Transcript of Week 13 Waivers + Playoff Prep, Difference Makers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/26

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

Welcome in. The fantasy footballers. Mike, the fantasy hitman, is here. I'm Andy Hollowway, joined as always by Jonu Moore, and excited to have you with us on this fine waiver day. Jonu, how are you?

I'm doing very well, thank you. I like to be a part of this great show and ruin Tyreek Hill.

Which he agrees with. I don't know if to everyone out there, we had our fun with John New Smith yesterday on the show. Apparently, a couple of people misinterpreted our playful argument as me believing Johnu is more talented as a player than Tyreek Hill. That's That's what I heard. Which I know it is what you heard. I want to set the record straight. I do, just by a small margin, believe Tyreek has been a better pro. I was merely saying from a fantasy output, John New Smith was producing I'm not going to be late.

But it was very funny because yesterday we had this whole debate- Sorry, Hall of Fame or Johnny Smith. This whole discussion where I was sharing my frustrations with Johnny Smith saying that they shouldn't be involving him as much in the offense because it's not as good for the dolphins themselves, and it's worse for Tyreek Hill, and Tyreek is greater sign, John Smith, whatever. And then both of you guys just trying to dunk on me for my stupid, stupid takes. And then Tyreek Hill. Tyreek Hill goes and tweets a meme, the turning over your shoulder to look at another woman meme that was- Mike McDaniel turning his head to look at Johnu and Achan instead of Waddle and Tyreek.

And he said that he basically agreed with it. Now, two things can be true.

That's true.

Which is, most of your vitriol was birthed from the fact Tye-Rick Hill and mostly Waddle have been deleted. And that is totally appropriate. We, as fantasy players, are all angry about the fact that these two long-standing valuable fantasy assets are not being utilized.

I would add a third in there, and I think it might even be more important, not necessarily more important than Tyreke, but Tua. Tua himself has not been productive. Now, this week, I know, he was like the quarterback, too, was extremely productive. But again, going back to it, that was because it was the Patriots defense.

Again, you're talking fantasy, though. Yes, yes, yes. Because productivity Tua has been the single best-I don't care. He's been the best quarterback, and the team is number one in scoring and number one in EPA per play. So the argument yesterday was, are they playing good football? They are winning all their games by scoring the most points in the league. And I think that's where me and Mike were having our fun.

Since Tua has been back from the IR concussion stint, he's averaging 26 completions for 255 yards a game and over two touch downs, which pace-wise is 4,337.

I don't care. 77% completion percentage, 116 pass a rating.

Why hasn't he been good for fantasy outside of the terrible matchup against the Patriots? Why was the quarterback, 22, 19, and 22 his first three weeks back. That's all I'm saying. I just care about fantasy. Look, if you're a Dolphins fan, I'm happy for you. You're winning. You're scoring.

You know what? That's where you went wrong yesterday is because you opened it not about fantasy. You opened it up about how horrible Johnny is for the offense. You didn't say for fantasy.

Can we pivot to something we all agree about? It's too soon. Can we talk about Quintin Johnston instead of I'm not going to talk about last night's game?

I do feel bad for him because it was a nationally televised game and because he had mostly buried the demons. He had been playing so well. The drop was just so significant last night, and it was so- Drop? Well, I'll say the drop because one drop beget- The first one? The one drop beget the other two drops. It was very clear that That one was the one that sent Greg Roman's head backwards in absolute... It was so significant. It was the difference in the game. I lost my close matchup because Lamar didn't have to pass in the fourth quarter. That would have been a competitive game had he caught that pass.

The ironic thing for Quentin Johnson is the gigantic, awful collapse, and what happened last night in public eye is Only as big as it is because he's been playing well, because people have bought in and believed, started him in fantasy, changed how they view about the poor rookie season he had. It was because he's been doing so well that last night was this calamity.

I agreed with some of the commentary last night, and I've agreed with it for a while. We talked about the chargers. It feels like they're one superstar away from being good. It felt that way again last night because of the drops, because of the fact that you have to lean on Lad McConkey the way you do, because you don't have Austin Echler versatility in the backfield when you're leading runner. Like, Echler is still a good player. He's contributing in Washington. You know, Losing Keenan Allen, they didn't add enough. Drafting Lad McConkey wasn't enough to equip Justin Herbert, who's playing out of his mind with the weapons he needs. We all watch. You know who's happy about the huge drops? In a big way? Josh Palmer. Because Josh Palmer can't make a big play to save his life. Every competitive catch, Josh Palmer is like, I'm too mid to do this. But Keun Dwarfed him in that capacity. So 30-23. Big game from Derrick Henry, 24 for 140.

Guys, I mentioned it in our Slack, but I just want to be on the record here. Thank goodness. Thank goodness after Derek in that drive where he got him all the way down in the end zone and then scored. And they thought they were going to get away with that full crap illegal formation.

You get illegal formations.

You know what? Like three inches He was off with the line? No.

Not in my NFL. Not in my NFL. Thank you, Jason. I love Michael Keat.

Big ref over there is loving it.

I did love it. I did love it because I had Lamar, and then he ran it in on the next play, and I was thrilled. So freaking stupid. Jason should love it, too. That play literally won Jason this week.

