Starts of the Week + Week 16 Breakdown, Touchdowns or Revolt! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/23

I looked at the monitors, and I was like, that looks new, but then I thought I was dumb, and it might have been there all month. But you got festive. I totally noticed them. Don't people put lights up, like, before the 23rd of December normally? Yeah, we usually do as well. Okay, that was a sad person over there. Yeah, but we got them. Did you get them up on your house this year? We've got a couple bushes lit up out there. We went by your neighborhood, Mike, for the first time with the...

There's a house on your block. Called the singing house. And man, that place was, that was techno music. That wasn't even Christmas music. That place was rocking. They fire up a lot of different jams. They walked out and gave us like candy canes. Wait, what? Yeah, man. What? Yeah, they came right up to the car. What the heck, Mike? You never got any. What are you doing? Where's my candy canes? You called them out by name. No candy cany's for you, huh? Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. All right, the Colts at 8 and 6. Take on the Arizona.

Cardinals, 10 and 4. 104, good, buddy. Oh, gosh. Cardinals minus 1. That's the Draft King Sportsbook line. So two teams trending different directions, but Arizona is still favored. Okay. I'll be there. I'll be at the game. So I'll do my best. Arizona's lost 4 of 6. Still 10 and 4, but, you know, they were undefeated when we went into that Thursday night game, and it's been bad since then. Indianapolis, 5 of 6 victories. And.

28.4 points per game in that run. This is a nice over under a 49 and a half. People are very worried about Kyler Murray. In fact, on Green Room, I don't know if there was a player more frequently brought up than Kyla Murray and the thought process of, look, the Colts defense over the last six weeks. Yes. Number four against opposing fantasy quarterbacks, they give up 12.9 points per game. You combine that with Kyler, who's quarterback 13 and 15, the last two weeks, with one touchdown.

And you, I know you're worried, right? I mean, you are concerned about. Yes, I have, I have concern about what can Kyler get done with, without DeAndre Hopkins and the running. Like, Kyler's decision making of when he runs and when he does not is baffling. It's baffling at this point. Because when you watch him on the field, he is, he's so quick twitch fast that it seems like.

On any given play, he could probably get at least four rushing yards if that was the decision. And yet frequently he decides that he doesn't want to do that and he throws into double coverage or something and just an errant pass comes out. So I don't know what's going on there with the disconnect of the offense. But to compound that, you know that the Colts where you mentioned they've been on a pretty strong run here defensively. Defensively against quarterbacks.

That involves a game against Josh Allen. That involves a game against Tom Brady. Yes, they handled Jacksonville in Houston. Mack Jones managed to put up an okay game against them. So it hasn't been scrubs that the Colts have been shutting down. They're on an absolute blistering tear right now. Should have been a little better for Kyler last week. Antoine Wesley couldn't get his...

second foot in on another touchdown pass. James Connor, pro bowler James Connor. Top five fantasy running back James Connor. Congratulations, Connor. You feel confident playing him in this game? I feel more confident about him than Chase Edmonds. I said this yesterday. I do like Christian Kirk this week. He had 12 targets last week in the first game without Hopkins with Kyler. AJ Green is a lazy bum. And.

Yeah, if you didn't join Spotify Green Room, ladies and gentlemen, I saw the moment like almost as if there was a plane of glass surrounding my co-host and Andrew Holloway. And it just shattered and his face changed as the glass tumbled upon the ground and his support for AJ Green was no longer there. You said it yesterday. You said it right where the last remaining AJ Green truther is dead.

When I saw them, last week, Kyler Thorne interception and AJ Green decided that he wasn't even going to make an attempt at tackling this player. It was disgusting. I probably can't get him anyways. So I like Christian Kirk. Zachards has been limited with a hamstring, I believe, for two practices this week. He jumps out as like if he's healthy, it could be a very good game for him to the point where I'm like looking at, you know.

