Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (NFC), Fantasy New Years Resolutions (01/01 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 1, 2021

Happy New Year! We start 2021 by finishing the Fantasy Football season as we give you the starts and sits for the NFC home games in Week 17. First we give you some Fantasy New Year's resolutions (3:00). Find out what we'll be doing differently in 2021 ... News and notes (5:30). We'll keep you updated on the key injuries and how to adjust your lineups accordingly ... Start or Sit for Eagles-Washington (13:13), Cardinals-Rams (25:35), Falcons-Bucs (32:55), Saints-Panthers (40:00), Cowboys-Giants (48:00), Seahawks-49ers (57:30), Vikings-Lions (1:06:00), Packers-Bears (1:10:40) ... Your emails at [e-mail] '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/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to 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

Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for?

Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600.

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. Hey, happy new year. We don't usually get to preview regular season games in January, but here we are, our final starter set episode of the year.

Of course, we will do this for the playoff games, give you some DFS advice, playoff challenge advice, that kind of stuff. But we welcome you to the Friday show. Hope you all had a great New Year's Eve. Adam Azer, Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg, happy new year, guys. Happy new, Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg. Happy New Year, guys.

Happy New Year. Woo! Hooray. Dave, what's going on? So, hi, first of all. We're recording this at 8.15 a.m. Eastern on New Year's Day. I must really love fantasy football. I like doing my job. Did you have plans last night? I

mean, who was doing anything? So we did have plans, actually. My wife and I planned on cruising the beach and finding like a high rise parking lot and checking out all the fireworks from all over Dayton, Broward County. uh we ended up having some champagne crashing on the couch watching rogue one and black panther did i mention the champagne i i think we could hear the champagne talking dave and then on top of that i've got a i've got a teenage son who was out celebrating new year's and he came home well past midnight and uh was loud okay and so yeah i mean jamie knows that like i'm like a weirdo about my sleep and i didn't get a whole lot of that last night all right well no it's okay you know what we'll uh you don't have to

be so loud and you don't have to be so loud, Adam. You don't have to be so loud. I can hear you. We're good. All right. Well, listen. I had a very boring New Year's myself. We tried to watch Schitt's Creek. We were like, hey, we're going to have a little marathon tonight. We watched one episode and fell asleep. But we did wake up before the ball dropped. Does anybody know the words to the song that they play at midnight? Yes.

You do? Yes. What do they say? Till all the acquaintance be forgot or something? No, I don't know the words. Oh, nobody knows the words. I didn't even know there were words. All right, well, yesterday on Fantasy Football Today in 5,

or actually aired this morning at 3 a.m., Chris Towers and I gave our New Year's... Five hours ago. Yeah, our New Year's resolution for Fantasy Football. So I'll give you guys a little bit to think about. If you have any Fantasy Football New Year's resolution for fantasy football. So I'll give you guys a little bit to think about. If you have any fantasy football New Year's resolutions. Oh, I got one. Okay, Chris said that don't try to make tight end a thing.

It's never going to be the year of the tight end. Tight end always stinks. And with that said, you know, prioritize the good tight ends. I said add a flex in my leagues that I commission. And I encourage everyone to consider that. Get out of the old habits of your starting lineups and think about either a super flex or just adding an extra flex or something like that. You've got good players on your bench.

Why not put them in your starting lineup? Dave, what do you got? What's a fantasy New Year's resolution? Well, the first one is going to be no podcast at 8 a.m. on New Year's Day. The second one is going to be decimal scoring. The third one is going to be get used to IR spots. They're going to be a thing in the NFL. They're going to be a thing in fantasy football for the foreseeable future.

So we can start with those as New Year's resolutions. Jamie, did we take all the good ones? No. Wednesday waivers. Every league. Oh, that's great. That's great. Jamie, did we take all the good ones? No. Wednesday waivers. Every league. Oh, that's great. That's great. I like that one.

I do too, but it takes a little bit of steam out of the Tuesday show, I feel. No, you still do the waiver show on Tuesday. Here's what you do. Tuesday becomes trade day. Wednesday becomes waiver day.

No, I don't like that. Tuesday trades, Wednesday waivers. I think that that's the way to do it. I need a little time to think about my. No, I don't like that. Tuesday trades, Wednesday waivers. I think that that's the way to do it. I need a little time to think about my, well, that's the other thing. The one thing I don't like about waivers on Wednesday, you know, Wednesday night, Thursday morning, you kind of, if you need to make a trade, you need to know who's on your roster and you have to wait an extra day for that, right? Sometimes like, well, if I don't get this guy, I'm going to have to make a trade. You can plan the trade on Tuesday and then waivers can run make a trade. You can plan the trade on Tuesday,

and then waivers can run on Wednesday, and then you can make the trade after that. But I think maybe one of the reasons why there aren't a lot of trades in fantasy is because there's not a lot of time to lay the groundwork for it. Okay, all right. Well, those are good New Year's resolutions.

It's not the reason. It's not the reason. It's a reason. Your art show, what, Jamie? Art shows will still be the same. Yeah, the schedule will be the same, but it just won't have the same excitement. Tuesday waivers.

I don't know if that's going to be an industry thing that people are going to change their waivers to Tuesday. You're not going to change your waivers to Wednesday. Oh, I am. You're bluffing. No, I'm not. I think Jamie's found his campaign for the offseason. We've got the Early Edge podcast.

If you're looking for a leg up on your bookmaker, we've got you covered on the Early Edge podcast powered by Sportsline. Every day you can join Jonathan Coachman and an expert crew of Sportsline handicappers to break down the biggest games of the day. Every episode is 10 minutes or shorter, and it's in your feed by 11 a.m. If there's a sharp side to the action,

you'll be armed with it and go check out the Early Edge podcast wherever you listen to fantasy football today. On Sunday, we do have FFT in five at 8.30 a.m. HQ at 10 a.m. till 1 p.m. There is no Twitch on Sunday. There was no Twitch last night if you were sitting there for an hour waiting for us.

I'm sorry we didn't show up. But no twitch this week basically so that's done for a little while we'll keep you posted on that but thanks for being part of that awesome audience awesome experience throughout the year all right news and notes Ryan Fitzpatrick is on the reserve COVID list so Tua Tungabailoa is not going to get benched uh my news and notes are kind of bouncing all over the place between things that are very important and they're not. So this is pretty important, though. David Bakhtiari, he did tear his ACL. Yep, that sucks.

Yeah, that's left tackle for the Packers. He's an elite player. And another one of their guards left tackles. What's worse, to tear your ACL at the beginning of the season or right before you're about to be the one seed going into the playoffs? Right before you're about to be the one seed going into the playoffs? Right before you're about to be the one seed. Or, yeah. Yeah.

The problem with that, though, is... No, get there. Yeah, you're saying that's worse. Yes, I agree. Yeah, but at least he helped him get there. But it does stink. Yeah, but now you don't get to play in the most important games of the year. Well, I was thinking the other side of that as well is now you may miss the start of the next season.

Yeah, sure. That's another part of it. Well, if you tore your ACL in week one, you'd miss the playoffs anyway. So you might as well get some games in there, right? Rick Wagner may miss this week too. It's another offensive lineman for the Packers. So they're going to be down potentially two offensive linemen.

Does that change anything for the three must-start guys? They got Valdir, right? Am I crazy? I don't know. Did they send Jared Valdir? Or am I just still in my hangover here? Yeah, maybe the champagne talking. Colt's got Valdir, not the Packers.

No, it does not change anything. My bad. No, it doesn't. Well, not anytime soon it doesn't change anything. We've got to see how they operate. But they'll mix and match and come out okay. And Rodgers has dealt with inferior offensive lines before. I'm not even sure it's that inferior without Bakhtiar.

It's not as good, of course, but it's not the end of the line for Green Bay. The only thing that may change for Aaron Jones is the fact that Jamal Williams has practiced in full. And so are they going to use now three running backs oh yeah well you can't really you can't really start aj dylan anymore right i mean that's not no no no i'm not talking about starting one of those guys but you know i mean this is this is a big game for them to get the one seed but again they want to make sure that guy is 100% healthy. So do they use three guys this week? Like significantly use three guys this week. Right.

Okay. Ronald Jones practiced in full. He's going to play. Alex Smith practiced. He's looking good. Not certain, but looking good for Sunday night. Terry McLaurin has not been practicing with the team, but Ron Rivera said that off to the side he has been looking better.

So that's good to know. Miami is without linebacker Landon Roberts. He's on IR. Cam Akers has not been ruled out yet. We're going to preview that game. The NFC home games this week are much tougher to preview than the AFC home games. You don't have any situations where we know a bunch of teams are sitting there, guys, or anything. It's just the matchups are tougher.

