Week 17 Recap and 2026 Lookahead! Who Carried Your Team to a Championship? (12/28 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Fantasy Football Today – Week 17 Recap & 2026 Lookahead

CBS Sports | Released: December 29, 2025
Hosts: Adam Aizer, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings

Episode Overview

In this week’s episode, the FFT crew recaps an eventful Week 17 in fantasy football, discussing the players and stories that defined championship week. The conversation also looks ahead to key dynasty implications and early 2026 rankings, with winners, losers, and some wacky stats. The hosts answer sit/start questions, provide positional top-fives, and debate which fantasy MVP candidates truly delivered. The show is packed with actionable insights and player evaluations relevant for next season and dynasty managers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Winners of Week 17

• Wandale Robinson (NYG, WR)
  • Stat line: 11 catches, 113 yards. Historic season—“First player in your lifetime under the height of 5 foot 9 to top a thousand receiving yards.” (Heath, 05:51)
  • Free agent status could yield further opportunity next year.
• Tyler Shough (TEN, QB)
  • 25.9 fantasy points; likely dynasty starter next season and in rookie of the year contention.
  • “...he might have won Rookie of the Year today too.” (Adam, 07:47)
• Rhamondre Stevenson (NE, RB)
  • 8 carries, 5 catches, 102 total yards, TD.
  • “If you started him, you're thrilled.” (Adam, 08:44)
• Others: Key rookie discussions—Jackson Dart vs. Tyler Shough (QB) and Tyler Warren vs. Harold Fannin (TE); Fannin and Dart are the consensus all-rookie team picks.

2. Championship Deciders and Uncertainty

• Many fantasy championships riding on late-game performances: “A lot of championships gonna ride on the Bears and the 49ers and Puka Nakua. Probably some Bijan.” (Heath, 02:42)
• Sunday night/Monday night games and final championship breakthroughs—audience engagement with live roster advice.

3. Losers of the Week

• Steelers RBs (Najee Harris & Jaylen Warren)
  • “You hoped… at least you get one good performance. He got two shiitake mushrooms. So yeah, they were both, they were both awful.” (Jamie, 12:19)
• Tetairoa McMillan (CAR, WR) & Emeka Egbuka (TB, WR)
  • Both faltered; dynasty value in question after poor playoff stretches.
  • McMillan: "Wide receiver 41 in the fantasy playoffs." (Heath, 14:09)
  • Egbuka: “He was the number four wide receiver in this offense today...” (Heath, 13:33)

4. Impact Injuries

• No major fantasy RB/WR injuries, but notable TE losses:
  • Tavian Sanders (ankle) & Darnell Washington (arm).
• Geno Smith (SEA, QB) also hurt.

5. Live Sit/Start Help (10:33–12:06)

• Series of rapid sit/start responses for key matchups:
  • D.J. Moore vs. Drake London: Consensus on London.
  • Tight end premiums: Preferred TEs and who to sit (Loveland, Burden, Tanjis, etc.)

6. Wacky Stats & Notable Performances

• Sam Darnold joins Mount Rushmore of back-to-back 13-win seasons (Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Sam Darnold).
• Cam Ward: Longest time to throw (4.07s) in Next Gen Stats era. (18:28)
• Tyler Shough: Only three rookies (Shough, Joe Burrow, Dak Prescott) in SB era with consecutive 300+ yards no-INT games.
• Jets: Worst December point differential in NFL history (-107).

7. Top 5 at Each Position (21:25–33:54)

Quarterback

• #1 Drake Maye (CAR): 42.4 pts. “He really believed in him.” (Jamie, 22:11); perfect efficiency.
• Malik Willis, Dak Prescott, Tyler Shough, Jackson Dart round out the top five.

Running Back

• #1 Derrick Henry: 45.6 pts, defying age.
• Chase Brown (league-winner down the stretch), Rhamondre Stevenson, Zach Charbonnet, Jacory Crosby fill out the top five.
• Zach Charbonnet: “The most frustrating backfield in fantasy this year.” (Heath, 26:06)

Wide Receiver

• Top 5: Chris Olave, Jamar Chase, Chris Godwin, Wandale Robinson, Christian Watson.
• Chris Olave: “We thought he was better than his fantasy production… and this year we got good Chris Olave.” (Heath, 27:07)

Tight End

• Trey McBride dominates: “He currently is outscoring every other tight end by more than 100 points for the season...” (Heath, 31:13)
• Michael Mayer, Greg Dulcich, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Hunter Henry.

8. Fantasy MVP Debate

• Top four by hosts: Christian McCaffrey, Puka Nacua, Jackson Smith-Njigba, Trey McBride.
• McBride’s historic run: “Week 6 through 17, 21.8 PPR fantasy points per game. I don’t think Kelsey ever quite did that.” (Heath & Jamie, 33:03)

9. Dynasty and 2026 Lookahead

• Chargers WRs: “Chargers do not have a top 24 wide receiver next year…” (Heath, 34:11)
• Quarterback debates: Who would you rather have for next three years, Herbert or Mahomes? (36:13) – Consensus supports Mahomes, but with healthy tackles, Chargers would be elite.
• Running backs on the move: Is Travis Etienne a top-12 RB? Franchise tag likely.
• Cam Ward’s potential as franchise QB if offense improves.
• Future RB situations: Chuba Hubbard vs. free agent (Panthers), Bucky Irving’s cautionary tale.
• TE Harold Fannin’s value for next season: Would’ve been consensus top-five if not for late injury.

10. In-Depth Game-by-Game ‘Believe It or Not’ Style Breakdowns (33:54+)

• Key takeaways, trends, dynasty implications, player concerns:
  • Malik Willis as a potential starting QB in 2026 (Heath, 36:33)
  • Jacksonville: Trevor Lawrence resurgence, optimism for next year. “The thing is he’s running so much now.” (Jamie, 38:57)
  • New Orleans: Cam Ward's flashes but needs more rushing.
  • Arizona: Michael Wilson/Harrison WR pairing not fast enough; dynasty WR1 debate.
  • Miami-Tampa Bay: Bucky Irving’s disappointing finish and his inclusion in a cautionary group of high-YPC rookies who fizzled.
  • Top 12 RB for 2026: Barkley, Genti, others debated with draft/contract situations in mind.
  • Giants’ offense: Top-12 potential? “They have a lot of the pieces. A lot.” (Jamie 58:15)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Wandale Robinson’s Historic Output:

  “First player in your lifetime under the height of 5'9" to top a thousand receiving yards. 1980 was the last time a receiver 5'8" or shorter was over a thousand receiving yards in a season.” — Heath, 05:51

• On Steelers' RB Backfield Disaster:

  “At least you get one good performance. He got two shiitake mushrooms.” — Jamie, 12:19

• Trey McBride’s Dominant Run:

  “He currently is outscoring every other tight end by more than 100 points for the season in total fantasy points.” — Heath, 31:13

• QB Debate, Herbert vs. Mahomes:

  “If the tackles were healthy for the Chargers, they’d be the best team in the NFL right now.” — Adam, 36:16

• Chargers Perennial Hype:

  “At the beginning of the year, everybody that gets paid to talk about football is so excited about the Chargers. And every December, everyone's so excited about how good the Chargers are going to be next year.” — Heath, 35:24

• On Cam Ward's Unrealized Rushing Potential:

  “There’s another guy, he needs to run. Give me 200 rushing yards a year.” — Jamie, 40:14

• McBride’s Historic Pace:

  “Week 6 through 17, 21.8 PPR fantasy points per game... Kelsey’s career high is 20.8.” – Jamie & Heath, 33:03

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Key Timestamps

• Winners & All-Rookie Debate: 02:20–09:42
• Losers of the Week: 12:10–15:10
• Live Sit/Start Mailbag: 10:33–12:06
• Top 5 QBs: 21:25–23:03
• Top 5 RBs: 24:03–26:03
• Fantasy MVP & Tight End Analysis: 30:52–33:54
• Wacky Stats: 18:28–19:35
• Dynasty & Lookahead Questions: Scattered through 33:54 onwards (notably 34:11 on Chargers WRs, 36:33 Malik Willis, 39:11 Travis Etienne, 40:08 Cam Ward)
• Ending Sentiment & Celebratory Notes: 62:03–63:47

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains its signature witty, fast-paced, and data-driven banter—with ribbing, deep knowledge, and continual callbacks to listeners’ championship fortunes. Brandon ironies (“two shiitake mushrooms”), running stat arguments, and fantasy relevance debates are constant.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode is a season-defining recap that reflects on championship performances, postmortems busts, and gives actionable forward-looking insights for both redraft and dynasty managers. The crew lauds late-year breakouts like Wandale Robinson and Tyler Shough, laments letdowns (Steelers RBs, Bentley WRs), and debates which players truly won fantasy leagues. There’s a ton of value for managers strategizing for 2026—whether it’s Travis Etienne’s status, the future of Bucky Irving, or sizing up the next great tight end (Trey McBride).

