Week 11 Matchups + Staying Water, Taysom Hill News - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/20

Really excited. Michael Thomas is finally back. My first round pick, he's through his injury here. The matchup is fine for Michael Thomas. But now you cannot possibly be excited. Jason, talk me into Michael Thomas. I can't talk you into it other than saying Michael Thomas is a world class, one of the best wide receivers in the league, and he should be the number one target in the offense, and he'll have a good target market share, a good share of the yardage.

But I expect all those things to be down. I expect the targets to be down, the yardage to be down. So I'm still starting Michael Thomas, but I'm certainly disappointed that the quarterback is going to be Tayson Hill. I do wonder who the deep threat's going to be because if this is a run, run, run, you know, it's going to be a lot like what you saw. I think what Peyton is going for is what you saw last year from Baltimore, where, I mean, if you between your quarterback and your running backs, if you're running, you know, 60, 70 percent of the time.

including quarterback rushes, the defense comes up and you bomb over the top. But you just can't take a shot having never seen what we have no idea what to expect other than, you know, hypothesis right now for a Tassum Hill led Saints. Yeah, and I would be actually more inclined to be, you know, Thomas I'd play because he's close to the line of scrimmage, surehanded, separation, high percentage throws. I don't think Peyton wants to make mistakes with this. I think that's part of the decision here is he saw some of Winston last week.

Took sacks, interception. Some mistakes took place. And I know, I know Tayson Miller said some fumbling issues in his limited reps. But I do think that they're going to try to put him in a position to, you know, just not ruin things for this defense that's been better. And that includes easy, high percentage throws to Alvin Camara and to Michael Thomas. So I'm excited to see it. Like you said, Jason, at the top. It's going to be fun to watch.

Also, Alvin Camara did not practice Thursday with a foot problem. That's true. He said he was fine. That's part of this. Didn't he come out and say he was fine? That's the report I saw yesterday. We've, we had this a couple weeks ago, so he should be playing, but you at least need to know that it's happening. All right, we talked about DeAndre Swift. Gallaudet didn't practice on Thursday. Marvin Jones did return to a limited practice that makes him a little bit sketchy with the knee, although I imagine if he's active, you can flex him. Devante Adams,

you know, red alert here. Held out of Thursday's practice. We talked about this on the series show yesterday, Jason, where what's the problem? It's the conservative medical staff in Green Bay. Yeah. They held out Devante Adams when it seemed like he was ready to go for a week longer and you wanted. They did the same to Aaron Jones. So if Devante Adams is struggling with something, they want him in the playoffs more than they want him for week 11.

And then Joe Mixon did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. I saw somebody tweeting out that they can't wait to put Joe Mixon on their IR spot for an 18th consecutive week because apparently that's what it feels like right now with Joe Mixon. Somehow it feels like he's been out much longer than Chris Carson somehow. I don't know why that is, but unlikely we see Joe Mixon on the field again.

T. Higgins missed Thursday's practice due to an illness. We don't have any reason to believe he'll miss the game yet. Same with Clyde Edwards-Alaire. There are other illnesses out there, breaking news, and some players are not COVID-positive and yet still missing due to flu or other symptoms. Corey Clemento is positive on the reserve COVID-19 list. They added Jordan Howard to the practice squad. This should excite nobody.

No, and I want to add a quick note here on Calvin Ridley, wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, because there is, I've seen differing opinions on what's going on with him. He's had, at least on Wednesday and Thursday, he had limited practice. Now, the, and some of the, like the blurb sites are saying, well, that sounds like he's going to be good to go this weekend because he's got limited practice. Let's see what happens on Friday. But the.

the actual report from the Falcons website kind of listed as he's not getting better. And so it's a situation that you need to be aware of in monitoring that I'm a complete 50-50 here. I don't know if Calvin Ridley is going to play or if he's going to sit. Just be ready. Now, this is foot strain, right? Yeah. I mean, it's just one of those things where I know they're different people and there's different types of foot strains, but.

It was expected to, oh, maybe he'll get there that week one for Chris Carson and for Joe Mixing. They're going to be ready. And so far, for both of those guys, it's taken more time than you expected and hoped than what the timeline originally said to get back from these footsprings. Ridley is at two weeks right now because he missed the game and they had the buy week. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Before we jump into the fantasy forecast, want to remind everybody,

Look, are you playing some DFS? We know you people out there playing your DFS, getting your Draft Kings on, your Fanduel on. If you want some help getting that done, check out the Fantasy Footballer's DFS podcast hosted by our own Kyle the Borgogan and Matthew Betts. They have been crushing it all year long. It's an entertaining listen. They are breaking things down. The fantasy football is about DFS for the rest of us. So maybe you haven't. Maybe you've never tried out some DFS.

Well, now is the time to do it. Thanksgiving Day is when you get in on the DFS action. In fact, the crew over there on the Fantasy Footballers DFS pod, they're going to put out a bonus Thanksgiving Day Slate podcast. Trust me, if you've never experienced DFS, you want to take Turkey Day up a notch. Turkey Day is going to be different this year than any other year. Why not take it to a whole new level by getting in on some Fandual or some Draft Kings with it?

on Thanksgiving, and you can get your help from the guys on the DFS podcast. It's everywhere you listen to podcasts, so go check it out. Fantasy Forecast. All right, I am excited. We've got the Megalodon show next Wednesday, and that's always an event, right? You guys, you got to, you got to, you got to.

