Fantasy Football Week 12 Reactions - Superstar Things!

Week 12. It will make for a wonderful, interesting week of discourse ahead of the Thanksgiving Day games on Thursday. That is for sure. Contenders being close and being written off, some coming back and winning, others losing it in the last instance, and also rookie quarterbacks performing like rookie quarterbacks. Let's talk through it all, Hayden.

And specifically the AFC playoff race, starting with the Kansas City Chiefs going to Super Bowls, AFC Championships year after year. However, they entered week 12 5 and five and leave it 6 and 5 after beating the Indianapolis Colts at home 23 to 20 with 14 points in the fourth quarter and overtime compared to the Colts zero. This Chief's win represents what's been frustrating and also fun about watching the Chiefs for the last couple, uh, years.

Now, Mahomes gives the Colts the ball immediately. Liatu Latu is like surfing a zone read. Tips the ball up, intercepts it, gets down to the two-yard line, the Colts score a touchdown. The next three drives for the Chiefs: field goal, field goal, field goal. It's at halftime. Look up. The Chiefs have an 87th percentile success rate, but they're down because they're converting field goals and they're not creating any explosives. The Colts go up, it's 20 to 9, and everyone's, uh, tweeting out the chances that the Chiefs are going to make the playoffs.

Of course, what do the Chiefs do? Chris Jones makes multiple big plays. Patrick Mahomes makes multiple big plays. Kareem Hunt is kind of the steadying force of it all. And the guy that steps up when they absolutely needed him the most, I will say, was Rashi Rice. Uh, at one point I tweeted that he had seven targets for just nine yards. And if you look at the man coverage stats, once again, the Colts corners were absolutely annihilating the Chiefs wide receivers. I'll include Xavier Worthy into that. But the secondary guys were not able to get open down the, the, the end to towards the end of the game. Rasheed Rice finally gets open multiple times. Crossing route, crossing route, crossing route for chunk of plays. Xavier Worthy on the game-winning drive, he has a huge, uh, 30-yard conversion. Another crossing route for those two speedsters. So, it was really a lackluster game for the Chiefs offense. They were consistently moving the ball. You had a couple, like you had the interception with Mahomes. You had a Cream Hunt fumble. They were constantly moving the ball slowly, but they could not finish it off in the red area. But in overtime, they get a huge win. And now they have a pretty much like three, uh, three and four chance of making the playoffs.

>> Yep. Right now, over on The Athletic's playoff picture, it says they're currently 64%. The next two games, it's against the Cowboys and the Texans. Uh, losing one of those two makes it interesting. Winning one of them certainly puts them at that 3, 4, 75% chance of making the playoffs. I understand the Chiefs are a major conversation here. I do want to bring up the Indianapolis Colts because for the vast majority of this season, this has been the surprise of the year. Uh, I, in many instances, have felt that it was real and that it would be difficult to stop when they're in rhythm and in flow. And in fact, in the first half, I think you could point to because of, you know, the defensive touchdown that they basically got in the first half, uh, that they were ahead. They were in a script that they absolutely wanted it to be. I mean, up 14 to 9 after the third quarter opening series, the Kansas City Chiefs go three and out, and all they can muster in the second half: field goal, field goal, punt, punt, punt, punt. Um, that's including in the fourth quarter, a three-play drive for negative -2 yards went up 20 to 9. A three-play drive for seven yards went up 20 to 17. A three-play drive for one yard when they're up 20 to 7. And then again, three-play drive for seven yards at the start of overtime. That is exactly the situation. If you ask me, what would the Colts want to have on on the road in Arrowhead to have Jonathan Taylor, you know, run to win at the end of games? And it simply did not happen for them.

How did it not happen for them?

>> Well, in the fourth quarter of their first punt that started with a negative two-yard run. Uh, and then the other ones, they were trying to pass the ball. And of course, what does Spags do when backs up against the wall? There were some blitzes and while it wasn't negative plays in terms of sacks and interceptions and in like wayward throws, it was just forced incompletions leading to punts. So, I do think that Spags dialed up the pressure at the right time. There was no wow moments from Daniel Jones this entire, uh, game. Actually, only three attempts beyond 10-plus air yards. He finishes like just above, uh, in positive EPA per play, but a lot of that was on a third and one where Ashton Doulan picks up 48 yards, kind of almost like a leak route. Uh, most of that was yards after the catch. There was no like big-time throws from Daniel Jones in this one. And then also with with Jonathan Taylor, that was a pretty lackluster game from him, too. Like nothing that that was like his fault, I guess. But he had 58 rushing yards. He had one 27-yard. The rest of them really, really low in terms of success rate. So, I think that's largely a Chris Jones stat. Also, just going into Arrowhead, it's a very tough place to be. Uh, but also there's a big-time decision that Shane Stiken had, uh, right before, um, overtime where they're about the 45-yard line, fourth and five, and Romo is like, "Hey, you should be aggressive here. There's about, uh, five minutes left." And they decide to punt the ball. And the Chiefs go all the way down of course on like an 85-yard play, uh, and kick a field goal to send this one over into overtime. But Romo was saying, "Hey, if you go for it here, one, you pick it up now, you can start melting the clock, go up another score, and you can win the game with the ball in your hands. Or if you get denied, then the Chiefs have the ball around, uh, midfield. If they score a touchdown, you have a chance to go, uh, and actually have another drive to go win it in regulation." They decide to punt the ball. The Chiefs kick the ball, um, as time expires, and then the Colts decide to have the ball in overtime, which is kind of the consensus opinion now. Uh, but they go, um, a three and out, and then the Chiefs go down the field for that game-winner. So, it was like everything about this was like exactly how Chiefs games in January feel like, and that's why despite their record and like where they are, uh, how just vibes-based watching them, they're still going to be favored to win every single game, uh, in the, in the playoffs. Does that mean they're going to win them all? It's not. But this is still a very tough team, uh, to, to eliminate here.

>> So, are you back to thinking, and maybe you never left, that the Chiefs are the best team in the AFC?

>> Yeah. I mean, if they are the seven seed, like, which, which team, like, if they're in New England, would you pick the Patriots over the Chiefs? If they were in Indianapolis, would you actually pick the Colts over the Chiefs? I wouldn't. So, it doesn't mean they're they're actually going to do it, but, uh, I, I would put them as they should be the favorite in every single game that they play against any AFC opponent.

>> They had 33 first downs in this game. The Colts only had 10. Uh, I mean, the Chiefs converted nine of 18 third and fourth downs combined. Total yards 494 for 255.

>> Certainly a short field and getting a touchdown on that can skew some of those results, but not when you have as many, you know, punt and three-and-out drives as we just talked about here for the Colts. Again, that is what is most discouraging for me is you, you can only play who is on your schedule, and we talk about this all the time, but really when you look at the Colts' schedule now after 12 weeks played, their losses have been to the Rams, to the Steelers, and to the Chiefs. And really, their only quality wins were the Broncos in week two by one point, and then I guess the depleted LA Chargers. Other than that, they really haven't played a single team all season long. I'm not saying I am out here on the Colts, but when you have such an identity like they had in the opening, again, 11 weeks of the season, and really these last three-ish weeks, we started to see some signs of, okay, can Daniel Jones, while he did have that nice touchdown pass in a very confined pocket early on in this game in the back of the end zone, if you have no big-time throws and no downfield shots, which, by the way, we talked about it heading into this game. You know, the Chiefs were the best defense at preventing 20-plus yard passes down the field, then and you can't run the ball on top of it. And when you have this lead, then that certainly brings up some concerns of what is actually going to happen when you make the playoffs because we know, like, that is the new conversation here for the Colts. They're going to make the playoffs, but what is it going to do? What is going to happen once they do? I guess just for Spags, real quick. I mean, this is like another one of these like perfect game plans that he had and like really limited the Colts here, who, by the way, are number one in, uh, points per drive. Like, what does it, what does he have to do to get another head coaching gig? Like, I mean, like whenever the Chiefs are up against the wall, what you can always count on is Patrick Mahomes, and then second up on that list is you can always count on Spags, which is another one of these years. They've lost a lot of guys throughout the last couple offseasons. They don't have like a stacked edge-rushing group right now, and once again held Jonathan Taylor and Indiana Jones.

>> So, we know once they made the trade for Sals Gardner and got back Travarious Ward and got back their slot corner and Kenny Moore, we expected, you know, this Colts defense to play a whole bunch of man coverage, and that's what you're supposed to play against the Kansas City Chiefs here. And Lou Anoro, when I caught this game out of the corner of my eye, had some really fun and funky looks that did disrupt some of what Patrick Mahomes was doing early in the game. Yeah. Then I look at the box score, Hayden, and I see Rashi Rice for 8 for 141. Um, after last week, when asked to win an isolated man coverage, he simply couldn't do it. So, what was the difference this week for him and Xavier Worthy's four for 59 on top of that?

>> Yeah, they used only man coverage like maybe 25% of the time and they struggled with it. I think Ole Connelly had the the on-off splits with man coverage versus zone coverage and the the Chiefs were significantly worse against man coverage than, uh, than zone coverage. There were a couple times where Xavier Worthy was kind of getting thrown around before the ball was getting there. Uh, there's also a time where Xavier Worthy caught the ball and I thought he could have like rounded the corner and actually picked up yards after the catch and just was not able to turn. It goes out of bounds. And there was one time where he's throwing his helmet because he was frustrated about his ankle injury. So, I think Xavier is like simply not fully healthy right now. He's healthy enough to play, but he's not fully himself. And then ultimately, at the very end of the game, Rasheed Rice had some big moments, uh, down the stretch. Rasheed Rice also is dealing with some type of like hamstring injury where he missed a couple plays and then he might have been able to score a touchdown on his, like, final reception, but then he slides down. I'm not sure if he was sliding down because he wanted just to kick the field goal, but they were kind of that would have been like a long field goal where I think a fully healthy Rashi Rice might have been able to like actually just hit it and and score a touchdown there. The Chiefs play on Thursday. So, we have to kind of pay attention to Rice if this was like a hamstring injury quick turnaround to play or if this was, hey, he was fine, he's got like kicked in the the back of the leg or something like that, and these players are going to fight through that. But, um, that would be pretty big if they can't get, uh, Rasheed Rice here because he, he has their explosive element, uh, over the middle of the field when he is healthy.

