I Want Your FlexI WANT YOUR FLEX - Week 16 Preview, Playoff Bye Week and More!
It's Fox Sports Radio's official Fantasy Football podcast! Mike Harmon and Dan Beyer open the show discussing what fantasy leagues can do to make the playoff bye week more impactful for the top two teams. Later, the guys break down the Week 16 schedule and react to which playoff teams have the hardest remaining matchups. All that and more on this episode of I Want Your Flex!
Hosts: Dan Beyer, Mike Harmon
Producer: Shayan Moghangard (Producer Shay)
#fsrweekends #jss
Ladies, and you want experience during your football season, well, buckle up, sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world. This is I want your flex with Dan Byer and Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan break down everything you need to set your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits. The guys help you make those hard decisions. And now let's get your flex on. Here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Welcome in a midweek edition. If I want your flex, I'm Dan Bayer. Find me at Dan Byer on Fox and Dan Byer on Blues Guy, let's be e y e R. Mike Harmon, you can find imbuskuy at Mike Carmon and also on Exit Swollen Dome Shay again in for Ian and it's our midweek episode and our good buddy Jason Stewart at Fox Sports Radio sent Mike and I a text on Monday and said, topic for you guys, figuring out ways that we can make Bye weeks better for teams that are actually on buy.
And I felt that we talked about this a couple of years ago, Mike.
And maybe we didn't do it last year, but I know that we did it at least the year before. But there is a bit of a conundrum on how do you really reward teams when it comes to bye weeks, Because a lot of teams have really good weeks. In week fifteen, the problem is they're not playing anybody, and I guess the good news is they're safe to the next week. But is there anything that we can do for bye weeks when it comes to playoffs or at least helping a.
Team in some way or another when it comes to buys.
Yeah, I know, as we were kind of mulling this over, and you know the quick chat text exchange between Jason, yourself and me, you know, you start talking about carryover points or or designating which week you're going to use. I don't know, there's something to me of sitting and watching the game and just you know, knowing your opponent's roster that's playing that day, as opposed to the points you're chasing. But I guess, look, I'm always looking for a way to to make the games more exciting and have that juice. And the bye week sucks. I mean, you know, as much as you love it, Hey, I'm advanced the fact that you may watch your team put up two hundred points, but I would wonder, you know, what's the percentage of the teams that aren't by that would want to carry that forward? Like that would be the great statistical dump, you know, like we do with all fourth down decisions and you know what the end result of a game is thereafter, but you know the averaging points, the you know, make your declaration ahead of it, and it's got to go in big bold letters, and it's got to be done before the Thursday night game kicks off and all of those things. It's fascinating to me, like just the psychology of where you come at it from.
I mean, these leagues in the actual leagues talking about the NFL in the NBA, do give significant advantages to the best teams in those scenarios. Now the NBA maybe maybe not as much as they used to, but the NFL not only won by and you get obviously the two home games. And we have seen teams like the Rams and the Buccaneers with momentum go and win a you go to the Super Bowl and go and win Super Bowls. But we've also seen over the last couple of years, you know, some teams with home field advantage taking advantage of that San Francisco last year and doing so and dispatching the Lions and coming from behind in that game, and the Eagles the year prior against San Francisco even who knows how it would have happened with Perty's injury, but anyway, it was a home game and he was injured and they kept rolling. The thing that I just come back to with fantasy is what is the real advantage for winning your league and then getting a bye? Because I was in a twelve team league, and this may be another.
Topic in itself, Mike.
They only gave out prize money for the top three finishers, So you make a semi final in a twelve team league, and I was the number one seed and I lost my semi final game. So now I'm in a third place game and I'm now fighting to win the crappy third place prize, And I'm like, what was the point of me even, you know, getting my buy. I just ended up having some bad luck week sixteen and Week seventeen, And maybe the old school players are like, yeah, tough bleep, you know that's.
The way it goes.
I was just like, where's my benefit in all of this what did I accomplish over the first fifteen weeks of the season that I now that can now give me an edge in this postseason?
And it was nothing.