Yes, it did, because Derek Henry didn't get that countdown, which he deserved, but- 24 for 140 on the ground, and we can't get this man a countdown.

Mark Andrews, five for 44, and a countdown, which when he scores, everything's great. Lad McConkey, six for 83. That is like every week. His line is going to be six for 57, six for 61, six for 83 last night.

It's usually however many targets he has is how many receptions he has. That is really nice. He's a quality player. Six targets his way, five targets to Quentin Johnson. You might not know that he had five targets because you see a goose.

There were a lot of people that needed one catch.

So many.

One catch from Quentin Johnson to win the week, or vice versa. You needed him to be shut out, and you watched these targets and the ball in his hands. Yeah, so a little bit of a...

Go ahead. Big story is J. K. Dobbins. J. K. Dobbins got his knee injured in the game, tried to come back, couldn't, was ruled out. I haven't heard any update, but obviously, this being a WaverWire show, that's a really impactful impactful player, a guy who has, on the course of the season, been extremely important for fantasy, scoring touch downs. I don't know where he ranks right now on the season, but he's got to be- Dobbins? Yeah. Oh, very high. Yeah. He is the running back 14, and that's including last night's injured game.

Yeah, and because of the drops and because of just not having enough weapons, you expected more from Herbert last night, production-wise, for fantasy, because Baltimore was dead last against the pass.

He had no touch downs. He had a rushing touch on, but yeah.

Yeah, no passing touch downs, 218 passing yards, and so a little bit disappointing. We'll move on.

Welcome to Difference Makers, presented by I'ms Pet Food.

Well, I'm excited to talk about this set of Difference Makers because we see it each and every year, and maybe it needs to be reinforced in the minds of fantasy players. I think it does. We're talking about the one-week wonders, the one-week winners, the fact that a lot of fantasy championships have been won on the back of the buy week, or not the buy week feeling, but rather the one week injury fill in. We had Jared Patterson Championship celebrations-Oh, baby. Years ago. Right now, we're in a position where you do have some injuries, and so we want to bring up some difference makers that could make a difference just this Thanksgiving week, but maybe beyond. You can throw Gus Edwards right into the mix, right out of the gate because of the Dobbins injury going into next week. But Brian Robinson, he is out. Austin Echler has the concussion. So Jeremy McNickels right away becomes very interesting for a Thanksgiving Day game. You have Josh Downs, who's now being labeled Week to Week. And suddenly, oh, boy, I better hit this while I have a shot. Oh, yeah. Michael Pitman.

We are so back, everyone.

He could be back for a week. You have Romeo Dobbs out with a concussion. So suddenly, Don Tavian Wix could become relevant. And we just saw this happen. The waiver wire for Running Back has been thin.

Yeah.

Last week, people scramble for Amir Abdullah, and they got a good performance from Amir Abdullah for a one-week step in, perform, and get you a W. This happens each every year. Players that you don't think are going to perform but have the right matchup. Scone Man last week with Ferguson being out. This is not going to be the only week where you have a handful of concussions and twisted knees and rolled up ankles. It's going to happen here on out, and you are in the business of buying weeks, right?

And Jeremy McNickels, speaking of Amir Abdullah's success was, one, because because he was getting all the snaps, but because Amir Abdullah, he's still a good pass-catching running back. That's always been a specialty for him. Jeremy McNickels, for those who have been in fantasy for a long time, he was a draft Twitter darling. Years and years and years ago, it never worked out for a real full-time role. But people liked him, partly because he has a pass catching profile in his history. Now, we're talking ancient history, but this is This is what we have to go on here, where he did have a couple of seasons in Tennessee, 38 targets. He caught 28 of them for 240 yards. That's 8.6 yards per catch. That's a good number. And funny enough, he's playing against Tennessee this upcoming week. So the matchup is not great for McNickels, but he is the last man standing. Of course, they will bring another body up onto the team. You can't just go into an NFL game with one active running back. But But McNickels has already been getting some run for the Washington Manders. He's ripped off a couple of huge runs.

Was that the Cardinal game? He had a huge touch down run, if I'm remembering it correctly. But he can make plays, but he can catch passes. He can go right into and fill that void that that Echler had, or the role that Echler was having for the Manders. And on top of that, just get other touches. So I think McNickels, for a one-week spot start, is looking like it's a really strong opportunity here.

Yeah. If you're talking about the true difference maker this week, Wix, when he's on the field, has been targeted. It could be amazing. And he should be on the field more this week. But McNickels is, I think, the difference maker. You're going to have him with a lot of work in a matchup where the Manders are projected to score a lot of points. And this is a team that loves to run the inside the red zone. You already have McNickels with four touch downs on the year. So he is clearly a difference-making pickup this week.

So some of these guys, it'll work into our WaverWire segment coming up shortly. But yeah, just keep in mind that you can win a week with a strategic pickup. That's why you should have, if you can, a little bit of fab leftover to be able to pick up one of those guys, and also just stay ahead of the game.

