Fantasy Football 2017 - 500th Episode! Week 15 Matchups + Greatest Moments

They clinch. They're number one. They're the number one seed because they will have the tiebreaker with the Patriots and the Patriots don't have enough games to catch them. Yeah. Look, I think the Steelers are going to win this game. I do. I do. Does that qualify? Yeah. I mean, they're underdogs. All right. I'll take it. Put her on the board. Andy's almost upset of the wig. Hi.

I don't even know how Vegas could say that the Steelers should be underdogs here. So it's a little bizarre. It's, you know, they're just trying to get people. What are you at? You have the newest odds there, Jay? Are they still three points there? I just double checked. Yeah. Still three. Yep. Yeah, I'll take it. And it's interesting looking at how the defenses have performed for the Patriots and the Steelers. It's almost as if they have switched teams because the Patriots were horrible to start the year. And now in the past six weeks, they are shutting people down. Minus last week against Miami.

Fair, very fair point. But in the past six weeks, they are still, even with that Miami game, six against quarterbacks, fifth against morningbacks, third against tight ends. Meanwhile, the Steelers defense, things have just really opened up for fantasy players against that matchup. So having said that, Dionne Lewis and Rex Burk hit are in with full confidence for me. Cooks, I still think you have to play him. I mean, do you guys see a situation where you can bench Brandon Cooks?

No, not in this matchup. People are asking me. Not in this matchup right now. No. And Gronkowski's obviously in and going to make a big difference. This is one thing that was missing last week. We saw the impact on the offense. So is there any real debatable starts? Chris Hogan. We talked about his health. He'll be in there. I would prefer to not start him personally. It's fair. In BFS, he's a good play because he's cheap. But in general, in, you know, our playoff lineups, it's really hard to rely on him based on what we saw last week.

But there's a chance. I think you've already talked about Juju quite a bit. Obviously, Brown and Bell and Big Ben, they're in there. They're locked and loaded. Is there anybody else? I mean, would you consider Jesse James after the week he had last week? Would you play him over a guy like Ingram? No. Jesse James does this time. Outlier week. All right. Guys, let's talk about the Tennessee Titans, the 8 and 5 Tennessee Titans taking on the 3-10 49ers who have won two games in a row. Our two-point favorites.

at home against the eight and five. Can you confirm that one too, Brooks? What? I can't. Yeah. I was surprised to. Oh, man. I have, I have two point favorites on this sheet. Is that correct, Brooks? Hold on. I got to call Mr. Vegas real quick. No, that's not what I'm upset with. Yeah. It just validates everything I believe about the Titans. Yeah, I've taken some serious heat on Twitter.

And I'm sorry Titans fans. Yeah, I am too, but I'm happy you're eight and five. You have to know. If you're a Titans fan, you've watched. No, no, no, no. You put on the, uh, the old rose colored. Yeah, I've, I've, I've, uh, hung around fans. I've hung around you guys. When, when the Cardinals were weak, like five or whatever, you're, whoa, I think we still got a chance, guys. I think we still got a chance. Like, no, when you're a fan of a team, you believe in the team, you support the team. I get it. We're over here trying to just.

call, say our opinion of what we see and the Titans are not a playoff team and the fact that the 49ers can be favored. I don't care if the Titans are on the road. That speaks volumes. It is very, very rare. I would say it's never happened before that an 8 and 5 team going up against a 3 and 10 team is the underdog. It's ridiculous. It's incredible. You've got three wins for the 49ers all with Garoppolo.

They're a different team. And Goodwin is a great fantasy option. Two wins with Garapola. Oh, I thought Garoppolo got them their first win. No, I apologize. Bethard beat the Giants. The Giants, that's correct. But we talked about Carlos Hyde yesterday, RB12 on the year, a very solid play. Marquis, Goodwin, very solid play with Garapolo. They're at home and they're playing well. And their defense.

is deceptive. Third against running backs over the last six weeks, making the DeMarco Murray play. Scary. Even worse. He's so annoying, guys. I have him in two leagues. And he's 49th out of 50 in yards per carry for qualified runners in the last six weeks. And yet he's on the field for 47 to 60 snaps, which makes you say, well, you know, like last week.

