Starts of the Week + Week 13 Breakdown, Boom Boom Resumes - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/2

Chase. I don't think that you should necessarily. I'd love to be trolled on Twitter a second straight week for T. Higgins, but the yardage totals for Joe Burrow are very low right now. The secondary for the Chargers is very good. They only give up 23 points a game. I don't know if I would do it, but I might stand alone on that. Yeah, the matchup is the problem here. I actually...

I have been more pro T. Higgins, I think, than you two guys. He's been pretty good. Like, I know he hasn't had the touchdown. And we talk about his fantasy finish, not having these big, great performances. And obviously, the previous week to his nuclear week was where he was two for 15. So it was like, you had the buy week. He came back, was uninvolved. It's like, oh, I'm done with T. Higgins. But he's a good player.

Obviously, we saw that with 114 yards of a touchdown last week, but his three previous games, seven for 62 is a good game, four for 97's a good game, six for 78's a good game. He's involved. He's a fine play in most weeks. Now, this week, they are favored against a bad pass D, a good, or a bad run D, a good pass D. So I don't think it's the perfect game script for him. I'm still willing to flex him in.

But I'm not expecting a great game. Herbert, quarterback five on the week for us. No quarterback, according to Pro Football Focus, has a higher drop rate over-expected than Herbert. So 29 drops by his wide receivers. There was this stuff yesterday about, you know, does he throw the ball too hard? And Keenan Allen came out and said, if you think he throws the ball too hard, get on a jugs machine, learn to catch it. Throw me that ball every play.

I'd like you to throw Keenan Allen the ball in the end zone, please. Impossible. The last five weeks, Keenan Allen has seen double-digit targets. Alan, Echler, Herbert, you know, Jared Cook is always a dart throw at the tight-in position. And I think that this week with the matchup, the Bengals have been really kind of struggling against tight-ins over the last six weeks. I think you can take a shot there, especially DFS and stuff. I think he's the...

He's the best value dart throw tight-in in DFS. Jared Kuk. So you can go Kukh by the Buk. I would say it's Foster Moreau, but. That's fair. Mike Williams, though, is the biggest risk right now because he went from, hey, is he going to win your league with where you got him? And now he's got one good finish in the last six weeks, 72, 77, 41, 47, 10, and then 50.

But it's all changed. It's absurd. It is absurd. There is a conspiracy at this point. Against him? Or buy him. I mean, at the end, he could be the mastermind. I don't know. I do want to point something out because we talked about it two weeks ago when Justin Herbert finished quarterback one on the week. Last week he was the quarterback six and maybe you watched the game and you said, well, it didn't seem that way. It did not. But guess what? He ran the football again. Right.

Four for 36 last week, which doesn't seem like a lot, but 36 yards, that's a lot. The week before was the 9 for 90. You saw a few more designed runs. It unlocks the offense a little bit, and we said, boy, if he does that, it changes the floor, and you get that beautiful ceiling that Justin Herbert always offers. Yeah, I think Herbert is a fine play. He was almost my start of the week this week. I have no issue plugging him in my lineup at all, even if you're not sure.

whether Mike Williams will have a good game or not. He's in, and he gets so much from Austin Echler in the receiving game. Yeah, who would you rather have Austin Echler or Joe Mixing? In this game, it'd be the, I'll go, I'll stay with Joe Mixing. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I'll go mix him. The Minnesota Vikings at 5 and 6 take on the Detroit Lions. Oh, 10, and 1. The D.K. Sportsbook line Vikings minus 7 on the road, over unders 47 points.

