Starts of the Week + Wk 16 Matchups, Josh Stallion

have, you know. Yeah, it's definitely possible. So much work that Baker is disappointing. It's definitely possible, except he had over 130 yards last time they played, and Baker still had four touchdowns. Who did the Bengals take on last week? Oh, crap. The Bengals, they won a game, right? Raiders. They finally won. Was it the Raiders? Bangles Raiders? That sounds right. I mean, it was a week ago. How are we supposed to remember this? Yeah, Bengals, Bengals, Raiders. Okay. Yeah.

All right. We should move on. The five and nine Buccaneers take on the eight and six Cowboys. Dallas is back at home. They're seven point favorites and it's a 47.5 point over under. I expect Dak Prescott to get back on track this week. Amari Cooper as well. At home against Tampa. Tampa, we know all the problems they have on defense. Their season is over. Dallas needs this win. I expect to bounce back performance. Is there a reason that I shouldn't, guys? Nope. Well, the only reason is just that, you know,

The Buccaneers defense, remember, they fire their defensive coordinator because they were historically bad. Over the last six weeks, they're top ten against the quarterback and wide receiver. Teams haven't been torching them the same way that they have on the season. But where have they been susceptible to the last six weeks, Jason? Oh, they've been susceptible to the Zekeel Elliott's of the world. Yeah, the running back position, which is, that's the Cowboys offensive plan. So I'm not concerned for Dallas at all Zeke as a.

I think he's my number one as of right now. I love Zeke with his... With his electric explosion? If you don't have Zeke on any of your teams, you may not have been paying attention to the fact that Zeke has 72 receptions on the season. The only difference between Zeke and Todd Gurley right now is...

The touchdowns on the ground, and I know that's a big difference, but the touchdowns will come back for Zeke. This is just speaking into the 2019 season, my excitement for Elliott's fantasy output. But Zeke is going to have a monster. We were looking at that yesterday, Mike, in the studio and talking about maybe Zeke is worth the number one pick next year.

because the yardage he has, the yards per game, now the involvement in passing, if he had his normal touchdown pace, he would pretty much be the number one. So it's been unbelievable. Yeah, he didn't have that ability before the season. And that's what capped his, him being in that conversation. If he is going to be a pass catcher like the big guys, then it changes everything because he's one of the best runners in football.

I think he's still leading the league in rushing, isn't he? Yes, he is. So, Dak, Zeke, look, Dak's a top 10 guy for me this week. We'll talk about him later. Let's put it that way. Zeke, you always start him. Amari Cooper, Blake Jarwin? Yeah, I think you still roll with Cooper. All of his touchdowns have been at home this year. He seems to perform well at home. I think Dak has more confidence at home. So Amari Cooper, you can play him. On the other side of the football, Winston.

He's lost 11 straight road games. Do you play him in this one? No, preferably not. He's got only 213 and 157 passing yards last two weeks. That is not... Look, for all of his problems, the one thing he used to give you was at least 350 yards. He hasn't done that lately. We said last week going up against a really tough defense, he was, you know, a sit. And he was. And this is another really tough defense. Dallas at home, he's not going to do much. I think that, you know, you...

You're probably forced into playing Mike Evans. I don't want Chris Godwin. I don't want Adam Humphreys. Deshawn Jackson is back in practice. Who knows what's going on with him? And even though Peyton Barber has been very good. You play Peyton Barber or Dionne Lewis? Oh, I would play Peyton Barber over Dionne Lewis. What about Payton Barber or Jalen Samuels? Samuels. That's what about Kalen Belage or Peyton Barber? That's a harder question. Yeah, I would probably still stick with Peyton Barber.

I'm so excited about Kalin Belage being talked about at the end of the season. What a world. Yeah. He looked good. He did. Did you guys reflect on him in the stud? Oh, yeah. We talked about his straight line speed and it showed.

