Starts of the Week + Week 16 Breakdown, FULL TILT! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/21

We got a great show for you today. Semi-final matchups on the horizon. We get you ready as we break down each and every game this week. I've got a big one with Papa Josh coming up. In fact, there was a player sitting right over here that I had to rip off the wall because, well, Papa Josh has them on the roster. So don't miss a minute of today's show. We get you set to win a title. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. It's football time. Alvin Camero. What? I'm sorry. I don't remember those lyrics. I'm sorry. It's not officially approved. Might have something at stake tonight, Mike. Well, it feels good, doesn't it? Yeah, it was all right. Well, pretty good. Welcome in one and all, the fantasy footballers podcast. Oh, boy. Here we go. Semi-final week. We're going to get you.

prepared ready to rumble and we well i can say i am in the thick of you yeah you are full backyard against i am i've got some starts at decisions for this big matchup with papa josh who um look papa josh is going hard in the paint when it comes to the troll fest uh let me tell you a story about what i discovered last night we had a late night uh mike you said you had a late night i did it You know, at our age, it's just really not something you should be doing. But we were watching a show, a finale. It went late into the night. My wife, she went to bed. Is this a survivor? It was Survivor? Yeah. It was the finale. It was the finale. It was the finale last night. So we were watching that. And it's long. It's like three hours. Man, no spoilers. I won't. I won't. I would never do that. You will upset dozens of people. Dozens of people would be upset. Dozens of old people. You know, this is not the point. It was not the point of the story. My wife went to bed.

And so the room was dark. And I had cleaned up out front and she was already like asleep. And so I just sneak into bed. And I lay my head up on the pillow. And upon the pillow, I noticed the rustling of paper, right? And I pull the paper off of it. And what do I see? I see DJ Moore's freaking a picture of DJ Moore on my pillow. When did that get placed there? Which means that Papa Josh is now using my wife against me. Okay. That was the question. And then I try to roll over. And there's Justin Fields. Justin Fields. And I have to turn on my flashlight on my phone. Then I get in today and I've got a little present. You know, everyone likes presents around Christmas time. Hold on. I feel like, I mean, this is the bubble has been broken here. You're putting stuff into a man's bed? Yeah.

Yeah, there's like a horse head situation. This is, I mean, that's inappropriate. This is awesome. Guys, I have to beat him. I have to win. And then I get in this morning, I got a package from Santa. A nice wrapped gift. A wrapped gift. And I open it up and those on YouTube can see it. It's a nice little book by Martha Hickman. Oh, yeah, Martha. It's called Healing After Loss. Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief. now you also came i got a whole year of of readings in case goodness gracious you also came first of all his team name is grumpy old trolls i mean he is a troll of trolls but you try he looks like one he does look like a grumpy old troll um under the bridge you came in with your own gift for him right well he like he likes games yeah he likes puzzles mm-hmm so made him a little crossword puzzle

Let me just say this. And I want to make this very, very clear. I know Papa Josh is listening as well. And this is to you two fellas with the amount of hoopla and trolling and effort and energy. One of you two better win the championship next week. If both of you lose, if the winner of this match just goes on to lose next week. You're out the league. Yeah, you're out. You're out. We've got a full crew in Ducer's Alley. Judge Giamatti himself, Brooksie, you were saying that Josh, he's taking a turn, right, from that evil trade? Oh, yeah. He was trying to be innocent after that trade went down and be like, I'm evil, but I'm still innocent in this. And now he's just full villain. And you know why? Why is that? He wants Twitter followers. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's learned that leaning into like, you know, Darth Mall, big social media following. Well, before he got, you know,

Ooh, halved. Yeah. What do you call them? I know what a decapitation is. Delegination. I mean, that is, if that's the outcome for Josh, I'll be satisfied with this entire week. I'm saving everything. I hope to be able to deliver it back. Jeremy, I'm sorry for spoiling the phantom menace for you. Guess I'm not watching that one now. He just said spoilers. The phantom miss. It's happening. All right. We have so many matchups. We've got the starts of the week. We got the boom, boom kicker. We got start to sit decisions. And I'm telling you, like you would think it would be easy for us. But when it's you, boy, that world of tilt, that spin around that you do. Yeah, because when it, when it's your team, it's not a logical rational decision anymore. No, it, you're right. It's not objective and rational. And I was remembering, like, I'm making this decision this week in the foot clan, you can, you know,

