Crucial Start/Sit Decisions + Hungry For More, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/20

Hey, this is John the Taylor, running back for the Indianapolis courts, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway with you this morning. Jay Gris holding down Mike's seat. Does Jay Gris...

live in Disneyland and then swap places when one of us goes. That's assuming you're saying every time we're missing it's Disneyland. Yeah. Yeah. Which is true for Mike. That's really the point here. Mike's got a couple days off here with the family in Disney. So the bear extraordinaire had to say. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. You know, when it first came, it was shocking. The second time that it came, I was like, oh, okay, that's funny. People like it. And now it's like, that's too long. Well, Jay Gras was known for being silent. That was kind of his thing. Right. And so this is a big adjustment for us that he's so vocal with music. Yeah, and the fact that he can somehow push his own button and you don't even get to participate in that. No, I've got no control.

Welcome in one and all. Hungry for more NFL news. Thursday night preview, mailbag. Have a waiver. Quick question on today's show. We are excited to be with you, excited to help you get ready for the upcoming week. Weeks, really, the final three before your fantasy playoffs. It's the nitty gritty of the fantasy football season. There is time to make a move to make the playoffs if you're right on the cusp. There is time to prepare for the playoffs if you feel like you're established and you're ready to rumble. and we're here to help you out. That's what this show's always been about, just equipping you with all the information, and you know, you apply that to your league context and try to win a championship. Yeah, I like calling it the nitty-gritty time because it's different for everybody. Some people are going to coast into the playoffs from here, and they need to prepare for those matchups. Some people have to, you know, scratch and claw their way. Some people have to look at opponents and plan some.

You know, 3D chess. 4D chess. 3D chess is normal chess. Well, you're right about that, aren't you? Yeah. I guess if I'm playing chess, that's just in 3D. I mean, 2D you can be on a computer. Right. But normal chess. Normal chess is 3D. That's just chess. Just play some chess. Just regular old chess. Why don't we just call it 3D chess? That's way cooler. Yeah, no, you could. Well, next time I play chess, I'm playing 3D chess. I don't think you play any of the. I play 2D checkers. Okay, my man, that's my game of choice. I was thinking this morning just in turn, we did the playoff primer episode, we came out with that article, talked about good defenses to pick up, good matchups. There is one little piece of nuance, I think, that doesn't get mentioned that is important, which is just you may be positioned now. You may have acted on that information and got yourself set up, but you still need to stay water.

Because we saw the Denver defense, for instance, when they lost Patrick Sertan to a concussion, they weren't the same defense for about two and a half weeks. And so when you think about what makes a defense great, what makes their matchups great, those things still have the opportunity to change injuries on the defensive side. Or, you know, an example might be maybe Anthony Richardson gets it going for a few weeks. And that Indianapolis matchup. It doesn't look so good anymore or something like that. Or conversely, the Packers lose Jordan Love again and they're starting a backup and then they look like a better matchup. So you position, but you stay paying attention. And we're grinding. 5D chess. We're grinding and we're going to make sure. If you're listening to the show the rest of the way, we're going to make sure you're set up with as much information, information overload so you can hopefully win the championship.

And make sure you click that subscribe button, that follow button on Spotify on Apple. Leave us a five-star review if you want to help the show. It's an easy 10-second way to help out the podcast, help people find us. And you can watch the show on YouTube. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballer. Subscribe. Click the bell over there. And that's where you'll tune into Sunday Live, which Jason is handling this week. Yes, sir. I'm very, very excited about that. I think. This is an important week, and I'm going to try to get, I'm going to say 70% of things right. That's not bad. No, and there's a lot of spot starts in, like, players that are going to be finding their way into your lineup this week. I'm sure our starts hit tool on the website will be riddled with players that don't normally make the list, but this week with the buy weeks, they do. And you can download the free mobile app, the fantasy footballers on iOS and Android as well, and find our rankings.

