Late-Round Perspectives: Joey Wright

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Joey Writes, a community ambassador for football guys who hosts Trivia Night Live, their Sunday morning live show in the new Home League Show.

00:00:06
Speaker 2: He previously did work at Rasball.

00:00:08
Speaker 1: He's a girl dad, He's a film critic, and no one has better outfits than Joey at the Fantasy Football Expro. These are his late round perspectives.

00:00:28
Speaker 3: You, being a movie critic, I have to ask you this to start this. Top three Christmas movies go holiday movies. We won't even say specifically Christmas, just holiday in general.

00:00:39
Speaker 4: Movies, Holiday in general. Let's get the good feels, let's get the good vibes during the holidays. For a little snarkiness. I love Scrooged with Bill Murray.

00:00:48
Speaker 2: You know who's obsessed with that is Denny Carter.

00:00:51
Speaker 4: Well, Denny is a very very funny man, so I would get it. Yeah, that's a very like Yeah, that's Denny's Christmas movie. I get that. I like Christmas Vacation and I got into a little argument last night with Paul charchiing about it and he can you know, Kick.

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Rocks Church not a Christmas vacation guy.

00:01:09
Speaker 4: He's anti Christmas vacation And.

00:01:12
Speaker 2: How is that even possible.

00:01:13
Speaker 4: He's I don't want to speak for him. All he said to me was he saw it twenty years ago. He didn't find it funny.

00:01:18
Speaker 2: Wow.

00:01:19
Speaker 4: Wow, Listen when Randy Quaid walks up and just one finger hits the little windmill and it just collapses. Just it's comedy gold. It is good, and I need to pick one more. I'm not gonna say eyes white shut. That's like Joey's Christmas movie. I annoy my wife every Christmas Eve I watch it.

00:01:36
Speaker 2: Sure, pretty sure Denny has thrown that one out there too.

00:01:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's it grows every year on me. No, Like listen, It's a Wonderful Life is rated one of the best Christmas movies for a reason. I don't think it's a bad movie. I think it holds up. Don't watch it in color, watch it in black and white. Yeah, I'll just I'll throw three classics out there for you.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: Don't you have a cat named after Kevin McAllister?

00:01:56
Speaker 4: I do, I do?

00:01:58
Speaker 2: And you didn't even name Home Alone there.

00:02:00
Speaker 4: I know I should have named Home Alone. You put me on the spot, Joey. Yeah, that's the only on the spot question.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: I promised you problem.

00:02:07
Speaker 4: That's fine.

00:02:08
Speaker 3: No, I mean, like I figured you would throw Home Alone out there after after naming a pet after Kevin mccallis.

00:02:14
Speaker 4: I listen, I don't want to take credit for that. My incredible seven. She was seven at the time. She's nine now. We adopted the cat and we've got it in the car, and its name was Simba. And I look in the room of your mirror and I was like, honey, I hate to tell you that name is not going to work. We are a we name our dogs after and pets after real people type family. Yes, And she's like, what about Kevin, like from Home Alone because it's Christmas. And I was like, Kevin mccatister, perfect, You're brilliant.

00:02:42
Speaker 3: Kevin is a fantastic name for a pet. We have a we have a Henry. So we were in the same in the same boat for UH for human names.

00:02:48
Speaker 2: Henry's Henry's going to be sixteen though in June.

00:02:51
Speaker 3: He's a he's a little dog, so he's you know, his time is limited and we're we're trying to enjoy it as much as we can.

00:02:56
Speaker 2: But I'm with you with the UH. The human names for pets, it's more fun that way.

00:03:00
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. We've had a Rob. We have a Betty. We have a Betty as a golden retriever.

00:03:04
Speaker 2: Rob is pretty incredible.

00:03:06
Speaker 4: It was Robert Loja was his full name.

00:03:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, but just just Rob. Yeah, this is a pretty incredible name for a pet. Love it all?

00:03:14
Speaker 3: Right, Well, this is your first time on Perspectives, And for the record, you're catching me on a bad week. My voice is horrible because I got this cold that my son gave me. And you know, if people are hearing me sound like I've been smoking cigarettes all day, that's not been the case. It has been me with this cold. So you're gonna have to carry a little bit on today's show, my man.

00:03:36
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, I have to no.

00:03:39
Speaker 2: Pressure, But this is your first time on Perspectives.

00:03:41
Speaker 3: Give everyone a glimpse of you and how you kind of got into this space and what you're up to.

00:03:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, like I in twenty twenty, I got really sick. I my gal but almost ruptured. I had a minor stroke, like things were going bad, and I was in bed for a lot of the time. And I had always played fantasy football, but I got into my first industry tournament. I played in the ras Bowl. It was my first thing I ever played in that was and toe dipping into the industry and had a lot of fun with it. Almost wanted epic collapse on the last night of the season, even had Alvin Kamara with this five touchdown game, just couldn't put it all together. I started ever the play you Can Imagine being Wrong, had an epic meltdown, brought my kids into it, and the crew of at Rasball was like, dude, you were hilarious all season. You were super fun. Have you ever thought about writing? And I'm like, well, I used to be a film critic, so yeah. So they gave me their Waiver Wire column. You're one sight unseen. I wrote some off season articles for him. Had a really good time at Rasball. Have nothing but great things to say about them over there. I went to the Fantasy Ball Expo and met three guys that have become like brothers to me in many ways, Simon Gruneveld, Jyl Garoffalo and Josh Fuster over at front Yard Fantasy and those guys you know, slapped me in a chair, put me on a morning show, put me on a three o'clock game show every day to get my reps in there and to get me embedded in this industry, and I'm forever grateful to them. Still part of front Air Fantasy. I love those guys. Just went to Simon's wedding back in February, watched him Mary Leanne, his beautiful wife. Love those guys to death. But at front Yard Fantasy, I decided one day that I was going to go to a park and I was going to walk around and get fantasy advice and created something that I didn't even know at the time with my best friend called start Sits and Salutations, and it morphed into almost like a Steve Irwin type character that would go out to nature talk to animals to get fantasy advice and had a lot of fun with that, like super super amount of fun.

00:05:45
Speaker 2: By the way, the most Joey Wright thing of all time.

00:05:47
Speaker 4: It really, I mean, it's kind of like blending SNL with fantasy advice with sketch comedy. Yeah, it was kind of all my interests merged in one, and JL was so great to just be like, Joey, blank canvas, whatever you want with this, like this is your thing, and they were so great about you know, helped me learn how to edit and all kinds of cool stuff when I was doing that with them, and then I had the bright idea, Hey, I want to go to expo and I want to do this live with people. And probably the best decision that we ever made because it put me in FaceTime with Joe Bryant. And if you want to see my job interview, it is filmed on camera because right then and there I did an interview with Joe Bryant, and there was a lot of other ways that brought me into Football Guys. Where I'm at now, I'm the community ambassador there. Dave Klugiy, Jeff Bell, Alfredo Brown, you know, vouching for me to get me in with the company. But you know, I'll take a little bit of credit me interviewing Joe and just charming his pants off. Yeah, definitely helped me get a job there. But I've been with front Yard. I've been with a Football Guys now since oh man, it's been the winner of twenty twenty two. Yeah, so it's been over three years now. I became the communy ambassador pretty quick. I kind of put the analyst hat off to the side. I still put it on every now and then, but I pretty much just do all things community now over at Football Guys Industry events. I'm at the expo. Ho'lle be going to FSGA probably again this year. I do March Madness contests. I bring a little bit of the character the Sketch comedy into the March Madness videos. I do a Trivia night show on Tuesday nights where I host trivia with Jake Bryant. And probably the biggest thing I do to bring community together over there is I run the Football Guys Bowl. And this year we had five thousand and four teams, up from just under two thousand last year. Just a super big tournament of people just having fun playing fantasy football. And yeah, that's kind of my journey. I kind of rambled for a while. I've told the story a couple of times, but I think I hit everything I was supposed to.

