Week 17 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, Win or Go Home - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/31

I'm going to have to be because, yes. Sure. I'll try to be the weatherman. Here's my overarching weather report. Right now, a lot of the East Coast games look like there's going to be a little bit rain. However, come Sunday morning, we will know far more than we know now. And there's a chance that this could be a really wet weekend that is affected heavily by weather. And there is a chance that some of this is.

over and done with by the time the games roll around. Breaking news. I was trying to let us finish the matchup, but I wasn't going to do that. Okay. This is too big. I do not know. It's not great. Oh, no. Kirk Cousins has been placed on the reserve COVID list. So he will not be playing. There's no chance. He's unvaccinated. Well, and he's within the window. Yeah, the window is too short. Because he's unvaccinated, I think it's the minimum five-day window.

If I'm remembering that correctly, that meets us out. Just broke just now on Twitter, Tom Pelliserro. He is out for the game against the Packers. Wow. So really, this is not so much like, hey, everybody's depending on Kirk Cousins against Green Bay, although you might have been. Right. This is Rutrow, Justin Jefferson. I would say it's bad news. Aaron Rogers.

That's a fair point, dude. This is a game that is projected to be about five degrees at kickoff right now. You're going to have a backup quarterback in for the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, it's probably going to be Kellan Mond. Yeah, and so. Getting his first start, right? Yeah, I mean, it's. I'm just searching for a bond joke, but guys, I'm not, I've stopped paying attention. Well, I mean, it's right. The name's Mond. Colon Mon. It's the voice that you get. I had that.

But I didn't think about the voice. Oh, yes. Well, what's his name again? Mond. Call on Mond. Well, yeah, so. Okay. So Justin Jefferson, it's not like you're benching him. You just, everybody in this game just got like a wet blanket thrown over it. Not everybody. A.J. Dylan. Dalvin? No, Dalvin got a wet blanket on him a little bit. He'll see a bunch of volume, but it hurts the offense when you have a,

You're never around the goal line. A third round. They drafted Kiliman, Mond. Thank you. That's forever. You cannot. Monde. They drafted him in the third round. He's a rookie. And, oh, I'm presuming he's the starter at this point. But, oh, gross. Sorry, everybody. Yeah, that's just not good. So.

All right. The fallout's going to be there. Back to the Rams. That's one of our matchups for today, right? Yes, sir. Oh, okay. Great. Then we'll talk about it some more. We'll talk about who? Mon. All right. Back to the Rams. Man, I wish it was James Mond. I mean, it's just, it ruins it because you go, Mon, James Mond, and then it's great. I'm not joking. There's Kell and Mon's Wikipedia page up on my screen because I was checking the middle name. I was praying for a James Middle name there.

Man, parents did it wrong. You got to choose that, man. There has to be a James in that family. He could have been James. They failed him. We're never getting back to this match. It's going to be Tyler Huntley. And he's in play. Like Tyler Huntley is very much in play. Although coming off the COVID list, you might make the argument, you know, there's a little bit more of a variable there with the running. There is. But at the end of the day, when you're on the field and you're the quarterback and the ball's in your hands, it's not like Tyreek Hill.

where the ball's not in your hands and you don't have, you know, if Tyreek had caught something, I'm sure the adrenaline takes over for a play. I think there's an element there with the quarterback there. 21 point implied point total. They're at home. They're going to need to catch up in this game. And I still think the narrative opens the door for Huntley to have a nice week. I think it's possible. The matchup is tough. The Rams on the season are.

the sixth worst matchup for fantasy quarterbacks. Yes, he's in play, but like this, I would easily play Trailance over Tyler Huntley at this point. Maybe you're in, you know, a two-cuby league and Huntley is on your bench. Okay, then maybe. But I do have my concerns with him coming off of the COVID list here where maybe he'll make those, he'll make certain decisions of I see Open Field and I want to run.

