Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Week 16 Matchup Podcast
Episode Date: December 22, 2022John Hansen (@Fantasy_Guru) and Greg Cosell (@gregcosell) preview Week 16 NFL action. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more ab...out your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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It's time to the Fantasy Points
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Week 16 matchup
podcast is
coming at you now, and I'm John
Hanson. It is Wednesday, December
21st. We're here with Greg CoSell.
or I am.
And we're ready to rock and roll for the semis in fantasy.
And we take Greg's notes and Greg expands upon them.
And we try and find little angles and tips to help us navigate this NFL world for fantasy.
And Greg, without any further ado, welcome back here.
And, you know, it's just been a, you know, we've talked about this before.
You don't look at it from the way that I look at it.
It has been a weird year.
And really, the bottom line is scoring is down.
That makes this job much more difficult, you know?
Without question.
Yep.
It's, and you have, and this trend has continued not to go off on a tangent of, you know,
more and more specialty type of players on the field, I feel like.
And I think teams do that for an advantage.
Isn't that too obvious, you know, like these shot play guys, like out of nowhere,
these guys do well.
I mean, it seems like coaches have like these guys and these plays, you know,
just for an advantage for maybe even just one play.
Yeah, and I think that's true depending on the team.
You know, I think you'll often see, you know, teams that, let's say,
have a quality quarterback and good weapons.
I'm not saying they'll never do what you just said, you know, never is a strong word.
But you won't see those teams do it as often because they feel that with their quarterback,
with their offense, that they can pretty much run their offense.
and be effective, you know, but the goal is explosive plays.
I mean, if you reduce the NFL to simplest terms, and we're being very simple, but just
based on what you said, which is a very valid point, the offense is trying to create
explosion plays and the defense is trying to prevent explosion plays.
So how do you go about offensively making explosion plays?
Sometimes you come up with something that I don't want to say is gimmicky, but that is,
you know, just outside of your normal methodology and way of structuring your offense.
You know, it would explain how a guy like Nick Westbrook Aquinae has made these plays once
and a while. Like he has these huge games and he disappears forever.
Well, that's a different story.
Right, right, right, right.
That was just a random example.
But I understand what you mean for sure.
But, you know, just, hey, I know that Tennessee Houston may not seem like the biggest game
on the schedule this week.
but Tennessee is a fascinating team to me because, John, they play with multiple tight ends on 40% of their offensive snaps, yet they don't really use their tight ends as receivers.
So it's a very fascinating way to play that if you're going to play with multiple tight ends and they're not really receivers except once in a while, then what does your past game look like?
You're talking Titans?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
You're talking Swain is on the field probably a lot, right?
Swain, Austin Hooper, Chiggy.
I mean, you know, I think Chiggy could become a really good player.
Like, I think if Chiggy was on a team that had a diverse passing game,
which the Titans clearly don't have, then I think he could be a really good player
because he can run, he can run vertical routes, he can run after catch,
and every once in a while those plays pop up.
But as you well know, there's no way on a weekly basis you can say,
that's my guy. He's been a little more consistent as we've been all over it.
But you're right. I mean, Austin, when Austin Hooper's still in the mix, I'm always afraid,
you know, of advocating a tight end on a team where another tight end on the team got seven targets
the week before. And by the way, Greg, it's not looking like we're going to get Ryan Tanna Hill this
week. No, it looks like we're going to get Malik Willis. I mean, that, of course, changes things as well,
because what you'll probably get is you're going to get a lot more running out of Malik Willis,
both by design and improvisationally, which is good for fantasy, obviously,
but my guess is you're not going to see him drop back in the past game 30 times.
I mean, it's a very difficult projection because what we've seen of Malik Willa,
I mean, there's nothing.
There's literally nothing there.
Like, will he throw for 100 yards?
No, and of course, the company line will be that he's improved dramatically since he's,
played. We don't know the answer to that. Obviously, he didn't play enough snaps this past week
to make any meaningful judgment about that. So you'd have to assume because they need a win badly
that they're going to play to his strength and the strength of what the offense is. Look,
the Texans have been one of the NFL's poorest run defenses all season. Yeah.
