Fantasy Football Today - Top 12 QBs for 2024; Weekend DFS Help! (01/11 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

CHECK OUT OUR TOP 12 QBs HERE: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/fantasy-football-today-early-2024-season-rankings-top-12-quarterbacks-from-the-fft-team/ To display your continued support of the show, please vote for Fantasy Football Today in the Sports Podcast Awards in the "Best Fantasy Betting and Gaming Podcast" Category https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/fantasy-betting-gaming-sports-podcast/ Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts Big news to start the show (1:25) as Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick and even Nick Saban are either retiring or looking for new jobs. What is the Fantasy impact? And what will the Bears do with the #1 pick? We also give you injury updates for the Wild Card games ... Looking at our Top 12 quarterbacks for 2024, we start with a general discussion about the position (13:00) and how the depth at QB impacted our rankings. Then we get into the rankings debates (24:00) on Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy, Justin Herbert and more. And we've got a bonus Fantasy Cops for you (44:15)! ... If you're setting a DFS lineup this weekend, we'll tell you who we like (47:50) and who we have in our lineups (55:00). Rachaad White, the Rams passing game, the Bucs wide receivers, Amari Cooper, Josh Reynolds and more are discussed ... Your emails at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It's NFL playoff time and still fantasy time. We actually did a draft a couple of days ago, sort of our own little playoff challenge draft. For some reason, Jamie made us draft two kickers and two DSTs. That was pretty cool. Not cool. Not cool, cool.

There's an R in there. Anyway. All right. Here's no comment. No comment, folks. Welcome to the show. We're also going to talk about our top 12 quarterbacks for 2024 and the controversial decisions we made there.

Who is number one? It's probably going to be Josh Allen, right? Where's Patrick Mahomes? Where's Lamar Jackson? Where's Dak Prescott? Where's Brock Purdy? Is he even in the top 12? Is Tua in the top 12?

Where's CJ Stroud? Well, I'll tell you where he is. He's in Houston getting ready for the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, the first playoff game, 4.30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. Miami, Kansas City, Saturday night. Three games on Sunday. Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Green Bay, Dallas. Rams at Lions. And Monday,

the Eagles are at Tampa Bay. Alright, guys. Anybody retiring? Anybody want to get that out of the way? I know we had some of the most longest-tenured, greatest coaches ever out this week. You guys are still here, right? Yeah.

You can make a case. Two of the coaches that would be on the Mount Rushmore of coaches, forget about level, have stepped away from their teams in the last 24 hours. And I have stepped away from the stream. There we go. I'm back. Yeah, it's crazy. And Pete Carroll is no slouch.

He's not on Mount Rushmore, but there's like another mountain, not far by, not far away that he's on. He might have been on there if he just ran the ball. Yeah. Well. I mean, what he did in college and pro. Exactly. I mean, what he did in college and pro exactly i mean what he did at usc was was really

remarkable so um sounds like he wants to coach again though yeah oh yeah it does not sound like he really wanted to be put into an advisor role with the seahawks i was going to ask how many of these three guys belichick saban car Carroll will coach again in 2024. One. Yeah, that's what I think. One. Belichick, I assume. I think Saban's done.

Sounds like he's not going to the NFL again. And based on everything you've heard over the last 24 hours, the NIL stuff and the transfer portal kind of maybe decided this for him a little bit sooner than maybe he wanted to or made the decision easier for him. Belichick, I would imagine, is either going to be in Los Angeles, maybe Carolina. Who knows? One of those two spots.

Not Washington. Do not expect him to be in Washington. Okay. I would be surprised if that happens, but it could. But yeah, You have some fun landing spots for him. I just hope that they'd let him coach and just not make personnel decisions. Make him coach

and not let him make personnel decisions. Thanks, but no, we're good. Any fantasy thoughts here? I feel like more relevant that Pete Carroll's gone than Bill Belichick, mostly because we were bracing for that. Sure.

Yeah, what do you think, Dave? I mean, everything's up for grabs in Seattle and New England, and what you knew about those teams before might not be there moving forward because we know that Pete Carroll loved balance, loved running the football, loved a specific type of running back. I'm assuming that they won't be too far off from that, but it depends on how they reshape the entire coaching staff and who the next head coach is.

And will Pete Carroll have a hand in picking that next head coach? I just don't know. The fact that Carroll didn't seem thrilled with this news makes me unsure what that direction will be and then I really still don't know what's going to happen in New England but they better go in a different direction offensively than what they've been in since basically 2020 so hopefully uh hopefully things are better there and then they make some good coaching hires there we'll just have to wait and see New England clearly has the, the, the chance to hit

the reset button because of, you know, how Belichick's established that culture, which clearly has been very successful during his tenure, but there's not a lot of pieces in place and they're going to get a new quarterback, you know, so there's going to be a lot of change in New England, whether Belichick was going to be there or not. And so it's just a matter of, it could be one of his disciples, whether it's Mike Rabel or Mayo, you know, as, as the two, I think most likely names that you'll hear unless they just go outside the family tree. Um, or, you know, somebody that just completely changes everything that's been established in, in new England for the last 24 years for the Seahawks. They're kind of stuck unless they replace Gino, you know, because they're not bringing in more running backs.

They're not probably turning over the receiving court tremendously. So what you see is what you get, but they could move on from Geno, who we know signed, you know, a team friendly deal last season. And so he may not be replaced this year, but certainly by 2025, they may have a new quarterback in place and they may find a successor this season if you know things work out well for them in the draft or they decide to move up you know john schneider certainly been aggressive at times as a general manager there so we could see that change uh for the seahawks if there is you know somebody that comes in and says you know what i like gino but i don't love him and we need to find a younger guy that's going to take us into the next iteration or whatever our team looks like. So Seahawks probably look the same.

New England looks probably dramatically different, unless, of course, just, you know, same philosophical design by somebody that's, you know, familiar with what Belichick did. They can move on from Gino and save a ton of money. He's got almost a $10 million roster bonus due on March 20th. If he's a post-June first cut, it saves them over $22 million on the cap. So I would imagine that, you know, the odds are not great that he will be there next year. Well, why though? He's good enough. It's not easy to

find. You can't just find a guy that's going to play as well as Gino Smith has played. Not that he was amazing this year, but he was good enough. Certainly. Uh, I think if they get rid of Gino, there's a good chance they're taking a step back at quarterback. Why would you want to do that? If you're a new head coach? Well, you know, unless, unlessino, there's a good chance they're taking a step back at quarterback. Why would you want to do that if you're a new head coach? Well, you know, unless, unless of course there's an aggressive move in the draft to go up and get somebody that, you know, that they, that they feel like they like. And, and, and clearly there's, you know, the logical one would be based on cost. The guy that's been in their backyard, you know, if they really like Pennix, you know,

he's going to be the fourth of the, of the top four, most likely. So that's not something I think that you have to be super aggressive to go get, you know, he's going to be the fourth of the, of the top four, most likely. So that's not something I think that you have to be super aggressive to go get, you know, maybe gets you into the middle of the first round and you can go draft him. But I don't know. I mean, you got to figure out who's going to be the play caller there. And is the, is the philosophy, okay, yes, we can go still win now with this team, or do we want to sort of try and compete in a year, you know, and, and again, start things over.

I don't think that's the mentality though. If you're taking the Seattle job, because Seattle does have an opportunity to be competitive with a few things that they tweak. Right. So I don't know why you'd get rid of Gino. I don't see them moving on from Gino this season. I think 2025 is the opportunity to move on from Gino. If he restructures his contract,

he can stay and be the bridge quarterback that they need. All right. And perhaps more fantasy relevant note here, GM Ryan polls of the Chicago bears. Remember yesterday, we told you they got rid of their offensive coordinator, but he was asked about drafting a quarterback and he said he'd have to be blown away by a quarterback to move on from Justin Fields, but it's very possible that he will be blown away by a quarterback. So this is the really a huge decision here that will have major implications for, um, for multiple players in terms of fantasy football is what the bears do with the number one overall pick.

