Fantasy Football Today - Thanksgiving Start or Sit; Big Fantasy Finishers (11/25 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

Who are some players who are set for big finishes (2:28)? Tom Brady has a chance to win you a league, and you don't want to be playing against Derrick Henry in the Fantasy playoffs. We've also got the latest injury news (10:40) for Week 12 ... More players who could finish strong (17:35)! Let's look a little deeper: Can a Giants WR or Michael Pittman take advantage of good schedules? Then we'll talk Thanksgiving side dishes (30:05) and update you on an extremely competitive Podcast league! ... Jacob Gibbs gives you three stats to know for Thursday (35:35) and we'll preview the games: Ravens-Steelers (38:10), Texans-Lions (50:25), Washington-Cowboys (57:30) ... Your Apple Podcast questions (1:03:40), and email us at [e-mail] You can also download and subscribe to the full-length Fantasy Football Today podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 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

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what I did 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. A very special Wednesday show, Thanksgiving Eve,

and we don't have one game to preview today. We have three games to preview today. Hopefully all three games will be played on Thursday. Baltimore-Pittsburgh looking a little bit dicey. Welcome to the show. And what a big week we've got. What a delicious week we've got. I bought a turkey.

I'm going to put it in the oven. Heath, I'm making my first turkey this year. Congratulations, Adam. I also bought a turkey. I'm going to put mine in my smoker. It's going to be tricky because we've got a podcast tomorrow morning at 8. I've got an HQ hit at 9.40, and then we've got our

pregame show on CBS Sports HQ from 11 to 12.30. And generally, I like to have eyes on the meat every hour and a half or so. So it's going to be a little bit tricky through the morning, but yeah, I'll put mine on right after our podcast probably. Well, you know those Thursday podcasts, they're very brief,

so it shouldn't be a problem for you to go check on Heath's Meat. This episode is sponsored by Express. Express is all new and all about you with a fresh assortment of casual, versatile, and super comfortable styles. Find out more about Express and their exclusive offer later in the show. Dave, what time do you have Thanksgiving? Are you one of the afternoon guys

or the evening? What time is Thanksgiving for you? Yeah, somewhere between 5.30 and 6. So a little bit earlier than my typical dinner, but still long and a delicious feast is being prepared. I prefer the home-style Thanksgiving, and my wife always makes big turkey, all the trimmings. It's delicious.

So I'm already looking forward to it. Later in the show, I'm going to tell you how Ben Schrager tweeted out an excellent graphic that was a lot of fun and then manipulated it and completely cheated to create a super Thanksgiving meal. And we don't appreciate that. Who's one player that could have a big finish? We're going to talk about players who could have big finishes at the end of the season.

It's probably a little bit late. I did a Twitch poll last night. Has your trade deadline passed? And it was pretty close to 50-50. But this is likely the last week where you're making trades. But we'll talk about big finishers heath dave anybody come to mind big finishers the first one that comes to my mind is derrick henry who's had big finishes already but i i in preparation for this question i started looking at team schedules weeks 14 through

16 oh man the titans are taking on jacksonville then detroit and then green bay weeks 14 15 16 well and that's why like we have a dynasty league that we're in and dave's having a very good year he did a one or two year rebuild and has turned into a super contender and i've got a team where i've been trying for most of this season to sell, but I'm right on the border of the playoffs and I have Derrick Henry and I have Patrick Mahomes. And if you look at the Chiefs schedule in the fantasy playoffs, and the Chiefs are awesome, but it's legitimately possible in a lot of leagues

that if you have Patrick Mahomes and Derrick Henry weeks 14 through 16, it doesn't really matter who else is on your team. Yeah, that's scary. And I have no Henry, so I'm hoping, yeah, I'm hoping I don't run into him. I'm hoping I don't run into Heath in the playoffs in that league. I don't even know if my offer for Henry was any good. It was the second best offer I received,

but I feel like he's only been better since that, since that whole time. Yeah. I thought it was silly that you were selling on Derek Henry in the first place. Cause you, you didn't even have a losing record. I don't even think you were 500.

If I remember you were like three and two, but I'm not near as my team's not near as good. Like my number one wide receiver coming into the year was Marquise Brown. Oops. I've been there, man. I don't think he's going to have a big finish, but he also has a very good schedule. Mar Jackson set up for a good finish.

Anybody else that you want to throw out? Heath Mahomes? Is that your guy? Well, not just Mahomes, but like the Chiefs offense. Like Clyde? Do you think Clyde's going to have a big finish? I think Clyde will have a big finish. I think there's a very good chance David Montgomery has a big finish. I think Clyde will have a big finish. I think there's a very good chance David Montgomery has a big finish.

Oh, really? Yeah. The schedule is great. It's scheduled great for him. It's great for Jonathan Taylor. How many weeks have we been talking about them? It's been like a month. At least with Taylor, we saw some evidence last Sunday. Well, Montgomery

hasn't played for two weeks. And I can't tell the difference. Jonathan Taylor has only started in 40% of leagues last week. What a bummer. He had 114 total yards, didn't score, but still had a really good game and had four catches. And he finishes with Tennessee this week, then Houston, Las Vegas, and Houston.

And week 16 is Pittsburgh, which stinks. But weeks 13, 14, and 15 could be really good for Jonathan Taylor if they let it be good for Jonathan Taylor, if they give him some work. I guess I should point out, 22 carries for 90 yards against one of the worst run defenses in football. Is it really

that great? It's better than four yards per carry. UIPC for life or not? Yeah, it's just okay. I will take that from Jonathan Taylor at this point with a smile on my face. He looks at me. He'd been playing so poorly and not getting the work. Now he finally gets the work.

He also had a bunch of catches, and you're complaining. No, no, I'm not complaining. I'm just saying he didn't blow the doors off. No, but they obviously want him to get going. They're dying for it. Can I give you my YPC stat of the day? Are you ready for it? YPC stat of the day.

Miles Sanders, I mentioned he's had a pretty tough schedule. He's only had one, like, cupcake game. That was against the Bengals way back in week three, I believe. Everybody had him in all of their DFS lineups. Yeah, and he was kind of disappointing. But he's faced seven teams. Five of them are top 10 against running backs. Three of them are top five.

And collectively, this took a little while, all the carries against all the yards, collectively they allow, the seven opponents that Miles Sanders has faced, allow 4.23 yards per carry to running backs. He is averaging 5.74 yards per carry. You know what? I just noticed something.

It's Miles Sanders related. I noticed it yesterday when I was trying to put together my stats for the running back preview article. Miles Sanders is averaging 3.9 yards per carry before contact.

Wow. And that's great. That's number one amongst running backs. And we think of the Eagle, like the Eagles offensive line has been the excuse for Carson Wentz. Oh no. I've seen the last two games. They've faced the giants and the Browns and they have pushed them around.

And it's been much, much better. Is there a run that he had this year where he just didn't get touched? He had two 80-yard runs. He had two games where he had one good run the whole game, right? Yeah, against Baltimore he had an 80-yard run. I think it was a 274-yard

run, something like that. If he didn't get touched, that's going to juice up that number pretty bigly. Maybe. But I'm hopeful that he could have... Obviously, Derrick Henry's been really good. And Miles Sanders has been fine. But you're hoping that

they put your team on their back and they carry you, literally, to a championship. And the schedule gets a lot better for Miles Sanders. It's just been brutal. He does have New Orleans at one point. They're number one.

