Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 15 Matchups, Boom Boom

It's a Saturday game. There are two Saturday games. Yes. You might not know that. There's a Thursday game. There's two Saturday games. There's Sunday games and there's Monday games. Oh, my. So we're going to stretch out this playoff week 15 as long as we can. But big week last week from Mitch Trubisky. The Bears, Jordan Howard, had a great week. Oh, my. And really that's where the fantasy relevance, maybe, you know, you can talk about Tariq Cohen a little bit, but.

What do you think happens against this lion's defense? They've been really struggling on defense over the last few weeks. They're 30th in the league against fantasy quarterbacks, giving up almost 20 a game, running backs 25 a game. That's 27th in the league. And then giving up points to the tight end. If you needed a flyer on Shaheen, would you be willing to take it? That's risky. He's in that pool of. That's Trubisky business. Yeah, he's in that pool of risky. I got Andy. No, you got me to nod a little bit. That's all you got. That's all I need.

Mike doesn't need much affirmation. Got a big grin over here, Mike. Yes. But I think Shaheen is in a group of risky tight ends that you could pull the trigger on. It's not the worst matchup. And, you know, Trubisky last week, I got a little bit of flack for saying he might be a decent play. And he was a great play. He was a great play. This matchup again, I mean, the lions have really looked poor.

lately against quarterback and, you know, they've shut down the wide receiver. So Shaheen could be a play. I would really hope I have one of those top six, but outside of them, it's, it's ugly. Jordan Howard, uh, heart pitter patters for Jordan Howard this week. Andy mentioned just how poor the line's defense has been against running backs. Uh, but if, I mean, you like, you can like Trubisky, but.

the wide receivers. This is an avoid. Dantrell-Inman seemed like the one as soon as he was traded. Then Kendall Wright was the one who had the big game. And you just, I don't have faith to flex any of the Bears wide receivers. All right. On the other side, Detroit, look at Matthew Stafford over the last, what, five weeks. He's averaging 294 passing yards of game, third best in the league.

The Bears, we know their defense is okay. I mean, they basically stayed in games this year due to their defense. It's not been due to Mitch Trubisky and company and the offense. We talked a lot about Amir Abdullah as well this week. I think you'll be active in this game. And I think that's going to really put the Abdullah Riddick situation as one that I'm not excited about.

For as in playing the Riddick. Yeah, to play either, Abdullah or Riddick. I'm not playing Abdullah, but it's the question for me is just, do you have the confidence that Riddick will receive the bulk of the running back touches? Not really. I think if Abdullah is active, they'll use them, but they'll use both guys. And I'm just concerned that you're looking at a flex risk at best with either player. Yeah, it's absolutely a fair point. Where's your confidence level for Stafford who.

I was very concerned about the situation with his hand. Now he came out. His numbers were actually very good. I think it was something like at 82% completion last week. That's what happens when Eric Ebron can catch the ball. For fantasy, he wasn't necessarily great for your team. Do you have confidence? We just had the one touchdown. Right. And a couple of turnovers. 381 yards passing. But the Bears defense.

In the past six weeks, only 10th against fantasy quarterbacks. He's safe to me. Yeah? I would just say he's a safe start. I'm not looking at him. That's what I'm asking. Do you feel safe playing? I do. I feel safe starting him. Do you agree with that, Jay? I do. He's my number eight quarterback on the week. And if you look back, you know, all the way to the last 10 games or so, there's only been three games where he hasn't been a top 12.

quarterback so i i agree he is he doesn't have that top five upside to me this week but he is a safe option that i don't think is going to poop your team the wide so golden tate he's in yeah i would play tate i would play marvin jones um eric ebron man alive eric ebron i you know look if i said that i'm willing to you know

Look at rolling. I'd say Shaheen or Ebron. Yeah, I would rather have Ebron. All right. Marvin Jones, we have as a consensus number 17 on the week, which is exactly tight. We have them. Jones and Tate tied at 17. That's tough to do. That's the facts, man. That's the facts. The Chargers, seven and six, take on the Chiefs. One of those games I'm really looking forward to. And it's on Saturday. So it's going to get some prime time. Prime time. Yeah.

Chargers on the road against the Chiefs. Chargers go in one direction, which has been up. Chiefs go on the other direction, although they did get a win last week. I talked about it on the show yesterday. The Chargers right now on defense, they're kicking some butt. They're dominating. And they've given up 12 points to the quarterback over the last six weeks. They've given them 19 points total to the wide receiver position. So Tyreek Hill is a boom-buss type of play here. And I don't think the upside on Alex Smith is very high.

