Fantasy Football Today - 11/16 Fantasy Football Podcast: Start or Sit (AFC) & Best Stashes

Episode Date: November 16, 2017

Can we trust the "stud" RBs Melvin Gordon, LeSean McCoy and Leonard Fournette this week (7:30)? We get into that after we talk about stashing Ezekiel Elliott, Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the best stashes in Fantasy (2:55) ... Some Die Hard team names (15:10) plus Start or Sit questions for Thursday night (20:30) ... NE-OAK (26:00), TB-MIA (35:48), ARI-HOU (44:34), BUF-LAC (50:28), CIN-DEN (56:30), JAC-CLE (1:01:10) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! Get your lineup set. It's time for Start or Sit. Let's go! Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and T. Who should you stash for your stretch run and who should you start in the six AFC home games?

Welcome to the show. Thursday, November 16th. Dave Richard, hello. What up, dude? Jamie Eisenberg, hello. Hi. Oh, come on. I'm Seinfeld-ing you right now.

Hello. Hi. All right. He's more of a friend. What a timely reference. Yeah, he's more of a friends guy anyway. And Heath Cummings, good morning. I am not saying good morning to you. All right, he's more of a friends guy. What a timely reference. Yeah, he's more of a friends guy anyway. And he's coming! Good morning! I am not saying good morning to you.

I'm not going to be nice to you. I am very unhappy with you. What did I do? Listen, I made an exception over this whole stupid 280 thing for the first. You made your little joke in 280 characters, and then you had a week where you had to send out the podcast notifications with 280 characters and take out my whole phone screen with one of your tweets. But now you're using 280 characters to make stupid arguments

against Die Hard being a Christmas movie and quote tweeting 280 character tweets when you do it? Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. Don't! I'm going to unfollow you a lot. It's a lot. Don't! I'm going to unfollow you on Twitter. It's so amazing how wrong you are on this, and people just continue to point out how wrong you are,

and it just makes me laugh how you, like, scream like a little child every time you do it. It's an act. Adam agrees with us. Oh, absolutely not. Do you feel inferior when you make this argument? No, I feel like everybody has a point with Die Hard. I think you're all wrong, but you have a point. But I think for Jerry Maguire, if the three of you really believe that Jerry Maguire is a football –

Here's what he's done. He realizes he's completely lost to Die Hard. No, I haven't. He's moved on to something else that he thinks he's going to try and win, and he will realize he will lose that one as well. The biggest thing is do not quote tweet 280 character tweets with your own 280 character tweets. Fine, fine. That's a fair point. He's a Twitter snob.

I just want to say to you three, not to the listeners, but just to you three, if you really think that Jerry Maguire is a football movie, then you guys are very stupid people. And I'm ashamed to be associated with you. Does it bother you that we say that jerry mcguire is a football movie yes it's so jerry mcguire is a damn football movie all right fine so listen i mean he he's just like so off it's not even funny how off he is on no that's not true like you just you have to have some critical thinking here you have to think outside the box It just You gotta You know Alright So I just want everybody to know

That even with all of this arguing I ordered two copies Of the Die Hard Christmas book yesterday So I loved it It was very funny Doesn't make it a Christmas movie Now Ezekiel Elliot Dropped his appeal

Of his suspension And he will be back In week 16 So who's a better stash E Ezekiel Elliott or Aaron Rodgers, who could return in week 15? Throw David Johnson in there too. Throw him in there. Pick him up.

Could you imagine having all three on your bench, and you go to the fantasy playoffs, and all three of them come back, and you just have this all-star roster? That would be something. You'd lose by 30 points because they'd all stink. Yeah, the problem is Zeke is going to go against the Seattle Seahawks. And David Johnson is going to split carries with Adrian Peterson. And we don't actually know for sure that Aaron Rodgers is coming back.

No, we don't. But who's the best stash of the three? Zeke, Johnson, and Rodgers. I'll say Zeke still. Yeah, because he's healthy. He's going to come back. Okay. Yeah, he is, but week 16.

So is he an absolute must? If he were available on waivers, would you pick him up in every league he was available in? At that point, sure. First off, you wouldn't want the guy you're playing in a championship game to have him. So you'd pick him up, Zeke. I mean, I have him in four leagues, and I still have him. Okay. All right, yeah, this kind of sucks.

He's out until Week 16. So then, with that said, Heath, who are we featuring in the stash column this week? Well, I talked a lot about not just David Johnson, but also Danny Woodhead and Greg Olson. Woodhead's past stash can. He's going to play this week. I don't know for sure if he's going to play this week. He's still available in 48% of leagues.

Yes, you had him. He's going to stash him. We've got no definite answer that he's going to play this week. I don't think you're starting him this week. I'm stuck. I have no choice. John Harbaugh kind of hinted that he would be back. There are a lot of stash candidates that are going to play this week, but we're not starting them because they're backups.

Do you know that Danny Wood had three catches on three targets? Do you know how many snaps he played in week one before he got hurt? I got a guess. Go ahead. Six. Six. He played six plays and had three catches on six plays before he got hurt. You can't tell me the Ravens aren't excited about him.

Yeah, Zalata's changed, though. 48% unowned. Oh, yeah, he's got to be owned. He's got to be owned. All right, so Heath, who else we got? Also talked about the Jets running backs and whether or not we should hold on to them at all because we don't know for sure if Forte is coming back. When he was gone, Bilal Powell wasn't any good.

Elijah McGuire actually had a higher usage, especially in the passing game. I do think they're all worthy stashes, but at different levels. And I still think Powell is the one I would be most likely to stash. Okay. And then Austin Eckler, you talked about it yesterday.

I had to add him to the list. Their schedule down the stretch is amazing. Melvin Gordon has missed time at the end of each of his first two seasons, and they seem to like the kid. He is now 43% on. Austin Eckler was 5% owned just last week in Week 10. So he had five catches, 77 yards, and two touchdowns. One thing I want to know is if three supposed stud running backs who were bad last week are going to be good this week.

When we're done with stashes, we can talk about that. Are we done with stashes? I'm done with stashes. Are you done with stashes? I will go wherever you guys want to go. It is Movember. Does Jamison Crowder qualify as a stash? He's available in 51% of leagues.

I did not put him in the stash rankings. He has been good in his last two games. I would not feel bad about starting him. He was pretty bad in his last game. He had 11 targets and only caught four passes. He had good yardage on it, but he dropped three passes in the game, including a touchdown. Good in fantasy. Good in fantasy.

Great in usage for the Redskins. And I think that the combination of losing Rob Kelly and probably losing faith in their run game in general could open the door for a continued amount of targets for Crowder. So I like stashing him. And Corey Coleman

is a good one. Marlon Mack, you still have hope in him? Yes. It's less certainty, though. I felt a couple weeks ago like the last four games of the season, Marlon Mack's going to be awesome. And now it's more

of a hope. And the last thing is I just... People, Greg Olson should not be 77% owned. Greg Olsen should be 100% owned. Agreed. I mean, come on. Come on. He's still out there in some leagues. You gotta go get him. Alright, studs or duds? I'm giving you three running backs. This is part of

the AFC home games, so when we get to these games, we might not spend as much time on these three guys. I don't know how much time we need to spend, but LeSean McCoy, Melvin Gordon, they're facing each other. And Leonard Fournette is at Cleveland, which had been a very good run defense, a little bit off last week. But, I mean, these are must-start guys.

