Fantasy Football Today - Five Big Topics! Struggling Studs, Playoff Streamers and a Bears-Packers Recap (11/30 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 30, 2020

We kick it off with a review of Bears-Packers. Are we actually encouraged by the Bears offense and David Montgomery in particular? Is there any reason to worry about Aaron Jones? How do we feel about Robert Tonyan? ... Some news and notes (10:00) and then we get to our Five Big Topics! First we discuss how to manage your rosters during the final five weeks of the season (14:45) and then we get into the studs that people are considering sitting (22:35). Are Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas and Kyler Murray too good to sit? What about Ezekiel Elliott (30:00)? ... Do you have trouble deciding between the player you drafted with an early pick and the player you just added from the waiver wire? You're not alone! We'll give you some perspective (34:10) and then tell you the best streamers (39:00) at DST, TE and QB ... Email us at [e-mail] Listen to the brand new Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-in-5/id1528634304 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. And hello, everybody, on this Monday afternoon. What's going on? This is Fantasy Football Today. Hope your Sunday was good. Hope you're ready for a little Monday night football.

And hope we're going to be able to see Tuesday night football. We shall see what happens there with the Ravens and the Steelers. Adam Azer, Ben Schrager, and Chris Towers checking in with Chris. What's going on, Chris? How was your weekend? It was good. You know, it's football on Sunday, The Mandalorian on

Friday. Got a little time off to, you know, spend with the wife on our anniversary. So it was good. Oh, happy anniversary. This is your eighth, tenth anniversary. Eleventh. Oh, big one. Cool. Yeah. What is The Mandalorian? mandalorian is a show right it is a television

show set in the star wars universe that i knew but it's a series how many seasons are we talking here uh we're on the second season about halfway through okay and did i beat you in fandle this week who won i think so i don't know. Whoever had Tyreek Hill. I had Tyreek Hill. Yeah. If you had Tyreek Hill, you won in Fandle yesterday. Okay, cool. Hey, what's up, Schrager?

Yo, yo. Happy belated Thanksgiving. Thank you very much. I've spoken to you so much, just not on the air. But it's good to hear your voice. Exactly right. Let's talk fantasy football here. Today on the show, we've got five big topics.

We're going to talk about the best way to kind of deal with roster management and whatnot over the last five weeks of the season, because things are getting a little crazy. We're going to talk about some studs that people are nervous about. I got more questions about Alvin Kamara by far than any other player. So obviously we'll talk about him and Michael Thomas and Kyler Murray, any other studs we might be concerned about. Ezekiel Elliott is one of those studs we're concerned about.

Starting waiver wire guys over studs and streamers for the fantasy postseason weeks 14, 15, 16, and a little bit of week 13 in there as well. Who to start at quarterback, tight end, and DST if you're just streaming. But let's go to the game. Let's go to the Sunday night game. A slaughter. Green Bay 41 and Chicago 25. Ben, let's start with the Bears here. The Packers can make just about any running back look good and David Montgomery had a great game. 11 carries,

103 yards, 5 catches, 40 yards, and a touchdown. Scored his third touchdown of the season. So was this the Packers or was this something that's going to give you faith they got Detroit and Houston uh coming up so those are you know basically along with the Packers I mean these are some of the best matchups you can ask for here do you have faith in David Montgomery so it's both I have a bit of faith in Montgomery and I wanted to see him do well in a very easy matchup because he has very easy matchups coming up. So I was very encouraged. Obviously the big run, he looked like a monster and he was involved in the passing game just like he usually is. And Trubisky fed him towards the

end of the game and garbage time. So I was very encouraged. He's an RB two with these easy matchups coming up. He's not, you know, anything special at running back, but if you have an easy matchup and you're going to get fed, I like it. Chris, what are your overall takeaways from the Bears? Because those passing stats ended up being good. 242 yards, three touchdowns. But obviously, anyone who watched the game knows Trubisky didn't play very well. He fumbled three times.

He threw two interceptions. And thank goodness for the fourth quarter. It was so much garbage time. So, do you have faith in Allen Robinson going forward? Do you think Trubisky is someone worth adding? Because yeah, like they, he has a really good upcoming schedule.

I think you could probably consider adding Trubisky. I mean, he's got Detroit this week. That's a great matchup Houston afterwards, but I would rather have Ryan Fitzpatrick for week 13 against the Bengals. And so I'm not necessarily sure that Trubisky is someone who's going to be at the top of my list for adding that like matchups matter but only so much and bad players are still bad and i think trubisky is pretty bad especially the way matt nagy uses him if matt nagy got him on the

move used his athleticism more i think mitchell trubisky you know when he was a good fantasy quarterback that's what they were doing. They don't do that anymore. I don't know if it's because of the injuries that he suffered back in 2018 when he had the shoulder injury. He's got the shoulder injury that he's coming off of now. But they don't use him as a runner. And that really limits his fantasy appeal. I do trust Allen Robinson.

