The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - Week 17 Lineup Advice: Starts, Sits, Player Debates, and TD Calls (Ep. 1919)

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

Join Ryan Wormeli, Pat Fitzmaurice, and Andrew Erickson as they break down Week 17’s toughest start/sit calls! We examine start/sit dilemmas like Kenneth Walker vs Kenneth Gainwell, Zay Flowers vs. Jaylen Waddle, Breece Hall vs Tyrone Tracy Jr., and many more! Timestamps:Intro - 0:00:00Michael Carter - 0:03:45Plant Your Flag Plays, Tony Pollard & Stefon Diggs - 0:06:30Hard Rock Bets - 0:11:55Kenneth Walker vs Kenneth Gainwell - 0:13:55Breece Hall vs Tyrone Tracy Jr. - 0:21:20Zay Flowers vs Jaylen Waddle -  0:27:58Michael Wilson vs DJ Moore - 0:33:51Rapid Fire Decisions - 0:40:15FantasyPros Start/Sit Assistant - 0:57:46Touchdown Calls Contest - 0:58:11 Helpful Links: Hard Rock Bet - All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for Hard Rock Bet and make a $5 bet and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if you win. Head over to Hard Rock Bet, sign up and make your first deposit today. Payable in bonus bet(s). Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in FL. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC, in all other states. Must be 21+ and physically present in AZ, CO, FL, IL, IN, MI, NJ, OH, TN or VA to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling? In FL, call 1-833-PLAYWISE. In IN, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9-WITH-IT. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER (AZ, CO, IL, MI, NJ, OH, TN, VA) My Playbook - Sync your league instantly to My Playbook to get custom advice on how to manage your team throughout the season. See your league’s top available players, power rankings, and more for free! Check the “Are They Playing” tool each week to get the latest game-day availability odds for all injured players. If you’re premium – you unlock all kinds of helpful waiver, trade, lineup and league analysis tools. You can even auto-start your team’s optimal lineup each week with Auto-Pilot. Sync your league and dominate every week of the season with My Playbook at fantasypros.com/myplaybook or on the FantasyPros App Follow us on Twitch - The team here at FantasyPros is taking questions all week, every week on Twitch. Follow us on Twitch at twitch.tv/fantasypros and never miss a stream! Discord – Join our FantasyPros Discord Community! Chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Come get your questions answered and BE ON THE SHOW at fantasypros.com/chat Leave a Review – If you enjoy our show and find our insight to be valuable, we’d love to hear from you! Your reviews fuel our passion and help us tailor content specifically for YOU. Head to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts and leave an honest review. Let’s make this show the ultimate destination for fantasy football enthusiasts like us. Thank you for watching and for showing your support – https://fantasypros.com/review/ BettingPros Podcast – For advice on the best picks and props across both the NFL and college football each and every week, check out the BettingPros Podcast at bettingpros.com/podcast, our BettingPros YouTube channel at youtube.com/bettingpros, or wherever you listen to podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Hello, everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan warmly, joined by Andrew Erickson and Pat Fitzmores. Interesting trio, this was the three of us who did this starts and sits show last year. This year, of course, Erickson was not on the show, but we are bringing him back for our holiday championship episode, Week 17, starts and six. Erickson, how are you doing, buddy? I've done other shows with you, of course, but not this one this here. Doing great. Celebrating this glorious boxing day, the day after Christmas with you guys,

couldn't think of anything better. So I'm ready to rock. Totally agree. Fetz, how are you doing? You were telling us a little bit about your Christmas here before we started recording sounded like some football, some wine. What more could you ask for? Exactly. Food, family, dogs, kids. It was great. It was a really good time. Hopefully everyone out there had a great Christmas, too. Erickson and I have watched all of Stranger Things. We will not spoil it for you or the listeners here, Fitz, as we move ahead and strategically takes us from that mug. We can go ahead and dive into the show.

Guys, this is the fantasy championship here, of course. Just clearly, because I didn't talk to you guys earlier in the week, how many leagues are you alive and how many titles are you fighting for here, Fitz? Seven, actually. Seven and a seven and O semi-final week. It was glorious. I'm worried that's going to boomerang back on me, and it's going to be a terrible finals week.

but so far really not much blood after the three-game Christmas slates. Yeah, that is impressive. I had eight teams in the semifinals just two survived to the championship. Now, I would call them my second and third most important teams. So if I had to pick two, it's a pretty good two to pick. It's funny going into this week in one of the leagues I have Puka and in one of the leagues I'm facing Puka. And so I feel like, well, I'll probably go one in one here because he's going to go a long way towards determining this thing. Erickson, how about you?

Just one. and it's the one that I care about the most. It's the one that I won last year, the biggest money league ended up in. So hoping to repeat, not off to like the best start because I had James and Williams. They did the Lions defense. So that was solid. And I did face Bow Nix. So again, the way that the slate is set up this Christmas week is such a slow burn, right?

Because you have a couple games on Thursdays and then you have a couple games on Thursdays and then Sunday night. Like the Sunday night games, the Monday night games, Falcons, Rams, Rams. 49ers and bears, like a lot of really impactful fantasy players. So it's going to come down to the wire, I think, in that final Monday night game between, I mean, the Rams and Falcons, Bejohn Robinson, Drake London, the Rams piece is just going to be a great finish for a lot of fantasy leagues. Obviously, it didn't pin out this way due to the, you know, tragic circumstances with DeMarie Hamlin, but it's similar going into the weekend to how I felt to the year where

the fantasy title game was Monday night Bill's Bengals, where going into the, that weekend, it was like, oh, there's just so many players here that are going to be really impactful in a lot of these leagues. Rams Falcons, maybe not quite on that level with the quarterback matchup, but it feels similar in terms of just the number of really, like, significant players who are probably still alive in a lot of these fantasy title games coming on Monday night will be kind of fun to sit back and wait for that and just kind of see how it all plays out. I think like half my starting roster in one of the leagues I'm alive in is playing in that

Monday night game. So definitely won't know anything until we get to. that game. Reminder for everybody, just one last one going into the championship here. All of our 2025 consensus rankings and tiers can be found at fantasy pros.com slash rankings. And at this point, we're not talking rest of season rankings. We're not talking looking ahead at anything. It is, you know, look at those weekly rankings there being updated here still throughout the week, even despite the holidays. Guys, we usually have a bit of a start or some of these popular waiver ads segment. I was sitting down to put this together earlier in the week. It didn't feel like there were

really any good options here with one exception that I'll bring up. But for the most part, like, you're going to be playing the best players on your team, right? You're here in the fantasy championship. There also weren't a ton of obvious, like, instant starters here. The one that I was maybe going to bring up that I won't ask you guys about is the Brown's backfield. It does seem like Dylan Samson has been back at practice, so maybe we won't be looking at some of these backup guys. Obviously, keep an eye on that throughout the weekend. The one name that I did want to ask you about, though, is Michael Carter. He has been a starting. option at various times during the season.

He was still under 50% rostered here coming into this week. You know, he's got that starting role for Arizona here in what looks like a good matchup. So, Erickson, I'll start with you. Just Carter, is he somebody that you're interested in starting him in, in the fantasy championship if you haven't needed running back? Yeah. I think that he's a solid starter. He's kind of been solid all year when he's given opportunities.

