Playoff Primer + Trade Targets & League Winners - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/15

Yeah, on the other side, on Cincinnati's side, this is a really tough defense. The Ravens are top ten across the board against every single position if you adjust for schedule. They don't give up a lot. And so like I can tell you right now, Mike is out of town, our champ champ team. We have the Joe Burrow v. Kyler Murray decision on our dynasty. You're going Kyler. I'm going Kyler. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Not having T. Higgins, which they're not going to have, is a big deal because you really need playmakers to be able to make their mark against Baltimore. And you need Jamar Chase to be able to have somebody to take some of the attention off of him. And, you know, Trent and Irwin and Tyler Boyd are not going to be able to do enough, I think, to give.

Chase the opportunities that he needs. No, Tyler Boyd would be an okay flex option, you know. Boyd over any of the Baltimore options? I would, yeah. So Mix and Chase, Boyd is a flex. End of story. End of story. I, I'm not excited to start Joe Burrow this week. I think there are probably better options out there. That's, it's tough to bitch. Would you go Sam Hal? Yeah, I think I would. Let me look at my rankings here. I feel like there is definitely a cap when you face Baltimore and Baltimore. Yep. And without T. Higgins. I've got Sam Howell two spots ahead of Joe Burrow. I mean, I think that's going to be hard for people to do. I think most of them are going to go down with the ship because Joe Burrow is just, you know, that kind of guy. But I think it might be the right play. Final dicey one. Would you play Joe Burrow or Justin Fields? Not Fields on the first game back.

No, I play Burrow. I'm worried because Fields' injury was a thumb. Right. It was a grip strength issue. And so it's like, okay, you're going to come back and it's not like Justin Fields does it every week when he's healthy. It's a real, like your floor is lower, I think. Your floor is lava with Justin Fields. I think the floor is super low for both guys, though. Like if it becomes a bad game for Joe Burrow, which prime time Joe Burroughs usually going to be great. Yeah, that's why I'm staying there. Man, in Baltimore. You did have Deshawn Watson and the Browns put of 34 points last week in Baltimore. Yeah, but Deshawn Watson, I mean, that was a defensive score. And I don't think Deshawn Watson was overtly great. He had like 20 fantasy points. No, no, you're right, yeah. But if he can do 20, Burrow can do 25. I'm staying with Burrow. All right. Playoff Primer. All right, I'm excited to talk through these names. Almost.

I'm excited and yet it will be you and I opening up. You don't want to give away your beliefs. It will be you and I opening up about some situations here. Yeah. This is like we're playing chess. Would you consider clicking except on either of my trade offers before this segment? No. Okay. That's a shame. Last year, I mentioned it. Jerich McKenna was the RB2 from week 14 on. Here were some other league winners from last season that highlight what we're looking at. Kirk Cousins. was the quarterback 5-3 and 6 from weeks 14 through 16 last year. Huge fantasy players. Brady had a huge week 17. C.D. Lamb finished the year with four straight top 15 performances. George Kittle had a monster final run. And then James Connor. Mm-hmm. The whole second half the year. He was the RB6 from week 11 on. So here we go. Let's talk about quarterbacks. The best and worst schedules for quarterbacks right now.

First of all, let's just come right out and say what you don't want to say. I'm putting you on the spot. What is it that you don't want me to be aware of? It's nothing that you're not aware of. It's just going to drive home. Look, in trade negotiations in a league, everything is about leverage. And sometimes leverage is built on what's said out loud versus what is said in secret. And so, look, we're going to get to running backs later, and it's very evident. Like, I'm coming after Austin Eckler on your team. I'm the only buyer left in the league. And you want to give up Saquan Barkley. And Sequin has a bad schedule, and Echler has a good one. And there's a reason why I'd offer second round draft picks along with Saquan to go do it. And I'm looking long term. I made a big bet yesterday. And, you know, I would have rather have negotiated with you last night. That's all I'm saying.

Dak Prescott has one of the best playoff schedules. He faces Buffalo. We know Buffalo has been troubled on the defensive side. It is in Buffalo. So that one I will illustrate, like you could have weather. That's fair. That is a weather week, potentially. But then he goes to Miami in a shootout extraordinaire. He plays at home against Detroit in championship week. Dak, it's more than these three games because every game prior to these three games is amazing for Dak. Yeah, this is no weeks off. This is why we've highlighted Dak for a while. He was Mike's second half sleeper. There isn't really a better passing schedule in the entire league from now until the end of the season, but it does continue. So long as that Buffalo game is not a weather issue and it turns into a snowball, the playoff weeks are just as good as the weeks from here till then.

