Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The Footies: 2016 Awards Nominations, Studs & Duds, Rising Stars

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast (2017 Episode)

Title: Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The Footies: 2016 Awards Nominations, Studs & Duds, Rising Stars
Release Date: January 3, 2017
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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1. Season Recap and Introduction

The episode kicks off with Andy Holloway welcoming listeners to the first show of 2017, reflecting on the previous NFL season and setting the stage for the upcoming fantasy football year. The hosts express optimism for listeners’ drafts and discuss the importance of evaluating past performances to inform future strategies.

Andy Holloway [00:55]: "It is the first show of 2017 for the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Welcome in champions. Welcome in near champions."

2. The Footy Awards Nominations

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to introducing and discussing the nominations for The Footy Awards 2016. These awards recognize standout performances, disappointments, and rising stars from the past season.

• Performance of the Year:

  • Nominees: Le'Veon Bell, Ezekiel Elliott, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Marvin Jones Jr., Jay Ajayi.
  • Discussion: The hosts debate notable single-game performances and their impact on fantasy lineups.

• Fantasy Reaper's Man of the Year:

  • Nominees: Arian Foster, Doug Martin, Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, Jamal Charles, Keenan Allen, C.J. Anderson, Thomas Rawls, Sammy Watkins, A.J. Green.
  • Discussion: This category highlights players whose injuries significantly disrupted fantasy teams.

Jason Moore [31:54]: "This is the guy that got raped by Andy. And the reaper strikes again."

3. Studs & Duds: Week 17 Analysis

The hosts delve into the top-performing (Studs) and underperforming (Duds) players of Week 17, analyzing how these performances influenced fantasy outcomes.

• Top Running Backs:
  • Studs: Rex Burkhead, Devonte Freeman, Char West, Jerick McKinnon, Vontae Booker.
  • Duds: Players like Randall Cobb and Brandon Marshall experienced disappointing seasons relative to expectations.

Andy Holloway [14:41]: "Rex Burkhead as well. All of these guys are like back."

4. NFL News Impacting Fantasy Football

The episode provides updates on significant NFL news that affects fantasy players, including injuries, coaching changes, and potential trades.

• Injuries:
  • David Johnson: Avoided a devastating knee injury, providing relief to fantasy owners.
  • DeMarco Murray: Survived a torn plantar plate without surgery, impacting his draft stock and availability.
  • Sammy Watkins: Underwent surgery on his left foot, potentially limiting his performance.

Mike Wright [07:15]: "He has to send half of his award to Danny Woodhead for going out."

• Coaching Changes:
  • Resignations and hirings involving Mike McCoy, Chip Kelly, Gary Kubiak, and rumors about Sean Payton possibly leaving New Orleans.

Jason Moore [09:08]: "I think Sean Payton is around for the Saints next year."

5. Raising Cane's Rising Stars

This segment spotlights emerging players poised to make significant impacts in the 2017 season.

• Zach Ertz (TE, Philadelphia Eagles): Highlighted for his consistency and potential to be a top-five tight end without a top-five draft price.

  Andy Holloway [24:45]: "Zach Ertz is my raising cane's rising star."

• Jordan Howard (RB, Chicago Bears): Praised as potentially a better running back than rookie Ezekiel Elliott, despite playing on a struggling team.

  Jason Moore [25:50]: "Jordan Howard is the truth. He is legit."

• Michael Thomas (WR, New Orleans Saints): Recognized for his record-breaking rookie season and consistent performance alongside Drew Brees.

  Mike Wright [28:20]: "Michael Thomas came in and said, hey, I'm Michael Thomas, throw me the ball."

6. Footy Award Categories and Discussions

The hosts elaborate on various award categories, nominating and debating players deserving of each accolade.

• Poopiest Pants Award:

  • Nominees: Alan Robinson, DeAndre Hopkins, Todd Gurley, Cameron Newton, Kelvin Benjamin, Randall Cobb, Brandon Marshall.
  • Discussion: Focused on players who significantly underperformed relative to their draft positions.

  Jason Moore [33:36]: "Randall Cobb, I mean, who was really trusting him?"

• Waiver Wire Wonder:

  • Nominees: Rob Kelly, Dak Prescott, Jay Ajayi, Tevin Coleman, Devonta Adams, Tyrell Williams, Tyreek Hill, Cameron Brate, Kristen Michael.
  • Discussion: Celebrates players who were key pickups from the waiver wire and provided substantial value.

  Jason Moore [34:37]: "Devonte Adams finished as a wide receiver 8. He was scooped up off of many waiver wires."

• Breakout Player of the Year:

  • Nominees: Melvin Gordon, Marcus Mariota, Derek Carr, Jai Robinson, Tevin Coleman, Devonta Adams, Travis Kelsey, Cameron Brate.
  • Discussion: Highlights players who exceeded expectations and became key contributors.

  Andy Holloway [43:00]: "Melvin Gordon was...top three for a while."

• Rookie of the Year:

  • Nominees: Ezekiel Elliott, Jordan Howard, Michael Thomas, Tyreek Hill, Dak Prescott.
  • Discussion: Ezekiel Elliott is favored to win due to his standout rookie season.

  Jason Moore [44:43]: "You got Jordan Howard, Michael Thomas, Tyreek the Freak and Dak Prescott as your runner ups to Ezekiel Elliott."

7. Engagement and Voting

The hosts encourage listeners to participate in voting for The Footy Awards, emphasizing community involvement and the significance of these recognitions in enhancing fantasy football strategies.

Andy Holloway [30:36]: "We will be announcing those on the show very soon. We'll talk through some studs and duds this week."

8. Conclusion and Upcoming Content

Wrapping up, the hosts preview upcoming segments and express excitement for future episodes, including deeper dives into player analyses and coaching impacts. They remind listeners to join their fantasy football community for more insights and updates.

Andy Holloway [50:46]: "Check out the website, the fantasy footballers.com and jointhefoot.com or fantasy football community."

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Notable Quotes:

• Andy Holloway [16:14]: "Your 2017 draft preparation starts today."

• Jason Moore [25:55]: "Jordan Howard very well might be the better running back."

• Mike Wright [28:20]: "Michael Thomas came in and said, hey, I'm Michael Thomas, throw me the ball."

• Jason Moore [33:36]: "Randall Cobb, I mean, who was really trusting him?"

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Conclusion

This episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast provides a comprehensive overview of the 2016 NFL season's impact on fantasy football, introduces The Footy Awards with detailed nominations, and highlights rising stars gearing up for the 2017 season. Listeners are encouraged to engage with the community through voting and participating in discussions to optimize their fantasy strategies for the upcoming year.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey Foot clan. It is 2017 and we want to wish you a happy new year and hopefully you brought home a Foot Clan title in week 16 or 17. Just a quick reminder before we start today's show, you can head over to shopballers.com There are four days left on the 20% discount for the Foot Clan title T shirt. So head over to shotballers.com and take advantage of that right now.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome in to the show. It is 2017.

