Transcript of Footie Award Winners + Hot Takes for 2025! | Fantasy Football 2025 - Ep. 1712

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. Tuesday episode, January 14th, The Fantasy Footballers podcast. Mike Wright is here, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway, and we have the footie award winners on today's show. Very excited. Thousands of you voted for the awards this year, and I am proud to say I don't know a single I do not either.

A lot of times, I'm going to be honest, I have cheated and looked. I have logged in and I know who wins and by how much, and I don't have a clue.

That makes me very excited.

Do any of the deucers know?

No.

No? I mean, who packed it?

I put the envelopes together, but I did not look at any of the names.

Impressive.

Oh, man, I hope that everything's wrong inside. You know what I mean? Let me open this up. It's just a picture of- He sent me the list to print.

I printed it and cut them up without looking at it. Okay, so This is all on Brooks if it comes crashing down. He's the only one that's gone through.

I think if it goes crashing down, it would be on Jeremy. Performance of the Year, Brooks.

We've got that. We got a quick question. We've got some news. All of the games from the weekend, we'll talk about those briefly. We're recording this episode just before the Monday night football game between the Rams and the Vikings. We'll be able to share our feedback on that game, our reactions to that game out here in Arizona.

Yeah, we finally get a home playoff game, boys.

Oh, gosh.

Congrats to us.

Just took devastation. Just destruction and chaos and terribleness.

It is insane.

Yeah, it will be a Ram's home game out here in Phoenix. In Glendale, actually.

It will be interesting to see what the crowd is because Arizona is... There's a lot of Midwest transplants down here. There's a lot of Minnesota people who are here, and I'm interested to see what it looks like.

Yes, not the way we would have wanted to get a home playoff game, certainly, with everything going on in Los Angeles, which thoughts and prayers out to everybody out there. Quick question of the day from Brinton, if you had to make a hot take right now for next season, what would it be? Why do we like hot takes so much? Because they're fun.

I don't know, Mr. Chargers. I knew in the Super Bowl.

I was bringing it up.

Okay, sorry. I was going to say, I know this idiot who picked the Chargers to make it to the Super Bowl, but you beat me off at the pass.

I definitely beat you to it. Yes. People like hot takes because they're fun. Because when they actually happen.

All right, here's the hot take. Brian Thomas Jr. Is thought of alongside Jason Jefferson, alongside I said Chasin Jefferson after next season. So Brian Thomas Jr. Is in the upper stratosphere for next season. That's my hot take.

He looks like he's going to be there. Just hopefully Trevor Lawrence and whatever this team looks like management-wise next year can make sure that we force feed Brian Thomas the ball, but he looks the part.

Brian Thomas had- Easy to force feed when you're that open.

Yeah.

The thing is, is going back, one of the big knocks on Brian Thomas now appears to be almost a feather in his cap, which was he only had the one breakout year of production because he was later. I think he played basketball. It was like, you just didn't see enough in college to know for certain that he is going to translate.

Actually, he had neighbors with him. Right. Did that open it up for him?

Is that what made it easy? But then once you have rookie season in the bag where he dominated the way he did with Mac Jones, you're like, this is the guy. I love hot take, just having him really be one of the elites of the elite.

I guess Chase and Jefferson and Brian Thomas, the LSU crew, could lead the NFL for years to come.

Yeah. Wow. They're all LSU. Dude, LSU is pumping them out.

The neighbors is going to be right there, too.

Well, Speaking of LSU, Mike, why don't you hit him up with the next one? It's yours.

Sure. I'm calling T. Higgins stays in Cincinnati. Joe Burrill will be the QB1, and both Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins will be top 12 guys by the end of the year.

Well, I don't- Hot takes. Don't consider me surprised that you would take a T. Higgins take here. I can't stop, guys. No, you can't.

He has destroyed me so many times.

But he's so good. They were one game out of the playoffs, right? Yeah. Do you remember this team lost to New England in week one? Yeah. They lost to New England in week one.

Both teams wishes they could swap that.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that's true.

The Broncos would be... The Bangles would be The bangles will be in the playoffs and the Patriots have the number one pick. Yeah.

But they won.

Instead, the Broncos made the playoffs. My hot take is that the Broncos next year win the division over the Chiefs on the back of a superstar rookie running back. This team is really good. I think Bo Nicks is legit, and they have no running game whatsoever They really need an Elvin Kamara.

Yes, exactly.

Sean Payton has always had a group of really strong running backs, pass catchers, whether it was Ingram or Pierre Strong or Deuce McAllister. He's always had a good running game, and that is so abhorrently absent from the Broncos. I think they fix it this year.

It's wild what we've seen happen. The Eagles, we'll get into the news momentarily, but Saquon Barkley's team, clearly. I mean, Jalen Hertz, I think, completed 11 passes or something. And then you see what Baltimore did. Derek Henry, almost 200 yards rushing, again. It is not an exaggeration to say that all 32 teams should have been in on Derrick Henry, and all 32 teams should have been in on Saquon Barkley. And yet both of them, like the Saquon sweepstakes more high profile, but the prediction of the demise of Derrick Henry or the lack of courage by Dallas, by any of these teams. I mean, how about the Chargers? You tell me the Chargers with Derrick Henry aren't a different football team. Sure. Denver with Derrick Henry. Every single team should have been in on those guys.

