Fantasy Football Today - 12/22 Fantasy Football Podcast: Start or Sit (NFC), Weather Updates

Episode Date: December 22, 2017

Will the weather be a concern this week (1:30)? Do Cam Newton and Nick Foles really have good matchups (4:00)? ... The guys discuss outlooks for Ezekiel Elliott (8:45) and Larry Fitzgerald (9:15) and then settle a debate they've been having for about 7 years. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? We have an answer (15:55) ... SEA-DAL (21:30), OAK-PHI (29:05), ATL-NO (35:02), DEN-WAS (42:40), TB-CAR (46:56), JAC-SF (53:08), CLE-CHI (59:10), NYG-ARI (1:02:30) and some DFS lineups at the end of the show ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! Get your lineup set. It's time for Star Dwarfs 6. Let's go! Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and T. Alright, here we go. It's the Friday show. It's December 22nd.

It's almost Christmas. Holiday cheer is in the air. Fantasy football championships are in the air. Who's ready to win some titles? We are all ready to win some titles, but I have a bigger question. Are you ready to admit that Die Hard is a Christmas movie? Already with this? Well, I mean.

Wait, Dave, it's a big segment. It's coming up in like 15 minutes. Okay, I didn't know. It's major news. Major news on that front. 15 minutes, give or take. I want to talk a little football first. Jamie, you ready to win some championships?

Yeah, buddy. All right, man. He is excited, ladies and gentlemen. Jamie is doing the wave. He's whipping off his shirt. He's running around the room. He is excited, ladies and gentlemen. Jamie is doing the wave. He's whipping off his shirt. He's running around the room. He is just boundless energy. Great.

All right. We've got two Saturday games. We've got two Monday games, and the rest are Sunday. Let's talk about the weather, all right, because I think – I'm starting to think that we should just end fantasy football in like week 10, not even worry about all this crappy weather in December. Or just have everybody build domes. Just build domes.

No, indoor football is awful. There could be some cold weather this weekend. Not sure if we're going to get the rainy, windy, snowy stuff. But are you guys concerned about weather anywhere, especially with kickers? No. No? Nothing bad? It could be like eight degrees at Lambeau.

Is that going to scare you off from Case Keenum? No. Is that it? Nothing? Dave? Nothing? I thought you were going to throw it to me in the weather center. Oh.

The latest weather update. So now, first, is this because I botched your diehard Christmas plan? No, that's fine. You completely forgot about this. I did. I was all ready to go. I've got the voice ready to go. Okay, well, hold on.

Let's do it. All right, all right, all right. Now, thank you, Jamie, for your weather report, but Dave's actually not in Fort Lauderdale with us. We sent him around the country, and he's reporting to us somewhere in America in our CBS Sports Fantasy Football Today weather station. Let's go to Dave Richard.

Thank you, Adam. We've got a bunch of exciting weather predicaments coming our way in Week 16. Fantasy Football started in Baltimore where there's potential rain and potential mild winds, 15 miles an hour for that Colts-Ravens showdown throwdown in Maryland. Now moving to Cincinnati, there's a chance of snow showers and light wind for the Lions and the Bengals. The Dolphins and Chiefs playing in the heartland of America, Kansas City, Missouri. And there's a small chance of snow showers with 10-mile-per-hour winds. Same exact type of forecast in Chicago, where only weirdos are from.

Small chance of snow and showers, 10-mile-per-hour winds for the Browns and Dobbs Bears. Back to you, Adam Azer. All right, Dave, so it doesn't sound like anything too bad there, but what about Joe Flacco? I know we like him this week. What if it's kind of crappy with 15 mile-per-hour wins? If it's that bad and we see it look that bad an hour, two hours before kickoff, then maybe we make a change. If you're nervous about it and you've got Flacco as your starting quarterback

and you can't make add drops immediately in your league, go find a backup off the waiver wire. Okay. So in summary, I was a little distracted by the humor in your presentation. What do you mean humor? Is there anything that really scares you this week with weather? No, not yet. Okay.

I don't think we're going to see a game like the Bills and Colts. It's not a bad idea. Now, if you have Justin Tucker, no, you don't get away're going to see a game like the Bills and Colts. It's not a bad idea. Now, if you have Justin Tucker, no, you don't get away from him or anything. But it's not a bad idea if you're worried about whether to get someone in a better environment or in a dome or something like that because kickers are pretty hard to predict to begin with. So, you know, just something to keep in mind. All right, there's a segment about quarterbacks. Two quarterbacks that you guys have in your top five.

And one of them you have as your number one quarterback. And the question is, are you sure they have good matchups? Okay. So that's the name of this segment. Are you sure they have good matchups? Copyright. TM. Cam Newton.

Number one for Jamie. Number one for Dave. He only scored 14 fantasy points in the first meeting against Tampa Bay. And yes, the Bucs allow the most passing yards per game in the NFL. But they're 16th in touchdowns allowed, 18th in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. And no quarterback in Tampa Bay's last nine games has scored more than 22 points, including Cam Newton, including Stafford and Ryan and Breeze and Brady. So, with that said, Jamie, are you sure Cam Newton has a good matchup and he should be number one for you?

Did he have Greg Olson that way, that first game? No, but I mean... Did they have Gerald McCoy that first game? Are you sure? Did they have a great matchup? Answer my question. No, they didn't, but Matt Ryan had Julio Jones and no Gerald McCoy last week, and he scored 16 fantasy points. Is Cam and Matt Ryan on the same level right now?

Jamie, I'm just saying we've been fooled by this before. Yeah, but there's different circumstances. I understand what you're saying. You're right. He didn't play well against them the first time, but they had a better defensive player on their side, and he has a better offensive player on his side. All right. Cam Newton's number one.

Start him over everybody, according to Dave and Jamie. Dave, Nick Foles, fifth for you, fifth for Jamie, seventh for Heath. The Raiders have a really bad pass defense. Sixth most yards per attempt in the NFL behind teams like the Colts, the Texans, the Bucs, the Packers, the Giants. They are bad. But don't give up that many fantasy points to quarterbacks. Only four quarterbacks have scored more than 19 against the Raiders. Now all four of them had huge games.

Are you sure Nick Foles has a good matchup? He's top five. Yes, I'm sure of it. Sure as I'm sitting here. And it's got just as much to do with the matchup, which is definitely favorable. You look at the yards per attempt, like you said. and I know the touchdowns quite haven't been there. It's because teams have been able to run on Oakland, and that's just not what Philadelphia does. In fact, there was a great quote by Doug Peterson earlier this week that I wish I had sent earlier in the week where he talked about

his mindset when it came to play calling, and he decided that he didn't want to change his aggressiveness at all. He really wants to keep his foot on the gas with what the eagles are doing and that's throwing the football and foals rewarded him against the giants and what was a competitive high scoring game this one might not be as competitive and you can still see foals work his way into the end zone and throw two or three touchdown passes getting some good yardage along the way having him fifth is maybe a slight risk but i don't know if there's a quarterback that I think has potential for that type of stat line. So I'm sticking with him.

I've got to be honest with you guys. I was looking at the quarterbacks on FanDuel last night. I don't love a lot of quarterbacks this week. How do you guys feel? I like a lot of quarterbacks. I like a lot of quarterbacks too. Like and love. There's a line, and I feel like Foles is sitting on that line.

Okay. Jamie, what's your general read of the quarterbacks this week? I think it's a great read for quarterbacks. There's just a lot of guys that have big blowout potential. Yeah? Okay. And I guess you think Foles is certainly one of them. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, the Raiders have to go cross-country. This is in Oakland. It's a different story. But being at home, his first home start, they know that they're playing for the one seed. It's a big blowout spot for him. Remember what he did at Oakland when he was with the Eagles last time you played him? Mm-hmm. Seven touchdowns. Seven touchdowns.

Oh, wow. Yeah. All right, so there's one other factor, though, and we talked about this on Wednesday. Heath and I talked about it. If the Vikings lose on Saturday, then the Eagles have nothing to play for, and we don't know what they'll do. I mean, they'll probably play all their starters. They're playing all their starters.

It's a question of how much they play them, though. They're playing three-plus quarters. I think that could happen whether the Vikings win or lose. There's no way they're going a month without Nick Foles making a second, fourth-quarter start. Their first playoff game is at least January 13th. They can't let those guys sit around for a month doing nothing. They'll come in all rusty and sloppy. They'll lose.