[Mike Wright]

Your 2017 draft preparation starts today.

[Andy Holloway]

Kind of true. Yeah, we do, you know, we take a moment to reflect on a season well run. It is the first show of 2017 for the fantasy Footballers podcast. Welcome in champions. Welcome in near champions. Welcome in Those looking to 2017 a few weeks ago. We have a good show for you today. Look, we are going to pause and reflect. We've got the second annual footy award nominations on the show today. Looking back at 2016.

[Mike Wright]

The illustrious.

[Andy Holloway]

The illustrious.

[Jason Moore]

This is going to be a tough one. The renowned last year I feel like the picks when I was like making my votes of this guy's going to win it. They were easy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it was Alan Robinson wins pretty.

[Andy Holloway]

Much everything last year and pretty much nothing this year.

[Jason Moore]

Do we have a just disappointment.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, there is a poopiest pants.

[Andy Holloway]

We do. We have a ton of great categories. We will be sending out a link where you can go and participate and vote for the footie award winners and we'll be announcing those on the show very soon. We'll talk through some studs and duds this week. A bunch of the news. I mean I feel like this is in order. I don't know if I've ever clicked the celebrate button to celebrate an injury.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

But this is to celebrate a non factory that David Johnson avoided devastating injury. It feels so weird. But the injury looked terrible.

[Jason Moore]

Terrible, terrible. He been around the wrong direction with.

[Andy Holloway]

That knee and if it would just been an exclamation part point on a terrible season for the Cardinals where we had such high expectations as Cardinal fans. Obviously David Johnson delivered for every fantasy owner in the world. Unless he played in week 17.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So which you shouldn't have. Shame on you.

[Andy Holloway]

It's your fault. If you want to follow our show all off season long you can head to Twitter at the ffballers. We're on YouTube as well. And the show after the show is back so you can hang around it's only available on YouTube. You got another five or six minutes with us. Maybe, maybe seven, eight, nine minutes talking about something exciting. Sometimes it's a TV show. Sometimes it's a ridiculous question.

[Mike Wright]

It's always really important stuff, though.

[Andy Holloway]

It's always crucial to Life. Yes. It's 2017 and we are serious about life here at the Fantasy Footballers. So it'll be good.

[Jason Moore]

We've.

[Andy Holloway]

We're gonna go through the studs and duds though, in the news. And we got rising stars on the show today. Raising Cain's rising stars with a glimmer towards the future. A glimmer. A glance. That's more like it.

[Jason Moore]

It worked for me.

[Mike Wright]

A glancer.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason's like, mm, mm.

[Jason Moore]

Glimmer to the future. News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, the playoff picture is set. And so with that comes a couple of interesting events going on. For one, we are participating once again in the NFL.com playoff challenge. There is a group set up for the fantasy Footballers. Last year, we were the second largest group behind NFL.com.

[Mike Wright]

We got to take this over the top.

[Jason Moore]

Can we do it?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know. I think we might be able to.

[Jason Moore]

Can we take on the NFL.com?

[Andy Holloway]

It is completely free and you can go compete against us and fellow Foot Clan members go to the NFL playoff challenge. When you. When you enter, just join our group, the Fantasy Footballers. It's as easy as that. And we'll give away some prizes to the winner of that group.

[Jason Moore]

I like that. You just worked that out right now.

[Andy Holloway]

I sure did.

[Jason Moore]

It's well done.

[Andy Holloway]

I sure did. And, oh, the prizes are so good. And I don't even know what they are.

[Jason Moore]

They're an autographed jersey.

[Mike Wright]

They're the prizes.

[Andy Holloway]

Rex Burkhead autographed jersey for the winner. Yeah, I'm just kidding. They don't make those.

[Jason Moore]

Someone want to try?

[Andy Holloway]

They don't make those jerseys. We are also competing against one another here in the studio. We're going to fill out a bracket just for the playoffs. And the loser.

[Mike Wright]

Losers.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, the losers. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna bring that up, too. The losers of that bracket will both have their lunches chosen by the winner for an entire week. Speaking of which, Jason made two outlandishly foolish bets.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, man. I. Here's. I. I don't even want to bring.

[Andy Holloway]

Them up because I just.

[Jason Moore]

I've never even gone into a week before all.

[Andy Holloway]

You had no glimmers of the future to see what was gon.

[Jason Moore]

I told Mike. We sat down in the studio to watch the games. I was like, it stinks that the games haven't started and I've already lost my bets, like.

[Andy Holloway]

And you did. So I get. I get to choose your lunch. Now, yesterday we took the day off to spent, you know, New Year's Day observed from the day with the family. Your wife had her birthday and happy birthday to her, by the way. And so you got out of a day is basically what happened.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Well, you can make it up.

[Andy Holloway]

So you get ready for broccoli sandwiches.

[Mike Wright]

Did you guys ever see the Glimmer, man?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I never saw the.

[Mike Wright]

Was Steven Seagal?

[Jason Moore]

No, Steven Seagal was the Glimmer.

[Mike Wright]

That's right.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

All right, then we will talk about it.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Oakland takes on Houston. Miami goes to Pittsburgh. Detroit has the Seattle, and New York heads to Green Bay. Very excited about this weekend's wild card games. We'll be talking about those. I've got my picks. I've got to figure it out. I know Jason's struggling with a couple of them.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. The Houston, Oakland game is tough. And. And you know, for me, I want. I want New York. I can't.

[Andy Holloway]

You want New York?

[Jason Moore]

I can't pick New York over Green Bay. The Green Bay is just fire. But if New York wins, you think. I think they're in the super bowl, which is interesting. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The rules state they'll have to play additional games.

[Jason Moore]

Right. I just think that they match up well against both, like, shoots. The Cowboys. Yeah, I think they just.

[Mike Wright]

They're on the lot. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

You win in Lambeau, you go straight to the.

[Jason Moore]

I think they would be Seattle. I think they would beat the Cowboys.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. David Johnson was D with a sprained MCL and does not need surgery. Putting a bow on the celebration a while ago, man. Big time. Great news for those that own him. Great news for the man that is David Johnson, who had a huge workload this year and just played so well. You hate to see a major injury. And he avoided 1. LaShawn McCoy high ankle sprain.

[Mike Wright]

This was.

[Andy Holloway]

Was carted off.

[Mike Wright]

And this was the. Just the cap for the shady injury. Shady is if you follow him, if you had him on your fantasy team. You know, this happens multiple times a.

[Andy Holloway]

Year a game you go, well, just.

[Mike Wright]

At least a few times in the year, you go, well, that was a season ending injury for Lashawn McCoy.

[Jason Moore]

He's dead.

[Mike Wright]

He's down. The helmet has come off immediately. Well, he was. He was even carted off.

[Jason Moore]

Ruled out.