Thank goodness, had won my third place game and actually was able to take home something. But to me, it's just felt like such an empty ending to a season when there's there's got to be a better way to do it, and I think utilizing week fifteen to somewhat to your advantage would be a way to do so, it's just figuring out how to use Week fifteen in a way when you're on buy that wouldn't maybe be completely one sided for the team that had the better record or has the buy that week.
Yeah, I mean, I guess when it comes down to the prizing, you make it like the E Cup and you at least get a five hundred thousand dollars check. Might not do a damn bit of good to the end result of your season, But you know, the NBA season tournament thing, so like here, you won the regular season, so whatever that is in terms of payout, reward.
Draft position, whatever else. You know.
Look, you know you cite real world NFL stuff. Man, how many times did we see the colts have you know, great positioning and then do the Queen's Wave and then get their asses handed to.
Them in the playoffs.
Sure, it's the the unfortunate mechanism of it all. And you know you're playing with you know, fake men on your field and play here, so you know, but but it's always just trying to figure out, you know, how is the what's the reward?
Is it a week of not having to sweat.
Because because when your team scored fifty two points that week, that is right.
I'm so glad that you mentioned that. Though that's part of it. Like there's there's a letdown by not having a game, Like you're like so amped you've the last fourteen weeks that you've had. When you go in and have a buy you're kind of like, all right, well this isn't really that much fun, So like, let's figure out a way to make it more interesting and more fun. And that's why I think you take better of two weeks if you've earned a buye and if you wanted to limit it to limit it to like one player or two players or three players, and maybe not the whole team, that's fine. But you submit a lineup and you have a QB one, you have an RB one and RB two, And are you a wide receiver one two three, flex one and flex two however you want to put it.
But in each of those spots is a player.
And then when it's all said and done, after week sixteen is done, if your team crept on on week sixteen, maybe you take the better scores from the week fifteen and put them into your lineup and see if they help you. It's not an adding of the two, it's just replacing the one with the other, so you least have a little bit of an advantage. I know it may not seem fair, but it would keep me interested at least in following my team in week fifteen, and it would give me an advantage over a team that just played. And if I got the buy, I think I deserve somewhat of an advantage, So that would be my solution to it. It's not you know, I have not workshopped this completely, but I don't know why.
You wouldn't You don't be willing to do something like that.
And if you have Aaron Jones in your lineup and he scores against the Bears in week fifteen, awesome and you're gonna play him in week sixteen, and if he stinks against the Seahawks, you know what, it's fifteen points, you know that you could put in your lineup instead of maybe the sixth that he got.
What do you think, Sha, you want in on this?
I mean in regards to to be honest, I wouldn't be able to really say anything on this, just because I feel like when it comes.
To I thought what Shae was going to say was to be honest, guys, I really wasn't listening.
No what I thought.
No, No, Yeah, he had a very intent look on his face like he was trying to work out the man.
I wouldn't blame is Shae. I wouldn't blame you. I was rambling a bit.
There, No, not at all. I was just trying to figure out how I was going to put into words and not kind of make myself look like an idiot. But I mean, no, I yeah, I don't have much to say on this honestly, just because it again, yeah, it's it's I feel like I would just ramble in the end.
Yeah.
No, Like it's tough, like because you're trying to visualize it right for folks as to how graphically it works right, the the interplay and the like. I look at it from when I started in this business, I was doing this support and messaging for stuff that was happening in games and how to use the Yahoo site. Right, So it invariably something like this, where we give folks a little bit of rope to hang themselves. They're gonna or there's gonna be enough confusion in leagues. And granted they're all private leagues. So in theory, the commissioner has a you guys have established, you know, the chain of here's how we're going to communicate things here, the rules of engagement, et cetera. But we all know people don't read things right. It's the shiny new toy that everybody's gonna get for Christmas that they're going to open up, plug in and expect pressing one button is gonna make me.
A gourmet meal or the greatest drink.
I've ever had, or whatever the case may although I did order a Bartesian, so I hope it really does work that way, because it's it's going to it's that'll be the best drink that I have.
Time for me the search, but go ahead, Yeah.
But yeah, So like larger. iHeart tied together thing. But it's just the idea of I want it to be the ronco old chicken roasting.
Set it and forget it. I'll bring everybody together. You know.
