Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 13 Review, Studs and Duds, MNF Preview, Fantasy News

a deep league flyer potential because he does target the tight end and Gabbard led them to a victory in Soldier Field. Vernon Davis with a concussion. It is concussion week. Yeah. Matt Hasselbeck last night, shoulder back injury. Talk about the implications for a Hasselbeck injury if he can't play next week. The implications would be that the Colts would be a terrible...

NFL team. You're not signing Charlie Whitehurst. I am not signing Charlie Whitehurst, but I am signing whoever they play. Who do the Colts play next week? Jacksonville. I would play the Jacksonville D against that Colts offense. And I'm not, while I would probably play other people over them, I'm not joking that I think they would be legitimate against Charlie Whitehurst. And I mean, you saw during the game, right, how late the calls were getting in.

every play because they're doing that translation thing where they're still running an offense with, you know, one, with the old play calling. And now they've got a new offensive coordinator that didn't know the terminology. And so he's sending it to the offensive coordinator who's then translating it and sending it in. Now you put Charlie Whitehurst in there. That's an offense I don't want to be a part of. Well, it's a good point. Even if Jacksonville's defense isn't great, the potential for a big mistake by Whitehurst for a pick six, for a fumble, you know.

return for a touchdown is there. Speaking of pick six. Yeah. We got... Oh, we do need to do a little water bet review, by the way. No. Because T.J. Yeldin rushed for a touchdown, and you owe me three waters. His first... That's his first touchdown on the ground, right? Yeah. I think so. First or second. I can't remember. So, pretty nice. How did Gordon do? Melvin Gordon did as Melvin Gordon do. Fumble.

Yeah, fourth fumble of the year. These rookies, that's another thing I've learned is that the rookie running backs don't know how to hold onto the ball. David Johnson fumbled as well, but he also did great. My start of the week. All right, last thing before we get into... Just whispers it in there. Yeah, very nice. Because we all were really down on David Johnson. All right, so last thing I want to mention is the mystery has been...

I mean, Austin Severian Jenkins is back. He has overcome whatever practice problems he had. He wasn't just practicing chess. He only played 21 to 71 snaps in his return, but he was the second most targeted receiver on that team. Drop to touchdown. Drop the touchdown. Still had, I think, three or four catches. But pay attention to him if you're desperate, like me, who has a Grankowski and needs somebody. So what are we doing next year? So before we get into our stud muffins and the pooped in their big boy pants segments,

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factually accurate statement. All right, let's get into the stud muffins. This week's fantasy stud muffins. You notice I let mine grow out a little bit more? It's a little bit thicker. I appreciate it. A little bit more Christmassy. Yeah. I've got the Christmas lights up this weekend, by the way. Ooh. Yeah. I even put some on the tree.

Wow. We're upgrading here. Fancy. All right. Quarterbacks, Russell Wilson, 21 for 274, three touchdowns, nine for 51, and a touchdown on the ground. Absolutely looked like he was toying with the defense, a very good defense. And so here to stay, and now has the Ravens next week. And what Russell Wilson's been doing is getting it done in the pocket.

That's been what's made the fantasy jump. I'll tell you what. He's always had the baseline of running, but now he's passing the ball mostly to Doug Baldwin. The problem for Russell Wilson was that Jimmy Graham character. Yeah, get him out of here. But I mean, that's a funny correlation. Of course, that is not serious. Yeah, yeah. Well, Russell Wilson's playing very well. That team is playing very well. So you can start Russell Wilson very, very confidently moving forward. Do we need to say anything else about Mr.

Cam Newton. Cameron Newton? No, not at all. He's a beast. You start him every week. Cam Newton had a monster week, five touchdowns. Marcus Mariotta had a monster game on the ground, including an 87-yard run, 24-268 in the air, three touchdowns, nine for 112 on the ground, takes on the jets in New York next week, temper the expectations, but Mariotta is getting it done. He has had three of these huge games this year. What is the potential for Mr. Mariotta to kind of...

I mean, the Jets defense is, they are not what they were to start the year. But I don't know. Can you really trust the rookie in this situation where the Jets, the Jets are playing for, for these, it's a big game. They're playing for the playoffs. Yep. At home, I'm, I don't know. It's, we've seen the potential is there for the monster games, but for all the monster games, he also gives you sub-double-digit games.

All right. Other big games. Blake Bortles, first five touchdown game for Mr. Bortles. Tyrod Taylor, Tom Brady, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Big Ben. Which of these guys is worthy of a fantasy discussion? Fitzpatrick having another great game. He got the game ball for his comeback. That was a 20 to 10 game. It looked like that game was all but over. Brandon Marshall, man. Brandon Marshall and Ryan Fitzpatrick are a combo. Brandon Marshall now has...

I believe a thousand yards receiving for four different franchises. First ever receiver in history. Wow. Yeah. He must be okay at the wide receiver position. Yeah. For Ryan Fitzpatrick, what we've always talked about is he's a great fantasy quarterback to start the year. But when will winter Ryan Fitzpatrick show up? And we know that winter is coming. But...

Winter is here, and he has continued to have his high-powered passing attack. At this point, I feel comfortable starting him, especially against the Titans. Yeah, me too. That's really the question. Week 1 of the playoffs potentially against the Titans, but at home. Yeah. I think that's fine. So we do rather play him, or would you rather play Tyrod Taylor at Philadelphia after that good big win from Philly? Uh...

