Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Pump the Brakes, TNF Preview, Mailbag

Well, they're not actually very good. But then they completely change your opinion. You know, the first half of last year, Kansas City and Houston, it's almost hard to remember. Those were teams, they were, those were teams that when you had a guy playing, you targeted New Orleans, Kansas City and Houston because they were awful. And now it's like, whoa, you don't, you don't target Kansas City and Houston. They're the best.

So those things do happen. That's where I say it's, this is a tough one because I think it comes down to the Tampa Bay defense more than anything. If they are legit and we'll only see that over the next few weeks, then Cap would be better. If they're not, I would go deck. This one's from Sean in Frederick. Frederick, Maryland. Oh, I thought he was in. He was inside of a human? Inside of a human. Like alien? Oh, yes. Kilby. Kill be.

I want to know as a general rule, should I handcuff the best running back option or handcuff the running backs on my roster? Okay, so general rule, you want to handcuff the running backs on your roster first. That is the point of a handcuff. It gives you security because your studs that you already have, that you've built your team around when or if.

they go down, then you are protected. It's more of an insurance policy. However, it can't always be a general rule of thumb because it depends on who your guys are. If your running backs are Melvin Gordon and Jordan Howard and Todd Gurley, I don't think they're handcuffs. They're not going to save you if those guys go down. I don't think anyone of the – I would rather have Alfred Morris than any one of those guys handcuffs because –

I mean, maybe Benny Cunningham is legit. The thing is, though, with the handcuffing of your own running backs, even if Benny Cunningham is not a super spectacular, sexy option thing, oh, Benny Cunningham has the backfield to himself. I'm going to put him in. I think Benny Cunningham is actually a pretty decent running. But the thing is, you know he will get points. Right. And that's everything. Maybe your handcuff options. And if Todd Gurley goes down and you picked up Alfred Morris.

You don't have any guarantee of points. You still get two points a week instead of maybe you're getting seven. And that's why the general rule is to handcuff your own guys first. So let's just take that, just that specific option. Would you, Mike, you only have Todd Gurley on your team. Would you rather have Benny Cunningham or Alfred Morris? I would go Cunningham. I would go insurance. I think if I had another solid running back, then I would choose that. If I didn't, if I had Todd Gurley and then.

you know, it's kind of a weak class, I'm going to go with the home run option for Alf and hope that I can actually improve my, my career. I'll use my team as example. In our league of record, uh, I'm just running out the bills running backs and the Tampa Bay running backs. Yeah, your, your roster is loaded with all of them. Yeah. And it has been when like last week, Gillisley was out. I threw Jonathan Williams on my bench just in case. I just keep handcuffing the handcuff of the handcuff. Yeah.

I'm just locking down a particular backfield because I don't have other options. So I want to make sure that I have running back points moving forward. This is the time of year we change that. In draft season, we don't really encourage grabbing handcuffs. But once you have established your team and you're on the playoff track, you've got to have those insurance. Because you're also narrowing out your depth. You want your best possible team. All right. This one, we're in a crazy world.

A crazy world, Matthew and Auburn, Washington, Julio Jones or Taylor Gabriel. Taylor has been very consistent. Taylor has been very consistent. And Julio Jones, this is, it's Julio Jones. I'm not even thinking about, but I will say this. Julio Jones, this year when he's been great, he's been elite. If he is having an off game, he is terrible. Yeah.

This is not really a legitimate question. I mean, I get seeing the last few weeks and going, should I? I get it. Put it this way. You're talking about should you use the currently the number three wide receiver in fantasy or currently the number 51 wide receiver in fantasy? And okay, throw those out because the last few weeks have been better. Just look at targets.

Okay, if, you know, it's good that you're not getting caught up with the name, right? A lot of times people go, oh, his name is Brandon Marshall. He's the best. Yeah. You know, that would be a better question. You say, hey, should I play Brandon Marshall or Taylor Gabriel? Then you got a legit question. But, you know, look, they're on the same team. Julio Jones is averaging nine and a half targets a game. Gabriel's still averaging three and a half. I'm taking, I mean, it's always Julio here. All right. We got, oh, Paul P.

I don't know if this is really a question or if he's just doing some venting here, but he says, Paul P. and St. Louis, can someone explain how I can be the highest scoring team, but somehow have the worst record in the league. Oh, brutal. That does happen. I don't know if I've seen highest scoring and worst record. This late in the year. Yeah, combined. I definitely have plenty of times seen.

highest scoring and you're somehow the five or six seed yeah that that is that is brutal all here's the deal paul fantasy football is fun it is a great time it's it's a time of camaraderie with your friends or your family or your colleagues or whoever your league is with it can be so frustrating sometimes because there is absolutely a component of luck

especially when you're in these head-to-head matchups, which I prefer. I don't like the Roto system. The all play. I'm not a fan of that. I like the matchups. I like the bad beats or the or the crushing losses. You know, those are, but the reality is. You're standing by this after what happened to you on Monday night. Even after that. I'm not going to go and say, hey, next year. Because I, you know, I had like the system. I think I had the third highest points scored in the league this week. And I was out of the playoffs because Andy.

had more. Thanks to Vante Adams. Yeah, you know, you just got to, you've got to be able to roll with the punches. Unfortunately, in your situation, it's going to take you more than a year. You know what I mean? Like, usually there's a bad beat. And so the next week, you just got to let that roll off. This one is just a bad year. Don't give up on fantasy, play. Listen through the off season. And obviously, you know what you're doing. You're leading the league in scoring. I will throw out this suggestion to you, Paul Pee. In my money league, we run a,

a kind of a different system, and you have to track this offline because nobody just allows you to do it. It's a good system. It's kind of a mixture of head-to-head and all play. So every week, you get a point if you win your matchup. But on top of that, the top six scores of the week, they also get a point. So you can get two points every single week. I would guess that most weeks, you know, at least three or four people are getting two points, right?

