Fantasy Football 2017 - Title Talk, Studs & Duds, Week 17 Waivers

top three guy, but he gives you those top, a quarterback one number every single week. And then halfway through with when the Zeke suspension hit and the Tyrone Smith injury hit, everything completely fell apart for Dak Prescott. It was extremely disappointing. Are you expecting a bounce back for Dak next year? Or is this, is this more the norm?

Or is the first half more than north? I think we're going to end up landing somewhere in between. But there have been holes that have been exposed. You know, when he was behind that line with Ezekiel Elliott, at that time, DAC was set up for success. Everything worked well. And he was never asked to do too much. And he was able to succeed with...

you know, in that world. Now, if your team is not as good, if your defense isn't as good, if your running back is missing or your left tackle, you could see that there's a reason maybe he wasn't a first round pick. He's got some holes in his game. And I think going forward next year, look, Dak was one of my guys this year, one of my three my guys. I was super thrilled with him the first half of the year, really believed in him. But I am basing this off of film. What I've seen with my eyeballs over the last two months, really,

has been a bad quarterback. There's no other way to say it. He has missed throws. He's had poor decisions. Honestly, he just looks worse than Bortles if you're just talking film. And I don't know that it's this bad. I think right now it's one of those when it rains it pours. You're in your head. An offseason will help. And I don't think he's going to come back at suck next year.

They've certainly had a lack of consistency on the offensive side when it comes to missing Zeke, the offensive line issues. You know, they signed Terrence Williams to a four-year deal. He scored zero touchdowns this year. Zero. That was not. And then Des isn't who you expect them to be. Jason Whitten is getting up there in age. I would not be surprised if this team goes out and makes a splash at the wide receiver position to fix that issue. Now, I put Dak in the same category I put Derek Carr in. I think, you know, most quarterbacks are in this category.

You need to give them the ability to succeed with an offensive line that protects him. And Dak, Derek Carr, they both showed regression due to offensive line play, and then it got in their head, like you said, and just snowballed. I mean, Derek Carr is not as bad as he's been. He really isn't. I would hope it can't be. Can't be. Marcus Mario is another one. Absolutely. It's right in there. Their offensive line.

was decimated this year, couldn't run the ball, and all of a sudden Mario's no good. You know, even James Winston, regression from a lot of these second year, third year guys that, you know, you put them in a position to succeed, they're going to succeed. So they all need to do work. I mean, Derek Carr, Nick Foles, Case Keenum, those are some other poopers this week. I don't want to linger too long on some of these guys because we still have to get to waivers and we've got to get to some streamers. But at the running back position,

I think the biggest letdown for fantasy owners had to be Devante Freeman. Has to be Devante Freeman and... Because he was someone you counted on. A lot of these other guys, you know, now McCaffrey's in that category and Kenyon Drake. Yes, I agree. But those three are really the guys you counted on and didn't deliver. But Devante Freeman, in case you didn't watch the game and you were just tracking your fantasy scores, he had the ball on the one yard line twice. Yeah, it felt like half the game. Every time I looked, he was... He was the...

One turned into a fumble. The other, you're just getting stuffed. I mean, it's, that's just a really unfortunate timed bad performance from Devante Freeman. Yeah. I mean, it was a make or break week for fantasy owners and he fumbled on the go line. Got stuffed. Kenyon Drake, you know, has been one of my favorite players. Let me down.

I mean, that was what was the biggest issue, especially when it came to the fourth quarter and you thought, oh, he's going to be the checkdown machine. He's been over the last several weeks. Zero receptions. It was so bizarre. And he was wide open. I'm watching this because I had Kenyon Drake in our championship game. And I'm like, Jay, what are you doing? He's there. Just keep dumping it. You'll move the ball. Instead, he wanted to throw it out of bounds deep down the field over and over. Weird game for Derek. We can't.

