Fantasy Football Today - 12/17 Fantasy Football Podcast: Week 15 Recap - On to the Championship!

Episode Date: December 18, 2017

We hope you're on to your league Finals, but if you're not let's commiserate together! We go through the big news before discussing the MegaDuds of Week 15 (6:08) like every Seahawk, A.J. Green, Alex Collins and more ... Discussing the top QBs (15:00), RBs (17:34), WRs (19:40) and TEs (21:24) from Week 15 ... Winners (25:00) including Greg Olsen and Nick Foles and losers (29:21) including Jordy Nelson and Ben Roethlisberger. Then we recap every game with our Fantasy takes (44:00) ... 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 fantasyfootball at cbsi.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. Alright, here we go. Hope you're on to your fantasy finals,

or if you're playing into Week 17, fantasy semifinals. And by the way, we are podcasting through Week 17 and all into the offseason, twice a week during the offseason. Welcome to the show. It's the Sunday Recap. Adam Azer with Jamie Eisenberg with Heath Cummings. Okay, guys, how you doing? How's Week 15 treating you? I have no fingernails left. I'll tell you what. I was sweating out the end of the Steelers-Patriots game because overtime would have potentially killed me. Because Brady, I was playing against Brady.

I was up by nine. And I just saw Brady to Gronk touchdown for 30 yards. That would have, or for, he would have gotten nine points somehow. I would have lost. Oh, yeah, for sure. He would have gotten it. No doubt. Yep. Yeah, I had a moment last night on the radio show on Ion Fantasy Football

where I said, man, I really hope I'm not playing against Kareem Hunt. So I started checking my lineups on the air, and I saw I was playing against him in two leagues. I was like, oh, no, it's over. It was over before it even started. I had a deflating moment where I realized I was playing against Kareem Hunt and Tyreek Hill. You know, just like you see that on Thursday night or Saturday, whenever the case may be. You know, you're just like, man, it's just done.

Yeah. I mean, the Gurley owner, the Kareem Hunt. There's some big, big-time performances today, but Gurley and Kareem Hunt are probably the two that are going to steal the show. Of course, we still have Sunday night and Monday night to get to. Sunday night's underway. Monday night, of course, will be happening on Monday night. Anyway, I asked our listeners, which player will surprisingly lead you to victory this week? Somebody that was in their lineup that took over. They didn't expect it. So we got a lot of Marquise Goodwins, 10 catches for 114 yards. Aaron Donald in IDP.

He had three sacks. He had four quarterback hits. A lot of people said Mark Ingram's late 50 yard touchdown run. That was a nice one. Or, you know, depending on which side of the coin you're on. The Baltimore DST, the Minnesota DST. Sterling Shepard, guys, was a huge surprise

to me anyway. And we also had Tyrod Taylor in there with some nominations. I don't know who was starting Tyrod Taylor, but way to go. You did? I started Nick Foles. I started Nick Foles in two leagues. Yeah. No, Foles.

But you would have started Foles over Taylor, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it was just a matchup against the Giants that I thought Foles would have the chance to play well. He was much better than I anticipated with four touchdowns. Oh, yeah. It was huge. And Greg Olson, we also got a lot of votes for Greg Olson.

Nine catches, 116 yards, and a touchdown. Pretty cool. Anybody for you guys that surprisingly carried your teams? Like, oh, wow, I didn't expect him to go off. I'm going to win. Oh, in that same league. So the Scott Vishbow League, I started. You ready for this?

Yeah. Nick Foles, because it's a 2QB league, and I started Keelan Cole. Nice. Yes. That cole nice yes that's very nice yeah we go no it's uh at a time where um where where i lost antonio brown i didn't have kareem hunt i was just kind of scrambling so i'm like you know what keeling cole looks looks good with the matchup he's been playing better of late and expect uh keeling cole to outperform both mark easley and dd westbrook no he's bowl prediction on Sunday, which I thought was great, was Marquise Lee and D.D. Westbrook would both go over 100 yards in the touchdown.

And who would have thought that it was Keelan Cole and McKelvin, the two best Jaguars receivers. We should have thought that because that's kind of the way the whole season's gone. Yeah. Mickens. Jaden Mickens. Mickens, excuse me. Well, anyway, enough about that. How did I get him wrong? Let's get to the big news. You're right. Jaden Mickens, household name. I. Mickens, excuse me. Well, anyway, enough about that. How did I get him wrong?

Let's get to the big news. Right, Jaden Mickens, household name. I had him in the 30s. I'll tell you another funny thing just real quick. So a league that I just commissioned, I don't play in it, but I commissioned it for some friends. Somebody picked up, I don't even know how to pronounce his first name, Bird from the Panthers, Demir Bird.

Demir. And I'm assuming started them. I'll just pick them up? I would have been like, what? Am I missing something? Is Funchess out? That's a wild pickup. But, yeah, congratulations if you took a shot in the dark.

So Antonio Brown, we'll start with the big news. Antonio Brown left with a calf injury in the second quarter. And, you know, Roethlisberger had a 30-point game for a moment. And then the touchdown was overturned. Heath, you didn't make any friends in Pittsburgh this week? No, we were watching the review on Twitter with everyone else, and I was like, that's not a catch. It wasn't. It's a pretty clear rule when you're going to the ground and you catch the ball,

if the ball hits the ground and moves, and it didn't just move. One of his hands came entirely off the ball. It's terrible for Pittsburgh fans. I feel sympathy for them. That was awful. Yeah. They weren't happy with your brutal honesty. But it ended up being a 22-point day for Ben.

My wife can't understand the way they feel. Sure. Keenan Allen was carted off with a back injury on Saturday. Devontae Adams left with a concussion. Leonard Fournette expected back next week at San Francisco. Rex Burkhead left with a knee injury. Hunter Henry left with an injury.

He had only three catches for 28 yards. Marquise Lee, total dud, zero points, zero catches. He left very early in the game with an ankle injury, and Marquise Lee will have an MRI tomorrow. We did see Teddy Bridgewater come in in a blowout. That was nice to see. Promptly threw an interception. Theo Riddick, this actually didn't catch yesterday. I didn't notice this because I didn't see the first half.

But Theo Riddick, he had eight carries and three catches late in the second quarter. He fumbled, and he didn't get another touch the rest of the game, guys. So he was on his way. He got hurt. He got hurt on that play? Yeah. Okay, I just knew he fumbled. No, he got

hurt. Alright, well, there you go. So he was on his way to potentially a big game with 11 touches and a half. And we didn't see any more from Theo Riddick. Okay, and Aaron Rogers had his first three-interception game in eight years. So let's talk about the Mega Duds from Fantasy

Week 15 as we just ran through the news, and we'll obviously update you on everything on Tuesday. So some of the guys that I thought were just mega duds, what happened? Kerwin Williams also got hurt apparently too. Okay, thanks. Kerwin Williams hurt. There you go. Alex Collins, what happened to Alex Collins?

Oh, 12 carries for 19 yards and five catches for 33 yards against Cleveland? What? Jamie, your thoughts? They had one of the dumbest sequences of plays that I think I've seen in a long time. They had a first and goal from, I think, the two or the three. And it was throw, throw, run, run. They went for it on all four downs. And the fourth down run was they tried to bounce it to the outside

where it was so obvious that they were running to the outside. And so Cleveland just destroyed Alex Collins in that play. Yeah, but still, he was terrible. He was terrible. Yeah, typically. I don't know if that's all on him. I mean, it's just run on first down. 12 carries for 19 yards.

