Week 15 Matchups + In-or-Out, Cookin’ by the Book

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Visit get roman.com slash footballers. That's get roman.com slash footballers for a free visit to get started. Get roman.com slash footballers. All right. Jacksonville at four and nine. Collapsing. Heads to Oakland against the Raiders at six and seven. Collapsing. Raiders are six and a half point favorites, 45 and a half point over under. I thought about making this my almost upset, but I don't care enough.

I totally get that. I was looking at this game. You know, we do, we do picks in the office here of just, you know, picking the winners of every game, a fun little price pool. And I got to this game. I'm like, man, these two teams have just been just on a downward spiral. And one of these teams has to not lose this week. So I just went with the home team.

But, I mean, the vibes have just been so bad for these two teams over the last month. It's crazy because the Raiders are heavy favorites. They could get to 500, which seems like you're pretty happy as an organization through 14 games in Oakland year two with John Gruden at 7 to 7, right? But isn't it, it's quite different when you battle back to 7 and 7 and you're on a hot streak versus like kind of salvaging?

It's just been gross for both of these teams. Jacksonville kind of seemed like they were going to be competitive to start this year. He went from Gardner to Foles back to Gardner, who hasn't looked good since his return. They lost Ramsey on defense at first just holding out and saying he doesn't want to be there and then getting traded. And that's obviously caused a lot of domino effects on that defense because the Jacksonville defense, which was once mighty, is...

And it's just a smash play. Like, you know, Mike, your start of the week is Josh Jacobs or DeAndre Washington. Yep, doesn't matter. Whoever gets the luxury of facing the Jaguars. They're allowing 230 yards a game. Like, it's preposterous how bad they are. To running back. To running backs. To running backs. Yeah. That's a lot.

A hundred is a lot. Impressive work. There's a reason Josh Jacobs and then if he's out, DeAndre Washington are guaranteed auto starts this week at the running back position. The Raiders defense is really bad as well. If you look at how they rank over the course of the season, you know, they're terrible. They're in the bottom 10 against every single position. Leonard Fernett, he's in your lineup. He has been for a while. DJ Chark has not practiced.

The last thing I read is that he's pushing hard to play in this game. If he's active, is he of the- Is he going to play on his scooter? Is he of the tier and ability? Nine for 75 last week in limited work. He's a good player, but he's on a scooter. Yeah, but are you going to play? Let me give you a situation, Mike. DJ Shark is active. Okay. Do you play him over Larry Fitzgerald? I think you do. Yeah. Do you play him over Christian Kirk? No. No.

I think you do. I'll play Kirk. I would definitely play Kirk. I don't, I, I'm not of the opinion that if a guy is active, I'm going to, who has that kind of ability against the worst defense maybe in football, giving up the most 20 plus yard plays to a guy that has probably the most 20 plus yards play, yard plays in football. I'm just going to put him in. Do you want to play him or Adam Thielen? Oh, I'll play DJ Shark. Okay. Yeah. I'm terrified of Adam Thielen, so.

that's one of those ones where it's been, it's been a while. And he's burned you since he's come back. You're both afraid of Chark if he's active. Yes, I am afraid of Chark if he's active. This is an injury that was expected to keep him out pretty, you know, conclusively. And so he's pushing to play. That's great. He traveled with the team. And that's great. On his scooter. Right. I'll see you there. I'm coming. Just tie the rope to the plane.

Yeah, but I worry about the limitations from the injury. And then you take the injury away and you say, okay, well, he's obviously had some great games, especially with Gardner. But he's, you know, since week nine, he's been the wide receiver 31, which is, that's okay. It's not unusable for fantasy, but it's not like he's been how he was the first five weeks of the season when he was a top five wide receiver in a while. And then you add in.

the hobbled ankle. Now, the matchup is good. And honestly, if he's back, I think it's great news for Gardner Minshu and for the over-under in this line to just be able to move more. But I don't know that he's going to do enough to make you happy as a fantasy owner.

Gardner at one point in time was a pretty solid streaming candidate. He's not in this matchup. Is that where you're at because of the Chark injury and the momentum of this team? Yeah, that's where I lean. If Chark was active, Minchu probably would have been my streamer. Okay. D.D. Westbrook? Without DJ, are you willing to play D.D.D. Yes. I'm willing to play both D.D. and Chris Conley. I, if you have to choose between the two, I would go Dedy. I, man.

I guess I go Didi. It seems like a floor ceiling type of playlists. Okay, you played against Lamar Jackson last night, Jason. Yes. You playing Didi or are you playing Chris Conley? I am playing Didi because I expect Didi to have more fantasy points. But I get your point is that if you're in one of those situations where you need a higher ceiling, you know, we saw someone say that they are pivoting from Marlon Mack to Rahim Moster.

That one makes a lot of sense. You really want the ceiling play. Mac doesn't have the matchup that says multi-touchdowns are in the realm of possibility. But I don't know that Conley has any higher potential for a touchdown than D.D.E. does. Now, according to pro football focus, Trayvon Mullen will be guarding Chris Conley, and that is the DB that just gave up the two touchdowns to A.J. Brown. Not saying that Chris Conley is A.J. Brown. That's not what I'm saying.

