Starts of the Week + Week 14 Breakdown, Mr. Irresponsible - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/10

Philip Rivers, I think, is sneaky in this one. Yes. And he has T.Y. Hilton and Michael Pittman to throw the ball to, Naeem Hines, Jonathan Taylor, and the great three tight ends that are Trey Burton, Jack Doyle, Moe Alley Cox. So this is a...

Pretty great matchup across the board for the Colts. And I know you won't play Phillip Rivers, Jason. I know that this is a personal decision that you've made. I would start Hines. I would start Jonathan Taylor. I would start T.I. Hilton. I would start Michael Pittman. And I would rather be dead than start Philip Rubin. I imagine at this point, it might even be a legal decision for you because I'm guessing you filed some paperwork after what happened to you last playoffs. Still waiting to hear back. But I'm sure I'll get. I can't believe they haven't prioritized your. I'll hear back from his lawyers. Your paperwork soon.

But what about the Raider side against this Colts defense? Colts have been a great defense all year long. Josh Jacobs is probably not going to play. And if that's the case, I mean, Darren Waller is always in your lineup, but outside of that? No, I mean, that's the only playable asset. You know, we talked about Devante Booker last week? I think you can play Booker. You think you can play Booker against the Colts? I do. I mean, 18. It's just like Giovanni Bernard. Like.

18. That's the meanest thing you've ever said to Devante Booker. I'm sorry, Mr. Booker. But last week, it didn't turn into fantasy points. I totally understand. Payton Barber, Devante Booker, Geo Bernard, put him in order. I would go Giovanni Bernard, Devante Booker. I'm not playing Peyton Barber. That's the exact order I would put it in. But my I'm not playing would come before Devonte Booker. 18 opportunities, man.

No, I know, but the Indianapolis defense is so good. And, you know, I realize that over the last five or six weeks, they've been bad against the running back. But I think that's really, really inflated. Is Devonte Booker still running back? I think it's really inflated by the Derek Henry game where they didn't have their – I play Booker over Geo. They didn't have their defensive line. You've actually seen Booker, like, look like a player with Josh Jacobs this year. So I'd go Booker, Geo Barber, probably. No.

What am I kidding? I'm going to go barber over Gio. I'm bodying Gio this week. That's so ridiculous. Just based on all of his games. But that's it. Otherwise, you said it's so ridiculous. But it's all of Gio's games that keep me out on him. Okay. Okay. You guys are more supportive of the Brandon Allen's and the Mike Glens of the world. I know what the basement can be.

for these offenses with the third string quarterbacks. And it is a world that destroys your playoffs. I don't want to be a part of that. All right. Top 30 running back? Is this a Giovanni bet? I think it was a Giovanni bet. We'll think about it, Jason. We've still got another day. So if we want to make a geo bed tomorrow because we want to talk about him more.

We have that opportunity. I mean, you just said you'd play Peyton Barber over him. Where's Peyton Barber? He's like probably you're running back 50. Peyton Barber has a higher touchdown chance and he had 15 carries last week. Payton Barber will have 15 carries this week. Won't matter because of the match. Yeah, it will matter. All right. Let's move on. Starts of the week. I'll take your top 30 bet if you make Geo your start of the week at running back. Nope. All right. Starts of the week.

Playoffs, week one, I'm going back to the well twice in my starts this week. And I'm going with Kirk Cousins. We talked about the matchup on today's show. He's on fire. This is bold. He is on fire. Tampa Bay has been bad. And Kirk Cousins, guess what he's throwing the football a lot? 40 plus pass attempts the last two weeks. We talk about what, look, if Mike Zimmer had a choice, maybe Kirk Cousins throws the ball six times.

