Playoff Primer + Pump the Brakes, Jason's Body

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Just go to loopjewelry.com slash pages slash footballers and use the code footballers. That's loopjewelry.com slash pages slash footballers. And the code is footballers. To the fantasy footballers podcast. Coming to you from draft.com studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, welcome in. Let's go. Now Mike was...

You were pumping your fist. Is that like a band director? I'm priming. Oh, priming. The pump? Yeah, I guess. You don't have one of these pumps where you go up and then to the side? See, I thought you were leading a marching band. Your arm up, your arm out. 76 trombones. No, that's a different life. That's a different life. He says, very nice. Welcome to the fantasy footballers. Led the big parade. You've had a few lives. I have. You've had a few.

Yo Carney. Wednesday, November 7th, 2018, the fantasy football is back again, Andy, Mike, and Jason. You can find us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. Welcome to the Wednesday show. Today we have a very special segment. We're going to do a playoff primer. Playoffs? Yeah. Thanks, Jim. Yeah, no problem. It's that time of year, right? We're walking into week 10. Four weeks left for a lot of people.

before the fantasy playoffs. Weeks 14, 15, 16 for the majority of you, intelligent league owners, those are your playoff weeks. If you're in week 17, contractually, we have to show up and give advice for that week, so we're here. Yeah, we'll be here. But our spirit. Oh, is gone. It's, will not be. No, we'll be here. No, our spirit will not be here. You're 100% right. Jason rails against it yearly. You know, every year that we.

continue to do this, it gets more and more passionate, more and more important for me because there's just so many examples. I mean, you know, look, all the arguments, everyone out there that wants to argue, and thankfully it's getting fewer and fewer the number of people that argue for week 17 championship week, the final week of the NFL season. You know, it's like just...

Wait till you get to the championship with Todd Gurley this year. See how that works out for you. Todd Gurley is single-handedly changing the minds of fantasy players across the nation. No Saints, no Rams, probably no Patriots. Enjoy it. Have fun. That's not the point of this episode. No, it's not. Derail. Yeah, Jason, you blew it. We're going to break down each position. Who has the best matchups?

for the playoff weeks. And who has terrible matchups? And who has terrible matches? You might want to avoid start planning. Those might matter the most because if you're kind of in the middle, if you've got a quarterback that's been performing, you know, you're not benching Padma Holmes because some of these matchups look questionable during those weeks. But you might make decisions about trade. Trade deadlines coming up. You might make decisions about stashing.

A quarterback that you know, maybe you're streaming all year long. Now it's time to snatch one because they have a great matchup. So we're going to get into all that today and get into the mailbag. So it's going to be a good show. You don't want to miss it. This will be this, you know, everybody can make the playoffs, right? You've got to win them. And also not everybody can make them. Yeah. I thought that was a strange statement. Well, it's harder to win in the playoffs than it is to...

make the playoffs. That is true? Yes. That's all I got. News and notes from around the league. All right, the Packers have placed wide receiver, Geronimo, Allison on injured reserve. It's Valdez Scantling time. Yeah. Marquez. Last week, I think he earned some more trust from Aaron Rogers, and he is a flex-worthy guy right now. You want to be a target for Aaron Rogers.

This is exciting news for my dynasty team. At Rapsheet reporting Sammy Watkins dealing with pain in his foot. After Sunday's game, had an MRI. It's not supposed to be serious. However, it's Sammy Watkins. And it's his foot. Yeah. You guys know my two Dynasty whiteouts, right? Yeah. AJ Green. AJ Green and Sammy Watkins. How are their feet? Not doing well. TVD. It's been better. Yeah. Here's the...

The positive side of it, and this was pro football doc was talking about, he said as long as it's not related to the surgery of what he's previously dealt with, then he's going to be perfectly fine. We just, we don't have news yet of is it related to the previous injury? And if you're counting on him, he could miss this week against Arizona. I would anticipate him missing this weekend. They don't need him. Yeah, they can, you know, this is a good week if you want to rest.

Tyreek and Kareem Hunt and Zeus. They can just rest all of their starters. Oh, like ahead of, you don't have to rest them week 17. Early by week now, you still get the W. Yeah. It's just instead of by 24, it's by like eight. All right. Leonard Fournett, you know, recovering from the hamstring injury, return to practice on Wednesday. Brooks, has there been an update on whether he was limited or full practice? Do you know? I do not. Okay. Well, let us know if you find that out.

Right now, I do want to talk about Leonard Fernette for a second. It's been several weeks since we've seen him. In that time, T.J. Yeldin, pretty good for fantasy. You also had the addition of Carlos Hyde made his debut last week, or I guess that would have been two weeks ago in London. So it's been a while since we've seen Leonard Fornett. Fantasy owners that drafted him to be a top five guy haven't had that return yet. There's a lot of anticipation, expectation.