[Mike Wright]

Rule ruled out. Carded off. And then in the Second half. I have never, never seen this. He was upgraded to problem or to possible to return from, from out the.

[Andy Holloway]

Paul Pierce of the NFL. Jay Ajayi headed to the locker room for X rays. In the loss, he said to reporters that, quote, I'm cool.

[Mike Wright]

That's good.

[Andy Holloway]

Lamar Miller is set to return on Saturday. Tom Savage is in concussion protocol. So Brock Osweiler is going to start. And yeah, I mean, Matt McGloin's out. I'm trying to, I'm trying to hit the main news. So this is more fantasy relevant here. Yeah, a lot of coaches heading out the door, which we talk all about off season coaching changes, changes in the offensive systems, how that impacts fantasy players. So the names to watch are, you know, Mike McCoy's out in San Diego, Chip Kelly's out in San Francisco. And then Gary Kubiak resigned from the Broncos head coaching position. I know he went through a bunch of health related things this year. He's stepping away. And then what else do we have? We have obviously the opening in Jacksonville already. And then there's been rumors about Sean Payton possibly leaving New Orleans. He said he plans on being there, but that would be, I think, a headline or wherever he landed if he was to be traded. And then Jay Glazer's reporting that Bill O'Brien and the Texans could agree to part ways if they suffer an early playoff loss. Really?

[Mike Wright]

I think Sean Payton, which I think is a shame.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I like Bill O'Brien because I feel like he's done so much with so little. Yeah, he's at the quarterback position.

[Jason Moore]

He's done a great job.

[Mike Wright]

Sean Payton is going to get one of those rude awakenings. He's going to get the Ken Wizen hunt.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, the rude awakening. I don't have Drew Brees anymore.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Where he's like, I'm just, I'm so good because I have a Hall of Fame level quarterback. And you're going to go over to a team that does not and go, okay. This is much harder.

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Drew. Hey, Drew. Run this play. My name's Jared. My name's Jared. I don't even know what play that is.

[Jason Moore]

That's funny.

[Mike Wright]

Did you know that the sun comes up in the east?

[Jason Moore]

I think Sean Payton is around for the Saints next year. But if he's traded, I want him to go to San Diego or wherever the Chargers are just so that he can actually coach Philip Rivers after Drew Brees.

[Andy Holloway]

That would work.

[Mike Wright]

The one that I am concerned about, this is more of a coach leaving. It would be Kyle Shanahan leaving the Falcons. You saw what his, you saw what his system has done for Matt. I mean, Matt Ryan's always been put up solid numbers. But him in this new, in this system, now that he knows it after the first year, he's just spreading the ball around, just absolutely dominating. Believe it was. They tied the greatest show on turf for points scored. And people, I mean you're not, there's, they're not, people are not talking about the Falcons offense enough. To me, when you have scored, you have tied the legendary Kurt Warner Rams team in points scored. I mean you, it's a shame. They're not talking about.

[Jason Moore]

There's no, no way Kyle Shanahan is the offensive coordinator of the Falcons next year. He's on four different teams like high up on their list of who they want.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, if you, if you count, if you put Peyton into contention with Shanahan and then with Josh McDaniels, who will not be the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots next year either, you have offensive minds moving around is what you have.

[Mike Wright]

That's nice.

[Andy Holloway]

So it's interesting, Jay Gruden said that Rob Kelly had a quote, great, great year and expects him to be the feature back in 2017.

[Mike Wright]

Got to work on that catching.

[Jason Moore]

It's good to hear. Let's see if they back it up in the draft in free agency.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, don't forget they bring Keith Marshall back, who was one of the fastest players in the NFL.

[Jason Moore]

He'll be back for 15 minutes. He's a walking injury, has been since college.

[Andy Holloway]

DeMarco Murray avoids surgery for a torn plantar plate that is expected but hasn't ruled it out. That doesn't sound fun, but maybe some implications for the hype, early season hype of Derek Henry. He'll be an interesting draft pick. If Murray's back, Henry will be really an interesting pick as to where people take a shot at him. Sammy Watkins will undergo another operation on the left foot. I'm actually pleased by this. Yeah, well, as much as, I mean I'd be, I'd rather him go through this and recover than I would have it hanging over him for another whole year.

[Jason Moore]

I agree. Usually this surgery, if it's a redo, is kind of the six month recovery time. It's a longer recovery time. But you usually see when all these different NFL players have gone through that second surgery that is the final, you know, they play the rest of their career without having setbacks.

[Andy Holloway]

Brandon Marshall said he's confident he's still an elite receiver, said he Would, quote, play for free. His bills are paid, wants to be back, wants to win.

[Jason Moore]

Don't go.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Where is he going to go?

[Jason Moore]

Don't go to the Jets.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I think he's still an elite receiver.

[Jason Moore]

Personally, I have no problem with that. But he's not an elite fantasy receiver if he doesn't have anybody throwing him the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

I think you'd like to see Marshall over the next two years if he. Because he says he wants to play till late 30s. If he stays. I'd like to see him go through that transition that Larry Fitzgerald went through where. Because he could be an elite slot receiver too, at 35 years old.

[Mike Wright]

I want to see it because then they can unleash Devin Smith.

[Andy Holloway]

Robbie Anderson.

[Mike Wright]

No, no, no. Devin Smith.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, okay. All right, let's briefly work.

[Mike Wright]

I like Devin. Sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

You do?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I do.

[Jason Moore]

Very fast.

[Andy Holloway]

You were being serious.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Face. Was a serious face.

[Mike Wright]

That was the. Yeah, it was the serious face, but I know what I mean. His entire career has been derailed so far. He was a second round pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

But yeah, I think he's good.

[Andy Holloway]

You like him more than Rashad Perryman or somebody. I mean, because he's done nothing. All right, weird. Let's talk about some stud muffins and some dud muffins. I don't want to linger too, too long on week 17 unless it has kind of a forward look. But obviously a lot of owners won championships in week 17, so we want to highlight some of the big names. Also very humorous. We looked at this before the show. If you take a look at the top 10. No, top 12.

[Mike Wright]

You can go to 13.

[Andy Holloway]

Top 13 running backs in week 17. Do you want to know how many of the actual 2016 season top 12 running backs are in that group?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. You mean the running backs that were the best this year in fantasy football?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The top 12 running backs on the season. How many of them finished in the top 12 in week 17?

[Jason Moore]

I don't know. Eight, nine. Right.

[Mike Wright]

You'd be wrong.

[Jason Moore]

Seven.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, you did the math, so you're a good actor.

[Jason Moore]

Five, four, three. No, I think there were two of them.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yay.

[Jason Moore]

Week 17.

[Mike Wright]

Mark Ingram.

[Andy Holloway]

Mark Ingram and Latavius Murray.

[Mike Wright]

No, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Freeman. That's right. Can you want to read back some of those names for the top performing running back?