If you missed Week 17 or want an edge on 2026 prep, this episode hits every angle with wit, numbers, and must-know context—minus all the ads and fluff.

Transcript

[Adam]

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[Heath]

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.

[Adam]

What a play. Can you believe this?

[Heath]

No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.

[Jamie]

Everybody happy. Everybody celebrating. Welcome to the show. It's Fantasy Football today presented by BetMGM. Make it legendary. Week 17 Sunday night. We're Recapping the action, winners and losers, and hopefully you're all winners out there. I know that's not going to be the case, but hopefully you at least had fun playing Fantasy Football in 2025. Adam, Jamie and Heath are here. Hey, Heath.

[Adam]

What's up?

[Heath]

That was the ultimate. At least you tried. Yeah, I. I don't know. Looking at the leagues that I'm in and just some of the leagues that I didn't make the championship, but I was just checking in on them. It seems like probably a lot more people nervous right now than happy or upset. It seems like a lot of championships gonna ride on the Bears and the 49ers and Pukinakua. Probably some Bijan. I don't. I didn't see any B. John, but he's probably in a few.

[Jamie]

He's in. He's in some FFC open lineups, I'll tell you that. I don't know who's going to win, unfortunately. Jamie, I think you're going to have a good year, but I don't think you're going to win the FFT Open.

[Adam]

No. It was a rough, rough week 17 for that squad. But you know what? It was fun. I'm glad that I got to the. The final round.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Very impressive. Very impressive. For those of you like, what's the FFT open? I think we're going to try to expand it even more next year. Right now it's 24 leagues of 12, and it's very fun. And we'll tell you more about that.

[Heath]

Has anybody checked in to see how Frank's doing?

[Jamie]

Oh, in the Scott Fishbowl?

[Heath]

No, I'm. I'm looking at it right now. Looks like he is 31st, so unless he has a lot of players left.

[Jamie]

I think he has Stafford. That helps. All right.

[Heath]

All right.

[Jamie]

Well, anyway, welcome to the show. We're gonna do it a little differently today. We'll start with some winners and losers. We'll give you some key injuries, really. Thankfully, I don't think they were. Is this one of the healthier weeks?

[Adam]

I mean, there were some pretty big injuries, but not anybody of fantasy significance. Tavian Sanders and Darnell Washington both broke an ankle and an arm, I believe. So in two very big games next weekend, they're not going to have tight ends available for the Panthers and the Steelers, but Geno Smith got hurt.

[Jamie]

Geno's dead. Yeah.

[Heath]

Harold Fanon sacrificed his groin for the fantasy football community.

[Jamie]

He did. He came in with the groin injury. He caught a touchdown. He ended up with about 10 fantasy points.

[Adam]

So I have, I have a question that if you guys want to help me with. I'm gonna put together the the all rookie teams. Two rookie teams. Who is the all rookie quarterback and who is the all rookie tight end? Because it's basically a tale of two halves for both of the contenders between Jackson Darth and Tyler Schuck and Tyler Warren and Harold Fannin.

[Jamie]

I'm going to lean Dart. Surprise, surprise.

[Heath]

Shockingly.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Because his hot streak lasted longer and, and he. And I, he had a really good day today too.

[Adam]

So I'm going to tell you why Dart for me as well because we were starting Jackson Dart. Right, right. We were not starting.

[Heath]

Tyler Shock and Harold Fannin scored more fantasy points and more fantasy points per game than Tyler Warren. So I think. And he was like 75 rounds cheaper. So I think he wins it.

[Jamie]

Eileen Fannin too. Just because Warren went out with such a whimper.

[Adam]

I agree.

[Jamie]

All right, well that's settled. Okay. Heath, your big winner. Wanda Robinson who fittingly buried me in our fantasy football Today League with 11 catches for 113 yards and Tyler Schuck. Those are two of your two winners today.

[Heath]

I mean just an all time Adamazer performance really out of Wandale Robinson this year. The first player in your lifetime under the height of 5 foot 9 to top a thousand receiving yards. 1980 was the last time a receiver 5 foot 8 or shorter was over a thousand receiving yards in a season. That's what they said on the broadcast. I'm trusting the broadcast.

[Jamie]

Wow.

[Heath]

You know, I think fantastic finish for him. A lot of people started him and probably thought he was their number three wide receiver and he produced like a number one wide receiver. And it, it will be interesting to see the Giants have a few holes to fill if he's the number two alongside Malik Neighbors next year or if they add a better second weapon. But he could absolutely be a number three wide receiver with Neighbors being a number one in this offense.

[Adam]

Does he, does he stay with the Giants?

[Jamie]

Yeah, he's a free agent so even better for him. Yeah, better for him. Not so much for the Giants. But that, that was the theme of today. Good for Wandale. Not so much for the Giants as they are unlikely to get the number one pick now.

[Heath]

I mean you guys just did not put in near the effort that the Raiders did.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Heath]

Securing this, they. They earned a mass master class. And Geno, just the. The consummate veteran. You get into the red zone, you gotta throw an interception. You can't be scoring, can't Be scoring this early in the game.

[Jamie]

They're so bad. Boy, are they bad. Tyler Shuck, 25.9 fantasy points, was your other winner. Did this, did this at Tennessee.

[Heath]

And I think this is probably more from a dynasty perspective. It, I don't think there is any doubt right now that Tyler Schuck's going to be a starting quarterback going into next year. And that's, that's a huge win because when you look at how most rookie drafts went, he didn't go before the second, any of them, I don't think, except for maybe, maybe one or two. And there were a few where he fell into the third. And so this is, this is a big wind where you've got a guy who looks like he could maybe be a low end, number two quarterback for you next year and maybe beyond.

[Adam]

I think he, he might have won Rookie of the Year today too. Yep.

[Heath]

Because everybody else lost it.

[Adam]

The only other, the only other player I could see potentially winning the award right now, honestly, would be RJ Harvey, because leading all rookies in touchdowns, I believe rookie nine quarterbacks and touchdowns. And on the most likely one seed or top two seed in the AFC.

[Jamie]

Tyler Shuck is currently QB4 with two games left to be played of week 17. Jackson Dart, by the way, I, I'm.

[Adam]

Gonna lose that league. But it's one of those, like, small victories where I purposely sat Jared Goff and picked up Tyler Shuck.

[Jamie]

Yeah, good for you. That's great. I remember, I thought about that when I saw his stat line and said, oh, Jamie, Jamie nailed that. We also were very high on Radre Stevenson. You kept him in your top 24 even when Travion Henderson played. He's your winner. Jamie Ramandre Stevenson, only eight carries, but he had five catches. He had 102 total yards and a touchdown. Great game for him at the Jets.

[Adam]

And this is, you know, I don't know how many people still started Ramandre Stevenson because they can't really trust the start percentage numbers at this point in the season. But he was somebody that we were very excited about before Travion Henderson cleared the concussion protocol. And I think for anybody that listened to our, you know, Sunday morning show, this is kind of the reason why I chose him as a winner because I, I know there were a lot of questions, you know, about Stevenson and Henderson and, you know, and kudos to Sportsline, as I referenced on the show this morning, they kept him as the lead running back for the Patriots from a projected point standpoint. And so if you started him. You're thrilled and you know, Henderson ran the ball well at times. You know, you're hoping for more. Clearly. I started Henderson in a few finals and you know, disappointed in the results but curious. See how this is going to end up for the Patriots going into the off season because I believe Stevenson's a free agent. What will they do in terms of who's going to supplement Trayvon Henderson? Because I don't know if they're ever going to use him as the featured back, unfortunately.

[Jamie]

Okay. Well, it was a great day for him and you know, Henderson got a lot of work. He had 19 carries in the game but just could not. He came up a yard short of a touchdown too.

[Adam]

Couldn't get.

[Heath]

I mean the biggest thing is that Ramon Dre had five targets and interesting.

[Adam]

Zero. Yeah.

