Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 15 Matchups, Boom-Boom!

He hits the ground running. Sure. He's been great. He's been great. Obviously, five a carry on the whole season, third in the league. I'll say this, though. And this is with the entire defense knowing your offense is Jordan Howard and very little else. Jordan Howard has pooped his pants two times. Yeah, for me. I remember. One of those games was Green Bay. Yes, it was. But there was a time that Green Bay's rush defense, we spoke about it a lot. Yeah, but are you saying?

I'm just playing devil's advocate here. Of the, does Green Bay have the advantage because it's that division game? Does McCarthy know how to scheme against John Fox in his running game? This is John Fox. I think everybody knows how to scheme against John Fox. Jaguar, I, look, I, I, I, we said it already. We buy it Jordan. Okay, well, Alshan. Alshan, you can't move on without talking about Alshan Jeffrey. Watch me. No, Alshan Jeffrey.

I am the lowest in the confidence meter by far. Jason has them up at a wide receiver 2. Mike, I assume you'll adjust him a little bit. You have him in that 3 range. I've got him outside of the wide receiver 3 zone. I don't like the road game. I mean, I'm sorry. I don't like the weather. I don't like the return. I don't like Matt Barkley. I don't like what's at stake for Green Bay. I bet you don't like how Alshund's performed before the suspension. I don't like much. And it's not that he can't do it.

He's got the talent. He should have the targets. He's got three games to play for money. But I don't want to. I don't want to do it on my. My fantasy team has enough options.

where I'm not desperate in the semifinals for Alshan Jeffrey. I don't blame you one bit. Now, I've got him ranked 23rd, which is a startable player, basically because that's what I see as kind of his middle point. But the reality with Alshan is I think you're either going to get a good game or a really bad game out of him because there's the narrative that you just spoke of where he's playing for money. He needs the ball. He's going to be a squeaky wheel out there. He's talented. He's got the opportunity. The targets could all be there. Things could work his way. There's also the narrative that, you know,

There was a report that came out that said that Matt Barkley had an extra practice with Alshan to work on chemistry. Well, that sounds like good news. And then when you read about it, it's like that was the first time he had ever thrown a ball to Alshan Jeffrey was that day. So there is no chemistry. You don't get NFL chemistry in an hour. That's why Robbie Anderson's catching all these balls. If Jeffrey has a game, I'll tell you how it happened.

It's a 57-yard catch. Yeah. It's a 59-yard catch. The Green Bay Packers are vulnerable to deep passes. That's the one thing that they do. So they're going to have Barclay throw the ball up to him. He's going to, he's a huge guy. So I think that's how he makes us say. I'm just not willing to bet on it. So that's where I'm at. Jaguars take on the Texans. Jaguars. Jaguars. 39.5 point over under. Texans are one of my favorite defenses of the week. They're at home. This game's in the dome.

They are fighting for that playoff spot. Their defense has been very good. So let's talk Nick Novak. Yeah. Upside play. No, let's not. Look, last week, Yeldon was valuable enough when Ivory's out, he's averaging about 20 touches a game. So if Ivory misses, there's something there with Yelden. Lamar Miller, on the other hand, we're going to talk about shortly because he's one of my favorite starts of the week. So do you guys need to talk about running backs?

Or has that covered it or should we move on to wide receivers? I think Yeldon is, if he's the guy, if the volume is king again for T.J. Yeldon, he's a startable 2-3 fringe type of guy to me. He's been fine in the last couple weeks when he's the only guy that's going to get the ball. The Texans run defense, 18th, you know, so right around the middle of the pack. And I agree with Vegas here. The 39 and a half, they'd like this to be a lower scoring game. I'm with that.

It gets TJ Eldon in the double digit carries. It's fine. If you need that low end running back too, I think he's okay. I agree with you. If Ivory is out, I mean, you go, okay, well, Houston's a really good defense. Well, so is Minnesota. You know, they're coming, he's coming off of playing Denver and Minnesota now to Houston. That is a bad stretch. One of the reasons we really didn't like Robinson's.