Sure. But I guess the article I read, PhillyVoice.com, I think, suggested that they bench their starters in Week 16 and start them in Week 17 if the Vikings lose. But you know what? It doesn't matter. That's a huge if, by the way. Yeah, they're not going to lose. They're not going to lose.

They're going to kill them. It's in the bag. All right. Here's one simple question for you. One simple question, just so everybody who has Ezekiel Elliott knows. How many running backs would you start over Ezekiel Elliott this week? Two. And they are?

Gurley and Bell. Dave, you have Zeke one? I have Zeke one. All right. So Gurley and Bell maybe. I've been thinking twice about it. Start Zeke, bottom line. Yeah, that's kind of hashtag fantasy analysis.

There you go. That's a hashtag Acer fantasy tip. Yeah. Like my Acer fantasy tip on Twitter this week was start Rob Gronkowski because he has such a good history against the Bills. One player debate. Yesterday we did two. We did Hunt and Roethlisberger.

Just one today. Interesting in your rankings. Larry Fitzgerald. Jamie has him 23rd in standards, 17th in PPR. Dave has Fitzgerald 12th in standard and 7th in PPR. And Heath has Fitzgerald 18th in standard and 13th in PPR. I mean, look, most people are going to start Larry Fitzgerald, but we are dealing with semifinals and championships here. We're dealing with great teams, stacked teams. So maybe Fitzgerald isn't a must start.

We know he's had some late season struggles the last few years. It's kind of happening right now. Three bad games in his last four. But he has a great matchup. So, Dave, you really like Fitzgerald. 12th in standard, 7th in PPR. Why don't you get the first word on Fitz? It's an aggressive ranking, but it comes from the Cardinals not necessarily having a sound run game this week.

The offensive line is in great shape. And they do get an improvement at quarterback with Drew Stanton coming in. So I think we could see more targets. I think he's better than Blaine Gabbert. It's not a huge upgrade. We're not talking about going from me to Tom Brady. But it's a slight upgrade. No, dude, I'm terrible at throwing a football.

Look, I don't know how well they'll run the ball, and I think throwing short passes to Fitzgerald can be an extension of that. Okay, great. And, Jamie, you still have him as a start, especially in PPR, but not quite as bullish on Fitzgerald. Yeah, I don't see him scoring. I think he's going to be fine PPR, but I think the quarterback is kind of the same.

Stanton and Gabbert are both sneaky. And no matter who the running back has been, whether it was Peterson or Kerwin Williams or I think Elijah Penny this week, I think you're going to see them still give that guy 15 to 20 carries. And Fitzgerald's production of late doesn't necessarily warrant much confidence. 15 to 20 carries. Well, then let me tell you this statistic. Nine running backs have had between 15 to 20 carries against the Giants. Six of them have scored at least seven fantasy points on rushing totals alone.

So just something to keep in mind if you need like a deep flex maybe. That's the last game we're going to preview, which is why I wanted to get to Fitzgerald right now because he's pretty interesting. So, okay, Fitzgerald, there you go, there you have it. And in two games with Stanton, he had five catches for 70 yards on nine targets at the Niners, and he had 10 catches for 113 yards on 14 targets against the Seahawks. Okay, so more on that game later on in the show. Here are your news and notes.

Do we know who's starting a quarterback for Denver yet? Brock Lynch. Paxton Osweiler. It's a big deal. It is. For one player, for Demarius. Yep. All right, we don't know.

That game we're previewing today. Greg Zerline. Oh, you ready for a dad joke? Go ahead. Hey, did you guys hear about the steakhouse in Los Angeles? The steakhouse in Los Angeles. Yeah, they ran out of Zerloin. Zerloin.

Zerloin. Yeah. So he's out for the year. You know, you're not allowed to make dad jokes unless you're a dad. Oh, yeah. Congratulations, by the way. That's not funny. Your father-in-law was very excited.

That's not funny. When I tweeted about the baby names, it really was for a listener. That's awesome, though. When is Allie due? Stop. Stop. You know, David Jamie Azar has a good ring to it, although you'd be naming your child the same thing as your brother. Yes, you're out.

So it's Jamie. It's got to be Jamie. Jamie Hazer. Yeah, my brother is David. All right. That's really awesome. I'm excited for you guys. Will you stop?

It's not a funny – I am going to be eventually, but it's not a funny joke. So who's a kicker to pick up this week if we need – But if you guys are too close to February, our kids could be like the same age. That would be fun. Yeah. What if you guys had kids born on the exact our kids could be the same age. That would be fun. What if you guys had kids born on the exact same day? Would you name them the same name? Well, no, I couldn't name my child Jamie, so Adam would be... They're both going to be Heath.

You can name your child Heath. They're both going to be Heath. How about that? Heath Heisenberg, Heath Azer. Anyway, give me a kicker to pick up. Phil Dawson. All right. 87% of leagues. Last I

checked, he was out there. Dan Bailey? Don't worry about weather with him. And I'm guaranteeing him as the best kicker for FanDuel this week. Really? Just like I guaranteed Robbie Gold last week. Oh, I might have to get in there because I have Dan Bailey right now. Maybe I'll get Phil Dawson instead. There's a guarantee. All right. More news.

Amari Cooper has a good chance to play this week. We will preview that game in a little bit. Devontae Adams is out this week. Tevin chance to play this week. We will preview that game in a little bit. Devontae Adams is out this week. Tevin Coleman will play this week. How many carries do you think Devontae Freeman gets? 15. 18. Oh, man, I hope it's 18.

I think he's a great fan to a value. He has amazing value. $7,000. Samaje Pirine left practice with a groin injury. Uh-oh, I don't think we want any running backs for the Redskins against the Broncos. Kerwin Williams missed practice again. That's what Jamie was just talking about. Marquise Goodwin is questionable with a back injury.

What is the status of the bet? The bet is on. He practiced on Thursday. Okay. Good. Yeah. So what I was thinking is if Wallace or Goodwin get injured in the first 40 minutes, then the bet's off. No.

Bet's on regardless of injury? They step on the field, the bet's on. All right, that's fine. Have you started thinking about what rap song you're going to make me rap? You don't care about it? Not really. You don't care about this?

I really wasn't part of the bet, so I'll just go along with it. You're playing the saxophone. I said I'll go along with it. Do you know how to play Careless Whisper? No. He'll figure it out. Yeah, he's a smart, talented guy.

Yeah, and it's going to be probably after the baby, so it's going to be a while. I don't care if it's after the baby. That's fine with me. I will wait. I'll pay up. I will wait. All right. Well, it better be sooner than the last bet that you had to pay up.

You'll get it when you get it. No, it's got to be within the three-month window. No, that's not happening. Three months? Three months? I'll be gone. That's March. I'll be gone. You're not going to be gone by March-month window. No, that's not happening. Three months? Three months? I'll be gone. That's March. I'll be gone.

You're not going to be gone by March. I'm gone for the Pro Bowl. I'm gone for the Super Bowl. And then I'm having a baby. So you're not going to see me very much. I'll see you in February or late February, early March. Yeah, that's going to happen in February. All right, all right.

I will come to your house to pay. So let's do more injuries. Injuries are fun. I'll pick up Heath. We'll get some donuts. Day of injuries. Rashawn Melvin is out this week, Colts cornerback. That's good news for Mike Wallace.

Jeremy Macklin is doubtful. That's good news for Mike Wallace. Devontae Parker sat with an ankle injury. Deshaun Jackson mispracticed again. Emmanuel Sanders mispracticed again. And do you expect the following players? Leonard Fournette. Yes.

Yeah. Jimmy Graham. Yeah. Jared Cook. He'll play, but you shouldn't start him. Devin Funchess. He'll play but you shouldn't start him Devin Funchess He'll play Cameron Brait Should play

Jamison Crowder What I said for Brait Alright Almost ready for the games But it's time for the most confusing moment In Adam's podcasting life This sucks So I got a tweet from

Ray Garofalo III One of our listeners Who directed me to the Stuff You Should Know podcast And on the Stuff You Should Know podcast I don't want to Completely give away what happened Because you know They're great podcasters you should listen to them

It's a good show I never really listened to it I actually have a friend who's a diehard listener of them Funny you should say He's a good show. I never really listened to it, but I listened yesterday. I actually have a friend who's a Die Hard listener of them. Funny you should say he's a Die Hard listener because they were talking about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. And one of the things they said...