I don't love that the Cardinals are kind of still embracing this committee and they found their new Bam Knight with Corey Kiner, who was. taking snaps at inside the red zone last week and this week, according to the CoachSpeak Index, they talked about how they love Kiner and how physically is as a rusher. So basically the carbon copy of why they liked using Bam Knight at the goal line. So still, you can't beat the matchup against the Bengals, one of the best four running back. So even if Carter isn't seeing 70, 80% of the snaps, he should be efficient. And he was efficient last week, which has always been the case with him.

So I think he's a solid RB2 flex play. He's RB 26 in ECR, Erickson, too high, two lower, just right. I think it's a little low. I've gotten him at 23. I'm starting him in a championship game. And I think people are maybe a little lower on him than they should be because he didn't catch any passes last week. But the week before that, he had four catches for, I think, 38 yards. Erickson mentioned the matchup that Bengals have given up, I think, 1924 yards to running backs most in the league.

And he just didn't get a lot of rushing. volume last week because the Cardinals were stuck in a negative game script against the Falcons. They trailed pretty much for the entirety of that game. So only 11 carries for Carter, but he was efficient with them. You'd hope that maybe the Cardinals can keep it a close fight with the Bengals and maybe we see something closer to 15, 16 carries for Carter this week. But I think we like that there's shootout potential in this game. So we could see a lot of points in this one. Maybe it is kinder getting those short yardage touchdowns, but I still think that there's a pretty reasonable chance that you get 13, 14 touches minimum for Michael Carter.

Let's plant our flags on some players here. Just kind of guys, you're going into championship week with real conviction on Erickson. We'll start with you here. Tony Pollard can't believe that this is the guy that you could have faith starting in week 17 of your fantasy football championships. but that's where we're at with Tony Pollard. And he's been on a heater over the last four games. He's averaging over 20 touches per game over the last three weeks.

And look, the Titans are playing to put good tape out there for Cam Ward, their next head coach, and Tony Pollard is trying to get paid. He is very, very close to several different contract incentives, and they're trying to get him to these numbers. Again, last week, he had a touchdown wiped off the board. He only needs two more touchdowns to hit a contract incentive of seven rushing touchdowns on the year. he's 51 yards away from a thousand yards.

So some of these incentives are not just based on contracts, but it's based on hitting that 1,000 mark. There's a lot of running backs, a lot of different wide receivers that are trying to get to that number. We actually saw Corton Sought and hit 1,000 yards against the Chiefs last night on Thursday night. And Tony Pollard, he's within striking distance of getting to 1,000 rushing yards. He's 51 yards away. So they've been feeding him a ton.

They're playing the Saints at home this week. And the Saints just put Brian Brazier, or then put him on injured reserve, but he's probably going to miss this game, and he leads the Saints in terms of defensive snaps and run stops across the defensive line this season. We've talked about this all year long. When a defense loses an interior anchor,

like a defensive tackle, you see their run splits drastically change. It happened with the Browns. Once an elite run defense, they lose them elite Collins, and what happens? They get boat race by every single run to make that they face. So I think at home,

this is a good spot for Tony Park to continue to be on this hot streak, going to get volume. So I think he can be a top 20 run. running back in week 17. He is back to back with Michael Carter in ECR. He's one spot ahead, actually. Technically, they're both outside the top 24. They're at 25 and 26.

Do you agree with Pollard being ahead of Carter? Absolutely. And I've got Pollard running back 18. I mean, three straight 100-yard games, and Erickson mentioned the 1,000 yard mark. No, the key number here is the 1100-yard mark because Tony Pollard gets a cool quarter of a million dollars in a contract bonus if he can get. to that. So 151 yards over these last two weeks. He'll get that. I think we do like the matchup for the

reasons Erickson outlined. So I think he's going to have a good game this week. I'm starting him in a championship game as well. We're just going through all your roster here apparently. It's right. He's got 17. He's got a lot of players to talk about. That's true. That's remarkable. Seven for seven in the semifiles. I still can't believe that. Just couldn't have been more fortunate. I had a lot of opponents collapse on me last week, which was very fortunate. Very, very fun to watch, I'm sure. Who are you planting your flag on here, Fitz? Stefan Diggs.

And his involvement can be sporadic. Diggs had nine catches for 105 yards against the Jets in week 11. Then he had three straight games with fewer than 30 receiving yards before erupting for nine catches and 138 yards against the Ravens last week. Now, Stefan Diggs gets a rematch against the Jets and their past defense has, been getting completely flambayed the last few weeks. Tyler Shuck had 308 passing yards against them last week. Shuck and Taysam Hill both had touchdown passes in that game.

A week earlier, Trevor Lawrence had 330 passing yards and five touchdown passes against the Jets. This defense is already checked out. Like they are, they're on the field playing, but really in their minds, they're on a beach in Aruba or Cancun somewhere. Drake May is going to absolutely full. the Jets defense this week, and Diggs is going to be prominently involved. So we got, we got fillet and flambay, a couple mixing those up there. He's wide receiver 24 in ECR fits, just on the back end of wide receiver two range.

Sounds like you think that's low. I do think that's low. Just checking to see where I have him. I believe he's top 20 for me, wide receiver 18. Where's he for you, Erickson? 16. Because Diggs, the thing that with Diggs were always frustrated with the route participation in the snaps, but you look at the Patriots receivers that are banged up.

Like, Kisham Booty's probably not going to play in this game. He is a concussion. Mac Collins has not been practicing all week either. He's done with, I believe, an abdomen or oblique injury. So they kind of have to take Diggs out of the bubble wrap here. It's like, no, like you have to play 70, 80% of the snaps. The matchup is awesome against the Jets. And again, chasing these 1,000 yard numbers, he is 131 yards away from 1,000 yards, which he hasn't done since Buffalo.

So remember, he got hurt last year. He didn't get to finish the season. Let's get Drake May another one that his first 1,000 yard receiver. I think digs is going to be super motivated in this game. I believe he also has more contract incentives in terms of receptions. So look, the only thing holding back digs this year has been just kind of his usage and the injury early on the year. But with that all behind him in this particular spot, yeah, I think he's locked and load another top 20 guy handholding with Tony Pollard, Stefan Diggs and your championships. Let's go,

Fitz. Let's go. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet. Are you out of your fantasy football playoffs, but still want to get in on the Week 17 action. Head over to Hard Rock bet. They make it easy to bet both before kickoff and between snaps in just a few simple taps. I open the app. Find a bet I like. And then bam, my bet is placed just in time for me to get back to wrapping presents and enjoy my favorite Christmas movie. Sign up today and bet $5 on any game. If it wins, you also score $150 in bonus bets. A winning bet plus an extra $150 to bet with. Now, that is spreading holiday cheer. Plus hard rock bet fills your stockings with new promos daily. So whatever you're listening, just open the app and check out what you've got any day of the week.

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Call 1-800 gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. we created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers.

