Fantasy Football Today - Week 16 Tough Calls, Fantasy Cops, Dynasty WRs (12/23 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 23, 2020

To win your Fantasy league you need great players and you also need a little luck. So Dave Richard is going to give you his 2020 good luck charm! Here's a player you can stash on your bench to give yourself that extra edge in your championship! Now, on to football. News and notes (12:00) including a Leonard Fournette discussion and a look at how RBs are not catching passes in 2020 like they used to (16:45) ... Week 16 tough calls! Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson at QB (21:50), Melvin Gordon and Giovani Bernard at RB (30:00), and four WRs who will be stressing out their Fantasy managers (34:35) ... Jacob Gibbs is back with three fascinating stats for Week 16 (40:40), the Fantasy Cops are also back (46:00) and they are calling out Fantasy managers who aren't paying their league dues, plus we read your Apple Podcast questions (52:30) and emails (54:10). And we finish with Dynasty WR risers and fallers (56:50) ... Your emails at [e-mail] Do you want to win a prize for the holidays? Go to cbssports.com/happyholidays to enter.  '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. Welcome to the Wednesday edition of Fantasy Football Today. Did you know that a running back has scored double-digit non-PPR fantasy points in 13 of 14 games against Houston? Can anybody name the one lead running back who did not score double-digit fantasy points against Houston?

Jonathan Taylor? No. No. He did. Twice. Twice. Another rookie. James Robinson?

James Robinson. Remember he had that dud of a game midseason? He came back. He made up for it. No, I don't remember. Every week he crushes. I remember because Adam was asking if we should drop him. Yeah, probably. He's the only guy who hasn't done it.

So Giovanni Bernard faces Houston this week. Maybe he's a tough call. I got one more running back stat for you. I just need to scroll up a little bit. In their last five games, looking at Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsey, Melvin Gordon has five more carries than Phillip Lindsey. Only five more. 185 more rushing yards than Philip Lindsay.

Stop splitting the carries. Stop doing it. But they are doing it very, very evenly. And Melvin Gordon has a revenge game against the Chargers, who are bad against the run. Is he a tough call? We'll talk about it today. Good morning, guys.

How you feeling? I'm in a really fun mood festive mood right now happy holidays got my tree yesterday it's like two feet tall it's like a bush that's fine and uh heath i'm in the christmas spirit that is do you always put your christmas tree up this late no no it was we We tried to get a delivery. It was a mess. The place we went to sold out. I was kind of stunned

because we put ours up too early probably. But I thought, man, that seems like a lot of work to put the tree up for like three days. No, it's not a lot of work. That was a good thing. No, I'm feeling pretty good. It's an exciting week i mean i

kind of feel like i i might just lose all of my championship matches but um i'm still excited about the possibility of of winning yeah good you should be dave how you feeling by the way there was a rocky marathon on last night so i think that's also why i'm fired up dave what's up you gotta find you some stairs to run up, apparently. I'm feeling great. I'm also in the Christmas spirit. Last night, my daughter and I went driving around our neighborhood and started grading people's decorations for Christmas. And I'm amazed at how some people just go all out. And they've got the blow-up characters, like Snoopy and his house.

He's laying on the top of his doghouse and there's Christmas lights on the doghouse. When I was a kid, there were two types of Christmas lights, color or white. And now there's different sizes and shapes and projectors and everything and waving Santa Clauses in the yard. Some guy had every single possible blow up of the minions that you could possibly have for christmas in his yard he had two minions with a sign in between them saying ugly sweater contest it's amazing just how how people go all out for the holiday and the christmas spirit just it captures everybody man and it was great to go out there and see all the lights and see the festivities. My neighborhood has a lot of lights. Lots.

We walk around the neighborhood. Does your house have lights, Heath? I have zero lights. And my wife is kind of giving me a hard time about that. This is the guy who won't even turn his porch light on on Halloween. You think he's going to put Christmas lights up? That's true. I made an offer that we

could do some holiday decorating this year, but my wife shot it down. We both went to the same church as kids, and we both participated. In front of our church, we had a live nativity every year for Christmas, and the kids in the youth group would go like pose out there and stand and this is in missouri so it's like freezing cold yeah and stand there for hours sometimes singing oh my gosh posed as the characters from the nativity scene and so i told my wife that like we can we can go buy a manger and we can all stand in the front yard and do a live nativity scene that's the only she did not want to do that unfortunately so no decorations this year i would help you set it up if you promised to be baby jesus yard and do a live nativity scene that's the only she did not want to do that unfortunately so no

decorations this year i would help you set it up if you promised to be baby jesus no that sounds like a lot that sounds like a fantasy football losing like a losing bed in fantasy football dave since we're in the holiday spirit and we're in the spirit of giving you give us a lucky player to stash on our bench every year yes i do so if you have some of the history we'd love that and who is going to be this year's player the this all started when uh i i felt like i needed a good luck charm on my bench for a fantasy matchup it's got to be over five years ago and i picked up tim tebow and i put him on my bench and i think the year before i had won a championship with Tebow as my

quarterback. And I remember like writing a whole story about really Tim Tebow is going to help you win your fantasy league. And I said, he's going to do it again, but this time it's going to be on your bench and it's going to be just, you know, the luckiest guy he's had so much luck in his career.

Now he's going to have it for your fancy team. And it worked. And I won my fantasy league with Tim Tebow on my bench. And I remember like the guy was playing saying, you're such idiot why is tim tebow on your bench and i said just wait just wait till the games and i blew him out and it was wonderful so every year i've picked a player who's not active in the nfl at the current time to come onto my bench i drop a player who i just know i'm for sure not gonna start and i i put this good luck charm all it is is a good luck charm and now it's is a good luck charm.

And now it's kind of exploded into this thing where people are guessing. They want to know who it is. I went on a radio spot in Cleveland yesterday and the hosts were begging me to announce it then. And I told them, okay, I'll give you guys a guess and you can each have one guess. And if you get it right, I'll announce it right here, right now that that's it. I'd made up my mind on who it was by then. And they couldn't guess last year was Rob Gronkowski. And the pick was so good that not only did you win your league, if you had Rob Gronkowski on your bench, he came back to play in the NFL. He, he was, he was a guy I sat.

I didn't make the finals in our dynasty league, but I stashed him on my bench before the season ended, I believe, because he was on my team this year when the draft came around and I ended up trading him as part of a package deal. I think that there's... It's silly. It's not going to guarantee you a win in your league, but it's something we can all do together.

It's just something kind of fun. Let's do it. Who is it? Wait, do I have a drumroll? I don't have a drumroll. No, no, no. You guys have to each make a guess. Oh. And Shraggy B can make a guess too. Think about a player who is you know you're going to be able

to find him on your waiver wire who maybe is a good luck charm. I thought Alex Smith was the most obvious choice. A lot of people guessed Alex Smith. It's not Alex Smith. I most obvious choice. A lot of people guessed Alex Smith. It's not Alex Smith. I'm going to go with PJ Walker from the XFL.

PJ Walker is not it, but that is also an excellent guess. And Shraggy, I almost feel like you did that because you know that I was a PJ Walker fan. Yeah, exactly. At the XFL last year. No, it's not PJ Walker. He's Dynamite. Adam, it's on you. I have absolutely nothing.