Yeah. At the very least, every single competing team, every team that had aspirations to make a playoff run should have been in. It'll be interesting for fantasy purposes because I think we'll hit year five next year of saying, Well, Derek Henry is probably too old.

This has been most of our entire in your career.

Exactly. At what point... I think we really did transition a handful of years ago to just saying he's different. I'm not betting against him, but it still hasn't been a strong enough bet for him.

I think the last two years, our advice has been just slow down with the ship because it's not worth trying to get out early because the ship is real nice right now.

It's such a nice ship.

Someone had released numbers for Derek Henry. It's like his speed when he hits the line of scrimage and then his top speed. It's the same. He has literally not slowed down yet. Now, I'll bet on him again next year for sure. But Derek Henry It feels like when it goes, it's going to be immediate. But I'm not going to bet on it happening. But when we get to the end, you'll go, Yep, what a great run, Derrick Henry. But you're toast now.

Yeah, age It'll get him. It'll come for us all. It'll get him. But Frank Gore, Fred Jackson, I mean, he's Emmett Smith. You're entering that category of running back at this point. Let's talk some more news.

News and notes from Around the League, presented by USAA Insurance.

So apparently the Chargers lost.

In pretty large fashion, 32 to 12. It wasn't that egregious through the beginning of the game.

Who thought that they could get through a divisional game where they were favored?

I was going to say who thought the Chargers were going to win? Vegas. The majority of people who are making a prediction on this game.

Career high, four interceptions for Herbert.

And the Texans took that very personally.

Will Dizly didn't do anything to help. I'm just throwing that out there.

No, we did not.

The Sealers got thromped. That's a new word by the Ravens.

I do like thromped.

They got thromped. They got throttled and womped.

Nice.

We all I don't know exactly what you mean because a lot of us watched that game.

Yeah, I saw that game. That was a thromping.

That was a pure thromping.

Oh, please don't be a bad word.

Oh, gosh. Yeah, this is... Don't even bother looking it up.

I'm looking.

Just plead ignorance. It's bad?

No, no. Okay. Oh, Kyle. I got from the AI overlords, they have said, It's an informal verb that means to trample or move heavily and clumsily.

They were clumsy.

Yes, Kyle. Everything on Urban Dictionary is bad. Every word on that website is bad.

You could say any word and go there, and you'll find something.

But 28 to 14, Ravens manhandled them. It was not close. Mike Tomlin has not won a playoff game in eight years. Mike Tomlin, that's a stretch that surpasses all of their previous coaches, Chuck Noel, Belcauer, all of those guys. Jason, you're the Tomlin truther for life, hasn't figured out how to win a playoff game in eight years. I I also don't think he's had- Also lost six consecutive games to end the season, which I think is more the story, I think, that might resonate with fans. They didn't get better.

They got worse. I would say one of my bold predictions was almost going to be that next year will be Mike Tomlin's final year as the Steeler's head coach because it looked bad down the stretch. I think that that city is getting sick of not winning. I don't believe it will get better when Tomlin leaves. No. I don't think Tomlin has had the personnel over the last eight years, post-Ben Rothsberger, to really make a run in the playoffs? He hasn't really had the quarterbacks there?

Yeah, and I guess you can point fingers wherever you want. I mean, Tomlin has a lot of power in the organization. He's the one that's going to be fine going ahead with the Najee Harris, fine going ahead with retreads of quarterback. There are choices that were made.

They tried Kinneepicket. The quarterback situation is one of those where it really, to a A large degree. It's like, where are you drafting in a fantasy football first-round draft? I don't get Jamal Chase. Are they stuck? Yes, they are.

Because they are stuck. They're stuck because Tomlin is good.

Exactly.

Which is why you need to be bad to be good.

Yeah, you might need to clean house.

You might need to be bad It should be good.

Yeah. He is not willing to tank, and he could take a team of hodgepodge guys and get the most out of them.

I think if you asked him to tank, he'd punch you square in the face.

I think he would look at you so hard. You'd punch yourself in the face. He would give you a look and you'd say, That's on me.

But they are. They're in purgatory because they will always be a competitive team.

You have to be in retread land then. You have to be in the- Or you have to hit on Kirk Cousins. Or Kenny Picket had to hit, right? You have to have the late round pick. The Bills scored 31 unanswered after the Broncos and Troy Franklin came out and got the first score, which look, when I saw that, I wasn't... When I saw the Broncos got on the board first, I hadn't been watching yet. I was following it on my phone. That throw was insane. I was like, Oh, maybe they can do it. And then I checked back.

The game was really, really, really close the entire first half. They went into the half It should have been tied 10 to 10. They missed the walk-off field goal at the end of the half. This was whatever second-half adjustments were made. The bills were much, much better. That was a second-half thromping. The whole game wasn't. I was proud of the Bills or of the Broncos. I was proud of them. You put up a real nice fight in that first half. No one saw you win in this game.

First half.

Right. No, just the first half.

They're still There are ways away. There are ways away.

It feels like the Broncos and the Chargers are a few missing pieces away. Well-coached, quarterback situations figured out, need some more elite talent, and just time together, right? Yeah, for sure. That's what the Bills have. The packers lost to the Eagles 22 to 10. I believe the packers lost three wide receivers in this game, or two of them, and then they were already missing.

Yeah, they were down Watson, and then Dobbs got a hospital ball.

