Starts of the Week + Week 18 Breakdown, Nasty Boys - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/2

So, yeah. There you go. He threw for 163 yards. And he was the quarterback? Because he had two passing touchdowns and he ran for 56 in the score. Wow. Crazy. He's going to do what it takes. All right. My tight end start of the week is getting loose. It's the Muth, Pat Fryer-Muth versus Cincinnati. That's one of those matchups we've really been targeting all year. He was the tight end five against Cincinnati earlier this year where he had six for 68 and a touchdown. An important game for the Steelers. I think the Muth will get loose. I'm going Big Montana.

It is really just this is the matchup play. And we get to play the music, everybody. The Raiders are 31st. Got to find a reason to believe in Week 18, boys. 31st and scheduled adjusted points to the tight end position. Going to play Big Montana. Oh, yeah, you are. And we'll just fade that all the way out of the show. We shouldn't have other starts of the week. It should just be Big Montana. Someone has to play. Yeah, someone has to play Big Montana just for the drop. He's like the every week start of the week until he's out of the league.

Until he's little Montana. Until he's gone. Okay. There's your starts of the week. We'll take a break. We'll hit the forecast. It's time for Fantasy Forecast. Presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. It is an ultimate nasty boys weekend, Mike. Oh, yeah. Nasty, nasty. Yeah. The Cleveland Browns are, they are knee deep. Yeah, you can. Whoa. I had not seen. You just see their implied total? I just saw that. This is, the line is lower than it was. This is DraftKings having the line between the Browns at 3 and 13 with an implied point total of 12 against the Ravens trying to secure the division with an implied point total of

29 and a half. They're 17 and a half point favorites. The over-under is just 41. But that don't matter when you're projected for 30 points on the Baltimore side. Yeah, the Baltimore is going to be fine. It's wild because when we were looking at our par-tay par-lay, which by the way, Mike, seven straight weeks with a hit. That's great. He didn't even take Ladd McConkie last week. You have 17 and a half points. They're favored. I wanted to take Zay Flowers over and I'm not sure they'll need to use him. Pro Bowlers, Zay Flowers. Yeah. Did you watch the vid?

Over Brian Thomas. That don't make no sense. Here's the... Is it making the playoffs? So much of the Pro Bowl is... I mean, you have the whole public vote. And it takes some time. When you're Jayden Daniels and you're the face of a team, then it's easier to do it. Yeah. Baker Mayfield didn't make the Pro Bowl. It's like you've got to set the foundation of people getting excited about you and then you perform the next year. Yes, I saw the video. Zay Flowers making the Pro Bowl. Yeah. Thrilled for him. It was awesome. Also funny when their general manager's like, yeah, I hope you don't get to go.

Yeah, of course. Because it's Orlando and if you're in the Super Bowl, you don't go. But Lamar, Henry, Flowers, Andrews, play them all? Yeah, I think you're going to play them. They got you here. They're great. The matchup is good. The implied point total is good. The worry is that because it's such a lopsided... I mean, the Browns are projected for 12 points. Like, they won't need much. And so I don't know how large of a game you're going to get out of these guys. You know, if they're up a bunch, are they going to be playing Derrick Henry in the fourth

quarter? They shouldn't. Do you know how many targets Jerry Judy had last week, guys? Are you aware of the number? No, I'm not. What if I told you it was 18? How many catches did he get? 12. Wow. For... So, 94 yards. Oh, all right. Yeah, it was actually an okay game for Jerry Judy. He is a pro bowler as well, by the way. And that's... I mean, him and Deontay Foreman are the only two that you can think about. Deontay Foreman should get the start and be the full-time running back on a team that will be down by a million.

