The Ringer NFL Show - The Strength of Schedule Power Rankings | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 348)

Episode Date: November 20, 2018

Lamar Jackson and Tre’Quan Smith lead this week's Initial Advice (2:30), Gus “The Bus” Edwards and David Moore are among this week's players to add off waivers, and the Cincinnati Bengals sit atop the leaderboard of defenses to exploit as fantasy playoffs approach (17:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Kavo Control Center is the first truly universal TV remote control for your entire home theater. Connect up to four devices and centralize all your content in one place so you can easily find what you want when you want. It's simple to set up and shipping is free. Shop now at Kavo.com and use promo code NFL for 20% offer. That is C-A-A-A-V-O.com. C-A-A-A-V-O-com promo code NFL for 20% off. 20% on. Welcome, welcome, welcome to a special Thanksgiving edition of the Danny C Football podcast. My name is Danny Hyfitz. I'm joined as always by my co-host and co-danny, Danny Kelly.

How are you doing, DK? D.H. I'm doing excellent, man. How are you doing? I am fantastic. I had a flight today. I'm back home, New York, for the holidays or holiday, whatever. I'm happy. Craig, you're there too, right? How you doing, Craig? I'm back in the studio. I'm sitting here alone. It's all right, though. I'm thankful for fantasy football. It's a lonely endeavor.

All right, real quick. What are, other than Turkey, what's your favorite Thanksgiving food, DK? Oh, man, that's tough. I think, I mean, is mashed potatoes just, like, the most insanely boring, like, answer that I could come up with? I mean, yes, but, like, if there are a special kind of mashed potatoes? It's like the Matt Osceata of choices. So here's the deal.

Carlos Hyde of Thanksgiving options. I'll let you in on a little Kelly family secret. We don't eat traditional Thanksgiving food. It's like a thing for us. We just change every year whatever people are feeling like. So, for instance, this year we're making pizza. We're each making our own individual pizzas. I respect it.

Okay. When did this start? Is this always been a thing? It's been going on for a few years now. Probably like 10 years. What are you going to put on your pizza? So my sister is a vegetarian. My dad doesn't like turkey.

I don't really give a crap. I just go with the flow. So we just kind of like last year we made steaks. Year before that, I think we had like lasagna or something like that. We just go with it. I'm trying not to judge you because I'm trying to be more open-minded. This actually sounds really fun. I have many friends that get mad at me about this, but I don't even care.

It's good. Craig, how do you feel about pizza on Thanksgiving? I'm against it morally. It's a red-blooded American right there. All right, D-K. Moving on. Craig, did we use up all our time? Can we get Batman music or did I just use it on Turkey and Pizza?

Oh, Batman music is long gone. Well, let's just jump into the dark nights. D.K., who's your first guy? Going with James Winston of the Buccaneers, going up against the 49ers this week, who, as we know, are not a very good past defense. Whatever you want to call the Buccaneers offense this year, it's been obviously really prolific also bad.

I mean, I think it's really bad at times, too. But just for a fantasy world, in the fantasy world, there's so much just volume in that passing offense that I think, if you've been rolling with Fitzmagic, which I have been in a couple of leagues, now is the time to go back to the Winston train because he's going to be the start of this week. They announced that on Monday.

And yeah, going forward, you know, obviously he's a bit of a train wreck at times and throws a lot of picks, but get so many yards and Reds and opportunities that he could be a viable starter and fantasy going forward. This was so strange because it was like the inverse of when he got benched and Fitzpatrick led this comeback. And then Fitzpatrick hit the belt down and Winston led that.

It was such a strange, like, exact opposite role play that it was just like, I thought I had a handle on this. I also thought that they weren't going to play Winston anymore because, you know how they had to keep Bortles because he had the wrist surgery? And then that guaranteed his fifth year option. So they had to give him the $19 million. And I actually thought that the injury risk of Winston and the risk of them having to pay him in the future and keep him on the roster longer meant they wouldn't play him anymore. And then that's not what happened.

Now, yeah, he came in, he came into the game, I think, after half, after the half, went 12 of 16, 199 yards, two touchdowns, one int. And he had, he let you call interceptions ints. I love that. I don't know why. It's, I don't even, it's like, I never say that, except for when I'm reading off of our. and in your head. Yeah. He led the Buccaneers on four straight

touchdown drives in the second half. So obviously, he would, he's, they're writing the hot hand. The Buccaneers often, I mean, it's just stupid at this point,

but who knows what they're going to do next year. Right now, all I know is Winston is starting this week. And if you have, say, Patrick Mahomes or Jared Gough going into next week, Chiefs and Rams both have buys and you need a quarterback, he is an option.

And the requisite reminder that there's this weird thing where Fitzpatrick has the better chemistry with Chris Godwin and probably Deshawn Jackson and James is the much better chemistry with like Cameron Brate, so keep that in mind if you have other bucks kind of like Yeah, we're window dressing. My next guy, you might have heard of this one.

Lamar Jackson, if you've heard of him. I have anything. I made my thoughts very clear last week. I will quickly reiterate them. I think Flacco is terrible. I think Flacco is done that's me. He's not terrible. But I think Lamar is the future, and basically my hypothesis for this season is,

I think that John Harbaugh making it clear that Lamar Jackson has a future with this offense and make it clear that he can build an environment for Lamar Jackson to be successful is actually more important than making the playoffs and losing with Joe Flacko in the first round. I don't think that even a first round play. And they're probably not going to make the playoffs at this point. So I actually think Lamar is going to keep the job the rest of the year. So I think he's obviously worth the roster spot. I also think he's worth playing this week because the Raiders are garbage and they have no pass rush, as John Gruden says, over and over again.

