Fantasy Football Podcast for Week 14/15

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary: Week 14/15 (Released December 9, 2014)

The Fantasy Footballers Podcast episode for Week 14/15, hosted by Andy Holloway and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright, delves into the crucial end-of-season strategies, injury updates, player performances, and listener inquiries to help fantasy managers secure their playoff spots.

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1. Season’s End and Playoff Preparation

Andy Holloway and Mike Wright kick off the discussion by reflecting on the impending end of the NFL regular season. They share their personal sentiments about the lack of a significant break before the playoffs.

• Mike Wright mentions, “[...] I binge watch the playoffs [...] then you just, you go into that hibernation mode of draft” (00:53)

They emphasize the high anticipation throughout the week, especially with Sunday being a pivotal day filled with games that can significantly impact fantasy standings.

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2. Injury Reports and Implications

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing recent injuries that could affect fantasy lineups:

• Cam Newton: Suffered a serious car accident resulting in a transverse fracture (16:09). While initial reports suggest no long-term injuries, Andy advises fantasy managers to bench Newton for the upcoming week.

• Percy Harvin: Despite a standout performance, Harvin exits with an ankle injury. The hosts note his tendency to get injured annually, making him a risky start despite his potential.

• Andre Ellington: Placed on injured reserve with a sports hernia, severely impacting the Cardinals' offense (10:28).

• Brandon Marshall: Faces a major injury, including fractured ribs and a deflated lung, ending his season prematurely (14:21).

• Jared Cook and Michael Rivera: Highlighted as emerging tight end options, with Cook showing increased scoring potential (19:02).

Mike Wright adds a humorous take on benefiting from opponents' injuries: “Fantasy football turns you guys into monsters” (08:58), illustrating the often cutthroat nature of fantasy league dynamics.

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3. Stud Muffins: Top Performers of the Week

The hosts identify standout players (“stud muffins”) who had exceptional performances:

• Jonathan Stewart: Dominated with 24 carries for 155 yards and a touchdown against Tampa Bay (18:00). Andy predicts another strong week due to increased dependency on the run game with Cam Newton sidelined.

• Michael Rivera: Praised for his role and target frequency, making him a reliable tight end option.

• Chris Johnson and Pierre Thomas: Recommended as running back starts due to favorable matchups and their teams’ offensive strategies.

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4. Waiver Wire Highlights

Andy and Mike review the waiver wire, advising managers on potential pickups:

• Jonathan Stewart: Surprisingly suggested despite being a solid starter, highlighting the dynamic nature of waiver considerations.

• Dante Moncrief: Endorsed for his explosive potential, especially against a weak Cardinals defense (30:54).

• Marquise Wilson: Recommended as a replacement for the injured Brandon Marshall, with upside from facing a vulnerable Arizona defense.

Andy humorously critiques poor waiver wire decisions: “Why would you have even put rostered Ben Tate if you don't want to say [...]” (28:35).

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5. Start/Sit Recommendations

The hosts provide strategic advice on which players to start or sit for optimal fantasy performance:

• Quarterbacks:

  • Jay Cutler vs. Reggie Wayne’s struggling receivers: Andy supports starting Cutler despite some reservations.
  • Eli Manning vs. Big Ben (Ben Roethlisberger): Mike opts for Big Ben, citing his favorable matchup (52:38).

• Running Backs:

  • Mark Ingram vs. Alfred Morris: Mike prefers Morris due to his potential usage against weak defenses.

• Wide Receivers:

  • Dante Moncrief is recommended over more consistent but less explosive options.

• Tight Ends:

  • Jared Cook is favored over Scott Chandler, reflecting his recent scoring surge.

Notable Insight:

• Andy emphasizes trusting gut feelings over expert projections: “Play who your gut tells you to play” (42:04).

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6. Mailbag: Listener Questions

Listeners submit questions addressing specific start/sit dilemmas and defensive choices:

• Too Many Cooks: Advises starting Jared Cook over Scott Chandler for optimal tight end performance (51:26).

• QB Start: When choosing between Eli Manning against Washington or Big Ben against the Falcons, Andy suggests Eli for strategic reasons, while Mike supports Big Ben based on matchup strength (52:27).

• Defensive Choices: Recommends starting Arizona’s defense over the Vikings facing Detroit, citing Detroit’s high-scoring offense (53:22).

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7. Rookie Wide Receiver Class Analysis

A highlight of the episode is the analysis of the rookie wide receiver class, which Andy deems “arguably the best ever” with notable names like Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins, Kelvin Benjamin, and Jarvis Landry showing immediate impact. This influx of high-performing rookies presents both opportunities and challenges for fantasy managers in drafting and waiver strategies.

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8. Concluding Remarks

As the episode wraps up, Andy and Mike encourage listeners to engage with upcoming episodes, provide feedback, and utilize the resources available on fantasyfootballers.com. They emphasize the importance of staying informed and making strategic decisions to navigate the fantasy playoffs successfully.

Andy aptly compares fantasy expert projections to weather forecasts, urging managers to balance expert advice with personal intuition: “A weatherman's gonna tell you that it's not gonna rain. But if you look outside and you see clouds [...]” (42:38).

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Key Takeaways:

• Injury Monitoring: Stay updated on player injuries, especially for key positions, to make timely benching or streaming decisions.

• Stud Muffins Identification: Recognize players with high performance potential and favorable matchups to maximize weekly points.

• Waiver Wire Utilization: Continuously evaluate the waiver wire for under-the-radar players who can provide significant upside.

• Start/Sit Decisions: Balance expert advice with personal insights and matchup strengths to optimize lineup choices.

• Rookie Impact: Leverage the strong rookie wide receiver class to bolster receiving corps without compromising depth.

By meticulously analyzing player performances, injuries, and matchups, Andy Holloway and Mike Wright provide invaluable insights to help fantasy managers navigate the critical playoff weeks with confidence and strategy.

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Note: Timestamps refer to the podcast transcript provided.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Foreign.

[Mike Wright]

To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway and Mike Wright. Oh, I'm typing.

[Andy Holloway]

What are you typing?

[Mike Wright]

I'm just updating the, the old injury reports.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, what, What?

[Mike Wright]

Because of what the news on Newton is kind of coming out.

[Andy Holloway]

I just hit you in the face with you.

[Mike Wright]

It's all right.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome to the show. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. My name is Andy and I am.

[Mike Wright]

Mike the Fantasy Hitman Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

And we are here bringing you Week 15 NFL fantasy football news.

[Mike Wright]

It's coming to an end.

[Andy Holloway]

It's kind of. How do you, how do you deal with that? Are you happy for the break? Probably not. No, I'm not.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not at all.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm happy that there's not really much of a break. It didn't like last year didn't feel like there was maybe because of the draft.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, I mean I go once the. I binge watch the playoffs. I watch basically every snap of the playoffs right through the super bowl. And then you just, you go into that hibernation mode of draft.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean I go into a dark room and then you wait for your alarm to go off until.

[Mike Wright]

And I haven't, I mean I've been a huge football fan for a long time, but it really wasn't until I kicked high gear into fantasy where I'm now out of control for the draft.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

I study not, not that I'm breaking down tape on everybody, but I see what it, what's coming out of who's saying what, what players would be good fantasy fits for if they got to a certain team. So I mean, that's all that speculation which is fun for a little bit.

[Andy Holloway]

It seems like these seasons fly by because of the fact, you know, playoffs come about in week, you know, 13, 12 for some people. But yeah, it's, it's still an exciting couple weeks for right. Approximately 25% of you out there.