This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, We break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsLice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I hit Mike Mayer, our colleague with a take on Twitter this weekend, that all Christmas movies as a genre are a bit overrated. So I will, I'll state that here for the podcast as.

as well. I don't hate them. I just think that like, we go a little, we go a little heavy on them in December. I think we can dial it down a bit. Except for die hard. If die hard qualifies, I totally agree. It's both the best Christmas movie and the best action movie ever made, in my opinion. So I'll, I will not fight you there. Fitsy. All right, let's go to our starts-it player debates here. We will start with the running backs, as always. How about a couple Kenneth's? We got Kenneth Walker versus Kenneth Gainwell. They were closer earlier in the week. in ECR, they have started to spread out a bit. I will pull it back up here just to make sure where we're at now.

We've got Walker at RB 24 and Gainwell has moved up to RB18. So Walker has moved down and Gainwell has moved up. So a little bit of a gap here. Erickson, do you see it that way as well where Gainwell is an easy choice for you? Yes, I do. And clearly people have been listening to the rank show where we did talk about Ken Walker kind of being, I think, a little bit overvalued by the ECR just based on, hey, at a monster game in a prime time spot against the Rams, but he still got out snapped by Zach Sharbonay.

Zach Jarbony still came in in the red zone and scored one of the rushing touchdowns and the two-point conversion, that really weird play. So there's really nothing about Walker's projection that suggests, oh, well, now this is such a better spot. Again, it's a good matchup against the Carolina Panthers. It is on the road so that, you know, sometimes things can go weird in terms of game script. But, I mean, in terms of who has a better role in their respective offense, I mean, it's got to be Kenneth Gamewell.

he has seven targets in three straight games. Ken Walker has seven targets combined in the last three games. They like to use game while around the red zone. So I think that even he has kind of like that edge there over Ken Walker, both guys can rip off big plays. And Jim and Warren is also on the injury report this week. So the Steelers are in a really weird situation because if the Ravens lose to the Packers and Lamar Jackson is not playing in that game, then the Steelers have nothing to play for

the next two weeks. So does that mean that they lay down to the Browns? do they take off week 18? I would lean towards the ladder there being, hey, we're going to rest everybody week 18 and get ready for the playoffs. But depending on how that game goes against Cleveland, if Jalen Warren is kind of nicked up, like, okay, we'll just sit them down and we'll ride game well, or is this scenario where they don't want to play either guy.

So that's kind of the only way that we need to kind of get, you need to stay up to date with what the Steelers are planning on doing. I don't think they're going to rest their guys necessarily, just because they've gone through the whole process of prepping for the Browns this week and probably week team where they take off. But that is something to keep in mind with a lot of Steelers players. But if they are full go and if the Ravens beat the Packers, well, Gainwell has just been an absolute monster. So I would continue to start him. The Brown's defense has been terrible against running back since they lost Malik Collins. So I think that he is clearly ahead of Ken Walker.

Yeah, if it were me coaching the Steelers, I would like, you don't want to go two weeks with sitting guys in a row. You'd only want to pick one of these. I think week 18 is the clear choice to to rest guys, I would still kind of want to keep everybody sharp here in week 17. A, just like, I think schedule-wise, that kind of works out better for staying as sharp as possible. And B, you know, if I am going to lay down and let the opponent win, I'd rather the Ravens win in a meaningless game and get their draft pick worse. Like, they're the bigger threat to you long term in the division, it feels like so. So for the Steelers, like, it would make a lot of logical sense for them to still try here in week 17 and then maybe dial it down a bit in week 18. How do you see this fits?

In that regard, I see it the same way as you. Mike Tomlin's an old school coach. He's not going to lay down two weeks in a row. So yeah, and I, well, first of all, I love that you came up with the, what's the frequency, Kenneth running back to bait. That's just outstanding pairing here for him. Good, good booking. And yeah, I mean, I would go with Gainwell, too, because we know that the Steelers are going to run the offense through the running backs and the tight ends. I mean, that's kind of the Arthur Smith modus operandi anyway. And look, Walker, coming off that big game where he had the two really big plays against the Rams, he sort of regained his luster.

But in the 10 games before that, he averaged 7.9.5. PPR points and hit double digit points twice in those 10 games. Typically gets pulled at the goal line in favor of Zach Schiard. Jarbon A, Walker's usage in the passing game can be kind of sporadic. So we know that Gainwell is going to get pretty heavy usage in the passing game. That's been consistent over the last month. And running game too, I mean, Erickson was talking about how bad the Browns run defense has been since losing their run stuffing defensive tackle, Malik Collins. First game without Collins, Tony Pollard, 161 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

Second game without Collins, DeAndre Swift, 98 rushing yards, two touchdowns. Last week, James Cook, 117 rushing yards, two touchdowns. We're seeing a theme here. So maybe it's Jalen Warren getting a little more of the rushing work, but Gainwell's still going to get probably eight to 12 carries against this bad run defense and add a lot of receiving value too. So I think he's a pretty easy choice and almost a must start this week. Erickson, I feel like for our Tuesday show next year, this is a lesson we should remember.

we talked a little bit about this early in the year. Like, looking ahead to playoff schedules, a lot of people were very afraid of the Browns defense, like when talking about trades earlier in the year and trying to look at him through this perspective. And now, of course, this does not look like a scary run defense at all. I think the lesson for me, just thinking in next year, is if a team's really bad early in the year, I want to target them because, like, you know, tight ends against the Bengals. That's still the case. But if a team's really good, a defense is really good.

And I don't expect that team to be very good. long term. I'm not going to be afraid of that, you know, in terms of trades. And I think it's just kind of a fool's errand to, you know, project that out ahead because it could be an injury. It could be just a lack of effort late in the season. If your season's over, a whole lot of reasons why the defense maybe doesn't look quite as scary and, you know, non-startable against as it maybe did earlier. Also, Fitz, did you think I was going to get this, what's the frequency, Kenneth reference? I googled it as soon as you said it. And it's a song from 1994. I there's no chance I was going to know that it's you've heard of REM before you're familiar

I've heard of REM I'm not sure how many REM songs I could name but I am aware of the band REM all right so so Gainwell appears just very quickly because I want to move on gainwell or Jalen Warren is it gainwell for both of you guys they're they are very close in ECR fits it's actually Warren for me because I think he's probably going to have more of the rushing duties and I think that's where you can really make hay against the bronze. Game well is one spot ahead, Erickson, of Warren. I've game well ahead as well. Warren being on the injury report this week does slightly concern me, just want to account

for it because if they find that they're in a situation where, let's say, the Browns are up, stairs are right, we can't really pull back things in the second half. Let's get Warren out of there. We know he had a, I think he's a hip injury that is what he's dealing with. So again, trying to read the T-wees, if they're ever going to pull back on any player, it would be someone that maybe is a tad bit nicked up. If that is Jalen Warren, then you could see them lean a little more on Gainwell.

And then the thing with Gainwell, too, is, I mean, I feel like he could see like double-digit targets in this game, potentially, without D.K. McCaff. So, like, that's another thing where he has been preferred a little bit more than Jalen Warren in the passing game. And obviously, he can also be really efficient

against this Brown's run defense, too. So, again, I have them ranked essentially back to back, 20, Gainwell. I had Aaron Jones at 21, and then Jalen Warren at 22. How do you have those, guys ranked vis-a-vis Omerian Hampton, Erickson? I got Hampton way ahead. Depending on a Vidal plays.

