December 10, 2018 • 44 mins
Marcas Grant, Michael Fabiano and Graham Barfield are all back in the studio to recap Week 14! The group starts off with the biggest news headlines from the weekend such as Tyreek Hill potentially having a serious foot injury and Lesean McCoy being day to day with a hamstring injury (2:10). Next, the guys talk about the good, the bad and the weird from Week 14 (11:50) and gave a playoff Week 2 look-ahead (31:10). Lastly, the group wrapped up the show with some Monday Moanin' Tweets read by Eddie Spaghetti (40:45).
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wow. What is Welcome to another edition of the NFL
Fantasy Live podcast, Me and your man Namd Marcus Grand
alongside the Hall of Fantasy Hall of Famer at Michael Fabiano,
as well as our main Granada Barfield which Graham Welcome back.
(00:23):
You were on like death store last week. Man. I
was on the sofa for five days, didn't move, had
a terrible sinus infection. Still little nasily in the voice,
and you might hear me at some point in this
show that I'm feeling much better. Not nothing, though, because
I think the NFL is trying to get us all sick.
Because our newsroom this morning, like I get it, great
(00:44):
game last night in Chicago. It doesn't need to be
that cold in our newsroom and then the studio this morning.
I mean, how to be maybe fifty five degrees in there.
It's ridiculous, you know, like they're trying to grow reindeer
or something around. It makes sense, right because you know
you know that that that that the playoffs are coming
super Bowls. I mean, so you want all your people
to get sick and rest up now. You don't want
them to be six super Bowl you know, so then
(01:05):
get it out of the way, I may or may
not have seen icicles coming out of the sink in
the kitchen this morning. Good, not doubt against. It's freezing
in that newsroom behind the glass wre Hopefully it's a
little bit warmer as always our producers. Senior Edward L.
Murphy esquire Murphy's up. Yeah, thanks for the heads up.
Now that I know it's called, I'll avoid that room. Yeah, dude,
I gotta say, like, I mean, fantasy is so I mean,
(01:27):
I'm good the whole season. Lose now in the playoffs,
like my team. The Giants stink most of the year.
They're scoring. They scored thirty points against the Bears. The
Rams can only score six. The NFL makes no sense.
Fantasy makes no sense. So you can go ahead and
use that L word if you want a lot of
luck involved. There There is, there is, there is. We
had lots to talk about. It was a weird Week
(01:48):
four team. We'll go through the good, the bad, and
the weird of it, and you know what kind of
way on weight in on what we think was the best, worst,
and weirdest of the week. Also a playoff week to
look ahead with who could be the hero and who
could be the villain of course, uh Monday Morning, which
is always sadder when can get to fantasy playoff time too.
So we'll get some of your tweets there and then
some of your mail back questions as well. But first
(02:09):
let's do some news. Tyreek Hill left the game on
Sunday against the Ravens with a foot injury. He did
come back later in the game, but afterwards told Peter
(02:32):
King of the Monday Morning Quarterback or formerly of Monday
Morning Quarterback fame, I guess that the injured foot is
quote bad and now fabs this. This is terrible news
at a time when fantasy folks have gotten lots of
terrible news. We talked about all the running backs who
were injured, you know, Manuel Sanders loss for the year.
Now to potentially lose Tyreek Hill, or at least have
(02:52):
Tyreek Hill at less than right now, is is more bad.
I mean, it was good to see him play through it.
But they've got a short week. You've got the Lightning
Bolts this week on Thursday Night Football, which should be
a hell of a game. Um. I know, Marcus, he's
going to be picking up Kelvin Benjamin in all of
his leagues this yeah, all of them. No, not even
but it is bad news. And for those of you
(03:12):
who get to week sixteen and for some reason maybe
some play in week seventeen. I will never know why
I don't let friends play Week seventeen, you would think
Tyreek Hill, assuming the Chiefs have sort of clinched everything,
will be resting some of their players, So Tyreeko could
be on that list, depending on how serious this foot
injury actually is. I mean, but I mean real talk though,
I mean, you know, I laugh kind of joke about
Calvin Benjamin would have you, but Graham, I mean, Chris Connley.
(03:34):
It is kind of a name. Maybe keep in your
back pocket, I would think this week. I mean, it's
kind of crazy to think Sammy Watkins obviously is gonna
probably miss the rest of the regular seasons foot injury.
It's kind of crazy to think Connley could walk into
week fifteen and be their lead founder receiver. But that's
kind of what we're looking at. I mean, still even
without Sammy Watkins, I mean, Tyreek Hill has just been
(03:54):
on a terry as ten, fourteen, six and fourteen targets
in his last four games. Obviously have the one weird
one for bad game. You known two weeks ago, but still,
I mean, he's just been that cost me a playoff spot.
He has just been shredding without Sammy Watkins obviously would
be huge if he missed Week fifteen. But yeah, especially
in the game. Well obviously for the Chiefs, obviously it's
(04:15):
a big deal because this is a game that has
a lot to do with the a f C West
for fantasy folks, it's a game that potentially could be
very high scoring. So to not have Tyree Hill, there's
gonna be bad. Interesting, like this could decide the first
round by and they have c now because yesterday Houston,
if Houston would have beat Indie, they would have been
in the running for that still be in the running
(04:36):
for that first round by now. The Chiefs and Chargers
are right there to the Chiefs right now, are are
in that one spot. The Patriots losing, you know they're
they're not out of it, but it certainly makes it
a little more difficult. That was crazy. That was wild
the way they lost that football game. That that Sunday
of football was a reminder of why we all love
the NFL, especially if you're a Cowboys fan. Yeah, how
(04:58):
about the Cowboys. That game was nuts, though. I mean, like,
even if you're just a football fan, the second half
with Dak, the ups, the downs, the interceptions, the long
touchdown throws, the flags, the refs will and we'll get
to some of that because I'mari Cooper went went ballistic elsewhere.
Lashawn McCoy left yesterday's game for the Bills with an
(05:21):
injured hamstring. The reports right now or that he is
day today. Um, I mean, Graham, does this matter because
Josh Allen obviously is the RB one there in Buffalo, right,
so they don't even need McCoy. Yeah, man, whatever, that
is what it is. I mean, look, Josh Allen is
averaging seven point four yards. Burg cames insane. I mean, look,
(05:43):
I don't really know what to do. I mean, at
this point for fantasy, we just kind of have to Troy.
He's had three and thirty five rushing yards in his
last three games. That's the most by a quarterback in
a three game stretch. It's nineteen seventy and I mean
you look at this, three turnovers yesterday and he still
scored twenty points. Running quarterbacks, My friends, I've been preaching
(06:05):
it for years. It's just It's so weird because I
tweeted yesterday that, you know, I twoted a meme of
a skeleton on a bench saying that's me waiting for
the rushing regression to hit for Josh Allen. And and
you know, Benjamin Slack on Twitter, who does stuff for
Drafting Network actually responded. But what I thought was actually
a really smart point. It's not so much that rushing
regression will hit. It's at some point defenses are going
(06:28):
to say, hey, maybe we just don't let this guy
run all over. Well, it's bizarre. Yesterday is is the
Jets didn't even commit a spy on some of those players.
I mean there was nobody in the middle of the
field and Allen but just just gashing them. And he
have he averaged like eleven yards per carryer in week fourteen.
I mean, it's so bizarre because he's only completing his
passes four picks. He has five sacks in the last
(06:50):
three games. Like, as a passer he's been abysmal. But
for fantasy, because he's rushing for nearly a hundred yards
and score every game, we're just yeah, and fantasy, you
put up good rushing to les and it sort of
covers up your your deficiencies as a pastor. So I'm
just I'm waiting for the defensive coordinator to say, hey,
maybe we should just put a spy in the middle
of the field and not let this guy just run
(07:11):
all over us. Uh. If that and if and when
that happens, then suddenly maybe it's a different ballgame for
for Josh Allen And maybe that means more Lashawn McCoy
if he gets healthy and back on the field. If
their quarterbacks not running, somebody's well, I mean, you'd probably
be looking at Chris Ivory is a waiver wire ad um.
He led the backfield and touches yesterday. But uh, it's
an uninspiring one. It is very uninspired. A little bit
(07:35):
more inspiring at least as the running back situation for
the l A Chargers. Austin Ekeler did suffer a stinger yesterday,
had a very good first half. Was kind of meant
in the second half, but he had done a lot
of his damage early. But there's always a chance that
Melvin Gordon comes back for Thursday night football facts. I
guess this means though, that we're keeping an eye on
Austin Ekeler because if he doesn't go as Justin Jackson.
(07:58):
If not, I mean, this is one I think we're
gonna to monitor all a week. Yeah, no doubt about that.
I mean I'd kind of be surprised if Gordon came back.
I mean, obviously it is a big game, but they
want to have him for the playoffs because that's what's
most important, uh, for the Bolts. But Eckler with the stinger,
Justin Jackson was a big bust. A lot of there
not much liked him to sort of take over the
(08:20):
Gordon role and Eckler would fall back into the Eckler role.
And unfortunately for those who did not play Eckler or
started Justin Jackson, Uh, the opposite was true, and Eckler
went out and had a big, big game. I can't
remember a defense that has been this bad weekend and
week out against one position like the Bengals are against
(08:42):
running backs. If you started, if you started running back
against the Bengals, every you're guaranteed to get a nice statline.
Gear Ron tied and Uh, anybody who started Ekeler in
that game was it was probably very glad to do
it because he helped you get to the next round
of the playoffs. I'm looking so uh, Marcus was like
a man who's playing. But does this mean we're all
(09:03):
in on Doug Martin this week? Yes, all right? And
you know who they played the following week They played
the Brown So it's in the show. So uh, that'll
be interesting. Start Doug Martin. I do think the one
reason that you may see Melvin Gordon back is because
I mean they could tie. Yeah, I mean, look, this
is a humongous game. They could. They could theoretically, for
as good as the Chiefs have been, for as ridiculous
(09:23):
as Patrick Mahomes is, for the fact he might even
break the single season touchdown record, the Chargers could still
be the number one. They could still be in the
one season. I wouldn't be surprised if Melvin Gordon comes
back to playing. Uh finally, Washington benches Mark Sanchez. He
was awful, The team was awful. They got blown out.
Josh Josh Johnson. I'll remember it. I'll get it right.
(09:47):
He comes in and you know, he rallies them and
he scores a couple of touchdowns. Lady ends up as
as we sit here right now, he is the QB three.
Ridiculous and he is projected to be the starter again
next week. Don't even ask, I don't even ask two
QB leagues, Like two QB leagues, maybe you know for
(10:08):
the DFS, minded, do you consider it maybe against Jacksonville?
And I get it. The Jaguars defense hasn't been all
that good this season. But that is Derrick Henry. That
is bold, man, I know that is bold. Really is
Josh Johnson the number one overall pick in the A
a F. That's right, I said yesterday. The a F
(10:29):
is already developing NFL players. Man, do they have fantasy
football leagues for that? They haven't even played an actual
game and they're already sending guys to the NFL. So
good for them. So there it is. Uh, yes, so
chances are you probably not taking a shot at Josh Johnson.
But you know, there's not a red skin that you
could trust that that's that's none. It's especially Jordan Reid.
