Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Playoff Primer, Pump the Brakes, News

Keep up with anyone. You've got a great defense. He's going to keep up with them. The problem with Minnesota and Houston specifically is that they've got bad offenses, right? So there's no way this turns into a 30 to 30 type of game because Houston and Minnesota don't have the capability to score those points unless their defense is scoring them. All right. Let's turn over to the running back position, a position that is heavily impacted by these matchups, obviously. Case in point.

Two weeks ago, Mark Ingram had the pleasure of going up against the San Francisco run defense, puts up 15 for 158 in a touchdown, 34 fantasy points in our league. Follow it up a week. It's Denver, 11 for 50. It's even a good yard per carry, but no's touchdown. Not a lot of scoring given up, and he only scores eight fantasy points. And so we want to outline a few of them plus matchups, especially, you know, almost all these guys we're going to mention for the better RB schedules.

are guys that have a great week 14. And that's the nice thing, because if you go and get these players, not only are they the best for weeks 14, 15, 16, but they all aren't going to hurt you in week one just about. Now, there are some obvious guys that you're not necessarily going to. We don't even need to bring them up. You're not going to bench them. Those are the Gordons of the world. LaShawn McCoy. Sure. McCoy has a great schedule. But here's some to pay attention to. The backfield.

We've talked a lot about Cleveland today and how wonderful it is to play against them. The backfield in Cincinnati has the third best playoff schedule for running backs. They faced Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and then Houston. Houston's not that great, but when you start off with Cleveland. Houston's in the middle of the pack against the run. Yeah. So Hale and Bernard, both of those guys. Both of them can probably be acquired cheap, too. So if you're talking about some running back insurance on your team, those guys have a great matchup in week 14.

Who sticks out to you as the big guys? You got Jonathan Stewart has the second best against the run, San Diego, Washington, Atlanta. You have the Forte Powell combination. Again, Powell's a guy you could probably go snag on the cheap. Yeah, definitely. The guy that I have really liked his playoff schedule for a while, it's possible you could still acquire him as well, but he's more expensive because he's got a big name is Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley, look, in that second playoff week,

He's going to go up against Seattle in Seattle. That's terrible. So that might hurt you too much. Maybe it's not worth the investment. But you sandwich those, you sandwich that game with Atlanta at home and San Francisco at home. You tell me, Todd Gurley. It doesn't get much better than that. Yeah, I mean, that's what you're looking for. And the potential for golf to change the offense. Maybe not he's a, he doesn't set the world on fire, but he changes it. Maybe you have to have a defender back for a deep.

shot, you know, and you can't just have everybody up against the box. Up against it, huh? Just up right up against the box. We've talked, it's very, very similar to Todd Gurley. We've talked about it for a while, which is Doug Martin. Now, Doug Martin, in the middle of the fantasy playoffs, has Dallas. In Dallas, that's not a great matchup, but he's sandwiched with two games against New Orleans, which is as good as it gets. So who would you like in that second week of the playoffs that?

you know, would pair nicely. The hard thing here with quarterbacks, you can pair them, right? You can go out and find waiver pickups. You can carry two. That's why I like Hill and Bernard, because they get a take on Pittsburgh's run defense, which has been terrible. Pittsburgh right now is giving up the third most points to fantasy running backs in 22.8 points per game. Hill and Bernard, you can get one of those guys. If you need to protect yourself against that tough matchup, you can roll out.

Hill or Bernard against Pittsburgh in Weeks 15, divisional game, a very porous defense for Pittsburgh on the ground. That's one of the teams I'd consider. I think my two favorite schedules overall are probably Jonathan Stewart's going San Diego, Washington, Atlanta. I've got really no fears in that. And I'll also throw out Spencer Ware because while Tennessee in the second week is, they've been okay at their.

they're running D. They don't scare me quite as much, especially for a guy who catches the ball like Spencer Ware does. So Oakland, Tennessee, and Denver is actually a plus match upon the ground. Spencer Ware and Jonathan Stewart are those guys I think you can acquire, or if you have, you can have some confidence in them going forward. Yeah, yep, I agree. Another note here, Ingram and Hightower both have the, they have the Tampa Bay sandwich, but Arizona is right in the middle of that.