Staying ahead of the game. So I don't have a device to give you off the top of my head, because we're just coming off of week 12, the specific advice of who to pick up, who to look at. But here is the piece of advice that you need to go do some work on yourself. Prepare for next week this week. I'm telling everyone out there, next week is the final week before your playoff start in the vast majority of of weeks. Those matchups are going to be for a lot of people, win and get in, lose and you're out. There are Massive buy weeks next week. Look at your opponent's matchup. Go look at who you're playing. See what he has, what he... Oh, his quarterback is on buy next week. Let me pick up the quarterback with a good matchup next week, this week. There are no buys this week. So I'm telling you, waivers are going through. And unfortunately, again, I don't have the week 14 great pickups ahead right now. But look at your team, look at your needs, look at your matchup, look at your opponent's needs, and plan next week, this week, which is today for your waivers.

I'm telling you it's going to make a difference between whether you make the playoffs or not.

Well, as you say, in particular, not this week, but next week is going to be your final shot, right? So it is the most significant week. Jason, you basically said your playoff start a week early because you have to win your matcha.

Yeah, I'm a half game back of the playoff, and next week I play the guy I'm fighting against. So it's like next week, the playoff start for me.

All right, that was DifferenceMaker's presented by I'ms, pet food. When you choose I'ms, you can see a difference in your pet with your own eyes. Healthy energy in five days, healthy digestion in 10 days, and healthy skin and coat in just 25 days. Feed I'ms and see a visible difference.

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

Well, it wasn't just J. K. Dobbins having Monday night troubles. We had DeMarcus Robinson, Ram's wide receiver, arrested for, I believe, potential DUI on Monday morning in Los Angeles. We will see what becomes of that. He was not often started, but- It's probably something that will have an effect next year as the legal process plays out, but worth knowing. What else do we have? David Montgomery was listed as a DMP. They did not practice. They have the Thursday game. He said he's good. He says he's good. I think it's important that we keep him in the questionable category in case the team makes a, as Dan Campbell said, bigger fish to fry decision, which they could potentially... There's also a sad middle ground that no one wants to see, but that is the active but doesn't play quite the allotment of snaps. Probably not the case, but if the game gets out of hand, which every Lion's game lately has been getting out of hand.

And they're the first Thursday game, so they have the shortest week imaginable.

And Dan Campbell mentioned that Ammon Ross-St. Brown is also banged up right now and didn't practice. So we'll see what happens with those practice reports today. It's being reported that Jake Ferguson is a long shot to play on Thursday, so Scoon Man could be relevant once again. Brandon Cooke's limited, still CeeDee Lamb limited. He's been limited and just goes out and catches 10 passes for 15 yards.

Yeah, if you're in full PPR, I think you're still happy with CeeDee Lamb, but it's His ADOT, his yards per out run, those things have just plummeted like crazy, even though he's still getting... Oh, my gosh.

Sixteen targets, I think, last week?

Last week was twelve targets. He had 17 targets a couple of weeks. 17, 12, 10, 12, 12.

The only way you catch 10 of 12 targets from Cooper Rush is if they are close to the line of scrimmage. Yeah. That's a great catch rate.

Yeah, 83 %.

Because they're hand-offs. Josh Downs, long shot to play this week, so that's why we mentioned Michael Pitman. Aaron Rodgers, no discussion has been had by the head coach or the coaching staff about Rodgers being shut down. He's starting Sunday against Seattle. This is encouraging, probably, if you are a Wilson-Adams manager that doesn't want the variable of a new quarterback in a complete punt of the season by the Jets, although they might as well. So there you go. And we're waiting on news about Isiah Pacheco, too, right?

The news for the Raiders, the Aiden O'Neill, because it's been all over the place, but the most recent thing that I saw was the Raiders are preparing for it to be Aiden O'Kunal.

I think it's gone beyond that now. I think they said that he started.

Okay, so a full announcement. And then the Daniel Jones sweepstakes, if you want to call it that, we're getting a report from George Soltz that the Raiders have been eliminated from signing contention.

By Daniel or?

I don't know. I think- Yeah, so if Daniel Jones has eliminated.

I'm going to say something that is 100 percent- You don't have to. It's 100 % true. Daniel Jones is so much better than so many backups in this league, and he's so much better than what we got to see in New York?

100 %, yeah. You are correct. He is not ever going to be a franchise quarterback. Obviously, he never was a franchise quarterback. In my opinion, I don't think he should go to a team like Raiders, where there might be a team out there where he can go and start this week or next week. I believe his best situation is go to a well-run franchise with a Super Bowl aspirations and be a backup. Learn and be the protective layer to actually go in and maybe nick Foles something.

Yeah, Philly, San Francisco, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City, any of those places. Exactly. You give yourself a shot. He could win games for those teams if their starters were out.

I would go to the books and just see who the Super Bowl favorite is.

Just start, just go in order.

That's the order that I would go in.

You want me?

Yeah. They don't have to pay nothing.

Unrespected free agent now, right?

He should really go to the Eagles. But I'm saying, genuinely.

He can go. Oh, my gosh.

I know. Saquon. Saquon and Daniel Dodson. Oh, my gosh. Division.

It hurts, gets hurt, and Jones leads them to a Super Bowl Championship with Saquon.

Oh, baby. I am here for that.

The Giants fold their franchise up and sell it off.

Some men just want to watch the world burn, and I would love to see that happen.