But Green Bay next week, Arizona, Dallas. Dallas is week 16. Fingers crossed on Miles Sanders. I just hope the offense isn't so bad that it holds him back. You want one more? Yeah. The Bucs, they've got a bye in week 13. That's going to stink for people who

are leaning on those guys in their playoff runs, but after that, if you make the playoffs, Vikings in 14, at at Atlanta and 15 at Detroit and 16. And Brady is so interesting. He has three games this year with 39 to 44 fantasy points and six point for passing touchdown leagues that those are obviously QB one type number. Those are amazing. He's got a game,

I think with like 20, 27 or 29 points. And then, those are amazing he's got a game i think with like 20 27 or 29 points and then you know he's got uh he's got some duds he's got some duds in there some disappointing games so it's pretty do like what do you expect it's pretty clear though right like a lot of guys are like that it's hard to figure out when they're good when they're bad. He's been bad against great defenses. He's been bad at night. And when things are easy or during the day, then he's really, really good, which is kind of like, it's like the former college basketball player

playing in the rec league. When things are really, really easy, the guy looks like, man, he could still play, but he's not going to actually be able to play against good players. Do you think it's just as simple as good defense in the time of day of the game, or do you think it's just as simple as good defense and the time of day of the game,

or do you think it has to do with the pass rush and just how comfortable he is? I think good. Maybe that's a pass rush go hand in hand. Okay. That's fair. Yeah. I look at these defenses.

He's playing against a, they're all afternoon games as of now and be not a lot of pass rush coming after him. Yeah. Okay. Well, certainly Minnesota, Atlanta, Detroit, as Dave mentioned, and then Atlanta again in Week 17.

That's great. The bye does suck. And this week, where do you guys have him ranked this week against the Chiefs? Top 12. What did you say, Heath? Eighth? Eighth, yeah. Okay.

That's the one thing. We'll kind of find out because I wouldn't say the Chiefs have a good defense, but they do have a pretty good pass rush. I feel like they do have a good defense when they're not facing the Raiders who have a very good offensive line. Maybe that's part of it. I don't know.

All right. Hey, listen, we got a five-star review Apple podcast mailbag coming up on Saturday. Make sure you tune in for that. We're going to read some of your Apple Podcast questions today, but if you leave us a five-star review, you've got a good chance of getting your question read on the air. And if you want your question read on Saturday,

which we record on Friday, you should probably get that submitted today. It does take a little while to show up in Apple Podcasts, and we just don't see them sometimes until it's too late. Get the newsletter, the Chris Towers newsletter, cbssports.com slash newsletter. Stay up to date with fantasy football content all off season long. And during the year, I mean, every day,

Chris has something really, really cool for you. He previews every game on Friday, tells you the starts and sits, and just gives it to you in kind of an easy to digest way. So cbssports.com slash newsletter. Let's do the news and notes. Baltimore and Pittsburgh could be postponed. And hopefully that just means till like Sunday, which would be interesting because yeah,

I don't know. I don't think Mark Ingram or, or Dobbins have any chance of playing this week. The question is, do they have any chance of playing next week? Cause they have a Thursday game next week as well. Oh yeah. I don't know.

They have symptoms. I think they're out 10 days. We may be in trouble for next week as well oh yeah i don't know they have symptoms i think they're out 10 days we may be in trouble for next week i believe they both tested positive but yeah right i think there's a different if you are test positive but don't have any symptoms if you can get three negative tests within a seven day period you're fine for the following week i think if you have symptoms you're you're out for 10 days. Yeah, that sounds about right. Also, they don't really seem to care. So everybody gets to play every week. Austin Eckler,

every team gets to play is what I meant. Austin Eckler off IR. He has three weeks to be activated. Raheem Mostert, same thing. So Mostert and Eckler, the window has begun. They have three weeks now to be welcomed back. They could theoretically both play on Sunday. Do we have any insight as to whether or not they will?

We ranked Mostert because there's optimism coming out of San Francisco that he'll be ready to go. We don't have any word on anything going on with the Chargers running backs. We ranked Balazs, even though he might be hurt, and we haven't heard anything substantial on Eckler. So you've got... But it's Wednesday. Other than Ezekiel Elliott on Thursday,

how many running backs would you start ahead of Raheem Mostert, who has the Rams, who have been incredible against the run? And, you know, okay, so that's my question. That's the end of the sentence. Most of them ahead of most. Gus and Connor. Gus and Connor for sure. Gibson.

I think I'm probably going to consider Gibson ahead of most. Yes. Swift if he plays. For sure. If we don't hear... You can say Duke if you want to, I'm not going to say Duke. I understand that. And you probably have a secondary option,

but like if I had Mostert and Eckler and Duke and no other running backs and we haven't heard anything regarding like whether they're going to play or not, that's a difficult decision. Sure. So James Connor, Jamie was saying that they might reduce his workload. Have you seen this? Jamie who was saying that was

the offensive coordinator. Jamie mentioned it on Twitch last night. Yeah. So what's going on there? The offensive coordinator said that Snell has earned a role and they want to see what they have in McFarland. I thought the timing of him saying that was weird if he had said that Snell has earned a role and they want to see what they have in McFarland. I thought the timing of him saying that was weird. If he had said that after

last week's game, when Connor had posted bad numbers in consecutive weeks, I would have been a little more understanding, but Connor played pretty well. All things considered. The big concern is that the role Benny Snell has earned is goal linebacker. He's had

several carries inside the five over the last few weeks. Yeah. Is it a tough matchup? Well, if they play on Thursday, probably not because I would assume right now that Calais Campbell, Brandon Williams, and Pernell McPhee would all miss the game

if it were on Thursday. If it gets moved to Sunday, then it could be a different story. We're going to preview that game. Let me check on that. The goal line idea with Snell and Conner. I've got their snaps and where they're lining up. He had a one yard touchdown run last week, didn't he?

Yes, he did. Yeah. Tom Brady, 0 for his last 19 in past attempts of 20 plus yards. That's wild. Lamar Jackson. This is also wild.

Lamar Jackson does not have a carry inside the five-yard line this year. He does have a ton inside the 10. He's got 12 inside the 10, which is good. But inside the five-yard line, Josh Allen has seven. Kyler Murray has six carries. Lamar Jackson does not have one. If you are in a 2QB league and you are desperate and you want three points, Brandon Allen is going to start.

That's the plan. Brandon Allen is going to start for the Bengals against the Giants. And Mitchell Trubisky could start this week against Green Bay. Yeah, all right. Kalen Balazs has an injury. We don't know the severity. It came on one of the last plays of the game. Keep it in mind, Kalen Balazs left with an injury.

It's been hard to gather info on that one. John Brown was not seen at practice yesterday. They are facing the Chargers. They're coming off a bye. And Josh Allen's got sort of this Matt Ryan, Julio Jones thing going. He's much better when John Brown is played. But the matchup's so good. So is the John Brown availability going to affect your ranking of Josh Allen this week?