He's the only player in this passing game who you can trust. But he's not. He gets number one work. And he's a number two wide receiver. Shaggy B tell them about Jimmy Graham. Oh yeah. Jimmy Graham, you know, he's a top 12 tight end still in seasonal stats, but Jimmy Graham is droppable at this point. He's rostered in almost 50% of leagues, but Cole commit ran more routes than Jimmy Graham for the first time all year last night. And he out snapped Jimmy Graham 51 to 23. Graham had a couple of catches in garbage time, but drop Jimmy Graham. Don't think about sardium. Don't even have to go through that process on Sundays. Get rid of the guy. Let's go to the Packers. Aaron Jones

has had, let's see, in his last four games in non-PPR, 7, 8, 13, and 9 fantasy points. In PPR, 12, 13, 17, and 10 fantasy points. He's just not scoring. He has one touchdown in the last four games. But do you guys have any concerns about Aaron Jones at all? What do you think? I don't. He had five touchdowns in the first five weeks of the season, and I assume he's going to score some more times before the end of the fantasy season. That's kind of just how the touchdown regression will continue to go. He's not seeing any sort of usage downtick.

That's alarming. Jamal Williams had a lot of carries last night, some of which came in garbage time, but they've always rotated. He just hasn't scored recently, and I expect him to score soon. 17 touches, 18 touches, 90 yards. Encouraging enough last night. Yeah, he looks great. I mean, he's running really well.

He's just a little bit unlucky with the touchdowns. And at least you're getting the catches most nights, not last night for Aaron Jones. Chris, Alan Lazard, 68% rostered. Is that porridge too low, just right, or too high? Seems just right. He's not necessarily a priority ad at this point because he hasn't uh proven himself since coming back but he was off to a really great start in the

beginning of the season you know 250 yards two touchdowns through the first three games i think he is the number two wide receiver in this offense we just have to see it from him and I think he could be in that like DJ Moore uh Justin Jefferson and then there are some lower end versions of that who I can't think of right now but basically those guys who if they hit on the big play if they get into the end zone they'll be good he's going to be a downfield threat and so that's going to it's going to make the week-to-week consistency problem, but there's going to be big upside for Alan Lazard in this offense. You're going to drop him for Debo Samuel. Yes.

I would rather have Debo Samuel. Okay. And I didn't see the snap count. So, Oh, MVS played and he played a lot. He was limited in practice this week, but he didn't have a target.

So that was kind of interesting. Not a good game for him. Um, but he didn't have a target. So that was kind of interesting. Not a good game for him. And they didn't need him. The Packers rolled. People, maybe we should take the Packers a little more seriously. I don't know. They're what, 8-3?

Or the Bears less and less serious. Well, that's obvious. Yeah, the Bears stink. But, yeah. Oh, Robert Tunyon is the last fantasy guy we need to talk about. Here are his ppr fantasy points in his last five games all of them with davante adams 12 1 6 15 and 17 that's three big

games in his last five for tunyon and he's a tight end that that counts for a lot so uh do you consider him almost a must start there's not really a must start tight end outside of the top five, but I want to roster him. I'd drop John new for him. I definitely dropped Jimmy Graham for him. I'm not sure there's a must start tight end, a true must start 10 and outside of the top one. There are a bunch of guys who you will start by default.

And I think Robert Tunyon might be in that discussion, but of his three big games in the last five, two of them were because of touchdowns. And so that makes it sound like he's a touchdown dependent tight end, which most of them besides Kelsey Waller, Henry, maybe Andrew, like there just aren't a lot of guys who you can rely on.

So I think in this offense, you can probably look at him as someone who you're going to start. Like it's not matchup dependent. It's not anything. You just, you start them and hope he hits a touchdown that week. I think there are three guys that I consider must start. Let me see if I can,

if I'm missing anyone, but it's Kelsey Wall, and Hawkinson. I don't think there's anyone else. I just have Henry in there too. Hawkinson and Waller are not having good seasons. So they're just must start compared to the others. In terms of yards, yeah. Darren Waller is averaging six yards per target right now.

Yeah, but going into this week's game, he was on pace for less than 900 yards. Yeah. But he's on pace for under right now. Yeah, but going into this week's game, he was on pace for less than 900 yards. Yeah. He's on pace for under 800 now. Oh, wow. He just happens to have scored five touchdowns when he only scored three last year. Right, right.

Well, yeah, but because of the position, he's clearly a must start. Yes. Yeah, Hunter Henry, I think, deserves that as well. All right, that's it. That's Green Bay and Chicago. Hey, we got an Apple Podcast mailbag on Saturdays. You got to get your questions in.

I would recommend your questions, submitting them by Thursday, if not Wednesday night. I don't know how long exactly it takes to show up on Apple Podcasts or iTunes, as we used to call it, in the biz, but a lot of times I don't see them until Saturday, and we record on Friday afternoon. So try to get those questions submitted, and don't see them until Saturday, and we record on Friday afternoon. So try to get those questions submitted, and don't include Thursday night games, which won't be an issue this week, most likely. So, yeah, that's just a heads up on that.