>> Rest of the way, we mentioned Cowboys and Texans over the next two weeks, and it's the Chargers, the Titans, the Broncos, and the Raiders here for the Chiefs. So, you would assume that they quite handily beat teams like the Titans and the Raiders, and maybe even throw in the Chargers with their offensive line situation right now. It's going to be a fun, fun finish to the season for the Chiefs. That is for sure.

>> Last note, Cream Hunt, uh, thank you for your services once again. That is 34 touches over a hundred-yard and a touchdown here. Sounds like Isaiah Pacheco is going to be back here, but that's back-to-back seasons where he was, no doubt about it, firing him up as an RB2, uh, for months at a time dating back to last season, too. So, pretty cool. I said that the Colts are going to make the playoffs. It is very difficult for them the rest of the way. Texans, Jaguars, Seahawks, 49ers, Jaguars, Texans, the remainder of the season. And after their victory today, spoiler alert, the Jaguars are just a game, I believe, behind here in the AFC South. Anything else you want to say about this game, or should we jump into the NFC version of this one?

>> Let's keep it moving.

>> All right. Well, somehow, someway, the Philadelphia Eagles make their fans happy in the first half and still once again cannot sustain it for all four quarters. Heard a lot about the frustration the last two weeks of these are the worst EPA and success rate games of the Nick Sirianni and Jaylen Hurts era. It looked like, Hayden, that that was over with. 21 points to 7 at halftime against the Dallas Cowboys. But in the end, zero second-half points, and Dallas brings it out on top in the fourth quarter, 17 second-half points, as they win 24-21. Once again, the Eagles can't run the ball. Like, it's as simple as that. The pass game worked excellent. AJ Brown should be happy. He was awesome in this game. Nearly had a second touchdown there. Uh, Devonte Smith was making plays down the field. I thought Jaylen Hurts looked pretty, uh, good as well. Explosive passes down the field. You had the tush push stuff. You also had like go-empty quarterback, uh, draws up the middle. So, I thought Jaylen Hurts played well. Both the wide receivers got home here, as they should. It's the Dallas Cowboys secondary. But to Jerry Jones' credit, you bring in all these defensive tackles, and you're missing, uh, Lane Johnson at right tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles, and all of a sudden the Eagles running backs have a 17% success rate. I mean, you can't win football games if you have a 17% success rate. So, in the second half, they don't score any points. Why? Because they were trying to run the ball in early downs, and it just kepts not working, not working, not working, not working. And all of a sudden the game gets pretty tight because George Pickens on the other side creating a bunch of explosive plays, and all of a sudden you lose the game. So, they, this team needs to be extremely pass-heavy. Like, how many weeks in a row could we say the Eagles ground game stinks? You keep mentioning it. They, they got going against the Giants. Everybody does. Go ask Jir Gibbs today. And then every other contest, the Eagles are terrible running the ball. We have to make an adjustment. We can't point the fingers at Jaylen Hurts and AJ Brown, Devonte Smith in this game. They were all very good. The defense was largely pretty good this game as well. And they can't run the ball. And if you can't, if you go run, run, and you punt the ball, then it's hard to win football games. So, that's, that was the Eagles game summed up pretty quickly.

>> So, in the second half, if I can pull these statistics, they did drop back 27 times, and he did throw the football 24 times for 172 passing yards. What I, what I just saw in the first half was a lot of the midfield routes that people had been asking for in these recent weeks for AJ Brown, and a lot of it working, and then again, just the inability to sustain whatever offensive identity you bring to the table for four quarters is coming to a head, it feels like, every single week here for the Eagles. Now, in previous weeks, their defense stepped up and kept them in these games and helped them win it, and you could argue that was the case here. I mean, even despite winning, the Cowboys still went 0 for twice inside the 10-yard line inside the red zone.

>> That typically doesn't happen here. However, we got a Saquon Barkley fumble off of a reception, and we got a Xavier Gibson fumble off of after he returns it from the one-yard line. Uh, that is bad. That is bad football.

>> Um,

>> It kind of feels like though, Hayden, the Eagles have lost games in multiple different ways this season. Like it hasn't just been because they don't have a running game. It's also because other times they don't have a passing game on top of it. So, uh, I, I think because there is frustration inside of the Eagles, the fans feel frustration, and you're going to feel even more frustration after this one. And it's all warranted despite this team being really good because once again, if they were able to do what they did last year with many of the same pieces, albeit not having Lane Johnson, others this week, I'm sure everyone in that locker room feels like they could have the best team in the NFL if they just played like they did last year.

>> Well, the two other losses, Saquon was 6 for 30, and then 12 for 58, both scoreless, too. So, like, in all three games, the, the ground game has like been largely stuffed. So, I, I do think that is real, and like that's like the big difference of why last year's Eagles team would beat this year's Eagles team by a touchdown or two touchdowns because the ground game is just like, it's just non-existent. Like Saquon 10 for 22. Like that's just like totally not good enough.

>> Because it, it masks the inconsistencies that the passing game brings to the table for me.

>> For sure. But still, it's still a net win through through the air. Like, it's inconsistent because they throw the ball down the field so aggressively. But like today, it was very good. Like today's numbers through the air were were excellent. I didn't think that Jaylen Hurts had a bad game. Obviously, that huge fumble on special teams was a big deal. The Saquon Barkley, uh, fumble, which was on a reception, just checked down into the flats. Like, you can't have those. And then I also want to spend a lot of time just talking about what the hell Dak Prescott is doing with George Pickens. It's insane. Like, Dak Prescott right now, it's unbelievable quarterback play. He had 23 receptions. Only three of them were behind the line of scrimmage. It was all downfield working over the middle, finding the the correct outlet, and just dominating a Vic Fangio defense that is really deep now, all of a sudden, up front. They also had a Cavonte Turpin fumble on a like running back carry, like, like a true, like under-center running back carry through the B gap. So, it wasn't like the Cowboys were just like in a perfect situation either. But really, like the story of this game, uh, for the Cowboys, is I mean, how much money is George Pickens going to make? How could I rank CD Lamb ahead of George Pickens? Uh, right now, it's, it's getting to that point. He's all of a sudden very good on these slant routes and yards after the catch. I thought he was always kind of good at that. It was just like never used that way. And he's mossing guys down the field. They get down to the one-yard line. It's him versus Adoree Jackson. Adoree Jackson has outside leverage. George Pickens still crosses him out, goes to the outside, and scores a touchdown. George Pickens was flawless in this game. Nine targets for 146 yards and a touchdown. Caught all nine of them. Cidi Lamb, who still made an excellent play down the field, he's going to have better days than this. Two more drops here. He's now at like, I think a season high or career high in a season for most drops in a season, and he's missed for a lot of it. So, it's like getting to the point where like, is George Pickens a top 10 NFL wide receiver? I, I'm running out of reasons to think otherwise. Like, he's very good after the catch, and I believe he's 23 or 24 years old, too. So, the Cowboys hit a home run that DK Metcalf or George Pickens kind of swap with the Steelers. The Cowboys are now at least in the playoff hunt graphic because George Pickens have been such a baller this year.

>> Yeah, it's been an interesting season to do that Thursday trade show and get a bunch of questions like when George Pickens was playing great without CD Lamb, and many people wondering if they should sell high on George Pickens.

>> And to every single one I said, absolutely not, because this is, you know, the 2025 version of what we got last year with Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. Now, I think you're able to ask which one is the Jamar Chase and which one is the T. Higgins of that conversation this season because George Pickens is on an absolute heater, and this should have been maybe the rest of the way the stumbling block matchup for him, like it was in week one. Uh, yep.

>> Obviously, DPI penalty in week one. We don't get fantasy points for that, and he got all the fantasy points in this one.

>> Hayden, question for you. NFC is loaded. Do the Dallas Cowboys have a chance at 5-5 and 1? I mean, their defense is definitely better. No question about it. Like Quinnen is such an upgrade for the team. Uh, I still think their secondary has issues, and there's they're just so deep. So, like, right now, The Athletic gives them 13% chance. Um, I, I'm not going to pretend that I know more than The Athletic's models and all their stuff, but right now they're 5-5 and 1, but as a reminder, the Bears have eight wins. The Packers and Lions both have seven wins. And then the Rams, Seahawks, and 49ers have eight or seven wins, too. So, they got to beat one of those teams. So, they have their work cut out. Um, it's currently a 13% chance. It'd be a very fun team to kind of sneak into the playoffs. I'm rooting for them because they're a very fun watch right now. Their defense is going to be at least like somewhat competitive, and then all of a sudden this pass game is just going to look like this with George Pickens this year. Um, it's a very, very fun team to watch. So, like them versus the the Chiefs on Thanksgiving, that's going to be, um, uh, make sure you're away from your family and tune in for that one. Final comment, what were they thinking inside the red zone and like at the one-yard line not giving Javvante Williams any carries there?

>> Yeah, I don't know. Teams just do weird things. I, I don't want to like talk too negatively about anything with the Cowboys because like, I, I keep seeing scheme advantages that they have. Like, for instance, like the George Pickens, uh, like kind of game-winner type of play with the slant route, like that gets open because it's him versus Quinnen Mitchell. They have Kamonte Turpin with a motion at the snap that, uh, linebacker safety that was running with Kamonte Turpin clips Quinnen Mitchell. Now George Pickens running wild by himself, uh, out there. It's like all that type of stuff, like creating almost like a mesh pick play based off the motion is like just well-schemed offense from Shotti and Clayton Adams. So, uh, I'm not going to be second-guessing pretty much anything that Dallas is doing, uh, in terms of the coaching staff. As you said, the Chiefs next, and then it's on the road at the Detroit Lions on, I believe, another Thursday Night Football game after that. So, they are back-to-back on Thursday night.

All right, let's stay in the NFC playoff picture and talk about the NFC North showdown between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers. This one was a no contest as at home, the Packers win 23-6. It was close at halftime, 10 to 6, but two instances where the Packers defense and special teams stepped up in a massive, massive way. Early on, the Vikings were gashing the Packers defense on the ground, both Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones. But on a third and one, TJ Hawkinson tries a tush push, which is a skill. It fails. And then Jordan Mason is stuffed on a fourth and one in the red zone. So that brings us, like I said, to 10-6 at half, just a slight Packers lead. Immediately after halftime, the Vikings have a disastrous muffed punt by, uh, Miles Price right out of halftime. He's back as a returner, and then he allows the ball to land inside of the five-yard line. Uh, and instead of getting out of the way, he goes up and tries to block one of the Packers gunners in the hopes of them not downing the punt, but instead the punt then bounces and hits him in the back, and then the Packers recover. Emanuel Wilson gets a goal-line touchdown a couple plays later to bring that one to 17 to 6. His second rushing touchdown of the day. By the way, here's your crazy stat of week 12. Emanuel Wilson is the first Packers running back, including Josh Jacobs, to rush for 100 yards since week 12 of last season.