He had like a 40-yard run called back against Arizona, just to put it in the back of my mind that, well, he can still do it. So I'm sitting here going McKinnon, Mixon, Murray, how do you choose which bad matchup you want the most? If I could give my opponent, I mean, you're playing him over Henry. I would do it. You're playing him over Henry, right? Yes. Okay. Because the coaching staff, what was the quote, Andy? That after seeing.

After seeing how he ran last week, he solidified his starting position. That's from Coach Malarkey. That DeMarco Murray solidified the starting position. You know, when you make comments like that and your last name is Malarkey, it is just fitting. You understand your heritage. Yes. So Marcus Marietta can't be trusted right now. Oh, no. Delaney Walker might be the only trustworthy player on that roster. Correct. I like Delaney Walker quite a bit and no one else. There's no wide receiver that you can.

Take that gamble on and will Richard Matthews have a good game? If it's one of them who is, it's Richard Matthews? Sure. Nope. Is it Eric Decker this week? No. I'm saying you have to. You have to. If you have to, I'll play Corey Davis. Okay. I would go Richard Matthews. But no, you don't play any of them. Worst pass-erating in the league since week 10 is Marcus Mariotta. What happened? Worst interceptions per game since week 10.

Now they're talking about knee injury, which once again, malarkey. So not good. It's not. So this is why you're not favored. It's because the metrics don't match. And Arizona just beat you. Arizona hasn't been a good team this year. So, and they beat them without AP. Did we talk about Marcus great one? We did. Did we talk about Carlos Hyde, though? Yes, we did. We did. I talked about Carlos Hyde. He mentioned them briefly. And finally Garoppolo. If you would like to muse on Carlos Hyde some more, though. Muse on Garoppolo. No, Muse on Garampolo. He's very handsome.

Okay. He is. That's true. And he's also very good. He has passed the eye test. He looks like a legitimate NFL quarterback. He reminds me of Kirk Cousins when I talk about like tier of quarterback where he's not.

He's not the most unbelievable quarterback, and I don't think he could put a team on his back and take him to a championship. But he's an above-average guy. He's been throwing for a ton of yards. The touchdowns haven't been there. And so if he can get the touchdowns up, you're going to have a legitimate fantasy option. I don't want him in the playoffs, but you've got to pay attention to this guy for going into next year. He might be one of those late-round additions that can be a...

a full season starter. Now, it's a ridiculous extrapolation, I know, granted, but I just wanted to highlight the point of the yardage versus the touchdowns for Jimmy Garoppolo. And his two starts, that's a 16-game pace of over 5,000 yards with eight touchdowns. Yeah, you have to understand right now. The touchdowns will come for Jimmy Jim. He's being limited by the weapons. I'm not sure they come this year for Jimmy G. Because think about what you have to say out loud. You have to say,

Marquis Goodwin catches a touchdown, Taylor catches a touchdown, or Kittle catches, or, you know, or Seleck. Or hide. Look, there's a reason he has eight touchdowns. There's a reason that the ceiling's kind of capped right now. The weapons are just not there. You just... Has one touchdown. I'm saying that the pace would have been eight for 5,000 yards, which makes no sense. Right. All right, the Cowboys, seven and six, take on the six and seven Raiders.

Life support for the Raiders right now. This game's in Oakland. This is a must win. Will that must win translate into fantasy production for Derek Carr, Marshall & Lynch, Michael Crabtree and Company? I believe so. I believe so. I can get that. It's hard to trust Derek Carr. I still think that he is an option this week. I mean, in the week that we're looking at playing Garoppolo and Blake Bortles.