Meanwhile, what are we going to do on today? Everything that they've done suggests it's run it back. They haven't done that much. I mean, well, keeping Iberflues kind of suggests run it back, but haven't done that much. I mean, well, keeping Iberflues kind of suggests run it back, but they got rid of the offensive coordinator.

They got rid of the quarterback's coach. So they're going to bring in another new offense. This is going to be, I think it's fields third, new offense in his career. And he's only been in the NFL for just a handful of years. I don't know if he's a lock to, to be there.

Maybe we'll see. Well, he's not a lock. I mean, that's know if he's a lock to, to be there. Maybe we'll see. he's not a lock. I mean, that's clear. He's not like it's, it's a guessing game and it's really exciting and it's fun. Yeah. It's,

it's fun from a dynasty standpoint. You know, it's what happens with these guys. We could link the two teams that we just talked about. Maybe Seattle makes a play for fields. Every indication is that Fields will not cost a first-round pick to acquire. So that's almost exactly the type of quarterback

that John Schneider should go after in Seattle. Well, you know who has the Seahawks' second-round pick? The team that gave them Leonard Williams. Yes, that's true. They could always give seconds in 2025. Let's move on. Well, I'm saying, who's got more capital right now? Who's getting, we're getting them.

We're getting them. Caleb Williams, let's go. All right. Which team that you love? Still the Giants. Okay. DeVito ruined that for you. You could have been in the top five.

I'd say Tyrod ruined that too. But, I mean, Arizona and the Chargers aren't drafting quarterbacks. Doesn't seem like. Anyway, let's see. Okay, let's do some notes for this weekend and the games coming up. We're going to give you our DFS advice later in the show after we talk about our top 12 quarterbacks for 2024. Of course, that will change throughout the offseason. Sam Laporta and Kalief Raymond mispractice for the Lions hosting the Rams

this weekend. Amari Cooper has not practiced, but he says he will play. He says he's fine. Cleveland safety Grant Delpit is eligible to return from IR. That would be a nice boost for them at Houston. Houston, meanwhile, their defensive line is beat up. You should expect Will Anderson to play. He plays through his ankle injury, but they do have some injuries there. Jimmy Ward's on IR, so Houston defensively, not exactly what they've been for most of the season.

Jalen Waddell and Raheem Mostert were limited, but defensive back Xavier Howard, Javon Holland, and Deshaun Elliott for the Dolphins, they were all out. Not sure they're going to play this week at Kansas City. It's going to be tough. Philadelphia wide receivers, we don't have an update on them.

Their first practice is today as they have the Monday game at Tampa Bay. Gabe Davis missed practice. Pittsburgh should have both of their starting safeties back this week, which will be nice. Of course, a lot of wide receivers limited for the Packers, Christian Watson and Romeo Dobbs. Dobbs actually left week 18 with a chest injury, but Watson and Dobbs both limited. Luke Musgrave also limited for Green Bay. A.J. Dillon may not play. He's got that thumb injury. Jonathan Hankins, Dallas defensive tackle. We always talk about him. He's their best run stuffer.

He was limited. It's good that he was able to get a limited practice in. Dallas offensive lineman Tyler Smith, also limited. Jarek McKinnon, doubtful to return in the playoffs, according to Chiefs Digest. And John Harbaugh said that Dalvin Cook is potentially a very valuable weapon for the Ravens offense. All right, we'll see. I already saw some people said they voted,

so I want to thank you for that. I'm going to make this quick. Go to sportspodcastawards.com. Click vote now. Best fantasy betting and gaming category and vote for fantasy football today. You have two more weeks, please, to vote for us. Tell your friends to vote for us. We want to win this thing and it is entirely up to you, our audience. Sportspodcastawards.com. Click vote now. Best fantasy betting and gaming podcast. Links are in the episode description and also the QR code on YouTube. We'll be right back with a look at our top 12 quarterbacks for 2024. Miller Lite, the light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect

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Life's full of choices. Smart water is a simple one. All right, folks, let's do it. Top 12 quarterbacks for 2024. What's your most controversial ranking, whether it's someone in the top 24, out of the top 12, out of the top 12?

Saying like top 24 for 2024, it's going to get very confusing for me. I can already see that. But top 12 quarterbacks. Dave, what's your most controversial ranking? I don't know if I've got a controversial ranking. Is Joe Burrow at five controversial? Is Anthony Richardson at 10 controversial? Justin Fields at 12

controversial I don't know I don't know if there's really no for its fields anything controversial there that's okay so average just over 20 fantasy points per game this past year we don't know where he's going to play or who it'll be with or what his upside will be there are so many other quarterbacks who I think have much more upside that Fields just kept falling further and further down my quarterback rankings. Okay. Jamie, what's your most controversial? It's probably twofold. One, Herbert at 12, just the uncertainty of what the receiving core is

and who the coach is going to be. So that can certainly change over the next couple of months. And then not having Kyler Murray in the top 12. It feels like he's got the upside to be even a top five guy if they can maybe bring in another piece at the wide receiver position. But, you know, he did some nice things coming back. Four of his eight games over 22 points following the ACL tear. And, you know, year two is typically better for, you know, most players.

You know, quarterbacks usually bounce back a little bit sooner, but in any event, he's somebody that I would not mind drafting as a starter. Did you find that there were too many quarterbacks that you'd be okay with starting and that putting – you can't cram 17 guys in your top 12, but I've got five names outside of my top 12, and I don't mind waiting for any one of them or two of them on draft day. I'm already going back to that type of strategy of just waiting on quarterback and then collecting

two of them, especially if one of them is Kyler. Yeah, I don't know if there's five. I mean, I'd like to see what Aaron Rodgers Kirk cousins look like, you know, based on their health and, you know, in the case of Rogers, you know, receiving core and offensive line, I would like to see,

you know, uh, what kind of shape Stafford comes back in, you know, after the way that he looked this season and hopefully as good as he finished, you know, so we'll see how the playoff run goes,

but, um, the, really the one that's going to be fun to rank, maybe a couple of them is going to be the rookies, but Caleb Williams, you know, so he's got the potential to have a CJ Stroud type of rookie impact.

And I think a lot of people might get overexcited about him, you know, maybe like to the same effect that we did with Anthony Richardson last year, you know, where he, he gets drafted that way. But I think to your point, Dave,

if you, if you do take a quarterback that has some risks, there is plenty of good, safe fallback options. And we say it every year, there's going to be one or two guys that come outside of the top 12 that have the ability to be weekly starters. And we saw that with five guys this season.

You know, so there's no reason to to reach for the position no agreed well we were not saying that last year i mean well we were saying some of that but we we were definitely saying that last year felt like the year to be more aggressive at quarterback and it didn't it didn't work at least i think that's what the general consensus was i don't want to speak it was definitely the general consensus you know i mean i want to speak for you guys. It was definitely the general consensus. You know, I mean, I felt like, I still felt like I wanted to wait. And for the most part, I did. But it's, I think this year just kind of shows you, like, and the depth of the position,

you know, yes, you could say the depth was sort of tested last year as well by who was, you know, missing based on how things were drafted. But, I mean, Dak Prescott was the based on how things were drafted. But I mean, Dak Prescott was the 12th quarterback off the board. Yeah. Brock Purdy and Jordan love were in their twenties based on ADP.

Yeah. And, and for legitimate concerns, you know, I'm not saying that we were, we were wrong to not promote those guys last year. Purdy was coming off elbow surgery. Jordan love was stepping into the first time starter with what we thought was a very, you know, young and incomplete receiving core, you know, with what was what was available to him.

And those two guys were stars. And then nobody saw C.J. Stroud doing this to this level. You know, I mean, it just doesn't typically happen for rookie quarterback. So there are certainly reasons why the position got a little bit more robust, but at the same time, it's like, you know, it, it sort of fell into a perfect storm. The three guys at the top didn't necessarily have dominant seasons. They were certainly in two of them were good in Hertz and Allen, uh, my home's falling off is, is a big part of this, but you know, it's really just those guys not having dominant seasons and, and these other guys just coming out of nowhere, especially at their youth, you know? So there's, there's, there's, I think reason for hope and reason for it. Right. You can make the case for all the quarterbacks that underwhelmed and you've

got all these other quarterbacks that showed why they have upside. I remember thinking about drafting quarterbacks at a fair value. I didn't want to reach, didn't want to prioritize, but if there was one that was there at a fair value, like Josh Allen in round three last year, or Mahomes in round three, let's make the worst quarterback of them. If he was around in round three, I would have taken him then. Right, but you're saying that in your drafts, and that includes our drafts. Sure.

