Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Week 14 Market Report Recap

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) review last week's market report and watch list through the lens of Week 14 performances. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoints.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. Large percentage of Fantasy Football League's time. I don't know if I would say the majority. Would you say the majority of leagues have 16 playoffs? I guess I think that's what I would go with. It always feels like I prefer Tom 14 playoffs in 12 team leagues, but it seems like the majority of leagues have 16 playoffs.

Would you say that's accurate? Yeah, none of the leagues I play and really have six teams. And I prefer the, I don't want to reward teams that are, you know, basically at 500, right around 500. You know, letting 50% of the teams. And I prefer, you know, 30, yeah, 33% getting four out of the 12. But I'm not the majority. I know most people like the playoffs. I know a lot of people even have 18 playoffs with 12,

which just seems absolutely ridiculous to me. But I think for the majority of people out there, week 15 is the start of the fantasy playoffs. And we'll break it down here. At least the buys are over. We're past that part of the season. And we're really getting into nut-cutting time here. It's setting up to get into week 15 here.

So what I'm getting at is if you're in the majority, party of leagues right now. Your playoffs are starting next week. And I mean, fortunately for you, buys are over. Unfortunately for us, Tom, because that means more games for us to break down. But also, you get to have your strongest teams out there. And we're going to recap week 14 here and see if anybody new might be on your ideal playoff roster as we move into the future. My name is Joe Dolan. His name is Tom Brawley. Good to be with you, everybody, on a Monday morning. So what we do here, Tom, is we go through every game on the board and we talk about, it. We move guys up and down

their board. We watch guys who might be injured. But the thing about the market report this time of year is early in the season, Tom, we have no clue. We're flying blind. We're not flying blind anymore at this stage. So there's going to be guys who were just like, ah, whatever. I'm glad

he caught five passes. I don't want to use that guy anymore anyway. So our article and our podcast probably becomes a little more cut and dry. Yeah, I mean, guys are more into defined role. I mean, we're We're 14 weeks into the season here entering week 15. So the rules are mostly defined at this point.

It comes down to more of like injury stuff that this guy's going to miss, who could be elevated. But at this point in the season, there's not a whole lot of new information in terms of how guys are getting used. Usually, I mean, sometimes there are some situations, but we'll get into him here. But it was a little bit of an ugly week for some injuries across the league. It was a tough scene. You know, there was quite a few concussions. And it was kind of a tough week 14 with some guys leaving early because of injuries.

Let's start with the Thursday night game, which, I mean, with a complete stinker. Until the end, when I turned it on, Tom, you wrote this game up already. What did you take away from this game? Vegas and the Rams, 1716 Rams, Baker Mayfield threw some absolute frozen ropes on that final drive. like some legitimately great throws. Yeah, I don't know if there is really anything to take away for fantasy, but that was a very entertaining game. The Raiders just keep finding ways to lose games all the time here.

That's the fourth game that they've lost by with double-digit lead. So, I mean, especially against this Rams team, who kind of looked like they were just kind of packing it in for most of that game. But they turned it on late, scored the two touchdowns. Baker looks like he's got a little bit of energy left, but I don't know what there really is to, there was two injury situations with the Raiders. We'll be watching. Josh Jacobs picked up a finger injury in that game, continued to play through it. But it looks, yeah, he was playing through it.

So the only thing that could come back here is, you know, he has been dealing with a cap injury recently. That loss basically puts them out of contention. So the concern would be that they say, hey, the season's already done anyway. Hey, Josh, rest up. But I don't think that's a likely scenario. But maybe it's time to go add, Zemir White, if you've been using Josh Jacobs or at least a little bit concerned about that.

And the other thing is Darren Waller. It looks like he'll be back in week 15. And everybody knows that the tight end position has been an absolute abomination outside of Travis Kelsey this season. So, I mean, the guy hasn't played for basically 10 weeks, but he could be a guy that is in fantasy lineups here in the playoffs, just because there's nothing really out there. I mean, right up the waiver wire position at tight end.

And it's a sad state of affairs for that position. So that's the only two things that I really took away from this game. Cam Acres looked a little bit better too, and he's getting a lot of carries. But that game kind of played out where he could get a lot of carries. The Jets and Buffalo, this game was ugly. and the weather was certainly a factor here, but I want to, it recalls to me or brings to mind for me, Greg Co sells comments about the bills, and he said, you know, when you take a, everybody talks about the bills like they're an elite team, first and foremost, they're 10 and 3, and they're in the number one seat in the AFC, okay?

So I'm not saying they stink, but he said, when you look at this offense as a whole, how talented is it? And I mean, it's Josh Allen who's obviously playing hurt. Like, he's not on the injury report with that elbow, so everybody's like, well, you know, he's fine when he probably isn't. And then you look at it and you're like, ugh. I mean, outside of Stefan Diggs, you know, look, we'd like to Gabe Davis this year because he's attached to this offense, but it's clear that he's a guy. And Dawson Knox every now and again shows up. They can't really run the ball. James Cook, I mean, forget about this guy.

I mean, every time you just think he's going to do something, they doesn't do anything. He had six yards rushing in this game. Buffalo's going through it right now. Yeah, I think that they thought Gabe Davis and Dawson Knox might take a step forward. Of course, Dawson Knox got the nice contract before the start of the season. They didn't really make any big moves at the position outside of, you know, make it draft in Khalil Shakur. but neither of those guys has really stepped up as the number two option in this offense. Steph Digg is, of course, an all-world receiver.