00:07:48
Speaker 2: Yeah you did, you did. Yeah.

00:07:51
Speaker 3: Speaking of which, the Football Guys Bowl, you invited me this year and I was in it, and I'm in it and your boys in first place in my league, So dude, yeah.

00:08:00
Speaker 4: I I There is no question if if I was colluding or if I was cheating at all, because I crap the bed real quick. This season. Oh yeah, really bad showing. I was so focused on everyone having a great time and just having the best tournament possible that I just did not draft a good team.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: That's like, so I do we do on Living the Stream.

00:08:20
Speaker 3: We do a listener league every year and I'm we're drafting, we do a show. It's it's always me Denny and then Tom Evert Scott the actor.

00:08:28
Speaker 4: And I got to meet him in September.

00:08:30
Speaker 2: Oh, and I know, I'm one of the greatest humans you will ever.

00:08:34
Speaker 4: So cool.

00:08:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, one of one of the greatest dudes.

00:08:36
Speaker 3: Like I was on vacation in Wilmington, North Carolina for like a long weekend over the fourth of July a couple years ago, and he had been filming there. He just came to the beach and hung out with the family for the day. We just hung out, like had a nice little time. Like he's just the nicest dude on Earth. He's awesome.

00:08:50
Speaker 2: But he Uh, we.

00:08:51
Speaker 3: Do our Living the Stream Listener League draft every year and I'm hosting the show. I mean it's it's an S show type of show. Like we're just kind of all over the place. And that's my excuse every year when if in when I have a bad team, which is this year, it's my worst team that I drafted this year.

00:09:07
Speaker 2: And uh, and so that's my excuse is that I'm doing these other things while I'm drafting. Okay, like there's I can't. I can't.

00:09:13
Speaker 3: I can't solely focus on this team that I'm drafting, and that's why my team is not playing. So you can say that with the Football Guys Bowl, you had so much going on one.

00:09:20
Speaker 4: Hundred percent, and I was running two live drafts at the same time that I was drafting. Yeah, so that's in Vegas drafting live, like I have all the excuses in the world.

00:09:28
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you should feel good I have. I have Jamior Gibbs and Devana a Chan on my team. So it's it's been. Uh, it's been a fun time having.

00:09:34
Speaker 4: Those Okay, so you you drafted, well.

00:09:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been I think I have Devanta Adams too. I mean it's fine, you know, it's fun, fun, fun little teams.

00:09:43
Speaker 4: Everybody cares about. You know, this is what I've learned in the industry. Everyone cares about your fantasy team. They do, and you talk about it.

00:09:49
Speaker 3: So the next forty five minutes we're gonna just talk about our teams, right, what's going exactly?

00:09:54
Speaker 4: People love it?

00:09:55
Speaker 2: People love it.

00:09:56
Speaker 3: Talk to me though about about this new show that that that you and and Kevin are doing with the Home League show, Like, what's that all about? What do you What's what's sort of like the goal in doing that that show?

00:10:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, I actually do care about your fantasy team because I have a show that's based all about your home leagues. Man. I'll tell you it was like two and a half years ago. Kevin and I are walking through Vegas at an FSGA and we were kind of doing that like to you know, when you're in high school and like two people in meeting and they're kind of like, don't want to get into a relationship, they're kind of, you know, feeling each other out. We were trying to get into a relationship to do a show together at that time, and we weren't really sure what it was going to be. But Kevin's like, you ever thought about doing anything with commissioning? And I'm like, you know, I'm not sure, and but you know, Joe had mentioned that he wanted to have some type of a commissioner show, and then I had the bride idea one day that I was like, why don't we just inject community into it? And to this day I'm mad that the title of the show is not C and C Fantasy Factory because commissioneringy community. I think it rolls so well, but it was voted against because nobody knows who seeing music Factory as That's okay, but yeah, I know. So the show is all about your home league, that league that you care the most about, that you're in with your eleven buddies that you met when you were sixteen years old, and you still play in together. Your buddies go off the war, but it still keeps you together, lifelinding communication. It's about that league. It's about how to make that league as great as humanly possible with fun things like commissioner punishments, you know, last place punishments, championship celebrations. We just did an episode on how to best recognize your league commissioner and your league champion. It's all those types of things. And then we're gonna bring community into it as well. So we're gonna bring people like Scott Fish on to talk about the Scott Fish Bowl and then to promote the Scott Fish Ball we're going to do a draft with them on stream. We're gonna do a lot of cool things with this show, but it's all about how to make fantasy as fun as humanly possible. So that's what we're focusing on.

00:11:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I feel like the two of you are perfect for that for sure, just looking at the landscape of the fantasy for industry. I mean, Kevin's been somebody who has pushed, you know, thanking commissioners especially. I mean he did the he's been doing the contest like the Best Commissioner.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: I can't remember what it was exactly called, but I.

00:12:13
Speaker 3: Think we were both on the board right on like the panel to to choose who the best commissioners were. And it's it's it's a part of fantasy football that I feel like is not you know, talked about.

00:12:24
Speaker 2: So you just drank that in such a like a sneaky way.

00:12:28
Speaker 4: Well, because they're going to focus right in on you whole screen, right, so I could.

00:12:31
Speaker 3: Take no, no, no, it's all it's it's all split the whole time. Pal, They'll see that, just like they'll see that with this with my voice, the way that it is, I got a giant jug that I'll probably have to swig out of to make sure that my that's.

00:12:44
Speaker 4: A power move right there. I had this little tiny Starbucks cup and then you bring up like a ninety four ounce thermos.

00:12:51
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:12:51
Speaker 3: Well, sometimes I forget that I'm on a live stream and I busted out and everyone's like, what's going on there? And I'm like, oh, right, I forgot I got this uh giant you know, one hundred and twenty ouns jug or whatever it is. But yeah, I mean, like, I do feel like with the commissioner stuff, they're they're the unsung heroes of fantasy football. I'm I'm a commissioner in a couple of leagues and it's not nothing like, it's it's work, and I really, I really do appreciate whenever I'm in a league where the commissioner's on top of things and you know, cares about that experience and not just a hey, I clicked this button to set up this league.

00:13:25
Speaker 2: Let's just go at it and have at it. Right. So it's awesome that you guys are doing that. Everyone should definitely check that out.

00:13:30
Speaker 3: I've checked out a little bit of it since you guys, how long you guys launched like three weeks ago ish.

00:13:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, we launched it. We got four episodes out. Now we're recording. I mean, the great thing about the show that we're doing together is the episodes we're making now you'll be able to use in like six months from now when you're establishing your league. So it's a lot of it's kind of evergreen that we can kind of pop on whenever we want, so we'll be promoting it throughout the year.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. All right, let's talk about what's going on in fantasy football right now. So it's been kind of a weird season. I telling people that, you know, usually I look at the fantasy season in quarters in a way, you know, the first.

00:14:05
Speaker 2: Month of the season and the second month and so on.

