Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 15 Matchups, News, Playoff Mailbag

you know, maybe he gives you a Jason Whitten-like performance. So are you, are we talking to the point of you would grab one of these lower streamer guys, like a tie, a Rudolph, a Richard Rogers? No, no. Okay, you're still, no, okay. Hold your horses. No, I'm trying to find the, I'm trying to find the level. But I'm bump him down. I'm going to bump Barnage down a little bit. Like I would, I would feel fine playing Julius Thomas over Gary Barnage. Okay. Maybe Ben Watson.

That would be – but I know Barnage is delivered for most teams, and you don't have that option. So the other thing I just want to say, you're starting Doug Baldwin. Are you starting Tyler Lockett? I would flex Lockett. I don't have extreme confidence in him, but because Seattle has been scorching, you've got to stay in the flames with that offense, and it's just grabbing a piece. And Lockett has been – his production is –

is increasing. What you want to see from a rookie wide receiver is if they're going to start slow, you want to see that ascension at some point. And that has started to happen. So that's, I guess, the confidence you can gain if you want to play Lockett, but he's not a guy I'm going to slot into a wide receiver 2 role. All right, so we can't move on from this game.

until we talk about the running backs for Seattle. We'll get to the rest of the game, so we have to do that real quick. Fred Jackson, Bryce Brown, Christine Michael, Christine Michael's back. And he actually has an opportunity. There is a chance for Michael here. I don't have confidence really in starting any of these guys because it is a messy situation where I don't know, man. I think you're getting all or nothing.

if you start one of these guys. And if I had to make a decision of I have to play one of those guys, I would lean brown. I lean brown at this point. It's very interesting because when they, the coaching staff, Pete Carroll, offensive coordinator, when they were talking about Christine Michael, they asked him, you know, like, does he know that it's his last chance probably? And they're like, we're banking on it.

You know, they know that he had consistency issues. And Carol came out and said, this was Rawls. That's why Michael wasn't there. This was Rawls outperforming Michael from a consistency standpoint. So I still think the potential, like the game flow has to go the right way. But maybe Michael has some bursts left. Maybe he has something left for one game. Well, he should have a lot of tread left on his tires, so to speak. He's gotten very limited action.

It just could happen. It reminds me when he got very limited carries at different times, preseason, other games for them. When he could come in, Lynch was out, and he could bust off a 45-yard touchdown run in one play. I'm not saying stardom. I'm just curious to see what they have because it's kind of a, you know, I wonder Fred Jackson saying, hey, you know, I've kind of been a starting running back. Why am I not? Yeah, which is fair. But they need Fred for that particular role. So why?

Why destroy him when they believe? They have to believe they're making the playoffs because I believe they're making the playoffs. So you would buy in to Brown, though. That's the headline. Buy in? It's very strong. Would you start Brown over a Crowell in the same game? Ooh. I mean, how do you not? Yeah, I would. Just because the matchup, the Crowell is. Would you start Bryce Brown or Buck Allen this week against Kansas City? I'd go Buck Allen. Darren McFadden?

Probably, I still lean Darren McFadden. Matt Jones? Ooh. Who's Washington playing? I don't recall. Washington is taking on the... Why am I losing this here? Bills. The Bills? Yeah. Yeah, I'll still go with Jones. Maybe I'll swing for the fences on that one. Just go Brown. Right, for upside. All right, let's move on. We're going to talk about the Bengals and the 49ers right now.

Bengals head to the Bay Area, take on the 49ers. People want to know what's up with the big salad. Can you count on anything this week? I still have confidence. I still have confidence in the produce that it will regain its form of crispiness. I doubt it. I doubt it. I feel like the defense for the Bengals has to step up in light of Dalton's absence, and I'm not excited about Jerome.