[Jamie]

So random. Well, those are your big winners and big winners always Bet mgm. We love Bet mgm. And it's still time for football at betmgm. When you register with betmgm, you'll get instant access to a variety of parlay selection features, live betting options, boost tokens, and the best daily promotions in the business. Plus, when you huddle up with BETMGM at your fingertips, every pass, every catch and every game matter more than ever. Don't miss out on any of the hard hitting action. Place your money line prop and parlay bets with BETMGM today to the losers.

[Adam]

Can I, can I detour real quick? You're not going to be happy about this, but we had some, a lot of comments in the chat about there and he sort of alluded to this. There's a lot of decisions still to be made tonight. Can we help a few people and go for it? The Sunday night show.

[Jamie]

Yeah, sure. But we had a D.J. moore versus Drake London.

[Heath]

Here's one.

[Jamie]

Oh well, answer that one. D.J. moore, Drake London.

[Heath]

That says Drake or Jennings.

[Jamie]

I know but answer the one I asked and then we'll do that.

[Adam]

I would, I would, I would go Drake London.

[Heath]

I would go London.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Jamie]

Drake, London or Jennings?

[Heath]

I have London.

[Jamie]

Is there anything else?

[Adam]

Yeah, three A lot of Titan questions.

[Heath]

Sit One of Tanjis, Jennings, London pits. I would sit Tanjas.

[Adam]

I would say Tanja's awesome.

[Jamie]

Okay. Anything else?

[Heath]

More or burden? Three of those.

[Adam]

I go more.

[Heath]

I. I have more. A little bit higher. I don't have a lot of. A lot of faith. Ooh. Tight end, Premium, Burden, Loveland. Tanjis have to sit one.

[Adam]

I would sit Loveland. I'm sorry I'd said Burden Titan preview.

[Heath]

I said Tonjas Cody, Parkinson, sinner.

[Jamie]

Tonjas.

[Adam]

Tonjas.

[Heath]

R.F. parkinson. One spot higher, but more Piersol.

[Adam]

More.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

All right.

[Jamie]

Burden or Loveland?

[Adam]

I'd go burden.

[Heath]

Burden.

[Adam]

Yeah. Okay.

[Jamie]

Last one. Pitts or Loveland? Pits.

[Adam]

Yeah. Okay.

[Jamie]

All right, guys, back to, back to the show.

[Adam]

See.

[Jamie]

Do we have any news and notes, big ones for it. I think I had another segment before that. Yes, I have losers. We didn't do losers. I'm sorry. Jamie, you have the Steelers running backs.

[Adam]

Oh, that was so disappointing. I mean the Steelers in general, my God. So you know, I started both of them in the podcast league. Congratulations, Dave. Or Todd. And I did. So congratulations, Dave. This. This just sucked. It sucked all the way around. You know, at least you hoped, you know, you said this a few times throughout the season, like, oh, you start these two running backs in the same thing, at least you get one good performance. He got two shiitake mushrooms. So yeah, they were both, they were both awful. So just frustrating across the board.

[Jamie]

I love it because we get the showdown next week has got to figure it's going to be the Sunday night game, Pittsburgh and Baltimore to decide the AFC North. It's my favorite rivalry, to be quite honest with you. I love that rivalry. And heath, you had two losers. Tedro McMillan, Giants fan.

[Heath]

I, I thought your favorite rivalry was Giants in games they're not supposed to win. We always, we always, always.

[Jamie]

Yeah, we're great at that. Yeah. I think General McMillan is the biggest dud of the day. One catch for five yards on four targets. Bryce Young threw for 54 yards and a Mecca Buka, three catches for 20 yards. Once again he ran about half the routes. One Abuka's now scored 10.4 or fewer PPR fantasy points in 10 of his last 11 games. It's two thirds of the season.

[Heath]

Earlier in the season, earlier in the season when this was happening, it was like, well, he's still getting nine targets. We have to keep starting him. That's gone away completely. He was the number four wide receiver in this offense today behind Evans Godwin and Jalen McMillan. And I just think for both Tetarola McMillan and Emeka Ibuka, they're going to be so difficult going into next year and to evaluate in dynasty because halfway through this year I think a lot of us thought they were probably top 12 dynasty wide receivers and maybe top 12 wide receivers next year in the fantasy playoffs a three week span. Tedro McMillan, wide receiver, 41.

[Adam]

Yikes.

[Heath]

Tied with Isaiah Williams Ellic. I am Manor Kelvin Kevin Austin. Sorry, I can't even Say these guys names. And Jalen Coker in the fantasy playoffs. Ameka Buka was much, much worse. Wow, disastrous finish.

[Adam]

I'm. I'm much more concerned about Abuka for two reasons. One, you would expect that they're gonna bring everybody back. And so Evans Godwin and now Jalen McMillan who's had a couple of good weeks. You know, just from, you know, coming out of nowhere. That makes me terrified of where a book of ceiling is because he could easily be the best of that group. Wouldn't shock me. But you know, it seems as if they're gonna continue to just, you know, spread the ball around. And then the other part of this is if they lose next week, which they easily can based on how they're performing, Todd Bowles could get fired. And then who's the head coach, slash coordinator because it might be an upgrade because I don't know how good Josh Grizzard. Grizzard is. I apologize for saying his name correctly.

[Jamie]

Grizzard.

[Adam]

I also think that part of this is, is Baker I don't think has been healthy since hurting his non throwing shoulder. And it's. He just looked awful since that injury.

[Jamie]

He was so bad. He actually had a decent fantasy game today, but it was not representative of the performance. Based on what I saw.

[Adam]

The interception he threw trying to get McMillan on the. The deep post was. I don't know how he doesn't see safety either.

[Jamie]

Yeah, yeah. And he finished with 21.4 vantage points. Not bad. Wasn't the highest scoring. I mean we had, we had Drake May with 42.4 fantasy points and 6 point per passing touchdown leagues. We have Malik Willis with 33.5, Dak Prescott 26.7. Two of those three guys were Thursday or Saturday. We got a lot of guys in the 20 to 23 range basically, but not, not a lot of huge performances. We do have, we do have Purdy and Caleb and Stafford and Cousins left. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, May really stood out.

[Heath]

It was really nice of you to include Cousins in that.

[Jamie]

I mean he has these games every now and then. I got some wacky stats for you. Also AFC south scenario you're thinking, all right, for all the marbles next week it's Tampa Bay and Carolina. But if the Falcons happen to win out, if they win Monday and they beat the Saints next week, then, then the Saints. I'm sorry, if the Falcons went out, then the Panthers Bucks game doesn't even matter. The Panthers will win the division if the Falcons win out regardless of the outcome of the Panthers Bucks game, but they're probably not going to win out. All right, we'll be right back on fantasy football today.

[Adam]

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[Heath]

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[Adam]

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[Heath]

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[Adam]

Shh. Hush up back there. Wow.

[Heath]

I might have just set the hushing record.

[Adam]

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[Jamie]

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[Heath]

Speed slow 135 gigabytes of network busy taxes and fees extra.

[Jamie]

CM mobile.com People are wondering did we win any of our championships? It looks like I'm going to go 1 and 211 and 1. 1 out of 2 but slight, slight chance to go 2 0. We need a big big Caleb game.

[Heath]

Heath, I've got way too much to be determined. I've got Caleb Swift and Juwan Jennings starting in one matchup. I'm facing Puka in another matchup. It's. I hope so. I favored them both but who knows, who knows.

[Jamie]

Jamie, how are we looking?

[Adam]

Looks like four are almost locked in. Five pending not a non meltdown and then two very slim outside chance but hopefully it comes through. Need a one. I need a very big Brock Purdy, Jake Tongas game.

[Jamie]

Okay. Okay. All right. So good luck to everybody out there and hopefully you're having a lot of success as well. Looks like I've got a chance maybe in the best ball league. Probably not but all right. Okay, let's go to the wacky stats. Sam Darnold is the fifth quarterback in NFL history with back to back 13 win seasons. The five quarterbacks who have back to back 13 win seasons are Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre and Sam Darnold. According to next gen stats, Cam Ward averaged a time to throw of 4.07 seconds today. That is the longest by any quarterback in the next gen stats era which began in 2016. Dante Koplowitz Fleming, a senior researcher at NFL said there are three. There have been three rookies in the Super bowl era with 300 plus passing yards and no interceptions in back to back games. Tyler Shuck, Joe Burrow and Dak Prescott.

