Crucial Start/Sit Decisions + Hungry For More, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/20
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Footballers, terms and conditions apply. You need to hire. You need it indeed. Hey, this is Jonathan Taylor running back for the Indianapolis Colts, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in.

The fantasy footballers, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway with you this morning. Jay Grizz holding down Mike's seat. Does Jay Grizz live in Disneyland and then swap places when one of us goes? That's assuming you're saying every time we're missing, it's Disneyland. Yeah. Yeah. Which is true for Mike. That's really the Mike's got a couple of days off here with the family in Disney.

So the bear extraordinaire had to take it. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. You know, when it first came, it was shocking. The second time that it came, I was like, oh, okay, that's funny. People like it. And now it's like, that's too long. Well, J. Chris was known for being silent.

That was kind of his thing. Right. And so this is a big adjustment for us that he's so vocal with music. Yeah. And the fact that he can somehow push his own button and you don't even get to participate in that. No, I've got no control. Welcome in one and all hungry for more NFL news. Thursday night preview mailbag. Have a waiver. A quick question on today's show. We are excited to be with you. Excited to help you get ready for the upcoming week.

Really, the final three before your fantasy playoffs. It's the nitty-gritty of the fantasy football season. There is time to make a move to make the playoffs if you're right on the cusp. There is time to prepare for the playoffs if you feel like you're established and you're ready to rumble.

And we're here to help you out. That's what this show has always been about, just equipping you with all the information and you apply that to your league context and try to win a championship. Yeah, I like calling it the nitty-gritty time because it's different for everybody. Some people are going to coast into the playoffs from here and they need to prepare for those matchups. Some people have to scratch and claw their way. Some people have to look at opponents and plan some –

3D chess. 4D chess. 3D chess and normal chess.

Well, you're right about that, aren't you? Yeah. I guess if I'm playing chess, that's just in 3D. I mean, 2D, you could be on a computer. Right. But normal chess is 3D. That's just chess. Just play some chess. Just regular old chess. Why don't we just call it 3D chess? That's way cooler. Yeah, no, you could. Well, next time I play chess, I'm playing 3D chess. I don't think you play any of the... I play 2D checkers, okay, my man? That's my game of choice.

I was thinking this morning, just in terms, we did the playoff primer episode. We came out with that article, talked about good defenses to pick up, good matchups. There is one little piece of nuance, I think, that doesn't get mentioned that is important, which is just you may be positioned now. You may have acted on that information and got yourself set up, but you still need to stay water because we saw the Denver defense, for instance, when they lost Patrick Sertan to a concussion,

They weren't the same defense for about two and a half weeks. And so when you think about what makes a defense great, what makes their matchups great, those things still have the opportunity to change injuries on the defensive side. Or, you know, an example might be maybe Anthony Richardson gets it going for a few weeks and that Indianapolis matchup, it doesn't look so good anymore or something like that. Or conversely,

The Packers lose Jordan Love again, and they're starting a backup, and then they look like a better matchup. So you position, but you stay paying attention. Yeah, and we're grinding over here. 5-D chess. We're grinding, and we're going to make sure, if you're listening to the show the rest of the way, we're going to make sure you're set up with as much information

Information overload so you can hopefully win the championship. And make sure you click that subscribe button, that follow button on Spotify, on Apple. Leave us a five-star review if you want to help the show. It's an easy 10-second way to help out the podcast, help people find us. And you can watch the show on YouTube.

YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Subscribe. Click the bell over there. And that's where you'll tune in to Sunday Live, which Jason is handling this week. Yes, sir. I'm very, very excited about that. I think this is an important week, and I'm going to try to get, I'm going to say 70% of things right.

That's not bad. No. And there's a lot of spot starts in like players that are going to be finding their way into your lineup this week. I'm sure our start set tool on the website will be riddled with players that don't normally make the list. But this week with the bye weeks, they do. And you can download the free mobile app, the fantasy footballers on iOS and Android as well. And find our rankings each week. Always adjusted, always being tweaked. And you can check that out.

On the App Store, quick question of the day, Mr. Moore. When preparing for the playoffs, what is the right balance between dropping players you won't need versus not dropping them so your opponents don't have them? How many D on the chess are we playing here? Because there are levels here.

Where you can get crazy. I really do. I've done it both ways. I've won a championship being casual and just playing, just make my roster the best I can without concerning without concerning myself with the opponents. This is not something you have to do, but there are, there are times and situations where to, to take it to the next level,

A matter of who I'm going to drop, I'm not looking at the player and saying, this player is good, I don't want someone to have him. But I am going to look at my opponents specifically and say, this is a good quarterback, and my opponent needs a quarterback. Right now, I look at my opponent's playoff schedule and I go, yes, they are not going to like the quarterback they have right now, and I'm not going to drop Baker to the waivers because his...

I don't need him, but his playoff schedule is great. Now, if his playoff schedule is great and my opponent that I expect to play, again, how deep do you want to go? Because you can really look at the matchups the rest of the way. Start planting out seeds. I mean, nothing ever works out exactly how we anticipate, but you can look and say, okay, I think I'm going to be playing this guy in round two. And he's got Lamar, so I don't care about losing Baker.

