Fantasy Football Today - Week 16 Recap! Burrow, Burkhead, Barkley and More (12/26 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

Welcome to the Fantasy Finals, Joe Burrow managers! He's our big winner (5:00) from Week 16 and Rex Burkhead is also a Week 16 winner but does his performance matter as we evaluate Week 17? Who is this week's biggest loser (8:40)? ... News and notes (11:30) with a look at the waiver wire for Week 17. We react to James Robinson's injury and discuss the Jaguars, Chiefs and Eagles backfields as waiver wire options. Then we've got some interesting stats (17:15), 2022 Fill in the Blank (21:00), winners (27:30) including Gerald Everett and Rashaad Penny and losers (32:00) including Cordarrelle Patterson and Saquon Barkley ... Recapping each game with our Fantasy takes (42:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. It is Sunday night, and Joe Burrow is the man. We're going to talk about that incredible performance. Fourth most passing yards in NFL history in your fantasy semifinals. What's going on? We've got a lot more to discuss as well. Adam Azer, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings here.

Guys, how we doing? Let me just say I'm sorry. I can sense this palpable energy because, you know, we're talking about our teams. We're talking about our wins. We have a lot of successes. And, I mean, I felt it from my friends today. I get a bunch of text messages throughout the day with a lot of four-letter words. Bleep my quarterback. And, bleep my quarterback, and like, oh, I won, bleep yes. This is a great time.

People are so into it. We're locked in right now. Yeah, and I know where a lot of your enthusiasm comes from. What? We have a really rare occurrence happening in our podcast leagues. I know. It's so cool. We have two podcast leagues, and Adam and I will be in the podcast leagues. I know. It's so cool. We have two podcast leagues,

and Adam and I will be in the finals of both of them. One as friend, one as foe. One as friend, one as foe. Right. That's crazy. Yeah. What if I said that, Heath, we can,

we can, I guarantee you that we're going to, what's the best way to put this? All right. I guarantee you that I am going to... What's the best way to put this? All right. I guarantee you that I am going to win one of them. Would you play it out

or would you just take a win? No, that's not how... I had a better way of phrasing this. Guarantee me that I'm going to win. You're offering him one win for sure. Yeah. You're going to guarantee one win, one loss.

Because we're sharing a team. I think it's quite obvious. As much as I enjoy defeating the listeners and enjoy your friendship, winning the 14-team league is like a million times more important at this point than winning the 10-team league because we're playing against each other.

All right, so you'd rather beat me than share a win with me? 100%. I'd like to do both, please. All right, that's fine. I'll take a win. Dave, how are you doing today? Honestly, I'd like to do both, please. All right, that's fine. I'll take a win. Dave, how are you doing today? Honestly, I'd like to see the misery of Heath losing to you in the podcast league

and you winning the podcast league and dancing on all of us and then you guys losing in the For the People League. Well, you may see that next week. Yeah, I know. It's definitely fine. Anything can happen. Same bat time, same bat channel. I had a miserable week 15 and i only had

four teams survive and i got a shot at all four making it to the finals all right so i'm i'm feeling good let's go yeah did you play jamie in every league that you advanced in adam because every time i looked at one of the leagues it was you against jamie it seemed like well i beat him in the podcast league and i've got my eye on the the June league because he's done. I have Camara. It's full PPR, and I'm down by 71.5 points. So he had Joe Burrow and Joe Mixon and T. Higgins. I think I have to face that buzzsaw next week. Well, you know, it's not that great of a team, but today it was.

Burrow, Mixon, T. Higgins. All right, enough about us. Let's get – we've got to start with this. The fantasy cops out, all right? Because we got. Yeah, yeah, just real quick. This is from Jason. He says, warning, ticket, or arrest.

I am the commissioner of a 10-team, very competitive league. The playoffs started this week. We have a league that's run for 12 years with mostly the same managers, and we have a rule in place where teams that did not make the playoffs cannot make waiver claims. There's no benefit or reason to do so. Our last-place team claimed Joe Burrow Sunday morning and dropped Tua. I didn't catch the claim as I was driving home for my folks for Christmas.

He's been in the league for, since the beginning for 12 years. And he claimed Joe burrow. He kept burrow away from a team. That's actually competing for something. Warning ticket or arrest. Well, did he actually do it?

Did somebody else in the league email him or text him saying, Hey, I wanted Joe burrow and the last place team got him? Or did everybody that was left playing not even bother to pick up Joe Burrow? It doesn't matter based on his action. It doesn't matter. I'm giving him a ticket. I'm not arresting him.

I'm not kicking him out of the league. But that is some bad etiquette. It's a fantastic story. And I mean, at this point, it's in the past, so we're just going to laugh about it. Yeah, I'm making him buy a round of beers for everybody at the draft next year. All right.

All right, if you're listening on Spotify, you can now leave a rating, leave a five-star rating if you enjoy the show. Please do that on Spotify. Let's get to our biggest winner. Dave, want to nominate Joe Burrow here? Sure. Why the hell not?

Joe Burrow had five touchdowns, or four touchdowns, six touchdowns, however many he had. At one point, he had five, and I think one got called back late in the game. But he was outstanding, and it continues a trend where when he's up against man coverage, man, he's unstoppable. And the Ravens, even with all their missing pieces on defense, they still wanted to play man coverage. It's just what they do.

Burrow was outstanding. Way better than I thought he would be. I thought it was brave putting him as a top 10 quarterback. Had him too low in the game. T. Higgins was my bold prediction on FFT. I predicted that he would have 200 yards. Did I say two touchdowns or one touchdown? I don't even remember. But I predicted

that he would have a monster game like Jamar Chase had earlier this year. He fell six yards shy. So pretty bold prediction. Anybody that had T Higgins, you're looking real good this week. And I think he's a no doubter, even with Joe Burrow,

probably not going to play nearly as well next week. I think Burrow definitely makes the cut as a top 12 quarterback for the championship week. Just can't expect him to be the top guy. Yeah. After the game, he talked about the comments from Baltimore's defensive coordinator, Wink Martindale,

earlier in the week about how Joe Burrow, it sounded like he's a good quarterback. Well, let's not give him a gold jacket yet. And that did motivate him a little bit. He had an amazing game for Burrow. It was 46 fantasy points and over 500 yards and four touchdowns. Heath, who's the biggest loser this week? Oh, I was all excited to make a joke about we'll go from one Burr to another

and the other young, exciting player in Rex Burkhead, RB1. I thought I was going to do my winner. Let's just do two winners and we'll do losers later. Okay, fine. That sounds good. Rex Burkhead was an animal today. I know it's funny to laugh at the stat line, but did you actually see him? A little bit.

He was great. Yeah, I watched some of that. It was a career effort against a Chargers team that just absolutely, I don't know which metaphor you want to use, but just ruined their own season by laying down.

But fantastic day for Rex Burkett. Are you going to use him next week at San Francisco? Oh, no. How is he a winner? One-week winner. I mean, he just had like 150 yards and two touchdowns. He's an obvious winner. Which didn't help anybody except for the 1.6% of people

that used him in FanDuel. I didn't say that his fantasy managers were winners. They were mostly losers. What's the point of this segment if we're just going to name people that did well but not tell people that they're going to move forward? I didn't say that his fantasy managers were winners. They were mostly losers. We're just going to name people that did well, but not tell people that they're moving forward. It's we, there's,

there's one week of moving forward. Like we are going to celebrate the successes of in the fantasy semifinal week. I'm calling, I'm calling the fun police on Dave. Yeah. No kidding. Ticket arrest or warning. Kick me off the show.

No way. I'm not getting you. You're not getting out of here. I'll have to say something more crazy to get off the show. All right. Yeah, so it was a nice day, but that is important to note. Look, it was a good day for Rex Burkhead, but it's a one-week winner situation, although he does have 15 or more touches in

five of six games or something like that, but mostly bad. It might not be a one-week winner. This one game right here, because I don't think anything prior to this game would have done it. This one game right here could earn him a roster spot in 2022. He might

have a job next year. If there's an argument to be made for Rex Burkhead next week, it's that he's the lead guy for the Texans. I don't think David Johnson's going to come back and push him off the field. He played five of six snaps from 10 yards or closer, 10 of 13 on third and fourth down.

I think the benefit of using someone who's probably not relevant next year is that we get to move through that. Yeah, let's just go. Let's just go. All right, Heath, I'm going to make you give a big loser now, though. Yeah, there were no shortage of those either. But I guess I'd say Craig Reynolds because I don't know for sure.

