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

If he's out, do you bump up? You know, Richard Matthews might be back on the field. Really? Yeah. Wow, Matthews. And you got Devante Parker. Who disappointed people last week. Oh, man. I would. How do you even read that? What is going on here? What in the world? You find it so funny when I... I do. I don't know why it's so funny. When... Oh, man, I just need to try and find some information. Then you get a movie trailer. Well, I... This website...

that I rely on for my news occasionally has never had an auto play video. And now I pull it up and I get an auto play video. They got you. Yeah. So Richard Matthews was limited on Thursday, so he could be back out there, probably will be. That would be my gut. So is there anybody that you would start? Would you take a flyer with Parker if Landry was out? Yes. I would... 18 targets has to go somewhere, right? I would still take the flyer on him. And if Landry is out...

I will not play Tannahill. If Landry is in, I think Tannaho is an okay last resort streaming option. Okay, so you answer my question. Cardinals, Eagles, Sunday night football, Carson Palmer, locked and loaded. Put them in. Head towards your semi-final victory with Carson Palmer. Absolutely. All right. I just needed a little bit of an endorsement there. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've, you...

You have to have confidence in the Cardinals offense because, one, they're the highest scoring offense in the league. Two, we've seen the Eagles in recent games just get destroyed through the passing game. 24th against the run right now, I'm sorry, 24th against the pass, 28th against the run, the Eagles defense. They've coughed up 161.5 rushing yards per game over the last four weeks, and you mix that in with,

Oh, David Johnson. Sorry, I was reading a different stack. I caught up. No, you're good. So David Johnson is a... Must be great. David Johnson or DeAngelo Williams? David Johnson. Yeah, I agree with you. I do. We have David Johnson as our consensus number four this week based on what we see in this matchup. I have met three. Jason hasn't met four. You have them a little bit lower. The only guys I had above them were Gurley, McCoy, and Peterson.

So, that being said, David Johnson, juicy matchup, Sunday night football, all the carries, no Ellington. I love it. Yeah, you just look towards last week that David Johnson had a very strong game against Minnesota. Now, Minnesota's defense was a little depleted, but you add on top of that. It too near touchdowns. David Johnson was a fraction away from having a monster game.

Yeah, you can start him confidently. Now, the other side of the ball, the Cardinals have held six of their last seven opponents to under 100 rushing yards, and you already have a mess in the backfield in Philadelphia. That being said, we have two starts of our week in this game. We have Darren Sproles being one of them. Explain that again. So, Darren Sproes. Why do you like Dern Sproles? Darren Sproles is the guy that I like because the Cardinals can't handle edge speed. They can't handle really edge plays period where that's where Minnesota did the damage.

I'll say I, but a lot of people thought the same way I did last week that Minnesota was going to get shut down. But they had a fantastic game plan to exploit Arizona's... In the very beginning of the game. And even towards the end of it. Yeah, you're right. No, you're right, because they had those underneath crossing routes. Just getting tied-in screens, just getting things out to the edge caused a problem for Arizona. Now...

I assume that Chip Kelly will have noticed these things, and he's been kind of leaning on Darren Sproles anyways the last few weeks. You get Sproles with that speed to the edge that can create a problem. We saw Giovanni Bernard have a great game against Arizona because he creates that similar matchable problem. Now, when I say he's my start of the week, he's still a little bit lower in the rankings. He just, the upside is tremendous for Sproles. It's not like I'm saying,

Let me pull up my rankings here. I'm not saying, you know, like Jeremy, we were just talking about Jeremy Hill, a guy I like, am I saying play Sproles over Jeremy Hill? No, I'm not going that level, just saying that Sproles in your flex is a great upside guy to have in that position. As long as you have a nice foundation, then Sproles is a great play for you.

I agree with you. I agree with you. He's got opportunity in that offense, and he catches the ball, really helpful in PPR leagues. Really like, the other start of the week is Michael Floyd. Love Michael Floyd. Yeah. Ariens came out yesterday. Said Floyd's playing at an elite level, just affirming what our eyeballs already told us about Michael Floyd. Love him this week, starting him over a lot of guys this week. That being said, roll out the entire offensive force for the Cardinals. Yep.

because you don't know necessarily. You saw it last week, Brown, 65-year-t touchdown. Floyd had a long touchdown. Fitzgerald had a disappointing game. He hasn't been in the end zone lately. He's the guy at the bottom of that list for me, but I still think he has the opportunity. When I was looking up Fitzgerald's stuff, he's actually been a much more of a force when he's on the road. And I think that's just a thing of leaning on the veteran in a situation where a Brown, Floyd,

Well, I guess Floyd's pretty much a veteran now at this point, but Brown's still a younger guy. Get that wily, that wily veteran going in Larry Fitzgerald and move the ball down the field. Totally agree. All right. Lions Saints Monday night football game, primetime Drew Brees. He likes to light it up. A lot of confidence here, especially. Lions giving up might be the just best way to sum it up.

I've been like duly impressed and not impressed with that offense and that team because they came back. They came back from a bad start, showed a lot of resilience, and then flowed right back into kind of, you know, after the Hail Mary, really. You just wonder if they just said, all right, this is not our year. We were eliminated from the playoffs on that play. They got beat up last week against St. Louis. So, which we saw St. Louis.

beat up the Tampa Bay box pretty bad. That's my... Yeah, I know. And they're such an enigmatic team as well. They're very up and down. They beat the Cardinals this year. The Cardinals have two losses. One of them was to St. Louis. So Drew Brees, love him. High Tower. Love him. 28 carries. A guy, the volume, the reliance on him, they don't have a lot to lose leaning on him. It's not like he's getting worn down from not playing in the last five years. Yeah, that's... That's a...

