Fantasy Football Today - Week 15 Recap - Montgomery! Pollard! Hurts! (12/20 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

A week of unfortunate injuries but also incredible QB performances, we'll recap it all for you! It was a throwback kind of day with some former NFL stars getting in the end zone, but also a look to the future as Jalen Hurts (4:00) set the tone for QBs in a high-scoring week ... News and notes (9:45) as we give you the key injuries from Week 15, then we've got our Believe it or Not segment (11:40) covering Tony Pollard, David Montgomery, Hurts, and David Johnson ... Winners (24:00) like Antonio Brown and J.D. McKissic and losers (30:30) like Ezekiel Elliott and Cooper Kupp And we'll give you the Top 5 at each position (38:30) before reviewing every game with our Fantasy takes (44:40) ... Email us at [e-mail] 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. Recapping a Sunday that saw some incredible quarterback performances. Eight quarterbacks with 30 or more fantasy points and six points for passing touchdown leagues.

That's going into Sunday night football. And three of them had 40 or more. And that includes Jalen Hurts. Holy cow. Alright, we welcome you to the show. We hope you are moving on to your fantasy championship or if you're playing into week 17, your fantasy semifinals. I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard and

Heath Cummings. Dave, it was a I couldn't do an alliteration. You got the throwback Thursday, the flashback Friday. What do we do for Sunday if we're going back in time? Yeah, it's tough, right? Thanks for putting me on the spot like that.

I don't know. Step Back Sunday. Step Back Sunday. It was a Step Back Sunday. Dave, you brought up a great point about some oldies with goodies today. Want to get into that or no? Thank you.

You know what I'm talking about? Thank you for giving me that nice praise. Yes. Would you like to talk about it or would you like me to? Okay. I will talk about it. Should I do it now? What is going on? Yes, speak.

I'm just mad at you for what was today that begins with an S and is going back in time. Okay. So Des scored. Antonio Bryant scored. Antonio Brown scored. That would be something. Yeah, that would be.

Yeah, he was 9-1 on the team. Le'Veon Bell scored, Larry Fitzgerald scored, Frank Gore scored. It is the first time all five of these legends of the gridiron scored on the same day. But it's only the second time that they've all scored in the same week of the NFL season. Can you name the year in which they all scored in the same week of the NFL season? Oh, I'm so disappointed because I saw all the names in the notes except for Frank Gore. And I can tell you that Des Bryant, Antonio Brown, Larry Fitzgerald, and Le'Veon Bell all scored week 13 of the 2017

season. But I didn't look for Frank Gore, so I don't know. Is that it, Dave? 2017 is the year. Week three. So I got it right. You got it right. You just asked for the year. I just asked for the year. So you're right. Congratulations. All right.

You've won the first point on today's Fantasy Football Today podcast show. Can I use this point in one of my playoff matchups? You can use it against me. I want to use it in a different way. It was a wild game in that respect. And look, hopefully, if Le'Veon Bell's okay, you might be starting him next week. It's like Clyde Edwards either left with an injury.

Le'Veon Bell also got hurt, but it didn't seem as severe as CEH's and we'll keep you up to date on all the injuries. Who's most upset tonight? A. Fantasy managers who lost. B. Rams fans. Or C. Jets fans. Jets fans. Yeah, they're catatonic. I would

say fantasy managers who lost because Rams fans can overcome this. Right. Fantasy managers had some hope. say fantasy managers who lost because Rams fans can overcome this right fantasy managers had some hope Jets fans kind of knew like if they drafted Trevor Lawrence something was going to go wrong with Trevor Lawrence anyway like they there was

never any actual hope that the Jets were going to be a good competitive team again at any point in the future so I think it's probably fantasy managers all right well I the Jets fans I know are just beside themselves with this big win. I'm sorry. It's just, it stinks.

And at least you could have let Cam Akers score that touchdown, got called back on a hold. A lot to get to today. Let's talk about these quarterbacks, Heath. Yeah, it was a great day. And like I said, three quarterbacks with 40 or more. That was Josh Allen, Ryan Tannehill, I believe, and Jalen Hurts.

And I'll get the updated leaders. yeah, and eight. Yeah, thank you. And eight with 30 or more. So like, yeah, I was pumped about Drew Brees. 25 points. Pretty good. Not today. Any thoughts on it, Heath? Jalen Hurts is the one. We're going to talk about him a lot,

obviously. So I guess maybe I should talk about Ryan Tannehill instead. Why do we even have the discussion about whether we're starting Ryan Tannehill or not? He was the number two or three quarterback, depending on what scoring system you want to look at. After he became a starter last year, he was the number seven or eight quarterback coming into this week. And he delivers this type of performance in the fantasy semifinals.

I made a lot of dumb lineup decisions today. But one thing I am happy about is at 12.30 p.m. Eastern time, I looked and I had Tom Brady in a super flex lineup and I had Ryan Tannehill on my bench and I swapped tom brady in a super flex lineup and i had ryan tannahill my bench and i swapped tannahill in for brady and it's the difference between championship no championship wow so what made you do it because i i would have gone with brady i uh this is dumb um after updating the projections this morning i had t Tannehill projected for more points. No, that's not dumb.

It's simple. Maybe not. How do you update the projections today after a full week and all of a sudden Tannehill? What changed? First off, we talk about this all the time. The difference between QB6 and QB8 is

often a half a point in the projections. The projections are impacted by Vegas totals. And the Buccaneers implied total did go down this morning. Oh, okay. Alright. Interesting. And did the total for the Titans Lions game go up because

Stafford played? It was interesting. The Lions total went up a lot, but they mostly, like they were 10.5 point underdogs with Chase Daniel at quarterback, but the Titans number stayed right around 31. Right. What difference does it make? Right.

One of the biggest numbers of the day, even when they thought Chase Daniel was going to play. And I knew that there would be a better chance of Tannehill having a good game with Stafford playing on the other side and trying to keep the Lions close in. And for a while, it was that way. But I did not see two rushing touchdowns coming. He was great, and he is certainly one of those quarterbacks that

I think we just look at from now on and say, I'm just starting him. He's good. Can't ignore it. Well, he is, but you just always worry about the pass attempts. Like last week, what did he score? 20 fantasy points? Something like that. That's what we were worried about this week. And so like last week, what, he scored 20 fantasy points? Something like that.

That's what we were worried about this week. And he only threw 27 times, but he had two rushing touchdowns. He's really good, and he's a good option. I think the questions always arise because he wasn't drafted as a starter, so you get the Tannehill or Brady,

Tannehill or, you know, you always get those dilemmas. But he came through today, and so did Hurts, and so did came through today, and so did Hurts, and so did Josh Allen yesterday, and so did Kyler Murray. This is what Kyler Murray looks like when he's healthy. Throwing the ball downfield, running, crushing Kenyon Drake's fantasy value again.

Lamar Jackson was great. Matt Ryan. Now that one I think was one of the most out of nowhere good performances of the week. Justin Herbert and Mahomes are the others that like Mahomes scored 31 points. He's QB nine. Tied at QB nine. But Dave, Matt Ryan with 33 points. That was just

baffling to me. He got off to a great start. And I didn't want, I only saw like the most basic of highlights from that game. So like the touchdowns to Gage and I didn't why I only saw like the most basic of highlights from that game so like the touchdowns to gauge into Ridley I saw and they were nice throws uh the Ridley touchdown was fun because he threw to a spot and Calvin got there toe tapped and and that was that I'm curious to know just how much pressure he was under in the first half and my guess is that he wasn't under much and that the Bucks were playing a different type of defense not trying to get

after him but boy did to get after him. But boy, did they get after him in the second half of that game? He was sacked a lot on third downs. That's a common rephrase for Matt Ryan. Do you know how many first downs they converted in the last one and a half quarters of the game? Five possessions the Falcons had. No.