go to every website, see our matchups and everything. And I'm not trying to dominate the show with this. But Jason has his thoughts on who I should flex. I have to decide between DeAndre Hopkins against Seattle, Devin Singletary against Cleveland, James Connor against Chicago. Chicago, great run defense. Cleveland, a good defense. So Jason has his opinion, right? And he's like, I would play Connor, I think is what you said. No, Singletary. Oh, okay. But I had this thought. I was like, oh, man, like. That first instinct you have at the beginning of the week. Obviously, you want to transform with new information. But sometimes you've got that conviction. Like this past week, I wanted to stay with the Cleveland defense. I believed in them over Atlanta. Everyone I talked to kind of wanted me to go to Atlanta. I didn't. It worked out with Cleveland. It wasn't a big difference, but it worked out.

Then I remembered my championship game a few years ago where I stuck with Cordero Patterson instead of Boston Scott and Jarrett Patterson. And it cost me an entire title. And I remembered that and I'm like, wait, pivoting's better. You are on. full tilt you can feel it right i mean i've never seen it's pulsing out of my body i've never seen this is how i can't lose to josh i'm like this all the time but i don't think i've ever seen andy yeah so up in arms right now over all these decisions i mean part of it guys is the fact both the year are out

Yeah. So I'm not surrounded by, there's not a tilt balance in the force. That's true. I'm pretty calm. You gave me all your tilt. Mike, I got all a Mike's tilt. I did. We all know Al doesn't have any tilt. I did remember that I am in the playoffs in a league I'm co-managed with the biggest loser. So, hey, most importantly. I did stumble upon something this morning, Andy. Because I asked Jason, I was like, do you have any action going tonight? So do you go and Josh have any players tonight? Alvin, come here. Okay, so you get to start. I looked at my semi-final matchup. Christmas Day, I get to sit and watch Patrick Mahomes and A.J. Brown to finish the weekend. I will be done. Yeah. And then Merry Christmas to me. Sorry, family. Yeah. Dad's busy. I got two Christmas Day games, too. Christmas weekend. NFL is dominated with football. NFL. I thought I liked this idea.

Of the games on Christmas, I'm not so sure I like it anymore. My first Christmas matchup is 11 a.m. I'm thinking like, I mean, that's a problem, right? That's gift time. No, no, no. You're getting the kids up early. Yeah. We're the ones waiting. I'm the one waking the kids up at 3 a.m. It's like to make football. We've got to get this over with. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. It's unwrap it faster here. Let me open that for you. 12.02. Kids, did you hear that? Oh, my gosh. He just dropped off the gifts. Let's go. Santa's early this year. All right, into the news we go. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. I can't even escape Josh for a moment because the Colts running back situation includes Josh's guy. Jonathan Taylor was listed as a practice in full. Listed as. Because it was a walkthrough and then Zach Moss was listed as a DNP with the arm injury. Uh-oh.

And so Papa Josh getting Jonathan Taylor back probably with everybody else out there that is rejoicing. He's going to be good, too. I can't even find a pathway for him to be bad. Go Atlanta. Keenan Allen. Just one strike to that thumb, man. Yeah. You hear that Falcons? I'm not saying you should do it. I think any NFL defender is going to know. Keenan Allen did not practice, has not practice, will not practice probably, and will probably not play. That's the truth. He hasn't practiced. There's just no reason for him to play. It would be foolish, unnecessary. We need another meditation from this book for my Keenan Allen shares. Tyree Kiel did not practice on Wednesday. That is, you know, not too abnormal for the dolphins. They're actually, whatever they're doing, and famous last words, right, whatever they have done to preserve Rahim Mostert, who's played every single game this year as 18 rushing touchdowns, part of that has been skipping.

practice on Wednesday and he's not practicing. A. Chan's not practicing with the toe. They did that last week and A. Chan played. Hill's the one that you're really watching closely because he did miss last week's game. Mike McDaniel said this is a part of making sure he's all cylinders go for the Cowboys game. I would put a lot of money on him playing. Seems like it. All right. Josh Jacobs on track to play Monday night. That would be Christmas against the Chiefs. So Jacobs could be back. Okay. They were a lot better without him. They put up like 63 points with him on the bench. He was the problem. Yeah. Trevor Lawrence, DMP, concussion, still optimistic, moving through protocol. Should be back out there. Pretty big implications for your Ridley, Ingram stacks. Hunter Henry did not practice on Wednesday. Hunter did not practice. Yeah, this is listed as a knee issue. We would just have to keep following up because he's a great start this week. Should he be healthy?

