Cowboys at Lions + Jayden Daniels, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert injury updates

(upbeat music) (singing in foreign language) (phone ringing) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (applause) - Nobody (beep) tells us who we are. Nobody, man. We write our own story. We've said it all along. That's the way to show off, man. What a (beep) show off. We do what we wanna do and how we're gonna do it. You get showed up, was it perfect? (beep) No, do we have a lot to clean up? (beep) Yeah, that's a good win, man. That was a hot team. - Remember whatever (beep) feeling you had on Monday this week to get us (beep) here today. Come back, have a nice little time off. Recharge right for this last little quarter of the season fellas, we can do anything we put our minds to. I promise you, I promise you. - We're out there, what do we think? - Win! (upbeat music) - Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry. - Happy Friday. - Welcome to the Fantasy Football Happy Hour. Connor Rogers, Jay Croucher, Noor, it's Friday. We'll be joined by Denny Carter. No Matthew today, Matthew is in cheer dad mode. So good luck to the girls down in their cheer competition, but we got everything covered. We're gonna answer your questions and what's on tap. Jay and I will have pick up lines for Denny. Let's see if that can turn our luck. Yeah, Dr. Carter has to make the selection. - Indeed. By the way, Matthew's made this point previously, but Jared Goff has gotta stop following Dan Campbell the speeches, it's just not good, it's not good. - It's a different kind of F-bomb. - Yeah, and it's not good. It's like, you know, you're trying to follow in Mariana Rivera out of the bullpen. You don't want to do that. - You can't play in her Sandman again. - No, it's just the cadence of the voice, the depth to it. Dan Campbell's are just the magnificent orator. Jared Goff has got a lot of things in life, not so much there compared to great man Campbell. - Well, let's get into the game without, the chat is already rolling in. You know, I like to see, 'cause I could actually see the questions immediately. Kay Gemma, man Campbell, way to F and show up. Alexa gave that same speech to Barry, Jay, and Connor. - Same intonation. Yeah, no, Alexa gets us fired up to go every day. - Yeah, she's above the Jared Goff threshold for sure. - She's a little obarctically, but alas. - All right, let's get into the Rotor World Player News and recap the game last night. They had tons of fantasy output, tons of scoring here, Jay. And a little bit, as we look at the fantasy leaderboard, Jameer Gibbs does what he does and just dominates the week. Ryan Flournoy didn't see that one coming, over 26 points. And then kind of spread around when you look at the rest of the fantasy production. Good to see Jameson Williams heavily involved. David Montgomery goes over 14 points, which if you're starting them in your flex, you probably feel good about that. A little bit of news or noise, Jay, with David Montgomery scoring for the second straight game, amid Jameer Gibbs having another big night. - Yeah, I would downgrade David Montgomery after this game, just the usage. I think, you pointed out a couple of weeks ago, it felt like that Giants game, where Gibbs went off for almost 300 yards after the touchdown and overtime, felt like that was kind of signaled to changing of the guard, where they were finally going to give the keys of the offense completely to Jameer Gibbs. This feels like Jameer Gibbs is team right now. And David Montgomery, you can see the snap rate down to 30%. There are only really two drives where he was the guy. And he, look, he breaks the long touchdown. And gets the six for 60. But, you know, David Montgomery in a game that they're pretty much leading the whole way, gets six carries. And more often than not, that's going to lead to 25, 30 yards, not 60 yards out of touchdown. Look good, whenever he's out there, David Montgomery made the most of his touches, but Jameer Gibbs just completely monstrous. I think it speaks to, you know, how good and how dynamic and versatile Gibbs is, that I think in the fourth quarter at one point, Gibbs had like 19 rushing yards on the day, and still just the complete beast in the receiving game. Yeah, that's the thing. He's just so effective in the pass game as well. Jameer Gibbs drinks for free, by the way. He drinks for free today. It feels like Jameer Gibbs drinks all the time here for free at the happy hour bar. He's just been carrying teams all year. But you nailed this, Jay. It feels like the Lions are leaning into just how ridiculously explosive and efficient they are with Gibbs. And it's not to take away from the player that Montgomery is. It's just, it was desperation time, the Lions. They basically almost had to win this game. And they're just leaning into what is their best offensive threat. Yeah, and also in the fourth quarter, it was just Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs. Like, it felt like in previous years or earlier in the season, it might be Dave Montgomery comes in as the closer there, but it's like, no, we're just going to go to Jameer Gibbs over and over again. So, Montgomery, I think he's going to be a matchup-dependent flex. Like, I wouldn't want to really have to start Dave Montgomery next week against the Rams, for instance. You may not have a better option, but this is Gibbs' backfield now. It's Gibbs' offense. Yeah, good call-out with Gibbs. He had seven carries in the fourth quarter. David Montgomery had just one. And like you said, the script would actually indicate that you think that's the time to get Montgomery going downhill on it. They don't believe that. The other issue, too, is that Gibbs is amazing of a game as he had. It was because of touchdowns and receiving work. Like, this Detroit offensive line. Like, Gibbs didn't have a chance on a lot of these carries. And at one point, he has like nine carries for 19 yards on the grounds. And he salvages it with the longer touchdown at the end. But this Detroit offensive line corner, it just doesn't-- it hasn't clicked all season. The interior seems very shaky. Yeah, with the end, Dallas' run defense has gotten better since the trade deadline and just as a unit as a whole. The other bit of news for the Lions in this game, Jameson Williams, it felt like we dealt with plenty of goose eggs or just non-viable performances this year. Jay, I've noticed that with Dan Campbell calling the plays, not only is Jameson Williams just more involved, it feels like he's the primary read now in more plays where, before that, with John Morton, there was games where he just was running cardio out there. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's a confluence of factors. One, the change in play call. It's a Dan Campbell. Two, Sam LaPorta going down for the year. And then three, even though it didn't look like it, Amon Rastain Brown has been dealing with this ankle injury, which inflated Jameson Williams production last week. But yeah, it just, they look a lot more like the Lions the past few weeks, right? So all these like in-breaking rounds and yards after the catch that's been scammed up. So Jameson Williams been a very up-and-down season. He hasn't had the year that I think people drafted him to have, but I think he can have that year going forward. And I think he's a fringy wide receiver, two types. Still, Amon Rastain Brown is the guy that the passing game will go through and then maybe Gibbs. But Jameson Williams, you can feel much more confident than him than you could have a month ago. The VED, FF regular, always good to see in the chat. What will J-Mo's ADP be next year? It might be one of those things where it's so reactionary to how he is in the fantasy playoffs. I'll say this, here's like the positive trending upward. Last night, he played on 36 of the receiving snaps in comparison. That led the team. Amon Rastain Brown played on 35. And then you get to down the list, guys are well below that. Like Tesla had 30, but he had nine targets. He caught seven of them. It feels like he's just more involved in the offense. He gets some carries. They like to do the jet sweeps with him. So this feels like it's trending the right way. But he's such a best ball guy compared to a redraft guy. Yeah, I think the encouraging thing for Williams is that games like last night, he was able to have a very solid fantasy day without catching the bomb touchdown. And he got wide open. Well, he got open for one, and Goff just didn't pull the trigger, which is going to happen sometimes. But the fact that he's been able to do this through volume and not through individual big plays, I think is very encouraging. As to what his ADP is going to be next year, I think it's going to be kind of what it was this year. We've gone full circle to get there after really rough start and what should be a hot close. His biggest weakness is really just that Amon Rastain Brown and Jameer Gibbs eat so much volume in an offense that's really good. And it's just going to limit him where if he doesn't hit the explosives, you're going to be sitting there going like, oh, this is tricky. All right, on the Cowboys side of things, Ryan Flournoy. A big performance now. Little tricky with this one, Jay. CD Lamb gets the concussion, which had somewhat of an impact on this as well. George Pickens, it feels like the worst night we've seen from him in forever. He, Flournoy, did have this kind of performance against the Jets what feels like months ago at this point. I can't buy into that this is going to be a guy you could start on your lineup when you're going to need it most. I don't think so. One, CD Lamb loses the concussion. You wouldn't expect that to be a long-term thing. Maybe he misses a week. But beyond that, you would expect CD to be OK. And then George Pickens, he finally had the bad George Pickens game that you're expecting. Like a days ago kind of. Yeah, the offensive pass interference. He has one awful route towards the end of the game where he just doesn't seem to run it and then comes back on the curl. So I think that Flournoy, I think this was largely just about what the defense was showing Dallas and the fact that it seemed like with Pickens that Detroit just over-indexed, particularly when CD came out of the game, you over-indexed like, all right, we're just going to have a safety guard you over the top and you're not getting anything deep. And so Flournoy was the guy who was open. Also, they were in comeback mode pretty much the whole game. So they were throwing a ton. Going forward, their schedule isn't actually that difficult, the Cowboys. Like they play-- they've got the Vikings, the Commanders, the Giants. So these are games that you would expect. They have the game against the Chargers as well, which is the most difficult one on the schedule. But the Cowboys are going to be favored in every game the rest of the way. So I don't think they're going to have to play these crazy catch-up scripts like they did last night in the game that ended up with 74 points. I'm with you. Even if CD misses some time here, maybe in a deeper league, he could be flex viable in very, very specific situations. But overall, I'm with you, Jay, the last night. It's the perfect recipe. I mean, it was an absolute shootout. But a shootout that when they're down by two scores, you know it's going to be a dropback script. How about the IR regular? How many beers to play Flournoy next week? This is something you guys do on fantasy football pre-game, right? Yes. It depends entirely on CD-Lam. If CD is able to go, then it's five beers. If CD is not able to go, then it's more like two beers, because he's going to be a wide receiver too in the explosive passing offense in a game where they are not expected to throw a ton against the Vikings. But the Vikings do give up deep explosive passes. So yeah, I think that it really depends on CD. And look, it wasn't good. It didn't look good. You got ruled out very quickly. And it looked like a pretty rough collision. So I can't speculate. They do have a bit of extra time. Having played the Thursday game, it'll be 10 days. But yeah, Flournoy's value is just entirely tied to the availability of CD-Lam. Ugly injury for CD-Lam, hoping for the best for him down the stretch of this season. But I wouldn't be shocked to see him miss at least one week, even with the extra time here going forward. I think also CD, before he got hurt-- I mean, before he got hurt, he was eight targets, six for 121, and the touchdown. I think he just probably reasserted Conor that when everyone is healthy, he's still the number one guy over Pickens. Right. Every time you think the needle's going to move, they can go back to CD. And he's just-- I know they move Pickens around. But CD is really the guy that you prioritize and move around in that offense, whether you want to play him in the slot. You want to use him in motion, use him on the outside. And he's just so lethal with the ball in his hands after the catch. Yeah, I think we kind of forget that the past few years, it's been Tyree Kill's falling off, but it's been Tyree, Justin Jefferson, Chase, and CD-Lam. Like, those have been the guys. He's been one of those, the big four. And I think just with his versatility and the routry of the versification, he's probably-- he should have a higher floor than Pickens, who is a bit more prone to these type of games where-- Pickens ends up 5 for 37, the rough pass interference in the end zone, which could have made his day. But Pickens is a bit more volatile than CD-Lam. All right, let's get into the week 14 injuries. We're going to be tracking going into the weekend. Of course, the guys will have all your updates on fantasy football free game Sunday morning from Kansas City, correct? No. No. No. All right, never mind. Stamford. I'm glad I'm out of all these plans. Anyways, more importantly, Jayden Daniels working his way back, although not officially cleared right now. We'll get into more, Jayden Daniels in just a second, because he did practice full on Thursday. Lamar Jackson, it's been a roller coaster with him on and off injury report all season. Justin Herbert trying to make it back to play Monday Night football with that hand fracture. Marion Hampton trying to get elevated off of IR for that game out in Camara, dealing with both knee and ankle injury, maybe another Devin Neal game. Trey Benson, Marvin Harrison Jr., Drake London, Roma Dunze, and Michael Mayer. Let's