00:14:08
Speaker 3: And I feel like there's, you know, usually like a thread that kind of goes through each of those quarters, and you're like, okay, like this is the storyline of the season through all four quarters or all three quarters at this.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: Point, because we still had that final quarter left.

00:14:22
Speaker 3: And this year it feels like things have been segmented a lot more, where like you get four weeks of Roma Dunesa and Acca Abuka just crushing it right, and then they tail off or you get, you know, this player just going nuts or doing nothing and then kind of coming out of nowhere and starting to perform. Well, it's been a really weird year. From that perspective, there hasn't been many I don't know, I this is all field based and definitely not research or anything, but it feels like there hasn't haven't been as many like true league winning players this year.

00:14:52
Speaker 2: You know.

00:14:52
Speaker 3: But from your perspective, what has sort of been one of the biggest surprises of this twenty twenty five season.

00:14:57
Speaker 4: You know, it's this is gonna sound funny, but the QB draft class of twenty fifteen they decided to show back up this year, Like you know, Jamis and Marcus Mariota. We thought, you know, they're just going to be clipboor holders mentors for these new great rookie quarterbacks coming in, and they've turned into kind of week winners for us when we needed to. If you've been streaming quarterback you've kind of been able to depend on these guys Jamis for one one week, but boy was at a Jamis week. We got what two passing touchdowns, a receiving touchdown, and then he ends the game on an interception.

00:15:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful, but he was the QB.

00:15:29
Speaker 4: One that week and a lot of people were starting jamish was that.

00:15:32
Speaker 2: I'll say this is the most Jamis Winston game of all time.

00:15:34
Speaker 4: Oh it's beautiful. And I'm a buck, I'm a Buccaneers fan. I didn't mention that during my thirty five minute bi bio. I did on myself. But Jameis Winston is the perfect quarterback to watch but not have on your team sause when he's on your team, Oh.

00:15:47
Speaker 3: Boy, yeah, it's real team, fantasy team. I love him on my fantasy team one hundred percent.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:15:53
Speaker 4: Mariota though six starts and he's been a top twelve QB and four of them, yeah, averaging twenty one point two points in the gaming starts. Like, it's kind of crazy how these quarterbacks that we wouldn't really expect to be contributors kind of have been for us this year a little bit.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a fun little surprise. That's a good call out.

00:16:10
Speaker 3: Do you think that next season we're going to see fantasy managers stream quarterback a little bit more like go more towards later on quarterbacking. We have, like, look at this year, Josh Allen has been fine, but maybe a little bit subpar versus expectation. Lamar Jackson obviously has not been himself since that injury. You know, Jaden Daniels has been banged up. Jalen Hurts has been like just fine. You know, we're not looking at like true, true league winning type seasons from these guys, and that's how people were drafting them. Do you think that next year we're going to go back to more more of that like twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen time frame of drafting quarterbacks late, Like, no matter what I mean, it's.

00:16:50
Speaker 4: Been my bread and butter since really I started playing fantasy football, was just not necessarily waiting till the double digit rounds to take a quarterback, but just never reaching for a quarter that was like that wasn't a good value. And this was kind of the first year that I was like, Okay, well I'm gonna move up a little bit. I'll take Joe Burrow a little earlier than I would have. Boy, that shot me in the foot, but it was because an injury. But no, I really hope we do get back to that. Anybody that streams quarterback or you wait late on quarterback you're just increasing the odds of your team up top being a lot better, so you have better running backs. You usually have a good tight end at that point. If you're waiting on a quarterback, and I said, I hope we get to that point, I hope we don't because I just want to keep doing it.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: Yeah right right, yeah, I mean, like the benefit to me, it's like we always see this like boomerang effect with ADP and the way that the market works where it's one year, you know, I always go back to I think it was twenty fifteen season when Devonte Freeman was the RB one out of nowhere like for no reason, and he wasn't scoring a ton of Fantasy points. And then the very next year and that was as the RB one, so running back was down scoring wise the very next year.

00:17:57
Speaker 2: No one wants to draft running backs early.

00:17:59
Speaker 3: We see the age fall a little bit for the guys at the top of the position, but then it bounces back a little bit. So like I wouldn't be surprised if we see more late round quarterbacking and then the guys who are you know, the Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson's here that grouping.

00:18:15
Speaker 2: I mean maybe Drake May will be in there too.

00:18:17
Speaker 3: But those kinds of players are going in maybe a round or two later than they've gone over the last couple of years, and then that ends up being almost a value you play itself, just because we know that this is just kind of a down year for them to some degree.

00:18:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, up until I was tracking, up until I think about two years ago, half of the top twelve quarterbacks came from as the QB twelve or later, and every single draft class was fifty percent. And knowing that, like this year, you could think of Daniel Jones, I mean, Drake May was going around QB twelve. I think you get moved a little bit higher once draft season got closer, but justin Herbert was going late, Matthew Stafford, who's like, I think the QB six right now undrafted in a lot of leagues. Yeah, you can find really good quarterbacks late, or you can just stream. Yeah.

00:19:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's making me feel making me feel a little nostalgic for what happened with me back in the day. With the later on Quarterback of you book and I dig It, I dig It. Do you have any tips for playoff teams? So we're we're obviously it's Week fourteen next week, no more teams on bye Thank god. Get out of here with these week fourteen bye weeks. By the way, I'm over this. Yeah, it's not fun.

00:19:24
Speaker 4: The worst possible time. Like a lot of fantasy managers needing this win this week. I'm one of them. In my home league, I need a win. We have nine people competing for five spots. Oh yeah, brun would be a grueling weekend for us. Yeah yeah, I mean yeah.

00:19:39
Speaker 3: But so look, we have these bye weeks and then and then obviously the playoffs are hitting.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: Are you managing your teams?

00:19:45
Speaker 3: Like, how are you managing your teams differently now versus earlier in the season.

00:19:49
Speaker 4: I mean the general if you're running backs, don't kind of throw your depth away and kind of back them up. If you've got Kayen Wilson, Kien Williams, go out and get Blake Rum, Yeah like that. If you've got devon a Chain, who I absolutely love his rest of season schedule, you'll get Alli Gordon, Like, just back up your stud running backs. But if you're streaming any positions, look at those schedules ahead.

00:20:11
Speaker 2: You know.

00:20:12
Speaker 4: I got a couple guys I like brock Party. If you're streaming quarterback, his schedule could not be better. Chris Rodriguez if he's on waiver wires. Yeah, there's a lot of guys out there. Darren Waller is a tight end, great streaming tight end down the run.

00:20:24
Speaker 3: Do you often find yourself like rostering multi? I got this question for the mailbag, but and I talked about it on there. But do you do you find yourself? You know, would you on a certain team roster three tight ends in a normal like six seven bench type situation in scenario, are you gonna roster three tight ends to make sure that your opponents can get it or can get one slash you just can stream each and every week, or are you still looking at just getting running back handcuffs first and foremost because we obviously know they're gonna have more upset than those tight ends.

00:20:57
Speaker 4: I'll block to where it's not detrimental to my team. Yeah, So if I have an opponent I noticed their titands week, I'll go pick up one tight end maybe, but I'm not gonna do it if it's going to hurt my team usually though, and this is like a week eleven, a week ten thing. I do I go make one big trade to really bolster my weakest position, so then I'm heading into the playoffs. Simon Gruneveld has coined the phrase. I don't know if it was him, but I heard it from him first, the glass cannon, Like go into the playoffs with a glass cannon, but at the same time back it up a little bit. Yeah, so I'll block a little bit, but not so it's going to hurt my team.