And so that doesn't happen in most people's drafts based on how average drafts are. It's true. And in most people's drafts, Mahomes and Allen and Hertz went earlier than I was comfortable taking them because I knew that there were receivers, running backs, and Kelsey who I would take ahead of those guys because I knew that even though those guys, like we assume that those three would have like monster type years,

28 PPR or 28 fantasy points per game. Look have monster-type years, 28 fantasy points per game. Look at me saying PPR. 28 fantasy points per game, that type of ceiling. But there were still so many other quarterbacks that you could look at and say, all right, that guy could get you 20 to 22 fantasy points per game, and they'd be all right. And it turned out that all three of those quarterbacks fell below. No quarterback had 28 fantasy points per game. Josh Allen is the only one that averaged north of 25.

So every great quarterback kind of took a step back, and then a lot of quarterbacks surprised. And that's kind of the wonder of fantasy football is the surprises and certainly a quarterback too. And so now I think it's twofold. We need to do a really good job of highlighting the quarterbacks that we think have huge upside. Kyler is definitely a candidate for that. And then of the quarterbacks that we've got ranked top 10, top 12, who are the ones that have the, the, you know, the traps that are going to hurt us and be duds this year. And so

that's what we're going to have to work on over the next couple of months. And I'm saying that straight face knowing Anthony Richardson is one of those trap guys could absolutely be a total dud. Stroud could be a trap guy too, where he regresses back. We can make that case for a lot of quarterbacks. I'm going to, I'm going to guess that based on how last season unfolded, Richardson is not going to be drafted as a number one quarterback. He wasn't last year.

So coming off an injury riddled season, he's probably going to be drafted as a number one quarterback. He wasn't last year. So coming off an injury riddled season, he's probably going to be one of those guys that's outside the top 12. That being said, two guys that were drafted based on ADP inside the top 12 were Aaron Rogers and Kirk cousins. Now, you know, that has somewhat to do with projections because of how people look in draft

rooms. And, you know, the, the novice player typically tends to say, okay, this guy's being projected or ranked in a certain way. I must be missing something or someone's telling me to take them for people that don't play this game very much.

Now, our audience is not necessarily like that. But I think the thing that you'll find with quarterbacks this year, and I know for me, i play in a lot of leagues so i try to do a variety of different strategies with this and it actually the my my most expensive league um i had the first overall pick the on the turn the best available player based on my rankings last year which is where i had the quarterbacks ranked which was like 25 26 uh was my homes and so, uh, was my homes. And so I ended up with my homes.

He was the first quarterback off the board. He was my number one quarterback last year. And so it luckily worked out. I ended up winning the league in spite of my homes. Thank you, Karen Williams. Um, but,

uh, I had a league with Hertz. I had a league with Alan and then everything else for me was, you know, kind of to your point, Dave, I think, but more realistic to,

I think we're what people were drafting, um, of, of taking advantage of the best value on the board, which at that point was probably quarterbacks. A lot of Joe Burrow and thankfully replacing him with Brock Purdy or Dak Prescott. A lot of Justin Fields. You know, those were probably my two most rostered quarterbacks across the board. But I think that's the approach is, you know, whenever you see something and you sort of, you know, mentioned this earlier this week, Adam, about, you know,

having the quarterbacks in your top 24, that if you don't love the player values that are there, there's probably a quarterback that can save you in essence from making a mistake in your, in your draft. And so does that open the door to being, let me start over, does that make you more open to taking two quarterbacks, assuming that one of the quarterbacks is not Allen,

Hertz, Lamar? Oh, yeah. I think you got to know your league. You really have to know your league. If your league is going to take two quarterbacks, like we've drafted enough with each other over the years, in the draft that we just did. And I think I referenced yesterday. I knew that there were three quarterbacks that I liked that were still on the board. And that was CJ Stroud, Jordan love

and Kyler Murray. This was in round. What this was in starting in round eight or nine. Okay. And so I looked at the draft board. I saw that there was one other person that didn't have a quarterback at that point. And that was Chris Towers, who was picking on the end. And he, okay, here's what's going to happen. If I don't do it here, I know Adam at least is going to probably start to consider a second quarterback. And that's exactly what happened. Because again, I know how he drafts. So I knew he was going to consider it.

You don't know who I draft. Huh? You don't know who I draft. I? You don't know who I draft. I know how you draft. I'm just kidding. So I knew that there was the possibility of him taking a quarterback, and so he did, and he took C.J. Stroud. Damn right.

And so – Huh? Damn right I took C.J. Stroud. I was very happy. Right, and it was a quality draft pick for for you uh in your mind um and then it came back uh around and i'm like and this was i still don't have a tight end at this point and i thought okay i'll probably get one of purdy or or love or kyler uh i'm sorry the four quarterbacks i should have said um and so evan engelman was on the board took tight end

and then i it worked out well, Chris took Purdy and I ended up with Jordan Love and I was thrilled with that absolutely thrilled, he's a top 10 quarterback so is that more about knowing who you're drafting with or knowing who's left on the board that you'd be happy to have fall to you if you had all those quarterbacks it's both, it's absolutely both

I agree, we're basically doing a position preview right now, I really need to get into the rankings, we haven't unveiled any rankings yet. So I just want to focus on that a little bit here. So let's go. Give me your top three quarterbacks. Jamie, go ahead. Same as last year.

Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes. Different order, though. Different order. Josh Allen, Hurts, Mahomes. That's my top three also. Dave? I've got Lamar in my top three. Allen hurts Lamar.

Oh, I'm sorry. I have Lamar ahead of most. All right. But we all have, okay. Then we all have the same top four. Then Dave,

you have almost four. I have my homes at four. I put my homes ahead of Jackson. Six point per pass. This is six point per passing touchdown. You know, four point, probably Jackson ahead of my homes.

It's weird. It's PBR. Yeah. Dave. Also that will clearly change if they add a receiver. It's PBR. Yeah, Dave. Also, I just, the last time was two years ago when Tyreek Hill left for the Dolphins and Mahomes, I think, was QB4 in ADP. And it was a big mistake. We were, everyone, the community, the fantasy

was too low on Patrick Mahomes. So I don't love doubting him. All right. So Alan Hurts, Jackson, Mahomes, or Alan Hurts, Mahomes, Jackson. Who's five and six, Jamie? I should probably look, so I'll make sure I get it right. Five is Dak.

Six is Burrow. Dave? Burrow is five. And I currently have Herbert at six, working under the assumption that his receiving core will be just fine. So everyone has burrow in the top six. I have burrow five. I have Justin field six.

Um, Dave has burrow five, Herbert six. Jamie has burrow six, Dak five. Okay. Seven and eight. Jamie.

Uh, seven is pretty. Seven is Purdy. Eight is Stroud. Purdy. Wow. Okay. Dave, how about you? Seven and eight.

So I think the biggest difference so far is that I've got Herbert higher than Jamie because my seven and eight are Prescott and Purdy, and then my nine is Stroud. I'll just say I have Kyler seven and Stroud eight. I did favor the mobile. Once we got to this point, I was really... I have Tua, Purdy, and Prescott 11, 12, and 13. It's stupid for me to have Prescott 13, so that would change. I'd probably put him 11, and Purdy 12, and Tua 13. So that would change. I'd probably put him 11 and Purdy 12 and Tua 13. But all right. So

seven is seven, eight. One more time. Seven, eight for me was Kyler Stroud. Dave, for you, it was? Seven is Dak. Eight is Purdy. And Jamie? Purdy is seven. Stroud is eight. All right. So you guys both have Stroud and Purdy in your top eight. Nine and ten, Jamie. Nine is Love. Ten is Fields. My nine is Stroud. My ten is Anthony Richardson. My nine is Richardson.

