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

This is one that I think I'm starting most players on both sides of the ball, including James Winston. I know there's fears with the coach saying, hey, we might play a different guy. That's a legit fear. But I think James Winston plays that, look, they still need to, I know they've got plenty of tape, but they still need to figure out what they're doing with Winston. And Winston's got something himself to play for in this game. He may play himself out of the game.

by the halfway point, which is the problem that I see. However, if I knew he was playing the whole game, you kind of like the matchup, you like Evans, you like Godwin, and Humphreys has been very active. I like Humphreys a lot this week. Can you play Tevin Coleman as he limps his way to the end of this season as a free agent? I want to hear about that injury. Yeah, the Buccaneers defense has been terrible with running backs. Dan Quinn said he's going to play. I'm fine starting Tevin Coleman. They're playing for that money. Yeah.

All right. I would definitely start Matt Ryan and obviously Julio. The question would be whether or not you can take that play on Ridley or Sunu. It's always a coin flip with those two. Yeah, it is. And here's what's crazy. So the Buccaneers, if we remember on the season, they're just terrible. But when they fired their defensive coordinator.

Their secondary improved a lot. The wide receivers and tight ends, they've been a top 10D over the last six weeks. They have not, and they've had some of these matchups where you go, oh, man, this team's perfect and they're playing the bucks. You've got to start these guys, and the pieces haven't been that great. So I might, I'm not all in on Ridley. You might look at the season-long matchup of the bucks and say Ridley and Sunoo are great secondary options. I'm not convinced. Starts of the week.

Asterix. I'm just throwing an asterisk on the starts the week for week 17. All right. Because you always have the you never know factor. But if they play, we like these guys. Right, right. And that's where we'll start at the running back position. I feel confident going with Jamal Williams moving forward here against Detroit at home all by himself coming off 25 plus fantasy points, depending on your format.

I talked about him. He was near the number one last week, and he's going to finish strong. He's a very confident, safe start in week 17. I'm going to go with CJ Anderson. Look, if Todd Gurley's out, he becomes an absolute 100% must start. He's going to be what he was last week, which means the guy on a great offense who gets the ball a ton. Right. You want that guy. It doesn't matter the talent level, which again, I think.

He is much more talented than he appears just in a straight line run. He's a good running back. And he's a good pass protector. That's why they brought him in. Yeah, I mean, they brought him in because they could not trust John. I think they would have been perfectly content giving John Kelly the bulk of the running work. But they couldn't trust him to protect Jared Gals. So I like C.J. Anderson. If he's not there, you know, I'll throw out.

Obviously, Derek Henry, you can stay in those flames, even without the quarterback. That's a obvious must-win situation. Those are, that's big flames, big flames. Big flames. You need a lot of light. A lot of Vaseline on your body. Is that like, to protect yourself from the flames? Does that stop you from burning?

A little bit. You know, if you cover your whole body in Vaseline, you can go, why don't the firefighters do that? Well, when you, I, why? Because they have to cover the suits on. They have a suit. They're like, this Vaseline stuff's messy. Let's just put on the fire retardant suit. Oh, that's a great idea, Jim. Because it only protects you for a small amount of time. When I, you know, when you go to Universal Studios and they do like the, the, like, stunt shows, pretty sure they cover themselves in Vaseline before they light themselves on fire. Or maybe it's not Vaseline. Some gelatinous goo. Do that.

Fair enough. My running back start of the week is Chris Carson and some might say, hey, Mike, I'm starting Chris Carson already. Yeah, I know. Keep starting him. Keep starting. Currently my number one. Do what works. Currently my number one running back on the week taken on Arizona in a game that I consider a must win. Are you talking about the game, the Arizona defense that just gave up 167 to C.J. Anderson. Two man off the street. Yes.

Yes, that's what I'm talking. All right. My wide receiver, I'm going to stay in the same matchup as Jamal Williams. Other side of the ball. My wide receiver is Kenny. Oh, he's so smooth. Gee. I love Kenny G. Kenny G. Kenny G. Kenny G. Kenny G. He is the one and only weapon on that offense. Almost put me to sleep. Simply a volume play. Oh, so smooth. So smooth. Kenny G. My wide receiver, look, I'm looking through different matchups and.

I want to pick the games that matter. And no, there's not a game that matters more than the Indianapolis Colts against the Tennessee Titans. It is a playoff game. Whoever wins that game is in the playoffs. Whoever loses that game is out of the playoffs. It is the most, I mean, you know, for certain teams, you know, there's games that are really important for half of the team where one team's already in the playoffs and the other team has to win. But this one, I...

This is a game where I'm positive that the teams are going all out, and that's where I want T.Y. Hilton. Mike? My wide receiver is pronounced with an Humphreys. Oh, I wonder who it is. I can't wait. It's Adam Humphreys. Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. The matchup against Atlanta. I think that he's safe for target volume. And then if they're going to get Ryan Griffin in there, I'm going to take the guy who goes with the short underneath routes.

for the third string quarterback that's never played in the NFL. So I think of the receivers. You're picking Humphreys for the guy, airmail versus the other players? Yeah. Okay. So it's more like a side mail. Sure, sure. I was running across. I will go with Gerald Everett at tight end. I like the emergence of Mount Everett. Look, here's the thing. This was much like the Herndon play last week. There are six to eight tight ends that rotate into the top 12 every week.