[Adam]

And Rich is the longest win streak for the Saints since Drew Brees retired. Wow.

[Jamie]

What is it? 3?

[Adam]

4 games?

[Jamie]

4.

[Heath]

They are now picking behind the Chiefs, Rich.

[Jamie]

So Mini who covers the jets for ESPN notes that the jets currently have the worst December point differential in NFL history. Minus 107. That is horrible. All right, news and notes with Geno Smith was the big one. Also Malik Willis hurt his shoulder. Geno Smith gets the Chiefs next week. Malik Willis with should be Jordan Love next week at Minnesota. Didn't see any.

[Adam]

Maybe not what you think.

[Jamie]

He's not going to clear concussion protocol.

[Adam]

I don't know if the packers have anything to play for. Right.

[Jamie]

So that's, that's true. The Bears win today. They're just locked into a wild card. I don't know about seating.

[Adam]

Right. I think the Bears wanted to division so the packers are already wild card. Oh, okay.

[Jamie]

My bad.

[Adam]

So I think the packers cannot pass the three NFC North, NFC west teams. Excuse me. And that would put them in the seven spot.

[Heath]

They're locked in the seven.

[Adam]

Oh, they are.

[Jamie]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Adam]

Now they've lost three straight games. So they may try and get right with Love playing, you know, because he didn't play last week, but he has not. They have nothing to play for as far as I'm.

[Jamie]

They also may not have Don Tavian Wicks, he left with a concussion. Rashid Shahid, concussion. Jalen Waddle missed the ch. You know what, let me. I don't know if we could. I'll try to check the route participation rate for Jalen Waddle. I don't know how much time he missed, but he had a terrible game. But he did miss time with a rib injury. Jalen Waddle and Marvin Harrison Jr. Played 13, ran 13 routes. He left with a heel injury. Hopefully he didn't start him. Harold Fannin, groin. Darnell Washington arm. Jatavian Sanders ankle. Was it Jatavian Sanders?

[Adam]

Yes.

[Jamie]

And then bunch of offensive line stuff and defense stuff. Sauce Gardner played and then he left. Re aggravated the calf injury. Couple of Bucks starters. This is huge actually. Hassan Redick and Jamel Dean edge rusher and cornerback for the Bucks. They left Red X got a concussion. They have the big game against Carolina and let's go to the top five play.

[Adam]

I believe somebody said I, I'VE not seen this confirmed, but watching the games that Lamar Jackson said he's going to play next week.

[Heath]

Okay, that's.

[Jamie]

That'd be good. Haven't been able to read that article from the Baltimore sun because it's behind a paywall. Maybe you guys can send it to me, but I guess not. Not a very flattering article on Lamar Jackson. All right, top five at each position. Start with quarterback and straight. I mean Jamie Drake may just unbelievable.

[Adam]

44. There it is.

[Jamie]

What? Oh, he's got the I heart Drake May shirt. Yes.

[Heath]

I just. I hope Mike send us an email. I hope you won a championship with Drake May. That's probably the greatest listener call in show history over a full season.

[Jamie]

Yeah, he was. He really believed in him. And Drake made 21 pass attempts, five touchdowns. You really couldn't replace. Yeah, you couldn't have played any better than him. I think he had a perfect passer rating. He scored 42.4 fantasy points and he's lapping.

[Heath]

Can you make an MVP statement against the Jets?

[Adam]

So we had this conversation today like, you know, does Stafford have to go out and have a big game now against the Falcons? And most of the answer was yes, that I'm sorry that the answer was no, that he's done enough to still win the award unless he completely, you know, stinks. But obviously that was a great statement game from Drake May to do that. And, and look, I know it's the jets down Mac Hollins who's been a very big contributor for them down Case on Booty who's been their best downfield threat. Just perfect. Like as, as close to perfect as you can get. So his future is just so bright. My God.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's amazing. And also think about the Trevor Lawrence game against the jets though. This team is so bad against quarterbacks against everything But Drake Mays Number 1. Malik Willis was 2. Dak Prescott 3. Tyler Shuck 4. Jackson Dart 5. I guess I'll say Heath. It was. It was comforting to see Jackson Dart able to have a good game. He. They had at least three designed runs for him. He scored two rushing touchdowns. He had all day. I mean this pass rush was non existent even with the Giants missing two starters on their offensive line. No Max Crosby. So it was, it was a really easy matchup, but it was comforting to see him play. Well, just thinking about the future.

[Heath]

I'm glad that you felt comforted that fight against the Division 2 defense and succeeded.

[Jamie]

Yeah, well, he'd been struggling so it was good to see.

[Adam]

All right.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Let's get our top running backs this week in full PPR. Derek Henry outscored Drake May 45.6. Fantasy points for Henry. Chase Brown 29.1. Chase Brown was a league winner. You know what I was thinking, Jamie? If. If only we could have seen how the season would have played out. Number one pick, Jamar Chase. Two, three turn, Higgins and Burrow. I know. Chase Brown and. And Higgins. And then figure or. I don't know, there was a. There was a scenario where their first four picks could have been those four players.

[Adam]

Yeah. Then we have somebody say that they did.

[Jamie]

That they did.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

I. I'm sure it went horribly wrong, but it.

[Heath]

I was gonna say it wouldn't have. It wouldn't. I think the better plan would have been to make a trade for some of those guys mid season because I had a couple of burrow chase stacks and they did not make it anywhere close to the championship game.

[Adam]

No, what I'm saying is if your replacement options were good, then you would have been thrilled how the season ended this week. Chase Brown is funny because I'm putting together the all fantasy teams and Chase Brown, there's a lot of great running backs, as you could imagine. At the top, I had Chase Brown, I think as the flex on the third team and all the run, all the flex options were running back. So it was running back, quarterback, two running backs, three receivers, tight end and flex. And so Chase Brown was. That's three, six. He's one of the top nine running backs. And I got some pushback on X. How's Chase Brown on the team from week eight on? And that's not including this week, he averaged over 20 PPR points per game.

[Heath]

Wow.

[Adam]

Like, he's just been an absolute monster to close the season. And with samaj p run without Samajp Ryan, like, it's just been. Just ridiculous.

[Jamie]

Did that just happen?

[Heath]

Unbelievable.

[Jamie]

Brock Purdy, pick six was that first play of the game?

[Heath]

Yep.

[Adam]

Oh, great.

[Heath]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jamie]

Wow. Okay, so anyway, anyway, normally I wouldn't do that, but as we said, at.

[Heath]

Least I got a target for Joanne Jennings.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Jamie]

What the hell was I. Oh, yeah, top five running backs. Whatever. Derrick Henry, Chase Brown or Madre Stevenson. Zach Charbonnet and Jacori Crosby, Merritt Heath. How about Zach Charbonnet?

[Heath]

Great call by Dave this morning. He was. He was higher on Zach Charbonnet than anybody I was on the show with. And it was a Zach Charbonnet game. The most frustrating backfield in fantasy this year.

[Jamie]

18 carries, 110 yards two touchdowns plus two catches for 12 yards for Charbonnet.

[Adam]

How great will he be next year if they let Ken Walker go and don't bring in anybody of significance?

[Jamie]

First round pick? I mean, he won't be, but he could be that valuable. Sure he is. Every time Walker's out. Right. And then Derrick Henry. I mean, can you believe how good Derrick Henry looks right now at his age? Amazing.

[Heath]

It's. It's shocking.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Good for him. All right, wide receivers, top five are Chris Olave, Jamar Chase, Chris Godwin, Wandale Robinson and Christian Watson. Heath reaction. Olave, Jamar Chase, Godwin, Wandale Watson.

[Heath]

I sure didn't think when Jamie was sending me the top 12 for next year, I'd be not figuring out. I'd be trying to figure out where Chris Olave belongs in the top 12 and not, not even if he belongs in the top 12. Just a great season from him. I think he's been one of those guys that we thought he was better than his fantasy production for pretty much since he's been in the league. And this year we got good Chris Olave and probably have the same. Same quarterback next year.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Did we get good Chris Olave or just healthy Chris Olave?

[Heath]

I mean, I think he had a couple of 16 game seasons before this, didn't he?

[Jamie]

I feel like he had his least efficient season. At least that was the case as of a few weeks ago. He had, let's see, 7.2 going into today. 7.2 yards per target. By far a career low.

[Heath]

Well, the big difference is eight touchdowns.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

And coming into this week, a career high. 145 targets.