There was talk last week even that DeAndre Swift might get shut down. So I'm not totally sure even next week we're going to see DeAndre Swift. And I really thought when Swift was ruled out, Reynolds has been so much better than Jamal Williams. He ought to get at least 55% of the work. And it was all Williams early. And Williams was more efficient as a runner in this game. So I don't think it's going to change.

So if there's no DeAndre Swift next week, then Reynolds is a desperation flex. And if DeAndre Swift's back next week, then you're dropping Craig Reynolds. So here's another thing about Rex Burkhead. Are you interested in the snap share between the Lions running backs?

I am, actually, and I don't know if you have the specifics on third down and routes running. Oh, he does. He's got them all. Of course I got it. What, do you think I'm some sort of schmuck that doesn't do that kind of stuff? All I do is send my laptop and nerd out. All right, Craig Reynolds and Jamal Williams played the exact same percentage of snaps, 42% for each of them.

But one of them had three of four snaps from 10 yards or closer. One of them, the same guy, had 11 of 19 snaps on third and fourth downs. And that guy was? It was Craig Reynolds. It was Craig Reynolds. It was Craig Reynolds. And that's interesting because the other problem is that they each had 42% of the snaps. Godwin Igwebuke also played in the game and had 16% of the snaps. What a lovely three headed monster.

The Detroit Lions have that kind of ruins all three of these guys. Well, you had 19 carries from. Well, I guess so. And here's the thing. I think we see it again this week, right? They're playing the Seahawks next week. The Seahawks have a legit. It is and it isn't.

They have a legitimately great run defense. I mean, they're probably coming out of this week giving up about 3.7 yards per carry to running backs. 21 carries, 45 yards, and a touchdown for Montgomery. What they're terrible at is the passing game against running backs. Montgomery had seven catches for 61 yards. They give up the most receiving yards to running backs in the NFL. If you're Jamal Williams and you're getting zero

catches, you're not going to have a good rush average against the Seahawks. So, there's not much. I mean, that's just not helpful. You need both roles, I think, to be good against Seattle. And you could be great against Seattle, but you need both roles. All right, news and notes. James Robinson has a torn Achilles.

Crusher. Yeah, stinks. Absolute crusher. The only silver lining is that I think it's possible with what we've seen from videos of Cam Akers. He hasn't played yet, so we don't know for sure. I think that medically, we saw a period of time where the ACL became a less

disastrous thing for football players. I'm hopeful that the Achilles has made that turn as well and that maybe James Robinson, if he follows the Cam Akers timeline, could be ready for the start of next year. Man, I hope you're right. I'm really worried that James Robinson could be done

as a very relevant fantasy running back. He could come back and have a part role in the run game for Jacksonville after a six-week stay on the pup list, something like that. But he was never a burner. He was always a guy that got it done with quick feet and really good vision. And I don't know if this, this could make them a tad slower. And that just ruins his explosiveness just a little bit more. What, what explosiveness he has.

So I'm, I am very nervous that the Jaguars probably go out and find another running back. They have ETN coming back from an injury as well. They find somebody else and they really don't do much with James Robinson moving forward. It's a crusher for Dynasty. The Dynasty floor just fell out, but I don't think it's hopeless is all I was saying. Listen, I hope you're right on that. I'm being a pessimist here.

Yeah, look, we got a comment. Salty Dave. A little salt shaker. It's not salty. It's like uh i'm in a great mood i yeah i got obviously i like salt i'm in all on my player props on the early edge nice 2 p.m eastern on youtube all right all right uh rick's brickhead born two days before the 4th of july so maybe more fireworks in his future. What's that for analysis? No? No good? All right, we got two...

He's 31 years old. All right, shh, shh. We got two running back injuries here to talk about. Clyde Edward Ziller left with a collarbone injury, and Miles Sanders left with a hand injury. So who's the more appealing... Who's the most appealing? Oh, and Jordan Howard, I'm sorry.

Jordan Howard also left with an injury. So, yeah. Let's talk about these backfields. I mean, which backfield would you be looking at first? We'll make this a waiver wire segment as well. Chiefs at Cincinnati with Darrell Williams or Eagles at Washington next week with maybe Howard, maybe Boston Scott.

Obviously, it's going to be both if they're both playing. It'll depend on what we hear in the next 24 hours for sure, but I'm worried about Clyde because it was a collarbone injury and he was ruled out pretty shortly after getting to the locker room. And if it's a broken collarbone, then I think it's the Chiefs because with Sanders and Howard, we don't know for sure with either of them. I would anticipate their status will be up in the air going into Friday, at least one of them.

If Clyde Edwards-Alaire broke his his collarbone then there's not much mystery there nope we saw daryl be the main guy and derrick warrell fill in yeah we saw five games without ceh earlier this year and you had three pretty damn good games for daryl williams in those five and two pretty disappointing ones. Yeah. Adam Thielen left with an injury. So Osborne... I think it was the same ankle because it didn't look very serious at all, but he got tackled around the ankles and just immediately was hit in the turf

and hobbled off. Yeah. He came back after that and then left again. So I would say it does not look good for Thielen. No. And if Osborne's available maybe he got dropped you know that they're playing Baltimore next week I dropped him for your boy Laquan Treadwell

no they're not playing Baltimore they're not playing Baltimore the Rams are playing Baltimore next week who's Minnesota have next week I'm sorry Minnesota oh they're at Green Bay which is still not a terrible matchup if you ask me no okay Darrell Henderson, he left with an injury there at Baltimore next week.

And Sonny Michel was crushing him in carries anyway. He was. Jake Funk got in there toward the end of the game. Devin Singletary left with an ankle injury, but he came back. Derek Carr left but came back. Russell Wilson said earlier this week that he came back too soon, basically.

He said he was not 100% healthy when he came back against the Packers Tampa Bay linebacker Shaq Barrett left with an injury Baltimore lost another cornerback Anthony Averitt the Colts all the way back on Saturday they lost Eric Fisher in the second quarter they're starting left tackle and their backup offensive guard Chris Reed left with an injury in the second quarter and Jack Doyle left in the first quarter. And we had two defensive backs, two big ones go out today. Just JC Jackson for the Patriots.

Although I'm almost positive he came back into the game and Stefan Gilmore left with an injury for the Panthers. I'm not sure about his status. So when you look at the waiver wire, you're looking at Jeff Wilson still available in something like 30% of leagues, and Darrell Williams and the Eagles backfield, and K.J. Osborne. I think that's, you know, those are the big ones.

I think you've got to make the case for Daria Gumbawale as well, since he appears to be the main running back for Jacksonville, just as far as a running back who will get touches. They play the Patriots next week? Is that who it is? I don't know. i can pull it up and see that's that is the case they're in new england it's not the worst matchup it really isn't but i mean i'd rather have daryl williams if clyde's out and if we had any type of

clarity on the eagles running backs i would take whoever that is over goomba wale but yeah dude is gonna play a lot played% of the snaps after the injury. He might have played more than that. I think he played almost every snap after the injury to James Robinson. I think we saw Cattrall play one snap after that. He's a running back who will play. Here are some random stats for all of you people who like random stats.

Joe Mixon gained 68 or fewer total yards in three straight games going into today. He gained 135 total yards against the Ravens. It was great to see him in the passing game, too. I tweeted this week about how Joe Mixon had done such a great job, I thought, of destroying matchups and recent history. Because every time he has a two or three game stretch below four yards per carry,

he averages like five yards per carry or has a great game. And every time he has a bad matchup where it looks like he should do something like this, it turns out great. Good to know. That's interesting. Completely. I mean, I don't want to. It's not predictive.

That's kind of the point of it. Yeah. Well, welcome to fantasy football. Especially his role in the passing game. I mean, that is just all over the place. Very strange. Keenan Allen had scored 15 or more PPR fantasy points in seven straight games

before seven and a half points at Houston today. Strange. This one, very strange to me. Rob Gronkowski, eight or more targets in five straight games since returning from an injury and really all but one game all season. If you remove the game, he left with an injury. He had two targets?

I couldn't believe it. I thought Gronkowski was a layup this week. One catch for 23 yards. I have a theory, because he wasn't very good after the receivers got hurt last week. No. Right?