Each week, always adjusted, always being tweaked. And you can check that out. On the app store, quick question of the day, Mr. Moore. When preparing for the playoffs, what is the right balance between dropping players you won't need versus not dropping them so your opponents don't have them? How many D on the chess are we playing here? Because there are levels here where you can get crazy? I really do. I've done it both way. I've won a championship being casual and just playing, just make my roster the best I can. Without concerning myself with the. Without concerning myself with the opponents. This is not something you have to do. But there are, there are times in situations where to take it to the next level, a matter of who I'm going to drop. I'm not looking at the player and saying this player is good. I don't want someone to have them. But I am going to look at my opponents specifically and say, this is a good quarterback. And my opponent.

needs a quarterback. Right now I look at my opponent's playoff schedule and I go, yes, they are not going to like the quarterback they have right now, and I'm not going to drop Baker to the waivers. Right. Because I don't need him, but his playoff schedule is great. Now, if his playoff schedule is great and my opponent that I expect to play, you know, and I'm, again, how deep do you want to go? Because you can really look at the matchups the rest of the way. Start planting out seeds. I mean, nothing ever. works out exactly how we anticipate, but you can look and say, okay, I think I'm going to be playing this guy in round two. And, you know, he's got Lamar. So I don't care about losing Baker. Makes sense. I don't think I told you when I trade, so I traded for Lamar Jackson this last right at the trade deadline. So I had Kyla Murray and I put him on the block to move him. And I made a choice because I got several offers right away. I could have had a better pick.

I made the choice to... Keep away from an opponent. It was a division mate fighting for the playoffs. It was like, I might see this person down the line. They desperately need a quarterback. I took one round worse to send him to a team that's out of the playoffs. Because I felt like Kyler with the schedule, like I wasn't going to need him. I needed to capture a pickback. I traded a lot for Lamar. So that was one of the first times that I made a very conscious choice to take a little less. But I didn't want to be caught in the playoffs, losing to the player that I'm trading for a six-round pick. Yeah, no, that feels bad. That's shades of joists bell. Yeah, you did that. Years ago. And some of you, if you've been around long enough, you heard the story even when it happened. But I had.

a player you might remember, Joick Bell, who I had been saving forever for the playoffs. His playoff schedule was great, but I needed a roster spot like two weeks beforehand. I thought I could sneak him to waivers. Oh, man. I snuck him to waivers. Oh, man. Andy picks him up immediately. Two weeks later, we're in the playoffs, playing against each other. I am eating a lot of Joyke Bell points as you just dunk on me. You kicked me out of the playoffs with that. And if I may say, Look, yeah, oh yeah, that was the old school joint bell. That was originally joint bell. I don't like, I don't like doing this at all. Like, I really don't like doing this, but I'm going to do it for the sake of the foot clan, not for the sake of you. I'm going to give you a lot of props. Nice. I'm going to give you a lot of credit because I think you're the king of looking forward. You usually know what your next few matchups are. And for some weird reason, I mean,

Type A to the max, but you usually know what my next couple schedules are. Who's playing who, what week? Like you do, you don't just go look at your lineup, set it, and check out. You look at the league. You look at who's fighting for what, who needs what, and make much more. Well, I'm a terrible father and husband. Right. You know what I mean? Yes, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying is sacrifice all the other things in your life for fantasy football. Just for eight weeks. You know what I mean? 8, 12, 15, 6 months. Yeah. Eight months. Half the, I think you half the year. I give them one good month. Which month? February. Okay. Right after the Super Bowl. Got it. And I say, you remember me? No, I, look, it ebbs and flows. And then March comes around and your family's happy again because you've abandoned them. Yeah, right. Great. Yeah, you really took this to the next level. Let's do this.

Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eads. Well, Andy, you brought this name up a second ago. I don't know if you knew he was my Hunger for More player or not. No, I did not know. But Anthony Richardson is my Hungry for More player. If you were on Sunday live with Mike this last week, he was fielding some questions about Anthony Richardson. And, you know, his thoughts were essentially he wasn't confident to play him. Obviously, we've had a lot of bad games. But he's happy to have Anthony Richardson go off on the bench in hopes that we have learned something new and that really Anthony Richardson has learned something new through the little benching. And I don't pretend to think that benching a guy for a couple of weeks can fix accuracy problems in and of itself. If I had to put a bet on the probability, the probability says that this was an outlier game for Anthony Richardson in his accuracy. But he was benched. He came back. He goes on the road and he played good.

football. He completed 67% of his pass, 20 for 30. Do you realize what his average was before that game, by the way? I would guess 45. It was 44%. Yeah, I mean, that is a massive change. And it wasn't like on 16 attempts. It was on 30. No, he played a good game. Not only, I mean, 272 passing yards on the road in a game that they weren't supposed to win, had two rushing touchdowns, one passing touchdown. He had in the fourth quarter. back to back, 70-yard touchdown drives to get the win. And if you look at his first, he's got 11 career starts. He now has four top five finishes. Over the last decade, the only players with more through 11 starts are Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Deshaun Watson. If you remember, once upon a time, he was good at football. This is the right segment.