Ten is Herbert for me. You haven't said Herbert yet, have you, Jamie? No, he's 12 for me. Okay. So who's 11 and 12? 11 is Richardson. 12 is Herbert. Dave? Love Fields, he's 12 for me. Okay, so who's 11 and 12? 11 is Richardson, 12 is Herbert. Dave?

Love Fields, 11-12. Where'd you have Richardson, Dave? 10. Okay. Alright, so what stands out to you guys? Oh, you didn't ask me 10. Fields is 10 for me. Oh, Fields is 10. Okay. And Fields is what for you, Dave?

12. Okay. So I was a high guy on field six this has to be so confusing for everybody yeah yeah i know i know where's the consensus right i think our top four there's a story on the side you can see all seven of our rankings so okay just go to cbs wars that's fair consensus in the top four and i think we've got a pretty good consensus of who makes up like six through 12. Five through 12. There's probably good consensus all around. Well, we all have Burrow in our top six.

Yeah. Herbert is the one that I think we're just different on. And I'm more aggressive because I think he'll be okay. It's this. It's Herbert, Fields, and then Purdy and Dak, I'd say, is what the differences are between us. Between you two, it's probably more Herbert and Herbert. Alright, so yeah, Herbert,

I had 10, Jamie, you had Herbert, 12? 12. And Dave, you had him? 6. Go ahead, explain. I can run down Heath's rankings if you just want another one. Honestly, not really, because... He has Herbert at 12 also. All right.

You can just say it. Go ahead. It's just a lot. Go ahead. We have the same top four. Allen, Hertz, Lamar, Mahomes. Wow, geez. I'm the same exact ranking.

We have the same top eight, just different order with seven and eight. So it's Allen, Hertzar mahomes dac burrow stroud is seven for him purdy is eight field is nine richardson's 10 kyler is 11 and herbert is 12 so he does not have uh jordan love in his top 12 yeah uh okay dave why so high on Herbert? Who's running the ball in LA? No idea. Who's catching the ball? Well, so that's obviously a thing. And if they get rid of Keenan Allen, that's the one that really worries me.

Having Mike Williams there, I think that that role can be divvied up into other players, and I would expect them to make an addition at wide receiver. We talked about it earlier this week. Quentin Johnson certainly did not look good in his first year. So it's hard to believe that he'll do a full 180 and be great for them. But he'll be a little better. He'll contribute. Palmer will contribute. They'll have something at tight end that'll contribute.

And I think the wide receiver spot will be good. But Keenan Allen definitely does need to be there. Here's my concern with Herbert is we just went through this with an elite-level quarterback, elite-level passer in Mahomes who had his receiving core completely turned over, essentially, over the last two seasons. He was able to get by with it because Travis Kelsey was unbelievable. At 34, he fell off.

Is Keenan Allen at 32, at that position, going to fall off even more or maybe not play as much and they don't necessarily have a proven guy brought back now they could still stick with Mike Williams but he'll be coming off an ACL term we know he's had a hard time staying healthy for the majority of his career during the last two seasons if Herbert does not get significant help in the in the receiving core he may fall outside of my top 12 so So I just think, again, he's got the ability to be a top three guy. We've seen that. But might lose his pass-catching running back,

who's been so vital to what their offense has been, because Eckler's a free agent. May not have a good complement to Keenan Allen. And again, relying on Allen just to save him. That didn't work this year. It did for the first half of the year. He year. It did for the first half of the year. He just gave me one for the first half of the year. For a few games, it worked out,

but Allen couldn't finish the season and neither could Herbert. And so, you know, I'm just a little concerned until we see who the coach is there. Hopefully it's a good play caller, more so than head coach, and good system. But they got to give him weapons. Sure.

I mean, he averaged just over 25 fantasy points per game in his first seven games. And let's be fair in those seven games, Mike Williams was there. Decent amount. Three games on and off the field. He was there. He's in the mount. Only three games.

The key. And I think Keenan Allen has to be there. And I would imagine that they will restructure him so that they don't have to let him even test for agency. They'll save 20 million by cutting Mike Williams. It makes all the sense in the world with him coming back from a torn ACL, unless he does a massive restructure. And even then it's not going to be like Mike Williams was never like the key.

He was just someone that could help, you know, make some splash plays and he probably won't, he'll be like 70% of himself. I want to bring up something here. You said who's running the ball for them. I want to tell you the teams that had the fewest rushing yards from running backs this season.

Guess who's the worst? Is it the Chargers? Chargers, yeah. Giants were two. Bucks were three. Saints, four. Jaguars, five. Commanders, six. Bengals, seven. Chiefs, eight. were three saints for Jaguars, five commanders,

six Bengals, seven chiefs, eight. Then you get to the Vikings. Didn't really run the ball a lot. I don't think that it's good for a quarterback to have a terrible run game. I think, you know,

you don't want them to have an amazing run game, but because that makes their offense bad when they have a terrible run game. I do like quarterbacks that have solid run games. Like right in the middle, there's a sweet spot. You know, I don't think I want it too great, and I don't think I want it too terrible, personally. Sure, but I like having a quarterback that's going to throw the ball a lot, and I especially like a quarterback that doesn't have a good defense

on the other side, which means he's chasing points a lot. That's usually a good formula to put up some big fantasy numbers, and that formula was basically what Herbert had. Just sounds like a bad team to me. Sounds like a crappy team. Very. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

But this is fantasy. It's not reality. We don't get points for team wins or if they make the playoffs. I don't know. I mean, Mahomes was pretty good with a good team. Say that again? Mahomes was pretty good as a fantasy quarterback with a good team well yeah but no

I just well it's interesting how many great fantasy quarterbacks are there on terrible teams I don't know I'm just asking out loud because you'd be like wow this team is a dumpster fire let's see the top 12 guys just look at the quarterbacks that we've talked about

ranking in our top 12 how many of them are on playoff teams? Here's the top 12 in points per game through week 17. Allen, good team. Flacco, take it for what it's worth. I did a minimum of five games just to put him in there. Prescott, great team. Jalen Hurts, great team. Lamar Jackson, great team. Kirk Cousins, again, they were trending toward a playoff team. Brock Purdy, great team. Kirk Cousins, again, they were trending toward a playoff team. Brock Purdy, great team. Jordan Love, playoff team. C.J. Stroud, playoff team.

Mahomes, playoff team. Herbert, eh. Kyler Murray, small sample size. So, for the most part, you want to be on a great team. You want to be on a playoff team. He's a good team, right. I'll leave it to Adam to see if it was like that in years past. Okay, some other time. Let's talk about Purdy and Dak. And where do you guys have them?

My revised rankings will be Dak 11. I know it won't be published this way. Dak 11, Purdy 12. But where do you guys have them? Dak is five. Purdy is seven. Seven, eight. Lay them straight.

Yeah. I just, I preferred Kyler because I've seen QB one upside from Kyler. And this always, like I said, these are tough exercises. You have to sort of project their roster. I'm projecting Marvin Harrison to be on that team. So,

and if not him Malik neighbors, and that's not, that's not bad either. Yeah. So, so Kyler, I have ahead of him Stroud just looking like this guy, he's got the wide receivers. We like, he was so I have ahead of him. Stroud, just looking like this guy, he's got the wide receivers we like.

He was so damn good as a rookie. So I put Stroud ahead of him. I put Richardson ahead of them. I didn't put Dave Richard ahead of him. I put Herbert ahead of them. And I have Tua for now, but I'll move Tua behind Dak and Brock Purdy. But, Jamie, you're the high guy, especially on Dak. So go ahead.

Yeah. I mean, you know, you saw the second half of the season. We can sit here and say, you know, how great C.D. Lamb was. A big part of that was Dak Prescott and the way he performed. And, you know, I think a lot of people thought, especially the comments from Mike McCarthy this offseason, previous offseason of Kellen Moore, we don't want to be lighting up the scoreboard. They lit up the scoreboard.