>> No slander of Josh Jacobs. He's been totally fine. No slander.

>> That, that is pretty nuts. 28 carries, 107 yards, and two touchdowns. So, they're up by 11. And now Christian Darasaw and Donovan Jackson are ruled out of this game for the Minnesota Vikings. And so you know that's when the Packers pass rush is just starting to take over. Micah Parsons sack off the edge. Next snap, Michael Parsons destroys multiple linemen up the middle, which also gives Devonte Wyatt a sack. JJ McCarthy at this point with 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, 36 net passing yards, 71 on the positive end, but then lost 35 on five sacks. Uh, Arian quote from his Twitter feed on throws between 0 to 9 yards so far, JJ McCarthy's time to throw was 3.14 seconds, and I do not believe he had completed a pass there. Uh, then we get the JJ McCarthy turnovers. He throws an interception on the next series. Rashan Gary hits his arm off the backup left tackle that flies into the air, caught by a defender. Next series, JJ McCarthy targets Jaylen Naylor over the middle of the field. The ball kept climbing and climbing like it was filled with helium on the sideline, hits a safety in the chest, and then the game is over. I mean, at the end of the day, JJ, 52 net passing yards. The Vikings 20 carries, 93 rushing yards, simply isn't going to do it. They are four and seven on the season, and the Packers once again climb to seven and three at top the NFC North.

>> The question only becomes like, how much longer could you look at the veterans on the roster for the Vikings and continue to trot out JJ McCarthy and just to like make matters worse, you get the Sam Darnold revenge game against the Vikings next week, which means JJ McCarthy against Seattle's defense, which has been just phenomenal this entire year. So, it's that bad right now. I'm not sure if they would go to Max Brosmer for next week, but just the way Kevin O'Connell keeps talking about it in the media, it seems like he's a little bit kind of distancing himself from J.J. McCarthy, and it's like almost like, hey, you got to just like kind of turn the quarter here. Everyone knows it. It's just not good enough right now. And I don't think there's anything about his traits and how close he is that we should expect anything to look better this year or beyond. So, it's, it's like a Zach Wilson-esque start. It is what it is. I wish it wasn't the case, but this is a really good environment to be in with this coaching staff. The offensive line's largely been pretty good, and then you have these three or four skilled guys that are phenomenal. And you can't even play Justin Jefferson in fantasy right now. It's like getting to the point like, is he the wide receiver 30 in my rankings next week? Like Jordan Addison, I think we can pretty much just like kiss goodbye at this point. Um, yeah, it's that bad.

>> Six targets, four receptions, 48 yards for Justin Jefferson. Jordan Addison on one target. Jaylen Naylor on one target. Adam Thielen on one target. There weren't like that many, at least as many as last week, just totally sailed passes. There were a few, don't get me wrong, but the interceptions were worse, and then the sacks were bad on top of it. Now, a lot of Vikings fans might say, well, you have the Packers pass rush. They had backup offensive linemen in there. Again, quoting Arian when eliminating drop backs with quick pressure, which means under two and a half seconds. Jay McCarthy's performance against the Packers this week ranked 344th of 346 quarterback performances this year in EPA per dropback, and 331st in success rate. So, yeah, we are here at the end of the season. The Vikings clearly are not making the playoffs. Who knows what their conversation is like you said against the Seattle, the Commanders, the Cowboys, and just the rest of the season. But doesn't necessarily matter what the next six weeks are. It's this entire offseason because a move will be made. It just depends on how big the move is. Is it for a veteran with a year left?

>> Uh, is it going all-in for a younger quarterback, ala Kyler Murray, that other teams don't want to do? Or can you somehow creep into the top 10 and potentially land once again the quarterback three or quarterback four like when you drafted JJ McCarthy in his draft class?

>> Yeah, I think that's where we're at right now. So, it's just, we'll see if he's benched. I think we could just start there, and if he was, and I think going back all the way, like there was a reason why he was the doctors cleared him. He was the emergency third third quarterback, but he was medically cleared to play, and Wentz, who was struggling, they kept throwing him out there, and the whole time they they kept saying JJ's got to work on his feet, and that's been the root of all the problems right now. So, I think they were warning us the entire time. Um, and I think all those worries have been like even worse.

>> Christian Watson was the leading receiver for the Packers. Seven targets, five receptions, 49 yards. Uh, longest of 12, which is somewhat un-Christian Watson-like. It was some outside-breaking routes near the sidelines, some inside-breaking routes, and really nothing that was deep, deep, deep targeted down the field. Uh, I mean, again, Jordan Love only dropped back 22 times. I think the big conversation here is that he entered with an AC joint injury on his left shoulder. About half the handoffs that he gave Emanuel Wilson were with just his right hand and like giving it the backhand. Now, he, it's not like that was every single time. It's not like he has a broken hand or a broken shoulder or any of this type of stuff. So, I'm not sure the rhyme or reason to that, but again, it is bothering him. And you even saw his shoulder pads elevated just a little bit more because I'm sure he had some wrapping on the left side. And he made a couple big throws like back in his end zone, a big third down, buys himself a little bit of time, and then lofts it over the middle of the field to Dantavian Wixs for a first down. But, uh, yeah, Dantavian Wixs rotates in next to Romeo Dobs and Christian Watson. But Watson is high variance in his past, but kind of becoming the most consistent element of this Packers wide receiver. Yeah, I think last note for me is just Emanuel Wilson is to the point you cannot drop him the rest of the season. Like, even when Josh Jacobs comes back, his value is way too high. He's better than any backup tight end, backup quarterback, fifth wide receiver on your roster. If he's in, he's automatic RB1.

>> Rookie wide receiver Matthew Golden did miss this game with multiple injuries. He only played 39% of snaps last week. So, it seems like he is just flat out injured right now with multiple things. And so we'll see what his status is the rest of the way because if he doesn't play, it's kind of honestly a lost season from him other than from some downfield vertical shots that we got. All right, so if that is one of the NFC contenders, let's flip over to one of the AFC contenders, the now 10-2 New England Patriots, as they beat the Cincinnati Bengals on the road 26-20. Actually, early in this game, we got some pretty bad quarterback play. We traded pick-sixes in the first half. The first one was from Drake May, who had just 10 passing yards in the first quarter. He airmails an open Hunter Henry right into the arms of a safety who takes it to the house. But then a couple drives later, Joe Flacco returns the favor. He is so late to the flats, throwing to Taj Brooks. He stares it down, even pumps one time before he throws it, and then Jack Jones just jogs into the end zone, uh, after that. But if we're talking about real offense here and how the Patriots got, you know, the other 19 points other than field goals, um, their tight ends totally shredded the Bengals backup linebackers, and they were even thin at that position. I mean, a combined 150 yards and a touchdown between Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper, with Henry owning seven catches for 115 yards and one touchdown. When, uh, Drake May said the first fantasy team he ever had, Hunter Henry was his tight end. We maybe should have listened in the preseason because Hunter Henry is his dude, uh, in this offense. But the overarching story at 10 and 2, the rest of the season, the Patriots have had tremendous injury luck all year long, but in recent weeks, that has really changed to pivotal players. We all know about Milton Williams. He's been on injury reserve. I think he's missed two games, and he'll probably miss at least two more. But today, both left tackle Will Campbell and left guard Jarrett Wilson left on carts to the locker room. Will Campbell, like a right knee injury. I'm not sure what Jay Wilson's won. Those are critical spots with easily questionable depth behind them. And that left little room on offense to run the football, and also they got moved on the defensive line rushing the football. And that's why Chase Brown got 19 carries for 107 yards. And a lot of that was in the first half. The Bengals defense against tight ends, I, I'm going to try to find the numbers for for eventual stats for it's got to be the worst of all time. I mean, they're averaging like almost 19, 20 yards per game to to fancy tight ends. And like Hunter Henry was not heard from for a very long time, and then classic, Steph Diggs, uh, only has two catches here, and it's a big rotation at receiver. So, it's just like the, the same exact funnel for the Bengals, uh, defense existed once again. Um, anything about the Trayvon types of runs versus Raandre and stuff? Like, hit me, hit me with all of it. Hit me with all of this. I know you want to get a lot of things off your chest here.

>> All right, this is for the true fantasy football sickles. Just overall, we're not going to have stats versus film this week. By the way, we're going to have three ranking shows ahead of the Thursday Thanksgiving game. So, no waivers and no stats versus film. So, consider this your mini stats versus film for the running back in the Patriots running back room. All right. Overall, Triven Henderson basically owned all of the snaps. He got the first series, he got the second series, he got the third series where Mandre popped in for some pass stuff and some other things, but there was this series. Okay, inside the five-yard line, the opening two plays, Trivia Henderson is in. He gets them down to the one-yard line. All right, then he's in for that third-down play. The Patriots call a timeout. Out of the timeout, Terrell Jennings pops in for third and one. He gets stuffed. Fourth and one. Arandre Stevenson comes in. It's a passing play. They get a penalty on the defense. So, it's an automatic first down. So, we get another series. First and goal. Here comes Terrell Jennings. He comes back in. He is stuffed. Second and goal, Trevan Henderson subbed back in. He does not get the football. Third and goal. Raandre Stevenson back in. He gets stuffed at the goal line. Fourth and goal. Raandre Stevenson again stuffed, fourth and goal from the one-yard line. There were other situations where like Randre Stevenson got them down to the one-yard line, inside the 10-yard line. So, basically what I'm saying here is there was no clear-cut, oh, once we get inside the 10, we are bringing this running back in. It was chopped and changed. Every person has their role. But if you do make a chart for it this week, Hayden, you will see that Trian Henderson, albeit just 18 carries for 66 yards, uh, and then three catches for for 15 yards. I mean, that's 21 touches in this backfield in comparison to Mandre's six carries for five yards, and then Terrell Jennings one for zero.