So I think that obviously got the rushing volume last week that could literally get cut in half and he's basically like a running back that might get a rushing and two passing touchdown. So I think Lamar is a great play this week. And then we'll see going forward. But I think this week is fantastic, especially again if you have Mahomes or Gough. Yeah, I mean, we talked about this before. Like the rushing upside is what makes him such an interesting player in fantasy just because, I mean, he was hit or miss as a bad. passer in his premier, 13 of 1950 yards. He had a pretty ugly interception.

Danny, you wrote about it. What did you think of him as a passer? So I thought what was interesting about him as a passer was that the Ravens didn't seem to trust him. I thought that was pretty clear. I mean, Vincent Verheyev, another last name I cannot pronounce, but a football outsiders made the point that, I mean, 27 carries, which is what Lamar did. I mean, not all those were designed, but he rushed the ball 27 times, which is the

seventh most anyone's done in the league this season. It's like Chris Carson, James Connor, Leonard Fornett, Gurley, McCaffrey, Sequin, Lamar Jackson. Those are the people who've gotten the most carries in a game this year. So even forgetting he's a quarterback, if you're like, oh, wow, you might get 20 carries in a game. That's worth playing. He also is throwing the football. I thought it was interesting that they weren't really, I mean, the first drive was 11 carries. No, I mean, between him and Alex Collins.

Yeah, 11 straight runs. Yeah. I thought that coming off the buy, actually, they would install some different stuff. But it's interesting because he opened up the running game. There's some interesting stats. about how when Joe Flacco is under, basically if you remove all the plays Lamar's played this year and you just look at when Flacco was the quarterback,

the Ravens go from like the 31st yards per attempt running game to like by far the last, like under three yards of carry. So, and then obviously in this one, they ran the ball at like 50 times or something. And they were doing it like a almost five yard to carry a clip. So they just brought their volume up way more.

So he's completely open up the run game and not in like a theoretical way, but he's really keeping defenders honest. So he really, fundamentally changes the entire Ravens offense. So I think it's interesting. Yeah, absolutely. It's a long-winded way of saying,

I think they're going to keep running with him. I think it makes the Ravens, they've gone to me from one of the most boring teams in the NFL to watch to one of the most exciting. And obviously that doesn't necessarily translate to fantasy football, but in this case it does because,

I mean, if you look at that offense, they've got Greg Roman as, I guess he's like the assistant head coach and tight-ins coach. I know he's a big factor. in terms of what they do up front blocking. Roman comes from the 49ers, and they had the call in cap,

during the Kaepernick era where they were designing a lot of, and Alex Smith back then when they were designing a lot of quarterback runs, quarterback power, quarterback draw, read option, all that stuff. Yeah. I think it's really fun. And they've experienced with this, and it's not a surprise either. You know, I have to think,

I think Andy Benoit at Sports Illustrated was the first person point out. It's not like they haven't spent the whole offseason kind of thinking about this in the back of their mind, like what this offense and what this moment would look like. I kind of can't think that they went into their buy like unprepared and like, you know, it's like Apollo 11. Like what are we going to do with this? But the one flip side I want to say in terms of the other Ravens Periphery players,

Joe Flacco was on pace. He was throwing the most balls per game in the league. He was at almost 43 passes a game. Lamar through 19. I think that's going to continue. So you're basically going from the weird to think about the most prolific passer. He was throwing more balls than Andrew Luck more than anyone. And Lamar might throw right at the bottom with whoever's playing for the bills.

So that's really bad, you know, if you have Michael Crabtree anyone. So that's really, it's John Brown who was already in his slump. So that's enough. And Willie Sneed, yeah. And Willie Sneed, RIP. Yeah, gosh, darn it. I've been using him in some leagues. And I don't know, he's just kind of that automatic eight points or eight to ten points.

Yeah, I think I would not play any of those guys as long as Lamar's playing. Not because they can't do anything, but because we don't know how many times he's going to throw. Yeah, absolutely. Moving on to the next guide, I think we talked about this guy last week, Josh Adams, the Eagles. We've been hyping him up a little bit. He looked good against the Saints, got seven carries 53 yards, and a touchdown, added three catches for 19 yards. Going up against that Saints defense was always going to be a really, really tough matchup, so the pure volume numbers don't really stand out.

But Adams just looked clearly like the best running back in that group. He led the running back group in snaps, 55 percent, rushes with seven, and then, And he was second on the team, actually, it was six targets. So his usage in the passing game was kind of a surprise. Going forward, it seems like he's kind of separated himself from the rest of that group. He runs with power. He's elusive. He's physical.

Kind of a different style than everybody on that team. Going up against the Giants. Going up against the Giants this week, they've given up the 10th most fantasy points per game to running backs. I think he is a guy to just kind of, you can plug him into your flex spot at this point feel pretty comfortable about it just because I think he has definitely sort of emerged at the top of that group. Yeah, and I think he's tough.

I mean, firstly, he's tall. I mean, for a running back, he's 6-2, 225, which it's on the taller run of the spectrum for running backs. He's certainly taller than small would inclement. A quick tangent just to say that I thought the Saints game was a good encapsulation of why, like, they have a quote-unquote,

the Saints have a good run defense, but in reality it's, no, they just pile on points and then everyone has to abandon the run against them. Yeah. So I thought that was a good example of game script. But again, the flip side of that is I don't think that the Eagles can do anything this week with the Giants. I mean, the Giants, I mean, they traded way Damon Harrison, who's one of the best run stoppers they had a couple weeks ago. I don't think they'll be able to do anything.

