Full Transcript for Playoff Challenge picks & 2016 lessons learned

the Raiders. He's got that super exciting Matt gonna be Connor Cook, Rock Osweiler, Oh boy, get fired up ayoff game. Remember for the I mean it's I feel bad for Raider Nation a little bit totally. I mean they're coasting along, right, they're going, they're going, they're going, they look great, and then their star quarterback goes down with the broken leg, Derek Carr, and then their backup comes in preseason hero Matt McGloin, who has like unbelievable preseason numbers something. I mean, his his quarterback rating in the preseason is like one ten or over one tender something ridiculous. Anyways, he comes in, he plays a good game and a half before getting drilled, and then now he's out. Now they got their third string quarterback, Connor Cook, a a rookie quarterback at a Michigan State. He's gonna start for the Raiders against the Texans. Uh. The fourth round rookie in Connor Cook will join Minnesota's Joe Webb and Denver's Gus for Rott as the only quarterbacks this century to start their first game of the season in the playoffs. I mean, admittedly the centuries only seventeen years old, sixteen plus, sixteen plus. Al Right, First, it'll be his first career start. It's his first career start. It's gonna be the playoffs. Um, I guess what does it mean for you know, the Raiders the Texas. Obviously you're gonna get after and we will talk about this extensively and playoff challenge, but um, are there any Raiders you you trust in that game? No, no, no, no, definitely not um no, because I think if if the Textans are smart and defensively, they're a very very good team. Um they're gonna load the box and you know they're gonna stop the running game. They're gonna stop Latavious Murray and Jalen Rochard and DeAndre Washington and they are going to dare Connor Cook to beat them. And I think if that you're going with that. If beats you, you you tip your hat and you're like, hey, good on you. What is the final score of this game? Gonna be three to two? Probably sixteen to nine, No, six team to eight. One team is gonna get two field goals and have a safety. Oh my god, I think I think it'll be a touchdown and they go for to This feels like the sort of game where you know, you catch it on the radio, you catch a little bit of the beginning, you go run some errands, you have it on the radio, and maybe you come back and man, I'm still watch I'm gonna say I will be watching this entire game because it's fascinating for two yeah, for for for a few weeks. That's one word one. I mean, it's playoff football even if it's some bad quarterback. Plus there are still other players on the field and they will be hyped up for that's clowney. I mean, they're Will four can potentially his last game, not to mention. And I am definitely an advocate of bad football when it becomes funny, and I think that this could quarterbacks and we could veer into that territory. Like I still think for whatever reason, one of the most fun games I had watching this year was the Week one game between the Rams and the forty nine. Is because especially playoff game will be everybody will be watching. Man, I thought, you get in on Twitter and you make some jokes you like, man, I hope I get some retweets on this. Um. I thought, I thought you were going to mention the Arizona Seattle game where or no? Was it was it Seattle Carolina game? No? This was the No, this was this season when it was sield goals. Yeah. But that yeah, that game. That game got annoying because it was it turned into a debate of this isn't a good game, Well, it is a good game. You're just you're you're not woke enough for the defensive you know, and so yeah, it turned into like one of those battles on Twitter. It was it was horrible. It was a horrible game for three quarters, but then in the fourth quarter and in that overtime it was just it was that was very funny. But the key ingredient to bad football being so bad that it must be funny or it becomes funny is that everybody must agree that it is it is bad because if you get in a game like that, where I mean I personally did not think that was like a horrible game to watch. Marcus and Galhard very much did. I did, but and I didn't care that they didn't. But there were some people that cared that. People did not think there was a good game. And when you get that, that's not fun. Uh. And it was a science so science science. We're not expecting a lot of offense from these games, so if you're playing, I mean, there might be some contrarium plays in playoffs. Yep. I've heard some smart people talking about the Raiders running game is an interesting one. But who do you pick in that three headed monster? I wouldn't touch that. The Texans defense has been really good this especially at home. I mean, that's what they have been really good at home. A tale of two halves, where earlier in the year you could pick on them on the ground. Later in the year you have been able to throw on the Texans too with some of the injuries in their secondary. But now, yeah, I don't know if I wanted to be trusting Connor Cook to weeks fourteen through seventeen, they have allowed one point three passing yards per game. So I think there are probably potentially some contrarium places on the Houston side. I think I think what about tight tight end? Yeah, is back there. I think even even you know Nuke could be an option. He had a big Are we talking we're talking just straight df straight straight in playoff challenge? I mean we don't. I don't. I don't think anybody expects either of these teams very far. We'll get into that a standard scoring a dfss PPR, So I could see Nuke being an option there or at least half half or four. Matt Moore starting for the Dolphins versus the Steelers on Sunday. Ryan Tannehill wanted to go. He's dealing with the knee injury, but he has yet to practice and head coach Dolphin's head coach Adam Gaye said something dramatic has to happen for Ryan Tannehill to get the start. So well, he said, he has to just practice, even if

it's one day. If he practices on Friday, he's going to start on Sunday, I think, or whenever they're playing. I think he wants to get on the practice. But wasn't Adam Gays mentioning the fact that he's got a practice, and look, okay, they wanted something. I think I think I saw the word escapability or something. Basically wanted to see if he can get himself out of trouble when the pass rush comes. Um. I mean, look, I understand it. I understand you don't want to necessarily roll into a playoff situation with Matt Moore. But I mean it looked like I mean, it looked like tinit Tannicill was just done for the years. This seems very quick. There's no data, Okay, So how about for DFS any any tricky place here? I mean you're going Antonio Brown, I would imagine, right. I think Kenny Stills could be an option. Yeah, he scored touchdowns I think in each of his last four games, and I think you know what you're getting yourself into with with Kenny Stills. Yeah, but you got the boomer bust. Well, I think Landry is actually a really good play too. I think I can't remember the exact numbers, but just he has been much much more productive in games where Miami has been losing. We saw that when they went on their run, when they started running the ball more, he started seeing a lot less targets than he popped up for that four teen target game in the in the game they got blown out and Pittsburgh, I think it is is heavily favorite in this game some ten point from Friends in the Desert for some some random place, don't where it is, but they're they're double digit, you know, favorites. So that would you would think that this is a potential game script where Landry could see double digit targets. I mean, you take a look at the quarterback landscape that's out there. Um, and I know Matt Moore is not you know, he's not a name guy, but you know, surprisingly he's actually been pretty darn solid. Uh. He's had you know, uh, over two hundred yards every single game, multiple touchdowns in every single game. He's only had one turnover in every game. I don't know. I'm actually don't feel that bad if I'm playing DF not playing Matt Moore, I'm saying, but uh, using some of their passing options in for the for them, Miami, don't I don't feel terrible about rolling those guys out there, even if Matt Moore is your starting quarterback. Yeah, exact numbers. By the way, Landry saw nine point four targets when Dolphins were underdogs in twenty sixteen and only six point two when they were favored. There you go, Um where we go in Chicago? The GM there, Ryan Pace said, quote anything is on the table regarding quarterback Jay Cutler recovering from a torn labor in his shoulder. Um, they're not exactly sure what they want to get done there, but I would I would imagine they're gonna cut Jake Cutler. But um, what does that mean for if they go with Matt Barkley, which they very well may could. Where they got they got a top three pick. I don't know if a quarterback will be a quarterback they like will be there, But what does it mean for the passing options there in Chicago? Huge question mark? You have no idea The only thing I mean, isn't Jeffrey uh potentially a free agent free agent? I don't. I don't expect him to come back. I'd be pretty shocked. I mean, I think, I think to the Super Bowl, Yeah, I mean, they can buy a ticket like everybody else, um U, Karen Meredith. I think slides in potentially as the number one receiver in that offense. I mean, there's just so many questions. There's Jordan Howard and then there's kind of a bunch of question marks around there doesn't impact Jordan Howard. I'm starting to see a lot of a lot of hype train for Jordan Howard getting into the first round. Do you guys buy that given that the offense could be an absolute du right, it could be a good thing about him is that he saw so much involvement in the passing game. So if they're bad in there, even even when they were losing by a lot, he's still getting a hundred yards of game at the end of the season. But I don't know if I buy him as a first round pick. Yeah, I mean, I just I don't know if he's he's not. He's not David Johnson, Where you where you're confident he can just overcome having a bad offense around him. He looked good, He looked good for much of last year. But I just wonder, you know, if if the defensive coordinator goes in to face the Bears next year and realizes that there's no quarterback, there's no real receiving options, and they just stacked the box, like I don't know if Jordan Howard is the same guy. I mean, a big part of the reason why I bought it to David Johnson and uh, I was starting to fade off of Todd Gurley, and obviously man Harmon did a great job explaining why Todd Gurley most likely was not going to, you know, give you good results. David Johnson on he was playing with with Bruce Arians. I think you believe in Bruce Arians, you know what I mean? Do I believe in John Fox? Absolutely? Dowl logans no, and then and that's what would make me worried about Jordan Howard. You know, even if he I gotta imagine just because uh, with the positional you know, scarcity, that there is Jordan how There's gonna be some movement to get Jordan Howard. Near the end of the first round, early part of the second round. I just I don't know, man, I'm gonna be scared off. Yeah. And to be fair about the Bears too, you know, and this was a lot of what people said about Girly last offseason was well, you know, as a rookie, he did it with bad quarterback play. He did, you know, and he did it. That doesn't always carry over year to year. And also to be fair with the Bears, they actually got pretty reasonably good quarterback play out of Brian Hoyer, out of even Matt Barkley for a little bit of a before. I mean, he still was productive, even though he turned the ball over like a madman. So I mean, I think that next year it could You always think like, well I can't get worse. It can always get you can always get worse. You know. It'll be worth