But the Apple Podcast mailbag, and leave us a nice review. Ask your question. You have a good chance of getting it answered. We'll read some on the Wednesday shows as well. News and notes. Ronald Jones, according to Bruce Arians, needs to have 20 touches. They've got to buy this week. Then Minnesota, at Atlanta, at Detroit, home against Atlanta.

That's how the Buccaneers will finish their season. Are you buying that, Chris, that Ronald Jones is going to be a 20-touch back? Okay, look. Score changes dictates things. But let's say, let's make it a little bit easier, that he's going to get feature work and not really be splitting much with Leonard Fournette going forward. Do you buy that?

30-carry Leonard Fournette game incoming in week 14. No way. There is no less valuable... What's the term? Vote of confidence. Yeah, than Bruce Arians. He finally announced Ronald Jones as the starter

last season and he played like 25% of the snaps in that game. You can't trust what he says. Ronald Jones has been by far the better back between the two of Fournette and Jones. And he'll continue to be, I think, the lead back. I don't think we're going to see the Buccaneers feed it to him 20 times every game.

But when they're in a close game, he'll get his opportunities. And I think that's enough. He's not someone you feel good about starting every week. But just like tight end, there's only nine running backs who you do feel good about starting every week, but just like tight end, there's only like nine running backs who you do feel good about starting every week. So he's probably going to remain a number two fantasy running back moving forward. I think the,

the bigger issue with the Buccaneers running backs is neither of them are good pass catchers and they play with Tom Brady who wants to throw the ball to his running backs. And so it would be easier for Ronald Jones if Leonard Fournette was like J.D. McKissick, because then you would know Ronald Jones has a role, J.D. McKissick has a role, and never the two shall meet. With Jones and Fournette, if Fournette gets hot in the first quarter, they could just bench Jones. We've seen that.

So Ben, what do you think? Are you buying it more than Chris's? No, I'm not. It's really game script dependent because they do want to use Leonard Fournette as their pass catching back, even though he's not good at it. I mean, he played the majority of snaps this week

because they were down and they kept him on the field because he's the guy who's their pass catching back, but he sucks at it. So we can't use him in fantasy as a pass catching back. So that I mean, that's awful. But no, Ronald Jones is going to be a boomer bust RB to he can always break a big run. He's a talented running

back, but the usage isn't going to be there for you to just set it and forget it for now. Matchups are encouraging though. For now has played more snaps in five of the last six games. That is wild. I want to buy it this time. I really want to believe him because I think it's just obvious that Jones is better than Fournette as a rusher.

There goes good old Charlie Brown, host of the Fantasy Football Podcast. Funny you say that. He's definitely going to kick that football this week. I never really saw Charlie Brown when I was growing up. I mean, I'm sure I did, but I don't remember. You know, you remember some of the shows you really liked. And I just didn't really, I don't know. It wasn't a big thing.

Charlie Brown Christmas is exceptional. Well, it was. My wife loves Charlie Brown Christmas. And she DVR'd Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Don't like that one as much. Yeah, I've been watching it. The Great Pumpkin is very good. Okay, well. The Halloween one. Yeah, Thanksgiving.giving don't like that one of them yeah i i've been watching the great the great pumpkin is very good okay well the halloween one yeah thanks i don't like it and charlie brown's a real dour geez i mean yeah no the the very first uh peanut sketch ever is just

charlie brown walking some other kid says there goes good old charlie brown then there's nothing in the middle panel except charlie walking. And then he says, boy, I hate him. That's the very first Peanuts comic. So yeah. No, I don't really like it. Yeah. Josh Jacobs has a sprained ankle. So we'll talk about Devante Booker

on the Tuesday show. Daniel Jones getting an MRI. I haven't seen the update. They have Seattle this week. Phillip Lindsay tweaked his knee. Calvin Ridley, DJ Moore, Teddy Bridgewater. We're looking for updates on these guys.

But Jacobs... Moore looked bad. Yeah. And they have a bye, but we'll keep our fingers crossed. Jacobs, apparently, it wasn't as bad as first feared. It's a sprained ankle for him. Let's hope it's not a high ankle sprain. But Devante Booker at the Jets this week would be a very, very appealing waiver wire ad. And Rashard too, for that matter. All right, let's go to our five big topics. This one's from me. I just want to get your thoughts on this.

Okay. Ben, I don't know how you felt about this, but at the beginning of yesterday's show, our Sunday recap, I thought I wasn't even saying anything controversial. I was just saying like week 12 was crazy, much crazier than the first 11 weeks. And Dave and Heath were like, have you, you know, have you been paying attention? It's been like that all year. And no, it really hasn't. I mean, I think if you really all things considered, I didn't think there was going to be a season at one point.