>> Yeah, I would call it a win just because Randre didn't play that many snaps in general, and then next week you get the Giants, and then the following week it's the Bills. So, those teams have not been able to stop the run recently. Now, we'll see if Arandre, uh, kind of his workload increases coming off of the the toe injury. I think the the Campbell injury though is,

>> huge. Like, I mean,

>> like they couldn't run the ball up the middle, and you just read off all those carries. I'm sure a lot of that was just bad blocking up front. Now, Will Campbell, who has been a very good rookie for them, he's not going to be out there. They have no depth. So, it's, it's going to be a challenge right now. Like, there's a lot of pressure on Drake May to find the right answers here. And then I think Trayvon's going to have to hit the explosives and catch some passes, um, just because I do think that Raandre and Terrell Jennings stuff, like the only carries they were getting were at the goal line. I don't think that's like a coincidence. I think there is something to that.

>> There were very few edge or tosses or sweeps,

>> runs today, which was kind of shocking since that was

>> their best runs over the last few weeks. Um,

>> yeah. I mean, 21 touches in the Patriots backfield when three guys got opportunities in this game. I'm gonna say that that's a win for Champion Henderson. And, you know, they get one of the worst run defenses next week, albeit this Patriots run blocking unit can make bad run defenses look average or good

>> against them.

>> Okay, on the Bengals end, T. Higgins also left with a concussion in this game. He goes up and tries to one-hand it, gets slammed down by, I think it was Christian Gonzalez, it might have been Carlson Davis, uh, and hits his head and immediately is ruled out. Micasiki did have like three catches on the opening series, only finishes with four for 35, and then sure Andre Yoshias four for 61 as the team's leading receiver on seven. But I, I was impressed by the room that the Bengals offensive line created against this Patriots unit, 19 for 107 for him on the ground, and I just wonder with however long, uh, Milton Williams is out, if we do need to kind of reset this Patriots top five rushing defense moniker that we do have at this moment. Yeah, I think, I think that totally makes sense here. Um, they've had a very easy schedule, so we, we do need to make some adjustments there. Um, with the Bengals, it's Thursday night football, so T. Higgins, there's no way he's going to be cleared for that. Uh, Jamar Chase will come back. Uh, did we learn anything about like Joe Burrow? Was there any reports that you saw like if how real his return is next week?

>> It seems like this has been the mission all along is Joe Burrow playing on Thursday Night Football and returning for Thanksgiving. Joe Flacco left for a moment in this game with his pointer finger, uh, on his right hand, hitting a helmet on a follow-through. He had like a bandage on it. And in his postgame press conference, he kind of sounded like he knew that this might be his last start of of the season. So, what a career.

>> Uh, not the best way to go out here for Joe Flacco. Let's talk about the Chicago Bears beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-28. I didn't see a moment of this game. I do see Caleb Williams three touchdown passes to his name. I do see Kyle Manungi, I mean, totally outpacing DeAndre Swift on 12 carries, 48 and a score compared to eight for 15 and nothing. Why was this game so close? What did the Bears do right? What did the Bears do wrong?

>> There's times where we've said, "Hey, this stat line doesn't look that good for Caleb Williams, but he was actually playing well." I would say the stat line looks like pretty good here, and like I didn't think he played all that well. He had a TJ Watt strip sack fumble in his own end zone. So that gave Steelers points early. Look at the Steelers. They had a wild game plan, which I, I really, really liked. Uh, but with the Bears, there was just some, some big chunk plays created from them. DJ Moore had two touchdowns. One was on a coverage bust, one was on like a little whip route, which is a good route for him, uh, in the red area. Coulson Lovelin, this was one of my favorite plays in the entire game. Uh, they get him out against a safety. He just runs a slant route, creates enough separation, strong hands, follows into the end zone. So, those were like the three touchdowns there. Caleb Williams, like fairly inconsistent. The big thing though is like, even in his inconsistent games, he takes one sack here, you know, like it was the bad sack, but the,

>> six points in the other team,

>> but one sack. I mean, last year this game would have happened, and it would have been five or six sacks, you know. So, this is like a trend in the right direction. That's why the Chicago Bears, uh, win this one 31 to 28. In terms of the running backs, because this is like the biggest fantasy conversation here, it was DeAndre Swift, then Kyle Manungai, drive for drive. It was pretty much that the entire game. DeAndre Swift has a fumble, and I'm not a huge DeAndre Swift guy. I will say I was wondering why forward progress was not called. I was wondering how the any referee saw the ball come out on his fumble. Regardless, rule to fumble, the Bears didn't really change how they were using Kyle Manungai and DeAndre Swift. It was almost drive for drive with without exception, just for whatever reason, the Kyle Manungai drives lasted longer. So, you guys are going to see plenty of tweets talking about, hey, Manungai had more snaps. Uh, is this an overtaking? Sure, he played better. DeAndre Swift was not good in this game, but it was DeAndre.

Swift started. They rotated drives, and then for a couple plays here and there, uh, one guy would sub in for like a play or two. But this is the drive-by-drive rotation that we've, uh, seen for the last couple weeks. We've seen other drive-by-drive ones where Swift, you know, got more snaps and more attempts and more routes. This was the inverse of that where the first time for in a season, high with Swift playing, you know, Kamongai leads in snaps, leads in attempts, and leads in routes among this backfield. Uh, but I do think that's notable that, you know, for a team that puts up 31 points and or a good offense, that they still want to make this a drive-by-drive running back room versus, yep, just giving it to the veteran when we're talking about a seventh-run rookie here. As we go along for people's fantasy playoffs. That's for sure.

Uh, yeah, I mean, DJ Moore has done nothing in previous weeks and here he goes on seven targets, five receptions, 64 yards, and two scores. And then we also at some point need to talk about the Adun, the Loveland, and the Burden stuff here, too.

Okay. Well, let's start with Adun. Finishes with nine targets here, only has three receptions. Were all of the incompletions his fault? No, of course not. But he still drops too many passes and like his feet by the sideline. It's, it's just not where it needs to be. So, he's good in a lot of ways. He's like clearly very athletic. He can go up and catch the ball. Uh, he's got a huge catch radius. You can also manufacture some stuff. He can run dig routes. I think he does create separation. Like all that about Roman Dun. The other points at the catch point by the sideline, man. It is just a roller coaster. Like it is what it is. I hope it improves, but he cost the Bears a couple key plays in this one. Uh, Luther Burton definitely was playing, uh, more. Let me see if I can pull up the, uh, final snaps. Yeah, he was third in wide receiver, uh, snaps as usual. Am I Zakius was pretty much not heard of, uh, the entire game. Barely is playing. And then Coulson Leland, uh, was out there for a lot more snaps than Cole KT. And I talked about the Coulson Leland, uh, play there. That was an excellent play. He, he seems like well on pace to being like an absolute dude at tight end. So, he's still not going to be a full-time player. The Bears definitely want to be pretty balanced on offense. DJ Moore, Coulson Love, and Luther Burn. These aren't nobody's at wide receiver, too. So, he's like hard to like fully trust in in tight end land, but, uh, I do think that the signs are here for a young rookie in Coulson Love that he's going to be, uh, a total monster in the next couple years here.

Yeah, I think all of the Luther Burton stats were in the first half and then you didn't add anything in the second half. So, yeah, uh, we got a nice on-pace numbers in the first two quarters and then it seems like nothing in the second half.

Okay, let's talk about the Steelers here because their running back room is interesting where it's 18 carries for 68 yards and a score for Jaylen Warren. Kenny Gainwell does technically have more with 10 carries and 92 yards, but I know 55 of those was on a fake tush push into the round that we've seen, you know, Mark Andrews do and now Kenny Gainwell do for scores.

Yeah, the game plan for the Steelers was awesome. Like Arthur Smith, I know he catches a lot of strays and and I get it, but this one he had the Chicago Bears are top three linebackers were out. So what does he do? Like more misdirection and screens make these guys these backups like run to the sideline and prove that they can tackle. And for the most part, they were just not able to. So, uh, early in this game, DK Mechaf, uh, he had an end-ound and then his touchdown was on a swing pass that was ruled a rush because it was actually thrown behind him. But they were also getting DK Mechaf on regular screens. He leaves with an ankle injury. So nothing too explosive for DK Mechaf, but it was like the type of game plan where you get the ball to DK Mechaf and prove that the Bears backups could actually go tackle. The same thing was true with all the Kenneth Gainwell stuff that you saw the tush push 55-yarder was awesome. Uh, but you got a lot of guys underneath. Darnell Washington, uh, trucking dudes. Uh, Jaylen Warren creating some space and trying to hurdle guys out, uh, out at the second level. So, there was like a lot of fun, interesting things that Arthur Smith was able to do with Mason Rudolph kind of being hidden from the game plan here, um, against a pretty injured Bears defense that was missing like two of their top three corners, all three of their linebackers, an edge rusher, a defensive tackle. So, it was a pretty bare bones, uh, defense there. And they, they put up a good fight, but ultimately just like did not have enough like true superstars on offense. Steelers just 17% chance right now according to the Athletic of making the playoffs. I mean, they have the Bills and the Ravens over the next two games. Lose one of those and it's basically over. I mean, they now might be forced to finally reset. Like, finally reset. I know that there was a report a couple weeks ago that they already want to bring Aaron Rogers back, but, you know, this Mike Tomlin thing of willing his team in the margins of making it to the playoffs. Uh, it truly might have to end finally if they don't make the playoffs this year.

They cannot be serious with bringing Rogers back. I mean, for what?

I'm with you, dude.

For what? Um, yeah, we don't need to see the Steelers in the playoffs, you know? And but I will say early in this game, you know, Rogers is out and like they've been written off. Here comes the Ravens, yada yada. And then like you have that crazy DeAndre Swift fumble. You have that Caleb Williams fumble with TJ Watt. And like all of a sudden you're like, is Tomlin going to do this thing again with all the turnovers going in his favor? And winning it out with a bunch of nobody's. And yeah, it's just they just, they just don't have enough, enough superstars right now.

I think the Bears are the most interesting playoff picture right now because if the season ended today, they are technically winning the NFC North at 8 and three. But then when you look at the underlying numbers and the models, again, the Athletic playoff picture has them at winning the division at just 17% chance and then just making the playoffs overall at a 54% chance. And it's all because of the schedule that they have left. It's the Eagles, then the Packers, then the Browns defense, then the Packers, and you close out with the 49ers and the Lions. So, basically a coin flip here. Yeah. Despite all the positives and all the negatives and the roller coaster the Bears season has been for them again at eight and three to even make the playoffs this season.

