
It's the first round for a lot of people.
18:02
Some people have buys, but for most of us were this is our
18:05
first round. So, you know, you made it this
18:07
far. It's it's really impressive and
18:09
a lot it's harder, you know, it's hard work to get there.
18:11
You got to make a lot of waiver claims, you got to make a lot of
18:13
trade offers, etcetera, and you got to pay attention throughout
18:16
the whole year. Injuries happen, etcetera.
18:18
So now you made it. It's it's great news for
18:21
everybody that actually is, is in it.
18:23
But now you got to really make sure you're starting the right
18:25
people and it's you got to chase usage and you got to chase the
18:27
matchup. So my first start, Sam Darnold,
18:30
I liked him last week at the QB position.
18:32
He did really well against the Falcons.
18:34
The Falcons have been playing poorly as of late against the
18:37
past. So I, I kind of did, I saw like
18:39
having him in the starting lineup would be a probably a
18:42
good benefit and it worked out well.
18:44
Moving on to this week. Now he gets to he gets to play
18:47
the the Colts. I think will mentioned that
18:49
earlier in his takeaways. They play the Colts this week.
18:52
They are home. There's a few reasons why I like
18:54
that The Colts just traveled to Jacksonville and now they have
18:57
to travel all the way to Seattle to play the the Seahawks.
19:01
They are down to key defensive, you know, juggernauts, if you
19:07
will. They Charvarius Ward just had a
19:10
concussion, so that's going to hurt them.
19:12
I don't know if he's going to be out for say, but they, you know,
19:14
he's banged up right now and he is in concussion protocol.
19:18
And then Sauce Gardner, obviously he has that injury
19:21
that's been, you know, looming and, and people are, you know,
19:24
there's obviously going to be rumors and and news and updates
19:27
on that. So there's there's key injuries
19:29
right now. The defense has looked pretty
19:31
bad as of late against the past. They're allowing over 280 yards
19:35
per game, I think 285 yards per game for the past.
19:38
And again, just traveling is going to really mess them up.
19:41
And then Sam is another thing that to focus on.
19:45
He ranks first in the league and big time throw rate hovering
19:48
around 10% this season. He's really looking deep for
19:50
JSN. It's been, you know, obviously
19:53
great for him to have JSN. It's been great for JSN to have
19:55
sand Arnold. I think that's going to be
19:57
another another game where they can just continue to throw the
19:59
deep ball. He's playing, you know, really
20:02
good against zone covers this year and the and the Colts play
20:05
zone around 65%. So I do think he's a great start
20:08
this week, especially if you have Daniel Jones, especially if
20:11
you have, you know, Jaden Daniels and you get back up.
20:13
Whatever it is, you know, a replacement spot start, he's
20:16
going to be one that I'm picking up off of waivers and and
20:18
playing him the running backside.
20:20
I have Woody marks. You know, I've been really awful
20:23
woody marks the last few weeks for obvious reasons.
20:25
He hasn't been productive at all.
20:27
The matchups have been brutal for him as well.
20:29
So that's been a big part of it. And then he has the Nick Chubb
20:31
part of it as well. Having him split carries and you
20:34
know, taking goal line work is not good for fantasy.
20:37
But what I'm noticing is his workload is getting better and
20:40
better as weeks go on. He is taking more of the the
20:42
share to share the snaps compared to Nick Chubb.
20:45
Well, what I liked in week 14 against a tough read run defense
20:49
in the Chiefs, he did find the end zone on a pass play, which
20:52
was great for fantasy. If you started him that week,
20:54
even though most people didn't and I suggested not to, I think
20:57
you know, if you got what you're doing now in this week, he's
21:01
he's got a better option. He's going against Buffalo,
21:04
which is a really bad run defense, bad, bad, bad run
21:10
defense, bottom of the league run defense.
21:12
You know, we just had Bucky Irving have a really good day
21:14
against them. Sean Tucker was involved, Rashad
21:16
White was involved. So like they can really be
21:19
exploited and he's rushed over 4.6 yards per carry what he
21:22
marks. So I do think, you know, he has
21:25
a good option to be able to face them and and, and get a pretty
21:28
good, pretty good game against them.
21:31
And I think he actually, I met him misspoke.
21:33
I think he plays the Cardinals this upcoming week, which again,
21:35
also is a bad run defense along with the Bills.
21:38
So he plays the Cardinals and the Bills and they allow, you
21:41
know, the Cardinals allowed over 4.5 yards per carry and a high
21:44
rate of explosive runs, which is, you know, runs over 10 or
21:47
more yards. So I think Marks gets exploited,
21:49
you know, used a lot in this game.
21:51
I think he's going to be getting the red zone looks.
21:53
Chubb is down with an injury right now.
21:54
He left the game last week. We don't know if he's going to
21:57
be coming back yet. We have to keep tab on that.
21:59
But I do, I do like him a lot this week and my third start,
22:03
Terry McLaren, he faces the Giants this week, which is just
22:06
an easy, very easy match up for wide receivers.
22:08
They ranked 27th in fantasy against the wide receiver
22:11
position, allowing over 30 fantasy points to the position
22:14
on average per game. It's an elite match up for him.
22:17
I know Jaden Daniels just went down with an injury.
22:19
Again, I don't mind having Mariota in.
22:22
I don't think anyone really minds having Mariota in for
22:24
Terry. His first game back was two
22:27
weeks ago and he was the wide receiver 14 that week and he
22:30
played very well. You know, he scored a touchdown
22:32
and he had some pretty decent yardage in that game and he had
22:35
some pretty decent targets with Mariota.
22:36
And so I think if Mariota is playing and even if Jayden does
22:40
some reason they they put him back in and play, which probably
22:42
isn't the best idea. I'm OK with starting Terry no
22:45
matter what, just because the Giants are really soft on
22:47
defense against the pass and against the wide receivers.
22:50
So I think Terry McLaren is a good start.
22:52
I think he can go with Devo Samuel too, Obviously, if you
22:54
need him, if you have him on your team, both options are very
22:57
solid. So those are those are some
22:59
solid starts. I can move into the sits here if
23:01
you want or if you want to discuss those I whatever you
23:04
want to do. Just real quick, I just wanted
23:07
to say Terry McLaren has actually had I, I don't have the
23:11
actual fantasy numbers, but just looking at his stats, it looks
23:14
like he had probably his best games with Mariota.
23:18
So versus Daniel. So having Mariota in is actually
23:22
probably a good thing for Terry Mclaurin.
23:25
So it it's just because the starting quarterback is not in,
23:28
it doesn't mean that you should shy away from Terry Mclaurin
23:33
moving forward. So I I like.
23:34
The grill and and no earth now, right?
23:37
No Ertz either, it's a good point.
23:39
It's a really good point. No Ertz who does eat some
23:41
targets every week? It's really going to be McLaren
23:44
and Debo. In the past game you have Chris
23:46
Rodriguez, who gets a lot of work too, but overall he's a
23:48
running back. I do think, like you said, with
23:51
Mariota, it's a win win. But against the Giants, it's
23:54
just that matchup's insane. I'll start any wide receiver
23:57
against the Giants. It's just it's too easy.
23:59
So, so for the sits, I can transition over the sits here.
24:02
The sit one, the QB sit I have is Jacoby Brisset.
24:05
This one just comes down to match up.
24:07
He's been doing everything the right way for the Cardinals.
24:10
He's been looking great. So much so that they don't have
24:12
Kyler playing anymore. They just kept him on IR.
24:15
So it's you know, it's kind of crazy because Kyler is, you
24:17
know, obviously the the franchise QB that they paid all
24:20
this money to. But Jacoby's been balling out.
24:22
He's been playing well with Michael Wilson.
24:24
He's been playing well with Trey McBride a little bit with Marvin
24:27
Harrison Junior. When he's on the field, he's
24:29
been looking really good. He's throwing the ball a ton.
24:31
That's great for fantasy. He doesn't really run a lot, but
24:34
he's throwing the ball 40 plus times, which is which is really
24:36
great for fantasy. The the only problem is, is the
24:39
match up he's facing the Texans and the Texans are literally
24:43
like just the hardest defense in my opinion.
24:45
Seattle's right there too. But the Texans are they shut out
24:48
Josh Allen, they shut out Patrick Mahomes.