I'm impressed that they've gotten this far. The players have done a great job. They've been very disciplined. We've had so few positive cases going into the season, and it all just exploded last week. So in my personal opinion, Ben, I don't know how you felt about this conversation. I felt the same way.

Yeah, I just don't understand. Last week, this past current week, I guess, week 12, just seemed much, much worse. We had by far the most big names that was the other thing you've got all the ravens guys even if you don't count the ravens guys you had adam theelin you had james connor it like this is you had every broncos run quarterback this is it was unquestionably the worst situation. And the biggest concern is Monday, beginning Monday, the NFL is instituting beginning today and instituting a wear masks all the time in every situation protocol, basically during the week. And that's great. Great. But from what we know about this virus, you're lagging about 10 days between when infections start to grow and when cases start to grow. And so week 13 could be even worse.

In fact, I would expect week 13 to be very similar to week 12. And the other crazy thing about week 12 too, Adam, which I don't think they were considering last night is there were a ton of running back injuries we had no idea what was going on yeah right on saturday we found out a ton of information yeah even not covet related i know it was it was really crazy and what do you so what do we do i i really feel like if you don't have your handcuff you know at this point it's a big mistake you've got to have your handcuff. And I guess you have to ask yourself, well, how good is that handcuff? Because if it's Brian Hill,

are you going to just be disappointed? I think Brian Hill could have had a better game if the score had been closer. Is it Patrick Laird, DeAndre Washington, Matt Breida? But if you have a handcuff that's even slightly valuable, you must carry him, in my opinion. I kind of go the other way though i kind of think you should actually more than ever prioritize other people's backups because

one if your starter i mean obviously if he gets injured that's a different thing but if there's a covid case in a running back room with your starter there's a decent chance that the backup is going to be involved in that as well and so when you have other people's backups if you can get tony pollard if you can get well what's the difference because what's the difference because if zeke has covid then other person's backup could have it too it's the same theory sure sure but you're that's fine that's fair you know what chris i i think there's a really good debate to be had pre-season should you have your handcuff or somebody else's handcuff and whichever side of that you land on i think you should take that approach now as well the other little tidbit i was thinking about and it kind of has like you

want depth regardless but i don't want a depth player like i rostered marvin hall on thursday because i had i needed a wide receiver just on my bench, and he was a guy who I thought might be able to do something last week, use him this week, whatever. I don't want a depth guy playing on Thursdays because that Marvin Hall cannot be dropped on Sunday when something happens with COVID. Yeah, he got stuck with Marvin Hall too.

It's a great call. Yeah, you don't want to have it that way. So if you're debating, do I roster this guy, another guy, don't roster the Thursday guy. And please, please, please do not play a Thursday player in your flex. It just handcuffs you completely. Yep. Another good point. And then I think it's

time to maybe, like, if you're trying to free up roster space for a handcuff, you know, you're running out of time on, like, potential guys. I'm having a hard time thinking like devin singletary you could probably just drop right now marquise brown yeah marquise brown henry ruggs is still like 50 percent rostered is marquise brown gonna get every target this week though if the game gets played does it matter des brian is des brian yeah henry ruggs right

yeah move on. All right. So, look, it's interesting. And then the other thing that came up was I tweeted that I don't know that a free-for-all, first-come, first-served waiver or add-drop policy is the most fair. It's definitely not. I got a lot of pushback on that. A lot of people agreed, but it was very split.

It was very split. Put it that way. You can't change it now. It's too late. But it's something to. It was very split. Put it that way. You can't change it now, right? It's too late, but it's something to consider going forward next year. I just think that probably nightly fab is the most fair way. And then open Sunday, open Sunday. You could even do open Thursday if you want,

but open Sunday for sure. But in most leagues, people will probably lean towards more convenient than fair yeah and you know i said like i don't know that it's fair that the person who gets the push notifications gets all the players and then i gotta go so get the push notifications and i stop crying and all that like look i have the push notifications i i take advantage of it but i don't know that it's fair. I don't think it's fair.

Actually, on this topic, can I get a quick ruling? Oh, yeah. I've noticed in a couple of our leagues. Yeah, there we go. Hold on. You were saying? So I've noticed in a couple of our leagues, some of the people who are regulars on this podcast

have a tendency of adding more players during the week than the roster legally allows and then dropping them all just before the game not me this should not be legal right you're not talking about me no okay good other people you're talking about Shaggy B no no no I mean on the mean in the fantasy football today. I've never noticed it before this season, but I've noticed four extra people on various... Oh, do you know why it's happening? That should not be allowed. It's because of the IR spots.

No, but I noticed four extra guys on someone's roster and they weren't hurt. They were just like speculative ads. Nah, dude, that is so bad. And I didn't want to be the guy to call it. Oh,

call it out. Okay. I'm calling the cops on you. You have to call it out. All right. Oh no, that's bad. That's really bad.

