Week 14 Matchups + In-or-Out, It’s Garbage Time!

I mean, that was an embarrassment. That was a real, no Cardinals showed up to play in that game. I don't expect that to be a back-to-back thing against a team like the Steelers that are. A much better defense than the Rams? A better defense. It should be a more competitive game because of Duck Hodges. I mean, there are some starting the Cardinals defense this week, which seems like a shock, right? But the Cardinals defense.

has had a handful of performances that mattered for fantasy. And when you look at Duck Hodges, you're kind of like, well, could this be one of them? I mean, they played Tampa Bay. They were a top 12 defense. They played the Giants. They were a top 12 defense. At home, maybe they could do that. Now, Duck Hodges, on the other hand, some people probably thinking about streaming him against Arizona. I don't blame him. It's the best matchup in fantasy football. Yeah, there's no team that gives up more fantasy points to the quarterback.

and it's just been really, really easy to pick them apart, which makes players like James Washington and Deontay Johnson both interesting to me. Juju's not going to be out there again. Deonti Johnson actually outpaced James Washington in targets last week, but Washington was the one actually catching the targets and doing something with them. And the elephant in the room, the dance. Do you throw on the disco?

And roll with Vance McDonald's the best match for quarterbacks against the Cardinals. It's also by far the best matchup for tight ends. But Vance McDonald, I'm just not impressed with him. He has done literally nothing of note this year. I apologize. Week two, he had the multi-touchdown game. But since then, it's maybe he hits 30 yards. Yeah, I'm fine.

Putting him in. I really am. I get it. He has not been great. You just said maybe 30 yards. He had, you know, you go back five games ago. He had a, you know, five games ago to three games ago. He had a three game stretched seven targets in a row. Three back to back to back games of seven targets. That's phenomenal. In those games, he ended up with 30 and 33 yards. It was garbage nothingness. And those were Mason games, right? Sure. But, I mean, the point is if he's involved in an offense.

and it's against the Arizona Cardinals. I think you can play him. I'm not playing him over everybody. If Jack Doyle's out there, I'm going to grab Jack Doyle. I'm going to play over Vance McDonald. But if you have no options, or maybe this is more of a DFS play when you want the cheapest of the cheap. Mike Gisicki versus the Jets or Vance McDonald. I'll take Gisci. That's really close to me. If it's DFS, I'm building lineups with both. It's just Kyle Rudolph.

Or Mike Gissiki. I'm sorry, or Vance McDonald. Kyle Rudolph, I assume Thielen's going to be out. Jacob Hollister against the Rams or Vance McDonald. Vance. I'll play Hollister. I guess I'm just not as enthusiastic, but there's no reason I shouldn't be. It's just that Vance is going to have to score. There's not enough passing volume and what they need to do in this game. Duck Hodges, the freedom they give him. I think Vance has to score, which is super easy against Arizona. It's super easy. If you're a tight end.

They have like a bogo. Buy one, get one free. If you get the first one, they'll give you one later in the games. Come on in. Higby, Dwellie, it doesn't matter. They give you two-fers. All right, let's move on. By the way, real quick, Christian Kirk is at our wide receiver 27 on the week. Really disappointing game last week, but he was tied up with Jaylon Ramsey for a lot of that game. Are you confident enough to play Kirk at home with Kyler in this one? Not.

I'm not super excited about it. I think the Steelers defense is very legit since I've gotten Mika Fitzpatrick. He is a guy you can start and a flex, but I would hope I have better options. What seems like a wild anomaly, because the sample is far too small at this point. Christian Kirk this year has been far better on the road. Yeah, I can see that as three good games have been on the road. He hasn't done much at home. A.J. Brown or Christian Kirk? A.J. Brown.

