Starts of the Week + Week 15 Breakdown, Notoriety of Toughness

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Hey, it's football time. Yeah. A little more melodic. Put a little more crooner on that one. Yeah, that's what I got. I got the crooner vibe. I got the playoffs are here. Bab do. Exactly right. Welcome, man. Thursday, December 12th. Doesn't it? It just feels like show 836, doesn't it? It's got that 836 feel? It does because that is my favorite number.

always was growing up. This is a big time for me finally made it to show. 836. I tried to get that on my basketball jersey. They wouldn't allow it. I was going to say, I imagine. It would have fit.

Well done, my friend. I'm sorry. It was right there. That's fantastic work. It just explains Jason's personality so much that instead of hanging his head, he was like, home run joke. That's a good joke. There's no two ways about it. Oh, that just reminds me of I played in a rec league one time.

and they had us write our numbers on. You could write whatever you wanted. I had my friend's jersey. So I gave him double zeros. And they called him boobs the whole season. Run back. He never played. He never played again. We've got a jam-pack show today. News, fantasy forecast starts of the week for playoffs, week two.

the boom boom kicker, which is really going to anchor your championship squad. It's playoff time. That's right. We are here, and we are here to help. Twitter at the FF Ballers. I'll actually be doing the, uh, no, yes, the live stream. Somebody will. Somebody will. Jason or myself will be doing the live stream this Sunday. That'll be fun. You can find us on you. Upgrade. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Well, you've, uh, I,

This season, you've introduced a new wrinkle to the Sunday Live. I did? Yeah. What did I do? Don't you insult Brooks a lot? That's made its way into it. I've watched several of these. It's been a common thing. Just take some shots at him? I don't take shots at Brooks. I just talk about what's happening, what things are Brooks are doing. Did you just spill on yourself again? Oh, man. I did right on my belly.

And I was glad he's on the close-up cam for you. Oh, right on the belly. Oh, I think what you were talking, like, I just pointed out the one week where Brooks was being a super arrogant guy. Yeah, as Brooks is prone to do. Oh, man. What the arrogance on that guy is, it knows no bounds. It's a stench. Yeah, well, you thought your head was big. Yeah. They need to kill him me. All right, let's move on. News and notes from around the league presented by sleeper.

All right, this is big. Josh Jacobs, the MRI came back clean. Josh Jacobs expected to play in week 15 against the Jaguars. Sort of. Sort of. But John Gruden in tricky fashion says the positive results does not mean he's going to play in week 15. Here's the thing. Jacksonville's not good. They have been. So the opportunity is great. One of the, if not the worst, well, no, the Cardinals are out there. But one of the.

worst defenses over the last couple months, they have just been so, so bad. And that's why this matters, you know, significantly. There are going to be great fantasy outcomes from the Raiders backfield. It's just a matter of who is it. And unfortunately, it's a four o'clock game time. Yeah. So come on, Gruden. People need to know. So if you're planning on Rolling Jacobs, hopefully you were able to grab Washington off the way of the wire. If you've got the duo, you are set this week.

That being said, if you grabbed Washington with a goal of playing him because you chose to gamble, you don't have a guaranteed player in Washington. And so that's a wrinkle. So have some other options to start. Keep your eyes peel. James Connor, Juju Smith-Schuster, both full participants at practice on Wednesday. We brought it up yesterday with James Connor. Like, how confident will you be? And this is a Sunday night game.

We talked about the practice report. It's probably adding some momentum. I think they're going to play. This was the return date I had expected for James Connor. And James Connor, they are the Sunday night game. Am I remembering that? Yeah, that's the Buffalo Sunday night game. That could be a situation. Maybe you had Connor and you grabbed Washington. I think if it came down to it and Jacobs was inactive and Washington was a guy you had on your bench.

I would make that move. And to go to Washington, otherwise you have James Conner's your backup plan. Yeah, that's not bad. Derek Henry didn't practice on Wednesday, likely a maintenance day. But we're talking about it. Not worried. Not worried.

All right. Do you think Adam Thielen is going to play this week? What's the latest? Who knows? Yeah, I do think Adam Thielen is going to play this week. On your bench? On my bench, yes. I would be very, very hesitant to put him in the lineup. The last two games he's been in, he has barely been in. I mean, it's truly been since week six since he's played a legitimate full game because of this hamstring issue. I'm waiting. And clearly.

If you have made the playoffs with Adam Thielen, you've found a pivot. You've found a different option. You know, because you haven't had him the last forever. Keep doing what you've been doing would be my advice. Even if Adam Thiel goes off on your bench, you know, unless your pivot was Devante Parker. And now it's like, oh, great. Right. If you have to play Thielen, okay, then glad he's back. But I would rather wait. Okay. All right. Damian Williams returned to practice on Wednesday.