I mean, it took weeks to get hurt, so this
(10:51):
is crazy. It's been the healthiest season ever been. It's
been his worst season in terms of production. But yeah,
there's not a red skin I want, right, that's such
a that's such a such a the lima for Jordan
read It's like I could I could be productive but
injury prone, or I could stay healthy and not do
much of anything. Quickly have the have the wheels fawn
off of that Redskins bandwagon because they were the number
(11:12):
one team in the NFC East not so long ago,
really just a handful of weeks ago. First Division. Early
in the season, like the first few weeks of the season,
it looked like their defense was going to be good.
And it is when they when they beat the Cowboys,
when Dak fumbled in the end zone and they recovered it,
they were the they were the class of that division.
Not so much, not so much anymore. So there you go.
(11:32):
That is pretty much everything you need to know, all right.
Week fourteen in review, I took a handful of storylines
(11:52):
from the week, broke them down into good, bad, and weird.
I'll go over them and then we can kind of
kick around. I'm just curious get your thoughts on which
ones you guys, we're you know, we're the best storylines,
the worst or the weirdest. And if there's one here
I missed pheel Free obviously to jump in and throw
that in as well, so we'll start with the good.
So I got four of them here. You got Amari
Cooper's second thirty point game in three weeks, just going nuts,
(12:17):
almost fifty almost in PPR legs. Uh. Josh Allen, who
the last three weeks has averaged ten yards per carry
and I believe he has almost as many rushing yards
on the season as Lashawn McCoy nets. Uh. The Giants defense.
They go over fifteen Fantasy points for the second straight week,
(12:38):
which I think that was one we sort of predicted
because Jel Washington was gonna be bad. D Jarvis Lantry
Awakens hadn't had a touchdown since Week seven, had to
a rushing and a receiving touchdown, and almost had a
passing touchdown on those of those four. So those are
my four like kind of good stories for the week.
If you had to pick one father that you think
was kind of the best, one word, I'm going, I mean,
(13:01):
you're going to come on, man, I'm going to Mark Cooper.
And when the Cowboys made the trade, I'll never forget.
I walked into the newsroom and um, I think it
was Emily who socially who had said that the Cowboys
had traded for for Cooper, and I said, what did
we give up first round pick? And I was like,
oh man, because Roy Williams and Joey Galloway instantly jumped
(13:21):
into my head. Well and everyone thought that that one,
you know, but this is this is a perfect both
things can be true. I mean, Dallas paid too much
for a receiver, but was in the final year of
his deal. They're gonna have to pay him next year.
They paid too much for Amark Cooper, and Amark Cooper
has been a badass for them. He's got five touchdowns
in his last two games. He's had a hundred eight
(13:41):
yard game, He's had a two seventeen yard game, and
he's not only improved that offense tenfold, but he's made
Dak Prescott very fantasy relevant once again. Uh And at
the same time, Cooper is no longer a guy that
you ask Graham, do I start him this week? Marcus?
Should I start Cooper this week? No? Was in your
line every single week. The whole stink of the silver
(14:03):
and black is gone. Now with that beautiful blue star
on his helmet, Amari Cooper is re emerged and end
up he could end up being the fantasy Football Playoff
m v P. If he has a couple of good games,
You've got the Colts next week could be a very
high scoring game, and then he's got the Bucks. So
it's not out of the realm of possibility that Amari
Cooper becomes your fantasy playoff m v P. And I
(14:25):
would I'm trying to speak that into his This is
because it would be good for the Cowboys and we
could potentially secure the NFC East, which we're close to doing.
And h boy, it would be nice to see the
Cowboys sneak into that three seed. I don't know if
it's gonna happen, but we shall see. All right, So
of those four Graham, is there one that stands out
to here or there one that maybe I missed that
you thought was big for the week. Just for what
it's worth, Josh Allen does have more rushings, so he
(14:47):
has more. Now, all right, it's wild, I mean it's
it's wild, But yeah, I mean it was gonna be
Cooper for me too. I'd like to personally apologize first
to Amari Cooper um for basically the entire d of
his career. I kind of doubted him, and uh, it
kind of became a running joke for me on Twitter,
but that bit is over. Amark Cooper, I'm sorry. You
are as good as we thought you weren't when you
(15:09):
came out of Alabama. You're as explosive as as any
player or any receiver in the NFL right now. It's
a it's remarkable. I mean, Dallas has basically turned their
season around from a bottom ten offense to a top
twelve offense just by adding a Mark Cooper. It's it's incredible.
It sort of begs the question because obviously, the the
overwhelming reaction was that Mark Cooper going to Dallas wasn't
(15:32):
going to change much. You know, it's like he can't
get separation, He's not gonna get open. You know, that's
not gonna be able to help him all that much. Obviously,
here we are, what's six weeks later, and we all
have sort of egg on our face about this. So
but it does beg the question, like what exactly were
the Raiders doing? Is it's more or less? Is Derek
(15:53):
cart just that bad? Is it? I mean? Yeah, because
it can't just be a Gruden thing, because this Mari
Creup wasn't doing much before John Gruden got there so
just be you know, hey, the coaching staff. But it
took me look at his numbers in Oakland, like this
season to eight, then he had twenty one. They had
three seven, twenty six. Then he had to uh and
(16:13):
then the big move. Yeah, like like de Marcus point
before even this year, before the Raiders got Gruden in
twenty seventeen, Cooper at six yards and fourteen games is
sixty two and six or Dallas this year. It's not
it's not like you said, It's not just a Gruden thing.
It's more or less just like I know, we always
want to say we want to take these sounded players
(16:33):
and put them in more advantageous situations, and rarely doesn't
work out the way it's worked out for Mr. But
like this is genuinely one of those types of situations
where Amar genuinely needed another like a fresh start apparently,
And that's what we talked about when the trade went down.
I don't think any of us saw this coming. I didn't,
and I'm a Cowboys homer. I didn't see this coming.
(16:54):
I said, change of scenery is good. Maybe he sees
a little uptick in value. I was projecting him as
a wide receiver two three dude. Now he's a one
in fantasy right now. He is absolutely And you know,
let's talk about the Cowboys defense too, Holy cow Yeah.
I mean, it's all come together at the right time.
They've been very good obviously all year long, and now
(17:14):
they've kind of think kicked it up. I think, as
they have as this team has gotten hot and they're
winning games, this defense I think has sort of gone
next level. One of the things you got so many
good You mentioned those numbers last year, Grandma for for
Mark Cooper guardage wise, keep in mind how much of
them came in that one game and that one Thursday night. Yeah,
and that was the bulk of them. And that was
the game where they the Chiefs. Basically they put Cooper
(17:36):
in the slot and like fifty of his roots or
something like that, and I just decided not to cover him.
And if you remember, he had been bad and so
people were afraid to start him on the Thursday night game.
I believe I believe I had him as a sit
that way. I advised people to avoid Mary Mark Cooper.
It had not been producing since like the middle of
two thousand and sixteen. He'd been highly, highly inconsistent. We
(17:57):
saw flashes of the talent, but he just never put
it together. And he's gone to Dallas and fully put
it together. Yeah, it's been it's been absolutely wild, all right.
So that was the good. So now we're onto the bad.
So that the things that happened that we maybe didn't
see happening, Uh, the things that might have forced some
folks out of the playoffs. This year's the first one.
The Saints offense lets you down yet again, right, and
this was supposed to be the bounce back week. They
(18:19):
were playing the Buccaneers. Uh, they needed a win and
and ended up getting a win. It wasn't pretty and offensively,
you know, Drew Breese was a disappointment. Alvin Camaro wasn't great.
Mark Ingram got a touchdown which sort of salvaged his day,
but on the whole, it was not a huge day
for the Saints offense. So that was one. Uh, Philip Rivers,
we thought the Bengals were going to be that matchup
that you know, Rivers could just cruise against. It would
(18:41):
be fine. He put up a whole bunch of points.
He didn't really do that. I don't think he even
got you the fifteen fantasy points this week. It was
kind of a slow week for him. Third, Bela tricks
are back because now it's a couple of weeks in
a row that Sony Michelle has been underwhelming this past week.
James White, I think got you less than thirty scrimmage
yards total um names Devlin is scoring touchdowns. Now it's
(19:02):
kind of a mess, and it looks like the Patriots
running back situation is back to being, uh, the same
headache that it had been a couple of years ago.
I mean, we've gotten to a point where I think
we had sort of figured it out and everything was fine.
Now it's back to kind of being the bane of
our existence yet again. And Fourth, Jared Goff Todd Gurley
get shut down. Now. I had kind of warned people
(19:23):
about golf this week, and you know, we knew the
Bears would be tough. I didn't think that Jared Goff
would get you negative fantasy points. I didn't think Todd
Gurley would be held to what about five six fantasy points.
I mean they were. They were completely and utterly shut down.
And chances are if you had to play them this week,
one or both of them probably really hurt your chances
(19:44):
of of advancing to the second round of the playoffs.
So I'll start with you, Graham, which of those four
or if there's another one, uh, you think was the
most impactful, probably in a negative way, this week, all
of them were incredibly impactful. I mean, if you just
look back, I mean, starting with the Saints, we look
back over the last three games. Their touchdown scores are
Dan Arnold, Austin Carr, Kirk Keith Kirkwood twice, Tommy Lee Lewis,
(20:08):
and Zac Line. Obviously, Drew Brees had the sneak, mark
Ingram had the late score. But I mean the last
three weeks the Saints touchdown wise have not been what
we were expecting. Since that Thursday, that Thanksgiving game, pretty much,
it hasn't been great. Yeah, it's it's been a fantasy killer.
And I mean, moving on to the Patriots, I mean
James White snap right has has fallen for five straight games.
He has six or fewer touches in two of his
(20:30):
last three. He's basically gone from a PPR stud to
kind of just a flex play like what we are
used to out of James White at this point. I mean,
it's it was a really brutal Week four team from
the sense of we were relying on the Saints, relying
on the Patriots, are lying on the Rams. So many
of these players have have carried teams to Fantasy, the
Fantasy playoffs, and they all well. I think about James
(20:51):
White is that he really had been kind of the
centerpiece of that offense. I mean, he was leading them
in targets and catches, and he had sort of been
the engine of that Patriots offense until recently. I think
he had one touch in the first half yesterday. It
was ridiculous. It was It was ridiculous. And Margaret's is
making good points on all these but the Saints is
the one that surprises me the most. I'm not surprised
(21:12):
Jared Goff had a bad game because he's not good
in the cold, and he's quickly gaining a reputation as
a quarterback who's not good in the cold. So if
the Saints have home field advantage, they better jack up
the air conditioning in the NFC Championship game, if they
play against the Rams, that would be good. Get it
down to about thirty degrees. But it's been it's been
a complete reversal of fortunes, because I mean Alvin Camara
(21:36):
every single week was almost guaranteed to give you over
twenty Fantasy points in his last four games ten fifteen,
last three games ten fifteen and fifteen. Not going to
get it done. From your first round pick mark ingram
you mentioned it got into the end zone. Didn't have
a huge game yardage wise. Michael Thomas was very good
in PPR leagues, but over his last three games sort
of overall been a little bit underwhelming. And Drew Brees,
(21:58):
you know, I talked about it on TV. I said
trade him six weeks ago. In his last two games,
he's averaged right around ten Fantasy points. And there's a
stat that I knew about it. I didn't use it
because I'm thinking, now, this is a bounce back game.