Really shows up on first down. They face the second most rushes and allowed the third most rushing
yards on first down, giving up 4.9 yards per rush. So again, all we can do is be predictive.
You have to assume that it's a Derek Henry game. I mean, here's my projection for Malik Willis.
And this is, they're all guesses. I don't even know if this is an educated one. 10 of 22 for 100,
no touchdown. Nine rushes for 45. I mean, it's really difficult. So. Yeah. And I certainly could see him
rush for more yards. But I would say your passing numbers seem to be.
be right in the ballpark. Yeah, exactly. It's difficult to project a guy to run 14 times for
150 yards, but it does happen and it could happen. And Derek Henry seems to be up for the task
here. I mean, these Texans are scrappy, even without, was Nelson was out last week and no stingly.
They still gave the Chiefs a game. I mean, so this is not a gimmie. Yeah, I mean, obviously,
they faced a great quarterback in Mahomes, was 36.
for 41. I mean, the whole past game by the Chiefs was controlled and efficient. Mahomes' longest
completion was 21 yards. And, you know, it was just one of those games. But the player, and you're
aware of this, so I'm not telling you anything new, but I noticed this watching tape maybe three,
four weeks ago, and I'm actually doing a piece on him now in the matchup show this week is
Jerich McKinnon has become a really important piece of this offense. He played 62% of the
snaps last week. And, I mean, he had 10 rushes, eight targets and eight receptions. Now, is that going to
happen every week? Probably not. But he plays a lot more snaps than people might think. Oh,
oh, we're all well aware. I mean, this is only a three-week phenomenon, too, because he was
just getting a handful of touches previously, maybe six, seven carries some weeks. Maybe some games
had maybe four or five, I had a couple games. But, man, this is absolutely incredible. By the way,
Mahomes low-key, I feel like he's got the NFL MVP award.
I mean, this is very low-key.
This might be his most impressive season.
Well, he's just a really, really good player, John.
So what happens is, is there are games where he's not quote-unquote spectacular.
Like last week, he was 36 or 41.
But as I said, 21 yards was as long as play.
And with the exception of one play, he really didn't do a Mahomes thing.
So it just seemed like a ho-hum game.
but he's a very aware player.
He sees things extremely well.
He has an innate feel for where people are.
He's just a really, really good quarterback.
And not every week is going to be an oh my God play.
And that's a tribute to him that he can do what he did against Houston
and we almost don't even talk about it.
Oh, absolutely.
Again, I'm more in the overall body of work,
knowing they lost Tyreek, knowing what the bumps,
in the road he dealt with last year,
where there were a couple of games where I'm like,
ooh, this is not good.
I don't feel early in the season, too,
and then they righted his ship.
I don't feel like he's played like that at all this year.
Maybe last week was close,
but, you know, every number, by the way, is up.
Everything without Tyree Kill,
completion percentage, everything.
Well, that speaks to Mahomes, to the staff,
but Mahomes is a special player.
And it just, that's, he's not likely to all of a sudden
not become a special player.
It's just amazing.
Doing it with not a ton of continuity at receiver here other than Kelsey,
you know, and Juju's been pretty good.
You know, they've had an interesting evolution, John, as the season has progressed.
They have been increasing the number of two tight end and three tight end personnel packages
over the last month, five weeks, okay?
And I mentioned the Titans that they play a lot of multiple tight ends, but they don't throw to them.
Right.
That's not the case with the Chiefs, obviously.
we know about Kelsey but they've been throwing a little more to Noah Gray you know I mean he's not going to be a volume oh for sure he catches a ball as you know here and they are Kelsey's numbers are down a little bit the last three four weeks yeah he did have 10 catches this week you know obviously not the previous two was not great right right but it's hard to say well I'm not going to go with Kelsey in a given week because any given week you can no but to your point they I assume that they went more to three tight ends it comens it combs
coincided with them committing a little bit more to running the football, correct?
Could be.
I mean, that's the kind of thing we can speculate, John.
We'll never know the reason.
But they also freaking throw to these guys and they can make plays.
