Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Playoff Scenarios Podcast

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) work through the playoff scenarios heading into Week 18. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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responsibly. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. It finds you extremely well here at FantasyPoint.com and Fantasy Football in general, because, well, championship week is almost over. Now, we know, understand that there is a lot of fantasy action left to go with the Monday night game between the Bills and the Bengals, which is, I mean, when that schedule was announced, it was like, oh, man, that's going to be the biggest, that's going to be the biggest fantasy game of the entire year. Well, it kind of is. I mean, certainly, I have matchups that are hanging in the balance. I'm sure many people here have had matchups that are hanging in the balance. Tom, you and I are going to talk through. We're going to. normally this is a recap podcast, okay?

This is the Market Report recap podcast where we recap everything that happened in week 17. Well, we're not doing that today. We're doing a week 18 look forward podcast because we're going to see which teams have stuff to play for, which teams don't have anything to play for, which teams might rest guys. And to make things, I guess even simpler for us, Tom, I can't recall too many like really big injuries from week 17 here, at least so far. And I think it's going to make our podcast here a little bit more cut and dry here for those of you who are playing in week 18.

Yeah, nothing real notable. Miami, Teddy Bridgewater, the quarterback situation there. But nothing too major here. But as you said, big game tonight. And that's also affecting the schedule, too. The NFL is kind of slow to release. Usually they like to announce during the Sunday night game in week 17 or week 16 in the past. you know, who's going to be the prime time game, you know, the major game on Sunday night.

But they're kind of waiting here to see, because this has huge implications in the AFC between the Bengals and Bills. It could affect who wins the AFC North, you know, who's the top seat. So they're kind of waiting here. The schedule's kind of in limbo. They did move. They did flexing games to Saturday, but they're still kind of waiting to announce the full schedule here on a Monday morning, which is pretty rare here based on what they've done in the past. So let's just throw this out really quickly.

If the Bengals win tonight, the Bill's chances of a first round buy shrink from basically 50% to like 5%. Yeah, they need the Chiefs to basically lose and then the Bengals to lose in week 18. Right. So like there is a legitimate chance that like if the bills lose to the Bengals to the Bengals tonight, the bills might not have something to play for. Oh, that's why in my best bets, I already have a Patriots plus eight and a half in my pocket here. Yeah, it was a generous line put out there by the Vegas bookmakers. So that's still kind of out there.

But yeah, this game could, yeah. I'm a little surprised they flexed the Chiefs game to Saturday because that could have, yeah, even if the bills win and then if the Chiefs would lose to that, Raiders team who looked pretty feisty against San Francisco's top-ranked defense, then the bills have nothing to play for then on Sunday either. So I'm a little surprised that they moved that Chiefs game to that four o'clock spot on Saturday. Yeah, so let me, right, let me, let me re-organize this. Yeah, I mean, the bills, if they lose tonight, I mean, it's, it's nothing. Like, they basically have no chance to play for anything. If the Bengals lose tonight,

Tom, they still have the AFC North to play for. So it doesn't look like the Bengals are going to be able to rest players. So they should have something to play for regardless. Yeah, they'll be, you know, and if they win, they'll have obviously have a chance to maybe grab that top seed because they would have the tight burger with the Chiefs. So a lot of moving parts there. But the Bengals are kind of locked in to having something to play for. Yeah, so the Bengals was something to play for regardless. So that's the situation.

But the bills will, like, very, they could end up deciding, hey, our starters are going to play a half and then we're going to take guys out. Remember, it's not always just Tom, oh, are these guys, are these starters going to play the whole game or not? It's the starters can play for it. Right. They can play a half, you know, it could be anything like that. So let's move on to the rest of the schedule. Kansas City and the Raiders, okay? Kansas City, because this game is Saturday, they have something to play for.