Oh, my gosh. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa. Com/insurance. We will take a break. We will jump into the WaverWire. Before I jump into the WaverWire, I do want to comment one more. I got one more thing for Monday night.

Okay.

Which is a simple question that I want to submit to the winning team, Baltimore.

To the Ravens?

Yes. Okay. Why did you trade for Deontay Johnson?

The depth, man.

Why did you do that?

Oh, I've- Why?

But Why?

Why? Because it costs the franchise absolutely nothing.

No, I understand. I'm just a little bit surprised at the lack of integration into the offense. Like, Deontay Johnson, the player, is not a depth backup caliber player. Now, moving midseason, that's hard to do. See Amari Cooper, it's difficult. But it is a little surprising how he is...

What, six snaps? Yeah, six snaps. I mean, yes, it can be difficult, but when the trade happened, and I was bringing up, the NFL teams have, at least with their actions, have said, Deontay Johnson is not as valuable as us nerds think that he is. He can go out there and put a huge production. Steelers didn't want to resign him, got traded for not a ton. The Panthers are like, We're good. We'll trade you away. Ravens trade nothing for him. Don't play him. There's something that we don't know.

Well, I mean, you try overtaking Nelson Aguilar. That's a hard one to be better than.

All right, let's jump into the Wavers.

Welcome to the WaverWire, presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV.

Sounded like you caught some 1900 tuberculosis there, Jason.

That's right. Nelson Aguilar has somehow turned himself a fine career. The production is not massive, but I'm saying the average lifespan of an NFL player is what, like two and a half years? The dude was a complete total bust, and yet he's still around, still getting a paycheck.

Have you seen the video?

This is year 10. That's what I mean.

That's an incredible NFL career.

A decade of playing. And he's playing half of the snaps. He's 46% of the snaps for a Super Bowl contender right now.

Dude, it's crazy.

Ten years in. He's the idol. He's the idol of MVS. Mvs looks at that career and is like, I can do that.

Kyle, he's made about 50 mil? Yeah. Correct.

He's doing great work. He can thank Bill Belichick for some of that money because wasn't that the- Oh, yeah.

They rushed out and signed him to a big contract. He was going to fix the Patriots' woes. He didn't. Also, having played 50% of the snaps for a Super Bowl contending team with the MVP ERP of the League in Lamar Jackson, I just want you to know he has so far been on a 17-game pace. If he keeps playing as well as he has this year, he would finish with 18 receptions.

Production is not there, but-290 yards.

You know what?

Those checks clear, Jay.

Okay. Yeah, he doesn't get paid per catch.

He must be an excellent blocker.

Have you seen the Josh Johnson video, the quarterback, the backup, the perennial backup, where he goes through and the quiz him on how many teams? Because he's played He's played for 14 teams, but he's played for those 14 teams. It was 24 transactions. So he's played for Baltimore three times. He's played for the 49ers two times. He goes through and he tries to go through his career and name them all in order. But you imagine 24 changes at the NFL level? That's just- That's insane.

I mean, that's life. I mean, you're living in different cities. Yeah.

And then a couple of XFL stints in there. But did I hit the waiver wire button already?

You sure did. Let's talk What about the two big running back pickups. Go ahead. Jeremy McNichols and Gus Edwards. Those are the... The Gus boss will be thrust into a very relevant role. Gus A Gus thrust? A Gus thrust. I feel like you led the train there, the bus.

Look, here's the problem with Gus and thrusting Gus. There's a lot of- Thrusting Gus. There's a lot of That's the last thing to your lineup. A lot of problems. The problem is that Gus is not a good player. When I watch him play, he's not a good player, and he hasn't been all year. I'm worried about him catching the ball. I don't think it's going to happen. Then I worry about it being like, if he scores a touch then you get your eight points. I'm a little just concerned about productivity.

I'm concerned about it as well.

In the context of how much you spend in FAB.

I would Between him and McNickels is very tough because we don't have the information on Dobbins. Is Dobbins really going to miss this week? Is he going to miss multiple weeks? Where McNickels just feels like, This is a locked and loaded. If I desperately need an Rb2 for this week, I can go get Jeremy McNickels. But the chargers, they're already using tons of runningbacks. I mean, Hassan Haskins is getting snaps for the Los Angeles chargers. Vidal Sasun certainly will see an uptick in work, and Draft Twitter will lose its mind. But while Gus is at the top of the waiver list, it's hard to, like you're saying, Andy, it's hard to know what would you actually spend on him? Should you burn a number one priority on him?

If you have Dobbins, I get it. If you need a running back, these are the two names, but they aren't without their red flags is all I'm saying. Mcnickels plays the Tennessee run defense that just shut Mixing down, which is why, Mike, I think you're focusing on the passing game. Yes. But both of them have... They're the best of what is out there.

Well, I missed. I mean, some links has Jalen 10 points, Warren out there still. I'm just going to throw that out.

You look like you had something to say, Jay.