Yes.
Well, the other factor, too, is the defense then does more predictable things.
And that's a key factor as well.
That's not a fantasy statement, but it's a coaching statement.
So, but the point is that's what they've become over time.
and, you know, Mahomes, whatever they put out there, Mahomes executes.
Exactly.
Whatever they put out there.
One week there is Tony.
He has far and away the most passing yards on third down of any quarterback in the league, far and away.
He's two touchdowns away from equaling last year's total in 17 games with Tyreek.
I mean, so he's got 35.
It's unbelievable season, I think, for Mahomes.
Brady, not so much.
Tom Brady, I saw your notes here, did look good early.
I was very high on Chris Godwin in the game with Mike Hilton out and that hit.
But I guess as the game wore on, we saw more of the same uncomfortable Tom Brady.
Well, you know, this game with what Lou Anorama did, the DC for the Bengals,
reminded me very much of that AFC championship game a year ago.
He came out with a little different plan in the second half than he did in the first half.
then he did in the first half.
And, you know, there were snaps in which he rushed three and then played different
coverages behind it.
There were snaps in which they pressured and had stunts along with the pressure.
You know, they played man, they played zone, they changed things up.
They recognized routes quicker and jumped routes, which prevented Brady from playing in rhythm.
And in the second half, they really did a good job.
And after a really solid first half in which you probably thought doing your, you know, being
on the West Coast, doing your show, you're probably.
We thought, man, Brady's finally going to have a Brady game because he was 17 for 23 for 194 in the first half.
And I believe, two touchdowns.
Then in the second half, he was nothing like that at all.
Yeah.
You know, again, you know, they've lost six out of nine games.
As you well know, Brady throws the ball a lot because they don't really run it.
So he probably puts up relatively decent numbers from a fantasy perspective.
But he's not played overly well on a week-to-week basis.
and certainly despite numbers, their past game has not really been that good.
Mike Evans was a little bit better.
It's been a weird year for him, for sure.
I wasn't paying that much attention because I was very bold on Godwin and he hit and scored.
I'm like, I'm good. I'm good.
Right, right, right.
But you know what?
That narrative is starting again that, you know, this is it.
Hang them up, Tom.
I don't see that.
I see a guy with maybe a smaller margin for error,
but you put him on a line with some continuity and, you know, some better players.
And, you know, I could see him playing very well next year, maybe somewhere else,
but I don't think he's done.
Yeah, that's hard to say because obviously he's been under a little more duress this year.
He's not been a comfortable player.
And he's a pocket quarterback, so he needs to be comfortable, certainly at this stage.
Yeah.
So that's a hard question to answer.
I guess he's going to let us know if he still wants to play.
I mean, they're still in first place, even though they're six and eight.
But put them on a team with a good running game, a better line, and, you know, just just flowing in rhythm, offense.
Like they were last year.
I mean, they were rolling last year.
I mean, we don't expect them to keep that up.
You could well be right about that.
I would not disagree with that.
Yeah.
I mean, because there have been some throws this year on tape where you're like, okay, right?
No, without question.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not many, not as many, but, you know, certainly some, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, people are starting to, you know, kick a.
on Brady a little bit, kick a man when he's down.
I still, I think, look, he's declined more further and all that,
but it's also, again, the decline of the whole environment has been pretty significant
and it might even be, you know, multi-layered here.
Chargers offense last week.
I see your notes here about, you know, they're not really a big play offense.
Do you still get the sense that that's by design?
Is it because of the quarterback?
Is it because of the structure of the offense?
I think it's not the quarterback. It's the structure of the offense. And I know Joe Lombardi in the minds of many is not running the offense. He should run with Justin Herbert, who obviously is a high level talent. But, you know, the bottom line is they have O line pass protection issues. Now, people could say, well, they've done this for the last year, you know, since he's been there. And there's some truth to that. But I think that, you know, it's.
In many ways, Herbert reminds me of the way Brady used to play,
is that when he sees a completion, he takes it.
And, you know, one could argue that's bad.
One could argue that's good.
