Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 15 Studs & Duds, Rising Stars, Christmas Wish List

People have been struggling for their tight end. If you had Greg Olson, you probably didn't play him. They're coming up against Tampa Bay. Now, Tampa Bay's been decent against tight in, but that hasn't been because they're good against tight end. That's simply because nobody's needed to utilize a tight end. They can do whatever they want against Tampa Bay, running back in wide receiver. But the thing is, is Greg Olson is such a key.

part of the offense. I think you can start Greg Olson next week. They're at home in Carolina. You're going to see more of the same. And I think it'll be a very good week for him. And, you know, that shout out to Robert Woods as well that I think is both these guys, you weren't sure how quick you're going to be able to play them coming off of their injuries. Light them up. Blake Bortles, Killing Cole, Greg Olson, those were the raising kings. Rising Stars of the week. Remember that game day tastes better.

Pretty much everyday tastes better. With Raising Canes tailgates full of fresh 24-hour marinated hand-battered chicken fingers and fresh brood sweet tea, visit Raising Canes.com to find your nearest location. Poopped in his big boy pants. This is... It finally happened. This is our service to you. We're going to give some comeuppance to the players that let you down. We'll do our best to shame them. It will do our best to sympathize. Finally happened.

Russell Wilson Wilson found his kryptonite. It was the Los Angeles Rams, which I mean the Rams Aaron Donald. The Rams generally speaking to like historically, even the Jeff Fisher years played tough against the Seahawks. I don't think anyone even. Too tough for fantasy owners. Even the most rambunctious.

of Rams fan could not have foreseen a 40-point lead. Just a shalacking. On the road against Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson, he set a trap for you and he neatly tied it together with last week's performance against Jacksonville. You would probably have played him anyway. But if he had stunk last week, you wouldn't have been setting up saying he can overcome anything.

Yeah, Mike was saying Russell Wilson's going to lose some people their playoffs, and he was right. He just got it. Wrong week. One week on. Got a wrong week. He lost you last week because you benched him, and then you have the confidence to start him this week. And, you know, and this goes with Doug Baldwin. He had 13 points still. So he didn't just, like it wasn't a complete, like an utter death to your team. But his weapons were. Yeah. I mean, Doug Baldwin, one for six. That is unbelievable.

Jimmy Graham was, what, negative point one? Was he? He had a catch for a negative, yeah. Oh, man. Here's the thing. He's going south for the winter. And the reason why I had no confidence to start Russell Wilson last week is I just felt it would, the way that he's playing, it's going to catch up eventually. The offensive line, they can't block anyone. That's not Russell Wilson's fault. He's doing the best he can. But.

Scramble, scramble, scramble, throw the ball as far as you can't. It can't work every single week. When you're Russell Wilson, when you're that amazing, it can work the majority of the time. But eventually it catches up, and the Los Angeles Rams were able to get enough pressure. And even the Rams still whiffed on quite a few plays. The other two startworthy quarterbacks this week that let you down in a big way. Dak Prescott? Yeah.

18 for 27. Not a good game as Seattle next week. And then Brooks, what's the other name on the list? Philip Rivers. Yeah. 20 for 36. The Chargers are, I will say this, as an analyst, they hurt me the most this week for sure because I saw that Saturday game going the exact opposite. I really thought that the Chargers were going to go in there, take care of business against the Chiefs, and the entire Chargers.

team, with the exception of Melvin Gordon, just let you down. Keenan Allen, Philip Rivers, all the ancillary weapons. Well, Hunter Henry scored. Oh, no, that was Antonio Gates. Henry actually came out the field due to an injury, so we need to pay attention to that for this upcoming week. Guys, at the running back position, who was your most surprising pooper? Oh, the most surprising? Hmm.

You had Jamal Williams with a terrible performance. Zero targets 10 for 30. You're Lamar Miller yet again. Let you down. Carlos Hyde didn't have a big game. 16 for 25 against Tennessee. Yeah, I'll say the most surprising was Carlos Hyde. I felt like he wasn't crazy high ceiling, but he's just been so safe. And 16 for 25 is not getting it done, especially where Hyde has been safe is those dump-off passes.

Under Jimmy Garoppolo, those are not showing up with the regularity that they were earlier. He's more willing to go down field. Yes, he is. Extend to play with his legs. Yeah. Yeah. That's unfortunate for Carlos Hyde's outlook. And then now Hyde has to play Jacksonville in the championship week. Yeah, I would say the most surprising to me was Mike Davis. But as we talked about, I mean, when you get down by 40 points in the blink of an eye, your running game goes.

I would say it's Alex Collins for me. Alex Collins was 12 for 19 after kind of earning the fantasy, you know, mantle space on the mantle. Yes. Knock them off. I don't know. I don't know what happened in that game. Get on the ground. I don't know what happened because I was, I was tracking that game. Alex Collins wasn't performing well, but he was getting, you know, the bulk of the work. And then the second half comes around. He disappears. I don't know if he was.

gone, injured, benched, but he basically didn't get any more work. We need to look into, you know. It was just, he just wasn't playing well. I mean, 12 for 19. And Buck Allen was playing. And Buck Allen was playing well. It was disappointing. You thought he had kind of worked himself into, worked himself into a premier position. But he hurt people and he hurt them big time. If you took a chance on Amir Abdullah, you made a mistake. Yeah, I don't know why you would have done that.