Okay. Well, let me give you a couple of names who aren't it that were originally going to be at Saquon Barkley was a former very early first round pick who tore his ACL. I think if you drafted him and you still made your finals, you should go pick him up and put him on your bench anyway, just so he's there. Dak Prescott suffered a horrific injury.

He was playing like a rock star before then. And if you're a Cowboys hater, there's no way you would ever, ever put Dak Prescott on your bench. But if you had Dak, maybe you should go back and put him. By the way, you can create your own good luck charm. You don't have to go with the guy. No, Dave, this is your freaking, let's go. Let's go.

Come on. Who is it? He is a former Olympic track runner. Marquise Goodwin. He's got three little angels that come with him when he joins you on your bench. And his last name is Goodwin. It is Marquise Goodwin. As the good luck charm this year, I'm going to go add him in my leagues,

have him on my bench. And that's just part of the karmic process that I go through. The other one is a little something like this. Hey, Heath. Yes. You and I are playing for a championship in one of our leagues. And the difference between the first prize and the second prize is roughly 26 packs of Funky Buddha.

Would you like to split the difference and just play for the glory? And then we can each walk away with an extra 10 packs of six packs of Funky Buddha. It's okay to say no. No, it's really you see did you see the email of the day by the way let me let me read the email of the day email today is from alexander in massachusetts pittsfield massachusetts uh wondering if you can talk about pot splitting heading into a final dynasty or seasonal might be an interesting twitter poll been listening for years i cannot recall the subject coming up before not strictly a fantasy cops question more of a fantasy

philosopher's question i'm only giving you two minutes to talk about this we got more stuff to do let's go so a pot splitting uh yay or nay i am anti pot splitting shaming i am too. And it's bad form to turn down pot splitting requests or offers. I disagree with that. No, because you don't know what's going on in the person you're playing's life. And it might be a $400 pot. And we have some leagues that are winner take it all and they might be in a situation where $200 makes a big difference to them okay understand when they they may be saying they want to split because it would really be helpful to them to guarantee $200 instead of having a chance at having 400 or zero

oh all right but there i mean there are certain circumstances where you know that's not the case helpful to them to guarantee $200 instead of having a chance at having 400 or zero. Oh, all right. But there, I mean, there are certain circumstances where, you know, that's not the case. That's very noble of you. I don't really think there, like there probably are some circumstances where, you know, that's, but most, the majority of cases, you have no idea what somebody else's financial situation is. Do you think that someone might actually say, Hey, Heath, I'm some tough times i could really use the money do you mind if we just i would not like i wouldn't want to maybe they would but if they just presented it as what do you think about splitting the pot i think the right answer is to say yes okay but i just presented it to you as we get extra beer so don't take it as something we... I think Heath has to accept.

Heath absolutely has, based on... Well, here's the thing. Here's the other part of the karma equation for me. You have 20 seconds to finish this. Is I always, always offer when I make the final game, except when I play Jamie, because I know he's going to say no, because he hates pot splitting.

He is anti-pot splitting to the core. He is a fiend about it. You should ask him about it on tomorrow's podcast. I do it because I just want karma on my side. I just want karma to be with me saying, okay, look, I've got the good luck player. I offered to make it split with the cash. I clearly just want to have fortune with me to win the league.

That's why I do it. All right. I think pot splitting is fine. It's, you know, it's fine. And I've done it in poker tournaments before, too. It makes sense. Yeah, but it's not quite as fun. It definitely takes the excitement slash anxiety out of the matchup.

I disagree. What are you talking about? What the hell is at stake if you're splitting the pot? Winning the league. And in this case, it's our dynasty league. It's 14 teams. There's some serious props that come with winning the league. Not to mention, if I win the

league, I beat Jamie and Heath on my way there and Will Brinson. I get it. I get it. But believe me, there's less at stake. There's no question there's less at stake. News and notes. Yeah, for sure. News and notes. James Conner could play this week. Mike Tomlin, though, he raved about Benny Snell. So if Conner does play,

are they both sits? And if Conner doesn't play, is Benny Snell a start against the Colts? The only way I'm starting Snell with confidence is if Connor is out. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Like, but Snell is much better than Connor if Connor plays, right? Snell, Snell is better. Okay.

Very similar on a lower level to the Pollard situation. Right. You would rather have Connor and Zeke just not come back unless you have Connor or Zeke and not the other guy. But yeah, they're flex at best if they're both active. And I don't really... I've got Snell projected without Connor right now and he's a borderline number two.

This matchup against the Colts is not near as good as the one against the Bengals, obviously. Ken Allen, not quite ready to practice. We're going to have to keep an eye on that one. Ronald Jones is almost certainly not going to play. They got a Saturday game at Detroit. And I didn't put Leonard Fournette in the tough calls, but I think he's a tough call

because you could make a case that he should be like top 10 based on the matchup. And he got 17 touches last week, and he's facing Detroit. They're 32nd. I think they give up the most fantasy points. Most are second most fantasy points to running backs. So would you guys start Leonard Fournette

or Miles Sanders? I have Leonard Fournette one spot ahead of Miles Sanders. Wow. Running back 15. So I would start Leonard Fournette. The only reason why I'm starting Fournette is the matchup. He looked terrible again last week, but he just

rumbled his way in for a couple of goal line touchdowns, and he was awesome for fantasy. The 49ers news. Nick Mullins out. He might need Tommy John surgery. George Kittle trending in the right direction. Might play. Raheem Mostert, Deebo Samuel, out. So Jeff Wilson is looking like a good...

Jeff Wilson or Leonard Fournette this week? Fournette Wilson. Okay. And then how do you feel about Kittle? Where are you going to rank him if he plays at Arizona? It's on Saturday. Arizona has gone from worst to one of the best against tight ends this year.

But anyway, where are you going to rank Kittle? He's going to be in my top five. I'm not going to mess around and say, well, he's not going to be good. Between three and six. I think he's going to end up being ahead of Logan Thomas, Hunter Henry, Robert Tunyon. But obviously not Mahomes and Waller, probably not Andrews or Hawkinson. Mahomes. Kelsey. Yeah, might as well call him Mahomes. Well, Haw Probably not Andrews or Hawkinson. Mahomes. Kelsey.

Yeah, might as well call him Mahomes. Well, Hawkinson would be interesting, I guess. I've got Logan Thomas three and PPR. I don't know that. I think I'd probably have him six. Probably Kelsey, Waller, Thomas, Hawkinson, Andrews in front of him. Okay. And is Hawkinson dependent on Stafford playing?

Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I'll still start Hawkinson dependent on Stafford playing? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I'll still start Hawkinson with Chase Daniel. Oh, I'm talking just specifically versus Kittle. I know he's going to be a start either way, but... Which backup quarterback do I hate less? I think if Kittle is practicing every day this week, I will start him over

Hawkinson with Chase Daniel. Okay. Alex Smith could play this week. Dwayne Haskins could get suspended for having a maskless photo with strippers. We've all been there. Strippers I'm around don't wear masks either. But, well,

I don't know why I said that. It's a joke that's going nowhere. I have no punchline. Just a horrible comment. Josh Gordon is not eligible to play. That was disappointing. So he's not going to come back this week. Derek Carr has not been ruled out yet.

