Welcome to the Fantasy Football podcast with your host, Andy Holloway and Jason Moore and Mike. Right. Come in, it's not football time, but, man, what day is it? Did you just panic? I did. You were afraid you had a panic. It's football time that started. Oh, it's. You realize it during.

Oh, that was wonderful.

I was scrolling through the sheet like, OK, this is what we're doing today. And I saw the Thursday night preview and then in my head it just went it's Thursday.

Oh, no, it's cool. It's like Jason Johnson moment.

Oh, well, welcome in. No, no football, Mike. No football today.

That sucks. Honestly, I was I'm cool with the break, the two day, one day, whatever.

I need a couple days to recover from.

I don't know if you guys know this. This is the first day in twenty seven days without football. That's that's how it feels.

So, Mike, you did it was hard for you to mess up, but you did Wednesday, December six. The one. Yeah. Welcome in.

Brooks is still employed. Brooks is here. How are you sir. Doing great. Brooks, let's be honest. Brooks is employing us at this point. That is true.

Things have really taken a turn. A lot of lucrative business business moves have paid off, shared a picture of Brooks, his manner on my Twitter yesterday. That's actually his summer home, right? Yes. Which one has the Faberge eggs? I don't remember all of them, really. Brooks is Brooks is the only person I know who has a home for every season.

It's not just in winter. There is also autumn and spring home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those are I mean, it's a lot to maintain. So we respect that about him. Yeah.

I mean, you know, they do it. Yeah. Yeah. That is, that's a Zarf. Is that what Al Boylan's for. Zabala take care of replaces. Yeah. And Deba says he knows how to handle a few now, now DBAs out. OK, we've got a busy show today, some news & notes to talk about Thursday night preview. No, it's not football time. And we'll get into some mailbag today. We've got some twenty twenty one questions mixed in as well.

For those of you who, you know, maybe maybe the first first round you faced Michael Sanders or something, something like that.

But we have we have a fun show today. I did want to give a shout out. We got a message over to join the foot dotcom from one of our listeners who is on the front lines and coordinating the roll out of this cold vaccine, I think, which, you know, so many of us are so excited about and transitioning to a more normal world. But we've heard from lots of folks and people that are in the essential worker and front line health care worker category.

And they've messaged us to say thanks for the reprieve of the podcast. And look, all we do, we just make poop jokes and dad jokes.

That's what we do. You do the important work. So I did want to give a special shout out to everybody that has been in that category, in that health care front line worker, essential worker during this last nine months of of mayhem in our in our world. So thank you so much for what you do. You too. Dot com slash the fantasy football hours. You can watch the show over there.

And subscribe, click the bell micas waving at you, that is just for you, YouTube the waves just for you. Yes, and it's time for some bycel.

Buy or sell presented by pristine auction. Well, last week was maybe our worst bycel of the year. Mm. Two for nine. Is that what I'm saying?

Woops, we all sold Alvin Kamara, OK, so we were united on selling Alvin Kamara as a top ten running back. He finished at ten on the dot.

Oh, that's ridiculous. I'm sure we can find a scoring format where we were, right. That's correct. What are you doing. Yes, like that. The Ravens safety. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Tyler Lockett, top 15 wide receiver.

I saw just a bit outside. I got bullied into that one by Jason. I was trying to stand up for my man, wide receiver. Forty seven.

But just keep believing in Tyler Lockett because I do my goal to not Lockett, not Lockett, Marvin Jones, top twenty four wide receiver.

He ended up not doing that so I straight Jason was right. Mm hmm. Week fifteen Bycel Cuyler Murray against Philadelphia. Is he a top ten quarterback this week against Philly. Man, I don't think so, and he has he has not been for three straight weeks now. That's right. Actually, this is the top 10 line that's been four straight weeks that he hasn't been top ten in six point passing leaves. And the reality is, I think that Philadelphia is reenergized.

We said this through the season, that their defense is actually really, really good. But when they're put in terrible field position, terrible situations are on the field the entire game, they can't play up to the talent that's on that defense. The offense, obviously, has been dealing with a lot of injury, but they're actually getting a little bit healthier now and they have a quarterback. So it's also a quarterback that, you know, because he's mobile and puts a lot of yards on the ground and the clock keeps running and, you know, the game slows down.

You don't get as many opportunities on the other side of the ball. So I think he's I I'm willing to play him. He's got the rushing baseline. I don't look at him as I'm going away from this matchup, but I do temper my expectations. I think he finishes outside the top ten. I'm going to sell.

Yeah, I'm going to buy it. Rushing attempts were up last week. They had that game under control. He did not have to do a whole lot in the second half. Didn't need to.