get back to Jayden Daniels here, Jay, with that elbow injury. He did practice in full on Thursday. I think the real question is, because if you're at this point in the season, I don't know if you're going to throw Daniels right back into the action. Maybe you will. But which commander actually benefits the most from their quarterback returning? Yeah, I think it's just across the board. Everyone just gets a slight bump up. Like, the thing is, is that Mario is not as good as Jayden Daniels, but he's a facsimile of Jayden Daniels, the way that he plays his ability to run the ball. And he was able to, you know, provide fantasy value for Terry McLaurin, for Devo Samuel. Yeah, exactly. And so he is probably, you know, he is one of the best backups in the league. Ironically, if he was playing for the other team this week, the Vikings, their season will probably look a lot different. But Jayden Daniels, I suspect he's going to play. All the reporting seems to be trending in that direction if he's getting full practices in. And all indications are that, you know, they want to bring him back. And so I suspect that he's just going to be started largely as normal. And he slightly elevates Devo and Terry McLaurin. All right, another bit of news. JJ McCarthy has officially cleared the NFL's concussion protocol right now. And we got to hear from Justin Jefferson on this just being one of his hardest seasons ever. Obviously, it's a difficult season. You know, it's probably one of the most difficult seasons just off of the circumstances. Having a young quarterback, having a different team, having young players on the team. So it's just one of those years. Not every year is going to be a top tier year for me. It's really a part of the game. So it's just all on me to expect a lot from these guys and to improve on anything that we need to improve on. And as an offense, we need to improve on getting better. And of course, helping our defense out and helping our team out. Because we felt like different times throughout the season. Our defense stepped up in a lot of ways. And we let them down. Justin Jefferson going to bat for the young quarterback a little bit there. What do you think the biggest problem is with JJ at the moment? Or is it just everything? It's a chain link. He's late on throws. But he also doesn't really have a lot of touch in his bag. So when you watch him play and he's late on a throw and then he throws this line drive, whether it could be tipped or guys can break on the ball. He also, he hangs on to his reeds, long like all young quarterbacks do. But the problem is when you kind of throw the same pitch all the time and you hang on to a read, it just feels like DBs have broken on him. And he's been banged up so much that the rushing thread isn't as scary as maybe you'd hope it would be for young quarterbacks. So when a young quarterback is going through it with progressions and turnovers and everything in the past game, it's like, OK, let me lean on my athleticism. JJ has done that during his best moments. But he's also been hurt during so many other moments. Yeah. It feels like he's a reliever who has lost control of his fastball and doesn't have breaking stuff. And there's just nothing really to rely on. I think that you still have to start Justin Jefferson because it's the commanders and they do have to throw the ball and he will complete some passes. So you get a question from Troy Jefferson or Pickens the rest of the season. It's Pickens easily. You probably on any rankings you read, it'll probably be a wild gap between them. Don't let last night cause an overreact. Pickens had a bad game. Jefferson's had a bad season. Yeah. I mean, George Pickens is being set on the prop market every week in the low to mid '80s. Justin Jefferson is being set in the mid to high '50s, which is insane. And going under the prop. Yeah, exactly. He's done nothing in the past couple of weeks. I don't think it's his fault. But yeah, I don't feel good about any other Vikings player really, depending on the health of the running backs. SEC Man-01, JJ didn't realize management was going to go zero wide receiver strategy. That's rough. Yeah. That's rough. Do you change your opinion about any other school position players on Minnesota? No. I mean, the run game isn't really great. I thought Hawkinson would be good this year and he's had a horrible year. Once again, these are all out of their hands. They've dealt with offensive line injuries. I know it seems like Minnesota fans are even frustrated with the coaching staff. I just, I get it, you have to start Justin Jefferson because he's still Justin Jefferson against the commanders. Even it makes you feel worse since Dan Quinn's been taking over the play calling. They've been more competent. Right. They've been competitive. And even without a lot of talent out there, at least they're-- they're not going to make it life easy and say, OK, JJ McGarney, just throw it at Justin Jefferson and we'll see if we can win. They're going to try to take that binky away a little bit. So there's just not a lot to feel good about that very much. So another thing not to feel great about has been Lamar Jackson's question ability to play this year. Raven's offensive coordinator, Todd Munkin, said he expects Lamar Jackson to play in week 14 against the Steelers. I think more importantly, Jane, it's no luck that he's going to start. Like this, it's been lower body injuries for him. What is the confidence you have in him against the Steelers as we see Jameson Hensley, who does a great job covering the team for a long time now. Raven's quarterback, Lamar Jackson, returned to practice on Friday. He missed Thursday's practice with an ankle injury. It looks like he will be set to start someday against the Steelers. All right, so at least we've got one problem done. The question is, how effective do you think he'll be against TJ Watten company? Yeah, not particularly. The Steelers for all their sins on defense, the one thing they have been able to do is generate pressure with that defensive lines. And that's not good for Lamar, who has not been particularly mobile. I don't really understand what is happening with Lamar Jackson. The hamstring injury was a long time ago at this point. It seems like he's dealing with other maladies. The offense just seems completely off kilter. I'd expect the Baltimore are going to lean into the run. In this game, after what Buffalo and James Cook were able to do on the ground against the Steelers, but it's a very strange situation. And I understand that the Bengals game was an outlier, because you're not typically going to have five turnovers, including one right on the one inch line. But do you have any theories to what is going on with Lamar? Well, for weeks, he didn't look like the explosive. Like, if we let him run, he's going to run by everybody, Lamar. It was, first off, he looked hesitant at times to just giddy up and go. Then when his leg started to get back under him a little bit, it was still 70% kind of guy. Like, I'll beat the first guy, but then a linebacker catches me. You watch Lamar Jackson, and it's the closest thing like we ever saw to Michael Vick, where he's just the best athlete on the field in everything he does. And