Starts of the Week + Week 14 Breakdown, Jason Takes a Lap - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/5

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Amazon Prime. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It is football time. It is. It's the holiday. You got to get all, what is, Dickensy. Okay, okay. I got where you. Esk. Yes. You have to deliver the tis football time without laughing at your own joke in it, like in the middle of it. I'm just being joyous, man. No, it is. I mean, it's what, sugar plums and, you know, deck in the halls and getting all dickensy as you would say. All time. I do. I am enjoying the Christmas season now that it is officially the Christmas season. I am not.

And that is wildly upsetting. Is that because Santa left you Breece Holland to your tree? Yeah, I mean, I've been a naughty boy. I just don't, I don't know what it is. I can tell you what it is. Okay, please. It's 80 freaking degrees in Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah, that might be part of it. It just doesn't feel like it's here yet. And we're, we're a weekend, man. Yeah. It's very difficult to. dream of a white Christmas when you're out there in a tank top and flip-flops. I know people that move here. Most people that move from the snow are very happy to be here all the time. Everybody that I've known from the Midwest much, much prefers here than the snow and dealing with that stuff. But they all miss a white Christmas. They all miss the seasons changing. I don't know what a season is. I've heard about it. I've read about it.

I was just talking to my son about it. He's like, is this winter? I was like, yeah, it's winter. And he's like, I thought. Actually, it's not winter. I know. And that's what I was saying. I was like, well, see, here's a thing. Most of the country has four seasons. In Arizona, we don't. So maybe it's, what is it fall right now? There's no such thing as fall here. December 21st is the official start of winter. That's when it hits 79. 79 degrees on December 21st. All right, welcome in one and all. Happy to be back with you. Today, the two best friends filled in yesterday for me. And I don't know how it went because I didn't listen. You don't have to listen, but I got at least six DMs best show in the history of the footballers. Yeah. They were mostly from me. Yeah. But he did get, I give them a lot of DMs. Yeah. All right. Well, we did like just enduring show.

No, that's fine. This is going. Dude, you were hilarious. You should do so well. You have to do stand up. Starts of the week, the fantasy forecast today, the parley partay, NFL news to talk about, you know, we had the waivers, the big time week 14 waivers go through in all of our leagues yesterday. People fighting for Isaac Garindo. I mean, that's, uh, after what it would how many waiver shows we're like oh the waiver shows kind of like just sorry everybody this it's our fault it's uh yeah yeah it's going to be a very interesting end of the fantasy season heading into the NFL playoffs and we're or the fantasy playoffs and we're here to help you out so a reminder the weekly rankings the starts hit tool and the ultimate dashboard all can be found at the fantasy footballers.com

The communities join the foot.com. You can follow us on X at theFF ballers. You can follow Jason at Jason FFL. If you want Breast Hall tweets, you can follow Mike at FF Hitman. I'm at Andy Holloway. And you can follow us on Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers and watch the show on YouTube. I told Jason briefly yesterday, last year, I took the approach of a ballad. I needed a ballad. For my fantasy. Michael Bolton. I went my. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. The distance. I needed a kind of a rock ballad, you know. You did go to the distance. Like this year you need a rock ballad or go the distance is a rock ballad. No, no, no. Not a rock ballad. Just a, what do you call that? Like a power ballad. But a power ballad is a rock ballad. What would you call that Michael Bolton singing? Uh, maybe a pop ballad. Okay, whatever.

Whatever. I needed that. I needed Michael Bolton last year. Just saying it. And I told him this year, you got to send me some suggestions. Because right now, Josh Grobin is taking, like he's the leader for my back-to-back attempt. Wow. That's self-flagellation. Making yourself listen to Groves? Yeah. Over and over? Yeah. Look, you're grobbing yourself. A fantasy championship is all that I care about. Okay. So you're willing to punish yourself? Yes. Is it you raise me up? That's what you're going with? I think that's the one that makes sense. But if you want to suggest something on par with Michael Bolton, let me know. I would love for you to have to listen to you raise me up every day. That will bring me joy. And a back-to-back title will bring me joy. Mike, you do what you got to do. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance.