[Mike Wright]

I mean there's, there's just so much waiting involved with. Because they. We do have Thursday Monday games, but the bulk is Sunday. And so you spend the whole week just anticipating Sunday. And even though it's an all day football fest on, on Sunday, it just to me. Because so much of it is that waiting period which make. Is what part of what makes the sport so great and so much fun?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, the lack is.

[Mike Wright]

Is you have to, you don't get that instant payoff no matter what. It's not basketball where you're like, oh, my team sucked. Oh well, they're all, everyone's playing again tomorrow. You you have to live in that sorrow and sadness or you live in the. The just the endorphins and the joy, which we will. I think we need to share what happened with us for us.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, just a quick point on that. I think too that the instant news, Twitter, roto type of environment we're in now makes a bunch of laymen actually, you know, having information like the scouts, where we get to see things, we get to know, you know, check out, you know, somebody's gonna tweet a play from some college guy. We see the same play that everybody else does.

[Mike Wright]

It's.

[Andy Holloway]

It's kind of fun. It makes everybody miniature GMs. And speaking of which, in our league.

[Mike Wright]

This is our big league.

[Andy Holloway]

This is our big.

[Mike Wright]

The important one. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Everybody's probably. If you play in multiple leagues, you got one that you kind of care about more. A lot of the times for people, that's their money league, they're gonna win some money for us. We got a league that is going on. This is its eighth season. It's I guess what you'd call a keeper.

[Mike Wright]

It's a keeper.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a keeper league. So we've got the same GMs that's been in there, 12 team league. And so the way our playoff format works is there's six teams that make the playoffs and the top two seats get a bye.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And then the, the way it worked or shaped up, Andy and myself were in the first round of the playoffs. We did not get the buy. And through the way, the way Sunday played out, both of us went into Monday needing massive Monday night magic. Monday night magic. And we got it and it came through big.

[Andy Holloway]

See, when I say we, it sounds like we're not opposing teams. Like, I want you to be destroyed. I want your team to lose. But we both won our matchups and Julio Jones and Eddie Lacy won me my matchup.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And you were. So to set it up, you had.

[Andy Holloway]

I was up 13 points and I was going in against the other team and he had Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb and I had Lacy and Julio. And so it was kind of a 50, 50 shot. And obviously Julio came out, had his career best game. Lacy had another. He's been great for a while. And so I won my matchup and broke the heart of my opponent. And you, you went into Monday night.

[Mike Wright]

I was, I was coming in down 28 because of, you know, you know, all the guys that boomed this week and had historic games, they were all playing against me.

[Andy Holloway]

Le'Veon Bell 37 fantasy points in our league.

[Mike Wright]

A.J. green.

[Andy Holloway]

A.J.

[Mike Wright]

Green and Martellus Bennett. Now I had three huge weeks. I had the benefit of the other players. Luckily the other players on his team kind of crapped the bed. But I mean those three guys.

[Andy Holloway]

But you went in with only Jordy.

[Mike Wright]

Nelson and I was down 28. Needed Jordy Nelson to come through. Huge. And my guys, the. After that, the, the second. So the 60 yard bomb. I mean I'm watching the. My, My wife's not watching, of course, she's Pinteresting or something and I just knitting. But I just.

[Andy Holloway]

That's the new knitting.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's Pinteresting. I just, I leap out of the bed and I'm just flailing like a madman. Is that what you call, well, the.

[Andy Holloway]

First hashtag fantasy seizure?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Oh yeah, that's pretty good. But I mean the first thing I do is I fall to the floo. I just, I can't believe it. And then I, then I wake to my senses and I'm scrambling to my phone and I'm updating, updating because I, I wasn't positive that it had put me over the threshold.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I all of a sudden got this this insane sense of doubt like, oh no, am I still down two points?

[Andy Holloway]

So that Jordy bomb, he didn't get any more points after that bomb, right?

[Mike Wright]

No, he didn't.

[Andy Holloway]

That's pretty funny. So, yeah, big weeks for us. So we get to go on into the semifinals next week, which will be fun. Hopefully you had some luck in your league. Hopefully. We helped you out last week on the show and if you listen to.

[Mike Wright]

Our starts of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

We helped you out.

[Mike Wright]

We helped you.

[Andy Holloway]

We had another good week. So last. I think we'll be here this week and next week, I assume. Yes. And then maybe we'll do kind of a year end. A year end and look towards 2015. It's funny because I already see NFL.com is doing some way too early mock drafts. So maybe we'll do something.

[Mike Wright]

Mock drafts?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, for next year.

[Mike Wright]

Who's going? One bell.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah. Le'Veon Bell. At least in theirs. But yeah, we'll talk about some of that in the weeks to come. But you can visit us on the web at the fantasy footballers.com you can email us at the fantasy footballersmail.com and we appreciate it if you like the show to give us a review on Facebook and let's go ahead and get to. Yeah. On itunes. What did I say?

[Mike Wright]

Facebook.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah.

[Mike Wright]

But a five star review if you like. The show, it really helps us out. Helps out. Our visibility moves us up, the chart gets us more listeners, and then we just can snowball. And then we're hoping to do more.

[Andy Holloway]

Than one show a week next year.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

If we got the support of you guys, we'll do our best to do that and answer your questions, which is, I think, the most fun, answering people's questions, seeing if we can help them out, let them win their league, let them have fantasy glory. So let's get into it.

[Mike Wright]

News and notes from around the league. All right, let's start it off with the injuries.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, these are. Hopefully we'll just bust through these. Some of these are really relevant, some of them aren't, but they might impact the way you play your defenses, the way you play some backups in these situations.

[Mike Wright]

So Zach Mittenberger, he hurt his AC joint the other week. He is now out.

[Andy Holloway]

So Jake Locker is back.

[Mike Wright]

He is. Locker is back.

[Andy Holloway]

Percy Harvin has an ankle injury. He had a big week, which makes this kind of unfortunate because he. He. I think he had a 80 yard touchdown in that game.

[Mike Wright]

It was. Yeah. Around there. It was.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. He has an ankle injury. What have you heard about that? Is it just.

[Mike Wright]

I have not.

[Andy Holloway]

Keep an eye on practice.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I haven't heard anything yet.

[Andy Holloway]

He did come out of the game, I would say.

[Mike Wright]

The. I heard. The last thing I heard was the rumblings from somebody saying. A source in the jets said it was a somewhat serious injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Which. With. When you're talking Percy Harvin, that's not a surprise. I mean, the dudes. A straight beast. He is a monster when he has the ball, but he gets hurt every year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Andre Johnson got a concussion in the game. He had. He was taken out.

[Andy Holloway]

This was fortunate for you because you went against him.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And that's. Oh, man. So we're in the car again. I'm driving, we're driving home. My wife and I are driving home from church and it happens. And the guy's like. They're talking about how bad it was and I'm kind of like, I feel bad, but I feel kind of happy right now. My wife, she's like, you are a horrible person. Fantasy football turns you guys into monsters. And I'm like, no, no, no.

[Andy Holloway]

We.

[Mike Wright]

We don't root for the injuries, we.

[Andy Holloway]

Just benefit from them.

[Mike Wright]

I likened it to this. I was like, it's like the guy playing behind Andre Johnson, I mean, you don't want him to get injured, but then you get some playing time, you get an opportunist. And that's who I'm rooting for. I root for the small man. You root for the backup who's trying to. Just trying to make it in the NFL.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, my goodness. Andre Ellington.

