Starts of the Week + Week 12 Breakdown, The Walrus and the Hare

Because the following week, you are left wanting. It's certainly possible that Miller has a nice week, but I would say it's just as possible that Gabriel leads the team in receiving yards and touchdowns and everything this week. So I don't know. You want to ride the Mitchell Express? Not really. All right. I have a cliff. Golden Tate, Darius Slayton.

Sterling Shepard is still in concussion protocol. Yeah, I'd prefer not to play them this week. Tough matchup on the road. The bear, uh, the Bears defense giving up 21.2 fantasy points per game to opposing lightouts. That's not a lot to go around. No. Evan Ingram, we expect him to play? I don't. No, I expect them to be out. That's the opposite. Yeah, he didn't participate in practice Wednesday or Thursday. Some of the beat reporters are saying that would be the surprise of the week if he were to play.

All right, Panthers Saints. Panthers at 5 and 5 Saints at 8 and 2. The games in New Orleans and the Saints are 9.5 point favorites. It's a 47 point over under. Kyle Allen, you know, I was looking at touchdown to interception ratios over the last handful of weeks. And Kyle Allen is at the basement. He's thrown six touchdowns, nine interceptions. It has not been smooth sailing. They're back at 5 and 5. They're on the road against the Saints.

A very good defense. Who you should be playing in fantasy this week. Yeah, who you should be playing in fantasy. The one thing I'll say is that Kyle Allen's lack of production has not translated to a lack of production for his number one wide receiver. DJ Moore has been exceptional. He's actually the target leader over the last three weeks. He's on pace for 150 targets. And all of his production has come without scoring.

So you have a very safe baseline with some upside if DJ Moore finds his way into the end zone. Clearly a better play than Curtis Samuel. Curtis Samuel is, he has to have a touchdown. If Curtis Samuel doesn't score, then you're unhappy. Yeah, that's fair. That being said, Curtis Samuel seems to get the targets inside the five-yard line. From what I've seen, Marshawn Latimore is still not practicing for the Saints. So that is good news for DJ Moore. Sure.

Sure. Yeah, it's going to be, I think it's going to be a whooping in this one. I really do. Christian McCaffrey, though, has shown that when whooped, he's still the number one fantasy-wide receiver on the week. He was running back. Yeah, he was the running back. I believe he was the running back of the week last week, and their team scored three points got blown out. How's that possible? I don't know. Christian McCaffrey. 11 catches? Yeah, game script proof. It actually is a perfect match for what Sequin did last year, right? He was a top three guy on.

Well, it's a beat up every week, but 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 reception. It's ironic. I was, I was remembering back to early offseason when we were debating the top guys and whether Christian was there. And looking at the splits last year when Cam was out, how much better Christian McCaffrey was and the argument against Christian McCaffrey because, you know, Cam's back. But now Cam's been gone. It's like, oh, yeah, this is just, it's the Christian McCaffrey show. All right. Alvin Camara.

He's my number one running back on the week. Yes. The Panthers defense, not good against the run. He got back on track a little bit last week. We talked about Tampa, right? Slowing down running backs. Camara got some work done against them last week. Yeah, Camer did. And Latavius Murray in an actual positive game script got back on the field where they got boat raced by Atlanta. And Camara's first return, Latavius Murray barely saw the field.

back up to double-digit carries, very, very plus matchup for running backs against Carolina. I think if you are desperate that you can flex Latavius Murray. Carolina is giving up the most fantasy points to the running back position over the last month. That includes the Brian Hill shutdown. Yeah, I think you, you know, you have to be a little bit desperate for Murray. That's what I said. But obviously, Camara is going to feast.

Would you rather start Camara or McCaffrey in this matchup, Mike? Because I'm on McCaffrey. It is on Camara. I mean, these are you're going to start both. But I'm just curious. Pick one. McCaffrey. Michael Thomas. Holy moly. How good is this guy? Mike, on the, you missed Monday show. I said he was somebody that probably should have gotten an apology on an apology episode. Just from the fantasy community doubting his, you know, upper echelon status. He was drafted to be not quite in the range of, I mean, Beckham.

