Fantasy Football Today - 12/26: Start or Sit (AFC); Dynasty TEs; Regulators (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

We're ready to get into the Week 17 games with players we love and players we hate (3:10), or maybe even a Head Coach that we hate! Are there any teams we simply avoiding this week (7:50)? ... The Fantasy Regulators take on a stat correction issue (10:30)! And we'll give you some news and notes (15:00) and talk about Dynasty TEs (17:15). Whose value is on the rise and whose value is heading in the wrong direction? Is Tyler Higbee a Fantasy starter next season? ... IND-JAC (22:48), MIA-NE (29:14), LAC-KC (37:05), CLE-CIN (41:30), HOU-TEN (47:40), NYJ-BUF (52:14), PIT-BAL (55:23), OAK-DEN (59:40) ... Email us 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. 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 Start or Sit. Let's go!

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome to the show, everybody. Today we are talking about Dynasty tight ends, stat corrections. What? And mostly start or sit for the AFC home games. We'll try to figure out who's going to play, who's going to play for four quarters and whatnot. Welcome back. It is Thursday the 26th.

Heath Cummings and Ben Gretcher here to talk start or sit today. We'll have ben and jamie and heath on tomorrow uh heath merry christmas how was your how was your wednesday you can't leave that hanging there like that we've received dozens of messages about the ryan fitzpatrick christian wilkins play that we all thought was a fumble but was a passing touchdown and was not corrected and many people just heard you open the podcast with stat correction and they were playing against ryan fitzpatrick and they were hoping that they now won their fantasy football championship you did not the christian wilkins fumble thing was not corrected there's something else and it's not

that consequential it probably didn't change okay that's all wait a second wait a minute before we get to bed i'd like to hear for bed what the ryan fitzpatrick christian wilkins play was scored a touchdown right yes a passing touchdown it was scored a passing touchdown it was a region originally recorded in all the game centers and all the play-by-plays as christian wilkins fumbled and recovered it in the end zone. And so there was a big question as to whether Ryan Fitzpatrick was going to lose a passing touchdown. He did not. And?

He did not. Okay, so that's done? Set in stone? Thursday morning, I think, is the end of the stat correction. I don't think it will be fixed now. But he definitely fumbled that. I remember that play. He definitely fumbled that. I didn't even... I missed... I mean, I remember that play.

He definitely fumbled that before he got in the end zone, right? Right. Yeah, he did, for sure. I thought it was pretty close, but I thought he fumbled it, too. But all right, fine. It's a touchdown,

and congratulations to all you Ryan Fitzpatrick owners. I can't sit here and say for sure that Christian Wilkins fumbled that ball before he got in because there was a possibility. Ben, since Heath didn't answer

the question, I'll ask you. How was your Christmas? And how were you, sir? I mean, it was good. It was good. It was, you know, a long day. Me and the wife, he got me some matching pajamas for me and the wife and the kids. So I was wearing a onesie for the first time since I was about six years old.

All day long? Like two other people's houses? Pretty much, yeah. Two of my in-laws' houses. So you left the house. Driving in a onesie. Outstanding. That is fantastic.

Driving. Wow. Now, I have a onesie. I have a Giants onesie, as everybody knows. Going to the bathroom is a real pain in the butt. You've got to unzip the whole thing, basically. It's a hazard. It's a hazard of wearing a onesie. So just letting you all know. All right whole thing basically it's it's a it's a hazard it's a

hazard of wearing a onesie so just let y'all know all right anyway let's talk football here player you love for week 17 player you hate for week 17 heath who do you love this week anybody oh i love pretty much everyone week 17 football is the best that there is i love daniel jones who's shown enormous upside three different times this season, should be playing from behind against a very bad pass defense. Jones is a top 12 quarterback for me this week. You know I'm going to clip, I love Daniel Jones, and just play it over and over again. Ben, who do you love this week?

Relative to expectation i'm gonna say damian williams i i think we saw last week kind of what was all the hype in the offseason he had a really easy 18.2 ppr points last week playing 53 on the snaps and yet spencer where as the the number two and he's now on ir i mean mccoy will be back but i think it's pretty clear that williams is going to kind of be their lead going forward. He's going to run routes. He's going to catch passes. He's going to get enough carries.

He didn't have to be super efficient on the ground. He's going to have scoring potential. So, yeah, I think he's a plug-and-play option for Week 17. All right, yeah, he's getting that work. And as you mentioned, Ware on IR, so that does not hurt him at all. All right, so if it's Damian Williams and Daniel Jones that we love, who do we hate this week?

Ben, who do you hate? Who's the player you hate? Again, it's kind of relative, but I'm going to say Leonard Fournette. He popped up on the practice report as limited this week. He has the second most touches in the NFL. If anybody is going to get rested a little bit in Week 17, maybe pull it halftime,

I think he's a pretty decent option. They have Rykel Armstead, a rookie who's been backing him up all year and only has 34 touches all year. I could see them giving him 10 to 12 or more, and Fournette's been kind of dependent on a big workload all year. Ooh, okay, so I gave this stat yesterday with Jamie. Leonard Fournette in his last seven games is averaging 3.5 yards per carry on an offense in those seven games that is

averaging less than 13 points per game Heath you do not hate Leonard Fournette though you have him in there in your top 10 7th and non PPR 4th and PPR yeah give me five words on that he's been this good all year he hasn't been this he's been pretty bad for the last seven games are we doing rankings debates now um we can yeah no i just i think leonard fournette's gonna get 20 plus touches and i'm going to rank running

backs that i expect to get 20 plus touches as top 10 running backs almost universally okay so who do you hate other than Ben Gretsch's Leonard Fournette opinion what do you hate this week um I don't like I don't hate Ben Gretsch near as much as I hate you Bill O'Brien well I know I hate um and it's not like I don't really hate you Bill O'Brien but it's so much easier when we talk about, yeah, the bills are not going to play their starters the entire, okay, just don't play any bills.

And the Vikings probably don't have anything to play for, but he's just been so open and vocal about how we're going to play to win the game. And I just don't totally believe him because they play at four o'clock. The chiefs play at one. There's a very good chance. They have absolutely nothing to play for. And I just can't believe he would play Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins the whole game.

But right now I have to project it like he's going to. So they now project as must-start options. And I just kind of hate the whole situation. I'm very nervous about the Texans. Yeah, it's interesting. I think the Cowboys had nothing to play for last year. And they went all out. They rested Zeke.

Week 17. They played everyone the whole game, except they didn't play Zeke at all. Because their running back is more important than their quarterback. I guess so. Blake Jarwin had this amazing – was it Blake Jarwin? One of their tight ends had this amazing game. Yeah, it was Jarwin.

