Late-Round Perspectives: Joey Wright

Joey Wright (@thejoeywright) of Footballguys joins JJ to chat about one of his biggest surprises of the 2025 season, Rome Odunze's rest-of-season outlook, players who could be league-winners in the playoffs, and so much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joey Writes, a community ambassador for football guys who hosts
Trivia Night Live, their Sunday morning live show in the
new Home League Show.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
He previously did work at Rasball.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
He's a girl dad, He's a film critic, and no
one has better outfits than Joey at the Fantasy Football Expro.
These are his late round perspectives.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
You, being a movie critic, I have to ask you
this to start this. Top three Christmas movies go holiday movies.
We won't even say specifically Christmas, just holiday in general.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Movies, Holiday in general. Let's get the good feels, let's
get the good vibes during the holidays. For a little snarkiness.
I love Scrooged with Bill Murray.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
You know who's obsessed with that is Denny Carter.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, Denny is a very very funny man, so I
would get it. Yeah, that's a very like Yeah, that's
Denny's Christmas movie. I get that. I like Christmas Vacation
and I got into a little argument last night with
Paul charchiing about it and he can you know, Kick.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Rocks Church not a Christmas vacation guy.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
He's anti Christmas vacation And.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
How is that even possible.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
He's I don't want to speak for him. All he
said to me was he saw it twenty years ago.
He didn't find it funny.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Wow, Listen when Randy Quaid walks up and just one
finger hits the little windmill and it just collapses. Just
it's comedy gold. It is good, and I need to
pick one more. I'm not gonna say eyes white shut.
That's like Joey's Christmas movie. I annoy my wife every
Christmas Eve I watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Sure, pretty sure Denny has thrown that one out there too.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, it's it's it grows every year on me. No,
Like listen, It's a Wonderful Life is rated one of
the best Christmas movies for a reason. I don't think
it's a bad movie. I think it holds up. Don't
watch it in color, watch it in black and white. Yeah,
I'll just I'll throw three classics out there for you.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Don't you have a cat named after Kevin McAllister?

Speaker 4 (01:56):
I do, I do?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
And you didn't even name Home Alone there.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
I know I should have named Home Alone. You put
me on the spot, Joey. Yeah, that's the only on
the spot question.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I promised you problem.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
No, I mean, like I figured you would throw Home
Alone out there after after naming a pet after Kevin mccallis.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
I listen, I don't want to take credit for that.
My incredible seven. She was seven at the time. She's
nine now. We adopted the cat and we've got it
in the car, and its name was Simba. And I
look in the room of your mirror and I was like, honey,
I hate to tell you that name is not going
to work. We are a we name our dogs after
and pets after real people type family. Yes, And she's like,

(02:35):
what about Kevin, like from Home Alone because it's Christmas.
And I was like, Kevin mccatister, perfect, You're brilliant.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Kevin is a fantastic name for a pet. We have
a we have a Henry. So we were in the
same in the same boat for UH for human names.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Henry's Henry's going to be sixteen though in June.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
He's a he's a little dog, so he's you know,
his time is limited and we're we're trying to enjoy
it as much as we can.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
But I'm with you with the UH. The human names
for pets, it's more fun that way.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
One hundred percent. We've had a Rob. We have a Betty.
We have a Betty as a golden retriever.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Rob is pretty incredible.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
It was Robert Loja was his full name.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, but just just Rob. Yeah, this is a pretty
incredible name for a pet. Love it all?

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Right, Well, this is your first time on Perspectives, And
for the record, you're catching me on a bad week.
My voice is horrible because I got this cold that
my son gave me. And you know, if people are
hearing me sound like I've been smoking cigarettes all day,
that's not been the case. It has been me with
this cold. So you're gonna have to carry a little

(03:34):
bit on today's show, my man.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Okay, yeah, I have to no.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Pressure, But this is your first time on Perspectives.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Give everyone a glimpse of you and how you kind
of got into this space and what you're up to.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, like I in twenty twenty, I got really sick.
I my gal but almost ruptured. I had a minor stroke,
like things were going bad, and I was in bed
for a lot of the time. And I had always
played fantasy football, but I got into my first industry tournament.
I played in the ras Bowl. It was my first
thing I ever played in that was and toe dipping

(04:10):
into the industry and had a lot of fun with it.
Almost wanted epic collapse on the last night of the season,
even had Alvin Kamara with this five touchdown game, just
couldn't put it all together. I started ever the play
you Can Imagine being Wrong, had an epic meltdown, brought
my kids into it, and the crew of at Rasball
was like, dude, you were hilarious all season. You were
super fun. Have you ever thought about writing? And I'm like, well,

(04:32):
I used to be a film critic, so yeah. So
they gave me their Waiver Wire column. You're one sight unseen.
I wrote some off season articles for him. Had a
really good time at Rasball. Have nothing but great things
to say about them over there. I went to the
Fantasy Ball Expo and met three guys that have become
like brothers to me in many ways, Simon Gruneveld, Jyl

(04:52):
Garoffalo and Josh Fuster over at front Yard Fantasy and
those guys you know, slapped me in a chair, put
me on a morning show, put me on a three
o'clock game show every day to get my reps in
there and to get me embedded in this industry, and
I'm forever grateful to them. Still part of front Air Fantasy.
I love those guys. Just went to Simon's wedding back

(05:13):
in February, watched him Mary Leanne, his beautiful wife. Love
those guys to death. But at front Yard Fantasy, I
decided one day that I was going to go to
a park and I was going to walk around and
get fantasy advice and created something that I didn't even
know at the time with my best friend called start
Sits and Salutations, and it morphed into almost like a

(05:34):
Steve Irwin type character that would go out to nature
talk to animals to get fantasy advice and had a
lot of fun with that, like super super amount of fun.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
By the way, the most Joey Wright thing of all time.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
It really, I mean, it's kind of like blending SNL
with fantasy advice with sketch comedy. Yeah, it was kind
of all my interests merged in one, and JL was
so great to just be like, Joey, blank canvas, whatever
you want with this, like this is your thing, and
they were so great about you know, helped me learn
how to edit and all kinds of cool stuff when

(06:08):
I was doing that with them, and then I had
the bright idea, Hey, I want to go to expo
and I want to do this live with people. And
probably the best decision that we ever made because it
put me in FaceTime with Joe Bryant. And if you
want to see my job interview, it is filmed on
camera because right then and there I did an interview

(06:29):
with Joe Bryant, and there was a lot of other
ways that brought me into Football Guys. Where I'm at now,
I'm the community ambassador there. Dave Klugiy, Jeff Bell, Alfredo Brown,
you know, vouching for me to get me in with
the company. But you know, I'll take a little bit
of credit me interviewing Joe and just charming his pants off. Yeah,
definitely helped me get a job there. But I've been

(06:51):
with front Yard. I've been with a Football Guys now
since oh man, it's been the winner of twenty twenty two. Yeah,
so it's been over three years now. I became the
communy ambassador pretty quick. I kind of put the analyst
hat off to the side. I still put it on
every now and then, but I pretty much just do
all things community now over at Football Guys Industry events.
I'm at the expo. Ho'lle be going to FSGA probably