It's just ironic we're having this conversation because there was no one more consistent through 11 weeks than Kyla Murray saw some of the rushing attempts go down. I liked them back up last week. Forty seven rushing yards. I'm going to buy it. Taysom Hill was the QB eleven last week. I mean, almost three hundred passing yards, a couple of passing touchdowns. Her top 10, though. I will buy it with a.. OK, Cuyler, I'm looking at my rankings, I mean, I have them just inside of the top 10.

So the the easy hedge bet would be to say he's not going to make it, but I would play him. Yeah.

Diondre Swift at Tennessee. Buy or sell. Seventy five total yards, likely no. Matthew Stafford in this one. What do you guys think about Diondre Swift came back from the injury, the concussion and illness last week, obviously the most dynamic runner, but they still have a loyalty, it seems, to Adrian Peterson snaps.

Well, they had a limited role playing for DeAndre Swift or, you know, a little bit more limited. That should still turn into 50 yards in a Final Fantasy game against Green Bay. Green Bay, an atrocious rush offense the entire season aiming since the breakout.

You know, we've seen Swift over that mark three times. Seventy five yards against Tennessee. I'm going to buy it. It's the. I'm going to buy the volume here and it's off Staffords out, obviously the offense gets worse, but they will probably try to rely on Diondre Swift a little bit more. And I think that Swift can get it done to get to 75. Yeah, I had Swift in as my original running back started the week this week, I, I liked what we saw last week from him.

Obviously before the concussion injury, he was starting to catch fire. He looked like he was going to be a league winner. And then Stafford being out made me go, man, I. I don't know if you can really rely on Swift, but. Seventy five total yards against Tennessee. A team that is not good against pass is not good against the run. They're not good on defense right now, but they are good on offense. I think they'll score on the Lions.

They're going to need some yards for the lions. I think D'Andre Swift will be involved in both the rushing and passing game. So I'm going to buy.

I did. I think it's great, Jason.

I was like the other swift. I like it. I'm going to start of the week. Oh, no, Stafford, I can't go that far.

I'm going to be with you guys. So all by DeAndre Swift over seventy five. Kareem Hunt at the Giants. Is he a top twenty running back this week.

It was great to see him explode on Monday Night Football number four overall this past week. Previously though in in good matchups. Right, Tennessee, Jacksonville you ended up with outside the top thirty twenty ninth against Philadelphia the week prior. We hadn't seen this and it really came down to finally I mean, he's the leading receiver on the team. This was not something we had seen previously. He had been in that four three to category in terms of targets and this was a big improvement for him taking on the Giants in New York.

Top twenty running back. Kareem Hunt, what do you think?

I think Kareem Hunt all season has been a fourth quarter guy. You watch the beginning of the game, you're like, man, he's doing nothing. He's not involved enough. And you're really sad. And at the end of the game, you're like, oh, he's awesome. But it's better in those matchups where the other teams are scoring a lot of obviously, Baltimore. He was great because they had to keep pushing the ball. They had to keep passing.

They had to try to keep up with the Baltimore Ravens. I don't think that's going to happen against the New York Giants. So I'm going to I mean, this is a really good line because I don't think this requires a touchdown. So I I'm close here, but I'm going to sell I'm going to be just on the outside.

I'm going to sell as well. But the the upside for Kareem Hunt, Jason, like you said, it's not a shoot out game with the New York Giants. The upside is five quarters. Yeah, three quarters through. Nicholas Chubb has retired, has. Yeah.

They don't need Chubb in the fourth quarter and they can just keep giving the ball over and over to Kareem, hunt it on top of the sporadic opportunities he gets through the the whole game. But top twenty, I'm, I'm going to sell on that mark because I think he's just outside of it. All right. I'm going to buy it. I think he sneaks inside the top twenty this week, giants over the last six weeks. Twenty four going in sync style here.

Bye bye bye bye bye. All right, that was by herself from pristine auction, pristine auction dotcom. That just reminds me of the RidicuList. It's going to be May all oh, stuff that you bring into my world.

My pristine auction dotcom used to code Bala's get a ten dollar credit. Lots of great stuff up there, especially for the holiday season. So you can check that out. Let's talk news.

News & notes from around the league. Panthers expect Christian McCaffrey to miss the game on Saturday.

I expected him to miss the game on Saturday, on the show yesterday, and this is the worst for fantasy players, the worst unless you have Mike Davis and you don't have Christian McCaffrey like I do in one league where I keep thinking I don't have a running back option. And then Mike Davis is their.

Yeah, it's it's been a bad, bad year for Christian McCaffrey. I finally figured out when he's coming back, he's coming back in week seventeen when most people's fantasy is done and it's relevant and. Will you be watching? Of course, I'll be watching, but only because it's my job. OK. All right. And I will I just want to throw out because I've seen the people talking on on Twitter like that, very upset with Christian McCaffrey.

