Start Your Studs? Playoff Mailbag, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/11

what people got from Grendo last week, which is the production from Patrick Taylor. There's such a long history of backup running backs coming into great success with Shanahan's time at the end of the year. I mean, this is not a new situation where I want a piece of that. I want to take a shot at the big place. So I would. I would probably still put in Patrick Taylor. It's like the Browns running backs, I would go with Patrick Taylor. I'd play him over Jalen Warren. I think I'd put McCormick ahead of Patrick Taylor against Atlanta. The like DeAndre Swift against Minnesota or take the shot on Patrick Taylor. No, Patrick Taylor. I would go Taylor. Yeah. The last time these teams played, Juan Jennings.

Jennings. 11 for 175 and 3 with Debo out of the game. Debo's in more of the kind of like active, inactive state right now. He's hanging out. But Jennings is in? Yeah. Kittle, of course. For sure. Cup and Puka. Are you benching Debo? I think I'm trying my darndest. I, you know, there's a squeaky wheel narrative for the week. There is. The matchup is good. The last time we saw him fantasy relevant, it's been one time in the last seven weeks. And it was the wide receiver 24, 5 for 62. He's had, I mean, that was 10 points on like on the dot. Barely got there. Yeah, he actually did that back to back weeks. Debo or DeAndre Hopkins against Cleveland. Debo.

Can we shut the podcast off? Oh, wow. No, I'm going to go Hopkins. I'm going to go Hopkins. I'd go Hopkins. Debo or Amari Cooper against Detroit? Cooper. Yeah, I think Debo is probably someone that you're looking to bench. He's so like, he's a wide receiver four. I mean, you know, if I had Adam Thielen off of Waver. Oh, yeah, that's an easy feeling. But, you know, otherwise, Kyron, of course, get him in there. He's been scoring. And, uh, If you need to take a shot at quarterback for whatever reason, Brock Purdy, I think is very, you know, I think 300 yards is in the cards in this game. It's possible. You know, the running back room. You like it more than Stafford? Yeah. And the running back room being kind of depleted, lends to maybe Purdy having to do more with his legs. And throw touchdowns. It's, you know, when they get around the goal line, I'm not.

Sure, usually they're just a run the ball in type of team, and that can hurt your fantasy value. But when you're on to your 17th running back on the depth chart, it might be a little bit more difficult to find rushing touchdown success. So I like, you know, when you look at the two quarterbacks, I'm like, I kind of like Stafford and his weapons better. But when they get to the goal line, Kyron is far more likely to score the touchdowns and take them away from Stafford than Patrick Taylor is. for Brock Purdy. Stafford's high on the year in a four point is 27 points against New England. Even in that Buffalo game, if you started Stafford, you're thrilled with the outcome. But a team that scored 44 points, Matthew Stafford was the QB7. He just passed 20 points. And Purdy's been very good. They're favored. They're at home. The defense for the Rams is not very good. I'd be playing him over, you know.

A lot of options this week. The case for Purdy is also, we're having this huge discussion. Well, who's the running back? It's Perdy. It's Brock Purdy. Yeah, to some degree it really is. He's running the ball a lot more. He was the quarterback five last week. He's got a few games this year where he's rushing touchdowns in two of his last five games. It's an okay play. I think it's a stable play. Is Joanne Jennings a must start in your mind? About as close as you can get. He is a must start to me. This is going to hurt to ask the question. Yeah. But you talk about somebody who's been struggling with a bad matchup. AJ Brown. I knew that was the name you were going to bring up. I knew that was the name. Let's put you to the test. If I had those two players, I'd put Juan Jennings in. And I know that that's, it feels insane. The over and under is almost 10 points higher.

But how do you bench AJ Brown? How can you live with yourself? Yeah, I mean, the names make it very, very, very difficult. Joanne Jennings versus AJ Brown. I'm trying to tell people is plug it in. It's Joanne Justin Jefferson Jennings. There you go. Just do that and you'll feel a lot better about it. You would feel a lot better. But I mean, three of the last four weeks, AJ Brown has not gotten to 10 fantasy points in half PPR scoring the matchup against Pittsburgh. I mean, I'm not saying by any means binge AJ Brown. This is more of a pro-Juan Jenny's take than it is an A.J. Brown take. All right. We'll turn the page. We'll jump into the mailbag. You ready, Mike? Yeah. Mailbag. All right. If you have a question for the show, go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Visit this site. Click that submit a question button. Or you can dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB.