he's clearly hurt, because it doesn't feel that way this year. But like you said, Jay, when a guy is like that, maybe you expect him to lean on the pass game and become-- and there's, you know, him and Jay Flowers. Jay is good, but after Jay, like who scares you through the air? I say it likely hasn't done a lot this year. Mark Andrews is-- I know they just extended him, but he's not the Mark Andrews of old. It's just he needs his legs, in my opinion, to open up all that space and be an amazing passer that he is. And right now, neither is really clicking. Yeah, the issue, too, is that it's not just post the injury against Kansas City. Like the week before that, you got sacked seven times by the Lions. Like why is Lamar Jackson getting sacked seven times by Detroit? Like he just hasn't looked like himself really since that week one game against Buffalo, where he did look incredible. But outside of that, it's just-- it's been a very strange, very rough season for Lamar. And look, the market expects Lamar to go in this game, even with the injury news. The line didn't move. But also, it's a problem that against the Steelers team that just got battered by Buffalo at home, the Bravins are only a 5 and 1/2 point favorite in this game. That would have been unfathomable when you consider the state of the Steelers if you were getting anything close to MVP level Lamar Jackson. But until we see it, I'm just going to expect that we're just going to get this shadow of Lamar, who really-- he seems like he's at 50% at the moment of what he could be. Right, and in the game total, no surprise for Raven Steelers. It's 42 and 1/2. So you're not even expecting, by the book, a ton of points. How about this from Leslie Phillips? I'm playing Berset over Lamar this weekend. Yeah, which is terrifying and depressing. But a little Jacobi Berset over a sustained period. Fancy was has been more productive than Lamar Jackson. It just feels like a floor play. All right, the Chargers have been dealing with injury after injury all season. Justin Herbert, the latest, we know he's been dealing with that hand fracture in his non-throwing hand. Their offensive coordinator, Greg Roman, said the team is really optimistic that he's going to play against the Eagles. Marion Hampton has also been back at practice the last two weeks. He was limited on Thursday with his ankle injury. Jay, what are the expectations if both of these guys play? Because tough matchup and throw aside that the Eagles got ran over by the Bears. That was shocking to see. But obviously, they're going to have a somewhat limited Herbert, a returning Amari and Hampton, although they've been playing it slow with him that I don't think they'll have reservation about playing him. But can you trust either of them? Yeah, I think that Hampton will be startable just when you consider the state of the Eagles' run defense, which has been a bottom 10 unit across the season in terms of success rate, allowed, and no Jalen Carter for this game as well, which is going to be a problem. So the charge is not a great, not a super efficient rushing offense with all the injuries on their offensive line. But I think that Hampton, you can feel good that they feel good about his health enough for him to play. Herbert is a strange one, because even though it seems very much like he is going to be out there, the market moved off of Eagles minus three down to Eagles minus two and a half with Herbert getting back to practice as to what he is going to look like. I wouldn't feel super confident starting Justin Herbert. One, because he's going to have had surgery seven days prior. Secondly, the Eagles much better pass defense than rush defense, even with the injury to Jalen Carter. And also, kind of like, even though it's not his throwing hand arm, it's still going to compromise him in the game. Right. Think about the hits he takes all the time. Every time you get hit, and ball security, and is he going to be a guy that's like, well, I don't know if I'm going to run here, because it's going to increase the likely-- I think Herbert's one of those guys that-- because we've seen it over the years with how they've failed to protect him, he goes all out, no matter what. But you hit once or twice, and you're like, ah, I've got to be a little bit more careful here. This one from Brian Murphy, PPR Michael Wilson, or Marion Hampton? Yeah, I mean, it depends on the availability of Marvin Harrison Jr. who's-- Didn't practice Thursday. --training in the wrong direction. I would probably lane a Marion Hampton because of the touchdown equity, because of the matchup with the Eagles, and because of the fact that you think that Justin Herbert, with a broken hand, is not going to be dropping back 45 times. We have an update here. Marvin Harrison is going to be out Sunday. That is from Adam Schefter. All right, so no Marvin Harrison. So Michael Wilson, it's not a great matchup against the Rams past defense, but it is a Jacobi preset script, where you do expect him to drop back a ton. I'm just not sure how successful he's going to be. I think this is pretty close. So with Marv being out, I might lane Michael Wilson now, just because of the target volume. PPR, I definitely will. Yeah, but Hampton, I expect that the Chargers are going to be able to run on the Eagles, but I mean, Michael Wilson's production without Marvin Harrison has been undeniable. I guess what you're hoping for, considering they're 8 and 1/2 point dogs, is that you get classic Jacobi preset complete 30 passes, and Michael Wilson is the beneficiary of that besides Trey McBride. So the arrow points significantly up for Michael Wilson now in the script, just because we've seen it not one week, but multiple weeks. And even when they're big underdogs as well, we have another update here from the Cardinals as well, I'm being told. I know that-- oh, and Kyler Murray will not play the rest of the season with that foot injury. So it'll be the Jacobi preset show from here on out. Jonathan Gannon on if Kyler Murray will be the Cardinals quarterback next season via Cards chatter. I'm worried about the Rams. OK, so that's a no. Where's Kyler Murray? Is it going to be your quarterback corner? If I had to bet, I'd say the Raiders. It's a very Raiders move, right? This is the logical progression. I guess if they really-- and they should just move on from everyone, but if they keep Pete Carroll, he's just always doubling down on veteran moves. Kyler Murray's not guaranteed to start anywhere next year. Yeah, which is stunning. It is stunning. He'll compete to start. Presets under contract next year for the Cardinals, by the way. So there's a world where-- Wow, Jacobi preset. I think they would probably try and draft a quarterback the thing that we're facing is, like, there's just not the supply for all of these teams. We don't know if Ty Simpson and Dante Moore will declare. Let's say they both do. So those two in Mendoza, all the teams-- like, you can talk about Arizona, the Jets, the Browns, the Raiders, and it's more than that. I mean, what if the Rams with the Falcons pick are like, oh, let's get the guy to sit behind Stafford for a year or two? There's just not the supply. Where is Mendoza going to go? Ask me after I will be placing