You know, I gotta, I gotta admit, I kind of do that sometimes in baseball. When, wow. When a guy comes off the IL, what is the situation?

I don't just carry an illegal roster. It has to be an IL situation where a guy comes off the IL and I guess I have some time to make the decision. I think that might be what, like midweek he comes off the IL, your lineups are locked, I'll add someone else.

I'll technically be over the roster limit, but by Monday I get back down. Which I never feel great about, but I think everybody kind of does that. Daniel Jones has an outside chance of playing in week 13. He avoided major injury. Alright, look, they're not going to win week 13 anyway. Just get back for week 14, okay?

That's such a relief. I know nobody cares about the Giants, but I'm really kind of enjoying this for the first time in a long time. It's like the Marlins this year. I just want, Daniel Jones can't get hurt. Like,

come on. I need that. I need him back. Oh yeah. The Marlins. Right. That was great. Okay.

So that was topic number one. Topic number two, which key players should we not play coming into the last couple of weeks? So Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara, Kyler Murray, those are the first three that come to mind. Should we be sitting these guys? I don't think so. Josh Allen was another one that fell into that category for me.

And Josh Allen and Kyler are probably going to fall into the back end of my QB ones. And I might think about starting Ryan Fitzpatrick over them, but Alvin Camara is still, we haven't seen them in a game where they have to pass and maybe he'll get three targets and that's enough for him because he can take three targets for 50 yards. He's not just a four yards per target guy. So I'm cool with Camara. I think Thomas against Atlanta will do great. Just like he did last time he played Atlanta. So I'm not scared of these guys,

although I totally understand the concern. I am a coward, and so I can't imagine a scenario in which I would sit Alvin Kamara or Michael Thomas, but it's worth considering. I will just say I don't think the Broncos were the only team that did not have an NFL-caliber quarterback on the field yesterday. I think that's a little harsh NFL caliber quarterback on the field yesterday. And, uh, I think that's a little harsh, although I didn't, I didn't see yesterday, but I, I think that upon reviewing, I think he'll, he'll play it a lot better than I realized

in week 11 against the Falcons. I don't, I didn't really see much of yesterday. Yeah. Even in the good game though, it was all slants and screens he had the two deep passes one of which Emmanuel Sanders caught that it was such a bad throw that the defender didn't realize that he had underthrown it by 15 yards yeah but he also made a good throw to Michael Thomas downfield that Thomas dropped sure you're yeah he made one good throw he didn't throw that many passes I think you're being a little harsh you're being a little harsh. I just have not been impressed enough with him to think

that the Saints can be a functional NFL offense in a normal week. Now, maybe against the Falcons again, they won't need to be because they didn't need to be last time. But I would guess the Falcons are going to play better on both sides of the ball. And obviously, I don't think you can take anything from yesterday's game.

Sure. I'm definitely worried about Camara. They, he just taste some hills, not throwing him the ball. They haven't needed to. Sure. But the one catch he did have yesterday was on a screen and it was wildly

inaccurate. And Camara got hit immediately because he had to, to make an acrobatic play just to catch it. So I just, it's a bad it. So I just... It's a bad situation. And I would hope he gets 15 carries next week.

There was a situation two years ago. Alvin Kamara had back-to-back games with only one catch in each game. And then he had four more games rest of season and he averaged six catches per game. But this is totally different. I mean, this is all about the quarterback.

This isn't just Fluky. So it's concerning because he gets 12, 13 carries a game. The last two games have been 11 carries and 13 carries. And the Saints' defense is so good right now. They're crushing everyone. They have won, what have they want? Like eight, they've won eight in a row. They've held four straight teams to 13 or fewer points, including the Buccaneers, 49ers, Falcons, and Broncos. But you know, the Buccaneers and the,

and the, and the Falcons in there, that's impressive. So I don't know that they're going to be playing a competitive game at Atlanta next week and at Philly the week after that, they just may not need him, really. And he might just get 12, 13 touches. But I definitely am not going to sit him because he's too good. And he also typically gets the goal line work. He has a lot more goal line carries.

Inside the five-yard line, he has 10 compared to three for Latavius Murray and five for Taysom Hill. That's an issue. Taysom Hill scoring four rushing touchdowns in two games. So I think we all agree. We're a little worried about Kamara, but we're not sitting him. Thomas, I'm with you, Ben.

I'm going right back to him. He had 100 yards. He's getting the target shares outrageous. So, yeah, I'm going back to him. Kyler Murray, I did want to read some quotes from Kyler. So he just rushed for 31 yards after rushing for 15 yards two weeks ago. And he also had a bad game throwing the ball,

only 170 passing yards. He said, yeah, I mean, they were just, obviously those zone read opportunities, they were just playing me. They made me hand it off. I mean, it is what it is. My read is to hand it off if they play me and that's what I had to do.

