Christmas Eve Extravaganza! + Week 16 Matchups, Fantasy Grinches - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/24

$40,000 for violating COVID-19 protocols. They also stripped his captain status. Oh, did they? Yeah, which seemed appropriate. Look at me. I'm the captain now. He's going to start. Dwayne Haskins is going to be the quarterback. You don't think there's a chance Alex Smith is out there? Okay, so I guess if Alex Smith is healthy, he's the guy, but I don't... He was limited on Wednesday. There's a chance. But I'm just saying Haskins is not going to be benched. He's going to play. The worst part is knowing Ron Rivera, knowing what happened this week, knowing...

where Dwayne Haskins was on the depth chart when Kyle Allen was healthy. The last thing on this earth that Ron Rivera wants to do is start Dwayne Haskins. So if he has to start him, that is just back against the wall, no other options at all. So any other news that we need to talk about? I mean, getting back to the Hanson thing, like if QT was out, Hanson's a good start this week, right? Yes. Yeah, he should be guaranteed enough volume. Obviously, Brandon Cooks would, you know, be a good start as well.

Yeah, what about Jordan Aitkins? Nope. Okay. Can he catch with his bicep yet? Uh, no. He keeps trying. Yeah, I know. All right, we have the fantasy forecast, all 16 matchups to break down. Before we do that, we want to say thank you to our sponsors to keep this show going, keep the lights on, and allow us to reinforce the roof in case somebody's trying to break in. Santa's not getting in here. All right.

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It's not, you know, it's, it's, it's not prepped. I didn't get a good night's sleep like I, I, I do for a megaladon, and my body is freaking out. You were up late? Uh, yeah, I mean, normally, like midnight. Okay. That's, that's, that's just, that's called bedtime. All right. Uh, but you want to know, uh, how I was in my house? I was safe. Thanks to simply safe.

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60-day risk-free trial, so there's nothing to lose. Visit Simplysafe.com slash footballers for your free security camera today. That's Simplysafe.com slash footballers. Fantasy forecast. All right, the week 16 matchups, all of them, each and every one, all 16 of them, bound to happen right now, right here. Here we go. We do have one game on Friday, Christmasfootball.com. Oh, man. Three on Saturday.

11 on Sunday, 1 on Monday. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday for Championship Week. Happy days. We hope. We help their happy days. It is important in this championship week. I mean, we're used to the Thursday night football, get your players out of the flex. But with the games so spread out, if your players are playing early, if you're in those first three games, make sure you get them out of your flex. So you've got, you know, room, especially this time of year.

Players could pop up on COVID last minute. You need to have flexibility Sunday morning in your championship game. Yeah, and when you're tilting, try to spread that maximum tilt out over all four days. You don't want it to just really overwhelm one day. All right, let's start with the game that Mike and I will be hoping gets us off to a very nice championship start. I hope it gets you off to one as well. The Minnesota Vikings on Christmas Day taking on the Norland Saints.

who are 10 and 4 Vikings 6 and 8. Saints are 6.5 point favorites. It's a 50 and a half point over under. I'm excited about this game. This is a great Christmas Day matchup. A lot of exciting, relevant fantasy players involved in this game. Drew Brees, Kurt Cousins. It's going to be fun. Dalvin Cook, this is a something's got to give situation. Dalvin Cook has been unbelievable throughout the year. Obviously, a...

on a lot of championship teams. And here he is facing the New Orleans Saints defense that is one of the best in football, the best in football against the running back position. I mean, it's irrelevant. It's 100% irrelevant. If there's a defense that can shut him down, sure, it could be the Saints. But the two best defenses against the run by an enormous margin.

are the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he just played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And they did stifle him. He was only the running back 11. He was still an RB1, but he wasn't like top three. And that's kind of what I expect here. We're going to need a little more. You're going to want a little more. You're going to need a little bit more from other players because I don't think he's the running back one on the week against the Saints. But he's just too good. Some guys can't be stopped.

41 opportunities three weeks ago, 26, two weeks ago, 29 last week, he will keep, well, they'll give him the ball. And then it's a matter of playing the odds. Does Alvin Cook find a way, the way that Miles Sanders found a way against the Saints? I wish he was playing Detroit. That would be better. But, you know, whatever. All right. You're still playing Dalvin Kumar. You're still playing Alvin Kamara each and every week. He should have a nice week this week. Games.

without Michael Thomas, 21.4 opportunities per game, including nine targets. He has Drew Breeze back. We should feel us comfortable with standard issue, Alvin Camara, this week. Emmanuel Sanders. I think he's an interesting name this week. I like Emmanuel Sanders. I mean, the last three weeks, he's been averaging about 15% of the targets. This was, you know, Drew Breeze, if you watch the game,

Drew Brees looked a little bit concerned about his body. This was not the normal Drew Brees you see. I believe it was even Romo was calling the game saying, you know, Breeze looks shaky, give him some time. So I expect Drew Brees to be a lot better in this game, especially in a better match against Minnesota. I like Emmanuel Sanders as a potential waiver-wire guy that you could just pick up and throw right into your flex.

