Beyond the Box Score: Nico Collins, Ken Walker, Baker Mayfield, Omarion Hampton, Michael Carter (12/22 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Fantasy Football Today (FFT) — "Beyond the Box Score: Nico Collins, Ken Walker, Baker Mayfield, Omarion Hampton, Michael Carter"

Date: December 22, 2025
Hosts: Adam Aizer (Adam), Dan Schneier (Dan), Jacob Gibbs (Jacob)

Brief Overview

This episode of FFT goes "beyond the box score," breaking down the advanced stats and week 16 performances for key fantasy players like Nico Collins, Ken Walker, Baker Mayfield, Omarion Hampton, and Michael Carter. The crew discusses the chaos of the fantasy semifinals, unpacks injuries and snap counts, and debates lineup decisions for the fantasy championship week, offering actionable insights and a healthy dose of therapy for suffering fantasy managers.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Agony of Playoff Upsets and Randomness

[02:23-06:13]

• The team opens with tales of heartbreak from the fantasy semifinals. Dan laments first-seeded teams crashing out, exclaiming:

  "First seed not even making it to the finals. All three teams are going down… it's a league that doesn't reward the points winners, and sometimes you can lose in the playoffs. That's how it goes." (Dan, 03:03)

• Adam reminds listeners:

  "Getting to the playoffs is a huge accomplishment. It’s just tough, one week and all it's up for all the marbles. It’s about luck." (Adam, 04:20)

• Discussion of league formats: Some leagues reward points over head-to-head in playoffs; the crew has mixed feelings but mostly accepts the luck factor.

---

Patriots-Ravens Recap & Injury Fallout

[06:13-13:44]

• Drake Maye had a stellar game — 27.7 fantasy points, 380 passing yards, and impressive deep ball accuracy (7 of 10 for 184 yards and a TD on deep throws).
• Key injuries: Travion Henderson (concussion), Kayshawn Boutte (WR, concussion), Lamar Jackson (day-to-day with back injury).
• Jacob on starting Ramondre Stevenson next week:

  "Yeah...if Henderson’s out, you’re definitely starting him. You might be able to start him either way in this matchup against the Jets." (Jacob, 08:12)

• Stefon Diggs saw increased route rate (80%).
• Ravens Outlook: If Lamar’s out and Huntley starts, Adam says:

  "We’re talking about a team that... averaged 14 points per game without Lamar. If it’s Huntley, you can probably start Henry, but not Flowers." (Adam, 13:10-13:20)

---

Fantasy Playoffs Therapy & Podcast Year-End Vibes

[13:44-18:15]

• Hosts console each other and listeners as they reflect on a ‘tilting’ playoff week and share anecdotes of bad beats and questionable lineup decisions.
• Jacob describes benched players and self-inflicted wounds:

  "Jackson Dart over Matthew Stafford...if you're mad at me for the Matthew Stafford concern, I'm right here with you." (Jacob, 05:27)

• Dan jokes about broadcast quality and how “everybody hits that point,” hinting at play-by-play struggles (e.g., Al Michaels).

---

Snap Counts & Advanced Usage Notes

[22:25-29:26]

• Rocket (Raheim) Sanders: Intriguing, explosive option for Cleveland with potential for 10–15 touches.

  "He can churn out yards and... can create explosive plays. They call him Rocket for a reason." (Jacob, 24:50)

• Dallas: Javonte Williams (57% snaps, but only 9 carries).
• Jameer Gibbs: Workhorse role with 86% snap rate, 13 targets.
• Chiefs: Isaiah Pacheco (72% snaps, 65% routes)—“highest target per route run rate of his career”.
• Audric Estime (Saints): Led but in a tough spot due to Taysom Hill’s involvement.
• Bucky Irving (Tampa Bay/Bucs): Snap count up, but limited high-value usage. Concerns about his health and passing game role.
• Chris Godwin and Mike Evans both clear 80% routes, big uptick, especially for Evans.

---

Five Big Things: Deep Dives on Key Fantasy Starters

[31:55-53:31]

1. Seattle Running Backs: Ken Walker & Zach Charbonnet

[33:00-36:42]

• Both had productive fantasy weeks in a surprise blow-up game; now face Carolina’s porous run D.
• The crew debates their trust level:

  "Ken Walker to me looks like clearly the best player on the field... But I don't know if I can trust him." (Dan, 33:00) "I would hope to avoid both of them... probably will rank both outside the top 30 RBs this week." (Jacob, 33:55)

• Discussion of frustrating timeshares and the need for big plays for fantasy relevance:

  "When this guy (Charbonnet) doesn't score a touchdown, he is... awful." (Adam, 33:46)

2. Nico Collins: What Happened?

[38:15-39:59]

• Subdued week (4-59-0), but after watching the tape, Jacob says:

  "I thought Nico played great. There were two extremely close sideline toe drags, and a couple wide-open misses...easily could have been 100, 110 yards." (Jacob, 38:15) "I'm fine going there (starting him)... Decent chance this ends up a big Nico Collins game." (Jacob, 39:31)

• Adam notes Collins' end zone target luck: 14 end zone targets but just 4 TDs, perhaps due to Stroud’s poor red zone accuracy.

3. Baker Mayfield & the Bucs Offense

[40:51-46:36]

• Dissecting a dull, conservative, low-ADOT game against Carolina. Jacob defends Baker's play:

  "I don't think (Baker) played bad... I thought his accuracy was pretty good." (Jacob, 42:26) "The offense lacks juice... the playcalling seems stale." (Jacob, 44:45)

• Adam's bottom line:

  "If he weren't playing the Dolphins, I don't think people would want to start Baker Mayfield, but the matchup's enticing... he'll be a top 15 QB, maybe." (Adam, 45:12)

• Jacob drops the deep-dive numbers: Tampa running motion on only 34% of plays (league avg: 50%), just 6% play-action (league avg: 23%) — "just stale." (Jacob, 46:22)

4. Omarion Hampton’s Big Opportunity

[46:36-51:01]

• Strong in Week 16 (16 carries, 85 yds, TD), now faces a Houston run D that can be "deceptively" effective.
• Adam:

  "If Vidal is out, I don't see... how you can't start Hampton as a number two running back." (Adam, 48:28)

• Jacob:

  "Hampton’s been more effective than Vidal — 3.5 yards after contact per rush, higher explosive run rate... one of the most effective RBs in the NFL this year." (Jacob, 49:07)

• Some concern about splits and lack of reception upside, but with Vidal out, top-20 RB workload is likely.

5. Michael Carter: Championship-Week Flex?

[51:05-53:31]

• Faces the Bengals, weakest D vs RBs.
• Dan wavers:

  "Confidence? No. But will I do it? Possibly...as a back-end flex." (Dan, 51:41)

• Carter shares work with Corey Kiner (potential goal-line back); volume, not talent, is the hope.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Playoff Variance:

"Sometimes you can lose in the playoffs. That's just how it goes. So yeah, I'm not having a good day." (Dan, 03:07)

On Bucs’ Playcalling:

"There's just... it seems like they're lacking creativity. It seems like defenses are kind of ahead of them a lot. I just... have not liked it when I watch it. It just feels like it kind of lacks juice." (Jacob, 44:45)

On Ken Walker Usage:

"He has two games this year with more than 60% of the running back carries... and never more than 65%." (Adam, 34:38)

On Rocket Sanders’ Late-Season Value:

"He might look a little clunky... but he can really get going. If he hits his top gear, it's really fast." (Jacob, 24:50)

On Ad Scripts and Announcers:

"He just doesn't get excited anymore. Just refuses... That game was arguably the best of the year. It required it." (Adam, on Al Michaels, 36:07)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:03] – Semifinals heartbreak: Bad beats, luck, and league structure
• [06:51] – Patriots-Ravens recap: Drake Maye breakout, injuries
• [13:10] – Ravens’ offense without Lamar Jackson
• [22:50] – Snap count nuggets: Rocket Sanders, Sanders, Dallas split, Pacheco role
• [33:00] – Seattle RBs analysis: Start/sit debate
• [38:15] – Nico Collins film review and fantasy outlook
• [40:51] – Baker Mayfield & Tampa Bay offensive struggles dissected
• [46:36] – Omarion Hampton’s role and Houston matchup
• [51:05] – Michael Carter as a risky flex against Cincinnati

---

Flow and Tone

The episode balances fantasy football nerdery with self-deprecating humor and group therapy for rough playoff outcomes. The crew's camaraderie provides levity even as they dissect tough lineup decisions — and they don't let themselves or each other off the hook for questionable calls.