You don't even think twice about it. But there were concerns last week. You got Eckler getting in there. You had Fournette just completely uninvolved. McCoy has had four good games this year. Four games with double-digit fantasy points in standard. He's much better in PPR, obviously. He has 40 catches or 41 catches. But the only times that LeSean McCoy has scored double-digit fantasy points in standard scoring leagues are the four times he's had 20 or more carries.

Less than 20, less than 10 fantasy points in standard. That's not good. So McCoy, Gordon, Fournette. Jamie, I'll throw it to you. Do you think all three of these guys are absolute must-starts this week? I mean, there's clearly a few circumstances where you could bench them. Like if you have Kamara or Kamara. Both of them. Both those guys are probably better than Fournette and McCoy. So who do I start from?

Kamara, Kamara, and McCoy. Kamara and Kamara. Wow. How about that? Okay. We can give a flex, McCoy. You're not benching these guys. If you play two running backs and a flex, they're almost certainly in your lineup.

Gordon, to me, is going to be great this week because the Bills stink since Marcel Darius has been out. Yep. And the one thing about the Browns' run is while they've run defense, while they've been great for the season, their last two games, they gave up a decent game to Jarek McKinnon, and they gave up a decent game to Amir Abdullah. So you have to hope that Leonard Fournette kind of follows suit.

He hasn't been a matchup guy. He's had good games against tough run defenses before. He's had good games against everybody until last week. Here's something I really like for McCoy, because I went back and forth. I downgraded him a little bit with Tyrod out. I do think it makes things more difficult for him. The Chargers' run defense has been improved.

Yes. In the second half of their schedule. But last week, Jags running backs had nine catches for 47 yards against them. Two games ago, the Patriots had 14 catches for 16 47 yards against them two two games ago the patriots had 14 catches for 163 yards against them three games ago the broncos had 10 catches for 73 yards against them so you see a trend pass catching running backs have been heavily involved giants running backs in week five 10 catches 55 yards that begs the question does leshawn mccoy retain value as a pass catching running back with the quarterback change?

You have to hope so. I mean, there's not really going to put Tolbert out there. I don't know very much about Nathan Peterman, but I don't have any reason to think he's stupid. He does make me— He would do throw the ball to his best player. He does. He does make me want to do the George Peterson voice, but it's kind of a baseball thing. But his last name is Peterman.

See, that's why I thought you were going with the Seinfeld reference this morning. Oh, really? Peterman. This is Nate Peterman. Oh, from Seinfeld. Yeah, sure. That's where I was going with it. Good call.

No, good call, Jamie. You're right. You got it. Congratulations. I was playing it coy. All right. You're playing it McCoy? Jamie, you're killing it.

So there you go. So we've got those three running backs. I'm sure most people are going to be starting them. I wonder, the only thing that concerns me about McCoy, because he kind of talked about this a little bit, like the benching of Tyrod Taylor with everything that's happened to his franchise, the veterans just being shipped out all over the place, he's got to be annoyed.

And he's not one that's – I don't think he wants to be part of a rebuilding process at 29. Yeah, but there's nothing he can do about it now. Obviously. Clearly. But he could be frustrated. No. And that could affect his on-field performance. It could.

But I think it's more frustrating that he's just not getting a lot of work. He needs to get those 20 carries. It's all of it. Is it Tyrod Taylor's fault that LeSean McCoy had only eight carries last week? Is it Tyra Taylor's fault that they couldn't tackle anybody? Yeah. It kind of doesn't make sense. All right, so coming up on the show, we will preview that game,

the Chargers hosting the Bills. The Bills, by the way, do give up the second most fantasy points to opposing running backs. So like we said, we like Melvin Gordon this week. The Patriots-Raiders game is really interesting. You talk about the Chargers run defense getting a lot better. How about the Patriots defense just in general? Are they still a good matchup? We might find out the answer to that.

And team name Tuesday on a Thursday. We got some diehard team names. But first, we got to tell you about the Draft app. And when you sign up for the Draft app, use that promo code FFtoday, and you'll get free entry into a draft. And we are on the clock. I am competing against Heath Cummings. I have the first pick. I am going to take Mr. Le'Veon Bell, number one. Heath, you are on the clock, and this is how it works. Heath, we have 30 seconds on the clock. You have picks two and three. We will draft five players each. One quarterback, two running backs, and two either wide receivers or tight ends.

So all you got to do is pick who's going to be the best players this week for your draft team. And this is how it works. Heath, you ready to pick or what? Yeah, I'm going to take Kareem Hunt against the hot garbage New York Giants. I don't blame you. And obviously a much better play than Le'Veon

Bell. I know who I would take. Nobody's a much better play than Le'Veon Bell. I know who I would take. Nobody's a much better play than Le'Veon Bell. You do. I do. Yeah, I'm kind of struggling with the second pick. Does he go running back? Does he go wide receiver? He only needs one more running back, two more receivers. He's probably going to wait on quarterback.

I'm going to go ahead and take Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley, really? Okay, so you've taken two running backs. That means I don't have to take a running back now so you've taken two running backs. That means I don't have to take a running back now because you're done with running backs. So I'm going to take Antonio Brown. I'm going to be rooting for the Steelers big time tonight. And who is the number two wide receiver for me this week? Is it Julio Jones at Seattle? I could go with Travis Kelsey against the Giants. I could go with Gronkowski. It's kind of a tough week. You know, like Thomas,

Michael Thomas is a tough matchup. AJ Green is a tough matchup. Let's go with Julronkowski. It's kind of a tough week. You know, like Thomas, Michael Thomas is a tough matchup. A.J. Green is a tough matchup. Let's go with Julio Jones. Let's not get cute. All right. So. Wow. You just completely whiffed.

And this is one of the things I love the most about the draft room is if somebody hasn't preset their rankings, they can really miss out on the most obvious choice. So I will go ahead and take Mike Evans against the Miami Dolphins as my top wide receiver. That's a pretty good one. Yeah, I mean, Julio Jones sucks, you know. He killed the Seahawks last year with Richard Sherman. And then you don't have a quarterback. Neither do you.

So I will take Tom Brady against the awful Oakland Raiders. That is also a very good pick. So that means I need what? I need one running back here. And I will make that running back. Mark Ingram against the Washington Redskins.

And now it's quarterback time for me. And why not take Russell Wilson who's better than Tom Brady in fantasy anyway. Russell Wilson for me. And Heath's last pick will be what do you need? A wide receiver? This is going to shock you. Because I don't think you've looked at my rankings this week. Anyway, Russell Wilson for me. And Heath's last pick will be? What do you need, a wide receiver? This is going to shock you because I don't think you've looked at my rankings this week. But do you know who my number three wide receiver is this week?

I bet it's Sterling Shepard. It is Sterling Shepard, and I just took it. Okay, and Sterling Shepard, this is a half PPR. Oh, I am projected to win by six points over CBS Heath. I'm going to crush you. That was fun. Well, obviously you are because Mike Evans is projected for 11 PPR fantasy points. Half PPR, half PPR.

Still. Yeah. So, all right. That's fun. I mean, that's cool. I love the draft app. It's really fun. And when you play on the draft app, use that promo code FF today.

Sign up. You can challenge me. Big cane too. I've already accepted three or four drafts this week. Probably get up to about seven. I will play for a dollar CB, a big cane to F F today is the promo code. Use the draft app.

