Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Week 13 Matchups, In-or-Out, Playoff Push

With that low of an over under, Patriots don't usually have a 44.5, but that high of a spread. The implied team total for the Patriots still says to me that I have no concern starting. I was going to bring up the implied point total for the Rams. It just has to be, you know, I mean, you're not going to sit Todd Gurley because he is, he gets the volume enough to be consistent.

I hope he's not your RB1. He's a great RB2 right now. He's still been decent on the year, certainly disappointing for where you drafted him. Outside of that, let's just keep on the Ram's side of the ball. You've got Kenny Britt and Tavon Austin as the only two questionable startable players. I'll still start Kenny Britt. Okay. As a wide receiver three. Yeah, I mean, you could definitely see the game script where the Patriots are clearly going to get up.

Or, you know, that would be likely at the very least. And then if you've got to air it out, you could do far worse than Kenny Britt, who has, you know, since golf has taken over, he's had five receptions both weeks, got a touchdown. I do think his, he is still limited by this offense. I'm not rushing out. That's why he's a three. Yeah. This time of year, I'm hoping I can do better than Kenny Britt. If Kenny Britt.

At this point of his career, the way that he is, when I'm watching him on film this year, if he had a legitimate quarterback, Kenny Britt, I think could have had a spectacular year. Yeah, but it's pretty disappointing. But you are starting Kenny Britt over Tavon Austin. Tavon Austin, he did have a decent week last week, 45, and he got the touchdown. But over the last, listen to his reception totals over the last month. So he had the four this last week. Week before, one. Week before that, two, week before that, one.

Tavon Austin is a name that you don't need to remember. Four years, $42 million. That's what they gave Tavon this offseason, and that's what they're doing with him. Man, okay, so on the other side of the ball, Danny Woodhead, Danny Woodhead, he's a weapon. Oh, that got me good. So if you haven't heard, my, my, uh,

Hero? My hero. As Andy would, as my hacked Twitter, when Andy hacked it, would say, my hero, Jeff Fisher, he was talking about the Patriots in a news conference and talked about Danny Woodhead, who has not only injured, but also not on the Patriots and has not been on the Patriots for a couple of years. I believe it was inferred Danny Woodhead because he said them named Danny. Sure. And then he, he doesn't know whoever the running back is. Basically, he did not know the running backs for the Patriots, which was, look.

Maybe it was just a mistake, but you feel like your head coach should know who he's going up against. I would want, if I was a player, I would really want my head coach to know every detail about that team. So let's talk about the details of the Patriots. They lose Gronkowski. That doesn't help the overall offense. You are still starting Tom Brady. Are you starting him over?

most everybody. Well, it's still most everybody, yes. I believe I have him ranked as the fourth best quarterback, so I agree. This, this matchup, it does not scare me with the Rams defense. What about the wide receivers? What are you doing with? So Edelman's a must play. Are you throwing in Hogan or Mitchell? I'm not going to, I'm not going to throw in Hogan. Hogan to me is a guy that, you know, if you're playing in DFS and you want that, you know,

crazy crapshot tournament play, tournament play. Then Chris Hogan is legit to me because he could absolutely catch a 75-yard touchdown in this game. But I'm not playing him in any of our redraft leagues. When it comes to Malcolm Mitchell, I think I would rather have Malcolm Mitchell than a Kenny Britt because both of those guys I would expect to be somewhere around five receptions. But I don't see a Kenny Britt being able to have a...

of seven for 80 and a touchdown or two type of game against the Patriots, where I could see Mitchell doing that. That being said, this time of year, I'm hoping I don't have to play either one of those guys. Certainly, Julian Edelman, he should be one of our starts of the week. With Gronk out now, you've seen him really be extremely important to this offense. And I think with how the tight-in landscape is,

I would be fine starting Martell as Bennett as well as a... He's still a crapshoot to me, though. I mean, he's right in that barfey tight end. The difference between him and the rest of the guys is just his ceiling. Well, the difference is the quarterback. That's why. Which is what gives him the ceiling. And that's why people still start Kobe Fleener. Because when you're judging between these guys who are all going to get four receptions for question mark and question mark,

I'm going to answer the question marks with the quarterback. Sorry, you got more? No, no, no, that was it. I will say this. The Rams are pretty good against the tight end. So Martel's been, it's not a must start. He's just, you can start him. Lion Saints, 53 and a half point over under. Well, the reason that you've got that is you have two defenses that against the pass are suspect.

and you've got Drew Breeze playing at home where his home road splits. We've talked about it before. Drew Breeze at home is great. And you've got Matthew Stafford whose home road splits are almost identical. He plays well on the road. He plays good at home, a little bit better at home. So these offenses should be able to keep up with one another as the defenses are gassed. Yeah. You're starting both quarterbacks. That's a no-nonsense type of move. I love Theoretic in this.

matchup 78% of snaps last week against mini against minnesota they said hey a theoretic you're our guy and so that that speaks to me like riddick is their guy on a and we verified and vetted the stat on a per touch yes thank you on a per touch basis theo riddick is scoring more fantasy points per touch than number two david johnson so

Theoretic is a very good start here, especially against the New Orleans States. We talk about, you know, they've got a suspect secondary, but their secondary is far better so far this year as far as against fantasy than their rushing defense. Their rushing defense has been horrendous, so Theoretic definitely must start. The question I think a lot of people want to know and seemingly is impossible to answer is which weapon?

for the Detroit Lions, is it going to be? And is there going to be enough output where you can kind of start all of them? I mean, and by all of them, I guess, three and a half, right? You've got Eric Ebron, who I believe is a good start this week. I made him my start of the week, not because I think he's going to be just an unstoppable monster, but because you're not going to see what you saw last week with zero targets. I don't see that. But Marvin Jones, Golden Tate.

