Fantasy Football 2017 - Holiday Awards, Week 16 Matchups, Starts of the Week

the one that takes the hit here. Mickens hitting the Brickens. That's what you say. And you're right. Kevin Coleman, limited in practice on Wednesday, remains in the concussion protocol, but it's progressing towards playing in week 16. Joe Mixen practicing in full still in the protocol, but I think he's back this week. Yeah. If he's practicing in full, he's on track. Jason, you sent this out yesterday when it broke. Greg Zerline. This is huge. He is.

the third most owned as far as on ESPN Platforms player in Fantasy Championship Week right now. So if you have made it there, the only two players on more rosters ahead of Greg Zerloin are Zerloin. I was going to say, I heard it and just let it go. Tom Zerloin. Do you guys have any guesses as to the two most owned? Gurley. Gurley is one of them. Cream Hunt.

Alvin Camara is the other. So Greg Zerloin, I did it again. That's your new name for sure. However, we might have to discuss a replacement for him in the boom boom kicker of the week. Oh, no. That makes sense. Devante Adams was ruled out. They signed Sam Ficken. Okay. Moving them. We'll figure that out. I mean, you just can't trust in championships. I'm just saying you have to give the news the kicker for the Rams. They're very high-powered offense.

He could have a great game. His name is Ficking. His name is Sam Ficking. Is he good at kicking? Oh, hold on. Got to rewrite my boom boom. I'll be right back. My heart can't handle that one. How does you say? Christmas is, uh, Christmas came here for Mike. There is a jingle just, it'll write itself. Sam Ficking good at kicking. Finger licking good. All right.

Hey, I want to bring this up. Devante Parker didn't practice has been dealing with an ankle injury. There are a number of players that didn't practice on Wednesday, Deshawn Jackson, Markey's Goodwin. Devante Adams is out. Yes, I said that actually. I apologize. I was thinking about Sam. Did I not say it, Brooks? I don't remember that. I do not remember you saying. Better to say it twice than not at all. Devante Adams is out. And we'll have in and out tomorrow, the segment on the show, giving you our latest breakdown on injuries and who's going to start this week.

And as always, we'll have the game day alerts an hour before kickoff at join the foot.com. Without further ado, I think we need to get into these matchups. Fantasy forecast. At this point with your voice, Jason, you need one of those like Doc holiday handkerchiefs. Oh, for sure. You know, in your pocket so you can, you're coughing up blood? Is that the? It's coming soon. Tuberculosis. Tiberculosis is the, uh,

Number one disease among fantasy football players. You didn't know that? No, I did. And if it's proven anything, it's proven that I'm your Huckleberry. It's one of the top, what was that, Oregon Trail diseases as well? Oh, dysentery. Distantary. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get into Week 16. Just to break down the schedule for you, no Thursday games. Two Saturday games, the Colts, the Chargers, the Vikings take on the Rams on, I'm sorry, the Vi-

I have misspoken severely there. Correct yourself. There are several Saturday games. We have the Colts taking on the Ravens, and then we have the Vikings taking on the Packers. I am now accurate. Is this right? You did it. Okay. Just to clear it up for you so you know really clearly who's playing. And then we have two Monday night games this week, which is the, we talked about the Raiders and the Eagles. We also have Pittsburgh and Houston.

Correct. And those are the Christmas Day games. So as a reminder, as always, get those players out of your flex position if you are playing a Saturday player. For instance, I have Jerich McKinnon, moved him from the flex to the running back position so that I have flexibility. Let's start with this Colts Ravens matchup. The Colts are 3 and 11, the Ravens 8 and 6, fighting for their playoff lives, and they are just about two touchdown favorites in this game. And the game only has a 41 point...

Over under 41 and a half point. It's a Saturday game. You know, Vegas has what I think we all have. This game's in Baltimore and we think that the Colts are going to get smacked. So who can you really start from the Colts with any level of confidence at all? It's tough because Ty Whilton, I mean, he's going to be out for my lineups. I'm not looking to play him. Baby Hands Jack Doyle continues to be nice. I mean, he's been a Christmas surprise. Just.

the volume for Jack Doyle is reliable. Frank Gore is the interesting name here because while the Ravens defense is very stouts, I'm very much looking forward to playing their DST this weekend. On the season, 22nd against running backs in 24th in the past six weeks, giving up points, fantasy points to the running back position, which is a really interesting thing when it comes to Frank Gore, who is just,

an absolute machine. He's also, I think it's worth noting because when you're a team like the Colts and you don't have much to play for, it's worth noting that as Frank Gore has been getting a lot of volume lately, he is about 150 yards away from moving one spot higher on the all-time rushing. He's got two games to get it. Right, two games to get it. So, you know, I thought you were going to say he's 150 years old. That's next year. His birthday is like a redwood.

