MEGALODON Episode – Week 12 Matchups, Turkey Day Awards, Starts, & TONS More! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/25

one of the mediocre tight ends to take a shot on, despite last week's goose. Last week's goose is irrelevant. All tight ends have bad games. Before that game, Hayden Hurst was on a month straight of averaging 60 yards per game. So he's in the conversation. Los Angeles, the Chargers, three and seven, taking on the Buffalo Bills, who are seven and three. They had two weeks to think about DeAndre Hopkins, Randy Mossing them.

And they come back here. They're five and a half point favorites. It's a 53 point over under, which is nice. You've got Justin Herbert, who's a blast to watch play football. You've got Josh Allen again, who coming off of the buy week, most 20-plus yard completions in the NFL, highest pass success rate. You're playing Josh Allen over almost everybody, aren't you? Excellent. Yes. Josh Allen could very easily wind up as the number one quarterback on the week. I expect him to be top five.

He's an absolute must start. Justin Herbert is on pace for the best statistical rookie quarterback season in NFL history. Sounds about right. 4,500 passing yards, 37 passing touchdowns. Do we properly value him in terms of what he can become? I mean, this is a brand new player. Patrick Mahomes got to sit a year back behind Alex Smith. He gets Andy Reed. We talk about that all the time.

Here's Justin Herbert. Ho hum, I'm a rookie. I'm going to go for 4,537? Yeah, he still just, he has that the childlike wondering about him. Okay. I don't know what that means. I mean, he's not old enough yet to realize what he is doing.

Yeah, long term. The players normally get better, right? There's the potential that he gets better, is my point. Long term, he's certainly going to have a great career ahead of him. I think there are worries. I think some of the reason that we question whether he will take a step up from where he is now in a major way for fantasy is because the Chargers defense is elite, but not right now because everyone.

got injured. All of their stars on defense were absent or have been absent so much that their defense just gives up points left, right, and center. I think next year when they have Austin Echler back and a defense that is healthy and, you know, it's not like they have an offensive-minded head coach. Granted he's letting him, he's letting Herbert go, but I don't think that's, I don't think they want to win games, Anthony Lynn, you know, that's, that's.

you know, winning 35 to 30, he'd rather win 24 to 20. And so that's where my worry comes in from fantasy output. But right now, their defense stinks. The bills are going to put up a lot of points. And for this week, Justin Herbert is a phenomenal play. Yeah. And can Herbert get better? Well, maybe next week, hopefully by next week, Justin Herbert will no longer be checking it down to.

the likes of Kalin Belage, Joshua Kelly. How dare you? And Justin Jackson. Justin Jackson is fine. I like him. But like that's where we could go. Justin Herbert is doing all of this without a superstar pass catching running back right now, which he's going to get back in a few weeks. Not to stay on him for too long, but I mean, the question can be asked another way. Where does he belong in your dynasty draft? Ooh. Well, I mean, he's already, he's a top 10 quarterback for sure.

How much higher than that? Who do you take above him? I guess is another. I mean, you're taking Mahomes. Kyler. Are you taking Lamar Jackson ahead of Justin Herbert? No. I don't think I am. I'm taking Josh Allen ahead. Kyler, yes. Josh Allen, sure. Now, what about I think the real. Joe Burrow? Yeah, I don't know, man. I mean, now it's, I will say this. Russell Wilson.

Russ Watson, maybe. Watson, I would take a head. But Russell Wilson's the big question mark because he's phenomenal. He's got years left. But the age gap is significant. So that's tough. I would probably go Russ. Yeah, I mean, top eight sounds like. You cannot start generally a running back from Buffalo. But what about this week? Man, this week's matchup is so good. The chargers have been so downright awful against the running game. And if Zach Moss gets touchdown.

I wouldn't be surprised. He's a break glass in case of emergency type of player to me. And I don't, I'm not a big Zach Moss truther. I didn't love his college film. I didn't like him coming out. But when the matchup and the opportunity is there with a game that projects to have a lot of points scored, I think he could end up being a fine fantasy play. Kalin Balash is, uh, Jason hasn't ranked highest right now this week than, then everybody.

Last three weeks, though, 18, 24, 25 opportunities, nine targets last week. Buffalo allows the highest rush success rate in the NFL, the third most 10 plus yard runs. Are you playing Belage over Clyde Edwards-Alair at Tampa or James Connor at Baltimore? I'll play him over Connor for sure. I think I would, I think he's in the conversation with Clyde Edwards-Aer because of the Tampa Bay matchup. This is, you know,

truly playing the matchups here. A good matchup for Kaelin Belage, terrible one for Clyde Edwards-Alaher. A lot of checkdown opportunities if they get behind. Yeah, I think it could go either way, but I would probably sneak Belage in ahead. Kenan Allen's incredible, and you play him. Oh, he's so good. Stefan Diggs. Same story. So great. Mike Williams, John Brown, Cole Beasley. Mike brought up Cole Beasley as somebody he believes in this week to take it to 100, but would you put him in your lineup? Yeah, that's, it.

Assuming that John Brown continues to miss practice, even if he enters the game limited, like it is not actually out. If John Brown is limited going to the game, then yes, Colpe Easley would be in play, especially in PPR. Yeah, I mean, you might be able to play all three wide receivers. 75% of the team's targets are going to the wide receiver position in Buffalo. That's crazy. That's higher than last year's Ryan Fitzpatrick.