Against a good rush defense. Yeah, and Jerry Judy, I think you can play him. 18 targets last week with DTR. You can give it a go. Yeah, I think... And they shouldn't be coming back all game long. You're going to dink and dunk your way to something. Yeah, with Najoku probably not playing. You saw that last week. It was seemingly very helpful for Judy. I think Judy is a fine play. Bengals at 8-8 taking on the 10-6 Pittsburgh Steelers. A, you know, must-win game for Cincinnati even more than Pittsburgh. Because Pittsburgh's odds of winning the division are basically nothing. You know, technically they can win this game and have Baltimore lose to DTR.

That's not going to happen in Baltimore. It's just not. You can clip that if it does. It's not going to happen. But Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, look, Cincinnati is... They're playing for everything. They need some things to go their way this weekend. But it starts with a win. And they need Carson Wentz to be awesome, by the way. They're the biggest Carson Wentz fans on the planet. Because they need Denver to lose. It's not a good place to be. But Burrow, Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, yes, please. Mike Gasicki had 10 receptions last week. Spot start candidate. And then Chase Brown, still not practicing.

Working out with the trainers, I'm sure they'll try to get him out there. But Khalil Herbert would fill in and be a decent spot start if it was a loan. I'd have no problem playing Herbert. Certainly over Foreman. You've got a good offense here. You expect a lot of points scored. So if Chase Brown can't go, or if you have Chase Brown, make sure you've got Herbert on your roster. Mike already mentioned the Jalen Warren start of the week. You do have a Cincinnati defense that has stepped it up as they've made their playoff run. Pickens is a 64.5-yard DK receiving line.

You can play him and the Muth getting loose, both Mike and Jason, with starts of the week on the Steelers this week. That's right. Sunday games, the 4-12 Panthers taking on the 8-8 Falcons, the DraftKings Sportsbook line, Atlanta minus 8. The over-under is 48. Andy's almost upset of the week. Yeah, I'm here for that one. It's too Atlanta of Atlanta to blow this thing at home. I think Kyle, who's listening, an Atlanta Falcons fan, knows this is true. Kyle, any thoughts on this game? Are you about to blow out the Panthers? Yeah, just kill us right now. Yeah. You know, an 8-point line is wild, and maybe it happens, and it definitely could.

8? Yeah, that seems wonky. But, you know, everything's intradivisional this week, and the Panthers are trying to build momentum with Bryce Young, and they would love nothing more than to punish the Falcons and send them out of any playoff hopes. Obviously, you can play Bijan, Jason, start of the week, Drake, London. Darnell Mooney is scary to me because we haven't seen a lot with Michael Pinnock. He did have an okay game, I think, two weeks a day. Yeah, he did. He was 5 for 82. I think Mooney is a fine play. Yeah, you're probably right about that. Thielen has been awesome since his return from injury.

Nine targets for LeGette last week. I'm fresh. That was Thielen, not LeGette, right? No, LeGette doesn't talk like this. No, no. Bryce Young's your start of the week, Mike, in a desperate situation. And Raheem Blackshear. Arr! We'll get the start, but had two fantasy points on 77% of snaps, so probably not a good situation. It was a... The matchup was way worse for Blackshear last week. I mean, he had no wool. Yes. Yeah, last week. Zero bags full. He's trying to get three. Yeah. When Chuba was ruled out, you were playing against Chuba, Mike, and you were disappointed because you thought it was kind of a trap game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so it should

be better for Blackshear, but there are more options. Like Blake Corum, your start of the week, Andy, he's out there. He's available on almost all waivers. You would start him over Blackshear. I'd start, yeah, Corum. Michael Carter. Carter. If Herbert is there with Chase Brown out, easily over Blackshear. The Commanders are 11-5, taking on the 7-9 Dallas Cowboys, Washington, five-point favorites. The Commanders are currently the sixth seed. If they win the tiebreaker over Green Bay, so what is that situation then? So if Green Bay loses and they win, they move up, right? Because they move into a tie and then that would move them up.

