Week 11 Matchups + Bring the Ham, Wheel of Shame - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/18

Russ is the, that was his only top 12 start of the year. If you're playing Russ this week, I understand the matchup is good. I also understand if you close your eyes because watching that happen, you know, his good plays this year have generally been a broken play. It's like. I think of Dulciss's touchdown in his debut game. I think of the, was it Virgil last week? Yeah. Nobody was guarding him because nobody had ever heard of him before. Yeah. Well, they thought it was the water boy. Right. So those plays can happen, certainly. But yeah, I mean, it's not exciting. And for what it's worth, fantasy points allowed for the Raiders defense. I mean, look, I know what the numbers say.

But the last four weeks, 19, 17, 16, and 22. For what? Those fantasy points given up to the quarterback, the Raiders, the last four weeks. And which quarterbacks? Not good ones. Okay. But that also applies to Russell Wilson. Sure. But Davis Mills, Andy Dalton, Trevor Lawrence, Matt Ryan. So I'm not saying that Russ can't get it done. He certainly can, but he also doesn't by preference. Did you guys see the clip of, I think it was a show in the Denver area? And they were talking about that Russell Wilson is allegedly at the line of scrimmage calling audibles from the Seattle Seahawks playbook. And all the players are just staring at him, having no idea what he's talking about. And then they get back to the other, like, what are you telling us to do? Wow. Like this, I get it when you play your entire career.

Some of that muscle memory might come back of you see a certain defensive alignment. And you're like, I got the perfect play for this. But your team doesn't know what, doesn't know what's going on. It has to be a, the frustration on the offensive side of that football team has to be just through the roof. Would you play, Jason, would you go with either golf, Mariotta, or Jimmy G. Above Russell Wilson. The only one that I have ranked above Russell Wilson right now is Jimmy Garoppolo. Okay. So the others, I think you could throw Russell Wilson in there and hope for, you know, a Raiders defensive mistake or a big Cortland Sutton game. Cortland Sutton is the player that I actually want. Like the only Bronco that I want to play is Sutton. I still expect Jerry Judy to miss this game. I know all the news has been very, very positive. Oh, it's not a very serious injury. He actually didn't get hurt at all. He didn't get hurt at all. He didn't practice Thursday.

So I'm going to trust the transaction, the actual action that's happening versus the words. It's so tough, man. It's so tough because this offense is so bad and is worse without Judy. No, I agree. I don't care if the offense, the offense sucks. Like the offense is bad no matter what. So all I care about is targets. I want 11 targets going to Cortland Sutton. And then if I'm in a PPR league, you're going to be fine. You've got a chance at a touchdown. Greg Dulcith, 89% of snaps last week, four targets, just one catch. The production sucks, but you got to chase the peripherals. Broncos have scored a touchdown on three of 51 possessions at home. Oh, man. What? Three of 51 possessions at home. Next level garbage. So that's one of those things where like, that's why I'm nervous about everybody because they are inept. And then their defense is elite. I mean, they're number one in points allowed. They only give up 16.6 a game. And yet they're 32nd in points scored. So they are the best.

Defense, the worst offense when you measure by points. I mean, Derek Carr hasn't had a three touchdown game in 700 days. You don't play him. There's only two plays here. You got to play Josh Jacobs because he's. so involved. He's a high volume workhorse running back. I don't think that you expect massive things from him. And you have to play Devante Adams because he's Devante Adams. But it's a tough matchup for both of these guys. Well, Mike would throw a third name in there. Foster Moreau has started the week. And this, again, this is like a streaming situation, but 96% of snaps. He's playing the Darren Waller role. He's not Darren Waller, but he's out there all the time. It's similar to Greg Dulcich. You're like,

I don't love the offense, but if the player is on the field the entire time and getting targets, they're worth of play. Would you bet the under? What's it at? 41. I mean, they hit the over last time, right? Yeah, they did. I mean, if I were to do such a thing, I would. probably go under you. Yeah, they are missing what, Judy, Renfro, Waller from the last time they played. Dallas 6 and 3 taking on the 8 and 1, Minnesota Vikings. The Draft King Sportsbook line, Dallas minus 1 and a half. The overrunner is 47 and a half. I know that Kyle the Borgogan himself was a little shocked at this line. So it feels a little disrespectful. Minnesota at home, the underdog here, but I agree with the line. I mean, I think Dallas is going to win the game. And part of that,

is Minnesota's, they have won all eight games by one score. These have been games where you're like, oh, they're going to lose to Washington. Oh, they won. You know, and, oh, they're going to lose to Buffalo. Wait, they won. So maybe it's disrespectful, Jason. But I still think Dallas is going to win the ballgame. Yeah, I've got the Vikings in this one. So this is, you know, this should be a good game, the fact that it could go either direction. You've got a controlled climate indoors here with, this is more of a sneaky game that I think could be better for fantasy. You know, you look at the Cowboys defense and it's scary. They've been great. But at home, I like Minnesota to be able to score and keep up.