I think this is very much profiles as an Adams game. So if he did as well last week, even without the touchdown, I think that he could literally, if he did seven for 53 through this week, I wouldn't be surprised if he did 14 for, you know, 106 or whatever. and then we'll see if he gets a touchdown. And he got more targets than I thought he would get to. So that was nice. Yeah, absolutely. Who's your next guy? Oh, Taylor Gabriel.

So this is weird. I actually, despite the bears seeming bad last week, I really actually liked what the Bears did on Sunday Day football. Like, I know they kind of got suffocated at some point, but the Vikings defense is great. And I think it's kind of easy to forget that they're like our great real life defense because they get shredded by the bills and haven't been awesome. But I actually really like them against the Lions this week.

They're at the Lions. this is the Thanksgiving stuff. So he's looked fantastic. I'm actually so impressed with Taylor Gabriel as much. Yeah. Like forgetting fantasy even for a second, just real life. I told you this every week.

I'm like, oh yeah, Alan Robinson and it's Taylor Gabriel. And now I'm finally starting to realize, oh no, Taylor Gabriel's just excellent. Yeah. Like,

um, I'm really impressed with him. He's another guy that I really just kind of pegged in my mind. It's like a deep threat. Like, no, he can do a lot of things and they're using him. We talk to the Bears are kind of like Kansas City light or maybe like Kansas City

extra light. But they do, they have him do like this like, poor man's Tyree Kill kind of impression. They have him in the backfield. They do all this kind of weird stuff with him. It's fun to watch. And I think you'll see him on Thanksgiving.

So, it's a really good play. I was looking up some of his numbers because I think both he and Anthony Miller have emerged in that passing offense. And I think both have worked their way into fantasy relevance. But I've been surprised with how much action Gabriel is getting. Last week, obviously on Sunday, he had nine targets, team high, seven catches, 52 yards. He played 55 out of 74. snaps, which is 74%.

That was third on the team behind Robinson and Miller. And actually, the reason he kind of piqued my interest, I was just looking at Josh Herms-Myers' great air yards website, and he ranks 10th, I'm talking about Gabriel here, ranks 10th among all receivers in air yards the last three weeks. Clearly, Trubisky's got some accuracy issues down the field, but those air yards are going to translate to production, I think, going forward. he's getting the targets.

He's actually second in target share on the team in the last three weeks. So I just think he's a guy to grab now if you're looking for, you know, if you've had injuries or if you just don't have that great of talent, your receiver position or flex, you could have him plug him in. The bear's offense seems to be going in the right direction. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he blows up in the next few weeks. I will admit I was wrong on Taylor Gabriel and Anthony Miller for parts of the season. I will give you credit for someone you were very right on and you've been beating this drum for a long time, which is Treyquon Smith.

So there, take your victory lap. I was a little early on Smith, just the old hype train. Got it going a little bit too early, but last week he broke out big time. 13 targets, 10 catches, 157 yards, one touchdown. Going up against the Falcons this week, I think it offers another nice matchup

for the Saints and for Drew Brees and Treykwant Smith. A big reason that Smith went off is because the Eagles apparently were just double teaming and playing man on on michael thomas lot so that was kind of like left smith the next guy up he he definitely stepped up which is great but we'll see how that goes i think he's still a little bit of a boomer bus play at this point um as you as we know that the saints offense really spreads things around whether it's like tateham hill or this keith kirkwood guy who had never heard of before before yesterday um i don't know exactly how much volume he's going to get but i do think he is a

big play threat in that offense. And so he's a guy to roster at the very least. If you need to start a guy, I don't necessarily feel real sad about starting him. I think he is a talented player who's on, his arrows pointing up at this point, especially against the Falcons who are giving up the fifth most points per game to receivers this year,

has the potential to be a shootout. The Falcons' offense has slipped over the last couple weeks, but I just still think there's too much talent on the offense. They had the potential in a divisional game to kind of make it a shootout. So I like Smith. I like that match up this week. Yeah.

And if there's one reason to be worried about being replicable, obviously the Eagles secondary was kind of decimated the last couple weeks and they really banged up with their cornerbacks. And I mean, it's like the falcons defense is healthy either. Sorry, like the falcons defense is healthy either. If I can,

almost say ether like I was nause. I'm in New York. So it's Jay-Z. Excuse me. Well, near state of mind empire. Who knows? Anyway.

They almost got Dion. Joe. Oh, yeah. See, I tried to segue out of it. It'd be cool. and then I just couldn't.

I think you're losing your marbles right now. Yeah, they're already gone. But the Falcons almost had Dion Jones back last week, and then he ended up not playing. So that was surprised to definitely check who's playing on defense for the Falcons between all their injuries at every level of their defense. But the more injuries, I mean, not to be morbid,

but the more people that are missing on their defense and the more next man up, they have to go, obviously the better matchup it is for the Saints because that's definitely what happened last week. But yeah, sorry, I lost my marbles there. That's all right. You've been traveling. All right.

All right, but before we move on, let's take a quick break. Thanksgiving. It's a time of giving and getting football whenever you want. Okay, it's not really about getting football whenever you want. But the Yahoo Sports Mobile app is. With the Yahoo Sports mobile app, you can watch live local and primetime NFL games right on your phone. If you're traveling to visit family for the holiday,

when you're dying to see the game, no problem. Just download the Yahoo Sports app and start watching. never miss big NFL matchups or your favorite team in action. The Yahoo Sports app is your ticket to NFL football during Thanksgiving and all season long. All right, D.K., let's jump into a little Waverwire lightning round. We don't know your guys' leagues or teams quite as well as you do, but we have thoughts on guys you should pick up, guys that will be picked up that maybe you shouldn't. And yeah, we're just going to give some thoughts. So let's run through, DK.