Yeah, right now I think they have a negative point differential, but they're still the leaders, uh, in the division. And unfortunately, that Browns game, that's their easiest game, but that's out of conference. It's like the least important game on their schedule, too. So, like you got all the guys that you're facing in the wild card, uh, round perhaps, the 49ers and Lions to kind of close out the season. It's going to be a close one. But even if the Bears didn't make the playoffs, like the fact, the fact that they're showing this much growth and I think Ben Johnson had an excellent game, uh, in general here, um, they're definitely on pace with their rebuild.

And they should get their two top cornerbacks next week. And so maybe that again resets some of these defensive trends that we've seen with them where, you know, a Pittsburgh Steelers team, uh, shouldn't score 28 points on them. Albeit, uh, I did call that TJ Watt, uh, sack fumble touchdown earlier in the week because we've seen, you know, Caleb have the strength, the toughness, the flexibility to avoid all these wrap-up tackles by some of the best edge rushers in the league, and it was, uh, TJ Watt in a losing effort to, uh, force one of those into a very, very negative outcome.

All right, I've got two more games just for the people and the discourse. Let's talk about Shador Sanders as the Cleveland Browns on the road kind of beat the Las Vegas Raiders 24-10. Uh, this all started even before the game kicked off. When asked in his pregame TV interview what he wants to show Browns fans, Shidor Sanders in his last line responded, quote, "I'm who they've been looking for." Now, if we look at the game, Shidor Sanders truly did make enough plays to win this game and maybe most importantly, did not make the mistakes to lose it. Early in the contest, third and eight, Raiders send zero blitz. I'm sure watching the Baltimore Ravens last week and Shador moves versus pressure versus a free rusher. Throws a rainbow to Isaiah Bond who comes down with it and is tackled at the one-yard line. 52 yards in the air and Quinchan Judkins closes it with his second one-yard touchdown after a great early punt return put the ball inside the red zone on the previous drive. All of that is in Wildcat without a quarterback even on the field. Uh, another later on a roll out, 39-yard pass to Jerry Judy who himself makes one of the worst plays you'll see all day. An awful mistake. He fumbles it after coming to a complete stop and forgetting that everyone on defense is actually moving at full speed. He gets a peanut punched by Jeremy Chin and the ball's on the ground and the Raiders recover. Um, Shador had some other extended plays where he dumped it off to Harold Fannon. You're going to love looking at the Harold Fannon tape tomorrow because it's about one-yard receptions that he takes 14 yards for these extended first downs just bumper caring and bouncing off defenders. Uh, and then Jorah Sanders had a 66-yard touchdown pass in the box score because it was a negative five-yard air pass to Dylan Samson and that was his first NFL touchdown throw. So on the day, 11 of 20, 209, one touchdown, and one really bad interception that was to an edge rusher that dropped into Jerry Judy's lane that Shore Sanders simply did not see. But the most notable thing, just one sack taken against Max Crosby. Yep. And a defensive line who has some players because again, Shadore mostly climbed or went laterally when moving in the pocket. So other than one sack and one interception and just a couple weward throws and maybe some weird decisions, uh, it was an overall solid day and I would say more watchable than we had in a lot of other Dylan Gabriel games.

Yeah, the negative play is like the big thing here because the Raiders were only going to score so many points just given their offense and how, you know, the state of the Browns defense right now with Miles Garrett. So Shador, as long as you don't create a bunch of negative plays, you're going to have a chance to win this one and then you throw in the couple of explosives down the field and yeah, more than enough. So like, really cool to to see them, uh, get a win here and we'll see what happens when Dylan Gabriel comes back and which which route they want to go. I'm not sure if they had any updates with that. Um, but, um, just the, the one sack I think might be like my favorite metric of them all.

Kevin Sansancy was asked after the game who's going to be the starter. He declined to comment. I'm sure that's because Dylan Gabriel, you know, has not cleared concussion protocols and he really doesn't have to have that answer until Dylan Gabriel does. So if Shador didn't make enough mistakes to lose this game, uh, Gino Smith and the Raiders offense certainly did. 10 sacks taken.

10.

By Juno Smith.

Come on.

10. Miles Garrett has 18 sacks already on the season and it's not like he got three or four or five like we've seen him in other contests.

Uh, this was just pitiful. I mean, so pitiful. He had 10 sacks despite a time to throw of 2.63 seconds.

What are you supposed to do? I mean, what are you supposed to do with that?

Uh, and he missed Trey Tucker on multiple downfield touchdowns. Like some of those weren't when he was pressured. Other times, sure, maybe he had someone closing in his face and he could have stepped up and just thrown an accurate pass would have led to a score. Honestly, Trey Tucker probably had 200 air yards that just were not completed. It's a pathetic, unwatchable team. The only cool part about it is Ashen Genty trucking defenders, making people miss after the catch, and forcing cornerbacks and defensive backs off of him in the receiving game, which he gets eight for a 58 and a pointless fourth and two receiving score. Um, but then he even leaves with what looked like an ankle injury at the end of this game after getting kind of rolled up on and twisted in the other direction. So, I know we have this Raiders conversation every single week. I actually felt that Anie Connelly had one of the best takes about it. That quote, "It is genuinely hilarious that Tom Brady spearheaded every decision that has made the Raiders the most directionless and unwatchable franchise in the league and he's just sat in Dallas calling the game of the most well-run Philadelphia Eagles team in the league." Next tweet. I think having your football zar split time between calling games, Riad, Saudi Arabia, YouTube, crypto, and Birmingham, Birmingham City, which is the worst football club in the entirety of England, Europe. Sorry, that's just me adding those notes. Uh, is not smart.

Where's your notes on Saudi Arabia, Josh?

[laughter]

I think Birmingham City is even worse than Saudi Arabia, but go ahead.

Fair enough. Yeah, I mean, look, even like the Ashen Genty numbers under the hood, negative yards before contact here and then you pick up the injury too. So, I mean, it's like what exactly are we doing when the offensive line is reached this bad? It's like it's, how are they projected for 20 points? I mean, we asked this question numerous times this week. I know at no point did it look like they were going to achieve the 20-point status that sports books, uh, invested into the Raiders at home this week. I'm tell they were thinking that they were getting the big time negative plays from Shador that just credit where it's due. Did not happen with him.

I gotta ask a question though. Brock Bowers, I mean, you're trailing the entire game here. Uh, he, I think bails, bails himself out late with 55 receiving yards, but I mean, they drop back 54 times. How does he only have 55 receiving yards? Like that's like, what are we doing here?

Oh, I'm with you. I mean, Chip Kelly's a part of this. Pete Carol's a part of this. Tom Brady, the offensive line, Gino Smith, all of it. It's not like Brock Bowers like had any drops or really negative plays in this game. It's just the offense is not functional, period. And yeah, he had 18 yards in like their final pointless drive, but there's nothing I can point out. And Michael Mayer even left halfway through this game, too. So, there's nothing I can point to that says this offense is good enough to even get us there with any sort of fantasy relevance on a weekly basis or consistency. I don't know who they are.

Yeah. No, I know. I mean, if Genty is out of the picture, like Brock Bowers, but I'm breaking ties against Brock Bowers at this point. There's a couple like like elite, I mean, Trey McBride is just like in his own planet, but then that next tier, it's, it's a, it's fair to question if Brock Bower should be the, the tight end two or tight end three right now. I mean, the 55 drop backs and you get 55 yards is like, I mean, yeah, that's not good.

On the Browns end, obviously, Quinchan has a 66-yard reception. Uh, Quinchan Judkins does get 16 carries for 47 yards and two scores. Again, two Wildcat goal-line touchdowns. He kind of got banged up too late on. He took this weird hit that he was spinning left and then came back. But that is something for us to monitor because his game is all about volume. They are three and eight. This was one of the few games potentially the rest of the way other than the Tennessee Titans, which is going to be what the number one team and the number three team right now in Tankathon as they face off here in two weeks. So, we definitely need Quinn Sean playing in that game against the Titans.

Yeah, Raiders now fifth, uh, in the draft order right now. Well, probably looking at quarterbacks, I would guess.

I would assume so. I mean, this was truly a freaking unbelievably bad Gino Smith performance. If you do not watch it, but if you do, you'll have no reason to.

You will seven yards behind his beyond his wide receivers, and, uh, then him getting frustrated about the whole thing. It, the falloff has been simply, simply incredible.

Okay, speaking of the falloff, we got it last week with Sam Darnold. Oh, [laughter] there it is against the Rams defense. Obviously, a very difficult matchup, but here a layup matchup. We were hoping for. Albeit, the Tennessee Titans kept this one close against the Seattle Seahawks 30 to 24. So, bounceback spot for a lot of Seahawks offensive players. It was insane what JSN was doing. And sometimes it was against corners. Other times they were able to get the Tennessee Titans safeties one-on-one with JSN. So, JSN goes crazy. 63-yard, uh, touchdown. He has another one. There was plays over the middle where nobody was near him. It was just one of those games where you just wonder like, why is no one ever near JSN? It's because, oh yeah, he's like really smart and then he is well schemed around and then his release is, it was a perfect performance from JSN. So like, as Jonathan Taylor has his iffy game and JSN goes for a buck 67, then the offensive player of the year, uh, award should kind of tilt in JSN's favor at this point. There was really nobody else in the receiving game worth mentioning. Uh, but we did get Kenneth Walker in the first three drives plays all but one snap. I think it was like 17 of 18. Charbon goes in there. Classic two-minute drill stuff. Uh, and then late in the game, Charban does have a rushing touchdown. But that was a weird, I've never seen that sequence with the Seahawks. The first three drives, all Kenneth Walker. Now, uh, our boy Hani, he leaves with a hamstring injury really early in this game. Maybe that would have changed, uh, some things, but, u, it was a lot more Kenneth Walker. He was a bunch of explosive plays in this one. 71 yards on the ground and then another 30 yards, uh, through the air does not score the touchdown because AJ Barner, I mean, absolutely annihilates a guy as a run blocker on a Charbanet touchdown. Uh, but that was just something that we have not seen like this version of the rotation. So, I don't know what it means. Uh, Kenneth Walker only played like 64% of the, the entire games.