But I believe it is just a contusion, not an actual. This should be pain management. And I believe he will play this week. But we'll see how the rest of the week goes. And then the Saints will have Chris Olavé back tonight against the Rams. And Alavi is very, very close to being start of the week for me. If I have him, I'm playing him. Yeah, the matchup is delicious. The Rams have struggled tremendously against the pass. And so. I mean, I might have looked at this matchup like a lot with the Camara. Yeah. Because the Rams are listed as like one of the best defenses against the run. In fact, over the last five weeks, they are number one in terms of fantasy points given up to the running back position. Do you have the teams? Yes, I do. Okay. And that is what is giving me a little bit of optimism here because they were not. I mean, they were pretty good all year. Seattle without Kenneth Walker. Okay. Cardinals without James Connor. Cleveland. Yeah.

Baltimore. Okay. Washington without Brian Robinson. Yeah. I mean. So, I mean, it's a good run. You need some context for that for sure. But they should throw the ball to Camara. He doesn't have to run it. I agree. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. Look, I know it would be like kind of unethical to fire my brother-in-law over a fantasy football match. Like that, saying it out loud just doesn't seem reasonable. Not when you. take into account what our business is but couldn't i like at least make him do some like crappy work oh for sure you're his boss right like clean the toilets like we don't need boxes for things very often but i could have him build boxes for a day and then tear him down yeah we need more room after he makes yeah yeah we if you guys can actually think this is a brilliant idea

Yeah, couldn't you... Will you brainstorm with me? I will absolutely. Because I know you're not above wanting Josh to suffer for no reason. For no reason. Yeah. For fun. I mean, that's my own personal enjoyment. Or just make them work at all. Yeah. Right. Like, just do your job. Do something. Man, he's loving this. He's soaking it up. All right. We have two Saturday games. We're going to kick it off with the Bengals. Eight and six, taking on the seven and seven Pittsburgh Steelers. These are two AFC North teams going in the opposite direction. Browning, three straight wins, Pittsburgh's three straight losses. And Browning has been great. Let's just call it what it is. Yeah, that's fair. Last three games, quarterback, four, four, and eight. So, you know, I think he's still in consideration. Pittsburgh here, two-point home underdogs, their offense becomes their defense's problem.

because they can't move the football very well. Did you guys watch the play where George Pickens didn't block and then his excuse? You see his excuse? Yes. His excuse was that he didn't want to get injured like what happened to Tank Dell. He doesn't. And then I believe he even said like, you don't want to hold on to a block too long or something like that. How about you start one? He didn't remotely start one. I believe his right arm moved outward a little bit. Did you hear Jalen Warren's comments? I did. He was the one that was running in for the touchdown and would have easily scored. Had he blocked the guy? Uh-huh. What do you say? I didn't see that. He said, I would have blocked for him. Oh, yeah. Get bodied. That's the best possible response. Oh, man. It actually made me mad because he said that and he's like, but, you know, we play differently and everything. And he was like trying to be the good teammate while still saying it. I mean, that play, if you haven't seen the play, it's unbelievable. He just.

He might as well have been on the sideline. Like they played 10 on 11 football that play, and it cost them. Well, Jake Branding gets to take on Mason Rudolph or Kenny Pickett. Rudolph is expected to start this game. Jalen Warren, Najee Harris. It's been bad the last couple of weeks, especially for like Najee Harris, 2.4, 2.8 yards per carry. I would really not want to play him in a semi-final matchup. I'd be trying to find a diamond in the rough. Somebody. Anybody. So put that to the test if you want. I mean, I just. McKinnon? Sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think it gets harder when you start talking like Justice Hill. You start talking Charbonnet, anybody in that category. But the last two weeks, I mean, guys, he's been a single-digit fantasy score in four or five weeks. And what Cincinnati that he scored against, if he scores a touchdown, that's where Najee is now. Naji's in the, if he scores.

which is the story for everybody. If anybody scores, you're okay for the week. Right. And then you have to ask, okay, what teams are going to score enough points to be likely good odds on favorites for those rushing touchdowns? And that's where you look at the current state of the Steelers. And you say, I just don't believe there's going to be enough points scored to make this a good bet. This is a team that is projected for 17.5 NFL points. That's their line. So. It's a really nervous start. Jay Lamarren, he has only averaged 6.8 fancy points per game over the last month. And then you have Pickens who I, you know, look, what are you doing with the Steelers? Are you playing these guys? I mean, Deontay Johnson has scored three straight times. I'm fine with Deontay. Okay. The target share will be there and the matchup is there. So I'm okay with that. But other than that, it's if I get, I think you're right. I got one.