---

Summary for Non-Listeners

This FFT episode delivers a granular look at key Week 16 storylines and player usage, blending actionable advice for championship week with the honesty of battle-tested fantasy managers. If you're considering starting Tampa Bay offensive players, Seattle RBs, Nico Collins, Omarion Hampton, or Michael Carter, you'll find honest, stats-driven takes alongside relatable playoff pain and the warning that, at this stage, risk tolerance and context are everything.

---

For more, subscribe and listen to FFT — the analysis here will help you win (or at least survive) your fantasy championships.

Transcript

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[Dan Schneier]

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[Adam]

This is Fantasy Football today from CBS Sports.

[Dan Schneier]

Wanna play? Can you believe this?

[Adam]

No, I can't.

[Dan (Heed the Call / Amazon Prime Advertiser)]

It's to dominate your fantasy league.

[Adam]

This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. Welcome everybody. It's beyond the box score. Advanced stats from simple people. This is Fantasy Football today presented by BetMGM. Make it legendary. And the question on everybody's mind, will Jonathan Taylor score nine fantasy points in full PPR tonight? If he does. If he does. Dan Schneier and his trash talking.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh no. Yeah.

[Adam]

That team's done 12 and two. You're not done. He could have a terrible game.

[Dan Schneier]

That team's done. That team's done. Yeah. Look, this is the, this is the life I live. I. This is the third team. It was the last and final team that I was first in points. This one was by like 300 points. First seed not even making to the finals. All three teams are going down. The other one faced the Puka. I told you about that on Friday. The Puka staff are disaster with jsn. I mean look, it is what it is. I mean good commissioners reward team, reward leagues for first in points. Bad commissioners put none of the pot turd first in points. So this is what we live in. This is the life we live in. It's a league that doesn't reward points winners and, and sometimes you can lose in the playoffs. That's just how it goes. So yeah, I'm not having a good day. My home league. I'm literally going to lose Adam because of Drake May exploding last night and Ashton Genti's random 31 point outburst against a Texans defense against me. I'm gonna score 155 in my home league, which is for. It's a low scoring league. A lot of points and lose.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

And we would have beat the other two teams. It is what it is. It's fantasy. But I still have a little hope in that I need Juan Jennings under 4.3 and a half PPR. So not, not a good, not a good day.

[Adam]

You have less, you have more hope of Jonathan Taylor not scoring nine points.

[Dan Schneier]

No, neither is happening. But I can blame myself for, for the.

[Adam]

I blame you too. Listen, we were talking. Jacob and I were talking before the show. When you get to the playoffs and it's just one week against one opponent. I mean so much of it is luck because I got an email from somebody who was basically saying, I don't want to play anymore. I don't want to, I want to quit. I lost all four of my leagues. I played against, I played against Kenneth G. I played against Michael Wilson. He had that lucky catch. I think he may have played against game well. It's like, listen, don't worry about you get to the playoffs. That's a big accomplishment. Seriously. It's not easy to finish in the top half of your fantasy league. You get a first round buy. That's a huge accomplishment. You get to one week and all it's up for all the marbles. It's just tough. So it's, it's, it's about luck. You could argue that once you get to the playoffs there shouldn't be head to head matchups that the highest scorers.

[Dan Schneier]

Some leagues do that.

[Adam]

Yeah, you could argue that. I'd have no problem with that. I don't do it. But you could say there are more fair ways to determine, to determine a winner. But here we are, you know, and hopefully all of you had good luck today. And Jacob, good morning. How are you, man?

[Jacob]

Good morning. You know how I am. We talked about it beforehand. I assume that's why you didn't throw it to me.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, we all got to hit up.

[Jacob]

I made this semi, semis in like seven or eight leagues and I don't think I'm going to advance in any but one. And it's like the cheapest league and then like some of my most expensive leagues where I could win a lot of money. I directly lost myself the game. Me and my brother just making asinine decisions with our starting lineup. Jackson Dart over Matthew Stafford. So if you're mad at me for like the Matthew Stafford concern this week, I'm right here with you. At least maybe that will make you feel better to know that I'm also suffering because of my stupidity.

[Adam]

Yeah, man. Well, we're all, we're all suffering a little bit. I had four semifinals. Five of you include Scott Fishbowl. I knew I was going to advance there. I think I advanced in two and they are my two. I think my two worst teams, my two best teams are out. But we'll see. All right, Patriots and Ravens. Patriots 28, Ravens 24.

[Dan Schneier]

Get one. One quick comment that made smile. Oh, yeah, it was from Shane F217. Oh, he said what's in the box score?

[Jacob]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Come on, you gotta say it. You gotta say it.

[Dan Schneier]

No, I'm not gonna say It.

[Adam]

What's in the box score?

[Dan Schneier]

It was. That's from.

[Adam]

I just did the. I just did the voice. Of course. I know. All right. New England 28, Baltimore 24. The injuries are really the big storyline here. We have a great game from. From Drake. Maybe he. He scores 27.7 fantasy points through for 380 yards, 44 pass attempts is most since week one.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, great.

[Adam]

That was hard. Hard. How about this past Attempts of. Of 20 or more air yards. Because this is something he had been struggling with the last six weeks when May was the number 11 quarterback per game. Seven of 10 for 184 yards and a touchdown on deep balls. That is mind blowing. Yeah. So great for him. But the injuries, I think guys are really like, we don't have to get into everything. You're like, the injuries are what we need to talk about because we got the Travon Henderson injuries, got the concussion and also the K Sean Booty injury, which is fairly significant and of course the Lamar Jackson injury. So Jacob Jackson's day to day with the back. But what do you think about these. These injury situations? Like are you going to trust Ramandre Stevenson next week against at the jets who give up the most touchdowns to running backs? What do you think?

[Jacob]

Yeah, another frustrating thing here where it's like one of my best teams where I thought for sure I was going to win this year lost because of the Lamar Jackson thing in the chat that was like I impatiently dropped Travion Henderson earlier in the year, but then this week I played against the person who picked him up and it's just like, that's gotta be just like the worst. That's where you don't want to play Fantasy Wars. If you're the person who picked up Travion and then he gets hurt and you lose because of that.

[Adam]

It was brilliant. He. He let his opponent get him and then he left with an injury. It was 3D chess.

[Jacob]

Yeah. So Stevenson. Yeah. I mean if Henderson's out, you're definitely starting him. You might be able to start him either way. In this matchup against the jets, the other takeaway for New England was Stefan Diggs.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jacob]

Did see his route rate spike. It was up at 80. We've seen it spike one other time. Who knows what it'll be next week. But yeah, the last time that it spiked was against the jets, who they play next week. Ran 80 of the routes, had 10 targets, nine for 138. He's been playing at a really high level. He was really fired up for this game. Love to see it.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, he's another. If I'd played him, I would have won Baked Burger League. Adam.

[Adam]

No, I mean, I was done with him. I. I was. I was done with him. I was in on him last week. It's like, oh, they're playing the Bills. He was great against the Bills last night. It's the biggest game of the season. Why wouldn't they play him?

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Right?

[Adam]

And his route participation rate last week was 55%. This week it was 80. But the reason why I brought up the Booty injury is that his routes did increase, not to 80%, but they were pretty high in the two games that Kshaan Booty missed. Another guy that saw a big increase in his role without Keshawn Booty was Mack Hollins. So I know he's going to be tough to trust. And they threw 44 passes in this game. They could throw 24 next week at the jets, who were starting Brady Cook.

[Jacob]

Booty played pretty much this whole game, by the way. He had. He ran 36 routes. Kyle Williams, the rookie, I think will play a lot more. Not that you would be going there unless you're in a really, really sick league, but just shout out Kyle Williams a Kai Williams again. Man, with that catch. Holy crap, this guy's good.

[Dan Schneier]

Drake May for just diming up over like, this is the. This is the next best quarterback. I was watching him destroy my team and actually I saw this on the. In the chat. This is actually even more tilting. So he had Genti, which is the stupidest thing. Watching those two gently touchdowns were just beyond aggravating as I'm watching this matchup. But worse than that, he had Olave. What was the point of shock throwing that TD at the endo lave. It was a. What was like 29 to 9. When I saw that touchdown, that last Olave touchdown. And I saw in the chat someone got tilted out of this too. That was the most tilting moment of my fantasy day. And I. I assume everyone feels that way too. They were up by 20 points. Why are they bombing to a lave at the end of that game? It was crazy to watch. Honestly, I think most of my tilt comes from the fact that now we play on sites, Adam and Jacob, that give the projection percentage. So like I'm looking at one point, I'm like an 88% favorite. And I'm like, all right, well, I'm an 88% favorite. We got this, boys. And then like you look back and you're done.