So it is a little bit thinner than you might think for as good offense as it is. I mean, Josh Allen is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. And now that his play is dropped off a little bit here because of injury, because of whatever, it's still a top 10 type of offense, but it doesn't have nearly the firepower. it once had. And this Jets defense can humble a lot of offenses that they're one of the best defenses in the league. And I'm with you, Joe, this backfield, it's, I mean, I guess that's the one thing we can

write up in this game is this backfield is just a, I just don't know if you feel confident playing single Terry or cook, even as like flex guys at this point. On the other side, it looks like Zonovan Knight, man. He, he, you know, he split up the touches, I mean, the snaps with Michael Carter. It was a pretty even split there, but they were feeding Zonovan Knight the ball when he was on the field. He's kind of the guy here moving. Michael Carter stinks. Yeah, I think Michael Carter does stink too.

Five carries for five rushing yards. Lost a fumble. Yeah. So, I mean, maybe we see Zonov. I think they're probably going to keep Michael Carter kind of in that passing back role. But Zonovan Knight, yeah, 47 percent of the snaps. Michael Carter was at 50 percent of the snaps. So a pretty even 50-50 split.

When night's on the field, they are feeding him the ball right now. Yeah, so I have, I have, for market report, I have Josh Allen down. I mean, I don't think he's thrown two touchdown passes in like six weeks. And I have Singletarian Cook down. I mean, the thing about them being down is, yeah, could they have a good game any given week? And it's not like also with Josh Allen, it's not like you're not starting him, but he's not going to carry you or isn't looking like he's going to carry you at this point. But bam, night, man, yeah, you're right, this guy.

He's not WaverWire anymore, is he? Yeah, he's like one of those guys that's like 55 to 60% owned. So he's like technically still out there and a lot. But I think we can write him up for the market report. I didn't write him up for the waiver wire. But I think he's an RB2 here and he's got some upside here with the way he's performing right now. Mike White is a tough SOB. Yes, he is.

He got folded up on that head. Oh, my gosh. He comes out of the game. They put Flacco and Flacco immediately dialed on himself. And then Mike White comes back into the game and then they just Robert Sala just casually after the game says, oh yeah, by the way, he's going to the hospital. Yeah, I saw that. I'm like, oh my gosh, how is he going to play this weekend? How did he end up coming back into that game with that injury? I know they said it was a precautionary move, but God damn. I mean, I mean, it was that

Milano hit. He took a couple big shots. So, man, he is tough and I'm sure that's why his teammates some love them here. But yeah, that was, those were some gruesome hits. I'm glad that he's still walking and was able to finish out that game. Let's go to Cleveland and Cincinnati, and Cincinnati wins this game pretty easily because Deshawn Watson was terrible again. Not as bad as he was in his last game, but he was pretty bad in this one. DPJ had a big game. Yeah, and Joku too, man. I think maybe we're doing a Joku right out. Oh, you've got to start him. Yeah, I mean, you know, I started Pat Friermuth over him in the guillotine league, and Friermuth scored, so I'm not going to kick myself. But, you know, in Joku, Tom, I don't even know if I need to go out and pick up another tight end with the way Njoku looked in that game.

For Cleveland, you know, Nick Chubb didn't get it done. But I think the takeaway for them is David Njoku is up. And we need it. We need it right now at the position, too. Oh, we do. Yeah, there's just, especially Mark Andrews slowly dying here because of his quarterback situation. So in Joku, it's been a very rough, like four to six weeks here because of the ankle injury, multiple knee injuries. But he was back nine targets on Watson had 43 combined attempts.

So a pretty nice target share there. And his snaps were up at 96%. So he's back. The appearances on the injury report have probably kept some people away from playing on. like you said, Joe, you know, you chose Pat Friermuth over him, but after this week's performance, as long as he's not, you know, getting DMPs this week, I think he has to be in lineups now. And also, I chose Fiermooth over him, not just because of his injuries, but because Watson was so bad last weekend. He wasn't a whole lot better this week. And I think at this stage,

the notion that Dishon Watson is going to elevate this offense into being a fantasy juggish. or not in the fantasy playoffs is just completely misplaced. I mean, Tom, there's three weeks left of the fantasy season. Yeah, he has a lot of rust to knockoff. And this offense, you go back and look at the, I mean, they were, it was pretty good with percent. They were a top 10 offense with Jacoby Brissette. So, yeah, Watson, this has been a downgrade.

I mean, there's no two ways around it. So, I mean, it's not, I don't think it's been like terribly significant downgrade, but this isn't the same offense that it was with Percent. maybe that changes over the next couple of weeks, but it has been at least a little bit of a downgrade here. Let's flip it over to Cincinnati here where, by the way, let's talk about Amari Cooper. He was not on a pitch count. He played 86% of the snap. So there was like a little notion that that hip injury was going to limit him.

He caught just two of seven targets for 42 yards, but that was not because he was on a pitch count. Yeah, it's still something we probably have to follow this week, see how, see how, how he fares in practice, but, yeah, I have a tough time. I mean, just how good Cooper has been this season. Even if he is, you know, kind of limited in practice this week, he's tough to take out of the lineup. But, yeah, the numbers weren't great. They're only catching two targets on seven, catching two passes on seven targets.

So he's got to be at least, maybe a little bit of a downgrader, at least a watch because of this injury. But, yeah, there was no restrictions per se at a. 56% of the snaps. Fliping over to Cincinnati, and obviously the big situation is T. Higgins. T. Higgins plays one snap. Got pulled off the injury report on Friday. Hey, thanks, guys.

