If I Were a Head Coach, Week 17 Starts & Matchups

He would. He would by comparison to Chubb, but nobody got receptions there. He had, but statistically, Nick, Sony Michelle was the guy who was getting more receptions than Nick Chubb. And that has completely reversed. Yeah, 2015, 26 receptions for Sony. Yeah, 22 receptions. 26 in college is a tonne for running back. Senior year, though, just nine for Sonny Michelle. So neither of them predominant in that role at the end. And Nick Chubb, look,

Next year, it's going to be interesting looking at those two players, seeing how the roster for New England shakes out. I think Sonny Michelle is, when I think about a second, third round player that could end up as a top-tier guy, he's in that category for me. With what the Patriots are going to need to become over the next couple years, Tom Brady wants to play two more years. That's just my take. Now, Nick Chub, he's been great. They have a great offensive point. Would you draft? Oh, Nick Chubb will go ahead of Sonny Chub. I would draft Nick Chub over Sonny

And that's mostly because of, look, if you put Nick Chubb in New England and you put Sony Michelle on Cleveland, I would take Sony Michelle. It's the back field being muddy in New England. All right. In week 12, by the way, New England won this game 27 to 13. Maybe they just subtracted the points there and made that the new line. Are you happy to play Tom Brady? He's at home. He's been terrible.

Over the last half of the year almost. Here's why I'll say okay. It's simply because the Patriots need to win this game. If they win, they end up with the one or two seed. If they lose, they could be in the wild card round. And it's week 17. So I'm okay with it only because it's home and the matchup. I mean, the Jets 27th against quarterbacks on the season 31st in the last six weeks. That's why I'm okay playing Brady. Tom Brady is...

Tom Brady has turned himself into a streamer. Oh, 100%. He's not right now in six point per touchdown leagues. He's not a top 12 quarterback. He's not even a one. So, yeah, I mean, I think you've got, I think you're getting mixed stuff with the name. I think if you had told people that there were three touchdowns coming from Rob Gakowski on the year, you might have said, oh, Tom Brady's going to end up a streamer. Yeah. He does not have the way. And then you lose Josh Gordon.

Yeah. He does not have the explosive weapons to make big plays anymore. You got dink and dunk with James White and Edelman. And then Hogan is your main outside guy who's never been something special as a Patriot. I don't want to play Brady this week. Even at home. Okay. Can we move on? Are you going to play Gronk? Oh, yeah. That is the big question. Oh, that is a legit question.

You know, there's definitely. I mean, we'll have to go names. Yes, I'm playing. Yes, I'm playing. Well, let's do, let's say gronk versus Herndon. Herndon. He'll play gron. Yeah, I would play gronk there. If we're talking up herndon, it's weird to talk up herndon, talk down gronk and then choose gronk, but it makes sense, right? Because we're talking versus expectations, but I would still take gron. All right. But gronk or the Vance McDonald. Grunk. I don't think you're going to say not grunk. Okay. I think we're going to, Mike, you of all people know.

You're at the, barely any of this ship is above the water line at this point. Oh, no. You've got to be standing on Titanic's, right? James Cameron is looking for me. I'm at the bottom of the ocean. James Cameron. You didn't get in one of those boats? No. James Cameron is searching for him. I went down with the ship. So he's looking for your bones. Me and the merman and the mermaids, I'm looking for Atlantis to save my life right now. He's in pitch black down there.

Yeah, the anglerfish with their lights and their luminescent bodies. That's all I can see, Jason. I'm gone. Mike and the anglerfish. That's it. That's all that's left of this season. My point is, I don't, we keep saying, Gronk. Oh, Mike. Week 17, do what you want. Week 17 is this, I finally learned my lesson. It's week 17. Week 17. Okay. Breaking news. Go back in time.

Edit undue on Rob Grancowski, please. Gronk has five good games at tight-in this year, which is terrible for Grunk. But as tight-ins go, that's still like, you know, David and Joku. I would argue Chris Herndon has three. I mean, three double-digit games. So I think you still stick with the at-home gronk. They're going to need him if they're going to do anything. Watch the Patriots win the Super Bowl. Just watch it happen.