[Adam]

Right.

[Jamie]

But if you think about that and just from a. Well, he is this like a Terry McLaurin season where he wasn't efficient. He was actually.

[Heath]

McLaurin didn't. Yeah. McLaren didn't see his volume go up, though.

[Jamie]

This is, this, this is not. Well, I mean, it is. It is increased volume. He had 138 targets two years ago, and in 16 games, what do you have today? Lobby had 11 targets.

[Heath]

So he's up to 156 in 16 games.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Okay. Probably some partial games in there. I got to get. I don't have the Azer stats that a little bit.

[Adam]

Okay. I think if you just. If you take. The games that he played with Shock are probably just amazing.

[Jamie]

Well, yeah, actually, yeah. Probably better production. He wasn't targeted quite as much, at least in terms of target per out run rate with Shuck as he was with the first guy.

[Adam]

Rattler.

[Jamie]

Rattler. But maybe that changed when Vale got hurt. Okay, top tight ends. Hey, it took a little while in the game, but Trey McBride did come through. Best tight end in Fantasy. Best matchup. 23.6 fantasy points for McBride. Michael Mayer is your tight end to 17.9 fantasy points for Mayer. He had nine catches for 89 yards on 10 targets. Greg Dulcich. Okay, Chigo Conquo didn't score all year, and then he scored in weeks in 16 and 17. And then Hunter Henry is tight end five. Jamie, it's McBride, Mayer, Dulcich, Okonkwa, Okonkwo and Henry.

[Adam]

Two of those guys we thought would play very well this week. In terms of McBride and Henry, I think it's great for Mayor if you picked him up and started him because of the Brock Bowers absence. So, you know, if that was your replacement option for Kittle or you just thought that Mayor would play well, it gives you hope for Bowers for next season just because he's better than Michael Mayer. And when he gets those targets and healthy, he's going to be awesome. I think in the case of Okonko, he's going to be a fascinating free agent. Can he land with a team that will feature him? Because he's one of the fastest tight ends in the league. He's just not one of the more productive and consistent tight ends in the league. So I'm curious to see where his free agency takes him.

[Jamie]

Heath, Michael Mayor of Kingstowne. No spoilers.

[Heath]

Excellent.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

[Heath]

Excellent.

[Jamie]

Haven't started season four yet.

[Heath]

It's fantastic.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

Of course, you'll probably tell me it's bad.

[Jamie]

No, I didn't say. Not say Stranger Things was bad this morning. I just said I'm not loving it. I'm not loving it. Five episodes in to this current season. Okay. And those are your top tight ends. Unless we have anything else to say about. That's it.

[Heath]

Trey McBride at least gets some votes for fantasy MVP. Right.

[Adam]

So I. I tweeted what I thought were the top four candidates. Correct me if I'm wrong, this was going into this week, which were Christian McCaffrey, Puka, Nakua, Jackson, Smith, Najigba and Trey McBride. And McBride was fourth.

[Heath]

He currently is outscoring every other tight end by more than 100 points for the season in total fantasy points.

[Jamie]

I think when you put that poll up, he was coming off a really bad game in Week 16.

[Heath]

That's true.

[Jamie]

And I think everybody was pissed at him because.

[Adam]

Well, I. I think first off, he's had an unbelievable season. In the case of JSN and probably even McCaffrey to an extent. Like, their draft cost was nowhere near what we thought they were gonna do, because if we thought McCaffrey's gonna do this, he would have been a top three pick. He was a back end of the first round pick and JSN was a third round pick. McBride was basically a back end of round two, early round three pick, but he was the tight end two or in some cases, tight end one for a lot of people. So I'm sure that probably factors in a little bit. I think you can make a case for those four guys and probably a couple of others, you know, depending on, you know, Matthew Stafford in the season he had or, you know, we'll see how he finishes. Drake May, you know, so they're all. They're all great. It's not like last year where I think it was kind of obvious that it was just Jamar Chase.

[Jamie]

Sure. And I. Okay. With the help of a. Of our social media guy Jake and. And the research team from week six through week 15. Week six is when Brissette took over. So I was telling him, like, you got to see these numbers of McBride since Brissette took over. This was all going into week 16 where he had his dud. He was on pace for the greatest season by a tight end in NFL history. And he may just. With Jacoby Brissette and with week 17, it might be that again, because like his numbers from week six to 17, that Jacoby Brissette are just going to be eye popping. We're talking close to 20 fantasy points per game, I think. No, no, like crushing that, I think over.

[Heath]

Oh, yeah.

[Jamie]

Close to 23 points.

[Heath]

I've got it right here. Week six through 17, 21.8 PPR fantasy points per game.

[Jamie]

I don't think Kelsey ever quite did that. That's really amazing.

[Adam]

The Gronk.

[Jamie]

I don't think so. Kelsey's career high is 20.8. So this is a bet. That's. But. But the first five weeks counted and he wasn't bad, but he also wasn't great.

[Adam]

I am so, so curious to see who the quarterback is for the Cardinals because if it's the right quarterback, you know, somebody that's at Jacoby Brissette's level, which, you know, take that for what it's worth. We have an easy first round pick here. If it's Kyler Murray again, like, where will we be drafting Dream McBride? Yeah.

[Jamie]

All right, let's Take a break and we'll come back and talk about every game when we come back. Houston 20, Chargers 16. And Heath, I don't know.

[Adam]

How do you want to.

[Jamie]

How do you want to do this here? Oh, I think we should do Believe.

[Heath]

It or not for next season.

[Jamie]

Okay.

[Heath]

Believe it or not, the Chargers do not have a top 24 wide receiver next year.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I'd probably still put the McConkey in there, but, boy, has he been bad. Holy moly. I mean, one catch for 31 yards on two targets for Lab McConkey and he. Man, how many games in a row of six or fewer targets for him? He's been horrible.

[Heath]

I. I've got him for the season. One spot behind Justin Jefferson and fantasy points per game.

[Jamie]

My goodness.

[Heath]

Wide receiver, 37.

[Jamie]

Oh, my gosh. That's terrible. I might have to buy this then. Might have to buy it. Also pretty disappointed with Nico Collins. Really disappointed with Nico Collins. Three catches, 57 yards on four targets.

[Heath]

You know, in fairness, we shouldn't have just limited that to lad McConkey, because Quentin Johnston averaged more fantasy points per game than him this year.

[Jamie]

Keenan Allen out of there, and Gadsden had a nice game finally. But this was a tough one.

[Adam]

I can't wait to see what they look like next year with their offensive line, you know. Thank you.

[Jamie]

Because Heath was really giving it to the Justin Herbert supporters this morning.

[Heath]

I was not.

[Jamie]

No.

[Heath]

I want to clarify. I think Justin Herbert's awesome. I was just mocking the fact that every year at the beginning of the year, everybody that gets paid to talk about football is so excited about the Chargers. And every December, everyone's so excited about how good the Chargers are going to be next year.

[Adam]

Yeah. Let me ask you this. I know what Heath answer is going to be, and I. I don't have an answer myself. Next three years, who would you rather have, Justin Herbert or Patrick?

[Jamie]

Oh, my gosh. In the same exact circumstance, behind the same line with the same receivers, or just in their current circumstance, what.

[Adam]

What their state of their franchises look like right now?

[Heath]

Go ahead, Adam.

[Jamie]

I'll take the Chiefs. I'll take Moms.

[Adam]

I think most people would, but it. I. I really think that if. If the tackles were healthy for the Chargers, they'd be the best team in the NFL right now.

[Jamie]

It's very possible. All right. Baltimore 41, Green Bay 24.

[Heath]

Believe it or not, Malik Willis will be a starting quarterback week one of next year. He is a free agent.

[Adam]

I believe it. Somebody will pay him.

[Jamie]

Yeah. I don't know, in a contest that will never remember or check to see if we're right or wrong about. I'll say no on the Malik.

[Heath]

A lot of, a lot of Dolphins fans saying they'd like to have Malik Willis.

[Jamie]

That'd be fun.

[Heath]

I'm sure, I'm sure the Raiders would be interested and they have more money than anybody and I think he's earned it like the way he's played when given an opportunity the last two years. We've seen the level of quarterback play in the NFL this season.