The Colts have struggled against tight ends all year long. Zach Ertz had 11 targets. They're going to need to score. Kyle Pitts or Zach Ertz, Mike? I would, I'd roll with, I think I'd go with Zach Hertz. Feels that way, doesn't it? I mean, they're so limited. Arizona is limited. They don't have Hopkins. Ron Dale Moore, they're rookie. He's hurt, too. He got banged up in the game. He didn't practice on Wednesday. Seems like he's trending to be out. So, yeah, I would play Ertz.

On the other side of the ball, the Michael Pittman week 10 and on run has not been good. It has not been good. But again, that's Buffalo, Tampa Bay. He had himself a fine game against the Houston Texans and then the Patriots where he did see five targets, but he also got kicked out of the game for right or for wrong. It happened. So he got knocked out. He only played half of the game.

I think Pittman's in a very good spot this week. Now, I'd play Kirkover. Would you? Yeah, would. That's a very close decision for me. Jonathan, the question is, how badly does Jonathan Taylor destroy the Arizona Cardinals? Probably pretty badly. The floor is immense destruction. That is, like, that's the floor. Oh, that's like the best thing that can happen is an immense destruction of the... No, that's the worst thing that could happen for Jonathan Taylor's Fantasy Week is him,

destroying the Arizona Cardinals. Best case scenario is he breaks every single NFL record this weekend because the Cardinals, they're not strong against the run and they're not strong against big runs, which a lot of running backs, maybe they have enough juice to give you a 10-15-yard carry. If Jonathan Taylor gets a 10-15-yard carry going, he's probably going the rest of the way due to his Hulk-like...

stamina and strength. So Christmas will be kind to John the Taylor. Yes, I do believe so. But the matchup is, it's also solid. It's good for wide receivers. And I don't think everything will go to Jonathan Taylor. I would be playing Pittman back with the wide receiver two levels of confidence. Moving to the Sunday games, the Detroit Lions at 2, 11 and 1 take on these 6 and 8 Atlanta Falcons. The DK Sportsbook line, Falcons minus 6 at home.

The overrunners, 43 points. I couldn't remember who the Jared Gough backup was. But now I remember. It's Tim Boyle, the million dollar man who's just out there cash and big checks. Oh, wait. Tim Boyle's the one that was the two touchdowns to 13 interceptions in college. Yeah, the one where we have no real idea how he's a backup in the NFL. But the Detroit Lions wanted to give him a whole bunch of money.

And he had the opportunity to... I'm not saying it's money laundering, but I'm not saying that. He started one game this year. And how'd that go? Two picks, no touchdowns. What? So guess we'll see what happens. Jared Goff is on the COVID list. So that's why his name's being brought up. Dan Campbell got it done last week, 30 to 12 over the Cardinals. Atlanta is 0.5 at home this year. This could...

As long as it's golf, this could actually be an entertaining game and a game that has real sneaky fantasy upside. I'm not playing the quarterbacks. I don't have that level of confidence, but like Cordero Patterson, he should crush this week. Yeah, I love him this week. He should destroy the Detroit Lions. Russell Gage has been top 12.

you know, in three of his last four weeks, he has emerged into Nightwing, as we discussed earlier on the show. He's not a Batman, but he can get it done for fantasy. He's trying to get a solo album out there. He's trying to get that movie. Right. We're going to get a Nightwing movie? Probably not. Probably not. Probably not, but you can try. Yeah, self-produced. And then Kyle Pitts, he's in a, like, everyone is in a great situation in this game. Kyle Pitts is, uh,

like 47 yards away from Jeremy Shockey for the second best rookie yardage total ever. Okay. He's about 220 yards from the all-time record, except by Mike Dicca. So that one seems unrealistic, but I don't know. He could get there. I mean, he's got three games to do it. Why not try Atlanta? There's nothing else you need to do. Get this man, the pro bowler Kyle Pitts. Get him this record. And do it this week against Alborna.

