Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 15 Matchups, News, Playoff Mailbag

Summary

Summary of "Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 15 Matchups, News, Playoff Mailbag"

Release Date: December 18, 2015

In this episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright delve into the crucial Week 15 playoff matchups, dissect the latest news affecting fantasy lineups, analyze player injuries, and address listener questions in the mailbag segment. With host Jason Moore absent due to family commitments, Andy and Mike maintain their sharp analysis and engaging discussion to help fantasy managers navigate this pivotal week.

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1. Welcome and Host Banter (00:00 – 01:29)

The episode begins with Andy and Mike reuniting, sharing light-hearted banter about their dynamic as a two-man band in the absence of Jason Moore. They touch on the holiday season's challenges, including family time and dealing with children's illnesses.

Notable Quote:

Andy Holloway (00:22): "We are definitely back. The important people are back."

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2. Recap of Recent Games and Fantasy Implications (02:30 – 07:29)

Andy and Mike analyze Case Keenum’s performance for the Rams against the Buccaneers, highlighting Mike Evans' exceptional game. They discuss Jameis Winston's struggles under pressure from Aaron Donald and forecast increased target opportunities for Evans in the upcoming playoffs.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright (05:11): "If Mike Evans last night, here's a good example. I'm playing Jason. He's got Mike Evans. If he put up a two last night, my position with my running back, two becomes, I want a safe guy that gets me 10 points if he puts up a 20."

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3. News and Notes: Injuries and Player Updates (07:29 – 12:07)

The hosts discuss key injury updates impacting fantasy decisions:

• Sam Shields’ injury sidelines Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree, altering their projected performances.
• Calvin Johnson’s massive cap hit due to injuries raises questions about his future role with the Detroit Lions, drawing comparisons to Larry Fitzgerald’s contract restructuring.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright (08:10): "With Shields being declared out, I think those guys have upside now."

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4. Player Injury Reports: In or Out Decisions (12:07 – 21:12)

Andy and Mike evaluate whether specific players should be started or rested for Week 15. They cover quarterbacks like Matt Hasselbeck and running backs such as C.J. Anderson, highlighting potential impacts on their teams' performances and fantasy outcomes.

Notable Quote:

Andy Holloway (12:08): "What's it going to be, McFly? Are you in or Out."

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5. Fantasy Forecast and Matchup Analysis (21:12 – 57:50)

The hosts provide an in-depth forecast of upcoming playoff week matches, analyzing key matchups, assessing player performances, and offering start/sit recommendations. Key discussions include:

• Falcons vs. Jaguars: Evaluating the impact of Matt Ryan facing Blake Bortles.
• Packers vs. Raiders: Insights on Randall Cobb under Mike McCarthy’s new play-calling.
• Browns vs. Seahawks: Debating between starting Russell Wilson or Carson Palmer.
• Cardinals vs. Eagles: Highlighting David Johnson’s potential against the Eagles’ vulnerable run defense.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright (21:17): "What are your thoughts on Cobb compared to where they were a couple weeks ago?”

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6. Listener Mailbag: Q&A for Fantasy Decisions (64:16 – 75:04)

In the mailbag segment, Andy and Mike answer listener questions regarding lineup decisions, player starts, and waiver pickups. They tackle scenarios such as:

• Choosing between Tyrod Taylor and Kirk Cousins after Dalton’s injury.
• Deciding whether to start Devonta Freeman or alternative running backs in championship week.
• Handling multiple Steelers players on a manager’s roster amidst a tough matchup.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright (64:24): "And with D. Jackson's injury versus Watkins ascension over there."

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7. Conclusion and Final Thoughts (75:04)

Wrapping up, Andy and Mike reflect on the episode’s comprehensive coverage and engaging discussions. They commend the show as possibly their best yet and encourage listeners to follow their updates on Twitter and the Fantasy Footballers website for ongoing insights and injury reports.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright (74:54): "We'll keep you updated at the FF Ballers with all the injury reports, everything you need to know."

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Key Takeaways:

• Player Recommendations: Emphasis on recent performances and injury statuses to guide start/sit decisions.
• Impact of Injuries: Understanding how injuries like Sam Shields’ affect player projections and adjusting fantasy lineups accordingly.
• Matchup Focus: Detailed analysis of play-off week matchups considering team dynamics and individual player potentials.
• Listener Engagement: Providing tailored advice through the mailbag segment to address specific fantasy dilemmas.

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This Week 15 episode serves as a vital resource for fantasy football playoff contenders, offering strategic insights and practical advice to maximize their chances of success.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Foreign to the Fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Mike Wright]

Happy Friday. We are back. Sort of.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, yeah, we are definitely back. The important people are back.

[Mike Wright]

It is a two man band. It is a two man band. What are we? Which two Beatles would we be?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, we're definitely Ring or Ringo. No, Jason is Ringo.

[Mike Wright]

Jason's Ringo.

[Andy Holloway]

We are Paul and John.

[Mike Wright]

John.

[Andy Holloway]

For sure.

[Mike Wright]

I was gonna say for sure.

[Andy Holloway]

We're here. Over under on disparaging comments made towards Jason.

[Mike Wright]

18.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll take, I'll take the over.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, yes. Jason is out today. He is spending time with his children. They have some very important Christmas performances.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

So we have let him off the hook. He is with his kids and his family and that is fine. And we are here.

[Andy Holloway]

It's the season, man.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's also the season for children being ill as another one of my children fell this morning to strep throat. We got two streps and one cough in the house. So fortunately, you can't catch that through a podcast.

[Andy Holloway]

That's beneficial.

[Mike Wright]

And the parents are okay. Me and my wife.

[Andy Holloway]

If our listeners could catch the diseases that the children have brought into the house.

[Mike Wright]

That's the, that's the worst part. When we had our first child, it was like the first two years he caught everything and we caught everything from him because wherever he was with other kids, it was just. Let's just fully give him every disease that exists in two years once school starts.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I deck my house out like ET where it's just hazmatted out and so I don't want to touch anybody.

[Mike Wright]

Put a button on the wall that sprays Lysol in the whole house like every 30 seconds. Well, welcome to the show. It is Friday, December 18th. We are finishing up the fantasy forecast for week 15 of your playoffs. Right now we're going to go through the injuries and kind of give you our read on the injury situations and who's starting, who's sitting. We will have a little bit longer mailbag today answering some playoff questions and some questions from the listeners and try to get those out there for you. And then we. I don't think Chris Meaney is going to join us on today's show.

[Andy Holloway]

If he doesn't, if we don't get him on the show, we will absolutely tweet out his information. We just, we felt the mail, the mailbag was pretty important today because people are trying to win. We are, we like to give the daily information, but we're clearly a season long focused show. So we want our information the best. It can be semifinals, man.

[Mike Wright]

It is.

[Andy Holloway]

Or semi.

[Mike Wright]

It is big time. And Jason got. Jason got a big game for Mike Evans last night against me. Yep. I. Unfortunately, I mean, it's very rare when I don't see a primetime game. Last night, I did not get to watch that game live because I was with my children watching Star Wars.

[Andy Holloway]

Sometimes you got to go to Star.

[Mike Wright]

Wars, and so no spoilers. Don't worry about that. Mike would probably run out of this room. I'd be doing the show by myself.

[Andy Holloway]

That is. That is accurate.

[Mike Wright]

But I've got it. I've got a good comparison for it, which should encourage people. It was a very good movie. Very, very good movie. LeBron and Michael Jordan.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, there we go.

[Mike Wright]

That's my comparison. All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Love it.

[Mike Wright]

I feel like some people. If Some people think LeBron's the best player in the world, then what are you to argue with them? Right?

[Andy Holloway]

That's true.

[Mike Wright]

But if you like Jordan, that's okay.

[Andy Holloway]

You got it.

[Mike Wright]

They're both pretty good.

[Andy Holloway]

You do got to be careful with the overhype, though, because then. Then the people come in.