And, you know, McCarthy system was, was amazing for Dak Prescott. And so, you know, do they add something else to their receiving core? But, you know, I think just the guys that he has and you could just say, okay, the top two of CD lamb, who's going to be in contention to be the number one wide receiver. He's, he is for three of our seven people who did these rankings top two for everybody else. And Jake Ferguson, you know,

so that's kind of been what's Dak's formula for success, having a top tier wide receiver and a top tight end that he can rely on. And then what are the pieces around that? And so Brandon Cook certainly provided a touchdown element to Dak's game. I think they'll, you know, either bring him back or bring somebody in that can, you know, play at that level, hopefully maybe even a little bit better. And so I just like to set up for him in the offense that he's operating. And then for Purdy, you know, at some point it just has to accept reality that this kid can play and he can play in the system that you want to talk about

having weapons. He has the best weapons of anybody on the table if everyone's healthy. And so two receivers tight end running back system offensive line everything just fell into place for him and it's uh it's a six seven game sample size whatever it was last season at the end of his rookie year uh to the majority of this season he's just been fantastic and so i'm just not going to overlook it anymore and so yes the running quarterbacks probably have more upside you know how i love those guys but he's he's right there with them in terms of you know putting up you know 25 points per game when he's on his game then sorry good god i'm sorry that's the thing with purdy and this is a question that we'll have to answer later last year you

mentioned those games the way that he finished he averaged 21.9 fantasy points per game this year overall whole season not including week 18 22.4 fantasy points per game. So the question is going to have to be better than 20. Are you counting the game that he came in and finished? What's that? Are you counting his starts or the game that he came in and finished also? Oh, that's every game that he started. So week 18 is excluded.

No, no, no. He meant the Dolphins game when he came in the middle. He scored 15 last year. Oh, last year? I don't know if I included that. Week 13, I don't remember who they played. Or week 13, whatever. So if you want to go back and look at the schedule, knock yourself out.

The question is, can Purdy get to 25 fantasy points per game? And if the answer is no, then he's kind of in that next – he's like at the top of the list of that next tier of quarterbacks that you just pencil in 22 fantasy points per game, which is what he's done for over the balance of a full season now. So here's my issue with Dak. You know, he had obviously a great year.

It was the number two quarterback per game and six point per passing touchdown leagues, number three and four point, but it was a down year for, for quarterbacks. And I think he basically had his upside. I mean, you know, he did have that one year where he played like four and a half games and he threw

50 times a game or whatever. But I think he kind of probably hit his ceiling this year around 24 fantasy points. And most years that's more like QB seven or so, which is so great. But I think my bigger issue is this. We saw Mahomes, I think, really suffer

from Kelsey not being himself. Kelsey gets hurt just before week one and just didn't seem like the same guy. What if Lamb gets hurt? He's old. Yeah. What if Lamb gets hurt? You know, you compare him to Purdy, for example. Purdy's got a lot to fall back on.

I originally had Tua ahead of Dak because he's got two stud wide receivers. The whole offense right now looks like CeeDee Lamb. But, you know, I don't want to be too worried about that. I just think when you look at downside, he's really got one guy. It's amazing how good he was able to do this year with one big time contributor and a pretty bad run game, to be quite honest. So very impressive stuff. That's what concerned me with Dak. And when we're talking about guys who are really close, and all of these guys have a ton of upside, and all these guys are really good,

and then you still have guys like Jordan Love and Kirk Cousins and Tua himself, who's not going to be in a lot of top 12s. Do we think about that? What if the receiver gets hurt? What does that do to this player? Well, I mean, okay. Tua had these receivers for the majority if the receiver gets hurt? What does that do to this? Well, I mean, okay. Uh,

to, I had these receivers for the majority of the season, right? How did he do? He, well, he was on pace for like 4,900 yards before the last five games of the season. The last five games of the season didn't play a single game with both

waddle and Tyree kill healthy. So that's, I wanted to give a little bit of love to two of there. Cause he was actually having a pretty damn good year before those last five games. And then in those last five games, I mean, remember Tyreek Hill drops that touchdown against the Cowboys, then drops one against the Ravens. So Hill wasn't really helping him out. Hill was at less than a hundred percent, but, but you are right in that he played five games with only one of those guys and he sucked. So you do have to keep that in mind but i mean that's the

case for every quarterback isn't it where if they don't have their best receiver their numbers are going to suffer right but but i'm saying two at least has two of those guys well because it's had a couple of games before he got hurt without jefferson purdy had that stretch without debo and without trent williams and he was bad so that hurts my argument against dak but i just think overall that that is a one man receiving core for Dak Prescott. And that's well, I mean, I guess I guess to be fair, Josh Allen without Stefan Diggs producing at a high level was still very good at the end of the season because it was running. So, you know, if you want to look at it that way, I think you take the mobile quarterbacks out because they have that floor. Yeah, yeah. And Dak's not really that guy anymore.

They definitely do. But then you have And Dak's not really that guy anymore. They, they definitely do. But then you have the risk of, of what the injuries are. You know what I mean? Kyler's suffered an ACL tear. You know, Anthony Richardson had a shoulder injury that limited him to, you know,

two full games. He had a concussion and another one, you know, so you have those risks if you're just going to rely on that. But you know, if they stay healthy, then there's so much. That's had two seasons where he's missed big time with injury.

Who? Dak. Um, broken leg. And then last year he he had to forget what the injury was in 2022. Finger. Finger, right. He missed like five games. Sure. And, you know, I mean, who knows how long it took Stafford to get going

once Cooper Cup was back. The first four games he didn't have a great fantasy start. And then he got rolling basically around their bye week, you know, as well. So, I mean, I think there are certainly factors to consider, but that's why if you are in the camp of I have to take two quarterbacks just in case, either one's dealing with injury concerns or struggling, you have that fallback option.

You have trade chip as well if you want to draft that way. Or if you know your league is not going to draft a lot of quarterbacks, then you don't have to necessarily be the person that clogs up your bench with somebody that you're never going to use all right that's it for our quarterback discussion this is one other thing i want to say about two because i know nobody i probably well he's going to be 13 for me so i'm going to be my top 12 27 rushing touchdowns by non-quarterbacks for the dolphins most in the NFL, right? I mean, that had to have hurt to his numbers to some degree, right? Right.

It's the type of thing that also hurts Purdy because they've got an amazing running back there, but it helps. It's why Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, those guys are ahead of them. It's because they've got that role. They can handle short yardage rushing touchdowns. Lamar not as much as the other two.

I think it's going to be fascinating to see if the tush push is banned and if Josh Allen loses to Fondix. Yeah. You want to talk about something that could absolutely, although you could be the argument he's lost Diggs for the last month and he's still been very good. Sure, but the threat of Diggs is still important. Oh, gosh.

Diggs was wide open last week, Sunday night. That deep touchdown, Allen overthrew him. All right, let's take a break. When we come back, I do have fantasy cops. I hope we can squeeze in little fantasy cops. I have some emails, but we have to give some DFS advice as well. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Whether in the game or in life the right coverage can

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Fantasy cops, thank you for the emails. Fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. This is from a man in the middle of New Jersey. He says, am I the jerk? Sent this a few days ago. As of yesterday, I was in a 12-team Dynasty Superflex tight end premium league. It was my fourth year in the league, and I won the championship this year. The day after I won the championship, another manager named John told me that the commissioner named Fred was shutting the league down.

I was a little confused because I know the commissioner, Fred, and I hadn't heard anything about that. So John screenshots me a text conversation between him and the commissioner. And in the conversation, it did indeed say that Fred was shutting the league down. Literally, while I was corresponding through text with John, Fred, the commissioner, messages the league and says that he kicked John out of the league and to ignore him. Now I'm really confused about what's going on. So I tell John that Fred said that he was kicked out of the league and that the league is not shut down. Now John is as confused as I am because we're both getting two different stories.

Fred then text messages me and is giving me a hard time because I told John that he was being kicked out of the league. Things between Fred and I got heated in our was being kicked out of the league. Things between Fred and I got heated in our conversation and I quit the league. The question is, am I being the jerk? This was just a big giant bottle of lies and confusion. And I feel that I got stuck in the middle. Was I in the wrong place at the wrong time? Plus in my defense, the commissioner Fred is dishonest by making up a story about how the league is being shut down instead of just being up front with John, who he's kicking out of the league. I don't want to be in a league with a dishonest commissioner.