Actually, it was Jarwin. He had three touchdowns or something. Three touchdowns, yep. Alright, stardom. So, okay, so those are the tricky situation with the Texans, certainly. We'll tell you about the other teams that might be sitting players that

you can completely avoid. We have three episodes per week during the offseason. That's going to be beginning next week. Actually, Sunday night. We'll have a Sunday night, then a Tuesday, then a Thursday episode to get you through next week. Three episodes per week during the offseason, and then obviously we'll ramp it up as we get closer to the start of the season.

You're not going anywhere. You're all going to listen throughout the entirety of the offseason. We also have our Facebook giveaway, a player that you will not draft in 2020. Get on Facebook. Get yourself a free t-shirt. Tell us the player you will not be drafting in 2020. Great job by Ben Schrager and Robert Thomas,

moderating that group all year long. Thanks to those guys. Thanks to all of you for being a part of it as well. Okay, so which teams are we completely avoiding this week, Ben? Just like Heath mentioned, the Bills. They said they're going to play their starters, but definitely not going to play them the entire game at least not josh allen and we don't you know

they'll be cautious it seems they have nothing to play for so when you make start sit decisions any teams that you're just nope not starting any of them yeah the bills are right at the top of that list i think for me the steelers are on that list we don't really know if the Ravens will play um their defensive starters for the majority of the game or not but I just don't really like the Steelers offense anyway at this point uh so they're kind of on that list and the Ravens might be as well I mean if you think back to like most of the season we haven't really known who on the Ravens will get the volume other than you know Andrews but he doesn't always play the biggest role and he's been dinged up and you know, Andrews, but he doesn't always play the biggest role, and he's been dinged up, and, you know, he may not play in this game.

We don't really know if it's going to be Gus Edwards or Justice Hill at running back. So that Pittsburgh-Baltimore matchup is another one I'm looking at, and I'm just like, I don't really want to touch that game. Heath, anything else? Yeah, it's interesting because I don't really want to play any of the Ravens starters, but there are some Ravens that I might be interested in playing. I could definitely see a situation where if you were streaming tight end,

you might want to stream Hayden Hurst. I don't think that this Ravens offense will just stop working altogether with Robert Griffin playing quarterback, and I could absolutely see playing Gus Edwards or Justice Hill. Yeah, but what about the Vikings? What's the deal with them? I don't really want to use any Vikings. I don't know at all what the deal is with them.

I don't think we've heard anything. But you can't trust Adam Thielen. And Stefan Diggs, if he does play, might get five or six targets and might leave after the first quarter and might not play at all. And we all live through the Mike Boone experience. So I'd prefer to just avoid all the Vikings. Okay, well, there is a scenario where... Is it the Saints that might be playing a meaningless game?

One of the teams that will depend on the Sunday night game. The Saints are an early game, so it's not the Saints. They're a 1 o'clock game or a 4 o'clock? 1 o'clock. Okay, so... Because they play at the same time as the Patriots, because we were looking at that to see if Brady was going to try to throw seven touchdown passes to pass Brady's.

All right. Well, then I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about. So let's get into it then. Injuries, news, and notes, fantasy regulators, and starts and sits for the AFC home games. Also a little bit of Dynasty tight end talk as well. Let's do a fantasy regulators real quick though. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

This is from Commissioner Ed. It's about stat corrections. I'm the commissioner of a 12-team league. The championship game came down to the wire. After the Monday night game ended, Team A had won the league championship over Team B by a score of 84.36 to 84.

1 by.36. Pretty crazy. I paid Team A his $1,000 the same night. On Wednesday, Christmas Day, I received a text from Team B saying that the score was changed and gave Team B a sack going from zero sacks to one sack,

which is worth one point in my league. All right, so that means Team B was then the winner. I decided to look up the stats for the game, and I found that they credited a sack against Kareem Hunt. Confused, I went to NFL Game Pass to watch all of the Ravens' defensive series. The play in question happened at the two 10 mark in the second quarter on third and one Mayfield pitched the ball to hunt backwards, a backwards toss constituting a run.

And it looked like hunt was going to pass, but he didn't because he was swallowed up behind the line of scrimmage for a short loss by rule. Since it was a pitch, it counts as a run and therefore shouldn't have counted as a sack for the Ravens DST. Since I didn't as a sack for the Ravens DST. Since I didn't see a sack from the Ravens DST during the entirety of the game, I concluded that the score should not have been changed and that Team A is still the winner.

Team B was adamant that I made the wrong decision because he argued that if it goes down as a sack in the stats and in the league, then it's a sack. I countered that it was a human error. Some statistician screwed up, right? Please help. I need some clarity. Ben, I know you're fired up about this one. Yeah, I just said it's pretty insane to go with the by-rule kind of comment

and go against the official statistician who clearly knows the rules. And they do make mistakes. We just led by talking about the Ryan Fitzpatrick thing, but this is a situation where they went back, changed it. They obviously look closely at the play, and you can get sacks on position players even after pitches. And in this case, they clearly ruled that it was.

I don't think you can possibly justify not adhering to what the official NFL stats say and paying out someone other than, you know, what the stats say should have been the winner. TB. I think, like, first off, this commissioner trying to do the right thing. He paid immediately after week 16 was over, already had all the money collected. So kudos to you. Also, like he didn't just say, no changed it i'm too lazy i'm not going

to ask for the money back he went and watched the tape bin to see if there were any sacks he knows the rules he's probably got the rule book pulled up somewhere he doesn't um no you definitely shouldn't do this the thing is that people have to accept especially if you play in an idp league stats are not objectively right and tackles the way they are kept track of is maddening if you're watching a close game on monday night football because the difference between a full tackle and an assisted tackle is just completely arbitrary um but that you have to you have to have use some sort of unless your league has decided that you are the person that decides all stat corrections i think you should probably pay out the guy that actually won yeah team b should get

it and honestly it was a mistake to pay team a immediately after because you have to wait for stat corrections the game was decided by less than a point come on you're better than that team b gets the win gets the money i hope team, Team A probably spent it by now. So, you know, it might be a good point. He received a day and a half before Christmas. He absolutely spent every last penny of it. It's gone. Okay, big mistake then.

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slash FFT. ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Okay, news and notes. Josh Jacobs reportedly had shoulder surgery, so we're not expecting him to play. I think he reported that on Instagram.

Right. I believe him. Yeah. So it's probably going to be DeAndre Washington. Spencer wears on Instagram. Right. I believe him. Yeah. So it's probably going to be DeAndre Washington. Spencer, where's on IR? We talked about that. Dalvin Cook was limited in practice. You know, teams didn't practice yesterday, so we don't really know what this means.

I think we'll have better injury updates tomorrow, but probably not expecting Dalvin Cook in a meaningless game. No. The Rams apparently could rest some starters. So if we go back, Heath, to that conversation about teams you're avoiding, are you avoiding Rams? Currently planning on still using Robert Woods and Tyler Higbee, but if we get more information on what this really means,

then I could consider it. You should be using Jared Goff, right? I mean, he's got the Cardinals. He's got to crush them like he did three weeks ago or whatever. He might crush them like he did three weeks ago. He also might throw three interceptions. Why would he throw three interceptions? He throws three interceptions about once every three

games, and Arizona's defense has looked a little bit better here recently. Not against Jared Goff they did it. That was three weeks ago. The Saints will reportedly play their starters. Drew Brees, by the way, was limited with a knee issue. Big news for the Patriots. Their past defense didn't do so well against John Brown and Cole Beasley last week.

