Fantasy Football Today - 12/25: 2020 Thoughts, Week 17 Tough Calls, Mailbag (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas! We're here to spread holiday cheer by looking back at 2019 lessons learned (3:05), looking ahead to 2020 breakouts (9:25) and talking about Week 17 ... News and notes (12:20) with updates on which teams are resting their starters. Then we've got Week 17 tough calls at QB (18:25), RB (25:05) and WR (31:40). How are we feeling about Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, Leonard Fournette, Deebo Samuel and Tyler Lockett, among others, this week? ... Answering your questions for 2020 and Week 17 ... 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

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Merry Christmas, everyone. Happy holidays. It's a beautiful day to talk fantasy football. Wednesday, December 25th. We got Week 17 tough calls. We got some 2020 talk. We got your emails and your tweets.

FantasyFootball.CBSI.com is the email address. I'm Adam Azer. I'm joined by Jamie Isenberg, who's looking great today, but apparently we can't say the same about me. Isn't that right, Jamie? You dressed like the Grim Reaper today. I wear a hooded sweatshirt. It's blue.

Well, it looked black on the screen that I saw you on. So yes, you look like you are not in the holiday spirit. I just want to say this is the first Wednesday show I think I might have done since the beginning of the season. I don't even know if I did one to start the season, certainly since the preseason. So I got all my keywords ready to go. Oh, what do we got? I got Green Zone, Ronald Jones, Gardner Minshew.

Yeah, sure. My projections. Yeah, that's good. That's good, Jamie. Nice work. You are ready to go. What if I told you there's a running back who is averaging 3.5 yards per carry on a team that is scoring 12.7 points per game? Would you be interested in a running back like that?

3.5 yards per carry on a team scoring 12 points per game? 12.7 points per game. For the season? It's a seven-game stretch. But, yes, that's what we're dealing with. That's Leonard Fournette. In his last seven games, he's averaging 3.54 yards per carry. The Jaguars are scoring 12.7 points per game.

Can you believe that? That's terrible. I mean, I can. Their team is bad. You know, it's funny since I mentioned Gardner Minshew. We were talking on CBS Sports HQ yesterday about quarterbacks that you could stream this week if you're stuck.

And Heath just will not let go of Gardner Minshew. I know. I saw the rankings. I was like... I can't understand it. Like, he loves that man. He really does. And he hates Daniel Jones. Who does he have ranked ahead this week? Daniel Jones?

He likes Daniel Jones this week. Okay, good, good. I don't know if he has him ranked ahead of him, but I know he likes Daniel Jones. All right. Well, listen, here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk a little bit about 2020. Chris Towers compiled a nice sort of year-end survey and 2020 look ahead with some sleepers, some breakouts, some bus lessons learned, stuff like that um so we'll talk about a couple of those topics we'll read your emails and your

tweets we'll get to the injuries news and notes tell you who's starting and who's sitting this week uh so let's talk about that survey though if you want to call it that and i just picked two of the questions i encourage everyone to go to the website cbssports.com slash fantasy slash football and check it out uh but the lesson it it was funny, the lesson that you learned and the lesson that I learned were sort of the same and sort of completely different. Your lesson was don't draft a quarterback early, and mine was quarterbacks matter with an exclamation point.

So I think we can still sort of say the same thing, oddly enough. But you think, you know, based on this year, don't draft a quarterback early. It's just further evidence. You know, the thing that made me think of that was I made it to six finals. Five of them were played this past weekend. And the only quarterbacks that I started with confidence in those five were Lamar Jackson and Jameis Winston, and those guys weren't drafted in the top 12.

And then the other three were, and I chose poorly on a couple of them, but the debates I had were Ryan Tannehill, Phillip Rivers, and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Those were the quarterbacks I was choosing from in my finals. Yeah, and my one final was Rivers versus Fitzpatrick. Thankfully, I made the right decision. So it just goes to show you that, look, Patrick Mahomes had a good year based on his per-game numbers. He clearly wasn't the same guy, but he missed time due to injury, so you could throw him

out. But Rodgers was bad. The third quarterback drafted... Watson? Watson's the only one that if you look at it from the top five based on average draft position, was good.

Yeah, I agree with you. Not per-game, but season numbers. I agree with you that you wait on quarterback. The thing is, I agree with you. Again, not per game, but season numbers. I agree with you that you wait on quarterback. The thing is, I'm going to take a more aggressive approach. It's just not going to be that early. I'm probably not going to take Lamar Jackson because I think the league will adjust enough. He can't be this good again, in my opinion.

Just the same exact way I felt about Patrick Mahomes. But I am going to invest earlier in quarterback, and I'm definitely going to draft two in most leagues because I do think it matters, and I do think you need to swing for the fences and go for the high upside guys. But just look at the top quarterbacks on a per-game basis this year in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues.

