Fantasy Cops, 2026 Resolutions, Week 18 Tough Calls (12/31 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fantasy Football Today

Episode: Fantasy Cops, 2026 Resolutions, Week 18 Tough Calls
Date: December 31, 2025
Hosts: Adam Aizer, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings

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Overview:

This year-end episode delivers a lively mix of fantasy football analysis, New Year’s resolutions, listener mailbag, and the always-entertaining “Fantasy Cops” segment. The crew shares lessons learned from 2025, ideas for improving your fantasy play, settles league disputes, and dissects tough lineup dilemmas for an often-chaotic Week 18.

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Main Topics & Highlights

1. New Year Check-In & Fantasy Discussions

• Host Banter: The hosts kick off with lighthearted personal resolutions and New Year's plans—but quickly steer toward fantasy football lessons.
• Adam jokes about finding something to be “great” at outside of fantasy football:

  “I just want to be great at something. I’m more than a year away from being great at that, so I just want to be great at something.” (04:33)

• The crew discusses their confidence (or lack thereof) in upcoming New Year's resolutions, emphasizing a mix of self-improvement and laughter.

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2. News and Notes (07:04)

• Stefon Diggs facing assault allegations—uncertain fantasy impact, but he's expected to play this week.
• T.J. Watt, Dallas cornerbacks, and other late-season injuries are discussed, with implications for lineup choices in Week 18.
• Key Highlight:

  “The Cowboys could have played all of their starters, bring back Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, and the Giants are still going to win this game.” – Heath (06:45)

• Teams Resting Starters: Speculation about Eagles, Cowboys, Bills, and Chargers sitting key players, and how that affects Week 18 rankings.

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3. Fantasy Football Resolutions for 2026

Jamey’s Resolutions (10:12 – 17:44)

• Avoiding Contract Holdouts in Drafts:
  • Past examples where players entering the season with unresolved contracts underperformed (e.g., Terry McLaurin).
  • Hesitation around leaning on players stuck in off-field negotiations.

  • “I just think it’s an easy storyline to stay away from.” – Jamey (10:25)

• Not Panicking Over Every Preseason Injury:
  • Lessons from overreacting to injuries for players like H.N. and Stafford—sometimes “panic” is unwarranted if teams aren't outwardly concerned.

  • “I won’t treat all preseason injuries as the plague.” – Jamey (13:35)

• Caution with Receivers and Inexperienced Quarterbacks:
  • Flagged the unpredictability of wide receiver output with new QBs (e.g., Jefferson/Ridley/Saints/Olave scenarios).

Adam & Heath’s Resolutions (23:19 – 32:59)

• Projections & Bad Offenses:
  • Heath resolves to better check for outlier offensive projections, particularly on teams with new coaches or rookie signal callers.
  • Adam doubles down on avoiding players tied to bad offenses early in drafts, using examples from the Raiders and Falcons.

  • “Try not to draft players on bad offenses…especially in the early rounds.” – Adam (24:38)

• Selling High on Schedule-Based Value:
  • The crew discusses being open-minded about trading stars like Mahomes or Taylor when future schedules appear daunting.
  • Heath reflects on missing with De’Andre Swift due to strength of schedule concerns that didn’t pan out.

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4. Fantasy Cops: Settling League Disputes (35:22 – 48:28)

Case 1: The Stat Correction Switcheroo

• Scenario: In a high-stakes final, a manager accepts a “double or nothing” Week 18 extension, not realizing they’d win via stat correction after the original matchup. The opponent may have known the stat change was coming.
• Panel Verdict:
  • Heath: Take the win since the opponent conceded after knowing the correction (38:08).
  • Jamey: Play Week 18 since both sides had opportunities to check corrections (39:02).
  • Adam: Nuanced—it depends if both truly had access to the same information (40:24).

Case 2: Kicker Mishap

• Scenario: A scoring setting accidentally gave +1 for missed kicks, awarding a title due to a kicker’s miss.
• Advice:
  • Don’t retroactively change the title given the season-long rule; instead, tweak payout distribution if the commissioner erred.

  • “If it’s been the rule for two years, I…believe me, I commissioned several leagues…you just, you gotta live with it.” – Jamey (44:11)

• Panel encourages leagues to designate a “rules nerd” for annual rule-checks.

General Commissioner Advice

• Don’t overextend yourself running too many leagues; have a partner double-check settings and ensure transparency.

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5. Week 18: Tough Start/Sit Calls (50:43 – 57:24)

• Travion Henderson’s Boom-or-Bust Profile:
  • Adam notes that in his “three good games…two had multiple 50-yard touchdowns.”
  • Jamey: Start as RB2; Heath: “He’s in my top 24.” (51:37)
• 49ers WRs vs. Seahawks:
  • Both Jamey and Heath endorse starting Juwan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall in Week 18 due to secure roles and their team’s playoff urgency.
• Steelers RBs (Gainwell & Warren):
  • Jamey trusts Gainwell as a “top 20 option,” less bullish on Warren (56:17).
• Terry McLaurin vs. Philadelphia:
  • Not a recommended start in typical league sizes.

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6. Listener Mailbag & Advanced Strategy (57:25 – End)

• Fantasy MVP Debate:
  • Introduction of a custom “Lamar” metric (League Adjusted Measure Above Replacement) validates McCaffrey’s MVP status in most formats.

  • “McCaffrey is actually something of a superhero... He has the three best Lamar seasons in my league’s history.” – Listener Paul (58:12)

• Dynasty League Startup Question:
  • Strong advice to NOT allow keepers from previous redraft seasons; start fresh with new drafts and possibly integrate rookies into the pool for more fun.

  • “I would start fresh. You didn’t go into the draft last year thinking about keepers, so I don’t think it’s fair now.” – Heath (62:27)

• Existential “What’s the Point?” Email:
  • Hosts empathize; acknowledge the chaos and chance in fantasy is also why victory tastes so sweet.
• Bonus/Alternative Week 18 Ideas:
  • One listener runs a “guillotine” league bonus round for extra fab next season; Adam muses about a DFS contest for fans.

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Notable Quotes

• “I just want to be great at something.” – Adam (04:33)
• “Try not to draft players on bad offenses... especially in the early rounds.” – Adam (24:38)
• “I won’t treat all preseason injuries as the plague.” – Jamey (13:35)
• “If it’s been the rule for two years, you gotta live with it.” – Jamey (44:11)
• “It’s about the journey.” – Heath (65:48)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Fantasy Resolutions: 10:12 – 23:19
• Bad Offenses & Draft Cautions: 23:19 – 28:26
• Sell-High Approach Discussion: 28:26 – 32:59
• Fantasy Cops Disputes: 35:22 – 48:28
• Week 18 Start/Sit Calls: 50:43 – 57:24
• Listener Mailbag: 57:25 – End

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Final Notes

The episode captures the gut-wrenching unpredictability, emotional swings, and creative problem-solving essential to fantasy football. The FFT crew balances actionable resolution advice, entertaining commish war stories, and nuanced game theory, providing the perfect end-of-year pod for any fantasy football enthusiast.

Transcript

[Adam]

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[Heath]

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports Play.

[Adam]

Can you believe this?

[Heath]

No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

[Adam]

Off to the races and he stays at his feet.

[Heath]

Chris is going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.

[Adam]

Welcome in. It's Fantasy Football today presented by BetMGM. Make it legendary. It's Wednesday. It's hump day. It's New Year's Eve. Good vibes, good mood, good friends. Sup Jamie and Heath. Hey, Jamie.

[Jamie]

You must be so excited today.

[Adam]

Not really. Not yet, no. We have a New Year's party that's consuming all of my time right now.

[Jamie]

So if you have a New Year's party and the game is not on, I'm gonna kill you.

[Adam]

No, everybody will be. Will be gone by the time the game starts.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Adam]

Little kids and their parents. So, you know. But yeah, once that ends, I'll be pretty laser focused. Dave is good in Dallas or in route to go see the game.

[Heath]

Oh, really?

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

That's awesome.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Pretty cool, right?

[Heath]

Fantastic.

[Adam]

Yeah. How you guys? How you doing, Heath?

[Heath]

I'm great. I'm just really happy to be here. Super excited to talk about week 18.