[Mike Wright]

No, I know.

[Andy Holloway]

Or can. I don't know. Can you overhype the new star?

[Mike Wright]

Probably not. Based on the. The people that were around us last night.

[Andy Holloway]

Man, I wish I could have gone. It probably been awesome. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

We in their robes and stood out in the cold. Froze our toes off before they let us in the theater. But the kids had a blast. We had a blast. Ate too much food. It was good stuff. So, hey, if you want to follow the show on Twitter, you can just do so at the ffballers. We're on the fantasy sports network. We're on YouTube. You can watch the show real quick. Comment on YouTube. I made a mistake yesterday when we were recording the video portion, so. And it was the worst day to do that. Like, I've never done that before, but I hadn't. I wasn't recording the beginning of the show, and so we missed about 5, 10 minutes of the show before I started.

[Andy Holloway]

Aka the best part of the.

[Mike Wright]

And it just happened to be that. That was the part where Jason was wearing the Darth Vader mask and doing jazz hands at the same moment. And so if you. If that's an important part of your life, I'm sorry we couldn't give it to you.

[Andy Holloway]

It did happen. This is not a. It's not a situation of. If the tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? No, we saw it. Yeah, we saw It. It happened.

[Mike Wright]

All right, so quick question. What are the fantasy implications of last night's game? I think a different game than people expected. Obviously a really good game for Case Keenum from an efficiency standpoint. You saw great production from Tavon Austin. If he was a spot start for people, what else did you get from that game?

[Andy Holloway]

What I wanted to see from Tampa Bay was I want to see Mike Evans force fed the ball. We got that.

[Mike Wright]

You did.

[Andy Holloway]

And the. A lot of the game, though, unfortunately, Jameis Winston was getting highly pressured and you could see it in his body language and his demeanor of. Of overthrowing. Jason was clearly watching very carefully because he has Mike Evans, but he's kept writing. He's like, wow, if Mike Evans were 8ft tall, then Jameis Winston would be having a great night.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Because that's how badly he was overthrowing him. However, like Andy said, Evans monster game. So that just builds up a nice confidence moving forward to next week that he will get those targets. Hopefully the line can hold up a little bit better. Aaron Donald from the Rams is a bad, bad man. My goodness.

[Mike Wright]

There were some J.J. watt comparisons with him earlier in the week.

[Andy Holloway]

He is awesome.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Now, he didn't sack. He didn't register a sack, but whatever.

[Mike Wright]

He was disruptive.

[Andy Holloway]

He was a main cause of getting in Winston's head. And so to the Rams side, clearly we got to start Case Keenum moving forward. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Going forward one week, championship week, Case Keenum.

[Andy Holloway]

Hope you had that. Keenum.

[Mike Wright]

Brit Stack, Austin, Severian Jenkins.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, we know what he did. Oh, the garbage fan can.

[Mike Wright]

It don't matter. They count whether they're the first two minutes or the last two minutes. And you know, I was an advocate for streaming Sephardan Jenkins. He certainly didn't get force fed the ball. I expected everything that happened last night to happen, except for the fact that I thought he would pick up the Vincent Jackson slack. It wouldn't just be passes to Mike Evans that he could catch and couldn't catch.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And he made some great. Evans made some great catches for. For somebody who was maligned for drops the toe drag on this. I know he's.

[Andy Holloway]

He still had a monster hands drop, but he had some great places.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Some good plays and he was playing. I think Tampa fans should be really encouraged.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And fantasy owners for Jameis Winston in years to come because he's shown, I think that he has. What would you call it, like franchise QB flashes throughout the season and an ascending leadership type of. I'm impressed with him.

[Andy Holloway]

I am as well. I think he's going to be very good, which that's great news for the league and great news for fantasy.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely. So let's get into the news.

[Andy Holloway]

News and notes from around the league.

[Mike Wright]

All right. Sam Shields, the cornerback for the Green Bay packers is out again. There was some talk earlier in the week that he was starting. And so I want to make some adjustments to some of the projections I gave out there for especially Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree. People asked me questions very early in the week. I wasn't really high on those guys or Derek Carr. It wasn't that I was super low on them. I just wasn't excited about the matchup. My feeling about the game has kind of changed throughout the week. And so with Shields being declared out, I think those guys have upside now, and I just want to make sure that's out there. Do you agree with me?

[Andy Holloway]

I completely agree. We saw earlier in around the middle of the season when Sam Shields went out. Now, Green Bay also had some other injuries that compacted into us into this. But what started off as a great defense when they got those injuries all of a sudden looked like a really bad defense. And you take. You take the best cornerback off of a team and that absolutely disrupts the defense. You have to shift guys into different positions. It just opens things up for the opposing offense. So I do agree that it gives a bump to the Raiders passing game.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, if you remember to the beginning of the year, the packers defense was a startable. Oh, they were very viable defense and they got disrupted like you said. The other point of news, I want to bring up Dynasty implications, Keeper implications. I just wrote Calvin in the cap. All right. Calvin Johnson is set to count 24.008 million against the cap in 2016.

[Andy Holloway]

That.008 is the.

[Mike Wright]

That's the key.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, if it was just like.

[Mike Wright]

23.9, 23, 24, fine, no big deal.

[Andy Holloway]

But you go.008 over, then we got a serious problem.

[Mike Wright]

Major issue. So now you've got Megatron. He's 31 next season. A little bit of. What was the word you use? Caution or was it. Oh, is what Jason said to describe him.

[Andy Holloway]

I think I said aging, but.

[Mike Wright]

Aging.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, he's not the same guy that was the kind of Odell Beckham Jr. Julio Antonio Brown level fantasy player. Now you've got this variable of the cap number being so huge. A rebuild in Detroit potentially. So if they cut him, they'd save 11 million dollars. They still have to take a 12 million dollar cap hit. But do you think he'll be back? And if he's not, what is. I mean is Calvin no longer a, an upper echelon keeper? What is his dynasty, dynasty implication?

[Andy Holloway]

Man, you can't call him an upper echelon keeper with all the, with all the other wide receivers that have, that are emerging. What's funny is, I mean we had talked about this way, way long ago in the preseason of where we were trying to figure out where is Calvin going to be, you know, will he have this decline, will he still be an elite level guy? And our kind of the arguments of when he was lower, I eventually moved him back up in because I thought he would have a better season. But my argument was everyone else, the other guys, it's not so much Calvin, it's. You're going to have guys emerge like Julio. Well, Julio had already emerged, but Alan, Robinson, Evans, these guys are now rising up. But moving forward, Detroit has, they have to do something. That's what, you know, there's no way you can have a 31 year old with $24 million as your cap. We, we lived this in Arizona, I would say.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

It's, it's very, very similar to what happened with Larry Fitzgerald. Thankfully we were able to restructure and even more thankfully is that Larry was a. Recognized where he was, that he didn't have that dominant outside presence anymore. And he said okay, well use me as you can. And he's, we've seen, he's been great.

[Mike Wright]

So a lot might be tied into Calvin's willingness to accept what he is now or what he is becoming. As opposed to saying, hey, I deserve to be a 24 million dollar cap hit right now because I'm still elite and I'm still Calvin Johnson.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, can they restructure? Can they tear that contract up, get some more help in there like the Cardinals have done with Floyd and John Brown? Yeah, I think Calvin can still be great.

[Mike Wright]

So obviously something that we will be exhaustively looking at in the offseason. Absolutely, things like that. So the big headlines today on Friday is basically injury reports and things like that. So we're going to go ahead and do in and out and get Mike and my. I'll chime in as well. Normally I let you guys do this, but I'll chime into what I think about these guys as you open your soda can.

[Andy Holloway]

Lacroix.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you're Lacroix. Yeah, here we go.

[Andy Holloway]

What's it going to be, McFly? Are you in or Out.