Makes sense. I don't think I told you. So I traded for Lamar Jackson right at the trade deadline. So I had Kyler Murray, and I put him on the block to move him. And I made a choice because I got several offers right away. I could have had a better pick. I made the choice to keep away from an opponent. It was a division mate fighting for the playoffs. It was like, I might see this person down the line. They desperately need a quarterback.

I took one round worse to send him to a team that's out of the playoffs because I felt like Kyler with the schedule, like I wasn't going to need him. I needed to capture a pick back. I traded a lot for Lamar. So that was one of the first times that I made a very conscious choice to take a little less. Mm-hmm.

But I didn't want to be caught in the playoffs losing to the player that I'm trading for a six-round pick. Yeah, no, that feels bad. That's shades of Joyke Bell. Yeah, you did that. Years ago, and some of you, if you've been around long enough, you heard the story even when it happened. But I had...

a player you might remember, Joyke Bell, who I had been saving forever for the playoffs. His playoff schedule was great, but I needed a roster spot like two weeks beforehand. I thought I could sneak him to waivers. Oh, man. I snuck him to waivers. Oh, man. Andy picks him up immediately. Two weeks later, we're in the playoffs playing against each other. I am eating a lot of Joyke Bell points as you just dunk on me. You kicked me out of the playoffs with that. And if I may say,

Look, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's the old school joint bell. That was originally joint bell. I don't like doing this at all. Like, I really don't like doing this, but I'm going to do it for the sake of the Foot Clan, not for the sake of you. I'm going to give you a lot of props. Nice. I'm going to give you a lot of credit because I think you're the king of looking forward.

You usually know what your next few matchups are. And for some weird reason, I mean, type A to the max, but you usually know what my next couple schedules are, who's playing who what week. Like, you do...

You don't just go look at your lineup, set it, and check out. You look at the league. You look at who's fighting for what, who needs what, and make much more. Well, I'm a terrible father and husband. Right. Do you know what I mean? Yes, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying is sacrifice all the other things in your life for fantasy football. Just for eight weeks. You know what I mean? Eight, 12, 15 weeks.

Six months. Yeah. Eight months. Half the, I think you, half the year. I give them one good month. Which month? February. Okay. Right after the Super Bowl. Got it. And I say, you remember me? No, I, look, it ebbs and flows. And then March comes around and your family's happy again because you've abandoned them. Yeah, right. Great. Yeah, you really took this to the next level. Let's do this.

Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eats. ♪

Well, Andy, you brought this name up a second ago. I don't know if you knew he was my Hungry for More player or not. No, I did not know. But Anthony Richardson is my Hungry for More player. If you were on Sunday Live with Mike this last week, he was fielding some questions about Anthony Richardson. And his thoughts were essentially he wasn't confident to play him. Obviously, we've had a lot of bad games.

But he's happy to have Anthony Richardson go off on the bench in hopes that we have learned something new and that really Anthony Richardson has learned something new through the little benching. And I don't pretend to think that benching a guy for a couple of weeks can fix accuracy problems in and of itself. If I had to put a bet on the probability, the probability says that this was an outlier game for Anthony Richardson and his accuracy. But

He was benched. He came back. He goes on the road, and he played good football. He completed 67% of his pass, 20 for 30. Do you realize what his average was before that game, by the way? I would guess 45. It was 44%. Yeah, I mean... That is a massive change, and it wasn't like...

On 16 attempts. It was on 30 attempts. No, he played a good game. Not only, I mean, 272 passing yards on the road in a game that they weren't supposed to win, had two rushing touchdowns, one passing touchdown. He had in the fourth quarter, back to back, 70 yard run.

touchdown drives to get the win. And if you look at his first, he's got 11 career starts. He now has four top five finishes. Over the last decade, the only players with more through 11 starts are Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Deshaun Watson. If you remember, once upon a time, he was good at football. This is the right segment for Anthony Richardson. This is where he belongs. Right, because we're hungry. We're not sure it's going to work. Yeah, we might starve.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've starved before. And the risk, you assume, with Richardson, massive. Massive risk, massive upside. Yeah. And upside wins championships. So, you know, you look ahead to the playoff weeks and, you know, first week into the playoffs is Denver. Yikes. I'm not going to do it.

Second week, Tennessee. Okay, I think they've got a good defense, but their offense collapses so much that they end up giving it up in the end. The Giants in championship week. I'm fine taking the shot on him. He is the type of player that I don't want to face him in the playoffs. I don't want to go up against – I'd rather go up against a Kirk Cousins than –

see Anthony Richardson on the other side. Because of upside potential. Exactly. If you're one of those teams that is on the scratching and clawing your way to the playoffs. Yeah, on the lower talent than your opponent. Exactly. You're not the number one seed. You're not the behemoth team. You want to know how you can surprise people and win a championship? Having a quarterback go drop 35 points three weeks in a row. Yeah. No, you're right. And I hope it continues. I think...

I think we could be hungry for more just on the basis of, like, Richardson's career arc, even beyond this season, just hoping that he's another fantasy-relevant player that performs. I just really liked that he – it's so weird, but he just was accurate. And that's – I mean, if I'm being honest, that's the only thing I'm hungry for more of. I don't need a 35-point fantasy game. I just want to see him, like, for the wide receiver's sakes.