watching too. With Jordan Howard, just one quick thing, how his offensive line shakes up because they had signed Josh Sitton, but the Packers let him go for injury issues, and then he gets injured a bunch of this year. Kyle Long their best offensive lineman, and by all our shoulder and ankle injuries and stuff. So that's something good look at two because that's also what conspired against Girly this year was bad quarterback play, a bad offense, and a really bad offensive line and a coach that randy middle school offense. So there you go, Uh, Playoff Challenge, how do you play? Let's go to Alex Gelhar explain the game in general. So I did. I did write up a beginner's guide on this just to find it NFL dot com slash gal Hard, But basically it's the same. We had the Perfect Challenge game. It's kind of a daily fantasy set up here, but in Playoff Challenge you can pick a line up each week. However, it's a it's standard scoring, but the caveat is that each week certain players are in your lineup, you get bonus multipliers for them being in that lineup. So what you kind of want to do with the game, and you can change players out once they if their team loses. Like say you pick you know, Steelers or Packers this weekend in your lineup, and either those teams lose, you can swap them out for Cowboys or Falcons or whomever. There's not the Packers, They're not gonna lose them. There's no set a f C here nfc uh any assignments. You just pick basically the players you think are going to end up in the super Bowl. Because like if you pick all Patriots and Cowboys, say you think they're gonna be in the super Bowl, your first week, you will get zero points, but every point they score in the divisional round is double that point they score. Yep, So you could play it, you know where each week you reshuffle your lineup and try and pick the highest scores, but you lose out on those multipliers. And that's where that's yep, and that's where the money's maying. The extra strategy comes into play, and that while there is no money, say per se to be made in this game, the winner gets a trip with one guest, I believe to super Bowl fifty two Heniapolis. Give me some of that so you don't have to go to Houston. Popular tourist destination. Bring februaryis Maniappleis is a great city, but it could be very very cold. Alright, So um, in terms of playoff challenge a big time strategies figure out who's gonna get quick. One thing to add apologies to international listeners listeners, but it's only for people in the Continental you would states, I believe they can play. I had somebody from Canada asking me about it. I don't know why I would just presume or assume that it has something to do with extra legal insurance. And you said, like continental doesn't mean like Alaska and Hawaii. I forgot out also or not they might be able to, but it's basically United States, like Mexico stuff, not but legal stuff. I don't know. That's all way about my pay. But don't stop listening to the podcast because we'll still talk about playoffs we've got and you got to hear the best Stuff podcast section. That's true. There is that as well. All right, So the big time strategy obviously, and the key component of playoff challenge is that you not only have to figure out who's going to play well, but also players that you believe are going to make it to the Super Bowl. UM with that in mind, franchise, who do you like a playoff challenge? I'm going with the Falcons and the Steelers as my main two teams. So the only guy you know on my roster that I have in there's my tight end who's not on either team. I want to Travis See just because he's really good. Um. So the Steelers play this week in the wild card round. Um, And I'm a Steelers fan, so I'm a little bit biased. But I went with lev Bell, Antonio Brown and the Steelers D and my quarterback is Matt Ryan, got DeVonta Freeman as my RB two, Julio Jones is my wide receiver too, and Matt Brian is my kicker. So that's my lineup. It's pretty the good the good. One of the other strategies is, like everyone most of the time, people are gonna pick the favorites to be in the Super Bowl, right, like the one seeds, like the Patriots and the Cowboys. So if you want to get an edge, it's kind of like doing DFS where you go contrarian and you might be able to like gain an edge if you pick like the sleeper team and they end up going all the way. I don't I don't know what exactly the numbers would be, but I would imagine Tom Brady's probably the most popular you can you can. He is seven percent of lineups this week. Rogers is the number one owned. But I think pool are not picking Brady because he's on by this week, right, so that might be playing and assuming that the Packers are going to move on to next week or correct. So, and you can see those ownership percentages in the tool when you go into building NFL dot Com Slash Playoff Challenge. But okay, guys, if you want to play at home, MG, um, I went heavy Patriots. I I'm one of the people who has Tom Brady, So I got Brady La, Garrett Blunt, UH, the Ghost and uh in the Patriots defense because I have a pretty good feeling that in their second round so they have to buy and then the visional round, I feel like they're going to get a shot at either uh Brock Osweiler or Connor Cook, which you know, kind of makes me confident they'll probably Uh. I did go with a couple of Packers because I just have a feeling they're gonna I think they'll they'll slide out of the NFC and be you know they were. Actually my preseason Super Bowl prediction was Packers Patriots. Um it would be the you know, the the quarterback matchup to end all quarterback matchups. Um, so I've I've got Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams in there. I do have Zeke Elliott at the running back spot because obviously I can get double points from him next round and he is good at football. Uh. The only the only player I have that I think, you know that I just kind of went with based on matchups and ability is

Travis Kelsey. Again, he has a bye, but he's been the hottest tight end going for the last month or so and get those double points in the second round there. So yeah, I feel I feel pretty confident about this one. We'll say, Matt Harmon, Yeah, I went heavy Chiefs and Falcons. Did you think if you're gonna go with for Falcons? I mean, the logic there is they were they were the best offense this year. They scored points, which amazingly seventy one points more than the Saints, who were the second highest scoring offense. It's it's a lot of points, which you know, we'll talk about this, you know later on for next year, but that's a that's a number that's gonna that's outra that's gonna come down, yeah, by the way, So but for this year, it's going to be a started Russia talk when he's seventeen, Okay, hereon watch here we go. But so I mean speaking of somebody that's probably gonna regress next year, you know, from a touchdown to touch perspective, Kevin Coleman I think makes a really good play in these because he's been a big play threat all year. He has I think three touchdowns of thirty or more yards. He's also been a red zone factor. He scored on forty six point seven percent of his touches inside the ten yard line, which again astronomically high. But if that continues into the playoffs, you got a good chance. And he's zero percent started right now because everyone's gonna go with Free and everyone will be I think he climbed up to one percent. Well, he's under He had eleven total touchdowns this year. That's crazy and miss games, yeah he might be. He had eleven point five touches per game. That's scored eleven touchdown so it's pretty pretty outrageous. You know, have something to watch for next year. Um, but I think that that that he would make a good like kind of contrarian play as well. I gotta imagine if you're taking Chief, you'd like Tyree Hill, you could you could definitely go with Tyree Kill. I think, you know, in the in the potential scenario and painting here where the Falcons make it to the super Bowl and see the Chiefs, then you might it's hard, does not say Julio Jones. And also, I really want to share of Antonio Brown in this game because I think a lot of people when they go Steelers will go for Levan Bell. He's seventy started right now. Antonio Brown too, So that actually almost makes me want to go with Odell against the Packers because I think he blows up in this game and if he beat dude, he didn't blow up in the first game they played against each other. And I have a horrible feeling he's just gonna rip right through him now. Bro, he's just being right. Yeah, you know the media is going to get to his head. But I think so. On the Chiefs point though, I think the best the best strategy there is going with the their defense because you know you do have to pick a defense in this and yeah, exactly, Yet you get a share of Tyreek Hill there, yea. And also like Chiefs at home at least for one game, that's really tempting. Alright, what about it all? Packers? Also something some Homerism, but the pack the Packers are hot right now, so I went with the Packers passing attack. I've got Rogers, Nelson and Adams Cobs still banged up. I grabbed Mason Crosby for the kicker because the figure they could be in a couple of good, good matchups here, especially they're in Round two. If they advanced, going to travel in a dome somewhere in two games, that could be very high scoring with the pallis in Atlanta. And then on the flip side, I went all Patriots. I stacked both their running backs and went Garrett Blunt and Dion Lewis because Dean Louis Dean Lewis over the last four weeks of the season actually had more rushing yards than the Garrett Plunt he didn't get. At the end, James White was still the primary pass catcher, but I'm wondering if after another week Lewis is a little more healthy with the bye, that role comes back. And also, as Marcus said, the Patriots are figuring to play Connor Cook Rock Oswinder in Round two. That figures to be a run heavy game. Script I gladly double up on all the potential running back touchdowns there tight end I'm riding. In the past, I've mixed and matched teams more This year, I wanted to try just going with two teams, so I went with Marty b figure he's going to be a big beneficiary of the buy two because he was carrying a couple of lower body injuries. Um still getting wrote used, especially in the red zone with that huge frame. And then I grabbed the Patriots defense because Packer's defense not great right now. And again the Patriots get to play Connor Cook or brock Osweiler in round two. Let's say it one more time, Connor Cooked or our brock Oswiler in round two. I mean, if it's not Steelers Pats in the a f C Championship game, Dude, Chiefs Chief, I would not sleep on the Chiefs. Chiefs at home at home field advantage is one of the hardest stadiums to go into emplay. It all makes me very nervous Steelers fan. Chiefs can put points on you now too. You know, we know that Kelsey has been bawling. They have an X factor and Tyreek Hill and let's not forget the two games where Alex Smith has ever come out of his shell. Has been in the playoff playoffs. Has been against the Saints when he was with the nine is that year, and then against the Colts when the Colts came back in such an awesome kid, an amazing game. I really hope we get a good playoff game like that. All right, I know we will because I believe so. I think the divisional round is going to be lit for both posts. I'm so excited. God, we have to get through all this stupid fantasy crap all year to get to the good playoff games, just to put the capper on this the playoff challenge. So you get the multipliers, uh so every single week. But the multipliers do apply. So like for example, like let's say the let's say you went with um, who am I trying to think of? Look, let's say you went with Odell Beckham. Okay, but he gets eliminated. Right, you can go pick up Jordy and now you get don't get the

