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

throughout the majority of the year has been a guy coming in on pass catching downs and things like that. That doesn't seem like what's going to happen against the Colts to me as much. Two weeks ago, Polk was 12 for 61, 5.1 a carry. This past week he was 11 for 34, 3.1 a carry catches a couple of balls. Grimes caught a couple passes. Grimes were 7 for 53, had a really good week. I don't think I'd want to start any of them. But if I got news, let me give you an example. If I got news that Whitaker...

who I'm having to roll out there because of my situation, that he's going to only have a handful of carries. He's going to be really sharing with artist paint. I might play Polk. So you would play Polk over Grimes? Yeah. I would play Grimes over Polk, but that's my point is I think this is a situation we have to steer clear from. In week 15. 96 points over two weeks. They're going to be in the red zone. They're going to have opportunities in the red zone. Jonathan Grimes is a smaller guy. I think Polk would get those carries.

Just putting it out there into the fantasy stratosphere. Mike has nothing to say on the matter whatsoever. He's just sitting there. I was watching two Titans go head to head with some stellar analysis of Chris Polk versus Grimes. These things matter. They're going to win you your week or they're not. They might lose me my week against Jason. All right. So T.J. Yates has upside?

Yes. Because he's facing this defense. It's 29th against the past, 25th against the run. Doesn't he have streaming upside? Yes. Let's say Eifert's out. Do you like Yates or McCarrant? McCarrant. The culture at home, so both teams are on, you know, McCarran and Yates are on the road. A.J. Green, DeAndre Havgins. A defense in San Francisco that at home has been a lot better than the Colts. Yeah, I think I would throwing it out there. I would probably go Yates.

I can completely see the argument with Yandra Hopkins. I got no problem if you want to go Yates, but I would go McCarran. Would you want to touch that bet, and you can go ahead and touch that button. Are you in with me? Waterbed. But this is a... Yates versus McCarran? This is based off... Bet of the year? I thought you said if Eifert is out. Well, that's where I was going. I'll just take it straight up. In or out? Yeah, straight up. Straight up. This is just being me and Andy. All right. All right. Yeah, straight up. Yates.

I don't hate McCarron in two quarterback leagues as a streamer. I don't. I just think that the Texans are going to win this game. I think that the Colts are going to go in the wrong direction right now. And they just don't have a lot of weapons on offense. You're going to not have Moncrief most likely. You can't run the ball with a beat-up gore right now. I don't know what they're going to do. This is as important a game as possible for these two teams. I was going to say for this week, this is a playoff game. Yeah, this is a playoff game. Yep.

Boy, we got three more matchups to get through before our starts of the week. You think we can do that, or do you want to knock one over to tomorrow? Let's keep going and see how far we get. The Bears head to Minnesota. The Bears head to Minnesota. Take on the Vikings. Cutler, Bridgewater. Who are you going to start? I'm not starting either guy. Really? I think I'm okay playing Jay Cutler. I want to hear some reports of how the... Alshan Jeffrey.

Oh, I forgot about Jeffrey. I thought that's what you were going to say, is you want to hear more reports on Alshon Jeffrey. I want to hear more reports on Jeffrey, and I want to hear more reports on the Vikings defense. The Vikings defense did not collapse last week. I understand that they did not collapse last week, but can they sustain. We've seen these things happen where a team can rally for a game or two, so this will be the second one if they're missing all those starters in a divisional game, a team that

The Bears know the Vikings very well. They know the flaws and the weaknesses. So can they take advantage of that? Fair enough. Vikings are at home. The Vikings are an interesting fantasy team because you start, I think you start nobody on that team except for Adrian Peterson. Correct. Is there anybody you would even think about? No. No chance. All right. So on the other side of the ball, Matt Forte is locked and loaded. No. Yep.

