Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: Joe Burrow, Kyle Pitts, Trevor Lawrence, Tyrone Tracy Jr. and More (12/15 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Recapping Vikings-Cowboys (5:30)! Can we start Justin Jefferson or George Pickens next week? What are we seeing from J.J. McCarthy? What else stood out in last night's game? ... News and notes (22:15) with some key injury updates and then snap counts and other stats (25:10) on Trey McBride, Troy Franklin, Brian Thomas Jr. and running back splits ... Five Big Things! You gave us five players to talk about today and we analyze them and give advice for Week 16 and beyond: Trevor Lawrence (29:50), Kyle Pitts (35:15), Tyrone Tracy Jr. (40:00), Joe Burrow (46:35) and Gardner Minshew's impact on Rashee Rice (51:35) ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

All right, it is beyond the box score time. Advanced stats from the simplest people you could possibly get Adam and Dan here today on fantasy football. presented by BEDMGM, make it legendary. Happy Monday, Dan. What's going on? How are you today? We are as simple. It is as simple as it gets. When we pull back the studs and Jacob's not on the show, it's just, it's, you just break it down to a level that is almost unheard of.

Yeah. I'm not going to lie, you, there's no reason to listen to the show today. You're not going to get anything out of it. Maybe some entertainment, but that's about it. That's not true. You got a lot of research. Adam put a ton of time into this, and we've got a lot of stats coming your way. We got a lot of players to talk about, so.

And one of the players. To answer the questions in the chat, no, I have not watched Rocky yet. No, this is not even a question. It's not going to happen. I was asked in the chat. I know, but it was a silly question. It's not going to happen probably ever. Can I, can I share it?

No, it will happen. I have to do it now. It won't have. You've been saying this matchstick men. Until this last show on Friday, I did not say I was planning to watch it. Now I'm saying I have to watch it. No, but there have been other movies where you said I'm going to, all right, forget it. What, matchstick men?

Yeah, matchstick men. I think Braveheart, I think. I never said I was going to watch Braveheart. You should. Is Braveheart the Mel Gibson one, or is that the other one? Mm-hmm. Sure is. Okay.

So I had an email today with this guy, Matthew, Matthew, and his subject line was, he actually emailed me yesterday, or Sunday. He said, Dan Balboa, the urban jump shooter. So he emailed me. Okay, he emailed me Saturday with a. bunch of start sit questions and he emailed me again today just to say thank you so went back and i looked at my answers and i gave him such terrible advice bad oh horrible except one thing i told him to start purdy over DAC and he actually didn't listen to that advice but the rest of it was just awful and i felt really bad and i apologized and he said it's a crazy game we play and while i love

all the prep and data we just never know it's the journey of prepping for each week that i love and i really appreciate i appreciated that so much because i felt really bad and i just felt like i gave bad advice yesterday i'm kind of reeling i was a very it was a last week we we knew it when we were on sunday show you i was uh i mean you did it all morning but there was a segment with me you and jacob and we were kind of going over a lot of these start sick calls and and a lot of them were you know likely was involved in them who had a nothing burger that's that's a killer for anyone we we said like You know, if you're playing likely, the matchup is great, but the volume's not there. I feel like that was the case for a lot of the plays on this week's late.

Even a player like Watson who got hurt, we weren't trusting the volume. It was a tough week, but there were some good calls in there. I think we like Tracy, who had a big week, for starters. I mean, I didn't see this coming from Tracy, but, you know, two touchdowns. But yeah, we'll talk about him because he had a season high in Snapshare, which was encouraging. Kind of felt like they were just riding the hot hand a little bit, which I feel like they've done since Scataboo got hurt. but I'll defer to you on that. Tracy's one guy we're going to talk about.

Joe Burrow, Kyle Pitts, Trevor Lawrence. Can you trust him against the Denver Broncos? I believe the Jaguars in their last six games have run 37 plays in which they have been trailing. Wow. Yeah, and 23 of them, I want to say, were against Arizona. Unreal. They've been leading five of the last six games.

They've led almost the entire game. That's not going to be the case next week at, Denver, which is a tough matchup. Let's talk about Sunday night football. Minnesota 34 and Dallas 26. You said earlier on our little mic check, his best game that J.J. McCarthy's play in the NFL. Hard to dispute that.

And he was 15 of 24, 250 yards, two touchdowns, interception on his first pass attempt. He also rushed for a touchdown. He did the gritty or whatever. And apparently Kevin O'Connell was not happy about it. But this is two straight games with more than 26 fantasy points for J.J. McCarthy. That is awesome. Washington and Dallas, and he's at the Giants next week. And then he gets Detroit. Holy cow, are we buying in? For the end of the season, to an extent, yeah, I mean, you don't, I don't think we're buying into the point where we're going to be going over start sits this week and telling you to start J.J. over X quarterback in your one quarterback league semifinals because that will probably be taking it too far. There's still dud potential. But as far as two quarterback leagues, super flex, I feel I have him in one of my in my home league right now.

I feel pretty good about it moving forward. He runs. And the thing is, like, there was a moment in this game. It was back-to-back plays where he play action. It felt a little bit like the Darnold, Mullins, Cousins' version of the Kevin O'Connell offense for the first time in so long. It was back-to-back plays. He ran play action and then hit that seam ball to Hawkinson,

which I thought Kevin O'Connell did a great job after the game describing as a runner's ball. And that's a big thing with quarterbacks. A lot of quarterbacks are generally accurate, but they don't throw runner's ball, which allows for yards after the catch. That was a little bit hot, but it was close to the perfect runner's ball. But then the next play,

he has Jefferson on the crosser, and he just kind of overshoots it a little bit. He did get hit. You got hit on that. But it's just like that was the moment where I thought it was all about to click, where he went back to that. I felt like the old O'Connell offense.

But the fact of the matter is, he throws with great velocity. I think O'Connell keeps talking about the RPMs. You could see it in the red zone. You could see it on those deep crossers and on the seam balls. it's all kind of about putting it all together from a footwork and a timing standpoint, and it is getting better. But what that means is chunk plays,

explosive plays are possible, I think, in this offense with him at quarterback, when they weren't necessarily there for a player like Wentz. I still don't feel all that great about where I'm at with Jefferson. Obviously, the eight targets looks nice, and they are trying to get him the football,

especially in the red zone, which is great. I thought Sean could save him for you if you're starting him in your semifinals, but it's just hard for me to feel great about it. Hawkinson's the real interesting one, just given the state of the tight end position. Yeah, Hawkinson, I feel like I'll expect maybe eight to ten fantasy points. But it could be worse than that, obviously. The weird thing is they're just, they're barely throwing.

