Fantasy Football - Playoff Push! Week 14 Start/Sit + The Ballers Fix Football - Podcast for 12/3

D.K. Mecca. Against Baltimore. I would think about to slow. I would play to slough. I think that's where it starts getting fuzzy. Wow. I got to move him up in my rankings. He was not there. Jake Ferguson. How are you feeling right now about Jake Ferguson? Okay. Yeah. I think you, yeah. That really describes it the best. It's, it's okay. You know. Tightened 80, 26, 7, 9, and 20. So it wasn't the glory days of no CD Lamb. It's changed a lot. I think you could probably... I'd be much happier with the Waller, Strange, Loveland, Pitts, than I would Ferguson right now. Loveland or Ferguson, I think, is a tough call. That one's close. Yeah, that one's close. But the other names, yes. Britain Stranger, Jake Ferguson, is one of our most popular starts-it decisions. We have Britain Strange higher, so by a few spots. Well, Mike, it's only one spot higher. That's really close to me. Because of just getting...

getting pieces into this game. Yeah. To be fair, the the Jacksonville indie game might be another one that you want pieces in. That's a 47 and a half. That's pretty good. Yeah. Okay. I agree. And indie is not very good against Titans. So that's a really tough call. What's your call? You think if you had to make it today, you want the info, you want Ferguson in there to get the. Intel on what you need early? They're in the exact same tier to me. I really like Strange this week. But the extra information, getting an early play knowing if you did good or bad, I think is probably worth it. Superman does good. Let's get into the mailbag here. It's time. Mailbag. Yeah. All right. It is week 14. Big questions on the horizon.

If you have a question for the show, visit the website, click the submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB. We've got the ever-exciting Roma Dunesay questions coming in on the voicemail. Hey, this is John from Cleveland. I need to win to get into the playoffs. Who do I start at Flex? Rom Dunesay or Brian Promise? I hate both these players. I also have David Montgomery. But I feel like I need a wide receiver. Thanks. I'm. This is, so we got Roma Dunzee. We got Brian Thompson. So Rome against Green Bay, Brian Thomas against Indy or Monty versus Dallas. I'm going to go Brian Thomas. I've said this. Man, you got the, I think that this is a get right game. You got the vibes for Thomas this week. We just talked about that matchup, 47.5 points. So it's a good matchup. There's a lot of weather issues this week. So both of these dome games I'm very excited for.

There's going to be chilly weather and snow across the country this weekend. So I like Brian Thomas here. You've got Sauce Gardner ruled out, obviously, for the Colts. And no Parker Washington, presumably, it looks like he's going to be missing that game. So I lean that way. But obviously, Brian Thomas has had one game with 10 points. I was going to say there's one game you've been happy. That's a close one for me. Adunze is tough to start right now. Oh, Danzae? I mean, both of those players, their names, do more work than they've done on the field. What were, someone shared a photo in our Slack where it was, okay, I found it. So there are the projections. This was the over on underdog that John Mechie the third has a higher receiving yard projection than Rome adunes. Yeah. And it makes. John Mechie of the New York Jets. Yeah, it makes sense. Rome.

is not what we thought he was to start the year. I mean, he's still getting the targets, but the fact that he is catching fewer than, it's not. It's not. Him and Caleb are not in sync right now, catching fewer than 50% of his, you know, targets on the course of the year, very difficult to... His percentage of uncatchable targets is... is catastrophically high. Yeah. He's got too many games here recently. Eight yards, 41 yards, 31 yards, 32 yards. I'm going to go with you. Brian Thomas. I'm going to go BTJ. Yeah, I agree. Back to, you know, with Parker Washington's injury, back to relevance this week in a good matchup and a good situation. It could be a, it could definitely outpace that over under, I think. All right. Don't worry. We've got more. Hey, ballers. Stephen here from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In a full PPR league, should I start Kyle Monongai or Roma Dunezay with my flex? I feel like Rome might be the right choice, but he's been painful lately. I mean, what you're saying? Thanks. Oh, man. Full PPR. I mean, Manungi. Kyle Monongai or Rome would doonese. Menongai has been, just to highlight it, he has scored in four consecutive games. He had 23 opportunities this past week. Yeah, but it was off the heels of 12, 13, 8. which is innumerably more than Adunzei. Full PPR. I mean, he scored double-digit fantasy points three straight weeks. Even with, now, it's Green Bay. It's a tough, tough, tough situation and a tough matchup. I just, are you going to bet on Adunza making a couple big, big plays on Green Bay's defense, or on Manungai just slowly getting eight to ten points? Yeah, I mean, you're, it's more of a bet on just.

