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

I had like the Giants defense, right? And they played well last week against Houston. Now I had the choice this week to go and use them against Detroit, but there's a little bit of risk there with Detroit. Or I could like sign Washington to play against Houston. I really, I prefer the safety of not having that accidental blowout and going with the pretty good defense against a terrible offense. I don't know if you guys side on the... Great defense side. I'm with Andy. I want to exploit quarterbacks. I want bad offensive lines. I want quarterbacks that can get rushed and throw me interceptions and take sacks and fumbles. And not going to score 30 plus. Yeah, that's what I prefer. I worry less about the how many points I'm giving up and worry more about how many sacks and interceptions or pick sixes I could get. So for instance, the Chicago Bears.

are the matchup for the Eagles in week one. Now, the Bears on the road. Right. The Bears could score 30 and the Eagles could still be a good defense because of interceptions, sacks, fumble returns for, you know, the Bears' offense is going, but they make a lot of mistakes and then just get the ball back and score more. So I'm focused on whatever I think can be a big Bada Boom play. Because in the playoffs, you're playing great teams. They're going to put up a lot of points. And when you get that 12 to 15 fantasy points from a defense, it's hard to lose. Yeah, I think like I said, it's a philosophical decision. Are you willing to risk to get the reward or are you willing to play it safe? I mean, it's not like you can't get those benefits out of the Chief's defense against Houston and they can be opportunistic and score points too without the...

risk of scoring 30 plus, you know, Justin Field. So the first week of the playoffs, my favorites are the Packers and the Cardinals. I really like the matchup against the Rams for the Packers. The Packers have good defensive personnel. The Rams are falling apart. They lost two more offensive linemen this week. And their offensive line was already as bad as it gets. Week 16 matchups to pay attention to Broncos' defense takes on the Rams. That's awesome. The Browns take on the Saints if they can't figure things out. The Titans take on Houston. I have been targeting Houston every week because it is giving me a six to eight point baseline. The Bengals, they take on the Patriots. That one's a little scary up in Foxborough, but again, weather may play a part in your decision making for these three weeks. There's going to be some cold games. The 49ers defense is great. They take on Washington.

And then the Eagles, again, you have that tough decision. They take on Dallas in Dallas. So the Eagles are on the road against Chicago and Dallas to start the playoffs after being a great defense. Little risk-reward situation there. It is a divisional game. You flip it. The Cowboys have to take on the Eagles, and the Cowboys are a great defense. Yeah, those are really, that's going to be tough to confidently play those two great defenses who got you to the second round of the playoffs. The Broncos were available against that Rams defense in that week, or the Titans against Houston and I would pick those teams up and play them over the Eagles of Cowboys. This is the time of year, too, where, look, there's a lot of options for your bench. You could play backup running backs on there as gambles. You can ensure your own running back. Or you can pick up a defense for the next week, roster two defenses and not be playing the, you know, pay big money situation. You might not have Fabra waiver priority. That's the way you have to prepare.

In Week 17 championship weekend, the Eagles finally get their break. They're at home against New Orleans. It's delicious. The Chiefs take on Denver. Good golly, that's going to be enjoyable if you have the Chief's defense. And then the Giants, they take on the Colts. I'm a little bit, I'm avoiding this juicy Colts matchup thing because they've set a precedent with the Ellinger non-Johnson Taylor part of their season. I'm less. locking in a team like, you know, the Giants against Indianapolis with Jonathan Taylor Healthy and Matt Ryan back under center. Just sharing my kind of thoughts for this past week. Agreed completely. The Indianapolis offense is totally different. And speaking of totally different in that championship week, I think the team that's going to win people championships with a pick six calling it now is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

when they're facing Sam Darnold and the Carolina Panthers. Yes, I was offered a chance to stash the Tampa Bay defense, but I have about 3% confidence I can get to that championship game in one of our leagues. I wasn't willing to do it. Sure. When it comes to playing against the Colts, I'm going to let it shake out a little bit. I agree that I'm not rushing to lock that in. You're months away. But at the beginning of the season, when they had Matt Ryan and they had Jonathan Taylor, things were not working out for them and defenses were scoring a ton of points against them. So I think that the Giants don't write it off. Okay. All right. Well, the strength is scheduled tool. You can find it on the website, join the foot.com. We update it every week. And so you can keep up with the teams that are turning in different directions. This is not a.

exhaustive list. Like if teams suffer injuries, backup quarterbacks, you want to target them opportunities for turnovers. Like Jason said, big point opportunities. It's Thursday night preview time. Thursday night breakdown. The Tennessee Titans at 6 and 3 travel to Green Bay to Lambo to take on the 4 and 6 Packers. The Draft King Sportsbook line Packers minus 3. The overrunners 41 in this game. You know, you saw some encouraging signs from the Packers to eke out that win, save their chances this year. I mean, if they were sitting three and seven right now, Sianora. Yep. But four and six, Aaron Rogers behind center. You always give them a little bit of hope. Titans are a very good team that has struggled on the offensive side of the ball due to, you know, a lot of limitations. You know, it's been Malik Willis. It's been an injured Ryan Tannahill. It's been a lack of A.J. Brown.