And look, he's I get that his injuries have let down your fantasy team, but next year I will still be drafted. Chris McCaffrey with the top three pick. I mean, he'll probably be my one on one. Derrick Henry into the mix, I don't think Derrick Henry enters the mix at one, he obviously he's great. He's a top running back out there. But if I've got the first pick and I have the option to get someone who catches the ball as much as, you know, one of those true three down backs, I'm always going to take them over a world class two down back.

Yeah, makes sense.

Mike Tomlin says James is dealing with an injured quad. The. Connor as an injury and seemingly talent issue this year, I mean, watching that game last week, I think that game he was dealing with an injured quad.

Yeah, I'm guessing he had that all game because there was one. Definitely be able to know, though. There was Connor. You don't always know if he's dealing with injury with the way he looks on the field.

But me and I remember one play, he gets the ball and he basically just stopped. He grabbed the ball with one hand and it was like he was looking at the offensive line. He just stayed there, stood there until the defense came and tackled him. I was like, what were you doing this quarter? Apparently.

So I think this is be drafting a running back next year. Yeah.

Benny Snell is not the answer and James Connor's not the answer with you. And he's he's not a start right now. He's he's a oh, I have to start. James Connor. Not a good James Connors. Active Devante Parker.

Slight hamstring strain uncertain for this week's game against the Patriots. Uncertain for your fantasy lineups is not good, so I would be playing somebody else, he could reactivate that. That is a an easy injury to do that with its the Patriots, its two variables aplenty find another option at wide receiver. Is that a fair summation? Absolutely. All right, Jameis Winston, rumors abounding.

Sean Payton says that Winston will get a chance to be the starting quarterback after Brees retires as the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

After Brees retires, literally, Jameis Winston is not under contract. He's not on your team. He's a one year deal. Right? I mean, at the end of this year, he's a free agent. You don't get to be like, all right, Winston, is your chance.

Well, I mean, if they if they pay him, then I guess he's got a high chance.

That's the way it seems. But it's worth noting for Dynasty Leagues and Henry Rog's was placed on the covid list. Austin Ekeler is on the injury report now, I will say this Austin Ekeler is bringing us direct to Consumer Injury Reports lately because he's got he's got the Twitch thing going on. He says he's one hundred percent fine, like they asked him about why he showed up on the injury report. He says, I'm not injured, so I wouldn't worry about Austin Ekeler.

He let us know when he was coming back and he's let us know that he's just fine. This is a rest situation. They probably said, hey, your quad looks like it could use a day. Keenan Allen is on there with a hamstring situation. We saw that at the end of the game. Mike Williams, return to limited practice. Nothing too scary right now for those three players. Yeah, it sounds like they are going to play.

And before we get into the preview of that game, we got a new sponsor.

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I you said Private Island. I immediately thought you were talking about Brook Brook, but this is a this is from the game content. We also want to thank a new sponsor, North One. Listen, there's a problem in America. American business builders spend too much time trying to manage their money when they should be focused on growing their business. I have a solution to that problem. American business builders need a bank account that makes the hardest part of running their business.

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Thursday night breakdown. All right, the Los Angeles Chargers at four nine taking on the Las Vegas Raiders at seven and six, the Raiders are three and a half point favorites.

It's a 53 point overunder. I like that. I bet it's not bad. And so this is a rematch from week nine. The Raiders won thirty one to twenty six that week, so they would have hit the over. And the Chargers dominated time of possession in that game, they dominated total yards, but they can't manage the clock. Holy crap, we haven't talked about that. This this past week was the most embarrassing. This was the most outlandish, ridiculous situation.

After as many failures as as this team has had this season, you just expect they will work on it and be prepared. They're still human beings that can figure this stuff out right. Like and then the next week comes and it's worse. And you go, how did you possibly manage the clock that poorly? They they were down and they drove down, got into field goal range and. Didn't didn't get to kick. They ran, they ran some people on the field, the field goal team was coming on.

The players were running off and there was no time. And time just ran out during the transition because they ran the ball with no timeouts left.

It's a bad combination with a coach that clearly has a problem with time management and then a rookie at quarterback. That combination because, you know, Justin Herbert, it's hard to expect a rookie to have a mastery of these situations.

It just reminded me of one of my absolute all time favorite football moments, which was the Kirk Cousins right before the half driving down needs to spike the ball, stop the clock, and he takes a knee that is one hundred percent on the mat.

And I pushed the wrong button.

Oh, no, I just need the clock out instead of stopping it.

And you're like, yeah, I did it, OK.

Oh, you ever done that in Madden where you do the hurry up play but you accidentally called the knee. Oh, so you think you're about to call a quick play and you just take I mean that moment. I forgot about that, Jason.