It's got to happen. Breeze in the last three years,
including yesterday, has averaged fewer than ten Fantasy points in
Tampa Bay. Okay. I don't know why because the Bucks
(22:21):
defense has been garbage. But and it was like Derek
Brooks and Warren Sap out there, you know, in this contest,
and Breeze could not get it done. And he is
single handedly at a position that's really deep. Probably cost
you a chance at a championship because he gave you
a stinker against the Cowboys and he stunk against the Buccaneers.
And that's a big surprise to me because Breeze in
(22:41):
the offense, especially after what they did the Eagles in
that game, was like, Wow, this is the best team
in the National Football League. They they have really hurt you,
not only with uh their lack of consistency, the lack
of production from Breeze, but the fact that when the
points did come you mentioned it, you know, our old
kirkwood Zach Line scored touchdown. Who are these guys? Give
(23:05):
us some guys that were starting in our fantasy league.
So the Saints that have been a really really I mean,
they won, but they certainly didn't win from a fantasy
perspect Crazily, all these odd guys scoring touchdowns, and Taysom
Hill hasn't been one of them. I know, I kind
of figured he would have been one, because that's just
the way the season is going, all right. So now
onto the weird. Um just a bunch of just goofy
(23:28):
things that that you couldn't necessarily predict. One the Derrick
Henry forty seven point explosion, which ended up being the
same in both standard and PPR because he did not
I don't think he had a single target. I know
he didn't know he did. I think he got targeted
like once or twice. He was five yards markets from
breaking the record that Sharp set in two thousand and
twelve for receiving yards. You don't like just bubble screen.
(23:51):
Just throw it out there and let him run for
five yards and he breaks the record and they don't
do it. I don't know why, Derek So that the
Brandon Bolden scoring two touchdowns against the Patriots in a game, Uh,
how many people even knew that he was on the Dolphins?
You know, I honestly didn't. I saw Brandon Bulling score
a touchdown and I'm like bella tricks car, and I'm like,
oh wait, no, no, he's a Dolphin now, okay. George
(24:14):
Kittle's Taylor two halves yards in the first half, zero
in the second, and then mentioned earlier, Josh Johnson, a
top three quarterback coming in and go like obviously no
one played him, No one expected him to play for
Washington on Sunday, but he comes in after Mark Sanchez
looks awful. Uh, Washingtons getting blown out. So Johnson comes in,
he's a top three quarterback and now he's getting a
(24:36):
start coming up in week fifteen. Uh faves of those
four things, which is the most like WTF of them,
it's gotta be Derrick Henry to me, because not only
had he not produced big numbers all season long, but
you know, the Jaguars had given up I think four
rushing touchdowns all year to running backs, and they gave
up four in one game. And he had that one
(24:58):
big nine yard run where he was basically punching Jaguars
defenders in the mouth and Jaguars defenders were missing tackles.
It was it was unreal, but the performance was was phenomenal,
and very few people benefited from it. I mean Al
Bundy's four touchdowns in nineteen sixty six for Polkai, Derrick
(25:18):
Henry's four touchdowns against the Jaguars. They helped about the
same number of fantasy players because nobody was playing them
because not only was he not producing huge numbers, but
the matchup was bad and I had our research guys
look up, so we had Derrick Henry went for two
thirty eight. Then we had a Mari go for over
two hundred, and we had George Kindle go for over
two hundred. I was like, how many times has a
(25:38):
running back had two hundred and then two receivers had
two hundred? Uh in the same week. And it looks
like it's only happened a handful of times in in
in the history of the National Football League. Uh, but
it's happened twice since two thousand and twelve. Before that,
there was a game five or a week in five
Joe Morris, George Rogers, Stefan paid and then Drew Hill
(26:03):
of the Houston Oilers. Yeah. So um a very surprising
stat line from Henry considering his lack of production. And
I believe he went Marcus from at the time from
load a mid thirties at running back to sixteen based
on one game he had not had a sixty yard
rushing game. Yeah, that's how it was. Graham, You're you're
(26:26):
your big case of weirdness out of this this group. Yeah,
Henry went from the RB thirty nine to RB twenty
one in PPR. It's gonna be hilarious when we're all
looking back and being like he was. Derrick Henry was
an R b two this Yeah, um no, I mean
(26:47):
Derrick Henry based on I mean, if you trust the
process here, Derrick Henry was a terrible fantasy. Of course,
this was against the Jags. I mean, Dean Lewis has
been basically the lead back there all year. How can
it not be Derrick Henry. I mean, like, what do
you think how many people do you think actually started
him this past week? And I believe that it was
like four, But now I I break that down because
(27:09):
how many of those people were actually in their fantasy playoffs?
How many many of those are active leads? Right? How
many were the people who just like had quit and
just never took their Henry out of their lineup? You know,
on a weekly basis. I'd have to bet the actual
percentage for like a playoff team is like less than
five percent, I would think. So, I think, I think
I saw I cannot remember who I saw it from,
but I remember seeing a screenshot someone faced Cooper Yeah,
(27:34):
because he faced Cooper Kittle and could you imagine that
bad luck? And it was three points right there? He
said he was down a hundred points and he had
one of the best teams in the league going into
the playoffs. That's all. That's brutal. Luck not Andrew, that
is luckily brutal. Yeah, it was. It was funny because
there was a weird It was a weird week also
in the sense, and I didn't even put this in here,
(27:55):
just the number of like vultured rushing touchdowns. You know
that that happened this week. I mean, you know, I
mentioned the Brandon Bolden getting to you know, you've got
the Zac line Zac line. You've got the Bears play
action faking to a chem Hicks only to throw it
to a backup the offensive office line. And you know,
it's like, it was a weird, weird week fantasy wise.
(28:17):
And so um if you if you survived, congratulations man.
Because between the you know, injuries, guys missing weird touchdowns,
I think there're gonna be a lot of really good
fantasy teams that got bounced out of the playoffs this week. Yeah,
especially you know, and and I thought of you two
because you have the number one seed in our league.
You have Todd Gurley, and boy, if you have Gurley
(28:38):
and you didn't get a bye, I mean that your
season is over. And if you do have a bye,
you dodge the biggest bullet in fantasy football this season.
That's the big I think, that's you know, I know
we put the Jared Goff and the Rams getting shut
down is the bad, but like that was also just
beyond bizarre. The Rams did not adjust in that game,
Sean McVeigh did not adjust. They were getting basically their
(28:59):
interior defensive line was just getting shreded the entire game
and they did nothing to adjust for that. Yeah, yeah,
it was. I mean, it's just a weird game. I mean,
credit the Bears obviously for coming up with a good
game plan to slow them down, but it was just
at some point you were just waiting for the Rams
to to do something right. You were waiting for Girley
to to break a big play or or maybe Robert
Woods with a big catch and run, and it just
(29:20):
never happened. Well, I mean, we've seen the Rams be
able to adjust right there. When you're getting destroyed through
the interior, you want to check the ball down to
your running back, you want to try to set up screens,
get the ball over the medal, whatever the case may be,
and the Rams didn't do that. That was by far
Sean mcveigh's worst game. As a head coach in his
you know short rams tenures so far. Yeah, it was weird.
(29:41):
And and again if you had to play Todd Gurley
or Jared Goff, hopefully you you picked up some points
from elsewhere to can kind of mitigate what that happened,
because that that that wasn't great. You know, guys are
terrible at taking care of their health, whether it's a
knee injury, bad back, or something worse. Guys are usually
more comfortable rubbing some dirt on it than seeing a doctor.
What at the time, I think I tweaked my achilles
(30:01):
and I just sat there with an ice pack for
two weeks. Get going to work through it anyway. The
same is true for erectile dysfunction. Studies show seventy percent
of guys who experienced e D don't get treated for it. Thankfully,
Roman created an easy way to get checked out by
a doctor and get treated for e D online. Roman
is a one stop shop where licensed US physicians can
(30:21):
diagnose e D and ship medication right to your door.
With Roman, there are no waiting rooms, awkward face to
face conversations, or uncomfortable trips to the pharmacy. You can
handle everything online. All you have to do is visit
get Roman dot com slash live, fill out a brief
medical onboarding chat with a doctor, and get FDA approved
e D meds delivered to your door in discrete, unmarked
(30:44):
packaging direct How this function is a problem that most
guys don't tackle, but with Roman it's easy to take
care of. For a free online visit, go to get
Roman dot com slash live. That's get Roman dot com
slash live. For a free online visit, get Roman dot
com slash live. All right, So for those of you
who survives Playoff Week one, although I guess there's still
one more game to be played, so I'm I'm sure
(31:05):
there could be some more weirdness that happens. But for
those of you who are already locked in, you know
you're making it to Playoff week two. Figure we look
ahead and obviously we'll preview all the games when we
get to Thursday. Um, by the way, there are Saturday
games this week. Yeah, there's two Saturday games. Yeah, so
that's something to kind of keep an eye on. There
already a couple of Saturday games, so make sure you
are prepared for that as well. But looking ahead, we
(31:26):
each picked a hero and a villain that we predict
for Week two of the Fantasy football playoffs season, and
I'll start my my my Week two playoff hero is.
I'm going with Brandon Cooks UM one because the Rams
offense two weeks in a row has not been particularly great.
Uh yeah, but yeah it was one. It was a
(31:48):
little bit shocking. It was not shocking to see the
Bears slow them down, a little bit surprising to see
them sort of sputter against the Lions. But now they're
back home, They're gonna be back at the Coliseum on Sunday. Leave.
It's a Sunday night game against the Eagles, the same
Eagle secondary that's been beat up all year and we
saw get torched by a Mari Cooper. I see Brandon
(32:09):
Cooks sort of playing that a Marii Cooper role in
the Rams offense, being the deep threat, being the guy
that they take some shots to down the field and
he can get behind that secondary. And I feel like
Brandon Cooks is all set up to have a really
big Fantasy playoff week at a time where certainly the
Rams could use it. And I think a lot of
folks with Brandon Cooks on their roster, uh could use it.
The facts were also Wilson, why three words? Well is
(32:34):
it two words? Sam is sand? Sand is one word?
San Francisco, That's that's what's one word? Also forty niner
because that's so that'd be three words. I'm going three
words there, and um, it's because of the matchup. It's
because Russell has owned the fourty niners in his career
and that's the matchup that I see Russell having. He
is going to put up a monster, monster stat line
(32:56):
for you. And Russell has always been a second half hero.
It's ridiculou It happens every single season. We talked about
in the first half how we're worried about Russell. He's
given you some inconsistent lines, and then the second half
comes and Russell turns into Superman. So I expect him
to put up a nice stat line against that NFC
West Fox. I don't know what it is about Pete
Carroll teams that just when it gets to November, they
(33:19):
turned it on. It was the same when he was
at USC. It's been the same in the NFL with
the Seahawks. Something about the calendar flipping over to November.