It depends on if Vidal plays or not. Like, he'll be adjusted. He'll have to move down. Hampton is one spot ahead of both of them at ECR for what it's worth. All right, let's go to another running back debate here. Breast Hall or Tyrone Tracy Jr. Erickson, I'll start with you here. Who do you like better?

Yeah, I'm pretty torn on these two guys. I like both of them in their respective matchups. I just keep pointing out that the Patriots run-de-evens is not good. Like, don't look at the season-long stats against them because they're all banged up all over the place. The last four weeks since week 12, running back finishes against the Patriots, RB13, RB8, RB1, and RB8. Robert Spine is still on the Andrew report. Milton Williams has been designated to return from IR, but it's still not confirmed whether he's not playing or not. maybe that could sway me moving Tarant Tracy ahead of Brice Hall, but I just, I want to keep attacking this Patriots run defense with opposing running backs.

And yeah, I get Brice has been disappointed. He plays on the Jets. It's not an exciting offense, but he hasn't seen anything lower than 14 touches since week 10. He had 18 total touches last week. So he's seeing volume. He's explosive pass catcher. And he's got a good matchup and he's playing at home. Like those are enough of reasons where it's like, okay, like, I could see a ceiling spot here for Breece Hall. But then again, I look at Tyrone Tracy and I think, I mean, he's also in a pretty decent spot here too. Again, against the Las Vegas Raiders, their team that is more of a run funnel than a pass funnel, especially if we see the Giants do what they did last week offensively, which was, let's run the ball 15 straight times and not have Jackson Dart attempt a pass. So that obviously works in favor of Tyron Tracy.

And Tracy has also been better than Brise Hall. Over the last five games, Tracy has at least 71 yards from scrimmage. So he's been really consistent both as a rusher and receiver. I do get some concerns about the split with Devin Singletary, especially around the goal line, because they're frequently like to take him out and put Devin Singletary in full Zach Charbonnet fashion. And the big thing with the Giants is Andrew Thomas is probably not going to play in this game. He is their best offensive lineman by far. And he kind of has like a Trent Williams type of impact where you take out that guy and the entire offensive line can crumble.

and then the offense becomes super dysfunctional. So not only is Andrew Thomas the best pass blocker. He's also the best run blocker on the Giants. Max Crosby, like, that guy has a motor like no other player in the NFL. Like, it doesn't matter what the score is. It doesn't matter what his team's record is. He is coming after the quarterback no matter what and after the running back as both a pass rusher and run defender.

So without Andrew Thomas, I think that's ultimately what kind of pushes me just to have Riesel slightly ahead because I've just seen this. Giants offense without Thomas before, and it's a disaster. And they're also playing on the road this week. So lean slightly towards Brees, but I'm not really opposed to using both guys as low-end RB2 flex plays. Fitz, Tracy is five spots ahead in ECR. He's RB 22.

This is in half-P-R-Squiring, by the way. He's RB-22, Breeze Hall, RB 27. So I have a gap of, let's see, yeah, five spots also between Tracy. and Hall. I like Tracy more. Tracy's had 18 touches each of the last two weeks. And I think the Giants' prime directive here in their last couple of games is to not get their franchise quarterback destroyed in the last couple of weeks. Keep him fresh for 2026. And a big way to do that with Andrew Thomas out is just to run the heck out of the ball against the Raiders. And I think that's what the Giants are going to do. Erickson and I talked about Brise Hall in the ranking show. And he's

kind of interest in Hall because of the matchup. I almost think the matchup, I don't want to say it's irrelevant. I think it's less relevant. I think what sort of supersedes the matchup is just the utter incompetence of the Jets offense right now with Brady Cook at quarterback. So in two starts, the two starts Brady Cook has made for the Jets. Breece Hall has averaged 50 yards from scrimmage and hasn't scored a touchdown. He's been RB 47 in RB40 in fantasy scoring the last two weeks. I just, I don't want to play Brise Hall on a championship game. Fitz, who do you think wins that Giants Raiders game, by the way? And therefore, loses the number one pick probably.

I feel like it would be a Raiders thing to do to win that game and not get the first pick when they so desperately need a quarterback. And so I tend to think the Raiders are going to win. Erickson. I want no part of wagering on this particular game because you don't know what, like what each team. is trying to do it. Like, what's their plan? If it's a close game, can you just see like, hey, Gino, just got to throw a pick here. Like, you just got to do it. Like, they're going to the play call is going to come in. That's a zero percent chance of being completed. It's like, no, you got to do this play. It's going to work. They're going to run that stupid pick play that got picked off

in the Super Bowl that Pete Carroll called instead of running the ball, the martial team. They're going to do the same thing, right? It's going to be gentie. He's, he's been eating all game, and they're not going to hand it off and they're going to throw it and they're going to lose because of some interception. So, yeah, I don't know who's going to win this. game. I guess the thing with the Giants is they were in this similar situation last year. And then Drew Locke had like this career game. So they've been here before, but they also theoretically have their franchise quarterback

with with Jackson. I mean, I think that he can be a franchise quarterback, but yeah, the Giants will have a new coaching staff. And also, you know, Mike Kafka still kind of coaching for his job, right? Like whether it's for the Giants next year or for another team down the line, you know, I don't know. Well, we'll find out together, right? Who really wanted to win this game?

Yeah, and obviously you'd rather have the higher pick, but like, I mean, the Texans a couple years ago, too, like they had that meaningless win in the last game of the season. And then so they got Stroud instead of Bryce Young, which has largely looked, you know, really good. Like, maybe there's some karma with winning the game when, you know, it seems obvious that you should want to lose. A lot of coaches talk about how you want to build, like, a winning. Yeah. Like, you don't want to just lose on purpose, right? And the way that coaches get around it is you just, well, we're going to start all of our. bad players and then they'll play their hardest.

So they're trying to win, but we're putting them in a position where the likelihood of them winning is very, very low. And that's probably the case like with like the Jets, for example, right? Teams tank, but players don't. Like you want the players to try. Right. So it's the moves the coaches and the front office makes. And like we saw Brock Bowers try to play through a PCL injury earlier this year and be totally

ineffective. Lately he's been playing pretty well. And now all of a sudden the Raiders are putting him on. IR for like a precautionary measure. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Let's go to some of our receiver debates here. How about Zay Flowers versus Jalen Waddle? Flowers has been playing, you know, I have probably been as vocal a Zay Flowers. I won't say a Hader, but fader in terms of fantasy, you know, throughout the season as there is. Last three weeks, wide receiver eight, wide receiver. wide receiver 20 wide receiver 9 and it feels like he maybe even has been leaving a little bit on the field but of course now it's Tyler Huntley in all likelihood as of right now Lamar's

technically still doubtful he's not going to play so it's going to be Zay Flowers with Tyler Huntley going up against Jalen Waddle with his own quarterback question marks here fits I'll start with you on this one who do you have ranked higher is Zay Flowers or Jalen Waddle flowers he's posted his three highest fantasy point totals of the season in his last three games he's giving us a decent floorworm. I know the touchdown output has been disappointing this year, but Flowers has had at least five catches in 14 of his 15 games this year. He's had at least 60 receiving yards and 11 of 15 games, and one of the misses was a 58 yard game. So the floor is pretty sturdy here, and we've been getting some ceiling out of them lately. So I don't know if there's a huge drop-off

in the quality of the receiving outlook, I guess, going from Jackson to Huntley. That's say careful. Yeah, I know. I mean, like, Lamar is great, but he hasn't been Lamar for most of this season. That's kind of why I say that. Meanwhile, I do think there has been a drop-off from, you know, Tua. And I know Tua is not everyone's favorite quarterback, but going from him to Quinn Ewers, like that hurts Waddle.