The Kirk Cousins me at the end of the half.

And who was it was a person who who stared into his soul?

I think so, yeah.

And then what was it, Diggs on the outside that was like, what did you do?

Oh, it was so spectacular. All right. Let's talk about this game, though. Derek Carr, Justin Herbert. Look, the overunder is nice, herbut has been great, Derek Carr has been great the last two weeks. Three hundred plus yards, four touchdowns. Every time you start saying good things about Derek Carr, we know what happens to the car.

Cars got no brakes, goes off the cliff. I I don't know if I want to do this, guys.

So listen, Herbert, I'm comfortable with. I have a consistency. There's two sets of consistency. Herbert's been very consistent. And the Raiders defense has been consistent in terms of, you know, a willingness to give up points. Now, they did fire their defensive coordinator this past week. They are frustrated. I don't know if you get a rebound at home performance from them. They are favored. Were you with Herbert? I'm playing Herbert with full confidence.

Yeah, I am as well. Go ahead.

I think the Herbert has obviously he's been electric the entire season. The shoe dropped a couple of weeks ago where he had a really bad game against Bill Belichick. But this is not Bill Belichick. This is this isn't a talented enough defense. And yet, unless this defensive coordinator change just completely changes all their personnel.

Yeah, I mean, it's I don't I don't see that solving the problem. The biggest issue I would have and the only reason I would sit Herbert in this matchup is if things come, you know, as as we get closer and tomorrow in today's practice report, if Keenan Allen ends up actually hurt because we saw him leave the game, now he's on the injury report, it's it's hard to know on those Thursday night games what the injury report really means, because, you know, there's the short week and they always give rest.

So they were going to give him a rest no matter what. But it doesn't like haymakers. Yeah, exactly. They were going to give him rest. They said he's got a shoulder problem, but.

But Keenan left the game. So Keenan is my only worry here with regards to Harbor. If Keenan was out, I would not. But with Keenan McWilliams back, Austin Ekeler Herberts got a good baseline.

Austin Ekeler. Like I said, I don't think he's hurt at all. I think he plays. He's been targeted a ton. He catches every single one of his targets. He is a must play this week. Josh Jacobs. He had the trolling situation last week. We talk a lot about this when Josh Josh Jacobs gets more opportunities and performs when the Raiders win. I think that's pretty true of a lot of running backs, but especially ones that are focused on that first and second down situation and the way that they want to manage the clock.

You know, Derrick Henry has had problems now, luckily plays on a team that wins more than the Raiders do, and so it's more reliable. But that's the kind of category I see Jacobs in, is where you if you expect them to control the clock, if you expect them to potentially be on the right side of things, which they are favored this week, then Jacobs gives you the kind of game you expect in the the matchup here, like it looks like the Chargers have a better against running backs.

If you just look at the success, like looking at the stream finder, how have running backs done against the Chargers? Well, Atlanta, L.A. doesn't really have any running backs. New England, you get Damian Harris between the 20s, but you don't get golden opportunities. Buffalo, same thing. Their running backs just do not produce. But for most of the year, we've seen running backs have success against the Chargers. So I'm not I'm not letting the the last few games skew my view of of of what Josh Jacobs should do.

Josh Jacobs, this is a top twenty play. Yeah, he's been and he's been inside that the RB two range every week other than the week he got knocked out due to injury. So I think you just play him, move forward, help for that multi touchdown type of opportunity. Nelson Aguilar was brought up on the waiver show yesterday. It was five, four, one hundred and one. He seems like a very viable play this week. Like you need to move to Nelson Aguilar if you're the Devante Parker manager.

Yes.

One hundred percent. That's a perfect example of a player that a lot of people have. They've you know, last week the Chargers gave up the number one most fantasy points to the wide receiver position. So this the matchup is is there and the targets have been there. The red zone utilization. It's hard to say. You know, I'm relying on Nelson Aguilar in my semifinal.

No match up, but I think he should be a solid option. He should be a top thirty six wide receiver. And he always has the upside to have a big finish because of the red zone work.

Over the last four games, Nelson Agholor has seen twenty two percent of the targets. Like that's that's good enough man. Well in Henry Rugg is now out so it's just. Yeah, it's just, you know, set up for success for Aguilar. And Jason made a good point on Sunday lide this past week, which nice job, by the way, filling in for Mike.

And on Sunday Live, you reminded people that you're look. What do you want or do you want to win the title or do you want your team to look good on paper? Sometimes you win with these players at the end of the year that don't look like they should be in your lineup. And you brought up Tim Hightower with a running back for the past. Think, Oh, no, sorry.

