Week 15 Lineup Advice: Starts, Sits, Player Debates, and TD Calls (Ep. 1893)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm
Ryan Warmley, joined as I am every Thursday by Pat fitz
Morris and by Jake Sealey from The Athletic. We are
into the Fantasy playoffs, guys. We have made it just
three weeks left for pretty much every league out there.
We are here into the first round of the postseason.
Quicker minder just for everybody. All of our twenty twenty

(00:20):
five consensus rankings and tiers can be found at fantasypros
dot com slash rankings fits. How is your I hate
to use the red portfolio, but your portfolio looking you know,
throughout this year? How many leagues were you in that
you made the playoffs in? How many buys did you get?
What's your kind of overall landscape looking like going into
the playoffs here?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, so I have what I consider to be five
home leagues, and I was a perfect five for five
in those and have four buys in the home league,
so that was really good. And then in the analyst leagues,
it's more of a mixed, more of a representative sample
where I've made the playoffs and probably what forty to

(01:02):
fifty percent and yeah, I'm playing in a number, an
annoying number of consolation brackets, the leagues where you don't
make it. Like it seems like I'm in way too
many leagues that have consolation brackets, and I think they're
completely stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
How do you guys feel about them?

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Very anti?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I it's just it's a relic from a time when
people had typically one fantasy team and like, oh, yeah,
we got to make sure people get their fill and
play sixteen or seventeen weeks. Like I don't care, man,
maybe like ten percent of my teams that don't make
the playoffs, like I want to keep playing, and you know,
feel like I was jobbed and want to like beat

(01:42):
up on people a few more weeks. But most of
the time, it's just like, put me out of my misery, man,
I don't want to keep setting this lineup with this roster.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
If it's like if it's like dynasty related, like it
has to do with how you get you do rookie picks,
like it wouldn't be the way I did it. But
I'm more okay with that. But yeah, like a regular
redraftly I'm like, yeah, I'm in so many other leagues.
Let me just focus on the ones that actually matter
at this point. So I'm with you. I made the
playoffs and I think it was eleven out of my

(02:11):
fourteen leagues, and I had four buys. It was one
of my stronger years in a while. That's a higher
percentage obviously than I would usually get, but it was
a strong year on my Ironically, one of the three
leagues I did not make the playoffs and I had
I think it was like the third most points scored
that year out of twelve teams, and I just had
horrible luck and did not make the postseason. So that

(02:31):
one was with frustrating and not get there. What about you, Jake, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
I would say.

Speaker 5 (02:37):
Fifty ish percent.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
I'm trying, like I was looking at all the top
of my head. I was too busy looking up the
fact that Fitz needs to chase down Matthew Berry and
best ball the Flex League. He's back by one hundred
and twenty. Fifth is always in contention of that one.
That one I'm third to last. I started that draft.
By the way, this industry league with fits in it.
I started that draft. The mom Ron Saint Brown, Brian Thomas,
Terry McLaurin, Kenneth Walker, and I don't even care what

(03:01):
the rest of the draft was. I was like, man,
this is gonna be great. No, I'm third to last.
They could not have gone worse, but the one my
home league. I have a bye most of my home leagues.
I'm with you guys on the whole situation. If you're
looking at consolation.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
I get it.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
And then people want to give out worst place or
penalties or whatever it might be. That just make that
off the regular season, because I don't get the Constellation bracket,
so if you win it, you get the penalty or
and then you try to lose.

Speaker 5 (03:27):
It to win it the only losers.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
It's just it's kind of like convoluted. So just last
place in the regular season, which, by the way, i'll
say the most frustrating one.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
I'll give you.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Guys this and everybody can skip past this and be like,
I don't care about your leags because nobody cares about
our leagues. The stack leagues, which is an industry. One
that was for charity. Uh, the worst, worst, worst, worst
luck you've ever seen. I traded for Travis Hunter of
the week that he went on the ir for the
rest of the year. I traded for Garrett Wilson and
Nico Collins. The weeks, both of them got hurt. Wilson
gone for the year, Nico Collins gone with the concussion

(04:00):
when he came back. But that's just a small sample.
My luck was so bad. They donated to my charity.
They're like, you know what, we're just giving to it.
And I fought my blank off and I finished basically
a tie break out of the playoffs, and I was
so frustrated, like, yeah, I'm like and that. So I
missed the playoffs, but it's the one that I'm the

(04:21):
most proud in because I should have been in last place.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
I know people will skip past this, which is totally fine,
but I do think it's nice to have a little accountability,
like as people who do this professionally, and just to
kind of share how our years actually went and you know,
putting our money where our mouth is by like fits
the one I was going to ask that I forgot.
Are you still in scott Fish Bowl or no? No?

Speaker 2 (04:41):
I made the playoffs and I was bounced after one week.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
I was like two points short of the cutoff.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
But I did not have a good team, and my
record was way better than my actual team, and I
was probably lucky just to be in the playoffs. How
many weeks did you survive?

Speaker 1 (04:55):
I'm still in it. I'm in the quarterfinals. Yeah, and
I've been pushing true despite Drake London not playing for
any of these playoff games for me, and I keep
waiting for him to come back. Obviously he's not coming
back this week and trying to survive.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
With that of sure period. Yeah, Scott Fish like, I
love him, but I always feel like his least like
you need a supercomputer to figure out how this works,
especially at this point of the season.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I've always yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna gret
draft players I like and then see how I do.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
Like, he's probably the most honest dude in the entire industry,
but if like he was Jerry rigging the playoffs, you
would never know, Like you just be like, sure, cool
whatever I got bounced.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, so well we'll see how this goes for me.
So any of the quarter finals there, let's go into
the show. This is our starts and six show. We
also talked some waiver ads off the weave a Wire
this week and are we interested in starting them here
in the Fantasy playoffs, I mean, kind of more pressure
on that than usual. And then we'll wrap up with
our touchdown calls. As always, let's start with those starting

(05:57):
or sitting popular waiver ads. The number one guy I
wanted to talk to you guys about, and I'll start
with you, Fitz, because I know this is a player
that you really liked, you know, as a rookie coming
into the league and is now getting some more opportunity
here to shine. It's Blake Koram running back for the Rams,
obviously coming off a very big game, even with Kien
Williams playing, He's coming off a very big game. This
offense has been humming outside of that Panthers game. So

(06:18):
is Korum somebody that if you picked him up off
waivers this week, even with Kien healthy, you'd be interested
in or potentially interested in starting here in the fantasy playoffs.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Blake korm is good, and he plays in one of
the best offenses in the league, but I do think
he's probably more of a desperation starter than someone you
would want to proactively start this week. The last two
weeks have been great for him. Nineteen carries for two
hundred and nine yards and three touchdowns. Just routinely averaging
eleven yards per carry and scoring touchdowns on sixteen percent

(06:49):
of your carries not bad. And pulling something like that
off for a third straight week, that would be some
real Christmas magic, especially in a pretty tough match against
the Lions. The last two weeks it was the Cardinals
and the Panthers, neither of whom have been especially good
against the run. So yeah, it's gonna be harder for
Blake Korm to turn seven to twelve carries into double

(07:13):
digit fantasy points against Detroit, who's given up the ninth
fewest rushing yards to running backs and have only allowed
six touchdown runs to running backs this season. So Korm's
usage has been really predictable. Plays right around a third
of the Rams offensive snaps gets somewhere from seven to
thirteen carries a game. That's been pretty much clockwork since

(07:33):
about Week seven, and you know it worked the last
couple of weeks. I wouldn't keep betting on that usage
to pay off in a tougher matchup, Jake, what do
you think?

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
I don't have much left fist covered at all. I will
say this, one of the things I noticed in this
is that the Lions have given up as many single
digit performances to any running back on the roster that
they faced versus double digits. So to have two in
the same game potentially let alone one is a tough
As Fits brought up, it's one of the tougher matchups,
So I want to be bank on it. Either those

(08:05):
last two weeks, as Fitz said, over ten yards per carry,
actually more like twelve, Like they really think that's gonna happen,
Like is he turning into Devin h Chan at.