00:21:31
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I'm with you. All right.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: We saw two pretty important and big backfield shifts this past week that I think is probably two of the top storylines in fantasy football right now.

00:21:43
Speaker 2: You have Carolina or Tuba.

00:21:45
Speaker 3: Hubbard started to see more work this past week kind of the week before too, and then Trayvon Henderson where Ramandre Stevenson stepped in and came back from injury in week thirteen or sorry, week twelve, and then in week thirteen he saw a little bit more work than he did against the Bengals.

00:22:02
Speaker 2: How do you feel about those backfals? Let's start with Carolina.

00:22:05
Speaker 4: With Carolina, I mean, I don't think we should be surprised. We saw all this from Canalis in Tampa Bay. It's kind of what he did with Rashad White. He gave him as much as work as he could, but he likes using two running backs and I think he's kind of got a best case scenario now on Rio, Rico Zaudle and Chewba Hubbard. Honestly, it reminds me. I know, Canoso is one year removed from it, but a lot of Tampa Bay with Bucky and Rashad White, where you've got a running back in Chewba Hubbard that can really find spots out on the sideline and get up the field, and then you just got like a bowling ball and Rico Dawdle just hammered up the middle and break the tackles. Yeah, it kind of reminds me what Tampa Bay had last year. I don't think we should be surprised. I think they're going to kind of run with a fifty to fifty split while the matchups say they can.

00:22:45
Speaker 3: That's what I've been I've been having discussions on the Late Round discord since that game happened, and there are people asking, like, who should I roster Rico? Like I still technically have Rico ahead of Cuba, and my rest of season rankings do I feel one hundred or so confident in that. No, I don't, because I think that it can go either direction. It could just be a game by game thing, and we're just kind of figuring out what these roles kind of look like. But regardless of all of that, would you like, let's say that you're sitting there with Rico Doudle and let's say that you like Chewba Hubbard more. Okay, this is all hypothetical. Do you have Rico Doudle and you like Chuba Moore? Would you straight up drop Rico d Oudel for Chuba Hubbard Or is this a scenario where you're just gonna roster both and you're gonna see what happens and you don't want your opponents to have access to one of these running backs.

00:23:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, we talked about, you know, safeguarding your team of blocking your opponents. This is a backfield that I would not I don't want to take that risk to drop one of them.

00:23:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in the I'm in the same boat. Like it's it's kind of like a like the Median outcome. Here seems like it's gonna be fifty to fifty and they're they run the ball enough that they could both be like RB three types and then you know, maybe we'll get a spiked week in one of these weeks from one of these whatever, right, and whoever like finds the end zone in a given week. But I do it's one of those scenarios where like I do think there's like a psychological component to fantasy, especially in.

00:24:17
Speaker 2: The playoffs, where you don't want to be the reason.

00:24:19
Speaker 3: Like even if you are sick of Lamar Jackson, you don't want Lamar Jackson anymore. You're like this, you know he's dust, he's injured. If you were to drop Lamar and then he has these two great matchups against New England and Cincinnati over the next couple of weeks after this Pittsburgh game, and if he were to go off and you're playing an opponent, or even if your opponent gets by because they get Lamar Jackson, you gotta live with that all off season. You gotta live with that even longer than the off season.

00:24:42
Speaker 4: I always say, don't get too cute. I watched a family member of mine swear up and down like they're gonna bench Damarius Thomas in the last week of this season. I'm gonna play and I forget who the backup for the Broncos was, but he picked up the backup, put them in and Jamarius Thomas had a great game, would have won him the championship, and did it in the championship week. And I remember telling him, like I was the commission of leaks, There's only so much I could say, but I was just like, I don't know if I would do it, Like that's just a little too cute. I would never get too cute. You mentioned the second backfield New England. Yeah, that's when I feel a little more confident in how to play it.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: How do you how do you feel about it?

00:25:19
Speaker 4: So I think with a matchup last week against the Giants, like that's where you want somebody like Ramandra Stevenson just to hammer that ball down the middle of the field. But in games where I think they're going to start trailing, not even not trailing, but needed to compete against Buffalo and Baltimore, I think that's where Treyvon Henderson does come in. Catches passes out of the backfield off to the side, and I could see Trayvon Henderson being a lot more valuable than Romondre Stevenson. The next for the playoff run.

00:25:43
Speaker 3: YEA, So I had a I don't know if you saw or not, but New England fans have been in my mentions this week because I sent a tweet out that simply showed it was the stuff that I talked about in the ten Trends episode. For anyone listening that that, you know, I was curious, But I just had a tweet out that showed the advanced data on the ground of Trayvion versus Ramondre Stevenson. I wasn't even, you know, saying that this needs to be eighty percent Trayvon Henderson's backfield or anything.

00:26:10
Speaker 2: I wasn't even talking about the volume split.

00:26:12
Speaker 3: Now my argument is, yes, I think Trayvon Henderson, by the eye test and by numbers and analytics, looks like the better running back between himself and Ramandre Stevenson. But I understand from a team and coaching perspective, why they don't need to force the issue when they're playing the Giants and they have a three touchdown lead, you know, like that's not that big of a deal. But to your point, what happens in these games, and like you said, there's two of them in the final three weeks where it's not necessarily going to be this really easy, you know, game script for them, and in those scenarios, I definitely could see them favoring Travion more than Remondra. The fact that it was still pretty much a fifty to fifty like ish type split with the two this past week is kind of a good sign.

00:26:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like if for the eye test, like, they really did look like a fifty to fifty split last week and honestly frustrating if you had Henderson, it maybe looked like Stevenson was running even more. But you know, I don't like to just look at the stats, but if you look at just the stats, Henderson really did have the better fantasy day.

00:27:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:27:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you look at basically any advanced metric, and Henderson right now is lapping Stevenson. And a lot of people will come back and they'll say, oh, well, something like you know epa per rush or so obviously that's gonna be skewed by Stevenson's fumbles or something like rushing yards over expected per rush. Those will be skewed by one or two big plays. Okay, that's fine and fair, Like it's no different than like yards per carry in a way where it can be skewed that way. But that's why I look at it in conjunction.

00:27:47
Speaker 2: With success rate.

00:27:48
Speaker 3: Success rate being the percentage of rushes that gain positive EPA and success rate should hypothetically favor a player like Ramandre Stevenson a little bit more if they're not gonna be big play players, which Stevenson had his moments this year, like that Miami game earlier this year.

00:28:03
Speaker 2: He was in that game.

00:28:04
Speaker 3: Right, this hypothetically should favor a player if you're gonna use that player as a coaching staff. Right, you're gonna throw Demandre Stevenson out on the field. Why are you doing that? Well, you're doing that because he can take on a lot of carries, Like he can just handle the in between the tackles stuff, and you know he might not break a big play, but he's at least solid and getting you what you need. Well, the argument here is that success rate wise, Trayvon Henderson is way better than Ramandre Stevenson this year in success I'm talking like like sixteen percentage points better or for fourteen or something like that.

00:28:35
Speaker 2: And so in that scenario, is he that much better?

00:28:39
Speaker 3: Like I said, I understand not giving the entire backfield to Trayvon Henderson because he wasn't that guy at Ohio State. He's not really that guy period to handle. You know, nineteen twenty carries a game. But I do think it should be more in that like sixty forty, sixty five thirty five range like we saw against Cincinnati, more so than what we saw, you know, against New York.