Well, they were missing their slot corner, Jonathan Jones, Jason McCourty, another one of their cornerbacks. He left with an injury in that game. Both were practicing yesterday, and they get Miami this weekend. Devontae Parker's had some really good games against some very tough opponents, but not New England, so I'm looking forward to talking about him. Chicago defensive tackle Akeem Hicks missed practice. Phillip Rivers was limited with a thumb injury.

James Conner missed practice. Jamal Williams missed practice. Zach Ertz missed practice. Before we get into the games, let's talk Dynasty. I sprung this on you kind of late this morning and I apologize. I hope you had time to think about it. Ben, a dynasty tight end whose value is on the rise. Were you able to do your late breaking homework assignment? Yeah, I got a couple. We can let Heath go first if he doesn't have a couple options. I mean, Mark Andrews, I think, is the obvious answer we should probably talk about. Young guy, followed up a good rookie season with a good second year, is now tied to one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL, who's clearly enamored with him, and he's his favorite target.

So you got to like Mark Andrews going forward. Yeah, Andrews, I thought, was the obvious answer. My second answer was Dallas Goddard, I thought was the obvious answer. My second answer was Dallas Goddard, just for a couple of reasons. One, we saw him take a bigger step forward in the offense this year, and I wasn't sure if that would happen this year or next year. Two, we're another year closer to Zach Ertz being old and a free agent, and so Goddard could actually be a reliable start, I think as early as next year, but definitely the year following. Yeah, it was a good year for tight ends because Darren Waller,

I would say his value is on the rise. We don't know who his quarterback is next year. Okay, that was the obvious easy one. Well, Waller's 27, I think, and going to be 28 next year. So he's a really late break. I mean, something to consider. Yeah. You know, I wonder about Johnnieith maybe getting a bigger role looks pretty good but andrews and waller were two of the best um value down he oh higby yeah higby let's talk

about him because you guys think this is legit you know he's obviously he's got the cardinals this week gerald everett i think played four snaps last week i hope it wasn't one of those situations where they were just easing everett back in, and now he gets more of a workload in Week 17. But Higby looks so good. He had 100 yards last week, right? So that's four in a row with 100 yards? Yep. Is he legit, do you think? Is he

a fantasy starter next year? Borderline? I'd really like to know who is going to be on the Rams next year. Because if Robert Woods, Cooper Cup, Brandon Cooks, Todd Gurley, to know who is going to be on the rams next year because if robert woods cooper cup brandon cooks todd girley and gerald everett are all still on the team i'll have a like there have been phases this year for the offense cooper cup was a superstar for the first third of the year robert woods had a stretch as a star gerald everett had a stretch as a huge part of this

offense i'll have a low degree of confidence in Higby if everybody's back. Okay. I really like the way you said that. Oh, sorry. I was going to say I really like the way that he said that they've had phases. What we've seen from the Rams since McVay took over is different iterations of their offense. And Higby is a feature point of their current iteration. But if they change things up a little bit, his value could, could disappear immediately.

So I think is, you know, he's obviously interesting. He's gone a hundred yards, four games in a row, but, uh, I agree with he, his value could disappear in no time. All right. Uh, Ben, whose value is going down in dynasty at the tight end position? So I put, uh, a couple of guys, I put Vance McDonald as my main one. He's was 29 going into this year. Somebody that a lot of people liked as a popular sleeper.

They lost Ben Roethlisberger. That hurt the whole passing game. We also saw Deontay Johnson and James Washington emerge. So even if Roethlisberger's back next year, that's going to make it a little bit tougher for targets. But most importantly, yeah, he's 29. A lot of people don't realize that. Had a concussion this year as well.

Kind of on the wrong side of the age curve going forward. Vance McDonald going down. Who else, Heath? I think this one might spark some debate. But I'm going to say David Njoku. He's still very, very young and still could have some sort. But I was treating him at the beginning of the year more like he is going to be a good tight end at some point. I understand he was hurt for a big part of the year but the fact that he came back played one game and then was just a healthy scratch for a couple of weeks there's clearly something that's not clicking

with him and there's now more of a risk that he's just like not on a roster at some point next year well i i think with no joku evan ingram, Hunter Henry, OJ Howard, they all seem like maybe a little worse. I mean, Ingram was really good. Oh, they were all fallers. Njoku just fell further for me than Ingram or Howard did because I had him pretty much right behind Ingram and Howard in terms of dynasty value, and those guys at least played football for most of the year.

Henry, I might be being a little harsh on Henry. It's just been kind of a slump at the end of the season he hasn't really gotten that many targets um rivers has played very poorly but i don't know where ben where do you stand on hunter henry right now i'm fine with him i think uh yeah like you said slump it towards the end of the season but when he came back from injury there was a stretch there where he was dominating uh volume i think he led the nfl's tight ends in in air yards for like a six-week stretch and potentially targets as well i mean he was getting plenty of work for me that's just kind of sequencing things happens throughout the

years where you know good games sometimes come before bad games but i'm not like i think he's still stepping back and looking at the season as a whole, still on a positive upward trajectory first career. Is he getting close to free agency? I don't... Yeah, maybe. I show that he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, and Phillip Rivers may be going...

I think there's a lot of uncertainty about Hunter Henry. I still believe in his talent, and I have not finalized my January update, but I anticipate Henry being in my top five tight ends in the January update. All right, guys, let's get into week 17. Here we go. Indianapolis is at Jacksonville. We are sitting Jacoby Brissett. We are starting Marlon Mack. He is top 13 in non PPR. Heath has him 20th in PPR, but Dave and Jamie are a little higher, top 15. You know he doesn't catch passes, but

I mean, the Jaguars are just the best matchup he could possibly have. So start Marlon Mack. Heath, start... Oh, wait! I forgot we're going to do things a little differently today. I thought so. I'm sorry. My bad. Okay, so Dave Richard had this idea of we're going to introduce a game,

let one analyst kind of take it away, say who he wants to start and sit, and then the others on the show will kind of banter about it, disagree, agree, whatever. So, Heath, I'll give you the honors here. Indianapolis and Jacksonville is all yours. Okay, I assume we're trying to do this in a quicker, more efficient way, so I will try to do that. We're going to start both of the running backs. Mack and Fournette are just easy starts.