Speaker 5 (08:13):
This point from two years ago? So I'm with Fi.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
It's just tough to gamble on somebody only getting seven
to ten touches and having that kind of explosiveness in
this game specifically, maybe if it was the Saints again, sure,
or the Cardinals as you said, but I'm with him.
I have him as a like an RB three fringe play.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Well, speaking of a Chan, Jake the next player on
this list, and this is you know, going through kind
of in my most popular waiver pickups order Jalen Wright
and obviously coming off of a very good game that
Devon ah Chan you know, didn't finish. Clearly, this is
one where if a Chan is playing, You're you're not
going to be nearly as interested in right, we won't
know it till you know, Monday night unless they announced earlier,

(08:54):
but that's when the game is played on a chance.
So is Jalen right somebody that assuming? Like like if
Achan not on the field, I don't even want to
say assuming, but if he's not in the field, is
right somebody you're interested in?

Speaker 5 (09:04):
Interested in the degree of likely?

Speaker 4 (09:06):
You said, So we want to know on Sunday before
you have to make all these decisions because your backup
planning this game is what if Devin eighth Like, if
you're waiting for Wright and eighth Chan plays, who do
you turn to? Like?

Speaker 5 (09:17):
Is it gain Well?

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Like?

Speaker 5 (09:18):
So that's why you want to make sure.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
So I'll say that, like, if we knew a Chan
comes Saturday or before Sunday one pm kickoff, then I
would say right would probably be in the RB two range.
But for me, I trust Hampton in a second game back,
even though the split went to Viidel. But again, the
first game back, I think part of that was the
kind of range. And I bring that up to say,
like I have Hampton as a low end RB two
So he's probably fallen that range because I do think

(09:41):
we finally got what everybody wanted Jalen Wright to be
since he was drafted the number two option. But do
we really one hundred percent trust that's going to be
the case if there is no David Chan I think
we expect it.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
But what if this is a fifty to fifty split.
What if this is back to.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
The most days where Ali guard Gordon is the moster
and it's a full on fifty to fifty split, and
then Right doesn't do much with his first couple touches
and they start to lean to Gordon Moore. I'm just saying,
there's all those scenarios there, and the Steelers' run defense
has been playing better of late, so it's not just
a smash matchup.

Speaker 5 (10:14):
So a lot of factors in there.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
But he probably be in that fringe RB two conversation
for me because there is risk and voult fits.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
What do you think, Yeah, obviously not if eh Chen
is deemed okay and we know he's going to play.
I was trying to think of where I would put
because right now I'm ranking it as if Chen is
going to play, I think I would have Jalen Wright
in sort of the Tony Pollard Kareem Hunt Districts, which
is like mid range RB three, right around RB thirty

(10:43):
because mainly because of what Jake says, like, I don't
trust that it would be the Jalen Wright show like
it was last week. And up until last week, I
had kind of dismissed Jalen Wright as just being bad,
like immediately got his job taken over. And I know
he was hurt to begin the year, and that's part
of the reason why Oli Gordon was sort of able
to pass him on the depth chart. But really there'd

(11:04):
been no evidence to this point that Jalen Wright was
any good. And I know there were people coming out
of college who I forget who made the comment like
that he runs like he has a blindfold on or
something like that. But I mean, last last week sort
of rekindled interest in Jalen Wrights. I just don't know

(11:25):
if I want to ride that into the Fantasy playoffs,
even if a Chan is out.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
One more running back here, Bam Knight obviously Trey Benson,
you know, not that we he had looked close to
coming back, but he's officially out for the rest of
the season for the Cardinals, they get this tough matchup
fits against the Texans defense night. He's ranked in a
similar range to Blake Quorum in the consensus rankings. Do
you see it similarly where you're kind of like maybe
in a pinch but not trying to start him.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, I would really be not trying to start him.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
He's running back thirty eight for me, and he's the
one aid of Michael Carter's one B.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
But it's pretty close to fifty to fifty.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
And like, it's just that the matchup against the Texans
is so unappealing to me. Houston has given up the
fourth fewest rushing yards to running backs. They've only allowed
three point eight yards per carry to running backs. The
Cardinals play the Falcons in Week sixteen. I think Bam
Knight will be flexworthy for that game. I just don't
think he's flexworthy this week against Houston.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Jake.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yeah. So one of the things to go further with
that about Texans how bad it is is when they
have given up fantasy points, it's been at the goal line.
So do you think Bam can push one in there?

Speaker 5 (12:35):
Maybe?

Speaker 4 (12:36):
Because the other side of it is the big games
that you've ever seen has been explosive players. Bam Knight's
kind of kind of explosive. But I think factor both
of those in and knowing who bam Knight is, Like,
I want to ask, fist, why do you love bam Knight?

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Just as a joke.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I'm at forty two, Like this is my I have
him behind Zach Sharbonne in a time share, him behind
Videll in a time share game all the time share.
Like this is my way of saying I do not
want to hinge my fantasy playoffs on bad night.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
The other thing I didn't even mention is that the
Cardinals starting left tackle Paris Johnson is going to be
out for this game. I just I think I would
not be surprised at all if the Cardinals scored.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
That's funny said that.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Because I saw the news, in my mind immediately went
to Paris Campbell.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
I was like, wait, I thought.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
He was I saw the Johnson because I just saw
Paris and like, I was a Paris Campbell.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
The guy who fantasy managers have given more second chances
than probably any other in no, no more than Chris
Kristen Michael is the king of good point or Josh
Gordon too, who, like you know, everyone well, at least
he had drafting season eight years after his last no, the.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
One for the Packers.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Who is the one for the receiver for the Packers
that everybody tried to keep giving another opportunity, another opportunity,
another opportunity for he had like one huge game and
then oh, Jeff janis there you go? Jeff janis the
Davis Maytech.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Love Davis Mannick did love him.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
All right, let's go to plant your flag section here, Jake.
We'll start with you. Who are you planting your flag
on here?

Speaker 4 (14:11):
In week fifteen, Yeah, Fitz and I talked about this
on my podcast, which was a great, great guest this week.
I don't know if you heard. This guy's pretty good.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
But yeah, I'm going to.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
Go to Christian Watson here, and mostly because I want
to admit and I'm going to say this right now,
the risk is like a four, like because we know this,
but Christian Watson not only what he's been doing since
he's been healthy with the Packers, since he's come back,
but the second part and we kind of touched on
it last week. We did fits and eye on the podcast.
As I kept saying Jayden Reed when he comes back.
The biggest thing about Jaden Reed is they've they've been

(14:42):
without Tucker Craft and nobody's been filling that void, like
Romeo Dobbs is still just Romeo Dobs Like they really
needed a Tucker Craft what he brings to the offense.
And Jayda Ree has stepped in and not only looked
like Jaden Reid, but he was filling that void of
like and I say void especially I'm doing this with
my hands. It's like that intermediate field to open things
up even more for players, even Dobbs downfield, which has
been things. So I know people are looking at Cirtan

(15:04):
and worried about that, and I know the rest of
the defense is also really good, but Cirtan's not one
hundred percent of travel. And then the one thing that
we already knew since he came out of college and
to this day about Cirtan, it doesn't always happen, but
big wide receivers with speed is the one thing he
can sometimes struggle with because he jams, and he jams greatly,
but like, if you get those hands and get past them,

(15:26):
big play opportunity to downfield, and it's happened. Al Pierce
did it against him, and I try to remember the
other one. Terry McLaurin scored a touchdown, but that wasn't
a big play.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
But all that being said, he can get beat.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
So I have Christian Watson inside my top twenty four
wide receivers and that's telling you I'm plugging in my lineups.
I admit the risk is a four, but Christian Watson
is strongly ahead of consensus because I think people are
worried about the matchup. But I'm okay trusting him to
this point and trusting him in my playoffs.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Fitz, what do you think about Watson.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
As a Packer?