Not mine. No. It does affect my ranking of Cole Beasley this week. Right. Beasley. Beasley or like well i don't want to give you thursday guys because we won't know about about uh about uh john brown at that point but would beasley be a top 30 guy without brown yes yeah okay for me kyler murray says he feels fine denzel ward, Cleveland cornerback.

He's going to miss a few weeks already. A bad pass defense got worse. Kenny Galladay did not practice. DeAndre Swift is making progress. Please clear that concussion protocol. We want to see you on national TV crushing the Texans. Teddy Bridgewater and Christian McCaffrey, apparently, according to the NFL Network,

both are expected to practice this week, but we don't expect McCaffrey, do we? Not as of now. No. Okay, Bridgewater, we could be a little more optimistic. LaMichael Piran is on IR, and somebody check my vital signs because I added Frank Gore in four leagues yesterday.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's come to that. Desperate times call for desperate measures. When my team's eliminated, I usually stop picking people up. I don't know. I'm not eliminated in any league. I don't think.

Good for you. That's awesome. I don't... Well, no. Like Scott Fishbowl. Any of the CBS leagues, I don't think I'm eliminated in. Tyler Sambrylo is on IR. Tennessee's left tackle.

So that's their backup left tackle. Their line's getting pretty beat up. And Juju Smith-Schuster was limited. We expect him to play, right? Thursday? Yeah, as of now. All right. All right, so against Cincinnati,

James Conner had 13 red zone snaps, four inside the 10. Against Jacksonville, he had zero. How many did Snell have? Yeah, they didn't have many, I guess. One in Jacksonville was the goal line carry, and then none, no red zone carries, period, against Cincinnati. So the last thing I need to do is check to see

how many red zone snaps the Steelers actually had against Jacksonville. Okay. Stay tuned, that information's coming up. Well, okay, but we're going to have to decide if we want to start him this week. And it's, you know, he hasn't really been playing that great.

Then he is one for what it's worth. One rushing touchdown in his last four games. That game's coming up later. This segment is called bad finish, fine finish, or big finish. We talked about a lot of the guys already. Miles Sanders,

Derek Henry, Tom Brady, Clyde Edwards-Ziller. How about Russell Wilson? Bad finish, fine finish, or big finish? He does not have a great schedule on paper, but that's because the Giants, Eagles, and football team are all top 10 against quarterbacks, but they're probably not really that good at just schedule.

Russell Wilson, fine, bad finish, fine finish, or big finish? What do you think? I'll vote fine. His finish will be fine. He'll be satisfied with his finish. I don't think he will blow the doors off of it. I think Seattle is realizing that running the football is part of their equation to winning.

It doesn't really have to do with the matchups that he has, but they want to try and get that ground game going. They're going to feel great about it with Chris Carson back. They'll use Carson a lot and hide a little. And I think they're going to try and ride that run game. And I think they'll probably look for balance overall. They're not just going to say, all right, rush you're only going to throw it eight times a game.

They're going to make it balanced. But those gaudy numbers that Wilson had earlier this year, I kind of have a hard time believing that they're going to be back. Heath, agree, disagree? I think he'll have a good finish. I don't know that it'll be a great finish. The matchups are pretty uneven.

You would anticipate, like we're going to rank him as a top five quarterback, I would assume, in all of those games. I think he'll probably finish as a top five quarterback in those three weeks, but I don't know that he's going to be the best fantasy quarterback. Okay, how about Aaron Rogers? Any

reason to think he won't have a big finish well we did have that discussion earlier and i don't remember what it was exactly but i believe it's last three years he's not been particularly good at lambeau in december um he's got three lambeau december games maybe one's late november, but weeks 15 and 16 are Carolina and Tennessee at home. The thing is, those teams are so bad defensively. And his road game in the fantasy playoffs

is against the Lions. So I'm going to go ahead and say good finish. Big finish. Big finish or like good or great? Because he's been, obviously, he's been incredible. I don't know what you're...

All right. 27. All right. know what you're... All right. 27. All right. Maybe I'm not framing it right. Is Aaron Rodgers going to be as good rest of season as he has been this so far? I think he should. Yeah.

All right. So this is too hot, too cold, or just right? I guess so. Look, because Russell Wilson, too cold, or just right? I guess so. Look, because Russell Wilson, you know, he's been so good, but we can see sort of reasons why he wouldn't be quite as good. And it was, you know, what Dave talked about, running the ball a little bit more. Maybe defense gets a little better.

But Rodgers, I don't know. I mean, I feel like he's just, why wouldn't he just continue to be amazing? You know? I mean, he's been number four quarterback. I think he'll be probably a top five quarterback, maybe six. All right, how about this one? Deshaun Watson.

Remember we talked a few weeks ago about his schedule getting really tough, but he's playing so damn well. And he does have the Colts twice and the Bears once beginning next week. So Deshaun Watson, bad finish, fine finish, big finish. What do you think? I'll say fine for him too. Not necessarily believing that he's going to fall apart against the Colts and the Bears.

He'll do just enough, but I have a feeling that the end of the season for Houston is going to be, all right, Deshaun, just do your thing. Don't worry about anything else. Play your game and put up some numbers. Try and make the fans happy in Houston. I think he'll be the worst of these

three quarterbacks, but he has been the worst of these three so far. I think there's a chance for him to be a shade better than Russ. I'm putting them in the same category. The first three weeks were

Kansas City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh. He didn't do great. Since then, he's just been unstoppable, except for the bad weather game in Cleveland. It's 27 or more fantasy points in five of his last six games. You don't have to worry about that. He's only got one more outdoor game this season. Right, so I'm just wondering,

is this going to keep up? They're throwing the ball a lot, which is unusual for them. They can't run the ball that well. I don't know. Okay. All right. He's going to be great. I mean, there's a chance David Johnson comes back and he starts taking some numbers away. Maybe.

Tom Brady, we already talked about. Let's go to DJ Moore. DJ Moore, two straight games at 96 or more yards. He does have a bye, unfortunately. And I don't know. I mean, the schedule, according to Fantasy Points Aloud, looks like it's kind of tough, but are we going to like Green Bay? Yeah, they got good corners.

Washington, who's going to sit him against Washington? What do you think? Big finish? Who's going to sit him, period, because he's proving over the past few weeks that he's the number one guy in that offense for Carolina and that they like using him in all areas of the field. It's what you like to see. And tough matchups ahead.

He'll be a good number two receiver. He'll finish as a good number two receiver. Maybe that means it's a fine finish. Yeah, he'll probably have two games where he's top 12 and two games where he's outside the top 40. Oh, I don't know about that. I was going to say like top 24 maybe. I wonder how McCaffrey affects them

because McCaffrey has five or six touchdowns in three games. He's a vulture to a degree. Do we think Teddy Bridgewater comes back this week? Sure. I think there's a chance that that happens. Because it sounds like he was pretty close to playing last week. I do think that matters. You look at the targets last week.

He had 11 targets. That was the first time he's had more than seven since week five. That's a good point. He was not like his targets the four weeks before last week, five, six, three, seven. Yeah, but also Carolina had barely been throwing in a lot of those games. How many did Walker throw last week? 40, 34, 34 passes. Yeah, that's kind of a lot.