[Mike Wright]

All right. In or out? Matt Hasselbeck.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, man, I, I don't think he's gonna play. If he does play, it's gonna take one shot, one to two shots, and you're gonna knock him out. The guy, if you watched him play last week, every time he got hit to the ground, he was, he was tapping out, man. He did not like in that moment. He said, I don't want to get back up. He would because Hasselback's tough.

[Mike Wright]

Dude, I'm gonna say out, but I lean towards out, which makes Houston's defense just all the more incredible.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, Whitehurst isn't a turnover guy, but as long as you're getting points for opposing yardage, yardage and offensive score, then he's going to be great.

[Mike Wright]

Running backs, in or out? C.J. anderson.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going with in. He practiced even. And the highlight of the practice was on turf. So that which is rough on your feet and your ankle. So he's, he's going to be in.

[Mike Wright]

Here's a big one. TJ Yelden, he's got to be out. You know what's crazy is he has the ability with his decision on this game or whatever takes place to severely disrupt fantasy owners. Because it's not so much the Yelden owners that, oh, we get to put him back in, it's all the Denard Robinson signers that have been putting him in place above other guys. The Rawls owner that grabbed Denard Robinson. Oh, no. What happens if Yelp and everybody out there in the world wants TJ Elden to take a week off? If you, if other than TJ Eldrin.

[Andy Holloway]

And the Jaguars, then all the waivers from this week are just, just destroyed. With Seattle having their situation of adding Michael back in. Now if we put Yelden back in, all these options on Tuesday, but Tuesday morning with, oh, how glorious we have, we have backup options. Everybody do not panic. And then if Yelden plays his full.

[Mike Wright]

Band, suddenly Fozzie Whitaker rises to the top of this heap. Oh, I think that T.J. yelden will play.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you?

[Mike Wright]

I do.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think he plays.

[Mike Wright]

But, but take this, do not take this as canon here with TJ Eldon. We are giving opinion because we haven't got the Friday practice report yet. So today's report will tell you everything you need to know about Yelden and what the coaches are saying. So that'll be a game time decision, I think. I don't think it'll be ruled out today, but I could be wrong if.

[Andy Holloway]

You'Re starting Fozzie Whitaker and Tim Hightower in your playoff semifinals, Let us know because we want to enjoy that moment.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely. Yeah. That. That's a great way to win a matchup and have the ability to mock your opponent for years to come. Spencer, Where? In or out?

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I'm going to go with. I think he's. I think he'll play limited.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Carlos Williams, in or out?

[Andy Holloway]

Probably out.

[Mike Wright]

All right, Wide receivers, Big one. Alshon Jeffrey sat out Wednesday and Thursday with an illness. In or out?

[Andy Holloway]

Not just an illness, but Wednesday was a calf injury. Thursday we didn't really get an update on the calf because it was. It was said to be an illness.

[Mike Wright]

Sounds so John Foxy, dude. It sounds so foxy. It sounds so John Foxy to say, here's what he does. So he's having calf problems. He also gets sick. We're just going to say Thursday was all because of the sickness. Now that. Now the opposing team thinks Alison Jeffries. Fine. I've seen it before.

[Andy Holloway]

I need. I need somebody with tremendous video editing skills. Just put forth, like a funny montage of John Fox with Foxy lady over the top.

[Mike Wright]

Not bad.

[Andy Holloway]

That'll be tremendous.

[Mike Wright]

I think now I'm picturing, you know, John Fox going over, throwing some. You know, sneeze some pepper under the nose of Alshon Jeffrey, getting him to sneeze a few times, and you're out for an illness. We don't. We don't know. What we do know is this Alshon Jeffrey and his calf have been an issue all in. Issue all year round.

[Andy Holloway]

Runs over with, like a thermometer.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Alshon, you. You look. You look pale.

[Mike Wright]

He's like, I'm fine. I got a sore calf or whatever. He's like, no, no, you get in bed.

[Andy Holloway]

He's got the bubonic plague.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So monitor humor aside, you're. You're most of you owners out there going, shut up and tell me whether my superstar is going to play. And I don't blame you. And I actually think that I'm concerned, so I'd have a backup plan in place. But if he. If he starts, he is.

[Andy Holloway]

He's in. If he. If he plays, you gotta play him.

[Mike Wright]

All right, Jarvis Landry, interesting case here. He was limited Wednesday. He was out Thursday. Possible regression there. What's up with Jarvis Landry?

[Andy Holloway]

That is bad news. If to get downgraded to out on a Thursday, that's never something you want to see if he can get in limited work today or it gets labeled as limited because it's mostly a walkthrough and all those things, then I'll. Then I'll be okay. And Landry's the same thing. If he plays football, he plays for a fantasy football.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's do these ones. In or out? Alan Hearns?

[Andy Holloway]

In.

[Mike Wright]

All right. Julian Edelman.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's gonna be out.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, I'm gonna say in on that one just to so pay attention there.

[Andy Holloway]

And we disagree of. You think if he.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, we do. We disagree on that.

[Andy Holloway]

You say if he's in, you're playing him.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And for me, if he's in, I'm not playing him.

[Mike Wright]

Now, what's interesting there, and I don't want to linger too long, but I just want your comment. You had the same situation with, with Amendola coming back where Amendola was coming off the knee and you were like, man, if he's. If he's back, I'm gonna play him. Why isn't that the viewpoint here? Is it because Amendola is there as well?

[Andy Holloway]

It's. It's more the injury.

[Mike Wright]

The actual injury.

[Andy Holloway]

It's the actual injury of. It was his foot. He broke his foot. A bone in his foot. Edelman's entire game is shiftiness, quickness and cutting. So I don't see situation where he's gotten back this quickly. I mean, these, this Wolverine type healing. If Edelman is to play this weekend and play an entire game, I would be very impressed. Not saying it's impossible.

[Mike Wright]

No. And that's good perspective. And the truth is, is for me, even though I think I would start him, if you have somebody in the same tier, why risk the injury component? I try to reduce my variables of failure in football. There's so many variables of failure anyways, I just pull back from any that are like I can induce upon the player.

[Andy Holloway]

And if you. Okay, let's compare him to say Gronk, because, I mean, you got the same team, maybe they treat him the same way. Gronkowski played limited snaps. Now, he happened to have a monster game because he had a touchdown and two big catches.

[Mike Wright]

But if Edelman, who's to say Edelman would play a full second half if this game's put away for some reason?

[Andy Holloway]

That's my concern.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Desean Jackson, in or out? I think he's going to play Dante Moncrief. In or out?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to say out. And this is what is important about Dante Moncrief. If you're trying to get sneaky and slippery. Philip Dorsett is back.

[Mike Wright]

12, 14, 16 team, leagues.

[Andy Holloway]

He is cleared to play.

[Mike Wright]

I don't start him.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know. I'm not saying start him, but pay attention. Put him on your bench if you got a spot and you put them on your bench. Speculates, maybe Moncrief misses some more time and Dorsett has a great game and you think, hey, next week, Matt Hasselbeck or maybe even Andrew Luck is back next week and Philip Dorsett is starting.

[Mike Wright]

Never know.

[Andy Holloway]

Who knows, who knows?

[Mike Wright]

All right, two more guys at the wide receiver position. Stevie Johnson and Kendall Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to go without for both.

[Mike Wright]

Me, too. All right. Four tight ends. I want to mention Greg Olson, limited on Thursday. In or out?

[Andy Holloway]

In Tyler Ifert, I'm going to say out.

[Mike Wright]

Zach Miller in. Charles Clay, probably out.

[Andy Holloway]

But if he's on the football field, is, is he actually out there?

[Mike Wright]

Right. Is he in or out on the field? That's confusing.

[Andy Holloway]

But man, Clay has been, Clay's a good player.

[Mike Wright]

He's.

[Andy Holloway]

Clay has been disappointing for me.

[Mike Wright]

I love him.

[Andy Holloway]

I love him in Miami and they just, they're not game planning.

