Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 14 Matchups, Quadruple Waterbet

Summary

Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 14 Matchups, Quadruple Waterbet
Fantasy Footballers Podcast | December 7, 2017

---

Introduction

In this exhilarating episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright dive deep into Week 14 of the NFL season, focusing on playoff preparations, crucial matchup analyses, and strategic player recommendations. As fantasy playoffs commence, the trio provides listeners with invaluable insights to navigate the final stretch and secure championship glory.

---

Playoff Preparations and Upset Tips

With the fantasy playoffs kicking off, the hosts emphasize the importance of strategic planning to pull off upsets. Andy Holloway underscores the value of leveraging late-season pickups, particularly defensive and special teams (DST) units:

Andy Holloway [05:21]: "If you're going into week 14 right now, plan like you are going to be in the championship week."

Jason Moore complements this by advising underdog teams to "swing for the fences," targeting players with high upside who might not have been primary options earlier in the season:

Jason Moore [05:21]: "If you're the underdog, go for those players who are fresh, are new, have a good matchup, and you can string together victories like that."

This dual approach highlights the necessity of both stability and boldness in roster decisions during the playoffs.

---

Player Spotlight: Larry Fitzgerald

A significant segment of the discussion revolves around Larry Fitzgerald, ranked as the seventh-best fantasy wide receiver of the year. The hosts express surprise and reconsider their earlier skepticism about Fitzgerald's fantasy value:

Jason Moore [07:45]: "It's crazy because people still doubt him, people still don't play him. And I would say one of the Three of us should make him our start of the week this week."

Andy Holloway [08:41]: "I was wrong on Larry. I apologize to you, Larry."

This acknowledgment reinforces Fitzgerald's reliability and prompts listeners to reassess his role in their lineups.

---

News and Updates

The episode features a comprehensive news roundup, covering key injuries, team changes, and player statuses:

• Mark Ingram is expected to play despite a toe injury, alleviating concerns about his availability for Thursday night games.

  Mike Wright [09:05]: "The big news for you today, injury-wise, is the Mark Ingram news that he's supposed to play tonight."

• Amari Cooper has cleared concussion protocols but remains sidelined with an ankle injury, hinting at a potential return against a top-ranked defense.

• The Cleveland Browns announce the firing of GM Sashi Brown but retain Hugh Jackson for the 2018 season, signaling a shift in team management strategy.

• John Ross, the Bengals' first-round pick, is placed on injured reserve due to a shoulder injury, raising concerns for dynasty league holders.

• Marcus Peters is suspended by the Kansas City Chiefs for unsportsmanlike conduct, impacting both the team's defense and Peters' fantasy value.

---

Matchup Previews and Fantasy Advice

The hosts dissect several high-stakes Week 14 matchups, offering tailored fantasy recommendations:

Colts vs. Bills

With doubts surrounding the Bills' quarterback situation, Andy advises a cautious approach:

Jason Moore [18:20]: "A lot of questions. I know, Andy, you said, okay, you got to play shady..."

Andy remains non-committal about specific must-starts but highlights Adam Thielen as a reliable option:

Andy Holloway [26:31]: "I still have confidence going out on Thielen."

Vikings vs. Panthers

This defensive showdown poses challenges for fantasy managers. Andy praises Latavius Murray for his consistent workload:

Andy Holloway [25:42]: "I still have some confidence in Latavius Murray in that workload."

Jason adds confidence in Adam Thielen despite the tough matchup:

Jason Moore [26:42]: "Adam Thielen, he's just a must-start."

Raiders vs. Chiefs

Highlighting the impact of potential returning players, the hosts discuss Josh Gordon's explosive possibilities against the Packers:

Mike Wright [35:42]: "I am feeling the clamped over here. I'm so excited for Josh Gordon this week."

Jason expresses cautious optimism, considering the Packers' defensive vulnerabilities:

Jason Moore [37:48]: "If I am that team, I'm worried about that."

Packers vs. Browns

Andy and Jason debate whether the Browns can secure their first win, potentially derailing favorite Aaron Rodgers' playoff hopes:

Jason Moore [35:32]: "If you've got them, if you've picked them up, you are rooting against Andy's almost upset this week."

49ers vs. Texans

Focusing on Marquise Goodwin and Jimmy Garoppolo, the hosts weigh their fantasy viability:

Jason Moore [42:02]: "I think you should start Goodwin this week."

Andy Holloway [43:22]: "I think Garoppolo is actually a good quarterback."

---

Starts of the Week

The trio shares their recommended starting players for Week 14, providing strategic insights for each position:

Quarterback (QB)

• Jason Moore: Jameis Winston – Balancing solid fantasy production with an advantageous matchup.
• Mike Wright: Samaj P. Ryan – Leveraging the Chargers' weak run defense.
• Andy Holloway: Case Keenum – High completion rates and favorable opponent defense.

Running Back (RB)

• Jason Moore: Lamar Miller – Consistent volume and touchdown potential against the 49ers.
• Mike Wright: Creed Humble – Reliable performance despite Raiders' defensive strengths.
• Andy Holloway: Rex Burkhead – Back-to-back touchdowns boost his ranking.

Wide Receiver (WR)

• Jason Moore: Larry Fitzgerald – Undervalued yet highly reliable with strong home performance.
• Mike Wright: Michael Crabtree – Potential explosive performance with defensive suspensions.
• Andy Holloway: Josh Gordon – High target volume and explosive playability make him a standout.

Tight End (TE)

• Jason Moore: Cameron Braid – Increased targets with returning quarterback.
• Mike Wright: Hunter Henry – Favorable matchup against Washington's tight end defense.
• Andy Holloway: Stephen Anderson – Emerged as a valuable streaming option for tight end needs.

---

Promotional Segments

The hosts seamlessly integrate sponsorship messages, maintaining an engaging flow while informing listeners of valuable offers:

• NFL Game Pass: Andy promotes accessing every NFL game replay to enhance fantasy strategies.

  Andy Holloway [00:07]: "NFL Game Pass has got it. Best of all, NFL Game Pass is now available for just $49.99, the lowest price of the season."

• Sherry's Berries: Highlighting an ideal holiday gift option with a special discount code.

  Jason Moore [22:51]: "These berries, they've got all sorts of the juiciest berries and other treats too, like chocolate truffles or cheesecake Christmas trees."

• Omaha Steaks: Promoting a family gift pack deal with substantial discounts.

  Mike Wright [24:00]: "49.99. You get the family gift pack when you go to OmahaSteaks.com and enter that code fantasy in the search bar."

---

Concluding Remarks

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reinforce their key recommendations and encourage listeners to stay proactive during the fantasy playoffs:

Jason Moore [39:20]: "Never give up. Never surrender."

They emphasize the unpredictable nature of the playoffs, reminding fantasy managers to stay flexible and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Jason Moore [16:28]: "Three weeks from now, we will get a ton of emails saying, oh my gosh, I started 04 or 1 and 5 or whatever the case was, and I just won the championship."

---

Final Takeaways

• Strategic Roster Management: Prioritize high-upside players and reliable performers tailored to Week 14 matchups.
• Injury Awareness: Stay updated on player statuses to make informed decisions.
• Capitalize on Matchups: Leverage favorable opponent weaknesses to maximize point potential.
• Flexibility in Playoffs: Adapt strategies based on team performance and emerging player opportunities.

By incorporating these insights and staying vigilant in lineup adjustments, fantasy managers can navigate the complexities of Week 14 and enhance their chances of securing the fantasy championship.

---

Tune in Next Week: The Fantasy Footballers will continue to provide actionable advice, injury updates, and matchup analyses to keep you ahead in your fantasy leagues. Join their community at JoinTheFoot.com and follow them on Twitter @TheFFBallers for more expert guidance.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

There have been so many great NFL games this year. My favorite game, you remember that Fantasy Buffet, that 49ers Rams Thursday night match?

[Mike Wright]

That was a great game.

[Andy Holloway]

That was absolutely incredible. With the NFL game pass, you can replay that game from every angle. Whatever you want, whatever your favorite game is, the NFL game pass has got it. Every throw, every catch, every two minute drill. If it's NFL football and it happened, the NFL game pass has got it. Best of all, NFL Game Pass is now available for just 49.99, the lowest price of the season. Go to NFL.com fantasy footballers.