I did, and then I almost threw up. No, I would put McNickels ahead of Gus Edwards because I think there's more clarity on the injuries around him. I would be very, very… I mean, there is still a little bit of nebulous. We're not 100% sure with B-Rob if he's going to be back, but usually what that ankle injury looked like and the progress is that… I'm I'm confident that Brian Robinson is not going to be available. We know that with Echler's concussion, it being multiple concussions, he's going to be gone. I think McNickels and the passing work would be my number one, Gus would be my number two, and Warren would be number three. You also can bring up Amir Abdullah. I don't have an update on Zamir White, who in and of his own right, should be considered four waivers. If he were to be active, you would expect it to be a one, two punch. The nice thing that we saw from Amir Abdullah is that they didn't trust another running back. You didn't know coming in if- Lauby. Yeah, if Laoubi was going to get a lot more work or just be involved in special teams.

Amir Abdullah played 90% of the snaps. It's a bad matchup against Kansas City, but all those guys, I think, are at the top of the pickups to play this week.

Mike, how do you order them?

Look, I'm still putting Warren at the top, and then I'm going to go McNickels and then Gus.

Yeah. We need more news, to be honest, about Dobbin's knee injury and how long term it is. That might flip Gus to the very titty top. There is a- If we heard that it was season-ender- There is a Gus trust by the- Yes, sure. Coaching staff?

If it turns out by the time waiver is clear that this is a season-ending injury for Dobbins, then Gus is a must pick up in all league. Spend your FAB, burn your priorities, make them number one.

A couple of the insurance backs coming back from buy, I think, are worth surfacing, like Ray Davis and Braylon Allen, in case people dropped them for the buy week. Sure. Pay attention to those names because they're worth rostering. In the event of injuries, they would be significant pickups. Why not have them ahead of time?

Yeah, of course. It is insurance back season. Then we don't know where Tank Bigsby is on the injury, but I want to bring his name off one because he's pretty available here and was at least getting touches before the injury. But there was a blurb yesterday of Doug Peterson being so sneaky, getting so many advantages saying that he has changed a lot of stuff internally. Oh, right. We're not going to say what it is.

He was not willing to disclose what the changes were.

Is it within his own body? Or are you talking about within the organization? We have no idea.

We don't know. How could you know?

That feels like an advantage. If I was the opposing team, I didn't know whether he had an epidectomy or changed the coaching staff, I would be confused.

Yeah, you're going into that game plan saying, What's changed?

He made some in-house changes during the buy, but he's keeping the details under wraps.

Oh, that could have been like wallpaper and stuff. It could.

We have no idea.

It could have been furniture.

I'm guessing there is a chance that we never actually even find out once the game plan rolls out Sunday. But I'm bringing up tank as in- You think maybe that's the change? What if the change is- He's quarterback now? Tank Bigsby? Yeah.

We made a change.

But what if he's going to start? What if he's going to take on a bigger role?

He didn't even play. He was hurt.

Because he's hurt. That's what I'm saying.

He's hurt. I don't know. I don't choose my hurt guys for my in-house changes. I get the paint roller out. I change the paint color of a room or two. I don't take my injured guys and make them starters. That one doesn't make sense to me.

Oh, okay. You just keep playing your guy who sucks.

That being Travis Cee, yes.

Travis Cee Tien doesn't suck. The team sucks. The team is the least productive offense in football, the number one. In fact, the advice that I think that the Jaguars provide fancy players right now is they're the number one team I'm targeting from a defensive perspective. Travis Cee Tien is caught in the blender of doom.

I think he's also not as good of a running back. That's my personal opinion. I think that there is a chance for that with how wild things are going for the Jags.

Tank Bigsby's last two games playing were not impressive performances. I don't know. I don't know if anybody can do anything in this offense right now.

It's a quarterback issue. As much as we know that Trevor Lawrence is not worthy of the contract he got being the highest paid player in history, he is still such a significant upgrade over Mac Jones. We don't have an update coming out of the buy on Trevor Lawrence's injury. That, to me, when you're talking about Brian Thomas, Travis ETN, Tank Bigsby. Everything relies on whether or not Trevor Lawrence is going to be the starter this week. The change that Doug Peterson made, for all we know, it's C. J. Beathard. C. J. Beathard is going to be the quarterback over Mac Jones because they put Trevor Lawrence on IR. We'll just have to keep our ears to the news.

Seven points against Minnesota, six points against Detroit, and they have the privilege of Houston, Tennessee, and the Jets coming up. It's getting gross. Now, I am validated by the fact that it made no sense that people were reporting Peterson would be fired if he lost to the Lions, but she wasn't fired. It made no sense because there was no chance of them beating the Lions with a backup quarterback.

The firing of a coach, firing Peterson at this point is just It's the equivalent of a rage drop for fantasy football. I don't know that it's really going to help the Jags. You're still going to owe him money. You're going to just cause more ruckus in your locker room. I understand not firing him at this point. It's just a, Okay, we're too angry. We can't even have you in the building.

Yeah, just let him know. Be like, Hey, dude, you're fired. But will you finish the season? You know what I mean? We want to start our process and look. I don't even think you have to say that.

You're like, Hey, Doug, come into my office. Have a seat. Hey, what's up? Why am I here?

You know why you're here. You know why you're here.

Just finish the season. But you might want to start cleaning some things out.

Or make Just shop around your resume. It's actually, it'd be the most genuinely nice thing you could do. Yeah, just say it. If he agreed to stay.

You know.