[Mike Wright]

It's the same thing with Jordan Cameron. Loved him in Cleveland. He's not getting attention. It's just, and this is one of the risks, I'm telling you. Free agency always looks so juicy. It always looks great on paper because they pay these guys big money to come and play for them and then the roles change. You know, it's just a strange thing. And we're going to see it again this year. We'll give you all the, you know, the insight to our thoughts on that as well. Before we get into the rest of the fantasy forecast, go through the matchups, drop some knowledge on you in terms of who you can start and who you can't and get to the mailbag. I do want to thank the sponsor of today's show. We mentioned it yesterday. We're thankful for them for making this show possible. And that is pokerstars.net it is easy to get started on pokerstars.net yout just go there. You click a button to install the software and all you really need to do is register with an email address. You can play for free as long as you want. You start with a thousand chips. You can reload for free a couple times every hour. And there are different types of games, high stakes games, daily tournaments. Lots of fun ways to play poker on pokerstars.net and they're the biggest game in town. They're the largest poker site in the world. There are hundreds of Tournaments every single day. And it's nice because you can play while you're traveling on your iPhone, iPad, Android device. It is so easy. So go over to pokerstars.net, set up a little club for your friends or your fantasy league. Try it out. We really like it. So check it out. Pokerstars.net all right, let's get into the forecast.

[Andy Holloway]

Fantasy forecast.

[Mike Wright]

You know, Fozzie Whitaker didn't look. It never felt, felt like a good start, but it really feels like a bad start when Mike Evans scores 20 on you on Thursday Night Football. Right. Like now I'm at the point where I'm looking at it, I'm going, is there another Hail Mary play out there? I mean, that's, that's kind of a new aspect of fantasy football that didn't exist maybe five, six, seven years ago when Thursday Night Football wasn't every week when you didn't have. I mean, there's a Saturday game this week. There is not just set your lineup and lock and load. Everybody wants to do that. But if Mike Evans last night, here's a good example. I'm playing Jason. He's got Mike Evans. If he put up a two last night, my position with my running back, two becomes, I want a safe guy that gets me 10 points if he puts up a 20. I started thinking, who's a home run candidate? Could I really start Christine Michael in this game? Oh, could I start somebody that has the opportunity to break two long touchdowns? You know, I started thinking in terms of. And then I have Ivory and Marshall on Saturday night, and depending on what they do, that'll determine Saturday morning as well for me. And you kind of have to play back and forth. I think last week you had Larry Fitzgerald have a bad Thursday.

[Andy Holloway]

I was going to say last week, I sure could have used 20 points from Larry. Sure, that would have been nice.

[Mike Wright]

But because of his bad game, I played. I actually played Austin Sifrani Jenkins over Gronk because I didn't know what Gronk was going to do, whether he'd be active on Sunday night. I was playing it safe. It might have been different had he put up 20, I might have played Gronk. So just some perspective. It's different. It's different than it used to be. So Panthers at the Giants. This is, believe it or not.

[Andy Holloway]

Andy's almost upset of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Possibly grandly foolish. That's not even a normal sentence in the English language.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why it's the almost upset, because we're not going all in on it.

[Mike Wright]

Here's the thing. We know this from New York. Every once in a while they can put up offensive points on anybody. You have the best young wide receiver in the game. You have Eli Manning who can catch fire. And you have variables with the Carolina Panthers right now with an injured Jonathan Stewart, a possibly limited Greg Olson, we don't know going on the road, a very good defense. I'm not saying this is a shoe in, but I think it's possible. That's all I'm saying.

[Andy Holloway]

I agree with you. I think it's possible. We saw the Panthers escape by the skin of their butt against the Saints and the Colts and the Colts too. But I'm going Saints recently of if you watch that game, the Panthers really should have lost that game, but they didn't because they're a championship type team. So I agree with you that it's very possible for this to turn into a shootout.

[Mike Wright]

You saw Reuben Randall had a good game last week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Rubes.

[Mike Wright]

Rashad Jennings had a good game last week. And Odell Beckham Jr. Was insane last week.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you see the quotes from Coughlin when people were asking about Jennings if he was going to get that kind of carries?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. He was saying, why do you guys care?

[Andy Holloway]

Why do you guys care about this?

[Mike Wright]

Why don't you join my league, Tom?

[Andy Holloway]

It's called. It's called a billion dollar industry, Tom. We pay your bills.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I'm always amazed that a head coach can be surprised the media wants to ask him a question. It's like, how do you get paid what you pay? How do you get 70,000 people to come watch you in the stadium? Well, we do what we want to do and you shouldn't know about it.

[Andy Holloway]

John Fox, we got a game going on here. Fox or not Fox, Coughlin, we got. We got to get it going.

[Mike Wright]

They probably hang out. All right. Cam Newton, he's a locked and loaded starter.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

The running back situation in Carolina, if you had to just start a guy. Is it Fozzie?

[Andy Holloway]

It's Fozzie. It's Fozzie because the coach has given the nod.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And that's all you got right now.

[Andy Holloway]

In a week of scrambling and scraping for information, any kind of speculation, that's all we've gotten so far from. From anything reported on Carolina is. Is Ron Rivera saying, well, Fazio start.

[Mike Wright]

I think if this game's put away for Carolina, you'll see a lot of opportunities for Cameron Artist paint.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

If it's not, there's a trust factor. Pass Protection, keep Newton healthy, different aspects that go into play there. Tolbert, things like that. Ted Ginn confidence pretty solid this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Pretty solid. I think he's got a. I'll go 30% chance to have one of his Tedgin plays.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Okay, so that, that's good because Ted Ginn's been doing that a little bit and he's got a red hot, white hot quarterback. Let me ask you this. How many questions have you gotten on Twitter, through our, through the website, the fancy footballers.com that have said, would you. What is your concern level with Odell Beckham Jr. Against Josh Norman?

[Andy Holloway]

I've gotten a few.

[Mike Wright]

You have?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, I have.

[Andy Holloway]

I thought I would have some more, but I've gotten just a few of them.

[Mike Wright]

Proportional to the Julio question.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, no, I'm not even close.

[Mike Wright]

See, I haven't gotten any. And I think it's interesting because the.

[Andy Holloway]

PF people decided they made up their mind.

[Mike Wright]

I think people just said, because Odell Beckham Jr. Is coming into this game on fire. By the way, only we looked this up. Doug Baldwin and him, they're separated in our league by about five points over the last five games where Baldwin actually has outscored him because he got eight touchdowns to five for Odell Beckham Jr. But Beckham Jr. Is now the number one receiver in most leagues in terms of fantasy points, most receiving yards and most receptions ever in NFL history through 25 games. For Oda Beckham Jr. 24 touchdowns in 25 games.

[Andy Holloway]

He's.

[Mike Wright]

Nobody's doubting it. And, and I think the reports about Coughlin putting him in the slot have given people a little bit of confidence. And he, and he's, he's got the physical ability to beat him. I don't know why people, you know, Julio had an okay game.

[Andy Holloway]

Julio had an okay game after Josh Norman was not guarding him.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And he had one big play.

[Andy Holloway]

And I think after Josh Norman was not guarding him.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

So that's the difference is if that's also at home.

[Mike Wright]

That other game was in Carolina.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. But if, if the Atlanta Carolina game was close and Norman had stayed in the whole time, I think Julio Jones would have ended up with two catches. I think it would have been really, really bad. Now the reports from the Giants are. Who watched what happened when the, the coaching staff of Atlanta said, we're just going to put Julio out there against Norman and not try and take advantage of matchups. Why would we do that? Coughlin saw that and said, you know, I think we're going to put Odo Beckham in the slot some more because that's the smart thing to do, you know.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, the Atlanta offense is just. I don't even like to think about it anymore. Yeah, it's not good. So Eli Manning though people want to know can you stream Eli Manning in this matchup? There seems to be a lot of optimism towards it compared to what you might expect against the team. Panthers are fourth in the league and run defense fifth against the pass obviously have been on fire as a defense but people still want to start Eli.