I don't know. The Carolina wide receivers, I think, have been some of the trickiest, sort of frustrating, and at the end of the day, pretty good,

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I guarantee there's something on there for you that you're going to love, or if you want to get a gift for someone, there's something on there that you're going to love as a gift. Just go to express.com and check it out, and you're going to love it. All right. We've talked about some studs here,

so maybe we should mix it up a bit. How about a New York Giants wide receiver? Can you see a big finish from a Giants wide receiver? Here are their matchups. At Cincinnati, they're 25th against receivers. At Seattle, 32nd. Arizona at home, 24th. Cleveland, 20th.

And then Baltimore in week 16. But it's a stretch of, looks like, four pretty good matchups in a row here. Can you see a Giants wide receiver having a big finish? I don't think I can see a Giants wide receiver having a big finish. But you might be able to talk me into a Giants tight end having a pretty big finish.

Okay. Yeah, this is another one where having a pretty big finish. Okay. Yeah, this is another one where it's just so uncertain, like in a given week, where Daniel Jones is going with the football. Shepard's been pretty consistent. Right. Like if we had to define roles for these guys,

it would be Sh be shepherd is like the the chain mover the possession guy the easy target and short range yeah they use engram they they have used engram in that role too but they've also started to let him roll downfield a little bit more slayton's more the big play guy but golden tate is the guy that gets like two targets and somehow scores a touchdown but i think like comparing Slayton and Ingram's targets is really kind of like helpful. Okay. Last week, it was seven to three in favor of Slayton.

The week before, it was 10 to one in favor of Ingram. The week before that, it was 10-9. They both were involved. Then it was 9-4 Ingram. Then it was 11-2 Slayton. Then there was a week where they both had 4-3. That's

not... Either of them could have a big week at any time, but there's absolutely no floor with anybody in that offense, I don't feel like. Even the last time we saw Sterling Shepard, he was miserable. Well, in PPR, he's six catches every week. So, you know, I think...

And the matchups are really good now. So he's not really doing a lot with the catches, but I think he's kind of like a PPR specialist, Sterling Shepard, that would be. Daniel Jones is... Yeah, like a poor man's Corey Davis. Yeah, I was going to say poor man's CeeDee Lamb, but I guess either one works. Daniel Jones has eight touchdowns in ten games.

That's my big issue. He's just first of all, Gallman is crushing it. The receiving yardage, it's hard to figure. He's got two games with more than 250 yards passing. Right. And I don't think this week against

Brandon Allen, is Joe Judge going to call it a 25 pass plays? No, he may not have to. Well, it's still the Giants. They're not very good. I don't know if they're going to go and blow out the Bengals.

Their biggest risk of losing is Daniel Jones' turnovers. Yeah, that would be true. All right, moving on. Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman's got a really good schedule coming up. Tennessee, Houston, Las Vegas, and Houston in his next four games. Fine finish or bad finish, fine finish, or big finish? I hesitate to say big just because the nature of the beast

with rookie receivers is that they do tend to trail off at the end of the year. But despite getting only three targets last week, I think he's still their best receiver. And I think the usage is going to be better than three targets per week. So I'm going to say good. I'm going to say he's fine.

I hope so i think it's pretty clear that he is their most talented wide receiver now and my my only the only hesitation i have to saying big finish is the fact that he got three targets last week yeah he did play the most snaps but the three targets were week. Yeah, he did play the most snaps, but the three targets were a little disappointing. Okay, so let's turn our attention to the most important issue this week, and that would be Thanksgiving. So Ben Schrager puts together

this really awesome chart. It says, build your Thanksgiving fantasy lineup with $20. And he has five categories, and within the five categories, he has five options. A $1 option, $2, $3, $4, and $5 option. You obviously cannot pick five $5 options because you only have $20.

What? Yeah, okay. Yeah, right? So then you got your main course. But you could pick four $5 options. And what, just not have one of the sides or a dessert or something? You don't have to have anything. I don't agree with that.

I mean, I think you need to have a legal line. Like on the sheet, you have $20 to spend. That's the rule. I think it's implied that you're supposed to pick one from each category here. And that would be a main course,

a potato dish, side dish one, side dish two, and dessert. And you are bending the rules, and Schrager, who created the game, bent the rules because he didn't pick a potato dish, and he went with two desserts. And it just fires

me up. It's like, what's the point of making this if you're not going to have the integrity to do it right, Ben Schrager? I'm going to defend Ben Schrager before he even speaks. I am counsel for the accused. You just said he created the game

and did not follow the rules which you say are implied. He, as the creator, does not acknowledge those rules. This is the diehard debate all over again. You trying to tell someone who made something how that

thing works when they're the ones who made it. The difference between this and a fantasy lineup is there are extras in the bottom. You could spend $3 on gravy, $2 on biscuits, $1 on Hawaiian rolls, $1 on cornbread. You can't put an extra into a fantasy DFS lineup.

But there's not subtractions. There's not subtractions. You can't play two quarterbacks and sit Put an extra into a fantasy DFS lineup. But there's not subtractions. There's not subtractions. Like, you're not going to... You can't play two quarterbacks and sit a tight end. That's not how fantasy works. And that's what you did. You picked two desserts and you sat the potato dish. In week 11, it kind of worked that way.

Right. The dates avail. All right. Well, anyway... I will pin the tweet to the FFToday Twitter account. You guys can see the graphic. It's very cool. I play two desserts because you need two desserts on Thanksgiving.

Right now, I don't even have one dessert. And there's only one rule. You have $20 to spend. It doesn't say pick one from each category. Build your Thanksgiving fantasy lineup. It's so obvious that it's... Well, anyway, I want everybody to go check it out because it's a lot of fun.

It's good Twitter fodder. What was your main course guys i went with ham four dollars for ham i didn't pick any of them oh you cheated too oh yeah you don't have a maiden course you just have side dishes a dessert i've got sweet potatoes potatoes au gratin stuffing green bean casserole mac and cheese and uh probably gonna go with i'm gonna go with apple pie and have a buck left over hawaiian rolls i bought those actually hawaiian rolls i do have hawaiian rolls they are delicious they're so good that sounds like the greatest thanksgiving ever i went with whole turkey mashed potatoes and gravy um colored greens and pumpkin pie no mac and cheese no yeah oh and what did you oh ben has brussels sprouts yes my grandma makes them fantastically i have white turkey because we don't do turkey very well

so white's plain enough stuffing brussels, sweet potato pie and pecan pie and gravy for $3. Very economical. All right, everybody. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Check that out on Twitter. It's a lot of fun. So is the Podcast League. I haven't actually... Dave told me to check the Podcast League standings and I

forgot to look at the updated ones, but I know they're crazy. So let's go ahead and take a look. We got two weeks left in the regular season. I got another win. The Podcast League. There's one team that's 7-4. Heath is 3-8. There's a 4-7 team.

And there are 11 teams who are 6-5 or 5-6. Holy cow. We've never had something like this. It's incredible. Eight teams that are six and five. Are you one of them? I am. The Chark Foundation is rolling.