The I put the chicken in, I've already seasoned it. It tells me I said it for an hour and I come back, it's going to drip all the fat off and it's gonna be the greatest meal. That's kind of how folks look at their fantasy stuff, right. They don't look at the permutation like, ah, crap, we had a super I didn't draft that second quarterback until round eight, like it was a normal league things like that. So all of a sudden, you have a guy who you're playing against going well, his running backs were crappy cool. Oh no, wait, why did he get points? What's going on? So like it's all about messaging and making sure everybody's on board because it would be a private league only situation exactly.
Yeah.
I have so many leagues. That's why I feel like I would ramble, just because I feel like I'm a different person in each of my leagues, just because you said it. You have different types of rules, you have different people you have different dynamics, you have different teams altogether. It's like I try to go in with the same mentality on my leagues, but literally after three weeks it gets completely changed.
Well, but the league setup saying configuration, the scoring systems are going to be different. He getting four or six for a passing touchdown? Is it a full PPR? Does it have PPR at all?
This is a big problem that I and I think it's a if you want to take a step back and look at it, it's.
Are we there to find a winner? Are we there to have fun?
And it sounds really simplistic, and it doesn't mean to sound like, oh yeah, let's just have a fun time.
But that's why we do it.
It makes us mad, it makes us, you know, happy, but we do it because it's fun. Whether we win or lose. Those those lows are low, but man, when you bounce back with a high, there's nothing like it. And that's the point that I'm looking at, is like, all right, well, then week fifteen stinks for your two best.
Teams, it's not even fun.
Imagine having Josh Allen or Jared Goff this past weekend and not being able to put them to use that would just that's you know, it's just as like, oh great, now I get to go and you know, now the week and as we know this and as we know in fantasy football, at least.
Josh Allen's kind of proving us wrong.
But can I just don't add back to back thirty point weeks for like three straight weeks, right, So, like to waste it in week fifteen is just what it is. That's an absolute waste. And I don't think that's fun for the league. I don't think it's good for the league. I think that there's ways that you can work about around it. You're right, you can't do it in a Yahoo league that you just sign up with or an ESPN league, But if you're in leagues with your buddies or like I am, with my college buddies or friends at work, there are absolutely things that you can do to make it, you know, at least make it interesting for your guys in week fifteen. It'd be great to be able to cheer for your team in week fifteen knowing like, hey, this could help me next week, and next week would be just as fun because you're rooting for your guys to top what you did the week before. I think there's a way to do it, but I don't think people are people aren't willing to do it, or they just don't think it's fair and it's too much of an advantage, and I just disagree.
Right now, I have to ask Shay of you know, the different personalities he takes on in these leagues. So are you more ruthless in the message board in trade worlds?
Like what is it? Are you bullying people in the message board?
Yeah? It's like like, for instance, we have this FSR league, and I can't really be myself in that league as much as I'd want to be. But it's more of just like a I try to draft very different teams than I do like in every league, Like I don't really try to get the same quarterback. I don't really try to do Oh, let's do all three running backs first, or let's do all three wide receivers ferce. I like kind of changing it up as much as I can and the team that I get. Obviously, I don't like talking trash for no reason.
So like a.
Majority of that kind of like if I have a good team, I'll be a little bit more of like a Okay, this is what's gonna happen, blah blah blah, blah blah. But when it comes to bye weeks, I think I'm always happy to get a bye week, no matter what. If my team scores two hundred, I'm still happy to get a bye week. But like it's just in the end, it's like, do I care enough to talk about it? Do I care enough to put it out there? Because in the end, you're getting a prize and that is the bye week, So it doesn't really matter how you do. You can get ninety points, two hundred points. I'm still happy that I that I don't have to play anyone because who knows that other kids would have gotten two hundred one points and then knocked me out.
To Shay's point, Mike, I think to your point is I don't think that the buye is as much of a reward, and I think maybe you guys think that it is, you know, and just not not having the risk of losing a game, you know.
And that's the thing, right is that enough? Is that enough juice to just say I move on?
You know, if if you're looking at it from a all right, it's one fewer game.
I have to win.
And again, you know, it's how many leagues have we done through the years, Dan, I mean hundreds?
Right, Yeah, I mean.
I've had several leagues where I've been a top two or three score and I never made the playoffs.