If you are one of those that says, I cannot put my fantasy playoffs in the capable hands of Blake Bortles. And you want to go to their car, I'm not going to, I'm not going to fight you over it. I think that it's there. This is a big time game. The timing of this game and the implications of how many fantasy players are in this matchup, I think it's fantastic for fantasy football. So I'm very excited for the game. But I'm with you. I'm with Andy that. I think Michael Crabtree.

is an excellent start this week. Since the first two weeks of the season. Top 10, baby. That's fine. Since the first two weeks of the season, which were a long time ago. Derek Carr has only had one week inside the top 15 quarterbacks. Oh, my goodness. I retract my statement. He has been bad. And, you know, I'm not putting my fantasy playoffs in his hands. On the other side of the ball. He's been playing a lot of Call of Duty with Marcus Mariotta. Yeah.

That's what's been going on. They're getting good at it. They're getting great. They can do the like no look grenade over the building. I know the spawn points. They're really good. That's where the interceptions come from. Yeah. Those are both two guys. It seems like their offensive lines are playing much worse than the year before. Yeah. That's what we say. Derek Carr wasn't touched last year. He had time to think. He also had a healthy Amari Cooper who was better than he's been this year. And you're right.

That's been a key. So on the other side of the ball, I think Dak Prescott, who has not been throwing the ball deep, a lot of his numbers look inflated. But this is a perfect matchup for that again. I think the Dallas offense should be able to move the ball. Dak Prescott was going to be my start of the week this week before I shifted to Aaron Rogers. So I like him. And I also like Alfred Morris quite a bit in this. I think he's being overlooked. He's at 20 right now in our consensus rankings. I was going to look at that. Obviously, we adjust our rankings every day.

tweaks going into the week. Would you really play Mike Davis over Alf? I would not. Probably not. No. Actually, neither of you guys have. Jason, right now you do have Davis slightly over Morris. Mike, you don't. But that's the tier we're talking about. Rex Burkhead, Somaget P. Ryan. Yeah, he's an RB2 flex option this week for fantasy teams. Okay. That's a good summary. Des Bryant.

The one thing that you haven't seen with Des, now he got one last game, but DAC is not throwing the ball deep, 8% of passes. You compare that to Deshaun Kaiser, 21% of passes. Dak's the lowest. So he has been the dink and dunk deck. Ooh, I like it. Dinkin'ack, as they call him. But last week, big week, I do agree you can trust him in this matchup. Witten, I think he has an opportunity against this dead last tight-in defense. I agree with that. It's both, both the tight-ins have opportunity here.

Because over the past six weeks, the Raiders defense is 32nd against the tight end. Meanwhile, the Cowboys 31sts, not to be outdone. A little bit of breaking news. Leonard Fournett remains sidelined, has missed every practice, and now there is real jeopardy on the Sunday morning situation. Uh-oh. Get some other options prepared. Look for, I don't know. Maybe Mike Davis is still out there. What do you guys think about Chris Ivory?

It's okay. Or TJ Eldon. I would play Ivory still. But Ivory is most definitely available if you have not listened and picked up Chris Ivory earlier. This is the fantasy season. If you know you have a handcuff. Because not everyone has a handcuff that you feel pretty confident about will get the bulk of the carries. Chris Ivory is a handcuff and you should have already had him.

If you have Leonard Furnett. He's 12% owned. Ivory. So most people don't. After 500 shows, nobody's listening anymore. That's what that means. The Falcons, 8 and 5, take on the 4 and 9 Buccaneers, Monday night football. Jason was digging up some Julio Jones statistics. Oh, my goodness. You guys were looking at this and seeing how Julio performed.

These numbers are not real. The numbers seem like they're not real. In the last seven games... You got them with you? Yeah, basically, so Hulu got injured in 2013. So since 2014, he's been playing, you know, most of all the games. He has seven games against Tampa Bay in that time. 61 receptions, 965 yards, and seven touchdowns. How many games? In seven games.

That is insane. That's like a pace of basically over 2,000 yards in a 16 game season. So he likes the Buccaneers. He loves playing the Buccaneers. Big, big fan. Now, he is much better at home than he's on the road, and this is a road matchup. But even if you look at just on the road, he is averaging since 2014, eight receptions for 107 yards and 0.33 touchdowns per game against Tampa Bay.