Who's the first person on WaverWire you're thinking about this week? First guy on the list, Dantrell and men of the Colts going up against the Dolphins this week. The Colts offense, obviously he's kind of caught fire of late. Andrew Luck is playing really, really well.

Frank Rack has that crew kind of just turning along right now and they're looking like a potential playoff team. He is, and I'm talking about him now, he's kind of developed into the number two receiver in that offense. They don't really have a,

like an official one, but he played the second most snaps behind T.Y. Hilden last week. He has 70, targets and 14 catches over the last three weeks. And last week we had six targets, four catches, 34 yards, and a touchdown. He's, you know, obviously, it's hard to kind of guess what's going to happen in this Colts past catching core, as we've talked about with Eric Ebron and Jack Doyle and all that. By the way, Eric Ebron only had, what, did he have zero targets last week?

Okay, no big deal. But anyways, Inman. I'd sneak that in there. I did. I've been waiting. No. And then next week, he's probably going to have three touchdowns on three. Target. So who knows?

Or two. Yeah. But anyways, in men. Now you have to remember, this guy, he caught 58 passes for 810 yards in 2016 for the Chargers. So he's not necessarily just some rando guy, like a lot of receivers in the Colts offense. I think he's got some experience. I actually think he's a good player. It was a little bit surprising to see him not really do much last year. But yeah, so he's a guy to definitely keep an eye on going forward. I think if you have that roster spot, he's worth kind of a pickup. And, you know, because obviously

this offense passes a lot and luck is playing really well. So I think he is a potential ad for me. I'm in. I like it. I remember Don Schellman from 2016. I remember thinking about adding him every week and not doing it. But I like him on the Colts.

I like the Colts offense. And I do like the Dolphins. Well, I hate the dolphins, which is why I like the match up. The next guy for me, I, you know what, sometimes we just have to be a little honest, D.K. And what I saw that, I do have a rando guy for you.

Because what I saw Gus Edwards, had more than 100 yards on Sunday. I was really confused. And my first thought was like, is this like a dereliction of duty? Like, am I supposed to know who Gus Edwards is? And I was really happy to know that I don't think anyone knew who Gus Edwards is.

And if you did, then well, kudos to you, you're better at this. I did know who he was, by the way. Oh, well,

congrats. But it was weird. He was impressive. It was strange. And it's hard to separate how much. of it was Lamar Jackson and then rolling out a lot of new stuff and the bengals sucking and having given up 500 yards for three weeks in a row and like the first team to ever do that and not really being able to play defense versus Gus the bus Edwards are we allowed to call him the

bus no we're not oh you're a Steelers sneaky Steelers fan oh yes I don't know why we're letting this go who's who wrote this in the dock who wrote the bus in the dock this is a nickname that I was... I read this nickname on a roto world that they called him Gus the bus. And I was like, this is... You can't do that.

Well, anyway, I love Gus the bus. Well, here's the... So, Alex Collins is weird. Because Alex Collins gets benched a lot for a quote-unquote starting running back. I feel like he's gotten benched

more than every other starting running back combined because it's always something with him. And I'm kind of... As Harbaugh said after the game, he gives us that back we probably didn't have earlier in the year, which, oh my God. It's not a bit sub-tweet. That's kind of just a shot.

Yeah. might get fired. I think that there's no incentive for him to not just roll with whoever he thinks is going to give him the best chance to win. This was my same thought with Rashad Penny at the beginning of the year. I don't buy the idea that certain coaches have a certain dedication to certain players because

when you're on the hot seat and you really need to win, like the winning is what matters. And if Gus Edwards, Gus the bus is seeing the running lanes, I kind of like, so I think you got at him, but I also think again, like the Raiders suck. And if Gus is going to get like 17 carries again, he'll probably probably have a great game.

How about Gus the U-Haul? I like that. You can haul that name out of here because we're to call him Gus the Bus. I hope that's in the pod description. If you're listening to this right now, I hope that Gus the Bus made it into the description, but if not, then Craig edited it out of the Weasel.

Anyway, D.K., who's your next guy? Well, I want to just say for Gus the Bus, I think that I'm wondering if the reason he played, not necessarily just that Alex Collins keeps getting bench, but like, is he a better option and sort of the read option run game that Lamar Jackson brings to the table? Because it's different, like, taking a handoff,

taking the mesh at the mesh point, just the styles of runs are different. And I'm just wondering if that's maybe why. That's a really good point, actually. I think that's actually maybe the easiest thing to always forget. That's kind of like when DeMarco Murray went from the Cowboys to the Eagles and he went from just like behind the quarterback

to, oh, suddenly you're in the pistol. Like, you can't, it's not the same to just do that. And that's actually a really good point. So I'm wondering if that might have something to do with it too and that could be I you know I watched this is this is nerdy as hell but I actually did watch Gus Edwards in in the preseason he was actually pretty impressive I don't know why I was watching preseason Ravens games but um you know he kind of came out of nowhere yeah maybe it was just because I was trying to watch Lamar Jackson or something but yeah he he stood out in the in the

preseason so I think he's you know it's not just like completely I mean I think he's potentially legit so um going forward David Moore the Seahawks I mean we've talked about him a few times on here. He's still... This is your baby. He impresses me I'll tell you. Last three weeks he, this is another area, going to the air yard stat. He ranks 11th in the league

among receivers in air yards. And that's nearly double the next closest Seahawk player, which is Tyler Lockett. Over the last three weeks, he's first in targets on the Seahawks with 19. First in target share, 20%. He's a bit boom or bust, clearly. Last week he had eight targets, four catches,