And if you have a backfield that is sharing carries, you saw this last week against Denver. It wasn't a good mix. Arizona's number one when it comes to the least amount of points given up against fantasy running backs. You need to keep that in mind. They're giving up 11 points per game, just over 11. Compare that to San Francisco, who's given up 28. That is a big difference. So on the other end of the spectrum, you have some matchups, some players, some guys that do not have good-looking schedules.

The one that jumps out to me, it's a triple red across the board. It's the Rob Kelly experiment. Okay, he has to go to Philly, then Carolina, then Chicago, three really, really good run defenses. Right now, Philly, and Chicago is the third against the run, Carolina, fourth, and Philly is looking at number six. So I don't think you can lean on Kelly in the playoffs at all. No, it's going to be difficult to run against that run of matchups.

and succeed throughout the playoffs when you're playing other great fantasy teams. What's interesting to me is there's a lot of question mark guys, a lot of waiver type of guys right now that people are picking up they're interested in, and all of them, I feel like, have pretty bad fantasy playoff schedules. So you bring up Rob Kelly, right? A lot of people, the two guys that people are picking up right now, James Starks and Thomas Rawls. Those guys, James Starks, you know, Seattle?

Chicago and Minnesota. That's a really bad schedule for a running back. And then, you know, I mentioned it just a few minutes ago with Rawls and Pro Seis at Green Bay, then the L.A. Rams and Arizona, you know, it's, I, if Rawls comes back, if Rawls comes back to his form last year, he was matchup proof. He just, he can run on anybody.

But we haven't seen him come back. We saw him try early in the season, and he didn't look the same. I think the point you're making, though, is that among the worst situations for running backs, there are a ton of the running back rotation situations, whether it is the pro-size rolls, the Kelly Thompson, the Jennings Perkins. They have three red matchups, Dallas, Detroit, Philly. Ivory and Yeldon, not that you want to start either of them, but now I'm telling you don't.

Please don't. Minnesota, Houston, Tennessee. A lot of people are like, well, what do I do with ivory? Do I hold on to him because he's had a good game since the offensive coordinator? Put him in a small boat, push him out to sea. Yeah, and then take that arrow. Oh, come on. And then you launch it. Come on. Well, you're probably going to miss. You know, you'll get a fine if you do the arrow. I'm going to get a fine. Brandon Cooks can't do the air. You got the same thing with Chicago with Howard and Langford. You know, Howard's injury. Detroit.

Their running defense has actually been okay because their past defense is so bad. Usually running backs don't put up many fantasy points. Green Bay. Let's remember when we say their defense has been okay, this is 100% in the context of what they've given up to running backs. Fantasy. It doesn't mean that they are a great defense. It means that they don't generally give it up to running backs in Detroit's case. It's because they give it all up to the wide receivers. People don't have to run. So let's move on to the wide receiver position and let's talk about.

You know, sometimes these are the most interesting because you can really, okay, you probably got a one, right? You're in the playoffs. You probably have a wide receiver one you love. You might have a two you love, but you don't know who to flex. And you don't know what player you can roll out there and matchups make a big difference. You know, you don't want your fantasy wide receivers going up against Denver and Minnesota or Houston. Those guys are giving up 13, 15, and 16 points respectively to fantasy wide receivers.

And so let's talk about some of the best schedules. This is the best case of setting the table for you as a fantasy owner and letting you decide which matchups you like the most. Because you start at the top, the best situation for any set of wide receivers looks to me like San Diego. And I still don't know which guy I'd want. It looks like, I mean, Tyrell Williams, you should pick him up. If you have time to grab him still, he should be on your team. But they have Carolina, Oakland, and Cleveland.

All three great schedules for wide receivers. And we already told you we love Philip Rivers. Yeah, it makes sense. If Travis Benjamin stays out, stays injured, he's getting, you know, more counsel on his injury. If he has gone, then Tyrell Williams is going to be, I think, heavily owned in championship rosters. Unbelievably, he's still available in like 20% of leagues.

