Fantasy Football Today - 11/25: Injury Updates; Playoff DSTs; GB/SF/OAK Offenses (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 25, 2019

Dr. David Chao joins us with the latest on James Conner, Amari Cooper, Jordan Howard and other players dealing with injuries. We also ask him if being "injury-prone" is legit (14:45) and what Tua Tagovailoa's process will be like as the NFL Draft approaches (18:00). Then Will Brinson and Chris Towers hop on to talk about the struggling GB offense (24:00), the surging SF offense that continues to thrive even with Tevin Coleman struggling (30:30), the mysterious OAK offense (35:35), how to approach handcuffs at this point in the season (42:15) and DSTs that could win you your leagues (45:30).  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 Heath. Coming up on the show, which DSTs have great schedules

that can help you win your fantasy league. I love the Eagles DST, but there are others. What's up with the Packers offense? How many Niners and Raiders players are must-starts? But right now, let's talk about the big injuries as Dr. David Chow is joining us. We welcome you to the Fantasy Football Today Road Tour presented by Little Caesars.

Pizza for dinner tonight? How about ordering your favorite online from Little Caesars and using Pizza Portal Pickup? It's the latest, greatest, and hottest way to pick up a pizza without even going to the register. Dr. Chow, welcome back. How are you doing? I'm doing good. How many times can you say Pizza Portal Pickup fast without... Yeah, I'm getting pretty good at it, actually. I got a lot of practice. I was a little worried about you for a couple of reasons.

One, Matt Breida's missed two straight games, so I just thought maybe your mind had been blown. And two, I know you did a podcast with Will Brinson earlier today who's coming on this show a little bit later, and I just want to make sure that you're okay after that. Well, to the first one, let me tell you, I did have a discussion with some of the staff at profootballdoc.com, and we called Matt Breida a cyborg. And the only reason that, look, I've never met Matt Breida. I'm sure he's a great guy.

But the only reason in our mind that he has not played is we stopped saying that he's not going to play. I stopped doubting him. And so now that I stopped doubting the guy, and he actually doesn't play. So I can't get Matt Breida straight. He's an enigma to me. He's awesome. And as far as Will is concerned, we had

fun. I didn't know Will very well, but understand that my very first question to him, because he brought it up, was what kind of beer he drinks when he's watching the football games, doing the podcast. So that gives you an idea where that headed. No, it was fun. And I caught him on a good week. Last week, we were supposed to get him, and it didn't work out. And all his picks kind of didn't do so well. And this week that we had scheduled and he was coming on, he killed it. I said, I'm his good luck charm. Nice. All right. He's going on your

show next week too, I bet then. How about that? He'll probably just schedule it for the good luck. Yeah. He killed it this week. So tell me about, you mentioned the staff at profootballdoc.com and that's your website, profootballdoc.com and you can follow him at profootballdoc.com. And that's your website, profootballdoc.com. And you can follow him at profootballdoc. But it's not just you. You've got a team, right? So tell us how you go about diagnosing, who's involved, and how many people, whatnot, the whole process. Because you really just stand out.

And I want people... You've been coming on our show, and it's so generous of you. So I really want people to go to your website and listen to your podcast and all that. But just tell us a little bit about the background real quick. Well, I'm no longer watching from home. I'm watching from, quote, a war room with a bunch of big screen TVs and monitors. And yes, even with nine games yesterday at the 1 p.m. Eastern time slot time, we had full coverage on all the games going on in real time.

So we have an all-important video guy who keeps that straight for us, and he helps us spot injuries as well. We have a tech guy who's there to keep the website up and going because unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it's actually reached capacity a couple times, and we've had to increase it. Then we have an interface slash guy who's an expert setting up some websites related to gambling website interfaces

related to horse racing. Otherwise, he's there consulting with us. We have a business guy who sort of is the management guy who, and he's also very good at getting this lunch and keeping us fed. So we love him. And then we have two other guys there the whole time that whose job it is to spot on injuries post. They're my right and left hand guys that do this. So that's the minimum. And then, of course, me. That's the minimum every week that we have in there.

So we are trying to do it somewhat professionally. I don't think, and I actually hope we're not, no offense, but Al Riveron in the referee war room. Hopefully we have some good other traits and are making some calls that people actually like and so we try and do all this stuff in uh in real time and uh thankfully the last couple weeks there hasn't been a lot of injuries the last couple weeks but you know early on we were fortunate enough to call drew breeze's injury injury in, say, six weeks, and Patrick Mahomes with his knee dislocation. Heck, a couple weeks ago, I gave one of our guys grief for this after calling Nick Foles' clavicle fractures and doing all this stuff off of video.

And he's employed by us and works with us. And with J.J. Watt, when I said, J.J. Watt's season just ended with a peck rupture, he looked at me in disbelief. And when that turned out to be true and it was confirmed right after the end of the game, he said, OK, you're in the Hall of Fame. That was an unbelievable call. I'm like, you've been here for like nine straight weeks watching me do this. And finally you realize that there's something to this. I was giving him grief.

So we have some fun in there in the room and we're never a hundred percent right. And we talked about this with Will Brinson. I mean, you can never be a hundred percent right in your picks or quote, diagnosing or injury impression from afar, but we try and do what we can. If we take George Kittle's example from his Halloween injury,

we said nothing major, but we thought it would be multi-week based on at least a bone bruise. Not only was it related to the bone bruise and capsule, but an ankle, quote, fracture. And when Schefter put that out, I mean, logic would tell you George Kittle is unbelievable, right? He's super human, but he is human. And if it were a broken ankle in the traditional sense, something with the structural bone, I don't care who you are. You can't run and jump and play at three and a half weeks. So I said that's likely a chip or a bulging fracture.