For Josh Downs and Alec Pearson and Adlai Mitchell. And then I like how Michael Pittman is now fourth. Yeah, it seems that way. It's nice to have a quarterback that can complete open passes. And he struggled with that in a way that no NFL quarterback – you can't play quarterback at the NFL if you can't complete an open pass. Which is a combination of taking the easy pass, footwork, pocket presence, all those things that he needed to work on.

My hungry for more is Taysom Stupid Hill. Taysom Hill. What is he? I don't know what he is. He's weird. He had 10 targets. He had seven rushing attempts. He had three rushing touchdowns. He had a pass completion. And he's got a coach that loves him as much, if not more, than the previous two coaches. He's a wild card. He's a wild card. And you know what? Wild cards win championships. If what we talked about yesterday is true, which is,

They like him more. They're going to give him more work. They don't have other options. He was a key to success. They believe the more they give Taysom Hill opportunities to make big plays, which how can you argue with 7 for 183 or 138 on the ground? If that comes true, if that's your tight end,

and his baseline is going to be six to eight points the rest of the way, and your top side is 40? Yeah. There is a world where we're going to get another game with a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown. Yeah, Jawan Jennings and Hunter Henry aren't going out there and dropping 30 points ever, ever. Kamara or Taysom Hill was the plan, the focal point on 39 of 60 plays for the team last week.

So, and he was, he was, he was Taysom Hill was the choice on 20 of the 60 plays. So it's something about workload. It's something about opportunity. It's something about a schedule, which right now is the ninth easiest for running back.

It's the 30s for tight end. You have to look at both with Taysom. He could be. He could be. Just take advantage of whichever part of the game you want. He could be the secret sauce. Did I say Juwan Jennings or Juwan Johnson? That was the name of the man. I believe you said Jennings. Because he can put up 30s, doesn't he? Yeah, you want to know what else Taysom Stupid Hill, as it's written in our doc, is?

Taysom Hill is the player that right before we hit record, you were freaking out about on our waivers, wondering how much fab people have because you want him. Do you want him for you or do you want him to keep your opponent from having him for the playoffs? I want him just in case. Right. Like I have Kate on. Right. Mike Evans comes back. McMillan's back.

You know, I don't know. No, I don't feel good enough. It makes complete sense. I understand that. And by weeks. And by weeks. 30 minutes. He could be the best flex pickup.

Like, that's the truth. Like, Taysom Hill could be good enough to flex. For sure. And you know what's funny is... It's like, do you want to start him or Wandale? This week... You know what I mean? This week, I have seen so many leagues, so many times, myself included, where I'm starting either two or even three tight ends because of bi-week apocalypse and those type of things. And also a combination of the fact that there's good startable tight ends right now. You know, it's like...

Yeah, Hunter Henry getting nine targets, eight targets a week. Yeah, exactly. If you're going to try to pick up a waiver-wire wide receiver or Hunter Henry, I would guess Hunter Henry's getting more work. Or Will Disley, baby. Yeah, big Montana. That was Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats, the official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. ♪

♪♪♪ News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. ♪♪♪

As expected, Jake Ferguson hard-pressed to play in Dallas' Week 12 game. Schoonman. Yeah, the Schoonman may get some opportunity. You know their rookie tied into that game? Yeah, he was very involved. He had five targets, and I do not. I know his name is hyphenated. His last name is two names. Hold on. Let me see if I can get to it. Span Ford. Span-Ford. There you go.

Yeah, I was unfamiliar with his work prior to this week. So not afraid to admit that. Obviously, you don't need to rush back Jake Ferguson. They're not looking to make the playoffs at this point for the Cowboys and Cooper Rush. It's a short week. Yeah, Cooper Rush is the starter. That was the other announcement. I mean, that's another name. Like, Schoonmaker...

could literally be someone that you pick up and start in your flex off of waivers. I'm not saying it's exciting or that you're happy about it, but he had 10 targets this last week. Cooper Rush is going to look his way, so it is possible he comes out and has at least a good enough baseline. They're hoping to get Brandon Cooks back this week, too. His 21-day window was opened. They threw the ball 55 times, so maybe Brandon... Never mind. Yeah, don't do that.

Aaron Rodgers likely won't be back with the Jets now that they fired general manager Joe Douglas. I think this report is a little bit more likely, speculative. Yeah, speculative. I think it's looking at just the reality of the situation where you've had Joe Douglas –

Doing everything Aaron Rodgers asked. He's been, you know, the guy that went out and signed Lazard and signed, didn't they sign Randall Cobb? Yep. And trade for Devontae Adams and try to rebuild it and hire the offensive coordinator that Aaron Rodgers wants. So the fact that Joe Douglas is gone...

is certainly just a strike against this being pro Aaron Rodgers. I just wonder what he wants to end his career like. That's the other part of it. I don't think it's his choice, man. He wants to end his career like a Super Bowl champion. That's what he wants. Ain't happening. Probably not. That's today's News and Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the Thursday night preview.

This episode is brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. With the holidays right around the corner, there is no greater gift.