[Adam]

We're not gonna do a ton of week 18. Just a little bit of tough calls for week 18. I have an email about week 18. I have some general emails about fantasy football. I've got the Fantasy Cops later and fantasy resolutions. That's our topic today. What are we going to do differently next year? Lessons learned from this year. You guys going to have any legit New Year's resolutions?

[Heath]

No, probably not.

[Jamie]

Great.

[Adam]

Okay, good second.

[Jamie]

What about you?

[Adam]

Yeah, I really. I really, really want to get a great at tennis. I really want to dedicate. I'm going to go to the gym. They have court by myself at night and just work on my serve. I'm going to be that guy. I'm going to try to do it without spending a ton of money on lessons.

[Heath]

I'm just trying to think of, like, my wife's response to, like, the area of life that you'd really like to improve is I need to spend more time at the tennis courts by myself. Getting better at tennis.

[Adam]

I just.

[Heath]

Screw these kids.

[Adam]

I mean, I feel good about my parenting. I obviously could always get better, but I feel good about that. Um, it's gonna be. It's gonna be at night. He's gonna get like a nine o' clock court and go by myself and just. And just serve. But I'm gonna do that a lot. But I just want to be great at something. I just want to be. I'm more than a year away from being great at that, so I just want to be great at something.

[Heath]

Great at this is, I think, a lot of guys. Yeah, you're really great at this. But. Yeah, it's like that midlife crisis.

[Adam]

Yes.

[Heath]

You're seeing that there's probably not many opportunities left in the future to be great at something. Yeah, you got a little bit of a chance here.

[Adam]

I've never been great at anything. I've never won.

[Heath]

You really are the male podcast host of the year.

[Adam]

Doesn't exist. It's a joke that this was made up. Doesn't even exist. That award. And yeah, like, growing up, I never. I won one championship as the backup point guard on my basketball team. Middle school basketball team.

[Heath]

Wait, what? On the backup point guard on your middle school basketball team?

[Adam]

Yeah, we went undefeated when I was in eighth grade.

[Heath]

This is a great idea. Can we do like, one of the. Like, can Paramount do a documentary on your year of committing yourself to tennis?

[Adam]

I'm sure right next to Landman in the Paramount plus library. It'll do great.

[Jamie]

Let's start. Let's start small and see if HQ would do it before we go to Paramount.

[Adam]

All right, let's get to news and notes here.

[Jamie]

Maybe even just Thomas following you around with the camera.

[Adam]

Yeah, or maybe I'll just do it myself. Get a selfie stuff. Stick. News and notes. Stefan Diggs is facing assault charges. We obviously. Serious allegations. And we'll see what happens there. And haven't seen anything about him not playing this week or in the future, but we'll keep an eye on it. J.J. watt could play this week. And Dallas released.

[Jamie]

Impressive.

[Heath]

That would be really impressive. Like, he was so inspired by Philip Rivers that he's just. He's gonna come back too.

[Adam]

There you go. Dallas released cornerback Trayvon Diggs.

[Jamie]

Get the joke?

[Heath]

No, you said J.J. what?

[Adam]

Oh, okay. I see. I'm not great at anything. Not even great at news and notes. T.J. watt. Dallas released Stefan Diggs. I get that. Right? Trayvon Diggs. He may not play and he won't. He won't play this weekend. Dak Prescott may not play the entire game, so we'll see what they do with their starters. I don't think the Cowboys want to give the Giants any chance of getting the number one pick. That's my gut feeling here. They might pull their starters somewhat early in this game.

[Heath]

The Giants were always going to win this game. Yeah, the Cowboys could have play all of their starters. Bring back Emmett Smith and Michael Irvin, and the Giants are still going to win this game. And Jackson Dart's gonna have four touchdowns.

[Adam]

Yeah, he's probably. He's gotta be like a top five quarterback for this week.

[Jamie]

Right?

[Adam]

He's got to be up there. He's.

[Heath]

He's gonna win the Rookie of the Year, I think.

[Jamie]

I think Dak is chasing the franchise touchdown record, though, for a single season. No franchise.

[Adam]

Oh, well, he's got he's got time to get that. I think he lost his first game to the Giants and he has won every. It's something like 11 in a row that he's beaten the Giants. It's crazy. So if he starts and then they lose, that's going to count as a loss for him. The Eagles could rest some starters. According to Mike Garofolo, Riley Leonard is going to start for the Colts. Lamar Jackson is expected to practice today. We're hoping to get him back for the Sunday night game at Pittsburgh. We got practice reports for the Saturday game. Seattle's top two left tackles, Charles Cross missed last week. The guy replaced him also. They both missed practice. It's only the first one. It was. I don't even think it was a real practice, but they both were listed as did not practice. And good news, though, safety Kobe Bryant was listed as limited for the Niners. And their game against our linebacker that.

[Jamie]

Was suspended last week is back.

[Adam]

Oh, yeah, there you go. George Kittle and Trent Williams have a chance to play. We'll see. For the Bucks, Tristan Wurfs and Jamel Dean did not practice. And Rico Dowdle as a toe injury. His status is uncertain.

[Jamie]

He is expected to play. That was a estimated practice report. They did not practice.

[Adam]

Okay, so based on. Have you guys made any changes to your rankings? Based on. Okay, now we're thinking this team might sit there. Starters.

[Jamie]

I've not adjusted any. Eagles yet. Or Cowboys. I've not adjusted any. I've. I went into it thinking the Bills are not going to play their guys for anything more than maybe a quarter. We know the Chargers are sitting Justin Herbert, so I didn't even rank Omar Hampton or any of their wide receivers of significance. I think my highest rated Chargers receiver is Trey Harris at 60. So for the most part, yes. But nothing new since yesterday. Okay.

[Adam]

But we're going to keep an eye on certain teams like the Eagles and the Cowboys and see if we can get any hints off season programming. We have three shows a week. I don't remember what days we do them. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, typically Monday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah, I think that's fft.

[Heath]

Dynasty will be Tuesday and Friday.

[Adam]

There you go.

[Heath]

But that's starting in two weeks. There'll be no show for the next two weeks. We did have Dan had Dan's Dynasty takes yesterday. And that was a fantastic episode where I brought up his team that is named the greatest startup draft ever, that is now three years into the league that hasn't won a championship yet.

[Adam]

It is a Good startup draft, but, you know, you gotta, you gotta finish the job.

[Jamie]

That's why you gotta pay for the, for first place.

[Adam]

The commissioner would reward first place.

[Jamie]

All right.

[Adam]

Yeah. So that's off season. We'll, we'll have content for you three times a week and Heath will have Dynasty show two times a week. Let's get to our fantasy resolutions. So, Jamie, you've got two resolutions. And I will. Jamie says I will continue to avoid players dealing with contract situations in training camp.

[Jamie]

I mean, Terry McLaurin is Exhibit A. Right. I was very concerned that he was not going to have a good season. The history of injuries with these guys is very high. I just think it's an easy storyline to stay away from. Now there's going to be examples of that where it doesn't work out. James Cook had a contract situation where he was holding, got his deal and was, was fine. So it's not just a guaranteed situation. Jamar Chase 2 years ago as well. So it's not just a guaranteed situation across the board. I wish I had the, the numbers in front of me. I apologize. But I believe there were seven guys in the last three years that had contract situations, hold ins, hold outs. And I think Chase going into that year going the last year was the only one that did well. So now if you want to say McLaren and Cook, I believe, are the two prominent ones, unless I'm missing somebody. So it's now two of nine guys that have done well or had good seasons. It's just, I don't know what it is. That lack of practice time, the focus on your contract, getting paid and, and losing that motivation for whatever that's worth. They just do not have good season. So for me, I'm just going to most likely be out at the, at the expected cost of what these guys usually are going to be based on their ADP. Yeah.

[Adam]

And James Cook signed his contract on August 13th, so that's enough time. You know, that's a. Almost a month away from the start of the season. Right. So I think we were concerned about him and then we kind of stopped being concerned about him. McLaurin went right up to the wire. I don't remember exactly when it was, but it wasn't August 13th. I'll tell you right now. August 25th. Yeah, go ahead, Eth.

[Heath]

No, I, I had a smarter like comment. I'm just gonna try maybe my New Year's resolution to make fewer smart alec comments, but I don't know. Just point of clarification that I'm going To continue to do something I did before as a resolution.

[Adam]

Wait, what?