So of course I needed a diehard team name for shoot the glass. And about 50 people said Schuster the glass. So yeah, makes sense. Pretty obvious. Yep. It sure does. And we also have have from Jamie in London

I don't know if I should say this one I'm going to say it, why not Yippee-ki-yay, Mother Butker Pretty good I like it A lot of news and notes And we have some Thursday night questions And then we'll get into the games

Phil Rivers making progress You guys ranked him, so right now he's trending in the right direction. We'll see. If you have Roethlisberger and Rivers, do you go Roethlisberger? Yes. Yes. Yes. If you have Mariota and Rivers, do you go Mariota?

No. Who's on the waiver wire? Yeah. I'm going to the waiver wire to see. Let's say Bortles is on the waiver wire. I don't. No. Then you take Mariota. No. What do you mean by no? No, you Let's say Bortles is on the waiver wire. No. Then you take Mariota.

No, you won't start Bortles? No, I won't start Mariota. Because you can go to the waiver wire, pick up Bortles. Yeah, but if you drop Mariota. No, you drop Rivers. Drop Rivers. I'd probably wait it out and then just, if Rivers plays, start Rivers. If not, I'd drop Rivers for Mariota.

In case you were wondering about letting Rivers go, he's got a short week matchup at Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. So if you like that matchup, you hang on to Rivers. If you don't, then you let him go. But if he can't play on Sunday, he's only got three days to get right for next Thursday. That's true. So he might not play in either game.

Case Keenum is going to start this week, perhaps not much longer. They have the Rams this week. Nate Peterman is going to start this week, perhaps not much longer. They have the Rams this week. Nate Peterman is going to replace Tyrod Taylor. So we broke that. We had that breaking. We didn't break it. We had that breaking news on yesterday's show, and we'll preview that game. Drew Stanton's questionable. Blaine Gabbert's the backup there at Houston this week. Devontae Freeman, not expected to play. We know that at Seattle on Monday night. Ty Montgomery mispracticed. Is it safe to say Ty Montgomery is not expected to play?

Not as of now. Terrence West practiced in full, and we did talk about Danny Woodhead. We think he's going to play. We don't know. But is Terrence West going to be a thorn in the side, or is he just going to be irrelevant? Well, every rose has its thorn, and I think Terrence West will not be a rose for fantasy owners.

But the problem is that I don't think Alex Collins will be there. I think they'll mix and match, and you almost want to hope that they play from behind. So Danny Woodhead gets in there and gets 200 catches. So the answer is yes. They're idiots. Play Collins, play Woodhead, put the other two on the bench. Yeah, I agree. Wide receivers.

Will Fuller expected to miss this game, and Bruce Ellington needs the ball more, according to Bill O'Brien. He's gotten a lot of targets. He's kind of a sleeper, actually. We'll look at that matchup later. Is he a sleeper, or am I crazy? Bruce Ellington? 100% a sleeper.

Anybody besides Patrick Peterson in that secondary has not been very good. Right. Yep. And Peterson's going to be all over DeAndre Hopkins. Ellington, absolutely a sleeper. 17 targets in his last two games, 7 catches, under 10 yards per catch. Yeah, I'm not saying he's good. Well, he's not efficient.

Oh, he needs volume. He'll get it. Valume. Chris Hogan did not practice, likely out this week. And Marvin Jones auditioned for American Idol. And it really hurts me to say this. I don't like to say this. He's got Marvin Jones' better voice

than I have. It's true. There's a low hurdle. He's got better athletic skills, better voice, better movie taste. Probably a better podcast host. Probably. I wasn't going to go there. Not because you're bad at him.

It seems like Marvin Jones is better than you at everything in life. Yeah, yeah, but does Marvin Jones mix his cultural references when it comes to Peterman slash Peterson? It's true. I'm sorry. I saw Ferris Bueller two days ago. It stuck in my head. Also, I have finished three episodes of Stranger Things Season 2, and it's very good.

Jordan Reed mispracticed, so not looking great for Jordan Reed right now. On the offensive line, still don't know about Tyron Smith. The Bears could be without right guard Kyle Long this week with that downgrade Jordan Howard. Kyle Long didn't really play last week. He was active, but he didn't really play, and Howard was bad. Yeah, it hurts him for sure. All right. DeMarco Murray or Jordan Howard?

Howard. All right. And in that same Bears-Lions game, Detroit right guard TJ Lang is in the concussion protocol. And for Cleveland against Jacksonville, an interesting matchup for Crowell. Two offensive linemen right now are out. Not out, but right now mispracticed. J.C. Tretter, their center. Sean Coleman, their right tackle.

He's been better with less talent on the offensive line. Yeah. And Jacksonville has been pretty phenomenal against the run since Darius Cutler. Yep. On defense, Drew Stanton questionable. I think I already said that. Wait, is he on defense?

No. That means I put the wrong note in the wrong section, and I just read it out loud like Ron Burgundy. On defense, Pittsburgh safety Mike Mitchell hasn't been ruled out for tonight's game. How's that movie reference for you? That one worked out for you. Cincinnati cornerback Adam Jones is in the concussion protocol,

and that's probably pretty significant as they face the Broncos this week. The Giants could be without Damon Harrison. That's very big news and would be great for Kareem Hunt. Minnesota defensive end Everson Griffin is expected to play against the Rams, and Saints linebacker A.J. Klein mispracticed with an ankle injury. So here are some Thursday night questions. We'll go through these quickly here. From Phil, pick a running back and a flex.

Kenyon Drake, Rex Burkhead. Pick one. Drake. And Juju or Burkhead? Juju. Okay. Did it stand or he said? Didn't say. Doesn't matter. Burkhead? Juju. Okay. Is it standard, you said? Didn't say.

Not sure. It doesn't matter. Burkhead versus Juju. In PPR, I might take Burkhead over Drake. In PPR, I would take Burkhead over Drake. I wouldn't. And in standard, I would take – in both, I would take Juju. But in PPR, I think Burkhead, what he's done the last two weeks,

is warranting him to be almost a must-start guy in PPR. And from Jeremy, Steelers. I have the Steelers DST. Should I start them or the Texans or the Broncos? The Texans or the Broncos over the Steelers. Yeah, the rankings of the Steelers DST do vary quite a bit. Mariotta doesn't turn the ball over very much. So I don't think they're going to get

a ton of pressure on him. I have the Steelers the highest. I have the Broncos the highest. I'd go get the Cardinals or the Chargers if they're out there in the league. Or the Bengals. Right. The Chargers are sneaky. They are like 40% owned or something. Could be good.

And they get a lot of sacks. Great pass rushers. Alright, from Benjamin. Corey Davis or Dion Lewis? Dion, easy. Dion Lewis. From Jordan. Standard scoring, sit one. Juju, Parker, Crabtree, Phelan.

Parker. Parker. Parker. From Steven. DeMarco Murray or Amari Cooper, PPR? Amari. Murray. I want all the pieces of that Raiders, Patriots game.

I think Amari. I may have to check the rankings on that one. From Chris, Juju or Michael Thomas, Juju or Tyreek Hill, Juju or Sterling Shepard? Would you start him over any of those three guys? I would not. Nope. Yeah, now. From Bombers Beat, Eli, Big Ben, or Mariota this week? Big Ben.

Ben. Ben. From Anthony, Roethlisberger or Dak Prescott? Dak. Roethlisberger. I have Dak ranked. I believe I have him ranked a spot higher. Let me double check.