Guess how many first downs they converted? Two. It is two. Two first downs. That's it. Yeah. two. Two first downs, that's it. You just got a point, Adam. Congratulations. I need to get on the board. Tampa Bay went into that game without one of their top two corners

and then lost Carlton Davis early in the game, right? I have no idea. I saw him make a play late in the game. Okay, he left the game for a while, so maybe he was just gone for a while in the first half. I'm not sure. Look, it's an encouraging stat line from Matt Ryan. It's totally out of nowhere because he had been so poor without Julio Jones on the field before.

And now I think it's a combination of he probably wasn't pressured that much early on, and they didn't run the ball a whole heck of a lot, which is smart because their running backs suck. So I'm intrigued a little bit by Matt Ryan and what he might be like next week, but probably still won't be somebody I would prioritize as a starter. Next week at Kansas City for Matt Ryan.

So if you're watching on YouTube, thank you. And if you're not watching on YouTube, what's wrong with you? Watch us on YouTube, youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Stat of the day, the Chiefs averaged 4.5 yards per play today. That is worse than the Jets averaged this season. They are last in the NFL coming into today. The Jets averaged 4.7 yards per play.

The Chiefs were worse than that, and they scored 32 points. So they ran a lot of plays, but just thought that was interesting. Let's do the news and notes because there were a lot of them. Stefan Diggs and Jamal Williams got hurt on Saturday. Neither injury seems serious. Fingers crossed. I don't know if you guys have any updates on them, on Diggs and Jamal Williams. Diggs is obviously the big one, and he's at New England in week 16, but apparently they're not too concerned. Meanwhile, both Chiefs running backs got hurt and Clyde Edwards-Ziller looked bad

and Bell not quite as bad, but Darryl Williams will obviously be popular on the waiver wire. Raheem Mostert, I don't know. I'm not sure if you know. Was it just a re-aggravation of that same ankle injury? Not sure. I just know it was an ankle. I don't a re-aggravation of that same ankle injury? Not sure. I just know it was an ankle.

I don't even know for sure that it was the same ankle. Right. Okay. Well, if it was, I mean, this just makes it really hard to trust him. And if you'd started Jeff Wilson, you got lucky because Mostert came out. Wilson scored shortly thereafter.

James Robinson left with an ankle injury. This was a great day for quarterbacks, but a bad day for injuries. Michael Gallup left with a hip injury. This was a great day for quarterbacks, but a bad day for injuries. Michael Gallup left with a hip injury. DK came back. Mike Evans came back in. Dalvin Cook, this is like the fifth time this year

where he's been hobbling on the sideline, but he's been okay. I think that's about it. Jalen Rager. I just saw watching the Sunday night game now. Cleveland had two offensive line injuries on their first possession. I have to check and see if those guys came back.

And Jeff Wilson. Jeff Wilson also got hurt. Jeff Wilson hurt his ankle. So Tevin Coleman, Darrell Williams. These could be guys you're looking at in Week 16. Jeff Wilson did return. Wilson returned. Akers got hurt early on.

And they were talking about his left foot was heavily wrapped, and all of a sudden he's back on the field. I wish he had had a better game, but at least we can be optimistic that he'll play next week. David Montgomery, who we're about to talk about, and believe it or not, he has four straight games with 111 or more total yards and at least one touchdown. He is crushing it. Let's go to believe it or not. You know what, Heath? Let's switch the order a bit and start with one touchdown. He is crushing it. So let's go to Believe It or Not. You know what, Heath?

Let's switch the order a bit and start with David Montgomery. How about that? Okay. All right. What's your Believe It or Not for David Montgomery? Believe It or Not, David Montgomery,

I'll be 24 years old at the start of next season, is a top 12 dynasty running back. Ooh, I hope you're right. I've got him on my dynasty team. But outside of that selfish comment, I'm still going to say no, especially if you include the class of 2021 at running back. I don't believe it.

Yeah, it's difficult. I think it's going to be difficult going into this next year. And we'll know more once we see what the Bears do offensively and what their coaching situation looks like and what their quarterback situation looks like. It's hard to imagine too many situations that would be worse than the aggregate of what David Montgomery has had his first two years in the NFL.

That's true. It could be slightly worse. There's a lot more upside for the situation changing to the better. And with just a little bit of help this last month and a great schedule, he's been awesome. I agree. I don't think he's a top 12 dynasty running back. I don't think he's that far off, but this is useful heading into the off season because if he has one more game like this, then someone might actually value him like a top 12 back. And it might be a good time to sell high.

I got a tweet during the game today about Montgomery, and somebody said he's going to convince somebody to take him in round one in fantasy drafts next year, right? And I said, wrong. It's not going to be like that. But if the offensive line continues to improve, and that's really been part of what's helped the Bears in general, offensively, their offensive line continues to play pretty well. And if the quarterback situation improves, then maybe we can talk about them. I said round three, but Terry Cohen could still be a factor. They could always draft another running back.

Terry Cohen is a big factor. Yeah. There could be a second back that could always draft another running back. Tariq Cohen is a big factor. There could be a second back that could really hurt David Montgomery. So I think we should just enjoy him now and then wait and see. I don't know if he'll ever stretch this great again. Period.

There are definitely people who are going to value Montgomery over Miles Sanders after this year. Really? And look, look what he's about to do. Okay, obviously I'm trying to predict the future here. His next two games are at Jacksonville and home against Green Bay. Now maybe the Green Bay game gets out of hand or something and he doesn't get a chance to run that much,

but he's got two more good matchups. This could be six great games to finish the season. And as I look at it right now, and this could be not updated on a player or two, but in full PPR, I think he's currently the number six running back for this season. That's amazing. He may finish as a top five running back as a 23-year-old. He's definitely a league winner

just because of what's happening right now. And if you've got him on your squad, you're putting together some big points with him. I don't know. He does well when the circumstance is right. Will the circumstance be right come August of 2021?

Let's go to our next one. David Johnson is someone you can count on. These are all from Heath, by the way. David Johnson is someone you can count on. These are all from Heath, by the way. David Johnson is someone you can count on in Week 16 and beyond. Johnson had a career high in catches, career high in receiving yards, 11 catches for 106 yards, only 8 carries for 27 yards. But he just kind of always finds a way to be productive. Anyway, David Johnson, you can count on him in Week 16 and beyond,

and he faces the Bengals at home next week. Heath, do you believe it or not? Definitely another hedge situation. I don't mind counting on David Johnson as a number two running back in week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals. If Duke Johnson's out, then he might just be a top 12 running back for me,

but he'll definitely be inside my top 20 regardless. He is also someone that if you can get just about anything for him, as soon as this season is over, you should do it. How old is he? 28 will be 29 at the site. All my ages and my dynasty stuff is as of opening.

He'll be 21, 29 as of week one next year. So, okay. So absolutely. And a smart fantasy manager in a dynasty league, wouldn't give up much for him anyway, because they would see that he's 29 years old, man, 11 catches.

I wins the last time a Texans running back had 11 catches. I would, I would bet money that no running back since Deshaun Jackson's been there has had 11 catches from Watson. So if this were week one, my jaw would be on the floor and I'd say, yeah, David Johnson's back and the Texans have figured out

how to use running backs the right way. But it took them many, many, many, many weeks to start realizing that running backs can catch passes out of the backfield and they should use them a lot more. So it was good to see. I hope it continues on. But yeah, David Johnson,

absolutely usable running back next week. Yeah. I mean, he is. But if Duke Johnson is back, I don't know how much that would impact things because Duke Johnson was out today. So well, they could both potentially get four catches next week. That would be beautiful. All right. Next up. And if it's Cincinnati, they're playing

even with their pathetic defense, they should be able to kind of limit Cincinnati's offense. And that could lead to a lot of carries for David Johnson and not Duke Johnson. Next up, Tony Pollard is a better start in week 16 than Ezekiel Elliott. They will face the Eagles next week.

Tony Pollard is a better start in week 16 than Ezekiel Elliott. Dave, do you believe that or not? Um, you mean for the Cowboys or for fantasy managers yeah let me let me um it it's very difficult to frame some of these issues in one sentence so let me do a little framing tony pollard is a better start if ezekiel elliott is out than ezekiel elliott is ezekiel elliott is in okay well that is very different than the way I interpreted it.

