Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 15 Fantasy Forecast, Starts of the Week, News

Or even Bryce Brown. Yeah, or Bryce Brown. But, I mean, one of them has to be the backup. But this is, he said that, you know, that he likes Christine Michael, but he said that doesn't mean he's going to be the feature guy or starter or anything like that. He's just coming in here and trying to help us out. And we'll see if that works out. That's what he said about Christine Michael. Okay. That's helpful. That is helpful. And I think this situation, like many others in fantasy football, to the patient one goes the spoils very often.

A lot of people want to lock and load a lineup on Tuesday. I can't tell you to do that. I can tell you who I would lock in if today was the day you needed it, but you need to pay attention to those reports because if tomorrow we come out, and if what Jason's saying gets confirmed, Carol says, hey, he's going to get the lion's share. It's going to be Bryce Brown. That's going to change how I start him compared to guys like Hightower or Gore or some of the other names. So the voyage of Michael this year.

let's just break it down from a player standpoint is a pretty fantastic voyage of you start the year a Super Bowl contending team right yes you get traded away to Dallas you're like okay well this this could be worse this could be worse but and then Dallas you're like okay it's okay and then they fell apart like oh you get cut you get picked up by a practice squad on a team that may or may not make the playoffs

Then back to a Super Bowl contending team. We! Yeah, and we'll see. He'll do what he always does. I'm not saying that Michael's going to be the reason they're there. I'm just saying his voids around the NFL is pretty funny. All right, let's go ahead and talk about Ligarup Blunt. He was placed on injured reserve, which means the Patriots have now lost two running backs to injured reserve this year with Dionne Lewis and Ligarra Blunt. I'll tell you what's going on. We don't know if Blunt will even be back in Dynasty Leagues. I don't think he'll be back in New England.

Arian Foster's brother is at it again, people. You put a lot of blame on him. Unduly. It's just, it's a joke. Is it, there's some rumors about,

Stephen Jackson that have not come to fruition. Brandon Bolden is a very valuable player to that team, but you still have to be looking at depth, at reliability, at not inducing an injury on a very valuable special teams player and Brandon Bolden. And he's not really your prototypical every down, not the guy that they want for the playoffs. Monte Ball was signed to their practice squad. He's weighing in at about 2.30, 240 pounds compared to when he was drafted at 205. Stephen Jackson has...

3.7 a carry last year hasn't played all season, probably not in game shape, although he's known for being in shape. I don't know if they're going to sign him or not. Nothing imminent is what I'm hearing, so that has no bearing onto this week's game, so it's Brandon Bolden this week.

Yeah, unless they signed someone last minute that it would have to be someone like a Stephen Jackson. They sign anybody below that kind of level. You can't imagine they're going to come in and be ahead of Brandon Bolden. So at this point, for this week, I think it's Brandon Bolden, and I think it's James White as well. You're going to see a few more carries go his way and maybe just a different game plan for the weapons that you have. And, you know, everything changes every week with the Patriots. So you don't really...

almost no different because if you just take le garret blunt out put brandon bolden in you still are you really confident starting brandon bolden no not really yeah i agree with you i agree with you you're not really confident so he he was obviously a big waiver wire pickup i think teams like myself who are desperate for running back would have loved to just roll them out there and see if you get that lucky game where the the big back gets two touchdowns in new england

Let's move on. There is a lot of news. I'm not going to skip anything because I think it's really important that everybody get caught up on the big news here. So if you guys think of something else or something breaks during the news, let me know. TJ Yeldon did not practice. The report is a sprained MCL. Most of the time, that is a multi-week injury. That being said, Fred Jackson has played straight through it before. We don't expect Yeldon to play this week.

He's out. Yeah. I'm just going to say that. He's out. He does say that he hopes to play next week. How much do you like Denard Robinson this week? Denard Robinson, and we'll get to this later, and I'll give my reasons why. At home versus Atlanta, by the way. I like Denard Robinson quite a bit this week. I think of all the waiver claims, he's the guy that you can, he's the only guy you can start confidently this week.