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Fantom excited that Jake has guaranteed that Christian Watson is
going to torchatricks are changing, No, I mean yeah, It's
part of it is whether the Packers are going to
be able to hold off Nick Benito and friends with
the Denver pass rush to give Watson the time he

(16:16):
needs to break open on those deeper routes that he runs,
because there have a very deep average depth of target.
But the Packers offensive line, which has been at times
really shaky this season, has looked really good the last
couple of weeks against the Lions at Bears, so you
know there there is room for optimism here. And the
nice thing about Watson is like you normally only need

(16:38):
one or two big plays out of him to make
your day for fantasy. So I'm excited about Jake's optimism.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, Jake says he's, you know, ahead of consensus. So
some of these names around consensus for you fits, I
want to ask Christian Watson because we're not talking about
any of these names coming up later in the show.
Christian Watson or Lad McConkie and Mecha Buca, Juwan Jennings,
can Metcalf. These are the names that are kind of
sandwiching him. Would he be ahead of those guys for
you or it's kind of, you know, mix a match
depending on the player.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
He is.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Just behind all of those guys for me, but like
they're basically in the same tier. So yeah, and I
can't say I'm I'm wildly enthusiastic about any of those
guys either right now. Like I've got Abuka one spot
ahead of Watson, and he's been getting consistently more targets
than Watson. But while Watson has been really cashing in

(17:32):
on his targets. Abuka has not at all lately, so
maybe I need to rethink that one.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Well, so Warm's not here next week, so you can't
laugh at me, but Fits Pipe, but I'll tell you
I have Watson in front of all those, and I'll
give you one more, including justin Jefferson behind them.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Okay, yeah, Jefferson a still doing Jefferson Mike why, I
mean he's like people, Oh, okay, we'll save it. Yeah
we do. We have about here later. And I'm curious
to hear you go go harder on this, but like
it's one of those are It's like like similar to
like Buca actually, and that's what we did. We did

(18:08):
Jefferson versus Buka last week, but like it was a
lot of like we're not seeing it happen, and yet
they're still getting ranked inside the top, you know, fifteen
or so. You know, Jefferson is why does you were
fourteen this week? You know, like people are still he's
being ranked in an area a lot, don't let's start
but yeah, we'll get to that one later. Fits, who
are you planting your flag on?

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Stefan Diggs? And the revenge game narrative does get overdone?
But I do think a game against the Bills means
a little more to Stefan. Diggs already had a game
against his former team in Week five. Digs lit up
the Bills for ten catches and one hundred and forty
six yards, both season highs, and now he's coming off
two pretty quiet games. Two catches for twenty yards against

(18:51):
the Bengals, three for twenty six against the Giants. I
think this is a get right spot for Diggs.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Jake, what do you think about that?

Speaker 5 (18:59):
I'm good with it.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
I know I figured he was going to bring up
the first matchup too, but like this is the one
opportunity still where the Bills have also been vulnerable and
this kind of this kind of wide receiver. And I
know there's a lot of people like narrative wise coming
off two bad games, like they're gonna make it a
thing for step Now. I'm just what with Fits brought
up is that there's other narratives, including a game that
like Diggs wants to show off, but like it's also

(19:21):
about the matchup itself.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
So I'm with him.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
I have Digs inside of my top twenty four, actually
have Digs in front of Jefferson as well.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Okay, I was gonna ask that's that's an interesting one.
I was gonna ask Diggs or Watson for you or
you much higher on Watson, Jake.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
I have him almost back to back, have I have
I go Digs, DK Watson, and DK's contingent on like
I want him one hundred percent, like a DKA at
less than one hundred percent, and he's fallen back. And
I obviously that always has to do with the fact
that the matchup should help too.

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Speaker 1 (21:10):
Let's get into the start hit player debates here. First
player debate at running back Brice Hall or Ashton Genty.
Obviously two names that if you drafted these guys, I
think you probably expected to be very clearly starting them
here in the fantasy playoffs, but it's maybe not so
obvious just giving all the circumstances going around them and
how they've been producing here. So I'll start with you, Jake,

(21:32):
Brice Hall or Ashton Genty? Who would you rather start?

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Can I take a pass? Like, I just know I
hate this matchup for Genty and just especially with Kenny Pickett, Like,
I don't know what's going to happen here, but I
will give brace Hall the slight edge unless it's Brady Cooked.
You might get me to argue back to Genty just
because of how bad at look ones Cook came into
that game. It sounds like Justin Fields is not going
to be factored in mispractice with the knee injury, and

(21:57):
for a lot of people that are saying, oh, he
didn't even want to take a touch in that game.
He was out for that game like that, It's like
the knee issue was like apparently bigger than we think,
and maybe he's milking it, maybe he's just mad or whatever.
By the point being is, I don't know that we
get fields. If we get Taylor, it's one hundred percent presoul.
If it's no tailor, then I probably give gjenty the
slight lead. Even with Kenny Pickett revenge game.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
Kenny Pickett, you never know.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
They are. They are back to back in ECR. By
the way, Ashton gent RB nineteen. This is in half
PPR scoring RB nineteen for gent Fits and RB twenty
for Bresol.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, did you know Ryan Wormley that Ashton genty has
averaged three point five yards per carry or worse for
eight straight games dating back to October twelfth.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
And I didn't know that, but I might have guessed
something near that. It's been quite poor.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
Three point five yards per carry, that's pretty bad.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Over his last seven games, Gente's high water mark in
rushing yardage for a single game is sixty yards, and
he has had games with thirty one, thirty, twenty one,
and seven rushing yards. And Genty has one touchdown run
over his last seven games. None of this is Genty's fault.
Of course, the Raiders offensive line is terrible. Certainly didn't

(23:13):
help that they lost Colton Miller and Oh Jackson powers jeez,
I almost said Austin powers Johnson. Jackson powers Johnson to injuries.
So at least though Genty has been productive as a
pass catcher. He's averaged five catches over his last six games,
twenty eight point eight receiving yards, couple of touchdown catches,

(23:35):
so he is sort of raising his floor with his
work in the passing game. He's doing more as a
pass catcher than Hall has, but the Jets running game
has at least been functional with a far better offensive
line than the Raiders have. So Hall is running back
thirteen and a half point PPR Fantasy points per game
since Week eight. Tough matchups for both guys, As Jake said,

(23:59):
Genty getting the Eagles on the road with Kenny Pickett
a quarterback, and you know, not an easy matchup for
Hall either, facing the Jaguars and Jacksonville, one of the
better run defenses in the league. I like Haul a
little more this week, but I suspect that Jake and
I are going to be in the minority of rankers
with this opinion because Gent seems like sort of a
sacred cow in ECR, like he's always getting ranked higher

(24:22):
than he should be, and I admit I've been guilty
of that too.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
We need a spider man Gent pointing at Jefferson meme,
that's what we need.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yes, yes, yeah, genty to your point fits about the
yards per carry, He's only been over at four or
higher twice all season, like, not even just his last
you know, eight games like you were saying. It was
weeks four and five he was six point six yards
per attempt and four point eight yards per attempt. Every
other game this season he has been three point nine
or lower. He has eight touchdowns in his thirteen games,

(24:53):
which has, you know, helped give him something of a
floor with some of those receiving touchdowns. By the way,
before you ask, Jake, I don't know if this is a
surprise you or not. I've never seen an Austin Powers movie, so.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
Uh, I'll at least give you the pass and the
fact like your age.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Also, if you're I like Debro, you will give me
a pass. Deebro never gives me a pass on listen.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
No, But I mean if you're if you have something
to do in the off season, and you enjoy a
spoof on double oh seven movies at all, then like
you need.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
To watch I like James Bond movies. I like parodies.
It would make sense. I just haven't gotten around to it,
so I'll uh, I'll play it on the list. Here.
Let's go to another running back debate. Guys, how about
Amary and Hampton? You kind of mentioned earlier Jake or
DeAndre Swift A couple of guys who have other options
in their respective backfields. Hampton, obviously coming off of his
first game returning in however many weeks, it was you know,

(25:45):
and and luked okay. I mean he looks really bad
in pass protection, but he ran okay at times. He
obviously caught the touchdown. And then DeAndre Swift has continued
to be you know him and him and Nung guy
in the backfield together. So between Hampton and Swift, I'll
start with you on this one. Fits, who do you better?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Swift?