I don't really want to trust anyone else, but if I had to, Chark will be my favorite wide receiver in this game. I'm sitting T.Y. Hilton. I'm sitting D.E. Westbrook. I'm sitting Chris Connolly. I prefer Gardner Minshew to Jacoby Brissett, but I don't really want to start either one of them. They're low-end streamers that you shouldn't need in week 17,

and I'm not playing either of the Titans. Okay. Ben, how about it there? I mean, I already kind of gave my case against Fournette, but I pretty much agree with that. I think you could consider Chark and Hilton, but Mack and Fournette, I think you could start Fourn and Hilton, but Mack and – I think you could start Fournette if you don't have other options,

but I'm concerned that his workload gets limited a little bit. I mean, look, the proof is in the pudding here with Leonard Fournette. Okay, this is where he's finished in non-PPR – in PPR. Like, non-PPR has been horrible. In PPR, in his last seven weeks, he's been RB 29, 35, 1, 28, 31, 28, and 20. Oh, no, I'm sorry. That's non-PPR. All right, let's start.

PPR. That's actually better than I would have guessed in non-PPR over the last six weeks. He's pretty much been starting most of the time. Not really. He's been 28th or worse in five of seven games. That's terrible. He was 28th or 29th in like four of those. Yeah, but that's not really someone you want to start.

I mean, RB28. That's also with the full workload, and he's got 340-something touches now, and he's limited this week going into Week 17. Jaguars have nothing to play for. You take that, and then you worry. Maybe they bench him at halftime, and they let Raquel Armstead take the second half. I will say this. If he actually has a practice where he's limited later in the week, then I will take that more seriously.

I think the limited thing was just an estimation of what he would have been if they had practiced on Christmas. But it's just odd because he wasn't on the injury report last week, so why would they add him? You know, I don't know. I'm reading into that maybe a little too much. I mean, I'll agree with Ben if he's limited on Friday. How's that? Okay, we accept your terms. Now, I would definitely, in a non-PPR league,

start Marlon Mack over Leonard Fournette. So would Dave and Jamie. I don't think that's the case for Heath. In a PPR league, it's definitely harder because Leonard Fournette could easily get five catches and Marlon Mack could get zero. So I know where Heath stands on that. He'd take Fournette over Mack. I probably would go with Mack because I just think he has a better chance to score and he might score twice. Ben, who would you take in PPR, Mack or Fournette? Mack as well. Okay. So let's talk about... Yeah, go ahead.

You're good. Yeah, I agree. I agree for the reasons that he said. Let's talk about the wide receivers, Heath. Because you said Chark is your favorite out of everyone, including Hilton? Yeah, I'm just not using T.Y. Hilton.

He's not someone i'm really even considering ben do you have a favorite wide receiver in this game that's probably shark um hilton's a huge question mark as well for me i mean i i could see using him maybe more like in dfs but uh like in a huge gpp because he's probably not going to be very popular but um shark would be the the favorite it was so weird that his snaps went up and he got four targets last week but i just like this is really a season-long thing for ty hilton if it wasn't for the fact that he scored five touchdowns in the first five weeks of the season it we wouldn't even view the injury as an excuse for him being called a bust he does not have a game

this season with 90 yards receiving. He's not been a good wide receiver other than the fact he scored some touchdowns. Well, he also just doesn't really get the targets. You can't imagine Percet's going to be throwing that much in this game, so it's just not set up well for him. I'm actually like, we got to talk about this, Heath, because right now you have DJ Chark.

I'll refresh the rankings, but I see him 10th that's probably true you have to remember i did not work yesterday we get right out on tuesday morning and it's week 17 and so this is just what the projections say this is what dj charke has done this season the matchup is not one you should be scared of dj charke is a top 12 wide receiver. I mean, he's a top 12 wide receiver for the season. Okay, fair enough. All right, makes sense. Okay, let's move on then.

And even though the Jaguars have been terrible against tight ends, we're not starting Jack Doyle. The Colts DST, by the way, is worth using. They're 10th for Dave and Jamie. They're 13th for Heath. The SeatGeek app is also worth using. Everybody get on the SeatGeek app and use the promo code

FFT to get $10 off your first purchase. Alright, we got plenty of games to be going to. There's basketball. There's playoff football. Spring training's right around the corner. Oh, SeatGeek's great for spring training. Our baseball listeners tell me all the time that they use the SeatGeek app to go to spring training games.

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You want SeatGeek. So download the app and again, that promo code is FFT for $10 off your first SeatGeek purchase. FFT the promo code on SeatGeek. Miami at New England. Would you start Devante Parker or DJ Chark, Ben,

and then I'll let Ben break down this game. I would probably play Chark over Parker. I think you can play Parker. We know Fitzpatrick's going to sling it around. We know he's going to throw it on the field. If they're down late, he's still going to be throwing, trying to put up points. There's definitely some potential for some garbage time production,

but you don't want to use any of these Dolphins passing game weapons against New England for obvious reasons. I think when you look at breaking down the game on New England's side, got to think Sonny Michel is going to get a little bit of extra work than usual. I think he can still use James White. Mohamed Sanu played, I think, maybe 100% of the snaps or 96% last week. He's back into a really full role. I think he could use Sanu and then Edelman, obviously, if he's healthy into like a really full role i think you could use sanu and then edelman obviously if he's healthy as the other receiver that i would use i'm mostly staying away from everyone on miami side here okay heath uh how do you feel about

parker specifically i think you can use the last patriots game as um in two different ways to say start or sit devante parker the last time he played them he had seven targets and did not catch one of them since that game he's the number four wide receiver in fantasy i i can't great against the bills twice great against the steelers like really i like it maybe him ranked? 15th? He's a high-end number two wide receiver. The nice thing is it's not like Ryan Fitzpatrick's going to drop back and say, oh, no, Devontae Parker's covered. I should just check down or something.

No, he's just going to throw it up, and Parker's going to have to go try to make some plays. I'm predicting a pretty bad game. Amari Cooper didn't have a catch. Tyreek Hill had a bad game. At least, you know, not one that you really want to start in fantasy. Gilmore's the best, and they'll probably give him some safety help, too. Remember, like I said, their secondary was banged up last week against the Bills.

And John Brown, obviously, got lucky with that one big play, but I'm just not. I'm nervous. I hate it. I really hate you for saying john brown got lucky with that one big play like that well john brown had won a spectacular route and beat the best corner in football for a touchdown let's not say he got lucky okay fine his fantasy managers were a little bit lucky he didn't do anything outside of that one big play so you obviously have to be nervous

about davante parker um but yeah number four that's a great stat number four wide receiver since that new england game um all right so who would you flex would you flex sony michelle james white or davante parker parker i he'd be last for me i i completely agree with what adam just said i don't want a shadowed stefan gilmore receiver who's been inconsistent his whole career and is on a hot streak i mean that's i'm not doing that are we gonna say like next year are we going to say he's on a hot streak or if he has to do it into week one next year and then we'll acknowledge that maybe he's better than he was the prior four years i mean i used to be a huge fan of his the guys he was very good in college i mean yeah and he had a great hot streak in his in his rookie season uh but then yeah inconsistent for several years i'm

asking at what point would will we accept davante parker as a better football player and what point does it stop being a hot streak next year uh i think you can accept it now sure i i guess my main point is just that i don't think he's suddenly better than stefan gilmore or better than the receivers that adam just mentioned have struggled with stefan gilmore i mean if we're concerned about amari cooper or tyree kill i'm not i'm not davante parker's not a top five receiver for me that can be matchup proof right now he's good we can arguments both ways i just i think this is probably more of a Ben being a lot higher on Sonny Michel, and he has seen a lot more work the last two weeks. It's just I still view him as a touchdown-dependent running.