So Rams, are there any Rams we're going to start? That's one team that maybe you want to avoid right now. But if Cam Akers plays, maybe we'll throw him in our lineup. Denzel Ward is on the reserve COVID list. He's out this week. And B.J. Goodson starting linebacker, he's probably out. Same with Andrew Sandejo. So Pittsburgh, you wish, you know, if Roethlisberger were playing,

you might be kind of excited about him because the Cleveland's defense is going to be very shorthanded. Keenan Allen is out. We talked about this yesterday, Jamie, but your thoughts on Mike Davis. Good fan dual value, by the way. But your thoughts on Mike Davis, who got 10 targets last week. Mike Williams. Yes, sorry. Yeah, he's in that number three conversation,

you know, depending on how he connects on those 10 targets. It's pretty clear that he's the number one guy there. I know we had some questions about it last week of Tyron Johnson and Jalen Guyton. Could those guys step up? I think right now, if you're looking at it, they're all in play to various degrees. Better DFS than starting options.

But for me, and I think the Chargers, it's Williams, Guyton, Johnson. Cool. Let's see what else we got. Keenan Allen out. So DJ Chark is where we're at next. DJ Chark is questionable. Devontae Parker could be a game-time decision.

Don't play. Don't play Chark. Don't ruin the amazing season next year. Don't play. Who? Chark? Chark. You're so excited for him for next year.

Oh, my gosh. Devontae Parker could be a game-time decision. Damian Harris not expected to play. Where's Sonny Michel going to end up in your rank? He's going to be a top 24 guy by any chance? No, he'll be outside of there. Kind of like a six or seven fantasy point running back, Max. Play J.J. Taylor.

Yeah, see what you got. Okay. Uh, the jets offensive line could be fully healthy this week. That's good. They've been playing better last three weeks. Uh, Tyler,

let's go. He's got a better chance of being a top 24 running back than Sony, especially in PPR. That's a no brainer. Okay. Tyler Boyd was limited in practice. You guys think Tyler Boyd is going to play? Seems that way.

So, starter Sid Boyd and or Higgins now? Higgins is still a borderline starter. Boyd is not far behind him. But, you know, nothing great with those guys. I'm not ready to start Boyd in non or half BPR. Higgins is a start in all formats. Houston left tackle Laramie. By the way, I don't get that at all, this T. Higgins is a start in all formats. Houston left tackle Laramie. By the way, I don't get that at all. This T. Higgins love.

What's not to get? He had been terrible basically before last week. He was playing with a terrible quarterback. Four games with Brandon Allen. At least he's given you 10 PPR points. That's the floor. Two of those games he's had 15 plus PPR points. He's the floor. Two of those games he's been over. He's had 15 plus PPR points.

And he's got some big play potential. And the secondary for Baltimore is beat up right now. Well, Jimmy Smith practiced. Didn't he practice last week a little bit? I'm not sure what his practice status was, but I know he didn't play. I guess he's going to play. Yeah, that's okay. I think T. Higgins can beat Jimmy Smith.

Yeah, Higgins is not Jimmy Smith. It's Marcus Peterson. Yeah, Higgins is not as much of a slam dunk as he was with Tyler Boyd. I liked him a lot last week with Boyd not playing. I don't love him as much this week with Boyd. The two things we've seen from Brandon Allen are he leans on his tight end a little bit more than your typical quarterback does,

and he leans on his number one receiver a little bit more. Higgins has averaged seven and a half targets per game with Allen. Okay, but if you remove last week when Tyler Boyd didn't play, like his production just wasn't really that good. He was a flex kind of player, you know? Give you some catches, but I mean,

I'm just making sure I'm not crazy here. No, he's around 50 yards, three straight weeks. Right. Yeah. He's not as good this week as he was last week. Right. Okay. Going in. Forget about what the result was. Going in. Yeah. He's not as good this week as he was last week. Right. Okay. Going in.

Forget about what the result was. Going in. Yeah, I got you. It's hinging on Tyler Boyd, right? Right. Let's see. Dallas got our mispractice. We're not projecting him right now.

And Zach Gertz obviously gets a boost against Washington. And the Eagles are so beat up. Now their left tackle is probably not going to play. Jalen Mills is out. They're safety. They already have a beat-up secondary. And Alshon Jeffries dinged up. Who else?

Goddard, obviously. You know, it's just, oh, oh, Fletcher Cox and Derek Barnett at the defensive line. So, you know, in terms of the injuries, things are trending up for Washington and down for Philadelphia. And that is our first game. Let's get to it right now. Remember, every game that we preview today,

we're going to talk about the starts and the sits, and then we're going to do a 2021 question. Washington at Philadelphia, stat of the game. Miles Sanders had an 82-yard touchdown run against the Saints. That is his only carry that went for more than 11 yards in his last six games. Washington's run defense has been pretty good this year. They've been pretty dominant in four of their last six games. Not great against San Francisco or Seattle.

But, yeah, I mean, you can't say it's a good matchup for Miles Sanders. So, Dave, start or sit, Miles Sanders? I'm starting him because he's got the potential for those types of big runs, and I think he's got the potential for 15-plus touches. In Philadelphia's run game, I feel like it's a little bit more secure now than it was in the waning days of Carson Wentz as a starter. But that's what I don't agree with. I feel like we've ended up being a little bit too high on Miles Sanders

the last couple of weeks. Or when did he have the long run? Was that two weeks ago or three weeks ago? It was against the Saints. I know that. So that was right. That was two weeks ago. And what's he done since?

Well, he's had 90 total yards or a touchdown each of the three games that Jalen Hurts has played. So I think the thing that he's not necessarily playing better per se. They're not necessarily playing better per se as an offensive line. The workload is back for him. You know, that's the big thing is that they're feeding him once again. My concern with him this week is not just the fact that his offensive line is banged up again and that Washington's run defense is great.

It's very good. He just showed up on the injury report on Thursday. And this is a meaningless game for them. How much is he going to play? And so I was, I was, when I started the week, I thought that there was an opportunity for him to finish season strong.

I'm sure he's going to want to finish season strong, but like I haven't ranked 13th right now. I'm going to drop him probably four or five spots. So he's still a starter, but it's not as much of a slam dunk because of the scenario that's now unfolding. Like why, why risk getting him hurt? hurt yeah and as for the matchup washington's allowed a touchdown to a running back three straight games 4.1 yards per carry to running backs in those three games they're

they're okay against the run but they've given up some numbers they don't give up sanders they don't give up receptions to running backs i just remember this in mike davis week. They don't give up a lot of receptions to running backs. They're among the leader in the NFL in terms of fewest catches, and Mike Davis had none. Then you go to their touchdown. Yes, they gave up a touchdown to Mike Davis last week. He had 14 carries for 28 yards. I mean, this is a very good run defense.

Yeah, if you want to look at the last three games, sure. If you want to look at the last six games, what they did before that, I mean, they were, like I said, they were dominant. And this game means the world to them. Davis didn't have any targets. How can you have any catches if you don't have any targets? Well, yeah. Maybe he was covered. They didn't call any

screens or anything like that for him? Either way, it wasn't just him. They've been good in that field. Sure, sure, sure. Look, I'm not saying that you should start Miles Sanders with visions of six catches and 50 yards receiving, but he'll get a few numbers in the passing game. He won't get zero targets unless he doesn't play. Yeah, okay.

Sticking with the Eagles, what do we think about Jalen Hurts this week, who had a great half and then a bunch of turnovers in the second half and ended up scoring 19 points against the Cowboys? Jamie, we do have Hurts in our top 10. Not me, but you, Dave, and Heath. So how confident are you in him?

I think you kind of saw what the floor is. You know, you saw the mistakes. You saw the, you know, inexperience show up a little bit when, you know, teams are now seeing what he does, you know, and whenever there's a game of film, two games of film, you know, you see what a guy does and his tendencies and you start to figure them out a little bit. It's a, it's a limited offensive line. It's a limited receiving core. And so, you know, if you start to take away some things and hide your coverages, disguise your coverages, you know, you're going to see some, some mistakes, but the flip side is he threw for a career high 342 yards. He now has three straight games of 63

yards rushing. And so if that's what he's going to continue to deliver, then the upside is still top five, like we said last week. So had you eliminated the turnovers, he's in the conversation for a top five quarterback. So I think the, uh, the, the potential still there for him to be a a very good starting fantasy option this is a tough defense we've seen it time and time again but i'm still going to stick with jalen hurts if he's the guy that got me to this point okay jalen hurts or kirk cousins cousins has a much higher ceiling this week yes jalen hurts or kyler murray i've got hurts a notch ahead of Murray. Okay. Okay. And I'm assuming no Eagles wide receivers. So let's

talk about Zach Ertz if Dallas Goddard is in fact out. How excited would you be about Zach Ertz? Dave, start or sit? I'd be okay with him. I've got him as a low-end start. I think that the targets would be there in decent fashion for him. and we've seen him make

some downfield plays with Jalen Hurts this season. So I would imagine that he would be in line for like a 10-point PPR floor. You know, same thing that we were talking about with T. Higgins a little bit ago. 5 for 50, something like that. He's got upside to score against Washington. Okay. So we go over to Washington

here. Is anybody going to take a shot on Alex Smith against this pass defense? The last two games, they've allowed 377 or more yards and three touchdowns to Kyler Murray and Andy Dalton, and those guys had 30 and 36 pass attempts. It's not like they were throwing 50 times. So right now, the way the Eagles have played defense

the last couple weeks, they might have, I'm sorry, they might have the worst pass defense in football based on the last two weeks, and we know how injured they are. So Alex Smith, Jamie, what's the appeal, if any? Well, I mean, the appeal is that they want to make sure he's healthy and right going into the playoffs, but they clearly need to get to the playoffs first. So I think this is a ground and pound game for Washington. If Antonio Gibson is as healthy as they say,

we're recording this Friday morning, as Dave pointed out with his hangover. But there's a chance he misses practice on Friday. And, you know, I'm saying that very optimistically that he plays because he's the start of the week because I think it's going to be a great opportunity for him. Now, Ron Rivera said he's fine. So hopefully that's the case.

