Week 15 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, Kelce Goes Bananas - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/17

Totem pole is he when it comes to starts it choices this week. Are you playing Julio Jones in this matchup against Pittsburgh over Michael Pittman against New England? No, I would go Pittman just because of the juice we've seen this year. I think a good name to compare him to would be Omina Rae St. Brown, the target volume against Arizona, but obviously a bad offense versus here, Julio being the leader of this offense. Which way do you guys lean on that?

afraid of Julio, I think. Yeah, but I mean, you should be afraid of a lion's wide receiver. I am terrified. It's double afraid. There's no non-fear situation here. Mike, who do you go with? I think I would. That was my answer. Mike, who do you go? I would take the chance and I would play Julio. It was, it was his first game back off of the hamstring injury. It's always his first game back. Well, no, this is now his second. I don't think he had one during the week. I get what you're saying, but.

I would, I'd take the chance on Julio. Let me throw out a name for you because you probably just grabbed him off of the wire. Would you play KJ. Osborne of the Vikings against the Chicago Bears? Yes. And now it's Monday night. Sure. So you do have other factors at play as in. The earlier you can play them the better. Does your Monday night player get knocked out by COVID? Look, only one of those players gives me the chance to sign D.D. Westbrook as the backup.

Oh, that's a good point. So that's the one I always go with. Deontay Johnson, you always play him, Naji Harris, of course. Yep. Chase Claypool is my start of the week. I think there is a touchdown in his near future. It's absurd. And then Pat Fryermuth, you are playing with fire with the fryer. Yeah, it's Pat Firemuth this week. And it's, um, well, I mean, he has been touchdown dependent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. End of game touchdown dependent. Yeah. And the Titans are a.

well-coached team. I don't think they've got the most talent on defense, but they've had a pretty good defense. They haven't done, they haven't given up a lot to the tight-in position. So I would be hesitant to play Pat this week. Are you taking, uh, the Muth then? Or would you chase the volume that Gerald Everett could be seeing against the Rams? Tire Lockett is essentially for sure out. And then you got all these other guys banged up.

Yeah, if it's a full PPR, I would go Gerald Everett. Okay. If you're playing in a standard league, then the touchdown is going to be Friermuth. And if you're playing against Travis Kelsey, it doesn't matter. Sorry for your loss. Like, oh, we didn't bring that up. There are a lot of people out there that faced him. And you want to talk about, he may have heard us on the show. I think this is probably the case. Yeah. He heard us mention that he's on the cusp of not ending the year is the number one tight end.

And I think he put that to bed last night. I mean, he can be mediocre the rest of the way, and he'll probably finish number one after what he did. If you had him, your odds of winning at this point have got to be 80 plus percent. Yeah, they've got to be very high. All right, guys, we have to do this. This is one of the matchups. Houston, 2 and 11, taking on the 2 and 11 Jacksonville Jaguars. Oh, I'm ready. The over-under is 39.5. Jacksonville are their favorite.

On the DK sports book, minus three and a half. They're favored by more than a field goal? They began the week favored. Good for you, Jacksonville. I did. Well, we'll talk about it later. But I had some decisions to make in this game, and the firing of Urban Meyer swayed one of them. This is a rematch from week one. Houston won their first game of the year, 3721. And...

this was the best game of Trevor Lawrence's career was his first game. And it was, you know, he's 332 and 3. Since then, it's not been pretty. You know, and I don't know how much, you know, the coach departing is going to make a difference. But Trevor Lawrence has thrown one touchdown pass in the last six weeks. So when you are toying about in your mind with Marvin Jones or Laquan Treadwell or even James Robinson in the passing game, you have to factor in the fact that they have really done nothing in the passing game.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is good news for Marvin Jones, and I could see him stepping up, having a good game. But I, these are still two human beings that have been trying to get it done on the field and have not been able to. The matchup is nice, but I would personally want to wait. I can't imagine in the playoffs really relying on the Jacksonville passing attack. What's crazy about this week is with all the COVID related news.