He's just a touchdown-dependent flex for me most weeks, especially in PPR. In non-PPR, maybe he's a low-end number two, but he's still not been very good on a per-carry basis against some pretty bad run defenses. I gave some stats on Sonny Michel yesterday. I'll give them again because I know it's Christmas and people might have missed that episode.

I know Heath and Ben were not on that episode. So in his last eight games, Sonny Michel does not have a touchdown. In those eight games, he has one carry inside the five-yard line. And he also has one carry at the five-yard line. And he also has one carry at the five-yard line. So let's say two carries from five yards or closer. And, you know, Rex Burkhead has two touchdowns in that span. Brandon Bolden has a rushing touchdown. James White has a rushing touchdown.

Michelle has none. So it seems like based on the last two games, 20 carries is realistic. He had 19 two weeks ago. He had 21 last week. 90 yards is right around that each of the last two games against Cincinnati and Buffalo. Run defenses are actually probably not that dissimilar to Dolphins, but Dolphins are probably a little worse.

So, yeah, he could have 20 carries around 100 yards. Will he score? I don't know. But, I mean, is that realistic? Do you think 20 carries for about 190 yards, let's say, for Sonny Michel? Does that sound right? And then we hope for a touchdown? I think nine non-PPR points is a very good projection for Sonny Michel.

And maybe, now that I think about it, I would probably start Sonny Michel over Devontae Parker in non-PPR. I think Parker's probably going to score 10 at least in PPR. But, yeah, I would probably start Michelle over Parker and non. Okay. So would you start James White or Devante Parker in PPR? I'm not sure if we quite answered that. I would start James White probably over Sonny Michelle.

You said in PPR? No, over Parker. Yeah, in PPR though, right? Yes. Or non. In PPR, yeah. I mean, James White. no over over parker over parker yeah in in ppr though right yes or non in ppr yeah i mean in non non it's a little bit riskier but um i would start white and ppr over michelle and then parker is kind of the way that i would rank them but i just want to add with michelle yeah 21 carries 83 yards and a touchdown against miami last time i mean that's basically what i'm expecting this week as well something very similar to that it's just all about whether he scores the touchdown yeah yeah so did we talk about tom brady by the way because he is uh he's top 10

i don't want to talk about it like i don't want to make a call on him i don't think i could start him really yeah i do think that there's like a 15 to 20 chance that he throws five plus touchdowns right um because because of the breeze thing yeah like i think there's there's like especially if we get to halftime and he's got three and Breeze doesn't have any of his game, he's only two back, then I absolutely think that he's just going to embarrass the Dolphins in the third quarter with like four touchdown passes. All right, let's do Brady or. Brady or Jared Goff against the Cardinals.

Goff. Brady, especially now that they're talking about resting starters, because if they're going to rest anyone, I'd assume it would be first Gurley and then second golf. You get Blake Bortleson play time. Sure. Brady or Russell Wilson against the Niners. I'm going to play Wilson.

I've got Brady one spot higher. I don't feel good about it. Wilson will probably end up higher than Brady. Okay. All right, then we're done with this game. Patriots DST. You can start a Mike,

you know, actually Mike is sicky. Like the Patriots, if they have a vulnerability on defense, We're done with this game. Patriots DST. You can start. Actually, Mike Gasicki. The Patriots, if they have a vulnerability on defense in the passing game, it's probably tight ends. Heath, is Gasicki anywhere near your top 12? Oh, I think he's 12th. He is right on the precipice, yes, of the top 12. All right.

He's okay. Let's go on to our next game, then. It is the Chargers at the Chiefs. And the Kansas City defense has not allowed more than 17 points in five straight games. Heath, tell me about the Chiefs and the Chargers. Yeah, so I'm going to start Mahomes. I'm going to sit Phillip Rivers. I'm pretty much fine with starting Melvin Gordon, Austin Eckler, and Damian Williams in this game. I would rank them Eckler, Gordon, Williams

in PPR. As far as the receivers go, I think it's pretty... The one that's hard is Mike Williams. You're starting Tyreek. You're probably starting Keenan Allen. I don't really want to start Mike Williams. I would expect that Ben will like him more than I do because he does have the big upside. He does

have tons of air yards. Chiefs have just been pretty tough on wide receivers and his targets have been terribly inconsistent. And I'm definitely, I mean, obviously starting Kelsey, probably starting Henry too. I actually agree with him completely. I, in my notes, I have a lot of, a lot of starts, all those names that he said. And then I wrote Williams as maybe a sit. Mike Williams. Kansas City, like he said, been very good against downfield receivers. I would trust Keenan Allen and Hunter Henry and Austin Ekeler as the underneath options more than I would trust Williams

to hit on some big plays. All right, look, this is a really tough matchup for the Chargers wide receivers. You can be a little comforted by the fact that Keenan Allen did catch a touchdown, had a good game against the Chiefs last time. That game was in Mexico in seven home games for the Chiefs. Only Cortland Sutton has more than 60 yards. Only BC Johnson has caught a touchdown in those games in Arrowhead. So it won't be easy. That's why I have absolutely no interest in Mike Williams. But yeah, I think Keenan Allen is, especially in PPR, he's just very consistent, usually gets the targets and the catches, probably about 70 or more yards. The Chiefs' run defense, maybe it looks like it's been a little bit better, but really,

they're just not getting run on a lot. And that's kind of interesting for Melvin Gordon, because in his last three games, he has 12, 7, and 9 carries. Now, it's kind of like you take the good with the bad because in his last three games, he has five, five, and six catches. So he's still getting the touches, and that's probably better for fantasy anyway. Oh, for sure. But is there any hesitation? And Eckler hasn't really been that great the last two weeks either.

He's had the catches, but the total yards have been a little low. I don't know. Is there any hesitation with these Chargers running back? Actually, just no total yards have been a little low. I don't know. Is there any hesitation with these Chargers running back? No question about it starts. Start them. Yeah, I don't have a lot of hesitation on them either. All right. Damian Williams or Marlon Mack?