(07:13):
again this year. I do March Madness contests. I bring
a little bit of the character the Sketch comedy into
the March Madness videos. I do a Trivia night show
on Tuesday nights where I host trivia with Jake Bryant.
And probably the biggest thing I do to bring community
together over there is I run the Football Guys Bowl.
And this year we had five thousand and four teams,
up from just under two thousand last year. Just a

(07:36):
super big tournament of people just having fun playing fantasy football.
And yeah, that's kind of my journey. I kind of
rambled for a while. I've told the story a couple
of times, but I think I hit everything I was
supposed to.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah you did, you did. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Speaking of which, the Football Guys Bowl, you invited me
this year and I was in it, and I'm in
it and your boys in first place in my league,
So dude, yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
I I There is no question if if I was
colluding or if I was cheating at all, because I
crap the bed real quick. This season. Oh yeah, really
bad showing. I was so focused on everyone having a
great time and just having the best tournament possible that
I just did not draft a good team.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
That's like, so I do we do on Living the Stream.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
We do a listener league every year and I'm we're drafting,
we do a show. It's it's always me Denny and
then Tom Evert Scott the actor.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
And I got to meet him in September.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh, and I know, I'm one of the greatest humans
you will ever.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
So cool.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, one of one of the greatest dudes.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Like I was on vacation in Wilmington, North Carolina for
like a long weekend over the fourth of July a
couple years ago, and he had been filming there. He
just came to the beach and hung out with the
family for the day. We just hung out, like had
a nice little time. Like he's just the nicest dude
on Earth. He's awesome.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
But he Uh, we.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Do our Living the Stream Listener League draft every year
and I'm hosting the show. I mean it's it's an
S show type of show. Like we're just kind of
all over the place. And that's my excuse every year
when if in when I have a bad team, which
is this year, it's my worst team that I drafted
this year.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
And uh, and so that's my excuse is that I'm
doing these other things while I'm drafting. Okay, like there's
I can't. I can't.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I can't solely focus on this team that I'm drafting,
and that's why my team is not playing. So you
can say that with the Football Guys Bowl, you had
so much going on one.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
Hundred percent, and I was running two live drafts at
the same time that I was drafting. Yeah, so that's
in Vegas drafting live, like I have all the excuses
in the world.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yes, yeah, you should feel good I have. I have
Jamior Gibbs and Devana a Chan on my team. So
it's it's been. Uh, it's been a fun time having.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
Those Okay, so you you drafted, well.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, it's been I think I have Devanta Adams too.
I mean it's fine, you know, it's fun, fun, fun
little teams.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Everybody cares about. You know, this is what I've learned
in the industry. Everyone cares about your fantasy team. They do,
and you talk about it.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
So the next forty five minutes we're gonna just talk
about our teams, right, what's going exactly?

Speaker 4 (09:54):
People love it?

Speaker 2 (09:55):
People love it.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Talk to me though about about this new show that
that that you and and Kevin are doing with the
Home League show, Like, what's that all about? What do
you What's what's sort of like the goal in doing
that that show?

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yeah, I actually do care about your fantasy team because
I have a show that's based all about your home leagues. Man.
I'll tell you it was like two and a half
years ago. Kevin and I are walking through Vegas at
an FSGA and we were kind of doing that like
to you know, when you're in high school and like
two people in meeting and they're kind of like, don't
want to get into a relationship, they're kind of, you know,

(10:26):
feeling each other out. We were trying to get into
a relationship to do a show together at that time,
and we weren't really sure what it was going to be.
But Kevin's like, you ever thought about doing anything with commissioning?
And I'm like, you know, I'm not sure, and but
you know, Joe had mentioned that he wanted to have
some type of a commissioner show, and then I had
the bride idea one day that I was like, why
don't we just inject community into it? And to this

(10:49):
day I'm mad that the title of the show is
not C and C Fantasy Factory because commissioneringy community. I
think it rolls so well, but it was voted against
because nobody knows who seeing music Factory as That's okay,
but yeah, I know. So the show is all about
your home league, that league that you care the most about,
that you're in with your eleven buddies that you met

(11:09):
when you were sixteen years old, and you still play
in together. Your buddies go off the war, but it
still keeps you together, lifelinding communication. It's about that league.
It's about how to make that league as great as
humanly possible with fun things like commissioner punishments, you know,
last place punishments, championship celebrations. We just did an episode
on how to best recognize your league commissioner and your

(11:33):
league champion. It's all those types of things. And then
we're gonna bring community into it as well. So we're
gonna bring people like Scott Fish on to talk about
the Scott Fish Bowl and then to promote the Scott
Fish Ball we're going to do a draft with them
on stream. We're gonna do a lot of cool things
with this show, but it's all about how to make
fantasy as fun as humanly possible. So that's what we're
focusing on.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, I mean, I feel like the two of you
are perfect for that for sure, just looking at the
landscape of the fantasy for industry. I mean, Kevin's been
somebody who has pushed, you know, thanking commissioners especially. I
mean he did the he's been doing the contest like
the Best Commissioner.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
I can't remember what it was exactly called, but I.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Think we were both on the board right on like
the panel to to choose who the best commissioners were.
And it's it's it's a part of fantasy football that
I feel like is not you know, talked about.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
So you just drank that in such a like a
sneaky way.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Well, because they're going to focus right in on you
whole screen, right, so I could.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Take no, no, no, it's all it's it's all split
the whole time. Pal, They'll see that, just like they'll
see that with this with my voice, the way that
it is, I got a giant jug that I'll probably
have to swig out of to make sure that my that's.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
A power move right there. I had this little tiny
Starbucks cup and then you bring up like a ninety
four ounce thermos.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Well, sometimes I forget that I'm on a live stream
and I busted out and everyone's like, what's going on there?
And I'm like, oh, right, I forgot I got this
uh giant you know, one hundred and twenty ouns jug
or whatever it is. But yeah, I mean, like, I
do feel like with the commissioner stuff, they're they're the
unsung heroes of fantasy football. I'm I'm a commissioner in
a couple of leagues and it's not nothing like, it's

(13:13):
it's work, and I really, I really do appreciate whenever
I'm in a league where the commissioner's on top of
things and you know, cares about that experience and not
just a hey, I clicked this button to set up
this league.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Let's just go at it and have at it. Right.
So it's awesome that you guys are doing that. Everyone
should definitely check that out.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
I've checked out a little bit of it since you guys,
how long you guys launched like three weeks ago ish.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
Yeah, we launched it. We got four episodes out. Now
we're recording. I mean, the great thing about the show
that we're doing together is the episodes we're making now
you'll be able to use in like six months from
now when you're establishing your league. So it's a lot
of it's kind of evergreen that we can kind of
pop on whenever we want, so we'll be promoting it
throughout the year.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, definitely. All right, let's talk about what's going on
in fantasy football right now. So it's been kind of
a weird season. I telling people that, you know, usually
I look at the fantasy season in quarters in a way,
you know, the first.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Month of the season and the second month and so on.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
And I feel like there's, you know, usually like a
thread that kind of goes through each of those quarters,
and you're like, okay, like this is the storyline of
the season through all four quarters or all three quarters
at this.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Point, because we still had that final quarter left.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
And this year it feels like things have been segmented
a lot more, where like you get four weeks of
Roma Dunesa and Acca Abuka just crushing it right, and
then they tail off or you get, you know, this
player just going nuts or doing nothing and then kind
of coming out of nowhere and starting to perform. Well,
it's been a really weird year. From that perspective, there
hasn't been many I don't know, I this is all