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Kamani Vedell played more than twice as many snaps as
O'maron Hampton in the Chargers Monday night went over the Eagles. Yes,
it was Hampton's first game back from injury and the
scales are going to start tipping back toward Hampton. I
think we all believe that, but we probably still have
to consider this a split backfield for now. And oh,
by the way, the Chargers offensive line is terrible, so

(26:23):
kind of for the same reason I'm not really excited
about starting Ashton Genty, I'm not terribly excited to start
either Charger running back this week. The Bears also have
the split backfield, but they might have the best run
blocking offensive line in the league. Like they're averaging one
hundred and seventy nine rushing yards a game over their
last eight games. It's going to be bitterly cold here

(26:46):
in Chicago on Sunday. I think they said the wind
chill is going to be sub zero, air temperature of
like ten or eleven degrees. Conditions are probably going to
favor a run heavy approach. I would rather start DeAndre
Swift against the Browns, who's run defense mostly good this season,
although they somehow managed to make Tony Pollard look like
the head up last week. Yeah, look up, Earl Campbell

(27:08):
worm he was really good. And so yeah, I'd much
rather play Swift than Hampton in a pretty tough matchup
against the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
I'm familiar with Earl Campbell really good. I yeah, I
was gonna ask what you thought of the matchups, because like,
on paper, not either is good. But but you know,
the Browns were just torched by Tony Pollard last week, Like,
does that change your opinion fits at all in evaluating
the Bears backfield or are you looking at that as
like just one of the most surprising performances of the

(27:38):
season and you don't want to take anything from it.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
I mean, the Browns were really, really tough against the
run in the early weeks of the season, and I
think they've been just kind of average against the run
since then.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
We and you know, we talked about I had conversations
with Ericson earlier in the year, looking way ahead to
right now the fantasy playoff schedule, talking about certain teams,
and whenever the Browns came up, I would try to
make the point that defense is a lot about effort.
Run defense is a lot about effort at times, and
if your team is getting beat down all season because
the offense is terrible, it doesn't matter how good that

(28:08):
defense is, Like eventually that effort typically starts to wane
when you get to December, and maybe it wouldn't look
so scary by the time we got to this point.
So I'm not saying that'll be how it plays out
the next month, but somebody keep in mind Jake Hampton
is ranked ahead of Swift by just two spots in ECR.
It's RB twenty five and RB twenty seven, respectively. Who
do you like better?

Speaker 4 (28:28):
I think it's pretty much a toss up because I
have him back to back. So I'm going to say
if you want to go either way, but I will
tell you one that also helps with fits and saying
that Swift could be the call here And this was
from my ride up this week. So I went since
Week eight, basically the turn of the season, like now
looking at the second half of the season, because if
we look over the course of the full season, we
know defenses changed, injuries, blah blah blah blah. So that's

(28:48):
kind of the point that I picked from. But the
Browns are only second to the Raiders and run stuff percentage,
so that's the worry part of it. I will say
that they're twenty five point seven percent of the time,
the Raiders are twenty seven point one. That defense continues
to be good. But here's the flip side of it.
Since then running backs with at least twenty touches, Swift
third lowest and stuffed five point five percent. Because of

(29:09):
his ability he gets away from it. The interesting part
about it, there's two lower that might surprise a lot
of people on both of them. One is Keaton Mitchell
at five percent. But then, do you guys want you
get one guess, one guest since week eight who has
a zero point zero stuffed percentage at running back?

Speaker 1 (29:28):
I'm not sure I have a guest fits.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
What do you think he's in a time share?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
In a time I'll say Kenneth Gainwell.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Cuba Hubbard hasn't been stuffs would not have gotten time
since then.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
But anyway, to the point, Swift's ability to.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Get away from it is why I'm not that concerned
about the matchup. To also help my entire point is
helping Fitz's argument with Swift.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
So what would you do if if if you had
this call Jake in one of your playoff games, Swift
versus I.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
Gotta so so I have them back to back, I'm
gonna let my projections make the decision, honestly, but I
will say this who's likely Ian. I don't know, because
I do mine. I do it on Thursday. I will
say this, I will say, no matter what the projections say,
I would actually call swift, swift the safer play. If
I needed the ceiling and maybe they're just give Hampton
eighteen of the touches and push Fidel completely aside, then

(30:21):
I would risk that because it's a risk, especially with
that offensive line.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
It does seem like the Chargers are going to want
to be run heavier the rest of the season.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
We saw it on Monday night. That line just cannot.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
Protect I can't do any Herbert.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, it's a terrible So unless they want to get
Justin Herbert killed, like, they need to be really run
heavy the rest.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Of the way.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah, yeah, all right. Let's go to some wide receiver
debates here. How about the aforementioned Stefan Diggs or Jacoby Myers. Jake,
I'll start with you on this one. Would you rather
start Diggs or Myers this week?

Speaker 4 (30:51):
This is what I usually say, Like, I don't like you.
I like both of this situation, Like Jacoby Myers Peppiest said,
has been touchdown reliant. So I think that if you
look at the two of them. Brian Thomas last week
finally looked good. Speaking of looking good, Jane Reed looking good.
We hope Mike Evans. By the time people are watching this,
they've probably already seen Mike Evans. We hope these wide
receivers look good coming back. But Brian Thomas looked good

(31:13):
enough to say, like, maybe there's a little slight concern
with Jacoby Myers. And it's the Jets, so assumably it's
the Jaguars. We assume that it will be a lot
of travis et and they don't need to pass a time, so.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
I have, but there's another one you pick.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
You keep picking my back to back guys, so the
slight lean to Digs for a ceiling. But Jacoby Myers,
I would want to get both of it. Like again,
I'd put both of them in my lineup before I
put Justin Jefferson in my lineup. I mean, you're not
gonna have any questions left by the time I get
to Justin Jefferson.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, I'll run out of players to ask about fits.
What do you think? Obviously Diggs is a guy that
you know, you like you're planting your flag on him,
But I know you have liked Jacoby Myers too, So
who do you like better this week? And by the way,
in ECR it is Myers at wide receiver nineteen and
Stefan Diggs at wide receiver twenty one.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, so I've got Myers at wide receiver nineteen also,
but I've Diggs a wide receiver fifteen. He is my
flag plank guy. It's great how well Jacoby Myers has
fit in with the Jaguars. It has been a little
touchdown dependent, which is funny that we're saying that in
connection with Jacoby Myers, the guy who used to be
incapable of scoring touchdowns back in his Patriots days.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
But yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Think if you are considering benching either of these guys
for your playoff matchup, you have a really really good team.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, And I think Meyers is interesting because it's very
possible that he was a depth pickup right like, and
at this point you might have been starting him. But
if you have like a lot of really good players
that you drafted early, like he was taken in a
range where he could easily have you would have expected
him to be you know, your wife thore five or whatever,
and you might have to make a decision like this,

(32:47):
even though they're both ranked inside the top twenty one
in ECR. So that's how those guys see it. Let's
go to Terry McLaurin or Wandale Robinson. We haven't really
talked about McLaurin on the show because he missed so
much time and obviously his quarterback has missed times. Just
hasn't been a name that's come up for a variety
of reasons. Wandale has come up before. These guys are
also back to back Jake eight ECR. Terry McLaurin is

(33:09):
wide receiver sixteen, Wandale is wide receiver seventeen in ECR.
Playing against each other's teams in this game, who do
you prefer?