But he got peppered with targets. My theory is that it's not hard to cover Rob Gronkowski if you don't have him surrounded by superstar wide receivers at this point of his career. That's not a bad theory. Interesting. We can check that out and see. Devin Singletary has 78 to 96 total yards

in three straight games. That's good. He's a winner. Damian Harris has now scored a touchdown in eight of his last nine games, and he had three today. That's good. And Melvin Gordon gained zero total yards on eight touches at the Raiders.

That's not good. How many did Devonta Williams have? Maybe in the 20s. He had a really bad game. He had seven, 12, and for one touchdown. 20. Right. And then two, eight.

Well. Eight yards receiving. We talked about this this morning we all just kind of thought the Broncos are going to win this is going to be a great game script and it wasn't we all thought that I know I take exception

to this okay because I have pointed this out many times that when they win those two running backs get a lot of carries and when they lose they those two running backs get a lot of carries, and when they lose, they don't. But they have played so many blowout games one way or the other. They've had very few close contests.

And last week, they played a very close game, and they lost to the Bengals, and both Gordon and Williams got a ton of work. And the Raiders' run defense stinks. I can't explain this game. I mean, I barely saw it, but they had the ball for about 22 minutes. I'm going to check their third down conversions.

I think they just couldn't stay on the field. That's definitely part of it. And third down, they were 1 of 10. There you go. Yeah, but this was really bad for them. It was just two bad teams, and one of them was more bad than the other one. No, the Raiders were able to run the ball effectively,

and the Broncos weren't. Yeah, that contributed to the time of possession, too. Really, yeah. All right, we're going to start looking ahead a little bit, of course, to Week 17, but also to 2022. Just some quick stuff here. Yeah. I appreciate that, like, an hour ago,

I sent out the Believe It or Nots and said I'm shifting gear to 2022, and all the Believe It or Nots and said I'm shifting gear to 2022 and all the Believe It or Nots that I sent out on Twitter were 2022 focused. And then 20 minutes later, I get a text saying we're adding a 2022 segment to the start of the show. I didn't see your tweets.

That's good. I did not see them. You don't realize this, Heath, but you and I have so much in common. Quick 2022 fill in the blank. I'm getting excited about blank for 2022. I'll go first. I'm excited about Josh Palmer,

who I think kind of proved like this was a good opportunity for him to show that he can contribute to the Chargers offense. I don't think he's got a shot to be their number one guy, but I think he could be their number two guy. He's got some size.

He can make contested catches. He can win off the snap, break inside, and make a play. I'm expecting the Chargers to move on from Mike Williams. I think Jalen Guyton's a good player, but more of like a number three receiver. And I wonder if Palmer can be one of those middle-to-late-round picks that can be better than that for your fantasy squad. I'm going to go,

this might be surprising, but I'm going to say Cole commit. I don't believe that there will be another regime that comes to Chicago and thinks that paying Jimmy Graham $10 million a year is a good idea. And commit has really taken a little bit of a mini leap in the second half of the season in terms of the target share that he's earning and what he's doing with those targets.

He's not in the end zone because everyone knows that when you're in the red zone, you can only throw the ball to Jimmy Graham. But if Jimmy Graham's not on the team, then that rule won't apply anymore and they might throw it to Cole Komet. 41 or more yards in five of seven games now for Komet. 41 or more yards in five of seven games now for Komet. 65 or more yards in three of seven

games. Not too bad on this kind of passing offense. How many games with 11-plus PPR? Not that many. He doesn't score a touchdown. That's hard, Dave. You don't score any touchdowns. Jimmy Graham's going to go away. That's part of it, and I get it for 2022, but he's on my loser list for this

week. I don't know if I really want to trust him. He was probably right where you ranked him. Maybe right where I ranked him, but he's going to be a difficult call. All right, let's go to our second fill-in-the-blank for 2022. I'm getting nervous about blanks. He does have a good matchup against the Giants. Can I use yesterday's games for this?

Of course. Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon and that situation. Okay. I just think that I don't think A.J. Dillon's going to go backwards in touches next year. And I don't think A.J. Dillon's going to take the job from Aaron Jones next year. And they're't think A.J. Dillon's going to take the job from Aaron Jones next year. And they're both going to be on the team.

So this situation, they're not going to run the ball like the Browns do. So it's going to be like a poor man's Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. And if both of them are healthy, I don't know that either of them are top 18 running backs. Okay. Yeah, I can see that. All right, Dave, who are you getting nervous about? There are a lot of running backs. Okay. That's yeah, I can see that. All right, Dave, who are you getting nervous about?

There are a lot of running backs that I think qualify for this, but the one I'm going to say now is miles Sanders. Every time he starts to have that runway to being a feature back for Philadelphia, he gets hurt. And then it takes them a little while to come back. And today was another example of that with the hand injury. We don't know the severity of it as we sit here right now maybe he's done for the year maybe

broke his hand who knows but i just feel like we can't ever really trust him again and i wonder if that goes right up the the ladder to the coaching staff there and that they'll just look at him as a part-time running back no matter what and never give him a chance to consistently get 15 touches from game to game. In the same vein, I wonder if that label gets put on Clyton. I wonder if that label gets put on Saquon Barkley. I wonder if, to a degree, it gets put on Christian McCaffrey. There are a lot of running backs that we can look at and say, well, do these teams really love them as much as they used to?

Let's say we're doing a 2022 mock draft tomorrow, which we probably are. Let's say we're doing a mock draft. Miles Sanders, Clyde, and Barkley. Just knowing what we know now, right? How would you rank them? This is not a full dynasty

thing. This is just for 2022. Barkley would still be the top name on my list yeah and he's somebody that i could still i think make the argument for as a second round pick and maybe if the giants do some incredible stuff this offseason a first round pick but i'd be real hesitant to to get him in the first round that's another thing like looking at going into next year, and we'll talk about who's number one at wide receiver later, but how are we going to keep Devontae Adams or Tyreek Hill

or Justin Jefferson or Cooper Cup out of the top 15 picks? Oh, I don't think you will. No. Are we going to have seven running backs in the first round? I think it will be fewer next year than this year. Yes. And I would imagine that all four of those receivers will go ahead of Saquon. All right.

We are going to, let's take a quick break. And then we'll do our winners, losers, and get into the games. Quick break here on Fantasy Football Today. We will be right back. For a limited time, switch to Shopify point of sale. And you could save up to 20% and improve your bottom line. break here on Fantasy Football today. Eligibility requirements apply. See Shopify.com slash POS20 for details. I already can figure out the believe it or not for the Vikings game coming up a little bit later, but I think Heath gave that away a couple minutes ago.

But for now, let's go to the winners. And Heath's winners are Gerald Everett, 68 yards and a touchdown for the Seahawks against Chicago. Rex Burkhead, who we already talked about and debated. And T. Higgins. Let's start with Gerald Everett. He's 32% rostered. He should have been in our little waiver wire segment.

Big game for him. And now it is 60 yards or a touchdown in four of his last five games. And he will get the lions next week. I think he's still been better than DK Metcalf since Russell Wilson came back. He's just a big part of their passing offense. Now they might have games where they only throw it 25 times. And so his 20% target share equals five targets,

which isn't very exciting, but I like his chances in a week 16 against the lions. And I would guess he's going to be our top streaming option. The lions are, it may not show up in the stats and where they rank against tight ends, but they are horrible. I mean, for the last probably eight weeks or so, and pits went over a hundred yards against them today. So it was a great call. Uh, Burke, had we talked about anything you want to add about t higgins 194 yards two touchdowns on 13 targets i'll go ahead and do the believe it or not on t higgins then i'll come up with a different one for that game because i realize now that i put t higgins in my winners and my believe it or not so believe it or not t higgins should be is the number one wide receiver on the bingles in 2022

oh i always thought you were going to go with just for next week and that's honest 2022 don't i think i'm gonna go with chase i'll go with chase we're all going with chase the public was pretty split on it i think uh chase may have got like 55 to higgins 44 interesting but um yeah i mean why are you going with chase? I'm going with chase just because he was this awesome as a rookie. Imagine how much better he's going to be next year. Yeah. Yep.