Mack for sure and non-PPR. I'd go Damian over Mack in PPR. Agreed. Now, I am making an assumption, and we'll know this early. I assume they're going to give leshawn mccoy one more week inactive to have him fully rested for the first round of the playoffs but with spencer where going on ir there's a possibility that if they make mccoy active that will tell me they don't really want to give damian the feature role and then i would probably drop

him a little bit further than i have he wouldn't be well what do you define his feature because with where he was still played over half the snaps right um i would assume if it's just damien and darwin thompson he's going to play like 70 75 of the snaps got it like i don't think 55 great i don't think 55 i wouldn wouldn't call feature, but 70% I sure would. Who would you flex, Damian Williams or Keenan Allen? Ben? Keenan Allen has a tough matchup. That would depend on if McCoy's active. I do agree with Heath that there's a lot more upside for Damian if McCoy's inactive. I think you can still start Damian if McCoy's active.

I still expect over 50% of the snaps and for him to be good, but that's the situation where I'd go with Allen instead. I'm pretty sure Allen has a pretty good track record against Kansas City as well. Not that that, you know, that's just kind of a side note data point more than something you should rely on, but I do think Allen will be targeted plenty in this game as they'll have a harder time getting the ball down the field. And final question on this game, Heath. Tyreek Hill, top 10 in both formats.

He also has a tough matchup. He got hurt in the first game, barely played. But the Chargers give up the third fewest fantasy points to wide receivers. How do you feel about Tyreek Hill in DFS? Good tournament play, Bad cash game play. All right. Kansas City DST is fourth for Dave and Jamie. 12th for Heath. Come on.

Move them up, Heath. 12th's fine. They're playing well. They're playing well. I don't think they're great, though. Here we go. Cleveland at Cincinnati. Ben Gretsch, you are on the clock yeah i mean i i think you know mixon and tyler boyd for cincinnati are both

solid plays at this point i think you can play john ross maybe more of a dfs play but his snaps tipped up ticked up uh quite a bit last week from roughly about 50% to the close to full-time snap share. So saw a ton of air yards, saw a ton of downfield volume. Now last week's game against Miami is not the greatest barometer because Andy Dalton threw for 400 yards. But I do think the Bengals offense looked good enough last week that you can certainly use a few of those guys. On the Cleveland Cleveland side it's

kind of the same as always Chubb Landry um Hunt and PPR and and I I think you can still use OBJ so I I would probably use him if I was you know in a chance week 17 championship and had him and didn't have any other great alternatives why do you keep skipping the quarterbacks man what do you think about Baker Mayfield and Andy Dalton this week? Oh, yeah. I like them both. I think Cincinnati last week showed us they can play in shootouts, and maybe that had more to do with Miami's defense and Miami's willingness to throw, but it could be

a game where we see a little bit more passing volume on both sides. I think this might be a little bit more of a higher-scoring game. I got some issues. I got some issues with the Ben Gretsch analysis there, but I'm going to let Heath jump in first, and then I'll get in there. Heath, what do you think?

Well, I've set the bar pretty high when it comes to these quick analyses of the games. I don't want to start the quarterbacks very much. I would choose Andy Dalton over Baker Mayfield. I agree with most of the things Ben said about the skill position players, except I'm not really that interested in playing Odell Beckham

I don't like if somebody was going to sit out part of a game I think he would be a pretty good candidate with the health woes that he's had in the upcoming surgery that he has so I would try to stay away from him I think Chubb and Mixon are obvious starts,

and they both should be awesome. Landry, you're going to start. Boyd, too. Yeah, if he plays. I know he got beat up a little bit last week. So Kareem Hunt is one that scares me a little bit here because the way I see this going is a lot of Nick Chubb, and I don't know that they're

going to need to throw the ball that much to Kareem Hunt um who's you know last two games he's been uh very uninvolved he's had six carries in the last two games so that's kind of disappointing because he was getting like you know seven-ish carries um so I don't know I'm a little nervous on Kareem Hunt you know and the rankings have it that way the rankings have them outside the top 24 non-PPR between 20 and 24 in PPR from Dave Jamie and Heath and I think that makes sense would you rather start you know James White or Kareem Hunt this week I think it's close the rule of Cincinnati all year has been you can beat him on the edge and Nick Chubb had a I think a really good game against him last week

or last time they played. I don't know how that pulled up. But this is the matchup where I had mentioned to you, Adam, we would see when New England played them, see James White catch some swing passes and do some things. Now, New England was smart, did that. James White scored on that. Cleveland, I would argue, has been essentially –

He had like three or four catches, though. He had that one play, yeah. But he really didn't do that much, as I remember. Yeah, and I would argue that Cleveland is one of the worst coached teams in the league right now and very well may not take advantage of that. So I think your concern's warranted, but I think there's also value to the play if he gets opportunity to make some plays on the edge. He's been really good, Kareem Hunt, this year. I think there is some real risk of this coaching staff

doing what they did the last time they played the Bengals, and that was they got ahead and just did not throw the ball. 24 pass attempts for Baker Mayfield the last time these two teams played. They also only had the ball for about 26 minutes. And Mayfield was terrible. Mayfield has mostly been worth starting when he's had good matchups the cincinnati game was a huge exception and then he really didn't play that well against arizona he garbage timed his way to 20 points so i i understand the

hesitance there but well like he's like when you say mostly he's like what four for three for five four for six against the absolute worst defenses in the league uh he that's 17 points at the jets that's questionable bad no that's not questionable no no questionable if it's a good matchup oh okay uh 20 points against seattle usually give up around 20 points to most quarterbacks 29 points against mi, 10 points against Cincinnati, 20 points at Arizona. I would say 3 out of 4 or 3 out of 5. He scored 20 or more. Only one big

game in that of those matchups. It could be. Maybe it's not his fault that he's bad. Ben could be right. It could be mostly Freddie Kitchen's fault. Whatever the reason is, it's not changing for week 17 so we're gonna go with daniel jones over him i would pretty easily yes okay um jared goff

i'd start i don't know i'd take aaron rogers any dollar yeah well that's interesting i mean the bangles pasty just gave up what 400 yards and five touchdowns last week. So that is a no. Well, it depends. Depends on the Christian Wilkins play, Ben, you know? Yeah, right. OK, I think that'll pretty much wrap it up. How about Odell Beckham or Sony Michelle?

Sony and non-PPR for sure. Right. And non, I think I'd still maybe lean. I'd probably play OBJ and PPR. Do you like Beckham or Parker more? I'd play Beckham over Parker, I think. I expect Parker to catch four passes for 30 yards. Let's go to Houston and Tennessee.

Obviously, a very big game for the Titans and not such a big game for the Houston Texans in all likelihood. So Heath, I'm going to give this one to. You are obviously starting Derrick Henry if he is active. I don't really want to start the Texans running backs, Carlos Hyde or Duke Johnson. If I had to, I would choose Hyde over Johnson. As far as the receivers go, Hopkins is an absolute must play. A.J. Brown is not far behind him. You're absolutely starting him as well. I don't feel great about trusting any of the tight ends despite

darren fells incredible touchdown rate and johnny smith's occasional big place ben your take yeah that was pretty good except he didn't put aj brown uh as the overall number one wide receiver and also in the hall of fame but yeah the rest of it was pretty good. I mean, would it be safer to just start A.J. Brown over DeAndre Hopkins? Yep. Oh, are we no longer doing the taking Bill O'Brien thing at his word? No, I don't think we should. I mean, I think they're going to play, but I don't know how much they're going to play. Okay, let's just make it easy.