Kyle Rudolph mispracticed. They have a Friday game at the Saints. And Eric Ebron avoided serious injury, which is good news. And maybe he can get back in time. It is a tough matchup against the Colts. But he's been pretty reliable. Eric Ebron avoided serious injury, which is good news. And maybe you can get back in time. It is a tough matchup against the Colts, but he's been pretty reliable. Eric Ebron. Shraggy B, what are we promoting today? It's a great question. We're promoting no Twitch on Thursday and watch CBS Sports HQ on CBS Sports HQ.com

or the CBS Sports app on your OTT devices or your mobile devices. Cool. Thank you. All right. Here's something surprising. Something surprising. I'm obsessed with pass-catching running backs and how you really can't be great if you don't catch 50 passes. Well, it's just there have been, I think, in the last five years, two running backs have finished top five in any format

with fewer than 50 catches no fewer than 49 sorry aaron jones had 49 last year uh they're derrick almost 50 catches yeah derrick henry and ezekiel elliott and uh this year it looks like it's gonna be four out of five it's gonna be very close but derrick henry will obviously be in that mix and he will not have 50 catches it just seems like the pass catching is down it's's just not as big of a factor, I think, for these running backs. There were 13 running backs who caught at least 50 last year. Right now we're on pace for only eight. However, there are a bunch that are right in the range. So there are currently 13 running backs on pace for 46 catches, but only two are on pace for 70. Kamara and McKissick. Last year, we had

six running backs get to 70 catches. Obviously, you don't have McCaffrey this year. That hurts. But last year, we had Eckler, Tariq Cohen, Leonard Fournette, James White. Injuries have played a role, but I don't know, guys. A little bit surprising. It's kind of a fantasy mantra for me

is I just don't like first-round running backs. I'm not taking one unless I feel like he's getting 50 catches. Derek Henry would have to be an exception. I think it kind of points to also the fact of why running back has been a – like at the top, running back has been a major disappointment this year. Last year, we had five running backs that scored 300 PPR fantasy points. This year, we're going to have three. Last year, we had 12 running backs that scored 240 PPR fantasy points. This year, we're going to have three. Last year, we had 12 running backs

that scored 240 PPR fantasy points. This year, we're probably going to have six or seven, like half as many. And there's a lot of things that go into that. Alvin Kamara had the Taysom Hill weird thing and Saquon Barkley was out and Ezekiel Elliott fell apart. We've had a little bit of weird committee stuff, but it's like the main takeaway is

those catches are kind of a symptom of the fact that running back just hasn't been as good this year. What about the, what if you've got a running back who has an average of 3.2 catches per game. That would come out to 50 or so over a 16-game span. Is that maybe a better barometer, Adam? I mean, it's the same thing. Okay, so right now you look at the top five running backs. They're Kamara. He has 80 catches.

So he needs to— There's only one more for the rest of the year. He's only allowed to have 81 catches. Three straight years with 81. Dalvin Cook has 42. Dalvin Cook has come on strong. He was catching nothing the first half of the year. Derrick Henry has 19. He's not going to get there.

James Robinson has 49. He actually might not get there. We don't know if he's going to play. Aaron Jones has 41. That's your top five. So Jones will be close to 50. But, you know, it's just different. You're just not seeing as much pass catching from these running backs.

Montgomery is 43. He's RB6 right now. Yeah, so you want about three, three and a half catches. And I still think even in this down year, looks like four of the top five are going to be very close to 50. It's still a number I'm going to shoot for next year. It's just different. Also, we're going to going to be very close to 50. It's still a number I'm going to shoot for next year. It's just different. We're going to have a lot of guys catch 50 that are kind of weird.

Like Mike Davis. Well, JD McKessick's already done it. The Mike Davis situation, Naheem Hines, Chase Edmonds. I mean, James White might get there still. Yeah, you're right. Zeke might get there. Zeke's got 45. Yeah.

All right, Giovanni Bernard's got a chance. He's got 40 catches. We'll see. Well, that just caught my eye. Something that I talk about a lot in the offseason and checking in on it in the late season. We got Week 16 tough calls. We're going to take a quick break on fantasy football today.

Can you start Matt Ryan? Kansas City has given up 25 or more fantasy points to, I think five of the last six quarterbacks they have faced or for the last five. I'll update you as soon as we, yeah, five of the last six. There we go.

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financial penalties, and keep you safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca. It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. Well, I'm going to suggest a tough call. You guys tell me if it was actually a tough call for you this week. Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson are the two quarterbacks I came up with here. Ryan had his first good game without Julio Jones, and it was a tremendous game.

33 points against the Bucs. He threw 49 times, but he throws a lot, basically every game. And now he's at the Chiefs. And yeah, to update that stat, five of the last six quarterbacks they've faced have scored 25 or more fantasy points and six points for passing touchdown leagues. That would be Bridgewater, Carr, Brady, Tua, and Breeze.

And then Wilson, I actually don't think Wilson's that tough of a call. I would love to not have to start him. But you tell me, Dave, were Ryan and Wilson tough calls this week? They were tough to stack up against other quarterbacks who don't have supreme upside. So in that regard, yes.

But they both fell outside of my top 12, which is kind of unfortunate, especially in the case of Wilson, because a lot of people made the finals of their fantasy league with him at quarterback. And now he's got this dreadful matchup against the Rams. And you'll want to trust Stafford after Stafford. You want to trust Matt Ryan after the game he just had against Tampa Bay, but it was really a tale of two halves for him.

The first half, the bucks weren't getting to him. The protection was good and he was making throws the second half. The bucks were getting to him. He was getting sacked on third down. It looked very familiar to Falcons fans, and he wasn't nearly as effective. And so my guess is that that's what Kansas City is going to do, is try and blitz the snot out of Matt Ryan

until they've got the game in hand. And you're going to need garbage time for Matt Ryan to come through for a big game. I like him as a top 15 quarterback, and Russ is 13th, but not top 12 for either one. Yeah, I'm not too far off on either of those guys. I think I've got Russell Wilson 12th. I would definitely start Jalen Hurts over him.

Oh, yeah. The one that I really struggle with is Trubisky. And I think I'd start Trubisky over him. I'm starting all the guys we've been starting as top 12 quarterbacks over him for the most part. But I really, I wouldn't start Matt Ryan over him. I've got a championship to say. I made the finals with Russell Wilson as my quarterback and the best

available quarterback on waivers was Baker. So I'm going to have to make a decision of Russell Wilson or Baker Mayfield as my quarterback and the FFT league against Jamie. Yeah, I think, and Jamie said, you talked about this on HQ yesterday, and it's a really tough debate, Baker versus Trubisky, because they're both facing, one's facing the Jets, one's facing the Jaguars. Great matchups, but they might not

have to throw much. They've been running the ball very successfully, their teams, at least recently for the Bears. And they're, you know, you've got to think they're pretty similar. And Dave's rankings go, right now, Trubisky, Wilson, Mayfield in order. And Heath goes Wilson, Trubisky, Mayfield.