You know it's a 50% shot. Find a way. Wouldn't surprise me a bit? The AFC is so weak. Oh, you're calling them out. Well, no, no. I'm just saying that. He's so weak? Yes. No. I'm just saying that they're weak. What are you talking about? Yeah. Chargers, Chiefs? Ravens. Yeah, they're not weak, my man. I think they're weak. Okay. All right. Who wins the Super Bowl? I don't know yet. Let me see who's in the playoffs. Okay. Then I'll tell you.

The 6 and 9 Panthers take on the 13 and 2 Saints. Well, this is the problem with Week 17. What are your fears starting New Orleans players in this game? Who can you be confident in? Drew Breeze yesterday came out, talked about the fact that Teddy Bridgewater would play in this game. Brett Row. Says there's, quote, no doubt he will be playing in this game. Chase him Hills. Like, what the heck, man? Well, you did see when there were blowouts this year, it was always Bridgewater coming in to mop up.

Also, if you're in a dynasty league, make sure you've... Bridgewater is not available. No, he is available in some dynasty leagues. I'm telling you. Just check. If you're in a dynasty, just check. If he's on a roster, great, no harm, no foul. But if he's out there... Really? He's not out there. No, I'm saying really about like you're interested in him? 100%. He's a starter next year in the NFL. Unless he resigns with the second. No way. I'll make that bad right now. Okay. Let's do it.

Waterbet. Petty Bridgewater is not going to be a starter next year. If he resigns with the Saints, obviously he won't be a starter next year. And that quote will come back to haunt me if he is. But I don't think so. He's not that good. I think he's better than a lot of starters. Name one. Josh Rosen. Oh, in your face. That could be true. That's the funny thing. That is the pot committed part of the NFL where you draft a guy up high. You've got to make him your starter when actually the Arizona Cardas could be better off. With Mike Blennon.

Just signing, no. If you're the New York Giants. He's not better with Mike Glynn because Mike Glynon is maybe moderately better than Rosen right now, but he's at his ceiling. Sure. Long term is not what you want. And by ceiling, you mean like his head is touching the ceiling. 10 feet tall. Yeah, he's a draft. If you're the New York Giants and you could get Teddy Bridgewater for a reasonable price for the next, you signed him to a three-year contract. That's the right. That's the solution. And you can get away from Eli Manning. Would you make that move?

Yes. I would at least put him on the roster so you could quickly pivot to him. Eli played well over the second half. Is Drew Brees someone that you must bench? You cannot play him. You cannot play him. The last four weeks he does not. That is another way of saying that. The last four weeks he doesn't have a single game with multiple passing touchdowns. And now you worry that he might not play the whole game. Correct. Is that the, do you have the worry for all the starters? Yes.

Yeah, I mean, essentially, can you trust any of them? No. Just say bench them all. I feel like. I mean, you can always trust. I mean, I guess you have to play Michael Thomas. Yeah, Thomas is the one I would be okay playing. But Camara and Ingram just based off of the position, I would expect them to be. Get ready for Keith Kirkwood to lead the team in fantasy points this week. Well, who's leading the team on, Mark Ingram can have a big game. Yeah. Mark Ingram could have a big game. I agree with that. I think if I, if I was coaching staff, I would try to rest Cameram more than Ingram.

But here's the problem. On the other side of the ball. That's where I was going to say. Carolina is talking about, look, their quarterback is Kyle Allen this week. Tyler Hineke is out, and they've already shut down Cam Newton. Christian McCaffrey, they said they're going to give him a rest. I don't know whether that's going to be three quarters or the whole game. We're going to find out. You have to be ready to pivot off of McCaffrey. If it comes out, I don't think any one of us would be surprised if he's just not going to play.

So are you interested in a 26 slash 28 year old running back Cameron Artis Payne who would project to be the starting running back? He would bring my roster Cameron Artist Payne. Yes. No way because the Saints. He's not a C.J. Anderson situation. Not in this matchup. The Saints run defense has been. Kyle Allen at quarterback is a problem for Cameron Artis Payne's upside. All right. I don't think you can start a Panther.