Yeah. Although Tim Patrick fits the bill, too, because I'm. Look, you just need to win, that's that's at the end of the day and what better team to talk about it? Just win, baby. Nelson Aguilar. So Hunter Henry, eight targets last week. Always a possibility at the tight end position for a touchdown, Daryn Waller, you play him each and every week, no questions asked.

Oh yeah, all the way through to the end of the year.

Yeah. And Hunter Henry, I mean, of of the Chargers players who are hurt, Ekler Keenan Allen Limited. Mike Williams is the one I'm most concerned about. I mean, he got knocked out of essentially the entire game. And if Mike Williams is out, I expect more downfield shots to Unter. Yes, it's been a couple weeks since he's had a good week at the tight end position, but he had three straight top twelve weeks before that against Buffalo.

The Jets in Miami. A reminder to take your Thursday night players out of your flex position. Make sure you have injury and covid flexibility later in the week.

Otherwise, I think we're ready to do some mailbag, like the last one I would throw out is it's a bit of a desperation, but maybe you're in a PPR.

But Hunter Renfroe with with Henry Rug's being out, I think that you're going to see a a significant rise in targets for for Henry. Yeah. And the Chargers have been or Hunter sorry, chargers have been pretty good against the tight end position over the last six weeks. So maybe Wollar doesn't get every one of those PPR type of targets. So I think that's a that's a good point. The accountant can be out there managing the books for you if you're desperate.

So let's do some mailbag.

Mailbag, go back now, not football time.

Look, we've moved past that. All right, three zero two four six four tff b, that's the voice mail hotline. If you have a question for the show, you can also go to the website, the fantasy football dot com, click the submit a question button. Let's kick this off with a voicemail question.

Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Happy holidays. Four point lead, which you start, Justin Herbert or Tom Brady. Oh, man, four point per touchdown Ligue. Oh, big herb or the plant man. Yeah, I think I'm going to go with Tom Brady in this one, Tom Brady against the Atlanta Falcons, who are on the year they're dead last against opposing fantasy quarterback. So there's there's opportunity there. It's funny because I feel like Brady has I think genuinely this week, Brady has like a little bit higher ceiling and a lower floor.

And I feel like Herbert is pretty safe to be, at least in that middling tier, like Brady can be outside the top 20. That's just he's shown us he can do that. He did it. He's done it twice in the last five weeks. Yeah. But he's also had a number one overall finish. Yeah.

I don't see Brady having a low floor personally. His low floor is, you know, when you've got a really good pass rush, when you've got the the Saints, you know, he's 20th last week against Minnesota, though that was supposed to be a smash matchup for Brady.

What do you think about that finish? Well, if you remember the game and I remember it closely because I was playing Brady, Brady was was very good. He had a nice deep touchdown to Scottie Miller, had a nice one to Gronk. And then all of a sudden the game got out of control and they didn't need to they didn't need him at all anymore. And they just ran the the clock, ran the ball out. And that that was the game.

However, because, remember, the first quarter was like deleted by the Vikings. That was a little bit of a weird game script. I don't think it was Brady being bad and against Atlanta who's we've talked about this recently, been great against running backs with a broken finger, Ronald Jones, who might miss the game. I just don't think they're going to be able to run the ball and they'll be able to pass. So I do like Brady.

He's I mean, we might need to go. I would go. Brady Yeah.

I know the play man knows how to win in the playoffs. I'm with you guys. Eileen Brady here. All right.

Here's an annual debate that comes up this time of year in the fantasy football community. And Justin wrote in about it, but I've seen it all over the place. And I also am in leagues where they go different directions on this. Um, Justin asks, should non playoff teams be participating in the waivers? We had a non playoff team dropped Mike Davis last week. It changed the playoff landscape tremendously in our league, including a heated discussion in our chat group and.

You know, there's nuance to this question to make sure I agree there's redraft leaks right where you are, you know, complete, like if you're not in the playoffs, the season's over. You're going to draft a brand new team next year. How do you feel about this? I mean, I'm in leagues where if you're not in the playoffs, you're not eligible for pickups during waiver day. I'm in leagues like all of our leagues where you can participate week to week in the waiver pickups.

But we we play in at least multichip or leagues most often, so. Right.

And obviously, if you are in any kind of a keeper league situation where something you do this year can still have an effect on next year, then then, of course you should be making transactions.

You should be picking up possible, you know, rookie guys that could have a veteran injury or a free agent signing away that you could keep next year. But in those three draft only leagues, the way that I view it is if your league doesn't want these transactions to make, that just needs to be the official stance of the league. Without that, I always encourage everybody to play through, play on, keep making your best decisions and waiver wire pickups.

