Fantasy Football Today - 11/22 Fantasy Football Podcast: Playoff DSTs, Thanksgiving Games, Olsen Interview

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

A busy show on Thanksgiving Eve (or is it "Mattsgiving" Eve?) as we preview the three Thanksgiving games. But first, we wonder about stashing Josh Gordon and Aaron Rodgers (8:00) and give last-minute trade advice (12:30) ... Best DSTs to stash in the Fantasy playoffs (21:45), some goofy emails (26:20) and Commission questions (30:10) ... MIN-DET (35:55), LAC-DAL (43:05), NYG-WAS (48:50) and Greg Olsen joins the show (54:03) to talk about Cam, NFL TEs, what he would change if he were the NFL Commissioner, Jerry McGuire and Die Hard ... 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! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Eve. What's up, everybody?

Happy Thanksgiving Eve. Happy Matt's Giving Eve. What does that mean? We'll tell you in a little bit. And I want you to enjoy the ultimate football watching experience. That would be Xfinity X1. You can now get live CBS Sports fantasy football stats in the same place you watch your games. Learn more at Xfinity.com slash sports.

I am in the holiday spirit, guys. How about you? Sure. You're going to miss your annual Thanksgiving game, though, right? I am going to miss the annual Thanksgiving game. Are they playing without you? I think so. So they're going to get by without their third best player?

I think it depends who we invite. Amongst the regulars, I'm the second best player. Maybe your brother's better than you, right? He's a better quarterback than I am. I guess that's a little more valuable, but he can't keep up with me anymore. He's in his 40s like you. Heath, happy holidays. Yeah, did we really start doing this already?

Yeah, dude, why not? I thought the happy holidays thing was in a month or so. It's Thanksgiving. Tomorrow's a holiday, though. Tomorrow is a holiday, but we don't say happy holidays the day before the 4th of July. We don't say happy holidays the day before some other holiday, Memorial Day. What did I miss with you guys arguing about Sunday? I don't know.

What did we argue about? I saw you complaining about something. I assumed it was Sunday night. I'm sure. I mean, I complain all the time. He had an absolute meltdown yesterday, and it was glorious. What happened yesterday? There were a couple things.

One, he very astutely finally decided that it's Alvin Kamara and not coming out. That is false. That was a positive. Never, never. And then two, I may have trolled him just a little bit about Devante Parker. Okay. And you know Devante Parker is kind of his long-lost son. Uh-huh.

So he had to go on a little rant about that. Well, Heath is allergic to facts, that's all. long lost son. So he had to go on a little rant about that. Heath is allergic to facts, that's all. And then Dion Lewis is never going to lose the New England Patriots running back challenge again. But I know Jamie actually agrees with me on that. Like Dion Lewis, it's his job. You know what? Let's let a listener tell us what he thinks about Dion Lewis.

We got an interesting email, and I've got an interesting show planned for you today. I'm going to ruin Dion Lewis because he's the start of the week this week. Oh, okay. Greg Olson is going to be on our show. I recorded the interview with him yesterday. I did not get to ask him about the turnover chain, unfortunately, but he's going to talk to you about the quality of NFL tight ends, what he's seeing in Cam Newton right now, how

he feels about the choreographed NFL celebrations, and if Jerry Maguire's a football movie and if Die Hard is a Christmas movie. So you have to hear. I agree to both, right? Not going to tell you. You're going to have to wait and find out at the end of the show. You would have led the show with him saying no.

No, I wouldn't have. Yes, you would have. I will IM you, but you are not allowed to say it on the air. I will IM you with what he said. So that's coming up later. We have a lot of emails. Fantasyfootball at CBSi.com. We've got some serious emails. We've got lot of emails. Fantasyfootball at CBSi.com. We've got some serious emails.

We've got some goofy emails. Those are going to be fun. And we're going to preview the three Thanksgiving games, give you some last-minute trade targets, and playoff DSTs. You wanted to know which DSTs should you stash for the playoffs, and we'll get to that. But let me find – okay, the Deion Lewis email. We do have breaking news while you find the Deion Lewis email.

Go ahead. Ian Rappaport just tweeted, the Bills will start Tyrod Taylor at quarterback on Sunday. Thank goodness. Do you think they would have won last week against the Chargers? Yeah, I think they just cost themselves a playoff spot by pulling that junk. And if they didn't, then they cost themselves a playoff spot by trading away half of their good defensive players.

Okay, here's the email. This is from TheOtherLewis. Dear Jeff, Tracy, and – I have no idea who these are. No idea. Wait, we can get this. Jeff, Tracy, and who? Son, Scott, John, and Virgil. And Gordon and Alan.

Wow, that's a lot of names. You have no idea. The most important part of the email is this. I think you guys missed the boat on that Burkhead fumble on Sunday. Burkhead didn't see the field again until Deion Lewis lost a shoe, and then again in garbage time. We might not see much more of Rex in the next couple of weeks. So you're saying that one fumble costs Rex Burkhead a couple of weeks, and that makes it more likely that Deion Lewis could not lose this job.

So you're saying he could lose the job? Just so I understand it. I'm just saying that right now it's his job. He is the starting running back. I expect him to get 15 carries this week, as he has been. His hold on that job is more precarious than the average starting running back because his coach is Bill Belichick. Even though Belichick has somewhat of a track record of when he finds a guy, he sort of

sticks with that guy. Absolutely. Absolutely has a track record. He does have somewhat of a track record of doing that. He has more of a track record of changing running backs midseason than the average coach. Maybe. Does he, though? Actually?

Yeah. I don't know. I think that's a little bit of a myth now. He stuck with LeGarrette Blount. He stuck with Stephen Ridley. Gave those guys about – He did not stick with Mike Gillisley. He did it.

He tried. He tried. He blew it. I understand. Deion Lewis has been better. I agree with your point. It's not a firm hold like you would say Todd Gurley, clearly. Right. But I think just even the – he might have the second-best situation of his division. Wait, what?

Dolphins and the Jets. Those aren't locked-in starters. Sure, sure. I would say that's accurate. And a great schedule. Miami, Buffalo, Miami. Let's just start with that. And then at Pittsburgh could be tough in Week 15.

We've got Miami and Buffalo twice in his next five games. I think the thing that per Lewis, who is this guy's email with all the names? The other Lewis. I think the thing is will he be more involved in the passing game? Right. That's, I think, where his value could certainly increase if they start doing that more. Yeah. I'm not banking on that, but I'm hoping for it.

I don't think anybody can bank on it. I mean, look, if you just get two or three catches from him a week, that puts him from the 14 to 16 carry range, plus gets him close to 18. That'd be a dream. All right, guys. So let's get on with the rest of the show. We'll read more emails later.

Stat of the day. It's Matt's giving. Matthew Stafford's fantasy points on the rest of the show. We'll read more emails later. Stat of the day. It's Matt's giving. Matthew Stafford's fantasy points on his last five Thanksgiving games. 29, 27, 27, 44, and 18. Wah, wah. That's still not bad. That was last year against Minnesota, and that's who he's facing this year. So he does have a great track record on Thanksgiving.

You think he gets more or less than 18 fantasy points? Push. Yeah, if I had to bet one way or the other, I would take the under, but I think 18 is an excellent over-under. I would try and sit him this week if you can. I would agree with that. And you guys, do you both have Keenum ranked ahead of him in that game? I do not currently, but I understand it.