[Mike Wright]

Hi, this is Eric Dickinson, NFL hall of Famer, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the Play Draft Studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Mike Wright]

Welcome in. How you guys doing?

[Andy Holloway]

Excellent.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, Doing very, very well this morning. The playoffs, the fantasy playoffs, they start tonight.

[Andy Holloway]

It begins.

[Mike Wright]

I hope I win.

[Jason Moore]

I hope I says everyone, I hope.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't run out of adult diapers.

[Mike Wright]

You say you stock up, you go Costco, Yeah, hit the Costco on, man.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you either this guy's doomsday prepping, right? Or he's got a, he's got a parent who is of an age and of a need. And I'm like, nope, no.

[Mike Wright]

Most people think, you know, fantasy football.

[Andy Holloway]

That you would use it for Sunday.

[Mike Wright]

You would use those on the regular. You're more of a seasonal.

[Jason Moore]

It's.

[Andy Holloway]

It opens up like a valve.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, come on. Oh, that's Mike for you.

[Jason Moore]

What just happened?

[Mike Wright]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. We are so proud of our podcast here. Andy, Mike and Jason, the judge producing today's episode.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't cut that out, Brooks.

[Mike Wright]

And of course. No, Mike. Mike, how old are you?

[Andy Holloway]

I am 13 years old.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Okay. We got a great episode today. It's jam packed news and notes, a great quick question, the fantasy forecast. So we'll preview the matchups for this week, week 14, our starts of the week, and Jason's ever famous boom boom kicker of the week. We're hoping that this week your boom boom kicker does not instantaneously go on ir.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's helpful.

[Mike Wright]

Just because his production goes way down traditionally when that happens, the evolution of.

[Andy Holloway]

The boom boom segment. This just, just this year alone is a thing to behold.

[Mike Wright]

Forward thinking is. Yeah, industry changing phenomenon. That's what I would describe it as.

[Jason Moore]

Boom.

[Mike Wright]

All right, if you want to follow the show, you can do so on TwitterFFballers. Make sure you're watching us over on YouTube. Subscribe over on YouTube. We're waving at the camera right now. And shout out to all of the Foot Clan who have headed over to Foot Clan. Vote.com if you didn't hear this yesterday, FootClan assembled. The fantasy Sports Trade association is giving away an award for the very best social media. And essentially it is a reflection of who's got the best fans in the industry. And all you have to do is go to footclanvote.com and vote for the Fantasy Footballers social account.

[Andy Holloway]

Please, please, Foot Clan. We do it. We're in this together.

[Mike Wright]

We are. So we'll try to bring that. Take that down. Take that down.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And you know what?

[Mike Wright]

What?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm putting this on the spot, but I don't know what it is yet. Just saying there, there will be a special reward for the fans if we're able to take that one.

[Mike Wright]

Well, we also have a reward right [e-mail] so many rewards. We're giving away three custom fantasy football jerseys from fantasychamps.com and you can enter to win for free at footclangiveaway.com this will run through Christmas. An opportunity to win a custom jersey with your fantasy football team name on it. And they're really cool. So thanks to Fantasy Champs for helping us out with that giveaway. Quick question of the day, guys. What are some tips to pulling an upset in the playoffs? Lots of people who snuck into the playoffs, maybe they, maybe they're coming up against a more difficult opponent. Are there any tips here or is the answer just be happier playing fantasy football?

[Andy Holloway]

I'd say my number one tip, which we've been talking about, this is the little positions in the playoffs are even more important and you've had time to prepare for them. Those, those defensive special teams pickups that we've been talking about saying stash a few extra. Look at the matchups. This isn't week three where the data on the dsts is not the most accurate and most reliable because you only have two weeks. You have almost an entire season's worth of information now to base your defensive matchups. So now is the time. If, if you haven't yet, you got to do it now. If you're, if you're going into week 14 right now, plan like you are going to be in the championship week.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I would also say, look, if you're the underdog, you snuck in, you're. You're a low seed. That usually means you're playing the high seed. You, you need to essentially Swing for the fences. This is where the time of the year where you don't just grab a guy to stash him, wait and hold. You might grab a guy and say, look, I'm just Josh Gordon, perfect example. Hey, last week, first week, it looked like he was going to be the number one target. He's got a good matchup coming up this week. If this were week two in the NFL season or week five, I would be saying, you know, I'm not 100% bought in that he is going to be that number one target, you know, just every single game. But now it's like, throw them in. Don't get enamored with the bigger names that have let you down. If you're the underdog, go for those, those players who are fresh, are new, have a good matchup and you can string together victories like that.

[Mike Wright]

Do you avoid, as the underdog players that you don't deem capable of, of giving you a ceiling, of giving you points that are rising like bitcoin?

[Jason Moore]

Well, nothing's rising that fast around.

[Mike Wright]

But like Mike Wallace, right? Mike Wallace on the year has no fantasy games above 14 fantasy points.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So Mike Wallace is a good example of someone that maybe you wouldn't use because you don't have that. Now. I would, I would be willing to start a guy who might not have the crazy ceiling if he had a secure floor. So like, you know, someone like a Duke Johnson, if you're in that, that poor, you know, snuck into the playoff role and you need to fill a flex with kind of a guy that usually is going to be around 9, 10 points. I'd be willing to do that even though I don't think he has the crazy upside. But Mike Wallace, he doesn't have a floor. His floor is, oh, he just didn't get targeted this game. And so he's, you know, got zero points.

[Andy Holloway]

It's the parking garage, the underground, it's the basement.

[Mike Wright]

The nice thing is is anybody can win. Look at one week, one set of matchups. We'll preview the games, we'll try to give you the hidden gems this week that might get you that sneaky matchup. Guys, I have a secondary question. When are we going to stop doubting Larry Fitzgerald in fantasy football? The seventh ranked fantasy football wide receiver on the year. Case you're curious, Antonio Brown, Deandre Hopkins, Tyreek Hill, Keenan Allen, AJ Green are the top five?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, it is crazy because people still doubt him, people still don't play him. And I would say someone one of the Three of us should make him our start of the week this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, wow.

[Mike Wright]

Genius.

[Andy Holloway]

Look, I will take those lashes that I. When Carson Palmer went down, I thought that this was the end, the beginning of the end for Larry Fitzgerald. You had. You had Drew Stanton, who. Who is just gross.

[Jason Moore]

Right?

[Andy Holloway]

His play on the NFL field is gross. The fact that it went to Blaine Gabber gave me a little bit more hope after the Stanton injury, but I really. I thought Larry was done. I wanted to trade him wherever I had him. I thought he was going to have to retire. Well, not have to, but I thought he would choose to retire at the end of the year. But now he is resigned for next year. So I. Man, I was. I was wrong on Larry. I apologize to you, Larry.

[Mike Wright]

Alvin Camara is now past Cream Hunt on the season. He is two points better per game on the season than the Kareem Hunt first half.

[Andy Holloway]

It's unbelievable.

[Mike Wright]

It's funny. The second half is worth just as much as the first half.

[Jason Moore]

One might argue more.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. One. If you're in the playoffs, it actually is worth more. Assuming the first half doesn't kill you. All right, let's go ahead and jump into some more news.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I'm going to start with the headline this morning. Mark Ingram's supposed to play today. Okay. Mark Ingram took a couple days off. We didn't know whether that was a good or bad sign because of the game being on Thursday.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

It looks like they were just giving him some time to recover, which.

[Andy Holloway]

And it was. It was a toe injury.

[Jason Moore]

Same as, you know, Antonio Brown was dealing with a toe injury.

[Andy Holloway]

He. Did you see the picture of his toe?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I did not. I assume it was not a pleasure to look at.

[Mike Wright]

No, no. It was like swamp monsters.

[Jason Moore]

Foot.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, it was a. It wasn't good.

[Jason Moore]

No, that. That's not good. Yeah. When the. When the news broke this morning that it was official that Mark Ingram was expected to. I didn't have my glasses on, and I was not sure which way it was going. I was like, oh, no. Is it. Because I've got a lot of Ingram stock, so I'm happy that he's going to be out there tonight.

[Mike Wright]

Do you remember that?

[Andy Holloway]

Swamp Thing, you make my heart sing.

[Mike Wright]

No, no, no.