For Thursday night football this evening, the game you guys previewed yesterday, I assume. Romeo Dobbs is out. Yep, that one, got that one wrong. Whip? Oh, did you go? Yesterday you thought he'd play? Well, he was limited. You guys are so dumb. It did seem like he was trending to pass concussion protocol. That was the latest information we had. But nope. He's out. I don't think he's going to play. But Josh Jacobs is off the injury report. We'll play. No worries there. Trevor Lawrence on IR with the concussion and the shoulder injury. The AC joint will get surgery. The Bucks practice report. Mike Evans. He didn't practice. Bucky Irving didn't practice. We'll follow up on both of those. They were both.

Evans always got kind of veterans days. And then Bucky Irving literally was wrapped in mummy gau's going off the field. He says he felt better the day after. I think he'll be there. And Baker Mayfield is he's not going to miss the game. So he's a full practice. Ladd McConkey's limited. He's been playing through injury. They need him desperately. I imagine. Super important game. He was limited on Wednesday. I imagine he will play. I do too. Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, DeAndre Swift, Roshan Johnson all didn't practice for the Bears. But I think we'll see. What did the team do? Took a break. I think Keenan Moore, Swift, they'll play. I don't think Rochon will with the concussion. Kincade, Dalton, Kincaid, and Keon Coleman, both who we thought would come back last week. They did return to a limited practice on Wednesday, so they could be back out there. Kenneth Walker, limited, calf and ankle injury.

Classic Ken Bone. Give way to the Charbonne zone. Jake Ferguson practicing on Wednesday. This is a Monday night football game for Cowboys tied in Jake Ferguson. The schoon men had been active. Both guys are very, like whoever's the tight end is very necessary in this offense, although Brandon Cooks is back. And then Deontay Johnson, Mike, suspended for not going into the game when they wanted him to. So the Eagles game, the injury happens to Bateman. You have an opportunity to go play, and you don't go into the football game. Get out there, Deonte. I'm good. Thank you for the offer. I will pass. Next time. Next drive. So he's suspended now. I mean, you're not going to see him out there. No. Obviously, we knew something was up with all the Harbaugh quotes of like there's moving pieces and we've got to figure out what's going on with Deontay. And now that's what it was. It came out that.

They told him to go in and he didn't. He's like, oh, now you want me to play. Well, I'm not going to. Oh, I'll show you. Yeah. Yeah. Good work, Deontay. I mean, this was something that you have been just repeating that the vibes are so negative around Deontay Johnson, that there's something. Does he not know he's in a contract year? Like you can go make yourself a bag of money that you need this offseason. Yeah. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was if you could directly correlate it. to a loss of money, how much would that be? Yeah, a lot. That's exactly what I thought about. Because if I'm another franchise... Is that a $5 million decision? Is that a $10 million decision? If Deonté Johnson goes to Baltimore and balls out and looks great and is a good teammate, Baltimore makes a deep run of the playoffs, Deonté Johnson goes into the offseason and as his agent goes and gets him a nice fat contract. Right now, it's like...

If I'm a GM, I'm going, I don't want to deal with the head case of Deontay Johnson. Not unless there's something we're missing from the story, but I doubt it with an organization like Baltimore. It's wild. And Pittsburgh. So now you've got two well-run organizations that have said, no thanks. That's the thing about Pittsburgh, which I'm not the first one to bring it up, but it's like they have this superpower of really finding wide receivers in the draft. And. Somehow Mike Tomlin can handle these guys for like gets production of them for a few years. And then he's just like, I can't even more. I cannot with you anymore. And he's, he's been willing to tolerate Antonio Brown, Claypool, Pickens. The list is massive. These are all wide receivers that are. Maybe that's their secret to drafting wide receivers. They look for the crazy ones.

You know what I mean? Like you've got to have some diva in you. You do. And so in their scouting process, because we always give Pittsburgh a lot of credit. They just find these like second round really good quality wide receivers. And they're just, all they're doing is just looking up the dirt. And they're just trying to be like, what kind of troubles this player get into? Ah, that's my kind of guy. Like, hey, Deontay, who are the top five wide receivers? And he's like, Deontay. Deontay. Deontay. Yeah. Deontay. You're my guy. I mean, clearly he's been upset about not being involved earlier.

That's got to be connected. But that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Starts of the week. If Deonti can't find a home, we should sign him. The football for the show? I don't know. Maybe we bring them in here. What if he says no? Like, and we're paying him. Oh, and he doesn't go on here. And he's like, nah. Just walks out. Then we got a guy who just may not do it. Then we have multiple guys who are like, I got to go out to the bathroom. Like, we're going to have no one here. Oh, all three are there. All right. Hey, producers. Good for you. Who's got the poop trophy? Right now it's Papa Josh. Matt started wearing diapers, man. Hey, good. Good. This guy's a team player. We don't care. Putting his body on the line. We just want you here for one hour a day.

