Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 14 Matchups, Daily Dose, Mailbag

Okay. So would you start Vincent Jackson over Deshaun Jackson? No. I start Deshaun Jackson. I have Vincent Jackson at like 24. Deshaun Jackson? No, I have him basically back to back. Deshaun Jackson is getting a decent target volume four, a player of what he does where you want the big play, but he's still getting, you know, seven targets. It's close for me. It's close because of the matchups. Yeah. So.

The weird thing is the Saints have actually not given up a ton of yards to wide receivers over the last few games. So it makes me think ASJ has good potential in the offense as well as Charles Sims and Doug Martin. We'll see how that breaks down. Obviously everybody can't have a big game, but the matchups is delicious. And the Buccaneers are trending upwards. Now the Chargers head to Kansas City, to Arrowhead, to take on the Chiefs. It's funny because it looks like we always have the weather in here.

But where the dash is, it looks like it's going to be negative 48 out. So I'm going to like the defenses in that situation. What can we do? Rivers looked like a guy that was playoff startable. Now he looks like a guy that you have to run from as fast as you can. I imagine Philip Rivers right now and the guy from back to the future three coming up with his measuring tape. And Philip Rivers has no idea what's going on.

The guy says, oh, no, I'm just measuring you for your coffin. I remember that. Because Philip Rivers is going to be destroyed. Unfortunately, there is not very many situations where I'm playing Rivers. And by destroyed, I mean, his offensive line is in shambles. It has been all year. And the Kansas City Chiefs pass rush is spectacular. That is the strength of their defense. And he just, he won't have enough time. He's going to get hit. He's going to get sacked.

To the point of... Well, and he doesn't have reliable outside weapons anymore. Correct. Inman. We saw him have that pretty devastating injury last week. Stevie Johnson had a groin. Jayson, do you have an update? Yeah, I was going to say both Stevie Johnson and... Don Trall Inman didn't practice at all, and neither did Stevie on Thursday. So you're talking... That's not good news. You're talking about no weapons plus, you know, Keenan Allen. They went out and signed Vincent Brown for a reason. They are not expecting their guys back. Yeah, when you don't have...

good options to throw the ball to and you've got a pass rush coming to your face like crazy. You know, the one thing that does make me consider a little bit more will be Danny Woodhead. I was just about to say that that song has been sung three weeks in a row. It's over for me. Yeah. That's the same way. It's the same story every week. Danny Woodhead's going to be the beneficiary of a bad offense. No, he's not. He's going to be the guy they stop and they've stopped him every single week. Well, they haven't really even gone to him.

He's been stopped, yes, but he's not getting the targets like he was at the beginning of the season because they're really trying to get Melvin Gordon going. So, all right, Chark, West, Spencer, where? What was that? That was very syncope. Where in West? Where do we go? Well, I, you sounded like Captain Kirk over there. Make a decision. Which is running back should we go with?

You got to go with Char West here. I know it was very split, and Ware got the touchdown last week. It was split, but West was coming off of a pretty nasty hamstring injury. I believe that he is the much better fit for the offense. He is the pass catching back. I will still lean to him. Though I do kind of, I feel that both are startable. Where more is a flex, though? But because the Chargers...

The run defense is so bad. Char West or Gio Bernard for you guys? That was the question I was literally just going to ask. I think I would go Char West. I'll go Char West. Okay. I have Geo a little bit higher. What about Char West or Latavius Murray this week? Char West. Jeremy Hill? Char West. Probably still West. All right. And then the last guy I want to talk about here is the Jeremy Maclin effect of facing Verdette. Verrette. What did I say? Verdet.

You put a D in his name. Verdet was a, he's a player for the Arizona Coyote's hockey team. I was going to guess, is that a hockey? Yeah, it is. It is. So, Verrett and Macklin, last time they faced each other. It was not good. It was not good for Macklin. I'm not going to, Maclin's turning in the right direction right now. And I do think this is the type of game that if it goes according to script, which it can, lots of things change.

I worry about the passing offense for Kansas City in general. If they can get it done on the ground against one of the worst run defenses in football, if their defense can cause turnover, short fields, running offense, the yards might not be there. Because we saw this happen with Macklin. Jason, we talked about this before. Macklin had two big games, but against Denver, I mean, against, who was it? They played. Was it Oakland? When he had bad games?

Well, he faced somebody where the game was just over. This is one of those games. It was 33 to 3 was the final score of this game. So it's like, why would you use Jeremy, why would you use your wide receiver at all? You don't need to. And so that's the issue with this game is, is Kansas City going to come and just blow them out? You know, the truth is, can San Diego score?

on Kansas City. That's the question of this game. Without their weapons, can they score on Kansas City? Because if they can't, it's not going to be a very great game to play Jeremy Macklin, as my guess. Yeah. So he has been playing great. I still think he's in my lineup because that 33 points has to get distributed somewhere if they scored like they did last time. But it is worrisome that he only had three catches in that game. And game flow can be a problem. You know, it's funny how you can spin.

the perspective on a player both directions, right? Like, we're saying the Kansas City Chiefs are likely to win. Vegas has them as 10-point favorites, and we're saying that could be bad for Macklin. Well, because the truth is, just like last time, it could be the defense that's scoring. You know, it could be another pick-six. Rivers has three-picks-sixs on the year. So if the defense- How many has he, how many pick-six is, has Philip Rivers pick six? There you go.

Wheel! Oh! Water! And Alex Smith is the last guy I'm going to touch on. He had 253 yards, but no touchdowns last time he played against San Diego, like we talked about because the defense was putting a shalacking and the run game was out of control. However, I have Philip Rivers and Alex Smith on my team.