And they lost a lot more players than just those wide receivers. It was not a fun game for Packers fans who feel like they were jobbed. We know that from Al Borland. How are you feeling about your packers?

Everything would have been different if one of the plays went your way?

If it had gone... We don't need to get in. We've talked about it enough. I didn't set them up. The refs made the wrong call.

Okay. First drive.

Other than that, the packers played like garbage. The Eagles are the better team. Their defense is outstanding.

They just had a major injury.

Yeah, my comparison agrees with you, Al. As long as those big plays by the Eagles didn't happen, the packers were right in there.

It does feel like we are on a collision course for eagles, lions. Yeah. That's the way it feels. But was it Nkobi Dean? Was Torres Patella tendon? That's so sad.

The Eagles What else offense needs to... Let's get cooking here.

Find their inner excellence. The Commanders. So weird. 23 Bucaneers, 20.

Great game.

Fun game, very much so. Wish I could watch those two quarterbacks play some more in the playoffs, but is gone, going home, the doink off of the inside of the upright after Zine Gonzales finally figured out how to put his helmet on. That was so weird. That's one of those things that you watch it and you see it and you laugh to yourself, but then you don't know that it got everybody else.

At first, I thought, is this a guy who's trying to get FaceTime? And he thought the camera wasn't on him yet, so I'm going to try to do it earlier.

He does have OCD.

Does he really? Okay.

That explains it.

I Well, now I feel bad.

It was just an interesting... You're watching it and you're going, Oh, that's odd.

But now you get it. I'm guessing he needed it to be even because he missed the kick. So that's how that works.

Well, nice doink, as I always say.

It was one of the hardest doinks I can remember.

Okay. All righty. We've got footie awards momentarily. We got Vikings-Rams tonight, so we'll react to that on the Thursday show. We also got news. Mike Vrabel, the new head coach the Patriots. Perfect.

What? I mean, it's where he should have been all along.

Mike McCarthy will not be remaining as head coach of the Cowboys.

Dude, Cowboys.

Jerry Jones has announced he is indeed the head coach.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

That part's a lie. Thankfully for Mike McCarthy, the man, the bears were trying to interview him the other week, and Jerry Jones is like, No. Then you just hold on to this, and then you're not the coach of the Cowboys, so the bears haven't figured it out yet. I'm sure Mike McCarthy will get a shot there.

I think McCarthy will go straight to another head coaching job.

I don't know. Maybe. The reason I don't think it'll happen has nothing to do with what I think happened here. I think what happened here is that Jerry Jones actually wanted Mike McCarthy back. That's why this dragged out. I think what happened is we've seen Mike McCarthy in the press conference. We know what Mark McCarthy believes about himself. What does he believe?

Oh, he's a winner.

He's a winner. He has won a championship. I think it came down to dollars and cents in those negotiations. I I think that's maybe why he won't get a job right away is because he has a value that he has imparted, and he's convinced Jerry Jones to give him that at one point in time. Wanted it again.

The reports out of New Orleans, at least, are McCarthy? Yeah, they're like, No, they're going to be very interested.

All right. A lot of times when you want the money, going somewhere new, people will shell out more for you than just renewing your contract.

That used to be the place that the Cardinals always spent their lives. They'll pay big for Buddy Ryan before he was- Paying four coaches at the time. Paying Dennis Green, right? The retread back to Arizona to fail.

I saw a cut up of... It was Magic Johnson and whoever the other owner. Oh, for Washington? Yeah. Then they're being asked, How did you guys... I mean, they're celebrating the win. How did you turn it around? They're like, Whoa, we don't get a ton of credit here. We identified we got the people in the culture, and then we got out of the way, and we're letting them do their... Yeah, Josh Harris. Thank you, Kyle. We got out of the way, and we're letting these people who are good at their jobs do their thing. Then it goes to a cut of Jerry Jones. Oh, gosh. They're asking them about, Maybe you don't want to be the GM anymore. He's like, Get out of here. Essentially, no, I'm the GM forever.

Well, that's what I was going to ask you. We can make fun of Jerry.

Oh, I can, and I will.

Because he has put himself into a position where he is eligible for it.

Yeah, and he won't know.

Jerry Jones is a winner.

But here's what I will bring up. Remember the '90s? He said he did not buy a team. He bought an occupation. That was his quote. Correct. Because he chose to buy the Cowboys, and he wanted to do it for the rest of his life, which is his right. If I bought a team, I might want to be GM. I might not be good at it, but I probably would think next year I'll be good at it.

I would, but how long are you bad at it before where you're like, I'd like my team to win?

But maybe you're okay being bad at it, but being it.

Andy, literally, as we were talking, a statement came out from Jerry Jones.

Oh, boy. Am I defending him, by the way?

You were so super wrong. Big wrap, big jury.

You're not defending. You're just explaining his position.

There's a lot of words in this statement of just, We did this. We looked at everything, the staff, and whatever. But I think the most important part, the climax of this is Prior to reaching the point of contract negotiations, though, it became mutually clear that it would be better for each of us to head in a different direction. This is Jerry Jones saying, This wasn't money. This was not money. We decided before that, before We're talking about money, everybody, and everyone believes you, Jerry.

Well, Deshawn wants and ruptured his Achilles again. Oh, man. He's now uncertain to play at all next year. Probably won't take another snap with the Browns. If you're looking at the situation situation.

Have you seen all the- I've seen the videos.