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[Adam]

I I don't know that I can remember this, but at one game I was in against a team that didn't start a bunch of players on buy or whatever, at one point I was a 100% favorite. During the 1 o' clock games, I just destroyed this.

[Dan Schneier]

This one guy somehow lost was 100% favorite.

[Adam]

What'd you say?

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, I thought.

[Adam]

No, I won.

[Dan Schneier]

I thought you're talking about how the projection screwed you and, and the comments are right. It wasn't even Chuck who threw it. It was who threw the touchdown.

[Adam]

So, so there I, I brought this up on the show last night. Taysom Hill, he said that Kellen Moore basically gave him these opportunities because this was probably his last home game with the Saints. So he, they used Taysum Hill a lot. All right. Yeah, but the, the Booty concussion, I think there are about seven routes that he did not run. But even if you look at Mack Hollands in the fourth quarter, if you look at Mack Hollands, he ran 84% of the routes when Booty missed weeks 10 and 11. And then in this game, Matt Collins ran 60% of the routes in the first three quarters and 93% of the routes in the fourth quarter. And Booty left again, I think there were 14 routes run or something and Booty left had ran seven of them. So keep an eye on Hollands in those deeper leagues again. We're not expecting a ton of pass attempts now for the Ravens. Before we get to the Ravens, sorry, one other thing. Bet MGM. It's football time at BetMGM and you still can register and use our bonus code and get an awesome offer. You're going to get instant access to the best variety of parlay selection features. No sweat. And boost tokens, live betting options, and much more. And new players can receive up to 1500 dollars back in bonus bets with the bonus code Fantasy. If they don't win their first bet, you don't want to miss out on any of the hard hitting action at betngm. Place your money line, parlay bets and more today. Bet mgm. Make it legendary. And once again, that bonus code is fantasy. All right. For the Ravens, Zay Flowers is on fire right now. He looks great. But if it's Tyler Huntley, I mean, I just think you know what to do, right? If you start him at Green Bay, you start Flowers, you start Henry, you start Lamar Jackson. Probably people might have questions about that.

[Dan Schneier]

Not Lamar.

[Adam]

If it's not Lamar, we're talking about a team that in 2020 without Lamar, they scored 14 points in one game in 2021, they went one in five. They averaged 20 points per game. 2022, they went three and three. They averaged 12 and a half points per game. In 2025, they went one and two and they averaged 14 points per game. But they did have a better game with Huntley. He scored. I forget he scored. They had a big game against Chicago. 30 points they scored against Chicago. Anyway. Yeah. Dan, would you. Would you start Henry and Flowers if Tyler Huntley were the quarterback at Green Bay?

[Dan Schneier]

I think I could start Henry. And just given the state of where we're at with the running back, we talked about this a lot last week. I don't think I could start Flowers without Lamar Jackson, though.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

No.

[Adam]

That is a Saturday game. And Derek Henry, for what it's worth, has three or four rushing touchdowns in the last six quarters. He has three rushing touchdowns in the last six quarters with Tyler Huntley. So that's, I guess, encouraging. All right. And then I think that we're just going to wrap it up there with. With that game. We have other topics to get to, including.

[Dan Schneier]

I need to ask you this before we get to any of those.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay. So, first of all, congrats on your canes. Advancing the second round of the College Football Playoff. What happened? Did you DVR it and was it still enjoyable? Like, you didn't have it ruined at all?

[Adam]

No, I turned my phone off.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay.

[Adam]

Everybody I was around was not a sports fan. Not a college sports fan. So no one was talking about the game. It was enjoyable. I, like.

[Dan Schneier]

Was it as, like. No, because I. I'm friends with a few Miami fans and they were going nuts in tax, like, during the game. Was it that feeling like a regular like, you're going nuts kind of game, or was it like, I'm on DVR and I, like, lost the momentum that way? No, it was a cool finish. Like, it was a really cool thing.

[Adam]

It was 90 of the excitement. I screamed so loud on the interception that might. I scared my daughter.

[Dan Schneier]

It was a very cool finish. And your dude, that running back looked like a young Derrick Henry out there.

[Adam]

Yeah, I mean, my friend said it.

[Dan Schneier]

Was the first game all year he looked like that.

[Adam]

Yeah, it was a good matchup. That wasn't the first game all year, but it was a good matchup. They really struggle against, like, physical running backs up the middle a M. Yeah, it's Mark Fletcher. He went crazy. I think he's really, you know, he's awesome. No, he's not. But he was. He was this game. Yeah, it Was exciting. It was fun. I did a lot of fast. I did a lot of fast forwarding. I couldn't sit there and, like, you know, I couldn't sit there and let all these seconds of stress, like, because I couldn't sit there and text my friends. You know, like, usually you spend that time out of the moment. This one, I just fast forwarded to the play and then they.

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They.

[Dan Schneier]

All right, well, congrats. And hopefully you knock off Ohio State.

[Adam]

Yeah, I think 10 point underdog, so that's good.

[Dan Schneier]

Hopefully you'll be watching that game live. Is actually.

[Adam]

It's New Year's Eve. I will be watching there. I have no plans.

[Dan Schneier]

We're good.

[Adam]

All right, we're talking about Nico Collins today. We'll talk about the Seattle running backs, Baker Mayfield and the trends for that offense. Omarion Hampton against Houston. I went back. I watched every Ashton Genty carry. I've got some interesting takeaways. What does it mean for Omari and Hampton next week? I'll tell you this right now. There have been 12 running backs with 15 or more touches against Houston, and they averaged 14.6 PPR fantasy points, so that's not bad at all. And we'll talk about Michael Carter, who has the best matchup in fantasy next week against the Cincinnati Bengals. Programming for FFT is pretty normal this week. We're recording on Christmas. I don't know what time exactly. Probably close to the normal time.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

And.

[Adam]

Yeah, normal week. Mailbag. Dan, we have to do something on the mailbag. We have contests, me and you.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay.

[Adam]

Colorblindness test.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

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[Adam]

Who will get more, right? I took it this weekend. I did very, very poorly, but I might beat you.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay, that's for Friday. Yeah.

[Jacob]

You're both colorblind.

[Adam]

Oh, super. Yeah.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Jacob, what's beyond the box score looking like this week?

[Jacob]

Yeah. I was gonna shout out. This is our last show, the three of us this year, right?

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jacob]

What a year. Another good year.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

Great year.

[Jacob]

Yeah. Thank you both for. For killing it this year. Like last. Last week's episode was really, really good shout out. Like, always showing up and. And carrying this one for me and Dan this week. Yeah. We've got a lot to dig into. There's a. Like, right now, I'm actually watching the. While you guys talk about Miami or whatever. I was like, I want to watch these Drake London routes. Like, there's a lot of stuff.

[Adam]

Yeah. What do you think?

[Jacob]

Because.

[Adam]

Because I watched that. I watched his target. Yeah. Like, I didn't see any explosiveness, but it Was only eight targets. What'd you. What'd you see?

[Jacob]

I'm just getting started. I don't have a takeaway.

[Adam]

He ran like 60 of the routes, I think. Or is that Marvin. Marvin Harrison Jr. Ran 60 routes.

[Jacob]

Yeah, that was image. Jay London was 83. He had eight targets so everything looks normal. 109 air yards. There have been times where he's played through injuries and he's kind of been a decoy. On paper it looks like he was fine but he had three catches for 27 yards so definitely something to dig into. Another big cop. It's game. I want to know what the hell happened with Jackson dart. So if we don't get to that today then Dan and I will definitely be talking about that. There was a lot this week was kind of. I mean I was talking to our producer before we got on and it was like I benched all the wrong people. I started all the wrong people. You know what I mean? Like that's kind of this week felt in a lot of different leagues. So trying to dig into that make sense of it and help anybody who is still alive in the the fantasy championship round here.

[Adam]

All right, don't empty your baggage on. On poor Claire. She doesn't. She.

[Jacob]

That was actually.

[Dan Schneier]

I don't want to hear about our fans.

[Jacob]

Mostly coming from.

[Dan Schneier]

She doesn't want to hear this.

[Jacob]

Mostly coming from her. But yeah, go off.