Sure, I had a league.
One year where I was top three and didn't win a game, like literally, I went over and it was the most most horrendous thing of your life. But it's one of those things. Or you know, the bye like the Peyton Manning. I love to bash those Colts teams because you know, they were running through the South, which generally sucked. But they don't get the same level of hate that Brady and the Patriots do or Breeze in the NFC South two guys, I don't know why everybody loves them, but the Colts all those years, like you got a powerhouse team, you're running rough shot and then you go get up ended early. So certainly been on those sides of things, so you know there's a reward to it. But I understand your point, Dan, that there should be something actionable to that reward. Yeah, I guess is the point to it.
You don't like, Dan, you don't feel like it's a nice break, like like you get a week of just not even having to look at that fantasy team. Like especially with us, we've got have so many fantasy leagues and we.
Have what thirty five year weeks a year without fantasy football.
That's enough for you.
No, No, My point is that we only have, you know, fifteen sixteen weeks of what it is. Some of us only got to play thirteen weeks because their teams sucked and we were eliminated, you know, the two weeks before the end of the regular season or a week before. It's just the point of we all love football. We are all watching football. I don't want to take a bye week off of not caring about my team. I love it. That's why I play it. I think that it's fun. In fact, when everybody else is playing, it's kind of weird that I'm not and I'm not in the action. And that's like, that's why I don't play to you know, I don't play for the buys. But that's how I just feel like that That's why I'm playing it is because I like it, and then it's going to be taken away from us, you know, in a short period of time. We're gonna have to wait all the way until early September again, you know, to play so to have that buy. I know that you're in the playoffs, but man, I just yeah, I want to play. I want to I want to have something to care about and you know, have it be worthwhile.
It is funny because that that leads into an annual discussion that we have on the program, is that everybody wants to ignore Week eighteen or Week seventeen in those years past. Yeah, which I always argue the very same argument you just made, Dan. Football goes away for a very very long time, so even if it's not a perfect week of football, that we shouldn't eliminate it.
Sure, And then I am hypocritical and say like, well, I don't care because half the guys don't count. But I just don't know like how we can, Like I'm in one of my leagues has a Week eighteen winner with the hype, you know, because the league's over in Week seventeen. High points that week, you know, gets fifty bucks or whatever.
Well, but that's the thing, right, there's there's ways to utilize it. Either it's a two week total game.
Yeah, but then again, you know, you may not be having all your players play. The fact that they've reduced the NFL season to where there's only one buy as opposed to maybe that changes.
It a little bit.
But if the grid set, then we see all sorts of bastardizations of lineups. But again, it's still owing to the it's going to go away. So whether it becomes a one week high point contest, redraft, or however you want to do it, finding a way to use it somewhere is always something I preach to.
We got to find a way to help the NFL. We're going to try to do that next And I want your flex. He is Mike Carmen. I'm Dan byershaz in for Ian. How can we help the NFL solve their problems? Well, we'll try to do it next here and I want your flex. Scheduling always the topic here and I want your flex. He's Mike Krmen. I'm Dan byersha sitting in for Ian. We wrap up this episode with what we're about to deal with over the next two weeks or so.
We're getting football.
It will feel like you're getting a lot of football, but it's the same amount that you get throughout the year. It's just we're getting it spread over these next couple of weeks. And we talked about Patrick Mahomes situation in a prior episode, Mike. These Saturday games being set up this year to allow for the Christmas Day games to happen on a Wednesday, and already ramifications because of the high inkle spray of Patrick Mahomes and possible injuries. It's a huge game for the Steelers against the Ravens. So maybe George Pickens sits out that Eagles game because this game against Baltimore is the one that you really want to win. But the NFL schedule makers, again wreaking havoc with fantasy football, always want.