I might not. I want no part of Dak this week without Tyronsman. We don't know that he won. I have Roethlisberger one spot higher, so I'm going ranked a spot higher. Let me double check. I might not. I want no part of Dak this week without Tyron Smith. We don't know that he won. I have Roethlisberger one spot higher, so I'm going to stick with that. Don't you think, though, that they're going to address the left tackle issue? It will be better than it was last week. It can't be worse. I don't know if it means it's going to be great.

And there's still the issue of stopping Fletcher Cox and Brandon Grant. It's one thing to say they're going to fix it. They still have to stop the other guys on the other side of the ball. It's true. Yeah. All right. Well, he might play, but the problem is you've got to make the decision tonight. If he plays, it's a different story.

But making the decision tonight without knowing, you play Rob Lester. Dak had 17 fantasy points in his first game without Tyron Smith, right? Yes. Against a much, much inferior defense. Quarterbacks have scored pretty well against the Eagles, though, right? Sort of. Darby is back. They're coming off a bye.

And they're healthy. It's not just Darby who's back. It's all of them. 17 is probably pretty close to Ben's average. Probably, but Ben's been above average the past couple weeks. Yeah, Ben's been closer to 20. I don't want to shoot for 17. Then why are we playing Ben Roethlisberger?

Because I'm shooting for 20 with him because he's going to get at least 20. Yeah, he's shooting for 20. This shooter's been part of the reason why Roethlisberger. There's not a lot of logic behind Dak Prescott playing well without Tyron Smith. Yeah. It's garbage time. He's been better than Ben most of the season. It's that whole run.

Of course he's been better than Ben most of the season. It's rushing production. His compliment of weapons. I think it's really close between these two, and I just think Roethlisberger prime time, short week, at home. Yeah, I don't think it's close at all. And the matchup is better for Roethlisberger.

I think he's safer. I think I'm going to put it that way. I don't think it's close at all. If Tyron Smith is not there, you saw how ugly he could be and it was ugly. How about Marcus Mariota or well, we already answered that. You want Rivers over Mariota. DeMarco Murray over Lee, Marvin Jones, Crowell, or Abdullah? Who's your favorite there?

Marquise Lee, Marvin Jones, Crowell, Abdullah, DeMarco Murray. Murray. I guess it's Murray. Yep. I'm not a big Murray fan. Delaney Walker or Vernon Davis? Vernon Davis. Well, you've got to run the risk, though, of Jordan Reed playing.

So I would take Walker if that's the choices. Okay. And from Michael, dear mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and sweet potato casserole, would you start ham over turkey this Thanksgiving? You're talking to a podcast that's 75% Jewish. And this percentage of it would absolutely – I am a ham guy. I do not – Oh, that's right.

You love ham and cheese. Like you took that number one in our sandwich draft. I did, yes. I am a big ham guy. I'm not a huge turkey guy. That's another thing Marvin Jones would crush you at. But it's Thanksgiving. I will only – crush you at. But it's Thanksgiving. I eat the turkey because it's Thanksgiving, but I'm not going home this year to my family.

But when I do, I always have ham. My mom makes the ham, and yeah, I'll eat much more ham. So yes, I'm starting ham over turkey. How's your finger, by the way? My finger, yeah. I had an incident with a butcher's knife two nights ago. What happened? You cut off your finger?

No. I thought I needed stitches, but no. Let me see your severed finger. Show it to the camera. You can see the Band-Aid. I got two on there. Oh, you're like my kid. He's got little boo-boos on his finger.

It's bad. It's really bad. I had to – forget it. Take off the Band-Aid. Let's see it. Oh, it would bleed. I'll describe it to everybody. Nope.

That's okay. So probably alone on that, but I'm going to start ham over turkey. Now let's go to the games. New England at Oakland in Mexico City. And the stat of the game, New England has held five straight opponents to 17 points or less. That would be the Bucs, Jets, Falcons, Chargers, and Broncos. They're getting better. They are getting better.

Only one of the last five quarterbacks to face the Patriots has scored more than 20 fantasy points. So, you know, I guess we could start with the Raiders then. Let's start with the Raiders and Derek Carr. Start or sit? I'm starting him. I do think you've got to look at his track record too. His last three games coming off a bye, at least 27 fantasy points. He was in this spot almost identically last year coming off a bye in Mexico City against the Texans, 27 fantasy points.

So the thing about the Patriots, their last three games have been good against opposing passing games. Two of them were at home. One was against Matt Ryan in a fog. And granted, Ryan did not play well until the end, but he still managed to get you 17 points. I just think that Carr will come out throwing. I don't know how much success they'll have running the ball with Lynch. And so he's been, I think it's like 130-some-odd pass attempts

his last three games. So these receivers have chances to make plays, along with Cook. I think he'll find his way to 25 points. All right, so everybody's got Carr ranked ahead of Ben Roethlisberger. So if anybody has that decision, you should start Derek Carr. Sticking with the Raiders, Dave, how do you feel about Marshawn Lynch? The Patriots, they allow five yards per carry to running backs, but they keep them out of the end zone.

They've given up just four rushing touchdowns. And somehow only three running backs in nine games have scored double-digit fantasy points against the Patriots in standard scoring leagues. I like the fact that Marchand's coming off of a bye. I think it helps that he's rested. Last time he did that, he had two touchdowns. It was against a bad Dolphins run defense. And, yeah, they're keeping running backs out of the end zone,

but they're still giving up plenty of yardage along the way so i i'm buying into to to marshall lynch this week i think he can get you 70 or 80 yards on 20 carry or not 20 15 70 or 80 yards i think he can get what year is this i think i'm i'm telling they're giving up five yards per carry to running backs and the only one that struggled in their last five games were the jets i i think marshall lynch is a good start this marshall lynch has a high of 14 carries since week one so 14 times five would be 70 if he gets the most carries possible i just don't know that i like the game script here exactly i i expect him to get more like 10 to 12 carries in this game which could still be a 50 yard game the key for marshall lynch is do amari cooper michael crabtree or jared cook get tackled inside

the five i don't even think it's that the key for marshawn lynch is does the raiders defense keep them in the game because if this game gets out of whack which it probably is going yeah they're gonna be behind then he's gonna be negligent he just needs a receiver to get tackled inside the five he's a number two running back do you agree agree or do you disagree? He's a low-end number two guy. I would put him in the same category as Isaiah Crowell, who's got a tough situation. Alfred Morris, who's got a tough situation. Alex Collins, who's a little bit of a mess. Joe Mixon, who's got a tough matchup.

I think he's in the same situation as Jamal Williams. I think he's better than that. I would take Lynch, but I could certainly see your point in terms of touches. So which is your favorite running back in this game? Who do you like best? Lewis and then PPR, Lewis and Burkett. I would take Burkett over Lynch in both formats. I'll take Lewis ahead of Lynch in standard and Burkett's third standard.

And a PPR, Dave? You can move Burkett ahead of Lynch in PPR. I would take Burkett first in PPR. I think Deion Lewis gets a lot of run in this game too. He should. I mean, Gable should be in his favor. I'll come back to the Patriots running backs in a second. Sorry, guys.

I'm jumping around a bit. I want to stick with Oakland and talk about Cooper and Crabtree. I mean, I know it looks like a good matchup. New England has allowed double-digit fantasy points to multiple wide receivers in the same game twice this year. That's not that many, but, you know, it's kind of a hard thing to do. But they've held Michael Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans, and Keenan Allen to eight or fewer fantasy points in standard scoring leagues. I'm not sure it's a great matchup. And Cooper hasn't been good. even with targets the last couple weeks.