And I think that what we've seen from C.D. Lamb over the last couple of weeks is looking like, you know, he's trying to break out and be that number one that you hoped he could be when they drafted him. So I would take the over in this game, but I'm on the Minnesota side. All right. Well, Dak is your start of the week for a man on the Minnesota side. You like Dak to keep up. 41 pass attempts per game on the road this year. Kurt Cousins, like you said, is he a streaming candidate this week? It's a tough defense. I mean, 12 points a game is what the Cowboys are giving up to quarterback. Yeah, he's the name where when I go and I look at Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, it's really tough. Would you rather have a good quarterback against a bad defense or a bad quarterback against a great defense? Give me Kirk. Yeah, I was going to say, I'd like to be the man who didn't start Russell Wilson. That's one of my, on the resume. Dalvin Cook, five targets in three straight weeks,

Dallas, the last two weeks, 207 rushing yards given up to the Packers, 240 to Justin Fields and the Bears. So the last couple weeks have not been reflective of what they've done on the year against running backs. We'll see if that continues. What do you do with the running back situation on the other side? Ezekiel L.A. expected to be back. Mike McCarthy said, quote, I anticipate him going. And then Tony Pollard has been absolutely dominant for fantasy over the last two weeks with the role all to himself. Would you play? Both players. Yeah, I believe that both are in play. Zeke, he'll probably go right back to being the goal line running back should that situation arrive for the Dallas Cowboys. And Tony Pollard, I mean, the juice is there for him to hit the long touchdown. So it will surprise me if they go back to completely where Tony Pollard, the workload he was getting before. I think that Pollard will get a few more touches to balance out the timeshare.

It's a timeshare on a pretty potent offense, so both are in play. And the wide receiver rooms, what are you doing with kind of, you know, Jefferson's in, Lamb is in, but, you know, how are you feeling about Thielen right now on the course of this season? Not great. I mean, he's seeing volume, but he's not getting anything done. Who'd you rather having a Dynasty League? Adam Thielen or McCall Hardman? Oh, that's a fair question. Probably McCall Hardman. Yeah, I mean, I guess if I'm making a run this year, it can't be. Can't be Hardman. It can't be Hardman. But it's like looking at the, the targets, just targets for Adam Thielen, 777, 8, 7, 8, 7, 8, 7. Great numbers. Like, these are fantastic targets. Now do the yards. 49, 67, 67, 366. Do the touchdowns. 1.0, 0, 0.

He has two on the season. That was what made him magical last year. It's a maddening situation for a good offense. The player is getting targets and we are getting very little fantasy production. I believe we have done two touchdown guarantees with that I'm feeling this year. Yeah. One I actually did and one Jason did on my behalf without me here or my permission. We hit both of them. Both of them worked out. Two touchdowns on the year and both of them were guarantees? Yeah. Is this our fault? I mean, did you just say a two touchdown guarantee? No, no, no. But I'll bet we could make a zero touchdown guarantee. Yeah, Dalton Schultz might start of the week at the tight end position. You got to play him. T.J. Hawkinson, 19 targets in two games. You got to play him. You got to play him. Including some end zone targets that will only hurt Adam Thielen. It's wild. The T.J. Hawkinson going from.

Years and years and years of Detroit where it's like it's so hot and cold of is he part of the game plan. Goes to the Vikings. They're like, this dude's good. We're going to send all our targets to that guy. Because he is really good. What are they doing in Detroit? He's really, there's a reason he was drafted number eight overall. If you do a midseason trade for a premier tight end, you better target him. Yeah. Or we'd be yelling at him the other way. Cincinnati's five and four, they take on the three and six. Pittsburgh Steelers. The Drafking Sportsbook line here at Cincinnati minus four. The overrunner is 40. On the road in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh won in overtime in week one of the season. Things have changed since then. Joe Burrow was five turnovers, seven sacks. Ew. That was gross. The victory laps on a bad Burrough season started right then. But he is now the quarterback five in fantasy.

much healthier than he was in week one. And he said, quote, I like it. I'm not going to throw four interceptions. I like that quote. So. I mean, it's, it's very specific. He three, five, five is on the table. Would that have been motivating to you like back in our flag football days like after I had a bad game? If I had come to you and said, guys, I'm not going to throw four interceptions. Would you feel, would you have felt better about things? I would feel exactly the way I feel about Joe Burrow is wait. So three. Three or five. That's still... I could get you three. You're saying specifically four. Like, how about I'm not going to turn the ball over? I'd love to take Pittsburgh in this game, but I can't do it. I don't think Kenny Pickett and company can keep up, can score enough. I know that the Steelers defense was better last week, but it was against Andy Dalton. So, unfortunately, I have to decide with Descency side. Joe Mixing, you're going to play him. T. Higgins, of course.

