Starts of the Week + Week 15 Breakdown, Clown Ghidorah! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/12

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Amazon Prime. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Oh, it's time. It's beautiful stuff, Mike. Beautiful. It's playoff time. It's Christmas time. We're having so much fun. We want gifts from one and all, mostly. Those in our starting lineups. Happy to be with you. Week 15 preview matchups today. Starts of the week. And it's really here. This is like football tonight is for the playoffs. It's actually happening. Yeah. Yeah, we're here. Come on, Isaac Garindo. There's lots of, man. Lots of really big decisions to make. I think Jason spent.

A decent portion of yesterday analyzing and reanalyzing and reacting to new injuries and doing silent laps around the studio and, you know, saying things like, I don't even want to win because we don't want to know what Al Borland would be like if he loses in a matchup where it's worse, Al, Al, for you this week, that you're so favored, right? Like you. You can't. I'm definitely stressing more than Jason. You can't lose. Owl. That's what we're saying is that you can't lose. And so I just want to congratulate you on your playoff victory. All right. We're doing it. We're doing it. Oh, boy. This is. Yeah, I mean, and Jason will say all that. And then if he loses, he will be pissed. Oh, I know. You will be very sad and upset. And I.

I am just, you know, I got nothing to do this week, so I'll just watch your guys as match up. We mentioned the third head of the Hydra here, but just so people get a closer look into the League of Record. I'm looking at our projections. There's Jason up on the screen. And he's on the by week. Yeah. But should he have been playing right now, his line is projected for 135. Yeah, that makes sense. The other buy week is projected at 122 this week. They're not playing, but they are there. Yeah. Then the, then there's. another playoff match of 131 to 133. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then there's Jason V. Owl. What's Owl? What's Owl? He's projected at 1.30. So right in line with everybody else. Yeah. And then there's the 103. 103. 103, baby. Projections are not everything. But that is very funny to look at. That is King Godora, by the way. That's the Hydra. King Godora. King Godora. King Godora. From.

The explorer? First appeared in 1964. Godora, the three-headed monster. That's who that is. Okay. I was informed of this over a million times yesterday after we disgraced him by calling him a three-headed hydra and all these other names. But it looks like a hydra. I don't know exactly what a hydra... Well, a hydra's from Greek mythology. Isn't a snake, though? No, hydra's the... The multi-headed thing, and if you cut off a head, it grows two more. It's a nine-headed serpent, though. A hydra in Greek mythology is nine. Oh, it's nine. Oh, I apologize. King Godor has got three heads. Oh, well, I stand corrected. And then one of them is. One of them is me. One of them is projected for 103. One of them is, you know, starting Kendrae Miller and Joliel McLaughlin. I will remember you. Okay.

Thanks for joining us. It's going to be a long show. I'm going to tell you that right here at the top. We don't have bye weeks. We've got a lot of matchups to get into and news and just a lot of good stuff. And the parlay partay. Mike's on a hot streak. Yes, sir. So, you know, some crowns will be distributed today. The Ultimate Dashboard, bonus weekly episodes. The Next getting a little tired. Yeah, from wearing the crown. Yeah, it's heavy. Okay. Join thefoot.com for the ultimate dashboard. Websites the Fantasy Footballers.com. All the articles to start sit tool. which should be, I think it'll be used a lot this week. And you can find us on X at the FF Ballers. Let's jump into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. No, I didn't. I didn't intentionally forget that, Al. It was so strategic. You don't know my ways of hosting. I like to wait until I hit the news drop. Well, this is news. This is big news. This is NFL news. Thank you guys.

We are hiring. We are looking for another spectacular front-in web developer, particularly somebody familiar with application development, React Native. And you can see all of the details of our new job opening at the fantasy footballers.com slash careers. I will tell you, if those words Andy said just a minute ago don't make sense to you. The job's probably not for you. Right. Please don't apply. Because those words mean nothing to me. JavaScript, React, Git. If those right there speak to your soul. Yeah. Okay. That's the entry to be able to take a look at opening the door. To be fair, like we aren't looking for an average, you know, someone dabbling, someone that's, you know, they've been doing it for a year. We've got enough average back there in a...

