Trust Your Studs? + Hungry For More, Go the Distance! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/13

I took that question out of my head for future weeks. Yeah, that's not too bad. Okay, so here are the questions. Would you sit? Pass. Would you sit Keenan Allen? I'm going to start, would you sit Keenan Allen if you could pivot to Devante Smith against Seattle? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Now you're making it easy first. Yes, I'm starting easy. Cortland Sutton in a plus matchup against Detroit in Detroit. Cortland Sutton. What if Keenan's in full practice today? I don't have that information, so I'm answering. You're right. Yeah, yeah. Sutton, Sutton. Okay. Let's go down a little bit further. A player who's been hot, his opportunities are up because of injuries around him. The matchup is perfect. But this is a guy who's been a questionable start every week. Would you be willing to bench Keenan Allen for Jaden Reed, rookie wide receiver for the Packers?

against there against Tampa Bay and one of the best matchups for wide receivers and you you won't probably won't know Christian Watson's full status by then I would be yeah I mean yeah I'd be benching him him which is what is his name that you are bitching him you know I we're talking about the dude I don't this is not a fair game I want to know the status report of Allen Kyle in all those situations who are you playing I'm playing Keenan Allen and I'll probably die Yeah. Kyle's not the right person to ask, though, because Kyle, what does the tattoos say across your chest? Keenan Allen. Yeah, exactly. It just says Keenan Allen. That's exactly. That's all it says. Keenan Allen. He takes his shirt off and people are like, oh, are you keen and Alan? It's his lower back. Yeah, it's all over. Front, back, legs, behind the ear, little tiny. Right cheek. By the way, there's a report that just came out this morning on the other side. I mean, you're looking at Devante Adams. He's had a, it's been a struggle.

Like, you always play Devante Adams, but it has been a single-digit struggle very often. The athletic is reporting right now, and this comes from Beat Rider in Las Vegas, Victor four. Very likely, Edna O'Connell gets benched for Garoppolo if he plays poorly in Week 15. Okay, I was going to ask, what happened? I mean, I know Garoppolo wasn't playing great or anything, and then you had all the coaching fiasco, but was there... I couldn't recall the contract status was this they're trying not to get Garoppolo hurt so they don't owe him a bunch of money. Yeah, there's money implications if he plays and gets hurt, which he loves doing. Yeah, he does. Okay. So that makes sense to Bencham if you know he's not the future. But Aiden O'Connell's been terrible. He's been terrible. And, you know, it's much better for Devante Adams and Jacobi Myers, if Jimmy G is in there. Well, it's just, it's, that's such a tough situation because it's so unfair to the defense.

to be like your your offense is inept you have to carry us and they i mean they're doing their best like they held minnesota to zero points with two minutes left and they couldn't win the game all right if jimmy g gets hurt they're on the hook for 11.25 million to jimmy jay if you're jimmy jing and you get to start oh are you sliding my groin you're not sliding right no head first into everything well yeah they have currently calling doctors to say what can you not verify with x-ray or MRI that would be a legitimate injury. That's what I'm doing. I'm going out there and whatever that is, like if it's my spleen or whatever, I know. What can't you see with the cameras? Yes. How can I not be proven to not be injured? You guys are playing Devante Adams, right? Yeah. Would you play him over Keenan Allen if Allen's actor? I would play him over Keenan Allen simply because this is not the first time that he's really in that situation. It is a new injury. It's a new injury.

Yeah. It's not one he's been reporting this year. If Keenan is hurt and has Easton Stick. This conversation. This is sad. I'm worried about this conversation because we, it's Wednesday. We don't have today's practice report. We don't have tomorrow's situation. Well, they play tomorrow. All right. I guess I'm worried about the conversation just because I don't want to like, this is not the end of the story. Okay. We need to make sure. This is the middle chapter. We need to make sure in tomorrow's news. We have the updated practice report with today and we, we. talk again about what you would do because I do think in this matchup, if you're looking at what is probable for Easton Stick, I would think that you're looking at around 200 passing yards, like kind of almost as the cap. I know he threw for like 150 in the second half last week. Yeah, he's 13 for 24 for 179 last week. And so. Not that good. Two fumbles. But I think that, you know, one touchdown.