And that's going to help you next year. You know, we talk about all, well, your team will be better next year in a keeper league. If you do pick up the, you know, the undrafted free agent who ends up becoming a thing next year and you can have and be your keeper. Well, you don't want to know the truth. Your team will be better next year for you paying attention and playing through to the end of the season because you will be better as the general manager.

So I am in favor of it now, specific to this question, dropping Mike Davis. That's a problem. That's a problem. That's that that's not helping your team in any I mean, we don't know the context of who he picked up or whatnot, but it seems like that's just bad. That's just that's stupid. So I would I would say you can't have things that ruin the integrity of the league.

Mike, did you want to weigh in here? I will say this, like, if you if you play through, you're going to reduce the odds of this Mike Davis situation happening, because, you know, if that's true, the precedent of your league to keep going. You know, people do consolation brackets, people do points based like Mike's in a league where they give a reward every week for the total, highest points. I think it's a really strategic, smart way if you're in a money league to have a little bit of a weekly bonus, because then if you play through the integrity of your league, stay strong and there's something to play for, even if you're not in the playoffs.

Yeah, I'm with Jason that play through. I, I want to win. I don't want to be the last place. I don't want to be second to last place. If I didn't make the playoffs, I still want to finish as high as I possibly can.

And OK, I don't understand why you need to shrink the pool of fantasy managers who get access to these, these players like I mean you're still going to have then people complaining of like, well, this person had the the waiver priority and it's like, no, just keep playing all the way through. I get that you're in a much higher stakes situation than me if you're in the playoffs and I am not. But you, I'm still going to play through.

And I'm trying to be a bit of a realist in the fact that, look, if you're eliminated from predraft league playoffs, you really. You need that's why I like the whole weekly reward type of situation set up at the beginning of the year, because we're human, too, like Jason's right. And if you want to be a better player, you're going to pay attention at the end of the year because so much happens that defines the next year.

But you're also probably if you just missed the playoffs or you're burned or you're feeling the competitive juices aren't there, that's why it's nice to set up the format of your league to incentivize that a little bit or set up the format of your league to outlaw it.

You know, if the majority says we're a redrafts league, it's it's it's Bush league when you do that, which I completely disagree with. But if that's how you feel, then put it to a vote. And if the majority of your league feels that way, that should be the rule. But if that's not the rule, then you're playing by the rules. Yep. Agreed.

And obviously to go without saying. But you're not don't solicit other owners to sign players or do anything to benefit you. Let's go to another voicemail question.

Fabolous, who just started Fleck's this week between carmakers against the Jets or T.Y. Houston, thank you.

So. Oh, man. Oh, I'm playing carmakers in that situation. I'm going carmakers. Yeah. I mean, you still have two years of hoping to. Helton was good and two weeks where he was. That's my argument.

And you have twenty nine carries for carmakers last week.

Yes. Excuse me. Three weeks where he's been good. That's true.

But Jonathan Taylor could have twenty nine carries this week and you never see T Whitehill and that is a possibility.

That is, that is a possibility. I you know it's funny because what he said carmakers are like I felt like I'm like, well I'm done. It's carmakers. But then he said, do I use that? I was like, oh, they he's going to be good. I would I would still take the volume. Whenever you've got that razor thin decision between two really good options, I think they both have great weeks. Then you take whoever has the more guaranteed volume and that would be carmakers.

It's not just the volume, it's he's playing. The jets like this is carmakers is in a similar spot. All right, Twitter question from Claire. Claire says, Is it worth hanging on to Alexander Madison as the cook manager, what is your line for dropping him?

Is it worth it to stash a DST and or to block my opponent?

I love this question. I love the way you're thinking. I am in leagues right now where I was in the studio yesterday and talking to Jason and I have a match up CBS league that I'm in. It's a charity league for St. Jude that I won last year. You hear that?

Jamie Eisenberg, we're coming for you.

We're in a semifinal match up him and I and I thought about like I have Josh Allen and I don't need Taysom Hill. And Taysom Hill might not start for more than one more week. And I'm sitting there going, well, I need to pick somebody up. Can I drop some hill? Which kind of feels like this Madisen decision, right. It's a it's a gamble to drop somebody that someone else could pick up. And I looked at my opponent's roster and I said he might pick up Taysom Hill and play him against me.

I have to hang on to him. So I didn't let him let him go. Those are the type of of gambles that you're making here. Now, if Cook goes down, well, it would have to happen right this week. So having Madison this week isn't going to help you. So you would be holding on to Madison for a one week potential cook injury and then you have to weigh that out against the benefit of stashing ATSDR, blocking your opponent.

That's it comes down to the what are the running backs do you have? And so where is that line of, you know, heading into the next week and your option to replace David Cook, should you somehow make it through through the end and withstand the victory, so to speak, of a double cook injury? You're playing like Damian Harris or Duke Johnson. I mean, those are the types of players I would imagine you'd be choosing between that or a starting Alexander Madison.