It's a valid point of because I'm thinking, do they want to do that again where they just give Hightower an extreme volume? A lot of that was game flow where they were running out of clock. But they might be doing that again. They have nothing to lose by letting Hightower do that. Just run him into the ground. And for Hightower, it's even better for, you know, let me have a chance here so I can see if I can stay in the league a couple more years. I don't want to.

One of the things I've always said, especially over the last few weeks, is don't overplay the talent. You need to pay attention to the matchup. Just don't overplay it. Don't just say, okay, Stafford's playing the Saints, the Saints sucks, so Stafford's are locked and loaded number one. I know some people like him a lot this week. I'm not of that. I don't believe that. Really? I don't. Do you? I put him at the end of the one category because of the matchup. Yes, but I don't think he's got as much.

Yes, he has upside, but I just don't think he's as safe as people think he is in this match. The Saints over the last four weeks haven't been exactly, they haven't been giving it up to the wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, to the same degree that they had been. And this is a prime time game at home for the Saints defense. They've improved on certain levels. I just don't think it's an automatic thing. We saw Megatron struggle last week. You have to start him.

in this matchup. I get that. You're not sitting Megatron down, but you know, Golden Tate's a guy. I love. Target numbers have been there. I love Golden Tate. Nine catches, eight catches, seven, eight. That's his last four weeks. Do you agree with me or do you disagree? I agree with you that. What's your feeling about the Saints defense right now? I know they're not anywhere near the top of the league, but I agree with you in the fact that I have Stafford as a lower one. I'm not, it's not like the week of Kurt Cousins.

where they were in the midst of meltdown, where he said, okay, Kurt Cousins, he's the next man up, and he ignited them with four touchdowns. I think that, I think Stafford could still have a good game. And this, if you're just trying to look for matchup of points, this very well could become that because of, we know that Breeze is going to put up points. I guess a question of concern for,

the Saints is Darius Slay against Brandon Cooks, if that's what they choose to do of, if they're going to shadow him at all. Because Darius Slay has been fantastic in the last few weeks. So there is a concern of that. Is that going to stop me from playing Brandon Cooks? No.

Not even close. And we will no doubt talk about this game at greater length on Monday implications for people and their fantasy teams and who we like. We need to move on. We normally talk with Chris Media of the Fantasy Sports Network right now. We are going to share his daily fantasy insights, but we don't have him on the show this morning. We're going to go into the mailbag. Mailbag without Jason. Yeah. Oh, you know what? We are way under. I think we got. York. Yeah, you're right. We got so lost in the in the whole.

All the matchups and flying through here. We're over an hour on the show today. And, you know, we haven't insulted him nearly enough. Here's what happened. Slowly but surely, this turned into our best show of the week. Oh, you're right. You're right. It is the best. It might be the best show we've done all year. You, now that you say that. Right? I'm trying to think back of all the show. We've done a lot of shows this year. Uh-huh. This might be the best show.

You're right. It is the best show. I hate to. I can't put a finger on why it's the best show. And it's not like us to brag. Normally that's Jason. Jason's the one who brags about everything for no reason. And we are generally very humble. But even in my humble state, I can see how this is the best show. It's going with the humble brag. Yeah. So welcome to the mailbag. Let's actually help people now. How about that? Here we go. Let's do some voicemail questions. I bet we're going to.

Hey guys, it's Alexa in Tampa, hoping you guys can help me get to the finals. A big playoff matchup this week for me. Oh, yeah. Need to know with Dalton's injury, who do I start? Kirk Cousins at home against the bills or Tyrod Taylor on the road in Washington. Please help me get to the finals. Love you guys so much. Thanks. Bye. That is a great question. That is a great question. And I have my answer, but do you want me to let you know who I?

I'm going with Tyrod Taylor in this one. Then it's unanimous. I know that I do talk about Washington as a much better team on the road, but Tyrod Taylor and Sammy Watkins are really getting it going. And it's so a Shady McCoy. So I think the offense of the bills as a whole will be a little bit too much for Washington to handle over the course of the game. And I expect Taylor to.

have at least a couple touchdowns. I'm with you. And with D. Jacks' injury versus Watkins' ascension over there, it kind of leans me that direction. And Kurt Cousins, who maybe, careful, careful, this take is a little hot. Kurt Cousins has actually been pretty good this year. You like that! You like that! It was pretty disastrous at the beginning of the year, but his play has improved. However, I believe he only has two

multi-touchdown games through the air. He's ran a few wins so that helped him out. But as far as passing touchdowns, only two multi-games. So we like Taylor. Yes. Go with Taylor. All right. Here's another question. Hey, guys. It's Brian in Washington. I love the show, but I have a quarterback quandary. I had Andrew Luck and Brian Hoyer, who are both beat to hell, as Chuck Bagan would say. And my team is stacked otherwise, but as far as waiver QBs go.

It's a bunch of steaming duties left on the free agent. So who do I pick up on this list? Which of these turds will flush down the easiest? Jay Cutler, who kind of worries me because they also have forte, so what if Chicago stinks? But Jay Cutler, James Winston, T.J. Yates, A.J. McCarran, or Kierke Chousins. So I'll take my call off the air, since I'm assuming that's the only option. Okay, thanks.

Yeah, it is the only option. And obviously this was sent in, I guess, before Thursday night's game with Winston already playing. So I'm going to cross him off the list. Yeah. You can't retroactively play Winston. Well, and I don't think you would want to. I mean, he had good yardage, but. Yeah. So for me, I'm actually going to go with T.J. Yates. Yeah, it's. With, if you'd rather, if you feel more comfortable, you want to hedge against Chicago's thinking and not play Cutler, I'm okay with the eights. And for, for Cutler,