Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Week 16 Matchups, In-or-Out, Playoff Decisions

Don't touch my red zone, bro. All touchdowns happen in the red zone. Not from the red zone. No. No, that was what I was saying. Okay. Red zone targets. You said it so humorously that I had to. Jason Morris on it. Make sure it shows up. I mean, you know, T.Y. Hilton's an auto start, right? If he's on your, your team, he's 100%. Moncrief is the question. And I am thinking that I would start. You know, you had the question.

between. I had, yeah, the Jordan Matthews, Dante Moncrief decision to make. I went with Jordan Matthews and it kept telling you. Yeah, no, you did. You certainly did. I just wanted to touch on the running back situation for a different team. Never mind. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm looking further down the list. I apologize. You're doing well, Mike. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. What else do we want to discuss about in this game? You're starting Latavius Murray. He disappointed people last week. Yeah. And so you need to know that you should start him. You're starting Frank Gore as well. I mean, those two guys are very similar in the sense that they are not your upper echelon great players, but they are as solid on the season this year as, you know, your second running back in your lineup. I think there are a lot.

of people with Latavius Murray and Frank Gore in their championship games. Because those are the type of players that have been consistent and won new matchups. I think you start both those guys. Basically start everyone in this game. I would not start Philip Dorset. You guys seem a little sketchy about Derek Carr. You got Philip Rivers ranked ahead of Derek Carr this week. You got Big Ben ranked ahead of Derek Carr this week. Tell me why. The matchup is so great. It's just his play has been a little bit erratic since the finger injury. I just have my concerns.

Where I was confused on the running mask is because I was thinking about DeMarco Murray and Derek Henry. And this situation is very similar for Bob Turbin and Frank Gore. I was just, I was going to talk about the snap counts where Robert Turbin was only on the field for 35% of snaps, which that's, that's okay. That's okay. He was on for 50% last week or the week before, but seven carries inside the 10 for Bob Turbin. Yep.

It's the reality you have to live with now as a goal owner. Really since week nine, Bob Turbin is getting carries inside the tent. Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers travel to New Orleans to take on these saints who still have a sliver of playoff hope. And last time these two teams faced off, it was in Tampa, and it was a trap game for fantasy owners because they did not have that big high-scoring production. We had one of our listeners kind of warn us, hey, that might happen. They know each other. They're familiar with one another.

Vegas has it at a 52.5 point over under with the Saints favored by three. We saw the Saints carve up the secondary of a pretty good team. The Cardinals last week, at least on the defensive side, statistically. 48 points in that game. Brandon Cooks went ham. Michael Thomas looked great. Didn't see a lot from the running backs, didn't need to last week. How do we see this one shaking out? Is it a repeat of that disappointment we had a couple of weeks ago? Or is this the time when we get to cash in on all the hope?

of James Winston in the playoffs of Mike Evans? Or is this the third straight week that we're disappointed in those guys? I'm doubling down. I guess I'm tripling down here. I think this is, the bucks are going to get it going because they will have to. Jason's, we talked about the scoring, the Saints defense.

allows, was it, five more points at home? Yeah, right around four or five more points. 30 to 25 points. At home, they allow more points because they score more points and just puts more pressure on the defense and they're not a spectacular unit. They can't, you know, go Baltimore Ravens and shut people down. So I like the Bucks. I like everyone involved in this game. I can't imagine you're in a situation where you're saying, yep, I'm benching him. I'm going to sit, Brandon Cooks. I'm going to sit.

Doug Martin. Yeah, it's just, they were in this situation where the game script didn't work. I mean, it didn't work out for them against Detroit when they were at home. That's the one of the only times in recent memory that my mind was just shocked. You know what I mean? About them being at home and it not coming to fruition, they had garbage time, still didn't get it done. That's the only way that I see this game going wrong is if Tampa gets a defensive score.

Maybe they run one in, and then the game changes a little bit if New Orleans can't get it going. Even then, I'm not that concerned. You know, the bucks, they give up big plays in the secondary when they do give it up. The Saints, they score points. I'm excited about this. I'm excited about Cameron Brate. He's rated really highly for me. Is Fleener a lottery ticket for the desperate, or do we just steer clear of the Fleener? The tight ends.

The tight ends this week, it's rough. It's a rough situation. Your studs are out. Ladarius Green, the waiver wire, savior, he's going to be out. I'm, me, I'm in one of my dynasty leagues. I'm now pushed to the situation where I'm choosing between Fleener and Pitta. I'm in that barfie tight end. I'm going with Fleener in that situation. Are you really? Yeah, I'm going to take the upside of the Superdome. Yeah, that's it. Split.

Splitting your difference with the Superdome. Yeah. All right. We've got six more games to get through. So I'm going to move on now. The 49ers and the Rams. This game is an over. All right. Next. This game's only got a 39.5 point over under. It's just not going to be good for fantasy minus one player that I know Jason and I. Two for me. Two for me. Todd Gurley. Two for two. Todd Gurley is the start of the week for Jason.

Um, would have been mine as well had I not been snaked. So Todd Gurley. Yeah. Absolutely love him this week. Redemption story. Save your fantasy team. If he can't run against the 49ers this week, you know, he may not be good enough to play in the national football league. Everyone, you know, as the season has gone on and the 49ers defense has weakened, everyone has been able to run on them. Todd Gurley will be able to get it going even with a poor offensive line there.

So Todd Gurley is a great play. Also, if you're playing DFS, he's a great play because he's a little bit cheaper than those upper echelon running backs. And he is this week going to be an upper echelon guy. So I really do like him. The 49ers defense has just been just, I don't have words. Well, they're traveling. They're terrible. We don't like them whatsoever.