24:50
If you can shut those two quarterbacks out, I don't think
24:53
that he's going they're going to have a problem with Jacoby
24:54
Brissette and the Cardinals who just aren't good in generals
24:56
like overall as good of a team as like those other teams.
24:59
And I just think that it's going to be a tough time for him to
25:01
get anything going. You know, they force a lot of
25:03
pressure and then they obviously have blanking on the guy that
25:07
they have Stingley, I believe is there.
25:10
Yeah, Stingley. They have Stingley who who can
25:12
literally stop Michael Wilson no problem.
25:15
And I like Michael Wilson and I like Marvin Harrison junior too.
25:17
I was really big on him before the season.
25:19
Just hasn't worked out with injuries and just staying on the
25:21
field consistently. But I I just think that's, you
25:25
know, Stingley and the and the pressure they're going to put on
25:27
on Brissette and the offensive line for the Cardinals is like
25:30
one of the worst in the league. I don't think this is going to
25:33
be good for him. So I would happily sit preset
25:35
this week, even though he's been really helping a lot of teams
25:38
get into the playoffs. You can find another option like
25:40
Sam Darnold, like Trevor Lawrence, you know, swing for
25:43
upside with with Shadur Sanders if you want to.
25:45
But this is this is a really good sit for me and then RJ
25:50
Harvey. This one might be tough for a
25:51
lot of people. He's been playing well since he
25:53
took over the full time position with Dobbins down.
25:56
His matchups have been good the last couple of weeks which which
25:58
has helped him, but he's facing Green Bay, who ranks eighth
26:02
against the running back, allowing 17 fantasy points per
26:04
game on average. Harvey is seeing his workload
26:07
increase since the Dobbins injury, as I mentioned, and he's
26:10
someone that finished top five last two games, but those were
26:13
against the Commanders and the Raiders.
26:15
This is really a bigger challenge in Denver against
26:19
Denver and Green Bay, I should say.
26:21
They continue with their defensive dominance and I think
26:24
they've been able to stop the run consistently the last few
26:27
weeks. They might have some, you know,
26:30
big games from 1 running back here and there, but Green Bay is
26:33
really good on the on defense. They just stopped swift and
26:36
Manangai after they just destroyed the eagles a week
26:38
prior. So I just think like it's
26:41
Harvey's a rookie. We have to be careful with that.
26:43
There can be boom weeks. There can be a lot of bus weeks
26:46
as well against tough defenses. So I'll be OK not putting him in
26:49
a flex spot or even an RB2 spot this week.
26:52
And Pitman, Michael Pitman junior, I think we'll talk about
26:56
this more and more, you know, later in the in the
27:00
conversation, but you know, will have mentioned about the Colts
27:03
losing Daniel Jones and that affects everybody.
27:06
It affects Jonathan Taylor, it affects Tyler Warren, it affects
27:10
Michael Pittman, their wide receiver one their X Factor.
27:13
That's the that's going to hurt them going against Seattle.
27:17
You know, that's, that's a tough defense.
27:19
Like I said, just like the Texans no longer having Daniel
27:21
Jones, who are they going to start Riley Leonard if he's
27:24
healthy or are they going to start Phillip Rivers, who they
27:26
just signed? Like you mentioned earlier?
27:28
I, I, I don't want any part of that offense right now.
27:31
I think you have to start, you know, some other players like
27:33
Donovan Taylor, but it's still it's going to be tough right now
27:36
with them. And I'm staying away from
27:38
Pittman for the probably the rest of the season, to be
27:40
honest. If he's really your only option,
27:42
I get it. But you got to find other
27:44
options if you can on the waiver wire or hopefully you have some
27:46
depth pieces on the on the bench that you can fill in.
27:50
Is Phillip Rivers not still coaching high school?
27:53
Did he? Was he just like?
27:55
Not anymore. 15 lost. No, no, they're just high school
27:58
end this year. Yeah.
27:59
Yeah, Their team lost the state championship this year.
28:02
And he's like, you guys don't know how to play.
28:04
Watch this, watch this, watch a fight.
28:10
I would. Love it.
28:11
So hold on, I got some more fun facts on this now that we're
28:13
talking about it. So Phillip Rivers had Shane
28:17
Steiken as his QB coach way back when in San Diego, right, Like
28:24
San Diego and then LA and then obviously Shane Steiken goes to
28:30
Indianapolis and I don't I don't believe actually he may have
28:33
been offensive coordinator there when Phillip was there last
28:35
time. Now that was 2020 COVID years.
28:39
So Phillip Rivers has been out of the league.
28:41
He he's up for Hall of Fame right now.
28:43
Like, so it's at least five years, but Phillip Rivers, I
28:47
think JJ Watt put a tweet out about this.
28:50
It's still a tweet, right? So they don't call it next.
28:54
I don't know what it's called anymore.
28:57
You put a post on the social media platform X out about this.
29:01
The fact that Phillip Rivers and Shane Steiken have been in talks
29:05
weekly on offensive scheme and offensive plays and Phillip ran
29:10
Rivers for his weird calling it Phillip Rivers ran the same
29:14
offense as Indianapolis at at the school he was coaching at.
29:19
Now, yes, you could say that that means the the Colts are
29:24
running a high school offense. Sure.
29:27
Or you could give it the good side and say that the
29:30
Mississippi State Razorbacks or wherever he is high school
29:34
coaching, I think it's in California, actually is running
29:37
a pro style offense. But it's not like River is going
29:40
to walk in not knowing the offense, not knowing the calls,
29:43
not knowing the verbiage. He's going to have all that
29:46
information already. I think a counterpoint to what
29:49
you just said, Steve, right? Yeah, it's that I actually think
29:53
we're going to have big weeks for Jonathan Taylor, which you
29:56
did not say was bad. But I think Tyler Warren is
29:58
going to have a good week because new quarterbacks and
30:01
weak quarterbacks look for two things, the dump off to the
30:04
running back and a dump off to the target.
30:07
So I was really hoping for a Tyler Warren quarterback start.
30:12
He played quarterback in high school and I think he was back
30:15
up in college. Oh yeah, he last week, last
30:19
week, when, when what's his bucket Daniel Jones went, went
30:22
out. Tyler Warren was QB #2 he was QB
30:27
#2 in the depth chart. So I was looking forward to
30:31
that. He is my fantasy tight end
30:32
looking for a real Tayson Hill type guy but it just didn't
30:38
happen. You know, you mentioned the
30:41
possibility of some pro team running a high school offense.
30:46
I do want to set the perspective that these are all adult grown
30:50
men playing a child's game. It's no work.
30:54
Like child game. All right, cool.
31:01
Well, Steve, thank you for giving us those three starts and
31:04
sits for week 15. So now what we're going to do
31:07
for the remainder of the episode is we're going to go through
31:11
several guys in fantasy football that people may have questions
31:15
about as they go into the playoffs.
31:18
So not all of these guys are, but a lot of these guys we're
31:21
going to talk about are guys who started off strong and have kind
31:24
of faded down the stretch or for for whatever reason.
31:28
It could be because of like the Colts with their quarterback
31:30
situation or for whatever reason it is.
31:33
Some of these guys are kind of in a situation where you might
31:35
be questioning, you know, Kit, is this a guy that I can really
31:39
trust going into the fantasy football playoffs.
31:42
So we're going to talk about as many guys as we can with the
31:44
remaining time we have. And so to start off here, since
31:48
we kind of already touched on it a little bit, let's talk about
31:50
Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Warren.
31:52
We'll just group them together real quick.
31:54
And so, you know, Will already mentioned it.
31:55
We might as well just stay on that and kind of get everybody's
31:59
thoughts on that. So Steve, we'll start with you.
32:01
Give us some thoughts on Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Warren
32:04
moving forward in fantasy football.
32:07
Yeah, so Jonathan Taylor's interesting.
32:10
I am scared of both of them, but I I like what Will pointed out
32:14
there. But I'll I'll start with
32:15
Jonathan Taylor. Taylor's been since the bye
32:18
week, he's been really underwhelming for fantasy.
32:22
He's been the running back 26, running back 19 and running back
32:25
20 in half PPR leagues. So he hasn't really been doing
32:28
what he was before the bye week, which is the overall running
32:31
back one, you know, scoring 3 touchdowns a game practically
32:34
every week it felt like. But now it gets really those
32:37
were because he had tough matchups, you know, before
32:39
Daniel Jones got hurt, before anything like that, he had
32:41
Kansas City which stopped him very, very much.