I'm not so sure about that week 16. It is normally a multi-week injury. But we have seen with Yeldon once before in week seven where it looked for sure like Yelden was going to be out and Dinar was going to be the guy. And Yelden started and got all the carries and was okay. So, you know, when I look at an injury to a player, the best thing of predicting the future with them is looking at their...

passed. And so it's too small a sample size with Yeldin, but we've just seen that once. So I'm definitely not going to say, well, an MCL keeps him out week 16. And I will retract the official out. It is not an official out. So doubtful for this week. But when the news is coming out that a guy hopes to play in week 16, you need to be prepared for him to be out. I like Denard Robinson a lot this week. To me, he's not a guy who can do it week after week after week.

But good news, everybody. One week. That's what you need from DeNard Robinson. This right now, in a great matchup with a volume. Who else was going to get carries and catches? Danard Robinson, Frank Gore. I'd go Robinson. I would as well. Okay. I'm just putting some kind. Those are the decisions people are making. Fresh. He is fresh. I'm going to stay at the running back position right now, and then I'll come back to Eifford and Edelman and some of the other news. Ron Rivera has ruled out Jonathan Stewart. Stewart's out.

The reports in weeks past have been Cameron Artis Payne. The rookie, who we've talked about in the beginning of the season, might have the bulk of the early downwork. But yesterday, Ron Rivera kind of came out and said, well, it's going to be, it's probably going to be Fuzzy. It could be Tolbert. Cameron Artis Payne will have his chances. It's a mess. So to me, this is called reading the game flow. It really is. And to me, playing with a different...

Offerance, like the production from Jonathan Stewart has been statistically nearly twice as efficient as the other backs when they've gotten carries this year. So the offense, to me, it's going to struggle to some degree. Am I wrong? If you don't have a guy that's been twice as efficient as the other running backs, I mean, they can make adjustments. I'm not saying they can't. It's very possible. It struggles. I'm not going to doubt Cam.

No, and it's not so much that I think Cam's going to have a problem. It's just you're going to New York. Game flow-wise, what do you project as to score in this game, and who will be out there in that context? I think it would be a higher-scoring type game. And what I mean by not doubting Cam is, I think Cam will pick up the slack. And he'll take over for the lack of Jonathan Stewart. I think the running backs will be okay. The Giants are a very poor running defense. So I don't think there will be much trouble.

For Carolina, really. But what does that mean? Who is the guy? Here's the thing. Here's what I'm getting at, and maybe I didn't explain it good enough. If the Giants are out of the game in the first quarter, it's going to be a lot of Tolbert or maybe some opportunities for Cameron Artis Payne in the end of the game. If the Giants are putting up points at home fighting for the playoffs, a little bit of a, you know, Carolina's defense is on fire, but you've got Odell Beckham Jr. Right now, based on, you know. Fossey would be out there in a close game, is my point. I would play Fossey.

Yeah, if you have to play one, you have to play the guy that has been said as the de facto starter because he gets first opportunity. Now, I could absolutely see a game where you're giving him that first role, that like veterans start, you know, because he's been there so long and the, but then roll to the rookie. I could see that happen. What I would say is you can't really, you don't want to start Fossey and you don't, you definitely can't start Cameron Artis Payne. But with what.

is coming out about Jonathan Stewart as far as week 16, you know, maybe resting Ben. We look at the history of Jonathan Stewart. When he gets injured, that generally speaking is something that is a little bit slower to come back from. So I would want both of those guys, or either of those guys, Fosie or Cap, on my bench and wait and see because I think one of them is going to be very valuable. But you just don't know who. You cannot wait. There's two weeks left.