Deuce's Alley. Right. Our developers are awesome. Yeah, but they're, to be fair, not on camera talent. You know what I mean? They're off camera. They're building the apps. We have an awesome team. We got, just so people know, we got 10 full-time members here in the studios in Phoenix. The job is for here in Phoenix as well, so you need to be willing to relocate. And then we've got some, we have some full-timers out of state in other positions. But. Um, the fantasy footballers.com slash careers to get all of the details on the front end developer position. We're adding another developer to the team. We're very committed to the UDK app, the in season app, which just released this year with all the join the foot tools and further developing those and making them best as possible for the team. And so we love, uh, we'd love it if you knew the show and you and you love fantasy football, but you also have skills.

that line up with this position. And as much as I respect all of the people that want to do the hustle thing and say, like, I don't have experience in this area, but you should want me. Please don't make us read your submission. We don't want you. We love you. Hey, listen. We don't actually want you. The next time that we open up a job opening for a deucer, all can apply. I mean, you can, you don't have to be able to read or write. You don't have to be able to control your bowels. You can anyone can apply for deucer's alley. I mean, there's an empty chair right now. Yeah. We didn't want that. Now right now. That's just a dude that didn't show up. Right now, we are not hiring for a deucer. No. We're chalk full. We're overflowing. We have too many. Like a dime a dozen. Half a person could do this job. But we are looking for an expert at.

You're really burying the IJ here. You're flooding the zone right now. And you'll be paid way better than the deuces. Yeah, this developer position. So. But so you know how to do those things and step two. Be cool, man. Yeah, be cool. But no, we are, we're excited to add to the team. And there you go. The fantasy footballers. A dream job. Yeah. It'll be a good time. This is year 10, you know what I mean? Onward and upward. All right. I hit the news button because we're going to talk football news as well. Isaac Garando listed as questionable, plans to play. That's via Adam Schaefter. There's going to be a lot of questions out there. I know Mike and I's team, it's like, well, so do you play him? Can you start him? I saw somebody say this one. Do you play Garando tonight or do you wait and make sure see if Bucky Irving's good for Sunday? My advice on that. I'd go. My position is Isaac Garindo tonight.

Get the extra intel for your playoff weekend. Don't dance with the devil on Sunday morning. And Garindo was awesome last week. And he said, like, you know, you want to put the pieces together here. You were never going to get good information on Garindo's availability until now because it's a short week. But that is also a testimony to the fact that he's probably all right. If it's a short week and he's available and he said he's fine and he said it was precautionary and we've got sources telling us it's not one of the newcomers. Right? Yeah. I mean, we've been trying to do everything we can to have a good intel. But Garindo, we don't have specifics on what the foot injury is. And I see that as a good thing. It's kind of like Andy just said. The fact that he played football a couple days ago and is going to be active in this game means that I don't think he's got a massive injury. Now, there is risk. A re-injury can happen. That happens with feet. So this isn't like.

You know, if you've got another great option, I would, you know, start them. But we're going to start Garindo in our league and we're going to make the choice of starting them in the flex over either Zay Flowers or Travis Kelsey, one of those two. He's above both of those. He's also, this is the elimination of Patrick Taylor that we're having this conversation. Well, step one is everything we're reporting right now is expected to play. George Pickens. was expected to play. They were going to warm him up and find out, and then he did not play. So don't just put him in your lineup right now and then check out for the rest of the day is step one. And it's also I'm trying to find like the line of my rankings because it's hard to rank Garindo right now because I don't know 100% that he's going to be active and I don't want to blow up my rankings here of like, oh, this guy's going to play, he's going to be whatever. But it's like trying to find the line right now. Is the line?

I think the one. Rico Dowdle, is that the line at Carolina? That one's. Is James Cook at Detroit the line? James Cook was the name that I kept going down to. It's like Alvin Camara, it hasn't been great, and he has a backup quarterback. I'm still probably going to play him. Aaron Jones against Chicago, I think he's okay. And then Charbonnet, I'm presuming that Walker is going to be out, which that's also a tough call right now. And then it's James Cook. against Detroit, and I think I would go, I would risk the upside for Garendo over James Cook. Yeah, that's because of the nature of some of the question marks. I got him at 20 on the week. Yeah, that's fair. I have him at 18. Yeah, so I think Garendo is very, very in play. You don't want to miss out on a matchup like this with a team that's favored at home.

because you're overthinking what ifs. I mean, you need to win, right? And you play to win. And so, you know, if I was the Garindo manager that spent all my fab on Patrick Taylor, I'm happy today. Yeah. I'm not, I don't want a less talented player to get this start in San Francisco with some backups. I want the guy that performed last week that caught the football that got into the end zone. Let's let's go. Yeah, and if for some reason Garindo is not able to go, he's inactive, he warms up and it, you know, it pops up again and they decide to sit him down, reading some of the quotes from Shanahan and the beat reporters and everything that we can dig up, it is, it should be Patrick Taylor, not Izzy. They're getting Izzy up to speed, but I don't think he is going to be the guy like, you know, we possibly speculate it.