Who do you got, how do you have those guys ranked this week? I lean towards Golden Tate, but if I have Marvin Jones, I'm still going to play him in this matchup just because of the overrunner, the ceiling. I want pieces of this game. Mark Ingram and High Tower, between the two of them last week against the Rams, there was 29 carries and four targets. Jason mentioned this with when we were talking about Ingram, but High Tower becomes an absolute must play for me.

if Mark Ingram is out, because he's likely going to see 20 plus carries, and he'll see a handful of receptions with a high probability to score. I mean, if Ingram is out, is Hightower a running back one for you? Yes. If Hightower will definitely be, he'll probably be right around that running back 12 for me this week. Similar to, you know, the roulette that you play on the lion's side of the ball is still,

Will there be enough points here to feed all the mouths of Brandon Cooks, Michael Thomas, Willie Sneed? Unlikely. I'm saying it's unlikely that everyone's going to get theirs. Especially in a game. And look, I know you pump the brakes a little bit on Kobe Fleener, but the Lions have just been so bad against tight end. They are the 32nd rank. They are the worst team against tight ends. And Drew Breeze.

is not one to shy away from an exploit. He's going to go ahead and say, oh, that was easy. Let me do that over and over and over. Now, I'm not saying rush out and start Kobe Fleener, but it does temper my expectations for all three of the wide receivers. If Kobe Fleener ends up with one of those touchdowns, it can't go elsewhere. So how do you rank them? Would you rank Michael Thomas first? Yeah, I think I would. I mean, he's been unbelievable all season, and he just...

The consistency factor of Michael Thomas, I would rather play him. I don't know how many people actually have both Cooks and Thomas. I mean, if I have Brandon Cooks, I'm playing him this week. We talked about, I think the goose egg last week was a complete anomaly. I side with Jason on the squeaky wheel that Brandon Cooks is going to get fed. And that's when he was squeaking, that's exactly what he said. He said, you know, I, what was his quote? It was, uh,

Closed mouths don't get fed. You're darn right they don't, Brandon Cooks. So he opened his mouth because he wants the ball. I think he'll get the opportunity and against Detroit. Now, I assume that Darius Slay will be on Brandon Cooks. Well, we'll see. So I have Michael Thomas ranked pretty high. He's my wide receiver 14. I have Brandon Cooks just ahead of him at wide receiver 10, but they're both.

Honestly, if I had both, I would be willing to start both in this game. Bill's Raiders 49 point over under. The Raiders are favored by a field goal. Tyrod Taylor becomes, man, it's really tough for me to want to stream Tyrod in this situation. The matchup, I mean, the Raiders defense, they have been playing better as of lately, but I still think you could beat them. 49 points.

They expect to be put on the board here. In a close game. But the bills have no wide receivers. Well, they have no wide receivers, but if you look at the season, they really have had wide receiver injuries from the get-go. Yeah, but they've at least had Woods and Goodwin available.

But I feel like it's been roulette, right? It started out where you had Watkins. Okay, no, no. Now we don't have Watkins. Wow, Goodwin had a good game. Okay, Goodwin's injured. Robert Woods is back. Okay, he's out. Every game it's a different guy getting it done. And it's always LaShawn McCoy, to me, is an absolute ironclad, locked and loaded must start in a high scoring game where you don't know which wide receiving option is going to get it done. McCoy, you start. This is why I am willing to go.

and start Watkins because with all of the injuries there in what Vegas is expecting to be a higher scoring game, there will probably be enough opportunity for Watkins. I would prefer to be able to have the luxury on my fantasy team to wait another week, but I think Watkins is startable. I wouldn't start any other wide receiver. And that does lead to your point. Or say, are you going to, would you start Mr. One and One? Justin Hunter, one catch.

One touchdown. It's like, what's the sniper model? Like one shot, one bullet. Justin is one catch, one touchdown. Yeah. So it does speak a little bit to Tyrod Taylor. That's the real question here is, is do you start him? I would, I'd look for a different option. I have him as a complete middle of the pack quarterback. He's around 15 for me. So if I'm in a 12 team league, I hope I have somebody else. If I'm in a two quarterback league, he should be.

an okay second quarterback to start. Crabtree, Cooper, must starts. Must starts. We had a question yesterday on the, on the footcast. What is Derek Carr? Hey, Amari Cooper. And I get, I get it. I get your disappointment in Cooper the last couple of weeks. But on the season, he's been spectacular. And he's, I'm not scared of the Bill's DBs at this point. So.

Despite the bills having a good defensive ranking, their eighth against the pass, ninth in fantasy points, I'm still starting Cooper and Crabtree with full confidence. You know who I hate? Who do you hate, Jason? Seth Roberts. Oh. I just, you know, it's like you've got Cooper, you've got Crabtree. And then you've got one, two, three, four, five different games that Seth Roberts has caught a touchdown. Stop it. Seth Roberts.

to me. He's like a vulture at wide receiver. Right. I was going to, I come, I feel like he is, he's the big brother who is, while his little brother just is the elite player at the elite athlete, but the big brother comes in every once in a while just wants to remind you that I'm the big brother. So that's my touchdown. Yeah. You can't have that of Mari Cooper. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things we've seen this year, you know, when you look at the games.