Starts of the Week + Week 13 Breakdown, Spotty Starts, Funny Jokes - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/3

Multiple quarterback league, you might be able to sneak in a, you know, a second, you know, quarterback of Mitch Trubisky. I don't even think I'm rolling with Jimmy Graham. I think he is doing worse than Hayden Hurst. So, yeah, I mean, Alan Robinson, I think should have a great game. Trubisky scrambling because of the bad offensive line play has helped them sustain a few drives.

And so I think it's an upgrade for Alan Robinson at this point. And I'm happy. I'm thrilled to play those two and nobody else from the Bears. I agree with that. I think Mooney is in play as a lower, lower tier wide receiver before. Like if you're looking to lose your week, you could always slide them in. No, look, there's leagues out there that are three wide receiver and a flex. I get it. It was very empty, but it's still nine targets. And that was like,

Tribisky hadn't played football since, what, week two, week three? I just think there's got to be better options than Mooney. He's had one fantasy relevant week all year. I actually think that he is, you know, look, people are in different situations and, you know, take Al Borland, right? He's in a situation where he's wanting to lose. He's playing for a higher pick. And I think Darnell Mooney is a great play if you're in that situation where this is a legitimate option.

He's getting a lot of air yards, a lot of targets. You can justify it. And it's probably not going to help. I feel like it's the exact same. Like Mooney and Marvin Hall are in the same boat. If you do get lucky and they connect on something, I'm going to lean on the side of Matthew Stafford. You're not going to have Kenny Gallaudet out there. Marvin Jones, look, he's not really a high upside play against a really good Chicago Bears passing defense, in my opinion. So you're looking at...

You know, staffer's not an option to me. DeAndre Swift, if he's back on the field, he's going to get the majority of the work. And, okay, you could go, you could go Swift, but I just don't like what I'm seeing on the Detroit side. Yeah, I would start Swift. I realize it's not a great matchup against the Bears, but over the last six weeks, they're middle of the pack against running backs. And DeAndre Swift,

you know, was so good right before the injury. So I think Swift is fine. But yeah, you're really downgrading all the other pass-catching options against a very good Chicago bear defense. And, you know, outside of T.J. Hawkinson, I think he's, you know, it's funny when we look at these matchups with, we're talking about, oh, it's so hard. We don't like the passing games. But Hayden Hurst at T.J. Hawkinson are like, yeah, yeah, well, you got to start them because.

Titans are so crappy. The bar is so low. Cleveland Browns at 8 and 3. Tennessee Titans at 8 and 3. This is an exciting game. Titans are six point favorites, but it's got a 54 point over under. And, you know, Derek Yetty and company getting it going. I know Jason loves Ryan Tannahill this week in particular. This is the game you want this week. Highest over under.

And this over under says to me that I realize both these teams are run first teams. The passing games are going to matter in this game. You have two defenses that are not good at all against the pass. And when teams, you know, as the game goes on and teams start scoring, the passing game's going to open up for both teams. I really want the pieces in this game.

Yeah, I don't know if I'm as bullish as you are on Tandy Hill, but I definitely see the upside this week. And A.J. Brown gives you upside every week. So Brown, Henry, and then Tanyhill. Corey Davis is in play. He's actually our wide receiver 23 on the week. Yes, he is. And I have to bring him up here because he's my start of the week. We're going to talk about him later. Okay. Yeah, the Browns have been a lot better against the pass over the last six weeks, sixth than the NFL.

against opposing fantasy wide outs. Because they were assisted by the environment for three weeks. Sure, sure. That is possible. That is. Yeah, I mean, I think that's what happened. I've been talking about Baker and the fact that, you know, his chance to show the post-Odell Beckham, it just hasn't been there because of this unbelievable stretch of timing where almost every game since then, he's been in some kind of,

snow, sleep, wind, rain, bowl game. Haven't we had a chance to see him, though, all of the rest of his career? To know what he does at the quarterback position? I mean, I mean, I'm certainly not saying that Baker Mayfield is someone I want to start over other options. In a two quarterback league, I think Baker is in play and is fine because of the matchup, you know, but he can do enough.

Even if he throws a couple interceptions, it's like James. It's one of those things where, yes, it's not good for his fantasy production and it's not good for the Browns, but it's great for needing to throw more and get the wide receiver numbers up. I do think that this is, I think I would take the over on this game. Kareem Hunt, help me think about Kareem Hunt heading into the fantasy playoffs.

There are a couple of factors that are giving me some concern in terms of being able to rely on him. For one, he had his lowest, like, kind of percentage share of the rushing last week of the entire year. Since Chubb return, he's been the RB 13, 29, and 32, but it's more than that. It's not just last week. It's the fact that he's been dealing with this thigh injury, which he was once again...

quite limited in Wednesday's practice. It has me wondering if some of his workload reduction has to do with kind of monitoring and dealing with an injury. Sure. Where are you with Kareem Hunt? I'm sitting here in the league deciding between a player like Kareem Hunt or rolling out a like a Benny Snell if he's alone in the backfield next week. And I just don't know if I have the confidence in Hunt right now. I would say that between,

Between those two, if Benny Snell is, or if James Conner is out for Pittsburgh, then I would strongly consider going Benny Snell if this is a running back two situation. I am adjusting how I think of Kareem where he was, I mean, he was a locked in running back two and basically a borderline running back one. But I think that those under the radar things like you're talking about, Andy, the nursing and injury, Nick Chubb is.

fresh. I know he's coming back from an injury, but his body is fresh in terms of he has not taken a ton of NFL work, a ton of NFL body shots from professional defenders. And last week against Jacksonville, that was Nick Chubb's second highest snapshot of the season. In week two, he was at 62%. And this past week against Jacksonville, he was at 61% getting 20 opportunities again. We know the opportunities will be there.