And I know Uers managed to throw. for 260 yards last week, but no touchdowns. I just, I think Flowers is a safer play this week than Waddle is. Just a note of correction. And maybe I misheard you, so apologies if I did. I sounded like you said that he's had his three best games of the season in the last three weeks. That's except week one, where he had his best game of the season. Oh, sorry.

That's right. That's right. Yeah. That was his best game of the year. But except for week one, his best three of the season have been the last three weeks. Since week two, yeah. Yes. Yeah, this is one where, and by the way, on the rankings,

In ECR, Flowers is a wide receiver 18. Waddle is wide receiver 20. And Justin Jefferson was the guy in the middle already played. So amongst the players who haven't played yet, they are back to back in ECR. Erickson, who do you like better between Flowers? You've been a Waddle guy for years, really. Is he ahead of Flowers in this case, too? I do have Waddle ahead of Flowers.

And I agree with all the points that Fitz made about Flowers, definitely offering the higher floor. But when I'm in my championships, I'm not trying to think about floor. I'm thinking about, okay, who could have a bonkers type of game and I look at Buccaneers dolphins that I see this game could get nuts. Whereas Ravens going on the road to play at Lambo, which is one of the heaviest under stadiums this year with the Packers defense. Now, I know that their secondary can be had and that's why Flowers does have a high floor, but it comes down to the touchdowns, right? Are his odds of scoring higher because he has Tyler Huntley as his quarterback? I would probably say no.

Now, not to say that Waddle has like this enormous touchdown equity attached to Quinn Ewers, but when you're facing the Buccaneers defense, everyone does the exact same thing. They just throw, throw, throw, and throw. So it just takes Waddle for one big play, you know, pass interference, defender falls down, or something along those lines where he can break off a big run. And I just think that, look, last week he was really good. 5% or shouldn't say really good, modest, 5 for 72 on nine targets. but that's basically the very similar stat line that Zayflowers put up and Tyler's

first start this year. Seven for 63 on nine targets. So both guys should see around double digit targets. I just think from a game script perspective, which game could really be a shootout? I think it's probably the Buccaneers and the Dolphins game in Miami versus this game with potentially backup quarterbacks on both sides at Lambo Field. So I do think it's close. If you want to lean in towards the floor, I would.

would agree that it probably is a flowers, but I think Waddle has a potential ceiling spot, not because of his quarterback, but because of the matchup against the Buccaneers defense that we've seen. I mean, Kyle Pitts had a pretty good game against the Buccaneers a couple weeks ago with a backup quarterback. He was pretty good. So I think Waddle would be where I would go. Kirk Cousins and Quinn Ewers are not really comparable at this current.

They're both backup quarterbacks. That's, yes, in that sense, they are comparable, I suppose. I guess it feels a little weird for me to think about either of these players in terms of sealing. Because they have this season, they have not really been sealing players for the most part. They have been more about the floor. I mean, flowers in particular in that regard. But, you know, Waddle only has 100-yard receiving game this season. Like, it's not like he's had these huge blow-up spots either for the most part.

So do you see the game script similarly to Erickson Fitts? in terms of like, I mean, it just as a Packers fan, like Ravens Packers, not really having a good chance of being this high-octane game. I kind of do. You know, it seemed like Jordan Love was on track to start, and I don't know if that changes now that the Lions lost and the Packers have their spot assured. And, you know, they can't, I don't,

maybe technically they could earn a home game if, like, the Bears lose out and the Packers went out. But I don't think that's going to happen. So maybe they don't start. love this week? Yeah, I don't know. But I agree there's probably more of a chance for fireworks in Buccaneers, Dolphins than there is in Ravens Packers. Let's go to our second wide receiver debate here. How about DJ Moore or Michael Wilson? Fitz, I will start with you here. Who do you like better in week 17? DJ Moore, obviously coming off of his, you know, really exciting finish

last week. He's wide receiver 22 or Michael Wilson, who is wide receiver 20. in that great matchup with the Bengals. Yeah, real exciting finish last week for DJ Moore. Thanks for him. I am leaning Michael Wilson here. As I was saying that in my head, I was like, oh, crap, that was against the Packers. No, not as excited to finish as Ravens Patriots was, Wern. That was cool.

Oh, yeah, right. There's a reason we didn't do the Tuesday show. So I'm leaning Michael Wilson over DJ Moore. DJ Moore is on a little bit of a heater with touchdowns, three in his last two games, five in his last five games. But even with Romo Dunes-A-Luther Burden out last week against the Packers, more only had seven targets. And if that game had not gone to overtime where he got the long touchdown catch,

he would have finished with four catches for 51 yards. So Wilson also on a heater with touchdowns, four in his last three games, I guess the fear is that, well, one is that his target count dropped last week with Marvin Harrison Jr. back, even though it seems to me like Marvin Harrison Jr. is not fully healthy. But I guess maybe the bigger fear is that the Cardinals' tight ends run wild against the Broncos, mostly Trey McBride, but maybe Elijah Higgins too. And the receivers aren't as involved. Like the Bengals have allowed the fourth fewest fantasy points, I believe, to wide receivers, and far and away the most fantasy points to tight ends. And before week 16,

Wilson had gotten double digits in four of his previous five games, but then Harrison Jr. came back last week and Wilson only had three targets, although he still managed to finish with 52 yards and a touchdown. I'm pretty optimistic, though, that Joe Burrow and the Bengals can push the Cardinals into a shootout where a lot of the pass catchers eat for both teams. I don't think there's much of a chance of the Bears getting into a shootout because that's just not how they want to play. Like they have an excellent running game.

they want to run the ball successfully. So it could be a high-scoring game, but I don't think it'll be a high-scoring game with Caleb Williams throwing 40 passes. So I think there's a little bit of an edge for Wilson here. It is crazy how straightforward it's been like in terms of if Marvin Harrison Jr. is in the field or not for Michael Wilson. Because you mentioned like the double-digit targets and for the last five games.

It's not just double-digit. In three of those four games, it was 15 plus targets. It was 18, 15, 16, and then 11. And then as soon as Marvin Harrison Jr. is back in the field, even not fully healthy, even not really having been producing when he was on the field, Michael Wilson drops down to three targets. It's just like kind of gobsmacking, honestly. Yeah, we didn't get the crazy, like Brissette had been throwing a lot. Like he had typically been going over 40 pass attempts. And it was just that the Cardinals didn't run a lot of plays last week in that game against the Falcons.