[Andy Holloway]

Eli is not safe to me.

[Mike Wright]

Not safe.

[Andy Holloway]

Not safe. We were talking about could that. Could it turn into a shootout? The game flow could do that. Do I think that's going to happen? Probability says no. And I would much rather start a guy like Ryan Fitzpatrick than Eli this week.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's talk about that vaunted Falcons offense as they head to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars. The Jaguars are favored by 3 1/2 points in this game. The over under in the game is 48. So we're expecting some points to be put on the. On the scoreboard which I expect as well. You got Matt Ryan facing Blake Bortles. You've got the Devontae Freeman experiment that continues and I have a lot to say about him. You got the Yelden Denard Robinson situation in this game and then you got Julio who you know, hopefully free. Julio sure seems like this would be the game for it. And then you got Alan Robinson, Alan Hearns and Julius Thomas on free. Robinson free. Everybody free. Well, that'd be all right. I think all the owners in this game would take a 50 point. The problem is the Falcons have only scored 29 points in their last three games. Total.

[Andy Holloway]

Total.

[Mike Wright]

I believe that's. Is that two games or three games. That might be. That might be two games but still not good.

[Andy Holloway]

It's.

[Mike Wright]

It's been a rough and what it's doing is everyone's starting Julio Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

You saw last week. I mean I. Norman or not, it doesn't matter the game float 11 points in our league, whatever it is even the worst of games is an okay game. It's you know like Antonio Brown against Denver this week. Everybody's still rolling him out there. That being said what do Devonta Freeman owners do right now? Because you might have other right.

[Andy Holloway]

You better have a great option. Freeman in this situation isn't my favorite. The Jaguars have have been a decent run.

[Mike Wright]

29 over the last three by the way that was accurate. 29 points in the last games.

[Andy Holloway]

The Jet. The Jaguars have. Have been a pretty solid running defense. But talking about game flow, I, I think this one turns into a shootout with where I actually have confidence that Matt Ryan is an okay play. Before you go crazy with that, there's guys I'd rather play over him. But we've seen recently the Jags get into a lot of these matchups where it's just going back and forth and who can score more points. And in. In fantasy football, if you were talking to me, let's say August, and you said, okay, it's. It's my championship or my semi, semi championship. I was coming down to this. I got to make a decision. Blake Bortles or Matt Ryan wouldn't have.

[Mike Wright]

Even comprehended the question.

[Andy Holloway]

My brain would have exploded and then.

[Mike Wright]

I would have thrown in there. I'd have been like, and are you playing Devonta Freeman? And he would have been like, what?

[Andy Holloway]

And what I would have said is, wait, he's still on the team.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I know you would have. That was your. That was your one whiff. That's captain Whiff on that one.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I've been asked what was my biggest miss is I did not think Freeman was going to be very good.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So. But we're here and Freeman has let people down a little bit with the offensive failures and people are seeing Carolina next week and they're saying to themselves, what do I do? Because Devonta Freeman, do I trust him or would I rather play David Johnson?

[Andy Holloway]

The thing with Freeman is what he was doing in the middle of the year was historic pace of scoring touchdowns. I mean, you. Which, yeah, that has to regress at some point. You can't stay on that kind of a tear which is kind of a. That warning flag for Doug Baldwin where he's on a historic type.

[Mike Wright]

You cannot score 45 rushing touchdowns in a season. He cannot score 45 passing touchdowns in a season.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. It's just. It's not going to happen. So now you're getting that. You got that touchdown regression and you've seen what Freeman can do and in half point and full point ppr, he's still been good. He's just isn't winning you the week when he had that stretch.

[Mike Wright]

When a guy has a games like that though, the name gets associated with those games. And so now you start looking at it and if you bench him, you start saying, Am I benching 40 points? Am I benching 30 points? Because you think in the context of those games. So that's the hard part. And we have a question. I Think in the mailbag that deals with it, so I won't linger there too long. But Alan Hearns, are you feeling confident about him?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Alan Robinson had a weird game last week. One catch.

[Andy Holloway]

One catch for one touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

They scored 50 points. He had one catch for a touchdown.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. It was a tough outing for Allen.

[Mike Wright]

Robinson, but we do like Denard if Yelden's out.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

We like portals. Yep. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I like all the. I like all the jegs. I like this game because I. The 48. I would take the over. That's. That's not my level of expertise to tell you. I'm not advising you. You take that to the bookie.

[Mike Wright]

Sure, sure.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's where I would go. All right.

[Mike Wright]

The packers head to Oakland, take on the Raiders. This is an interesting game. We've already talked about Carr and Cooper and Crabtree, how our feelings on those guys. So I'd like to get your opinion on the running backs and then also on Randall Cobb. Now that Mike McCarthy has taken over play calling. What are your thoughts on Cobb compared to where they were a couple weeks ago?

[Andy Holloway]

On Cobb, you got to have a rebuilt confidence that McCarthy came out and he said, okay, I'm calling the plays. And there was an instant change in level of production for Cobb. I believe he had eight catches last week.

[Mike Wright]

He did.

[Andy Holloway]

Which. That's what you need for Randall Cobb. He's. You.

[Mike Wright]

If you expect that baseline, if you expect.

[Andy Holloway]

If you expect a touchdown from Randall Cobb, you're. You're not really looking at what Randall Cobb is good at. And he. What he is great at doing is giving you a high volume of catches with an opportunity to score a touchdown because he plays for the Packers. So now that. Now that McCarthy's. Because the transformation was instantaneous, that gives me a great level of confidence moving forward. The same with Lacey, where it has transformed. Unfortunately for Lacy owners, they are splitting that time. They're splitting the carries and snaps between Starks and Lacy. So Lacy can't just have the one. One of those unbelievable weeks where he's going to win you the game. I take that back. He could still do that on his limited work. It's just unlikely. Where last year at this time, Lacy was just destroying.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I was just saying. And if he keeps having success like he's having, he might. Those carries might lean his direction more. True. But you did see Starks succeed with smaller carry counts again last week. So I guess that would be a question. Would you ever. Would you flex Starks in this game?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Yes. The Raiders defense, however, is only given up 3.0 yards per carry since getting blown up by Adrian Peterson earlier in the year. They recorded 19 sacks over the last five weeks. But we still have confidence in the Green Bay offense traveling across the country. West coast game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. Even though a lot of people have been very disappointed with the Aaron Rodgers performance because he was a first round pick for if you had him on your team, you likely paid that premium pick. And so you're expecting, you know, close to 50 touchdowns or at least 40 and games of over 300 yards, multi touchdown games every single week and. But he's not been bad. He hasn't crapped your team. He almost did in that Lions game, but he saved you with that with the Hail Mary. So he's still a very safe play. I'm not, I'm not starting other guys over Rogers. He's, he's still a elite, top, top five guy for me.

[Mike Wright]

I agree with you. All right, so the Browns head up to Seattle for, for a good time.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you think the Browns are going to have a good time?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, they're heading up there for a good time. Heading up to Seattle for a good old time. Because you want to play Russell Wilson right now and you certainly want your head coach to come out and say that you don't, that you don't think Russell Wilson's an elite quarterback because that's not a motivating comment.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean Browns, I hope you take in the fish market and the Space Needle, you know, get some bang for your buck on this. Seriously.

[Mike Wright]

In fact, if you don't show up for the stadium, it might not be much different.

[Andy Holloway]

I've never been to Seattle. It's one of those places that I've always wanted to go. So for me, enjoy it, you know, see the sights.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, enjoy your time there because you're not going to enjoy it in the stadium. This is going to be trouble. There's nobody who's playing at a higher level right now. Yes, the mattress have been, have been cakewalks right now for Seattle, but this is going to be trouble.

[Andy Holloway]

The, when we put the, the line in into our dock here, the Seahawks, it could have changed but they at the time they were favored by 14 1/2 points over two touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

You don't see that a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

No so at all.

