Week 16 Matchups + Mike's Back, Wheel of Shame! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/20

So it's pretty easy, I think, on that side of the ball. The question, the only question is Darnold. You know, like Darnold. Yeah. Where's he slot in this week? He's the quarterback six over the last seven weeks. We have him as our consensus quarterback six this week. Darnold on the road against Seattle or Jared Goff on the road against Chicago? I'm going to go with Darnold. I think that Goff outside potential bad weather. Brock Purdy against Miami on the road. I'll take Darnold. I will, too. Eileen Darnold, as well. Yeah, we've got him ranked pretty high. The Patriots are 3-11.

Powerhouse, Ramondre Stevenson-led Patriots going into, oh, Buffalo. Cool. Buffalo, 11-3 at home. They have an implied point total of 30. They are 14-point home favorites with an over-under of 46. That gives the Patriots 16 points. Away we go. Start Josh Allen, start James Cook, and then it gets complicated with the receiving room. It gets very, very complicated. 11 degrees, by the way. Yeah, it's going to be cold, windy. Not in my dome. That being said, I do think that you can take shots on any of them. I mean, Amari Cooper, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, they will not all get it done.

There's no chance that all three are going to have a good game. But Josh Allen's probably going to throw two touchdowns in this matchup. If you look at the history of, you know, when the Bills have been 14-plus point favorites, which has happened 10 times with Josh Allen. They're 9-1, and opponents are averaging 11 points, and they just blow them out. They take care of business. So, I do think this is a game where, you know, if you want to throw one of those wide receivers in, maybe you can say if it's windy and you're up a lot, maybe it's Khalil Shakir is the safe option.

They're not the 50-yard bomb. Is that not Shakir for you no matter what? No, well, I think, yeah, I mean, I guess Shakir is the safest for sure. Shakir or Thielen, though? Oh, that's a tough question. By the way, I have a plan for you guys. I think that would be really cool. You have a plan? Save your money. Arthur. Combine and save your money. All of our money? For a few years. Yeah, both of you. Okay. Build a stadium. Oh, we're going to start saving. Yeah, that's all of our money. Yeah, that's all of it. Build a dome, and then when you have the dome, every time you see a bad weather game coming up,

invite the teams to play. Ah. And then if they turn you down. Just a backup dome. If they turn you down, it's like, you had a dome available. Yeah, but that was a lot of money. Are they a lot? I think they're a lot of money. Probably more than- A stadium? Yeah. Is that a lot of- If you're a billionaire, it's actually not that much, because then you just make other people pay for it. It's really nice. Yeah, we could do a tax thing, right? Yeah. Like a 6,000% tax on the UDK? We just make other people pay for our dome.

I am in. And I'm not joking. If we can do that, I'm in. I'm 100% in. If you don't have to pay for it, you are in. Yeah, but we own it. Oh, yeah. Just like the people pay for it, the taxes. Yeah, yeah, we get a bunch of revenue. Like, I don't necessarily want to pay taxes to build people's- Right, yeah, yeah. Because it feels weird. But I am totally fine on the other side. Got it. If other people are building me a dome, yeah, I'm in. Who was that- Did you guys ever see that documentary about the guy that pretended he was like a super

billionaire and- Oh, yeah. Got in a league. Yeah, he was like buying the- Was it the Nets? The Knicks? I forget, but I know what you're talking about. It was all fake. And he just- He got way down the road on buying the team. So it's possible. So you're telling me there's a chance. I can't remember what team it was. This game is- Look, I'm not- I'm playing Allen. I'm playing James Cook. That's all these things. But this game gives me the heebie-jeebies. Okay. Of like- Not as great as you think it'd be. As in the randos on the Bills score, and then they're just-

Like- Cruising. Like, what are the Patriots going to do here? What are they going to do? Oh, the Patriots are going to fold. Ramondre is not going to be great. But the matchup, at least, they give up 22 fantasy points a game to running backs. You hope it comes early. Yes, you do. And Hunter Henry's receiving last 42 and a half. Hunter Henry is not a path to a championship to me. Dallas businessman John Spano pretended to buy the New York Islanders. Yep, for $165 million. How? Yes, it was a 30 for a 30. And it was so fascinating. And it was all fake.

At what point of the con are you like, I got to get out of this thing? Like, you're- They're going to find out. At some point, you've got to pay the bill. Yeah, this isn't like you got a free dinner. You're buying a sports team? The idea that you go down the line like, oh, I'm going to buy a suit. Yeah. I'm going to buy a suit. I'm going to have a limo drop me off. That's amazing. And then, like, produced a bunch of- I think you produced a bunch of- Produced a bunch of fake documents? He's like a billionaire.

He's like, oh, I forgot my wallet again, guys. Can you get this check? Yeah. All right. Jacksonville, 3-11. The Raiders, 2-12. Neither of these teams should try to win this game. The DraftKings Sportsbook line is Las Vegas, minus one and a half. The over-under is 40. Which team is- They should try so hard to lose. Which team is worst coached? Which team has- Yeah, I agree. That's who wins the game. Oh, because they make the bad decisions? Right. Yeah. I mean, Aiden O'Connell's going to be back? Aiden O'Connell is supposed to be back, which is great news for Brock Bowers.