Really? I'll play Christian Kirk. I think I'll play Kirk. All right. Let's move on Sunday night football. Seahawks, Rams. Just talked about it. Seahawks at 10 and 2 taking on the Rams at 7 and 5. Rams are one point home favorites. Here we go. Russell Wilson, the ping pong ball for fantasy owners of late. He's averaging the most passing yards. Ping pong balls go back and forth. Yeah. It's really just been hanging out on one side.

Oh, you say he's been more of a stink? Yes. Stank? Yeah. Stunk. Yeah. He's averaging the most passing yards per game, highest quarterback rating and lowest interception rate of his career. That's why he's an MVP candidate right now. Against the Rams in week five, 268 yards and four touchdowns. Chris Carson and Rashad Penny combined for 38 carries last week. Two touchdowns on the ground. Penny had another through the air. Both of those guys are playable to me in this matchup.

Yeah, I agree. Chris Carson is a guy that you have to continue to start, and Rashad Penny has worked himself into a guy that you can start if you're in need at the position. I thought about what it would take for me to make Todd Gurley a start of the week this week. I have start of the week type of confidence in Todd Gurley. The production has been better. I bought over 100 total yards when we did Buy Sell, I think two days ago. So I'm in on Todd Gurley this week. Mike, Jason, you guys sold it.

You heard, what was it, Sean Ming-Veigh come out and say, what's been the key to getting Gurleymore work? And he said, not being an idiot, which is kind of finally vocalizing fantasy football fans in that equation. 19 carries last week, 25 and week 11. Safe? Would you at least throw him into the safe category? Yeah, I'll do that. I think he's safe. He's my running back 14 on the week, so I don't think he's a guy that you're going to bench.

But, you know, you, that my worry here is simply that if the Seahawks get up, that's when they tend to, I guess, quote, be an idiot. Because, you know, you've seen them go away from Gurley when they're down. And he's not as involved in the passing game. But that's not necessarily what's going to happen here. The Seahawks are favored. Which, I mean.

I'm not the Vegas line expert, but I was really surprised. I just think I picked the Rams to win. The Rams, Vegas is saying, are going to score more points than the Seahawks. And I, that just feels incorrect. That's how a win works. Exactly. You just say that's how a win works. So you take the Seahawks. I like the Rams in this game, Mike.

As in who's going to win? Yeah, it's basically a heads up. Yeah, I took the Seahawks to win the, the real wildcard decisions for me in this matchup, which is, we're in a bizarre land that we are here. Tyler Lockett, Cooper Cup, the number one wide receivers for these respective teams who these dudes have been awesome through stretches. They have evaporated into just missed. Cooper Cup, fewer than 70 receiving yards in four.

straight games, Tyler Lockett, with the literal goose egg last week destroying the souls and playoff chances of many teams. I have far more confidence in Cup on the basis. Then Locket? Because, you know, first, I think the Rams got some things figured out last week. Cooper Cup, we have ranked higher than Lockett. Lockett is a, we just don't know what he's dealing with.

First, he's dealing with this contusion that sends him to the hospital. Then he's dealing with an illness and was super sick and was out there for the majority of the game, but didn't see targets. Like, I have more confidence playing D.K. Metcalfe than Tyler Lockett this week. No. I do. For real? Absolutely. I don't blame you. Yeah, you were talking about guaranteed targets in production. Metcalf gets in-zone targets every week. He seems to be a guy that they go to on third down. I like Metcalf more than Lockett.

Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes sense with those last three games. Lock it over the last five games. And keep in mind, this includes when he was the wide receiver one against Tampa Bay. Is on average the wide receiver 34. Yeah, there's just no confidence. Now, on the Rams side, do you still have more confidence in Cooper Cup than Robert Woods? Not more. I have about the same. Those two guys I'm starting for sure. None in Brandon Cooks at all.