for Anthony Richardson. This is where he belongs. Right, because we're hungry. We're not sure it's going to work. Yeah, we might starve. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've starved before. And the risk you assume with Richardson massive. Massive. Massive risk, massive upside. Yeah. And upside wins championships. So, you know, you look ahead to the playoff weeks. And, you know, first week into the playoffs is Denver. Yikes. I'm not going to do it. Second week. Tennessee. Okay, I think they've got a good defense, but their offense collapses so much that they end up giving it up in the end. The Giants in Championship Week. I'm fine taking the shot on him. He is the type of player that I don't want to face him in the playoffs. Like I don't want to go up against, you know, I'd rather go up against a Kirk Cousins than see Anthony Richardson on the other side. And if you're one of those teams. Because of upside potential. Exactly. If you're one of those teams.

that is on the scratching and clawing your way to the playoffs. Yeah, on the lower talent than your opponent. Exactly. You're not the number one seed. You're not the behemoth team. You want to know how you can surprise people and win a championship? Having a quarterback go drop 35 points three weeks in a row. Yeah, no, you're right. And I hope it continues. I think we can be hungry for more just on the basis of like Richardson's career arc, even beyond this season, just hoping that he's another fantasy relevant player that, that perform. I just really liked that he, it's so weird, but he just was accurate. And that's, I mean, if I'm being honest, that's the only thing I'm hungry for more of. I don't need a 35 point fantasy game. I just want to see him, like for the, for the wide receiver's sakes, for Josh Downs and Alex Pearson, Admi Mitchell. Yeah. And then I like how Michael Pittman is now like fourth. Yeah, it seems that way. It's nice to have a quarterback that can complete.

Open passes. And he struggled with that in a way that no NFL quarter. You can't play quarterback at the NFL. No. If you can't complete an open pass. Which is a combination of taking the easy pass, footwork, pocket presence, all of those things that he needed to work on. My hungry for more is, taste some stupid Hill. Taseem Hill. What is he? I don't know what he is. He's weird. He had 10 targets. He had seven rushing attempts. He had three rushing touchdowns. He had a pass completion. And he's got a coach that loves him as much, if not more than the previous two coaches. He's a wild card. He's a wild card. And you know what? Wild card's win championships. If what we talked about yesterday is true, which is they like him more, they're going to give him more work. They don't have other options. He was a key to success. They believe the more they give Tayson Hill opportunities to make big plays, which how can you argue with 7 for 183 or 138 on the ground? If that comes true, if that's your tight end,

and his baseline is going to be six to eight points the rest of the way. And your top side is 40? Yeah. There is a world where we're going to get another game with a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown. Yeah, Joanne Jennings and Hunter Henry aren't going out there and dropping 30 points ever, ever. Camara or Tayson Hill was the plan, the focal point on 39 of 60 plays for the team last week. So. And he was, he was, Taysam Hill was the choice on 20 of the 60 plays. So it's something about workload. It's something about opportunity. It's something about a schedule, which right now is the ninth easiest for running back. It's the third easiest for tight end. You have to look at both with Taysom. He could be, he could be. Just take advantage of whichever part of the game you want. He could be the secret sauce. Did I say Juan Jennings or Juan Johnson?

I believe you said Jennings. Because he can put up 30. He's done it. Yeah, you want to know what else, Taysam Stupid Hill, as it's written in our doc, is Taysam Hill is the player that right before we hit record, you were freaking out about on our waivers wondering how much fab people have because you want him. Do you want him for you or do you want him to keep your opponent from having him for the playoffs? I want him. Just in case, right? Like I have Kate Otten. Right. Mike Evans comes back. McMillan's back. You know, I don't know. No, I don't feel good enough. It makes it makes complete sense. I understand that. So we'll find out about 30 minutes. He could be the best flex pickup. Like that's the truth. Like casein Hill could be good enough to flex. For sure. And you know what's funny is it's like do you want to start him or Wondale? This week, this week I have seen so many leagues.