And that just shows that... After this morning? I haven't checked it this morning. You're saying with the... Oh, that was yesterday. Yeah. And so... But what it does show you is that his value is not perceived to be very high. So if your trade deadline has not passed, then you can probably acquire him as almost a throw-in on another deal. He's still 30% available on ESPN. Yeah, this morning. So that's nuts. If he's out there, definitely pick him up.

Yeah, he's had a number of good weeks. Four out of the last six weeks, 2017, 15, 23. You all right there? I think I'm okay. All right. So it's not a surprise. Julio Jones has a really good matchup. You're not benching Julio Jones under any circumstance. But maybe it means in a deeper league you'd take a flyer on a Taylor Gabriel who has San Francisco Carolina in week 15, 16. Carolina has a very good fantasy schedule.

So maybe if you're worried about Calvin Benjamin, you can kind of let that be the tiebreaker on whether he can be rolled out there for you with confidence. You know, the first couple weeks here, I want to know this because one of the better schedules, Jason, is for Brandon Marshall against San Francisco, Miami in the first two weeks. But, I mean, what do you even do right now with them? I think you... Is that just like fools gold seeing that schedule? You hold a vigil for...

Ryan Fitzpatrick and you hope that he gets his life in order and that things he can come back and start and that he can be the starter and that he can be okay because you're not getting anything done with Bryce Petty in there. You don't want Christian Hackenberg? Sure. I mean, give him to me. What, what's the worst you can do? Very good playoff matchups for Des Bryant and the Cowboys wide receivers. For the Detroit wide receivers, the, uh,

Very asleep, Marvin Jones and the suddenly awake Golden Tate. I've been asked this question a bunch of times. I'm going to pose it to you right now, Jason. Rest of season, Tate, or Marvin Jones? They have Chicago, New York, and Dallas in the fantasy playoffs. With those specific teams, I'm going to go with Tate because I still think that Marvin Jones is considered by other teams as the one that you need to lock down. I think they're putting their best defender on. And he's not being able to.

He's not been able to beat. Overcome it. Right. Exactly. And when I look at those teams, you know, you've got a couple really good, you know, like New York. They've got their new acquisition Jennings has been great. And so I think he's going to be able to lock Jones down and Tate might have a little bit more room to run. My answer has kind of been Tate and half point and full point leagues thinking about Jones and standard leagues. You know, I'll be really honest. I don't.

especially want either of them. I don't want to rely on either guy because the chance of me being able to rely for three consecutive weeks on either one of those guys is such a crapshoot that I would rather go to other options personally. So you brought up earlier if Travis Benjamin doesn't come back, how much you like Tyrell Williams? Well, if Deshaun Jackson can't get back on the field.

How high do you move up James and Crowder with the playoff schedule of Philly, Carolina, and Chicago? Two-thirds of those are the worst against fantasy wide receivers. Without D-Jax on the field, do you bump up everybody there? Do you bump up Crowder and Garsohn and Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis? I don't bump up everybody, but Crowder is the guy to me that is a locked and loaded. You know who he is reminding me of? Michael Crabtree.

He's a guy that you just don't think is spectacular. You don't see him as this. He's going down and getting 60-yard bombs. He's not this prototypical wide receiver 1. He's not the Lamborghini. But he is so consistent with points that if you put him as your wide receiver 2, you are happy every single week. He gets enough targets, enough receptions, enough red zone looks, enough touchdowns to where it's like, oh, yeah, I'm so glad I've got him, and I don't have this up and down.

terribleness of like a Marvin Jones or a Golden Tate where, hey, I'm so happy they help me win this week. Also, they help me lose the next week. That doesn't get it done in the playoffs. In the playoffs, you have to win every single week or you're done. Yeah, I completely agree. And another great lineup, New Orleans, we've talked about that Tampa Bay sandwich they have. So that means you have to lean on either a Brandon Cooks or a Willie Sneed or a Michael Thomas. To me, it's Thomas. I would say...