And I know I'm biased because I have picked up and I'm playing DAC and he's like the centerpiece of a couple leagues. Listener League I've got him. That's trying to earn everybody another spot in the listener league. But I don't know if I would accept any trade for DAC right now, quarterback to quarterback. Oh, yes, you would. I don't think I would. I mean, maybe with keeper stuff considering, but I like. Redraft, you're telling me. If I, I've got Jalen Hurts. No, I know. You're saying you would rather have DAC than Jalen Hurts. He might be the only one that I would do that. Jalen Hertz is in this category. Jalen Hertz is an amazing playoff schedule, Seattle, the Giants, and Arizona. Jailen Hurts is the one that I would waver on and I probably would fold and do. But not maybe now that I have C.D. Lamb. Like I might ride the DAC, C.D. Lamb stack into the playoffs. Kyler Murray, really tough first week of the playoffs, but he's on rosters as often a second quarterback option.

So if you can play somebody, he plays San Francisco in week 15 and a week 14 buy. So you need another quarterback for maybe those two games, but then Chicago, Philly? He's a perfect buy week. Like if you are on the way to the playoffs with a buy and you're not even going to play week one to go Chicago and Philly in your championship weeks, it's a really, really nice schedule. And you would presume those will be. His healthiest, his best, you know, he's going to be more in the system, more recovered from the ACL, more confident in everything. More Zach Ertz on the roster. Gross. I know. That hurts. But Kyler's got a great schedule. Brock Purdy and Justin Fields do as well. You don't want Fields.

in the first week of the playoffs because it's Cleveland on the road. That would be a disaster. I also have Cleveland's defense. I'm looking forward to that. Oh, man. They're going to be so good. But then Brock Purdy plays Arizona. Then you don't really want him against Baltimore, but you could do it. And then he plays Washington. Brock Purdy is a name that is worth bringing up because I don't know how much respect he's getting in fantasy circles. You know, he doesn't run a lot. But he's been very, very good for fantasy football. In the three-game stretch where he didn't have Debo Samuel, he was seven points, 12 points, 18 points. And so I think, you know, he's been dropped. They had the buy week after that. You know, you picked him up off of waivers and I traded for him. But in all the games with Debo Samuel, he's hitting 20 points reliably at the quarterback position. You know, this last week he had.

three passing touchdowns, 300 passing yards. He's been very good. So you combine that with a great playoff schedule for quarterbacks. And I think he's probably the sneaky ad of the group. Like everyone wants Dak, Jalen Hertz, Kyler. You're just, you probably can't get them right now. Purdy is the, you know, I won a championship with Alex Smith a couple years ago. Or not a couple anymore. I mean, a long time ago. because I had a major talent go down, and it was like Smith had a nice run. Purdy's got a pretty good floor in every game. Winnie has all of his weapons healthy. And then Justin Fields is the wild card. Look, you could win a championship with him. You could lose one with him. I think Justin Fields is going to win people championships. I really do. Well, let's put, you know, the good schedules aren't really illustrative until you contrast them with the bat. Okay. And what you want to do there, because Tua has the worst schedule.

of basically any quarterback. The Jets, you don't pass on it. Then Dallas. Uh-oh. Then Baltimore. Give me three teams that I don't want to face in those three games. You did it. Yeah. Tua is going to get a lot of people to the playoffs too. So this is going to be a playoff quarterback. And that is where I think he lines up perfectly with Brock Purdy. If you're the Tua manager, just go acquire Brock Purdy. You can absolutely acquire Brock Purdy in a trade if he's not just sitting on waivers right now. combine those matchups because the two worst matchups for Tua are the first and third week of the playoffs and those are the great matchups for Brock Purdy against Arizona and Washington. So you can kind of play the schedule and combine those two players together. I think if you ride Tua through the playoffs, you're not going to win your championship. It's tough because that's one of the reasons I traded him away was the thought of if I make the playoffs, I'm not going to want to play him in those games. But I will feel

Pot committed to do so. When you look at other guys, Trevor Lawrence, he's off your roster, bad schedule. CJ Stroud, Tennessee, Cleveland, Tennessee. What are your thoughts on Stroud? Because I've seen teams now that have Stroud trade away their other option because they feel confident enough in C.J. Stroud. Yeah. So it's funny that obviously two games, this is going to be a huge playoff theme, is the Texans v. Titans because they play each other twice in these three game fantasy playoffs. So like for Derek Henry, running on the Texans, it's going to be great. For wide receivers against Tennessee, it's a great matchup. Total quarterback fantasy points, Tennessee hasn't really given up a lot. They don't give up a lot of rushing yards to quarterbacks, but I'm kind of in the middle. I don't view this as a terrible schedule for C.J. Stroud. I know statistically speaking, it is not good for quarterbacks.