Wide receiver pickups, guys. What are the top names on your list? Because you saw Adam Thielen get involved and Bryce Young looked better, even though the matchup was tough. He did. 3 for 57 for Adam Thielen.

I'm proud of him. You had David Moore. David Moore had 10 targets, 6 for in a countdown.

That would be Carolina Panthers' wide receiver, David Moore, living his own Nelson Aguilar career. The Panthers- Seattle, Green Bay, Tampa Bay.

The Panthers' wide receiver are an interesting one for WaverWire pickups this week because Bryce Young has looked a little better. The matchup this week is Tampa Bay. So you expect Bryce Young to actually have a good amount of yards throwing the ball this week. But it's a three-headed monster, and you've got to decide, do you want to go with the first-round rookie Xavier Liguette. Do you want to go with the old man Adam Thielen or last week's leader in David Moore? But I do think there will be value from one of those three guys this week.

I've Also brought his name up now three straight weeks. Nick Westbrook-Ikine, scored again.

Again, every week.

He plays every snap of the game, basically. They upset Houston. They get to take on Washington this week, which is Washington has been losing ball games.

But you can't play him. I don't understand, man. I want to read you the reception total since the bye week in week five. Okay, since week five. This is a long period of time. Here's his catches in the game. One, two, two, five, three, two, two. Total catches. But now I want to read you, touch downs. One, one, one, one, zero, one, one. All this dude does is catch a countdown every game. You can't bank on that, though.

You can't bank on it, but you can start it if you're in trouble in the event. You know he's out there every snap. Since Hopkins has been out, he's been out there every snap. So you could do worse. This is all I'm saying. If you got a guy that scored five or six of seven weeks now, you can at least take a shot there.

How are you viewing the Green Bay situation? If Dobbs is going to miss and the opportunities for Christian Watson, Dontavian Wicks go up, even Jaden Reid, obviously, this isn't for waivers. He's rostered. But how do you view that wide receiver core this week?

Reid, Watson, Wix. Butterman.

Butterman.

Butterman, Bow Melton.

Yeah, that's how I would order it as well. Just some Kraft mixed in. That's how I would order the wide receiver.

We got butterman and Kraft. It's delicious. I just need some milk in there.

But they're all playable. One or two of the three could end up having a really strong game.

You're at risk. Wix's biggest problem is the fact that He watches Quentin Johnson film to learn how to catch. His catch rate is 138th out of 139 wide receivers. He catches 38% of his passes. And so the times that we've had earlier in the year, this is not the first time Dontevian Wicks has come up on a waiver show. It's like the third. There were chances he was out there every snap, and it still didn't produce because he gets the targets. He's targeted on 30% of the routes he runs, which is awesome.

His athleticism, his body control. He's so good at getting open.

Yeah, he just doesn't catch the football.

He just can't catch.

So he's a risk. And that's why I would go Watson above him, just because- If Watson is on waivers, which he is in about 40% of I would go decently hard at him.

I think that Christian Watson is a good play this week, and it's hard to want to play someone coming off of such a bad game. But that's just how wide receiver's are. I mean, wide receivers are. Wide receivers are inconsistent. And so if you only do whatever happened last week, you're almost always going to catch the bad weeks.

Elijah Moore. Don't forget about Elijah more. They had a terrible cold snow game for Cleveland, but he's on the field and gets a ton of targets. Jason, if it's Westbrook-Akina in the shutdown dependency or Elijah Moore in the ugly targets, Elijah Moore has never struggled to get targets. He's always struggled to get yards and fancy production. Which of those two would you spot start?

If I'm in any half PPR, full PPR, I would certainly go Elijah Moore. I believe that Jameis Winston is going to continue throwing the ball a lot, even in these difficult matchups. And Elijah Moore will have enough reception to have a good baseline.

Thielen or Elijah Moore?

Thielen. I'd go Elijah Moore.

A reminder for a name who he is not going to play. Oh, no, sorry. That was a report from last week. But Keion Coleman, I don't know where we are with the injury, but he has been... His roster percentage on sleeper I'm seeing right now is 61%, so it is higher, but there's a chance that someone had to drop Keion Coleman to make a move. So this is almost like a get ahead of it. I don't know if he's going to play against the... Where are we? Week 13, sorry. San Francisco. I don't know if he's playing this week or not, but- He should be back.

He was breaking out. The last two Thank you. That's where I was trying to get. Before he got injured, he had seven targets in each of them, 125 yards and one, 70 in a shutdown, and then he got injured the next game, and we haven't seen him in a month now.

He'll be back, but they'll also get Dalton Kincaid back this week. So No.

Amari Cooper will be more and more involved working through his wrist injury. It's a name to pay attention to, but hard to trust a starter there.

Yeah.

What about MVS? You chasing that dragon?

He's worth putting on a roster. They don't have anybody else to throw the football to.

He's very nick Westbrook-Akina.

87 yards and 109 yards.

Who would you rather start between nick Westbrook-Akina and MVS? I mean, They are so similar. They both have last names that are hyphenated.

I'd rather have MBS. The Hyphenation Station.

And they get a couple of deep targets.

It's MVF for me because he's playing the Rams, Giants, Washington coming up. I would roll that out there, especially because he's got a buy, which he could have gotten more integrated as well. The fact that he did what he did with just arriving on the roster, I don't know. I lean that way.