I mean, you know, when you see an open receiver at eight yards or seven yards,
throw the ball, gain the yards.
It's like when Joe Burrough stands in that pocket, if it works,
hey, you're a hero.
If not, you're like, dude, should have taken that checkdown.
Right.
And these are not checkdowns.
These are just quick game type throws, rhythm throws.
But, you know, I feel like that's the way Herbert plays.
Now, I don't know if he's coached to play that way.
You know, I can't answer that because I don't know what they tell them.
But, you know, as I said in my notes, he takes completions.
He does not wait in the pocket for intermediate and deeper routes to develop unless that's the play call.
You know, unless it's a shot play type play.
He keeps the offense ahead of the sticks with sustaining throws.
That's the way he plays.
And don't forget, they don't really have a big time run game.
So in many ways, he has to be the sustainer.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
I don't know the play calls, but it does feel like and seem to me that he was more aggressive,
like his rookie year, maybe even early last year.
And I could see that.
And his rookie year, it was not Brandon Staley.
So, you know, it was a different offensive coordinator.
Yep.
But, you know, so that's a hard, you know, look,
you know how easy it is to rip coaches.
Everybody does that when coaches don't do what someone thinks they should do.
You know me well enough to know I don't rip coaches.
So I'm not going to sit here and say, man, what's Joe Lombardi doing?
You know, obviously, Joe Lombardi, in conjunction with Brandon Staley and the rest of the staff,
believe that this is the best way for them to play.
Okay?
We can sit here and say, man, Herbert's so talented.
Why aren't they driving the ball down the field?
Well, you know, their old line doesn't protect real well.
He spent a lot of this year without his top receivers.
So, you know, there are, you know, teams don't do things on a whim.
Decent matchup this week.
The moral of the story is, per Greg, in his expert opinion,
Herbert came up small last week for fantasy.
It was really because he didn't get any touchdowns, still playing pretty well.
You know, you could still roll with Justin Herbert, obviously, despite.
Yeah, I would agree with that.
The lack of touchdowns last week, Niners, offense.
Last week, geez, I thought they'd run a little bit more with Jordan Mason, but no, they were all about CMC.
I saw your notes there about, you know, they don't use, Mason does seem like a downhill guy as opposed to a zone guy, though, right?
Well, I mean, yeah, but I don't know.
I don't, I think he's just going to be a guy that spells here and there.
McCaffrey is now clearly their guy.
That's why they traded for him.
Gotcha.
Last week, he had 26 carries in a game that.
They never totally pulled away.
They only scored 21.
True, true, true.
So it's a lot different than Elijah Mitchell.
Yeah.
I mean, Mitchell's just a better back than Mason.
Sure, sure.
So in their mind, clearly.
So, but, you know, McCaffrey is now the guy.
He's going to get touches.
I mean, could he be spelled for a series in which Mason comes in?
Sure.
Sure.
But I don't believe Mason's going to get 9, 10, 11 runs.
But it just seemed like with Elijah Mitchell, that one game maybe, they were almost interchangeable.
They were.
But I think, don't forget, Shanahan has a history with Mitchell going back to last year when Mitchell really was a good back for them until he got hurt.
So, you know, it's different now.
Now, I noticed further down in your notes about the commanders and their run day on early downs, first down.
And that would be the matchup this week.
So I guess that'll be interesting if McCaffrey is like really contained on the ground,
Brock Party reacts.
Yeah, and so far he's played with tremendous poise, tremendous composure.
I think he's got a great feel.
He's got great spatial awareness.
You know, he's shown a willingness to stand in the pocket and deliver the ball when there
are people around him.
He's played very well up to this point without question.
You know, last week, look, the numbers last week were very much like Jimmy Garoppolo's numbers.
Oh, yeah, totally.
Those were nine or quarterback numbers.
It's just Purdy does it differently and therefore looks better doing it because Purdy, they get play action boot.
That looks better.
He has some second reaction movement ability.
That looks better.
But when all was said and done, the numbers were very similar to a Jimmy Garapolo game.
Yeah, yeah, I've been saying now two weeks, he's doing a very good Jimmy G impersonation as we talked about last week.