They were Lamar Jackson. This will blow your mind. Matthew Stafford is currently number two drew breeze mahomes watson wilson prescott winston tannahill etc so i mean i i think we we agreed not to take one too early but when would you take lamar jackson when would i take him i would take him in the the same place where i was taking my homes the back end of the second round early part part of the third. He's never going to get there. Yeah, no, he's not. So here's the average draft position for quarterbacks.

You tell me good season, bad season. Patrick Mahomes. Bad. Based on ADP, bad. Deshaun Watson. Good. Aaron Rodgers. Bad.

Matt Ryan. That's an interesting one. It was good. I guess overall bad. Baker Mayfield. Yeah, terrible. Drew Brees. Good, very good.

Ben Roethlisberger. See, Brees, honestly, that's obviously on a per-game basis. He missed a ton of time. Roethlisberger, bad. Jared Goff. Don't even get me started. Carson Wentz. Yeah, bad.

Tom Brady. Yeah, pretty bad Yeah, bad. Tom Brady. Yeah, pretty bad. Cam Newton. Russell Wilson. Very good, sort of. Okay, now tell me how much you like this list. That's the top 12. Here's 13 through, I'll get 13 through 20.

13, James Winston. Yeah, great. Lamar Jackson, 14. Great, yeah. Phillip Rivers. Bad. Tyler Murray. Lamar Jackson, 14. Great, yeah. Phillip Rivers. Bad. Tyler Murray. Good at that ADP.

Dak Prescott. Excellent. Kirk Cousins. You know, it paid off. Probably dropped him, though, unfortunately. Well, if he got you to the playoffs, he worked out well. Jimmy Garoppolo. Eh, not so good.

Yeah. Mitchell Trubisky. Bad. And the last one, Josh Allen. Yep. That's my guy next year. Very excited about him. Would you like to hear what our top 10 quarterbacks are really quickly? Yeah. We've done that already. So what we're doing every day on CBS Sports

HQ is we're doing our top 10s at each position. Adam's going to do wide receivers and then his overall top 20. Let's see where that is. Okay. So top 10 quarterbacks for me, Lamar Jackson, one Patrick Mahomes,

two Watson, three Wilson, four James, five Dak, six Kyler, seven Josh Allen, eight Matt Ryan, nine and Aaron Rogers,

10. Nothing. That's going to be a, probably look the same when we get to August. Yeah. The only one I don't like is Jameis. For Dave, Mahomes, 1. Lamar, 2. Watson, 3.

Wilson, 4. Ryan, 5. Jameis, 6. Dak, 7. Wentz, 8. Kyler, 9. Drew Brees, 10. Hate Wentz.

The one that stood out to me, too. Yeah, bust. For Heath, Mahomes, 1. Lamar, 2. Watson, 3. nine drew breeze 10 hate Wentz. It's the one that stood out to me too. Yeah. Uh, for Heath, my homes, one Lamar, two Watson,

three Wilson, four Dak, Dak, five Jamis, six Kyler, seven Josh Allen, eight Aaron Rogers, nine Matt Ryan,

10. Now he did say, um, on the show when we were talking about it, cause I asked, uh, who's the biggest bus. Then we were talking about Ryan Tannehill. And he actually said he wonders how people will approach

Rodgers versus Tannehill, depending on how this game goes in the postseason, if they'll still take Rodgers over Tannehill. I just, what's up with the, nobody ever likes Drew Brees, you know? I think it's just the fact that he's getting older. You know, it's always going to be something, I think, that you're waiting for the drop-off. And then here's Ben Gretches.

Lamar Jackson, one. Mahomes, two. Watson, three. Wilson, four. We all have the same top four. Ben's got Kyler Murray, five. He made Ronald Jones a quarterback. Put him six.

Dak is six. Josh Allen, seven. Jameis, eight. Rodgers, nine. Ryan, ten. Yeah, that's pretty good. I like that. I don't really like Jameis.

I just think the way he plays is just not sustainable. And, you know, like he's just, he could get benched. Overcoming all these turnovers, having no running game. If they pay him, he's not getting benched. I suppose, but I just. And if he didn't get benched this season, why would he get benched next year? Very unusual for a player to be able to do what he's doing. Be so bad and so good at the same time.

opinions are going to change so much from now to then. The other thing from the survey I wanted to get to was your 2020 breakout for you was Kenyon Drake if he stays with the Cardinals. So I took two different approaches with this because I changed it for our HQ show. To me,

Kenyon Drake feels like the Dalvin Cook type breakout. So a guy that you know is going to get drafted in the first few rounds but can exceed the expectations. So if he stays with the Cardinals, it's going to go from this small sample size to monster. Yeah. Oh, right. It could be great.

And it's just another example of Adam Gase being terrible offensively. Ryan Tannehill, Devontae Parker, Kenyon Drake. Who am I missing here? Of that caliber guys that have gone on elsewhere? Just guys that are playing really well. I mean, Peyton Manning's retirement has been pretty good since he left Gase. And didn't do well under Adam Gase in Miami. He's just awful. But Gusecki. G Gase in Miami. You know, he's just awful.