and 200 yards is kind of like, I think the chargers would be like, you did pretty good out there. And if you're dividing that, you know, you're still going to have Quentin Johnston, who was the more benefactor of Easton Stick last week. You're going to have Austin Echler out of the backfield, some tight ends. It just seems like there is not going to be a whole lot here to go around for Keenan. He's also the best friend of quarterbacks, though. It's great. I look forward to Jason. telling me if he's going to play Keenan Allen tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. I will do that for tomorrow. Listen to some inspiring songs coming in and make a decision. It's up to Jason. All right, I will answer. You're interested in either tight end in this game? I would have said Everett if it was a different quarterback. But I don't have confidence in Everett. I don't want to start my week on that note. Yeah, this does not seem like, you know how.

A couple weeks ago, you got to start, I guess a couple weeks in a row. You got to start with the CD Lamb Thursday night. Yeah, my sweetie. I think most people who are playing guys in this game are going to start off where the end of the week, they're going to be like, I got to throw Gabe Davis in because I need upside. Yeah, I have Devante Adams in my big matchup, and I'm just praying that. Look, if you're Aiden O'Connell, just throw it to him every play. He'll be happy. It'll be one last people, one last person mad at you on the sideline.

All right, anybody else from this game? I want to talk about Echler. Let's talk about Eklah for a second. Yeah, Echler and Zemir just in case. Because if Josh, look, if Josh Jacobs plays, I'm going to play him. 100%. So if Josh Jacobs is out. Zemir White slides into the, you know. Does he make it to RB2? No. No, he's Antonio Gibson, RB3 territory. All right. In my opinion. Oh, absolutely. And I would rather play Antonio Gibson if I could over Zemir White. And the same goes for Abdullah. The same category would be even lower than Zemir White because the touchdown opportunity is probably Zabir's. He's a P. Ryan category. Yeah. And then Echlor last week bounced back a little bit. They're going to be dependent on him. The opportunities for Joshua Kelly and Isaiah Spiller were not there and they weren't good. So Echler is a start and you pray on Thursday? Yep. You have to start him. I mean, his opportunities, even when he was sucking.

Kenneth Walker or Austin Echler? Two players with question marks. Walker versus Philly. Yeah. I'm going to go Echler there. I would go Echler there. He's got a lot to prove rest of the season. The last three weeks, 16 opportunities, 17 opportunities, 17 opportunities. Last week he looked pretty good. It was, you know, over five a clip. I gave that little anecdote about the play I saw where I was like, oh, that's not him? Who was that? That wasn't Echler. It was like, oh, no, it was. He had burst and. You know, Mike's talked about. He's been coming back from this high ankle sprain, which sometimes could take, you know, months. Yeah. All right. Nobody else from this match. If you want to get into the mailbag. Let's go. Mailbag. All right. If you have a question for the show, go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click on the submit a question button. Dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. Mike, are you shaking your head over there? Yeah, you're just, you're posting pictures of your...

I noticed that I had a paused song in the corner of my laptop. What was the song? It was it was superstar lyricist Michael Bolton. Now I need to know. Did Michael Bolton write any music? Did you want the lyrics? Here, here. No, I have often dreamed, right? Yeah. No, you can probably sing it. Of a far off place. That's right. Yeah. We're a hero's welcome. We'll be waiting for me. This is fantasy football. It's fantasy football. Let's jump into a mailback question. Hey, footballers. This is Jason from New Hampshire. Just a quick question heading into the fantasy playoffs. I was able to grab Tram McBride and David Nidoku. Who would you guys be riding for the fantasy playoff? Thank you very much. And I love watching you guys. Keep up the great work. Oh, man. This is actually...

It's a pretty tough question for this week. Trey McBride gets the 49ers. David Najoku gets the Chicago Bears. San Francisco is the second best defense against tight ends in the league. Najoku coming off a big game, but you don't want to just chase a career high in touchdown. Right. And you also have a matchup where like Cleveland on paper could be out ahead in that game. They could, you know, Jason was talking about Justin Fields. Maybe if Justin Fields gets it going against Cleveland defense. They're throwing the football like they were last week. That would be the hope. That's the hope for sure. But, you know, I feel like McBride is a target guarantee. Like I would bet the targets are higher for McBride than Njoku if I was betting targets. But that's a really tough decision. Oh, it is really tough. I mean, eight for the last two games these two played. I mean, eight for 89 for McBride with a touchdown before the by week. There was some more buzz this morning interviewing.