[Jason Moore]

Swamp Thing.

[Mike Wright]

There was a TV show called Swamp Thing.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Because there is a.

[Andy Holloway]

There is a superhero Swamp Thing.

[Mike Wright]

That's what. That's what I'm talking about. Where he. I had an action figure and the arm would stretch really long.

[Andy Holloway]

No, he is. He is one of the playable characters on the new D.C. game. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

You can use Swamp Thing.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Injustice. Yeah. My. My youngest, Swamp Thing is his favorite character. He just mashes one button.

[Mike Wright]

I just remember having the sweetest Swamp Thing toy as a kid.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Swamp Thing was Swamp Thing and what Toxic Crusader.

[Mike Wright]

All right. Amari Cooper has cleared the concussion protocol but did not practice on Wednesday. Remember that Cooper is also coming back from an ankle injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. So this is not a guarantee that.

[Mike Wright]

He actually plays right now. You could have a situation where Crabtree and Cooper rejoin the wide receiver core this week in a juicy matchup against the team that gives up the most.

[Andy Holloway]

This was the Cooper game.

[Mike Wright]

Big plays in football, the Kansas City Chiefs. You're right. It was Cooper game.

[Andy Holloway]

On top of that, Marcus Peters, their kind of their stud cornerback, has been suspended by the team for launching the ref flag into the crowd.

[Mike Wright]

All right. The Browns have fired their general manager, Sashi Brown, and have confirmed that Hugh Jackson will remain in return for the 2018 season and will not be fired. So that is the direction they're going. They're going to strengthen personnel. They're going to give Hugh Jackson another year. It'll be interesting to see what Hugh Jackson can do with Gordon and Coleman and another year. We'll see. All right. Will Fuller. They hope he'll return this week. You can't start him because you. Sean Watson's not the quarterback. Doug Martin was a full participant in Wednesday's practice. Mike, how does that make you feel with that Peyton Barber pickup yesterday?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, my pickup of Peyton Barber.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, it's more.

[Andy Holloway]

Dynasty was more long term thinking of if they do cut Doug Martin in the off season, which I think is a. There is a chance that that happens. As far as using Peyton Barber this week, you can't.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Not if. Not if Doug Martin is back. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I still think that Barber will be worked in this week, which is going to eat into Doug Martin kind of being the primary guy. So I think that the timeshare will be closer, but you can't do anything. It feels to me like you panic flex Barber. I guess, but I would avoid that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I would more panic flex Doug Martin. But I in my hopes would be to play no Tampa Bay running back. Him coming back hurts the fantasy situation all around.

[Mike Wright]

Chris Hogan returned to practice. If you remember weeks two through five. Hogan had five touchdowns in that span. Was great. Now he's back at practice. Are you more excited about Josh Gordon over the back the playoffs or Chris Hogan returning.

[Andy Holloway]

Gordon, I just. Because he's back, I don't necessarily expect Chris Hogan to play. They can rest him and get him fully recovered.

[Mike Wright]

John Ross, first round pick of the Bengals has been placed on injured reserve.

[Jason Moore]

When you say John Ross, it makes me giggle.

[Andy Holloway]

Just John Ross finishes the year with negative fantasy points.

[Mike Wright]

Zero catches for a wide receiver, one carry and a fumble.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I remember that play. He looked, I will say this genuinely, when he took that jet sweep, he looked very fast.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, he is very fast.

[Jason Moore]

Until he fumbled.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Marcus Peters, we talked about it. He's being suspended by the Chiefs. Okay. All right. You're in a tailspin. I don't know how suspending your best player works.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, I get it that you send a mess. You have to, you have to do something with Marcus Peters. This is not the first time that he is absolutely lost control. And if you watched what happened in this game, this man completely lost control of his all emotions in his body. So you, you have to do something with the player for his future. And unfortunately that's suspending him.

[Mike Wright]

When you said lost control, you had me thinking about your Costco purchase again. All right, tomorrow, remember, on Friday we go through in and out and we'll give you all of the updates on every injured player and what you can do to prepare guys like Zach Ertz, who's still in the concussion protocol. Will Trey Burton get the start there? Joe Mixon didn't practice yesterday, but we obviously didn't expect him to. Having the Monday night game. Will he be available this week or will Gio Bernard be a solid start?

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Sterling shepherd with the hamstring injury. Hunter Henry knee injury, not on the injury report. We'll update you on him, Kerwin Williams and ap, all of those guys tomorrow. The big news for you today, injury wise, is the Mark Ingram news that he's supposed to play tonight and the Saints are supposed to get Marshawn Lattimore back. That's great. That's great for the Saints secondary. That's great for their chance to slow Julio Jones, which is the goal, right?

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

And what else do we need to say? Get your Thursday night players out of the flex. Don't forget it.

[Jason Moore]

Now in the playoffs, important time. Make sure you plug them into your running back slot or your wide receiver slot. Fill up those non flexible roster spots.

[Andy Holloway]

First, the inflexible.

[Jason Moore]

That was the word. I was inflexible. Is that a word?

[Mike Wright]

So a good example would be if you have three great running backs and you're going to play Mark Ingram tonight, don't put them in the flex. Put them in the running back spot so you can play a wide receiver just in case.

[Jason Moore]

Just in case one of your other two running backs gets injured in practice.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I really. By the way, people coming out of the woodwork with their fun playoff stories, getting into the playoffs, a lot of people, they listen to you, Jason, which is shocking. I know I've set almost a life precedent that I don't do that, but I should, because they listen to you. They're owing five teams zero and four teams one and six teams. They didn't give up. And that's exactly what we said. What you said in week five and six when people were desperate and crying and weeping, and you said, do not give up. Because right now is the time that you can take advantage of the waiver wire. You can take advantage of other teams giving up.

[Jason Moore]

Three weeks from now, we will get a ton of emails saying, oh, my gosh, I started 04 or 1 and 5 or whatever the case was, and I just won the championship.

[Mike Wright]

Hashtag footclantitle.

[Jason Moore]

Hashtag footclan.

[Andy Holloway]

If there's anything I learned from An American Tale, the classic cartoon Never say.

[Mike Wright]

Never, anything, wherever you are that happens can happen in reverse.

[Jason Moore]

If there's anything I've learned from outer space on a quest across the galaxy, it's never give up, Never surrender.

[Andy Holloway]

Nice. Brooks complete the complete it.

[Mike Wright]

Never surrender. We'll take it. I guess we'll talk about master, basically.

[Andy Holloway]

What Jason just said. But, you know.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I don't know what you're looking for.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm looking for an inspirational quote.

[Jason Moore]

Fantasy forecast.

[Mike Wright]

You're looking for an inspirational quote?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And Brooks just copied Jason.

[Jason Moore]

It was.

[Mike Wright]

He didn't know. At least he jumped in.

[Jason Moore]

It was incredible. I mean, it was one of the more inspiring things I've heard.

[Mike Wright]

Never surrender.

[Jason Moore]

Never surrender.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

Grip Thorn's hammer.

[Mike Wright]

We are in week 14, the Indianapolis Colts at 3 and 9. They travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills. And we don't have a line in this game, and that's because we don't have a quarterback in this game. We don't know if Tyrod Taylor and Nathan Peterman are going to be the start. You know, who will be the starter for Buffalo. We are in a situation now where you're looking at Buffalo still with a chance at the playoffs. I pumped the brakes on Charles Clay based on the fact that we don't know if Taylor's back and Clay hasn't been good since he's Returned. He's still a little banged up. I mean, you're starting LaShawn McCoy, but outside of LaShawn McCoy, are there any must starts on this French on this roster?

[Andy Holloway]

Must starts? No. But Kelvin Benjamin has returned to limited practice. He is man, somewhat.

[Mike Wright]

You can't start him.

[Andy Holloway]

No, you can't start Kevin Benjamin. But I think that Zay Jones is at least he piques my interest because the Colts secondary is so bad and they, they're, they're pretty solid against the run, especially the last six weeks. They are ranked eighth of giving up points to the running back, but they're still down at 22nd for points to the wide receiver.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, I get that. I get the matchup play, but if it's Nathan Peterman and Kelvin Benjamin is back, that combination says to me there's no pass catcher that I can play because then you've got Zay Jones and Kelvin Benjamin splitting targets that are poor targets from Nathan Peterman. A lot of questions. I know, Andy, you said, okay, you got to play shady. A lot of questions I've been fielding this week over, do I play him if Nathan Peterman plays? And in almost every situation it has been a yes. It's in fact, every situation I've come up across so far, it's like, yeah, you're still going to play him. Just temper your expectations.