I'd like to hear what you guys individually think you're going to get from Leonard Fornett when he comes back, what the concerns might be or whether you're just putting him right back in your line. We can discuss a little bit of what was said before the show. We're in looking at our pump the brakes options. And Andy, I think you suggested, hey, well, how about Leonard Fournett? And I was very opposed because I think we differ on this. I do not see Leonard Fornett as a pump. I'm very excited for his prospects.

So we differ here at this table, but I personally think Leonard Fournett will be very good. They did the right thing after bringing him back too early, having him re-aggravate that hamstring. They did the right thing and kept him out all the way until after the buy week, which was the expected timeline to make sure he's ready to go. During that time, the Jacksonville Jaguars have sucked. Their quarterback has had problems. They've lost games that they were favored and supposed to win. They're now not leading the division that they were supposed to own.

they going to get back to Leonard Fournett. They're going to get, you know, they're coming in division off the by against Indianapolis. There's not a scary defense. I think Leonard Fournett's going to be a great start. And, you know, what you drafted him to be, I think he is going to round out. Now, is there the chance that, I mean, you have to factor in. What if he comes back and reaggregates? Well, that's devastating. He's pretty much done for the year at that point. But they held him out long enough.

where I believe he'll be full go. My concerns, and Mike, you can get into what you said before the show. My concerns with him, actually, they didn't even factor re-injury in. I'm concerned about some of the things Mike brought up about the defense, because I don't think Fournette plays cornerback or linebacker. Yeah. And I'm concerned about the addition of Carlos High. They traded a pick for him.

I think they don't want Leonard Fournett to reaggravate the injury. And my concern is that they won't give him the work he was getting before when he got frequently injured because they will rotate Carlos Hyde in for a series every two or three. Mike, you brought up the defense. Yeah, the question for me for Leonard Fournett is I'm somewhere in the middle because I'm like Jason. If I have Fournett, he's going right back in my starting lineup.

But it's the expectations because the defense has been a problem. The quarterback has been a problem. Leonard Fournett solves neither of those problems to me. Really? Yes, really. If Blake Bortles is terrible, Leonard Fornett does not make him better. And if the defense is allowing points like 40, like huge scores to the Dallas Cowboys, allowing.

20 points to the Texans, 24 to the Philadelphia Eagles. They cannot control the game like they did last year. And then the passing down work doesn't go to four net in my estimation. They still go to T.J. Yeldon if they're going to have to throw the ball and catch up. I agree with the passing work not being entirely four nets. They're not going to just have T.J. Yeldon disappear. But while he doesn't fix Blake Bortles and he doesn't fix whatever's ailing their defense.

I believe he certainly helps both of those things. He makes it easier on Blake Bortles, and because they're able to move the ball, keep the offense on the field, we know that helps a defense. So I think, I guess I just disagree. The reason I'm bringing it up, I think we all agree if he's on your team and he's going to play, you play him. But you also have an opportunity to potentially cash in on expectations for a player right now. So Mike, if you had Leonard Fournette, would you rather trade him for, would you trade him for David Johnson right now?

Hmm, that's an interesting call with David Johnson. We only have really one week of the sample of the increased usage in passing down's work. I think if I had Fournet and I waited this long, I would just ride it out. Jason, would you trade him for David Johnson? It's so funny because we're on opposite sides of Fournet, where I think Fortnet's going to be really good, but I would trade him. And the whole reason I would trade him for David Johnson is 100% injury risk mitigation. If they're both...

Okay, and even if Four Nets a little bit better, you don't have the chance of David Johnson re-agravating a soft tissue issue the way that you do with Fournette. Kevin Coleman? Would you rather have Tevin Coleman or Leonard Fournett rest of season? Fournette. Fournette. Okay. Those are the two that jump out to me. I assume you'd rather have Fournette than Jordan Howard. Yeah, at this point, you've waited. He's back from the buy. Nick Chubb? Yep. Okay. All right. I think, I hate to say this because there are Jacksonville fans out there.

And I've been wrong a lot. So, congrats to you on that. If I'm wrong here, this has the feeling of a broken season for them, of a lost season, trending that direction. The defense is. It would have to be a very large turnaround to save it. To save it, yeah, exactly. You pretty much, to save your season, you essentially have to run. You've got a division you could do it in. You have to run the gauntlet. They're three and five.

If they're going to save the season, they need to win at least, what, at least six more games? Yeah, yeah. We'll see what happens with Fournette. He certainly was great when they were winning, and their defense was playing good. Does Bryant left New Orleans without a contract? But the Saints liked what they saw. I think they're still negotiating. It's a little weird. Yeah. He seems to try out for teams and then when his agent gets to the...

table. I think he really wants a lot of, he wants a lot more money than his market value is worth. Yeah, if I'm Des Bryant and the Saints say, hey, we're going to work out a contract, you take the league minimum and you play football this year on a team that can go to the Super Bowl with a quarterback that can get you a lot of touchdowns and then you're a free agent at the end of this season and you go, hey, remember me? If I'm Des Bryant, I say,