No, but he was active again. Some people thought he had the starting job, and then Theoretic was ignored because of that, but none of those running backs had a good game over there. Jonathan Stewart, yeah. Not a good game. Everything went back to Christian McCaffrey. Yeah. I know we mentioned his name, Jamal Williams, but that was also. Yeah, let's talk about moving forward because Aaron Jones, 37% of snaps this week, and Jamal Williams with Aaron Rogers back, 10 for 30, no targets.

And Jamal Williams, even though Jones was back, he still only got three carries. Jamal Williams, 10 carries. The no targets thing, that's destructive for a Green Bay running back for fantasy purposes. If you joined me on the Periscope that I do every Sunday morning with those last minute analysis, news and all that stuff, Jamal Williams was in a lot of questions.

And I often turn to the other running back simply based off of touchdown upside with Jamal Williams goes down when Aaron Rogers is playing because Aaron Rogers will throw from the one yard line. He does not care. But I did not foresee 10 for 30 coming up from Jamal Williams. And now he gets Minnesota. What's the, is the trust level put on pause until you know if it's Aaron Rogers or Brett Huntley? Would you rather start? Well, certainly. I mean, Brett Huntley.

He's going to need to check the ball down more. But I'm not confident in the snap percentage. Yeah, I was going to say being in the right place. Even if Brett. Even if Brett Huntley is back, I don't think you can be confident that Jamal Williams has the snap percentage that he had been having while Aaron Jones was gone. I would start CJ Anderson next week over Jamal. Oh! I love hearing that. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if you realize how impactful that statement.

is coming from dad just because the first four words word i would start cj and yeah brooks we're going to need that cut up yeah that's a historical moment for that's a drop that we need to we need to have access to play at all times it was like last week when mike said i like doug martin oh this week yeah that was painful to say so i'm painful to to watch well he at least scored that week yeah all right wide receivers

AJ Green let me down huge. Two for 30 on four targets. I guess Andy Dalton let AJ down and then AJ let me down. So it's kind of the transitive property. Andy Dalton, I hate you. And so here's the thing because, you know, there was actual questions of people saying, can I play AJ Green against Minnesota? And the analysis I always give is, I mean, who are your other options? But I go down with.

with my studs. And sometimes you do go down, AJ Green, Adam Thielen. Bad Brian. Bad weeks. But then on the other side, if you had bench DeAndre Hopkins, who had a fantastic game for fantasy, you feel really, really bad. So sometimes it's just that game of probability and you feel like you got to play the player who gives you the best chance, even if everything in the world is against them. There's no way.

that in hindsight you could ever say you should have benched AJ Green. Not the way I play. Yeah, he's number six wide receiver. And yes, you could have made the narrative. I mean, Minnesota playing for a lot, Cincinnati playing for a little. But he's AJ Green. And he had a 40-yard catch down the sideline where he just barely was out of bounds on. It would have changed the week a little bit for you.

But Doug Baldwin, Adam Thielen, you said it. Jordy Nelson, Goldie. That's the guy. Jordy Nelson, to me, is the one that sticks out because. You guys were so jealous of me getting him in our draft league and didn't even matter. I think Jordy is done. Whoa. That's a strong. Maybe that's too much from week one. But his age and the fact that, look, Devante Adams went out in this game. You had the second half where.

He still couldn't find Jordy open. I remember one reception coming where Jordy was, you know, wearing a blanket. He still caught it. It was great. But three for 28 on six targets. In defense of Jordy Nelson, I will say.

One of Aaron Rogers interceptions was Jordan Nelson was running free for a touchdown, but Rogers under threw him. That's true. But perhaps Jordan Nelson is at the point of his career where he can still be great for fantasy, but he needs someone like Devante Adams on the other side helping out with the coverage instead of just being able to be supreme alpha. Jason out of Christmas goodwill chose to put.

all of the poor players on his draft lineup this week. So you lost handily. Rex, Burke had Mike Davis and Golden Tate were on your roster. All right. Now, Mike, I am currently beating you by half of a point. You guys are all done and I still have Mike Evans. So I have defeated you. So I didn't even, Jordy Nelson, no harm done in that league. Golden Tate was, that was strange. Only five targets for Golden Tate. On a day when Stafford was fine.

So Jason, Cory Coleman won for 16. I know he's the best player in the NFL. Yeah, he's much better than Josh Gordon. You did make a bet, a water bet about this week. Yep. So just letting you know. Thank you. Soggy bottoms. Soggy bottoms. Yum. I was going to go there.

Dedy Westbrook, two for 21. Can you trust him next week without Mark East Lee? Is this just an outlier game? Every player in the entire league has bad games. Antonio Brown has bad games. So I think this game didn't work out well. Only when he's injured. He's the worst example. Okay. He is literally statistically the worst example. But the point is he does still have those games where you're disappointed. And, you know, so Dedy Westbrook.

You can't just assume every single week is going to be great. I think with Marquisley out, the good match against San Francisco. I'm fine playing Diti next week. All right. Jimmy Graham and Hunter Henry were the big poopers at the tight-in position. I would also throw Ricky Seals Jones in there because... Oh, certainly. He had six targets? I thought Seals Jones was going to have a very solid fantasy game. I did too. The matchup was great. Germaine Gresham was out. It was all... Gabbard was so bad. He was awful.

So, so bad. Question, though, for Jimmy Graham, who, depending on your scoring format, but let's say he plays in a, if you're in a standard league, over the past two weeks, Jimmy Graham is averaging negative points. Where's your trust level with Jimmy Graham if you still made it to the championship week with him putting up one for nine of one? I cannot see not playing Jimmy Graham. I really can't. I,