[Mike Wright]

So he'll have the protocol.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Which is. Houston has Indy this week.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

So that, that has the potential to kind of be a big, obviously individual. I mean, if they win, if Houston wins that game, I think they're still in the playoff picture because from what I understood, they had to win out and they won last week.

[Mike Wright]

So I believe. So it's a division game, so keep an eye on.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Division game. That game is in Houston.

[Mike Wright]

Houston. Houston. It's in Indianapolis.

[Andy Holloway]

It's in Indianapolis. Okay. Andre Ellington, unfortunately for both Cardinal fans and fantasy football fans, he's on the ir. He went out with what originally was a hip pointer. It turned into a sports hernia injury and he has to have surgery and.

[Mike Wright]

He is just beat up, man. He's just.

[Andy Holloway]

He's had to bear too much of the load for all year.

[Mike Wright]

So his. He doesn't have the physique to be that.

[Andy Holloway]

So the 10 and three first place cardinals have no Carson Palmer, no Andre Ellington, a beat up Larry Fitzgerald. They've had Cromartie injured. They've had Matthew out now for the year. No docket. No, no. You forgot about Darrell Washington.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So, yeah, it's been rough and yet 10 and 3 and had a win.

[Mike Wright]

And somehow I'm still not feeling very good about it.

[Andy Holloway]

I know.

[Mike Wright]

That is so.

[Andy Holloway]

It's crazy.

[Mike Wright]

As Cardinal fans, Tory Smith, he. He had a knee injury the previous week. He toughed it out. He didn't get a single catch. Hopefully, if you were a Smith owner, you were monitoring Twitter in the morning because it was. The reports were coming out. He does not look good.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he was limping. Hopefully that brings up a good point. I mean, what I've seen this year is the difference between some of these teams winning and some of these teams losing have been.

[Mike Wright]

Are you talking fantasy or.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, no, fantasy is just people taking the extra five minutes on Sunday morning. To browse Twitter, browse road fantasypros.com look at the news and see what's going on right before the game. And just following that, because the smallest move in the playoffs, I mean, you saw that in your matchup. Your opponent played Sanchez over Ryan and he played. More importantly, the one I'm talking about is Rashad Jennings. He played Rashad Jennings over Andre Williams. And the sentiment before the game was, okay, Jennings is going to play if he's really needed. Yeah, they were saying third down.

[Mike Wright]

Maybe it came out, I mean, 30 minutes before game time that Jennings was going to start in passing down situations and then they'll work him in more if he's feeling okay. But the. And then game flow, I mean, the Giants went up big and at that point I knew because he, my opponent, left Jennings in. Oh, this is fantastic. Because they're not gonna play him now. So. Yeah, take that. Like Andy is saying, if you get some, some experts. You like the news, the news is available for the people who want to be serious about it. Reggie Wayne. Oh, which. So Rashad Jennings has an ankle injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Reggie Wayne's beat up.

[Mike Wright]

Reggie Wayne has a torn tricep.

[Andy Holloway]

Apparently he's not been productive.

[Mike Wright]

And if he's playing with a torn tricep, I mean, that's ridiculous. I don't, I don't know how you're doing or why you're even doing it. So that could be. Keep an eye on that. If you have Dante Moncrief or if Moncrief's on your waiver wire, I'm pretty sure he's going to come up a little bit later. Colt McCoy. The Colt McCoy, he has a neck injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Starting quarterback Colt McCoy.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, my goodness. Jay Gruden is a clown coach. My goodness.

[Andy Holloway]

He's gonna be gone.

[Mike Wright]

He signed a five year deal.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he'll be gone. I don't think Dan Snyder cares. Oh, that's NFL talk. I suppose.

[Mike Wright]

But the Dan Snyder or I mean Jay Gruden or RG3 will be gone.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, speaking of the. If people hadn't heard this, the ultimate trolling by Jeff Fisher. This was amazing.

[Andy Holloway]

Outstanding.

[Mike Wright]

If you hadn't heard about this, just in case Jeff Fisher. They were playing the. The Rams were taking on Washington. Jeff Fisher brought out all the players that he was able to draft with because of the RG3 trade to the coin toss.

[Andy Holloway]

All six were honorary captains just to be ultimate troll. Ridiculous.

[Mike Wright]

And I think that is amazing and fantastic. I support all trolling when it comes to fantasy football and real life football.

[Andy Holloway]

Brandon Marshall, he had a major injury.

[Mike Wright]

Oof. Yeah, he did.

[Andy Holloway]

He's on ir so he's not playing again the rest of the year. And we just hope him the best because he ended up spending, I think, a night in the hospital.

[Mike Wright]

He had fractured ribs and a deflated lung.

[Andy Holloway]

And then my two boys. I'll let you fill in the gaps here, but my two guys, Julio Jones and Eddie Lacy, both went out with hip injuries both at the end of the game. And from what we're hearing right now, I think we know a little bit more about Lacy's injury because it's just a hip bruise.

[Mike Wright]

That's what I've heard. Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And so we'll see how he practices. He might get some time off this week. It might. You know, hopefully you have James Starks in case something comes up.

[Mike Wright]

We've talked about handcuffing at length all year and really specifically the last few weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

If you have not seen it play out right now, you are a fool.

[Mike Wright]

The Julio Jones hip injury, I think is the more concerning injury. I mean, knowing just the situation of the flow of the game, that the Falcons were mounting a comeback and they really needed Jones and he couldn't get out there. That's. That's how bad he was hurting in just a Martellus Bennett. He. Nothing's really. People aren't talking about it, but I'm just recalling from the game he was beat up. I mean that he was hobbled.

[Andy Holloway]

He should be a target monster now. Right.

[Mike Wright]

You would think. Well, he was in that last game despite his ankle injury. So that's just something to monitor. I bet he gets some rest this week.

[Andy Holloway]

And the last, the last injury we'll mention.

[Mike Wright]

Breaking news.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Before we get into our stud muffin and section is that Cam Newton got into a car wreck this morning. You probably saw it all over Twitter, all over the news. Kind of a scary situation where pictures of the wreck were coming out before.

[Mike Wright]

Not good. His truck was wrecked.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean it was the reporting.

[Mike Wright]

Crushed in.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Four rolls on the freeway.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So serious car accident. Although the reports are coming out that Newton will not have any long term injuries from the accident. And then the news that just came out is that he has a transverse fracture.

[Mike Wright]

Did I write that right? Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Similar to what Romo had during the. Or. Romo missed about a game for it.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

So you'll have to wonder what Caroline is going to do. I, I would have to bet right now if I'm giving you advice, he's not playing.

[Mike Wright]

He's not playing this week.

[Andy Holloway]

So that has impact. Obviously, you know, he was our start of the week last week. He had a monster week. And Carolina plays the Buccaneers, which looked like a really good matchup for him. So if you had Newton going in your playoffs, you're going to have to find somebody else.

[Mike Wright]

You are it.

[Andy Holloway]

And, and I wouldn't recommend Derek Anderson as that choice.

[Mike Wright]

I don't. It's. I hadn't even thought about it. So just. No, think about the first game. Who did they play Week one, because I do not recall, but Derek Anderson filled in for Newton week one and he had a great week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you're not getting my support on Derek.

[Mike Wright]

I'm just. I'm just mentioning that we are both venomously with. With the king cobra venom opposed to Derek Anderson after what he did to our beloved Cardinals. But that's just something to monitor. And I'm an Olsen, I'm an Olson owner, so I have stake in this and I'm.