The Chicago offensive line. Do you think that they will manhandle Green Bay the way that they did the Philadelphia Eagles? They've been doing it a lot this year. That is a really close one. The full PPR also pushes you so hard in the wide receiver direction. I guess I'll lean a dunes they buy a hair. Because I will want, like what are the odds that Menongai gives you 20? That seems really low against Green Bay. So if you were a favorite, let me put it this way, and I'm not trying to get out of an answer. If you're a favorite, I'm playing Monongai. If you are an underdog this week, I'm playing Roma Dunez. Because I think that you want the opportunity for a long touchdown for a significant play. I feel like the ceiling is higher with Monongai for just if he gets two touchdowns. I think I'm going Monongai either way. He's not done that all year. No, I know. But what we have seen right now from that offensive line, that...

That offensive line might be the best in the league. They are on fire right now. What they did to the Eagles last week was incredible. So Swift had a carry inside the five. He scored. Monongai had a carry inside the five he scored. So it wasn't like, I don't think you know for sure who's going to get that carry. Yeah, I'll go with the favorite versus underdog answer. Mike, which one are you going with? I know you almost escaped without a full answer. Well, it was the next question. Oh, you were, you had moved on. Yeah, David in New Jersey had a question, everyone. I would play Mononguei. Lamar Jackson has been the next most asked about player behind Roma. I told you. I will not feel Lamar Jackson questions. I understand this is my job. Well, what if it's a simple question like this, Mike, from Trejure on X? Can we trust Lamar? Oh, I'll feel that. Okay. Absolutely not. Can you trust him? You can't trust Lamar.

Man, it's... Because Lamar might not be able to trust part of his body. I mean, he's not... His rushing baseline is not what it has been. And he says he's not injured. But he's also... I mean, we've watched... We've been while watching these Ravens games going, that's not what... Like, Lamar is not even choosing to do what you're just so used to seeing him do when he's got the ability to get to the outside edge. He just kind of cuts it up and grabs three yards and falls over because it's like... He's never done that before. And I think there is a physical limitation. Oh, yeah. That foot has to be hurting. But I also want to point out, I mean, if Isaiah likely does not fumble the ball on his big breakaway touchdown and the flowers and the flowers, offensive passenger fears just wasn't called. I mean, you'd be going, Lamar had a great game. He has, that's 100 yards and two touchdowns. We just haven't been in the position where we have to.

have a couple things go right to not have you be six points. Should those, or if both of those plays had hit, you would be saying Lamar had an okay game. You wouldn't be saying he had a great game. I agree, but we wouldn't be like so terrified of Lamar. I mean, right now, if I'm looking at Lamar or Baker, I go Baker. Brissette, I'd go Brissette. Mahomes, I'd go Mahomes. But you get to an area where it's like, I don't know. Trevor Lawrence. I was going to say that the difficult line for me is when you hit Lawrence, Jacoby, Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, those type of plays. Maybe you're scared off of Sam Darnold after last week. I can understand that. But so Brissette and Trevor Lawrence. Brissette, I would play. I do feel like Lamar has earned the opportunity to trust him beyond this little run.

Yeah. Because the upside can be so tremendous and they need it. But, but Brissette, I would, I feel, I feel like it'd be safe. Yeah, Brissette is just, oh, the Rams matchup. The Rams match up. Yeah. All right. We'll take a break. We'll come back with some more questions. Lowe's knows. 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 Lowe's official partner of the NFL. Here's the typical holiday pattern. You tell yourself you'll be thoughtful.