He doesn't have a choice with the way this defense performs. He's not going to have a choice this week with Tampa Bay going up against the Minnesota defense. They've won five of six games with him throwing to those two beautiful superstar wide receivers. Tampa Bay, what do they hang their hat on as a defense? They stop the run. It's what they do. Kirk's going to have to throw to keep up with TB12, and he's got four straight top 12 weeks. I'm going back with Kirk Cousins here. Okay. I'm going back to a guy who.

Was on fire. You're heading to Foot Locker. Yeah, I'm heading to Foot Locker. We need a new pair of shoes. The shoes fell. They came off over the last two weeks. It took me a second. Justin Herbert has had two poor weeks in a row. The Buffalo Bills a couple of weeks ago, this previous week against the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick scheming the rookie out. They got blown out 45 to nothing. He schemed out the entire Chargers team. Yeah. Yeah, he really did.

It's great coach versus a bad coach. That's what you're going to get sometimes. But Justin Herbert had seven straight quarterback one performances. And I believe that this matchup is obviously fantastic. Atlanta has been the worst against quarterbacks and wide receivers in the league. Now,

Recently, they've certainly gotten better. So you might be hesitant. You might be saying, well, this Atlanta defense is getting better. Justin Herbert is coming back down to earth. But look, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Austin Echler, Unter Henry. I'm betting on the weapons against an Atlanta offense that can keep up. You've got two bad defenses, two good offenses. I think you want Herbert in your lineup this week. Yeah, I agree. I'm back in with Herbert, and I'm going with Ryan Tannenhill.

Ryan Tannenhill from the Tennessee Titans, he is coming off of three good games in a row. And he gets the matchup with the Jacksonville, Jaguars, since their byweek, since the Jacksonville by week, they are the third best matchup for fantasy quarterbacks. I am not concerned that Derek Henry will transform into the Yeti and take everything away. I think that both Henry and Tanyhill can have great games simultaneously. Well, it kind of reminds me last year.

Ryan Fitzpatrick what he did for fantasy playoffs and Ryan Tannahill for fantasy playoffs. And here's Kirk Cousins and Tanna Hill two weeks in a row. Fully endorsed here. Just set up for success. I love it. David Montgomery is the start of the week at the running back position again against Houston this week. The Bears are in a tailspin. They've lost six straight games. And here's David Montgomery as a complete fantasy darling in the midst of it. Houston is the second.

worst in football against the run. And David Montgomery has been this offense. He gets every opportunity. He gets tons of targets. And I think all of us here prefer Mitch Trubisky behind center. And this is the redemption song for David Montgomery after disappointing people last year. He's been one of the best runners in football, despite all of our worst thoughts on watching this offense. And I think he dominates Houston. Yeah, I...

I can't imagine not playing David Montgomery this week. That's a great one. I'm going with Bruce Wayne Galman. He's at home with Arizona Cardinals traveling all the way to the East Coast in an early matchup. I think this is the week that you see Batman. He's already been very consistent. We brought it up earlier since... Wait, this is the week? Well, no, I mean, you've already seen him have more weeks. That's what I mean.

Yeah, but it helped the narrative. I mean, don't you want to see Batman, Mike? I do. I'm just saying this week. I like Batman. You're going to see him. So he's been the running back six since week seven. Two out of the last three weeks, Cardinals have given up a lot on the ground. I don't think they're going to travel well. And you're not going to have Daniel Jones, I don't think as mobile if he's playing. So Wayne Galman in my lineup this week. And I'm going with Johnny Taylor, Jonathan Taylor, the Colts rookie running back.

Over the last month, the Las Vegas Raiders are the fourth best matchup for fantasy running backs. We've seen the opportunities over the last couple of weeks get back to a place of fantasy relevance, 16 opportunities, 26 opportunities in the last couple games for Jonathan Taylor. Looks like they are figuring things out in Indianapolis and making sure that Jonathan Taylor gets his touches and I like him in the matchup. All right, my wide receiver start of the week.