[Heath]

The resolution's got to be something you're gonna knew.

[Jamie]

Oh.

[Adam]

Oh yeah. That is kind of true, isn't it? Well, you could do a better job at it, you know. I tried.

[Heath]

No, no, I think I. He did a great job at it last year. He was really nailed. The Terry McLaurin situation, I think it's something that I'll probably.

[Adam]

I think.

[Heath]

What do we think three weeks before the season is the time when we start like docking those guys for that three weeks is enough practice time to get ready four, two to three, something like that. But no, I think, I think it's a good point.

[Adam]

Yeah. And at the very least you should expect some starts.

[Heath]

I'm going to continue. There's my resolution from Johnny Airport.

[Adam]

Make more smart ass comments. Okay, so that's a. That's a good one. Another good one is BetMGM because you got to bring that playoff energy to your pro football bets all season long. With a pro football boost pack from BetMGM. It gives you three ways to boost your payout on a winning bet. Just log into your BetMGM account to receive your boost package and then place any pro football bet and apply one of the tokens. Make sure to bet up to the minimum stake odds and legs specified in the toe on the token and if your boosted bet hits, you'll score a bigger payout. From opening kickoffs to game winning drives, this pro football boost pack is your ticket to unforgettable moments this season. Don't wait on the sidelines. Join the action with BetMGM. Okay, I really like this last one here for Jamie. Another resolution. I won't treat all preseason injuries as the plague.

[Jamie]

Yeah, the, the two guys that come to mind are Stafford and H.N. and how the, the panic sort of set in for those two players at least for me you know of. Oh crap. Calf injury for hn and we know what that sort of injury has been and the, the eventual in some cases leading to Achilles injuries and also the calf Achilles problems that we dealt with McCaffrey the previous year. So I think that was on my mind as well and I was just. It dawned on me with this because my 13 year old who he tries to make a good basketball player. He is not anything of his doing that he's not as good as he could be. He brings the best out of him in our father son league where he did the draft by himself. He followed my rankings and he took Derek Henry over Devon Hin now, it obviously worked out in the fantasy playoffs. He actually won the league. Yeah, where Henry was a monster. But obviously, as the season unfolded, why did. Why did you have Henry ranked ahead of hn? Why didn't you have HN ranked higher? You know, calf injury. And then the Stafford example as well, where the panic set in on Puka and Devonte Adams and Stafford's having an MVP season. And so obviously, all injuries are not the same. We know that. But I think just for me, it's not to panic as much and not treat all injuries the same.

[Adam]

It's such a tough one. And all of these are, you know, whenever you try to come up with a rule for how you're going to draft in fantasy football, there's always exceptions. And I think, you know, Heath, I remember a couple years ago, I believe it was the Cooper cup preseason injury and kind of derailed him. Maybe it's three years ago, I don't know. And you made it a point. I'm going to treat preseason injuries. Seriously. I'm not just going to, you know, poo poo him. I think it was really good. But then, yeah, you can go too far the other way.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Heath]

So from what I remember, the hard thing is that we don't always get the full story, obviously. I mean, the Christian McCaffrey situation is a great example of that. And I do. It seems from my memory, the Dolphins were expressing very little concern about hn.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Heath]

It was just a minor thing and they were just going to keep him healthy for week one, and it wasn't something they were worried about, but it was the year after. Christian McCaffrey's injury was not a concern, and it was a calf, which is connected to the Achilles. And so I think, like, there were some valid reasons to be concerned there. I. I think I had a Chan at like pick number two overall for most of the summer and then dropped him to the second round. And I think my best team has mostly had him until the playoffs.

[Jamie]

I think that's part of it is like, we weren't out completely on these guys by any stretch. It was just, whoa, be cautious. And for the people that were aggressive with some of these players, Puka, because of not really worrying about staffer's injury and Achan himself, you were rewarded with a great pick later than they should have gone, clearly, you know, depending on. On where they eventually fell to. I. I think also part of it is, you know, to Heat's point, like, we don't ever know how bad soft tissue injuries are for any Player and probably the team doesn't fully know until they see them back out on the practice field. You know, it's not just, you know, we also had the calf injury for Joe Burrow, you know, two years ago. I think it was where he got hurt in the early part of training camp. And then we know what the season was like for him. And then he eventually broke his wrist, you know, so it's not tried and true. There's no way to just say. I think it's just a matter of, like, what he said about the Dolphins, I think is the best part of this. Like, if the team is not expressing such huge concerns, we probably shouldn't.

[Heath]

Also cool.

[Adam]

All right.

[Jamie]

I had one more. I couldn't really explain it the right way, though, but it was because there's no real rhyme or reason to. But I was thinking about Justin Jefferson and, like, eventually Jerry Judy, but Judy didn't really have a inexperienced quarterback to start the season, so it really didn't make sense. But, like, Calvin Ridley came to mind. Justin Jefferson came to mind. Like, if the quarterback is inexperienced, we probably shouldn't be so unconcerned about the receivers.

[Adam]

Yeah, well, one of mine is about drafting players on bad offenses. I didn't expect the Vikings to have.

[Jamie]

A bad offense, but that's like. It's hard to put them in that category going into it.

[Adam]

Yeah. All right, well, we'll take a break. We'll revisit that in a little bit. Let's take a quick break and get to Heath's resolutions. When we come back on fantasy football.

[Heath]

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[Adam]

Nationwide Investment Services Corporation Ember Finra, Columbus, Ohio. Yeah, the lesson with Justin Jefferson, I don't even know. I mean, what. He's just one of the biggest busts that didn't get hurt that I can remember because he's such a reliable player. I mean, you could look at Brian Thomas Jr. And say he was just as big of a bust even when he was healthy, but he only had one year under his belt. Justin Jefferson. This is really hard to explain. I think that's part of fantasy, is we can do our best to explain everything. Sometimes you just have to chalk it up to who could have seen this coming. I didn't draft any, just any Justin Jefferson because I was concerned, but I never could have seen something like this coming. Jamie. I mean, it defies logic for him to have a year this, this bad for fantasy.

[Jamie]

I just, I wrote all the superlative stories last night. They'll probably be on the site maybe by the time you're listening to this. So the MVP and the top three fantasy teams, the all rookie team, the all waiver wire team and the all bus team and you know, led the story with Jefferson. And it's, I think, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but we all to a certain degree had, oh, McCarthy can't be as bad as darn or McCarthy will be. Hopefully as good as Darnold was. Was certainly one school of thought. Kevin o' Connell's been great with all these other quarterbacks. He'll still be okay and Jefferson will still be okay and oh, he's too talented to have a bad season because of bad quarterback play. And those, those felt like the three kind of okay. Jefferson will still be okay. Now everybody had some concern whether he was wide receiver four through, I think 10. You know, he was in that range. He certainly was in the top 10. And his ADP was, I believe, wide receiver three or no. Yeah, wide receiver three. So it was Chase. It was Chase. Who am I missing? Oh, it was Chase Lamb. Jefferson was kind of the sentiment of who the top three receivers were and it's just like, okay, how can you, how can you figure this out? And then I, then I was like, okay, who were the other young quarterbacks that came into the league this year? Well, Cam Ward. And we thought, okay, he's going to be better for Calvin Ridley. Remember that conversation? Because he was better with Mason Rudolph than he was with Will Levis. And Cam Ward can't be as bad as Will Levis. Well, maybe it's just really is not good at this point of his career. Maybe it's just Cam Ward wasn't ready to help his receiving core. But then I went to like with New Orleans with Tyler Shuck and the minute he stepped on the field. Now granted, he sat for half the year, but Chris Olave was a monster. And so there's no real across the board situation. Like Jackson Dart came in and Wanda Robinson had a great season, you know, so there's no real, okay, take some time for the quarterback. Maybe again, sitting for a few weeks helped, I don't know. But there's no, real. Like, this is why I couldn't really flush it out. Like, there's no real. Okay. This is a definite young quarterback. Inexperienced quarterback. Receiver is not great.

[Adam]

Yeah. I think with Ridley, I brought this up a few times, but I didn't even fully buy into it because I, I had. I thought there was some appeal to Ridley. He had had two straight seasons, playing a full season and getting around a thousand yards, and he's what, 30? You know, so he just hadn't. He was outperformed by Christian Kirk when he was on the Jaguars. So Olave at least was kind of, you know, in his prime. Ridley. I probably should have. I don't. I don't really regret anything with Ridley. It's not like we were spending an early.