Yeah, but I'm just saying in that particular instance, if he scores, at least you get some reward out of it. Would have been nice. Yeah. That would have been nice. That was disappointing. I guess, you know, we're at a point in the season where it's like, what are we going to say? Sit him next week? No, of course not. You're going to start him against the Colts. How about this? I'll give you guys all the duds

and you tell me if there was anything that seems kind of worrisome to you or it was the matchup it was a bad week. So Alex Collins, AJ Green, Devin Funchess had one catch. He did drop a touchdown. He got clobbered on the play, but he dropped a touchdown. Doug Baldwin had one catch for six yards. Jimmy Graham had another game with zero points.

Just say Seattle. Seattle, dud. Yeah, I mean, at least 12 points for Wilson was dud, but not quite mega dud. But Seattle. No, that quite mega dud. But Seattle. No, that's mega dud. It's mega, like Dalton was a mega dud. No, but Dalton, you expect it to be a dud. Yeah.

This is worse. I would rather take Dalton's numbers than Wilson's numbers, because at least I expected Wilson to play well. Okay, Seattle. Carlos Hyde was a dud. 25 yards on the ground, 14 in the air. And Lamar Miller was a dud. 10, 11 touches, 33 yards.

Heath, did I say anything to you that really jumps out? I'm a little bit worried. This was the first game we've seen since Kelvin Benjamin left that Greg Olson looked like Greg Olson. And we kind of talked about how much is it going to hurt Devin Funchess once Greg Olson is back. Now, after the last two weeks, I think a lot of us have kind of decided Greg Olson wasn't necessarily going to be back this year. And he was definitely back in this game and got right back into the good graces of Cam Newton.

And listen, Devin Funchess cannot be a startable fantasy wide receiver on four targets a game. That's not going to work. He's not somebody that's efficient enough to do that. So he's probably going to get more than four next week, but it's concerning. Thankfully, it's a fantastic matchup next week. Do you think, though, that's because of Olsen or because he's not 100%? Because he didn't practice a lot this week. Yeah.

If he was 100%, would you feel nervous about him? Well, no, because the matchup is Tampa Bay. He might be able to be a good fantasy receiver against Tampa Bay on four targets. I just think that everybody's going to have a bad game every now and then. Clearly, we don't want to have it happen at this time of season. But I think a lot of that had to do with him being a little bit dinged up. Yeah, I mean, Jimmy Graham is interesting to me, guys, because he was so touchdown dependent before the last two games.

You know, he barely ever got you more than 50 yards. And I mean, if you got like 30 yards from Graham, it wasn't shocking. But he was scoring. He was scoring week after week after week, sometimes twice. Now, Jimmy Graham's last two games, he has one catch for like, I think he had negative one yards. I mean, he was terrible catch. I think he had negative one yards. I mean, he was terrible. So that's a little concerning to me.

And I expect him to bounce back. Yeah, he had one catch for negative one yards today. I was like, did I write a typo? Because that seems unrealistic. But that's what happened with Jimmy Graham. And those are his totals in the last two games. Another one of those awful situations where Russell Wilson threw a touchdown to a tight end. Yep. And it just wasn't Jimmy Graham.

So I'm worried about him next week because he's going on the road, and he's consistently been worse on the road since he's gotten to Seattle. But I just don't think it's really going to be an actionable thing. If you survived this week from Jimmy Graham, you're probably starting him again next week. Yep. Streaming tight ends isn't so good. And then Carlos Hyde. Jamie, what do you think about him? 16

carries for 25 yards. The Titans' run defense continues to be very good, but he's still, three games with Garoppolo, not very involved in the passing game. Five catches in those three games, and he'll face Jacksonville next week. It was fun while it lasted. You're not playing him next week.

Okay, fair enough. I mean, I have him in one league where I made it to the finals. I'm getting Elliot back, but I was hoping, you know, okay, if Hyde comes out of this game with at least a decent performance, I'll stick with him. I have to find now a second guy because I'll play Elliot and I have to find

a second running back. I'm not playing Carlos Hyde against the Jaguars. Can you guys believe the end of that Steelers game? Can you believe it? You can't make it up. It's like Bill Belichick sold his soul. I don't mean that as an insult, but it's just amazing the way they find ways to win. They are incredible. They are incredible.

But that was just wide open. You know, somebody said it in the green room when it happened that that sequence decided the Super Bowl. Yes, it did. It's over. I said, like, we don't have to watch football anymore. They got home field advantage. You know they're going to the Super Bowl. Like, nobody's beating them in Foxborough.

They could have fallen to the three seed. Behind Jacksonville? Behind Jacksonville. Yep. Oh, man. I just can't believe he dropped that ball. Dude, you're wide open. It's not only that.

The fact that Roethlisberger has the clock play and decides to throw it, and he throws that pass. No, but he should have. Well, he's not taking any blame for that. He came out after the game and said that he was going to spike it, but someone came over his helmet and told him not to spike it. Why would you spike it? If you spike it, it's fourth down.

It was third down when he did that. No, you kicked a field goal on fourth down. Just don't throw an interception. That's all. No, no, no. But that's what I'm saying. You either throw it in a spot where it's not going to have that play. Right.

Or you spike it and you just kick a field goal and you go to overtime. I don't know if you heard the broadcast, but that's what Tony Romo was saying. He said you can't throw that. Oh, he was screaming at him. You have to throw a fade. You have to throw a fade. You have to throw a fade. You cannot throw the ball in the middle of the field. There's just too much traffic.

Of course not. Yeah. Big mistake. They don't have Brown. You don't throw it to Eli Rogers. You throw it to Brian or Juju. Right. Well, maybe that was just a product of them sort of scrambling to get the playoff.

I don't know. But he was determined. He sat there. That's where he wanted to go. There were three defenders. It was a big mistake. But that was a good game. It wasn't such a great week. There were a lot of blowouts.

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That is promo code FFT for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. As we get into the leaderboard, here is your quote of the day. You've been watching film, huh? That's cool. Watch this. That is what Cam Newton said to a Packers defender right before he threw a touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey. It was basically the coolest thing that anyone's ever done on a football field. So here are your leaders at quarterback for Week 15. Cam Newton, 38 fantasy points.

First of all, was this a successful bonanza? Packers? How many bonanzas did you have? I picked three. Three? Yeah, I did, yeah. Well, I would say this one was, yes. Okay. So I probably went, maybe

two for three. Definitely not three for three. How do you pick a fifth of the games as Bonanzas? I was just feeling it, Heath. I felt bad about taking the week off last week. I was just feeling it. So now you're going to give yourself credit for two? I don't know.

You tell me. I'm going to give myself this game, but what about Patriot Steelers? No. No? Because of the Brown injury? The Burkhead injury? The Brown injury? Yeah, it was a bit of a jinx.

So Burkhead had six points. That doesn't count. Lewis was good. Brady wasn't. Brady was not good. Gronk was good. Cooks was good. Gronk, Cooks, Martavis, Juju, Ben, Bell.

That's a pretty good game. Yeah, you get that one. All right, yes! Two out of three. Two out of three. Two out of three. You can't get Antonio Brown and Rex Burkett hurt and get a Bonanza. What was the third one? The third one was the Seahawks game.

Yeah, that's not a Bonanza. Two and a half. So, you now owe four Bean Goozles. Alright, whatever. I'll throw them all up. Cam Newton, Nick Foles, Eli Manning. That was the real Bonanza, huh? Cam Newton, Nick Foles, Eli Manning. That was the real bonanza, huh? Cam Newton, Nick Foles, Eli Manning, Blake Bortles, and Brock Osweiler are your top five this week.