[Mike Wright]

He has the fifth most rushing yards in the NFL since Week 10 at 305 rushing yards. McCoy is too involved in that offense now. It might not be a great day, but you cannot leave a guy. He's a lot like Julio, right? I mean, you don't. Somebody yesterday was asking me, oh, Julio. I'm worried about that. I'm like, okay, if you want to lose with 235 yards on your bench, you can bench Julio. But that's not going to feel good.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's going to feel bad.

[Jason Moore]

I had a question that kind of put me on the spot. Said, okay, you always start Julio. You get the great matchups, you get the bad matchups. They had two other guys that were locked and loaded. And the question became Julio or Robbie Anderson.

[Mike Wright]

Where would you go in that Julio?

[Andy Holloway]

It's still Julio.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, I would too.

[Andy Holloway]

Robbie Anderson is just full liquid magma at this time, but he does get the matchup against Denver. So I think I would stick with. With Julio.

[Mike Wright]

All right, the other side, Brissette. He was throwing the ball deep when he started this year, but now over the last few weeks, he's throwing the ball deep, the least of any Quarterback in football, that doesn't help a guy that likes to go deep like Ty Hilton.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it doesn't, man. What do you. Hilton is a great place to start here because how are you guys looking at Tyler this week?

[Jason Moore]

The only. How I look at Ty is essentially he is a. He is the quintessential boom, bust. He can get you absolutely nothing or he could go out and get 25 points. So I am usually benching Ty Hilton. Now, the quick question of the day was if you are one of those just snuck in teams and you're playing against a great matchup, you might have a spot that needs a guy like Ty Hilton. That, that glory play that says, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to need a guy who can score 25, who can break off two, you know, screens that are taken to the house. But in most matchups, most playoff teams, I don't think you should be starting Ty Hilton because the risk is just too high of having a game.

[Mike Wright]

Jack Doyle.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, the baby hands. I mean, he's been a little bit inconsistent these days, but what tight end hasn't? Yeah, very, very, very fair. But, you know, coming off the game, only 16 yards. However, just two weeks ago, you know, against Tennessee, 94 yards, seven receptions. So that's the difference in this tight end landscape. You still have to have Jack Doyle as a top 10 option, right?

[Jason Moore]

That's the difference to me. Both Ty and Jack Doyle, boom, bust. They could, they could, they could do good, they could go away. But you have other options at wide open. Superman, most of the time with tight ends, you just don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Superman's always a good option.

[Jason Moore]

You don't have other good. Before we move on to the next matchup, I want to tell you about the best option around for some of these Christmas gifts coming up. Sherry's berries. We just got some ourselves in the office the other day. I can tell you right now, I ate all of the white chocolate covered strawberries. Nobody else had a single one because they were unbelievably delicious. And I was talking to my wife about Sherry's berries because this is like the perfect gift. Everyone eats and everyone loves treats. And these berries, they've got all sorts of the juiciest berries and other treats too, like chocolate truffles or cheesecake Christmas trees.

[Mike Wright]

This is your read.

[Jason Moore]

This is my life, man.

[Mike Wright]

This is my life.

[Jason Moore]

The sweets, the treats. But I think it makes one of the best Christmas gifts for those people. You don't know what to get them. You want to show like hey, you matter to me. I'm thinking of you this holiday season. But I don't want to send you something romantic necessarily. Or. Or I don't want to. You know, this is a perfect gift for everyone right now. You can get a deal, just $19.99. You can get fresh and delicious sherry's berries dipped in white milk and dark chocolatey goodness. Or for just 10 bucks more, you can double that and get a dessert platter. That's two gifts in one. So there's only one way to get the amazing $19.99 deal this holiday season. Visit berrys.com Click on the microphone in the upper right hand corner, and enter the code ballers at checkout. Remember, when you double the berries for just $10, you'll get a free keepsake dessert platter. That's berries.com code ballers.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I want to remind everybody this won't come around again for a long time. And this is a special deal from Omaha Steaks. We want to thank them for sponsoring the show. You can order gifts for everybody on your list with one click of the mouse. And this is the package that we received this year. How amazing.

[Andy Holloway]

So meaty.

[Mike Wright]

How meaty.

[Andy Holloway]

So meaty.

[Mike Wright]

So incredible. The food is so good.

[Jason Moore]

So meaty.

[Mike Wright]

The deal's ridiculous right now. 49.99. You get the family gift pack when you go to Omaha steaks.com and you enter the code fantasy in the search bar.

[Andy Holloway]

Search bar. People click the search bar.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

If you.

[Mike Wright]

If you want to know how to do it, click the search bar type fantasy. You get 75% off. Just click the package. Here's what comes with it. 2 filet mignons. 2 top sirloins, 2 boneless pork chops. 4 boneless chicken breasts. 4 kielbasa sausages, 4 burgers. 4 potatoes au gratin, 4 caramel apple tartlets. 1 Omaha steak seasoning package. And for bonus, bonus kielbasa sausages for free. Go to Omaha steaks.com and again, enter that code fantasy in the search bar, and you get 75% off. I was distracted. Mike was doing a very nice Omaha Steaks dance during me.

[Andy Holloway]

You need two breaths. Two breaths to complete that list of delicious meats. Incredible.

[Mike Wright]

All right, The Vikings and Panthers, another great matchup this week. This one's in Carolina. A lot of question marks.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's last great NFL matchup.

[Mike Wright]

What did I say?

[Andy Holloway]

But I'm just. I'm making sure that.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Not the best for fantasy football.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah. 41 point over under. Vegas has it as a lower scoring game. You have two great defenses and that's the the focus here all season long. These defenses have been great and Minnesota has taken it up a notch against wide receivers over the last six weeks. So there are a lot of question marks because we talk about this. You head into the playoffs, you've got certain players with certain matchups. How confident can we be in them? You know, how do you temper expectations? How do you project something like the Minnesota running game, Latavius Murray, Jericho, a split backfield against Carolina's number one ranked run defense over the last six weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's extremely rough. I would roll. I still have some confidence in Latavius Murray in that workload. He's and he's playing extremely well because I do. I believe that the Vikings will be in control of this game and they will do their best to ride Latavius Murray and grind out the clock. However, I still have faith, I still have belief in Adam Thielen, the elite wide receiver who came out of nowhere because the Panthers defense for all of their how stout they are, they're still ranked 21st over the past six weeks in points given up to the wide receiver position. So I still have confidence going out of Thielen. Probably not so much with Stefan Diggs at this point.

[Mike Wright]

Nice thing is we've seen Case Keenum play at an elite level 74% completion percentage since week 10. Jason, you've already started kind of doing your bronze work to put him in the hall of Fame.

[Jason Moore]

I was filling in Mike because Mike was gone last week and he was unaware of my off the show in the office Case Keenum love affair I was having looking up all of his stats and his play. I really have been a big fan. That's why I agree with Mike. Adam Thielen, he's just a must start. I don't care the matchup. He's had such a great rapport with Case Keenum and Case Keenum has been good. I agree with Latavius Murray. Stefan Diggs is still a flex worthy player.

[Andy Holloway]

But yeah, when I said I'm not benching him I just am not confident.

[Jason Moore]

But Diggs flex is much better at home. This is going road game in a tough matchup.

[Mike Wright]

So Diggs is the kind of player that if he pops you're going to have those upsets because he's the kind of player that at least has shown the potential to be a top five wide receiver on the right week. But you're right, you've got to temper those expectations. The one place that the Panthers can get beat is a little bit through the air. Keenum at a high level. But they're on the road. This game matters for both teams. The Vikings fighting for the one seed. The Panthers just coming off the loss to the Saints fighting to just to.

[Andy Holloway]

Be in the playoffs.

[Mike Wright]

Playoffs. They're at home. Where's our confidence level with the other side of the ball? Cam Newton. Christian McCaffrey running a lot better as an actual running back as. And then Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

I had to do it.

[Mike Wright]

I had to bury them.