[Andy Holloway]

Kelvin and Olson both could be impacted by this.

[Mike Wright]

And I'm going just off of week one that Olson had a pretty good game with. With Derek Anderson. So I'm not freaking out. Not yet, at least. I'm gonna. Let's move on. I'm gonna. I'm gonna look up who they played. So just so we can know this week's fantasy stud muffins. So.

[Andy Holloway]

So for this, we're looking at some guys that. That stood out. Do they have relevance for the fantasy playoffs? So probably go through this pretty quick. The two big running backs that obviously could be game changers for you in your first round matchups or Tampa Bay. They played Tampa Bay. Yeah. Well, Tampa's defense is not good. But Andre Williams and Jonathan Stewart. Andre went 24 for 131 in a touchdown, obviously in the absence of Rashad Jennings.

[Mike Wright]

So you're talking about Jonathan Stewart.

[Andy Holloway]

My start of the week, Jonathan Stewart went 24, 155 and one kaboom. Well done. And he'll probably gonna have another. He could have a really good week this week as well, if D will. I think with Cam Newton out, you're gonna see more of a dependency on the run game too.

[Mike Wright]

And Ron Rivera is. He's doing his ridiculous coach garbage where the. I'm not going to name a starting running back.

[Andy Holloway]

That's fine.

[Mike Wright]

Just.

[Andy Holloway]

That's fine. Just play John Stewart.

[Mike Wright]

Just stop it.

[Andy Holloway]

And then Vincent Jackson.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he returned. He had a. He had a really good game. He didn't catch a touchdown, but I think he had like a buck fifty and he takes on Carolina next week.

[Andy Holloway]

And then we had a couple tight ends really stand out. Jared Cook and Michael Rivera. Michael Rivera. I watched a decent amount of that game and he just. He's the go to. I mean, if you had to have a wide receiver in Oakland, it's Michael Rivera.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

So I think for moving forward with the landscape at tight end, this is the second game. I think the second game in a Row that Jared Cook scored a touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's.

[Andy Holloway]

So he's connecting with Sean Hill a little bit more than maybe Austin Davis and before that. So he's a. He's a flyer that you can, you can take. So any thoughts on these guys?

[Mike Wright]

We'll probably talk about Jared Cook a little bit later because I have some things to say. And Michael Rivera, he's. He's still on my stream list. If you're one of those guys, which I mean, is almost everyone in fantasy football, if you don't have Gronk, Jimmy Graham, Greg Olson, Martellus Bennett, you're streaming.

[Andy Holloway]

You should be Julius Thomas. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, yeah, I forgot who.

[Andy Holloway]

So let's talk about kind of more headline news of what impacted people this week.

[Mike Wright]

Pooped in his big boy pants.

[Andy Holloway]

Diarrhea.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, there was.

[Andy Holloway]

Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. You know, Drew at least had a halfway decent game, but Peyton Manning, oh, man, you know what he did? He turned to all the fantasy football players and he put his middle fingers up and he held him to the sky and he said farewell. Because if you started Peyton Manning, you probably lost, which is not how it was written up. Peyton Manning won me a fantasy championship last year, man. In our league. He scored four points and Drew Brees, he got a garbage time touchdown, but he put up a 17 spot and connected with Breeze was Graham. Terrible performance. But Peyton is the headliner here because, hey, if you won last week with Peyton Manning, you should write us. Write the show.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And the. It's just both sides of it. I don't have. I don't have any Manning stock because I'm not going to draft a QB that high. And I also was. I didn't have to go up against Manning. I didn't have that stress all week. But just imagine being one of those players who you're always.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. They think they're dead.

[Mike Wright]

You're like, I have to play against Peyton Manning. He's going to drop 50 on me.

[Andy Holloway]

Is there a starting quarterback who played the entire game? He scored less than Peyton Manning this week. Yeah, because I saw. I saw RG3 had like a point, but he came in at the end of the game. So I think, I mean, this week I can't. Drew Stanton. Drew Stanton's a better option than he threw a touchdown. Yeah. So Peyton's 51 game touchdown streak is over and they just plain didn't need to throw the ball. I think demarius Thomas was hurting. That probably also no Julius Thomas in the game.

[Mike Wright]

He was Julius Thomas. Probably killed some people too where he was active and then didn't even play.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah. That's like the worst. Denver with no consideration for the fantasy player this week.

[Mike Wright]

That is so rude.

[Andy Holloway]

Shady McCoy.

[Mike Wright]

It was Seattle.

[Andy Holloway]

I expected this. Yeah. So it was still disappointing because he's had some good weeks.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he does. He has Dallas coming up, so would look for him to bounce back. The Butler, Alfred Morris had a craptacular game. Good news though. He is taking on Chicago. Who can't stop an old lady.

[Andy Holloway]

No, that's from crossing the street.

[Mike Wright]

And if Colt McCoy is the starting quarterback for the. For Washington if Robert Griffin gets back in there, Alfred performs. There is a very large noticeable advantage when Griffin's at quarterback. I think Alf's yard per carry is over a yard higher in games where Griffin.

[Andy Holloway]

Is it the run option?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You just.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean I think that must be what it is accounting for RG3 formations.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's. And it's not even just the option as in a read option play. It's just the fact that you. You can't barrel in on. On running plays. You can't just straight up go for the running back.

[Andy Holloway]

So tentative. Yeah. Play tentative.

[Mike Wright]

It just changes your mindset, your. Your stance. It's how I imagine it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I've noticed that. So.

[Mike Wright]

And the numbers back it up very big time. Like I said, a yard per carry, which is a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

And I guess the last guy to mention would be Jimmy Graham because he's had two bad weeks in a row.

[Mike Wright]

Goodness. They. I'm hearing people talk like would you bench Jimmy Graham?

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

I think that's insane to even.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you bench. Would you bench Peyton Manning?

[Mike Wright]

No. Yeah, I'm still not.

[Andy Holloway]

Same. Same story. Your upside so high. What are you going to do? Roll Kyle Rudolph out and let him give you one catch? I mean, unless you're sitting. Unless you're sitting with two tight end. I mean Gronk. Gronk and Jimmy Graham or Julius and Jimmy Graham. I mean nobody else is out there.

[Mike Wright]

If you have those two guys, you're not in the. I guess maybe you're in.

[Andy Holloway]

The key point to point out too is he was in on 77% of snaps. He was targeted heavily. He just. The Saints offense. I mean Sean Payton said at halftime is the worst game they have ever played.

[Mike Wright]

And there was people the Twitter sphere is abuzz with. Apparently 10 players on the Saints were all called in individually into the office of coach.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't know that.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I can only imagine what was said.

[Andy Holloway]

And it was Was one of them Rob Ryan because they could use the defense.

[Mike Wright]

And Morgan. Joseph Morgan was cut. If you didn't hear about that.

[Andy Holloway]

The wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow.

[Mike Wright]

Which he's. He's been in the doghouse all year.

[Andy Holloway]

But I guess just got rid of him.

[Mike Wright]

Something happened on a third down where he made an incorrect read. And so Peyton was just said, wow, enough. Enough of you.

[Andy Holloway]

And they play Monday night against Chicago, so that should cure some ales. Assuming it's not. The weather's not brutal out there and.

[Mike Wright]

They'Re five and eight. If I told you the Saints were five and eight and I would say.

[Andy Holloway]

Let'S look on to next year in a normal season.