I mean, he's thrown 23 and 24 pass attempts in his last two games because they've been winning. I mean, they blew out the commanders. I think it was 31 nothing or something. Last night, they threw four passes in the fourth quarter, I want to say. right um in a 34 to 6 win yeah he had four pass attempts in the fourth quarter so you can't expect great production from mccarthy with 23 or 24 pass attempts but on the other hand the giants are so bad defensively right now and you know that it is on the road it's going to be cold weather so i don't know how he'll do with that but there's an opportunity here um for jefferson he's the

first player all year to get eight or more targets against the cowboys and not score 14 or more PPR fantasy points. And he scored 4.2. He had two catches for 22 yards on eight targets. Now, he had a touchdown called back on an illegal shift. Right. It was a short touchdown, but it was a touchdown nonetheless. And then

he was open in the end zone. It was open for that chunk play you mentioned. He was open in the end zone and ball went through his hands. It's on him but really like he just, it was another fastball. I think it really needed to be a change of. Yeah. There's no pace on the, he doesn't know how to change the pace. Yeah. So, but it was a more encouraging game than what we saw.

I shouldn't say that, by that. I want to take that back. He did change the pace on that out and up route to Addison, where he threw a back shoulder. That was actually a nice job of him of taking a little something off the ball. So he can't, he's getting there, hopefully, as a quarterback. But right now, specifically in the red zone, it looks like it's all one speed. So the Vikings running backs, they basically have been splitting carries evenly for the last three weeks and Mason was in near the goal line on multiple occasions

in this game. Jones is going to catch the pass as Mason has four catches in his last nine games and you probably wouldn't want to start Jones or Mason except the Giants are almost an historically bad run defense. All right you can start that like as we move forward and we're going to be

fielding our questions this Sunday Adam about oh should I start or say it likely or blah blah, like, no, no, I'll play the Vikings backs. I'll play the backs in an amazing matchup against the quit Giants defense that Jacourri, the Bill, Bill Morrette, Merritt just ripped off 20 points on. Marette. Who's Maret? I always call him Maret for some reason.

Throughout time, I've called Maret. I can't figure that one out. And you forgot the Kroski, too. I just had to quickly go to Marek because I knew I was screwing it up. It's already too far deep on that one. Oh, man. But no, like, I'll probably suggest to play Aaron Jones in any kind of. a half or full ppr league fine mason maybe not but like there'll be worse plays than getting the

giant's defense there will be a lot worse plays on the schedule even players of more volume just in bad matchups all right so let's talk about the cowboys here because not only did they have a bad matchup against the viking so good now they are facing a team that allows the fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks and the fewest fantasy points to wide receivers next week it'll be a home game against the chargers so dac prescott scores 12 fantasy points he did throw for 294 yards. Last week he threw for 320 yards. Oh, no, sorry, that was against the Chiefs.

No, I'm sorry. Last week he threw for 376 yards. So the production, the last couple of weeks, has been disappointing, but it's mostly because he has one touchdown at two interceptions. I think it'll be a challenge against the Chargers, but you know how it's going to be. I mean, they're just going to throw and throw and throw. You're going to start Giovante, assuming he's healthy. He ran one route the entire game.

So he missed most of the first half. Yeah. Came back, ran brilliantly, and basically he just kept coming out of the game for Malik Davis. But if Javante's healthy, you're going to start him. But he really barely plays. Like he came in the game, carried the ball on left for much of the second half. Then there's Lamb. You're going to start him.

Ferguson is, I don't know that he's a start next week. He's facing the chargers who are one of the best against tight ends. But we'll talk about that next week. Let's talk about Jenkins. Colby Parkinson than Jake Ferguson next week. Without Adams against the Seahawks, that that's very, very intriguing. My issue with Parkinson is that he's been really good.

They throw to so many different tight ends. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's nothing good about, like Parkinson's not some kind of an amazing play based on volume or any kind of logic we usually fall. It's the end of the fantasy season. He scores a touchdown on one of the best offenses, and Devante is now out of that red zone offense, most likely. I mean, Ferguson is devolved into a basically Parkinson, but worse.

All right, now pick up. I don't know if you watch the tape. Not yet. I did. It's disappointing. You know, look, wide receivers, they don't run full speed on every route, right? Not even close. There's a lot of just kind of jogging and they're not the primary target, whatever.

He spent most of the night to me sort of jogging. And I'm not going to make any, I don't know. I don't know enough because people are saying, you know, he's dogging it out there for the second week in a row. But I went back and I watched some of his route. Just the first four or five routes against the chiefs from three weeks ago. And compared to the ones I saw last night, I am seeing a big difference. Is that mean it's going to happen again next week? I'm pretty sure I'm going to start George Pickens next week.

But he had six targets, 38 pass attempts. You know, it's concerning here. Minnesota is terrific against receivers. So this shouldn't be a shock. But so are the Chargers. What's your faith level in Pickens? Yeah, obviously when I said I didn't watch tape at men, and watch the All-22 for those in the comments.

I would like to go back and see what you're talking about from an individual route standpoint. But from a secondary standpoint, something that I found insanely troubling, did you hear what Collinsworth said on the broadcast? No. About Pickens? It was wild.

I don't think I've ever heard this about a wide receiver. I don't know if I've ever heard this about any football player. He said that Dak Prescott told him in meetings this week that last week he could see it in Pickens' eyes that he wasn't all there. So he said, I was just going to keep going to CD lamp. I could see it in his eyes. He's like, he just see it in his eyes.

He wasn't engaged in the game. That's crazy, dude. I've never heard that said about an athlete before. Like, he just wasn't there. Like, I could see it in his eyes. That is not like, and that's like, it's all right. We're going to get him back on track or whatever. But like the fact that he could get to a point where he could not be engaged in a game is just not great.

It sucks for me because my two big flag plan calls on Beyond the Box door before the season where James Cook and Pickens. And they look like big wins. But now Pickens is the type of player who might just kill you in your fantasy playoffs, right? Like, it's hard to feel confident about where he's at as we end this season. Dallas, I don't know what their plan is. They're out of the playoffs. They're going to rest starters at some point. Not officially.

I'm worried about that. They're not officially out of the playoffs, but they're 99.9% out of the playoffs. They have to win out and the Eagles have to lose out. Yeah. And the Cowboys will win the division. I mean, part of the problem is also like they're down to their third string left tackle, right? So last night, they had their second string in at left tackle. he got hurt and they brought in some guy who played left guard for them earlier this season.

