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

But look, Malcolm Brown should be a waiver pickup. Absolutely. If you're a Todd Gurley owner, you got to pick them up. If you're not a Todd girly owner, you probably still need to pick them up. Yeah. Yeah, Cowboys. The starters are expected to play limited snaps in week 17. So they're eliminated. And apparently, the indication is they're also going to be limited. This is fine? Yeah. Yeah, it's, I think that's the thing, too. People don't think.

the teams that are eliminated, you have to factor in them, too, that they might not. Right. It's not just those who are clinched. Can I get a verdict on week 17 title games, Brooks? It's garbage. Oh, yeah. I remember last year, you know, today is our rankings day, right? We're going to really dive deep, try to get into all these matchups, rank all these players, but the rankings are really difficult. Here's what I will not, you know, normally we.

We get stuff right. We get stuff wrong. We try to be as accurate as humanly possible. I think we've done a very good job on that this year. All accuracy is out the window this week. You just can't predict how much a guy's going to play. You have no idea what these coaches are going to do. So pre-apologies for your week 17 garbage. The Lions have said that they, Jim Caldwell has given no consideration to resting his starters. So even though they're eliminated, they'll be out there.

So this is what we're giving you. We're giving you what we know. Yep. Those are the main teams that have kind of had indications or statements. Now, we also want to give you some information pertaining to what teams have the most to play for and the most to gain and lose, right? There are teams eliminated, but there are teams still alive and fighting for playoff positioning. The teams that have clinched in the AFC are New England, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, and Kansas City.

are currently in the playoffs, but, you know, need to win to hold on. Win and in. Baltimore and Tennessee. And then you have Los Angeles, the Chargers, and Buffalo, who still have the opportunity to get in if things go their way. Now, Baltimore, like you said, win and in. Tennessee, win and in. The Chargers, they need help. They need to win, and they need Tennessee to lose and Buffalo to lose. Buffalo needs to win and have Baltimore lose.

Those are all teams that you expect to see. They're best efforts, right? Right. And so you can kind of bank on, you know. Bank on the bills, the chargers, the Titans, the Baltimore Ravens. Like McCoy's not going to get time off. Right. Right. Those players are given everything they got. Give it all you got. Quick shout out to the NFL for fixing a problem, which was when you have the wide split of the morning games, the predominant amount of the games that are played in the morning.

So these afternoon guys, they just sit around and wait for the morning to figure out their situation. And then all of a sudden you have, oh, well, we've clinched without doing anything. They have remedied that situation where there are far more afternoon games than morning games this week. No Sunday night game because they want the competition to be as pure as possible without people scoreboard watching. So that's, for all the crap, people give the NFL. They did this.

It's something. They also fixed, you know, they stopped being, you know, poohers of the celebrations in the end zone. They stopped being poohers of the charity cleats in the NFL and ruining, you know, players' opportunity to kind of express themselves in that way. I, you know, they're making some strides. They're not perfect, but people tend to like the NFL as a sport. On the NFC side of things. Less exciting.

Philadelphia has clinched the number one seat and they're locked in. And then Minnesota, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Carolina, they've all clinched playoff spots. There's some seating that can change. And then Atlanta is the team that is currently in but could still be eliminated. Seattle is the team that is out that could still be in. Essentially, we've broken down kind of what's going on with Philadelphia. Now, the Vikings, they clinch a first round by if they win. So they're still playing for that first round by.

They've got something to play for. The Saints, they can clinch the division, so they've still got something to play for. If New Orleans wins, they can clench the division. If Carolina loses, they clinch the NFC South with a win. They can actually get the first round by if New Orleans and Minnesota and the Rams lose, and Carolina wins. Yeah, the only problem with that is that the bears are going to Minnesota. Yeah, that's a problem. Yeah, so.

That's not happening. Atlanta, now they, you know, they just have to win and they're in, but they got to play Carolina. So that'll be a tough game, but they are at home. And then Seattle needs to win and have Atlanta lose. So Seattle's got it all in the line. Now, they're in a divisional game against Arizona. I'm expecting a dogfight in that game. Bruce Ariens, Arizona, by the way, last week we had a shutout from Minnesota and Arizona. Arizona shut out the Giants.

Both of those teams were like the longest droughts for shutouts. It's 25 years for the Cardinals to have a shutout. So they both snap that streak, but the defense is playing well in Arizona. I'd expect a dogfight in that Seattle game, but obviously Seattle's got a lot to play for. I would expect Arizona's players to be playing full snaps and full allotments in that game. Certainly. They would like nothing more than to go to Seattle and knock them out of the playoffs. And as a Cardinal fan, I would like nothing more than him to go to Seattle and knocked him out of the playoffs. This could be the Bruce Aaron's Swan Song as well.

It really could. Yeah, there was talk today about Todd Bowles as the potential head coach in Arizona. There's interest if Bruce Ariens walks away. And the last thing we heard about Bruce Ariens was it's going to be in his hands. The Cardinals don't want to lose Bruce Ariens. It's going to be Bruce Ariens and up to him if he leaves. So that's kind of the lay of the land on teams and what they're playing for. Hope you got all that. Do you have anything you want to add, gentlemen? No. Excellent breakdown.

Yeah, so we'll see. It is important to see trends over the last three or four weeks of the year because those, and we'll break those down in the truth episodes, but sometimes you can get really surprised. And a player like Joaquin Grant in Miami can have three or four weeks at the end of the year and surprise you, maybe put them on the dynasty radar, put them on the redraft radar for next year. You know, if some wide receivers leave Miami, all of a sudden you pay attention to him.