So they're motivated to change their seeding in this situation. They're going to play their starters. That's what Dan Quinn has said. Dallas beat them in week 12. Yeah, it's one of their losses, a divisional matchup. I mean, I think the team certainly is going to come to play. So Jaden Daniels, Brian Robinson Jr., who's been a little bit tough to start the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I mean, they are really rotating running backs there. And if you listen to, was it Micah Parsons? Other than seven or eight plays last week, they were right there with Philly. Yeah, if you just take away all the terrible plays that they gave up on defense, like the

big touchdowns. Otherwise, they made them earn it. Yeah, they didn't even let them score one point outside of the touchdowns and the field goals. No, zero. He was the most fantasy football sounding answer I've ever heard, where it's like, sometimes we get on here and it's like, man, if he took away his 56-yard run, he would have had a bad game. Well, yeah. That's exactly right. So play your commanders and forgive Mr. McLaurin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a DMP with an ankle injury. Yeah, I mean, you can't hold a bad game against a wide receiver who's been playing as good as

Terry McLaurin. Zach Ertz, two touchdowns last week, has a special, special spot with Mr. Jaden Daniels. Yeah, I mean, he is, he's playable. The, it took overtime to get that second touchdown. I think he, if, if memory serves, I think he has another incentive, a couple more incentives. If he gets like 90 yards on a touchdown, I think he hits two more, something like, he had like, it was like 606 or 707, 808 with yardage and touchdowns. So it might, might not be a bad start to chase, you know, chase after incentives. Do you believe that, would you believe this, Jake Ferguson, zero touchdowns?

Yeah. On the season. I mean, he, he is more of a product of, of Dak. And like, to start the year, it was, you know, the first, the first week of the season, Ferguson got hurt. It was a down game, misses the next week. But then he's a, you know, a top 10 guy, three straight weeks in a row. And then eventually they lose Dak and the season is just gone. Uh, Chicago. Oh, Kyle found it. Jason Ertz needs 90 yards to hit 700. And then it's a 250 K paycheck. 90 yards. Not going to happen. That's a lot for those legs.

Okay. Just to clarify what I said earlier, though, commanders in Packers have the same record. They just need to win to keep pace. They have the tiebreaker already. Is that, is that accurate, Kyle? Yes, that's correct. Help me out here. Yeah. Cause I, I was like, it says they're currently the sixth seed in the NFC. So, um, they have to hold. Yeah. They have to hold Chicago's four and 12. Green Bay is 11. Oh, you're not going to talk about my man, Rico Dowdle. Yeah. I mean, Rico last week seemed on. I forgot about an entire team. Yeah, you did.

Well, we talked to Jake Ferguson. Rico Dowdle has a thousand yards rushing. Let that wash over you people. You know, Rico Dowdle is over a thousand. The truth is, and I, I'm not taking anything away from Rico, but that is a bad football team and Dak's injury. I don't think this happens without what took place with Dak going out for the season. Um, he is like the man making the most of a really bad offensive situation. And he's, he's ran well, performed well. The team has given him tons and tons of opportunities to do that now, which had gone way, way down.

I mean, his attempts on the ground three times in the last six or five weeks, he's gone over 20 rushing attempts. So yeah, the, the, the foundation of the offense had changed, but he's on a bad team and he's running 4.7 yards per carry. Like he is, he is getting it done. Yeah. And last week I, I lost. That's what I just realized. And lost in the dynasty championship because it was, we would have won. He would have won if he played. If I played with his dude. Yeah. His guy Dowdle. Yeah. But it was such a bad matchup against Philly.

He had, he was coming off the Tampa Bay game, which is, which like it was, it was really bad against Tampa Bay. Then he was playing against Philly. Who's just an absolute shutdown. And Ford had just had a big game. Yep. And you lost CD lamb. So you don't, you don't expect the offense to be good. Yeah. But if you play Rico, you're Rico. Yep. Oh boy. You're the champ. Oh, I, yeah. So this is like, this is a deserved loss. Yeah. You like doubtled him. I did. I doubted doubtle. Uh, but the point being is more of this against Philly.