multie but you But do you get the multiplier if Jordi then advances to the end of the Yeah, the two times two times each consecutive week, you get the bonus multiplier. So there is that small distinction. That's that's good enough. So another strategy none of us did was if you think there are too hot enough wild card teams to make it all the way to the super Bowl, like perhaps Hackers and Steelers like, you could stack your lineup with them and get four times multipliers the whole way through. It's pretty good, right, I like it? Alright, So there you go, Playoff challenge. Tell tell the folks where to find NFL dot com slash Playoff Challenge. You can go to my writer page NFL dot com slash Fantasy to find the beginner's guide, and then I'll be posting all of our line ups with a little right up tomorrow. I like it though. You can check it out there on Thursday and NFL dot com slash Fantasy. Okay, good stuff. Alright, let's talk about some lessons that we have learned in ten how do we apply them to twenty seventeen. Matt Harm will start with you. We're starting with yes, absolutely, all right, what lessons did you learn? I think that the biggest thing is that you know, this scene might seem counterintuitive or not counter two, but this points just seem like naturally something you would assume is that. You know, this league changes. There's a lot of variants, you know, year to year, not even just week to week. You know, I came into this year pretty heavily invested in wide receiver heavy teams, you know, even some zero RB teams, and that wasn't a great approach this year, resolve suase because wide receiver scoring was so much lower this year. I'm I'm writing a piece on this for for Friday, so you can read it then. But there was just so much of an outlier year in terms of wide receiver production than had been the last three to five years. So and I think that's an important thing to one for me not to get caught up in just this year's results, because it all it's all about how are things trending in our is the league is still the same way, And yes it is still a passing league. The passing play percentage as a as a whole in the NFL went up this year, So it's not as if running backs are you know, there's more rush attempts to go around or anything like. So I think that's an important thing to keep in mind, is just for me, that there's so much variants in what in what can happen in one year, but not to lose sight of the big picture of the way the league is trending. And I still think that that is trending to very much more of a pass heavy team, and we could easily, just like we saw the running back pendulum swing back this year, we could easily see it go back to the mean next year, with more high end running backs getting hurt and high end wide receivers being more productive all. I guess the question is this, if the league is moving towards more pass attempts per game per team um and yet wide receiver scoring has been down, where were those points accumulated at running back passing game, running running game? Or I tried to kind of and I'm not done yet trying to dig into that. It doesn't seem that there's more like especially in terms of top twelve fantasy backs, receptions and yards among the running backs in the passing game are still pretty like linear. There's not a huge change. I think what we're actually seeing more and this this could be just this year, it could be something that's developing going forward, is there's more overall production. You know, I franchise, I know I was showing you this graph where like the top fifty scoring wide receivers, there was more guys that had seen like ninety targets in a game as opposed to like seventy targets. So it almost seems like it's just getting spread around, spread out. Mike Evaning, you mentioned that, like, I just to jump in super quick because literally before the podcast we're on that, we're looking at one of the bet wager things we're gonna set. It was with the Cowboys, and I was looking at their distribution, was like, wow, sin they had three people with over ninety targets. They didn't have anybody like over a hundred. But then I was just I was just pulling up the target totals for this year and looking at it by team, and there's there were a lot of teams that had a much more spread out kind of approach, which is was that kind of what you're hinting at their harmon? Yeah, that's kind of That's essentially what I'm saying, Like, Mike Evans led the NFL with a hundred and seventy three targets and over, which is much lower than last year. We had Julio Jones C two and from two thousand twelve to two thousand fifteen, there were ten wide receivers who saw more than a hundred and eighty targets over that span. So it just kind of shows you were like a strange year in terms of high end wide receiver production. You know, Julio not Julio Jones, Larry Fitzgerald led the NFL with a hundred and seven catches, which was the lowest it's ever been in the last decade. So it's and again you can say, maybe that's something that's like a new trend developing, or it's just a you know, I'm still again, I'm still kind of working through that, but I think that we really did see the passing games spread out a lot more, and I wonder if it is something that teams will do more going forward, because uh, like just look that Falcons to Bucks example is a really good one. Like the Bucks were not a good team this year on on the whole, and then the Falcons, especially last year when they stuffed two hundred targets to Julio Jones, were We're a bad football team. They weren't good. Their offense especially wasn't good. And then this year where Julio Jones was averaging nine targets game as opposed to twelve targets per game. They were a much better offense because they were able to develop multiple threats. And I wonder if that's something like you know, as fantasy owners, you know, we certainly love when our players are getting a ton of targets. But I also wonder