And I am tearing my shirt off like a free man. And I'm putting Alex Smith at the wheel of my team in the playoffs. And I feel very nervous about it. I like Alex Smith. He was the start of the week last week. Put up a 30-point game. He definitely can do it. They're going to score. It's just a matter of where that happens. He's running for basically 30 yards a week the last four weeks. So that's a nice little bump.

All right, we got to move on. Colts go to Jacksonville, take on the Jaguars. This game's basically a toss-up right now because of the Hasselbeck situation. Blake Bortle is coming off a five-touchdown week. Good game for Yeldin last week. Alan Robinson was a monster, and Julius Thomas on the Jacksonville side is ascending. He's my start of the week at the tight-in position. There's a lot of great reasons to like the offense for Jacksonville. Let's talk about the offense for...

the Colts because I don't think there are a lot of doubts on who you're starting on the other side of the ball. So Frank Gore, T.Y. Hilton. What, I mean, Hilton is the hardest person for me, almost this whole year has been the hardest person for me to say, oh, yeah, you got to start him this week. He's great. Yeah, because of his, what he does best is a direct conflict of what Matt Hasselbeck does best, where Hilton is a spectacular deep ball guy. Now, he can take screens and things and get it done.

As we've seen, we're two weeks ago. He had a great game. He had a pair of touchdowns. Even Moncrief got in the action over 100 yards. I can't recall what Hilton put up last week. What did he put up? Last week, he had three for 36. So that sums it up. Exactly. You've got a complete gamble. Low floor.

High ceiling. That being said, I would expect him to have better numbers against Jacksonville than he would against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who he put up the three for 36. So I'm a little bit more comfortable starting Hilton. The problem is going to be Hasselbeck's shoulder. He's practicing now. He's practicing in full. He's going to start. So there's no worries there. But, you know, again, the deep ball, I think would be the worry. Frank Gore, to me, is the cold that I would want to play. Why is everybody grimacing when they put Frank Gore into their lineup right now?

Because he had a couple games in a row where he looked like he was not running well, and he was hurt. You know, he was playing, but he was playing hurt, and he didn't run very well. Last week, though, he ran okay. He also got involved in the air. Last week, he was 13 carries, 45 yards on the ground, three catches for 49 yards through the air with a touchdown. So really saved his fantasy day with his catching. Yeah, yeah. And...

Today, I mean, this week with Hasselback with that hurt shoulder, I mean, that's a checkdown Charlie type of situation. Yeah, it could be. This is why people are concerned with Frank Gore. The same reason they were at the beginning of the year, he's older. He has so many carries on his body. Can he sustain an entire season that you couldn't do this stretch late in the season where he looks like he is slowing down? So of course you're going to have concern on him. I don't blame people for it.

Falcons go to Carolina to take on the Panthers, the undefeated Panthers, the Cam Newton-led Panthers. What are we expecting from the Falcons' offense? Because they haven't had much. Yeah. If you look at the problems that I see on that offense, and the reason they're turning this direction is you have Julio Jones and no one else. You've had very limited production from an old Roddy White. You've had Leonard Hankerson now on IR. You have Devin Hester who hasn't contributed at all this year.

It's like Tammy and Julio and Devante Freeman. Freeman. Yeah. But Freeman's not a wide receiver. But he has to play one on TV. Yeah, he basically is. I mean, that's why he gets five, six catches a week. You can book it. So, okay, so where do we want to start in this discussion? Jonathan Stewart has eight straight weeks of 20 plus carries. He's in your lineup. Cam Newton's in your lineup. Yes. Ted Ginn.

Julio Jones, talk about both sides here for me. Talk about your concerns with Julio. Where's his baseline really with Josh Norman? And should people be concerned about a couple of limited practices this week? I don't think you should be concerned about the limited practices at all. That's veteran treatment. Calvin Johnson has been limited since 2012 basically every single day. And he plays. And I expect Julio Jones to play. It's the hot topic of...

Julio Jones versus Josh Norman. Yeah, there's some concern there, but you play Julio Jones in this matchup. This isn't...

I don't have the Adrian Peterson concern that I had for... 17 targets last week for Julio Johnson. Yeah, that's pretty nice. Julio is going to be fine against Josh Norman. I don't think it's a gigantic deal. Josh Norman stays on the outside. They move Julio around. They'll put him in the slot. They'll put him on the left. They'll put him on the right. And so he'll have Josh Norman on him, you know, a good chunk of the game, but not all game. And if you look, it's actually kind of how they use Brandon Cooks as well.

who played last week. Brandon Cooks had six for 104 and a touchdown. So to say that Julio can't have a good game is silly. And I'm not sitting, Julio. Julio's who got you to the playoffs, start him and start him over most all guys. Do you think Julio Jones, when he's lined up in the slot, will point at Josh Norman and be like, you can't guard me? Probably not. And then Josh Norman, drats!

Foiled again. Probably not. Probably not. What's going to happen? What's funny is that Norman has been talking up the matchup a lot. He said, I think he said a Jerry Maguire line of like Julio completes me or some joke about their matchup. And Julio's like, yeah, I don't care. He's like, I don't get motivated by that. I get motivated to play for my teammates. Yeah, he doesn't.

Well, okay. So Ted Ginn, and we're going to touch on, Ted Ginn to me is John Brown with worse hands, of course. I'm not giving him John Brown's catching ability. But he's a guy that you can have some confidence starting because at least a few times a game, Cam Newton's going to take the deep shot. Does it connect? Maybe. We saw John Brown do it last night against Atlanta.