Wow, Hey everybody, It's Monday, December ninth, twenty twenty four. Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Show where we should have learned to be better at baseball.
It's me and your man, am G. Marcus Grant, joined by Michael F. Florio and Lakwan Jones.
I would have been disappointed, Florio if you were not sporting Mets gear on the day after the Mets land the biggest fish in MLB.
So congrats to the Metropolitan so on Jan Sota, thank you.
Not only do they get him taking him from the Yankees, and like I.
Know, people were like, why do you care about the Yankee?
Like No, I grew up as a Mets fan in New York after my team was taken hostage by a Ponzi scheme, and Yankee fans mocked us for decades Like I'm I'm celebrating this till.
The wheels fall off.
I look any I feel like self respecting American sports fan has feelings about the Yankees, just like they have feelings about the Cowboys, the Lakers.
I guess at this point probably the Dodgers too.
But whatever, we got a whole lot to dive into on today's show, we will have our biggest takeaways from the week. That was still one more game, of course, to be played Monday Night Football between the Bengals and the Cowboys, but that we will have our look at the rest of Week fourteen, plus the waiver wire. Because no fantasy playoffs start for most the leagues coming up this week, the waiver wire going to be very, very
important for a whole lot of people. But let's get started, as we always do, with some fantasy headlines and a couple of quarterback headlines to dive into. We will start in Las Vegas, where Aidan O'Connell was carted off the field after suffering a knee injury in the game on Sunday, and early reports are this could be season ending for O'Connell. So Florida, we have gone through Gardner Minshew, we have
gone through Aidan O'Connell. It would appear, barring some signing during the week that day is the next man up now. Rock Bowers has been good regardless, Jacoby Myers has been pretty good regardless of the quarterback. Is Desmond Ridder a bridge too far for us to keep starting these skill position guys in Vegas?
Definitely not with brock Bauers.
But I know Patrick Claibon had been calling out Aidan O'Connell for not scrambling ever in his NFL career, and he did like three times yesterday, and every time he did he came up lame. So like I think we realize why he doesn't run ever. But brock Bauers, look, he is simply.
Too good to get away from.
He already broke Sam Laporta's rookie record for tight end record for catches. He's a little over one hundred yards away from setting the yard record, which Mike Dicko's record has stood since the sixties.
That is how impressive brock Bowers is.
And like you said, the quarterback play hasn't really been all that great, So Desmond Ridder maybe a little bit of a knock, but not enough for me to get away from him. If anything, maybe this takes some shine away from Jacoby Myers. He's much more option dependent, but I do think he is even in play just because of volume, So that one depends a little bit more on who you have besides him. But yeah, unless you have like Trey McBride or George Kittle, I don't see how you get away from Brock Powers.
I mean, I just keep flashing back to last year, you know in Atlanta where we were so frustrated for guys like Drake London and Kyle Pitts because it was Desmond Ridder.
Turns out with Pitts. Maybe the quarterback wasn't the situation.
There, but for Drake London certainly it was impactful getting away from Desmond Ridder this season. Other quarterback news, Lakwan, Derek Carr suffers a left hand fracture, another quarterback who was injured trying to scramble. He also, as you mentioned in our text chain, trying to do all Taysom Hill type things and hurdle people, which no, just no, that's not your job, buddy, it's not. It's not that's not your that's not in your bag. That's not in your
bag at all. But I mean, look, Lakwan, we have been through so many injuries, right with the wide receivers, Olave sha Heed, You've lost Sayson Hill, so many guys gone now and now Derek Carr is gone.
I mean, what are we doing with the Saints at this point? Ah Man?
I mean, Adam Kamara is the only safe option Man, because you honestly lose that deep ball with MVS. So I'm not gonna be banking on him to have that Boom or bus. You know, it's most likely gonna be bus during this playoff run. And I can't trust guys, you know, out there with quarterbacks that you came a name off the top of your head, Like when the guy came in number three, I don't.
Even know his name.
I'm just thinking, like, who's this guy? We're Spencer Radnberg, Jake Hayner by the way, yes, who.
Is this guy?
And I'm like, this does not seem like it's good for my pass catchers. But again, who's left? Chrysal Lobby's gone, Rashid's gone. I mean, I don't even know Mason Tipman. Maybe, Like it's like guys that are just guys that you cannot trust, Like MVS seems like you know a good option to go to, but we need that deep ball to exist there, and I don't think it's there with Jake Henner.