We were never excited about drone except for last week. Right, because you're never excited to eat your vegetable. That's why he's the big salad. But we saw a level of success when Arizona went into the Bay Area. I mean, we saw, we saw drone getting all the snaps, all the touches, and he gives you, he's that 50-50 guy. If he can give you 50-50, you're very, very happy with that production level, and I think he could get there.

It's the Bengals don't scare me to the point of he can't get 50-50. You have to start one running back for the Bengals. And his name is Jeremy Hill. He's Jeremy Hill for me too. Go with Hill. It's Jeremy Hill for me too. Would you flex him? Hill? Yeah. Absolutely. Would you put him in as a two? Yes. Okay. So that's a decent level of confidence. Well, if there's a decent level of confidence, there's also been a clearing out.

and destruction of running backs of value. I do want to remind people. That plays into it. I want to remind people that Vance McDonald's should be back this week for San Francisco. Deep leagues, if you needed a deep league streamer at Tide-in, he was very productive before the concussion. Yes. And, you know, he was hyped up a little bit, and then he got concussed and you just haven't seen him. He should be back out there. Starting AJ Green, would you start Marvin Jones with AJ McCarran? Yeah, maybe at a flex. But that's, you're hoping for a touchdown.

All right, the Broncos head to Pittsburgh taking on the Steelers. This is the Osweiler-Rothusberger battle. I take it you're not playing anybody else from San Francisco? No. I mean, Bolden's had a couple good games. I'm not. No, I'm not. I mean, I don't know. You may expound on my deep distrust for the San Francisco offense? Okay. Just asking. Yeah, I mean, there's just too many other options at wide receiver. I'd play, I'll tell you who I'd play over Bolden. I'd play Tyler Lockett over Bolden.

Oh, yeah. I might play Jermaine Curse over Bolden. I probably would, actually. Oh, come on. You want that bet? No. You don't want Curse versus Bolden? No, I do not. All right. I just feel bad. That we're even talking about it because you wouldn't let me move on to this other game. All right. Everybody needs to know is the Denver defense so good that this is going to make Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant and DeAngelo Williams and Ben Rothesberger.

And Heath Miller, irrelevant. No. Okay. No. So disclose their grand relevance. Well, it certainly caps the ceiling. They've got this out of, the wise guys have this at a 44.5 over under. So they're expecting a lower amount of points. The Steelers are decently favorite. So if you take the implied point total.

for the Steelers, then you're okay. Rothesberger, we have this, wait, who did the Broncos play last week? Oh, Carr. It was, and you sit car. You absolutely sit car and you sit all the skill players for Oakland. I'm not going to sit them for Pittsburgh. I'm going to play Ben, assuming, you've got to find that line, that threshold, so to speak. You said yours was around Stafford, right?

I would not play Stafford over Big Ben. That's what I meant. For me, the line where I kind of get wavy is a Ryan Fitzpatrick who's been great the last three weeks. Do I play Ryan Fitzpatrick over Big Ben? And I lean, yes, but that's really, really fuzzy right there for me right now. Okay. So.

Antonio Brown, I've told everybody keep him out there. But what do I start? Here's the problem that a lot of people have. They're worried about stacking Steelers. They're worried about, okay, I've got Brown and Bryant, or I've got DeWill and Antonio Brown. So are you, as an owner, do you hedge your bets to where, okay, if Denver came out and gave a dominating defensive performance, would you want two Steelers out there or not? Like, because how many people are sitting, would you sit? Let's say you had DeAngelo Williams and Antonio Brown.

and you have the option of putting Dernard Robinson out there instead of D'Angelo Williams or Alan Hurons out there instead of Antonio Brown Brown is the Dernard Robinson by the way Yelden is officially doubtful we'll just presume him out okay this conversation the Robinson that's a tough one if I'm trying if I if I'm going with Brown and D'Angelo Williams and Dernard Robinson is an option where you can kind of

not over-commit to that offense? Well, that's the question. Can you protect yourself? I would still go with both of the Steelers, though. Okay. Well, people want to know that. That's the question that they have. I mean, it's a tough thing. That's tough. You also have people who have a lot of Steelers. They're owned by a lot of people, and the Denver defense. And my advice to people with the Denver defense and Steelers is to find another defense. This game's in Pittsburgh. If you think your offense has a chance,