Then the gift of football. And right now you can get NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV for the rest of the regular season for only $89. Trust me, this is how you want to watch football, especially with the playoffs right around the corner. So treat yourself this holiday season. Bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV and watch NFL

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This episode is brought to you by Mattress Firm. We all have those guys in our league. You know, the guy who always forgets to set his lineup until the last second and maybe misses out on points and then blames the system. Or the one who always leaves their highest scoring player on the bench and then regrets it after the game, complaining nonstop about it. But when you're matched with the right mattress at Mattress Firm, anybody...

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Thursday Night Breakdown. Well, this is a bit dirty, Jason. DraftKings has the Steelers at 8-2 against the...

2-8 Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. Good palindrome game. Which you love. I know you love. I do love those. DraftKings Sportsbook has the game Pittsburgh minus just 3.5. The over-under is 36.5. Oh, don't love that. The implied point total is 20 for Pittsburgh, the favored team. That is the fewest implied points for an 8-win team over the last year.

They did not score a touchdown last week, by the way, in beating the Ravens. Yeah, I do think that the Steelers' offense can move the ball against the Browns' defense effectively.

And this low of an over-under is a little surprising to me. However, there is weather concerns here. Probably some sort of rain or snow. A little bit of snow. A little bit of snow. So that could be factoring into the overall just, you know, a divisional matchup with two good defenses and offenses that aren't prolific by any means. You add in some weather, and I understand how you get here.

But if I'm just looking at the personnel and what over the last month the Jameis-led Browns have done and the Russell-led Steelers have done, obviously this last week was bad for the Steelers' offense, but they've been putting up points. Well, Thursday night has a way of slowing offenses down at times. Cleveland beat them last year in November.

13-10. Ooh, that's a fun one. So I think your fantasy expectations at a minimum with the weather, with the lines, they need to be measured. Who were the quarterbacks in that game? Was that like a Watson-Pickett matchup? No, it was probably a Pickett-Dorian-Thompson-Robinson game. I don't even know. It was a while ago. But it'll be one with the running game, like Najee.

20 opportunities a game, lock him in. Lock him in. Pickens, you can lock in. Yeah, I mean, I... But you, you know... The Browns have a good run defense on the season, so you don't expect a huge game from him, especially... Taysom Hill's like, what are you talking about? It was confirmed DTR and picket. Oh, okay. I got it right. Yeah, it was gross. I mean, this is... Jameis and Russ is an upgrade over what we saw last year. The question really becomes...

Is Jameis and the passing volume going to break against the Steelers' defense? Because right now, Jerry Judy, Cedric Tillman, Elijah Moore, you've been fine with all of them. And David Njoku, they've just had so much volume. So let's rate the confidence level of those players out of five. So for Njoku, I'm a five out of five in confidence. For Tillman and Judy, I'm a three. For both? For both. And for Elijah Moore, I'm a two.

Yeah, I would say I am pretty equal there. I might be a four on Jerry Judy. And really, it comes down to Jameis. I believe, despite the line, despite the weather, despite the defense. Okay, so that's three strikes. This should be out.

But I don't know that there's anything that can stop Jameis Winston from chucking the ball. I just don't think it's possible. I don't think the coaching staff can. I don't think anything. Well, the Steelers could be the ones catching it. Sure. Absolutely. They'll get some of that. I mean, yeah. What was that? Can we get that clipped for future use, please? Thank you. That was a hearty agreement. That was a real big sure. It was a little goofy in there when Disney came out. Yeah, it was good.

But still, a pick six has never slowed Jameis Winston down. No, look, they're not going to be able to run. Chubb hasn't looked. I mean, Chubb was okay last week on a...

yards per carry basis, but they only gave him 10 opportunities. The likelihood is to be down and Jameis will be figuring it out. And that can be enough. And so we'll find out whether push comes to shove. It's why I like Najoku the most is because close to the line of scrimmage, escape valve, pass rush. Tight end position. Yeah, just he can out physical, you know, wide catch radius, all of that stuff. But

In this game, it's going to be a challenge. We'll find out whether, like if Winston does have a game that he supports these guys in spite of the matchup, it will probably be prescriptive for that tough schedule down the stretch where you might be able to look to him, but I don't expect Cleveland to be able to win this ballgame. 41-46 and 46 pass attempts in Jameis Winston's three starts. So, yeah, I believe you can throw in Judy Tillman and –

And Najoku, obviously George Pickens is in pretty much no matter the matchup right now. And the Browns have struggled against wideouts. That is one area where Pickens should be okay. Yeah, he's the wide receiver 17 on the season, despite the beginning of the year being with Justin Fields. And he only has two total touchdowns on the season. So he can go north. Jalen Warren, forever a disappointment to you. Continues to be? Well, until he scores 10 fantasy points, which he has not done this entire season. And probably won't.

So, yes. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, because the reason I'm especially disappointed is because I think he's a talented player. This isn't an anti-Jalen Warren take as a player. It's an anti-Jalen Warren being in my fantasy lineup take. But if you've got guys like Jalen Warren, like Jerry Judy, Cedric Tillman, Elijah Moore, these are flex level players.

So this is a perfect time to remind you, if they're going to start on Thursday night football, even if you've got a great stud in your wide receiver spot right now, move them into the wide receiver. Give you more time for the weekend to make those flex decisions later on.

