Fantasy Football - Merry Megaladon! Starts of the Week + Matchup Mayhem! - Podcast for 12/24

The lack of commitment to Chris Rodriguez from the beginning hurt this team. I'm going to go Chris Rodriguez start of the week for the championship week. Yeah, the team had Bill fever and they should have just kept playing Chris Rodriguez. Crod, Crod, Crod, Crod, Cod. Now, Jason, I will just remind you, Cowboys Commanders is the first game. I know. You will probably be opening presents while that is going on. But what if that is my best present? I know. But that's the gamble. I mean, he's 39 years old. It sucks. That's the issue. He doesn't suck. He's been in the league for 20 years. If Philip Rivers can do it. He's five years younger than Philip Rivers. That's true. That's insane. That is insane. He's five years younger than another player playing. I'm trying to see if he's ever had a top 24 finish. He has. You just got to go back like his last. He hasn't in the last three seasons. He hasn't started in the last three seasons. Yeah. What are it? His last start starts was great.

But he was a 35-year-old. That was with against Cincinnati in 2021. And how'd he do? 302. 302. Hey, he had two starts that year. If you play him, I will be entertained. It's almost worth it. My team can't win. You have survived on Jaden, then Marietta. It would make sense to go to the third stream. Two stars that year, Jay. QB4, QB7. Look. I did just completely replace the Gino pickup with Josh Johnson. So I'll have Josh and Kirk on my roster. We'll see what I do. We all envy you. Yeah. At wide receiver, I'm going with Jennings. Joanne Jennings. Yeah. I don't know if you guys know this. He's a wide receiver one on the season. He is currently wide receiver 12.

Since week nine, he's been a consistency machine. He is also going against Mike. Last year he body slammed Papa Josh on Monday night football kicked them out of the playoffs. You said last week? Yeah. Oh, I thought you said last year. Yeah. I was like, what else happened? So, I mean, there's a great game, you know, Sunday night football against the Bears. The Bears 29th that scheduled adjusted fancy points allowed to wide receivers. Everything we hoped. that Ricky Pearsall was going to be an even more pump faked into believing, which is basically just the wide receiver one for a good San Francisco 49ers team. Ricky tricked me so good. Now you have a team that probably doesn't have George Kittle. If they do have George Kittle, they don't have 100% version of George Kittle. I think Juan Jennings is like, I can't imagine he's not the biggest name, but I can't fathom sitting him down. I agree. That will be a bit of a...

In Mike's matchup, he has kiddle. He is facing Jennings. A lack of kiddle does mean more Jennings. Yeah. Yeah. It should. I'm going to Drake London against the Rams because I think people might need a little bit of encouragement after last week's disaster. But he did have eight targets. Who's his quarterback? It's Kirk Cousin. We need targets. We need target share. And Drake London still had that in that first game back. Monday night football, maybe you get that Monday night magic. 49.5 point over under. It's in a dome. We love those things. And over the last five weeks, this might surprise you too when you're saying, hey, the Rams, the number, what, a top three pick to win the Super Bowl right now. Over the last five weeks, the Rams are 30th in schedule adjusted points to the wide receiver position. They don't give it up on the ground. Correct. And they can be beat in the air. And I think that Drake London should still be in your starting lineup and don't waver.

I'm going to go to Jacoby Myers. Last week was the Parker Washington show, but Jacoby Myers over the last six weeks, 25% target share. He is their main guy. Five reception, 60 receiving yards per game is his average. And the Colts past defense doesn't exist. Brock Party just went for five touchdowns and 300 yards. Crazy. The Colts just can't stop anybody through the air. Jacoby is going to cook. At tight end, I'm going Joanne Johnson. I recommended him as a spot start last week with Devon Valet out. He is the clear number two target in this offense. On the road against Tennessee last week, nine targets went eight for 89. And over the last five weeks, the Titans are 25th at Schedule Adjusted Fantasy Points allowed to tighten. The matchup is good. The need for him is good. Tyler Shuck has been shucking it very well. And he's still available in about 30% of leagues. So if you've got Brock Bowers or George Kittle, you've got to be looking at Joanne Johnson. He's my number one like,

could be on the waivers, pick up and play. Right. I think Joanne's going to have, he won't let you down. I don't know if you'll hit the ceiling with John Johnson, but I can't imagine he's under 50 yards. No. No, he's going to be, you know, seven plus targets, at least 45 yards. They're Tyler Shuck targets, man. Those are good targets. I'm going with Harrow Fanon Jr. against Pittsburgh. Let's finish strong here, my man, a 31% target share over the last five weeks. Shadour Sanders just throws the ball to Harold Fanon, and the matchup is good. Over the last five weeks, Steelers 26th and scheduled just a point to the tight end position. And, you know, just a shout out here. Rookie tight ends with 705 over the last 35 years, Sam Laporta, Brock Bowers, and Harold Fanon Jr. It looks great. This is a good sign for the future if you got him for free in your dynasty leagues.