What do you think? So how many people don't like? Whoa, sorry. What'd you say? How many people don't like the commissioner? Just these two guys or the whole league doesn't like him? I can't. So I don't know. I don't know. Right now, I would say just these two guys or the whole league doesn't like him? I can't. So I don't know.

I don't know. Right now, I would say just these two guys. I mean, I guess they could, you know, just have a coup and get rid of the commissioner if everybody hates him. But if it's these two are on the outs, then they're unfortunately stuck. If, you know, he's quitting and the other guy got kicked out. Man, it's so cowardly to kick a guy out of your league by telling him that the league is folding and lying to him about it.

It cracked me up. You got all this correspondence going on behind everyone's back. That is so crazy. Dave, what do you think? What should we do here? Kick everybody out of the league. Sorry, channeling my inner Heath.

This is middle school BS, and I think that the commissioner's got to go for sure. No, I don't think that's going to happen. I wonder what this guy John did to get kicked out of the league. Maybe Fred was justified. Yeah, but again, if everybody doesn't like the commissioner, there's an easy way to just kick him out and start your own league. I would say, man in the middle of New Jersey, you are not the jerk.

I don't know that you had a quick... Here's what you do. Reply to the person, find out where they live, send Dan over there. And Dan can straighten it out. Or just let's make Dan the commissioner. Everyone gets an undersized t-shirt and Dan is the commissioner. Thank you for your Fantasy Cop submission. Let's talk DFS for the weekend ahead. the commissioner everyone gets a undersized t-shirt and dan is the commissioner thank you for your fantasy cop submission let's talk dfs for the weekend ahead six games super exciting

i think i feel like last year i was looking at i remember just being like wild card weekend looks terrible uh that's just the way i remember it this is a good wild card weekend really excited for these games so uh who are some players in DFS that you guys love this week? Joe Flacco. It's a good one. It's a good one. Remember that? That's a good one. I feel like there's four quarterbacks within

600 of each other on FanDuel that you could make a strong case for. Flacco's one of them. If you wanted to spend up a little more i think my homes is a good one and that might be on that weather for arian yeah dolphins have a lot a lot of points quarterbacks lately uh goff and stafford are the other two going up against each other i think i really i think i would pick golf over flacco why do you like flacco so much oh hou Houston secondary is not going to stop this Browns.

Awesome attack. Amari Cooper. I do have my fan to line up as the Flacco Cooper stack. And of course, Cooper went for 200 plus yards in week 16. I have three, three cheap options that I really like this week based on injury. Brock Wright, assuming Laporte is not going to play. Brock Wright, assuming Laporte is not going to play. Josh Reynolds, assuming Laporte is not going to play. And Khalil Shakir with Gabe Davis banged up.

And there's one that's not super cheap, but Dallas Goddard is going to be popular. He's not expensive, but he's not super cheap. Yeah. Dave, so wait, who were the quarterbacks that you said were in that? You said Stafford and Goff. What about the quarterbacks in the Dallas game? What about Dak? This one I have trouble with. The Love, for example. I mean, Love's been good in tough matchups lately. He's been good in general. But the Cowboys, man, look at what they've done. Josh Allen, off the top of my head. Josh Allen, Tua, Goff. One more. Oh, Jalen Hurts. None of them even scored 17 fantasy points

against the Cowboys recently. Only four quarterbacks this year have put up 20 or more on the Cowboys. That's the game of the week. I'm right, it is. The Cowboys and the Packers. It's a playoff game of the week.

The Cowboys and the Packers. Hey! All right. I legit have a tough time picking a winner of that game. I can't wait for that game. I can't wait either. I think it's going to be so fun,

and I legitimately think Green Bay can take that game. Cowboys are so good at home. They're so good at home. They're so good at home. But yeah, I do too. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made it the game of the week. All right. How about running backs? Running backs you guys like? Rashad White. Love him this week. Absolutely

love him. We're going to have very similar lineups. Probably. I like A-Chan assuming most are out. I think he's got an opportunity in the snow to be good. So many injuries for the for the Dolphins. I mean, Pacheco should like a chance. I mean, most are out. I think he's got an opportunity in the snow to be good. So many injuries for the, for the dolphins. I mean,

Pacheco should be a monster. Yeah. I like Pacheco a lot. Yeah. I think he'll be popular. I put Warren in my lineup. Just figuring that the Steelers are going to be playing from behind and Warren will pick up a bunch of catches and he's only 5,600 on fan duel.

Yep. Yeah. And he's got four to five catches, Jalen Warren, five straight games. So you get the bonus in DraftKings. You get the full PPR. I'm actually logging into DraftKings right now to make a lineup because I made a FanDuel lineup.

I didn't make a DraftKings lineup. How about wide receiver? Who do you guys like there? Well, Cooper, you mentioned, I think is going to be uh amazing um i think there's a squeaky wheel coming for aj brown after everything that's unfolded over the last couple weeks and against that secondary he should have a big game um love the setup for him i mentioned shakir as a as a cheaper option same thing with josh reynolds uh i mean obviously look cd lamb puka amara st brown you know there's a lot of great options for this week that should,

should go off. Go to that lions Rams game and throw a rock and you will hit a wide receiver. That will do very well. I've got four of them in my DFS line because we're looking at two teams that are great against the run, terrible against the pass suspect with the pass rush and two quarterbacks have been throwing it a lot lately and doing well with it do you like stefan digs this week he's kind of discounted

for you know because he hasn't been that good but um you got potentially porter covering him do you like digs this week not to the same extent as some of these other guys, but there's certainly a contrarian play in play for him. Yeah. GPP pick, if you're trying to be different, you'd stack him with Allen.

Yeah. The majority of the public is going to be on the Lions-Rams receivers. They're better. I'm doing a head-to-head, so I've got a cash game going. And so it's easy to load up on Lions and Rams for that game. But we mentioned four quarterbacks at the top.

Josh Allen was not one of them. So it's almost contrarian if you go with Allen and Diggs because I think in tournaments, a lot of people are going to turn to Flacco. They're going to turn to Goff. They're going to turn to Stafford. And they'll be able to put together a lineup that's a little bit stronger because they're not spending up for Allen. I don't think Goff will be as

popular as you think because of Laporta's absence. So that will take away some of the appeal, which could still make him very good. It's interesting, though, is how good the Rams have been against running backs. Just incredible. So what do you do with the lions?

Do you like the lions running backs in this game? Again, if you want to be somewhat contrarian, if you're looking into the numbers, you know, if there are people that are diving into it to try and find something, then, you know, Jameer Gibbs, again, there's, there's a pass catching opening for Detroit. So how do they, you know, supplement that supplement that and offset the loss of Laporta? Is it let's rely on a, no offense, but a backup tight end in Brock Wright or our third wide receiver in Reynolds? Or do we use arguably our second best playmaker,

maybe our best playmaker in Jameer Gibbs a little bit more? And that's something they could do. All right, tight ends. Kelsey's the most expensive. I'm hoping, you know, a couple weeks off for Kelsey. He'll get them going again. Njoku. The Texans have always been a great matchup for tight ends,

but they've been better lately for sure. He caught a touchdown last time he faced them. Ferguson, Goddard, Kincaid, Schultz. Schultz is an interesting one if Delpit does not play because they've been very bad against tight ends lately with Delpit, not back. Now they opened the window for him to return.