00:28:59
Speaker 4: Well, I don't even know. I think we can be that surprised by either of the backfielders we're talking about. I mean, they both of the offensive coordinators like to have a committee. Yeah, you know, Josh McDaniels kind of made his gravy on it.

00:29:09
Speaker 2: So it's true. It's true. All right.

00:29:12
Speaker 3: I want to talk about I've been doing this on the show recently where I talk about a player and then we go one by one this player versus this guy rest of season. And that player this week is mister Roma Dunzay, who pre bye pre week five by looked like a like one of the league winners this year. Like I said, there haven't been many of them, he looked like one of them, right, him and Mecca a Buka both and since that bye with a Donzay. He has not been He's averaging like fewer than ten PPR points per game. He's been really not that reliable at all. You know, there's many reasons for it. So we're gonna go one by one, Roma Dunzay versus player X, and I'll insert player X for you. We're gonna start with Wandel Robinson.

00:29:56
Speaker 4: It's the easy Wandel for me. He's leaning the league targets since week nine. He's he's getting the ball in his hands. And with romadounsay right now, like he's getting targets, but he's only catching what thirty three percent of his targets at this point. Yeah, how much of that's his fault? But still I know the ball's got to get in his hands.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like there's at some point you have to just succumb to the fact that situationally, it's it's not working for a Dounza. Now there's reasons for that. It's not even all it's definitely not all him. But you know, catchable target rate is a problem, and it's been a problem since around that. Like honestly, like week three, you know, Harmon did some good work about Matt Harmon. That is about about a Donsay being asked to do a lot of motion work and he's still a young and developing wide receiver and so that's going to be difficult for him to do and perform. I definitely think that that Wandelle is to the point now where at the very least you're getting predictable production, right like you're you're getting something like you know what you're getting out of Wandale for the most part. And so I do think it's an interesting you know this or that let's let's go to deebos annual versus Roma.

00:31:01
Speaker 4: Dunsay, it's going to be a common theme with the Dunes. I'm not a huge fan of the rest of the season schedule for him. It's it's pretty brutal. It really is two games against Green Bay. I'll lean debo because I like the schedule a little bit more for the Commanders, and his floor just feels a little safer at this point, yeah, than the Dunes does.

00:31:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:31:19
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm probably a Dounza, but I understand if like, you know, like this is not like it's crazy that this is where it's at with the Dunesay, But you may make a great point that like schedule wise, it's not like things look all butterflies and rainbows for for Chicago right now.

00:31:32
Speaker 4: And the thing with Chicago is their their defense is that's coming back. They're getting healthier. Yeah, I don't know if they're I mean they're getting better. They're getting healthier is the better way to say it. But I think they've discovered they've got a really good run game. They've got a really good one two punch yep.

00:31:47
Speaker 2: So yeah, that that offensive line is playing so much better.

00:31:50
Speaker 3: I mean, Ben Johnson's doing what kind of people expected him to do with the run game and the offensive I mean, the last time we saw the offensive line just played out of their mind against Philly.

00:32:01
Speaker 2: And this is this is their identity at this point.

00:32:04
Speaker 3: And that's not a good thing for the passing attack, you know, and that's gonna affect a doonza. How about Zay Flowers after his point four point performance in PPR leagues this past.

00:32:14
Speaker 4: It's probably the closest one, yeah, that we've mentioned so far. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are kind of two layups. If you're gonna get right, these are the teams to get right against. This goes for Lamar too, so if you've got Lamar, if he doesn't get done the next two weeks, you know, sabotage drop him for that last week. I this is where I still probably go Dunze though.

00:32:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Zay is just you know, I talked about him a lot in the preseason because I just have a general philosophy when you're drafting in that wide receiver two high end wide receiver three range that you want ceiling like you need to be I mean, you should be chasing ceiling basically.

00:32:49
Speaker 2: All the time throughout your draft.

00:32:51
Speaker 3: You know, realistically, like you're gonna miss in some of those ranges if you're just chasing ceiling. And if you're you know, going for that kind of archetype of player, I would say, like a Jamison Williams. Now, we're recording this before Thursday night, but over the season up until this point, it's been hit or missed. It was really bad for the first half of the season. And so like that's an l right from a draft perspective. But also if you go with that philosophy and you go with that outlook, you're getting George Pickens, right, and you're getting these that like that's one of the rare league winners this year, and so you know it's it's in another guy that I want to talk about here with with a Dounza, I thought fell in a similar boat, which was Courtland Sutton, where yes, Sutton had a great second half of the season with with bo Nicks last year, but also relatively touchdown dependent and something that like we've never really seen Courtland Sutton across the season be consistently a wide receiver two plus right, Like it's just every year he's very solid. But I want more than very solid if I'm going to draft a wide receiver in round five or something. So we'll just go to Sutton right now. Would you want Sutton or a Dunza rest of season?

00:33:50
Speaker 4: The thing I like about Sutton is he's on the field, yeah, almost every play, and that's great to have. I just think Franklin's getting a little bit more work lately. He's getting and he's leading the team in targets. I'll I'll go to doun say.

00:34:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Pat Bryant is getting getting run now too. In that in that Denver offense, I think Pat Bryant's had a pretty for you know, being from a perception versus reality standpoint.

00:34:18
Speaker 2: I think Pat Bryant has actually had a pretty good season two.

00:34:20
Speaker 3: And yeah, Troy Franklin's been involved throughout the year, suddenly just this roller coaster man week to week roller coaster with him, So I can understand go in that direction. One that's kind of interesting to me is Juwan Jennings. How would you feel about those two?

00:34:32
Speaker 4: I'm actually slamming Jennings. I mentioned that I love Rock Party down the stretch. I mean, Jennings has had a touchdowns in four of the last five weeks. Rock Party's back, and Jennings is gonna be a big part of that. So I'm I'm going Jennings over at dounsay, you.

00:34:45
Speaker 3: Know, Jennings like a twenty one to twenty six percent target chair basically over the last month and a half each game. I mean, it seems it seems to me, maybe it's injury related, maybe not, but it seems to me that he's at least jumped and like officially jumped and we don't have to worry about the Ricky Piersoll stuff Like. It just seems like Jawan Jennings is going to be, you know, the top target, a wide receiver for them. And the Brandon Ayuk thing. You know, that's a that's now officially a non story.

00:35:11
Speaker 4: You know, crazy, so many IR spots, I you just wait.

00:35:15
Speaker 3: Until Yeah, yeah, I'm just not until twenty twenty six and probably for a different team.

00:35:20
Speaker 2: Pretty cool.

00:35:21
Speaker 3: And then the last one, we talked about his teammate, but Terry McLaurin. Coming off that big game last week.

00:35:26
Speaker 4: It's really easy for me if Terry McLaurin is active. Yes, I'm starting him over at Duneesa. But that's my that's my only gripe with Terry McLaurin. Is is he gonna play because he's been injured a lot this year.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he looked good in this past week.

00:35:40
Speaker 3: He completely sunk me in a league, which was pretty cool. I was like, oh, yeah, he'll probably give you, give us like eleven PPR points. No, No, he's gonna he's gonna double that and just completely ruin my playoff chances in that league.

00:35:52
Speaker 2: No big deal.

00:35:53
Speaker 4: That's the best one. Someone just shows up for you more than you need them to. So yeah, and the next.