Gasecki. Gasecki, yeah. I think there's one more I feel like I'm forgetting. Landry. Landry, yeah. Right, so not that he was bad under Gase. No, I mean, some people probably argue he's better. Yeah, maybe that wasn't the one.

But it's just so much evidence. Like, just get away from Adam Gase. He'll be better. My breakout, I couldn't decide which rookie wide receiver receiver I was a big DK Metcalf fan this all this draft season so I'll just stick with him very unique player size speed um got handled by Patrick Peterson last week so he's obviously got a lot to learn but he's averaging 15.8 yards per catch that's great I think he will continue to sort of emerge as the number one guy there. We like Russell Wilson as a top five quarterback,

so you've got to like his number one receiver. Same way we like Doug Baldwin every year and Tyler Lockett. I think Metcalf's got better production to come. But it could be anyone. I mean, McLaurin's going to go ahead of him, and Debo looks really, really good. It's a great – just so much young talent this year. I love it.

The three young guys for me that I think have the chance to take a leap. Metcalf certainly is in that conversation. But it's Debo and the two rookie tight ends. I think you see Hawkinson and Fant in what the hope can be. I believe Marvin Jones can be gone from Detroit, whether they release him or he's a free agent. I'm not sure. I looked yesterday, but I don't remember what it was.

And Amendola, I think, is on a one-year deal. So if Hawkinson and Gallaudet are the two top targets for Stafford, I think he could be really good. And then Noah Fant just has so much potential. Yeah. Be interested to see where Gallaudet goes next year because he's had a really good year, but with Stafford, very, very solid. He hasn't been bad with Blau, though.

He hasn't, but he hasn't done it in this sustainable way where we're going to be excited about it, but yeah. I was thinking about him as a breakout because I feel like he could be a true stud, like a first-round caliber pick. I know that's the thing. I think he's

had too good of a year, but I don't know that he'll get that respect. No, he's going to be a third-round pick. Right. Alright, right injuries news and notes zach ertz is questionable with a fractured rib so pick up dallas goddard greg ward they should get more targets but it still might play the reason i don't like wentz by the way next year is i just think he's throwing too much and i've kind of made i've alluded to this like i just think that that mile sanders is going to become the focal point of the offense. More so. I love him. Marquise Pouncey is out with a knee injury.

That's Pittsburgh's awesome center. So less reason to like their running game this week. Buffalo is going to play a majority of their players, according to Sean McDermott. So what do you make of that, and do we know anything else? Houston says they're playing. Buffalo says they're playing right now. So Buffalo's a weird one because he said they're going to play the majority

of their players, but that could be a series. So he didn't say how long they're going to be out there, and he did say other guys would play. When he was pressed on it about Matt Barkley, he said, yes, I'll play. So my guess is maybe a half, maybe a quarter, maybe a series. I'm avoiding the Bills guys if I can. And if you want a sneaky guy, we talked a little bit about Frank Gore, but also TJ Yeldon.

We left him out on Tuesday's show. So Yeldon and Frank Gore are two guys that come into play this week, especially if they decide to pull Gore off the field too. Seattle's going to lean on Travis Homer, according to Pete Carroll. What's your interest level in Travis Homer Sunday night against the Niners? Yeah, I mean, probably for the DFS showdown more so than anything else on Fandle. You mentioned this on Tuesday's show. If you've gotten to this point in week 17,

there aren't many people that are using these guys. You know, so if you maybe snuck by and you had to play Mike Boone last week, then I would pivot from Mike Boone to Travis Homer. But better in PPR than non-PPR, as we saw the six catches on eight targets and not a full game's worth of work, that could probably be sustainable at that level. Josh Jacobs participated in a walkthrough. We're going to have to check on that one. Derek Henry

practiced. Terry McLaurin's in the concussion protocol, so Stephen Sims could get more work if McLaurin's out. Jalen Ramsey is out this week. Not that you're going to necessarily trust Christian Kirk or Larry Fitzgerald, but Ramsey's out. Philadelphia cornerback Ronald Darby is on IR with a hip flexor injury.

That is their top corner. So more good news for Daniel Jones. Tennessee cornerback Adoree Jackson practiced, and J.J. Watt practiced. He won't play this week, but he plans to play in the postseason. J.J. Watt, that'd be fun. One thing with the Texans, which is weird how the NFL did it. So they are still alive technically for the three seed,

which as we know in the AFC could be big because you avoid Buffalo and you could potentially play either the Titans or the Steelers or the Raiders if they get in. Obviously you'd rather play the latter two than the Titans at this point. But the Chiefs play at one o'clock. So if the Chiefs win, the Texans essentially have nothing to play for at four. That is interesting.

It's weird that they didn't make it the same time. Yeah. We're sure about this? I just want to double check because that is so weird. No, I had to double check myself. Heath brought it up on the show yesterday. It obviously has to do with the Titans, the Steelers, and the Raiders. Yeah.