32:44
So that week he had Houston again, another tough defense.
32:47
They didn't let him score. That was tough for him.
32:49
He's getting the workload, obviously he's a Bell Cal.
32:51
He's getting over 90 percent, 95% of the snaps, but his and
32:55
the attempts are huge. He's, you know, 20 attempts plus
32:57
a game. But the problem is he's just not
32:59
scoring touchdowns. They're not getting to the goal
33:01
line. They're getting a red zone for
33:02
him. And the offense has been
33:04
lacking. Now you mix that in with, you
33:06
know, playing tough defenses again.
33:08
But now he has no quarterback to actually threat.
33:11
You don't have any threat of passing.
33:13
So you're playing Seattle next week, you're playing San
33:15
Francisco and you're playing Jacksonville.
33:17
Seattle and Jacksonville are really tough run defenses.
33:20
San Francisco's like in the middle of the pack.
33:22
So that's three defenses that can really stop the run and
33:25
they're going to focus on him entirely because they don't have
33:28
a true quarterback that can get the ball out and actually pass
33:32
down the field to threaten them in any way.
33:34
And Seattle pressures the hell out of the quarterback and
33:36
pressures the hell out of the run.
33:37
So like this is going to be really, it's going to be
33:40
unfortunate for a lot of people that own Jonathan Taylor.
33:43
You're still starting them. The talent is undeniable.
33:45
And you you just hope and think that he can still score and he
33:48
can still break off long runs. I'm not saying that's
33:50
impossible, but I don't like it and nobody likes it right now
33:54
with the match up, the scheduling and not not having
33:56
Daniel Jones to to threaten the past.
33:58
It's just it's going to be really tough for your the most
34:02
important weeks of your fantasy season.
34:03
As you mentioned, yeah, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the
34:06
Seattle Seahawks, they're both top four run defenses.
34:09
So as you mentioned, those defenses are just going to key
34:12
in on Jonathan Taylor and just make sure that he does not beat
34:16
them. And that's really all they have
34:18
to do because they don't really have a threat in the past game
34:20
right now. And if they're if there's
34:22
anybody who's going to be a threat is probably, as will
34:24
mentioned, Tyler Warren, because they're just going to go for
34:27
those short passes just to as it like a, you know, dump off
34:31
safety blanket type of guy. But really, that's going to be a
34:34
really, really tough couple of games for Jonathan Taylor just
34:37
because those defenses are already so good at defending the
34:41
run and now there's just no other threats on that offense.
34:45
Yeah, and you know, with Tyler Warren back on that part too,
34:48
like I'm going to have him ranked probably right at my
34:52
tight end 10 this this week. Usually it's like top five for
34:55
me, but I'll probably have him like at that tight end 9 tight
34:58
end 10 position. The reason being is because his
35:01
schedule for the tight end is opposite of what the running
35:04
back schedule's like for the Colts.
35:06
The the Seattle Seahawks, the San Francisco 49ers and the
35:09
Jacksonville Jaguars don't really play the tight end
35:11
position well at all. So there's hope.
35:14
There's a little bit of hope. But the the problem is, is like,
35:17
I don't know how much we can trust the Riley Leonard to be
35:20
able to actually get his security blanket the ball on
35:23
time with precision, with accuracy.
35:26
I don't like, we just don't know what to expect.
35:27
Last week was kind of like a really small sample size and it
35:29
wasn't great at all. It wasn't good.
35:31
Yeah, he wasn't good at all. And.
35:33
They had two catches for 15 yards.
35:35
Exactly. It's it's not that's not doable
35:37
for your first round of the playoffs or really a
35:40
championship run. You have to start him too,
35:42
unless you have like, you know, a backup option.
35:45
If you have a Theo Johnson, a Bretton, strange things of that
35:49
nature, even a Mark Andrews, who, you know, I'm not thrilled
35:52
to start him, but he is playing Cincinnati.
35:54
Who's the worst, like covering the the tight end.
35:56
But like, if you have those options, I might be starting
35:58
them over over Tyler Warren, at least this first week, just to
36:01
see what they do with Tyler Warren in that offense with a
36:04
backup quarterback that no one's really knowing what's going to
36:07
happen. And Phil, Phil Rivers plays that
36:09
emergency QB role. He's 44.
36:10
And like I, I just don't know how that's going to work either.
36:13
So I I'm not trusting it. The the match up makes me a
36:17
little bit optimistic for him. And what like Will said, having
36:22
that security blanket, he he definitely is going to be
36:24
security blanket like Michael Pittman will not be.
36:26
I don't think he can be it. It's not, I just don't see that
36:30
happening. But with Tyler Warren, he every
36:32
tight end is, is the quarterback, a new quarterback's
36:34
best friend. And you know, I think that's you
36:37
can hang on to that. But if you have some better
36:39
options I definitely would be playing them probably.
36:42
Yeah. All right, Avery, you're the
36:44
only one who hasn't given us any thoughts on the Colts.
36:46
So do you have anything to add before we move on to the next
36:49
guy? I think they'll make it work.
36:51
I think that Daniel Jones going out is a big deal, but it is
36:55
still just Daniel Jones. That's fair.
37:01
Let's not lose ourselves here, but I, I, I have trust in Carly
37:06
that she will make the right call, that she'll get the
37:08
coaches in line and let them know what's what.
37:11
And whether it's Tyler Warren or somebody else throwing the old
37:16
pigskin, I think they're going to get it done.
37:18
I think it's more than just Daniel Jones.
37:20
And I think they'll find a way to keep this generational run
37:24
rolling all. Right.
37:26
Cool. All right, so the next guy we're
37:28
going to talk about is a guy that I pounded the table for
37:30
when we were doing our draft. He's very dear to my heart, his
37:35
Bucks receiver and Mecca Ibuca. Do you guys trust Ibuca in the
37:39
fantasy playoffs? I do trust him in the fantasy
37:41
playoffs. It's probably not what a lot of
37:45
people will say, but there's, there's there's a reason why
37:48
his, his target share is, is really elite.
37:51
Like he's getting way more targets than he did before the
37:55
bye week that they had. So he's actually in before the
37:57
the, you know, yeah, before the bye week.
38:00
So he's actually getting more targets.
38:01
He's like 131011129. Like he's getting a lot of
38:04
targets, which is in my world, you know, in any fantasy world
38:08
that you play in that's, that's like so powerful.
38:11
So you know, he's getting looked at by Baker.
38:14
The downside is Baker is, is definitely playing hurt.
38:18
But if you watch the games, and I know you guys, you said you,
38:21
you guys watch the games like for the Bucks.
38:23
If you watch those games like he doesn't look 100% at all.
38:27
He's missing throws. He's not, he just doesn't stand
38:30
in the pocket as normally as he does.
38:32
He just looks, he looks a little off.
38:33
I'm not saying he's like the worst, but he's just looking a
38:36
little off right now. And the other problem is, is
38:40
just like every other wide receiver in this world, for some
38:42
reason this season and Mecca is struggling with drops, which is
38:46
like just so weird to me. These elite wide receivers are
38:49
just dropping the ball left and right.
38:51
I don't, I don't really know why that keeps happening, but I, but
38:54
I do have hope because the talent's there.
38:56
He's getting the targets. So I, I do think that's going to
38:59
help. But also let's also think about
39:01
what's at stake for them. They have to beat the Panthers
39:04
to win the division. So like, just like Seattle with
39:06
Sam Darnold, they have to battle the Rams to win their division.
39:10
Baker and the Bucks have to battle the Panthers to win the
39:14
division. They're not really making the
39:15
wild card. So they have to keep passing.
39:18
They have to be playing lights out.
39:20
They have to keep trying to score touchdowns like and
39:22
actually putting up a lot of points.
39:23
They can't rely on their defense.
39:24
As we've mentioned earlier, they're not they're not a very
39:27
good defensive team. So like this is the this is my
39:30
hope for them is that they do continue to get him involved.
39:34
Mike Evans comes is coming back. Chris Godwin is back.
39:37
Maybe Jaylen McMillan comes back as well.
39:40
But when Mike Evans coming back, that should open up the field.