Yeah, I am five and six, unfortunately, which puts me in last place in my division at five and six. But not eliminated. Not eliminated. All right, everybody, let's get into the Thursday games. First thing we're going to do. Now might be a good time to remind everybody that this is a good opportunity

to remind your league of tiebreakers for the playoffs. What are the tiebreakers in the podcast league, Adam? They are total points. Okay, that's fair enough. Then you don't have to get into head-to-head and three-way ties or anything like that. Most points scored is a good tiebreaker. And if for some reason most points there's a tie,

what's the next tiebreaker? I don't know. Whatever it's set up as in the league. There's something there. I don't know. What a great commissioner you are, Adam. I don't remember. Thank you for the hard work that you put in.

In the playoffs, the tiebreaker is going to be highest seed wins because bench points is awful. And sure, it's not bench points. Yeah, bench points is the worst. Wait, I got to cut you off because we got to get to Jacob Gibbs. Jacob's got two minutes of awesome stats for the Thursday games. Let's hear them right now. What's up, FFT?

This is Sportsline Fantasy analyst Jacob Gibbs, and I'm back with three stats for you heading into Thursday's Thanksgiving slate. Stat number one, the Detroit Lions are near the top of the league in man coverage and press coverage use, which puts a lot of pressure on a team's cornerbacks to play at a high level. To say the least, Detroit's corners are not playing at a high level. Among 129 qualified corners, Jeffrey Okuda and Desmond Trufant rank 129th and 122nd in PFF's coverage grade.

The poor cornerback play hasn't been fully exposed because Detroit's opponents are running at one of the highest rates in the NFL, but I'm not sure that's going to continue in week 12. The Texans are one of the NFL's most pass-heavy teams, and they all but abandoned the run in week 11. Deshaun Watson ended up dropping back on 77% of offensive plays, even though the Texans led for most of that game. We should see a pass-heavy attack again this week, and given Detroit's man-heavy scheme and the struggles of their cornerbacks, Watson, Will Fuller, and Brandon Cooks all should be expected to put up huge numbers. Stat number two. In two career starts against the Steelers, Lamar Jackson has completed just 57% of his passes, thrown five interceptions, and been sacked nine times. A Thanksgiving matchup

against Pittsburgh is a definite downgrade for this passing attack. However, with Baltimore Titan Nick Boyle done for the year, Mark Andrews appears poised for a huge finish to the fantasy season. In the first game without Boyle, Andrews played 86% of the snaps and ran a route on 33 of 34 dropbacks. Both were significantly above his previous career highs. Andrews also saw 25% of the team's targets and a massive 43% of the air yards. Andrews is right up there with George Kittle and Travis Kelsey as the league's most efficient per route producers over the past three seasons, so a sizable increase in routes run should not be ignored. And stat number three. Over the past month, Chase Claypool ranks third in the NFL in targets and second in Ariards. Big Ben has fed 38% of his red zone targets and 50%

of his end zone targets to Claypool during that time. The role has been consistent too. His area of chair during that time has been between 38 and 40% in every single game. For reference, the league leader is at 42% on the season. A matchup against the Ravens is not ideal, but Claypool was targeted 9 times and caught a touchdown against them in week 8. Also, the majority of Claypool's routes will come against Marcus Peters, who has allowed almost as many receiving yards and coverage as Jimmy Smith and Marlon Humphrey combined. All right, that's all for Week 12. Enjoy the Thanksgiving games. If you like the stats, you can find me on Twitter at jgibbs underscore two three. Thank you, Jacob Gibbs. Great stuff as always. Detroit cornerbacks stink, so fire up that Texans passing game. Lamar Jackson

struggling against Pittsburgh in his career, but that stat about Mark Andrews running routes without Nick Boyle is actually really, really interesting and very encouraging, and maybe he could have a huge finish. And then Chase Claypool, he likes the matchup. He likes the air yards. Marcus Peters should be covering Claypool a lot, and that is good for Claypool. That's our first game. It's Baltimore at Pittsburgh, and let's talk about Mark Andrews, because stat of the game number one, the Steelers, they have faced Andrews. They have faced Ertz, Ingram, Fant, Hooper, Schultz, Jonu Smith.

That's not easy. And they give up the fewest fantasy points to tight ends. He's coming off two good games in a row. We just heard that awesome stat about the routes. Any hesitation to start Mark Andrews? No, because I think that we will see him continue to be the best target and most used target of

lamar jackson talked about it before that the ravens i think it was their goal this year to have lamar be a better deep passer and he and brown really couldn't connect he and duvernay haven't connected enough and so you look at where he's been successful willie sneed had a streak of games recently where he was doing well. It wasn't as a deep ball guy. And Mark Andrews is starting to get targets again. And his playing time has gone up, I believe, with Nick Boyle on the shelf. So I would expect

I expect the Ravens to go there and probably try and keep it simple with their passing game and not try and make Lamar throw downfield often, which is probably what the Steelers are going to, not the Steelers are going to, not the Steelers are going to try and just let them do it, but they've got a good plan to contain Lamar Jackson.

That's obvious based on what his track record has been against the Steelers. So they're probably going to do the same thing. Okay. So Andrews is top four for you guys. I know, I think in non PPR, you might have Hawkinson ahead of him, but other than that,

it's a, it's a wall. It's Kelsey Waller, Mark Andrews. And let's talk about the, well, but other than that, it's Kelsey Waller, Mark Andrews. Let's talk about the other side of the game, by the way, is that Steelers allow the fewest fantasy points to DSTs. They've given up just 10 sacks this year, 5 interceptions,

3 of them came in one game. Not a good matchup for the Ravens' DST. I think Heath has them 5th. Dave and Jamie have the Ravens' 12th. Heath, do you think you're going to move the Ravens DST down? I will move it. It's not a good matchup for either DST, right? The Ravens are 18th in points allowed to DSTs,

but it's only been like two games where they've been bad. One of them was against the Steelers. I have moved them to sixth and seventh. Okay. So it's Giants, Seahawks over either of these DSCs? Over the Giants, yeah. Okay.

I don't know about the Seahawks. They're playing better. Let's talk about Lamar Jackson and Ben Roethlisberger. They had nowhere to go but up. Who do you guys like better, Jackson or Roethlisberger? Jackson. Roethlisberger? Jackson. Roethlisberger. Either of them starts.

Roethlisberger's on the borderline. Jackson's on the borderline. Borderline. Sorry. I would start Tom Brady and Derek Carr over both. Agreed. Okay. Any other streamers?

And Taysom Hill. I'd start Taysom Hill out of both. Oh, okay. I would not. Philliped. Okay. Any other streamers? I'd say some Hill. I'd say some Hill out of both. I would not. Phillip Rivers? No. I'm close to putting Rivers out of Jackson. I'm not there. Okay. No quarterback has scored more than 22 points against Pittsburgh

in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues. Lamar Jackson scored 18, but he's still on pace for like 950 rushing yards. So there's that floor. All right, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill. So I did go back and look at week 17 of last year. It was against Pittsburgh.