Devin Funch's 0% chance of returning to the Panthers next season. Agreed. I was looking at some early kind of tier jump players for next year, players that I was really excited about the potential. And maybe these are obvious ones. But Kenny Ghaladay, Calvin Ridley, DJ Moore, those were all names that. I thought you were going to say Curtis Samuel. Curtis Samuel is extremely exciting to me because he's going to.

People will be on DJ Moore. The casual drafter will know who DJ Moore is by the time draft season rolls around. Meanwhile, Curtis Samuel is going to be a eighth, ninth round draft selection. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. But I think DJ Moore might be worth that capital. All right. The nine and six Cowboys take on the five and ten Giants, giant six point favorites.

Interesting. Vegas seems to think what I think about this matchup. That's what Jerry Jones says. 41.5.5.0. Brooks, what is Jerry Jones going to do? You're the resident cowboy fan. It's kind of important that do you bench your cowboys or play your cowboys this week, Brooks? He should bench him. He should bench them? So should fantasy owners bench them? Yeah. I will say this. If the Cowboys bench them, I highly recommend fantasy owners to do the same.

Don't start benched players. Genius, Jason. Once again, the insight. The more you know drop. Yeah. It's in there somewhere. You're very smart. Now, generally, you have to know that ahead of time. So since you are all over it, what are you doing with the Cowboys? I'm doing the same thing. If I'm the Zika owner, I'm doing the same thing that I'm doing with Christian McCaffrey. I am getting another option on my roster to pivot to. I'm going to leave them in my starting lineup until.

Prior to game, if they say, you know. Do you just go Rod Smith? Back up for Dallas. I mean, I would play Rod Smith in this game. Against the Giants, absolutely. What about secret agent Cooper Rush, the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys? I thought you were making a play on somebody, but that's a person's real name. Yeah, his name is Cooper Rush. Yeah, it's awesome. He should be an action star tomorrow. Yeah. Speed 3 starring Cooper Rush. Cooper. No, Cooper Rush is actually a.

He's a CIA secret agent. This is just his cover. His handle is that he has a backup quarterback. No one would ever suspect Cooper Rush. So would you start if you knew that was true? No. No, of course not. No. Cooper to Cooper. What about Michael? Flooding plots. Yes, Cooper Rush. He kills it. At thwarting plots, which is worth no fancy points in my league. Correct. Any of the wide outs, anybody else on Dallas or are you just hands off? Can we, is this a...

I mean, no O'Dell in this game. Evan Angram, man. Sequin Barclay. Sequin, Barclay. And, you know, if O'Dell comes back, which he won't, then I'll play him as well. Seekoine is 17 fantasy points from breaking the rookie running back fantasy record. He was also one of the highly contested players than the top ten we put out. I had him at two. You know, I had a CMC and those guys. I think he will be.

In the conversation, I think he'll go anywhere from one to four in a lot of leagues. And some like Melvin Gordon more, some like CMC more, some like Zieg more. It's really how you project Barclay, but you can't really do better than Barclay did as a rookie, considering he's about to break the rookie running back record. You can do 17 points better. I think he'll probably get there. Next game. Next game. Moving on. Brooks, are we through the matches we're handling today?

How many do we have? No way, man. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. I want to do this one. You got one more? Yeah. All right. The six and nine Falcons take on the five and ten Buccaneers. Then we'll get into starts of the week. The Buccaneers? Not been a good year. Deshaun Jackson likely to move on. James Winston. I really like him in this game. But Dirk Cutter didn't rule out giving snaps to Ryan Griffin. Once again, week 17 fun. That is not the tight end.

that is currently rostered on the Houston Texans. That is the third-string quarterback that will probably get a few snaps. So, you know, what's your thoughts on Mike Evans' season thus far? Now, I guess you'd play him in this game, but how do you feel about Evans moving forward? Evans has impressed me this year. He's had to deal with quarterback changes. And coming in, I did not see him as a...

as a strong one. He was always an awesome fantasy player when it was him and no one else there. But with Humphreys pronounced with an Humphreys and Godwin and Deshaun Jackson and O.J. Howard, it was like, can Mike Evans really still be a fantasy one? And he's, he has been. He's a must play every week. It's the second best season. Yeah, he's been fantastic. So I'm playing Mike Evans for sure. I actually like this game a lot. You want a week 17 game that should have fantasy points galore.