No, I do, too. I think he's not a bad pickup.

All right, we'll take a break, and then we'll hit tight ends, defenses, and quarterbacks. Well, hopefully, you stashed him last week. He was one of the top pickups, but he's still sitting at 64% rostered. We'll mention him coming off the buy, Taysam Hill in his 40-point performance. The tight-end wide receiver, running-back-quarterback combo that is Taysam Hill, the weirdest player that ever existed, could be the weirdest player that's ever helped you win a title.

I mean, he is probably the number one pickup of the week across all positions. You just have a chance at having someone that is gapping other players at the position. It's very rare that you can have any tight-end put up 30 points. That's just impossible. He does it semi-regularly, and now they need him so much, and they've just involved him in every aspect of their offense in ways that are wildly weird for 34-year-old. Yes. But he's out there. He's catching passes, he's throwing passes, he's running. And when they get near the goal line, he is probably their best scoring threat. I mean, if I'm inside the five, and I had to bet who scores a touch-down between Alvin Kamara and Taysam Hill, I'd push my chips towards Taysam Hill.

Yeah. I mean, that probably got picked up last week after the 40-point performance. But if If you look at this next guy, target-wise, he is lapping Terry McLaurin over the last handful of weeks, 8, 7, 8. Zack Ertz is the tight-end eight, is likely out there, and should be on your roster.

So eight targets, seven targets, eight targets. Incredible. 31 yards, 47 yards, 38 yards.

With a touch down in two of those games.

I know. I'm just saying It's usually not valuable targets. They're very short, fall down.

That's why you started Scootman, though. You knew he'd be out there and getting targets.

Yes. So let's talk between Zacherts and Cole Komet. Cole Kameh now in the two weeks, the two weeks since Shane Waldron's firing. He wasn't great two weeks ago against Green Bay, but we talked about the behind-the-scenes metrics were really good. He was out there 97% of snaps. He He's running all the routes. He was involved in the passing game script-wise, planning that they made him their tight end. This last week, 10 targets, seven for 64. I think he is a much better player. When you watch what Zackerts can do on the field, and you watch what Cole Komet can do on the field, Cole Komet is an elite option, I believe, right now.

Sidebar, are we back into the Cliff Kingsbury offense fades in the second half of the season period of his career?

I think we are. Last week, you had some- Nine points with five minutes left to go in the game against Dallas.

Exactly.

The inflation of the Wacky circus show at the end of that, Commander's Cowboys' Game, where everybody basically stunk. Jaden Daniels had a bad game. Terry McLorn had a bad game. Everybody didn't have a lot of fancy points until three 20 minutes left to go in the game. So I do worry about the rest of season, Commander's offense. But can you trust... I guess, getting back to Cole Kameh. Can you trust Caleb Williams?

No. You can't really trust any certain volume. Same conversation. Keenan Allen is rostered, but also was cut by people. Do you trust that Keenan gets that level of targets? No. Do you trust Adunze? Do you trust DJ More? At least DJ More's targets are now being manufactured in short area. Letting him do his thing. Cole Komet, we've been here before. Many, many times he had weeks with 11 targets dropped to three. Do I trust it? No, I don't. I'm terrified of it.

Okay, and what about Scoonmaker?

Should get one more opportunity on Thanksgiving. If you want a fun player to watch, you want to sing Scone Man on Thanksgiving?

It's fun every time he catches the ball. So let's talk Zachert's Cole Komet, Sconemaker. Order those three for Just a weekly start.

You got Scoonmaker- Colecomat, Zacherts, and Schoonmaker. Those are the three?

Yeah, just who you would start this week only.

I would start Ertz, and then I'd probably start the Schoonman, and then I'd probably start Komet.

I would go I met Ertz, Schoonman.

I think I'd go Scoonman first.

So we just did three different answers? Nice.

Yeah. And then Komet, then Ertz.You be the judge. Yeah. Make your own decisions at home.

Interesting. I'm just going to chase what I think The highest target share is. But who knows? I mean, who really knows? That is the second-tier, third-tier, tight-end gamble that you're hoping you signed Tateam Hill last week. So defensive options this week, who do you love?

Trying to look at the low-roster teams.

Arizona, 10 fancy points last week despite the loss, only give up 10 points on the road. Takes It's on a Minnesota offense that has been hit and missed. Do you like Arizona?

Yeah, I would definitely start them against Minnesota. It's on the road, so that part I don't love. It's the, do you trust Do you trust the Dallas Cowboys against- Yeah. Tommy DeVito. Tommy DeVito and Will Levis, just like, man.

Getting crushed in the pocket.

It's up there of their favorite things to do.

The Cowboys defense was significantly injured for a large chunk of this season. They now have Micah Parsons back. They've got Diggs back. Their defense has been playing better recently. If you combine that with looking at Danny DeVito on the other side and not worrying about how short and bald he is, I would- It's also pretty old.

Danny DeVito. Super old.

'70s?

'80s? He might be in the '80s now.

Oh, I'm on it.

Can we get this? Danny DeVito We haven't been to Deucer's Alley in a while, but they've been here.

He's 80 years old. I reckon one shot, one hit.

