Week 16 Matchups + Injury Concerns, Big Play Big Day

Michael Gallup. And even Cooper. Cooper's been fine. He doesn't look like the early season self and he's been worse on the road and yada yada. But this Eagle secondary is giving it up to just about everybody. Askins may, you know. Yeah, Askins was a top quarterback against him. Exactly. Yeah. And that's where like on the serious XM show, we said, what is the player or situation that is the very hardest for you to weed through?

Is that the, that's a phrase, right? Yeah, we can go with that. For this particular week, and I think the Dallas situation is a hard one. Not, you know, because there is such potential upside in the matchup. Because if DAC is fine, and look, if last week you could have given him a week off between the first and second quarter and the game script was different, he's probably throwing the football quite a bit more than he was and they have some, they have some methods.

in these locker rooms to get a guy ready and get a guy able to go. So there's a lot on the line in the call in this game. So it's all about the options you have elsewhere, how it affects your risk. But I'm more confident than you are this week, at least here on Friday. Yeah. Zach Ertz, you playing. Yeah, I agree. Now, Dallas Goddard, last name does not begin with the letter H. But it's close. It's close in the alphabet.

G H, they're right next to each other. Yeah, they're right. So he'll probably perform right next to some of those H names. Yeah, so he's going to be the tight-in 13 this week. Not top 12. Right. But he's close. Yeah, four for 69 in a touchdown against Dallas in week seven. Dallas has not been good against tight-in. Gisicki, another Gis. Gisiki or Goddard? I would go Goddard because of the combination of the Cowboys not being great against tight-in.

along with the Eagles not having any, you know, options to pass the ball to that aren't tight end. I mean, you've got, you see that JJ Arthago-Whiteside is now injured? Well, he did get banged up last week, and now he's injured in practice. Yeah, he was missing practice. So, you know, if he's out and Aguilar's out and Alshan Jeffries out and, you know, maybe you can take a look at Greg Ward. Yeah, a better option. Greg Ward is a desperation play. Greg Ward or John Ross.

It's a lot of silence. That's a man who's somehow been twisted up by a middling wide receiver for a question. I would go Greg Ward there. I would go Greg Ward. I would take the number one wide receiver in a more difficult matchup. There's still some weather concerns for the Tampa game. I'll have to consider my trust of your analysis, which to date, I mean, on this show, a lot of it's been alphabetical. But I'll have to consider that a little bit.

with my John Rosh decision. Yeah. All right. Sunday night football, Chiefs, 10 and 4, Bears, 7 and 7, Chiefs, 6-point favorites on the road in Chicago. Chicago's defense, believe it or not, has not been a top 10 defense in fantasy football since week four. So they have been solid, but not special on the defensive side. Kansas City, on the other hand, is trending up. Oh.

in a big way, in a way that can get you a Super Bowl. Yes, for sure. I mean, the Chief's defense is a strength now. And it's amazing work because they were a huge weakness. And we've seen this before specifically with Andy Reed teams where the first half of the year the defense is bad and he figures out his personnel and he gets them clicking and they become a very solid defense. So this is, you know,

You look at Anthony Miller, who's been on fire, a lot of targets, very reliable now that Gabriel's been out. And then you think about the Chiefs, and Pat Mahomes, you go, oh, this is going to be a high-scoring game. They're going to need to air it out. This is perfect. But it just hasn't actually been that way in truth because the Chief's secondary with the Honey Badger has been much improved. He's been phenomenal. They've been great. So I worry about that. I don't worry.

about Alan Robinson. Yeah, you had a shocking revelation yesterday. Yeah, I was looking at, I think it was... Week four? Yeah, I think it was since week four, I was looking up the numbers for Devante Parker. And he, you know, that was where you had the first three weeks where Josh Rosen. So I want to see from week four, and lo and behold, Devante Parker was the wide receiver five. But since week four, Alan Robinson is the wide receiver four. He has been...