I don't know why they wouldn't put that Chiefs-Chargers game at four. Well, because New England is at one, too. One o'clock also with the Chiefs. I mean, look, most likely the Chiefs are going to beat the Chargers anyway, so it's probably a moot point. But most likely you're going to see the Texans, barring a Chargers win, pull all their guys early in the game if they play at all.

The key guys. Alright, if you want a t-shirt, get yourself a free FFT t-shirt on our Facebook page. Fantasy Football Today on Facebook. The giveaway this week, the player you will not draft in 2020. Player you will not draft in 2020. Tell us who it is. Tell us

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Go to cbssports.com slash playoff, or download the CBS Sports app now and start your pool and play for $5,000. CBSSports.com slash playoff or download the app. Email of the day comes from Adam in Vancouver, Canada. Dear some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. And Ben.

Going into Monday night, I needed 41 points from Devante Adams and Aaron Jones to take the title. The 56 yard Jones touchdown run clinched it for me and a miracle championship win. As a thank you for a season long of fantasy advice and in recognition of your work with St. Jude's Children's

Hospital, I will be donating a portion of my winnings to my local children's hospital. Wishing you all a happy holiday season. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We appreciate that. On a personal note, we have a colleague of ours. I'm not going to mention his name, but his son just recently found out that he was diagnosed with cancer.

So the work that St. Jude's does and hospitals of the like even come to a little bit more of the forefront for us. And so I'm excited that we have that partnership. And I appreciate everybody who does things like this with their fantasy winnings, because look, uh, it's, it's obviously, you know, we all need money and, and when you win something like this, it's cool. But if you get a chance to give back, uh, you know, you get that, that karma coming your way year in, year out. So we appreciate, like this and all of you that donate any of your fantasy winnings to any sort of charity.

Yeah. Thank you again to Adam in Vancouver and all of you who are going to be doing that. It's much appreciated. And of course, next year we'll be doing this all again and hopefully have some charitable stuff that you can contribute to. All right, let's get some Week 17 tough calls.

How about Matt Ryan at Tampa Bay? You know, Tampa Bay, they're getting better against quarterbacks. They really are. And it's funny because I know you're poo-pooing Jameis a little bit, and I get it. But they're one of those teams that could be the team that makes the jump next year to becoming a playoff contender. I mean, the fact that they may finish 500 is,

is impressive in itself. Just given how the year started, the defense has turned the corner in a big, big way. You know, you've been mentioned this time and time again, and it's paid off in terms of, you know,

how they've done against some, some opposing passing games of late. But I just think Ryan's got, this game just feels like it's, you know, throw everything out and they're just going to're just going to put up points both sides. So I think Ryan's still worth starting. I'm not going to get away from him.

Okay. The last five quarterbacks against Tampa Bay, Matt Ryan himself struggled. The Atlanta quarterbacks combined for 14 points. Jacksonville quarterbacks, eight points. Brissette, 26 points. That was the good one. David Blau, seven. And then Deshaun Watson, only eight fantasy points.

And really, the young cornerbacks. They have two or three young corners that are playing very well, so it's a secondary to watch. Alright, so you're going to start, Matt Ryan, are you going to start Jameis Winston against Atlanta? We've seen him one game without Godwin and Evans, and he scored 12 points

with four interceptions. Yeah, and he's been so turnover-prone at home, which is just unbelievable. He cannot get out of his own way. His track record against Atlanta is unbelievable. In just his last five games against Atlanta alone,

he has not thrown for fewer than 261 yards. He has not thrown for less than three touchdowns. He just eats them up. This is another defense that's been playing much better, but I'm just going to go against what the trends have been lately and start with these guys. The Falcons have allowed seven touchdown passes in their last seven games,

and Jameis Winston threw three of them. So they've been really good against everybody not named Jameis Winston, basically, lately anyway. Baker Mayfield, I know it's been a struggle for him this year, but he's usually done pretty well in good matchups. Cincinnati's a good matchup. Now, he struggled in the first meeting. He scored 10 fantasy points.

He completed 11 of the – he was terrible. 11 of 24, 192 yards, two picks. The Bengals had the ball in that game for 34 minutes and 31 seconds, so Cleveland's stats just weren't very good. But can we go to Baker Mayfield? Because look, he was good enough at Arizona. 20 points. So we're 29 points against the Dolphins. Can we go back to Baker Mayfield

at Cincinnati? I mean, you can. It's probably more of a two-quarterback thing than a one-quarterback thing. He's not ranked in my top 12. He's just outside of it. I think he's right around 15. I'd rather start Daniel Jones. That's just kind of where I am with Baker. How about Tom Brady against the Dolphins? He's the star of it. I think he's right around 15. I'd rather start Daniel Jones. That's just kind of where I am with Baker. How about Tom Brady against the Dolphins?

