Fantasy Football 2017 - New Year’s Resolutions, Week 17 Matchups, Blake the Snake

very good general manager for the Carolina Panthers. He built a good roster. They did it through the draft. He had a system of process. I think his talent evaluation is very good. Now, he's got to do a couple things that he didn't really have to do in Carolina, namely find the right head coach, as well as get a quarterback. I mean, it's easy to get a quarterback when you got the number one pick. What about Steve Spagnolo?

Just laughing at the name. Yeah. So how terribly I've butchered it. I think moving forward, it's a good hire for the, for the Giants. Hey, Jay Gris. Oh. Matt Forte plans to return for an 11th season. You know, he's no longer on the Bears. It doesn't matter. When someone's a great from your team, you still celebrate that player. So you're saying that Jay Griz still likes Matt Forte? Of course he does. He's not like burned by Ford. How dare you leave?

They cut. Yeah, I was going to say it wasn't really 14-2. Look, I do not understand the fandom sometimes. I'm a diehard Cardinal fan. But here's the deal. When the team makes a decision to cut a player and then that player finds a different job, that's not on them. Right. Why do you hate them all of a sudden? You should have retired. You got to support your team. I get it. But why? Why do you hate these people for taking a different job?

Well, Jay Gris doesn't. He's above that. He's because he's a great bear. He's a great cardboard bear. All right. We're going to move to the in and out. What's it going to pay me it fly? Are you in or out? Like I said, the list is large. Super long. So we will try and breeze through it. Cam Newton. Yeah, he'll play limited on Thursday. Tom Brady. Same limited. He'll play. Melvin Gordon.

He did return to a limited practice. It was first reported. He did not practice Thursday. Then I said limited. I mean, he still says he's going to play. But I truly think he's going to be a game time decision. You better have Brandon Oliver on your bench. If you have, if you have Gordon, you have to have Oliver. DeMarco Murray. Not practicing wants to play. I don't think he's going to play. Geo Bernard and Joe Mixum. We've got a double trouble from Cincinnati. They're both limited. They're both hurt. Both with ankles. They'll both play.

All right, Burkhead, Rex Burkhead. Well, you can throw him with Mike Gillisley together. Neither one of them practiced Thursday. James White, who missed last week? Yeah, I think Burkhead and Gillisley will not play. White has a better chance of playing. All this means is light up your Dionne Lewis. Yes, Dionne Lewis will be a sensational play yet again. Aaron Jones has been ruled out. That makes it easy. Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell.

Both with these teammates here. Yeah, the teammates, they're punching each other and fighting and rolling up on each other's ankles. But most of them, I think, are going to combo in. Duke Johnson, Isaiah Crowell. I expect both to be out there. Your favorite player in the NFL, Damien Williams. He stinks. He's going to be out whether he's playing or not. Jay Gris, is Matt Forte going to play? All right. Kerwin Williams and Elijah Penny. I love it.

Yeah, again, teammates hurt who stink, and they will both play. Rod Smith. Didn't practice Thursday. Doesn't really matter. Yeah. I mean, is anybody playing Rod Smith? This one matters, I think. Sharkandrick West. Did not practice Thursday, but it's just an illness, so I expect that he'll be able to suit up. And Char West.

Could be a sneaky play if they want to get Kareem Hunt a little bit rested up for the playoffs. I'm not playing Sharkandric West. I think that there's better, like if you're in the Sharkandric West tier, I would rather go with like a Malcolm Brown or even a Stephen Ridley. I mean, we'll talk about is it Fitzgerald Tucson or Stephen Ridley, but I would rather go with one of those. That's fine. I think Char West is interesting for DFS. Yeah, for your GPP tournaments.