You know, the Vikings, there's been a lot of the chatter. Let Kirk Cook, because without Dalvin Cook, it might be time to let Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen lead this offense. So Madison is a very good back. He is not the same as Dalvin Cook and what he represents for the offense. Correct. He's a great start this week. No question about it. But I am curious to see if...

you know, Kirk Cousins becomes more stable for fantasy players. And if it becomes something where, look, he's been top 10, three out of the last four weeks. He has Detroit. Then he has Pittsburgh, Chicago. So the playoffs, Chicago, the Rams, the Packers, not the best. But Justin Jefferson makes you pretty darn good. Yeah. Over the last two years, Kirk Cousins has four full games without Dalvin Cook. And he has.

averaged six more fantasy points per game in those matchups. So I really like Kirk Cousins this week. He's just been playing, he's been playing great for two years now. He's a, he's a funny guy, uh, because he mean like when he lined up under guard. That's exactly what I wanted to bring up of like how he's, he has played, he has played well this year. Uh,

And he's played well for fantasy. And then you have the plays where they're up against it. And he's scrambling to get the hurry up offense going. And somehow he goes and lines up under the guard. And then Dalvin Cook has to run and tell him.

Dude, you're not under center. And then they call a time out. He didn't notice himself. This is the same guy, if you remember. Oh, yes. Who was going down the field. They were almost, it was right before halftime. This is back in Washington. And, and they got the ball down. The clock is running out. And you've got to go down and spike the ball to get the field goal in. And he goes down, he snaps the ball. He takes a knee and runs the clock out. Instead of spiking it. What an idiot. Do you remember the look on Pierre Garcons?

when that happened? Oh, man. Yeah. Was that Garsohn? It was Pierre Garsohn that looked at him like, you are a, what are you doing? You like that? Your brain is going too fast. All right. To the game, though. Kurt Cousins, Madison, Jefferson, Theelin. They're all in. They're all in. I mean, Detroit is a delight. It's a delight. And on top of that, the two games, you know, week three and week five, we saw where Madison replaced Dalvin Cook, 30.

Plus opportunities in both of those games. There have been tiers in Detroit for years, tears for years. But this year, seven one score games that they've ended up 06 and 1 in. They do compete. It's everything I thought I'd see with Dan Campbell's team. You don't have the personnel you need, but they do fight and they do compete. Jared Goff, DeAndre Swift, probably out. Jamal Williams, solid RB2 this week. I think that's the ceiling that you get with a full-time player on a bad team. Yep.

That's right. You're going to touch the ball 20 times and have enough fantasy points to be plugged in your lineup. Nothing special unless he shockingly gets touchdowns. It's up to the receptions. Like, does the game plan still stay somewhat similar where DeAndre Swift was, that's where he was destroying people, was in the air? And Jamal Williams has that skill set. So does he see five plus receptions in this game? Because if he does, then he's a rock solid running back too.

Here's where we get interesting on the show because I think you should play Josh Reynolds system. Ooh, me too. I was going to bring him up. I wanted to make one of these guys my start of the week. I could not do it. Right. But legally. Yeah. They would have. They would have come and remove me from this chair. They hauled you off. But it's good. Let's have this discussion because on the year, the Vikings are 31st best against fantasy wide receivers. And in the last six weeks,

Dead last. Yeah, I mean, this is what Patrick Peterson is now on, not that he was much, but he's, I think, out. Is he? Yeah. And I don't know if it was COVID-I-R or what. Take a look at the Patrick Peterson situation. So it was already bad. But Josh Reynolds has a rapport with Jared Dawkins. Yeah, he's on the COVID list as of two days ago. Yeah, Jared Goff and Josh Reynolds, they played together. This was a tandem in...

Los Angeles. And last week you saw, I totally forgot about that. Yeah. I mean, this is last week you saw him on the field, 88% of the time, five targets had the big play. He's by far the best receiver they have. Yes. And Josh Reynolds, I think is a, is a good receiver. He left to go sign somewhere to be out of the shadow of, you know, Cooper Cop and Robert Woods. And then all of a sudden a big shadow comes over him. And he leaves that team. And now.