Okay. I believe that, by the way. I think I believe it, but it's not by very much. Pollard was really not great running the ball until his very last carry. There was a fourth quarter turnover. It was late in the game. It was three minutes left, something like that. And then he ripped off a six- run and then a 40 yard touchdown run

where he was surrounded by three 49ers. One of whom was grabbing his jersey and he spins out of it and cruises to the end zone. So he definitely I think he might have a speed edge on Zeke right now and certainly as a pass catcher I think he had five catches in the first quarter something

crazy like that. I think that maybe he is the better running back for Dallas at this point. I believe it because I think he'll get a bigger share of the carries than Zeke would because Rico Dowdle is not going to have as many carries as Tony Pollard.

You say his name with such disdain. Sorry. What did he ever do to you you're right you're you call me you got me on that um and uh i'm not going to trust that zeke is going to be healthy you know what i mean so sure i believe in heath but pollard had just as much trouble running behind that offensive line as zeke's had for much of this year yeah Yeah. Heath, believe it or not. Oh, I believe it for sure. Yeah. I had Zeke ranked around 22 or so.

When we found out he was surprisingly inactive, I redid the Cowboys projections and had Pollard at number nine. And I dropped him back to, I think, 16 in the projections. We started him over Kareem Hunt. I wish that I would have started him over Cam Akers in a different league, but I didn't.

But yeah, I think he's a high-end number two running back where Zeke's more of a low-end number. Because if Zeke comes back next week, and maybe he has a full week of practice and there's no lingering question marks, but if he comes back next week, why wouldn't the Cowboys give Tony Pollard a few more touches than they had two weeks ago?

Okay. Let's go to our next one. Our final one. Jalen hurts is a top 12 dynasty quarterback. He's 24, 44, 338 yards, three touchdowns plus 63 yards and a touchdown rushing 43 fantasy points at

Arizona. He will be at Dallas next week. And the, believe it or not is Jalen hurts as a top 12 dynasty quarterback. Heath, what do you think? Believe it. Believe it.

And this is not express. I say, I've tried to say that with certainty. It's not expressing certainty about how good Jalen hurts is going to be or how long this will last or if teams will eventually figure it out. It's more about the position of quarterback and we talk about it every year we go into the year there's 20 or 21 or 22 of them we say i'd be fine if he was my starter week one um there's very few that end up being

difference makers and jalen hurts looks like he could be a difference maker and he's a rookie and he looks a lot like what Kyler has at times or what Lamar did at times. And so those are the guys, if we've got Baker Mayfield and Ryan Tannehill and Matt Ryan and Jared Goff in the teens at quarterback, a guy like Jalen Hurts should be ahead of all of them because Jalen Hurts might be a top three quarterback one season. And you've got to think about what Philadelphia's offensive line is going to look like next year. All the guys that got hurt this year that are still on the team are going to be back. They can certainly try and grab another receiver either in free agency or the draft to try and give them some further depth

there. And whether they keep Peterson or they move on from him and they put in a new offense hurts. And I am assuming that hurts will be their quarterback next year. I think he's going to be surrounded with some positives. Now there's some things that you have to notice about this game. For example, he was incomplete on 20 throws. How many of them are going to be considered bad balls, meaning off target, uncatchable throws. He had been at least 23% of his throws in each of the past two games. One of the touchdowns was a third and 20 screen pass

to Quez Watkins. I'm not sure how you pronounce his first name. And he just kind of like scooted down the sideline, evaded a tackle and scored. Greg Ward made an amazing catch on another lob from Jalen Hurts in the end zone. I'm just saying he's probably not quite complete as a passer yet, especially compared to some of the other rookie quarterbacks that we've seen compared to Kyler Murray when he was a rookie quarterback last year. And maybe that's the best part about it. Is that he's an unfinished product who's got room to improve this was his second start so it's exciting and then of course I think the Carson Wentz thing

is gonna hang over there a little bit but we'll we'll see how that plays out I don't know how you go how you go back to Carson Wentz they can't they can't it's hurts his job to lose I guess you'd have to say that. All right. Those are our four believe it or nots. We are going to take a quick break here. When we come back, we've got our winners and our losers. Interesting list of winners and losers today.

I like it. Drew Brees, a loser? What's that all about? All right. We'll take a quick break. We'll come back after about a minute on Fantasy Football today. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference.

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Drew Brees was not a loser. He was originally a loser for someone, but that changed. It is no longer. He's no longer on the loser list. Okay. Adam also refers to himself in third person. Yeah.

I'm giving it a shot. I'm working. I'm workshopping it. That's why you just said I. Adam is workshopping. Yeah, I got to really commit to it. I got to really commit. All right, let's start with Heath's winners. Antonio Brown, 93 yards and a touchdown.

And Corey Davis, who was on the greatest team, the greatest week that anyone has ever had, basically, against me in the IDP League. David Ghanem. He almost has 300 points. I saw that. Can you believe that? I mean, he's has 300 points. I saw that. Can you believe that? I mean,

he's got 300 points. Yeah. You could score 200 in that league. It's not a shock. It's a lot of players. 300. When Corey Davis got, I was like,

of course, Corey Davis is on his team. Um, Corey Davis had 110 yards and a touchdown. So let's talk about Antonio Brown and Corey Davis. Go. Antonio Brown has 12 targets in the two games since Tampa Bay had a buy that is tied for the most targets. Anyone on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has Tom Brady went out and got this

guy and has been fighting with Bruce Arians over how much they're going to use him. And it kind of looks like Tom Brady won the argument and Chris Godwin lost the argument and chris godwin lost the argument uh you think you feel comfortable saying that after just these last two games well i know but we've been treating mike evans like a surefire number two wide receiver and you're starting chris godwin as a number two as well. And Antonio Brown's a flex. Maybe he'll score a touchdown. And I don't think that's the situation. I think it's more like Mike Evans is a number two wide receiver and Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown are number three wide receivers.

And one of them's probably going to disappoint you. Good luck guessing which one, but the fact that they had a bye and coming out of that bye, Godwin has been even less involved and Brown has been even more involved. Kind of makes you wonder. Brown had the first target of the game from Tom Brady. Brown had the first target of the second half from Tom Brady. Brown had the target before Godwin's touchdown. We've almost talked about all of his targets in the game and then he had the the big one later on for the touchdown yeah does any of it have to do with the

fact that they played against the falcons and that past defense just isn't very good and getting detroit next week well but it's not like just antonio brown having success in this game it's not like just Antonio Brown having success in this game. It's the fact that each of the past two weeks, he's had more targets than Chris Godwin. Okay. Let's go to, uh, let's go to Corey Davis. Then Corey Davis bouncing back.

He had, uh, three catches for 34 yards last week, four catches, 110 yards and a touchdown this week. Your thoughts. That man is making some money. He is a free agent and he has looked like

a like he's looked like the guy he was drafted to be this season um it was good to see him bounce back with that type of game i think on a per game basis he's a top 20 wide receiver now for the season and um it's gonna be very very interesting very interesting to see if Tennessee is able to retain him or where he goes and what type of target situation he falls into. What if they let him go? I think that that would be fairly telling as well. Let me tell you what I think is even more interesting, though. Are you going to start him at Green Bay next week?

Because that is no joke of a matchup. They are really good against wide receivers. We're seeing it week after week, basically. Are you going to trust Corey Davis in your championship? I'm probably going to start him because it's a situation where Tennessee is going to have to score a bunch of points because Aaron Rodgers is on the other side. So I think Ryan Tannehill is going to throw more passes. And generally, when Ryan Tannehill is throwing more passes, Corey Davis and A.J. Brown have been awesome.