it to Ohio State. I think he has a chance to go number one, but I think he is not the traits-based number one overall pick we're accustomed to seeing. Higher floor from Mendoza. Heavy meat sauce. Kyler is going to Minnesota to compete with JJ. I mean, I wouldn't rule out anything. The Vikings are another team that has to get a bridge guy to at least let JJ compete with. I think it's concerning how competent Jacobi preset has looked in the offense relative to Kyla Murray. So why are they going to want to pay Kyla the amount that they do when they can get this production off of a regulation backup? It was a good backup, certainly, Jacobi preset. But certainly, the cost value would skew to if you'd want more out of Kyla Murray. I mean, we're trending to the point where the Niners might get a third round pick for Mac Jones, maybe more. That's just how dire things are in the quarterback market. Aloha Bricks, always good to see Aloha Bricks. Pick one, Hampton, Lad, Michael Wilson, full PPR. I would be going with Michael Wilson if I needed floor. Yeah, I would just choose Michael Wilson, full stop. Lad McConkey and Marion Hampton, I think, is close and close to a toss up. The charges pass game is so weird and complicated, but Lad McConkey is definitely the guy that you want out of the four pass catchers there. But Michael Wilson's the answer here. All right, let's get back to the injury news. Drake London was not even seen during the media portion of practice on the Thursday. We got to see this show before Jay. It was a lot of Kyle Pitts. Did you like the show? As a jet fan, it was okay. I mean, not really aesthetically pleasing if you're rooting for the Falcons or rostering any Falcons pass catchers besides Kyle Pitts. Yeah, as Cousins look better than you'd expected. He's okay. He just can't move, which has been kind of the case for a while. Just a problem. I mean, at least there was examples of, number one, you know, Bijan Robinson, like everything can be a little bit easier, but he got the ball to Pitts on Intermediate Throws. It's just they're not gonna be without London. You look at them outside the numbers and it's just not an inspiring offense. Yeah, what do you think of Darnell Mooney without Drake London around and his ability to just absorb volume? I mean, the problem is with Mooney, like when he's been healthy this year has been very good. That's what's jarring. With Mooney, he used to be like, okay, what role is he gonna be? Is he gonna be the number three or number two pass catcher this year? It's always, is he gonna play? And then if he plays, what is the upside to it? The issue too is that Cousins, who has been okay, he's done it against not particularly imposing defenses, and now he gets Seattle, which is about as bad of a matchup as they imagine for their Cousins. Especially if you can't move. They create more chaos in their front seven, not even just the front four, than almost any team in the league. Yeah, it feels like they play downhill more than any defense in the league. Attack, attack. They just put you in the blender. Max Brosma was just a tough, tough initiation from Max Brosma. Look what they did to Trevor Lawrence. When they played the Jags, they pressured Trevor Lawrence on 50% of his Drop X. It's just, it's chaos. That's gonna be a tough situation for Atlanta, for sure. This one's from Francis. How would you rank Mike Evans, Rishi Rice, Jamar Chase, Alec Pierce, and Drake London the rest of the season? What would burrow back? Chase is my undisputed one. Chase is one. No Mike Evans this week, he's been ruled out, which plays into this a bit. So Rishi Rice has to be two. I agree. I think just with the injury uncertainty around Drake London, and the knowledge that Alec Pierce has a game in hand over Mike Evans, I'd probably have Pierce over Evans, and then Evans, and then London lost, just because, I mean, there's a chance we just don't see Drake London against. Tama has nothing to play for. Yeah, I'm with you. And also, Drake London wasn't great with Kirk Cousins last time we saw them. He's been better with Pentax for all the flaws of that offense. So it's not even like your overlakes. It'll be fine, but you're right. With the injury factor, yeah, I agree. I think Chase and Rice is like written in ink as one and two, though. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, let's keep it rolling with our last bit of injuries here. We already mentioned Marvin Harrison, Jr. has been ruled out with that heel injury. We talked a little bit about Michael Wilson, but the question is, Jay, do you think we get elite Michael Wilson, or because of the matchup with how good the Rams secondary has been, temper expectations just a little bit? Yeah, so the Michael Wilson experience was kind of feasting a little bit against suspect defenses, and the Rams statistically have just about the best defense in football this year, and so wouldn't expect it to be just a lay-up line for Jacoby Brousset like it was against the Niners, and just being able to complete 47 passes. I think there'll be more three in-outs in this one for Jacoby, but at the same time, like Michael Wilson, I think he is a fringy wide receiver one, high-end wide receiver two, when you just think about the volume and the fact that the passing game is really Trey McBride and Michael Wilson. There's no one you really fear out of the backfield for taking volume out of them in the pass game, and the fact that the Rams are eight and a half point favorites in this one with a total of 47 and a half, so you expect that Jacoby's gonna need to throw. - Powerhouse said two efficient shows this week. You guys can't fool us. Who's the new hire? - Unbelievable. - Yep. - Yeah, looking forward to, yeah. Matthew's return, his triumphant return on Monday, but it is good to have a show where you know that we're gonna get through everything. There's gonna be no pens flying at the cameras. - Spills. - There's no, yeah, no Diet Coke destroying the electronics. It's a safer show without Matthew. - All right, this next question is from TYT. Guys, slow down a bit. This show is running too smoothly right now. Quick, Jay, spill something. No, we'll bring Denny on. - Yeah. - Denny'll help us a little bit more of off, yeah, we'll drive it off the tracks. Tom Garrett, 73, Crystal Balltime. My wide receiver room is Drake, Lad Evans McCloryn. Who starts for me in the semifinals next week? So I'm assuming his semifinals are week 15. - Okay, so who are the names again? Drake London, which, and Mike Evans, so we don't know if they'll be available. - I suspect Evans will probably be back next week, but we don't know. - Terry McCloryn, who we think will be with Jayden Daniels. So that's a big factor. Then I'll tell you the one that scares me, and I always love his floor, but Lad McConkey, like if Herbert's playing with the Fr... If Trailance plays, Lad McConkey is undisputedly last. - Yes. - 'Cause I just don't think they'll throw enough that it matters. - Yeah, I think it's Terry McCloryn, which is strange, but Terry looked like Terry against the Broncos, and the fact that he was able to have that type of game with Marcus Marriotar against an elite defense bodes pretty well, and I suspect, yeah, he's gonna have Jayden Daniels