[Jamie]

No, no, no. I don't. I don't think regret is something that's appropriate for him. It's just, why did he fail? And.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

You know, trying to find a common theme here with these again. You know, first year starter McCarthy, rookie quarterback and Cam Ward. But then looking at the other two rookie quarterbacks and, you know, one of their receivers were one. A receiver on each of their team was great once they became the starter there.

[Adam]

So Olave's. You know, Olave, I feel like I have to really dig into this, but it's. The last two, last three games, I guess, have been massive. And how much of that is Vale getting hurt? Because his target share actually went down when they changed quarterbacks, especially the last two games without Vale is 27 targets in his last two games. His numbers, at least at late in the season, we're pretty down in terms of his yards per target and all that stuff. His efficiency numbers were down. He just got. He's got 156 targets right now. I don't know. Calvin Ridley, I. I almost forgot about. It's been so long.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

I wonder how Calvin Ridley would do right now with this version of Cam Ward if he were healthy, you know, with this competent version of Cam Ward.

[Jamie]

But, but, but the funny thing is, is that the minute Calvin really got hurt to Mary, DK took off.

[Adam]

Took off to a degree, but nothing.

[Jamie]

Well, I mean, for day three, wide receiver. Yeah.

[Adam]

Okay, well, let's. Let's go to Heath's resolutions now. Heath.

[Heath]

Yeah. You gave me a resolution that I would do a better job of making waiver wire ads in the podcast Leftovers League that we share and we're terrible at. And I will not be keeping that one. But I am, I think my biggest miss in terms of the projections Was the Raiders and expecting a high volume offense and getting the lowest plate number of plays per game. Now, some of that is the fact that they've run like 49 plays per game since they fired Chip Kelly. So it's been even worse in terms of volume. But I'm going to really try in the summer to make sure there aren't outliers in my projections in terms of based on the offense, the coach's history, when there's also not continuity, like if you got a team that's run 50 more plays than everybody else and it's the same coach on the same team with the same quarterback, then I think you can probably project that to happen again. But when we've got a coach coming back from college or a team that's drafted a rookie quarterback or those types of situations, not projecting outliers when we don't. Don't have continuity.

[Adam]

Okay, fair enough. And the Raiders were sort of the inspiration for. For one of my resolutions, which was I will try not to draft players on bad offenses. There's a point in the draft where you draft anyone you know, but two years ago there were two jets being taken in the first 15 picks. Breeze hall and Garrett Wilson. They were terrible for fantasy. This year it was Genti and Brock Bowers.

[Heath]

I just. How many when you look. Because you listed out for us the. The 10 worst offenses.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Heath]

And how many would you have. I mean, probably half of them you would have confidently thought were going to be amongst the 10 worst offenses.

[Adam]

Well, right. So the 10 worst offenses are the Raiders. This is offensive points per game. Raiders, Browns, Titans.

[Jamie]

Just finished.

[Adam]

Yeah, well, as of right now. Yeah, as of through week 17. Raiders, Browns, Titans, Jets, Saints. That's your bottom five. Carolina, Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, Atlanta. And the thing I would say is that you could, you could guess who's going to be the best and who's going to be the worst offenses. And it's just like guessing anything for fantasy. You're going to get some of them wrong. So I feel a little more confident guessing offenses than projecting player stats in most cases. And I'm not, again, I'm not saying like I'm going to completely avoid. Because you like opportunities are great. I think Bowers would have a great year if he didn't get hurt. But the offensive line was so bad and Genti could not overcome it. And I think it should be a tiebreaker in certain cases, you know, so first round pick on a guy that could be on a really bad offense. This was brought up and I didn't think the Raiders would have that bad of an offense. I bought into Chip Kelly. I was just wrong. Wrong. But a lot of people and we.

[Heath]

Didn'T expect you know like this Geno was not this bad.

[Adam]

No. But either.

[Jamie]

I think this is just tied completely to the offensive line to start and then the snowball effect from that.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

And then the question becomes how good are we at guessing which offensive lines. I mean I think we didn't expect the Raiders offensive line to be good. We didn't know it would be this bad.

[Jamie]

No.

[Adam]

But I. I think I was naive in. In not they did not finish was as a bottom 10 offense. But the Texans offensive line should have been more of a concern for me with my Nico Collins enthusiasm because we knew it was going to be a bad offensive line. There was nothing to suggest it wouldn't be and it's actually come together. I think they're decent now. But it was a big problem early in the season. Huge problem. And Nico's been fine. But I would call him a. I would call him a bust personally. Not a huge bust. But you know I don't.

[Jamie]

I don't know if the passing game production is necessarily tied to the offensive line there. I think that is more about the run game and how bad they failed to run block.

[Adam]

I. I think it's both but certainly more in the. In the running game. I would agree with that but I think just it's.

[Jamie]

It's funny you mentioned taking two Raiders in the top part of the draft because you mentioned how the Falcons are part of the top 10 worst offenses and their two guys were fine but they're 23rd.

[Adam]

I mean they're 10th worst. They're barely in the. And honest it's bottom five for me. It's. It's looking at the worst for me anyway. It's like you could be the 10th worst offense and be fine for fantasy. We want to avoid those teams that just absolutely suck offensively, especially in the early rounds. That's kind of how. But yeah but honestly it was. It was a thought with Bijan and. And London. Remember we were saying like I took Bijan around one, London's available around two. I don't think I want to double up on Falcons. You know.

[Jamie]

Sure.

[Adam]

It's kind of okay.

[Jamie]

I wonder who that will be this year. It'll be those two guys again. Yeah. I don't think Bowers will be a top two round pick. He may be back into round two if the quarterback coach offensive line is all right.

[Adam]

My other resolution was Being more open minded to selling high on great players who have tough schedules. Because it's really hard in season to look at Patrick Mahomes, who was the number one quarterback in fantasy in his first eight games, and go, damn, he's got at Buffalo, at Denver, the Colts, at Dallas, Houston and the Chargers in his next six games throughout the fantasy championship, basically, or semifinals, and that's like four horrible matchups out of six. Patrick Mahomes was QB1. He averaged 28.8 points per game in his first eight games. He was QB20 per game in the next six, and he averaged 16.6 fantasy points per game. He threw five touchdown passes in those six games, and four of them were at Dallas. So he's one example. And then Jonathan Taylor was the other one. Jonathan Taylor was, was an MVP candidate. Could a running back win MVP? He was averaging 27.4 fantasy points per game in his first 10 games. His last six games at the Chiefs, Houston, at Jacksonville, at Seattle, San Francisco and Jacksonville. That is a gauntlet. That was so tough. He's averaged three and a half yards per carry. He's averaged 13.8 points per game. He's RB16 per game. He doesn't seem like you agree here.

[Heath]

No, I think you're. You're right. The problem is like, this one haunts me because I think my DeAndre Swift call in the preseason was pretty good. And then like two or three weeks in the middle of the season, I told people, man, look at that schedule in the second half, I would be looking to sell DeAndre Swift. And he was the number eight running back in the fantasy playoffs.

[Adam]

Yeah, I know. It's so annoying. Like, can we just get one thing that's consistently reliable? One piece of it?

[Jamie]

This is the hard part with projecting end of season schedules. The packers lost two of their best players on defense in Wyatt, and obviously Micah Parsons, who would have expected, I mean, I'm sure when you were thinking about this, Heath, well, the 49ers defense will still be okay, right? And then they're just a shell of themselves. And DeAndre Swift has, you know, one of the best playoff performances. So it's. It's very difficult to project that out in the middle of the season, let alone even three or four weeks out, because it's such a grind for these teams that they start losing guys or guys get worn down. Or in the case of, like the Chiefs, you know, when there's a major injury to playoff contention, they just decide, we're going to shut everybody down. Same with the Raiders. So it. I, I think you're on the right track, Adam. Like I, I wonder if it's not just end of season schedules. It's also maybe you can add the, the surprise early season performances because like two guys that stand out to me are Mecca Abuka and Quentin Johnston. Because their first, the first five games for Abuka and the first four games for Quentin Johnson. Johnson was averaging 19.9 PPR points in his first four games. I think we all sort of saw that coming, right? This isn't sustainable. But Justin Herbert was playing great. Keenan Alle is doing well. Like maybe if the offensive line stays healthy, these guys continue to have a strong season. But that was clearly a, an obvious sell high candidate. Abuka was, was difficult because at that, that point Evans first got hurt, Godman was still not back and oh my God, this first round rookie talent. We know what rookies do at the end of the season, right? They only get better. And my goodness, he averaged 21 points per game. I believe it was in his first five. You know what he averaged the rest of the season? 8.8.3.