Cam, Foles, Eli, Bortles, and Osweiler. Heath, give me a reaction to the top five quarterbacks. Nick Foles looked a lot like Carson Wentz. Four touchdown passes, just 237 yards. I think there's no way he's going to be able to do that again, but I've been saying that for a while about Wentz. Four touchdown passes, just 237 yards. You'd think there's no way he's going to be able to do that again, but I've been saying that for a while about Wentz. So this offense just kept on moving. The defense was pretty terrible, but that's a good thing for Foles.

Yeah, it was pretty encouraging. Next week for the Eagles, don't tell me, it's Oakland at home. So I'm sure he'll be a start again, Nick Foles. It probably won't be this good of a matchup. The Giants are a total mess. The Raiders cross country is pretty bad. Yeah, it's bad. It's up there.

Bortles. I talked about this with Dave last night on the radio show. Is Blake Bortles legitimately becoming a good quarterback? Is he just a late bloomer? Is this somebody that we're actually going to be excited about next year? I'll reserve judgment next year just to see what they do with Allen Robinson because if they do get Robinson back, that makes it a very good receiving core with how Marquise Lee and D.D. Westbrook have looked.

But, I mean, for right now, you've got to buy into it. It's another game where he's looked good. And I think the nice thing about it is, you know, you see this with guys that don't have, like, a lead receiver. He's making these guys look good. Yeah. He's playing really well, and they've got some good talent around him. All right. Well, we'll reserve judgment on him.

By the way, I didn't see this report until just now. Antonio Brown is a partially torn calf. You guys probably knew that. It looks like he's going to be out for the rest of the regular season, but he is expected back for the postseason. Yeah, he's done. Top five running backs

for Fantasy Week 15. Todd Gurley, 41 fantasy points. Four touchdowns. Kareem Hunt, 32 fantasy points. Mark Ingram, 26. This is all in standard scoring. Kareem Hunt, 32 fantasy points. Mark Ingram, 26. This is all in standard scoring. Kareem Hunt also had seven catches.

Ingram had five. Melvin Gordon, 22. And then Le'Veon Bell and LaShawn McCoy, 21 fantasy points. So, you know, this week is kind of, I don't know, chalky with Gurley, Hunt, Ingram, Gordon, and Bell. Last week, your running back leaders were Bell, Jonathan Stewart, Rod Smith, Jordan Howard, Todd Gurley, Alex Collins, Jamal Williams, and LaShawn McCoy. It was a nice mix. You had Thiel Riddick up there.

You had Kenyon Drake. So this week was a lot more of like the guys that were must-start guys. All right, Heath, your reaction to the top five running backs? There are six who were tied for five spots. Gurley, Hunt, Ingram, right, Heath, your reaction to the top five running backs? There are six who are tied for five spots. Gurley, Hunt, Ingram, Gordon, Bell, McCoy. You pretty much said exactly what I was going to say. Usually we've got some guy we can pick out and try to take something from it and say, was this real, was it not?

This week we got the studs performing like studs. And that's nice for the guys that own them in the fantasy playoffs. I'll tell you what stands out to me. Wait, where's Melvin Gordon at now, Heath? like studs. And that's nice for the guys that own them in the fantasy playoffs. I'll tell you what stands out to me. Wait, where's Melvin Gordon at now, Heath? I don't think he moved into the top four. He was sixth coming into the week, but he finished behind three of the guys that were ahead of him.

And Le'Veon Bell, he was only one point ahead of. So if anything, I think he lost ground this week. I feel relatively confident that there will be no Crow Eaton. I'll tell you one thing, though, that does stand out, and this is something that you really have to look for in running backs now in this era of football. It's the receiving yards. Even in standard scoring leagues, the top 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 running backs had 28 or more receiving yards.

Seven of them had 35 or more receiving yards this week, and six of the top eight had 46 or more receiving yards this week. And six of the top eight had 46 or more receiving yards this week. So the versatility is really nice and just really important this day and age. All right, we go to the top five wide receivers. Jamie, I'll let you talk about this group. It's Keelan Cole, Sterling Shepard, Tavares King, Jaden Mickens, Michael Thomas, Rashard Matthews tied for fifth. Again, just so in case you fell out of your chair, Keelan Cole, Sterling Shepard, Tavares

King, Jaden Mickens, Michael Thomas, Rashard Matthews. Well, I don't know how anybody would not expect two Giants and two Jaguars to be the top four of the five receivers for this weekend. I guess a Titan as well. He did expect two Jaguars to be the top four or five receivers for this weekend. I guess a Titan as well. He did expect two Jaguars up there. I did. I don't think he expected top five. I don't know about that.

I mean, look, again, it's a credit to Blake Bortles. It's a credit to the matchup and the Texans being as bad as they are. And so I think if you're looking at it, if Marquise Lee is out, which it sounds like he might be next week, Keelan Cole's made some plays along the way the last few weeks for the Jaguars. And based on the game that he just had, you don't have Antonio Brown. He's available everywhere. So he could be at least a number three receiver for you next week against San Francisco.

Yep. Okay. I don't think we care much about the Giants guys, right? Cross-country trip going to Arizona next week. I mean, Shepard, okay, but definitely not Tavares King. No. Eli played great. You know, we always get that one Eli game against the Eagles, and he had it.

Yeah. Heath, I'm pretty encouraged by Rashard Matthews. It was nice to see the six catches, 95 yards, and a touchdown, and Mariota had one of his best games of the year. Yes, absolutely. He just continues to not get enough credit for what he is. Corey Davis did not take the job as Mariota's favorite wide receiver. He tried to. Mariota tried to give it to him a couple times, but Davis just isn't ready, and you have to expect Matthews to be the best Titans wide receiver the rest of the season.

Top five tight ends in Fantasy Week 15. We had, I knew this was going to obviously be a good week for, like to have Rob Gronkowski. Just, you know, you had Kelsey who had kind of a tough matchup. You had Ertz who was dealing with a backup quarterback. He still had a nice game. So it was like, gosh, I hope I'm not playing against Gronk. And sure enough, he's leading the way, nine catches, 168 yards,

and he had a two-point conversion. But Greg Olson's number two. Ben Watson, three. Richard Rodgers, four. Garrett Selick, who Dave, I think, had like around 15th, fifth with 12 fantasy points. Gronk, Olson, Watson, Richard Rodgers, and Garrett Selick. Jamie, what do you think about Watson, Rodgers, Selick?

Well, Watson, I mean, you just talk it up to the matchup, you know, playing the Browns. So I don't know how much stock you want to put into that. Rodgers is interesting because you remember last year when Jordy Nelson got hurt in the playoffs, Jared Cook was such a big part of the offense. And you wonder if Devontae Adams is out for an extended period of time if they lean on the tight end.

So that's somebody I would keep an eye on. And Selick, you know, let me look at the targets because I wonder what George Kill had because it seems like they're just involving both tight ends more since Jimmy Garoppolo has taken over. So Selick had three for three, three catches on three targets. And George Kittle actually had the better day. He just didn't score the touchdown.

He had four catches for 52 yards. So you take away the 41-yard catch for Selick and the touchdown, Kittle was more involved. Okay. You know the funny story about Ben Watson, right? Should I embarrass myself? Sure. I'm always interested.

I was playing Dave this week in one of our leagues, and I noticed on Wednesday night that he had picked up Trey Burton off waivers, but then Earths was cleared, and he didn't have any other tight ends. Oh, so you were the guy? You were the guy? I was the guy. I picked up Eric Ebron, who was good, and Charles Clay. And I knew Dave liked Adam Shaheen, so I picked him up.

Picked up four different tight ends. Jesse James. Jesse James. Didn't get Ben Watson, and Dave did, and he outscored all of them. Oh, that's awesome. Wait, but did you drop them and put them on waivers, or you just picked them up and stashed them? I picked them up and stashed them.