You, if you will allow big plays. No? No, all right. I'm just trying to talk. I think DJ Charks can have a monster game. That's what I believe it. DJ. DJ. DJ is going to have a huge game against Oakland. He is on the precipice of both double digit touchdowns in a thousand yards season. He's turning the right direction. That's what I believe. I wouldn't play D.D.D. or Chris Conley if Chark was acting. That's where I was going to look. If Chark surprises to me.

Not surprising candy. Sure, absolutely. Then I'm out on Conley. Tyrell Williams, news came out, still bothered by plantar fasciitis. Maybe that explains why beginning of the year, Tyrell was so much more consistent looking than end of year. But you can't play Tyrell Williams right now. There's no trust there. Darren Waller has a 23% target share. He's going to be in your lineup. Yes. You have to play him. Outside of that, you're not looking at Derek Carr at all.

despite how bad Jacksonville's been, because you just have better things to do with your life. Yeah, I mean, you know, maybe Josh Jacobs or DeAndre Washington's touchdowns come via receptions. That's how Derek Carr gets it done, but you're not going to bank on that because I think they're going to come via carries. Vikings, 9 and 4 take on the Philip Rivers led chargers, who are 5 and 8. Chargers have allowed one top 12 quarterback performance.

This entire year. That's tied with the Ravens for the fewest. Kirk Cousins. What do you do with Kirk Cousins on the road then? Because he has been so trustworthy as a fantasy quarterback could have Adam Thielen back. Where are you out with Kirk Cousins? I'm following those matchups. And it's not just that they haven't allowed a single top 12 performance. And that was Deshaun Watson in week three. But you're talking.

These quarterbacks are ending up in the 20s. And that includes, so Jacksonville last week, Denver, the week before, not tough matchups, but Kansas City was four weeks ago. The Chargers defense against the pass is totally legitimate. Kirk Cousins, maybe if he was at home, I would be willing to do it, but I don't. And I, like, this is the point of the.

I would still lean picking the Vikings to win this game, but the Chargers could easily end up winning. This is one that I thought about making the upset as well. I was right on the edge. Part of the reason that the Chargers defense has been so good against quarterbacks against wide receivers. It's very similar to what we've seen in Kansas City and in Buffalo, which is part of the reason is because they are very beatable on the ground. And if you look at the Vikings, part of it.

I mean, just the sense of whatever points are scored or divvied up to different positions. And when you can run on the team, those points go to the running back position and not to wide receiver, not to quarterback. And this is a team and the Vikings that want to run the ball. They want to be a running and defensive-minded team. Great matchup here for Dalvin Cook. And so, yeah, I would hesitate to start Kirk. I don't think he's going to kill you. You know, I expect him to be the...

quarterback 15 or 16. So you could, you could do worse, but I don't think he's the upside option you're looking for in the playoffs against the Chargers. All right, Dalvin Cook. Yep. Dalvin Kuk, sorry. Oh, Dalvin Kuk. Kuk. Melvin Gordon on the other side, I've heard from a lot of people in the industry, big fans of Melvin Gordon this week, are you two on board? I'm fine with them. I mean, I... Really?

People are big fans. I mean, I'm fine playing. Marvel Gord's in your lineup, but I'm not projecting him to be like a running back one this week. He's been the RB 9 over the last eight games, 17.5 opportunities per game. Pretty safe baseline? Yeah, he's had a safe baseline. He's really disappointed when it comes those big monster games that he was giving you week in and week out last year.

A lot of that's been, you know, the touchdown rate that he had last year was pretty high. But yeah, you're starting Melvin Gordon. You're starting Austin Echler. But, you know, this isn't a smash matchup. The Vikings are top 10 against running backs, giving up only 18.4 fantasy points per game to the position. In the past two months, really the only team to really have a ton of success against the Vikings at the running back position that was Seattle. Okay. Austin Eccler?

Yeah, you always play him. Yeah. Mike Williams and Keenan Allen. What do you do with the Chargers wide receivers? Mike Williams finally got into the end zone last week. He's actually had a couple of really impressive performances in a row. Keenan has kind of just not given you anything special, but he's been pretty reliable. I don't like the disparity between them.

As far as the rank that Keenan seems like an auto start. And Mike Williams seems like a flex option. You think they're closer together? I do. I totally agree. Mike Williams is a sneaky good play this week. Yeah. It's been pretty nice throwing the ball on Minnesota for a lot of this year. Yeah. I mean, last week, 63 to touchdown, 117 yards, 76 yards. Mike Williams has been. Mike Williams has been.

Pretty good. He just hasn't gotten the touchdown. He had the Robert Wood syndrome. So he just felt like, hey, Mike Williams, he just kind of gives me some points, but he never explodes. Mike Williams is a great spot here. There's a handful of these situations where the one, two, the disparity is so big, and you just don't understand necessarily why based on the match of John Brown. Cole Beasley is another one of those. Right. Where, you know, John Brown gets all the credit, and Cole Beasley is ignored week in and week out. Diggs on the other side, Adam Thielen,

You know, if Thielen's active, it's a simple question. Are you going to play him? Are you going to worry about losing him during this game? There's a huge combination here of things not in his favor. There's the fact that he's already come back and hurt himself. He's missed obviously a lot of games. So now you worry about the injury. But then...