Starts of the Week + Week 13 Breakdown, Reindeer Month - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/1

Christian Watson wasn't there and Cobb wasn't there. But now it looks like Dobbs could be back. He's practicing in limited fashion. Randall Cobb is back, and Christian Watson has emerged. So Alan Lazard, he's a flex option that you could throw in there and hope to get a touchdown. But there's a lot of those. Right. Yeah, there's a lot in that category, right, that you could take a shot on. I would rather have a high overrunner game that's got somebody else. Exactly. Aaron Jones. Oh, yeah. AJ Dylan. Okay. Flexworthy, AJ Dylan? Are you renewed in your hopes for Mr. Quadriceps? Flexworthy, yeah. I mean, if you want to project a touchdown, you want a team that is favored. They are. You want a bad defense. The Bears are. Aaron Jones, I think, is a great play. AJ Dylan is just a flex option. All right. And then Aaron Rogers, is he in play as a streaming option? You're shaking your head. I don't think so. Even with this full.

compliment of wide receivers in this game and a team he owns? He owns the Bears, but he's coming off of a bad injury, hasn't been good the majority of the season, and while he could absolutely throw three efficient touchdowns, they could also just as easily run the touchdowns and it gets the Bears have a lead and then not have to do much. So I think there's better options this week. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back with a more exciting matchup. Jacksonville and Detroit, both teams four and seven, the Draft King Sportsbook line in this game in Detroit, Jacksonville minus one, the overrunners 51 and a half. And this is two offenses that are pretty exciting for fantasy purposes. You have PPR monsters in recent history. Alman Ross St. Brown and Zay Jones with 11 catches last week. Christian Kirk's in play.

You have Travis E.T.N. who is limited and the team expects to be back out there who's been a staple in fantasy lineups. And then I think you have two running backs that you can play in Detroit this week. DeAndre Swift. Interesting. Yeah, very encouraged by the snaps rising and more so my eyeballs, eight targets last week. Yeah. In a PPR league, he's definitely. He's getting more interesting. Yeah, it seemed like you had to. kind of bench him, even though he was sneaking his way into fantasy relevance by getting a touchdown on limited touches. His involvement has been there. I've looked at him in a couple of Draft Kings lineups for where he's priced and the fact that it's full PPR and I don't hate that. I love this game. This is one of our three massive games this week. Great over-unders. You expect two bad defenses. And when Detroit is at home,

and they can beat the other defense. We've seen it several times this year where you just get fantasy points from all over the place. Christian Kirk is a must start. Zay Jones is a great spot start. Evan Ingram was almost my start of the week. The matchup against the Lions is great. He has done nothing over the last several weeks, but he is out there. He is running around. Do you know how many times I've clicked him in our DFS? He's only 3,000. I mean, he's a... I've clicked him and then switched and then clicked him and then switched over and over again, in part because I like Zay Jones this week. Oh, yeah. And the idea of having two of them from Jackson seems trepidacious. But no, you're right. I mean, the matchup, Lions 30th against tight ends, you know, we talked about Jared Gough-Lamar Jackson situation. Jared Gough at home is averaging 258 and two and a half. So when you talk about...

The matchup where Jacksonville is the second best matchup for quarterbacks over the last six weeks. I think you need to throw the names away this week and go. Like, Jared Goff should probably be my quarterback start of the week. Like, I think I'm going to pivot here on the show. Whoa. I think I'm going to make the change. I think he needs it. I think he needs the pat on the booty. Well, then we shall have quite the quarterback off in this matchup. Yeah. Yeah, because you've got Mr. Trevor. And Trevor Lawrence has been much better than maybe you realize out there.

you know, multiple weeks inside the top 10, five out of the last six, I believe. It's just been a very, very good run for Trevor Lawrence. And did you happen? Did any of you guys catch that brief interview with their safety? Yes, it was awesome. It was so, what would you call it? Just candid. It was so candid talking about how, or how. awful Urban Meyer was and this is one of their players saying that Trevor Lawrence basically didn't even get a rookie season. That's right. Because of Urban Meyer and said that when it comes to Coach Peterson, he would die for Coach Peterson. He loves that man. Yeah, he said basically, you know, he feels so happy for Trevor Lawrence. He was the quarterback four, seven, 12, eight, and five. His only bad performance since week six was against Denver, which we all understand. Yeah. I mean, that's what Denver does.