If he's on the field and Kareem Hunt is not, then it seems like they are trying to get Kareem Hunt ready for a playoff push until we're sure that Kareem Hunt is back to that close to 50-50 times share. You've got to play him only as a flex. You agree with that, Jason?

I agree with a lot of what he said. I do think that the matchup here against Tennessee is phenomenal for both Chub and Hunt. So that pushes me more to the hunt side, the upside. I mean, I haven't seen anything out of Benny Snell that makes me think he's good. He's got the opportunity, you know, and so he'll get the carries. But if you're telling me who has the better opportunity for a touchdown, even...

Even though it's split, I probably go cream hunt. If you look at fantasy points allowed above opponent average, the new metric I've been working on, Tennessee is the fourth worst against running backs in the league. It's Detroit, Houston, Green Bay, which we all know, like smash, yes, you got to play your running backs against them. And then it's Tennessee. They have been far worse against the running backs they've faced than their opponents have been. So.

I just love the matchup. So I think the matchup makes a great play, but I do agree with what you brought up, Andy. I think they're limiting him a little bit on purpose because of the injury situation. That's why his snap percentages were low, and we won't know until we see it on the field when he's fully over that. Yeah, I've been a little disappointed in the passing game work as well. You know he's their third down back, but over the last two games, he has one reception. So that part has been hurting the baseline for Kareem Hunt.

The matchup's juicy, so it's hard to sit him for somebody else, as you said. I like Austin Hooper. Jonu Smith, I think, should be off of your tight-in starting list right now because he's dealing with an injury and coming off a goose. There's just no reason to, you know, take that shot. There are plenty of other horrible tight ends to choose from. You know, if I was, like, I had Al Borland asked me about Jonu.

if he's active versus Trey Burton. I'd play Burton in that situation. I don't have the confidence in Johnny right now. Johnu over the last seven games, it's almost half a season. Over the last seven games, he's averaging 1.7 receptions per game. This is why. It's Corey Davis's fault. This is not meant to be a two-toot. This is meant to be a, let's reflect for a second. I felt like because we saw so much of Johnny last year,

Because when did Delaney Walker went out, like week one or two or something like that? Yeah. We got to see him on display, and the consistency just wasn't there. He is a dynamic, great player, but for whatever reason, I feel like the ship has sailed on him being in every week. He's never going to ascend to that top five type of tight-in category. And I could be wrong, but the team seems to be willing to build the game plan and include FERC, sir, and these other pieces.

It's disappointing because he's one of the few dynamic tight ends in football that give you big playability. Career-wise, I wouldn't write him off just yet. He's only 25 years old. No. I mean, you mentioned Delaney Walker. How long was Delaney Walker in the league before he turned into Delaney Walker? I think Delany Walker started to get good about 30. Yeah. It's true, but there's probably a lot more tight ends that go the opposite direction than that way.

The Cincinnati Bengals at 2-8-1 take on the Miami Dolphins, who are 7 and 4 and 11-and-a-half-point favorites in this game. It's a 42-point-over-under. Holy crap. What if you told Dolphins fans last year in the middle of their disastrous season that next year you'll be 11.5-point favorites in a game? They would say, wow, Tua must have done something unbelievable. That's true. And he kind of...

Uh, hasn't. It's been Ryan Fitzpatrick's show when this team has succeeded, but this is, this line is not about the dolphins and who's starting a quarterback. This line is about the Bengals and who's starting a quarterback. Yeah, and their line. Yeah, it's a 15 point, uh, implied total for the Bengals. That's not a lot. I have zero confidence with anybody on the Bengals offense because there are.

A lot of passing game options. Boyd, Higgins, Green could show up, sample, whatever. If I had to, you say, please play a Bengals wide receiver. Do it or else. I will play T. Higgins. That's who I'll play. I saw enough of him getting targeted last week to where I would shoot my shot with T. Higgins over Tyler Boyd because Boyd represents more of the... It's like you telling me pick Perryman or Crowder with a bad...

Jets quarterback. I'm just going to go for... Especially when the answer is Mims. I don't know about that. Right. AJ Green is going to be the actual one that's the good answer here. Yeah, I would go Boyd personally, but I agree with what you're saying. Higgins was actually the 22nd wide receiver last week. That's because he got the touchdown. He didn't do... The odds are on him to get the touchdown.

I would say that. I would say the odds are on none of them getting a touchdown. But if you have to pick one of them for a touchdown, it's Higgins. If you're in a PPR league, Tyler Boyd will probably lead the team in targets again. But the reality here is we're in either your first week of the playoffs or when to get in in the playoffs. I don't want to rely on any of these guys. I would look to pivot to there's plenty of other options that I would probably start over any one of these.

uh bangles wide receivers or not just wide receivers i mean geo bernard giovanni has he's getting the whole workload he's doing nothing with it i don't want to start giovanni bernard boyd higgins a j green i don't think there is a bengel that um i would recommend anybody to start yeah at three straight weeks for geo as the quote unquote feature back and he's not been in the top 30 so