And you've got a little bit more hope here in the Rams offense, even including guys like Jared Goff, in the sense that what I don't think will happen on every single fourth and inches near midfield is a punt. With Jeff Fisher gone, you're going to have a little bit more, maybe. Progressive coaching.

And so, you know, we talk about Jeff Fisher quarterbacks have had such low numbers. And part of that is because he takes the opportunity out of the offense, puts everything on the defense. Hopefully that changes this game. That should be good for Todd Gurley. And, you know, I'm not saying start Jared Gough. I certainly wouldn't, but I'm bumping him up a few spots from the bottom. You know, he's usually just the last spot. Sure. And Mike wants to talk about Carlos Hyde. Yeah. Carlos Hyde has just been a.

He's been an unstoppable train these last few weeks. And I don't see any reason why the Rams would be able to stop. And they're 19th against the run. It just, their overall defenses is not what you expected from the Rams when the season began. And Carlos, he's the team. He's the 49ers team. And Chip Kelly is not slowing down on giving him touches. It's a tough situation for me because I move hide down.

He's my 15th ranked running back. Last week against Atlanta, he had seven fantasy points after four straight double-digit weeks, and obviously he's running very well. His yards per carry over the last four games has been outstanding. Last week you saw the Rams, obviously, you know, divisional matchup, shut down Thomas Rawls in Seattle. To me, you know the recipe right now is stop Carlos Hyde, make Kong Kaepernick throw the ball. I just don't see running back one upside with Hyde this week.

Very startable. He's my 15th ranked. That's how I have him laid out. Jason, why don't you give your perspective on him? Because it looks like you have him at 15 as well. Yeah, I think you illustrated it well. What Mike is pointing out is that Carlos Hyde has just been running great. Last week, people are very disappointed in his fantasy production because he didn't score a touchdown and he did fumble. So that kind of swung his numbers.

But his actual rushing production, 13 for 71, was very good. That's five and a half yards of character. Yeah. And if you look over the last, you know, month and a half, he's been doing that every single game. So I, but I agree, I agree with Andy. I mean, this is the stop Carlos Hyde game for the Los Angeles Rams. They have a good defense. Well, I see you talk about the change at coaching staff. You did see a pretty, a better defensive performance from them. Yeah, I'm just saying.

Billy Belichick knew the score. He knew it was trying to stop Carlos Hyde, yet he ran 19 for 86 against the Patriots. I mean, he's, Hyde is not stoppable right now. And so poor defense is, he's not going to stop him. Cardinals, Seahawks, up in Seattle. Seattle is favored by eight and a half in this game, 43 point over under.

Look, a lot of names, right? A lot of names in this game with Palmer and Wilson and Johnson and Rawls and Fitz and Baldwin and Lockett, Graham. I mean, where do you begin on telling the story of how this game is going to play out? The Cardinals, they are sacking the quarterback at an impressive rate. The offensive line for Seattle has not been strong. Palmer is averaging a ton of pass attempts per game, third most in the league.

Is there a chance for Arizona to do enough on the offensive side of the ball in this game to give more than David Johnson a chance in fantasy football? There's a chance. We had, the Cardinals have had some recent success up in Seattle. David Johnson, you play David Johnson. I've seen a couple tweets of, oh, the matchup up in Seattle. Play David Johnson.

Yeah, I mean... 14 straight games of over 100 all-purpose yards, right? Yeah, including a matchup against Seattle. I know it was at home, but he looked very good in that game. He didn't score a touchdown, but he still had his yardage total was outrageous. Yeah, you can't really stop him. So, you know, he got you here. Don't put him on the bench. Right. Yeah, I think the guy that you can still play from Arizona that isn't named David Johnson is Larry Fitzgerald.

You know, since 2014, basically the new, you know, Bruce Ariens, good Cardinals against a good Seattle team. Fitz has had good games against them. And there's always been those, man, I can't play Fitz against Seattle and their great passing defense, you know, but in the last four games, he's actually averaged a full point more against Seattle than his average in all the games outside of that. Over a reception more a game, they need him.

They need Larry Fitzgerald when you're going up against Seattle. And so, you know, he is involved. And I would be fine as I am starting Larry in one of my championship games. Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett, where do you see those guys finishing this week? Doug Baldwin, I think he's a fine play. They move them all over. I mean, he's a great slot wide receiver. That's not generally the Patrick Peterson area. Tyler Lockett.

is back, man. His speed is back. And we've seen... Not according to Jason's rankings. Well, it... I've always been the anti-Lock again. Yeah, you are. He's got some boom-bust in him for sure. But he has that big play ability. And I was saying, we've seen firsthand Tyler Lockett has the Jets to get past Patrick Peterson. So I'm, I'm okay. Go if you want to go with the Hail Mary play of Lockett. I just, he would be...

a piece of my roster that he's my flex play where I know that he's volatile I know that I can I have a safe baseline of points everywhere else and he's kind of putting me over the top last guy I think that's important for us to talk about because there's going to be a lot of questions about Jimmy Graham I'm going up right because I mean Arizona's been great against tight in and Jimmy Graham hasn't really shown up for the last few weeks and you know who's back Tyler Lockett

So you're thinking it's for those reasons. Tyler Lockett is back to health. Cardinals are good against tight end. Cardinals are great against tight end. And Jimmy Graham with Luke Wilson also playing has been not nearly as effective as well. Yeah, we saw Wilson almost have two touchdowns a couple of weeks ago. I mean, I just think it's hard because if you're in the championship, you've got Jimmy Graham, your waiver options. Are you benching him for a C.J. Fedorowitz or Ryan Griffin? I would.