He usually has that safe 10-point PPR floor. And in a game like this, you could potentially see him have 15 PPR points. It's a game, too, because Matt LaFleur used to coach these guys when he was the OC in Tennessee. I mean, how many times now has he gone over 17, 20 PPR points? He's had some monster games to go along with that floor. Absolutely. And let's be real.

He had a 75-yard touchdown catch against the Lions today, and that's really what made his whole day. So I don't think we can count on that from him every week. I think we usually look at him and say, volume receiver gets a lot of work. That's what makes them usable for fantasy. And I think he'll get that volume next week because of the matchup. All right.

Dave's winners are Jalen hurts. I think we talked about him and he'll get Dallas next week. And JD McKissick, who, I mean, I wish he would get the goal line work. That'll be nice. Peyton Barber had the one yard touchdown run,

but 13 carries for 51 yards, nine catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. The only thing I'm going to ask you, Dave, is they were trailing this game, I think 20-3 at one point against Seattle late in the third quarter, and that's when a lot of his work started to come. He only had two catches in the first half.

That's true, and that's part of the reason why I'm encouraged. But next week is Carolina. Do you think that that could be a trap? There's another reason why I'm encouraged. All right, go on. Well, the last two weeks, he's had a nice rushing average. He's doing better as a runner, and he's getting one of the easiest matchups you could possibly

ask for next week against the Panthers. And coming into this game, he was averaging around four targets per game from Dwayne Haskins, and one of the reasons why I was kind of nervous to recommend McKissick as kind of between a number two running back and a flex and PPR was because Haskins just isn't Alex Smith. He's not going to check down a lot. And someone talked to him at halftime and said, dude,

you got to use JD McKissick out of the backfield. It's going to make a difference. That's my guess. As someone said that to him, maybe they said it a little meaner than that, but he had seven targets and seven catches in the second half, five and five in the fourth quarter, along with the touchdown, easy touchdown too. So I think that he's, could it possibly be that he's evolving into their best running back for however long Antonio Gibson is out?

Oh, that's for sure. I think, but Gibson, they're going to keep using them then. Well, is he, or isn't he? I don't, we don't know that. Right. Well, look, then we can forget about're going to keep using him then. Well, is he or isn't he? I don't know. We don't know that. Right. Well, look, then we can forget about the last 60 seconds of our lives

listening to this if Gibson's back. Yeah. Well, yeah, I guess so. But it's great that he's gotten 11 and 13 carries in his last two games. I just wonder because last week they beat San Francisco and McKissick got two catches. This week they were trailing big in the third quarter and he got nine catches.

We'll see against Carolina. Usually that's part of the formula for McKissick. It's nice to see it happen with Haskins instead of Smith. Sure. All right, so the losers. Dave, who are your losers? My losers are Brandon Cooks and Cooper Cup, former

teammates. Now they're just two receivers who fantasy managers are going to have tough. They're going to have confidence issues with starting them. Man, what a terrible trade I made this morning. What'd you do? I traded Michael Thomas in my Dynasty League for Cooper Cup and Raheem Mostert. Why? Because Michael Thomas is not playing league for Cooper cup and Raheem Mostert. Why? Because Michael Thomas is not playing the rest of the season and I'm in the

semifinals. And I was like, you're desperate for a win. Trying to win. Are you trying to win? That's a hell of a mortgage, dude. I don't know.

Like Michael Thomas with Taysom Hill at quarterback is a low end. Number one, high end, number two, wide receiver. Maybe. And that's if Taysom Hill is the quarterback next year.

You think that it's going to be him. Who knows if they're actually going to stick with that or if they end up getting somebody else. I can't believe you made that trade. You've been the Michael Thomas guy since he came out of the draft. Michael Thomas is not going to help me win a championship this year. No, I get it.

How much money is on the line here? If it's like a million dollars, then okay, I get it. But if it's less than a million dollars... I don't know. Less than a million? It's less than a million dollars for sure. I don't like to trade that. Okay.

Look, Cook's had a big role, but since he's been this number one guy with Will Fuller out, I don't think he's been this number one guy with Will Fuller out, I don't think he's been fantastic for fantasy. I mean, we're talking about Kiki QT and Chad Hanson having some big games, not just today, but over these last three games. So I'm nervous to say that Brandon Cooks is not just a guy that's priced cheaply in DFS. Maybe now we know why, but also not a number two receiver that you can just plunk right into your lineup.

And look, you come into this matchup against the jets and you think, all right, the Rams are just going to win. Golf won't have to do very much. And then the jets get ahead and you go, Oh, golf's going to have to do something this week.

And he's going to have to throw a lot. And he throws a decent amount and Cooper cup still doesn't get a lot of targets and a lot of catches and a lot of yards, but Robert Woods does. And Tyler Higby does. I think people are going to be nervous to start Cooper Cup this week, next week. And then when draft time comes around, man, I'm not sure Cooper Cup would even be a top 50 pick

or a top 60 pick at this point. I am definitely starting Cooper Cup against Seattle this week. Look, I think that he's going to be at least a flex. Seattle's secondary obviously isn't anything to know about, but it's about opportunities, and he's not getting a ton of them. He played the Jets this week. He played the Jets

this week. I understand. We can just say that the entire Rams offense, though, besides Robert Woods, but back to Brandon Cooks, it's kind of weird because he's got one game since week four with fewer than 11 PPR points. And Brandon Cooks has always been

the boom bust guy. He's had a pretty nice floor this season. Yeah, but he just hasn't really had a big game. Not when you're starting as a number two guy. He's usually around 65 to 85 yards. Yeah.

And hasn't scored, what does he have, three touchdowns this year? I'm not sure. He has three touchdowns this year. That's correct. Yeah, so I don't know. I think it's a little disappointing

that Chad Hansen's outperforming him and QT had a touchdown today. I agree with you, Dave. Second week in a row. For me, I put him in my lineup every week on FanDuel. And maybe this is the time to go back to him. Heath always talks about that in DFS.

A guy keeps failing, you go back to him. But it just seems so, what are they doing? He's so underpriced. And joke's on me, because he hasn't been underpriced. But if Deshaun Watson's going to keep playing this well, and he threw for 373 yards, he wasn't great last week. But 373 yards, I would expect better things week, but 373 yards, you know, I would expect better things from Cooks, but

it's a little disappointing that it hasn't happened. And I just want to add something on Cup, because Jacob Gibbs pointed out, it didn't happen in this game because they were trailing, but they've been playing a lot more two tight end sets, and the snaps have gone down for Cooper Cup recently, and they were up today, and they probably will be up

next week, too, but against Seattle, but it's just something to keep in mind going into next year, that this is a team that is now shown two years in a row, when they start winning down the stretch, they are going two tight ends, and they're taking Cooper Cup off the field, so it's something to keep in your back pocket. All right, let's go to Heath, your losers, who are your losers, and you know what, let me say something about Drew Brees, because he wasn't't originally a loser and then he ended up with 25 points. This was our home team watch party. We watched the game. He was not good.

I mean, it took him a while to get going. He had never in his entire career started 0 for 5. He had never been 0 for 5 and he was at least 0 for 6 in this game. So he got off to the worst start of his career and just made up for it in the fourth

quarter, but just did not look right. And the Chiefs were press covering the hell out of the Saints receivers and they couldn't beat them. They couldn't beat them deep. So he's not going to get Michael Thomas and he could use them. All right. Sorry, Heath, you're losers. Dallas Goddard, who did get eight targets at least, but it was really discouraging to see Zach or it's getting the downfield tight end targets. I don't know. Like, I guess the, that's the element of surprise. They would think no one would ever send Zach or it's deep. And so it worked, but that's bad news for Dallas Goddard. It works much better for him when Zach hurts is the short area tight end and Goddard seeing the stuff downfield. And then Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard didn't look great today. I wouldn't disagree with what Dave said. Tony Pollard looked better. He flashed. Just not better than Ezekiel Elliott has.