So yeah, those are the tough calls. Hertz is the easy one. Yes, they're starting him over Wilson. But Trubisky and Mayfield, you guys have them all back to back to back with Russell Wilson. And that's really interesting. But sell me on why I should go with Russell Wilson. He has not been good lately, and he's facing a team that gives up

the fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks. And in his last six games, he's averaging 6.55 yards per attempt. What is going on? That includes a four touchdown game against the jets and and even with that he's on pace for 24 touchdowns over 16 games in those six games uh touchdown passes so like i don't know why i would go with russell wilson over one of those two streamers heath i i would say like the the main point in this i i want i say this poorly all the time,

but fantasy football is not like this linear thing where the things that have happened the last month are guaranteed to continue to trend in that direction. If we've not seen proof of that in 2020, I don't know if anybody will ever believe it. So it's not as if we're talking about a bad fantasy quarterback. He still ranks as one of the top five or six quarterbacks on the season. He has been an elite fantasy quarterback throughout his career. Just two weeks ago,

he scored 30 fantasy points and he has rushed for at least 40 yards in four of his last six games. He has 300 yard, three touchdown potential against anyone. That's a really interesting discussion. How do you look at Russell Wilson's splits, first eight games versus last six games? First eight games, he was on pace for 5,082 yards and 56 touchdowns.

Last six games, he's on pace for 3,373 yards. I mean, that's like 1,800 fewer yards. Quick, stupid math. Probably more like 17. And 24 touchdowns compared to 56. So he is throwing fewer passes. He's throwing about five fewer passes per game in these last six compared to his first eight.

But when they've been losing, he has thrown, in the two losses, they're four and two in these six games. He's thrown 37 and 43 passes. So if it's going to be a competitive game or if they might lose, you might get a good amount of pass attempts. But I mean, I think it's a good philosophical question is, do you look at it as like, well, Wilson's had five bad games out of six,

or, well, Wilson's been great for most of the season. I think he's had four bad games out of six. I think he had 24 points against the Cardinals. Okay. Yeah, you might be right about that. 23. Yeah. Okay.

So four out of six. Yeah. So yeah. Do you look at it as a streak or just like part of a bigger sample? Or is it indicative of what we should expect now? You know what I'm saying? Do you look at the full season or do you look at the last six games? I look at the more recent games,

and I look at what has he done in the games that they've won. Because that's what the Seahawks care about. They want to just win the game. They want to beat LA. But don't you have to think about who they're playing? Because this is going to be a tough game. This is not going to be... Okay, so...

And what we saw when they took on LA earlier this year was that Russ was sensitive about throwing in Jalen Ramsey's direction. And he didn't do it a lot. And he was lousy. And if you go back to their game late last year against LA, same thing. He was lousy. And they had Ramsey and Donald. I'm pretty

sure they had both those guys on the field for the game. And I think he's... I think he gets a little nervous when he plays against one of those big time corners. And I also think that Pete Carroll and the Seahawks is having in their mind that their defense is good right now. Their run game is effective. They've got enough bodies at running back to roll through and,

and to keep a good run game going. Now, that being said, Russ had a touchdown called back last week, or the receiver was ruled out of bounds. Carlos Hyde broke off a 50-yard run if he doesn't break off a 50-yard run, which he almost never does that. How would that drive have ended would have been a touchdown for Russ. So he came kind of close, and he's therefore being given opportunities to have a good game. I'm not sure what the odds are of him having a great game, especially against a defense that he struggled against the last few times he played and a defense that's done mostly a great job over the balance of the season against quarterbacks. Yeah.

First in points allowed. All right, let's get a couple of running backs here. Melvin Gordon, revenge game at the Chargers. I mean, I almost think I laid out a case to start Mayfield over Russ. Yeah, you, you did.

Yeah. I think that's the key because if you're looking at these six games as part of the full season sample for both quarterbacks, I think it's much more difficult to make that case than if you're looking at, well, look what Russell Wilson's been lately. Look what Baker Mayfield's been lately. I generally lean

towards the larger sample size unless there is some major change that has occurred in conjunction with like Ryan and Julio Jones. It's very interesting and

in addition to that battle of recency bias or whatnot, you also have the matchup thing, whereas Wilson's got the Rams, and Mayfield and Trubisky have two of the worst teams against quarterbacks. And it's not that I'm not taking... The fact that they are even close signifies that I'm taking both of those things seriously,

because for most of this season and their careers, there's been 20 spots between Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield in the rankings. Right, right. Makes sense. All right, so let's go to Melvin Gordon and Giovanni Bernard. So Gordon is at the Chargers, and he has been getting 11 to 15 carries in each of his last five games. And he's been pretty good. He had a bad game against the Saints, which is not unexpected.

But other than that, he's been pretty good. And he's got seven catches in his last two games. The catches have been very unpredictable. Phillip Lindsay has 11 to 16 carries in four of those five games. And like I said, over the last five games, they have almost the same amount of carries, but Gordon has been so much better. But it's frustrating.

And how about this? Their pass attempts the last five games, no more than 30 in any game. They are just run, run, run right now, those Denver Broncos. So is Melvin Gordon a tough call? And Giovanni Bernard against arguably the best matchup, I'd say Houston and Detroit are the best matchups

with Green Bay just behind them. Heath, are Gio and Melvin Gordon tough calls for you? And how do you feel about them? They are individually tough calls. It's not a particularly tough call for me to start Melvin over Geo. And this is one of those situations with the recency, like Drew Locke and the Broncos coaching staff have talked about how they didn't want him to be quite so YOLO.

And so he has, I think, intentionally not thrown the ball downfield as much and been more willing to take the short passes. So I do feel a little bit like the catches have been random, but I do feel a little bit better about Gordon's role in the passing game currently. Geo, it's just so tough because it's one good game in the last month. And again, the larger sample size, it's probably now 11 out of 16 or something that he's been good without Joe Mixon. But four of his last five were absolutely terrible.

I like Geo as a high-end flex. I like Melvin as a No. 2 running back. But they are not that far apart. How about you? Geo is the tougher call. Yeah. There's no question about it. What does that mean for Gordon?

Is he an easy starter set or what? He's an easy number two running back to start this week. You should have the confidence to go with him. Would you start him over for Ned? I'm not sure if I would do that because this matchup is just so good. Same thing. Ahmed? Same thing. Like daryl henders like i think he is a tough call because he's right in the range of all five of the except for paul and all

of the way we're running back yeah i've got four net ahead of him in ppr i've got lavion ahead of him i have wilson one spot behind him i also have kenyan drake behind him there's something that's making me nervous about drake We'll talk about that later. And, you know, Gio at least... So, if I'm going to make the case for Gio, it's that when he was in that awful stretch of games, look at the matchups. Pittsburgh, Washington, Giants, Dolphins. Dolphins have had a better run defense lately.

Pittsburgh, Washington, and the Giants, very good. Then he had a Dallas game, and he only got six touches because he fumbled. Jerk. Yeah, so that was obviously a huge disappointment. It's not like he was so great against Pittsburgh the second time around. 25 carries for 83 yards, but he scored twice. You're not going to see him get 26 touches most likely.