39:42
It shouldn't hurt him. Maybe the targets dropped by one
39:45
or two, but overall, like that gives him some opportunity to
39:48
get a little bit more space, lose the double coverage, maybe
39:51
not be the true number one anymore and have Mike Evans and
39:53
Chris Godwin just be able to be a little bit more of a focus for
39:56
the defense. And then the Buka really gets
39:58
going. If we saw the beginning of the
39:59
season, that's really what happened with the Buka.
40:01
He was scoring touchdowns left and right because kind of, you
40:04
know, Evans was on the field for him.
40:05
So I I am optimistic. It might burn me.
40:09
I understand that he hasn't scored more than 10 fantasy
40:12
points per game the last five weeks.
40:14
It sucks, but I do think it's going to get better.
40:17
And they have to score. They have to win to to win a
40:20
division. So I'm looking forward to that.
40:23
So I'm going to agree with you. I also have faith in Abuka in
40:26
the fantasy playoffs because Mike Evans is coming back and
40:30
Jaylen McMillan is coming back. And I think a lot of people are
40:33
going to think the opposite. Like you mentioned, I think a
40:35
lot of people are going to say, well, that's going to hurt Abuka
40:37
in fantasy. I don't think so.
40:40
I think that it's going to actually help him because like
40:42
you mentioned too, at the beginning of the season, he was
40:44
doing really, really well because he wasn't the center of
40:47
attention. And I said this leading up to
40:50
the the NFL draft, I said that Ibuka was the biggest threat on
40:54
the field at Ohio State without being the center of attention
40:57
because he always had another guy.
40:58
He had Marvin Harrison Junior, he had Jeremiah Smith, but
41:02
really he was the biggest threat on that field.
41:05
But he just wasn't the center of attention.
41:06
And I think right now at this stage in his career, that is
41:09
where Ibuka is best. And so getting Mike Evans back
41:13
is going to really help him. It's a lot to put on a rookie,
41:16
regardless of how good you are as a receiver, to be that number
41:20
one guy in an offense. And just as much as I would love
41:24
Abuka to be on the same level as like a Jamar Chase, he's not,
41:28
he's just, he's not Jamar Chase. So it to put that on Abuka to be
41:32
the the number one guy who has to do everything for your
41:35
offense. It's a lot for him to do,
41:37
especially because he's never done it.
41:39
He he never did it at Ohio State.
41:41
He was always the the secondary guy, but as the secondary guy,
41:45
he thrived. And so I think that's why I have
41:47
a lot of faith in Abuka in the fantasy playoffs, especially if
41:50
Mike Evans is back. I loosely disagree.
41:52
I've kind of lost faith in Abuka a little bit.
41:55
I don't want to say that I dislike him, but watching him
41:58
forget the scheme or whoever else is there or or who's on
42:02
him, Dude has dropped some embarrassing balls.
42:09
Dropping balls like one of those things where I see that and then
42:13
I'd be like, if Tez, if Tez dropped that, I'd be like, bro,
42:17
look, you were a sixth round pick, you better pick it up
42:21
because you're going to get fucked.
42:24
And I see, and I see Abuka making these and, and, and, and
42:27
just missing them. And it's, it's not even like,
42:31
oh, dude was triple covered. It's like, no, it hit both of
42:34
his hands and dropped. And so for me, I'm like, look,
42:39
yeah, maybe you haven't ever been the top guy 'cause you're
42:41
at Ohio State Wide Receiver University and you go there
42:44
because you know that there's the top talent there.
42:47
But dude, if you have not emerged in your entire time as
42:51
in Ohio State as a top receiver and, and mind you, he had more
42:55
yards than any of those guys. Granted, it was spread across
42:59
four years and everything, but never emerged as the top guy.
43:03
So part of me wonders like, dude, you were a first round
43:06
pick. Are you worth it?
43:08
Are are, can you be that top guy?
43:11
If you can't be that top guy and you can't make these catches
43:14
where the ball hits you in both hands, what are we doing here?
43:19
Like at that point it, it's making me believe even more like
43:23
stop paying these skill positions.
43:26
Go get another Tez Johnson. Go get another 140 LB dude who
43:30
has the slowest 40 time and let him show you up.
43:35
So to me I'm like dude, look, you're the top pick.
43:38
You may not be the top guy, you may not have that have that
43:40
experience, but you better figure it out because that's
43:43
what you're paid to be anyway. He's fine though, I like him.
43:51
Well, I I do. Oh God.
43:53
Well. Sorry, you guys, Steve, you
43:54
guys. No, I, I was just going to, you
43:57
know, I get Avery's point on all of that.
43:59
To be honest. The drops are horrendous.
44:01
I mean, you guys watched the games.
44:03
CD lambs dropping balls. A.J.
44:04
Brown dropped two balls last night like.
44:07
Rashi Rice dropped a bunch of balls on on on Sunday night
44:11
like. Will did a few a few weeks ago.
44:15
Which one will will yeah, no, they're they're dropping they're
44:20
dropping the the footballs quite a bit and it's it's alarming.
44:25
I don't understand, but I I just I'm trying to bank on something
44:29
and and the target share is something that I've been banking
44:32
on Ibuka's got a score. He he's it's I understand the
44:36
frustration. I understand not wanting to play
44:37
them. I didn't play them last week.
44:39
I know a lot of people didn't play them last week for for
44:41
obvious reasons and it worked out well for you if you didn't.
44:44
But it's just it's this is do or die.
44:47
They have to win these next few weeks.
44:49
They have to get him involved. Mike Evans is coming back.
44:51
It's it should work out for him, for fantasy, for your team and
44:56
for the Buccaneers if they really want to win the division.
44:57
They can't. This is do or die for them.
45:00
You don't give Abuka any kind of pass for the for the rain that
45:03
they were in last week. Yeah.
45:07
You're gonna feel the. Receiver, We have a pro.
45:09
Yeah, you're pro. We're gonna.
45:10
Have Mike Evans. We only have Mike Evans.
45:12
If you keep dropping these balls, we're never going to get
45:14
you bro. We're never going to get your
45:18
Funko Pop, dude. Yeah, where does your Funko Pop
45:20
make some catches be wide receiver number 10?
45:25
Never done it before. Scary.
45:28
Anyway, I'm sorry. All right.
45:32
Let's move on to the next guy. So since we just talked about a
45:35
rookie, let's do another rookie. And Steve, since you're a
45:38
Panthers fan, let's go with Panthers wide receiver Ted
45:41
McMillan. Give me some thoughts on
45:43
McMillan. Do you?
45:44
What do you think about McMillan in the fantasy playoffs?
45:47
I love him, I love him. I think he's been great this
45:49
whole season. I honestly didn't have him
45:51
ranked as high as Ibuka, which was just bad on my part.
45:55
I just didn't know what to expect with Bryce, to be quite
45:57
honest. I I like Bryce, but for fantasy
46:00
it's, you know, he's not, he's not great for fantasy, but for
46:03
for football, you know, he's a good game manager type
46:05
quarterback. He's able to spread the ball
46:07
out. He's able to obviously make some
46:08
wins here and perform under some certain pressures, as we saw
46:12
against the Rams and some other games earlier in the year.
46:15
But yeah, Ted's, Ted's been, you know, he's been blowing me away.
46:18
He's been blowing a lot of people away.
46:20
He's the, you know, my opinion, the best wide receiver since
46:22
Steve Smith on this team. And and he's he's clearly been
46:26
an elite asset for the Panthers. I think when it's all said and
46:29
done right now, he's a wide receiver, 13.
46:32
I think he finishes obviously top ten when the season's over
46:34
with. He has some pretty good match
46:36
ups coming up, the Saints, then the Buccaneers and then he plays
46:40
the Buccaneers again at the end of the season.
46:41
But that's not really important for the fantasy play offs.
46:44
The the really it's just, you know, can we trust Bryce?
46:47
Can Bryce get it done? Earlier in the season, he wasn't
46:50
scoring any touchdowns because Bryce really wasn't throwing the
46:52
ball. He had like over 100 yards a few
46:55
games. Like most of the games.
46:56
He wasn't really throwing a ton of yardage, not a lot of
46:58
touchdown passes being thrown. That affects everybody,
47:01
including Ted McMillan. But I think now we're starting
47:04
to see in the last three weeks, the offense is starting to open
47:07
up. Ted has four touchdowns in three
47:09
games, which is phenomenal. He's going to continue to get
47:12
involved as we go on this stretch run.