Yeah, and the, yeah, exactly. So George Pickens did not practice on Wednesday. He's not going to play. Alexander Madison will probably be active, but Antonio Pierce said that not just sincere McCormick, like he sincerely was convicted, that sincere McCormick's a starting guy and that last week Madison kind of could have been active, they said, that it was just a numbers game. So it was a choice. And McCormick is a good play. It's Monday night football. It makes no sense at this point in the season where the Raiders are to not. play since you're McCormick. And Pierce is also fighting for his opportunity to stay the head coach. I don't think he stays the head coach. I believe what happens is the Raiders will end up with Shador Sanders. And they will hire a new coach. And I don't know. I'm not going to say it's Dion. Oh, that'd be fun. But Dion's going to want Sanders in Las Vegas. And it's going to be a new head coach that.

probably that Dion likes on this side. And there was a report yesterday that the Giants is going to be Cam Ward. It's going to be Cam Ward and a new head coach for the Giants. So we'll see. We'll see how that pans out. But the Giants are a place that Dion does not want Shador Sanders to go. And that's where we're going to be. It's going to be a fun March and April. The draft season with Sanders. Yes, with Travis Hunter and everything surrounding. Dion will, like, if it sets up that it is like the Giants, it will be a full Eli Manning to the Chargers situation. We haven't had one for quite a while, but. Yeah, Elon's not going to take no crap. He's going to say, we're going to go exactly where we want our family and my son to go play and where he wants to go play. Dion's going to get what he wants. Yeah, he is. Bucky Irving.

Mike Evans did not practice on Wednesday. This is not unexpected. This has kind of been a routine. We need to really monitor Irving. Evans is the maintenance day. They've been doing this. Yeah, Bucky, I am very concerned with. He's, you know, he's very, very banged up. Obviously only played a little bit of the last game and then got sat down. Let's fast forward. Let's say he's active because I think he will be. If he's active. That's where I want to get to. What are you doing? Um, he is a flex level start to me. He is much scarier. That's the Chargers, right? Yeah, it's not a great matchup. So, you know, if I had, uh, like I would start Tyrone and Tracy over him. Wow. So against Baltimore? Yeah. I, I, I mean, didn't, didn't Tyrone Tracy have like a cajillion targets last week? Um, like, I mean, he's a, he's a good volume play, but the.

I mean, like the line for the Giants, their implied team total is about five points. Yeah, I don't see a lot of touchdowns in the, yeah, he had 10 targets last week. Yeah, I'd go, Bucky. 16 rushing attempts. 10 targets. Yeah, but they're changing quarterbacks. That's another piece of the news here. Drew Locke is out, and they're going back to. Cutlets. Tommy Cutlets. What could go right? Yeah, what could go right. Well, what's going right is they're going to have the number. Secure the package. Probably the number one pick in the draft. Ladd McConkey returned to a limited practice on Wednesday. Yay, we love you. They need him. Oh, my little lad. Romeo Dobbs practicing in full still in the protocol. Kenneth Walker did not practice on Wednesday. The Kenneth Walker situation is so sketch, it hurts. Diving into it yesterday, the news and the quotes coming on on Kenneth Walker are more of a, he'll be back. I think the quote was sooner than later. So it may not be this week, but this isn't.

Ken Bone is getting shut down. If he doesn't play this week, we should expect him back to the next. Which is super cool news for all the teams eliminated without him this week. I know. It's unfortunate. It's super cool news for all the teams with Charbonnet. Yes. Charbonnet will be. It's a glass half full of Charbonnet. Hey, oh. Chris Olavé, concussion, unlikely to return this week. All options are on the table as whether he returns this year. There is no upside. To bringing him back in my opinion. Yeah, and having them play with either Spencer Rattler or Jake Hainess. If he. Hainess. Isn't that the name we gave him yesterday? Kyle. Kyle gave him. Chris Olave. It's part of me that thought that you thought that that was his real name. Oh, that's sad. If Olave watches the game this weekend, I think his symptoms are going to flare up.