Tyler Warren will be my start of the week at tight end. I know the people are scared, but the numbers last week, the most targets he's had since week 10. He had nine targets last week. It didn't turn into a lot because they didn't connect on a lot of those passes. But Tyler Warren is going to get the target chair. Jacksonville's a bottom third team against tight ends. It is a home must-win game for the Colts. I told you I might take this one as my almost upset. We'll see what happens when we cover it today. I think Tyler Warren is good for eight, nine targets, and that's good enough for me at tight-in. So those are your starts of the week. Let's jump right into the forecast. Fantasy Forecast, presented by prize picks. All right, it's time for Christmas Football.com. Three Christmas Day games. Set your lineups appropriately, people. Honestly, if you want the best tools, resources, rankings right up until kickoff, Christmasfootball.com is where you can go.

But to Mike's reminder, set your lineups, avoid putting players in the flex spot. The week is broken up into four different days in which games are being played. So you want to make sure that the earliest games are in your positional spot. So you have flexibility. There are a lot of players that are on the cusp of playing. You just want to be careful about that. Dallas, 6-8-1 against Josh Johnson and the commanders, 4 and 11. Dallas minus 7. The over-under is 50 and a half, but that... That line means that Washington is just an implied point total of 21.8. It's not bad. It's not too bad. Dallas was five and a half point favorites. They've moved to seven point favorites with the Josh Johnson News. They are two of the worst defenses in football. Certainly the worst past defenses for sure. It's tough. The rematch from week seven where Dallas won 44 to 22. Dallas is completely out.

So of the playoffs, it is, you got the worst week of the year for Javante Williams and he's dealing with a neck injury limited on Tuesday. That's a little bit disappointing. The matchup is great. I imagine you're playing him. But we're just kind of running through the end of the year for the sub 500 Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, and it's just something to pay attention to. I'm playing Javante. But. The Cowboys, one of their rookies, Phil Maffa, who had his 21-day practice window open last week, has been getting limited practices in. I wonder if we'll see him get a couple snaps. One of the interesting things on Dallas right now, Jake Ferguson has not hit 10 fantasy points since week seven of the season. There's a point in which he looked like one of the top tight ends in the game. It's been okay for some of those weeks.

He can be. But really slow. Not when Citi and George are both on the field. Yeah, under 20 yards receiving the last two weeks. And unlike the beginning of the year where he had, what, seven eight touchdowns, seven touchdowns? Yeah, those. He hasn't scored in five weeks. When C.D. Lamb was out, he was a top five option. Ferguson or Parkinson? I would play Parkinson. Cedie Lamb and George Pickens are in. Javante just monitor the practice status, but he should be in your lineup with the matchup. Chris Rodriguez is the start of the week on the other side. Tara McLaren I feel fine with in this game, no matter who the quarterback is. I agree. It seems like Josh Johnson's going to be the guy. Has he been on the roster the whole year? Who knows? I would think that you would want to know that. I would love to know, but I don't know who does have that information. Seems impossible to get. Oh, he did play last week. Yeah. No, I know he wasn't. I don't know if he was a mid-season signing when Jaden Daniels got hurt or something.

Probably. He keeps his, all of his clothing in a suitcase. Debo, Samuel, I wouldn't play. It's not been worth playing. So, I mean, the game's pretty simple. Obviously, if Mario is starting, that's who you're going to start then, Jim? Yes, for sure. He did sign a one-year contract in April. He's just been. Josh Johnson. Josh Johnson. Any other questions on this game? Do you feel like Dax's going to get it done in this one? Yes. He worries me a little bit, just in the sense that. I thought about making him start of the week. I pulled off of that. Yeah, I mean, he's been playing great. I'm not afraid of starting him, but there's that lingering like, oh man, if this game, you know, if the commanders with Josh Johnson can't do much and it's a boring, lower scoring game. But we haven't seen that much from the Cowboys defense. If I'm the Cowboys, I want to beat the crap out of the commanders. Yeah, that's true. It's, it's divisional. Like I don't, send a message. We're playing for nothing. I'm playing for pride of my division. The Detroit Lions.