A lot of these lower tier players are really relevant. Like, you know, if you had Tyler Lockett, you know, I have O'Dell Beckham. Like, I'm playing Marvin Jones. I made that decision to play him over Daryl Williams last night. Yeah, that level I would agree with. And so you do have these flex choices now with these Alman Rae St. Browns that are coming to light because you don't, you're pivoting away from players you thought you could count on. Marvin at least offers you touchdown upside compared to some other players, but it's a risk.

Houston will do their best to accommodate. They are 31st against opposing wideouts. They give up 33.6 points on average to them. So if you try to distribute, okay, maybe Jacksonville can't do that, but they got 25. How is, you know, is it Marvin? Is it Laquan Treadwell? Fredwell is much cheaper in DFS. And he's been pretty relevant. But James Robinson is the storyline here in terms of difference maker for your fantasy team. Yeah, Houston's allowing the most rushing yards in the NFL. So yes, James Robinson is in.

Carlos Hyde is out. Urban Meyer is out. So there's a lot of workload security here for James Robinson. On the other side of the ball, Sexy Rexy, Berkhead, sounds like he is not going to play. It's crazy. They ruled him out. Yes. But then he returned to practice. What? Yes. He did. He returned to practice yesterday and practiced in a limited. So is he in or is he out? He's marked his out on every platform. Yeah, I would imagine he's out.

But, you know, practicing in a limited fashion can work around an injury. I just, yeah, that sounds a little bit strange. Yeah, Burkhead was marked out. And in that process, where I was going to is that Coach Cully has said, David Johnson will be our guy. Royce Freeman last week after the Rex Burkhead injury, that turned into a whole bunch of targets, eight targets. I don't know if people realize that.

Eight targets, six for 51 through the air for Royce Freeman last week. 19 total opportunities on the day. But Cully has said, David Johnson will be the guy. I think that is some very cheap opportunity that literally could still be on your waiver wire right now. I think Rex Burkhead might be active. And in that case, I would avoid the backfield. This is, he was ruled out. They said that he wasn't going to play early in the week, but he was limited in practice yesterday. I just.

Just be careful because this backfield is already non-com. You don't have confidence even if they say David Johnson is the guy. You just don't. They've just been so bad this year. Yeah. And Jacksonville's defense is it, you look at this matchup 2 and 11, 2 and 11, their defense has been pretty darn good over the last six weeks. So I just think there's a bit of a trap there potentially. I would go with a lot of other options at running back. I mean, is David Johnson? I mean, I can give you some names. And you can tell me at least today.

Are you playing him over any of the, are you choosing an eagle over David Johnson? That's an interesting question with just trying to project the game script, which can be disastrous at times, but it's hard to imagine that the Eagles are not up and just trying to run out the clock so they can move on to next week. I would play, yeah, I'd play Miles over David Johnson. What about Mike Davis?

who's been involved over David Johnson. And this is all assuming that Rex Burkhead is out. Yes. I would play David Johnson. Jason has Brandon Cook's as his start of the week was eight for 101 for the general last week. And at least with one of those rare games where Houston is underdogs to the Jaguars. Maybe you have a high-scoring affair like you did in week one, 37-21 with defenses struggling. Cincinnati, seven and six, taking on the Denver Broncos.

The DK Sportsbook line here over under is 44 points. Denver minus two and a half. The pace in this game is going to be slow. Cincinnati is 30th in neutral pace. Denver is 29th. They both love running the football. We've seen games where Mixins had 25 plus opportunities. Last week, I believe Giovante and Melvin combined for over 40 carries. Somewhere around there. Yeah, I can add it up, but that sounds right. I think we are all.

not willing to take a chance with pass catchers on Denver. Is that fair? That is fair and accurate. I would not, I couldn't imagine relying on Jerry, Judy, Cortland Sutton, Tim Patrick, or Noah Fant. They are out of my lineup, out of, you know, AJ Green is someone that it's not even a thought or a hard decision there. And if you're that easily behind AJ Green, we can move on.