When you have that situation, you have to cut off a big portion of your playbook. You can't run 5-7 step drop, deep play action dropbacks trying to get the vertical game going. Pickens becomes kind of a slant or nothing winner, maybe a back shoulder off a quick drop. But like it does limit what they're going to do in the passing game if they are going to be playing their third string left tackle moving forward. All right. I didn't really think that was the issue yesterday. me and Collinsworth is talking about that. The tackles kind of held up decently yesterday, but Pickens.

There's a lot of quick game, yeah. Pickens just wasn't, I don't know, man. No, the Pickens thing is weird. But I'm not an expert on route running, so I'll defer to the experts. But obviously, people saw it last week, and Dak confirmed it based on what you relayed from Collinsworth. All right. So we're going to have so many tough calls in week 16, because we've got like backup running backs

and we've got good players with tough matchups. It's just going to be a nice. a really tough week again. But we'll help you sort it out. Now, it's time for football at BetMGM. Register with BetMGM. It's a great time a year to register with BetMGM, people, all right? Fun football games to look at, and you'll get instant access to the best variety of parlay

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Yeah, what are you liking? It's a weird year. I like the Ravens, because right now they're not even in the playoffs. So they have to win their division. Okay. But if they were, I think they are plus 2,500, the AFC to me is so wide open. It is. The Ravens scare me if they get in.

I don't hate this call. Their defense is playing well. Lamar was obviously hurt. If you get a healthy Lamar, I mean, they just blank the bangles. That's pretty impressive. If you get a healthy Lamar, they've got a shot here. And I think they're going to win the division. I think the Steelers are going to joke.

I don't hate this call. I think the Steelers could even lose this game tonight against the Dolphins, quite honestly. the type of game that Tomlin loses when he's favored on the I think they're yeah two in this weather scares me but you're right you're right two in this weather is scary but they've just been running the ball they become a run first offense which is really big reason I think they'll have a shot in this game we'll see but it's an interesting call because I don't feel I certainly don't feel confident in the Broncos though Nick's played his best game of the year and I want to become a believer I'm not but I'll want to become one

the Patriots scare me the bills there's some issues on defense that I'm not sure the be able to, like, it's not a bad call by you. I don't hate it. I think the Jags are interesting. Someone mentioned them in the comments. I don't know if they're ready to go to the Super Bowl, but Lawrence is finally playing the best football of his career. Even the Texans are interesting to me. I love that defense, but it's going to be an interesting AFC. I don't know what's going to happen. Even the NFC, I don't feel fully confident the Rams are just going to roll. No, I think, I mean, I don't want, I wouldn't want to face the Eagles. I don't, I don't, I'm off that train. I don't think the Eagles are going anywhere. I see where you, I see where you

coming from but every team has flaws the eagles uh you know if you had to big a super bowl right now what would it be you have to do right now i would say i would say no it's so hard i don't know i mean is it yeah dude i have no idea if if the funny thing is like chiefs eagles would you say chiefs Eagles? Chiefs Eagles, yeah. The funny thing is if both or if they were coming back for the playoffs, if Slater and Joe Alt were still on the Chargers, I would pick the Chargers happily.

I would happily pick the Chargers. Their defense is unreal and they'd actually be able to throw the ball because Herbert's amazing. You just can't do it with two backup tackles. But like they're not. So they're going to be screwed on offense this postseason. I think for me it's the Bills finally do it. Josh Allen's been there. He's had the experience in the playoffs.

And he's so hard to stop if you give him the ball at the end. And it's been Mahomes killing him for so many years. Mahomes has gone. So I'm going with the Bills and I'm hopeful because I really, that fan base deserves it, my opinion. I mean, I won't say more than any other. Obviously, there's Jets fan base and stuff like that. But like, they deserve it the Bills.

And I'll go Bills versus Rams. I think the Rams with the home field advantage will be able to do it. I just don't. It's like, to me, it's one of those West teams. I don't think it's going to be Darnold. And I don't. The Niners, Rams, or Bears, or Bears, do I want to say? Now, I'm going to go Rams, Bills, and Bills win it all.

Okay. I'm just going to, I don't have it a prediction. I can't. Even with a bad defense. I can't. I asked a friend of mine, who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl? I'd ask him on Friday night, and he's like, oh, let me think about that. And he texted me on Sunday.

So he took him two days to figure it out. He'd say the race. It's a weird year. It's going to be interesting. All right, let's take a break and come back with your news and notes, some snap counts. And five players that you wanted to hear about. We'll talk about that are five big things coming up. Okay.

Patrick Mahomes, Torn. ACL, there's your quarterback news. Jalen Warrant is questionable tonight. So you know what to do if he doesn't play. You start Kenneth Gainwell if you have him. But yeah, Jailen Warren's questionable with an illness. Hopefully he's able to play. Jvante Williams' chest, Woody Marks, ankle, apparently was good enough to come back in, gets the Raiders next week. RJ Harvey rib injury. I've not seen anything on this R.J. Harvey rib injury. Bejial Tudin left with a finger injury, Devin Neal Hamstring, Zonovan Knight. I think it was an ankle injury for Zonovan Knight. There was some update that I'll get in a minute.

Christian Watson has a chest injury, but not a bad one, not a long-term injury. Hopefully we can get him back this week at Chicago, much better matchup than what he just dealt with. Luther Burden left with an ankle injury. He only played, I think he played less than half the snaps. Right. Maybe DJ. Did you mention marks or no?

I did, yeah. What's the Marks situation? Do we have any update on that yet? He could have come back in the game. Okay. According to Damico Ryans. so BAM Knight has a bad ankle injury according to Adam Schaefter

and is unlikely to play this week against Atlanta All right, Tyquan Thornton's in the concussion protocol Ricky Pearsall, Lipta, I think it was a knee injury for Pearsall, got Van Jefferson hurt, Tyler Lockett hurt, Devon Valet. Oh, this one I didn't know about yesterday either. Devon Veilay got hurt. Wow.

He didn't play at all in the fourth quarter, not much in the second half, I believe. He's been playing well. That way Alave finally got targets in the end of the game. Things that way, yep. And Devante Adams is, I would call him unlikely for this week,

hopefully back next week. Don't know that, but Sean McVeigh himself said it's going to be tough for Adams to get back for a Thursday game at Seattle. Brutal for me. Gunner Helm left, but he came back. You mentioned the Dallas offensive line,

also the Chiefs offensive lines still beat up. Packers got a little injured with their right tackle, Zach Tom leaving. Kevin Zitlin. for the Titans left with a groin injury. Okay. On defense, the big defensive injuries would be Micah Parsons,

but also, he's got a torn ACL, but also Evan Williams, their safety left with a knee injury, though it's not expected to be serious. You had Quinn and Williams for the Cowboys is in the concussion protocol, or at least he was left with a head injury. I think it's a concussion for Quinn and Williams.