I don't either, and I've gone back and forth with my quarterback rankings 14 through 17 about 14 times. Yes. I made changes just this morning. Up until this morning, I had Keenum ranked higher, but the one thing that I think saves Stafford this week is his offensive line playing very well. While he's taken advantage of some great situations over the last three games, he's got six games in a row with either multiple touchdowns or 400 passing yards. And so he's playing great.

He's carrying his team. Offensive line is good, but the track record against Minnesota is not great. Minnesota has been fantastic. Yeah. Now, Chicago was a pretty tough matchup for him, and he had a good game, 21 fantasy points. They had been doing a very nice job against quarterbacks. So I'm hoping for a little bit more, but I understand where you guys are coming from. Right around 18 fantasy points for Matthew Stafford and 6 points for passing touchdown leagues.

Just to recap the waiver wire a little bit, I want to talk about a couple of guys. Josh Gordon and Aaron Rodgers, they were barely added. I picked up Rodgers, I think, in a couple of leagues. Did not do that for Josh Gordon, but they're both owned in about half of our leagues. And Rodgers, you know, the soonest he can come back is week 15. Who's a better – who would you guys rather stash, Josh Gordon or Aaron Rodgers? Gordon. Yeah, it really – I could see a situation where I'd rather have Rodgers than Gordon.

Your team construction matters a lot. But I just, I have a hard time believing the Packers are going to win one of their next two or three games. And if they can lose out until Rodgers is ready, I have a hard time believing he comes back. Yeah, I think he's only coming back if they're in playoff contention. And with the NFC shaping up the way that it is right now, Minnesota wins this game this week. I think that almost eliminates them from winning the division. I don't know mathematically, but certainly it's over.

In a tough spot to catch them. And I don't think they're catching any of the wild card teams with what those other teams in the NFC are doing. The only saving grace is I do believe the Packers still have the Browns on the schedule before Rodgers would come back. Yes, that's week 14, I'm pretty sure, which is the game before he would come back. But they're going to get crushed this week. Yeah, in Pittsburgh, yes.

And the other thing, I should have said this yesterday, and I apologize. I should have said this on the Waver Wire show. You've got to play defense at this time of year, too. So, for example, I'm in a league where I need to win both of my next two games to get in the playoffs. I picked up one of the DSTs, I think the Bengals who play the Browns. I don't know

if I'm going to start them because I have a good DST, but I don't want my opponent picking them up. You need to play a little defense now. That's another reason why I added Aaron Rodgers in the league that we share, Heath. We have Kirk Cousins. We have Dak Prescott. I added Aaron Rodgers in the league that we share, Heath. We have Kirk Cousins. We have Dak Prescott.

I added Aaron Rodgers because, you know, we could get a first-round buy. We could certainly be playing in Week 15. I don't want anybody starting Aaron Rodgers against us if it comes to that. He might, though. What if he stinks? Yep. You want to take that risk? What have you seen from every player that comes back from injury?

Aaron Rodgers came back from injury and lit up the Bears, if I'm not mistaken, in the last game. I could go back and check that, actually. I'll take it while you're talking. Go ahead. All right. But still, I don't want that. I don't even want that possibility. So play some defense right now. And then another thing I should have talked about yesterday but didn't.

What do you think about Sammy Watkins and Cooper Cup right now with Robert Woods out probably at least two weeks? And they get the Saints and the Cardinals in the next two games. This is their targets leader out for a couple games. Sammy Watkins is 92% owned. Cooper Cup is 64% owned. We don't think Lattimore's going to play this week, or we do? Lattimore tweeted the game last week that he's going to play. If Lattimore plays, then it's probably just Cup this week.

And then next week, Sammy's going to have Patrick Peterson. Okay, so what about Cup? I think they're both number three receivers. Yeah. I mean, Jared Goff has shown that when he has a tough opponent, he's not great. And this is a tough opponent. Is it? Because I'm kind of not sure.

I mean, look, there are flaws with Okafor not being there and with Lattimore banged up, but they're certainly closer to the teams that he struggled against than they are the teams that he's had success against. Talking about the Saints here, Lattimore is their rookie cornerback who left last week's game with an injury. Rodgers in Week 17 of the 2013 season, 318 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, 20 fantasy points. Wow. All right.

Not as good as I thought, but 318 yards. I believe he'll come back against two very tough opponents. I still, like, you're going to rank him in your top five. Um, in my top five? At Carolina in that first week back? At Carolina versus Minnesota in the last two games of the fantasy season. That's not pretty. Look what he did against Minnesota at home last year.

I think he scored like 40 points. Can you look that up? Yeah, I guess. I mean, it's his left shoulder. Or was it his right? No, it was his right shoulder. His throwing shoulder. Yeah.

All right, whatever. I stand by my comment. I understand your theory, but you may be hurting yourself by carrying three quarterbacks. I would imagine he should overrule. But look, we dropped Javoris Allen. So let's OK. We dropped someone we didn't need. If we need the roster spot, Aaron Rodgers might be the first to go. That's fine. But I just think it's not a bad idea to play defense. Last-minute trade targets, guys. Anyone? I'm sure a lot of people have already missed their trade deadline,

so let's not spend too much time here. But anyone you think that are worth a buy low or a sell high right now? Michael Thomas in a standard league? Is it buy low? I mean, he hasn't scored a touchdown since week four. Yeah. So you may find a frustrated owner there. You're not going to get him a PPR.

Right. Great away J.J. still? You think so? I mean, he's had two splash plays over the last two games, and the carries haven't been there. If he doesn't have those two big runs, his numbers are terrible. Oh, I'm sorry. Thanking him this week terrifies me.

You're calling Ajay a buy or a sell? Sell. I'm sorry, sell. Sell. Sell. Okay, I got you. J.D. McKissick's available in that league. Why don't we pick up Aaron Rodgers to J.D. I'm sorry, sell. Sell. Sell. Okay, I got you. JD McKissick's available in that league. Why don't we pick up Aaron Rodgers and JD McKissick?

Oh, God. I mean, you really want to play this game with the Seattle running backs? Every week they stink. There may only be one left. Every week they stink. This is the tried and true test right now. Look, I tried to get in touch with you last night, Heath. You were sleeping.

He got the 49ers? Yeah, I don't know. He may be our second best running back. I would rather drop Deshaun Jackson than Aaron Rodgers. What? Well, too late. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it.

I don't think you have a choice. I think that move has just been made. No, no. It's a fab league. Okay. You may have to delete that transaction. Julio Jones, Matt Ryan. They've got really – other than Minnesota in a couple weeks, they've got –

No, you're not making executive decisions here. You did last night. I dropped Javoris Allen. I knew you wouldn't care. Correct? I would have rather picked up Katie McKissick. Okay. So I didn't see that.

That's fine. But I dropped Javoris Allen. You don't care. I just dropped Aaron Rodgers. He didn't drop Aaron. No. I'll kill you if you dropped Aaron Rodgers. I'll kill you.

Don't do it. Just drop him. No, seriously, don't do it. Not funny. Please. For the sake of our show, drop him. Jamie, you stop right now. Drop him.

Drop him. Drop him. Do him. Drop him. Do you guys think Julio Jones and Matt Ryan are buy low candidates? Yeah, Jones for sure. Ryan, I don't know if people are going to spend for him, though. I guess yes. Yes, you can probably get him. Ryan is in that same place with Marcus Mariota where I think that they are going to be top ten quarterbacks for the rest of the year.