I think it's great news for Jacoby Myers. You know, with Jacoby Myers, in four games with Aiden O'Connell, he's averaging 12.7 fantasy points per game in 10 targets. So, to me, that's just as good. I have that above my Adam Thielen line, but he's right there in line. Brock Bowers needs 109 receiving yards to break the NFL record for a rookie tight end. Oh, Mike Ditka's record. Yeah. Ditka. He'll get there. He has not been prolific of late, even with Aiden O'Connell. He did have a number one overall finish because he can go 10 for 140, but the three other weeks surrounding it, outside the top 15 at the position.

So, you know, any defense that wants to try to stop this team, that would be the guy to try to cover. Brian Thomas Jr. has been awesome with Mack Jones. Mack Jones is just chucking it. He's got as many 20-point fantasy games as CJ Stroud this year. Which is one. Etienne and Bigsby, are we freaking out if we have to put them in our lineups? Yeah, I don't think you want to put them in the lineups. You're going to be able to throw pretty easily on the Raiders. And... I think you're okay with Etienne. Really? I do. He's been better.

Like, he has visibly looked better to me on the last couple weeks. He's been, in the last two games, about 10 points. So it's okay. The issue with both of these guys is both of these guys. Right? Right. You know, the last two weeks, you had Tank Bigsby with 18 carries and 11 carries. So the fact that they are really sharing work just makes it difficult for either one to have a good... Yeah, I totally agree. But I think that Etienne's... Like, I think he's safe to give you eight points or so. Because of the passing work? Yeah. And then on the other side, like, what do you do with...

The Raiders have quietly given us running back production. Like, it's been gross. But we're back to Alexander Madison as the primary guy. His DK rushing lines only 46 and a half. Which, that sounds about right. But he has managed to get into the end zone a few times. Are you... If you're desperate, are you looking at Madison or Travis Etienne? I would rather go with the talent of Etienne. Both of these teams don't scare me. The matchup is good for Madison. But Amir Abdullah is still a pass-catching back. I would rather have the pass-catching of Etienne and the talent of Etienne over Alexander Madison.

But he's... I mean, they're close. They're not far apart. Madison... What a horrible game to have to watch with your players in there. Madison, over the... You know, the first portion of the season before he got hurt, missed a bunch of time, and McCormick had his games. I mean, he was still getting targets. Six targets. Three, one. Three, five. Like, I don't know. I think Madison is... It is disgusting and it's the bottom of the barrel. You're hoping you don't have to do it. But... Like, you're sitting on Tony Pollard. You get really bad news heading into the weekend. It's like, what do you do?

Sure. You could throw Patrick Taylor into that kind of... Yeah. Okay. The mix. You would go Taylor over these guys? I think I would go Taylor over these guys. I will say this. This game could be sneaky good. You just said, Andy, like, what a bad game to watch. Mike, on Sunday Live, last week, you pointed out that even though there wasn't a high over-under, it was kind of a low over-under, looked like two lousy teams, and the Jets and the Jaguars, that, like, you could just have two bad defenses. Yeah. That end up giving you a lot of fantasy production.

This is two bad defenses. That was a beautiful offensive output. I think you could see that again. If Aiden O'Connell is starting, which it looks like it's happening. That's so big. Jets and Brock Bowers and Alexander Madison could all end up with good games, while Brian Thomas and Trav ZTN also have big games. So, hopefully, this turns into... What about Britain Strange? I mean, 11 targets. It's just a matter of health. They said he's going to be out there. 11 catches on 12 targets. It's a great matchup for tight ends. So, he's still an option. A desperation play. I agree.

And, yeah. I hope you pivot back to... Nope. Not going to do it. But I could. You never know. All right. We'll take a break. We'll get into the rest of the matchups. Well, Patrick Taylor and the 49ers at 6-8 taking on the 6-8 Miami Dolphins in Miami. San Francisco on the road. One-point favorites. The over-under is 44-and-a-half. Shanahan versus McDaniel. Yeah. And they were together for a really, really long time on coaching staffs throughout the years. We are down to the fifth string running back for San Francisco. A lot of their offense is predicated on a competent running game.

I don't have the Patrick Taylor confidence that maybe... I'm not quite where Jason is. Just believing that it'll be all him. But... To be fair... That's a shot you could take. To be fair... My confidence is that it'll be all someone. Like, it could be Keyshawn Vaughn. It's... But I think it's going to be Patrick Taylor. We've seen him on the field before. We've seen them give carries when Grindo got hurt and he had to... You know, he was the next man up. So I do think it's going to be Patrick Taylor. The matchup here is not the best against the Dolphins, but they're not like a top five defense

against running backs. But if you've got a guy getting all of the work, that's just valuable for fantasy. Definitely play A-Chan. His receiving line, receptions-wise, five and a half. I think Tyreek Hill will be okay in this game with the injury to Waddle. His line is also five and a half receptions, and that is exactly where Johnny Smith's line is. So five and a half for all three of those guys. Yeah, everyone gets five and a half. Malik Washington would be like a sneaky DFS punt play type of player with Waddle being out with no OBJ. Or would he? You said, or would he?