Yeah, he plays one snap. According to Zach Taylor, he gets hurt in pregame. And Zach Taylor seemed to insinuate that he snuck his way onto the field for the first snap. And, like, Taylor didn't have any intention of playing him. Maybe he was just joking because he was in a good mood because they wanted. the game. But T. Higgins, I mean, Tom, if you're a prop better and you bet a T. Higgins over, I mean, the books are going to say, look, he was out there for one snap. He played, like,

tough shit. Like, that's the way I look at it, man. And, and unfortunately, this is something now that must be monitored going forward because hamstrings do not go away. Yeah, this is just, and it's tough. We've had a couple situations with him this season. I remember the season open against the Steelers, he got a concussion early in that game, left early. I believe there was another game in the first month or two where he also left early. So this is like, this is like the second or third time where he's played and left early, and it's just absolutely killed teams. And now we're, you know, entering the fantasy playoffs.

And it's tough to give him full trust now, even if he is back at practice this week. So just absolutely gutting us. Somebody that had, you know, played Higgins on, you know, a couple of teams this week. week just took a big zero and it's going to cost me in a couple leagues. So that was the one situation I think out of everything that happened this week that has me the most bitter is the T. Higgins playing one snap. Thank God, as you said, didn't have an overbet on his receiving props. Oh, my God, that would have been, that would have sent me on full tilt on that one.

And one more thing to watch, Joe Mixing came out and looked good. But Tom, don't look at the touch numbers. Nixon had 16 to Somaget P. Rines five, but P. Ryan still had five targets. The snaps were 5743. Yeah, and it was nearly down the middle. Yeah, P. Ryan was getting a lot of run in passing situations, which was kind of, when Mixing was kind of struggling in the middle of part of the season, we could always count on him getting three or four catches. And I'm looking at routes run in week 14, P. Ryan had a three route. edge there 19 to 16. So that is the one spot where it looks like maybe P. Ryan is going to start taking more passing game work away from mixing. So it's going to make mixing a little bit more

touchdown dependent here in the fantasy playoffs. Let's go to Houston and Dallas. And this was an absolute stinker for Dallas. I mean, hey, they just no-showed. Hey, we're looking ahead. I mean, Houston, of course, I mean, I don't, the play calling down at the goal line, I mean, to be fair to Pepp Hamilton, who's had a terrible year. They didn't have Damien Pierce. I don't know what the Texans were doing. And then you knew as soon as they didn't score there that Dallas was going to mark them.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that was an ugly sequence at the end there. They tried to bring Pierce back into that game with the, he picked up the ankle injury early in the fourth quarter, came back out for a snap, and I think he got one carry. And I love he Smith said after the game that he just had no burst. and so now this is a situation we got to watch this week. I mean, I wrote up Rex Burkhead for the Waverware.

Oh. If you've been using Pierce, I would just advise to stay away from this backfield. We got Ogunbo Wallet and Eno Benjamin is here. Like, I want nothing to do with this backfield if Damian Pierce is going to miss this week. So look at the numbers. Damien Pierce gained 78 yards on 22 carries, okay? Not great. Like that's three and a half yards of carry.

There are other running backs combined for minus five yards on six carries. This offensive line is opening zero holes. Yeah, I mean, that speaks to Pierce. Maybe he should be a rookie to year just based on these numbers. I mean, he's doing, he's somehow getting yardage behind this offensive line. It's been a struggle. It's certain points down the stretch here. But he's doing a lot with a little help right now.

And I mean, these receivers are all banged up. We're going to cooks as a lot up. Deco Collins. And Pierce still got them into a position where they at least had a chance to win this game at the end of the game. Yeah. So what are we doing with Cooks and Collins? I, who cares? Yeah, Colons is a waiver guy anyway.

And if you still have cooks on your roster, I don't know what you're doing. You used to have been cut a couple weeks ago. And with Dallas, I mean, they just had a bad game. Dak Prescott has been. fine this year. Like, you know, like he's been fine. Like, he hasn't, I don't think he's been great. I don't think he's been terrible.

Like, he's been fine. He's been turned the ball over a little bit more than, uh, as usual for him. Um, so that, I mean, that kind of cost. I had that kept the Texans around in this game where his, uh, two interceptions. Uh, and yeah, I, I don't know what to really. I mean, this is still kind of the same offense. I mean, C.D. Lamb had his first

real down game in a while. Uh, but, and you know, Both the running back still came through. Schultz actually had a decent game. I don't know what to really take away from this game for Dallas. This is just to turn the page and move on to the next one. I don't think they were completely invested in this game as 17-point favorites. Minnesota and Detroit. Oh, boy, Vegas knows.

Doesn't Vegas. Oh, yeah. And you took the Lions. Pretty easy victory. Yeah, and I'm going to throw this out there. Minnesota Vikings are the same team every week, but they cannot run the football. No.

Like, Dalvin Cook, 23 yards on 15 carries. Yeah, yeah, and that awful sequence at the goal line where they were trying to do the, you know, the Derek Henry play from a couple of weeks ago. And he fumbled. And he held on to the ball too long and got crushed by half the defense for the line. So, yeah, this is, and that's the other thing about Cook.

his receiving production spiked up there a little bit in the middle of the season, but he just hasn't been involved as a receiver as well. I mean, at least we could always count on if he isn't going to score a touchdown, he'd have some receiving production. We're just getting none of that recently, and I have to wonder if maybe that has to do with T.J. Hawkinson getting into the mix here the last five to six weeks. Because, yeah, I mean, he doesn't even get targeted anymore.

just two targets in this game, one catch. He's not even a factor in the passing game anymore. So it really, really limits his upside and it hurts his floor moving forward. And the problem is, though, like, what are you going to do, sit them? Like, you can't sit a running back who gets 17 opportunities. Like, in an offense that can move the ball like this. Yeah, it's just a tough situation. Yeah, you've got to continue to play him, but he's more of a RB2 now than, you know,

he's always been an RB1 whenever he's been healthy. And this is this is kind of the first stretch of his career in the last, at least in the last couple of years where he gets the bulk of the work and he's still like an RB2 option. Over on the lion's side, I remember what Justin Rogers tweeted this week when he, when he discussed DeAndre Swift saying he popped back up on the injury report and you have to think that that ankle is still bothering him. And then once again, Tom, after we finally saw a little bit of light, from DeAndre Swift, he's back in a three-man running back rotation in week 14. Yeah, fun times. And, you know, yeah, let's get the breakdown here.