Really wasn't on the field very much. He let fantasy owners down. Jamal Williams, despite getting the work and having Hunley back. His is the same thing. No catches. His line is almost identical to Kenyon Drake. And if you just, you add three or four receptions to that line, he puts up a fine fantasy game. Come on people. Mike Davis, his career ended on Sunday. Yeah. 15 for 25. Yeah, that was fun. What is that one point? That was a fun ride. Something per carry.

Jay Stu, not good. Nope. Lamar Miller, I'll say this. Every time I saw him with a carry, he looked great. Right. He didn't get very many. He got 10 carries. Alfred Blue had double the carries and had a much better game. Yeah, they were checking some things out. Crampus, six for seven, Doug Martin, enjoy your retirement. Oh, well. Sorry, that's harsh. That's really nice. Whereas I was correct with Gurley, there I was not correct with Dougie.

I believe you mean crampus. Cranpus, yes. Wide receivers, let's go Michael Crabtree. And a delightful goose. Al-Shon Jeffrey. How is that possible? It does not seem possible. Do we need to linger for the sake of those that were suffered with Crabtree and Jeffrey? Just understand, Foot Clan, that if you went down in flames with these characters.

We feel your pain because I, too, went down. Brooks, the judge himself went down in flames. A very, very good friend of ours who was watching the games with us. He got second place. He would have taken home $1,000 with one freaking catch. One Crabtree catch. So we know it. Unbelievable. Adam Thieland. It's been a few bad weeks in a row. What do you read into that? Diggs has been better than Theon in the last two weeks.

Six targets, not quite what you're expecting. You know, a game where, what, they got Chicago on the docket next week, and they still need to play to lock down that number two seed. I'm still going to trust him, but for Adam Thielen, who's been a stud wide receiver won, the vast majority of the year to come out and literally put up his two worst games of the season. He's the inverse girly. Yeah, that was, oh. All I was thinking.

while realizing how bad he's been for the playoffs is how good a draft pick Adam Thielen is going to be next year. He's going to fall like crazy and be undervalued. Is that going to happen? Let people down in a drastic way at the most important time. But going forward even this year, at home this week against Chicago, I would absolutely still be starting Adam. This last game, you know, I had shared last week. I was not that big a Case Keenham fan.

because it was very cold weather on the road in a game that could easily script out the passing. And, you know, at least this next week he's at home. And I think that'll help feeling quite a bit. What do you make of Brandon Cook's recent run? Two receptions in week 13. One reception in week 14. Four against Pittsburgh had the touchdown. And then two against Buffalo this week. So single digits, below five points in three of the last four games. How's that going to impact his draft stock? And should it? Was...

Was this first half of the year, Brandon Cooks, the one that was top 10, the real Brandon Cooks in this offense? Do we have cause for concern moving forward with Cooks even in week 17? It's funny because I had taken the L completely on Brandon Cooks. I thought he would be very inconsistent. But my projection for Brandon Cooks is he's going to be a wide receiver one who doesn't feel like you ever had a wide receiver one. And...

He's technically a two now. For those who rode him into the playoffs, you, it's going to feel like that, even though he helped, he was a key piece in taking you to the playoffs. He let you down big time. And I think that this is, not these numbers, but Brandon Cooks is, he's just, he's an inconsistent guy who is, he's a very gifted athlete, he's a, but he's an okay wide receiver.

That's fair. I would just throw this out there. And I don't know if it's the Achilles problem, but Brady to me has not looked anywhere near as good, just film-wise, not stat-wise. When I watch him through the last, you know, section of this season, as opposed to how he came out. And at some point, you have to know, like the age, the arm strength.

It will catch up. Like, you know, it will. It did for Peyton Manning. And you saw his throws, you know, a little bit less and more errant and the accuracy start to dip. And so I do worry long term, you know, Brady can't give you another good three years regardless of what he says. It would just be impossible. I mean, Brady, statistically speaking, had a, had a fine game. I mean, his quarterback rating was over 100, 75% completion, 224 and two touchdowns.