throwing to him. So he's got, I think, the best quarterback situation and the best health situation as well, overall. So yeah, Terry McCloryn. - How about this from El Segundo. Should I drop Mike Evans for Jayden Higgins this week and rest of the season? Turns out desperate you are. If you're locked into a playoff spot, I'm not dropping Mike Evans for a one-week play. - Yeah, no, I agree. And Higgins against the Chiefs, it's a reasonable matchup. The Chiefs pass, the defense has struggled in recent weeks. It's just, the issue with the Texans is that it's just not a high-volume offense. Like, it's just, it grinds and grinds. And I felt, the issue is, is that I felt Stroud played really well against the Colts. They had like 276 yards and no touchdowns. - Right. - Like, it just doesn't translate well to fantasy production because they love to run the ball, they love to lean on their defense. So, I would still count on the touchdown equity of Mike Evans. - If you're dealing with some injuries, as we mentioned, and you need some help, here's our top week 14 waiver ad. CJ Stroud against those Chiefs, top 15 play. Tyrod Taylor against the Dolphins. He's a top 20 play, probably more a two quarterback or super flex star. Bam Knight, as we mentioned, no Trey Benson yet still. Against the Rams, although they are 8.5 point underdogs. So, Bam Knight comes in as a top 25 play, but definitely some risk there. Chris Rodriguez has taken over the commander's backfield in recent weeks. He's got Minnesota, he's a top 30 play. Tyler Algier, who scored yet another touchdown last week and actually played into the pass game a little bit. He's got Seattle, RB 32. Adonai Mitchell against the Dolphins. He's the Jets number one wide receiver right now. Garrett Wilson is still not back. So, he's a top 30 play, as is Jaden Higgins right at wide receiver 30 against those Chiefs if you need someone for a week. Devon Bailey, we'll talk about him a little bit later in the show. Dalton Schultz, you get a nice floor considering the targets he gets from CJ Straub in the Texans offense. And then Harold Fannin, junior against the Titans J. He's a top 10 play, but what was the total for Browns Titans, 33 and a half? - 33 and a half, yeah. - I'm wondering if it's moved at all. It feels like everybody's like, I'll pass. - Yeah, and I'm still 33 and a half. - Unbelievable. - It's kind of like the Titans now that's gotten to plus four and a half. I like the Browns when it was three, but plus four and a half, no respect for the Cam Ward. The Superior quarterback in the matchup for the first time this year, perhaps. - Unbelievable. - Sunday night, Plough hopes are on the line as two teams on the bubble clash at Arrowhead. CJ Straub in the Texans will face Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs. Sunday, seven Eastern on NBC and Peacock. We're taking our first break when we're back. We're answering some of your best questions. What's on tap is after the break. - Herrra buddhetti ministeri, (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) - One of our top podcast listeners, post your end of the year wrapped using the hashtag FFHHwrapped. Our top listeners will be making some noise in this week's regular rankings. Whatever platform you're listening on, please tweet the hashtag and we will show you some love. - Or yeah, or tag me on Instagram as well. If you're sharing your Spotify or any other wrapped on Instagram, tag me @mathybearingtmr on the gram. And I'll give you some love there as well. - Yes, Matthew Barry, a big fan and proponent of said gram. - And here's one of them, Daniel Day Kim. - Unbelievable. - A regular. - So happy about this. - This made my morning. I'm not gonna lie. Whenever I check our group texts, you know, on a scale of excitement, one out of 10, it's usually like a three out of 10 by the text we get. This was the nice 10 out of 10. - Yeah, the three quick things. One, why is Matthew Barry looking out the window when I'm too mad, it was very strange. - It was like a, it was a very odd soliloquy going on. - Yeah, and then secondly, Daniel Day Kim, one of my favorites, one of our favorites, obviously, Legend of Wast, big fan, my daughter's developing because of his role in Kpop Demon Hunters, which is huge. I also enjoyed Daniel Day Kim's work on season three and four of Angel, where he had a bit role and was unfortunately killed off by the beast. So to explain the ending of the character, Gavin Park on season four of Angel, but Daniel Day Kim chimes in with, told you I was a low key regular while I'm here. Can you rank the following QBs for the fantasy playoffs? Purdy, Dart, Mayfield, half point PPR, plus two points bonus for passing touchdowns. So Purdy, Dart, and Mayfield, the issue with Jackson Dart, who I think otherwise would be the choice, is that-- - He could leave any game? - Well, he'd leave any game. And then secondly, just the conservatism with Kafka in that Patriots game. And Dwayne McFarlane put it really well as we talked about earlier in the week. It really feels like the giants are running out the clock on the season. The fact that they were so committed to running the ball despite being down massive the whole game, that creates some concern for Dart. I would say overall, if you need upside, Daniel Day Kim, I still think Dart has the highest upside because of the rushing touchdowns. And so if you're an underdog in the matchup and you want to shoot for the stars more, I would have Dart first. If it's more, you're in a pretty good position overall, I'd probably lean more to Purdy because the schedule is pretty friendly, like Brock Purdy is going to play the Titans after the buy, he's in a dome against the Colts, he probably won't have Source Gardener for that game. And then Baker Mayfield, Baker Mayfield just hasn't been good for two months at this point. - He hasn't, but why Baker would be number one for me is, he's just different when Mike Evans is back. That's the difference that you have to hold on to. And Emeka Ibuka was so much better when Mike Evans was there. So I'm just worried about the health with Baker. - He has not, he's barely been startable for a while now, but the first round of the playoffs, they'd be Thursday night football hosting the Falcons. But we're not great against Tyrone Taylor, by the way. It's a tricky one. - I would go with Baker, but I see your point there, Jay. As we show our regular power rankings for week 14, great to welcome Daniel Day Kim to the rankings at number four, raise the flags, moves up to the number one spot, which was previously held by Jonathan Medici. Diane Vincent on there at three, Medici still at two, Aloha Bricks at five. - I love that Daniel Day Kim is in between Valiant Vincent and Aloha Bricks. - On his list of lifetime accomplishments, I wonder where that one stands. - One of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine and in between Valiant Vincent and Aloha Bricks. - Oh man, what's on tap is brought to you by Bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the NFL. Sundays are easy to enjoy when they are full of football and the fridge is filled with beer. We're gonna make it even easier for you by taking some of your questions. That first one is from the Real Commish, who you saw on