Playoff Primer + Pump the Brakes, Jason's Body

is this is why we've we've at least been highlighting cam newton and the panthers schedule coming up for a few weeks because i truly believe that cam newton is going to carry a lot of people through the championship in my dynasty league now i don't have many more but i had cam newton and uh patrick mahomes and patrick mahomes um what is his schedule during weeks 14 through 16 doesn't matter baltimore chargers seattle

That's three tough matchups. Three tough matchups. But I would play him. Yes. But the question is, would you still play him over that glorious schedule from Cam Newton? Probably not. Did you say probably not? Probably not. So that would be a hard, that would have been a hard thing for me. If Patrick Mahomes carries me through the season, then I go, you know, I'm going to make the switch now. I'm going to put in Colin Kaepernick. I'm going to bench you, Alex. Yeah, you pull a hard ball and put Cam, it would be really hard to lose with Patrick Mahomes on my bench. Yes, it certainly would.

But some other great schedules to pay attention to. Jason, did you want to... I was just going to say, so you took that hardship away from yourself? I did. I traded Cam Newton away.

So, yeah, I'm not starting Alex Smith over Patrick Mahomes. Philip Rivers has a nice schedule. Cincinnati and Kansas City at home. Yeah, the championship week is a little rough. Baltimore is a very good. But is it anymore? Oh, my gosh, Baltimore's falling apart. Yeah, I still believe. I mean, I realize that they are, they've had a couple of really bad weeks in a row. But the personnel, the coaching, assuming Harbaugh stays, I still believe he's a great coach. You know, I don't, I don't.

love the Baltimore matchup. But the thing is, when you've got a guy like Philip Rivers, like compare Philip Rivers, preseason, there were two players that I think were in the exact same boat. Long-term veterans, always good of fantasy football, super cheap in the draft. They were two of my higher-end targets. Philip Rivers, Matthew Stafford, right? They both have the same draft capital, the same, you know, quality of talent and weapons, although not anymore for Stafford. But if you look at...

Philip Rivers, Cincinnati in week 14, then Kansas City, week 15, and then a tough one at Baltimore. Matthew Stafford has Arizona, whose defense has been mighty fine. Buffalo, whose defense has been actually really good. Yeah, you like to play your DST against Buffalo. And Minnesota, who's one of the best defenses in the league. So that's where if you've got those, you know, let's say you've got Stafford and you could, you know, do a...

a pivot trade with, you know, another piece or something and swing over for Philip Rivers, a similar tiered guy. The two-for-one type of situation. Andrew Luck has an interesting end-of-season schedule, not in the upper echelon. Kurt Cousins as well. Two road games at Seattle, then Miami, then at Detroit. Cousins have been a little up and down. Yeah, I think of the guys, so we're hiring in our...

In our doc here, we have four guys that are kind of the worst of the worst for schedules as a whole. Stafford, Luck, Kurt Cousins, Carson, Wins. Stafford and Cousins would be the two guys that I would try to pivot away from. Andrew Luck, I'm going to play him. Same with Carson Wins. And the same with Carson Wins. They can get it done in a bad matchup. I mean, Carson Wens just added another weapon to his art. Well, he didn't. But the team added Golden Tate. So I would still be fine playing those two guys. But if you have Stafford or Cousins,

I would be looking for to make a move. You're perspiring a little bit. A little bit. Oh, man. You're a cousin's owner. Are you looking to make a move? Yeah. Okay. In the good matchups, and we're going to, Brooks, we're going to take all of this data and we're going to tweet it out. Is this correct? Oh, yeah. Have you ever used the tweets? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'll figure out how to do it. Oh, no.

The one player I'm going to mention that's in the good list, Andy Dalton, has the Chargers and then Oakland and Cleveland. Are any of those games in prime time? Yeah, great question. I'm actually a little bit concerned. Because of green? Not just because of green, but because, you know, what I love about Cam Newton, Philip River's schedule, Big Ben, they're facing teams that are equally talented on the other side of the ball to...

put that, not only are they bad in terms of giving up points against the quarterback, but they're also going to keep those games competitive, New England, New Orleans, New Orleans, Atlanta, Kansas City, Baltimore. Andy Dalton plays Oakland and so there's a little bit more risk to me when you face Oakland. If Mixon runs the first two touchdowns, then your defense gets to score, your quarterback may be done for the day. And so I'm just bringing that up as, look, you're weighing that as a factor as well. So here's...

A question, would you rather have Matthew Stafford or Andy Dalton? Dalton. Even with the green injury right now. So you would trade Matthew Stafford for Andy Dalton. No doubt. Yeah, I would. And this is a deep league, because we do, we have some listeners who say, oh, there's never quarterbacks on the waiver wire. Deep league, if you have an extra bench to stash somebody. Or did you just have the same idea, Jason? Oh, I know where you're going. Absolutely. Joe? No. Lamar.

The backup to Joe Flacco, Lamar Jackson. It's funny, I thought you were going Joe, and I was going to correct you with Lamar Jackson. I mean, Joe Flacco certainly, if he is still the starting quarterback for the team, but the whispers and the bushes are starting to get louder in Baltimore. Like you said, maybe Harbaugh is going to see the door. Maybe Flacco is going to be out. Harbaugh's had to come out and say, no, Flacco is still our guy. But week 14, Kansas City, week 15, Tampa Bay.

Week 16 to Los Angeles Chargers plus Lamar Jackson and his rushing, getting you the Tebow points, the Cam Newton points. Just saying if no one is available and you can hold on to him, it's very, very interesting. I don't think that Lamar Jackson will start these games. I think Joe Flacko, because of the contract situation, will be starting these games. But if Lamar Jackson is the starter, he will win fantasy championships for people.