[Andy Holloway]

I had to pump the brakes.

[Mike Wright]

Devin S Scrumptious. Not so scrumptious this week, huh?

[Andy Holloway]

No, look, I'm going with Xavier Rhodes. I feel confident shot him shutting down Devin Funches. The only guy on this, on this Carolina offense that I have any confidence starting right now in this matchup would be Christian McCaffrey and that's because it's just he's, he's safe with his target level is safer for a baseline. Maybe he rips off a big run and maybe this is a lot. I'm throwing a lot of maybes. I apologize. But Cam Newton is startable only if you are banking on the rushing yards in this match of the. He's rushed for 174 yards since Week 10. The Vikings have been a little bit leaky against running quarterbacks, but the passing yards will not be there for Cam Newton.

[Mike Wright]

There's that Costco trip again.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's, he is. Cam Newton's a low wind quarterback, one he could very much disappoint, but the rushing yards make him secure. I am not quite as down on Devin Funches as you are. I see him as that wide receiver, low end wide receiver to this week, which means in most games he's going to be starting.

[Mike Wright]

That's not a big difference maker though. Like you still start him but you're not expecting big things, right? And then for context, we have Cam Newton as Our consensus number 10 quarterback on the week. If you go to the fantasy footballers click on the rankings tab, you can see all of our rankings. If you have a start sit decision, you can kind of see where we're at and we update those all through the year and all through the week as we get more news and information.

[Jason Moore]

And we even have flex rankings up there for all the foot clan out there. So if you've got a decision between positions and you know, we can't answer every Twitter question we try but we can't, you know, the answers are out there.

[Mike Wright]

The truth is out there.

[Jason Moore]

The truth is out there.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Mike, you let me down big time there.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't.

[Mike Wright]

Big time here.

[Andy Holloway]

True story. I did not watch the X Files. Very impressive.

[Mike Wright]

That's what you need.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm very impressed.

[Mike Wright]

That's what you should have had. All right. Greg Olson, he's practicing in full.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Can't start him, can you?

[Andy Holloway]

Nope.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. The Bears take on the Bengals 37 and a half point oh, over under in Cincinnati. Is this.

[Jason Moore]

If you're uninitiated with the line, a 37 and a half point over under is exceptionally low. Vegas is saying not the many points are going to be scored this game.

[Mike Wright]

Is it possible, though, that this is a reflection of not knowing what's going on with Joe Mixon? I mean, this game's in Cincinnati, and I know that the Bears defense is all right, but they haven't been very good lately. And look, you can't be very good when your offense is giving the other team short fields all throughout the game. And right now, the Bears 25th against the fantasy wide receiver, 19th against the running back. They're not doing anything special. I'm really surprised that the line for the total points is that low. I feel like out of that 37 and a half, that must be like 35 points to the Bengals and 2.5 points to the Bears.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I read into it that it's mostly they don't believe the Bears can score against the Bengals regardless of the injuries. I had a Twitter question because I was. I recommended the Bengals DST as a great play this week, and they have, you know, a number of injuries and possible suspensions and all these things mounting, but I still feel very, very comfortable playing the. The Bengals at home. I think that the spread reflects that they think the Bengals will put up some points and that the Bears will put up close to none because Mitch Trubisky is just not getting it done. And if they can't count on Jordan Howard to carry the offense, which I wanted to.

[Mike Wright]

I wanted to pick Jordan Howard this week as somebody I believe that could break out, and I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

20 Bengals in the last six weeks. 29th and giving up points to fancy running backs.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Yeah, they really have. I mean, they've been. Some of the. Some of the injuries in the secondary for the Bengals, this game might open up a little bit of passing opportunities. Well, it's not just Mitch. MCU will make sure that doesn't happen, though.

[Andy Holloway]

But like Burfict, we expect Burfict to be out at this point.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Open up the middle still to be seen.

[Jason Moore]

But yeah, he could. He could miss the game. I. Look, I know it's difficult because it's two weeks in a row. That's bad games from Jordan Howard. But the matchup, the statistics, they say that this is a good matchup for Jordan Howard despite the fact that the Bengals are a good defense.

[Andy Holloway]

So were the 49ers.

[Jason Moore]

No, I get it. No, that's what I'm saying. Your confidence is low. But I still think you have to start Jordan Howard because it's going to be very few teams that have another, you know, a third option better than Jordan Howard.

[Andy Holloway]

You got to look at waiver guys this week. So let's say Mike Davis.

[Jason Moore]

That's a good point.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike Davis or Jordan Howard?

[Jason Moore]

I would go Jordan Howard.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think I would play Howard in that situation.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you have a mix and list?

[Jason Moore]

Jill Bernard in this same.

[Andy Holloway]

Or Jordan Howard?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, in this same game. I'm playing Geo. Unless I'm in a full standard league.

[Jason Moore]

I would as well.

[Mike Wright]

It's crazy. By the way, John Ross follow up on that injury, you know, for you dynasty holders. Marvin Lewis said that he's been hiding the injury from the team for this year. So that might explain a lot of why we've gone through what we've gone through with John Ross trying to get back on the field, not performing. He had the shoulder surgery. This is a shoulder injury. Oh, so. Oh, we'll see what happens.

[Jason Moore]

That was the knock coming out of college. The biggest knock on John Ross was not his football play. It was his injury history. I mean, when he broke the record at the 40 time, he got injured on that record breaking run. Do you remember he came up limping on that.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, when you break the sound barrier, can't expect the body to hold up.

[Mike Wright]

All right, other headlines from this game. Anybody you want to bring up? Are we moving on?

[Andy Holloway]

I think that Andy Dalton is a fine.

[Mike Wright]

I do too. Man, he looked good for half that game.

[Andy Holloway]

He looks sensational.

[Mike Wright]

And the truth, I mean they lost mixing and things kind of turned on their head. You had a drop by AJ Green when they were moving him down the field. Had a chance to win that game still all right.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm perfectly fine streaming any dawn this agreement.

[Mike Wright]

The six six packers take on the 012 browns. They're still there are 500 in my opinion.

[Jason Moore]

Funny, I thought you were gonna be surprised that the Browns are still winless.

[Andy Holloway]

No, that doesn't shock anybody. Poor Browns.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, no. Andy's almost upset of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Calling it now the Browns get the first win and throw a wrench into everybody's Aaron Rodgers hopes.

[Andy Holloway]

I was holding up my finger to signify pause because who's. If you, if I didn't give you the line, who would you say is favored in this game?

[Jason Moore]

The packers on the road with the Browns.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean I would call that pretty close to a pick them.

[Mike Wright]

It's not though.

[Andy Holloway]

I know, I know three and a half.

[Mike Wright]

When an O12 team is facing a six six team and their underdogs by three and a half at home. I think that. I think calling for their first win is pretty fair.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I agree. And you're right, Andy. This would throw a massive wrench into all the Aaron Rodgers hopes, all the Jordy Nelson hopes. A lot of people picking those players up. So if you've got them, if you've picked them up, you are rooting against. Andy's almost upset this week and you will be rooting for the packers because Aaron Rodgers isn't coming back if the packers are out of the playoffs.

[Mike Wright]

Packers defense has allowed 275 receiving yards per game since week week 10 second worst in the league. Josh Gordon.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh my goodness. Josh Gordon.

[Mike Wright]

I think we're going to see something special this week. We are going to make me cry because I traded him in our dynasty league.

[Andy Holloway]

He. We are going to talk about him again later but perhaps we should just talk about him now. I'm so excited for Flash Gordon. The perfect matchup, the perfect quarterback for this. I mean this is George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg territory here. Perfect storm. DeSean Kizer has thrown deep balls on 22% of his past attempts since Week 10. That's the most or just the highest percentage in the league. We know that Kaiser is looking for that big play. We know that Josh Gordon built his career. The reason Josh Gordon is still in the NFL is because he can hit the big plays. We know that the packers defense are giving up over 275 receiving yards per game. This is, I'm, I'm, I am. I'm feeling the clamped over here. I'm so excited for Josh Gordon this week.

[Mike Wright]

It's worthwhile to say we thought that at home in Lambeau that you know the Tampa could do damage against that Green Bay defense. And you didn't see Evans and desean Jackson.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why I called Jameis Winston chunk from the Goonies because he's Jameis Winston. When you, when things are lined up for him, he lets you down.