Yeah, I mean, it's just it's just not a good situation. Even the thing about Alvin kamaras you mentioned, we saw a lot of Kendre Miller and Obviously it's a new regime because when it was Dennis Allen, he never had one nice thing at all to say about Kendred, not even like the way he wears his socks. He couldn't say one nice thing at all about him. With Darren Rizzy,
it's a whole different situation. Rizzy seems to like Kendre Miller wants to get him on the feeling we saw a lot of him this past week, So even the Alvin Kamara workhorse thing might be going away, which is probably taking away the one thing that we thought we could count on in New Orleans. I mean, if Miller's gonna get more touches and especially get them down near the goal line, it's gonna be a tough sledding for anybody trying to start Kamara the rest of the way.
I should look at Miller as basically a Taysom Hill, but in the actual running back, like when the usage in the red zone and all that other stuff.
But I think Alvin Kamara for the most part should be fine. No right, maybe I don't know.
Feels like a situation where he won't score many touchdowns, but he'll have like the ten catches for forty eight yards or something like, let's go.
I'm all in on that. I'm okay with that.
I'm not greedy man.
The playoff there here, I need that. All right. Well, we'll we'll see how this thing goes.
But I will say that the early returns are a little bit concerning for Alvin Kamara. Let's take a look at some of the week's top scorers. Two more teams left to play. Josh Allen did everything except pull out a win. Counts for six touchdowns, three injured and forty two passing yards, eighty two rushing yards nearly fifty two Fantasy boys from Josh Allen, chiebas Zach Sharbona, the Seahawks
sipping sharbone and only the Cardinals particularly like that. One hundred and thirty four rushing yards, two touchdowns on the ground. Also seven catches fifty nine yards thirty eight point three points.
There.
Pooka Nakula had himself a day and what was a really entertaining game over at SOFI Stadium. Twelve catches a bucks, sixty two a touchdown, Also sixteen rushing yards in a touchdown, nearly forty two points for Puka. George Kittle doing things for the forty nine six catches one hundred and fifty
one yards twenty one point one points. There, Jason Sanders four mayfield goals for the Miami Dolphins that was sixteen points, and the forty nine er defense having a day against the Bear seven sacks I take away, thirteen points allowed, thirteen fantasy points scored for the Niners defense. So those are some of the top level fantasy eros. Now look a little bit closer to home, Lakwan who is your hero for Week fourteen?
Man?
I needed this so bad from Tyrone Tracy because the wire was so weird this week with the running backs like you look at a Sincere McCormick, look at Isaiah Davis. But I was happy that we were able to lean on Tyrone Tracy. The dude had a season high ten targets, man, because it was looking nasty on the ground when he
had the lay up matchup. But Drew Locke, he brings a little bit more functionality and familiarity with the Giants offense, playing like Daniel Jones, running out of the pocket, using his legs a little bit more, even making the same decision, so he's mirroring the Giants offense and these are the games where Tyrone Tracy becomes very, very useful. But I was very very surprised about the route that he was running,
how many routes he was running. I think that the Giants were actually putting a lot more on their play for Tyrone Tracy to see how much more they can get out of them, because ten targets is a little crazy to me to see when you had them little Perry on the sideline and Devin Singletary barely even touched the field. So I think they were seeing how much
of the workload they can put on Tyrone Tracy. And this is good news heading into the playoffs, because even though the Giants offense is bad, Tyrone Tracy still makes an impact to be Fantasy relevant.
I think the thing with Tyrone Tracy for the remainder of the season is the Giants obviously are going nowhere. Why not see what you have in your rookie running back, right, Devin Singletary is kind of a stopgap option. I don't think anybody expects that they're building around him, so why not see what you got with Tracy?
So maybe this is what we see for the remainder of the year. Floria. I look at your fantasy hero.
Is this just to sort of ease the pain from what happened to your team yesterday?
Or what h no.
Shout out to Lakwan the Rams lights out, and look, it's not the end of the world for the Bills, non conference all that. It did break my heart because
I'm like, you can't trust Sean McDermott. But I had five teams that came down to the wire yesterday of whether or not I was going to make the playoffs, and on three of them I had a lot of play all My team pretty much was in this window with the Cardinals, the Bills, and the Rams, and Poka Nkua showed out first player in NFL history twelve plus catches, one hundred and fifty plus reck yards and with a
rushing and receiving touchdown, first in NFL history. And I had a league where I was long out of it record wise, I was like five and seven, five and eight something like that. But the last playoff spot goes to most points and I was seventy five behind. I didn't even check all day. I look at the end, I blew this person out by like one hundred and fifty points because Hooka Nikua in that league gave me something like fifty.
So Puokah in two leagues single handedly, him and.