Yeah, all right. Dave told the story a little bit unfairly to me, I think. He said I added and dropped a bunch of tight ends. I just added them and left them on my roster. Oh, that's fine. I'm looking at it right now. So Heath's bench is Matt Ryan, Eric Ebron, Adam Shaheen, Charles Clay, Jesse James, and Mike Wallace.

Wow, that's funny. Good for you. I think it's kind of cheap to drop them, to add them and then drop them, put them on waivers so he can't pick them up. But I think if you stash them, that's a great job. Good for you, Heath. It didn't work out. It didn't work out. But yeah, Ben Watson with the big name.

And just to let you know, so right now both guys are still very much alive in their matchup to go to the finals. They'll be facing me. Heath has Michael Crabtree, who right now has got, through the start of the second quarter, no catches. Yep, same as Des. Julio Jones is also on his team. Dave has Mike Evans, and he's up by six. Oh, okay. I'm going to give it to Heath, but it could go either way.

All right. Good luck, guys. I'm sure Heath would very much like it to be tied or him ahead going into Monday night. And he has Julio and Dave has Evans? Is that what you said? Yeah. Okay. Good luck, fellas.

All right. Let's do the winners and losers for Fantasy Week 15. Here we go. Jamie's winners, Nick Foles, who's 39% owned and has Oakland next week and Dallas in Week 17. Both are at home. And Christian McCaffrey, who had 12 carries, 6 catches, and he had, say, 136 total yards and a touchdown against the Packers.

He has Tampa Bay next week, and they are awful against pass-catching running backs. So it's Foles and McCaffrey. Maybe I should just shut up instead of taking everybody's talking points. Sorry about that. Jamie, go ahead. Well, I think from the – look, Foles, like you said, he basically was a clone of Carson Wentz, and so that's encouraging if you're still alive and have any of the Eagles. So thankfully he just stepped in and did what uh what wentz did uh for mcafree though this

was he had gone one two three four games in a row with 11 touches or less and so for him to come out and get 12 carries which was the most he's had second most he's had on the season most he's had since week nine uh excuse me third most he's had on the season he had 13 in week one uh the six catches uh fourth best total for him on the season, fourth or fifth best total. They gave him 18 touches. If they would have done that all season long, just consistently 15 to 18 touches, imagine how good this guy

could have been from a fantasy perspective. He had that stretch during that 11 touches or less where he was touchdown dependent. He did score a touchdown here. It was a beautiful play call. But they need to do this more. This just makes their team that much more explosive.

And I think also to Heath's point about Greg Olson coming back, hurting Devin Funches, this hurt Funches too. You know, the six catches, 73 yards, I don't know how many targets he had, but I'm sure it was probably in the eight range. So that's very encouraging. All right, good stuff. So they're both going to be worth starting. I mean, Foles is not going to be like a must-start next week.

You're not going to put him in your top 12, right? I have a final where I have Roethlisberger, and even though he's facing Houston on the road, I may consider starting Foles over Roethlisberger. Wow, really? Without Antonio Brown on the road. Against Houston, though. Foles is home against the Raiders.

It's just as good. Yeah, but, I mean, Roethlisberger's a much better quarterback than Nick Foles. I mean, Adam, you would start Carson Wentz over Ben Roethlisberger next week, wouldn't you? I would start Carson Wentz over Roethlisberger. Yeah, yes. Yeah, I was going to say no matter what, but that's not true. There's not really that big of a drop-off between the two. Okay, right.

I'm not going to take that bait. But, yes, he had a great game, played very well. I thought he has a really bad arm. Like, I don't get it. It looked like he has a terrible arm. But then I Googled it, and, like, some of the scouting reports coming out of this combine were, like, he's got a great arm, so maybe I'm crazy. But, all right, look, that's fine. But Roethlisberger, like I said, Roethlisberger should have had a 30-point game.

But that pass was dropped through an interception on the next play or two plays later. And he had 22. Okay, let's go to our next winner. It's Heath's winners, Greg Olson and Sterling Shepard. Go for it, Heath. Yeah, the big thing for Greg Olson was, I mean, it's great that he had such a monster game, but just that he is feeling that confident in his foot now, and Cam Newton is feeling that confident in his ability to open,

because we've kind of seen, even when he'd come back and play sporadically, that Cam wasn't really looking for him. Cam was looking for him in this game, obviously, 12 targets, and he gets Tampa Bay next week, and you have to look at Greg Olson like he's Greg Olson again. And the Packers entered this game giving up the second fewest amount of fantasy points to tight ends. So it was not – they haven't really played that many good tight ends, but it was not like he took advantage of the Giants or something like that.

What do you have to say about Sterling Shepard? Kind of a similar situation in that we had seen up until last week pretty much Shepard was a target hog ever since Marshall and Beckham went down. And he was producing at a high level because he catches a high percentage of his targets. He's got a pretty good yard per catch. And so last week spooked us just a little bit, but he was right back to just getting almost all of the targets.

And I don't know that I worry too much about that matchup next week because I don't think Patrick Peterson goes inside on him. So, by the way, Heath, who would you start, Nick Foles or Ben Roethlisberger next week? Well, my official rankings will come out tomorrow morning, but I would lean towards Foles right now. Well, all right. All right. How about some losers this week? Cooper Cupp and Jamal Williams are the two losers for Heath Cummings.

Cooper Cupp had two catches for 21 yards after three pretty good games. I mean, two great games out of three with Robert Woods out. And Jamal Williams had 10 carries for 30 yards. They were trailing for a lot of this game. That didn't help. But go ahead, Heath. Cooper Cupp and Jamal Williams. Yeah, we didn't really get the shake the rust off game from Robert Woods.

I mean, he only had six for 45, but considering how few passes the Rams had to throw when Jared Goff was in the game, that's a pretty good game, and he got the touchdown. Cooper Cup will be better than this next week against Tennessee, but I'm not sure he has much of a floor anymore with Woods, Watkins, and Cup all there, and their ability to get a big lead and just pound the ball on the ground. He is more of a boom-bust number three wide receiver now than what kind of settled into a low-end number two role. All right, that's Cooper Kup.

What about Jamal Williams? What do you think? I don't like the fact that he only got 10 carries in this game, and I know some of that's game script dependent, but if the game script was bad, he should have have got some targets and he got none of them so if you're looking at this from a perspective of the running backs he got 10 out of 13 carries this week where he was getting the past couple weeks more like 20 out of 21 and aaron jones ripped off a couple of really nice runs and caught a pass i'm really a little bit worried that this is going to turn into a

little bit more of a committee over the last couple of games. Minnesota is their Week 16 opponent, the Green Bay Packers. Jamie's two losers, another Packer, Jordy Nelson, and then Big Ben. Nelson has the Vikings next week, and Ben is at Houston. Nelson had three catches for 28 yards. I cannot make a case for Jordy Nelson anymore, Jamie. I guess the one case I will make is that he could have had his big play,

but Rodgers underthrew him. He shook that defender. He beat him. Rodgers underthrew him. It was an interception. But that's the only thing I can say in defense of Jordy. And you can't start him next week against Minnesota. Right.

So even though we hope Devontae Adams will play, I would anticipate that after he had a, you know, more violent concussion earlier this season and was able to come back the following week. I believe it was, right? He came back after the Chicago concussion. Did he play next week? That was a Thursday game, though, right?

It was a Thursday game. Yeah. And the second one, the compounding effects of that second concussion, I'd be a little worried about it. I'd like Jordy a lot more if he did play next week. If Adams did play. You'd like him more? Yeah, just because I would expect Rhodes would be on Adams.