I think that's probably how we're all feeling. All right, let's go to Dave's winners here. You know, it's been too long into the show before, before talking about this guy, Rashad Penny, who gets the lions next week,

17 carries 135 yards and a touchdown. If you didn't see the game, it was a winter wonderland in Seattle. And I don't know, maybe a little hard to tackle, but this is the second great game. Second game in his last three with 135 to 137 yards on 16 or 17 carries. Brilliant stuff. So, Dave, what do you have to say about Rashad Penny? Also, Joe Burrow is a winner for you and

Amonra St. Brown, another really interesting player. What do you have to say about Penny? About Penny, he played only 29 to 53 snaps. That was a little troublesome, but that's really the only negative to it. He got so much work in the game. He looked good, got through the game healthy, gets the Lions next

week. There's really not a lot to worry about here. I think that Rashad Penny is definitely a top 16 fantasy running back, maybe even a little bit better than that. I think fantasy managers can trust Rashad Penny in their fantasy championship. It kind of seems like Rashad Penny's a league winner. It's possible. Now, here's a question for you, because I'm very, very impressed with Amandra St. Brown

and surprised for me. I don't know how you guys felt, but I was really trying to avoid him. I think I had him in my... I kind of did mental rankings on the show this morning, somewhere around 24, but I wasn't expecting nine for 91 and a touchdown on 11 targets

with Tim Boyle at quarterback. So when you factor in, the only thing wrong with Rashad Penny maybe is that he has basically no role in the passing game. These two guys are facing each other next week. Who would you rather start in this Lions-Seahawks game in a full PPR league, Penny or St. Brown? St. Brown.

I think if Swift is out, I think that really swings the pendulum for me. If DeAndre Swift is still out, and at this point, I don't know why we should assume that he's going to play unless we hear something, I think I would go with St. Brown. But if swift plays then i might veer back toward penny but both of them should be in fantasy lineups pretty much either

way even if even if swift comes back i've got to have enough confidence in saint brown to see a good amount of targets and by the way tim boyle might not be there next week it could be jared goth off the covid list ready to go now keep keep in mind, I think the updated stat would be now three touchdown catches to wide receivers allowed by the Seahawks in their last 11 games. Two of them were to Cooper Cup. But if he gives you 8 to 10 catches in 70 to 90 yards, you don't need a touchdown.

You don't, but you're going to get at least four touchdowns from Rashad Penny, so he's going to have to get in the end. All right, let's go to the losers. Dave, your losers, Saquon Barkley, Russell Gage,

and Cole commit Barkley with a horrible game, 15 carries for 32 yards. And I think one catch. Yeah. He, he didn't even play 40% of the snaps. I think that they took him out at it in the blowout. Okay. And so they're not going to win another game this

year. If the coaching staff is still going to be in place next year, one of the smartest things they could do is lock up Saquon Barkley entering the offseason in relatively good health. He's gone through a lot the last two

seasons. Why play him? Why put him out here? That question has to be asked to Joe judge and Joe judge might say, cause we're trying to win football games and that's what we're supposed to do. And I get that. But if you're, if they're not going to use him as their primary running back, then that tells me that they know what we see, which is that he's not doing well when he's on the field.

And if he's not doing well on the field right now, then why play him at all in meaningless games? You're only going to hurt yourself. If Saquon has a good game and the Giants win, that hurts one of their draft picks in the first round. They've got a chance to have two definitely top 10 picks. Well, luckily they get the Bears next week, so they can

win guilt-free. I guess. But even if they do, who cares? I don't know if you can start Saquon don't know you can't start him on either way you can't start him no way uh maybe it's a flex but yeah i mean well you could yeah yes i'm sorry in a full pbr league he usually is no i don't think you can even use him as a full ppr flex i think of course i think you can he's been i think you can find a receiver it's probably going to be glennon again next week, right? Absolutely.

And Glennon throws to his running backs a lot more than Fromm did. I mean, Fromm threw for 25 yards. But he only threw one pass to Barkley, I think. Hold on, Adam. Did you expect Fromm to be, like, decent? No. God, no. You had no expectations whatsoever?

Oh, of course not. I thought he'd be better than Glennon. I didn't think he would. I didn't know. I mean, he doesn't know. He's just too young. He's inexperienced. He's been on the team for such a short amount of time.

He doesn't know what he's doing. The broadcasters were saying it was a very scaled-back game plan. So, no. Well, if that's the case, then he started with Jason Garrett's normal game plan and scaled it back. I can't believe if Joe Judge is going to stick around. But if he does, they should really just start looking toward next year and let Devontae Booker play. Booker's looking better than Saquon anyway.

Adam, we've talked about this. I know. I just don't really know how playing Booker over Barkley is looking forward to next year unless you're saying, no, unless you're saying keep Barkley healthy. No, you're just trying to get out of the game and you're trying to protect Saquon Barkley. Could you imagine if Saquon Barkley.

Could you imagine if Saquon tears an ACL or has a torn Achilles in week 17 of a meaningless year now? Actually, yes, I can imagine. Unfortunately, yes. Okay. We need to speak this into existence where Saquon sits. No, it's— Then we don't have to worry about making— I think you just spoke him tearing his Achilles into existence.

Stop, stop. No, no, no, I don't want that to happen. I want him to be best. no, I don't want that to happen. I want him to be fast. No, we don't want that. Look, I just don't think teams think that way. We talk about this. This comes up a lot on our show, and teams play their guys. It's just what happens.

They don't care. They don't sit here going, let's just think about next year. They work so hard. They want to win. They don't give a crap about the draft picks. I mean, all I have to do is, there's so many about next year. They work so hard. They want to win. They don't give a crap about the draft picks. I mean, all I have to do is, there's so many examples of it. But anyway.

Adam, they're admitting that he's not as good as he could be because they're not letting him play like a former top five overall pick should. Of course. And he hasn't been good enough, but he is usually pretty reliable for catches. All right. Let's go to Russell Gage. Great. So he'll't been good enough, but he is usually pretty reliable for catches. All right. Let's go to Russell Gage.

Great. So we'll give me 10 PPR points. We were obviously pretty excited about Gage. He comes through with four catches for 39 yards on five targets. And a fumble. And a fumble. Costly. Nearly cost them the game.

Yeah. What do you think about him next week? Gage facing Buffalo on the road. I can't call him a number two receiver. He's a flex at best in PPR. Okay, and finally, Cole Komet. You guys seem to have different takes. I'm just going back to Gage.

I think one of the reasons why Gage didn't have such an amazing game is because Kyle Pitts did. You started to see it on film last week that Kyle Pitts, and the week before that, that Kyle Pitts did. You started to see it on film last week that Kyle Pitts, and the week before that, that Kyle Pitts was starting to kind of get it again. He really took over

one drive at the start of the second half for Atlanta. I wonder if the transition is happening where Kyle Pitts is going to finish the year strong and push Russell Gage back into a limited role. We'll see. And as for Cole Komet, I just,

matchup against the Giants is good. We'll see who his quarterback is. I'm still worried about him getting 10 plus PPR points. All right. Heath's losers are Emmanuel Sanders, Craig Reynolds, and Cordaro Patterson. We already talked about Reynolds.

So, Sanders had an opportunity. He had, I want to say, two end zone targets. He dropped one at what would have been a one-yard touchdown. I don't know. He's got to be an afterthought for you, I assume, at this point.

I mean, he seems to be an afterthought for Josh Allen, which is unfortunate when there's no Gabriel Davis or Cole Beasley. I don't really understand how Emmanuel Sanders was so good at the beginning of the year, because I thought he was done. And he was awesome for like a month. And maybe it was six weeks. And he's just, he's not a part of the plan anymore.

Yeah, I think maybe theory. You remember, at one point, maybe it started with the Jacksonville game where teams, and this is happening league-wide, take away the deep ball, take away the deep ball. And that was his specialty. So it could be that. I don't know. But you also might. Yeah, I mean, he.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I mean, he hasn't had more than 65 yards or more than 25 yards, I don't think, since the Jacksonville game. Yeah, it's six straight games with 30 or fewer than 30 yards. It's wild. There's a chance that Beasley and Davis are both out next week, too. It's a much easier matchup against Atlanta, but he'll be tough to trust.

And Cordaro Patterson, luckily he got the touchdown, but another bad game. Seven carries, 14 yards, and a touchdown against the Lions. One catch for negative one yard, and he's at Buffalo next week. So what do you think we almost saw it with his usage before we saw it in his play but he just i think he turned back into a pumpkin or back into cordero patterson he doesn't have as much of the burst as he had early in the year and maybe he's dinged up or maybe he ran out of juice he's never had this

much work over a full season, so that could be it. But it was, I think, a month ago that they really stopped throwing it to him very much or treating him like a wide receiver. And now he's not really producing as a running back either, and then he gets the bills. If you survived Cordero Patterson to the championship, I would really like to find a better option.