57 yards. He's had a few opportunities in the red zone that didn't quite, they just didn't quite catch. They weren't drops necessarily, but it was just like a really, really tough catch in the end zone. I just think he is, has, again, he's a boom-buss player, but he has potential to have those big plays, the touchdown plays. Going forward, the one thing I would caution is with Baldwin getting, Doug Baldwin get a little bit more healthy, that could kind of eat into the, to Moore's, you know,

target share. He's been rising with, with Baldwin kind of not being a big part of the offense. and now Baldwin's kind of getting back. So the Seahawks passing so much, or so few, they don't pass very often. That could be a big, big factor. But I'm still stashing, I'm still stashing him on my bench because I just think he's got that big playability. Yeah, Baldwin does look better each week, incrementally healthier, not healthy enough to play yet, or at least not healthy enough to trust.

It's still risky, but healthy enough to take away from more. Who's your next guy? Well, for me, so carry on Johnson got hurt for the lions. obviously Johnson had a really impressive season so far. He's a sprained knee. So I believe it does not require surgery. They don't think, but he's weak to week. And now it's kind of right back to, well, are the lines like a running team or not?

Because it's obviously, you know, a running back sometimes, you know, they can't create the blocking, but, you know, they can maximize it. And that really can be the difference sometimes. I think Karen Johnson is really maximizing what the lines can do in a way that her back hasn't before. Another back to LeGarrett and Zach Zinner. I'm torn because in one. hand, those are two fantastic names.

I mean, my god, Zach Zener. That's like, if that was like Madden, I would take him first overall, like, their auto drafts. But my gut is kind of saying, oh, and we could talk about Theoretic who we kind of glance at every week and we're like, yeah, you don't want to talk about Theoretic. And I'm just kind of like, look, maybe one of these guys are going to touchdown. Maybe you'll get a goal on K.R. to Garrett one. But I kind of really am having a trouble envisioning, like you starting one of these guys with confidence with like maybe a playoff spot in the line or in the playoffs.

never mind. Like, if there's two weeks left and you need to win to make the playoffs, I cannot imagine throwing Zach Zenter in your lineup. So as part of me is like, oh, it's worth it. Part of me is like,

oh, it's worth it. And part of me is like, you're not going to play him. And maybe I'm wrong. But I just, I can't imagine I would trust Lagarde Blunt getting three goal line carries and getting two touchdowns to be worth it.

Don't waste, don't waste your auction dollars on one, either of them. Yeah, whatever it is, there's, Gotta be someone better. I hope.

Please, for your sake. For your children. D.K.'s. Who's next for you? Next guy who I think he's kind of intriguing. Marcel Aitman of the Raiders. He was promoted from the practice squad. It's Ottoman.

I don't even know if you're joking. No, I just made that up. I actually don't know. Eight men. I think it's Aitman. But he was promoted from the practice squad ahead of this week's game. played 65 snaps at a 68, which was more than any other receiver on the team.

He caught four out of five targets for 50 yards. Seventh-round rookie, this is kind of one of those things where it's just volume-based. There's nobody else in that passing offense anymore. Jordi Hurt, Martavis, and LaFelle are both gone. LaFelle tore his Achilles, and so he's gone. And so there's just, like, basically no one else to play. it comes down to this guy who they just signed off the practice squad

might be one of their starters going forward. Obviously, the Raiders have had a lot of problems on offense and just in general. And they're going up against the Ravens who are a really good defense, so maybe don't start him this week. But I do think at this point, it's worth of a speculative ad just to kind of see, you know, if you were relying on one of those guys

like Martavis, Jordi, or Lafell, he is potential replacement. So I think he's an interesting player to watch going forward. I would not play him this week, but yeah, I would go ahead and kind of add him if you have a roster at the very end of your roster. I like that a lot. I like hunger guys. I just like hungry guys and bad teams.

If I can be a football guy for a second. Love seventh round rookies at OK State. Last one for me, just John Smith from the Titans, you know, obviously we've talked at length about how tight end is a barren post-apocalyptic wasteland this season. And John O' Smith is actually now three weeks in a row that, you know, it, He's just had three good weeks in a row, and he seems to actually be getting targets. So I think if Mariota were healthy, Mario, if Mario were healthy that it would actually be a pretty, like, solid option for like, oh, you can pick them up if you have either someone on buy or if you have Kelsey or whatever or you just need someone because your tight end sucks. But now Mario does hurt again.

Mike Vrable called it a stinger that he didn't injure his elbow, but I'm just kind of, like, I'm not a doctor. I just know that like I don't know if you have like elbow injuries and now you got like stingers I don't know it's not good I feel like Mario'd had just put everything together and now we can't trust the Titans again but if Mario'd actually is okay then I think Smith is a good option I'm top eight I don't even know I mean there's no good tight ends this year yeah he's second on the team and targets over the last three games 12 12 targets over that time what were you going to say no I was just sorry I interrupted but I was going to say the theme of tight ends this week is you could this year is you could do worse.