[Mike Wright]

Your top performing running back of the week, as expected. Rex Burkhead, Devonte Freeman. Char West.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, Char West. Everyone's favorite.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Jerick McKinnon. Vonte Booker had a resurgence there. The big salad Chandron number six, D'Angelo Williams. The backup in Pittsburgh, Corey Grant, the back. Corey Grant, the backup to the backup to the backup in Jacksonville, Char west as well.

[Jason Moore]

That's Rex Burkhead as well. All of these guys are like back.

[Andy Holloway]

To back to the backup to the backup to the backup.

[Mike Wright]

Zach Zander. And my. We just want to throw out the honorable mention at number 13, Aaron Ripkowski. Ripkowski started in 0.2%.

[Andy Holloway]

Ripkowski and Zinn are giving white running backs a good name this weekend. Yeah, it felt like week three of the NFL preseason for.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, that's exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

For half of these games.

[Jason Moore]

I have never. This entire year, and I would even go back to last year. I have never had a day of watching football as boring and disinterested as this week. I just could not get into all these games that don't matter. It was. It was exact. I mean, that's nailing it on the head. It was exactly like week three of the preseason.

[Andy Holloway]

There was also picking Corey Grant. What fancy expert gets to roll out? That's why it's not exciting either. It's like we don't get a rollout. Corey Grant. Oh, I saw that Corey Grant game coming. No, I didn't.

[Mike Wright]

There was also very little playoff implications.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Based on. Just on the outcome of the games. A few. But I mean, once Washington lost early, then it was blurry.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

We need to talk about some other.

[Jason Moore]

If you're. If you're in a. If you are In a Week 17 championship league, I hope you won. Now bring up that it should change for next year is a good time. I think everyone at this time of year agrees. And if you don't leave that league.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. All right, so quarterbacks that did deliver.

[Jason Moore]

Aaron Rodgers has been absolutely nuclear. In fact, you've got the three MVP candidates between Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan and Tom Brady that went morning, midday and late at night. And each one of them said, no, I'm the mvp. Oh, it's me. No, I'm the mvp. They were great. So you did have a little bit of fantasy relevance there. And then what? Alex Smith had a good game.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, not too bad.

[Andy Holloway]

Julian Edelman rewarded all of it. Oh, wait, no, it's week 17. Eight for 151 big boy game. Michael Floyd, that block.

[Mike Wright]

Michael. Michael Floyd, the touchdown in the block. Just. Just showing America that what you can get done when you make terrible life decisions.

[Jason Moore]

Nice reward.

[Andy Holloway]

It's. Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, I told you guys this. I think he's the best wide receiver on that team outside of Julian Edelman.

[Mike Wright]

As far as when you're talking from physically talented.

[Andy Holloway]

Physically talented, I would, I would agree with.

[Jason Moore]

Experienced, I agree with. I do think he's, I think he'll.

[Andy Holloway]

Play a role in winning a Super bowl if that team continues to progress.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Doubt he's there next year. Julio is another big name that actually had a good game along with Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man, you know, he is Michael Thomas.

[Jason Moore]

Speaking of Michael Thomas, Michael Thomas and Julio Jones. Michael Thomas is the wide receiver, number seven on the season and he is less than nine points behind Julio Jones on the season. In fantasy football, that is nuts.

[Mike Wright]

Sean Payton did one thing this year that in that where he was not lying. You know, the coaches lie all the time. Just I would say, I feel like 90% of the information you're getting like where you get excited about it, they have lied to you. Sean Payton at the beginning of the year said if I played fantasy football, I would get Michael Thomas on my team. He spoke the truth.

[Andy Holloway]

Nailed it. Mike Evans closed the year out with a great performance in our league format. Half point, he ended up the number one wide receiver on the season. Jordy Nelson ended up number two. So great year for Mike Evans, obviously. DeAndre Hopkins, 7 for 123. Maybe just to say, hey, I remember me. Yeah, he had a nice 50 yard catch and run. Jarvis Landry, Golden Tate had good games at the tight end position. Zach Ertz, Kyle Rudolph, Antonio Gates, they all scored touchdowns. Ertz scored two of them. Monster game, 13 for 139. Dennis Pitta did his occasional Dennis Pitta thing. 11, 11 for 91. But let's talk about the tight end position briefly. In 2016 when you look at the number one tight end, who was Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey, Zeus was unleashed. He scored 221 fantasy points, but that was the lowest tight end one season since 06 and the fourth lowest since 2000. So when you put tight ends in perspective, you did not have a Gronkowski and Jordan Reed esque type of year from a tight end position. Which begs the question, and we'll talk about it obviously a lot in the offseason, but what does that do to the importance of the tight end position in your draft and how you think about tight ends? If, if this season showed, you know, obviously Gronkowski was hurt, but if you had Rudolph and Kelsey and these guys finished where they finished, did everybody kind of put up similar numbers? So it's not as important to have that. Could you not predict that kind of team defining tight end anymore. And so does that make it more risky to draft a guy high?

[Jason Moore]

It was just like Mike said early in the year, it might have even been pretty this season. It might have been in the draft season where he just coined that. This year we have the barfy tight ends and that was, that was the group. And I think looking forward to next year, expectations, draft values of all tight ends will be a little bit lower than usual. And I think it should be because you've got all your guys. I mean, look, Greg Olson was like the safest pick and sure he came out on fire, but he caused a lot of people to end up losing. He finished third. And all your top dogs, they didn't really perform. So next year Gronk will be drafted first, but you can't be sure of his health. Who's second? I think Olson's a year older. It's probably be Zeus because he finished one this year. I just think, I mean you have Cameron Bray as the best example of like he goes undrafted. He was, you know, a top six tight end almost the whole season. And you don't need to spend capital on a tight end.

[Andy Holloway]

I just think that that is the position where if you can go get a bargain because you're always going to have hype around five or six guys go get the bargain that is Kyle Rudolph or Zachary or somebody like that and you know, stream, if it doesn't.

[Jason Moore]

Work out in a half point format, here's, here's some guys that finished as a top 12 tight end that were basically not drafted. Cameron Brait, Martellis Bennett, Dennis Pitta, Antonio Gates, Jason Whitten. Those were all top 12 options.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And there'll be more names next year. There'll be a lot of hype before we move on. We're going to, we're going to do our raising canes, rising stars and talk a few poopers before we get to the footie nominations, which I'm very excited about. Before we do that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, pristineauction.com I'm checking out Pristine Auction right now. I'm clicking the daily Auctions button and the first thing I see at the top is an Ezekiel Elliott signed Cowboys 35 by 43 custom framed jersey. JSA authenticated. You got Dak Prescott right beneath that Richard Sherman jersey. Barry Sanders, Joe Montana, Derek Carr. Oh, Derek Carr. You have just a wide array of amazing sports Memorabilia from pristine auction.com New Daily Auctions go up every single day. You can always get a Bargain. We have awesome stuff around our studio where we were able to snag just the other day a Le've on bell jersey for 45 bucks. Autographed Le'Veon Bell jersey.