He's the star of the week. Oh! Part of it is I just wanted to put him in that spot because who knows when he'll ever be there again. It's one of the meaningful games for this week. He's got a great track record against the Dolphins. The Dolphins obviously stink. So I think this is one of those games where

Brady can go out with a big performance. I'll count on him against Miami's defense. The Dolphins give the most fantasy points to quarterbacks. Would you start him over Wilson or Ryan? Sorry, Winston or Ryan? I have him. Winston, Ryan, Brady. Back to back to back. Did you catch

by any chance the amount of times Rich Eisen called Winston, Watson and Watson Winston? I mean, you can't sit on Twitter and not see that. Oh, really? Yes, I heard it and saw it. I didn't see the first half of that game until the day after. I had to DVO the first half. So I'm watching the game, and I'm saying to my wife, like this guy keeps butchering the day.

He keeps screwing it up. And then at one point he actually acknowledged it. He said, if you're playing a drinking game, the amount of times I have called, cause then he had Justin Watson too. He's like, if you're playing a drinking game for the amount of times I've screwed up

those names, it's like, it's five o'clock somewhere. It was very funny. Um, Russell Wilson against the Niners. So we are talking about Russell Wilson in his last nine games. He is completing 62.4% of his passes, which is bad for him.

7.83 yards per attempt, which is low for him. 15 touchdowns to five picks in his last nine games. Only 15 touchdowns. And he's only scored more than 20 points twice in those nine games. So start or sit Wilson against the Niners? I would still start him. He makes me a little nervous because the offensive line now with Dwayne Brown being hurt against this pass rush.

But if there's any chance for Seattle to win this game, it is totally on him now because of what the running back situation looks like. They're so beat up. So without Carson, without Penny, without Procise, you know, I mean, you know the story by now. Bringing in Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin, they're just, if you're not going to all of a sudden say, okay, you've been an MVP candidate for, let's just say, 12 weeks of the season. He was, you know, in that conversation with Lamar Jackson. You could say maybe more, but he's their best player.

It goes without question that he's their best player. And so let him go win you the division if you're going to have anybody win you the division. Don't say we're going to run Marshawn Lynch 15 times and hope that we can just run our offense. This is his time to be the guy, and he's been better at that more times than not when he's put in that spot. You look forward to a game where he might throw 40 passes. He's done that three times this year. He scored 45 points against the Saints on 50 passes. He scored 15 fantasy points against the Ravens on 41 passes,

and then he scored 49 fantasy points against the Bucs on 43 pass attempts. So you look forward to it. Now then again, he threw 36 passes against the Ramsucs on 43 pass attempts. So you look forward to it. Now, then again, he threw 36 passes against the Rams, and he scored nine points. But, you know, volume should be there. You just don't figure they'd be able to run the ball well. We'll go look at some running backs in a moment. Let's talk about SeatGeek, all right?

Because, like, Jamie has this golden opportunity to go see his precious Florida Gators play in the Orange Bowl. And I found some good seats, man. I found some good prices for them on SeatGeek. Because Jamie was saying, oh, yeah, I looked at tickets and like $100. And then we looked at the SeatGeek app and guess what? Like $80. So check it out.

SeatGeek's just got better prices. And you can save $10 off your first purchase with the promo code FFT. Download the SeatGeek app. Use the code FFT. Get $10 off your first purchase. Now, every purchase is fully guaranteed. You can go to football games, basketball games, baseball, sports, concerts, comedy, theater. They bring in tickets from all over the web. They grade every ticket based on value, and then they rank them by deal score so you can see the best values,

the best bang for your buck, or you can sort by price if you'd like. Download the SeatGeek app. Use the code FFT. It's an awesome app. You're going to love it. Over 50,000 five-star reviews. FFT is the code for $10 off your first SeatGeek purchase. If Tom Brady is your start of the week, how do you feel about Sonny Michel, who, by the way, he's facing the Dolphins, obviously, at home.

He has had 19 carries and 21 carries in his last two games against the Bengals and the Bills. He hasn't scored in eight straight games. And even though Sonny Michel is 10th in the NFL in red zone carries, 8th inside the 10, 10th most carries inside the 5, in his last eight games in which he hasn't scored, he has one carry inside the five-yard line, and he's another one from the five.

So two carries in his last eight games from five yards out or closer. Sometimes it's Burkhead. Sometimes it's Bolden. Sometimes it's White. Start or sit, Sonny Michel. Yeah, I'm excited about his green zone work this week. I think he's going to be one of those green zone guys that has a green zone opportunity to get into the green zone

and find the green. Where are you projecting him for? What am I projecting for? Well, I got him for 19.2 carries, 85.6 yards, and six-tenths of a touchdown. Yes, exactly. I think it's going to be a good game for him. This is one where it feels as if the Patriots offense, which has been getting better. You know, I mean, I know it hasn't been great, but, you know, the lack of weapons,

offensive line through skill position have been bad for Tom Brady. But this is just such a bad defense. I mean, the last thing that the Dolphins want to do is get on a plane at the end of the season and go into the cold. You know, these players are are done, you know, so it's for a lot of these teams that have to travel, especially into cold weather situations from warm weather scenarios. I just think that this is the Patriots are playing for the two seed. They need to win this game. The offense should continue to build momentum going into the playoffs. So Michelle is a borderline starter. He's clearly better in non-PPR than PPR. He's a great fan to play because he's not going to be expensive. So this is the type

of scenario where if you've had Michelle on your bench, you can feel comfortable starting. Travis Homer or Michelle? I would go with Michelle. Definitely in non-PPR. I think I have still Michelle ranked ahead of him in PPR as well. How about Devontae Freeman against the Bucs or Sonny Michelle?