Pete Carroll teams just seemed to turn it around. So
I don't know, Graham, who you're looking at. I'm just
gonna be lazy and take the lay low hanging fruit
here and just say Mark Cooper, all right, that's fine.
I mean, I mean it gets the Colts next week.
We don't think anybody in the Colt says, anybody to
(33:41):
even remotely close come close to covering him. And he's
been the most explosive playmaker in the NFL, basically outside
of Tyreek Hill since Dallas traded for him. Yeah. No,
I have the problem with low hanging fruit. It's just
as tasty as regular fruit, and you don't have to
climb quite as far. It's fair point. Yeah, you know. Alright.
So on the flip side, if they're going to be heroes,
there are going to be villains. And my villain potentially
(34:05):
for next week in the fantasy playoffs Andrew Luck Um,
you know, I know, he's had a bunch of good games,
but he's got the Cowboys and it's a a really
hot cowboy team with something to play for. And you
credit credit the Dallas defense because early on in that
game they kind of kept that thing close while the
offense was just blowing chances. I mean, they dominated the ball,
(34:28):
but they couldn't really score. They were settling for a
bunch of field goals. And the defense really clamped down
on the Eagles and kept that thing where the Cowboys
were in leaf for a long portion of it. I
finally just made some plays down the stretch, and I
just think they're gonna get after Andrew Luck. I think
that maybe he gives you a decent number, but it's
not going to be a spectacular number. And I think
(34:49):
if that's what you're needing to get through potentially to
your fantasy super Bowl, I think that the Cowboys may
make life tough on Andrew Luck this week. So there
you go. You know what, when we do our Facebook
thing this week, I'm wearing an Andrew Luk jersey. You
know I'm gonna do it. I did is sprowls last
weeks Sport, and I tweeted you and we still won.
This is five weeks in a row. Man. If it
(35:10):
ain't broke, don't fix it. And I I know, I
get it. The Cowboys defense is really good. Andrew looks
also really good at home, really good. So we'll see,
all right, who's your your villain for the week, Kenny Golladay,
who I told you to sit against the Cardinals. And
if you look at his matchups, dude, he has got
three tough matchups, including the one that he just had
(35:32):
against Patrick Peterson um over the next couple of weeks,
Stafford's lost in that offense. They don't I mean Zack
center really we all like like Garrett Plunt and they
gave the ball the Zenter. So now everyone's gonna freak out.
There's no one in Detroit you could start with any
kind of confidence, including Galladay. He's got really bad matchups
the next couple of weeks. I believe this week coming up,
(35:52):
he's got Dradevious White. So Galladay is now someone that,
as great as he looked at different times, this sea
reason you simply cannot trust. And I also think that,
and we talked about this last week on the podcast too.
Not only you're looking at points of production, you're also
looking at teams that that have sort of like tanked. Right.
(36:12):
The Lions are a team that's that's I mean, they're
just they're just they're not any good. The Cardinals aren't
any good. Uh, you know, Atlanta, they had sort of
been tanking to you know, Ryan had had a couple
of late touchdowns and ended up with a decent stat line,
but a lot of their players haven't been producing as well.
So for Alliance team that has nothing to play for,
and uh, a bad matchup across the board here. Galaday
(36:34):
is someone that I I fear starting the rest of
the season. Yeah, I mean, he's been so good for
so long this season, but it has kind of come
crashing down the last few weeks. I think, you know,
losing Marvin Jones certainly, I think had an impact there. Uh, Graham,
who's your villain for for playoff Week two? Has to
be Cam Newton. Um dealing with a sore shoulder, you,
by the way, has not has not looked right. Um
(36:54):
during the Panthers five game losing stretches averaged only twenty
six rushing yards per game. In his are games of
the rest of the season, he was around forty six
rushing yards for a game the Saints. Uh. The Panthers
get the stands in Week fifteen, and the Saints have
not allowed a top ten quarterback in their last five games.
They've held Um uh pretty much every quarterback the last
(37:16):
five quarterbacks they've faced two under eighteen fantasy points. I
believe Matt Ryan needed forty seven past attempts to get
to the QP eleven finish when the Falcons played the
Saints back in Week twelve on Thanksgiving. I mean, you gotta.
But if you're if you're playing this deep in the
playoffs right now, Cam Newton cannot beat your starting quarterback.
And it's wild because he was in the midst of
I mean really one of the best seasons, maybe the
(37:37):
best season he's had since his MVP season a couple
of years. And absolutely the other thing too, we and
we had talked about this probably about midway through the season.
His playoff schedule. It was great, so good it was
it was great, so good. Yeah, and uh, just he
just has not been healthy, although it has been really
good things for Christian McCaffrey. So, I mean basically that
(37:58):
entire game they allowed they he did not throw deep
all but basically the entire game except for one play,
and it was wildly inaccurate. I mean, they just checked
the ball down to McCaffrey, they checked it to Samuel
Ian Thomas's average step to the target was like two yards. Um. Yeah,
I mean it's well, I've really had to condense that
playbook because of camp the last two weeks. They brought
in Taylor Heineke to throw you into half hail Mary's.
(38:21):
I mean, that's that's where all right. I love that
that's where we are right now. So so good luck
to you if you made it through. But for those
of you who didn't, I'm sure you have hit me up,
probably with some Monday moning tweets. Eddie, I would assume
that we had a few said sad tales on Twitter today.
Of course I can mention, mind I did not. I
picked up the Giants defense, but I did not play them,
(38:43):
and I'm probably gonna get blown out anyway, but it
would have been nice to have my optimal lineup. And so,
like I started off with that one, let's do a
quick uh look at the waiver wire two before so, so,
Josh Allen has got to be on the list. Elijah
McGuire's gotta be on the list. If Doug Martin's out
there Bengals this week, he's gotta be on the list.
Chris Connelly, Chris Ivory, if you're really hurting Um, Kenny
(39:05):
Stills right, Curtis Samuel Day, Shawn Hamilton's Ian Thomas is
another guy. And uh and I'm sure I missed a
couple of here defensively Seahawks and Buffalo. So you've mentioned
Kenny Stills. Yes, two games in a row. He's I'm
just saying the points have been there. He had a
touchdown two weeks ago, but he had like thirty seven yards.
(39:27):
I just I don't know. I just don't know what
to think with this, with this Miami. Yeah, they get
the Jackson. The Viking is their next two games too.
I just I don't know what to think about this
Miami offense. I can't with them. Um, you know, like
Kenyan Drake ends up with a decent day, but because
he scores a touchdown on that last nothing he had
seven touches total, he just one of them happened to
be like a sixty yard touchdown on a broken le
(39:50):
you know, hooking lateral like we're just gonna throw the
ball around and try to get in the end zone
sort of play and if Gronk doesn't stumble and fall
and who knows what happens there. Yeah, it's funny too,
because you know when you hear that term hook and ladder.
What do you think of Well, I think of the Chargers. Well, actually,
actually actually nowadays Boise State. I think of Boise State too.
By State and the Fiesta Bowl. For me, I think
(40:10):
of the Dolphins against the then San Diego Chargers in
that epic game in the playoffs. Who a three whenever
that was? Yeah, No, nowadays I just think of Boise
State and the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma and then Ian
Johnson proposing to his cheerleader. I think we got that too.
I know that's so random, like, why would I remember
the random dude proposing to this cheerleader? But I remember
(40:30):
the same thing. Yeah, yeah, funny story about that. I
actually remember watching that game and almost leaving because Boise
States quarterback through a pick six late and I thought, well,
they had a good run. I think I'm gonna go
out and take a walk. I'm like, you know what,
I'll just stick around and watch the end of that game.
And boy, was I an't glad I did. So there
we go. Alright, let's see now we get the Monday
moment tweets. Uh so a couple of brewal ones this week.
We'll start off with this one from Brandy Parker played,
(40:52):
Todd Gurley got seventeen twenty fantasy points. Thought I had
the league's number one running back. Uh oh man, yeah,
I mean, look, you weren't gonna sit Todd Gurley because
you know Todd Gurley. But you know, against the Bears,
it was always in the realm of possibility. Uh. Stick
with the Rams. Here m Boucher rode golf minus six
lost me my matchup. Lamar Jackson is placed but of
(41:14):
one and handily hindu six. Man, that must be a
really rough score and that's really hard on interceptions. Yeah, man,
that's a rough scoring system. Uh. Go to defense now
from fi Cell morally said, I sat the Bears defense
started the Saints twenty two points on my bench. Hey,
I would have done the same thing. The Saints were
good play this week and they ended up with a
(41:35):
decent stat line. Just the Bears went nuts daylor Meres wrote,
the only guy held in my fantasy from beginning to end.
I benched Kenyan Drake for Leshaw McCoy point one points
today when I needed to, when I needed twelve points
to win my playoff matchup. Uh, there's nothing you can
do about that. Boy obviously hurts his hands during the
middle of the game, Drake has the miracle played too. Basically, booie,
(41:57):
what was a horrible game for him? There's nothing you
could do? Yeah, a m hubbs. I played Brandon Cooks
over a Marii Cooper. Yeah, I mean again, I think
I had I had Cooper ranked ahead of them, but
they were close. I don't know, Yeah, I don't know
what they have to feel about that, like that's that's
a coin flip and it just didn't go your way.
Then we get in with this one because it could
lead into the conversation has come a bunch here in
(42:19):
this show about kickers. Um been in first place the
entire season, attend and three and in the first round
of the playoffs I lose by one point because of
Greg's arlines missfield goal. Yeah, well, yeah, it was a
bad day to be a kicker unless your name was
Mike Badgeley. And I think Bretton Mayor had a had
a nice one too for the Pokes. So I still
love kickers. I don't care what anybody says. I think
(42:40):
I love I think I think. What I don't understand,
and I know we've talked about this, is that a
kicker misses a fuel goal or an extra point, and
everybody's like band kickers, And I'm like that would be
like if you know, hey, Jared Goff through four interceptions.
We're not trying to ban quarterbacks, you know what I'm saying.
So although some people may have hoped and wish that
he was banned after that game last night, cost him
at least that yeah, for sure, there you go. Oh
(43:01):
quick note that just came across here. Harbor not committing
to Joe Flacco as the starter. I really feel like,
I really feel like John Harball doesn't want to just
come out and say, hey, Lamar Jackson's our guy. They
want to keep kind of dancing around it, like just
well because then defenses kind of have to well maybe
they're gonna use Flacco as well preparation, but he's the dude. Yeah,
(43:22):
and uh wait someone just uh m r I um
ed he said, yeah, Ian Rapp or just to Jordan
Reads going in all right, well, uh yeah, I know
it just it took us a week four teen, so
there you go. Uh see, do we have any I
don't know if we any Twitter questions or or anything
like that. Otherwise we can just uh you know, I
(43:44):
wish everybody luck as we get ready for Week two
of the playoffs, so that'll log I'll kind of wrap
things up for us as always, glad you're listening. Congratulations
to you guys who made it through. At some point
where we should start doing me a way too early
rankings for next year for all the folks who were
no longer in the playoffs, so we can start kind
of picking out who the quarterbacks, running backs, all that stuff.
We got, caperspers and all kinds of stuff. Let's start
(44:05):
doing all that probably next week. Even if you are
not in your fantasy playoffs, there's a reason for you
to keep up coming back listening to the sweet sound
of our voices because I know that that's is what
gets you guys up in the morning. So that'll do it.