Real nasty running back question for you because the matchup is, as they say in the biz, juicy. Deonta Foreman against the Arizona Cardinals. I looked this up like crazy because the price of Foreman in Draft Kings to make a lineup is phenomenal. I want to say he's like in the fourth is like 4700. Let me look at my line. Okay. So you've got it. So, but I was looking at this, and last week, obviously he had a very bad week. I think he was six for negative six yards. Now, some of that came on goal line where, you know, you're not expecting a lot of yardage and if, you know, the defense sells out to stop you, whatever. But they did make a successful transition during that game to Roshan. Roshan was in my DFS lineup because I think he's the better player. I'm starting to lean that way as well. Roshan, they were winning that game.

I mean, with Roshan successfully running ahead of Foreman. So there will be fantasy success for the Chicago Bears backfield. It's very difficult to know who I currently go Roshan, Foreman, Herbert. Nogie. Yeah, it was a nausea question. On the other side of the ball, Jake Browning's been getting it done. He's not going to have Jamar Chase. Now, are you still as confident to stream Jake Browning without Jamar? I hate to say this, but I can't escape it. Like, I wanted to just muzzle it. I think Pittsburgh wins the ball game. Ooh. So does that count as my almost upset? Yeah. Andy's almost upset of the week. You heard it here. Start Noggi Harris. No, no. What?

I don't think so. You just said they're going to score more points than the Bengals. Yeah, but not a lot. It could be point. I think 17, 1714 final maybe. You know, this, this offense changes without Jamar Chase. It really does. He draws so much attention. T. Higgins has been inconsistent, but he's going to get all of the work. So I think he's in play for fantasy. And then Joe Mixon, Joe Mixing is in play as well. Tyler Boyd, I know some people are picking him up. There's a chance that Tyler Boyd is a decent start this week. The Steelers are a slot wide receiver matchup to target. Yeah, Tyler Boyd is just, that's a nervous start. Yeah, that's a risky one, Jason. Do you feel any confidence there? I do not feel a ton of confidence there. I know that they're, you know, usually beaten the slot, but they haven't given up a ton of fantasy points in general to the wide receiver position. The way that the Pittsburgh Steelers play is, you know, boring slow.

uh football where you don't have a lot of upside i don't think in this game so i'm not playing brownie yeah i don't think i would play browning either i'd play higgins i'd play mixing and that's it the buffalo bills at eight and six resurgent dare i call them resurgent taking on the whoa give me a word for the los angeles chargers uh descending blarf that's a better one draft king sports book line buffalo on the road 11 and a half point favorites. The overrunner is 44 points. Buffalo, it seemed like they were all but down and out, and then they came back and beat Kansas City and Dallas. And they beat Dallas. I mean, they ruined the fantasy output of Dak Prescott and everybody not named Cedley Lamb who got a late touchdown. They were great. You've got a DNP due to illness for James Cook who had...

An absolutely monster game last week. It was crazy. And it's about to have another one. You think so. Oh, for sure. I mean, the chargers are not good at stopping quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers are tight ends. Those are most of the positions. Yeah, those are most of the positions for fantasy. They just, they allow everyone to score a lot. And specifically what they do is in the beginning of the game, in the beginning of the game, you're able to throw all over them. And then you're like, oh, I'm up a lot. Let me run all over them. So, yes, I mean, I think you, Josh Allen's the quarterback won on the year. Obviously, he's in. James Cook has been as good as any running back over the last month in the NFL. He's locked. Diggs has been poor, disappointing. There's no way you go away from him. I think he's a great start this week. Now, Gabe Davis should not be on a roster. No, he has four geese, four gooses.

For geese. What do you say there with a fantasy? Four goose a lane. No, it's six. He needs to get the six before the end of the, you know. Well, there's enough weeks. He will get six. So in the ten days of Christmas, six geese allaying. And he'd been laying some geese. Goose allayed. What, he has three weeks to get two more? Yeah. Yeah, he can do it. He could get three more. And then you get a gaggle of geese. And that's really what you want. Don't play Gabe Davis. Yeah, don't do that. Real quick on James Cook, it was an illness that he missed practice on Wednesday, so he theoretically should be good to go. But if you are dumpster diving for this team, I would go tie Johnson over Latavius Murray. Dalton Kincaid just had his own goose. I am trying to avoid the Kincaid situation. They're not throwing the football a ton. They might not need to in this game. There's two tight ends in the set now.

