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

That scares me. If this wasn't in Houston, I would easily pick the Texans. This was one of the hardest games for me to see who's going to win. Yeah, it gives me pessimism around the Quentin Johnston, like having a follow-up performance as well. I don't think the downfield opportunities are going to be there. I don't think that's the game plan against Houston's pass rush. I think that will make it difficult. He's always good for an opportunity there, but I do feel a little bit worried that you're going to get a letdown from Johnston. I, Derek Stingley. Huh? Oh, yes, yes. And I have a championship matchup where I'm very much struggling with Alec Pierce versus Quentin Johnston. Alec Pierce gets the Jags. Yeah, that's a tough one. Quentin gets Houston. And as of right now, Pierce is in my lineup. Now, we do have word of Woody Marks full practice on Tuesday. Okay. So Woody marks. Unfortunately, the matchup stinks now. Woody, you took your time. You had good ones. I think he was hurt.

I don't get in there. Mike's an old school guy. That's what he's run some dirt on it. But yeah, I think if Woody Mark starts, you start him. Yeah, I think you do. But this is a low scoring game. Dalton Schultz got back into the end zone again last week, five for 35. You could do worse than Schultz. I like him more than Gadsden. And Nico Collins. Nico's really, to me, the only lock must play. Hampton is a probable play. This game, I mean, could it... I think Hampton is a must. I don't see how this game, you know, hits 50 points. Yeah, it's going to be a lower scoring affair. Baltimore is 7 and 8. They take on the 9-5-1 Green Bay Packers. The Vegas line is Green Bay minus 2.5. The overrunners 40 and a half. I think Al is very happy this game is early on a Saturday to try to wipe the...

a taste of the last week's disaster out of his mouth. It's also shorter for Mr. Jordan Love to get back from his concussion. This is true. And the Green Bay, you know, you would expect them to be favored by more than two and a half at home if they knew that their quarterback was going to be back out there. Which the floor says today that Jordan Love remains in concussion protocol, but we'll practice today after going through a walk through yesterday. So progressing through it. I mean, we were talking about anecdotally of. Love's concussion was the helmet, was the impact, was the helmet to helmet. It wasn't the whiplash into the ground. Which, yeah. Which I, anecdotally, I just feel like when I'm watching guys hit their head on the ground, those are the guys who miss the next week. Well, they need to win. They need a win or a Detroit loss to get into the playoffs. I mean, they're not a lock. And we might not have a producer if they don't get a win in the next two weeks. Baltimore would be eliminated if Pittsburgh wins.

They only have 9% playoff chance, but, you know, they're hoping to get Lamar Jackson back. You have starting quarterbacks that are banged up right now for both of these teams. The overrunners just 40. It's not a lot. Do they call each other and be like, I'll sit in my guy if you sit here. Give us each a week to rest? It's wild because, like, Malik Willis is also banged up. They think he'll start. or is capable of starting. They think he'd be ready if he has to start. Both him and Huntley are pretty similar in like they can be productive backups. They can get the offense moving enough. I've been impressed with Willis every start he's had. Yes, but he will. I mean it came out I guess nine for 11. He threw the big touchdown right to Dobbs? Yeah. Just in the when they had him you know for that stretch run a year ago, whatever it was. And they were winning games.

They were very run heavy where Josh Jacobs limited on Tuesday with the meeting. If you're counting on receiving options, I prefer the snoop side. So it's like Zay Flowers with Snoop Huntley or the other guys with Malik Willis. I'm on the flower side. So who would you rather start Snoop Huntley, Malik Willis, or Josh Johnson? Okay. All right. Huh? Guys. This is a championship team? Yeah. Most points scored in the league by week. I mean, you scored 89 last week. This should have been me and Mike. Malik Willis. I think I lost to like 137. He played 64% of the snaps and he was 10 for 44 on the ground. We know that is part of what the game plan would be. Remember the hat? My hat situation? That's what I would do. I think you need to get to the hat. All right.

Pull the name. Write a letter to Santa. See what he would do. Josh Jacobs, obviously, he's not going to practice much if at all this week. Is that still good for him? No, no. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Was it actually good for him the other week? No, I was lying. I was lying. I was lying. It would be better if he was healthy. Thing is, I mean, you just mentioned it at the top of this matchup. You had me convinced that not practicing was good. If he's active, you're playing him, right? At home. If he's active on playing him, they need him. And I think that they hopefully learned a lesson last week where he wasn't injured to the point where he couldn't go back in. They took him off the field. They lost the game. Losing love, losing Jacobs, losing Micah. It's been a bad couple weeks for Packers fans. Very unfortunate. Did you see that little giff of the guy that's like pretending to wake up from the coma?

And he's like, oh, how are my seven and one Colts doing? They still leading the way in the AFC? You might want to go back to sleep. Green Bay two weeks ago is my Super Bowl pick from the NFL. I would. I agreed. I don't feel that way right now. No. I like Sam Fran more. I like Seattle more. I like the Rams more. You like the teams that are in the playoffs more. Better odds of winning the Super Bowl. I agree. The Green Bay is going to make the playoffs. It's very likely. It's not locked though. No. And it would be exciting to go to the final week with the Lions having a shot. Yeah. For excitement. If you don't have a horse in the race. It does make me kind of want the Ravens. I do want the Ravens to win this game only from a standpoint of that might make the Ravens games matter. That might make the Packers games matter more. That might make the Lions games matter more. It's just more exciting football next week. Play Derek Henry.

