Week 16 Matchups, In-or-Out, Mirage or Barrage?

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Coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Friday, December 21st. That's the day. Santa Claus is coming to town. He's gearing up, putting his pants on. Have you been naughty or nice? I know Brooks has been very nice. Always, always nice.

You got Brooks of pizza yesterday. It's championship weekend. Yeah, Jason continued the odd troll of showering Brooks with gifts. Here's what I know. Brooks, in your home leagues, you have dominated them for the last several years. Correct. I believe you won like four championships in the last some odd years. And from what I hear from your girlfriend is that your kindness to them, your kindness infuriates them. And they talk trash and they never win.

So I thought, you know what? I'm not going to do that. You're too good a person. I'm going to treat you like the kind man you deserve and see if your kindness karma that you try to use to win your championships. Maybe it's actually going to be, maybe it's going to be decided by the football players. You delivered him a pizza yesterday because you saw on Twitter he was tweeting about how he'd like some pizza. And before you knew it, a hot, fresh pizza showed up. And Brooks, to his credit.

He just said, oh, thanks. This is great. Yeah. Brooks has just been gladly and willingly accepting all the... Clearly, you have not seen the good place because the fact that you know you're trying to earn good points. Oh, no. Has in fact ruined everything and you're out of the system. Have you seen his roster versus Brooks roster? He has no choice but to try something like this. Come on, Jordan Howard and Dante Pettis. I believe in you. Yeah, Brooks.

Pre-congratulations. Welcome into the fantasy footballers podcast. Any Mike Jason Brooks in the house, Friday show, 10 matchups on the show today. Christmas is coming. A reminder will be back on Wednesday next week. We will not have a show on Monday, Tuesday. So today might be a little bit of a mini Christmas megaladone. I mean, we'll see how long it goes. Oh, ho. That's great. That's great. I feel.

Feel like I'm in the Christmas spirit. Yeah, Jason. You're welcome. Twitter at the FF Ballerst. We'll keep you up to date. Sunday morning. Michael will be on our live stream, Sunday live, getting you ready for the last minute decisions you have to make for Week 16, championship week. And don't forget, you can get your Foot Clan title T-shirt. I see many of you have already picked up.

Your Foot Clan title shirt at Shotballers.com. The 2018 shirts are out. You can celebrate slash troll your league with them. It will, you know, you can't take a championship away. I mean, unless it's like a fumble, like a Zeke fumble, and then you could also take it away. Yeah, if you thought you were upset this week on Thursday. Oh, man. Next week. Do you think that the league, like, tells all the official scores, like, look, I know that you guys have been pretty casual to last 15 weeks.

But week 16, you can't mess anything up. Do the cooking by the book. You got to get it done. Can't be lazy. Cannot be lazy. All right. Let's get right to it. I want to get into injury updates. There are a lot of situations this week that will determine starters, you know, Todd Gurley and a number of players. So let's get right into it. See what we think is going to happen. What's it going to blame it fly? Are you in or out?

All right, let's start with some of the running backs because there are a bunch of decisions, a bunch of players popping up on the injury report. Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley plays at 405 Eastern. Oh, that stinks. Speaking Thursday, Gurley says he has yet to run this week, but is still optimistic he will be ready for the game against the Cardinals. Is this a smokescreen? Are we going to? That's how I live my life, man. You're like, no, I haven't done any running. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to run professionally. I could do it.

Yeah, once you get past a certain age, you just pretty much say, yeah, if I wanted to be really good at this, I could do it. I'd choose not to run. I choose not to run. This sucks, though. Yes, big time. He hasn't practiced all week. Today is huge. If he does not practice on Friday, you better plan to be without Todd Gurley. Here's the problem. I think I'll be fine, man. That's what Gurley said. The 405 game is the problem because you need to be prepared.

And there are only a few games afterwards where you might have a player that you can pivot to. Otherwise, if you're not sure, I mean, there is no clear backup, right? Maybe it's John Kelly. Maybe it's CJ Anderson. It's going to probably be one of those two guys of Todd Gurley's out of the way. Probably going to be both of those guys. Right. That's the real answer. So the question is, do you play a guy earlier? Do you play a guy that you have on your roster?

in a morning game because you don't know the fate of Todd Gurley, if that's the situation where he becomes a game time decision. Or is Todd Gurley's upside so much that in championship week, you grab a CJ Anderson or John Kelly and you just roll the dice hoping and praying that Todd Gurley's out there? What would you do if you're in that position? I would not play somebody ahead of Gurley unless I had a reason to. If we think he's going to play, I would have to put somebody on my roster, whether it's one of his backups or somebody playing later,

I'm looking at the schedule right now. To give myself the option. More often than not, you're probably looking at a backup for Todd Gurley because the other games available, they're playing against Arizona. David Johnson's out. Are you going to roll with Chase Edmonds? Chicago versus San Francisco. None of those guys are available unless you're playing. My name is Jeff Wilson. Is it possible that Brita is out there in some league? I give that a 2% chance. New Orleans.

playing Pittsburgh. None of those guys are available. Kansas City, Seattle. Maybe you scooped up Damian Williams. Somehow you are lucky enough to be the top. Yeah, Mike Davis. Yeah. If Rashad Penny misses, Mike Davis could get some work. That could be a pivot. And Oakland on Monday with Jalen Richard. Those would be the names, I think. Mike Davis and Jailen Richard. Yeah, but that literally scares me to death. Hearing all those names and options. And that's why do you pivot in the morning and just take the point? You start texting Sean McVeigh right now.

