Trust Your Studs? + Ride or Die, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/14

number one against running backs. We don't know if Ken Walker is going to be fully healthy. But yes, yes, he looks like he's going to play. I just, I don't think I'm wanting to play Gino this week. That's just what my gut says. And he's been so good. I think with D.K. Metcalfe and Tyler Lockett, they have been good enough. They are talented enough on their own. And that is kind of where you beat. the San Francisco 49ers is, you know, the wide receivers get enough where you can start them. You're not excited about them. But even though you're able to start Matt Keff and Locke and I'm Benching, Gino Smith, who's been incredible? The last five weeks, he's been absolutely fantastic. Granted, it's been a good stretch of games.

Next week against Kansas City, if you're, if you're, you know, prioritizing playoff matchups. Oh, man. Oh, baby. I'm in on Gino, but I'm benching him this week. I don't want them against the San Francisco 49ers. And I think the 49ers are going to, I think they're going to run the ball 40 times in this game. Oh, yes. I really miss. They're going to run the ball 49ers times this game. early Monday. My first thing I did when I was looking at Draft King's lineups for this week, I was like, I don't care if he's 20,000. I'm putting Chris McCaffrey in my lineup. And then he was Thursday night, so I couldn't put him on the main slate. But I do think that, you know, we saw this with Carolina. Carolina, even though Gino ended up with a good game, they were able to have these long excruciating drives where it's like San Francisco just doesn't get the ball because they cannot stop the run right now. Seattle. They can't stop the run right now. And I think.

We're going to see that from San Francisco. San Francisco's fancy points giving up the last five games to quarterbacks. I'm going to read their totals. 13, 10.3, 10.3, 14.8, 12.1. Not a lot of upside right there. Most of those games are at home. I will say that. But it's been. Let's fire up some names here. Super streamer Mike White or Gino. I'll take the shot on Mike White. Yep. Trevor Lawrence, who's been red hot, but he plays the Dallas Cowboys. Give me Trevor. Yep. Aaron Rogers, Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams. Yep. Okay. Names have now been fired up, and it's over. Christian McCaffrey, play him. Yeah. Kenneth Walker, full practice. Oh, gosh. So Kenneth Walker is not, I mean, was it yesterday? Was it Walker where you were saying the gift? The gift might be if they just leave him out? Yep.

And now it's, I think you have to, like I'd play mustard over, uh, over Kenneth Walker. I don't blame you there. Yeah, if Kenneth Walker practices in full this whole week, which it seems like he's going to since he did on Tuesday. If he doesn't have a setback and he practices in full, you would imagine he's going to be healthy and ready to go for this game. And that is brutal because he should be, um, not an auto start in this matchup. He should be someone that you consider. You look at your other options. And yeah, you could play him. But.

I mean, I don't think the upside against San Francisco is really there. All right. I'm going to give you some names. Rashad White against the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm all about Rashad White. Okay. Jamal Williams, who was a touchdown machine and now he takes on the Jets. I'll go Jamal Williams. Oh, man. I have more confidence in him getting a touchdown than. you know, against the San Francisco 49. A.J. Dillon against the Los Angeles Rams. I think we've gone too far. You'll go, Kim Walker. Yeah. Okay. George Kittle. Lots of questions around George Kittle left the number two overall finished in week 11. He's been 25, 30, and 15. You know, five targets. Cool. I'll take five targets. But 28 yards, 22 yards, 26 yards. Not a fan. If you have Evan Ingram.

I actually think George Kettle is a good start this week. I almost made him my start of the week. Ooh, spicy. The matchup against Seattle is, you know, on the course of the season has been really good. If you adjust for schedule, it's great. And the fact that Debo is gone, if you look at George Kettle's history, when Debo or Ayuk is off the field, either one of them, he has been far more involved in the game plan. The fact that this is a matchup that you can exploit the tight-in position, and he's getting enough targets, he's athletic enough. You know, you've got to, you know, if you're considering because he has been bad since Christian McCaffrey came and they've, you know, gone away from Kittle, I think you're questioning like, oh, do I go to an, you know, in Joku or Everett or those types? And I'm firing up George Kittle in those matchups this week. Brandon Ayuk looks like a great start. Moving forward, getting the ball down field and in his games without Debo.

averaging 12.8 fantasy points per game, eight target, 60 receptions. The question would be whether Seattle can keep up a little bit and force the passing game. Jason brought up how often they're going to run. I agree with that. So that's the other question mark there. Brock Purdy, not a streaming option? I think he is. I mean, mostly because the streaming options this week are pretty brutal. I would hope I don't have to. But, I mean, desperate times. And then what about in this matchup? I mean, would you take Brock Purdy or Gino Smith? Oh, that's a, oh, man. I would go Gino. I'd go Gino. Yeah, I'd stick with him. And then lock it is. And do you make anything of D.K. Metcalf's four for 35 against San Francisco? I mean, that was on the road. So are you just? Not really. I mean, he is just force fed the football and he's big enough for it to not matter who's playing against him.