So, yeah, Isaiah likely, yes. Hunter Henry, if he's active, yes. I play both those guys over at Kincaid. Do you disagree? No, I do not disagree. Don Concade limited practice on Tuesday and Wednesday with a shoulder. Meanwhile, Dawson Knox was full practice. Easton Stick gets to start. Austin Echler was not good last week. This team, you know, it's hard to really start anybody. Because, and maybe that's the answer for the charges this week. I mean, if they can shut down Dallas, they can certainly shut down this offense. Yeah, I mean, if you started one wide receiver, I think it's Palmer. I don't really want to start Joshua Palmer for Easton Stick. And when it comes to Echler, Echler is a player that like, you could, obviously you could still start him. You just need to take a look at. Ty Chandler.

Oh, man, that's tough. That's tough at all. It's tough because of the Detroit match. Detroit's the number one defense against the one. I don't care about the matchup. I'll take the volume. And that's like we got even more. It wasn't a huge news blur, but it was more of Kevin O'Connell saying like Ty Chandler is going to be our lead guy. And when they were asking about getting Madison back to practice, which Madison still hasn't practiced yet, it was. Yeah, like, it'll be great to get Alex back for some depth. And it was, oh, okay, okay, this is, this is Ty Chandler. So, yes, the matchup is not what you want to see going into the semis of your playoffs, but he, it's volume, pass catching, and juice is my algebraic equation, which that's a player that, the process is I'm playing that guy. And Echler has.

None of those things right now. I do think he's got volume. He's been getting the ball a ton. Now, last week they were blown out, you know, in extraordinary fashion. Now, the bills are better than the Raiders. Yeah, but 63 points ain't happening. The way it happened... High 30 is good. Yeah, absolutely. But my point is they're not going to have basically three quarters where they don't need to use awesome. So would you go Chandler or Echler, Jason, just to put it to the test? Because I see I see Chandler being a potential trap this week. I do too. I'm excited about it. The potential. I really, really like him. I like what we've seen. I like the juice. I hate the matchup. I think those are extraordinarily close. I've got them literally back to back in my rankings. I have Ty Chandler once bought a head. I have no confidence to play Echler. Well, I mean, right now they're 24 and 25. So those are my running backs. Ty Chandler's 24, Austin Echler's 25.

So it's not like I'm smashing either guy into my lineup, and you can play either. I do think Austin Echler has an okay game, gets near double-digit fantasy points, gets enough targets, and the, you know, I'm not like completely terrified of Austin Echler where you have to bench him. Joshua Palmer, we're not messing around with chasing last week. I don't think you will enjoy it, but he would be the one to play from this game. Yeah. Quick break back to some Sunday matchups. The Indianapolis Colts currently in possession of the seventh seed in the AFC take on the 6 and 8 Atlanta Falcons. Colts are 8 and 6. Draft King Sportsbook line Atlanta minus 1 at home. The over under is 44 and a half. Little dome matchup. We know the Colts play fast. And we know the Falcons play much, much better at home. Oh, I thought you were going to say poorly.

They can play poorly anywhere, but much better at home. Their home road splits are very crazy. Taylor Heineke taking over again for the Atlanta Falcons. Snip-snap. Bejohn Robinson with negative fantasy points last week. Indianapolis, very vulnerable on the ground. The problem is that Bejon has been thus far this year unable to score fantasy points when not handed the football. or throwing the football. Like he's averaging 0.0 fantasy points on plays he was not included on. It is, it is true. Last week was obviously a disaster. He was fumbled and he didn't get the ball very much. He only had seven carries, 10 total opportunities. That's not enough. But also keep in mind, this was, that was the weather game of the week. That was a torrential downpour, like insane rain.

For whatever stupid reason, they thought in this... Well, Algear's their weather guy. Ironically, I was going to say maybe they thought, you know, ball protection and just the grinding back, it would be better to use Alger because of the weather. You know, Bejon did fumble in the weather. Stile Algiers has not fumbled one time on 184 opportunities. Right. So I think some of the reason that the opportunities went away, because keep in mind, prior to last week's crazy rain game, this is 22 opportunities, 23 opportunities, 17 opportunities, 24. Bejohn's getting work. And during that stretch, he was the running back 10, 3, 20, and 11. Bejohn's more of an indoor back. Give me your confidence level 0 to 100 in Bejohn, both of you guys. 92, 88. Okay, so both of you very confident to just go back to that. Yes. Drake London.