But I don't know what I'm going to give up for either one of them. How about Kareem Hunt? Do you feel good buying low on him? Yeah. He's got a good schedule coming up. Except maybe the Jets next week, but Buffalo at the Jets, Oakland, Chargers. Oh, yeah. He's got a good schedule.

I've got him ranked third this week. I expect him to be a top five running back. All right. Kareem Hunt. You could definitely get him. I've seen a lot of Kareem Hunt trades going down. Sell. Are we worried at all about A.J. Green's schedule at this point?

He just got through one of the worst ones. Yep. I think the answer is probably no. He has Cleveland. He has Pittsburgh, who did a very good job against him. And, yeah, I'm not seeing the rest of his – Minnesota, I think, is on there. It's not easy, but I think if you're –

you have to get somebody better in return. Yeah, I'm not sure you want to sell A.J. Green. So he's got – I'm sorry. He's got Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit, Baltimore. I got a couple. Lamar Miller. Lamar Miller, but the only thing is no Deontay Foreman now.

Maybe he starts getting 20 carries a game. You're saying buy low or sell high? At Baltimore, at Tennessee, San Francisco, which is great, but at Jacksonville and then Pittsburgh in weeks 15 and 16. That's bad in the fantasy playoffs. And he just came off a game where he scored, but he's been about 60 rushing yards in all three games without Watson. I don't know.

Sell high, Lamar Miller? He's just so consistent,, regardless of the matchup. He's got at least nine and a half, or nine fantasy points in like seven of his last eight games. His worst game is seven and a half. Yeah, yeah.

I don't think there's people clamoring for Lamar Miller, and he's not going to hurt you. Alright, fair enough. Demarius Thomas with their changing to Paxton Lynch. Demarius Thomas, three straight games with a touchdown with Brock Osweiler. Great schedule coming up, but Osweiler was good for him. Is Demarius Thomas, are his best days behind him now with this quarterback change? I think it's hard to say.

I mean, we just don't know. It could just be that Trevor Simeon was bad for him, and the other two guys could be better. I mean, Lynch has had enough time to watch that you have success throwing the ball to your best receivers, and he's their best receiver still. All right, well, that'll pretty much wrap it up. Maybe one more. Amir Abdullah, I think a touchdown in three straight games.

Maybe now's the time to sell. What do you think? Yeah, their schedule's better, though, after this week, isn't it? Depends how you feel about Baltimore. Their next two games are Minnesota, which is awful, and then at Baltimore. Pretty good against the run. They just see a lot of carries. At Cincinnati in Week 16, that's not great.

They allow 3.6 yards per game. It's okay, I'd say that. I think he's a poor man's Lamar Miller. Yeah, and again, what is someone giving up to get Amir Abdullah? Who knows? I mean, it is pretty vague. But do you think you're going to trust Amir Abdullah in your fantasy playoffs? Depends what your team looks like.

14-team league, I'm sure you're probably starting him. 12-team league, he could be a flex. I'd rather have him than Aaron Rodgers. I wouldn't. I don't think I would. Alright, you guys, Jamie, looks like you're good. I can't see Heath, but I certainly need a nice shave right now. We got a great

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You can personalize it with engraving. It's a really, really good offer. The gift sets are going to look really nice, too. They're in beautifully designed boxes, so it's perfect for the holidays. You make it a stocking stuffer. And because you listen to the show, these already start at $10. You're going to get an extra $5 off at harrys.com slash FFT. That's only available for the holidays. So this holiday, give Harry's and give Handsome. And get

your holiday shopping done early and take advantage of free shipping. Amazing offer. Five bucks off something that's already low price, free shipping. Get a limited edition holiday shape set while supplies last. Go to harrys.com slash FFT right now. harrys.com slash FFT. Here are your news and notes. Sterling Shepard mispracticed. He's still not feeling well, so we are thinking he's not going to play tomorrow at Washington.

And we'll preview that game later, but it's basically you're sitting every one of the Giants – well, no, you're sitting the wide receivers and Eli. You're probably starting Ingram, and we'll talk about Darkla. Jimmy Garoppolo may not start this week. We're not sure, but Seattle's DST should have a good game against the Niners. The Raiders fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. They've got the Broncos this week. Houston claimed Andre Ellington as they get ready to face the Ravens on Monday night.

Do you guys have any interest in Andre Ellington? PPR leaks, I think it's interesting. Yeah. I don't know. It's got to be deep formats. I was actually hoping you would end up in Washington. Yeah, yeah. Kind of fun that they have both Ellingtons now.

Yes. Would you rather have Andre Ellington or JD McKissick? McKissick. McKissick. But I would rather have Ellington than Aaron Rodgers. You know, honestly, I would love to win that league, and I think we've got a great chance. I now have changed my mind. I hope we lose to Aaron Rodgers in the fantasy playoffs.

Wow. I hope we lose. You are making us deserve it. You care so much about being right that you'd rather lose. No, I care. Yeah, actually. Seattle running back Mike Davis is unlikely to play this week, so that's why we like McKissick at San Francisco.

Paxson Lynch expected to start. Case Keenum will start on Thursday at Detroit. Do you expect the following players? Devontae Freeman against Tampa Bay. Nope. No. Ty Montgomery at Pittsburgh. Do you expect the following players? Devontae Freeman against Tampa Bay? Nope. Ty Montgomery at Pittsburgh? No. Will Fuller at Baltimore?

No. Greg Olson at the Jets? Yes. Even though I probably jinxed him by interviewing him, like I did with Forte? Yeah. He's still going to play. Kelvin Benjamin at Kansas City? No. No.

Jordan Reed, Thursday against the Giants. No. And I think that Kelvin Benjamin's interesting. Give us a couple deep sleepers against that Chiefs secondary. Yeah. Zay you. Zay me. Sorry, I was singing over you.

You dropped Kelvin Benjamin. Zay and Deontay, both interesting deep sleepers. All right, playoff DSTs. You want to stash DSTs for the playoffs? Okay, have at it. We've got some names for you here. Well, first of all, don't drop Baltimore. They're like 96% owned.

They're at Pittsburgh in Week 14, but hang on to them if you can because they're at Cleveland in Week 15 and the Colts in Week 16. There are three DSTs that have matchups against the five best matchups, basically, the teams that allow the most fantasy points, which would be Cleveland, Indianapolis, Denver, Miami, and Cincinnati. Miami's a little tricky because sometimes they're bad, but sometimes they're awful, like last week and at the Ravens game. But a lot of times they're not a good matchup. What's the common denominator in those games?

I don't know. And last week wasn't his fault, but Matt Moore playing. Oh, yeah, no, last week was all Cutler, yeah. So anyway, Baltimore is one of those three teams with the great matchups. Buffalo has the Colts, Dolphins, and then at the Patriots in Week 16. But Buffalo has the Colts in Week 14. Their defense is terrible, though. So no

thanks on Baltimore? No thanks. No thanks on Buffalo. Thank you. No thanks on Buffalo. Maybe on Baltimore. No, I mean, Baltimore's got a good defense. This third one I really, really like. I think I'm going to put in a claim for him in this league where I have Aaron Rodgers on my bench. I hate you.

Chicago. They're okay. They're the number 11 DST in fantasy this year. At Cincinnati, at Detroit, at Cleveland. All three on the road in the playoffs. That's a problem. Yeah. I don't know that you need to stash these.