Speaker 5 (33:17):
Terry McLaurin.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
This one I actually feel strongly about, and it goes
back to what I would have done the same thing
last week. I didn't know the commanders were going to
be malpractice and putting Jay and Daniels out there when
he fell on his arm and left the game like
he wasn't even tackled or falling on. He just fell
on his arm as he got pushed down, and that's it.
That's all it took. But I'm going to Terry McLaurin
because Marcus Mariota did the same thing I expect Daniels

(33:40):
to do is now that McLaurin is one hundred percent,
is to treat him like what we know McLaurin is.
And he's going against the Giants secondary. If you can
give me wide receivers against the Giants secondary, a lot
of times are going to pick them. And I like
Wondel Robinson and we hope this can be a shootout.
But the one thing about Jackson Dart is he continues
to be low passing volume, low passing yards.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
A lot of times.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
It involves Wandel Robinson admittedly, but if you look at it,
more games under one hundred yards than two hundred plus yards,
and that two hundred plus yards to even say like, well,
when he got injured, that was one of the games
he threw for two hundred yards is when he got
injured in that game against the Bears. So I'm just saying, like,
when you talk about the volume between the two of them,
I'm going to take the Marcus Mariotta volume against the
Giants versus the Jackson Dart one another one where I

(34:21):
like both, But this is the biggest gap we have
so far. I have Terry McLaurin inside my top fifteen.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Okay, fits, do you see this is closer? Do you
also have a gap here?

Speaker 2 (34:30):
No, I see it as close, and I've actually got
Wandale ranked a little higher. Jake makes some really good
points for McLaurin. I might have to reconsider my ranking
with him.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
I just feel, hey, you've been killing wide receivers this year,
so I'm more likely to come to your side and
the other way around.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, I mean what I looked at with this was
just sort of the target volume, and obviously McLaurin with
all the time he's missed, like, we can't get a
really good read there, although Mariotas certainly peppered him the
last time we saw Mariota and McLaurin played together. I
think fourteen targets for scary Terry, but Wandale, I just
feel like the target volume is very secure. He's averaging

(35:08):
eight point five targets a game this season, ten point
six over his last five games, with no fewer than
eight targets in any game over that span, So the
usage has just been really steady for Wandell. I guess
that's why I've got him ranked a smidge higher. But
you know this is this is a start sit decision.
If I had this one, I would be agonizing over

(35:31):
right up until kickoff on Sunday.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
I think this is for you, Fis.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
I think this comes down to more of my love
of McLaurin versus my hate for Wandell.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
To be clear, Yeah, I mean I used to be
sort of anti Wandal too. He's finally won me over.
I used to be like, Okay, why why do people
give this guy snaps? But I know, just the fact
that he was able to make Russell Wilson look good
earlier this season, I guess was kind of what won me.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Also, would you, Jake, are either of these two or
Michael Wilson who has been awesome, But like, I'm terrified
of this matchup against Houston, Like I am just fading
very heavily everybody in this passing game besides Trey McBride.
Do you see it that way? Or would you just say,
like he's been so good, you have to start him
over either a McLaurin or a Wandelle.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
So like it is one and it's a terrifying matchup.
That's been brought up a lot, and I will say
that I would still go McLaurin, but then I go
Michael Wilson, then Wandell. They're all kind of in a
similar range, but that's the order I would go in,
mostly because that even as bad as this is, and
I know they just made Patrick Mahomes look miserable, but
we still know Bersett's throwing at forty plus times and

(36:41):
the Texans have given up twenty plus completions, which isn't
a huge number. But when we know that fifty percent
of that's gonna be actually probably eighty percent. I was
gonna say fifty percent was probably Wilson. We'll say eighty
percents Wilson to McBride in this single game, then you
can still get six seven completions out of it.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
To Michael Wilson, do you feel the same fits.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, I have these three guys grouped together, This would
be a really difficult decision.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Same thing. I mean, we we can.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
I guess here's one that's not in the list. Go ahead,
no Lave or Michael Wilson.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's a lave for me, Okay, a.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Lave an ECR is actually so it's Terry McLaurin at
wide receiver sixteen, Wan Dale at wide receiver seventeen, A
Lave's wide receiver fifteen, So he's right, yeah, on the
other side of I So were.

Speaker 5 (37:33):
You thinking about that?

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Because you smirked when I asked that we were thinking
about putting a lovey in the list?

Speaker 1 (37:37):
There, I did. I did consider a LAVE. Yeah I did.
I did. I usually look at your guys's the rankings
before doing this, and then this week I did, and
I just put it together myself. So I was wondering
how it was going to come out in terms of, like,
are you guys going to think these are close? It
is just going to be like, what these are stupid questions?
These are super easy. So I'm glad that there's been
some disagreement here with these, But yeah, I did consider
a LAVE two. All right, let's get to some rapid

(38:00):
fire start sit decisions here. We'll go back to the
running backs. How about Zach Sharbonay or Kenneth Gainwell. Another
couple of kind of split backfields here. You know, Gainwell
obviously not playing till Monday night, but Sharbonay against the
Colts or gain Well against the Dolphins fits.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Close call, Sharbona buy, I knows you think that with
the Seahawks favored by thirteen and a half points at
home against the Colts, whose season is going up in smoke,
that it's going to be a real run friendly game
script for the Seahawks, who, as it is, are the
only NFL team that has had more running plays than
passing plays this year. So maybe both Zach Sharbona and

(38:35):
Kenneth Walker can eat for a change.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Yeah. We on the Predictions Show with Erickson earlier this week,
for anybody who missed it, one of my predictions was
that the Seattle defense was going to win matchups this week.
They're going to score over twenty points, was my prediction.
And we are supposed to come up with a prop
that goes along with our predictions. Normally it's related to
the player we picked. I didn't want to do like
a defensive prop, so my prop was also a sharbon
A in anytime touchdown because I just think they're going

(38:59):
to be up by so much that they're going to
be running the ball a lot. Charbonnage will get an
opportunity to score at least one.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Touchdown, promising they're going to score more points than they
scored against Max Brozmer and the Vikings a couple of
weeks ago when they hit thirty.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
I'm not going to promise that, but I wouldn't be
surprised if they challenge it is what I'll say. Yeah, Sharboney,
by the way, is RB forty an ECR game? Well,
RB thirty nine, So another two that are back to
back by consensus, Jake, who do you prefer?

Speaker 6 (39:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (39:26):
First of all, I will not stand for this Philip
River slander. I don't know what you guys can do.
I will say I am terrified this dude gets tackled
once and then disappears for the rest of the game,
like we need the Madden Kart to come out and
crash through players just to get to him, Like I
remember the Actually you probably don't get that reference, worm,
but ye, thank you. Another old man referenced there. I

(39:47):
will say it's close, but I'm kind of.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
With fits on this.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
With the sharbonnage, this split continues to be frustrating. Kenneth
Walker two weeks ago was doing well through the three
quarters and then didn't touch the ball in the fourth.

Speaker 5 (39:57):
That game was out of hand, but he was well.
It was not like amazing.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
And then last week we get back and forth and
we know that they play similar roles sharbona and game
well at the goal line, but who's likely to get
more touches overall? Whether or not Philip Rivers has a
good game in his first game back since forever, it's
still gonna be sharbon Ay, it's closed. But I agree
with Fitz Sharbonay.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
My favorite Philip Rivers' stat is that he went zero
and four lifetime against the Maryland Terrapins in college, so
my team was something he couldn't crack the code of
the Terps, so.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's story he states Maryland's rivalry exactly.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
I love the fact that, like I tweeted it out
because Jacob Robinson was asking me about Philip rivers return
Jacob at the Athletic and as he was doing it's like,
I can't believe he's this old and immediately made me
think about his oldest kid, and like, as the news broke,
I was like, by the way, his oldest child is
born in the same year and older than the quarterback
he's replacing in Riley Leonard. And then multiple people ended

(40:55):
up tweeting.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
Out the same thing.