And Kyle Shanahan, after the game, said it was a chip fracture, which bodes well to Kittle going forward. He had a good night last night, and this shouldn't be an issue going forward. But we just try and use what I call insider knowledge, not insider information. I'm not calling doctors or trainers or players to try and ferret the news.

It's just using my eyes. And we had a fun one this week. Well, it's a fun one for Dylan Cole, but by video that went that Thursday night game, the Texans back up linebackers. And it looks like, unfortunately, on special teams, he tore his ACL and probably MCL. And the season is likely over. The team within five minutes released calf injury questionable. Of course, some people got on me on Twitter.

I didn't even retweet that. I just sort of shrugged. It is what it is. And of course, by the next morning, it turned out he did indeed tear his ACL, unfortunately. Wish we were wrong there. But, you know, it's just information. It's trying to give people, you know, information ahead of time. And for your guys, fantasy guys, or DFS guys, just knowing ahead of time, or people who are in states that are legal wagering, get in the middle, or knowing in advance before the line moves what might happen. It's injury information. And unlike Will, I never give any picks.

I'm not a gambling guy. I'm not a pick guy. I'm just giving you injury information to interpret. And all the time when people say, which wide receiver two is best, I'm like, don't ask me. I'm not amazed at that, right? I'm just giving you the injury information. I'm just saying the only Eagles wide of Jordan Howard, Alshon Jeffrey, and Nelson Aguilar, Alshon Jeffrey is the only one that might play, and there's no guarantee to that. It's more likely all three don't play than all three do play,

and unfortunately all three didn't play. So that's kind of what we do. All right, so let's get into some injuries then, and I want to ask you about Tua Tagovailoa at some point, but let me ask you about Amari Cooper, who said he was over the knee issue. Maybe he is, but he did not have one catch in the game against the Patriots. And he's got a short week with Buffalo on Thursday. And Julio Jones, who came back in the game but was favoring the shoulder,

and he's got a short week with the Saints on Thursday. Should we be concerned about Amari Cooper and or Julio Jones? Well, you know, I think Amari Cooper is being good about not talking about his injury. Is he 100%? Probably not. But then who is now that we're entering week 13? So is his knee ankle 100%? Probably not. But he's being shut out last night, probably in order, had to do with Stephon Gilmore covering him,

perhaps the scheme on both sides of the ball, perhaps the weather and the wind, and then finally perhaps injury as being part of it. He's good at saying that it's not a big part of it, that he's fine, and I believe him. But maybe he's 95%, but that's not why he didn't have any catches. Julio Jones suffered what by video looked to be an AC joint sprain, and he did return to the game. And for this coming week here, short week for the Falcons against the Saints, nobody's really going to practice much anyways this week on a short week.

So the projected practice reports will have him out or limited. But I do think he does have a good chance to play this Sunday. It seemed to me in order to return to the game, he wasn't out there at the start of the second half, but came back in. He probably got an injection in the AC joint to continue playing. He'll probably do the same to play on Thursday. So we'll just have to keep our eyes open there. Got some running backs that we're hoping can return. We've got Devontae Freeman Thursday against the Saints. We have James Conner against Cleveland and Jordan Howard at Miami. Do you think we'll see Devontae Freeman or Jordan Howard or James Conner?

Boy, I usually like delivering good news, but if you're asking me today and right now, I would say unlikely, unlikely, and unlikely. And the reason why is that the foot sprain issue, Dr. Freeman, short week makes it very unlikely. Jordan Howard, a stinger issue, when a nerve doesn't wake up in seconds or minutes, once it gets to weeks, it's unpredictable. It becomes a very slow sunrise as opposed to a light switch coming on. So Jordan Howard, I think, is still quite iffy. James Conner, just by timeline and based on what's happened and the re-aggravation is probably another week.

Of course, things can change later in the week, but if I had, I'll say this way more likely to have all three, not play than to have all three play. That's kind of where that is. And it's possible that, you know,

none of them play, but it's probably not possible that all of them play. Okay. Did you notice any quarterback injuries? I mean, Carson Wentz has a bruised hand, and Dwayne Haskin played with a wrist injury. Not sure if you noticed anything else. And what about those two guys? Are they going to be hampered by their injuries?

I don't think so. I mean, I get a kick out of people saying Carson Wentz is injury prone, right? I mean, it's like he, he, there was a fumble on the exchange between him and Miles Sanders because the entire right side of the offensive line collapsed because Lane Johnson was out with concussion and Brandon Brooks had his illness slash anxiety issues. And Carson Wentz does a good job of chasing down the D lineman of the big old 300 pounder to tackle him and gets a bruise or sprain of his hand. I mean, how can, how can you blame the guy? And he finished the game. So,

uh, I don't think there'll be much of an issue there. He'll be fine. Haskins, the risky issue issue was fine. And, and we all know that, uh,

he wasn't, uh, injured or out for the last kneel down. I think there were some selfies involved there. There were, yes. And so Jameis Winston made it through with his ankle. Deshaun Watson on

Thursday was playing through a high ankle sprain. He made it through. Matt Stafford is probably still a couple weeks away with his more than transverse process fractures. And, you know, Patrick Mahomes, fingers crossed still. You know, he's still not going to be 100 percent, still at slightly increased risk to re-injure that knee. So let's hope that doesn't happen.