And then he was asked about the shoulder and he said, I didn't adjust anything. Like I said, if they play me, I have to hand the ball off. You know, thought I probably could have checked it down maybe a couple once or twice more than I did, you know, in the past game. But other than that, there wasn't really any situations where, you know, I shied away from a hit or anything like that. I mean, they hit me a couple of times anyway. So I played with, like I said, I wasn't going to play if I couldn't be myself. And the first quote, I believe, you know,

he's handing the ball off. He's playing it right. And Drake had a good game. Or at least, you know, by the end zone. The second quote, he's not really saying that he's not playing hurt. He's saying he can play through it.

And he didn't adjust his game. But we'll never know the truth about that probably until after the season. It's definitely concerning that two games in a row right after he gets hurt, he has his two lowest carry games of the season. He relies more on his rushing production than Lamar Jackson did last season. 37% of Kyler Murray's points this season have come from rushing yards or rushing touchdowns. Last season for Jackson. It was 33%.

That is pretty alarming. If he's not going to be, you know, a thousand yard pace guy. Yeah. Well, also got the Rams this week. They give up the fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks.

There've only been two all year who have scored more than 19 points. Josh Allen and Jimmy Garoppolo, Dak Prescott. Didn't Russell Wilson scored nine. who have scored more than 19 points, Josh Allen and Jimmy Garoppolo. Dak Prescott didn't. Russell Wilson scored nine. One other quarterback. Tom Brady scored 16. They play the NFC East, I get that,

but their defense is obviously great. So is Kyler Murray, you feel like he's going to be top 10, top 12 this week? He's probably going to be right in that range. Yeah. Any other guys? You know, the Rams wide receivers drive me crazy. And I don't even think there's a pattern here. No predictability, but they drive me crazy.

You just, you gotta start them. They get a healthy workload every week. The problem is they rely so much on making plays after the catch that if they don't break a big play, they might be a little disappointing. And that's, that's more different than most of the elite wide receivers in the NFL who get more targets down the field.

Right. All right. We'll take a quick break. Ezekiel Elliott is our next topic. The question is, give me a reason. It's not really a question. It's a statement.

It's a, it's a demand. Give me a reason not to bench Zeke rest of season. All right, we'll try to give you one after this. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you safe.

Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca. It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. And as we tease going into the break, Irish Goodbye asks, or demands, yells at us, give me a reason not to bench Zeke rest goodbye asks or demands yells at us give me a reason

not to bench zeke rest of season bench tracker give him a reason i've got three reasons for him oh week week 12 first game under 12 touches all year he has not scored since week five touchdown regression could be coming and he has the bengals in week 14 so there are your three reasons why not to bench seek he's not scored a rushing touchdown. He did catch a touchdown a couple weeks ago. So, Chris, give me a reason not to bench Zeke at Baltimore in week 13. Because you're a coward like me. No, I really think it just comes down to there are not a lot of running backs who you can count

on for the kind of workload Ezekiel Elliott gets. He is averaging nearly 18 touches per game since Dak Prescott's injury. Oh, since Dak's injury? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 15.3 carries, 2.5 receptions, 3.7 targets. The efficiency has been really bad in in both regards but I think there's room to believe both will regress and he's not going to keep averaging 3.77 yards per target probably he's probably going to get back to the around five yards and so that'll help he'll probably get you know an extra goal line carry their their offense has I think looked a little better over the last few weeks obviously the game against Washington was really tough for everyone, but it mostly just comes down to,

I can't sit someone who gets close to 18 touches per game. Yeah. So, but here's the, okay. So within that 18 touches, I'm looking at score. I'm looking at game script here and I think it's fairly telling.

He's played six games since Prescott's injury. They're one in five. The one game that the Cowboys won, he had 21 carries for 103 yards, and he caught a touchdown. He had two catches for 11 yards and a touchdown. So that's 23. 23 touches in a great game at Minnesota. They've

lost three of their five losses by 22 or more points. Horrible. Twice against Washington and once against Arizona. He had 10 to 12 carries in all three of those games. He also had eight catches in one of those games. But since that eight-catch game, he hasn't had more than two in any game. The game they lost by 14, he had 19 carries.

The game they lost by five, he had 18 carries. So that's really a great reason to believe that you're going to get a lot of work from Zeke because unless they're losing by 20 or more points, he's getting 18 or more carries without Dak Prescott. And it's entirely possible the Ravens will not be at full strength

whenever that game gets played. If you look at who at some point this week, and I can't even keep track of who's currently on the COVID list, Calais Campbell, Brandon Williams, Matt Judon, Pernell McPhee, all for the Ravens on the COVID list. And I don't know who's going to be back next week, but they might have a horrible run defense.