[Mike Wright]

So Russell Wilson, you are our sit of the week. Obviously we've said that our honorary set of the week. So continue. He's had a perfect pass rating when they've gone empty set with four wide.

[Andy Holloway]

Russell Wilson is just gnarly.

[Mike Wright]

Five wide.

[Andy Holloway]

Gnarly right now.

[Mike Wright]

It's just incredible. And the Seattle defense, the only thing that really worked great for Cleveland last week was Isaiah Crowe actually ran the ball well. Seattle defense gives up about 44 yards a game on the ground. I mean, it's just. It's not a pretty picture there. You lost Heartline for the season, who was actually productive. You lost him. He's gone. You can't start. So the question for a lot of people is Barnage, Right? Like, is it Barnage or Kelsey? Is it Barnage or Gates?

[Andy Holloway]

Barnage.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Barnage. So what are your thoughts on Barnage? Because I'm. I'm fading on him. I know Seattle's been not that great against tight ends, but it's a different Seattle defense right now than it was earlier in the year.

[Andy Holloway]

I still like him. I think that he will get enough targets that he'll give you a decent outing. I think he's safe. Where I don't. His potential to have a monster game like he's been having throughout the year, probably on the lower scale of the probability, but he's still a safe guy. So when you're saying you're fading on him, who. What level of guy are you looking to play?

[Mike Wright]

Travis Kelsey.

[Andy Holloway]

You'd play Kelsey over Barnage?

[Mike Wright]

I think I'd play Kelsey over. Over Barnage.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Because I like playing against Baltimore and having kind of the upside of that equation. I just feel like.

[Andy Holloway]

Because the. You feel like the offense for Baltimore is so bad.

[Mike Wright]

Well, more so that the. Yeah. Because the offense is so bad. The Chiefs will have the ball. They're at home. The Chiefs have a lot of, you know, you saw Russell Wilson score five touches against the Ravens last week. The upside to me for Barnage, like you said, his potential to score is very low to me in this game. And so you need, you know, maybe he gives you a Jason Whitten, like, performance.

[Andy Holloway]

So are you. Are we talking to the point of. You would grab one of these lower streamer guys, like a tie, a Rudolph, a Richard Rogers?

[Mike Wright]

No. No.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. You're still.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Hold your horses. No, I'm trying to find the level. I wouldn't do the level, but I'm bumping him down. I'm going to bump Barnage down a little bit. Like, I would. I would feel fine playing Julius Thomas over Gary Barnage. Okay. Maybe Ben Watson. That would be. But I know Barnage is delivered for most teams and you don't have that option. So the other thing I just want to say you're starting Doug Baldwin, Are you starting Tyler Lockett?

[Andy Holloway]

I would flex Lockett. I don't have extreme confidence in him. But because Seattle has been scorching, you got to stay in the flames with that offense and it's just grabbing a piece. And Lockett has been. His production is increasing. What you want to see from a rookie wide receiver is if they're going to start slow, you want to see that ascension at some point and that has started to happen. So that's, I guess, the confidence you can. You can gain for if you want to play Locket. But he's not a guy I'm going to slot into a wide receiver two role.

[Mike Wright]

All right, so we can't move on from this game until we talk about the running backs for Seattle. We'll get to the rest of the games that we have to do that real quick. Fred Jackson, Bryce Brown, Christine Michael, Christine Michaels back. Yeah, he actually has an opportunity.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, there is a chance for Michael here. I don't have. I don't have confidence really in starting any of these guys because it is a messy situation where I don't know, man, I think you're getting all or nothing if you start one of these guys. And if I had to make a decision of I have to play one of those guys, I would. I would lean Brown. I lean Brown at this point.

[Mike Wright]

It's very interesting because when they, the coaching staff, Pete Carroll, offensive coordinator, when they were talking about Christine Michael, they asked him, you know, like, does he. Does he know that it's his last chance? Probably. And they're like, we're banking on it. You know, they know that he had consistency issues. And Carroll came out and said, this was Rawls. This was what. That's why Michael wasn't there. This was Rawls outperforming Michael from a consistency standpoint. So I still think the potential, like the game flow has to go the right way. But maybe Michael has some burst left. Maybe he has something left for one game.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he should have a lot of tread left on his tires, so to speak. He's gotten very limited action, so it just could. Could happen.

[Mike Wright]

It reminds me when he got very limited carries at different times, preseason, other games for them, when he could come in, lynch was out and he'd. He could bust off a 45 yard touchdown run in one play. I'm not saying start him. I'm just curious to see what they have because it's kind of a, you know, I wonder Fred Jackson saying, hey, you know, I've Kind of been a starting running back. Why am I not.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Which is fair. It's. It's. But they need Fred for. For that particular role. So why. Why destroy him when they believe they have to believe they're making the playoffs? Because I. Absolutely. I believe they're making the playoffs. So you.

[Mike Wright]

You would buy into Brown, though? That's the headline.

[Andy Holloway]

Buy in is very strong.

[Mike Wright]

Would you start Brown over a Crowell in the same game?

[Andy Holloway]

Ooh.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, how do you. How do you not.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I would. Just because the matchup. The Crowell is.

[Mike Wright]

Would you start Bryce Brown or Buck Allen this week against Kansas City?

[Andy Holloway]

I'd go buck Allen.

[Mike Wright]

Darren McFadden, probably.

[Andy Holloway]

I still lean Darren McFadden.

[Mike Wright]

Matt Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Ooh. Who's Washington playing? I don't recall.

[Mike Wright]

Washington is taking on the. Why am I losing this here? Bills.

[Andy Holloway]

The Bills.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I'll still go with Jones. Maybe I'll swing for the fences on that one. Just go Brown.

[Mike Wright]

Right. For upside. All right, let's move on. We're going to talk about the Bengals and the 49ers, right? Bengals head to the Bay Area, take on the 49ers. People want to know what's up with the big salad. Can you count on anything this week?

[Andy Holloway]

I still have confidence. I still have confidence in the produce, that it will regain its form of crispiness.

[Mike Wright]

I doubt it.

[Andy Holloway]

And health.

[Mike Wright]

I doubt it. I feel like the defense for the Bengals has to step up in light of Dalton's absence. And I'm not excited about Drone.

[Andy Holloway]

We were. We were never excited about Drone, except.

[Mike Wright]

For last week, because you're never excited to eat your vegetables.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why he's the big salad. But we saw a level of success when Arizona went into the Bay Area. I mean, we saw. We saw Drone getting all the snaps, all the touches, and he gives you. He's that 50, 50 guy. If he can give you 50, 50, you're very, very happy with that production level. And I think he could get there. It's the Bengals. Don't scare me. To the point of he can't get 50. 50.

[Mike Wright]

You have to start one running back for the Bengals, and his name is Jer.

[Andy Holloway]

Jeremy Hill.

[Mike Wright]

Jeremy Hill for me to go with Hill. It's Jeremy Hill for me, too. Would you flex him?

[Andy Holloway]

Hill?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, absolutely. Would you put him in as a two?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so that's a decent level of confidence.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, if there's a decent level of confidence, there's also been a clearing out and destruction of running backs of value.

[Mike Wright]

I do Want to remind people that plays into it. I want to remind people that Vance McDonald should be back this week for San Francisco deep leagues. If you needed a deep league streamer at tight end, he did. He was very productive before the concussion.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And, you know, he was hyped up a little bit, and then he got concussed, and you just haven't seen him. He should be back out there starting A.J. green. Would you start Marvin Jones with A.J. mcCarron?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, maybe @ a flex, but that's. You're hoping for a touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

All right. The Broncos head to Pittsburgh, taking on the Steelers. This is the Osweiler, Roethlisberger battle.