[Jason Moore]

He still had a fine game. It's just the touchdowns went to Cameron Brait, the tight end, instead of going to Mike Evans or desean Jackson. So let's talk about Gordon because I do believe there's a lot of teams in the playoffs, smart owners. They've picked up Gordon because they're smart owners, but now they've got that, that trouble. They're not the teams that snuck in. They've got a solid team, but they're wanting to throw this massive boom player, Josh Gordon out there. If I am that team, I'm worried about that. I don't have the confidence that you have. First game back, hyper targeted. If we see it rotate back to Corey Coleman or more of a split this week, I won't be surprised. I would be very surprised and I. So Andy, you be the tiebreaker here. Do you expect it to just be essentially the Josh Gordon shot and are you willing to start him? If you're a solid fantasy team, are you willing to start him over?

[Andy Holloway]

You know, I'm going to throw out.

[Mike Wright]

Some names for you guys and I'm very bullish on Mr. Gordon this week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Marvin Jones. Gordon, Buccaneers.

[Mike Wright]

Gordon.

[Jason Moore]

I would definitely go Marvin Jones, same game.

[Andy Holloway]

Devonte Adams.

[Mike Wright]

Gordon.

[Jason Moore]

I would go Adams, Sterling Shepard with.

[Andy Holloway]

Eli Beck Shepard and then DEZ Bryant in New York against the Giants.

[Jason Moore]

Gordon, DEZ Bryant. Wow.

[Mike Wright]

I'll water bet you against all four of those.

[Jason Moore]

Oh my goodness. Sure. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Do we have a Brooks, did you write that down?

[Jason Moore]

Water bet Jones to be the easiest bet of all.

[Andy Holloway]

Hold on, hold on. I mean that's a, that's Tiger woods versus the field type of a bet. But we got Devonte Adams, Marvin Jones, Sterling Shepard, DEZ Bryant.

[Mike Wright]

Hundred and a touchdown for Gordon this week.

[Andy Holloway]

See? Yeah, me. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

All right, so. But this is playoffs so you get it wrong, you're out.

[Mike Wright]

I have to stand up because I want people to win. All right, back of this advice, I.

[Jason Moore]

Will say this, Andy. Historically, I hate to, I hate to do this. Historically, come these playoff weeks, you've been great.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh.

[Jason Moore]

So I mean I hate to say that it pains everything in me, but you've been great so that we're on a team, fellas. No, we are. You know, I, you know, the first two weeks.

[Mike Wright]

But a team like 3 Bro, first.

[Jason Moore]

And second ranked guy and your intuition, it steps up during these playoff weeks. So it gives me a little bit more confidence in Mr. Flash Gordon.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not going to be able to stop him.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Jason Moore]

I'm still taking that water bet though.

[Mike Wright]

I got four dogs.

[Jason Moore]

I got four Dogs in the ring.

[Mike Wright]

I knew it was your kind of bet to make. I knew I could get an answer.

[Andy Holloway]

Now on top of that, so I like Corey Coleman as a wide receiver. The thing is, with desean Kizer, Jason got very interested in that moment.

[Jason Moore]

Sorry, I'm just going back to this water bet because I will take four cups.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

If he beats the field. If he beats all four, I'm taking, I'm taking four.

[Mike Wright]

You'll take one cup per guy that Gordon beats.

[Jason Moore]

You don't. Well, if he beats all four. All right, go on.

[Mike Wright]

Josh Gordon has just been suspended for not. Just kidding. Just kidding. That is not a real.

[Andy Holloway]

I like Corey Coleman, but I think that desean Kaiser can't sustain multiple wide receivers for fantasy value. But the question then is David and Joku, who has been surging. I mean, which, I mean it's just such classic Cleveland Browns, right? You move up in the first round to get David and Joku is an absolute monster of a man. And it takes you until week 13 or week 14 to figure out how to actually use this tight end that.

[Jason Moore]

Might not just be the Browns. I mean, it's very, very common for rookie tight ends.

[Andy Holloway]

Evan Ingram says what?

[Jason Moore]

Well, I mean they, they lost all their weapons and Evan Ingram is also not a tight end. So he didn't have to learn all the blocking schemes. He's just a wide receiver that lines up next to the offensive line.

[Andy Holloway]

He learned them, sure.

[Jason Moore]

But David and Joku they use as a multi purposed tight end. So it's, it's more difficult to get integrated. Also, he plays for the Browns, the Packers side.

[Mike Wright]

Look, the Browns, they started.

[Andy Holloway]

So do you guys have confidence? Let's say you lost Ertz, you lost Gronk.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yes, I don't know I'd be willing to give in Joku a shot in this one. On the other, I mean. So by extension then I guess the question is to Sean Kaiser.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's streamable.

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely.

[Andy Holloway]

He's ranked appropriately for that as well.

[Mike Wright]

The Browns. Here's an example where the getting last six week data is really important because the Browns on the year are still the 10th ranked running defense. But over the last six weeks they're the 24th ranked. We give up 23 fantasy points per game and Jamal Williams has been cruising.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you start him. No questions.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, guys, give me your take on the 49ers and Texans. This game's in Houston. Garoppolo gets another shot. Carlos Hyde, Marquise Goodwin, the lead wide receiver there in San Francisco. The Wide receivers for the 49ers have averaged 11.7 yards per target since Week 10. That's best in the league. That's Marquis Goodwin at his best. Can you start Goodwin this week? Jason, are you on board?

[Jason Moore]

I think you should start Goodwin this week. He has. He's a player, to me that is undervalued because of the team that he's on. And, you know, his name is not one that going into draft season, anybody cared about. I see Marquis Goodwin as basically a low end wide receiver, too. So similar to what we were saying about Devin Funches. He's not a guy that. I'm saying you, you know, every lineup, get him in over everybody. But he should be started. You know, whoever, whatever team has him. There needs to be a consideration of who is he better than another option that you might have there. Marquis Lee has been really hot. For example, people have been starting him. Marquis Lee's playing Seattle. I'd much rather have Marquise Goodwin over Marquis Lee.

[Andy Holloway]

That's bold.

[Jason Moore]

You know, I. So it's tough. Marquis Goodwin has shown every single game this year, whether he's had a good fantasy game or not, that he can beat the defense. He might get missed on a pass. Now you have an accurate quarterback that I think is streamable in Garoppolo.

[Mike Wright]

Wow.

[Jason Moore]

And plus matchup here.

[Mike Wright]

You think that Garoppolo streamable.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I do. He showed me enough last week that I think that Garoppolo is actually a good quarterback. And the Houston Texans.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not shaking my head with like, like.

[Jason Moore]

Disgust.

[Mike Wright]

Disgust? Yeah. I'm not. I'm not shaking with. I'm shaking it with confusion because I just don't know if Garoppolo is ready to go on the road on a 2 and 10 team and give you fantasy numbers. That's what I don't know. And you know, the Texans, their defense has been bad, so I know that confidence is there. Savage gives you short fields. Maybe you're right. Maybe he's a top. Is he a top 12 guy?

[Andy Holloway]

No, he's not a top 12 guy in my rankings. Would it shock me if he ends up in that 10 to 12 range?

[Mike Wright]

But you want.

[Andy Holloway]

No. No.

[Mike Wright]

You want Cam Newton over Garoppolo?

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Cam Newton against Minnesota.

[Andy Holloway]

I will. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

You are.

[Andy Holloway]

I honestly don't know.

[Mike Wright]

By far the fieriest man in this office. I mean, both with your hair and with your cojones, you're willing to start these guys.

[Andy Holloway]

Listen to these numbers for Jimmy Garoppolo. This is the defense he's facing with Houston Texans the last six weeks. 32nd against the quarterback, also known as the most points allowed per game. Wide receiver, 28, tight end, 30th. Where are they cutting down on the running back?

[Mike Wright]

32Nd best. Right. Isn't that what Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that was.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason would say the only thing that can stop is the running back. And so that you two expecting. You're expecting passing.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. You're expecting passing yards. You're going to beat Houston in the passing game. You brought it up. Over the last six weeks, they've been bad. Here's. They've given up, not just bad to the quarterback. They've given up 13 touchdowns in the last six weeks. That's averaging more than two a game to the quarterback. If Garoppolo throws two touchdowns, I know he's going to have enough yards to have a really successful.