Wide receivers, DeAndre Hopkins. We already said he's a game time decision. Julio Jones was limited. He always is. He'll play. Michael Thomas. He's actually dealing with some problems. He was more limited last week. He'll play again this week. But I think you've got to lower your expectation. Season low and snap rate, routes, run, and targets last week. That's exactly what I'm talking about. That's a problem. Des Bryant did not practice Thursday. I haven't heard any.

reports saying that he'll miss, so I expect him to play. The Cowboys have said they may rest some players. He'd be a good candidate. I mean, that's banged up. That's one to watch for sure. D. Jacks, Deshawn Jackson. Return to limited practice, so I'll say he gets in this week. And his team, Chris Godwin missed. That's unfortunate. Chris Godwin balled out last week. He had one play. He had, what do you have like 90s? It was a great play. Yeah.

I don't know. Chris Godman will be very exciting for me next year. Yeah. Do you think D. Jacks is still on the team next year? I do think Deshaun Jack. Yeah. He got a big contract this year. I'm sure there's a lot of money. I don't blame Deshaun Jackson for down season. I'm saying I think they're on the hook for a lot of it still. All right. Robbie Anderson, Jermaine Curse. Robbie Anderson, like a lot of players dealing with an illness. I'm glad to see that the illness is not like it also goes to the superhumans.

It's not just like I've been dealing with it. My family's been dealing with it. But also these incredible superhero athletes, they still get sick too. You know, they're people. Yes. But you can play through that. Marky's great win. Oh, great one. I mean.

He's going to play. He'll play. He is, I believe, 66 yards away from a thousand. Oh, then he's playing. Yeah, he's in. They'll get him that. Devante Adams, Jordan Nelson ruled out. Geronimo Allison. He also has an illness. It's the time everyone's getting the sniffles. Tis the season is the winter. Mark East Lee, doubtful, Keel and Cole limited. Pay attention for him. He's the one, like the whole list I'm most interested out of everybody, Keel and Cole. Because they, I think they should rest him.

They're in the playoffs. They're locked in. Yeah, they have nothing to gain. Intrigal. They have nothing to gain, but for some reason, I think he's going to play. And also the Cooper Cup did not practice. So I don't know. I don't expect him to see. No, no. He, I mean, if the Rams are already saying they're going to have limited reps, why give him any? We're going to move over the tight ends. Rob Grunkowski did not practice with an illness. I would still expect him to play.

And Tony Gates, man, everyone's sick. Everyone. The illness, they're going around. It's team agnostic. Everyone is willing to be sick. Well, let's say, Evan Engram, though. Evan Engram did not practice with those ribs. Do you think he's going to miss? Yeah, I mean, he didn't play. He was taken out of the game with the injury. And we've seen rib injuries, usually this season, especially people have missed at least one game. So I think Evan Ingram does not suit up.

I don't think he does as well. Before we move into the fantasy forecast, I want to thank today's sponsor Fantasy Champs. Yes. It's Friday. It's payday. Go get that trophy. Yes. It's going to, it's payday today. And then it's championship day on Sunday. When you take home that championship, there's nothing better than celebrating it heading over to Fantasychamps.com. Get that personally engraved ring case and the.

couple different options of rings, which are spectacular. Maybe you want the belts. Yeah. I've seen a couple pictures of people tweeting at champs with their belts on. Just looking, they're looking fly, dare I say. Yeah. And I, you know, it's lit. I got to give them a shout out for their packaging. Yes. You know, it's like, no, this is a, you know, you get that in the mail and it's like, oh, this is, uh, it's serious business. This is some first class stuff here. Also, I, you know, I know we're talking about week 17.

But it doesn't dawn on me that there are still people waiting to find out if they win the championship. I'm like, why haven't you already gone to Fantasy Champs? You've known for days that you're a champ. Go get your trophy. Go get your ring. But it's like, oh. Oh, yeah, you might not know yet. All right. So you can head over to Fantasychamps.com. You can use the promo code. Ballers. And you're going to save a little bit of keesh. Everyone likes to save. Use that code ballers. Better than spending more. Fantasy Forecast.