[Jason Moore]

You can't even buy a Lev bell jersey for 45.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's great. And pristine Auction. They are the just the absolute best in sports memorabilia. Authentic. Been doing it for a long time. Really good guys. They're from out here and so check them out. Pristineauction.com P R I S T I N E auction.com and when, when you.

[Jason Moore]

Sign up, make sure you tell them that you heard about it from the footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

That's right.

[Mike Wright]

We Want to thank BlueApron.com Making cooking fun. Making it easy. Making it delicious. Alright. BlueApron.com youm check them out. They ship you a box of ingredients for a meal that you. Well you're not coming up with this idea by yourself. Blue Apron is setting you up for success and they're reducing food waste because they send you the exact amount of each ingredient you need for the recipe. Maybe you think, well you know, I can't. I live somewhere where Blue Apron can't get it to me.

[Jason Moore]

False hogwash.

[Mike Wright]

Blue Apron can be delivered to 99% of the continental US and they're taking all kinds of steps to make sure that they're doing things sustainably, humanely. The chickens are free range. The pork is raised naturally. They care about these things At Blue Apron. I want you to jump on to blueapron.com youm can check out some of the meals you can get. Here's just a little, little sample.

[Jason Moore]

Seared pork chops.

[Mike Wright]

Little taste of Blue Apron Seared pork chops with farro and cranberry chutney. Spaghetti squash and marinara with mushrooms and garlic knots. Spicy shrimp and Korean rice cakes with cabbage and furikake.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason's eating none of this good stuff today.

[Jason Moore]

I just realized I was looking at Andy. I was like, yes, let's go. I mean this just sounds so delicious.

[Mike Wright]

I'm telling you. You want to set up your date night, impress some people. You check out blueapron.com so check out this week's menu. Get your first three meals free with free shipping by going to blueapron.com ballers. You will love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home cooked meals with Blue Apron. So don't wait. That's blue apron.comballersblue apron a better way to cook.

[Jason Moore]

Raising Canes Rising stars of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, my rising star of the week. Oh, he burned bright in the Week 17 matchup.

[Mike Wright]

Zach Ertz, Mr. 25%.

[Andy Holloway]

Zach Ertz ended the season as the sixth best tight end in football despite missing two games during the regular season. Look, we saw what Kelsey and Rudolph could do to finish in that top three range. You now have seen consistency actually from Zach Ertz over the past two years. Despite missing two games, you got back to back years with 75 plus catches. And basically he started the year pretty on fire. Six for 58, got hurt, missed some time in that game, missed two games. And then it looked like it took him about three games to get back into the swing of things. Now you go into another year, next year with the same quarterback and system, another chance for him to show some consistency throughout the season. I'm just looking forward forward to Zach Ertz's 2017 campaign. I think he's a top five radar type of guy that you won't pay a top five price for. So Zach Ertz is my raising cane's rising star. Who do you got, Jason?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, my raising cane rising star is the best rookie running back this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Whoa.

[Jason Moore]

Not Ezekiel Elliott. What? Jordan Howard.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, my.

[Jason Moore]

Now look, obviously Ezekiel Elliott was the most productive fantasy rookie running back this year. He ran behind the Dallas offensive line, was amazing. But Jordan Howard. Jordan Howard very well might be the better running back. Actually, one of our writers, Eric Ludwig, Ludwig von Ludwig, our favorite writer to discuss.

[Andy Holloway]

He wrote an article between him and Kyle Baloney.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, those two are great writers. He wrote an article before the season saying is maybe Jordan Howard's better than Ezekiel Elliott. Caught a lot of flack for that because, you know, he's not Ezekiel Elliott. But we saw this year, both in film and in the numbers, Jordan Howard is the truth. He is legit. Matt Forte has been the prototypical Bears running back who came in, you know, just on fire and set rookie records for Chicago, which Jordan Howard just broke. And this is on a bad Chicago team. It is hard to be a good running back on a bad team.

[Mike Wright]

Howard didn't even start the first three weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

Just girl. Or whether you can be a good running back on a bad team.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he didn't even. Yeah, it is not easy.

[Andy Holloway]

I just saw a stat on him. Small aside, 500 different running backs. 500 have over 250 touches. He's in the bottom 10 in yards per carry.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

For running backs with over 250 touches.

[Jason Moore]

I want to say it was like bottom three or something. He was really low. I saw that as well. But I Mean you're talking about Jordan Howard. You just nailed it. He didn't even start the first three weeks. He was the number nine running back on the year. So Jordan Howard, he's a rising star. To me he is a absolute locked keeper. If you're in any keeper league, I mean where you got him is almost certainly worth keeping him.

[Andy Holloway]

I am depressed because I let him go. I let him go midway through the season and I wish I had him as my keeper so bad. Mike. Mike, who you got?

[Mike Wright]

I'm jumping in here with a man who has a very attractive first name, Michael Thomas. We share the first name. We share the same level of talents for different. For different things. For different things. He has sensational. The second most receptions in for a rookie. For a rookie wide receiver. We've. You remember that great class that showed.

[Andy Holloway]

Up 92 for over 1100 yards and nine touchdowns. What's the season?

[Mike Wright]

And we had that great class. We thought it can't get any better than this. Well, Michael Thomas came in and said, hey, I'm Michael Thomas, throw me the ball. He smashed the Saints rookie wide receiver records and he gave you a consistent, consistent presence for a. And Drew Brees is a quarterback. He throws 5,000 yards in his sleep. Now we will see. There could be some shakeup. Of course if Sean Payton leaves.

[Andy Holloway]

I still believe, I don't think he'll leave just for the record.

[Mike Wright]

Sure. Regardless if there could be some shakeup however, when normally for that team you had to pay just a massive draft capital price. Brandon Cooks and even then with Brandon Cooks, yeah, you get these 200 yard gains but you also get just duds. Michael Thomas was not doing that. He was giving you a safe floor almost every single week with a nice robust ceiling. So I just, I think moving in into next year, another off season with Drew Brees, more time to build that chemistry. And that's what Drew Brees is all about. Finding the guy who was open.

[Jason Moore]

He went into that Marcus Colston role that was the Saints all time leader with Drew Brees. He literally went into the same position and he was.

[Andy Holloway]

He brought the rookie record.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

From Marquise Colson.

[Jason Moore]

Right. So I mean the future is bright.

[Andy Holloway]

I remember when Colson did that.

[Jason Moore]

I love Marquis Colson. He was my guy for. I think I drafted him more than any player over the last decade.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Don't forget those were the Raising Canes, rising stars of the week. We thank Raising Canes for sponsoring the show this past season and that segment. And don't forget with the playoffs coming Up. Grab your raising canes tailgate. Featuring 24 hour marinated cook to order chicken fingers. In fact, we get more chicken finger feedback on Twitter than the average Twitter account.