As always, remember friends don't let friends do stupid things alone.
So you're on Thursday, wow w wall, I'm going
Wow. What is Welcome to another edition of the NFL
Fantasy Live podcast, Me and your man Namd Marcus Grand
alongside the Hall of Fantasy Hall of Famer at Michael Fabiano,
as well as our main Granada Barfield which Graham Welcome back.
(00:23):
You were on like death store last week. Man. I
was on the sofa for five days, didn't move, had
a terrible sinus infection. Still little nasily in the voice,
and you might hear me at some point in this
show that I'm feeling much better. Not nothing, though, because
I think the NFL is trying to get us all sick.
Because our newsroom this morning, like I get it, great
(00:44):
game last night in Chicago. It doesn't need to be
that cold in our newsroom and then the studio this morning.
I mean, how to be maybe fifty five degrees in there.
It's ridiculous, you know, like they're trying to grow reindeer
or something around. It makes sense, right because you know
you know that that that that the playoffs are coming
super Bowls. I mean, so you want all your people
to get sick and rest up now. You don't want
them to be six super Bowl you know, so then
(01:05):
get it out of the way, I may or may
not have seen icicles coming out of the sink in
the kitchen this morning. Good, not doubt against. It's freezing
in that newsroom behind the glass wre Hopefully it's a
little bit warmer as always our producers. Senior Edward L.
Murphy esquire Murphy's up. Yeah, thanks for the heads up.
Now that I know it's called, I'll avoid that room. Yeah, dude,
I gotta say, like, I mean, fantasy is so I mean,
(01:27):
I'm good the whole season. Lose now in the playoffs,
like my team. The Giants stink most of the year.
They're scoring. They scored thirty points against the Bears. The
Rams can only score six. The NFL makes no sense.
Fantasy makes no sense. So you can go ahead and
use that L word if you want a lot of
luck involved. There There is, there is, there is. We
had lots to talk about. It was a weird Week
(01:48):
four team. We'll go through the good, the bad, and
the weird of it, and you know what kind of
way on weight in on what we think was the best, worst,
and weirdest of the week. Also a playoff week to
look ahead with who could be the hero and who
could be the villain of course, uh Monday Morning, which
is always sadder when can get to fantasy playoff time too.
So we'll get some of your tweets there and then
some of your mail back questions as well. But first
(02:09):
let's do some news. Tyreek Hill left the game on
Sunday against the Ravens with a foot injury. He did
come back later in the game, but afterwards told Peter
(02:32):
King of the Monday Morning Quarterback or formerly of Monday
Morning Quarterback fame, I guess that the injured foot is
quote bad and now fabs this. This is terrible news
at a time when fantasy folks have gotten lots of
terrible news. We talked about all the running backs who
were injured, you know, Manuel Sanders loss for the year.
Now to potentially lose Tyreek Hill, or at least have
(02:52):
Tyreek Hill at less than right now, is is more bad.
I mean, it was good to see him play through it.
But they've got a short week. You've got the Lightning
Bolts this week on Thursday Night Football, which should be
a hell of a game. Um. I know, Marcus, he's
going to be picking up Kelvin Benjamin in all of
his leagues this yeah, all of them. No, not even
but it is bad news. And for those of you
(03:12):
who get to week sixteen and for some reason maybe
some play in week seventeen. I will never know why
I don't let friends play Week seventeen, you would think
Tyreek Hill, assuming the Chiefs have sort of clinched everything,
will be resting some of their players, So Tyreeko could
be on that list, depending on how serious this foot
injury actually is. I mean, but I mean real talk though,
I mean, you know, I laugh kind of joke about
Calvin Benjamin would have you, but Graham, I mean, Chris Connley.
(03:34):
It is kind of a name. Maybe keep in your
back pocket, I would think this week. I mean, it's
kind of crazy to think Sammy Watkins obviously is gonna
probably miss the rest of the regular seasons foot injury.
It's kind of crazy to think Connley could walk into
week fifteen and be their lead founder receiver. But that's
kind of what we're looking at. I mean, still even
without Sammy Watkins, I mean, Tyreek Hill has just been
(03:54):
on a terry as ten, fourteen, six and fourteen targets
in his last four games. Obviously have the one weird
one for bad game. You known two weeks ago, but still,
I mean, he's just been that cost me a playoff spot.
He has just been shredding without Sammy Watkins obviously would
be huge if he missed Week fifteen. But yeah, especially
in the game. Well obviously for the Chiefs, obviously it's
(04:15):
a big deal because this is a game that has
a lot to do with the a f C West
for fantasy folks, it's a game that potentially could be
very high scoring. So to not have Tyree Hill, there's
gonna be bad. Interesting, like this could decide the first
round by and they have c now because yesterday Houston,
if Houston would have beat Indie, they would have been
in the running for that still be in the running
(04:36):
for that first round by now. The Chiefs and Chargers
are right there to the Chiefs right now, are are
in that one spot. The Patriots losing, you know they're
they're not out of it, but it certainly makes it
a little more difficult. That was crazy. That was wild
the way they lost that football game. That that Sunday
of football was a reminder of why we all love
the NFL, especially if you're a Cowboys fan. Yeah, how
(04:58):
about the Cowboys. That game was nuts, though. I mean, like,
even if you're just a football fan, the second half
with Dak, the ups, the downs, the interceptions, the long
touchdown throws, the flags, the refs will and we'll get
to some of that because I'mari Cooper went went ballistic elsewhere.
Lashawn McCoy left yesterday's game for the Bills with an
(05:21):
injured hamstring. The reports right now or that he is
day today. Um, I mean, Graham, does this matter because
Josh Allen obviously is the RB one there in Buffalo, right,
so they don't even need McCoy. Yeah, man, whatever, that
is what it is. I mean, look, Josh Allen is
averaging seven point four yards. Burg cames insane. I mean, look,
(05:43):
I don't really know what to do. I mean, at
this point for fantasy, we just kind of have to Troy.
He's had three and thirty five rushing yards in his
last three games. That's the most by a quarterback in
a three game stretch. It's nineteen seventy and I mean
you look at this, three turnovers yesterday and he still
scored twenty points. Running quarterbacks, My friends, I've been preaching
(06:05):
it for years. It's just It's so weird because I
tweeted yesterday that, you know, I twoted a meme of
a skeleton on a bench saying that's me waiting for
the rushing regression to hit for Josh Allen. And and
you know, Benjamin Slack on Twitter, who does stuff for
Drafting Network actually responded. But what I thought was actually
a really smart point. It's not so much that rushing
regression will hit. It's at some point defenses are going
(06:28):
to say, hey, maybe we just don't let this guy
run all over. Well, it's bizarre. Yesterday is is the
Jets didn't even commit a spy on some of those players.
I mean there was nobody in the middle of the
field and Allen but just just gashing them. And he
have he averaged like eleven yards per carryer in week fourteen.
I mean, it's so bizarre because he's only completing his
passes four picks. He has five sacks in the last
(06:50):
three games. Like, as a passer he's been abysmal. But
for fantasy, because he's rushing for nearly a hundred yards
and score every game, we're just yeah, and fantasy, you
put up good rushing to les and it sort of
covers up your your deficiencies as a pastor. So I'm
just I'm waiting for the defensive coordinator to say, hey,
maybe we should just put a spy in the middle
of the field and not let this guy just run
(07:11):
all over us. Uh. If that and if and when
that happens, then suddenly maybe it's a different ballgame for
for Josh Allen And maybe that means more Lashawn McCoy
if he gets healthy and back on the field. If
their quarterbacks not running, somebody's well, I mean, you'd probably
be looking at Chris Ivory is a waiver wire ad um.
He led the backfield and touches yesterday. But uh, it's
an uninspiring one. It is very uninspired. A little bit
(07:35):
more inspiring at least as the running back situation for
the l A Chargers. Austin Ekeler did suffer a stinger yesterday,
had a very good first half. Was kind of meant
in the second half, but he had done a lot
of his damage early. But there's always a chance that
Melvin Gordon comes back for Thursday night football facts. I
guess this means though, that we're keeping an eye on
Austin Ekeler because if he doesn't go as Justin Jackson.
(07:58):
If not, I mean, this is one I think we're
gonna to monitor all a week. Yeah, no doubt about that.
I mean I'd kind of be surprised if Gordon came back.
I mean, obviously it is a big game, but they
want to have him for the playoffs because that's what's
most important, uh, for the Bolts. But Eckler with the stinger,
Justin Jackson was a big bust. A lot of there
not much liked him to sort of take over the
(08:20):
Gordon role and Eckler would fall back into the Eckler role.
And unfortunately for those who did not play Eckler or
started Justin Jackson, Uh, the opposite was true, and Eckler
went out and had a big, big game. I can't
remember a defense that has been this bad weekend and
week out against one position like the Bengals are against
(08:42):
running backs. If you started, if you started running back
against the Bengals, every you're guaranteed to get a nice statline.
Gear Ron tied and Uh, anybody who started Ekeler in
that game was it was probably very glad to do
it because he helped you get to the next round
of the playoffs. I'm looking so uh, Marcus was like
a man who's playing. But does this mean we're all
(09:03):
in on Doug Martin this week? Yes, all right? And
you know who they played the following week They played
the Brown So it's in the show. So uh, that'll
be interesting. Start Doug Martin. I do think the one
reason that you may see Melvin Gordon back is because
I mean they could tie. Yeah, I mean, look, this
is a humongous game. They could. They could theoretically, for
as good as the Chiefs have been, for as ridiculous
(09:23):
as Patrick Mahomes is, for the fact he might even
break the single season touchdown record, the Chargers could still
be the number one. They could still be in the
one season. I wouldn't be surprised if Melvin Gordon comes
back to playing. Uh finally, Washington benches Mark Sanchez. He
was awful, The team was awful. They got blown out.
Josh Josh Johnson. I'll remember it. I'll get it right.
(09:47):
He comes in and you know, he rallies them and
he scores a couple of touchdowns. Lady ends up as
as we sit here right now, he is the QB three.
Ridiculous and he is projected to be the starter again
next week. Don't even ask, I don't even ask two
QB leagues, Like two QB leagues, maybe you know for
(10:08):
the DFS, minded, do you consider it maybe against Jacksonville?
And I get it. The Jaguars defense hasn't been all
that good this season. But that is Derrick Henry. That
is bold, man, I know that is bold. Really is
Josh Johnson the number one overall pick in the A
a F. That's right, I said yesterday. The a F
(10:29):
is already developing NFL players. Man, do they have fantasy
football leagues for that? They haven't even played an actual
game and they're already sending guys to the NFL. So
good for them. So there it is. Uh, yes, so
chances are you probably not taking a shot at Josh Johnson.
But you know, there's not a red skin that you
could trust that that's that's none. It's especially Jordan Reid.
I mean, it took weeks to get hurt, so this
(10:51):
is crazy. It's been the healthiest season ever been. It's
been his worst season in terms of production. But yeah,
there's not a red skin I want, right, that's such
a that's such a such a the lima for Jordan
read It's like I could I could be productive but
injury prone, or I could stay healthy and not do
much of anything. Quickly have the have the wheels fawn
off of that Redskins bandwagon because they were the number
(11:12):
one team in the NFC East not so long ago,
really just a handful of weeks ago. First Division. Early
in the season, like the first few weeks of the season,
it looked like their defense was going to be good.