No, too. No. Yes, and that's what I wanted to talk about. What? When I say no, you say yes. Yes, I wanted to bring up the conversation of the Chicago backfield so that we can, we actually had been tweeted at by some of our listeners saying, hey, can you guys talk about Matt Forte, how confident you are? I saw you actually respond to one of those and say you are locked and loaded with Matt Forte. Now, I am not saying no that I wouldn't start Matt Forte. I've got him decent. He's a one for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But let's talk about the backfield because he got a touchdown the last two weeks, which is why we're thinking of him as locked and loaded. He had fewer carries last week than Jeremy Langford. That's fair. He got 10 carries. Jeremy Langford got 11 carries. They are really starting to split that workload there. And if Matt Forte goes and doesn't get a touchdown, Matt Forte is not going to be that valuable against a Minnesota Rundee. I mean, he had 10 for 45 last week.

You take away that touchdown, and he just crapped your team. I think it does have a lot to do with whether those linebackers are available for Minnesota. He's locked and loaded for me. But your argument, it hit home. It hit right here. Because when you see a carry count of 10 carries, it makes you a little concerned. And I just dove in a little bit deeper, which I had not looked at. I did not realize this. Langford got seven targets last week.

Where that's Forte's role. Forte's the past guy. That's what he does. But he got two targets. Forte caught one ball last week. Yeah, the week before he had five. Sure. I mean, that's the thing. We don't know. But when you're talking about all of a sudden, Forte has been so golden because who are you really going to start over him in that situation? That's the issue. That's the problem. There's not, I mean, Dernard Robinson. Let me ask you that. One of these. Dernard Robinson, Tim Hightower.

Fuzzy Whitaker. Matt Forte over all of them. And I'll tell you the truth. When I did my rankings and I published them yesterday, Matt Forte was so low that it scared me on my rankings. And I took a look. Do you have that sound? Yeah.

Do we have the scary sound? You mean that? Duh. And I took a look and I said, would I really start all of these guys? You're naming the guys. It was Tim Hightower and Donard Robinson and Frank Gore and Latavius Murray. Would I really start those guys over Forte? And I had to wrestle with that and I said, no, I wouldn't. Now, I think there's reason to possibly do that and I'm scared of Forte.

But that's why I moved him up, and that's why right now, Forte is, like you said, ranked as an RB1 in the back end of the RB1. Yeah, I just, you know, it's a matter of, I mean, Forte still has the higher upside. So you've got to start Forte, but I'm scared for you. That is gut check. Got check time if you're looking at starting to Nord Robinson over Forte, because the matchup and the volume says that's the right thing to do. But...

Are you okay having Forte on your bench and losing? So, because we have so much time on this show, we're wearing our Foot Clan Star Wars T-shirts today. The Foot Clan Awakens. Which, by the way, you can actually get them on The Fantasy Footballers.com, but that's not why I'm bringing it up. This is not a shameless plug for our shirts. I put stars on this shirt, okay? Yeah. Because it's Star Wars. There's stars on the shirt.

Every time I look down, I think I got bad dandruff. I know. I know. Every time I'm like, oh, there's length. I can't wipe. I can't wipe these little stars off my shirt. I'm not sure if you've ever been to advertising 101. But when you talk about your glorious shirt that we have available. You don't say dandruff? And then you feel like, I feel like I got dandruff all over my shirt. You too can have the feel. Maybe you've got some dandruff issues. This is the shirt for you. Cover it up. If your dandruff could fall up and become stars.

We'd like to thank tomorrow's sponsor. Head and shoulders. We're just pre-plugging head and shoulders. Great. Yes, let's set up opportunity here. Mike can't even, he doesn't even know what's going on. Mike is, you got the fantasy dandruff. All right, let's get one more game. Titans at the Patriots. That cannot be the line. That is not the line.

That is a wrong line. You have to be correct. What the favored by three? Yeah, this says Patriots favored by three. I think you're missing a zero after the three. I'm pretty sure that's accurate. Patriots favor by three. So talk about that game and I'll get the right line so that we know what the heck is going on. You've got Julian Edelman that we talked about early. That's going to make a, I think, an improvement for Brady. I expect him to be there. It's going to be a downgrade for Amandola. So watch the Edelman News.