(14:45):
field based and definitely not research or anything, but it
feels like there hasn't haven't been as many like true
league winning players this year.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
But from your perspective, what has sort of been one
of the biggest surprises of this twenty twenty five season.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
You know, it's this is gonna sound funny, but the
QB draft class of twenty fifteen they decided to show
back up this year, Like you know, Jamis and Marcus Mariota.
We thought, you know, they're just going to be clipboor
holders mentors for these new great rookie quarterbacks coming in,
and they've turned into kind of week winners for us
when we needed to. If you've been streaming quarterback you've
kind of been able to depend on these guys Jamis

(15:19):
for one one week, but boy was at a Jamis week.
We got what two passing touchdowns, a receiving touchdown, and
then he ends the game on an interception.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, beautiful, but he was the QB.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
One that week and a lot of people were starting
jamish was that.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
I'll say this is the most Jamis Winston game of
all time.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Oh it's beautiful. And I'm a buck, I'm a Buccaneers fan.
I didn't mention that during my thirty five minute bi bio.
I did on myself. But Jameis Winston is the perfect
quarterback to watch but not have on your team sause
when he's on your team, Oh.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
Boy, yeah, it's real team, fantasy team. I love him
on my fantasy team one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Mariota though six starts and he's been a top twelve
QB and four of them, yeah, averaging twenty one point
two points in the gaming starts. Like, it's kind of
crazy how these quarterbacks that we wouldn't really expect to
be contributors kind of have been for us this year
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, that's a fun little surprise. That's a good call out.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Do you think that next season we're going to see
fantasy managers stream quarterback a little bit more like go
more towards later on quarterbacking. We have, like, look at
this year, Josh Allen has been fine, but maybe a
little bit subpar versus expectation. Lamar Jackson obviously has not
been himself since that injury. You know, Jaden Daniels has

(16:30):
been banged up. Jalen Hurts has been like just fine.
You know, we're not looking at like true, true league
winning type seasons from these guys, and that's how people
were drafting them. Do you think that next year we're
going to go back to more more of that like
twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen time frame of drafting quarterbacks late, Like,
no matter what I mean, it's.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
Been my bread and butter since really I started playing
fantasy football, was just not necessarily waiting till the double
digit rounds to take a quarterback, but just never reaching
for a quarter that was like that wasn't a good value.
And this was kind of the first year that I
was like, Okay, well I'm gonna move up a little bit.
I'll take Joe Burrow a little earlier than I would have. Boy,
that shot me in the foot, but it was because

(17:12):
an injury. But no, I really hope we do get
back to that. Anybody that streams quarterback or you wait
late on quarterback you're just increasing the odds of your
team up top being a lot better, so you have
better running backs. You usually have a good tight end
at that point. If you're waiting on a quarterback, and
I said, I hope we get to that point, I
hope we don't because I just want to keep doing it.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah right right, yeah, I mean, like the benefit to me,
it's like we always see this like boomerang effect with
ADP and the way that the market works where it's
one year, you know, I always go back to I
think it was twenty fifteen season when Devonte Freeman was
the RB one out of nowhere like for no reason,
and he wasn't scoring a ton of Fantasy points. And

(17:51):
then the very next year and that was as the
RB one, so running back was down scoring wise the
very next year.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
No one wants to draft running backs early.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
We see the age fall a little bit for the
guys at the top of the position, but then it
bounces back a little bit. So like I wouldn't be
surprised if we see more late round quarterbacking and then
the guys who are you know, the Josh Allen, Lamar
Jackson's here that grouping.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
I mean maybe Drake May will be in there too.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
But those kinds of players are going in maybe a
round or two later than they've gone over the last
couple of years, and then that ends up being almost
a value you play itself, just because we know that
this is just kind of a down year for them
to some degree.

Speaker 4 (18:30):
Yeah, up until I was tracking, up until I think
about two years ago, half of the top twelve quarterbacks
came from as the QB twelve or later, and every
single draft class was fifty percent. And knowing that, like
this year, you could think of Daniel Jones, I mean,
Drake May was going around QB twelve. I think you
get moved a little bit higher once draft season got closer,

(18:52):
but justin Herbert was going late, Matthew Stafford, who's like,
I think the QB six right now undrafted in a
lot of leagues. Yeah, you can find really good quarterbacks late,
or you can just stream. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, it's making me feel making me feel a little
nostalgic for what happened with me back in the day.
With the later on Quarterback of you book and I
dig It, I dig It. Do you have any tips
for playoff teams? So we're we're obviously it's Week fourteen
next week, no more teams on bye Thank god. Get
out of here with these week fourteen bye weeks. By
the way, I'm over this. Yeah, it's not fun.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
The worst possible time. Like a lot of fantasy managers
needing this win this week. I'm one of them. In
my home league, I need a win. We have nine
people competing for five spots. Oh yeah, brun would be
a grueling weekend for us. Yeah yeah, I mean yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
But so look, we have these bye weeks and then
and then obviously the playoffs are hitting.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Are you managing your teams?

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Like, how are you managing your teams differently now versus
earlier in the season.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
I mean the general if you're running backs, don't kind
of throw your depth away and kind of back them up.
If you've got Kayen Wilson, Kien Williams, go out and
get Blake Rum, Yeah like that. If you've got devon
a Chain, who I absolutely love his rest of season schedule,
you'll get Alli Gordon, Like, just back up your stud
running backs. But if you're streaming any positions, look at

(20:10):
those schedules ahead.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
You know.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
I got a couple guys I like brock Party. If
you're streaming quarterback, his schedule could not be better. Chris
Rodriguez if he's on waiver wires. Yeah, there's a lot
of guys out there. Darren Waller is a tight end,
great streaming tight end down the run.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Do you often find yourself like rostering multi? I got
this question for the mailbag, but and I talked about
it on there. But do you do you find yourself?
You know, would you on a certain team roster three
tight ends in a normal like six seven bench type
situation in scenario, are you gonna roster three tight ends
to make sure that your opponents can get it or

(20:46):
can get one slash you just can stream each and
every week, or are you still looking at just getting
running back handcuffs first and foremost because we obviously know
they're gonna have more upset than those tight ends.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
I'll block to where it's not detrimental to my team. Yeah,
So if I have an opponent I noticed their titands week,
I'll go pick up one tight end maybe, but I'm
not gonna do it if it's going to hurt my
team usually though, and this is like a week eleven,
a week ten thing. I do I go make one
big trade to really bolster my weakest position, so then
I'm heading into the playoffs. Simon Gruneveld has coined the phrase.