[Mike Wright]

But they're tied for first place in.

[Andy Holloway]

The division and a 9 and 4 team is going to miss right now. So that's another story. But, yeah, pretty crazy that the Saints are sitting there on the precipice of. And now with Cam Newton out. And who knows, they'll play Atlanta again, don't they.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

One more time. That'll probably be for the division beliefs.

[Mike Wright]

I think the Saints, I think their division out.

[Andy Holloway]

I think it's week 16.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. After bears, then it's.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think. I think it's Atlanta.

[Mike Wright]

So let's talk about some waiver wires.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's do it.

[Mike Wright]

Let me in, coach. Wow. I was just gonna let that fade out.

[Andy Holloway]

I can't believe it. So I'll give the intro and you can talk about a couple of these guys. But for our waiver wire section, what we do is we always grab the consensus rankings on fantasypros.com Absolutely. It's a nice.

[Mike Wright]

I'm in the top four writers right now.

[Andy Holloway]

You're in the top four because they.

[Mike Wright]

They do. It's just a quantity.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Well, every week. But don't disclaim it. Just say you're in the top four and be okay.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I mean, I'm four writer. I'm in the top four course.

[Andy Holloway]

So for fantasypros.com what's nice is they grab consensus rankings of the waiver wire across a bunch of sites and experts and it gives us the opportunity to kind of look at who I guess the majority of experts believe are good signings this week. And then we can give our feedback and you can. You can just kind of absorb it and apply it to your waiver wires, which for most people go through tomorrow morning. So I'm surprised to see Jonathan Stewart at the top of this list.

[Mike Wright]

I find it laughable because I would have rostered him and started him last Week.

[Andy Holloway]

Because he was your start of the we. Yeah, everyone will be like about a week behind catching up on.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, that's what happens when you're dealing with. I wish I had a collar right now.

[Andy Holloway]

The fantasy hitman.

[Mike Wright]

I would pop it up and I would shoot my imaginary guns.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, yeah, Jonathan Stewart, home run hitter. Shouldn't be on the waiver wire, but he was, and so he's on the list. Charles Johnson's a really interesting guy because him and Teddy Bridgewater are just on the same page.

[Mike Wright]

Something's going on with those guys. There's a good connection.

[Andy Holloway]

I think they're going to Denny's after every game and they're just having a grand slam.

[Mike Wright]

And his Corduroy Patterson just peeking through the window with tears streaming down his face.

[Andy Holloway]

No, he's too busy fumbling on kickoffs.

[Mike Wright]

I was a first round pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Too busy fumbling on kickoff returns.

[Mike Wright]

People say I'm a freak athlete. Oh, I like it when we get.

[Andy Holloway]

Into this mode where we're just ripping a certain guy. Like it was Matt Stafford and. And Jay Cuddy.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Jake. Smokin Jake.

[Andy Holloway]

Now corduroy Patterson, you know, after that first week. Oh, he's the next big thing.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Patterson.

[Andy Holloway]

How many next big things have you seen? You know the difference between a fantasy football superstar and a fantasy football. What would you call that? Pariah. Horrible person on your team is called consistency.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Desean Jackson can stay as far from my team as possible.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm. I generally don't like those extreme boom bus.

[Andy Holloway]

Unless they're in your flex or something, you know. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So another. Another Falcon.

[Mike Wright]

Sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

Another Viking. Yeah. Matt Aziata. Any thoughts about him?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, the. The.

[Andy Holloway]

I did see that. I don't supposed to get a few more carries.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's what I would go with. I don't. They're. Because they're done. Vikings are done. It's now. It's all next year. I have no idea why they're even giving Azziad all these carries. You put a waiver in for Ben Tate? Why? McKinnon's on IR. What are you doing? Why would you have even put rostered Ben Tate if you don't want to say, hey, maybe are we going to keep this guy?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

It's a ridiculous thing to put someone on your team and then not even use it. Why are you paying him?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

That's just terrible. Managing Malcolm Floyd. Who's a Malcolm Floyd is an unsung hero of the fantasy season.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I noticed that. I was looking at some wide receiver waivers today. I'm like, well, he's just kind of been pretty good.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's. There's nothing sexy about it, but he's a. I believe he's a. Like a low level two. Or is he right at the top of threes?

[Andy Holloway]

He gets targeted and I think he's probably at the top of threes, but he gets targeted a lot in the red zone. He's obviously a big body and he, you know, it didn't hurt that last week you could not throw the ball to Keenan Aaron.

[Mike Wright]

Other guys on this list I like. I kind of like Stedman Bailey.

[Andy Holloway]

I was going to say, who's your top three off of this list?

[Mike Wright]

Off this. Well, J. Stu, of course. But I'll just leave him off for me.

[Andy Holloway]

A couple guys down the list. I'll jump in real quick and let you look at it. So a couple guys that I think are upside. Guys that aren't being mentioned a lot are Nate Washington in Tennessee.

[Mike Wright]

Nasty Nate.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know the stat. Do you know the status of Kendall?

[Mike Wright]

Right. Right now, I believe he's still injured or he's. I mean, I know he's still injured there. I, I believe he's gonna play this upcoming week, but I mean, he'll play.

[Andy Holloway]

With Nate Washington, though, so.

[Mike Wright]

But you can't. He, you can't guarantee he's gonna make it through the game.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. And so I kind of like Nate Washington as a flyer, you know, because you. What you're looking for now, to me is a flyer that has upside. And I don't want to. As much as Malcolm Floyd has been good, I don't see, you know, he's been in the same role all year long. Somebody like Kerwin Williams, the running back for Arizona, you haven't seen. You don't know what's coming. Nate Washington is kind of that way, too. Marcus Lee, he might have. Or Marquis Lee, he might have a role that we haven't seen before. And so for me, I don't want to just roll a guy out there that doesn't have upside, you know, Moncrief. Dante Moncrief.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I was going to say he's my.

[Andy Holloway]

Start of the week. By the way, you.

[Mike Wright]

You asked which guys I like. I love Moncrief. I love him so much that I even. Just because I don't think people realize this. So I pulled up Moncrief's combine numbers. So Moncrief, he's 6, 2, 2, 21. The dude ran a 4. 4.

[Andy Holloway]

That's. That's not slow and that's probably why they threw it over the top to.

[Mike Wright]

Him with a 40 inch vertical. And his broad jump was 132 inches. Which if you aren't putting those things together. Broad jump is all about explosion. If you have a strong broad jump, that means your first step you're going to be very explosive. So six, two, four, four. I mean if you're talking about Reggie Wayne playing with a torn tricep, he's been ineffective.

[Andy Holloway]

Nix has been completely usurped.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Moncrief is not even relevant. He's not gone. But you know what I mean? Moncrief is out snapping him every week. If, if Moncrief gets in that second position with Ty Hilton and so Ty Hilton, Moncrief and Andrew Luck throwing the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Who has a better long ball than Andrew Luck nowadays?

[Mike Wright]

They are going to be ridiculous.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Very explosive. So yeah, he's a great guy on this list. You've already mentioned Cook. He's a guy that you can probably take a flyer on. I don't really see anybody other. Any other standout names.

[Mike Wright]

The only other name I would maybe talk about is Marquise Wilson. He's going to fill in for Brandon Marshall in Chicago. And that's only because the. If you think the, the defense might be skewed towards Jeffrey and Forte and Wilson's got. He's. He's a burner. Yeah. He can get downfield and Cudi.