Oh, I thought you said you'd like him more if he didn't play. No, no, no. Yeah, no, I agree with you because then they'll move him around. He could play in the slot a little bit. But still, you just can't start him. Even though he'll be at home where he puts up monster numbers in Lambeau Field, it's just he's – I was the high guy on him. Dave and Heath were certainly more accurate where he performed based on where they had him ranked.

But like you said, Adam, there were some encouraging signs, but he's just not a must-start guy at this point. Maybe he comes back next year and is that guy, but right now you just can't consider him that. And Big Ben? Just losing Antonio Brown. Should have been a layup matchup next week. There has to be some trepidation in your mind.

Yeah, that's disappointing because you don't love Ben on the road, but at Houston, love everybody at Houston pretty much. I would imagine their mindset is he'll throw certainly enough. I'm sure he'll be 30 to 35 pass attempts still. And Juju and Martavis Bryant are as good of complementary wide receivers

as he's had over the course of his career. After the number one guys that he's had from Hines Ward to Mike Wallace to Antonio Brown. But he could be still startable in most leagues. But I really would take a look to see if Nick Foles was out there and consider him. And I would probably even consider Joe Flacco, to be honest with you, against the Colts.

Okay. That's a Saturday game, the Flacco game, right? Yep. Yeah. Okay, no Thursday games anymore. We do have two Saturday games. No Sunday night game next week either. No Sunday night game. We do have two Saturday games. And no Sunday night game next week either. And no Sunday night game.

We do have one more Monday night game next week, right? Two more. Two more. Two more? Yeah, there's two next week. Two next week, that's right, but none in week 17. All right, cool. So news and notes, some coaching news.

Well, first of all, by the way, Jerry Richardson is announcing that he will be selling the Panthers, so that's a pretty crazy day for him. And just breaking now, according to Adam Schefter, Rex Burkhead has avoided a serious knee injury. Looks like he's going to miss some time. Not for sure, but it's not a torn ACL or anything like that, so that's good. There's a very good chance that he doesn't play this week, and you want a guy to look out on waivers, it's very difficult to say you're going to trust him in your championship, but

it gets revenge game play in there. Mike Gillisley against the Bills. All right. Hugh Jackson. Deion Lewis has a chance to play great, though. Hugh Jackson and Marvin Lewis and Chuck Pagano and Bill O'Brien. They might be coaching their final games for their teams. Chargers, they had a...

Did you say Hugh Jackson? Yeah. No, the Browns have committed to Hugh Jackson. Not according to what I read this morning. He won the power struggle. The owner said that, but there are plenty of rumblings that since they just hired a new GM, that that's just not going to last. I know what the owner said, but...

Yeah, what I read is that he actually reports to the owner just like John Dorsey does. He does not report to John Dorsey. I read it on our website this morning that some rumblings that Hugh Jackson might... I mean, look, obviously there's a possibility if they go winless and he has one win over two years that they're going to fire him, but with also the report that the Bengals would welcome him back, I can't imagine they're going to get rid of him and let him walk across the state to go coach the Bengals. I hope they keep him because, I mean, I'd like to see what he can do with some better talent,

and hopefully that will be next year. All right, it doesn't matter. Others, more important stuff for fantasy owners. Chargers had a real rough night on Saturday. So Denzel Perryman left with a hamstring injury. Keenan Allen I already talked about. Defensive tackle Corey Luget left with a knee injury. Adrian Phillips, their safety, left with an ankle. Casey Hayward was playing through a calf injury. Keenan Allen I already talked about. Defensive tackle Corey Lugit left with a knee injury. Adrian Phillips, their safety, left with an ankle. Casey Hayward was playing through a calf injury. So they just had a lot of injuries. And their left tackle Russell Okung left with a

groin injury. And Austin Eckler broke his hand and he's out for the season. Chris Hogan sat with a shoulder injury today. Washington left tackle Trent Williams didn't play. Jeremy Macklin left with a knee injury. Landon Collins started with the ankle injury. He re-aggravated it. He left in the second quarter. I heard on the broadcast today Duke Johnson averages the third most yards per touch in the NFL. How about that? So he's given more touches.

The Jets defensive tackle Leonard Williams left with a head injury. It's pretty important because they have a really good run defense. They'll have Melvin Gordon coming to town next week. Philadelphia cornerback Patrick Robinson had a head injury. Cincinnati, as if they couldn't be more banged up. Safety George Iloka left with a shoulder injury. And Saints guard Larry Warford left with a head injury. And that's pretty much it.

All right, we'll do Does He Matter? We'll go through the almost-Savarians-Jenkins touchdowns and then every game. But first, here's a random email from Matt and Vernon. Hey, Thielen, Johnson, Collins, and Miller. Come on, guys. Thielen, Johnson, Collins, and Miller. Players who left you disappointed. Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Interesting. Adam Thielen, David Johnson, Jamie Collins, Heath Miller. Agree or disagree? I was thinking Alex Collins. I was too, but I was thinking outside the box, Jamie. You're like that eighth man. You're always so in the box. Agree or

disagree, says Matt. DSTs should get points for tackles for a loss, just like they do for sacks. The result of the play is the same. Lost yardage. Why should it only count when it's a quarterback? When a DSTs should get points for tackles for a loss, just like they do for sacks. The result of the play is the same. Lost yardage. Why should it only count when it's a quarterback? When a DST gets an interception, it's the same amount of points, whether it's from Alex Smith or Travis Kelsey.

Agree or disagree, DSTs should get points for tackles for losses. I like it. Sure. Also, a turnover on down should count as a turnover. I like that, too. But really, if you were the commission, you were setting your DST points, would you give them points for tackles for loss? If I was the commission, we'd have IDP.

Thank you guys for the not answers. Adam, we made the finals in the Dynasty. Hey, great. Throw a party. Better than my other crappy teams. That was a bad week for me. Bad week. Very angry week.

I will buy you lunch anyway. Why? Because one of your teams made it. Oh, well. I think at least one of my teams will make it other than the team that I made. Did Heatham make it? No. No, we got killed.

We got crushed. Destroyed. Yeah, it wasn't good. Did we have a bad week? It doesn't matter. I went against... I think we faced Todd Gurley. Yeah.

I went against a lot of teams that had good weeks, and I didn't have a great week, so it is what it is. Tuesday night waiver while will be a lot quieter for me. Maybe I'll watch a movie. Does he matter? Wayne Gallman in PPR Leagues. Yeah. Last two weeks havePR Leagues. Yeah. Last two weeks have been very good.

Yeah. 13 catches. Going to Arizona next week. Does he matter? Cody. Would you like him to be the Giants running back next year? Starting running back. Let's say I'd like for him to be the Giants running back for the next two weeks.

That's all I know. And then we'll go from there. I'm going to say that no, though. I don't think he's the answer. Cody Latimer for the Broncos. Does he matter? Nope. Okay.

Demir Bird for Carolina. Does he matter? Nope. The problem is that there's only two teams playing next week in most leagues. It's true. It's true. Okay. Kendrick Bourne for the Niners.

Is he better? Nope. I don't know who this is. Can you tell me about the Bourne identity? I swear. Okay, I'm not embarrassed. I had no idea who this was. I saw him in the leaderboard, and I was like, what?

Who the hell is this? So, on his last catch, which was, I don't know, 30-some-odd yards, I think it was, he's running, and we're going, is that Louis Murphy? Wait, what? I can't read the name on the jersey. What was that? Yeah, the 54-yard catch. What?