We're going to see Tyreek Hill. They seem to be optimistic that Tyreek Hill will be back. Yeah. You know, everyone's always optimistic, right? That's the name of the game. And I don't know. I mean, the bye week helps, obviously, but you have to understand, and this is what I think what we try and do differently at the website and on Twitter. I don't treat every hamstring injury the same. A hamstring injury on Tyreek Hill, even though it was mild, even though I believe it was mild, because I think he was on the sideline in Mexico City, still able to play as an emergency guy.

He was still in uniform in the whole deal, although he didn't have a helmet on. And with the bye week, he does have a chance to play. Is it a guarantee? I'm not sure. The type of athlete he is, the speed burner he is, the fast twitch fiber guy that he is, he puts more strain on the hamstring. And what the Chiefs don't want is to bring him back a game too early, get an aggravation, and then lose him for another three to four weeks. No offense here, Adam Thielen, and we can talk about Adam Thielen there and his setback from hamstring.

The Chiefs don't want that. So if it's borderline at all, I think there's a propensity to have him out one more week just to know that you have him for the rest of the playoff run going forward for the rest of December here. So that's something to consider too. That's why I'm still iffy on Tyreek Hill playing. And I wanted to ask you a couple of questions that I

don't normally ask you, but you actually mentioned it with Carson Wentz. You said people say he's injury prone. This is something that really comes up a lot during fantasy draft season. Is this player injury prone? Do you think that's a real thing? Are some players injury prone? Well, some players get more injuries than others. And from a medical definition, I would not say Carson Wentz is more injury prone. And I think it's the rare person that really is injury prone. I mean, Tyler Eifert gets an injury prone label in terms of fantasy,

but he's had traumatic injuries in terms of what happens. And, you know, I don't like injury-prone. It makes the guy seem like he's soft. I suppose if he always gets hamstring strains and he's always getting them across years and they're related injuries, maybe then you assign an injury-prone. But for Carson Wentz, he was tackling the defensive linemen. And if you go back to his history, he was out running the ball

when he tore his ACL-LCL and stayed in the game and threw a touchdown pass against the Rams in December two years ago. And then he came back early from the multiligament injury and, if anything, too early and then aggravated his back and is out. So I don't think he's injury prone. I think it's how tough he is and how he's trying to play through. Meanwhile, good old Phillip Rivers has a 200-plus game starting streak and is not injury prone.

He's tough too. He's had his injuries and he's played through. But because he gets rid of the ball and he's not running around like Carson Wentz, perhaps he has fewer exposures. Let's say Will Fuller. Sorry to interrupt you, but next year when we draft Will Fuller, we're going to say, look, he's probably going to miss time. Is that fair, or has it just been fluky?

Look, if Will Fuller drops in the draft next year, I think he could be a bargain. Let's look at all the people who stayed away from Dalvin Cook this year. Will Fuller and Dalvin Cook are different players, but Dalvin Cook was my pick to be a stellar guy this year in terms of performance because a lot of people were down on Dalvin Cook because he tore his ACL, destroyed that year. And some people stayed faithful and said,

all right, Dalvin Cook. But he got a compensatory injury. Not everyone is as lucky as Adrian Peterson, no big deal in recovery. A compensatory injury that, quite honestly, Mike Zimmer first called a cramp, and then later admitted it was a hamstring. And so the recovery from his ACL

and then the hamstring kind of ruined last year for him. And this year he's a beast. Will Fuller has a similar situation coming off the ACL and now the hamstring compensatory injuries. I look at Darius Geis. I was down on Darius Geis to start this year, given his multiple cleanup surgeries from infection in the ACL. I said I wasn't sure he would have a good year at all. And indeed, he got an injury on the other knee and then went on injury reserve. So those are guys that Fuller and Geist can be guys that have a bounce back next year. So no, I would not label them as injury prone. All right.

And do you think that Tua Tagovailoa is going to be a first round pick? Let's say your team was interested in drafting Tua, and he's coming off his hip surgery. What kind of process are we going through here? What would you recommend? What's the outlook look like for him? Well, first of all, for Tua, you've got to understand, first of all, when I was in the NFL, I gave all the medical grades, and it was the GM's job to decide.

But I do have an idea of what they think. I do, unless a vascular necrosis crops up, I do think he will be still a first-round pick. Maybe not at the very top of the draft. It remains to be seen. All this conjecture is all for naught because the teams are going to have to evaluate him medically at the combines. And until they do that, no one's going to know for sure. It's all conjecture is all for naught because the teams are going to have to evaluate him medically at the combines. And until they do that, no one's going to know for sure.

It's all conjecture. But here's why I believe he still has a chance to be drafted fairly high. Number one, first and foremost, this is a quarterback league. So if you're a team like the Dolphins in need of a quarterback and you have three first-round picks, I think everyone would have to be shocked if two over available by the time of their third first round pick that they wouldn't try and take him. Right.

So I think there's a stop loss there in the first round for Tua. In addition to it being a quarterback league, think about this. Tua is incredible. Like if he doesn't get any vascular necrosis, let's say he's slower now or because of early arthritis or his hip isn't fully recovered and he's a little bit slower. Tua, five or 10% slower, is still faster and more athletic than perhaps the entire league at quarterback except for Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson, maybe. So because he's that good of a player, he's not going to fall that far. And he's not a pure runner. He can throw the ball too.