[Adam]

Oh, that's a good guess.

[Jamie]

8.3. Like one game with double digits in PPR, I believe it was. And he had that big spike game against the Patriots with 23 BPR points. Like I was doing this with the rookie, the all rookie teams. This is funny because I did two all rookie teams really just for the purpose of recognizing Tyler Shuck, the other three running backs who I didn't put on the first team when the other three were Judgins, Hampton and Travion and Tyler Warren. Like I said, I said this in the story. I'm like there really weren't six good rookie wide receivers. So here's three guys that just are, congratulations, you made the second team all rookie team. And that was Jaden HIGGINS To Mary D.K. and, and if you believe this, would you believe that Travis Hunter is third in points per game among rookie wide receivers?

[Adam]

No, that can't be.

[Heath]

Yeah, he had two good games.

[Jamie]

He had one.

[Heath]

And what you just won.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

So who's number one? McMillan.

[Jamie]

McMillan is, is first at like 12.4 or something like that. Abuka is like 12.1. They're, they're very close in terms of their points per game. Obviously not great seasons. Luther Burden is fourth. He's just behind Travis Hunter and then Higgins and DK right there.

[Adam]

I'm so mad at myself for not selling Quentin Johnston. I mean they couldn't have been more obvious.

[Heath]

It was so obviously Quentin Johnston was on two championship teams for me.

[Adam]

Really.

[Heath]

He. He scored 34 fantasy points in the semifinals and finals combined.

[Adam]

He went nuts.

[Jamie]

Yeah, he did. So he actually made the all waiver wire team twice. It was hard to find a third receiver that was consistent. The first two are easy, Michael Wilson and Wanda Robinson. But I struggled with the third ones between him and Alec Pierce. And the way that Quinn Johnson's, you know, the way that I kind of viewed it was did these guys become at any point, must start players? And I think Quinn Johnston, in the first four weeks of the season, even, even after that, you know, he was still being started and had some, you know, these spike games here or there. But like you're right, he's two. His two playoff games, 14.4 PPR points or more in the semi finals in the championship. So he delivered. And one of those was against Denver. So, you know, a little surprise for. I'm sorry, not Denver, Houston. So what, you know, if, if you still had the, the, the balls to start him in the fantasy championship, it.

[Heath]

Had nothing to do with that. It had absolutely to do with not being able to find anybody else.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

But it was, it came down to him or Ibuka for me. And thankfully I chose him.

[Jamie]

You made the right call. I, I think this, that scenario that you just said highlighted how inconsistent and disappointing receivers were over the course of the season.

[Adam]

I mean, I can try to figure this out now, but I. Let's see. Wide receiver. Let's say wide receiver 18.13.5 fantasy points per game. That's Cortland Sutton. Let's Compare the previous three years. Wide receiver 18. Last year, 15.2. Wide receiver 18. The year before, 15.5. Wide receiver 18. The year before that, 15. What did I say?

[Heath]

And I don't even think that.

[Adam]

13.2. Unbelievable.

[Heath]

I don't even, like, I don't even think that fully covers it, how bad wide receiver was. Because if you look at the guys who were ahead of Cortland Sutton, who actually had played 16 games, you've got T. Higgins who missed a couple games. You got Garrett Wilson who missed half the season. You got Malik Neighbors who missed most of the season, you got Rasheed Rice who missed half the season. Like, even the guys who finished top 12, most of them didn't play 15 games.

[Adam]

Yeah, you're right. You've got Drake London, CD Lam. Yeah, crappier. Okay, let's take a break. Fantasy cops. When we come back, we got some good ones for you. Settling some league disputes on fantasy football today. This one is From Gerard. He's a longtime listener, eight to nine years. And this is his first Easter email. He is emailing for outside counsel. We are not the fantasy attorneys. This is not Eisenberg, Azer and cummings here at Law. We're the fantasy cops. But it's fine. 14 team league with friends from high school. It's called the Annexation of Puerto Rico. You guys know which movie that's from?

[Heath]

Yes. It's a football play, right? Or no. Mighty Ducks?

[Adam]

Nope.

[Heath]

Okay.

[Jamie]

No, it's.

[Adam]

This is bad.

[Heath]

Little Giants.

[Adam]

Little Giants. Yeah. Well, you didn't. Okay. Anyway, the attic station of Puerto Rico has been running for about 15 years now. Very competitive, everyone knows their stuff. But one manager is extremely dedicated and has three championships. I have two and we played each other in the championship round. This is really cool. Listen this. I needed 2 1/2 points from Blake Corum to win my third championship, but he was injured one point shy of of what I needed before he ultimately sat out for the rest of the game. In the third quarter, down by one, Blake Corum was on the sideline with his helmet on and the opposing manager proposed making the championship to week 18, winner takes all. Seemingly as a hedge that Blake Cora may have scored the one point I needed to win. At the time, it seemed beneficial to me because Cora may not have re entered the game, but if he did, I needed one reception and one yard to win the championship. I checked for stat corrections and ultimately I ended up accepting the offer to make it a two week championship into week 18. When I woke up this morning, I had won the matchup without Blake Corum playing another snap, which was because there was a stat correction and Jameson Williams lost credit for. He said a tackle, which reduced. Is that what happened?

[Heath]

It should absolutely get credit for a tackle.

[Adam]

Okay. He lost credit for it, which reduced his weekly total by enough to beat him. After hours of group chat, group chat back and forth this morning, the other manager finally admitted that he knew that the stat correction was forthcoming and ultimately he conceded. What would you do? Stick to the agreement and play a Week 18 championship or. Yes, the W, given the scenario.

[Jamie]

No, if you agree to it, you have to play it out.

[Heath]

So I want to make sure I heard the last part right. So the guy who sent the offer to play Week 18 knew the stat correction was coming. Yeah. And sent the offer knowing that he was going to lose.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

Total. Total sneaky move.

[Adam]

But the other.

[Jamie]

Hold on. Go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead.

[Adam]

The other guy did check the stat corrections though, and didn't see one. So he thought there was no. There was no stat correction forthcoming. Right.

[Heath]

So probably two guys not necessarily acting in the best faith.

[Adam]

I mean, I guess it's okay to check for stat. I don't know how you do that.

[Jamie]

Hold on. I got just one caveat to this. What if quorum comes back into fumbles?

[Heath]

No, but. Yeah, that is possible. But then doesn't it say he admitted he knew that the stat correction was coming and ultimately conceded?

[Adam]

Yes.

[Heath]

So I don't think when somebody wins an election and the other person they're running against concedes, the person that has won ever agrees to a recount after that they conceded, it's over.

[Adam]

What if they agreed to the recount before the concession?

[Heath]

Well, I mean, listen, doesn't. I think you should stick by what you agreed to do, except in this case, because the other guy is already conceded.

[Adam]

Okay, so Heath says take the win and Jamie says play week 18.

[Jamie]

I. I played out. I mean, could have gone against you. And how would you have felt that way? Like you agreed to it. You. You knew he also had the. The. He checked. He. He had. He still had the chance of Corum coming back in.

[Heath]

And the guy who was the other opponent is the commissioner. So he was playing against the commissioner who did this.

[Adam]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Heath]

So the commissioner conceded.

[Adam]

Yeah. Now here's my question. How do you check for stat corrections?

[Jamie]

So stat corrections usually are posted at least on our site. I don't. I don't check anywhere else but our post on our site the Thursday after the week is over.

[Adam]

Right. So he's doing this on Sunday in. During the game. How is it Monday?

[Heath]

This is on a different site.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Heath]

And so maybe. I don't know.

[Jamie]

Okay, first off, you need to change your rules where offensive players should not be credited for tackles.

[Heath]

I like that rule a lot.

[Adam]

Oh, I hate that.

[Jamie]

That's like. What was it? Was it Jack, our producer? Jack had a league where interceptions were a thou. 100 points or. I'm sorry, what was it? It was like quarterback tackles.

