New Year's Eve MEGAshow + Week 17 Matchups, Motivation Levels - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/31

The Pittsburgh Steelers at 12 and 3 take on the 10 and 5 Cleveland Browns. The motivation level of these Steelers is at a 1 because with Mason Rudolph announced early, they are showing their cards in this game. There is no level of confidence that I have with any of the past catchers, any of the running backs. The Steelers are off my board minus maybe Eric Ebron due to tight and scarcity. Yeah. If you are thinking about playing anyone from the Steelers, go watch some tape from last year.

And then don't do it. And go, oh, yeah, that Mason Rudolph is not good. The Browns, on the other hand, are a level five of motivation. This is full map Foley, Jason. Oh, they are definitely living in a van down by the river. They need to get into the playoffs and they need a victory to do it. They have to be overjoyed with the Mason Rudolph announcement. Yeah. However, they have shown at times this year to be.

a collapsing level of offense without the wide receiver core in certain weeks, and now this team in general has COVID protocol issues. There could be more names missing from this game than we know right now. Yeah, it's not good. Their facility is closed right now. Obviously, we had the close contact issue last week. They should get their wide receivers back. Yes, the wide receivers were close contacts.

False tests so far. So the wide receiver course should be there. I do worry about, I mean, keep in mind, when you talk about go watch Pittsburgh games last year, the offense was putrid. Mason Rudolph cannot move the ball. I agree. But they were a 500 team one game out of the playoffs.

with Mason Rudolph. Their defense is still good, and I don't think that the level one motivation will be there on the defensive side of the ball in a divisional matchup. So I don't think this is an easy sledding game for the Cleveland Browns. What is the game line in Vegas on this right now? Because this can't be right. Okay, it's the Browns minus nine and a half. Okay. Yeah, one of the notes here said Steelers minus nine and a half, and that made no sense. I think the Browns win the game.

I think Nick Chubb redeems himself if you're still playing him, and Jarvis Landry and company are going to get it done. What do you think about Richard Higgins this week? If you need him, he'll be out there. Okay. So let me ask real quick, the Rashad Higgins, the T. Higgins, let's just talk about Higgins. Sure. Versus guys that got you here that are talented, that are playing.

But with Mason Rudolph, you're Deontay Johnson. Are you benching a Deontay Johnson for a T. Higgins? Or a Richard Higgins? Or Richard Higgins? Probably for T. I would play T over Deontes. Sure. But I would not play Richard. Richard Higgins over Deontay Johnson. I agree with that. And Claypool? No. Oh, yeah. Claypool, just his role in the offense, you can't trust a deep ball from Mason Rudolph.

That's exactly right. You got a few shot plays with him. You could see the future for Deonté Johnson last year because he had at least some minimal success with Mason Rudolph. He was the one who had it. I think he led the team in receptions. He was great. He had big time touchdowns multiple weeks with him. He is the one who can get open and that's exactly. Or maybe it was with Duck Hodges. I don't know. Yeah, but he's the one who can act who can get open on nearly any route and Mason Rudolph needs a wide open wide receiver to consider.

throwing the ball. Okay. So for the Steelers, it's Deontay Johnson and possibly Eric Ebron. Yeah, if needed. Vikings, six and nine taking on the Detroit Lions 5 and 10. Got a motivation level of four for the Vikings. You agree with that? I mean, it's high because they have really nothing to win for it. But I think what Kyle is talking about here is just, you know, Dalvin. Yeah, playing for Dalvin. You got the emotional, human aspect of the team wanting to win.

They want to beat the lines. There's also some records on the line for Justin Jefferson. He needs 46 yards to break Randy Moss's franchise record for a rookie, which I think he'll achieve in this game. Love Kirk Cousins. It is a divisional game. Detroit's motivation is probably slightly lower here with Matthew Stafford's injury, with the record and situation. So DeAndre Swift looks like a play to me. I wouldn't be playing Stafford even if he was.

active due to what happened last week. Marvin Jones, though, is he in play without Matthew Stafford? Can we get David Blow in there, or is it going to be Chase Daniel? Honestly, that matters so much. From what I could tell reading up, because I was looking into that question, it will be Chase Daniel over David Blow should Matthew Stafford not be in the game. Okay. There you go. Big Irv Smith is a great play this week. We were talking in the office.

The number three overall tied in three weeks ago. Then Mike played him. Yes. And he was nothing because Tyler Conklin. What's up? And then a Big Irv came back at as a number two finish last week. Because you realize in between what happened. Because Big Irv was on my roster. Oh, you dropped him. I dropped him. So the incubation station of me cooking up some hot fantasy players that just kept going. You have dropped some.

Great post-drop players. Yes. Also, Andy, I don't believe this show has been blessed by your Tyler Conklin. Conc, conk, conk, conk. This happens every single time. When we're watching football on Sunday, every single time Tyler Conklin catches the ball. We get a conk, conk, conk from Andy. It is such a light. That's about right.

We've made the joke that Sunday mornings when watching games is a bit of a proving ground for some of these. Some of these jokey jokes. Sometimes think, you know, let's kind of break down the process of making a joke. It's very complicated. It begins with, is it a pun?

And that's actually the process right there. Right. That's where it's going to end. Is it a pun? And the conk is part of his name. Yeah. Or a sound effect that sounds like it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Onomatopoeia. And so you're, you know, it's also fun. You know, whenever you can yell point or mbop or conk. Cong, conch. You try it on for size while you're watching football. You can bring in more joy to the game. That's right. We have a lot of sound effects. Yeah.