So many times, myself included, where I'm starting either two or even three tight ins because of bi-week apocalypse and those type of things. And also a combination of the fact that there's good startable tight ends right now. You know, it's like. Yeah, Hunter Henry get nine targets, eight targets a week. Yeah, exactly. If you're going to try to pick up a waiver wire wide receiver or Hunter Henry, I would guess Hunter Henry is getting, you know, more work. Or Will Disley, baby. Yeah. Big Montana. That was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats, the official on-demand partner, on-demand delivery partner of the NFL order now. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. As expected, Jake Ferguson, hard pressed to play in Dallas's week 12 game. Scoo. Yeah, the schoon man may get some opportunity. You know, they're rookie tied into that game.

Yeah, he was very involved. He had five targets and, uh, I do not. I know his name is has a, uh, is hyphenated. He is name. His last name is two names. Hold on. Let me see if I can get to it. Span forward. Span dash four. There you go. Yeah, uh, I was unfamiliar with his work prior to this week. Uh, not, not afraid to admit that. Obviously, you, you don't need to rush back Jake Ferguson. They're not looking to. make the playoffs at this point for the Cowboys and Cooper Rush. It's a short week. So. Yeah. Cooper Rush is the starter. That was the other announcement. I mean, that's that's another name. Like Schoonmaker could literally be someone that you pick up and start in your flex off of waivers. I'm not saying it's exciting or that you're happy about it. But he, I mean, he had 10 targets this last week. Cooper Rush is going to look his way.

So it is possible. He comes out and has at least a good enough baseline. They're hoping to get Brandon Cooks back this week, too, his 21 day window was opened. They threw the ball 55 times. So maybe Brandon, man, never mind. Yeah, don't do that. Aaron Rogers likely won't be back with the Jets now that they fired general manager Joe Douglas. I think this is, um, this report is a little bit more. likely speculative. Yeah, speculative. Like I think it's looking at just the reality of the situation where you've had Joe Douglas doing everything Aaron Rogers asked. He's been, you know, the guy that went out and signed Lazard and signed, didn't they sign Randall Cobb? Yep. And trade for Devante Adams and try to rebuild it and hire the offensive coordinator that Aaron Rogers wants. So the fact that Joe Douglas is gone.

is certainly just a strike against this being pro Aaron Rogers. I just wonder what he wants to end his career like. That's the other part of it. I don't think it's his choice, man. He wants to end his career like a Super Bowl champion. That's what he wants. Ain't happening. Probably not. That's today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the Thursday night preview. Thursday night breakdown. Well, this is a bit dirty, Jason. Draft Kings has the Steelers at eight and two against the two and eight Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. Good palindrome game. Which you love. I know you love those. Draft King Sportsbook has the game Pittsburgh minus just three and a half. The overrunner is 36 and a half. Oh, don't love that. The implied point total is 20 for Pittsburgh, the favored team. That is the fewest implied points for an eight-win team over the last decade.

They did not score a touchdown last week, by the way, in beating the Ravens. Yeah, I do think that the Steelers offense can move the ball against the Browns defense. And this low of an over-under is a little surprising to me. However, there is weather concerns here, probably some sort of rain or snow. A little bit snow. A little bit snow. So that could be factoring into the overall, just a divisional matchup. with two good defenses and offenses that aren't prolific by any means. You add in some weather, and I understand how you get here. But if I'm just looking at the personnel and what over the last month the Jamis-led Browns have done and the Russell-led Steelers have done, obviously this last week was bad for the Steelers' offense, but they've been putting up points. Well, Thursday night has a way of slowing offenses down at times. Cleveland beat them last year in November.

1310. Ooh, that's a fun. That's a fun one. So I think your fantasy expectations at a minimum with those, you know, with the weather, with the lines, they need to be measured. Who are the, who are the quarterbacks in that game? Was Watson, was that like a Watson picket matchup? No, he sounds like a 1310. Probably a picket Dorian Thompson game. I don't even know. Yeah. It was a while ago. But, you know, it'll be one with the running game, like Najee, 20 opportunities a game, lock him in. Lock him in. Pickens, you can lock in. Yeah, I mean, I, but you, you know. The Browns have a good run defense, um, on the season. So you don't expect a huge game from him, especially. Payson Hills like, what are you talking about? It was confirmed DTR and picket. Oh, okay. I got it right. Yeah, it was, uh, gross. I mean, this is, James and Russ is an upgrade over what we saw last year. The question really becomes is James.

and the passing volume going to break against the Steelers defense? Because right now, Jerry Judy, Cedric Tillman, Elijah Moore, you've been fine with, and David Nojoku. They've just had so much volume. So let's rate the confidence level of those players out of five. So for Nojoku, I'm a five out of five in confidence. For Tillman and Judy, I'm a three. For both? For both. And for Elijah Moore, I'm a two. Yeah, I. I would say I am pretty equal there. I might be a four on Jerry Judy. And really, it comes down to James. I believe, despite the line, despite the weather, despite the defense. Okay, so that's three strikes. This should be out. But I don't know that there's anything that can stop James Winston from chucking the ball. I just don't think the coaching staff can. I don't think anything. Well, the Steelers could be the ones catching it. Sure.