Who? Kendrick Bourne. He doesn't matter. He's from eastern Washington, and he's 22 years old, and his bye week is week 11, according to the fantasy page. All right, this one might matter. Kendall Wright. Seven catches for 81 yards. Last week he had 10 catches for 107 yards,

and he got the Browns this week. For the Bears wide receiver, Kendall Wright, does he matter? To Heath's point, there's not going to be a lot of people looking to pick up Kendall Wright, but he could be in a 14-team league or 16-team league championship game. He just lost Antonio Brown, and like you said, there seems to be a rapport with Kendall Wright, and the Browns, a 14-team league or 16-team league championship game. He just lost Antonio Brown.

And like you said, there seems to be a rapport with Kendall Wright, and the Browns, I believe, have really had a tough time with slot receivers for the majority of the season. All right. Yep. Hey, Heath, if Kendrick Bourne has another good game next week, does he become the Bourne supremacy? I believe he would. Okay, good.

Good stuff. And does Eric Ebron matter? Five catches, 33 yards, and a touchdown. He'll be at the Bengals next week. I think he would. Okay, good. Good stuff. And does Eric Ebron matter? Five catches, 33 yards, and a touchdown. He'll be at the Bengals next week. I think he does. Yeah. All right. Cool.

Here it is. The Eric Ebron breakout. It is happening. Good call, Heath. I know you were on Tuesday's show, on the Waver Wire show, you were supportive of Eric Ebron. Some almost touchdowns. This is the one that drove me just insane. Chris Ivory really bothered me today.

Oh, God. I mean, he had three shots on two different drives and could not get in. He got hurt on one. Yeah, he got hurt on one. Tommy Bohannon, the fullback, ended up with two touchdowns. Corey Grant had a touchdown later in the game. It's weird. The second Bohannon touchdown wasn't – I don't think Ivory was there, right?

I think that was the time he got hurt on. I think that's the one he got hurt on. I think Yeldon was in – that was right after he got hurt. Yeah. I mean, you look at the Jaguars game. It was a great game, but the only guy that people started that had a good game was Bortles. So it was like useless touchdowns. No, the DST was pretty good.

I meant the offensive. And just while I know we're not going to really get into much of that game, we could skip it after this. DeAndre Hopkins is just amazing. Amazing. He is just unbelievable. I don't know, Heath, if you – I've given a little bit of thought to my 2018 rankings. I think he's got to be second.

Yeah. With Sean Watson back? You could make an argument for first. Over Brown? No, really? You could make an argument for it. You can. I'll still take Brown, though.

Yeah. What about Beckham? Who? I want to see who the coach is and maybe who the quarterback is, but he'll be in the top five, top ten. Yeah. It's got to be Hopkins over Julio. I mean, Hopkins is going to double Julio in touchdowns, it seems.

It's just amazing that we lost the year of DeAndre Hopkins because of stupid Brock Osweiler. I know, terrible. Well, we lost the year of Todd Gurley because of stupid Jeff Fisher. True. And I'm also – and the crazy thing about the Osweiler-Hopkins thing is that, like, as a Demarius Thomas owner, I'm praying for Osweiler. Oh, he's starting.

Yeah, well, but still he's been the only good quarterback for Demarius Thomas. All right, more almost touchdowns. Jarek McKinnon had an almost touchdown that turned into a Tavius touchdown. Michael Thomas, this was the other thing that drove me crazy. He could have had three touchdowns. He had two overturned. Oh, man, so close to having a monster game. We had some fun with that because Pete Prisco, who is on our Fantasy Football Today show on Sunday, had Drew Brees and Michael Thomas in one of his fan duel lineups.

Yeah. And so every time he's like, oh, my God, why can't I just get one? And then he finally gets one, but he should have had three. He should have had three, definitely. And Mark Ingram, too. Oh, because it turned into an Ingram touchdown, the first one. No, Ingram stepped out of bounds on the first drive. And he didn't score on that play, on that drive?

No, it looked like the first. Oh, yes. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. He had that long catch. Mark Ingram had a 54-yard catch, which should have been a 64-yard touchdown reception. He stepped out of bounds at the 10-yard line. But he scored a rushing touchdown on that drive. Yes.

That should have been a breeze touchdown, you're saying. Yeah. All right. Matt Forte got stopped at the 1. Two plays later, Bilal Powell ran it in for a touchdown. There's a lot more here. Devin Funchess dropped one. Keelan Cole came up a yard short of a second touchdown. Delaney Walker for a touchdown. There's a lot more here. Devin Funches dropped one. Keelan Cole came up a yard short of a second touchdown.

Delaney Walker dropped a touchdown. Mario actually played a really good game for most of it, and Walker could have been a bigger game for them, too. Jesse James had the almost touchdown of all almost touchdowns. And now we're on to the games. We're on to Detroit-Chicago. The Saturday games, we'll start with that. Detroit 20,

Chicago 10. This was not a great game for fantasy owners. Jordan Howard was one of the biggest disappointments of the week, Heath. 10 carries for 37 yards against the Lions. He didn't get those 13 carries. If he had only gotten three more, certainly would have scored a touchdown or something. But that was a bad start for a lot of owners, Jordan Howard. Yeah, it was a week late because this is kind of what we'd expected the week before. The problem is, is the inefficiency was really surprising. What isn't all that surprising with the way things have gone lately is that when the game script went the wrong way for him, they didn't run.

That was not the way they were earlier in the year. Earlier in the year, they were just going to run it 25 times regardless of what was going on. Yeah, it just got away from him. He was really bad in the first half. All right, Marvin Jones got you three catches for more than 80 yards. And Golden Tate had another bad game against the Bears. And that's just, you know, Dave was the one who pointed that out earlier this season. Three catches for 33 yards.

All right, let's move on to the Chiefs and the Chargers. Kansas City 30, Chargers 13. All right, you said you weren't that excited about the game leading up to it, Heath, but were you fired up on Saturday night when they blasted the Chargers, had a great win? I was more amazed, and I said this to Jamie this morning, that Arrowhead is incredible because that's a bad Chiefs defense. And this is now like 14 straight games that a team has not been able to break 20 at Arrowhead. And as hot as Phillip Rivers and his offense was coming into the game, and as bad as that defense is, they just look spooked.

Rivers didn't even look like a veteran quarterback. He looked terrible. Second game this year. I'll tell you what. Let's give some credit where it's due. Darrell Revis has played well the last two weeks. Has he? Yes. All he? Yes.

All right, cool. He was bad in his first game, but the last two he's been pretty good. And Melvin Gordon was still awesome. I don't – like, Connor Henry, I know he got hurt, but he still just does not feel reliable at all. Here's something about Melvin Gordon. Two really surprising things from this game. The Chiefs came into the game giving up the fewest receiving yards to running backs.

Melvin Gordon had six catches for 91 yards. He led the team in receiving. And the other thing that was very surprising, there had not been a quarterback that scored 20 fantasy points against the Chargers since week one. And Alex Smith did that. He scored 22 fantasy points against the Chargers since week one, and Alex Smith did that. He scored 22 fantasy points. So I didn't see that coming from Alex Smith.

As far as the quarterbacks went, huge reversal from what I was expecting. But I think Heath had Smith in the top ten, right? Yeah, I think until I was – I folded i folded actually we argued about it on wednesday and thursday and uh i dropped him down to 12 or 13 no i'm sorry late in the week you guys made some really good points but you still had rivers ranked ahead of him and everybody thought rivers would would out oh yeah yeah all right let's go on to washington 20 and arizona 15 arizona had the ball for 36 minutes and 16 seconds and and they still could not win the game. What did you think of Kirk Cousins, Jamie?