So I don't know. If you get 16 touches or so against Houston, is that enough for a good game? I mean, it has been for almost every running back this year. I don't know. It's easier to start him now than it was a week ago this time. No one was starting him against the Steelers. You didn't know if he

was going to get the work. Right, but now at least we know that, or at least we think we know that. How about this? Last week was an exception. Week 15 was an exception. But going into week 15, a running back had 28 or more receiving yards against Houston in nine

straight games. And in eight of those nine games, it was 35 or more receiving yards. So not only do they suck against running backs on the ground, they give up among the most receiving yards to running backs. They are giving up 5.41 yards per carry to running backs.

That's the most in the NFL. That's Houston. Number two is Dallas. 4.9. That's a half a yard more per carry than any other team. It's unbelievable how bad their run defense is. All right. Said my piece.

Do a few wide receivers here, and then we got some fantasy. I mean, you should also consider who they've played over the last three weeks. It's the whole season, though. That's caused that to explode. You're right. They have faced a lot of good running backs. All right, let's do some wide receivers here. I have Chris Godwin, Brandon Cooks,

Marquise Brown, and Cole Beasley. Chris Godwin, Brandon Cooks, Marquise Brown, and Cole Beasley. I have them as tough calls. Godwin has Detroit. Cooks has Cincinnati. Marquise Brown, the Giants, and James Bradbury will play. And Cole Beasley is at New England, and John Brown could play.

So, Heath, again, I'll give you the first word. Are these guys tough calls? Godwin, Cooks, Marquise Brown, Cole Beasley. You did an excellent job of choosing wide receiver tough calls. Godwin, Cooks, Marquise Brown, Cole Beasley. You did an excellent job of choosing wide receiver tough calls. Thank you. Chris Godwin is going to haunt my dreams until his game begins. Because obviously there's the name, there's the reputation, and he has had some good games of late, not many.

But he's the number 33 wide receiver in PPR since Antonio Brown joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In two games since their bye, he has received 12% of the targets from Tom Brady. It's a good matchup. He could score. I don't feel comfortable with him, and I have to make a decision between like him and Robbie Anderson and Jamison Crowder.

And I'm really not certain. I would be a hundred percent certain. Well, on who? Godwin. Hands down. Based on what? Based on the matchup and based on the potential for the Bucks to score a touchdown on every single drive that they have in this game against the Lions Detroit's defense is miserable yeah it really

is that was my capital M noise and they have given up cannot get pressure on the quarterback they they can't stop the run very well either but Fournette isn't exactly a fleet of foot guy at this point. Sometimes it looks like he's running with his eyes closed. But Brady should have a very good game. And so his receivers are of interest to me. Brady's had some very good games. And Godwin's just been okay. I get it.

No, he's a number two receiver, but I feel more comfortable with him than certainly Robbie and Crowder. Okay. And then what about the other three? Cooks against Cincinnati, Marquise Brown against the Giants, Cole Beasley at New England. Dave, do you feel confident in them? Are they tough calls?

Marquise Brown's been the same guy every single week for me, which is, you know what his upside is, you know what his downside is. The nice thing is that he's shown you the upside four straight games. He scored or had 98 yards. I'm fine starting Marquise Brown. I think Lamar Jackson's playing well enough to where he's good as at worst a number three receiver or

a flex. PPR or not PPR. He's had some good games. Cooks worries me because he hasn't had that big game since Fuller's been suspended. He's had some okay games. He got hurt. And Deshaun Watson is finding other guys to throw to and making good use of Kiki Kuti, Chad Anson, Jordan Akins, the running backs.

David Johnson had a ton of catches last week. So I'm more concerned about Cooks. I've got him as a low-end number three receiver. Yeah, of this list, Cooks is probably first for me. Beasley's right in that same range if there's no John Brown. Beasley becomes a very difficult choice if there is John Brown. But yeah, I mean, I think it's not really that bad that he's scored cooks have scored 11 ppr points in each of his last two games and each of his last five games at least actually without scoring a

touchdown right he's not terrible but that's like it kind of lets you know what his floor is yeah that's true I don't know I don't know the ceiling of getting to 17 or 18 PPR points is, well, he's literally been one touchdown away from that four weeks in a row. Yeah. Well, so where's the touchdowns been or have the touchdowns been, I should say.

And again, just to go back to it, I don't think not scoring a touchdown for four straight weeks makes him less likely to score a touchdown this week. No, sure. But okay. How many end zone targets has he had?

How many red zone targets has he had? That's something that I don't know off the top of my head. He might have eight and I just, but okay, how many end zone targets has he had? How many red zone targets has he had? That's something that I don't know off the top of my head. He might have eight, and he's been unlucky, and that'll reverse course. And Cincinnati's as good a matchup as any to make that happen. The thing is, Cincinnati, let me tell you the amount of points their defense has allowed in their last five games. 20, 19, 19, 23, and 17.

The 23 was against Dallas. Dallas actually scored 30, but they had a defensive touchdown. They also had a lot of short fields in that game. Now, they haven't faced the best teams. Washington, Giants, Dolphins, Cowboys, Steelers. Not exactly the best offenses. Watson should do much better than those quarterbacks, but

got to give them credit. Their defense actually played a lot better their last five games, and they're one and four, but only one game giving up more than 20 points in that stretch, and it was the Dallas game where they just kept fumbling and turning the ball over. All right, and that will

do it for the tough calls. Hold on. Let me just give you one last thing on Brandon Cooks. He has seven red zone targets on the season. That's it. The season. And since the Will Fuller suspension, I believe he's only had two red zone targets. Both against the Patriots. Two games or three?

I think it's three he missed he missed Patriots were four games ago he's played three games I think without Fuller or two I know he's there for the Patriots or not yes Fuller was there they both had about then he's at zero none since the Will

Fuller suspension all right guys so we've got some great stats for this week. You might be thinking, there's no way I'm starting Kirk Cousins. Well, listen to what Jacob Gibbs is about to tell you about Kirk Cousins this week. Actually, he's got Matt Ryan,

and he's got some good stuff. So let's take a listen to our buddy Jacob Gibbs from Sportsline as he gives you some key stats for Fantasy Week 16. What's up, FFT? This is Sportsline Fantasy Analyst Jacob Gibbs, and I'm back with three more advanced stats for you heading into Week 16.

Stat number one. Only one quarterback has a passer rating above 120 when facing man coverage. That quarterback is Kirk Cousins, whose passer rating versus man sits at a nearly perfect 141.6. This isn't a small sample size thing either. If we include last year's numbers, Cousins' rating is 136, his completion rate is 71%, and he's averaging even 10 yards per attempt. He's been by far the NFL's best passer versus man coverage. In Week 16, Cousins will face a Saints defense that uses man coverage at the NFL's 7th highest rate. The receiver set to benefit most from New Orleans' man-heavy scheme, without a doubt, is Justin Jefferson. In the three games since Adam Thielen's return to the lineup, Jefferson has out-targeted him 31-18 and has 336 air yards to Thielen's 172. He's operating as the

team's clear wide receiver one, and on top of that, Jefferson has been uncoverable in man-to-man situations. His 4.96 yards per route run versus man is the only mark in the league above four and his target per route run rate is up from 19% against zone to 31% against man. The Vikings will likely have to lean pass heavy as seven point underdogs in this game and it really wouldn't be a surprise to see 150 plus yards from Jefferson in the Superdome. Stat number two. Matt Ryan and the Falcons have been really letting it fly lately, which has resulted in back-to-back weeks of 200-plus air yards and double-digit targets for Calvin Ridley. The player I really want to talk about, though, is Russell Gage.