So Brissette had, I think, 31 pass attempts. If he goes over 40, I think the volume will be. fine for Wilson. Maybe not double digits, but I think he'll get seven or eight targets if, you know, Brissette is back up to 40 pass attempts. Erickson, who do you prefer DJ Moore or Michael Wilson? Yeah, I don't love either guy, to be totally honest. I think that I would default to DJ Moore, although it does seem like Luther Bird is going to play in this game. So that's something that's concerning about Moore. And to fits his point, Moore has only seen six targets per game in the last two weeks, right? He hasn't been this monster target earner despite the

injuries to some of these other Bears pass catchers. I like his matchup more against the 49ers. We saw Philip Rivers throw on this 49ers defense. So I like that. And if you do get a chance where it is negative game script, because I don't know how the Bears defense is going to stop the Death Star that is the 49ers offense with Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy really operating at, I mean, they're on fire right now. So I kind of like that for the Bears passing game.

Whereas Michael Wilson, I'm just not trying to overthink this. You start him when Marvin Harrison Jr. is out and you don't start him when he's in. And last week, I feel like fantasy manager just kind of got bailed out where like he had one long pass. He caught the touchdown and you feel, okay, he made it through. But I feel like you're playing with fire if you go back to Michael Wilson. When you look at all the data we have, when he's on the field with Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson doesn't get targets. and it's just so obvious to see in the games, in the game logs from this year, from last year, like when they're both on the field, Michael Wilson doesn't get targeted nearly as much

when Marvin Harrison is playing. And the matchup, how do you attack the Bengals? It's with tight ends and running backs. So I think even if this game does have a lot of high scoring, it's not because of Michael Wilson and Marvin. I kind of feel like they just kind of cannibalize each other, where they're going to eat into whatever small amount of targets go to the wide receivers, and it's going to be, I mean, Trey McBride had a bad game last week.

So that output from last week is probably going to at least a double or even triple against the Cincinnati Bengals because he was held under five catches for the first time. And I don't know how long, his streak of having at least five receptions in a game. So I think that's going to change. The Bengals are allowing the fewest points per game to wide receivers this season. So I'm trying to find alternatives to Michael Wilson. I do you guys know what Michael Wilson the receptions prop this week is? I almost fell out of my chair when I saw what it was.

What do you think it is? So like four and a half? It's five and a half. Jeez. That's crazy. And I thought four and a half would have been too high. Five and a half is crazy. I was like, dude.

I mean, like, again, there's never a lock of all locks, but I mean, come on. But if there was one. I mean, is it like minus 200 to bet the under? On that or? No. No, it's actually so you can get it at four and a half. It's plus money at under four and a half. Wow.

And it's like it's minus. I mean, it's juicy. I think it's minus 150. So it is a juicier one. But I mean, hey, if it it's, can't go broke, making a profit, right? That's right. All right. Let's get to our more rapid fire starts at decisions here.

We'll do another running back one. We're just talking about the bears. How about Kyle Menungai or Blake Corum fits? Who do you like better, Menongai or Corum? I've Corum ranked one spot. lot higher. Pretty similar outlooks, two backup running backs who typically get around a dozen touches a game and play in strong running games behind very good offensive lines. I just think the Rams have a better offense than the Bears. And they have a higher implied Vegas point total than the Bears.

I think the Rams implied total is like 28 and a half and bears are around 24 and a half. Just better touchdown odds with Coram. But this one's close. The other thing I wanted to point out just on that game, because we talked about it as kind of this big, exciting, you know, finish to the title game. Friend of the show, Scott Pianowski was tweeting about this the other day. There's a chance that the Rams are not able to win the division going into that game, depending on what happens with Seattle and San Francisco. And if that's the case, we know McVeigh has been aggressive about wrestling guys in the past. Again, kind of similar to talking about the Steelers.

We're still two weeks away, so you would think that's maybe not a total issue, but it is something kind of in the back of your mind that I saw Scott point out on Twitter. And, you know, if that is the case, Ed McVeigh decides to be, you know, on the kind of extreme end of rest, then you would think Blake Quorum could maybe get even more carries and they kind of sit, Kiron Williams, just as a possibility. And Blake Corum in this offense, although if other people are sitting, who knows, but in what is typically a very good offense, if he's getting even more carries because they're trying to dial it down for Kiron in that scenario, just something to keep in mind.

It could be even better for Corum there. By the way, they are two spots apart in ECR Corum, RB31, Menungai, RB 29, Erickson. I was kind of torn on this, but Fitz convinced me that it should be played quorum. We had similar roles, but if you look at projected game flow, I would probably bet on the Rams playing with a lead more likely than Monongai and the Bears playing with the lead against the 49ers. And so I would also go with quorum. I do think it's close, though.

All right, let's go to a receiver one here. Watson or Chris Godwin. Erickson, I'll start with you here. Both guys are on the injury report. So TBD on who's actually playing. So I think I just lean with Watson. I think that he's just shown he has a higher ceiling on a week-to-week basis. We'll see what his quarterback is.

Hopefully it's short of love. That's who I would prefer. So I'm not feeling like super great about either guy right now. Watson popped up with an illness, right, Fitz. I believe so. Yeah. Yeah, this is. Yeah.

Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, I mean, the Lions' loss to the Vikings was good for Packers fans, but it's not good for anyone, I think, who's invested in the Green Bay passing game, because they were sort of expecting to have Jordan Love back despite the concussion last week. I think that if this were sort of a game they needed to win, we would be assured of seeing Christian Watson now. I don't know. So I think if Watson is active and Jordan Love starts, I would play Christian Watson here. I mean, he scored five touchdowns in his last six games, a pair of two touchdown games,

big play receiver, and Worm Your Ravens do give up big plays in the passing game. 55 pass completions of 20 or more yards. That's tied for third most in the league, just two behind the Bengals who've given up the most. I don't hate Godwin as an option, but the Buccaneers are using a four-receiver rotation these days with Godwin, Mike Evans, Emeka, Bucca, and Jalen McMillan. So Evans is the alpha. And, you know, there's also the fact that Baker Mayfield hasn't played all that well over the last two months, whereas Jordan Love has been dealing. So if Love plays, I want Watson here over Godwin. Let's do some flexes here.

We mentioned to Marion Hampton earlier. How about Hampton or Joanne Jennings? Fitz. Hampton. I know it's a tough matchup against the Texans, although the Texans let Ashton Gentie run wild on them last week. And I think with the Chargers injury-plagued offensive line having these protection issues where they just are not keeping the pressure off Justin Herbert, Chargers really need to run the ball heavily and effectively in this game. So I like Jennings, too. I've got him a wide receiver 15 for the week, but his value has been pretty touchdown-dependent. got seven touchdowns in his last seven games, but Jennings hasn't given us more than 71

receiving yards in a game since week two. And it's possible Ricky Pierce all comes back, although George Kittles' status is kind of up in the air. So maybe that could funnel a few extra targets, Jennings way, but I would still rather have Hampton. Erickson. Hampton for me, and even more so if Kamani Vidal doesn't play in this game. I think the Chargers know, hey, we got to run the football to keep the Texans pass rush off of destroying our quarterback, Justin Herbert. And of course, this game is you played on Saturday, the window where Saturday, late December, early January, there's always a Texans game on at 430 Eastern. I don't know why it always seems like this. It's usually them playing in the wild card round hosting a wild card game, but just all the memories of like, it's like after Christmas, like New Year's just coming up. I'm like, oh yeah, the Texans are on Saturday, 430. Here we go.