I would I would drop Madison. I would let him go.

I would drop Madison as well. And here's here's why. Because you, Andy Andy illustrated it perfectly. You're not playing Madison this week. He's not a value. If Cook gets injured on the first play, Madison is still relevant for you this week and you probably lose the game. Losing, you know, getting a zero from Dalvin Cook the following week. Should Dalvin Cook get you through the whole game and get injured on the last play of the game.

So now this is the best situation where I held on to Alexander Madison. Are you going to start Alexander Madison against New Orleans in the championship week? One of the best defenses against the run. He's not an obvious must start just because he's replacing Dalvin Cook.

So do you like Boone? They use CJ Ham. They'll be annoying Mirabela.

So it's one of those where I think you are better served at this point now that we are to the week we are in. Assuming that you have a week, sixteen championship week seventeen against Detroit, that would change things. But if it's a week sixteen championship, I'm letting Alexander Madison go in order. If I can make a worthy transaction to block someone, pick up a defense, do something important, you can win your week.

Blocking your opponent from a defense can also lose your week. Yeah, thanks, Mike.

We did a little bit of a rehash this morning of things that transpired this past weekend. One of them being that I, I paid one fab. I had one fab dollar. Mike had none to pick up DeAndre Washington, who was starting for Miami. Yeah, I got the instant dap from Mike. He sent me a note. He said, Hey, nice job on the block, because Mike was searching for some options. He had an injured Antonio Gibson and Gamoran.

He was not, believe it or not. Not confident in Michael Sanders. Oh, I believe I was not in Washington, would you have played him over Michael Sanders?

I cannot say for sure that you wanted to, but it was it was at least going to be part of the the thought process. And if you had got him, then there's that kind of one of the reasons why I liked Washington more was the vested like the bias of signing somebody. You spend your fab on them, you pick them up that morning. It's like, oh, well, I blocked my butt. But is this valuable now and.

Right.

And the butterfly effect. Oh, my. Because because I was going to spend five five dollars to block my opponent from getting DeAndre Washington, but I couldn't because ESPN did not have Christian McCaffrey listed as out, so I couldn't move him and open up the roster spot. So you got him instead of me. Yeah, I might get him. Which means myositis plays two out of the playoffs.

There has to be look, people people play fantasy football, right? There's a lot of them. There has to be like a psychiatrist office where someone walks in and they lay down on the couch and the psychiatrist thinks they're about to hear about a marital issue or about a work issue growing up with their childhood childhood issue, pay daddy issues, whatever.

And the first word out of that person's mouth is a start sit decision that they made this past week. There has to be someone somewhere because I know I'm going through it right now.

Is the show over yet? No, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. All right, we're moving on YouTube question. I said there'll be some twenty twenty one questions here. Here is one from Tyler Nicholson over on YouTube. Is there a slam dunk pick for number one overall in fantasy leagues next year?

It's funny because we kind of brought this up a slam dunk. I don't know if it'll be Dalvin Cook and Christian McCaffrey related.

And in that case, what I thought about earlier. And Jason, I'll give you the chance to weigh in with your opinion, too, obviously. I don't know if every McAffrey question was answered that did exist before the season, which was new head coach, new quarterback, new offense, new situation. Now, we did see him for a game three. Did we see him for three games? Yeah, he's been in three games and he was unfathomably.

He only came back for one during the back half of the year, right? Correct. OK. And he was obviously, like you said, he was incredible. So maybe those questions have been answered.

And we've seen Mike Davis in the meantime, a journeyman backup who's had a ton of fantasy production. To me, Christian McCaffrey is a clear cut.

Here's here's his fantasy finishes in week one. The RB two. Yeah, week, week two. He played. Sixty four percent of the snaps got hurt finishes the running back six on the week comes back against the Kansas City Chiefs. Is the running back to.

Well I, I think Dalvin Cook is it's fair to put him in the conversation.

Yeah. Because of his explosiveness. The same type of utility in the passing game. I get it.

It's ironic that the knock against Cook is his injuries. Why.

And it's still going to be that's still a dialogue point for Christian McCaffrey to me is is you came into the year saying maybe they want to reduce the load now. They didn't do it and he was great in those games, but he he was hurt all year. Three injuries, quad shoulder me. They have to manage Christian McCaffrey if you pay him that amount of money, don't they? Well, we say they do and then they never need they never do, but claim the injuries have stacked up this year.

I also think that some of these missed games this season have been because of the situation of the schedule, because of the situation of the team and the fact that they're playing for the future and they don't want to rush him back. They want him at full strength next year versus getting back in week fifteen against, you know, an irrelevant game. So I think that's that's part of the games he's missed. I think he's missed at least three games a season where if they were in the runnings fighting for a playoff spot, he would he would have played.