[Adam]

All right, listen, we'll be right back with some snap count stuff, some injuries and. And our five big things. We'll be right back.

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[Adam]

Let's go through the news real quick. Lamar Jackson, back injury. Gardner Minshew, likely a torn acl. Jordan Love, concussion. Malik Willis, shoulder. They play Saturday. Shadow Sanders is fine. What'd you say?

[Dan Schneier]

McCarthy's probably unlikely, too.

[Adam]

Yeah, I'm getting there, buddy. I got a whole list here.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, I thought you went to quarterback.

[Adam]

No. Tyler Shuck. No, he's fine. I think Justin Herbert said his hands getting. His broken hands getting better. He can grip the ball better. Marcus Mariota is questionable with finger and quad injuries. They get Dallas, I think, on Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. Gosh, what a terrible Christmas slate. Dallas at Washington, Detroit at Minnesota, Denver at Kansas City. Just, you know, enjoy the holiday with your family. JJ McCarthy, hand injury, X rays were negative, but we'll see if he places Detroit this week. Brady Cook is going to start for the Jets. He has thrown for 188 or fewer yards in all three games. Faces new England running back with the Jordan Mason injury. I am not convinced that Aaron. This is just a guess. Let's see if Aaron Jones plays this week. You know, he played basically the whole game, but he was clearly hurt and sometimes, you know, you can just run on adrenaline. So we'll see with Aaron Jones. But Jordan Mason left to quench on Judkins with the very serious injury out for the season. Kamani Vidal left in the fourth quarter. We'll talk about Hampton in a bit. And then Trayvon Henderson with a concussion. Wide receiver Devonte Adams likely out this week against Atlanta or at Atlanta. Romeo Dobbs hurt his wrist on the onside kick. You got Case on booty. And demario Douglas leaving with injuries. Pat Bryant, Thankfully, Pat Bryant doesn't have a. It doesn't have a. Does he have a concussion or just a neck injury? I'm sorry, I forgot with.

[Dan Schneier]

I don't know.

[Adam]

Yeah, Bryant, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. And that's pretty much it. We might get Ricky Pierce all next week against the Bears. He will not play tonight. Foster this is a crazy stat. Foster Morrow, tight end for the Saints. He left with an ankle injury. He has run 70 routes this year when he has been on the field. Juwan Johnson has three targets all season. I don't understand like I have to double check my work. In fact. Jacob, can you do that? Can you double check my work? Dejuan Johnson with Foster Morrow on the field because.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

Sure.

[Adam]

Johnson had a huge game and Morrow left with an injury.

[Dan Schneier]

It's true. I'm excited to hear Jacobs take on a deep cut beyond the box score player. Coming up after the Quinchon Juckins injury. Rocket Sanders.

[Jacob]

Hell yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

He looked good out there.

[Jacob]

When I give my snaps and stuff.

[Dan Schneier]

You know who's good out there. He may be a waiver claim for this week.

[Adam]

We had three Giants offensive linemen who we were either out or left during the game. Two of them will probably be out next week at least.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, yeah, we have Andrew Thomas being one of them. The best player by far on their team.

[Adam]

Yeah. And that's. Oh. Detroit was on their third string center and the Chargers left tackle left with an injury in the first quarter. Just shows you how bad Dallas is.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam]

All right.

[Jacob]

Juwan Johnson has only run 18 routes on the 70 routes that foster Moreau has been on the field for. Oh, so Foxy Row has not played very much when he has been out there. Juan Johnson has not been out there very often. He does only have three targets on those 18 routes.

[Adam]

Very strange.

[Jacob]

So my guess is that if Morrow's out, that would help him.

[Adam]

All right, so Jacob snap counts, other stuff. What do you got?

[Jacob]

Okay, Rocket Sanders, Raheem Sanders, one of my favorite running back prospects at the end of the year. Here is one of my favorite times of the year where you get some Corey Kiner, some Rocket Sanders. Some of these randos get an opportunity at the end of the year. So I'm talking about Cleveland Browns. He could do a bit of everything. He was on the field after the jumping century. Saw 9 of 10 running back carries in this in the third quarter. Had a 78 snap rate in the third quarter. When the game was a little bit more competitive, when they got where they were having to throw more, he came off the field more. So overall he had a 52 snap rate in the second half, only a 25 route rate. Travion Williams was getting those like pass blocking route running opportunities. But 10 of 13 running back rushes in the second half, he can churn out yards and he's also somebody who can create explosive plays. They call him Rocket for a reason. He's a big guy. He might look a little clunky on some plays but like he can really get going and if he hits his top gear, it's really fast. So he's an Interesting name to know. Like I for my money, I would rather go to somebody like this than Audric estimate or something where it's like you need the game to go in his favor and you need him to have like 15 to 20 carries for it to be a good game. Sanders could get there on only 10 or 12 carries and he might get 15 carries. So. Cleveland Browns name to know Dallas Cowboys Javonte Williams played more in this game. 57 snap right but saw fewer carries. 9 carries for him. 9 out of 17 backfield rushes. Malik Davis saw most of the second half work, so I think it's pretty clear that Javante's not quite right right now. Good luck if you're still starting him. It was an awesome game for RJ Harvey, but his role did scale back a little bit, which is something that they've talked about. Shout out again to Coach Speak Index so this was one thing I noticed this week was that they wanted to get some of the other backs more rushes. Harvey had seven out of 12 running back rushes this week, so the role is not bad. 59 snap rate, but it wasn't quite as good as it has been. But he's still, he made some explosive plays. He looked like the guy that we'd seen on film, which I think we've seen show up more and more as the year's gone on. He's kind of found his footing in terms of the speed of the NFL. His pacing, I think has gotten a lot better and he man, that, that touchdown he had was really, really cool.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah. Yeah, it was.

[Jacob]

While I'm shouting out Coach Peak Index, I want to also point out the George Pickens thing. There were two like clear Mrs. For me this week with my analysis where I was very nervous about two players. It was Matthew Stafford, it was George Pickens. Both those guys went nuts on the Pickens one though. I kind of had come around by the end of the week, so sorry if you didn't catch that. But the co. The reason mostly was that Coach Big Index was like really positive. They were saying that like he just had one of the best practices he's had all year and they felt really good about getting him going in this spot. George Pickens. And so we see, you know, he just went nuts. So hopefully you started him. And I just, I do think that's a really valuable resource if you have not checked out. Coach Speaking Index Cool. More Backfill notes Jameer Gibbs 86 snap rate and 13 targets. David Montgomery had four rushes, 19 snap rate. So it's like not a split really anymore. It's like he's just the backup. The Chiefs Isaiah Pacheco, 72 snap right 65 route rate. He got the only carry inside of the tin. He had seven targets, five of which came from the third string quarterback who's in now, Ola Doken. So maybe you can go there. The roll.

[Dan Schneier]

What? That's what I think of when I hear that name.

[Jacob]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Pacheco had the highest target per out run rate of his care.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah. Are Chiefs gonna trot out like, like, like a Ben Roethlisberger or something for that Christmas game? You know the NFL doesn't want to duke him playing in that game. What are they gonna do?

[Jacob]

I don't know.

[Adam]

Ken or Rio are in there.

[Jacob]

Juju Smith Schuster led the team in routes. So like I don't, I don't know what the hell they're doing or why they're doing it. I thought finally we might see Jalen Royals get to play, but no. Okay. Audric estimate 56 snap rate, 61 of the routes. I thought that was weird. I expected though that to be more of like Evan Holes role. But Evan Hole barely played so maybe things could be better for estimate. But they went really pass heavy, especially like the first half. There were like 35 drop backs or something like that which shocked me because this team has kind of intentionally not been past heavy, it seemed like without a shock. So my guess is they just kind of don't want to go to estimate and you probably shouldn't either. But yeah, he was the clear lead back.

[Adam]

Yeah, I, the only thing I'd add to that was they had that whole Taysom Hill thing that I brought up because Taysom Hill had 12 carries. So maybe, maybe they don't do that next week and make estimate they're running back.

[Jacob]

But maybe not trusting him. He definitely played more than whole so if you have to go to one, it would be him. Bucky Irving played more this week. 61 snap rate, led the backfield and routes. He was only on the field for one snap inside of the 10 yard line though. So again he's just not getting the in scoring distance plays. We're going to talk about the Bucks more later. Obviously you felt it if you started Bucky this week. It was only seven or eight points and that sucks. It's just that it's tough where we're at with the role with Bucky right now. Marvin Harrison Jr. Did come back, ran 20 routes, 61 route rate. Just one catch. It was the Elijah Higgins show which. Yeah, just. I don't know. Week 16, you love it. It was brutal. It was brutal. It was so brutal. Like, this is just the prime example where it's like, why did training. Why did my training pride points disappear this week? I don't.