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promo code footballers. This deals exclusive to our listeners and frame sellout fast. So order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout terms and conditions apply. David in New Jersey writing in. Here's that David question, Mike. Would you drop Jordan Addison or Troy Franklin to pick up defenses for the playoffs? Yes. Either both. Either both. Franklin would be, oh, who's your preferred drop of the two? I would. drop Addison. Yeah. I think I dropped Troy Franklin. That's why when I said either both, I mean, genuinely both. Like pick up a defense for week 15, pick up a second defense for week 16. Like put it together. Put your scoring roster together. Yeah, when you have, I mean, these guys, if you drop them, you can pick up Adnan Mitchell and play. If you need it, you know what I mean? There's those guys out there that are if the same chance of doing something.

Michael Wilson, if he gets dropped. You know, there are just guys in that tier. Wide receiver is the easiest place to find a dart throw based on a matchup and an opportunity. Jalen Koch or whatever. They're all the same. Tom Kennedy. Tom F. Kennedy. All right. It might just be peanut butter dwelly time. That's what's going to happen. We're going to get a peanut butter dwelly touchdown. Are you talking for Ross Dwelley? For the line. Oh, that's Brock Wright. It might be. What is actually wrong with the Eagles offense? Question from Dylan Hunt. They want us to diagnose this. It's a bit of everything. It is. It's a bit of everything. The offensive line play, no lane Johnson. That's where I would start. The running game, not having big plays and keeping you accountable for play action. The accuracy of Jalen Hertz has been not good. He has missed reads and he's missed the players. The locker room, you know, squeaky wheel is not helpful.

It doesn't help an offense like this execute. If you're fading back to pass, you need to feel like you can throw the ball where it needs to go. You talk about missing Goddard on a wide open play. You know what does that? My personal opinion, it's having somebody that angry about their targets in the locker room upset that you've got to get in more targets. You're not looking all over the field. I mean, for me, it's offensive line because this is the, like this is just a premier example of. for the people who are like, hey, dude, running backs don't matter as much as we believe and we want them to matter. You have Sequin Barclay who, at least to me, maybe he doesn't look as good as last year when he was just on fire every single game, but he's still San Juan Barclay. He still has those abilities and he can't get it done based off of the blocking scheme, what's happening in front of him. They really missed DeAndre Swift. I hear what you're saying.

saying great running, even great running backs still need proper blocking schemes and good talent at the offensive line. Yeah. Jason, do you have anything to add? I mean, watching those games. I think the scheme sucks as well. I mean, they are bottom five in pre-snap motion. They're bottom two in play action. Like, I just think they're a very vanilla offense right now. How do professionals, professional coaches, See the success that like the Sheehananahan McVeys, these guys who, when you look at the end of the year you look, who's top of the league in pre-snap motion? And play action. And play action. Well, like pre-snap motion gives you instantly more information about what the defense could possibly be running. And when you don't do it, you just, you don't get that information. And you look at it. It's your choice. You could choose to get that info. And look at the offenses who. We used to do that in flag football.

Yes, because we would move a guy in motion because we'd want to know if they're in man or not. It was pretty simple. And the, the league flag football team. The top performing offenses at the end of the year, go look. I guarantee they're going to be at the top of the league in pre-stamp motion and play action. Because even, like they're the, I believe it's a myth. The myth of, well, you have to have a great running game for play action to work. No, you don't. You just have to do the play action and buy yourself a fraction of a second where the linebackers don't know if you're running the ball or not. And teams that don't do those things are easier to stop offenses. And it's so insane to me that a professional coach can look at the success of these other offenses and not steal what they're doing. I also think that you're right that Sequan is phenomenal, but he's tired. I mean, that guy's...

I do think they should use Tankmore. They need to use Tankmore. They really, really do. It's so outlandish to say the words out loud that Tank Bigsby is better than Saquan Barkley. I'm not saying that at all. But on a per touch basis, he certainly is right now. Yeah. And I think it's better for their offense. Like every time Take touches the ball behind that offensive line, special things happen. Right now, Saquan is somewhere like 3.7 yards of carry, and he just doesn't look like his explosive self. And I don't blame him. The guy had a bazillion carries all the way through the Super Bowl. That's a good point. You need to give this man some rest. No, it makes sense. J.L. Mitchell, Mike, writing in on Instagram, what is that switch next to Mike's foot? I never noticed it till this season. That's my mute button, my guy. Mm-hmm.