And they might, I think they'll have Lamar Jackson. Like, actually, to be quite honest with you, I think that Zeke is set up for a really bad game against the Ravens. Because I think the Ravens, if up for a really bad game against the Ravens. Because I think the Ravens, if they can get Lamar Jackson back, if they can get those front seven players back, or at least like three of them, I think they just

might kill the Cowboys. And if that's the case, you've got to be a little worried. Can you start Naheem Hines over him, though? Jonathan Taylor is out again, let's say. Colts, who do they have? I expect, oh, yeah, no, they have like the Jaguars or something. They have the Texans. Yes, I would start

Naeem Hines over him. Jonathan Taylor's probably going to be back though. He didn't actually test positive. Most likely, yes. This was a close contact. I would think I'd start Jonathan Taylor over him this week. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think Zeke is a number two running back. I've thought that basically since

Dak's injury and it hasn'tke is a number two running back. I've thought that basically since Dak's injury and it hasn't really changed all that much for me. Okay, from Dylan Tyler. Starting waiver guys over studs. This is my biggest hurdle each season. Yeah, no, it's a tough one.

I just had a bit of a longer show. I was going to read to you who's finished top 12 at running back and wide receiver each of the last three weeks. But my takeaway is that wide receiver is a little bit more stud heavy than running back. And that makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense. Week 12, your top 12 PPR running backs were Derek Henry, Gibson,

James Robinson, Nick Chubb. So great, you know, top four are not too surprising. Latavius, Montgomery, Kenyon Drake, Eckler, Gallman, Adrian Peterson, Ido Smith, Naeem Hines. I think the thing that you can look at with all of those guys, except for maybe Ido Smith, it comes down to usage. And that's a lot easier to predict for a waiver wire running back than it is for the guy you picked up at wide receiver wide receiver.

It's not it's probably more about talent than running back is, although both of them do. You know, a lot of factors go in beyond just the the talent of the specific player that you're talking about, but running back is so much more about opportunity and it's so much more easy to predict that it is easier to look at, you know, a Wayne Gallman and say, yeah, I'm going to start him over, you know, someone who like Ronald Jones, let's say it's, it's harder to do that at wide receiver. If you had picked up Naeem Hines and you decided to start Alvin Kamara over Naeem Hines, you cannot sit here and think you made the wrong decision. You have to live with results. That's part of it too, right?

We're never going to get everything right. Ben, what would you tell someone who's sitting there going, gosh, I don't know what to do. Studs versus, you know, great streaming options. Well, it's going to take a lot to get rid of the preconceived notion of the stud. Like Camara doesn't get a target for the next two games. We might start to think, oh, this guy might be a benchable guy who only gets 12 carries, but we know how good he is. And waiver wire guys, they probably just had one big game. So you pick them up for that reason.

The odds are they're not going to have another big game right away. So it is a process thing. You don't want to start a guy just because he had one big game. And sometimes with running backs, it's predictable. You can see 15 carries coming because of opportunity, but for wide receivers, it is extremely difficult. And don't kick yourself for that. Yeah. Devante Booker may be a top 12 running back this week.

Yeah. We got to look in. We got to look more into what the splits would be. Did Jacobs leave any games with an injury this year? This season, there was one where he left with a hip, but he was back, and I think it was late in the game anyway. Okay. But, I mean, yeah, it could be Jalen Richard.

No, it'll be Booker. I just don't know how much Jalen Richard we'll see. He's also hurt. It was DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard last year, and DeAndre Washington was averaging like 20 touches per game and I think 20-plus fantasy points in his three starts for the Raiders. So I think expectations should be very high for Devontae Booker. He's the kind of guy who I may consider starting over Alvin Kamara.

Yeah, you're right. So he's missed the last two games. He has an illness, Jalen Rashard. So we do have to check on his status. Right, okay, so I've sort of identified some of these tough decisions you'd have to make for Week 13. You could have Jonathan Taylor at Houston, and you shouldn't consider him a stud.

He hasn't earned that. David Montgomery against Detroit. Devontae Booker at the Jets. Damian Harris at the Chargers. A Miami running back against Cincinnati. These are all very enticing situations. And then you're talking Antonio Gibson at Pittsburgh. These are either tough matchups

or guys who just aren't playing that well lately. Antonio Gibson at Pittsburgh, Alvin Kamara at Atlanta, Kenyon Drake against the Rams, Aaron Jones against the Eagles. There's no way I'd sit him. It's the easiest call. Clyde Eberts, Eliar against Denver and Zeke at Baltimore.

