Fantasy Football - Week 16 Start/Sit + Panic, Anxiety, & Playoff Decisions - Podcast for 12/17

They are... Last I saw, the Rams were number one in Super Bowl winning odds and the Seahawks were number two. There is still... I'm concerned about Seattle. We have not ruled out like Devante Adams. Like, this isn't, he is not, he's considered a game time decision right now. And this is a big game. That's crazy. So I don't, I don't know what's going to happen. Would you play him? As a fantasy manager? Yeah. I think you may be in a situation where you literally couldn't. If he is... Couldn't not play him? Couldn't not play him. So you are? Well, let's look at our roster. Very clear. Couldn't not perhaps. So we would probably. We have a decision on Devonta Adams. If he's active, I presume that we would start him over Travis Kelsey without Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, that's probably. What about DJ Moore? I think I'd play DJ Moore. Dude, you are. I play DJ Moore. He, he went.

He's running in a straight line and he just went, he won't be face first into the ground. He won't be playing between the 20s. You know what I mean? Right. He's going to be, if he's active, he's going to be out there for goal line. You're hoping a little, a little Duke route and good hands. Two catches for two yards and two touchdowns. 100%. Yeah, Brooks said he's going to be in for him in Dynasty if he's active at all. Brooks has no one else. Well, that's, I mean, that's the situation. But, you know. I like the Rams in this game. The running game for Seattle has been awful. I mean, not kind of awful. Awful, awful. Like 30th in the league in rush success rate between the two backs. 28th and yards per carry, 26th and yards before contact. I think this is what, this is part of why the offense is so broken right now for Seattle is if you can't get that, the Coob's system running where you,

have any concern about the running backs. Everything just falls apart. I mean, you have, what is it, the, of the past three games, you have one half of actual good Seattle offense. They didn't score a single touchdown at home against the Colts who had Philip Rivers on the other side. I mean, like, this isn't a, I'm not saying the sky is falling. I'm not playing JSN, but I'm just saying overall. I have great concern for what's happening with Seattle. Yeah, they have a great defense, but their offensive, you know, consistency is questionable. They turn the ball over a lot. So, you know, the decisions for the fantasy player here is, I don't want to play Sharps or Walker. I mean, playing against the Rams is. I'm playing Jason, and that is probably it. And on the other side with the Adams injury, we talked through that, Pooka Nakua, of course.

I think Colby Parkinson is really interesting. And I, you know, if Adams is out, he's even more interesting to me. If he's a pickup at Tide-in and you're on the fence, that might push you over the fence if Adams is ruled out for Thursday. And even if he isn't, you know, like you said, one play could be all he can handle. Yeah, Parkinson's just been a touchdown machine. He is certainly, I mean, you look at our start sit tool. He's one of the most common, like, should we pick up and play Parkinson? He's talking to Kyle. you know, Parkinson is, he's looking right now at Tyler Warren or Parkinson. Parkinson's a good play. He's a good play this week. And I can't, I mean, I get it. Devante Adams, tough guy, great player. Maybe they'll use him sparingly, but I still don't think he plays. I don't think he plays either. It's like you, I know how important this game is, but also I know how important to the playoffs games, which are way more important than this game. Yeah. You know, Kyron is number one in.

Rush success rate among all running backs and quorum is number two. Wow. I would play quorum over both Seattle running backs. It's tough because this is like a matchup where neither side. Both both defenses are so good against the run. They're just they shut it down. Yeah, it's true. And quorum has been on fire in recent weeks with the matchup is tough. Stafford top eight quarterback and eight of 11 starts. Again, tough matchup. The over-under is 43 and a half in this game. It was 2119 last time. So, you know, the fact that it's in Seattle as well, 12th man, Thursday night football, island game, that's their path to victory. Their path to victory is, you know, play good defense, make it a close game. It's a little drizzle in the air projected. Is that what they call rain? Mm-hmm. Well, they call drizzle in the air. When it's just a little light.