00:35:57
Speaker 2: Week you put up a zero Yeah, exactly exactly. So this isn't part of that wide receiver group.

00:36:03
Speaker 3: But I am curious about a couple of waiver wire guys this week and how you feel.

00:36:07
Speaker 2: First, one's ad Ni Mitchell.

00:36:08
Speaker 3: Since he's gotten to New York, you know, twenty five, twenty six, thirty nine percent target shares, he's being used a lot. Do you think this breakout is real for him?

00:36:17
Speaker 4: I think he can be trusted rest of the season. I think next year is a different question. But if we're just concerned about this year, I think if Garat Wilson does come back, I think that takes away from John Mechi. I don't think it's gonna hurt Mitchell at all. So I'm fine starting him as like a like low end wide receiver three rest of the season.

00:36:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially as long as like Tyrod Taylor stays under center and they're not the thing too.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they don't mess around and they're like, okay, we got enough of this.

00:36:41
Speaker 3: Is also like something that's been going through my mind is uh, you know, people will ask like, well, why did the why did the Browns start with Joe Flacco and not just go with one of their rookies because they weren't gonna win anyway, or you know, why did why did the Jets go to Tyrod Taylor, you know, instead of instead of just playing justin fields, because is obviously they're not gonna make the playoffs, aren't gonna make any noise, Why don't we get.

00:37:03
Speaker 2: A good feel for that quarterback position?

00:37:06
Speaker 3: And you know, the the honest reason for that for anyone who'd be curious, And this is what the Jets have said, and I'm assuming what the Browns were thinking too when they started the season, is you want these quarter these these better core, the better quarterback play to be under center for your team so you can get a better read on what's going on outside.

00:37:24
Speaker 2: Of the quarterback position.

00:37:25
Speaker 3: Because if you have a completely inept quarterback that's not able to get the ball where it needs to go, you can't really evaluate the offensive line, the wide receivers very well. It's it's just not as easy to do that. And so if you have more competent play, you're able to do that. You just have to cross your finger. And I don't you know at this at this point today, I don't think the Jets are going to go back to justin fields. But that's definitely something that you know, we should all keep in mind, is that, like that's the reason that these teams do this with these veterans even if they are, you.

00:37:53
Speaker 2: Know, totally out of it. Now.

00:37:54
Speaker 3: One team that went to their rookie after starting not really their veteran, but their other quarterback is New Wars Devon Veley. Then this past week really big game for him. He's got a good matchup this week. Are you are you in or out on Devon Veyley.

00:38:08
Speaker 4: I'm more in on Vailey than I am Mitchell, to be honest with you. I think it's safer. I think there's not a player that can really come in or that's on the roster, that come back from injury or that's on the roster now that could really bump Dailey out of his spot. I think he's pretty solidified in that wide receiver wide receiver two spot, and any attention to lave is gonna get It's just gonna help him, especially against the Buccaneers, who I've said it one hundred times it's a Swiss cheez secondary. Just stay away from Winfield and you're fine.

00:38:35
Speaker 3: How bizarre is it? I was talking to Denny about this on Living the Stream this week.

00:38:38
Speaker 2: Man. I brought up Denny like eight times on.

00:38:40
Speaker 3: Today's show, okay, yeah, he's yeah, hey, hey, Denny.

00:38:45
Speaker 4: Oh, Denny, I'm seeing David Byrne tomorrow night. That's how Denny and I first connected.

00:38:50
Speaker 2: There there we go, but no.

00:38:52
Speaker 3: We were talking on unliving the stream and I was like, isn't it bizarre that Tampa Bay has seemed to be this pass funnel for like fifteen straight years. Like every year they're a team that that just teams are throwing on and they're able to throw on and their pass rate goes up against them, and there's more there's more volume through the air against Tampa Bay. It's just the same thing every year.

00:39:10
Speaker 4: It feels like it happened in a Monday night football game the year after they won the Super Bowl for the first time and Peyton Manny scored twenty was a twenty three points in three minutes.

00:39:19
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

00:39:20
Speaker 4: Ever since then, the Bucks have just like they're so frustrating because I've never tuned out of a Bucks game, even if they're up by like three scores, because I look, it's not over.

00:39:31
Speaker 2: That's not that's not that's not the easiest way to live, Joey.

00:39:34
Speaker 4: It's not. It's not at all.

00:39:36
Speaker 3: And you had a you had a good window there though with Tom Brady that was fun.

00:39:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a whole other conversation. I'm not like, listen, thank you for the super Bowl, but could you have warn the creamsuckle one time for me? Uh, it'd have been great to see it.

00:39:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.

00:39:48
Speaker 4: I didn't want to do it.

00:39:49
Speaker 2: That's true. At least you didn't.

00:39:50
Speaker 3: You weren't born and raised in Pittsburgh and your team is just the most frustra I think the Steelers at this point might be the most frustrating team in the NFL.

00:40:01
Speaker 4: I married into a Steeler family. Oh, that's right, I have to go through it.

00:40:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:40:05
Speaker 4: My wife's family's from Washington, Pennsylvania.

00:40:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I know Washington. Yeah.

00:40:09
Speaker 3: No, there's a there's a lot going on in uh Steeler Nation right now. Mike Tomlin might be it might finally be his last year.

00:40:17
Speaker 2: We'll see, We'll see.

00:40:18
Speaker 4: Three coaches in the franchises entire history.

00:40:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's nuts. I know.

00:40:23
Speaker 4: And you were you were born after like real of the real fun. You got one super Bowl? Maybe, is that about it?

00:40:28
Speaker 3: No? No, I was I was born so I didn't get any I didn't get any of the seventies Super Bowls.

00:40:32
Speaker 2: But we got I know that we had the two. We had the two.

00:40:35
Speaker 3: We had the one with kwor right in two thousand and five thousand, okay, yeah, and then we had the and then and then there was the one that that was when I was like peak Steeler fandom.

00:40:44
Speaker 2: It was like my identity because.

00:40:46
Speaker 3: I was in my late teens, right, I was in college when they beat the Cardinals, right, and I was like twenty twenty one years old, and so yeah, I mean like that was that was amazing, And I'm glad that I got to experience it at that age because I don't think i'd I know, I wouldn't be as rabid this, you know today, I don't.

00:41:02
Speaker 2: I just don't. I don't live and die the way that I used to with I don't really care at this point, you know, if they if they end up losing.

00:41:08
Speaker 4: Can I have thirty seconds for a story about that Super Bowl?

00:41:11
Speaker 2: Yeah? I want to hear.

00:41:11
Speaker 4: It was that at a party with my best friend at a sports bar, and we watched a girl when the Cardinals went up, she pulled a Cardinals jersey out and put it on, and I was like, okay, cool. She just got off work she's a Cardinals fan. The Steelers go up, she takes a Cardinals jersey off, put a Steelers down, and I had maybe had more than one drink that I should have had, and I let her know how disrespectful.

00:41:36
Speaker 2: That was very disrespectful, very disrespectful.

00:41:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, very bad. We still talk about it universe.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: That is that is definitely. Yeah. I don't. I don't. I don't like that.

00:41:47
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I'm now, I'm now. You know, I'm a dad, I'm mature. I have responsibility, and I say, fans, do whatever.

00:41:57
Speaker 2: You want, but don't do it. Yes, don't do that.

00:41:58
Speaker 4: That's that's when I was twenty five, I was yeah.

00:42:02
Speaker 2: Exactly, Yeah, I would have been I would have been angry at that too.