It's not a bad thing to have. No, it's not. Oh, darn, you're real fast. That's what we were saying. He's going to break some long straight runs. And he did. And he did. That's good enough. It is. Yeah, so did Kevin Coleman. That makes him relevant. Okay. Cameron Brate, I mean, if you don't get a touchdown from Cameron Bray, you might as well play, you know, cardboard boxes you're tied in. I mean, that's your only value there. If you're going that route, I would put Jay Gris in, but.

Right. Cardboard bear, cardboard box. Right. Whatever. Go with the bear. Same amount of fantasy points. Any other thoughts on this matchup? Just how much I like Blake Jarwin a lot in this matchup. We'll talk about him in a little bit. We are going to talk about him. I mean, how much can you really like Blake Jarwin, though? In this landscape of tight end? Right. A good bit. Okay. A good bit. We'll call you to talk about that a little bit later. The 7-6-1 Vikings take on the 5 and 9 Lions.

Game is a 43.5.5 point over under. The lions are 5.5 point underdogs at home. Kirk Cousins and the remade offense. Dalvin Cook, the big week last week, started the week, by the way. Didn't get to tutute that. Adam Thieland Stifon Diggs and company, they travel, and they're going to take care of business this week against Detroit. Storylines from this week that matter to you. Do we expect the same from Dalvin Cook? Yes.

Dalvin Cook should be good. He looked great. He did look great. The lion's defense has been much improved the second half of the year against running backs while they've given it up willy-nilly to quarterbacks and wide receivers. But Dalvin Cook, with the changeover to offensive coordinator, they want to get him the ball as much as he can handle. He talked about last week. He's like, I knew I had the opportunity to get the ball more this week and I had to perform. And so he's, you know, he's on a hot streak. Hot streak. Hot streak. Hot streak.

So, yeah, I would absolutely, I'm full confidence, top 10 guy in Dalvin Cook this week. You feel the same, Mike? Yeah, I'm getting distracted here. Sorry, we have a hype report from Sleeper. Jamal Williams, the injury, it's a new injury, and it is his toe. So make sure you are monitoring Jamal Williams' health if he was your backup plan for all of the other running backs who you cannot play this week.

Yeah, I'll update you as well. Anthony Lynn came out. Here's a wonderful quote from Anthony Lynn just to stir the pot. Melvin's practice all week and he's doing fine, said Lynn. I don't know that he's himself, but he's going to play. Curse you, Anthony Lynn? Why are you going to do that to people? So he told Ross Tucker that he's going to play against the Ravens, but he's himself. I mean, the Ravens are also themselves.

Yeah. That's the issue. I'm playing Melvin. If Harbaugh came out and said, the defense is going to play, but I don't know that there will be themselves. Then I would feel better about Melvin Gordon. Goodness. Wow. All right. All right. Andy, what's your thought? You want to stay on the Vikings side? Adam Thieland, Stefan Diggs. Play him. Kirk Cousins. You're playing everybody, right? Yeah, Thelan let you down, but maybe he'll win you a title this week. I mean, Adam Thelan's Adam Thielen. We have...

nothing from Kyle Rudolph on the season. Kurt Cousins, though. Kurt Cousins this week, he's our QB15. We're not super excited about him. He had 21 pass attempts. We talked about the fact they're shifting the offense to be more run focused. That was his lowest pass attempts on the season. So that definitely came to fruition. And as a favored team here on the road against the Lions, the lion's offense is struggling and a big must-win game for the Vikings, the same script seems very probable. Yeah, it does.

The thing that you can take Solison is the fact of the past six weeks, the Lions have improved greatly against running backs. That's not I'm going to sit Dalvin Cook, but they've also then transformed that into allowing more points to the quarterback and the wide receiver position. So I'm still comfortable starting them all. So Kirk Cousins in a plus matchup against the Lions, easier matchup, or Philip Rivers against a difficult matchup. Kurt Cousins. You'd go Cousins there? I would as well. I've got Rivers ahead in my rankings just because.

Kirk has a very good ability to disappear. I mean, what's River ceiling against the Ravens? Oh, it's not high. Is he really throwing three touchdowns? It's more for Philip Rivers is a floor play. He hasn't been a ceiling play all year, but he's been incredibly safe for your roster except for one week. And meanwhile, Kirk Cousins has made you lose a few times. Here's a question for you. What has Matthew Stafford become? Since week nine, he's averaged 211 passing yards.