But I think Stroud's going to be able to throw on Tennessee. Sam Howell, Joe Burrow, tough ends to the season. Burrow has Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Kansas City. Statistically speaking, that's not great. I'm actually not that worried about that. I don't think the Minnesota-Pittsburgh matchups are ones I would care about Kansas City in the final week. I don't know if I care about that either, just because the nature of Joe Burrow is like these could be some pretty high, that could be a high-scoring game. More worried than I am more worried than you are. Not in the first two weeks. Joe Burrow. So we're talking about fantasy schedules. It's important for us to say what I'm sure everyone listening hopefully already knows, but like you don't just bench your studs because they're in great matchups. When you've got a real stud, a great player, they're usually matchup proof. There's a reason why they're great because other NFL teams and players can't stop them. But the Kansas City Chiefs have

proven to me this year. So many good quarterbacks have played against them and no one's gotten it done. I don't think Joe Burrow gets it. Joe Burroughs had plenty of bad games this year. And I don't think he gets it done in championship week. Running backs with great schedules. Austin Echler. Austin Echler plays the Las Vegas, Buffalo, and Denver. I mean, you can't get much better than that. That's the 32nd. defense against running backs, the 27th and the 22nd defenses against running backs. The only player that I think might have as good a schedule is Bejohn Robinson and the Falcons. They're playing Carolina, Indianapolis, and Chicago. But Chicago has gotten much, much better recently against the run. But Echler, Bejohn, those schedules are...

Perfect. Where are you with Derek Henry? Because the schedule we've talked about it since week one, Houston, Seattle, Houston for the final three weeks of the season. Does Derek Henry have a final, you know, mark to make on the fantasy universe? Yeah, for sure he does. Derek Henry, these are winnable games, but they're also easy rushing matchups. So I think Derek Henry is going to be a league winner. right now off of a really terrible game for Derek Henry. He only had 11 carries this last week for 24 yards, scored two and a half fantasy points. If you ever want to try to trade for Derek Henry, now is a good time. This week, they're playing the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are a pretty tough matchup. So maybe if your trade deadline goes an additional week, if you don't have to make the move now,

After next week, if he puts up two bad performances in back-to-back weeks, I would pick him up. His run after this next week is pretty much great the rest of the season. You've got Carolina, Indy, Miami, Houston, Seattle, Houston's perfection. Jerome Ford. Jerome Ford has a Chicago Houston and then the Jets matchup to end the season. He was a trade four candidate mentioned on the Dynasty podcast today. And I personally think that he. He has shown that this team, that he's their guy, like over 64% of snaps for two straight weeks, ran for over 100 yards last week against Baltimore on the ground, on 17 carries, very explosive, very fast guy, and could be a league winning type of candidate. Yeah, and Jerome Ford isn't going to cost a ton. Obviously, we've got to wait and see what Dorian Thompson does for this offense. That makes me less bullish. But.

He has been good. Jerome Ford has looked great. The team is relying on him. If they're going to win games, which is obviously their goal, it's going to come from their defense and running games. So that means Jerome Ford is all of a sudden the center of this offense. We actually highlighted him on the Dynasty podcast as well as a good dynasty asset to try to trade for that might be a little bit sneakier long-term play than people are giving him credit for. Give me some of the worst running back schedules out there. Nope, nope, nope, nope, no. I know you want to skip it, but we need to bring up the Steelers. The Steelers have a very good. Oh, okay. Yes, Jalen Warren and Naji Harris. No, I don't want to skip it. Okay. I traded for Jalen Warren recently. Najee and Jalen Warren. Like the offensive line is moving people right now. They play Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and then Seattle. The only negative there is that unlike Jerome Ford and Cream Hunt, which is a starter and a backup slash goal line.