I mean, maybe you're giving up differently and it looks better.
You're giving up a little bit maybe an arm talent, but you're getting that second reaction, you know, movement.
element to the offense, which, you know, maybe that's even helping the running game, Greg.
And it's possible.
I mean, they do a lot of really cool stuff in their run game.
I mean, they take basic runs, John, and block them in different ways.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just really cool stuff.
Yeah, I can see that.
Probably a real chore to study them and get a handle on all the different type of runs they have, right?
Because they probably got like 400.
It's how they get to sort of basic run.
Oh, how they get there.
Right, right.
That's what I met.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not like they have 20 different runs.
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
How they block zone runs, how they block gap scheme runs.
I mean, they just get to a lot of these runs differently than your normal conventional way.
Right.
Probably alignment-wise, guys lined up in different spots, throwing the defense off, and then they run the same play.
Yeah.
Eagles offense here, let's move on because this is probably the story of the week for Week 16 is Philly,
likely without jail and hurts.
It sure seems that way.
Our guy Adam Kaplan on the radio this morning with me
sure seemed really skeptical about Hertz this week,
probably even next week,
but just general thoughts on the offense changing with Gardner Minchu.
I mean, you take away the running of Jalen Hertz.
That is replaced with what?
Well, it's not really replaced with anything.
So what you're going to get if they choose to run the ball,
with any kind of volume is you're going to get more of a base run game,
where they run, you know, zone, gap scheme, pin-pull,
your base runs that everybody has,
because now you don't have the element of Jalen Hertz with design runs,
and you also, you don't have the zone read,
and the defense can play the base runs a little differently
because they do not have to worry about Hertz.
Yeah, yeah, and Miles Sanders is up to the task.
I mean, he's been good in this environment for years, two years, right?
Yeah, and he's had a good year.
I mean, obviously, last week he didn't get a lot of touches,
and he chose to, you know, throw it.
I don't think he had a carry until the second quarter.
Yeah, it was weird.
But I would think that's a little more of an aberration in the way they want to play.
And I think certainly with Minshu, if it's Minchu, that they would not play that way.
And do they play maybe a little differently with Minchu this week if they go, if it's Minchu,
based on the opponent, the Cowboys in Dallas.
I mean, you know, do you do anything to account for that?
Run the ball more?
I mean, get the ball out quickly to offset this pass rush?
You know, that's a great question.
You're dealing with the two teams that lead the NFL and quarterback sacks, Eagles first, Cowboys, second.
My guess is the Eagles feel really good about their all line.
I mean, you watch them every week and not many people get near jail and hurts, John, as you know.
Oh, clean pocket, man, every time almost.
No.
So would they change their past?
game, I don't know if they would change their past game, but the run game will certainly be different.
Yeah, I feel like, and hey, what do I know, but you have an AJ Brown, like you really needed to, you know, feed A.J. Brown, you know, quick hitters and things like that.
I mean, you know, one thing to keep in mind, you're probably aware of, because I know this is the work you do.
The Cowboys have an issue at the corner position opposite Diggs.
Yep.
You know, Joseph got benched last week after St. James burned him a couple of times.
And then they brought in Nate Wright.
I think it's Nate Wright.
That might not be his first name.
But they brought in Wright, who I remember watching at Oregon State.
He's a six-four corner.
Now, I don't know who's going to start this week opposite Diggs,
but they've got an issue with that position.
And when I say an issue, something that the Eagles will, I think, attack.
And what do you think of bland inside?
I think he's done a nice job.
I think he's done a really nice job.
Yeah, I'm not sure who that.
So the player behind Joseph, you're saying?
Yes, it's right.
Oh, look that up right now.
Goodwin?
No.
Okay.
Right?
Yeah.
His last name is right.
That's him.
Naishon Wright.
Yep.
They Sean Wright.
Yeah.
Okay.
He came in when Joseph got benched.
Gotcha.
How much?
Would Dallas Goddard returning help out a gardener minch you?
I could see that.
I think that would help out a lot, to be honest with you.
Yeah.
I mean, Goddard is, have you seen a tight end be more open?