And five total touchdowns. Long gone are the days of Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate. He's on pace for, listen, the lowest yards attempts and yards per completion of his career. First year under Matt Patricia. Where's he going in next year's draft? Stafford? Yeah, he's undrafted. Undrafted. Yeah. He'll probably, I mean, he might be drafted by me in the sense. I think they'll get him help. When you lose Marvin Jones and you lose Golden Tate and you lose Eric Ebron,

I mean, what are you left to do? You really can't overcome losing Eric Ebron. I think that's what it comes down to. Clearly, based on what he's done this year. So, you know, but right now you can't start him. Kenny G. was my pump the brakes. That was the question I wanted to ask. And I, um.

Why don't you illuminate that for me? Is it the Xavier Rhodes? It was Xavier Rhodes. Last week, we took a look at whether or not he was shadowed against Buffalo. He wasn't. But Minnesota's defense, I think, is a step above Buffalo's. So I'm still pumping the brakes on Kenny Gallaudet. I would not be confident playing him despite his good game in Buffalo. Now, he's a talented player. I said I'd start him over Dante Pettis, people like that. But I'm not excited for Kenny Golliday based on just...

you know, one big game. Ah, yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, he, um, he just, he's such a downfield threat that it takes one play to kind of erase the fear. The hard part is, the hard part is knowing the game plan. Because the reason that they were able to get Kenny Galladay free from the, the clutches of Tredavius White in Buffalo is they used them in the slot a lot more. And I, off the top of my head, can't tell you for sure if Xavier Rhodes follows.

number one guys into the slot or not. And I can't tell you if the game plan is going to be the same for Detroit. It just, if you're not throwing to Gallaudet, you're not throwing to anyone. I mean, Bruce Ellington, he's back at practice, I guess. But yeah, I mean, I guess, uh, I don't think you're going to get what you got last week. I think you're going to get seven for 146 from Kennedy Gallaudet. I have him as a two.

You guys have them in the two range? Yeah, I mean, that's exactly where I've got him. As a wide receiver, too, is more a pump-the-breaks on the big blow-up week. He's still going to be the primary target and the downfield work could get him. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he has 75 yards, which you go, okay. Right, but he's probably not going to score, you're saying? Yeah, exactly. All right, we'll get into the rest of the matchups tomorrow. Let's jump into the starts. Starts of the week.

All right, you can see all of our rankings on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. We've got to start sit tool on there. The rankings being updated all the time. Big games this week. We know that you've got a lot of big decisions to make. And so we're going to try to put some confidence behind these starts. Let's go ahead and start at the quarterback position with Mike. You got Baker in there. It's Baker. I love him. I talked about how much I love the Cleveland Browns, just their entire team.

with this matchup against the Bengals, highlighted his four touchdowns. That was on the road. That was road, Baker Mayfield. Get him at home with their 1% chance to make the playoffs. I would be so happy. It's one percent. It's so happy. It's impossible. But what is not impossible is Baker having a great game against a terrible, terrible Cincinnati team. I've got Dak. I like it. We're going back to Dak at home against Tampa, the bounceback game.

He plays much better at home. I have him at number seven overall this week. I think Dak Prescott's going to be on a lot of winning rosters. Jason? My start of the week is more of a confidence play for those who have them. It's Jared Goff. This is not, I'm not saying, I mean, I could have gone. Jared Garf. Jared Garf. Look, I'm not playing Jared Garf as my start of the week over Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. Like those are who I want. Those are the guys that I want in my championship week. But Jared Garth. This is what start of the week is for.

But Jared Goff is not bad. Last, he's been real bad. Okay, so like, yes, two weeks ago in Chicago, four interceptions, cold weathered game, Chicago's great defense, horrifically bad. Last week, you think, oh, he was really bad, right? He was the quarterback 20. I went and I looked. If that touchdown pass to Josh Reynolds. The one that was dragged down on the centimeter line? On the centimeter line that just by a centimeter did not cross.