Wait, he got out of the shadow, then he... Oh, then he went right into another one of A.J. Brown. Well, he had his spot. He went to play opposite A.J. Brown. Yeah. And then Julio Jones shows up. He's like, Dagnaget. Leaves that team. That's a quote. Yeah. Definitely. And the Titans right now are kicking themselves. They're saying, Daggacket. Yeah. I mean, Josh Reynolds is in my lineup tomorrow. So is he in yours, too, Andy? Dang it. Yeah. He is.

Not currently in mind. Oh, all right. Well, he might not be now. We'll find out. TJ Hawkinson. He is in mine now. Okay. All right. Yeah, you can play Hawkinson. The Giants at 4 and 7 take on the 5 and 7 Miami Dolphins. The D.K. Sportsbook line here, Dolphins minus four and a half playing good football. The overrunners only 41 points in this game. So I think that is one of the storylines here. There was breaking news this morning that Freddie Kitchen says he expects Daniel Jones to play and start this game.

Thank goodness. So Mike Glennon on the bench again. Miami's won four straight games. They can make the playoffs. They play the Giants, then they have a buy, then they play the Jets, the Saints, the Titans. I think they can get in the playoffs here. Two is playing well, averaging 20 fancy points per game since returning from injury. You know, the Dolphins and the Eagles are both teams that were in the Sean Watson picture.

They're also probably still two teams that are in that picture. Probably. But the Jalen Hurts, Tua, maybe the future, maybe not. Like if you don't have to trade draft picks for a quarterback, if you don't have to trade draft picks and players for a quarterback, it does help your franchise if you found it. And Tua has come out and played well. I liked him in this game. Jalen Waddle is a must start right now. In fact, he has the second most receptions for a rookie wide receiver in the first 12 games of his career. That's wild.

What are you doing with Mike Gassicki? Because it feels like this emergence of Waddle has... Diminished? Put the brakes on the Gassicki. Do you remember when I said over the last five weeks that Kyle Pitts was the tight-in 23? I do. Yeah, that just happened. Michael Gassiki, as I call him, is 20. You went formal. Is the Titan 22. So he's not been good. Yeah, I don't have a great...

deal of confidence, the Giants defense has been really, really good. I think that's something that needs to be said here. Recently, they have been slowing people down. I mean, they won the game last week. That was supposed to be their strength coming into this season. In fact, them and the Washington football team were supposed to have good defenses, and they started the year not. But they have the personnel for it, and now they're, they are playing well. This is not a smash matchup. Seven points they gave up to Jalen Hurts last week and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Are you saying about Jalen Rager? Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe a good defense allows Jalen Rager to be targeted. I think that might be a good defense. That could be part of the plan. Would you play Mike Kosicki or Logan Thomas if he just picked him? Logan Thomas. Okay. How dare you? I'm checking for the people. I'm upset. Sequin Barclay, I think you have to start him, but lower your expectations. I think you can play Kenny Galladay. No, you can't. No.

You don't think so? No. That sentence has been part of our, like, kind of weekly routine. Okay. He's a disaster. Follow my logic here. The dolphins, they're a fine enough defense, but they have given up a lot of points, 30 points per game over the last six weeks to the wide receiver position. You probably don't have Sterling Shepard and Cadarius Tony. You got Daniel Jones back. I don't know, man. It seems like he should be able to have a decent game here.

I mean, he hasn't been able to. That's been the problem. I was in your camp a few weeks ago when they played the nice matchup Raiders or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who don't give it up on the ground and they do through the air and even his two targets. I mean, his floor is zero. Yeah, and Sterling Shepherd, though, we did have a tweet from yesterday saying from a verified, from Tom Rock underscore Newsday, Sterling Shepherd looks like someone who is on track to play.

And I would not play. Well, then would you play Shepard? I would play Sterling Shepard because those wide receiver points that the dolphins give up, it's from the slot. And that's where Shepard will be playing. So I'd be willing to start him in a pinch. But Kenny Gawad, no. Something's just not right with that connection so far. And it's like you had an elite wide receiver in fantasy. Just delete it. It's like Daniel Jones hates jazz.