You probably think of Gage as just a slot receiver because that's the role he's played for the entirety of his career up until week 14. Over the past two weeks, though, only 27% of Gage's snaps have come from the slot. Now that he's not relegated to only three wide receiver sets, Gage is able to remain on the field in all situations, which is evidenced by his season-high 91% snap rate last week. The move to the perimeter has led to more downfield targets, too. Gage's average depth of target prior to Week 14 was 8 yards.

He then had a 12.6-yard 8-out in Week 14 and a 13.1-yard 8-out in Week 15. This brings us to the matchup against Kansas City. Matt Ryan has thrown at least 10 yards downfield on 37% of his passes this season, which trails only Deshaun Watson. We've seen him funnel these types of targets to Ridley Engage with great success lately, but he might not be able to find such success against the Chiefs. Not only does Kansas City use a lot of man coverage schemes, which Ryan struggles with, but they have allowed a league low 38% completion rate on passes of 10 or more air yards. The way the Falcons have used Ridley Engage in recent weeks provides both with exciting ceilings and a projected shootout against the

Chiefs, but Kansas City's success against the pass this season, specifically on downfield attempts, does make the Atlanta passing game boom bust options in this spot. And stat number three, Green Bay shutdown corner Jair Alexander hasn't been used in shadow coverage since his week 10 injury. 94% of his snaps have come lined up on the right wide receiver since then. This is important because the Titans are one of the few teams who don't move their receivers around much. AJ Brown has lined up as the left wide receiver on 62% of his snaps, which is the third highest This is important because the Titans are one of the few teams who don't move their receivers around much. A.J. Brown has lined up as the left wide receiver on 62% of his snaps which is the third highest mark in the NFL.

Corey Davis lines up on the right side of the second highest rate in the NFL. This predictable alignment from Tennessee means we can feel confident Davis will spend most of his time on Jair's side while A.J. Brown will spend most of his time against Kevin King on the left side of the field. That's great news for Brown as King is one of just 13 qualified corners with a PFF coverage grade below 50. This game carries the highest over-under in Week 16, and both Titan receivers are still top 25 fantasy options in the projected shootout.

Just know that the volume could swing back towards AJB and away from Corey Davis, with how Green Bay has been aligning their cornerbacks lately. Alright, that's all I've got for Week 16. I'll be back on the FFT in 5 episodes Saturday with 3 more stats, and you can find me on Twitter at jgibbs underscore 23. I'll be tweeting out ner FFT in five episodes Saturday with three more stats. And you can find me on Twitter at J Gibbs underscore 23. I'll be tweeting out nerdy stats all week long. All right, Jacob Gibbs. Thank you very much.

And he's got great stuff on Sportsline. Go check out Sportsline.com and subscribe. Very, very affordable and useful stuff. And I think Corey Davis versus Jair Alexander is the most interesting thing to me. Packers pretty good against wide receivers, but Kevin King has been struggling as Jacob Gibbs just told you. But Heath, are you going to be concerned about that matchup if Davis stays in his spot and Alexander stays in his spot

and they see a lot of each other? I don't like it. You didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy, Jacob. So thanks for that. But I think what he said is correct. It's still the highest projected over under the weekend. And it's a game where we think Ryan Tannehill is going to have to throw because they're going to be chasing points.

And so I'm still starting Corey Davis. I'm less likely to play him in DFS. I'm more likely to play A.J. Brown in DFS. But I'm still starting both. You're obviously starting both. Brown, not a great game last week compared to what we usually get from him. And I don't think you care if it's Alexander

shadowing him or not. And just because the Packers haven't used him in shadow coverage since the injury doesn't mean that they won't try it if A.J. Brown is burning them early in the game. And I just, the high point total makes me think that it's going to be, you know, fun game,

a lot of touchdowns. You want to get pieces of that. It's not going to be all Derek Henry. So Davis is someone I think is a good start too. I couldn't, I really enjoyed Jacob stats on Justin Jefferson because he quantified so much of what I've seen from Jefferson and Thielen in just a bunch of stats. And there's no doubt. I think people should be a little nervous about Adam Thielen. I think

you start them with low-end number two receiver expectations this week. Jefferson's the number one, and he's going to end up being probably a top 35 pick in fantasy drafts next year. I've got a terribly tough decision if Ezekiel Elliott's status is up in the air because I have Adam Thielen that I'm planning on playing on Friday. But it would mean either sitting one of Swift, Taylor, or Pollard to play Thielen.

Oh, goodness. Well, hopefully we'll get the practice report from the Cowboys before kickoff of that game on Friday, and you'll know. If Seeks even practices. Swift has got to be a tough call, too, against the Bucs. His target volume makes him less of a tough call. All right. Well, I got to play one prerecorded thing.

Now here's another. Oh, yeah! It's Fantasy Cops time. Here we go. Definitely not Christmas music. No, no. This is from a manager in a league with a weak commissioner.

We have a payment dispute that we need your help with, and the league has agreed that your ruling will be final. This is a hometown friends league that has been five years running and is mostly centered around competitive

banter. In years past, we have collected money before the draft to avoid the exact scenario we are in now, but we did not this season. There is a debate as to

why. Those out of the playoffs argue that we decided not to pay at all due to COVID uncertainty. And those in the championship are saying

that we decided to wait until the end to pay this year due to COVID, but that payments were still going to be collected. With no text or email trail and no one truly remembering without a biased opinion

based on their payoff status or playoff status. I don't know. It says payoff. Maybe it should be playoff. We are stuck. Should we punt on payment this year since we didn't pay

before the draft as usual? Still pay since we have every year before? Or strike some sort of compromise like 25% of the usual buy-in of $100? And Heath, kicking people out next year who don't pay isn't really an option as it would likely end the league or not be enforced as everyone is too stubborn. Am I missing something here? This is the easiest.

This is such an easy call. What is it pay you're like you got to this point the season went through pay why on earth would you not pay i don't pay i didn't know if the covet uncertainty was referencing whether they would play or economic uncertainty okay i that right i'm sorry i've interpreted it as the season might not finish. That's why we didn't pay because of COVID. If people lost their job, can't afford it, okay, that's a completely different scenario. If financials are in order and that's not an issue, you absolutely pay. There's no reason not to pay. When's the last time you played in a fantasy league

where you weren't sure what the buy-in was. You never once went to the commissioner and said, hey, what's the buy-in for this? I'm bewildered. No, I do have a lot of leagues. I am bewildered by this. Not the timing of the payment, the amount in which you pay. But I do have several leagues where I'm currently not sure whether I have paid or not.