No, he said. Oh, would he? Yeah. Juwan Jennings on the other side. His line is 62 and a half. Juwan Jennings. I like him this week. I think you'll be happy he's in your lineup. Kittle's in your lineup. And then Jason, where are you with Tua after the really disappointing performance last week? He's also, like there is, like he's going to play, but he's got a hip injury. Yeah, I'm not excited about Tua at all. Shanahan knows McDaniel's system. I don't think he's going to be surprised. We've seen a lot of teams that get used to the system, kind of figure it out better with

the motion and those type of things. So I think you're going to have a good game plan here from Shanahan, who is still playing for the playoffs. Is there a chance we just have an absolute stink fest? Yeah, I think so. I really do think so. Because both coaches know the other person and their tendencies so well. And you've got some really important banged up pieces. I mean, obviously we know the San Francisco 49ers offense, the running back room has been decimated. But they're also, they're bad at wide receiver. You know, Juwan Jennings is their one. Debo has disappeared. Pearsall disappeared.

Ayuk is gone. So, and you've got Waddle on the other side. I'm not excited for this game as some kind of great fantasy explosion. Like an offensive performance. And you see the news that Trent Williams might be out for the season. Yeah. Yeah, that's going to hurt fifth string running back Patrick Taylor a little bit. Yeah. Or whoever else gets opportunities. On Sunday night, we get the Buccaneers, 8-6, taking on the 6-8 Dallas Cowboys. Tampa road favorites by four, over-unders 48. That is the highest of the week. We have some news here. Baker Mayfield, Laser Mayfield himself, could be the new Kirk Cousins of Primes.

of primetime. He has lost. Oh, no. Eight straight primetime starts. Laser? What's going on? He didn't even want to hit the button. Phasers and lasers can't handle primetime? Laser. I think he can. I'm not too worried about history of wins and losses. I care about performances. That was the thing with Kirk Cousins for a long time was he can't ever win the big game. And you go and you look at the statistics, it's like, it wasn't his fault. He was playing pretty well. He had a couple really bad personal performances to start that run and then was very good, but

they kept losing and it got overblown. This is a fun game. It is. I think that the Dallas Cowboys defense is not what it once was. And then they lost digs once it started getting better. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense is destroyed as well. You have at least... Cooper Rush is capable enough, I think, against this Buccaneers team to score and keep Baker on the field having to widen the gap. The Buccaneers implied point hole is 26. It's the highest over under the week. It's one of the reasons I like Jalen McMillan a lot. The hot and injuries is another reason.

The fact that he's been on an upward trend as a young rookie who's finally, you know, catching a higher percentage of his pass is getting on the same page. I like him as a flex. Evans is in your lineup. Rashad White's been the RB10 since week seven. He's in your lineup. Bucky Irving, if he's active, you got to play him. That's where I'm at. Yeah, that's where I am too. He's just too... He's too good. And I think if he's active... He's been limited this week in practice. Yeah. It's not the same terror as last week where it was like just nothing.

You're like, I hope he's okay. Mike, you are inching very close on your bold prediction show. You had said Rico Dotto would be a top 20 running back. He is RB23 in total points, 27 in fantasy points per game. And is playing in semifinal matchups. Is he playing on your team? You're darn right he is. So I'm facing Dotto. You will. And it's wild when you'd much rather have him on your team than Romandre for this matchup. His career highs in rushing yardage have been 112. Then he went to 131. Then he went to 149. Top 10 performances in three straight weeks.

Huh. It was the giant Cincinnati and Carolina. So we're going to contextualize it. Those are juicy. But 19 for 86 against Washington before that run happened. Has not been catching the ball as much. No. With Cooper Rush. That has been... He had plenty of games with Cooper Rush catching passes. I mean, Rush has been the starter since week 10. It has been lately, though, that it has disappeared. Mike McCarthy. Let's get the... Let's get the passes dialed up here. But also, you're welcome, Mike. Yeah. Freaking idiots. Are you talking to yourself? No, I'm talking to Coach Mike McCarthy. There's too many Mikes.

Thank you, Mike. You're welcome, Mike. Yeah. No, I know there's a little bit too many of us. Tampa's been number one against the run the last six weeks. So maybe that's a red flag for a big game. I don't know. But Rico Dattles in a lot of lineups. And, you know, it's been nice that CeeDee Lamb has been getting it done with Cooper Rush. Yes. Despite him being banged up. And he will get it done again. It seems that way. And then I think we're just staying away from the tight end position in Dallas at this point. Yeah, it's unfortunate.

Yeah, it's not been good since Ferguson's returned. So I think that summarizes that one pretty good. Monday, we got the 5-9 Saints against the 10-4 Green Bay Packers, where Green Bay is now sitting as a 14-point home favorite. It's my favorite defense of the week, the Packers, at home against Spencer Rattler and nobody else. The over-under is 42 points. That gives the Saints the lowest of the week, 14 points on offense. I really don't know how they move the football. I don't think Kendrick Miller is... It's hard for Kamara to produce when the offense is this bad, and he still finds a way, generally, in the passing game.