If I got a flushes the toilet that's built into a seat. If I got to clear the throat, if you got to, you know, cough. I don't know what Jason knows about pushing the mute button to clear his throat today. Every once in a while. I've been holding down mine most of the show. Because you don't want to me to be like, every once in a while the mute button is broken and we didn't know it was broken. And then you hear somebody just go. And then this is a professional operation. Sweating back there. Jaden Daniels question from Eddie. Are we starting Jaden Daniels with confidence? Let's throw that up there with the Lamar Jackson playoff decisions. I mean, I agree with Andy's take earlier this week. I don't think Jaden Daniels is playing, so that will make it easy. Okay. If he plays, the matchup actually is rough. Minnesota has a strong defense. The complete destruction of their offense is making things harder on the defense. But, dude, I...

If Jill not cleared for contact. Okay. But fantasy playoffs, I mean, if you're looking at Lamar, Jaden, Daniels for 15, 16, 17, is Lamar's week this week even more significant for your, because your fantasy playoffs are coming up? Sure. It's either four straight bad games or it's signs of life. If you get signs of life, I feel like you're going to play Lamar in your playoffs. You need to see it. But Jaden, once Jaden is back, I would play him. Yeah, he doesn't have hurt legs. He hurt his non-throwing arm. I agree. And I will say this. If Jaden doesn't come back, which I think is completely in the cards, he doesn't, he just doesn't play this year. Why force him back? Now, you know, if he's healthy, they'll bring him back. But Mariota's been great. And you should not discount Mario, like this week against Minnesota, in Minnesota, no. But the Giants coming up, the Cowboys in championship week, like, Marioita could be winning championships for people. Could. Yeah, he just run, they run enough intentional, like quarterback draws with him.

And he's been good enough and having Terry McLaur in there. I mean, it was Denver last week and he had a great game. Yeah, he's had, he hasn't started. He's a little bit like Berset. Three times he's been a top 10. Yeah, I'm actually okay with him this week in a spot start. David Levy, he asked this question. I answered it on Twitter, or at least somebody asked a similar one. I just want to make sure that you guys are on the same page here. Should a team be allowed to not set their lineup to intentionally lose to get a better playoff matchup? No.

No, you have to set a full lineup. That was the question. Do I have to set a legal lineup? I said yes. Yeah, I mean, so Mike has this issue this week in the League of Record. League of Record. It helps you if you lose? No, no, no, no. He doesn't have a tight end to play. It's transitioning to do you have to play a full lineup? Gotcha. And my bench was at the point where I didn't, I don't need to make a move. My team is very strong if I don't make a move. But George Kittle is my only tight end.

And so he's on by. He's on by, but it's like I got Jackson Dart is my backup quarterback for Joe Burrow. I have multiple defenses. I have Brian Robinson because I have Christian McCaffrey. And it was like. That's tough. And it has very little consequence. Like it affects our standings in terms of draft picks for next year because the team I'm playing, they're out. Like, you know, if draft picks were not. So what did you decide for your situation? I have somebody in there. I have claims in to make myself have a legal lineup. Yeah. It is just like it sucks because it affects so, so little for me to have to do this. I'm forced to drop a player. I don't want to drop.

just to put a stupid tight end. But it matters. I don't need to win, and I'm projected to win even without a tight end of my lineup. But it matters because the integrity of the league, the other team, their draft. That's as close to a situation to get me to think that it does, that you're okay not to. That's as close as I've ever gotten. On the flip side, like my team right now, aren't you a legal lineup with George Kettle in there? No. Yeah, there's a player there. How many points is it going to get? I don't know. Can almost have no change. I have to basically go 0 and 2. Another guy go 2 and 0, and I've got to lose like 65 points. He's got a gain on me for me to change seating in the playoffs. But I hope that happens because I would much rather play the other side of the bracket. So I, you know, I don't love David Montgomery this week, but he's in my lineup. Right. I don't love Rome, but he's in my lineup. Like that's okay.