My running backs in my keeper league where I'm still alive are Cordero Patterson and James Robinson. Who are you going to start next week? I'm hoping to find somebody off the waiver wire that'll get me eight non-PPR points. It's a non-PPR league. I think one of the ways, Heath, you nailed it with Cordero Patterson.

The burst when he's trying to run to the edge, at best, it's inconsistent. At worst, it's just not there anymore. Now, he's good on one-cut runs and running straight ahead. He can still do that, but he just doesn't have as much juice as he did earlier in the year, and I think it's for reasons that you said. Speaking of juice, I bought orange juice last week.

I haven't had orange juice in years. It's really good. A glass of orange juice. Was it freshly squeezed? No, I don't know. It was the... Well, then I don't know how good it is. That's the best kind.

Probably. You ever make your own? No, I've never made my own. We went through two containers of orange juice on Christmas. Two full containers. Yeah, I had a Christmas morning with breakfast. Are you a pulp guy, sir? Am I what?

I don't know where you get juice with pulp. I used to be. I like pulp. It's kind of an authentic feel. It's still in the store still. I never see it. What is it? Simply Orange? Is that the brand? They make the lemonade too? simply was what we had we

had a pineapple orange juice and a regular orange juice and it sounds delicious yeah we they all had some other things in them as well but oh now we're talking merry christmas eggnog dave just real quick no dave uh i don't know if you remember the Simpsons episode with the juicer, with Troy McClure and Dr. Nick and the juicer. It's one of my favorites. They're squeezing juice into it. It's really amazing. All right, anyway, hopefully you all remember because you'll laugh.

Goal line work, if there's anything. Yeah, that was a weird play in the Cowboys game. Goal line work that you might need to know about. But we saw both Latavius Murray and Devante Freeman work in goal to go situation. We saw Freeman get a one yard touchdown run. We did see a little bit of Zach Moss inside the five yard line. I think we saw more of Devin Singletary, though. This probably isn't relevant anymore.

But Darrell Williams looks still like the preferred fourth and short or a goal line back, even though Williams got to carry. And then Clyde came in and he scored a one yard touchdown, which was really impressive. It was an awesome play. Yeah. Ran right into a wall,

bounced off of it to the outside and scooted right in. I couldn't decide. Cause when I saw that play, all I could hear was my old middle school football coach yelling, wrap up. Like if the guy that hit him wraps up, the play's over, right? Yes. Didn't happen. It felt like they kind of collided with each

other and knocked each other off. They definitely collided. It's just at the point of collision, you're supposed to wrap your arms around them. No, the two defensive players, I mean, collided a little bit. I feel like they kind of hurt their own cause. And then, yeah, there was only one goal line carry for the Broncos

and it went to Javante Williams, but I think we've seen enough to know that doesn't mean anything for next week. There were some drop, a lot of drop touchdowns. I won't go through the whole list, but I think the most, maybe the most glaring to me was Amir Abdullah on a beautifully designed play, leaking out of the backfield

and just sort of stumbling and he would have caught a pass from Cam Newton and waltzed right in for about a four yard touchdown and long story short I have to start Chuba Hubbard against Heath in the finals next week so congratulations Heath no you don't have to no

you can go get your Rex Burkhead Rex Burkhead is probably available he is not available all time against the 49ers right here. No, I don't want him. Packers 24, Browns 22. Merry Christmas with this game. What do we got, Heath, believe it or not?

Well, I'll go this angle. Believe it or not, neither Aaron Jones or A.J. Dillon is a top 18 running back next year. I don't believe you. I think Jones will be a top 18 pick. And I wonder if A.J. Dillon ends up barely making the top 24. Maybe they just fall to a decent value in drafts. Are we going to get Aaron Jones in round four?

We can get AJ Dillon in round six. No, I don't know if I hate those values. You think they're going to be much higher than that? I think that they're going to be much closer together than that. Cause I think there will be people going into next year who prefer AJ Dillon because he's younger because he's cheaper and he's got the athletic profile.

Yep. I wouldn't be surprised if you see Aaron Jones some drafts go off in the fourth and AJ Dylan's like a couple picks after that might end up happening I think in a full I would agree like if I can get Dylan I said sixth if I can get him in the sixth I'd love it yeah I don't I don't think that's going to happen but we'll see we have to we're going to do our mock draft tomorrow. We'll see. That whole team could look vastly different next year. Yeah, it's true. If Rodgers is back, I think in a full PPR league,

Aaron Jones in the fourth round would be great. I know you don't like to project touchdowns, but I think he'll score a lot of touchdowns. I do project touchdowns. I know you don't like to rely on it, and they can be fluky and all that. I don't like to project outlier touchdown seasons. Wow. Don't say that when Washington has the ball.

That was good. Because I'm a little bit behind you. It was good for you. Okay. Heath is rooting against Gibson and McLaurin tonight. So, Gibson just threw a pass to McLaurin. It got intercepted, then recovered by Gibson,

and then he fumbled it. So he had negative four points on the play. Anything for the Browns here. Let's talk about Jarvis Landry going into next week. He's at Pittsburgh, and he had four catches for 55 yards on seven targets. You going to trust him in any sense? If you need to start four wide receivers

in a full PPR league, I hope you can do better. He's 10 PPR points with next week, some upside to get you closer to 15. But like he said, I think you can do better than that. Okay, then real quick on Alan Lazard against Minnesota,

who gives up the most fantasy points to wide receivers. He had a touchdown. He dropped the second one. He only had five targets, though. If MVS is out, is Alan Lazard a number three receiver? Yeah, a hand. All right.

Colts 22, Cardinals 16, and really pretty much a dud for Jonathan Taylor. He had a 43-yard run on the first play of the game, and he ended up with 27 carries, 108 yards, no catches, no touchdowns. That's a dud for him. Are you going to send him? No, but

it's a shame. I think you might have lost with Jonathan Taylor this week. Alright, sorry. What do we got from this game, Heath? Believe it or not, Kyler Murray could actually have a full season where he plays like a top quarterback. He's done it before.

I think he could. Well, hold on. When you say top quarterback, do you mean top one? Like he still has number one upside over a full season. I don't know if I believe it. I believe it. You know, look.

I think he'd be good, but I don't know about QB1. Splitting hairs as QB1. I think he could be in a small group of extremely elite quarterbacks, if that makes sense. Does he have to have the world's best weapons and the health to run the ball eight times a game? Probably, but how many of them don't? Yeah.

You know? Does it feel obvious to you that the absence of DeAndre Hopkins is really hurting him? What I worry about... It's hurting some, for sure. Yeah, what I worry about is that he did not improve as much of a pass as a passer as I thought. And I really thought he did.

I mean, that's what's, that's what is troubling because at the beginning of the year, he, I think he, he really did. And he's been pretty crappy. He's been awful. The last three weeks. Is he still injured? I don't know. I mean, I doubt it.

Right. Cause he's running for 70 yards. Well, I mean, who knows if there's an injury, if it's the ankle injury that's bothering him or if it's something else, but he's backfooting a ton of throws. I just, some coaching decisions haven't made sense. And I think losing DeAndre Hopkins

has changed the way that defenses have played against him. His completion reign has hit the tank. He only has two touchdowns in his last three games. Good call, Michael Pittman. Dave, I know you're pretty played against him. His completion reign has hit the tank. He only has two touchdowns in his last three games. Good call, Michael Pittman, Dave. I know you're pretty excited about him this week. 8 for 82 on 12 targets. How are you going to feel about Pittman next week against the Raiders?

I'm going to like him. Still going to be a high-volume receiver who fits the bill as a No. 2 guy for fantasy. Okay. Cincinnati 41, Baltimore 21. So I did the T. Higgins and Jamar Chase one. No, I think this is good. Believe it or not, Joe Mixon's a first-round pick next year.

Feels like a trap feels more like a second potential for it there's no question that he could make the i think he can make the back end around one yeah i i think one of my biggest takeaways this year just from my personal experience in leagues is i'm going to approach two receiver leagues and three receiver leagues pretty differently because almost we probably have to do a better job kind of getting out of the three receiver PPR bubble.