And you've got three safeties for the Titans, left with injuries. One of them's a special teams guy, but two safeties that were basically every down players for Tennessee left with injuries. They get the Chiefs this week, and the Jets lost two defensive backs. The Jets' defense was,

just didn't show up. Didn't show up. Terrible. Sorry, I'm laughing at the comments. Johnny Airport's leaning in, one of our best commentsers is leaning into the whole he's Thomas thing. He says as a Vikings fan. I was bum when Hunter went to Houston.

And we don't have proof that Thomas and Air Force. airport are not the same person. Nobody has proven that yet. Well, they weren't chatting with each other before the show via the chat. Yeah, it could have been two computers easily. Could have been Thomas on a burner easily. Yeah, I think we all feel that way. All right, snap counts and other stats to know.

Weird game for Breece Hall. He was out snapped by Isaiah Davis in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. Breece Hall played only 55% of the snaps. He had been over 70%, but it was a terrible week for him. The Jets, I forget who they get this week. They have a good matchup, though. And that's usually when he does well. I think they have a good matchup.

I'll tell you in one second. They play the Saints on the road. Okay, how about this? I've been trying to make the case. Trey McBride is the fantasy MVP. Since Jacoby Brissette took over, there are two non-quarterbacks averaging more PPR fantasy points per game than Trey McBride.

Can you name them? It was starting in week six. Can you say it again, the whole thing? Yeah. Since Jacoby Brissette took over in week six, only two non-quarterbacks are averaging more fantasy points per game than Trey McBride. Can you name them? McBride is averaging 23.3 PPR fantasy points per game. I thought he was wide receiver six overall. I thought I read today, but I guess that's on the season. So this is just since that breaking point where Berset came in, which really saved his fantasy season and made him this dominant player, McBride. So two players would be, Caffrey.

Yep. Of course. It goes without saying. And Gibbs. Yep. Okay. They're both about a point per game better than a Mick. But it is insane. McBride's essentially winning leagues for people. He's averaging, for the season, he's averaging 19 points per game, which would be the second best season of Travis Kelsey's career.

Kelsey's only had one year where he's been better than 19. And I think Kelsey is, believe it or not, Kelsey is tight end two per game this year at 12.6 fantasy points per game. Oh, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's not. I'm sorry. He's tied into overall because Kittle missed time. Kittle missed time. Bauer's missed time.

Bauer stinks for us for fantasy, unfortunately. All right, other snap counts to know about. Michael Carter played 80% of the snaps. Amardi Omercato played 12%. Yeah, Carter is going to be somebody we're going to be telling, eventually in big starts, it's lost spots. But Atlanta, I thought Atlanta was a great matchup. They really haven't been that bad against running backs.

lately. Quarterbacks, yes. Kamani Vidal played 64% of the snaps. Omari and Hampton, 36%. You know, that's just basically Hampton doesn't play

passing downs. Same thing with Trayvion Henderson. Henderson ran eight routes from Andre Stevenson out snapped him. Tyrone Tracy's season high

in Snapshare, ran a lot of routes. He's been kind of up and down in the routes run. Two of the last three weeks has been very high. When Christian Watson

got hurt, we saw a big snap share increases for Romeo Dobbs, Jaden Reed, not really, actually. He kind of kept his role, but Don Tavian Wix and Matthew Golden, but Dobbs was the one who had an 82-rout participation, 82% route participation rate in the second half. Still don't feel good about playing him, though, this week.

No, he's been really slumping. Chuba Hubbard remains the third downback for the Panthers, no surprise. You know, Troy Franklin had a big game, and you thought, oh, it's because Pat Bryant didn't play and a big increase in role. Not really. Troy Franklin played only 50% of the snaps. He just made the most of them. And he ran 61% of the routes, which was a big increase from last week, where he was about 37% of the routes. But it was about the same as two weeks before. It's lower than what we usually saw from Franklin before Pat Bryant emerged.

So he was actually, he ran a few of routes than Little Jordan Humphrey. So I just wanted to point that out with Franklin. It's not like everything was golden again. He just happened to have a great game. And Brian Thomas Jr. had a really good game. Four catches, 66 yards. and a touchdown on seven targets. He also dropped a pretty easy touchdown, and he dropped a much less easy deep ball. Would have been about a 35-yard catch. So he was pretty close to having six catches

for about 108 yards and two touchdowns on seven targets, Brian Thomas Jr. By the way, both of his drops were immediately followed up by Travis E.TN touchdown catches. So E.T.N. has BTJ to thank. All right, you ready for five big things? Let's do it. All right, I asked everybody for who do you want to hear about.

So I got five that I saw in the responses. But before we dive into your five big things this week, a quick shout out to Amazon Prime. Need last-minute holiday gifts? Prime's fast, free shipping has you covered so you can focus on the plays, not the stress. Holiday wins delivered. It's on Prime.

All right, here we go. Five big things. We start with Trevor Lawrence. As big as it gets, most fantasy points by any player in any game this season, 54.1 in 6 point per passing touchdown leagues. Most fantasy points in over a year.

Josh Allen topped that in week 14 of 2024. But it's now four straight good games, 23.1 or more fantasy points for Lawrence at Arizona, at Tennessee, Indianapolis, and the Jets. Unfortunately, Dan, we are at the Broncos this week. So what do you think about Lawrence?

Well, we've talked about him now on BTB for like two or three straight weeks, just grinding tape on him. These last two weeks before this one, I haven't seen the film yet on this game, where the two best games of his career on tape by far. And what I think is him and Liam Cohen coming together, understanding what is,

like, conceptually speaking, what is the best way to maximize his skill set as a thrower? Because he's not the best touch thrower. He doesn't have the best over-the-top touch on deep passes, but he can drive the football, man. And he can drive it in those intermediate diger outs and on those cross and deep overs and crossers,

breaking toward the middle of the field, but also breaking on the outs. And that's what we're starting to see, just these explosive shot play abilities for him. A big part of this, I think, because just from watching the last two games on tape, again, I didn't see this one, but so I can't confirm, has been just the emergence and arrival of Jacoby Myers, because he's provided that solution for him underneath so he can read high to low and come to that Myers low, and it's there a lot. Like, Myers just knows where to be in zone coverage. And they talked about that this week, I believe it was the Jags offensive