00:42:05
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:42:05
Speaker 3: I want to talk about Brian Thomas. This is a question. I've got a lot this week. And you know, anytime someone asks is this player dropable, it's always the answer is always who would you be dropping him for?

00:42:15
Speaker 2: Obviously right, But.

00:42:17
Speaker 3: In like a twelve team league, six person bench, you know you start two or three wide receivers.

00:42:23
Speaker 2: Is Brian Thomas droppable? Right now?

00:42:26
Speaker 4: I don't have the courage to do it. He's benchable? Yeah, yeah, you can bench him and feel good about benching him. I know I did last week in a few leagues. But I mean this Shaguars team is starting to click and we know what he can be. They won four of the last five games, they're in the playoff hunt. It's hard for me not to see Trevor Lawrence turned him at some point last year against the Colts two or twenty five yards and a touchdown in those two games. So this could be the week he gets back on track. I can't drop him, But if you want to bench him and see what he does this week and maybe they find out rapport again, go ahead. But I'm not gonna drop him. I'll pick him up if somebody does, though, are you?

00:43:05
Speaker 3: Are you Jacoby Jacoby Myers over Brian Thomas comfortably rest of season.

00:43:10
Speaker 4: At this point, Yes, Jacoby Myers is one of those really interesting situations where a player puts on another jersey and it feels right.

00:43:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:43:18
Speaker 4: I don't know why, but it's like Derrick Henry in a Ravens jersey and just the day that he put it on, I was like, yep, you're that's what you're supposed to wear. And Jacoby Myers just felt like a Jaguars wide receiver.

00:43:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:43:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of the I mean it was there were some rumors that like the Steelers were going after him at the trade deadline, and he chose Jacksonville. And I saw some people on social media being like, why would you choose Jacksonville? And but you know, why wouldn't you go to Pittsburgh And it's like, well, I think that he probably chose right now, guys.

00:43:44
Speaker 2: I mean it's probably the proper decision to make.

00:43:47
Speaker 4: I mean I was kind of poo pooing on the m cohen as a you know, I was a little salty because he left Tampa Bay and you know, he had that really cramsy press conference, but he's kind of putting it together there. Yes, it's the coming back playing good And if I had to pick a team, I'm excited. The Jaguars is gonna playing in Orlando in two years for the season. Why the Steaeum's getting renovated.

00:44:06
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.

00:44:08
Speaker 4: It's gonna be fun. That's too far because I'm further from Jacksonville than I am from Orlando. Orlando's like fifteen minutes up the road.

00:44:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, that'd be fun. Yeah, I mean Jacoby Myers. To me, I think that, like, if you want a really underrated no one's valuing him as a starter in fantasy football type of player, that's kind of Jacoby Myers right now. I mean he's he's given us like three usable performances in a row. He's had at least a twenty percent target share in three straight games. He's getting good first red targets.

00:44:35
Speaker 1: You know, he's like top twenty ish a wide receiver in first red targets over the last three weeks. Because that first game that he played with Jacksonville, he didn't play a normal snap.

00:44:43
Speaker 2: Count and stuff.

00:44:44
Speaker 3: And then also he's getting end zone targets, like he's he's getting targeted, you know, close to the end zone, so in the red zone. So I think that Jacoby Myers is actually kind of an interesting player rest of season. Any waiver wire players right now that you think could really help fantasy managers in the playoffs.

00:45:02
Speaker 4: I'm gonna run a little gauntlet of a list here. I mentioned Brock Perdy and Chris Rodriguez and Darren Waller definitely at quarterback, running back, tight end. Pick those guys up if you want to stream defenses. I don't hate grabbing the Giants and Houston playing that in the playoffs. You can mix and match some good matchups there. But Devin Singletary for the Giants, we don't know what's going on with Tyrone Tracy. Really good schedule. Bam Knight. I don't think Trey Benson's coming back, and if he doesn't come back this week, they have to shut him down for the season. I believe so Bam Knight looks like the best running back there Mitchell Tinsley and Yoshi Vas. If this concussion lingers with Higgins, I don't know if you practiced today or not last I saw he did not. I do prefer Yoshi Vas over him. But this Bengals team, I don't They're only they're gonna make the playoffs, but they're gonna play spoiler. Yeah, and I need you to hear me out on this. Okay, if it's going to happen in Minnesota, it's gonna happen in the next two weeks. I'm not saying to start them, Yeah, I'm saying go out, pick up JJ McCarthy and Jordan Edison. See if it happens. We've seen JJ have one good game I'm not saying it's going to but this is like a get right time for him and then if it doesn't happen, just drop them off. But their schedule is really good for quarterbacks and wide receivers. And it's really disappointing because I drafted a lot of JJ McCarthy looking at that end of season schedule and just picking them up as a season started, because I'm like, man, that end of season is so juicy, and the Vikings they were in the hunt last year, they're still not eliminated at this point. With caution, you know, I would say, if you've got the spots, pick them up, because if they just figure it out, it could be league winning type material.

00:46:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:46:48
Speaker 3: I have my playoff schedule numbers that I you know, share in the data dump that I do on Patreon each week with with late round patrons, and I'm just staring at at how the Vikings wide receivers, I mean even the running backs, but the wide receivers and quarterback both have the top schedule and the fantasy playoffs because they get Dallas than.

00:47:10
Speaker 2: The Giants and then the Lions.

00:47:11
Speaker 3: I mean, it is it doesn't get anything better than that, And you know, if JJ McCarthy were a competent quarterback, like if we felt good about it, we'd be talking justin Jefferson would easily be a top five wide out rest of season, you know, Jordan Anddison would be a top twenty five thirty wide receiver rest of season. And yeah, I mean I've been talking about those guys and I have made mistakes throughout the season and saying that they were by candidates because of this stretch and because of their rest of season schedule. But I do think that it's one of those situations where, you know, especially if you're in a deeper league, like I'm still not dropping Jordan Addison because of that, you know, Like I just I don't want to give that up and allow someone else who might be weaker a wide receiver to pick them up and use them in these really great spots because there have been really bad quarterbacks that have performed well against those teams. I just don't want that to happen against me in the playoffs. So, you know, as as ugly as it is, yeah, you know, I get it.

00:48:05
Speaker 2: I get it all right.

00:48:07
Speaker 3: Now, I want you to pick a league winner at each position that could this could be this could be someone out of nowhere, It could be someone obvious, but a guy in the in the final stretch of the season who could just win leagues for people at quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and tight end.

00:48:24
Speaker 4: So I'll get tight end other way first, and I will be obvious about this one. And it's more of just like giving flowers to those people that thought Trey McBride was the better tight end pick over brock Bowers. Trey McBride, and he gets Cincinnati in week seventeen, which is the best tight end matchup there is.

00:48:39
Speaker 3: I mean like over under, Like what do you think is over under PPR point is going to be that week like like twenty seven.

00:48:44
Speaker 4: I was like, you went higher than I was to sing twenty five.

00:48:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, like like legitimately because he's averaging like twenty three with with Jacoby Burssett, So like realistically, like that's a that's a sincere outcome for Trey McBride in week seventeen.