(21:20):
I don't know if it was him, but I heard
it from him first, the glass cannon, Like go into
the playoffs with a glass cannon, but at the same
time back it up a little bit. Yeah, so I'll
block a little bit, but not so it's going to
hurt my team.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah yeah, I'm with you. All right.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
We saw two pretty important and big backfield shifts this
past week that I think is probably two of the
top storylines in fantasy football right now.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
You have Carolina or Tuba.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Hubbard started to see more work this past week kind
of the week before too, and then Trayvon Henderson where
Ramandre Stevenson stepped in and came back from injury in
week thirteen or sorry, week twelve, and then in week
thirteen he saw a little bit more work than he
did against the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
How do you feel about those backfals? Let's start with Carolina.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
With Carolina, I mean, I don't think we should be surprised.
We saw all this from Canalis in Tampa Bay. It's
kind of what he did with Rashad White. He gave
him as much as work as he could, but he
likes using two running backs and I think he's kind
of got a best case scenario now on Rio, Rico
Zaudle and Chewba Hubbard. Honestly, it reminds me. I know,
Canoso is one year removed from it, but a lot
of Tampa Bay with Bucky and Rashad White, where you've

(22:26):
got a running back in Chewba Hubbard that can really
find spots out on the sideline and get up the field,
and then you just got like a bowling ball and
Rico Dawdle just hammered up the middle and break the tackles. Yeah,
it kind of reminds me what Tampa Bay had last year.
I don't think we should be surprised. I think they're
going to kind of run with a fifty to fifty
split while the matchups say they can.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
That's what I've been I've been having discussions on the
Late Round discord since that game happened, and there are
people asking, like, who should I roster Rico? Like I
still technically have Rico ahead of Cuba, and my rest
of season rankings do I feel one hundred or so
confident in that. No, I don't, because I think that
it can go either direction. It could just be a
game by game thing, and we're just kind of figuring

(23:06):
out what these roles kind of look like. But regardless
of all of that, would you like, let's say that
you're sitting there with Rico Doudle and let's say that
you like Chewba Hubbard more. Okay, this is all hypothetical.
Do you have Rico Doudle and you like Chuba Moore?
Would you straight up drop Rico d Oudel for Chuba
Hubbard Or is this a scenario where you're just gonna

(23:30):
roster both and you're gonna see what happens and you
don't want your opponents to have access to one of
these running backs.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Yeah, we talked about, you know, safeguarding your team of
blocking your opponents. This is a backfield that I would
not I don't want to take that risk to drop
one of them.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, I'm in the I'm in the same boat. Like
it's it's kind of like a like the Median outcome.
Here seems like it's gonna be fifty to fifty and
they're they run the ball enough that they could both
be like RB three types and then you know, maybe
we'll get a spiked week in one of these weeks
from one of these whatever, right, and whoever like finds
the end zone in a given week. But I do

(24:11):
it's one of those scenarios where like I do think
there's like a psychological component to fantasy, especially in.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
The playoffs, where you don't want to be the reason.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Like even if you are sick of Lamar Jackson, you
don't want Lamar Jackson anymore. You're like this, you know
he's dust, he's injured. If you were to drop Lamar
and then he has these two great matchups against New
England and Cincinnati over the next couple of weeks after
this Pittsburgh game, and if he were to go off
and you're playing an opponent, or even if your opponent
gets by because they get Lamar Jackson, you gotta live
with that all off season. You gotta live with that

(24:40):
even longer than the off season.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
I always say, don't get too cute. I watched a
family member of mine swear up and down like they're
gonna bench Damarius Thomas in the last week of this season.
I'm gonna play and I forget who the backup for
the Broncos was, but he picked up the backup, put
them in and Jamarius Thomas had a great game, would
have won him the championship, and did it in the
championship week. And I remember telling him, like I was

(25:04):
the commission of leaks, There's only so much I could say,
but I was just like, I don't know if I
would do it, Like that's just a little too cute.
I would never get too cute. You mentioned the second
backfield New England. Yeah, that's when I feel a little
more confident in how to play it.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
How do you how do you feel about it?

Speaker 4 (25:19):
So I think with a matchup last week against the Giants,
like that's where you want somebody like Ramandra Stevenson just
to hammer that ball down the middle of the field.
But in games where I think they're going to start trailing,
not even not trailing, but needed to compete against Buffalo
and Baltimore, I think that's where Treyvon Henderson does come in.
Catches passes out of the backfield off to the side,
and I could see Trayvon Henderson being a lot more
valuable than Romondre Stevenson. The next for the playoff run.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
YEA, So I had a I don't know if you
saw or not, but New England fans have been in
my mentions this week because I sent a tweet out
that simply showed it was the stuff that I talked
about in the ten Trends episode. For anyone listening that that,
you know, I was curious, But I just had a
tweet out that showed the advanced data on the ground
of Trayvion versus Ramondre Stevenson. I wasn't even, you know,

(26:06):
saying that this needs to be eighty percent Trayvon Henderson's
backfield or anything.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
I wasn't even talking about the volume split.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Now my argument is, yes, I think Trayvon Henderson, by
the eye test and by numbers and analytics, looks like
the better running back between himself and Ramandre Stevenson. But
I understand from a team and coaching perspective, why they
don't need to force the issue when they're playing the
Giants and they have a three touchdown lead, you know,

(26:32):
like that's not that big of a deal. But to
your point, what happens in these games, and like you said,
there's two of them in the final three weeks where
it's not necessarily going to be this really easy, you know,
game script for them, and in those scenarios, I definitely
could see them favoring Travion more than Remondra. The fact
that it was still pretty much a fifty to fifty

(26:53):
like ish type split with the two this past week
is kind of a good sign.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah, Like if for the eye test, like, they really
did look like a fifty to fifty split last week
and honestly frustrating if you had Henderson, it maybe looked
like Stevenson was running even more. But you know, I
don't like to just look at the stats, but if
you look at just the stats, Henderson really did have
the better fantasy day.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, I mean you look at basically any advanced metric,
and Henderson right now is lapping Stevenson. And a lot
of people will come back and they'll say, oh, well,
something like you know epa per rush or so obviously
that's gonna be skewed by Stevenson's fumbles or something like
rushing yards over expected per rush. Those will be skewed

(27:37):
by one or two big plays. Okay, that's fine and fair,
Like it's no different than like yards per carry in
a way where it can be skewed that way. But
that's why I look at it in conjunction.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
With success rate.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Success rate being the percentage of rushes that gain positive
EPA and success rate should hypothetically favor a player like
Ramandre Stevenson a little bit more if they're not gonna
be big play players, which Stevenson had his moments this year,
like that Miami game earlier this year.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
He was in that game.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Right, this hypothetically should favor a player if you're gonna
use that player as a coaching staff. Right, you're gonna
throw Demandre Stevenson out on the field. Why are you
doing that? Well, you're doing that because he can take
on a lot of carries, Like he can just handle
the in between the tackles stuff, and you know he
might not break a big play, but he's at least
solid and getting you what you need. Well, the argument
here is that success rate wise, Trayvon Henderson is way