Yeah, Jamal Williams, 37% of the snaps, Swift, 36%. And Justin Jackson, 29%. So then, of course, Justin's Justin Jackson scores the touchdown early in the game here, only touchdown in the backfield. So, yeah, this is, I guess. I guess we'll just go off Justin Rogers' advice here. If Swift is on the injury report, he's a downgrade that week. If he gets three full practices in, you know, wheels up. Hopefully we get full practices moving forward.

But yeah, this is, I guess we'll just have to continue to watch injury reports with the Lions. How about the, how about Ben Johnson with the Penny Sewell play? I mean, the Lions are legitimately one of my favorite teams to watch in the entire league. How about the awareness of them, too? He got down in bounds. the clock roll. I love it. They also had the fourth down, the punt fake early in the game that got a whole bunch of yards. They were deep in their own territory. I love the Lions. They're just playing with an effort attitude and a little secret here, Joe, on my best bets. I'm going back to the

well with the Lions here. We're riding the Lions. They're getting points again against the Jets. They're going to flip the favorite by the end of the week. So go get on the Lions. while they're getting points here. Unbelievable. Just they're one of the, they're one of the better teams in the NFC. I just think people, you know, they have the Detroit Lions name,

so they don't want to totally believe it. But this is a good team. So I saw an article out there. And forgive me, I don't, I just saw it in passing on, on Twitter. But it was from a lion's rag. And they said,

Jared Goff is proving that the lion should stay put at quarterback. They currently have the fourth pick in the draft, by the way. But Jared Gough, look, you give the guy time to throw and he's going to look like Peyton Manning. It's all the other stuff that if you pressure him, he's going to look like Blaine Gabbard. But Gough was an easy call for me to pick up time in our dynasty league. I was the guy that dropped him. So I picked him up, I lost Lamar Jackson, picked up Gough in our dynasty. league and I got more out of Goff than I've gotten out of Lamar in weeks. Yes, I was the guy. I had Goff. He wasn't really doing much. And then I had Watson coming

back and I was like, ah, I'll probably be using Watson down the stretch. And now I'm like, God damn it. I'm like fifth and we only get four teams to get into the postseason. And I'm stuck with Watson when I'd much rather have golf right now. So congrats on us, you know, snapping him up and using them the next couple of weeks. So, yeah, so just to throw that out there, I think people might be confused as how, like, starting quarterbacks are available in our Dynasty League. It's a one quarterback league, first of all, but Tom, we only have 24 roster spots. So your backup, and especially third string quarterback, is usually one of the first guys to go

if you look for the next hot sleeper on the waiver wire. Yeah, I just had no use for him anymore. He'd just been, I've been using him. He was all right in the middle of the season. Had the hot start when Detroit's defense was, you know, really, really porous early in the year. But now he's, they're cooking again. And now the defense is playing well. And that's why they're a tough looking team right now.

Not sure I'm going to be using him, by the way, in the, uh, I don't think any, any NFC team wants to see them sneak into the playoffs right now. Now, they're better than a giant. Oh, yeah. They're way better than the Giants. commanders, Seahawks. They're better than the Vikings we saw. They're like the fourth or fifth best team in the NFC right now. Yeah, so the commanders to me are feisty because their defense is really good

and they have weapons on offense. But I think they're definitely better than the Giants who we'll get to right now. The Giants got absolutely tallywacked by the Eagles 4822. Tom, the one of the one thing we got to do with the Eagles is watched Alice Goddard. He's eligible to come off of IR. I picked them up in our 14 team league last week. Somebody dropped them. Oh, I didn't see that.

My team is kind of out of it in that league. But yeah, we'll watch that. He should be back everything. All the tea leaves the last couple of weeks were saying that he would be back immediately off of the IR when he was first eligible. So, but, yeah, I mean, nothing really to report otherwise for the Eagles. It's the same high-flying offense every week. Uh, it's, it's, you know, if you didn't have Goddor, it's been kind of nice having Devante Smith and AJ Brown. It's been a more condensed, uh, you know, a tree here. You know, they haven't been

spread too many targets around to the, the backup tight ends, but it will be a little bit more spread around here moving forward with Goddard getting back into the mix. Yeah, Devante Smith's been like on one. You know, he's, he's caught at least four, but he's seen at least eight targets in five straight games and that's that's part partly the goddard factor devante smith by the way uh if you're looking at and we're not writing up devonte smith and a j brown you know what to do with those guys but like devonte smith is the number two in philadelphia and he's caught more passes than he did last year yeah really i mean that's just speaks to the fall last year yeah jalen hurts this season and i mean he i mean they come out slinging the ball every week now too um so i mean he's he's

He's moved into the favorite for the MVP this week. After another strong performance, he was underdog to Patrick Mahomes. Now he's minus 115 coming out of week 14. Mahomes are three picks in that game. Yes, yeah. He let the Broncos back into the game there. So let's go to the Giants.

And there's really only one thing to say about the Giants. You've got to move Sequin down. This neck injury, Dave Spadero. The script, yeah, right. But if the Giants are going to be playing from behind, I mean, yeah, he's got an injury. I mean, and they don't want to expose him too much. If you can't trust him to, if you can't trust him to be the bell cow behind this line in an offense that it really feels like Brian Daedle has already rung as much dirty water out of this towel as he possibly could have this year. Yeah, I mean, we were just talking about Dalvin Cook earlier.