You mean back when he was on the Jets? Right, back with the Jets when they had no tight ends to throw the ball too. And it was Eric Decker and Brandon Marshall. That was it. Yeah. So the only people that got the ball. I mean, it's so nice having Dix. Just throwing that out there. Yes, I can see why. He is our wide receiver six on the week. Allens at five on the week. Hunter Henry.

Most routes run at the tight-in position over the last month. Love what I've seen in terms of the red zone eyeballs of Justin Herbert looking Hunter Henry's way. Mike Williams, you always have a big play potential there. He could see Tredavius White frequently. It is a boom type of play. Mike Williams or Nelson Aguilar this week. Oh. I'm going to play Mike Williams. I like Nelson Aguilar, but Mike Williams is a guy I'm going to start every single week.

and I'm going to be okay with the bad weeks. I'm going to be okay because he has the opportunity for the 50-yard touchdown at a very high pace. And while Agalor has been getting it done as well, I just believe in the talent of Mike Williams more. And Tradavius White, yeah, he might be on a couple of those deep passes, but he could end up moving on Keenan Allen as well. So I don't think he's going to shadow one of these players. The New York Giants at 3 and 7 take on the Cincinnati Bengals at 2.7 and 1. We talked about it earlier.

Quarterback change coming for Cincinnati. The Giants are five and a half point favorites. It's only got a 42.5 point over under. It gives the Bengals 18 and a half points. Brandon Allen will start. You will not have Joe Mixon, who's on IR. You will not have Joe Burrow because Brandon Allen gets the opportunity to finish this year out. So what does it mean for Tyler Boyd, T. Higgins, A.J. Green and company. Where could you turn?

I turn to my bench with these guys. I've had a lot of questions about T. Higgins and Tyler Boyd, what do you do with them? And that's exactly what I do. I bench them. I don't want to drop them yet. I want to see what this offense looks like. This is a really, really...

good test because the Giants aren't a bad defense. They're really not. You look at their record and you think they must be terrible. They're not, but they're not a great defense. So this is just middle of the road when your backup quarterback comes in, who's he going to target? How often? What's it going to look like? And I like the lesson we're going to learn from this matchup, but I'm going to learn while it's on my bench. And it's not even the backup. I mean, the backup is Ryan Finley. Brandon Allen was on the practice squad. They just activated him from there because

Well, because Finley. Because they watched Finley. If Finley's not going to get the job done, at least maybe you have something with Brandon Allen. So, Jay, would you play? Let's go on the other side of the ball. Sterling Shepherd. Oh, yeah. Over these Bengals options? Absolutely. Okay. If I had to choose a Bengal option, it would be Tyler Boy. Yes.

He's gotten it done with some backups before. On the other side, Wayne Galman, he's a solid running back to start. We mentioned it yesterday. He's had a nice run. He should have an opportunity against this Bengals defense in a game where they should be actually winning. Yeah, they should be. Daniel Jones, Jason's stream of the week. I still, you know, you probably have a better option, but the matchup says he could have a pretty impressive.

performance. He's been running the football a lot. Who's he going to throw to? Slayton was taking it up to 100, Sterling Shepard, six plus receptions and four straight games. Evan Ingram has a great matchup. The Bengals are as bad as it gets against tight end. Bad as it gets is good for Evan Ingram or bad for you if he traps you again. So, um,

Let's move on. Tennessee, the Titans, 7 and 3 taking on the 7 and 3 Colts. This is a fun game. This is going to be a divisional battle. This could have huge implications on how this season ends for both of these teams. Colts are three and a half point favorites. Do they get the respect now? Is that what's happening? Do people actually understand that Indianapolis is here to stay?

Yeah, I think so. When you come back from a deficit against a phenomenal team like the Packers and you dominate them in the second half after making changes, the coach gets respect, Philip Rivers gets, you know...

credit and that run game really is what deserves it because they dominated the line of scrimmage. We've been talking from before the preseason about this great offensive line, and I've kind of been a little bit disappointed with what I've seen from the offensive line in the running game. Past protection's been phenomenal, but this matchup right here against Tennessee, I think the offensive line of the Colts will be pushing around the defensive line of the Tennessee Titans pretty heavily. The Titans defense has been beat up.

And I don't mean super injured, although they do have some of that. I mean, at every position, quarterbacks, running backs, wider receivers, tight-ins, they all have put up big games against the Titans. Now, it hasn't been very easy to predict who has the big games for Indianapolis. That's been the challenge. Is it a Heinz week, a Wilkins week, a Taylor week? Is it Pittman? Is it going to be Zach Pascal or...

T.Y. Hilton or a tight end week, Jack Doyle. And if it's a tight end, is it Jack Doyle or is it Gigantor, Trey Burton? Yeah, it's a, you know, you can get paralyzed here, trying to find the opportunity. Now, Mike, he spoke out about his confidence with Jonathan Taylor, which, you know, it's hard for me to have that confidence, but I get it. He had a nice week last week, and the matchup is good on paper. Naim Hines, he...

ping pong balls between top 10 running back weeks and disaster. So RB7, RB44, RB3, RB37. I guess the question that I have for you guys, and I think it determines maybe how you make the decision as a fantasy player, is will Tennessee compete and will they be in a position to put up points against a tough Indianapolis defense? Because while the Colts have been a great defense this year on the course of the whole year, the last...

six weeks. They've softened up a bit. They've given up more fantasy points overall. I think Tennessee competes in this game. I do too. Which puts me, you know, more in the category of, I think, where the major mismatch happens is letting Philip Rivers throw the football. I don't think they get pressure on. And so does that mean it's better for Heinz? Does that mean it's a game where you can find value at wide receiver? What do you guys think?