Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 14 Matchups, Boom-Boom!

are kind of the start-sick questions for me in this game. You're not going to be sitting McCoy or Love Bell or Antonio Brown. If you're playing me in the playoffs and you want to sit McCoy, it's probably a good idea. If you're playing against you? Yes. Oh, okay. You're just putting that out there. I'm just saying. You want to be here next week. So, guys, talk to me about Sammy Watkins. What's your perception? Because I haven't rated a lot higher than you both do this week. Yeah, Watkins is a guy that obviously his snap percentage is going up.

which is what you want. He's extremely, extremely talented. And I think his floor should be okay. You know, in limited work the last two weeks, he's at three receptions back-to-back weeks. I worry a little bit more in this game with the cold weather and the light snow and the gentle winds. I think this is going to turn into, I still think the points will come, but I worry that it's going to turn more into a running game.

than a passing game. So love Bell and Shady. I love. Sammy Watkins always has the chance of that big blew up game. Are there people out there thinking about flexing Mike Gillisley after last week's performance? I hope not. I'm sure you're thinking about it if you're in desperate times, but I would not. That's for your consolation. Gillisley or four set this week? Gillisly. Yeah. Okay.

That one's easy. How about these quarterbacks, Big Ben and Tyrod Taylor? How do you feel about them this week? It's Big Ben on the road, so it's always a bit of a risk here. What's funny for the Buffalo Bills is last week, they kind of gave everyone. They said, hey, did you miss our entire season? Well, we're going to give you a quick cram review of what our season has been in one game. Where for the first half, nice start. First half, their defense looked fantastic.

They were dominating. They were shutting down the entire passing game. Then the second half, they went, we let's, let's lose the game. And that's kind of been what has happened with their defense over the course of the season. So Big Ben is still a quarterback one for me, even, even though we know that the road splits are terribly. Any thoughts on Tyrod Taylor and streaming him at home in this matchup against the Steelers who are 19th against the past.

I think you could do worse than that just because he's going to be able to run in cold weather at home. He's falling apart. Yeah, but he hasn't been great. I mean, he was, he had a stretch there where he was so consistent of putting up great fantasy numbers and then the last three weeks or so, it's just falling apart. In fairness to him, he has lost so many.

pass-catching options. He didn't have Charles Clay, Robert Woods at times, Goodwin. No, Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins. His good stretch was without Sammy, yes, but, but Goodwin was healthy then and Woods. Now, that being said, this is the first practice. Woods was practicing on a Wednesday. I think Woods is back, which is good. All right, Chargers take on the Panthers in Carolina, 48 and a half point over under. The weather's fine in this game.

So, you know, is Tyro Williams in every week's start now? Yes. He's close to it. I mean, he's the one. We love Philip Rivers, right? Yeah. Yeah. He's the wide receiver one, right? Yes. He's kind of just. Then he's a weekly start. He's just separated himself. Well, I mean, that's good mathematics though, Mike. I just really illustrated the point. It's difficult with the, with the shoulder. I say he's almost a weekly start because I think there are still.

You could have better options in your game. He only caught 17 on the year. He only caught two passes last week, and that was the first week, really with that shoulder injury. So he's definitely a guy you can play, but I don't think he is an absolute must start. That being said, he's got a good matchup this week with Carolina. Would you start Terrell Pryor who?

You know, is that home against Cincinnati but with Robert Griffin the 3rd? Oh, man. Or would you start Tyrol Williams on the road against Carolina? That is brutal. I would. Terrell Pryor of all wide receivers, his target share has actually been most, the top, top of consistency. Sure. Just getting that percentage, a high percentage of the past. Here's this catch is over the last five weeks. 6556. Yeah, I was going to say, Terrell Pryor is the guy that I would start.

Because they both have that upside Robert Griff. That's how they, remember how Pryor started the year. Pryor was Torel Williams from last week. One to two catches, but one of them was always a big. Quick detour. Torell Pryor in 2017 is the wide receiver what? 15. Yeah, I'll go strong. Strong too. But we don't even know where he's going to sign. Yep. It's true. Some of my show the money. Back to this game, you know, Cam Newton.

This is a tough question for a lot of fantasy owners because the allure of just starting Newton and locking him into your lineup every week is still there because he's Cam Newton. You're waiting for that game, but he has not done it. Now he's at home against, you know, a very beatable past defense. The chargers are not a great, at least production-wise past defense against fantasy quarterback. So are you fine starting him? The, yeah. He's our consensus number 11 quarterback.