Three touchdowns last week. This is such a better year for Trevor Lawrence. It's hard to put it into words, really. Over the last six weeks, the Jaguars defense for your Jared Gough start are the 31st ranked as far as most fantasy points given up to quarterback. The 32nd ranked is the Lions defense across the field. This should be a phenomenal. Bonanza of fantasy points. All the wide receivers need to be in. And I think you're going to start Travis ETN. He's coming off an injury. And it is worth pointing out that in the beginning of the year, the Detroit Lions were the team to target. Like you wanted to target them because you could run all over them. They've fixed that. You can pass all over them still. But.

They have, they've, you know, we were targeting them a couple weeks ago with the Miami Dolphins. And they kind of shut the Miami Dolphins run game down and they're a good run. A couple weeks ago, Sequin looked like a smash play against Detroit. They, they shut him down. This isn't nobody's that they've been playing. So I think EATN is okay, but he isn't as exciting to me unless he gets it done in the passing game. Zay Jones is one of the most asked about players in the start sit tool as well. Players like Traylin Berks versus Zay Jones or Cortland Sutton versus Zay Jones. I do want to caution like we should not expect 11 for 145 to be prescriptive. Like I was looking at ways I could get Christian Kirk into my DFS lineup this week instead of Zay Jones, who I think will be chased by everybody at 4,900.

Do you agree with that? Are you playing a Traylon Burks above Zay Jones or no? I certainly would rather have Christian Kirk than Zay Jones. The last, I think, two weeks, Zay has out targeted him. I don't think that's prescriptive. Christian Kirk is the better wide receiver, is obviously the better touchdown threat over the course of the season. better for fantasy. And Evan Ingram has been silent the last couple weeks in the target count. He could very well come in and take the Zay Jones targets. But I am starting Zay Jones over Traylon Burks because of this matchup, because I want the possibility of a 60-point game. Yeah, yeah. And that's probably not going to happen in the Tennessee-Philadelphia game. And I know we covered him, but I just want to highlight a couple of stats on Trevor Lawrence this year compared to rookie season.

Increased his completion percentage from 60 to 67%. He's already thrown four more touchdowns than all of last year. He's at 16 with six interceptions. Last year he was at 12 with 17 interceptions. Quarterback rating up is up over 22 points. So Doug Peterson is, you know, doing the whisperer thing with Trevor Lawrence. And, you know, we just saw a video of Mike McDaniel and how he changed the mindset of... to a tongue of Iloa with belief. And that's happening with Trevor Lawrence. And so I want to give him his due because I think he's going to be a popular breakout candidate for 2023. New York is seven and four. They take on the nine and two Minnesota Vikings. The draft king sports book line is Minnesota minus three. The over under is 44 and a half. I am so excited for this game. This game is the sneaky one that I am like.

I'm going to be watching this one so closely from just a football fandom standpoint. So this is one of those games that I think on the surface would tempt me to push the almost subset button. But that's not my feeling on this game. I think Minnesota is going to handle it fairly easily. We'll see. We'll see. They're three point favorites. The overrunners is 44 and a half. That gives the Jess just 20 points a little bit above that. Both of these teams. Playoff teams right now, right? The Jets have a position above the Patriots who play tonight. Mike White looked great last week. The defense for the Jets has been outstanding. They're number one against wide receivers over the past six weeks, number one on the year. So when you are looking beyond Justin Jefferson, maybe that gives you some hesitation about an Adam Thielen, especially with the target share that Mr. T.J. Hawkinson is garnering. I am super excited to find out.

if the New York Jets defense is as real as they have seemed because they've been awesome. I mean, they have been one of the best defenses in the league. If you look, if you adjust for schedule, they're three against quarterback, seven against running backs, number one against wide receivers. You look at the last six weeks, they're just as good. But you have to have some intellectual honesty and say they have. The schedule is pretty nice. They have faced a lot of... poor quarterbacks uh you know mac jones hasn't been great faced him twice uh they just faced chicago with a backup uh quarterback um you know they so if you look at the good quarterbacks they've played they gave up 24 points to lamar jackson 27 to joe burrow for uh 17 to uh 17 to josh ellen so yeah i mean it's it you are playing

You know, Kirk Cousins is not in the Josh Allen tier, that's for sure. No. You know, so I do think that the Jets defense is for real, but this is going to be that test for them. And they're going to be up for it because, I mean, these are two of the best records in the NFL. They're going at it for a lot of playoff implications on the line. So when it comes to fantasy assets and who you could start, Dalvin Cook doesn't need to be discussed because he's always going to be in, regardless of the matchup, same with Justin Jefferson. Honestly, same with T.J. Hawkinson.