All the chatter of- He was seen on Instagram on a recent date without a boot on, which could make him eligible to have those years voided if he did not follow a protocol that the team put out there for his Achilles recovery, it would have been under three months from surgery.

They would get off the hook. Yeah. We don't know if that's in their protocol or not. They also have an insurance against the cap for injury. I don't pretend to be an expert on this, but what I saw was that some of that cap money the following season would come back. So, yeah, maybe they do get off the hook a little bit here, thanks to the second rerupture of the Achilles.

What else? Tyree Kael says now he's committed to the Dolphins after positive meetings with the team.

And that might sound like, why is this news? If you hadn't heard or seen him posting things all over about basically wanting out of playing for the Dolphins, including putting his face on the Antonio Brown photograph where he left mid-game, peace out, peace sign.Not a good look.Not a good look.

Very funny.

It was a delightful tweet. I very much enjoyed it, but I You saw that and you went, oh. That's why he has to come out and say that, no, things are good now.

That was today's news and notes presented, as always, by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa. Com/insurance. We'll take a break, and we'll get into the Footie Awards.

I'll tell you, before we get into the Footie Awards, I feel like there should have been an extra category this year, which is It's like the best show moment, but it's the best off-air show moment of the year because we've had a couple things around the office going crazy.

Are you sharing this?

Yes, including Cricket Gate. Cricket Gate just happened.

I don't know that we have time to explain this.

Our entire crew, programmersers, deucers, you all almost got fired today because someone put... I don't know if you know this exists, and if you didn't, congratulations, because you can really hurt someone with this information. There are little chirping cricket bugs that chirp anywhere between-They're not...

You're talking about- It's a tiny little speaker.

It's an electronic device.

Yes. It chirps at random between 5 and 45 minutes, and you can't find this thing. After a couple of days-You definitely can't find it when it comes from different areas. Yeah. Friday, we were threatened We just knew it was Papa Josh, of course. It's like, Okay, Josh.

Yeah, it's the usual suspect.

It's a good goof. Get it. I'm sick of hearing this cricket. Then it just kept escalating and getting worse and worse. This morning, after the weekend, it It was like-I'm sitting in the office by myself, I hear it again, and I'm like, This is it.

The company's over. I can't work in this environment.

I told Andy, We move offices and we clean house, hire a whole new staff.

Yeah, this is like Raider style stuff. You start all over.

So we go out to the producers, and I tell Falcon, he's fired in one hour. So it doesn't matter whose fault it is, one hour from now, he's fired. Just completely like, I put a Timer on my watch, and I don't care if it was Josh that did it.

We own this company.

We ain't living with that cricket gate. Josh, you're going to have to have that on your conscience. Then we tell everybody, because we pay for lunch every day here at the student, then we tell everybody, We're not paying for lunches anymore. Not while the cricket's happening.

No, this is serious business.

This is serious.

Apparently, that, not firing Pingri, but threatening taking lunches away, allowed Jeremy to come clean. He gets his championship. He thinks he could do absolutely everything. It was- He will want me to explain the full situation. Yeah, there's a lot more to it than that.

Apparently, we had a fan of the show. This is the true story. This is what happened. We had a fan of the show who offered, who makes 3D printed trophies to send us a few trophies. He wanted to send one to Al, Congratulations. And to Brian Ketcher and his co-manager, the biggest loser, a biggest loser trophy. And then he actually sent a trophy to the Falcon that has a toilet on it because come on. Yeah. And apparently, without telling me, he embedded in the middle of the 3D print a cricket device. And these guys had made up in their minds that I had secretly done this as a way to get back for you, ruining my life on the show where my family came on here and congratulated you. Anyways, they had made up this whole story, and so that was getting back at us. He took the device out. They hit it in the rafters.

He ordered more devices. He took it out and then was like, That one's not enough. I'm getting more. And then he put it in the drop ceiling. We're looking under desks. We're everywhere.

Mike knew instantly that something was wrong, too. He's like, That ain't a real cricket. Yeah.

Anyways, congratulations to Owl, and thank you to our fans who have almost destroyed the company.

Yeah, we almost burnt it down.

These things are devious. It's really small. That battery is going to last for decades, for infinity, and it's going to be a cricket going off that you can't find.

To the footies.

Welcome to the annual Footie Awards show, featuring Performance of the Year, the Wafer Wire Wonder, the Poopiest Pants Award, and many more. It's the annual Footie Awards show.

Well, I don't know if it was as loud for everybody out there, but the horns were hidden. No, fix it. All All right, we've got the winners. We do not know the winners yet. Thank you to the thousands upon thousands of Footieland listeners that voted for this year's Footie Awards. I'm going to kick this thing off. I'm so excited. I know, right here, right now. Now, just so I No, since I haven't opened these yet. Do I read the Nominies, then open them? Correct. The Nominies are not on here. Okay.

We'll hit the drum roll, and you open it.

Why can no one say drum roll? I don't know.

That's the second time today I've watched it. I hit the drum roll. All right, so the first award is the performance of the year, which single week performance was the most impressive on the year. Our nominees was Josh Allen's Week 14 with 51.9 points. Saquon Barkley's Week 12 had 44 points.

Alvin Kamara. Was that the butt jump week?