This game, Packers are favored. It's a low over or under. What are you projecting fantasy-wise for these Titans and Packers? Well, as we brought up earlier, there is snow on the ground in Vermont, quite a bit of it. I do think in this cold weather game where you're talking 20, you're going to be in the 20s. You're not going to want to be tackling. the big Derek Henry coming at you. The Packers run defense is middle of the pack. I don't think they have the personnel to shut down Derek Henry. Few do. And I expect Derek Henry to have a big game here in primetime. Outside of Derek Henry, that's the end of the list for the Tennessee Titans that I'm willing to play. I want to stash Traylon Burks and hope that he can show something special, but I'm certainly not going to...

start him and then there's not even like a there's not even like another stash on this roster. Yeah, I guess I have a little bit more concerned that Henry might not have a huge game against Green Bay on Thursday night, but you're not going to, it's not going to affect any decisions that you're making. They're allowing the fifth most rushing yards in the NFL. It's more of just an observation that, you know, I'm curious about where like Jason, he's on your team. Oh, I felt every snap he's missed. The past two weeks, it's interesting of he popped up on the injury report just a couple weeks ago. And in weeks 9 and 10, he's had 17 attempts and 19 attempts. Like that was the, he had not been under 20 attempts a game since week two. You dream about 19 rushing attempts for other running backs. Right. For Derek Henry, it was, it was low. And if you look at the snap.

percentages for Derek Henry to speak to Andy's concerns about not a guarantee of a great game. They have gone down the last two weeks. What I believe is happening is with whatever this foot issue, you know, every team you go through your your packages, your practices, you put together what we're doing and these down in distances and they have not. been involving Derek Henry in the longer down and distance packages over the last two weeks, which is why when he doesn't pick up a good chunk of yards on first down, you see him come out of the game, playing fewer snaps, less involved in fewer routes run. And that could continue, but I do think that the matchup against the Packers with the rushing yardage they have given up, Derek Henry, I think you're going to see more of what you saw against Kansas City Chiefs.

Sure. It's just efficient? Yeah, he's just much more efficient. I agree. I mean, I think it's going to come down to those first and second down big plays. Like you said, it has been six quarters. I mean, you've got to remember his big plays were in the second quarter of the Chiefs game. I'm more concerned about does he have the quarterback that can take some pressure off of him so that they can't stack 10 in the box. Tana Hill is back. I mean, last week it was not good. Yeah, but he's more recovered. I think I saw a note that he was kind of.

He's back back. Aaron Jones, yep. Lazzard and Watson. I think you can play them. I agree. The matchup is good against Tennessee at home with some momentum. And then I think we're probably just staying away from the roulette of Robert Tunyon and any other wide receivers and probably staying away from AJ Dillon. I agree. This offense, the reason Dylan was an encouraging ad in the offseason was because you thought they'd be a top-tier offense around the goal line a lot. That hasn't happened. So it should be a very interesting game. Check out all the rankings and the starts hit tool at the fantasy footballers.com. One question coming in from the fans is if you did have Watson and Lazard, who are you starting? I would very, I would definitely be starting Christian Watson personally. I would definitely be starting Christian Watson as well. I think that he is.

I think he's a good start this week, and he is who they want to be the one for this team. But it's tough because Lazard's been good all year. Watson said one good game. Yeah. And I... Hasn't it been a little of a dry spell for Mr. For the Lazard King? What, like wide receiver 8, 10, 21? Well, Lazard has been like low-key, really, really good. For fantasy purposes. You skip 35 and 54. This past week was I was overlooking this past week because that was the first real bad games. If you skip his bad games, he's been amazing. No, I was going to get to it of this was the bad game. Christian Watson took everything away in that game against the Dallas Cowboys. But up through then. He should bounce back. Alan Lazard has been been fantastic. And it's, it is very tough with the breakout game of where to go.

I'm going back. If I have to choose between the two, I would go back to Lazard just because we have a season of him. But not with Christian Watson on the field. Yeah. Those games are without Watson. It's risky. So, no, I don't blame you for thinking he's going to be a reliable target in this game. He's always a chance of a touchdown too. So, no, look, it's tight. Watson had four receptions, right? Yeah. He had eight targets, though. Yeah, this was the first time that Watson had been on the field for any substantial amount of time. Week one, he was there 66% of the time. Lazard did not play in that game, but then after that, he just was banged up, going in games, leaving them with concussion problems, with other problems. So he finally played a full game. We saw greatness from Christian Watson. It's very exciting. So going between the two of them is very difficult.

All right, one more reminder, party room today. 3 p.m. Pacific on Spotify Live, 6 p.m. Eastern. Join us there on the Spotify Live app or the Spotify app. One more bit of news. Kyler is being reported could miss another week or so. So you may have Colt McCoy in that finely tuned cardinal offense this week against San Francisco. Look, I'm not downgrading anybody without Kyler Murray. The quarterback, you're not going to stream Colt McCoy. You're not going to, but Ron Dale Moore, best game of the year with Cole McCoy, DeAndre Hopkins, targeted, looked great. No, Zach Erds, those two players are going to get a lot of targets. Agreed. Kyler's not really affecting my view of them right now because Cole McCoy is a, he's a professional quarterback. Yeah, no, he's, Cole McCoy's a fantastic backup, but you're not playing him against the 49ers. No, no. Don't do that. Yeah. All right, anything else you guys want to add? I need a nap.

It was a busy day. Yeah, there's a lot on today's show. Yeah. All right. Well, we will be back with another episode tomorrow. Never not working. The matchups, the starts of the week. The Boom Boom Kicker Story continues. Thank you for joining us. Check out Jointhefoot.com for our fantasy football community. We'd love to see you there. And we'll see you this evening on Spotify, everybody. 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.