Yeah, for sure. CJ Hawkinson is maybe the third best tight-in rest of season. Ed's the same with Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson without Zach Wilson is a must start, especially in half or full PPR. Michael Carter, you know, we don't expect him to be out there. They've made some roster adjustments with the practice squad that indicate they... Bam! Oh, that frightened me. That was a little scary. Yeah, it's not going to be the last time that happens. I'm talking about... Like an infomercial. Yeah. It was like Flavacol. Yeah. Oh, that's what it was. But Zonovan Bam Knight appears to be the first man up in the rotation. James Robinson was not active for this game. For last game. For last game because he's not a special teamer. But the coaching staff came out. They said really good things about Zonovan. They said he earned that he played great. He looked great and he earned a role. So I expect him to be the.

First option against the Vikings. Vikings are okay against the run. They are not good against the past. Their secondary sucks. So Garrett Wilson is in. I'm not going to chase Elijah Moore's two targets, but big play with a touchdown last week. But I wouldn't be surprised if he has a good game. Kyle, is this a quote? I just want to make sure you weren't making this quote up from James Robinson. No, that was his quote. And actually, he was informed last Wednesday. that he would be inactive. So it was earlier in the week, too. So that could be souring pretty quick. They also came out and said Bam Knight has earned these opportunities. But James Robinson said, they brought me here for a reason, dot, dot, dot. Me not playing pisses me off. Maybe squeaky wheel. Maybe. That worked real well for Elijah Moore. Problem is he has a squeaky wheel. Right, yeah. An actual squeaky wheel. Yeah, and there's no oil for it. No. It sucks. I mean, trust me, I'd love him to.

have success, but Zonovan Knight looks like a breath of fresh air in the backfield. Tyler Conklin, if you're desperate. Tyler Conklin, if you're desperate, yeah, he's okay. And then Mike White is going to be, some people are going to try to take the glory play on Mike White. I think if you're in a two-quarterback league, you're fine. I wouldn't get overhyped off of him beating the tarnation out of the Bears' backup safeties and... secondary options. I've moved away from, like Lamar is going in above Mike White. Yeah. And, you know, we've seen flashes from him. This Minnesota defense throws you some different looks. They're nine and two for a reason. So I think some turnovers might be in the cards from Mike White. Okay. I've never done a turnover guarantee, but I'm going with two. A two turnover guarantee? Yeah, for Mike White.

Just for Mike White, not for the Jets? Yeah, just for Mike White. I think Mike White turns the ball over twice. That's all I'm saying. All right. Washington. What a weird thing to say. Why do I need to throw that out there? Brooks is nodding. Like, why are you doing this? You do what you want. I mean, honestly, this isn't you. You just say what you. Right, because I am, I have the sight. You're just the medium. You're in between. Yeah, you brought that up, and I, if it goes wrong, it's not my fault. No, you just say what you see. Yeah.

It's not your fault that you've been shown this. Yeah, you're the vessel. Don't kill the messenger, you know. Yeah, I get these weird phone calls and they say they got these stone cold locks of the week. And I just tell you what they say. Now, Washington is 7 and 5. They take on the 7 and 4 New York Giants. Pretty important divisional matchup here. Over under is just 40 points. Drafking Sportsbook line is Washington minus 2.5. I'd be taking the under. I think this is going to be just a battle back and forth between these defenses. Washington's defense is stepping up in a big way. Nothing the Giants are bringing to the table frightens me. So I don't think that, well, I don't think the Giants get to this mark. I just think this game is going to be tough. 16 to 13. Yeah, it's in New York, too. So I think the Giants defense will be solid.

You know, Sequin, it's been rough. We were talking about this a little bit yesterday. He was kind of a DFS lock early in the year. The last few weeks have been weird. Like, I mean, when you play Detroit and you go 15 for 22 or you go 11 for 39 against Dallas last week, it's been worse on the ground for Mr. Barclay, who was 5.2 in the first six weeks, 3.6 since then. Passing game doesn't have a lot of weapons. I don't know how complicated this matchup is for fantasy. It's really not very complicated at all. The Washington defense has been super good over the last six weeks. That means I don't want to throw Darius Slayton out there as a shot. There's no tight end on the Giants side. I'm not throwing Daniel Jones in there this week. There's weeks to play with them. It's Saquan Barkley, and that's it on the Giants side. There's more questions on the Manders side of the ball, but...

Most of the questions I want to answer with no. Terry McLaren did last week's disappointing performance sour you on locking him into your lineup. I believe Mike said you need to cram him into your lineup last week. No, it certainly. Are you going, Jamar or McLaren? Oh, that's a really good one. Gosh. I'm going to go Jamar there. Yeah, the game, I mean, you're talking about a game that could finish. You know, like I said, 16 to 13 versus a game that can finish 35 to 28. Yeah. So I don't blame you trying to take the shot at an upside. But I do think you can start Terry McLaurin. His target market share has been unbelievable. He's going to be the one that is targeted 31% with Heinecke. So, yeah, he's in. Samuel's not. Dotson's not. While the matchup is okay for Logan Thomas and that's fine, it's really hard to say.

pick up this guy who's had like one or two good games on the course of the season, maybe a DFS dart throw. And then the running backs is really the big question because it's kind of been unpredictable. What might look like a Gibson week turns into Brian Robinson. I think Robinson is a solid flex play this week just because of the foot injury to Gibson, the 42% of snaps last week. I would be staying away from Gibson right now. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I. want to be able to answer the question with no. If you have other options at running back. Pickens at Flex? Or Brian Robinson in Flags? I would play Pickens. Okay. Tennessee 7 and 4. They take on the 10 and 1 Philadelphia Eagles. Draft King Sportsbook line Philly minus four and a half. The over under is 44 and a half. Games in Philadelphia. You have Derek Henry going against the weakness of the Eagles, which has been the running back position.

24th over the last six weeks, 23rd on the season. Derek Henry has the second most rushing touchdown since week five. You are going to play Derek Henry and you are going to get enough. Yeah, you're going to really enjoy it. The Eagles are 29th in EPA per rush attempt allowed. They have not, especially since Jordan Davis has gone down to injury. I believe he was on the IR. I'm not sure when he's eligible to come back. Can you look that up, Kyle? They just opened the window for him for 21 days. Okay, so it's possible he could be back this game, but we don't know yet. That makes a big difference, but it makes no difference in your decision because you're starting Derek Henry no matter what. I think he'll have a phenomenal game. Trailerks seems like a player, people want to get into the lineups. The matchup is not ideal.

but Traylen Berks does seem to be the focal point of the passing game. You know, we saw without him on the field that no one could really step up into that role. People wanted to sign Robert Woods. Then one week it's West Burk Aquine, then another week it's somebody else. Austin Hooper catching passes from Derek Henry. I think Traylen Berks is in the flex category. He's in the flex category. Yeah, I agree with how you worded that. People want to play him. When you've got a rookie that was awesome, like he was my number two. rookie wide receiver in the pre-draft process. I really believe in Traylon Brooks's talent, and he comes back from his injury, and basically the first three games get to see him involved in this offense since then, barely involved in the first week back and against Denver. But then last week, the wide receiver 14, two weeks ago, wide receiver 14, last week, wider receiver 16, feels like, oh, man, arrows pointing up. I want to get them in. If you just look at the box score and you don't realize,

that his touchdown last week came from recovering a Derek Henry fumble when he was going for like an 80-yard touchdown run and he just fumbled right before the end zone. Then Traylon Burks fell on it. That's where a lot of his fantasy points came from. A week before, a lot came from a final play bomb down the sideline against Green Bay, too. Yeah, I still want to see a little bit more. And this matchup isn't the one where I feel the need to smash him in. Burke Pickens. I would go. Berks. Okay. I do think that there's a good chance Philly gets a big enough lead where you've got a lot of the passing work taking place and in Berks could be okay. A.J. Brown, play him. Devante Smith, you need to monitor this groin index.com. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Ah, my groin. You want really badly to be able to play Devante Smith. And so if you can't, then A.J. Brown's going to take.

A lot more of that work. Revenge game. A.J. Brown against the Titans. Let's go. If he wasn't so expensive in DFS, I really wanted to get him in there. Should be a really good week for A.J. Brown. You've obviously got Dallas Goddard out and DeVanty Smith could be limited or could even miss the game. So A.J. Brown is in everybody's lineup. If DeVanty Smith plays, I am going to start him. I realize that. There's some danger with the groin. He was going to be my start of the week. The matchup is great. Growing dangers. That's dangerous. Yeah. He was going to be my start of the week. The Titans are basically given up about 30 fantasy points per game to wide receivers. And they're really good against the run, which the Eagles have been good at running the ball. I don't think they're going to have as much success here against the Titans. So I think they're going to have to throw the ball. I think they're going to be able to do it. Okay. All right.

We have any other decisions that you're looking at in this one, Miles Sanders. That's the tough matchup because Tennessee is so good against the run. You probably have to start him just because of how decent he's been this year. What would you call it? Like I wanted to say how good he's been. How about he's the running back 13 on the season? Active? Yeah. Involved? There you go. There you go. Active involved. But man, it does not project to be a great game for him. I'm fine. Like if there's. You know, Jamal Williams. I would rather start Jamal Williams over Miles Sanders. If that's like the option, the level of player that I could pivot to. Okay. All right. Jalen Hertz, I think he's going to run a lot if Devonze Smith is out of this game. And then also if he's in, he's going to run a lot. Oh, that sounds great. Denver, three and eight taken on the seven and four, Baltimore Ravens, drafting sportsbook line, Baltimore minus eight. The over-under is 38 and a half. This is...

I think a mess of a game. I mean, 38.5 is disgusting. The Denver defense is great. I don't know if they are eventually going to run out of steam emotionally. I do question, like, how can this team get up for playing and giving everything you have once your team is out of contention? The offense does nothing. I mean, we saw them give up 20 plus points of Carolina last week and scream at Russell Wilson on the sideline. So. That's your hope if you are playing Lamar or Mark Andrews is that this team is done. They're three and eight. And look, this offense is terrible. Playing Cortland Sutton is something you can do. Please don't watch the game. Just hope the stat line hits. Six catches, 54 yards, no touchdown. That's what you're dreaming of. Yeah, I mean, he's good for.

10 fantasy points right around there. You know, give or take a point and a half. That's what he's, you know, 8.5 to 11.5 fantasy points. That's his finish. Is there a point where you will feel very sad for Russell Wilson? Is there a point where you will grow compassion? Never. Never. Because of two reasons. One, I spent the entirety before this year of Russell Wilson's career being an Arizona Cardinals fan and he destroyed us and was an enemy. And then... He's gone off the rocker. He's just the weirdest of weirdos now. And so that makes him super unlikable. And he sucks. So I don't see how he redeems himself. I don't. Did you see the suit and slow-mo thing he tweeted, these tone-deaf tweets too? Oh, yeah. I mean, don't walk. Clueless, man. Don't give me slow-motion suit walking in the tunnel at 3 and 8. You're not that guy. You're not that guy, pal. Yeah.

Latavius Murray though? Latavis Murray should get enough work to be a decent flex option like a running back. Plus you love him. Oh, that's right. That was a long time ago. You want to marry him. I love Latavis Murray. Wow, that's got to be six years ago. We're out on the Dulcich right now. Yeah, I mean, look, this game is one that I would take the under on and it starts at 38 and a half points. You have two good defenses. Baltimore Ravens haven't been putting up a bunch of points. That's against any defense. The Denver Broncos can't put up a bunch of points unless Russell Wilson gets injured. So I don't see anything that I love in this matchup. Lamar's in. We talked about him. You can definitely bench him for a lot of other options, but he's in as far as a startable asset. Mark Andrews is locked in your lineup because he's one of the only two good tight ends in the world. And then you can...

You can play Sutton and Latavus Murray, but you don't have to. Yeah. That's it. I mean, that game's going to be gross. Ranking starts at tool on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Check it out. Starts time. Starts of the week. I've really messed Kyle up because I've pivoted two starts in the last eight hours on Kyle. But I'm pivoting into Detroit Lions in both of those situations. I will go with Jared Garf. Jared Garf. He is going to be my start of the week this week. I mentioned the home splits, 258 and 2.5 at home. Jaguars are a wonderful, wonderful matchup for the opposing quarterback. I think the home environment, the back and forth potential of this game.