coordinator. I'm blanking on his name, but he discussed that importance of his role in the offense. So I feel really confident about where Lawrence is at. The question is, and he runs, right, like that's a good part of his game too, right? Fifty one rushing yards and a rushing TD, it's huge. He's not just that stationary quarterback. The question is, can it continue against a Broncos defense that is elite, but at the same time, like, some offensive schemes have figured out how to move it, right? We just saw two weeks ago, Marcus Mariotto was able to move the ball pretty successfully in that Washington Commander's offense and their scheme with Kingsbury was able to move it successfully. It's Liam Cohen against outmatch maybe from a personnel standpoint, but I'm pretty

confident. Like, I would start Lawrence for sure this week. I wouldn't bench him. I don't know. I'm not that confident. I think I watched the tape of the last two games and obviously I don't, I'm never going to be able to, well, I wouldn't say never, but I'm not going to be able to be like talking about all the things that Dan talked about. It's very impressive the way you look at tape. The one thing that just so obviously jumps out has been the pass protection the last two weeks against the Colts and the Jets who do not have good pass rushes. They are currently ranked 24th and 30th in pressure rate, and each of the last two weeks, Jacksonville has been fourth best in pressure rate allowed. When they faced Houston, six weeks ago, they were 28th. They haven't really faced a good pass rush since then.

The best would be probably the Chargers, and they were 11th that week. were they 11th that week they were 10th that week and so they did well the offensive line is playing well but they haven't really been challenged the schedule has been as good as it gets true Denver can really get after it

I don't know if they still lead the NFL in sacks but I'm pretty sure they led the NFL sacks coming into last week's game how good has Jordan Love looked recently right he's playing great football and what did he score 16 points yesterday got off to a good start

I actually think losing Watson really hurt him yes yes And Brian Thomas Jr. is kind of Christian Watson right now. He's doing everything pretty much downfield, but he's making plays typically. I know he had a couple drops. But so there, I could see it. I could see it with Lawrence because he's getting drunk plays. That's the problem.

It's in Denver. That sucks. And Denver, the quarterbacks who have done well against Denver, they've all been in Denver road games except for Jackson Dart. Got a little lucky. I was glad you said that I was about to say you better not forget about that. They've all been, they've been Daniel Jones, Jalen Hertz, Jackson Dart, Mariotta,

and believe it or not, the Vegas quarterback scored 21.5 fantasy points. I am leaning sit, Trevor Lawrence. I think you might be right. But I might be wrong, but you are definitely going to start him at the Colts in a week 17th. I'm not making my decision yet, though, on him. No, no, but they have the tendency.

What is he on this season? I'd be surprised to hear how high he is on the season, I bet at QB, just giving the consistency he's ad and now this explosive week. I guarantee he's top eight. Let's see Yeah, I think he's going to be close to that It was my big sleeper at the position preseason

It was him and Stroud who both sucked forever He's currently eighth per game He's eighth Yeah, eighth per game, okay Would you like to know what he was last week Or two days ago? Before this probably in like the 12 to 14 range, right? Let's see

Look that up, say If you are in the CBS Commissioner product, this is a cool feature. You can go to your stats page You can click on custom report type in all quarterbacks time frame click select dates we'll go week one to week 14 and then you'll be able to see where Trevor Lawrence ranked and you'll be able to get this little tutorial for me as I kill time uh Trevor Lawrence was one two three four five six

seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fifteen sixteen sixteen seventh and now he's eighth wow um all right so that's Trevor Lawrence let's go to our next player it's Kyle Pitts and boy I think Kyle Pitts would be basically the easiest decision to make against Arizona next week because they are horrible against tight ends and he's on fire three straight games with eight or more targets but Kyle Pitts has not played a game yet this year with Kirk Cousins and Drake London and he's played a couple of partial games but not a full game and I have no idea what it's going to look like if London even plays by the way yeah I'm I think they said he's expected to play next, or like they expressed optimism about him playing next week. I'm going to look that up now. I don't think he practiced all last week, though, right? No, but they had a short week. They played Thursday.

Yeah. He may have practiced, actually. Did he practice? He may have. Let's, look, it's not even a question you start pits if London. Not only do you start pits, he might be, he's probably tight end too, if he is in the rankings. Like, you're going to go McRide over him and then Pitts. But if London plays, how would you feel about him at Arizona?

Still feel great, right? The matchup he said is amazing. Weather controlled environment. Love that. Cousins like, you know, everybody crapped on Cousins. And what happens? He gets a little bit more time in this offense, starts to get the timing down, starts to be getting the ball out fast.

There were a lot of really good throws on tape from Kirk Cousins in this last game against the bucks. Now, I know he has a history of just beating up on the top. bowl scheme. He understands how to beat that scheme. He's played against it a lot. And that's a factor for sure. But this Cardinals defense has quit. Like they quit. This coach is gone. This defense is horrific. They get run through every single week. I think he's one of the best plays on the whole slate. Like they finally figuring out how to use this talent. Maybe it's just because he's finally healthy. But he is unreal. Like he can't be stopped. It looks like Florida version of Kyle Pitts. Like you get him matched up one on one, any kind of man he'll be. In zone, you can have him

cross into areas of the zone and then just use his speed and size. There's, I mean, what are you asking if we're going to play him or if we're expecting another big week? No, we're going to play him. Well, obviously, he's a must-start player, I think. He's a must-star player if London's out against Arizona, who's bad against tight ends when you don't really have that many good tight ends right now. He's a must-start player anyway, but I just want to point, like, Kyle puts out a really

disappointing career, and it's really no coincidence to me that he's going crazy with Drake London out. The strike London usually gets double-digit targets. But yeah, I think you're going to start him one way or the other. I'll say this about that. Cousin's skill set is a better fit for Pitts than it is for London versus panic skill set is a better fit for London than it is for Pitts. All right. All right. That's an easy one, I guess. And congratulations if you advance with Kyle Pitts this week, huge game of 45 fantasy points. Unreal. We're going to take a break and talk about Tyrone Tracy. Of the five big things that we're talking about, this is the one I have no research on. So, Dan, get your arm warmed up in the bullpen. You're coming in for Tyrone

Tracy. We'll be right back on fantasy football today. What's up? It's Draymond Green. I'm back for my 14th NBA season and my podcast to Draymond Green show is back to. This season, I'm breaking down games, reacting to the biggest NBA stories, and sitting down with teammates, rivals and culture shapers. And trust me, I'm not holding back. On the court or on the mic. Two new episodes every week. New segments, big conversations, real basketball, talk for the real hoop heads.

Listen to and follow the Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcast. We're back. We're better. Let's get it. All right, big game from Tyrone Tracy Jr. Who was started in 18% of leagues. Yeah. And he goes for 15 carries, 70 yards, one touchdown.