the rankings. Massive week for points championship in home league, the RRFFL year 17 of it. PPR pick two, ETN Manangai. Woody Marks and Swift also top seven percenter. - Yeah, nice on the Spotify wrapped. - What do you think of this one, Jay? - Kind of a, quite the mash of running backs here. Not a ton of distinguishment between them. - Yeah, so by Matthew's rankings, the answer is Travis ETN and DeAndre Swift. I agree that you still want Swift over Manangai, despite Manangai's massive game against the Eagles. It's gonna be a much tougher matchup in terms of rush defense against the Packers. ETN gets a fairly favorable matchup against the Colts without the Forrest Buckner there. Run defense is not particularly imposing, and then Woody Marks, don't really want a piece of Woody Marks, just the lack of touchdowns, the lack of explosiveness, doesn't have, and just dealing with that offensive line, doesn't have hugely explosive runs, and then Nick Chubb gets a lot of the goal line work. So I think the answer here is ETN and Swift. - Yeah, I'd agree with you. I'd agree with Matthew's rankings as well. Although Manangai, man, it's like he can steal touchdown at any moment, the Bears have been able to get both guys, the ball consistently. All right, our next question is from Ball Glove Fun, non-PPR league, pick two, Christian Watson, Jacobi Myers, or Jalen Waddle? - Yeah, I think that Jalen Waddle is the easiest choice here. - But, did you know Tua, in under 46 degree weather, is now 0 and 7, and I think it's gonna be about-- - Who don't like the Colts? - I think it's gonna be 35 degrees at MetLife. - That's saying it sinks Waddle, but like Tua against the Colts, scary hours. - Yeah, but fortunately the Colts is not gonna be coupled with a particularly imposing defense. Judges have been better than I thought they would be. - 'Cause they traded their two best players. - I feel like the bottom is gonna come out, fall out for the Jets' defense at some point, but certainly hasn't so far. But I still think even given that, even given the Colts, I, it feels like a lot of those Colt games have been like against Buffalo and Kansas City as well. This shouldn't be as difficult a matchup. So, I'm still gonna put Jalen Waddle first, and then between Christian Watson and Jacoby Meyers. Do you love Christian Watson? Do you love Jordan Love and my adopted team, the Packers? But, gonna go Jacoby Meyers here. I think that it's a more favorable ball. Matchup, in a way, because I think the Jakes are gonna need to throw. The Bezrush defense has been a problem all year, and I think that the Packers will lean into the run. There'll be explosives there, but I think counting on a deep ball connecting with Watson, whereas Jacoby Meyers just play-to-play, I think is a bit steadier, so I would go with Jacoby here. - Right, probably what you, you know, once again, what you need. If you need a lot more upside, you need a big play kind of thread. It's a non-PPR league, so that only kind of supports this a little bit. Christian Watson is definitely playable, even when the Bears getting healthy on defense. Jordan Love looks his way. He gets a couple shots down the field. He gets red zone targets. So, once again, it's kind of dependent on what you ultimately need. Our next question is from Bolmous Rose. That is Sean C. Rose. It's just as alias, Bolmous Rose. I'm crazy for starting McLaurin, Alec Pierce and Tyler Warren over Justin Jefferson this week with a puke emoji. Jay, I wouldn't call this crazy. - I don't think it's crazy. And I think that, you know, if we look at Matthew's rankings, and he still has Justin Jefferson as wide receiver, 11 ahead of these guys and McLaurin comes in at 16, I would still start Justin Jefferson. I think Tyler Warren quietly has not done a great deal the past two weeks. Now, I understand he's dealing with the illness and also dealing with the Texan defense on the weekend. Should be more favorable matchup against the Jags. Still, it's still Justin Jefferson going up against the Commander's defense. So, I would be starting Jefferson here. - You just don't want to be that pissed at yourself when Justin Jefferson miraculously turns the corner with JJ McCarthy. - Do you think JJ's an upgrade on Max Brosma? - Yeah. (laughing) - Now, to be fair, Max Brosma got fed to the wolves. - Fed to the wolves, right? But for all of JJ's sins, I mean, that was-- - That was pretty bad. - That was a guy that was understandably, not surprisingly, not ready to be out there. - Yeah, no, I'm with you. - All right, that'll do it for what's on tap, presented by Bud Light, easy to drink, easy to enjoy, and as we do on every single Friday, we welcome in not only our good friend, but a certified physician, Dr. Danny Carter. - This is from a guy named Pete. Pete says, "Dr. Carter, Dr. Carter, "I've been having real performance issues lately. "It's been really tough for me to perform, "and I was talking with a buddy about these performance issues. "And my buddy said, 'Have you tried Coke?' "And I said, 'Well, I never have. "Do you think that would help my performance issues?' "And my buddy said, 'Yes, yes, I think Coke would get you up, "would get you to where you need to be.' "So the question to you, Dr. Carter, "is should Pete try Coke? "Should he try Jalen Coker this week in his flex?" - Pete sounds like a Pepsi guy, and there are studies that say that Pepsi, you know, has a negative effect on your performance, so you should switch, you should switch to Coke. I figured that's what you're talking about here. - Flexual frustrations with our good friend, Danny Carter. Hello, Danny. Always appreciative of the festive background. - Yeah, no, we're all Christmas-ed out here in the Carter office. I actually have a cool record back here that you can't see, unfortunately, I was telling the folks about it, Christmas disco. Okay, check it out. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, okay, Jay? Don't give me a hard time, Jay. - Well, Danny, don't knock it 'til you try it. Ben Johnson trying, just trying Kyle Minungai here. I'd actually go beyond just trying Kyle Minungai with the work he's getting, even with a healthy Deandre Swift. Can you start Kyle Minungai in your flex in a tough matchup against Green Bay and also being the RB2 in his offense? - Fantasy folks might look at Kyle Minungai as sloppy seconds behind Deandre Swift. And I'm here to tell you that sometimes sloppy seconds are okay. Okay, we shouldn't judge. This is what I say every week on the show. We should not judge people for their options and for their choices. Minungai is going to see, I don't know, 12 or 15 touches here because the Bears are one of the run heaviest teams in the NFL. It kind of quietly, it kind of snuck up on us. But Ben Johnson has really established it here, especially over the past four weeks. The Packers, meanwhile, are a run funnel defense, which means that opponents of Green Bay lean hard on the run. I like this game to be somewhat of a shootout. I know it has somewhat of a low total, but Minungai has a lot of touchdown upside here. I like him a lot as a flex. - Okay, Dr. Carter, I have a friend. His name's Art Vandalay. He's a latex salesman. You may have used some of his products in your personal life. - Sure. - And