Offensive coordinator for the Cardinals talking about Tray McBride was ready for the opportunity. Sky's the limit. You know, elite tight end was thrown around. It's tough because this is the one position where I really do usually focus on matchup a lot more. Nojoku's matchup is against the 17th ranked tight end defense. Yeah, I mean, if you really look on a game by game basis, right, what the San Francisco 49ers have given up. The second half of the year has been worse for them at guarding tight ends, which is good. That's where we are. I mean, coming off this last week, you saw a lot more points than average from the Seattle tight ends being scored than you usually see out of them. So they actually gave up quite a bit a couple weeks earlier. They gave the average to Seattle the week before that, to Tampa Bay. They gave up more than their average. We should say the answer at the same time and see if we have the same name.

Okay. I think that's fair. There's a tough question, but I do have my answer. Mike, do you have an answer there? I do, yeah. All right. The last names here. Last names. Last names. Three, two, one. McBride. Yeah, I saw that coming. So we were, Mike and I were McBride. But it's very close. And I would, here's the truth. I'd feel great about both players at this stage in the season. They're both above Kincaid. They're both above Goddard. They're both above Ferguson. In my opinion, they're both very good plays this week. Yeah. And we brought it up before, but just hang on to David Najoku. He's got the best tight-in schedule of any tight-in the rest of the season. Hopefully they're both just great. Yeah. Hopefully this is a, oh, man, I got 21 points instead of 20. That's been happening a lot lately. Like we benched flowers and we thought, oh, no, we made a huge mistake because we put in Jaden Reed over him. And it was like, eh, they scored six. It was a mistake of point one.

Those are the best mistakes. Mistakes that aren't mistakes at all. All right, there is a follow-up question from YouTube on Team MacB. Isaiah likely are Team MacB? And that's a Tray McBride easy for me. Let's jump into another voicemail. Yikes. So Kyler Murray against Sam Fran. Yeah, Trevor Lawrence is in a rough matchup. Baltimore is the second best team against quarterbacks. Tell that to Matthew Stafford last week in the rain. No, I know. I know. I think that for me, I'm going to, for me, I'm going to go Kyler. I think the mobility gives me a higher baseline from disaster. I would agree. Given the current ankle issue that Trevor Lawrence is playing through, the theoretical, very good defense that Baltimore usually is.

And this is a very important game. I mean, these two teams are playing for that, like, number one seed. I will go with Kyler's rushing ability and hope that if he gets, you know, 50 or 60 yards on the ground, that it comes with a rushing touchdown and have that baseline. I'm not really thrilled with either option this week. Yeah, I'll go Kyler as well. Week 11 against Houston, the team only put up 16 points, and yet Kyler was the QB6. The next week they only put up 14 points. He was the QB9. And then in a weird one against Pittsburgh, they put up 24 points, but he was a QB 17 because that was the James Connor. James Connor was still a playable fantasy running back because of the volume. But San Francisco, I would bet more on the Kiler side. Last week was the most yards and points given up by Baltimore all year long. And it was at home and it was against Los Angeles. In bad weather.

Maybe that was the reason. Yeah, it's the weather. The defenders were slipping around. The weather seemed just fine. It was, it wasn't as bad. Both quarterbacks threw for a billion yards and played well. It wasn't as bad as earlier worries about wind, but it was just rain. And rain does not really affect passing that much if it's not windy. Yeah, it kind of seemed like a dome game or something. I mean, it was just the exact same output. I don't know. Dome games last week were like three to nothing. Yeah. Oh, I'd be flipped. Never! Yeah, I know. You want to be in there. Because quarterback still also matter. You know, Sleeper. Show me the teams were in the domes. Sleeper has the little icon that is next to the matchup that shows a blowing wind or a blowing wind or like the sun. I see that little dome symbol. It just, hmm, it feels so good. Yeah. For fantasy. Yes. Yeah. And for like getting like pneumonia. It also protects individuals from pneumonia. So if I flip my argument.