Three more catches, 27 yards. and a really nice touchdown catch against the Washington commanders. Now, the competition steps up, Minnesota this week at home. They've been a little inconsistent. They've been very inconsistent against the run, and also defensive tackle Javon Hargrave left with an injury for Minnesota. But what do you make of the Giants' backfield? Because do you feel like it's been, since Scataboo got hurt,

basically a hot-hand approach most weeks? I think it was the case until, if you really look at the split, what we should do is look at the splits with Kafka versus before, uh, before table was fired. So I feel like during the Kafka stretch, it's been mostly Tracy getting the, the majority of the workload because he believes he can give them a better chance to win.

Honestly, probably their second best, if not best playmaker on the field at all times. I guess you can say Wondale, um, but Tracy really has shown the ability to give them versatility in their past run game. You can do a better job of marrying the pass and run game if he's on the field because he can do things like he did on that touchdown. catch, which is, you know, run a wheel route and then adjust to a back shoulder ball and make

the catch because he's a former receiver. I think he runs hard. I think he's doing a good job of pacing his runs. The touchdown run was excellent yards after contact. The problem is I don't have much faith he's going to do this against Minnesota. Again, he still could lose some red zone roll. Some of the red zone touch, I should say, the Singletary has in the past. I don't think that's something that's impossible. He's had fumbling issues both of his first two seasons, mostly his rookie season. That's led to him being pulled from games. It's not a player I trust to do a major extent against them in a match of like the Vikings, to be honest. So before this game against Washington, in my opinion, Tyrone Tracy Jr. faced three defenses that are better

against the run than Minnesota. Two of them, I would say, you know, well, one of them definitively better. And then the other two, I guess, are close. But I just, I see a lot of inconsistencies with Minnesota. But Green Bay, at Detroit, at New England. He had a really good game against Green Bay. 19 carries, 88 yards, four catches, 51 yards. 17.9 fantasy points. Against Detroit, he scored 16 fantasy points. I want to say that's the second most that any running back had scored all year. So now it's probably the third or fourth most because the Rams guys did really well. But 20 carries, 62 yards and three catches for 68 yards. And then New England, England was a bad game and he left with an injury.

10 carries for 36 yards, one catch for negative 3 yards, and then this game against Washington, two touchdowns. But I think what sticks out to me is in three of his last four games, he has three or four catches. And the word of time he didn't was New England and he left that game with an injury. So I hope that keeps up.

If he gets three catches, he's doing a lot with the catches, then you're probably going to have a double-digit PPR fantasy point game. Will it be great? I don't know. The issue is just like it's a ceiling cap situation with an offense unlikely, I would say, to score more than one or two touchdowns against the Vikings defense. Yeah.

But, you know, ride it out. He's probably better than a lot of the plays on the slate because he's actually getting, you know, near 80, or he had near 80% snapshot in this game, right? Wasn't it? 79%? 7, 76.5%. Yeah, which you just don't get much. Yeah, but you didn't get it.

You don't get it consistently with him. I mean it was a season you have though because he's been the hot like they they're not going to look at this game tape and be like let's go back to a split back field what are they going to do if they get to the one or two yard line that that's a problem it's not a guarantee to be Tracy which is again why his ceiling is certainly caft but you brought up a good point about the receptions and a little bit of work in the run in the passing game just generally speaking a weapon for them in that regard yeah all right you get to the Raiders matchup it should be good yeah that's going to be potentially the battle for the devastating battle for the number one pick no the giants are going to win that game and blow to number one pick haven't you learned and this is for all football fans right haven't you learned that doesn't matter unless there's that generational player which there isn't it does matter though if mendoza keeps it up if the dozer goes into this college football playoff mendoza's way to a title and looks good doing it you could get a halt for that first overall pick the giants they could trade it back to a desperate team or a stupid team i should say like jets sorry to jets fans they are horrific franchise some somehow worse than the Giants, one of the only ones left, and get next year's one and a second early set, like just get a haul for the dozer. Okay. What do you think of this nickname that I created for him? The Dozer.

You did that? Some people hate it. Some people love it. Okay, good. Most people hate it. Based on all the interviews I've seen, you know who would love it? Kirk Cousins. The Dozer.

The Dozer. He would love it. Is he not just a reincarnation of Kirk Cousins? Yeah, he's got this goofy. So many ways. affable, good-natured way to him. It's fun. No, I love him.

I'm rooting for him. I don't know. I haven't done film work on him. So I don't know. I can't wait to do it for Beyond the Box door this year this summer because usually I don't get to quarterbacks once the Giants have one. But I'm excited to see what I think in because he does have more athleticism than cousins for sure did coming out.

Armed talent-wise, like, I'm not sure. And I do worry that like Curtis O'Rourke or whatever his name, not Curtis O'Rourke. What was that kid's name who was quarterback for Indiana last year? whatever it was was like really good in that system too it does feel a little systemy with doza but he comes up with big throws at big moments the dozer i uh i watched him last year one of the wildest games of the football season was miami at cal which started 10 p m eastern and i was up super early the next morning for work and whatever and it was it was a crazy cam ward come back crazy and i never looked at mendoza and thought oh he could be the number one pick someday but that's a

how it works these days. And I, you know who else was like that that I watched play Miami one year and couldn't believe he was a hyped prospect was Daniel Jones. Like what?

I remember Miami, but at least Mendoza had a good game against him. He wasn't a hyped prospect, Daniel Jones. Only the Giants few. I guess that's true. Prospect like no one else

to be like, most people came in second round grade. The Dozer is going to get that first overall pit. Like who else are you giving it to at this point? If you need a quarterback, you're going those.

Yeah, if you need a quarterback, yeah. All right, Joe Burrow is our next Big topic, big thing. And he said he had one of his worst games, and he really did.

He struggled 5.5 fantasy points against Baltimore. And up next, it will be at Miami. But you go, oh, Miami, they're so easy. They've been pretty good defensively lately. They're running all over people. They're probably controlling the clock. And they haven't really faced a lot of good competition. But I like that the fact that the game's in Miami, right?