Chicago at Cincinnati is not a good enough matchup where you're like, oh, I need to stash. But at Cleveland in Week 16 is. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm not feeling it with those. Are you guys? I just don't want to have to go up against Chicago in the fantasy playoffs. Oh, man. Okay, how about multiple top ten matchups for DSTs?

You've got Cleveland. Forget them. Detroit. This one's pretty interesting, actually. Okay, how about multiple top ten matchups for DSTs? You've got Cleveland. Forget them. Detroit. This one's pretty interesting, actually. Detroit. So their next five games, actually, they have Minnesota this week at Baltimore. Not bad. Then in the playoffs at Tampa Bay, Chicago, and at Cincinnati.

Detroit is not a bad option. Yeah. Yeah. Jacksonville's DST has such good Matchups from here on out That I mean they're pretty Valuable in a trade I think Let's look at the next five opponents for them

At Arizona The Colts Seahawks in week 14 Could be tough Houston At San Francisco That's through week 16 that's incredible And they're already the best DST That's incredible And then Minnesota're already the best DST. Like, that's incredible. And then Minnesota is at Carolina, home against Cincinnati,

home against Green Bay in the playoffs. So they were good. And then this one's interesting. Heath, you can tell me what you think. Tennessee at Indianapolis. Okay, so actually their next five games are interesting. At Indianapolis, Houston, at Arizona, at San Francisco, and then the Rams. Their next four games are all pretty good

matchups. Tennessee. But they stink. What do you think? Sometimes bad quarterbacks make for good DST play. Yeah. I'm going to tell you the truth. I know people have been asking about DST stashes. I'm not really feeling it. Maybe Tennessee, maybe Detroit,

maybe Chicago. But I think that's more like 14-team leagues. I think the thing you've got to keep an eye on also is when people that have been carrying two, because that happens in a lot of leagues, when they drop that second one, let's say to pick up Aaron Rodgers because they're afraid of their opponent starting them in the playoffs, that's something you could also take advantage of. Great point. Excellent point.

All right, so before we get to the games, let me see where we're going to go here. We've got a lot of stuff left in the show. Good emails. Well, let me tell you first about Comcast, though, because I want you to enjoy NFL football on Sunday, and I want you to enjoy fantasy football at the same time. You can do that with Xfinity X1. If you want more information, just go to Xfinity.com slash sports. But here's how it works. Forget about looking at your phone to check your scores and get your fantasy info. You don't have to miss great NFL moments anymore. With Xfinity X1, you get a voice remote. You say

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Go to xfinity.com slash sports to learn more. That's xfinity.com slash sports. I did promise a commissioner show, so I think we need to get to that. But how about this email from Nick from the land of Lincoln and home of the Simpsons? Because that would be Springfield. But the Simpsons are apparently from Kentucky,

if you ever saw the Behind the Laughter episode. We're having a contest at work to see who can best decorate their cubicle for Christmas. My area is doing Christmas movie themed cubicles. I'm going for a diehard theme. I'm short of ideas. I'm short on ideas. What can I do to decorate my cubicle with diehard Christmas stuff?

I think the easiest thing would be is if you're just looking for some suggestions, go get the diehard Christmas book. Yeah, well, that's – yes. That's a good start. You could very easily build a tower out of some cardboard and just paint some windows on it. Lots of Christmas trees around it to signify what time of year it is. Absolutely. The best thing to do –

If you have a child that has Barbies, you could put a Barbie car outside of the tower with some ketchup on the windshield and maybe one of the Barbies laying on the windshield. I mean the easy thing is to put a sweatshirt over your desk and say, ho, ho, ho. Yes, that's what I was going to say. Ho, ho, ho. Now I have a machine gun. If you get like a mannequin or something and put some blood on it and do the sweatshirt. The day of the contest, you come to work with a wife beater, no shoes on, gray slacks and a belt. Yep.

How about some fake glass on the floor? Yep. And Juju Smith-Schuster's poster around it. Oh, right, right. Schuster the glass. All right, next email is from Steven in Europe. Dear some combination of Fozzie, Gonzo, Bert, and Ernie, usually it's Adam who makes crazy calls on TV and movies,

like not understanding what sort of a movie Die Hard is, but on Sunday's show, Heath came out of nowhere with a ridiculous statement saying the problem with Sesame Street is the Muppets. While I love all the content Heath and the rest of the guys produce, I'm not sure if I can trust the man who doesn't like Kermit the Frog. I hope Heath didn't have a bad experience trying to get a Muppets toy for his kids that ruined them for him and would urge him to watch the Muppets Christmas Carol this year. Heath, you hate the Muppets. You've hated them for a long time.

You're on a crusade watch the Muppets Christmas Carol this year. Heath, you hate the Muppets. You've hated them for a long time. You're on a crusade against the Muppets. I just want to clarify, to be fair, that the Muppets are awful. There's nothing amusing, entertaining, or funny about them. And I didn't have any problem trying to get Muppets toys for my kids because they've never seen any of the Muppets propaganda. They don't even know what the Muppets are. And thank you, Heath, for now becoming— I have an 8-year-old that doesn't even know who Kermit the Frog is.

Thank you for becoming now the most unpopular person on the show. It was a burden that I no longer wanted to bear. So I appreciate you taking that from me. And then, Jamie, I'm going to have to give this one to you. This is from Reed Anderson from a horse town north of New York City, which would have to be Saratoga. And he says, hey, Michael, Nick, Mark, and Sam. Quarterbacks, quarterbacks.

I think those are Eagles quarterbacks between McNabb and Wentz. You are very good at reading the email, Heath. You're very good. So you have the first pick, Jamie, in the Game of Thrones gladiator draft. Who do you pick? Some of the suggestions are Jon snow jamie lannister before the injury call drogo the mountain the hound braun brienne torment gray worm who do you pick for your game of thrones gladiator i mean it's hard to go against john snow what call drogo or

the mountain like have they would kill him. I think Oberon should be there. Will they? I think so. Oberon should be there. Both those guys have died, right? Well, we don't want to say anything to spoil things. I think most people have known that part. Yeah, that's old news.

Yeah, but you have them when they're alive. Are these guys Muppets? They may as well be. Now go use a GIF or a GIF. I would take John Snow. Okay. I would take Khal Drogo. Such a badass.

Commissioner emails, and then we'll preview the games. So Butch in La Trobe. We're wrapping up year two of a newly created work league that is an interesting kicker to keep everyone interested down to the end. At the season's end, 12th place owes first place $600 of adult beverages. 11th place owes second place $500 of adult beverages, and so on and so forth. I wanted to get your input on a couple of proposed rule changes. Some struggling managers have proposed changing the waiver process from a standard rolling priority system to a last gets first

pick system basically detracting from the importance of drafting well and frugal waiver usage what do you think about that how would you do waivers oh man so many of our leagues have that feature and i hate it which one drives crazy. The one that resets every week so that the worst team gets the first choice. Now I think that's the way the NFL does it. So you just have it, you want it to be rolling? I mean, I prefer fab. I think it's what you should do. I think rolling is fine after that, but the resets every week just drives me crazy. It does give the teams early in the season that have good teams just bad luck a huge advantage because you're able to pick up those early free agents and add that to a stacked team,

and then you're able to rebuild your struggling record or turn around your struggling record with a stacked roster. So, Jamie, what would you pick? What would you vote for? I mean, Fab is the easy way to solve all that. Yeah. Go Fab. Again, if you're going to do Fab, let people have pickups on Sunday morning, though. And because they have this adult beverage thing where every result matters, a few managers want to eliminate the trade deadline next year.