Were we really the first people to do this? I don't know. I mean, it feels like it, doesn't it? I know that I never saw it anywhere before we brought it up. That's all I know. I don't know that we were the first. Same here. We didn't piggyback. One of the things they said –

Are you stealing it? I don't think so. On the podcast was that a movie critic went back and he looked at critic reviews from when it came out, and nobody considered it a Christmas movie at the time. He actually also brought up an interesting point about Scrooge. Which came out later that year. And watching action movies. Blah, blah, blah. Listen to it. Podcast.

It's cool. But the most important thing. Jeb Stewart. The guy who wrote Die Hard. Had an email exchange with one of the podcasters. On the Stuff You Should Know podcast. And the guy who wrote Die Hard said. It's a Christmas movie.

Yes. You were aware of this Dave when you brought it up? It is over, Adam. I just think he's a terrible writer. Oh my God. I'm just kidding. He wrote the greatest Christmas movie ever and you're... I hate that.

I just can't believe... First of all, I can't believe it took this long for someone to actually ask the writer, although I guess he's been doing some rounds on it But this is a hard moment for me It really is Go ahead I just don't think it's a Christmas movie I don't know man

But what am I supposed to say at this point You are allowed to think that it's not But you must now acknowledge that it is Alright fine That the general public Views this movie the way that that it's not, but you must now acknowledge that it is. All right. Fine. That the general public views this movie the way that Jamie and I have been saying it's been for the last... How many years has this debate been going on?

Six, seven? Seven-ish. I don't think ten. I don't think... Somewhere between seven and ten years. I haven't known you guys for ten years. We've done this a long time. I think like seven years, yeah. 2010? Maybe. Sounds right. Were you working here in 2010? Yeah, I started in 2009. I think it was probably like 2010 or 11.

Okay, so let's say seven years. I'd like to hear you acknowledge that the public believes, and it is correct, that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I will acknowledge that it is a Christmas movie, but most people don't think it is. No! You can't say most people don't think it is. There have been a lot of polls that have shown that people don't think it is. No. There have been a lot of polls. You can't say most people don't think it is. There have been a lot of polls that have shown that people don't think it is.

Thank you for acknowledging that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It's also based on a novel. I didn't know that. Did you? Yeah, I've read it. Oh, is it good? Yeah. I was a Die Hard nut when I first saw the movie.

Yeah, sure. Of all the movies I saw, it changed the course of my life, believe it or not. Really? It's totally stupid, but yeah. How so? That's interesting. That was the movie that got me interested in movies. Oh, that's great.

And I went to college to write movies and ended up writing about sports instead. What was the album that got you interested in music? Depends on which genre of music. Rock music. album that got you interested in music depends on which genre of music rock music um the the one that i can remember for sure buying and being excited about was bon jovi slippery yeah oh my god i love that album and the one that got me real interested in rap was uh slick rick i forget what it was called but it's the album with him on the cover with new york city as the backdrop and there's the song and the album of him and that girl with the in the tp tent i

wouldn't know it hey i i i people who know that song no i know what i'm talking about i hope we maybe be adventures i think it's the adventures of slick rrick. Cool, man. All right. Email of the day is from Nailbiter in Brussels. Dear Clint, John, Sam, and Roy. Those are Eastwood, Wayne, Elliot, and Rogers. All right. So if you are listening with your kids, I think it's a safe email. It's not that bad. But maybe you just want to mute it for like 20 seconds.

My friends and I take fantasy football very seriously. On top of the traditional buy-in, we often make side bets before the start of the season. This year, one of my friends and I may have taken things a little too far. We made a bet where the loser will have to get a nipple ring and keep it in for a month. We're now facing each other in the championship game. He's about to get Zeep back. I just lost Aaron Rodgers. I picked up Nick Foles.

Should I start Nick Foles over Phillip Rivers? I don't want to wear a nipple ring. Four point per passing touchdown. Yes, you should start Nick Foles over Phillip Rivers. I think Rivers is going to be fine, but I think Foles has much more blowout potential. I agree. Alright, I appreciated this email. That is a

bold bet. Good luck, man. Try to avoid that. Those are pretty out of style. I want this email. That is a bold bet. Good luck, man. Try to avoid that. Those are pretty out of style. I want to see a tweet of the result of that game and the result of the bet. Yeah, I kind of do too. I kind of want to see proof. I'm not into seeing other people's piercings. You want to see the guy's nipples?

That's okay. No, no, no. Can you milk him? I just want to make sure that the bet is paid off. All right, guys. Let's get into the games here. Let's start with Seattle at Dallas. Uh-oh.

Oh, you hear that? Oh, no. You hear that? You like that music, baby? Bonanza! You know, you did this on the radio show on Saturday. Yep. And I thought it was pretty clever then.

And it wasn't your idea? Was it your idea? Yeah, it was my idea. Sure. Okay, because I thought the producer might have decided to do it. Okay. All right. So this is it, huh?

This is it. This is it. I think it's going to be a big game. I know Dak will be the most interesting one, but let's start with the stat of the game. Kind of weird. Doug Baldwin has three or fewer catches in four of his last five games. You guys are starting Doug Baldwin. Are you a little nervous about him at all?

No. Slot receivers over the course of the season have had a lot of success against the Cowboys. Yep. That's part of the reason why this is the bonanza. You guys have Russell Wilson. But who's the third guy you're getting from Seattle? I hope it gets Graham. And who's the third guy you're getting from Dallas?

It's got to be Dez. So you're saying Dez, Dak, and Zeke? I think five out of six have a big game. You've got to get five. But what if it's Tyler Lockett, you know? No, you've got to get five people that people start. I think you've really made the Bonanza qualifications very, very difficult. Wait, it's five players that everybody starts does well?

Well, here's the thing. Five players that people are generally starting. I think that Dak Prescott's going to have a good game. You need both quarterbacks, one running back. Well, yeah, you need one running back because nobody's starting Mike Davis. He's a sleeper to me. Okay, but nobody's starting him, though. If you qualify as a sleeper, that's fine.

That's because it's a championship and nobody's starting him. No, no, I'll give you that because he was started. But you can't take credit for Tyler Lockett. Paul Richardson, maybe. Yeah, Richardson, Brian, fine. But if Terrence Williams goes for two touchdowns, you don't get credit for that. No, but if Witten does, I think I get credit for that Because some people start him

Alright, so I think it will be a high scoring game Anybody disagree? Are you nervous about the Cowboys? No, in fact, I came around on Dak yesterday You look at his games With Ezekiel Elliott Versus games without him He's a different quarterback

Averaged 22 fantasy points per game This year with Zeke Versus Elliott versus games without him, he's a different quarterback. Averaged 22 fantasy points per game this year with Zeke versus, was it 18 or 12 points per game without him? It was bad. I think he's going to have a similar game like he had against the Redskins. He's going to be right around 200 passing yards. He's going to be a couple touchdowns. He's going to be under 20 fantasy points, but he's going to be right there. I think he can get you to 20.

Yeah, I'm really hoping for more than that, obviously. This is kind of how I feel about it. I take the last six games out for the Cowboys for the most part because their offensive line was banged up, and unfortunately Tyron Smith is still banged up. And because they didn't have Zeke, and he's obviously a huge part of their offense. If this game were being played seven weeks ago, we would be expecting about 50 points, I think.

Maybe I'm being naive, and Dallas was exposed a little bit. Dez is obviously not the same player he used to be. But, you know, the Seahawks are giving up a lot of points to wide receivers since the Richard Sherman and Cam Chancellor injuries. Unfortunately, it's kind of been number two receivers. But anyway, all right, let's just go through it one by one. Baldwin's a start. Russell Wilson's a top two quarterback.

Jimmy Graham, start or sit. He has zero catches. Or what is he? One catch. One catch for negative one yard. For negative one in his last two games. Five targets. Yeah.

With a drop. Start or sit Jimmy Graham? Start. Even despite all that? Start him unless you're able to get Eric Ebron. Oh, yeah? How about you, Dave? get Eric Ebron. Oh, yeah? How about you, Dave? Graham or Ebron?