(28:28):
better than Ramandre Stevenson this year in success I'm talking
like like sixteen percentage points better or for fourteen or
something like that.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
And so in that scenario, is he that much better?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Like I said, I understand not giving the entire backfield
to Trayvon Henderson because he wasn't that guy at Ohio State.
He's not really that guy period to handle. You know,
nineteen twenty carries a game. But I do think it
should be more in that like sixty forty, sixty five
thirty five range like we saw against Cincinnati, more so
than what we saw, you know, against New York.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Well, I don't even know. I think we can be
that surprised by either of the backfielders we're talking about.
I mean, they both of the offensive coordinators like to
have a committee. Yeah, you know, Josh McDaniels kind of
made his gravy on it.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
So it's true. It's true. All right.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
I want to talk about I've been doing this on
the show recently where I talk about a player and
then we go one by one this player versus this
guy rest of season. And that player this week is
mister Roma Dunzay, who pre bye pre week five by
looked like a like one of the league winners this year.
Like I said, there haven't been many of them, he

(29:32):
looked like one of them, right, him and Mecca a
Buka both and since that bye with a Donzay. He
has not been He's averaging like fewer than ten PPR
points per game. He's been really not that reliable at all.
You know, there's many reasons for it. So we're gonna
go one by one, Roma Dunzay versus player X, and
I'll insert player X for you. We're gonna start with

(29:54):
Wandel Robinson.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
It's the easy Wandel for me. He's leaning the league
targets since week nine. He's he's getting the ball in
his hands. And with romadounsay right now, like he's getting targets,
but he's only catching what thirty three percent of his
targets at this point. Yeah, how much of that's his fault?
But still I know the ball's got to get in
his hands.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah, I mean, like there's at some point you have
to just succumb to the fact that situationally, it's it's
not working for a Dounza. Now there's reasons for that.
It's not even all it's definitely not all him. But
you know, catchable target rate is a problem, and it's
been a problem since around that. Like honestly, like week three,
you know, Harmon did some good work about Matt Harmon.
That is about about a Donsay being asked to do

(30:35):
a lot of motion work and he's still a young
and developing wide receiver and so that's going to be
difficult for him to do and perform. I definitely think
that that Wandelle is to the point now where at
the very least you're getting predictable production, right like you're
you're getting something like you know what you're getting out
of Wandale for the most part. And so I do

(30:56):
think it's an interesting you know this or that let's
let's go to deebos annual versus Roma.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Dunsay, it's going to be a common theme with the Dunes.
I'm not a huge fan of the rest of the
season schedule for him. It's it's pretty brutal. It really
is two games against Green Bay. I'll lean debo because
I like the schedule a little bit more for the Commanders,
and his floor just feels a little safer at this point, yeah,
than the Dunes does.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
I mean, I'm probably a Dounza, but I understand if like,
you know, like this is not like it's crazy that
this is where it's at with the Dunesay, But you
may make a great point that like schedule wise, it's
not like things look all butterflies and rainbows for for
Chicago right now.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
And the thing with Chicago is their their defense is
that's coming back. They're getting healthier. Yeah, I don't know
if they're I mean they're getting better. They're getting healthier
is the better way to say it. But I think
they've discovered they've got a really good run game. They've
got a really good one two punch yep.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
So yeah, that that offensive line is playing so much better.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
I mean, Ben Johnson's doing what kind of people expected
him to do with the run game and the offensive
I mean, the last time we saw the offensive line
just played out of their mind against Philly.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
And this is this is their identity at this point.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
And that's not a good thing for the passing attack,
you know, and that's gonna affect a doonza. How about
Zay Flowers after his point four point performance in PPR
leagues this past.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
It's probably the closest one, yeah, that we've mentioned so far.
Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are kind of two layups. If you're
gonna get right, these are the teams to get right against.
This goes for Lamar too, so if you've got Lamar,
if he doesn't get done the next two weeks, you know,
sabotage drop him for that last week. I this is
where I still probably go Dunze though.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, I mean Zay is just you know, I talked
about him a lot in the preseason because I just
have a general philosophy when you're drafting in that wide
receiver two high end wide receiver three range that you
want ceiling like you need to be I mean, you
should be chasing ceiling basically.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
All the time throughout your draft.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
You know, realistically, like you're gonna miss in some of
those ranges if you're just chasing ceiling. And if you're
you know, going for that kind of archetype of player,
I would say, like a Jamison Williams. Now, we're recording
this before Thursday night, but over the season up until
this point, it's been hit or missed. It was really
bad for the first half of the season. And so
like that's an l right from a draft perspective. But
also if you go with that philosophy and you go

(33:12):
with that outlook, you're getting George Pickens, right, and you're
getting these that like that's one of the rare league
winners this year, and so you know it's it's in
another guy that I want to talk about here with
with a Dounza, I thought fell in a similar boat,
which was Courtland Sutton, where yes, Sutton had a great
second half of the season with with bo Nicks last year,
but also relatively touchdown dependent and something that like we've

(33:34):
never really seen Courtland Sutton across the season be consistently
a wide receiver two plus right, Like it's just every
year he's very solid. But I want more than very
solid if I'm going to draft a wide receiver in
round five or something. So we'll just go to Sutton
right now. Would you want Sutton or a Dunza rest
of season?

Speaker 4 (33:50):
The thing I like about Sutton is he's on the field, yeah,
almost every play, and that's great to have. I just
think Franklin's getting a little bit more work lately. He's
getting and he's leading the team in targets. I'll I'll
go to doun say.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yeah, I mean Pat Bryant is getting getting run now too.
In that in that Denver offense, I think Pat Bryant's
had a pretty for you know, being from a perception
versus reality standpoint.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
I think Pat Bryant has actually had a pretty good
season two.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
And yeah, Troy Franklin's been involved throughout the year, suddenly
just this roller coaster man week to week roller coaster
with him, So I can understand go in that direction.
One that's kind of interesting to me is Juwan Jennings.
How would you feel about those two?