Beckham was drafted ahead of Thomas everywhere. Here he is on pace for 150 receptions. Not targets. No, receptions. 181 targets. 1,824-yard pace, 8 touchdown pace. His consistency, if you look at this, you know, the next handful of players, Evans, Godwin, Cooper, Chark. Those are the next four on the list of wide receivers. Michael Thomas has never finished outside the top 24.

In the last six games played, he's been a top seven receiver in five of them. He's unbelievable because you have crazy safe floor and monster upside. He is the dominant wide receiving core. He is the wide receiving core for Drew Breeze. It's everything you ever want, although I will say this. He is also on pace.

for negative 14 rushing yards. Oh, God. So he does have a weakness. By the way, he will, that would be the NFL all-time record. If he gets 150, the record is 143 by Marvin Harrison. So he's on pace to break it. We've still got several games left. And he probably wants to break it. Oh, I'm sure he does, but does he break it. I think he does. Well, considering he had to do most of this work with Teddy Bridgewater.

And in the three games that Drew Breeze has actually been back, he's averaging nearly 11 receptions and 126 yards. Yeah, it's gone up. Yeah, the three games, you want to know the three game pace? 171 receptions. Oh, that's nice to know. I think he breaks it, yes. All right. But still only 187 targets. He's just catching every single target. That's a 91% catch rate over the last three games with Drew Breeze. There's something nice about a player that gets paid massive amounts of money and then comes out and breaks records.

That's just a neat thing to see. He's so dedicated to his craft and so good. And I, there are certain players that are just, you play the Saints, you tell yourself to stop Michael Thomas, and you cannot do it. It is not possible to do. So Greg Olson, do you play him in this game, Jared Cook?

Which guy do you like more at tight-in? I like Greg Olson more than Jared Cook just based on the matchup and the needs. Greg Olson's been a little bit more involved. And the Panthers are really good against tight-in so far. Only giving up 6.9 fancy points per game on the season. I mean, Cook's been pretty good. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was my start of the week last week. I'm not anti-Cook on this take. His last four games, tied in five, tight in six, tight in 11, tight in 10. I mean, he's been.

absolutely playable. And I think you can start him, but if you're comparing him to Greg Olson, I would prefer Greg Olson in this matchup. There are tight-in four and five, respectively, which means you're starting both of these guys. All right, the Raiders at 6 and 4 take on the Jets at 3 and 7. The Raiders are three-point favorites on the road. It's a 46.5 point over under. The Raiders are in a divisional battle here.

And are you laughing? What are you laughing at? Oh, our editor in chief, Kyle the Borgogan, he left a very nice note. Oh, I see it. For this matchup. He has dubbed this, the black hole versus the Bhole. Oh, my goodness. Very well done. I, you know, he does from time to time give us movie titles for these games. And I, for one, love that one. I'm going to go watch this movie. I mean, this is an exciting.

I mean, the Blackover is the Bhole. I'm not watching this movie. This movie is available in regular stores, Jason. I'm not watching this movie based upon title. He's a Dolby Vision 3D. I am watching this movie. Oh, this is 4D. Yeah. Based upon my belief that this could be a really fun game. The Oakland Raiders. Based on the title, it should be a stinker. Oh, that's very fair. Yeah. I'll be here all week. Well done. Raiders are.

an underrated offense. I mean, they've, they've been a pretty darn good offense this year. I felt like saying thank you to that when you said it, as though I am Derek Carr, as though that's who I am. You have been the Derek Carr, the respect, respecter. Apologist? Yeah, Apologist. There we go. Respecter is what you were looking for. Oh, no, no. I don't want to be that far. See, I didn't go, I didn't want to go that far. But Apologist is the correct term. He's been a top 12 quarterback three of the last four weeks.

