Starts of the Week + Week 17 Breakdown, RAIN Alert! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/26

champions of the NFC West. They also play the Seahawks in Week 18. So if Seattle wins again, it'll come down to Week 18. Nice. I did mention at the beginning of the week when you think about motivation factors for the Cardinals, they're saying all the right things in the press conferences of their motivation to win this game and to play every down and to finish the season strong. I am more compelled by that argument because it's a divisional matchup where you can disrupt your divisional rival. This is a long-term rival. So does Connor want to play? I think yeah. I think it's

more motivated play the Rams and it would play the Rams playing some other team with no consequence on either side of the football. A couple of out-of-playoff teams, for example. It's a tough and more difficult call because Connor has been on a tear. The RB7, 1, and 6. He was the RB6 last week playing 44% of snaps. Yeah, I mean, he's been awesome. I do think if he's active, I would play him. I'm not quite as concerned. I mean, he's been practicing, so it's one of those where if he was not practicing at all, not practicing DMP, and then, oh,

he's a surprise active, that gets you worried. But the fact that he's actually been at practice, been doing this, and they're going to need him in this game. I mean, they've lost four of the last five games the Cardinals have. It's divisional, but this is also like a revenge game for the Rams. If you remember week two, they got humiliated by the Cardinals. 41-10. They got just drubbed, and that's got to... That was the Marv game. That was a Marv game. That was the game where they lost their entire offensive line, and I'm sure they're coming back here to put a stamp

on the Cardinals. Well, let me talk about the hardest decision to make, and I'm struggling with it because it's four straight wins for the Rams. They scored 21-44, they won 12-19. So, not scoring a ton of points. They did against Buffalo. But the last four games they've won in Cooper Cup. Wide receivers 78-15, won 17-73. So, completely irrelevant in three of four games despite winning. He's not required anymore to win the football game when Kyron and Puka are involved. Yeah. And he's a tough start-sit decision. He is. Yeah, I mean, you just said it. Three of the last four weeks,

the yardage. The yardage is not there. I mean, his second highest yardage is 24 yards. You know, I was not concerned at all after the goose, but looking deeper at it, I am very concerned. And it's not like this is a great matchup. The Cardinals, over the course of the season, they're number four in fantasy points given up to wide receivers. Which is weird, because they're allowing the highest completion rate in the NFL. Yeah, keep in mind, they suck. Like, it's so strange. And I hate them. Yeah, I mean, the Cardinals are always an enigma. Sometimes their defense shows up,

and they look awesome, and other times they let Bryce Young run for 100 yards. If Connor's inactive, who do you start at running back for Arizona? Is it Michael Carter? We're waiting on Trey Benson too. He was limited. I don't think Trey Benson will be active, so it would be Michael Carter. If Trey Benson is active, it would be Trey Benson ahead of Michael Carter, but it would be nobody, is the correct answer. Mike, were you asking a question about somebody else? Kyler. What do you possibly do? He is your pivot option for the on the fence situation, but you're

trying not to play him. They have a road matchup against a team that's hungry to make the playoffs. And he's been so bad. And he's a stinky bad quarterback. He was 20 points last week. When you look at it, you're like, oh, QB 13. But he was 20 plus points. He took overtime. If you look at the last five weeks for Kyler Murray, 23, this is his fantasy finishes, 23, 18, 11, 22, 13. That is not a recipe for a must start. The points are even more indicative. I mean, 10 points, 15 points, 10 points again. The floor is not

what it should be for a mobile quarterback. So, he's not a must play to me. McBride's your start of the week. Puka's in your lineup. Marvin Harrison is a scary start. Very. And McMillan over Harrison, right? I think so. Yeah. That's a better situation. All right, we'll take a break. We'll hit the Sunday game. We'll have a game. We'll be going to talk Jets, Buffalo 12-3 divisional game, Buffalo 8.5 point home favorites, over-unders 47. But I'm realizing that for a guy like me, who had a bad Christmas for fantasy, because my players were bad, the weather is really kind of,

I am welcoming the weather because it represents a variable that could accidentally work in my favor, starting with Devontae Adams and Aaron Rogers in this game. The underdogs of the world are really hoping it's a rainy, windy... We are anti-Dome, baby. Yeah. You want chaos. Yeah, Jeremy already looked into the cost of maybe covering some of these stadiums for a one-week situation just to be able to... How many people will just like hold hands? Like, I'll hold a tarp over the stadium. Man, and then 300 people flew away. You know what? Worth it. Did he catch the touchdown? Yeah. With a win,

the Bills lock up the two-seed, and, you know, here we are. At one point in the offseason, the Jets were favorites to win the division. And Aaron Rogers, MCL injury, said he's going to play. Adams missed a practice with a hip injury. You imagine he's going to be out there. Garrett Wilson, squeaky wheel narrative. Hope so. Buffalo has, you know, the right on the cusp of locking things in. Defensively, they've been weird. at times. Played New England last week. Gave up 42. Barely won. 42 points to Detroit the week before and 44 points to the Rams the week before that.