Yeah, they're locked in here. Nothing really has changed with that offense. Maybe, you know, Juju Smith-Suster's been, his role's kind of been reduced a little bit here. They're working Cadarious Tony and more, but nothing really notable from a market standpoint. I think for the Raiders, maybe we do a small round. right up on Devante Adams. I literally just said that. Stidim looked great. He did. I mean, no drop off. I mean, Derek Carr literally probably had the worst week of anybody. He might have lost a few million dollars on the market here after they release him after the

Super Bowl, just based on, you know, especially if Jared Stidham goes out there and puts up another solid performance against the Chiefs. So I know we got a lot of questions of week 17 about Devante Adams. I mostly said, you got to stick. Well, you know, he's a Dodd, you know, regardless of quarterback. And, you know, Jarrett's did have certainly prove that he could get the ball to Devante Adams. So I think if you're playing in week 18, you've got to continue to use them. Let's move now on to the Sunday night game.

Now, here is the thing about this. The NFL was smart with this one. Yeah. Yeah, we were kind of thinking this might be the Sunday night game. Right. But here's what happened because now, Tom, it's actually pretty viable. I just went through. the Jaguars had everything happen in week 17

that they needed to have happen for them to still have a shot at a wild card. So here's what happened. The Jaguars beat the Texans, okay? That was A number one. They had to beat the Texans. The dolphins needed to lose out. Well, the dolphins lost this week.

The Patriots need to lose to the bills also in week 18. The dolphins need to lose to the Jets. Now, the Jets are eliminated from the play. So maybe that's that they have less motivation. And the Steelers need to lose to the Browns. Now, all of those things are viable. The Jaguars can make the playoffs regardless. But this game being on Saturday means the Jaguars are going to play to win it.

And so are the Titans, obviously. The Titans wrestled their starters last week. Yeah, I think the Jaguars were going to be in it to win it no matter what. They want to get that home game in Jacksonville here. And, you know, that was the big question going into week 17, Were they going to arrest their starters? They kind of did, but it was more because of the scoreboard. They got up.

It was a mercy benching, yeah. Yeah, it was a merrier. I know a lot of one of our close friends was in a battle with another one of our friends. He had Trevor Lawrence. Quarterback, he was cursing his name, but. You should have reached out to us for advice. I would have told him to bench him. Yeah, I mean, and Travis at the end, he came through.

We had a bunch of questions on him. But, yeah, all Jaguars were firing them all up. Titans, you know. Derek Henry, he'll be back. That was strictly a rest. And the Titans were, they were, that was the, like, the key difference between the Jaguars and Titans last week. The Titans, you look at the injury reports every week, Joe. I mean, the Titans are beat to shit and they needed to rest guys.

Jaguars injury report has been pretty light for most of the season. So just two completely different scenarios, Jaguars want to stay on a roll. Titans, they needed the rest last week. week. So we'll see how they come out. Seven point underdogs in that game. So yeah, both of these teams obviously have a lot to play for next week. Let's go now to a Sunday matchup. Now, remember, Tom, there is no schedule yet for Sunday, but they're not going to have games that, like, the NFL typically does a great job. Games that affect each other, they put at the same time. So, like, teams can't, like, like, scoreboard watch, like, a game that happened at 1, and they play at 4.30 and decide up,

we're not going to play anybody. Like, for instance, like, like, the Eagles, like, if the cowboys were to lose, like, and the Eagles decide, all right, we're going to call off the dogs. Like, I don't think that's going to happen. But let's go to New York and Philadelphia. Okay. What do we like to say, Tom? Vegas knows, right? Oh, yeah, they know. I mean, the Giants are locked into that sixth seed right now. They can't, they can't advance forward. Dallas is in that fifth spot. Dallas still has, we'll get to them later, but they have something to play for, but New York is locked in. They can't go any lower. They can't fall to the seventh seed because of their tie. They can't move up to the fifth

seed. So, and we know Brian Day, but I mean, it would be stunning if they come out and play their starters, especially, you know, Daniel Jones and Sequin Barclay. At the very least, I would expect them to sit. They have a very capable backup in Tyrod Taylor. So we'll probably see a lot Gary Breitwell in this game for the Giants. I mean, again, might Sequin play a couple of series, sure. Might Daniel Jones play a couple of series? Sure. But like, you know, I know there's giant fans who are like, oh, you know, the Eagles tanked

a couple years ago and, you know, we want to get back at them. I mean, okay. I mean, that's a fan's perspective and I understand that for sure. But like, from a team perspective, would you rather say, ha, ha, we got back at the Eagles and Daniel Jones sprains his ankle? Like, would you rather that happen? Brian Dable's going to probably think of this smartly. And also, potentially realize that, hey, we could go on the road and beat Minnesota.