Absolutely. They'll get some of that. I mean, yeah. What was that? Can we get that clip for future use, please? I was a hearty agreement. That was a real big sure. It was a little goofy in there. My Disney came out. But still, a pick six has never slowed James Winston down. No, I look, they're not going to be able to run. Chubb hasn't looked. I mean, Chubb was okay last week on a. yards per carry basis, but they only gave him 10 opportunities. The likelihood is to be down and James will be figuring it out. And that can be enough. And so we'll find out whether push comes to shove. It's why I like Najoku the most is because close to the line of scrimmage, escape valve, pass rush. Tight in position. Yeah, just he can out physical, you know, wide catch radius, all of that stuff. But.

In this game, you know, it's going to be a challenge. We'll find out whether, like, if Winston does have a game that he supports these guys in spite of the matchup, it will probably be prescriptive for that tough schedule down the stretch where you might be able to look to him, you know, but I don't expect Cleveland to be able to win this ball game. 41, 46, and 46 past attempts in James Winston's three starts. So, yeah, I believe you can you can throw in Judy Tillman and the Joku. Obviously, George Pickens is in pretty much no matter the matchup right now. And the Browns have struggled against wide outs. That is one area where Pickens should be okay. Yeah, he's the wide receiver 17 on the season, despite the beginning of the year being with Justin Fields. And he only has two total touchdowns on the season. So he can go north. Jaylon Warren, forever a disappointment to you. Continues to be? Well, until he scores 10 fantasy points, which he has not done this entire season. And probably won't. So yes.

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, because the reason I'm especially disappointed is because I think he's a talented player. This isn't an anti-Jalen Warren take as a player. It's an anti-Jalen Warren being in my fantasy lineup take. But if you've got guys like Jalen Warren, like Jerry Judy, Cedric Tillman, Elijah Moore, these are flex-level players. So this is a perfect time to remind you if they're going to start on Thursday night football, even if you've got a great stud in your wide receiver spot right now. Move them into the wide receiver. Give you more time for the weekend to make those flex decisions later on. I'm taking a look into Deucer's Alley real quick because who's currently got the toilet trophy? I believe it is Papa Josh. Okay. So when Mike misses, whoever's got the toilet trophy probably. Oh, has the mailbag. Probably has the mailbag. Oh, that's great. Let's hit that drop and go to that camera, shall we? Mailbag. Mailbag.

Wow. That was pretty good. Wow. That I don't like that. What in the world just happened. Oh, no. That wasn't that bad. No, I actually. Sounded a lot like Mike. Yeah. I thought I was good. And Brooks even said, dang, that was too good. He just typed that. That sucks, man. Talk about your whole time backfire. I can apply some filters to it. Yeah. You know what? That was, uh, that was confident, which is not normally a part of the deucers alley. You guys didn't hear Matt breathe the biggest sigh of relief he's ever breathed. He was full double fist pumping when you called on Josh. Well, he'll be, you know. Trust me. He'll get that trophy soon. That trophy will be his. Nice job. Nice job. We will jump into the mailbag here. We'll answer some questions. We got some voicemails. Is that true? Yes, sir. I see voicemails in here. By the way, if you have a question, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click the submit a question button.

Or you can dial the voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB. We're here to help. Let's jump in with a question from Anthony. Hey, footballers. This is Aaron calling from Canada. Just a quick question on who would you rather start this week? Full PPR League, Debo Samuel, who's kind of been crappy the last little bit, or Jameson Williams. I love the show. Would appreciate the feedback. Thanks. I can't see a world. By the way, that was Debo or Jameson. I can't see a world where I'm playing Jameson over Debo. So it's funny. I thought that you were going to go that route because I feel like you've been a little bit anti-Debo on the show the last week or two. We've seen, you know, some into rounds that he's had where you expect him to end up with eight, nine yards, and he gets tackled one yard behind the line of scrimmage. He hasn't had great fantasy performances. And, you know, on the flip side,