[Adam]

Yeah, right.

[Jamie]

On interception, it was like 100 points.

[Adam]

I don't think I was in that league.

[Heath]

I remember that because I'm in a league where return yards are heavily. Basically just treated like regular yards. And I'm betting Shinradike was the number one rookie wide receiver in that league.

[Adam]

Yeah, I would say so.

[Heath]

He's in for him return.

[Jamie]

I. I would just think if you agree to it before the game was decided, you played out.

[Adam]

Can I weigh in on this here? So if you want a tiebreaker because I've never played on Yahoo. I haven't played on Yahoo. In a long time. I don't know how to check stat corrections. What. How did this one guy, Commissioner, know that the stat correction was coming and you didn't? Did you both check the same thing and he just did a better job checking it and you messed up? Because in that case, I don't really. You both had the same opportunity to check the stat corrections. You just read it wrong. In that case, I'm on the commissioner's side. If there was some other kind of sneaky way where he knew the stat correction was coming and you couldn't have known that I'm on your side, that.

[Heath]

Would be my Commissioner has access to information that you don't have access to. Yes, than 100. But, you know, kind of. Kind of feels like the year that I. I always like to bring this up. The year that I went undefeated in our IDP league. And there was an asterisk put on it because of the Demar Hamlin game. But the site, when you go to it, still says that I won that game.

[Adam]

What was the score?

[Heath]

I don't. I don't even recall. Yeah, but this. The site right now says that you won't.

[Jamie]

I would do this, I think, in good faith. I'm not a big split the pot person. I think you play it out through week 18. You do with a 7030 winner. Whatever the split is, put all the money into it. 60, 40, whatever the case you want to do like, winner gets just a. A bigger bonus.

[Adam]

Okay, next one is from Tim says Dear Eddie, Chris, Lane, and Kurt. That would be. Who's Lane? That would be Eddie Vedder. Chris Cornell. I'm guessing Kurt Cobain. Unless this was supposed to be their Nirvana trio with Eddie Vedder. It's something along those lines. Let's see. Lane Staley. I definitely should know who Lane Staley is. Is that Allison Chains? Yes. Okay. Okay. Our championship game came down to Monday night with the Narrow victory of 0.3. Our champion had Cameron Dicker, who missed a field goal of 0 to 39 yards. It was then that we all realized that for two years, a kicker that missed a field goal of 0 to 39 yards received plus 1 to their score instead of minus 1.

[Jamie]

Oh, no.

[Adam]

The loser is understandably upset because Dicker missed this kick and got a point instead of losing a point that. That decided the championship. The loser is understandably upset, but isn't demanding a scoring change. Is this something we should take a league vote on? Do we leave it as is and make sure it's corrected for next year. Would love the fantasy cops to weigh in.

[Jamie]

You got to go back then if you're going to change it. You got to change every score for the season where this happened because it had to happen multiple times.

[Adam]

Yeah, it certainly could have changed the matchups, but I don't know. What do you do here? It's weird to win a championship on a missed field goal. That's ridiculous.

[Jamie]

That's.

[Heath]

Go ahead, Jamie.

[Jamie]

I wonder if the commissioner was involved here, because if the commissioner was involved, there should probably be, like, on the winning side. Here's a little extra money to account for my mistake. But yeah, you just, you got to live with it. That's been the rule for two years. I, I, I, I, believe me, I commissioned several leagues. Adam, I believe, has subtly been jabbing me for the last couple weeks about my lack of one rule in one league. Yeah, change. And I don't, unfortunately, check all the little minute details. I think I said this with the leftover leagues. Like, I have to change it to decimal scoring. But I do think that there, you should probably designate somebody in every league to go through the rules at the beginning of the season. Like someone, you know, who's just the absolute nerdiest of nerd people and wants to make sure everything is buttoned up and correct and they should find out these little mistakes because there's, I'm sure there's probably every league has a little mistake or two or something that could be tweaked. Hey, let's put this up for a vote. Or, hey, you know, you, you did. This is obviously a terrible, terrible thing that you're getting positive points for negative plays.

[Heath]

I, I think this has happened to all of us in one way or another. Like, I think in the YOLO Dynasty League, I've been wanting to correct a mistake that I made and didn't make. Dual eligible players on defense. Dual eligible. So all the edge rushers are stuck at linebacker. And I had Micah Parsons for two years. And so finally I just dropped Micah Parsons. And then maybe I'll change the rule because it won't benefit me, but it's like those types of things. I think this. I would just stick with what I said on the last one. What, what does the, what's the website say? Looks like that guy won. And yeah, I agree with Jamie, too. I think the commissioner, if it's within his means, should probably try to make this up. The other guy.

[Adam]

Yeah, I think, Yeah, I think that might be the solution. Is to. To change the payout because give the. Whoever want. I don't know, whoever wants to think it's.

[Jamie]

If it's. The winner got 100 bucks and the loser got 50, you know, maybe it's 90, 60, you know, you're not doing anything.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jamie]

Dramatic, right?

[Adam]

No, just shaded a little bit more. A little bit more percentage wise to the loser.

[Jamie]

But you just fix it for next season. You can't do anything now.

[Adam]

Really. But why not? Like, you know this, you know, this is.

[Jamie]

It's two years though. Like, how many things would have been changed over two years?

[Adam]

I guess so. It's just so silly. But all right, Fairy, look.

[Heath]

And like, if I, If I, I lost on that, I might leave the league. I would be so irate if I found out that I lost because we had the scoring thing wrong for two years and it's partially my fault.

[Adam]

Like, if we went and changed it and then it retroact.

[Heath]

No, if I was the person who lost that game because of Cameron Dicker getting a point for missing a field goal.

[Adam]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's ridiculous.

[Jamie]

Like, this is. Would you leave the. Like if it's all your, you know, your, your. Your friends from home or all of us as co workers, like, you actually leave the league?

[Heath]

I mean, Adam was the commissioner for sure, but. No, I, I'd probably. If it was all like, people I don't see anymore except for fantasy football, I'd probably just throw a fit and pretend like I was leaving the league and then be back when it's time.

[Adam]

To do the draft. This kind of happened in, in the league that Jamie says I'm jabbing him about the setting that I want Jamie to fix. And you could go do it right now, by the way. You go right now and do it is. There's a setting in our Super Flex league where rosters lock. Not lineups, but rosters lock at 1pm Eastern on Sunday. So if you need someone Monday night, you can't. You cannot make. Or Sunday afternoon, you cannot add, drop. You cannot add anyone after 1pm I.

[Heath]

Had that issue like week three in that same league. I think that's why I went to 14.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Adam]

And so I was playing Robert Thomas, who's. Who runs our Facebook group and is in our chat a lot of. And it was the night that the. It was Monday night and he had the Washington kicker who got ruled out, and then he wanted to pick up the backup Washington kicker and he couldn't, so he texted Jamie and then Jamie Wasn't available. He texted Dave and then Dave went and manually made the move for him. And I was like, you cannot do that. This has been the rule for years. It should be changed, but you cannot do it now. Luckily, the Washington kicker scored one point. I believe in that game. So it didn't change the outcome. But I would have been so mad.

[Heath]

If the outcome out of the league.

[Adam]

Dave's not in the league. Dave is not in the league. He just has commissioner access. And he did it for Jamie without knowing the rule. Dave didn't realize what he had done.

[Jamie]

I didn't know the rule.

[Adam]

Yeah, you didn't know, right? You don't know it until it happens.

[Jamie]

Well, I think with two things that have come as a result of that, Adam is now going to be the commissioner. Congratulations. But yeah, it's, it's. And. And this is something also that is. Is worth mentioning. It's. It's small thing. Like, I've inherited two leagues as commissioners of our analyst leagues, quote, unquote, analyst leagues. And that's one of them. We know where. I never even, you know, I played in the league for several years. I never even thought to, oh, I got to check the, the, the. That particular setting. So that needs to be changed. And the IDP league is another one that I inherited that I never really checked anything because I'm like, I don't care what the DST scoring is. It is what it is. But yeah, you should, you should really have, I think, somebody in your league that is like, you know, you call them co commissioner, you call them whatever you want to, but just make sure that they check all the, all the stuff and like, hey, change this. Take a look at this. Maybe we put this up for a vote, those type of things. Like, you know, I think it just helps.