He's not giving you those. He's not a guaranteed top five quarterback. That's a weird influxing quarterback every single week. I think there'll be a lot of debate next year about the Packers, wide receivers. What do you do with Jordan Nelson in the draft? What do you do with Randall Cobb in the draft? That's going to be fun. They both stunk this week. Josh Gordon had a down week at Chicago. Marvin Jones and Golden Tate, neither was very impressive. It seemed like Stafford decided to be a quarterback for a quarter, and then the rest of the game, he just took it off, took a knee.

At the tight-in position, you know, this happened to you last year, Jason, but Greg Olson, he gives you this shiny star of a game last week and then comes out and gives three for 27 on six targets. Super disappointing. Outside of, you know, Olson, Delaney Walker stung, Cameron Bray did not deliver on the hope that you had with O.J. Howard out of the game. Otherwise, you know, that's pretty much it. Yeah. Tight-ins just, they pooped in their big boy pants this season.

All right, we're going to blitz through some of these Week 17 waiver pickups. Guys, let me know who you like. Put me in, coach. All right, wide receivers. Where are you looking? Assuming he's healthy, I still like Keel and Cole. I think the matchup in Tennessee should be really good. He's available in about half the leagues. He's just been scorching hot. If I, and I'll just piggyback on that because D.D. Westbrook is still available in half of leagues. I mean, of course, these.

percentages have owned. It's really hard to know how much that will translate to your league because most of leagues are done. But Keel and Cole, you could pick up both Keel and Coal and D.D. Westbrook, it's possible. And if Keel and Cole is in, the reports are good, I'm going to play Cole. Yep. And if he's out, then D.D. Westbrook even gets a bigger bump. Yeah, I like that a lot. You also have Kennell Wright had an okay game again. Chris Godwin, if Deshaun Jackson's out.

But Josh Doxon is back in play. I know it was only two catches, but he gets the Giants. And Kirk Cousins is playing for a new contract right now. He's playing. He's showing off for his suitors. Yeah, I like him next week a lot. So I'm good playing Josh Doxon. Derek Henry, the big running back pick up. This is it. And Geo Bernard, if Joe Mixon's out.

I mean, both, you know, especially with Henry. He's probably owned, but he might be owned by your team. And now you just get the chance to throw him in there. But if he's out there, he'll be a monster, even though it's a tough match. Well, he's always a monster. He's always built like a monster. It's just a matter of, you know, he hasn't had a lot of successes here either outside of 70-yard runs when the game's out of the way in the fourth quarter. So I'm, I'm not that enthusiastic about him, but against Jacksonville. We'll see.

Capri Bibs? Yeah, it's a great pickup with Somaget Pirine dealing with another injury. He left because of the Achilles. Capri Bibbs also gets to play the Giants because he's also on Washington. You know, a name I wrote down before the show that I really liked was Brandon Oliver. We don't know the extent of Melvin Gordon's injury. But I mean, if he's back, obviously Brandon Oliver is irrelevant. But if Melvin Gordon is out in a really important game against Oakland.

You are correct. Brandon Oliver would be fed the ball a lot. Peyton Barber is... Brandon Oliver is... Yeah, the Los Angeles Chargers running back. Yes, excellent. Peyton Barber has... He's been getting the workload. He is the Santa Claus to Doug Martin's crampus. Yes. Because Peyton Barber has been solid. He gets to play the Saints. Not the best matchup, but you could certainly do worse. I think that he's a fine...

By the way, following up on a previous comment, I told you I didn't have a lot of confidence in it, ESPN's now reporting multiple reporters at ESPN that Cardinals coach Bruce Ariens does not plan to step down after the season. Oh, really? And that the report is 100% not true. So that's a contradicting report, therefore we know nothing. So here's what I think. He's either going to be the coach or not. Oh, and we'll find out soon. Hot take. Tide-in pickups, Antonio Gates, Erica Ebron, have to be the two big tied-in pickups this week. Yeah, for sure. Yep. Grab. Which one would you grab?