And Cameron Bray. I'll start Graham over both of those guys. The one thing that I noticed is that the Cowboys ran three plays in the red zone over their last two games. None. Or not the Cowboys. Let me start over. The Seahawks ran three plays in the opponent's red zone over the last two games. None last week. Cowboys have allowed 16 red's red zone over the last two games. None last week.

Cowboys have allowed 16 red zone plays against them the last two weeks. Cool. So I'm thinking Seattle can move the ball much better here than they could in their past two matchups. Great. Where game flow didn't get away from them and matchup wasn't – or matchup was a huge issue. All right. That was a good stat. But both of these guys, Dave and Jamie, have Kyle Rudolph and Evan Ingram ahead of Jimmy Graham,

just in case you have to make that decision. And obviously Greg Olson, too, and Delaney Walker and the obvious guys. Let's go to the Cowboys here. So Dak Prescott, 17th for Heath. He's the little guy. Jamie's got Prescott, 15th. He doesn't expect 20 fantasy points. And Dave does.

So, yeah, you have him 12th. You'll start Foles over Dak. Keenum or Dak? Keenum. You have Dak one spot ahead of Winston, two spot ahead of Rivers. Alright. Works for me. And Ezekiel Elliott is a

must-start. He's one for Dave, he's three for Jamie. So how do you feel about Des Bryant, guys? I think he can score, but that's what you're hoping for. Right. If he doesn't score, then he's not going to help your team very much. I think there's a chance for it.

We've seen the Seahawks allow touchdowns to wide receivers at least one in four straight games, I believe. And a lot of them have been outside guys. Robert Woods did it last week in his first game back after missing several weeks. So Sanu has scored. Lewis Murphy has scored. Nelson Aguilar has scored.

Keelan Cole and DeeDee Westbrook scored, and Robert Woods scored. That's the five games without Richard Sherman and Cam Chancellor. In those games, Julio Jones had seven fantasy points. Marquise Goodwin had seven fantasy points. Alshon Jeffrey had six,. Marquise Goodwin had seven fantasy points. Alshon Jeffrey had six. And Marquise Lee had six. So they have actually taken away the number one guys, which makes me a little nervous about the Bonanza.

But Dallas is just so different because, you know, they just hardly ever get good production from a wide receiver not named Dez. This is a weird call for you. You think so? Yeah. I buy into the Zeke factor, and I have no concerns about Seattle scoring points. I agree with you on both of those points. And they're excited to get Zeke back.

Again, referencing the article in the Dallas Morning News that I read where Dez was basically saying out loud that he dares the Seahawks to double-team him because then it just means Ezekiel Elliott's going to go off. So the Cowboys clearly think that Zeke's return is going to open things up everywhere else. It's also a huge game, and these teams need to play their best. And the KJ Wright, he's probably going to play, but Wagner's clearly hurt, so that helps. Last thing, I want to make it clear. Don't listen to me on this.

Listen to Dave and Jamie. So let's do some flexes with Des Bryant. Des Bryant or Jordan Howard? Howard. Howard. Des Bryant or C.J. Anderson? Anderson. I'll go Des.

Des Bryant or Lamar Miller? Miller. Miller. Miller. All right. And then Jason Witten is okay. Okay start. I guess we can... Not for Jamie.

For Dave and Heath, he's top 15. For Jamie, he's 18th in standard, 15th in PPR. I think you can do better with Ebron and Bray. And Gates and Croft and Seals Jones and Watson and Clay. A lot more blowout potential for those tight ends. I mean, let's be honest. Jason Witten has scored twice in his last five games and still got under 10 fantasy points. Yeah, he's –

That tells you how bad he is. He could have zero points. Yep, he's terrible. And without Tyron Smith there, he's going to spend a lot of time chipping and blocking. So I want no part of Jason Witten. All right, fair enough. Thank you for clarifying that. All right, let's go to Oakland at Philadelphia.

Two stats of the game, both for running backs, both not good for running backs. So stat of the game number one, in the six Eagles home games, no visiting running back is more than 38 rushing yards against the Eagles. Stat of the game number two. Only three running backs have scored double-digit fantasy points in standard scoring leagues with less than 15 carries against the Raiders.

And all three of those running backs caught a touchdown. Chris Thompson, Damian Williams, and Deion Lewis. So that's not good. Those two stats, not good for Lynch. No running back is more than 38 rushing yards at Philadelphia, and not good for Ajayi because no running back has done well with less than 15 carries except for the ones who have caught touchdowns. Are you starting any running backs in this game?

I would prefer not to. Ajayi is my favorite of the bunch because I think he's the safest to get you eight fantasy points. I think he's going to score. I think this is Ajayi's best game in a while, certainly best games in terms of where his touches have been compared to what his production will be. So I think he's going to be double-digit fantasy points. Why don't you rank these two running backs, Ajayi Lynch, in terms of where his touches have been compared to what his production will be. So I think he's going to be double-digit fancy points. Okay. Why don't you rank these two running backs, Ajayi Lynch and I didn't really talk about Mike Davis.

And Mike Davis? In that order. Ajayi Lynch-Davis? Mm-hmm. Okay. Marshawn Lynch or Dez Bryant? Dez. Dez.

Ajayi or Bryant? Ajayi. Dez. Allz. Ajayi or Bryant? Ajayi. Dez. All right. Jamie, how about PPR? Dez. Dez. Dez close.

It's not like he's catching a ton of passes each week. All right. Let's talk about Derek Carr. Are you going to move him up at all? You have him 20th and 22nd, and Heath has him outside the top 24. With Amari Cooper seemingly likely to play, or does Carr stay around 20? He may move up one or two spots. That's about it.

I don't think he'll crack the top 15. Okay. There's a lot that you could say about him that's favorable, but the fact is he just hasn't been a high-ceiling fantasy quarterback this year. No. Without going through all the numbers, the Eagles' defense has struggled the last few weeks. Yeah. Especially, I mean, all three weeks.

At the Rams two weeks ago. Yeah. At the Seahawks the week before. Great offense. Great quarterback. At the Giants. That was surprising. That was a surprising one.

Division rival. Always a battle. So you think they put together a good defensive effort in this game? I think the spotlight is on them to do it after what happened last week. Yeah. And so there's going to be a little bit of pressure, and I'm sure the coaches are going to say, all right, it's time to step up. And this is a great opponent for them to do it against.

Raiders offensive line is beat up. Cross-country trip. Just doesn't set up. That's right. There's no Donald Penn at left tackle. Good spot for the Raiders. Yeah, I'm looking at the Eagles' schedule. And, you know, they struggled with the Giants and with the Chargers.

They were banged up in the secondary. Since then, they just haven't faced good teams, good offenses, except for at Carolina, I'd say. They won 28-23. But I don't know. It's really more of an NFL discussion. I'm interested to see how good this Eagles defense really is because they've had some cakewalk competition. And then it got tough, and they didn't play all that well.

So we'll see. I don't know if this qualifies as tough, though. That's the thing, right. I mean, this has not been a very good offense. Very disappointing offense, for sure. Yep. All right, so what about Cooper and Crabtree, guys? What do you do with them?

Crabtree, I think, is still a must-start guy. I mean, you've seen the targets the last two weeks. It'll go down, clearly, if Cooper plays, but I don't think it's going from 30 to 10. I mean, he's had 17 and 13 targets. He'll still be 8 to 10 targets. And so, given what his touchdown potential has been over the course of his tenure with raiders certainly with car i think it's worth still starting as a number two receiver he gets downgraded clearly if cooper plays but it's not uh benching

oh i don't know if he gets downgraded that much because the double teams won't be there anymore eagles have to go after cooper too they can't just focus everything on crabtree when they're in the red zone they're gonna the red zone. They're going to have to play straight up against them. And that helps Crabtree. The Raiders defend Cooper in the red zone because they don't throw to him. Yeah.

Rank the four wide receivers in this game. Right now, Crabtree, Jeffrey, Aguilar, Cooper. If Cooper plays. Aguilar's been on tear. Aguilar's been great. I'm going to say Jeffrey Aguilar's been not tear. Aguilar's been great. I'm going to say Jeffrey Crabtree, Aguilar, Cooper. Okay. Awesome.