What do you think? As in it can go forever? Yeah. I don't know what that would change anything. Well, because there's incentive not just to make the playoffs but not to finish last. Yeah, but that still wouldn't impact when you should be able to make trades. I love that whole system, though. That's a great idea.

Yeah, I mean anything that keeps people involved through the end is the best way to do it. But if you have a league that keeps people involved through the end, do you eliminate the trade deadline? Yeah, I don't think that really changes anything. Well, sure it does. But you should be allowed to make trades at some point. You should be cut off to know what your roster is. I don't really care either way. I mean, if you want to have the thing,

but I don't think it really matters. Okay, fair enough. This is from Dave. What is your ideal breakdown in money winnings in a 10-team league with a $50 buy-in? Currently, we have first in the playoffs, $350. Second in the playoffs, $100. And then most points in a season gets $50.

So I guess the winner gets $350, runner-up $100, and then season leader in points, $50. What do you think? How would you divvy up? Perfect. Yeah, I like that a lot. I like it where the semifinalists get their money back, but whatever. Yeah, okay. This is from Chuck. Kickers aren't

that fun to have in fantasy. What if you lost one point for missed field goals and two points for missed extra points? You lose points for fumbles and interceptions. What if you banned kickers? I have a league that would drive, or a situation that would have driven Heath crazy. So, I started Jay Cutler. Had a bad start.

Team is really good. Ended up winning 103.5 to 103 because the other guy had Jake Elliott. Yeah, I participate in the FPC, which is my biggest league. And this week I dropped Chris Boswell for Harrison Butker and lost by nine points

and got eliminated. Last one here. Just ban kickers. I'm still mad about it. No, but I think it's a good idea to penalize kickers for missing, actually. I think it's a good idea to just cut kickers out of your league. I understand that, but most of the leagues you're going to play with are going to have kickers. So what do you think?

If you were in a league with kickers, would you want them to penalize misses? It should be. I mean, if you want to be fair to every other position, DSTs get penalized when an opponent, you know, the quarterback throws a pick six. Yeah. You know, kickers should be penalized if they miss kicks. You'd be less reluctant to trust guys like Blair Walsh. I think you should penalize people for having kickers.

I think, actually, there's a setting in our leagues, in CBS leagues, where you can, where, you know, people get frustrated when DSTs give up points when there's a pick six and they're not even on the field. I think you can turn that off. Yep. So, yeah, go CBS. Last one. This is from Stephen from Hampshire or Hampshire, England.

We have a player – okay, so I guess they have a, like, a postseason for the bottom feeding teams too. We have a player who's 0-11, and all players are agreeing that if he goes 0-13, he should automatically get last place. This has a punishment in our league, which this year is to stand in a busy city with a Browns jersey and a sign saying, I suck at fantasy football. Obviously, he says he could win a postseason game to save him, but if he goes 0-13, should he get last place no matter what? You should not change any rules in the middle of the season, so if that's not the rule now, but I still think

if he goes 0-13, it should just be a rule that if anybody ever goes 0-13, they should have to stand on a street corner with a sign that says, I went 0-13. Or do something silly. I mean, you know, I don't want to advocate for tattooing, because that's permanent, but dressing up is always fun, making somebody dress up.

Yeah. 0 and 13 tattoo on their forehead would be good. Yeah. And I want to give a shout out to – on their forehead? I didn't even hear that. I just kind of brushed through that. Shave your eyebrows. Okay.

That's also pretty cruel. A shout out to Sergeant Tom Reeves. He's an Air Force guy who commissioners in all Air Force League. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to read your question. But thank you to you, Tom, and to the rest of your league for your service. USA. Minnesota's at Detroit. Let's break down the Thanksgiving games here. All right. So stat of the game. We already talked about Stafford. But here's your stat of the game. It's about the Minnesota running backs. Seven running backs have had 13 or more carries against the Lions this year,

which is almost a guarantee for Latavius Murray and maybe even for McKinnon. Seven have had 13 or more carries against the Lions. Six of them have scored double-digit fantasy points in standard scoring leagues. Four of the seven have scored 15 or more fantasy points. In other words, Detroit's run defense is not very good. So tell me how you're approaching the running backs for the Minnesota Vikings. I think you just got to buy into the workload for Murray, and he looks good the last two weeks. Maybe that ankle finally got healthy.

So with the carries that he's getting and the matchup, it's middle of the road, I would say. So he's a number two running back, and I think McKinnon is also. The one thing that we have not seen from them the last couple of games is the Vikings chasing points, and that's kind of been when he's been more successful. You're talking about McKissick? I have Murray and McKinnon both as number two running backs, low end number two. McKinnon higher in PPR, Murray higher in standard.

Yep. All right. Would you start Jarek McKinnon or DeMarco Murray? What is the scoring format, please? Give me both. I would start Murray standard, McKinnon PPR. Okay. Did I say McKinnon or Murray?

You said McKinnon or Murray. Okay. Would you start Latavius or DeMarco Murray? Latavius Standard, DeMarco, PPR. I'm starting DeMarco over both in both formats. I mean, based on the stat I just gave, doesn't Latavius Murray have like a guaranteed big game? He's going to get 15 carries. He gets 15 carries every week.

And if you get that against Detroit, you have big games. It's set up for him to play well. I don't think there's anything you could say guaranteed and Latavius Murray in the same sense. Okay, that certainly makes sense. All right, we'll stick with Minnesota. So your starting case, Keenum over Matthew Stafford. Would you start Keenum or Dak Prescott? We did not say that you're starting Keenum over Stafford.

Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I asked you if you did, and you both said no. And, Jamie, you said you flipped that this morning. I have them back-to-back. You both have them back. You actually both have them Stafford 14, Keenum 15. There you go.

So now you know exactly where they will finish. I would say this about Stafford. If he's been your only quarterback, I would probably not make a waiver claim to get somebody else. I would take my lumps if they come because he's been around 18 fantasy points against the Vikings. The only guy that might be on the waiver wire that I would start over him is Dalton. Yes, and maybe Tyron. Okay. So would you start Keenum or Dak?

It's tricky because if Tyron Smith is back, I'd probably go with Dak. Yep, that's that easy. Okay, works for me. So Keenum, Stafford, we're thinking around 18 fantasy points. And the thing about Keenum is he does not have a good matchup. The Lions have been very good. They've only allowed 12 passing touchdowns in 10 games. They're good.

They give up passing yards, but only two quarterbacks all year have scored more than 17 fantasy points against the Lions. That was a big game from Cam Newton, 33 fantasy points. And then Deshaun Kaiser, who had 24 fantasy points,

but 11 of those with rushing totals. We talked about the running backs. What do you think about Adam Thielen's must-start, top seven in both formats. What do you think about

Stephon Diggs this week? I think he is what he is, which is a number two guy toward the low end. He's probably going to see Darius Slate, but he had 98 yards receiving against him the first time these two teams met. Yeah, I'm really, really conflicted. I've moved him up and down and up and down. I've got him 21st right now. He could finish top five this week, and he could score three fantasy points.

I think what he said about him earlier in the season is very accurate. He's just somebody that you keep in your lineup with the hopes that this is the big week. But he's probably not going to ruin your fantasy week. So it's almost like if we did this game, if we previewed this game in week four. I don't know when they played. Week four. Yep. That was the game Dalvin Cook, Torres ACL.