Noah Brown out multiple weeks with the commanders. That is a kidney injury he suffered. Could be season. Could be season ending. They signed KJ. Osborne, who was just waived by the Patriots as a depth piece. We'll talk about that game today. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Let's take a break. And then we will jump right in. Starts of the week. All right. Starts a week for week 15. Who wants to begin? I'll do it. Do we have any volunteers? Yeah, hold on. Hold on. Oh, boy. Steel underpants. Kyler Murray against the New England Patriots. You need steel underpants for this one? Yes, you do. That almost makes the recommendation worse right there. I'm saying you do because it's been so rough. Like Kyler Murray has been pushed, he has pushed fantasy players to the point that we now look at Kyler Murray as a fringe.

starting quarterback in a single quarterback league. And I am here saying I think that he is a fine top 12 play this week. I'm not saying I'm playing him over everybody. If you didn't do it, I was going to do it. I mean, I think Kyler's a great start. I'm playing Kyler over Baker Mayfield in our dynasty playoffs. That's a perfect example. I mean, that's happening. Like it's unquestionable at home. They're favored by six points. Off a bad week. He tends to respond. Yeah, it's a plus matchup. here. Over the last six weeks, the Patriots are 30th in schedule adjusted points. This is not on the season. This is a trend that is currently happening. The Patriots defense, they are just, they're giving up points to, uh, to the quarterback position. So I think Kyler is a good play. And it's, it's hard to say that right now. I'm sticking with Justin Herbert. Uh, who was, I thought you were going to pivot. I am not. I'm not going to pivot. I have Herbert. Thank you. With Ladd McConkey on the way back, Tampa Bay.

31st and schedule adjusted. We talked about it on the streamers part of Tuesday's show. He's been a top 12 quarterback in each of his last four starts at home. And getting lad back is fundamental. They don't have the running game that they had earlier in the year. And it's a Herbert world. Yeah, I mean, targeting against Tampa Bay is usually a successful recipe. For my start of the week, I'm going with Tua Tunga Viola. I'm going with the quarterback, the quarterback one. in total fantasy points scored over the last month. He's been on fire, four straight top 10 performances. He's number one in the NFL and EPA per pass attempt. I mean, since he came back, the dolphins are, you know, playing some really, really good offense. You can't run effectively on the Texans very easily. So I expect a lot of passing volume. They're in a dome. There's no weather constraints. And Tua, I mean, if you've been.

playing him. He's helped you get to the playoffs. I think this matchup, you know, there's a lot of, this is the third highest over under on the week, so it's a game you could target. I think he's a good play this week. All right. At the running back position, I'm going with Rico Dowdell. That's what I was saying. I think Rico versus Garando is tough. He gets the matchup against the Carolina Panthers. Unfortunately, we didn't get the Sequan magic that we had previously hoped for coming into this matchup against the Panthers. They are playing better. But I still think that the shift over to Rico being the full-time guy, since they said that, he's averaging nearly 100 yards per game. 19 opportunities since week nine. He's been a top 12 running back since that time of week nine. The matchup is great. I'm not moving away from him. I was the Rico guy, but it's wild to be here in the playoffs of like.

Rico's here. He's here to save your team. Start of the week in playoffs and you don't even need steel underpants. No, I do not. I'm so happy for you, Mike. Thank you. I'm going with Rashad White on the other side of that Los Angeles Chargers game. He's been so consistent since week seven, the RB 10 averaging 15.7 fancy points per game. And, you know, Bucky's banged up. Is this a non-flow chart? This is Rashad White no matter what? Certainly. Okay. Mr. White at the Chargers Stadium with a good game. And, you know, the Chargers, they're a good rush defense, but that's not what makes White special. White is inefficient on the ground most of the time anyways. He's a pass catching running back and the Chargers have allowed the eighth most receptions to running backs. It's Rashad White. Yeah, I love Rashad White this week. He's a must start. I can't see him finishing outside of the top 10. My start of the week at running back is Tony Pollard.

Getting to face Cincinnati, he was given a day of rest. I presume he will be playing this week, thus the start of the week, but we'll monitor his health. But he's been, even though the Titans are training towards the top five pick, he's been so good and so consistent. He remains one of only three running backs to average 20 plus opportunities a game and three receptions per game. That's Tony Pollard, Alvin Camara, and Bijon. That's the level of opportunities he's getting. And he gets to face Cincinnati. who was just torn up by your start of the week, Rico Dowdle on Monday night football. They are dead last and scheduled Justin Fantasy Points over the last month. Their 30th in EPA per rush attempt on the season, opponents are seeing 29 plus combined rush attempts per game. So.