And then we'll talk about Jared Cook. And we won't really talk about him because you should sit Jared Cook. So Nick Foles is top five. We've already discussed him. If you want to hear our Nick Foles discussion, that's earlier in the show, probably about five minutes in. We expect him to have a good game against the Raiders. We talked about Jay Ajayi. Not starting LeGarrette Blount, right?

No chance? Nope. I'm reading in your notes that in six games with Ajayi, he has three, five, seven, two, two, and two fantasy points. That's right. Pretty bad. And then the Eagles wide receivers, I think we just covered a little bit. I'll give you some names to compare to Alshon Jeffrey and Nelson Aguilar. Would you start Latavius Murray or Alshon Jeffrey? Murray.

Yeah, Murray. All right. Would you start J.J. or Alshon Jeffrey? Alshon. Alshon. All right. So if you're going to start a running back over Alshon Jeffrey, it's got to be a running back that you really, really like this week.

Fair? Well said? Well put? Well, yes. Great job. A Collins, a McCaffrey, Jordan Howard, Fournette, one of those guys. There you go. And start Zagerts and the Eagles DST.

They have faith in them. Fifth for Jamie, sixth for Dave, and third for Heath. Atlanta at New Orleans. Yeah, I thought about bonanzing this one, but I remember on the Thursday game just a few weeks ago, I was like, this game's going to go under the total, like big time. It was a high total, and it is again this week in Vegas. I think it's in the 50s.

And I kind of felt like it were underrated defenses and perhaps overrated offenses, at least for Atlanta. Anyway, here's your stat of the game. Okay, I know blanket statement, start both Saints running backs. However, really tough decisions this week. You've got teams that are getting Zeke back. You've got the best teams in your leagues. So do you have any concerns at all about Ingram or Kamara?

Because the Falcons have been very good against running backs. I think they allow the fourth fewest fantasy points to running backs. Only one running back in their last eight games has had more than 66 rushing guards against the Falcons. Any concerns at all about Kamara or Ingram? Nope. I think Kamara may go off, you know, just kind of the I owe you one type of game. And they've been so bad against pass catching running backs for two years. Yeah.

Okay. I guess I'm actually – I don't want to say I'm concerned about Ingram, but I'm concerned about him getting 12 carries. We have – so our video host, Nick Costas, is in a league where they do not use a flex. It's two running backs, three receivers. It's PPR, and he's getting Zeke back with a team that has girly ingram and zeke he's benching right right like i i have a league where i have ingram mccoy gordon and collins and unfortunately i lost the squeaker last week but these are the types of decisions people are making is ingram a top five

guy this week or is he more top 10 top 10 but i would play him over the other two guys you mentioned which were who you'd play him over playing collins guys you mentioned. Which were who? You'd play him over... McCoy and Collins. McCoy and Collins, okay, but not over Gordon. No. I think it's just more... Look, they've gone up against a lot of tough run defenses this season, and they smashed them.

The one team that he didn't smash, though, was the Falcons. Yeah, but that was... Remember, he was questionable to play on Thursday with a toe problem. Kamara got hurt. You wonder what the game plan was going into that because they really featured Kamara on that first drive. They sure did, yeah. And so you just have to wonder if it was, you know, all right, Mark, you're taking a backseat this week.

You're going to get your work, but this is going to be Alvin's game. And then all of a sudden he gets the concussion, and it's like, oh – I'm just purely speculating. But you just have to wonder how much practice he got in, what his mindset was. And they're at home. Yeah. No, look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even spent that much time on it. No, it's worth it.

It's certainly worth it because he struggled against them the last time. Tough calls to make this week. All right, Matt Ryan. Would you spend the money on the Mandali? I have on Kamara. Yeah, I'm not sure I would on Ingram. But, yeah. All right, let's go to – well, let's stick with the Saints, I guess.

Drew Brees, how confident are you in him? Because he almost had a huge game. He throws that touchdown instead of the interception at the end of that game two weeks ago. He's got 28 points instead of 20. And the Falcons have struggled. I mean, look, last week, Jameis Winston, 30 fantasy points. Four straight quarterbacks have 20 or more against them. How comfortable are you with Breeze this week?

I think Breeze is safe. I don't know if there's blow-up potential here. Don't you kind of know what you're getting with him? Yep. Breeze or Stafford? Stafford. I think I have Breeze higher. Breeze or Foles? Foles. Foles.

Okay. We like the Foles. Okay. We like the running backs. Michael Thomas, he's in my FanDuel lineup. He's going to have a big game. Anyone else for the Saints? Nope. No, there isn't a sleeper in the passing game, which hurts Drew Brees a little bit.

Like, you know Michael Thomas will get his, and then who's going to get that second touchdown? Is it Kamara? Probably. It's going to be Thomas second touchdown? Is it Kamara? Probably. It's going to be Thomas. If you had to pick somebody. Well, Thomas is going to have at least two overturned this week, I think. Let's go to the Falcons.

Start or sit Matt Ryan? Sit. Cannot trust him. Yeah. Okay. I wonder how many fantasy teams are in the championship with Matt Ryan as the quarterback. Yeah, I don't know. But I would run away from him. I'm playing against one.

I'm happy that I am. I picked up Foles as a block, you know, to try and block the guy. Flacco's still sitting out there. I'm almost considering just dropping somebody else to get Flacco. I think you should. Which quarterback would you rather go up against, Ryan or Flacco? I mean, Flacco. Ryan, obviously.

That's a move I would do if I were you. I don't have the guys to drop at this point. Jamie has Flacco ahead. Everybody has Flacco ahead of Ryan, except for Heath. He has Ryan 15th and Flacco 16th. He's on the road for the second straight week. He hasn't shown any ability to get you big fantasy points yet this year. It's week 16. And the Saints secondary is good.

Okay. How about the running backs? Devontae Freeman, Tevin Coleman, Freeman start, Coleman sit. I know that, but Freeman or Ingram Kamara? Freeman, to me, is the best one in this game. I've got... No, Kamara, Freeman, Ingram.

I've got it in the exact opposite order as of now. I've got Ingram first, then Freeman, Ingram I've got it in the exact opposite order I've got Ingram first, then Freeman, then Kamara It sounds like the Falcons want to play ball control If you listen to Dan Quinn I listened to his press conference on Thursday Because that's when he announced that Tevin Coleman cleared protocol And he kind of said that he wants to try and control the clock

With the ground game And I can't blame him Based on how Freeman's been playing And you know what Coleman's capable of doing. That hurts Matt Ryan and that helps Freeman. And ultimately it'll give Coleman a chance at 12 touches in the game

for whatever that's worth. How about Tevin Coleman or Mike Davis? Coleman. Coleman. Okay, Tevin Coleman or Wayne Gallman? Gallman, PPR, Coleman standard. Yep. All right, these are flexes.

These are like, they're not really even flexes. They're number threes. You probably do better, right? But the Saints have allowed some numbers to running backs lately. Yes, they have. In their last five games, seven running backs have scored double-digit fantasy points in standard scoring leagues. Dave, let me move on to the wide receivers here. How confident are you in Julio Jones this week?

I'm not. I've got him lower than I've ever had him ranked. Maybe ever. Wow, 15th. Yeah, and I might drop him even further. Whoa, really? I love the secondary for New Orleans. I hate that the Falcons are on the road second week in a row.

It sounds like they want to run the football more. I don't think this is going to be a game where the Saints are up 28-0 and Atlanta's got to just throw, throw, throw like crazy to get back into it. And just like Matt Ryan, we've seen a pretty solid year's worth of data on Julio Jones to know what to expect. Well, who would you start over Julio Jones? And Jamie, do you feel the same way? I think you're still starting Julio Jones. I don't think a lot of people are going to bench him.

So, yeah, 98 yards receiving against him. The problem with him is is he doesn't score. He's going to need to score to be top 10 worthy. I think I have him right on the cusp there. He always has that potential. It's like we talk about with a lot of receivers. The potential is hard to get

past sometimes when you're talking about great players. I don't see much difference between Julio Jones and A.J. Green. Starter set, Mohamed Sanu? pass sometimes when you're talking about great players. I don't see much difference between Julio Jones and A.J. Green. Okay. All right, then. And starter sit Mohamed Sanu. I like the matchup for him. He's scoring two straight against him. I think he can come through with 40 yards

and a touchdown. Yeah, he's a borderline 2-3 guy. Starter sit Austin Hooper. Easy. Sit, sit, sit. Let's go a little faster here. It's my fault. I've Sit, sit, sit. Let's go a little faster here. It's my fault.