[Dan Schneier]

I don't know.

[Jacob]

I don't know.

[Adam]

Like, the Falcons were second best against tight ends going into the week. They hadn't really faced a lot of good ones. They did hold George Kittle catchless one game.

[Jacob]

Yeah. But his first came back.

[Adam]

But I still was supposed to have.

[Dan Schneier]

So many fantasy points and turned out it was basically just Bijan and pits. Right.

[Jacob]

Elijah Higgins.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

I guess Wilson was an okay start because the touchdown.

[Jacob]

Yeah. Like two targets, three targets. Last note was Tampa Bay 87 route rate for Chris Godwin, 80 for Mike Evans. That's up from 65 last week for Evans, 63 for Jalen McMillan, which is up from, I think 45 last week. Mechaguka was at 50%, so that's pretty rough. He did have a long target that he got, and that was a great catch. And he honestly could have been a touchdown potentially if the throw was, like, perfect. But the role is not trustworthy at all for a Buka right now.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Yep. And when Evans is on the field, he had a 47 target share this week. He had a 43 target share last week. Just. That's who Baker Mayfield is going to. But Baker Mayfield doesn't really throw that much. They just want to run the ball. There was actually a quote. It was a quote. It was a halftime report. What'd you say?

[Dan Schneier]

They just stink, the Bucks.

[Adam]

They just stink. Well, they were so conservative in this game. Right. So Baker Mayfield's one of the guys we're going to talk about in our five big things, but he had a season low in ADOT. 3.8 yards per air yards per pass attempt for Baker Mayfield. And they ran the ball so much, and they didn't really run it effectively because Bucky Irving's just been really ineffective running the ball this year. But I think if I remember correctly, you know, the halftime report was about. About the run heavy nature. And they asked Todd Bowles if he was going to change. And the reporter, the sideline reporter said Todd Bowles said no, because we're dominating time of possession and that's going to translate to points.

[Dan Schneier]

Right.

[Adam]

And they did dominate time of possession, but it did not translate to points. So that's apparently the way they want to play. I hope they open it up a little bit more because they were just so conservative in this game and, and Carolina I think did a good job. I didn't really see a bunch of guys like running wide open or anything. Carolina's no, they're ninth best against quarterbacks. They've. They've actually been a pretty tough matchup lately.

[Dan Schneier]

Right.

[Jacob]

Carolina did do a good job. That's one of my main takeaways when I watch. It was like Carolina called a really good game.

[Adam]

Okay. All right, well, I'll say. I'll save that for our Baker Mayfield discussion. Can we start him next week in a must win game for him? Yeah. Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, Jaden Reed, they all played about 62% of the snaps. Remember, the quarterbacks are hurt and Romeo Dobbs as a wrist injury. Josh Jacobs only played 39% of the snaps. Chris Rodriguez, 40% route participation rate season high. He has two targets this year. I, yeah, I had a lot of the same stuff as you. The, the Tampa Bay routes, the Kansas City routes, The, the Kareem Hunt cream Hunt played 11 snaps and Troy Franklin. So Pat Brian played basically the entire game. You know, got hurt at the very end there. Troy Franklin did run 73.5% of the routes. That was great, a bounce back for him because usually when Pat Brian had been on the field had been much lower than that. Franklin only had five targets. Bryant actually had eight. But in this game on Christmas against at Kansas City, Troy Franklin could be something, someone that we're looking at here. I'm can't imagine Bryant's going to play.

[Jacob]

He was playing more than Brian before the injury too.

[Adam]

He was. That was the whole game he was playing. He played more than. Oh, he did. Yeah, he did. He ran five more routes than Bryant. Yeah, he just didn't have as many targets. All right, so got our big topics today. But before we dive into your five big things this week, a quick shout out to Amazon Prime. You need last minute holiday gifts Primes fast free shipping has you covered so you can focus on the plays and not the stress. Holiday wins delivered. It's on Prime. Five big things start with the Seattle running backs. Week 16 was really a week of really. Ken Walker had this big. So many surprises and I think Walker and Charbonnet too. He also scored. He scored and he had four catches. 17.4 fantasy points for Charbonnet, 25.4 for Ken Walker. This week they get Carolina who's terrible against the run. And Dan, how much do you trust the Seattle running backs this week?

[Dan Schneier]

I want to trust them. It's just the Situation here. Ken Walker, to me, looks like clearly the best player on the field. And I think we've come to that point, but. And I feel like their offense operates so much better when he's on the field and they have such a higher chance of success. But I don't know if I can trust him. And because of that, it leads me to a situation where if I'm starting both of those players, could we easily see past the possibility? Let's just say that the possibility for another game where it's like eight points versus for Walker, right. And Charbonnet doesn't get the touchdown. It's possible. I think you have to start him. Like, I'm talking myself in circles here. I feel like you have to start both at the stage we're at. Whoa, whoa.

[Adam]

You do not have to start Zach Charbonnet.

[Dan Schneier]

No way.

[Adam]

When this guy doesn't score a touchdown, he is. He is awful.

[Dan Schneier]

But Walker, until last week was not really used in a way where you can start him either.

[Adam]

You don't have to start either of them.

[Jacob]

Yeah, I would hope. I would hope to avoid both of them. I had them both ranked outside of the top 30 in running backs this week, which. Sorry, I guess, but that's probably about where I will land again this week.

[Dan Schneier]

They're the most confusing players in van. This is the most confusing running situation in fantasy.

[Jacob]

And it's a pretty similar, I think, situation to what we just had with Tampa Bay and Carolina where it's like, okay, both teams want to run the ball, you know, and like, that might just be like a fast game where there's just not that good of fantasy production.

[Adam]

I think the. The look, obviously he could always break a big play. It could always happen. I remember texting with my buddy during the game and he was so frustrated because he has Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet gets the goal line touchdown. And I'm like, but dude, you better hope he breaks a long one. It's the only way he's gonna score. And he did. So he could always do that.

[Dan Schneier]

But he looks so good out there. That's why I wanted to play him.

[Adam]

The stat that, that kills me is he had. He has two games this year. Ken Walker with more than 60% of the running back carries and. And never more than 65%.

[Dan Schneier]

Right?

[Adam]

So you really need them to have one of these, you know, 27 or more running back carry games. And then there's the passing, the passing stuff. So the encouraging thing for Walker is he does have three, three to four targets in five of his last six games. So at least he's giving you that. But I mean, before he scored the two games before this, he scored a combined seven points. And before that it was 10.4. Before that was 13.1. Only one of those.

[Dan Schneier]

I guess my only hope is just like he looked better and he's looked better of late. And I feel like Seattle needs him to generate offense. That's kind of where I was trying to get at.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

He looked amazing and lead to a bigger role.

[Jacob]

He looked amazing from the very beginning of the game. And nothing happened. Like, it was still Charbonnet playing way more.

[Dan Schneier]

That was what frustrated me. Yeah. Like when they started to struggle in the rim, like they weren't playing Walker, they were putting in sharpen. I was like, why Walker's the reason you have any chance to win this game at that point. At that. Before Darnold.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

Started making a few plays.

[Adam]

Charbonnet recovered that fumble in the end zone for the two point conversion, though.

[Jacob]

What was the. The call on that? Were they like caught. The call was so good. They're like, amazing effort or whatever. It was something like that.

[Dan Schneier]

Yes.

[Jacob]

Slowly picked up the ball.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

It was.

[Dan Schneier]

I know what you're talking about.

[Adam]

Boy, you are. You are bringing up a subject that is very touchy for me. What a rant that I really want to go on, but I'm.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, I want to hear it. Do it.

[Adam]

It's not appropriate that you have to.

[Dan Schneier]

Do it now unless it's really not appropriate. And after last night, I think we're past the point of approach.

[Adam]

I just. I just feel like that game.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay.

[Adam]

Deserved better.

[Jacob]

Oh, you. That's out, Michaels. That's what we're talking about.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam]

I mean, he just doesn't get excited anymore. Just refuses Puka.

[Jacob]

Nukuk.