00:48:57
Speaker 4: Yeah. And at wide receiver it's Aj Brown And a few weeks ago that sounded crazy And I went on another show in week ten because I had made a really bad preseason position where I said Trevor Lawrence is going to be a league winner and got roasted really well for it, and they said, you need to do another hot take. What's going to be Who's going to win leagues? For people? And I said, AJ Brown. Once he gets past his next matchup, which was Green Bay, I was like top twelve wide receiver since then, wide receiver, five in targets, wide receiver, two interceptions, wide receiver eight points per game. He's got a great schedule. Rest of the season, NFC is up for grabs, Eagles are going to be competing. I love AJ Brown. Rest of the season is going to lead a league winner.

00:49:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, I think that that people.

00:49:39
Speaker 3: It's really interesting because I was looking at the year over year numbers and since Week one Aj Brown, because you know, he was banged up going into that game against Dallas, and uh, you know obvious, I think he scored like five and a half PPR points since Week one. Now, it's been a roller coaster. Do not get me wrong. I know how like I have AJ Brown. I know how frustrating it's been. He's only averaging I think, like less than a point per game, less than he was averaging last year.

00:50:04
Speaker 2: Since Week one, and.

00:50:05
Speaker 3: So like, yes, his highs have been higher this year and his lows have been lower. But if they if they write the ship and I think that we like, Yes, I think Kevin Mittulo is a terrible offensive coordinator and they need to, you know, do something more than what they're doing right now. I've been kind of railing against that all year, but I'm with you, Like I think A. J. Brown is not a bad player to have on your roster, just giving the schedule and where they're at all.

00:50:27
Speaker 2: Right, running back, let's hear it.

00:50:29
Speaker 4: A chan like you know, he was drafted as like the six or seventh running back in leagues. He's second league in RB targets. He's kind of entered that conversation with Gibbs and McCaffrey and it's just like a really great duel that a dual threat running back, and with the matchups of the Miami have down the stretch, I think it's gonna be a great end of season for him at quarterback. Matthew Stafford like he if you drafted him late, that means the rest of your team's probably looking pretty good. If you picked him up with the waiver wire, the same type of situation. He's got two twelve top twelve wide receiver's rest of the season schedule is not hard, but it's competitive favorable. Yeah, so yeah, I'm in on Stafford in a chan for sure.

00:51:10
Speaker 3: I really wish that Matthew Stafford didn't have that back injury, uh in this over the summer, because I would have. I was loaded up on rams and then I got scared off a little bit and then we're seeing the season. It's the best season. I mean, he's an MVP candidate right now.

00:51:24
Speaker 4: I think with Adams it's this is why it's good to like have people in your corner and have people to have your back as part of a team in this industry. Dave Klugi, who I know you love to death. I don't know to death. Maybe I shouldn't have said.

00:51:37
Speaker 2: That you love me. He's great, great guy.

00:51:38
Speaker 4: Okay, cool, Yeah, Dave's the best. You said actually in the last episode you did say you love Dave. So him and I are both really in on Adams and we had him as some I think Dave was a little bit higher. I had him at like wide receiver nine. I had him at wide receiver eleven. Yeah, we're getting a lot of flak for it, and I don't like to like beat the drum too much for myself, but I stood firm with it. I'm just like we've seen Adams do it on every team he goes to, and it's proven true. This fourth team that he's doing this with, it's crazy.

00:52:06
Speaker 3: His end zone target rates are absurd because he's just an extension of their run game at the goal line. And you know, eleven touchdowns over his last six games, just just wild production from DeVante. All right, last thing, as I ask everybody on the show, give me a bold prediction for this upcoming week.

00:52:21
Speaker 4: I'm going really bold, Like, let's here, I must bold.

00:52:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:52:25
Speaker 4: So, on November seventeenth, twenty twenty four, Christian Watson had one hundred and fifty receiving yards against Chicago and a career high. It was his career high in receiving yardage. On December seventh, twenty twenty five, he'll top that number, got a pair of tds, and be the number one wide receiver this week.

00:52:41
Speaker 3: Christian Watson wide receiver want him this week? Wow, Christian Watson's that's pretty bold.

00:52:46
Speaker 4: That's one of the bold realistically, Like he's easily top ten.

00:52:50
Speaker 2: This is the thing.

00:52:50
Speaker 3: This is the thing that people don't realize when fantasy analysts say a bold thing like that and they say, this guy's going to be wide receiver one. Even if he does end up as like the wide receiver nine on the week, that's still a pretty big w for us, right exactly, so people know, right, but if he is the wide receiver one, then it's just I mean, I'm gonna clip this and we'll send it everywhere and you'll get your flowers for it.

00:53:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly.

00:53:15
Speaker 4: Maybe we can built like some competti coming down.

00:53:17
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, some celebratory cheers and such. Yeah, Joey, this was great man. I always love chatting with you, always love seeing your your pretty face. Let ever know where they can find you, what you're working on, et cetera.

00:53:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, I am over at football guys. You can find me on X or Twitter at the Joey Wright. We've got the Sunday Morning Start and sid Show Sunday Morning Live. We've got Trivia Night Live on Tuesdays at seven o'clock Eastern with Jake Bryant. We're doing trivia and then the Whole League Show every Monday around four o'clock. We dropped that just having a blast over of football. Guys can't believe that they let me do the stuff I do over there, but they seem to like me and keep me around.

00:53:53
Speaker 3: So yeah, and then and by the way, everybody I know that I talk to people like Joey and I met each other at the expo like IRL and got to talk and we see each other there now every year and get to have good conversation and stuff. But it's another example of and like I think that your story even shows this too, of like just I don't want to call it networkings that comes with like this like corporate vibe to it, which is not really what this is, but friendship building, you know, Like there's so much of that that goes on at the Expo every year. And if you show up, you'll get to meet Joey and me. We can chat, we'll have a good conversation. You don't have to be an analyst to be there, and you can see Joey where some of the greatest outfits that any man owns it.

00:54:33
Speaker 2: It's fantastic.

00:54:35
Speaker 4: This year, I had my dog got sick and I had to fly back home in an emergency, and no one got to see what I had. Then I held it. Yeah, I told everyone I don't have anything in the show. I had something, absolutely, but I so, I guess I'll have to save for next year. But yeah, I've done track suits, I've done all kinds of fun stuff. I had a romper with a fanny pack giving out Jolly Ranchers.

00:54:56
Speaker 3: The ropper was year one, I think for me, and that's when I'm like this, this guy, I is something special.

00:55:03
Speaker 4: You didn't get to You didn't get to see the tracksuit, Joey.

00:55:05
Speaker 2: I might, I don't. I can't remember. Was that was track shoot tracksuit before Jolly Rancher.

00:55:11
Speaker 4: No, Jolly Rancher was the first time that I met you. That's yeah, it is correct.

00:55:14
Speaker 2: I think that's yeah. I think that's the case because I think you gave me a Jolly Rancher.

00:55:17
Speaker 4: I did. I I did not bring enough. I was surprised that At first people were creeped out, but then it was like, but it's Joey, so that Jolly Ranchers are probably fine. Then it became popular.

00:55:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wouldn't mind if you did the fanny pack thing every year with the with the Jolly Ranchers.

00:55:32
Speaker 4: Hey, I just a regular thing, just throwing that out there.

00:55:35
Speaker 2: Talk to your agents about it. But anyway, Joey, it's been great. Uh.

00:55:39
Speaker 3: Everyone, you can find my stuff over on Late Round dot com. Of course, make sure you're checking that out. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast feed the YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash at Late Round f F.

00:55:49
Speaker 2: Otherwise, everyone, thanks for tuning in.

00:56:00
Speaker 3: Point of the desk,