Starts of the Week + Wk 13 Matchups, Ninja Smoke Bombs

end of season, this is where we wanted to see. Okay, he's the guy rest of season. It's not like Cooper Cups coming back in a week or two. And you had 97.5% of the snaps. That is an every play player on one of, if not the best offense in the league. You soak that volume up. Todd Gurley scored in every game this year except for week 11. Oh, what a loser. I bet he's pretty disappointed. I bet his honors were. I mean, you kind of.

You've come to expect something from Gurley, and if you don't get it now, you are disappointed, but he had the ankle injuries. He had the week off. Brandon Cooks has 100-plus receiving yards in three consecutive games. I love Cooks this week. He's got such a great floor to me, now that Cooper Cup is removed from the offense, and he also has the ceiling of the big play. So assuming he stays on the field, he stays healthy, Cooks is great. Yep. On the other side of the ball, Matthew Stafford.

Listen to this. Over the last nine weeks, Matthew Stafford is the quarterback what? Oh, man. Maybe you can see the note. I don't see it. I'm going to guess 22. 19. You were being generous. Yeah, you were. You're such a kind soul. However, the Rams have allowed a top five quarterback three weeks in a row. Akeed Talib could be back at Corner for Los Angeles. They are on the road. Any hope for Matthew Stafford? Nope. Yeah, not a lot. I mean, I would start Kenny Goladay because I feel like he is the...

The only legitimate pass-catching option. Oh, it's so smooth. Oh, bang. Even with Akeed-Talib, potentially returning? Yeah, it's similar to last week. You know, we had a slight disagreement. I had Kenny Galday as my start of the week in a bad matchup. And you go, well, it's tough. And I don't think this is a good matchup for him. But if they are down and have to throw the ball a lot,

He doesn't throw it anywhere else. There's just no, there's not enough other options. Like, he should not throw the ball several times. I'm predicting. I'm going to go out on a limb here. There's going to be several plays where he should not have thrown that ball to Kenny Galladay. But he's going to. He's a must start this week. I think we're probably muddying the water too much on him. He's been great for three weeks in a row. This past week, Marvin Jones went on injured reserve.

there's probably more questions about like, okay, some of you picked up Bruce Ellington off the waiver wire. He's had six catches two weeks in a row. If his full PPR, you can play Bruce Ellington as a safe floor because of the six catches. But what do you have like 39 yards? Yeah, he doesn't catch. He's basically a, you know, he's playing. CJ Usama. Right. Riddick out of the backfield or Bruce Ellington in a flex position. Who do you want? I would take Riddick. I would take Riddick. Assuming, now that's under the assumption.

that Caryon Johnson does not play. He was not practicing today, or I believe that was yesterday. We haven't seen today's report yet. It's not looking great, and I wouldn't rush him back. So assuming Caryon is out, Theoretic is actually pretty interesting to me for similar reasons to Kenny G. I mean, you pretty much have two weapons here.

Theo Riddick and Kenny G. Now, the only other question. Two touchdown on the Garrett Blunt, man. He's worth bringing up. I mean, I don't want to, but he had a great game. He looked good. He ran well. If it tells you anything about the current state of affairs for the Garrett Blunt, he had what, the best game of the season for him? For sure. Yeah, he hit the waiver wire like in one of our leagues this week because of, you know, he's the Garrett Blunt. When he scores, you go, you know, the clock.

struck 12. You know, it was just like a miracle. The stop clock is right two times a day. That's the feeling. Do you want Lagerie Blunt or Derek Henry? Hmm. I think I would go Henry. And I'm not happy about that. Sure. But I think I would go Henry. We've seen Henry with more juice than Lagerie Blunt. Let's go ahead and turn the page to the two and nine cardinals traveling to Green Bay.

To take on the 4-6-1 Packers, the Packers are 14-point favorites. Woo! Yeah, Lambo, 44.5 point over under. What are the big storylines? My goodness. The storyline is the 14-point. What do you do with David Johnson? You play him. You start him, and you are hoping that he gets a touchdown. Otherwise, you'll be a little bit disappointed, but the volume is there.

The talent is there. The offense is not. And so the nice thing is he is game script proof to some degree in the sense that he's such a good pass catcher. I mean, if you can bench David Johnson, then you're probably, you know, undefeated. You've got a great group of running backs. All right. Larry Fitzgerald, he.

Isn't doing much. No, the question, though, is the matchup where the Green Bay Packers on the season are 30th against fantasy wide receivers in the last six weeks, dead last or you could say 30 second best. Yeah, we're positive around here. So there's an opportunity for the pass catchers. And the game script is going to be in favor of the wide receivers for Arizona at least having to play catch up.

according to this 14 point, all the 14 point favorites that the Packers are. I don't think he's anything more than a wide receiver 3 play, though. The volume has been incredibly low for Larry. If Larry gets six targets, that's not enough with the type of targets he's getting. And that's on the road. Larry's not been good on the road. And six targets is the total targets he's received in the last two games.

combined. I cannot recommend anyone to start Larry Fitzgerald. Now, he's had three touchdowns in the last two games, you know, on four receptions. But even then, I mean, last week, he had a touchdown and you were disappointed because he had two receptions for 30 yards. So I can't recommend on the road, even in a great matchup, to play Larry Fitzgerald. I think you have to bench. When you have as low of a floor as the Cardinals' offense can have,

It was a shutout. From quarter to quarter, right? You really limit your options for Kirk, for Fitzgerald, for anybody. Green Bay, is this the medicine, the salve for all that ails their offense? Getting to face Arizona up in Green Bay, a couple of, you know, they haven't won a game on the road, but they've been great at home.