Speaker 4 (40:57):
But that's the most insane stat to me, that his
old child is older than the quarterback that he's replacing.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
I think you like he's a grandfather, right, Like you
could even just say that, like there do you know
the other grandfather playing And there's only been two.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
Grandfathers quarterbacks to play in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
I don't know the other one Brett forv.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Oh really last the very last season they had the grandkid.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Oh interesting, Wow, Yeah, that's that's remarkable. All right, Speaking
of that Colts game, let's go to a wide receiver here,
Michael Pittman or Brian Thomas Junior. You know, this is
really just like a risk tolerance. I guess, Jake, like,
who are you willing to kind of stomach starting given
just everything they are again back to back in ECR.

(41:44):
Brian Thomas Junior wide receiver thirty Michael Pittman Junior is
wide receiver thirty one.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
I have a little bit bigger gap on that because
of the risk tolerance and then the whole I tweet
I actually talked about this with Fits too, is like
the assumption with Philip Rivers, you know, oh, he's going
to love his tight end and for his career, he's
been pretty league average targeting tight ends. He has some
peak seasons where he's hit like thirty percent and somewhere
he's only been fifteen percent because talent matters, and but

(42:11):
what does he have. He has one of the better
talents at tight end, and at this point he's always
had a decent It's like Derek carr Ish arm where
he will throw downfield, but his real strength is the
intermediate game. And now at forty four, do we really
think there's much of an arm left? So I'm bringing
that up to say is I do think that the
majority of his volume is probably going to be handing
it off to Jonathan Taylor, but also Tyler Warren and

(42:33):
even Josh downs to a bit where Alec Pearce might
get hurt and then Michael Pittman also might get hurt
a little bit. So the fact that Brian Thomas looked
healthy last week, I think that I'm going to lean
to Brian Thomas getting back Like if we knew Brian
Thomas was one hundred percent, we're having this conversation week one,
Brian Thomas was a wide receiver one, so I think
him getting back to that similar Terry McLaurin, but I
do have him as a wide receiver too, because it's

(42:55):
still the risk of this entire offense at Trevor Lawrence
not targeting Brian Thomas heavily. But I think we had
that same concern with Pittman, so I'll give Thomas the
edge fits.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
How do you see it?

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Same, BTJ?

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I thought he looked more like the twenty twenty four
Brian Thomas junior last week against the Colts, and now
he gets a friendly matchup with the Jets. I'm glad
Jake feels the same way because I think that Sir Thomas, oh.

Speaker 4 (43:16):
You can't see my football. It's BT seven, by the way.
That's how he signs his merchandise. So it's BT seven,
not BTJ, get it right, just BT seven.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
So yeah, I mean I think I'm.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Like three or four spots above ECR and putting him
at wide receiver twenty five. So good to hear you
of him in wide receiver twenty four range. Yeah, I
just I don't want to play Colts pass catchers this week.
Philip Rivers, great story. I love that he's coming back,
but the dude hasn't played football since twenty twenty and
now they're going to throw him out there against the Seahawks. Like,

(43:50):
I can't wait to see what this looks like, but
I do not want to stake my fantasy fortunes on
a quarterback who's been retired for five years going against
one of the best pass defenses in the league.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
And by the way, about that.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Tight end thing, Jake, it's like, yeah, Philip Rivers likes
his tight ends. Oh really, he thinks throwing Antonio Gates
is like plus tav Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
I mean, but that's shocker. That all gets overdone.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
And then you know someone, oh he hates his tight ends, Well, dude,
Tyler Conklin was his best tight end. So uh yeah,
it kind of depends on the personnel.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
And at Lamar Jackson has the highest mark of throwing
to the tight ends for the last twenty years. Oh,
by the way, it just happened to be when he
threw to Mark Andrews forty two percent of the time
that one year.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Shocker.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Like, so you gotta tell Fitz said, you got to
bring context into this.

Speaker 5 (44:35):
By the way, is this going to be.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
The most washed four pm game in like the entire season,
just because everybody's going to be tuning in to see
Philip Rivers.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
It will be the I bet it'll be the most
watched game with a thirteen and a half point spread
of the Yeah for sure.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
Yeah, Okay, then I guess will it beat Lions Rams?
It's the big question.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Packers Broncos is also the tennis and conference matters.

Speaker 5 (45:01):
That's a good point too.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
But it'll it'll, it'll have eyes on it for sure.
All right, let's get to some flexes. Kenneth Walker or
Justin Jefferson. Let's hear it, Jake Kenneth Walker.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
And I don't even want to pick Kenneth Walker because
every single week it's a split, Like I won't say
this despite what Justin Jefferson has been, which is a
big fat do do so most of the season basically
since he lost Carson Wentz, can like, just can we
do the one arm man, like to just throw him
out there Carson Wentz with one arm and get him
back for Justin Jefferson. But all that being said, Justin

(45:33):
Jefferson's done nothing. And the thing I was about to
say before, like I said, we'll save it if his
name was Justin McNichols, Like nobody would care. He would
be on waiver wire, he like, and he'd be waiver
wire forgotten at this point, Like that's how bad it's been.
But it's the issue of trying to get out of
our minds is like who we know? It's the Christian
Watson thing, Like we were so annoyed with him for

(45:53):
two years that nobody wanted to trust him because what
we know we know justin Jefferson. We know he's done
it with Nick Mullins and Carson Wentz, so why can't
he do it with JJ McCarthy And nobody wants to
have him on his bench, on his bench, on his
bench and watch him go off for twenty five points.
But it's not happening. It hasn't happened. Like we've made
that argument for how many weeks now, seven eight, So

(46:15):
I'm going with Kenna Walker unless I need a home
run play, and I think that's where Jefferson is now.
At this point, we've been waiting, waiting, waiting, arguing that
he should be on lineups similar to genty and he's
basically fallen into the you're gonna possibly get five. There's
still the Jefferson potential to get a twenty five. But
that's who he is now. So if you need the ceiling,
it's Jefferson, but if you need the safe play, it's

(46:36):
Kenneth Walker. Because also he's not even getting targeted twenty
percent of the time, under twenty percent, fourteen to fifteen
percent of the time, So it's not like it's not
the Abuca argument, it's he's just not even getting targets.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
Fits.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yeah, I'm totally with Jake Kenneth Walker again.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Run friendly gamescript coming for Seattle.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
I think, and I'm just I've decided I don't want
to go down with the Ted Tannic on Jefferson anymore.
I'm gonna be like the Billy Zay character, pushing my
way past the women and children as I had for
the lifeboats. The Jefferson wide receiver thirty three in Fantasy
points per game this season, Jefferson is in half point PPR,

(47:16):
but since Week ten wide receiver seventy four in Fantasy
points per game, trailing such luminaries as Xavier Lagett, Tim Patrick,
Andre Joseavash, Kenneth Walker.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
Please, I will say fits, you should as impassioned as
I was, that should have changed your opinion right like like,
I'm getting off this, this is gonna be Jefferson's gonna
finally blow up.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
I liked the I saw the meme that somebody put
out there. Forget who it was, but it was like
the Anakin talking to pad May and he's like, JJ
McCarthy finally had a great game against a terrible Commanders defense,
and Pad May is like, oh, so Justin Jefferson finally
bounced back right, and he just does listen there, like
Justin Jefferson bounced back right, and he's crazy that, Like,

(48:03):
JJ Filey has a good game and it's you know,
four targets, two catches, eleven yards for his best receiver.
So it just feels very.

Speaker 5 (48:11):
Very jokes aside.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
See, that's what we knew about McCarthy coming out of
college is he's not very anticipatory yet. So when you
have defenses spending that much attention on Jefferson, he has
to anticipate where Jefferson's going to be and when the
window is going to pop up, and he's not. He's
waiting and at that point he's just covered full on
coverage or he's thrown into the defender. So it's just

(48:33):
not there yet. McCarthy can get better, but it's just
not there yet.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Let's see another flex here. How about Kyle Manunguy or
Michael Wilson, who we talked about a little bit earlier. Fits.
I'll start with you on this one. Who would you
rather start here? Wilson against the Texans or Manungay against
the Browns.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
If Marvin Harrison Junior is out and he was not
practicing as a Wednesday, I'll take Wilson here. He's at eighteen,
fifteen and sixteen targets in the three games Marvin Harrison
Junior has missed, and he's had ten or more catches
and one hundred and eighteen or more yards in all
of them. Now, I don't expect those kind of numbers
against the Texans because that is one nasty defense. But

(49:10):
I'm willing to chase that sort of target volume, even
if it's into a burning building against this defense.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Jake, what do you think it's dark?