It was a blowout win. Mark Ingram didn't play. Gus Edwards had... Lamar Jackson didn't play. Lamar Jackson also didn't play. Gus Edwards had 21 carries and Justice Hill had 10. And they were not in garbage time. On the opening drive Gus Edwards had 21 carries and Justice Hill had 10. And they were not in garbage time. On the opening drive,

Edwards had four and Hill had three. I don't expect them to split evenly or anything, but maybe there's a role for Justice Hill. But yeah, what are your expectations for Gus Edwards this week? You guys have him ranked pretty differently. I mean, Dave, you got him nine spots higher than Heath. That's like a definite start. Heath has him as like a borderline number two so he thought

i have him as a definite start in non-ppr um there have been two like that game you referenced is one of two times over the past two years that a running back has had more than 17 carries for the ravens because they do chop things up i I've got Edwards projected for 17 carries at 4.4 yards per carry, so just about 75 yards rushing. We know that he's only had two games in his career with more than one target, so you don't really expect anything in the passing game.

He's right around a 75-yard, and he could certainly be better than that. A projection's supposed to be the median, so I'm not projecting his upside. And then it's just whether he gets into the end zone is going to determine whether he's a fine start or a great start. The Ravens have one of the lower projected totals because they're facing the Steelers,

just 20.5 implied points for the Ravens. If one of those three touchdowns goes to Gus Edwards, you're going to feel really great about starting him. But in PPR, he's going to need one of the, I think he's going to need a touchdown to finish the top 24 back in PPR. I see what you're saying, Heath. And I agree with the touches.

I think he can get 17 touches. We've seen the Ravens give 22 touches to their running backs in totality over their past two games, or each of their past two games, I should say, 22 touches. And there's always potential for more. I like the efficiency of Edwards, though. He's been an efficient running back really since he's come into the league.

He's been really good at just picking up five yards per carry, something like that. And I can't preclude him from not having a couple of catches, maybe one or two. And I think it's the upside of him scoring on the Steelers that makes him an interesting play in fantasy. And I think that's the upside of him scoring on the Steelers that makes him an interesting play in fantasy. And I think that there aren't a lot of running backs that are out there,

good matchup or bad matchup, that have a shot at over 17 touches or 17-plus touches. Let's give credit to the number. And a chance to score. So I like him as a number two guy. Okay. PPR League. Would you start Gio or Gus?

I'm scared to death of Gio without Joe Burrow under center. So give me Gus. Okay, Heath? I'm going to go with Gio. Jonathan Taylor or Gus Edwards? Taylor. Edwards. Okay.

Edwards, Elair or Edwards? Elair. Elair, okay. Edwards. Okay. Edwards, E-Lair or Edwards? E-Lair. E-Lair. Okay. And, uh, would you start any Pittsburgh,

which Pittsburgh wide receivers would you start over Gus Edwards? In full PPR? Yeah. I mean, that's the worst part about this Gus Edwards thing is like his value is so different depending on the format.

So give me non and give me full. It's all of them. All three. In full? Yeah. Johnson, Claypool, Juju. In non, it's none of them for me. Cool. That makes sense. Alright, so the Steelers, well, first of all, you're starting a Ravens

wide receiver and Willie Sneed has seven targets in three of his last four games. Desperation. I'm not starting a Ravens wide receiver. Who Willie Sneed has seven targets in three of his last four games. Desperation. I'm not starting a Ravens wide receiver. Who's a better desperation play? Willie Sneed or Justice Hill? Sneed. Yeah. Okay.

And Mark Andrews we talked about. So you go to the Steelers. We'll get back to Roethlisberger and Connor. But the wide receivers, you know, look, if it's a good matchup, you start them all. But it's a bad matchup. And Deontay Johnson, Deontay Johnson has had one bad game this year, one game without double digit targets that he didn't leave early with an injury. And that was the Steelers. He had three targets and he had one catch in that game. Well, every game is the Steelers with him. Oh, that was the Ravens. Okay. One catch for six targets. Juju's banged up, and he was okay last time.

I think he had seven catches. He had seven for 67. His track record against the Ravens isn't particularly good. Right, right. I think he has one touchdown in six career games, and I believe zero 100-yard games. So what's the deal here? Are we really putting our eggs in this Steelers offense basket,

this passing game this week? Not like last week. Completely different matchup. And the Ravens cornerbacks are going to press the heck out of those receivers. But the one guy who I think can overcome that pretty easily because he's a giant is Chase Claypool. And then the other guy who I think you just have to buy into the target volume and the way that he's using the offense is Johnson.

So Juju is your third favorite. Juju is number three. I currently have Johnson one, but I might switch and put Claypool one. How about you? He's I, it's completely different in non PPR versus full PPR and non PPR. I would go Claypool, Johnson, Juju.

In full PPR, I currently have it Juju, Johnson, Claypool. Right. I don't have a Steelers wide receiver in my top 20 wide receivers in any format. Gotcha. Would you start Amari Cooper over a Steelers wide receiver? Yes. All of them?

No. I would. I've got Johnson ahead of him. All right. Ben Roethlisberger. What are we calling him? A low-end starter this week? Well, Heath actually has him 17th. Dave and Jamie have him 12th. Yeah. What and Jamie have him 12th. So, yeah, I mean, what did he have? First meeting at 19 fantasy points.

He's thrown multiple touchdown passes in 9 of 10 games. Is it just hard to see him going off like having a huge game? Is that the problem here? Yeah, I mean, that is hard to see. He's in that range. Like, if I had been Roethlisberger, I mean, that is hard to see. He's in that range. If I had been Roethlisberger, I probably wouldn't be picking up someone to, if Kenny Galladay remains out, because I'll move Stafford behind him. Okay.

But yeah, I mean, it's not like the difference between 12 and 17 is really not very big at all, but I don't really want to start him. And James Conner, Dave, start or sit? I think you don't have a choice. I think until there's further evidence that suggests that he's going to start losing significant work to Snell and to McFarland, I think you keep rolling with him. He played almost every single red zone snap for the Steelers against the Bengals two games ago. And he didn't play the one red zone snap the Steelers had against the Jaguars in week number 11. It was Benny Snell at the goal line.

I'd have to go back and watch to see what the circumstance was. Did Connor have a big run that led up to it? No, it was the Deontay Johnson. It was Deontay Johnson almost touchdown, I believe. And so then they went to Snell right after that? Yeah, they went to Snell. Who was the running back on the field for the Deontay play?

I don't know, but I mean, it wasn't like they were hurrying up, I don't think. I'm not looking that much into it. It was Snell, and it's been Snell at other times, too. You know, all right, so you do have options, though.

I mean, you do have Wayne Gallman and Giovanni Bernard and Duke Johnson and all these running backs and JD McKissick and PPR and Savan Ahmed and maybe Kalen Balazs. It's the year of the zero RB, basically. You have a lot of options. No, the problem with Ahmed and Balazs

is that we don't fully know Gaskin and Eckler, and we may not by Thursday. If you told me for sure that Austin Eckler was not playing, I would start Kalen Balazs over James Conner happily. If you told me for sure that Austin Eckler was not playing, I would start Kalen Balazs over James Conner happily. If you told me for sure that Myles Gaskin was out, I would start Sivan Ahmed over James Conner pretty happily. I'm

starting JD McKissick over Conner in full PPR. Oh, okay. That's risky. You are. Interesting. All right. Well, that's our next game. So actually, I think that's our last game. And Eric Ebron is a start. He's top 10

in full PPR. He's top 12 in non-PPR. He's a touchdown in three of his last four games. Good luck finding a tight end who can move and shake like this. I don't know if you know that reference, but good luck finding a tight end who's as involved as Eric Ebron.

