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

of relevance. You know, Tom Brady doesn't have a great one with Pittsburgh in Week 15. I don't see how I'd ever bench Tom Brady. No. It's like Aaron Rogers last year had the worst schedule imaginable. Big Ben, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, really tough schedules. I was just remembering, I don't think it was last year, but two years ago, when Tom Brady literally lost people. And Andrew Luck. Same year. That was the Kirk Cousins year. Brady and Luck.

So two years ago. In the fantasy playoffs for a lot of owners that just locked themselves in. And that's a tough decision to make. Yes, it is. You know, but Russell Wilson against Jacksonville or Tyra Taylor against Indianapolis at home? That one I would. I want Tyra Taylor now. I want to pick him up now off a waiver. Yes, exactly. That's the situation. Like I wouldn't go Cutler, even though he's playing New England over Russell Wilson. But I would go Tyrod Taylor at home against Indy over Russell Wilson for sure. It's going to be hilarious.

When Blake Bortles wins people, fantasy championships. Houston, San Francisco, the last two weeks of the year. Just saying it's going to be really funny. See, that's the benefit of streaming a quarterback, right? Like you get to not only, I would be wearing that Blake Bortles jersey to the next draft. And every draft thereafter if he won me a fantasy title. But you got to be flexible with that. And look, I'd be pretty hands off on people playing Jacksonville right now. I'd be really scared about people playing Pittsburgh. Yes.

These are things to keep in mind across your positions, too. So any other players that you want to note there? I mean, Big Ben, like we said, very tough beginning to the playoff schedule. Cam Newton. I don't want them against Minnesota in week 14. But I think it's just building a tandem on your roster. Yeah, that's what it's about. Find those matchups you like and you're confident in and have a few quarterbacks. Yeah, I like Alex Smith. If you just need to lock him in, Carson Wentz, lock him in. Dak Prescott, lock him in.

Those are kind of the always must start type of players. Anything else you guys want to touch on? Not for quarterback. All right. Do you guys want to go ahead and preview the Thursday night matchup? Sure. Oh, I'm sorry. We only talk quarterback. That sounds very confused. We can come back to this. Talk about running backs. Just jump everywhere. A little bit later. Nope, nope. All right, running backs it is.

So we've got a lot of running backs. Didn't see the tabs, Mike. I got you. I was wondering where they were. So, Andy, why don't you tell us some of the running backs with good opening schedules? Well, one of the reasons I had a lot of faith in DeMarco Murray for the second half of the year is because he faces a very favorable playoff schedule. You know, if he can get healthy by week 15, you've got San Francisco and then the Rams. They're giving up the most and the second most. So you've got the best two possible running back matchups.

solid matchups for Devante Freeman, LaShaul McCoy, J. Ajay, if he starts to get carries, looks great. Adrian Peterson, three very nice matchups. I just think they're going to hand him the ball all year long. I agree. My pump the brakes was a this week thing. I'm not saying you need to ship Adrian Peterson out. I do think that this, David Johnson's not coming back, and the playoff schedule will be nice for Adrian Peterson, Tennessee, Washington, the New York Giants.

he could help win people championships. Kareem Hunt has a nice week 14. You're starting him. Ingram and Camara, who Jason said we're the second and third best running backs in fantasy football right now since AP's been gone. Yeah, I don't know if you can acquire either of them. So are you afraid of players like Todd Gurley, who has Philadelphia, Seattle, Tennessee, Carlos Hyde, Houston, Tennessee, Houston, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Joe Mixing.

Not a nice looking playoff schedule. Leonard Fournette, Seattle, Houston, but then he gets that championship week, San Francisco. Yeah, you know, the person that I'm the most fearful of, and, you know, I don't know that you can do much about it, but Todd Gurley, look, I realize he's the number one running back right now, but the Philadelphia Eagles have shut down other running backs. They've done it against great running backs. And then...

to go from there to Seattle and play in Seattle. Those are your opening two weeks of the playoffs, and you could end up with real duds there from the guy that got you to the playoffs. I don't think I would bench him, though. I don't see any situation where I would. But if you can turn him into Kareem Hunt, or if you could turn him into Lashon McCoy, if you're already playoff bound and you're looking good.