Yeah, I agree. I'd rather play Stafford for sure than Alex Smith in this game. That's very fair. I would have to assume at this point that Casey Hayward will be trying to shut down Tyreek Hill. And Casey Hayward has just been stealing people's milk money all season long. He's been playing fantastic. Now the Chief's defense, though, they were a doormat to start the season as far as fantasy points.

But things have improved. They're kind of middle of the road now. So do you have any hesitants? Well, Keenan Allen is an auto start. So is Melvin Gordon. Is there any hesitance with Hunter Henry?

With the Chief's defense, seventh against tight ends in the past six weeks. Hunter Henry is a guy that I put in that top six that I hope I have. I realize that they have been a plus defense against tight end. Honestly, I have a little bit of hesitation over every single player in this game. I think it's a little bit more of a trap. This is a division game in Arrowhead. The offense of Kansas City hasn't been that good, but their defense is going to step up in a home game. So, you know, 46 point under over under for Vegas.

I would lean towards the under in this game. Yeah, I was going to ask that question. So it could be a bit of a divisional dogfight. So you're not willing to take the chance on someone like Tyro Williams coming off a monster game? Actually, if you look at the Chiefs and how they give up points to the wide receiver, they have actually done a great job on the wide receiver one.

But the wide receiver two for a team, they've been one of the worst. So, you know, you've got to go case by case. So that says to me that Tyrol Williams might be a sneaky play in this game. If you've got a lower scoring game, you need that big play that could break something open. Tyrell Williams, even though I take the under, might be...

You know, but I would rather do that in DFS where I'm, because my playoff hopes, I don't want the glory play. You know, sometimes if it's week five, I want to play that guy that you're saying, oh, what are you thinking? And I'm going to beat you. But if I lose, whatever I can get back. You're in the playoffs. I want, I want more reliability. Yeah, in week five, you, you know, you start that guy he blows up. You can trade him. You can have somebody long term. Right now you're playing.

And I was going to say the same thing. Tyroo Williams, you're waiting for one big play. Yeah. So he falls in the Keel and Cole category, the Deshaun Jackson category. And that's a little scary. You may have your back against the wall and have to do it. But let's talk about this Bill's matchup. Now, this game. Kareem Hunt, you have to at least mention Kareem Hunt. Is your optimism and your willingness to start Kareem Hunt, or I should say, lock him in?

Is it back to 100%? Pretty much. I mean, you're just kind of in that boat. I can't see myself sitting Kareem Hunt right now. So especially if Casey Hayward and, look, the chargers have been a bad rushing defense. That's been their one thing that they've kind of, the one hole in their defense all year long has been the rushing defense. And if Tyree kills shut down and.

You know, it's Travis Kelsey and Kareem Hunt. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the offensive strategy. If you look at the last six weeks, the charges are the number two against quarterback, number two against wide receiver, but they're middle of the pack against running backs. That means that Andy Reid and the new play caller will not give Kareem Hunt the ball at all. You'll go to the air. Yeah, I mean, everything says that Kareem Hunt should have a good game, which is the only reason I wouldn't not want to start him.

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to be a hit. There may not be a lot of meat on the bone in this next matchup. Oh, no. The Dolphins take on the bills in Buffalo. We watched the Snow Bowl last week. Now, we're not expecting that this week, but it will be 29 degrees out. And look, the Dolphins' defense right now is playing very well in the past couple of weeks. And making big plays. I think they're a great start in this game. They go to Buffalo, and Buffalo's defense, it's been.

Back on the kind of better performing trend, they've been kind of a back-and-forth defense all year. Where is the real upside? I mean, you know you're starting Kenyon Drake if he's all alone in this matchup regardless. Because even if the game goes the way last games, or last week in Buffalo went, the running backs still had great games, Gore McCoy. What do you expect from Drake? What do you expect from Leshan in this game? And where are your other big starts, or are there any? Over the past six weeks.

Buffalo has ranked 32nd against running backs. Yeah. Miami has ranked 31st. Best friends. Cold weather might not want to throw the ball as much. This is going to be the run the clock out game left and right. Meanwhile, both teams over the past six weeks have ranked top eight against fantasy wide receivers, at least top eight.

The Dolphins at 8 and the bills at 3. The bills are a little bit inflated there due to the snowball where there were basically no passing attempts. But they're four on the year. Well, and I was going to say, I mean, those numbers are a component. But if you are giving up puns of fantasy points to the running back, it stands to reason even if your defense might not be really stopping the pass. It's just really giving it up to the run. So a lot of fantasy points don't go. What are you laughing at?