I think I would rather start Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah, he's safer. Tyrod Taylor probably has the higher ceiling. Okay, all right. And then Big Ben did what Big Ben does. It didn't look that way to start the game. In fact, when the way the game began, I was going, oh, no, we said start Big Ben over Brady. In a lot of situations, he ends up with 364 and 4. And, you know, the weapons just eventually catch up to the defense. It seems like, you know, you cannot stop.

Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant, you know, Wheaton scored another touchdown. I had a dream last night that Martavis Bryant scored like six touchdowns. You had the dream after the game? Yes, yes. So, I mean, he's so good. You know, some of his, I mean, you've said this before, Andy, but like Randy Moss, he's the only guy that I feel like sometimes you see him streaking down the sideline, and he's just two yards from the defender. He catches it in his own little planet and runs away.

Yeah, it's just really hard to stop speed every snap of the entire game, and he just runs fly pattern. And how about Blaine Gabbard? Are you, is he in the stud muffins? He's got to be in there, man. Why? One touchdown pass? He had 75 yards on the ground. I contend that he should not be. Oh. And 75 yards and a touchdown on the ground, my man. Yeah, I know. That's... In our scoring format, 33 points. Okay. That's called a big game. All right.

Yeah, Blaine, Gabbert. Took overtime, but all right. It did. You get there, you get there. He finished as the 10th quarterback in standard scoring. He finished as a one. I wouldn't start him. I agree. He's got Cleveland next week. I still wouldn't start him. Yeah, maybe deep, deep, deep, deep. In twos. Yeah, two quarterback league. All right, wide receivers that blew up, we don't need to talk about that top guy. No. I had to face the...

I had to face the wide receiving core that is Alan Robinson. The target monster. Oh, I thought there was a raptor. It was very similar. Alan Robinson is having a humongous year, guys. Yes. Humongous. 10 for 153 and three touchdowns yesterday. Well, I guess we know that he will get his, regardless of Alan Hearns' availability.

Yeah, he's a stud and you just need to treat him like he was. 65 for almost 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns on the year so far for Alan Robinson. Yeah, and we're in week 13. That puts Alan Robinson year to date. He is the number four wide receiver in the National Football League fantasy standard scoring. Yeah, that's just an impressive.

Incredible year. A lot of it has to do with his second year, mixed with Bortles and his maturity and the willingness for that offense to finally wing it a little bit. You know, put it in the air. Let these guys make tough catches. It seems like Alan Robinson cannot be guarded on a slant pattern. I don't know how many of those 11 have been slants into the end zone.

Well, and the thing that makes him so valuable in the end zone is that he is so great at contested catches. When you put it up for him and another guy in kind of one of those jump balls, he normally comes down with it very similar to Des Bryant, who we said before the year was his closest statistical counterpart. So there were a lot of big wide receivers that had games, and they don't really have question marks around them. You know you're starting them in the playoffs. That's Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall. By the way, he caught...

12 balls on 13 targets. So a really efficient game for Brandon Marshall. AJ Green had another huge game. Hey, he's back. AJ Green. Yeah, people can't doubt AJ Green. Well, you can't. They can't. I understand that, that you cannot doubt Green, but he has been a little disappointing. But let's talk about, let's talk about some of the guys. I'm going to ask you about them. They had big weeks again, or big weeks that aren't necessarily started or kind of question mark guys. So let's start with Jeremy McClain.

Jeremy Maclin was 9 for 95, two touchdowns. He had, I believe, a one-yard run and like a one-yard pass, something to that extent. What is the thought on Jeremy Maclin moving forward? Because he's had a couple great games. We talked about the fact some of his lower games he was matched up with Denver in one of them, and then the other game was a blowout because of the defense. So do you guys buy into Maclin moving forward? Or is he still going to give you a dud? I buy into Jeremy Maclin now because...

We looked back at the matches, and I even gave him a semi-apology last week for mentally thinking he had been bad. But his matchups really played against him, and like you said, that game where they blew him out, well, his matchups going forward are San Diego, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Oakland. So those are all matchups where I don't expect him to be getting three for 48. How many games does he have left? Well, that's four. He went through Week 17. Week 17 is playoffs for some. Right.

He has to only accumulate 133 yards in those four games to hit 1,000 yards and get you wet, Jason, because we made that bet. Well, good. I'm happy for him. Great, Jeremy. I'm not wishing ill on you or in the ankle injuries. So you're starting Macklin. Yeah, absolutely. I'm starting Macklin with confidence. How about Doug Baldwin? Because now Doug Baldwin has three straight weeks.

A monster games. He is on fire with 5 for 94 and 2 touchdowns. The problem with Baldwin is still the targets. Seven targets. That's seven targets. That's not the volume you expect from a guy who's going to have a monster week. He's been highly efficient, but can you trust him with that? Well, I guess you're making the point with your efficiency comment, but let me give you some perspective. On the year, Alan Robinson is 65 catches.

Okay, for that 1080 and 11. Right. On the year, Doug Baldwin has 55 catches and eight touchdowns and almost 800 yards. So no, he's not a superstar, but he should be, I think, very firmly in the wide receiver 2-3 category. Oh, yeah, absolutely. To throw him out there, right? One of the reasons that you can get that out of Doug Baldwin, very similar to what we're seeing with Ted Ginn Jr.