All right. So if we did it in week five, we would say must start Stefan Diggs. Adam Thielen's like a number two. But everything's changed since the Diggs injury. Like Thielen has just taken over now, right? Is that kind of how you feel? He's number one. The connection between Keenum and Thielen is real.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Diggs or Latavius? Latavius and Standard for sure. Yeah, agreed. Diggs over the Detroit running backs? Yes.

Oh, yeah. I think Abdullah's game in week four was a fluke. Yes, he had his best game of the year against the Vikings, but they are the number one team in fantasy points allowed to running backs. It's just you want to get away from them, and they're very good in the passing game against running backs too, so you want to get away from Riddick.'re very good in the passing game against running backs too, so you want to get away from Riddick. Do you want to start either tight end in this game?

Rudolph is a low-end starter. Yeah, yeah. There's probably not someone on the waiver wire that I'm starting over Rudolph. The only one I think you can make an argument for would be maybe Charles Clay if he's still out there. Yeah, I do have a play at him. Maybe Safarian Jenkins if he was dropped. But to me, Safarian Jenkins and Rudolph are like the same guy.

Tyler Croft or Kyle Rudolph? Croft, easy for me. I've got him right in the same range. Yeah, Croft has the Browns. That's like the layup of all layups. Don't forget about the Giants. So what about the wide receivers? Detroit's wide receivers.

I'm still starting Tate, but I would bench Marvin Jones if he can. How come? Yeah, I like Tate's matchups a lot better in this game inside. He's a high-end number two for me. Rank the four wide receivers. Sealand, Tate, Diggs, Jones. Yep. Diggs over Jones, okay.

Would you start Jones or Joe Mixon? Joe Mixon. Yeah. Would you start Marvin Jones or J.J.? I have to make that decision in one league. I would start a J.J. If it was standard, I would start Jones with PPR. The league I'm doing is PPR.

Yeah, that's probably safe. Minnesota's DST is 11th for Jamie, 6th for Dave, and 13th for Heath. As of last night, it might have changed slightly since then. So it's an okay DST this week. But much better than okay is the home security you're going to get from SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe is spelled S-I-M-P-L-I-safe.com. So we want you to go to SimpliSafe.com slash FFT. S-I-M-P-L-I-safe.com. So we want you to go to SimpliSafe.com slash FFT.

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SimpliSafe.com slash FFT. The Chargers are at the Cowboys. We look at Dak Prescott. Can we just say he's a sit if Tyron Smith doesn't play? Yeah, I mean, I'll go back to what I said last week. I did not like him going into that game against Philadelphia. This is a better pass rush. I mean, you know, the Eagles destroyed him worse than I expected.

And the Chargers, look, they've been very good against opposing quarterbacks all season, but they would be all over Dak Prescott without Tyron Smith. It's all about Smith. Yeah. All right. So if I still continue to have this, I don't want to name names, but I still continue to have a conversation with an NFL analyst who thinks that if Ezekiel Elliott was playing, regardless of Tyron Smith, Dak Prescott would play well.

I don't understand that. I still don't—I am very disappointed in the Cowboys coaching staff. I know Tyron Smith's amazing. I know they don't have a great answer, but they've got to scheme it up better than that. That's a really bad job. Well, yeah, they've obviously had big issues. Now, if he does play, keep this in mind. In week one, the Chargers, this is just out of the game, the Chargers allowed 25 fantasy points to Brock Osweiler. Now, he had seven of those with rushing totals. Since then, though, no quarterback has scored 20 fantasy points. Last week, Tyron Taylor had 19 in

like a half, but Tom Brady didn't score 20, Alex Smith didn't, Carson Wentz didn't, Eli Manning didn't, Derek Carr didn't. So even if Tyron Smith plays, it's not a great matchup for Dak Prescott. But if Tyron Smith plays, would you start Dak over Stafford and Keenum?

Yes. The two that I would struggle with would be Alex Smith, good matchup at home against the Bills, and Phillip Rivers in the same game. Yeah, I think I'd probably put him between those two. I've got Smith 12th and Rivers 13th, and I'd probably put

him right there. I probably would too, but I have Rivers 11 and Smith 12th. That means you'd start Dalton and Mariota over him. Yeah. Oh, yes. And Matt Ryan. Yes. Okay. But, again, it's so hard to trust him right now without Smith in there.

Now, the nice thing is it appears as if Smith's going to play. So if you're looking at – I'll speak for myself. If you look at my rankings, there will be a Thursday morning adjustment if we get Smith active. How do you feel about Alfred Morris Heath compared to Latavius Murray and Jarek McKinnon? I have him below both of them, I believe, in both formats. I may have Alpha ahead of McKinnon in PPR, or in Standard. But he's a number two.

He's mostly a low-end number two, especially in PBR. Okay. I mean, I see great opportunity for him here. If Tyron Smith plays, I think he's a great start. Sure. And so, look, he's been the only thing that's looked good the last two weeks. Yeah. For them.

And so you've got to give him credit. This is the argument I have. What would Elliott have done differently than what Morris has done? Ten more yards? Two more catches? Well, I mean, he's got much more big playability. But forget that. Alfred Morris facing the Chargers, who had been doing well against the run until last week.

Sean McCoy completely crushed them. Actually, they were awful at first. They had a good three-week stretch. Were awful again last week. I don't know. I mean, 17 carries for 91 yards against the Eagles. I have pretty high hopes for Alfred Morris this week, and he's around 15th for everybody in standard scoring leagues.

He'll be lower in PPR. We're not starting Rod Smith, right? No, that myth is over. Starter said Des Bryant. Is Smith playing? Yes. It sounds like it. I think he's a low-end number two in standard

and more of a solid number two. I hate using that word. Solid wide receiver. I agree with you. Yeah, he loves it. In PPR. Yep. So he'd be like a stinky number two if Tyron Smith doesn't play.

It's just so hard to trust him. And part of the reason why we've seen teams struggle against them is their tight end coverage is great. And they do a good job against number one guys. The Chargers? Yeah. All right. So Dez or Diggs? Diggs.

Diggs. PPR, Dez or Alf? Dez. Dez. Okay. I think the game you got from Dez last week, you've got to be excited about it PPR-wise. Yeah. He's still very involved.

We're not starting Jason Witten, right? No. Not against this team. How about the Chargers? Melvin Gordon's a must-start. Keenan Allen, start or sit? Start. Love him this week.

Top five wide receiver. He did exactly what I expected him to do last week, which was beat up the Bills, because every number one receiver beats up the Bills, and slot receivers have destroyed the Cowboys all season. Anyone else for the Chargers in the passing game, including the tight ends? No. No.

I didn't really get a chance to go back and watch. Was Mike Williams' involvement mostly second half with the guys not playing as much because he was second-term's target for them? He saw some targets in the first half, but it was mostly second half, yes. I've got it right here, and I know a majority of his targets came in the second half. He had eight for the game. But it was second on team. He had eight for the game and two of them came in the first half.

Okay, so it was more garbage time. Yeah. Now, that's kind of unfair to say because two more came in the first five minutes of the third quarter. So he had some involvement. Okay, so they're trying to get more involved. Yes. I think it's going to be fun to see if the Chargers or the Ravens can get that sixth seed. They're going to get killed in the second round at least.