Well, maybe Kelsey, right?
I mean, Goddard is open a lot.
Goddard is just a really good player.
I mean, you know, I think that if, you know, Goddard, I believe we'll be back.
You know, I don't think they're going to keep him out.
I think they did that last week just to make sure now he's ready.
I think he's a big factor.
You know, the Cowboys do not play in a base defense.
Their base defense is big nickel.
They play three safeties.
They play Donovan Wilson, J. Ron Curse, and Malik Hooker.
So usually curse when they play man and they play a lot of man,
Curse is normally, predominantly the tight end matchup.
Do you go back to that first matchup, though?
Because the Cowboys, I didn't see that game.
I was at a bar.
But it seemed like the Cowboys did a pretty good job slowing down this Red Hot Philly offense
at that game.
Yeah, and the Eagles needed a drive in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
And I remember that game pretty well, John.
The Eagles ran a 17-play drive in the fourth quarter of which 13 were runs.
But that included Hertz with design runs, which wouldn't be the case this week.
But the Eagles ran the ball very well in that game.
Let's move on to the Chicago Bears offense against the aforementioned Eagles.
Anything stand out to you with Justin Fields.
I feel like it's almost like,
Wow, is this real?
I feel like I'm seeing real quarterback pocket play improvement.
It's incremental.
In fact, I thought he was not quite as good this week as he had been in a couple of previous weeks, to be honest with you.
Okay.
but I thought that he missed some throws in this game with poor ball placement that were there.
Okay.
So I just didn't think this was as sharp a game throwing the football as we've seen him have in more recent weeks.
I guess I'm just talking, you know, because if you're going to miss a throw, I almost,
I almost would rather be something like that than you're not seeing it.
Comparing fields the last four or five games to the first month is, boy, that's a that's a, that's a,
big difference, I feel. Oh, I would agree with that. But this week, he did not, that incremental
improvement throwing the ball did not show up this week. That doesn't mean he's not getting better
overall, but he just wasn't quite as sharp this week. And he has a tendency, he has a tendency
to be a beat late on certain throws. And so that needs to, you know, to change. You know, we'll see.
I mean, maybe he has just a better command of the offense.
Overall.
You would think he would, you know, being in more and more.
You know, his rookie season last year was cut short.
He just needs reps.
He's in a brand new offense, too.
It's a brand new offense, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, not an easy assignment this week.
I mean, any thoughts on the Sean McDermott defense?
Well, we're going to, you know, this game, I have no idea how to deal with this game
because it's going to be like 15, 20 below with the wind show.
So I don't know how that plays out.
I mean, that's cold.
That's not just going to Ohio State, not like he's like a Florida guy.
No, no, but, you know, and obviously Josh Allen, you know, from Wyoming where, you know, it does get cold.
That's where he played college football.
But I don't know how that impacts the game.
Yeah, sure, sure.
You know, look, I mean, the bills, they may feel like they have to run the ball this game.
You know, I don't know.
Oh, sure.
Sure.
Now, they don't run it really well, John, as you know, and they certainly don't run it with high volume.
But, you know, if it's 15 below, with wind gusts 30 to 40, you know, it may be.
one of those games.
Daniel Jones, you know, it's interesting playing the commanders.
It's funny, if you would give Daniel Jones this year the quality of weapons that
Taylor Heineke has, and let's include Dotson, you know, imagine Daniel Jones this year
playing with quality of to the level of Dotson, Curtis Samuel and McClart.
It's kind of absurd to think about, I think.
Yeah, and you could be right.
You know, those are tough questions.
answer. I will say this. I thought that this past week, you know, the Giants, because of the way they
play, John, they need the run game to be a factor. And they certainly need the run game to be a factor in the
second half, third and fourth quarter, because they play close games. And this week, it was.
This week, they were able to run the ball to win. They've not always been able to do that,
and that's something they need to be able to do. Because Barclay had three, when the Giants got the ball,
maybe the five-yard line, whatever it was in the fourth quarter, they had three Barclay run.
in a row that gained 41 yards.
