Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 16 Christmas Episode Part 1, Starts, Sits, Matchups

Oh, yeah, you have to start him this week. You cannot trust anything in Miami. He had 18 snaps last week. Ejai had 31 snaps. You're talking about the culmination of four years of grand misuse of Lamar Miller in Miami. I don't want to roll him out there. I don't know what Guns Mahoney's going to do. I don't know if it'll be... There were reports about a quad injury for Lamar Miller. And Dan Campbell came out and said...

It had nothing to do with him not being out there in the second half. That makes me feel great. Does Dan Campbell do curls during his press conferences? I'll admit I haven't watched. But I imagine him saying, like, injury had nothing to do with that. And then he does like a clean and jerk. I think Lamar Miller thinks he's a jerk. I'll tell you that. All right. My wide receiver said of the week is Alan Hearns. It's Alan Hearns.

Here's this past five weeks. He had three, then six, then a zero when he was injured. He came back. Take that out. I'm just saying. And then 20 when he came back in five last week, he's almost dropped out of the wide receiver two stats-wise, okay, on the season. And yes, he could have a great game against the Saints. I understand that he's been good this year. But I'm looking at that trend, okay? And I've got one good week out of the last five plus a small amount of injury concern. It's just somebody that I would love to start.

Tyler Lockett over Alan Hearns this week, okay? Yeah, I'd like to start a Decker. I'd like to start a bunch of other players. I'd like to start Decker just every week. There was a time when it was Hearns over Decker. Yeah, that's fair. No, I really like what you're saying. You don't have time in the championship week to check out trends and be like, I'm just not sure about these guys. Yeah, feel it out, you're saying. And so that's very similar to what I've got in my sit of the week right now in Jordan Matthews at wide receiver. Jordan Matthews.

Man, he looked great last game. He caught eight balls, a lot of yards, got a breakaway touchdown over 100. So it's like, is this the new norm? Is this the beginning of a new trend? I don't have time to check that out and see if it is because most of his games, he's been getting three receptions, and I don't want that from my wide receiver. I am not going to chase last week yet again with Jordan Matthews in the championship week. And I'm going to sit an entire group, and that is T.Y. Hilton.

and the Colts pass catchers. But here's T.Y. Hilton. In the last five weeks, these include games of 2 for 21, 3 for 36, and 3 for 29. I cannot trust T.Y. Hilton right now. The reports are that Matt Hasselbeck will indeed start again. There's no way he finishes. I don't know what they're doing in Indianapolis. I understand that Matt Hasselbeck is a better quarterback than Charlie Whitehurst. But at some point, you have to have consideration.

for Matt Hasselbeck as a human being. But Mike, but Mike, T.Y. Hilton, he's gone three points, then 23, then five, then 15, then four. So doesn't that mean he's gonna have a big blowup game? He's riding the hills? Yeah. Absolutely, could he? Sure. Am I gonna trust that? No, not at all. Not at all. I'm glad we got that taken care of. All right, tight-in sits this week. I'm going to...

Hold off on telling you mine because Mike and I disagree a lot about this guy. We sure do. Mike has him as his start of the week and I have him as my sit. And so the fantasy world out there, the listeners, they might say things like, boy, I wish you guys would just agree on everything and then I'd know who to play. But the truth of the matter is it's interpretive, right? You look at the data and you're reading that and we both are kind of interpreting differently.

this tight-in. So I will save that. We will get to our starts, and then we will have a little bit of a face-off about this guy. So you guys are up, tight-in sit-of-the-week. Go, Jay. My tight-ins sit-of-the-week this week is Austin. He got in, you got a touchdown last week. He is used in the Red Zone. So I'm not saying that you can't start this guy if you're desperate. He is a Red Zone target, and you need that for guys that you start.

But in a championship week, I really hope you have better than ASJ. If you've got a guy that gets volume, I want that more. Because we're talking about three weeks straight that he's had three total catches every week. I mean, in the last month, he hasn't had 10 total catches. That's just not a guy I want to ride in my championship game. As much as I like him, he hasn't materialized into the target levels that you would have thought with Vincent Jackson going down and him getting healthy.

So I can't really argue with the numbers. You have to follow the numbers. Yeah, I'm looking at those. He's had six targets the last three weeks. And the week where he blew up for 110 yards, he had seven targets. So that's not a target volume of a guy that you can expect a monster game. You're talking about from week one? Correct. Week one, if you go back and watch the tape, too, it was one of the plays was a completely...

broken tackle. I mean, it was not like a normal play for us. So I agree. He's a guy you can play if you're really stuck, but you've got to lower your expectations. All right, all right. And then we'll talk about mine here in a little bit with Mike. Starts of the week. All right. These are guys we like a lot this week. If you don't have better options, these are guys that might slide up your board based on what we're telling you here. So, Jason, yo. Why do you like Philip Rivers?

Oh, Philip Rivers is my quarterback start of the week. I really like him, and the number one reason I like him is Melvin Gordon. Melvin Gordon has been placed on injured reserve. They have since, I don't blame San Diego for doing what they've done by taking Danny Woodhead a really great...

capable, high-performing player and putting him completely to the wayside and saying, hey, we drafted this rookie in the first round in Melvin Gordon. I got to give him the ball over and over and over and try and keep trying to be this running team that we're not. Well, Melvin Gordon's gone, which means Danny Woodhead is back. We saw last week Danny Woodhead went completely nuts. And so now you've got Stevie Johnson.