Whoever gets him first, if he's the starter, with the schedule of at Kansas City, Tampa Bay and the Los Angeles Chargers with his ability to rush the ball like no one. Cam is the only one that can rush the ball as well as Lamar Jackson, albeit in completely different styles. He'll be a fantasy beast during those championships. Very possible.

All right, turning the page to the best running back schedules for the fantasy football playoffs. Let's turn first to David Johnson. David Johnson gets to face the 24th, 31st, and 15th ranked run defenses, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, two of those three games at home. Other ones that obviously jump off the page, Mike, you brought up all Carolina Panthers. But Christian McCaffrey faces Cleveland, New Orleans, Atlanta. Joe Mixing, you know, has a great schedule.

especially if you snag that bi-week, if you're a league that has a bi-week in week 14 or you get through week 14. He faces Oakland and Cleveland in weeks 15 and 16. The Philip Lindsay Royce Freeman situation could be real good for weeks 15 and 16 as well, San Francisco, Cleveland, Oakland. And then Tevin Coleman, Melvin Gordon, Kareem Hunt, have some of the better running back schedules too.

What stands out to you from that group? Sure. The guys I would highlight would be David Johnson and Baltimore and Carolina are just are good all around. All players. Pieces from that offense like John Brown, Devin Funches, secondary options that you can actually get cheap. Maybe they become interesting because you want them for a flex play. But David Johnson, Collins, the running backs from Denver.

Maybe, maybe Tevin Coleman. Those guys are interesting because their schedules are great, and I think you can actually acquire them. Trading for Joe Mixen is going to be pretty close to impossible. Melvin Gordon trading for him will literally be impossible. And same for Christian McCaffrey. So that's why you've got to highlight these guys. You could actually go out and get them if you're trying to buy into the schedule.

Yeah, I agree. I would be happy with all of the aforementioned players. Now, I'm not super high on the Baltimore situation, especially trying to predict weeks 14, 15, 16 when it comes to, if you were to go out and trade for Alex Collins right now, is he the...

Is he still getting 14 carries in those weeks? I feel pretty strongly he will. But yeah, there is a little bit of risk. And again, I'll bring up if you didn't hear a couple shows ago, I am still a huge believer. Like if you, even maybe if you're not, and this isn't for every team. We're not talking about tight ends yet, Jason. Oh, stop it. No, in C.J. Anderson. Okay. If you are the Christian McCaffrey owner to have that, C.J. Anderson is worthless.

He's not going to do anything unless there's an unfortunate, devastating injury to Chris McCaffrey. But I am a complete believer that if he'd be another championship winning asset in those weeks with fresh legs, pull a Tim Hightower, come in and be a true dominant player. It's interesting that Todd Gurley, Alvin Camara, have two of the hardest schedules for, you know, for fantasy running backs. Don't care.

Camara at Carolina and Pittsburgh in weeks 15, 16. That is the sixth ranked and first ranked run D. And then at Chicago at Philly for weeks 14 and 15 for Todd Gurley. Two difficult matchups as well. Gurley gets Arizona in week 16, though, which is championship week. And Arizona has yet to set their eyes on a running back, much less tackle one. And Alvin Camara has a beautiful week 14 against Tampa Bay.

Cream Hunt's schedule is difficult as well, but like this is the piece of the puzzle. It doesn't matter. But, San Francisco and Houston, Matt Breedah has a very difficult end of season. Like we kind of, you know, Rahim Mosterts out now. Alfred Morris is irrelevant. Matt Breed has been hurt, but we all said, look, when he's out there, he's the guy. This looks like an intimidating schedule. Is he a pivot, a pivot guy? Yes, I would try to pivot away from him if I could.

Denver, week 14, that's fine. But then Seattle and Chicago, championship week against Chicago, that would be really, really crappy to have made it all the way to the title game and then have to stare that matchup in the face with your RB2. So if you could make the move, I would try to do that. Here's another name that I think would be a little bit interesting because he has to be a second half.

of the year player if he's going to do something. But Dalvin Cook has Seattle not a good matchup in that week 14. But like if you've got the buy, which, you know, if you've got the buy, you're the type of team that can trade for Dalvin Cook from a team that was losing because they had Dalvin Cook, try to nab him now. And he's got Miami, Detroit, two of the worst run defenses for fantasy points given up in the championship and the semis. The semis.

So I like, you know, if he's healthy, which his 70-yard run looked pretty healthy this last week. Yeah, he was, I think I saw from next gen, he was clock. That's the fastest run of the year. Wow. Yeah. That's decently healthy. We'll post all the running backs so you can break it down, look at your roster, see what the schedules look like compared to the fantasy points allowed by their opponents. At the wide receiver position, you brought up Carolina.

They've got the nice matchup. They'll be highlighted in all of these sections. But interestingly enough, Dallas, the Chargers, Green Bay, all very nice schedules. So look, you've got Geronimo Allison to IR, Marquez, Valdez, Scantling could be a target, right? He's already a waiver target. Maybe you picked them up today. Yeah. Well, take comfort. Atlanta, Chicago, New York, the Jets for the final three games of the season. And then Keenan Allen gets to play Cincinnati, Kansas City.

And then Baltimore in week 16. But look, you've got to get to the championship game. And he's got a juicy schedule. Amari Cooper. Are you interested? Philly, Indianapolis, Tampa. Yeah. A little bit. I am. Because here's the problem. I can't quit you. Well, here's the problem for Amari Cooper. I mean, it's chicken and egg situation here where he just would never get targets. And you think, okay, well, number one wide receiver.

should always get targets regardless. I mean, he can get open. He struggled to drop. There was so much weird stuff going on in Oakland. But the Cowboys are clearly going to feature him with the first round pick given up to acquire him. His first game in the system, they went to him. They're forcing, DAC is forcing things to him in double coverage, but they're going to go to him.