So, defensively, they've been struggling. That's your argument for Adams, Wilson, and Rogers, and Breeze. Yep. Yeah, this is, I know we've made a big deal about the rain in the, uh, Broncos game. Yeah, in the Broncos-Bengals game. but this is another one that should potentially be a complete downpour, a huge, wet, you know, rain out type of game. Definite rain is, is the forecast. Yeah, Buffalo's known for having some of these bad weather games, and so this is why, this is part of why I like Breece Hall, the running game, the dump-offs, the short screens, those, those type of things

that might be good for, you know, if you're looking at the, trying to make light of this very confusing wide receiver core for the Bills, that says to me, Khalil Shakir, that's his type of game, where he thrives is in that short screen games, those dump-offs, get blockers out in front, as opposed to an Amari Cooper who's going to be more down the field. he would be the one I'd start if I was forced to start one, but I would not be trying to, personally. I'm worried about it. I mean, Cooper's been bad, Coleman's been bad, Kinkade's been invisible. Adam Thielen or

Khalil Shakir? Thielen, oh yeah. Okay. Shakir was not really involved last week, he's obviously been pretty decent, but they've gotten some pieces back, right? Like, Shakir's, you know, if you look at how he's played, he's been okay if you're lucky. That's basically what it's come down to. And with Kinkade and Coleman back, I worry a little bit about guaranteed touches. Allen and Cook are in. And then I think that wraps it up. I mean, Josh Allen, he's now minus 240 on the MVP. He was minus 600 the week before. Lamar is moving up. Man. Houston could have made it even easier

for Lamar to move up if they could have scored some points. People on the sports Twitter are really, really fired up talking about the MVP. And I have no idea. Like, why are people so big mad? Like, who cares? Yeah, I mean, there's just like the, it's the disrespect narrative for some reason. It's so weird. I mean, Buffalo, look, if there was ever a season where a player's reputation, legacy was on the line, it was this year in Buffalo for Josh Allen. They lost Stephon Diggs. this was a team that some projected, we just said it, before the season, not to win the division.

They go 12-3 with a hodgepodge of injuries and wide receivers that almost nobody has seen production from. It's an impressive performance. Allen and Lamar Jackson are the two most valuable players in the game. Absolutely. To me, it's more of the... And one of them is on the cusp of the two seed. Like, the Allen versus Lamar people are just so mad at each other. I don't know why. It is like... What? When have we ever cared who won the MVP? When they've got bets. When they've got some money on the line and they're going, oh, no, no way, he's got Derrick Henry.

He shouldn't be, he's not even the most valuable player on his own team. It's the weirdest MVP discourse that I can remember. I do like that. Some years, I feel like it's just, you know, the best player on the best team or the quarterback on the best team. And this year, it really does feel like those two guys are playing outrageous football and both are extremely deserving of it. Yeah. The Raiders are 3-12 and the Saints are 5-10. Oh, man. And this is a football game we're going to do. They're going to play this game. They're going to play this game.

The mustache versus the rat tail. Like, they're not, they're not canceling this. No. Actually, there was some talk about it. No, this is how you can have these teams be watchable is you play them against each other. When a JV team plays an NFL team, that's bad football. Okay. That's a waste of everybody's time. When a JV team plays a JV team, you can go to a high school football game and have a good time. Nobody can run fast. So, I actually, I think this could be a surprisingly good matchup. The, yeah, the Raiders are one and a half point

road favorites. They'll run under 38. We expect Spencer Rattler to be the starter. I got a snake, man. That freaked me out. Aiden O'Connell on the other side. Kamara's not practicing. Kendra Miller, I have zero confidence in Kendra Miller. You'd go Madison over Kamara, or I'm sorry, over Miller, right? Yes, because I think that his snap counts are more secure and they're favored and both of them stink. The utilization of Kendra Miller was the biggest problem because Kendra Miller is, I still think, he's a much more talented running back, I believe, than Alexander Madison, but Alexander Madison is getting the work

and Kendra Miller was in a full committee even with Alvin Kamara out of the way. That was what was really upsetting because I do think if they gave the whole work to Kendra Miller in a matchup like this against a bad team, he could succeed but not if he's getting, you know, a half of it or a third of it. You guys realize that Brock Bowers is five catches from Puka's rookie record? Wow. Really? So he is He will do that. going to break the rookie record for reception. He has two more games to do that. That's crazy. He's been outrageously good.