And it is when they when they beat the Cowboys,
when Dak fumbled in the end zone and they recovered it,
they were the they were the class of that division.
Not so much, not so much anymore. So there you go.
(11:32):
That is pretty much everything you need to know, all right.
Week fourteen in review, I took a handful of storylines
(11:52):
from the week, broke them down into good, bad, and weird.
I'll go over them and then we can kind of
kick around. I'm just curious get your thoughts on which
ones you guys, we're you know, we're the best storylines,
the worst or the weirdest. And if there's one here
I missed pheel Free obviously to jump in and throw
that in as well, so we'll start with the good.
So I got four of them here. You got Amari
Cooper's second thirty point game in three weeks, just going nuts,
(12:17):
almost fifty almost in PPR legs. Uh. Josh Allen, who
the last three weeks has averaged ten yards per carry
and I believe he has almost as many rushing yards
on the season as Lashawn McCoy nets. Uh. The Giants defense.
They go over fifteen Fantasy points for the second straight week,
(12:38):
which I think that was one we sort of predicted
because Jel Washington was gonna be bad. D Jarvis Lantry
Awakens hadn't had a touchdown since Week seven, had to
a rushing and a receiving touchdown, and almost had a
passing touchdown on those of those four. So those are
my four like kind of good stories for the week.
If you had to pick one father that you think
was kind of the best, one word, I'm going, I mean,
(13:01):
you're going to come on, man, I'm going to Mark Cooper.
And when the Cowboys made the trade, I'll never forget.
I walked into the newsroom and um, I think it
was Emily who socially who had said that the Cowboys
had traded for for Cooper, and I said, what did
we give up first round pick? And I was like,
oh man, because Roy Williams and Joey Galloway instantly jumped
(13:21):
into my head. Well and everyone thought that that one,
you know, but this is this is a perfect both
things can be true. I mean, Dallas paid too much
for a receiver, but was in the final year of
his deal. They're gonna have to pay him next year.
They paid too much for Amark Cooper, and Amark Cooper
has been a badass for them. He's got five touchdowns
in his last two games. He's had a hundred eight
(13:41):
yard game, He's had a two seventeen yard game, and
he's not only improved that offense tenfold, but he's made
Dak Prescott very fantasy relevant once again. Uh And at
the same time, Cooper is no longer a guy that
you ask Graham, do I start him this week? Marcus?
Should I start Cooper this week? No? Was in your
line every single week. The whole stink of the silver
(14:03):
and black is gone. Now with that beautiful blue star
on his helmet, Amari Cooper is re emerged and end
up he could end up being the fantasy Football Playoff
m v P. If he has a couple of good games,
You've got the Colts next week could be a very
high scoring game, and then he's got the Bucks. So
it's not out of the realm of possibility that Amari
Cooper becomes your fantasy playoff m v P. And I
(14:25):
would I'm trying to speak that into his This is
because it would be good for the Cowboys and we
could potentially secure the NFC East, which we're close to doing.
And h boy, it would be nice to see the
Cowboys sneak into that three seed. I don't know if
it's gonna happen, but we shall see. All right, So
of those four Graham, is there one that stands out
to here or there one that maybe I missed that
you thought was big for the week. Just for what
it's worth, Josh Allen does have more rushings, so he
(14:47):
has more. Now, all right, it's wild, I mean it's
it's wild, But yeah, I mean it was gonna be
Cooper for me too. I'd like to personally apologize first
to Amari Cooper um for basically the entire d of
his career. I kind of doubted him, and uh, it
kind of became a running joke for me on Twitter,
but that bit is over. Amark Cooper, I'm sorry. You
are as good as we thought you weren't when you
(15:09):
came out of Alabama. You're as explosive as as any
player or any receiver in the NFL right now. It's
a it's remarkable. I mean, Dallas has basically turned their
season around from a bottom ten offense to a top
twelve offense just by adding a Mark Cooper. It's it's incredible.
It sort of begs the question because obviously, the the
overwhelming reaction was that Mark Cooper going to Dallas wasn't
(15:32):
going to change much. You know, it's like he can't
get separation, He's not gonna get open. You know, that's
not gonna be able to help him all that much. Obviously,
here we are, what's six weeks later, and we all
have sort of egg on our face about this. So
but it does beg the question, like what exactly were
the Raiders doing? Is it's more or less? Is Derek
(15:53):
cart just that bad? Is it? I mean? Yeah, because
it can't just be a Gruden thing, because this Mari
Creup wasn't doing much before John Gruden got there so
just be you know, hey, the coaching staff. But it
took me look at his numbers in Oakland, like this
season to eight, then he had twenty one. They had
three seven, twenty six. Then he had to uh and
(16:13):
then the big move. Yeah, like like de Marcus point
before even this year, before the Raiders got Gruden in
twenty seventeen, Cooper at six yards and fourteen games is
sixty two and six or Dallas this year. It's not
it's not like you said, It's not just a Gruden thing.
It's more or less just like I know, we always
want to say we want to take these sounded players
(16:33):
and put them in more advantageous situations, and rarely doesn't
work out the way it's worked out for Mr. But
like this is genuinely one of those types of situations
where Amar genuinely needed another like a fresh start apparently,
And that's what we talked about when the trade went down.
I don't think any of us saw this coming. I didn't,
and I'm a Cowboys homer. I didn't see this coming.
(16:54):
I said, change of scenery is good. Maybe he sees
a little uptick in value. I was projecting him as
a wide receiver two three dude. Now he's a one
in fantasy right now. He is absolutely And you know,
let's talk about the Cowboys defense too, Holy cow Yeah.
I mean, it's all come together at the right time.
They've been very good obviously all year long, and now
(17:14):
they've kind of think kicked it up. I think, as
they have as this team has gotten hot and they're
winning games, this defense I think has sort of gone
next level. One of the things you got so many
good You mentioned those numbers last year, Grandma for for
Mark Cooper guardage wise, keep in mind how much of
them came in that one game and that one Thursday night. Yeah,
and that was the bulk of them. And that was
the game where they the Chiefs. Basically they put Cooper
(17:36):
in the slot and like fifty of his roots or
something like that, and I just decided not to cover him.
And if you remember, he had been bad and so
people were afraid to start him on the Thursday night game.
I believe I believe I had him as a sit
that way. I advised people to avoid Mary Mark Cooper.
It had not been producing since like the middle of
two thousand and sixteen. He'd been highly, highly inconsistent. We
(17:57):
saw flashes of the talent, but he just never put
it together. And he's gone to Dallas and fully put
it together. Yeah, it's been it's been absolutely wild, all right.
So that was the good. So now we're onto the bad.
So that the things that happened that we maybe didn't
see happening, Uh, the things that might have forced some
folks out of the playoffs. This year's the first one.
The Saints offense lets you down yet again, right, and
this was supposed to be the bounce back week. They
(18:19):
were playing the Buccaneers. Uh, they needed a win and
and ended up getting a win. It wasn't pretty and offensively,
you know, Drew Breese was a disappointment. Alvin Camaro wasn't great.
Mark Ingram got a touchdown which sort of salvaged his day,
but on the whole, it was not a huge day
for the Saints offense. So that was one. Uh, Philip Rivers,
we thought the Bengals were going to be that matchup
that you know, Rivers could just cruise against. It would
(18:41):
be fine. He put up a whole bunch of points.
He didn't really do that. I don't think he even
got you the fifteen fantasy points this week. It was
kind of a slow week for him. Third, Bela tricks
are back because now it's a couple of weeks in
a row that Sony Michelle has been underwhelming this past week.
James White, I think got you less than thirty scrimmage
yards total um names Devlin is scoring touchdowns. Now it's
(19:02):
kind of a mess, and it looks like the Patriots
running back situation is back to being, uh, the same
headache that it had been a couple of years ago.
I mean, we've gotten to a point where I think
we had sort of figured it out and everything was fine.
Now it's back to kind of being the bane of
our existence yet again. And Fourth, Jared Goff Todd Gurley
get shut down. Now. I had kind of warned people
(19:23):
about golf this week, and you know, we knew the
Bears would be tough. I didn't think that Jared Goff
would get you negative fantasy points. I didn't think Todd
Gurley would be held to what about five six fantasy points.
I mean they were. They were completely and utterly shut down.
And chances are if you had to play them this week,
one or both of them probably really hurt your chances
(19:44):
of of advancing to the second round of the playoffs.
So I'll start with you, Graham, which of those four
or if there's another one, uh, you think was the
most impactful, probably in a negative way, this week, all
of them were incredibly impactful. I mean, if you just
look back, I mean, starting with the Saints, we look
back over the last three games. Their touchdown scores are
Dan Arnold, Austin Carr, Kirk Keith Kirkwood twice, Tommy Lee Lewis,
(20:08):
and Zac Line. Obviously, Drew Brees had the sneak, mark
Ingram had the late score. But I mean the last
three weeks the Saints touchdown wise have not been what
we were expecting. Since that Thursday, that Thanksgiving game, pretty much,
it hasn't been great. Yeah, it's it's been a fantasy killer.
And I mean, moving on to the Patriots, I mean
James White snap right has has fallen for five straight games.
He has six or fewer touches in two of his
(20:30):
last three. He's basically gone from a PPR stud to
kind of just a flex play like what we are
used to out of James White at this point. I mean,
it's it was a really brutal Week four team from
the sense of we were relying on the Saints, relying
on the Patriots, are lying on the Rams. So many
of these players have have carried teams to Fantasy, the
Fantasy playoffs, and they all well. I think about James
(20:51):
White is that he really had been kind of the
centerpiece of that offense. I mean, he was leading them
in targets and catches, and he had sort of been
the engine of that Patriots offense until recently. I think
he had one touch in the first half yesterday. It
was ridiculous. It was It was ridiculous. And Margaret's is
making good points on all these but the Saints is
the one that surprises me the most. I'm not surprised
(21:12):
Jared Goff had a bad game because he's not good
in the cold, and he's quickly gaining a reputation as
a quarterback who's not good in the cold. So if
the Saints have home field advantage, they better jack up
the air conditioning in the NFC Championship game, if they
play against the Rams, that would be good. Get it
down to about thirty degrees. But it's been it's been
a complete reversal of fortunes, because I mean Alvin Camara
(21:36):
every single week was almost guaranteed to give you over
twenty Fantasy points in his last four games ten fifteen,
last three games ten fifteen and fifteen. Not going to
get it done. From your first round pick mark ingram
you mentioned it got into the end zone. Didn't have
a huge game yardage wise. Michael Thomas was very good
in PPR leagues, but over his last three games sort
of overall been a little bit underwhelming. And Drew Brees,
(21:58):
you know, I talked about it on TV. I said
trade him six weeks ago. In his last two games,
he's averaged right around ten Fantasy points. And there's a
stat that I knew about it. I didn't use it
because I'm thinking, now, this is a bounce back game.