47:13
Just like Igbuca, just like the Bucks, they have something to
47:16
play for. They have to win the division.
47:18
And what I like the most about Ted that I try to to look at and
47:21
and understand for from a fantasy side is his usage is
47:24
insane. He has a 26% target share, which
47:27
is really elite for a wide receiver.
47:29
And then he has over 7 1/2 targets per game and an
47:32
extremely high route participation of 97.4%, which
47:36
just means he's on the field constantly running routes
47:38
literally every play. So he's, he's getting open, he's
47:41
trying, he has, you know, he's getting the ball looked at him,
47:43
he's getting targets, he's getting open and he's now
47:45
scoring touchdowns, which is great for fantasy.
47:47
So in my opinion, with the matchups coming up, I think Ted
47:50
isn't is a he could be definitely a league winner for a
47:54
lot of teams. And you took him late, you took
47:56
him, you know, 456 round and 4th, 5th and 6th round.
48:00
Some people took him a little higher, but if you're able to
48:02
get him in that 4th to 5th range you, that's great.
48:05
That's really great value for a league winner, you know, so I'm
48:08
really excited for him. I think he's going to be great
48:10
for everybody. Will, what do you think?
48:16
Oh, man, I, I mean, I like that. I like dancers overall.
48:24
One thing, yeah, One thing I think is stuck out to me.
48:28
I mean, I'm Rams fan here. Not a big fan of what the fans
48:31
are doing recently. It was great overall.
48:36
I think something you said really stuck out to me in there.
48:39
And and I texted Joel this earlier this week when talking
48:41
about who to start, who to sit. I think desperation really
48:44
matters, NFL teams, Desperation really matters when you get to
48:48
this point this season, Yeah, we're in the week 15.
48:51
There's three or four more weeks, four more games in the
48:54
NFL season. But right now we already
48:57
happened, right, that the Cowboys Eagles or Cowboy Lions
49:00
just played basically winner has still has a shot to make the
49:04
playoffs. Loser did not have a shot to
49:06
make the playoffs. So every game from here and out
49:09
for the Lions and say when that game is a playoff game and it
49:12
started in Week 14, I think the percentages were like it when if
49:16
Dallas won, they jumped up to like a 6070% and if they lost,
49:20
it dropped down to a 9%. And after the Lions won, it
49:24
jumped up to like a 5658%. If they lost, there was a 19%
49:28
chance. And so these games right now are
49:30
playoff games. And it's it is the same thing
49:34
for Ted and the Panthers that I kind of mentioned in my wrap up
49:38
that that game against the Saints didn't really matter.
49:41
Well, who it really mattered for the Panthers.
49:44
The Saints beating the Bucks really, really mattered for the
49:46
Panthers. It did not matter so much for
49:49
the Bucks because they still control their own destiny, but
49:51
it opened up the window for the Panthers to do the same.
49:54
And so these Panthers have to keep winning if they want to
49:58
make the playoffs. We mentioned this for the Bucks,
50:00
but they're we're not going to get 2 AFC S teams in the
50:03
playoffs. It's just not going to happen
50:04
this year. There's there's not two of them
50:07
that are good enough to breakthrough.
50:09
I mean, I I said today that the Bears won't make the playoffs
50:12
and there's last week they were in first place in the whole NFC.
50:15
So that they the desperation factor is was what I like.
50:20
And when it comes down to this late in the season, running
50:23
usually takes over, right, Rico Dalo and the boys didn't.
50:26
And that run game will usually take over.
50:28
But the only way that they that they stay able to do it is with
50:32
the play action pass and throwing it over the top.
50:34
And there's no one not maybe not knowing better right now, but
50:37
your biggest target and the Panthers are full of physically
50:41
large targets, but their rookie has been amazing as your tent
50:45
has been a great receiver for them this year.
50:46
I like tent coming out. All right, Avery, what do you
50:49
think? I think Ted's fine.
50:53
I think he's, I think he'll put up good numbers, sound like a
50:56
box. I think he'll put up better
50:58
numbers than Abuka, but I don't think he's a better receiver
51:01
than Abuka. He's got.
51:03
Offensive rookie year. Who, who tet, tet tet.
51:09
He's got less proportionally targets to receptions.
51:13
He's got a worse percentage than Abuka, if you count the drops.
51:16
Abuka's got one more, but he's also caught like 40 more passes.
51:20
I I've got a quarterback who's got a better quarter.
51:24
Oh oh. Abuka.
51:26
No, and that's and that's why I, I went off on him with Ted.
51:30
I'm just like, sorry dude. Like I, I don't expect more from
51:34
you. I expect more from Abuka.
51:36
But for you, you're just like, not that good.
51:40
I'm just, I'm trolling. But also everything I said was
51:43
true. I don't think those stats are
51:45
real. And but also they're both
51:49
rookies. But it's fun.
51:53
But anyway, yeah, I I I think I would rather start Tet in
51:56
fantasy over a book. Yeah.
51:58
Yeah, it's a no brainer right now.
52:00
You have to. It's a little brainer.
52:06
You're right, you're right, You're right.
52:08
Quarterbacks matter for sure. And it's fun that we're sitting
52:10
here this late in the season talking about these rookie
52:12
receivers. It is that's that's fun.
52:16
It is fun. It's a lot of fun.
52:17
They've been they've been as advertised too.
52:19
Like coming into the season, everyone was talking about Tet
52:22
and talking about Buca. There was there was, you know,
52:25
you had a little bit of talk about Luther Burden and some
52:27
other guys. But like realistically, these,
52:29
these two were the talk of the town before the season and they
52:31
they are as advertised and I think that's great for the
52:33
league. Like you said.
52:34
Well, I think it's fun. It's fun for viewership, it's
52:37
fun for the league, it's it's great all around.
52:39
Right. So just some just, I just want
52:41
to give some quick thoughts on McMillan.
52:42
So when you look at his fantasy stats like per week, his numbers
52:47
don't really jump off the page at you because he's only had one
52:50
game where he has over 20 points.
52:52
But in 10 of his 13 games, he's had at least 10 points.
52:56
And that doesn't sound like a whole lot, but what you get from
52:58
Ted is consistency, right? And that's really what you're
53:02
looking for is consistency. You could have a guy that goes
53:05
off for 40 points one week, but then get 6 the next.
53:07
Like, yeah, that's kind of, it's good, but it's also bad.
53:11
With Ted, you don't really get a whole lot of bad games.
53:14
You just get consistent games. But you don't get a whole lot of
53:18
explosive games either. So I just think that what you're
53:22
getting with Ted is just a consistent guy.
53:24
And really for me personally, that's what I look for in a guy
53:28
in fantasy, is a guy who's I know is going to get me this
53:31
amount of points every week. And that's what I like in a
53:34
fantasy receiver. And that's what Ted is.
53:36
So just moving into the fantasy playoffs, you can rely on Ted to
53:41
just be a consistent receiver for you.
53:43
It is going to be tough against Seattle in that 17th week.
53:46
If you make it to the championship, it's going to be
53:47
tough against Seattle. But yeah, hopefully, hopefully
53:50
you got a pretty great squad, yeah.
53:55
All right, so this next one here is actually a comparison of two
53:58
guys. So this is Steelers running
54:00
backs Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwill.
54:03
Between the two, which guy do you think is going to have the
54:05
better fantasy season for the remainder of the season?
54:09
This matters to me deeply. Please, please go on.
54:12
Your opinion will state reality. Don't mess it up for Will.
54:16
Yeah exactly. This is what will happen.
54:20
So it's, it's similar to what the the Bears are doing.
54:24
They they split the work pretty, pretty evenly.
54:26
You know, as of especially as of late, you know, Warren gets a
54:29
lot of the running attempts. I think he has 13 per game
54:33
versus Gainwell has about 6 per game.
54:36
But Warren gets 3 targets in the passing game while, you know,
54:39
Gamewell gets 5. So like Gamewell's used in the
54:41
passing attack, we see that on the on while we watch the games.
54:45
Rodgers looks for him. Warren is more of that true
54:47
running back through the tackles.
54:49
That's that's his bread and butter and Warren's great.
54:51
I don't, I actually think Warren's a really great running
54:54
back and I would be very happy starting him every week and I
54:57
have been if I have him in any leagues.