[Adam]

So I, I think with the, the right coach, he could be great because I think Leflore is a great coach. So Miami makes some sense because it's a very similar system. Like if he goes to the jets, for example, and their current coaching staff like that to me is even if he's a bridge quarterback to whoever they draft, that, that would make me nervous. But I do think he's got look for fantasy. He could be great. I mean, you know, he runs and you know, the throwing has been, you know, above I think what anybody expected. Yeah, I, I, I'm sure you saw I picked him up in our Dynasty league just because of that exact situation.

[Jamie]

Smart, smart. Shout out to Josh Jacobs for 1.3 fantasy points after 4.8 fantasy points last week. So it's a shame. I thought about how ADP on cbs Josh Jacobs was a first round pick and we kept saying like, oh man, people are really high on Josh Jacobs. A little bit too high. He shouldn't be a first round pick. And they, you know, they did a great job. They were pretty much right. He played maybe not quite like a first round pick, but pretty damn close. He's one of the most consistent running backs. It's a shame. The injury clearly got to him at the end of the year and he just really struggled. All right, next game is Jacksonville 23, Indianapolis 17.

[Heath]

All of Trevor Lawrence's defenders were right and he's just going to be awesome from now on.

[Jamie]

Oh, Jamie left.

[Heath]

You did that question so much. He just walked out of the door.

[Jamie]

I was looking for this.

[Heath]

Adam, you were right.

[Adam]

I don't know.

[Jamie]

I'm pretty optimistic about him. I mean, the thing is he's running so much now. I always liked him when he ran and then he kind of just didn't really run. It's such a big part. He didn't throw. He had a good game throwing. Not great, but two rushing touchdowns for Lawrence.

[Heath]

With everything we know right now, Travis Etn's a top 12 running back. Next Year?

[Adam]

No. Where is he playing?

[Jamie]

No, on Jacksonville.

[Heath]

If they frame, I'd be surprised if they let him go.

[Adam]

I mean, obviously, you know, I watch games with Pete Prisco. He's as tied into that organization as anybody. He is expecting them to franchise tag him at this point just because of what the most likely scenarios will be, how he finishes. And you know, knowing that they have I, I think two young running backs that they like, but I don't think are ready to turn it over to in Basal Tootin and, and Laquin Allen. So it makes sense, I mean, just to, you know, not give him a big deal. Franchise tagging running backs makes, you know, a lot of sense at this point given their contracts without having to give them that second contract. But if they can get him cheap, it would make sense. I think there's a lot to like about the way that he played.

[Jamie]

Okay, next game. New Orleans 34, Tennessee 26.

[Heath]

We should keep hope that Cam Ward could be a franchise quarterback in the NFL.

[Jamie]

Yeah, he, he, he makes enough really impressive plays. Obviously he's gotta, he's got to be better at a lot of things, but man, he makes some serious highlight reel plays. Kind of reminds me of Justin Herbert in that regard. But yeah, I think there's hope from a fantasy standpoint. I, I just, there's another guy he needs to run. Give me 200 rushing yards a year. Do you have his, how many rushing yards Cam Ward has? He almost never runs.

[Heath]

Yeah, I've got it. I'm gonna guess 180.

[Jamie]

Oh, really?

[Heath]

That would just, just a guess. I have no idea.

[Jamie]

He had 138 coming into the game.

[Adam]

Yeah, I, I think if you give him another receiving threat that's better than what he has, that will definitely help a little bit better protection. I think that will definitely help. That'll help a lot of quarterbacks. But clearly the coach, whoever's going to be the coach is going to be the biggest thing here, you know, so do they go out and they get an offensive minded coach that's got some good track record, has a good track record with a quarterback, then you know, we could see Caleb Williams, right, 2.0. Yeah, maybe not to those same heights fantasy wise, but certainly enough that you can be comfortable that he's in that starting conversation. But yeah, he's, he's not. I think like if you were to look at the last couple of number one quarterbacks, I would say better than Bryce Young, not as good as Caleb Williams.

[Jamie]

So also in this game, worth noting, Audric Estimate dominated the touches. Taste some. Hill barely played. So this is a guy that we got a lot of questions about this morning. And you know, I think we kind of. We kind of figured it out. It was gimmicky last week. He barely played in this game. He did. I don't think he scored a single fantasy point. He had three carries for zero yards. Taysom Hill. So sorry. That's disappointing. But hopefully he didn't trust him.

[Heath]

I don't think anybody that listened to us started him.

[Jamie]

I disagree because I think people were like, I don't care what you say, I'm starting Taysom Hill.

[Heath]

Cincinnati should be sorry about it.

[Jamie]

Cincinnati 37, Arizona 14. Another game. Back to back games or Arizona just couldn't stay on the field. 19 minutes and four seconds of possession. 3 of 13 on third down.

[Heath]

Their offense was awful. Michael Wilson is the number one wide receiver on the Arizona Cardinals next year.

[Adam]

No, again, who's the quarterback?

[Jamie]

Doesn't matter. It's Harrison.

[Adam]

I think you're right, Adam, but with such conviction.

[Jamie]

I say it.

[Adam]

I think if. If they. I. I would like to see a coaching change. Personally, I. I think this kind of run its course. I also think they got to find the right quarterback. But if. If they get everything in place here, like this receiving core could be amazing. My God, like, you know, you have the tight end, arguably best in football. You have two solid receivers. Like, it could be fun.

[Jamie]

I feel like Wilson and Harrison are a little too similar for me. They. They need a burner. Those guys are just. They don't have enough speed, but obviously they have good elements. They just need a. I don't know. I feel like they could use that guy who maybe gets one or two targets a game, but can take the top off of a defense. Maybe.

[Adam]

Sure. Mvs. A taekwond Thornton type of guy.

[Jamie]

Yeah, something like that. Okay. We had a horrible game for Michael Carter. He had seven carries. D. Mercado had five. And on the other side, the Bengals are awesome. Although T. Higgins, just. Not that. It's a disappointing game for Higgins. Not gonna lie. Four catches, 59 yards. Seattle 27, Carolina 10.

[Heath]

Neither Chuba Hubbard or Rico Dow will be the number one running back for the Panthers.

[Adam]

Who will it be?

[Jamie]

Jonathan Brooks.

[Heath]

Oh, there's one. Rico is a free agent, right?

[Adam]

Rico is a free agent. I think Chuba, though, based on his contract, I don't know why he wouldn't be that guy. Unless they just decide he does. He doesn't. He's not good anymore.

[Jamie]

Quite a whimper.

[Heath]

You think It'll be Chuba.

[Adam]

I. I would expect it's Chuba and in a. In a committee.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Well, all right. What do you. What do you. You know, you guys had. We all really struggle with Tedro McMillan, but I don't think we expected Bryce Young to throw for 54 yards. No, but this Seahawks defense is really good, so I could.

[Adam]

We're gonna lose, but I couldn't be more thankful that Dave picked up all the quarterbacks that he did.

[Jamie]

Who did he pick up again, either?

[Adam]

You aware of what happened in our podcast league final?

[Heath]

I heard you guys had some. Some back and forths with the. I heard maybe even James Connor got sniped from someone.

[Adam]

So he had James Connor as a good luck charm. I didn't want to have bad karma by picking up his good luck charm player. And then he picked up every quarterback to block us that was available, except.

[Jamie]

For once, because Jamie had. Because Jamie had Jordan Love.

[Adam]

Yeah, we had Jordan Love and. And J.J. mcCarthy. So those are our two quarterbacks and a 14 teammate. And so he picked up every quarterback that was available, except, like, he didn't pick up Geno Smith and some of those guys, but anybody that I think that was in our rankings, he picked up, except for Malik Willis. So we just kind of handcuffed the packers and we started Malik Willis. So then as the week went on, I was like, you know, he hasn't picked up James Connor yet. So we picked up James Connor and then just, you know, put a little cherry on top. I picked up his favorite quarterback of all time, Philip Rivers. And then Cam Ward was also available. So I picked up Cam Ward. So to counter that, he picked up. Which he thought was. I guess my favorite player was Amir Abdullah.

[Heath]

I remember the Amir Abdullah preseason.

[Adam]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Heath]

What was that, almost a decade ago now?

[Jamie]

Crazy. Okay. Anything else from this game?

[Heath]

Probably not, no.

[Adam]

Yep.

[Jamie]

JSN. JSN with a bad game for him. Nine catches for 72 yards and on 12 targets.

[Adam]

So who. Who's. Who's your vote for fantasy MVVP right now?

[Jamie]

JSN.

[Heath]

I would probably go McBride.

[Jamie]

That'd be second for me. Followed by McCaffrey.