He's had two good games on the season. Yeah, two. Two with more than five fantasy points. Also, he is the former NFL first-round pick who's a top-four wide receiver over the last three games, but outside the top 30 for the year. That's a fantasy Jeopardy joke, one of the worst segments we've ever done. So starter Sid Cooper and Crabtree, what do you think? I like Cooper a lot.

I think the big play potential is there for him. I think the Patriots are going to force the Raiders to certainly be aggressive on offense. And maybe what we're talking about here is Cooper getting a big play that sets him up in the red zone that could help out Marshawn Lynch. Or he just does it himself on a big play, which is pretty much the only way that Cooper scores. But I think he'll get a lot of targets. I'm not afraid of the matchup for him. Really not afraid of the matchup for any Raiders.

I think it's going to be a high-scoring game, so I want to start as many of these Raiders and Patriots as I can. I'll say the same thing I said yesterday or the day before. Cooper is the high-ceiling play. Crabtree is the high floor play. He's had, Crabtree's had I think one game without one game that he's finished with fewer than eight fantasy points. Maybe it's two. But he's

been very consistent. Cooper has just been so up and down and certainly more down than up. It depends I think what you think you need for your fantasy roster this week. I don't think Cooper is a slam dunk because he hasn't been a slam dunk all season. All right. Would you start DeMarco Murray or Amari Cooper?

Didn't we just ask this question? We did. We did. It sounded familiar. Awesome. I don't remember the answer, though. It was in PPR. When you cut off your finger, did you cut off your brain, too?

It was in PPR, and you guys said Cooper and Jamie said Murray? Yeah, Jamie said Murray. I remember. Good for me. Jared Cook is a top eight tight end in both formats, but over the last three games, New England has held the last three, the primary tight ends they've faced to a combined one fantasy point, but on only four targets.

Jared Cook is going to get targeted. He does every single week. And then that brings us to the Patriots. Okay, so Tom Brady is number one or number two for everybody. You start him. The New England running backs. Now here's something I noticed. There have been seven running backs with double-digit fantasy points against the Raiders this year. All seven of those have had either 18 or more carries or a receiving touchdown. And they all had at least four catches. Deion Lewis probably won't get any of that. 18 carries, four catches, or a receiving touchdown.

So he would be then the first to get double-digit fantasy points in standard, if that's what he gets, without that criteria. Does that mean anything to you? He's got to score. I mean, he's not running for 100 yards. He's certainly not going to get 100 total yards because he's not going to catch the ball. So he scored two of his last four. That's what you're hoping for with him.

He's got a floor, I'd say, about seven points. I think he's the safest in non-PPR. All right. Would you start Deion Lewis or Amari Cooper? Lewis. Cooper. Lewis, standard, Cooper, PPR. Would you start Deion Lewis or LaShawn McCoy?

McCoy. LaShawn. All right. Deion Lewis or Jay Ajayi? Ajayi. Ajayi. I don't even think that's close. Heath really likes Deion Lewis this week.

Got him 12th in standard, and I'm guessing a little lower in PPR, 15th in PPR. All right, Rex Burkhead. Let's do some Rex Burkhead or DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins. Hopkins. Okay, he is facing Peterson, but I thought I'd ask. Rex Burkhead or Devontae Adams? Burkhead.

Yeah, I think Burkhead. All right, and Rex Burkhead or Doug Martin? Martin. Martin and standard Burkhead and PPR. Finally, anybody other than Brandon Cooks in terms of the wide receivers? No. Amendola is low in number three in PPR. All right.

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$14.99 a month for 24-7 professional monitoring. Again, get $100 off at SimpliSafe. S-I-M-P-L-I-Safe.com slash FFT. SimpliSafecom, slash FFT. All right, the Patriots games, they always take a while. So that's why we do them first. And Tampa Bay at Miami is our next game. Jamie Doug Martin is the start of the week.

Talk about it. What do you expect from Martin? Go. Well, I mean, look, he's been terrible. You know, averaging 3.3 yards per carry. He hasn't scored in at least four games in a row. He's got five catches on the season. But you think about the last three opponents for the Dolphins,

and Alex Collins, remember we were begging for him to get work. He has 143 total yards in that game. Marshawn Lynch comes off a suspension. Terrible fantasy season. Scores two touchdowns against the Dolphins. Then last week, the Panthers did whatever they wanted to. Specifically, Jonathan Stewart, who hadn't done anything all season,

runs for 100 yards, as well as Cameron Arsene having a touchdown late in that game with Christian McCaffrey. If Martin gets another week of 20 carries like he got last week, he could have a big day. Okay. Let's go, Doug Martin. So let's go Doug Martin.

We need you. Doug Martin or McCoy? I'm going to go Martin in standard. McCoy. I kind of like Martin better, believe it or not. And it's because of the – part of it is the change of quarterbacks in Buffalo. Yep. Yeah, and we like McCoy better in PPR, though, right? Yep. You have to because of the catches.

Alright, which quarterback would be a better gamble this week? Ryan Fitzpatrick or Jay Cutler? I began the week in Camp Fitzpatrick, and then I went back and I watched how he looked, and he's still sailing his passes, just like he has been for years,

and the offensive line could have a really hard time protecting him and if he's going to attack downfield with jackson and evans he needs time to throw i'm not sure he's going to get it and cutler for has the better matchup first of all because the pass rush for tampa bay isn't nearly as strong and his offensive line kind of did an okay job against carolina And tack on Cutler's track record, multiple passing touchdowns in four straight games, and I think it sets up for Cutler to have the better game. So I actually like Cutler a decent amount this week. I think they're the same guy, honestly.

They're both in good situations. They're both going to throw a lot. They both have questionable offensive line play right now. And I think you look at it with Evans coming back, that should be a touchdown for Fitzpatrick. He will find his way to get a second one somewhere, whether it's Bray, whether it's Jackson, whether it's two for Evans. And Cutler, like to Dave's point, he's been playing well.

Multiple touchdowns in four games in a row. So I think they're both set up to be very good streaming options this week which quarterback has the better run game that could hurt him in fantasy so based on past history based on recent history i was dolphins has the better one absolutely i think doug martin's run for 58 yards and 28 carries yeah but the dolphins run defense has been atrocious that's not what you asked he said which team has the better run game? Recently, it has been the Dolphins. I think it's the Bucs in this matchup.

I think it favors them, and that opens the door for the running backs from Miami to make plays as pass catchers. That helps Cutler. I'm going with Fitzmagic. He's got Mike Evans and Deshaun Jackson. I just think Devontae Parker has a big game here. Oh, yeah? Would you guys start Cutler or Fitzpatrick over Eli Manning?

Yep. No. Yes. Would you start them over? Your research on Andy Reid's defense is off by swathing me. I don't know. This is the worst defense he's had, though. Potentially.

It's also a very bad offensive line for the Giants that couldn't have a healthy pass rush for the Chiefs coming after them. Did you know Eric Flowers has not allowed a sack since week two? Not that, but they will be out without their right tackle, their best offensive lineman, so yes. All right, back to this game, back to Tampa Bay and Miami. So here's your stat of the game. You want to look at the Tampa Bay wide receivers.