Now, if you're saying this injury was on a defensive back or something, then I might say, ooh, that's a harder, and he was a first round defensive back. I think this injury would have him falling out of the first round for sure. But because he's a quarterback, and for some of the reasons I've set out, no, I don't think he's going to fall out of the first round. And by the way, it makes no sense for him to go back to school, even if he is drafted low in the first round because of the risk of further injury in college. And why not rehab and get better on payroll on someone dying? And remember, the big money comes after the first contract is over in the second contract. So you want to burn those years before you get more arthritis on your hips. So two was done in Alabama, and I do think he still will be in the first round

somewhere. All right, Dr. David Chow. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Pro Football Doc at Pro Football Doc on Twitter, profootballdoc.com, and check out his podcast. all right dr david chow thanks for your time thank you pro football doc at pro football doc on twitter profootballdoc.com and check out his podcast with will brinson today and let's talk to will and chris right now oh here we go baby let's talk about well we don't really talk about stats anymore chris towers what happened You were supposed to be the stat guy. You changed the format midstream. We can talk about stats, though, Adam. Do you want to talk about stats? I have a great stat.

30 to 24 is a great stat. Oh, God. Please, no. I have a better stat that doesn't involve crappy college football teams. I was going to ask you, actually, to change my intro music to the FIU theme song since the Florida International University Golden Panthers demolished Adam's beloved Miami Hurricanes this week. Did you go to the game? Did you go to the game?

I live in New York, man. Oh, yeah. You should know this by now. Wait, Will. You don't get to ask a question until I play your intro music, okay? I want the FIU theme, too. It's beautiful. Will Brinson, ladies and gentlemen.

It's a beautiful day to have Will Brinson on. And when he's part of your life, it's a beautiful life. Were you an ace of base, guy? I never met Will. Will Brinson, come on down. How's it going, Will? Very excited. Huge week.

Not in fantasy for me, per se. I think I lost a lot of leagues, but I'm like, or like I probably fell out of the hunt for the playoffs, but went 12-3 against the spread. Nice. Received this week. That's strong. Went 6-1 on my best bets for the Pick 6 podcast.

RJ White is 5-0, pending the Ravens on Monday night. So you should go listen to the Pick 6 podcast every Friday. We have a pick show. We'll do pick every game against the spread. Pete Prisco, don't listen to him. He went 1-5 this week. But that makes it even better. And I think that's it.

By the way, not only did Miami lose to FIU, they also lost to Florida. And UConn in basketball. Yeah, so it was a bad week. The Giants lost. The Knicks lost twice. They lost to their crosstown rivals. They got blown out on Saturday by the Spurs,

who were on a six or eight game losing streak or something like that. So, yeah, all of my teams are terrible and my fantasy teams didn't do that well. You love to see it. I'll top you though. This seems like an impossible stat, but it's actually true. Last week, from Monday to Thursday,

NC State quarterbacks went 0-3. How does that happen? In the NFL. Two NFL, one college. And one of them didn't play, and luckily he didn't throw four interceptions at Phillip Rivers. All right, so let's talk football here. The stat I wanted to give was about Tevin Coleman.

We're going to talk about the 49ers offense. Tevin Coleman, he had that game, 11 carries, 105 yards, and three touchdowns against the Panthers. But since that game, four games, he has 44 carries, and four of them, four out of 44, have gone for more than five yards.

That's insane. He has one carry in his last 44 of more than 11 yards. So we'll talk about him, but let's talk about the Packers first. How much confidence do you have in the Green Bay offense going forward? Chris, you get the first word. I didn't particularly have a ton of confidence in them coming into the season. Aaron Rodgers isn't the guy that he once was.

And whether that's because he doesn't have a viable number two wide receiver because Geronimo Allison and Marcus Valdes. What's that? That's it right there. My goodness, does he need a number two wide receiver. That team is starving for a number two wide receiver. He's not going to get it this year. But there was a point when it didn't matter

who the wide receivers for this offense were. It seemed like every year he was pulling some guy out of obscurity and turning them into a viable option. You know, I I'm blanking on, uh, who was the guy that had 14 touchdowns and like 700 yards. Yeah. James Jones. Like we, there was a point when if Aaron Rogers was the quarterback for the green Bay Packers for 16 games, there was going to be a top five fantasy wide receiver. And there's probably going to be another top 15 guy. And it didn't really matter what they invested in them. It's not like, you you know they've invested so much more in their wide receiving

core eight years ago than they have now i just don't think you know maybe it's the scheme maybe it really is the talent but for whatever reason aaron rogers just isn't at a place where he is capable of being that hyper efficient guy that just lifts all boats okay um well so what i noticed well i'll throw it to you in a second. Let me just give you this. What I noticed about Rodgers is he's been very matchup dependent. When he's had a good matchup, he's done pretty well. He's had bad games against teams that currently rank second, fourth, fifth,

eighth, ninth, twelfth, and sixteenth against quarterbacks. He's had good games against the Eagles, who are thirteenth, but they were pretty bad back then. And then teams that rank twenty-first, twenty-sixth, andth against quarterbacks. He's had good games against the Eagles, who are 13th, but they were pretty bad back then. And then teams that rank 21st, 26th, and 29th against quarterbacks. And ironically, Devontae Adams missed three of his four good games, Rodgers' good games. His remaining schedule, he's got two good matchups and then two that probably aren't so great.

I don't know, but Giants, Redskins, then the Bears, and then the Vikings. They're currently 16th against quarterbacks. They're an iffy matchup. And then week 17 is the Lions, which would be good if you play in week 17. How much faith do you have in the Packers offense? Not just Aaron Rodgers, by the way. Aaron Jones is getting 13 carries at most per game.

And he's had one catch in three games since Devontae Adams has returned. Yeah, go ahead. So I want to ask you something. What are the two worst games for Aaron Rogers this year? Fantasy point wise or just worst games? I both probably. Well, the last three games have been really bad.