Well, I'm, I mean, how do you wait and see? There are plenty of teams. You just mean until you start on Sunday morning? No, no, no. I'm saying for week 16. I mean, we make, you know, defensive special team grabs for week 16. I'm saying that these are good week's, week 16 guys. So who's the guy this week? This week, it's got to be Fossey. Okay. So you would start Fossey over Bolden? Or no. No. You start Brandon Bolden? Yes. I'd go bowling. Would you start Fuzzy Whitaker or Chris Polk?

I would start Fossey Whitaker. Fosy. Jonathan Grimes. Fossey. Fred Jackson. Fosy. Alfred Morris. Probably Fosy. Okay. All right. That's what I need. That's what I need to know. So, Ian Rappaport reports, like I said, nothing imminent between, we already talked about Stephen Jackson. All right. Julian Edelman practiced in full. That's dangerous. This is dangerous for Danny Amandola.

Well, Danny Amandola was, he was already getting limited work where you can see that he's still coming back from that, the injury, the Patriots are not playing him full. They didn't play him full time last week. And funny enough on this, one of the newest news blurbs is Calvin Pryor from the Jets saying that Des Bryant doesn't look the same since he, which maybe this is or is not.

functional news, but if other players are talking about, man, Des Bryant does not look the same since that foot injury. Edelman had the exact same injury, right? Yeah. I thought he had a Jones fracture. That was the initial report. I don't know for sure. Either way, Edelman, let's say he plays this week, I'm not playing him. That's interesting, because I have the completely opposite opinion. I think if he's healthy enough to be put out there, in their situation right now,

If he starts, he'll be what Gronk did last week, which he'll be utilized to the full. You know, I think that what the practice report say on Edelman is that he looks super crisp in and out of routes and looks good. So I guess that's a gut call for you as an individual fantasy owner. If you have the room to start somebody else, I understand the protection against the injury. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I can break the tie here at least and just say my personal, you know, if this was a choice I was making on my team.

If Edelman plays, which I got to think if he's practicing him full that he's going to play, then I would start him. And I would, again, hedge my bets against, you know, if you've got other good options to start, then sure, wait a week. That's a luxury. But I think if Edelman plays, most people should start him. And if Edelman plays, I would not start Danny Amandola. I would look elsewhere. Yep. Tyler Eifford is not practicing yet.

from the concussion situation. Oof. So we are not going to, we don't have anything else to report other than we'll know more in this week and we'll tell you whether we think he's going to start. We have our starts of the week at the tight-in position at the end of today's show. So stay tuned for that if you need another guy to pick up. Yeah, spoiler alert. It's not Tyler Eifer. It's not our start of the week. No, he's not. My gut tells me he would, he's not going to play. I know. I feel the same way. When people don't practice coming off of a concussion a week later, that's not usually a good sign.

All right, we do expect C.J. Anderson to play in week 15 against the Steelers, but how much can you really expect from him? If they think he's back, he's going to get out there. All right, a guy? Because Ronnie Hillman was atrocious. But would you start him? Well, Fuzzy Whitaker or C.J. Anderson this week. Fossie Whitaker, Fossie, I think. They're playing Oakland, though. That's tough. Yeah, but they're playing the Steelers, the number one fantasy run D. I mean, C.J. Anderson is.

Oh, who's, who, never mind. For some reason, I was thinking the Broncos were playing Oakland. Oh, because I was way off. Way off. That is not correct. Thank you. Thank you for the update. So, we'll move on. Dante Moncrief is in a walking boot. It doesn't look good. Well, his walking boot doesn't look good. It's not very stylish. He hasn't had enough people sign it. Fashion police. Badazzle it. Yeah.

My wife is to the rescue. You know, I believe, and I could have gotten this report wrong, but it looked like the Colts offense is in a walking boot. That is correct. Okay. All right. Here's the incredible thing about the Colts right now. And we'll get into it in the matchup. Trending the wrong direction. Giving up a lot of points over the last two weeks, something like an average of 49 a game or something ridiculous. So...