54:58
But Gainwell is someone that's been heating up.
55:02
You know, he's getting a lot of the rushing attempts right now
55:05
as of late in the red zone, which I think is really
55:08
interesting because he's a smaller back.
55:10
He's he's that typical passing scat back type of player.
55:13
And now he's you know, he has 10 rushing attempts and 9 targets
55:16
in the red zone in the last four games, whereas Warren has 6
55:19
attempts and two targets in that same span.
55:21
So it's a little weird how they're they're split in the
55:24
workload. They definitely are getting kind
55:26
of even snap share percentages, but gainwall is getting more the
55:29
red zone looks and that's something I'm banking on.
55:31
That's something I'm looking at. So like right, right now, last
55:33
week, Gamewell was running back 11, Warren was running back 15.
55:36
Both had pretty solid weeks, pretty decent weeks.
55:39
But then both can be trusted in my opinion.
55:41
But I think you know, Gamewell if you want more upside, and
55:44
that's what we're doing in the playoffs.
55:46
I think that's what we're doing in fantasy football in general,
55:48
especially as trying to win a championship.
55:50
I would go gain well from our upside.
55:51
If you want safer, you know, safer floor, safer option in
55:55
general. Warren is going to be your guy
55:56
to to start, and I think you got to I think you'd start both of
55:59
them. I really do.
55:59
I think you start both of them match up dependent of course,
56:02
but I think you start both of them.
56:03
I think game well carries a little bit more risk just
56:06
because he only has that true passing game to mention to him.
56:09
Not that he can't run the ball, he can.
56:11
But Warren has that upside on the has that advantage there and
56:15
I think he gets more looks that that's because of that.
56:17
But the red zone opportunities are there.
56:19
The numbers don't lie. So I like Gainwell for upside
56:22
reasons. So follow up to that real quick
56:23
before Will goes, before Will goes, because I know he's super
56:26
interested in this. So for you, Steve, let's just
56:30
say you had both guys. You have Jalen Warren and you
56:32
have Kenneth Beamwell. You said start both of them.
56:36
If your other running back was a guy, let's say your other
56:39
running back was a guy like Breece Hall, would you start
56:43
Breece Hall over one of those guys or would you start both?
56:45
Jalen Warren or Candace game? Or and Candace Game, I should
56:49
say. Yeah, I think I'd, yeah, it's
56:52
great question. I think I'd start if I had both
56:55
of them again with upside being a thing, I'd start Gainwell just
56:59
to get more points in APPR league, a full PPR league.
57:03
I think I'd start Gainwell over Warren as a flex option and or
57:06
even like a running back two option just because of what
57:08
we're seeing in the red zone as of late.
57:10
The recent C bias in me is looking at that and be like, OK,
57:13
they're using him more in the red zone.
57:15
I want that. I want those opportunities.
57:17
I want that upside for scoring touchdowns.
57:19
So I would start Gainwell there and I would start Breece Hall
57:23
because Breece Hall is just he's, he's really the only back.
57:26
He's the only back on that offense and the workload's
57:29
there. The Jets suck.
57:30
I don't really want any team members on The Jets.
57:33
I don't ever have Breece Hall in any leagues.
57:35
I I try to stay away from The Jets and Breece's.
57:38
He's great. He's good player, but I don't
57:40
like his the situation he's in, the talent is good, but I don't
57:44
really like the situation he's in.
57:46
And if you just want the. Jets.
57:48
The Jets, yeah, you can just say The Jets, they're they're not
57:50
great. But like if you look at what's
57:52
happening too, like they lost Taylor last week, he you know,
57:55
that's that's not great for Breece and any reason, just like
57:58
it's not great for Jonathan Taylor.
57:59
But this is more so on Breece because he's not as talented as
58:01
Taylor, but Breece doesn't have if Breece doesn't have Tyrod
58:05
Taylor playing this week or he doesn't even have Justin Fields.
58:08
Like I don't know if I'm starting him either.
58:10
I don't. I think I'd probably start both
58:11
of them in that. So it's really it depends on
58:13
like the situation in terms of like injuries, the quarterback
58:16
play. But if you're if you're just in
58:18
a vacuum, you said quarterbacks are healthy.
58:20
I would go Breece Hall and I would go Kenneth Gamewell,
58:22
personally. OK.
58:26
I like this. This pleases me.
58:28
You missed any. I don't mean, I don't really
58:34
want to add, I don't want to take away anything from what
58:36
Steve just said. I mean, that's kind of where I'm
58:38
at. I don't have anything insightful
58:39
to say. I've got Yanwell and I'm going
58:43
up against Warren, right. So like I I love everything you
58:46
just said. All right, so this is what this
58:50
is what I'll say. So these two guys are very, very
58:53
close in terms of fantasy points throughout the whole season.
58:56
They're only separated by 8.2 points right now for the whole
59:00
season. So they're very, very close.
59:02
However, if you look at their last four games, Kenneth
59:05
Gainwell has 70.4 points and Jalen Warren has 49.1.
59:10
So Gainwell has had a very, very good last four weeks compared to
59:15
Jalen Warren. And you know, like you
59:18
mentioned, he's getting the red zone touches, he's getting the
59:21
catches, and he gets significantly more catches than
59:25
Warren does. So I would say Kenneth Gainwell
59:27
is the guy because that right now Kenneth Gainwell is getting
59:31
more work and he's getting more fantasy relevant work compared
59:35
to Jalen Warren. Also, like you mentioned too,
59:37
Warren is getting most of the rushing attempts, but the
59:41
Steelers are 29th in rushing yards per game, so they're not
59:44
good at running the ball. So yeah, Jalen Warren gets more
59:48
running attempts, but they're not very good at running.
59:52
So that's just another reason why I'm going with Gainwell
59:55
because he gets the goal line work, he gets the catches, and
59:58
the Steelers are just in general just not very good at running
1:00:02
the ball. So that's why I would go with
1:00:03
Gainwell. Yeah, if it's a full PPR league,
1:00:06
if it's a full PPR league, like you have to trust the catches,
1:00:09
you got to trust the targets, you got to be happy about that.
1:00:11
So yeah, Gainwell's the guy in my opinion.
1:00:13
Just recent. You got to go for recent stats
1:00:14
like you said. Yep.
1:00:17
All right, so the next guy here is Bears running back Kyle
1:00:21
Manungai. How do you feel about Manungai
1:00:24
moving into the fantasy playoffs?
1:00:27
I like him a lot. I really do.
1:00:28
I like him in this offense. I like him with Ben Johnson, if
1:00:31
we look at the last two weeks, he's actually, you know, out
1:00:34
rushed swift the last two weeks on lower snaps.
1:00:37
So he has one he he 36 versus 31 attempts, but he's rushing for
1:00:41
187 yards versus 188 yards compared.
1:00:45
So that's pretty, you know, pretty strong for him and less
1:00:49
snaps. I think, you know, Ben Johnson
1:00:51
is, is utilizing both backs very well.
1:00:54
I think this is what he did in Detroit.
1:00:55
We're not surprised by this. He had the Gibbs and Monty he's
1:00:58
doing with Swift and Menonga. Especially these last, you know,
1:01:01
5-6 weeks where things have been ramping up for them.
1:01:05
They've been on a winning streak.
1:01:06
They've been looking really good obviously before the Green Bay
1:01:09
Packers game. They're they're running the
1:01:11
ball, they're leaning on their run game.
1:01:13
Ben Johnson likes to do that. He likes to lean on the passing
1:01:15
game too in certain situations. But this is this is Gibbs and
1:01:18
Monty like not exactly the same because Gibbs is on another
1:01:22
level, but it's it's the same like dynamic.
1:01:24
So they're splitting up the the carries almost evenly, just like
1:01:28
Warren and Gainwell as of recently.
1:01:30
So I'm going with Manangai over Swift in a lot of leagues.
1:01:34
I think if you have Swift, you're obviously starting him as
1:01:37
well because he does get the he does get the the rushes attempts
1:01:41
as well. But if you're looking at a pure
1:01:42
runner, Manon guy's that guy that can run between the tackles
1:01:45
and he does it, he gets the goal line work as well.
1:01:48
I think I look for that just like I look for that with
1:01:49
Gamewell, as we talked about earlier.
