Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 14 Fantasy Forecast, Starts of the Week, News

breaks out? He might. You get the four Cs. They just need three more. Wait, how is that the four Csies? Clive? Oh. Four Csons. Yeah, you're good at letters. It's the four seasons. Four seasons? I just took care of that. You're welcome. Oh. It's all right. Matt Schaub expects to play Sunday. His mother is proud of him. Good, good for you, Matt Schaub. Crockett Gilmore did not practice on Wednesday.

I don't know if there's confidence in Crocky Gilmore anymore. They're out of tight ends. They're out of players in Baltimore. Baltimore, this week they take on Seattle. Seattle. The Seattle defense may just win you're weak. Yeah, it's very, very possible. We got a bunch of other guys that didn't practice. Heath Miller didn't practice this week. C.J. Anderson didn't practice. Ronnie Hillman didn't practice. What do we think about those guys?

I think Anderson's going to miss. It sounds as if Hillman will play, but absolutely watch that. If he suddenly doesn't practice on Thursday, you better find a different option. You better pick up Juan Thompson, who I think is a solid pickup besides, even if Hillman is to play, with expecting Anderson to miss.

Robert Quinn, season-ending injured reserve, not coming back to that Rams defense. They haven't been the same without him and Chris Long by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they hit our waiver wire yesterday, and I don't think they're going to land on any rosters. I kept holding on to him thinking they were going to turn around. And then you see that news. Yeah. All right, Tyler Eifer, we expect him to play in Week 14. That's good. That's big news. It's big news for Andy Dalton that you got to take a little hit to AJ Green, unfortunately, because he was getting those nice red zone looks.

And then what do we think about the platoon in the backfield right now for Andy Reed and the Chiefs, Spencer Ware, Chalkandric West? What are we expecting this week? Because a lot of people want to know, hey, most of the questions that I have is not, hey, do I start Spencer Ware? Right. It's more like, hey, can I, do I start Derek Fadden? Or do I start Chircandric West against the Chargers? In that situation, I would start Darren McFadden for volume. I do think that West will pick up his...

his percentage of the timeshare. He was just coming off that hamstring injury, which clearly was a somewhat nasty hamstring since he had to miss essentially a game and a half with the injury. So I look for West to get more involved. Where will still be a factor. But if I'm choosing between the two of them, I'm going with West. All right. Before we get into the fantasy forecast, we do want to take a moment to thank the sponsor of today's show that makes this show possible. And that is a new one.

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And if you're wondering why I have number 12, it's because it was a gift from the Arizona Cardinals to me. Is that the 12th man type of thing? And that's not a lie. They gave this to me. And then I got to go on the field, and it was awesome. Very one. I remember that. I was pretty jealous. So let's talk about the game. I'm going to just, this is going to sound like pure, unadulterated Homer.

The Cardinals are going to destroy the Vikings tonight. There is nothing Homer about that that is just speaking factually. Mike said it best on chat last night, off the air, about the Minnesota Vikings defense is going to miss this week. So they are missing their free safety, their strong safety, their nose tackle, their best linebacker. They saw what happened with Seattle. While Seattle, they have a decent offense.

The Seattle offense is not what they have in Arizona. And that was even on the road, or Seattle was on the road. Minnesota got to be at home. It could be a blowout by halftime for Arizona if they decide to take the shots. Arizona is the number one scoring offensive football right now. Vegas has the game at almost a nine-point line in favor of the Cardinals at home.

I just don't see, I think the question for fantasy owners as well, especially AP owners, is how in the world can Minnesota score enough points? Now, these things can flip because two big turnovers, you know, a pick six and a special teams play, and the game's going to be really close. But if things went to chalk, I think it's an advantage of the Cardinals to score a lot of points and just see if Bridgewater can do anything, because last week we saw the Cardinals take on the Rams, they shut down Todd Gurley, and then they said, show me something else.

And they couldn't. The Rams couldn't do that. Now, the Vikings are a much better team. I want to give them credit. They're a very good team. We're saying that they're very hurt on the defensive side. And they haven't been scoring a lot of points. And you saw an exact recipe that Seattle, just last week, this is how you shut down the Vikings because Teddy Bridgewater has been so disappointing. I mean, most teams that you already know, stop Adrian Peterson.

and put some points on the board, and then the Vikings are just like a turtle flipped on their back. I mean, there's not much they can do at that point, except wriggle around just frantically. Stefan Diggs has taken a huge step back since midseason. You get nothing out of the other receivers there. Right now, no team. No team in football scores more, a higher percentage of their touchdowns on the ground than the Vikings do, which is a reliance on AP. We expect that. But if, so what do you do with Adrian Peterson is the question?

I mean, I know you're starting him, I guess. You have to start him, and you have to hope that he gets involved in the passing game more than he has been. Those little dump-offs have killed the Cardinals. I could see a situation where, you know, Adrian Pearson starts grabbing those, you know, when Mark Ingram played early in the year, that type of a back, a big bruising bat catching the ball in a little bit of an open field. I think that's...

what they are going to need to do. Now, whether they do it, that's what you hope for in Adrian Peterson. Andy, you and I have him ranked as a top 10 back because he's Adrian Peterson. Mike, you've got a lot of shade. Yeah, I think that now Adrian Peterson went full squeaky wheel last week, complaining as he does when he doesn't get his touches. So I don't think that it will be a situation the same as last week. They're going to force him the ball early. Early, yeah, exactly, early and try and get him going.