And, you know, that gave him some yardage in the game,
even though up to that point he had very little.
But they need to be able to do that because they play a lot of close games.
Oh, sure.
Much better matchup this week.
I feel very confident, well, not very,
because I'm not sure if he's going to run a lot.
Daniel Jones can continue to get it done because, you know, it's unbelievable.
Because of his running, he's a top 12 quarterback, which is very, that's really good.
You mean in fantasy because of the running element.
Right.
But, I mean, the passing production is completely week to week.
Totally.
I mean, basically what I'm trying to say is, based on what you've seen from Daniel Jones,
A, I got to think he's pretty locked in as a QB of the future.
And B, receiving help is number one priority.
I would think so.
I would think so.
I mean, would you agree that he's shown a lot?
I mean, protecting the ball, you know, I mean, really, considering the circumstance.
No, I mean, there's very few big plays in the offense, and obviously, I believe he only has 12 touchdown passes, and some of that could be a function of the receivers.
You know, it's hard to know exactly, but certainly they need better receivers.
That we know.
That's a given.
I mean, it is Isaiah Hodgins, Richie James, and Darius Slate, and Daniel Bellinger.
I mean, it's pretty sad.
I mean, that's pretty darn sad here.
I know they're professionals, but Seattle quickly, you know, are we concerned about Gino Smith without Tyler Lockett?
It seems like things are kind of, I feel like he's hanging in there, but feels like that grip on like really high-end play that he had is kind of loosening here as the season progresses.
Yeah, he's not quite as sharp.
I wouldn't say he's bad.
Right.
You know, people are, you know, I've seen people on social media and hear people say,
well, Gino now is what, you know, is the old Gino.
He's not the old Gino.
He was so incredibly sharp through, what, 10, 10 weeks, give or take John?
Yeah, 8 to 10.
Yeah, I mean, I think he's not quite as sharp, but I wouldn't say Gino Smith is playing poorly.
Probably more than, probably about 12, yeah.
Yeah, 10 to 12, I would say.
You know, we just played against arguably the best defense in the league.
And, you know, one thing that has stood out to me, they both got off to good start.
but I think both of their rookie tackles have regressed a little to the mean as a word.
Yeah.
Quote a phrase.
And I think that they've not been quite as good in past protection over the last three, four weeks.
Any skill-related nuggets from your watching the Vikings offense?
I wish I knew.
You mean, besides the fact that Justin Jefferson's good?
Yeah.
I wish I gave KJ. Osborne a little bit more love.
I knew Kenny Moore was out.
I thought maybe Jefferson would move inside a little bit more,
but Osborne had been such a non-factor for most of the year.
Well, again, there wasn't a lot of pure man-to-man matchups,
but obviously what the Colts did is they actually played a safety as their slot corner
because they were just down bodies.
So Blackman was actually their slot corner in this game.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And that, again, like I said, there weren't, you know,
it wasn't as if he matched up to Osborne on every snap.
And there were probably not many times in which he did as a pure man matchup,
but still he was the slot corner and Gilmore did do some traveling i say yeah he did
i don't know if they do that this week though against big mike maybe um they could you know
gomore has always been that guy going back to new england he does match true true true i just i wasn't
i didn't know he was traveling this year as much well i don't again i can't sit here and say he's done
that every week right right right i don't think he has he did it for sure this week yeah which which made
a ton of and then by the way it was a hell of a man
matchup.
It was good matchup.
Yeah, it was.
It absolutely was.
They got the best of each other on that one a number of times.
Well, we'll wrap it up here.
We certainly left Samino the Bone, but that'll be covered with me, Adam and Adam Kaplan
and Greg on the live stream that will, you know, it's kind of convenient with all the
holidays here.
It's kind of stank, so we have to work during it all, but we're not disrupted at all
with our schedule with everything following on the weekend here.
So status quo Thursday night will cover all the matchups in week 16 over at
FantasyPoint.com.
We'll wrap it here.
Good luck this week.
Stay tuned to all the other podcasts on the feed.
And good luck in week 16.
And thanks for listening to the matchup podcast here at Fantasy Points.com.
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