We don't have to worry about it. This game yesterday was like negative two winchill. Agreed. I like that. It's in Miami. let me ask you this is it is is it as simple as if t higgins plays next week we start joe burrow if t higgins doesn't play we have a decision to make that's fair to say we have a decision to make i don't think i'll ever bench joe burrow personally like i could use this as like a one-off game where he struggled

but most of the time he's delivering for you the question i have is like higgins could come back from the concussion but like what's the point to play if you're the bad angles or borough like what is the point to play down the stretch i don't like i don't know if they're going to bench these guys at some point or rest like i'm a little concerned about that i'm not super concerned okay not for this week now if they go out of this week they go out lose to miami then then maybe so let's keep it on this week burrow versus miami in a wet a great weather situation spot in miami i think he'll look good good or without higgins could always rain but yeah i mean right but we're thinking i looking at him

without Higgins last year. Yeah. He scored 10.8 fantasy points at Cleveland. He scored nine against Jacksonville, but he only, let's get rid of that. He got hurt in that game, I think. Yeah. Oh, no, I'm sorry.

I'm looking at this year. Where's my, oh, here we go. Last year without Higgins, here are his fantasy points at six point for passing touchdown leagues. 8.1, 21.2, 14.9. Not good. And then 39.1, 41.7.

Uh, so he's got that potential, but it is worth noting, right? It's three out of five games last year where he underperformed, it's two games. It was terrible. And two games this year, I think it was both Baltimore games without Higgins, right? And he threw, like, did he have a good game against Baltimore two times ago, two, two matchups ago? Yeah. Uh, yes, he did. 23.2 fantasy points, but on 46 pass attempts, not exactly, didn't exactly light it up.

And then yesterday he stunk. I watched three quarters of it. I didn't watch the fourth quarter. But to me, this was a game of missed opportunities. First drive is a really good drive for them. Jamar Chase has a drop, a really easy ball, just a bad drop. And then on the next play, a 15-yard sack at a field goal range. Then later in the first quarter, I believe, no, I was in the second quarter.

Deep ball in the end zone would have been a 29-yard touchdown if it had been caught to Jamar Chase. It wasn't really Chase's fault. It looked like a pretty good throw to me, but Chase was kind of hand-fighting, didn't see it until a little bit late. So that's an incomplete pass. Next play, another throw to Chase,

a little too high, intercepted. Then you had a play later in the second quarter where Andre Yosevis got open deep, ball was a little bit underthrown. Yosefus was contacted by Starks, right as he was catching the ball, incomplete pass. That could have been a 30-year-old.

yard gain. So it's just a little bit off for Burrow. I think he's going to be fine. We read you something, though, what you think about this? Because this is, again, like, kind of out of my pay grade. This is from bangles.com. A mere 17 days after Burrow throttled the Ravens

in his storybook comeback. Wow. I didn't even realize, like, how over the top he throttled the Ravens. He said it was bangles.com. Yeah, I didn't even like... It's like the in-house beatwriter. That was the, oh my gosh. All due respect.

This is great job to do. Let me keep reading it. It actually is good analysis in here, but after this first part, a mere 17 days after Burroughs throttle the Ravens and his storybook comeback with two third down laser touchdowns. Baltimore got him back with a tweaked look up front that sent the Bengals to a three for 15 day on third down. The new spacing from the Ravens' interchangeable front seven was apparently an effort

to slow down the Bengals effective double. teams in the run game and force hesitation in past protection with various players in various spots. Wow. I was on. I apologize. I'm familiar with your game, Bengalspeed Riders. Right. Right. It's great analysis. Terrific after after the little simple. It's a little hyperbole to build up. Yeah. What did you think about that? Interesting. That was interesting. I mean, I didn't see the tape on that, but I would like to see what the Ravens did to slow him down. I don't think it would be something that can be replicated by a team like Miami on a short week or something like that. But it's just interesting. Yeah. Well,

Looking forward to... These division games, they've seen these players the most. Like, it comes down to this a lot. We've seen the Brown's defense have so much success with Burrow over this career. All right. Last topic here. Our last big thing is Rishi Rice with Garber Minshu. The matchups the next two weeks could not be more different.

At Tennessee, which is do a cartwheel, and home against the Broncos. So what do you think? I'm highly unlike... It sucks because I do have rice on two. teams making it the semis, but I'm highly unlikely to play him against the Broncos. He will be on my bench against the Broncos. I am debating benching him against the Tennessee Titans. I won't do it.

It's much more likely that he's going to remain in my lineup at him. Oh, I'm going to start him against the Titans. I think I have to, and I think we have to. The things can get real ugly, real fast for Rice from a fantasy standpoint. We do not know what, like, we don't not know how Minchu is going to read out this anti-read offense. It could end up being a totally different target chair than we've grown accustomed to with the Chiefs.

I'm just not entirely sure. Okay, I'm going to try to help you out here. I'm one minute away from finishing. I can even feel confident. One minute away from finishing this research here. So this is useless, but I'll give it to you anyway because it's better than having nothing to go off of. So last year, he played for the Raiders.

Gardner Minchu, he was their starting quarterback for the first 12 weeks of the season. And if you look at Brock Bowers' production with Minchu and then after Minchu, he was, I guess, kind of worse, with Minchu. And then if you look at Jacobi Myers production, well, he was, I guess, kind of worse with Minchu. so that's a little discouraging that both of those guys were better probably the best we had what you say aOC was definitely better for that offense yeah make sure i just i look at it like minchu his whole career has been kind of up and down he had a nice hot start at one point i thought he was the best quarterback potentially in that 2019 class which is crazy but he's falling off i just don't really know like how this offense will operate i guess that's

my biggest concern. Like, most of Rice's production, Adam, I'm sure you feel this way, has been manufactured. I don't feel like it's been rice dominating. And I think Jacob and I went over this past week. Like from all those advanced stat standpoint, Rice has not been very good this year. He has not been good at creating separation. He has not been good after the catch. He has no verticality to his game.

So like he could be forced fed targets and become like this short area PPR. I don't want to say Chico, but like someone who you can put in your lineup the rest the season get a certain floor amount of points in PPR leagues. And I'm fine with that. Like against the Titans, I'll leave him in my lineup for that upside. But it's so hard for me to buy into a player who's been struggling individually with now backup quarterback.

But he's been really good. I mean, fantasy-wise, he's been good. It's been a lot of force-fed targets. So Jacob pointed this out to me last week on Beyond the Box Court. Rishie Rice and other chiefs. receivers are much better against zone than they are man.

They just don't really have a man-beater. Rishi Rises splits against zone and man are wild, which is one of the reasons why I thought he was going to have a good game against the Chargers. The Chargers are one of the most zone-heavy teams in the NFL. And he really didn't have that good of a game. It's just too cold for 50. What you say? Too cold?