A little bit rain. A little bit rain. A little bit rain. Any other thoughts from this game you guys want to comment on for the fantasy playoffs? No, I think it's a pretty straightforward one. I can't imagine you're playing any of the backup wide receivers. No, Shaheed is leveling up, by the way. He is starting to. Right. He's seeing his snap count. I'm talking from like the Rams. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. No, Shaheed I wanted to mention as well. If Adams is out, I'm not like, okay, well, next man up. Not when, uh, On the season, the Seattle Seahawks are the worst matchup for fantasy-wide receivers. Rashid 4 for 67, 5 for 74 of the last two weeks. Snap counts up. Opportunities up. Something to monitor. Feels a little tre heresy to me, but with the worst matchup. All right. If we're done there, I'll click this button. Mailbag. Mailbag.

If you have a question for the show, we're here to help. Go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click the submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB. Why not just start here because this is not the first time I've heard benching this guy as a question this week. Hey, ballers. Henry from Australia here, bonjour. Quick question regarding Brock Bowers, especially this week. Do I play him or do I pivot to someone like Kobe Parkinson? Thanks, guys. Love to try. I think this is a really, really important discussion to have because I've seen multiple. I've seen multiple people ask if they should bench Bowers this week. They're scared of the matchup. I saw one this morning that was, should I play Waller over Bowers? Now I said on that one is like, hey, watch out. They may switch quarterbacks. It probably takes that decision off. Bowers is in for me. Of your mind. I can't imagine benching Bowers. Philadelphia is.

They're really strong in his tight ends, right? Am I remembering that correct? Who? Philadelphia is very good. That's who they just played. And I know it's Kenny Pickett. Well, it could be Gino. Last that Pete Carroll said, he said Gino is certainly ready to go from where I saw him this morning. I don't, well, I wasn't sure if that was a Gino's going to play or Pete Carroll is like, Gino should play. If he does the play, he's soft. But I'm, Brock Bowers is in before the Philadelphia matchup. I mean, he's just been rushing. He was on fire. And even play the better player, man. Yeah. I'm saying like Kenny Pickett to Gino Smith, who cares? Even with Kenny Pickett, he had eight targets. Yeah. But it was just a really tough matchup. And if you want a guy who could get any one target and break three tackles and score a manimal touchdown, it's Brock Bowers. So you've got to play him. Yeah, I want to just clear this up real quick. Trey McBride, I play over Bowers. Yeah.

I'd probably play over Bowers this week against Houston. I would definitely. That's it. I don't think I have the guts to try. I'm not playing Goddard. I'm not playing. I don't think I'm playing Pitts. That's the end of my list. Yeah. Pitts is honestly still interesting. Like if Drake London doesn't play again against Arizona, he's high up there. Well, the Cardinals we know we'll give up one touchdown to the defense, one to the special teams. and two to Bijon. So I don't know how close that gets us to 40 points. Yeah. Maybe there's room for a couple. Like that two to bejean talk. So are you are you making pits above Bowers and official recommendation? No. What about what did Fanon? Matt wants to talk fanning. Fanon has been great. I mean Harold Fanny. I think Kyle Fitts and Harold Fanon. They're great plays this week. 14 targets. They're great plays. Sweet.

I'm still going to play Bowers. I agree with Andy. I mean, it's pretty much Tray McBride and George Kittle and then Bowers. Yeah. Yep. All right. We've got, oh boy, another tight-in question. Hey, this is Hannah from Montana. I'm just wondering. Should I play Tyler Warren or Roll the Dyson Stream, Adolton Schultz, or Colby Parkinson? I think that is a much more realistic question with Tyler Warren or The Pivot. Yeah, I think the pivot might be my answer. I am out on Tyler Warren. Like I looked, you know, I went and I rewatched the Colts film and my opinion on Tyler Warren, who's a great player, he also could break tackles and make him animal play. I think his opportunities and the team's opportunities to score are going to be very hard to come by. And there are a lot of good options this week.

you know, she named some of them. I also would throw Juan Johnson out there as another great play of Velae is injured, which it looks like he's weak to week right now. Joanne Johnson becomes the number two target for the Saints. There's a lot of options I'd play over. Tyler Warren or Colston Loveland. Loveland. I have Warren at 13 and I might lower, I might lower him even more. It's not his fault. No, no, he's awesome. This is 100% like, you watch the offense. The offense strategy was screen pass, short area, short area, screen pass, short area, emergency short area. Yeah, the numbers of, it was like passes over 10 yards. I think it was like 1 of 13 or something. It's just not viable. It just isn't. So I think Schultz and Parkinson are both in play over Warren. I just dropped him to. He's at 16. Now he's at 17. Yeah. It's tough. It's sad. But I think if you roll with someone who.