Those type of things can happen, and maybe you're tuned out because your league is over. But that's something you can watch for, and we'll try to keep you a prize at that. Anything else to add before we get into the mailbag? Nope. Okay. We needed kind of a Christmas mailbag at some point. Mail bag. Hoo-hoo! All right.

If you have a question, go to the website, the fancy footballers.com. There is a submit-a-question button. You can also dial the voicemail hotline. That's always fun. Do your best to leave us a voicemail question on the first take. 302-464 TFFB is the number. And we're actually going to start off today's mailbag with a voicemail question. Hey, guys, it's B-JAM. Up here in the Who is 3 minus 13 degrees St. Paul, Minnesota. Wow.

I have a quick question for you guys regarding Kenneth Dixon. In-keeper leagues, is he worth a shot? Or do you think Alex Collins has gotten that job? I know Kenneth Dixon never really won the job in the first place. So what do you guys foresee happening there next year? Thanks, guys. Love it. Bye. It's a good question. I can tell you my intuition says Alice Collins has not won that job in any way, shape, or form. I would agree with that. However,

With regards to the actual question of, does that mean Kenneth Dixon is, you know, a worthwhile shot? I would say absolutely not. I would not put any eggs on the Kenneth Dixon basket, you know. Really? Not in a keeper league. Now, in Dynasty, sure, when you're keeping 25 guys, but if you've got to, you know, get three or four or five guys.

You will have better options for sure on your roster, I believe, than Kenneth Dixon. Because if Kenneth Dixon comes back and is the starter, he's going to be the starter in an extremely muddled backfield. I mean, this... I think I'll have an opportunity. Like, I don't think his question is necessarily, would you give keeper consideration to Dixon? His question is, how do you see next year playing out with that backfield? You know, fourth round rookie hasn't had the opportunity, ruined some of his opportunity.

But I don't see any reason why they wouldn't give him the opportunity. Yeah, I can agree with that. But I would say it's 50-50. How do you stand, Mike? I'm completely with Jason. A keeper league, because when you say keeper, you're insinuating, you know, maybe I'm keeping three guys, maybe four guys. Kenneth Dixon's not anywhere close to that. But how do you see the backfield playing out for next year? So Buck Allen is under contract for next season. Kenneth Dixon, I mean, multiple injuries. He had the.

I believe his six-game suspension is served while he was on IR. That's what I'm reading. So he should be eligible to come back. He is very good. And he's only 23 years old. Or he'll be turning 24 in January. So I still think that there is the possibility for Kenneth Dixon. You definitely do not drop him in your dynasty squad. All right. This question comes in from Atlee in Atlanta.

It's a good name for someone who lives in Atlanta. Our championship round ended this week tied 134 to 134. Cool. Our regular season tiebreaker is most bench points, which I had lost, so I assumed I lost the championship. The next day, I had been awarded the championship because the playoff tiebreaker is based on seeding. I was the number one seed.

and he was the number three seed. Congratulations. I had also beat him in the head-to-head regular season matchup. When my league commission saw this, he was unaware of the tiebreaker changing for the playoffs, and he changed the outcome and the league championship. It is not my fault he wasn't aware of the rule change from the regular to playoff season, but changed it on the last day of the season to change who became champion in our league. Shouldn't this be implemented next season? Yes. Yes. Now, he says he changed it the last day of the season, right?

I assume you're not talking regular season. If he did it, they're saying that the last day of this was after the championship was already decided. That's garbage. Yeah. Is it? I believe so. So you think he deserves it based on the defaults of the league settings? Yes. Based off of other questions we've had similar to this where people are into week nine and you go, oh, well, all of a sudden we've noticed one of the rules was.

one of the digital rules was a little bit different than we thought it was. You can't go back and change it because it affects so much. What do you think about the fact that he assumed he had lost based on the rules of the league, though? Yes, no, I understand that, but it's... Because on the other side, you assume you win based on the rules of the league that were established. Like, I'm curious, would the judge be willing to rule here? He's the champ. You can't change the rules after the season's over. So essentially... What the league...

what the league auto awarded is what it should be. Yeah. And if they want to change it, which makes sense because, you know, they go, oh, that's what we all thought it was this, then you need to change it for the following season. While you change that, do yourself a huge favor. Yes. And stop with this whole point scoring nonsense. You should be using fractional scoring. It is possible that.

They are using fractional scoring and spultivide at 134. Yes, it is possible, but I doubt it. They're both that whole numbers. I will say this too. Like tomorrow, Thursday is normally when the NFL does the full scoring audit and you get the stat corrections. Right. And so it is possible that this gets clarity with a stat correction tomorrow. Now, I feel like we need to, because we didn't mention it this year, but there has to be a better way to do the tiebreaker than bench points.

Because one of the strategies, when you're going into the championship week, your line of a percent, you dump your bench, you put every single remaining quarterback on your bench just to... Yeah, that's not really an ideal... Well, I think that's why... It's a silly strategy to have to do. So what... That's why this rule for this league, that's why you have a different playoff tiebreaker.

is to avoid that situation. And so I don't mind having the... I think the top seed should get the win. Yeah, I mean, I don't... I like that. I don't mind that rule at all. You get rewarded for being better during the year, and then that seems fair to me. I mean, decimal scoring should eliminate 99.9% of that scenario happening. But if it happens, best seed, I'm fine with that. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm on board. Next question. This question comes in off of Twitter from at Dynasty Butcher. Oh, sounds violent. Yeah. It's a simple question. He said, so now what? Dynasty Busher, I laid it out at the beginning of the episode. You did. If you need to rewind, feel free. You can do that on a podcast. I will add, I will sprinkle this on top of what you said earlier. Now what is have fun.