I didn't know what that first sound was. Get some calories in there. Jason's ready to rumble. It's going to be fun. Yeah. Next Tuesday, I will be going to sleep at 7 p.m. to prepare my body. Now, every year during the Meglodon show, you eat a full canned cranberry sauce live on the show. Isn't that the whole bit? That sounds disgusting. Oh, you don't like it? No, of course not. It's a cranberry flavor jelly.

Oh, it's so gross. You and canned foods have coexisted in a big way. Call me crazy. I don't like canned jelly. I like my jelly in a bottle. I do call you crazy. The cranberry sauce in a can is spectacular and you're going to get some hate on this Twitter threat. Do you like regular cranberry sauce like homemade with the chunks of cranberry in it? I don't know if people have bogberries tried cranberries, but they're awful.

They're just not good. Cranberry juice is only good when it has like, it's half sugar. If you've ever tried real cranberry juice or cranberries, it's disgusting. If you've seen, yeah, I think John Oliver did a bit on cranberries and cranberry sauce and how bad the berry is. And he quoted a like ocean spray representative who put out. Yep.

who put out a letter that literally said the berry in it of itself has a like a pungent, nasty taste. An unpalatable taste. We called them bog berries. Yeah. But sugar solves all things. Yeah. Okay. Yesterday we covered a number of matchups, Eagles, Browns, Falcons, Saints, Bengals, Washington, the lions, Panthers, Steelers, Jags, and Titans Ravens games. Seven more today to get into. So why not start here? The New England Patriots, four and five.

Taking on the Houston Texans who are two and seven right now. Patriots two-point road favorites, 48.5 point over under. Some signs of life from the Patriots in recent weeks. And let's start at the quarterback position because, Jason, you brought up the case for Deshaun Watson yesterday. The fact that on a per play basis, this Patriots defense is not great on a per play basis. Now, they do limit opposing fantasy quarterbacks production-wise, but...

Watson is a one-play type of guy. You find Fuller, you find cooks, you do it twice on the course of an entire game, and you have a fantasy week. So still confident with Watson?

I am confident with Watson. I mean, the reality of this game is going to be what happens with the New England Patriots run game. The Patriots want to run the ball, slow the game down. They have the slowest pace of play in the entire NFL by a wide margin. And the reality is here, Texans have been very bad on the ground. They're the second worst team over the last six weeks.

in fantasy points given up to running backs. But I actually view that almost as a good thing. I think that when these teams are given up small yardage plays over and over and over and over to the Patriots, the drives take forever. You know, if you're getting 15, 20-yard chunks on this Houston, Texas defense, you're not going to be able to keep your offense on the field quite as long. And I do think that this game, you know, it's a 48.5 point over under, which is pretty high for a Patriots game. And I think it's going to hit it.

All right, Cam Newton. How do we feel about Cam? Is there more booty scooting to be had in this matchup? Are you willing to flex him out? Or not flex him out, but stream him this week. Cam Newton is like, Cam, Cam sucks for fantasy. Of course he's in play. Of course he's in play. Cam is terrible. And of course he's in play. He's only had two weeks on the season where he has not been a quarterback one.

He's been a top 12 quarterback every single week of the season except for two. And who out there thinks Cam's playing good ball? Anybody? That's why I say Cam sucks. Because you don't like 13 for 17 for 118 yards passing? Exactly.

You don't like 9 for 15 for 98 yards passing? I can't stand it. He's playing terrible football, but he runs the ball. He gets rushing touchdowns. You can absolutely play him in this matchup. I mean, the only two games. Oh, my goodness. Do you want to, I'm sorry, Jason, to cut you off, but you will be very entertained by this. I was just looking at his pace, okay? This is his pace from week three until now. So six games played. Passing pace. 2,600 yards passing.

Five touchdowns. He's on a five touchdown pace as a passer. And almost all of those weeks, a quarterback won. So stupid. Fantasy scoring is broken. That's a quarterback dumb. Yeah. Oh, nice. And I guess we didn't really talk about this in the Tayson Hill part of the show. What's your guys' confidence level to, you're in a one quarterback league. You play Tayson Hill as your actual starting quarterback.

Would you play him over Cam? Would you play Taysom Hill or would you play Cam Newton? I think I would play Cam because we know what we're getting. The matchup is good. He's been the top 12 quarterback. But Taysom is absolutely in play for all of those same reasons. I said it's a Tim Tebow-led offense. Tim Tebow was really good for fantasy because he runs the ball, gets rushing touchdowns, and you would expect Taysm Hill to have 50 yards. Jason can throw better than Tebow. And maybe Cam Newton.

Maybe Cam Newton, too. Yeah. Here's the thing. If you are in a matchup where you are a heavy underdog, I am playing Kasem Hill. Because Cam Newton, while you, the stat was accurate, Jason, these are like number 12 quarterback, number 8 quarterback, number 12 quarterback. This is not a ceiling type of play when you're throwing for 120 yards, and Jacobi Myers is your number one target. So that's the philosophy I would approach it with.

Damien Harris, I brought up the case for him yesterday as a great play, especially in standard leagues. The identity of this team is to run the football, and he's going to probably give you 100 on the ground against the Houston defense that is porous, to put it nicely against running backs. Do you touch any of the other running backs, though, from, like, do you take the touchdown shot with Rex Burkhead? Or is this just Damien, no one else?

I think you can. I think you can flex Rex Burkhead. If you were in the situation where he's in the same area to me as Chase Edmonds of flexing, maybe even a bit of a higher touchdown probability than even Chase. So he's, if you're in a deeper league, you can play him as a flex, yes. Jason made a great point about Brandon Cooks yesterday, what the Patriots do to shut down your number one option. Will Fuller's last three games against the Patriots.