[Heath]

I mean, Vuka could win it tomorrow.

[Adam]

I was gonna say I want to see what does tomorrow night because he can. He can win it.

[Jamie]

All right. Miami 20, Tampa Bay 17.

[Adam]

Wow.

[Heath]

Bucky's broke.

[Jamie]

My goodness. What do you. You know what? I'm going to pull up a stat from my running back preview way back in the off season. But, Jamie, go ahead. You can talk about Bucky Irving. Bucky Irving today, nine carries for 19 yards and somehow has five catches for 14 yards, which is something he wasn't doing recently. But terrible game for him.

[Adam]

We just had history, by the way. Yeah, 49ers punted. Ah, Bucky Irving I think is going to be very interesting next year because again, who's the coach, who's the coordinator? Rashad White will probably be gone. He's a free agent. Will he get back to being the guy that we saw before the injury? Will he get back to being the guy we saw as rookie? I think he's going to end up being a great value pick next year. He also could be the next Ken Walker, where we love the talent and we love the upside, but the fantasy productions never quite matches that. So that's my fear with Bucky.

[Jamie]

If you die hard, listeners might rec might remember me saying this stat. I looked at the. The best yards per carry in NFL history for rookie running backs who had a minimum of 100 carries. And I don't know what year it went back to, but it was mostly, I guess, kind of recent history. Achan is at the top of the list, 7.8. Camara Dobbins, Maurice Jones, Drew Thomas, Rawls, Adrian Peterson, Franco Harris. Then it gets interesting. Okay, we get Andre Ellington, average five and a half. Clinton Portis, five and a half yards per carry. DeMarco Murray, five and a half. Then we get to this group. Carry on Johnson, Bucky Irving, Ontario Smith, Philip Lindsay. So it was this big group of guys who had these great rookie seasons where they averaged 5.4 yards per carrier better and a lot of them just carry on. Johnson was, was 29th and ADP his second season and he was terrible. He dealt with a, a knee sprain late in his rookie. Whatever Thomas Rawls was, I don't know where he was in ADP. Andre Ellington was 24th in ADP the following year and he was terrible. So it was like I didn't really buy it. I thought Bucky was better than that and I still do. I don't know what happened with him. Obviously he had some injuries as well, but he, he joins a list of guys who had great rookie seasons and he was a day three pick. So I don't know if he's a cautionary tale or just a guy who had a bad season.

[Heath]

It's funny because we, I think we went into the season and we all still liked both those guys, but everybody kind of. We put those two in a group. They're the day three, year two and Chase Brown I guess is a year three guy, right?

[Jamie]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heath]

But they're the guys that were ranking as borderline top 12 running backs that we're not sure about. In the first part of the season, it looked like Bucky was a smash hit and Chase Brown was a huge bust. And then the second half of the season, it was the exact opposite.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's true. Okay, next game here. And while you talk about this, I will finally look up the Jalen Waddle note and see how many snaps he played. Pittsburgh 13, Cleveland 6.

[Heath]

Well, there's only one person we could talk about in this game. Harold Fannin is the top five tight end.

[Jamie]

Top five. Next year.

[Adam]

He'Ll be in the conversation. I mean, again, who's the quarterback, who's a coach that I think that's going to matter very much for, for what we think this offense can, can do. They. I hope they add a receiver because this receiving core is a mess. But look, he's got so much upside and potential. My God, it's hard to keep him out of the top five.

[Heath]

And I, I think actually this injury happening when it did probably will be the difference between him being a top five tight end in, in ADP and not because he was. I need 11 points and a half of a quarter. He plays this full game. He probably has 15 to 20 and then he has the Bengals in week 18. He could have finished like he might have been tight end three.

[Adam]

You did your rankings already. Obviously you're very high on Fanon. I'm gonna guess you have two guys ahead of him.

[Heath]

I have Kittle ahead of him too.

[Adam]

Stuff.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I, I don't know what I'm gonna do about azer stating week 17 for him because I don't want to remove it. It was a good game. You know, it's.

[Heath]

It was below his season average.

[Adam]

It was.

[Jamie]

But you know, it's tough.

[Adam]

So that's the Hazer stat of Azer stats. Right. You leave the good games in when it factors in your favor.

[Heath]

I think he only played a half of the first quarter. You just multiply it by eight.

[Jamie]

Okay, that makes sense. I only do that when it supports my argument. Obviously, Jalen Waddle only ran nine routes today. So if you're sitting there going, I can't believe Waddle had such a bad game. He missed much of that game.

[Adam]

So for the Dolphins, just, I wanted to bring this up. Let's, let's go with the assumption based on what their salary cap could be, that Quinn Ewers might be their quarterback. Where are you taking Jalen Waddle.

[Heath]

Round.

[Adam]

Six that late.

[Jamie]

Lad? McConkey or Jalen Waddle?

[Adam]

McConkey. Yeah.

[Heath]

I don't know.

[Jamie]

I don't hate Quinn Ewers.

[Adam]

He looked good.

[Jamie]

He really did early. But to see a guy that has actual arm strength in this offense is interesting.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Jamie]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Is Quinn Ewers or any quarterback that throws down feel bad for Devon H. And because the passes have. The receptions have cratered the last two weeks.

[Jamie]

They sure have. Maybe. But I feel like if you, if you take the ball out of a chance hands, you're just an idiot. And Mike McDaniel was not that if he's back. Okay, let's get to New England and the Jets. 42 to 10. Patriots. Breeze hall, you know, 59 yard touchdown run for Breeze Hall. Very surprising he came through.

[Heath]

I, I appreciate the fact that he at least made it to where the jets are going to have to franchise him if they want to keep him because I would assume he's going to get a pretty decent offer, but I don't. I'm having a hard time with this one. Drake made the top three quarterback next year.

[Adam]

Believe it.

[Jamie]

Clearly sneezing. You guys have to talk when I'm sneezing.

[Heath]

I wanted to make sure the attention was on you.

[Adam]

I think if you're looking at it right now like Alan's probably still the first quarterback that gets taken. You're not going to take staff for that high because we'll make all sorts.

[Jamie]

Of excuses why you can't do it again at 30.

[Adam]

Right? Of course it's not going to be Lamar Jackson after the year that he just had. Who knows where he's playing. It's not going to be Jalen Hurts. It might be Burrow.

[Jamie]

It's bro for me.

[Adam]

Of course it's bro for you. You love Burrow.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I don't feel bad about that.

[Adam]

No, I don't. I don't think you should. But he's right there. I mean, it's hard not to. Especially if they give him another receiver and we get, you know, another piece to this offense. You know, we'll see what they do with digs at 31 or 32. Yeah, I mean, look, he. He runs enough. He has certainly the arm talent and they're only going to get better. And he's doing this. He's doing what he's doing right now. I know. Again against the jets, but the offensive line's not at what it was earlier this season, so that will be at. At a better level for him. So yeah, there's. There's so much upside.

[Jamie]

By the way, I. I will watch the All 22 tomorrow and see who was on the field when Breeze hall had his 59 yard run because Drake May was out of the game at that point. So I am curious to see how many of the Patriots defensive starters had left the game.

[Adam]

Well, they were playing a lot of.

[Jamie]

Backups to begin with and for. For just the quarterback discussion this way you're talking about, it's not gonna be Lamar Jackson. I have never been someone who's drafted a lot of Lamar Jackson. He's always been, you know, very pricey. But I will probably draft a lot of Lamar Jackson next year if he's going to be QB5 or later because he looked like he was going to be the fantasy MVP before he got his first entry. I mean, he scored over 30 points, I think, in each of his first three games. I still believe that player is. Is there, you know.

[Adam]

Well, that's where he was two years ago, right when he was coming off of the injuries. He was. What do you mean? Not QB 1, 2 or 3.

[Heath]

I feel like this is like the third year. I mean, we had like three years of Azer statted Lamar Jackson anyways, where Dave would cite his fantasy points per game and then Azer would come in and ace or stat it. So this is just an. It's kind of. It's kind of what he's been. You get. Every three or four years you get an extremely elite season. And the others have been borderline awesome. Borderline frustrating.

[Jamie]

Yeah, for sure. But he hasn't been healthy in a while. I think that's pretty clear.

[Adam]

Right.

[Jamie]

All right, next game we go to the late window. Eagles 13, bills 12. Oh, fun finish in a game that had torrential downpour, so weather definitely was a factor here. And yeah. 1312 Eagles.

[Heath]

I was facing so many players from this game. I tweeted out before the game, I just need the ugliest game ever played. It was pretty close. It was pretty, pretty close. At the same time, I have a hard time. Saquon Barkley is a top 12 running back next year.

[Adam]

Top 12? So you did your rankings already?

[Heath]

Where is he in my rankings? I believe he was 11th.

[Adam]

All right, so let me see if I can get the 11, the 10 ahead of him. She got Bijan Gibbs, a Chan Cook McCaffrey, Chase Brown.

[Heath]

Yep.

[Adam]

Okay. How many is that? Six.

[Jamie]

Hampton.

[Heath]

I did not have Hampton ahead of him. I probably need to fix.

[Adam]

Oh, Genti. Genti 7.

[Jamie]

This is tough.

[Heath]

Derek Henry I did not have Derek Henry ahead of him. You're missing one very obvious one who also whimpered down this the stretch, but was the best running back in football for a while.

[Jamie]

Oh, Taylor.

[Adam]

Oh, Taylor.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Did you put ETN there?

[Heath]

I put ETN one spot ahead of him.

[Adam]

Okay.

[Jamie]

RJ Harvey.

[Heath]

I did not.

[Jamie]

Pacheco.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

I had Josh Jacobs also.

[Jamie]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I think.

[Adam]

I think 11:12 is in the right spot for him. It'll be a year older. We'll see what the offense looks like for Philly. You know, they're gonna have a new office coordinator no matter what happens. Plus, they win the super bowl and they just say, okay, see, fooled you. Yeah, that's about the right spot for my thing.

[Heath]

Are we gonna have the. The too many touches discussion for Christian McCaffrey next year?

[Adam]

Oh, yes.

[Jamie]

He's. He's defying logic for sure. And then the Bills. You know, I just don't understand what happened to Khalil Shakir from a guy who was the most predictable player in fantasy to be just so not predictable. Any thoughts on should have had a.

[Heath]

Better day than he did?

[Jamie]

He was wide open, right?

[Heath]

Great, great route. And Allen just. You don't see Alan missed throws like that very often.

[Jamie]

Oh, I'm not even sure which play you're talking about. I was talking about.

[Heath]

I know the two. I'm liking the two point conversion.

[Jamie]

Yeah, but the fourth and goal where they. Where he. Where Alan got stopped, you know, inside the one. He was wide open right by the pylon and I think it was him.

[Adam]

Oh, that was Brandon Cooks.

[Jamie]

Oh, it was Cooks. Okay, I'm sorry. Cooks.

[Heath]

He was pretty good today.

[Jamie]

Yeah. 101 yards. Maybe somebody for week 18. Giants 34.

[Adam]

Maybe not. Maybe not.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Giants 34, Raiders 10.

[Heath]

The Giants will have a top 12 offense next year.

[Adam]

I believe it.

[Jamie]

They have a lot of the pieces. A lot. I'm nervous about Neighbors.

[Adam]

You. You should have seen Heath. Both. Not so much Adam. But Dan and Adam, when I said that they could be the Bears or the Patriots or just one of these teams that has a lot of the right pieces in place, if they get the right coach, it could turn around quickly, I don't know, to first place, but playoff team, it's. No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't call us the Bears. No, no, no.

[Jamie]

That's great.

[Heath]

That's fantastic. I. I will just say between Jackson Dart and Malik Neighbors and Cam Scatterboo and Andrew Thomas, like, if Those guys play 17 games, I think they probably are a top 12 offense now.

[Adam]

I don't know.

[Heath]

I don't know the odds. It's a pretty long four man parlay for those four.

[Adam]

But the backfield is. Is solid with Tracy. I mean, he's good backup clearly. So the running backs should be okay. I think when you look at, you know, depending on what they do with Wondell and Slayton, you know, so they need to fix receiver and Adam's pretty convinced that they're going to draft a wide receiver, so.

[Jamie]

Quite convinced. Yeah.

[Adam]

Makes. Makes total sense. I think the tight end position solid too. I think the. Oh, Johnson had a good enough year. So there's. There's a really lot to like about this team.

[Jamie]

I'm not really a Theo Johnson guy. He's just. He's so. He can't catch too many drops. But you know, maybe if he could fix that, then yeah, he could do some good things. Yeah, I will. I was really, really disappointed in Ash and Genti today. Yeah, he had like one nice run. But that team's offensive line is so bad. The amount of times where Genti just has no chance.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

You know, to put him in the top 12 right now for next year, I, I think is a little bit. I think it's a little bit of a reach.

[Heath]

No, they might mess it up again because it is the Raiders, but they are going to have great draft capital and they have more money to spend than I think they have the second most money to spend in salary cap.

[Adam]

Yeah.

[Heath]

I don't know if any of the five players on their offensive line will be on the team next year.

[Jamie]

Well, I think Colton Miller I think for sure. But they have a lot of. Yeah. Look, the Patriots drafted Will Campbell, signed Morgan Moses. Who else? They sent someone else on their line.

[Adam]

They replace their center.

[Jamie]

Yeah. So yeah, it could happen. And maybe the. Maybe the Raiders also the Bowers, Genti, Mendoza. Mendoza. Maybe they could be a top 15 offense.

[Adam]

Yeah. Somebody. Somebody joked just because the game was on as we were watching the end of Eagles Bills that Carol whispered to Mike Kafka, he'll be my office coordinator next year.

[Heath]

Do you think they bring Pete back?

[Jamie]

So the.

[Adam]

He's a very cheap owner, obviously Mark Davis and they already have money still going out to Antonio Pierce. Whatever that's worth. Whatever the, you know, Carol deal is like. Doesn't seem like that's the type of franchise that wants to just keep paying coaches. So I wonder. And I'm probably. I'm guessing they're still paying Gruden depending on the lawsuit. So I would. I would think that there's a chance for him to come back. For what it's worth, our former colleague Jason Horowitz, who's the radio broadcaster for them, I was texting with him over the weekend. I asked him that question. He thinks that they do, but, you know, that's just, you know, somebody's around the team speculating. It wouldn't surprise me if he's back for another year. But the offense coordinator is a must. Has to be somebody that's got the ability to work with a young quarterback and. And get this offensive line better.

[Heath]

Please, please, please, please. Kevin Stefanski. We'll get 700 Brock Bowers targets.

[Adam]

Yeah. And a good run game.

[Jamie]

All right, everybody. Thanks. That's it. That's it. Hey, listen, I hope you all gonna have some hardware or at least an email that says you won your league and some money. We thank you all for listening. We have a Fairly normal week 18. Although I just said that out loud and now it's really not because there's no beyond the box score. There's a Tuesday show, there's a Wednesday show, there's no Thursday show, there's a Friday show. Where to start or sit for the entire slate. And look ahead to next season. We'll look ahead to next. Oh, touchdown.

[Heath]

I love him. Luther Burton's the top 12 wide receiver.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I'm pretty.

[Adam]

Oh, that might just won't be a league. Let's go.

[Jamie]

Let's go. And anyway, we'll talk to you on. We'll talk to you on Tuesday with.

[Adam]

The waiver and a Friday mailbag. We're doing one more.

[Jamie]

We'll see about that.

[Adam]

I haven't agreed. No, no.

[Jamie]

If we do a Friday mailbag, it's going to be an ask me anything kind of fun mailbag.

[Adam]

We will have a fun one. Yeah, let's not. You could ask me about Rocky. I'll watch it by then.

[Jamie]

Listen, swear it's my kids. Seven better last day off. You know, winter break, I'd like to do something, maybe go to the city or something like that. I don't want to be tied up all day. So you got to give me a little family time.

[Adam]

We'll do it Thursday night.

[Heath]

Just. Just have Dan host it.

[Jamie]

No, we can do a Thursday night. That's not a bad idea. All right, everybody, great season, super fun. And hopefully we get two great games Sunday night and Monday night to finish it off. Talk to you Tuesday.

[Adam]

You're awesome, Adam. You're amazing. Dave is fantastic. It's a joy. Dan's amazing. Thomas is the best producer of all time. It's a joy to work with all of you guys. Our audience is so, so, so amazing that it's just, it's just the best. I love you guys, I really, really do and can't wait to talk to you next week.

[Jamie]

Replacing Jamie with Jeff Sills from now. See you later everybody.

[Adam]

Paramount Podcasts Marriott Bonvoy is the official.

[Jamie]

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