And Scott Turner, the offense coordinator said on Wednesday that they wanted to give him more work in the game against Carolina. So I'm kind of tying those two things together and hoping that he's going to play in this game, but if he's out and they don't have Gibson, then it falls a little bit more on Alex Smith's shoulders. And if the Eagles offense does show up while the defense is terrible,

they can still put up points against Washington as Carolina did. And so if that happens and they're chasing points, now it's going to be a decent, fancy quarterback this week, because like you said, this, this secondary is terrible. Their pass rush is probably not going to be there. And so this could be a get right game for Alex Smith. If he's in that 35 plus pass attempt range, which we've seen several times from him this year, then he could he could fall into a low end starting option, a quarterback. So he's better in super flex and two quarterback. OK, nobody's got him in the top 20. So Antonio Gibson's a must start if he plays.

If he does play, we talked about this on Wednesday. Are you guys starting JD McKissick? And obviously would only be in PPR. But, you know, I'm concerned because his role last week, he still had his role, but they were trailing the entire game. But we did see that when Gibson was healthy, before the injury, McKissick's role was starting to diminish a little bit.

I would be a little nervous to start McKissick. I've got him 24th in PPR among running backs. I'm still perfectly fine with him in PPR as a must-start guy if McLaurin is out. If McLaurin is in, then I will downgrade JD McKissick. But they don't have a lot in the passing game right now.

So Scott Turner is certainly creative enough. And I think that's the one area where Antonio Gibson still loses a little bit. Because if you're going to rest him in any part of the game, you rest him in obvious passing downs. Because McKissick is so good in that range. Okay, so McLaurin, I'm sorry, McKissick or Miles Sanders PPR? Sanders. Sanders was close. How about would you start McKissick over Kenyon Drake?

I know you guys don't love Kenyon Drake. In PPR, absolutely. If Chase Edmonds is out, I'm fine starting Drake over McKissick. Okay, so Jamie, you said you would start McKissick over Drake, but what if McLaurin is out? What would you do there? No, no. If McLaurin is out, then I would go back to Drake.

If he's in. I'm sorry. If McLaurin is in, I would go back to Drake. Okay. Logan Thomas, top six in both formats. Start him. Washington DST is a start this week. And, oh, what happened to my 2021 question?

There it is. 2021, Terry McLaurin or Antonio Gibson? Gibson. Gibson. That's close. Okay. Yeah, there's no hesitation there. All right.

Well, because Gibson might be a rock star running back with, you know, amazing workload. Washington's offensive line is going to get better this offseason. Their quarterback situation will get fleshed out a little bit more they're not going to change a thing at running back I don't believe both going to be probably third round picks somewhere around there he might not be a third

round pick he might be a second round pick Gibson's a second round pick McLaurin will be a third round pick I don't know you guys did your top 24 McLaurin might be one of those guys that slides out a little bit wait a second you guys did your top 24 I did mine Gibson was not in there not. I don't know if he'll be a third round pick. Wait a second. You guys did your top 24. I did mine. Gibson was not in there. Not because I don't like him, but it's hard to get 24 guys in there.

Was it Gibson in your top 24? I doubt he was. I haven't done mine yet, so I don't know. Oh, okay. I don't think he was. He was not. Yeah. He's a third round pick right now. Arizona at the Rams. We'll see. I'm just telling you, there's

just a ton of good players. You've got to put them in over Justin Jefferson. Yeah, no, McLaurin didn't make my top. I think you're going to see so many running backs in the first two rounds, based on what this group looks like and how the position unfolds, that you're going to see a lot of receivers in round three.

I mean, McLaurin's probably going to be around four pick. I should clarify that. But Gibson's going to be a lot of receivers in round three. I mean, McLaurin's probably going to be around four pick. I should clarify that. But Gibson's going to be late round two, early round three. It's my kind of year. I guarantee you he's not going to be in your top 24. Who, Gibson? Yeah. Oh, he absolutely has a chance to be in the top

24. You're going to see like there's just too many. I think my top 24 is going to have two wide receivers, three tight ends. You know how bad of a year this was? Three tight ends. You know how bad of a year this was for running backs? This year sucked for running backs. It did, but people are going to react to that. I also think this year

made it clear that when you've got that stud running back... Every year is like that. I know. So it was reinforced. It sucked for running back because we lost McCaffrey, Barkley, and had a crappy Zeke for half the season. No kidding. So that's what I'm saying is why do you think people are going to go so

running back heavy when we're coming off a bad year? Because I think the people that were running back may have struggled if they didn't get James Robinson. Like a lot of it's the same as, Oh, I don't think so. I think the people that went zero running back are really happy, but I think I don't think so.

I've got a lot of people telling me that, and I have my leaks. I have a lot of people telling me that they love going have my leaks. I have a lot of people telling me that they loved going zero running back this year. Okay, so here's how it's going to go down, is that the people who went zero RB and loved it, they're going to do it again. The people who went zero RB and hated it,

they're never going to do it again. And the people who've always drafted at least one stud running back, they're going to continue to do that, if not draft two. I just think it's basically the same thing it's been every year. You're going to find such a run on running backs the first two rounds is going to be ridiculous.

I think you're going to get in the third round, you're going to get many of the rookies. I think Cam Akers, DeAndre Swift, Antonio Gibson, Clyde Edwards-Ziller are going to fall late, late round two or into round three. And then for Edwards-Ziller, who knows where he's going to be drafted. So you're going to get good running backs in round three as well, except they're going to be part of the running back dead zone. They're going to be young. The dead zone can change from year to year. I bet this year the dead zone starts round four.

Yeah, because I don't know. I just know how fantasy managers react to what happened last year. I'm getting the feeling that it's going to be three tight ends in the top 24. A lot of running And I'm getting the feeling that it's going to be three tight ends in the top 24. Yep. And, you know, a lot of running backs.

So that leaves us 21. I bet you there's going to be 12 running backs. No. 12 running backs, nine receivers, something like that. And that means Antonio Gibson is probably going to have to make your top 12. And he's just not. All right, we'll see. He doesn't make your top 12. And he's just not. All right, we'll see. He doesn't make our top 12, my top 12 right now.

So by that logic, I would agree. But I agree with Jamie. I think there's going to be a lot of running backs in round one. Oh, there will be. Maybe as many as nine. All right, Arizona's at the Rams. Stat of the game. Let's talk about... No first-round running backs in this game.

DeAndre Hopkins only one wide receiver since week three has had more than 70 yards against the Rams. It was Debo Samuel who did not in that stretch. Terry McLaurin Brandon Ayuk, Allen Robinson Devante Parker, the Seattle wide receivers, the Tampa Bay

wide receivers, DeAndre Hopkins himself. He had eight catches, 52 yards and a touchdown and the Seattle wide receivers, the Tampa Bay wide receivers, DeAndre Hopkins himself. He had eight catches, 52 yards and a touchdown and the Seattle wide receivers. Again, I mentioned some absolute studs there and none of them got to 70 yards. So yes, you're starting Hopkins, but you guys have him like pretty high. Is it just because he's gotten so many targets recently? I've gone back and forth with him. He's going to settle somewhere around 13, like where I had Matt Kapp last week. I just think there's – he scored against them the last time.

He's got that potential. You know he's going to get fed targets because they need to win this game. So, you know, they'll throw at Ramsey. Kyler will throw at Ramsey. They'll scheme him up to avoid Ramsey. You know, so I don't think he's going to have a monster game, but I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 75 yards is certainly on the table for him,

and I think he does have a chance to find the end zone. He should have scored last week, too. He's going to have a ton of catches. To me, he's still a top five receiver in full PPR. Kyler Murray, start or sit? I would try to sit him if he can. Let's not forget, Rams have arguably the best defense in football really thought kyler was back last week i don't know what the heck happened last week but he is throwing the ball downfield

so that's good kenyan drake kenyan drake in his last four games he's averaging 3.28 yards per carry he's just scoring if he doesn't score you're you're in a lot of trouble here and he has faced tough matchups in his last four games. The Rams, the Giants, the Eagles, and the Niners. But the Rams are one of them that's, again, it's a really tough matchup. So, you know, you'd start Alexander Madison

over Kenyon Drake, I assume? Let's see if he plays, yeah. If I give you some wide receivers here, would you start Michael Gallup over Kenyon Drake? In PPR, yes. For sure. How about Emmanuel Sanders?

Yep. Full PPR, yes. How about a Steelers wide receiver or Drake? No. I've got a couple of Steelers receivers ahead of Drake right now in full PPR. Do you have any interest in Christian Kirk this week? No. Okay.