if other teams will, you know, going forward, whether that's gonna be something that they wanted to, you know, whether whether they want to do that or there they think they're better. And the Patriot's been doing that for a decade now, so I guess it makes a whole like a couple of stanse mg kind of take picky backing off of that idea. What are your thoughts there? Do you think that the pastor distribution just again remains relatively uh even among a bunch of different options, making it hard to find that quote unquote elite receiver. Well, I think, you know, I think when you see teams that are that are funneling a lot of targets to one guy, I think it's it's not by choice, it is it is sort of because out of necessity. I mean, I think I think if you had gone and asked the Colts this year, do you want t Y Hilton to have tent of your targets? I think they would say, well, no, I mean I think they would have preferred, you know, that Dante Moncreek was there more often to get the ball to him. I think they would preferred that Philip Dorset was more of a playmaker so he could see more more passing, uh more more targets in the passing him. I mean, I think I think in a perfect world, everybody would want to be the Patriots or the Saints or a team like that that has a whole bunch of even even the Falcons this year that you know, it wasn't very it wasn't Julio Jones centric, which I know frustrated a lot of people. Can I can I jump in though? Look, look I think about this now, because you say that the the the successful team spread it around. Yet we have this whole mantra here in the stronghold, right throw it to your good players? Right? So so sometimes isn't the best offense throwing it to your good players? I mean that I was saying for weeks that no matter how many times they throw it to Odell Becka, that's never enough. Um, But I think some of it is because, I mean I think some of these teams, they have good players that are just other world. Odell Beckham is so head and shoulders above so many other players in this league that yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know that you can say that, say in New Orleans, where you know you've got Brandon Cooks and Michael Thomas and Willie Sneed who are all fairly good playmakers, but not one of those guys is what you consider elite compared to everybody else. I think there's a difference between ignoring your your good player when you have one good player, like you see with the Cowboys prior to this year, like especially, they'd go long stretches without throwing it to Dez Bran, like, oh, let's make sure we get Cole Beasley and Terence Williams and hand it off to Darren McFadden. Like there's a difference between doing that and like, if you're the Falcons this year and you have all these other options, but when they needed Julio Jones, they had Julio Jones to go through, go to, and they did not ignore it. I mean, think back to that game against Carolina where you just ripped them to shreds. So I think there's a difference between you know, ignoring your good player ramming it to your good player no matter what. All right was, kids, you learn anything from sixteen that you could apply twenty seventeen. I think the lesson that I'm trying to I've learned and I want to dig more into this offseason is trying to find a blend of both as we're evaluating players and situations, talent and opportunity. Because there are two sides to this all the time in like fantasy discussions of like tape study versus metrics or you know, analytics and numbers and stuff like that, And I think we have to be able to find a a blend because when I first started doing this, like more seriously professionally a couple of years ago, I was relying more on my eye and I hit on a couple of those guys early, like Nuke in his second year breakout and mark Ingram and his resurgence and stuff like that. But there are also certain situations where we have to be be figure out a blend of both their talent and the opportunity that could be presented. One of the ones I missed on this year at least early, was Michael Thomas because I was worried with him coming to that loaded Saints attack that he was he was. You know, I loved his talent coming out of Ohio State, but I was worried he wasn't gonna see enough volume two week to week. Trust is in the last ten years Breeze and only throwing a twenty plus targets to a receiver five times. Like you think of all the targets he throws all the five thousand years yard seasons. Harmon did that good study on a hundred twenty target wide receivers and it only happened five times in ten years. So, like I was a little, I over kind of overassessed his talent and his usage, which would probably be primarily in the red zone, which I think he far and away led that team. Let me pull that up super quick. But you know, figuring out a marriage of the two, and like, you know, because there are certain situations to where if the opportunities aren't presented, We've seen talented players sink before like Nuke this year, although none of us expected him to sink to this level, So I don't think anybody thought Brock was gonna be Michael Thomas did lead the Saints with nineteen red zone targets and had seven touchdowns in that space. So figuring out the marriage of both talent and opportunity and how to how to better equate that moving forward as projecting to has been my lesson that I learned. I guess my lesson. We were talking about this before we started recording, but there's already on the Twitter sphere conversations about draft strategy for next year already, and by the zero RB verse, the zero wide receiver and the only draft good players and all this. There's so many different variables that go into every single fantasy draft. I'm just not getting involved in any of this crap anymore. I understand how zero RB can work. I understand how zero wide receiver can work. I also understand that every league is different. You have a different draft spot in every league.

There's no one way that this this strategy can win or lose your your league. And there's no reason that you have to knock down a strategy for no reason other than you don't believe in it. So I think that ladder parts probably the most important. Yeah, but so so the beginning part is ladder part is that it is a good point, Like, like, I'm my league of record, you can start five wide receiver every week. It's a half point PPR. There's a bunch of flex spots. So the last two seasons, I think I've drafted five wide receivers with my first five picks. I went ten in three last year. I made it to the championship this year and I lost. But it depends on the setup of your league where your draft spot is. Knowing. Yeah, Like it's like all these arguments are just so pointless, and why are we having It's January? Can we not talk about this for like a month. A couple of people made the point that they were like the fantasy season. Body isn't even cold yet. I think like al SMIs yeah said that. I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of right here, and I get it. I get it because this is what we do. But and but what when you say this is what we do, it's for a lot of folks, it's important for them to be right right because that's how they build their brand. Is well, I'm a quote unquote fantasy expert, so I need to be right, and if I'm not right, then I feel as if I am not a fantasy football expert or something along those. It's so if you're wrong, that's right. No one's going to remember it. Yeah, it's okay if you're wrong. So the Internet will always say but and I think I think a good point about franchise discussion here is like it's hard. It's hard to look back, you know, with only like a result space the internet. Actually, you guys are all wrong. But I think the fun thing is like looking back in hindsight is easy. But you know, everything, like I mentioned earlier, everything this year led like led you to think like, yeah, this is gonna be. That's the zero RBS the way to go, the wide receiver heavies the way to go. And then here we are a few months later, and that was incorrect. But the process of how you got there is is very accurate. And I think that just goes to show you that there's so much randomness, so much volatility in this league, that it's important to be humble. It's important to realize, like, yeah, I was wrong about that prediction. This Actually it's funny because I actually went zero RB in two of my main leagues, and uh in both leagues, I got to the championship game using the zero RB strategy. I think my starting running back in one league was Lottavius Murray. It was I was running out Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon in that league. And I think that's another good point to that, like strategies are just for one, they're options, Like they're not cheat codes. Like even even if you were zero R b z L going in this year, you'd have to admit that it's just an option, like and you could get like you could get to a point whe it's like there's a running baker

I'd like taking, Like I'd be like, what am I gonna just gonna pass it up just because I want to follow the strategy. No, that's crazy, Like it's an option, and to like they're you know, they're like I said, they're not cheat because there there's just one part of the fantasy experience, like you can draft a great zero RB team, but if you don't manage it properly and don't hunt for those backup running backs like Jordan Howard or you know what, and it doesn't then it doesn't matter. It's all part of the experience, and the other thing is feeling out how your draft goes. If everyone's taking running backs early, you have an advantage and getting a couple of top wide receivers while everyone's loading up on running backs. And if it's flat the other way around, feel it out and zig when everyone else zags, or whatever the case may be. Just understand positional value and like, don't take everything we or other analysts say as gospel too, because like Franchi is a good point too, is that most leagues are different. Yeah, yeah, this is it's like, take what we say and see how it might apply to you. And like we I don't think anybody in this room or behind the glass with gelhard would uh prevent present ourselves as anybody, but just like people with opinions, people with some thoughts, and yeah, we've we've looked at numbers more than you guys, and we recommend you don't look at numbers as much as we do. Made a normal balance, but yeah, I think of like, just take some of it, see how it applies to you, and you know, again, things could likely change quickly. This one's fantasy therapy session. It worked out well. This is good good, good audible on the rundown there. I like it. MG, you got a lesson here, I mean, I do. I mean, I think I think one of the things I took away from this year, I think we saw it near the end of the year, especially, uh, was the the value of sort of hybrid players. And I know, I remember a couple of years ago in the preseason I had kind of jokingly said that, you know, uh, hybrid or multiple was kind of the buzzword, and you know, and I didn't quite I didn't quite follow up on that much this year. But I think whether it was the elite guys, you know, the David Johnson's and the Levian Bells, seeing how often they lined up out of the backfield at wide receiver positions and we're extremely effective there too. Even some of the guys that we saw really emerged later in the year, whether it was Taylor Gabriel or Tyreek Hill. Um, you know, these guys who can do multiple things and be effective at him. I mean as much as I you know, those are those coaches to figuring out ways to get them the ball in space? Yeah, no, absolutely, I mean, but we saw it a little bit with you know, in some ways. With Ty Montgomery obviously making the switch to running back. We saw it. I think with the wide the tight end spot. I know, tight end was kind of a waste land this year, but some of the more effective guys, I mean, you know, obviously you've got Gronk

who can do everything, you Walker who lined up at a slot position more than he lined up a tight end, Travis and Kelsey who moved all over the formation. This is the way of the world now in the NFL, when you have guys who are just uber athletic, who can get out there and do multiple things on the football field. So yeah, you know, and I think, I think, I think we're gonna see this, especially when we get to July and August. It's already starting now with this conversation who should be the number one overall pick? And the first three names that popped up obviously David Johnson, Levian Bell, Ezekiel Elliott, and I would say, right now, of those three, Zeke is my number three simply because he doesn't do he doesn't do the same work in the Cowboys passing game that those other two guys do in their teams respective passing games. I mean, you saw during the season this year, a lot of times in passing situations, especially late game situations when the Cowboys needed to move the ball quickly, you saw a lot more Lance Dunbar on the field than you did Ezekiel Elliott. You didn't. You certainly didn't see him, you know, lining up as a slot receiver and trying to you know, and forcing coverages to roll his way. So I think because of that, I think you still can feel confident in David Johnson regardless of what may happen in the Cardinals offense this year. You can certainly feel confident about leve Bell, but David Johnson was so old for a rookie, though old for second year running. There you go. Um. But I do think I think it's it's key to to kind of identify some of those players who can be that Swiss army knife. I mean, obviously, if you can get an elite level guy, that's amazing. But I think even in terms of finding role players, finding those flex guys or those r B twos or wide receiver two's who can do multiple things, because that keeps them on the field more, that gets the ball in their direction a lot more, and I think get in the long run will help you out. That's good stuff, all right. Uh, let's talk about some change that you would make in standard scoring leads. I don't know. I don't know if anyone else has anything else, but I get fired up about it because for me, yeah, I just look for me, I get fired up because in typical standard scoring leagues where passing touchdowns are are four points, I just it's so it devalues quarterback so much and it does not reflect what we're actually seeing on the field. And I think, to me, I think that's a big disservice because we are in a league where the top flight quarterbacks are the ones that lead their teams to victories and deep into the playoffs. But yet in fantasy their interchangeable parts. That just, to me, that doesn't feel right. And I'm currently playing. I currently only play or play seriously in leagues where passing touchdowns are six uh. And I was a big reason for that, because I'm always I just I get I get crazy about it because I'm like, this doesn't make sense to me, it doesn't make sense