[Andy Holloway]

He put up almost 300 yards on the road at playing against the Bears. And the Bears are way better than.

[Jason Moore]

The Texans at the passing game.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, if you flip it. Look at the 49ers defense over the last six weeks. Ninth against the quarterback, fourth against the running back. Are these numbers real? That can't be true. No, it is. It is true.

[Andy Holloway]

That's crazy.

[Mike Wright]

And look, they're giving up some to the tight end right now. But the Texans, they don't have Bruce Ellington. C.J. fedorowicz is gone. I have to talk about Steven Anderson now because I don't get to later because Mike took him. Mike took him from me for the starts of the week. But Steven Anderson, I love Stephen Anderson. This week, the Texans, the tight ends, have been targeted 37 times since week 10. Essentially the savage era.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

And that's third most in the league. And Steven Anderson is great.

[Andy Holloway]

Necessity is the mother of all invention.

[Jason Moore]

Exactly. Now, is necessity going to be the same level as it's been, you know, in the Savage era? Sure. Except in the Savage era, that's been a Will Fuller less era for the most part. If Will Fuller comes back, are you worried at all about Hopkins being hyper targeted or Steven Anderson getting, you know, a large percentage of the targets? If. If Fuller comes back and gets four or five targets, that's it. Does that make an impact on Steven Anderson or.

[Andy Holloway]

It can have an impact, but the deep threat for Tom Savage taking away. For him being a coward and throwing to the tight end multiple times, I'm not letting that affect my judgment.

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't expect much from Fuller and I don't think you're going to see more targets to Fuller than you were seeing from to Bruce Ellington.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

When. And they've still been the 30, the third most targeted.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I guess you get Fuller back, you lose Ellington.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. You don't want to watch Lamar Miller. We love him this week against the 49ers at home.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. He's been, you know, super consistent. I realized the 49ers. The 49ers over the last four games have given up exactly zero rushing touchdowns, which is very much not what the 49ers have been over the last year and a half. So kudos to the Niners, but I think on the road at, you know, in Houston, Lamar Miller gets enough volume to be secure as a. As a really solid must start play this week.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's talk about the Raiders and Chiefs playing for the top of this division. Yesterday I had to leave work a little early. Had to go into the dentist, had to get a cavity filled. First time I've done that in about 10 years. Reminded me a lot of starting cream hunt these days. Oh, wasn't pleasant, wasn't fun. But you had to do it.

[Jason Moore]

Probably. Probably for the best.

[Mike Wright]

Probably for the best. Had to do it.

[Andy Holloway]

He's not a cavity.

[Jason Moore]

He's a filling.

[Mike Wright]

No, he's a filling. He's. No, he's treating. He's treating a cavity. Kareem, Kareem. The bad dream. I'm hearing.

[Jason Moore]

Kareem. Kareem, Kareem.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, do we want to focus on the sad in this matchup or do we want to focus on the good?

[Jason Moore]

This is such a good matchup for him. I mean, look, last week when a lot of people were saying, Kareem's going to get it together, I was trying my best to pump the brakes because even though the New York jets looked like a good matchup, since they're a bad team, they were second best against running backs over the last six. Over the previous six weeks. At that point, they were not a good matchup. For Kareem Hunt, the worry is not so much the matchup now. The matchup is so much better. Right. Because the Raiders, the one thing that they are bad at defending is NFL players. And so Kareem Hunt, he is in the NFL. So I'm fine with the matchup. The matchup is great. I love it all, you know, guns ablazing. I'm happy. Here's the new question. It's the opportunity.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's.

[Jason Moore]

Will Hunt actually get the ball? They have a new play caller calling plays. This last game and it got worse for Kareem Hunt.

[Mike Wright]

Well, that and then you had bombs. I mean, you had Kelsey twice, Tyreek twice. They didn't get down in the red zone.

[Andy Holloway]

I feel like if Kareem is, you know, trying to fill the cavity that makes Andy Reid just like this giant piece of candy with an evil face who just wants to rip holes in all your teeth.

[Mike Wright]

Look, I'm not going to go back into the dental metaphor at this point, but I think that Kareem Hunt, the odds are still with him having some red zone opportunities in this game. But I'm hesitant. He's not Alvin Camara anymore. He's not a stud right now. He's a player that. You have to weigh your options, Mike. You're choosing Kareem Hunter, Rex Burkhead this year, and you're going Burkhead. Your start of the week, Rex Burkhead.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So there you go. That's exactly when I walked in. They said, andy Holloway, come on back. I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's me. All right. Crabtree, he's back. I love him. We're gonna start him.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Derek Carr, I love him. We're going to talk about him in a minute.

[Andy Holloway]

Really?

[Mike Wright]

Marshawn Lynch. Yes. Oh, really?

[Jason Moore]

I love it.

[Mike Wright]

Marshawn Lynch.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Jared Cook, go away. I don't want to talk to you.

[Jason Moore]

Really.

[Mike Wright]

I want to see you. I'm not going to predict you. I can't predict you.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm with Andy on that.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, he was a start of the week last week. Again, the best possible situation you could ever imagine. No Crabtree, no Cooper, Terrible tight end defense. Poop the bed. Goodbye. Good riddance. See you later. Whatever the cook is cooking, I'm not eating.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, it's. It's been back just quick on Derek Carr. It's been since week seven, which to your credit, I mean, that was the game against Kansas City when Amari Cooper exploded. Since that time, though, he's had more than one passing touchdown once.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, that is true.

[Andy Holloway]

He's been bad for fantasy.

[Mike Wright]

He's been bad for fantasy. And this is the salve. This is what I'm going with. Tyreek Hill, locked and loaded. Travis Kelsey, the number one tight end on the year, locked and loaded. Alex Smith. Are you starting?

[Jason Moore]

Yes, I am starting. Alex Smith. I think he's a top end quarterback. One with this matchup.

[Andy Holloway]

So just in this matchup, would you rather have Smith or would you rather have Derek Carr?

[Mike Wright]

I'd rather go with Smith. I think coming off of last week.

[Jason Moore]

I would as well. Now, before you push a button to move on, I want to ask a couple because I know my Twitter is going to be flooded as it has been the last few weeks of Kareem Hunt, but what about this situation? I want to ask you guys a couple of players. Kareem Hunt or this guy. And who would you start Kareem Hunt against Oakland or Samaj P. Ryan against the Los Angeles Chargers?

[Andy Holloway]

Ooh, that's an excellent question.

[Jason Moore]

I have P. Ryan ahead as well.

[Andy Holloway]

P. Ryan.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. Kareem Hunt or Leonard Fournette against Seattle?

[Andy Holloway]

Also an excellent question.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you. I'm trying my best.

[Andy Holloway]

I think I'd go.

[Mike Wright]

I'd go hunt.

[Andy Holloway]

I'd go Cream Hunt.

[Jason Moore]

I did as well. Final question.

[Andy Holloway]

It's also the injury.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

These weird injury history. Weird injury histories.

[Jason Moore]

The weird injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Whatever, you're fine.

[Jason Moore]

Leonard Fournette, Cream Hunt, or Kenyon Drake against New England?

[Mike Wright]

Ooh, I would take Kenyon Drake.

[Andy Holloway]

Drake.

[Jason Moore]

I went Hunt in that one. So almost an agreement.

[Mike Wright]

These conversations should never have.

[Andy Holloway]

No, they should.

[Jason Moore]

Andy Reid.

[Mike Wright]

This is your fault, you big old piece of candy.

[Jason Moore]

Starts of the week. My start of the week, Kareem, huh?

[Mike Wright]

No, that start of the week drop sounds a little like it's got a little baseball feel to it, Mike. It kind of feels like, you know, the guy on the organ is playing a little.

[Andy Holloway]

He's also from horse racing.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, there you go. Well, that makes sense. American pastimes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. You know, things that people liked in the boxing. 1930s.

[Mike Wright]

Boxing.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me go see the ponies, get.

[Jason Moore]

A box of peanuts. See maybe a Cracker Jack.

[Andy Holloway]

Maybe one A singular.

[Mike Wright]

He's never had a crack.

