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

Not Ryan Griffin. That's a strong, it's a strong sit for you. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not playing him. I would not. If I could find, I would, I would probably play Antonio Gates over him. It's hard to find upside, like, that you have with Jimmy Graham. I, yeah, I completely agree. Obviously, great. I just don't see any upside for him this week. Yeah, you have him down at 19 this week against the Cardinals where we both have them at eight. So you put your money with your mountains. Yep. All right. Saturday night game, the Christmas Eve.

evening game bangles texans this game's almost heads up here we got the texans favored by a point at home 41 and a half point over under the savage takes control of the offense faces andy dalton faces a j green now returning to the lineup how do you see this one shaking out i mean you have kind of some question marks all over this game right you have hill and a j green both dealing with injuries it looks like hill's going to start

Lamar Miller dealing with injury. DeAndre Hopkins fresh off a 17 target game, but a season of failure before that. So, you know, I think we're all pretty confident in Hopkins. Yeah. Confident enough to play him this week. I'm confident because I think that the volume will be there. It's not the, it's not a really scary points a game, man. That's how bad Brock's been. It's not a terribly scary matchup against the Bengals or 13th against the pass, but it's by no means great. Still.

Hopkins elite level player will actually get targets and more accurate targets than Brock Osweiler can throw, in my opinion. So he's a must play for me. Jason has no thoughts on any of these players. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a difficult game. I do think this is going to be low scoring. With all these question marks, I don't think that all these question marks with good, with, you know, a really good Texans defense is going to turn into a shootout.

And so if it's low scoring and I'm worried about injured guys, I'm hoping that I've got better options. You know, we said earlier about Lamar Miller. I think there's going to be a lot of teams that need to start him. And I think you're going to be somewhat okay but disappointed. I would rather, and that's how I see A.J. Green. That's how I see even DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins is my favorite of that group of questionable guys. But this game isn't one that excites me. The players aren't.

Andy Dalton's been a flex or start of the week consideration in the past two weeks. We all have them in the early 20s. 23 is our consensus ranked for him. Texans past defense. I mean, Boy, is playing out of his mind. And Eifer looks like he's not healthy right now. So for me, there's not much that I really like here. I would say Jeremy Hill might be one of the better plays in this game. I agree. Okay. I actually agree with that. Yeah.

And you're both obviously starting Tom Savage. Oh, yeah. The savage must start over Brady. How about just, I hope somebody does that because they think you're serious. Just a temperature check. Now with AJ Greenback, do you, is Boyd back to the bench? Yeah. For you? Yep. Okay. He might have been there anyway. Uh, it was just he had more opportunity. Yeah, he did. He did. Uh, let's move into the Christmas games. All right. We've got a pair of them. We have the Broncos chiefs. We have the Ravens and Steelers.

Let's start there. Flacco and Big Ben. Big Ben finally returns home. Come on, Big Ben. I need you, Big Ben. Is that where he keeps like his touchdowns? His touchdowns under his bed? Yep. He's got the touchdowns in a locker under his bed. See, I was going to go performance-enhancing drugs. So I think you took the better. You took the high road. Yeah. Do you remember the last time that Big Ben played the Ravens? At home. At home? At home? One of five or six touchdown? Yeah. It was six. It's nice being at home.

44 and a half point over under. Does Big Ben have the world's greatest mattress? Yeah. Sleeps much better. Is this, or, I mean, does he have some kind of weird sleeping situation where he needs to be, like, upright in his, in a chamber of some kind? If he has a game at home, which I think, you know, we like him, we don't love him. We like him because the last two weeks make you not love him. Yeah, and the Ravens are still a very good defense. Yeah, Ravens are a good D. The second against the run, 10th against the pass.