It's not entirely the offensive line and Andy Dalton's fault. You got to start, you got to think right now if you haven't been to Dynasty League, you got to wonder what you have in Zeke, right? I'm not, I'm not making any statements about the rest of his career because you, you get that line healthy. It's a different story, but you've at least got to be wondering, is he, is he about We go back to the David Montgomery thing, and I was thinking about David Montgomery versus Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones is going to turn 26 next year,

and he could be in this situation. He's a free agent after this year. That's even worse. Alright, some almost touchdowns. You guys can help me out here because I didn't see many in the 4 o'clock games. Dallas Gowder had one.

Freddie Swain had a touchdown catch reverse. Does that matter? It matters for Russell Wilson. He had a horrible game. Mitchell Trubisky came up a yard short of a rushing touchdown, and then David Montgomery scored three plays later. DeAndre Swift had a two-touchdown game. He almost had a three-touchdown game.

He actually fumbled at the goal line early in the game, and they went back to him, which was good to see. Herb Smith dropped a touchdown. That sucked. Yeah, it looked like a pretty good call. He dropped a touchdown. And Tyler Conklin had a big game as a tight end for the... He had a screen pass that he took to the house from 20 yards out. It was kind of fluky.

But he had 40 yards. It was like the Quez Watkins catch from Hurts. He had 40 yards in the game. I know. Well, half of them came on that play. Yeah, I'm just saying, I mean, the Bears stink against tight ends is what I'm getting at. That's true.

So there was... Tyler Eifert next week. Yeah, maybe. In the Dolphins game, Tua Tungavailoa nearly had a rushing touchdown and Savan Ahmed scored on the next play. And then later in the game, Ahmed nearly had a rushing touchdown

and then Tua Tungavailoa snuck it in on the next play. So they later in the game, Ahmed nearly had a rushing touchdown, and then Tua Tungabailoa snuck it in on the next play, so they just net zero there. And Mike Evans came up a yard short of a touchdown catch, and Leonard Fournette pounded it in with one of his two touchdowns. I don't know if there were any other noteworthy almost

touchdowns. It works for me. Alright, let's look at the top five at each position, then we'll get to the games. And we already did all the quarterbacks, so we'll just go right to the running backs. David Montgomery,

I know, is number one. And give me one moment and I will get the running backs queued up, but I think Tony Pollard was number two. And he was. This is all non-PPR.

Derek Henry, three. Aaron Jones, four. Dalvin Cook, five. How about Savan Ahmed, six? Yeah, right there. Tied with Melvin Gordon. Both guys very much deserving of discussion here because Ahmed had 23 carries

and Gordon only had 11. He had four catches. But Gordon scored a couple times. Heath, your level of confidence in Ahmed and Melvin Gordon going forward? What's the status on Myles Gaskin? I think he's expected back.

Let's say he plays. If he plays, then I have no confidence in Ahmed. I feel like he's been a better runner than Myles Gaskin. Myles Gaskin's been awesome when he's had that type of workload too. I think maybe you'll see them both. Like,

I wonder what the dolphins combined running back stats look like. Cause Gaskin has been awesome. Ahmed's been awesome. Matt Brita was awesome today. Um, I, I'm not going to have a lot of confidence in a dolphins running back. If miles Gaskin is back,

although Ahmed was much better than I anticipated. I mean, he had a bunch of work and they were able to run the ball extremely well. Dolphins running back if Miles Gaskin is back. Although Ahmed was much better than I anticipated. I mean, he had a bunch of work and they were able to run the ball extremely well on New England. Matt Breida probably had a third of the carries. I think he finished with like 75, 80 yards. I think he had his best game of the year by far. And still, that was kind of what I was concerned about with Ahmed was it would be more of a timeshare. It didn't matter because they were able to run the ball 50 times. And that might be the case next week, too,

because they take on the Raiders in their run defense. I know they were good against Austin Ackler last on Thursday, but I still don't believe in them as a good defense. No. All right. Let's go to the wide receivers then. Oh, actually, just Dave, real quick, your confidence level in Melvin Gordon. He's got the Chargers next week. Revenge game.

We know he's down for a big game then, and I think he outplayed Phillip Lindsey in week. He has outplayed Phillip Lindsey about five or six weeks in a row. It's a little ridiculous that they keep giving Phillip Lindsey all this work. Yeah, maybe they won't. I think you can look at Gordon as he'll fall in somewhere as a number two running back. I have Melvin Gordon on two championship league.

I am so excited for Melvin Gordon revenge game championship week. I'm just going to read something to you real quick here. Note I had going into these games. Philip Lindsay. Where are you? Okay. He had only five fewer carries. Okay. He had in, he had only five

fewer carries. Okay. The last four games, he had five fewer carries than Melvin Gordon and 162 fewer yards. We said at the beginning of the year that Melvin Gordon's just a much more efficient runner. And they shouldn't give Phillip Lindsay all these carries because he's so inefficient.

Wide receiver. Calvin Ridley, you know. We didn't say that. I know. I got the joke, but yes. Good job clarifying. Calvin Ridley and DeAndre Hopkins were huge. 160 plus yards and a touchdown for both of them. Zach Paschal. Two touchdowns for him.

T.Y. Hilton was not terrible, but was disappointing. Hilton was close to having a touchdown. He had a 41-yard bomb late in the game that I think it set up Pascal's second touchdown. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I was kind of high on Pittman this week because I was thinking

Pittman would be the guy that would get some good work against Houston in that terrible secondary, and it ended up being Pascal. Marvin Jones. It's going to be a difficult decision with T.Y. Hilton in week 16. Who do they have? don't i don't know they have why would it be a difficult decision they're at pittsburgh they're at pittsburgh that i don't the steelers that doesn't make it any easier no um i think it's difficult because of the type of season that ty hilton has had and how close he was to really just laying an egg in this game.

And now you're playing the Steelers in your fantasy championship. It's kind of like Pascal's wager. Don't get that one. Little Pascals. So Marvin Jones is a really interesting guy. At least as a football player. 10 catches, 112 yards, and a touchdown

for Marvin Jones on 12 targets. And it's like, what a roller coaster it's been, Dave. Do we just start Marvin Jones or what? Yeah, I think as long as Stafford's the quarterback, you can look at Jones as anywhere between 20th and 35th among wide receivers, especially in PPR. Okay, they get Tampa Bay next week. We go to the tight ends.

Who do you think tight end one is? Logan Thomas? Travis Kelsey? I would say Logan Thomas. Well, you don't do PPR though, so probably Kelsey. We forgot about Waller. He's number one from Thursday. But from Sunday, it's Kelsey in non-PPR.

And is it Thomas in PPR? It is Logan Thomas in PPR. He's got one more fantasy point than... What a ridiculous game for him. Yeah, 13 catches for 101 yards. That's wild. Not a bad

week for tight ends. Kelsey, Fant, Higby Hunter Henry, Mark Andrews all had about 65 yards and a touchdown Darren Waller crushed them all and Tyler Conklin had 57 yards and a touchdown

how about just in case we don't get to them Dawson Knox and Dan Arnold perhaps emerging a little bit enough to get anyone interested. I think Arnold was kind of on the low end radar to begin with because he had so many touchdowns recently

and getting three catches is kind of high for him. He usually doesn't get even that much work in five targets might even be a season high. I don't know. I can't say I'm overly excited about him. Knox is a touchdown. He and Knox say I'm overly excited about him. Knox is a touchdown. He and Knox are both touchdown or bust tight ends.

And I think fantasy managers are going to be encouraged by what they got out of most tight ends this week. Well, then let's go to the games. Here we go. Tight ends been so good all year. You know, just glad it came through again in week 15. What's our first game today? Oh, we got to go do the Saturday games, of course. Buffalo 48, Denver 19.

Heath, what do you got on this one? Oh, I didn't think about the fact that we were doing Saturday. Believe it or not, Josh Allen, we're going to transition to a lot more 2021 type talk. Believe it or not, Josh Allen is a top three quarterback for 2021. No. I'm not ready to say I believe it, but I'm not ready to dismiss it either. That is so quick with the dismissal.