The Dolphins, in their first three games, they allowed 89 or more yards to a wide receiver in all three games. That's terrible. Since then, though, their last six games, only two wide receivers have more than 58 yards against the Dolphins. That would be Julio Jones and Devin Funches. So they've actually

been better. They do give up touchdowns, and I know you're going to start Mike Evans. But what about Deshaun Jackson? So how would you rank the other three wide receivers in this game? Evans is clearly top three in both formats for all three of our analysts. But Deshaun Jackson and then Landry and Parker, how would you rank them? Evans, Landry, Parker, Jackson. I'm taking both Bucs receivers over all three Dolphins receivers.

But it's close between Landry and Jackson and not PBR. Evans, Parker, Jackson, Landry, and Standard. Evans, Parker, Jackson, Landry. Okay. I might be with you on that. I'm not so jazzed about starting Deshaun Jackson. I kind of want to see what he can do with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Mike Evans That's the thing that makes me concerned too

Is that I don't see him Necessarily supporting both guys At a high level Yeah But Jackson's always just one He doesn't have to have a lot of volume And the catch and runs that Carolina had Last week specifically Funchess

The one touch on he had That that's right up to Sean's alley. I mean, if Jackson catches three passes, that's seven or eight Jarvis Landry catches. Right. That's a good point. All right. So did we say we are excited about Devontae Parker this week? Do you think this is going to be a good week for him? It sets up for it.

Yeah, I've got him as a borderline number two. It's just a matter of how much he'll do. But I think, look, both these teams are almost a mirror of each other. Yeah, except that Tampa Bay has allowed 90 yards or a touchdown to a wide receiver in every game this season. That's unbelievable. 90 or a touchdown to a wide receiver in every single game, including Robin Anderson. And Grimes tends to struggle with big receivers, so Parker

would fit the mold of the guys he typically struggles against. I hate that he's only had one big game all year. How about the Dolphins? Cooper's had a couple. He's had two. Cooper had two, but one of them was 33 points. Let's give Parker 19 targets and let's see how he does against Tampa Bay.

Well, I'd love it. Give him 19 targets. He's also missed some games. What about the Dolphins running backs, guys? The Bucs allow the third most fantasy points to running backs, but only 3.8 yards per carry. They give up a lot of touchdowns, and they're bad against receiving running backs. What do you think about the Dolphins' backs this week? I like Drake.

I think he's got potential to break one. And I think they might be done with Damian Williams. To a degree. Low end number two for me. Williams is the number three. Yeah, I wish they would give Drake more work because he's got more big playability. He's got more elusivity. He's just a better player.

Is that a word? I made it up. He's more elusive. He's more elusive. Kenyon Drake or Deion Lewis? Lewis. I'll take Drake. Lewis for me.

Kenyon Drake or Deshaun Jackson? Drake. Drake. Jackson. All right. Drake or McLlemore? Buster Rhymes. Macklemore.

Macklemore, okay. And Cameron Brate, is he a good start this week? I'll play matchup here and say yes. The matchup is fantastic, and I understand that. Ryan Smith's Patrick does not seem to like him. Yeah, but I think think what we've seen with just go back to last week, or last two weeks,

Tyler Higby needed one catch against the Giants to be good. Garrett Selick had done nothing until he faced the Giants. Ben Watson needed one catch to be a touchdown. Ed Dixon needed one catch for a touchdown. That's all it takes. And so these teams are terrible against this position for a reason.

But he's not the decent volume tight end that he was. Like he's a touchdown or bust tight end. Any other matchup he was facing, I would say get as far away from him as you possibly can. But because it's this week, this matchup, this team, I think he's safe. Unless it was the Giants or the Browns or the Redskins. Right, right. All right, let me speed it up here. Julius Thomas is 23% owned.

He's a flyer if you are desperate. The Bucs, actually, the Bucs really aren't that bad. They allow the seventh-fewest fantasy points to tight ends, and they've faced the three best tight ends. Oh, no, I'm sorry. The three best tight ends they've faced are Kyle Rudolph, Evan Ingram, Austin Sperry, and Jenkins. I don't know.

They haven't faced good competition. I don't know how good they are against tight ends. Let's put it that way. But Julius Thomas, he's got a touchdown in two straight games. Who's starting Julius Thomas, after all? Arizona is at Houston. Would you start Drew Stanton if he plays? He's had 18 and 16 fantasy points in his last two games at San Francisco

home against Seattle. Would Drew Stanton be at all interesting to you? No. Nope. Okay, good. Let's move on then and talk about Adrian Peterson. Four games with the Cardinals, he has 25 points, 3 points, 13 points, and 1 point. Houston, they allow the third fewest fantasy points to running backs.

I have some research on how they've been in four games without Watt and Merciless, but I'll let you guys speak now. Starters at Adrian Peterson. I'm on the anti-AP camp this week. It's another difficult matchup. I think the Texans' run defense has been legit. They didn't do a great job against Todd Gurley. It was Todd Gurley not getting enough opportunities last week,

but they've held down some bad run offenses, and they did okay against Kareem Hunt. Hunt had a lot of work in the game against them back in Week 5. I don't like the state of the offensive line. D.J. Humphreys going down hurts. I think going to Blaine Gabbert, quarterback, is going to make the matchup even harder on Peterson. I could see him getting another game with 20 carries and 60 yards.

Yeah, I'll take the over there. I don't believe in this Texans run defense because they haven't faced any good competition since the guys have gotten hurt there. And there's a very easy pattern to follow with Peterson. When he's been rested, he's been good.

And so, rested with his first game after not playing with the Saints, great matchup, fantastic performance. Rested coming off their bye week, great matchup, great performance. This is the toughest matchup he's had with rest, but I don't think they're going away from him, as we saw last week even when he had a bad matchup, and we told you to sit him.

He had 20 carries. If he gets 20 carries against the Texans this week, he will have a good game. Would you start Adrian Peterson or Devontae Parker? I would start Adrian Peterson. Peterson. Heath, do you have total faith in Larry Fitzgerald this week? I mean,

sure. As much faith as I have in just about anything. He's a nice number two wide receiver. This is an amazing stat. The Texans have allowed 22 or more fantasy points in standard scoring leagues to a wide receiver in three straight games. And five wide receivers have scored double-digit fantasy points in those three games.

They've been atrocious against the deep ball, and it's tragic that Blaine Gabbard is the quarterback for Arizona and not Carson Palmer, because if it were Palmer, Arizona would destroy them. But Gabbard is the king of checking down, and I think that helps Fitzgerald, who plays in the slot. I think that helps Jermaine Gresham, who's basically been the number two receiver for the Cardinals the past couple of weeks. And it could help if they decide to use Peterson as a pass catcher for any reason. I think it would help him in that regard, too, because Gabbert does not.

He does like to play it safe. He does not like to look downfield. Who's a better flyer, Jermaine Gresham or Julius Thomas? I like G look downfield. Who's a better flyer, Jermaine Gresham or Julius Thomas? I like Gresham better. Okay. Would you start Larry Fitzgerald over DeAndre Hopkins? No. I don't think so, no.

Would you start him over A.J. Green, who's facing the Broncos? In PBR, yes. Yep. Interesting. Okay. All right. So I think that we're not starting any other Arizona. Interesting. Okay. All right. So I think that we're not starting any other Arizona wide receivers. That about covers Arizona.

We go on to the Texans. And how do you feel about Lamar Miller? Compare Lamar Miller to Adrian Peterson. Who would you rather start? Peterson. Miller for me. Miller. Get you those safe nine fantasy points.