That's what you do. I mean, hopefully we have more information. And like you said, it's more about today's practice report. Right. It's more about whether, because if he, if he doesn't practice today, I would have almost no confidence that they're going to risk him in this game. Why would they? Not exact. They shouldn't risk him. Yeah. If I was McVeigh, I would not play Todd Gurley in this game against Arizona, a very winnable game without, I don't know, take like four of your players out.

Very winnable. Be prepared for him to miss Friday practice and then saying Todd Gurley is now a game time decision. All right, Joe Mixon. And that sucks. Yeah, it does. Joe Mixon showed up limited on Thursday with a wrist and a thigh injury. Any concerns about Joe Mixon? He's been popping up pretty frequently on the injury report and still playing through it. Yeah, it's not heard anything. It's not uncommon. The only thing that scares you at all is that there's a new injury.

If it was just the wrist, that's one thing. But now there's a new injury with the thigh. And that's always just scary because if it's a legit new injury and not just something written there for giving him rest, then you're worried. But I think you have to play him this week, even on the road in Cleveland. Lamar Miller, ankle injury, limited practices, in or out? I'm going to say in if he's getting limited practice. I believe he'll be in as well. Spencer Ware, hamstring, limited. What's going to happen with Spencer Ware this week, guys? See the future.

I'm going to say he's out. As will I. I understand. We just said Lamar is going to play because he's limited, but this is different. Spencer Ware missed the game because of the hamstring. Look back to like Kiki over the season. Guys that have a hamstring problem and they miss games, yes, they get some limited working, but then they end up missing. Sunday night game too. Yeah, I was just going to say. No, thank you. Matt Breda with the ankle. I think he's going to play. Jamal Williams with the toe. We didn't talk enough about the

We talked about Jamal Williams and being injured, but we didn't talk about the inverse situation where if he's healthy and active, he's supposed to be a humongous part of the game plan. So do you expect him to be active? And if so, what do we tell fantasy owners? Yeah, I fully expect him to be active. Philman is saying he's going to be a huge part of the game plan. They don't really have another option. They literally scooped up Capri Bibbs off the waivers.

And that's the only backup, a guy who hasn't even been on the team. So I think Williams is a great start. I've got him just outside my top 12 this week, and I expect him to play. All right. Austin Echler? Doubtful. He's not going to play. Yeah, he's out. Keenan Allen? Man. I can't imagine he's not on the field. I really can't. They say it's a game time decision, which makes complete sense. But he has been practicing in limited fashion.

It's a pain issue. It's not a reaggravation of an injury issue. So even if he goes out there and, you know, it turns out he can't play. He's not putting himself at risk. So I think he'll be active for that game. It certainly lowers, you know, his floor. His floor could be another zero. Yeah. If he gets out there is active, you put him in your lineup. But I still think you're going to roll with him, right? Like you'd put him in your lineup.

If he's active, right? I would. Yes. Brooks will be. Brooks will be doing that. Listen to the champ. In or out, Odell Beckham Jr. I think he'll be out. I agree. Juju. Popped up yesterday. Groin injury. Uh-oh. Yeah. A groin injury on a Thursday is very, very troublesome. Speaking from experience? Yes.

Yeah, look, I've had a groin injury on a Tuesday. Yeah, and I've had one on a Thursday. It's way worse. Big difference. Big difference. It's the Thursday that gets you. I choose not to run. Yeah, maybe that has something to do with all my groin injuries. Let's see. Last time I ran, you've been day to day for six years ago. Let's say you've been day to day for about six years with the groin injury. I think juju will play, but you better pay attention. Yeah, that's very interesting. James Washington would actually have a pretty.

I would say James Washington would have a significant role, but the truth is I think you'd see a lot of Ryan Switzer mixed in. You'd see a lot of Eli Rogers mixed in. Vance McDonald becomes more relevant. Like, I think I'd move Vance McDonald up the most. Agreed. Of any peripheral piece. So if Juju's out, pay attention to that if you're pivoting to a tight end. Right. Tyler Boyd, out. Yes. John Ross also limited and injured. Oh, goodness. Oh, this is Alex Erickson. CJ Uzama.

I mean... This is Joe Mixing looking around going, uh... No, this could be... Don't pass me the ball. There's 11 guys on me. Go to somebody else. There was about 30 times in that game last week where Driscoll overthrew CJ Usama on a 30-yard path. Because he needs one big score. I know. No, I agree with you. CJ Usama goes from a fringe. I don't want to play him, but you kind of can. Right now with Boyd out, I mean, he's...

He is the back end, tight end that at least has volume of targets coming his way. Cortland Sutton, quiet injury, plays on Monday night. What do you think? Uh-oh. You don't, you cannot rely on. What if you can just handcuff Sutton with Deshawn Hamilton? Yes, if you can grab Hamilton or Tim Patrick. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't mind it because you're already not expecting Cortland Sutton to give you a weak winning performance. I think you were not here last week, Mike, when I was bringing up Tim Patrick.