Well, I think he's in the conversation of being a top three quarterback next year. I know that I'm going to be going Mahomes and Kyler over him. Oh, I don't know if I'm going Kyler over him. I'm pretty sure I'm going Kyler over him. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that. So we've already got four quarterbacks with more than 400 fantasy points this season. Mahomes is at 420 kyler and rogers are at 4 11 and josh allen is at 403. he might be two for me two okay yeah he might be

too don't hold me to it i mean what we should do is make rus Wilson number one, and then when we get to week eight, just tell everybody to trade him away. From the charge from the Broncos side of this. Hey, wait. I've got to believe it or not. Okay. Believe it or not, Cole Beasley is a must start in any format in week 16. I wouldn't go that far yet.

If John Brown is out, then I think Cole Beasley is a top 25 wide receiver. I'm not sure that quite makes him mustard. Yeah. Or in a normal week. Yeah. But you got, you know,

you got loaded teams here at new England is the matchup. Dave, you believe it. I kind of do. I think it's an easy believe in PPR and in half PPR. The one thing that I will say is that this feels like

it might be the first or second game this season where the Bills were in control pretty much the entire time and Beasley still had a big game. Usually I feel like Beasley only has a chance to have a big game if it's going to be a high-scoring,

back-and-forth matchup. And not only that's going to be the matchup in Week 16, but I think he's too reliable of a receiver to ignore. I think Allen loves him, but Brown cannot play. Well, try telling him that. Okay, next game is Green Bay and Carolina. I'll just go up to him and flick his knee with my finger,

and he'll be on the shelf for three more weeks. So Carolina's at Washington. Believe it or not, Mike Davis is a top 12 running back at Washington in week 16. I mean, I think I will, in full PPR, I'm probably going to have him ranked pretty close to 12. Whether he finishes in the top 12 will depend on whether he scores a touchdown

or not, but that's true about 25 running backs. So you could rank him anywhere from 10 to 20, and I wouldn't argue with you too much. Can they stop giving Teddy Bridgewater the ball at the goal line? Please? Just let Mike Davis handle it. It'd be nice.

You know, what else would be nice is if Davis was getting every single snap like he was earlier this year and he wasn't losing time to other running backs on the team. Who had a more disappointing game? Aaron Rogers with 19 fantasy points or Devante Adams with seven catches for 42 yards? Adams.

Yeah, Adams. I was going to say Rodgers is like the automatic one, but that's pretty bad, man. Russell Wilson was worse than him, so. Yeah, that's true. All right, Miami 22, New England 12. Yeah. Man, this game sucks. This is so bad.

Believe it. You didn't sit This is so bad. Believe it. You didn't sit through and watch it. Believe it. I could come up with something. Believe it or not, Tua Tungvaluwa is top 15 quarterback at Las Vegas. Believe it. He's absolutely in that conversation. Because the Raiders are just so terrible.

I would love to. He's absolutely in that conversation because the Raiders are just so terrible. I would love to... I'm going to try to calculate the percentage of Cam Newton's yards that Jacoby Myers has in the last four or five games because he doesn't have a lot... He had 111 yards, and there are games where Cam Newton throws for 85 yards, and he has 50 of them.

So he's done a pretty good job. All right. Screw that game. Seattle 20 and Washington 15. Yeah. Believe it or not, you can start JD McKissick and PPR even if Antonio Gibson's back. Nope. I'm thinking it's not quite as easy.

Even against Carolina. No chance. It's not a snap that you start him in PPR if Gibson's back. It is if Gibson's not back. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just such a big difference. Right. We got to talk about Russell Wilson here.

Russell Wilson letting us down. Like, again, one big game against the Jets just doesn't cure anything. And so now what are his fantasy points in his last five games? Nine or six games. 9-23, 16-16, 30-13. Total dud. And Metcalf has been a little disappointing. 13 or fewer PPR fantasy points in four of his last six games.

So what do you make of it, Dave? In this game, they didn't have time of possession on their side. In the second half, Washington really hogged the football. He had the touchdown to Freddie Swain. That was overturned. That drive ended with a field goal. If that touchdown counts, it's two scores for him. Let's go. You're making excuses.

You're making excuses for him. He's been really disappointing down the stretch. The thing that stood out to me was his offensive line disintegrated very quickly against the Washington front, and he was getting rid of the ball as quick as he could. He did not want to get hit. I didn't necessarily like that. There was one play where he ended up running and he gained almost like 40 yards on the ground when he was evading that pressure. But now he's got the Rams next week and it's going to be

an angry Rams defense. And I'm sure they're going to try and get after Russell Wilson. And I, I, I'm going to have a hard time with him as a top 10 fantasy quarterback. He's probably not going to make that list. And DK Metcalf is probably not going to be a top 10 receiver. And Tyler Lockett let us down yet again. He's not going to be a top 24, maybe not even a top 30 wide receiver next week. Now we're talking. See, this is what I wanted to hear.

Are you going to start Tua Tungabailoa at the Raiders? Dave, I want you to really think carefully before you answer this, what Adam's going to ask because you have a team with Russell Wilson at starting quarterback that beat me and is going to the championship next week. I have a team with Russell Wilson at starting quarterback

that won and is going to the championship. We're both playing Jamie with Russell Wilson at starting quarterback. We're not sitting Russell Wilson, Dave. Why? Well, it depends on who else you have. Against the Rams? Against maybe the best defense in football, you're not going to sit Russell Wilson. The team that I've got Russell Wilson

starting this week on my bench is Roethlisberger. And he's got Indianapolis next week. And if he has a good game this week, maybe I could find my way to starting Roethlisberger. And he's got Indianapolis next week. And if he has a good game this week, maybe I could find my way in turning Roethlisberger over Wilson.

I'm just saying that Russell Wilson shouldn't be considered a slam dunk start for Week 16. Well, yeah, Heath, you say that, and I guess this is an area where you and I don't agree. I'm not sitting this guy myself.

I am willing to sit Russell Wilson he did this to us last year last year was crap after crap after crap and it's like wow I'm not sitting well we should have and lock it lock it like I don't know how you can trust him um I want to clarify yeah I don't have a backup quarterback on teams that have Russell Wilson. So I'm not going to go pick up a quarterback off the waiver wire and start him over Russell Wilson. Why? What if it's

Tua? What if Tua were available? I don't really think I'm going to have Tua ranked in my top. I still anticipate that Russell Wilson is going to be ranked in my top 12. What if Drew Brees is available? Probably not, but maybe.

Okay. All right. Let's go to Dallas and San Francisco. Dallas 41, San Francisco 33. Heath Cummings. Yeah. Believe it or not, CeeDee Lamb is startable in Week 16.

They get the Eagles. Probably. PPR leagues, probably. And it's got nothing to do with his onside kick recovery for a touchdown. He had a couple of really nice catches from Andy Dalton. But I do think, Dave, it would be good if you could tell um our listeners what you texted me this afternoon to help make their fantasy leagues better what i texted you this oh the getting credit for special teams yardage and touchdowns

you said thank you i said i get credit for cdD. Lamb's kick return touchdown. Yeah, that's going to help me hopefully win my matchup. So many leagues, you would not get points for that. And you would watch this awesome thing happen. Very impactful to the game. Your player doing something great. And then you would look at your score, and your score would be the same as it was before you did that. Right, because you don't get credit for it.

And the argument for it is, well, the Cowboys DST gets credit for it. Not your player, but in the league in question, there are no DSTs. It's an IDP league. Right. It's the IDP league. So I think in that situation, I think it makes sense to let players get credit for their

special teams yardage and touchdowns. All touchdowns should count. I don't know, but then why would shouldn't your punt returner should get points? So you're saying that if this were not an IDP league and I started CeeDee Lamb and the Cowboys DST, it's

okay for me to get double points for that? You know what? If you started Andy Dalton and Andy Dalton threw him a touchdown, you'd get double points for it. If I started Andy... But I'm starting two players. a touchdown, you'd get double points for it. If I started Andy... But I'm starting two players. You're starting two players when you start the Cowboys. But that's the act of the throw

and the act of the catch. You're awarding double points for this. It's the act of the run and the act of the blocking. No! Get the hell out of here. Yes, all touchdowns should count. It does count if you have the DST. If Cee Lamb scores it, it should count. For the DST, yeah, you're right.