anyway, he's also an importer/exporter. Anyway, Art Vandalay, he has a brother named Devon Veilay. This is a very strange situation I found myself in where Art Vandalay was asking me whether he should start his brother Devon Veilay against the Bucks this week. - It is interesting how that works and how it coincides with one of your favorite shows from the '90s, Jay, but that's how it goes on this segment sometimes. Yeah, look, Devon Veilay, eight of eight targets last week, eight of eight targets, 92 yards and a touchdown. This was after I went on the Rotary World Football Show and said, "You can't play this guy. Stop, stop with the Veilay stuff." And then he called me out by name after the game. I'm kidding, but seriously, he could have. He's playing a Bucks defense that ranked, said the second most extreme pass funnel. Okay, so teams are really dropping back and throwing it against the Bucks. The last time the Saints played the Bucks in week eight, they were 17% above their expected pass rate. It's just a nerdy way of saying they went super, mega, giga, ultra, pass heavy. They're gonna do it again. Veilay could benefit. Okay, I like it. Good call, Dr. Carter. I don't have any four out of 10 lead in for this one. Jaden Higgins goes up against the Chiefs. I want to believe in this Texans offense, there's always signs. It just doesn't ever really feel like it clicks, but can you start Jaden Higgins in your flex against the Chiefs? I mean, we're back to sloppy seconds, right? I mean, you want to start Niko Collins in a really good matchup, in a really good game environment against Kansas City, but you can't 'cause you don't have them, but you did pick up Jaden Higgins on the waiver wire a couple of weeks ago, and he's done quite well. 13 catches, 158 yards, and a touchdown over the past two games. 28% target, I'm sorry, 28% air yard share for Higgins. We love our air yards on this segment. I love my air yards. Kansas City stops the run, and the Houston offense has no run game to speak of. So I could see a lot of drop backs for CJ Stroud here. It could really be good for Higgins. I love his upside here against Kansas City. As always, Denny, we appreciate your medical and flexible frustrations and advice. Denny's not going anywhere, by the way. He's gonna stick around, because coming up next, J and I have our best pickup lines to impress, not Matthew, who's on "Cheer Dad" due today, but Denny, pickup lines right after the break. (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) - Drapking Sportsbook is an official sports betting partner of the NFL, and new customers could bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets if your bet wins down the app and use promo code FFHH when you sign up, Drapking Sportsbook. - The crown is yours. - Crown is yours. - Crown is yours. - There it is, nicely done, Denny. - Thank you, Denny. - All right, time for last call. J and I have our pickup lines for Denny. As you see, we are looking to get right. I don't know what happened. Pickup lines effectiveness should be, effectiveness should be in quotes, J, not pickup lines. What do you got this week? - Okay, well, there's news while we've been recording, which is that Jane Daniels fully cleared and will starve on Sunday against the Vikings. And that is my bet, Denny. Before the show, the commanders were underdogs, plus one and a half, they are now, it's, again, it's effectively picked, but the commander's money line has moved to minus 122, minus one and a half, now minus 105. My bet is on the commanders to win this game because it's being priced as a coin flip. I don't know if you know this, Denny, but the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings is J.J. McCarthy. - I heard him. - The quarterback for the Washington commanders is J.J. Daniels, who hasn't had his best year, but is still pretty bloody good at quarterback. And here's the thing too, the Vikings, they have an aura around their defense, Brian Flores' defense. On the season, numbers pretty good, hovering around the top 10 in terms of EPA. A lot of that is because the Vikings defensive ranking is a Jake Browning merchant. If you go since week four, the Vikings have the 22nd ranked defense in EPA. Okay, so we don't have a particularly great defense, which I think is spoken to by the fact that Brian Flores is blitzing like a madman even more than usual 'cause he knows that he doesn't have the goods in terms of personnel. And then we have J.J. McCarthy, who may be the worst quarterback in the NFL this week, going up against J. Daniels and a commander's defense that has looked pretty competent in the past two games since Dan Quinn took over the play calling, and it's being priced as a coin flip. I don't think so, commanders win this game. - I'm with you, J. I like that call a lot, especially with J. Daniels back, but even with Mariota, it was surprising the lack of respect for the commanders in that spot. All right, Denny, it pains me to do this. I'm not proud of this selection at all, and I don't think fantasy managers anywhere are, but Sumajipirain, you know what his rushing prop is said at 24 and a half rushing yards, and you might sit around and look and go, okay, yeah, Sumajipirain RB2 on the Bengals, that makes sense. You know how many carries Sumajipirain had in his return from injury last week? - 14. - Something like 17? - 14 carries, yes, and almost 17 touches. He had 16 total touches. 14 carries, he took the long road to get over this number, he had 39 rushing yards, so he's only averaging around three yards per carry. But the Buffalo run defense is not very good, and no matter what, the Bengals are not getting away from Sumajipirain, who has had plenty of work all season long, 24 and a half, I think he can chug along over this number, Denny. - Man, this is tough, because look, J's argument that J and Daniels is better than J. J. McCarthy, that checks out today. - That's a good argument. I'm going with Pirain. I'm a Pirain truther for some reason. I talk about it at every podcast, and yeah, he's going over 24 and a half, there's nothing we can do about it, I like Pirain. - Yeah, listen, I was in the building in SoFi for the Super Bowl, and I watched Zach Taylor give the ball to Sumajipirain with the Super Bowl on the line, so we know that he trusted him. - He'll never quit him, never quit him. All right, we do have some more Bengals news here. T Higgins says he has cleared concussion protocol, and his full go against the Bills. Denny, what do you think of Higgins' return? Is your burrow now with Chase and Higgins and a season on the line game against the Bills? - I mean, it makes burrow even a better play, you know, like a top three play, and then you got to get Higgins in there because of the offensive environment. There should be lots of points, which is nice. - What do you think, Jay? - Yeah, absolutely. I think it just clarifies the Bengals offense, fire up your Bengals as per usual. Joe Burrow back to being the lead option in a game that has a sky high total in the low 50s. - All right, that's it for us. The guys will be back here Sunday morning for fantasy football pre-game. But for now, for Denny, for Jay, I'm Connor. Have a great weekend, everyone. (speaking in foreign language)