You can't get a deep shot. Like one of the things that was so great about Tyler Warren throughout this year was, you know, when he's going down the field 15, 20 yards across the middle, you hit him in stride, he breaks tackles, it just looks awesome. He's never getting one of those shots with Philip Rivers. Right. This is the Back to the Future photograph where Alec Pierce has disappeared already. Oh, yeah. And then Warren's disappearing and everybody's disappearing. And I, you know, the Alec Pierce stuff is such a bummer. I mean, he was dominant, but you can't, you can't run an out route down the field. Yeah, I mean, did he even have a target? He did. I think he had one important catch. Oh, very late, right on that drive? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for the field goal. All right, well, we have more panic in the streets. Rashi Rice without Mahomes question from Instagram, molecular matter. How do we feel about Rashi Rice without Patty Mahomes? Are you rolling with Rice? Are you rolling with Tett McMillan? Ooh.

Interesting. Rice has had two bad weeks in a row. Overall, like, I'm not, I'm not completely out on Rishie Rice just because of how he, how he's used in the offense. Gardner Minshu, obviously a massive downgrade, but Rishie Rice is, is like, we figure out how to just get him the ball as easily as we can possibly get in the ball and then let him go out there and cook. This isn't precision route, precision timing. It's, He's out-athleting people. So he's not a, like, I'm got to escape. I got to get Rice out of my starting lineup. Tet McMillan against Tampa Bay. That one I can be talked into Tet McMillan. Nobody has taken more shots than Rashi Rice in the last two weeks. He has been blowed up. Yes. It's been, I mean, the recipe is out there for how to stop Rashi Rice. He's caught zero of those passes. Hit him with a Mack truck.

Yeah, I mean, he is, he's a weird receiver, guys. He really is. Oh, yeah. He's not, he's not a normal prototypical one. He feels a little bit, he feels a little bit like Michael Thomas, not in the exact same style, but in the fact that you do kind of a couple things better than everybody in the entire league, and that's what you operate under, and that's where your fantasy value is found. It's not going to be deep routes. It's not going to be Rishi Rice or Justin Jefferson against the Giants. Jason? I would go Jefferson, honestly, and I know that I'm not allowed to say that anymore. Rishi Rice or Ladd-McConkie against Dallas. Oh, man. Bounceback week for McConkey. It was probably loud because of the matchup. I do agree with your premise, though, Mike, that Rushi Rice is not, I'm not out on him. He's just a little bit lower. There are other good options. If there's good options like Tet, like Lad, then you can make a pivot.

I'm going to play them over Jalen Waddle now. Yeah. All right. Well, you have more questions on the way after this break. Lowe's nose. Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances. Select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products and more. Then once your to do list is done, get ready to kick back. relax and enjoy the game shop in store or online now and earn your sunday with help from loz official partner of the nflora frames is the hidden gym that becomes the favorite gift long after the wrapping paper is gone and you can enjoy unlimited free photo and video upload simply download the aura app connect to Wi-Fi and start adding memories in seconds