[Mike Wright]

You want to win your playoff parties and your super bowl party.

[Andy Holloway]

We did it on Friday night. So check out raisingkanes.com for your nearest location. Guys, we're going to jump into the footy nominations. Are you ready for these?

[Jason Moore]

I'm ready. My body is ready.

[Andy Holloway]

Hold on.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, the footy nominations. Remember we will post a link where you can go and vote for the official 2016 Footy Award winners and we'll.

[Jason Moore]

Email it out as well. So if you're, if you're worried about missing that and you want to get it, you know, go to the fantasy footballers.com and get on our mailing list and we'll email it to everybody.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's start with the performance of the year footy.

[Jason Moore]

This is a single game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Single game performance. The nominees are Lev bell. That week 14236 yard explosion with three touchdowns. You've got Ezekiel Elliott from week 10. He had a monster game.

[Jason Moore]

Aaron Rodgers, Julio's 300 yard game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that was something special. Matt Ryan had a 513 yard game in week four with 14.

[Mike Wright]

That's the combo year or the combo.

[Andy Holloway]

Week when with Julio time Montgomery's Week 15 performance, you all remember that. That made a big difference in your fantasy championships. That's the thing about these performances. How much did they impact your fantasy team as well? Marvin Jones, remember him? That week three monster performance. And then Jaya Jay, he had that week six game where he went bananas.

[Jason Moore]

I think the Marvin Jones is the worst performance of the year because that monstrosity 6 for 205 and 2 ruined.

[Andy Holloway]

Your betrayed our confidence.

[Jason Moore]

So many fantasy footballers teams.

[Andy Holloway]

So those are the nominees for performance of the year. We're moving on now to the nominees.

[Jason Moore]

Your favorite nom, your favorite category to.

[Andy Holloway]

The fantasy Reapers man of the year. So define that for our listeners.

[Jason Moore]

So this is the guy that got raped by Andy. And the the reaper strikes again. And he got injured because Andy gets guys injured. So here's your list. You've got Andy's personal all time favorite. Is this all time favorite fantasy football player.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

He's on the wall.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, right behind me. Arian Foster, you took him out.

[Andy Holloway]

Aaron Foster, Doug Martin.

[Mike Wright]

Well, first off, I mean you got to acknowledge you took Arian out forever.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

He's done forever. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not ashamed. It was time to go. All right. This is a player whose season was impacted negatively by injury. Arian Foster, Doug Martin, Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, Jamal Charles, Keenan Allen, C.J. anderson, Thomas Rawls, Sammy Watkins and A.J. green. Those are the.

[Jason Moore]

That's a tough list.

[Andy Holloway]

That's an all star team for another year, but not this year. So you vote for the Fantasy Reapers man of the year. The player you think whose injury most affected fantasy football lineups this year. That's a prestigious award. I mean you, yeah, we go to the infirmary and we hand that baby out to one of these guys right away.

[Mike Wright]

That's going to.

[Jason Moore]

That's another difficult category.

[Andy Holloway]

Who doesn't love this?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, the poopiest.

[Andy Holloway]

We're moving on to the poopiest pants award. Every week we, we break down the pooped in their big boy pants players of the week season. But this is a season long award. So this one, I mean, I feel like Huggies extraordinaire.

[Jason Moore]

I feel like this is a three man race. But, but I, you know, I'm interested to see your, your feedback here.

[Andy Holloway]

Top three, the Povias pants Award. Man, how things have changed. Alan Robinson is in consideration. Ended up as wide receiver 25. DeAndre Hopkins. Ended up as wide receiver 29. Todd Gurley, RB 17. After those high expectations. Cameron Newton, quarterback 19. QB 19. Kelvin Benjamin. He, much like Marvin Jones, flashed in the beginning and ruined people. Randall Cobb. Ooh. Wide receiver 56. Oh, man, poopy pants. But maybe he was already starting to get poopy pants last year, so who knows? Brandon Marshall, wide receiver 50.

[Jason Moore]

That's terrible.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know. You said you thought it was a three man race.

[Jason Moore]

It's a four man race.

[Andy Holloway]

I think, I think all these guys are worthwhile for consideration.

[Jason Moore]

Randall Cobb, I mean, who was really trusting him?

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so those are the nominees for the poopiest pants Award. We're moving on.

[Jason Moore]

Here's the most. You know, I say what is probably the most important award for winning championships. Your waiver wire wonder. Waiver wire, man. That's where your team goes from, you know, really good to great because you got that waiver wire gold. You got Rob Kelly, who once he came on finishes RB31. But he was revelation for a while. Dak Prescott, quarterback six.

[Mike Wright]

That's unbelievable.

[Jason Moore]

He was the quarterback six. Jay Ajayi, after he came back, he finished his RB11. I lost a water bet with our man Brooks over that. Congratulations. Tevin Coleman.

[Mike Wright]

Adam Gase is, he's not happy about J.J. coleman.

[Jason Moore]

Waiver wire. I feel like most, most people Drafted him. Devonta.

[Andy Holloway]

Really?

[Mike Wright]

You think Coleman got drafted?

[Andy Holloway]

He did.

[Mike Wright]

Did he?

[Andy Holloway]

I think so, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Devonte Adams finished as a wide receiver 8. He was scooped off, scooped up off of many waiver wires. He knocked me out of the playoffs and I hate him forever. Tyrell Williams, Terrell Pryor. There's a guy who started real hot, Tyreek Hill, the freak.

[Andy Holloway]

Tyrell Terrell and Tyreek, I like it.

[Jason Moore]

The triple Triple T. Cameron Brait finishes seventh. Best tight end, Kristen Michael actually finished as the RB32 ahead of Thomas Rawls despite being kicked off the team. And then there's this guy, Jordan Howard, RB10. And while he might have been drafted, he was usually dropped because early in the year it wasn't his job. And then you scooped him up a couple weeks in and RB10.

[Andy Holloway]

Lots of good names to consider there. I have a few that I think are headliners, Howard included. All right, let's move on to wide receiver. Footy of the year. The wide receiver of the year. This one goes to the. What we think is the best performance right season long. Mike, why don't you break down the nominees.

[Mike Wright]

All right, we got the stalwarts, Antonio Brown. He's always killing it. Always reliable. And of the, of the big three, I would say probably the most reliable this year, Jordy Nelson. What a comeback for Jordy up in Green Bay. There was a lot of concern. Could he come back. There was concern, I would say even halfway through the season. You saw him at the beginning just getting touchdowns but not doing really anything else. Mike Evans, sensational, sensational bounce back year. How many touchdowns did he have that sophomore year? I think it was two or three.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

After a 12 season, he was three.

[Mike Wright]

Well, and then back, back to 12. Back to double digit touchdowns for Mike Evans, Odell Beckham, the entire offense for the New York Giants.