And so he could get back on the field this week. We, we know how that, you know, window has gone for some players. So if he plays, I don't love Schultz as much. If he's out,

Schultz is one of my favorite place. Is Delpit the guy that usually covers slower tight ends? It's just been, it's just been, you know, a, a corresponding scenario, you know, since Delpit the guy that usually covers slower tight ends? It's just been a corresponding scenario. Since Delpit's injury, tight ends have been fantastic against them. It's true. Yeah. Weeks 14 through 17, 10 or more half PPR points to a tight end

in three of the four. And before that, they were pretty good against tight ends. Yeah. So maybe it is Delpit. All right. So, sorry. tight ends yeah so maybe it is delpit all right so um sorry it's just really getting very difficult to get on draft kings right now no um all right uh yeah let's get some some lineups then i guess or whatever you want to do

yeah well i mean i have a fan to a lot of the year trying to get on the internet like you're a 85 year old man i'll go first uh i have a flacco quarterback rashad white and a chan at running back uh amari cooper brandon cooks and aj brown at receiver don't forget cooks scores every home game yeah um rock right at tight end khalil shakir at flex and the chiefs dst against that crappy uh dolphin sorry slow it down slow slow it down. Give it to me again. Yes, I'll do it again. Flacco as the quarterback, Rashad White and A-Chan at running back,

A.J. Brown, Amari Cooper, and Brandon Cooks at receiver, Brock Wright at tight end, Khalil Shakir at flex, and the Chiefs defense. Hold on a second. Now, what are you going to do, though, if A.J. Brown doesn't play? And are you going to do though if aj brown doesn't play and are you

going to have faith in him regardless because it left with that knee injury well i'll find out today what his practice status is but uh i would assume based on the reports that he's fine uh and again i think there's a squeaky wheel game coming plus i don't think he'll be very popular if you're doing the full game slate full uh playoff slate of wildcard weekend. What website was that? By the way, that was Fandle or DraftKings? Fandle. Okay.

I'm about to start making my, my DraftKings lineup. Dave, go ahead. Just in time for, for the show to start. Okay. My Fandle,

this is my cash game lineup. I told you I was going with a lion stack and here it is. It's golf, uh, throwing to Josh Reynolds, Brock Wright, and a Monroe St. Brown. I'm going to bring it back to Josh Reynolds, Brock Wright, and a Munra St. Brown.

I'm going to bring it back with cup and Puka Pukas in my flex. And so how am I building around that? I went cheap at running back with Jalen Warren. I've got Rashad white in my lineup as well. And, uh, then all that's left after that, because I've got so much in that one game between the lines and the Rams is the defense and it's Houston at 3,500. Brown's opponents have at least 12 or more fantasy points in each of their last three. That excludes Week 18.

Touchdowns have helped. Flacco has six interceptions in his past three games. The Texans have scored at least 10 in seven of their past nine. They did not against Indianapolis last week. It is a risk, but it's a home team in the playoffs and a defense that, other than last week, they've been playing pretty well this season. So I'll take the chance that they get some turnovers

and sacks of one Joe Flacco and hopefully find an interception return for a touchdown. Do any of you guys have Demarcus Robinson in your lineups? No, that would be a great call. That's a good one. I'm going to put him in my draft. What's his price he's 3600 on draft kings so okay well he's gonna be more than that on on fan duel let me see what

he is on fan duel go ahead dave i'm looking my 6300 how about that so 36 on draft kings 63 fan duel yeah i mean the prices are lower on drafting. So I have Aaron Jones in a lineup. How do you guys feel about Aaron Jones? He's had 20 plus carries in two or three straight games. I think he had five catches in week 18. AJ Dillon may or may not play. And it's a tough run defense for sure. Hankins being in or out is a big deal.

I know it's not a good matchup, but thoughts on Aaron Jones? Good contrarian play. Okay. And I will say Rashad White, somebody we love. He is the second most expensive running back on DraftKings. He's the fifth most expensive on FanDuel. And then the most, I got to ask you about Kyron Williams. He is the most expensive running back on both websites. And he's facing a very tough Lions run defense.

But matchups haven't really mattered for Kyron Williams. Thoughts? Yeah, I'd be a little nervous because of that Lions defense being as good as it is. And the Rams are going to recognize pretty quickly that they can air it out with Stafford against that secondary for Detroit. DSTs? Chiefs are the easiest one for me.

Yeah. At home in the snow against two, who struggled, um, banged up waddle. If he plays the best banged up, most of it plays the best, uh,

Tyreek's banged up. I mean, we've seen, you know, the struggles for this offense the last few weeks. So I think that I think the chiefs hopefully realize what their formula is to win. If they are going to win, which is not necessarily just have to rely on the homes,

run the ball, play defense. And, you know, you know, your, your passing game is not the savior at this point. They can play defense with as well as anybody in the league right now, certainly in their building for this week. Then Pacheco's been awesome for them. I would have taken the Chiefs as well, but I needed to save some shekels, so Texans win 500 less.

Okay. I mean, for me to have just figured out how to use a cell phone and log on to DraftKings and make this lineup. And have we talked about the Bucks wide receivers, by the way, against this? We have not. Right? No. Also a good place. I mean, especially Godwin in PPR and full PPR on DraftKings.

But I've got both of them. I did my flex last, and I had enough money for Mike Evans. But I have Stafford. Maybe I should put Mayfield in there. Stafford, Pacheco, and Jalen Warren. Puka, Godwin, Demarcus Robinson. Goddard at tight end. Evans at flex.

Chiefs DST. Wow. Unreal. Unreal lineup.s DST. Wow. Unreal. Unreal lineup. Good for me. Okay. You'll win $7. I'll lose the $3 that I put in.

I don't even know how I have money in here, by the way. Okay. So that's it for that. Let's read some emails. Fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. From Chris. I listen to the show every day. I'd love to hear more dedicated episodes after the fantasy season wraps before the NFL playoffs start to focus on rankings and draft strategies

for people doing NFL playoff competitions. I play in a league that does a snake draft and total points after the Super Bowl wins. Well, how about that? We're doing basically the same thing. Except it's the Noah's Ark League. It's two quarterbacks, two running backs, two receivers, two flex, two tight end, two kickers, a playoff challenge rankings. I'm playing in four playoff challenge leagues, including the one that we have. And they're three different formats.

The one that we did, which is total points throughout the playoffs. So you're taking the hope like Adam did to go all in on the bills. There were three people that went all in on a team. You went all in on the bills. I'm sorry, four people. You went all in the bills. Thomas went all in on the bills there were three people that went all in on a team you went all in on the bills i'm sorry four people you went on the bills thomas went all in on the rams vikings um dan no the ram dan went all in on the lions and um i i kind of backed my way into going in on the bucks

oh i thought you're gonna say i went all in on the Ravens. No, I think the way I did it was you had to have at least four players on that team to make that type of commitment. I've got that, though. Do you? Yeah. I've got Lamar, Odell, Andrews, and the DST. And Justice Hill. I got five.

Oh, yeah. I guess I didn't realize that. I probably was looking at good players. You only have one. Um, uh, so, um, uh, in any event, you know, that's certainly a strategy to, to, uh, you know, go about with, you know, building those teams. Then I'm in, uh, the F F P P C. I think it is, um, F F P C, F F P C, excuse me.

Um, where you're only allowed to pick one player. It's total points throughout the playoffs. The FFPC, I think it is. FFPC. FFPC, excuse me. Where you're only allowed to pick one player. It's total points throughout the playoffs. One player from a team. And so you want to – and you get double points for the Super Bowl. So I went with Allen and McCaffrey as my quarterback running back because I think it's a Bills 49er Super Bowl. But in any event, it was tough. Like, what do you do with Tyree Kill,

who could have a terrible game, but probably the best offense against the Chiefs in Snead? You know, like, is there a Texans player to use? Is there, you know, which Ravens player do you prioritize? I think I actually went with Justin Tucker because he had to start a kicker there. And then another format is, the third format is, you pick a lineup each week.

It's almost like DFS. But once you use those players, they're done. So you can only use them once. Yeah. Well, yeah, this email was about a total points. Obviously, I had the first pick in this draft. It was an eight-team draft. So I took Josh Allen, a super flat, or two QBs.

I took Josh Allen. And then on the 2-3 turn, I was very thrilled. I took Diggs and James cook. But look, I think it's pretty obvious if you're going to do one of these leagues where you get total points, the best team that's playing this week that has, you want four games,

you want four games, but, but also it's like, I can't say the bills have the best chance to win the super bowl, but they certainly have the best chance to win this week, right? Like you could go with the Cowboys. The Cowboys could lose this week. It would be shocking if the Bills lost this week to the Steelers without TJ Watt.