Probably. I don't know. Probably, yeah. Alvin Kamara, 43 points in Week 2. Jonathan Taylor's Week 16, important playoff game. Jamar Chase in Week 10 with 49.9 points, and Brock Bauer is at 25.8. 2 in week 13. And the winner. Are you going to be the drum roll guy? What do you want? I think I want you to be the drum roll guy. I'll be the drum roll guy. Rael. The winner is Josh Allen. Week 14, Josh Allen, 342 and 3 with three on the ground, 51.9 points, 44% of the vote.

Wow. Pretty much a landslide then with that many people, right?

The runner up was not far Start off. Jamal Chase.

That was my vote.

That was my vote, too.

That was mine. When you started with Josh or the sound, I was like, Jamash Allen. Yes, that's right. Jamash Allen.

Jamar Chase was the runner up with 35%, but Josh Allen takes home this year's Performance of the Year.

All right, Andy. Well, I will read this one for you, even though it is your award. Please do. This is the fantasy reaper's Man of the Year, which players, injury hurt fantasy managers the most. You had a four-pack here, Christian McCaffrey, Isiah Pacheco, Chris Olave, and Chris Godwin. I'll be honest, I don't- Yeah, the Christians, they all get hurt. Oh, that's right. Then the only one who wasn't named Christian is Isiah. I mean, come on, you're not too far off there. All right, so drum roll, please. The winner with 88% of the vote. I think we know. No surprise. The first pick in your draft a lot of times, Christian McCaffrey.

Who? I Did you guys see the recent McCafree?

That he's totally fine and could play in the playoffs?

If they made the playoffs, he was good to go.

That is going to help him stay near the 101 this next year, and you know it's true.

He won't be the 101, but he will still be in top of first round. Sixth pick?

He'll be a first round pick. It's going to be who's the first one that wants to live dangerously. Because there are- So like eight. Yes, because there are big names that I I can't imagine passing on to go to Christian McCafry.

That's fair. He won't be at the 101, but he'll be in the first round. You'll get to a point where everyone's willing to take the risk of... Because you've had this before. You've had Christian McCafry disappear for years.

Yeah, and he did it two years in a row. That's right.

Look, time, though. Injuries. All right, Mike, it's up to you.

We are at the poopiest-Your specialty. The poopiest Pants Award. Well, it's Jason's specialty to be there.

That is true. I have pooped in my pants.

Despite high expectations, this player let down fantasy managers over and over and over again. This year's nomination, Travis ETN, who was drafted as the Running Back 7, Marvin Harrison Jr, Drafted as the wide receiver, 8. Patrick Mahomes was the QB3, and Jalen Waddle drafted as the wide receiver 8, Patrick Mahomes was the QB3, and Jalen Waddle, drafted as the wide receiver 18. Rael them drums. The winner of the Poobiest Fans Award is Travis ETN with 52% of the vote. Marv and his wooly pants, he was second, 31%.

The crazy thing about Travis ETN is that it did not... The pants were poopy, right? Yeah. All year long.

Oh, yeah.

But nobody else did anything.

What do you mean?

I mean, it wasn't... If you wanted to tell me Rashaad why his pants were poopy, I'd be like, All right. But Bucky Irving took over.

Right. Oh, I see what you're saying.

Travis ETN's pants were poopy, and so were Tink Bigsby's pants.

I think Tink Bigsby did hurt Travis ETN this year. But what is insane is that it feels like- Tink Bigsby was awful. It feels like- What?

No, he wasn't. He was awful. You couldn't start him for fantasy. But I'm saying, but his production. Tink Bigsby ran for 4.6 a carry over the course of the season.

Etn wishes his 3.7. He played He had 15 games. It feels like he missed half the season. He didn't. He only missed three games. And he had 558 yards.

Rushing yards across 15 weeks. Yes.

Yeah, it was At 558?

Yeah.

So Bigsby had 766 rushing yards? Yeah. On how many attempts did ETN have?

Bigsby had 168.

Etn, 150. Okay. So they took over.

It's just you didn't have somebody that... For him to be that bad with that draft capital and still not have somebody fantasy-relevant in the backfield. I just thought that was interesting. Waver Wire Wonder, which undrafted Waver Wire stud was the best signing. This year's nomination, Baker Mayfield was awesome. Sam Darnold, Jowan Janangs. Janangs. Darnell Mooney. He had a good run. John O Smith, Bucky Irving. Oh, man. I know who I voted for, and this year's winner is-I don't I know who I voted for.

I know who I voted for.

The winner is Bucky Irving.

That's who I voted for.

47 %. The runner up was actually Baker Mayfield at 27 %. Bucky was my vote as well. When you get running back value late in the draft, it is a glorious thing.

It is juicy. I wish it happened earlier in the season. We've talked about, and we've got the data to back this up, this has been a tip in the past that did not come true this season, which was that the waiver wire is usually so much more valuable in weeks one and two. Those guys hit and stick oftentimes, and that is true over the last decade. It wasn't really true this year. Some of the biggest waiver wire pickups early on in this season, they just turned out to be flops. Like, Isaiah Likely, he was the- Big spin. The big spin, and it turned into not much. Bucky Irving was, later in the year, off of waivers several weeks in, and totally worth it.

All right, Jason, you are- I'm up with the fantasy quarterback of the year.

Remember, this takes into account the draft position, the big game performance's impact to fantasy teams everywhere. Last year was Dak Prescott with the winning award, and this year, the nominees are... Oh, that drum roll comes after?