I, Heath, you do a good job trying to bring us back. Uh, but I don't think he's a, I don't think he's a first round pick in a three receiver league. If it's PPR, two receivers,

you may be, what do you think? Um, I mean, I think what it's going to come down to is how he's valued against all these running backs that we had ahead of him but have been worse or hurt a lot more than him um like obviously jonathan taylor is going to get drafted before him and i'm certain that christian mcafree will as well i would assume dalvin cook does yeah alvin kamara. Alvin Kamara might

be dependent on how the next couple of weeks go and who his quarterback is. But I think that's the line. Because I do think it's going to be seven, eight running backs max in the first round. I think that there's

a chance that the Bengals have the best offense in football next year. Outside chance. But I think there's a chance that the Bengals have the best offense in football next year outside chance, but I think there's a decent chance. They have a top five offense. I would definitely take him out of Harris right now for next year. I think we're getting pretty close to that point. If we haven't been there already touched on Dak Prescott. Nice.

I think that he's going to be entering his age 26 season contract is fresh. So, you know, he's going to be the main guy. There's absolutely a chance that the Bengals try and upgrade on Samaj AP Ryan and Chris Evans as running backs behind him and this coaching staff has gone back and forth on using Mixon as a full-time workhorse or splitting him out and not letting him use uh or not letting him play in passing down situations so those are

things that we have to consider but I really think goal number one for Cincinnati's offense coming into this offseason is going to be to improve the offensive line. And that will ultimately help Joe Mixon. Defenses won't be able to stack the box very often against Joe Mixon. They can't do it. So that'll help him as well. I'm just sitting here warming up to the idea of him as a late first-round pick. How much are you going to trust the Bengals' passing game next week?

Obviously, coming off this performance, you want to jump right in, but it's not going to be this good. The Ravens are such a good matchup right now. The Chiefs are not. They are playing elite defense, but you figure they should be able to score some points and force Bird a throw. So, in general, how much are you going to be trusting the Bengals passing offense next week? Higgins and Chase will be starters for sure. Burrow will probably still be a top 12 quarterback for me. He might

be ranked pretty close to where I have him this week, somewhere between 9 and 12. Mixon's going to be a number two running back, depending on who's available and healthy at that position, I suppose. And Boyd has been making some crazy plays the last few weeks. So he's still going to be in that number three receiver range, especially in PPR. This is a game where I could see Cincinnati trailing. And in those types of situations where they're playing her up offense, we've seen Tyler Boyd get a lot of targets. I just really, and I don't feel free to,

to laugh at me and say I'm being a Homer, but if everybody's back for this chiefs defense next week, I'm not sure that the Bengals playing catch up is going to result in a lot of yards and a lot of points. Homer. Thank you. Like the chiefs defense has just been incredible for two months now. It has.

What's annoying to me is that I would love to have a situation where the Chiefs defense has actually played a good offense healthy over the last two months, and it hasn't happened. The one time they faced a good offense was a couple weeks ago, and Herbert played pretty damn well against them, but they were missing some key players. They've just had a very easy schedule in terms of offenses.

The Packers without Aaron Rodgers, the Cowboys without Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb got hurt, the Giants, the Titans, the Steelers. One of the better offenses they've faced. They go face the Chargers. They give up a lot of points, but they didn't have Chris Jones.

They didn't have LeJarius Sneed. One other key player was out. I don't remember who. Willie Gay. Willie Gay, that's right. So, you know what I'm saying? It's like, I wish I could say, well, the Chargers did well against them.

I don't see why the Bengals can't because the Chiefs are going to be in a better state than they were in that game. And also, the Chargers did well against them. I don't see why the Bengals can't because the Chiefs are going to be in a better state than they were in that game. And also, the Chargers and Bengals are similar in that every other week, they look like maybe they're the best team in football. And every other week,

they lose to somebody like the Texans. Right. All right. Let's go to Buffalo and New England. And by the way, I think for Baltimore, it's going to depend a lot on the quarterback. Although, they're all playing pretty well. Josh Johnson, 304 yards and 23 fantasy points. Anyway, let's go to New England and Buffalo, Heath.

I think I know what I'll be saying this, but believe it or not, Devin Singletary will be the bill starting running back next year. Don't believe it, but I think he'll be their starting running back next week against Atlanta. I think he's the number two option. Yeah, I don't believe it, but I think he'll be their starting running back next week against Atlanta. I think he's the number two option. Yeah, I don't believe it. I think they need a running game.

They need to be a more complete team. Can I amend that, though, just really quickly? What if Devin Singletary is part of the reason why the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl? Then I think he's their guy. Playoff Devin? That doesn't their guy. Playoff Devin? That doesn't quite work. Playoff Debbie.

So, Dawson Knox, is he a starting tight end for you guys next week? They're facing Atlanta. Yep. Okay. Absolutely. Is he a must-start tight end or just one of those guys

who happens to crack the top 12? It's going to be one of those guys that you know he's got a chance to score and also potential maybe to get a lot of targets. I'm not sure how many targets he'll end up getting. He had three against the Patriots. I was hoping for a lot more than that. So an uptick in targets, good chance to score. Not a lot of tight ends that you can confidently start.

He's one of them that is the bottom half of the top 12. He had three targets and Josh Allen threw 47 times. Wow. Isaiah McKenzie. You make anything in this Isaiah McKenzie game? Because like I said, Davis and Beasley, they're both unvaccinated. They could theoretically miss next week.

Is he a guy to look at? Yep. Short area. He's got deep speed to boot. So there's multiple ways that they could deploy him in the offense, and I think this was kind of proof of that today. He was just in the right place at the right time on the touchdown throw. I'm going to end on this. Damian Harris, 18 carries, 103 yards, three touchdowns.

He has scored, what did I say, seven of his last eight games, eight of his nine last, whatever it is. If Stevenson is back next week against Jacksonville, where do you anticipate ranking Damian Harris? Middle to low end number two fantasy running back. Do we know if Stevenson is vaccinated? I have no idea. Because if he's unvaccinated, he was ruled out so late in the week.

I wonder if that knocks him out for week 17, and then it's Damian Harris time again. I usually feel like you learn when they're not vaccinated because they have masks on and stuff like that, and people say, oh, he's been in the protocols. So I'm thinking he's probably vaccinated, but let's just play the game. If he's in next week, you said mid-to-low-end number two.

20. All right. Maybe a guy who's going to be higher in non ppr um atlanta 20 detroit 16 believe it or not kyle pitts will be a top four tight end next year i believe it there's a pretty good chance he is that's a really tough one he's top five so i i'll say that i believe it because andrews is going to be there kelsey's going to be there too but i wonder if he's going to start to look like a bust just because he's getting a little old kittle is going

to be up there waller it might come down to waller or Pitts for that fourth spot. That's a really good question. Because at first you're like, oh, of course. And then you start thinking about it. I can say I believe it. He's probably going to get taken ahead of Waller with the way Waller's finishing his season.

And if the way that Pitts finishes his season, if he continues to play like he has been telling you the last three weeks he's he's been better he's already got the second most receiving yards ever for a rookie yeah it's incredible all right let's see what else from this game we talked about the detroit running backs we talked about saint brown we talked about russell gage and patterson not trying to sell this game short but i do think we've pretty much covered it. Jets 26, Jacksonville 21.

Believe it or not, Michael Carter is a top 20 running back next year. Oh, he can work his way there. Let me check his 17 matches. I'm probably not ready to believe it right now. Yeah, I don't know that he's in every down back. I don't know what kind of... I don't know that they're going every down back. I don't know what kind of... I don't know that they're going to view him that way.

Seems like the guy was always going to have somebody taking from him. But he had 18 touches in this game, and he had a stretch of that type of workload before the injury. He did. That's why I'm not certain about it. Coleman had what, 11 today? Him versus A.J. Dillon. that's why it's not I'm not certain about it I just think Coleman had what 11 today him versus AJ Dillon

I think it's probably going to be him right it is when you evaluate that though I mean how much do you say to yourself well if Aaron Jones gets hurt then we're talking right yeah it's not something you want to but I think that's the only reason Well, if Aaron Jones gets hurt, then we're talking. Right, yeah.

It's not something you want to thank him for. But I think that's the only reason that A.J. Dillon's in the conversation with him. Because just a straight-out projection, Carter's going to be way ahead of Dillon, I think. Yeah. Well, how do you feel about him next week? How do you feel about Michael Carter facing the Tampa Bay Buckeyes? I don't. I mean, how many passes did Zach Wilson throw to his running backs in this game? I don't have the targets.