I'm trying to identify the next one to do it. Worked out with Herndon. I'm going to go with Gerald Everett. Five catches in two straight games. Love the talent. Mount Everett, as you said. Yes. Look, this could be his peak. Oh, you did it. Oh, man. Week 17, yeah. Mercy, that was good. Thank you. Good luck going after that, Jason. I don't want to. Starring Pierce Bros. I am sticking.

Remember Dante's Weeks? Oh, Dante's Weeks. Oh, yes! You've got to get a Brosnan reference in when you can't. I'm staying for the third week in a row with the... Oh, yeah. I mean, you have to. And it's getting more and more rare to get those in. It was a run by fruity. Evan Ingram. Evan Ingram has been great while Odell Beckham has been out.

He is a guy that has gotten you to this week 17 championship. If you were struggling with tight-in, stick with him. If you've got him, you've been playing him, you've been happy. No reason to pivot now. All right. You're going with EZE. Mike. Once again, New York Giants, how can you not get Evan Engram and Odo Beckham going at the exact same time? It doesn't seem like it should be difficult. The answer is Eli. Eli Manning. All right. A fair answer.

I can throw to one guy. Who is it? At the tight end position, I'm going to take Pittsburgh Steelers tight end. Vance Dance against the Cincinnati Bengals. Delightful matchup. Vance McDonald once again. Steelers need it. Let's go. Let's dance. Breaking news. Yeah, it's really not that breaking. I mean, it's literally breaking, but Jordan Reed is on IR guys. What? Oh, those. No way. Them toes are floppy.

It's unfortunate. Yes, it is. It's incredibly unfortunate. All right. Quarterback start of the week to round it out. I'm going with, well, I'm going with James Winston with an asterisk. I think James Winston is the overt, obvious, best, deep kind of streaming start of the week candidate. He's had 20 plus fancy points in five of six games. He's got Atlanta at home. But the Ryan Griffin News has me.

very hesitant about Winston. So at that point, I'm pivoting to a quarterback who's going to play all the snaps. You pick who it is. Nice. I'm going to stay in that same game. Matt Ryan has been surprisingly great this year for fantasy. I mean, he felt like because he had a stretch in the middle of the year where he was down, you don't realize how good he's been. He's in some scoring format. That's a top five quarterback on the season. He has the exact same.

thing to play for this week that he's played for for the past five or six weeks, which is nothing. And it's a good, you know, it's a good matchup. It's a good over-under. I like Matt Ryan. You know, he's gotten you there. He won the championship on my team last week and week 16. And so why take away? You're saying he wants a back-to-back title. He wants a back-to-back title. He wants to win last week and this week. Yep. Do it. All right, Mike. All right, my quarterback started the week.

He's a man. He's always coming up huge, especially this time of the year. Talking about big dog. Nick Foles. Look, Philadelphia needs. I'm going all on narrative this week. You don't have to go narrative. You can go 400 plus yards. Yeah, coming off the best game in Philadelphia basing history. Big dog, Nick. I look.

Just just absolutely enormous, enormous potential. And a game on the line for Nick Falls taking on a division mate. I like him. I like him this week. Swinging for the fences. All right. You want to talk about a guy's playing all the snaps? Oh, he's going to pick it up yards at a time. Yep. Jason Moore's Ironclad. Locked and loaded. 100% guaranteed boom, boom kicker of the week. Look, I'm already celebrating.

my championship from week 16 with a nice top surloin. But if you're playing week 17, go ahead and use the Rams Greg Zerloin. Is that truly the proper pronunciation of his name? No, it is not. Good. No, it is not. That is the least of our concerns with that segment. I will say this. That was the final. Jason Moore's ironclad locked and loaded 100% guaranteed boom boom kicker of the week, sponsored by nobody. Congratulations on another.

Congratulations on another successful year. Oh, man. I mean, you want to go back and just look at my track record of these boom booms. You're a man of truth, though. Don't do it. You really did celebrate a Week 17 championship. However, it wasn't a top sirloin yesterday. It was a filet. Oh, it was a filet and a butter cake. And so much potatoes. He had, Jason had, I went to lunch with him yesterday. We celebrated his title. I was the previous dynasty champion.

He's the current. Pass the mantle. Pass the potato. Did you guys do like a steak cheers? We also may or may not have like rolled around on the actual ground afterwards. Yeah, the potato skins to start were nice. But then you opened it as well with some potato soup. Well, I needed, yeah, the baked potato soup to go with my mashed potatoes. Right. And my French fries. And your French fries.

But then you had the buttercake after the sirloin. And I died yesterday. Oh, man. Yeah. Sounds like it. Well, more of a die of diabetes. And I die abetis. Always. Fantastic. We'll be back with the rest of the matchups. Good luck in week 17. No Thursday night football. Draft.com slash ballers if you want to play with us. And see you tomorrow. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodbye. Footcast today. Join the foot.com. You for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast.

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