Yeah, that was pretty easy. That's the other thing. You don't want to, you know, winning this game could actually give yourself a worse, you know, playoff matchup next week. If the Eagles would fall in the standings. And, yeah, you, you are praying to get that Vikings matchup. I mean, that is the worst 12-witch. team in NFL history. They have a negative point differential right now. They're minus 19. They're 12 and 4. How is that even possible? So you want to be the sixth seed here and hoping to get the

Vikings here. I mean, we just saw it a couple of weeks ago. They hung tough with them and it took a, what, a 61-yard field goal from Joseph to win that game. So I think the Giants would take their chances to play that matchup again. Oh, and by the way, I said Vegas knows. I didn't mention it. The Eagles are 13 and a half point favorites in this game. Yes. And we saw already this morning that the plan is for Hertz to play this week. So we're firing up all Eagles players here. I guess the opposite is true. Maybe maybe we get a Texan's Jaguar situation from this past week where the Eagles get up by four scores and they pull guys.

But you got to score points to get up four scores. So you're going to be playing your Eagles guys. I mean, Tom, Gardner Minchin was so fucking bad in that game. He was horrible. I saw all my Eagles friends complaining about them. So I'm sure they're glad to see Jalen Hertz is ready to play. Well, Sireani said Hertz was close this week. And again, I think, Tom, I think if it was the playoffs, he would have played for last week.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. He wouldn't have missed any games if it was the playoffs. So that's smart. I mean, you guys had, the Eagles had some cushion to play with here. You don't want to. They used it all up. Yes, they did. They're making it a little too close for comfort here heading into week 18, but it looks like fortunately the Giants will have nothing to play for in the season finale.

Detroit and Green Bay, I don't think we need to spend a whole lot of time on this, Tom. I believe this is a loser leaves town match. Well, it's definitely a loser. Green Bay is in with a win. Detroit needs to win and they need Seattle to lose to grab that last spot. But, I mean, even if there's scoreboard watching in Seattle, gets out ahead by multiple scores against the Rams. Do you think Dan Campbell's crew is going to be like, oh, well, we'd have no more playoff chances.

Let's let our rival Packers into the playoffs here and lay over. I don't think that's going to happen. No. I see Dan Campbell's crew playing this one to the bitter end, even if the Seahawks, you know, would build up a big lead against the Rams. So, yeah, by the way, the answer to Christian Watson versus Romeo Dobbs was no. Yeah, as someone that has. had a lot of props and Packers. I had Packers, I had Rogers over his passing yards and Aaron Jones

under his rushing attempts. Yeah, that game, how that played out what the fucking unable to score on the doorstep and then giving up to defensive special team scores. That was the worst case scenario for those bets. So yeah, I know all about the, and then I, yeah, I had Dobbs. I decided to play him over Deonti Johnson. That wasn't a huge, you know, swing and a miss. But yeah, the Packers And for as many points as they scored in that game, it was not a offensive fantasy fireworks show there. Cowboys and the Durs. Dallas obviously has something to play for because if Philly were to lose, Dallas would win the division. And the commanders are eliminated.

And Ron Rivera. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say somebody needs to fill in Ron Rivera here. Ron Rivera might have lost his job by Bench and old H.B. Heineke there. Oh, yeah. And then he had no clue that they could have been eliminated. based on Seattle's result against the Jets in week 17. So it's not exactly a great look. Maybe that's for the better, though. I mean, do you want to continue to coach this commander's franchise?