That would be the chargers. And then last night I'd say, all right, now I'm going to ask you something else. Who is the chargers defensive coordinator? Who is the chart? I don't know. Gus Bradley is the answer.

Where did Gus Bradley come from? Seattle. Who is the 49ers defensive coordinator? Robert Sala. Where did Robert Sala come from? Seattle. Aha! A little onto something.

And they both use their pass rushers. And they both have Bosa brothers, by the way, on their pass rushing teams. But it looks like Aaron Rodgers may just struggle with this sort of zone type of approach that Seattle defensive coordinators use. Now, I don't know that there's a whole lot of history, and I haven't had a chance to dive into it, whether or not Aaron Rodgers sucks against the Seahawks over the course of his career. Obviously, he had that game, the conservative game, Mike McCarthy in the NFC Championship. I know he's beaten them in Green Bay before, but I do think it's interesting that the two coordinators who really stifled this Matt LaFleur offense that Aaron Rodgers ran came from the same system and have elite pass rusher part helps too, and Brian Bulaga left. But I do think that's interesting. And I'm with you. I think Aaron Rodgers is not a guy that

you really want to play in a situation where he's going up against an elite defense. The Packers don't look, I think the Packers are sort of frauds. You know, you mentioned he was good when Devonta Adams was out and they were actually being a bit more inventive on offense. You know, they were using Aaron Jones, especially on downfield routes, and then that was a big part of why Aaron Jones was playing so well, and it was a big part of why he's got eight touchdowns to Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams this season passing. So I would like to see them get those guys involved more,

be more inventive, and take some chances. That's the one thing with Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, he doesn't turn the ball over ever, but he also just doesn't seem to really take any chances anymore. You got to take some risks to be a great quarterback in the NFL. How much faith do we have

in... I'm sure everyone's going to start Devontae Adams. He's got double-digit targets in three straight games, seven catches in three straight games. The yards will go up as the matchups get better. But Aaron Jones, completely uninvolved in the passing game. Now, Jamal Williams had almost all of his rushing work on the final drive of the game. He had seven carries on the final drive of the game. And in the total, he had, sorry, 11 carries for 45 yards. And most of that came in the final drive of the game. And in the total, he had 11 carries for 45 yards. And most of that came in the last drive.

But he did have seven catches. But anyway, Aaron Jones. Is he still a must-start running back, Will? Yes. Chris. There probably aren't enough other must-start running backs to make it so that you're sitting him.

But I mean, am I starting him definitely over Ronald Jones next week? I don't know. I'm going to have to take a long look at that. Okay. Next week. Is that the giants? By the way,

for the, um, for the immediate, yes. Is that there's just not enough depth at the position where you're going to think about benching him. And, but he's

averaging 54 rushing yards per game over the last six games he has one game with a rushing touchdown and you know he was doing a lot through the air but as soon as Aaron Devante Adams came back he's got four targets in three games right yeah all right well uh it seems like we're gonna have perhaps more faith in the 49ers offense than the Packers offense going forward. How much faith do you have in the 49ers offense? Tell me after I tell you about Little Caesars. Have you ordered a pizza online from Little Caesars yet? If not, you're missing out on Pizza Portal Pickup.

What is Pizza Portal Pickup? It's like getting a pizza right out of the oven yourself. You walk in. You enter a code on the portal. A door opens, and you're off with your favorite pizza. And whatever pizza you're going to order, it's going to have crazy, crazy amounts of toppings. It's fun.

Give it a try, but it's only available at Little Caesars Pizza Pizza. All right, Will. So Jimmy Garoppolo, 22 fantasy points, his best total in a game that wasn't against the Bengals or Cardinals, and he only threw the ball 20 times. They actually didn't really have the ball that much in this game. Green Bay had the ball for more than 35 minutes. San Fran for less than 25

minutes. But unfortunately, they got the Ravens coming up. But in general, how are you feeling about this Niners defense? Offense, pardon me. Okay. I still don't think that Jimmy Garoppolo had a very nice

game. I don't want to come with a takeout, the George Kittle touchdown cause it's a 61 yard touchdown and you know, he, he threw it and it was wide open. And George Kittle does that. He still has George Kittle. Yeah. And yeah, right. It's not like it's going away. Um, but like they so thoroughly dominated the Packers that he didn't really need to have that.

Like that kill shot wasn't a necessary play for the 49ers. You know, they could have they could have won 17 to 8 if they wanted to. So I guess when I look at Jimmy Garoppolo, I see a quarterback who has had huge numbers against the Cardinals, who he's played twice and obviously won't play again. And then the guy who other than that, you know, outside of this nice performance, a couple of nice performances on, on primetime has been really up and down. And so I don't know if I want to buy in Kittle is still the gold standard for tight ends that maybe Kelsey, whatever Kittle's awesome. You're starting him a Debo Samuel, I think flashed enough. You're a little with Manuel Sanders coming back that he might lose some target share, but of course he still got that touchdown run and

looked awesome doing that. I mean, that's 103 of Jimmy Garoppolo's passing yards right there, guys, like on those two runs by Kittle and Debo. So I'm a little hesitant to buy in, especially given that the running game I didn't think was that great. No. Coleman is killing them.