Yeah, that's-We don't read the drum roll for the nomination. We're on number five right now, dude. We've done this four times already.

Also 10 years of it. I just woke up right this second.

Did you black out?

Where's the rail?

All right, the nominees are Lamar Jackson, who was the quarterback one. Josh Allen, also awesome as the quarterback two, Muro, fantastic. Jaden Daniels, rookie sensation, and the after-mentioned WaverWire Wunder, Baker Mayfield. And the winner is... Can I get the drum roll, please? The winner is... Wow. Jaden Daniels, 39% of the vote. I thought for sure this would be Lamar Jackson.

I thought it'd be Lamar. That's who I voted for.

I actually did vote for Jaden Daniels. It's QB 14 all the way up to 40. Yeah, that's awesome. And he was a rookie.

What's the percentage?

The percentage was 39 %. And who was runner up? Runner up was actually Baker Mayfield, the 21. So people were taking into account drafting them late because Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, they were awesome, but you're spending a second, a third-round pick for them. Yeah, Now, if you had Jaden Daniels, you might have just won your championship because you got him so late. Owl, you had Jaden Daniels, you won your championship. I sure did. Against Lamar Jackson. So I guess footies. Hey, Jaden.

Oh, yeah.

Your footie is in the mail.

Yeah, you're a rookie in the NFL. You may not know that.

You don't know. We send them out by freight. Almost impossible to lift where they got to get crained in sometimes.

All right. Fantasy running back of the year.

Oh, Christian McAfee won this last year.

Yeah, that's cute.

He could have won again, but he didn't play football this year. This year's nomination, we got Saquon Barkley, drafted as the Running Back 6, Derrick Henry, drafted as the Running Back 9. Jameer Gibbs, drafted as the R-B-4. Chase Brown, all the way down to Running Back 40. Chuba Hubbard at Running Back 43, and Joe Mixon, sneaking in here, was drafted as the Running Back 15, had some big games. All right, Running Back of the Year. This one's not really a surprise. It is Saquon Barkley with 54% of the vote. Jameer Gibbs, the runner up 13%.

Wow, so that was a grubbing.

An absolute thromping. All right, the fantasy wide receiver of the year.

All of those factors considered. Big game performances, ADP, impact to fantasy teams. Last year with CeeD Lamb, this year's nomination, four names. Jamar Chase, drafted as the wide receiver, or as the wide receiver, four. Is that true? Yeah. Okay. Brian Thomas Jr, a ninth-round pick. Terry McLorn in the late sixth, and Malik Nabors in the fourth round. Let me make sure I got the right envelope. The winner is, unsurprisingly, but actually narrowly, Jamar Chase. Listen to this, 49% of the vote, but Brian Thomas Jr. Coming in at 42%.

Wow.

Ain't no one like Terry McLorn or Malik Nabors.

No. So Jamard Chase takes it home.

Your footie is in the mail. That is fantastic. Well deserved. He was awesome this year. Fantasy tight end of the year. Last year, Sam Laporta, a rookie this year, might be another rookie. Brock Bowers, who was drafted as the tight in nine, finishes the tight in two. Trey McBride, drafted at three, finished at three. Jonu Smith, undrafted, finished at 4, and the always forgotten, never loved, tight-end 1 on the season. George Kittle, who was drafted as the tight-end 6. And the winner is Brock Bowers was 66% of the vote.

Whoa, 66%?

66%. It was absolutely a landslide, and the runner-up George Kittle, only 14%, so it was split between the other three.

I think part of that was how… Obviously, there's a pretty big three-round gap between Bowers and McBride, but McBride's performances were just steady for a while. Yeah. And Bauer's- No touch downs. Yeah, Bowers were more impressive in terms of value.

And Bowers, because you are a rookie, you need to know your footie is in the mail.

All right, we'll take a break and come back with the final The Awards right after this.

All right, we're on to the- Congrats, Sprott Bauer. The breakout player of the year.

It's a big one.

Well, For a player who wants to get out and he has to break his way there. Jaden Daniels, drafted as the QB 14. Brian Thomas Jr, drafted as the wide receiver 47. Malik Nabors, got a lot of rookies here, wide receiver at 22. Chase Brown, Running Back 40, Chuba Hubbard, Running Back 43, and Brock Bowers at the tight end, nine.

Interesting. Breakout player of the year.

Who did you guys vote for on this one?

I think I voted for Brian Thomas.

I think I voted for Brian Thomas as well.

Let's see who the winner is.

It is with 39% of the vote, Brian Thomas Jr.

Congratulations.

James Daniels is the backup.

Nice.

Or not backup, the second place.

Well, Look, here's another award that maybe Jane Daniels could take home.

I think Brian Thomas was the breakout because it was far more surprising. Mobile quarterback, you could see Jane Daniels coming. Brian Thomas was the most surprising breakout.

I agree. All right. Rooky of the Year, Pukunakuwa took it home in 2023. Jaden Daniels, Brian Thomas, Malik Nabors, Brock Bowers, and Bucky Irving. Undrafted Bucky Irving. The winner of the Rookey of the Year is... All right, they flip flop. Jaden Daniels. Oh, what? That makes complete sense. 40 %, and then Brian Thomas Jr, 27 %.