It's got to happen. Breeze in the last three years,
including yesterday, has averaged fewer than ten Fantasy points in
Tampa Bay. Okay. I don't know why because the Bucks
(22:21):
defense has been garbage. But and it was like Derek
Brooks and Warren Sap out there, you know, in this contest,
and Breeze could not get it done. And he is
single handedly at a position that's really deep. Probably cost
you a chance at a championship because he gave you
a stinker against the Cowboys and he stunk against the Buccaneers.
And that's a big surprise to me because Breeze in
(22:41):
the offense, especially after what they did the Eagles in
that game, was like, Wow, this is the best team
in the National Football League. They they have really hurt you,
not only with uh their lack of consistency, the lack
of production from Breeze, but the fact that when the
points did come you mentioned it, you know, our old
kirkwood Zach Line scored touchdown. Who are these guys? Give
(23:05):
us some guys that were starting in our fantasy league.
So the Saints that have been a really really I mean,
they won, but they certainly didn't win from a fantasy
perspect Crazily, all these odd guys scoring touchdowns, and Taysom
Hill hasn't been one of them. I know, I kind
of figured he would have been one, because that's just
the way the season is going, all right. So now
onto the weird. Um just a bunch of just goofy
(23:28):
things that that you couldn't necessarily predict. One the Derrick
Henry forty seven point explosion, which ended up being the
same in both standard and PPR because he did not
I don't think he had a single target. I know
he didn't know he did. I think he got targeted
like once or twice. He was five yards markets from
breaking the record that Sharp set in two thousand and
twelve for receiving yards. You don't like just bubble screen.
(23:51):
Just throw it out there and let him run for
five yards and he breaks the record and they don't
do it. I don't know why, Derek So that the
Brandon Bolden scoring two touchdowns against the Patriots in a game, Uh,
how many people even knew that he was on the Dolphins?
You know, I honestly didn't. I saw Brandon Bulling score
a touchdown and I'm like bella tricks car, and I'm like,
oh wait, no, no, he's a Dolphin now, okay. George
(24:14):
Kittle's Taylor two halves yards in the first half, zero
in the second, and then mentioned earlier, Josh Johnson, a
top three quarterback coming in and go like obviously no
one played him, No one expected him to play for
Washington on Sunday, but he comes in after Mark Sanchez
looks awful. Uh, Washingtons getting blown out. So Johnson comes in,
he's a top three quarterback and now he's getting a
(24:36):
start coming up in week fifteen. Uh faves of those
four things, which is the most like WTF of them,
it's gotta be Derrick Henry to me, because not only
had he not produced big numbers all season long, but
you know, the Jaguars had given up I think four
rushing touchdowns all year to running backs, and they gave
up four in one game. And he had that one
(24:58):
big nine yard run where he was basically punching Jaguars
defenders in the mouth and Jaguars defenders were missing tackles.
It was it was unreal, but the performance was was phenomenal,
and very few people benefited from it. I mean Al
Bundy's four touchdowns in nineteen sixty six for Polkai, Derrick
(25:18):
Henry's four touchdowns against the Jaguars. They helped about the
same number of fantasy players because nobody was playing them
because not only was he not producing huge numbers, but
the matchup was bad and I had our research guys
look up, so we had Derrick Henry went for two
thirty eight. Then we had a Mari go for over
two hundred, and we had George Kindle go for over
two hundred. I was like, how many times has a
(25:38):
running back had two hundred and then two receivers had
two hundred? Uh in the same week. And it looks
like it's only happened a handful of times in in
in the history of the National Football League. Uh, but
it's happened twice since two thousand and twelve. Before that,
there was a game five or a week in five
Joe Morris, George Rogers, Stefan paid and then Drew Hill
(26:03):
of the Houston Oilers. Yeah. So um a very surprising
stat line from Henry considering his lack of production. And
I believe he went Marcus from at the time from
load a mid thirties at running back to sixteen based
on one game he had not had a sixty yard
rushing game. Yeah, that's how it was. Graham, You're you're
(26:26):
your big case of weirdness out of this this group. Yeah,
Henry went from the RB thirty nine to RB twenty
one in PPR. It's gonna be hilarious when we're all
looking back and being like he was. Derrick Henry was
an R b two this Yeah, um no, I mean
(26:47):
Derrick Henry based on I mean, if you trust the
process here, Derrick Henry was a terrible fantasy. Of course,
this was against the Jags. I mean, Dean Lewis has
been basically the lead back there all year. How can
it not be Derrick Henry. I mean, like, what do
you think how many people do you think actually started
him this past week? And I believe that it was
like four, But now I I break that down because
(27:09):
how many of those people were actually in their fantasy playoffs?
How many many of those are active leads? Right? How
many were the people who just like had quit and
just never took their Henry out of their lineup? You know,
on a weekly basis. I'd have to bet the actual
percentage for like a playoff team is like less than
five percent, I would think. So, I think, I think
I saw I cannot remember who I saw it from,
but I remember seeing a screenshot someone faced Cooper Yeah,
(27:34):
because he faced Cooper Kittle and could you imagine that
bad luck? And it was three points right there? He
said he was down a hundred points and he had
one of the best teams in the league going into
the playoffs. That's all. That's brutal. Luck not Andrew, that
is luckily brutal. Yeah, it was. It was funny because
there was a weird It was a weird week also
in the sense, and I didn't even put this in here,
(27:55):
just the number of like vultured rushing touchdowns. You know
that that happened this week. I mean, you know, I
mentioned the Brandon Bolden getting to you know, you've got
the Zac line Zac line. You've got the Bears play
action faking to a chem Hicks only to throw it
to a backup the offensive office line. And you know,
it's like, it was a weird, weird week fantasy wise.
(28:17):
And so um if you if you survived, congratulations man.
Because between the you know, injuries, guys missing weird touchdowns,
I think there're gonna be a lot of really good
fantasy teams that got bounced out of the playoffs this week. Yeah,
especially you know, and and I thought of you two
because you have the number one seed in our league.
You have Todd Gurley, and boy, if you have Gurley
(28:38):
and you didn't get a bye, I mean that your
season is over. And if you do have a bye,
you dodge the biggest bullet in fantasy football this season.
That's the big I think, that's you know, I know
we put the Jared Goff and the Rams getting shut
down is the bad, but like that was also just
beyond bizarre. The Rams did not adjust in that game,
Sean McVeigh did not adjust. They were getting basically their
(28:59):
interior defensive line was just getting shreded the entire game
and they did nothing to adjust for that. Yeah, yeah,
it was. I mean, it's just a weird game. I mean,
credit the Bears obviously for coming up with a good
game plan to slow them down, but it was just
at some point you were just waiting for the Rams
to to do something right. You were waiting for Girley
to to break a big play or or maybe Robert
Woods with a big catch and run, and it just
(29:20):
never happened. Well, I mean, we've seen the Rams be
able to adjust right there. When you're getting destroyed through
the interior, you want to check the ball down to
your running back, you want to try to set up screens,
get the ball over the medal, whatever the case may be,
and the Rams didn't do that. That was by far
Sean mcveigh's worst game. As a head coach in his
you know short rams tenures so far. Yeah, it was weird.
(29:41):
And and again if you had to play Todd Gurley
or Jared Goff, hopefully you you picked up some points
from elsewhere to can kind of mitigate what that happened,
because that that that wasn't great. You know, guys are
terrible at taking care of their health, whether it's a
knee injury, bad back, or something worse. Guys are usually
more comfortable rubbing some dirt on it than seeing a doctor.
What at the time, I think I tweaked my achilles
(30:01):
and I just sat there with an ice pack for
two weeks. Get going to work through it anyway. The
same is true for erectile dysfunction. Studies show seventy percent
of guys who experienced e D don't get treated for it. Thankfully,
Roman created an easy way to get checked out by
a doctor and get treated for e D online. Roman
is a one stop shop where licensed US physicians can
(30:21):
diagnose e D and ship medication right to your door.
With Roman, there are no waiting rooms, awkward face to
face conversations, or uncomfortable trips to the pharmacy. You can
handle everything online. All you have to do is visit
get Roman dot com slash live, fill out a brief
medical onboarding chat with a doctor, and get FDA approved
e D meds delivered to your door in discrete, unmarked
(30:44):
packaging direct How this function is a problem that most
guys don't tackle, but with Roman it's easy to take
care of. For a free online visit, go to get
Roman dot com slash live. That's get Roman dot com
slash live. For a free online visit, get Roman dot
com slash live. All right, So for those of you
who survives Playoff Week one, although I guess there's still
one more game to be played, so I'm I'm sure
(31:05):
there could be some more weirdness that happens. But for
those of you who are already locked in, you know
you're making it to Playoff week two. Figure we look
ahead and obviously we'll preview all the games when we
get to Thursday. Um, by the way, there are Saturday
games this week. Yeah, there's two Saturday games. Yeah, so
that's something to kind of keep an eye on. There
already a couple of Saturday games, so make sure you
are prepared for that as well. But looking ahead, we
(31:26):
each picked a hero and a villain that we predict
for Week two of the Fantasy football playoffs season, and
I'll start my my my Week two playoff hero is.
I'm going with Brandon Cooks UM one because the Rams
offense two weeks in a row has not been particularly great.
Uh yeah, but yeah it was one. It was a
(31:48):
little bit shocking. It was not shocking to see the
Bears slow them down, a little bit surprising to see
them sort of sputter against the Lions. But now they're
back home, They're gonna be back at the Coliseum on Sunday. Leave.
It's a Sunday night game against the Eagles, the same
Eagle secondary that's been beat up all year and we
saw get torched by a Mari Cooper. I see Brandon
(32:09):
Cooks sort of playing that a Marii Cooper role in
the Rams offense, being the deep threat, being the guy
that they take some shots to down the field and
he can get behind that secondary. And I feel like
Brandon Cooks is all set up to have a really
big Fantasy playoff week at a time where certainly the
Rams could use it. And I think a lot of
folks with Brandon Cooks on their roster, uh could use it.
The facts were also Wilson, why three words? Well is
(32:34):
it two words? Sam is sand? Sand is one word?
San Francisco, That's that's what's one word? Also forty niner
because that's so that'd be three words. I'm going three
words there, and um, it's because of the matchup. It's
because Russell has owned the fourty niners in his career
and that's the matchup that I see Russell having. He
is going to put up a monster, monster stat line
(32:56):
for you. And Russell has always been a second half hero.
It's ridiculou It happens every single season. We talked about
in the first half how we're worried about Russell. He's
given you some inconsistent lines, and then the second half
comes and Russell turns into Superman. So I expect him
to put up a nice stat line against that NFC
West Fox. I don't know what it is about Pete
Carroll teams that just when it gets to November, they
(33:19):
turned it on. It was the same when he was
at USC. It's been the same in the NFL with
the Seahawks. Something about the calendar flipping over to November.
Pete Carroll teams just seemed to turn it around. So
I don't know, Graham, who you're looking at. I'm just
gonna be lazy and take the lay low hanging fruit
here and just say Mark Cooper, all right, that's fine.
I mean, I mean it gets the Colts next week.
