Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 17 Fears, Pump the Brakes, Key Questions

I can draft, you know, knowing that and being more strategic. Don't take a week of football away from me. Look, Vopo, I understand that you want to extend the fun as long as you can. But the key word there is fun.

And you want to extend fun. And you can't extend fun to week 17 when you've got to bench Todd Gurley or Alshan Jeffrey or somebody like that and take a guess. Yeah, because you knew at the draft that Todd Gurley would be the one getting benched in week 17 because those Rams would have locked everything up. Yeah, you had that figured out. This week of advice and everything, I feel like I'm with my friend. We're walking into the tattoo shop. And my friend goes, you know what I'm doing? No, what are you getting?

I'm getting that sweet tribal barbed wire around my bicep. I'm like, you're my friend? Support you? I'm going to support you. But I, my advice is don't do it. Sure. I think there may be some regrets and he says no regrets. And now he is with a tribal tattoo around his biceps. That's what a week 17? Yep. League is. Okay. And if you want to make the argument, oh, you know, you know the strategy and I want more, you know, more time.

Then I say this to all of those weeks 17 commissioners. Go through the playoffs. Go all the way to the Super Bowl. Why are you taking away football from your league? I mean, you should be able to have strategy at the beginning of the year. Who's going to get to the Super Bowl? Exactly. I mean, you got to pick the Patriots. We told you the Saints. Are you in any week 17 leagues, Brooks? Because you're in some leagues that we're not in.

I am not. You're not. I wouldn't be in those leagues. I was you saying you wouldn't stand for that. No. It's a man of principle. So how does someone that is in a league but not the commissioner accomplish the goal of fixing their league? Here's the truth. I mean, we've seen rules in our league. Sometimes it takes years.

of constantly year after year just saying when it's that time to talk about this, hey, I vote that this. Here's why. Make the argument. And then they say, no, I did this for years in our league about kickers, nerfing kickers or getting rid of kickers. Finally, this last year, we nerfed the amount of bonus points that kickers are getting. And it took strategy. It took me, you know, pointing out that look at.

The top kickers were outscoring the top. Jason had lobbyists and everything. We're outscoring the top tight ends last year. It's like this is not how we draft. And, you know, so bring up the players. Watch what happens this week that hurts people and then point that out. Point that out next year. Yeah. Yeah. And whoever really lost because of it, get them on your side. Oh, they will be. All right. Let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league.

Quick update on to Marco Murray. He has a third degree MCL sprain. I've also seen reports that he has a tear that he's going to play through. I guess, I mean, a sprain is a tear technically, right? Medical doctor. Not a doctor. Yes, that's correct? It's a low, yeah. Yeah, it is a tear. I remember that a sprain. One of them's a tear. Oh, one's a strain, though, huh? Yeah. Because you can strain. Not a doctor.

They couldn't tell after this conversation. Evan Ingram, bruised ribs. X-rays negative. We'll report on him later in the week if he's going to play. The Broncos are going to start Paxton Lynch. Well, that's the plan. That's the plan. Dealing with the ankle injury. We'll see. Jake Cutler is going to start Sunday. Melvin Gordon thinks he'll be able to play Sunday. That's good news for Melvin Gordon owners and for Charger fans. Maybe good news. Oh, Gordon owners.

I'm saying if he's playing on a bum ankle, that's my only point. Look, that's the best case scenario of the week 17. Melvin Gordon on a bum ankle is far better than losing Melvin Gordon and having to roll out some Elijah Penny type player. Maybe. No, we've seen it earlier in the season. He toughed it out and then he left the game. That's my only point is if he's going to play on a bum ankle, you're taking the risk that this guy could be knocked out in the first quarter. So basically what you're saying is you would rather have.

genuinely, you'd rather have Brandon Oliver with Melvin Gordon out of the way. Like he doesn't play. If I knew I was getting four quarters of, well, you don't know that because Brandon Oliver can get hurt, of course. But if it's Brandon Oliver guaranteed for the four quarters or the risk that Melvin Gordon, who has already done this and has a vast history of injuries, I'm just saying it could be better. It's tough. This past week, for example,

Both P. Rhine and Kerwin Williams were pretty much questionable to out all week. Last minute, they both started, and they both played a ton of reps. So if you had started Elijah Penny this last week, Curwin got all the reps. If you had started Capri Bibbs, of course, Pyrine went out with a different injury in the game, but not the same injury. And so you're playing with fire. I start your stud in that situation. They'll probably shoot that angle off. If you have Gordon, make sure you pick up.

Spreading all of them. There you go. All right. We're going to break down for those weeks 17 owners and for those of you following the NFL, some of the playoffs scenarios, some of the teams that we're not expecting to see big players from. Now, that doesn't mean there's not value on those teams potentially. And so we'll talk about that as well. But let's start with these playoff teams that have, quote, nothing to play for, right? They have the seed locked up. The Eagles have the number one seat in the NFC locked up. Now, Doug Peterson's come out and he said that he wants to get Nick Foles as many reps as possible.

but he added that the team will be smart about playing time. So what do you expect to see from the Eagles offense this week? I expect to see Foles, but I would offer this question to Coach Peterson that says, Nick Foles looked a lot better when he was coming off of no reps. Because two weeks ago, he was sensational.