Alright, Houston at Detroit. These two teams, stat of the game, these two teams allow the most fantasy points to running backs. So if DeAndre Swift plays, I'm sure we're going to love him. If he doesn't play, are you starting any running back in this game?

Duke would be my favorite of the three. I'll admit that much. And I thought carry on, A, looked better than Adrian Peterson last week. And B clearly was there playing from behind back. He played the entire fourth quarter and almost all of the third quarter. And Adrian Peterson, just running downs guy, first down,

second down. That's him. Goal line. It's going to be Adrian Peterson. Although it hasn't always been Adrian Peterson. I think both the Johnsons would be high-end flexes if Swift was out.

Okay. I don't know. I think right now you should probably plan on Swift being out. He has to clear the concussion protocol. He did have a limited practice on Tuesday. Right, but it doesn't really matter. He did get back on the field, but he still obviously has to pass the concussion protocol. Right. To go doesn't really matter. He did get back on the field, but he still obviously has to pass the concussion protocol.

Right. So to go to the Texans, by the way, this is such an easier matchup than what the Lions have usually been getting. The last four years, they've had the Vikings twice and the Bears twice.

Two of those four years, that was the number one defense in football. The other two, they were top six. So a little bit of a breather now for Matthew Stafford and the Lions. But Watson's top five. Duke's they were top six. So a little bit of a breather now for Matthew Stafford and the Lions. But Watson's top five. Duke's outside the top 24, but inside the top 30. And then Cooks and Fuller are just must starts, right?

Yeah. Start them. Do you want to hear the argument for Duke Johnson? Sure. The Lions have allowed 11 running backs to have at least 15 touches against them 10 of the 11 have had at least 10 non PPR fantasy points 9 of the 11 have had at least 15

PPR points Kenyon Drake is like the only running back that had the work and didn't come through against the Detroit Lions and it was way earlier this year and the other argument is Mike Davis's game log the month before he faced the lions yeah but right but mike davis wasn't even good he did score though that's

the thing right like do you need i think that's what duke needs is the short yardage touchdown well i mean he he had 9.9 ppr points without the touchdown. So that's not good, but that's right in the number 25 running range. Fair. I agree with that. Okay. Yeah. I will say this though. Like in their last six games,

running backs are averaging 4.08 yards per carry against the lions. The truth is their run defense has actually gotten better. They're still just giving up a ton of scores though. I am like like this is not a joke but this is the second time that somebody like we've been over four yards per carry now and talked about how it's not good no it's not that good 4.08 good in ypc now all right well i'll tell you what i will look right now at the running back defense i'm not not. No, no, no. I am not either. I'm going to look this up because 4.08 to me

sounds like it's probably somewhere around 12th in terms of defensively. And you would want a running back that's going to get you 20 carries and you'd be satisfied with a 4.08 YPC. No, you want somebody

that's a little bit more efficient for that. I am a genius. It's right on 12. So, yeah, I'm looking at the running back defense. The defense is against running backs. And if you sort by yards per carry allowed, 4.08 would be 12. Exactly.

So that's not bad, but they're still giving up a ton of touchdowns. Okay, that's the argument for it. Will Fuller and Brandon Cooks are must-starts. Are they both better than all of the Steelers? Yes. Yeah. Would you take a chance on Jordan Aikens given the injuries to the wideouts?

Only if you're desperately streaming a tight end. Sit Matthew Stafford, I assume? Unless Galladay's back. Okay. If Galladay's back. You shouldn't have to start him. You shouldn't feel good. You shouldn't feel good about starting Matthew Stafford this week, unless he's got Galladay. Okay, right. If Galladay's back, though,

I think Stafford might be a top 10 quarterback. I'd feel a lot better putting him ahead of Roethlisberger if he's got Galladay. But Galladay was limited on Monday and then didn't even, or on Monday rather, and then didn't even go on Tuesday. So we'll see. We'll

see on Kenny G, but it didn't look like the thumb bothered him at all. Oh, for Stafford? He had four drop passes. Yes, for Stafford. The botch snap had nothing to do with his thumb. He had four drop passes in the game. He threw behind a receiver or two a couple of times.

But like the flea flicker, it's not a flea flicker. The lateral touchdown play that he had to Marvin Jones. Great ball there. Downfield throw to Jamal Agnew that Agnew dropped. Great ball there. So I think he's fine. He needs Gallaudet. Uh-oh, what do we got?

Wondering how much does Doug Marone hate Gardner Minshew? We just found out. Tom Pelissero says Jacksonville, the Jaguars plan to start veteran QB, Mike Glennon on Sunday against the Browns. Let's get back to the lions game to a team that matters with the text. I don't know. The Lions.

Yeah, and the Texans. Marvin Jones. Would you start Marvin coming off, you know, kind of a bad game, but still four for 51 on six targets in a game where Matthew Stafford really struggled.

Would you start Marvin Jones over a Steelers wide receiver? I would strongly consider starting him over Deontay Johnson. Certainly in non-PPR, maybe in half PPR. He should have had a touchdown last week. He drew a penalty on that play for illegal formation. And if he had, he would have had a touchdown in four straight games.

He would have had at least 13 PPR points in five straight games. He would have had double-digit non-PPR points in four straight games. Yeah, yeah. And Houston's 26 against wide receivers. I do think, though, that those bars that we were talking about with Marvin Jones related to the fact that he was scoring it. If you need a touchdown every week to score double-digit fantasy points, then you're not getting very many.

He has one game with more than 51 yards in that four-game stretch we were talking about. I would start him over Juju in non-PPR, but I don't want to start him over any of the Steelers in full PPR. How about like Jamison Crowder or Marvin Jones? I'd go Jones. I think I'd go Crowder.

I would go Jones if Galladay is out. Yeah, everything I said about Marvin Jones is with Galladay out. It's a huge downgrade if Galladay plays. You'd assume based on what's happened this year. And the Texans DST. And I like Jones in DFS. He's a good DFS play this week. Texans DST 13th for Dave and Jamie, 21st for Heath.

So not a top 12 DST Washington at Dallas. That of the game, the Cowboys allow the fewest receiving yards per game to running backs. I've been talking about this for like five weeks, but now I looked into why quite simply, they have the fewest running back targets against them per game. But they also are good. I mean,

they allow the fewest yards per catch to running backs. They are terrible against wide receivers. I think that's kind of what it boils down to. They give up the third most yards per catch to wide receivers, but they're great against running backs. Anyway, Heath, you said you'd start JD McKissick over Gus Edwards in full PPR. I do believe you guys have pretty different rankings for JD McKissick. Antonio Gibson is a must-start guy. He's top 12, top 15 for Dave in non-PPR, but top 12 in PPR. As far as McKissick goes, though, Heath,

you're the high guy on him. You've got him 16th in PPR, Dave 25th, Jamie 30th. Discuss. Yeah, I don't. Last week, the Washington football team had a much better game script for running the ball and not throwing it quite as much and

McKissick only saw four targets but I still think he's gonna be the second in terms of the pecking order with Alex Smith and the number of times that he lines up as a wide receiver makes me less concerned about the Dallas performance versus pass catching running backs. But how often does he do that? Like the percentage of times? Yeah. How often does he line up in the slot or out wide? Do you have that number? I can get it for you. I mean,

I know Jacob Gibbs told us last week on the podcast how often, but I don't have the up-to-date. Right. Well, so here's the thing. So two weeks ago, Alex Smith threw like 50 times and last week, I think heto-date number. Right, well, so here's the thing. So two weeks ago, Alex Smith threw like 50 times, and last week I think he threw like 25 times. Right. So that's going to skew those stats as well.