I'm taking a look into Deucer's Alley real quick because who's currently got the toilet trophy? I believe it is Papa Josh. Okay, so when Mike misses, whoever's got the toilet trophy probably... Oh, has the mailbag. Probably has the mailbag. Oh, that's great. Let's hit that drop and go to that camera, shall we? Mailbag. Mailbag! Mailbag!

Wow. That was pretty good. Wow. That sucks. I don't like that. What in the world just happened? Oh, no. That wasn't that bad. No, I actually think it was. Sounded a lot like Mike. Yeah, I thought it was good. And Brooks even said, dang, that was too good. He just typed that. That sucks, man. Talk about your whole time backfire. I can apply some filters to it. Yeah. You know what? That was confident, which is not normally a part of the Deucer's Alley.

You guys didn't hear Matt breathe the biggest sigh of relief he's ever breathed. He was full double fist pumping when you called on Josh. Trust me, he'll get that trophy soon. That trophy will be his. Nice job. Nice job. We will jump into the mailbag here. We'll answer some questions. We got some voicemails. Is that true?

I see voicemails in here. By the way, if you have a question, you can go to the website, thefantasyfootballers.com, click the submit a question button, or you can dial the voicemail hotline 302-464-TFFB. We're here to help. Let's jump in with a question from Anthony. Hey, footballers. This is Aaron calling from Canada. Just a quick question on who would you rather start this week? Full PPR league, D-Ball?

Debo Samuel, who's kind of been crappy the last little bit, or Jamison Williams. I love the show, would appreciate the feedback. Thanks. I can't see a world, by the way, that was Debo or Jamison. I can't see a world where I'm playing Jamison over Debo. So it's funny, I thought that you were going to go that route because I feel like you've been a little bit anti-Debo on the show the last week or two. We've seen some in the rounds that he's had where you –

You expect him to end up with eight, nine yards and he gets tackled one yard behind the line of scrimmage. He hasn't had great fantasy performances. And, you know, on the flip side, Jamison Williams has been very, very good. Just had a monster game with, you know, 124 yards and touchdown. He's got Indianapolis a much better matchup.

All that being said, I would agree that I would start Debo Samuel. In the games that Jamison Williams has not scored a long touchdown, right? He has a 64-yard touchdown, 37-yard touchdown, 70-yard touchdown, 52-yard touchdown. If he doesn't get that one long play, which is fine to gamble on, one for nine, one for negative four, three for 53. So it's not going to be volume. And maybe this is a little bit more of what do you need.

But I still think I need a guy that's out there and getting more targets than Jamison Williams, despite the disappointment. Yeah, I agree. I mean, Jamison Williams...

seemingly has the higher odds at a big touchdown play. But if you look back at the last couple of games, even when Debo's been disappointing, 10.6 fantasy points, 10.1 fantasy points. This last week was an absolute bust. But he hasn't really let you down, and he always has the potential to score touchdowns for the 49ers. And you look at opportunities.

And it's rare because usually we only talk targets with wide receivers. But with Debo, you've got to talk opportunities because he gets targets and handoffs 11, 9, and 8 in the last three games. Yeah, give me that. So, yeah, I'm going to take the volume. Former my guy, Debo Samuel. Once upon a time. Once upon a time.

Okay, let's jump into another voicemail here. Hey, Fantasy Footballers. This is Anthony from New Orleans. Who that? Shout out Papa Josh. What? My question is, I have Joe Burrow on the bye. I also have Cooper Cupp. Should I ride the stack with Matthew Stafford or start Anthony Richardson for the upside? Both teams play tough defenses. Thank you, Ballers. Love the show.

So Matthew Stafford against Philly or Anthony Richardson against Detroit. I know my answer. Yeah, and he has Cooper Cup. Right. I would play Stafford. The matchup's terrible, and I don't think that'll be your answer. I would play Stafford because of the stack, because of the power of that, because of the fact he's had two four-touchdown games in the last four games played with Puka and Cooper Cup in the equation.

That's where I'd go. He's at home, which matters to me quite a bit in terms of the Philadelphia performance. That's where I'd go.

I mean, Richardson had a great game. Stafford outscored him by a few points. Yeah, it's close, but I am genuinely afraid of the Philadelphia Eagles defense. It's not like a great, unbelievable matchup against Detroit, but they aren't a passing defense that scares me. They also just lost – who's their D lineman they lost –

Um, I mean, you're talking about their linebacker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I can never remember beautiful blonde hair man's name. Um, it sounds like pasta. You know what I mean? Like a nice big bowl of Anzalone with meat sauce. Dude, I would, I would gobble it up. Yeah. Sounds delicious. Uh,

So I'm going Anthony Richardson. Really? Yeah, I would. Matthew Stafford's bad games have been really, really bad. How about Richardson's? No, I mean, both guys have a wide range of outcomes, but I can see a path for, in this matchup, for Anthony Richardson to go out and put up 30. If Stafford did it against Philly, I'd be blown away. We should make a bet.

We should make a Stafford-Richardson bet. But it's not just Staffordson versus Richardson because I think – Did you say Staffordson? You said Staffordson. Okay, because here's the thing. I think that there's good odds that Stafford outscores Richardson in the sense that he scores 12 and Richardson scores 8. And then it's like, oh, great. It can either one get to 25 fantasy points. If either one does, then the other person wins because I think Richardson can have a 25-point game. I don't think Stafford can have a 25-point game here.