If we get no new information whatsoever and Bill O'brien keeps saying the same thing and you have both of those wide receivers on your team you can wait until the very last minute if the chiefs have beaten the chargers then i'm probably starting aj brown right because then note on brown locked in yeah a note on brown got shattered 100 of his snaps by marshimore last week. Lattimore hasn't been amazing all year. He gave up some plays early in the season. He's been really good over the last six or eight weeks. He guarded Brown on 100% of his snaps. Brown still scored on the end of round, and then he only got two targets.

Tannehill was going other ways, but he did also beat him for a 40-yard catch late in the game. This week, the Texans don't have anyone like Marshawn Lattimore. A.J. Brown's going to go back to being the lead target. Tannehill was just locking into him two weeks ago. I expect that again this week. Yeah, and he was really good against the Texans last time out. You know, Heath, your ranking of Tannehill was a little bit low. I'm not sure that's going to change.

You have him 10th, a little bit lower than I thought. Heath, J.B. and Dave have Ryan Tannehill third. So, yeah, I think, you know, 28 or more fantasy points than what, like three straight, four out of five. Come on, let's get him. You got to be higher than 10. I'm okay with moving him higher than 10. I have no disagreement. You just tell me the guys that I should definitely move him ahead of.

Should I definitely move him ahead of Jameis Winston? Oh, 100%. Yes. Ben says no way. Okay. Should I definitely move him? Wait should i definitely move him ahead of jamis winston yeah oh a hundred percent yes no yeah vin says yes okay should i definitely wait hold on well we have one game where jamis winston has not had mike evans or chris goblin and he stunk scored like 10 points he's got actually a pretty tough matchup the falcons are playing very well that's a no-brainer tannahill over jamis he threw for 335 yards. He threw the most air yards of any quarterback in any game all season. So, yeah, he threw four picks, but he was still chucking the ball around.

And he only needs like 559 yards to break the passing yardage in a season record. And I think Bruce Arians would like to be a part of that. All right, baby. All right. I would take Tannehill, though. Okay. What about Russell Wilson? That's close.

I would take Tannehill. Carson Wentz against the Giants. Oh, boy. I think I'd take Wentz. Dak Prescott against Washington. I would take Tannehill after how bad Prescott was and seemingly hurt Prescott was last week. Patrick Mahomes?

I'm the opposite of Adam on every one of these. Mahomes is over. No, I'd take Mahomes. But I think I would start him over to Sean Watson. I would start him over because of the uncertainty of the playing time. I would start him over to Sean Watson. I would start him over because of the uncertainty of the playing time. I would start him over Watson. If we could get to a point to where the Chiefs had already beat the Chargers, then I might agree with that.

The Chiefs have already beat the Chargers. By the way, any interest in Kenny Stills? Deep flex. Okay. All right, then. I think that's that game. Yeah, that's it. That's an easy game.

John U. Smith or Mike Gasicki? Gasicki. John U. Okay. All right, let's go to the Jets and the Bills. Ben, start this game with just tell us, are we sitting all Bills? And then how do we feel about the Jets? Yeah, i'm probably

not going to play any of the bills i don't trust them um you know we i don't think we really have any confirmation right but i don't i don't think they're really going to play a lot of them for the jets it's interesting because we don't know whether the bills will play the defenders if they're playing their defenders you can't really be that optimistic about any of the jets uh levy on bell would probably be the best option as somebody going against the the better matchup going against a a weaker run defense than a pass defense but not really anybody on this passing game that i want to be targeting against the bills defense it's kind of a game i'm just going to avoid. Okay. Heath.

For the, for the most part, I agree. I kind of want to start Jamison Crowder. Um, I really don't think they're going to play at your Davias white the whole game. Like maybe the first half,

it would be really not smart to play him. And so if they're playing backup corners, I think that this could be a sneaky good game for the Jets passing game. So as of right now, I would start Crowder, and Bell is a high-end flex. I like Bell a little bit more than that. Look, he's got 88 or more total yards in five of his last seven games. He complained about not getting the ball,

and since then he's gotten the ball. He's gotten 20 carries in two straight games. Buffalo's run defense isn't very good when they're starting everybody. So I can't imagine it's going to be very good here. He just never scores. And the Bills don't give up touchdowns. But that's like the regular Bills defense.

I actually think there's a chance for Bell to score in this game. Obviously, that's going to make or break his game. But I think he's got a pretty safe floor. I like Le'Veon Bell. I think Dave has him a lot higher. You and Jamie Heath have him around 20th, and Dave has him top 12. I'm kind of with Team Dave. Ben, where do you come out on Le'Veon?

Yeah, I'm probably more on the Team Jamie and Heath side, on the lower side of that. I think you kind of hit on it. He's going to get plenty of volume, and he'll on the lower side of that, I think you kind of hit on it. He like, he's going to get plenty of volume and he'll probably get plenty of total yards, but there's also the potential that they, they mix in the other backs a little bit more.

And I, I just don't feel good about how his touchdown scoring potential just, I mean, you basically hit on it. It's just not a, I've trusted bell too many times this year. So Heath and Ben, let's start with Heath. Would you go with Le'Veon Bell or Jamison Crowder in this game as a flex?

Crowder. Bell. Would you go with Le'Veon Bell or Marlon Mack in PPR? Mack. I'd play Mack too. One more. Would you go with Le'Veon Bell? Or let's go NFC.

Let's go with DK Metcalf against the Niners. Bell. Bell. Okay. Buffalo DST all over the place. 7th for Jamie. 19th for Dave. 11th for Heath.

A couple more games, I think. We have Pittsburgh at Baltimore. Who's up? Heath, you're up, right? I am up. You're not starting any of the Baltimore Ravens that you normally start. That doesn't mean you can't start any Baltimore Ravens. Robert Griffin III is a fantastic option in a two-quarterback or super flex league.

I think that Hayden Hurst is someone that's certainly streamable at tight end. I'm currently ranking Gus Edwards as a startable option in non PPR, kind of like Sony Michelle. I don't really want to start him in PPR. I feel pretty good about starting him in non PPR. Justice Hill is an upside flex, but I do expect for Edwards to get more touches. I don't really want to start a Ravens wide receiver. I'm not particularly interested in starting any Steelers. James Washington would be my favorite wide receiver. He's maybe a number three in non-PPR.

You hope he catches one long pass. And I think Benny Snell and Jalen Samuels are going to chop it up too much, along with Kareth White, for any of the Steelers running backs to be good. Ben Gretsch. Yeah, you asked at the top what game I was kind of avoiding or teams I was avoiding. This is one I noted. My biggest issue with Heath was him saying that Robert Griffin is like a really good super flex play.