We expect them to win, but where do you find the fantasy value? I mean, Aaron Rogers is a must start this week. Devante Adams always. Aaron Jones, light them up. Aaron Jones is going to scorch the earth. I mean, Arizona has not been great against the run. They've been slightly better since they're by, but slightly. They're still bad.

On the season, they're the 30th best. The fact that they've been giving Aaron Jones more and more volume, more work, he's at home. I mean, obviously he's a must start in general in almost every matchup, but this one specifically, he could end up with 150 yards of two touchdowns all on the ground. And here's what we know this. In this matchup, heavy favorites, it's probably not going to just be Devante Adams that catches the football. Right.

But the confidence level of starting a Marquez Valdez Scantling, Equanimia, St. Brown, a Jimmy Graham. If you have to pick one, other pass catcher. If I'm forcing you to pick another pass catcher in Green Bay, his name is. Of those options, I would. Any of them. Any option. Randolph, you can throw them in there if you want to. I'm going to chase the recent targets of EQ. I think I'm going to stick with Valdez Scantling. I would go Jimmy Graham. I don't, I mean, this says the answer, which is.

It's so unpredictable there and there's not a clear cut too that I don't think I want that glory play. I don't want to call my shot. You want one of those famous three-sided coins. That's what you need to decide. Figure that out. Science. The 461 Browns take on the eight and three Texans. Texans playing well. Big performance against Tennessee. They're six-point favorites. This is a 48 point over under.

I don't think this is a great week for Baker Mayfield. That's why I pumped the brakes on him on the show yesterday. I don't think it's a top-end week for Nick Chubb. There are difficulties when you go up against an offense that has the defensive front that the Texans have and the momentum that they're currently playing with. Where are the opportunities in Cleveland? And, you know, if you had Nick Chub, you've been banking on him. He's been a...

He's still playing Nick Chubb. Well, how about this? Because I, this just comes straight to mind based on the last matchup. You've got David Johnson. You've got Nick Chubb. Nick Chub. Andy? Yes. I've got them back to back in my rankings. I have Chubb one spot ahead right now. I have, in my rankings, I actually have Chubb one spot behind David Johnson. But if I had to make that decision, I would take the guy who I think has the higher.

the higher ceiling between those two, and that's, to me, is Nick Chub. This is one of those where, you know, it's so close, it would be league scoring dependent. If you're in a PPR league, I would go David Johnson. If you're in a standard league, I would go Chubb. Antonio Calloway scored last week. Six receptions in the last two weeks, Nick Chub? Yes, but that's not usually his skill set and David Johnson. I'm just saying David Johnson. We don't know that, though. Okay, let me ask you this. Is Nick Chub capable of being the receiver that David Johnson is? No.

No, no, he's certainly not. Because I was only comparing him to David Jones. All right. Calloway. Snap count last week, 59%. That's on par with what Jarvis Landry is doing. He's on the outside. He's been better. Not been great. Any interest in a past catcher? No. Landry, Calloway, Higgins, In Joku. No, I would even consider. Oh, yeah, maybe David and Joku because of tight end. But even Landry.

I don't want to play him in this matchup if I can find a way. If I can find another player. The Browns are 27th in the league this season in fantasy points allowed to the running back position, giving up 26 fantasy points a game. Lamar Miller. Yes. You start him. Yes. Deshawn Watson. You've got to start Deshaun Watson at home in this game against the Browns. Kiki QT did not practice or was limited, I'm sorry, in Wednesday's practice.

Bill O'Brien says he's trending toward playing, but you run a risk now with Kiki QT with the hamstring injury. Was there a follow-up question? It was for how long? He's trending towards playing in week 13 for how much of the game? You can't start Kiki QT. But let's see how much of a lack of confidence you have in his hamstring. Are you looking at Demarius Thomas after the two touchdown week? Yeah, Demarius Thomas is a guy that I would be willing to start, but he's definitely not a

Get him in your lineup type of guy. He's my 32nd ranked standard scoring wide receiver right now. So that's one of those flex options. Prefer not to start him. If Kiki is ruled out, he'll get a slight bump up from there. Deshaun wants him. We're going to talk about him soon. He's our consensus QB10 on the week, but I really like him in this matchup. Yeah, I do too. And so we'll talk about him shortly because he's the start of the week. Oh. It's a secret. Oh. The six and five. Secret.

I just revealed it, didn't I? Yeah. The six and five Colts take on the three and eight Jags. This is another game when I looked at it and I wanted to pick a almost upset and I just said, nope, no, the Colts are going to win the game. The Jags are four point home. Dogs, did you guys hear Tom Coughlin defending all their offseason moves said he would put the gloves on to defend all of his offseason moves? No, I did not. I don't think they made. They made a ton.

No, but I'm saying I don't think there's off-season moves that I look at and go clearly bad decision. What off-season moves are getting the most criticism? Is it just Bortles? No, I mean, I think they made some changes on the defensive side, but specifically you let Alan Robinson go. You bring in Dante Mankrieve on the one-year deal. I don't know if you hang on to Bortles, right, with the fifth-year option. I don't know. I think Bortles is the biggest.

Problem. Yes, but I think that's the decision. I got a snake, man. That's the decision I believe they are most defending. Did Brooks take Blake Bortles off the desk? Yeah. He's on the bench. But he's got a snake, man. Literally, we got a bench over there. We put him on the bench. Cody Kessler. He's got earned his way back. I want you to know that Blake Bortles is the same Blake Bortles, whether he starts or he's on the bench.

He's the same man. Where is our Cody Kessler Pop? Pop doll? Yeah, they don't make those, Jay. Really? No. And also, Kessler is in that fun group with, what was it, McCoy, Daniel, and Driscoll? Correct. Those guys, and the answer is Case Keenum. Cody Castle is going to get the start in this game for Jacksonville. I think you can start the Coles defense. It's not been good for Jacksonville on offense.