What he said. Do you have any interest in any Rams this week? Malcolm Brown. Malcolm Brown or Kenyon Drake? Let's start with that. I like Brown better. Ooh. I think, well, listen, if there's no Cam Akers there,

Brown should see the majority, if not every single touch. Arizona's run defense hasn't been great. I believe last six games, five yards per carry and nine total touchdowns to running backs. So there's an opportunity. And the coaches like Malcolm Brown, they were giving him some pretty big roles earlier this year. And the only reason why they weren't giving him a big role lately

is because of how the other running backs were doing. But they're not playing. So I think that he's got a chance to get you some good numbers. Yeah, this run defense kind of stinks, as Dave was saying. And the Rams have the seventh most carries in the NFL. And that's without their quarterback being a big part of that.

So they are a very heavy run team. And Jamie, you said, no, I'm Malcolm Brown. You're not really interested in Malcolm Brown. No, I said I would start him over Drake. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said no on Malcolm Brown. You're not really interested in Malcolm Brown. No, I said I would start him over Drake. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said you would not. Okay. So, all right, great.

So Malcolm Brown is a top 24 guy? Yep. I am 21st, and I'm thinking about putting him over Gio to get him in the top 20. Oh, he's much better than Gio. I don't know if he's much better than Gio. I don't know what to think of Gio's catch potential after last week. He had that huge breakout with all those catches.

I don't know if that's, this is Baltimore. Yeah. Okay. It's not a bad idea to change that. Yeah. So I think I, and most people would be more optimistic about Malcolm Brown.

If Jared golf are playing, I just have this concern that they're going to have like 200 total yards in just a horrible offensive game. I don't know. I think Wolford is okay, and I think he's a good fit for that system. First of all, it wasn't like Jared Goff was lighting the world on fire when he was playing. Wolford's going to run, and that's going to be a fun thing to watch.

He's going to be mobile. I don't know how good he's going to throw the ball. I don't know how much he's going to connect with Robert Woods because that's the big part of what you're looking at from a passing game perspective. But he's going to move, and that's going to be mobile. I don't know how good he's going to throw the ball. I don't know how much he's going to connect with Robert Woods because that's the big part of what you're looking at from a passing game perspective. But he's going to move, and that's going to be fun. It could be good for Malcolm Brown. This is going to be a very conservative game plan for the Rams

because they know their defense could win this game. So I don't think you're going to see, hey, let's open up the offense with Don Walford and no Cooper Cup. But I do think you're going to see a lot of RPOs, a lot of moving around, some different things from the quarterback play. You know, they like to get their quarterback out in space. The difference is that golf doesn't want to move.

This guy's going to want to run. No golf, golf moves. He just doesn't want to run for yardage. He doesn't want to get hit. He moves behind the line of scrimmage. He'll like bootlegs and stuff like that. Right.

Walford's going to pull the, pull the ball down and run. So, and that'll create some interesting running lanes for Malcolm Brown. Now, Malcolm Brown stinks. That's the thing you're banking on. Is he actually a good football player? He's good enough.

He's not a great fantasy option, but the opportunity is great. Is there anyone in the passing game you're interested in? Robert Woods, obviously, being the headliner there, but maybe you think about a tight end as well with Kup being out. I'm not starting Higby with any confidence. Woods is the only guy. i try to avoid woods if you can but uh he's he's he's a low-end

starter you know targets will be there for him but solo coverage you know and so i don't think they're going to be scared of josh rentals or van jefferson beating them they're going to try and take robert woods out of the game and so you know van van joseph is uh vance joseph is certainly good enough to scheme, you know, with probably Patrick Peterson and some help to negate what Robert Woods is going to do. You know, he'll also get some work behind the line scrimmage, which will be nice. But I don't see a huge game coming for Robert Woods. Okay, two final questions here.

Robert Woods or Malcolm Brown? I would go Brown and non-PPR. And Woods in full? Yep. Dave? Yeah. Dave? Yeah. Okay. Woods and full PPR, Brown and non-PPR.

And second question, if Cam Akers plays, he's a must start? You know, I think that makes things a little bit messy because how healthy is he? You know, coming off a high ankle sprain, I'm sure he's a tough kid, He wants to get up and help his team get in the playoffs, but is he more of the emergency guy as opposed to the starter? I would

not want to trust either Rams running back if Akers is playing. Makes sense. All right, then. And the DSTs are in play. Dave's not very high on the Arizona DST, but Jamie and Heath are, and everybody's starting the Rams DST. 2021 question for this are, and everybody's starting the Rams DST. 2021 question for this game, Robert Woods or Cam Akers?

That's a good one. I think I'm going to say Akers. Yeah, Akers. Yeah. I don't know. I couldn't come up with a good one for this game. Akers or Drake? Oh, I'm so out on Drake.

Yeah. I think the Cardinals might be out on Drake. That's true. Yeah, he may not come back. Yeah. No, I was going to bring up something about golf, but it doesn't pertain to Week 17, so never mind. All right, let's go to Atlanta at Tampa Bay. The one team, by the way, when I sit down,

I do these game previews. Everybody's got their own system, their own style. The team I hate is Tampa Bay. They have so many relevant players. They have a lockdown cornerback most weeks. They have a great run defense, so at least that's kind of easy. But their pass defense hasn't been very good. I don't know.

They're tough for me. So Matt Ryan, sorry with him, first meeting here was a great one. It was just a few weeks ago. Every fantasy-relevant player did well in this game, except for the Atlanta running backs weren't really that fantasy-relevant, and Rob Gronkowski wasn't good. But this was a great game

for fantasy last time around. You guys have Matt Ryan in your top 12, barely Heath has him 15th. So are we in on Matt Ryan after two straight good games with, without Julio Jones? When before that was just like a death sentence, he was so bad without Julio Jones. Jamie,

are we back on Matt Ryan? Yes. I like quarterbacks that throw the ball 60 times and he's going to throw the ball 60 times in this game. They have nothing to lose, you know, so it's going to, you know, and they have no run game. So, you know, this, this feels like a 402 and four game for him. He's going to turn the ball over,

but he's going to throw and throw himself into enough production that you're going to be okay with Matt Ryan. And if he doesn't turn the ball over, especially Carlton Davis doesn't play, then I think it's going to be a huge game for Matt Ryan because Tampa Bay, once they build their lead, they'll start to pull some guys because they know they're going to be playing next week. And so I think Matt Ryan's going to have garbage time.

I think he's going to, you know, what we've seen from him is his first half has been great. The last two weeks, the first half has been fantastic. That's what happened against Tampa Bay the first time. Can the same thing happen this week, but then you get the garbage time on top of it because of the Bucs pulling some guys. So I'm perfectly fine with Matt Ryan.

Why garbage time, though? I mean, they just took the Chiefs down to the wire, and they lost by four to Tampa Bay in their last two games. They lost by five to New Orleans. You know, they haven't been blown out in six games, and that was against the Saints. So they've lost four in a row. This is not their typical good spot.

They're on the road, outdoors, and I know they held the Chiefs in check in Kansas city, but Tampa Bay is playing great right now. Their offense looks, looks like it's humming and their defense doesn't. So that it could go, it could go down the same way as it did two weeks ago. And there could also be garbage time on top of that.

Or did the bucks learn in the second half of their game against, against Atlanta last time to just blitz the snot out of Matt Ryan and challenge him that way because he doesn't always beat the blitz. And I don't love that the first half will be bad. What's that? I don't love that Alex Mack is out. Yeah, that hurts. We'll see what that means. It certainly could mean a lot of up-the-gut blitzes and Matt Ryan will just collapse as soon as he sees that. But the second half could be good. It could be a flip of what we saw two weeks ago,

but I'm still pretty confident he'll get you over 20 fantasy points. Something like seven of the last nine quarterbacks to take on Tampa Bay have done that. Oh, that's the other thing. I mean, the three of the last five have scored 29 or more fantasy points against Tampa Bay. And yeah,

it's they give another, they're going to have a ton of fantasy points for sure. And obviously last week faced Detroit. That was not a challenge. And Carlton Davis I don't think is practicing. Okay, so we're going to sit the running backs, obviously. By the way, Matt Ryan or Jalen Hurts? I've got Hurts ahead of Ryan.

The one I'm debating is Matt Ryan versus Kyler Murray. I'm starting Ryan. I get it. I get that. I think I want to see if Kyler isn't on the injury report, right? I get it. I get that. I think I want to see if Kyler isn't on the injury report. I think I'll have enough confidence. Kyler hasn't been on the injury report all week. There we go.

Let's see if that happens on Friday. I'm sure it'll be that way, and he'll be good to go. All right, Atlanta wide receiver start Calvin Ridley, four straight games with 100 yards. Russell Gage, Dave starter set Russell Gage. He's a flex in PPR. That's it. And that's pretty much what he's been all along. I think we had a little

more confidence in him last week just because of the streak that he was on and he didn't quite deliver in that game. But I think against Tampa Bay, he's got a chance to. He's had one bad game in his last four. He's a very... It was last week, right. Very close to a borderline starter in PPR. Gage or

Gallup? Gallup. I'll takeline starter in PPR. Gage or Gallup? Gallup. I'll take Gage in PPR for sure. Gage or Lamb? I think I have Lamb ranked. Lamb, okay. Okay, Gage or Malcolm Brown? Half PPR, half PPR.