I mean, maybe he's like ready for retirement. So, yeah, the switch to Wentz did not go as playing night when I was on that commander's side. That was, and it wasn't like Deshaun Watson and the Browns were playing great in the first half of that game. They were trying to keep the dirs in that game. but, yeah, even the sum of the... Yeah, we saw Jonathan Williams starting the game. What the F is that on? Oh, did you see the Beat Rider?

I mean, not that it ended up... Oh, well, yeah, that's bullshit. Not that it ended up mattering. I mean, Brian Robinson had 24 carries. I mean, I know he didn't come through for fantasy. I apologize for that, but Wentz was so freaking bad. Tom, I mean, the Beat writer, I'm not even going to say his name because I don't want to, like, draw, like, too much negative attention to it.

Oh, I was really wondering. how Brian Robinson was feeling after that San Francisco game. You think you may be mentioning that before the game? Like, what is your job? Yeah, I mean, if you have some sort of inside information like that, maybe you want to put it out there for your readers and for it to be read. But I think that was complete speculation. Yeah, he was a full...

Yeah, he had 24 carries, full practice all week. You know, it's just a bizarre decision, though. I mean, it was the whole, you know, we switch to Wentz. And, oh, yeah, the guy we've been riding all year, Antonio Gibson's out too. Yeah, we're going to put Jonathan Williams, Mr. Journeyman, who's probably been with eight to ten teams already in the league. Yeah, just Washington, you know, Washington decision-making,

baffling again. That's true stunner right here at the end of the season. Let's go to Arizona and San Francisco. San Francisco's still playing for the two-stunner. seed. Potentially the one seat, too. Potentially the one seat. So they'll have, they'll have everything to play for. Arizona is dead. I mean, just, hey, I don't even think Blow was that. You know, I was going to say, I thought they played hard. I mean, we can do a small write-up on the Cardinals. James Connor picked up a shin injury in that game. You know,

maybe they'll probably rest him in this. You'd think they'd rest him if it's any, you know, somewhat serious or whatever. DeAndre Hopkins, obviously, I think they'll probably. They're on the side of Thompson with him if it's anything serious with the new issue. Right. Those are the kind of teams like the, so in theory, you look at these teams that are eliminated, like Washington. And like I'm sitting here saying, well, Washington has nothing to play for. But these teams that are eliminated typically just do go out and try to win in week 18, right? Like, so I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, Brian Robinson's down. Like, no. But for guys who are hurt, that's different in my opinion.

Yeah, especially a team that is kind of looking at, hey, maybe we can get one of the top five pick here. No need to rush a guy. Connor, I believe he's entering free agency next year. Was that a one-year deal? I thought he got a one-year deal. No, he got a multi-year deal. Oh, it was multi-year. Okay, never mind.

Well, why the hell are they using so much to have this stretch? I thought it's a one-year deal. But, yeah, these type of situations, there's no reason to rush. DeAndre Hopkins and James Connor back into a game. or your 14-point underdogs with nothing to play for. The Jets and the Dolphins, the Jets are eliminated, but the Dolphins are still playing for their playoff lives. And obviously, I mean, I don't like to have a watch list in week 18

because there's not much to watch, but we legitimately do have to watch to it. Yeah, I'd be stunned. And we probably should watch Teddy at this point, like, because that affects what Waddle. I mean, we saw Skylar Thompson come in there. I'm not telling you to Teddy Bridgewater's, you know, anything great, but he can at least get Waddle and Tyree kill the ball. That offense had no chance.

So we got to really watch that quarterback situation. If it's down to Skyler Thompson, it's a downgrade for those receivers for sure. The Jets are probably just going to play to play spoiler. I mean, you know. I honestly don't know what exactly they'll do. It kind of feels like Zach Wilson is done for the year, but this would be a spot where maybe they would play him to get him more reps. I don't know.