It's the Matt Schaub Memorial time slot, pretty much. Yes, they have taken residence in that Saturday wildcard weekend game every single year that they're in the playoffs. All right. Next flex here. Jalen Warren, who we also already talked about, or Teteroa McMillan, Erickson. Jeline Warren for me. Assuming that we get reports of Steelers are going to play their guys. Jailen Warren's fine.

He's not dealing with his hip injury. So that's where I would lean just because the Brown's matchup is really, really good. Fitz. Agreed. Just Steeler running backs, both really good plays this week against the Browns with their issues against the running game lately. I don't hate McMillan. I'm not terrified by the Seattle matchup. But we do know that Dave Canell is kind of tried to hide Bryce Young for a lot of this year. So I think he doesn't want to open it up and have Bryce Young throw 30 or more passes unless he absolutely has to. Maybe he'll have to this week, but I don't know.

It's just, it seems like there's way more upside with the running back on a team that has no wide receivers. Michael Carter or Jacoby Myers fits. I'm going with Carter. You know, he is the Cardinals lead running back and no team has given up more rushing yards to running backs than the Bengals. So Myers is more of an ensemble cast of pass catchers for the Jaguars. these days. So could have a big game, could kind of fall by the wayside. I think Carter's going to be, I think he offers the safer floor. Erickson? I will go with Chocolby Myers because the Colts defense is terrible. Their secondary is a mess. I don't know if Suss Carter's playing in this game or not,

even if he does. I would not expect him to shadow Jacoby Myers. And although it is kind of everybody eats type of mantra on this jacket. passing game, this passing game has also become a wagon, right? Trevor Lawrence is tied with Josh Allen as the QB1 and points per game since week five. So I feel like I want to put my stock more into the Jaguars offense rather than the Cardinals offense. I had to talk about Carter earlier where it's not all him in that backfield. They are using other guys. I know Fitz mentioned the lack of receptions last week. I think part of that too is Amari DiMarcato played more snaps on third downs, kind of taking away some of the receptions from Michael Carter. So,

My only concern with Carter is he gets a lot of rushing yards, but doesn't catch passes and maybe doesn't score. So that's where I get concerned with him, especially in like the full PPR. Where's Jacobi Myers, I mean, he's the target leader basically every single week for the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's a good matchup for him. So I like the Jaguars wide receiver. Fitz, where's Myers ranked to you amongst two receivers?

I have got him ranked wide receiver 27. Okay. So you're well below consensus. Jacoby Myers is wide receiver 16 in ECR. I don't understand why. I just, like, there are a lot of pass catchers now for the Jaguars. And I don't know. We'll see.

Can Philip Rivers force Trevor Lawrence into a shootout? Trevor Lawrence just, I know he's been on fire, but like are we booking him for four touchdown passes every week? I just, I can't get there. With him. If he faces Colts every week, I mean, Brock Purdy made it look pretty easy. Myers,

not only is he up there, he's gone up. He, like, he has risen six spots in ECR in the last two days. He was at 22, but since Wednesday

has gone up to, to watch a receiver 16 here. All right, let's go to another flex here. Erickson, Adonai Mitchell, or Zach Charbonnet. I will go with Zach Charbonnet.

I just think he probably has better odds of scoring a touchdown. fits yeah it's as simple as that i just don't want to have to rely on a wide receiver tied to brady cook i would rather just cross my fingers and hope to get a touchdown from zach charbonne all right let's go to a quarterback here how about jacobo brissette or the aforementioned trevor lawrence fits i'll start with you on this one oh man this is a close call and speaking of lawrence with the touchdown outburst the last couple of weeks where he's given us i think four or five touchdown passes, a touchdown run every week.

Where was this earlier in the year when I needed it in the fantasy pros in-house league where I had Trevor Lawrence? I was thrilled when I won Joe Flacco on waivers, so I wouldn't have to start Trevor Lawrence anymore at one point this season. And now like Trevor Lawrence is carrying people to fantasy championship. So it's been quite the turnaround after I was already eliminated in that league. I have Brissette ranked one spot higher. It's a really close call, but before last week, Bressett had been averaging 300 passing yards and two touchdown passes in his starts for the Cardinals this year.

And, you know, he kind of flopped last week against the Falcons, but I think we could get a shootout between the Cardinals and the Bengals. And we know Trey McBride is going to absolutely destroy a Cincinnati defense that simply cannot stop tight ends. So Lawrence, also a top 10 quarterback option two. I just like Bressett a little more. they're both ranked very highly in eCR of course erics and who do you prefer lawrence or brissette i refer to Trevor lawrence and i'm kicking myself because in my championship league i had to actually drop Trevor lawrence earlier because he was facing the broncos last week and i was like well i have jacobi i'm going to roll with him next week and now i'm like that i just make the worst decision

in my entire life so i hope fits is right and i hope that jacobie outscores Trevor lawrence but i would go i was panic i was like i was like maybe i can pick him back up Of course, I've no FAB left, so I had no chance of getting Trevor Lawrence. Luckily, my opponent was not able to get him. Someone in the consolation bracket picked up Trevor Lawrence instead. So wasn't the worst maneuver to fits this point. Both guys are really good options, very strongly ranked both in ECR, but I would go with Trevor. I mean, like I said before, QB1, tied with Josh Allen since week five.

And he's facing the Colts, indoors, in a dome. I think the Jaguars could just pour it on offensively. Let me ask you this. Lawrence is one spot ahead of Matthew Stafford, Erickson. Would you start Lawrence ahead of Stafford? Well, now you're making me second-guess a lot of my Rams rankings because of what you just mentioned about if they don't have anything to play for. I would not. I would not be surprised.

I'm trying to say, no, Stafford's not playing. Like, we're going to take them out. And I'll play Garoppolo because he knows that so much of what makes the Rams so effective and their upside is having a healthy Matthew Stafford. And I don't think anyone in the – I don't think anyone in the locker room is going to be like, oh, like, why did you bench Stafford? Like, if we have nothing to play for, he's not touching the field. So that would consider. me and I think that we could see a guy like Jimmy Garoppolo if that scenario plays itself out because we know that the Rams don't ever risk their guys in meaningless games in the preseason.

So I think I probably would move them down. It depends on how they define meaningless because they are they can still fight for a better seed. I don't, he doesn't care about the seed. But yes, that's the thing. Historically, he has not cared about the better seed when it's the like the difference in the three in the four seed or like the five and the six seed, Sean McFay has historically not really, really minded that. Again, two weeks away from the playoffs, it feels like pretty early, but it's just

something to keep in mind. It would be crushing to me in my, in my championship league, it's a super flex, and I lost Mahomes and Gardner Minshue, and I have no available starting quarterbacks. So Stafford is my only QB. That would be really rough to happen. I would pick up Jeremy Gropola right now. I cannot pick him up. It's a league where you have to have a minimum $1 to make any kind of waiver pickup.

I spent everything on Minchu because I was like, the team's great. The last spot I need is I just lost my home. So let me make sure I get his backup. What's the worst that could happen? He immediately tears ACL and now Stafford might not play. So that would be a very, very devastating finish to that season. But it's somebody to keep in mind. Obviously, I think we're all hoping that we still get the Rams in that game, you know, given it their all.