I've been blabbering. Denver at Washington. Stat of the game. This will speed things up. The Washington Monument is 555 feet and one-fifth of an eighth of an inch tall. I had a tour guide when I was in, like, third grade tell me that over and over and over again, and I never forgot it. So now neither will you.

Denver has played three East Coast games this year. They have lost all three. I think I might be wrong on this, actually. Am I wrong on this? No. They lost to Buffalo. They lost to Philadelphia. And they lost at Miami. I was right on this.

I'm sorry. Not only have they lost to them all, but according to your notes, they've lost by double digits each time. Yeah, they've been really bad on the East Coast. So let's start with the Redskins here. Kirk Cousins or Matt Ryan. I know you don't like Ryan that much. Do you like him better or worse than Kirk Cousins? Better.

Okay, so we're sitting Cousins. Yeah, it's close though. Is there any Redskin you want to start in this game? I'll tell you what, if Capri Bibbs is the starter there, he's a very nice sleeper this week. Well, how would you feel about Samadji Piran if Piran were the starter? Well, I just think that you're going to get Bibbs working in passing situations regardless of if Piran's healthy or not. So my expectation would be is that he's going to get a very heavy workload, especially working in the passing game. So standard league is probably not so much, but I think he could be a sleeper in PPR.

So you think he'll get a lot of touches? I think it's not to the same level of talent, but the same level that we talked about Chris Thompson when P. Ryan was hurt and Rob Kelly was hurt. You think he'll get a lot of numbers? I think he'll get a decent amount of production. So you're drooling over Bibbs? No.

It's a revenge game, too. He played for them the last three years How about Wayne Goleman or Bibbs? If it's just Bibbs I'll take Bibbs Alright, but if Piran's there You'll take Goleman? And it's the championship so probably people

Aren't starting these guys How about the wide receivers? Starters to Jamison Crowder Hate the matchup for him Hate the matchup for all of Washington's receivers. Going to be tough for Cousins to hit them. Sit your Redskins. And then C.J. Anderson.

Would you start C.J. Anderson or, well, we've only really talked about great running backs so far today. So let's go to an AFC home game, guys. C.J. Anderson or Tavius Murray? Murray. Murray was close. I think Anderson's a top 20 running back. Yeah. Yep.

If he scores a touchdown, based on the workload he's going to get, you're going to get a top 10 production type of game. Oh, how about C.J. Anderson or J.J.? Anderson. Yep. Okay, cool. So Anderson's got an opportunity here. And then, so give me your quick take on Demarius Thomas, cool. So Anderson's got an opportunity here. So give me your quick take on Demarius Thomas, guys.

If Osweiler starts, I like him better, but I still don't love, love, love him. I think he's an okay number two. And if Lynch starts, you can't trust him. And I think if Lynch starts, that hurts C.J. Anderson as well. I don't think it hurts C.J. Anderson. I think it only hurts C.J. Anderson as well. I don't think it hurts C.J. Anderson. I think it only hurts Thomas. Do you care at all that the Broncos allow the fourth most fantasy points to tight ends? I mean, it's helped, but Vernon Davis, it'll help Vernon Davis,

but he's had great matchups, you know, what, for the last six weeks, for the last seven weeks? Right. And then the Redskins DST, not so much. The Broncos DST is interesting. Jamie's got them 15th. Dave has them 5th. What do you think, Jamie?

Why so low on the Broncos? Well, they had a great matchup last week. They just haven't been getting to the quarterback very much. It may change this week because of the offensive line injuries. I get that. They haven't been getting a lot of turnovers recently. Crescens doesn't really turn the ball over that much. So I just think this could be still a low-scoring game without a lot of turnovers from the other side.

Each of the last four DSTs to play Washington have posted 11 or more fantasy points. Those have been good ones, though. They have been good ones. I think Denver's a good one. Not so much anymore. Shane Ray's gone. They don't have another pass rusher on the other side of Von Miller. Yeah, and I guess the thing is the East Coast thing really does kind of bother me because

they have played horribly. Second straight road trip for them, too. I wonder, though, if it's a long week, if that matters less, but I'm not sure. So let's move on to Tampa Bay, Carolina. Another very interesting fantasy game here. A lot more interesting than the last one we just talked about. Stat of the game. Let's look at how Mike Evans could do in this game.

He only scored six fantasy points the first time he faced Carolina. That was seven weeks ago. In those six games since, the Panthers, so they did a good job against Evans. Since then, they've allowed double-digit fantasy points to a wide receiver in six straight games, and five wide receivers have scored 13 or more fantasy points in those six games. So this does look like a good matchup for Mike Evans. Start or sit, Michael Evans.

I can't imagine a game script that's going to not favor Mike Evans. If it's a close game, Tampa Bay sticks around because of Jameis, or maybe they somehow have some decent defensive play. That's going to help Evans. If they're trailing, like I think everybody expects, targets are going to be all over the place, and it's going to help Evans. More importantly, no Deshaun Jackson, no O.J. Howard. We're running out of quality targets on the Tampa Bay side of the ball.

So I think he's going to get more targets and more catches than he had last week. And you said it, Carolina's been bad against the pass. That's the weakness of their defense. A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Mike Evans. How would you rank them? Evans, Jones, Green. I'll take Green, Evans, Jones. All right, so Evans is a start this week, huh?

Big time. Cool. Jameis Winston, start or sit? I think you can call him a starter. He's one of those quarterbacks that I like. But he's not in my top 12. Jameis Winston, start or sit? I think you can call him a starter. He's one of those quarterbacks that I like, but he's not in my top 12. He's 13th, but I still think he can get you 20 to 22. He's in that type of range. Same range as Rivers.

22-22, you just said there. Yeah, he's better than Cousins. He's better than Dak. He's better than Ryan. He's better than Mariota, Dalton, all those guys. I would take Dak over Jameis. Yeah, not me. There's more upside with Jameis.

So I think you're looking at he needs to – look, he played great last week. He needs to do that again. He's better than Goff. He's been a better fantasy quarterback than real quarterback this year. Any interest in the Tampa Bay running backs? None. Okay. No thank you.

Cameron Brait. Yeah, Barber's a flex if Martin's out again. Cameron Brait or Evan Ingram? Ingram. Ingram. Cameron Brait. Oh, well, we did this one earlier. You both have Brait over Jimmy Graham?

No. I don't right now, but I'm going to change that. Oh, I'm sorry. I've got Graham, Ebron, Brait. Yeah, there's more upside with Braayton just given what he's done. And no Thomas Davis, no O.J. Howard. He actually plays well at home or on the road. Whereas Jimmy Graham plays bad on the road.

Yeah, okay. And then, like, he had a stretch of four straight games with a touchdown earlier this season. He was really good for, like, six games in a row or so. Yeah, and you've got to imagine his playing time goes way up with Howard not there anymore. A little banged up, though. Check on his injury. As long as he practices Friday, he'd be better than Jimmy Graham. We're not going to talk about Cam Newton here.

We talked about him about three minutes into the show, I believe. He's number one for Dave and Jamie. He's number three for Heath. How do you approach the Carolina running backs? This run defense has completely fallen apart. They've been terrible against past catching running backs. Tell me about Stewart and McCaffrey this week. You should start them confidently

with a smile. Stewart, too? They even do a little dance. Really? Stewart? Like McCaffrey, yes. A little dance like this. McCaffrey, yes, but Stewart? Yeah. Yeah. I think he can score. I know we said that last week, and he didn't, and that was disappointing. I think he's going to score twice. He'll make up for last week.

Sure. I mean, but you have to at least acknowledge the downside of a guy who has, like, two games this year with more than 50 rushing yards. Yeah, but going into last week, three of his last four, so now I don't know what he finished with. So I'll assume he had over four yards per carry in three of those games, and so he was running the ball well. He's not catching the ball, which is the problem. Right. Well, he caught a ball last week. You're still catching the ball, which is the problem. Right. But he caught a ball last week. You're still talking about a guy that has the chance to score. And in a game where they're without Joe McCoy, where their run defense has been bad, even when they had McCoy, you know, he gave you nine fantasy points the last time these two teams met.