I think it makes complete sense to me. That makes sense? Yeah, because- It makes no sense. Well, it makes sense because Jaden Daniels was like, he was the best. He was the rookie of the year. But he didn't break out as much as Brian Thomas did because Jaden Daniels was already drafted as the second pick in the NFL, supposed to be great.

These are very subtle differentials, Mike.

Yeah. I mean, it's just like- Just small nuanced tweaks. It's how in the NFL, the MVP is not the offensive player of the year type of voting. That's just how I see it. All right, where are we? We are to the comeback player of the year. Which fantasy player amazed you the most in their return to relevance? You had JK Dobbins, come back from the Achilles. When he had the two legs. Kareem Hunt, come back from not playing football. From the couch. John O. Smith.

Coming back from Arthur Smith.

Adam Thelen, From the grips of death. From the nap. He woke up just in time to hear this, and the winner is... With 48Person of the Bo. A clear winner, J. K. Dobbins. Okay.

He made an impact.

He made an impact.

Yeah, he was shot out of a cannon for the first few weeks there.

He was coming back from something people don't come back from. So that's an especially special treat.

All right. Into the good stuff we go. It's the steal of the draft. Which player was the absolute best value in the draft compared to their ADP? Last year, it was Raheem Mostert from the running back 45 up to, I the Running Back 2, if I'm not mistaken, on the end of the season. Yeah, this is already 2. All right. Your nominees for the steal of the draft: Jaden Daniels, Chase Brown. It's all the same list. Chuba Hubbard, Brian Thomas Jr, George Kittle, and Brock Bowens.

No, before you announced it, I will say nobody got less publicity for playing great than George Kittle this year. I don't know if it was just like our eyes were not on San Francisco as much with the record and the performances. This is the All-Pro tight in. This is who- Yeah, he dominated. Trey McBride did not make the All-Pro team because of George Kittle's performances this year. So there you go.

I don't think he's going to win, but let's find out. Brian Thomas Jr.

They just go back and forth.

Brian Thomas is- This deal. I hope that you have a room for an expansion of your home.

Yes, these are very heavy, dangerous, and heavy.

If you have not an extra thousand square feet in your place, you're going to need to find it. Jane Daniels was the runner-up.

Yeah, and you're also going to want probably 18-foot ceilings. If you haven't seen the footie, this is your It's in the mail.

It looks smaller on the camera, but it's actually just one of those mirror things.

If you don't have 18-foot ceilings, you will. At least wherever the facility goes.

It's going to make its way in.

That thing's going right up through.

All right, we have three awards left. I'm going to give you the winner of the Playoff King. So this is the one player that drove fantasy managers to a championship game. Weeks 15 through 17, the best performances. Last year, Kyron Williams took this home. A lot of good nominations this year. Jared Goff, Jaden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, Jonathan Taylor with those back-to-back R-B-1 performances. Jamir Gibbs stole the show down the stretch. Brian Thomas Jr. T. Higgins. Getting a City nomination. And then Sam Laporta. Sam Laporta, the winner of the Playoff King, the 2024 footie. I don't know who's going to be. Jameer Gibbs.

Yeah.

That's who I thought it would be. I actually voted for Jonathan Taylor.

Jonathan Taylor was the runner up, but the gap was not close. 48% of the vote went to Gibbs, 17% to Jonathan Taylor. Gibbs is Rb3, 7-2 performances. I think the data came out. He is the most commonly rostered player in fantasy on Championship teams. Yeah, that makes- Salt in my wounds as a Gibbs manager.

Yeah, the Jonathan Taylor thing is interesting because it was his running back 17 finish in the first round of the playoffs was the fumble through the end zone. And if that one play was just... He was so destructive. He was so good on the field through the fantasy playoffs. That one play where it was really a breakaway, a breakdown. It wasn't a bad play, turned into a negative eight-point loss for you. He would have been probably a top five running back, then the running back one, then running back one. But as someone who exited round one with John and Taylor, maybe I shouldn't have voted for him. All right, we are two the biggest awards, the big of the big. This is the good stuff. This is why you're here. It's the nickname of the year and the show moment of the year. Let me hear that special music. Yes, that's right. It is time for the nickname of the year. Last year's winner, Brett Rippin, Rippin Farts. But this year we have the Senator, Ben Sinnet, Sam Darnold as the prodigal son or the sacrificial baby, Vidal Sasun from Kamani Vidal, Esteban Lauder from Audric Esteban, Ken Bohn, Kenneth Walker, the Dominator in Jared Goff, Jen Agnes for Jowan Jennings.

The Bidet, Tyler Bidae, Laser Mayfield Richard, Dick, Rashaud White, and of course, Mike Sticky-Gasicki. But the winner is... Hold. Laser Mayfield.

Mayfield.

Really? With 77% of the vote. Now, you voted for-That's not even close. Well, you voted for three. Actually, the runner up, Jennings, was at 52% and Kinbone at 33%, but Laser was-Lazer, Jennings, Ken Bohn. Yes, sir.

Well, if stupid Walker did get hurt at the end.

I think if Jennings was earlier in the season... Because Laser, we got that the whole season long. We had the drop.

I feel like- Kennings actually let people down. He did, yeah. At the end of the season. So it was fun to say the name, but you wanted the points attached to it.

Yeah.

And- One more. One more. The biggest award of the year to us. It is the show moment of the year. Your nominees, Mike, a. K. A. Me, Inducting myself into the Ring of Honor. The golden ticket surprise at the Megalas show when Andy loved Kyle Pitz. Andy Andy picking Tank Bigsby as his my guy.