Josh Allen dragged me into the playoffs with team that maybe shouldn't be there, but I don't care because I'm there and I have Pookin Nakua, so anything is possible now.
Once you get to the playoffs, who knows is gonna happen at that point. So nikoua matata for Michael f Florio and his fantasy squad this weekend.
For me, my.
Fantasy Euro of the week is Chuba Hubbard because everything pointed to Chuba Hubbard not having a really good fantasy day, but apparently, unlike the leader of Ovo, Hubbard still has at least a.
Couple hits left in him.
A nice day against the Eagles there got you twenty point seven fantasy points found the end zone, ninety two rushing yards. I looked at this as one a bad matchup, but also a game where the Panthers are going to have to be pass heavy, so maybe we didn't see
quite as much chewba. Hubbard maybe helped a little bit because Jonathan Brooks went down did not play the full game, so that meant more opportunities for Hubbard over the course of the contest, but still for him to get you twenty points in a week where you probably had to start him but didn't really expect.
The whole lot.
I think that goes a long way towards cementing him as certainly one of the un sung heroes of the fantasy season, but possibly a fantasy hero for you, especially if it was enough to help push you into the postseason. Those are some of our small takeaways from what we saw, but maybe a bigger takeaway from what we saw this past weekend.
Lakwan, what did you learn you guys?
Every team needs a Adam Thielen old man feeling still got it, Like he's out there functioning as if he's this wide receiver one playing for the Vikings again, because just look how much better this Panthers offense look every single week where it's just surprised of the things that Bryce Young was doing. Screw the stats, screw the outcome of the game. Bryce Young looked great and was able to have Adam Delon look like he was playing his
old self. That fourth down tip trill was amazing. That's the veteran clutchness that Adam Thinglan brings so like the volume that he's getting right now, It's crazy to me that he's only rostered in like fifty percent of the leagues. The amount of volume he's seeing these last two games, man, is something that you need to pick up and have ready and stashed on the bench to be prepared to show up and show out when his name is called.
And Adam deeln Man, I just absolutely think that he's going to be here next year for the Panthers, and the Panthers are going to go out there and win eight games. And I say this with confidence. I say this with confidence only because last week I came on here in this mic and I said, I'm not scared of Eagles defense. That secondary not scared a at all. The Rams they beat theirself, and Bryce Shawm was out
there executing on this defense. The Eagles defense. Guys, he almost went out there and won the game.
He did. I mean, they were, they were, They were very feisty.
On Sunday, Adam Rank has made the point that right now the Panthers are racking up a whole lot of moral victories, maybe not actual ones, but they are playing well feeling to me, feels like a guy who's good in doses. Like I don't know that you could count on him over the course of you know, sixteen seventeen games, but I think, you know, spots here or there.
I do think he still has a little bit of juice left.
I still think if you're the Panthers, you got to go out and get yourself a wide receiver though, either in the draft or free agency.
Still got it.
He's got it for now. Again, like I'm not building.
I'm not trying to build the whole am playing out of Adam Thielen is what I'm telling you.
So they should get someone like Deontay Johnson.
Oh no, no, no, no, all right, So let's take our minds off of that depression.
What is your takeaway, Floria, Josh Allen is the fantasy goat. And I've said this for a while now, but I don't know how people can even argue it.
Like he's had some of the best fantasy seasons. He is routinely finished as the.
QB one, and now he has the highest scoring game that a fantasy quarterback has ever had and the first quarterback since Auto Graham with six with three passing three rushing touchdowns in a game. For context, when Auto Graham played, they didn't wear helmets. They had the letter still like that is how far back we are going, and what
he is doing is special right now. And I had a number of people text me to this morning like, yeah, I should I had zero business winning this week, but then I had Josh Allen and now in the playoffs and stuff like that. And next week he gets the Lions, so like it could be. I'm not saying he was gonna give you fifty again, but expect another huge number. And yeah, he is just the bet because the elite passing, elite rushing, the best fantasy quarterback in history.
In my opinion, it's between him and Lamar Jackson.
Uh. Fun fact, Otto Graham also played basketball in what was the NBL then for the Rochester Royals, which if I have my am, and they.
Didn't jump when they shot back then as much of plumbers. They dressed in house shoes.
But if I'm not, if I am correct, I believe the Rochester Royals you now know them as the Sacramento Kings.
I think it's who they are. Correct After Autogram, they were not lighting the beam in Rochester. I think back in the day they were not.
For me.
The thing I learned is backup running backs matter.