The AFC is stupid. So last thing here, Phillip Rivers or Andy Dalton? Dalton. Phillip Rivers or Kirk Cousins? Cousins. Phillip Rivers or Kirk Cousins? Cousins. Phillip Rivers or Tyrod Taylor? Rivers. Rivers for now.

All righty. Last game. Love Kirk Cousins. Starting him over Dak no matter what in the Heathdom League. Heath, you okay with that? Absolutely. Good. Yes.

I've got Cousins as my top six quarterback. Love him. Yeah, everybody does. He's sixth or fifth for all three of our analysts. And the Giants allow the third most passing fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. The Redskins are interesting. The Giants, not so much. If Sterling Shepard doesn't play, Eli Manning is totally hands off. If Sterling Shepard does play, the Redskins are really terrible against wide receivers,

or quarterbacks, pardon me, and receivers. Would you consider starting Eli Manning and or Sterling Shepard if he plays? Shepard for sure. Oh, absolutely. But Eli, I think, still would be in the Keenum range. You know, I would, yeah, I'd move him. I would move Eli ahead of Keenum and Stafford behind Rivers and Smith. So not in the top 12, but there'd be plenty of quarterbacks like Derek Carter and Dak Prescott you could start him over.

I also believe his recent history against the Redskins is not great. Not sure. I can tell you. I have it in front of me. In his last three, I think he's been under 18 points or less than three in a row against Washington. Oh, okay. Interesting. Well, you can run the ball a little bit on Washington, and they allow 4.3 yards per carry to running backs. That's pretty bad.

Which running back do you like better in this game, Orleans Darkwa or Samajai Pirine? Pirine. Darkwa. Talk it out. I think they're both the same, but I've seen Darkwa do it now for the last month. And so I just don't really want to trust Samajai Pirine if I don't have to.

Yeah, the game script figures to be better for Piran than Darkwa. And I don't think he figured things out last week, but listen, he was supposed to be better than he was early in the year when he was awful. And there is something with young running backs. When they fumble early, they can spend so much time trying to hold on to the ball when they're running through the hole that they don't run as well as they have in the past.

I just wonder if he's been freed up a little bit by not fumbling recently, at least. I think both are very good starts this week, if you have them. If I had to choose between one, though, I would take Darkwood, just because, again, I've seen him do it. How would you compare them to Alfred Morris? I like Morris better than both. No, I'd go Darkwood, Morris, Piran. And I'd go Piran, Morris,

Darkwood. They're all more or less the same though. They're solid number twos. They are solid number twos. Danny Woodhead in PPR or a running back in this Giants-Redskins game? Woodhead in PPR. Yeah, I think I'd start the running backs in this game.

Washington wide receivers. Your thoughts, Heath Cummings? I am excited about Washington wide receivers, especially excited about Jamison Crowder, who has already seen a big uptick in his targets, and now I think he's going to see even more with Chris Thompson out. He is my number 15 wide receiver in PPR. And then I think Doxon is startable as a high-end number three, low-end number two.

I don't think this Giants secondary and defense just figured everything out last week. The Chiefs played like garbage, and the wind was blowing 30 miles an hour. And even with those conditions, they give up two more pass plays of like 33 or more yards, which would be—that was after having seven pass plays of 40 or more yards in their previous two games. So they're giving up a lot of big plays. They do have a lot of talent on defense, so you wonder if they just have to start trying harder, which they may have last week. Well, I heard Eli Manning gave a great speech, but listen, I'll use some Adam Azer logic here.

Josh Doxson must lead the NFL in almost touchdowns. And the thing about it is he keeps getting those opportunities. And he's got seven targets in each of his last two games. I like him. I like both he and Crowder this week. Would you start him, I know you start Crowder over him, but would you start Doxson over Dez? I would.

Wow, I don't think I could do that. Jamie, Doxson or Dez? Dez for now. I would start Doxson over Dez in standard, Dez over I don't think I could do that. Jamie, Doxon or Dez? Dez for now. I would start Doxon over Dez in standard. Dez over Doxon in PPR right now. I think the Tyron Smith coming back makes it easy for me to go Dez. That would change things. Yeah. Alrighty. Vernon Davis and Vernon Davis is 78% owned.

If you need a tight end this week, it's a no-brainer. And Evan Ingram is a must-start as well. They're both top six tight ends. These are two of the three worst teams in fantasy against tight ends this week, it's a no-brainer. And Evan Ingram is a must-start as well. They're both, like, top six tight ends. These are two of the three worst teams in fantasy against tight ends. That's it, right? No defenses in this game? No. No.

I mean, Washington may be okay if Shepard doesn't play. Great. Thank you, guys. We are doing a show tomorrow, so I wish you a happy Thanksgiving then. Heath will be on that show with me. Jamie, I will not talk to you until Friday. Happy Thanksgiving, my friend. Thanks, buddy. Very thankful for you, Jamie Eisenberg.

I'm thankful for you guys as well. Great. We've got FFT, Fantasy Football Today, the video show all week long. We will not have a mailbag this week. I'm going to stop talking. Here's Greg Olson. Alright, we are fired up to be joined by the 11th year tight end for the Carolina Panthers, Greg Olson. All right, we are fired up to be joined by the 11th-year tight end

for the Carolina Panthers, Greg Olson. We have not seen him on the field since Week 2, but we are hoping to see him this week against the Jets. Greg, thank you so much for coming on Fantasy Football today. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's our pleasure.

And, you know, I know guests come on and they have products that they like to talk about. I don't want to wait until the end. I want you to talk about something that I think our listeners would be actually very interested in. FanChest. Tell us about FanChest. Yeah, this time of year especially, you know, everyone, if you're like me, you struggle with what you're going to buy people for gifts around this holiday.

You know, a lot of people in our lives are sports fans. So FanChest, you go to FanChest.com. You pick the team that your chest you go to fan chest.com um you you pick the team that your you know loved one is a fan of um you put it in and they take care of the rest they curate all the items they package it um merchandise around that team and put it you know put in a chest and it shows up right at the door um wrapped gift wrapped whatever you pick and uh they do all the work for you so it's a pretty cool direct-to-consumer type process, and it's perfect for this time of year.

Yeah, it actually is really cool. I'm looking at it right now, fanchess.com. I think the listeners are going to love it. A lot of teams to choose from. Give it a shot. All right, so you ready to go for Week 12? Are we going to see you out there? I hope so.

That's the plan right now. Just keep progressing as the week goes on. I had a good first day yesterday, kind of getting the cobwebs out a little bit and getting the body fired up a little bit. We'll keep progressing as the week goes on and under the

plan to be able to get out there on Sunday and play. I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to getting back and getting back in my routine a little bit, play some meaningful games this time of year. So that's always fun. And you hadn't missed a game since your rookie season since 2007. That's unbelievable. What has this been like for you as a spectator? It's been tough. It's kind of uncharted waters for me.

I haven't been through this very often in my career. But after the first couple weeks of kind of accepting it and just being a little disappointed and whatnot, you kind of just say, hey, let's just attack the rehab. Let's get back as soon as I can. And that's what we've done. So it's been a long eight, nine weeks, and looking forward to getting back out there.

And your team's doing great, and your quarterback's doing great, Greg. Tell me what you're seeing from Cam Newton right now compared to the beginning of the year. Yeah, I think he's feeling better. I think he's really kind of getting his legs under him a little bit, coming off the shoulder surgery. I think he's playing at a really high level, both run and pass. Very few guys carry the burden that he does in both those areas. He's unique. We've seen that now for seven years.