1:01:52
And, and Swift's really good on the outside.
1:01:53
He's a he's good. He's an outside runner.
1:01:55
He's great in space. I'm not taking that away from it
1:01:57
at all, but I would rather have Manon guy right now who's
1:02:00
getting more work. He's getting trusted in this
1:02:03
offense and it seems like Ben Johnson likes using him more and
1:02:06
more around the goal line in the red zone.
1:02:08
I'll bank on that. So I like Manon guy a lot.
1:02:10
I really do. And I want, I want every piece
1:02:12
of this offense. I really do.
1:02:13
I, I, I know we were joking about Caleb earlier and stuff
1:02:17
like that, but I, I like this offense entirely.
1:02:20
I, I truly do. I think Ben Johnson.
1:02:22
We weren't joking. Ben Johnson has turned it
1:02:25
around, so I want as much pieces as I can.
1:02:29
Luther Burden, someone I picked up in a lot of leagues.
1:02:31
So like, yeah, I like, I like this whole offense and Manon
1:02:34
guys, one of the biggest pieces I like.
1:02:37
So the only thing that makes me question starting Menungai in
1:02:42
the playoffs is is he doesn't necessarily get the right usage
1:02:48
for fantasy, if that makes sense.
1:02:50
So if you look at so since since Menungai had his start when
1:02:55
Swift was out and he went off for like, I think it was like
1:02:57
176 rushing yards, their carries have been split about 5050.
1:03:03
It's pretty close to 5050. And yeah, the only thing that I
1:03:07
don't like about Manangai is he doesn't get a lot of targets or
1:03:12
catches, which is what you want for fantasy.
1:03:15
So since week 9, he's only had a total of 5 targets and he's had
1:03:20
two catches. So really with Manangai, you're
1:03:23
relying on him to get a touchdown for him to be relevant
1:03:25
in fantasy at all, which is kind of scary a little bit because
1:03:30
you can't really rely on him to, you know, he's not going to be,
1:03:33
you know, getting 345 catches a game plus the yards.
1:03:38
So it's just, that's the only thing that makes me not trust
1:03:42
Monongai. I really, really do like him as
1:03:45
a runner and as a player, but just fantasy wise I'm just a
1:03:49
little bit scared just because he has to get a touchdown in
1:03:52
order for him to really be a relevant player for you.
1:03:56
Yeah, he does boom or bust for sure.
1:03:58
Touchdown dependent for sure. But he has had five touchdowns
1:04:01
the last since the bye week. So their bye week was in week 5.
1:04:04
He's had five. I like that.
1:04:06
I just I that's that's my whole point is like, I 100% agree with
1:04:09
you. He's not getting any any
1:04:10
targets. He's not the passing game back
1:04:12
at all, but he is getting trusted by Ben Johnson to get
1:04:15
the ball quite a bit. He had 14 carries last week, 22
1:04:18
carries the week before, 12 the week before that.
1:04:21
You know, he's getting more and more attempts and he's getting
1:04:24
that goal line action to score the touchdowns like he'll take,
1:04:26
I'll take scores all day and he has five.
1:04:29
So like I, I, I hear what you're saying.
1:04:31
I do I I just think like I'll, I'll take the recency of like
1:04:34
getting more usage out of this offense, whereas swift is just,
1:04:38
you know, he's still swift. You still start.
1:04:40
I'm not saying you don't, you don't.
1:04:41
I just I like the non guy more. All right, Will, you're a Bears
1:04:45
fan. Let us know what you think
1:04:48
about. Will looks like a Bears fan
1:04:51
currently. That's what my dad.
1:04:53
Told me the other day, that's funny.
1:04:57
I don't know man, what you mean to say this Bears team is bad,
1:05:01
this offense is grumbling, this Bears team is bad.
1:05:04
They did build an offensive line and they've been able to run
1:05:06
behind it, and that's great. But when you're taking away
1:05:09
Kayla Williams, who was actively crumbling right in front of our
1:05:12
eyes, all you have to do is stop the run.
1:05:14
And as we've seen with the Eagles this year, if you stop
1:05:17
the run, that team is nothing. And what are people done against
1:05:21
the Eagles? They stopped Sequin Barkley.
1:05:23
That man has not been the runner he was last year.
1:05:25
And you can't even come close to arguing it.
1:05:28
So people are saying, oh, hey, look, this Bears team can't
1:05:31
throw the ball. Well, let's stop the let's stop
1:05:34
the run. And and oh, maybe they can.
1:05:37
Yeah, I'm not listening to it. And they're getting worse as the
1:05:39
season goes on. Look at what?
1:05:41
Now, granted, 2 for the different teams here, right?
1:05:44
But the Texans versus Patrick Mahomes, right?
1:05:47
Everyone knows Chiefs cannot run the ball very well at all.
1:05:51
All the Texans did was hold what's his bucket, Pat Mahomes
1:05:55
to 130 yards and three picks. So if you can eliminate an
1:06:00
offense down to 1 dimensional and you only have to worry about
1:06:02
stopping one side of it, then you're then that that team
1:06:06
becomes null and void. Kayla Williams is actively
1:06:09
crumbling. I've been saying it for weeks.
1:06:12
They did just beat the Eagles, but that was a not a pregame
1:06:15
either. He's been progressively worse as
1:06:17
the season goes on. And now we're in desperation
1:06:20
mode where these teams have to win and the Bears are going to
1:06:22
be easy picking it now. The Bears defense is going to
1:06:25
keep them in every game. That is just that is the fact
1:06:28
that defense is very good. Most takeaways in the league,
1:06:31
they get the ball back for this offense because the offense is
1:06:34
bad and they need the ball back extra times.
1:06:36
But I don't trust any piece of it.
1:06:39
I'm I actually actually I just dropped him.
1:06:43
Another guy I went I'm not dealing with that guy anymore.
1:06:47
Dropped him well. So I have a waiver.
1:06:50
I have a waiver claim out technically.
1:06:52
Why would you drop him? I have a waiver claim out.
1:06:54
I'm not dealing with this guy. I'm done with the mouse you're
1:06:58
picking. Him up for your claim?
1:06:59
Oh, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
1:07:01
I'm dropping him for someone else.
1:07:03
Let me work real quick. Oh, don't.
1:07:06
Will's also Will's also in a league.
1:07:08
Will's also in a league where, like Christian McCaffrey is
1:07:10
probably on the waiver wire somehow because.
1:07:13
Dude, I would never drop him a. Football, there's two teams, so.
1:07:17
There's two teams. Yeah.
1:07:20
I'm getting woody marks. I'm dropping my young guy for
1:07:22
woody marks. I mean, I like Woody Marks, like
1:07:25
I said earlier, but I wouldn't drop Manon Guy.
1:07:27
That's that's absurd. Manon Guy's scoring touchdowns.
1:07:30
He's getting more usage. I I don't think you should drop
1:07:33
him. Woody Marks?
1:07:35
Who is that? It's Helen's running back.
1:07:39
This is Avery Co, manager of our fantasy team.
1:07:44
Woody marks but sounds like a porn name.
1:07:48
Now my starting, my starting running backs on this same team.
1:07:51
My starting running backs are Bucky Irving and Trevion
1:07:53
Henderson. I've got my young guy in my flex
1:07:55
spot, but I've got Gangwell on the bench ready to go in, so I
1:07:59
don't need my young guy. I'm just, I just don't this
1:08:05
Bears team, he, I I don't trust a single person from this Bears
1:08:08
team. I'm also in a different league.
1:08:09
Why? Why?
1:08:10
Don't you win? Yeah.
1:08:11
What is it with the Bears that you don't like about their
1:08:13
offense? Because I love the Bears and I
1:08:16
love everything. And I love.
1:08:17
I hate, I hate the bears through and through.
1:08:20
I didn't realize I had so much hatred for the Bears and I
1:08:23
generally, I generally can separate team from fantasy.
1:08:27
I just don't think this team is good.
1:08:29
I think they've just been getting lucky and luck runs out
1:08:32
and we're at the time of year where you don't get to be lucky
1:08:37
anymore. You have to actually be good.
1:08:39
This is. We do not like them because
1:08:41
they're not good. It's like hating a baby because
1:08:44
they can't talk. I don't like them because of the
1:08:46
hype they're getting. I think is really where it is.