[Andy Holloway]

So I think you got Bennett there. It's just too many mouths maybe.

[Mike Wright]

I just saying. Yeah. Cudi, it's only going to take one play and smokin Jay Cuddy, he does not care. He's gonna throw it.

[Andy Holloway]

Smokin J. Well, I agree because he's my start of the week as well. Let's get into that.

[Mike Wright]

Starts of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

So let's start right there. Let's start right there with Mr. Jay Cutler. You know, I like what I see out of that New Orleans defense if I'm the opposing offensive coordinator and so Jay Cutler is my start of the week. You were kind of giving me a hard time on this earlier.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Because you. I think you wanted somebody a little more left field. Cutler is at the back end of the wider of the QB1 area.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. He's. He's number nine in our league. I will.

[Andy Holloway]

I also think people might doubt him because of Brandon Marshall's situation.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And so I still think he's a good start.

[Mike Wright]

I'd say all I would I would think a lot of people, if you're rolling with Cuddy, you might have a backup. Like you might be playing matchups with two guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Maybe it's Cutler and Ryan or Cutler.

[Mike Wright]

So that.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

In that fact, I'll allow it because you want, you want the people to roll with.

[Andy Holloway]

Had not seen your start of the week until just.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, it's in all capital letters, my friend. Johnny Football, it's time.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh my goodness.

[Mike Wright]

It's time. It's out.

[Andy Holloway]

How's it gonna do?

[Mike Wright]

It's official.

[Andy Holloway]

Give me a stat line. Give me a stat line for Johnny Football.

[Mike Wright]

I don't have a stat line, but what I do have is in that tiny little, tiny, little teeny, teeny, tiny. Somebody's calling me. Get out of here with this phone call business. In the tiny little amount of relief he went in for Brian Hoyer, not this past week, but the week before, I believe he had nine fantasy points.

[Andy Holloway]

Those legs are going to make his basement really high.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Like Tim Tebow, remember a couple years ago, right in.

[Mike Wright]

Johnny Football is better than Tebow. I don't know why.

[Andy Holloway]

Tbd. Tbd. Both were Heisman winners. Tbd.

[Mike Wright]

Johnny Football can actually throw the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Tbd.

[Mike Wright]

That's not to be people. People doubted his strength. I actually, if I'm the Josh Gordon owner, I am so happy right now that you're gonna get a guy who.

[Andy Holloway]

Has been really bad. Really like one touchdown to eight interception bad.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And he doesn't have a touchdown in the last three games. Awful. I mean you.

[Andy Holloway]

So Johnny Football is your quarterback start of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Bazoom.

[Andy Holloway]

Well done. Why don't you. I got Chris Johnson at my running back start. He's facing Tennessee and Tennessee's a what you would define as a train wreck. They can't do anything right. They got completely obliterated this past week. They don't have an offense. So I think this is ball. I would not be surprised to see New York possessed the ball 70% of this game and they're going to keep it on the ground and they're going to take it back away from Jake Locker and it's just going to be. I think, I think there's just going to be so much work to go around for Ivory and Johnson and. And you know what? Chris Johnson's coming back to show something to Tennessee.

[Mike Wright]

He is. He is. You've got revenge game. Hashtag revenge game.

[Andy Holloway]

Speaking of which. Well, this isn't really, I guess it's.

[Mike Wright]

Not revenge, but it's hometown. He's coming Home another variable, Pierre Thomas, my running back start of the week because I'm trying to go a little bit deeper. He's coming home to Chicago. He historically has good games there and I think Sean Payton understands that, that Pierre gets an extra pep when he come he comes home to Chicago. He's going to have a lot of eyes on him. What's going on there? You're the belter today.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, don't drink a giant soda while you're doing a podcast. I'm having issues but.

[Mike Wright]

So if you're looking for a. A flex, low level RB2 going on. I would lean with Pierre Thomas and he play. He out snapped Mark Ingram last week which I think had to do with game flow because they were losing, being terrible, nothing but it. So I like Thomas a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I like that start. Like I said earlier, my wide receiver start is Dante Moncrief. Wayne has been struggling. Nick's has lost his spot and if you watch Knicks, he just looks really average. He's just nobody. And they're facing Houston in a divisional game. Moncrief was targeted I think four times.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it was not very, not a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

And he, he missed a couple balls. But he just has that boom potential. So if you're looking for that, you know I. A good example is I'd rather roll Moncrif out than Malcolm Floyd. Yeah, you know, I'd rather take a chance on a guy like that, so.

[Mike Wright]

Understandable.

[Andy Holloway]

Who's yours?

[Mike Wright]

I'm rolling with a we. You had a jet. I have a jet. I'm going with Eric Decker. Eric Decker is a guy who I've. Who I really liked. Not I was. That's a little bit overselling you. But I liked him going in the draft as a low level guy who may be able to produce. He has a. He has a bit of a connection with Geno smith. He went 6 for 89 last week. Percy Harvin is. I think he's going to be out. He's not going to play. And they're playing the Titans. Their Titans defense is just awful. Awful everywhere.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think we, I think we both actually picked a lot of guys from that game because my tight end start of the week is from the same game. It's actually Delaney Walker because there's no wide receivers left in Tennessee and Jake Locker has a rapport with him. The jets aren't very good against the tight end. So if there's a guy to catch the ball. Walker, you saw a couple weeks ago, he had 150 something yards. So he's my start of the week.

[Mike Wright]

I'm starting, regrettably so. Jared Cook. The aforementioned Jared Cook, he just kills Arizona. There's something about. I don't know. I don't know what it is, aside from Arizona's just not very good against the tight end that's resurfacing their inability to cover the tight end. And Jared Cook is getting it done lately with Sean Hill back in the starting lineup. And I think Cook. I would look for Cook to score this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that would be three straight weeks, I think so for me, again, I'm going back to the. Well, the jets defense against Tennessee, and this is just based on turnovers.

[Mike Wright]

You know, Jake Locker.

[Andy Holloway]

Jake Locker is going to turn the ball over to New York. And so I think the jets are a decent streamer. Hopefully you have a better solution, but I actually think it's probably top five this week.

[Mike Wright]

So originally here I was gonna say if you. If you picked up and played my Giants start of the week last week, I would hold on to them and play them. So that's my first bit of advice, but I didn't want to do that. Just repeat them there. So I'm going with. This is actually with some question mark. The Panthers, are they back?

[Andy Holloway]

They had a really strong week. I don't know if they're back. I guess that's up for you to decide.

[Mike Wright]

So I'm willing to take the chance if. If your. Your defense is barren, which it should be, you should already ready be prepared for week 15. Like we've talked about, people, you got to prepare. You got to put a little bit of time into this if you want to win. But the. I like Carolina. The. I had this in here before the Cam Newton news came out, but I'm still gonna roll with it because Tampa Bay stinks. I hear they're going. They might go back to Mike Glennon, but I. I still think the Panthers will get some sacks and some turnovers.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I. I agree. So let's. Let's get into everybody's favorite section.

[Mike Wright]

Ooh, the fantasy footballers versus the world. That's right.

[Andy Holloway]

Versus the world. Hopefully these important. We pick these out so that you can win your fantasy matchup. Some start and sits.