I've been agonizing over a Brock Purdy versus Matthew St. Stafford starts it decision and I had sort of independently decided to go. And I've got them ranked adjacent to each other in the rankings. I decided to go with Purdy. Now I feel like it's kind of a no-brainer now that you raise that scenario with the Pianowski scenario here because, yeah, that's got to terrify anyone who's dependent on the Rams passing game this final week. Any other coach, and I would be pretty optimistic that they'd still play, but McVeigh is

the one like given his history. By the way, those four names we talked about, Lauren Stafford, Purdy, are all back to back to back to back to back in ECR. So that's kind of the range that we are discussing. Also, too, if you are a staff or manager, just make sure you have Kirk Cousins, just like just in case. Like they pull the plug on. So you have a backup.

I mean, the Rams can give up yardage with their secondary. So just to be sure, because Chobok Bay probably won't tell us until it's too late. Because that's how they roll. All right. We got a tight end one here. Dallas Goddert or Tyler Warren. These guys are back-to-back, back-end, tight-end ones in ECR.

Erickson, who do you like better, Goddard or Warren? So I like Tyler Warren better. He has been the target leader with Philip Rivers under center, the last two games. It's a good matchup for him against the Jacksonville Jaguar's defense. And I know Warren's been disappointing. The box scores have been pretty, pretty eutrid.

But the volume has been there for him, the last couple games. And the matchup is good for him. He's a talented player. You can make plays after the catch. So I actually prefer Warren here. I hate the matcher for Dallas Goddard against the bills. Bills have been brutal against Titans,

especially guys that are more inline tightens than more of these hybrid types of players. However, I would probably have to move Goddard up if this A.J. Brown thing, like, dude, get your wisdom teeth out before you play. Like, what are we doing? Like, what are we doing here, dude? Like, how do you schedule this in the season before you have to play this, like, huge game? on the road against the Buffalo Bills. You're like, yeah, I'm going to get my whiz and teeth out this week.

Like, what? Yeah, I've had my whiz and teeth removed before. It's not fun, I will say. It sucks. It's terrible. Although, Erickson, I do recall, I think it was earlier this summer that you fought through. You had like some kind of dental procedure and we recorded the next morning and you were powering through.

Am I remembering that correctly? Yeah, but then all the YouTube comments said I looked really depressed and look, I didn't want to be there. So maybe we're going to get the AJ Brown book game because he's going to be out there grabbing his mouth. He's like, oh, man, my mouth hurts. Just who signed off on this? But, oh, yeah, just get your wisdom teeth out, Christmas week. I mean, he got on Christmas Eve.

Like, what's going on? Dude, that is just insane. AJ Brown looks depressed every game he plays with Jalen Hertz. So I don't know how we'll be able to tell the difference here. All right, Fatsy, do you like better, Tyler Warren or Dallas got her? Dallas Goddard. I know the volume was there. My son had Tyler Warren in a semi-final game last week, and he needed, I think, like, four and a half PPR points out of Tyler Warren to win. And he sweated that one out until like garbage time. Like Tyler Warren didn't get across the finish line for him with four and a half PPR points until late. And Warren has had 30 or fewer receiving yards in four straight games. And he's only scored one touchdown in his last. last eight games. Like, Dallas Goddard has 10 touchdowns, and I know the bill's smother tight ends, but the tush push is now Pass A and the Eagles' favorite play near the goal line is that little

shovel pass to Dallas Goddard. So I'm hoping we get one of those, and I'll take that over Tyler Warren, who's just kind of fizzled down the stretch here. Say goodbye to start sit dilemmas with fantasy pros, start sit assistant within seconds. You'll know exactly who to play for optimal results each every week. Leveraging insights from numerous experts, the start-sid assistant aligns your lineup decisions with the top minds of fantasy football, giving you a competitive edge. Maximize your lineup's potential with just a few clicks, head to Fantasypros.com slash my playbook or download the fantasy pros app and make winning decisions in no time. We're about to get to our touchdown calls for the week, but first, join our free touchdown calls contest in the Fantasy

Proz Discord. Each week pick four players you think will score with a bonus flex worth double. Weekly winners get a $25 fantasy pros gift card and the season champ takes home a signed Bejohn Robinson jersey. Play now by going to Fantasypros.com slash chat and heading to the touchdown calls channel.

Guys, we are doing a running back receiver and tight end. As always, Erickson, who do you have at running back? Ashton Genty is going to score this week against the New York Giants in pursuit of a thousand rushing yards. He's actually closing in on a thousand rushing yards

after that big game, see Houston Texans two games left. So hopefully you can get over the 1K mark for his rookie season. Ashton Genty for Erickson Fitz. Who do you have at receiver? Drake London against the Rams on Monday night. And yes, I'm trying to speak this into existence because I'm starting Drake London in two championship games.

How many Drake London teams are you facing, though? You got to check that. Yeah, I don't think I'm going against him in any leagues this week. That is a nice part about only having two teams left is Alave and Puka are the only players that have in one facing in the other, because when you have, you know, 14 leagues or whatever, you know, it's been for most of the season, you get a lot of that. It is nice to simplify it from that perspective. I'm sure it's more difficult for you, Fits.

But that's very much a first world problem with seven teams in the championship. So Janty for Erickson, Drake London for Fits, I'm at tight end. We are not overthinking it. This is the final time I have to pick a tight end for this year in this touchdown calls contest. I don't think I've gotten a single tight end right. Hopefully I'm not putting that bad. on Trey McBride.

Just the no-brainer of all no-brainers, McBride, facing this Bengals defense. So we're going with him. Gentie, London, and McBride are our three touchdown calls. For the week, you can dominate your fantasy football league with Fantasy Pros Premium. Now available free for six months when you deposit and place your first wager on one of our partner sports books.

This is the easiest way to get full access to our top fantasy tools all season long. Go to Fantasyprose.com slash premium to get started. Erickson, before we get out of here, any kind of like hype up for anybody? I mean, this is the fantasy championship, right? Like any kind of pep talk you want to give to our listeners here before the rest of the slate kicks off? Stress the process. You got here grinding 16 weeks of the season, not letting your emotions get in the way.

Because as we all know, this is in a very emotional game that we play. And 16 weeks of tilting, hey, it all pays off if you come on with that championship. So, yeah, let's go, baby. fits any final words of wisdom here yeah that's it i mean there can be a lot of variance in a single week of fantasy football and the best teams are not always going to win this week but every year all you can do is just you know maximize your probability and you know just keep keep getting to the doorstep and if you're playing this week you are on the doorstep just keep knocking eventually that door's going to open all it takes the winning one week i i have a team that's not very good

clear underdog, but you never, any individual week, anything can happen. So, uh, go, dare I say any given Sunday? Any some, some would say, or any given Thursday slash Saturday slash Sunday slash whatever, because the NFL plays every single day of the week now. Uh, yeah, best of luck to everybody. We will have, um, programming next week. It'll obviously look different because week 18, you know, people don't have championships. Typically, we'll have some versions of shows, um, going into next week and beyond.

This is the last edition of this particular show for the season. So thanks everybody for tuning into this show. all year long. Again, there will be more programming next week. We'll have shows for you, just looking a little bit different. For Erickson and Jake, who's been on the show all year, and Fitz, I'm Ryan Warmly. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at Fantasyprose.com or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube

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