Do you health-based? Can I get people on board? Yeah. If you give me the stats, pneumonia per capita in open dome cities. All right. I'm on it. Which Kyle, stop it. Stop looking it up, Kyle. He already has it. Because he's already got it pulling up. Kyle's kind of like a fantasy AI that we have access to. We can just ask a question. Yeah. Even when you don't want the answer. Yeah. You're going to get it. He'll give you the stats for every mighty ducks starting lineup player. I don't know. He's like minority report over there. He's got all the screens. Let's move on here. It's a trust your studs test. We're going into it. Okay? You don't play this game? No, I don't. Too bad. You have to. All right. This question comes in from Twitter, Mark West, which. Wait. The Mark West, that no one listening knows. 1992 Center for the Phoenix Suns, Mark West. Wow. Old Dominion alumni? Wow.

Thanks for listening and supporting the show. We really appreciate it, Mark. Oh, man. Well, he would like to know. He's a big fantasy guy, big guy in general. But after the last four weeks, PPR question, Stefan Diggs, Rashi Rice. Full PPR, I'm still going to go Diggs. I completely understand Rushie Rice has been more and more involved, more active, getting touchdowns. But I don't expect it. Better. Yeah, sure. Better. I'm with you. That's why I made the joke. The targets are there for Diggs. Are they? Yeah. Last week, he still had. How is he doing such little with so much? Well, two weeks ago, or should two games ago against Philly, he was the wide receiver 13. Yeah, he was okay. Last week, very difficult matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. There's a high over under in this game against Dallas. Yeah, I'm still going Diggs. Yeah. It was pointed out to me yesterday by Mike that, like I turned down your.

your trade after you turned down my trade like you could have sent me heckler would have changed your season and everything um and then mike pointed out like i didn't he was chavvin siphon digs right and i just something in me just didn't like everyone thought i was going to get him i had all the picks to get him and i didn't do it and so far yeah you know how bad that would feel if i was rolling eckler digs right now yeah no draft picks you would be not in the playoffs yeah you would probably be not in the playoffs if you made those two trades crazy

All right, Dave wants to know he just picked up Matthew Stafford off waivers. Do I play him over Mahomes? Oh, my gosh. I am in a league, the listener league. I'm trying to earn everybody out there an extra spot to be had. I am actively paying Fab to pick up Matthew Stafford. I am playing him over Mahomes on my team. Yep, and I would do the same thing. It's very tough pill to swallow. When you look at the names, you know that Patrick Mahomes is. awesome, but the matchup is incredible. It doesn't get much better than, you know, I talked about it on the stream of the week yesterday for Matthew Stafford. But you just look at the last three weeks. Matthew Stafford is the quarterback three in fantasy. Only Dak Prescott and surprisingly Trevor Lawrence have scored more than Matthew Stafford. And then you add in the matchup. Yeah. Where Patrick Mahomes, low over under against New England.

Patrick Mahomes over that same time period has been the quarterback 8, the quarterback 16, the quarterback 20, while Stafford has been the quarterback 7, 8, and 5. So he's been playing better and he's got the better matchup. I'm rolling Stafford. Would you play Gino Smith over Patrick Mahomes? That would be hard because Gino's coming off the injury. But he plays Philly. I'm saying the chance of re-agravating the groin injury is like the thought of that is so devastating. So I probably go my homes there. But Stafford, at this point, you aren't, you're not finding a waiver wire piece of garbage that you're throwing into your lineup. Oh, the matchup is so great. No, it's, I mean, Cooper Cup looks like he is, he's ready to perform again. Pook is playing fantastic. Everything is lined up so that you just, you need to adjust how you're looking at Matthew Stafford right now is quickly. Is what I, yeah, the point I want to make.

It's not just the matchup. It's Stafford and the Rams are moving forward are in a really good spot. The touchdowns are hitting for Stafford right now and the matchup against the Manders. I believe the Manders have given up the most top 12 fantasy quarterbacks by far. Yeah, it's a smash matchup. And that's hopefully you blocked somebody you're playing from playing Stafford. Let's close out with this classic annual debate question from Instagram. wants to know should you continue to add drop players once your team is eliminated from the playoffs i am in a expert league right now that got put into playoffs the notice went out with the bracket and it said remember only playoff teams can add and drop the players on the waiver day so i don't mind at all if a league wants to institute that if a league wants to say look we want our playoff teams to