whatsoever. And I the other thing, I'd love to see two and I don't play any leagues that that do this. Um, but I think interceptions in turnovers, fumbles lost and think they should be negative three that and the reason I'm saying that is because we can't have guys like Blake Bortles be a top ten quarterback. We can't. You can't leave the league and interceptions and still be a good fantasy player. To me, that just it doesn't feel right. I say I will, which, by the way, went to back champ. You know that will be announced shortly before the end of the way. Um, I will say. The corollary to that, though, is I actually would like to see pick six is maybe cost you more. Maybe they cost you a pick fire, Maybe it cost you six points because really does have to doesn't work out tackling or at least you know, learned to not throw it to the wrong colored jersey. Let's not ask too much. You guys know who led the league in interceptions this year? Wasn't but it wasn't a black board. It was not let me, It's Philip Rivers. It's Philip. He was the only one with more than Blake had sixteen. Oh boy, he liter legally last year. James, if I was actually going to if I'm gonna kind of pick provide a ancillary think to your thing here, like I don't know if so much. The answer is increasing the points for amount of touchdowns you throw. I think that helps, but it doesn't necessarily increase the value of the position overall because everybody gets that boost. I think the best way to make more quarterbacks relevant, make them more important is actually add a flex spot for quarterbacks. Super flex super flex why why uh? I like it. That's what adds the value to your quarterbacks because then when you have one of the elite ones, it's more of an advantage with a guy that's starting Alex Smith and Brock. I was like, let me, let me just do. Nobody cares about your fantasy teams. But I have a super flex dynasty where's the mu Yeah, I know, where's the mug with? I have a super flex dynasty league and my two quarterbacks in there are Tyrod Taylor and Alex Smith, And like I can, well, my team sucks because it sucks all around, but it's a pain having to have those as my two quarterbacks every week and then like hoping I catch fire with a backup like Matt Barkley, which I did this year too, as opposed to the guy that has you know, Aaron Rodgers and and Drew Brees or something like. That's a pretty big position because you that flex spot, it's got to be the quarterbacks. So the reason the reason I don't advocate that is because it's not fun playing bad players. It's just not Yeah, but isn't there some fun in trying to do the research on the deeper guy who's going to perform well that week or whatever? And if you're talking to one of the deans of danger zones, so yes, I I love doing the deep research. That's it is it is and watching random you know, Abilene Christian game tape. Okay, fine, I do that. Yes, I get it, but I and I get I get off on it, which is great. But it's just I don't know, man, consider every single week trying to play a bad player. It's just not fun. I don't. I don't. I don't enjoy that. I enjoy watching, you know, guys like Aaron Rodgers slinging around and making a huge impact. And I just feel like if you if you added negative three to the interceptions, it really separates the cream from the bottom feeders. You know what I'm saying. I can see that, so I guess I actually didn't think I had one, But I'm gonna throw one in place. Get kickers out, Get kickers out. No, you don't like it? Too random? I hate kickers. You know what. I will tell you this. I lost my I lost both my championships. Actually, well, I don't know if I could blame it on a kicker, but I did lose. I legitimately lost one championship because, uh, somebody ran out a kicker who got twenty points. Matt Bryant. That's the same. On the other side of the Brian helped me win. I hate it. And that's too random. I think that's too It is so at least with the defense, you can predict Yeah, that's a little. The kicker is completely unpredictable. If I'm gonna statistically, it is the second most predictable position. How is that quarterbacks? Because the main kickers mostly just mostly over the course, were the main kickers, you know, like your boy Guskowski. I mean one, no, no, no, I mean in the course of one season, from a week to week perspective, not a year to year to year. Get out of here. But you just gotta you gotta figure out, you know, a couple of weeks in. That's all I'm saying. From week to week perspective, it's pretty predictable, the same guys. But you're right, those guys will randomly pop up for a big week, and when they get twenty points, it's very freshening. I'm not trying to advocate for kickers. I'm just I mean, I get that random players will pop up and and do crazy things, but um on a week to week basis, but more upsetting than looking at a great fantasy line up being like, man, I'm an out winning and then seeing that your kicker has his offense had a great performance, but great performance, he kicked four extra points. The other side is Justin Tucker who kicked three fifty yard field goals in one game, And you're staring at like a twenty spot and like but and that and that double digit deficit is so hard to overcome and fantasy at a kicker position, like a kicker, Yeah, that's so, that's what. There's just so much volatility, and it's like like a few that it's so random because like so few people except for like diehards, will actually like stream kickers or something like most people just get a kicker and set it and forget it. That's the guy gets injured. So it's that up and down peak and valley there that's obnoxious. Whereas defenses, it's a little more fun because you can stream or you can get your leak ones the rest of positions. I love kickers an important part of the NFL game, but get him out of fantasy maybe is it maybe jumping on top of that, can we maybe we dampen their impact so you don't get bonuses for extra

yardage, so it's everything is just three or one. Yeah, I would be okay with that then too, because then that that I guess that adds some of the predictability to it, even a little more than what Harmon was saying in there, because you know there's nineteen points or twenty points or whatever for Met Bryant. That's I mean, justin Tucker turt I had an NFL record to think or set it with ten fifty plus yard field goals. Uh. I get the counter argument to that too, which is, hey, listen, a twenty seven yard field goal is not the same as a fifty five yard field goal, which I understand still counts for the same amount of points, though those count for the same amount of lights. Yeah, an ad R touchdowns different than an a d R like an a d R touchdown drive capped off by one year rushing touchdown. But yeah, alright, so there you go. Um, alright, so let's talk about let's wrap up basically the real quick all right? So what is on pace on Pace four? And if you guys are new to the to the podcast, UM, I I called mark Ingram on pace because you cannot talk about mark Ingram without talking about what he is quote on Pace four. Um, he coming into this season, he had previously never had a thousand yard rushing season. And unfortunately, good narratives do die, just so so sad I'm say I'm sad about this, not because I was wrong or not because you know, I'm not happy for mark Ingram. I'm I'm happy for mark Ingram, which is cool, not a completely terrible person. I am a terrible but I mean, but this narrative now has to die. It's no fun put it to bed, you know, because mark Gingram finished with one thousand and forty three rush yards as somebody uh put this in bold underline and the giant funt in the rundown. It was anonymous man. It was anonymous man. One thousand, forty three rush yards. In many respects, it was the best year of his career. He had a career high in terms of total touchdowns, he had ten uh career high in yards per carry over five um. He had a he had a great season by the way he did. I'd like to take this time to pat myself on the back too, because I also said that he would have ten touchdowns this year. Did you ten touchdown? Yeah? I said, that's now. I might I might have meant rushing. But whatever you have to in touch that, it's not important. It was not important. I like he said, after he got the thousand yards, he's gonna buy frame all of his offensive lineman's jerseys and put them up in his house. Yeah. Great, Well, it's a career year for Ingram because he played sixteen games, you know what I mean. That's right, And I think it's different. I think a big I think a big part of him staying mostly healthy for the whole years, the fact that they had kind of a three headed committee going Yeah, isn't that what's funny Because when he first got benched everyone was freaking out. But then ultimately that may have helped him. For sure. He was more efficient this year than he was last year on the ground, like the average sixty four yards per game last year and sixty five this year. And he hit with the average four point six yards per carry last year five point one this year. It's pretty good. All right. Let's talk about Marshal eleven hundred. I pegged Marvin Jones to get to eleven hundred yards and after the first month of the season on pace, well, the first month of the season, like that was a lock on pace. He was like on pace for yards. So I don't know what happened here, But Marvin Jones fifty five receptions, a hundred and three targets, so decent target totals, but just nine hundred and thirty yards, So he fell well short of eleven hundred. His career high previously was eight sixteen with the Bengals. But he did miss two games this year. I don't know if it would have made a difference. I feel like I don't think it had an injury or something and just a little bit. He just played through an injury that limited you know, that's got to be that's kind of what his m O has been. Uh, not not only with the Bengals, but even with cal he was you know, kind of more of an injury prone type player, but u yard And it was crazy too, right because he had that two hundred yard game and you're thinking, yep, he's going to get to by week ten. Yeah, and then Golden Tate took over and then what happened. I don't get what happened. I think if I could offer a theory about it, I think that's a therapy. I don't know about a therapy. But first, after the lines had shed Calvin Johnson, he kind of stepped into that role as the number one outside receiver. And to to a lot of people pointed this out, he'd never been that guy. You know, he was second fiddle to Keenan Allen, then he was second fiddle to A. J. Green's good point. And then this year he became that guy for the first three games. But they were still targeting him on a lot of low percentage down the field routes and when he was not seeing as as strong a coverage because you know, I was like, well, other teams, what's the we're not going to game plan to sup Marvin Jones. Uh. Then he was making a lot of those plays, but then as more coverage rolled his way, it freed up things for others, and then those low percentage routes became even harder, which just extrapolated the issue. And I think that, you know, it's just at that point you would still see him get targets, but it would always be again, really tough catches, and they just definitely didn't bounce his way. Yeah, I just feel like he couldn't get separation. Every time it looked like he was going for deep all the guy was like on top of him. I tweeted during that game against the Cowboys that at the time, from weeks four to weeks fifteen, he ranked ninety seven out of ninety seven receivers on separation target dead last. Oh yeah, but so James, Yes, no, March next year, call it right now. I'm gonna do March to eleven hundred. Obviously, the last two years have not gone great because last year was Dante death. I know Dante Moncrief just I mean, although he got hurt again this year, so whatever, But