To give us more at the holiday holiday holidays with a lot of people sitting on their asses or trying to avoid their families, So little wins along the way there, Dan, But you know, to rope in the comp I mean it all ties together with the conversation we're just having about the fantasy playoffs. Let's go pull the Oregon Ducks fans of how they feel about you know, bracketology and the fun thereof sure and what is fair and just and whatever else. But but yeah, with these couple of Saturday games, and then add in the Christmas Day games, we get a couple of teams including well the Bears. They stink, so it doesn't matter, but you know, multiple games over an eleven day stretch when we're we were just talking about bye weeks right last week, we were talking about the end of the bye weeks and how twelve teams got to experience them late in the season in those monster ones and then obviously a muted one in between. But you know, now we get to this stretch run and what's fair and just and when you add all these division games at the back end, when we've got the War of Attrition going on and losing players to injury, and look, there's no prediction seeing when guys are going to get hurt or when a team's going to get crippled by injuries. But I think the likelihood far far greater Week sixteen of an NFL season than say Week three.
Just statistically speaking.
It just seems that it's so contradictory to what the NFL does with bye weeks. We were complaining of why do you have buys all the way to Week fourteen? And now we're jamming in a bunch of games in a span of time over weeks fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen. I know this is a one off deal, but I just and these teams probably have to agree to it at some point. But you can't throw the Raiders and Jaguars and Giants.
On Christmas Day. You need to have some meaningful football. And now you have four teams.
Let mean, you have more than fifty percent of your playoff field playing on these on this Christmas Day game in Saturday games, and I you stin't know if that's good for your end product. When we're going to be watching these teams coming up, you know, in three or four weeks from now when it is the postseason.
Well, that's just it, right.
We're talking about the the old underlying mantra which both sides like CBA. And yes there's some latitude that the players Union allows to the league and this kind of stuff in terms of what gets hammered out in the negotiations Dan, but you know, we have that dirty little phrase of player safety that always gets bandied about. And then we're talking about the quality of football, which we've been saying on the podcast and certainly Smith and I on our show and I know you with Doug and a little bit on your certainly on your show Sunday Afternoon with Carrie Rhodes. It's the quality of play across the league has been atrocious. Atrocious if you were giving it a letter grade, if I was a professor and I had to put it in the grade book, probably give it a a C minus. Doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of high and doesn't mean that we don't have close exciting end of game scenarios. But most games that we're watching, like the two Monday night games that ended Week fifteen, it was terrible football. Sure you're excited if you're an Atlanta Falcons fan. I was like, all right, it wasn't good, but we survived. And you're a Vikings fans, like, was it great?
All right?
You beat the Bears, so it's and Vanillai's performed so that was great, and you wore the cool white uniforms.
But all in all, we helmet.
That's right. Was it great football?
No?
At least one side was truly bad, So I guess maybe I'll give the Vikings fans and Mulligan there, but overall, just the product week to week, you got a couple of games that stand out right, That Bills Lions game was insane, the Bills Rams the week before, and we get a few of those each week, but most of.
It is like eh.
And now we're in the final three weeks of a season where we're compressing the schedule. We've got to your point. The playoff teams are all going to be represented. Why because well they draw?
Yeah.
And the NFL, by the way, also tells you that they don't care about They don't care about true winners. They only care about TV and their television partners and the ad dollars. When you would have that Sunday night game, you know they would wait to set the schedule and you would find out what's going to be the Sunday night game. Now, because of the different scenarios, you've got games on Saturday of Week eighteen that are allowed to happen, and that gives them another window to put meaningful games. And then you have a wild card game that's now on Monday night. None of this is this is just this Christmas Day because it falls on a Wednesday, is a one off deal. It's much more normal if it's on a Thursday or Friday. But this also is just the point of it. It's in a long line of NFL scheduling stuff where the actual quality of football that you talk talk about the actual well being of these teams in there and how they enter the playoffs not being thought about, and all that matters is your dollars and how many eyes you can get to watch this average product.
Yeah, and that's this again.
You know, it's you and I taking the thirty thousand foot view, and we'll certainly have players complaining. Right Patrick Mahomes was talking about the three games in eleven days. Okay, you guys as a union agreed to this stuff, right, Maybe not specifically, you know, point for point, but in principle you agree to this when you accepted what is it, nearly fifty cents on the dollar right for what the league makes. So anytime you know, we do the handwringing for players and as a collective media, I kind of chuckle, it's like, well, you made the agreements. When you don't collectively bargain for some of the more substantive benefits and whatever else, it's because you have such a why swath of ranges from guys that are in the league for a cup of coffee to the Tom Brady's of the world, or Aaron Rodgers or whatever, make a ton of money play for a lot of years. A bunch of lignemen that get into that kind of era as well, Dan, you know that they get into that second decade in the league, their considerations are gonna be much different than everybody else, including things like fighting about Wednesday games, Yeah, day games, et cetera.