put their best foot forward, not be blocked by people who are playing for nothing. I don't mind that at all. But I prefer leagues where you are playing for something. There's a consolation bracket. There's a weekly prize. A weekly prize. There's a toilet to avoid wearing around your neck. There's still the possibility of trying to find a keeper. Right. Yeah. If you're in a keeper league, obviously dynasty or whatever. So the majority of leagues, I think I have a different opinion now. Yeah. So the majority of leagues for me, I prefer active players, not just like grabbing a guy to cause mayhem entirely. But I think if you're playing actively, it shouldn't be limited to just the playoffs. If you want it limited to just playoffs, then your league just needs to institute that as a rule. I think my opinion, unless you're in a keeper league, is now on the side of non-playout teams should not be able to add. Because the purpose, here's the reason why. And we had a discussion this morning in the studio about.

You know, people that have gone out, commissioners in particular, and made jokes in the, you know. Quote unquote jokes. Yeah, quote unquote. Wouldn't it be funny if everybody signed a quarterback and this player can't sign one? Don't do that. Well, listen, one of the things that happens, if you're a non-playoff team and you are participating in the waivers without any purpose, there isn't, I'm saying if there isn't external reasons, a weekly prize, a keeper, a playoff position, something in play. If it's totally arbitrary. to do it. Somebody loses on the other end of that signing, right? There's a winner and a loser. Somebody else is going to look at it with the eyeball to collusion. I mean, at some point in time, you're like, that guy picked this player up. That affects me negatively. My opponent gets a benefit. Is that player working with my opponent? Yeah, if there is no purpose to you playing, if it's not changing the outcome of...

draft picks or punishments or keepers or anything, then you can argue, then the only thing you're doing is trying to... You're disrupting somebody. Yeah. Not like one matchup. You're disrupting one person in a matchup. And I've never been on that side until really today in this discussion. Are you still firmly on the other side, Mike? Yeah. Well, I was... Watch the world burning. If there is a rule in place before the season starts, Fine. I will abide by the rule. But there is no gentleman's clause for me. Well, you can't do this. Why? Because you're just not supposed to. Because I don't really like it if you do that. Get out of my way. I'm going to do what I want. Well, that's not surprising. One more question, because it's a good one. It's a marriage question, which is we're experts. Obviously, YouTube question from Billy. How do I win when I play my wife in week one of the fantasy playoffs? Seems like a real loose to me.

I think it's a win-win. You win and then you just make sure she don't forget it. Yeah. You know, right, right, guys? No, I don't. Look, if you have a, if you have a. That seems like a lose. If you're in a marriage and you have a strong relationship, this is. What if you have like a kind of a mediocre relationship? Like if you're on the verge of ending things, then maybe you shouldn't be playing fantasy football together. You should be doing cooperative things. So if she wins and you lose, you lose. If you win and she loses. You win. At fantasy. Yeah. Which is all that matters right now. Yeah. I mean, whoever loses, they'll get over it. Go the distance. Yeah. Show your wife great respect by putting your best foot forward and showing her how great you are. Buy her a pizza football. And then buy her a pizza. All right. One last reminder to drop it like it's hot. WaiverWire is going through. See who the other league mates have sent into the waiver wire.

Tomorrow starts of the week, matchup previews. We do have one slight update. Do we? Yeah, because, I mean, we had talked about Jimmy Garoppolo, but now it's being reported head coach Antonio Pierce of the Raiders. He's not decided who will start. So this is upgraded from a midgame move to maybe we just play Jimmy Garoppolo, which would be fantastic. There's no way. that this doesn't happen if I didn't listen to that song coming in. I got Devante Adams and Bolton, you king. I was just going to say there. I could tell you there's no, there's no chance that Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't start. Everything has worked out for. Why, Jason? Jason. Because Andy has Devante Adams. No, no, no. I know we've got Devonte Adams. Yeah. I'm just saying every single thing that needs to go right has fallen into place for Andy so far. And what if it's Brian Hoyer?

Well, I mean... It's anything but O'Connell. I think Brian Hoyer's a sideways move, but Garoppel is an upgrade. That'll do it for today's episode. Starts tomorrow. Matchups the next two days, fantasy faceoff and a whole lot more. We'll talk to you then. Goodbye. Goodbye. You for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on Jointhefoot.com. and follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers.