Playoff Primer + Pump the Brakes, Jason's Body

And two really strong matchups and the one that's not the strongest is the Colts. And I don't care. Like I'll still play him against the Colt and be perfectly fine with that. So yes, Amari Cooper is, he's interesting. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. Uh-oh. With Amari Cooper, my mind, my mind knows to be careful. Put your body? My mind's telling me no. Oh. Oh. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm.

My body. It's really one of those like, I'm like, I know not to do this. Jason, don't do this. Don't you buy in. This is a fool me thrice. It feels. But the thing is, is he was running great routes, as he is known to do. He was getting separation. He got a few tarts, got a touchdown. As the rapport builds with this schedule, I mean, I'm kind of liking Amari Cooper.

I don't know to trust my mind or my body. Oh, my goodness. I would trust your mind. With the Marty Cooper. Yeah, your body talked you into back-to-back days of Raisin Cains, Jason. Ooh, my body rejected that. And then your body... Man, that's a... This has been a long time. It has been a little while. How many consecutive fast food meals did you consume? Upwards of, I don't know, 20. What?

I mean, look, my body. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. All right. Wide receivers with difficult playoff matchups. Look, it doesn't look worse than it does for T.Y. Hilton. Houston, Dallas, New York. That is the seventh, third, and fifth ranked. He has not gotten on the, you know, he has not given you those special performances. It's here yet.

Are you worried about T.Y. Hilton? Would you look at what you can get for him? If you could pivot away from him somewhere else? I would not. You would not? No, I'm going to trust in T.Y. He's a must start then. Yes. Trust in T.Y. Absolutely. Early on in the season, he was putting up good points. Then he dealt with the injuries. He's still trying to get back. And I think by the fantasy playoffs, T. Y. Hilton and Andrew Luck will be.

firing on all cylinders. I talk about Andrew Luck's not a guy I'm trying to pivot away from. I'm not going to pivot away from his number one weapon then. Yeah, I tend to agree there too. And I think the Dallas-New York Giants matchups, while they have been good at, you know, at not giving up fantasy points to the wide receivers, I think by the end of the year and in those specific games, I think Ty will be just fine in those matchups. Here's a guy I want to talk about because I almost, this might surprise you guys. I mean, I...

chose not to. But I almost made him my pump the brakes this week. And it's Alshan Jeffrey. Interesting. Alshan Jeffrey has been fantastic. He's been getting more targets than what we're used to, you know, last year when he was successful, it was on the back of the touchdowns and the efficiency. He wasn't, you know, just a complete target hog. That's Zacherts. With the addition now of Golden Tate, Zacherts, you've got a lot of,

a lot of different weapons. This is great for Carson Wins beating this tough schedule. But Alshan Jeffrey, with Dallas, the Rams, the Texans in those fantasy championship weeks, do you guys have any worries that the combination of more targets, bad schedule could make Alshan a disappointing fantasy playoff? I do. I do have concerns. I have concerns to become more TD dependent as the season goes on.

That would be my one concern. And if you roll the dice with a guy that is more prone to 60 reception seasons, then there's some risk there. I think the risk would be you've got to walk through. Will he be shadowed by any elite quarterback or cornerbacks? Because the two weeks that were rough for Alshan Jeffrey against Minnesota, two for 39.

The roads were closed. Xavier Rhodes absolutely shut him down. And then this past, well, two weeks ago, he got the Jalen Ramsey experience four for 35. So that's what I'm taking a look at. So Dallas. Well, Dallas, you've got Jones is great. He doesn't shadow though. So as long as they're unique with their play calling, they can get him open. The Rams.

The Rams should be healthier by then. Yeah, the question will be Talib. There was a report this morning. Akeed Talib expected back after the buy in week 13. Right. So that would be, this would be his second week back if that holds up. So that defense could be much better than Houston that last week. Look, I'm not saying you must sell Aljan Jeffrey right now by any means. He's going to be very valuable. But.

I almost pump the brakes in part because he is playing Dallas on a very low over-under game. In the first game, we've seen, you know, when these wide receivers so far, two-for-two, when they've been traded for mid-season, they try to come in and pump a couple early targets to him, make sure they know we want you involved. So Alshon's got great value right now, right? I mean, he's been stellar. I feel like you could trade and maybe upgrade, do a package deal of two for one. I'm pretty confident in him.

Moving forward. And capitalized. Where are you at, Andy? On Alshan, would you be willing to trade him? Split it. I'd be willing to trade Alshan right now. I think he's at peak value. Good. Maybe one of the more important positions to turn to here, tight end. Because predictability, teams giving up points to tight ends. If you're in that middle tier, right, you're not a Kittle, Ertz, Kelsey, Gronk.

Yes, I still said gronk. Owner, you're looking to find, I mean, I don't know what I'd be looking for more. Yeah. To help differentiate a middling tier guy like a David Injoku. You know, if I'm looking at Injoku or Jordan Reed or O.J. Howard or maybe not OJ Howard. OJ. Howard has probably moved himself up a little bit. But in the middle tiers, I'm looking at playoff schedule. Ben Watson has one of the best playoff schedules I've seen in quite some time.

Here's the rank of his opponents in terms of fantasy points given up to the tight-in position. 31st, 32nd, 29th for those final three weeks. Tampa, Carolina, Pittsburgh. Jared Cook has a very favorable schedule. David Injoku has a very favorable schedule. And yes, Rob Gonkowski does as well. Vance McDonald. Are you targeting these players? Yeah, I mean, Ben Watson is a great guy to target because you don't have to trade for him. You just go sign him.

Pick him up. You know, and the thing is, is if he's on a roster right now, which he very well might be at a good couple of weeks and a good schedule, just keep doing the, speaking of which today is Wednesday, so drop it like it's hot. Check your waiver wire for who was dropped as the waivers went through. Don't just look at who got the guys you wanted, but.

Who did they stupidly let go of? And from now to the end of the season, Ben Watson will hit every waiver wire because I don't think he's going to be one of those weekly must starts. He'll have a bad matchup, and someone will pivot. And you could hold on to him. I would rather have, you know, Ben Watson than a lot of other, of that middle tier of tight end with that kind of a schedule and what he's been doing. And I love Ben Watson. Yeah, just a good guy.

And I think this is an official opportunity to say, oh, what's happening? It's been, oh, I was going to say a good run, but it really hasn't been a good run. It's been an really irritating run. And sure, one of our original rules of this show was related to it. Got to break the rules here. But I'm breaking up officially with Jordan Reed. Jordan Reed, I said earlier this week, he's not even the best tight on in his team right now. You can't trust him.

And he faces one of the worst playoff schedules, including at Jacksonville, eighth against tight-in, and at Tennessee, the number one against fantasy tight-in. It's time to say goodbye. It's time to move on. He's been so disappointing. I mean, yeah, I would rather play on a weekly basis, Ben Watson, Jared Cook, and Joku, those guys, than Jordan Reed, who was drafted to... Here's the thing with Jordan Reed that...

Everybody thought if he was able to remain healthy. I mean, this was the original rule. He's one of the best. His upside is massive. But Alex Smith, without Andy Reid, went right back to being Alex Smith. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He did. Vanilla ice cream. I expected more for him than this last week against Atlanta. Didn't get it. He gave you three yards. He did all right. Yeah. He did enough. I mean, vanilla ice cream is not a bad thing.

It's just, it needs some, you know, need some. Pick two, two things to put on top of vanilla ice cream. I would pick Tyree Kill and. I would pick Tyree Kill and, yes. I was, okay. We'll move on. Good. Thursday night breakdown. Are you guys excited for this one?

The six and two Panthers take on the five, two and one Steelers. Steelers are four point favorites, 51.5 point over under. All right. Yes, I am. Very much. Since we're coming off of the Dallas, Tennessee primetime matchup, I do need a pallet cleanser. So yes, I'm very excited for this. I love that this game is in Pittsburgh. I mean, the, you know, lemon sorbet. The fact that Big Ben is at home.

in front of the Steelers crowd in prime time makes me so confident that this will be a high-scoring affair, that he will get the job done. And Cam Newton, you know, with his ability to rush on the road, I love the matchup for almost everybody involved. I mean, both teams on paper are great against the run, and that doesn't matter because you're talking about James Connor and Christian McCaffrey.

Must start every week's. And then all the other positions on both sides of the field have pretty juicy matchups here. So, I mean, this is a light them up. And whenever you can have a Thursday night football game where you get players, there's an advantage. I mean, we've talked about that in the past. You get to know before. Just a knowledge advantage. Before Sunday, are you in a hole? Are you in a lead? Do you need to play it safe? Do you need to swing for the fences? There's something nice about being able to.

plug in Devin Funches and, of course, take him out of your flex and move them into the wide receiver position because that gives you more flexibility come Sunday. And Devin Funch is a perfect example. Because if he finishes with two touchdowns at 100 yards, that's a realistic outcome. If he finishes with three receptions, three receptions and 22 yards, there's a percentage, you know, that could happen too. And you get the knowledge going into Sunday of,

You've got a head start on knowledge. Yeah. I know you guys scoff every time I bring it up, but I would expect Joe Hayden to be very much on Devin Bunches. That's fine. Scoff. How John Brown do against Joe Hayden? Poorly. Against Joe Hayden. Which time? I like it. No, this last week, Joe Hayden shadowed John Brown. I know.

It was bad. It was bad for John Brown. You love Joe Hayden. I get it. Yeah, he's been playing incredible. Devin Funches will not have a good game because of Joe Hayden. I stand by it. He also, in his defense or in Joe Hayden, not giving the credit to Joe Hayden, he could have a bad game due to Devin Funches. It is possible. When you combine Funches.

With hated. No, that's fine. I don't have any. If I were a fantasy owner counting on Devin Funches on a week-to-week basis, I would be sad. I would not be happy. No, but you'd want him on Thursday. You would. That's my point, is because his range of outcomes is so wide. If you were going to play him, you'd want to. If you're going to play Devin Funches, better to have it be on a Thursday. Is Greg Olson a top five tight-in rest of season? Yes. I mean, the only issue I have with Greg Olson is that he could re-injure the foot, which that would obviously take him out of top five.

Yeah, I don't know my top five off the top of my head, but he's a great play this week. The Steelers had defense ranked 29th against the position. I'm all about it. Interestingly enough, the Panthers are somehow 30 seconds against the position or 30 second best, as we call them on this show. So are you interested in Vance McDonald? I'm interested in the fact that he ran, I think the most routes of any tight in last weekend and just didn't turn into.

Didn't turn into production to the degree that you'd want. I'm always kind of, when I'm grabbing a streaming tight end or somebody that I'm looking to explode, he's always in the corner of my eye. Let me ask this question then. But I didn't like seeing Jesse James fly down the sideline for a catch. So Vance McDonald, after the really strange two weeks ago, 38% of the snaps, he went back to his normal mid-60 range. What's your confidence level?