All right. We'll go here. We'll start with the mailback. Hey, baller, break in California. QB. Start, sick question. Do I go Jaden Daniels on the road against New Orleans or Bo Nix at home against Indy? I got Corlin Sutton on the roster, so I like that stack option. Just for reference, I'm the projected underdog facing the Borough Chase stack. No. That hurts. That last one facing the Borough Chase stack is not where you want to be. This is really interesting. Bowenix has been on fire, has the much better matchup. Personally, I cannot imagine benching Jaden Daniels for Boe. Me neither. No, no. I would not do that. Yeah. Any other thoughts on that? Just definitively don't mess around. I would, I would not. I'm going to be honest, guys. I'm scouring Twitter for news. I'm a little distracted. This is not fantasy related, but this is football. What is it? It's football related.

a bill has been introduced in Ohio that would make it a felony to plant a flag in the center of Ohio Stadium. Remember how Michigan put a flag down in the middle of the field? We're getting the government involved. Ohio, what are you doing? Oh, my gosh. You should be ashamed of yourself. Make it a felony to LD put their flag down. Win the game. All right. Now, teach me, win the game. Teach me some politics. Can anyone write a bill or do you have to be an elect, like can I write a bill? You would have to get a bunch of signatures. But if you were in the government, you could. I'm just hoping that someone in the government wasn't the one that wrote this bill. It's the Ohio Sportsmanship Act. It was drafted by state representative Josh Williams. Who's wasting taxpayer dollars. And now you're wasting our podcast time because I can't not talk about this. They put the flag down in the middle of our stadium. Is that Debo?

No, that's that's Josh Williams. Representative Ohio. They put the flag down. A felony. A felony. You're going to prison. Execute them. Death penalty. Right to jail. Right to jail. I mean, doesn't a judge see that and go, what? Or do they have to, I mean, the judge has to follow the law, right? Execute them. I really hope, like I want to look this bill up. I hope it's like three. three sentences. It's just like, if you play a flag, right to jail. Right to jail. Sorry, guys. It was, it was too much for me to not bring it up. Okay. Jim, Jim, Bacco says Tucker Crafter Sam Leporta, I feel obligated to start Leporta. Talk about obligation in the fantasy playoff. Do you owe Sam? No, I understand because the names, when you get in the playoffs, it's hard to bench those big names. Sam Leporta, um,

You know, he was the first, you know, tight end or the second tight end drafted. Buffalo is top five against tight ends. It's not a good matchup. Kraft has a decent matchup this week against Seattle. You know, there. Leporta has two top 12 finishes in a row. He's piecing it together a little bit, but not. I mean, you would. Six targets or more four straight games, five of six. Yeah, but but 19 yards. Six yards and 54 yards. Who's going to score a touchdown? That's the honest question in this one. I believe matchup-wise, I think. I lean craft. I think I'd play. I'd rather play Tucker Kraft. I had them back-to-back my rankings. Yeah, that's how it always happens. I'd rather play Tucker Kraft, but at the same time, like, which one is more likely to shoot out? Buffalo and Detroit. Yeah, I'm going to play the Porter.

I'm going to play La Porta. Yeah, the match up, the fact that over under is 54 points. Yeah, that's going to be my answer. Let's hit another voicemont. Which button did I push last time? Can you push the button of the one that I didn't push? I actually don't have them loaded in mine. They're only on yours. Oh, you got to take a shot. Let's go. Is it 50-50? Oh, boy. I don't remember what's 10-9 plus. Here we go. A good gentleman question for you. I'm an 11-point underdog. Good job. And I have Jalen Hertz and Tua. I also have Tyreek and H.N. on my team. Do I start Tua over Jalen? Oh, my goodness. I've actually seen Tua, Jaden Daniels question thrown out there this week too on Twitter where, you know, obviously we're in the overthinking part of the year.