And that's Johnny Smith for me this week. Because the Texans, it's just, I just think that Mario's playing well. So hopefully his arm doesn't fall off. This just kind of reminds me of what we're going to talk about at some point over the next whatever. I don't know, maybe we'll talk about it during the off season, but how there should not be a tight end position in fantasy football. I firmly believe, you know what?

It's the simple thing. Like, teams aren't doing it anymore. Like, just you shouldn't be forced to play a dead end because teams aren't playing tight end today. Oh, anyway. Zach Hertz is not a tight end. It's just the name next to him. He doesn't play tight end.

Hey, you're preaching to the choir here. Yeah. As in the words of Michael Kendricks, Zach Hertz does not want the smoke. Anyway, let's move on, D.K. How did you just quote Michael Kendricks? I didn't even, I've never heard of that. That was the episode of Hard Knocks that aired 12 hours before he was arrested.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Literally, he was on Hard Knocks, literally doing Insights. insider information on hard docs the night before he was arrested. Hyfitz is averaging like, giving way inside information. He's averaging like one Michael Kendrick's reference a show. I love my.

Oh, man. That was just the, oh, okay. All right. Let's just go real quick. We're going to talk about some juicy upcoming schedules. I don't think of them as juicy.

I don't know why you guys think of them as juicy. But obviously it's crunch time. But you don't like the word choice? That's fine. It was fine. It's fine. But. It's fine, they're juicy.

I think juicy. It's perfect. Juicy, it's okay. But yeah, whether it's, you are fighting for a playoff spot and you want to go 2 and O or you're trying to get a first round by, which obviously, like, basically doubles your chances of making it to the, or winning your championship. It's really important that, you know, you want to finish strong and just get the best playoff positioning possible.

So we're going to try to focus on guys that have great schedules for the next couple weeks or extending the playoffs. Yeah, yeah. I'm kind of interested. You, DK, you and Craig really compiled this list. and kind of want you guys to sell me on some of these things. So I'm actually pretty excited right now. So all credit.

It's a shark tank. First of all, all credit to Craig, who did the yeomen's work on this. I'll just start this out with, if you've got a player on your fantasy team who is playing the Bengals over the next three to five or six weeks,

that is awesome because right now the Bengals are giving up the first most points to quarterbacks in the league, third most points of running backs, seventh most points to receivers and third most points to tight ends. So be confident if you're playing the Bengals.

If you got one of your guys going against the Bengals, that is a really attractive matchup and potential for big numbers. So I think that's just like getting us started. Then we'll kind of go through each position

in terms of like what guys have like the most, you know, the quote, juiciest upcoming schedules. I just want to quickly reiterate on the Bengals. I know I said this earlier in the show. I just feel the need to say it one more time. They're the first team that ever gave up 500 yards of offense three weeks in a row.

And then a rookie quarterback came in in his first career started quarterback, ran the ball more than he passed the ball at quarterback, and they got 400 yards. I think they got like, didn't they get like 450 or something like that? Yeah. Yeah, they almost got 500. That's incredible. Yeah.

But anyway, sorry, keep going. So anyways, let's start out with quarterback. Craig, and you can jump in at any point here. but we went on fantasy pros, great website, and they have the rankings listed for each team in terms of which team has the lightest schedule going for. For quarterbacks, the Ravens.

So that's where Lamar Miller, or sorry, Lamar Jackson, really kind of is an interesting fantasy quarterback going down the line, especially if you're in a two-quarterback league and because he can run. But the Ravens' schedule over the next five weeks are just a murderer's row of terrible defense to get the Raiders, the Falcons, the Chiefs in their defense have actually improved, I think over the last few weeks, their pass rush is kind of picking up,

so they're not quite as much of a home run defense anymore. But then going forward after that, the Buccaneers and then the Chargers, they end up with the Chargers who are pretty good. But right now the Ravens look like the best option for a fantasy quarterback's going forward. The Cowboys are second. They get the Redskins, Saints, Eagles, Colts, and Bucks.

Browns are third. Bengals, Texans, Panthers, Broncos, Bengals. The Browns get two Bengals matchups going forward. So if you've got Baker Mayfield, that is a great, great matchup. Yeah, Baker's fantastic because, I mean, obviously, I've been, like, Baker, they're playing the Bengals this week. So that's obviously amazing. But then it would also be fancy championship time if your quarterback is a really tough matchup for week 16. If you have a guy who's going to be, you know, let's see you have like a Ben Rothesberger or Phillip Rivers or something like that,

and they're going to be going up against the Bears in like a week 15 or 16. you can come back to this and grab guys like Dak Prescott, Baker Mayfield, who are playing you know, Bengals and bucks and Falcons and stuff in your week 15, 16 range. I think that's a good point, Craig, because I think, you know, we're kind of talking about it in a more vague general sense,

but I think the way to really go about this exercise is to like look at your team and to look at who's an obvious start for you, but then look at, oh my God, like, yeah, I don't want to, my quarterback's going against the Bears in week 15. Like, I'm not going to play them. Exactly. And that's where you can start looking at, I mean,

I know that's like obvious, but just those little things and making those roster ads like two weeks ahead. Or if you're doing it this week or the week ahead, or you're looking even just one week ahead and you're looking at week 13. And it really can make the difference because that's someone you're adding that maybe your opponent isn't. And just a little bit of game theory actually can really help you out. Yeah, exactly. Same for your opponent. If you know you're going to play in the first round of the playoffs and you know that they're screwed. Oh, they need a quarterback.