I'll get the targets. Carter had two catches. Coleman had one. And Wilson threw only 22 passes. Are you interested in the snap counts for them? So almost a 20% target share for running backs. Yeah. I think the best news out of this game for Carter,

other than the fact that he looked good after what I guess is a knock the rust off game last week is that he played 73% of the snaps for the jets, 12 of 17 snaps on third and fourth downs, nine of 14 snaps from 10 yards or closer. So they clearly gave him more work and he did well with it. So he's probably going to get something similar to that next week. In PPR leagues, he's going to be a top 24 running back against Tampa Bay. Would you start Damian Harris against the Jaguars

or Michael Carter against Tampa Bay? What's the status of Ramondre Stevenson? In. In. Carter. I think I'm going to, I think I'm going to go with Harris. It's definitely Harris and non or half PPR.

It'd only be Carter and PPR. I think. All right. You want to say any interest at all in Marvin Jones? He now has 70 or more yards in two of his last three games. Is it also two of his last nine games? It is, but there's a timing thing here. It was after the... No, he's playing the Patriots next week.

Okay. No. All right. All right, then. By the way, I almost started the Quantread well this week. How did he do? I dropped KJ Osborne and started the Quantread well because I had you in my head telling me,

but I won by like 80. He did all right. He did what he always does. 11 PPR points. Nine. Nine and a half. He had 50. He's now got 53 to 68 yards

in five straight games. This was a floor game for him, Dave. So he had nine. Next week will be a ceiling game when he has 11. Ooh. Looking forward to that. Tracker's telling me that

Laquan Treadwell dropped a 40-yard touchdown. I did not see that. like him houston 41 chargers 29 believe it or not davis mills will be the starting quarterback for the houston texans week one of 2022 i love that you put this out there he's looked good uh especially this week he looked really. And Chargers secondary, they lost one of their starting corners right before the game. He tested positive for COVID and didn't play. And we know that Bosa didn't play.

So I hesitate a little bit to judge Davis Mills in this game because he took on a depleted Chargers defense. But he looked good in a game without Brandon Cooks. Made some really nice throws. Receivers made some nice plays for him. I think he could end up being the answer for Houston next year. I think he could be the... I think we should at least talk about him as the answer for fantasy managers

in Week 17 at San Francisco with their pretty beat-up secondary. And if you just look at his last four starts, six-point-per-passing touchdown, non-decimal scoring, it's 18 or more points in all four games. And it's pretty tough matchups, except for Jacksonville, I'd say. And maybe with who was absent, maybe not a tough matchup in this game. But 24 points against the Rams, 19 against Seattle, 18 at Jacksonville, 22 against the Chargers.

He did this without Brandon Cooks. It's pretty impressive. And I don't know i mean i can't imagine too many people in their championship are going with davis mills but if this were a normal week i think it'd be with with every with you know 12 teams playing in a league i think this would be a pretty interesting conversation to have yeah um believe it or not no it's not a believe it or not but it's a i i think it's probably true. You guys have much better football brains remembering things than I do. If Trevor Lawrence loses to Mac Jones next week,

will he be the first rookie quarterback to ever lose to three rookie quarterbacks? I don't know. I would say definitely the first number one pick to lose to three rookie quarterbacks in consecutive weeks. Are you sure that number is three? Wilson, Mills, Jones. I don't even think you usually get this many rookie quarterbacks, but I'm not sure.

Technically, you lost to Trey Lance, too, but Lance didn't play in the game against the 49ers. It's pretty bad. I was wondering if the Giants and Eagles set a record with seven punts in the first quarter. I would really like to know. Can you believe that?

How do you get seven possessions in the first quarter? It's seven punts. It's a lot of three and outs. The Giants were fighting hard. They were excited because they heard that Joe Judge was sticking around for another year. You know it, man. And Daniel Jones.

All right. Props to Justin Jackson. 74% roster, 51% started. Two rushing touchdowns, eight catches for 98 yards. A brilliant game for him. Completely blew away expectations and even had a fumble in the game. So it wasn't a perfect game for him. Unfortunately, we can't call him a winner because if austin eckler's back next week

justin jackson's back to maybe 10 touches yeah the running back that everybody starts but but don't drop him wire matters a lot yeah don't join that lesson don't drop him when waivers run because we saw some players that have gone two weeks let's make sure sure Eckler's clear before you drop him. And do we know, by the way, do we know if Dalvin Cook is probably eligible to play next week, but it's going to be close. He's eligible to play next week, but he's got to pass the protocols in order to do it,

and it's going to be a tight squeeze. It's going to be very. Yeah, because he has to be out at least 10 games. I don't really know if it is. Because it was supposed to be a tight squeeze for Aaron Rodgers, and then on Wednesday or Thursday everybody just knew Aaron Rodgers was going to play. Well, if you don't really know if it is. Because it was supposed to be a tight squeeze for Aaron Rodgers, and then on Wednesday or Thursday, everybody just knew Aaron Rodgers was going to play. Well, if you don't... It wasn't official. It just seemed that way.

If you don't have any symptoms... So unvaccinated players have to be out at least 10 days. But if you're Aaron Rodgers, right? Let's say it's day six, and you don't have any symptoms and you're testing negative, I guess you can probably safely assume that when the 10 days are up, you're back, right? I guess that's my interpretation of it.

So we don't know that it's going to be a tight window. No, but we do know that he has to be out 10 days, so at least it's going to be a tight window until it's official that he's back. Right? Yes, but we may know before it's official. There you go. All right, speaking of which, Rams and Minnesota.

Rams 30, Minnesota 23. Yeah, Dolan Schultz touchdown, yeah. That looks better. Washington defense doesn't look so good, though. That was big. Okay. What do we got here? One of those leagues now?

We're going to be here. We're going to be here for an hour and a half, Heath. Let's go. Listen, man, I don't think you should put that evil on me. I hour and a half, Heath. Let's go. Listen, man, I don't think you should put that evil on me. I'm not. I'm just...

Let's go. Believe it or not, Justin Jefferson is the number one wide receiver in 2022. Believe it or not, Justin Jefferson is the number one

wide receiver in 2022. The competition for the number one receiver in 2022 is going to be down to him, Cup, and Devontae Adams. Not Tyreek Hill? I don't think I'm... I don't know if it's even going to be Kirk Cousins as his quarterback.

Don't know who the coach is going to be. I'm not ready to say that he's the number one, so I don't believe it. I don't believe it either. I would take Devontae Adams. I agree with you guys. 49% of people believed it. So are we totally good with Sonny Michel at Baltimore next week

in a tough matchup? Number two running back. Yep. Start him. What do we think about Kirk Cousins at Green Bay? Green Bay has been struggling. Last time he faced them, I think he had a great game. He had a great game, right?

Yeah. Yes. That was really the game that made the Packers' defense look broken. Yes, that was the start of it. And then last, or on Saturday, was the game that they looked whole again against the Browns. But I guess Baker, on very limited practice, will do that for you. I think that Cousins is going to be a top 12 quarterback. Wow. All right. And Osborne certainly is an opportunity. All right.

Philadelphia 34, Giants 10. I'm trying to figure out the right way to phrase this. Believe it or not, Saquon Barkley is never going to finish the season as a top 12 running back in total points again? I don't think I believe it. I'm not willing to go there yet, but maybe that's just personal. I don't want to admit it.

What do you think? I mean, he'll be 25 in a couple months, so he's got probably three years on a normal career arc to make that happen. But he's on a terrible team that's going nowhere fast, and it's going to be on a terrible team that's going nowhere fast next year. And then he's going to be 26.

I think if they can make a splash and get Russell Wilson or something like that, Wilson, Rogers, whatever, then things change instantly. And remember, they've got two top 10 picks in the draft. One of them could be, they could both potentially be top five picks. We'll see. Going into today, they were five and six,

but the Bears had to go and win. Okay, so there's definitely a chance that they could have great picks they can add a quarterback via maybe free agency maybe a trade maybe that loses one of the picks who knows but i'm i can't say that they're gonna stink next year yeah you're gonna like would you say that anyone is going to stink next year or just not like if they don't if they don't upgrade from daniel jones they're gonna stink but if you're giving Would you say that anyone is going to stink next year? If they don't upgrade from Daniel Jones, they're going to stink.

If you were giving me your five most likely teams to stink next year, they would have to be on that list, wouldn't they? Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. I think they're more likely to be on the Lions. I haven't thought about that list. I absolutely think they're on that list. First of all, they're the fifth worst team right now. I agree with you about the Lions. The Lions, you got to be feeling

pretty decent about the way they've played this year. But the Giants do have a lot of talent. They can just somehow figure it out. Anyway, from this game for the Eagles.