And we talked this time of year about adding the handcuff to whoever your top running back is across Fantasy, and this week showed exactly why that is important. You look at the guy who had our Fantasy relevant games, or who found the end zone. I mean, obviously we expected a lot out of Isaac Garrindo. That happened was great until he got hurt late in the game. Patrick Taylor found the end zone, but Tyler Aljier, Tank bigsby, Isaiah Davis. All these guys found their way into the zone.
Kindre Miller another one who got a whole lot of opportunity.
So just a reminder at this point in the season, you have a lot of running backs, We have a lot of wear and tear. I thought he was talking about Zach Sharboney, how I forgot him having a just a bananas game against the Arizona Cardinals. This is the time of the year where these guys start to get more opportunity, either because the guy ahead of them.
Is hurt or maybe run down after a full workload.
This is when you start to see some of these other guys, These secondary backs get more opportunity, so it's worth picking some of them up, if for no other reason to have insurance for your top back.
But also some of these guys.
Might just end up being fantasy relevant over the final few weeks of the season. Yes, in fantasy RB's matter, and backup our bees especially matter. Speaking of backups, we're gonna dive into some waiver wire coming up after the break. Plus we got a Johnny Smith update that and Moore coming up on the NLFL Fantasy Football Show. Let's take a look at this week's waiver wire options. Big week florio the playoffs start for a lot of leagues. Who's your folks beat targeting?
Yeah, only quarterbacks if you need to stream.
But I like Jamis Winston against the Chiefs this week and Aaron Rodgers surprisingly because he gets the Jaguars first.
Three hundred yard game in like thirty eight games.
I believe Zach Charboney should already be rostered, but if he has not had him Sincere McCormick led the Raiders and has a good schedule the rest of the way. Isaiah Davis and Braylen Allen split work, but both could be streamed and both are options.
You need to pick up Patrick Taylor Junior.
And then I have Keshan Vaughn as well because both Isaac Grendo was injured yesterday as well, and then Sean Tucker because Bucky Irving was injured, and Blake korm who's been getting a lot of work for wide receivers.
Adam Olman feel needs to be added.
I agree with Lakwan Roma Dunzay Sterling Shepherd continues to be the number two target behind Mike Evans and then Ray Ray McLeod. He has kind of jumped Kyle Pitts in the target pecking order and then tight Ends.
Not any great.
Options this week, but Juwan Johnson, Grant calcatarare probably your best bet. And then Michael Mayer low Key had a lot of volumes despite brock Bowers being brock Bowers.
I think that happened because I was going out and saying in my bold prediction that brock Powers would be.
The tight end one overall. So the Raiders are like, you know, we'll show you. We're gonna throw it to our other guy for a little bit into the pod Man.
So if you started Michael Mayer, you can thank me for the performance that he had. One of the names on that list that I think is interesting Lakwan is Romo Dunza because we know obviously it's been up and down for the Bears.
They did not look.
Good, especially in the first half yesterday against the forty nine ers, but Odunze ended up with a couple of touchdowns. I'm still not sure who the number two target in the offenses behind DJ Moore, but it does feel like Caleb and Rome are starting to build something together.
Yeah, you're seeing these things flash, like these little connections in chemistry that they're building for the future. Like this is good for Dynasty, but right now it's a headache trying to figure out which week is going to be Roman Dunese. I don't even think Thomas Brown, the head coach, now even knows who's the second target on this team. Because there's times where Cole Comet shows up he's relevant. Then there's Keenan Allen going off last week. Now you
got Romadonza. It's like it's a headache that I don't think for fantasy managers they want to constantly deal with. So hopefully you know, these fantasy playoffs will get a little bit more ironed out, and this Caleb and Romadonese connection continues to build. So he's definitely, you know, a wide receiver I want to pick up off the way war because I'm looking for straight Depp. If I'm going into the playoffs, I want to have the Warriors on
the bench. I don't want zombies, guys that have no vume or you're waiting, you know, your guy that you've been waiting on for all season long, just so you could say, great Dorge scored a touchdown.
Yeah, that's me. I'm that guy. I still have Great Dorch on my bench.
Roman Dunese is definitely one of those guys that I definitely want to target priority on the waiver wire this week.
Until you said that, I was about to just pop off about, you know, starting Jalen McMillan this week. I was mostly you know, because circumstances were dire. But I did start Jaylen McMillan this week, after waiting all year long for him to actually do things. Yeah, Florida Leakwan talked about, you know, having headaches and trying to figure out wide receivers, which sort of brings me to Tim Patrick because you know, when he was in Denver, I felt like a breakout year was coming for him with
the Broncos. They let him go, he goes to the Lions. It was quiet for most of the year. Last couple of weeks really started to pick it up. Obviously, had the two touchdowns this week, which is a really big deal. Starting to see more targets. Is it enough that he's worth starting or is it like just enough that he's going to be an annoyance for anybody else that.