One hour a day without pooping. Can you go one hour? That seems doable. Is Josh answering me? Actually, please stop making me think about it. Okay. All right. Starts of the week this week. I guess my theme this week is guys that have let you down recently that you can forgive. Oh, redemption tour. And forget. So last week was the titanium underpants tour, which worked out okay. This week I'm going redemption from a tough week. I'm going to go with a player here at quarterback. I'm going to start it off that will just make Jason further second guess his own decisions in League of Record. But I'm going Baker Mayfield against the Las Vegas Raiders. It was a tough week for Baker last week. He has slowed down over the last month. I have correlated that to Bucky Irving's success. And Baker's been banged up. But he's only got one top 12 performance since week nine.

despite being still the quarterback four on points per game, 35 passing touchdown pace. This week is going to be very good for Baker, in my opinion. Who? Yeah, laser. Laser. The Raiders defense is bottom 10 in schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed, completions allowed per game, expected points added per pass attempt. This is a really good matchup for Baker Mayfield. He has Mike Evans back, who has been delivering. The Raiders are just kind of a wild card in production. Brock Bowers is unguardable, and Tampa struggles against the tight end. And Jacoby Myers has been getting targeted like crazy. Aidan O'Connell and this offense, they got close last week. So I think Baker is going to have to throw it, and I'm going to go Baker this week. All right. I am going to play with some fire, and I'm doing this in our league of record. I'm...

I'm going to stay in the flames. I'm going to try to eat a W. I am having James Winston as my start of the week this week. Playoffs have started for about 20% of everyone out there right now. Because you got the guys that are locked into the playoffs. You got the guys that are locked out of the playoffs. And this is the last week for most leagues where the other people are fighting for it. And oftentimes you're in a win and get in. You're an underdog. That's the situation I'm in. James Winston is volatile. He's holding a stick of dynamite and you might need dynamite to overcome your matchup. That's the situation I'm in. Jamis games produce for fantasies. 70 offensive plays per game in Jamis games. That's number one in the NFL. That's absurd. That is an insane number. 336 passing yards per game. That is number one in the NFL. He is averaging over 21 fantasy points per game.

44 pass attempts per game and 1.4 interceptions per game. I am actually praying for these pick sixes to keep coming. So you're doing a counter prayer? Canceling out James's prayer. Keep these picks sixes coming so that we can have you back on the field keeping up. And the thing is, is like this isn't an easy matchup against Pittsburgh. And now we saw James beat Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't a barn burner. I like that this is on the road. I like that this game is in Pittsburgh because I don't think the defense is going to be quite as good there. And that's what I want. I mean, we saw last week the craziest shootout between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers where there was like 100 points scored. And so if you're shooting for the moon, there's a guy available on waivers that can go out there and actually score 35 fantasy points. He can also absolutely destroy your week.

But I need upside this week, so I am going with James Winston as my start of the week. Holy crap. What's that? I just saw mics. Oh, it's, look, I'm doubling up, baby. Lenderpants. He was the stream of the week, and this week is wild with the bye weeks, and it's Will Levis. Holy crap. I just heard mics, because I really do believe that Will Levis is a guy that you can turn to this week. You only went steal? Yeah. Because that's where my level of conviction is with Will Levis against Jacksonville, who are allowing eight yards per pass attempt for context. Not only is that the highest in the NFL, but that will be tied for the third highest of any team since 2004. The Jacksonville defense stinks. And Will Levis has been chucking the ball. We got Westbrook-Kine. I mean, that's one touchdown, right? Guarantee. At least.

Yeah, so minimum, minimum. Probably only. Minimum one touchdown here for Will Levis. And the Titans team is in a really good situation. Jacksonville is just. I feel. There's stat after stat you could say. They're terrible. I feel a little scared because I was you a week ago with a better player. Yeah, you had C.J. Stroud. I had C.J. Stroud against Jacksonville. And that did not work out. So I feel a little gun shy there. I also know that Mac Jones is the starter. So I'm a little. It leads me into my running back start of the week because my interpretation of the game is Tony Pollard against Jacksonville. It's not Will Lois. It's that Mac Jones can't move the ball enough and we can stop Will Levis from throwing whenever we, as soon as we get a little lead here, I think they'll lean on Pollard. I don't like saying that because I'm going to be facing him this week. But there are a 3.5 home favorite. He's averaging 20 opportunities a game.