Speaker 4 (34:32):
I'm actually slamming Jennings. I mentioned that I love Rock
Party down the stretch. I mean, Jennings has had a
touchdowns in four of the last five weeks. Rock Party's back,
and Jennings is gonna be a big part of that.
So I'm I'm going Jennings over at dounsay, you.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
Know, Jennings like a twenty one to twenty six percent
target chair basically over the last month and a half
each game. I mean, it seems it seems to me,
maybe it's injury related, maybe not, but it seems to
me that he's at least jumped and like officially jumped
and we don't have to worry about the Ricky Piersoll
stuff Like. It just seems like Jawan Jennings is going
to be, you know, the top target, a wide receiver

(35:06):
for them. And the Brandon Ayuk thing. You know, that's
a that's now officially a non story.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
You know, crazy, so many IR spots, I you just wait.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Until Yeah, yeah, I'm just not until twenty twenty six
and probably for a different team.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
And then the last one, we talked about his teammate,
but Terry McLaurin. Coming off that big game last week.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
It's really easy for me if Terry McLaurin is active. Yes,
I'm starting him over at Duneesa. But that's my that's
my only gripe with Terry McLaurin. Is is he gonna
play because he's been injured a lot this year.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, I mean he looked good in this past week.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
He completely sunk me in a league, which was pretty cool.
I was like, oh, yeah, he'll probably give you, give
us like eleven PPR points. No, No, he's gonna he's
gonna double that and just completely ruin my playoff chances
in that league.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
No big deal.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
That's the best one. Someone just shows up for you
more than you need them to. So yeah, and the next.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Week you put up a zero Yeah, exactly exactly. So
this isn't part of that wide receiver group.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
But I am curious about a couple of waiver wire
guys this week and how you feel.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
First, one's ad Ni Mitchell.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Since he's gotten to New York, you know, twenty five,
twenty six, thirty nine percent target shares, he's being used
a lot. Do you think this breakout is real for him?

Speaker 4 (36:17):
I think he can be trusted rest of the season.
I think next year is a different question. But if
we're just concerned about this year, I think if Garat
Wilson does come back, I think that takes away from
John Mechi. I don't think it's gonna hurt Mitchell at all.
So I'm fine starting him as like a like low
end wide receiver three rest of the season.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah, especially as long as like Tyrod Taylor stays under
center and they're not the thing too.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, but they don't mess around and they're like, okay,
we got enough of this.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Is also like something that's been going through my mind
is uh, you know, people will ask like, well, why
did the why did the Browns start with Joe Flacco
and not just go with one of their rookies because
they weren't gonna win anyway, or you know, why did
why did the Jets go to Tyrod Taylor, you know,
instead of instead of just playing justin fields, because is
obviously they're not gonna make the playoffs, aren't gonna make

(37:02):
any noise, Why don't we get.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
A good feel for that quarterback position?

Speaker 3 (37:06):
And you know, the the honest reason for that for
anyone who'd be curious, And this is what the Jets
have said, and I'm assuming what the Browns were thinking
too when they started the season, is you want these
quarter these these better core, the better quarterback play to
be under center for your team so you can get
a better read on what's going on outside.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Of the quarterback position.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Because if you have a completely inept quarterback that's not
able to get the ball where it needs to go,
you can't really evaluate the offensive line, the wide receivers
very well. It's it's just not as easy to do that.
And so if you have more competent play, you're able
to do that. You just have to cross your finger.
And I don't you know at this at this point today,
I don't think the Jets are going to go back
to justin fields. But that's definitely something that you know,

(37:47):
we should all keep in mind, is that, like that's
the reason that these teams do this with these veterans
even if they are, you.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Know, totally out of it. Now.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
One team that went to their rookie after starting not
really their veteran, but their other quarterback is New Wars
Devon Veley. Then this past week really big game for him.
He's got a good matchup this week. Are you are
you in or out on Devon Veyley.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
I'm more in on Vailey than I am Mitchell, to
be honest with you. I think it's safer. I think
there's not a player that can really come in or
that's on the roster, that come back from injury or
that's on the roster now that could really bump Dailey
out of his spot. I think he's pretty solidified in
that wide receiver wide receiver two spot, and any attention
to lave is gonna get It's just gonna help him,
especially against the Buccaneers, who I've said it one hundred

(38:31):
times it's a Swiss cheez secondary. Just stay away from
Winfield and you're fine.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
How bizarre is it? I was talking to Denny about
this on Living the Stream this week.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Man. I brought up Denny like eight times on.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Today's show, okay, yeah, he's yeah, hey, hey, Denny.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Oh, Denny, I'm seeing David Byrne tomorrow night. That's how
Denny and I first connected.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
There there we go, but no.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
We were talking on unliving the stream and I was like,
isn't it bizarre that Tampa Bay has seemed to be
this pass funnel for like fifteen straight years. Like every
year they're a team that that just teams are throwing
on and they're able to throw on and their pass
rate goes up against them, and there's more there's more
volume through the air against Tampa Bay. It's just the
same thing every year.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
It feels like it happened in a Monday night football
game the year after they won the Super Bowl for
the first time and Peyton Manny scored twenty was a
twenty three points in three minutes.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
Ever since then, the Bucks have just like they're so
frustrating because I've never tuned out of a Bucks game,
even if they're up by like three scores, because I look,
it's not over.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
That's not that's not that's not the easiest way to live, Joey.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
It's not. It's not at all.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
And you had a you had a good window there
though with Tom Brady that was fun.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Yeah, that's a whole other conversation. I'm not like, listen,
thank you for the super Bowl, but could you have
warn the creamsuckle one time for me? Uh, it'd have
been great to see it.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
I didn't want to do it.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
That's true. At least you didn't.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
You weren't born and raised in Pittsburgh and your team
is just the most frustra I think the Steelers at
this point might be the most frustrating team in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
I married into a Steeler family. Oh, that's right, I
have to go through it.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
My wife's family's from Washington, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yeah, I know, I know Washington. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
No, there's a there's a lot going on in uh
Steeler Nation right now. Mike Tomlin might be it might
finally be his last year.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
We'll see, We'll see.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
Three coaches in the franchises entire history.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Yeah. Yeah, that's nuts. I know.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
And you were you were born after like real of
the real fun. You got one super Bowl? Maybe, is
that about it?

Speaker 3 (40:28):
No? No, I was I was born so I didn't
get any I didn't get any of the seventies Super Bowls.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
But we got I know that we had the two.
We had the two.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
We had the one with kwor right in two thousand
and five thousand, okay, yeah, and then we had the
and then and then there was the one that that
was when I was like peak Steeler fandom.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It was like my identity because.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
I was in my late teens, right, I was in
college when they beat the Cardinals, right, and I was
like twenty twenty one years old, and so yeah, I
mean like that was that was amazing, And I'm glad
that I got to experience it at that age because
I don't think i'd I know, I wouldn't be as
rabid this, you know today, I don't.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
I just don't. I don't live and die the way
that I used to with I don't really care at
this point, you know, if they if they end up losing.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Can I have thirty seconds for a story about that
Super Bowl?

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah? I want to hear.

Speaker 4 (41:11):
It was that at a party with my best friend
at a sports bar, and we watched a girl when
the Cardinals went up, she pulled a Cardinals jersey out
and put it on, and I was like, okay, cool.
She just got off work she's a Cardinals fan. The
Steelers go up, she takes a Cardinals jersey off, put
a Steelers down, and I had maybe had more than
one drink that I should have had, and I let

(41:35):
her know how disrespectful.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
That was very disrespectful, very disrespectful.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
Yeah, very bad. We still talk about it universe.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
That is that is definitely. Yeah. I don't. I don't.
I don't like that.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
I mean, look, I'm now, I'm now. You know, I'm
a dad, I'm mature. I have responsibility, and I say, fans,
do whatever.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
You want, but don't do it. Yes, don't do that.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
That's that's when I was twenty five, I was yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Exactly, Yeah, I would have been I would have been
angry at that too.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
I want to talk about Brian Thomas. This is a question.
I've got a lot this week. And you know, anytime
someone asks is this player dropable, it's always the answer
is always who would you be dropping him for?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Obviously right, But.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
In like a twelve team league, six person bench, you
know you start two or three wide receivers.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Is Brian Thomas droppable? Right now?