He had a full game under his belt, and then he stunk. Let me ask you this. Is Corey Clement a potential play this week for Week 17 championship owners? He gets on the field with the rotation, but if they're going to sit the higher depth chart players like Ajai and Blunt, would Corey Clement be somebody that could get extra reps? Maybe. I don't think they have to worry about that because they rotate so much. Everyone, they're doing a great job of keeping guys fresh. So I wouldn't. Do you expect to see Ajai on the field? I do.

Yeah, likewise. I would have a hard time playing Clement. Like last week, Mike and I both started Mike Gillisly because we thought that the volume would be there in a touchdown opportunity. Exactly. And so unless I'm told JJ is sitting, I don't think. Yeah, if it comes out later, okay, Ajai is inactive. It's Laguerre Blunt and Corey Clement. Then Corey Clement does become interesting as he's been a heavily utilized in the red zone.

So players that could potentially rest at some point during this game, though, Foles, Jeffrey, Ajee. Ertz. Ertz is the big one. Yeah. Ertz has been banged up recently. They should rest Ertz. And in which case, start your Trey Burton. Yeah, you would start Burton? Okay, let's go through a scenario. Ertz is active. You don't know if he's going to play a ton or a little. No, I'm not starting Burton if, if Ertz is active. But if Erts...

is sat for this game, which I think by the time the game comes around, I mean, I would if I was the eagle, I would sit him. Jason, so if the Eagles choose to sat him. I choose to sat him. Nicely done, Judge. Thank you. Thank you, Judge. The Jags are the number. They're not Jags anymore. The number three seed, just like I've always said, how good they are with Gus, the Gus bus. Oh, wait.

Jags coach Doug Marone has indicated he has no plans to rest starters. The fact that the Jags lost last week actually has helped fantasy owners for this week in the sense that they want momentum going into the playoffs. That's been the narrative, right? We can only trust these narratives and the coaches and what they say so far. He says he has no plans to rest starters. I would not be surprised to see limited work for somebody like Leonard Fournett. Agreed. With nothing on the line as well as, you know.

the wide receivers, they'll probably be out there. You know, the Keel and Cole, he'll probably be out there. Dede Westbrook. Maybe. Keel and Cole is the one who's been banged up. Yeah, well, with the ankles. Yeah, you're right. Keel and Cole missing the entire game would not shock me at all. So that's what we know about the Jags. Now, I will press the pause button real quick and just thank today's sponsor Fantasychamps.com. I figure let's let people know what we do for our leagues when it comes to championship hardware. Sure. Now, in our league of record, what we do is we have this.

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Let's talk about the Chiefs. They're the number four seed in the AFC. Do we have any indication of what the Chiefs are going to do with their starters this week? Brooks, have you heard anything from Santa Claus slash Andy Reid? Candy Reid. I've been texting them, calling him. I got nothing from Andy back. So we know nothing. Whether Alex Smith, Tyree Hill. That's so rude. Why won't Andy text you back? I don't know. So we'll keep you updated on the Chiefs going on later into the week.

At this point, we don't have any indication that they're sitting people, but they don't have anything to gain, really. Well, I mean, they've, they've clinched the division. They did a lot of resting Cream Hunt in the middle of the season. Preemptive strike. So hopefully if you need him this week, he'll be good to go. But limited, I would expect limited reps at least for Cream Hunt. Because they have finally figured out, oh, maybe we need to get Cream Hunt the ball to help us win. Yeah, I mean, you might get a half.

out of some of these players. It's definitely going to be difficult to trust Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt and Alex Smith and Travis Kelsey going into this week. But this is fine. Week 17, this is totally okay. This is cool. I wonder if they will try and get Pat Mahomes at least a half.

That'd be interesting. Might be smart. One, I mean, you want to get your backup quarterback, at least get him some reps. You're heading to the playoffs. You don't want a situation where you are the Oakland Raiders of last year. Oh, right. Of last, who did they start? Oh, man. It wasn't. McGloin. Was it McGloin? So you don't want a Mcloin situation. First career start coming in the playoffs. Never mess around with Mcloin. No. And.

But they also have the situation of next year. Are they going to want to move on? Maybe they want to get Pat Mahomes just a little bit of experience before his sophomore year. I don't know. Just musing over here of possibilities. The Rams. What do we know about the Rams situation? They have no chance at the first round by. Sean McVeigh talked about it. They have, Sean McVeigh has already insinuated. He will be resting his starters. I am expecting Todd Gurley to completely be inactive for this game.

And Robert Woods, he's back from his injury, but why not? Why not? Is Malcolm Brown going to win people fantasy football championships in Week 17? Doubt it. I mean, he might be played. You might need to start him. Volume is king. And he might do enough because your opponent probably has people. Is starting Brandon Oliver. Just like everybody wants. No, that's what you want.