Alan Robinson and Bortle's playoff schedules even before they were not good. Yeah, but what you've seen with the coaching change at the same time is that all of a sudden, the running, TJ yelled in the last two weeks, 14 carries and 17 carries. And in addition to the 17 carries, do you know how many passes he caught last week? Seven, seven receptions. That's good wide receiver numbers. You had 17 carries. There isn't a volume there if Chris Ivory is out to play him in this bad match.

I agree. All right. Alan Robinson, any hope for him? Nope. None. Any chance Will Fuller has a game for once because you got Braxton Miller going on IR. You've got Will Fuller kind of maybe. Maybe. I'm not going to play him in the playoffs. Yeah. I have him at like 40 something. So you've got him pretty high. As crazy as this is. I don't have Hopkins 38, Fuller 41. I don't know.

I don't have my rankings memorized for these four guys, but just looking at the names in this matchup, the guy I want to play the most, if I have to play someone from this game, it's Marquise Lee. And I know that's gross, but that's just the, that's life, people. That's the way it is. I would still rather play Alan Robinson over Marquis's fleet. Why? The reason is because of.

talent and the ability to get one deep pass. I mean, Marquis Lee, I think last week he actually caught a deep ball. I feel like that was the first deep ball I've ever seen him catch in his career. I mean, but he's coming. Yeah, he's been, he was super beat up. He's been coming on as of late in 113 yards. He has two touchdowns the last four weeks. Alan Robinson is doing absolutely nothing.

Jeffrey Hopkins is doing nothing. I mean, to argue Alan Robinson versus Marquis Lee is pretty moot. I'm not starting any of these guys in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I bought into the Bortles and Robinson met and worked things out last week, and it didn't happen. I mean, Xavier Rhodes had a lot to do with it. So I don't know if this is the week where you can wish upon a star. Sure. But that's exactly what you're doing when you start Alan Robinson.

I think you're wishing on a black hole. You're still wishing and it might come true, but that dream might just get sucked right up. Be gone. Yeah, it's unfortunate. And this is the game that highlights the two very big disappointments. Both past defenses. Hopkins and Robinson. Yeah. This is a great game for just the craziness. If you talked early in the year, I mean, think about this. We're sitting, we're basically sitting DeAndre Hopkins.

Yeah. Against the Jaguars. Yep. In the playoffs. Yep. Things you didn't expect. When you looked pre-draft season, you're like, oh, he plays the Jaguars. DeAndre Hopkins is the playoffs. I want that. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. All right. I do think, honestly, the high score here, other than Lamar Miller might be Nick Novak, so.

All right, we're going to press the pause button on the matchups, finish this up tomorrow. We're going to move on to the starts of the week breakdown guys that we really like for your week 15 playoff matchups. Look, there's a number of players that I think have a lot of upside this week, and we want to get you ready. Starts of the week. All right. Well, who wants to kick it off? I'll jump in here. I'll jump in here with a quarterback that I like more than the...

The consensus. The consensus out in the universe right now. That is Andy Dalton at home taking on the Steelers. He's going to stream. Yeah. Then Andy seems to like him as a stream. And I do. I agree that a lot of people are down on him. 366 and won the last time they played Pitt. Of course, AJ Green was involved in that game. You know who was at practice on Wednesday? AJ Green. I think that Andy Dalton can get it done.

if there's any event or a case where Big Ben actually can perform on the road, get a higher scoring game. I just, I want, I want a quarterback with some upside. And it's a, it's a difficult road. I think this week for quarterbacks. There's, there's not many who stand out as guys that I absolutely love. So I just, I went with Andy Dalton because he's a guy that I like more than most people. Jason? Yeah, I'll, uh, I'll, I'll hop on here and go with a guy that,

I have toyed with making my number one quarterback this week. I think right now he's number three. And for me, there's like three quarterbacks that just if, you know, if this were draft season and I made a tier, they would be there. And one of those three is Kirk Cousins. He is my start of the week. I love his matchup. Look, he's been. As does Mike. He has been on fire. But Mike might be wishful. The last two weeks, he's been okay. 234 yards, two touchdowns. That's against Philly in Philly.