No, for the guy who scores the touchdown. Look, it's so rare it doesn't happen very often. There might be one player... It's happened two weeks in a row, hasn't it? That's a fantasy relevance that scores a special teams touchdown. It happened to DK earlier this year. It happened to A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown, that's right.

Yeah, like two weeks ago or last week or something. Sure. All right, that.J. Brown. A.J. Brown, that's right. Yeah, like two weeks ago or last week or something. Sure. All right. That was fun. That was fun. How about C.D. Lamb? Do you see him as a top 15 wide receiver in Dynasty? I would like to thank Jack Conklin for clipping.

Thank you. Me too for now. But good grief. Why did you have to bring that up? I just don't even want to talk. So, yeah, you're about to see someone melt down here. Brandon Ayuk is amazing. And do you have any interest in Kendrick Bourne

or Richie James next week? They both had pretty good games at Arizona. Our Hail Mary catch was pretty fun. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was, you know. That wasn't bad. I guess I had forgotten pretty fun. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was, you know, uh, that wasn't right. I guess I had forgotten about that. Not really born in James born kind of a desperation PPR guy. I guess James is in the same category. Okay. Moving on to our next game. Then Tampa Bay 31 and Atlanta 27, uh, Tom Brady scored 27 fantasy points. It was not pretty, but he got there. Heath, what do we got for Tampa Bay and Atlanta?

Yeah. Believe it or not, Russell Gage is a top 25 PPR wide receiver. I believe it because he's giving you at least 15 PPR points each of his last three games, including this week. It does depend on Julio Jones playing, though. If Julio's back, I'm not going to feel good about starting Russ Gage. Yeah.

And, you know, one of the games with the 15, he had a passing touchdown, but he still would have had, I think, like 13 without it. So he's been very, very good and pretty reliable. And I don't know. I mean, it just looks like Todd Gurley is just barely playing. He had two touches in this game. They gave him the Mark Ingram role. Mentor? What role does Mark Ingram have now?

Veteran leadership. I'd be pretty annoyed if I had played. Gurley's headed toward that role next year. I'd be annoyed if I had played against Leonard Fournette. It just felt like garbage that he ended up with the two-touchdown game. He really got off to a miserable start. How much do you trust Tom Brady at Detroit? Nine.

Yeah. Okay. Our next game, then, is Baltimore 40 and Jacksonville 14. And I know Heath needs Nick Chubb to not score here and sorry buddy one touchdown is okay

I just need him to not have an enormous like that touchdown did not cost me a shot at the championship alright well I'm rooting for you Baltimore 40 Jacksonville 14 and Lamar Jackson is absolutely on fire at the right time. That is now 29, 36, and 34 fantasy points

and six points per pass in touchdown leagues in his last three games. Heath, what do you got from Baltimore and Jacksonville? Let me look at one thing real quick because I just want to make sure. I want to get this right. Okay. Believe it or not, Gardner Minshew

is actually the top streamer available. Against the Bears? I'd rather have Tua. You wouldn't rather have Tua? I think I'd rather have Tua, too, but I don't think the Bears' defense is this... I said it going into

this week as part of my argument for why you should start Kirk Cousins. I don't think that they're a dominant pass defense. Jalen Hurts is still available on a lot of leagues. Okay, so Hurts would obviously go ahead. He's only 49% rostered. And he's at Dallas. So we then don't believe it. Yeah, don't believe it.

But if Hurts is already rostered, you can kind of make the case. I think you can make the case for Minshew. He probably has a little more upside than Tua. Yeah, you have the concern with Tua of them just being able to run the ball and get a big lead or something like that, I guess. All right, and J.K. Dobbins, we now consider him a must-start. He only had 14 carries, but you get a lot of rushing touchdowns

from Ravens running backs. 64 yards and a touchdown. Gus Edwards had nine carries. Dobbins a must start. He's got the Giants in week 16. I feel like he will need more than the low teens of carries in order to have a big game. And I don't know if he's necessarily going to get that,

but the touchdowns can't be ignored. And I don't know what the snap percentage was or the touch rate as is either way, but I think he's got, I think he's a number two running back. I think that's where I'm going to settle on him. And that's where I had him this week. Okay. And Marquise Brown, he's a, he's on a roll here. Three straight games with a touchdown before today, but he had 98 yards on six catches. Took advantage of a great matchup. Colts 27 and the Texans 20. And

Sean Watson had, you know, 26 fantasy points, which is usually amazing, but this week it was like QB 10 or so. All right, Heath, what do we got from the Colts and the Texans? Well, we already did David Johnson, so... And Brandon Cooks. And we talked about the receivers. And Brandon Cooks.

And we talked about the receivers. And T.Y. Hilton a little bit. Yeah, I think we're good. I'll give you a quick one. Believe it or not, Jonathan Taylor should be a top 24 pick next year. Oh, believe it. 24?

Yeah. Of course I believe that. He might end up being a top 12 pick next year. We're not going to do the thing where we say you have to draft 11 running backs in the first round again, right? We're going to remember the top three or four you have to draft 11 running backs in the first round again, right? We're going to, we're going to remember that you can, you can sort your order your way. I got a feeling you're going to know how I'm going to sort my order.

It's going to be a lot of running backs and Tyreek Hill. Yeah. He's coming on strong for sure. Phillip rivers is, is a pretty safe floor kind of guy. I mean, it's 21, 23,

21 and 21 fantasy points in four straight games. Very good number two quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. That's how it has to be said. Chicago 33 and Minnesota 27, Heath. Yeah. Adam Thielen? You want to do an Adam Thielen one?

I was just going to do, believe it or not, Adam Thielen's just the number two receiver on his own team moving forward. I believe it. Justin Jefferson is going to, I think he's going to finish as a top 10 wide receiver, which is crazy for a rookie. He's just having an amazing year. But it's a really good sign for his future.

Oh, yeah. Tremendous sign. Really good. Yeah, I think at this point, yeah. Tremendous sign. Really good. Yeah. Yeah, I think at this point, yeah, they start Jefferson over Thielen. Thielen scores the touchdowns though, but Jefferson had eight more targets than Adam Thielen. And Cousins was, you know,

he was solid. He had 22 points. That's his worst home game in a while. He's at New Orleans next week. Tennessee 46 and Detroit 25. Tennessee 46 and Detroit 25. Tennessee 46, Detroit 25. We talked about Ryan Tannehill. We talked about Marvin Jones. What do you got, Heath?

Believe it or not, DeAndre Swift is a top 24 pick next year. How many of these are we going to do that with? It was a great class. I think there's really a chance he could end up being a top 24 pick in PPR. We know the Lions are going to have a new coaching staff.

They should be smarter about how they use their running backs. Hopefully it won't be like they've had. He could be close. He could be close. He probably won't be a top 24 running back, but top 36, yes. So how much are you going to care about the history of Detroit running backs? Because once upon a time, we were excited about Amir Abdullah going into his second year. We were all excited about Kerryon Johnson going into his second year. And this still is just a team that has had a horrible running game for coming up on a decade, really.

Maybe more like eight years um i i mean he looks special he looks different but how much are you going to care about that history for the lions doesn't matter well in hopefully they're going to have a complete and total systematic change for like the third time and i think this think this might finally get the stench off and we'll just start fresh with DeAndre Swift. And I'm not going to care that much about it. I was just looking at something different though and it's worth saying

because we were talking about how awesome Justin Jefferson is and I do think he's awesome and I do think he's probably going to finish as a top 10 wide receiver. It's very close. If Tyler Lockett has one more good game, then he won't.