You know, a bet on Tua when you have Tyreek and H.N. is a full. All the chips are in on Miami. 11 points to me is not, yeah, it's not an overwhelming underdog. And you can't really, like if you have Tyreek and H.N. And they do well. And Tua scores 30 points. And Jalen Hertz scores 35. He's still the better starter. Right? Like, you just want more points at the quarterback position. And I don't think I need the correlation. to, you know, Jalen Hertz is probably who I'd go with. A lot of people want to start two of this week, though, the way he's been playing. Okay, but let me give you the last month of both player scores. Okay. One of these players last month has scored 18, 15, 17, and 24 fantasy points. Okay. The other player in the last month has scored 23, 28, 25, and 23 fantasy points. Just based on that alone, is that Tua?

Which player would you choose? No, I think he's setting me up and I think Hurd says it's got the better numbers. Tua has the better numbers. Oh, baby! So what are you doing, Jay? I think because of the correlation, that does push me over the top. I would put Tua in. The Houston Texans, like, I worry about Tua and tough matchups. And that's where it's like, is this a tough matchup? statistically speaking, they're middle of the pack. They're 17th against fantasy quarterbacks. Houston Texans are, you could see this game maybe getting into a shootout a little bit. It's a harder matchup. If it goes south for Tyreek and H&M, they're underwhelming, your game's over. It's over if you start to. Yeah. It's just a matter of how, do you really feel like you're a heavy underdog or not? Didn't they have to bank on? They were 11. That's nothing in projection. I just, I would have a hard time.

And I think Squeaky Wheel, AJ Squeaky Wheel, AJ Brown is going to get the ball in the air this week. So that's the way I'm going to go. Can I remind you that right now Pittsburgh is ranked number one against fantasy quarterbacks? No, you may not. Okay. You may not retract it. I don't feel like we answered the question. So Mike, just give them an answer. Because me and you split, Jay. So just say the name that's definitely going to score the most points, Mike. I think I would go to a. Dear goodness. I would go to a... Here we are. All right, let's take a break. We'll answer some more questions. Was there, was there ever a point where you thought you'd be recommending Tua Tung of Iloa over Jalen Hertz in the fantasy playoffs about six weeks ago? No. If you were like week three, yeah, I can see that, but what, it's cold outside? I don't think so. It's, um...

There you are. We've got lots of D.K. Metcalf questions coming in because the question of start your stud or not, Metcalf has been struggling to produce for fantasy. He's been very banged up, playing through injury, not practicing. Will I play Green Bay? Metcalf or James and Williams or Adam Thielen? That's hot. I'm going Metcalf there with all of them. Remind me of the. The Panthers matchup. Yeah, I mean, Metcaps last four weeks, you don't want to look at them. They've been underwhelming, but the targets have still been there, right? He's had, I believe he's had nine targets in a handful of games. I don't have the, yeah, two or four. So the Panthers played Dallas. Averaging 7.3 a game in that stretch. But we also saw a lot of targets for James and Williams last week. That game's that 54 point over under. Eight targets, seven targets, seven targets for James and Williams. If I need.

a good old-fashioned 10 to 12 points that I would play Adam Thielen. And if I need, like, Thelan's not giving you the 20, the point outing. Well, that would be Jameson Williams. But if I need. So is there no, no Metcalf answer? I don't think I'm playing Metcalf, man. James Cook question is in a similar start your stud vein, comes in from Baker Drew. What do we do with James Cook? I've heard rumors that he's having his workload reduced for the bill's playoff run. Oh, okay. He's, I mean, that would make sense. He's explosive, but he's not involved when they're in a negative game script. Where are we hearing these rooms? We're just hear someone saying they're hearing rumors and we're taking anything on Twitter as a rumor. I think what Mike is alluding to is the fact that we were sitting there dumbfounded on Sunday when he had six carries and was not on the field for quite a stretch. Now, they probably wanted to win that game. You know what I mean? That's the, that's the opposition of the rumor is that you're, you're.