[Heath]

Well, I think the other thing is like, and maybe there's probably some people in the chat are going to say they do this and it's not that big a deal. You really shouldn't be a commissioner of 20 fantasy leagues. You can't do a good job. You should really shouldn't be a commissioner of 10 fantasy leagues. You can't do a good job.

[Adam]

What do you think about this suggestion, Heath? You need Adam. You need an Adam in the league to check your stuff.

[Heath]

That's 100 completely inaccurate. Adam famously once complained about a league he joined having all types of crazy rules that he didn't realize until after the draft. Because I don't want to go through and read the rules when I join a league.

[Adam]

It's true.

[Heath]

Like Adam does not have the attention span to find the problems. He could have looked through the rules and he wouldn't have even seen this.

[Jamie]

Adam also is the worst commissioner and just does things arbitrarily.

[Adam]

No, I don't think I do things arbitrarily. I am a bad commissioner, but I don't do things arbitrarily.

[Jamie]

Not arbitrarily on purpose.

[Adam]

Yeah, that's your fault. I told you you had a deadline, you didn't meet the deadline and I removed the players. That's. That's on you. Let's get to some week 18 tough calls for some reason. Treveon Henderson against Miami. Anybody want to start Travion Henderson against Miami? You know what I noticed about him? He has three good games this year. Three games of more than 12 fantasy points. And in two of those games he had multiple 50 yard touchdown runs.

[Jamie]

So those guys are madre. Didn't play well.

[Adam]

At least one of them. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Two of them. Reminder, didn't play.

[Jamie]

Yep.

[Adam]

And the one time he had a good game with Ramondre, he had two 50 plus yard touchdown run. So. But he is getting a lot more work than Ramondre. Although most of it was in the second half. Stevenson didn't have a carry in the second half last week against the jets. So Dolphins are, you know, they're kind of up and down against the run. Anyway, who wants to start Trayvon Henderson?

[Jamie]

I will start him as a number two running back.

[Heath]

Yeah. I can't say that I want to start anyone in week 18 because I don't want to set a lineup in week 18. But he's in my top 24.

[Adam]

I don't really know where this segment is going.

[Heath]

It's going like well, I don't know.

[Adam]

How do you know?

[Heath]

What I'd really like is if somebody would like send us a well thought out email of like why, why they want to play week 18.

[Adam]

Yeah. Even if you want a two week championship, I don't think week 18 is the. Is the week to do it. So I guess I'll just ask. How do you feel about Travion Henderson? Optimistic. Reluctant start. Remember he used that term reluctant start?

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Heath]

He's an RB2.

[Jamie]

All right.

[Adam]

I think the 49ers wide receivers are tough calls. Seattle is six best against receivers. If you're not Puka Nakua, you have a hard time doing well against them. I mentioned Colby Bryant, their safety. He's. He was limited. Listed as limited in practice. I also don't really love the trends with Juwan Jennings. Last two games he's had a pretty very low target share when Ricky Pearsall has been on the field. Pearsall played most of the snaps last game and he's got, you know, two games in a row with 85 or more yards. But Pearsall never gets red zone targets, rarely gets red zone and end zone targets. Jennings gets them all the time. But Heath, how do you feel about the Niners in this big game but tough matchup Niners receivers against Seattle?

[Heath]

You know I, I think if I was playing in week 18, I would really prefer to have guys on teams that I knew cared and I knew were going to play the whole game and both Juwan Jennings and Ricky Pierce all fit into that category. And so I think that even with the touch, tough matchup makes them borderline wide receiver twos, low end wide receiver twos or high end wide receiver threes. But like I said, I, I think you get really nervous about teams that they don't have anything to play for.

[Adam]

Jamie, your thoughts on the Niners?

[Jamie]

100 agree. And you know I, I think what you look at with with Seattle's defense, it is great and especially when you look at the other teams in the playoffs, not just the nfc, it is great. But when they have faced good passing games, those passing games have been good, just not as good as they typically are when they're not facing bad opponents and so Stafford carved them up. I think Brock Purdy will have a good game. Not five touchdown good but with the way that he's playing right now in what feels like could be a high scoring game because San Francisco's defense is not very good. I think you have to say I'm going to trust Juwan Jennings to hopefully have the type of game he had last week where it wasn't great until he scores and that Ricky Pierce saw in his last two games and the game that he played against Seattle went for over 100 yards and it was week one but still I'm starting both those guys.

[Heath]

I I've got a Brock Purdy question for you Adam, because you always are the guy presenting like what they did last year and then setting us up for questions and you're great at it. Great host at the end of the when we get into next year, if Brock Purdy holds on to his current QB1 status, are we going to say Brock Purdy was the QB1 last year playing in nine games?

[Adam]

Is he average? Is he currently.

[Heath]

He's currently QB1 and fantasy points per Game.

[Adam]

Yeah, I will say that.

[Heath]

And so nine games is enough.

[Adam]

Yeah, I think it is.

[Heath]

Is that the minimum?

[Adam]

That's unbelievable. I didn't realize he was. I don't know what the minimum.

[Jamie]

You know the ninth game this week.

[Adam]

Stafford had that year with eight games where he was right up there. Remember that?

[Heath]

I think, I think he's played eight so far. Purdy has. So I think this will be weak. This will be his ninth.

[Adam]

Can I double? Can I check on this here? Remember that Stafford season, eight games. Let's see. That was nine games. 2022. No, no, it was eight games in 2019, I think. Oh my gosh. He threw 19 touchdown passes in eight games. Let's take a look at. Yeah, so sure I will recognize him as QB1 that year.

[Heath]

Okay.

[Adam]

Matthew Stafford. No, QB3. That was the Lamar Jackson's 31 point per game year. And then Jameis Winston was QB2. Stafford was QB3. I think so I'm fine with it. That's, that's wild. Did he make your top 12? I think he was in my top 12.

[Jamie]

Yeah, he's in my top 10, I think. Yeah.

[Heath]

I was thinking he was ninth or 10th, but I don't really remember.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

He's only had, I would say two tough matchups this year at Seattle and at Cleveland. He scored 19 points and 21 points in those two games. The Steelers running backs against Baltimore. Jamie, your thoughts there? Gainwell and Warren coming off terrible games. So they both had fewer than seven PPR fantasy points.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I'll go back to Gainwall for sure just because I expect a lot of dump off passes and you know, Rogers to lean on him in the passing game when another game without Metcalf, which is what I thought last week but just didn't materialize. Jaylen Warren will be a little bit tougher to trust, you know. So touchdown dependent, low end, number two running back gain. Well, more of a top 20 option.

[Adam]

Okay. And anybody want to start Terry McLaurin against Philadelphia? At Philadelphia.

[Jamie]

Not in a two receiver league, but he's close. You know the, the tricky part with the Eagles is they have to win and the Bears have to lose to get the two seed and I don't know how much that'll matter to them because they're still playing wild card weekend so we'll see if they start to pull. Guys, the.

[Adam]

I'm guessing those games are at the same time.

[Jamie]

I would assume so.

[Adam]

Chicago, Detroit is at 425. Philadelphia. Yeah, 425 Eastern.

[Jamie]

Just keep in mind that McLaurin did not have a great game against Cowboys.

[Adam]

Yeah, I mean, I. It doesn't look like it's going to be Josh Johnson again. It looks like.

[Jamie]

Right.

[Adam]

So.

[Jamie]

Yep.

[Adam]

Not feeling that. I got an email. Emails from. First one's from Paul. It says Ken Walker or Parker. Washington half ppr.

[Jamie]

Go Washington.

[Heath]

Sure. Yep.

[Adam]

That's what I said too. By the way, I have a sleeper for this week.

[Heath]

Oh, good.

[Adam]

Darius Slayton.

[Heath]

Yeah. Cowboys Dart's gonna have four touchdowns, right?

[Adam]

He is gonna kill it. All right. From Joey. Says dear Huey, Dewey and Louie. Oh, he said Huey, Louie and Dewey. Oh, that's terrible.

[Jamie]

Can't get the order wrong, right?

[Adam]

What is this? Alvin, Theodore and Simon.

[Jamie]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Adam]

Right. Can't do it. All right. Well anyway.

[Jamie]

Larry, Mo Curly.