So the Bills are the best. And then I think most likely scenario is they're hosting the Chiefs next week, and I like them to beat the Chiefs. Oh, they have of anybody in the wildcard weekend, the easiest path to the playoffs, and that's saying something because they still have to go through Baltimore potentially, but we know Lamar Jackson's playoff history

hasn't exactly been great, so at some point he's going to snap that. But knowing that they had Pittsburgh, knowing that they had the Chiefs, Mahomes' first road game in the playoffs, there's a lot to like about Buffalo getting to the Super Bowl with the opportunity to play four games.

Like, I think you look at it and say, okay, Baltimore can play three games. San Francisco can play three games, you know, assuming they get to the Superbowl, those are ideal situations. Um, and then if there's another wildcard round team that you like, and most people are going to say the Cowboys, um, you know, three games or four games out of those, you know, that type of team is, is what you like, but the best way to do it, the way that I, I, I, I say it and explain it in the story is you have to map out the playoffs yourself. And so, you know, I'll rank it my way. Uh, you know, if, if Dave did rankings, Heath did rankings, they would rank it their way. Uh, but in any event, my rankings reflect how I

expect the playoffs to unfold. So the teams that I think are going to play two games are ranked ahead of the teams are gonna play one game. And so to, to the teams that I think are going to play two games are ranked ahead of the teams are gonna play one game. And so to, to rank it, I think Tampa Bay beats Philadelphia. So to rank Baker Mayfield over Jalen hurts was painful to me, but that's the way I expect it to go.

That I think that the Eagles will be one and done. And I think the bucks will win. That being said, if you feel the opposite and you think the Eagles can make a playoff, a significant playoff run, then you go all in on Jalen hurts and you go on on eagles yeah all right um do you have a favorite nfc team that could play four games i have the cowboys playing three and losing in the nfc championship game i have the 49ers playing three and making it to the super bowl uh the teams that

i have playing two games would be detroit and tampa bay detroit is the one honestly that makes me the most nervous i can see the rams the rams are seven the one, honestly, that makes me the most nervous. I see the Rams. The Rams are 7-1 in the last eight games, and the one game they lost was on the punt return against the Ravens in Baltimore. That's my team. The Eagles are favored this week, by the way. Sure.

But if there was one team that could play four, Dallas is an obvious answer because they're the two seed. But I think the Rams can go into Detroit and win. I think the Rams can go into San Francisco and win too. Those two teams always play each other very, very tough. Yeah, and Kyle Shannon always wins. And my sleeper is the Browns. Not always.

Mostly time. What's the record? Well, there's the famous meme of him holding John McVay as his baby. My sleeper is the Browns. And that's another one. He could easily lose this week. You know, it should be a great game. Going to Baltimore, that's not a team, if I'm Baltimore,

that I want to face necessarily in the second round. No, Black already beat them, right? Or no, the Browns already beat them. I'd be rooting for the Dolphins if I were the Ravens. Yes, they did. I'd be rooting for the Dolphins if I were the Ravens right now. I'd rather play them. But, yeah, I think the NFC is just awesome.

I mean, totally. Any of these three games, I think the NFC is just awesome. I mean, totally any of these three games, I could see any outcome. It's I'm going to have the way I'm talking. I'm going to have to take the Packers plus seven and a half. But all right, let's get the next email here. It's G.A. in Philadelphia. And he says, great to trade in a half PPR super flex league. I traded 1.1 in the rookie draft for 1.5 and AJ Brown. And it's tight end premium too. 1.1 in the rookie draft for AJ Brown. And 1.5. Moved down four spots and got AJ Brown.

That's a huge win. Yeah, I agree. Well done. From Stefan. Dynasty league. Yeah. win yeah i agree well done from stefan dynasty league yeah uh why can't i catch the ball uh in a dynasty league that has been running for the past five or six years something came up a manager did not have a chance to make the playoff started backups over his starters in week 14 he was tanking for the 101 rookie pick he was playing the commissioner the commissioner. The commissioner ended up getting the one seed, and the benching

manager got the first pick in the rookie draft. This is a competitive league, and we've never had this happen before. And there are some who are anti-tanking. Can you please share your thoughts on whether tanking should be allowed in Dynasty Leagues, and what rules should we implement? How has this never happened before? This happens all the time

in Dynasty Leagues. We're fine with it. You can set your own rules. A player has to be active. how has this never happened before? This happens all the time. Dynasty leagues. We're fine with it. You can set your own rules. A player has to be active. You can't start a guy who's inactive or injured or on a buy. You can do what you want. I mean, I'm fine with it.

You know, you're paying money. You're losing it that year. You're not guaranteeing yourself future, future success. So that three teams were tanking in, in the dynasty that you guys started this year. I'm fine with it. How do you guys feel? Well well let me ask you as the commissioner because i think this is is

a big part of it did you check everyone's lineup every week just those three just those three okay yeah that's fair mostly i may have missed a few but those guys you made it you made it a conscious effort to i'm gonna check dan i'm gonna check tim i'm gonna check whoever else the third one was i don't remember but yeah um darian yeah i checked them and and and other sometimes other people in the league would would alert me if there was an issue right so you can have that because i think like he's not and it's not his fault you know there was a few times in in the nights that he runs i know there was some some questionable lineups that people had in tanking. But again, I think a lot of people, what they do is when they're tanking, they don't even care.

I'm just going to leave Mike White in my lineup at quarterback and not even worry about it because technically he's active. That's what Schneier did, yeah, which I was fine with. Should be allowed. Yeah. Yeah, McVay, 4-10 going into into last week we shouldn't count last week's game against Kyle Shanahan playoffs McVay is one and oh against Shanahan in the playoffs by the way it's actually I think harder to if you say tanking is not allowed and you have to

somehow start your best lineup it's much harder to police that what are you going to say hey this guy's projected for more points. How could you possibly start player X over player Y? Right? So I think it's harder to police that. No, just make sure that... I'm just asking this, not that I have a strong feeling either way. What's the objection to tanking?

Because I think you laid it out, Adam. Somebody's paying money to lose, and there is no guarantee of future success. It's not as fun. I, I hated, you know, I didn't like that three teams because it's, I guess the,

the rest of the league is benefiting by winning each week. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And then you could have a manager who was not tanking earlier in the season and he beat you or she beat you. And then in week 12,

this manager is tanking and gave one of your competitors an easy win. I could see it. But you know what? It happens in the NFL, basically. Teams arrest players. They don't want to win late in the season. It's not ideal, but it's fine. What would you say?

Unless you're the Giants. I mean, the Giants try. I don't think it happens as much in the NFL as you think. No, I'm not saying it doesn't. But it should happen in Dynasty. It's part of the strategy of these long-term leagues. And if you're really that concerned about somebody doing it, you could always ask them to pay a year advance of their buy-in for the league.

And that way there's a financial commitment attached that says, okay, this guy's not going anywhere. He's going to run his team his way. He's going to rebuild it. No one tanks and redraft, obviously, but it's an element of dynasty play. I've never tanked and redraft. I'll say that. Who would?

That's stupid. Other than my dad. My dad did. Well, those people who make spite drops. That's what he did. He was eliminated from the playoffs, and he dropped everybody from his team. And I'm the commissioner of the league. So I'm like, no, dad, you can't do this.

He's like, why not? I want to help everybody. I'm like, dad, you're an idiot. And so I had to go and put everybody back on his team, and then I had to lock him out of his own team. And then I had to set his lineup for the last two weeks of the season. It was a mess, and now he won't play fantasy anymore. That's for your own benefit, I guess. Well, I have no food in the house,

so it's taking every ounce of restraint in me not to go get the football sundae bagel sandwich that I like getting so much. But I won't today. I'll take it easy. If you're going to do it, at least be a man and go order it face-to-face. You know what? I respect that.

I will. But I'm not going to do it. I had hot dogs last night, so I got to get a little healthier. We'll talk to you on Tuesday. Enjoy your three-day weekend. We'll talk to you Tuesday on Fantasy Football.