All right. Hey, you know what? Apologies to Heath, because when he called Devante Smith a boom boom-bust flex or whatever, I said, let's take the word boom out of there. And, of course, he boomed. Five catches, 80 yards, and a touchdown on seven targets. He had a great touchdown catch.

Dragged the foot. Really, really great. How much are you going to trust him next week at Washington? Say it, Heath. He's a boom-b, number three wide receiver. Just not a lot of targets. All right, Tampa Bay 32, Carolina 6. Man, this game was really pretty gross.

Thanks, Tyler Johnson. Believe it or not, Antonio Brown, I don't know. What do you want to say? I think we've got to talk about Tom Brady. I think we've got to talk about the run game. He scored 16 fantasy points. Ronald Jones, 20 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown.

Keyshawn Vaughn had a 55-yard touchdown run. Jones also had, what, two catches for 16 yards. But I guess first look at the Bucs offense in this state. Is Tom Brady still a stud quarterback or is he a low-end starter? They're at the Jets next week. You're starting him against the Jets. Absolutely. And then they've got Carolina in Week 18.

So they're not going to see a tough matchup until the playoffs. Well, I mean, he wasn't very good in the same matchup this week I don't think it kind of felt to me like one of those games where Brady didn't do well because they had the rushing touchdowns you know what I mean sure Vaughn shut down

one drive with his touchdown run that's true got the short yardage touchdown but that said he threw for 230 yards so that's why i ask you know i'm just wondering if they have evans and ronald jones is 30 pass attempts the new normal instead of 44 he was averaging 44 before those guys got hurt yeah oh what a play don't worry no No fantasy implications for you, Heath. Good.

Dallas DST strutting. All right, Antonio Brown, 100 yards. And we're not picking the captain's spot, baby. Hey, there you go. Chuba Hubbard with six carries for nine yards. Amir Abdullah had five touches. They stink. DJ Moore.

DJ Moore got 11 targets. And the quarterback rotation, whatever. But he's still got 11 targets. He's been getting a ton of those. So still good to start him next week at New Orleans. Start him. All right. Chicago 25, Seattle 24.

Believe it or not, Darnell Mooney will not be the number one wide receiver on the bears next year. Believe it. Yeah, I believe that someone replaces him or supplants him or yeah. Like the bears, we've seen this from this franchise in the past where they just don't do anything big at wide receiver anyway.

And maybe technically he's the number one receiver. Like he gets the most targets and catches, but he's not a great fantasy option. I'm not sure if you saw this, but I did predict on Twitter, 82 yards and two touchdowns for DK Metcalf. He got exactly half of that on one play on the opening drive, a 41 yard touchdown catch.

He did not have another yard yard the rest of the game. Do you, so are you still nervous about him going into next week? Yes. They are facing Detroit. Nothing's changed. Right. That's the good news, is at least they're facing the Lions. You know how much time and possession they had in this game against the Bears?

No, no, no. Oh my God, I just saw it. 21 minutes and 35 seconds. I wonder if they're going to set a record. I mean, it's every week with them. It's unbelievable. 3 of 10 on third downs? Yeah, and the Bears

stink on third down too. Well, they were 50%. I mean, for the season they stink. I'm going to just say something. They will get me hate tweets and hate mail. Let's go. Everybody can get mad at me right now, but I don't think Matt Nagy is as bad as everybody else thinks Matt Nagy is. Fire Nagy is trending on Twitter

as he's going and winning a game in Seattle with Nick Foles as his starting quarterback. I'll say another thing. He went to the playoffs twice with Mitchell Trubisky and he has a winning career record. And we're acting like he's Adam Gase. Well, you have to see offensive development.

That's the only thing they're going to judge him on. Is he the guy to get Justin Fields to become great? I doubt they're convinced of this. No, I don't think they are. He's getting fired for sure. I just don't think they are. He's getting fired for sure. I just don't think he's as bad as everybody else does. And I hope that he finds a good offensive coordinator job

and gets another head coaching chance. I will say the Bears... One of those two things will happen. Believe it or not, the Chicago Bears have the best quarterback depth chart in the NFL, one through three. Sure, believe that.

No. Not even kind of. Who's got a deeper... You go to your number three quarterback, and it's Nick Foles. If you're 27th, if your number one quarterback's 27th... That's not important.

If we're eliminating one, and you're just saying two through three, maybe they do have the best depth chart. The Bears have a good collection of quarterbacks who can start in the NFL, and there are at least six teams that play today

that would have loved to have Nick Foles or Andy Dalton. Or Justin Fields. The Eagles have Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew. But who's number three? Yeah, he's their third guy. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know. I don't know if you've got those two. Vegas. They had Flacco. Let him go. Vegas 17 and Denver 13. I don't know. They had Flacco. Let him go. Vegas 17 and Denver 13. Believe it or not,

there's going to be a quarterback that saves the Broncos next year. They're going to get Rodgers and they don't go get Watson. Are we just going to keep thinking all of these guys are good but can't be as good as we think they are because that has to be their plan is to try and get one of those two or maybe you know like maybe the the plan c is russell wilson plan d is jimmy garoppolo what if i mean maybe this is where Minshew goes.

What if the Broncos trade Jerry, Judy, Cortland, Sutton, and Javante Williams for quarterback? Then what? Yeah. I might get them Garoppolo. Okay. I'm not certain it would.

How much are you going to trust Javante Williams or Melvin Gordon next week at the Chargers in your fantasy championship? Yes. What if they don't have Bridgewater? Do they need Bridgewater? They need the ball. They need to convert third downs.

The Texans did a good job of that against the Chargers this week. Who do they play? The Chargers, I'm pretty sure. Am I wrong about that? No, I didn't remember. I didn't hear what you said. I was trying to decide.

They seem really confident about trusting them. Yeah, I'm going to go right back to them. No, I'm not. I don't feel that same level of confidence. I agree. I'm with Heath. I'm not that confident in them. But if Bridgewater plays, it will

help, I think, for Javante. Honestly, if it's the same confidence we've had in Javante and Melvin most of the year, it's been that we've had them between 20 and 28, which is probably about the range I'm going to have them. I would say the

difference is this recent development of Javante Williams with Bridgewater being more involved in the passing game, which I think would help. All right. And then for the Raiders, I know he caught a touchdown, but are we still viewing Hunter Renfro as a must start? Now he has

32 and 40 yards in his last two games, I think. Is it two of his last three? Who do they play? They get the Colts on the road. He has only eight targets in his last two games. That's weird. At one point, he had one target, and Zay Jones had five,

which seems like a bad plan. But defense is just ganging up on Renfro now. I don't know what's happening. I would say that Renfro is, we said, we're just going to start DJ more. I think he's probably in the DJ more range right now. He'd be ahead of DJ more.

In my opinion. Okay. And let's go to our last game. Chiefs 36 Steelers 10. Believe it or not, the Chiefs don't have to play in week 18 because they'll already have the ones he dropped up. Oh, this is so boring.

Come on. Better than that. This is Heath being a fan. I do think they beat Cincinnati next week. Oh, yeah. There's definitely a chance that they've got it locked up. If the Dolphins beat the Titans and the Chiefs beat the Bengals, then it's over okay um believe it or not both derrick gore

and daryl williams are startable next week no this oh sorry that's supposed to be the so you're starting williams and flexing gore no i'm not touching gore gore gore you might want to put on your roster now for week 18 there you go i think williams would be a pretty good start i think so too i think they like derrick gore oh yeah i just don't know if derrick gore is very good i think he's gonna need need a lot of work in order to be good. I don't know if he can be good for fantasy on 10 touches. Can we finish on this?

Two catches on two targets for Tyreek Hill without Travis Kelsey. Yeah, that's going to sink a lot of people. What was that? You could look at it a different way. It's going to help a lot. The Chiefs are great and they're the best Patrick Mahomes had 28 fantasy points

on 30 pass attempts with no Travis Kelsey and two catches for Tyreek Hill that's a great I love your optimism did you have a great Christmas guys yes good had a great time hanging at home watching football

families in town from chicago and maryland got to see my nieces and nephews that's always fun good and i bought an entire bag of hersey's kisses i put four in my wife's stocking i'm eating the rest that's the christmas spirit so with that we'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today. See you later, everybody.