[Andy Holloway]

I take it you're not playing anybody else from San Francisco.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, Bolden's had a couple good games.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not. No, I'm not. I mean, I don't know. You may expound on my deep distrust for the San Francisco offense.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Just asking.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I mean, there's just too many other options at wide receiver. I'd play. I'll tell you who I'd play over Bold, and I'd play Tyler Lockett over Bolden. Oh, I'd play Tyler. I might play Jermaine Curse over Bolden. I probably would, actually. Come on youn want that bet?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

You don't want Curse versus Bolden?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I do not.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

I just feel bad that we're even.

[Mike Wright]

Talking about it because you won't let me move on to this other game. All right. Everybody needs to know, is the Denver defense so good that this is going to make Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant and D'Angelo Williams and Ben Roethlisberger and Heath Miller irrelevant?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

So disclose their grand relevance.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, it certainly caps the ceiling. They've got this at a. The wise guys have this at a 44 and a half over under, so they're expecting a lower amount of points. The Steelers are decently favored. So if you take the implied point total for the Steelers, then. Then you're. Okay. Roethlisberger, we had this. Wait, who did the Broncos play last week? I'm trying to. Oh, car. It was you. It was. You sit Carr. You absolutely sit Carr. And you said all the. All the skill players for Oakland. I'm not going to sit them for Pittsburgh. I'm going to play Ben. Assuming you got to find that line, that threshold, so to speak, for me.

[Mike Wright]

You said yours was around Stafford, right?

[Andy Holloway]

I would not play Stafford over Big Ben.

[Mike Wright]

That's what I mean for me, the line.

[Andy Holloway]

The line where I kind of get wavy is a Ryan Fitzpatrick who's been great the last three weeks. Do I play Ryan Fitzpatrick over Big Ben and Eileen? Yes, but that's really, really fuzzy right there for me right now.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so Antonio Brown, I've told everybody, keep him out there. But what about. Here's the problem that a lot of people have. They're worried about stacking Steelers. They're worried about, okay, I've got Brown and Bryant or I've got D. Will and Antonio Brown. So are as you as an owner, do you hedge your bets to where. Okay, if Denver came out and gave a dominating defensive performance, would you want two Steelers out there or not? Like, because how many people are sitting? Would you sit? Let's say you had D'Angelo Williams and Antonio Brown and you have the option of putting Denard Robinson out there instead of D'Angelo Williams.

[Andy Holloway]

That's.

[Mike Wright]

Or. Or Alan Hearn's out there instead of Antonio Brown.

[Andy Holloway]

Brown. Brown is the Denard Robinson.

[Mike Wright]

By the way, Yelden is officially doubtful. We'll just presume him out.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

For this conversation.

[Andy Holloway]

The Robinson, that's a tough one. If I'm trying. If I, if I'm going with Brown and D'Angelo Williams and Denard Robinson is an option where you can kind of not over commit to that offense.

[Mike Wright]

That's the question. Can you protect yourself?

[Andy Holloway]

I would still go with both of. Both of the Steelers, though.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, well, people want to know that. That's the question that they have. I mean, it's. It's a tough thing.

[Andy Holloway]

That's tough.

[Mike Wright]

You also have people who have a lot of Steelers. They're owned by a lot of people. And the Denver defense. And my advice to people with the Denver defense and Steelers is to find another defense. This game's in Pittsburgh. If you think your offense has a chance and you've got Houston sitting out there on the waiver wire or somebody else that's viable, I would start a different defense. I would not put myself in the position where I'm going to, you know, cut off my nose to spite my face, if that makes sense.

[Andy Holloway]

What about the Patriots? Would you play the Patriots over. Yes. Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I play the Patriots defense over Denver. If I was in that boat, I would.

[Andy Holloway]

I would not stack Brown and Bryant.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Yeah. Two wide receivers facing a defense has given up two wide receiver touchdowns for the season.

[Andy Holloway]

If I'm going to, hopefully you have another option. That's where I would draw the line.

[Mike Wright]

All right. My start of the week is in this game, and that is Heath Miller. I love Heath Miller in this game, the short passing routes, caught 10 to 10 targets last week. Seems to be back. Make sure he's healthy. Make sure he's starting. But I like Heath Miller on the other side of the ball. Demarius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders. Any problems with them?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Vernon Davis. What are your thoughts on Vernon Davis?

[Andy Holloway]

My thoughts on Vernon Davis are.

[Mike Wright]

I do recall them from Sunday. Okay, stop running backwards.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that part of it, Mr. Davis? Just go. Just go forward. There was. There's a fish character in a movie that my youngest son makes me watch every single day. And. And the motto of that fish is to just keep swimming forward. For the forward is implied, sure.

[Mike Wright]

But not for Vernon.

[Andy Holloway]

Please stop trying to wheel around and get an extra five, three or four.

[Mike Wright]

Catches where he caught the ball in the middle of field and then wheeled backwards around.

[Andy Holloway]

It was just silliness.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's talk about the Dolphins and the Chargers. We got. We have to move on. We got three more matchups. We got the mailbag. All right. Can you start Phillip Rivers? I want to know.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, man, you can.

[Mike Wright]

I think you answered no. I think that was answering the word no. Donchell Inman will be back. I don't expect Stevie Johnson. We don't have great options. We've had three or four games where Rivers has scored zero touchdowns. Find somebody else.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, find somebody else. That is.

[Mike Wright]

He could have a great game, but it's so disappointing. Well, because the schedule is lining up for him.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

But he lost the weapons. The team is obviously competing for the number one pick at this point. So Rivers is out Gordon and Woodhead is done. Woodhead retired four weeks ago. Forced retirement from the offense because they.

[Andy Holloway]

Want to give Gordon the ball, which I understand it. I think it's. It's fair that your number one pick, you spent a high pick on Melvin Gordon that you want to get him going. I actually think that Gordon is an okay. I do Lower running back this week because the.

[Mike Wright]

Bryce Brown or Melvin Gordon.

[Andy Holloway]

Gordon.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. So Gordon and Gates are the two guys. You could start here. Yep. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

Other side of the ball. Lamar Miller. We made a bet. Was it. Was it on the Join the foot mailbag show?

[Andy Holloway]

We made a Lamar Miller bet.

[Mike Wright]

Jason. I did with carries.

[Andy Holloway]

You and Jason made a Lamar miller over under 15 carries. Water bet.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And I feel okay about that still. I think they're very foolish if they don't give him more than that. The dolphins are four. No. This year when Lamar Miller's had more than 15 touches. The problem is, is that They've decided that they don't want to give him that because the problem is they've decided that might not.

[Andy Holloway]

They don't like to win.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if that's four and, oh, this year over the last two years, but they. When they give him the ball, he seems to produce. We see it on the field, but they've decided he can't handle a big workload, or they've decided that they want to be. You know, I don't. I don't blame them where they're at trying to figure out what they have in Ajayi because he's cost control for three years. Lamar Miller is somebody who's a free agent, and I don't think he's coming back.

[Andy Holloway]

But even Ajayi didn't get work last week.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah, he was on the field for a couple drives, and Damian Williams was out there. I mean, there were work and snaps, I guess is a different thing.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Okay.

[Mike Wright]

But. But they were sharing snaps.

[Andy Holloway]

When I say work, I mean actually physically touching the ball, but I. There's other things involved, I guess.

[Mike Wright]

So we said, if Landry's healthy, you start him. Let's say, let's pretend Landry misses because.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

As of right now, he missed yesterday's practice after being limited. If he's out, do you bump up. You know, Rashad Matthews might be back on the field. You got. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow. Matthews.

[Mike Wright]

And you got Devonte Parker, who disappointed people last week.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, man. I would.

[Mike Wright]

How do you. How do you even read that? What is going on here? What in the world? You find it so funny when I. I do.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know why it's so funny when. Oh, man. I just need to try and find some information. And then you get a movie trailer.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I. This website that I rely on for my news occasionally has never had an autoplay video. And now I pull it up and I get an autoplay video.

[Andy Holloway]

They gotcha.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So Rashard Matthews was limited on Thursday, so he could be back out there. Probably will be. That would be my gut. So is there anybody that you would start. Would you take a flyer with Parker if Landry was out?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I would. I would.