I was looking at him in, you know, Thursday night, DFS decisions, and I feel good enough to play Emmys earned it. Cool. All right, into the mailbag we go. Mailbag. Mailbag. If you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, the Fantasy Footballers.com, click to submit a question button or dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. One headline from the website. The Fantasy Footballers.com. The StartSit tool has gotten a little bit of a makeover. It is much snappier. Upgrade. It's like a boat that's like on fire. They got struck by lightning. Yeah. And then doused and everyone was real safe. Yeah. And then the boat was just there. And you're like, sweet. I'm on a boat. Classic tale. Yeah. The lightning turned it into a yacht though. Like a superpowers thing? Yeah.

Because it was on fire and then the lightning. It was like, pow, it's a yacht. I feel like we're right in the middle of boom, boom kicker all over again. But check it out. The start tool is generally one of the more popular tools throughout the entire year. It helps you break down. Like the whole point of this show, and again, we're here. If you want to treat us like a punching bag, we're here to take the blame for whatever went wrong in your league. Maybe you. All right, okay. I'm here to take the blame. But my point being is even with the start sit tool, you know, we're giving you the choice we'd make, but we're also giving you an outlay of all the context, right? Like, what's the situation for these two players, the different ways of looking at it? The truth is, is, and we've seen this evolution in fantasy football over the last 10, 15 years in general. You know, this used, we used to live in the world of,

You know, non-decimal scoring and touchdown only leagues. The nuance and detail starts to emerge within the fantasy football world. You know, the progression of that is how you make a decision. It's not simply, do I start Aaron Jones or J.K. Dobbins? That question alone isn't enough to make the right decision for your football team because you need to factor in the other players you're playing, your opponent. Do you need upside? Do you need a floor? There's a lot of nuance. And so our job. as I view it at least, beyond being the punching bag, is to give you tools and equip you to make those decisions for your team, your league, your scoring system. That's our aim. That's what we're trying to do. So start sit tool is a piece of the puzzle for your team, but you're making that decision. And I'll tell you, when I get the tweets about thanks for, you know, helping me get to the playoffs, those are cool to see. I just say you did it, man. I mean, you did it.

Yeah, I did do it. Thank you, Andy. We may have, you know. Oh, yeah, I see what you're saying. You know, like we're the guy at the bottom of the wall. Just giving a little boost. Yeah. Step on my back. Yeah. All right. Let's jump into a voicemail. So, guys. My name is Beto. I'm a 911 dispatcher, and I'm the one with the emergency now. I need to know, do I start Alman Ross-Faing Browns against a tough defense? Or do I start Kenneth Walker against another tough defense on my flex? Thanks, guys. Love the show. Well, I certainly have a pretty quick answer here. I assume you guys are in the same boat. Yep. If both matchups are bad, I will go with the absolute budding superstar who is not currently coming off of injury. Most leagues now are at least half PPR or PPR. Amin Rae should be fine, even though it is a difficult matchup. Amman Rae St. Brown. Targets.

since week 8. 10, 9, 11, 8, 10, 12, 9. Give me that baseline. Let the chips fall. I'll be happy. All right, another voicemail question. Hey, footballer, and I have a decision to make. PPR, should I start Mr. Ingram himself schnappin? Or the newly acquired Jonathan Knight as my last flex. Thanks, guys. Love the show. Foot Clan, let's bring home those titles. That's right. Oh, man. Oh, man. Look, Schmevin, he likes to disguise himself in the form of a player that catches one pass for four yards or three passes for 14 yards in between, you know, going for, you know, 55 and a touchdown. Or last week's absolutely insane game. And if last week was the pattern, he wouldn't be on his second team. That was the best game of his career. Yeah, and it will be.

I would go bam. I mean, this isn't, I'm not starting Evan Ingram. Like I realize he was awesomely involved and maybe in certain DFS situations or if you're getting a specific value or, you know, obviously some people are backed into where they just don't have any good options. But I am not chasing last week. He's coming off of, he is coming off of back to back weeks where he had great matchups. Over the last six weeks, the number one. Fewest points given up to tight-in is the Dallas Cowboys. Over the course of the season, fewest points given up to tight-ins is the Dallas Cowboys. I'm not chasing Schmevin-Schmingham here. Zonovan Bam has looked great. Detroit is not a great matchup for running backs, but he's going to touch the ball a heck of a lot more than Evan Ingram. This one is Bam to me. I agree. All right, Twitter question from Jonas. How confident are you in J.K. Dobbins this week? My name is Jonas.