I think that's pretty risky. I don't know what we'll get out of Robert Griffin, especially with backups against, I still think, a good defense, even if the Steelers do rest some players. I don't trust Griffin this week. Yeah, that was my issue with Heath too. How about that? Because the Steelers need this game, and their defense is awesome.

I don't really see – and RG3, he hasn't played that much, but when he has played, he's had 12 carries for 20 yards. So it's not like he's just going in there and running Lamar Jackson's offense with Lamar Jackson's style. So, yeah, I mean, this is a brutal matchup for the Baltimore Ravens. No Brandon Williams for the Ravens, their defensive tackle. He's going to sit. They also might sit two of their best offensive linemen, the Ravens.

So that's another strike against their offense. I guess a big question here because a lot of people might, if you're playing in Week 17, you might want to start Gus Edwards. Mark Ingram is hurt right now. So that makes me question, Heath, how much they're going to play Gus Edwards. He might be their workhorse in the playoffs. It might have to come down to that. I don't know.

I kind of thought that we had passed the point of worrying about that. And if we hear something over the next two or three days that changes my mind, then I would certainly think Justice Hill would be a better play than Gus Edwards. But my understanding from what we've heard so far is that it's considered a minor calf strain he gets this week off he gets next week off i've not heard anything that suggests he might not be ready for their first playoff game all right calves are tricky cats we know that so where i'm sorry i must have missed this where do we come out on deontay johnson um versus james washington i assume johnson would be be the preference here.

I actually did just talk about that during my preview. Yeah, I know. I missed it. I apologize. I missed it. What did you say? You said the opposite of what you're saying. You said Washington would be the preference if he had to play.

Why would Washington be the preference? Washington is Mason Rudolph's guy. He doesn't do anything with Duck Hodges. No, that's not true at all. He caught a long touchdown pass from Duck Hodges. Once. I think that Washington is the most likely player to make your week on one play. And I think that's the only way you're probably going to have a good receiver in this game. All right.

And which DST do you guys prefer in this game? Ben, I'll go to you first. I mean, that's a really good question. I want to play them both. I think this game is going to be like 13-10, AFC North, grind it out kind of game. Probably I would take the Ravens because they're at home. I tend to lean towards the home side when I look at DSTs, but I don't think the Steelers are a team to avoid at all. I think they're a great DST option as well.

Yeah, I've got the Ravens second and the Steelers third. I think that the Ravens still have the better quarterback, and they're at home. So I'm going to go with the Ravens defense. All right, and listen, you haven't heard this prediction. I made'm going to go with the Ravens defense. All right. And listen, you haven't heard this prediction. I made it on Tuesday.

I made it on Wednesday. I'm going to, I'm going to give it to you here on Thursday. The Oakland Raiders are going to make the playoffs. Everything is going to fall into place for them. All four games that need to go their way are going to go their way. I think probably the Texans beating the Titans is the one I'm the most concerned about,

but that is our final game. Oakland at Denver. And this actually should have been higher up in the notes. I'm sorry. This is a good game to talk about for fantasy here. So Jacobs is likely out. Ben, you get the first word. We're going to sit Derek Carr.

But let's start with DeAndre Washington. And look, the Raiders' run defense is actually pretty good. 3.96 yards per carry, but they are bad in the passing game. I'm sorry. The Raiders? The Denver run defense. But they've been worse lately.

I kind of mixed up my stuff. They've been worse lately. There we go. Let's go with that. Anyway, kick it off, Ben. Raiders and Broncos. You know what I think is going to happen if all those scenarios occur and this would just be so Raiders is the Raiders and Broncos. You know what I think is going to happen if all those scenarios occur,

and this would just be so Raiders, is the Raiders then lose. They get everything, all the help they need, but then they lose their game in dramatic fashion at the end. Look, I would play DeAndre Washington, absolutely, if Josh Jacobs is out. He had a solid game last week in a not necessarily good situation. I think he can start Hunter Renfro. I'm not loving it. He had a lot of yards after the catch on his long touchdown last week.

Not somebody that I expect to be going for 100 yards. He's going to be more of a lower yard per reception type guy typically. Tyrell Williams is also just not a guy that I'm going to love in this matchup against Chris Harris. And Darren Waller is negatively impacted by Hunter Renfro. I don't love the Oakland passing game a ton. I still think you're probably starting Waller. He's basically one of five or six tight ends that we've had that have seen consistent volume all season. On Denver's side, Cortland Sutton's tough because Drew Locke has not been very good getting the ball down the field.

They've been kind of throwing underneath more. I still want to use him. I really trust his talent, so I probably will use him, but I can see sitting him if you're loaded at receiver. Phillip Lindsey is close. He's talking about milestones close to going over 1,000 yards, I believe, and he would become the first undrafted free agent to do so in the first two seasons of his career. So that would be something that I would expect him to be trying to go after and expect the Broncos to kind of be helping him go after. He's somebody that I would consider as kind of a low-end RB2 flex. It's kind of in his typical range because he doesn't get a ton of the receiving work.

And then I don't know that I can go to Deshaun Hamilton or to Tim Patrick or even Noah Fant as far as the additional Denver passing options. I don't really buy into Drew Luck very much. Anything to add, Heath? No, I think I mostly agree with what Ben said. DeAndre Washington or Philip Lindsay, who do you guys like better? Lindsay. It's close. I think I'm going to take Washington. It is very close. I have him within like three

or four spots in my ranking, so I agree with that. I just like Lindsay a little sign. But Phillip Lindsay is so hard to trust. And he has, in his last four games, they combined 17 receiving yards. That's not very good. And that's a vulnerability of the Raiders, but he won't take advantage of that. All right, then. Cortland Sutton or Devontae Parker?

I'll take Sutton. I would play Sutton as a player that I think has more ceiling if Locke just throws up a jump ball to him in a more beatable matchup. Parker will probably get more of those throw-up balls, those downfield balls, but I think it's don't see the ceiling for Parker. Throw-up balls. Yeah, I just don't see the ceiling for Parker. Throw up balls. Yeah, I gotta love those.

Heath, Cortland Sutton or a running back in this Denver-Oakland game? In non-PPR, I'd take both running backs. In PPR, I'd take Sutton over both running backs. Well, but Washington's pretty involved in the passing game, no? He is, yeah. He's not bad in the passing game.

It's just when you're talking about running back versus wide receiver, and I've got all three of these guys ranked in the teens of my rankings, and a teens running back is going to be a lot higher than a teens wide receiver and non-PPR and vice versa. Yeah, and he only had two catches last week, I guess. Three weeks ago he had six catches. All right, that's it for the show. Thank you to Ben and Heath.

We've got eight more games to preview. That's coming up tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today. Hope everybody had a great holiday, and we'll keep the good times rolling here. We'll come back at you on Friday. See you later.