We've seen plenty of quarterbacks struggle in Philly this year. Hot quarterbacks really go into Philly and just fall on their face. 234 and 2 is not bad. The week before, 271 and 1, eh, but that was against Arizona in Arizona. He also ran one in. Yes, correct. He ran a touchdown in. Before those games, I mean, we're talking 375 yards, 449, three touchdowns in both of those games, and now projecting forward, he is back at home after this road.

that three-game road trip. He's back at home playing well against Carolina, who is not good at past defense right now. I mean, especially since Luke Keekly has gone back out. I know he was back at practice, but they're taking it really slow with him as they should. They've given up to the quarterback two touchdowns in three of their last four games. They've given up over 300 yards and half of them. I like Kirk Cousins. The weather.

Outside is supposed to be fine as of now, you know, five mile an hour wins, no chance of rain, 35 degrees. I think this is a game where the Panthers can score enough to where the over-under should be high, and Kirk Cousins could end up having a monstrous game and should be a somewhat safe option. So I was going to, I just wanted to throw a win real quick. It's the safety for me of Kurt Cousins. He has not had a bad fantasy game since week five. He has two.

fantasy duds on the season. Week one and week five. And as in speaking of, in terms of duds, these, we've seen far worse from good quarterback come out and give you just absolutely nothing. He still gave you 16 points in week five against Baltimore. Think about the other side of the ball with Cam Newton. How many duds has he been giving people? So, all right. He's upside and safe to me. I'm going with Derek Carr. There were some sad moments last week with Carr and Cooper and Crabtree and their failures against Kansas City.

I'm expecting a bounce back performance from this team this week. I realize they're on the road. They've got a divisional matchup against San Diego. Last time they played, Carr went 317 and 2 against them. I think this is the week where I like him. I have number four. I have Matt Ryan, Aaron Rogers, and Russell Wilson ahead of him, and that's it. I like Derek Carr. I think you can have confidence starting Derek Carr this week if you don't have those other three guys. And I'm going to continue. I'm going to move on into my wide receiver because it's a combo here.

I think Derek Carr, the biggest beneficiary of this good game. It's not Amari Cooper, who pooped last week and who, by the way, when he played San Diego last time, had 138 yards against him. But I think Casey Hayward keeps Cooper enough in check. I think the beneficiary is Michael Crabtree. Michael Crabtree. Look, Crabtree's been great this year. Tied for second in Red Zone targets. Had a touchdown against San Diego last time.

And if you erase last game, which we didn't like, he had eight catches, seven catches. I really like Michael Crabtree in this game. I think you, if you had that pair of car and Crabtree, I think he can be very confident. So a wide receiver, Jason, who do you got? Oh, we disagree on this. Yes, we do disagree. And this is a scary one because I'm going with a guy who, I guess, I hope you still have if you're in the playoffs. He might have cost you the playoffs last week. That's Des Bryant. Des Bryant had negative points.

for most scoring formats last week as he caught one reception for a fumble. And so you might not want to play him this week. Tampa Bay. He had that dream game that fantasy owners dream about like you face. Oh, I'm, you know, my opponent plays Des Bryant and I'm down by like a point. Yeah. And he just throws him out there. The only way I win is if he catches the ball and fumbles. It's like that dream scenario. Someone out there. Someone won that way. And that's.

kudos. Congratulations. But this week, I don't think Des Bryant's going to do that to you. The Tampa Bay defense is for real. I'm not saying start Des Bryant because Tampa Bay's defense is bad. Before the buy, they were bad. After the buy, they've been pretty good. But they are not.