Coming back, he's practicing, might be on the field. Danny Woodhead out there, and this is a matchup where I expect a lot of points on the board. You saw him go nuts last week, so I think Philip Rivers is a high potential play. Now, you are a Thursday night decision with Philip Rivers. That's the one thing I really don't enjoy about it, but I like Philip Rivers more than, you know, several other quarterbacks that are in the conversation of saying, hey, do I start Philip Rivers or Eli Manning? I would rather have Philip Rivers.

I think his matchup is better. You know, Alex Smith or Ryan Tannen or who you can't trust. You have rivers ahead of Tyrod Taylor. Yeah. Alex Smith. So my quarterback's start of the week is Captain Kirk. Wee! Hey, he faces Philadelphia. You heard the stat earlier, leading the league in completion percentage. Two straight 300-yard games.

I got him ahead of guys like Derek Carr, ahead of guys like Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tyraud Taylor this week. I think Kirk Cousins is a great start. You got the Saturday night game, and I'm going to ride him. I'm going to ride Kurt Cousins. If you're streaming this week, I don't mind it. And if you want to buy into history, if you recall, I think it was last year. Yeah, it hadn't been last year. When Kirk Cousins went completely bananas, that was against Philadelphia when he had the four or five touchdown passes.

My quarterback started the week. I'm going with Matt Stafford. The last four weeks, he's had at least 220 yards and two touchdowns. Which is incredible because he's had no Calvin Johnson. Yeah, that's a very great point. Golden Tate has been just fantastic. And in those four weeks, only one interception.

Matt Stafford really has turned around his season since they made the offensive coaching changes. He's got the 49ers this week at home. He's got a good matchup at home, so he's a guy that I think you can start if you are in a pinch. Now, to my running back, I'm going out a little bit on the limbs here. Going a little bit on the limbs. I'm going with Alfred Blue. Now, why is this on the limbs? Well, you know why. Yeah, because his name is Alfred Blue.

And he can severely disappoint you. But let's say you're in the running back purgatory and your waiver wire has been picked clean. Alfred Blue had 20 carries for 107 last week. The coach came out and said, complimented his running style. He ran really hard. Profusely, which you don't always get. And they're taking on Tennessee. You get the Houston defense against Zach Mettenberger.

I expect the game flow to point to Houston having to run, which is going to get Alfred Blue carries. If Alfred Blue gets volume and carries, then he has a good fantasy day. Yeah, I feel like that would be hard for me to start Alpha Blue. But, I mean, your logic is sound. It could definitely happen, but I would be just afraid. Would you start Alpha Blue or Christine Michael? Oh, man. That's very tough right there.

You have to imagine far less carries for Michael, but maybe more efficiency. Yeah, and he's, well, you never know. You never know with either of these teams what's going to happen with the running backs. I would, if I have them both on my roster, I think Michael has the more upside, but it's, I would lean, I guess I would lean Michael right now if I have to pick between the two.

So, we're in championship weeks. I wanted to pick a guy that I've been seeing in questions. I've got a lot of questions with, you know, four running backs. And this is one guy that's in a list of decisions very often. And that is Charkandric West. Charkandric West this week, I love. I am with Andy in not liking Alex Smith in this juicy matchup against the hapless Browns. I'm not that high on Jeremy Macklin because the Kansas City Chiefs want.

They prefer to be a run the ball, control the clock, defensive team. And they're going to be able to run the ball on the Browns, who are the worst run defense in the league. So I think Charkandric West here, we've seen two weeks in a row him break a long touchdown. One was called back two weeks ago, but last week it counted. And this week, I expect big, big things for Charkandric West. I can't imagine me having any running back combo that...

gets me to sit Charkandric West this week. I mean, there are, but it's going to be few and far between. I love Charr West. I loved him last week. People need to understand that Spencer Ware, obviously he was banged up last week. I think he was he active, but emergency, right? I don't even think he played. It's not going to be much different. He's facing a very tough injury on the ribs. And Charr West, he's my number one guy. He's your number one this week. He's my number one. Wow. All right. I love him. Look, my guy.

My start of the week is Latavius Murray against San Diego here on Thursday night. San Diego has given up 14 touchdowns to running backs and 14 games played this year. Latavius Murray, other than his game with Denver, Murray has produced at least 77 total yards or a touchdown in every game. Since the buy week, he ran at a good clip about 4 carry last week. I like Latavius Murray this week. I think the game flow and stuff is going to trend the right way. Jason is grimacing.

Well, I play against Latavis Murray this week. I did notice that there were several... Several of the sits on my roster and a couple of the starts on the roster I'm facing. This is no brain. Yeah, so Brandon... Brandon Cooks is my wide receiver. Start of the week. You saw it on...

the television screen on Monday night. He looked great. 100 plus and a score twice in the last three games, really ascending right now, faces Jacksonville, shootout potential with Jacksonville and Bortles and that offense against New Orleans. But obviously, Drew Brees has to be healthy to play Brandon Cooks. Sorry. But right now, he's number 12. He's a wide receiver one on the year. Is that every, is that from our league or is that every league?

Well, it's not every league probably. At least half point. At least half point BPR. He is number 12. The Gruden Grindr at the end of that game, the award went to Darius Slay because Darius Slay played unbelievably good defense and was matched up against Cook's all game. And Cooks went for over 100 yards. Ten catches. I mean, when you've got that.

That kind of a matchup and that kind of defense against the guy, and he's still producing at that level, you've got a guy that you do not sit under any circumstances. Standard, he's actually 11. There you go. There you go. Yeah, so who's your wide receiver start of the week, Jason? Oh, I'm rolling my same one. And when I saw one of the numbers that you're going to bust out, I couldn't believe it.