If the Raiders win this game, which they're favored to do, you will have the seven and four Raiders facing the seven and four chiefs next week for the division league. Oh, Gruden. Which is a, it is a testament to Gruden. It's a testament to Carr. They had to pivot away from Antonio Brown moments before the season started. Here's Hunter Renfro making his mark in recent weeks, Darren Waller, Tyrell Williams. You know how the bears are bad and they need a quarterback and they're going to have a poor record and a nice pick?

It goes to the Raiders. Oh, come on. That's the Raiders. Is that still from the Mac trade? Yeah, that is. The Bears first round pick goes to this possible 7 and 14. Wow. And the NFL, their trades mimic sometimes what you see in Dynasty and Keeper Leagues and Fantasy, where you think someone smoked someone and you got it wrong. Yeah, Mike, a few years back. What was the Aaron Jones trade you made with Al Borland? It was right when Aaron Jones broke out because.

Two guys in front of him got hurt. Yeah. And so I traded Aaron Jones away for Crabtree and a one. And it was at that time. And it's so weird to even think about it now because you forget where you were at. At that time, it was laugh. Like Crabtree was the thousand yard receiver. I would have rather had Crabtree than Aaron Jones. It seemed at that time. And then you got a one. And now it's like, oh, Crabtree just fell off the face of the earth. The one turned into, I believe, Royce Freeman.

So it's like, yeah, I'll take care of Jones for sure. Just another little addition to the diatribe about vetoes. You don't know how things are going to end up. None of us do. And that trade was made by two parties that wanted to make the trade. And we nearly ridiculed Al Borland out of the studio. You had some issues with depression for months after that. And then you won the trade.

Yep. And then just another fun fact, I'm looking at the streamfinder. The oak, what? Ooh. I'm just laughing because Brooks added a little note to our doc. And he said, it says this. I'm going to read a verbatim. Behole equals Adam Gaze for new listeners. Only Brooks wants to make sure the behole is as clear as possible. Adam Gaze, the head coach for the Jets, if you don't know who that is, is a butthole.

So now you're in on the joke. Because that is just the, well, that's what it seems. And with the Quincy and Noon, a little diatribe, it just seems like, you know, butthole confirmed. Uh, how, speaking to how, back to fantasy, how, uh, fantasy DSTs have done against the Oakland Raiders. Yeah. I know. I was shocked. They bad. The, the, the Raiders have only allowed one top.

12 performance. All year. One top 13 performance. How many teams? And that was week two against the chiefs. How many teams in the NFL are there where they have only had one top 12 performance or fewer? There aren't any of them. I think there's only the one. There is only the Oakland Raiders. I had the jets as my defense. And when I looked into it, I was like,

Wow, you don't really want to play against the Raiders. He never throws interceptions. And they don't take sacks. It's not that they smoke you. You always think you don't want to play against the high-powered offense. But you also don't want to play against teams that just don't give up anything. The way they've won this year has very much been the tortoise hair example. They have tortoise you. I would say walrus you.

They have a fair. The walrus in the hair. The famous children's story, the walrus in the hair, and the walrus goes really slow, stops for a dip, and then they end up winning the race. Isn't it the walrus and the carpenter? Isn't it, the carpenter? But Derek Carr, I mean, I think he was 85% completion last week, something like that. Josh Jacobs.

Top five in touches over the last since week four. Top 92.3 rushing yards per game. Tyrell Williams lined up for success against this Jets defense giving up 34 fancy points of game to wide receivers. Love Tyrell this week. Yeah, I think I think you can flex Hunter Renfro as well. Darren Waller, you're probably going to play him, but the Jets actually don't give up a ton of points to the tight end. And Waller's been a little slow. The Waller is, but that's how, you know, tried and true, you go a little slow and then you beat the hair in the end, right? Mm-hmm.