Pollard has a just great wheels-up matchup. I do want to say that today's practice report, just please play attention to it because Pollard did not practice yesterday. Yeah, he's been doing that basically all here. I know that at the end of the game, we saw some Taji Spears. I'm sure he's fine. Just throwing it out there. You probably already said it. Wide receiver, Joanne, Justin Jefferson, Jennings, aka Jennings. John Jennings. Look, it's scary to have a Thursday night start of the week because it's. kicks things off. It's right in front of everybody's eyeballs. But this dude has been, he's getting these nicknames for a reason. This guy needs absolute respect. Targeted on 27% of his routes this year. That is an unbelievable number. The only wide receivers with better yards per route run, Puka, Nico, AJ Brown. That's the end of list. Like, Joanne Jennings is, he's just, he has a top tier wide receiver right now and you need to

except that that's what's happening. Plus, you get the match up with the Rams. Last week, it was absolute domination by the Buffalo Bill's offense over the last six weeks. Rams were 30th against wide receivers. This was the team Jennings had the breakout campaign against in week 3-11 for 175 and 3. He's a really, really strong start. I am doubling up. My wide receiver start of the week is once again, Darnell Mooney, this time against Las Vegas on Monday night. It was a home run last week, over 100 yards, been playing great. And, you know, he was 6 for 142. He had a great game. He's leading the team in yardage ahead of Drake London. And he's just creating great separation. The Las Vegas matchup, you know, this is a get right game for the Falcons who desperately need it. And the Raiders have seen the second most past plays called against them in the NFL. This is a perfect.

situation for you to have the confidence in Mooney over some of those other options you're not confident in. Yeah, I mean, you had him last week. It was scary to me with what we saw with Kirk and he was great. For my wide receiver, goal with last year's my guy, a guy we talked up a little bit on Monday's ready to roll because he was an absolute bust three weeks into the season. Jordan Addison, who since week four has been a wide receiver won in fantasy, averaging 13.8 fantasy. points per game. The Chicago matchup on the course of the season looks pretty tough, but they are giving up big plays and doing it a lot more recently. They now rank dead last in explosive play rate of 15-yard-plus plays allowed. Also, we saw this matchup just a couple weeks ago in week 12 against the Bears. Addison went off. He was 8 for 162 and 1. I think he might have been the wide receiver 1 that week.

This is that matchup where you've got Jalen Johnson, a great corner. You know where he's going to be focused. He's going to be focused on Justin Jefferson. That I think is why when we saw this matchup last time, Jordan Addison was able to get free. So Jordan Addison, I'm going to stay in the flames that he's been on. And for the tight end position, trying to find if you don't have a locked-in starter, a potential option here. I'm going with Pat Friar Muth. The Muth has been getting Luth lately. Last week three for 48, six for 68 in the touchdown. Since week nine, he's been averaging four for 40. So you're at least, you should get something out of Fryer Muth. And the fact that George Pickens is trending to be out. Me, the past catching weapons for the Pittsburgh Steelers are, they are not scary to anybody. And that's what I think where we've seen the Muth been getting more involved here.

Over the last month, the Eagles are 29th and scheduled just to the tight end. So the matchup is there. And with pickings out, I think that the Muth is a viable play. All right, I am going to give you the Hawkinson recommendation start of the week for week 15 against Chicago. You know, Hawkinson was not part of the action last week. He had been on a red light, green light situation, averaging 4.5 and 50 since returning, but it's not been, he hasn't gotten into the end zone. and he's had trouble giving you consistency, so I want to give you that confidence boost this week against the Chicago defense that is pretty bad against the tight-in position. He is our consensus tight-in five. You've probably got other options, like the Hawkinson managers have been, you know, they were waiting on him. They probably have a couple choices. I think it's going to be good for Hawkinson this week. Yeah, it could be. I'm going to go with a type of pick.

Let's just say you're in the fantasy playoffs. You need underpants? Yeah, sure. Just steal. What? Just steal? Just steal. Okay. You got to be handy with the steel, Jay. Steel underpants. Yeah, so if you're in the playoffs and I don't know, like practice reports come up and they're like, what? David Najoku's got a hamstring injury? Wait, why was that not in the news? Yeah, that should have definitely been in the news. David and Joku has popped up with a hamstring injury. It is seemingly, I mean, it's dicey. It is dicey whether he plays this week or not. I can't wait for the practice report today. Please be a limited participant. Please be out there. Don't be not practicing today, please. But for those players like myself who might find themselves needing to grab someone to start off of the waivers.