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and frames sell out fast. So order yours now in time for the holidays and support this show by mentioning us at checkouts. Terms and conditions apply. All right. We have people panicking not just about Rashi Rice. How about George Pickens, Mike? I'm... We got an Instagram question from Mama Cushina. Am I crazy for considering benching George Pickens for Jaden Reed? Feels a little crazy. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. The... The meter's a little more on the crazy side. I know the two weeks have been horrifically bad, but everything around Pickens is still the same. And I would, Jaden Reed's upside in a playoff matchup is not even close to what Pickens can do. What's your, uh, what's going to be your post-mortem if Pickens has the year he had, but then this completely falls apart? Like he's a flop for the fantasy playoffs? Uh, I would be, I mean,

just nervous, really, really nervous about how teams will look at that. I mean, because it's, it's on him. It feels like this is 100% on George Pickens. This is not. It looks like effort, but that's such a hard thing to judge. Right. It's funny how it always looks that way when he struggles. And, but then why he's great. Effort. I mean, like, when he's out there making the, does he give too much? And it's like it just drains it from the future. It's possible. That's why he succeeds. He's just like hyper. Right. But I'm saying it's not just the spectacular catches. It's also the run after catch. That's true. You're right. Yeah, you're right. So it's, is it as simple as he shows up when he feels like showing up? Or is there some? There's probably more to it than we realize. It can't be that easy. It's a weird week for Dallas in general.

Because there's nothing left to play for. Playoffs-wise. I'm just very curious. Everything's been about this epic comeback for their team. You know, Giovante Williams has been great all year, C.D. Lamb and Dak, like you guys have, ironically, just to use it as an example to talk about it, you have two stacks, Burrow Chase, Mike. Emo Burrow right now. Yes. Close tonight. We'll be the night. Burrow. Get it together, man. And then you've got Dak. Snap out of it. Dak and Citi. Both teams were like last week. It was like, oh, we got like a 3% chance to make the playoffs. And both teams lost. And they lost two teams that they thought maybe they could beat. You know, Minnesota beats Dallas. Baltimore smacks Cincinnati. And now how do both teams rebound? And you have everything writing on both of those stacks. And you both would like them to have playoffs on the line. Yeah. Yeah. But we don't. So we'll just have to see. And then you're not pivoting.

The nice thing is with the Cowboys is they've got a lot of experience at the end of seasons of kind of not having to play. So does Cincinnati. They both, yeah, three, three years. Maybe they'll be more comfortable. Pickens or Brian Thomas Jr. is a good question. That is from Fleezes writing it on Instagram. That would be Pickens for me. Yeah, the Patrick Sartan treatment. As good as Jacoby has been for this team, you got to imagine Sertan's on Thomas. Instagram question from Kyle. Oh, man, that would be just, if Brian Thomas gets out there. Talk about the inverse of Pickens. I'm saying if Thomas is out there and he sees that Sertan is lined up on Jacoby, that is such an insult. Kyle writes in, this one's slightly different than the last one. What's on the table for your Christmas meal? Is it ham, turkey, or both? I think we've been on the record. We're pretty big fans of ham. Yeah, it's so good. Let me ask you this. Very pro ham. When you're like.

Your team explodes so many points. You go turkey? Yeah. Did that team go turkey? No. That team went ham. Going turkey is like, powerless. Yeah, that's like, oh, man, what a turkey. What a turkey. No one's like, oh, you're a ham. Now, turkey's good, though. Well, if you do three in a row. But turkey really needs, like turkey ham you just is delicious no matter what happens to it. Turkey, you need like gravy. You have to have, and maybe mashed potatoes mixed in. Or a, uh, hefty glass of water which is funny because turkeys are mean turkey that's funny i have that's funny i'm not saying like the the we we call people a turkey it is like you're being you're weak you're a coward a wild turkey don't mess with them that's fair i think that thing will mess you up turkeys look ridiculous

I think that's part of it. Yeah, no, they do. Like if I call you a turkey. Josh knows a wild, a pack of wild turkeys. They're mean. You leave them alone unless you're armed. You know what's good is a turkey sandwich. Oh, dude, yeah. Like after Thanksgiving or Christmas and you got some mayo up in there to keep it wet. You know what's better though? A ham sandwich. Ham and cheese on a nice toasted pretzel bun. Yeah, the honey baked, right? We do the honey baked. This is better. Sweater. Sugar's delicious. You can eat the turkey. It's fine. Neither of these will be at our Christmas party. Yeah, I don't, we don't do a Christmas dinner, big Christmas meal. Like, I don't think we've ever had. Your family doesn't? Yeah. We do a huge Thanksgiving feast. You don't have like a Christmas meal? No, not really. I feel like even Mike has that. Jack the box? Yeah, check in the box. No, we've never done, I don't think in our entire lives we've ever done a sit-down Christmas dinner.

