Fantasy Football 2017 - Playoff Primer, Keep/Trade/Cut, Pump the Brakes

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of people cutting C.G. Anderson and then kind of likening it to Andy Dufrein, getting out of prison in Shawshank Redemption. That's how I would look at it, but you guys are different than me. Keep trade cut. Well, CJ. Hopefully those people do not feel the fool with this spectacular matchup against the Patriots at home. I think Anderson can have a fine game.

This weekend. Jay, where are you on Anderson? I am without a doubt a hold, as we will talk about here in upcoming playoff schedules. CJ Anderson has a rather nice one. And, you know, he's a quality back. He's been running well. The problem is that he is part of a three-headed monster.

Their offense right now stinks. Their quarterback is even worse than that right now because his name is Brock Lesner. So I get Brock Lesner. Oh, that's great. Oh, man. You know, honestly, Brock Lesnar would be a better quarterback. I can see the Photoshop's coming in already behind center. Brock Lesner said it. Part of Brock Leicester's contract is he doesn't play with a jersey. Oh, no. He's shirtless. He tats on the numbers.

He tats on the number. Here's the problem. I can't change numbers, guys. Here's the real problem. In the offseason, there was excitement around C.J. Anderson, in part because we projected a vast improvement to the offensive line play in Denver with the pickups that they had. We've seen this in Los Angeles, the amazing difference that Andrew Whitworth has made to the Rams. We've seen this on some of these improved offensive lines. It has not come to fruition in Denver.

Their offensive line has struggled, and now teams just have to stop three running backs. And you put the ball into Osweiler's hands. I know that it's almost a cliche, and I hope that it doesn't make you guys stay in the Anderson camp forever. But look, I know the matchup looks good, but you're just not, do you really have confidence rolling them out there as a running back two this week? Yes.

after a two-point fantasy performance? That was against the Eagles, and the Eagles are one of the best rushing games. What about the Giants? He had a two-point fantasy performance against the Giants. Nine for 17. Sure, and that's a fair point. The entire Denver Broncos team soiled themselves against the Giants, but just two weeks ago against the Kansas City Chiefs, he was 15 for 78 on the ground, had a seven-yard reception. That's a perfectly acceptable. Was that before or after Booker came back?

That was after. That was after. That was two weeks ago. That just happened. So I'm still holding on C.J. I respect that, guys. I do. I just wanted to bring up the offensive line specifically because we're not getting that. It's not like you said he's running well, but he's not getting a lot of help either. And I would debate the running well part with the numbers. But I understand holding him. I mean, there are a lot. There are a bunch of guys that we've mentioned that were like, okay. Would you rather hold him or Alex Collins?

I would much rather hold C.J. Anderson than Alex Collins. Okay. Would you rather? All right. All right. We'll move on. Larry Fitzgerald, keep trade cut. That's an interesting one. I would trade if I could. I would trade. I talked about this last week in the match of that the matchup against San Francisco was so good that you knew that Fitz would be fine. And so if people want to take that small sample size of, okay, well, here's Larry Fitz with Drew Stanton. Maybe he'll be okay.

and you can trade him away on the name value off of a mediocre game, I would absolutely do it. I would not cut Larry. No. But I would prefer to trade him if possible. Completely agree with everything you're saying. I mean, he had three touchdowns in his first six games. So basically every other game is getting a touchdown. How many touchdowns is Drew Stanton throwing to Larry Fitzgerald the rest of season? Two? Yeah, I was going to say two. So I would try to trade him.

and get something for him. Jason, what would you do with Lamar Miller right now? Lamar Miller is a, it's one of two things. So for me, I would say most often he's going to be a keep. I don't think you're going to get the value that, you know, a couple weeks ago, I have Lamar Miller a lot of different places. I was actually trying to sell him before Deshaun Watson went down. And I was really surprised at what his value was amongst others. They didn't see him as high as I think they should have.

He was about to be a top 10 running back week in, week out. He was already a top 10 running back during the time that Watson had been playing. But people didn't value him then. And so now without Watson, I don't think you're going to be able to trade him for good enough value. And what you've gotten Lamar Miller is basically last year's Lamar Miller, which everyone was disappointed with because they had to draft him in the first round. But he was all right. He's an RB2. Want to hear an interesting fact about Lamar Miller? Heck yeah, I do. 4.51 yards per carry with Tom Savage this year.

he's amazing. Yeah. But the touchdowns are the issue. 10 for 57 last week. So you're playing from behind. That's 10 carries worry me. But still double-digit numbers. Probably a hold if people are freaking out. Yeah, I would keep him. He does play Jacksonville Pittsburgh in the first two weeks of the playoffs, which concerns me. But if you have him for the fantasy championship, he's got Indianapolis again. Let's transition into the playoff.

primer time. So let's talk a little bit about our philosophy on playoff matchups in general. You've had a situation where in years past, a playoff schedule has been extremely conducive for fantasy production at the quarterback position. You know, Kirk Cousins, two years ago. Oh, I mean, Cousins and Jordan Reed. They won people championship. Yeah. Last year, you also had, you know, all during the season, we're looking at Drew Brees.

and the fact he gets to play Tampa a couple times. And James and Doug Martin. And Atlanta. And these players that have fantasy, you know, looks so beautiful, but it doesn't always come to fruition. So how much does that factor into your decision making right now? We've talked a lot about guys like DeAndre Hopkins, right? Great player, tough playoff schedule. Where do you guys sit philosophically? How much do you let that weigh in on your decision making right now with trade deadline, start sit decisions?