That's the guy that they need to stop giving the ball to Tevin Coleman. He is not as good right now. I don't know if he's playing hurt or what, but it's just face facts here. He has been bad for four games in a row. It is time to get Raheem Mostert or Matt Breida more carries here. By the way, you talk about those two big plays. I talked about this when we previewed the game on Friday. They came into the game. Green Bay had given up the second most 40-plus-yard pass plays in the

NFL, and San Francisco had the third fewest 40-plus-yard pass plays in the NFL. And then they had two touchdowns to Debo and Kittle that were more than 40 yards. So that is a huge Achilles heel for the Packers, and maybe that's why Garoppolo was able to have that success. Chris, your take on the offense? I think they have one must-start guy. I think George Kittle's a must-start guy, and I don't think anybody else here is. I don't think Tevin Coleman is. Does he have more than a dozen carries in any game in the last six?

He's right around there most games. Yeah, it doesn't matter whether Matt Breida's not. I think Matt Breida's just a better player, but we know Matt Breida, he's just not going to be able to hold up to a larger role. So, you know, whoever is available, whether it's Raheem Moster, whether it's Matt Breida, whether it's Jeff Wilson, um, you know, they're going to split work and no running back. I think you can, can count on for more than 15 touches in any given game. You know, Debo Samuel, it was great to see him get that big play, but he had two targets yesterday and now they only threw the ball 20 times. But

even then that's a 10% target share. Emmanuel Sanders coming back. We just don't know with Emmanuel Sanders and Debo Samuel how they're going to split those targets. They don't really need to throw the ball a ton most games. I think George Kittle is an absolute must start top two option at the position. I think there's probably a bit of a drop-off after him. But beyond that, I don't think there's anybody here that I look at every week and say, I never have to think about whether I'm starting them. That's how I felt about Coleman, but I think you have to reevaluate even though he did score. But he has five straight games with nine to 12 carries, four straight games with 40 or fewer rushing yards, and he usually gets two catches. he's getting 14 touches 12 carries against the ravens i don't think he's gonna have a very good

game that's their opponent he does get nearly all of the that green zone work as ben gratch calls it that's the one thing he's had going for him all year we saw that turned into a four touchdown game yeah and well although oddly enough like his touchdown game, most of them were from far away against the Panthers. Like he, those were long touchdowns of that huge game. He had, um, his,

uh, you know, Falcons week 15. What you're hoping for is that if you're a Coleman owner, you're hoping for no Brita in that game, right? I mean, like that's what you want.

He, I don't love Raven saints or Rams as the other three matchups over the next four fantasy weeks at all. And that, that touchdown that he had last night was only because of that fumble by Aaron Rodgers. He barely got in. He got so lucky to get in.

What a disaster night for Tevin Coleman. Right, but it wasn't even an impressive touchdown. He had to get pushed in where Mostert exploded into the end zone. After Tevin Coleman plotted along on that final drive, they give the ball to Mostert, and he looked much, much better. So I just, he might not be healthy, but he certainly hasn't been as good. All right. Next topic

is about the Raiders offense. Do is from Jeff Nelson. Do we need to get away from the Raiders moving forward? And you got to check the weather because Derek Carr cannot play when it's less than 50 degrees and at Kansas City next week. But in general, Will, are you fading the Raiders offense after this 34-3 loss at the Jets? No, I don't think so. Look, again, I said at the beginning of the show that I did really well in my picks. One of the things I said to Hammer was the Jets money line and the Jets plus three I love the Jets in this spot and I thought part of the reason why I was you can't you know sort of a

look ahead game for the Raiders knowing they had Kansas City the next week coming off a big win going to the east coast early start time bad weather but more importantly the Jets are really good against the run they stopped the run they're a top five rush defense. And I w I was pretty convinced that the Raiders would try to run anyway. And that Derek Carr, because he doesn't do this, wouldn't challenge anything vertically. He just doesn't throw vertically. He has, if he has a hard, a high yards per attempt number, it's because, uh, you know, he's, his guys are getting yak. It's not because he's throwing it down the field. So I was very bearish on the Raiders in this game. I do think they have a nice bounce back spot against a bad Kansas City defense.

Although, as you may know, if you ever listened to the Pick 6 podcast back when Nick Kostas was on, Andy Reid, off the bye. Andy Reid, off the bye. I think the Chiefs will probably win pretty handily that would be my one concern if i'm starting you know you're not you're not not starting josh jacobs but there's concern because he is one of the most game flow dependent running backs in the nfl he you know when they went on this streak where they won you know four games out of six and you know i think the one game they lost was to the Texans by three, and then they lost by 20 or 18 to the Packers.

He was between, you know, 60 and 70% snap share in all those games and was getting a ton of work, was averaging 20 carries per game in that stretch. But when they lose and when they go down early, he just doesn't get on the field. They're more than happy to have Jalen Rashard and DeAndre Washington out there. Jalen Rashard, Kansas City looks like a great matchup. They give up a ton of fantasy points to running backs. If they go up, if the Chiefs go up by two touchdowns, Josh Jacobs may not see the field. I think he had a 38% snap share yesterday.

It was his lowest of the season. Yeah, all right. Well, I'm a little worried about tyra williams like he doesn't get a lot of carry a lot of targets and what was great about tyra williams was that in his first four games before the injury he had six red zone targets in four games that's that's pretty damn good and he had scored a touchdown in all four of those games since coming back he's played five games since returning from the injury. He doesn't have one red zone target. Hunter Renfro is getting involved there.

More than 50 yards in three games so far this season. Right, right. But we know how it is. They were really just throwing to Waller and Williams. Now it's Moreau. It's Renfro. Tyra Williams, five games in a row without a red zone target. He has one touchdown in those games,

and it was a 46 yard catch at Houston. So yeah, I don't think you can be super confident in him at Kansas city, then Tennessee, then Jacksonville, then at the chargers. It's not then at Denver in week 17, it's really not a great schedule. So no, I think he's a, uh, a number three wide receiver, but not someone that I'm locking in my, my lineup every week. Tyra Williams. I mean, part of the concern, look, I don't think the Raiders are going to fall apart and lose every single game the rest of the way.