We don't think anybody in the Colt says, anybody to
(33:41):
even remotely close come close to covering him. And he's
been the most explosive playmaker in the NFL, basically outside
of Tyreek Hill since Dallas traded for him. Yeah. No,
I have the problem with low hanging fruit. It's just
as tasty as regular fruit, and you don't have to
climb quite as far. It's fair point. Yeah, you know. Alright.
So on the flip side, if they're going to be heroes,
there are going to be villains. And my villain potentially
(34:05):
for next week in the fantasy playoffs Andrew Luck Um,
you know, I know, he's had a bunch of good games,
but he's got the Cowboys and it's a a really
hot cowboy team with something to play for. And you
credit credit the Dallas defense because early on in that
game they kind of kept that thing close while the
offense was just blowing chances. I mean, they dominated the ball,
(34:28):
but they couldn't really score. They were settling for a
bunch of field goals. And the defense really clamped down
on the Eagles and kept that thing where the Cowboys
were in leaf for a long portion of it. I
finally just made some plays down the stretch, and I
just think they're gonna get after Andrew Luck. I think
that maybe he gives you a decent number, but it's
not going to be a spectacular number. And I think
(34:49):
if that's what you're needing to get through potentially to
your fantasy super Bowl, I think that the Cowboys may
make life tough on Andrew Luck this week. So there
you go. You know what, when we do our Facebook
thing this week, I'm wearing an Andrew Luk jersey. You
know I'm gonna do it. I did is sprowls last
weeks Sport, and I tweeted you and we still won.
This is five weeks in a row. Man. If it
(35:10):
ain't broke, don't fix it. And I I know, I
get it. The Cowboys defense is really good. Andrew looks
also really good at home, really good. So we'll see,
all right, who's your your villain for the week, Kenny Golladay,
who I told you to sit against the Cardinals. And
if you look at his matchups, dude, he has got
three tough matchups, including the one that he just had
(35:32):
against Patrick Peterson um over the next couple of weeks,
Stafford's lost in that offense. They don't I mean Zack
center really we all like like Garrett Plunt and they
gave the ball the Zenter. So now everyone's gonna freak out.
There's no one in Detroit you could start with any
kind of confidence, including Galladay. He's got really bad matchups
the next couple of weeks. I believe this week coming up,
(35:52):
he's got Dradevious White. So Galladay is now someone that,
as great as he looked at different times, this sea
reason you simply cannot trust. And I also think that,
and we talked about this last week on the podcast too.
Not only you're looking at points of production, you're also
looking at teams that that have sort of like tanked. Right.
(36:12):
The Lions are a team that's that's I mean, they're
just they're just they're not any good. The Cardinals aren't
any good. Uh, you know, Atlanta, they had sort of
been tanking to you know, Ryan had had a couple
of late touchdowns and ended up with a decent stat line,
but a lot of their players haven't been producing as well.
So for Alliance team that has nothing to play for,
and uh, a bad matchup across the board here. Galaday
(36:34):
is someone that I I fear starting the rest of
the season. Yeah, I mean, he's been so good for
so long this season, but it has kind of come
crashing down the last few weeks. I think, you know,
losing Marvin Jones certainly, I think had an impact there. Uh, Graham,
who's your villain for for playoff Week two? Has to
be Cam Newton. Um dealing with a sore shoulder, you,
by the way, has not has not looked right. Um
(36:54):
during the Panthers five game losing stretches averaged only twenty
six rushing yards per game. In his are games of
the rest of the season, he was around forty six
rushing yards for a game the Saints. Uh. The Panthers
get the stands in Week fifteen, and the Saints have
not allowed a top ten quarterback in their last five games.
They've held Um uh pretty much every quarterback the last
(37:16):
five quarterbacks they've faced two under eighteen fantasy points. I
believe Matt Ryan needed forty seven past attempts to get
to the QP eleven finish when the Falcons played the
Saints back in Week twelve on Thanksgiving. I mean, you gotta.
But if you're if you're playing this deep in the
playoffs right now, Cam Newton cannot beat your starting quarterback.
And it's wild because he was in the midst of
I mean really one of the best seasons, maybe the
(37:37):
best season he's had since his MVP season a couple
of years. And absolutely the other thing too, we and
we had talked about this probably about midway through the season.
His playoff schedule. It was great, so good it was
it was great, so good. Yeah, and uh, just he
just has not been healthy, although it has been really
good things for Christian McCaffrey. So, I mean basically that
(37:58):
entire game they allowed they he did not throw deep
all but basically the entire game except for one play,
and it was wildly inaccurate. I mean, they just checked
the ball down to McCaffrey, they checked it to Samuel
Ian Thomas's average step to the target was like two yards. Um. Yeah,
I mean it's well, I've really had to condense that
playbook because of camp the last two weeks. They brought
in Taylor Heineke to throw you into half hail Mary's.
(38:21):
I mean, that's that's where all right. I love that
that's where we are right now. So so good luck
to you if you made it through. But for those
of you who didn't, I'm sure you have hit me up,
probably with some Monday moning tweets. Eddie, I would assume
that we had a few said sad tales on Twitter today.
Of course I can mention, mind I did not. I
picked up the Giants defense, but I did not play them,
(38:43):
and I'm probably gonna get blown out anyway, but it
would have been nice to have my optimal lineup. And so,
like I started off with that one, let's do a
quick uh look at the waiver wire two before so, so,
Josh Allen has got to be on the list. Elijah
McGuire's gotta be on the list. If Doug Martin's out
there Bengals this week, he's gotta be on the list.
Chris Connelly, Chris Ivory, if you're really hurting Um, Kenny
(39:05):
Stills right, Curtis Samuel Day, Shawn Hamilton's Ian Thomas is
another guy. And uh and I'm sure I missed a
couple of here defensively Seahawks and Buffalo. So you've mentioned
Kenny Stills. Yes, two games in a row. He's I'm
just saying the points have been there. He had a
touchdown two weeks ago, but he had like thirty seven yards.
(39:27):
I just I don't know. I just don't know what
to think with this, with this Miami. Yeah, they get
the Jackson. The Viking is their next two games too.
I just I don't know what to think about this
Miami offense. I can't with them. Um, you know, like
Kenyan Drake ends up with a decent day, but because
he scores a touchdown on that last nothing he had
seven touches total, he just one of them happened to
be like a sixty yard touchdown on a broken le
(39:50):
you know, hooking lateral like we're just gonna throw the
ball around and try to get in the end zone
sort of play and if Gronk doesn't stumble and fall
and who knows what happens there. Yeah, it's funny too,
because you know when you hear that term hook and ladder.
What do you think of Well, I think of the Chargers. Well, actually,
actually actually nowadays Boise State. I think of Boise State too.
By State and the Fiesta Bowl. For me, I think
(40:10):
of the Dolphins against the then San Diego Chargers in
that epic game in the playoffs. Who a three whenever
that was? Yeah, No, nowadays I just think of Boise
State and the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma and then Ian
Johnson proposing to his cheerleader. I think we got that too.
I know that's so random, like, why would I remember
the random dude proposing to this cheerleader? But I remember
(40:30):
the same thing. Yeah, yeah, funny story about that. I
actually remember watching that game and almost leaving because Boise
States quarterback through a pick six late and I thought, well,
they had a good run. I think I'm gonna go
out and take a walk. I'm like, you know what,
I'll just stick around and watch the end of that game.
And boy, was I an't glad I did. So there
we go. Alright, let's see now we get the Monday
moment tweets. Uh so a couple of brewal ones this week.
We'll start off with this one from Brandy Parker played,
(40:52):
Todd Gurley got seventeen twenty fantasy points. Thought I had
the league's number one running back. Uh oh man, yeah,
I mean, look, you weren't gonna sit Todd Gurley because
you know Todd Gurley. But you know, against the Bears,
it was always in the realm of possibility. Uh. Stick
with the Rams. Here m Boucher rode golf minus six
lost me my matchup. Lamar Jackson is placed but of
(41:14):
one and handily hindu six. Man, that must be a
really rough score and that's really hard on interceptions. Yeah, man,
that's a rough scoring system. Uh. Go to defense now
from fi Cell morally said, I sat the Bears defense
started the Saints twenty two points on my bench. Hey,
I would have done the same thing. The Saints were
good play this week and they ended up with a
(41:35):
decent stat line. Just the Bears went nuts daylor Meres wrote,
the only guy held in my fantasy from beginning to end.
I benched Kenyan Drake for Leshaw McCoy point one points
today when I needed to, when I needed twelve points
to win my playoff matchup. Uh, there's nothing you can
do about that. Boy obviously hurts his hands during the
middle of the game, Drake has the miracle played too. Basically, booie,
(41:57):
what was a horrible game for him? There's nothing you
could do? Yeah, a m hubbs. I played Brandon Cooks
over a Marii Cooper. Yeah, I mean again, I think
I had I had Cooper ranked ahead of them, but
they were close. I don't know, Yeah, I don't know
what they have to feel about that, like that's that's
a coin flip and it just didn't go your way.
Then we get in with this one because it could
lead into the conversation has come a bunch here in
(42:19):
this show about kickers. Um been in first place the
entire season, attend and three and in the first round
of the playoffs I lose by one point because of
Greg's arlines missfield goal. Yeah, well, yeah, it was a
bad day to be a kicker unless your name was
Mike Badgeley. And I think Bretton Mayor had a had
a nice one too for the Pokes. So I still
love kickers. I don't care what anybody says. I think
(42:40):
I love I think I think. What I don't understand,
and I know we've talked about this, is that a
kicker misses a fuel goal or an extra point, and
everybody's like band kickers, And I'm like that would be
like if you know, hey, Jared Goff through four interceptions.
We're not trying to ban quarterbacks, you know what I'm saying.
So although some people may have hoped and wish that
he was banned after that game last night, cost him
at least that yeah, for sure, there you go. Oh
(43:01):
quick note that just came across here. Harbor not committing
to Joe Flacco as the starter. I really feel like,
I really feel like John Harball doesn't want to just
come out and say, hey, Lamar Jackson's our guy. They
want to keep kind of dancing around it, like just
well because then defenses kind of have to well maybe
they're gonna use Flacco as well preparation, but he's the dude. Yeah,
(43:22):
and uh wait someone just uh m r I um
ed he said, yeah, Ian Rapp or just to Jordan
Reads going in all right, well, uh yeah, I know
it just it took us a week four teen, so
there you go. Uh see, do we have any I
don't know if we any Twitter questions or or anything
like that. Otherwise we can just uh you know, I
(43:44):
wish everybody luck as we get ready for Week two
of the playoffs, so that'll log I'll kind of wrap
things up for us as always, glad you're listening. Congratulations
to you guys who made it through. At some point
where we should start doing me a way too early
rankings for next year for all the folks who were
no longer in the playoffs, so we can start kind
of picking out who the quarterbacks, running backs, all that stuff.
We got, caperspers and all kinds of stuff. Let's start
(44:05):
doing all that probably next week. Even if you are
not in your fantasy playoffs, there's a reason for you
to keep up coming back listening to the sweet sound
of our voices because I know that that's is what
gets you guys up in the morning. So that'll do it.
As always, remember friends don't let friends do stupid things alone.
So you're on Thursday, wow w wall, I'm going
Hosts And Creators
Marcas Grant
Adam Rank
Michael F. Florio
Kimmi Chex
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.