It's it's crazy that we're dealing with this. But I will also say this, I think if you went to any of the teams that play these games afterwards you go to the winning locker room, you're probably not.
Complaining too much.
Probably all they care about is winning the football game and leading up to it. It's not ideal, but if you can go in and maybe your opponent doesn't handle it as well as you, that's an advantage that you will take.
And when it's against.
A possible playoff opponent and you could affect their seating or affect their season, you're going to do it as well.
I just look at it, as you know, I'm looking at the tank Athon, my old Trustee Tankathon site. When we look at strength, the schedule, the rest of the way, and we'll take the you know, Wednesday, Saturday and everything into account. Kansas City sixth hardest schedule remaining, with the Steelers, Broncos, and Texans all playoff teams or circling around right Denver right behind them. They've got the Chiefs, the Chargers, and then they play the Bengals. Well, the Bengals aren't a tough out. The Steelers are the fifth hardest schedule remaining. Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals are their three final opponents. The Vikings, the Lions, the Packers and your Seahawks. So I mean we're talking about teams, you know, with with gravitas. And then there's the next round of teams up and around there don't matter, New England, Chicago, Dallas for that matter, whatever. Then Houston's got the Chiefs, the rave and the Titans, Washington, the Eagles, the Falcons, and then the Cowboys on the downside. All that to say, you know, you've you've got a couple of teams where it's as much who you're playing as just when you're playing right. And part of that is, look, it's a made for TV event, like you know, we always talk about these things, you know, is the competition whatever, great, but the reality is, to your point, it is a TV show, right, and that's what we're trying to do. And that's why, you know, when we talked about the college stuff, not to wrap that in too much, why I still was frankly surprised Alabama got left out for the TV show factor of it. And you know, argue the merits of every other team and their schedules. You could do that with the Heisman voting and everything else, but all of it to say, yeah, it's every year. It's it's the handwringing of you know, the the league, the owners, the players, all going to we at this, right, are we doing right by everybody? And still putting out a compelling product that that gets us to the proper, proper end game.
And these games, by the way, yeah, I mean it's pretty obvious, but they can't be flexed because you have the chaos that it is. But at the beginning of the year it looked like a good matchup, and really, can you go wrong if it's Raven Steelers, I think that helps the NFL. They throw the Chiefs in there. It's the Texans thing that's just kind of funny to me. Because even though we've been thoroughly unimpressed with the Texans for most of the season, what do they have to play for in these games?
If won the AFC.
South, Yeah, they really can't move up in any of the scenarios where you would want to move up. They're like, they're not going to get the number one overall seed. That's not going to happen. And so it's really what are they playing for? You know, you're playing for the four seed, you're playing for the three seed, or you're playing for the three seed, and you know, to not be the four seed Houston, that really doesn't have a lot in these next three games, and two of them are going to be in prime windows and one of them is going to be in Christmas Day.
Well, let's just sell the hell out of C. J. Stroud and CUTI tom Ronaldi music.
Yeah, there you go. All right, Well this is fun, good, little different break from the norm.
The Fantasy playoffs obviously are in full swing, Semi finals in Week sixteen, a lot of places. Plus if you're playing daily Fantasy, Mike and I'll be back. Actually, you know what that's wrong. I'm not going to be around. I'm out the end of the week and I'm going back home to Wisconsin for a few so yeah, so Mike will be back with Ian Shay, great job filling in this week.
Amazing work and you can come back anytime. Thank you, guys.
Thanks Bonnie.
So it'll probably just be Mike and Ian the next time around, so you guys will have the week sixteen rankings.
We knows.
Maybe Shaye shows up and just starts yelling over the time.
Yeah, hey, you are more than welcome, my friend.
So for the entire crew, Merry Christmas.
Mike and I will be back for our recap of week sixteen together, so I'll be back for that. But in the meantime, yeah, the crew will have everything handled here. So for Schae for Mike, I'm Dan. We'll talk to you next time. Right here on I want your fis