This is... They're not the big quarterback next year. Yeah, that's the thing. Like, maybe they just give Mike White. If he's not too beat up, he took a bunch of big hits in that game, too. So they're kind of in limbo here. We'll find out what their plans are, but nothing that's really like we're waiting on our edges of our seat here to see what happens with this. Rams and Seahawks, Seahawks are playing for their playoff lives.

So, and the Rams are dead. So, I mean, I don't think there's really anything much to note here from this game. No, I mean, other than, yeah, Cam Acres is playing really well here down the stretch for the Rams. They'll continue to feed him the ball a lot. But, yeah, Baker Mayfield turned back into Baker Meathield last week. Yeah, and then Kenneth Walker's back. He looks great. Tyler Lockett was pretty quiet, but that might have been.

He picked up a leg injury during the game. He came back. Yeah, maybe we do it. But that matchup, Tom, I mean, D.K. Mekoff had one catch for three yards. Yeah, exactly. So that's a matchup. So, yeah, both teams will be playing their guys in this one.

Yeah. Yep, nothing, nothing that we really have to note there from that game because nothing has really changed. Oh, and they'll put that game at the same time as Detroit Green Bay. Yes. I would, yeah, I would hope so. I mean, I think Detroit fans would be pretty pissed if they would play that one before or after. So, yeah, those two games will probably be in the 425 slot on Sunday. Now let's go to Tampa Bay in Atlanta.

Tampa Bay is nothing to play for. Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is locked into the four seed. They're going to rest their starters. Yeah, all guys will be rested. The point spread reflects that. It's, uh, Atlanta like a second. Yeah, seven to seven to eight points.

So, uh, we'll be seeing probably some Blaine Gabbart in this one and a bunch of Yeah, the here. I saw that. The, uh, he was on his jet skis. or whatever. Yeah. Saw that down the plane or whatever. That was an interesting little story.

Good for him. And now he'll be rewarded with a start here in week 18. Yeah. So. Yeah, Falcons, you know, they'll continue to do what they've been doing here. Ritter will get another start. And a lot of Tyler Algier and Drake London. So New England and Buffalo, New England's playing for their playoff lives.

So they'll play everybody. And then Buffalo is completely contingent on Monday night. Like, it's an extreme long. shot for them to make the play for them to be the one seat if they lose tonight. Yeah, they'll need a lot of help in that scenario. They would need the, they would need the Chiefs to lose and then the Bengals to lose as well, I think. So this is a must-win game the night on Monday night football. And they're probably, you know, they're most likely to be locked in on Sunday based on the

scenarios. But they're, you know, we do have to watch the results here for the Monday night game and the Saturday game with the Chiefs. there are scenarios where they might have nothing to play for. Minnesota and Chicago, Minnesota, I mean, they're locked into the two or three seed. So in the past, we've seen teams kind of like locked into that spot, or at least in the, like to just say, hey, you know, we can't really do much advancing. So we're going to take it easy. But here is the problem for Minnesota.

They were so shitty against the Packers that, like, they, it feels like to me, they've got to go out and get, like, really good reps out there. Yeah, and this is a matchup. You think you could get some good reps. We just saw the Lions, the Lions ripped the Bears 41 to 10. You would think at least for a half here. I mean, get Justin Jefferson back on the same page with Kirk Cousins. This is a great spot to do it.

You can clearly tell Vegas. doesn't know quite what to do with this game. They're one and a half to three points favorites. Yeah, one and a half to three point favorite. You know, they're thinking that Minnesota might do something, but it looks like they think they might not do it for the entire game. Maybe if they put a couple really good drives together, they're like, all right, let's, let's bottle that, you know,

but I was going to ask you, Minnesota's a one and a half point favorite against the second worst team in the NFL. Tom, is that them, is that thing thinking they're going to play their story? starters? I don't know because obviously the markets have totally collapsed on the Vikings and just yeah. I would think if I was, I mean, based on lines recently for both of these teams, if they thought the Vikings were going all out to win this game, I think this would probably be four and a half point favorites in this game. So they're kind of middling it here a little bit in that one and a half point range. This is going to be one of those interesting games though. We get these

in week 18 where you know, maybe they play for a half, maybe they don't. We could, could see the Vikings like minus three point favorites for the first half and, uh, you know, minus one and a half for the game overall. Uh, but we'll see. The bears have been continuing to play their guys. Uh, they're in contention still for that number one seed. They, uh, number one pick. Uh, they don't want to, they don't really want to win this game either. So, yeah, but they've, they've, they've continued to play their guys, but it looks like they've, they've been playing like a team that, uh, isn't exactly trying to win a lot of games at the end of the season. So. This is, what a weird game.