You'd have to make some decisions maybe, or maybe you can start everyone, but you know, how many of these guys would you start over Zeke at Baltimore? Jonathan Taylor at Houston, Montgomery against Detroit, Booker at the jets, Damian Harris at the Chargers, Dolphins

running back against the Bengals. Booker for sure. Montgomery's probably going to be the only one that I have up there. I would say Booker and maybe Montgomery. Not Jonathan Taylor? Because I think I just said I would start Taylor over Zeke. I think I could consider it. It's just he's still in that zone where

we don't know if he's going to get 15 carries. I also think if Miles Gaskin is back and Savan Ahmed is not, then I'd be pretty interested there. Definitely. All right, so yeah, it's a tough call. It's basically the hardest thing in fantasy. I mean, if we had an easy answer for that, every week would be easier but also less fun

because, you know, the whole not such a great player, great opportunity versus stud and tough matchup thing is one of the more fun things that we deal with every week from a content perspective uh all right and then d hoppin wants some streamers for the fantasy playoffs quarterbacks tight ends and dsts he asks what do we got ben how about some dsts yeah the seahawks the true test is going to be tonight if you're listening on monday how they face the eagles because this is the first of many easy matchups they've got the jets the football team and the rams and the fantasy playoffs i think

this defense is not actually that bad and they should take advantage of these matchups so they're my favorite we'll see how they do against philadelphia and then the browns are the other one they have baltimore in week one of the fantasy playoffs, which sucks. But then they have both the New York teams, the Giants and the Jets to finish it off. I think they're another option, but the Seahawks,

I would love to roster and hopefully they don't go off too much tonight. So you have to spend a ton of fab on them. And the Cardinals are also not such a good DST, but they get the Giants in week 14 and the Eagles in week 15 and the 49ers in week 16. I don't love the streaming DST conversations necessarily this early because things change so much,

but Seahawks have been at the top of our list for a while. Unless you don't need to play in week 13, you shouldn't be worrying about streaming DSTs yet. You shouldn't have two DSTs on your roster. I don't know. I'll tell you what. In a 10-team league, you're tell you what. In a 10-team league, you're 100% right. In

a 12-team league, you're probably right. But in a 14-team league or deeper, then you definitely should be looking ahead. I got stuck with the Chiefs DST this week, and they ended up being okay, but I was very, very nervous about them. I couldn't find

anyone good on the waiver wire i did actually stick this chiefs dst on my bench and won 14 team league because they've got the broncos in week 13 hey there you go there you go i'm i'm do as i say okay and then uh tight ends let's go we'll do quarterbacks last but i put for tight end. I don't believe in streaming tight ends this year. Yeah, there's not a matchup like the Cardinals in years past. The only one I had written down here was Jared Cook, because if Drew Brees comes back, he has connected with Jared Cook more than Jared Cook gets with Taysom Hill. But no, there's not a tight end.

I want to hang on as a backup who's on the waiver wire. No, they haven't been good enough as a position. The best matchups appear to be the Jets and the Bengals and I think the Jaguars. And I looked at their schedules and there's nobody that... I don't think there's a tight end that plays two of those three. I just did a quick glance. But basically, I don't know.

Whenever we sit there, oh, he has a great matchup. It just really hasn't worked out that well. It's been hit or miss, but it hasn't been consistently good enough where I think we're recommending a streaming tight end. I still like Jordan Reed, but he was bad. I don't think matchups matter all that much for tight ends, at least outside of the context of

they're going against a bad defense. I don't know, outside of the Cardinals in recent years, which has been really the one key outlier, it's mostly just if you have a good defense, you're going to be pretty good against tight ends, and if you have a bad defense, you're going to be pretty bad against them. And so that should be what you look for. I will say if you're looking for a tight end to stream

and you play in one of the 28% leagues where Zach Ertz is not rostered, Zach Ertz might be your streaming tenant. That's not a bad idea. Quarterback. Chris, I don't know if you have any names. Ben and I kind of brainstormed before the show. Do you have anybody you'd like to suggest?

I mean, like Ryan Fitzpatrick, if he's starting in week 14, he gets the Chiefs. That'll be a good opportunity for him to rack up points, although they are good defense. But no, I don't have anybody else specifically offhand. Okay, we've got bad options like Trubisky and Dalton have good matchups.

Stafford, if he gets dropped, like Stafford's a different guy with Galladay. So if he gets dropped, like Stafford's a different guy with, with Galladay. So if he gets dropped, you've got Chicago this week. That's not great. Green Bay at Tennessee, Tampa Bay. Um,

I'm not, I, you know, I'm not even sure the matchups matter. Like Stafford could just be a solid quarterback with Galladay. Just get that thumb healthy. Um, Phillip Rivers,

Phillip Rivers is really interesting. So he's got beginning this week, Houston, Las Vegas, Houston are his next three opponents. Fitzpatrick would be nice, especially this week against Cincinnati. And Kirk Cousins, he's just playing so well. Jacksonville this week, great opportunity. At Tampa Bay, Chicago, at New Orleans.

Chicago and at New Orleans are not good, but Jacksonville and Tampa Bay are fine, I think, for Cousins. That's the next two weeks. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Thank you, guys. I think we're done. Thank you, Adam.

Thanks, Adam. It was really my pleasure. My pleasure. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day. You know what? I think you guys were great. I really enjoyed being here, part of this experience with you. I wish we were in a studio together. I think it would be a great time.

Six feet apart, Ben. We'll talk to you all tomorrow with the Waver Wire and Fantasy Football Today in five, tonight after the game. See you guys. Thanks for listening, everyone.