You know, LaShawn McCoy plays Indianapolis, Miami, New England. Yes. Yeah. Pretty good. Awesome. If you could. To that point, Seattle, when he played Seattle this year, that's his only Doug game for Gurley on the year. Yeah. 14 for 43, no touchdowns. He's in Seattle. That was at home. He's in Seattle Week 15 after that Philadelphia matchup. Would you consider flipping Gurley for Shady Plus? Yes. Because you could go to the Shady McCoy owner right now and just one for one that. Yeah.

Get more. Yeah, so maybe you can get a nice wide receiver two or something in there. You get Kareem Hunt plus. Yeah, you probably could. I think you can because you're coming off of two down weeks for Kreme Hunt. And if you can flip him for a guy that is still a, you're not losing a stud running back. You know, we're not saying go and trade him for C.J. Anderson because he's got a good playoff schedule. We're saying, go after, you know, Kareem Hunt or.

Shady, maybe the marking room or Camara. But all of those situations, you're going to get more back than just that player. And I think that in the playoffs, I mean, I can tell you right now, Shady and Hunt, they'll be ahead of Gurley on my rankings for week 14 and 15 for sure. Yeah. I think where Todd Gurley owners are scratching their heads is my situation. I'm in a dynasty league. I was nothing you can do about it. But I'm.

going to play for the title this year. The trade deadline's coming up and I'm like, I'm staring down the fact I cannot trade Todd Gurley in a dynasty league, but I have to play him against Philly in Seattle. You're the... That would be a cream hunt only. You're out there. You're the angry man who's just shouting at the storm. There's nothing you can do about it. The storm's coming. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I think you guys are right. I think that this is probably one of the things we're going to look back on.

And if people made a move, it might win you a title. Yep. And you can get it done with the number one running back right now. Tough running back matchups, if I can get back to that page there. Tough running back matchups. Marshawn Lynch doesn't have the best match. No, he doesn't. Joe Mixon, you mentioned his name and Leonard Fournett, other guys that have. Leonard Fornett probably has something somewhat similar to Gurley. I mean, Seattle.

is one of those two weeks. Houston is the other one. That's how his playoffs start. I'm not, I don't know, I'm not as fearful of Houston. I mean, they're great so far. But I feel like that team is imploding. Yeah. I would, I'd really try to move Carlos Hyde right now for multiple reasons. Towards the end of the year, if a team is not competing, they're going to get.

want to get a look at their younger players. And they like and believe in Matt Berita there. Carlos Hyde might not be long for that team. And then he has a tough schedule. So Hyde, he's in that trade right now category. Joe Mixing, while he has a pretty bad schedule, he might be in the opposite category where it's like, okay, this team's playing for the future. They might feed him the ball.

Like they've been feeding him in the end of the year. He may be okay. Fournette, you're not doing anything with him. Would you trade Carlos Hyde then for DeMarco Murray, who has a pretty good playoff schedule? I think that's a great angle as long as you're secured for the playoffs. I was going to say, go talk to the Devont of Freeman owner. Oh, yeah. Freeman, I love. Because he's coming off of those, what are we, four or five straight down weeks? I think four down weeks where, you know, the Freeman owners are scared and you can acquire him on the cheap. He's got a, you know, a.

a pretty good playoff schedule, New Orleans, twice, Tampa Bay in the middle. All right, let's talk wide receivers. Wide receiver matchups, you can make a lot of ground up on, you know, if you're an underdog in the playoffs, but you play the matchups right, you have the right players in position. You know, I see this all the time. If you're in the playoffs and you're facing a guy with a couple of stud wide receivers, but they have really tough matchups, and you can flex and...

and move and nimbly put in somebody else that has a great schedule, you can win those matchups. So great schedules for fantasy-wide receivers. Calvin Benjamin. Juicy matches. We just talked about Tyrod. It makes perfect sense, right? This is 100% TBD, though. We don't know what Kelvin Benjamin is on that team yet. He's the number one wide receiver. But what does that mean? Yeah, it means not a lot of targets so far this year. But Indianapolis and New England. Devin Funches.