Speaker 4 (49:24):
I'm with you on this mostly because to go back
to my point about the stuff percentage is where Monang
guy has really been Also making his Hey is getting
those touchdowns too where they turn away from the swift
at the goal line. So it's kind of that similar
argument we had before we facing the Lions is like,
do you really want to take the quorum and hope
for the touchdown the second piece Monan guys look great
and he does get into space and he does have

(49:46):
that ability. But that's one of my point is they
also turned him at the goal line, so it's like, Eh,
does he get one in and if not, yeah, this
is a full on Wilson Like, even if he gets
the touchdown, it should probably be a very close score
between the two, but without it, it is probably gonna
be a huge gap. Even with the terrible matchup.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Let's go to another flex here, Cortland Sutton or Jalen
Warren Jake, who do you like? Batter Sutton or Warren?

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Oh, this is a tough one for me, so Courtland Sutton.
Since Week seven, one double digit score, it's been bad
and it's the part of it's the schedule, which is
includes this week, Like no team had a worse schedule
for wide receivers and also quarterbacks included including the past
two weeks and now the final three weeks. The Denver
Broncos have one of the worst and they just don't

(50:31):
need to go to Clurtland Sutton. But I will say
I skew a little bit towards Warren, but it's much
closer than it was last night now knowing Patrick Bryant
is out, So Pat Bryant is out for this game,
which puts Troy Franklin back into play.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
But the fact that you.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Just take one more piece away from bon Nicks and
he could scramble a ton in this game. It's not
a great matchup, as we all know, but it could
be a situation where maybe Sutton finds its way into
the end zone, and that's the one thing that Warren's
been lacking because they turned to Kenneth Gainwell.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
So it's close, but this is another one.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
Not to sound like I'm straddling the fence, but if
I just want to guarantee myself points, it is one
hundred Warren. If I need to shoot for that ceiling,
it's going to be sutt fits.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
I'm going to follow the Bob Harris rule of flex
decisions here, when in doubt, go with the running back
over the receiver. Yeah, not that I'm necessarily in doubt here.
I mean the Patrick Brian thing does close the gap
a little bit, but Warren has been one of the
most stable assets in fantasy this year. He hasn't had
a lot of really big games, but he hasn't laid

(51:32):
many eggs either. He's averaging twelve half point PPR Fantasy
points per game, which puts him at running back twenty
two in per game Fantasy scoring. His single game high
this season is seventeen point eight. His lowest total is
seven point three. Like, if that's your lowest total in
thirteen games, you're you're doing pretty well. That's a pretty
stable floor. So Sutton meanwhile, has had three games this

(51:53):
season where he's finished with fewer than four Fantasy points.
He's kind of been all over the place and not
an easy match with the Packers this week.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
One more flex here, Tony Pollard coming off of this shocking,
insane game, or Jordan Addison. We just talked about his
teammate of course in Minnesota, Addison or Pollard this week fits.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
I don't want to seem like I'm point chasing with Pollard,
but I'm just I'm going with Pollard and I'm following
the volume. He's had double digit carries in all but
one game this season, and he averages about two catches
a game. So give me that over JJ McCarthy's number
two receiver.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
What do you think, Jake, I mean, arguably his number
one wide out of Justin Jefferson, but also TJ. Hockinson involved.
So I will say Tony Pollard his first double digit
score since Week five. Also, by the way, you want
to know how many goal line carries he has on
the year, all whopping four so and neither of those
came last week with those touchdowns. All that being said,

(52:52):
I just wanted to present that to say I actually
agree with fits on this one because I don't love
Tony Poller. Actually, I'm one of the biggest haters of
Tony haters. I put that un quote because I don't
hate the guy, but haters in fantasy like I have
Pollard nowhere. I told people not to draft them, and
yet in this scenario specifically worm, you got me to
pick Tony Pollard. I don't know if you did it
on purpose. I don't want to do it, but you

(53:13):
got me to pick him.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Should I have asked about J. J. McCarthy's real number
one target, Josh Oliver.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
Well, that's the other.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
Part of it too, is they've been running a lot
more two and three tight end sets. That's actually that
last game was one of the It was the heaviest
two and three tight end game. And maybe they're following
the rams suit of recent bias and maybe like that's
the things I hate. Let's copy where Kevin O'Connell came from,
and like kind of maybe that helps McCarthy, and it did,
at least for one.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Game we'd have.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Our playoffs started last week in the Fantasy Pro's Content
Team league, and I was playing Joe Piece of P
and I had Justin Jefferson on that team, and like
when I'm watching Josh Oliver catch his second touchdown past
just rolling my eyes.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
I got to buy in that league, which I needed
because I would have been outscored by like the entirely
I My team had a terrible week, but thankfully I
was on buy, so it didn't matter. Guys for you know,
resting up for me there, Let's go to the quarterback
here for a start state decision. How about Jordan Love
or Sam Donald? Jake. I'll start with you on this one,

(54:17):
Love or Donald, And to give you the ECR, Donald
is QB fifteen. Love is QB sixteen.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Yeah, I know this is one. Probably people who are
dealing with because a lot of quarterback situations. I'm gonna
go with Love, mostly because I know the matchup is
really bad. But he looks like that Love that that
hot stretch from last year, in the hot stretch of
the year before that, and I know that stretch could
end at any point, and it is the Broncos and
it is a very tough matchup. But Donald's early season
to mid season reliance, you know what, similar to Jordan

(54:46):
Love's stretch, had been on touchdown efficiency. And I'm not
saying he can't get back to it. But we've been
talking about this game a lot. Does this need to
be a Donald game where he even throws thirty times,
which is something that hasn't happened a lot of times
this year. So maybe he that's two touchdowns on his
fifteen completions, and this looks dumb at the end of
the day. But I just don't know that they need

(55:06):
a ton of Darnald in this game. I don't know
this is a game with Seahawks ere going to be
playing from behind at any point. So I'm going to
give Jordan Love the slight edge to give you an idea.
I have Love at thirteen and Donald at fifteen.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Okay, fits.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Jake just underscored my main concern about Donald. It's the
passing volume, run heavy team to begin with, and they're
big favorites against Indy.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
If Indy can't.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Push Seattle, Donald could very easily wind up with like
twenty to twenty three pass attempts in this game. But
I still have him ranked just ahead of Jordan Love
because I'm terrified of this matchup against the Bronco.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
You pulled me on me, yeah, I mean so.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
Love Is has made a lot of really big plays.
He's He's hit some big ones the last two weeks
against the Bears and the Lions. But like the Lions
have given up the second most pass plays of twenty
or more yards this season, the Bear is the third most,
Denver's giving up the fifth fewest. Like, It's just it's
hard to come by those big plays when you are

(56:08):
closing in on the quarterback so quickly as that Denver
pass rush does. That leads the league in SAX and
pressure rates, So a little worried that the big plays
might not be there for Love this week. I'll take Donald,
even with the concerns about his passing volume.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Let's go to the tight end one here. How about
Mark Andrews or Colston Loveland? Fits, I'll start with you here.
Andrews are Loveland.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Against the Bengals. Yeah, I mean, like.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
He's been so bad late. When I was putting this together,
I was like, I'm going to talk about Andrews because
he has not been good, but he gets the Bengals,
and I need to hear their opinion on this. I
mean because he just played the Bengals two weeks ago
and he was tight end seventeen. He had four for
forty seven, no touchdown, Like it was a nothing burger game.
So I knew I wanted to include Andrews and I
and then the second that was just figuring out who

(56:56):
to put him against. But you know, go ahead, Fits.
I just wanted to kind of clear my mindset here
was it's really more about just like where do we
have Andrews?