And look, you talked about Jacksonville's defense. So I lean the Pollard side, but I think anytime you can get a favorite like this against the bad defense, it makes some sense that, look, Levis could be the beneficiary. I think it'll be Pollard, and I think it makes sense that they're going to win the ball game. Yeah, I agree with that. I think Pollard's a great play. Isaac Garindo, the waiver wire sensation, the fab dump extraordinaire. is my start of the week going up against Chicago. If you dumped all your fab, hopefully he's not just chilling on your bench. Put him in. Start him. He's going to be fine. He's not just a random third and actually fourth string backup from nowhere, which he was the fourth string, you know, to start the year. This is a guy who we talked about it. He has a 100th percentile speed score.

His weight and speed are outstanding, and you've seen it in the limited action he's got this year. He's averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Kyle Shanahan's system has a long and storied history of backups at the end of the year coming in and winning people championships. It's happened so many times. We talked about it a lot on Monday, I think, Tuesday. And if you look at this specific matchup, the Bears defense, they're good, but they're much better in the passing game than the running game. The running game is, the running defense is not that good. They're 27th in EPA per rush attempt, 25th in rushing yards per game, 31st in adjusted yards before contact. That one is the most exciting one for a guy like Garindo. If you're able to open up lanes for a guy with the 100th percentile speed score, pshu! See ya! So that's my official take on Isaac Garando this one. And sound effect. Okay, thank you so much. That wasn't me. That was Garindo. Okay.

That's how fast? Yeah. Broke the sound barrier. It had to travel here. Sound more cartoony to be honest. The sound barrier is very loud. That was a bad color. It was so far away. He's not here. Yeah, okay. This was just like the after shock. Oh, yeah. It's a sonic boom that is in California or wherever. Yes, exactly. I'll dig this thing to China, man. Give me a shovel. Sound like the roadrunner. I'm going with Tyrone Tracy against the Saints. This is, I'm not calling him to be a. a top 12 guy or anything like that this week. But he has been producing. It's been weird because the dude loves to fumble. However, he went right back to being the primary guy for the New York Giants. Two weeks ago against Tampa, 41% of the snaps, he seemed like he was being punished, right back to 73% of the snaps. He was their full-time guy. I don't think he was the starter.

But he was the main guy for them. And then the Saints matchup, they're tied for dead last and yards per carry allowed. And they're 30th in Schedule Adjusted Points to the running back position. I think that Tracy should score this week. I'll make it quick here. It is a redemption opportunity for Darnell Mooney who has been bad the last two weeks because. Yeah, you've got to talk to Kirk. Because Kirk Cousness has been horrendous. And the matchup is great. Minnesota is dead last and scheduled adjusted fancy points given up to whiteouts. They play too high safety. This is an area where Mooney has better numbers than London against too high safety. And they're going to need to score points in this game. I think it'll get better for Atlanta's receivers in this game. And I think Mooney needs the confidence boost here on the air when you're freaked out to play them on a week full of byweeks where Westbrook Aquinae and NBS. And these players are getting chucked into lineups. No, just go back to the guy that showed you we could deliver early in the year. I'm going to go with Mooney.

I understand what you're saying. I am one of those people. I'm scared. I went back and watched every Kirk Cousin snap. You can't be not scared. If you watch that, you have to be scared. What was the type of passes that Mooney was succeeding at earlier in the year where you, you know, you've got that zone that's he's sitting in 15, 20 yards down the field and Kirk fires it in there. Man, he was floats it in there. He was floating those things in there for the defenders. So hopefully he gets his arm strength back this week. My wide receiver start of the week was a change up. I had Jaden Reed in here. And yesterday on the footcast that Mike and I were recording, we realized every question was, can I play Joanne Jennings? Can I, Joanne Jennings or this guy? It's like, hold up. You're going to answer that question? Joanne Jennings should be in your lineup. Joanne Jennings is a great start. He has my start of the week. You know, it's not common that I'm going to take a running back and a wide receiver from the same team, but it was.