Consensus RB21 on the week right now. Cleveland's dead last and expected points per rush, 10th against fantasy running backs. It's been quite delicious to play against Cleveland's defense. But the recipe, I mean, has to be to shut this running game down and make Tyler Huntley do everything. How confident are you with JK? I mean, that's their recipe, but the Baltimore Ravens recipe is. establish the run. I think we're going to see a lot of J.K. Dobbins, a lot of Gus Edwards. And like right now we have J.K. Dobbins sitting just inside the top 24. And I think he belongs there. I think that he is a top 24 play. I'm not expecting another huge breakoff run and then a touchdown. But I expect that he is a starter. He's an RB2 starter this week. What about the aforementioned Bam Knight? Would you play Bam Knight or would you play JK? And I'm with you, Mike. I think I lean to JK.

like positively towards what he's going to start doing. I agree. I have JK and Zonovan back to back in my rankings. If I had to start one of them, I'm going to go with J.K. Dobbins. I'm going to try to get the guy on the upswing. Any regrets, Jason, on not naming either of your male children, Zonovan. There are massive regrets, but only with one of them. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's a name I'd never hurt. I like that. It implies that one of your kids has a bad name. Well, and you don't want to say which one. Well, one of them has a great name. All righty, we are going to jump into another voicemail. A baller's big fan coming out of school in Washington, I have a huge question. I have Jared Goff, and my opponent this week in the playoffs has Ammona St. Brown and DJ Chark. Do I play golf to counter him? Let me know. I also have Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson to play. Okay. Thank you.

I thought it was, do I play Jared Gough? If he's your only quarterback, I would recommend it. Okay. The Sean Watson and Trevor Lawrence were the other two quarterback. Watson is out. Voldemort looks like absolute trash right now. Until, still have 20 fantasy points last week. Until you see great play, I would agree. Trevor Lawrence is, to me, a better play this week in. in general. Against Dallas? Yeah, it's not the world's best matchup, but we've talked about how the matchup is bad for golf, he's on the road. You know, things could go poorly for golf in a vacuum this week, but also you don't really counter the wide receivers. You can get lucky where you play golf and then all of a sudden it's a Jameson Williams day.

And his guys don't get the points and you do. But usually when you've got a quarterback going against two primary receiving options, those plays are negative for you. The wide receivers are going to score more points on each one of those completions. And it'll be a net negative for you even when there's a big touchdown with golf. The only reason to do that is if the rest of your roster is like so much more dominant than the rest of his roster. Right. then it's more of a cancel-out situation. But I would go Trevor Lawrence in that situation. Yeah, you need to look at the context of it because, like, playing out the scenarios of how can your team win this particular matchup? Like, I'll give you an example. Earlier on in the season, Kyle and I were matched up against a team that had a much higher projection, really high upside. And it was, okay, we're going to play Lamar. As our running back two, do we go with...

Gus Edwards because he was a decent play looking okay at that time. But it was going through the game script of working it out. Okay, let's say Lamar and Gus Edwards, you know, they split a couple touchdowns. That actually didn't work out in our favor. It was the only way the scenario works out that we can win is we play Lamar and Gus Edwards doesn't get touchdowns. They all go to Lamar. So I think that's a scenario you need to look at of. if Jared Goff is enough to counter these other two guys, or is the scenario you're projecting the lines just to have a crap game, and that's your path to victory. Well, I mean, and to be, to put a ball on it from my perspective, I don't even think about opponents having my wide receivers in any capacity. Because at the end of the day, my roster has, if I get 20 fantasy points from Goff and it counters 100% of those two players,

Or I get 25 fancy points from Trevor Lawrence. I mean, I want the 25. I don't care if it's directly corollary on the cancellation of those players. I want the player that's going to score the most points independent of that scenario. I will factor it in a little bit if I was thinking about, boy, I might start DJ Chark because my opponent's starting Jared Gough. Maybe I'd think a little bit that direction on a fringe flex player. Sure. But, you know, it's not going to affect me if I have Amman Ron. It's not going to affect me if I have golf.