Yeah, I agree. And Breeze looked so bad to start that game last week. I thought, I was like, is this the end? But he got it together by the end. So I agree. He should be better this week than he was last week. And Breeze is someone that I think you could play. He was in consideration when I was looking at starts of the week. Because I, you know, the matchup is there. He's.

good, but obviously being down Michael Thomas is not a positive in the pros and cons columns. I can't trust Jared Cook, too, after last week. That seems concerning. I don't know. The opportunity's there. You could take your shot. Yeah, the opportunity and the matchup is solid for Jared Cook, so that is unfortunate. Yeah, so I put you in a position where, I mean, let me, I play Jared Cook over Cole Kamat. I'll play Jared Cook over, would you play him over Irv Smith in the same matchup?

Yeah, Irv Smith is only in play for me if Carl Rudolph is actually out. Adam Thieland, Justin Jefferson, both in your lineup. No questions asked. For what it's worth, Justin Jefferson coming on to the scene. Adam Thielen averaged 9.2 targets per game from 2017 to 2018. He's averaged 6.3 targets per game this year. So Justin Jefferson making his mark going to be a player we talk about for the next 10 plus years, I think. Hopefully.

All right, we're ready to move on to the Saturday matchups? Yep. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 9 and 5,000, 5 and 9. The Buccaneers are 9.5 point favorites. It's a 53.5 point over and under. The situation right now in Detroit with the coaching staff, it's not good, and the wide receiver coach, Robert Prince, will be the interim head coach on Saturday. Now, Darrell Bevel was calling plays. Right.

So now the wide receiver coach, Robert Prince, will be calling plays. Both teams have gotten it done through the air this year. Detroit has the six most passing yards. Matthew Stafford will be playing in this game. And then Tom Brady got it done last week. Jason started the week last week. And really two yards away from a four touchdown 400-yard game. Are we feeling very, very confident here? I mean, you know I am. Yes. Yeah, I'm extremely confident in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The weapons, everyone is in play here for them. Yes, the wide receiver roulette game you have to play. It's not, you know, it's not the sturdiest situation, but you know that there's going to be a bunch of production to go around. I, the storyline to me is what type of a play call do the Detroit Lions go with? I mean, I imagine they script up, you know, as much as they possibly can. Like Darrell, the Beville will give them a sheet and says,

You know, please follow this as close as you possibly can to open the game. Because things had turned around. Matthew Stafford was going down the field. Over 20% of his throats are big-time throws. Like last year when we saw Matthew Stafford really turn into a fantasy stud. That won't change here. I don't think it can't. I don't think it will, but I'm just saying that that's a variable now that is in play. Yeah, I, this is going to be a lopsided game. That's the way I see it. Coaching matters in the NFL.

This is going to be a unique experience. You remember when, you know, I would say quarterback matters in the NFL as well. Remember when there was a, you know, no quarterback for the... When there was a wide receiver playing quarterback? Here is the list of changes. The head coach, the offensive play caller, the defensive play caller, the defensive backs, the linebackers, and defensive line coaches.

All are totally different people. They put out an official tweet of, you know, Ty Warren, who is going to be the defensive line coach, who was the minority coaching assistant. Everybody's in new roles this week. Right. Like, I don't know what that, we don't know what that looks like. We've never seen anything like it, but it does say, start your buck in the ears. That's what it says to me. Yeah. And this is a game, like you said.

Nine and a half point favorites. The Buccaneers are favored in this game. Detroit's defense has been atrocious. Having backup coaches is not going to help the defense. And Matthew Stafford, if anything, will be given more control over the offense because of that position. Marvin Jones, we're going to talk about him later. He has been heavily, heavily targeted over the last four to five weeks. Kenny Gulliday will not play. Marvin Jones is a must start for me. I'm with that. Yeah. DeAndre Swift, 73%.

Of the snaps last week, that's a career high. Tampa Bay is allowing the most running back receptions in the NFL. There is upside for DeAndre Swift this week. Yeah, and speaking of heavily targeted, the dude just is automatic. It's five targets. You're going to get five targets. Is that what he's done every week? Yes. I mean, the last four games, it has been five targets. He only has one game where he has four, fewer than.

Four targets this week. And it's really important in this matchup because while the Buccaneers do give up targets to the running back position, they are outstanding on the ground. You're not going to run easily against them. So it's nice that Swift's involvement in the air that gives me the confidence to play him. We'll talk more about Brady later. It's a great matchup. The lions are awful across the board. Ronald Jones is not expected to play, which means Leonard Fernette is interesting. 100% in play.