This is a big time game. We have the Panthers. The 11 and 4 Panthers are going to Atlanta to take on the Falcons who are 9 and 6. It looks like the Falcons are 3.5 point underdogs at home, a 45 point over under. So, you know, right in the middle of that scoring range. But this is big time. The Falcons are playing for their playoff life. And they win they're in. And the Panthers are playing for one.

You can knock your divisional opponent out of the playoffs too. There is a wacky way where they can actually end up as the two seed because they have the tiebreaker with Minnesota. Yeah, which would give them a buy. So this is a game where both teams are going to be playing, playing all out, plenty on the line, and a lot of fantasy assets in this game that are worth firing up. And, you know, if you listen to yesterday's show where we covered half of the weekly matchups, I feel like...

75% of them were full of games where it's, can't trust the players, can't trust the motivation. Yuck. Absolutely. So on the panther side of the ball, Cam Newton, does he bounce back after last week's poo fest? Yeah, I think Cam Newton does bounce back. The Falcons have not been staunch against quarterbacks. You know, the way that Cam has been running the ball this year, I was.

I was surprised to see he's almost doubled his yardage. He was also knocked out of the game for a little bit. Right. He did miss some. So I think Cam has an absolutely fine game against Carolina. I'd be happy to play him in week 17. What about the up and down Christian McCaffrey, who two weeks ago was sensational about 130 yards from scrimmage with a touchdown. But last week, 39 yards on the ground, only two receptions for 19 yards.

Yeah, I do think he bounces back as well. The Falcons, you know, their defense has been really middle of the pack on the season. I think that they can be beaten in the screen game. So Christian McCaffrey, he lines up well for what the Falcons have a hard time with. The Falcons, these defenses are interesting because they match up almost identically here where they both struggle against.

fantasy quarterbacks and wide receivers the past six weeks, yet they're pretty stout against running backs and tight ends. Yeah. Does that affect any of your decision making here, or is it still Freeman is in? What about Tevin Coleman? Yeah, I mean, I think I would rather play Tevin Coleman in a week 17 matchup that matters over so many players that are a giant question mark. I wouldn't play Tevin Coleman over a Jamal Williams.

But if you're dealing with a lot of the more questionable guys, they might play a half, then no, I'm going to go to Evan Coleman, who always has the touchdown upside. And I'll throw this out, speaking of the same backfield, DeVant to Freeman, who has been a major disappointment over the last couple weeks to people, if you're still in it with Freeman, I think he has a bounce back game in a tough matchup because he's so much better at home.

People don't realize Freeman's home road splits are pretty significant. And I'm always a fan of Freeman at home. Julio Jones averaging over 81 yards per game since week 13. That's only eighth best for Julio Jones, which is interesting. But he's an auto start. Muhammad Sunu, are you taking the secondary option for the Falcons this week? Yeah, I mean. Panther's 32nd against.

Fantasy wide receivers the past six weeks giving up over 40 points a game. Yeah, I was going to say, this is a team where, despite my kind words spoken to Devonza Freeman, that's more about Devonta Freeman than it is about the Panthers. Panthers have been good against the run, but they've been poor against wide receivers. And Mohammed Sunu has been the clear cut. Like coming into the year, I think most people were higher on Taylor Gabriel.

than Muhammad Sanoo. I was. What he did, you know, in 2016. But Muhammad Sanoo has carved out the, I feel like when you get in the red zone or third downs, it's like half Julio, half Muhammad Sanoo. So I trust him. I would be willing to play him. And a quick correction to something I had, what I had put in there, the Falcons are favored at home. Oh. Instead of the underdogs. Good to know. That makes. Yes. Good. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. I was surprised. I was too.

Thanks for nothing, Brooks. Oh, man. You know what, Brooks? Thanks for correcting it. Yes. That takes a man. I couldn't leave you out there. Take a big man. All right. Another good game here where there's something to play for. Oh, you got more and more? Greg Olson, Devin Funches. Where do you stand on that? Yes, that's a good discussion. Eileen Greg Olson, Devin Funches just, he concerns me. He concerns me with.