Who's the other beneficiary? We know Antonio Brown's in your lineup. You're starting them. Let's not talk about him anymore. Who's the other beneficiary? Is it a Jesse James if Lederie's Green sits? Is it an Eli Rogers? I think it would be Eli Rogers. He's the guy that's been involved. He's the guy that's healthy right now. And if I had to pick a second target, that's the guy I would be thrown out there would be Rogers. It's just more bumped to Levy on Bell for me. And that's kind of what it is for me as well. I'm not starting Eli Rogers. I think Levy on Bell and Antonio Brown can get it.

get it done enough where all of Big Ben's production, even if he has a great game, might mostly come from those two assets. You got Jimmy Smith still not practicing, likely to miss the game. That's going to be tough. On the other side, the second year in a row, the Ravens are throwing the ball more than anybody else in football, despite the fact that it seems like they have some success on the ground when they actually hand it off. 62% of the time, though, they're throwing it. Senior, Wallace.

Aiken, Pitta. You know, for me, if I'm picking one, I'm still picking Steve Smith-Signor. He's the go-to guy. He's the, he's the player I have the most confidence in to not disappear in this matchup. Do you disagree at the wide receiver position? I know you're probably not excited about anybody. Yeah, I'm not excited about it. I'm okay playing Smith. I kind of like Wallace in this matchup, but.

To piggyback on what you were talking about, Baltimore is their second and pass attempts, right? So in the top 10 for passing attempts for teams, there are two teams without 20 plus passing touchdowns. One of them is the Baltimore Ravens. Yeah. So despite the high volume, and the other one is the Eagles, by the way. So despite the high passing volume, it's not equaling fantasy success.

In my opinion, the beneficiary of that, right? Because Flacco is completing passes at 10.1 yards per completion, which is near dead last in the league. The beneficiary of the volume without the touchdowns is those running backs. So if Kenneth Dixon's in the field of play, we saw him with a high volume of catches two weeks ago, I think that if the narrative of Pittsburgh taking the lead in this game, having success at home,

comes to fruition, you're going to see a team playing and guarding against the deep play, giving up the underneath, and allowing, you know, Joe Flacco to move the ball, inch by inch. Two weeks ago against the Patriots when the Patriots got up, that was the week that Dixon had 42 snaps, got a bunch of receptions. So I do think Dixon is a decent play here for two reasons. One, because that game script could happen again. And two, the Steelers are far more beatable on the ground. Yeah.

Sunday night football, the Broncos and Chiefs. This is an interesting game. The Chiefs are three and a half point favorites. Lowest over under the week at 37 and a half. I don't really blame them for that. Most I can remember on the season. Yeah, it's really low, really low. Two good defenses. Two okay offenses. Not a lot of confidence floating through this game for me. Really only want to start where as a baseline type of player. I think I have him as an RB2 this week. I mean.

Travis Kelsey, you're probably starting him. I mean, I don't have a fear of Kelsey not producing something. So where else do we go in this matchup? I mean, you're going to play the two defenses, which are really the stars of this game. I think you can start the Broncos against the Chiefs and the Chiefs against the Broncos. I mean, you know, it's rare that you start both sides of the defense in the same game. There's not a lot. I mean,

You might have to start to Marius Thomas. He's a talented enough guy where, you know, he can get his, but I wouldn't be sitting him or Sanders, I don't think. Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to sit them, but you might have, you got to lower your expectations for sure. Spencer Ware, you guys still, okay, playing him. I know we've. Yeah, I said he's a two for me. Yeah, okay. And the chiefs are not, they've gotten better since, uh,

getting healthier on the defensive side of the ball. Justin Forsett seems to be the primary running back for the Broncos. Do you have any confidence throwing him out for your fantasy champion? Confidence, no willingness? Yes. Okay. I have a willingness to throw him out there. If you don't have a better situation, you're a Matt Forte owner, you don't have Bilal Powell, you lost Forte, and now you've been piecing together your running back core for the last few weeks with the, you know, Derek Henry's or Justin Forsatz or whatever it is.