Just because of the way I see the game flow going, Adrian Peterson could be in big trouble. Guys that I would like to start over Adrian Peterson. Now, I agree with you guys. It's really hard in your fantasy playoffs to sit down your stud. There's kind of that rule of thumb. You never sit your studs. But man, this is a problematic situation. But guys, I like more than Peterson. Yeldin, Darren McFadden.

The Big Salad. We're going to talk about the big salad. Sean Drone later. Now, do I have the courage inside of me to play drone over Peterson? I don't know. Thankfully, I'm not... It's funny to hear them in a sentence like that. I don't have... I luckily don't have that situation staring me in the face. So here's what I think a fantasy owner needs to do if you're an Adrian Peterson owner. Because I think 95% of them, no matter what statistics we throw, including myself, is playing Adrian Peterson.

But here's what that means for your team, depending on your matchup. You might need to take some upside risks other places. You might not be able to rely on 20 points from Adrian Peterson or 15 points like you've gotten in the past. You might have to accept the fact he could give you an AP game in spite of the matchup or he could give me eight.

And then I need to make that up somewhere. I need the potential to make it up. That's how I look at it. If I was in that situation where I'm picking a middle of the road wide receiver or Devante Parker, I'm playing Devante Parker in that situation for the potential on Monday night. Well, luckily, it's a Thursday night so the Adrian Peterson owners get to see. Yep, that's right away. It's not Sunday night football where you're like, oh, what if this happens? You get to see it happen and then adjust accordingly. And this is another public service announcement. We've said it before, but this is the playoff week. There are some.

flex type of players that you're going to put in on tonight's game like Michael Floyd or John Brown. Oh, tonight's game. Get them out of your flex spot and into your wide receiver spot. I just want to say that before we move from this game. Don't start Thursday night players in your flex if you can avoid it. It just gives you more flexibility if they're going to be starting. And so other side of the ball, you're starting Palmer. Yes. You're starting David Johnson.

Absolutely. Yes. 24 touches last week on page. He should do the same thing. Andre Allington has been ruled out. Has he? He's out. Last I heard they were expecting him. He is ruled out. He expect him in week 15. That is the new report. So David Johnson, take the rock. Minnesota is 22nd against the run. They're going to be trying to stop Palmer in that offense. That's the beautiful thing about David Johnson is the defenses he's going to face, mixed with some talent.

What do we expect from Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, Michael Floyd against the sixth best passing defense? Well, Larry Fitzgerald, well, part of them being the best passing defense is Harrison Smith, and he's out. That's the problem with the Vikings. Everybody is out. Fitzgerald over the last three weeks has gotten more targets than any other wide receiver in football. I love Fitzgerald. He hasn't gotten in the end zone. They're at home. Just for Cardinals' offense.

Fitzgerald, Floyd, Brown, if I can find a way to get them in, I'm playing everybody. Okay. It's always hard to predict who's going to be the guy. Yeah, but the potential for a huge game for any of the receivers is there. All right, the Buffalo Bills travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles in a revenge game for LaShawn McCoy. The language and the words coming out. I mean, he is, I love that. He was upset.

He's so funny because he says all these things about, you know, Chip Kelly, I ain't going to say blank to him. Right. Well, I'm not shaking his hand. And then he goes, but yeah, I'm not upset with him in any way. I have no hate or anger towards him. I just got nothing to say to him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. So what, here's the thing. Does that mean that McCoy has more upside because of the revenge game? I mean, are the Eagles or Chip? If there's...

Bad blood, does the Eagles really try to stop LaShawn McCoy? The revenge game is usually a silly narrative to me. You're right, you're right. I'm buying in this week, though. I'm buying it completely. Jason might not be. That the bills are, I expect the bills to really give a concerted effort to get LaShawn McCoy in the end zone this week.

Now, Carlos Williams is very unlikely to play. He didn't practice on Wednesday. He missed last week. His arms been in a sling most of the week. Do we expect him? Probably not. No. And so this will be the LaShawn McCoy show. I don't know what we saw from the special teams in Eagles defense last week. It's still one of those things your brain doesn't process it. Nobody on earth started the Eagles defense against New England, and they were by far the best of the week.

So McCoy's on the field. Yes. What else do we see from? I mean, Taylor, I love Taylor this week. I love Tyrod Taylor and I love Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins is officially heating up with back-to-back 100-yard games. I just think that the Eagles secondary is exploitable. And like you said, there was just freak plays in that Philadelphia game. I think they went for the cycle. I mean, right? You had to pick six.

You had a punt return for a touchdown. Blocked punt for a touchdown. Just any kind of huge play, the Eagles picked it up. I don't expect all three of those things happening. And I don't know about you guys. But I don't think they're going to bust out all three again. They have been a big play defense. So where is that? Would you play the Eagles defense this week against the bills, Mike? There's always the upside with the Eagles.