Starts of the Week + Week 17 Breakdown, Megalabowl WINNER!

against that short-handed Ravens squad. It'll be Duck Hodges that needs to get them there. So join thefoot.com. You can also get the game day alerts. We'll give you the inactives list before the games on Sunday. News and notes is always brought to you by the sleeper app. Don't miss a single piece of impactful news. Grab the app today. Let's go ahead and jump into the week 17 forecast. Fantasy forecast.

All the games on Sunday this week and every single one of them is a divisional rematch. Schedule makers changed it to this format. I love the divisional end of year. We've done that in our fantasy football leagues for years where the end of the year you play your three division mates and it's always fantastic. The NFL was like, man, those guys know what they're doing. Now for us as prognosticators, it's even more.

Interesting because you have the narrative, the divisional narrative in general is like one that can create dysfunction with Vegas lines and what you expect. And, you know, out of the blue Atlanta shows up as a defense in New Orleans, knocks off New Orleans middle of the way through the season. Divisional games are strange. Now you mix in player availability with divisional games.

Playoff implications with divisional games. The nice thing is I know, and we'll talk a lot about what matters for certain teams and doesn't matter for other teams. And there are certain situations like Baltimore that actively does not matter. But then there are teams where I feel like it matters a little bit to every team because it's divisional. They don't want their division. You know what I mean?

They just, that's, maybe that's enough to matter. It's just, I don't want these people to have success. The Bears at 7 and 8 take on the Vikings at 10 and 5. The Vikings are just one point favorites in Minnesota. It's got just this 36.5 point over under. Look, the Vikings are in the playoffs regardless of what happens in week 17 after that Monday night defeat, which what, put cousins at 0 and 9 on Monday night football? Yeah, it's real, real good. But if you ask Booger McFarland, wins and losses don't matter.

That's real, real booger. I loved your tweet, by the way. It's so true. It's so funny. Just brief detour. I know some people, you know, they're tired of the booger bashing. I am not one of those. And I get it. I mean, like, it is what it is at this point, and Booger McFarland is not long for Monday Night Football. But Jason tweeted out the fact that, yes, Jason Witton stunk last year, and yes, Bougar McFarland stinks this year.

But there's a person out there's a human being that hired them both. They said, this is my crew. This is what I want to represent the Monday Night Football brand. I can pick from, there's an infinite amount of choices that want that job. And they said, that's my guy and that's my guy. Wow, that person, that hiring director or whoever it is, that's who needs to be fired. Yeah. So the Vikings are locked into the sixth seed regardless of what happens this week.

Chicago won the first matchup between these two, 16 to 6, way back in week four. When you look at this matchup, I mean, Mike Boone was the big story of Monday night. He had, I think, one touch in the second half of the game. He did nothing with his touches in the first half. He got the workload as was expected and projected in the first half. He was the clear leader, and he sucked so bad that they came out and gave him one touch in the second half said. And then Amir Abdullah also sucked. Now, granted, Amir Abdullah.

Yeah, he didn't look any better. He did catch a lot of passes at the end of that game in garbage time. So fantasy-wise, PPR, if you happen to have Amir Abdul, which you didn't, you would have been okay. But this game means nothing to the Vikings. They're in the playoffs, locked to the sixth seed, no matter what happens. So I can't imagine they rush back either of their running backs. So you're going to have the same bad core of running backs. And you can...

Try it again, but I wouldn't. That's what I was going to ask you. There's a try it again candidate on both sides. Mike Boone and then Anthony Miller, who last week was a disaster. I mean, just one catch, two yards. Is he on your radar at all or is this like, is he punished? Yeah, no, the Anthony Miller is definitely on the radar. Anthony Miller was a guy I was off of last week because of the matchup against Green Bay. When Trubisky is playing a top end passing defense, he stinks.

Green Bay is a top end passing defense, and he stunk, and there weren't enough targets to go around Anthony Miller's way. But this game against the Vikings where Xavier Rhodes has been terrible and they're a good rushing defense, but not a good passing defense, and they've got nothing to play for. I think Anthony Miller's, okay, I'm not off of Anthony Miller in this game.

Honestly, this is a momentum game for Chicago. They can get back to 500, which is obviously not what their goal was before the season, but you don't have a losing season. If they win this divisional matchup, Vikings with not a lot to play for. I like Robinson and Miller in this game. I think David Montgomery is okay. That's just a general comment about everything about him. Right. He's okay. He's just like ordinary. Right. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, this is also an important game for Trubisky. After that garbage Green Bay game, he, I mean.

What's the future for Chicago? What's the future for Matt Nagy and Trubisky in this offense? So they have something here pride to play for. Yeah. Yeah. And then Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen. I mean, Adam Thielen was completely goose. Do you, you can't go back to the wall here. They're getting ready for the play. No, I don't think that there is a single Viking I would play. Not one. Falcons, Buccaneers. Buccaneers are one-point favorites. It's a 48 point over under.

and the Buccaneers trying to get to 500 on the season, the Falcons, salvaging the back half of this year. That's where we're at right now. When you look at this matchup, both teams not making the playoffs. You like James Winston this week. I do like James Winston. I think this is, you know, again, this is nobody out there outside of Andy Dalton is playing for their career more than James. There's been so much back and forth. Is he going to be signed?

he's not for sure the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, you know. So next year and off of his 15 interception performance last week, he's got something to play for. This is a good game. I like this game because neither one of these teams has had anything to play for for several weeks. And both of these teams have been playing really well the last several weeks. So they're just, they're going out here to play football and say we're better than our division mate. So this is going to be a good game.