I'm okay rolling him out there. He's going to have enough volume to not destroy you. I don't see any upside. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he had 14 touches last week, but what is he going to do against Kansas City? I'm very, my heart is very unwilling to start. It's an important game for Kansas City, too. They're fighting for that division. If the Colts knock off the Raiders in Kansas City wins this game, I believe they take over the division lead. So it is an important game for them. They're at home.

You know, I'm with you. So Monday night, Monday night we have the Lions and the Cowboys. Cowboys clinched the home field, seven point favorites, 44.5 point over under here. Interesting game. Last week I went against the Cowboys. I think I'm going to do it again. Oh, I was just thinking. What? Andy's almost upset of the week. Fool me once.

Hey, you nailed it last week. Did I? Didn't you? Yeah, Tampa almost upset them. So you gave me credit for that? Yeah, you only feel bad about it because we had another bet. Look, the game's more important this week for Detroit. They play close games and they play them well. I like their opportunity in this game to keep it close. It doesn't mean that I think that they're the better team. I think.

Dallas is the better team and they might win the game, but seven points is too much. So I'll take the Lions in the almost upset of the week. Uh, Theoretic probably out. So here's a, you know, you're probably out. Here's a question for Justin Forsett. You, uh, it's a Justin for me. Let me get him on the phone. One second. Justin, Justin for set, uh, or Dwayne Washington. Oh, let, oh, give me all the Justin for set I can handle. Oh.

Dwayne Washington. This is a very strong stance. Dwayne Washington is so high on so many different lists that I have seen. Fioreniks out. Oh, you got Dwayson. He's really fast and he's good on these metrics. He stinks. Look, I'm just so disappointed in Dwayne Washington on the season. I don't, he got 14 carries last week. If you've never had a double digit fantasy game in your career, you don't.

deserved to be started in championship week. He got 31 yards on 14 carries. So what in the world are you hoping for against the number two ranked defense against running backs for fantasy football? Set him down. Don't touch Dwayne Washington. I mean, I just told you. My heart did not want to start, doesn't force that. And I would, I would give him a, I would embrace. So you're starting, Joy, Belvin. A heart hug. I'm not starting a running back from the Detroit Lions. What if, would this talk you into it?

Maybe. Maybe just for entertainment. The glory play. If I can start. That's like Sean Manu level. All right. We talked about Zeke. We broke all that down in the quick question. So you can go back to listen to that. If you want to hear our perspective on Zeke, the bottom line is we're starting him. Des Bryant, you should have a lot of confidence. It looks like Darius Slame. I miss this game. Yeah. That's trouble. Which is unfortunate. With that name, you should really be playing.

On Christmas? Right around Christmas. Yeah. I mean. Except he's the A. Y. Spelling. So it's like the evil Santa. Yeah. We're on radio, though. So, I mean, I'm just going to pretend. Darius slay. Slave. Oh, like you're killing somebody. Yeah. Have you not seen those? Those are great Christmas movies. Uh.

The Darius Slay movies? No, where Santa goes on a rampage of not giving out toys. Oh, yeah, that's our family tradition. We watched that one on Christmas. We watched Scrooge, and then we watch, and then we watch Crampus. Yeah, you keep them in line. So, Andy, if the lions are going to almost upset the Cowboys,

How are they possible going to do it? What weapons are going to get this job done? It's going to be a hodgepodge like it's been all season. It's going to be golden tape by far in a way the best play, especially in PPR leagues in this matchup. You've got Anquan Bolden mixed in there, Marvin Jones with a couple of deep passes. Eric Ebron catching his four balls for 50 yards and probably no touchdowns. To be fair, Will Ty last night. He went over his allotted.

budget of two receptions that's christmas time yeah so maybe ebron can maybe i you know yeah it will be on christmas are you are you confident in golden tate like i am confident enough to play him i mean he's been playing out they need him they need him so look we're we're going to get into uh i'm going to give us a couple minutes a mail bag here oh christmas bonus christmas bonus coming your way mail bag