Gage. I'll take Brown. Okay. For what it's worth, Gage had five catches, 68 yards, and a touchdown a few weeks ago against Tampa Bay. Okay. And Hayden Hurst. Dave, you're the high guy on Hayden Hurst.

He scored in two straight games. Ryan's going to throw the ball a lot. Certainly could be a red zone option. I don't love him. I don't think he's going to throw the ball a lot. Certainly could be a red zone option. I don't love him. I don't think he's going to be amazing. It'll be okay. Hurts or Hurts? Hurts or Hurts?

I have Hurts over Hurts. Okay. How about Evan Ingram or Hayden Hurts? I don't want to start Evan Ingram. Okay. Jamie, Ingram or Hurden Hurst? I don't want to start with Evan Ingram. Okay. Jamie, Ingram or Hurst? Hurst. Okay.

Tom Brady's top five. He is crushing it. 27 or more fantasy points in three of his last four games. And Atlanta's certainly getting better, but still, he was great against them last time around, at least from a fantasy standpoint. Tampa Bay running backs? All right, so Ronald Jones is the guy this week.

We've talked about Kenyon Drake. We don't seem to like him very much. Is Ronald Jones ahead of Kenyon Drake against a team that's giving up the second fewest fantasy points to running backs? Yep. Yep. Okay.

Miles Sanders or Ronald Jones? Sanders, man. I will take Ronald Jones and non PPR Sanders and PPR. Okay. Ronald Jones or Robert Woods half PPR. I'll take Ronald Jones. I think I will too. Alrighty.

Fresh legs, man. This point in the season is huge. And then break down the Tampa Bay wide receivers. Jamie, Mike Evans is a must start. Chris Godwin's not far behind. Antonio Brown's the number three receiver.

Brown or Gage? Gage. Okay. And Dave, Rob Gronkowski or Hayden Hurst is the best tight end in this game. Gronk in non-PPR. Who do I have ranked higher? Full PPR.

I have Gronk a spot ahead of Hurst in PPR. Who do I have ranked higher? Full PPR. I have Gronk a spot ahead of Hurst in PPR. Okay. Jamie's got Gronk ahead of Hurst, too. He's a low-end starter. You know the deal. He catches a lot of touchdowns, but he could also get you two targets. So in his last seven games,

he has two to three targets in three of them. And Atlanta's actually been a lot better against tight ends lately. Fant, Waller, Henry, Gronk, they were good against all of them. They were pretty good against Jared Cook, but he, Henry, Gronk. They were good against all of them. They were pretty good against Jared Cook, but he scored. Travis Kelsey, whatever. They were bad against him, but who isn't? And then the Bucks

DST, 13th for Jamie, 8th for Dave, 7th for Heath. 2021 question, Chris Godwin or Mike Evans? I think it's got to be Evans. Oh, how the tables have turned. Or as Michael Scott would say, how the turntables have turned. Mike Evans over Chris Gottwin. Okay.

New Orleans and Carolina. Start of the game. Carolina has allowed 51 or more yards or a touchdown to a tight end in nine straight games. Included in that stretch was Jared Cook. He kicked off this stretch of nine games of good tight end production against Carolina. Also, guys like Nick Vanette

and Troy Fumagalli and Kyle Rudolph and Cameron Brait. What did you call me? So, this team is struggling against tight ends. Jamie, we just talked about Gronkowski and Hurst. Where's Jared Cook compared to them? Cook and Hurst. Where's Jared Cook compared to them? Cook and

Hurst are very close. They're just outside my top 12, 13, and 14 respectively. I don't know how much Drew Brees is going to play in this game, so I'm concerned about that. Cook's got touchdown potential. They're all very similar, the touchdown or bust type of guys. None of them are going to catch

the ball very much. Are you guys both concerned about Drew Brees sitting at some point? I think so. Yeah, I think it's possible. But if he's sitting that probably. Well, here's the thing. If he's sitting, that means the Saints have a lead. If the Saints have a lead, you would think that Brees had a hand in it. But last week he didn't have any touchdowns.

He played well. He just didn't score because Alvin Camaro was getting all the nods inside the 10. I don't mind. He did not play well last week. I thought he did. He had two interceptions. First time in 40-some-odd games, he had two interceptions. I still think he threw. I mean, the yardage was good. Let's put it this way. I thought he

threw it better than he did the week before when it was his first game back. I'll go right in the middle. I thought he was good and bad. First of all, the interceptions, it seemed like Jared Cook ran a poor route. That's what Troy Aikman was saying. And then the second one was dropped. It was off someone's hands.

It wasn't a great throw. I think it was Sanders. Yeah, I think so too. But he did have a ball that should have been a third interception. That was a terrible throw. His wide receiver made a play on to make sure it wasn't intercepted. He threw a couple balls up the seam

that were really nice. One to Jared Cook. I think one to Emmanuel Sanders. I thought he kind of started to look like himself wasn't intercepted. He threw a couple balls up the seam that were really nice. One to Jared Cook. I think one to Emmanuel Sanders. I thought he kind of started to look like himself later in the game. But he has not been great, obviously. He has not been Drew Brees in two games since coming back.

Jamie thought he didn't look too good. Half of his first game was pretty good against Chiefs. Yeah. I thought he started to play better. I don't know. He's had some bad throws in every game this year. You say he hasn't been the same Drew Brees in the last two games. I might say he hasn't been the same Drew Brees for much of the last two seasons.

Oh, wow. That we've seen his arm kind of fall off a little. Okay. He's like setting the records with completion percentage. He's a different guy than Michael Thomas. I don't have any concern about his play the last couple of years. It's just the last two weeks. He had a bad first half, and I don't think he was great last week against Minnesota.

Yeah, it's weird. The numbers are really interesting. 19 of 26 for 311 yards. That's really good. No touchdowns, two interceptions. That's really bad. But Alvin Kamara obviously shined. And you have to downgrade Breeze a little bit

because there's stinking Taysom Hill. Right? I mean, it's so annoying. Start Kamara. But Breeze or Rivers, by the way? Breeze or Rivers? Rivers. Rivers.

Okay. Breeze or Bridgewater? I'd go Breeze. All right. Start Kamara. Emmanuel Sanders, like a number two, three kind of wide receiver? In PPR, yeah. I think he's worse in PPR.

He's getting five targets each of the last two games. He gets four catches. He's not... He's got the safe PPR floor. He can get you 11-plus. I think he's done that like five straight with Drew Breeze. Yeah, but what's better? Because he's had 76 or more yards in four straight with breeze with

reason without thomas four straight games with 76 yards i mean that's a better i think non-ppr floor unless you just don't think he's going to score then i guess he's better in ppr he's yeah he doesn't have a ton of touchdowns so no he's i think he's more of a flex than a number two receiver and non-ppr okay i guess you're hunting for touchdowns there. Any other Saints wide receiver that you're thinking about this week? No, they seem to like Callaway as their second guy. So I don't think you can trust him at this point.

I do think Latavius Murray comes into play this week. He's got 10 plus points in his last two games in PPR. And I do think you're going to see Alvin Kamara probably not play late in this game as well. Okay. And then for the Panthers, Bridgewater is outside the top 20. Are you going to start a Carolina running back?

Yes, Curtis Samuel. I think it's a great game. Is Curtis Samuel better than Robbie Anderson this week? Yeah. Anderson practiced in full on Thursday, so he should be fine dealing with a groin injury, but would not surprise me. I have DJ Moore ranked ahead of Curtis Samuel based on what the upside could be, but I would not be surprised if Samuel is their best receiver once again. I wouldn't be surprised.

Is Moore in your must-start territory? Yeah, he's a top 24 receiver. Yeah, they both are. I mean, Samuel's going to get probably close to five carries, if not more, without Mike Davis and Christian McCaffrey in there. And then he'll get his touches in the passing game. He's been so consistent fantasy-wise for really the majority of the season, but certainly the second half. It's hard to overlook that. And I think he's within striking distance of a thousand yards, if I'm

not mistaken. He's going into free agency. I think he's going to have another great game. And remember, there have been 17 wide receivers with seven or more targets against the Saints. 16 of them have had 73 yards or a touchdown. That is really surprising and not good from a Saints standpoint. And you know that these Carolina receivers, they get peppered with targets typically. We'll see if that holds up, that continues here.

So that really leads us to Robbie Anderson. Robbie Anderson or Emmanuel Sanders? I'll take Sanders as a fact that Robbie's a little bit banged up, but they're close. If he pulls through with another full practice on Friday, I'm okay starting Robbie ahead of him. Because he does get targets. Not a thousand receiving yards.

Okay. And then how about Curtis Samuel or Emmanuel Sanders? I'm assuming you're going Samuel there. Yeah, easy. I've got Sanders. It was not easy to come up with a 2021 question for this game. I have Robbie Anderson or Curtis Samuel.

