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

There have been a couple games where both Crabtree and Cooper have gotten it done, but they seem to kind of be swapping back and forth. The games that Cooper has had really big games you've seen Crabtree disappear for and vice versa. I'm not sure that both of them get it done in this one. I agree if you have either, you probably should start them. But, you know.

You've got Crabtree who has been limited in practice. He was limited in practice last week and had a fine game. But if you look at last week's Crabtree game, you had 50 of his yards come basically on that one broken play right towards the end. And I think you look at his total and you go, oh, he had, what was it, like eight for a hundred? Let me look that up. He had, yeah, eight for 110.

And you go, well, that's a great game. He must have been extremely involved. But, you know, when you take away 50 of those and won, seven for 50, seven for 60, he just wasn't getting down the field as much. What I really like for the Raiders offense, the strength of the bills is rushing the passer. They're averaging a sack almost every 11 attempts, 33 sacks on the year. Derek Carr does not get touched.

Right. And the bills rely on that pass rush to cover up the weaknesses of the secondary. If they can't get to the quarterback, I like, that's what I'm saying. I like both Crabtree and Cooper this week. Yeah, I can get behind that. That's strong logic from, you know, a functional how the game could roll out. And you're right. Those, those cornerbacks for Buffalo, they have been beat a lot this year.

Washington takes on the Arizona Cardinals in Arizona. It's a 49.5 point over under the Cardinals are favored by two and a half. Really? Yeah. Let me vet that there. I guess the Cardinals are at home. I would see this as a darn near Pickham game. Well, I mean, two and a half is pretty close. Yeah. But 49.5 points they're expecting to be scored in a close game with the way that Arizona's defense has been playing. I guess they are.

giving Washington the credit it deserves for their offense. They have a very high-powered offense. Kurt Cousins, Carson Palmer. Do you have any hesitation starting Kurt Cousins who has been just El Scorcho for the past couple weeks? I do have hesitations starting him. They're not huge. I have him at quarterback 11 right now. Where's James? James Winston is lower for me.

I go back and forth on that one. If I were to have to start one of those two guys. The people need to know, Jason. Yeah, asking for a friend. Yeah. I think it depends on what you need. I need points, Jason. I mean, my friend needs points. James Winston has a much better matchup against San Diego. I worry that the Arizona Cardinals might not be able to keep up with scoring.

because of John Brown, Michael Floyd's head and John Brown's legs. I have not helped the Arizona Cardinals. Washington, they do rank 25th against the run. Yeah, David Johnson is going to be a fine play. I would start him. And on the other side of the ball, he got fat rob. You know, the more that I think about it, I think Kirk Cousins is going to be somewhat safer. Patrick Peterson was injured last game.

And he played through it. That's true. But when you watch him, if you go back and look at the film, he was not running the same. He did not look that good. And they had to, they were worried about it after the game. And all the results came back and said, okay, he's fine. He's just hurt. But he's not 100%. He's fine. He's just hurt. Yeah. I mean, that's the NFL. It's like, yeah, he's, you don't have any broken bones or torn.

completely torn off the bone muscles. So, you know, just deal with it. Tyron Matthew got beat several times this last game as well. I think the combination. So that speaks to Matthew will be, Matthew should be on Crowder if things go the way that they usually do. Matthew is generally the slot. When they, when opposing offenses go three wide, Tyler Matthew becomes the slot corner. Yeah. Taking on Crowder. Crowder. So do.

With Matthew not playing up to snuff, do you have faith in? With Matthew? And, yeah, I mean, I think that the, this is a dangerous play, but you could see a suspect Arizona defense with Patrick Peterson and Matthew not playing up to their namesakes right now for this week and Kirk Cousins being on fire. Now, that's one, you know, that's one narrative. And if that's what you believe, you go watch the film and you believe, you know,

Kirk Cousins has been really unstoppable. I can buy that. But you also have the narrative where this is a must-win game for the Arizona Cardinals who are at home. Washington's traveling across the country. The Cardinals are done. I believe I saw a percentage chance of teams making the playoffs and the Cardinals were at a stout 1%. My point is from their perspective, they're still in the hunt.

and it is therefore an absolute must win. They are playing because they still want to be in the playoffs. They still believe they can. I agree. They're not going to get there. They aren't wizards with math then. Probability and statistics. Not the strong point. My last point here for the Washington wide receivers. If Pat P. is on Deshaun Jackson and Tymer Matthews on Crowder, that leaves...

Marcus Cooper on Garsohn, and we've seen Garsohn have some big games. Garsohn's been pretty hot over the last month. So if that's the way it lines up, it would not shock me at all to have Garsohn be, have a monster game. Jordan Reed, we expect him to be out. Vernon Davis, the obvious fill-in. He has been great when he's had to fill in for Jordan Reed.

However, the Arizona defense allows 25.6 yards to tight ends per game. I think he'll beat that. Do you? Yes. I mean, there's some guys have been over that. I think it's just the average. I think Vernon Davis will put up, you know, a four or five for 45 or 50. Fair enough. You know, just kind of that middle of the road. I don't see him scoring the touchdown in this game. I agree. I would probably avoid him against Arizona Cardinals defense. I think I start Crowder.