I don't think, I mean, well. I'm just trying to read your faces on Damien Williams. It's not good. It's not good. My face is not a happy face. Right. I presume that Damian Williams will return to the front of the timeshare. But it's much like we were, or at least me, I'll speak for myself, much like I was with San Francisco last week, felt like someone was going to have a good game. You just had no clue who it was going to be. The odds on favorite is Damien Williams, but.

You, if like Jason said for Thielen, if you're in the playoffs with Damian Williams, I'm going to keep riding with that other option. Yeah. This is kind of strange, ironic, whatever you want to say. Alexander Madison didn't practice. Bilal Powell has been ruled out. These were both last week's kind of diamonds in the rough potentially. And here you are with Dalvin Cook practicing in full. Not so easy to be the starter, is it? Got him. Bilal Powell's.

going to be out left bell any changes in your thoughts on on lev it was it's exactly the same i think he's a startable asset but your ceiling is capped he's just going to get enough volume to where he can he can me in your lineup i i'm feeling yeah i'm feeling better about lev bell than i i think i was with ball pal out the volume that you saw that that bowling score he hit correct no i mean look at look at yesterday or look at last week

17 carries for Devon Singletary, six receptions out of the backfield. Not a lot of options, but he was productive against the Ravens defense. Probably because he's better. That's very, very possible. Very possible. My bad. I assume you'd rather have Devon Singletary than Lev Bell in a Dynasty League. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

More updates for tonight, Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews, both listed as questionable. Mark Andrews is expected to, quote, give it a go. The old college try. Now, there have been multiple games this year where that was kind of the story with Mark Andrews where he's going to give it a go. I would expect his snaps to be low. Nine snaps last week. Not that low. That was injured. I expected to be better. Right. But just. But people want to know Mark Andrews or pivoting to the Ian Thomas, Tyler Higby.

as of right now those two names I still have in front of Mark Andrews but I do think Mark it's it's a it's a dicey play but I think you can play him he has you brought it up through this season Mark Andrews has been injured more often than he has not been injured and through this season he's pretty much been a top five tight end more often than he's not so yeah it's it's dicey it's playoffs you don't want to go out there and have him re-injured and you know in

When you've lost Adam Thielen or you're worried about getting him back, there are so many wide receiver options. There just aren't that many at the tight-in position. If you can't grab Ian Thomas, then you probably need to roll Mark Andrews out tonight. All right, news and notes is always brought to you by the Sleeper app. Don't miss a single piece of impactful fantasy news. Download the free app today. Let's get into the forecast. Fantasy Forecast.

By the way, if you have a start-sit question, you can use the tool on the website to fantasy footballers.com. The number two start-sit question of the week was the Mark Andrews Tyler Higby situation. Oh, gosh. We'll feature some of the most popular starts-sid decisions on the show today and tomorrow. That one's so funny because you have to guess on Everett's. It's the same thing with Ian Thomas. If for Mark Andrews, maybe you grabbed Thomas or Higby, I would much rather play Ian Thomas.

or Tyler Higby. If they're alone. If their counterpoints were out, but we just don't know yet. Yeah, basically, I just, I, in our CBS league, we did that as a charity league, we played it through. I'm sitting here with Mark Andrews on my semi-final roster, Ian Thomas on my bench. My plan right now is to just play Mark Andrews, and if he's inactive, I'm going to roll Ian Thomas. He's going to be active. That's the problem.

But will he show up as an accident? He's going to be active on my roster. All right. I don't blame you. I'm just going to be in that boat because even last week. I hope you brought a bucket. Last week on that nine, what was it, nine snaps? Yes. He had one very close up the seam touchdown pass from Lamar Jackson that he just missed. I mean, that possibility is what you're in for. All right. Let's start here. Broncos five and eight, Chiefs, nine and four. Games at Arrowhead.

Chiefs are 10-point favorites. It's a 46.5 point over under. What are the big storylines in this game to you? Drew Locke with the Monster Game last week. This is not going to be easy. The Chief's secondary, if you can say many things about them, I think one of the ones that I would choose is that they are a playmaking secondary. Tyran Matthew.

gives you different looks and different expectations that could be tough for Drew Locke on the road, but he passed the road test last week. Arrowhead's a different story, I think. Yeah, I mean, early season, the Chiefs look like they were a defense that you wanted to throw on. That is not just changed a little bit. That is drastically completely turned on its head. Part of it is because you can run on the Chiefs. It's easy. It's very similar to like the Chargers. That's a team you don't want to throw against because...

you have so much success running the ball that you just, you don't end up throwing that much. And you want to keep their offense off the field, which running the ball helps with. The last 10 weeks, I don't know if you saw this stat, Andy. The last 10 weeks, that's a very large sample. The Kansas City Chiefs are the number one most difficult, fewest points given up against wide receivers.