And you can probably tell Justin Fields, I don't know what teams will do, but you can probably tell Justin Fields, like, if we get the number one pick, we're not taking a quarterback, we just want the pick so we can treat it. That's probably what you can say, you know. Far being from me, maybe they love Bryce Young, but, you know, and then they trade Justin Fields for a haul. That could happen, I guess. But we'll see what happens.

You want that draft capital. You want that top overall pick. You want to be in that spot where you can move it or, you know, do whatever you want with it. And they've kind of looked like a team that's fading hard here at the end of the season. The Chargers and the Broncos, the Chargers cannot win the AFC West. The Chiefs have already done that. But you can make a very, very, very easy argument that the number five seed in the AFC is even more valuable than the number five seed in the NFC.

Because not only do you get the winner of the AFC South, by the way, the Jaguars are a pretty live team right now. So I'm not saying like they're an easy matchup. But more importantly, you avoid the chiefs, the Bengals and the Bills, if you get that five seat. Yeah. So yeah, they want to get into that spot. They want to get to the Jaguars. Although, you know, if the Ravens would have a chance to win the third seed, maybe you want to stay in that six spot over the Jaguars. So there, and this line is kind of telling me that Vegas doesn't, this is another game kind of like the Vikings. They don't know. quite what to do with it. I see it mostly at minus three against the Broncos. We saw the Broncos

were like 12 and a half to 13 point underdogs against the Chiefs last week. The Chargers are surging. So I think this line would probably be more in the four and a half to six point range if they completely thought that the Chargers were going to go all out for this game. And some of it might have to do with what happens tonight on Monday Night football to determine what exactly the Chargers, you know, their motivation. for this week. And by the way, I don't know if they're going to know if the six seed is just as valuable as the five, because my read is Baltimore since he is going to be the Sunday night game. Yes. If it plays out that that game is for the AFC North title, the Bengals would probably have, they would have to lose tonight for that

scenario. I don't know what they're going to do for Sunday night football. If the Bengals would win tonight, because the AFC North would be clinched then. So that game would be a little. little bit more. Yeah, so that's why they're waiting. That's why they're waiting. So the Chargers, the Chargers really have to wait on tonight's game to really get their motivations. But like you said, Vegas doesn't really know what to do with this game. That's because there's so many things that can happen for the Chargers. So if you have like Herbert, Echler, I would play on having other options. Yes, yes, exactly. Especially a guy like Echler, who's been a little bit banged up here recently. You know, he had the arm issue and the knee issue. Yeah, I would, I would have,

backup plans ready to go for week 18. Carolina and New Orleans, there's nothing to talk about here. Both these teams are eliminated from the playoffs. They're just playing for pride. New Orleans has the motivation to win because they give the Eagles their first round draft pick. But these are two teams that are eliminated and they're probably just going to. They'll go for it.

I mean, Steve Will, I did give out this bet. Oh, Steve Wilkes. Yeah, played for the job. He wants to get that job. He's, you know, they're certainly playing a lot better under him than they were for Matt Rule. So he'd like to put one more win up there. And as he said, the Saints, they don't, you know,

it's not like they can improve their draft pick by losing and tanking this game. So I think both teams are going to be motivated to come out and win this game. So we saw the Panthers win this game earlier this year. But, yeah, I don't think either team will be resting guys unless they're banged up in this one. Let's go to yet another completely meaningless game that we are not going to write a thing about. Houston and Indianapolis. Yeah, I don't think there's much more to say. I mean, this is literally the two worst teams in the NFL right now based on what the

course is done the last few weeks. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, let's skip ahead. I don't think we need to even spend more than 30 seconds. We announced that the game will be played next week, and I hope Red Zone channel does not put it on my TV for a single second. I was about to say this and like Carolina, New Orleans are two games that that Red Zone is probably not going to put on at all.