I mean, it's kind of like a similar situation. I almost, you know, it's going to be tough to take him out of a lineup just because, you know, he does see a lot of work each week. But if it's going to get reduced here a little bit, this is a tough situation. So we'll watch the Injury Report this week. Hopefully he gets back to full practices with the neck issue. They were clearly watching his snaps in this game.

He played like the opening series and then they brought him bright, well, I think you only had three or four snaps in the first quarter. Played a lot in the second and third quarter, and then the game just got completely out of hand. And, you know, they're not going to try it out Barclay with a little bit of a neck injury here while the game is a three-score game. So their season's kind of on the line here against the commanders in week 15. So hopefully we can get back to close to a full workload in a must-win game for the Giants.

Baltimore and Pittsburgh, this game was a disaster. I mean, Mitchell Tribisky looked great, except on the three interceptions, which were three of the worst ones you'll see thrown all year. Yeah, it was so bad. And then there was, you know, even there were some plays. There was a shot into the end zone to Deontay Johnson. He was in double covered. We have George Pickens on the other side, one-on-one. You know, it's like the idea, you know, and we don't want to, you don't want Deontay Johnson in those situations.

you got George Brickens. So he was making terrible decisions left and right. But he did. He was moving the team between the 20s, at least. But, yeah, this was a tough pill to swallow if you're a Steelers fan. Had a chance to maybe climb back into the playoff race. You know, you have two matchups with the Ravens if you could sweep that. You know, you got the Panthers and Raiders here coming up.

So there was like a little bit of a glimmer of hope here for the Steelers. but totally pissed away this game. They, you know, had a field goal blocked late in the game as well. You know, it ended up being a two-point difference. So, I mean, that game was there for the taking and the Steelers gave it away to the rival Ravens in this one. And the Ravens ran the ball extremely well. Tom, I got to be honest, though. You and I said this on our Sunday morning show.

We recommended nobody star J.K. Dobbins. And I don't necessarily regret it because it just feels like if you start Dobbins next week, he's going to make this the Browns, which is a good matchup, by the way. So I think that'll that'll coax a lot of people into starting them, perhaps validly so. But it just feels like they'll have 13 carries for 41 yards. Yeah, we'll have to probably write up something on this backfield just because people do have both Dobbins and Edwards. I mean, we'll give him a tentative up. just because they did run the ball.

Well, you know, this is the best they've run the ball. And like, well over a month here. Steelers had been a pretty good run defense, you know, coming into this game. So maybe there's some signs of some life for this running game. I think Ronnie Stanley was also back in the game. I can't remember. He was. Yeah, I was going to save.

So there's maybe they're getting a little healthier on the offensive line as well. But, I mean, we got Anthony Brown at quarterback potentially here. They play on Saturday. Lamar, it sounds like he might not be back to week 16. Tyler Huntley suffered concussions. Now we have six days for him to get ready with a Saturday kickoff. So it looks like it's going to be Anthony Brown. So any positive momentum that this running game might have might come to an end just because of the quarterback situation. And I will say this too.

I thought on Dobbins long run, there was a significant hitch in his giddy up. Not that I'm not that I'm criticizing him, by the way. You could drive a Mack truck through that hole that he had too. One other thing, we should, we got to knock Mark Andrews down. I mean, this is, he's been awful. It's been a rough two months for him, and now we got a third string quarterback potentially. I mean, we're going to get questions on him this week. I mean, in the right situations, you might be sitting Mark Andrews.

I mean, if Anthony Brown's going to start, I mean, they were, he threw five passes after coming into that game. So this is, you used a second round pick on Mark Andrews. And now we might be having questions if he starts in the fantasy playoffs. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Jacksonville and Tennessee, like, I could not have, I thought I was pretty adamant on our podcast last week and on the Waverwire podcast, how much I love Chigaconkwo. Hopefully you picked them up because he obviously gives the Texans, the Titans,

the Titans something on offense. But with the Jaguars, man, Evan Ingram, are you kidding me? That was the most random blow-up game by any player that might have. Like, I'm trying to think of more random, like, huge performance by somebody this season than Evan Ingram. 11 catches, 162 yards and two touchdowns. Like, where did that come from? I have no idea. I know people are probably, yeah, he's like one of those fringe waiver wire guys.

he's like 55% own. Probably everybody, if he's still out there on the way, but people are going to run out there and go at him and I'm sure he'll have like two catches for 15 yards this week. And I mean, let's talk to actually. First and foremost, Trevor Lawrence has been awesome. And, you know, this is pretty great considering it looked like he was going to be out for the season the last time we saw.

Yeah, and it was, he was very questionable coming into this game. He missed the first two practices the week with the foot slash toe injury that he had. looked like it could have been a lot worse, it looked like it could have been knee or a leg injury when it happened in week 13. So for him to come out and perform like he did. And they needed it though. I mean,

this ETN situation is getting ugly here. I mean, why do they not throw him the football? I don't know. And it's all happened really since James Robinson got traded. I mean, they have just stopped. I mean, he was kind of involved as a receiver up until that point. and then he's kind of, he's become like the lead back here, and now they refuse to throw him the ball.

It's, I just don't understand it. And, you know, we're talking about Dolvin Cook. You know, now ETN doesn't get any, you know, targets or receptions anymore. So this has happened to a couple backs here that just aren't involved in the passing game anymore. And if, you know, we're going up against the Titans run defense that stifles everybody, you have to be able to catch a couple of balls to help your family. fantasy value and it doesn't even see a target in this game.