Tyler Boyd? Yeah. Yeah, you got to get him in there too. And then Hayden Hurst, where are you with Hayden Hurst versus like Tyler Conklin you brought up earlier in the week? I would go with Hurst over Conklin right now while you've got no Jamar Chase. He is a low-end, tight-in-one, basically like the last guy that you're going to start in your home leagues. Okay. Jalen Warren, 12 touches last week, 77 yards, Najee Harris. 20 for 99 last week. He finally had a good game. And then he has knee sorens. Yeah, yeah. Zero receptions. His knee gets sore when he doesn't go like 2.2 a carry. Yeah, he ran too far. So Najee over Warren still? Yes. Okay. Deontay Johnson? I looked into Deontay Johnson a little bit this morning. And it really was shocking to see the target numbers compared to the fantasy production because.

I'm going to read you week four on for Deontay Johnson. And mind you, he never went under 89% snaps in these games. 3.2, 8.5, 6.1, 7, 6, 8.3. That's the fantasy production from Deonti Johnson. So, his best game of the year is 12.4, and that was with Mitchell Tribisky. I think it's very fair to say, Deonti is not an auto start. He's not an auto flex. He is probably somebody that, look, if you are, I don't know if you go this low. I think you play Deonté over somebody like Darius Layton, but maybe you don't. Yeah, I can see the argument for it. Full PPR only? Yeah, full PPR, you're able to trust Deontay more because the targets and receptions have been there, but the yardage and touchdowns just haven't. I think the interesting barometer is Deontay or George Pickens in the same game. Who is the one here? And while the targets,

go to Deonte. And so he's the number one as far as like Reed in the offense. The fantasy points are going to George Pickens. Very lizard Christian Watson. Right. Very, yeah. You've got a bigger, bodied, more athletic, red zone target. Six, three, two hundred twenty one years old. Yeah, you go up, you mossa dude, you break a tackle. Moss a dude. And, uh, so I would play George Pickens over Deontay Johnson. Well, that's, uh, that's good. Because I have, uh, I have these two facing off against each other, and I'm on the picking side this week. Oh, congratulations. Maybe. Maybe. Congratulations. Yeah. You used to Moss some dudes in our flag football days, remember? Oh, yeah. It was more of a, like, actual boss. Oh, it was Barclay. You Barkley to do. Yeah. Hotbox a mount. Round mound rebound.

Pat Fryermuth, you got to play him at tight end. And then we can go talk about Sunday night football. Excited for this game. Kansas City 7 and 2, Los Angeles, 5 and 4. I just love seeing great quarterback play. You know, and Mahomes, Herbert, they each give you some games, you know, some plays every single week that are like, what? How'd you do that? Did you see that throw last week from Herbert to DeAndre Carter? Yes. Through like three defenders that was unbelievable as he ran. So week two, Kansas City won 27, 24 on Thursday night football. It's the only game of the year that Mahomes did not finish in the top 12. I don't care. I don't care. You know what? I don't care either. Yeah. You know what? What do you think? I don't care at all. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and start Patrick Mahomes. What do you do with Herbert this week? How do you approach this? Justin Herbert throwing the ball so short and.

Having no targets. Not finishing inside the top eight since week one. Well, good, because I've got to miss my quarterback nine this week. That's about where he's, yeah, nine, nine, eight. That's his highest since then. Yeah, and the matchup is good against Kansas City. He needs at least one of these weapons back. He's going to go as Mike Williams, Keenan Allen goes. I love. Joshua Palmer in this game because the matchup for the Chiefs, the Chief's defense might be okay. But it doesn't matter when the other teams play a certain way against the Chiefs knowing we have to score a lot. Jacksonville opened up last week with an onside kick.