That's a lot more than he has.

But that's that's an upgrade. And the first three drives were all Walker, like all Walker. So, we'll, we'll see.

Still, Zack Sharp with the short touchdown.

Uh, yeah.

When to get them there.

Yeah.

Oh my god. Barner is a monster.

The snap. I mean, compared to, let's say, week 10, that's a bump in 23%. From 41% up to 64%. So, look, are we up to a 70% workload here for Kenneth Walker and owning everything inside the 10-yard line? No, we're not. But are we attaching this to the coach speak that said, "Hey, we got to get Ken Walker the football more along with Ken Walker being the team's best running back, you know, most efficient, most explosive, you know, 11 for 71 in this game along with three catches for 30 yards. Uh, that is notable to me." Now again, Seahawks are not going to be a fantasting fantastic rushing offense every single week. And, you know, they face the Minnesota Vikings next week. So, we'll see what happens. But, uh, this is better than probably any version of the split backfield so far that we've gotten for K9.

Yep. Yeah. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel where maybe he does end up being like the guy. Like the games get more important for the Seahawks. They're eight and eight and three at this point. So, uh, they got some good jockeying to do for the division, for by-weeks, for the wild card seating and stuff. So, the games are only going to get more important for Kenneth Walker. And maybe they say, "All right, Charbanet, you were able to keep Kenneth Walker mostly healthy this year. Now, it's time to go on a Super Bowl run, and we got to get Kenneth Walker up to speed." The JSN stuff, I mean, he's the team's just pass catchers. Let's not talk running backs here. Pass catchers. He has 167 yards and two scores. Yeah. The other receivers, Cooper Cup, two for 22. AJ Barner, two for 18. Elijah, one for five. And then Rashid Shahi, zero on two targets. I mean, that's just crazy.

It's insane. It's insane. It's, it is actually insane. I think that he's now the, uh, Seahawks franchise record for single season receiving. It's, it's week 12 last time I checked.

Wow.

All right.

On the Titans end, you and I did a deep dive on Cam Ward this past Tuesday. I'm looking at the box score. Cam Ward, leading passer, 20 to 42, 256, four sacks taken, one touchdown. Cam Ward, leading rusher, six catches or six carries for 37 yards and a score. Also, I see Cam Ward leading receiving. No, I don't. I'm just kidding. But talk me through this Cam Ward performance.

Cam Ward looked like the first overall pick in this game. And they have an offensive coordinator search and a head coaching search coming up. What the Tennessee Titans ownership is going to do is they're going to take DVDs, put the game on this in email, and send everything that they have about this game to every candidate known to man because this is the game that you could see the vision with Cam Ward. And what was interesting about this one is a lot more creativity with Cam Ward as a scrambler and just buying some time outside the pocket. His arm talent this entire season has been very good. There's been some huge corner shots. Uh, this one there was a seam shot to I think it was like James Proche over the middle, which was an, a, I mean, a total dart, dude. James Proche, by the way. Uh, we got like Xavier Restrepo wide open like they, he was like the like UDFA, UDFA guy. Um, but anyways, there was plays out of structure that were just awesome from Cam War. There was a third and four which was like more like Mahomes-esque where he throws it across, uh, his body. He took the still image of him. He's like the the Jordan logo out out of bounds throwing across, uh, the field. There was just a lot to like from Cam Ward. And this is the Seahawks defense that is top five. No doubt about it right now. And he's thrown to absolute nobody's here. Uh, Chamir DK did have a receiving touchdown. He has absolute wheels. You see that on the punt return touchdown that he had as well. He's like the only like receiver that can do anything right now. And then Gunnar Helm is kind of like this big lumbering tight end who's kind of like in the reliable kind of role. Um, but this was just an excellent Cam Ward game. One of the games that if you guys haven't watched him on all 22, watch this one because this is like the game where the offseason we're going to look at all the EPA numbers and people are going to have lots of questions and like there should be some questions, but you can see how long term this one could work out and be a really fun watch. So, uh, by far his best game of the season and, uh, can't wait for you guys to watch it.

Yeah, if you look on Tankathon, Titans are the first overall pick, the Giants are the second overall pick. To me, drafts get really interesting when either the top two picks are teams that already have quarterbacks of the future. Uh, and that's the case here. Now, is there going to be a quarterback worth of worth that to someone? Probably. So, that's going to make phone calls and trades and everything of the sort really, really exciting. And yeah, I don't want people to look at the Titans most likely having the number one overall pick and saying, "Well, that means Cam Ward's a bust." Uh, they just do not have an offensive identity at this moment. And they have to kind of figure that out before to me declaring that it's a Cam Ward problem because it's an offensive problem right now. And just like look at all the wide receivers surrounding him. Look at, you know, the offensive line not playing to all the investments because with how much they invested in free agency and then draft picks on the offensive line. If that's not a top 16 unit, then that takes away all of the investments that they could have made to other positions, whether it be, you know, wide receiver, whether that be to defensive players, cornerbacks, you know, just having startable quarterbacks on the roster,

Anybody.

So, uh, yeah, it's just the distribution.

Yeah.

Of the resources has not turned into top-end position groups at any spot.

Yeah, Cam Ward needs a lot of development himself too, but just the signs of the flashes like rating to the flashes. You saw that with Cam Ward today. I mean, they are their team needs list would be literally every single position. So, they got a lot of work cut out. I would trade down about four or five times in a row and get as many, you know, fringe first, second round picks as you possibly can because they need to hit on a lot of picks in a row to have a chance.

All right, let's stick in that division because as of this moment, the 7 and 4 Jacksonville Jaguars without the number two overall pick in Travis Hunter have a 72% chance of making the playoffs right now according to the Athletic after their narrow overtime victory over the Arizona Cardinals 27-24 on the road. Just the stat line for Trevor Lawrence. Okay. 18 of 30, three touchdowns, three interceptions, three sacks, and a fumble six. It was a true Trevor Lawrence roller coaster game. I mean, after an early perfect four-play drive where I thought the Cardinals were already in Cabo St. Lucas defensively because it included like a 30-yard pass to Britain Strange and then 60 yards of Travis Etian's entire total for this contest. After that, it was so many downs and then a few ups. Okay. Next series for the Jaguars. Trevor near his own goal line is hit by a blitzing safety because Nick Rolls did that constantly in this game. The blitz, uh, hits him as he's releasing the football. It's either a pick six or a fumble six, but it falls into the lap into the hands of Walter Nolan, the Cardinals first-round defensive tackle, who returns it for a score. By the way, Wallen doesn't finish this game again with a knee issue.

Yeah.

And this is kind of becoming a common thing. He does awesome stuff and then leaves contests. So hopefully that changes. Another drive ends with an unblocked Buddha Baker sack that either the protection, the center, or Trevor Lawrence just does not recognize. And at some point, I think Anton Harrison missed this entire game. But then Walker Little, their left tackle also leaves this contest. And so out of the half, the Jaguars march down the field with completions to Parker Washington and Britain Strange, but it ends with an endzone interception on the back shoulder of Jacobe Myers because Kas Campbell and all 7 foot 2 of him tips it at the line of scrimmage. He had another two interceptions. He was baited into one on like a seam bender by a Davis Gaither, uh, like a backup linebacker or someone who's changed teams multiple times here for the Arizona Cardinals. And then Buddha Baker just reads the eyes of Trevor on a third down sitting at the sticks. It feels like to me defenses know that in this Liam Cohen offense and with the wide receivers that they have at this moment, they're just not throwing down the field. So they're kind of just sitting in this line in this intermediate space and, uh, yeah, when you have someone like Buuna Baker who can kind of hawk those plays, and just dive in front of it. But then, like there are some good too. The next series, third down in the red zone. Again, Nick Rollis sends a zero look. Trevor Lawrence throws off his back foot as Jacobe Myers is making his break. Touchdown pass in isolated coverage. Also touchdown in the fourth quarter, I believe to put them up on the scoreboard. Perfectly steps up, evades the pass rush, a very well-covered ball on a Parker Washington route that's running away from him in the opposite direction. And he catches it for a score. So, I get it. Trevor was horrible in this game. Uh, he had just enough positive moments for them to have this victory because if they lost this game, I think the rest of their season, uh, would be plenty of questions. But now they're in the driver's seat to potentially have a playoff birth here.

It seems like it's Chiefs, Chargers, Jacksonville largely for two of three spots remaining, then the Texans and Bills. There's obviously a lot of scenarios that can play out, but largely two of those three teams are going to make it. Did this game make you feel like Jacksonville is going to hold on to one of the two spots that are available to him?

No, not really. I mean, all these teams have their flaws, but like when Jacksonville is a flawed team, it like really shows up. There was another like turnover on downs, too. Uh, where the Jaguars were up by three with about a minute 40 left to go. On a fourth and one instead of kicking a field goal of about 40ish yards, Liam Cohen elects to go for it, which the models say that that's a good thing to do because in that case, if you kick it and the Cardinals march down, then you lose by one. And there's really no difference in that versus, you know, just kicking a field goal and setting that in overtime, which by the way, is exactly what happened here. And they won in overtime. But even that one, it was like a sprint right type thing. And Trevor basically throws an uncatchable pass like not even in the vicinity. And at the same time, there were offensive penalties, uh, that would have brought back a positive play in that regard. Like that is where the Jaguars keep getting to me all season long. It was with, you know, the wide receivers early on. It was with Travis Hunter. It was with Brian Thomas Jr. And this time it was on defense. Like they had another seven penalties for 60 yards. The Cardinals open this the game with like four rushing first downs, four passing first downs, and then four first downs that were given on penalties on top of it. Another one where on their own 35-yard line, a fourth and one, they were clearly going to punt, but Jonathan Ganon thinks, you know, he's some genius and so he's like, "Okay, we're going to draw him off sides." And guess what? They jump off sides. I know [laughter] it's that's why like Jacksonville like they're chaos team. They're like kind of fun to watch and they're winning a lot of games, but it's like, all right, at some point you got to be a little bit more serious for me to like take you serious.

Yeah. Uh, the number one thing here from a fantasy standpoint is that the BAL Tooten stuff last week was just a tease and Travis Etian did get the vast majority of the work. Um, 15 carries, 86 yards. Again, 45 of that was on the first series and he got his, I think 15-yard receiving touchdown. Yes. Also on the first series, but really that went the same as like the entire Jaguar situation where it was like one great series and then they all did nothing and then another scoring series and they all did nothing on top of it. So, Basin popped in there here and there, but, uh, obviously ETN was the vast majority of the snaps and percentage getter in this game.