Rahim Morris, a little update here says Drake London day to day. He'll be at practice. Look forward to seeing how much he'll be able to give us this week. Oh, that's the worst sentence you could give a fantasy player. Josh's team. Looking forward to seeing how much he'll be able to give us this week. We would like to know ahead of time. I'll probably be playing him. It would definitely help Josh's team. He doesn't have him. He doesn't. He traded him. No, no, no, but they're facing cow pits. Ah, yes. Yes. Oh, that would make a big difference. That would make a very big deal. Yeah, if Drake London plays, I mean, Kyle Pitts is, ooh. We got one more question here from Heiserberg. New hobbies for the eliminated question mark. Oh. So some new hobbies. Sports cards. Yeah. Mike and I, we've been doing the sports cards thing. And maybe whittling. I feel like that somehow would do. If you, do you whittle, Al? Not anymore. You used to whittle? I did. A whittle bit. I was a Boy Scout, man.

Swish! Nice. Papa Josh had to have whittled as well. Oh, for sure. You grew up when whittling was pretty much the only thing you could do, right? He carries. That's how we made our toys. Yeah. He carries a pocket knife on him at all times. He does carry a pocket knife. And that's because he might need to whittles. That's the 3D printer of his generation. The whittling? And then the Falcon, do you even know what whittling is? Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Whittlings. Whittling. It's interesting. I'm getting old, man. Imagine sitting around a campfire with a block of wood and a knife. That sounds awful. You were a Boy Scout too, Matt? Yeah, for a little bit. Okay, so you, what about you, Josh? No, I'm not a nerd. Yeah, get him. Get him! Take that, Boy Scouts. Oh, my gosh. I think Al is Eagle Scout? No. You stopped Short? I stopped Jess Short at Life Scout. Yeah.

Oh, okay. I didn't know there was one below. No one has ever heard of a life scout because usually if you get there. You finish the job. Yeah, because like everyone knows a new scouts. No, no, now I got to explorers. What are the ranks? Yeah. Oh, there's. I don't remember the lowest thing, right? Is that one of them? Uh, what word did you say? We below? You didn't know about we below? That's that's Cubs. That's Cubs. That's just a we below. I can't remember at all. I just, how? Who set it up? Like, okay, we got Life Scout. What's next? Eagle. Eagle. Yeah. Like, dude, Jim, enough with the Eagles. The Eagles Scouts have to do a big project, like a bunch of hours. Like a huge year-long thing. But if you make it all the way. Is that why the nail on the head as to why I didn't finish? Yeah, you didn't want to put in. Did you ever have a project figured out and then you just didn't do it? Nope. Okay. Could have done a whittling thing. Probably should have. Yeah. That was really good.

Whittle like 700 signs. It looks like we got scout, tenderfoot, second class, first class, star life, eagle. You went really far to quit. I think so star life eagle. What is, picking words. Yeah, they are. And this is after second and first. We should rename all. Wait, we should rename all of our. Was there a second and first and first? Yeah, read them again. They did scout tenderfoot, second class, first class star life eagle. These are our new UK tiers. This is our first class. guy he's way worse than the life scout what first class what a loser uh we're gonna hear from a lot of when i buy a plane tickets i'm looking for the life section a lot of boys guys all right that'll do it for today show we got starts of the week and matchups tomorrow so tenderfoot that is just tenderfoot that just it just reminds me a land before time but you're like hey ho look out here comes the tender foot yeah i guess it was little foot huh that's not a rink no

Uh, matchups and fantasy face off on Friday, my routine wheel of shame. And, uh, and then we'll be into the playoffs in Sunday live, Sunday morning before the games. So you do not want to miss it. Good luck. Everybody out there on waiver day. Your waivers went through. Hopefully got your guys. You played a little defense against your opponent. We'll be back tomorrow. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.