So, yeah, this game, I'm with you on that. I would take the over. I think that's a too low. That line might be that low because of the Jared Goff situation. Sure. But I would take the over. You might be getting DeAndre Swift back. Now, confidence in playing him. It's not high. No. If I had to bet right now on the situation, based on what I know, I think it'd be Jamal Williams and Craig Reynolds. I think Swift might sit again. Do you have...

I do not have the courage to play Craig Reynolds in that situation. Do you have the courage to play Jamal Williams? Sure. Coming off of the COVID, he's missed two games now from COVID, and the team at least vocally are very supportive of Craig Reynolds, too. If you look at the PFF metrics, Craig Reynolds is like the number one running back of the last two weeks, which are the only two games he's played. He's been dominating. Yeah. It's just, it's.

Well, look, Atlanta's defense is not good. Yeah, I agree. But I think that the running game will get shut down if Tim Boyle's behind center. So my confidence on starting any of those, anybody, including Alman Ross St. Brown. I am not playing him with Tim Boyle. Agreed. And so it's all, you know, Josh Reynolds has been very good as well with Jared Goff. So everything changes if Goff is active. But if the backfield is not clear on games, yeah, I'm going to pivot somewhere else. I don't blame you.

The Baltimore Ravens at 8 and 6 take on the 8 and 6 Cincinnati Bengals. The Draft King Sportsbook line here, Bengals minus 3 over under is 45 and a half. Cincinnati beat them up in week seven. I don't know if that's going to happen this week. Oh, no. Andy's almost upset of the week. I know there's question marks around the quarterback position, but it's not the quarterback position that I am worried about with Cincinnati. It is, it's, um, do they have clutch?

So they got what it takes at the end of the year with the division on the line to beat a division rival that has had their number for years. And so Joe Burrow and company wasn't impressive on offense last week. It was one play. Their offense was one play to Tyler Boy. And that was enough in that game. But I don't think it's going to be a 41 to 17 whooping like week seven. Tyler Huntley brought this team to the brink against a very good Packers team. And so.

I don't know, I'm excited about this game. I'm not saying it's not going to be competitive, but I just, I don't know, I like Baltimore. I love Cincinnati and I love their offense. Do you want to fight about it? You want box? Let's go. Well, yeah, take it outside. All right, let's go. I'll take my shirt off. I'll do it. Burrow, the Baltimore Ravens defense is, uh,

It's a pass funnel, essentially. Like, they can stop the run. Over the last six weeks, they are third against fantasy running backs, and yet 24th against quarterbacks, 27th against wide receivers. Like, that's where you beat them. And I just, I, I, the way I see this shaking out is T. Higgins is a strong start. Jamar Chase is a strong start. I, if I've got Joe Burrow and I'm looking at other fringe options,

where Joe Burrow has kind of been a shaky fantasy start. You're never really sure if you should put him in or not. I would be playing him with full top 10 confidence this week. I think that he's going to have a monster game. You're okay with Jason Higgins this week then? Because Baltimore has given up so many points to wide receivers. Yeah, the question is, do you want to chase Tyler Boyd's points? And the answer to that is no, not really. Or Boyd Jamar Chase's points? Hmm?

No, never mind. Oh, I did not get the reference. Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley. Do you trust Tyler Huntley with the one game smash sample? And, you know, they were in a bad game script. They had to battle back. They were given a lot of the, you know, the passing game was working late in the game. Huntley scored twice on the ground. Does this, like.

Where is your courage level with Tyler Huntley compared to other options this week? Because... It is. It's steadily rising. He was a pretty hot topic of debate on the Spotify Green Room. What did I say? I just thought it caught a V in there, like a debate. Oh, you're good. Go on. Well, you've interrupted me. You've interrupted the flow. No, I just made a face. You didn't have to draw attention to it. But I must call attention to your face at all times. Stop debating out there, guys.