That's the only thing I can really think about. Well, Samuel may not be back. Right, so that's why it was difficult. All right, then I'll say DJ Moore or Teddy Bridgewater next year. Who do you guys prefer? Who do I think will still be on the Panthers? I think there's a good chance both will be on the Panthers here's a good one for you

who's averaged more PPR points this season Curtis Samuel or DJ Moore DJ Moore yeah sure no if you're asking that I'm not sure they are within point

four of each other DJ Moore 14.03. Curtis Samuel, 13.79. Nailed it. Told you. Curtis Samuel's had a great season. We are going to take a break here.

When we come back, Dallas and the Giants. Seattle, San Francisco. How many games do we have left? Three or four? We have four games left. Minnesota, Detroit, and Chicago, Green Bay. Got time for your emails at the end of the left, Minnesota, Detroit and Chicago green Bay. Um, got time for your emails at the end of the show as well.

So stay tuned for that fantasy football at cbsi.com. And we will be right back. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage for more than 65 years. Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters.

Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations. Or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Did you know that across Ontario, utility damage happens 19 times a day? That's over 4,222 incidents a year. Don't let your next dig be one that causes costly delays or safety risks. Before you break ground,

make it a point to request a locate. It's not just the law. It's a step to keep your team and community safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. All right, Dallas is at the Giants, and a big game for these two teams,

unless Washington wins, which they probably will. So this game is probably stupid. But anyway, Dallas at the Giants, and our stat of the game, we have two of them. No tight end has more than 38 yards against Dallas in eight straight games. And look who they played. They played some good ones.

Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Washington, Baltimore without Mark Andrews, Cincinnati, San Francisco, no kiddo, and Philadelphia. So Philadelphia twice, Ebron, Minnesota, Logan Thomas, none of them had more than 38 yards. Three of them caught touchdowns in their last eight games,

so that's nice. But, you know, Evan Ingram gets so many targets. In fact, I wonder where he ranks among tight ends and targets. I bet he's top five. And he just does nothing with them. So anyway, starter set. I would try to send him if he can. Last week was great.

You know, what he did against Baltimore was nice to see. But you said it. The Cowboys have been really good against tight ends, and they held him to one catch for 16 yards in the first meeting, and that was when Daniel Jones was healthy. So I would try to avoid Evan Ingram if he can, especially in non-PPR. He's got one touchdown on the season.

So maybe this is the game where he finds his second touchdown, he's got one touchdown on the season. So, you know, maybe this is the game where he finds the second touchdown and the Cowboys have given up some touchdowns to wide receivers, but to tight ends, excuse me, but I just don't want to trust Evan Ingram right now. They gave up two touchdowns in their past six. I mean, it's basically the same stat that Adam said. I just, he said eight or fewer PPR points in three of his past four, six or fewer non PPR points in that in four straight games

i don't i don't see a ton of upside i don't see him erupting here he is uh he is third in targets oh geez i didn't take take my thunder and if we had told you that before the season you would have raced to have drafted him we all would have we would have all been very excited to draft him there are four tight ends with over 100 targets can Can you name them? Well, I'm looking at it. Waller. Ingram. Higby? No, I'm just kidding.

I can wish. Who's got 100 targets? I would have said Hawkinson. He's 98. Come on, Dave. Yeah, well, I was trying to find out where Ingram ranked, so I'm looking at the list. Did Noah Fant crack 100?

87. No, he's about to crack 100. He had 20 the last two weeks. He had 13 games. He missed two games, so he probably would have. It's Logan Thomas. And it's kind of interesting, a little off-subject here, but just looking at the numbers,

this is a very interesting side-by-side. Logan Thomas and Evan Ingram have the same amount of targets within one. Ingram actually has more yards. Four more yards than Logan Thomas. Thomas has eight more catches. But you think about how inefficient Evan Ingram has been this year. Logan Thomas has been equally as inefficient in terms of yards per target. He does have four more touchdowns, which is huge. But the Giants have thrown 10 touchdowns this year.

So that's killing Evan Ingram's numbers. And everybody's going to be really excited about Logan Thomas. But just overall numbers, 633 yards on 104 targets, that's not very good. Didn't he throw a touchdown too? He did. He did, yeah. Both of these guys aren't running deep routes very often.

That's interesting. That's a huge part of it is that they're asked to run five yards, turn around, and make a cut. That's it. Ingram goes downfield sometimes, I thought. Well, listen, Logan Thomas does too. It's not like they do it all the time. They're told, don't go past 10 yards.

Don't go past the sticks. But Ingram should be used more. Like, the usage is maddening when it comes to Evan Ingram. Back on subject here. I'm sorry about that. Stat of the game number two, Andy Dalton has thrown 13 touchdown passes in his last six games, and Giants quarterbacks have thrown 10 this season. And when you look at this game, you know, Giants opened as favorites, and now

the Cowboys... The line is weird. The lines move like six points. How did the Giants open as favorites? They lost three straight. The Cowboys have won three straight. Who have the Cowboys beaten? Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, when Philadelphia

was kicking their butt until their best defensive player got hurt. So, you know, it's interesting. It's how much do you trust the Cowboys' offense is my question here. They've scored 30 or more points in all three of these wins, these consecutive wins. And the Giants have looked like crap the last couple of weeks defensively, but they face Cleveland and Baltimore, who have great offensive lines,

or Baltimore's just impossible to defend. This is very different. The Giants are missing so many key guys against the Browns. Well, one. Yeah. Well, two. Their slot corner, too. I don't know how key he is, but he's a rookie slot corner, Darnay Holmes.

But, yeah, no. They're starting to look bad. They're starting to look like they're wearing down a little bit because they've had some injuries and they've held up. But how much do you trust the Cowboys? I don't think they've scored 20 points in five straight games. Well, screw that. I'm not talking about the offense.

I'm talking about the defense. The offense sucks. But how much do you trust the Cowboys in this game when the competition is going to get a little bit stiffer than what we've seen the last few weeks? I mean, Dalton's a streamer for this week. I think you could look at him if you're scrambling for Mahomes' replacement. He's not bad based on what his track record has been.

I think it's 21 or more points in – or 20 or more points in four of his last six. So he's played better lately. And then the receivers, they're all in play. It's just a matter of they're not all three going to have good games. So last week was Gallup's turn. Well, I guess they know? So last week was Gallup's turn. Um, they, well,

I guess they all played well last week, but, uh, I don't think that's going to happen this week. Cause I'm sure Bradbury is going to take one of them away, you know, most likely it's Cooper, but we'll see.

And then, you know, do you, is Zeke back or does he just beat up on a bad defense? You know? So you, you have him right. You have him in the top 10.

You both do. Yeah. I mean, you have to right. You have them in the top 10. You both do. Yeah. I mean, you have to start him based on what you saw last week. Yeah. So hopefully that's a carry over to this week and that he's healthy and that the line is playing better. And certainly they involved in the passing game. That was huge, but he's not going to do the same thing. You know, he might, he has a better chance. He has a chance to score, but I don't think he's going to go for a hundred yards against the Giants defense.

And I don't think you're going to get all three of these receivers having great games. So it's just a matter of who's the one that will let you down or two of them that let you down. Giants have two sacks in their last three games. I think that's a real indicator that they're just not playing as well defensively as they were. It's also like you said, they played much

better offensive lines. This group was not the same. They've also played two extremely mobile quarterbacks in Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson, so that's not good for sacks. I do think it's going to be a pretty competitive game. When you look at the wide receivers, you're starting Zeke. He's top 10 for you guys. Dalton's

middle of the pack, so you're not starting Dalton. You're not starting over Kyler. Are you starting over Russell Wilson? Yes. Yes and no. I think they're the same. They're both going to be right around 18 to 20 points. over Russell Wilson? Yes. Yes and no. Okay. I think they're the same. They're both going to be right around 18 to 20 points.

Rank the wide receivers in this game with Sterling Shepard in the mix. In PPR, I'll go Cooper, Lamb, Shepard,

Gallup. Cooper. They're all top 28. Cooper, Gallup, Lamb, Shepard. Okay. And they're all top 28. Cooper, Gallup, Lamb, Shepard. They're all top

35. So you are starting Cooper? Starting Cooper. I like what I'm seeing from Michael Gallup, though. He's got rhythm with Dalton. He's led them in targets, catches, yards, and touchdowns

over the past couple of weeks. He's led them in targets, catches, yards, and touchdowns over the past couple of weeks. He's playing really well, and he's never going to see double coverage or anything like that because of all the other receivers that they have. I don't mind starting Michael Gallup this week in PPR for sure. He's got 41

or fewer yards in four of his last six games. You know, I'm so nervous about making too much of a game against the Eagles. 100%. One of his catches, one of his touchdowns was that long wide receiver screen, right? Where he just burst down the sideline. That was a long catch, yes. But that was a running catch, right?

So that was a big chunk of his stat. Yeah. He got a little lucky on that, but he also made an awesome toe tap catch. He's getting looks in the red zone. He's, he's, he's becoming more and more involved. The coaches talked to him up this week about how they want to get him more

involved in the offense than he already is. That's hard to do when he's leading the team and targets. So I get the risk involved with him, but he's playing well right now. And I think the Cowboys are going to throw a decent amount in this game. I think Dalton trusts him. Would you guys, I don't know about them throwing a decent amount in this game,

just from the standpoint of, I don't know the giants offense makes them throw. Would you guys start, um, Ty Johnson over Wayne Gallman? Yeah, I do like all of them this week, but I think Ty Johnson's got a much better set up.