1:08:48
The preseason hype to Caleb Williams is going to be an
1:08:50
absolute All Star. I think that has pushed me to
1:08:53
the edge of light. Like I am their Sith, they are
1:08:56
the Jedi here. I am their Sith.
1:08:58
I hate them. Just give them who they are.
1:09:00
But he is. Playing better.
1:09:01
He is playing better like I, I think.
1:09:03
Yeah, sure, sure. He is playing better.
1:09:05
And you know what? JJ McCarthy is playing better
1:09:06
this year than he did last year, too.
1:09:08
So when when you compare, when you compare the two seasons,
1:09:15
sure, he's doing better. He also has a coach who gives a
1:09:19
damn. Sorry, doing exactly, exactly
1:09:22
last year. But that's only going to last
1:09:24
for so long. We are at the time of year, It's
1:09:27
Toyota's life, right? This is Drew, the love season.
1:09:29
It's December to remember. This is where Luck, Andrew or
1:09:35
other goes out the window and skill comes to play.
1:09:39
Bill Belichick always said real football starts after
1:09:42
Thanksgiving. Well guess what, Thanksgiving
1:09:44
coming wins. And this is where all the fur
1:09:48
through Ben Johnson garbage. There's a reason the lines
1:09:51
didn't win the Super Bowl because you don't win on trick
1:09:54
plays minus the Philly special, but they're winning the game
1:09:57
anyway. You don't win on on double verse
1:10:01
sweep. You don't win on any of that
1:10:02
crap. You win on on just
1:10:06
run-of-the-mill. I'm just said hair down.
1:10:10
That's not it. That's just stuck in my head,
1:10:12
'cause I'm ripping the Bears right now.
1:10:14
You, you win on fundamental football and I don't think this
1:10:18
Bears team has the fundamentals down pat yet.
1:10:22
And this is where it really matters.
1:10:23
The weather turns. Not one single person likes
1:10:26
playing in cold weather on the Pat Maddock for sure.
1:10:28
That Jordan Love even said I hate playing in cold weather.
1:10:31
I just play with no sleeve so I can show how tough I am.
1:10:34
Almost an exact quote, not the exact quote.
1:10:36
It's miserable out there and so not, no one likes it.
1:10:40
And the Bears in Chicago play outdoors and, and it's not, it's
1:10:44
not fun for anyone. And I, I think the Bears are
1:10:47
going to continue to be exposed to the rest of the season.
1:10:50
And then when you can stop Caleb Williams because he's going to
1:10:52
crumble under pressure, they're going to have to hand the ball
1:10:55
out. And now we're putting 8-9 yards
1:10:56
in the box because we don't trust Caleb to throw up more
1:10:59
than 5 yards anyway. Let him scramble.
1:11:01
That's fine. We'll put a spy on him and seven
1:11:03
other guys on on the nine guy or Swift or whoever's back there
1:11:06
and let the receivers do nothing.
1:11:08
Colston Loveland just happened to show up in week what 1213 was
1:11:12
nothing for most of the season. Week 13 or so he happened to
1:11:15
show up and people think he's a second coming of Dallas Clark.
1:11:19
That's just not the case. So just for the record and for
1:11:24
any Bears fans listening, this is not hating on Kayla Williams.
1:11:27
This is just stating an actual fact.
1:11:29
Kayla Williams is not better statistically than he was last
1:11:32
year. His completion percentage is
1:11:35
down from 62.5% to 57.8. He's probably going to throw for
1:11:40
more yards. Yeah, he's going to throw more
1:11:42
touchdowns, but he's, he threw 6 interceptions last year.
1:11:45
He's thrown six this year. Chances are he's going to throw
1:11:48
more than six interceptions this year with a worse completion
1:11:51
percentage show. I mean, I guess yards and
1:11:55
touchdowns, yeah, he's better, but completion?
1:11:58
In a lot of other categories. Completion percentage and
1:12:01
interceptions, he's not going to be better.
1:12:03
He's already better at touchdowns, rushing touchdowns
1:12:05
than he was last year. So there are specific areas
1:12:08
where he's better, but there's also areas where he's.
1:12:12
Worse. And how long do running
1:12:14
quarterbacks last? Right?
1:12:17
Joe Broz, Lamar Jackson, that man is built different.
1:12:22
That man is built different somehow.
1:12:25
It's the Wyoming in him. That's what it is, yeah.
1:12:28
Probably. But you look at all these other
1:12:31
guys that are the same body type as Caleb Williams, they just
1:12:34
don't last, they get hurt. And so that's not a long term
1:12:39
successful way to win. Also, I watched highlights here
1:12:43
today. This is how deep Mike Hedrick
1:12:45
goes for this bearish team with Kayla Williams.
1:12:46
Typically, I watched the highlights of the USC collapse
1:12:50
against Tulane. It is because Tulane made the
1:12:52
playoffs and they were like, show it, showcasing Tulane
1:12:56
coming back to beat USC, Kayla Williams, USC, nobody remembers.
1:13:00
This is fine. 15 points in five and 4 1/2 minutes to come back
1:13:04
and beat Kayla Williams team. All right, This man has never
1:13:06
been good. He's always been overhyped.
1:13:08
That's my biggest problem with him.
1:13:10
He's not bad. Obviously he's one of the best
1:13:12
32 ball throwers in in the world when it comes to football, but.
1:13:18
Not if Philip Rivers comes back. Might be 30.
1:13:25
I know there are. There are backups I would pick
1:13:27
to start my my franchise around over Gabe Williams.
1:13:31
Oh my God, Oh my goodness. I'm a big Caleb guy.
1:13:35
So I, I, you know, I'll disagree with that, but I do think he's
1:13:39
AI do think he's a valuable quarterback.
1:13:41
I think he's collegiate percentage is definitely down.
1:13:43
You got that 100%, Joel. It's not been pretty.
1:13:46
Yards are up, though. I do like that touchdowns are
1:13:48
up. His his yards per temp are up
1:13:50
too, which is really nice. And I think the best part about
1:13:53
him, I think Caleb is he has not taken as many sacks as he did a
1:13:57
year ago. So I do think that's all.
1:13:59
Because spent a billion dollars on their offensive line, That's
1:14:02
the way it should. Be any scramble rate's pretty
1:14:04
high though. I mean, he is getting around, he
1:14:06
is getting away. It's not been perfect for him
1:14:07
with the the line in general. It's no, it's no Philadelphia
1:14:11
Eagles line it's no, you know, typical line that we see from
1:14:14
other teams that are really good.
1:14:16
Even though they did spend a lot on it, it still hasn't been
1:14:18
perfect. I do think he's I do think he's
1:14:21
progressing and I do like him long term with Ben Johnson.
1:14:24
I think that's what makes the difference overall for this
1:14:26
whole team, including him. Like having Ben Johnson there.
1:14:29
I think, well, you said that earlier.
1:14:30
It's, it's, it's a big difference.
1:14:31
It really is. It's huge.
1:14:33
It's I mean, Matt Eberfluss was the worst coach I've ever seen
1:14:36
in a long time. And like Matt Nagy was pretty
1:14:41
bad. Matt Nagy was pretty, but
1:14:42
Ebrafluse was Ebrafluse was like he, he was just there for some
1:14:46
reason. Like they, I don't think they,
1:14:48
they were just waiting for Ben Johnson to come there because he
1:14:50
had no idea what he was doing every, every game.
1:14:53
So I like it, But I, I get, I get your, I get your point.
1:14:56
I do. I do think this Bears team is
1:14:58
going to be very good in the next few years.
1:15:01
I think they're going to be very good with with the same roster
1:15:04
and I'm going to have to just sit here and just eat it.
1:15:06
And I don't have a. Choice, but, but right now,
1:15:09
until then, until then, until then.
1:15:13
Right now. And so I'm going to all right,
1:15:17
well. That's all we got time for on
1:15:19
today's episode guys want to say thank you again to Steve for
1:15:23
joining us and for talking some fantasy football to anyone who
1:15:26
made the fantasy football playoffs.
1:15:28
We wish you good luck. Unless you are against us, then
1:15:31
we hope you lose. But our shorts?
1:15:36
That's all we got time for guys. And as always, don't forget to
1:15:38
keep your balls played with. We'll see you next time.
1:15:41
Bye now y'all. Also, Mark Davis's haircut still
1:15:44
sucks.