[Adam]

Pukinaku could have this incredible touchdown catch in overtime, and he's like, puka to go. And there he goes. It's like, come on, man. Someone said on Twitter, like, imagine if I and Eagle were calling that game. Exactly. That's what we. That's what we deserved. Sorry, I don't like. I don't like criticizing arguably the greatest announcer in sports history.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

But everybody. It's like arguably the greatest announcer. Philip Rivers, one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Probably. Maybe let's not go that far. But top 10, top 15. When you watch him tonight, he ain't gonna look like that.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

You know, like everybody. Everybody reaches that point where.

[Adam]

But he just. I feel like he can do it. I Mean, it's not like he's horrible for the entire game. Just when the big moments come, he just doesn't want to go there. And that game was arguably the best game of the year. It required it. You know, it required that.

[Dan Schneier]

But he just can't reach that level of enthusiasm anymore.

[Adam]

I guess that he's seen everything. Who cares? He's like, who cares? You know, I did the Miracle on Ice. I don't care about this. All right, we're gonna take a break. What the hell happened to Nico Collins yesterday? We'll tell you when we come back. All right, welcome back. Okay. Nico Collins was someone that the people wanted to hear about. And the thing about Nico is you could just say. You could just roll out a bit, like, yeah, of course I'm starting Nico Collins, and that's probably what to do. But he is facing the Chargers, and they. Going into the Dallas game, we're number one against wide receivers now, apparently they're number five, but they did a great job against Lamb. Not so much against Pickens. But, Jacob, you said you watched the Nico Collins tape. What are your takeaways?

[Jacob]

It wasn't the best CJ Stroud game, and that's kind of. I've been a little. So, like, I did a podcast on with the fantasy points with Theo Grimminger last week, and he's like, have we arrived at Nico Collins league winning season? You know, you're giving all this, like, reason to be bullish on him and everything. I'm like, no, I don't. Like, it all feels good. I'm psyched and everything because I love Nico, but, like, I don't trust it at all to say it's like, league winning season, and it's mostly just Houston, you know, like, every. Everything with Houston, whether it's line or Stroud or whatever. In this one, I thought the line actually played fine, which is kind of what we've seen lately. But Stroud's timing was weirdly off. There were two extremely close sideline toe drag calls that were incomplete. That could have been catches. I thought I didn't have a great angle on them on. On true media here, but they looked pretty dang close to catches. And then there were two just, like, wide open misses on sideline throws, too. So it. What did he have, like, 30 yards or whatever? It easily could have been, like, 80. Actually had 59 at 59. Yeah. So it easily could have been, like, 100, 110. Like, there were a lot of yards left on the field. I thought Nico played great.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam]

So you think he's a must start against the Chargers?

[Jacob]

Yeah, I mean, we just saw George Pickens go ham against them. Like, they have generally done a good job at limiting perimeter receivers on downfield targets, but they also, like, are totally content to just let opposing wide receiver ones beat them on like, quick and breaking, like, slants and stuff like that. And then we did see Pickens get behind the defense too. So I'm, I'm fine going there. I think that there's a decent chance that that ends up being a big Nico Collins game.

[Adam]

One of the things I noticed about the. This is not really relevant to this game, but CJ Stroud has one of the worst completion percentages inside the five yard line. It's unbelievably bad. And I feel like a lot of those throws go to Nico Collins. So just look at his season as a whole. Touchdowns have been low, but he's got 16 ends. He's got 14 end zone targets. I wonder how many of those ended up as. As touchdowns. I'll tell you right now, but. All right, we're going to start Nico Collins. He has four touchdowns on 14 end zone targets. Probably not so good. Okay, Baker Mayfield is our next topic here. Dan, what's your takeaway and your. And your outlook for Baker Mayfield in a game against Miami that really, like, wasn't that bad against quarterbacks, but they lost Minka Fitzpatrick against the Steelers.

[Dan Schneier]

Right.

[Adam]

They've been horrible since. I mean, Aaron Rodgers was really good against them. Even though the fantasy points weren't amazing, he was really good against them and then Joe Burrow just embarrassed them. So Baker Mayfield against. I think it's a home game against Miami next week.

[Dan Schneier]

Yep. Yeah, it's been a really rocky ride.

[Adam]

It's at Miami. Sorry, At Miami.

[Dan Schneier]

At Miami, which is actually even better for passing and not much of a difference, actually. Miami versus Tampa. I shouldn't be saying that, but, you know, Baker's a. Baker's a player that Jacob and I have discussed so much on beyond the Box for this year. I. I look at that situation and it's like Bucky's back. Their offensive line is healthy. They have studs on the O line. They have two studs and Worfs and Barton. They have all the receivers back. Evans, McMillan. So many weapons at some. On paper, this should be one of the best offenses carrying us through the fantasy playoffs. Something's obviously wrong with Baker and as we've kind of gone through the stats and the charting this season and just. I think you brought up A stat Jacob, maybe two weeks ago on our show of just how few 200 plus air yard games he's had. This is a quarterback who when he's killed it for us in fantasy and when his players like his, his supporting guest has killed it for us in fantasy. He's been taking shots and taking chances and stretching the field. I don't know what it is right now. Like I watch Baker Mayfield and he has more off target throws than I can ever remember from this past two seasons. I think there's something off mechanically right now. Maybe he's playing through an injury that he hasn't really discussed much. He's. He had the one like wrist injury at one point. Right. Or he had like a few different injuries throughout the year. He's managed. Just doesn't look like he's playing good football. His mental clock is not on. Like he's speeding up through his process.

[Jacob]

I didn't think he played bad in this one. I didn't think his accuracy.

[Dan Schneier]

I didn't watch this game. I watched every job on all 22. But I saw it obviously during the broadcast.

[Adam]

Yeah, I watched it too. And Jacob, I think we had the same takeaway. It was like kind of given giving credit to the Panthers defensively.

[Jacob]

I thought they did a good job Panthers defensively. And Todd Bowles is probably getting canned and I don't know about Grizzard either. Their offensive coordinator. I've just felt like their offense is lacking all year. Their offensive slack juice in terms of the play calling. And this one, it was 5.8 yard average depth of target for Baker. I thought his accuracy was pretty good.

[Dan Schneier]

I didn't 5.8 average up target is not good though.

[Adam]

No season low.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

Right.

[Jacob]

That's what I'm saying. Like but it was the. It was designed like he took a couple deep shots. Fine. He made some sideline throws that were pretty much right on the money. I didn't think Evans looked like he was quite at his normal speed. I don't know on that. I don't know what to think of that because it wasn't a lower body injury that he was coming in with. So I think he should be fine. But the timing between those two looked a little bit off on a few of these plays. I like even the interception at the end of the game. Like it was just a bad split second outcome where Evans cut his route and went the other direction. Like improv. And it was right as Baker decided to unload it. So he threw it in the direction of Mike Evans momentum. But Evans had stopped and turned the other way, and Baker was under pressure on that. So it's just like, I thought he did a good job of climbing the pocket, making plays when they were there. Like, to play to the play to Abuka, that could have been a touchdown. Like, it wasn't a perfect throw, but it was still a really good play to even get it there, you know, like he. He had climbed all the way up to the line of scrimmage basically to make that throw. I thought he played pretty well, honestly. It's just like they were extremely conservative. They only dropped back 30 times. They went really run heavy. That didn't really work that well. I don't know. I think it can be better, but I. I just didn't. There's not much juice in this offense. The offensive line isn't playing as well as I feel like it could. They're not getting a ton of, like, yak. Only 38 of his yards came after the catch. The league average is like 48. It's just. I don't know. I don't feel very good about the offense right now, unfortunately.

[Adam]

No, you have to wonder if Bucky Irving is. Is healthy because you think they would get him involved in the passing game, but they're not throwing the ball at him at all. Remember, I feel like the last time he caught a ball, he took it to the house.

[Jacob]

That's what I'm saying, though, man. That's like. I don't want to just be like, this offensive coordinator sucks because, like, I. I haven't watched every game. I can't say that for sure, but, like, there's just. It seems like they're lacking creativity. It seems like defenses are kind of ahead of them a lot. I just. I have not liked it when I watch it, it just feels like it kind of lacks juice. And it's tough because it's like the version of this that I remember is with Liam Cohen, and it was really, really, really good, you know, so it's like really a stark difference when you compare the two.