If Edelman is in, I would start. You're right. It's 13. 12 and a half, 13. There you go. And if he's out, I'm still very confident with Amandola. Obviously, with Ligarrett Blunt being gone, they've got to change some of what they're doing. And there's... I think Brady, man. Brady is going to be good this week. And you're sagging your head because I'm playing him against you. Yeah, I know. If James White's in the backfield...

And Gronks back on the field, practiced in full yesterday. And Edelman's back. Did you see they signed? Jason just, he's gone. Mike and I left. You know, he's gone yet tomorrow? Yeah, I will not be here tomorrow. I'm sorry to hear that. Thanks, bud. Leonard Hankerson was signed. Leonard Hankerson was signed by the Patriots. Wasn't he hurt? He just was put on an IR.

but then was released from IR and picked up. He's healthy. Yeah, but he was on IR. That's correct. It's like a mistake. And I would not doubt that he has a contribution if Brandon LaFelle keeps butter fingering the ball away. I would doubt it. I would strongly. You know what? You know what? Don on me? Like I was looking at that. I go, oh, they must want another guy who drops the ball like crazy. Like, you already have Brandon LaFelle. Why are you bringing in Hankerson? That is what I thought. That's true.

That's true. Hankerson has had some bad drops this year. Is there anybody on the other side of the ball that you would roll the dice with? Marriota, if you're struggling for a QB. Delaney Walker. Delaney Walker, yes. Walker is an auto start. But I'm just saying, so Marriota, the Patriots defense has been great. So he's not a guy I'm advising, but in a pinch, you've at least seen what he can do running the ball.

throwing four touchdowns a game. So you could do worse. Okay, we got to move on. Let's get into the starts. Starts of the week. I'm starting Selson Blue. You look like you're reading a tweet. I'm like who's live watching the show. Alex Smith is my start of the week at the quarterback position. Russell Wilson had five.

through the air against Baltimore last week, the 31st against the quarterback and fantasy. And I think that Alex Smith will be solid enough to not lose you a fantasy playoff matchup, which is what you need. If you've got power positions elsewhere and you're streaming the quarterback position, you can go a lot worse and take a lot more risks than Alex Smith. He's not going to kill you with turnovers. And I think he'll put one or two into the end zone this week, if not more.

And I'm going. I'm sticking with Ryan Fitzpatrick. He is my stream of the week. He's also my start of the week. I think Dallas is trending the wrong direction. It's just really hard to stop Marshall and Decker. And there's wrapping it up, so to speak, in Dallas. And Ryan Fitzpatrick has been dominating. Like we talked about earlier, if Russell Wilson wasn't doing what he's doing right now, the focus would be what Ryan Fitzpatrick is doing.

He has nine touchdowns in the last three weeks. A game, it was an overtime game, but almost 400 yards. So I just think he is a great safe streaming option. So when you mention Ryan Fitzpatrick, we need to give the context there. Same with Alex Smith. Would you start Fitzpatrick over Stafford? That one, I have struggled with that simply because the start of the week. No, no, not the start of the week, but just what will Stafford do?

We know that the Saints have been an auto QB start. Not recently. So I'm saying. So last week they kind of shut down Winston and Stafford has looked either white hot or white gold. White knot. I've got Stafford as my last QB1. He's QB12. So I've got Fitzpatrick ahead of him personally. I would rather start. Ryan Fitzpatrick or Derek Carr against the Packers in Green Bay. Derek Carr.

Isn't that game in Oakland? No. Yeah, that game's in Oakland. That game is in Oakland. That game is in Oakland. Okay. Yeah, I don't have any problem with Eric Carr this week. I've got him one spot behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. But my, since we're talking about all these quarterbacks, let me give my start of the week is Blake Bortles. Blake Bortles has been really hot lately. He has three weeks in a row with multiple touchdowns, five touchdowns two weeks ago.