Yeah, that's going to be seven of 11 weeks where he's a top 12 finishing running back for Travis CTN. Seven-eleven.

And then Britain Strange once again the team's leading receiver in this game for another week.

Yep.

Off of IR. Five catches, 93 yards. Parker Washington, 5 for 71 and one. Jacobe Meyers, 4 for 50 and one in the end. On the Cardinal side, I mean, Michael Wilson, you see it, 10 catches, 118. They did have a chance in overtime, but a fourth and four. Again, what the Jaguars were doing were just kind of sending unblocked pressures, too. And they were getting to Jacobe Brassette. He just like lobbs it up to Greg Dort. He has no one to throw the football, but it's a Hail Mary to Greg Dorts and basically triple coverage, and he can't come down to it. I still want to give Jacobe credit, man. Like, he opens this game 12 of 14 for, I don't know, 95 yards. He finishes 33 of 49 for 317 and a touchdown. Does take six sacks. He leaves for a series because Devin Lloyd annihilates him on the sideline. It was a legal hit, but just totally annihilated. And then, yeah, 140, no timeouts in his back pocket. He does lead them to at least tie the game and put it in to overtime. And they just can't do anything with their drive in order to, you know, at least kick a field goal and tie it up, uh, to send it to three possessions. But like, it kind of sucks to be the Jacobe defender for people who don't care about fantasy football because you know these have been, I think multiple games dating back to the Green Bay Packers where he plays quite well and keeps them in these contests and it's not enough. And I think as a starter, he's what, five, one and five so far? He's one and five. Nobody cares if you have Trey McBride though or Michael Wilson or No, like it's okay. But we're burying the lead. How, how confident are you that Marv is actually better than than what we're getting with Michael Wilson? Like, I mean, this is insane. He doesn't drop anything. We'll start there. He's reliable against zone coverage. They can move him around the formation. He's mossed some guys at times here. Is there a limit to how athletic he is? Absolutely. Name the other cons to his game. Pretty good player to me. Like I'm looking at it once again. Another good route and another good route and catches the ball and another good route and then they move him around the formation because he's capable of doing that. He seems like a smart guy. Like he's a pretty good, good football player to me. I don't know.

Yeah. No, Michael Wilson can definitely play in the league. Uh, he makes, and like you said, very consistent. And I think Marv, unfortunately, has been inconsistent so far. Like we thought he was a technician and if he can't separate because he's more of this bigger body and not overly explosive type player, then he has to come down with all the tight window targets and he can't have just, you know, open drops. And this year he's had too many open drops. I will say it's tough to just look at the Marvin Harrison, I think raw stats in games that Jacobe has started because he did leave a couple and then, you know, one of them was against Seattle which he had some drops and some other difficult catches but then I think from like start to finish in a game that he has played with Jacobe like that, that Dallas game was really good, seven of 10 targets for 96 and a touchdown. So maybe they have two wide receivers moving forward with Jay McBride just overall, it is so much better that you can actually have two passing options and receiving options in a Cardinal offense with Jacob set at quarterback versus what Kyler Murray was bringing to the team.

Yeah, I'll just say Michael Wilson is much more quarterback friendly than Marvin Harrison. Marvin Harrison's ceiling is obviously infinitely higher and like we'll see if Marvin.

Can sweet double move in overtime. Yes, that, uh, set them up into, uh, big time territory to potentially tie the game. This is a big week. It's going to be feast week over on Underdog. If you've never played on Underdog Fantasy, this is the perfect time to do it. We're in over 40 states right now and specifically over 20 states with prediction markets. Maybe six months ago, two years ago, if you're listening or watching to this program, you could not play an underdog. That has all changed. You know, Texas, Florida, Georgia, California, you know, you can look at Virginia, South Carolina, all these places. If you're in one of those states, play $5 in underdog and get 75 bucks in bonus cash just from me if you use promo code the show or click the link in the description down below. Make time with your family just a little bit more fun, Hayden, and playing dog app.

Yeah, if you don't like hanging out with your family, you always got team underdog on your couch.

There it is. Uh, also Hayden, I noticed no Brenley on the program this week. Did you kick him off because of what happened in the USC Oregon Ducks game?

No, we we don't talk about that game. Of course.

There. By the way, uh, their tight end prospect went crazy on us. So, are you surprised by that?

No, because Don Kay did that back in the day. I remember watching this. Can't wait.

All right. We didn't get many eyeballs on the rest of these games, but we do just want to ask some things we're going to look forward to talking about this week's rankings episodes. Let's first kick off in a much tighter game than the sports books had in mind. The Detroit Lions improved to 7-4 just barely in overtime, beating the Jameus Winston-led New York Giants 34 to 27. Hey, I know we need to talk about Jir Gibbs and his 15 carries for 219 yards and two scores, including a 69-yard to the house, but I just quickly want to bring up Jameus Winston.

All right. Hell yeah.

Because last week on this very program, I pointed out that he had like four dropped interceptions last week and it was like a brutal game against the Packers and you still had some positive moments in it. This one seemed almost all positives in that he had 366 yards passing on just 18 completions. And the piece de resistance is a Jameus Winston 33-yard catch, one reception, going up and mossing a defender and not just that and coming down with it, but then also breaking a tackle on the way to the end zone. One of the best non-passing quarterback plays I've seen in my lifetime.

It really reminded me of the Barlo Cologne home run where this just like felt like culturally relevant. Um, it was, it was sensational. I could not believe it when when he caught it. I didn't think that he was going to get into the end zone. He had to like shrug him off of him and then before diving in there. That was unbelievable stuff. You only get to do that with Jameus Winston, uh, back there. there. And then he was, I mean, he was rifling the ball down the field in this one. I was facing Wandell Robinson, my most important league, and I could not believe the stat line that Wel Robinson, I like refreshed my Yahoo app and then like Wel already had like 16 points. I said, "What the hell is going on here?" But that's just the Jameus Winston experience.

Yeah. I mean, look, I am the first to point out when his highs and lows and there's many lows. This one, it's a high and he's so much fun to watch. Uh, especially as a short-time starter. Who knows what happens moving forward and this might be the last Jimus Winston performance we have of the season. But what a note to end on with that hate. What a note to end on. We won't even talk about the Tyron Tracy Deon Singleary stuff. 20 for 62 for Tracy. 14 for 47 here for Singleary. Uh, on the other end with the Lions and if you played and faced Jir Gibbs this week, I mean, [laughter] a 40-plus burger he posts in fantasy football is nuts. Is there a bigger, uh, Jir Gibbs whisperer than me right now? Ranked him running back 12, finishes running back 12. Rank him RB1, finishes RB1. This is I'm on fire with my Jir Gibbs rankings. And if we're talking process, if you told me that the Detroit Lions scored 34 points against the New York Giants, I would have expected Dave Montgomery to at least hit 20 rushing yards. Instead, he only gets five carries for 18.

Well, I thought you were going to go Jameson Williams. If they score 34, you would think that JMO would not have the same amount of receiving yards as the YouTube commenters.

I mean, crazy stuff. I again, I didn't get to watch this game, so I will go back and watch it and see how both of those happen. And namely the Jameson Williams stuff on three targets, O. And Amaras St. Brown, I think, despite a couple drops, still ends up with 13 targets, nine receptions, 149 yards, and one score. We all know the Detroit Lions are making the playoffs. We did talk about how the NFC North is in a triple lock here. They are 80% to make the playoffs. The Packers at 77%, the affforementioned Bears at 54% and then to win the division, the Lions 43%. Despite being 7-4 and technically the worst record of the bunch, the Packers 39% and the Bears 17%. Pick one right now. Who wins it?

Oh man, I'll probably go the Lions. Uh, they're at home on Thursday against the Packers here. That's going to have a huge implications there. And the Packers are just a little bit beat up right now.

Okay, let's talk about the Baltimore Ravens who are, I'm going to say, limping to six and five.

Yeah.

As much as we all said that, hey, their season starts after the by-week when they actually a plus one after that got Lamar Jackson back. You know, in my head I was fantasizing that, oh, it would just all look just like it did last year, close to MVP Lamar with Todd Monin and all that stuff. I mean, it's another game of him 13 of 23, 153 yards. Derrick Henry only averages three yards a carry, does get two touchdowns on top of it. Where's the offense here? I mean, I know you didn't get to watch, but like this is kind of troubling.

It is troubling. That said, the Ravens are in first place in the division already. You know, already it's week, it only took till week 12 and they already have the division lead. So, they're going to hold on to it. But I think the like the more interesting conversation is okay, we, we know that the Chiefs can go on a run out of the wild card spot. Could the Ravens like realistically go on a run like the defense can? Lamar Jackson has to be healthy though, cuz Lamar Jackson is like raising a pretty average-ish offensive line. Derrick Henry is not the Pro Bowl running back that he once was. And then the depth behind Zay Flowers at pass catchers not that good. So, like if they're going to go on a run as a wild card team or as the four seed, then they got to have a healthy Lamar Jackson. And we just haven't seen it. And like once again, only 11 rushing yards here. I mean, this used to be like an automatic 50, 60, 70 rushing yards, and since that injury, it's been 35 and less.

You know, maybe this is the reverse, the inverse of Ravens teams we've seen in the past make the playoffs because

You remember Lamar's first MVP season. They get the number one seed, nearly go undefeated, and then they just have that terrible performance against the Tennessee Titans and go out immediately. We know what happened last season against the Buffalo Bills and the Mark Andrews drop on the two-point conversion or whatever it was. Maybe here they limp into the playoffs and then play their best football for a three or four game stretch.

Well, I will say their defense right now, uh, they had the Dolphins held them to six, the Vikings held them to 19, the Browns held them to 16, and the Jets held them to to 10. Like, those aren't like the greatest opponents there, but that's, uh, four games in a row under 20 points. And they they obviously have a lot of talent on defense. So, it really just comes down like how healthy is is Lamar Jackson. And I think right now the answer is he he's just not all the way there.