Yeah, so, you know, I think he will get volume. And if you need to play Frank Gore, there are certainly worse options out there. You got to count the rings, you know. Figure out how old he is. Like if you had to start Mike. That implies that you have cut Frank Gore in half. Do what you got to do. Yeah. So, you know, I think if you're starting to say Mike Gillisley. Isn't there another narrative, though, with, you know, season over, see what you got in Marlon Mc?

Oh, that's certainly there, except Chuck Pugano is still the head coach. Ah, ah. He needs his own special award. Yeah, that's like the Wounded Duck Award. Yeah, it's, it's limping along until you're relieved of duty. But I, I'm with Jason that this, it seems like you would just chase the record for Frank Gore at this point. What else do you have? Yeah, he's going to be 35 next year. He's,

This has to be it. This has to be it for Frank Gore. He's in a contract year, so he'd have to sign a new contract next year. I think he's done. All right. The Ravens, though, haven't delivered on fantasy expectations at all this year, have not been a team you can count on. And here we are in Week 16, Championship Week, and I think there might be some secret value in Baltimore this week. I absolutely love the Ravens. I mean, Mike Wallace.

has been exceptionally safe. We're going to talk about my boss. Jeremy Maclin is gone. The matchup is perfect. But I also think whenever I look at, when I'm making starts of the week, one of the easy, low-hanging pieces of fruit that you want is you look for home, you know, large favorite teams, according to Vegas, at home, look at their starting running back.

And that's Alex Collins, who I know had a down week last week. But I am one- Forget about it. I am 100% fine forgetting about last week and playing Alex Collins. Okay. He's going to be a strong option. I agree. And like I said, I hit today. We're going to talk about Mike Wallace a little later. Mike Wallace, 325 receiving yards since week 12, which is 10th best in the league. I guess we're talking about it right now. I just don't a little statsky out there. A little appetizer. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Otherwise, you know, Joe Flacco, if you're in a.

desperate pinch. I don't hate it. It's not as bad as you think of it. It feels real bad to play Joe Flacco. Please don't. But if you need to, you might get lucky. He's certainly the highest on my rankings. I like Ben Watson a lot. We're going to talk about him later. Oh, my goodness. There are legitimate starting options. Hey, before we move to the next match, I want to thank today's sponsor. Upside. If you travel for work, listen up. That business trip you're about to book. Do it over at Upside.com. Take care of you. Going to give you.

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five precision engineered blades, rich lathering shave gel, a travel blade cover. It's really good. Just go to harries.com slash footballers. Moving on to the next matchup, we have the Vikings traveling to, as my son calls it, Cheese Bay. To take on the Packers. I like that. He calls them the Cheese Bay Packers. It's a night game on Saturday night, which Saturday night's all right for fighting. That's what El John has told me. Yeah. No, that's the.

That's a fact. I don't know if we have mentioned it before, but it, Devante Adams is going to be out. Oh, okay. So just better to say it. Brooks, have we said that already? Who is out? Devante Adams is out, Brooks. Get him out of your lineup. The, it's a, we got a 41 point over under and the Vikings are heavy favorites as you would expect because the Vikings are hashtag very good. Now.

On the Viking side of the ball, Jay, Case Keenum, you playing him? I'm playing him, but I think there are a lot of better options. I would play Blake Bortles over him. The reason is this. I think he's got a safe floor because he's very good. I am championing him as a legitimately good quarterback. I think Case Keenum is an actual solid NFL quarterback. But I don't see how the Packers score.

Without Devante Adams, without Aaron Rogers, I don't see them scoring more than 10 points, in which case, I also don't see the Packers stopping the Vikings. And what could happen is what happened last week. Now, Case Keenham... He had a really good fantasy week last week. He was okay at fantasy, yes. He had a... He was good. He's 25, 26 fantasy points. He, no. Yes. Yes, he did. This is why you keep saying this all week long, but I've...

It's 25.5 in our league of record. He was 236 and 2, and yes, they blew him out, but nothing could have gone worse for that narrative than what happened last week where they were up 40 to nothing, and he still got it done. And same with Blake Borough last week. I mean, if a team can be up 40 to nothing, if it's a hypothetical, you can be up 40 to nothing, I want the quarterback. Yeah, I don't have a problem when things are too good for a team. I'm still willing to play Case Keenham with confidence. The question is,

What would that weather be like? Will it get to the, will the temperature dip so low that it hits that point where things become far more conducive and for the running back position? That would be my only concern here. But other than that, right now it's 10 degrees is the projection. The combination of both of those things also, I realize that our scoring format, he was, he was all right, but he was the 20th quarterback last week.

So it's not going to help you. Right. I mean, he's got a solid floor. But, you know, in championship week, usually it's two good teams going up against each other. I'm not saying you can't start him, you know, but there are, I think, higher upside options. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And, you know, he kind of just did what he's done. I mean, if you weren't happy with last week, you weren't happy with the previous, you know, for the previous six weeks. Diggs and Thielen.