You need to take it on a player-by-player basis. I don't think there's a universal hard and fast rule. When you've got a star, a guy that is a really good quarterback, so for instance, I think Russell Wilson doesn't have the best schedule coming up. I'm not going to care that much about it. But if you've got a guy like Kirk Cousins, a guy that is, look, he'll take advantage of the opportunities when they're easy and he might not be able to step up for the real hard elite.

difficult matchups, then I, you know, with a guy like that, I'm going to take the playoff schedule a little bit more seriously. So it's case by case, but you never want to overreact to the schedule. And I think one of the things that always skews those schedules, we brought up for last year, is those times when a team plays the same poor defense two times within that playoff schedule.

So, you know, they'll play them back to back or with two within three weeks. No, they don't play back to back. Well, okay, two within three weeks, they'll play. And here's what I don't remember seeing. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong. But do you remember seeing the same team play each other two times within three weeks and both games just be a shootout? Like the defenses can't in two weeks having just played this opponent kind of. Right. They typically adjust and, you know, have a different game plan.

And divisional matchups sometimes impact performance outside of where we see players and teams ranked for fantasy points given up. You play somebody in your division. We've seen this for years like Jacksonville when they were at bottom of the barrel team and Indianapolis was on top of the mountain. Somehow when they played each other, it didn't matter. The games were close. They were within seven points a bunch of times even when Jacksonville was a three and, you know, 13 team. I think you see that aspect. Those divisional matchups, you know, they're the Super Bowl.

for the low performing team sometimes to get to go into your division mates house and knock them out of the playoffs in those circumstances. Let's give a little bit of a lay of the land. Let's talk about Russell Wilson for a second because he has a really bad week 14. He plays Jacksonville. Now Jacksonville is, they're not a bad matchup. They're a terrible matchup for all fantasy quarterbacks. Like nobody.

puts up fantasy points against Jacksonville, and this one's in Jacksonville, in week 14, the hypothetical first week of your playoffs if you don't have a buy week. Does that mean you're moving Russell Wilson? I don't know if I'll move Russell Wilson. He's going to be extremely difficult because I think he can carry you to the playoffs. He's incredible for fantasy, and you're going to want to play him. And I think it's a mistake to...

to put your playoff dreams on Russell Wilson in Jacksonville across the country against the best past defense in the NFL. Yeah, you might be able to just pick up someone for that week off of waivers that you would prefer to play over Russell Wilson. That being said, I do think that Russell Wilson's scrambling and rushing ability gives him a slightly higher baseline. If you look at who Jacksonville has played against this year, it's been almost all immobile quarterbacks. You know, they've played the...

Big Ben and Philip Rivers and McCown, even though he's got scoring, you know, he's got three rushing touchdowns. He doesn't have very many yards. The one game where they played Marcus Marietta, you know, who could scramble around, that was in week two before he was injured. He was able to scramble. He was all right. Nothing great, but, you know, put up 17 fantasy points. I think Russell Wilson is a little bit safer than pocket passers.

against that defense because that defense has such a good line. If you can scramble around and wear them out, I think Russell, he's not going to be outside my, he'll probably be around quarterback 12 that week. All right, let's look at the best quarterback schedules for weeks 14 through 16. Marcus Mariotta plays Arizona, San Francisco, back to back 14, 15, then the Rams. Others with favorable matchups. Tyrod Taylor. Love Tyraud Taylor. I mean, he plays Indianapolis, Miami,

New England. Carson wins. The Rams, then the Giants in Oakland in the championship weeks. Derek Carr has a very nice week 14. Jay Cutler, an interesting week 14, if you are desperate, I wouldn't love going in the playoffs with him. That's going to say it. So if you have a Russell Wilson situation, you might be your waiver wire at that point because Mariotta will not be on your waiver wire. Tyrod maybe. Yeah.

Cutler most certainly will be. I mean, that's the unfortunate situation you're set up with if Russell Wilson is your one quarterback. Yeah, I think there's a handful of guys, and you just named him, Andy. Marcus Marriota, Tyrod Taylor, Derek Carr, I would throw. So what about Rivers who has? Carson Wentz for sure. Those are the guys that have in Rivers as well. They have really good matchups throughout the entirety of the playoffs.

You know, Dak Prescott has an awesome week one and week two, but then it's, you know, Seattle for the championship week. So I'm not quite as up on that. But those other guys, I mean, that's a handful of guys that you can acquire and you can acquire them on the cheap. Do you approach? Marcus Marietta has one of the, over the last two years. He's been very disappointed. He has the biggest splits between.

tough matchups and easy matchups. He is a guy that takes advantage of the easier matchups, and he's got an easy matchup schedule. You can acquire him for very cheap. Yes. I mean, plenty of people have been getting him off of waiver wires the last week or two because, you know, he's been disappointing and immobile. If he's healed up by then, I like going after a guy like that. Seems like he's getting healthy. Do you approach, if you're a streaming quarterback guy, right? You don't have a guy locked in. And if you want to lock in with the rest of Wilson, I don't blame you.

that's fine. But if you're a streaming quarterback player, is this the time when you start looking at having that tandem on your roster? Yes. And with this in mind, looking and saying, oh, okay, well, maybe, you know, maybe I'm going to pick up somebody. Yeah, I've got Russell Wilson, so maybe I'll grab Tyrod Taylor. Yeah, Tyra Taylor for that first week. And then, you know, you roll it back over to Russell Wilson. I want to give you some of the worst schedules just for your awareness. I think the real one.