I was just going to ask. But John Harbaugh said that it was a planned rotation. That's why he wasn't in there. He's going to say how many touches for the superstar crew of Keaton Mitchell and Roshin Ali. I'm going to say too many. That's my number. He said John Harbaugh, in retrospect, would rather have had Henry in there starting the final drive. Yeah, I get it. I understand where he was coming from. I do understand what he was saying. I don't. It's dumb. I agree with you that it was dumb at a certain point in the game when you're up and you need to ice it and you have to win this game. You can't take Henry off the field when he's crushing every play. I mean, I've complained about this, not just a fantasy complaint, but just for Baltimore. Like, Derek Henry could be on the field for third downs. It's okay. Yeah. I would like the defense to think.

Well, they might run it. I know it's third and five. They might run. But it's not our third down packages, Mike. It's so ridiculous. But a something to monitor, just pay attention to it. If Baltimore loses, then that affects Pittsburgh. And Mike Tomlin did say this week, if Baltimore loses, they might. This is Saturday. Yeah, on Saturday. They might consider doing some things with personnel in their game. because they will have been, everything will be locked. Man. Which is basically just Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. It's probably, it creates a... I mean, there's nobody else in Pittsburgh your start. It's... Right. But it's, like, it's scarier. I've got Warren in two title games, and I really hope Baltimore win, so I don't even have to consider it. They could sit Rogers. Oh, yeah. Because Rogers has been really hurt. They should sit Rogers if they don't need... Or play them a half. You know, like,

If that's something to consider and pay attention to and we'll Kenny Gainwell was almost my start of the week. He's been so good without D.K. McCaff. He's currently the team's leading player in reception. So he'll be more involved if they are playing that game. So hopefully it's nothing and we don't even have to think about it. But you need to be aware. We'll be here Sunday live, right? Yes. Also, if Jacobs misses, please don't. Forget about Emmanuel Wilson. Yes. He was very good on the ground last week. He could be a league winning type of player. Absolutely. If Jacobs misses this game, Emmanuel Wilson is a must start. 100% at home. And he is, I mean, like Devin Singletary, I think he will still get touches, even if Josh Jacobs plays. See the over under in the Pittsburgh Cleveland game? Oh. No, I haven't. 33. 33? 33 and a half. Mike's face says.

That's a lump of coal in that stocky. Yeah, don't love that. Which game is that? Pittsburgh, Cleveland. Speaking of Cleveland. Which will go down if Baltimore loses, which they should. Baltimore should lose this game. Dylan Samson returning to practice today. Okay. So for the team that lost quench on Judkins. Yeah. Samson. And just in time for my last place, Dynasty team. And Pittsburgh, Cleveland is one of the games to watch for weather. Watson Dobbs. Jaden Reed, are you playing any of them without Jordan Love? Without Jordan Love, probably not. I think that you'll have better options out there. If I had to start one of them, probably Christian Watson. Despite the injury, he was still involved, still gets the target share. He's the most explosive athlete. That's the way I'd lean. Okay. This game's a little bit wild. There's some unpredictability there with the starting quarterbacks.

how everything's going to play out. The defense has been better for Baltimore. Packers have a good defense. Do you guys, it was a while ago. Mike, you probably remember. You're the one with the memory. Matthew Golden. He was a first round pick. He was. You remember him? Way back in this past year. Yeah, no, that was back. The last draft. That was this year. Yeah. Most recent. I remember that. Well, he did play 31% of snaps and have one target for no catches last week. That's cool. Man. A swing and a miss. Sure looking like it. This is why they never drafted any quarterbacks for Rogers. They knew that they can't. Wide receivers. They knew that they couldn't draft wide receivers. Why do it? When you are this bad with this much opportunity for an entire season that isn't really marred by injury.

Your outlook in future success is like you are, not that it hasn't ever happened, but you're in like the 10% odds betting market. I think Mike is preoccupied by the waivers that just went through in our league of record. Oh. Where he went after. Someone in our league fully tried to sabotage me. Oh my gosh. Because you signed Brenton Strange as your insurance for Kittle. Mm-hmm. Brenton Strange and Tayson Hill were my top two options. I got strange because I still had two fab. but someone in the league put claims in on both of them. Wow. Taking some shots. Wow. So, Mike, you've been, Jason and I were on the other side of this. Yeah. Mike, you've been on the side of do what you want to do. Yeah. You still feel that way? Yeah. Even if both had been taken? I would have gone got conscious big basketball, but it's the game. It's the game. Okay. Well, I. Looks like your opponent signed the Buccaneers to play against Quinn Ewers. No.