I'd say that's the floor. Wow. Really? Yeah. I think you get more than 30 rushing yards and finds the end zone. I can't say that nine points is the floor because, you know, the floor has to be less than six points in case he doesn't score. But I think he's got a good chance to do it. I think Carolina marches.

Okay, great. Big game. This is just one of those statement-type games for the Panthers. Would you guys start Christian McCaffrey or Kenyon Drake? Drake. You can talk me into McCaffrey and PPR, though. I would take Drake.

Okay. So, a running back has had 60 receiving yards in three of the last five games or something like that against Tampa Bay. They've been so bad in that regard. This is an interesting one, because I know you guys like Olsen this week.

You have Olsen as a top five tight end. Start or sit Devin Funchess? I'm still going with the matchup. I can't love Cam and not like his pass catchers. Cam was great last week without Funchess doing anything. So I think the shoulder injury has really become a problem for him because you saw last week he had a ball hit him in the hands in the end zone. He couldn't come down with it immediately grabbed for a shoulder so with olsen

getting i mean the targets flipped they went right to olsen and so that's makes me very nervous like i have fun just uh in a league where i'm starting cooks starting cooks uh marvin jones and deandre hopkins my fourth option will be Mike Wallace. My fifth option, in a distant five, is Devin Funchess. Wow. I just can't trust him. What about Demarius Thomas or Devin Funchess? I take Thomas, whoever the quarterback is.

I'll go Funchess. Okay. I think both Steelers receivers are better this week. I think both Lions receivers are better this week. D.D. Westbrook's better this week. It's just tough to say. If he's healthy, it's a different story, but he's not healthy. I mean, that's very clear.

He hasn't been able to practice, and if he's going to take shots in games like he did, it's tough to say he's going to finish at a high level. All right, Carolina's DST is 13th, 13th, and 14th for Jamie, Dave, and Heath. They have the third most sacks in the NFL, and we know the offensive line is really bad for the Bucs. Yeah, that might be a little too low. Okay. That's one I might revisit. Let's go to Jacksonville at San Francisco here.

Stat of the game. In their last four games, the Niners have not allowed more than five fantasy points to a running back, despite three running backs having 17 or more carries. And no running back has averaged more than 3.3 yards per carry in those four games. And those opponents were Eddie Lacy, whatever, Jordan Howard, DeMarco Murray, and Lamar Miller. So Fournette's definitely better than those guys,

but he comes in banged up. We know that. We've talked about some running backs we really like. How about Christian McCaffrey or Leonard Fournette this week? I'll take McCaffrey PPR, but Fournette's thinner. Yep. Most people are going to start Leonard Fournette, but you'd start like Devante Freeman over him, right?

For sure. Would you start Kenyon Drake or Leonard Fournette? It's Drake as of now. Still Drake. I don't care if Damian wins. You don't care? I'll still take Drake. I might care.

All righty. More on this game then. Bortles or Foles? Bortles. I'll take Foles. More blowout potential. Okay. And they both have – they're both top seven guys for Dave and Jamie.

Bortles will be fine. But I think just the ceiling's higher for Foles at home. I think the ceiling's higher for Bortles on the road. He's got a good matchup, and it's one that could be a little challenging. And he's been playing great. His receivers have been playing great. I don't think there's going to be a big pass rush coming down on him. I think the secondary for San Francisco is not that good,

and I think Blake Bortles is going to be very good. Yeah, they just had a hard time sometimes when they go west. Yeah, that is a bit of a factor here. They lost 27-24 at Arizona, and Blake Bortles had 160 passing yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. He led the team in rushing. He had 62 rushing

yards and two touchdowns to get him to 22 fantasy points. But it was weird. But, you know, this is a great matchup. Man, the last five quarterbacks, or maybe six, against the Niners have just killed them, or at least done very well. Four of the last five. Yeah, well, Trubisky.

They played the Bears in there. Trubisky, though, he had 11 fantasy points on 15 pass attempts. So, you know, he played well, but you're right. I mean, he didn't have a big game. All right, we talked about Fournette. So the wide receivers, how do you approach the wide receivers? Doesn't look like Lee and Hearns are going to play. Do you love Westbrook this week, or does he make you nervous?

Because last week they went to Cole and Mickens. I like Westbrook. I don't love Westbrook. I think he's a number two wide receiver. But I'm not ready to all of a sudden say he's a must-start guy. I feel the same way. And if Hearns is out, I moved them both down a little bit when it looked like Hearns was coming back. And if Hearns is out, I'm going to move them both back up a little bit.

But they're both going to be – Westbrook's the number two. I like him better than Cole. But Cole, to me, is a really nice sleeper. And if Hearns is out, that means he's going to get close to the same amount of targets he had last week. Yeah, he's got three good games in a row, Keelan Cole. But last week was the first time he really got a lot of targets. And he's caught like 13 of his last 15 targets, which is nice. So he's got that going for him.

He's got seven of nine last week. Right, and I think he caught like six of six the two weeks before, something like that. That pretty much covers it. Well, how about this? Let's go to Marquise Goodwin. Rank the wide receivers in this game. Rank Westbrook, Cole, Goodwin.

You know where I'm going to come out on this one. Goodwin's my number one. And then Westbrook and then Cole. I'll take Westbrook over Goodwin and then Goodwin over Cole. So, Dave, I guess back it up. Why do you like Goodwin so much given the matchup? Well, the matchup, I don't think it's as bad as you think it is. The Jaguars have allowed six touchdowns to wide receivers in the last four games,

at least one per game. Seven deep passes of 25-plus yards allowed. Five of them were for touchdowns. Three of them were allowed by Jalen Ramsey. We're all expecting Ramsey to cover Goodwin. I love this fact especially, that Goodwin has been getting the volume of targets and a lot of work and a lot of numbers without necessarily being a one-trick pony. He's running a lot of crossing routes, inside routes, a different type of route tree than

we saw from him even earlier this year. And the ultimate factor to me is Garoppolo, who I don't necessarily love him this week. I think he's more of a sleeper than a start for fantasy. But I think he's playing great. And I think even with this pass rush for Jacksonville, and it is going to be a problem, I think he can overcome it. I think he can get rid of the ball quick. Goodwin can make plays after the catch.

Jaguars have struggled with speed. And I think they're going to have to throw. I think the 49ers will throw a lot in this game. And it all leads me to believe that Goodwin will be solid again. And there have been four wide receivers who have had double-digit targets against the Jaguars. One guy did twice. Okay. Hopkins.

Hopkins, Brown, Coleman. Okay. Yeah. All right. So, but there have been four instances. And in those three, in those four games, three of them scored double-digit fantasy points. Corey Coleman had 80 yards, so he had 80. I put Goodwin much closer to Coleman than I do

to the other two guys, clearly. I mean, Antonio Brown and DeAndre Hopkins are two of the best receivers in football. Goodwin is certainly playing great, and he may get double-digit targets. I would be shocked if he did not get it, but I think eight fantasy points is about the ceiling. We're talking about a guy that has one touchdown on the year, and as great as he's played in these unbelievable matchups that he's had the last three weeks,

which has made Garoppolo look like the next coming of Tom Brady, which has made this offense look a lot better, which is part of the reason why their defense has played better, because their offense has played better. They played the Bears, they played the Texans, and they played the Titans. Those are three miserable, miserable defenses. And so, yes, Goodwin is worth starting as at least the number three receiver, and yes, he should get, I'll say, eight to ten targets. So I think he's going to get you eight fantasy points, but that's the ceiling for him because he doesn't score, probably not going to score this week,

and while some of those touchdowns have been allowed against Jalen Ramsey, some of them are against, three of them were against Russell Wilson, who moves around in the pocket better than anybody that we've seen, or certainly behind the line of scrimmage better than anybody we've seen. So I don't want to trust Marquis Goodwin this week, I do not want to trust Jimmy Garoppolo this week, and I definitely do not want to trust Carlos Hyde this week.