It was one of those situations where I don't think people remember what happened. Okay, so just to get you up on the Joanne Jennings story, he was great earlier in the year, got injured. Then after thereby, he came back and Brandon Ayuk was gone, and he was 11 targets, 7 for 93. He was awesome. The next game, 11 targets caught 10 of them for 91 and a touchdown was awesome. Brock got injured. So the next game, they bring in the backup. Okay, in that game, he stinks. He's got six and a half fantasy points. Well, sure, he was playing with a backup quarterback. The next week, which was last week, was the crazy snowball game where the Niners couldn't do anything and Brock was not good in the snow against Buffalo. I'm throwing those two out. This week against Chicago, it's not a prime matchup, but Joanne Jennings is absolutely someone that he's not like a...

You know, to bring up the guys you were talking about, like the Nick Westbroker-Kine, the MVS is, the guys off the waiver wire, those were all the questions we were getting him or Joanne Jennings. I'm playing MVS in my league of record. Yeah, but you'd much rather play. I would just, I would love to have Joanne Jennings. That would not be, that's where I'm confident that Joanne Jennings has targets and volume and opportunities. And that's enough on a week with this many by weeks. I'm going with Calvin Ridley to stack with my, I'll give him, you know, one, one sleeve of the underpants here. It's like a two-legged race. Yeah. But they're in iron. Three, three-legged race. Whoa. What's, oh, that is. That's what the race is actually called. Okay, thank you. I got eyes from both of you guys. Like, what are you doing? Like, that's the name of the race, guys. I don't always know what type of joke you're trying to make. And I think we got.

Yeah, we got turned around. We took the joke under the table. Yeah. Guys, I was in the backyard Olympics at the family picnic. Where are you? It is a three-legged race. Where are you? A two-legged race is just a race. Right? That's just your standard race. We don't even specify the legs. Wouldn't that be awesome in the Olympics if they just call it? And now at the two-legged race. The two-legged race, yes. All right. So it's Calvin Ridley. I know Westbrook-Kine is like, He's making the news because it keeps scoring on two receptions every single week. But since Hopkins has left, Calvin Ridley has a 29% target share. That is elite. And the matchup, I like the matchup. I like Tony Pollard too. Yeah. You just like the Tennessee offense to have a game. But I'll take the passing attack here. I'm going with Fergalicious at tight end. Jake Ferguson. If for some reason he was out, it would be the schoon man. Whoever it is.

Play him against Cincinnati. And guess what? I'm doubling up here because last week, I think I got the most side eye looks about Pat Fryer move. Oh, yeah. No, that was. And the move got loose. Wait. What? He's never, how dare you? I'm so close to getting a new tooth guys. I'm so close. Days away. The reason I wasn't here yesterday is because I'm so close and needed to get some more tooth work done. But soon I'll say everything right. The Muth got it done last week against Sensi. Sinci cannot defend tight ends. It's just not something they do. They actually just lost another defensive player, which seems like an impossibility that their defense could get worse. But they're 31st against tight ends. Dallas Titans are seeing 23% of targets with Cooper Rush, Fergalicious and or Schoon, man. We'll get it done. That game is going to be great for fantasy. Okay. I'm going to.

throw a guy out there that I think people are really upset with. If you've had him, if you've been starting him, you feel like you cannot, you can no longer start. It's been rotten. Kate Auden. It's been Cade rotten. And don't go away from him this week. Kay, I won't. I don't have a choice. Yeah, I mean, you might not have a choice. But Kate Otten's matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders is so desirable. And if you look at Kate Auden, Watched the film last week. A lot of it was on him. It was his fault. Like he had some drops. He should have had a touchdown. But he still had seven targets. He's very involved in this offense. He had eight targets a couple weeks before on kind of a little bit more of a dud game. Baker is fully healthy right now. He's, you know, he's practicing in full. He had been struggling with ankle and toe and all sorts of different injuries. But despite the fact that he has not been good for three games in a row.

The targets are there. That's what you want. He's third in all tight ends in the league in Routes Run. Number one in total offensive snaps. This is a player on the field. And so now if you look at the matchup against the Raiders, over the last six weeks, the Raiders are dead last in schedule adjusted fantasy points against. And I want to tell you just how extreme it is. Usually when a team is like they're 32nd, it's because they're four or five points over the average of what their opponent usually scores. That's how much more they're giving up. Right now over the last six weeks, the Raiders are giving up 11.1 fantasy points more than the player's usual average. That's an insane number. So keep rolling Kate Otten. He should be fine this week. Redemption. And if you need a nasty boy off of the waiver wire, Will Disley, Big Montana, the Dizzler, all of those things. It was a goose last week.