Dallas DST is top 12 and 2021 question. Who is the number one Dallas wide receiver in fantasy drafts? Well, Gallup is probably gone. So unless they can figure out a way to get Cooper off the squad, but I think Cooper played well enough this year where that's not going to be as big of a priority as it might've been. Okay.

So what's the answer? Who's number one? Cooper. I bet Cooper's the first one drafted. I bet lamb will be drafted soon after him. It wouldn't surprise me if lamb had a better year than Cooper. Let's go to our next game. It's Seattle at San Francisco stat of the game.

Only two running backs have more than 69 rushing yards against San Francisco. Both of them were Rams. Daryl Henderson in week 6, Cam Akers in week 12. So this is a very good run defense. These are two very good run defenses here. Which running back do you like better? Chris Carson or Jeff Wilson?

And how confident are you in these guys? Dave Richard. I like Wilson better. Simply because I think he's going to be the bell cow again for San Francisco and they're doing a good job running the football. And Carson's been splitting a little bit with Hyde, a little bit with Rashad Penny.

He's had these moments where he looks like, you know, dominant stud running back, but he's just not delivering the types of numbers that fantasy managers are looking for. He disappointed last week. I think Wilson ends up being the better back this week. Okay. Jamie agree. We're good there. Yeah. I mean, uh, Wilson, you know, I, I was very high on him for the last two weeks. And so, uh, you know, love what I saw from him last week. I wish he was doing a little bit more in the passing game, but that's not necessarily his forte. So if they're chasing points,

you have to wonder how the game will unfold for him. But I think you're going to see Seattle start to pull some guys, which is also why I like Wilson better than Carson, because they do have other guys to lean on if they're scoreboard watching and they find out what the score is in Green Bay. I bet they don't have that luxury. I don't think Seattle builds a lead in this one.

I think San Francisco keeps it close. Would you say that work in the passing game was Matt's forte? Yeah. It was. It was. Yeah, Chris Carson's been very consistent last four games.

12 to 16 carries and 63 to 76 rushing yards in each game and two to three yards in each game. And 2-3 catches in each game. So, you know, that's kind of been what he's been around the 69 yard mark, which is like I said, only two running backs have eclipsed that against San Francisco

this year. Russell Wilson. What's wrong with Russell Wilson? I guess we should mention he's faced some pretty good defenses during these last seven games in which he's not playing all that well. Rams twice. Giants, Washington. And he's also crushed the Jets.

16 points against Philadelphia I think was pretty disappointing, but Philadelphia wasn't so bad. So this, you know, look, it's hard to evaluate San Francisco's defense. Sometimes they're really good. When they face good offenses, they're terrible. And they were terrible last time they faced Seattle. He scored 36 points in week eight. All right, so you guys have,

but you don't have Russell Wilson ranked that way. Heath does. Heath has him sixth. Dave, you have him 15th. Jamie has him 14th. I didn't like what I saw from Russell Wilson last week. I felt like he was a little, I don't know if I want to say off target or sporadic might be the best word.

Like sometimes he, he made the right throw and good throws. And sometimes he was, you know, he threw an uncatchable ball or he was just a little bit off for his receiver. I think the, the team's decision to run the football more is hurting Russell Wilson.

I think Tyler Lockett not playing at 100%, or at least it seems that way, is taking away some of the efficiency that Russell Wilson can have with his downfield throws. And he's just not playing his best football right now. He looks kind of lost right now. And maybe he turns it on and he gets it going and he can do that at any moment. But I'm hesitant to start Russell Wilson

unless it's with the expectation of what he gave you last week where he ran for a touchdown is 21 fantasy points. That's what I would hope to have from him is right around 20 to 22. But those games that he had earlier this year with 30 plus points, forget it.

I don't, I don't see that happening. Okay. It's all about volume. It's completely tied to that too. Yeah. And that's the part of it. He played,

he played well last week, given the opponent, I have no problem the way he played. And you know, the thing about it is you just look at it. The giants game is the one that stands out. Cause he threw 43 times in that game. And I do think that they had didn't,

didn't Metcalf fall down at like the one? I'm pretty sure he did. Yeah, I don't remember. I'm pretty sure there was an almost touchdown for him that they ended up converting with a rushing score. But aside from that, it's been basically, it's 28 attempts against Arizona, 31 attempts against Philadelphia. That's when their run game started to get going.

27 pass attempts against the Jets, but he threw four touchdowns in that game. 27 attempts against Washington, 32 attempts against the Rams. That's when their run game started to get going. 27 past times against the jets, but he threw four touchdowns in that game. 27 attempts against Washington, 32 attempts against the Rams. That's the problem. It's the only problem because in the beginning of the season, it was 40 plus attempts almost on a weekly basis or 35 plus times on a weekly basis. You know, so it's, it's completely tied to how much he's throwing and doesn't have to do that

this week. And so that's the problem for me is that he'll still get you probably in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 rushing yards. But if he doesn't get that second touchdown, which is what saved him last week, you're going to be trouble. 37.1 pass attempts in his first nine games, 31.3 pass attempts in his past six games. It's volume.

It's a buy, but he's also on the 30 pass attempts that he has now. He's not, you's not crushing people. He's not challenging the field as much. Yeah, but again, you're talking about the last two weeks. The last two weeks, he's played two of the better defenses in the NFL in Washington and the Rams. And Washington was on the road, where they know they typically struggle on the East Coast.

So I don't think it has anything to do with his play. I think it's all tied to volume. Oh, well, I mean, 6.62 yards per attempt in his last seven games. That's got to be a little bit of his play. He's also getting nothing from Tyler Lockett. Let's go to the wide receivers here. Metcalf's been struggling a bit against very tough matchups, basically.

Metcalf and Lockett, what are we doing here? You're starting Metcalf, you're sitting Lockett. Man, I wish Heath were here. He's got Lockett in his top 20. He just loves it. We've I wish Heath were here. He's got Lockett in his top 20. He just won't. He just loves it. We've had these conversations on HQ and Heath is... It's funny when you spin stats to fit

your narrative. Which everyone does, by the way. Everyone does. I'm not saying Heath. We all do it. But Heath and Dave were arguing Phillip Rivers versus Russell Wilson on HQ yesterday. And Heath used the last six games for Russell Wilson's average versus Philip Rivers average.

And the difference is, is that in two of those six games, Wilson has 24 plus points, whereas Rivers has been kind of living in that 21 point range. So the big games have boosted up Russell Wilson's average. He had one big game against the Jets. Well, he also had a 24 point game against, I don't know how far he went back, but he had a 26 point game against Buffalo. He had a 24 point game against Arizona. The Arizona game is definitely factored into that.

No, I don't know. Yeah, 23, 23 against Arizona. That was the first of the six games. I'm looking at decimal scoring, I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. And you know, I mean, that is weird because if you just look at Russell Wilson 23, 23 against Arizona. That was the first of the six. I'm looking at decimal score. I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. And you know,

I mean, that is weird because if you just look at Russell Wilson and you take his game against the jets away, and then if you took the Phillip rivers against the Steelers game away, it would be a much different story. But yeah, so it's a, it's kind of, and then your A's are standing at all over the place.

I think the bottom line is that both of these guys are going to be low end. They all, they both have a chance to finish in the top 12. We're talking about Lockett though. I wanted to like, let's talk about Lockett. Here's where I talked about.

You can't trust Lockett. I mean, he's been so miserable. Like he, it's a little different to get away from. It's a little harder to get away from Russell Wilson because your mind tells you I'm not starting Mitchell Trubisky over Russell Wilson or Phillip Rivers over Russell Wilson.

I totally get that. That that's something like, Oh my God, did I just sit up? You know, I know he's not an MVP candidate now, but a potential MVP quarterback or one of the best fantasy quarterbacks ever that we've had in the last decade versus an old man or a guy who could get benched in any moment. Lockett, there's so many other options. There's no reason to trust Tyler Lockett. The body of work since the second Arizona game

has been miserable. Yeah. He's not running downfield routes. That's as simple as it is for me. And he's not getting, like he's getting decent target volume, but his average depth is not good. But even that's gone down

because Wilson's attempts have gone down. Okay, we're moving on because we have HQ in 40 minutes and I have to shower and shave. Start any San Francisco wide receivers in this game? No, but Richie James is interesting. DFS, Richie James. Yeah.

George Kittle's top three in both formats. Seattle DST is top four for Dave and Jamie. 2021 question, Tyler Lockett or Brandon Ayuk? Ayuk. Minnesota's at Detroit. It's that of the game quarterback pending for san francisco uh-huh when quarter when uh kirk cousins gets three touchdown passes he scores 26 or more fantasy points it's happened six times in the last 10 games can he get three

touchdowns well four of the last five quarterbacks to face the lions have thrown three or more touchdown passes so let's get k Cousins in that club. If you watch CBS Sports HQ today, and you can watch it on demand, I'm sure I'm going to be one of these 600,000 people who have a Minnesota stack. And Kirk Cousins is my quarterback, obviously. All right. So he's a start. He's top eight.