They gave him the ball 23 times and he. Cause he was, he was having success. Yeah. So he is, he is in play here and hit his off season will be very interesting to watch too. They, they did. They did let go of superstar, uh, Ezekiel Elliott. If you didn't see, give him another chance to go be a body on the bench for somebody in the playoffs. Yeah. That's what he thinks. Yeah. Who's signing him. Whoever signs. I mean, probably the chiefs. Melvin Gordon got a ring. Fair. Give Zeke a ring. Shady. Right. Didn't they? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think Shady ended up, uh, leaving the team by then.

I'm not, I'm not positive. Uh, everyone gets a ring with Rico with Zeke. Robert Ory is actually a member of the chief. Doubt. Zeke pay. Do these players go and pay the pay to get on the team? Yeah. I would. I would totally. You've got the money for it. Yeah. Be like, here's a couple hundred grand. Yeah. Let's go. It's like buying a ticket to the Superbowl. Right. It's really good seats. Yeah. You get great seats. Honestly, people would give a quarter of a million dollars to be on the sideline at a Superbowl. That's all he's got to do. Yeah.

If you're, yeah. These with this, well, he had to get a ring with the chiefs. Shady did too. All right. Shady and Melvin Gordon should go out and celebrate, man. Chiefs world champs. My, the larger point was now that Zeke has gone. Cause they, Rico was running very well against a very tough opponent with no CD lamb on that team. And then when they got close to the goal line, they're like, put Zeke in. They've done it. So now he's gone. So someone else will probably still. Shady was a member of the Buccaneers too. And got a ring. Superbowl. Oh man.

Shady. Superstar. You sneaky boy. Chicago four and 12 green Bay, 11 and five draft King sports book line, green Bay minus 10. They need to win. The overrunners 41 in this game. Chicago has lost 10 straight games and cannot move ahead of the nine spot because they play in a division with really such great teams that their strength of schedule. situation is that's what kills. I mean, there's a four weird Jacksonville's four and 12 and they're the five, the fifth pick Chicago's four and 12. They're the ninth pick. And, um, it's kind of wild, but yeah, you know, green Bay has got to win.

They will Chicago. Okay. Here we are again, 10 straight losses. Depression sets in. They've never recovered from the Hail Mary. I mean, that Hail Mary was the end of their season. They were four and two at that point. Yeah. Or three and two. Oh, I think there were four and two. I mean, that would have, that Hail Mary. They would have gone to five and two, if not for a Hail Mary. And instead. They haven't won since they've, they just ended their season. They lost their coach, offensive coordinator. Did you guys, uh, put your, put your ears to the bushes for the, the rumors that are going

on with, uh, the bears and Ben Johnson. No. And because it's, it should, Chicago should be a very attractive job. Absolutely. With, with everything that they're building over there. And you have rumors, of course, that Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator for the Detroit lions like that, the bell of the ball. Yes. He, he should be able to get basically any job that he wants over this off season. Uh, maybe even a job of like, no, you should fire that coach. And I'm going to come in here. That's how well it's gone for Ben up in Detroit. But you have more whispers that, uh, general manager Ryan polls is like, I'm not going

to do it. Cause if Ben Johnson comes in, then the leverage he like Ryan polls is afraid of losing his own job. Rumorville wise, which is like, oh man, that's so why, why would he lose his own job? Because bringing Ben, Ben Johnson will have so much power when he comes in and he's like, no, we're going to revamp. I think that's how you keep your job is hiring a good coach and winning games. Yeah. But there, there is a, there is a power balance that when you get a, a star, a rising star like Ben Johnson, you have to offer them a lot of things besides cash.

Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't be immediate. That would be something where like, it would be, if they still struggled, the blame would now be on the general manager after a couple of years because Ben Johnson was so sought after, um, play your Josh Jacobs rushing line of 63 and a half. What dart throw do you take it wide receiver anymore? I mean, we've been living in the same green Bay Packer mess every week where look, I don't think there were a lot of green Bay Packer wide receivers on championship teams. No, no. I, my, my Packer wide receiver of choice is definitely Josh Jacobs.