It's just, you know, I feel like my cold, my conspiracy cold game. I'm just joking. Nah. Tennessee is 20th in man rate. They play a lot of zone. and who's they have to have that Denver Denver plays a lot of man they're the third highest man coverage team

so Denver's gonna be really tough I mean if you're telling me Denver was next week obviously we can change our mind based on what we see in week 16 but if you're telling me that Denver was this week 16 game no change I'm just probably number like low end number two receiver I might start over a guy like Justin Jefferson or something

but he's in that's what I'm saying yeah but but I think I think against Tennessee I'm confident enough I mean their defense is just atrocious But you agree, the ceiling is certainly capped. Yeah, I'd have to say so. That's the problem. Like, he was a league winner in his early return.

He's definitely no longer a league winner. I don't think down the stretch run. Probably not. Maybe a support of these. Well, hopefully, how'd your week 15 go? Mine won really well. The exception of one league, the office league. Shout out Adi.

Do you think, what do you think of this? In our office league, he had, It's a 16-team league, which I actually find really fun. It's the only one I'm in that deep. But he has an 8-team playoff in a 16-team league where if you're the one-seed, you get nothing. You have to face the 8-seed. Do you think that's fair or unfair?

So I was the one-seed, and I only lost two games in the regular season. I had like 200 points more. I lost. It was my only loss of the weekend in fantasy. I lost to our friend, Adam London, who in really a gross matchup, like I had Romo Dunes-A in my lineup, and at 12-58, he was ruled out, And the lineups were locked at that point. So I had to take that zero.

That was really ridiculous. So I heard about this. Oh, you did hear about who told you about this, London? I'm not going to tell you who told me about it. I heard about this controversy because I... So what do you think? I thought you should have been... I thought anyone who...

whose lineups locked at 1255, as some platforms do and some platforms don't and saw it, like, soon enough, should... I saw it right away. I posted right to the message. Absolutely been able to get Adunze out of their lineup. I think so, too. And you weren't able to? I was not able to.

Would it have made a difference in the game, in the outcome? I don't think so. I think ultimately, I didn't even check back because I was so disgusted with my entire team's performance. Like, I, again, I dominated the regular season and just looked horrific in this game. Let me see if it would have mattered, actually. I don't think it did have because Pickens was so bad. No, I ended up losing by 16 points. I don't think it would have mattered.

Okay. Yeah, I got a lot of heat for that take. I think I didn't explain it clearly enough. I wasn't saying at like 3 p.m. You'd be like, hey, I had Romo D's Day. But I felt like... It has to be right away. Pretty much right away, yeah.

I mean, I would even say, honestly, I would even say if somebody was like, oh, man, I set my lineup and then I, I don't know, went to church or had something and I didn't know. And then like 2 o'clock or during halftime, I saw he was out. Can I put in a guy from a 4 o'clock game? I probably would do it. But I'm the most, like, lenient commissioner in the world. I just think there were, the fact that matter is I was trying to explain my case. then no hard feelings like I'm totally fine with it my case was if I had any opportunity

to avoid it and I didn't take that opportunity then it's on me but I had no option right like he was announced at 1258 and a minute I got that notification I sent to the message board like can I make this change in my lineup but it is what it is it's fine I just think I don't know how you'd set up a 16 team league with an 18 playoff where the one plays the eight like there just gives you literally it made to me it made the regular season yeah that's right spicy jim jambly says the one c not getting a buy is the bigger travesty it makes the regular season worth nothing like toward the end of the year adam once i realized that that was how the playoffs were set up i was like barely even caring about my lineups and like

big decisions that league so i was like i'm the one c but what do i care i may rather play the seven seed i don't know and the fact the matter is like i probably would have rather i don't know what the seven seed did my team was so bad i might have lost anyway no i'm looking at it right now i don't know what you do i think i would have beat the seven seed all right so if you if you had If you had given the first two seeds a buy, then you've got three matchups, but then you end up with five teams the next round. No, no, you can't do that. You have to do a 17-team playoff with one seed getting the buy. Oh, 17.

Okay, yeah, that's what you do. And at 16-team league, you don't need eight teams in the playoffs anyway. You can do a 17 with a one getting the buy. All right, well, everybody, hope you enjoyed today's show. Appreciate your comments. Appreciate you helping us out with our topics today. And that wraps up your five big things brought to you by Amazon Prime. Remember, Prime isn't just fast.

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No, I am a last-minute shopping. And I will be getting it done using a lot of prime, as you just mentioned. Before you end the show, I want your final prediction on a couple things. One, I want you to cert. Well, give me your prediction on Miami football and the college football playoff. That's the start. Two, the one I'm more interested in it is you circling back to a take you at preseason about Carson Beck trending toward being the number one overall pick in the NFL in the next NFL.

We're still on this? We're never going off of it. I don't even know if he's going to get drafted. Okay. Isn't that what I told you at the time of your take? Okay, congratulations. It's a bad take. You're going to just kill me on this all year.

Geez, it's going to be 2035, you're going to be talking about this. I might bring this up for the rest of our time, knowing each other, yes. My take is Texas A&M is very beatable. Okay. This is when Miami gets into trouble. Miami gets into trouble when they don't run the ball well. They've been very inconsistent, and they commit penalties. So you get a lot of third and long, and they have to, have to stay out of that.

So what makes me really nervous is a few things. One is super loud stadium, and Miami has a pension to go out to false start and pre-snap penalties. That's going to kill them if they fall into that trap. And the other thing is, I can't remember the name of the guy on Louisville, the wide receiver, Bell, I think. Yeah, I got hurt. He killed Miami. And he was the best receiver they've faced all year. Texas A&M has two really good wide receivers.

receivers. Miami's got a good secondary, but it hasn't really been tested. So I lean A&M by like a point. I'd take Miami plus three and a half, but Miami's nasty. A&M's had a pretty damn easy schedule. This is the best or second best team that they've faced pretty much. Well, no, they face Notre Dame. And they beat them. They beat Notre Dame. We too. Everybody's concerned about Carson Beck. A&M's quarterback, Marcel Reed, he is super. inconsistent. He's thrown like nine picks and eight at SEC games. So if we get after him, we're going to be good.

We face a lot of mobile quarterbacks. It's going to be a really good game, I think. I lean A&M, but I think it's a good chance for Miami to win. I think Miami has a chance to win if they dominate on line of scrimm, which is certainly possible. And A&M has a, they have, oh, what's his name? Cassius, something. They have this defensive end that's so good. Cassius Howell.

Miami has not, they face some good defensive ends, admit there's not been a single game where they have been beaten at the line of scrimmage. They have the best probably the best offensive line in the country

are top two, top three. So that's, the trenches are going to be where this game's decided and the penalties. All right, thank you for indulging me. Have a great day, everybody. We will talk to you tomorrow

on fantasy football today.