[Mike Wright]

So what I do is I jump on fantasypros.com and they have a start sit feature where you can. You enter your players in and they will tell you what percentage of experts that they have data from who they would start. You can go standard half ppr, full ppr. It's a fantastic Little tool. So we're just going to have a couple of them real quick and give our opinion on them.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me just say something to. Don't always listen to the expert. That was something that drove me insane this week on my, on my picks. And I'll admit, on one I went myself and on the other one I went against the. You know, I went with the experts and one, I went against them. But I was sitting there throwing down a couple tough decisions. One of them was with kickers. And ESPN's telling me that Adam Vanatieri is going to score four points in their projections. See, it's so easy if you have projections in these games. The they get in your head.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, they do.

[Andy Holloway]

And so I had to choose between Cody Parkey, who was at the time the number one kicker, or Adam Vinatieri. And the projection difference was 17 to 4. And I'm going. And I had to go against what everyone was saying and go Vinatieri. Now that ended up being the right move with that situation. But sometimes you have to go against these experts. We're going to give you these numbers so you know what the. What they're doing, what we're doing.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

But. But if you have a gut feeling, projections aren't worth anything in your score.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And I will say this, just as I say is a philosophy or strategy of fantasy football. When you're talking about experts. It's to me, I would rather put. If I have a conflicting decision where an expert's saying, this guy, and I feel strongly that it should be this guy gonna go with my gut and put my guy in because I would rather lose with that guy than lose going picking against myself just because somebody else told me to do it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And you know, I look at it like a weatherman. Right.

[Mike Wright]

What can you live with?

[Andy Holloway]

A weatherman's gonna tell you that it's not gonna rain. But if you look outside and you see clouds, you know, you better go, you better follow your instincts. You better bring the umbrella out. And so play who your gut tells you to play. Unless you have a stupid gut. And then listen to us. Okay, Mark Ingram or Alfred Morris, who would you start this week? Both had kind of poor weeks. They did for different reasons.

[Mike Wright]

That's why I picked them. They both had poor weeks, but they both have fantastic matchups. Ingram's taking on the Bears and Alfred is taking on the Giants. I believe those might be the worst two run defenses in fantasy. I'm going to go with Alfred Morris based solely off of. If Griffin is In. Because I think if Griffin is in, there is a possibility that Jay Gruden punishes him for playing, so to speak, if you know what I mean.

[Andy Holloway]

Kind of like doesn't lean on him too much.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Well, like what happened? Gino.

[Andy Holloway]

Gino.

[Mike Wright]

Where? Okay, Griffin, fine, you get to play. But you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna give the ball to Alfred Morris.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

So that I'm funny because these are 20 plus touches.

[Andy Holloway]

These are the two running backs I'm going up against in my semifinal matchup.

[Mike Wright]

I did not even realize.

[Andy Holloway]

Funny for me. I agree with you. I'd go with Alfred Morris. I think what you've. I mean, you brought up Pierre Thomas as a start of the week. Kyrie Robinson was active last week. He didn't get any, but he was active and he's healthier. So you're probably gonna see a little mix. And we'd be in the minority because Mark Ingram is the 71% favorite according to the experts on fantasyprose.com and something.

[Mike Wright]

I like to do is I find experts who I really like and then they can kind of tip me. So the like my man Mike Clay, he's on the Alfred Morris side.

[Andy Holloway]

Shout out.

[Mike Wright]

Unfortunately, another guy I really like, Scott Pienowski, he's on the Mark Ingram side.

[Andy Holloway]

So that it's as though we don't really know who's going to be better.

[Mike Wright]

But. So if I was looking at this, this would lead to a week long diarrhea session where I would lose sleep much like I had last week of Jeremy Hill versus.

[Andy Holloway]

And you have this week kind of sort of.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I gotta do it again.

[Andy Holloway]

Chris Johnson or Vincent Jackson? I have to go with Chris Johnson. He's my start of the week.

[Mike Wright]

That is fair. I went with both of these guys because they both had a bit of a resurgence. I would stutter much because I'm trying to formulate. I will go with Vincent Jackson based on the assumption that Mike Glennon is playing.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

If Mike Glennon plays, I'm going to put V jacks out there.

[Andy Holloway]

So what is the fantasy pros?

[Mike Wright]

Even though they're playing the Panthers, what's the result? I like them. We're pulling it up right now. 65% in standard. Go with Chris Johnson.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. So I bet real close.

[Mike Wright]

I bet if you bump this up to PPR it changes 100%.

[Andy Holloway]

I bet you're right. So, yeah, not a lot of balls being caught by CJ this year. Odell Beckham or DEZ Bryant. This is a Great question. Odell Beckham is playing the Redskins. DEZ Bryant's facing the Eagles. They're both divisional matchups.

[Mike Wright]

And I like this one because it's, it brings up the another philosophy question of would you, Are you gonna play your stud or are you gonna play the guy you grabbed off waivers who was in fuego?

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. This is pretty brutal. I, I'm looking, I'm staring this down, and I can tell you exactly the situation. I think Odell Beckham is a better play, and I think it would be impossible for me not to play DEZ Bryant.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I completely agree with that.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I, I, I think Odell Beckham has looked outstanding. You do have the, I think you just have the longevity variable of who's done it longer. But are you, are you kind of in the same bowl? Who would you start? Man, you have Des in one of your teams. Put out Odell on his team. Who do you start?

[Mike Wright]

That is, that's ridiculously hard. I, I think DEZ is also, he's running into the dew. He hasn't scored in a couple games. I watched the.

[Andy Holloway]

Philadelphia's defense is much better than Washington's.

[Mike Wright]

It is. And based off that, I actually might go with odb. But just a quick note on Des Bryant. If you watched the, the Thursday game with the Bears, that guy was getting ferociously pissed off at the game plan when they started to turtle.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he was.

[Mike Wright]

He's like, throw me the ball. And then the turtling almost cost Dallas the game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So maybe a little payback here.

[Mike Wright]

So maybe the coach.

[Andy Holloway]

I think, I think they're both going to be great. I think they're both going to be great this week, believe it or not. Which is amazing because, and this brings me actually, I'll bring up my point in between these next sections, but ODELL Beckham is 57% projected to win. So, I mean, he has, I saw.

[Mike Wright]

The number since he started, which I think was week five, five or six. Whenever he, it was later than that. Whenever he blast. Was it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it was.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, when he's got hurt in week.

[Mike Wright]

Whenever Beckham's first game was right. Which, I don't know, week six or seven, he's been, he's the number five wide receiver, which is crazy when you're talking about a rookie and Eli Manning throwing him the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

I was trying to figure out what week. Yeah. Cruz got hurt in game six. So week seven, you're right, it was pretty close to that. What I was going to say later is just a quick maybe this is a quick point to 2015, but the rookie class of wide receivers this year, my goodness. Has been arguably the best ever. Ever. The amount of guys. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna read them real quick. Here's the rookie wide receivers. Mike Evans, fantasy impact. Sammy Watkins had an impact. Kelvin Benjamin, top 12, 15 guys maybe drop down.

[Mike Wright]

Evans is in the top 12, I believe.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Brandon Cooks obviously got hurt, but he was an integral part of the offense. Odell Beckham Jr. We just talked about him. Jarvis Landry, it's coming on strong. Coming on strong. Martavis Bryant just caught a 94 yard bomb and has had three or four big games. Devonte Adams, you can see his potential in Green Bay despite being, I think, I mean, he wasn't really involved until about three or four games into the year. Dante Moncrief, my start of the week is another rookie. Jordan Matthews in Philadelphia. And then you also have John Brown in Arizona. And on top of those you've got guys like Allen Robinson, Alan Hearns and Taylor Gabriel in Cleveland.

[Mike Wright]

So the class is through the roof.