Awesome. Just so consistent. And that's on the back of massive target volume. Over the last four weeks, Alan Robinson has more targets than Michael Thomas. So Alan Robinson, I'm confident in. He is an extremely talented player. And when you get the league leading targets, I'm cool with you. And then Anthony Miller, the targets have been there for a while. Since week 11, I think he's the wide receiver eight in that span. He's average 10 plus targets a game.

I love trusting targets above all other things, right? You're not looking at touchdown variants. You're looking at these are the two guys playing wide receiver on this team. Very possible that there's a deficit to be overcome. Even as far as the Chiefs Devens being so good, look, you play a different defensive strategy in the fourth quarter of a game. You're down three scores.

So there's always opportunity when these two guys are running routes on each and every play of the game. I don't think Anthony Miller is a bad play this week. Yeah. I mean, I totally understand that. And I don't think he's a terrible play. But, you know, he has been really good. I'm just thinking back to, it's not just targets. It's been play. He has looked good. He's taken, he's a second year wide receiver who's taken that leap forward to look.

like what they were hoping they drafted the same way that Cortland Sutton has. Yeah, he's getting more trust of the coaching staff, more plays drawn up for him, and making those plays. It's, you know, Kansas City's defense has been good, but the volume has been there for the Bears in every matchup. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, I get that. So we've got him. He's obviously not on the Allen Robinson level of trust, but, you know, he's in the wide receiver 30 range right now for us, consensus-wise. If you like pain,

disappointment and kind of slowly rising to mediocrity numbers. David Montgomery is an option for you this week? I don't. Okay. I don't like any of those things. He hasn't been special on the field. It's taken really, really plus matchups for me to like him. He needs a touchdown to be successful. And, you know, I'm not very confident in him in this game. You always play Tyree Kill?

Always 100%. It doesn't matter the matchup. It doesn't matter the weather. It doesn't matter anything. Play Tyree Kill. And Mahomes is in your lineup. Do you mess around with any running back options in Kansas City? Not one. There is nobody I would put in the lineup with any kind of confidence. We've named people this episode that are much better. I mean, Adrian Peterson smashes all of these guys. Also, one positive note on Sammy Watkins for you. Oh, yes. He's been nominated for a footie. Oh, fantastic.

Yeah, he's got the Lizard King. That's a great nickname of the year. That's a great nickname. Maybe he can do something. By the way, if you want to submit some nominations for the footy awards, you can go, hey, Brooks, is it pinned on our Twitter account at the FF Ballers? Yes, sir. Nicknames and favorite show moment of the year. Okay. All right. Very prestigious. Very prestigious. Footie Awards coming very soon. Packers, Vikings, Monday night football.

Vikings, five and a half point home favorites. Now, did you know that before the Vikings play this game, they can clinch the playoffs? That would be if the Rams lost on Saturday. That's right. So if the Rams lose the day before the Vikings are clenched. Now, there's still something to play for here because because they're playing the Packers, I think they can still win the division. That's true. So that's good news. But I just worry like, maybe I go.

And they're going to play. It's a division match. Yeah. And look, the Vikings, they've turned this season around. They had a slow start, a bunch of question marks, weird passing volume. Here they are with 10 wins, favored at home against Green Bay. I like the Vikings to win this game. Do you? I do. You're going to have to overcome having O'Dalvin Cook, and he's integral. But Adam Thielen's back out there, Stefan Diggs, and Kirk Cousins. I think they can get the job done.

It's going to be very fun. There are some very, very exciting. The Bill's Patriots game, right? Yes. This Packers Vikings game and then the Dallas Philadelphia game. Those three are just such good football. The league must have really strategically done this. I mean, you also have Rams 49ers, which there's not anything on the line, but there could have been in a, you know. Oh, they always put those important divisional games at the end of the year to make moments like this happen for you and for me. Championship moments. Mm-hmm.