Michelle, definitely in non-PPR. I still go Freeman over Michelle in PPR as well. How about Devontae Freeman against the Bucs or Sonny Michel? Michel, definitely in non-PPR. I'd still go Freeman over Michel in PPR. Next running back, Damian Williams against the Chargers. We know the Chargers' run defense has been very good in their last seven or eight games. I'm trying to find the number lately. Last seven games, 3.54 yards

per carry. Running backs are averaging against the Chargers. That doesn't mean you can't be good. We've seen DeAndre Washington last week. We saw Mike Boone the week before score twice, but it's not easy. Damian Williams against the Chargers. I think he's a great start. You know, you're talking about, as we saw last week, 20 total touches.

I think that's going to be the case again. So, I would start him. How about Le'Veon Bell at Buffalo? He's got 21 and 25 carries in his last two games. Bill's run defense is not great, and they have nothing to play for. Le'Veon Bell. Yeah, I think he's a starter.

I still have him ranked closer to 24 than I do inside my top 20, but I think, again, it's a good setup for him, so hopefully he gets that work and goes into the offseason with a strong game. So you'd start Damian Williams over Le'Veon Bell? I would start Damian Williams over Bell. I would start Michelle over Bell in non-PPR. Michelle, my Bell. Very nice.

Good Beatles reference there, Jamie. What about Devin Singletary or Bell? Oh, I'm not starting Devin Singletary. Okay. Leonard Fournette. Here we Okay. Leonard Fournette. Here we go. Leonard Fournette against the Colts. The Colts do not give up big games to running backs.

I mean, McCaffrey had a big game. So basically in their last like 12 or 13 games, there have been three running backs who have big games. Jalen Samuels because he had 13 catches. Derek Henry because he's Derek Henry. And Christian McCaffrey last week. But McCaffrey only rushed for 54 yards. So Fournette against the Colts, start or sit?

I would start Fournette against the Colts. Just, you know, he got over 100 total yards last week. Hopefully he finds the end zone. I mean, he's going to be one of the more polarizing guys next year because he's going to be drafted in the first two rounds. He could be one of those league winners if he does this again and

gets you 10 plus touchdowns. Yeah, right now he's the victim of a very bad offense and he's not getting the goal line. They're just not getting there. Dave outlined that beautifully last week. Always safer in PPR. He's basically a lock for three catches, could get you five, could get you seven, you never know.

His floor is very safe. In PPR it is, but not in non-PPR, because in non-PPR, I'll give you this number to blow your mind, he's been 28th or worse in non-PPR in five of his last seven games. He's been 20th or worse in six of his last seven games. And to be honest with you, even in PPR, he's been 19th or worse in five of his last seven games. And to be honest with you, even in PPR, he's been 19th or worse in five of his last seven games.

He's always the number two. He's basically always at least the number two running back in PPR. But he's only been top 12 twice in his last seven games. This team's terrible. 12.7 points per game in their last seven. It's awful. Alright, here we go.

Last tough call at running back. Miles Sanders. Jordan Howard's back. I'm not getting away from him. If the Eagles get away from him, they're dumb. Look, give Jordan Howard some work. I get it. Take some of the work off Miles Sanders, especially this week. If you're

guaranteeing yourself to beat the Giants and get into the playoffs, they obviously can't do that, but if the game seems in hand, then Jordan Howard should be on the field and getting a lot of work. But let Miles Sanders do the work to get you there. And the biggest question, I think, is with Howard back, what happens to Boston Scott? Does Boston Scott stay in this pass-catching role

and they don't use Sanders in third-down opportunities if Howard's on the field first and second down on certain drives. So that's, I think, where the whole chess match comes in and how the Eagles are going to mix and match their backs. I think it's interesting. In non-PPR, you have Sanders one spot behind Fournette, and in PPR, you have

four spots behind Fournette. I don't think that would be the case if Jordan Howard were not playing. No, no, no, no, no. So there is a little bit of a downgrade. Yeah, of course. You have to downgrade because we don't think that would be the case if Jordan Howard were not playing. No, no, no, no, no. So there is a little bit of a downgrade. Yeah, of course. I mean, you have to downgrade because we don't know. Yeah.