But he's like, I'm just, I'm too tired. I can't actually do it. When he was the quarterback won a couple weeks ago, he had over 70 rushing yards. So if the gas tank isn't quite there, it might be difficult for him to do that. But I do think he is a fine pivot. Let's say you lost Kirk Cousins, you know, and you're going, oh my gosh, what do I do? That was my quarterback. Could be without Hollywood Brown, too. Yeah, but it's all Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews is.

unstoppable right now. So you're not messing with running backs on the Baltimore side. Not anymore. Yeah, and the, you know, the Rams are a pretty good defense. Cam Acre is not likely to play. It's going to be Sony Michelle by himself. I mean, this is, uh, like he has running back one potential on the week. He does. He certainly does. Um, you know, the, the Rams are.

favored. And if they get up, they're going to run Sony Michelle. And they could get up by running Sony Michelle. The problem is the place to attack Baltimore really, really is through the air. They're not going to put up a fight through the air as much as they will on the ground. They're, you know, over the last six weeks, their top eight against running backs while being terrible through the air. So I do see this more as a Stafford Cup, Beckham, Van Jefferson, even Higbee game.

So he's safe. I want to bring up Van Jefferson, though, because he's on the field every play. But combined the last two weeks, he's three for 29. So I don't think I turn to Van Jefferson just because of the matchup here after two bad weeks knowing that the floor is this low. And the games that he's had his bigger games in, it's been a big play. So I think that, you know, I'm not going to turn to him over.

Almost anybody. Yeah, he's really only had one game where he was pretty good without a big play. But I'll say, so if you're doing that math of he's three for 29 and you're not excited to play him, O'Dell Beckham is 5 for 44 in the past two weeks as well. Like the matchup to me, Van Jefferson is not a locked and loaded. I would much prefer O'Dell Beckham. But I think that Van Jefferson is the type of...

variance upside play, even after incredibly disappointing last week, I think he's still in play as a flex for me. Would you be playing Van Jefferson at all, Jay? Are you trying to move away? Yeah, it's a matter of the other options. I don't think he is someone that you have to binge. Robbie Anderson with Sam Donald. Yeah, I would play. You would? Yeah. Because Robbie's been really good. I think that you talk about, and I talked about, Van Jefferson has only had one good game without the big play, but he's had several big plays.

And if you're going to tell me what matchup is, I mean, we were talking about this weeks ago before some of the injuries, Baltimore is giving up huge, deep plays to wide receivers. That could very well be Van Jefferson. Brandon Iyuk against Houston with Trey Lance or Van Jefferson. I would go, Iyuk. Okay. Where would you go? I'm not playing Van Jefferson. Okay. I don't, that's like the, if I don't get the touchdown, I'm going to be very sad.

And I guess I would probably be aiming for higher than that. The Broncos at 7 and 8, taking on the 8 and 7 Chargers. This game's in Los Angeles. The Chargers are 6.5 point favorites. Overrunners 45 and a half. And this is a huge reinforcements situation for the Chargers. Not only do you get Echler back, but you get Jalen Guyton. You get Mike Williams.

You get an offensive lineman back. That's huge. Which, uh, with Corey Lindley, right? Was out their center? Yeah. Is that right? I think they had maybe two players missing. So this is, they were missing every piece of that offense that was valuable last week. And so you look at, do you have another one? I do. Breaking news. It's almost the weekend. Can we not? Yeah. Well, that's why it's actually important is because it's almost the weekend. A decision has gotten a little bit easier out there.

Players being added to the COVID-19 for the Washington football team guard Eric Flowers and running back Antonio Gibson. Yeah. So if you were wondering about whether or not you could start Antonio Gibson, you could. I would not. Dang, is that matchup on today? Did we already cover that talking Jared Patterson? Yesterday. All right. Give you a quick Jared Patterson take, Jason. It's in the, uh, a gumbo alley camp.