I knew I couldn't do anything to stop that. In the listener league, I did get Kirk Cousins and Josh Johnson. What? So how did you not go through? No competition there? Well, no competition on those guys. But I did also block Jake Tongis and AJ Barner. So he's he was stuck with Gunner Helm. Do you know how much you're going to get beat by in that league? Yeah. I'm going to say 18. That was fantasy forecast presented, as always, by prize picks. Seven days of Picksmith is back. Unwrapped, the great max discounts on the app through December 26th. Then use the code footballers and get $50 in lineups when you play $5. Let's do a little Christmas mailbag before we head out for the holiday. Mailbag. We do want to hear about your titles. Hashtag Foot Clan title over on X. Send it through. Let us now the week's going.

If you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com or dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. First question comes in from Diego and Puerto Rico. Oh, bonjour. Hey, big fan from Puerto Rico for my fantasy championship, do I bench Lamar with the back injury for Trevor Lawrence? Yes. Yeah, I would play. Mike, were you entertained? Yeah. I think Trevor Lawrence, the matchup. the health, the heater he's been on much better than Lamar. And you were asking this question in the office. Do we have a t-shirt ready for championships? We do. Oh, fantastic. We have a couple of them that are getting finalized. But every year we release a Footland title t-shirt at shopballers.com. Reserve me a couple. Okay. Clip it. Clip it. Yeah. Stephen in Georgia. Oh, no. If I lose and you play that back, I'm going to feel worse. Yeah. No.

Yeah, yeah. You won't feel better. We'll feel better. I'll feel better. I'll feel great. Stephen in Georgia. I clip it because then when I win, I will play it over and over. Can I start Stevenson over Taylor? So Jonathan Taylor. Wow. Poof. Romandre over Taylor full PPR. No. I agree. That's a bridge too far. Jonathan Taylor has not done hardly. anything compared to what he was doing for the majority of the year. And he's still been decent every week. He's so involved. You know, he's got a baseline of points that is still very high. And then he hasn't, you know, he can always score a touchdown. He's not been a top 12 running back since week 10. No, I, I, I, I'm not, I agree with you. His floor is high, his ceiling is low. But I would start Jonathan Taylor.

Joseph in California, would you rather start Harold Fanon on Sunday or wait for the decision on Kittal Monday night? That's an easy Fanon. It is very easy Fanon. I mean, Fanon has been so good where it's like you could make the argument that if you know Kittles playing, but he's got the ankle injury. Yeah, that you should still play Fanon over Kittle this week. So the fact that you don't know. Yeah. And Jake Tongis is a, he's a decent player, but there's no guarantee his. role in the offense has any significance. There was a note earlier, at least I saw it on Rodo World saying, like Shanahan saying that Tongis will be the one who would replace him. Oh, I have no doubt he would replace him, but he won't replace him. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. He's not George Kittles. Otherwise he would be playing. Yeah, you could win games without him, is what I'm saying. And Kittle feels like not that. So Kevin and Phoenix with Henderson still, TBD, do I go with Aaron Jones on Thursday night football?

or Stevenson against the Jets. Oh, Ramandre. Yeah, Stevenson is the better play anyways. And then he is also the, like with Henderson, with Henderson being TBD, that's your backup option for him. But he might just need to be your starter option. Like if, if Henderson is healthy, I still would consider playing Stevenson. Would you? I would. If Kittle doesn't play, would you play? I'm the wait no no answer this one answer this question uh Henderson still TBD like if he was active in this game remandre stevenson I would play Stevenson it's just a concussion and then Henderson's been the one getting more opportunities I've

I just the matchup I mean you're you're saying so Henderson we know he's active would you play Aaron Jones over no no Henderson over or remandre oh got some other question what are you doing other stuff I thought you guys answered the question you handled it we were mid are you putting this on us I put this on the mailbag that you're supposed to be a part of no but you had answered the question no we were asking you a question about it if we didn't answer it well I wasn't listening to you I know that's the point you're telling me it's our fault that you're not listening

You're telling me that the question was, would you play Henderson or Remandre if Henderson is active? Yes. Why is that a question? That's so stupid. It's obviously Henderson. You said Stevenson, but I didn't know what to go. I didn't know what the question was because I wasn't listening. I wasn't listening. I didn't know the question. Not my fault. Oh my gosh. Can't hold me accountable. You parent children, right? I had children parents. Okay, what's your dumb question about your dumb team? Go. Thank you. If George Kittle is inactive, would you play Jake Tongis having fun? Having fun. Or would you play Colson Loveland? Do you want to win the title? I do want to win the title. Okay, you play Loveland. Really? Yes. Loveland hasn't been that good. Oh, didn't answer your own question. I'm, I'm feeling out all the options here. We're here answering a Footclan question. Right in the middle, he's got a Tongis question. This guy.

Tongis and some of those kiddle absences earlier. I would consider Tongis over Loveland. Not me. But you have to get to Sunday night. Not me. Sometimes the backup tight-ins come in and they have a roll in the score of touchdown or whatever's going on. Sometimes they're invisible. Well, and I share it is the exact same game. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. I hope you lose by 1,000. That is it for today's. Sweet. Merry Christmas. That is it for today's show. Merry Christmas, everybody. We'll be back on Friday with a mega matchup show, all the Sunday games and the Monday night preview, and the shame. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers.