Playoff Primer + Strength of Schedule League Winners - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/16

against Josh Allen in an important week. Look, the bills haven't won as many games recently as we thought they'd win. There will be more of an edge to the end of their season. They're not running away with this division in hiding with Miami competing. So I'm excited about that, that Miami game. Oh, boy. That one looks really exciting that first week at the playoffs. Another name that jumped out to me from this group of good matchups that will be getting weapons back and has been disappointing and is... easily acquireable right now is Justin Herbert quarterback for the San Diego or Los Angeles Chargers. Let's go back in time there. Yeah, he has been a super disappointment and it's not his fault. If you watch his games, he's looking good, but he does not have weapons to throw the ball to. Mike Williams will be back by the fantasy playoffs. Keenan Allen should be back. Should and might be back. If those two players.

Come back. We've been talking about the rest of season schedule for the Chargers in the passing game. It is very good. He gets Tennessee in the first week of the playoffs, the Colts in week two. He's certainly a player that should be much better at the end of the year than he's been throughout this year if he gets those weapons back and has good matchups. Yeah, yeah, it's good looking. I think the quarterback that I'm most interested in, because if you look at the best matchups, the best of the best, I don't know if I can like, I don't know if I can swallow the pill. The best. Oh, no. The Zach Wilson is the best schedule. Detroit, Jacksonville, Seattle, the last, those three weeks, that's the best of the best schedule wise. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing it at the quarterback position. Like, I'm happy.

that Detroit game to say, like, maybe he's in the stream of the week. But sure, yeah. I'm not, I'm not targeting. What are we top 12 quarterback and four of 19 career starts? I'm going to need more than that before I'm like, but I turn over with my championship run to Zach Wilson. I've been looking at a emergency option in case Josh Allen was to get hurt. Like I think it in a dynasty league. I'm saying, hey, I need another quarterback just in case. And Jimmy Garoppolo is sitting on my bench. And I realized Seattle, Washington, and Las Vegas, that final week of the year, the best matchup possible for quarterbacks. Yeah, he is certainly in the mix for the streaming candidate that has a schedule that says, hey, I can help you even in the playoffs. An injury happens to a really good team. He's the quarterback that you'll probably be picking up. But ironically, the other quarterback that I really wanted to bring up, and I think could have a strong...

he could bring some of his championship rings to your hand is Thomas Brady. Tom Brady has sucked because he hasn't been throwing touchdowns, but he's on pace for well over 5,000 yards. He hasn't actually looked bad. Chris Godwin, we've been talking about, he's coming back from a really bad knee injury. They're in their buy week this week. I believe the rest of the season, he's going to be a very good wide receiver. The touchdown finally came this last week. And Tom Brady, if the touchdowns come to Mike Evans and to Chris Godwin, the last two weeks, Arizona and Carolina are very good matchups for him in those fantasy playoffs. I think Tom Brady is another one of those really good, acquireable options for the fantasy playoffs.

Let's talk about the worst quarterback schedules and basically the question of do you care? Because like do you care enough to make a move, make a transaction, exchange any of these guys for the aforementioned names? The worst four schedules that we wanted to highlight was Tua has he's in Buffalo for the first week of the fantasy playoffs. Then he has Green Bay and then New England. So that's a pretty brutal stretch for Tua. And he has been, I mean, he's undefeated in all of his starts this year. They've been one of the best offenses in every metric. So you push that against these matchups. Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Justin Fields. Those four guys have pretty brutal matchups. Fields plays Philly and Buffalo. You know, Chiefs.

Patrick Mahomes ends against Denver, and that one really concerns me for championship week. Yeah, it's tough. They're a great defense, but when it's Patrick Mahomes, I'm taking the schedule out. I don't care. I agree. I will ride or die with Patrick Mahomes, and I think he could have a great game against a great defense. You know, the first week of that. the playoffs, he's got a bad matchup against Houston because quarterbacks don't score a lot of points. You don't need to throw the ball against Houston. You can run it very easily, but this is a team that doesn't run the ball. And this is a team that doesn't really care that much about Andy Reed historically has always just been like, oh yeah, we should have. Sorry, I only had seven rushing attempts. I just, when you got, I'm not worried. Whoops, a doozles. He's going to have a great week against Houston. And I'm, I know as weird as it is to say.

I'm not really worried about Justin Fields either. I was going to say the, I think you will know by then if you need to be worried about Justin Fields. The matchup here coming in week 12 on the road against the Jets, that'll be another big test to see if the play style of Justin Fields can be impervious to matchups. And then week 15, I mean, you're in the playoffs, I guess at that point, but coming off of the by week, or Philadelphia, like. If you make it through Philadelphia, I think that you're playing him against Buffalo without any hesitation. So the two concerns are possibly Tua and Joe Burrow. Those are the good quarterbacks in bad playoff schedules where you might want to poke around at, you know, would you trade high on Tua? Like would you go try to work out a Lamar Jackson deal?

Lamar Jackson has a good playoff run. I think he's just as good as Tua. Yeah, I would. I would rather have Lamar Jackson in the playoffs than Tua. If you have a buy week, that's where I'm not worried about Tua because you have, you can skip the Buffalo week, Green Bay. I'm not that concerned about him putting it together his weapons and what they've been able to do. That's a tough one. He doesn't have a history of being a dominant pro. He's got seven games this year. So that one's the most nerve-wracking of them all to me. Running backs, guys, let's talk about them beautiful playoff schedules. I don't know if you get more fabulous than what. You don't. Derek Henry has in the winter month, Los Angeles Chargers in Houston for the first two weeks. That is the 30th and 32nd ranked run defense. Now, Dallas, more of a challenge in the final week of the year.

But holy Henry. Yep. And my timeline, I don't know, I'm sure Jason, you had it too. My Twitter timeline on this morning was very full of snow in Vermont. It is snowing like crazy. So the Yeti is, I don't know that he can actually transform back. He cannot get out of his beast form. Yeah. Derek Henry stuck being a Yeti. Derek Henry should have a great game in prime time this week. His playoffs should be great. Just stay healthy. That's all that matters. Yeah. Derek Henry, stay healthy. And you will be very happy. He'll help you get you to the playoffs. He'll help you get to the championship. Alan Camara. Yes, sir. Very delicious playoff schedule. And I think he's a player you can target right now. Just based on the down performance, the losing Saints, the momentum.

regardless of what they do at quarterback, Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia. Sure. The Buccaneers and what we're figuring out with their running back room, Rashad White, Leonard Fournett, one of the best schedules in the game on by this week, but Cincinnati, Arizona, Carolina. What do you do with the Detroit Lions? They have the Jets their first playoff week, but then Carolina and Chicago. So it's a good string of three games. Jamal Williams is a touchdown. He is a factory. He's just producing touchdowns basically every single week. What are you guys doing with DeAndre Swift, not asking for anyone in particular, just a good friend of mine. Are you buying into either trying to trade for Jamal Williams or going after DeAndre Swift with the hopes that by that three week stretch,

DeAndre Swift is back and a in the timeshare where it's not, you know, him getting 10 snaps a game or whatever. How are you handling that backfill to exploit those matchups? I am not going after DeAndre Swift. We saw last year him unable to really come back from the injury to Supreme Relevance. We've seen it this year again. Now there's a lot of time left. Exactly. So I'm not out here saying there's no way that Swift could get. back to full health and be the dominant leader of this time sure. That can happen. He's clearly the better player when it comes to two players at full strength. He is explosive and outstanding. But I genuinely wondered would I rather have Jamal Williams than D'Andre Swift straight up. Like if I had to, you know, lock one in for the rest of the year? Yeah, I think I would rather have Jamal Williams. I tend to agree with Jason on this one.

If you weren't getting production from Jamal Williams, there's more incentive to try to force a less than 100% DeAndre Swift into the offense. I don't think they feel like they have to do that. And he's, I mean, that concerns me so much that they said he will not be 100% this year. And let's say that DeAndre Swift does come back to full strength. And he gets out there. Well, remember, week one, he was awesome. And Jamal Williams brought in in the goal line and still scored touchdown. So it's not like. I think Jamal Williams is a good trade four target. Him and Alvin Camara, those are the two running backs to me that I'm going and looking for because I think they are slightly undervalued. There's narratives that are against them. Their playoff schedules are great and the two players are great. Alvin Camara right now off the bad week while he was injured to start the year, had some bad games, but we've seen awesomeness from him. He had a good stretch this here. Yeah, in the right matchups, which is in the playoffs.

I think Alvin Camaro is a league winner. I want to mention the Chiefs backfield. They have Houston, Seattle, to start the playoffs. If Isaiah Pacheco is a thing, if it is a two-man band, he's interesting. The Bears, David Montgomery, a really nice stretch for him and likely him alone. And then when you guys were mentioning Zach Wilson earlier, my first thought when you're like, yeah, I don't have the courage for that was. But I might be interested in Michael Carter. Sure. Or even James Robinson because they have one of the best stretches. Detroit, Jacksonville, Seattle to end the year. Defense in the running game is what they want their identity to be. It also gives me more confidence in like a Garrett Wilson down the stretch just because of that schedule. It's interesting to me. Yeah, I agree. James Robinson is, I guess he was the RB 16, so the manager that has him.

currently is, you know, you're not coming off of two just really bad performances after the trade, but of running backs that could be acquired in trade right now. I think James Robinson is one of those guys and went from 22% of the snaps, six opportunities to 40% of the snaps, 15 opportunities. He's interesting. Let's talk about the bad running back matchups really quickly here. And you guys tell me if there is pivot. necessity coming your way. Josh Jacobs and Joe Mixon and James Connor. James Connor is brutal. It's Denver and Tampa Bay. Those games to me scream, if he doesn't score, you will be crying. Yeah, those are really difficult. And right now, I doubt you're going to get enough value from James Connor off of one good game.

Trade deadlines will be passed, you know, in a couple weeks here when he's doing well. So you're just going to have to kind of hold your breath, hope he gets you there, and that you've got more depth. Josh Jacobs and Joe Mixon, those players are concerning to me where I love Alvin Camara's schedule, obviously Derek Henry. If you've got someone like Joe Mixon, I think you can turn him into Alvin Camara, and I would do that. I think you could turn a 55 point week. into a six-point week Alvin Camara. Like if there was ever a time to swap those players, I agree. It is, it's tough, you know. You just rode him to victory. That's a tough emotional thing to do with how Camara's been playing. But, you know, the Raiders have been struggling. Yeah. And so Josh Jacobs is a tough one with New England. Number one run defense is your first playoff week. I think that just trying to turn Josh Jacobs into preferably somebody else if you can.

I think that's an option for me. James Connor, I'm not as worried about it. The Cardinals' offense could be full strength by then. And the James Connor thing is just pure volume and touchdowns. And if the Arizona Cardinals' offense is going, the chance of him scoring a touchdown remains pretty high. Well, I'll say this. I mean, Denver, I think we all respect that defense. Tampa is very good against the run. It might just be something where, like Jason said, you're not going to trade him away off of one week. You'd like to ride him to some good weeks as you head into the playoffs. And maybe you're just making accommodations for your roster, not expecting the biggest game from James Connor. And so you're loading it with some other players simply because of tough matchups. Sakewan, it's not pretty, but he's Sakewon. Yeah, he's Sakewon Barkley and Kenneth Walker both have bad playoff schedules. I don't care. James Connor does not have the standalone.

ability by himself to overcome a defense. He needs the Cardinals to be good. He needs to get on the one yard line. He needs to have volume in the passing game. Sequin and Kenneth Walker, they are athletes at a level where bad defense, ho-hum, they're shutting everything down. Up, there's a 60-yard touchdown run, so you're fine. I'm not worried about the matchups. Yeah, and I wanted to find a hole in that argument for Kenneth Walker because he went 10 for 17 last week. And there's this. Read the other part. They play San Francisco. He had 87% of the snaps and he caught enough passes to put him into double digits. So he's in auto start for sure. Wide receivers with the best schedules down the stretch, the Texans, the Saints, the Steelers, the Cowboys. Jason, you've been putting it into the context of who you are actively targeting. The Steelers have Carolina, Las Vegas, and Baltimore. Are you actively targeting Deonté Johnson and George Pickens?

I am not actively targeting them because they still rely on a rookie quarterback that I don't think is going to throw enough yards and touchdowns this season. I do think that they will be spot starts if you have them and could be good plays that week. But I don't believe that I should be giving up much to go acquire Steelers receivers right now. Mike, what about the Saints who have a week 14 by, but then they have Atlanta, Cleveland? in the playoffs, the rebirth of Chris Oliva at some point here? It comes back to James Winston. If James is in, which I think you have a chance that he's in by then. But at the worst case scenario, Jarvis Landry may be on your waiver wire. And if you are in a deeper league, you might want to pick him up as he's back.

Michael Thomas will not be back. And there's a chance that Jarvis is like a wide receiver three for that stretch. Texans with Brandon Cooks and Nico Collins. Same for Nico. Like Nico's just he's equivalent. He's equivalent value to me as Brandon Cooks, terms of a spot start and is on waiver wires. So they have Kansas City, Tennessee and Jacksonville. And he's a big bodied wide receiver with touchdown upside. He is more of their future than Brandon Cooks is. And then C.D. Lamb with the Cowboys looks like a delicious end of the year. Yeah, you're not going to be able to get C.D. Lamb, I don't think right now off of a great game, having DAC back. But if you have C.D. Lamb, this is great news for the playoffs. Brandon Cooks is someone that I would try to trade for only because it will cost you next to nothing. And we know he is a quality wide receiver at the end of the year. He might be feeling like he's playing for.

showing off for other teams trying to get a trade acquired in the offseason or, you know, he wants to play for a winner. The schedule is good. So I'm fine having him as just depth on my bench, who if he gets it together at the end of the year, he doesn't cost you anything. Yeah, I get it. I agree. I feel like I've been saying that. I'd rather go get Deontay Johnson. I feel like I've been reading that book on Brandon Cooks for eight weeks in a row. And I finally gave up. I finally made a trade. Packer's him and some other players to go get Rondale Moore because I just got tired of hoping that the Brandon Cooks evolved was emerging, but you're right, he has the ability. I just don't know if the heart is there or the game plan anymore. That's my concern. Yeah, and I, and, you know, earlier I said I wouldn't trade for the Steelers wide receivers and I would trade for Brandon Cooks. That's a value. That's because I think you can get Brandon Cooks for next to nothing, but maybe you can get Deontay Johnson.

cheaper than I'm thinking, because I would agree with you. I would rather have Deonté Johnson than Brandon Cook straight up. They're both very similar. If you're just trying to make this statistical argument, right now, Brandon Cooks is the wide receiver, 52, 36 for 391 on the season. Deante, wide receiver 42, 47 for 435. I mean, they're very, very close in what they've actually put onto the field if that's part of your trade argument. Let's talk about the worst wide receiver schedules. I mean, there are some situations that are concerning, but are there any that are going to motivate you to move these guys away? The dolphins have the tough schedule that Tua has. But Tyree Kill and Jay and Waddle are just auto starts, right? Yeah, the only one where you might consider preparing would be the Jaguars, where like Christian Kirk and company, they seem to be able to exploit good matchups. I mean, Zay Jones, the spot start king. I mean, he'll come through. He'll go.

If you'll have four for 40 or whatever. But Dallas and then the Jets and the Houston, Texas again, which is the weirdest thing for that to be a negative wide receiver matchup, but it's because you can run on them. Like Travis E.TN will have a good day. But. If Christian Kirk, if you are really relying on him, I may look for reinforcements. Yeah, Christian Kirk is the one that off a great week, if I'm looking playoff bound, I'd be trying to turn him into a Chris Olaave, who's coming off a bad game. I think you could easily do that. Yeah, so I would rather have Chris Olave.

preparing for the playoffs with good matchups than Christian Kirk against Dallas and the Jets first two weeks. Yeah, I think that makes sense to me too. I will say there are a couple of committee wide receiver rooms that you want to avoid for the playoffs. The chiefs and that ensemble have one of the worst playoff schedules for wide receivers. And again, Travis Kelsey is their number one target. And then the Rams have a terrible schedule. Green Bay, Denver to start, you're not going to have confidence in non-Cupert Cup options in Los Angeles with that offensive line. quarterback issues. I think you avoid the Chiefs and Rams. And then with the Vikings having a tough schedule, you might avoid Adam Thielen for the end of season. Jefferson is, of course, a auto start every single week. All right, we're moving on to the tied in position. Oh, Kelsey. Kelsey, he plays Houston, Seattle, and Denver. Hey, Brooksie, I wanted to know, did you see any trades in our Dynasty League recently?

That might have gone through? No, I didn't. Oh, okay. All right. Well, let me break the news to you. I saw it. I put Travis Kelsey on my roster. And I'm excited because his playoff schedule is Houston, Seattle, Denver. Kelsey is just going to win championships again. Yeah, he certainly will. The only thing that will stop Travis Kelsey from helping you win a championship is if he's injured for those games. Because if he plays in them, you're talking double digit targets, all three of those weeks and massive performances. You just brought it up. Dynasty leagues, Travis Kelsey managers, if they are out of contention, out of contention, they are looking to trade him.

For a lot. They want a haul, and it'll cost you. Andy, you gave up quite a haul of younger, you know, more future-oriented picks because your team's great. You're going to win, you're going for the championship right now. His credit card is maxed out. It's maxed out. But honestly, I think the odds of your team winning a championship are very high now with Travis. So this is one of those, if you're in a dynasty league and you are, your team is looking great. Your setup, go look at Travis Kelsey because this, it's just a trade that makes sense for both parties in a ton of leagues. Yeah, and send the birth certificate around. I mean, that's the persuasive piece for a team non-contention. He'll be 34 in October next year. So, you know, 33 going into the year, but 34 during the year, that's your compelling argument to pick him up now. Greg Dulcich, he has a good matchup. If he continues to.

see involvement in the offense. I'm not going to say he's a locked to be your starting tight in for the playoffs. But if he gets involved... He's locked into that Arizona matchup. You know, we didn't get to it earlier in the news. We didn't mention it, but Jerry Judy is potentially playing this week. Just mentioning... Come on. He is potentially playing. I'm saying that because I think you were looking at some of these guys, Sutton, Dolzich, as... going to take advantage of multiple missed weeks. If Judy doesn't play this week, he'll be back next week. And that offense is a bad. The number one schedule adjusted playoff schedule four to the tight end position is Tyler Conklin. And, you know, it matches up with Zach Wilson, who I don't trust. But he is brutal. I'm not saying go out and get Tyler Conklin.

right now to prepare for the playoffs. But I am saying that should injuries happen or things of that nature, he is the name on the waiver wire that you might want to pick up if you're, if you're playing great, you know, maybe you have Travis Kelsey. He goes down to injury later in the season. Conklin has a very good playoff run, is available in a lot of leagues and has had, you know, a handful of really good games this year. He is a mystery man of two weeks ago. 10 targets, six reception 79 yards and two touchdowns into the following week with basically the same exact snaps with one reception for seven yards. Well, and that's why the matchups matter, right? Tight ends, a lot of times teams have the personnel to guard what a tight end does and sometimes they don't. So the fact that he has such a good...

matchup for that position in those weeks. Maybe you can play those to your success. George Kettle, nice playoff matchup for him. He's a little nerve wracking right now. He feels he doesn't feel like the old reliable George Kittle. It feels like that did you. get the right game, George Kittle? He's volatile. I'm terrified, man. Yeah. So I, you were, you were right thinking about some, some significant move. I tried to trade, uh, pick swap in their favor to move from George Kittle to, uh, Dalton Schultz. You followed through, huh? Yeah, I did. And it was turned down. What with a swap in their favor? Yeah. So it, it's, uh, what are you doing, man? Yeah, I know. Not you. I know because how are you rejecting that trade? I don't know. I think we said Dalton Schultz,

was this a playoff contending team? I mean, not really. I mean, kind of, right? In our league, he's on the cusp, but a pick swap in their favor. Let's be clear, Jason made the offer because he wants Dalton Schultz over his kettle. Yes. Yes. For safety. All right, defenses with the best week 15, 16, and 17 schedules. Here we go. This is big stuff. The Giants defense plays Washington. The chiefs play Houston. The Vikings take on Indianapolis. Maybe my favorite, the Packers. Actually, these two. Packers against the Rams and the Cardinals against the Broncos. The Cardinals, I keep bringing this up because it doesn't seem like it. But there's one of the best defenses in football. They're number five in fantasy. They should have scored again this past weekend. Even without that, they were in the, you know, nine point total. The Cardinals against Denver is really juicy to me. Oh, absolutely. The Russell Wilson,

is terrible. That offense is in shambles. And this year for fantasy defenses, you are going to want to put them together on a week-by-week basis. This will be individual to your situation. If you have a by-week coming up, if you look like that, you're going to focus on week 16 and 17. But I don't think there is a defense that you can pick up and just completely ride through the playoffs. Unless, you know, if you've got the Eagles. That's a brutal one, though. They have Chicago. And then Dallas. And, you know, they're a great defense, but they also showed vulnerability against Washington this past week. Like, I would play the Chiefs against Houston and not have a risk. Like, that is a philosophical thing. I'm curious where you guys stand. Like, I.