We like him quite a bit. Top five for me. Number two. All right. Stat of the game number two. A running back has scored 14 or more non-PPR fantasy points in four straight games against Minnesota. And that will be good news. Very good news for DeAndre Swift.

So, Jamie, who's the best running back in this game? It's DeAndre Swift. But I think the one thing that makes me a little bit nervous is the backup quarterback situation for the Lions, if in fact it plays out that way. And I don't know if it's going to be Chase Daniel or David Blau. I guess at this point you got to assume it's going to be David Blau because why would they play Chase Daniel? But Minnesota got completely embarrassed on national TV last week. And Mike Zimmer was not hiding his emotions, saying it's the worst defensive performance that he's ever had.

I wonder if the emphasis is just going to be play eight guys in the box and you have to throw with your backup quarterback to beat us and we are not going to let you run. It's different when you're playing New Orleans because the threat of the passing game is clearly much different

than the threat of the passing game right now for the Lions. So I do wonder if DeAndre Swift is running into just a brick wall, albeit a fractured brick wall into just a brick wall albeit a a fractured brick wall but a brick wall nonetheless of just a sea of bodies and they're going to just single coverage the guys on the outside and bring their safeties up and just say if you're going to beat us with your back of quarterback beat us with your back of quarterback so you're starting

deandre swift you don't see a guy go for 55 ppr points the week before and then bench the talented running back the next week but i don't think that Swift is going to have a huge game. He's going to have a startable, borderline number one fantasy. And if Madison plays, why isn't Madison going to have a huge game? I know you have a bad taste in your mouth because of Atlanta. Everybody does. It's the only thing. But yeah, he had two other games with double-digit carries this year,

and he was awesome in both of them. And the Lions give up the most fantasy points to running backs. Look, you're starting Madison. He's a great DFS play. It's just a matter of who you're going to say you're starting him over. We could debate probably 10 guys about that. But there's a three-game sample size without Dalvin Cook going back to the last two seasons.

And only one of those games was the backup good, and it was Mike Boone. It doesn't bother me. It just doesn't, because was the backup good. And it was Mike Boone. It doesn't bother me. It just does. Because I think Madison is a lot better than Mike Boone. And I think that Detroit is a lot worse than Atlanta. I think so. I don't think we can say that he's a lot better than Mike Boone

because he hasn't been able to really prove that. But I think he will this week. I think even if Mike Boone were the guy, there would be an opportunity for him because this Lions defense is atrocious. They are so terrible. The nice thing about it is obviously, you know, because of the sudden and tragic news for Dalvin Cook, the DFS pricing for Madison is fantastic.

So he's going to be in everybody's line. You know, the Vikings are basically, you cannot have a DFS lineup without a Vikings player in it without the expectation of one of them doing well. Because Thielen and Jefferson are obviously in play. Irv Smith is in play. We have the same four. No, we don't. Madison is in play. I don't know who you have. Alright, let's go.

I have Cousins, Madison, Jefferson, and who do you have? Irv Smith. Nope. Couldn't get Irv Smith in. Tyler Conklin. Who he gets like 30-40 yards. Smith. Nope. Couldn't get Irv Smith in. Tyler Conklin. Who he gets like 30-40 yard. He's kind of involved.

I needed to get Derrick Henry in my lineup, so I had to go from Irv Smith to Tyler Conklin. Start both Minnesota-wide receivers. Irv Smith is top 10. He's a good play this week. Do you guys like Irv Smith better than TJ Hawkinson? Hawkinson has been limping to the finish line. I do without Stafford. Even if Stafford's not healthy, I'll still take my chances with Irv Smith. That's Hawkinson? Hawkinson has been limping to the finish line. I do without Stafford.

Even if Stafford's not healthy, I'll still take my chances with Irv Smith. That's non-PPR. PPR, I would start Hawkinson over Smith if Stafford plays. Okay. Marvin Jones, start or sit? Sit with a backup. Start potentially with Stafford. Okay.

Minnesota's DSTs. It's pretty clear. He needs 12 targets. If you look at his numbers, every game where he's under 12 targets, he's DST. It's pretty clear. He needs 12 targets. If you look at his numbers, every game where he's under 12 targets, he's been bad. And that's with like eight targets, seven targets. He needs 12. So you wouldn't start him if I told you he

was going to get 11? I would start him. All right. Here we go. 21 question. Adam Thielen or DeAndre Swift? Swift. Thielen will be one of those guys that everybody passes on and then he ends up being okay. That's what he was this year.

Yeah. It'll be the same thing next year. Green Bay at Chicago. All right. Aaron Jones, Aaron Rogers, Devante Adams. You're starting them.

Robert Tunyon. Start or sit, Dave? Onions. Tunions. You're starting them. Bears have given up terrible numbers to tight ends all year long, except last week against Tyler Eifert. They managed to contain him.

So I think that Tonya can be relied upon as a touchdown, needy tight end. Start David Montgomery, start Alan Robinson, and let we'll come back to Trubisky. I might lower expectations a tad for those two. You're going to start them, but don't expect them to do what they've been doing. It's not the easy

schedule like we've seen. Well, it should be for Montgomery, though. I mean, this is not a good run defense. They've gotten better. They've played better the last... No, Green Bay's been playing better. Montgomery's the best Bears player in this game. Henry was playing on ice skates. Tampa Bay, I mean, Tennessee looked so uncomfortable in that game last week.

They had no idea how to play in those conditions. So they've had, Green Bay's had a terrible run defense for two seasons in a row. I'm not ready to say that it's good now because of the last four games. But if they do well against Montgomery, the hottest running back in football, basically,

then you do have to take it pretty seriously going into the playoffs, I think. I think they're peaking. I think they're playing really good defense right now. They certainly are in the back end, but Allen Robinson, still, it's hard to get away from him. So let's talk about just real quick on the tight ends, any interest in Cole Komet

or Graham? No, he showed up on injury report too, but Jimmy Graham's taking too many red zone targets. And then finally, Trubisky. Are you starting him over Russell Wilson? No. I'm not. I think, you know, again, you look at the first meeting between these two teams. It started this little run of Trubisky, whether you buy in or not.

He had 24 fantasy points against them, but he had three turnovers in that game. He had two interceptions and a fumble. And he got the three touchdowns. He ran a little bit. Obviously, volume was up for him, but this Packers defense, he said it, the backend has been playing much better. Their secondary is fantastic. And so will he get to the second touchdown? Uh, how much will garbage time factor in? How much will the Packers start to pull guys? If they have a lead in this game, um, you know, How much will that help Trubisky? I don't think he's a complete, oh my god, I got to bench

this guy. He's awful, but I do think that this is going to be a mistake-prone Trubisky game where you see his typical flaws, and the Packers pass rush, and the Packers secondary will come into play here, and this defense, I think, has been a huge reason why this team has played the way that it has down the stretch. Trubisky

or Alex Smith? Trubisky. Trubisky or Alex Smith? Trubisky. Trubisky or Andy Dalton? Dalton. I'd go Dalton, but that's close. Okay. And let me read... Oh, 2021 question. What do I got for this game here?

Jordan Love or Mitchell Trubisky in Dynasty? That's a great question. I would still go Trubisky because I don't think love is playing for the next two or three years i don't i'm not sure if trubisky is playing for the next two or three years yeah it was a tough question i uh was really proud of myself for that one okay gonna read a couple emails emails here no mailbag to talk about in 2021 it's those two. From Michael. Dear AZ, J-E-D-R-H-C

and B-S. I'm AZ. You got everybody's initials except for mine, right? But that's okay. I'm AA. Rogers or Watson this week? Rogers. Non-PPR. Noah, thank you or Or Irv Smith.

Uh, no one PPR. Interesting. I'll still go fan, but okay. And then same non PPR pick to Julio Jones. Not expecting him. Kareem hunt,

Malcolm Brown, Gio Cooper, T Y Hilton, John Brown. Hilton's the easy one. I'd go Cooper with him. Give me the names again. Yeah, Hunt, Malcolm Brown, Geo, Cooper, John Brown.

And what's the format? Non-PPR. Non-PPR. I'll go Malcolm Brown. Okay, this is from James. Looking to replace Travis Kelsey and Dalvin Cook. Gronkowski or Irv Smith? Irv, yeah.

And it's PPR. Pick three. Montgomery, Jonathan Taylor, Swift, and Gaskin. Pick three of those four. I would sit Swift. I would sit Swift as well. Okay, everybody, thank you so much for tuning in. Oh my gosh, we're done with Starter Sit.

We do have Fantasy Football Today in five on Sunday, and we'll throw that in this feed as well. And we've got three episodes per week beginning next week, so we're not going anywhere. But it's been a great season. It's been a lot of fun. Happy New Year to everybody. 2021 is going to be better than 2020.

We will talk to you on Sunday morning and then again on Monday with another episode of Fantasy Football Today. Good luck. Go win your league.