It'd be awesome because I have their season win total under at six and a half. You're a degenerate gambler, Will, or just like a casual gambler? Pretty obviously, yes. I just want to bet on the Yale under during the day. Anytime you can sweat out an a.m. Monday morning college basketball game on the week of Thanksgiving, you got to get on it. Wow.

Yeah. So a drunk and a degenerate. It's a great combo. Just kidding. But with Tyrell Williams. Will you get sober and stop gambling and talk about Tyrell Williams already? I'm dead sober. This is the fourth podcast I've done today.

I did David Chow's podcast before. I'm doing Bill Barnwell's show. I've got to do my own podcast. Anyway, Tyrell Williams, here's the point. When he jumped on with the Raiders, we all believed that once Antonio Brown left, the Raiders are effed because they were going to have their number one wide receiver be mostly a guy who's mostly a deep threat.

And that's what he is. And Derek Hart doesn't throw deep. Like the skill set of Tyrell Williams and the skill set of Derek Hart don't match up. And it's finally showing itself and becoming true. Now, look, he might have a good game against the Chiefs because their defense isn't very good. And maybe he has a couple more good games. But yeah, I'm with Chris. I think he's more of a wide receiver three.

And you're hoping for the upside that'll pop. But you have to realize the doubt. You have to make a very conscientious decision about floor versus ceiling when you roll Tyrell Williams out there. All right, cool. So we got two more topics. We're going to give you DSTs that can help you now and into the

playoffs. The Eagles, that's the answer, by the way. You should go heavy on them on your waiver wire if you need a DST. They're playing great, and their next three games are the Dolphins, Giants, and Redskins. I found another one for you. Hold on. We're almost there. That was a tease. That was a teaser.

That's what they call it in the biz. He's done four podcasts today. You'd think he would know by now how to do a tease but you know he's we'll get there um but first we gotta tell you about SeatGeek all right because SeatGeek is uh just the best app to find tickets so if Chris wanted to be a real fan and go home to Florida to Miami to see the game which was a big game if he had any faith in his team he would have gone on SeatGeek and he would have found tickets, and they probably would have been pretty inexpensive because it's FIU in Miami. And he would have gone to the game. He would have gotten his tickets right there on his phone.

And SeatGeek pulls in tickets from all over the web, millions of tickets from all over the web. It rates each deal on a scale of 1 to 10 and displays the seats on an interactive seat map, and you get to see where the best value is, where the lowest prices are, if you just want to get in the stadium and pay the least amount that you can. You can see that without any fees.

I love that. There are no sneaky fees. You just put on a setting and see all the fees right there, and every purchase is fully guaranteed. And you know I use SeatGeek all the time. I tell you that all the time. I'm going to be using them next month to go to a basketball game at Barclays Center.

So join me and get on SeatGeek right now and use our promo code FFT for $10 off your first purchase. Again, the promo code is FFT on SeatGeek. $10 off your first purchase. This is a little early holiday present for you. $10 from SeatGeek off your first purchase with the promo code FFT. All right. So before we get into the DSTs, we have a question from Alex.

Handcuff situations and which middling players are droppable when it comes to acquiring handcuffs? Curtis Samuel, Mike Williams, Carson Wentz, Aaron Rodgers, etc. This is a good topic here because, you know, you're consolidating your roster a little bit. The bye weeks are over. Do you need Curtis Samuel? Do you need Mikeiams or should you just get tony pollard and maybe even wayne gallman uh what's what is there a general rule chris that you would advise

here yeah ben gratch actually wrote a really good piece about this a couple weeks ago i'll probably go ahead and and and republish that so people can find it on cbs sports.com slash fantasy uh but basically yeah it was making the argument that at this point in the season now that the bye weeks are done and you don't really need the depth like you know yeah you want to insure yourself against injury but for the most part you want guys who if they get a chance are going to be really really valuable so alexander madison tony pollard wayneman, I guess. Do we think Mike Davis is the primary backup to Christian McCaffrey as a Reggie Bonifan? Whatever the case

may be, you want a guy who's going to be in an offense that's going to run the ball and who, you know, there's not a lot of high impact backups. They're backups for a reason, but Rashad Penny, obviously we saw this week. If Chris Carson really does lose his grip on that job, he's a guy who can make a really big difference. I'm going to lose my mind over Rashad Penny. I held on to that guy all the way. I'm the only person who owned him coming into this.

Coming out of week 11, I finally dropped him and he goes off. Of course he's going to win leagues for everybody. God, I hate my life. and he goes off. Of course he's going to win leagues for everybody. God, I hate my life. Well, I don't know that he's going to win. Obviously, this is a topic for Tuesday's show, but I think for Penny, it could just be a messy situation. Do you think he's going to overtake Chris Carson? I don't think they're going to just remove Chris Carson. I don't even know that they're going to take carries away from Chris Carson.

I haven't seen anything today from Pete Carroll. He had a quote, Pete Carroll, competition is a beautiful thing. No reason not to get Penny back in there next week. We'll get those guys hammering away. He also said Chris Carson's really important to what we do. You can't listen to the words that Pete Carroll uses and take anything out of them.