[Andy Holloway]

And these guys look like they are cornerstones. A lot of these look like cornerstones to the team. I mean, it's just going to be interesting because we always said like the traditional fantasy football forecast for a rookie wide receiver is maybe a top tier first round guy like AJ Green or Julio Jones who's put in that starting role immediately. They have an impact. But you're seeing, I mean, I just named 12 guys.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Or more so I wonder how popular the. The in vogue 0r or 0rb? No, no, no, no, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, from a zero wide, I guess.

[Mike Wright]

0Rb was kind of like the, the trendy way. But I heard a couple people going zero wide receiver and that's in terms of trash. That might not be a bad strategy next year because.

[Andy Holloway]

Because there'll be guys. You're saying.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, there's wide receivers aplenty.

[Andy Holloway]

Because you might be sitting in week two of your playoffs and starting a rookie instead of DEZ Bryant. Is that why?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's insane.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's pretty, pretty crazy. So. All right, let's hit the mailbag.

[Mike Wright]

Mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, this is our last section of the show, but we get to answer your questions that you email us at the fantasy footballers gmail.com as always, A.

[Mike Wright]

A good, interesting, funny reference or whatever.

[Andy Holloway]

Punny.

[Mike Wright]

Punny.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, punny, funny.

[Mike Wright]

Your name. If I like it, you can move to the top of the list.

[Andy Holloway]

Say, I didn't think. I just looked at the second email I didn't think it said Too Many Cooks.

[Mike Wright]

This is a family show.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, seriously.

[Mike Wright]

So I guess go with that one. We'll start with that one because yours. Too Many Cooks. Let's get the cooks out of the tight end. Which. Did you. Are you familiar with Too Many Cooks? Did you?

[Andy Holloway]

Probably not. If it's some pop culture reference that I'm supposed to understand, that's not related to the band Creed.

[Mike Wright]

Sure. You need to take 15 minutes of your life and watch Too Many Cooks.

[Andy Holloway]

What is it?

[Mike Wright]

It's. I'm not going to ruin anything for you, but it is fabulous. You need to watch Too Many Cooks.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Put it on.

[Mike Wright]

So, tight end, start.

[Andy Holloway]

Too busy winning fantasy championships.

[Mike Wright]

Scott Chandler, who takes on the packers, or Jared Cook, who's taken on Arizona. I'm going Jared Cook. And that's easy to say.

[Andy Holloway]

Done deal.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Next question from Soda Popinsky. Oh, you like that one?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I saw the next one.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, so, yeah, the next one. You're. You're. I don't know how that. I should have led with that one, but Soda Popinsky.

[Andy Holloway]

What does he want to know?

[Mike Wright]

He has.

[Andy Holloway]

Whoever it is.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. This person has a QB start question, and do you go with Eli Manning against Washington or Big Ben against the Falcons?

[Andy Holloway]

I think the prevailing thought here would be Big Ben.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yes.

[Andy Holloway]

But it's not for me. Oh, I'm gonna take Eli. And I'm gonna take Eli because of the. I just think Le'Veon Bell's gonna blow up the Falcons, and that is very valid. And so. And I like Odell Beckham this week. So for some reason, I just. You know, the Falcons haven't given up. I think Washington. I think Washington's given up.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

So they both have bad defenses, but the Falcons are trying. So I'm gonna go with Eli.

[Mike Wright]

I'm gonna take Big Ben. I really like him this week.

[Andy Holloway]

I feel like I should steal your thunder and read.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you want to read it?

[Andy Holloway]

All right. This next one comes in from Kaka. That is not a name. It is a sound.

[Mike Wright]

It's an onomatopoeia.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. That is a.

[Mike Wright]

For the English majors.

[Andy Holloway]

We laugh because we've. We've alluded to Isaiah Crowell in other. Another podcast. So this must come in from somebody familiar with those. The defense. Who would you start? Which defense? The Cardinals versus the Rams, and that's in St. Louis or the Vikings against Detroit. This is. This, to me, is a little bit of what do you need?

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Arizona is safer to me.

[Mike Wright]

Really?

[Andy Holloway]

Over the Vikings. Yeah. Because Detroit's offense, they've scored 37 points. So I don't mess around with Calvin Johnson and I don't mess around with Matt Stafford. I mess around with guys like Sean Hill and you don't.

[Mike Wright]

Superman's cape.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Go spit in the wind.

[Andy Holloway]

Go get beat by Sean Hill in your playoffs.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's Stafford gonna be the homer and say Arizona's. Arizona has a great defense and Sean Hill is going to get picked off at least twice.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So There you go, Mr. Kaka.

[Mike Wright]

All right, our next question is from the. The B girl from the no Rain video. Blind Melon.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I saw you post that on Facebook.

[Mike Wright]

Well, after the, after the question came in, I was. I gotta listen to this song.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't watch it.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you should.

[Andy Holloway]

It's just. That's part of my problem. People post stuff and I don't watch it.

[Mike Wright]

It is a classic. No Rain. Oh, man, that's. That's in my top songs. I love that song.

[Andy Holloway]

Running back start. Jeremy Hill versus the Browns or Rashad Jennings versus Washington.

[Mike Wright]

Disappointment versus injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I go. Rashad Jennings. I actually think he'll be fine. Obviously watch the practice reports, but if you don't see anything crazy. I think what. I think he'll be playing most of that game.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. If. As long as the reports are coming in cleaner or better for Jennings, then that's who I'm going to roll with. But Jeremy Hill, I don't. Jeremy Hill against the Browns is a fine play this week. You can. You could have much worse.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So this next one comes in from Matthew Berry, which is.

[Mike Wright]

That is.

[Andy Holloway]

We appreciate that.

[Mike Wright]

That is an honor.

[Andy Holloway]

It is. He's got a book.

[Mike Wright]

He's got talented. Mr. Roto would come seeking advice from the fantasy footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

And a quarterback question, no less. Matt Stafford against the Vikings or Russell Wilson against the 49ers. Now that game is in Seattle. I do not remember where the Vikings Lions game is.

[Mike Wright]

I think it's in Detroit.

[Andy Holloway]

I can take a peek. It is in Detroit. So Russell Wilson.

[Mike Wright]

I am going to take Russell Wilson as well. It is unanimous.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow, look at that.

[Mike Wright]

So move him up your rankings.

[Andy Holloway]

I think ever since we both won our semi final matchups, we've been on the same page, so. All right, well, thanks for those mailbag questions. Hopefully. Hopefully you're still playing and you know, if you're not, hopefully you better listen next year.

[Mike Wright]

Listen to us from the beginning.

[Andy Holloway]

Also send in anything you want to hear on the show. We love listening to you guys and we love bringing you the latest in fantasy news, notes, information, and tips. And, you know, we're not always right, but most of the time we are, so.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Is that it? Is that it? Are we done?

[Mike Wright]

I have nothing left on the dock.

[Andy Holloway]

Go, Cardinals.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yes. Go Cardinals, please.

[Andy Holloway]

The precipice of a playoff birth. One and done, maybe.

[Mike Wright]

Can you imagine the sadness we would feel if we end up 10, six and we watch the Atlanta Falcons go.

[Andy Holloway]

Eight and eight and we don't make the playoffs?

[Mike Wright]

Another 10, six. Not making the playoffs.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that'll be.

[Mike Wright]

That's sold.

[Andy Holloway]

Icing on the cake, so. All right, well, good luck, everybody. We'll catch you next week.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. See ya. Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.