Even just picking up the best quarterback on the board can really help you. Definitely. There's two others actually to add to the list, the fourth and fifth ranked ones. Denver is fourth. They get the Steelers, Bengals, 49ers, Browns, and Raiders. So Bengals, 49ers, and Raiders in three of the last four weeks. So Case Keenham kind of becomes a little bit more interesting down the stretch.

If you're desperate for quarterbacks, if you're in a two-quarterback league especially, he's an option over some guys who might have a lot tougher schedules. And then fifth ranked or the Buccaneers, down the stretch, they've got the 49ers, Panthers, Saints, Ravens, and Cowboys. So James Winston, again, going back to Winston. or if you want to hold on to Fitzmagic because they're bound to probably bench Winston

at some point again before the year's over. So that's the quarterback position. Let's move on. Craig, do you want to do running back real quick? Sure. So the running back, the top five teams going up the easiest schedule from a running back perspective are the Ravens, the Cardinals, the Broncos, the Browns, and the Chargers. So with guys like Melvin Gordon and Nick Chubb,

you're going to start them no matter what, David Johnson. But the Ravens, this becomes interesting because, one, they're a whole new, different team now from a running perspective. Because of the bus? And Gus, the U-Haul Edwards is now in the mix. So he might immediately vault into an RB2 on your team for the remainder of the season because of their cake schedule.

Man, I'm excited about Chubb down the stretch. Bengals, Texans, Panthers, Broncos, and Bengals again. I think Chubb's a top five running back. Chubb is like a potential league winner. And actually, it's really interesting, too, looking at the Cardinals. They face the Chargers, Packers, Lions, Falcons, and Rams. going up against the Lions, Falcons, Rams, what is that, Weeks, 14, 15, and 16,

that David Johnson becomes a potential, like, huge fantasy factor after having a really, really quiet year. So that's going to be, I think that's going to be really fun to watch. Especially in a game that might not matter for the Rams. Oh, my gosh, yeah. So if you've got David Johnson, that could be interesting down the stretch. Moving on to the receiver position,

the Panthers come in first with the best, opposing schedule down the stretch. They got the Seahawks, Buccaneers, Browns, Saints, and Falcons. Obviously, that is a... It's an interesting one right now, just because we still don't really know if we can trust DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel or really Devin Funches at this point in time,

just because they've all kind of rotated on who, you know, who's getting the most volume. But I think I kind of like DJ Moore going for the most going... Like, based on that, like, I've watched the Seahawks defense, you know, all year. They struggle, against guys of speed. So that's kind of interesting.

Obviously, the Buccaneers are giving up millions and millions of yards. Saints' defense has kind of clamped down a little bit, but then in week 16, they get the Falcons who can't guard anyone either. So that's really interesting. Going down the ranking, there's Cowboys or Second,

easiest schedule. The Ravens' third easiest schedule, Cardinals and Broncos. Which makes you think Christian Kirk and Cortland Sutton are going to have brighter futures than they've been having, I think. Yeah, exactly. Cortland Sutton and I love

Cortland Sutton Sutton and I like I have him in the Ringer League I believed in him a lot of the Tamaris Thomas but I also do still believe that despite the lot of success from rookie receivers this year I don't necessarily still believe if the Broncos offense and Case Keenham

and Vance Joseph and everything going on there is the best environment for Quillan Sutton to be consistent and it's not just that I think he'd have a good week at some point in the stretch I don't know if you're going to be wanting to count on him so it's it's tough because I love him as a player,

and I feel like he, his real life potential is probably stronger than his fantasy stuff this year. So I don't love necessarily the stuff on the Broncos. And same with the Panthers. I see what you're saying.

I probably like DJ more for where he's going more than like necessarily Funches. Although I'm looking at the Saints or really the might take way here. You know, everything we said about Treyquan Smith earlier. The Falcons this week

and then they get the bucks in what would be the first round of the playoffs for a lot of people. And then the Steelers in the championship. That is incredible. I'm just looking at that. Cowboys, I can't go, we can't go a podcast without talking about Mari Cooper. Yeah.

Oh yeah, what happened to Mori Cooper, Craig? How'd that go for you? Was he three for 36? Mr. Must start of Mori Cooper. He still played fine. I think you're over under when we first started this. You said like 32 and a half and you were like, oh, way under. Well, he's done that every game.

He's gone over that. What did he get this week? 36, I think, three for 36. I'm just off the top of my head. Oh boy. Okay, let's move on to tight end. Get out of here. The easiest schedule for tight ends going forward, the Browns,

they're going up against the Bengals, Texas, Panthers, Broncos, Bengals. So obviously, David Joku is an enticing guy down the stretch. The Ravens, again, they've got an easy schedule down the stretch. We don't really know exactly how much they're going to be passing. And also, there's just like five different tight ends on that team that could be a fantasy factor. So I don't know if that necessarily tells you much. The Saints get the Falcons, Cowboys, Buccaneers, Panthers, and Steelers stand in the year.

I'm serious when I say that continue in the Ravens thing. If you're in like an ESPN league and your trade deadline is like this week, if you believe that Lamar is going to start the rest of the season or like might and like I do,

I would sell on those receivers so fast. If you believe Flacco might come back, it's worth it. But if you could sell someone on that schedule, because again, I just don't think they're going to be passing on these guys. Yeah, like if John Brown catches a 60-yard touchdown

next week, sell him. Yeah, I agree. Because it's just, it's going to be too random. Sorry, but I interrupted. No, I was just going to say the one interesting team on here, the fourth easiest schedule going forward is the Broncos. Medium-sized Jeff. Yes, Jeff Heerman, who didn't have a pass this week.