Naji and Warren are very much a split. They are. You know, it was like, Jail and Warren got announced as a starter. Hooray, you ran out of the tunnel. And I think Naji had the first five carries. And they're both running well. Like if Naji was running poorly right now and Warren was on fire, I think I'd be like dying to get him and dying to play him. But the schedule's great. So I think both will be in play Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Seattle. So. Both of them, this is how they're winning. They're six and three. And Najee, he did it last year. Sucked the first half and was great the second half. Maybe it gets colder and defenses get tired. Sequin Barclay has one of the worst schedules for the running back position. He also has a week 13 by New Orleans, Philadelphia, Los Angeles. He also has no quarterback or hope. He's all alone. Yeah. So you have Sequin in the league of record. He is. You are shotgunning.

offers to trade him away because this is a very bad schedule and while his it's hard to see a ceiling for him yeah while his floor is high it's probably you pretty much expect in these three games are going to get 10 points and that's not terrible but that's not winning you a championship against the best teams in your league so sayquan's name and his current run has been good i think you're right to try to go try to do like plus something for Echler. Yeah. Unfortunately, in your league, I have Echler. I'm probably not doing that deal. What about a couple twos? Oh, man, maybe. Don't do. Do not offer me that. Sayquine. Do not offer me that, and I'm serious. Sequin and a couple two. I'm going to go send that. No. I'm going to go send that through. Oh, my gosh. No. Just go ahead and click this button right here. Really, really don't. I really, really will because I want you to know that you turn this drade down.

at the end of hold on hold on let me say it no I mean just talk about what you're thinking and what I am feeling I am thinking click click that as a 500 record click click with no draft capital next year it would be insane to not take that deal but if I take that deal I'm not winning the championship all right it's sent and so I want this sucks so I guess I guess we'll deal with this I want to win the championship. I'm the current champ in the League of Record. Sure. My team is very good. And I believe if I make the playoffs, I can win the championship. I also think my upcoming schedule is winnable. Yeah. I mean, we play in a couple weeks. We play in a couple weeks. And that matchup will very likely determine who makes the playoffs. You definitely could. And I believe our two teams.

have really high odds of winning the championship. Like one of us. One of us won't make the playoffs and one of us might win the championship. If I make this trade for you, my draft capital gets so much better for next year. You got two twos. That's what the offer I just sent there. And just for those at home, like we can't trade ones in our league. So like twos are the highest draft capital. They're gold. It's the golden bullet. And how many do you have right now? I've got zero. Okay. I traded mine away. But if I make that deal, I am saying,

I'm putting up a white flag. And I don't think I can do that. I mean, I don't know if you're putting up a white flag. You're just hedging. I hate Andy Holloway. I hate Andy Holloway. Ken is Walker, Damian Pierce, and Singletary. Joe Mixin and James Connor also have very difficult end of season schedules. It's relevant because the Cardinals not only have a week 14 by, but they. You know, he's a target. Like I think he's out there and a lot of people are targeting James Connor. But San Francisco, Chicago to start the playoffs and then Philadelphia for the championship, maybe this isn't the year for James Connor to win you a title. No, I don't think so. What you saw last year at the end of the season was even though the team was bad and they lost Kyler Murray and they lost the games because of...

necessity, James Connor became everything. He touched the ball nonstop. It was great for fantasy football. This season, it seems like the exact opposite is going to happen. It seems like Kyler's going to be back. They're going to be able to throw the ball. These matchups are actually good for throwing on, like Philly in Championship Week. They're one of the worst teams at stopping quarterbacks and wide receivers. Their secondary is depleted. But you can't run on them. And so James Connor, to me, I think, is a... is a really bad play. And even though the Chicago matchup, we've talked about this a couple times, the Chicago matchup on paper looks good. You look and say, oh, it's a plus matchup. It's really not anymore. They have turned their defense around, and recently they're just not giving up a lot on the ground, which is, you know, James Connor can catch the ball, but this season he's been more of doing the groundwork than through the air. The other conversation is with Kenneth Walker because he has big plays, but.

I just posted a tweet yesterday, and I didn't know the answer to this question before I looked it up. But Kenneth Walker is in the bottom five of yards after contact. Kind of a stat that he dealt with last year. Right. But he has big plays, but he also has a committee problem. Mm-hmm. And now we know they play Philly in the first week. And Philly is the number one defense against the running back position minus 8.2 in terms of whatever the, basically the base line. Yeah. The average baseline of the opposing team, what the other. opponent usually scores at the running back position, they will score on average eight fewer than that against the Eagles. That is not good. And so Walker maybe trade high after that performance. I think Walker and Barclay are the two big name, great players who have been succeeding, who carry a lot of value in fantasy, where you could trade them for a different running back with a better schedule.