I mean, yeah, two touchdowns was great.
Seven targets, but every game prior to that four or fewer this year. And the thing is aman Ros Saint Brown is not going the way Jamie Williams is not going away. Those pass catching running backs are not going away. And now we're also seeing Sam Laporta utilized a little bit more, especially in the red zone. So same I feel, look,
I like a Dunes say more than Tim Patrick. But my viewpoint is like, unless I'm really weak at wide receiver, this is the time of year where I'd rather use my bench spots on running backs because they are one injury away from being a player that we could start every single week. Like I added Patrick Taylor in a couple of leagues last week, thinking like this isn't gonna
come to anything, but now it might. So this is like, unless again I need a wide receiver, I'm gonna let someone else pick these guys up, and I'm gonna be adding the running backs this week.
Yeah, I mean this obviously, you know Sonic and Knuckles, kind of the big things going on there with the Detroit Lions, and besides, as you mentioned Saint Brown, I guess sanly Porta is starting starting to flash a little bit too, So a couple of names to kind of keep in mind there.
Speaking of tight ends, I guess it's so John Smith update. It was looking so good for you, Lakwan.
He had zero catches for the entirety of the regulation in the Dolphins game against the Jets, and then in overtime John who came to life three catches, forty four yards and the game winning touchdown thirteen point four fantasy points all in overtime.
He's the tight end four right now. He has pass Travis Kelce.
He's one point eight points ahead of Travis Kelce, nearly twenty four points ahead of the Titan six. Who is Kate Otton. I mean, it's not over, but man, it's looking bleak for you right now, buddy.
It's over.
It's like I've literally had tweets lined up celebrating, like, yo, zero points, this is exactly what we needed. I was like so excited for Kate on and putting up ten points. I'm like, this is all I need to give it a chance. And then you get Zach Ers Mark Mark Andrews back from by. This can make this thing possible for him just to finish right out to the top five. But no, he would turn up in overtime. Look soon
that play right there. As soon as he called the ball and got up and screened, I was like, oh no, I'm screwed. He's going to activate John new Smith in overtime, this secret weapon that was just non existent for four quarters. But in the fifth quarter, of course, John knew needs to show up and show out and make my hair blonde.
One, this keeps them in the contention.
But two, we know for a fact that John new Smith knows about this, as he is aware that your hair is on the line right now.
Yes, yeah, we.
Heard from our friend inside of a reporter Cameron Wolf who actually maybe we're gonna try to get him in studio with us on Wednesday for the show. But he did explain your your plight to John new Smith, which I think the response was something to the effect of, good, I hope he goes blonde because he doubted me, yes, which is it's not really true because you did doubt him, you actually thought he could do it, and that's.
Sort of your You're his biggest believer. Yeah, exactly, I'm the only believer. Apparently, like it's crazy.
Come on, now, you're gonna pay for it.
People are gonna say they like John new your hair is gonna prove it absolutely look godd color though strawberry blondet.
We got it that it's gonna be a circle for this whole season.
That is for sure going to be a moment we love. At is time now for moments we love and your shut out because the Vikings have had some really good celebrations, but cam Binam and Josh Mattelish had a team celebration after they intercepted Kirk Cousins. They recreated the dance from the movie White Chicks. It was fantastic. Tom Pelaso our own Insider tweeted about it after he asked cam bid him and he said, we watched it a million times.
The mental reps is everything, just like watching film. You watch it, then it's all right, Josh, we gotta master it. Took thirty minutes one day just to master it. I am impressed, Florio by the commitment to excellence by the Vikings defense on this one.
This is what the third or fourth time that they their celebration has been the moment we love like it. I want to know what they have that like every week, I hope they get a pick six because they're just gonna pull something out and it's always from like a movie that you probably haven't thought of in a long time, but then you see it and you're like, oh my god, like it's from White Chicks or something like that.
H Man, it was fantastic.
So shout out to the Vikings who did not make the did not allow the Kirk Cousins revenge game to happen because they shut it down and had a little bit of fun in the process.
Now for us, that is it's we are done.
We appreciate you hanging out with the NFL Fantasy Football show.
You know, the drills out two friends. It's out two friends.
Rate review and remember dream of a better tomorrow where chickens can cross the road and not be questioning about their motives. Be safe, take care of yourselves, and we will talk to you tomorrow.
Wow. No,