So, you know, this week. So who do you have just on your rankings right now between golf and Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson? I would play Lawrence and then I'd play golf and then I'd play Watson. That's how my rankings are as well. Yeah. So I do think, I think Brighter Days are coming for Voldemort. I do. I, you know, there's going to be some pain involved. Rust. coming off. But you've seen Donovan People's Jones. He's been pretty good. Yeah. And we know that Omari Cooper's been banged up. So I don't know how much that factors in. I do think there's going to be some brighter days fantasy wise for Watson. There could be this week against Baltimore. I mean, he, I don't love it. This past week against Cincinnati, another divisional game.

He completed 26 passes, 276 yards, and one touchdown, had a pick. Like, he, he just, it's not looked, it's not looked good. If, if you look at the Ravens defense against quarterback, the beginning of the year, they were just, they were a matchup to target. Yep. And really over the, since week nine, and remember, they got Roquan Smith, that's really improved their defense. They have been a tough matchup for quarterbacks. Definitely don't hear me prescribing you use Deshaun Watson this week. He's at the bottom of that list. I just mean for the future, I think, you know, his ability to scramble, he's the kind of player that gives you a nice baseline once he gets things together or the matchup is advantageous. Like I would not be surprised if a Deshaun Watson start in the fantasy playoffs proves beneficial for fantasy players. And then one final question here on Instagram.

What's the deal with Travis ETN? This comes in from T-Cena-674. What's the deal? I mean, the deal has been garbage for fantasy football. That's the deal. Are you asking why? So he had a stretch of games that was a five-game run weeks, five through nine. The departure of James Robinson came out of it. He was the top 24 all five weeks, double digits all five weeks. Top 10, the final three games of that stretch. And every other game in the entire year has been single digits. The last two weeks, he has 16 opportunities and 17 opportunities. He is extremely involved in the offense. It has turned into six fantasy points and three fantasy points. That is devastating. What was he knocked out in week 12? He played Baltimore, played eight percent. It was a foot. But he's been out there and. But I'm saying that.

It's since he got knocked out. I mean, perhaps you count the game against Kansas City before the buy week where it wasn't fantastic. He was also a 4.2 last week. He just didn't do anything. Right. But Travis E.T.N, when you had that five-game run in the middle of the season, it was because I know a huge play will happen at some point during the game for Travis E.T. And he could be two yards of carry for 16 attempts. And that 17th is going to go. 40, 50 yards. It's a good point, Mike. So if his foot is really bothering him, I think that might be what the deal is with ETN. Look at his long runs during that stretch. 30, 48, 49, 49. Yeah. Last three games, 3, 13, and 7. There you go. He's not hitting a big play. And he's got back-to-back difficult matchups. Again, the last two weeks, Detroit, we've been talking about how good they've been against running backs. Tennessee, they're great against running backs. Brutal matchups.

This week against Dallas, very good against running backs. The following week against the Jets, another bad matchup. So Travis E.TN is someone where we just talked about, 16 attempts or opportunities, 17 opportunities. You could play him. But you can't expect big games right now, week 17. Would you play Houston? You hope that he wins championships. Would you play Brian Robinson against the Giants or Travis E.T.N? I'd probably still go E.T.N. But the problem is, is. That five-game stretch for ETN put it in your brain that he was a auto start every week. And maybe we're adjusting that view based on this recent production. Yeah, I would stick with ETN. The crazy part is after the foot injury, he played the most snaps of the entire year. He came back out and played 88% of snaps. So don't know what's going on right now. I suppose that game would have been better if he hadn't fumbled and lost the ball. But...

Jason's right. Dallas, New York. I don't want those games. Yeah, it's rough. He's a running back three that is startable and benchable depending on your options for this week and next week. And then he's a locked in starter for Houston. So tell me. Tell me the truth then. Is he too big or not? Is he too small? What's the size situation? Because I... We're back to this. He was too small for a while. Then he was not too small. But is he too small. I think he's a little too small. Or his bone structure is weird because when I... I've never seen someone get hit so hard as ETN. Every time he gets... It's like...

For some reason, he puts himself in these situations where he lets defenders have a running start at him. That's how he fumbled too. Every time. He got exploded. He's had like four explosion fumbles this year where he just, he gets out to the edge. He's running. And then it's it's like the fake videos of a high school game where the, you know, the, the, the kid on a make a wish. foundation is blown up. That's how it looks like a pontoon boat out on the water on fire. Exactly. You see me, Andy. The classic football analogy. All right, that is it for today's show. Thank you, Jason. You look good in that hoodie. Oh, thank you. You look good in that hoodie. Oh, wow. Thank you. Yeah. Don't forget. Get a hoodie, Mike. Spotify Live this afternoon. Join us. See you then, everybody. Goodbye.

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