[Adam]

Last note on this for me is that Mayfield, I mean, I do this every week. There just always seems to be a moment in the game where Baker Mayfield could have had a good fantasy game, but it didn't happen. And that moment, I think, was in the third quarter. He dumped it off to Rashad White. Rashad White gets down to the one yard line. And then I think of the next play. He tries another fade or back shoulder throw to Mike Evans in the end zone. And this one was Incomplete. He had completed that earlier in the game for a 1 yard touchdown. This one was incomplete. And then Sean Tucker took it in. You're talking about a 20 plus point game if Mayfield completes that pass, but you don't know what happens after that. But then again, he had that interception on his last throw of the game when they're kind of in desperation mode and Evans had the miscommunication with him. So there's been so much of that for Baker Mayfield. But this game wasn't. This game just was boring. I mean, they. They were just way too conservative and I. I hope they learned their lesson and they let him. I don't even think he needs to throw that much. Just be aggressive against the Dolphins, you know, challenge them downfield and. And beat them. If he weren't playing the Dolphins, I don't think people would really want to start Baker Mayfield, but the matchup's going to be enticing, so I imagine he'll be a top 15 quarterback, maybe.

[Jacob]

Here's another stat on the offense. 34 motion rate, that's really low. The average is 50. Last year was really high for them. 6% play action rate. The average is 23. You know what I mean? Where it's just like. I don't know, it was just stale.

[Dan Schneier]

Wow.

[Adam]

All right, let's talk about Omarion Hampton. Big opportunity for him. He came through against the Cowboys with 16 carries for 85 yards and a touchdown, plus one catch for 10 yards. Going into the fourth quarter, he had 10 carries. Kamani Vidal had four. So that was a split we hadn't really seen. Then Bidel got one more carry, and that was. That was the first carry of the quarter for the Chargers, and he got hurt on that play. So it was 10 to 5, Hampton versus Vidal. And I only bring this up because if Vidal plays, I don't know the severity of the injury. If he plays next week, it's still an encouraging split. What's not encouraging is you're not getting a lot of catches from Hampton. Although, based on what we saw in the fourth quarter, I think you could see an increase because he was running more routes than Hassan Haskins.

[Jacob]

Yeah.

[Adam]

And the other thing is that he's playing Houston. I watched every Ashton Genti carry, and honestly, this might sound crazy, but Houston was for the most part completely dominant against Ashton Genti. Genti had a 51 yard touchdown run where he looked like he was going to get bottled up, and then he got away from it and he took it to the house. He also had 17 yards on consecutive runs late in the second quarter from the 22 yard line, their own 22 yard line. It was second down and 19. They gave him a carry for nine yards. Then it's third and 10. There's less. There's 30 seconds left in the quarter at this point and he gets seven yards. Other than that, he, he really. Most of his runs were nothing like Houston's run defense was actually quite dominant for much of this game. And the Chargers, I mean, I don't think they have really a great run game. So I think you have. If Vidal is out, I don't see Dan, how you can't start Hampton as a number two running back. As I mentioned, any. The running backs who have had 15 or more touches against the Texans have averaged 14.6 PPR fantasy points per game. But what would your expectations be for him if Videl were out?

[Dan Schneier]

I think you kind of nailed it, right. Like we, we're gonna play him. He's going to be in our lineups. He's looked, he. I think he looks healthy. Like, I don't think we're seeing any signs of the injury lingering. And the Chargers offense is actually starting to generate a little bit of offense. The offensive line maybe is coming together with all the, all the mix pieces on that offensive line. I could, I could, I could maybe get on board like a borderline RB one even potentially like just on that back end in that like 12 to 16 range. Yeah.

[Adam]

I mean, Jacob, with all the committees we have, at least if he's, if Videl's not playing, you got to think, yeah, I think we could get a 20 touch game out of Hampton for sure.

[Jacob]

And he's been great. I brought that up on yesterday's live stream. I just wanted to show you the numbers real quick because Commander Vidal has been very good. Me saying that he's been better than Vidal isn't in any way an indictment of him. But here's like the league leaders in terms of yards after contact per rush and videl. You see 3.02 is. Is good. That's 25th out of 48 qualifiers. Hampton is 3.5 yards after contact per rush. His avoided tackle rate is higher. Rushing EPA is higher. He's one of the few running backs has a positive rushing EPA success rate much, much higher. Lower stuffed rate, higher explosive run rate. He's just been better across the board. He's been one of the most effective running backs in the NFL. And that statistically. And that's really pretty hard to do. I think with the state of their offensive line. If you look at the other running backs up here in this range, like, who plays behind a bad offensive line? I guess Tony Pollard. But their offensive line honestly has played a lot better in the second half of the year.

[Adam]

People. People would probably look at HN and say that. I don't know if that's true, though.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Jacob]

Oh, yeah. They've kind of kicked ass in the run game.

[Adam]

Surprise. I think my. My issue with the Hampton, looking at his stats is that he. He killed the Giants and they're like the worst. You know, 12 carries, 128 yards and a touchdown. And then he killed the Cowboys 16 carries, 85 yards in a touchdown without Quinn and Williams even over shown left in the fourth quarter that game. He didn't do much in the fourth. Well, he did. He had a touchdown the fourth quarter. So he's had some tough matchups, like 19 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown against Denver. And he also had six catches for 59 yards, 13 carries for 56 yards, two catches, 11 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles, 15 for 61 at the Chiefs. But it's. He's really crushed it against the Cowboys and the Giants and the. And the Texans are tough.

[Jacob]

That's fair.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam]

But you're going to start them. All right.

[Dan Schneier]

Yep.

[Adam]

Last game or last player. Now if Vidal plays, will be another discussion. Last player is Michael Carter and Jacob was. Jacob. I think you were like, why are we. You know, why Michael Carter, right?

[Jacob]

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't. Yeah, fair enough. I wanted to hear about Jackson Dart, man. I still do.

[Adam]

We'll have time for Jackson. That's fine. Michael Carter. The reason why I think we should talk about Michael Carter is because he is facing the Bengals this week. They allow the most fantasy points to running backs, 5.34 yards per carrier to running backs, second most receiving yards per game to running backs. Dan, would you have any confidence starting Michael Carter in your fantasy championship against the Cincinnati Bengals?

[Dan Schneier]

Confidence? No. But will I do it? Possibly. I mean, I'm getting a great matchup though. This Atlanta, I thought would be a nice offensive explosion type game. And the second half was like no offense whatsoever by other team. Yeah, I think I could roll him in there as a flex, as a back end flex and just hope, you know, you get the volume you're facing. The great matchup against the Bengals defense. Yeah, I think I'm good with it.

[Adam]

He had 11 carries. The problem is D. Mercado and Corey kiner combined for 11 carries.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, the Kiner thing is interesting. Kind of thing's a little scary.

[Adam]

I think he's gonna be their goal lineback if they get down there. It's just a hunch.

[Dan Schneier]

Kiner will be.

[Adam]

But I never loved Michael Carter, you know, this year because of his. You know what?

[Dan Schneier]

I take it back. I'm out on card.

[Adam]

No, don't be out on him.

[Dan Schneier]

Listen, he's not starting. He's not starting.

[Adam]

I could have a lot of catches though. I don't know what. What the heck happened to the catches? It's very weird. I would. I was expecting four catches.

[Dan Schneier]

It's over. He's gonna get Kiner to the goal line. It's over.

[Adam]

Kiner is big and I think he makes more sense at the goal line. But it's just a hunch.

[Dan Schneier]

It's about to get kindred at the goal line. We don't need that.

[Adam]

He's. You know what Kaider's gonna be? He's gonna be the. The dozer.

[Jacob]

Kyder's 5 foot 9, 209 pounds.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah. Just thick.

[Jacob]

He runs really hard. It just cracked me up to hear him described as big.

[Adam]

Well, he's, he's. But 209 pounds for someone who's five.

[Jacob]

A lot more than Michael Carter.

[Adam]

Yeah, Michael Carter's tiny.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, that's for sure.

[Adam]

So it's an interesting matchup. I wish this. I wish his running back carry share had been bigger than 50. But this was just a weird game. They had the ball for 24 minutes and 26 seconds. They just stunk offensively. And it was the first game all year where an Arizona running back didn't have a catch. Everything went to Elijah Higgins. Elijah Higgins killed fantasy in week. In week 16. So that's basically what happened.

[Jacob]

Get hurt maybe because he didn't play in the second half.

[Adam]

Who?

[Jacob]

Corey Kiner?

[Adam]

I don't know. They. They didn't really. He basically just played on one drive. I mean, he got most of his work, I think on one possession. And then they barely ran the ball in the second half. Maybe it was two possessions. I think it was one. Can you. You look that up?

[Jacob]

Yeah, he didn't have a snap in the second half, which just seems weird.