I don't know how to bet that. How about we make a bet. I take Stavrid. You take Richardson. Okay. But the only way you win it is if your guy scores 25 or more. There you go. Done. Okay. What's this for? Water bet. And $100. Okay. I'm in. And $100. All right. Taylor Greenback on Twitter writes in, Devontae Smith against the Rams, so the other side of that matchup, or the aforementioned Jameson Williams.

Yeah, Devontae Smith here for sure. This is a player who has been... What's with him, though? What's with the two disappearing games lately? Two disappearing games. One thing I did see is that there is no team in football that is doing less passing of the football than the Philadelphia Eagles. Because they were talking... I saw an article. They were talking about A.J. Brown and how he's performing at an extremely high level. But the Eagles offense...

is like dead last in passing expectation. So that might be what's happened with Devontae. Two for 14, four for 29, and...

But you're very confidently on that side of the equation? I'm confidently on that side of the equation. See if I can find that stat for you. Because if you look at Devontae Smith, he was really getting it done. Downfield, lots of targets, lots of yards, 85 yards touchdown, 87 yards and a touchdown. This last week was really disappointing. Six targets, four for 29, a dud game. And you're going, well, he had back-to-back dud games. The week prior was...

was a massive dud. But that week prior was that game against Dallas where it was 34-6, Saquon ran all over him, and the game just disappeared. I don't see that happening against the Rams in Los Angeles. It was Adam Levitan that posted it.

Eagles are dead last in PROE, which is pass rate over expectation in the last four games. So by contrast, number one, just for curiosity's sake. Don't tell me it's Detroit. No, it's the Bengals. The Bengals are number one. In fact, maybe more interesting than that. Number two, Kansas City.

That is a pass rate over expectations. So I think part of that is that this is over the last month. Just four games. Yeah. So that Denver game where Kareem Hunt got 10 targets wildly and differently, I'm sure skews that. But yeah, it's still interesting. I think Devontae, I mean, not I think, Devontae Smith is a disappointment this year.

He hasn't had a top 12 week. Yeah, I mean. And right now he's the 32nd ranked wide receiver. I think he was drafted higher than that. Yeah, he had his bye week. He missed a game. By contrast, last year he had like six or seven performances in the top 12 last year.

I don't know. I just feel like he's been more invisible this year is all I mean. He's not a worse player, but somehow more invisible because of Saquon and because of just the way the game has evolved for Philly. No one has drafted Devontae Smith this year and gone, like, I am succeeding because of him. Right. You know, I've got the Jalen Hurts, Devontae Smith stack in Dynasty, and I've loved it most of the year. It's just not – it hasn't been a home run.

But sometimes you need a double.

And that is my final baseball comment. Because Jameson Williams will give you a strikeout sometimes. Yeah, he's a grand slammer strikeout. Dang it, I did it again. You did it again. You love baseball, and that's one of the things that I've always known about you. Jason, the baseball guy. I do like baseball analogies. That's it. Oh, is that a nice tune to put someone to sleep? I think yesterday we were talking about throwing out the first pitch. I mean,

Every day you're like, you have to watch baseball tonight. Yeah. I wanted to take a quick look at the target pace for Devante Smith compared to last year in case that was a contrast that was worth noting. 112 was last year. He's on pace for 105 this year. It's not much of a difference.

which, you know, maybe just what has he got? Four touchdowns this year? What did he score last year? Do you know off the top of your head? I don't know off the top of my head. I would guess seven. Yeah, I mean, it's not that much different. Just maybe spread out a little bit in more wide receiver two performances than the big games and the bad games. And you feel it when it's coming off of a down. Yeah. It's like if, you know, two weeks ago we were happy with him. He had three of four weeks with a touchdown. It was doing great. And then

Two bad games, you're unhappy. If you only have just recency bias and you play based on what happened last week, especially at the wide receiver position, you just end up making the wrong start so often because there's not a ton of consistency at wide receiver outside of the top guys. And so when I look at these players, certainly Jameson Williams can outscore him.

But I think who's the better wide receiver? Devontae Smith is the better wide receiver. I want the more talented player. This is a good question. We actually talked about this in the studio briefly. Everyone's dealing with players they have to drop for bi-week pickups. And Sander writes in on Instagram, says, who is Josh Jacobs' backup, and is he even worth rostering? The conversation yesterday was one in which Marshawn Lloyd was on a Josh Jacobs manager's bench. They have...

Lloyd hasn't played. Lloyd hasn't made it to the field. This week got disrupted by appendicitis, apparently. And what, Emmanuel Wilson's been the guy back behind Josh Jacobs. And is he even worth rostering? That one's not clean. It's not a clean Trey Benson, not a clean Blake Corum. And so probably not. Like, I will tell you, I am not rostering Joe Mixon's backup.

I don't care. Because you're not sure that it is Damian Pierce. Because it's not. It'll be Damian Pierce and it'll be Daria Gumbawale and it'll be a few carries to another guy because we've already seen that. We saw Mix and Miss time earlier this year and it was supposed to be Cam Akers and, well, it wasn't. It was Cam Akers Plus. And so...

If you think, like it's better to roster somebody else that you'd flex above the randomness of a committee backfield. Yeah, I can agree with everything you're saying. We talked on the Dynasty podcast. We were talking about the players who have disappointed and wrecked their Dynasty stock.