Number one starts it question on the week. Bradshaw Perryman, who had a very nice performance without a touchdown last week, or Devante Parker, Devante Parker taking on New England. For me, it's Perryman in that matchup. There are very few situations where Parker does not win over Perryman, but this is one of them. Yeah, I agree with this. And this was going to be Mike's start of the week, Bashad Perryman. All right. Let's, oh, the number two starts it. Prasad Perryman versus A.J. Brown against Houston. AJ Brown with a lot on the line.

What do we think about Perryman or A.J. Brown? I can't. There is no world where I say A.J. Brown. Not against Houston. No chance. I mean, he had a tough matchup against Marshawn Lattimore and still had a good fantasy game, even though it wasn't on the back of receptions, because he's a tank. All right. Last year, by the way, Week 17.

Matt Ryan faced Tampa Bay 378 and 2. Julio Jones in 15 career games against Tampa Bay. He's averaging 10 target, 7 receptions, 118 yards, and nearly a touchdown. He likes Tampa. He loves the area. I was thinking really heavily on this week, and I was like, you know, I'm going to start Julio this week for my team. Hey now. Hey now. Just kidding. I'm not playing Week 17.

Yes. All right, before we get into Dolphins Patriots, which is actually an interesting one, let's thank today's sponsor. We've got Zoom, Zoom supporting the show today. Look, Zoom did not invent video conferencing. We all know that that's been around for a very long time, a bunch of different people taking swings at it. What Zoom did was they made video conferencing better. Zoom is how business gets done. We always talk about...

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Fantasy champs is where you go to get your fantasy championship belt or trophy. And I know what you're thinking. You're like, oh, last week, where was that place that they talked about this crazy deal where I get a free ring when I'm a fantasy champion? Well, it's fantasy champs because you're a fantasy champ. And the free ring coupon is...

Free ring. Oh, yeah, yeah. One word. It's really simple. What do you get with that? You get a $60 championship Super Bowl style ring that is awesome for free with the purchase of any trophy or belt. You're already going to get a trophy or a belt because you're a smart person and you've got to commemorate your awesome championship. Now you put in free ring.

And you get a little bonus. Yeah, because a lot of people out there were like, well, man, I was going to buy one of those $60 championship rings. Hashtag, don't need to. Hashtag, go to fancychamps.com and use promo code free ring with the purchase of any trophy or belt to get a free championship ring. I will say this. The way that the code works is you can't just put the code in at any time. You put in your trophy or your belt. And then you put the ring in the cart. Then you put the code in. Thank you. We had a couple of people ask about that.

All right, dolphins, 4 and 11. They go to New England. The Patriots, 12 and 3. The Patriots clinch a first round buy if they win the game, which they should, or Kansas City loses or ties. So the Patriots need to win this game. A first round buy, crucial for New England. These teams, look, right now playing the Dolphins as a quarterback, that's a good thing. Yeah, it's a very, very good thing. I like Tom Brady a lot.

Do you remember when Andy... You're going to hear about him later. Do you remember when Andy Dalton threw like four touchdowns and had just a monster fantasy week? Oh my gosh. That seems like it was just yesterday. It was last week. It was against these dolphins. Yeah, it was. They just love giving up passing touchdowns. Patriots, well, Vegas understands the importance of this game. They're favored by 16 points at home. It's a 45 point over under. We expect them to take care of business in part because...

Ryan Fitzpatrick and company will not be able to take care of business against this Patriots defense, who's on the cusp of finishing the year first against quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers in terms of fancy points given up. I doubt Fitzpatrick and Parker are going to be able to change that in New England this week. Is there anybody at all that you're looking at it? I know the answer to this. The Dolphins, you set him down. Yeah, I mean, I do think Devante Parker is not an auto sit. Okay. I don't think he is a guy that you have to sit. He's definitely lower.

He's in that consideration where you're going, okay, do I have another good option? You know, a Bashad Perriman who's, I mean, that's not great, but okay, we talked about. We take him. But if you don't have another good option, I do think Parker just has enough targets to do something. What about Gisiki? Chasing last week's performance, Patriots are all the way down at eighth ranked against tied end. I mean, compared to the other positions, they're really embarrassed. They give up eight point. I don't think you mess with Gisciki. I agree. All right. On the Patriots side, though, Brady, I love him.

in this game, which is not something I've said out loud about any game all year. Haven't loved Brady very often. Sony Michelle last year was 24 for 112 and 1 against Miami at home. Michelle was okay last week. And if you talk about a game with a 16 point where the Patriots are 16 point favorites, Michelle could be good this week. Yes, Sony is a good play. Just in time.

Well, look, this is when he does it. Look, last year when they rode Sony Michelle to a Super Bowl on the back of him just dominating in these late months and into the playoffs. Maybe they've been saving him up. And it wasn't just last week, the week before he was 19 for 89. So you're talking about he's getting work averaging, you know, over the last two weeks, 20 carries, 90 plus rushing yards, and in a home matchup favored by this much.