who have a small chance at making the playoffs. They need to win their final two games. Green Bay needs to lose their final two. But that could happen. I mean, Jordan Love and maybe even Malik Willis could be out this week. Detroit, eight and seven, they take on the seven and eight Minnesota Vikings. The Vegas line, Detroit minus seven and a half. The overrunners 44 and a half. It's pretty low. Vikings with just 18 implied points. I know Mike is very confident and excited to be playing the Lions defense against Max Brosmer. on Christmas Day. I'm pretty happy about it. Yeah, I did see you have to bench the Saints defense to do that. Yeah. But Brozmer. This was the plan. Brozmer's averaging 4.7 yards per attempt. Jefferson had his best game in weeks last week, 6 for 85, but I imagine your guys' confidence in Jefferson this week is minimal. Yeah, it's very low. This is a situation where...

you need to look at benching him or what your options are. Brozmer is not good. The Lions need this now. The matchup is pretty decent. The Lions past defense hasn't been good most of this year. But if you're in the championship and you're looking at, you know, Justin Jefferson or Zay Flowers or Sutton or depending on the injury situation to booty, like even a Stefan Diggs. It's hard to be like I would rather play Max Brosmer's great wide receiver one than Drake May's wide receiver one. I was completely amazed at how bad the Lions defense was last week. I felt like that was the difference in their season. Like two 45-yard touchdowns given up to, like when you need a stop, you gave up two long touchdowns to Jalen Warren in this game where, you know, the seasons in the balance. I thought that was embarrassing.

Right now, they're 31st in the last six weeks against opposing wide receivers. If you want a reason to believe something good can happen for Justin Jefferson, that's your reason. I remember years ago, people didn't want to play Kenny Galladay on a Thanksgiving Day game because he was... Oh, man. It was... That was Blow? It was David Blow. It was David Blow. And nobody wanted to play him. And the first play of the game was a bomb touchdown to Kennedy Galladay. And everybody was all fixed. So if you want to hold on to something. Max Rosmer can't hold David Blouse jockstrap. All I know is that if you throw the ball to Justin Jefferson, that is your best play in that offense every single time. That's all I'm saying. I think it could work because that's the game plane. You're not going to have Jordan Mason again. You have a banged up Aaron Jones.

You do get to possess the football and you're playing a defense that has struggled. And you're at home. And so those would be the pieces of confidence. I think it would be hard to sit them down. It would obviously depend on the options. If you're talking Juan Jennings, yeah, I'm going to play Joanne Jennings. But if you start to get down into a lower category like, are you playing Harrison or are you playing Jefferson? Mike? Marve? Yeah, Marvin, who did Jack and squat last one. Oh, my gosh. That's where I'm more curious. Or Wondale. If I had them both, I think I would, I think I'd play Marv. What about Jalen Waddle or Stefan Diggs? I'd play them both. Waddle with viewers? No, no, I wouldn't play Waddle. I'd play Jefferson. Okay, Diggs. Diggs will have an opportunity against the Jets. Addison, you're not playing him as a secondary wide receiver with Brosmer. It's not that complicated on the Minnesota side.

The other side, did you see the ambiguous little posts by David Montgomery? No. You guys not see this? Oh, no. Wasn't good. Oh, no. David, you're a team player. What's going on? You're kind of not a player anymore. He had the, I believe the 18% snaps last week was the lowest he's ever had with Detroit as a starter, barely touching the football, barely out there at all. Four carries. Yeah, he was, I think it was pretty clear that he was frustrated. The problem for David Montgomery, who is a good player, is if he is touching the ball, that means that Jemir Gibbs can't. And David Montgomery, good player. Jemir Gibbs, elite player. That's unfortunate, man. Yeah, it's really wild the difference a year has made because they're probably not making the playoffs. Right.

And then Brian Robinson is a good player. Brian Robinson is a good player. But if you look at the team that could be the number one seed right now, who just gives the ball every play to Christopher McCaffrey because it's their best option. And sometimes they break the man. But if he stays healthy, they're like on pace for the number one seat. I get it. It's hard. David Montgomery is a good player, but he's not Jemir Gibbs. Right. Yeah, he did not practice on Tuesday either. Amon Ra is supposed to try to go. Yeah, with an illness. He was sick from his playtime. Sick and tired. Yeah. If you don't want me, I'm not going to be there. Play Gibbs. They didn't even notice he wasn't there until after. David, be careful, man. Be careful with an all show you. Yeah.

there's a good, I mean, there's a chance he's not with this team next year. It's kind of crazy. The lions, like I love Dan Campbell. I love what they did last year. It is very fair to say some things have fallen apart this year. When you have to take over a play calling as the head coach, that wreaks of desperation, which whether it works or not, you lost Ben Johnson, then you say, I have confidence in these next guys. They don't do it, so you take over. You might not make the playoffs and you were heavy favorites to win the division. And...