[Adam]

Yeah, exactly. It's ridiculous. You can't go jb. Adam Heath. I wanted to give my thanks again for a great season. Well, sorry for crapping on you. And now you're thanking us? I've just won my fourth championship since I started listening and reading your content 10 years ago. That's very good. Nice success rate. You guys have been talking a lot about the fantasy MVP lately. I wanted to throw in my piece. I am making an app where a user automatically has the entire history of their league imported and comes out with their own personal pro football reference. I made a metric that goes by your league's rules and roster habits to make a WAR equivalent for fantasy. I call it League Adjusted Measure above replacement or Lamar. For my league, the Lamar MVP is easily Christian McCaffrey. Caffrey. We are two running backs and a flex and half PPR. The value McCaffrey gives over what you expect on waivers for running back is unmatched. I know you bring up Trey McBride, but you can normally find some Dalton Schultz type who will give you 7, 8 points. So McBride really only gives you 10 points above replacement whereas McCaffrey is closer to 18 extra points per game. McCaffrey is actually something of a superhero. He has the three best Lamar seasons in my league's history going back to 2014 and is a four time champion in my league. Best ever is Danian Tomlinson in 06.

[Heath]

This is fantastic, fantastic news that we found the guy to go through all of our leagues and figure out if our scoring is right.

[Adam]

I think I. I don't know that you can compare an RB one to a waiver wire running back. That's why you start two running backs. You know, you only start one tight end. I'm not Sure. I buy that argument that McCaffrey is better than a replacement running back in a, in a more extreme way than McBride is better than a replacement tight end. You know what I mean? It's like you have to start two running backs, two wide receivers. You only have to start with one tight end. Does that make sense?

[Heath]

I'm gonna trust this guy's research over your instincts.

[Jamie]

But for, for Lamar, who can't get the order wrong on DuckTales, McCaffrey was the fantasy MVP.

[Adam]

Oh, it is voted on by or according to you?

[Jamie]

As decided by me? Yes.

[Heath]

Oh, no. I thought, I thought it was a really close debate going into last week and I thought McCaffrey won it.

[Adam]

And who, who's second for you?

[Heath]

I thought, I thought Puka was in it, that McBride was in it and I just think McCaffrey was the, the winner.

[Jamie]

I had four candidates going into the final weekend and I included five because Bijan's playoff run was incredible. So I think those five guys were deserving the four you mentioned, Heath and, and Robinson. So that's why we gave honors as first team, second team, third team honors. And all those guys are on the first team.

[Adam]

All right. McCaffrey.

[Heath]

Wow.

[Adam]

25.3 fantasy points per game. I think it has to be. Yeah, I was going to say third.

[Jamie]

Best season of his career.

[Adam]

I was going to say jsn, but he's. That's. He's four points better per game than jsn. That's.

[Jamie]

Well, JSN isn't even the best receiver.

[Heath]

Right.

[Adam]

But he's a third round pick. I think he's been the most valuable receiver because of the draft value. Although Puka was going in some. Like Puka went to the 2, 3 turn in one of my leagues because he, because they had the Stafford injury. People were freaking out about that and Devonte and. Yeah, but he was, he was a first round pick before the Stafford injury. But.

[Jamie]

Well, I think there was some legitimate concern about is devonte now going to be the best receiver for the Rams and touchdown wise, he was.

[Adam]

Okay. Next email is from. Oh, Eric from Maine. Hey, Apollo Clubber. Yvonne and Tommy. See this guy put it in the right order. The Rejaf league I'm the commissioner of is talking about making it into a dynasty league. What's the best way to go about making a redraft league into a dynasty league? Just one draft to start or do two separate drafts? Rookies and veterans. Should we allow keepers from this year, blah, blah, blah. Heath, what do you think?

[Heath]

I would start Fresh. I would not. I mean, you didn't go into the draft last year thinking about keepers, so I don't think it's fair to say now, okay, we're, we're going to keep our best players, so start fresh. I think it's easier to do one draft. You have to get a little bit creative if you're going to do two. I kind of like doing two just because drafting is fun. So the easier way is just do one and include the rookies and everybody in that. What we did most recently, not most recently, two drafts ago, was we did a startup draft before the NFL draft and then we did the rookie draft after. And there's ways you can do that. You can either do opposite orders for those two drafts or you can include the picks. So when you're drafting, if you get to the 10th pick and somebody wants to take the 20, 26, 101, they can just take them with that pick in the startup and then they'll have the 101.

[Adam]

Oh, interesting. I would hate the idea of doing two drafts personally, because having the first pick in the rookie draft is so much more valuable than having the first pick in the startup draft, especially if it's super flex. I don't even know that there's really an advantage in a super flex league to having an early pick. Do you think there is?

[Heath]

So you're saying that this year you would have rather had. It would have been a big advantage to take Ashton Genti or Cam Ward over being able to take Josh Allen?

[Adam]

Yeah, because you're also getting. Are you snaking that rookie draft or no?

[Heath]

I, I don't think it's that way at all.

[Adam]

I don't think it's. I mean, in a super. Do you think in a super flex dynasty league that there's really an advantage to drafting early? Does it.

[Heath]

I think it's different every year based on the values. I think when I looked at it because people asked this question last off season and like, based on my values, the third and the ninth pick were the two most valuable in a startup just based on where the tiers were early on.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Jamie]

I think it's. So I just go back to the YOLO league and how that benefited me greatly to pick last or second last in the. Because you did it. A veteran draft and a rookie draft.

[Heath]

Yep.

[Jamie]

And so to pick SEC. So you, you did the reverse order of the first round in the rookie draft and getting McCaffrey second of the. In the second part of the draft. Right. Was. Was huge. He would not have made it to me. Yeah, well, I would have had to take him earlier. Excuse me. In the. If it was a total. A draft, in totality.

[Adam]

One thing I think we can all agree on is if you're gonna do Dynasty League, do a super Flex League. More fun. This email comes from an utterly defeated fantasy manager who says, what's the point of all of this time, energy and effort put into this hobby if every year people can pick up randoms like Michael Mayer last minute and win it all? You build a super team that outscores everyone in the league and it's completely pointless. You can spend years, decades of your life playing this game just to have some guy who auto drafted Cook. Oh, some guy who auto drafted Cook you in the first round of the playoffs. Sorry to bother you. I just can't be more enthusiastic right now. I'm just so tired. I feel you, man. We've been there.

[Heath]

Been there, bro.

[Adam]

We've all been there.

[Heath]

It's about the journey.

[Adam]

Yeah, it is, right? And then it makes the victory so much sweeter. You'll. You'll get it. And this is from Jeremy, talking about what to do with week 18. I'm running a bonus round in my Guillotine league. The winner gets extra fab for next season. I unlocked all the teams and gave each manager $1,000 to claim their entire team off waivers. That's cool.

[Jamie]

That's fun.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

I mean, if you have a league full of guys who want to do that, then sure, I wouldn't mind doing.

[Adam]

Some, like, week 18 challenge. I guess we'll do a DFS. Can we do like, a little DFS group thing?

[Jamie]

No. Sure. Set it up.

[Adam]

Do you think I could maybe invite the listeners?

[Jamie]

Sure, but they're gonna have to pay, which, you know.

[Adam]

Really? You can't do one for free?

[Jamie]

I don't know.

[Heath]

I think you could do one for free. I don't. Go ahead.

[Jamie]

I mean, you're not sending any money. They're just. It'll go through whatever site you use.

[Adam]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll use Fandor DraftKings or something. All right, have a great day, everybody. Happy New Year. No show on Thursday. We'll talk to you Friday.

[Heath]

Yeah, I'll see you next year.

[Adam]

See you next year. Year. All right, everybody, it's been a great year. Thanks for making 2025 so memorable. We'll talk to you in 2026.

[Jamie]

Paramount Podcasts.

[Heath]

You think you understand how this business works, but you don't. Landman TV's biggest phenomenon returns to Paramount plus from Taylor Sheridan, Co creator of Yellowstone, starring Billy Bob Thornton. You have to know the rules of the game and bend them. And you really have to know them to break them. Demi Moore.

[Adam]

I want success. Get it for me.

[Heath]

Andy Garcia, Ali Larder and Sam Elliott.

[Jamie]

You don't even know the game you're playing, do you?

[Heath]

Landman. New season now streaming only on Paramount plus.