Here's a wild one, and we're going to turn to the wide receiver position and bring up, I'm going to do it reverse order here. Okay. I'm going to start with the worst wide receiver schedules because I think that's where the biggest conversation has to be had. Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, they face the Jets. The Jets are just not, they just drag the game out and you don't pass on them. Now, Tyree Kill is special, but the Jets are really, really good. And then they play Dallas and then they play Baltimore. And so it's really hard for me to say that Miami's going to go into, like so far we've seen Miami struggle against good teams, Dallas, Baltimore. Those are concerning games. And then the Jets are a great past defense. So is this helpful at all to know this information about Tyreek Hill? Like would you actually try to move him?

when he has been the linchpin of basic, like the best player in fantasy for a lot. No, I wouldn't. No, this is an example. The jet example where you don't overemphasize it. You do not overemphasize. Now, Jalen Waddle? Sure. Right. Jalen Waddle is more concerning to me than Tyreek. Tyreek is unguardable. It doesn't matter. Sauce Gardner, you're great. You can't guard Tyreek. Do you want to know why you can't guard Tyree? You're a human being. And there is not a human being. You need to be some sort of alien. That can't guard Tyree. So. Tyreek could have a down game. You know, Tua, I'm concerned with, obviously, and, you know, they are connected a little bit. The Jets past defense is great, but it just takes one play for Tyreek to be special. Would you rather have C.D. Lamb or Tyreek Hill? I think Cedley Lamb. You whispered that. I have him, actually. Yeah. Have you thought about that tradeover yet? I.

I'm just trying to, I'm talking to the other managers trying to figure out how to cut you out of this league. That's all I'm doing, just trying to figure out. I mean, there's a decent chance I don't even make the playoffs, Jason. You don't even need to worry about me. Well, the way that you don't make the playoffs is me in week 12. That's how you don't make the playoffs. That's how I make the playoffs. Not if I swap you running. I'm sorry, listeners. I'm sorry. Maybe you enjoy this banter, I hope. Amari Cooper, Terry McLaren. and John Dotson, that one's bad. And then Kirk and Ridley. Those are three wide receivers that I'm not. Here's what I'd say about the wide receiver position with bad schedules. Don't expect these guys to win you the week other than maybe Tyreek. Sure. But don't expect, you know, Kirk to win you the week against Baltimore or Carolina. Don't expect McLaurin to win you the week against the Jets. These are players that I think you can still put on your team as baseliners, but maybe you need to ramp up your wide receiver position.

in order to have enough firepower to get through the playoffs. So you don't have to get rid of them necessarily, but I don't, look, I'm trying. Yeah, I'm trying with Amari Cooper. That's the one. He is the one that I think fantasy managers will do themselves a disservice if they don't trade them away this week before you see Dorian Thompson out there again. The playoff schedule is not good for him and that would be with Deshaun Watson. You say, okay, whatever. It's not the- So what? So what? Who cares? But with a rookie quarterback. in bad matchups. That's not how you win championships. So if you can trade Amari Cooper plus something for a better player or even just you might not need to go plus something. Like for instance, would you trade Amari Cooper for Marquis Hollywood Brown? Just straight up because he's been much better than Hollywood. Hollywood has a great schedule for the fantasy playoffs. I would much rather play Hollywood than Amari Cooper in those weeks. I mean, I am still reacting to that news, but probably.

It's weird, though, because I look, I mean, trust me, I've looked at every single player in fantasy football over the last 16 hours. I've looked at the box scores from Hollywood Brown. Oh, yeah, they're gross. I was looking at your schedule and what you're facing and whether I would want one of your wide receivers in a deal. And it's been real bad. And the games that he was okay in was just okay. It was like, and Cooper's been really, really good. Yeah. And he's still going to get all the targets because there ain't nobody else to throw to. So that would be a tough one. Yeah, I've got a hot. Mm-hmm.

I know. He had one catch last week. You had to have been thrilled. The Seahawks. You're looking at best schedules. I'm looking at best schedules now. The Seahawks have an amazing run. You can't get much better than this. In fact, if you were to say, what's the best possible chance at a, you know, statistically speaking, it would be to play the 32nd, the 31st, and the 30th matchups, right? They almost get that. They play the 30th, the 31st, and the 28th. best defenses against wide receivers. So Tyler Lockett, D.K. McCaff, even Jackson Smith and Jigba. Those players, I think, have the potential for massive playoff performances. When you've got good players in great matchups, I mean, you know that they're going to be on those weeks. They're going to be starts you want to be making. What about mediocre players in good matchups? Like Carl Lynn Sutton and Jerry Judy and...