Now you've got some tumult in the locker room. They've definitely dealt with a ton of injuries. They're top three in the league in injuries. You know who number one is? The Cardinals. The Cardinals. Yep, yep. Fire them all. Fire the training staff. Fire the head coaches. Fire the owner. Fire the owner. Fire the owner. Can you do that? Can we do that? I just did it. Did we pay for the stadium? Can we at least have them evicted from the stadium we paid for? Yeah. Is it possible if we own the stadium to have him not allowed on the premises? I'm for it. Because he might sell the team if you can't watch the games. That'd be great. That's all I'm saying. I'm for it. It's too bad we didn't pay for his house. Well, we kind of did. Put him out on the street. I guess we kind of did. Jameson Williams. Keep playing him. Yeah. But it is a tough matchup on the road. Alman Ra is supposed to go. Yeah, that was the news. There was the kind of the freak out on Monday. You're like, oh, Amman Raw.

Still dealing with that knee injury, but he's going to suit up. It didn't work out last week. Goff has been a top 10 quarterback in four or five games. Would you play him or Herbert against Houston? I think I'd play golf. I would play golf. Jacobi against Cincinnati or golf? I think I might go Jacoby there. Yeah, I'd go Jacobi. I'd go Trevor Lawrence. The Vikings are number one against quarterbacks on the year and over the last six weeks. Yeah, it is another, it's kind of like the previous game. Jason talked about it like the divisional matchup. Yeah, like there's pride on the line. Like if the Lions lose this game, they have the same record as the Vikings. Yeah. If they lose this game, guys, they will have lost to Max Brosmer. That will be one of the true insults that one might receive. We're not playing week 18. If I'm on the Lions, we lose to Max Brosmer. Everyone's suspended? Yeah, to shut it down. Whoever we're supposed to play next week.

Guess what? You won because we're not coming. Because we just brosmer. All right, let's take a break and we'll talk the rest of the Christmas Day games and the Saturday games. This episode is supported by prize picks, whether you're starting a new routine or making picks for the first time. Trying something new, well, that can be difficult. But in life and on prize picks, it always feels good to be right. I'm talking to Papa Josh here. It always feels good to be more right than Papa Josh. Look, prize picks now has early payouts. I just found out about this. If your player gets off to a hot start, you've got the option now to cash out on those winnings before the game even finishes. And they have a social feeds feature. You can share your prize picks with your friends. You can copy lineups from winners with one click. My only rule is you don't follow or accept friend requests.

from Papa Josh himself. Look, how simple is it to get started? We come from the app development world. We love the prize picks app. It's super easy to use. It's just smart and clean and easy. It's not like anything else out there. It's made the sport watching experience super. fun. It just adds some value to the sport watching experience, and we absolutely love it. So you can download the prize picks app today. Use the code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That is the code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right. All right, the Denver Broncos, 12 and 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs. Slightly favored.

The Denver Broncos. Yeah, they're just 13.5 point road favorites. Of a projected 36.5 points. They are favored by two touchdowns in a game that they think there's going to be about 36 points. Which gives the chiefs an implied team total of 11.5, which is now tied for the lowest of the year. That is the Andy Reed. Dude. Still Andy Reed led. Oh, man. Kansas City Chiefs at home. And they're, they're. current and soon to be former home in Arrowhead with 11.5 point implied total. There are Chris Ola Dukin. We'll be starting to hear what you do. There's always things that happen during the year where I wish we just had this sentence to say at the beginning like, hey, by the way, like here's some.

things that are going to happen this year. In week 17, the chiefs will be 13.5 point home underdogs to Denver, just so you know. Like that, that's just wild. The overrunners 36 and a half, Broncos 25, Chiefs 11 and a half. If Denver wins out, they get the number one seed, they get the buy. So it's a big deal. It's a big game and they should they should cruise, cruise to victory. No almost upset here with Oludokin. Olo Dukin. Maybe now there is. Yeah. Bo Nix, just so you know, Denver right now over the last six weeks, number one in pass rate over expectation. I don't think it's a coincidence that that is coming alongside the loss of J.K. Dobbins. It's not that R.J. Harvey isn't a good player. It's that R.J. Harvey is a different player. J.K. Dobbins is a between the tackles, tough running type of guy. I haven't really seen that from Harvey in any way that I've been impressed. I feel like I've seen good plays from Harvey's.