They won because they scored the most. But there are the teams. They only get, they happen to be playing. They're the second lowest scoring team of the week. They happen to play against the lowest scoring team of the week. They only get a point. Or vice versa. You're a high scoring team and you got trounced by an even higher scoring. Exactly. So it's still going to get a point. So it kind of, it brings some balance to it. You've been in that league for years. So you know.

from long experience, whether that is broken or balanced. And I think it's at this point now, like you said, it has been a couple of years. I like it. I think it's been very balanced and helped things out where you're not seeing just true anomaly things like this, where a team can have the most points and be in the last place. Yeah. That's, that's hard. Tori and Hicks. Randall Cobb or Quincy and Noonua this week for my flex in a standard league. Standard league.

I am definitely here going with Quincy Anunwa. Do you chase those points? I don't feel like I'm chasing those points. Since week seven, right, the last few weeks, Randall Cobb has not had a double-digit performance since week seven. Since week seven, Quincy Annoonwa has had three double-digit point that is scoring. On the season, he's got five.

And I think Quincy and Noonwal has been pretty good. He was hampered by a few nagging little injuries in the middle of the season. And since he looked good this last week, I'm going with him. Plus, so that's just in general, right? That's in an a ferial plane. That's head to head. But now you take it in their matchups. And, you know, you've got Cobb going up against Houston, which is not a very good matchup. And you've got the New York Jets at home against Indianapolis.

I prefer the matchup. I prefer the player. So I'm going a noon while here. I don't blame you. All right. Justin in New York, I have Latavius, and I've already clinched the number one seed for my playoffs. Should I drop Paul Perkins to pick up DeAndre Washington? Jalen Richard is already on my team. He still, and he has Rawls. He's already on his team? Yes. Hmm. Rawls, Starks, Crowell are the other running backs.

So that just brings up kind of a quick, I don't know if this was a news blurb or not, but we talked about DeAndre Washington, healthy scratch last week. Jalen Richard to me, he's the, if you want to handcuff Latavius Murray, Jalen Richard is the guy to own. For sure. Washington will be active, of course, if Murray were to go down and they will be splitting, but Richard would be the guy to own.

Especially, he said this is a PPR league, so especially in PPR. For sure. You just brought up the Buffalo backfield where, you know, when Gilly went down, then you went and picked up the next tier. But you didn't have all three. You didn't have John Williams. Correct. And since I've already moved on from Jonathan Williams. Yeah. Now, reading his question, I think someone else might actually have Jalen Rashar.

No, he says Jaylen Richard. Oh, already on a team. Okay, yes, you are correct. I miss read that. So I'm still, I'm not going to pick up DeAndre Washington. If you're a healthy scratch, you're not the handcuff. I would say this. If Latavius went down, there would probably be a 50-50 timeshare or a 55-45 between Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington. I just don't know if it's, I guess I'm not really digging Paul Perkins right now either.

Yeah, and so between Perkins, Rawls, Starks, and Croix? Was that Paul? Was that Paul Perkins writing in a couple questions ago? Paul P. Did he just, he couldn't say his last name because you didn't want people to know, but that makes sense. All right. Jordan and Eugene Oregon. Should I drop A.J. Green? Have Green and Jeffrey on the bench. Alshon, Jeffrey, and AJ Green on the same team? That is brutal. Should I drop Green or hold for the playoffs?

If you're in the playoffs, let's say you're secure, you're not, I've got to win and get in, and somehow you can, a waiver wire guy is going to go right into your starting lineup. I mean, that's a lot of variables. I don't know if that can happen, but I'm not dropping him. I've got so many AJ Green questions. What do I do? And here's the stupid thing, at least right now, he's listed as doubtful.

I've seen. Our man Brooks was really upset because... Is that John Fox? He couldn't move him into the IR spot because he was doubtful and not out. That's pretty common. So here's kind of how I approach those questions. Sometimes I ask it from reverse. I say if AJ Green was on waivers, would I pick him up right now? Would I do that? And usually it's going to be team dependent. If I've got a really good team, I...

I think that I, you know, if I've got a garbage team, I'm definitely picking them up. If I've got a bunch of guys that I can drop, I'm going to pick up A.J. Green and hope that, you know, he's better. If I've got a really solid team, I probably don't have a guy that I would be willing to drop for A.J. Green who might not even be back this season. So look at it from that direction, and I think then you've got to decide it's really a matter of who's out there on waivers. But, man, having A.J. Green and Alshon Jeffrey.

holding up your bench. That's, you probably need to get rid of one. That's very unfortunate. And I'll say, according to football outsiders, the Bengals have a 6% chance to make the playoffs. Enso facto, the Bengals are not making the playoffs. They would be stupid too. So why would you rush A.J. Green back, but maybe they do. I always, I'm not, but I can't, I can't drop, I cannot be in a situation.

where I head in a championship week, and all of a sudden, I'm looking across the aisle, and there's a healthy AJ Green about to play against me. I just, I can't live with that scenario. That's a low probability scenario, but it's, I, I wouldn't be able, that would be, I would tilt some, I would be, on my head. Here's, as in I, I would live upside down for the rest of my life. Here's another rule of thumb, though.