[Andy Holloway]

Ty Hilton, who career high in yardage.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, almost. So 1448 yards. I mean that's a, that's a sensational season. And then Michael Crabtree, the quiet killer. Michael Crabtree. I like him on this list because there's, there's a common theme for the other five guys is that they're all drafted in at least the top four rounds. Meanwhile, Michael Crabtree, you got him. Where, where was Michael Crabtree going? Six, seventh round.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, well, after a martyr.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, well, worthy of a nomination for the wide receiver of the year. Running back nominations. It's a five man race and they're all big boys.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, tough call. It's almost a shame that Melvin Gordon doesn't Get to be in this. I get that because he ended the year. But these were, these were the guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Want to put them in championships. We're actually in charge of this award show.

[Jason Moore]

Really?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

You know, he's not going to win over these guys. So we'll leave it at these.

[Andy Holloway]

David Johnson. Wow, what a game. What a year for David Johnson. He had. Is that right? 1239 yards rushing to go with 879 yards receiving.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, my goodness. Is that.

[Andy Holloway]

I got a 80 reception.

[Mike Wright]

I got to go bask in that.

[Andy Holloway]

Le'Veon Bell ended up the RB3 with only 12 games, just not. Shady McCoy ended up with only three. No, I said 12. Did I?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

RB3. Yeah. Ezekiel Elliott was the. Obviously the rookie sensation, dominated, led the league in rushing yardage. And DeMarco Murray, big time season from DeMarco in his first year in Tennessee. So D.J. love Bell, Shady, Ezekiel Elliott and DeMarco.

[Jason Moore]

That is a good list.

[Mike Wright]

And then. And just a reminder, when you're voting, I mean it's. You vote for. We take into account multiple things like I talked about Crabtree draft position, I think sometimes has to factor into this. So you might be listening to this list thinking, well, David Johnson's the clear winner. Well, you're perhaps. But you had to, you had to take DJ in the first round. Meanwhile, Shady McCoy was dropping down into the third round. All right, DeMarco Murray, even lower.

[Andy Holloway]

A lot of categories left to get through. So let's go ahead and move on. Tight end of the year, we've got Travis Kelsey, Greg Olson, Delaney Walker, Jimmy Graham, Cameron Brait and Kyle Rudolph, also known as the tight end Two.

[Jason Moore]

Wow, he finished. He finished strong. And let me just give a public service announcement. Please do not vote for Greg Olson. All right, quarterback of the year, this list, man. Where's.

[Mike Wright]

Where's Jordan Reed? Where's Gronk?

[Jason Moore]

All right, quarterback of the year. You got the names that you expect like Andrew Luck and Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, but we're also going to have to throw in obviously Matt Ryan, the big two on the year that you could draft sometimes you could pick him up off of waivers after the season or you could get him in the 10 plus round. And Kirk Cousins. We had a Fannings debate of the week early on, Mike. We did before the season as to whether or not he could be a top 12 quarterback. And you won that one because the answer is five.

[Andy Holloway]

You'd be five for Cousins.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

And yet still question marks about Cousins long term.

[Mike Wright]

He almost threw for 5,000 yards.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Now this is, I think, the quintessential footy award. Like when I think of the, you know, you go to the Oscars and you got the final. The final, you know, Oscar is best picture to me.

[Mike Wright]

This is our best picture.

[Andy Holloway]

This is your best picture. Well, why don't you break them down? Such a big footie award, there's some.

[Jason Moore]

Some pressure. This one is for the fantasy footballers nickname of the year. Last year we saw that Dan Campbell and Guns Mahoney got a lot more votes than I expected. That was outrageous. People loved it. But here's the list for this year. Here's some of our best nicknames. We got the mad hatter for C.J. fedorowicz. We got the Rawls Royce.

[Mike Wright]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thomas Rawls, the Wonka Machine.

[Jason Moore]

You got Tyreek the Freak. Freak out for Tyreek Hill.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, do we got that?

[Jason Moore]

Yep. All right. And we got the woke one.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, the woke one.

[Jason Moore]

Kristen Michael has a good run.

[Mike Wright]

Holds a place in my heart.

[Jason Moore]

Don't forget about the Slippery fish.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, Shady McCoy.

[Jason Moore]

Hooked. Ah, hooked on a feeling.

[Mike Wright]

You psyched me out with the way you went into that.

[Jason Moore]

I know. I apologize. All right, we got the worst one. Please do not vote for it.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, what is this?

[Jason Moore]

Even in here for CJ Goat Sice? We didn't even come up with that name.

[Andy Holloway]

No, that's terrible. I'm taking it out.

[Jason Moore]

Delete. All right, Mike's probably. Mike's vote. I'm guessing.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know. There's a lot.

[Jason Moore]

I know there's a lot of good ones here, but we got that CJ Goat site one. Well, you can't vote for that. We're getting it out of the. But the bezels. The bezels. We know you had Cole Beasley, A very strong case of the bezels all year. We got Blow, pow, blah, blah. And we also have a guy who. It's pronounced Crowd eh. For Jameson Crowder. And finally we have Adam Humphreys pronounced with an omphreys. So there's your list.

[Andy Holloway]

Not even a nickname.

[Mike Wright]

We have the stupidest show.

[Andy Holloway]

It's the greatest show. That's a lot of. That's a lot of brand new nicknames for this year to add to last year's group.

[Jason Moore]

I'm gonna. You know, I'm gonna need to.

[Andy Holloway]

Last year it was Peach Cobbler and the Abdullah Express and guns Mahoney and Rule 86.

[Jason Moore]

I put this shirt on today.

[Andy Holloway]

Maximum Barnage. Dirty, dirty cake right here.

[Jason Moore]

I'm wearing the nickname shirt. And it dawns on me we need a 2017.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Or 2016 nickname shirt.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, absolutely. All right. Footy breakout player of the year.

[Mike Wright]

Do we need to sneak easy E onto there?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Breakout player of the year. Marcus Mariota ended up QB13, Derek Carr, QB9, Jai ended up RB11, Tevin Coleman up into RB18, Devonte Adams, wide receiver 7, Travis Kelsey, Melvin Gordon, RB7 and Cameron Bray tied in 7 for breakout player of the year. This is a ascension. An ascension player.

[Jason Moore]

Let me just ask. We won't do this on every category. Maybe we won't do it anywhere else but on this category. Where's your vote?

[Andy Holloway]

Melvin?

[Jason Moore]

Melvin might be mine as well.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Melvin's.

[Andy Holloway]

Melvin's my. My vote.

[Jason Moore]

I thought about Kelsey Adams.

[Andy Holloway]

I think Melvin's going to run away with it, to be honest.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I agree that he probably will. I think I'm taking in Mariota into strong consideration here because he. To Andy's credit, Andy loved Mariota in the all off early off season and I had, I buried him. I gave, I gave Mario to zero chance. If I could go less than zero, that's how much of a chance I.

[Andy Holloway]

Gave down at the Devonte Freeman level.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, exactly. But he, I mean he was, he played fantastic. If he was in a little bit more of a pass heavy offensive scheme. Get him some more weapons. I like Rashad Matthews but I mean he needs a, he needs a weapon in Tennessee. Hopefully they.

[Andy Holloway]

Not a weapon, but a weapon.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, hopefully they can solve that with the, the draft pick situation that they, they took care of trading down last year.

[Jason Moore]

A lot of these categories are tough. This next category I think will be very easy for most people despite a lot of good nominations.

[Andy Holloway]

Rookie of the year.

[Jason Moore]

It'll be a runaway.

[Mike Wright]

It will.

[Andy Holloway]

Rookie of the year.

[Jason Moore]

You got Jordan Howard, Michael Thomas, Tyreek the freak and Dak Prescott as your runner ups to Ezekiel Elliott. But you know, let the voting. You can vote for whoever you want. Let's see if I'm right.

[Andy Holloway]

I always enjoy these next two categories. These are the last two for the footy awards. The comeback player of the year, the bounce back performance. Somebody that was fantasy relevant maybe, maybe they didn't perform and then now they did. They had a big year. Jimmy Graham has to be there.

[Jason Moore]

Let me take my hat off to him because tight end number four. You talk about bearing a guy below zero. That was Jimmy Graham. There is no chance. I did not give him any chance on the planet of coming back healthy off of this injury and he was the tight end for you both.

[Andy Holloway]

Really need to listen to me more. I think that's what I've learned out of the Mariota and the Jimmy Graham thing.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, I'm just impressed that he came back from that kind of an injury this quick. So hat is off to Jimmy Graham, DeMarco, Murray DeMarco certainly came back.

[Andy Holloway]

RB5, big year. Andrew Luck, my. I'm telling you right now, it's January 3rd, so things subject to change.

[Jason Moore]

He's your quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

Andrew Luck is my. My favorite quarterback next year. When you consider where draft position will be. With what I saw from Andrew Luck with no offensive line, I mean, you looked at what Oakland did. They had. They gave up like 16 sacks on the year. Are you saying Andrew Luck had like.

[Mike Wright]

Are you saying no offensive line as if the Colts are going to fix that?

[Andy Holloway]

I am.

[Jason Moore]

They can't be worse.

[Andy Holloway]

You can't get worse.

[Jason Moore]

They can always get better.

[Mike Wright]

You can. Absolutely. That train can remain steady.

[Andy Holloway]

Andrew Luck found a way to throw 31 touchdowns for 4,240 yards, ran for 340 yards, was the QB4 with that offensive line and he missed my favorite quarterback for next year. And remember, you should listen to me.

[Mike Wright]

Now you're telling me they're there when they're on the clock. There's not going to be some shiny wide receiver that they want to draft.

[Jason Moore]

Well, okay, so you got. You got Andrew Luck in there, but Matt Ryan is for this year as a comeback player of the year. I mean, he finished as the quarterback two and no one believed in him. And of course, Melvin Gordon after that lousy rookie year also qualifies for a comeback player of the year.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, this is my favorite category. It's because it's fantasy football. And the steel of the draft, much like the waiver wire wonder defines how your team finished in the season.

[Jason Moore]

A lot of these guys, a little here, some of these guys were the guys we were very, very high on in our draft season, in our ultimate draft kit. And they became the steel of the draft. I'll kick it off with. Who would get my vote for this year? Legarett Blunt. Legarrett Blunt. He finishes the RB8.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, and the number, I'm quickly throwing them in afterwards, the. The number after, that's where he was drafted. So he was 102nd overall.

[Jason Moore]

Wow. You get him in the hundreds for the. For an RB1 who always found his way to the one yard line on a first and goal, I mean, what was it? Eight of his touchdowns?

[Andy Holloway]

I think was 10, 11, 10 11. 11 of his 18 touchdowns were from the one area.

[Jason Moore]

It's just like we said it all year. Does any team ever find themselves on the first on the one yard line more than the Patriots?

[Andy Holloway]

Matt Ryan was drafted at the 140th spot in the draft. He ended up the QB2. We talked about him earlier. LaShawn McCoy was the RB4, but he was drafted at 26.

[Jason Moore]

That's great.

[Andy Holloway]

Third round, third round. Melvin. Melvin Gordon. I think he was more instrumental for fantasy teams than almost anybody in the entire league this year outside of maybe the David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott. Because Melvin Gordon was this. He was drafted, 64th overall pick, ended up the RB7 and that. But the RB7 betrays his value because of his injury. He was top three and for a while. Yeah, for a while there he was winning you weeks every week.

[Mike Wright]

He also said he has to send half of his award to Danny Woodhead for going out.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, but come on, I mean, Melvin Gordon didn't even get a thousand yards on the season.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, only 997. Ty Hilton, 34th player off the board ended up wide receiver For Emmanuel Sanders, 65th player off the board ended up the 21st best wide receiver in any receiver.

[Mike Wright]

What?

[Andy Holloway]

That's all right. I mean, that's actually not that impressive to me.

[Jason Moore]

I agree.

[Andy Holloway]

I thought, I mean, you made the case for him before, but 65th player off the board, hold on.

[Jason Moore]

Did he Finish? Wide receiver 21.

[Andy Holloway]

That's not impressive.

[Jason Moore]

Ears off the list. Yeah, maybe Sanders off the list.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, forget him. DeMarco Murray, 38th Play off the board.

[Mike Wright]

So he felt. Hold on, he fell down to What? Wide receiver 21. Is that what we said?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I had marked.

[Mike Wright]

I had filled these out after Week 16 when he was in the teens. Yeah, so he fell hard.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. He's not a seal of the draft, but you have blunt Ryan, McCoy, Gordon Hilton and DeMarco Murray in consideration here for the footie award for steal of the draft. We invite you check out the website. We'll come up with an article for all the nominations. And we want your vote because we'll be delivering the official second annual footy awards.

[Jason Moore]

And that's a fun show.

[Mike Wright]

Puff Daddy said it best when he said vote or die.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

So Foot, clearly there's no other way to put it. Hope you enjoyed this show. We'll be back. Just so you want to know the schedule, for those out there listening now saying, hey, I didn't hear you. On Monday, we have two shows a week right now. We're coming out with shows on Tuesday and Thursday. We also have show after the show that'll be on YouTube.

[Jason Moore]

That's coming up right now. Are we discussing the coaching where we would want to coach?

[Andy Holloway]

We can do that and we could do our picks for the first week. I think that'd be good, too.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, that is it for today's show. Thanks for listening. Check out the website, the fantasy footballers.com and jointhefoot.com or fantasy football community. And don't forget, celebrate that title with a trophy from fantasyjocks.com I've already seen a lot of pictures, so check them out. Fantasyjocks.com Coupon code footballers.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter the FFballers.