I think I start, if I need to start cousins, I think I'm okay starting cousins. I think when it comes to Garsohn, that's more of a craps play. You know, you're gambling a little bit there. And then on the flip side of the ball for the Cardinals, I said it earlier. I'm not playing John Brown. He would surprise me in an excellent way if he comes out and has a good game. So what does that say? Larry is a locked and loaded. He's the one. Agree.

But if Vegas is right that this is a 49 point spread in a close game, then someone else has to get involved. And is that J.J. Nelson or is that Michael Floyd? Is David Johnson? So you, okay. I, David Johnson is going to have a big, big week. Then the last point before we move on, Big Gresh. Jermaine Gresham has moved himself from Fantasy Nobody, but in he put on his hazmat suit. And he said, hey, barfie tight ends.

I'm joining this party, 11 receptions the last three weeks, two scores in the past two weeks. Is there anything here? Well, I know that the Redskins are 23rd against the tight end for fantasy points. So if you have, you know, a head case in Michael Floyd and you're missing John Brown or if he's just, you know, not up to snuff, you could see Gresham a little bit involved, but I'm not. Gresham or Davis.

I would take Davis. All right. I would take the talent over the match. Oh, don't get me wrong. Bad scheme. Bad scheme for tight ends. Yeah. Giant Steelers, 48.5 point over under the Steelers are favored by six, despite the Giants having a spectacular year, a quietly spectacular year. Dallas is getting all the pub, but right behind them, tiptoeing through the tulips are the New York Giants.

Yeah, I mean, the narrative is that they haven't played very good teams and that their record is mostly fluff and now they go on a bad street. I discount that a little bit because what do you want them to do against the bad teams other than just beat the heck out of them? And while they haven't dominated it, we're all guilty of that narrative. They have won those games. And so I agree. I think the Giants are a good defense. Jenkins has been really good. I mean, he.

As a lockdown corner, he has shut down wide receiver ones. He shut down lots of guys and it's expected that he's going to shadow Antonio Brown. You scared? No. No, I think Antonio Brown is on another level and I'm never going to be scared. There's no team, no situation that I would ever not start Antonio Brown. Could he have a bad game? Absolutely.

Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham. I mean, Antonio Brown might only catch, you know, like six passes for 70 yards. Right. That's going to be his bad game. Eli Manning versus Big Ben Routless Burger. I looked this up because Big Ben at home, we've talked about the home road splits. Are you playing when he's in home? You play Big Ben at home. But the Giants are coming in. They're the number two ranked defense against quarterbacks for fantasy football.

That's pretty good. Yeah, and their defense is allowing 10.4 points per game. That's not good. So I checked on it. Or really good depending on your perspective. So since 2014, Big Ben at home versus top 10 passing defense. I went, you know, this is a tough opponent. He still averages nearly 22 fantasy points per game. And the weather should be fine. 43 degrees, a little cool, overcast.

Nothing, nothing that we see yet that says, you know, the weather will be a problem. I have thought long and hard this morning about changing my start of the week from Russell Wilson to Big Ben. I would certainly start Big Ben over Russell Wilson. When we make our starts, and I don't think everybody realizes this, we're trying to not go with the top. We're trying to not go with a guy that we just expect to be a top five asset because...

Most people are going to start him. This is why Levi-on-Bel has never been a start of the week. Right, exactly. Start him. Go ahead. Next week, my starts will be Antonio Brown, Levi-on-Bel. David Johnson. But still, you'd have a hard time at tight end. Yeah. Now you would. Yeah. Oh. So the pass catchers, let's look at them for the Pittsburgh Steelers, because if Big Ben's going to score points.

Someone's catching the ball. Besides Levi-on-Bel, who's averaging seven receptions a game. Goodness. That's more than most wide receivers. It's ridiculous. And he is a running back. Unbelievable. Honestly, very similar to how you talk about the Cardinals. You think for the Cardinals it's going to be Larry and David Johnson. I think it's going to be the same thing here. You're going to chalk? I think it's going to be Levon Bell and it's going to be Antonio Brown. I don't need to...

to say that someone else, I don't think Sammy Coates is going to get it done anytime this year. Eli Rogers has done nothing since that one big game. And, you know, your tight ends now are splitting with each other and Jesse James. I think the dairy screens we're talking about, though. Sure. Bring him up. You want to talk about the dairy screen? This is me bringing him up. Oh.

Okay, I see what you did. He had the two big receptions last week, still limited snaps. However, his snaps are increasing. You had Mike Tom would come out and say, okay, I think we're ready to get Laderius more involved. Are you taking that shot on Laderius Green? Lederius Green or Vernon Davis? That's a great question. Laderius Green and Vernon Davis, I think I would go with Lederius Green. I would too. And the reason why, when you say his snaps have been going up,

He was two catches for 67 yards last week. He played his season high in snaps. Do you know how many snaps he played? It was just a handful. It's 14. 14 snaps. And so if, I mean, if that could go up to, it's very reasonable that a tight end like Lederia's screen should, this week could play 30. And if he doubles that,

and you've got a great past defense who's really just middle of the pack against tight end. I could see Laderius Green being a play. That being said, again, it's one of those guys where I think I can do better. I would start him over Davis, but let me see where I've got green ranked here. I've got Laderius Green as my 20th tight end. Yeah. We'll tie on the other side has been very disappointing.