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Yeah, whish I do.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Wish there wasn't a second tight end that might be
the one to have the big game. But someone's gonna
have a big game against the Bengals, whether it's Andrews
or likely and not out of the question that it's
both Cincinnati's given up twelve hundred and fifty eight receiving
yards to tight ends. No other team has allowed more
than nine hundred and thirty three yards to tight end.
Bengals have given up fifteen touchdown catches to tight end.

(57:26):
No other team has given up more than nine. I
just I don't want to bench at tight end against
the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
He just for the record, And I'll say this before
threw to Jake. Outside of the Detroit game, which is
back in week three. Mark Andrews' best game of the
season was against the Bengals two weeks ago. But again,
it was forty seven receiving yards. It's the only his
next highest on this His third highest total in the
season is thirty four receiving yards and he only has
five touchdowns on the year. It's just like has not

(57:56):
been there and the last touchdown was back in week ten. So, Jake,
who do you like? I mean, I'm assuming you like
Andrew's better, But tell me a little bit about why.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
Well, so I was going to say to talk about
this game, specifically, the list of teams to fail to
have a tight end score double digits against the Ravens.
You ready for this list? Jaguars in week two, Broncos
in Week four. I'm done.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
That was it. That was the entire list.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
And by the way, they've actually given up two games
with double digits to two tight ends. The Steelers and
the Bills both had two tight ends put up double
digit scores against them, So yeah, likely could have the
bigger score. Likely likely has the bigger score. Because the
thing with the likely situation, somebody asked me on the
discurt at the athletic this morning, is you know what
he's doing because this is your team worm. He's kind

(58:43):
of filling the DeAndre Hopkins role that they want him
to be, but also with Rashad Bateman being banged up,
he's essentially like the tight end two slash wide receiver two.
And that's kind of who he's been because Isaiah Likely
is also not the truest tight end in the world,
and they're taking advantage of that. It's almost like if
you threw Kyle Pits, but actually Kyle Pitts who can
separate onto Theron or to Broncos, onto the Ravens. So

(59:05):
I'm saying, a, let's say there is the huge risk here.
I just don't want to start any Bears, and I
don't want to start any Bears, especially in this matchup.
I don't want to start any Bears because Caleb Williams
is not throwing a ton because they don't need him to.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
And that's even with.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Potentially no Doonsay, So I am going Mark Andrews mostly
just because I hope he gets that touchdown, which is
I think the same thing we kind of hope for
Colson lovel and that many people are involved. So I'm
just gonna take the matchup, especially in this one.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Here's what I'll say about Mark Andrews, gonna make you
feel better. He had he well, he had a thirty
five yard rushing touchdown against the Browns that very fluky
fun and you know, fake tush push play. They ran
thirty five yards rushing touchdown. That play alone would be
his third best yarding this season.

Speaker 5 (59:51):
Do you like or not?

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I like the guy. He's a great representative in the community.
He's gonna be a Ravens Ring of Honor player. They
just extended him for some reason. He just has not
been productive and he hasn't been getting the touchdowns to
make up for the lack of yardage. And I mean
the whole offense has just been so broken for so
much of this season, and he has also not really
done I mean he's even like knocking Like Lamar should

(01:00:16):
have had to go ahead touchdown pass against the Steelers
and it was going to Hopkins, and Andrews like knocked
it down. I don't know if you guys saw this angle.
Hopkins was wide open that one that Andrews dropped behind.
Andrews that wasn't throwing to him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Yeah, Like it's just his hands on his helmet, Like
I can't believe he just did that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Yes, Basically since the drop to lose to the Bills
in the playoffs last year, it's like nothing right, nothing
has gone right for Mark Andrews. It feels like so yeah,
I just get nervous about that. Even against the Bengals,
you could say goodbye to start sitt dilemmas. With Fantasy
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(01:00:54):
to play for optimal results each and every week. Leveraging
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playbook or download the Fantasy Pros app and make winning
decisions in no time. Let's get to our touchdown calls

(01:01:15):
for the week, but first join our free Touchdown Calls
contest in the Fantasy Pros Discord. Each week, pick four
players you think we'll score with a bonus flex worth double.
Weekly winners get a twenty five dollars Fantasy Pros gift card,
and the season champ takes home a signed b Jon
Robinson Jersey. Play now by going to Fantasypros dot com
slash chat and heading to the Touchdown Calls channel. I
am on running back this week. I will go with

(01:01:36):
Travis Etn. He has been scoring touchdowns at two last week.
Looks like it could be like a real league winner
here in the last month of the season for the Jags.
So I will take Etn here. I've been kind of
trying to take like lower ranked guys lately. I'm going
with somebody that's ranked inside the top twelve with their position.
I'm going with Travis Etn. Jake, you are on receivers
this week.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
Yeah, And honestly, this doesn't feel like the layup and
people might think by the name, and that's why I
wanted to take it, because I could have gone super layup.
But I'm going to make this a little difficult whether
or not Ceedee Lamb plays. I'm going with George Pickens
and I'm not going with the matchup because the Vikings,
by the way, I was just looking at the last
time they gave up a touchdown to a wide receiver
week nine, just Jamison Williams. That's the last time they've
done it. Yeah, that's including the Ravens, the Bears, the Packers,

(01:02:17):
the Seahawks, and then of course at the Bacle last
week where we rolled out of Jay and Daniels for
whatever reason. So it's not an easy matchup. Like It's
kind of funny how that defense every single year it
seems to go through ebbs and flows. It's like start
super hot and then people figure it out in the
middle of the season and then he adjusts back and
then all of a sudden, the Vikers defense is good again.
They're on the good side of things. But I think
that George Pickens and Dak Prescott and this team is

(01:02:38):
going to be looking to pass and get Pickens back
on track, who also, by the way we talk about
lost plays, would have had over one hundred yards and
a touchdown in that game last week if not for
Pi and that bad play between those two alone. So
I'm going with Pickens whether or not ceede lamb plays.
I want to see him get back in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Etn for me, Pickens for Jake Fitz. Who are you
taking at tight end?

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Harold Fan and Junior? He's had a touchdown catch in
two straight games. He makes it three in a row
this week against the Bears.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
We're spanning for you in Dynasty Fits alone.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Yeah, this is what your question is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Yeah, tight end tight end ranking in Dynasty.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Yeah, I've got him, Like fIF would.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Rather him or Gadsdon because Gadsden had like elevated to
the top five and then has really just not done
anything since that hot cover.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
That comes down to, I know, because Fits is looking
so I'll jump in. That comes down to, like, what
are you picking your poison for the future because you
know it's Herbert, you know it's Herbert and Gadson, And
then they're probably gonna have a big question like Keenan
Allen's probably gone again. But now you come down to fan,
is it Sanders next year? Do they go right back
to the well of trying to make Watson a thing?

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
Do they draft another quarterback again?

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
Like so it kind of comes down to you know
which way if you want to argue for either fits,
I like I would almost put I would put them
back to back at this point with Gadson directly in
front of them.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
I've got a back to back. I've got fannin once.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
Spot higher, and I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Yeah, they're both in Tier two. Tier two is very
big in our consensus Dynasy rankings. It's tight end four
to tight end eleven, and they're both in the back
half of that range in includes right behind the Though
Kyle Pitts is the top Tier three, Fan is the
last name in tier two. Pits is the top name
in Tier three. Okay, Ferguson is between the two. Actually
it goes Godsden then Ferguson.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
I would take both of them at point.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, there's just
the age difference there alone. So all right, ETN Pickens
and Fan and are our picks? Dominate your fantasy football
league with Fantasy Pros Premium now available free for six
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way to get full access to our top fantasy tools
all season long. Go to fantasypros dot com Slash Premium

(01:04:47):
to get started. Best of luck here in the Fantasy
playoffs in week fifteen and beyond. For Jake and Fits,
I'm Ran Warmley. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you again
next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy
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(01:05:08):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Week 15 Lineup Advice: Starts, Sits, Player Debates, and TD Calls (Ep. 1893)