the explosive speedster. Yeah, get him into space, give him opportunities to get going. But he has been a top 12 running back three of the last four weeks since the by week, this matchup when you're favored by that much. He's pretty much a must start. Yeah, yep, I agree. You don't start any, any chiefs, right? No. So one catch last week for Kelsey? The only, Travis Kelsey is the only one that the guy can. I would try really hard to switch. I'm saying he's the only one on the team where I can try to tell myself the story of this team. If Travis Kelsey's going off or going out to retire, we got to get in the ball. But I can't. How can they get in the ball? I can't convince myself of that story. So it's no, I'm playing no one on the Chiefs if possible. Yeah. And then on the other side, Corlin Sutton's been cooking. Yeah, this, this.

Just to speak real quick to what Mike just said, I didn't realize. We just saw this with Taysom Hill. What could be his last game, you know, at the Super Dome. This is probably the last game. Yes. At Arrowhead Stadium for Kelsey. This is his sending off party. And I do think they'll try to get him a touchdown. I don't know if that's possible with Brosmer. Like everybody's not brooms. It's impossible with Rosemar. But. Oh, they're duking. Yeah, sorry. He might be able to do it. Carlton Sutton is quietly the wide receiver 11. The last three weeks have been good. On the season? Yeah. Wow. Who's the guy that you just said was 12? Jennings. So Jennings and Sutton with the quietest, most not hurt got them well got them to 11 and 12. The market share has gone up for Sutton. Pat Bryan is going to miss. Yeah, I'll tell you he's not playing this week. Pat Bryant.

Freaking idiots. Yeah. Troy Franklin, if you want to give it a shot, Cortland Sutton's a much better play. And that's that game. Saturday, Houston, 10 and 5, Chargers 11 and 4. This is a big one. Vegas line. Chargers minus 1.5. The overrunners 39 and a half. If the Chargers win out, they're the AFC West champs because they play Denver in Week 18. And they're, you know. They've got the shot to do it. The charges, it reminds, it's like the San Francisco 49ers. Yes, 100%. Like, wait, what? They're that good? The Chargers can win their division? Yep. And because they've just been quietly getting it done. They've won seven of their last eight games. Doesn't feel that way. The way that it's happened, it was like three wins, then a loss, then a buy week, so it kind of disappeared. And then they've kind of... Herbert got banged up. Yeah, they weren't demolishing people.

and they won some games that were lower scoring. So it just hasn't been super impressive. But I mean, seven of eight games is crazy impressive in the NFL. Both of these defenses are great. They're very good defenses. The over under here is just 39 and a half. And I can see it being a very, very difficult. Like I don't know how the Chargers withstand the pass rush from Houston. That's. That's my biggest concern. They're going to try to use Hampton, right? Get the running game going. Hampton has forced a mistackle on 33% of his carries. That is the number one. That's a great number. Least meow stat in the NFL, also the highest rate in the NFL. So Hampton is somebody that you play and you just... Wait, is, is Meowface still at zero force mistackles guys? Meals and Taylor? I have no doubt. Kyle, please. I need an update. I mean, he hasn't played in a couple weeks, right? I thought he played last week. He did.

Yeah. I saw him catch a pass and fall over. I need him to finish the season. He's checking on it. With no force mish tackles. Do you feel like Hampton is a medium play or an actually bad play this week against Houston? No, I think he's okay. He's at least a medium play. I know the matchup is terrifying. I get that. But when you're a workhorse running back who is talented and you're not just chasing volume, I'm playing him. Are we going to just? Is the Orande Gadsden era over with? No, not. He put me out last week and embarrassed me. And so he will go off. Let me be clear. If he had scored 75 points, you would have lost. That's true. You would have lost my 75. He didn't really put you out. Well, he didn't really put you out. Mike put you out. Mike put me out of misery.

on the face. Yeah, Mike. That was not a pillow on the face. He buried you 18 feet deep. That was, I wasn't even looking. You just came up behind me in one swipe of the blade. Yeah. Mercy kill. Yeah. Um, yeah, Gadsden, I wouldn't count on him this week at all. No, it's, it's hard to really imagine Herbert and the passing game having success. Their biggest struggle this year has been their pass rush. Their, their past protection. Um, their offensive line. just decimated this year. It's really sad. Seeing how good they are, the fact that they could actually, you know, win out and be the AFC West champs is crazy when you consider how destroyed their offensive line has been and what could have been for a magical season for Herbert should that offensive line have been there. But the combination of a lack of pass protection mixed with Houston's pass rush.