He is the least reliable head coach in terms of the quotes that he gives to the media. I would also say that, too, that Chris Carson, with 208 carries through 11 games, I mean, obviously tracking for a career high in carries at this point, and you have to wonder, he's a full 1.3 attempts per game more over what his average was last year through those 12 games. You have to wonder if the Seahawks don't sort of see where they are and wouldn't like to have more of a committee going into the final month of the season. So maybe they can ramp Carson back up for

the playoffs. Cause we know we, we saw him in Dallas last year. They're going to run the ball. They don't give a crap. They are the ball, no matter if it's effective or not, especially in the post season. So I would, I would maybe look at this as perhaps they're trying to sort of save Chris Carson's legs and keep him healthy for the postseason. All right, our final question comes from Philly Special. Which defenses should we pick up now for the fantasy playoffs? And before we go into that, I just want to remind you about our Apple Podcast mailbag.

If you leave us a question, it's a good time to do it because we have our Wednesday show. We're going to preview the three Thanksgivinggiving games so we'll read your questions if you have any thanksgiving game questions we'll answer them on the wednesday show you can leave them as an apple podcast review give us a five-star rating leave us a kind review it'll be very helpful and we'll try to read your questions all right so the the eagles stand out to me they've been really good lately and their next three games as i mentioned mentioned, are against the Dolphins, Giants, and Redskins.

And then they get Dallas in week 16, so you're not going to use them there. But Giants again in week 17 if you play into week 17. So if you play into week 17, four of the Eagles' next five matchups are against teams that are 29th or worse against DSTs.

Will, what was the other team that you had in mind? The New York football Jets. Giants. Jets. The Jets for week 13, I think, are a nice pickup, obviously. They have the Dolphins in week 14. Yeah, they got the Bengals and the Dolphins next, and then the Steelers in week 16.

But that was sort of my point, is that the Giants get the Dolphins in week 15, and then they get the Redskins in week 16. Now, I don't think that the Giants are a good defense. Oh, you don't? Yeah. The Giants are just trash in general. The only way to improve them, frankly, is to hire Jason Garrett.

So they need to do that. Yes, I saw that report. I'm a horrible person. But I do think that there's something to be said for the idea of, okay, I don't have a good defense that I'm utilizing right now. I don't trust the matchups that my defense has going into the playoffs. I'm going to gamble on the Giants getting two just choice matchups. And I'm going to hope they take a fumble to the house or take an interception to the house and it's not that crazy a notion

that they could do it with those bad matchups here's uh here's something that you'll have to keep in mind we were talking about playoff stashes and and whether you need those depth guys on your bench if you've been riding the patriots defense they've've got the Bengals and the Bills in weeks 15 and 16 and could absolutely win you a championship. They've got the Texans on the road and then the Chiefs in weeks 13 and 14. Maybe you can start them against the Texans because Deshaun Watson hasn't been great. I don't think there's any way I'm starting them against Patrick Holmes.

I don't care that it's the Patriots defense. The offense is still going to dictate the terms of that matchup. You're going to have to go out and get, you know, the Chargers have the Jaguars in week 14. Maybe you go and get them. Maybe you go and get the Jets who have the Dolphins that you're really going to have the Packers have Washington. The Browns have the Bengals in week 14. If you've been relying on the Patriots, they've been a huge part of your success so far. And you may not be able to rely on them in week, they've been a huge part of your success so far, and you may not be able to rely on them in week 14 if that's the first week

of your playoffs. I'll give a few more names. The Packers, their next two games, well, the next three games are great. The Packers, they haven't been very good lately as a DST, but they've got the Giants, Redskins, and Bears coming up. Eagles, as I mentioned, they're my absolute favorite.

Dolphins, Giants, Redskins coming up. Then Cowboys in Week 16. We'll worry about that then. The Cowboys themselves have the Bills, the Bears, the Rams. Those are their next three games. Bills, Bears, and Rams. That's okay. The Jets, I like a lot, have the Bengals and the Dolphins.

Then you will sit them against the Ravens. And then the Steelers in week 16. So that could be great. So that's three of their last four games going into week 16 for the Jets are really good matchups. And the Jets DST has been awesome three weeks in a row against the Giants, the Redskins and the Raiders. I don't really, really trust them. Like that's why the Eagles to me are a much better defense than the Jets. So that's why they're far and away number one. But Packers, Eagles,

Cowboys, and Jets are the four teams that have matchups you can use this week and matchups that you could use going forward to me. I also think, too, with some of those middling defenses, and the Eagles have definitely been better, so I don't know if they qualify, but with some of those middling defenses, and the Eagles have definitely been better, so I don't know if they qualify,

but with some of those middling defenses, I would worry more about streaming the best option that you have each week rather than trying to plan out for the long haul because we don't know what injuries are going to happen. We don't know who's going to sit what players in weeks 15 and 16. The Bengals, the second they benched Andy Dalton for Ryan Finley became a vastly more delightful stream, the team you want to stream against.

And so I would sort of, if I had an elite defense, I'd roll with it. If I had a team with a great playoff matchup, I'd stash it. Otherwise, I'd probably just stream week to week and try and use waivers because you're only fighting against three or four people. Okay, guys.

Thank you. Good show. I just got a notification on my iPad for a CNN article that says something like this. People in this city live eight to ten years longer than the average American. Do you want to know where it is? Where is it? Loma Linda, California. Good.

Eight to ten more years on your life, everybody. And you can listen to this show on your morning commute because it's going to be out like really, really early for you. Three hours earlier. We'll talk about that. Will Brinson, Chris Towers,

for all of our friends in Loma Linda and around the country and the world, I'm Adam Azer and we'll talk to you tomorrow with The Waverly.