Now, he's their most dynamic player, and they don't have anyone to throw to. So Jordan Howard really just shouldn't play much. He should get like seven carries. That's a lot. Yeah, I mean, he should get like four, but I think he'll get more than that. Alright, wide receivers. Tough calls. I put Darius Slayton here, but it really could be any Giants wide receiver

against the Eagles. What do you think? I went right back to Golden Tate as the top guy because it seems to be that's what Daniel Jones favors. You think so? I can't tell. Yeah, we can't tell. It's a good point.

There's only been two games where all three wide receivers have played. Right, one with Eli. Oh, sorry. There's only been two games where all three wide receivers have played with Daniel Jones. That's what I meant to say. Or have there been three? I guess there have been three.

All right, so here we go. Darius Slayton in three games with Daniel Jones, Sterling Shepard, and Golden Tate. He had 62 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings. He had four catches for 67 yards at Chicago, and he had no catches last week on two targets with a knee injury. What did you say? Wasn't he banged up last week? Yeah, he had a knee injury.

So you think Tate is the guy? I mean, I don't know, but that's kind of the approach I'm taking, is that Tate's the guy. Yeah, because two, three weeks ago, Slayton had five catches, 154 yards, and two touchdowns against the Eagles. That was with Eli Manning.

And I don't remember if Sterling Shepard played in that game. I don't believe he did. Okay. Debo Samuel and Tyler Lockett. Tough calls because Lockett's actually been getting the targets lately. Samuel has not been getting the targets lately, but he's getting you some rushing yards. He's got 20 or more rushing yards in three of his last four games.

He's scoring touchdowns. I mean, like this is a guy targets in his last five games, two, four, eight, three, six. You're going to really trust Debo Samuel. I don't know. How about Tyler Lockett and Debo Samuel? Do you trust them this week? Trust? No, but I'll still play them both as number two receivers. I do feel like Samuel is a little bit

safer than Lockett just because of the validity of what Lockett does. He could be fantastic or as we saw last week, he could be terrible. So I think they're both in the same range. 18 through 24 you know the the ceiling clearly favors lockett but i think the floor favors samuel at this point okay i mean it's amazing that lockett had seven targets last week he only caught one of them that's just unusual uh niner's given up the sixth fewest fantasy points to wide receivers and here's the thing

uh maybe this is the seattle. For Debo Samuel, right? If you're facing Seattle and you get more than seven targets, you usually do really well. 15 of 20 wide receivers with seven or more targets have scored 13 or more PPR fantasy points. If you don't have seven targets, you're usually terrible. There have been two wide receivers with fewer than seven targets that have had either 55 yards or a touchdown against the Seahawks. Kind of interesting. Two more. DJ Chark against the Colts.

He crushed the Colts just a few weeks ago. Eight catches, 104 yards, two touchdowns on 15 targets. He has not had a good game with single-digit targets since week three. Start or sit DJ chart? I think he's a good number three receiver. It's just how healthy is he? He had that game with Nick Foles, not with Gardner Minshew. That was week 11.

That was the first start for Foles after the London game. I just don't know where Gardner Minch is at right now and how much you can trust him. And finally, Odell Beckham at Cincinnati. Same type of situation. You know, health at this point. You know, where is he? The fact that he was yelling at Freddie Kitchens on the sideline

this past weekend. I just, if I'm playing at this point, I don't know if I want to trust him. So if he's been in my lineup every week, I'll still start him. But number three receiver. Chark or Beckham? Chark. All right, emails and tweets to finish the show. Adrian says start two of these.

Parker, Perryman, McLaurin. Perryman and McLaurin. I don't want to start Devontae Parker this week if I don't have to. Oh, man, what a bummer. He's been so good. But Patriots, yeah, that's a tough one. Zach Stewart says, where's Joel Mixon going to be ranked in 2020? So that was one of Heath's believe it or nots.

And it's funny. He's done two of these the last two weeks, and I had to call him out on it because he kind of took the easy way out. He said, believe it or not, Joel Mixon will not be a top 20 pick. So I said, okay, so what if he's top 24 in the second round? Yeah, I'll kind of be in that range. Well, okay. Exactly what I was thinking.

Yeah, like back end of the second round. Right. So he's going to be, I think, kind of where he was based on ADV. You know, somewhere between 18 and 24. It depends on if your league goes heavy on running backs. He's a top 10 running back for me. I think, you know, the fact that he was able to perform at the level that he did this season, given the offensive line as a disaster that it was the quarterback position, a disaster that it was,

even if it's Joe Burrow going through the rookie motions, the offensive line will be better just by Jonah Williams being healthy. He was their first round pick that didn't play because of the shoulder injury. So I think there's a lot to like about Joe Mixon. The other one that Heath did was he said, Tyler Higby will not be a top six tight end next year. Okay, will he be top 10? And he said, yeah, kind of in that range. Like, well, you have him ranked in your top 10 in your 2020 previews.