And he's 10 yards from Dicca's rookie tight end record. So he's going to do both of those things. He said he tries not to think about it because it stresses him out. He just wants to win. He hasn't got to do a lot of that this year. Jacoby Myers, it started nice and he didn't touch the ball the rest of the game last week. He actually ended up with only five fantasy points, two catches for 41 yards. He's a scary, risky play because he's been outside the top 24 and four straight. This is where if you've got that connection to a quarterback

you have no confidence in, it gives you no confidence. That's the problem. Yep. I'm still okay with Jacoby Myers. Obviously, bad game last week, but all the weeks prior, nine targets, 10 targets, 11 targets, 15 targets, he's, he is involved and this is a, you know, this is another matchup where I think you can play him. Hard to off of a disappointing week last week, but you just can't be that recency biased with a wide receiver because you're, you're always going to have inconsistency. the problem with him is that you're not, you're not buying ceiling. Correct. Yeah. That's the, that if you were looking for ceiling,

you got to look somewhere else. Right. That's where McMillan has a chance to score two touchdowns and with Jacoby, you're praying for a touchdown, but he's not getting a touchdown. You think Al will let me play Connor and McMillan in one slot? You can ask him. He's right there. Al? Nah. Okay. Officially ruled. He's already buying, uh, all his championship gear. Colts are seven and eight. The Giants are two and 13. Giants have the number one pick right now. Giants are seven and a half point underdogs at home and they have an implied point total of 16 points. Oof. The over-under is 40 here,

but the Colts have a nice 24 point implied point total. So, um, Colts desperately need the game to stay in the mix. Giants desperately need the game to be an L so they can keep the number one spot. So, it makes Richardson a, you know, he's always, yeah, he's streamable. Um, he's always in the mix, could always get it done. Last four weeks, one finish at number 10 at the quarterback position. You're probably not getting a big ceiling game here because the way I would see this game working out is more so Jonathan Taylor and the defense and then you're just

salting the game away. Um, it's kind of what we saw last week. Josh Downs, I don't, I don't really have confidence in pass catchers despite the matchup. No, it's, it's funny when you can say that the quarterback is a pretty good start but don't start any of his receivers because it's really a matter of the groundwork. Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson should all, both have a ton of rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Um, that's, that's pretty much it. On the other side, I mean, this is a pretty easy game because I, Tyrone Tracy didn't practice on Wednesday with the ankle

but I, I think that's just probably rest. He had, Neighbors didn't either. Toe injury. Yeah, and he had, he had work last week so I, I think I'm okay with Tracy and Neighbors and I'm okay with Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor and the Colts D. Yeah, oh, for sure the Colts D. Heck yeah. And that's it. Yeah. I mean, I guess, I guess you could if you're, if you're comparing some of these wide receivers we've talked about, um, you know, Jacoby Myers. Would you, I, the touchdown upside is higher in this game for a Pittman or a Josh Downs than it is for Jacoby.

Yeah, if you're playing for ceiling, I think ceiling would be here. Yeah. Uh, parlay partay time. Jason. I'll kick it off, baby. Nope, nope, no, Jason. Oh yeah. You gotta, you gotta hand things out, man. Yeah, we do. We give you a responsibility and you're not bragging. Where's the crown wigs? We got triple. We don't have them this week. We did it, everybody. Triple crown. Well, I mean, I do it on every week, but yeah, we, but we did it. What are you doing over here, Jay? You okay? I'm good, man. All right. Congratulations. Yeah. You look real good. Yeah.

I love that. You're afraid. Neither of you took your hat off. I never do. Yeah. Why? Um, so we all, we all hit our parlays last week. I was 50 plus yards for flowers. Jason was 25 plus yards for Gibbs in the receiving game. And Mike had over five and a half receptions for neighbors, which, uh, it only took 14 targets. Yeah. he had a couple called back, but we got there this week. I am going, um, opposite of my start of the week. I think Higgins has a re-injury factor. He got banged up last week. He's got a rain factor and he's got a line of 71 and a half receiving yards.

I said, I think my start of the week is to Higgins. Yeah. Well, when it, uh, rains, it pours and Higgins under 71 and a half is my pick. Okay. I'm going, as we talked about earlier, lad McConkie over 50 receiving yards. He does it every single week. Should be a gimme. Yeah. Since he's averaging 87 yards. He's hit this in eight straight game. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it is a gimme. Bold. Do you want me to take something, um, that he can't hit? Mike. Trey McBride, my start of the week. I'm going 60 plus receiving yards. He's averaging 68 yards per game.

He went six for 67 against the Rams earlier. And I do believe this is a squeaky wheel. No, I am not going to guarantee the Trey McBride touchdown. No one can do that. We all foolishly continue to do, but I think the receptions and the yardage, it's a bounce back. Now it was fantasy forecast presented by draft Kings pick six. Download the new draft Kings pick six app now and use the code ballers. That's code ballers for new customers to play $5 and get $50. In pick six credits. That'll do it for today. We've got more matchups in the fantasy face off tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of the, uh, holiday week. Al Borland. Glad I could lower your blood pressure. Rain, rain. Go away. man. Go away. Goodbye. Gambling problem. Call one 800 gambler must be 18 and over age and eligibility. Restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Void were prohibited. One per new customer. Non-withdrawable pick six credits expire in six months. Limited time offer. See terms at pick six. DraftKings.com slash promos. Yes. Thank you.