It was so crazy.

Jay Griz busting out his new theme song, Andy's Looth Tooth. The Megaladon, #Spatchcock. Falcon and Deucers doing their poop jokes.

Weren't jokes.

Yeah, they were not jokes. Jason versus Dennis Allen. Andy wearing the blue medical tent. And guess who was in this last one? It's Andy again getting trolled by Jeremy for the Championship loss.

A lot of those were real dumb.

You were pretty dumb.

You patted the moments this year, man. This was your time to shine.

Why did last Last year, the winner, the trade betrayal. I was getting the worst of that, too. Oh, wait.

I won the title. It worked out. Rael them drums. The 2024 show moment of the year.

I'm so curious.

67% recency bias takes the kick. Yeah, good, good. The Championship Trolling for... This is really an award for Owl. Yeah.

Good work, dude. The Championship Trolling. Now, what was the runner up there?

So the runner up was Tank Bigsby as the surprise my guy. Then in third, Jay Grys theme song, Debut.

See, that's bad news. Hit that song. That got popularity. We got it? I mean, there's just no- Hit it. Excuse use for that garbage, stupid, silly, goopy song.

How did you not know this was going to come up? Hit it.

Hit the button.

Hit that.

Just push your finger on the button. Hit the button. Hit it.

Hit that. The switch on the wall.

Quick.

Hit it.

Quick while they're not looking.

Hold on. And hit it.

Okay, ready? You still haven't found it. Okay, ready? Hit it. Hit that button. Oh, my gosh. No, no. He has hit about 40 buttons.

I got it. I got it. I got it. Ready? 3, 2, 1. Hit it.

Oh, my God. Wow. All right. This is the guy that won the moment of the year? This guy won the show moment of the year. But now it's his time to shine. Hit it. Hitting the Jay Griz song right now.

Oh, God. First try. How sweating is he right now?

Oh, man. I am crying. After winning the show moment of the year, Jeremy-Your biggest accomplishment.

I guess it's not-he just retired.

He got down. He was like, I'm done. I don't know how to do my job anymore. That's not producer of the year.

You know what I mean? That's true. That would have gone somewhere else.

Tell your family that their footing is in the mail.

Oh, boy. Yeah, I was going to say that really. Two years in a row, show moment revolving around me in a title game. I can live with that. If we get another one next year because I'm in a title game, I'm fine with that. Let's do it.

Thank you so much for being along on the ride with us in this stupid show. We love you, and we appreciate your votes and our nonsense.

If you didn't vote and you wanted to catch those moments, I believe they were all tweeted out over on X. Oh, man. So good. And all the moments are on youtube. Com/thefantasyfootballers, which we rewatched this morning. And the Tank Bigsby one did hit me fresh. It was like, you guys got me so good. I was ready to say Jaden Daniels and the announcement.

The incredible nature of it, which I think we said it, but in case you had missed it, we duped Andy. We swapped my guy to being Tank Bigsby, someone who, despite having a good season, Andy's still over here calling Tank Bigsby crap, even though a lot of runningbacks in the NFL would be very happy with that stat line. Then Andy found out. Yeah, he spoiled the surprise. Andy Andy-Spoiled the surprise. Andy, spoiled the surprise, knew about it, somehow totally forgot. We still went forward with it, and it still tricked him.

Well, like Jason said, thank you so much for voting, for listening. We've got the truth series these episodes coming up?

I'm deep in them docs. Let me tell you, Kyler Murray's messing things up. Oh, dude. Kyler Murray's messing things up on the Truth Series.

Because he ain't the truth? Is that what we're learning?

His truth is confusing. His truth is confusing. His truth is a lie? His truth is a lie. Really, when we get to the truth series, we'll talk about the splits, first half, second half. That's really the truth for him.

I think, and look- Call of Duty.

We need- I mean, it's every year. When the game comes out, he gets worse.

Do we need a new award category for next year that's called- Sure. Here's my suggestion. You can noodle on this. Okay. Bummer of the year. Bummer of the year.

Okay, I'm noodling.

Because there's just somebody that... It's like the let down, but it's just you had high hopes.

Oh, I get what you're It all would be better. Kyler is a bummer of the year. Yeah, he wasn't the biggest bust.

He's not a total bust. He was good. He was just the bummer of the year, man. There's a handful of those guys where you kept believing every week, and you kept throwing them out there. I mean, Jordan Love would be a bummer of the year.

Yeah.

Right? Jaden Reid.

Oh, Jaden Reid. Bummer of the year. Bummer of the year.

There's some players like that. Okay. I'm open to it. You got about a year to think about it, Mike. Let me know. The Truce Series, Top 10 quarterbacks, fantasy face-off coming up very soon.

Hold on. Before you close.

I wasn't ever going to close.

Jeremy, hit it.

Hit it, Jeremy. Hit it.

Okay, there we go. Redemption.

I wish the camera was on you because you about jumped out your chair.

Oh, man. He needs bigger buttons. He needs bigger buttons. All right, that'll do it for today's episode of the show. Thanks for listening. Click that follow button. We're here all off-season long. We're going to have a blast throughout the NFL Playoffs and beyond. I mean, free agency will be here soon, right?

Yes, it will. Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot. Com, and follow us on Twitter @theffballers.