It's interesting. They're on different teams now, but both have good schedules. You have to like what Crabtree has in week 14. Yes. And Amari Cooper. They're facing three defenses in weeks 14, 15, 16 that give up the most, eighth most, and 13th most fantasy points to wide receivers. The Landry Parker Stills combo. We talked about Cutler having a nice matchup. Well, that's, I mean, that leans itself to Landry Parker Stills.

Yeah, Sterling Shepard. Love it. I really like him rest of season. Not a lot of matchups that scare me, but his playoffs. Dallas, Philly is not that great against the pass, and Arizona has been surprisingly terrible against the pass. And then, of course, Atlanta. I mean, you're playing New Orleans twice, so I do give a little bit of caution there. Sure. But Julio's got a nice playoff schedule. I really like Sunu lately. He's come on strong. I've seen several people.

on Twitter moving Hopkins for Julio Jones and saying, did I win? I'm like, oh, man, I love that trade. That's a perfect template. And on top of that, the schedules, I mean, DeAndre Hopkins and the Houston Texans have Jacksonville and Pittsburgh in the playoffs. Yeah, your semis and your championship is Jacksonville and Pittsburgh. The two worst.

You bring that up. Trade Hopkins. We've been saying that please find a trade this week before, you know, he comes back to reality. Same with T.Y. Hilton. I mean, T.Y. Hilton, yes, he had this monstrous matchup last week against a defense that's been giving it up through the air. He is not going to be reliable rest of season with Kobe, with Jacobi Berset. Brock Lesner. With Brock Lesnar. They traded him from the Broncos to the Colts. Yep.

Wow. He had to get the tats filled in with different colors now. It's a hassle. But T.Y. Hilton, I mean, you're playing against Buffalo, who's been great. Denver, who is awesome. And Baltimore, who's great. T.Y. is not going off against those three defenses with Jacoby Brissette at the helm. Or Brock Lesner. What do you think of Doug? I mean, Doug Baldwin, love him second half of the season. Don't love the playoffs schedule. Jacksonville, the Rams, and then Dallas.

for Baldwin Richardson Lockett. You also have tough schedules for Brandon Cooks and Chris Hogan and Elmodola and whoever's catching the ball in New England. Tough schedule for, you know, the Robbie Anderson truther over there with Denver in the first game of the fantasy playoffs. Those are just, you know, I think Mike laid it out there, that template where if you can swap Hopkins for Julio because you know you're making the playoffs, you're setting yourself up for playoff success. Would you trade because...

kind of based off of this schedule, and we talked about Seattle is rough, would you move Doug Baldwin for Cooper or Crabtree? For Crabtree, I think I would. Crabtree's got a really nice schedule and I see those players about the same tier. He's got the same exact schedule as Amari Cooper. I'm not sure if you realize this. Same team. But one of them is reliable and one of them is in the same tier as Doug Baldwin to me and that's only Crabtree. Cooper,

To rely on three weeks in a row in the playoffs, I mean, has Cooper ever had three good weeks in a row? Impossible. Yeah, he's up and down. Yeah, you can probably get more than Crabtree for Baldwin with Crabtree having a couple down weeks. Sure. I really, I put a call in. I want Crabtree to give me a good week this week. I need that confidence rebuilt. He hasn't been targeted as much as I'd like. Got to take out. Cook. Jared Cook's. Take him out?

Look, I'm going to leave that to you to determine what that means. I thought you were going to say, I don't know why, but this is where my brain goes. My brain goes take out to dinner and, you know. My brain goes take out an advertisement in the paper. There you go. I left it up to you. Derek Carr. And this guy over here is like, Tanya Harding it. I didn't mean that. No, you didn't. No way. I think we have a.

Some clips of you saying other terrible things, too. Devante Parker is going to win people fantasy titles. Oh, that's a hot take. So I just want to throw that at Brooks. I'm throwing it out there. Devante Parker, with that schedule, with what he's done when he's healthy, I'm telling you, he's going to win people titles. It's Wednesday, November 8th. The bold prediction. Parker. All right, let's move on to tight ends. Best tight-in schedules towards the end of the year.