And you've got Houston sitting out there on the waiver wire or somebody else that's viable, I would start a different defense. I would not put myself in the position where I'm going to, you know, cut off my nose to spite my face, if that makes sense. What about the Patriots? Would you play the Patriots over? Yes. Okay. Yes. I'd play the Patriots defense over Denver if I was in that boat. I would not stack Brown and Bryant's. Okay. Yeah. Two wide receivers facing a defense has given up two.

Wide receiver touchdowns for the season. Hopefully you have another option. That's where I would draw the way. All right. My start of the week is in this game, and that is Heath Miller. I love Heath Miller in this game. The short passing rounds caught 10 of 10 targets last week. Seems to be back. Make sure he's healthy. Make sure he's starting. But I like Heath Miller. On the other side of the ball, Demarius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, any problems with him? No. Vernon Davis. What are your thoughts on Vernon Davis? My thoughts on Vernon Davis.

I do recall them from Sunday. Okay. Stop running backwards. Is that part of it? Mr. Davis, just go forward. There was, there's a fish character in a movie that my youngest son makes me watch every single day. And the motto of that fish is to just keep swimming forward. The forward is implied. Sure. But not for Vernon. Please stop.

Trying to wheel around and get an extra five years. Three or four catches where he caught the ball in the middle of the field and then wheeled backwards around. It was just silliness. All right. Let's talk about the dolphins and the chargers. We have to move on. We got three more matchups. We got the mailbag. All right. Can you start Phillip Rivers? I want to know. Oh, man. You can? You can?

I think you answered no. I think that was answering the word no. Donchelle Enman will be back. I don't expect Stevie Johnson. We don't have great options. We've had three or four games where Rivers has scored zero touchdowns. Find somebody else. Yeah. Find somebody else. He could have a great game, but. It's so disappointing. Well, because the schedule is lining up for him. Yeah. But he lost the weapons. The team is obviously competing for the number one pick at this point.

So Rivers is out. Gordon and Woodhead is done. Woodhead retired four weeks ago. Ridiculous. Forced retirement from the offense because they want to give Gordon the ball. Which I understand it. I think it's fair that your number one pick, you spent a high pick on Melvin Gordon that you want to get him going. I actually think that Gordon is an okay lower running back this week because the... Bryce Brown or Melvin Gordon. Gordon. Okay. For sure. So Gordon and Gates are the two guys you could start here.

Yep. Okay. Other side of the ball, Lamar Miller. We made a bet. Was it on the Join the Foot Mailbag show? We made a Lamar Miller bet? Jason and I did with carries. You and Jason made a Lamar Miller over under 15 carries waterbed. Yeah, and I feel okay about that still. I think they're very foolish if they don't give him more than that. The dolphins are 4-0 this year when Lamar Miller's had more than 15 touches.

The problem is that they've decided that they don't want to give him that. The problem is they've decided. They don't like to win. I don't know if that's 4-0 this year or over the last two years. But when they give him the ball, he seems to produce. We see it on the field, but they've decided he can't handle a big workload or they've decided that they want to be, you know, I don't blame them where they're at trying to figure out what they have in Ajai because.

He's cost control for three years. Lamar Miller is somebody who's a free agent, and I don't think he's coming back. But even Ajai didn't get work last week. Well, yeah, he was on the field for a couple drives and Damien Williams was out there. I mean, there were work and snaps, I guess, is a different thing. Yeah, okay. But they were sharing snaps. When I say work, I mean, actually physically touching the ball. Sure. There's other things involved, I guess. So we said if Landry's healthy, you start him. Let's say, let's pretend Landry misses. Because as of right now, he missed yesterday's practice after being limited.