right there with a chance at the buy. You're telling me they don't want that buy from Kansas City and they didn't have James Cook out there. So to me, it's not so much workload reduction. And by the way, they achieved a workload reduction last game. It's more game script. So how do you think that the week is going to go for them? That's more what I'm thinking. And I have James Cook in a couple of places for fantasy playoffs this week and he's right back in my lineup. Yeah, he's right back in my lineup as well. Obviously last week was just

an awful outing for him, six total carries, but you go back the last handful of weeks. He's usually double digits. This game against Detroit, we talked about the over under. It's the highest of the year. Yeah, so I want James Cook in my lineup. What about him or Romandre? It's James Cook. That one's easy. What about Dowdle against Carolina who's coming off a couple big performances or James Cook? That one's easy for me still. James Cook. I think that the touchdown opportunities, that's the issue with Dowdell. Dowell's been running really well. He's clearly going to get the workload and the opportunity. If you say who's going to get more carries, it's Dowdle. But if you say who's going to score more fantasy points, touchdowns are so valuable in fantasy. I think I've got to be on the James Cook side. He has six touchdowns James Cook did in his previous six games and four finishes in the top 10. We probably need to just trust that they're going to get him involved again.

But it's scary. Dowdle should be okay. This week, Dowdle or Pacheco, I take Dowdle in that one. That question comes in from Big Dom. Big Dom? Big Dom. Big Dom. D'O.M. Sounded like you said, Big Dum. It's Big Dom DeFurt. DeFurt. Okay. All right. Colton wants to know if you can explain fantasy points above expectation and how to use it and start sit decisions. Sure. So above expectation, you know, like they. This is our schedule adjusted. Right. Yeah, if you're looking at our strength of schedule and you click the schedule adjusted button, basically it's saying it's looking at what is that player score on average before going into that matchup. Technically the team. What is that? The team, the team position. Yes, correct. The team position at quarterback or the team position at running back. And then in that matchup, looking at their average, are they against that defense, is that defense allowing more points?

above average or are they holding running backs team running base under their average because it it really it's very very helpful and it's a better way to look at schedule the easiest way to point it out is like tight ends yes right uh you can look at just raw points that uh that a team has given up to the tight end position and you look at their schedule like oh They played Trey McBride, Travis Kelsey, Mark Andrews, three games in a row where this other team played Carolina. The tight ends are just not involved. So you have, that's why we average it out or adjust for schedule based off of that positional average. So hopefully that made sense. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's just giving you a different baseline than just looking at the raw numbers and giving more context, which is hopefully.

going to benefit you long term in making those decisions. All right. Lady NAFE on Instagram says, my league is voting on whether to add a wild card playoff for week 14. Nope. Is that? It's like a wild card playoff round. Someone gets in, no. There are buy weeks in week 14 in the NFL now. That's going to make it a disaster. But so that as in. like most of the league does not play. It's just the two wildcard teams. Is that how it would function? I would assume that the playoffs would all start that week. Matt, do you feel like you understand this question? Yeah, I think playoffs just start early. Yeah, playoffs start in week 14. And more people have a buy. More people have a buy and more people get in. You can argue on one hand that that's cool to just more people get a chance at the playoffs and it's not really affecting others.

I got a big reason why not to. But the week 14 buys, that's going to ruin the, you know, all the teams that are playing. It won't feel good. You'll have a lot of upset, unhappy players who ever happened to have the week 14 buy weeks in the playoffs. You just, I would vote against it for sure. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the buy weeks are really disruptive. I mean, we just went through six teams with tons of fantasy players that are relevant that made an impact all year and then you don't get them. That's tough. That's tough. That would be hard to swallow a loss. Tomorrow we have starts of the week and the matchup breakdowns for week 15. No bye weeks to worry about starting tomorrow. We've got more matchups in the Wheel of Shame on Friday. Mike will be with you Sunday live. Make sure you tune in, watch the show on YouTube. If you're listening, you can check it out. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Hey, Keon Coleman.

Fully practice. Is that what we got? He's coming back. It sounds like it. That's great news for Josh Allen. He doesn't need any more good news. He's breaking records without it. He'll still take it. Bad news for Amari Cooper. I thought maybe he started get going. But now we got Shakir and Coleman and Cooper. I betcha Kincaid will be back soon. How is Keon Coleman rostered in our league? I'm like, oh yeah, baby. Let me go run to the waivers. I haven't rained. I've got five more minutes. You're in dire straits. Everyone's roster. Yeah. Good luck. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.