Which they recover because you're going to go for it more on fourth down. And this is a coach in Brandon Staley who's already going for it on fourth down. The amount of plays that are run in the game and the amount of passing that is anticipated, I think you've got weapons that Herbert's an okay play here. At the end of the game, you have to throw it enough that you're going to accumulate the counting stats to be good at fantasy football. I see him as a low end quarterback one this week. And hopefully. for his sake and for Joshua Palmer's sake, one of the two big wide receivers a pack. That's my hope. I don't care which one. Give me one, not both. Is there any, I mean, same handicap as yesterday on Keenan down on Mike Williams? I haven't heard any new information that has changed my opinion. So yeah, I would say that 50-50 for Keenan, worse odds for Mike Williams to start.

I'm really excited about Isaiah Pacheco this week against the 30th ranked run defense with the Chargers, giving up almost 30 points a game on the ground. And Jared McKinnon was limited in practice this week. He was limited last week, too. I think Pacheco's role is very secure. I think they both are. I do think they'll try to get Clyde a little bit more work this week based on conversations around the team. Yeah, we did. We had the quote from Andy Reid saying we got essentially the classic Andy Reid. I don't know. Why my running back didn't get on the field? Like, I'm not in charge of everything. But Clyde Edwards O'Leary was, I mean, left for dead this past week. But what is, what's hard for me on the Clyde side is they had the buy week and things were very clear of the two running backs. Pacheco is the rushing running back and Jerichickman is the receiving running back. You have right after the by week, two straight games of eight targets.

for Jerich McKinnon, who up to that point had basically seen 10, like, what, 12 targets or so on the season. It seems like Clyde, the design might be to be the goal line back. Maybe. Based on him taking the field last year once they got into the red zone. It's not really his specialty. Nor is it something they need as much with Mahomes throwing it around the end zone. And they do trick plays and, you know, the wide receivers. We don't expect Juju due to the concussion, but he is still, that's still up in the air. Yeah, the hardest part is it's Sunday night. So you may not know, because if Juju plays in this game, he has not been, he has not been ruled out. Okay, so don't hear what I'm not saying. He has not been ruled out. But he did not participate at all on a Thursday. Right. After a week where you saw, I forget what the word is, but he had, you know, the visible.

kind of unconscious look. You got kind of the shaky legs. Yes. And so he is not playing this game. He's not ruled out. It's still possible, but it's not going to happen. McCall Hardman on IR. So Cadarius, Tony, NBS, Skymore, Travis Kelsey. Kelsey, over under 15 targets, a game average the rest of the season. I mean, average, I'll take the under, but it's a, your point is well made. No, I mean, two weeks ago, 17, but back down to seven last week. Fantasy finishes for Kelsey on the year. If you look at them, I mean, it's worth a momentary reflection. 1-1-1-1. I mean, he finished 15th in week when week two, which was 5 for 51. Must have been a good tight-in week. 1-33-23-3-3. Yeah. Helps, I mean, his biggest competition, Mark Andrews is not playing football. I mean, this guy hasn't even been the tight-in once. Yeah, what a loser. What?

What a bum. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven straight years for Travis Kelsey. Six of those as number one tight end. The other one was number two. Like, he's great. He's okay. It's very wild. Gerald Everett, uh, I think I'm trying to find a different option this week. I know that he. Train McKitty. McKitty. He may be a McKitty. McKitty. Okay. I think I'm okay starting Gerald Everett if he is active. Obviously, you know, he was limited participant in practice. Last week against San Francisco had a very, very bad game. But this matchup against Kansas City, if they're going to have to pass a lot and keep up, they give up points to the tight end position. So I would be fine with Everett. I'm too nervous about the injury. Hayden Hurst. Hayden Hurst? Yeah, I play Hearst. Really? Yeah. Okay.

But, you know, me, I'm expired. Everett's expired to me. Yeah. He's, he's been disappointing for the opportunities to present it his way. Are the Jags on by? Schmevin Schminger. Yeah, I don't, I don't remember. Are the Jaguars on by? Who are they playing? They're on by. Oh, so you cannot make that decision. 49ers 5 and 4 taking on the 4 and 6 Arizona Cardinals. Cardinals technically the home team. But the games in Mexico City on Monday night, drafting sports bookline San Francisco minus 8. The overrunner is 43 and a half. Let's go through the matchup here on the San Francisco side. Jimmy G is a viable streamer against the Cardinals who are 26th in terms of fantasy points given up to the quarterback and 28th in the past six weeks. Yeah, I mean, those two numbers you just outlaid say that it's a good situation for Jimmy Garoppolo. The place where the Cardinals get beat the most is at tight end.