He didn't have a big game. He didn't have a big game. I want to say, now I'm just going off top of my head, but I think he was maybe second on the team in targets. So the announcer called him Hireman, and I felt really dumb. Oh, hireman. That made a lot of sense. As soon as he said, it was like, oh, shit. That was probably.

Hireman. that works. But then he dropped a pass on like third down. And I was like, well, it's fine. He doesn't, well,

no, everyone gets deserves get the name said right because I understand that. And then moving forward to defense, because for a lot of people that was in this podcast, a lot of people probably stream defenses.

I know I do. So going forward, the easiest schedules for team defenses, Patriots are number one. They got the Jets, Vikings, Dolphins, Steelers, and Bills.

Obviously, there's a few good teams in there, You might have to stream within the stream, but... I mean, I would 100% go into the fantasy playoffs with two defenses. Yeah. And you are trying to pick two that overlap. That's really my goal. Yeah, I don't know if you want to take the Patriots or, like,

going against the Vikings or the Steelers, but certainly against the Jets, certainly against the Bills. You could grab the Patriots and the Bills because they alternate weeks. You know, like in the last week, the Patriots play the Bills so you could start them. And then the week before that, when the Patriots are playing the Steelers, the Bills are playing the Lions. And you could almost just alternate back and forth between them all the way to the fantasy championship.

I think that's exact. So for example, in Yahoo right now, this is a good example. Yeah, like the Vikings defense actually got cut in one league I'm in because, I mean, the Vikings,

the upcoming schedule is brutal because they got the Packers and the Patriots in the next two weeks. And I mean, that's an extreme example, but then, you know, they're playing like the dolphins in week 15 and the Detroit in week 16.

And that's exactly the kind of thing where it's like, you can mix and match, like the bears are an example of a defense where, well, you're probably going to want to fill in for them when they play the rampant. in week 14 and the Packers in week 15 of like you know

that's playoff time that's hard but then they play the Niners in week 16 so if you mixing and matching there is I would definitely not try to ride one defense in the playoffs here's a sleeper the Colts who I'm really starting to like this Colts defense a lot like they just have been really impressive despite the fact they have like no names on their team

yeah okay fine well yeah he's good the rookie Darrys Leonard the second round linebacker of South Carolina State It's not exactly a house of them. He's, I mean, in his defense, yeah, he's probably going to be. He might win defensive rookie of the year. We're talking about Darius Leonard here. But the Colts down the stretch face the dolphins, jags, Texans, and Cowboys, and Giants.

So obviously, I guess the Texans, their offense has potential, clearly. The Giants, you know, I guess sometimes they can be pretty good. But that's not, that's an interesting final five weeks for the Colts events, too. I like that Colts events. Yeah, the culture is surprisingly good in every phase of the game. And yeah, I would just, I love the Patriots in Week 16 against the bills.

That is like, uh, yeah. That's like the potential for like 15 or 20 points and like win you your championship. Yeah, because it's, yeah. That's like the pick six that wins you your league. I really, I would target that. I love that one a lot. Great list, Craig.

Great list. Yeah, thanks for putting that together, Craig. Thank you. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we forgot. What about the kicker match? Oh. I don't even play kickers in my league because you are just match.

Light years ahead. Do you know, I will not ever pretend to know anything about kickers that anyone else doesn't know and can't kind of figure out. Like, the only thought I had was that, you know, I don't want Jake Elliott, for example, because, like, the Eagles might pass and forth or, like, go forward and forth down. I have, no one has any idea. Here's the advice I will give. If you have, like, clinched a playoff spot, or if you can't change your playoff fate, like, you're locked into a buy, or you're locked in the playoffs, but you can't get a buy. I'd actually recommend dropping your kicker

and holding on to an extra player for the extra week. That's my real kicker advice. That's what I do when I draft. I don't, when we did have kickers, I used to not draft a kicker and have an extra player and then wait until the night before week one, and then I would add a kicker. Oh, wow, your league lets you do that, huh?

That's sweet. Also, shouts out to the people out there who draft like Steven Goskowski in round 12. Those people are great. Well, next year when we do the Dannysi Football League and we're going to have Danny Chow in the Danny City Football League. Well, there's five Danes at the ringer now,

so we're actually going to have to be pretty selective because obviously we only want four teams in the Tennessee Football League. But Danny Chow drafts say Justin Tucker in the seventh round of you. It's just horrible. Like clockwork. Oh, man.

So, well, on that note. Yeah, take us out, Danny. I'm just trying to think about what pizza would want on Thanksgiving, because turkey is, like, what kind of oven you use? Well, you could either put it, you could either just, I don't know what you put it at,

like $350 or whatever, Or you can put it on the grill. You don't know where you put it at? I mean, I'm one of those people that just kind of goes, like, just guesses with the whole baking thing. Okay. Just I bought it on the grill, too. You just put it on a piece of aluminum foil or whatever and put it on the grill. It's good.

I will say the idea of gravy on pizza is a little enticing. Do you put gravy on the pizza? I have not, but maybe I will. Do you put mashed potatoes on? I'm a full-on traditionalist, mostly when it comes to pizza. I like spicy salami or pepperoni and then, you know, just... Oh, yeah, traditionalist, traditionalist. We, you know, eat pizza on Thanksgiving, like a traditionalist.

Fair, fair. On that note, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone listening. Definitely have a wonderful pizza on Thursday, Danny. I will. We will see you guys next week. Happy holiday. The Kavo Control Center is the first truly universal TV remote control for your entire home theater. Connect up to four devices and centralize all your content in one place so you can

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