We do. We are grown stupid men. All right, the New York football jets, two in ten, or I'm sorry, two and thirteen. Real quick. Yeah. Would you play T.J. Hawkinson? I would, uh, yes, yes. I'd rather play Big Erv. I'd rather play Eric Ebron. Look, you got four quarters. You've got to fill and somebody has to catch the ball. Okay. I'd rather play Big Irv, though. That's a good point. I would play Big Irv over Hawkinson, but I would play Hawkinson. What if you said? Hawk, Hawk, Hawk.

No, it doesn't work. I think you got to be careful. All right. Two and 13, the Patriots are six and nine. Nice. I love Michael Keaton. The motivation for the Jets. What is the motivation here? Three in a row. I mean, you got a full colonoscopy on the way. You got to win one for Gase. Sure you do. Sure you do. One for the Gipper. So we've got the Patriots at a level four. Uncle Bill.

Probably doesn't want to get pooped on in the air. But Uncle Bill hasn't had a lot to say about getting pooped on or not getting pooped on. When you don't have personnel, you don't really choose it. It chooses you. One of the problems with the motivation scale is that it's different for everybody. I believe the motivation for Bill Belichick will be at a 10. I believe that the motivation for the players will be at a 2.

You know, this isn't the quarterback of the future. This isn't the team of the future. This is the end of the year. I, you know, I think a motivation of four is a little high here for New England, other than the divisional aspect. And from a fantasy standpoint, starting players seems impossible on that side of the ball, really at all. If Damien Harris plays, it'll be a committee of just trash, I think. And then Ty Johnson's a good play on the other side.

Also, the Jets, I know it seems weird, but they've been really, really good against the run. This is a trend that I noticed a couple weeks ago. And then since that time, they've been even better. You can throw on the Jets, no problemo. But when you look at their, you know, the last five weeks, they are negative 5.6 fantasy points above opponent's average to the running back position. And they've been playing good football for two weeks. I mean, they really have. They played motivated football.

You playing Jameson Crowder? Sure. I mean, nine targets, eight targets the last couple weeks. I mean, limited running game, too. You might have a little more involvement in the underneath stuff. Beyond that, anybody else you want to mess with in this game? No. Ty Johnson, Jameson Crowder. And, hey, last week.

He did. Chris Herndon got touchdown. Oh, yeah. Right in our faces. It was great. I mean, those are the things that make. When you can make a Chris Herndon touchdown special in week 16, you're doing something right. Anybody on earth have him in their lineup that week? No. No. No. Okay. Dallas Cowboys and Giants, this is a game with some motivation for both sides. Cowboys are one and a half point favorites. 45 point over under.

And we've got it down as motivation level four. What? That's got to be five. It's five for each team. Kyle. Pathetic. That's shameful. This is literally a division winning. You win this and you're in to the best of your ability. I mean, you still need luck. You need the Washington football team to lose, but that is the last game of the night. In this game, you are playing for a home field playoff game. Oh, wait, you are?

Yes. You get the home field. You get the home field. This five and ten, five and ten New York Giants team in week 17 is playing for a potential home field football game. Yeah. So this is a motivation of five for both teams without question. It's going to be an exciting one because of what's on the line. And therefore you have all the major players in this game that you can count on for whatever they're worth counting on. So where's the, uh,

Like, are you chasing what C.D. Lamb has done the last two weeks? Wide receiver 10, wide receiver 8. Some of what he's done has been heavily touchdown dependent. I wanted to make him my take it up to 100. I chose not to, you know, he returned a touchdown in an onside kick, for instance, two weeks ago that helped inflate the numbers. The Washington, the New York Giants have been pretty good against wide receivers, both on the season and over the last five weeks.

So I'm not really chasing those points personally. Richard Higgins or C.D. Lamb. I would go C.D. Lamb because I think he's the more talented point. T. Higgins or C.D. Lann? T. Higgins. You agree with that, Mike? Yeah. Amari Cooper did drop a touchdown last week. Michael Gallup. He was incredible in week 17 last year. Three touchdowns. And Gallup is the toughest one of this bunch to break down where.

You know, over the last couple weeks, Michael Gallup has been great for fantasy purposes, but, you know, we got what four of his five touchdowns have come in the last four games? I'm taking the over in this game. I think this is going to be a high-scoring game. I would play Andy Dalton. I would play Zeeke. I'd play all three wide receivers.

Play Dalton Schultz. I think Zeke is actually a smash play. They're going to rely on him. The Giants, that's where you beat them. And he looked better last week. So I did. I think, you know, it's almost like it's weird to say that Zeke would qualify for like a taking it to 100 player or like a bounce back.

But I think that's where we are, and I would happily, I would love to play Zika. I'm not excited about Wayne Galman, though, because his usage in the rotation and Dionne Lewis and Alfred Morris short yardage is going to go to Alf these days. I'm a little concerned because he's been so absent for the past couple of weeks. Yeah, it sucks too, because Wayne Galman should be a great play this week. Six carries last week. Yeah, his opportunities have been under 10 the past couple weeks, but the matchup against the Cowboys defense is so.

juicy 28th against fantasy running backs over the last six weeks. I don't want to play Wayne Galman, but I think that you can flex him in the case of the event that the game script ends up being positive for the New York Giants and Wayne Galman is having success. It's theoretically possible that you see him back up at that 15 plus touches. Wayne Galman or Ty Johnson? Wow. I guess I'm going