For Jared Patterson. Would you play Agumba Wally or Jared Patterson? Okay. Yeah, the matchup for Agumbo Wally against the Patriots and Bad Weather, Washington this week is playing the Eagles. Eagles. It's a terrible matchup, and you just said that they lost Eric Flowers. Yeah. Oof. Woof. Yeah, I mean, right now, the last four games the Eagles played, the most yards they've given up on the ground is 61 total yards.

and they have given up a touchdown on only one of the last five games on the ground. That was Gibson, right? It was Gibson twice in the same game. So you're looking at it in saying, well, what are your outcomes for Patterson? Your outcomes are probably 16 for 50 and no touchdowns. And you hope he catches some passes. I mean, that would be nice. Man, that's where. Which is probably a little bit better than Agumbo Wally. The difference being, I think Agumbo Wally will probably catch more passes.

He could. This is quite the discussion here of Jared Patterson versus Daray. I feel more confident that Jared Patterson will be the clear leader of the running back room. I presume that it will be Daray for Jacksonville, but there is certainly a chance that it is not where like there's a timeshare that we don't see coming. You're not into Wendell Smallwood then?

For Washington? Yeah. Yeah. What if you had Cordero-Patterson, you can go Patterson-Patterson? Is that a big... Oh. I think that's a way to lose. Patterson is so... Patterson and Patterson will be the silver medal. All right. Man, what a show today. Yeah. Can we stop that? Did you just get another message? I did. You stop it. No, we're okay. Oh, gosh. That one is not a COVID-breaking news.

That one is a pickup milk on the way home. I feel like I need Dr. Strange to put a pause on the COVID news for a minute. Although I guess it's better that we find out now than after the show. We were talking about the Chargers. All right. You know, this has been brutal for me because at the very, very beginning of the week, my impulse was, well, maybe Justin Herbert's not the best option. Then it was like, okay, I looked into it. He's the one that's had a little bit of success against Denver, and he's going to get all these weapons back, and he's at home, and then I'm really into it.

And then I went back and I looked at the Denver defense against quarterbacks. And it's like, I don't know if they've given up three touchdowns through the year. It's normally one or two. So I don't think you're moving away from Herbert, especially with all the positive news, them being at home. It's just, it's probably fair to temper your expectations and not expect them to carry you this week. Yeah, I think you're right. Ironically, I think this could be one of those weeks that is similar to where Justin Herbert.

let down your hopes a couple weeks ago against Houston, but he was still a top 10 guy because across the board, you know, Aaron Rogers in the freezing, you got Kyler who's been bad in a bad matchup, you got a lot of these quarterbacks that are kind of in that same tier that I think they're all kind of lowered expectations. So this matchup seems fine with his weapons back. Okay.

All right, and then the other side is, you know, you've got Giovante and Gordon going up against the team that just got disintegrated by Rex Burkett. So that seems like both of those guys are in play, and you kind of ignore the... I feel like that was a slight upon Rex Burkhead. Yeah, yes. That's correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct. Just you said it with a real negative... No, based on his play, historically. Oh, dare you. So I know, sexy Rexy, T. Rexy. For life. But...

What is your take on that side of the ball? I think both running backs are in play. When it comes down to the final roulette spin of that wheel, you hope that your running back was the one who got the touchdown because they will split half the work. And if no one scores a touchdown, they'll have very similar points. Yeah, I agree. I would put Javante ahead of Melvin if for some reason I had both of them, but they're both decent plays this week. All right. Is Fanton play for you?

No, I mean, the matchup is great. I get that. Fant should be good. I almost went with Albert O in our Draft King's lineup because the matchup is great. And it's not always Fant that takes advantage. There's two tight ends here. I looked at him too. Yeah. But it's like two targets. Is one going to be a touchdown? Exactly. So it's like the Jimmy Graham philosophy. What is Jerry Judy, you know, Cortland Sutton, Noah Fant? I just, I'm out.