So really next year, you're looking at Cooke, McCaffrey. You're looking at the potential for. Who else? I mean, I would throw a camera aspart, Barkley is going to be in the top five discussion again, isn't he? Probably, yeah. And depending on the quarterback situation for the Saints and then Derrick Henry.

Yeah, yeah. And probably you're going to start hearing Jonathan Taylor come up in the first round if the end of this first round. If not not number one overall. But I agree, you know, but probably ahead of like the Zech category.

Maybe, maybe, maybe that's kind of fun to ruminate when you've been knocked out by Mike.

All right, you two, do I start Brandon, you Kirgizstan Jefferson in a PPR like.

Oh, me. Oh, my. Justin Jefferson or Brandon IUE. Jefferson has a tough matchup against Chicago. They are fourth on the year. Brandon Eisuke is all alone now. You don't know the quarterback. They have talked about looking at different quarterback situations, but he's got the best matchup in football against Dallas. I think it's brand new this week as much as I love Justin Jefferson. Jefferson was ten targets, eight for one thirty five the last time they played the Chicago Bears, and that was in Chicago.

So it's not that Justin Jefferson can't get it done.

Why do you have to bring that up, man?

Six targets for Brandon IUC, 16 targets this past week without Debo Samuel against Dallas.

Yeah, the whole. And I know Shanahan built his entire offense around one target. He does it and he's come out and said he does it help build eighty five percent of the game plan around.

Brandon, you I have them back to back in my rankings and I, I think I would go Brandon, I yuku. We will also talk about on Thursday. Let let me just bring this up.

Let me because maybe we don't think about it because dbo coming back with Tebow coming back last five games for Brandon now that he's played, he's been a top twelve wide receiver three of those times. The two weeks that he did not make the top twelve he was 16th and 20th. You will not go wrong with Brandon are you. Jefferson volume at many times this year. And the game plan for Minnesota is Dalvin Cook. You can have four target games for Justin Jefferson.

You can have three reception games for him. But it hurts me to to say bench him, but I'm going to go Brandini Duke has been incredible. You can thank you.

Oh, we've got it. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, all right. Let's, uh, let's go with this question from Laura. Because I love it, my husband and I made it into the semifinals this week and are up against one another. Oh, no, I'm one of those people that's been streaming quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts or Philip Rivers this week.

Oh, both of us are.

Great question for the streaming quarterbacks from yesterday. Yeah, the show, they are they are both excellent plays. Jalen hurts against Arizona Pee River going to be up against the Houston Texans with T.Y. Houston probably doing his magical act again. I'm going to take Philip Rivers. Man, you've got one game of game film now for Jalen Hurts. It matters. It really does. I'm going to take a pee river this this is brutal, I think that hurts.

The probability that Jalen hurts has a bad game. Is lower than Philip Rivers. Like, I think Hertz is safer. I think it's Floras is safer. I think the ceiling is safer on Hertz than Rivers just because Rivers doesn't ever have a ceiling. If he finishes as a quarterback, what it's like usually the quarterback in his great games this year have been that way. He's you know, he's he's been playing great football. And I love Rivers this week.

His last five weeks are the quarterback, 13, 10, 10, 17, 15. All good. All right. I'm going to switch. But it's it's tough, it's the playoffs I'm going to switch because I, I feel like Jalen hurts if it goes right, is what Jason's saying, he could give you top five. Philip Rivers going right is number 10. Yeah, Philip Rivers change the upside in the playoffs. I'm going to change.

I want you to I'm just happy I was able to talk someone off of Philip Rivers.

Take that.

Philip, I feel like that you have like an LLC just for that. Like you have your own side business and all you do is consult people out of Philip Rivers after.

What are you considering starting Philip Rivers?

I want to see the the infomercial. That would be spectacular. What's funny is I think Philip Rivers is a very good play this week. I think people out there that are going to start him, that's not that's not bad. That's not a negative. Yeah, but you know who's a great play this week? Jonathan Taylor.

Angus Houston. Yeah, I mean. He may have 30 carries this game and the defense is so good for Indianapolis, this game could be over quick use.

I mean, look here, you saw it two weeks ago, two weeks ago. Philip Rivers went out and was excellent against this Houston Texans team. Two hundred eighty five and two touchdowns have finished as the quarterback. Seventeen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

That'll do it for today's show.

A reminder for all of you supporting the show at Join the Fight Dotcom. We have the forecast later today. Starts the week tomorrow. Match ups, football time like it is tomorrow. Good bye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy football podcast, join our fantasy football community on Join the Foot Dotcom and follow us on Twitter at the Fabulous.