yeah, Dante Moncrief was my guy last year. But two years agoes New Copkins, but Marvin Jones this year, and I thought it was looking good. I don't know, man, I don't know what we'll we'll we'll re examine the hard part about Marshall. Even eleven hundred yards is a good figure. But I have to go then go and pick a guy who is super random. Only twelve wide receivers got there. I was just gonna say, only thirteen players total total, and one of them was Travis Kelsey. Oh, there were twenty five receivers that had a thousand. But might it might have to I might have to figure out a way to mix in running backs, total yards, scrimmage scrimmage that I might have to. I don't know. Well, we'll tweak at this offseason. We'll see what's up. Maybe maybe I'll find somebody that I really like when I started thinking about this in the off season. But all right, we'll keep we hyped up and ready for place. Oh you know I would, of course. Let's talk about this quickly. Bear the hatchet here on a fell v boyd okay, please do? Okay, So this was the thing when A J Green went down, Um, Matt Harmon, who's an idiot? Okay, Matt Harmon, who's an idiot. Matt Harmon approached me and said, you know what, Um, I just approached you threw it out to the entire podcast. That's true, and I bit like an idiot, which basically because people behind the curtain back and like curtain here. Uh. Harmon discussed this and he's like, I bet you get cod to buy it on because nobody talking about it. No, no, And I was like, man, none of you guys want to know this. I figure i'd get one of you. And I'm like, I'm gonna get go on. Yeah, I'm too that's too easy. That's too younger, guy. Please, that's all I needed to know. One of these players was younger than the other. It's a good point. Um. A J. Green goes down with injury, who would fill the void? Would it be from a fantasy perspective, would it be Brandon LaFell or would be Tyler Boyd? Um? Matt Harmon picked Brandon LaFell with confidence, with confidence, and he threw it out on the podcast, and I took the bait and I said, oh, I'll take Tyler Boyd, no doubt, no doubt about it. Brend La Fell crushed he had fifty six point three points. Was the wide receiver nineteen in those last six weeks of the season or last whatever was it six games? I think? Anyways, from week twelve on he was he was fifty six point three points. Why receiver nineteen had more catches, more yards, more touchdowns Boyd? Boyd had thirty point nine points and was wide receiver four six games. And again I think, you know, Gillhard just kept spinning in my face about this in the newsroom. Was not spinning in your face. All I said was I wanted to have more fun with it. I went with Boyd, and I admitted that yours was the more protictable of the two. Not not not my point. My point was that not my narrative. I think that this is a really important point for for listeners is that, you know, because I think a lot of and I'm not saying this is what you were saying, go are, but a lot of people of think like, oh, well, it's a younger guy. You know, he's gonna have more upside. And the only thing that dictates upside in fantasy is usage. And during that span fifty two targets for Lafel, thirty one targets for Boyd. Lafell's targeted much more farther downfield. Boyd was just a low volume slot receiver. So I think in the future, you know, if you're making these decisions, you want to take the player that's going to see more high value targets, not the guy that's just younger and unknown that does not dictate upside. Okay, look, if I could, if I could defend myself permission Grant, I actually thought that Tyler Boyd would fill that outside receiver role. That's what I thought the role that he was going to fill. I didn't think that he was going to be a slot possession guy. Um. I just thought Brandon la felt we had seen enough tape on him. Athleticism was average at best. UM not saying that Tyler Boyd was some crazy amazing athlete, which he's not. But I just thought that he was going to be a little quicker off the line, and I thought he would be the guy that that they were SENTI grooming to kind of play outside for the Bengals offense. So, uh, that's what I thought going in when I when I took that proposition. Obviously I was incorrect in that assessment. And I think that's another thing too, like what even you know me? I was right in this instance, wrong on plenty of others. And it's important to emphasize what the team tells you, what the what the games have told you. And all year Boyd had played at the slot. They said, even in training camp, he's our slot receiver, no matter what. And I think, so that's more important than you know what you think. And again I'm not calling you out on that. I've done the same thing, oh you any times like that's fine, all the clues say that, but I believe this and a lot of times it's important to follow with And they said he's our slot wide receiver, no matter what. They did not expect A. J. Green to go down. That was one thing where we did not know. The tea leaves, as we said, were more predictive in the fashion that would be Lafel, But we didn't know. It's a massive loss, we said on this podcast. Plus you'd never replace a player of a J. Green's caliber one to one. But and plus I couldn't get the image of the Brandon fell on the trash can. Yeah, out of trash can Jersey. I couldn't do it. Understandable. It's a hard image to get out of there. Yeah, that is very true. But again that's like Galhart said at the top of the podcast, like, you know, the intersection of talent and opportunity. Sometimes opportunity Trump's talent. Like I'm not keeping up for Brandon Fell because I think he's good. He just was gonna step into more high value role. Yeah, it was something you end with Bengals players, Brandon the Fell, Jeremy Hill, I mean, just just riding for these dudes with opportunity. Yeah, well they've presented that this j Green, I mean, that's that's you know, Jeremy Hill is one of those to just