19 fantasy points, got off to a really good start, and then just sort of stopped putting up numbers. What did you think of Kirk Cousins? I mean, look, if you started him, you're encouraged, I guess, by the fact that he didn't kill you. The fact that Trent Williams didn't play in this game, that's been kind of the theme for him. When the offensive line has been inept, banged up, hurt, he hasn't had the big performances. So I think this was – when we talked about it during the week,

I don't know if it was on our video show or on one of our podcasts, I kind of just felt meh about kirk cousins like what i just said like if he's been your guy you stick with him because the cardinals coming west to east you know they just hadn't performed well they hadn't but that also i thought could benefit samaj p ryan heath and it really didn't. And he's just, I don't know how you can trust Samaj P. Ryan right now. Oh, you can't. And I whiffed on him bigger than anything this week. And the big thing was, I foolishly thought that with Chris Thompson

and Rob Kelly and Byron Marshall all gone, that, well, Samaj P. Ryan's just going to get all the work. And there was a running back that scored a touchdown in this game that had four catches for 47 yards, but it was Capri Bibbs. Yeah. And I'm not sure how many snaps Capri Bibbs had played for or how many rosters he's been on this season, but he took the touchdown, had 53 yards himself, and the volume just wasn't there.

If you'd have told me for sure that P. Ryan was just getting 15 carries and two catches, I wouldn't have been as excited about him. The other part of it is, again, moving forward, you can't play him next week against Denver, even though they're home, because with Pico back, you saw how good that run defense could be against the Colts. Right. I think you can probably play Larry Fitzgerald next week, although it is kind of three bad games out of five with Blaine Gabbert. But the Giants coming to town, going across the country almost,

and I'm going to guess you guys are going to be more confident in Larry Fitzgerald. Do you think the Cardinals are now rethinking Blaine Gabbert as their future? I would hope so. I would hope so. That was ridiculous. All right, next game. Game of the week. Keep an eye on Kerwin Williams because he could be good if he's healthy against the Giants next week.

Game of the week. Baltimore 27, Cleveland 10. Another game with very lopsided time of possession. Very similar to what we saw in Arizona in terms of the exact time of possession. About 30 seconds different. But Joe Flacco, three straight games with 20 or more fantasy points. He scored 23 in this game. He had a rushing touchdown.

Gets the Colts on Saturday. And then is Mike Wallace kind of like a guaranteed seven or more fantasy points in standard scoring leagues right now? Yeah. I really like Mike Wallace. I don't ever feel good calling him a guaranteed anything. Well, Jeremy Mack got hurt. Yes, that helps.

I wish we could have one of these games where he gets the big yards and the touchdown. The Colts are bad. The Colts are bad. They are. Isaiah Crowell is an interesting player. He's playing pretty well lately. His fantasy points in his last six games before today were 15-15-1, 10-4-13 in standard scoring leagues.

So that's 10 or more and 4 out of 6. When he has bad games, he has really bad games. He basically had one big carry, and he only had five carries in this game. But I don't know. I just feel like the Browns running backs are two of the trickiest guys in fantasy. They're never must-starts. But I don't know. I just feel like the Browns running backs are two of the trickiest guys in fantasy. They're never must-starts. But I don't know. What do you think, Jamie, about the Browns running backs

as they have the Bears on the road next week? Oh, I think you summed it up perfectly. You know, if Duke Johnson does not score, he's an okay PPR guy because he got you five catches on seven targets. But, you know, he's had a better season than I think I expected coming into the year just because of the touchdowns for him. Corwell, like you said, if you were to tell anybody that he's getting five carries, you would have said, must sit across the board.

And it's very odd that somebody gets four catches and they come away with minus seven receiving yards. Yeah, that is weird. So he didn't have a very good game. He just had one nice play. Minnesota 34, Cincinnati 7. This was the game of the week, actually. The Bengals were terrible.

Gio Bernard did score a touchdown. That was wonderful. He was started in 26% of leagues. Heath, who's your favorite Vikings running back? What's their game script? Well, they're playing at Green Bay next week. I think that at Green Bay next week, I will probably like Jarek McKinnon more in a half PPR format

if we're going to split the difference. Jamie, how about you? Latavius or McKinnon next week? Oh, Latavius. I mean, the Panthers, you know, didn't necessarily have success with John Stewart. I expected, I thought, that he would have a chance to score. And again, he came into that

game averaging over four yards per carry. But I think they're going to beat the Packers. I mean, it's hard to say that they're not the best team in the NFC with how good Case Keenum has played in that defense. They've used both guys in very successful

situations. What they did with McKinnon today, throwing the ball, eight targets. That was great. And Murray, 20 carries. I thought Murray was going to go off. I really did. My bowl prediction was 150 yards, and it's 150 total yards and a touchdown. And he got off to a great start, scoring early.

So he had over 100 total yards and scored. And I believe it's now five of his last six where he's gotten at least nine or more fantasy points. So he's been the more consistent of the two. All right, that's Latavius Murray. I think it's now six of seven with nine or more fantasy points. Okay, six of seven. Adam Thielen, bad game, just a fluke? Adam Thielen?

I would say that's probably the case. I like Stephon Diggs coming into the week when you look at the Bengals' injuries. I thought it was going to be a better day for him with Kyle Rudolph not expected to play. That's one of the more amazing turnarounds I've seen from a guy that was one reporter from Minnesota had him ruled out on Friday. And then he was upgraded from doubtful to questionable, and then all of a sudden we get to last night, and I don't know if you guys had it on the radio show or not, but they said he's going to play.

Yeah. Like where the hell did that come from? I don't know if we said that. It looked like I guess he was expected to play at that point. All right, Carolina 31 and Green Bay 24. Pretty good game here. We talked about Richard Rodgers. Go back to the Bengals for a second.

Can you play A.J. Green next week against Darius Slay with how bad Andy Dalton has been? Is Andy Dalton even the quarterback? Yeah, I'll play him. I'll probably stick with A.J. Green against Slay. That doesn't worry me as much as Rhodes does. What's the difference between A.J. Green and Mike Evans, though, recently? How bad were Green's targets two weeks ago?

They had 12 in week 14 and 17 the week before. But you're getting bad quarterback play, though. You are. That's true. My bigger concern with, like, I think Evans is eventually going to break out of it. It's just that they're spreading the ball around so much. And Dalton did in this game, so that's a good point. But it's a one-week thing as opposed to a two-week thing.

It was both quarterbacks, though. I just wonder if—I think it might have been Dave that said this after the game started. Is A.J. Green in just, I don't give a bleep mode? Marvin's gone. Andy may be gone in terms of Dalton. And I'm just writing this year off. Well, we'll see where you rank them. I think most people, if they got this far to their championship,

they'll be starting A.J. Green. But not with any sense of confidence. I'm not sure I view Darius Slay that way. I don't really think he's in. He's not Xavier Rhodes. I totally understand that. But you can't look at A.J. Green and what's happening to his team and say he's safe anymore.

They're really bad right now. Boy, they are folding. All right, we've got about five minutes left, guys. So maybe one or two points at most per game. Carolina 31, Green Bay 24. Jonathan Stewart, Jamie was a waiver wire disappointment. 11 carries for 27 yards, one catch for nine yards. Yeah, but you're burying the lead.

We haven't talked about Aaron Rodgers since first game back yet. Well, who cares about that? I mean, but you're burying the lead. We haven't talked about Aaron Rodgers since his first game back yet. Well, who cares about that? I mean, he's only one of the most important players. I know we talked about Jordy with being a loser, but look, Rodgers gave you 27 fantasy points despite throwing three interceptions. He looked like he didn't even miss a practice. You thought so? I disagree a little bit because he did throw three interceptions.