But LOL. receiver it's very close if tyler lockett has one more good game then he won't but um lol brandon iuk is two tenths of a point behind justin jefferson and fantasy points per game there's a very good chance like 40 that iuk finishes better on a per game basis than jefferson yeah now that's going to be a tough one because you know he's doing so much of this without Kittle. He's doing a lot of it without Debo. And that's going to be a tough one to evaluate. He's doing it all without Garoppolo. It's a great rookie year. You don't shy away from that.

But I feel like he's going to be kind of controversial. Controversial is not the right word. He needs 167 more yards and then we'll know that he's good. He gets the 900? Jets 23 and the Rams 20. What do we got from this gem?

Holy cow. We did Cooper Cup. We talked to Cooper Cup already. I don't think there's anything to say with the Jets, is there? Well, Frank Gore had 23 carries. And you go back to weeks 11 and 12, he had good games there. He had 17 touches, he had 21 touches, and he was usable. And then he got hurt in week 13, and Ty Johnson had that big game.

So you're actually somehow getting really good production, typically, from the number one running back for the Jets. Who do they have next week? They have Cleveland. Did I say correctly that the Jets really don't have the number one pick anymore? No, the Jaguars have the tiebreaker, right? That's bad for Gardner.

I don't understand. You hadn't left enough of your mark. You know what they should do, Heath? They should fire Adam Gase right now. They kept him around so they could get the number one. You won a game. You are out. Now I'm wondering if Doug Maroon has to bench Gardner Minshew.

You can't play your best quarterback now. But that's not how this works. You know that the coach... Well, it should be. If they're going to do that, then they need to fire not just Maroon, but probably the whole coaching staff, because those coaches are trying to get a win. They know they're getting replaced next year.

They're not going to be able to stick around and develop. Well, just start Jake Luton. I think you'll make sure you don't get it. Yeah, there you go. Well, but I don't know if that's ever really even happened where the the owner it would have to come from the owner to say we want to we want to lose this game i i hope that would never happen i don't think listen i don't think jacksonville is a good enough team where it'll even matter either way right it's not they don't they're playing mitchell trubisky. All right.

So maybe the big winner today was actually Trevor Lawrence. And let's just, since we all recommended Cam Akers to so many people and he laid an egg, he did have a touchdown callback on a hold.

But 15 carries, 63 yards, one catch. He also got hurt in the first half. He did. But still, but with that said, like he had 15 carries. Daryl Henderson and Malcolm Brown had one each. He still got all of the work.

He just didn't have that good of a game. Did we just underestimate the Jets again like we did with Devontae Booker? What happened here? It's like we do against everybody that plays the Jets. I think some of it was game script, too. He had 50 carries over the past two games

and it's kind of encouraging to me that they lost and were playing from way behind for most of the game and he still had 16 touches. I agree. Things just went wacky with this one but of all the things, I'm sorry if you started him.

I started him too and it sucks. I did too. Of all the things that we got wrong, this is the one I feel the least guilty about. 19 points, 17 points. The Jets won a football game. We're not going to hold this against anybody. And I think everybody is going to go right back to Cam Akers next week

against the Seahawks. The only question is, do the coaches get a little freaked out because he got hurt in the game? And they say, oh, we're overworking him. We got to use some other running backs. And then he's back to 12 touches. That would suck. Yeah.

It is his second time getting hurt this year, Philadelphia and Arizona, Arizona, 33, Philadelphia, 26. What do we got? So we did Jalen hurts already.

Let's go with mile Sanders. Believe it or not, Chase Edmonds is a better Dynasty running back than Kenyon Drake. I don't think I believe that. Kenyon Drake is just not the kind of player that I'm excited

about in Dynasty. Just feels like his... Maybe one more year? Are you sized for chase edmunds no yeah i don't know if kenyan drake is a top 30 dynasty running back um again it's chase edmunds no i don't i don't think but what i'm i mean it's i think he's borderline um i think is there a better chance that chase Edmonds is the starter in Arizona next year than Kenyon Drake? No.

Because Kenyon Drake is free agent. Edmonds under contract. I don't think they've got the confidence in Edmonds as a lead back. By the contract definition, I think I'd have to say yes on that, but I still think I can't really see them beginning the year with Chase Edmonds

as their starting running back. That'd be my guess. I feel like they would bring someone in or draft someone. We'll probably go Gaga over. Probably. Miles Sanders, 17 carries, only 64 yards, one catch for 26 yards at Arizona.

So you do get a decent amount of total yards. You get 90 total yards, but no touchdown, only one catch. And he did get every running back carry for Philadelphia. That's the great news. But how do we evaluate this game, Heath? Discouraging. But I think Miles Sanders is a

number two running back. And as long as you value him as a mid-range to low in number two then it's fine i'm encouraged by the touches 18 touches is still better than where he was two weeks ago and three weeks ago it's just discouraging because last week he had this monster game but a lot of it was on one run last week and then he had a goal line carry on top of that long touchdown run so maybe we kind of overhyped Miles Sanders a little bit,

but I'm glad he's still getting this lion's share. The workhorse role. He's still in that workhorse role that keeps his value nice and high. DeAndre Hopkins is amazing. That touchdown catch was great and I am looking forward to seeing the A-dot

for Kyler Murray because it was so low last week. But we definitely saw him throw the ball downfield and very effectively, and that was a good sign. And finally, a strange game. Kansas City 32, New Orleans 29. And we were watching it, and you've got 61 points being scored. And it didn't really feel like a shootout.

It was just such a strange game. And it felt like it was taking forever. Oh my God. It ended at almost 8 o'clock. It had to be one of the longest four-quarter games of the year. It was really not a fun watch. Did you see the time of possession for the

Saints? Yeah, 18 minutes and 46 seconds. And that's the thing. The Saints defense did a great job considering the Chiefs. Like I said, 4.5 yards per play. that's the thing. The Saints defense did a great job considering the Chiefs. Like I said, 4.5 yards per play. That's super low. The Saints defense really hung in there,

gave their team a chance to win even though they gave up 32 points. So Mahomes comes through. We'll talk about the running back situation on the Waver Wire show. I was going to say, believe it or not, Le'Veon Bell is a top 20 running back if he's healthy this week.

Ah, Adam's face. And I was going to say, believe it or not, Le'Veon Bell is a top 20 running back if he's healthy this week. So I had him space. They play Atlanta. Well, I mean, what do you think if he's healthy? What do you think the split is with Darrell Williams? He'll be the running downs guy and Williams will be the third down guy. I think his workload today, 15 carries and a reception. Be a good projection. Okay.

And he was getting some decent work even before Edward Ziller got hurt. But that was 15 carries with 42 minutes of possession, but it also was with Clyde Edward Ziller with 14 carries. He could get to 20 carries next week. Okay. Emmanuel Sanders. I don't regret how bullish I was on him. Four catches for 76 yards. Not a great game, but only five targets.

I don't know. I mean, how do you guys feel about him? Number three receiver. I think I maybe got a little excited, but... I think there was a reason for excited, but... I think there was reason for it, though. I really do. You figured it was going to be a high-scoring game. You know he gave you 15 PPR points in three or four games

with Drew Brees and without Michael Thomas. He fell short of it, but I think that's still well within the range of possibility for him next week. Let's not forget, by the way, Drew Brees scored 25 points. That was with Taysom Hill running for a touchdown. So annoying. And it was with Drew Brees not

even completing half of his throws. He didn't play well. He really struggled. He looked terrible until the fourth quarter and then he started to play a little bit better. So you hope that he comes back and plays a little bit better next week. You can understand some rust there. That's going to do it for our show today. All right. Good stuff. Thank you to Heath, and thank you to Dave

and to Ben Schrager as well, to all of you for listening. Listen, if you lost this week, don't go anywhere. Keep listening. We've got off-season podcasts, three per week, beginning in January, but we've got our normal schedule for the last two weeks of the season. We're going to have some fun. We'll get through it together.

We'll give you some DFS advice, whatever you need, and we'll talk to you on Monday when Chris and Ben join the show. Talk to you then. Thanks.