Let's go to Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's got everything to play for, Tom. They're playing for their playoff lives. Yep. They need a Dolphins loss and a Patriots loss and a victory over the Cleveland Browns to slide into that spot. All those things are very possible, by the way,

especially if Miami doesn't have Teddy or two. Yeah, the Patriots are seven to eight-point underdogs. Miami's three-point favorites against New York Jets, I think there's just that possibility that that Zach Wilson could start for the Jets, which is why that, I think that line has hung up a little bit higher, but certainly both cases are in play here.

I guess I'll have to do my Steelers postseason parlay again. It worked out pretty well last year. I parlayed the Jacksonville Jaguars to beat the Colts and the Steelers to beat the Ravens in week 18 last season. It was 19 to 1 odds, and it ended up hitting, so I guess I'll have to do a Steelers postseason parlay again. I'll probably get some pretty good odds on it again. Now let's go over to the final game on the slate,

which is Baltimore and Cincinnati, and that's entirely contingent on what happens tonight. If Cincinnati wins, Cincinnati is the NFC North champion, right? Yes. But is there still seating to play for? That's the question. For Cincinnati, yes. For Baltimore, I don't know.

Yeah, Baltimore, they could, no, they'll be stuck in that. No, Baltimore will still have seating to play for because they're 10 and 6 and the Chargers are 10 and 6. Yeah, I don't know who has the tie worker actually between those two teams. But yeah, that game is most likely to have some sort of motivation even if the Bengals win or lose tonight. Because if they win, they could have some top seed potential if everything worked out.

They have a chance for the top seat. So Cincinnati's going to have something to play for regardless. I think. Yeah. Depending on when this game is, that's the other issue. Yeah. And I think Baltimore will probably have some sort of motivation, especially if, you know, maybe we, what we'll see about Lamar Jackson.

It's got to be close here. And if Lamar Jackson's healthy game, I don't. think they want to go into the postseason with Lamar Jackson on like a five or six week layoff and his first action is back in the postseason. So I think if he's anywhere close, I think they'll probably want to get him into the lineup and get his legs back underneath him after a long layoff here. So I think both teams will be motivated in this one. Yeah. So Tom, that's going to wrap it up for this. I mean, there's some stuff that we still don't know. Minnesota, the Chargers are among the couple of teams that we don't know.

The Bills are a team that we don't know. But other than that, I think we're pretty cut and dry here. And if you really want to know what games where there's projected to be potential starter resting, go look at the betting lines. Because if the betting lines look off to you, chances are Vegas thinks there's a chance that starters could be rested on one side or the other in that game. Yeah, Vegas, they don't want to be hung out to dress. I hang in a bad line whenever players might be sitting.

So that's always the best. The lines come in really handy most of the time, and especially this week. If you're wondering what motivations might be out there for week 18. All right, Tom, that'll do it. We're going to have a very brief market report article up on the website, just kind of dealing with some of these situations. My brain already hurts trying to talk through the scenarios. And another thing that is problematic here, Tom, is we don't know the full schedule.

And we're not going to know that until after tonight's game. So we're going to do our best to get this out there. I hope everybody has a very, very happy new year. Follow him on Twitter at Tom Brawley. I'm at FG underscore Dolan. And again, Dolan's a terrible salesman. I should have mentioned like five times already in this podcast that FantasyPoint.com's super early bird special is 30% off.

And it runs through the Super Bowl. We've had subscriptions flying in. And I really appreciate that. It is the lowest rate you're going to get. and it covers you for the entire 2023 season and all of our playoff content. So that's really important. For Tom, I'm Joe. Thanks to everybody for listening and we will talk to you soon.

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