Just completely frustrating. Let's move to the Chiefs and the Broncos. Tom, I said when this game was 27-0, probably just like everybody else did, that this game was over. And then Patrick Mahomes just decided that he was going to throw a bunch of interceptions and let the Broncos back into the game. And the Broncos almost pull it out.

Of course, the most notable thing for the Broncos, well, I mean, outside of Jerry Judy, playing the best game maybe of his career. Obviously, Russell Wilson suffering the concussion. He had no idea where he was. That was a nasty hit, too. It was nasty. And you see, oh, he got a bump on his forehead. That's how hard his head hit the ground. Oh, that was nasty. Yeah. He went, okay, you know, everybody's obviously ragged on him all season long and for good reason, but he, he laid it all on the line on that play to get the first down. He certainly took the worst of it.

They'll probably be Brett Rippin, I would think, this week. Not that that really moves the needle much with the way Russell Wilson's playing. But it's good to see Judy finally do something. He almost got ejected early in the game, too. It might not have happened. He took off his helmet, bumped an official. I think he's going to get fined for it. But thankfully, he stayed in the game, cached an over prop from the whiteboard and scored three touchdowns. And it looks like the way that Nathaniel Hackett was talking last week. I mean, they basically rolled Cortland Sutton out for week 14 on a Monday or Tuesday. So it sounds like that, you know, whenever a coach does that, this is probably a multi-week absence for Cortland Sutton.

So Judy is a guy. I mean, he's looking like he could be like a wide receiver too down the stretch if Sutton's going to miss multiple games. Yeah, I mean, look, I thought he played well. He's been getting open. Like our guy Chris Wecht tweeted out last week from Fantasy Points data that he's really just getting wide ass open against man. He's averaging like a ton of yards per route run versus man. The metrics, the analytics on Judy always seemed better than his production. And maybe just because he's been on a team that's been an utter mess.

Also, he needs to catch the ball better, but he did that in this game. Yeah, the quarterback play has always kind of held him down. And of course it has this year, but the Broncos were able to score some actual touchdowns this week. And Judy was the one doing it all for him. So just hopefully, you know, I don't think Brett Rippin will be a complete fall, you know, just a cliff going from Russell Wilson to Britt Rippin. Wilson's been bad enough that like going to the backup, you know, not anywhere near where it would be back in Wilson, Seattle. No, no.

So, yeah, I think Judy should be able to maintain this. hopefully Rippin can continue to feed the ball to him like Wilson did in week 14. And then on the other side, Cherrick McKinnon goes nuts. Tom, sometimes you just run hot in a league. And quite frankly, this year, I've had, I ran hot last year. This year, not so much. But in some leagues, I just run hot. In our dynasty league where I was already talking about how I picked up Jared Gough off

the scrap heap and started him and he's given me more than Lamar Jackson's given me in months, my three running backs, Camara, David Montgomery, and Brian Robinson were all on by. All of them on by. All of them on by. All right. So one of the running backs I started was Mike Boone. Okay. I actually thought Boone was going to have a good game. Of course, he then got hurt. It looks like a high ankle sprain. The problem is, I think it's an aggravation of the high ankle sprain he had earlier this year, which means it's probably going to knock him out for the rest of the year. The other guy I started was Jerich McKinnon. And what did you? Like 32 fantasy points? out of this. 32.4 right on the nose, Tom. Yeah, two touchdown. I mean, the incredible touchdown pass from Bahomes where he just like lobs it up,

you know, does like the hook shot pass to him. And nobody was around them and scores an easy touchdown. But yeah, both of these, I think Pacheco has looked really good. You know, he's really running hard in this backfield. I love it. You know, this is what we kind of wanted. We wanted like, just like two men in this backfield. And we're finally got it.

Both of these guys, I think, are playable down the stretch. But, you know, the rest of this passing game is just, hey, stay away. Juju's, you know, he finally did something a little bit this week. Had been a quiet couple of weeks since he came back from his concussion. But, yeah, nothing really to take away. But other than, hey, play both of these running backs while it's a two-man backfield. For sure. Yeah, I guess we'll move them up.

Yeah. Just move for Jack O. McKinnon up. Like, it's, I love. this being a two-man backfield. No, Melvin Gordon, I thought he was going to get in here. Yeah, whenever they signed him a couple weeks ago, I'm like, oh, God, I'm sure he's going to get involved somehow, but they've stuck with two guys, and, you know, we can get fantasy production out of this backfield if it's just two guys. Carolina and Seattle, Carolina is live, baby, but Buzzkill. Carolina scores 30 points, and DJ Moore doesn't catch a pass. Yeah, and now,

are you kidding me? Three targets. And it came out this morning. He's getting his ankle looked at, so he might be looking at it. So we can write the epitaph for DJ Moore's season here. He spiked up a couple times here in the last, like, two months. It looked like maybe he's turning a corner, especially with Darnold getting back into the lineup, but no dice.

And now he's looking at probably an absence here with an ankle injury. So if anybody was really using more at this point, your fantasy season was probably done anyway, but just in case, it looks like he won't be a factor here moving forward. Yeah. So he's getting the ankle looked at. But, you know, they have every incentive to try to get them back on the field, though, T, bro, because they're a game out of first place. That was the best line from Sunday night football that Tariko said, if they win out, they win the NFC South. And, you know, Collinsworth said, yeah, do you think any of those teams could win out in the NFC South, So they're certainly alive.

I mean, after watch, we'll get to that Buccaneers game here pretty soon. But Panthers, as weird as it is to say in week 14 here, they might be the toughest team to beat here out of that NFC South right now. Yeah, because they're pretty good defensively. Now, flipping on over to Seattle, Tom, I did say, I'm going to take a victory lap because I said, I prefer Travis Homer to Tony Jones in all formats. Well, Travis Homer scored 5.4 PPR points and Tony Jones had just 1.2. So I win.