Whether or not you have paid is one thing. Whether or not you have paid is one thing. Whether or not you have to pay is another. People can really pick me over the coals by getting me to pay twice. I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why you got to keep better track of your finances, Mr. Cummings. But you know that those leagues have buy-ins, yes? Yeah.

How many leagues are you in where you're not sure if your league has a buy-in? I'm sorry to rush you. We have like three segments left, so I do apologize. But am I wrong here? This is an easy call, right? Everybody should pay. Here's what I think they should do. As long as they can afford it. Everybody, assuming you can afford it,

everybody pays $100. $50 of it goes toward next year's buy-in. And you have $100 as the buy-in next year. And you play for a bigger pot next year. And you take $50 to pay this year's buy-in. I don't understand that discount at all. This season went off without a hitch. It's not a discount. Everybody's still paying. The people who won this year deserve that

full prize. The people who won this year should know whether or not the league had a buy-in or not. The league has a buy-in. One thing I would say is you could make, like people did decide before the season, we're not playing for money this year because of COVID uncertainty. Yes, we are finishing the season, but we shouldn't act as if the uncertainty hasn't wildly affected fantasy football and cost teams victories almost every week.

I don't think that matters. If you didn't pay at the beginning of the year because of COVID uncertainty, I interpret that as we don't know if the season is going to be played or finished. Since it has been played or finished and everybody had their chance and everybody had to deal with the same crap, you pay. The people in the finals deserve it. I think you pay up. I've said my piece. But they didn't even know

how much. It's a $100 league. Every single year, it's a $100 league. Every single year, that's the expectation. You should know it. These are all friends. It's a five-year league that's been a $100 league. Every single year, that's the expectation. You should know it. These are all friends. It's a five-year league that's been a $100 buy-in every year. Okay, so I said my piece. Heath, your final verdict is what?

If you can pay, you should pay. $100. But that's going to lead to half the league not paying. We all agree that everybody should pay the $100 buy-in. Okay. It's just a matter of how it should be doled out that separates us. This is from Ben.

Is it customary to tip a league commissioner if you win? I have been a commissioner for five years and have never been tipped. I'm about to place in a different big money league and the commissioner asked for his tip via PayPal. What? I'll leave it up to the fantasy cops if this guy gets tipped. Note,

Jamie is in this league. CBS's own Jamie Eisenberg and I am playing him in the championship. My team is Curb Your Benthusiasm. Should have come up with Jamie. And yeah, this is a guy named Ben. Uh, alright. But Jamie's not the commissioner, is he? I don't think, I hope not. That's a bad look. Oh my god, yeah.

What do you think, Dave? Should Ben have to tip his commissioner? I think you should absolutely tip them. Find the coupons from your local paper or maybe, you know, a piece of paper on the street and give them the coupons and say, thanks for being a great commissioner.

It's a thankless job. It sucks being a commissioner. And if, if, if someone wants to tip their commissioner, they shouldn't choose to do so this isn't like going out to dinner or you know getting somebody to come clean out the puke and blood out of your las vegas hotel room you you don't have to tip here yeah you definitely don't

have to tip heath were you unanimous you don't have to tip. Heath, were you unanimous? You don't have to tip, no. You also shouldn't ask for a tip if you're a commissioner. You shouldn't ask for a tip either. If you think he deserves it, then fine. Who, Jamie? Give a little bit of a tip, and good luck. I am rooting for Jamie, Ben. I'm sorry to say, I'm rooting for Jamie.

No, I'm team Ben. Come on. Oh, no surprise. I'm going to root for Jamie, too, because I want him to win at least one league, but not the league that I'm playing him in. All right. Those are your Fantasy Cop questions. Thanks a lot. We do have a mailbag on Saturday,

so more opportunities to have them read. Quick Apple Podcast review questions from Mark Quinn 7. This is my first time on the championship game. Help me out. It's a non-PPR league. I'm starting Camara and Montgomery. Who should I start at Flex? Kareem Hunt, J.K. Dobbins, and he says Cam

Akers. Akers is not going to play. So Hunt or Dobbins? Dobbins. Keith wants to say Hunt. I think I have Hunt. In full PPR, I have Hunt ranked higher, so I think I'd start Hunt. It's non-PPR, though. Non-PPR, I'd start Dobbins.

There it is. From Derek Henry. Interesting. Full PPR, pick a flex. Chris Godwin, Wayne Gallman. I don't really get to do it anymore because he's kind of fading. I guess I'm done.

Yeah. You could do the Gallman thing for who ruined your fantasy playoffs. Oh, that's great. All right. You could do the Gallman thing for who ruined your fantasy playoffs. That's great. All right. So Godwin, Gallman, Drake, Hilton, or Zeke. Pick one.

It's T.Y. Hilton. Yeah, Hilton. And from BD531, Corey Davis or Robbie Anderson? Ooh, if it's non-PPR, it's Davis easily. It's going to be Davis either way, but it's much closer in PPR. Davis. Let me get a few emails up, and then we're going to finish with some Dynasty-wide receiver talk.

Heath, do you have an answer for me on this offer? Yeah, let's chop it up. Pot split. It's done. This is from Jason in a small

western Massachusetts town. See, now the problem is Heath's got karma on his side because he accepted the offer. But you offered it too, so that gives you good karma.

Yeah, but he's the one that hit the button on it. He said yes. All right. All right, so... Now I gotta think of something else. And I am an 18-point favorite,

so it's lots of karma. Yeah. All right. So I got to think of something. And I am an 18 point favorite. So it's lots of karma. Yeah. All right. Jason needs help. Jason needs a quarterback. He's got. He didn't give me his quarterbacks. Okay.

He needs two running backs. Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb. I'm only going to read these first three. Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb, David Montgomery. He's got to sit one of them? Is it PPR? Yes. I would sit Nick Chubb.

Now pick two wide receivers. Keenan Allen, Stefan Diggs, Chris Godwin, and Brandon Ayuk. Diggs and Ayuk. Now pick a flex. Chubb, Dobbins, David Johnson, Keenan Allen, and Chris Godwin. Over Keenan Allen, and Chris Gottlieb over Keenan Allen.

Yes. We don't know if Keenan Allen's even going to play. Yeah, I know that, but if he plays, you know. Thank you for the question. We don't know how much he'll play if he plays. Here's Greg. I need a wide receiver three and a flex. It's half PPR. Leonard Fournette and J.D JD McKissick are the running backs.

Wide receivers are Aguilar, Crowder, Rashard Higgins, Lazard, and QT. Who's the wide receiver going to be? Aguilar, Crowder, Rashard Higgins, Lazard, QT. I think I have QT ranked the highest. Aguilar. And then who's the flex? Those wide receivers are Fournette or McKissick. McKissick. Ass then who's the flex? Those wide receivers are Fournette or McKissick? McKissick.

Assuming Gibson's out. Half PPR over Fournette? I'm pretty sure. Okay. Dave? I have McKissick over Fournette too. One thing that I like about McKissick over the last couple of weeks is that he's running the ball well,

and he's getting opportunities to run the ball. He's actually like not a receiver playing running, but he's a running back playing running. What happens at the goal line? That's true. Dayton Barber. The beefcake Barber. Maybe.