dive back requick in my like talent versus opportunity thing because like Jeremy Hill was playing very, very poorly, but he was getting the volume and at least he was getting it near the goal line, so that that didn't I'm sure and in other games, you know, he had his nineteen carries for nineteen yards, and I'm sure after weeks seventeen, Marvin Lewis is like, why didn't we just play Rex Goathhead this whole time? Hey, he did have a good game Week seventeen You're right, Run he's a free agent this year too. He's gonna be uh Burkehead is or Jeremy workout Burkett. Why are we talking about Berkey? Dude? Burkhead's guys get excited He's I do. I don't atually think you know. I mean, it's not getting this whole debate, but I think he's an interesting player. He can make it for decent signing somewhere. We'll see. I'm glad you've opened your eyes to the greatness of Rex. The question was again, this is the same thing. It's not questioning Rex Burkhead, it's just questioning opportunity. You hated him, all right, Let's move on franchise. Chris Ivory. What Chris Ivory? What? What was your What was your prediction on Chris? I said he would get six rushing touchdowns this year with the Jaguars, because coming into this season, it was Chris Ivery is going to be the red zone guy and t J. Yelden is gonna be a fifty fifty split and t J. Yelden isn't that good and everyone knew that. I think and Ivory had a huge year last year with the Jets. Trip I think how it all happened was like, you kept writing up Chris Ivory and I was like, bro, why do you keep talking? I did? He was like kind of my must him. You kept writing up and I was like, bro, why do you keep talking with Chris? I like, well, he's gonna be a good goaling back and I was like he's actually not a good red zone back and You're like, what are you talking about? And I was like, I bet she doesn't score six touchdowns this year. Yeah, So we wrote that on a sticky note. It stayed on my cube all season and every time few and far between times that Chris Ivory actually scored, he only had three touchdow, I was like, oh, he got one, to be fair. One of the reasons that I thought this would not happen would be that the Jags. Jags had to be a great passing because that's where all the great personnel was, and that even though they wanted to be a run team, and that really wasn't true yet, the Jags were just so no one thought they were going to be as bad as they ran way fewer plays in the red zone too. I was just looking at it. This year, they had like a hundred and forty some plays in the red zone this year. They had like our last year two years ago, and they had like ninety this year. So Chris Ivrey played in eleven games. He was hurt and I think in another one as well. So yes, um, it's all part of the experience. Is all part of the Chris Ivory experience. He only had thirteen fewer Russia attempts. T J Yeldan the whole season. Well, t J Yelden is not good, which is that I don't understand one seven he had a hundred and seventeen carries four or four hundred and thirty nine yards. That is bad. Yeah, so if they hadn't if the entire offense hadn't face Planet Franchise, you would have had a better shot at it. And they only they only ran the ball thirty one times in the red zone this year, but they ran it fifty two times two years ago. But here's the The other thing though, is that his career high is only seven touchdowns, So six touchdowns actually was a relatively aggressive total. But whatever, you're aggressive. This is like I understood his logics. It was coming off a year where the Jags too, they ran fifty two times they sucked running in the red zone, thought Dinard Robinson, a thirteen red zone Russia attempt. For whatever reason, t J Yielded just can't get it done at the goal line. He's not he's not built that way, you know. I mean there, but there are smaller backs that are able to burrow in all he's like, he's he just runs upright. I mean, that's the major problem is that he runs very vertical, but and then falls over and then okay, all right, point being YouTube YouTube Brown. I was, were we gonna do that after the podcast? Is that what we're doing? Let's do it now, Let's do it now. Chris Ivory sucks, all right, okay, alright, so there you go. So that boat, uh, that puts a h wraps up a lot of the things that we've been following all season long. And you know what, that's the fun part about Fantasy too. How by the way, how fired up were you when when Brandon fell caught that long touchdown. I was so stupid, I told you, But it's great. I was just so awesome about Fantasy. I was with my dad because it's Christmas Eve, like I had just gotten home from working that day and like when that game was on and I was like, no, Brandon fell like and he's like, what what is wrong with you? I was like, oh, I was like, you know, I was like, if I explained to you and explained that this is a work thing, you're gonna realized how ridiculous. I love this stuff though. It's so much fun. I love this stuff and that's what makes fantasy fun. Anyways, alright, so it makes fantasy fun. The podcast, So, James, I disagree. How did you discover this through this mashup that we're going? Oh my god. First of all, you guys have no idea the So I've got, like, you know, I've got like forty podcasts on my computer right now, okay, and I was trying to go through almost all of them, trying to find themes in the podcast. Uh the grinding the tape grinding tape on the podcast. H The Fiery Phoner obviously was the easiest one because that was every Friday, You're welcome. You knew it was coming, and they were already they're already so many great moments in the phone or I was like, Okay, obviously that's gonna be the first one. Um, and then I try to find some other themes. There are some listen guys listening to the podcast skill, I'm telling you we've got I'm gonna have a best of the podcast read. It's like it's gonna be like the Fantasy MVP Award. But there are some amazing

segments. But uh, I need to find some smaller things in the podcast themes that that that we could share as well. Um. I started going through and I'm like, Whitnesday, I have a ridiculous amount of singing clips and they're all terrible, and they are all terrible. So now we will be voting for best of the worst Singing of the NFL Fantasy Live Podcast. All right, here we go, best horrible Singing. It's gonna be fun. It's like, kind of I didn't mean for it to sound that way, but I think like it's just it just kind of came out that way though. So whatever you Gal has music, this is a This is a summary of Gal hards music takes, boy band, pop music, who was inc and the most garbage hard rock metal possible. Everything. I just summed up everything Nickelback did, Oh the Hero Heroster God and showing d the show. So I quote tweeted marks this picture with that lyric. How do you make that voice come out of you? I'm very talented. There seems to be an issue with my mic went off for a second. I'm sure that was an accident. Oh yeah, it's completely accident. My god. I feel like most of them, why are these all? They're all Harmon, you know, it's it's too Harmon and too well, too Harmon and to me and because we joined in one together. Ye wow. So these are your three nominating I think I just died. I forgot about I forgot that. I chimed in on the in sync one because I was like, I remember when Harmon did this, and I was like, oh no, I did false set up things? Are? You're thrown out? Gail Hart in Sync is one nominee. Harmon gel Harmashup Nickelback is your other nominee. Harmon with wonder Wall is your final. Forget it was Harmon Guilhardt Nickelback featuring Josie Scott from Saliva. That was deep. That's it was the Spider Man one sound. That addition there, I mean like I was leaning that way with that addition there. I mean, I feel like it's you know it was. It was. It was the spider Mad song by questionable band sung poorly. I feel like that's that's the winner. Here's the thing spider Man. By the way, these were the three bands that were nominated. Okay in sync Nickelback featuring Josie Scott from Saliva she Uh and Wonder Wall Sorr Oasis is Good. Is all irrelevant unless you're a forty year old dadas. This is not fourty year old dad music. What is it? And what is it? Kind is like? No, not like forty year old life has passed him by a loan at a bar somewhere. No, it's forty year old dad music that you pop on in front of your kids to be like, see you guys, I'm not I'm not a total dweeb. See I listened to this back in my day. I listen to this cassette. All right, who's gonna start the voting? I mean, isn't it easy? I feel like it's got to be then got to be Nickelback and I can. I don't know. I would vote for Nickelback just because I had me laughing. But the best part of that match up to me was Harmon describing Ghar's musical thing. That's why I was gonna go. I was crying just now. That was just me reporting fact. Yeah, those are not fact. I don't know. It's close. I was. I was going to vote in Sync. That's my vote. I like my votes, the Hero one, the Spiderman one Spiderman. Alright, so I think I think nickel Back is the winner. I think nickel Backs the runaway winner. Is that your choice? I was. I was a toss up between end Sync because my own falsetto caught me by surprise. It was good and then and like I said, the breakdown of your basic taste was also it was also quite strong. But I think it's hard to get away from the organ the Organic de Wet, because it features two trash artists and two trash singers and that was well speak well, speak for yourself one. Uh no, I've got video evidence of well that what I'm saying. When I'm saying that doesn't count, I mean I haven't, I haven't, no, no, no, we we listen. We went to karaoke night pell Oh. Yeah, we've gotten into that. We've got visual evidence. Now that is your sad ever makes it out to the public. My god on multiple for multiple Yeah. Man, the listeners, y'all don't know, all right, I think so. I think nickel backs the round the way win. I mean, it's a show end. It was a show stopper. We were already at a really bad point in the podcast when that started, just like I feel like we're at now. Yeah, So you're inaugural best of Worth singing for the NFL Fancy Alf Podcast. Congratulations Matt Harmon and Alex Skill harm for your rendition of as they give each other an air high five of nickel back. Hey, we're a great team when it comes to singing. Oh boy, all right, so there you go. Let's get to Daily DAPs to get out describing depths depth for a show that we don't have anything to talk about. It's run pretty much. We was. I was going to point that out as well. That is amazing. That is amazing. Alright, Daily DAP time, give it to me, Matt Harmon. It's so I think my Daily DAP is gonna be a little bit more sports related. I'm gonna give a DAP to Eli Manning, which sounds weird in this midst of this horrible season he's having, but I'm gonna give adapt to Eli Manning for his ability to be actually somewhat funny in slapping down the non story story of Odell and the boys on the boat. I love the fact that he just bit back with you know, I was disappointed to see that they really didn't they weren't preparing well. I mean, they didn't even pack shirts for the trip. I thought that was really good, I thought so, I think, I think that's fun I think I was nicely done, just because I think this entire story is ridiculous. We were talking about this at lunch today, how it's it's great, how the media is like this, and I say this as media. I realized that I'm doing that thing that I hate. But like, it's just funny that so many people are like, the team has said, this is not a story, it's not a big deal, coaches said that, quarterback has said that. But then people in some outlets are still like, yeah, but we're still gonna talk about it. They're not telling the truth, Like let's it's definitely still a story. But like the team has said, its story. And I think Eli has