Target counts for Robert Woods are insane, 11, 9, and 18 in the last three games. He's averaging 16 and a half fantasy points per game pretty consistently through that stretch. So Robert Wood seems like a guy that you should be starting. You asked the question about Vance McDonald. If Gerald Everett sits, which he didn't practice on Wednesday or Thursday, I'd play Tyler Higby.

over Vince McDonald. I would too. Seattle is atrocious against tight ends, not to the degree of Arizona, but pretty close. And Higby is coming off a really strong game utilized in this offense. I don't think I'd play him over Hollister. I probably play Hollister over him. It's not just the performance by Higby this past week where he destroyed the Cardinals, but this week we have, we've seen a transition where Gerald Everett was.

The fantasy community, we all wanted Gerald Everett to become something, and it's taken years. But this year he finally was putting up games. He was seeing targets. Tyler Higby is seeing targets. What I'm saying by that is we've seen a shift that tight ends are actually being used now. There has been an awakening. Sure. They're actually being used in this offense. And if Tyler Higby is the lone man, then yeah, I would play him with top 10 confidence. Yeah. Yeah, he was the...

honorary start of the week. I just didn't know what's going on with Everett. Hollister, you can play? Yep. Any world where you can play Brandon Cooks? No, I don't think so either. I mean, Brandon Cook's over John Ross. I'll go there. Oh, you found it. All right. Last one. Monday night football, Giants, two and ten, Eagles, five and seven. Eagles with a chance to tie the Cowboys at six and seven atop the NFC East that the Redskins are going to win.

rebranded NFC Least, am I right? Oh, high five, bro! Yeah. I think you might have, there's no way you didn't steal that. Oh, that's a Jason original? That was right off the dome. It was pretty easy. I'm gonna be honest. I didn't dig deep for that one. That was just right there. You added an L to the front. Which is what they've all been doing. Oh. Oh, there it is. All right. Eagles are 10-point favorites. I like them to cover.

It's Eli Manning's return. Most likely, Daniel Jones not expected to play. Carson Wentz, my start of the week, Giants are incredibly consistent in giving up top 10 performances to opposing fantasy quarterbacks. It's one of their best features for fantasy. One of their trademarks. Yes. 45 and a half point over under in this game. It looks like Miles Sanders will be the main man in the Philly backfield. Excellent.

Sequin Barclay. Yesterday on the serious show, we talked about players that have been the most disappointing on this season. I brought up O'Dell, Jason brought up Sequin. I mean, you drafted him to be the number one guy and you haven't gotten that kind of performance. He's been outside the top 20 for four consecutive starts. He was only outside the top 20 once all last year. Yeah, it's not good. It's not good. And I don't know how limited he is with injury. I don't know how much of it is quarterback shift. And maybe you get a little boost with Eli Manning.

and his desire to not be hit repeatedly by Philly's pass rush. Maybe he drops it to Saquan. I think Saquan's certainly, you're going to play him. I mean, he's a top 12 guy, but pretty close to where I expect Miles Sanders to be this week between the two. Yeah, I mean, I would clearly go Saquan over Miles Sanders.

But sure, they could be near each other. I do expect the top 20 performance from Sequin with all the dumpoffs expected from Eli Manning. It's not a great matchup. The Eagles are very stout against the run. But if you do separate kind of the first half versus the second half of the year with the Eagles, they were much, much better against the run that first half. The last little while, you know, Chicago carved him up, Seattle carved him up. So they can be beaten on the ground. And hopefully Sequin is just...

getting more targets, which we expect from Eli. There were plenty of games last year where Sake 1 wasn't a great runner because the offensive line in the situation the Giants put him in. But he was never outside the top 20 because the target volume was so high. Yep. So you got to hope for that. At wide receiver, Alshan, my start of the week. Love him this week. The Giants have been friendly to opposing wide receivers to the tune of the second worst in football. 35.1 points per game given up to the position.

Can you play anybody outside of Alsham? Would you take your shot on Nelson Aguilar as a flex this week? Nope. All right. It's not preferred. I don't think it's a... Not recommended by doctors. Side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, and fantasy losses. What I mean is I don't... There are situations where I will play him. I'm not like...