[Jason Moore]

There's a prize in the box. See, it's a sticker.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know whether to let him go and force us to edit this show later on or continue down the starts of the week. Starts of the week. Quarterback. I'm going. Derek Carr. I just talked about him. Kansas City is reeling. There's no Marcus Peters. They give up the most explosive plays. That's 15 plus yard passing plays. And both Crabtree and Cooper could be back. And even if just Cooper is back, you've got enough weapons, enough big playability with Cordero, Patterson, Seth Roberts and the weapons there. I'm going in on Derek Carr.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I'm going to go with a quarterback who is not a great NFL quarterback, in my opinion, but a very solid fantasy play. It's Jameis Winston. Wow.

[Andy Holloway]

You're downgrading him to a bad quarterback.

[Jason Moore]

I said not very good.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

So I think he's well for NFL purposes. I think he makes too many mistakes. He can throw a great ball, he's got a great arm, he's got the tools, but he makes so many mistakes that I would just say as a franchise, I don't think I'm going to win games because of him. But for fantasy, when he throws a pick and it goes for six, he's got to get back out on the field and throw the ball more and score more touchdowns. He's been really solid this year. In every single game that he has finished, if he hasn't gotten injured and left, he's been essentially a quarterback one. He's got a great matchup here against Detroit who has been giving up a lot of points lately. You know, there's, there's no weather concerns. He's got his weapons back. I think Jameis Winston to me is a, is a guy that, I mean you, you could probably find him on some waivers and he is on those teams that are sneaking in. He's got the chance for that three touchdown, a lot of yardage type of game.

[Mike Wright]

Carr, Winston, Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

Mine is. While he's my start of the week, I tried to take this opportunity because we give our streams on Tuesday. This is another guy who I love and as a streaming quarterback this week, it's Deshaun Kaiser. Since week eight, he has averaged more points per game than Matt Ryan. He's right on par with Drew Brees. He gets to play against Green Bay. Flash Gordon, we already discussed him at length and the emergence of in Joku. And look, maybe, maybe Corey Coleman catches a pass or two. I just. The running, the running ability, the deep playability. I like Kaiser as a, as a streaming option this week at running back.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going with Samaji P. Ryan. P. Ryan, look, the Chargers the dead last against the run. P. Ryan also catches a few passes. If you watch Marshall out of the backfield trying to fill in for Chris Thompson, he stinks. P. Ryan will be heavily involved. I like him this week. I think you can roll him out there.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. My running back start of the week this week is Lamar Miller against the San Francisco 49ers. It's a great matchup at home favored. Those are type of backs you look for. He's just been so consistent because of the volume you know he's had in week 10. A couple weeks ago in a half point scoring format, he was under 10 points under that double digit threshold you try to get to with nine. So he was pretty close since, but if you look on the season, it was week three before that. He is as consistent as it gets. But I think this is the type of matchup where you might actually have some ceiling in addition to the consistency. He can score touchdowns on the ground, he can catch a screen pass, score him that way. So I think Lamar Miller is a guy that you must start on every roster this week.

[Andy Holloway]

My start of the week at the running back position is the Rex Burkhead. The Rex Goat head, as some call him. Mostly just me and a few other people coming off back to back weeks of multiple touchdowns. And this is. I know a lot of people are looking, of course I'm starting Rex Burkhead, but there's a lot of teams that you already had running back depth and.

[Mike Wright]

You were Kareem Hunt, Burkhead, your dynasty.

[Andy Holloway]

And you grabbed Burkhead off of the waiver wire. Rex Burkhead is in my top 12 at this moment.

[Mike Wright]

There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

In time.

[Mike Wright]

In time. Michael Crabtree is my wide receiver start of the week. Look, it makes sense with the Derek Carr situation. No Marcus Peters, it's time for liftoff for that offensive passing attack. I think that you have a game that could be a very explosive matchup between the Chiefs and the Raiders in terms of points. Put up a lot of opportunity in the passing game, especially with the Chiefs kind of putting up a lot of points last week even though they lost Crabtree. I'm sticking him right with Derek Carr and are my starts of the week. Jason, who's your start of the week at the wide receiver position?

[Jason Moore]

I talked about it earlier, but Larry Fitzgerald, he doesn't get enough respect. I get questions all the time, should I start, Larry? Should I start? You know, someone like Jarvis Landry. Larry Fitzgerald at home has been an absolute beast. This is a solid matchup. It's a great play. I would start him in dfs. I'd start him in every lineup. You know these, these two guys that I just said, Lamar Miller, Larry Fitzgerald, they're not digging super deep, but they are saying you are making a huge mistake if you think don't get cute. Don't get cute and put in like for instance, Josh Gordon. I'm not starting Josh Gordon over Larry Fitzgerald. Even though Josh Gordon's a new hotness and Larry is kind of like, oh, he's just so boring. Well, bore your way into a bunch of fantasy points and another week in.

[Andy Holloway]

The playoffs and it was already mentioned, but my wide receiver start of the week is Josh Gordon coming off of 11 targets. Hadn't played football in basically three years. Comes right into 11 targets.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, they're going to give him every opportunity in my opinion.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, Andy went with the Raider stack. I'm going with the Brown stack. The much reviewed.

[Mike Wright]

You mean the team that's going to get their first win this week?

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. Cleveland, Brown stack, Josh Gordon.

[Mike Wright]

All right, Mike, you stole my tight end start of the week. So I'm going with Hunter Henry. Little disappointing last week, but Keenan Allen has been catching 12, 11, 10 passes. I don't think he's going to be able to go as crazy this week against the Washington passing defense. And Washington, look, they sacrifice a little bit to the tight end position because they can cover the wide receiver a little bit better. Washington's 28th against the tight end. Hunter Henry is more than capable and this offense is moving for sand for Los Angeles.

[Andy Holloway]

Nice catch.

[Mike Wright]

Thanks. Jason, you are up next.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. I'm going to complete the trifecta of stacks. I am stacking my tight end this week with Jameis Winston and going with Cameron Brait. Cameron Brait was a top six tight end when he had Jameis Winston and you know, there was all the concern of, oh, O.J. howard is the one stepping up. It wasn't O.J. howard. It was the fact that when Fitzpatrick was there, he did not use the tight end much. He didn't use Cameron Bray hardly at all. Especially in any games that he actually you had the one game where he took over and Brait was in the game plan and he used him. Outside of that, Brait was uninvolved. Now Winston comes back and all he does is throw two touchdowns. Cameron Brait, I think Cameron Brait's a guy on waivers like some of these other guys. We've mentioned, you know, Stephen Anderson, that you could pick up and play and play this week with success.

[Andy Holloway]

My start of the week is Stephen Anderson gets a take on San Francisco. See, he has, he has stolen the crown from Charles Clay. He is the new, improved Mr. Necessary. So I love him as a streaming streamable option for those who are in tight end need.

[Mike Wright]

All right, without further ado, the most anticipated, important, crucial, life changing segment of the week.

[Jason Moore]

Rhyme of the week. Jason Moore's ironclad, locked and loaded, 100% guaranteed. Boom, boom. Kicker of the week. The rhyme this week is a little terrible, but lace them up with Stephen Goskowski. You rhyme. Gosh Kowski.

[Mike Wright]

Good work, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you.

[Mike Wright]

Once again forging a new trail for this show, for this podcast to the moon bringing it into the future. You'll be looked at like a visionary at one point in time. Some point in time.

[Andy Holloway]

Terrible. And Guskowski.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Yep. Nothing.

[Mike Wright]

Look.

[Andy Holloway]

Foot Clan Want to remind you about today's sponsor, the NFL Game Pass. This is the tool that we use to review film. It's so easy. Everything is on there. Every game, every throw, all the two minute drills. Look, NFL Game Pass has it. It can take your fantasy game to a new level. The NFL Game Pass is available now for just $49.99, the lowest price of the season. You can sign up [e-mail] fantasy footballers that's NFL.com fantasy footballers all right, that.

[Mike Wright]

Is it for today's episode. We'll round out the rest of the matchups, the injury reports tomorrow. And good luck to you as your week 14 playoff matchup begin tonight. Alvin Camara and company. It'll be a fun one.

[Andy Holloway]

Draft.comballers goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on JoinTheFoot.com and follow us on Twitter @The FF Ballers.