Yeah, I mean, exactly. All the time and energy we spent on this back, I mean, I'm right. And we're doing waiver wire updates every night, you know, based on these practice reports. We got, you know, DJ Dallas has an injury. Kenneth Walker has an, you know, we're getting questions on it. And at the end of the day, they combined for 5.2. fantasy points, all that time and energy that we spent on this backfield. And so we're going to be right back in the same situation because they play Thursday night. So we'll write up a, we probably should write up a little something on, I can handle this game too since I wrote up the backfield for the waiver wire. But I don't know. I'll have this one too. Yeah.

So, but yeah, I mean, it's probably a long shot that Walker and DJ Dallas are back on Thursday night. So we could be looking at another five point of fantasy performance from Travis Homer. against the 49ers too. So, yeah, this is just the back to the 49ers. Yeah, exactly. Oh, no. So just probably best to stay away from this backfield.

I mean, we did get confirmation that Travis Homer is clearly above the crappy Tony Jones, but. I mean, 91% of the snaps he played. Like, Tony Jones, by the way, I always say, oh, I don't give a crap which running back starts. I care about which one plays. Tony Jones didn't even start, so, Schfter's report was completely wrong. Sorry about that, Sheffield. Yeah, I was even watching something after we did our show on Sunday morning there. And he was like, he seemed pretty, pretty hyped up to have him in his fantasy lineup, too. I'm like, oh, my God, Chefty, what, you're drinking the colate here?

And then, yeah, he didn't even get the start. So, yep, all that time and energy we spent on that Seahawks deep, a backfield really, didn't pay off here in week 14. Tampa Bay and San Francisco, what an utter shit fest for. Tampa Bay. I mean, oh my God. So Mike Evans, I mean, if that, he's running cold too. He's had a couple of plays this year where like if something goes different, you're viewing him completely differently. I will say though on the holding penalty that wiped off the 68 yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans, if there, if it wasn't for the hold, Brady probably gets hit. So I mean, it wasn't one of those

penalties that like they called, but it really didn't have an effect on the play. I thought this one did. Yeah, and that's been kind of a story of his season here in recent weeks. I mean, he has the long pass at the end of that New Orleans game that would have been a walk-in touchdown. A Debo basically tries to drag him down, loses out on a long touchdown pass. And it's just to have been a season of misconnections with Brady. I mean, it's all these passes that have sailed over his head. And there's just been no rhythm between those two players. And Evans is, man, I can't believe.

I mean, this is now his, I think, his ninth game without a touchdown, which is just unfathomable for a guy that scores as regularly as Mike Evans does. It's just, I can't believe. I mean, if you would have told me that, you know, Brock parties, you know, Mr. Irrelevant's going to be beating Tom Brady in Week 14. I would have said you're crazy anyway. So this has been a season of those kind of irregularities for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers here. Not just beating me.

but out planning and like decisively so. It wasn't even close. I mean, Purney was, this guy can play a little bit. I know Shanahan's going to probably get a lot of credit for all this, but he's making throws. I mean, there were some nice downfield throws. That touchdown catch by McCaffrey in the end zone where he drags the feet. I mean, that was perfectly placed.

And he's shown some stones too, standing in there, taking some hits and delivering some passes. So this kid can play a little bit. Not that he's market material here, but off the waiver wire, if you suffered an injury or you need a guy, I mean, he's got to be near the top of the list off your waiver wire at this point. And obviously with San Francisco, we've got to move Debo down. Yeah, who do you think this?

I would think Kittle and Iuke probably benefit the most here. Yeah, and I mean, Christian McCaffrey also just played a vintage, McAfree game. But like, we're at week 15. You know, you're playing Christian McCaffrey. Like, like, you know, there's nothing. Yeah, we don't need to upgrade him anymore. But it probably, it does probably help him a little bit more too. Maybe he gets an extra targeted too. But, um, I was, I was feeling a little, I have Iyuk in some leagues. I was feeling a little scared, you know, with the, because there was a nice connection going there between Gropolo and Iyuk in recent weeks. And he, he had been playing really strong up until last week. But,

now we take Debo out of the equation and Ayyuk showed a little bit of chemistry with Purdy here so maybe he isn't quite dead just yet Yeah so I think you're right I you can I you can kid or probably Yeah and it looks like Debo that was that was a pretty Severe looking of course those are the guys who those are the guys I moved Down last week because of the injury

Because of the B but like I mean they need they need to They need to get the production somewhere so and in Purdy, Purdy's looking pretty good out there, like you said. You know, if I'm going to draft a quarterback on day three of the NFL draft, give me one of these guys who comes from these offenses where he's just throwing the ball all over the yard. And he has the ability to, you know, to know where and when to get the ball out. Those are the kind of guys that like, you know, if you, like, just like Gardner Minchu,

or Case Keeneh, who wasn't even drafted. Or Mike White, yeah. Or Mike White, like just. These guys who know how to execute an offense, especially if you're a guy like Kyle Shanahan, who sure is hell knows how to scheme it up. I mean, these guys can come in and they can produce for you. And we've seen Shanahan do it with guys. C.J. Bethard was terrible in college. Yeah. And Nick Mullins, you know, these guys have put up numbers in Shanahan's offense. Yeah, and he's going to be in a position to put up some numbers. You know, they got the Seattle

matchup, which has been pretty friendly here, especially in recent. We, you know, the Panther scored 30 points. They got the Raiders in week 17. So there's a chance that this offense could have some guys on some fantasy winning teams here, even with Brock Purdy, a quarterback. Miami and the Chargers was a fun Sunday night game because, I mean, of course this week was the Justin Herbert Discourse Week. Yes. Herbert was insane that game. So good. So good.