On the Jetson, Tyrod Taylor 17 to 28, 222, one touchdown, one interception. Bree Hall 20 touches over 110 yards. Uh John Mechy is the wide receiver one with seven targets, six receptions, 65 and a score. Yeah. And Adai Mitchell hit is higher. That's all I care about. Two receptions and 42 yards. Yeah. Uh caught two of his seven targets. Classic 80 Mitchell. I do think the John Met store is really cool though. So he's bounced around multiple times just this year. Traded twice this season. Correct. but he's going to be a starter for the rest of the season and they're going to eval mode with Tyrod Taylor so they can get looks at Mason Taylor and then I think that John Mechy and like as a prospect mech was seemed like if he's going to hit he would be like Jacobe Meyers where he's just going to hang in the league. Maybe you have a nice number two receiver. Uh it's obviously has not gone that clean for him but this is backto-back weeks where he's been relevant caught six of seven targets here. So, um, I mentioned I think on our the morning show like, hey, off the waiverwire stardom, worst case scenario, Meti was one of the guys I threw out there, I do think that there's a chance he might be in as like a top 40 wide receiver for me this next week. And I think that he's probably going to be 2% rostered or something like that. Um, so if we don't have a waverwire show this week, uh, John Mechy in a deep league, full PPR, I think that he's he's reaching that point.

With the caveat, as long as we have Tyrod Taylor as the starting quarterback, which I would expect we do the rest of the way, like Justin Fields is not commenting on being benched. Why would you after the owner said what he did publicly as well? But, uh, with Tyrod out there, yeah, I mean, they're going to have chances at wide receiver. And overall, shout out to John Mechy. I mean, hell yeah. leukemia in 2022. I think he missed all of 2023 and now like you said, traded two teams in the same season and uh at least he's getting an opportunity now and and somewhat making the most of it.

Okay, we have one more game that we did not get eyeballs on and that is the Atlanta Falcons being the New Orleans Saints out of a buy 24 to 10. This is the Falcons fourth win of the season. This stops a sixgame, fivegame losing streak here for the Atlanta Falcons. Uh, and most notably, just as we, the world, counted out Darno Moond Dog Mooney, uh, he catches all three of his targets for 74 yards and a score. And all of it is made up by that 49 yard touchdown.

I mean, I ranked him as like the wide receiver 29. So, I'm not sure if that's giving up or what that is. Uh, cool that he came down with it, you know, like it was long overdue that big post route. Now, three targets is like not what you like love to see like build some uh confidence moving forward, but boom bust player down the field. At least Kurt Cousins goes in there and gets uh a big win. So, they're no longer uh giving the Rams a top 10 pick. I think that's like the whole point of the season now for the Falcons. And now it's the 11th pick. Uh, I know they won, but I saw a tweet from Mark Ramunde, who uh covers this Falcon team scene for ESPN, and he said, "That's three straight passes and completions in the direction of Charlie Warner." And that just made me chuckle because that just shows you where this Falcons team is at in week 12 of 2025. Uh three straight passes go in the direction of Charlie Warner despite all the investments that they've made in offense. Uh Dylan Drummond is a name I've never seen in a box score and he appears with three receptions for the Falcons. So yeah, never seen him before.

Okay, on the Saints end, Tyler Shuck had a nice week before the buy. Maybe got some rest here. The box score is not kind for him. One interception, five sacks taken, 243 yards on 43 passing attempts. no rushing game to speak of as he is the team's leading rusher also with 22 yards. So when I go back and watch this, I'm sure I'll see totally an unbalanced game from this Saints team.

Yeah, I saw Alvin Chimera up on the sideline like kind of hip dropesque where his knee kind of got bent all out of shape. He is getting MRIs. It looks like it's gonna be like an MCL injury which could be no games to a long absence. Who knows? Uh but they're two and nine. They just don't have like a clear-cut backup. like Devin Neil's they're they're RB2 but then all of a sudden Taesm Hill gets 10 carries. Also I saw Taesm Hill at the goal line on the fourth down uh break the pocket throw the ball pretty much out of out of way. Um so you know just one of those games I do want to go back and watch all the Tyler Shuck games because they're going to have a very big decision. They're currently third overall. So we got to really grade the Tyler Shuck stuff as we uh wind down here. And then uh Chris Ave 13 targets. This is what you want to see. Like if if a season's being wasted, you get nine receptions, 70 yards, 13 targets. Is it going to be efficient? No. But uh we'd like to see all that volume.

Do you think the biggest win that Falcons fans could have the rest of the season is not having the Rams be among top 10 mockdraft uh graphics from February until the last weekend in April? Because right now they're 11th.

Yeah, it's a big deal. No, 11th pick is versus 10 is that's a there's a lot of top 10 mock drafts on YouTube. There's very little top 11. And if there if it is the 11th pick, we're gonna do top 11 mock drafts. That's a promise. Yeah. Every graphic, we promise you if the Falcons have 11 picks, every graphic will include the Rams number 11 overall pick. That's for you, Terry Fontno.

Okay, we'll close this thing out with Thursday Night Football, which seems again a world ago. The Bills fall to the surging Houston Texans. I believe this is three straight wins for Davis Mills as a starting quarterback of his team. CJ Shard will come back. But after a big win against Kansas City, the Bills follow it with just 19 points and just 253 passing yards, two interceptions, and eight sacks taken here from Josh Allen. That is the biggest story line from this is the eight sacks taken. Uh the Bills offensive line is very good. right tackle was more of a question as it felt like they were banged up in Spencer Brown more than usual. But overall, it speaks to just the freak athletes that Denell Hunter and Will Anderson are that we see Josh Allen elongate these plays, you know, stiff arm defensive ends and defensive tackles to buy himself some time and make some unreal passes, but that just was never even possible here. And it shows you just the level of certain caliber of pass rushes can even make some quarterbacks who live on the edge on the tightroppe of those crazy Houdini like plays uh mortal in these moments.

Yeah, that's why I think like the elite edge rusher, it's like to me it's like quarterback, left tackle, and elite edge rusher like the three like true premium positions just because when you have an absolute menace like this, like you can steal some some games and they have two of them right now. Like it's it's wild that Denil Hunter is a two and but before this game started like this wasn't like obviously it was all about the Texans pass rush, but Josh Allen has been taking a lot more sacks this year than he ever has before. like he was like one of the best all time before the season and then this year he's league average and that's like pressure to sack ratio where he has like some control of it now. I think largely this is just none of my guys are getting open and that's definitely going to be true when you're facing Stingley and Lacader and Kalin Boolick and everybody else that they have but it's just not enough when Tai Johnson is your second um leading receiver, Jackson Haw, a rookie is your third leading guy. Gabe Davis who was active over your first round pick and Keon Coleman is up there as well and then Khalil Shakira slot guy he's the one that boogies around but I don't see how you solve that problem. Um so they have a run defense problem and then they have now Josh Allen takes too many sacks because his guys don't get open problem and you're going to have to go upset teams on the road because they're seven and four and the Patriots have 10 wins in that division. So I'm moving the Bills down and down and down in my contender rankings. like they're going to have to get really hot and Josh Allen's capable of doing that, but like it's the same issues that we've talked about since about week two and I don't know how they're going to get fixed like all of a sudden as we get into December.

That doesn't even include the fatal fall they have defensively of stuffing the run. Now, it wasn't maximized in this game because we all know about the Texans offensive line, but we've seen it in plenty of other contests. Yeah. I mean, we are now just over a year where just wide receiver and pass catching needs should have been at the top of the list for the Buffalo Bills. I mean, the trade deadline last year, they traded what, a third round pick for a totally washed Amari Cooper. And at the time, I wonder if that could take him over the edge. He barely played. I mean, he barely played. He couldn't catch the ball. Yeah. The rest of the way. Then this off seasonason, you know, you make the move to sign Josh Palmer, who is more of a, okay, we're gonna be in close coverage type guy versus I'm going to be a big separator and big speed burst. And then, you know, at the trade deadline, you try to make a move for Jaylen Wadd, but obviously they're not going to give up their first round pick, and the Dolphins aren't going to take anything less than a first round pick, especially inside of their own division. And so now you're here with kind of like the worst and most frustrating elements and passing attack of the Kansas City Chiefs that we've kind of like disliked. Yep. Over the last couple years, and that's your offense.

They really remind me of the Chiefs uh from the last couple seasons, except I just don't think they're good as good. You know, like it's the same issues, but they're not as good. So they they they have to they have to like prove to me that they can win some games. That's not Josh Allen going to hero mode with the receivers scoring in fantasy fantasy land. It's like, no, they're like, it's third and eight and they just like won on a dig route by themselves. Like, you just never see that type of stuff.

At the same time, the quarterback in like, as we saw in week one, real shootout matchups, especially if Don Kade comes back, if it's like a 41 to 42 contest, he can keep you in it if he's not facing Will Anderson and Dell Hunter. So yeah, they are one of the many flaw teams in the NFL this year, but I think their flaws might be the most glaring of a lot of teams that we have discussed tonight. Yep.

And that does it. Unless we want to talk anything Texans here. I mean, you have Woody Marks totally once again owning the backfield despite it not resulting in fantasy stats. And then Jaden Higgins, I believe this is what, three straight games of a touchdown, too. So they are getting their rookies involved. They did not early this season, but at least you have the Woody Marks and Jaden Higgins combo of that with uh Jaylen Null waving in the distance.

Yeah, that's uh four of the last five games Jaden Higgins has at least seven targets. He's not going to be a superstar wide receiver. I think there's some like athletic limitations there. I think he's pretty damn polished. I think that's at the catch point. And then he can also move around the formation. And I think he's just a good route runner. like he's like about as good of a route run as a rookie could be when you're not creating a bunch of separation because you're just a menace athletically. So he just like looks like a a second round pick who's going to develop over the next couple years and could be like trotted out as Nico Collins wide receiver too opposite. So I don't know what that means for fantasy points but I do think that for the Texans like he looks like a nice little hit for him.

That does it for us. Once again this week's schedule, no waiverss, no stats versus film. Instead, you'll have running back rankings, wide receiver rankings, and quarterback and tight end rankings on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. So, you want to support us, the best way of doing that is supporting underdog. Go play in the dog app description down below. Play five bucks your first time. You get 75 bucks in bonus cash just from me. And again, we're in over 40 states, 20 plus for prediction markets. If you never play in the app, now is the time to do so. And now you can. Thanks to Mosho and weaves and Hayden up the vela. We'll talk to youall soon.