[Adam]

All right, well, that wraps up your five big things brought to you by Amazon Prime. Remember, prime isn't just fast. It's your secret weapon for last minute holiday wins. Forgot a gift for a friend or a family member. Needs something for tonight's party. Prime gets it there quickly turning last minute panic into a smooth win this season. You can count on prime to Deliver right when you need it most. Last minute gifts delivered, it's on prime. So you came to the right place. If you want to hear about Jackson Dart, Dan will be all over it. So Jackson Dart sunk season for Jacob. What did he throw for? 33 yards.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

33?

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah.

[Adam]

What was your takeaway, Dan?

[Dan Schneier]

I mean obviously a big part of this was when you lose Andrew Thomas, your star left tackle who's been every, like every season Giants fans know about and play. When Andrew Thomas is on the field, they have a chance. When Andrew Thomas is not on the field, they have no chance. They also lost their center and their left guard was inactive because he had the birth of his child. So they had a completely different offensive line. But that didn't seem to be why. What happened to Dart? Happened to Dart because they're. Because on the initial drive before Thomas got hurt, it was nine runs, no pass attempts. What I really think happened, honestly is Kafka coach a little scared in this game. And if I want to blame him for that, remain to be determined. I'm gonna go through. I've watched most of the tape, I want to watch all of it before I decide that. But what I really think is Kafka believed that he didn't trust Dart to see it. To see it. Well, post snap, right? What I mean by that is, look, Brian Flores has paid 11 rookie quarterbacks as a, as a defensive coordinator in the NFL level. He's 10 and 1 against rookie quarterbacks. Rookie quarterbacks get obliterated by Brian Flores defense because he is so disguised. He is the most disguised defensive coordinator in the entire NFL. He puts everyone at the line of scrimmage. I think I saw in my notes 55 of the plays had like 6 or more players at the line of scrimmage on defense. And he dropped some, he blitzes some and he just didn't trust. I don't think Kafka Dart to see it well. So they relied on the run the first half. In the second half they tried to let him throw a little bit and the pressure got there and the pass direction and hold up. It was really bad. It was really freaking ugly. One of the worst football games I've ever watched in my opinion.

[Adam]

They have been in so many games that have been like that.

[Dan Schneier]

This was Joe Judge level bad. This was Jake from level bad. We threw for 33 yards, Adam. How much worse does it get than that? You watch your team, your football team throw for 33 freaking yards in a football game. Do you know how bad that is to watch do you understand how painful that is?

[Jacob]

It's insane. Well, I, I don't understand the hiding dart aspect of it because like Jesse Minter, you know, Robert Salah, Vance, Joseph Vic Fangio, like, he's, I don't know, like, I feel like he's done it against some of the absolute best, bro.

[Adam]

This, this team's mojo is gone. Since he's come back from the injury, it just hasn't been the same.

[Dan Schneier]

It's just gone.

[Adam]

It's gone. Without Andrew Thomas. Forget it. Although I, I said yesterday, playing at Las Vegas next week, it's, you know, it's finally good weather.

[Dan Schneier]

Right?

[Adam]

It's an indoor.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, right? Yeah.

[Adam]

He's had bad conditions recently.

[Dan Schneier]

We'll see. We'll see how it goes. I mean, Andrew Thomas probably going to be out. We'll see. But I expect out of all things, at least Kafka to open up the playbook a little bit and let him throw the ball against the Raiders bad defense.

[Jacob]

The Thomas thing, that sucks. That makes sense. I didn't re. I didn't catch that. He got hurt because all I did was watch red zone yesterday. Yeah, but yeah, like, they finally show the Giants, I haven't seen them at all. And they're like, this is the first drop back of the game. And I'm like, oh, it's like i43.

[Dan Schneier]

In the second quarter.

[Jacob]

It's literally. Yeah, I've made a huge.

[Dan Schneier]

You're like, no starting somewhere. To be fair, Jacob warned you about this game. I did get to 150 yards of total offense and they did not get to 150. Did they even get down? I don't think they got to 150 yards.

[Jacob]

Somebody in the chat said they picked up the Minnesota defense and they got him 22 points because of your call out. So.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, I did see that. Thank. You're welcome. I'm happy I helped you win your league. I'm sad that the Giants are this pathetic, disgusting team.

[Adam]

I've done something that I'm so proud of. But.

[Jacob]

Yeah. Claire, do you think we could get.

[Adam]

This on the show?

[Dan Schneier]

Let's see it.

[Adam]

Oh, here we go. You said Brian Flores the best at disguises. So let's go ahead and show you some of the tape from. This is gonna be some of the tape from yesterday. Claire, you can fire it up there. Go ahead. There it is.

[Dan Schneier]

Such a dad joke.

[Adam]

I said to chat GPT. Make a picture of Brian's. Of Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores wearing a disguise.

[Dan Schneier]

What'd you type that into?

[Adam]

Chat GPT.

[Dan Schneier]

Oh, God, this is such a dad.

[Adam]

He's got like fake hair and he's got the. The nose glasses combo. He's got a big mustache. It's really. Yeah, I was. I'm really proud of this. Thank you.

[Dan Schneier]

Okay, thank you, everybody.

[Jacob]

Have you guys seen Master of Disguise? It's a really, really stupid movie.

[Dan Schneier]

No.

[Jacob]

Oh, no. Master Disguise.

[Dan Schneier]

Never heard of it.

[Adam]

Maybe.

[Jacob]

What is Dana Carvey?

[Adam]

I don't think so.

[Dan Schneier]

Never heard of it.

[Adam]

I don't think so.

[Dan Schneier]

It's Johnny Airport. Go ahead, Jacob.

[Adam]

No, I don't pay. I. I have the free version of chat. GPT. I can only do.

[Dan Schneier]

Adam pays 9.909amonth for this. I can only do one final shout out beyond the voscore. Shout out though. Football. Shout out. Trevor Lawrence did it again, baby. Again?

[Jacob]

Yeah.

[Dan Schneier]

Defense. Oh, should I bench him? You don't bench Lawrence, baby. The guy is on fire. Liam Cohen is on fire. There's a lot of people that are in discussion for coach of the year. I think I will give it to Ben Johnson if the Bears get that one seed. But man, do I want to give it to Liam Cohen because I think he's working with so much less than any of Rabel or any of Rabel or Ben Johnson.

[Ethos Life Insurance Advertiser]

All right.

[Adam]

Thank you. Yeah. And Patriots, great win for them last night. They're gonna be. They're gonna be a tough out.

[Dan Schneier]

Drake May's the truth, but we don't know literal truth.

[Adam]

Yeah, but you know what? But you. You really overlook a lot of flaws. 1. Drake May, he's gotta clean up the turnovers. He had a pick. He had a pick and a fumble. You can't be doing that.

[Dan Schneier]

God, it's disgusting.

[Adam]

Too many turnovers.

[Jacob]

Dude.

[Dan Schneier]

Dude threw for 380.

[Adam]

Look at his last seven games.

[Dan Schneier]

They were down by 10. And he dropped a of piece, a perfect dime ball to Kyle Williams. He also dropped a perfect dime ball to Booty. That he.

[Adam]

There's no disputing that. But you. But you're too many turnovers.

[Dan Schneier]

Every time he drops back, he looks comfortable. He looks like he knows where he's going with the football. He looks like he's progressing through his reads. He is the truth. We are talking about him for the next 10 years as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

[Adam]

I agree. But he's turned the ball over too much lately.

[Jacob]

I see both your points. Like Drake makes some plays. Especially in this past game. There were a few plays where I was like, oh, boy. And I wonder if we might run into a, like, playoff moment where that happens maybe too many times and it's like, oh, crap, you know, like lost the game because of that.

[Adam]

He has six interceptions and five rules in his last eight games. You know, that's too many.

[Dan Schneier]

Yeah, Jeff Allen did that too for a while.

[Adam]

Yeah, it's fine. But I'm just saying, you, you see? No, clean it up.

[Dan Schneier]

I'm not worried.

[Adam]

You're Smith.

[Dan Schneier]

He's a perfect, perfect quarterback. Okay, we gotta go.

[Adam]

We'll talk to you tomorrow on fantasy football today.

[Dan Schneier]

See you.

[Adam]

Paramount Podcasts.

[Jacob]

Everything you've done has come to this.

[Adam]

The biggest and wildest mission yet is now streaming.

[Dan Schneier]

I need you to trust me one last time.

[Adam]

Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible, the final reckoning, rated BT13, now streaming on Paramount Plus.