And whether they're going to sink or swim, like do we do we cut bait or do we think and Marshawn Lloyd was one of the names I brought up who has obviously destroyed his value coming into the season as a day to running back in a committee for a good offense. And now, if you don't remember, he played 14 percent of the snaps a week, too. And that's it. That's the only time we've seen him on an NFL field.

I still like the talent and the opportunity. The report came out that he was supposed to be heavily involved in the game plan this last week, except he got appendicitis. Like, worst luck ever. I just don't believe it. And that's fine. I don't believe that he could possibly be a big part of the game plan. I do not. Having never played a down and being third on the chart. I do not think Marshawn Lloyd needs to be rostered right now because I don't see the clear path towards starting him.

But I do not think Marshawn Lloyd is dead. I think he's got bright days ahead. For Dynasty? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm with you on that for sure. But this is a very competitive team, and I just would be shocked to have him trust him that much. Now, if he's a game-breaker, he'll make his way to the field. Looks like Jeremy dropped Marshawn Lloyd as the Josh Jacobs manager this morning. Yeah. And I think part of that is you could tuck him onto IR. Right. You're not going to be able to do that anymore. All right, let's take a break, and then we'll jump into some more mailbag.

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Offer available for people who qualify. Visit MyFreestyle.us to see all terms and conditions. Certain exclusions apply. For a prescription only. Safety info found at FreestyleLibre.us. Well, we've got a lot of tough questions coming in. This one from X says, Sam Darnold or CJ Stroud?

I am a pretty big Stroud fan this week. Darnold plays in Chicago. CJ Stroud is at home against Tennessee. I like Stroud more this week. I do as well. Which is not something we've said almost ever this year. Yeah, I mean, Stroud gets Nico Collins back, which is helpful. The Titans' defense, I think, is good. However, this game is on the road for them, and...

You see it a lot with teams where the offense is so bad that a good defense just can't hold up. You just can't hold up the whole game. I think that's what's happened a lot recently for the Titans. If the offense turns the ball over, gives some short fields, some easier touchdowns for Stroud,

I will say I'm not as bullish as Stroud this week as you are. I'm just more, this is more being a little bit more anti-Darnold. You know, he's going up. Chicago is currently ranked number one in fantasy points against the quarterback position. It's on the road. It's just, it's not an exciting matchup for me.

All right. YouTube question from Caleb Lewis. Quentin Johnston against Baltimore this week. Bad passing defense. We like Quentin Johnston. Or the Raiders starting running back. You can't make me start the Raiders starting running back. And also, I mean, this one is...

This one's like a 360 dunk. You know what I mean? This is easy. That's not a baseball reference. No, I'm done with that. Okay. I'm saying this is like you're going to love this. Quinton Johnson against Baltimore is a player I want. Baltimore this last week had a slugfest in division where it wasn't a lot of fantasy points given up, although Pickens still had a decent game. But through the course of the season, you expect Lamar to score a –

ton of points. And then if that happens against the chargers in the Harbaugh, then Quentin Johnson's going to be necessary. And their, their secondary is not very good. YouTube. I was laughing because this question, I just read it. Austin Anderson writes in off of YouTube. Who is the worst player you would currently start over? Okay. That's a weird question. I guess just keep scrolling. I'm here for it. Okay. Elijah Moore.

Oh, we're going flex. I was thinking running back. I would definitely start Elijah Moore. Over Waddle? Over Waddle. How about Michael Wilson of the Cardinals? Michael Wilson of the Cardinals. I think so. Yeah, sure. Give me Michael Wilson. I'm trying to think. Trey Tucker of the Raiders or Jalen Waddle. I'll go Jalen Waddle there. I don't think Trey Tucker is going to get it done this week. Theo Johnson in the flex or Jalen Waddle. I'll go Waddle. How about this one, though?

Gus Edwards or Jalen Waddle? Probably Gus. I think Gus because Chance had a touchdown against Baltimore where he scored so many. Jalen Waddle's just dead. I mean, Johnnie Smith.

Oh, John O'Smith. I would definitely start. Instagram question from Riley. What is the pedal that Mike is using with his foot during the show? That is a mute button. So both Andy and I have a mute button just under the desk where I can touch it and mute myself as I'm doing now. This is great. Makes for really good audio. Yeah. And then...

And then Mike just put his on the floor so his hands can be free. To do jazz hands. Right. He does jazz hands usually when he mutes. Talks about dabble. If we have to cough or take a drink. Mike is a musician, a guitar player, and very used to using pedals. So he prefers it on the floor. Is yours on the floor, Jeremy? Mine is on the floor. And the deuces. Your buttons are different, though. Your buttons allow you to talk. Oh, yes. Ours are pushed to talk. Yours are pushed to mute. Yeah.

Because we like talking. We should be talking. And you should be muted. I mean, if I could get rid of the push to talk part, I would. If Josh could deliver the way he did the mailbag drop, we'd let him talk more. Most of the stuff that comes out of his mouth is not that good. It's not like that at all. Not that good. No. All right. It's usually wild nonsense.