Speaker 4 (42:26):
I don't have the courage to do it. He's benchable? Yeah, yeah,
you can bench him and feel good about benching him.
I know I did last week in a few leagues.
But I mean this Shaguars team is starting to click
and we know what he can be. They won four
of the last five games, they're in the playoff hunt.
It's hard for me not to see Trevor Lawrence turned
him at some point last year against the Colts two

(42:50):
or twenty five yards and a touchdown in those two games.
So this could be the week he gets back on track.
I can't drop him, But if you want to bench
him and see what he does this week and maybe
they find out rapport again, go ahead. But I'm not
gonna drop him. I'll pick him up if somebody does, though,
are you?

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Are you Jacoby Jacoby Myers over Brian Thomas comfortably rest
of season.

Speaker 4 (43:10):
At this point, Yes, Jacoby Myers is one of those
really interesting situations where a player puts on another jersey
and it feels right.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
I don't know why, but it's like Derrick Henry in
a Ravens jersey and just the day that he put
it on, I was like, yep, you're that's what you're
supposed to wear. And Jacoby Myers just felt like a
Jaguars wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah, speaking of the I mean it was there were
some rumors that like the Steelers were going after him
at the trade deadline, and he chose Jacksonville. And I
saw some people on social media being like, why would
you choose Jacksonville? And but you know, why wouldn't you
go to Pittsburgh And it's like, well, I think that
he probably chose right now, guys.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I mean it's probably the proper decision to make.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
I mean I was kind of poo pooing on the
m cohen as a you know, I was a little
salty because he left Tampa Bay and you know, he
had that really cramsy press conference, but he's kind of
putting it together there. Yes, it's the coming back playing
good And if I had to pick a team, I'm excited.
The Jaguars is gonna playing in Orlando in two years
for the season. Why the Steaeum's getting renovated.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
It's gonna be fun. That's too far because I'm further
from Jacksonville than I am from Orlando. Orlando's like fifteen
minutes up the road.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Yeah, that'd be fun. Yeah, I mean Jacoby Myers. To me,
I think that, like, if you want a really underrated
no one's valuing him as a starter in fantasy football
type of player, that's kind of Jacoby Myers right now.
I mean he's he's given us like three usable performances
in a row. He's had at least a twenty percent
target share in three straight games. He's getting good first
red targets.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
You know, he's like top twenty ish a wide receiver
in first red targets over the last three weeks. Because
that first game that he played with Jacksonville, he didn't
play a normal snap.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Count and stuff.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
And then also he's getting end zone targets, like he's
he's getting targeted, you know, close to the end zone,
so in the red zone. So I think that Jacoby
Myers is actually kind of an interesting player rest of season.
Any waiver wire players right now that you think could
really help fantasy managers in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
I'm gonna run a little gauntlet of a list here.
I mentioned Brock Perdy and Chris Rodriguez and Darren Waller
definitely at quarterback, running back, tight end. Pick those guys
up if you want to stream defenses. I don't hate
grabbing the Giants and Houston playing that in the playoffs.
You can mix and match some good matchups there. But
Devin Singletary for the Giants, we don't know what's going

(45:23):
on with Tyrone Tracy. Really good schedule. Bam Knight. I
don't think Trey Benson's coming back, and if he doesn't
come back this week, they have to shut him down
for the season. I believe so Bam Knight looks like
the best running back there Mitchell Tinsley and Yoshi Vas.
If this concussion lingers with Higgins, I don't know if
you practiced today or not last I saw he did not.

(45:44):
I do prefer Yoshi Vas over him. But this Bengals team,
I don't They're only they're gonna make the playoffs, but
they're gonna play spoiler. Yeah, and I need you to
hear me out on this. Okay, if it's going to
happen in Minnesota, it's gonna happen in the next two weeks.
I'm not saying to start them, Yeah, I'm saying go out,
pick up JJ McCarthy and Jordan Edison. See if it happens.

(46:09):
We've seen JJ have one good game I'm not saying
it's going to but this is like a get right
time for him and then if it doesn't happen, just
drop them off. But their schedule is really good for
quarterbacks and wide receivers. And it's really disappointing because I
drafted a lot of JJ McCarthy looking at that end
of season schedule and just picking them up as a

(46:29):
season started, because I'm like, man, that end of season
is so juicy, and the Vikings they were in the
hunt last year, they're still not eliminated at this point.
With caution, you know, I would say, if you've got
the spots, pick them up, because if they just figure
it out, it could be league winning type material.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
I have my playoff schedule numbers that I you know,
share in the data dump that I do on Patreon
each week with with late round patrons, and I'm just
staring at at how the Vikings wide receivers, I mean
even the running backs, but the wide receivers and quarterback
both have the top schedule and the fantasy playoffs because
they get Dallas than.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
The Giants and then the Lions.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
I mean, it is it doesn't get anything better than that,
And you know, if JJ McCarthy were a competent quarterback,
like if we felt good about it, we'd be talking
justin Jefferson would easily be a top five wide out
rest of season, you know, Jordan Anddison would be a
top twenty five thirty wide receiver rest of season. And yeah,
I mean I've been talking about those guys and I

(47:32):
have made mistakes throughout the season and saying that they
were by candidates because of this stretch and because of
their rest of season schedule. But I do think that
it's one of those situations where, you know, especially if
you're in a deeper league, like I'm still not dropping
Jordan Addison because of that, you know, Like I just
I don't want to give that up and allow someone
else who might be weaker a wide receiver to pick
them up and use them in these really great spots
because there have been really bad quarterbacks that have performed

(47:55):
well against those teams. I just don't want that to
happen against me in the playoffs. So, you know, as
as ugly as it is, yeah, you know, I get it.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
I get it all right.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Now, I want you to pick a league winner at
each position that could this could be this could be
someone out of nowhere, It could be someone obvious, but
a guy in the in the final stretch of the
season who could just win leagues for people at quarterback,
running back, wide receiver, and tight end.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
So I'll get tight end other way first, and I
will be obvious about this one. And it's more of
just like giving flowers to those people that thought Trey
McBride was the better tight end pick over brock Bowers.
Trey McBride, and he gets Cincinnati in week seventeen, which
is the best tight end matchup there is.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
I mean like over under, Like what do you think
is over under PPR point is going to be that
week like like twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
I was like, you went higher than I was to
sing twenty five.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Yeah, right, like like legitimately because he's averaging like twenty
three with with Jacoby Burssett, So like realistically, like that's
a that's a sincere outcome for Trey McBride in week seventeen.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Yeah. And at wide receiver it's Aj Brown And a
few weeks ago that sounded crazy And I went on
another show in week ten because I had made a
really bad preseason position where I said Trevor Lawrence is
going to be a league winner and got roasted really
well for it, and they said, you need to do
another hot take. What's going to be Who's going to
win leagues? For people? And I said, AJ Brown. Once