Yeah, Micah Parsons can take it. Is that it? Yeah.

That's game over? Yeah.

Life. The Penguin? Yeah. He goes down? We would be celebrating- Gotham is saved?

Yeah. He wasn't a very dangerous Penguin.

No.

Man, I like Danny DeVito.

That dude's awesome. He's the best.

But it would take a few But I don't really like Tommy DeVito. No. New York is in big trouble. Dallas, the win last week, still playing hard. I'm with you on that. Obviously, Kansas City is heavily rostered. They have one of the best matchups because they play Aiden O'Neill's return on Friday. What about the- Wait, so do we have football? We got Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday. Correct.

Don't worry. I think Saturday is coming up here. It's pretty soon. Would you play the Seahawks against Rodgers? Yeah, I think- I think they're an okay point.

Targeting the Jets has worked for the last couple of months.

Yeah. All right. A reminder, today's Waver Wire was brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. We're racing to the playoffs right now in Race. Right now, you can get the NFL Sunday ticket for the rest of the NFL season for only $89. Sign up now at youtube. Com/fantasyfootballers. The offer ends December second. Terms and embargoes apply. No cancelations.

Full stream ahead.

I would think Danny DeVito is only 4'10, height-wise, so he's going to get some Passes batted down, too.

Yeah, by a butt.

Full stream ahead. I'm going to go Gino Smith against those jets. The volume has been there. They're throwing it a ton. Gino's on pace for, what did I say? Like 650 plus passing a limps. So as a streaming option this week, going against a Jets defense that has mailed it in since week 6. They're dead last in schedule adjusted fantasy points. The quarterbacks, Jackson Smith and Jigba. Breakout campaign. They're throwing the ball to Kenneth Walker. Yeah, I'm going to take the volume there against the defense. It's just not been good.

I like Gino a lot. My stream of the week is going to be Matthew Stafford. If you haven't been paying attention, he's been pretty darn good. Over the last five games, now that he's got his weapons back with Puka and Cooper out there. He's averaging basically 20 fantasy points per game, 37 pass attempts, two and a half touch downs a game. Since week eight, he's the quarterback seven, and the Rams are at home in a dome with a 48 and a half point over under against the Saints, who aren't a great defense, you could do a lot worse than Stafford this week.

I'm going with the hat trick. It's Russell Wilson, who, which I made in my stream last week, I was unaware that Thursday was going to turn into the The Snow game, that it was. So hopefully, you were able to bail out there at the last second. But now he gets the matchup with Cincinnati, who's 30th and schedule adjusted fancy points to the quarterback. It wasn't the end of the world last week with Russ in that snow game. I think it's going to be much, much better this week. So these three guys, their roster percentage is higher. And if stuff went crazy for you, I'm going to say it because the guy has literally been a top 12 quarterback in back-to-back weeks. It's Cooper Rush, who plays on Thursday. He plays against an awful, awful opponent, and he is volumeing his way in. He is voluming his way into being a competent fantasy quarterback.

Yeah, I don't mind it. I don't mind it. Last week was impressive, getting it done. I mean, the game was slow the week before. You always have garbage time potential with him, too. But in this matchup, should be heavily favorite. I wonder how much they lean on your boy, Rico. I think there's going to be a lot of Rico this week. Did he catch the football last week?

Yeah.

Nice. That's always up there, man. That's up there for him. He had a Stonehands week.

Yeah. Last week, three. He caught all three targets for 12 yards. But given that, Rico got his season high or tied his season high in opportunities and just dominated the running back rush here. That means that Jerry Jones will be buzzing down to Mike McCarthy to play Zeke.

Who is the original Stonehands? The bear's running back?

His name is escaping me. It's Jordan Howard.

Howard. Jordan Howard.

He always tried to catch every pass with his hands like an alligator.

It was so weird.

Every offseason, he'd spend all those hours on the jugs machine.

It It's like in the NFL, given the right circumstances, any one of those players can catch a pass. And somehow, Jordan, it never worked. Despite being a great on the ground, a one, two down running pack, he just couldn't catch.

A couple of things. One, if you haven't checked it out, go to jointhefoot. Com. All of our waiver rankings, along with a custom waiver rankings for your league, you can import your team into the ultimate dashboard, get your lineup optimized based our rankings, the matchup spot starts. But again, the custom waiver list from your league. So the players that we talk about today, even the ones in our rankings that we didn't talk about, it will show you a custom listing of who's available, what teams have the other guys, and who to target. So avail yourself of that at jointhefoot. Com to get access. And I don't know if you knew this, but tomorrow is-Oh, I'm going to bed right now. Tomorrow is the Megalodon episode.

I mean, are you getting a good 16 hours sleep I hope so.

Yeah, I mean, this is going to be... It's the biggie. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, all wrapped into one supersized Megalodon.

I'm going to go do a cold plunge. Episode. I'm going to do a sauna.

You're doing it all?

Yeah.

Like today or before the show tomorrow?

I'm doing it right now so that I can go get those 16 hours.

Drink your caffeine.

No, no, no caffeine today.

All right, that'll do it for today's episode of the show. But we're back with the megalodon tomorrow, so join us then. Should be a lot of fun. We got Thursday football, Friday football. Football, football, football, football, football.