And an update, Andy, they had a combined 39 carries, so you are dumb. Oh, what a liar. Yeah, it's almost like my Kelsey prediction. Price is right. Rules says you're wrong. No, no, I stand very corrected. By the way, Trevor Lawrence did not win a Heisman. Oh, yes. Joe Burrow, anyone who would think that is it just a... Imagine thinking that this prolific college quarterback.

Got a French or a Heism. All right. Joe Burrow, this is a player that I think is very difficult to, you know, he's been a top 12 quarterback for three straight weeks. So you have confidence there. But then Denver, they're a solid defense. They're at home. They're favored. The weapons, we know, Jamar Chase, T. Higgins playing great. Higgins is three straight games over 100 yards. But pace of play, you know that the total possessions in this game are not going to be as high as a normal game. So when you look at that,

You're kind of saying, will Joe Burrow take advantage of X amount of drives against Denver on the road? Are you trying to bench him this week? Burrough is a real question, Mark. I don't think you have to bench him. I would play him, you know, over other options, you know. Would you play Tayson Hill? I would play Tayson Hill. Okay. Because of the rushing upside. Big Ben?

No, that's where I would go, Burrow. I could see Big Ben having a fine game against Tennessee's secondary, but Burrow has looked really good. He's someone that I believe will be a long-term franchise quarterback, a true...

valuable fantasy asset as he progresses through his career. This is just a tough matchup in mile high. Five touchdowns over the last five weeks in the air for Joe Burroughs. So that number hasn't been high. Two of those weeks supplemented with a rushing touchdown by him. So he does feel a little sketch this week. Yeah, it's a little sketch, but the weapons are good, right? You're not going to bench T. Higgins, are you? You're not going to bench Jamar Chase. No.

And I think both those guys should be able to get it done, which obviously will go back to Borough. And then Joe Mixen took all of the accolades that he had received from this show and others and had a couple down weeks, but 20 opportunities in both of them. Don't you rely on me? 2.8 a carry against San Francisco or against the Chargers, 3.2 against San Francisco. This game should be interesting. And we're not touching any other options. Atlanta at 6 and 7 take on the...

7 and 6, San Francisco 49ers. 49ers are on a roll. They're also 9-point home favorites, according to the Draft King Sports. But the over-under is 46, one of the higher ones of the week, at least better than several of these games. One of the higher ones of the week, and you combine that with their favored by 9. That's a very nice implied team total for the 49ers. 27 and a half points. Yep. So, Mike, you threw out Jimmy Garapolo as a deeper start of the week this week?

hold them up against Joe Burrow in the game before. I mean, the matchup is like I'd go Jim McGropla. I don't blame you. I do not blame you. I think that one is very close. I think that the, if Elijah Mitchell is truly out, that gives a boost to my confidence in playing Gropolo over Burrow. What about Jeff Wilson? You know, I was going to bring them up earlier when you were talking about David Johnson or you're talking about, you know,

Maybe a Chuba Hubbard. Are you playing Jeff Wilson if Elijah's out over a Chuba? Yes. I would play him over Chuba. Chuba has just been very disappointing for all of the opportunities he's received. And he's up against Buffalo. Yeah. Give me Jeff. Jeff Wilson was a fantasy hero last year for your team, Mike. Yes, he had two great games to close the year. Devo Samuel running back for the. I mean, he really has been. Yeah.

What, one reception or fewer in how many games in a row? Four? Come on, Shanny. Let's get him some. The running back stuff is great. But we don't play in a point per carry leagues, my friend. Let's get some targets. Brandon Ayyuk, the wide receiver 12 since week nine. Redemption. Do you like him in this game? I do. Atlanta is a.