Week 16 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, Christmas Episode - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/24

You don't have Leonard Fournett. You don't have Chris Godwin. It's easy to say Brady's going to have a chip on his shoulder and wants to come out and wants to win the game. D.K. Sportsbook has him with 27 points. The problem I have is they don't need to do a lot to win this game, probably. Yeah. So, you know, we've seen, in Tampa, we've seen Tom Brady play a half before. You know, and you don't have. What about last year? Yeah, against Detroit. And earlier this year, he didn't play the fourth quarter.

of a game. Normally when that happens, you've smoked them. But I could see, here's the worst case scenario for Tampa Bay in this game, for fantasy purposes. First touchdown of the game, it's Ronald Jones, okay? Well, that's great if you have Ronald Jones. Yes, that's fine. I'm for Brady. So Ronald Jones scores, and you know he's not going to catch the football because he can't. And neither can Kishon Vaughn. That's why they signed Lev Bell. That's the only reason they did that is no one else can catch it.

But you go out, you score on the ground, you score on defense, you kick a field goal before the half, it's 17-0. And how many, you know, what's your upside for Brady on at that point going forward? And can he accomplish it with Antonio Brown, Tyler, Johnson, Burchad, Perryman, and Gruncowski? I, unless I have an incredible backup option. Joe Burrow. Oh, goodness. Tyler Huntley. I, man, the Tyler Huntley versus Tom Brady is.

The ultimate courage test of, like, process-wise, Huntley is probably the better play. But the thing, like what you're, the picture you're painting, I get it of maybe they go up and Tom Brady hasn't done a lot and they don't need to. But the Bruce Ariens MO has always been full throttle. It's if we're going to score and we're, we're going to keep scoring. And if the.

If it actually gets to the point where the score is high enough where Tom Brady's not playing a fourth quarter, it's because it's like against Miami. They scored 45 points. And if they score that many, Tom Brady is definitely a part of it. And he's made, I mean, he made some things happen up in New England without elite weapons. What if I told you? Still has gronk. What if I told you that the Carolina Panthers having given up a big game to the fantasy quarterback position?

despite the slide since week six. Yep. What quarterbacks are we talking about there? So 17 to the Giants, whatever, eight to Atlanta, six to New England, three points to Arizona, and they gave up 23 to Washington, Taylor Heineke, gave up 13 to Tua, 11 to Atlanta, and then last week it was 21.8 to the Bills. Man. I'm still, I'm playing Tom Brady's a top 12 guy. Okay.

I guess that's the question. Top 12, though, is not where he's been. He's on the cost of top five, top two. Yes. Brashad Perriman, Tyler Johnson, are you taking any shots with them in this game? We still need more news for Brashad Perryman. He was on the COVID list. We are told by the last update from Coach Ariens that he's very close to coming off with that list.

I mean, the last time we saw Perryman was the heroics, right, of the overtime touchdown. Tyler Johnson played 95% of snap, seven targets last week. He would be, if it's not Antonio Brown, that's where I would go. Grankowski is my start of the week at the tight-in position. Yeah, he should be great. The Chargers at 8 and 6 take on the 3 and 11 Houston Texans in Houston. The Drafking Sportsbook line, Chargers minus 10, over unders 46 points. Gives him 28 implied point total.

18 for the Texans. Everything on paper says this should be a whoopin. You might not have Brandon Cooks with the COVID list. Rex Burkhead was ruled out last week, and he scored, he had 19 opportunities in a game he was supposed to be out of. That's a lot of opportunities for a game he didn't play. Sometimes I just wonder how David Johnson feels over there. Sad. Yeah, that's fair. But without Brandon Cook, this offense may have trouble moving the football. Agreed.

And so Justin Herbert is the quarterback one since week three. He's locked into your lineup. And what you're hoping for is you're hoping for something Houston really hasn't done, which is to give up a ton of points to the fancy quarterback position. You think to yourself, well, Houston's a bad team, a bad defense. But for whatever reason, for whatever means they keep giving up points, they haven't really given a ton up to the quarterback. Because they give it to the running back position. Yeah, so it's been.

It's been a while. It's been since week four that they gave up more than 25. Yeah, but I would still be playing Herbert. Of course. I mean, Keenan Allen back. Mike Williams, you know, he had the injury scare, but he should be back. And those guys were in for me. The question is now, let's look at the running back for the Chargers. Echler on the COVID list. We, as at the time of this recording, we don't have any other updates about that. He.

We do believe that he is vaccinated, which means that in the protocols, he could theoretically make it back by Sunday. But I'm on the side of more preparing for him to not play, and I think he won't be active. That's just my gut feeling against, again, not a doctor or anything like that. I think Justin Jackson is playable in both scenarios. I agree with that. He's a smash top 15 play if Echler's out. He's a flex play if he's in. I wanted to bring up some names, though, to test that.

I'm sorry, that is not allowed on this show. Echler is in. Do you play Justin Jackson or Tony Pollard against Washington? Justin Jackson. Do you play Justin Jackson or Devonta Freeman against the Cincinnati Bengals? Justin Jackson. All right, let's keep moving up. Devin Singletary against the Patriots. You take the volume, the perceived volume? Yeah, I'll take the targets. Okay. Keenan Allen, Mike Williams. Keenan Allen is locked.

in your lineup, but Mike Williams is essentially a blindfold play at this point. When you put him in, you're just praying. I mean, it's been a long time since Mike Williams has been consistent. I mean, he had one kind of outlier, decent game in week 11 against Pittsburgh where he scored. But you talk about touchdowns. He scored one time since week six.