There's not a lot of guys, if any, that can do what he does. He's really played at a high level these last few weeks, and I think the results kind of show that. There's this theory out there, and for some reason the numbers back it up, that Cam Newton plays better without Kelvin Benjamin. What is your take on that? Is that a complete fluke? Yeah, I don't know. I think there's so much that goes into it that it's hard to just make those direct correlations like that.

Kelvin did a lot of good things for us over the last couple years, made a lot of clutch plays, big plays. So, yeah, I think those are difficult, you know, connections to make. I think Cam, though, just over the last few weeks has just played well. I think the offense has played well around him. We've played good complementary ball, offense and defense. I just think there's a lot of things that go into individual and team success like that. So I don't think it's as simple as that.

I'm sure it isn't. Can you compare how about the offensive line this year compared to last year? It's just for fantasy owners, fantasy analysts, we don't know football like you know football, obviously. We're always looking for something. And one of the explanations that we love to come back to is, oh, the offensive line's good. The offensive line's not good. And it seemed like there were some real problems last year. What about this year?

How's the offensive line looking right now? I think the offensive line's done well. I think it's helped that we've had pretty much the same group in there for the most part all year. It'd be nice to get Ryan Khalil back hopefully in the next week or so. He'd be a big addition back into the lineup. I think those guys have done a great job. They prepare as hard as anybody on the team.

They play as hard as anybody on the team. They really are a good unit. They make us go. As they play well, the offense plays well. I want to talk about tight ends. We've had so much offense over the last decade plus in the NFL and so many great wide receivers. But you're on a short list of truly elite tight ends.

Year after year, putting up numbers, Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski, Greg Olson. Maybe we've got it with Zach Ertz and Travis Kelsey going forward. But I don't know. What's your opinion on the state of the tight end position? And why do you think there aren't more? like as fantasy owners, we would like at least 10 where we could feel really good starting every week. And we hardly ever get that. Why do you think it's a position that hasn't really exploded as offenses have exploded around the NFL? Or am I looking at it wrong? I think everybody wants one. I just think there's just not that many. I think everybody wants one I just think they're you know I think there's just not that many I

think they're hard to come by I think there's not a lot coming out of the college game I think it's a position that's you know just really asks a lot of guys you know if you want to play a true tight end position in this league meaning you know you're going to be heavily involved in the passing game but you're also going to be heavily involved in the run game and the pass protection game there's not a whole lot of guys that can handle it, not only physically, but mentally. There's a lot that goes into that. So, you know, those names you just mentioned are obviously at the top of the list, but, you know, I think every team would love one. I think every team would love to have themselves a guy like that, who they can keep defenses off balance and

really be multiple and multiple sets and multiple formations and keep teams guessing. But just the reality is there's not a lot of them out there. I just think that's just a product of the complex nature of the position, what they're asked to do. Other than quarterback, there's probably not a position on the field that is involved in as many different components of offense as the tight end. When you came out of college, could you block? Were you a good blocker? It's funny, I asked this the other day as well.

I think what they look for is I think they look for a guy that has receiving skills, unique attributes that he can move and track the ball and do all the necessary things to get open at this level in the passing game. And then just have that willingness to be able to put your face in there and block and mix it up. Because with good coaching and good scheme, you can turn a big guy who's an athlete into a good blocker. I think it's hard to turn a big blocker into a pass receiver just because sometimes the movement skills aren't necessarily there. So I think the willingness is a big part of it.

That's probably been the greatest growth and development over my career is just continuing to hone in on that area of the game and take a lot of pride in that. If you can do both, it allows you to stay on the field more. So you learn that pretty early in this league. Depending on what kind of offense you're in, you have to be able to do it all. We try to analyze tight ends on a week-to-week basis. We look at fantasy points allowed to tight ends. We see the Jets have allowed the seventh most fantasy points to tight ends. The Panthers, on the other hand, have allowed the ninth fewest fantasy points to tight ends. So we would say Greg Olsen has a good matchup this week, and Austin Saffarian Jenkins does

not. But what can you tell us, maybe some of the nuances that we wouldn't be able to see just in the statistics that would make a team good against tight ends? Are there schemes, good safeties, good linebackers? When you face teams that do well against tight ends, what is it that those types of teams have? Again, I just think there's so much that goes into that. If the team is not as good, I'm not suggesting that this is the case with the Jets. Just generally speaking, when you start talking about those sort of correlations,

does the team struggle in the run game? And a team maybe as a whole didn the team struggle in the run game and a team maybe as a whole didn't do much in the passing game so then as a byproduct there weren't as many chances for the tight end specifically but you know they rushed for 200 yards or you know things like that um you know on the other hand you know was a team trailing a long time because this team plays because the other team plays with the lead a lot so now the other team's forced into passing situations so the opportunities go up. So, you know, again, I just think there's so many aspects.

Maybe the Jets have played a lot of really good tight ends and some other teams haven't. You know, you don't know until you really put on the film and look at it specifically. You know, those trends are a good starting point. I just think you really got to get into the nuts and bolts of what the Jets do defensively and how that impacts what we want to do offensively. So that's what the week of preparation is for. And we'll start diving into that starting today. So I'm going to get you out

of here on just a few quick questions. You broadcasted over the weekend. Very cool stuff. What did you learn about that side of football? They work really hard. Those broadcast teams are really working. It's no wonder that the broadcasts are as impressive as they are. They know so much information. They get it in. They're seamless.

They put a lot of time in. I always thought it was hard, but until you do it and you're around it, you don't really appreciate it. So it was a great experience. I'm glad I did it. They were great to work with. They were the utmost professionals in every area. So it was a great first experience and something I'm glad I did.

If you were the NFL commissioner and there was one thing you could do, your first agenda item, what would it be? How would you change the game, if at all? Oh, man, that's a good question. I'm not a huge fan of the orchestrated touchdown celebrations. I know on the scale of importance, that's probably – Yeah, I think it's kind of silly, to be honest with you. I don't really need to see guys doing orchestrated stuff. This is not the XFL. I don't know.

I'm a little old school. I'm older. I'm probably the old grouchy guy in the room. I'm not really big into all that orchestrated team stuff that you think about all week. But again, that's probably not affecting the game one way or another, but that's probably just one thing off the top of my head I'm not crazy about. All right. Interesting.

And then finally, we've had a debate for like seven years on this show, two movies debates. One's old, one's brand new. So just you can tell us what you think. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? And is Jerry Maguire a football? Is Jerry Maguire a football movie? That's the new one that's like all the rage right now. Yeah, I think it is.

I think it is. I think football is a big part of that movie. Yeah, I'd say yes. All right. Well, you broke my heart with that one. What about Die Hard? Are you going to say yes on that one too, Christmas movie? I don't know.

From what I remember, I haven't seen it in a long time. From what I remember, I don't know. From what I remember, I haven't seen it in a long time. From what I remember, I don't know. I don't think Christmas, to my recollection, isn't overly important to the plot. So I would go with no. You're 100% right. Thank you, Greg Olson. Great way to end our interview. Thank you so much, my man.

All right. All right. You got it. Go to fanchess.com. We'll be watching Greg Olson this weekend, hopefully, against the New York Jets. This has been Fantasy Football Today. Thanks a lot for listening, everybody. 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 Bell.