I mean, he's averaging like five yards of carry. Maybe he'll just run one in from not on the goal line. So maybe he won't get tackled to one. Strutting his way into the end zone. All right, let's finish the show with some Dynasty wide receiver talk. Very interested to hear who's rising and who's falling at wide receiver. And Heath, I assumed you were going to move Nelson Aguilar down.

I saw he was 13th in your ranking, so I was like, ah, that's probably just how the projections spit it out. Heath will adjust it. Are you going to adjust that? I will adjust it a little bit, but, uh, I, I really kind of loathe wide receiver this week.

All right. Save that for tomorrow. It's a good topic. Dynasty wide receivers, Heath, two risers, uh, DK Metcalf and AJ Brown.

Oh, really? I think you could make the argument and I, I don't have could make the argument, and I don't have it ranked this way, but I don't have it ranked much differently than this. You could make the argument that DK Metcalf and AJ Brown should be number one and number two in Dynasty-wide receiver rankings heading into 21. I believe DK Metcalf is currently number one by ADP amongst Dynasty-wide receivers over the last month. Um, but I

would, I have moved them up. Um, there will be a final dynasty rankings update next week, but, um, I don't know that there's anybody besides Devante Adams and Tyree kill that I would take over those two. Now I believe they are both inside my top four dynasty wide receivers. No excess love for Michael Thomas. We're just going to throw him out of the top four. It's just that he's five years older than those guys. He's going to be

28 years old going into next year. A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf are both under 25. What about Calvin Ridley? He is actually averaging more fantasy points per game than both of them in PPR. He is right behind. He will probably be ahead

of Michael Thomas as well. He was number seven for me my last update, and he will probably be fifth. How old is Devante Adams? Same age as Michael Thomas. Yeah, so I don't know why he would be ahead of...

Because over the last three years, he's been by far the best fantasy wide receiver on a per game basis this year he's been like two get two points per game better than tyree kill he's just incredible i think he's someone you could consider selling very high on in dynasty because not only is he old at wide older among wide receivers but his quarterback is older among quarterbacks. And what were the last two years for Aaron Rodgers like before this year? What was Devontae Adams like during that period?

He was fine. He was the best wide receiver in fantasy. Sure. Well, he was not in 2019. I don't think he was on a per game basis. But he was one of. Look, I'm not saying you give him up for a one. Last year he wasn't, though.

Right? I wouldn't give him up for a first round pick, and that's it. I think you need a big haul for Devontae Adams, but I think you could consider it. You would accept AJ Brown or DK Metcalf for Devontae Adams? I might do that, yes, because I think that they've got great long-term potential. So you'd have them number one? I think I'd have them over Devontae Adams. It's Tyreek Hill that I think I probably would not do that with.

I think Hill would probably be my number one in Dynasty. Let me ask you this, Heath. I kind of felt like you wouldn't be... It's easy to be high on Metcalf and Brown. They're secondary receivers and they're awesome. But I'm wondering if you're looking at like they're just... They're going to have touchdown regression. They're not getting a ton of catches.

They rely on big plays is that a profile that scares you at all in dynasty um a little bit but not like they are the exception okay like if you look at their like just there's a lot of things that stats tell you and then it's like the Derrick Henry thing. Just look at them. Yeah, I mean, that's what gets me with DK, is that I think he could be the next Julio Jones, Terrell Owens type of guy that commands tons of targets every single week and just rolls as a must-start fantasy receiver and a first-round pick in fantasy for the next five years.

All right, Dave. Oh, by the way, both of you have Metcalf ahead of Brown? I do. In Dynasty rankings that I don't actually post anywhere, yes. Okay. Dave, who are your two risers? My two risers, I decided to go in a different direction with it, and I thought about players. I'm always asked this question this time of year.

Who are some sleepers I can put on my bench that might turn into, you know, starters next year. And the two names that I came up with were Darnell Mooney of the bears and Tyron Johnson of the chargers. Mooney's got speed. He'll have a year under his belt next year. Probably should figure into being one of the starters in Chicago. The bears figured to upgrade their quarterback, probably upgrade their offensive line. Allen Robinson might be franchised. He might not even be with the team next year. So I think there's an opportunity for Darnell Mooney

to have some appeal for at least one more year, maybe four more years. And Tyron Johnson has impressed me over these last couple of games. Keenan Allen is also one of the elder statesmen at wide receiver in the NFL. And he's hurt right now. He'll probably be be fine I believe there's no contractual issues with him but I think there is with Mike Williams I forgot to check it before we came on the air

but even if there's not Mike Williams hasn't exactly been healthy and productive for the majority of his fantasy or fancy majority of his NFL. So maybe there's a place for Tyron Johnson to be that number two receiver for Justin Herbert and maybe in time, the number one guy for Justin Herbert. So I'm kind of intrigued by them. They're both on my Dynasty League bench and they're going to stay there throughout the offseason. Just a few minutes left. Heath, who are Dynasty fallers?

There's a lot of them, but the two biggest I came up with were Juju Smith-Schuster and Adam Thielen. Thielen was somebody I was trying to sell before this season just because of his age. And now it looks pretty clear, I think, that he's the number one wide receiver on his own team moving forward. And he's going to be on the wrong side of 30 and so i am very concerned about adam feeling and then juju i i still mostly believe that it's unlikely that he's just going to be bad but this has been a a disastrous year for the type of

profile that i thought he had as a number one wide receiver. So I think he's a dynasty number two, and there's a chance he falls further than that next year. I'm nervous about Tyler Lockett long-term. This year has been a little frustrating. I think he's playing hurt, and maybe he has one more good year left after this year. But I'm nervous about him, and I'm nervous about Cooper Kopp, who we came to know as a touchdown dynamo,

and I don't think he's had nearly as many this year as he's had in the past, and he hasn't been as big a part of the offense in L.A. as he's been in the past. Would you guys take Will Fuller in Dynasty over the four names you just mentioned? It was Thielen, Juju, Cup, and Lockett. Would you take Will Fuller? I'd have to think Thielen, Juju, Cup, and Lockett.

Would you take Will Fuller? I'd have to think about it with Juju. The other three, yes. Definitely over Thielen. I don't know. Fuller's not particularly young either. And he's never... And he's about to get paid. Maybe.

If he gets paid by the Texans, I can buy into him. He's super exciting to get paid? Maybe. If he gets paid by the Texans, I can buy into him. He's super exciting and very talented when he's on the field, but the only way he's been able to stay healthy is by taking things

that aren't okay to take. He'll be 27 years old. How many receivers get to age 27 without a 1,000-yard season and then become great fantasy assets over multiple years. I would love him if he stays with the Texans.

Same. Or if he goes to a team that's got a great quarterback. He's got a great connection. He has a downfield approach. All right, guys. That's it. Good show today. Thank you very much.

We've got Starter Sit. I think we're actually going to do the NFC home games on Thursday, AFC on Friday because a lot of the Friday and Saturday games are NFC home games, so we'll break it up that way. And we will talk to you then. Make sure you're listening to Fantasy Football Today in 5, by the way. Check that one out on Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. For Dave and Ben and Heath, I'm Adam.

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