I'm going with Debo Samuel against Washington. Debo is too important to every play on this team. 13 targets, nine targets in the two games back from injury. And I'm doing this because Washington looks like on a total, on the year basis, like a bad matchup. But over the past five weeks, they are one of the best for opposing fantasy-wide receivers. They manufacture so many touches for Debo, Samuel.

I absolutely love him this week. And a little bit of a, like a distraction, I think, from his performance last week with Iyuk getting into the end zone. Debo didn't get into the end zone. I think both of them are interesting plays here, but I still prefer Debo and like him this week. I do. I like both of them. I'm with you. I saw you at Devo as your start of the week because I strongly considered for my taking up to 100 player, Brandon, I, you to keep going. I like them both in that matchup.

For wide receiver, I've got Amari Cooper at Cincinnati. It felt really bad when Dak went down and then Dalton. Even worse for him. Yeah. And when Dalton went down, you had two terrible weeks without Dalton for Amari Cooper, then a buy week. So you had like a month where it just seemed like, man, I don't have this player anymore. But the truth is Cooper's been very good with Dalton. In five games started with Dalton. He's never finished below the wide receiver 32.

and he's had two times where he's been a top 10 wide receiver. So you've got a baseline and upside. A matchup against Cincinnati's fantastic. I think Amari Cooper is going to have a great week. I'm going with Jarvis Landry from the Cleveland Browns, and you might be saying the Ravens, but they're playing the Ravens. Three straight weeks, the Baltimore Ravens have given up top 10 production to fantasy wide receivers in the two games without weather, without Oda Beckham that we've seen from Jarvis Landry.

37% of the targets. That is an absurd number. And Jarvis Landry is great at playing football. You give a great wide receiver 37% of your targets. You're going to get a top 20 wide receiver. And this might be a good time to close your ears and just ignore the show for a second because I don't think you guys are going to like my picket tight in.

I'm going to go with Jordan Akins. I'm going to take a deep shot at Jordan Aiken again. Jorken? Jorken. Jorken Aikens. He led all tight ends in Houston and snaps last week. I know. I know the production hasn't been there yet since Will Fuller's suspension, but Chicago is a wonderful matchup for tight ends. They've given up nine touchdowns. They've given up top 12 tight-in performances six consecutive weeks.

and all but three games this year. They bleed out to the tight-in position. And we know, tight-end is about process, and you hope for results. If you're going beyond the must-start tight-ins, I want to do you a service this week and give you an option outside the must-start tight-ins. I still think he is a deep play that could pay dividends this week. He runs a ton of routes. He was productive to start the year before he got hurt.

He had two in-zone targets two weeks ago, and it's going to take that touchdown to make this payoff, but I believe this is the game he comes through because Chicago gives up a touchdown to the Titan position almost every week. So I'm going to shoot my shot on this one. I realize it's high risk because the production hasn't been there the last two weeks, but I'm confident. I'm with it. I'm with it. Well, thank you, Mike. I know Jason's not. I am not, but I hope for the best. And I pray that Darren Fells doesn't get that touchdown.

At tight end, I'm going with Eric Ebron, brought him up earlier in the conversation against Noah Fant. Man, if he could just catch the ball, he'd be unbelievable. He had three egregious drops again last week. This has been his career. It's not changing for week 14. But here's the thing. With three egregious drops last week, he still had seven.

receptions, 11 targets. He's a must start tight-in. He had 11 targets the week prior and seven receptions the week prior. Buffalo is a great matchup on the season. Buffalo is the number three best matchup for fantasy points allowed above opponent's average. So, yeah, he's a must start this week. The only question I have with Ebron is I wondered if the involvement.

the last two weeks has been directly tied to having no running back. Because it does seem like they have no running back with that James Connor. But Ebron has been getting so much work around the goal line. Both of these past two weeks could have been much bigger. And they were both pretty darn fine. So I like it. Yeah. Ebron was one of those players we highlighted going into the playoffs, the matchups for Ebron through the entirety of the fancy playoffs are great. I...