Or incredible stories. I wish you were joking. Yeah, no, no. That one isn't a bit. Wild nonsense. Or incredible stories from the 27 lives he's lived. Can I ask you one question, Papa Josh, before we move on? Sure. When you were a child, back when it was black and white, and you were in school, how many times did your teacher say the quote, Joshua, please use your inside voice?

Never. Never? I never went to school. I do talk a lot, but not loudly. I did get in trouble for talking a lot in school.

Just so you know. Hold on. Hold on. Papa Josh, real quick. Do you believe that you do not? Yeah, I need to know this. Do you actually believe that you- Yes, I'm loud. No, I'm loud. Okay. We're not saying we don't love you. No, we love you, man. We're saying that it's just good to know what you are. And we know where you are at all times. At all times. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would just like to apologize to our devs who have to wear headphones. Yeah. They have noise-canceling headphones because of you.

Josh brings a lot to the table for this company. Tina on Twitter says, start Bo Nix or Kyler Murray this week? Oh, I love that question because I really like Bo Nix. And the answer is Kyler Murray. Yeah, Kyler's got Seattle. And I've been looking forward to this Kyler matchup for a while. Yeah, he's coming off of the bye and...

I mean, this is where, as a Cardinals fan, we know what's coming, which is a, you know. Some type of colossal defeat. Just awful play and looks like they've never played football before because right when you start to get hope, that's what happens. Are you saying you have hope now? I refuse to have hope. I am a hardened Cardinals fan where I know better than that. Breaking news. This is big. Mike Evans.

Seen participating in practice on Wednesday. Baker Mayfield managers rejoice. Mike Evans managers, of course, get excited. Couldn't come at a better time if you've got players going on by this week. Yeah, that's great. Like Jamar Chase. Yeah, and not just for Mike Evans, but really for Baker. Baker has balled out, and he's done an admirable job with Mike Evans' absence. But

It was all he could do. All he could do. Now he gets a legit option back. But back to the Kyler Murray, you know, Kevin Cole does some great work on Twitter. The adjusted quarterback efficiency through week 11 –

Kyler Murray is number one. He is above Lamar Jackson now. So he's been playing some really good ball, and I would start him over Bo Nix. Are you in the same camp that Mike was, asking for a friend, that you would...

not worry about Otten because Godwin is missing and they found something special with Kate Otten. I think you said it right. McMillan is the worry. If Jalen McMillan, their rookie wide receiver, who I think has looked pretty good this year, if he comes back and is healthy and kind of takes that next number two pecking order role,

Then that could disrupt. I don't think Mike Evans is disrupting Otten. They play in different areas of the field. Otten's going to get his chain moving shorter yardage stuff, and Mike Evans is going to stretch the field. With waiver wires going through, it's a good day to remind you to drop it like it's hot, especially on a bye week situation like this week. Drop it like it's hot.

That is what that phrase means on this show is please check who players drop to pick up other players. They're needing to fill biweek spots. Maybe it's, you know, somebody even more important than the Marshawn Lloyd we talked about earlier. But people are going to get dropped today. Double check on those guys and make sure you survey the field there.

We also don't take the opportunity very much to remind you about other podcasts that we produce, so it might be worth taking a second to remind you that Matthew Betts and Kyle Borgannoni each and every week right now, twice a week, if you're into DFS and betting.

They have a fantasy footballers DFS embedding podcast that comes out. That's a really good name for that podcast. If you're into DFS embedding, you want the DFS embedding podcast. Right. And a shout out to their work on the DFS pass. I believe they are. What was it? They went.

undefeated on props two weeks ago and then they went like nine and two this week. I know the last three weeks have been magma. It can't possibly stay like that, but they have, they've been doing just great work. Uh, their, their, um, articles have been awesome. We just keep getting tweets from people that are,

winning their first tournaments or making a nice... Having a good time. Yeah, they're just having fun. And then the Dynasty podcast once a week with a deeper dive into the Dynasty world of fantasy football can be heard. It features Matthew Betts, Kyle Borgannoni, and then generally it's going to be Mike or Jason as the third one on that show. Comes out once a week if you need a little extra Dynasty action in your life. Every Wednesday that will release. It's a

fun show and we get to we get to just talk longer and deeper on that show. It's pretty fun for all you DJs out there. And then if you just need a break from football, which we do, which is why we do this show.

It's our best work. We produce the ever ridiculous Spitballers podcast once a week. We've done it for years. It is a comedy podcast where we answer nonsensical questions and act like buffoons. If your family makes you turn off the fantasy footballers when you're in the car because it's boring, just shift over to the Spitballers. Whole family can listen, have a good time, do some fun absurd drafts with us. It's a great...

Show. Podcast. And I was going to say, like, if you're going on a road trip. Oh, yeah. It's a very fun binge show, the Spitballers, that you can check out. Although the road trips coming up soon are going to be for Thanksgiving, and they will not have time to listen to any of what you just said

Because next week, the Megalodon episode. Yes, we have our super-sized Megalodon show next Wednesday. We're aiming for 14 hours. 14 hours long. Starts of the week, matchups tomorrow. Divided by seven. Matchups plus Wheel of Shame on Friday. That'll do it for today's show. Shout out to the Ducers, regular volume Al Borland, extra loud volume Papa Josh, and the poopiest man alive.

Goodbye. 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 at the FFBallers.