So at this point, you are not, I'm not forcing him into my lineup. How does Herbert have all these touchdowns? Where are they going? He's six points away from the number one quarterback and he's done it essentially without Mike Williams. Like what you're saying in the past, whatever, eight weeks or so, Mike Williams has one touchdown. Keenan Allen has five on the gear. Who's catching these touchdowns? Dynasty players. Go get Josh Palmer. Sure. Because we're on contract gear for Williams, right? Yes.

I think Josh Palmer is a really talented player. Okay. And I think he is a perfect compliment to Keenan next year. So that would be a target for me. But Mike Williams is not somebody I'm forcing into my lineup. Jalen Guyton, who's been catching touchdowns, he is on the COVID list as well. Russell Gage or Mike Williams? Russell Gage. Brandon Ayuk, Mike Williams. Oh, man. Hopefully.

you're not answering that question because Brandon are you played last night it's a super strong point and so how many points did he score you mean as we predict this because we're recording it right before the game if Randenai you scored 20 I'll take those oh no hey I give you credit for realizing that because we're in a time warp with this recording yes not a good question though not a good one

Your start of the week Van Jefferson against Mike Williams. Ooh, that's very close. I would go, I'd probably go Mike Williams there. Yeah, did you see that one play by Jeff Wilson last night, the one where he, you know, did that shimmy shake and broke it for like 46 yards? I wasn't sure how high we were going. I was like 80? No. And remember how Matt Al was when that happened? Just using the secret here to speak it into the universe?

The Bears at 4 and 10 take on the 5 and 8 Seattle Seahawks. The Drafking Sportsbook line, Seahawks minus six and a half over under his 43. Russ Wilson's not been the shame. Completing 61% of his passes since returning was at the 72% mark in Weeks 1 through 5. We believe Rashad Penny will be the guy again. But, you know, came out due to injury, lost the touchdown to DJ Dallas. So Penny would be the start if you have to pick one. Yeah, he would.

And, you know, Dalvin Cook did not have success against Chicago on the ground. So their interior linemen were playing great in that game, no 10-yard runs. Matt Calf's my start of the week at wide receiver. 12 targets last week. He's been eight or above in five of six. And Tyler Lockett were expecting to be activated and be back out there. So there is value to be found here. I would be playing Tyler Lockett as a top 15, top 20 option.

But he carries risk. He carries risk of we've seen some of these players who have missed a decent amount of time returning from COVID to not a full-time role. Again, I would play him, but that'll be a question you've got to ask yourself as a fantasy player. Devante Parker or lock it if he's active? Locket. David Montgomery looks like a very strong start. The Seahawks defense, they struggle against the run.

Second to last on the year, 27th over the last six weeks. Montgomery is going to get a lot of work, I think. And you just have to lean on volume there. Yes, you do. Darnel Mooney, it's been a tougher three weeks since the breakout of sorts. Yeah. You know, you like Colquette because the targets have been there as a kind of value tight-in play in this game. And the matchup over the last six weeks, the Seahawks are 29th.

I don't have a lot of confidence in Justin Fields. He has been the quarterback 10 in three of his last four starts, but you saw the floor as well with the... He got hurt, though, right in the Baltimore game? Yeah, he only played half of that game, so that's not a... I mean, it was not going well before the injury happened, but he still would have had time to salvage it. I don't have confidence that Justin Fields could...

exploit an okay matchup here and give you a top five performance, but I still think that he is safe as a top 12 streaming candidate. What was the total, Brooks, maybe you remember this. What was the James Winston touchdown or the turnover number in his special? Was it 30 picks? Yeah, he was, I think he was 30 for 30. So Justin Fields, mind you, this is including a game in which he was injured and left early. His pace since week seven.

So the last six games he started. Okay. This is the good and the bad, right? He's on pace for 20 picks. Okay. And 26 fumbles. That's a lot of fumbles. So that'll be 45 turnover pace. So that's the downside is that you're going to give some points back. But the upside is, you know, he had a 10 for 103 rushing game. He had a 9 for 74 rushing game. He had, you know.

a rushing touchdown against San Francisco. So you're playing with fire. You probably don't need to play on this week in the semi-final game. But heck, when we're recording this, by the time you hear it, there may be another quarterback on the COVID list like Tayson Hill. Yeah. That's a very fair point. And which that's great. We should be mentioning this. Whoever the best backup quarterback is on your waiver wire, if you have the room.

You should pick them up right now either as a defensive move against your opponents or just an ultra-insurance move for you because you don't want Sunday to roll around and all of a sudden your quarterback is gone. I pick up Tyler Huntley in part because I didn't want my opponent to have them. And in part because it was like, you wake up and things change overnight. Yeah, because you're rolling with Herbert and we know that the Chargers have, COVID is going around their locker room.

At lunch today, I think Papa Josh was saying it almost feels like Week 17 for all three of the playoff weeks, where there's a level of unpredictability that we've always been able to avoid that we can't avoid this year. And it sucks. It really does. It does. It's not fun. If you're new to fantasy football, this is not normal. No. This is not usually how it goes. No, I'm in normally a much better mood this time of year. Before we jump into the Pittsburgh match, I want to think today's sponsor, Pristine Auction.

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