done a really good job of being funny about that. So he gets my Dad, MG, my guy, Marcus Grant. Um, I want to daily, Dad, I want to day that the Rose Bowl, that the game itself not not obviously you know, being there on Monday was a lot of fun and it was great, but um, just it reminded me how amazing it is as a sporting event in and of itself, and just it's one of those things that it should be on your sports bucket list to do at some point. Um, you know. And I say that because I was sort of like so so about actually going to the game. Um, anyone who lives in Los Angeles knows how much of a hassle it is to get to the Rose Bowl Stadium. It's I mean, it's you understand, getting through Pasadena, which is just this kind of the sleepy little town, Um, this little city, and it's in in a canyon, in a residential neighborhood, adjacent to a golf course where you have to park. If you're not they're like super early or have special parking. I mean, everything about it just seems like a nightmare. And I felt kind of like, I don't really know if I want to go, but my dad is coming to town and he really wants to go, so let's figure it out. And being there um on New Year's Day or around New Year's Day for that game, and seeing just all the pacheon treet that goes in there, and even just being in that stadium where it is, you know, half one team's color and half the other team's color, and just the excitement and everything that goes into it. Um yeah, it just reminded me that that it's a really really special thing to do and if you are a sports fan of any stripe, that it is something that you should you should acquire to do, you should you aspire to be there. And so, um, you know, congrats to them for putting on another great show, uh the game, especially if you you know, if you were even just a neutral party, it was just amazing to watch. Um. So yeah, daily death to the folks in Pasadena for for year in and and year out for the was it the hundred and third year putting on a really great show And maybe one day the cow Bears can experience oh oh, unprovoked, unprovoked. Speaking of your boy USC the podcast, USC's quarterbacks Sam Donald has won the Archie Griffin Awards. Was most Valuable Player for the entire season, first freshman to ever win itsgelation, Sam Donald. I was, I was happy for the conference, and here comes Marcus Grant. Just blow torch. What's up with that? You know you'll get us? Oh my god, that was just uncalled for. Al Right, whiz kid, what's up? I'm gonna adapt the movie Lion. It's uh not out super wide, but if you live in a major city you'll probably able to get check it out. It's starring Deaf Patel who was in Slum Doc Millionaire, Nicole Kidman's in it, Rooney Mars in it. It was a surprisingly really good story and I didn't realize at first that it was based on a true story. It's based on the book and of this guy who, as a child, I think he was living in in India, accidentally got on a passenger train that took him thousands away, miles away from his house. He was five years old, couldn't get off, didn't speak It dropped him in Calcutta, didn't speak the English, survived a bunch of hardships, was in like a foster home and was adopted by an Australian family. And then twenty five years later realized it's like I need to try and go back and find my birth mother and my family and stuff. So it's his journey through all that as a child, and you get him as an adult and he's played by death Ptel and then his journey trying to find his home because he I mean, he was five when he was on a train that traveled for three, like two or three days, so he has this wide range of train stops in India. He's trying to narrow down and find his family from and his true story. And it's it was really well done. It's really cool, and it's a it's a smaller movie that's not getting as much attention. It's been nominated for a bunch of awards, so hopefully it picks up some steam. But wasn't there an ad for Google or something that had to do with that? Probably because he used Google Earth, like the actual person did. Google Earth had popped up shortly after this time because he was talking about with people and they were like, you should try and use Google Earth. Yeah, he used Google Earth to help help find it. I mean, I haven't read the book. That's that's kind of what's partially portrayed in the movies. Amusing Google Earth. So but it's a really it's a really good movie. Uh. You know, want a good heartwarming tale as as uh, you know, we need some of those once in a while. It's pretty cool. I will daily dap the uh the GOP congressman's son, Roger Marshall's son. Did you guys see this Roger Marshall was getting uh sworn in at the Nation's capital. It was Roger Marshall, who is a GOP congressman. Uh. It was how speaker Paul Ryan swearing in Roger Marshall, Roger Marshall's son was there holding the Bible, and he then during the photo op, proceeded to start dabbing repeated repeatedly. He's a teenager, like fifteen or sixteen or something, but like it was so the thing was so he had one hand on the Bible and the other hand was he was dabbing, and Paul Ryan was so confused. Paul Ryan asked him if he was all right and was wondering if he was. He was asking me, are you about to sneeze? That's amazing. He didn't understand what was happening. But then they start doing the whole photo and his arm still does not go down by so then Paul Ryan then physically pushed his arm down. Do you think do you think Paul Ryan uh I didn't know what he was doing. I think I think you see I I would present a different possibilities and that he knew what the kid was doing and was trying to not so like to subtly say like are you trying to sneeze right now? Like like are you really doing that at this moment? I think that's the potential. I don't know. I've looked at the video and like the look on Paul Ryan's face, he didn't look upset at first. He just was confused, like utterly, utterly confused. I only heard the audio of it. I

didn't see the video. So it was amazing. That's great. It was amazing. It's all over the twitters, so go find but but but daily DAPs to Roger Marshall's kid that opportunity. That's awesome, which is just like, come, it's great. I mean talking about the most random place ever to go see a dab is at a GOP congressman swearing in ceremony. Pretty great. What that's awesome, That's great? Alright, France, what you got Alright, I'm gonna daily DAPs. This show I've been watching on A and E UM. It's a documentary about Scientology produced by Leah Remini, who's actress. She was a former scientologist herself for at least twenty years, I think. So it's basically, uh like a mini series and each episode, basically she's meeting with people who either were high up in the Church of Scientology or had been in the Church of Scientology for twenty thirty years and have left. And they're all of their individual stories of tragic loss and sadness and just being disconnected from family members and trying to reunite, and how the Church of Scientology holds people back from having personal relationships. And it's crazy, it's emotional. It's so eye opening and enlightening as to a sham, the sham that the Church of Scientology is, and it just brainwatches people. Um. And there was this documentary a few years ago on HBO I think it was called Going Clear that basically it was like two and a half hours that was basically like, this is who l Ron Hubbard is, like his life the guy who started Scientology kind of brings you through what Scientology is and about is about and this is very different where it's like these people's personal stories and they're crying on camera and like just wearing their heart on their sleeves about what they've gone through and how crazy it is. And I can imagine it's ridiculous. I haven't seen it, but I can imagine it's a it's got to be a pretty good one. Remedy has talked about openly about how emotional of a journey it's been for her to kind of leave the church Scientology for sure, and once you leave, like they come after you, they spy on you, and they try to make your life hell and living in Hollywood like they own a bunch of buildings a yard. On my way to the gym, I walk past like the l round Hubbard Theater every day and it's like really surreal, just like seeing the propaganda. So I wonder if we have any Scientologist listeners. That's interesting. They're not allowed to like listen to me media. No, it's like a thing like they scare you into not reading press that's negative about Scientology. That's when you're in there. And if they do come, if they do and they are listening, come at me Brome so you can come at him disappeared. It's just really good. You guys should watch it. It's awesome. It's on A and E. It's called Scientology and the Aftermath. That's interesting. Sick, that's interesting stuff. All right, So there you go. Pick good show today, Beef out of Nowhere. I like it for MG my guy, Marcus Grant, Matt Harmon, Matt Franciscovich. And now it's all I'm James called, We're out. James needs that clip Nae money. His life's getting cushy over there now, walking in with cupcakes. It's fancy clothes. Yeah, shirts tucked in today. Yeah, look at that. How much did that watch this one? I'm gonna go with five. Yeah, it probably was five d bucks. Actually, I think you're right. Actually I think I bought it on sale for five bucks. So I guess the clip Nae plays pays well, huh from the last not sure about that. You can't prove it's not quite not quite my narratives. Let's see the receipt, brokay. All right, Okay, I'm just saying, making all this basketball money while it's football people are just withering away, withering. I don't know where I don't know where my next meal is coming from my first day off. I'm going to be in the in the streets of Hollywood, scrounging change from the sidewalk. You're not maybe maybe the burrito truck will have some some drawings. You're not even you're not even living, Patrick, you're living day to day. Yeah okay, yeah, okay, you wouldn't. You wouldn't know anything about saving for a wedding. By far the least of the common man here. Wow, that escalated quickly. I apologized, James, where'd you get your hairs out? Too? Who styled it for you? Who styled it? I actually got my hair cut? I actually get this is this is the rich getting richer. I get free haircut from talent services. Talent Services service, talent service. That looks like some expensive product. Probably it's it's crue. Isn't an amazing That's do this to me all the time at our desks, like because some of them gets nibble. Stick has been this stick is well practiced. Just they trained back and forth as they feast on your flesh.