And the only thing I'll say about McKissick is that he did have a terrible game against the Cowboys. That's been his only terrible game in this solid stretch. Last week wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. But what was the reason why he had a terrible game? Because Antonio Gibson ran all over them. Gibson had 20 carries in that game. And the Cowboys didn't put up a fight.

And there is a correlation between Washington victories and Washington defeats with J.D. McKissick. That's pretty predictable. And it's inflated in Alex Smith's starts. So if you think this is a game that Washington's going to lose, you'll want to start J.D. McKissick. And they are three-point underdogs. But I don't know that they're for sure going to lose.

It could also be – I don't think it's going to be a game where Washington builds a 10-point lead after halftime. Right. And you could just say you think the spread's wrong, but as a rule, if I'm going to lean one direction or other i'm going to lean the direction towards where the spread's been set totally fine totally understandable i i think it's either going to be a competitive game or a game where washington's trailing both of those game scripts would favor jd mckissick mckissick lined up as a receiver either either slot or out wide, on 20 of 32

snaps last week and on 28 of 62 snaps in week 10. Bottom line is that they need him when they're trailing. When they're winning, they don't need him. Yeah, that's a great point. Okay, so McLaurin is a must start. Are you interested in any

Sims? Dallas allows the second most fantasy points to wide receivers. It's the Sims. No. I used to enjoy the Sims quite a bit. Did you do the cheat code when you played? Of course. Yeah, listen to the way he filled out his Thanksgiving

dinner. Of course he did. I've never played the Sims. It seemed really boring. You don't want to build a city? McLaurin's going to be huge. Definitely, if I had the choice between playing the Sims for half an hour or watching the Simpsons, I would play the Sims. Oh, no.

How long? We disagree. I mean, of all the things that we've disagreed on in the last however many years you've been here, I've never been more irate than I am right now. What an insult. Logan Thomas or Dalton Schultz, you jerk. Adam offended as if he created the Simpsons.

Schultz for Heath. Yeah, Schultz. I'm surprised Logan Thomas is not even close to your top 10, top 12, I guess. Well, it's kind of close, but for Heath, he'm surprised Logan Thomas is not even close to your top 12. Well, it's kind of close, but for Heath, he's 20th. You guys aren't really feeling it with Logan Thomas. Okay. Dalton and

Alex Smith are outside the top 20, but if you had to pick one, who would it be, Dalton or Smith? I believe I have Dalton ranked higher. I think I have Dalton ranked higher as well. It's not an area of my rankings I've paid a lot of attention to. Yes, Dalton is currently higher. Zeke is top six in both formats, coming off a game with 23 touches. And in three Thanksgiving games, he missed one Thanksgiving game.

But in three of them, he has 120 or more total yards in each game. And three total touchdowns. So that is beautiful. The line did a much better job last week. And then they get to the wide receivers. So how about this? JD McKissick, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, PPR, how do you rank them? Cooper

Lamb McKissick. Cooper is the easy part. Yeah, Cooper Lamb McKissick, I still take both of them over McKissick. Cooper is the easy part. Yeah, Cooper, Lam, McKissick. I take both of them over McKissick. McLaurin over the group. So McLaurin, Cooper, Lam, McKissick. Heath, how many yards do you have Marty Cooper projected for and why isn't it 70?

No, why isn't it 80? It's not 80 because he's going to score a touchdown. Okay. Well because he's going to score a touchdown. Okay. Well, he's had 79, 80, and 81 yards in three games with Andy Dalton. So probably should be 80. I've got him projected for 67 yards. All right.

Should be 80. And that's it. Dalton Schultz is top 12 for Dave and Jamie and for PPR and PPR for Heath too. I mean, he's getting a lot of targets. Three straight games with six to eight targets and four to six catches. That's really pretty good.

And he's 40% rostered. So Washington has been a lot better against tight ends. But you do, you know, hopefully get some catches here. And the Washington DST is in play for Jamie and Heath. Not so much for Dave.

And that's that game. And we'll finish up with your questions. All right, from Apple Podcast here, from Northwood20, I'm currently in fifth place in my league, same record as the fourth place team. I beat him in our head-to-head matchup, but he's currently in the playoffs

because our tiebreaker is most points. What is the best tiebreaker, head-to-head matchup or most points? Most points for sure. Yeah, most points. Sorry, the best tiebreaker? Head-to-head matchup or most points? Most points for sure. Yeah, most points. Sorry. Sorry, Northwood20. From Tyler,

Dear Jay, Aaron, Teddy, and Matt, those are quarterbacks? Jay Cutler, Aaron Rodgers, Teddy Bridgewater, and Matt Stafford. So they're NFC North quarterbacks from a year at some point in the past.

Okay. How much luck do you guys believe is in fantasy football? I'm fourth in scoring, but second in points against, so I'm four and seven. A lot? Yeah.

Sure. A whole lot? Like this year, probably more than ever. There's an obvious skill in picking good football players, but you have zero control over what happens to those players on your team or the players on the other team that you're facing. And this is a perfect example of it.

I will say, and this will maybe make it be booed off the podcast. I'm in a dynasty best ball league for the first time this year. And best ball does take a little bit of the luck out of it. Yeah. If one of your players gets hurt in the middle of a game, that doesn't hurt you. Also, yeah, if you want to make sure, and Heath I know does this as commish,

if you want to make sure that at least one of your playoff spots is going to the team that scores the most points, maybe even two, maybe the top two point scores are guaranteed to get in. That helps as well. From Nats FC, should I trade Will Fuller for James Robinson? Sure. Yes. He's kind of better

at running back, though, than wide receiver. He has CEH, Gibson, and Carson, and he has Kup, Michael Thomas, and Ayuk. So, I don't know. Fuller for Robinson. Kup, Michael Thomas, and Ayuk are his top't know. Fuller for Robinson. Cup, Michael, Thomas and Iuke are his top three receivers.

That's, yeah, that's more questionable. But man, it's such a, it's an upgrade for the roster. Just in a vacuum.

Yeah. Robinson carries more value. Yeah. Cool. I apologize to our emailers. I thought I would be able to get to your questions.

I was not able to. Very sorry about that. Thank you though so much for sending them. And of course, we have the mailbag show on Saturday. So enjoy your Thanksgiving. We'll of course have our regular... Thanksgiving, you turkeys. We'll have our regular programming. We're very thankful for you guys, which I'll tell you all about tomorrow on our real Thanksgiving show. And thanks to Heath, Ben, and Dave. I'm Adam. Talk to you tomorrow.