So yeah, I think Mixon's a second round pick. From Lights Out, who will be better in 2020? Jackson, Mahomes, or other? Well, you mean Lamar? Yeah. I mean, if you're giving me the field, I'll take the field. Same. I'd take Lamar Jackson over Mahomes, though.

How about you? It's going to be an interesting one. I was the only one of the three of us. Ben also had Lamar Jackson. So of the four of us who gave me their quarterback rankings for 2020, both Heath and Dave took Mahomes over Jackson. And you had what?

I had Lamar. Give me a chance to take the field. I'll take the field. From Logan Adam Schultz, we're keeping one player on our team for next year. Any tips on how to decide which player to keep? In terms of the rules or in terms of your own team?

So I think in terms of your own team, and I guess it's like, do you care more about studliness or value? And if you're going to take a stud, you know, how far can you take a stud for a first round? Do you keep Christian McCaffrey

in the first round? Or do you keep Miles Sanders in the seventh round? I guess it depends on if that's the way you do it. I have a 10-team league. It's my oldest league, so I think we're right around 20 years, if not over it, or right near it. And we only keep one player, but it doesn't

matter where they're drafted. So it's just, you know, you have that player on your team. So for me, prior to this past year, Antonio Brown was my keeper for, like, five years. And now I have Michael Thomas for the last two years. So I'm just keeping best player. If it's a value-based scenario of you're losing your draft pick, then that's clearly a big part of this. So, you know, if you have, I'm trying to think have somebody who was drafted middle to late,

if you took Lamar Jackson late, you're going to clearly try and favor him over, let's say, Joe Mixon in the third round, I think. Or second round. Those type of things absolutely matter. If you're only keeping one player,

it has to be a great player. So you don't want to keep DK Metcalf in the last round. Right, but I think it comes down to, let's say you have... I'm trying to think. So let's say it's... You have Tyreek Hill. Let's say you drafted him in the second round, right? Maybe first round, depending on when you had your draft.

Maybe he's not the best example. Maybe you could. Actually, you probably drafted him in the second round, right? Maybe first round, depending on when you had your draft. Maybe he's not the best example. Maybe you could actually probably drafted him in like the sixth round. Potentially. I'm just trying to think of somebody who, Keenan Allen in the second round, right? He didn't have a great year, and you don't know what the quarterback situation is going to be. So Keenan Allen may be your best player,

but you have DK Metcalf in round 10. Oh, yeah, right, right. But I'm saying if you have a, whatever, I think we were going around in circles here. Let's go to our next. Let's finish up here. This is from Novell. Should I start Baker Mayfield or Andy Dalton this week?

Having them back-to-back, I think there's more upside with Baker. Look at the injury report. If Tyler Boyd's out, then it's easy to go Baker. But, you know, Andy Dalton's great against the Dolphins. Otherwise, he's been pretty bad. From Marquise, PPR League, pick one. Winston, Goff, or Fitzpatrick?

To play this week, Winston. Pick two running backs. Sonny Michel, DeAndre Washington, and Eckler. So if Washington starts, he'd be my favorite guy. Otherwise, you play the other two. If Jacobs plays. Yeah, but if you're playing Washington, are you going Eckler or Michel, PPR?

I mean Eckler. That's easy. Eckler's the safest of the group, but I guess I'll take it back. Eckler's my favorite of the group. If Washington plays, you play him. If Jacobs plays, you play Washington. If Jacobs is out, you play Michel. You said that the opposite.

If Jacobs plays, you play Michel. If Jacobs is out, you play Washington. Sorry. Pick three wide receivers in PPR. Metcalf, Thielen, John Brown, Cooper Cup. Metcalf, Brown. Metcalf, Cup. Yeah, it comes down to Thielen or Brown to start and sit here.

He's like, I have no faith in Thielen right now. I mean, there's got to be somebody in the way. Steve Sims has got to be available. Justin Watson. Greg Ward, baby. Greg Ward. Justin Watson first Greg Ward, baby. Huh? Greg Ward. Justin Watson first. Don't just settle with...

I guess it's a dynasty or keeper league. You're dropping Thielen or you're dropping Brown and go pick up one of those guys. Yeah, don't drop them in dynasty or keeper leagues. Of course not. All right, Merry Christmas. Have a great, great day, everybody. We'll come back tomorrow with Ben Gretsch and Heath Cummings

for Starter Sit for the AFC home games. Jamie will rejoin us on Friday for the NFC home games. We also have our radio show on Saturday night where you can call in. We'll do a mock first-round draft call-in. Tell us who you like in the first round. Tell us your sleepers, your breakouts, your busts, whatever it is. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, and we'll talk to you tomorrow. We're still live on CBS Sports HQ all week, too, at noon, even on Christmas.

I'll be there. All right, Jamie. Thanks for hopping on. Talk to you on Friday We're still live on CBS Sports HQ all week, too, at noon, even on Christmas. I'll be there. All right, Jamie. Thanks for hopping on. Talk to you on Friday. Got to go. Bye.