So if you're top 12, you're startable. In the playoffs, I would hope that I've got, you know, a top six type of guy, though. Yeah. I mean, I have to start Newton in one of my leagues over Mariotta this week. Yeah. I feel very comfortable about because of Mario playing Denver. Really like Philip Rivers this week. Agreed. So what are the other questions from this game? Well, I would say it's worth noting that for your offensive weapons in San Diego, Luke Keekly was back at practice today.

The Carolina Panthers are the 32nd. There's 32nd teams. They're the 32nd ranked fantasy team against tight ends. And the last couple weeks, while Keekly's been out, tight ends have just feasted. And so Antonio Gates is a guy that was almost my start of the week. The whole reason I didn't make it my start of the week, Luke Keekly looks like he's going to return. He has not cleared concussion protocol. If Keekly is out, then I'm definitely...

happy to play Antonio Gates. Do you want to share any thoughts or maybe feelings about Greg Olson and the potential to start him in this game? Do you feel like sharing anything? Sure. Dear Diary. What? I have Greg Olson and I traded for him when he was hot. He's now tied in number 19 since I've had him. But it's such a good matchup. What do I do, Diary?

How do I live with myself if I play him? How do I go on if I don't? I have no idea. So I guess I'll roll with the Hall of Famer and play Greg Olson. Oh. Wow. It was a happy ending. Yeah. Maybe. I hope I don't have to have another dear diary on Monday. You may have to come back. But honestly, I, you know, he was also in consideration for start of the week.

You know, clearly I did not do either, but Greg Olson is startable this week. San Diego's not been great against tight ends. And I'll say this about Gates just real quick. He's closing in on that Tony Gonzalez touchdown record, and they have just a few games left. Really important to them. They've said that. I think Gates has done this year. So they've.

There might be a couple forced targets. I've never seen more of those screen passes to Gates on the goal line than I have this year. Like that's not how you used to get them. We knew that they were going to chase the record. All right. Before we move on to the Bears and, or I'm sorry, the Bengals and the Browns match up, I do want to thank today's sponsor Blue Apron. You know Blue Apron. Not all ingredients are created equal.

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So is this light sadness? Light sadness. Heavy sadness. So, you know, the Browns, five and a half point dogs at home, I know that stream of the week, I went with Dalton this week. I hope that his upside is not capped because of this matchup. But I like him. I think he'll get enough done in this game. You've got RG3 coming back. I think there's obviously a ton of upside with the Bengals defense this week. You know, they played very well last week.

and they have 14 picks on the year, which is second in the league. So great playoff matchup for them. Yeah, I think so. You know a guy in this game that I actually am very comfortable starting, who I haven't been for several weeks? Perfect example here, because I have been starting Rashad Jennings and I've been happy with him. I want to pump the brakes on Rashad Jennings. A guy I would play over him in this game would be Isaiah Crowell. Whoa.

Yeah, Crowell should benefit from RG3 being there. The running threat of the quarterback has always helped the Crowell style player. Crowell has been, obviously, a quarterback change here, but over the last few weeks, he has been a pass-catching monster. Like, all of a sudden, he's catching close to what David Johnson and Levi-on-Bell are, and he has never been a pass-catcher. He stole Duke Johnson's milk money. With the cold weather, you know, you know.

usually favors the running game a little bit. And so I think Crowell is someone that you could start who is one of those borderline guys. You got to make a decision on. That's very interesting. So to the wide receivers, Terrell Pryor, he's basically a must start for me. I can't see really a scenario where you would sit him. But over to the Bengals, Brandon Lafell off the big game, Tyler Boyd, another meh type of game. Are you comfortable starting either of these guys?

Yeah, I guess the question is also like, or I, if which one? If you had to start one, who would it be? The big play down the field guy is the potential that I think you want to go with. And that would be Brandon Lafell. Brandon LaFelle, he had a good week last week. Prior to that, he looked, since AJ Green went down, looked like you can't be the one.

But the Browns don't have the best defenders. So I am laughing because I'm looking at our rankings for this week, which came out yesterday on the fantasy footballers.com. They are tied for 37 in our rankings. No. They are tied. Boyd and Lafell. I'm bumping up Lafell. And we all have them in different places, too. Like myself and Jason have Boyd higher. But it is. It's team.