But I did laugh, though, when like there was the past. I think it was to Josh Kelly. And Collinsworth was like, look at this throw. And it's like a three-yard checkdown. I'm like, all right, Chris. Of course, of all throws to get excited about. Yeah, like, hey, you know, he was, you know, I thought Herbert was great in this game,

but like, all right, so he was a little off balance on a checkdown. Wow. Like, of all the throws that he made in this game, I mean, yeah, up tool was fucking atrocious. Oh my God, he was so bad. Yeah, I was going back. to the Chargers thing. I mean,

it's... Yeah, let's go. We'll start with the Chargers. Yeah, I mean, just having Mike Williams and Keenan Allen on the field at the same time is just such a difference maker

for this offense. So I'm with you. Herbert's got to be up here. He, you know, the discourse was this week. But now we see what he can actually do with a full complement of receivers. And it was good to see Mike.

It was a little tentative after watching. Was that the Chiefs game? The Sunday night game where he played like, eight snaps and injured his ankle on the catch. Yeah. So I was just tentative about, you know, wanting to put him into lineups. And I think he, you know, he's certainly a guy that you got to play now after, after watching that.

And, you know, Herbert unleases that absolute seed to him across the field. That was the, that was, might have been one of the better throws of the entire season where he throws it all the way across the field to a streaking Mike Williams down the field. So, yeah, this offense is certainly trending back up with both of these receivers on the field. Yeah. And so Herbert's up and Mike Williams. I'm going to put him up because you got to use them. I mean, with the way Herbert's looking and Williams, you know, being out there, you got to put them up.

And, oh, by the way, they can't run the football. No, they don't even pretend or try to run it. That has been one of my favorite prop bets the last couple of weeks is just taking Austin Echler unders. I had to sweat it out there a little. bit at the end of the game. I thought he was going to sneak over the total after having like 20 yards through the first like 55 minutes of that game. But yeah, they're not even trying to run the ball much. So we're going to continue to hit that prop if they keep setting the number at like 50 yards every week. Yeah. And the great thing about Eckler is it doesn't matter because he

scores touchdowns and he also catches 37 passes. So it doesn't even matter that they can't run the ball. So Eckler's still great. But flipping over to Miami, Tom, of two of was apocalyptic bad in this game. Like, I mean, Todd, he did not even look like he was playing the same

Sportus Herbert. No, and, yeah, he was like 3 of 17 at one point. It got cleaned it up a little bit just thanks to that Tyreek Hill 60-yard bomb,

but, I mean, if you, I mean, if you take, I mean, yeah, taking away Tyreek big plays is a stupid thing to say,

but they, they had no business being anywhere close to that game outside of a, kind of a fluky where the defender falls down in coverage on Tyreek and then the, you know, the fluky of all fluky plays, the fumble recovery that he, you know, basically got out of the rugby scrum there. So the dolphins had no business being even close in that game. Tyreek Hill, you know, a special player kept him close. But this is, but we got to watch him. He's got to, you know,

they talked about it enough on the broadcast that he picked. up the ankle issue. Doesn't seem, you know, they have a critical game. It's on Saturday as well against the bill. So he has a shorter turnaround for that game. But I would think that he tries to play, you know, he would play through it. It's considering he played. He plays through everything he does.

Yeah. So it's still something to watch here. And the other thing was the Jeff Wilson picking up the hip injury on one of his carries where he actually, you know, burst through the hole. It looked like they were going to start to be able to get something going with the run game, and then he got hurt on that carry, and then that was that. Yeah, and it left the backfield. And Moester played 73% of the snaps.

Wilson was at 16. He only had eight snaps before that injury. But, you know, it's a hip issue. So quick turnaround. So it could be Moester time here. He could be an – it's a tough match up against the bills. But, you know, he could play 75% of the snaps and get 15 plus touch. touches this week. So it's going to be a week that you're going to be playing

most of it if you have them. So like, too, all of a sudden, like, he was like looking like this like hammer quarterback one. And Tom, I, I started him over Kyler Murray in a league. Unfortunately, it's not going to matter because, because I build enough of a lead. But, oh, man, I don't know. I don't know if I could do that going forward. I, I'm going to be curious. I need some sort of breakdown on what's going on here. I mean, if defenses, I mean, they kind of got into it a little bit about how, you know, the chargers with their zones, they were, you know, dropping deeper and trying to take away those, you know, that's because that's where they kind of lived is those deep over the middle passes and have to wonder if, you know, the last couple of weeks,

maybe defenses are playing them a little bit differently. And certainly the offensive line issues, Taryn Armstrongstead played through his issue last night, but didn't look great. And, you know, we were always concerned about Miami's offensive line coming into the season, and they're starting to look a little shaky here, and it might be a confluence of a bunch of different things here for Miami's offense. Tom, our market report article will be up at FantasyPoints.com today, me, you, and our guy, Sam Wagman, split it up and break it down every single week. It was fun to talk about this one with you.

We are hit down the stretch at FantasyPoints.com. I want you guys to stay tuned this week, because our super early bird is launching very, very soon. It's the best deal you're going to get at FantasyPoints.com. You're going to get 30% off for a 2023 subscription, and you get, like, more content because you subscribe in December. So you should be paying 30% more, but you're getting 30% off. So stay tuned for that.

It is a great stocking stuffer. I will guarantee you that. Tbro, thank you. At Tom Broly on Twitter. I'm at FG underscore Dolan. We'll talk to you. you guys tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform, and come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.