(49:18):
he gets past his next matchup, which was Green Bay,
I was like top twelve wide receiver since then, wide receiver,
five in targets, wide receiver, two interceptions, wide receiver eight
points per game. He's got a great schedule. Rest of the season,
NFC is up for grabs, Eagles are going to be competing.
I love AJ Brown. Rest of the season is going to
lead a league winner.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Yeah, I mean, look, I think that that people.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
It's really interesting because I was looking at the year
over year numbers and since Week one Aj Brown, because
you know, he was banged up going into that game
against Dallas, and uh, you know obvious, I think he
scored like five and a half PPR points since Week one. Now,
it's been a roller coaster. Do not get me wrong.
I know how like I have AJ Brown. I know
how frustrating it's been. He's only averaging I think, like

(50:01):
less than a point per game, less than he was
averaging last year.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Since Week one, and.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
So like, yes, his highs have been higher this year
and his lows have been lower. But if they if
they write the ship and I think that we like, Yes,
I think Kevin Mittulo is a terrible offensive coordinator and
they need to, you know, do something more than what
they're doing right now. I've been kind of railing against
that all year, but I'm with you, Like I think A. J.
Brown is not a bad player to have on your roster,
just giving the schedule and where they're at all.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Right, running back, let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
A chan like you know, he was drafted as like
the six or seventh running back in leagues. He's second
league in RB targets. He's kind of entered that conversation
with Gibbs and McCaffrey and it's just like a really
great duel that a dual threat running back, and with
the matchups of the Miami have down the stretch, I
think it's gonna be a great end of season for
him at quarterback. Matthew Stafford like he if you drafted

(50:52):
him late, that means the rest of your team's probably
looking pretty good. If you picked him up with the
waiver wire, the same type of situation. He's got two
twelve top twelve wide receiver's rest of the season schedule
is not hard, but it's competitive favorable. Yeah, so yeah,
I'm in on Stafford in a chan for sure.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
I really wish that Matthew Stafford didn't have that back injury,
uh in this over the summer, because I would have.
I was loaded up on rams and then I got
scared off a little bit and then we're seeing the season.
It's the best season. I mean, he's an MVP candidate
right now.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
I think with Adams it's this is why it's good
to like have people in your corner and have people
to have your back as part of a team in
this industry. Dave Klugi, who I know you love to death.
I don't know to death. Maybe I shouldn't have said.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
That you love me. He's great, great guy.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Okay, cool, Yeah, Dave's the best. You said actually in
the last episode you did say you love Dave. So
him and I are both really in on Adams and
we had him as some I think Dave was a
little bit higher. I had him at like wide receiver nine.
I had him at wide receiver eleven. Yeah, we're getting
a lot of flak for it, and I don't like
to like beat the drum too much for myself, but
I stood firm with it. I'm just like we've seen

(52:00):
Adams do it on every team he goes to, and
it's proven true. This fourth team that he's doing this with,
it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
His end zone target rates are absurd because he's just
an extension of their run game at the goal line.
And you know, eleven touchdowns over his last six games,
just just wild production from DeVante. All right, last thing,
as I ask everybody on the show, give me a
bold prediction for this upcoming week.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
I'm going really bold, Like, let's here, I must bold.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
So, on November seventeenth, twenty twenty four, Christian Watson had
one hundred and fifty receiving yards against Chicago and a
career high. It was his career high in receiving yardage.
On December seventh, twenty twenty five, he'll top that number,
got a pair of tds, and be the number one
wide receiver this week.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Christian Watson wide receiver want him this week? Wow, Christian
Watson's that's pretty bold.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
That's one of the bold realistically, Like he's easily top ten.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
This is the thing.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
This is the thing that people don't realize when fantasy
analysts say a bold thing like that and they say,
this guy's going to be wide receiver one. Even if
he does end up as like the wide receiver nine
on the week, that's still a pretty big w for us,
right exactly, so people know, right, but if he is
the wide receiver one, then it's just I mean, I'm
gonna clip this and we'll send it everywhere and you'll

(53:11):
get your flowers for it.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
Maybe we can built like some competti coming down.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Yes, Yes, some celebratory cheers and such. Yeah, Joey, this
was great man. I always love chatting with you, always
love seeing your your pretty face. Let ever know where
they can find you, what you're working on, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
Yeah, I am over at football guys. You can find
me on X or Twitter at the Joey Wright. We've
got the Sunday Morning Start and sid Show Sunday Morning Live.
We've got Trivia Night Live on Tuesdays at seven o'clock
Eastern with Jake Bryant. We're doing trivia and then the
Whole League Show every Monday around four o'clock. We dropped
that just having a blast over of football. Guys can't
believe that they let me do the stuff I do

(53:51):
over there, but they seem to like me and keep
me around.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
So yeah, and then and by the way, everybody I
know that I talk to people like Joey and I
met each other at the expo like IRL and got
to talk and we see each other there now every
year and get to have good conversation and stuff. But
it's another example of and like I think that your
story even shows this too, of like just I don't
want to call it networkings that comes with like this
like corporate vibe to it, which is not really what

(54:15):
this is, but friendship building, you know, Like there's so
much of that that goes on at the Expo every year.
And if you show up, you'll get to meet Joey
and me. We can chat, we'll have a good conversation.
You don't have to be an analyst to be there,
and you can see Joey where some of the greatest
outfits that any man owns it.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
It's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
This year, I had my dog got sick and I
had to fly back home in an emergency, and no
one got to see what I had. Then I held it. Yeah,
I told everyone I don't have anything in the show.
I had something, absolutely, but I so, I guess I'll
have to save for next year. But yeah, I've done
track suits, I've done all kinds of fun stuff. I
had a romper with a fanny pack giving out Jolly Ranchers.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
The ropper was year one, I think for me, and
that's when I'm like this, this guy, I is something special.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
You didn't get to You didn't get to see the tracksuit, Joey.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
I might, I don't. I can't remember. Was that was
track shoot tracksuit before Jolly Rancher.

Speaker 4 (55:11):
No, Jolly Rancher was the first time that I met you.
That's yeah, it is correct.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
I think that's yeah. I think that's the case because
I think you gave me a Jolly Rancher.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
I did. I I did not bring enough. I was
surprised that At first people were creeped out, but then
it was like, but it's Joey, so that Jolly Ranchers
are probably fine. Then it became popular.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
Yeah, I wouldn't mind if you did the fanny pack
thing every year with the with the Jolly Ranchers.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
Hey, I just a regular thing, just throwing that out there.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Talk to your agents about it. But anyway, Joey, it's
been great. Uh.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
Everyone, you can find my stuff over on Late Round
dot com. Of course, make sure you're checking that out.
Make sure you subscribe to the podcast feed the YouTube
channel YouTube dot com slash at Late Round f F.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Otherwise, everyone, thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
Point of the desk,