They have George Kittles, so Jimmy Garoppolo can, you know, torch us there. Obviously, with Christian McCaffrey in tow, it makes everyone else a little bit, I hold my breath a little bit more with anybody, whether it's Debo, Kittle. Ayuk's been great, but even there, it's, you know, he takes so much. He's a sponge that just gets so much of the passing and rushing offense where it's not pure addition to the offense. You know, he's taking a lot of that away. I mean, start Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, start McAfrey. Start Debo, I think. When Debo goes off on your bench, you're going to feel too stupid. The bigger question, 20 opportunities for Elijah Mitchell last week. Cardinals are 27th against running backs. I think that you can start Elijah Mitchell. I'm in the camp of, you know, if you're staring down Gibson or Elijah Mitchell, who are you playing, Mike? Gibson. Both in committees, one's a much better running team. Yeah, Gibson.

Staring down Elijah Mitchell or Devon Singletary. Who are you starting, Andy? Singletary. What about Joshua Palmer or Elijah. Yeah, okay. We're getting into your roster, aren't we? Yeah. It doesn't matter. You already won. You can blow it. I could blow it. I could see you blowing it. You've only had one player go. You could put up 140. I'd like to see that too. I'd like to see what happens. Brandon Ayuk's averaging 8.8 targets per game. I think he has flex-worthy. Yes, he's in. George Kittle. Jason's start of the week this week. Cardinals love giving up points. Byron Murphy was also one of the Cardinals not practicing. See, I think we just said to start all 49ers. Yes. To me, yes, they're all in play. Kyler Murray, Colt McCoy, we don't know who's going to start for the Cardinals. Murray was limited in practice. Colt McCoy led them to a victory last week over the Rams. I think one of the two, not their third string, will start this game on Monday night. It's a very important game.

Cardinal season kind of ends with a loss. If they were to win, they're right back into the fold. I mean, they're a half game behind the 49ers. If Kyler Murray is your primary quarterback and you don't have clarity yet because we're recording on a Friday morning, we probably won't know yet. Is Kyler going to go? Are you stashing Jimmy Garapolo or Colt McCoy as your backup option? Jimmy Garoppolo. That's where I'd lean as well. Yeah, and Colt's not, you know. That'd be a great pivot on Monday night is to be able to go from Kyler to Jimmy G. Yeah, and if Garoppel's not there, I'm fine starting Colt McCoy, or you could take the shot and grab someone like Daniel Jones and just start him on Sunday ahead of not knowing if we don't have clarity on that situation. James Connor, two touchdowns last week. It's a tough matchup for James Connor, but you got to play him. It's all the work.

DeAndre Hopkins and Rondale Moore. The 49ers defense been so good against the run. Their bottom. Not quite bottom third. They're more in the middle against wide receivers, but are both of those players in play? Yeah, both are in play Hopkins and Moore. More to me seems like such a good start with losing Zach Ertz on the middle of the field. The last three weeks, he's the wide receiver 7, 21, and 18. He's going to soak up a ton of targets. He's got a lot of... He's been 30 plus percent of the targets last two weeks. Yeah, I mean, he's just been outstanding. So Rondale is... If Hopkins missed this game or was limited...

Right? He could play, but have an issue, get injured midgame. Like, Rondale Moore is going to get every target on this entire offense. Or the Dorch. Oh, that's what? I thought he was going straight to, yeah, to Hollywood, right? No, what? I was going to, or maybe their second round pick, Trey McBride, who, uh, was the best tight end of last year in college was the first tight end drafted. Maybe. Maybe the, like an offensive genius can figure out how to use that player. I like how the tendency is not to hold responsible to the player, not getting targets, even though we say vocally targets aren't earned stat and like players earn their targets with their talent. Can you hold McBride accountable here, Mike? I can hold the team accountable for not getting the player on the field. Well, actually, I believe. He was on the field for every snap last week. Yes. But that one, look, I get it when you're when you.

have a specific game plan for a specific player, and then Zach Ertz has ruled out immediately. You just go to the reliable players on the team. That makes sense to me. I would say that Trey McBride is someone that you probably should pick. If you've got a burnable roster spot, you should pick up and put on your bench as a stash. Just in case. While we say targets are an earned stat, and that's absolutely true. This is a rookie time playing behind Zach Ertz. who's got a big bag of money. So it's not just always easy to, you know, until this last week, he's playing 20% of the snaps. If he comes into the Zachert's role and looks good week one, I will start him next week. Okay. He's a little bit like he should be what Dulcich is in Denver, which is a potential option because of the draft capital talent opportunity. All the rankings that starts a tool available on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. It's time.