Kirk Cousins, we have him as the quarterback 10 by consensus ranking this week. It's not a good matchup, but he has been pretty solid. I think you can roll with him, especially now that he has Adam Thielen back. So good at home. I don't think Adam Thieland is going to be limited anymore. He seems like he's back back. Yeah, Kirk Cousins at home, 80% of his passes. That's what he's completing. That's a good number. That's a pretty good number. Aaron Rogers.

We know the story with Aaron. It's more often than not you're happy if you didn't play him and you played somebody else. He hasn't, this is crazy. He hasn't thrown for more than 215 passing yards in Minnesota. So on the road in Minnesota in five years. Wow. And they play in Minnesota each and every year. I mean, this is the definition of what happens when you're in a situation like this, you know, divisional game, everything on the line.

The Vikings only giving up 16.1 fantasy points per game on the year to quarterbacks. The Vikings are very exposed specifically to wide receivers, and wide receivers beating them deep, but they haven't given up a ton to the quarterback because they locked down the pass catching for running backs. They lock down tight ends pretty well. So I don't think this is a good matchup for Aaron Rogers. I'm not going to play Aaron Rogers.

The wide receiving core that can take advantage of this, I'm not trusting when you talk about the core, not trusting MBS. Yeah, you play Devante Adams and that's it. That's it. Aaron Jones? Yeah, I mean, you probably have to play Aaron Jones. He's in your lineup. Yeah. He's in your lineup. His highs are too high to not have the chance to get, but this isn't a great matchup for him. And then Jamal Williams is that he's more of a pivot option if you run into trouble with, you know, suddenly Alexander Madison's active.

and you're a Mike Boone owner, and you're wanting to count on that big Monday game. Well, at least you could maybe pick up a guy like Jamal Williams off a waiver wire and pivot to him. Yeah, we've talked a lot about Boone, but this question was posed to me this morning. I just want to see your answer. Would you play Mike Boone in a good matchup at home favored against a very beatable, I mean, the Green Bay Packers are 25th against the run.

Or would you play Aaron Jones? Oh, Aaron Jones. Yeah, okay. Thank you for waiting a long time to get to the point. I wanted to build it up and try to get you to say Mike Boone. No, and because here's the, it gets, it gets complicated in these situations sometimes where you just kind of hand the roll off to a player. And you forget that you also have Amir Abdullah there. And Mike Boone could miss a blitz pickup. CJ Hamm could.

Take the passing word. Exactly. There are variables beyond just like Dalvin Cook is out. Madison gets 100% of everything. Madison's out. Boone gets 100%. That's not how it works. I mean, they want to win the football game. And if Boone messes up or they get a goal line opportunity and Boone fails twice, you could see somebody else next time. That's all I'm saying. It's like he's not Aaron Jones. I hear you. Start Amir Abdullah. That's what I heard. Oh, come on. And Haskins, right? Haskins and Abdullah.

Choo-choo. All right. Anything else from this game that you want to touch on? Stefan Diggs, we have at 15 on the week, leading the league in yards per target. He always needs a big play to kind of give you a big day. Big play, big day. I'm not starting any tight ends in this matchup. If I had to, it would be Rudolph. I would never touch Jimmy Graham. You wouldn't even, like you took a restraining order out on yourself. That's right. To not come within 100 yards of Jimmy Graham.

Ballers on a Budget, presented by Fandul. I like yours better. Dude, mine's awesome. That's the real price, huh? Mike, I couldn't believe it. So here, I'll start. How about that? All right. By the way, reminding our listeners, you can go to Fandul.com slash Ballers to participate this week, the Fantasy Footballers Leaderboard series. We've got our budget picks today. This is the couple of juicy ones. This is the best week. Look, if you're listening and you haven't gotten in yet,

at fandle.com slash ballers. This is the best week because there will probably be the fewest amount of people that you are competing against to win. So go to fandrel.com slash ballers, have that chance to, you know, win the grand prize, come out here all expense paid trip, should be a good time. So I went on genuinely to probably pick Justin Watson because while there are major concerns, you know, the fact that he...