Yeah. You know they're blown up for you this week. Oh, for sure. For sure. This is a four touchdown. When you don't need them, these two guys are going to make you. They'll play well enough this week to make you have to think about them for playoff matches. That's what they'll do. Jamie wanted to know the best time for a trade deadline. We have the day before Thanksgiving. Someone had extended. That's late. I mean, day before Thanksgiving this year is much past. where our deadline was in both our other leagues. But I will say that our deadlines are decently early because we are keeper leagues and we worry about trading. Yeah, I think we're 11, basically. I think Thanksgiving is fine. Yeah, this was a late Thanksgiving, man. It's throwing everything off. I think a trade. It got to December too quick. A trade deadline right before week 13. I think that's fine. My wife asked for the first time ever, by the way, just to.

because i know you guys are the christmas trees before thanksgiving people it was like thanksgiving break started and she's like should we put the tree up i'm like no it's thanksgiving like we got to wait till after this is the first time i wish i had because the yeah the latest thanksgiving can be was what it is this year the 28th and so then december's there too quick i feel behind yeah you should i see nods from producers alley my guy i have for weeks mornings got the coffee Got the Christmas tree glowing. I got the Charlie Brown record. Oh, you've been doing this for weeks? Yeah. And it's great every time. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner, right? We cooked the whole meal and look at us. And when people showed up to my house, when people showed up to my house, there was a sleigh in my front yard and deer in my front yard and a decorated Christmas tree. Living? Yeah, we bought some deer, some reindeer.

brought him in uh from the ultimate jason bushy move he's got real no i got reindeer real ones no but it's like yeah this you're coming you're coming to thanksgiving on christmas that's what it was at my house and what it did people were they supportive they were all happy yeah yeah go go figure i bet it brought him joy yeah yeah no it was like what what what is it next year can somebody do the research i need this was just too late for me You're saying the time between Thanksgiving. I need the gap. What day of the month does Thanksgiving fall on next year? Because it can be as early as the 22nd and as late as the 28th. Yeah. So the 4th Thursday. Yeah. And I just figured it looks pretty similar. It's the 26th. Yeah. So the 26th. I can live with that. The two days is it? A couple days to like hang the lights and stuff like that. Now I pulled out a Advent calendar for the kids on the second. That's not fun.

We're behind. Yeah, Advent calendars is day one man. I know. This is me kind of giving you some ground here. I'm not about to put everything in a dome. Don't get me wrong. All right. I'm not putting all the big dome big Christmas. I'm not going big dome. That's dumb. We are actually all on the same team. We're a team retractable. Yes. We have the technology. We say team dome, but retractable roof should be every stadium. So a beautiful day. Open the roof. Okay. So you're basically, you just want the dome for bad weather. That's all. That's 100%. Why would you want a roof in a great environment? Well, you two who knew? No, yeah. I just, I don't want. You guys would point at fantasy stats and how good they are in domes and then you'd be like, let's cover it up. Turn out the lights.

good football ruined. That's all it is. Like I say, you were just sharing the Oakland Athletics. Yeah, they have kind of like a, it's a closed stadium. Like a hybrid. It's a closed stadium, but it has like massive windows and it looks kind of open. There should never be a roof on a baseball field. New proposals. Because you should ruin that. That's not a fun product to watch. So it's like, I would rather watch the snow or the wind. Did the tuning into that, what was the, was the Cleveland game that had the wind? Yeah. It looked miserable. Oh, it is. And that's what makes it fun. Listen, I've got a proposal. Retractable? No, no, no. I just need one snow game a year. Here's the plan. Everything can be in a retractable roof, but you plan one intentional game in the worst weather possible. You figure out where that's going to be. You move the teams there. You put them out there in the elements. I don't care if players are blowing away or it doesn't matter.

Give me one game where I can have some Tomlin tough knuckle football in the mud, in the snow, in the rain one ton. Because that is fun. Those highlights are fun. That we have no fantasy players from and put them in that game. Hall of Fame game. Cleveland, New York. Just have. Hall of Fame game. Cleveland and the Jets every year. You don't have snow during the Hall of Fame. No, I'm just saying, well, let's move the Hall of Fame game. No, no, real football, but teams we don't care about. What if it's artificial snow? Worst two records meet up in the Snow Bowl every year.