He is remarkably safe. It's incredible. Cardinals, they allow three-point. They're good. They're good against running backs. nine fantasy points. He is remarkably safe. It's incredible. Cardinals, they allow three points. They're good. They're good against running backs, but a running back had scored seven or more fantasy points in every game against the Cardinals until Seattle last week. So, you know, that's the Mar Miller for you.

Yep. He'll be between seven and nine. All right. You know, how do you approach DeAndre Hopkins? We know he's got a tough matchup. We know he's been the number one wide receiver in fantasy this year. You're starting him. Yeah.

I could see a situation. Like, there are wide receivers where if you went zero running back this year and then you also happen to have a couple of these guys on your team. Shepard and Thielen are two guys. Shepard. Golden Tate, I'd start over him. Yep. Thielen, I'd start over him. Tyreek Hill. What?

Tyreek Hill. Yep. Yep. That's about it. It's possible. Do you think the targets go down? For whatever reason. He's catching about half of whatever's thrown at him from Top Savage. I mean, I don't care about the catch rate. I care about the targets still being there for him. And I do not think that they will go down.

But he's also going to have his toughest matchup to date. And that includes facing the Jaguars in week one. Does he get 10 fantasy points? I hope so. I mean, you're starting him based on track record and hope. Because matchup says you should get as far away from him as possible. I worry that the targets will go down. Because, like, Marvin Jones had two targets. And he was facing Peterson. T.Y. Hilton had will go down because Marvin Jones had two targets,

and he was facing Peterson. T.Y. Hilton had five targets. Dez Bryant had two targets. Alistair Jeffrey had four targets. Mike Evans had eight targets, and all of his production came away from Peterson, and Peterson got hurt in that game. Sammy Watkins had five. These guys just don't get that many targets.

Sure, but think about the teams you just listed. All those teams have other options. I know Bruce Ellington's played well. Do the Colts? The Cowboys don't. The Colts don't. I mean, the Cowboys have a tight end that the quarterback leans on. That was the Bryce Butler game. Bryce Butler had like 100-something yards or whatever, or 90 yards.

Anyway, I know most people are going to start DeAndre Hopkins. Probably want to avoid him in Daly. Don't start C.J. Fedorowicz. The Cardinals DST. They are third for Jamie, second for Dave, and eighth for Heath. They have 10 sacks in their last two games against bad offensive lines. They have 13 sacks in their first seven games. But the Texans are a good matchup.

And Houston, also a DST you could use. Tenth, thirteenth, and seventh for Jamie, Dave, and Heath. These two teams, Houston and Arizona, they're in the top eight in fantasy points allowed to opposing DSTs. Moving on to Buffalo at El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles sobre el Rio por Ciencula Chargers. Stat of the game, that was the original name of Los Angeles when it was first discovered, I believe, from mentalfloss.com. So there you go. We will now refer to it always as Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles sobre el Rio Porciuncula, whatever that means. Well, I mean now that you've got 280 characters, you can get that in a tweet.

Exactly. Don't start Nate Peterbid. We talked about LeSean McCoy. He's around 12th for Dave and Jamie. He's 8th in standard for Heath and 4th in PPR for Heath. So Heath is the highest on LaShawn McCoy. Start or sit, Kelvin Benjamin, who led the team in catches, targets, and yards last week. But it was three catches for 42 yards on six targets.

I believe he had three targets from Peterman when Peterman came in the game, too. Should we also mention that Peterman was 7 of 10 for 79 yards and a touchdown? I did a little digging on Peterman at Pitt just to see where his touchdowns went to see if we can pick up on any tendencies. And in two seasons there, 23 went to receivers, 13 to tight ends, 11 to running backs. So almost 50% went to wide receivers and tight ends 11 to running back so almost 50 went to wide receivers and 25 to the other two positions tells me that he's kind of in line with what you'd expect from a west coast quarterback a guy that spreads the ball around doesn't mind leaning on his running backs and uh certainly will utilize his tight end too i just want to see it first

before i start any of these guys tough to have have confidence in Calvin Benjamin, Charles Clay, even McCoy as a pass catcher when they're dealing with a quarterback making his first start and really hasn't played much since August. So there's reason to worry with Benjamin and all these others. Yeah, and the Chargers have been pretty good against number ones. They're one of these teams that often allows the number two guy to be better. So, Calvin Benjamin or Deshaun Jackson?

Jackson, easily. Deshaun. Yeah. Alright, so Calvin's... I would start Bruce Ellington over Benjamin this week. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about him. Yeah, I forgot about him. And Don Charles Inman. Definitely Inman. Wow, okay. Charles Clay. Probably want to avoid? No, thank you. Definitely Inman. Wow. Okay. Charles Clay. Probably want to avoid.

No, thank you. I would prefer not to. But like I said, 25% of his touchdowns in college went to the tight end. So it's not like he ignores them in the red zone. Maybe Clay has fallen into that. Not this week. He might get three or four targets, and you have to hope he scores. There's tight ends with better matchups.

Yeah, oh, this is arguably the worst matchup. I mean, they allowed the second fewest fantasy points to tight ends, and they've done that while facing Ertz, Kelsey, and Gronkowski. Like, if you can muster up the guts to go with Mercedes Lewis ahead of him, you should. I would do it. Phillip Rivers, Jamie, how many points are you expecting from him? Four straight games with less than 20 fantasy points for Rivers.

19. Man, I feel like Buffalo doesn't have a good past defense, but only one quarterback has scored more than 20 fantasy points against them. And only two have scored more than 15. It's an interesting spot because they're at home. Buffalo, long trip after, you know, who knows what that locker room is going to be like with the veterans versus young guys with the quarterback decision.

And you have Anthony Lynn, who knows the Bills well, so facing this team. I think Rivers, if he was 100% healthy, I originally had him like a top seven quarterback for the week. The concussion makes me a little bit skittish. The fact that I don't think the Bills will stop the run

makes me wonder if he'll have a big day throwing the ball. But I agree with you. I don't think the Bills' defense is trending in the right direction. So if there's a spot for Rivers to surprise us and surprise us in a big way, this is it. Heath, give me a scenario in which you're starting Austin Eckler. A scenario? Well, let me find that team. Because I do have a scenario

In which I'm starting No It is one of our standard 12 team leagues First off your team's in a lot of trouble Is step one PPR preferably Is step two And you have

Guys like the Jets running backs Carlos Hyde And and Frank Gore, and Marlon Mack all on your team as step three. I see. Okay, okay. So he's not a very good start this week. I wonder if the fumble late last week is going to cost him playing time this week. He wasn't playing on passing downs to begin with.

I know he had five catches. It was wild. But he was not playing on third downs. It was Melvin Gordon. He was really splitting early downs work with Gordon, and then he fumbled. And I can't help but wonder if that cost him. I just don't think they want to give Melvin Gordon the workload they've given him in the past. They would like to see him play 16 games.

All right, so bottom line is we want to see something else from Eckler before we throw him in our lineups. Are we starting Keenan Allen this week? You've got to love the matchup against Buffalo, and specifically in the slot he's going up against Leonard Johnson. He's given up some decent plays, not necessarily touchdowns, but a lot of yardage, allowing a big quarterback rating over his last four games,

I believe. And Allen's due for a big bounce back game. Oh, this is outstanding. I'm actually starting Austin Eckler against Acer. Oh, very good. And Keenan Allen. And yeah, I feel pretty good about starting Allen as well. All right. Keenan Allen or Amari Cooper? I'll go Cooper. I'll take Cooper too. They are very, very close for me. I'll take Allen PPR. It's a coin flip either direction, but I will go Cooper. What about him versus Devontae Parker, guys? Both over Parker.