Yeah, sit Carlos Hyde, and let's move on to our next game. Hey, you want a sleeper wide receiver? We'll give you a sleeper wide receiver. Cleveland has allowed more than 80 yards to a wide receiver in three straight games, and Kendall Wright has 80 or more yards in two straight games. Kendall Wright, is he a sleeper wide receiver? Definitely. All right. Definitely. And I think he's

a starter in PPR at this point. Yeah, I have to make a tough choice in the Dynasty League team that we share Adam for the championship that Kendall Wright as our second flex or Jamal Williams. And I'm leaning toward Kendall Wright. Kendall Wright. I'll make that call for you. Kendall Wright. The only concern would be does Jordan Howard slash Tariq Cohen get moving in a major way? Do they just run the ball down the throats of the Cleveland Browns? Wasn't it the Bengals game that we thought that would happen? No, it didn't.

We didn't. It did happen, right. And Kendall Wright had a good game that week. Did he? Yeah, that was two games ago. He had his best game of the season, 10-for-107. That was against Cincinnati? Mm-hmm. I didn't think he did that against Cincinnati.

All right, listen. So that's him. That's right. What about Howard? I'm a little surprised you guys have him in the top 15 just because he's been mostly bad lately. Game script. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's the big thing. When they have enough possession and they're playing from ahead, he should get all the carries, right? He should get the work. All right. C.J. Anderson or Jordan? I think I asked you that. Jordan Howard over Anderson, right?

Yes. Yep. It's very close, though. Right. I think you have them back-to-back. I don't know if he'll have an efficient game. Howard might have 22 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown. Okay.

Okay. And how about Isaiah Crowell? How do you feel about him? I kind of want to like him, but I just can't trust Brown's running back. Especially when Duke's been doing well. He kind of is who he is. I mean, you're talking about a guy that's, when he's on his game, he's 20-ish. When he's not on his game, he's 20-ish. When he's not on his game, he's 40-ish.

So I think he's a flex, kind of a desperation starting running back. Okay. He's played pretty well in his last seven games, but he also has some really bad games in there. I would take him over Hyde. Crowell? Okay. So Crowell over Hyde. Who's a better flex, Tariq Cohen or Duke Johnson?

Duke. Who's a better flex, Duke Johnson or Josh Gordon? Gordon. Who's a better flex, Duke Johnson or Kendall Wright? Standard, Duke, PPR, Wright. I'll take Duke in both. Josh Gordon. They catch about the same amount of passes.

Duke scores more touchdowns. Josh Gordon or Jordan Howard? Flex. Howard. Howard. Josh Gordon or Mike Evans? Evans. Evans.

Josh Gordon or Mike Wallace? Wallace. Easy. Gordon. Easy. Easy. All right. Finally, Mike Evans or Josh Gordon or Des Bryant?

Gordon. All right. Trust Gordon. I think that is it for this game. Is Adam Shaheen a sleeper for you? Cleveland allows second most fantasy points to tight ends. No, there's so many more intriguing and enticing tight ends that you can find off the waiver wire. You'd have to be just down to next to nothing

at tight end available. I can guarantee this point. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to do this game pretty quickly. Watch this. Giants at Arizona. So we already talked about Larry Fitzgerald. Jamie thinks he's a good number two option.

Dave likes him a lot, especially in PPR. Seventh in PPR. Sit the quarterbacks. Sit the running backs, right? Well, I mean, how do you feel about an Arizona running back? Giants, obviously not that good against running backs. If you're stuck, and Elijah Penny's the guy. He's got touchdown potential.

He's going to get 15 carries. How would you feel about Kerwin Williams if Kerwin plays? Same. Okay. Except I don't know if Kerwin would get goal line carries. Right. That's kind of what Penny's role is when Williams is healthy. At this point, if you're stuck, you need somebody who's getting touches.

He's going to get touches and it could match up. Would you start an Arizona running back over Carlos Hyde? No, I'm not going to risk that. Okay. This guy is really interesting to me. By the way, start Evan Ingram. Sterling Shepard. Start or sit?

He's in that Fitzgerald mode. He's a safe number two wide receiver, and he's not going to see Patrick Peterson. You don't have to worry about that. We've seen three big games from him. He's been nowhere near as consistent as he was last year. It's a totally different Giants team. And the fact that they're on the road makes me pause a little bit. I think he's a little bit of a risk.

I think he's a flex play, not a number two receiver. Okay, and Ricky Seals-Jones. Would you start Ricky Seals-Jones or Charles Clay? Clay. Clay. Ben Watson. I'm sorry, Seals-Jones over Witten, though. All right, Ben Watson or Seals-Jones? Watson.

Watson. We love the Cardinals DST this week. They are 8th, 7th, and 5th for Jamie, Dave, and Heath. I'm using them in my championship game. Let's go. And I'm going to give you my fan duel lineup, which I'm kind of on the fence. You like DraftKings, too? I think it's pretty good.

What did you say? Yeah, DraftKings, too. Yeah, yeah. All right, here's what I got. I got Bortles. I got Devante Freeman and Christian McCaffrey. Both have great matchups. Both are pretty affordable.

Michael Thomas, Robert Woods, Doug Baldwin, Greg Olson, Dan Bailey, and the Chiefs. Bortles, Freeman, McCaffrey, Michael Thomas, Robert Woods, Doug Baldwin, Greg Olsen, Dan Bailey, and the Kansas City Chiefs. It's funny how we're very similar given two different leagues. Yeah. What do you got in DraftKings? I have also Freeman, also, you said Michael Thomas? Yes. Yeah, also Thomas, also Baldwin, also the Chiefs. Also Freeman. Also, you said Michael Thomas? Yes.

Yeah, also Thomas. Also Baldwin. Also the Chiefs. But I have Stafford. My second running back is Duke Johnson. Remember, this is PPR. Right. I have Marvin Jones, so I'm stacking those two guys.

Big revenge game coming from Marvin Jones against the Bengals. Cool. And Kendall Wright is my flex because he's very cheap, $3,800. So if he has another 7th to 8th catch game, that's going to be big at that price point. Right. And DraftKings, you have to start an extra guy, right? Yeah, it's a flex. No kicker.

Right. Okay. Which is why I'm surprised that Heath likes FanDuel more than DraftKings. Yeah, right? Dave, do you have a lineup you want to give? I got a FanDuel lineup, and it's Cowboys heavy, so you'll like this, Bonanza Boy. Dak is the quarterback. Zeke is the running back. Kareem Hunt is my other running back.

I'm going with A.J. Green. I think A.J. Green takes advantage of what probably won't be a shutdown coverage from Darius Slay. Slay didn't cover Mike Evans' play after play last week. No, not at all. And Xavier Rhodes was on Green. There were plays where Green was open. Slay didn't cover Mike Evans' play after play last week. No, not at all. And Xavier Rhodes was on green. There were plays where green was open. Slay didn't play Mike Evans last week. That's what I said.

Two weeks ago, yes. You're right. That's the game that I checked to see if Slay is shadowing guys. I don't think Slay is going to shadow him. No, because he knew that James was going to throw to him two weeks ago. Go ahead, Dave. Start over. Start over. I think Green was a good bounce- him two weeks ago. Go ahead, Dave. Start over. Start over.

I think Green was a good bounce-back candidate. Dak Prescott, start over. Real quick. What? Start over. I forgot everything. All right. So Dak Prescott, Zekiel Elliott, Kareem Hunt.

Love those running backs. A.J. Green with a bounce-back game. Keenan Allen with a bounce-back game. Keelan Cole to keep it going. I love his price at $5,300. Eric Ebron at tight end. Phil Dawson is the guarantee at kicker. $4,600.

He will get you 14 points this week. And Kansas City's defense, $4,500. Nice cheap price. I think I like your team better than mine. I like my team a lot. Yeah, that's good. I like my team a lot. I would probably put it in some 50-50s.

This is the Sunday-only slate, so there's no Monday night games, no Saturday night games. And that's it for us. Long story. What? We've got a lucky charm to discuss, don't we? Oh, crap. I'm so sorry. I forgot about that.

You're doing the mailbag with me, right? I am. You want to do it then? Yeah, let's do it then. All right. So we'll tell everybody what to do, and hopefully by Saturday morning they can put the lucky charm on their roster. Outstanding. Take it easy, everybody.

We'll talk to you with the mailbag. Good luck. Let's win some championships. Yes. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.