That's his first time in eight years. There were miscues. There were certainly miscues. But just the fact that the feel in the pocket, running when he had to run, the flick of the wrist was still there. I mean, you know, for a guy that had the seven-game layoff, yes, the three interceptions were bad. And, yes, he also lost his best receiver in the first half of that game.

And so to keep them in the game the way that he did, they nearly had a chance to win it again after getting the onside kick. Yeah, they could have. I mean, they could have tied it up. John O'Mallison fumbled. And I think he scored like 44 points against the Vikings at home last year,

late in the season. Might have been week 17. I'm going to check that right now. It was week 16. They won 38 to 25 against the outstanding Minnesota Vikings defense, and he scored 44. Woo!

44 fantasy points. We had a trivia question that we sort of came up with ourselves. When was the last Friday night NFL game? Friday night NFL game? It was a game that was postponed due to a hurricane Or moved Dolphins Bears It was not the Bears

Heath do you remember who the Dolphins played Nope Played the Chiefs Who was the leading rusher in the game I somehow pulled this out of my back What was the year 2003 Larry Johnson He was like two yards behind the leading rusher What was the year? 2003.

Larry Johnson. He was like two yards behind the leading rusher. Ricky Williams? Ronnie Brown. And Priest Holmes also. Ronnie Brown, Priest Holmes, and Larry Johnson all had like 90-something yards. Okay, anyway, Jonathan Stewart was a disappointment. Whatever.

Jacksonville, 45. Houston, 7. We covered every angle of this game. Lamar Miller was really bad, but it was a tough matchup. Not a huge surprise. New Orleans 31, Jets 19. Worst fears confirmed on Robbie Anderson, although he did get 12 targets. No other Jet had more than five targets.

So what do you think about Anderson against the Chargers next week? I think it was kind of worst fears confirmed, but it was also the whole thing about Bryce Petty leaning on Robbie Anderson is absolutely true. This was a terrible matchup. Next week's not really a good matchup, but it's not as bad, I don't think. And we've seen that the Chargers can at least get beat by the deep ball. That's kind of Robbie Anderson's specialty. So he'll be a boom-bust number three wide receiver for me next week.

I think I had him around 30 this week. I'll probably have him a little higher next week. Okay. And just another disappointing week for Drew Brees, Jamie. I mean, it could have been. It's not really his fault. It should have been. Yeah, it should have been.

He's had such an unlucky year. Unbelievable. All right, Buffalo 24, Miami 16. You might know that Jay Cutler threw three interceptions in this game, and the one after the outside kick was hilarious. But you might not know that Jay Cutler fumbled four times. This was Cutler at his best. But Kenyon Drake is a stud.

Jamie, any major takeaways from this game? Kenyon Drake is a stud, and Jay Cutler is not. Okay. Charles Clay had a nice game. You called that, Jamie. He does pretty well against his former team. Five catches for 68 yards. Pretty good in PPR.

Eagles 34, Giants 29. Heath, your thoughts on the Eagles running backs? How was that? Every week, I keep thinking they're going to give Jay Ajayi a few more carries. They kind of did last week. They gave him 15. The thing that's the most frustrating about it is not even that they're dividing

up the work. Just give guys roles. Let me know what Jay Ajayi's role is going to be and when he's going to be on the field. And I'll feel much more confident in predicting what's going to happen. But nope, we have no idea. We get a first and goal from the five and here comes Corey Clint. That's very frustrating.

And Heath, what's your level of confidence in Nelson Aguilar, who had seven catches for 59 yards on nine targets? Against the Raiders? I think he'll still be pretty good, despite the fact that Des Bryant is going to finish the first quarter or first half with zero catches. Oh, boy.

I still think that he'll be okay against the Raiders. They're not good. All right, Ram, we'll go to the late games. Rams at Seahawks. Jamie, Robert Woods, you cool with him next week? 75% owned. Yeah, it was great to see. Like he said, didn't have the shake the rust off game.

So the Titans have certainly played a lot better, but you just saw Marquis Cohen go for 100 yards against them. So Robert Woods is definitely in play as a number two receiver. New England 27, Pittsburgh 24. Pittsburgh had the ball for about 10 more minutes than New England. Like do we make anything of the fact that Tom Brady has had three bad fantasy games in a row, Jamie? Yeah. I mean, you know, Dave was talking about this, and I agree with him to a certain extent.

I just thought it was going to be a little bit more high-scoring that without Shazier in there, that the Patriots would try and run on them a little bit more than maybe you would typically expect for what Brady's history was against the Steelers. And so once they were trailing and they got into kind of that hurry-up mode in the second half, you saw Gronk get going, you know, Cooks had a couple big plays. I think they're going to be able to do whatever they want to against the Bills next week, but you've seen Buffalo's run defense really be awful. And so it could be another game where lean on Deion Lewis again.

I think the one thing that would be better for him next week than this week is the Steelers also in the second half went really run heavy. And we just didn't see the Patriots run as many plays as they normally do. I think they ran somewhere in the mid-50s in terms of plays this week. They're normally a 65

play team. Tennessee is at San Francisco and Marcus Mario to 21 fantasy points this came after three straight games with less than 200 passing guards he should have had a better game but delaney walker dropped that touchdown um all right we can talk about whether or not to start marcus mariotta against the rams next week i'm gonna guess the answer is no but what about the demarco murray with 18 carries derrick henry had seven carries in this game. What does that mean for you, Heath, going forward? Yeah, you can't have any faith that the Titans are going to open their eyes

and see who they need the ball to. And Murray, in fairness to him, in two of the last three games, has been more efficient on the ground than Derrick Henry has. I think you have to expect that the only way that Derrick Henry has a good startable game is if you think the Titans are going to have a good lead in the fourth quarter and he just runs over the team. Jamie, for San Francisco, our last thing here on today's show.

Marquise Goodwin is playing unbelievably well right now. He's got three games with Jimmy Garoppolo with 99 or more yards. He's got five straight games with 78 or more yards. He's got Jacksonville next week. Is Marquis Goodwin a sit? Yes. Oh, man. I mean, he's not Hopkins.

There's no guarantee. Of course he's a sit. It just sucks, you know? Well, you know, after what happened with him. Why look at the negative, though? Look at the positive. He got you here. After what happened with him in his personal life, he's like my favorite player now.

And I'm just rooting for him. And it's such a great story. I'll tell you what. If they can get one more receiver, you get Garcon, Goodwin, and somebody else. That's a nice receiving core. Hey, man. Shanahan's doing his magic right now. What did they want, three in a row?

Jimmy G, baby. Jimmy G. He looks awesome. He really does. He can't get that second touchdown. That could go down as one of the biggest steals in trade history, that they got him for a second-round pick. I mean, it's almost a first-round pick.

At the time, it looked like it was going to be maybe the second pick of the second round. But, no, you're right. It could be worth it for sure. He's almost hurting them. He's almost hurting them? Oh, yeah. You got your draft pick. I mean, you got your quarterback, and now you're hoping for like a top five pick.

Stop winning. All right, cool. Thank you, guys. Good show today. I hope everybody had a great semifinals. And if you didn't, I hope you had a great season. Ials And if you didn't Hope you had a great season I hope you've enjoyed Listening to us

Stick around You know Just for the fun of it And we're here For the off-season as well And we'll come back On Tuesday With our Waiver Wire show

I'm Adam Azer With Jamie With Heath Talk to you on Tuesday Bye It's alright I've got Le'Veon It's alright

Not George Le'Veon It's alright I've got Le'Veon Bell Le'Veon It's alright I've got Le'Veon Bell