I'll take Parker over Allen and standard Allen over Parker and PPR. All right, and we'll try to avoid Hunter Henry. He's 70% owned. He's outside the top 12. He's closer to 15 and even lower than that in PPR. So try to get away from Hunter Henry. Let's go to our last two games, which are potentially defensive struggles. Cincinnati is at Denver, and your stat of the game.

Four wide receivers have had double-digit targets against Denver this year. Three of them have caught a touchdown, and the other one was Brandon Cooks, who had six for 74 last week. So double-digit targets, you're going to get a good game out of a wide receiver against Denver. But it doesn't usually happen with A.J. Green. He's had that only three times this year, double-digit targets.

It's a lot. I mean, most receivers don't really get that. But starter Sid A.J. Green. He's had that only three times this year, double-digit targets. It's a lot. I mean, most receivers don't really get that, but starter Sid A.J. Green, guys. It's the same boat as Julio Jones and DeAndre Hopkins, though I don't think Julio Jones is better. Julio's better. What do you mean? I mean, Julio doesn't have a tough

runner, but... That's fair, but can you come up with a compelling argument to Sid these guys? Yes, absolutely. I mean, we always say. But can you come up with a compelling argument to sit these guys? Yes, absolutely. I mean, we always say, yeah, you can't sit them. But we would have said you can't sit A.J. Green against Jacksonville, right? We didn't have him outside the top 20, let's say.

Yeah, no, I think Green is more of a number two than he is number one. Agreed. Agreed. Can I give you a different stat of the game? Yeah. From at SmolaDS on Twitter, Gio Bernard played 39% of the snaps last week, his fourth highest mark of the season.

Joe Mixon's 61% snap rate was his lowest in a month. Interesting. It makes me nervous. I just wanted to get to you. Mixon always makes me nervous, but he always finds a stupid way to get you 8, 9, or 10. He's a poor man's Lamar Miller. I just want to continue what I was saying.

We always say, oh, you can't start AJ Green, but maybe we should. Maybe there are scenarios, like what we said with Hopkins. You have Sterling Shepard. All those same guys are in play over AJ Green. But he's not a must-sit, because the Broncos have really been struggling lately. I mean, the last two games, they've been crap.

And they've played maybe the two best teams in football. Keep that in mind. Does recent history mean anything to you in this matchup because these teams have played each other each of the last three years what's happened and it's just it's cincinnati's schemes haven't changed it's denver's that have changed uh the best game for aj green in the last three years nine targets five catches 57 yards one, one touchdown. Oh, man. Last year, 11 targets. So they tried.

They worked hard to get him the ball. This was in Cincinnati, too. Eight catches, 77 yards. They held him out of the end zone. Doug Martin or A.J. Green? I'll take Martin. I'll take Martin and standard Green and PPR.

Yeah. That. Okay. Fair enough. Joe Mixon or Lamar Miller? Miller, easily. Miller, yeah. Miller, yeah. Yeah, let's see if Denver can read.

I mean, Denver, they gave up points to running backs last week, but they didn't do a bad job. They held the Patriots running backs to 3.5 yards per carry. They just struggled against Philadelphia. They're still a very good run defense. Yeah. Tyler Croft, you could start him. He's around 12th overall.

We like him better than Hunter Henry, right? Yes. Yes. Mercedes Lewis or Tyler Croft? Croft. I'll take Lewis. I think I have Croft ranked higher by one spot. I do.

Hey, are you starting any Denver running backs this week? I have a feeling about C.J. Anderson that he'll get more work than he's gotten in three of his last four games. I hope you're right. I think he can get to 15 carries because the trend that I see is that if it's a blowout loss for Denver, he doesn't get the work. And if it's a close game, he does. And I think this will be a close game. I'd rather start Austin Eckler over C.J. Anderson in New York. Whoa.

Wow. No. I can't do that. Would you rather start Joe Mixon or C.J. Anderson? I'd go Mixon. Mixon pretty start Joe Mixon or C.J. Anderson? I'd go Mixon. Mixon pretty easily. Me too. Really?

Okay. Anderson's like a number two running back for me this week. He's a number three for me in standard. Worse in PPR. That I agree. Which Denver wide receiver do you like better? Thomas. I'll stick with Demarius, yeah.

Now Adam Jones has missed two games already this season. He might miss a third. In those two games, they didn't give up a lot of yards. They didn't give up more than 65 yards to a wide receiver, and that included Antonio Brown. But they gave up three touchdowns, Jeremy Macklin, Brown, and Juju Smith-Schuster. So it would help.

But if Jones' play is like our Sanders and Demarius must-start guys. I mean, it's hard to get away from them. What we saw from them last week, what we've seen from them with Brock Osweiler. So you have to feel comfortable with it. But, I mean, it's still putting your faith in Brock Osweiler against a team that should be able to pressure him. The Broncos offensive line has not played well. And I've got Sanders as more of a borderline number two than a must start anyway. Okay.

Would you start either of them over A.J. Green? No. Not? No. Not there yet. Demarius and A.J. are in the same range for me. Let's go to Jacksonville at Cleveland. Our final game. Heath, sum up Jacksonville at Cleveland in 20 seconds or less.

You can stream Bortles. You should start Fournette. I'm a little worried about Crowell. Start Duke and PPR. Mercedes is a streamer as well. Stash Corey Coleman. You forgot about Marquise Lee. A wide receiver has scored nine or more fantasy points in standard leagues in eight of nine games against Cleveland.

Marquise Lee. Would you start Marquise Lee over A.J. Green or Demarius Thomas or Emmanuel Sanders? Yes, Sanders. I'm close there, but I'd still start Sanders. All right. Lee's a good start, though. I mean, yeah, good for him. D.D. Westbrook is back, but I think we're going to be patient there.

Blake Bortles or Phillip Rivers? Bortles. Rivers. Rivers. Let's close. Blake Bortles Or I already know the answer I was going to say Eli Manning Jared Goff or Blake Bortles

Goff Jamie you got him back to back I'll go Bortles Goff makes me a little nervous He definitely has the worst matchup What are we thinking for Isaiah Crowell Did we get double digits out of him Fantasy points I'll go Portals. Yeah, Goff makes me a little nervous. He definitely is the worst matchup. What are we thinking for Isaiah Crowell, guys? Did we get double digits out of him?

Fantasy points? No. No. I've got him 24th. I think he's in the 60 to 70 total yard range. I like him more than Mixon. He needs to touch them. What about Deion Lewis versus Crowell?

Lewis. And that's it for today's show. Thank you for listening, everybody. We'll come back on Friday, recap what's going to be a great competitive game tonight, and then talk to you about seven NFC home games. See you later. Before you close the show, you have your chance now to prove you're a better singer than Marvin Jones. So pick a song.

I think I just did. No, sing a song. That was your singing? Yeah, it was my singing. Pick a song. Sing a song. We're giving you permission. You can sing a song right now. Pick a song for me.

No, you pick a song. Row your boat. Row your boat. Here we go. One, two, three. It's all right. I've got Le'Veon. It's all right.

Not George Le'Veon. It's all right. I've got Le'Veon. Not George Le'Veon. I've got Le'Veon Bell.