[Mike Wright]

18 targets has to go somewhere. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

I would still take the flyer on him. And if. If Landry is out, I will not play Tannehill if Landry is in. I think Tannehill is an okay last resort streaming option, so.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so you. You answer my question. Cardinals Eagles Sunday Night Football. Carson Palmer locked and loaded. Put him in. Head towards Your semifinal victory with Carson Palmer.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

All right. I just needed a little bit of a. An endorsement there.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I've.

[Andy Holloway]

You. You have to have confidence in the Cardinals offense because one, they're the highest scoring offense in the league. Two, we've seen the Eagles in. In recent games just get destroyed through the passing game.

[Mike Wright]

24Th against the run right now. 20. I'm sorry, 24th against the pass. 28th against the run. The Eagles defense, they've coughed up 161.5 rushing yards per game over the last four weeks. And you mix that in with David.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, David Johnson. Sorry, I was reading a different stack.

[Mike Wright]

I caught up, so. No, you're good. So David Johnson is a muscular David Johnson or D'Angelo Williams.

[Andy Holloway]

David Johnson.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I agree with you. I do. We have David Johnson as our consensus number four this week based on what we see in this matchup. I have met three, Jason hasn't met four. You have them a little bit lower. The only guys I had above them were Gurley, McCoy and Peterson. So that being said, David Johnson, juicy matchup, Sunday Night Football. All the carries, no Ellington. I love it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you just look. Look towards last week that David Johnson had a very strong game against Minnesota. Now, Minnesota's defense was a little depleted, but you add on top of that that David. David Johnson was a fraction away from having a monster game.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you can start him confidently now. The other side of the ball. The Cardinals have held six of their last seven opponents to under 100 rushing yards, and you already have a mess in the backfield in Philadelphia. That being said, we have two starts of our week in this game. We have Darren Sprols being one of them.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Explain that again. So, Darren Sprols, why do you like Darren Sprols?

[Andy Holloway]

Darren Sprolls is the guy that I like. Because the Cardinals can't handle edge speed. They can't handle really edge plays, period. Where. That's where Minnesota did the damage. We also say I. But a lot of people thought the same way I did last week that Minnesota was going to get shut down. But they had a fantastic game plan to exploit Arizona in the beginning, in.

[Mike Wright]

The very beginning of the game.

[Andy Holloway]

Well. And even towards the end.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you're right. No, you're right. Because they had those underneath crossing routes, just getting.

[Andy Holloway]

Getting tight ends, screens, just getting things out to the edge caused a problem for Arizona. Now, I assume that Chip Kelly will have noticed these things, and he's been kind of leaning on Darren Sproulin's. Darren Sproul's anyways the last few weeks you get Sprols with that speed to the edge that can create a problem. We saw Giovanni Bernard have a great game against Arizona because he creates that similar matchup problem. So it now when I say he's my start of the week, he's still a little bit lower in the rankings. He just. The upside is tremendous for Sprouls. It's not like I'm saying. Let me, let me pull up my rankings here. I'm not saying, you know, like Jeremy. We were just talking about Jeremy Hill, a guy I like. Am I saying play sprolls over Jeremy Hill? No, I'm not going that level. Just saying that that Sprols in your flex is a. Is a great upside guy to have in that in that position. As long as you have a nice foundation then Sprouls is a great play for you.

[Mike Wright]

I agree with you. I agree with you. He's got, he's got opportunity in that offense and he catches the ball. Really helpful in PPR leagues. Really. Like the other star of the week is Michael Floyd. Love Michael Floyd. Yeah, Aryans came out yesterday said Floyd's playing at an elite level. Just affirming what our eyeballs already told us about Michael Floyd. Love him this week, starting him over A lot of guys this week. That being said, roll out the entire offensive force for the, for the Cardinals.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

Because you don't know necessarily. You saw Last week Brown 65 year touchdown. Floyd had a long touchdown. Fitzgerald had a disappointing game. He hasn't been in the end zone lately. He's the guy at the bottom of that list for me. But I still think he has the opportunity.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And we've when I was looking up Fitzgerald stuff, he's actually been a much more of a force when he's on the road and I think that's a just a thing of leaning on the veteran in a, in a situation where a Brown Floyd. Well I guess they're Floyd's pretty much a veteran now at this point, but Brown still a younger guy. Get that Wiley, that Wiley veteran going in Larry Fitzgerald and move the ball down the field.

[Mike Wright]

Totally agree. All right. Lions, Saints Monday Night Football game Primetime Drew Brees, he likes to light it up. A lot of confidence here especially Lions giving up. Giving up might be the just best way to sum it up. I mean I don't want to. I've been like duly impressed and not impressed with that offense and that team because they came back, they came back from a bad start, showed a lot of resilience and then flowed right back into kind of, you know, after the Hail Mary. Really, you just wonder if they just said, all right, this is not our year. We were eliminated from the playoffs on that play. They got beat up last week against St. Louis, so.

[Andy Holloway]

Which we saw St. Louis beat up the Tampa Bay Bucks pretty bad.

[Mike Wright]

So that's my. Yeah, I know. And they're such an enigmatic team as well.

[Andy Holloway]

They're very up and down.

[Mike Wright]

They beat the Cardinals this year. The Cardinals have two losses. One of them was to St. Louis. So Drew Brees, love him. Hightower love him. 28 carries a guy. The volume, the reliance on him. They don't have a lot to lose leaning on him. It's not like he's getting worn down from not playing in the last five years.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's a valid point of. Because I'm thinking, do they want to do that again where they just give Hightower an extreme volume? Now, a lot of that was game flow where they were running out of.

[Mike Wright]

Clock, but they might be doing that again.

[Andy Holloway]

They have nothing to lose by letting Hightower do that. Just run him into the ground. And for Hightower, it's even better for, you know, let me. Let me have a chance here so I can see if I can stay in the league a couple more years.

[Mike Wright]

I don't want to. One of the things I've always said, especially over the last few weeks, is don't overplay the matchup. Play. Play the talent. You. You need to pay attention to the matchup. Just don't overplay it. Don't. Don't just say, okay, Stafford's playing the Saints. The Saints suck. So Stafford's locked and loaded, number one. I know some people like him a lot this week. I'm not of that. I don't believe that. Really, I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you?

[Mike Wright]

I put him at the end of the one category because of the matchup. Yes, but I don't think he's got as much. Yes, he has upside, but I just don't. I don't think he's as safe as people think he is in this matchup. The Saints over the last four weeks haven't been exactly. They haven't been giving it up to the wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, to the same degree that they had been. And this is a prime time game at home for the Saints defense. They've improved on certain levels. I just don't think it's an automatic thing. We saw Megatron struggle last week. You have to start him in this matchup.

[Andy Holloway]

I get that.

[Mike Wright]

You're not sitting Megatron down. But do you. You know, Golden Tate's a guy I love. Target numbers have been there.

[Andy Holloway]

I love Golden Tate. Nine catches. Eight catches. Seven. Eight.

[Mike Wright]

So do you.

[Andy Holloway]

That's his last four weeks.

[Mike Wright]

Do you agree with me or do you disagree?

[Andy Holloway]

I agree with you that what are your.

[Mike Wright]

What's your feeling about the Saints defense right now? I know they're not anywhere near the top of the league, but I agree.

[Andy Holloway]

With you in the fact that I have Stafford as a lower one. I'm not. It's not like the week of Kirk Cousins where they were in the midst of Rob Ryan of Meltdown, where he said, okay, Kirk Cousins, he's the next man up. And he ignited them with four touchdowns. I think that. I think Stafford could still have a good game. And this. This. If you're just trying to look for matchup of points, this very well could become that because of. We know that Breeze is going to put up points. I guess a question of concern for the Saints is Darius Slay against Brandon Cooks, if that's the. What they choose to do of if they're going to shadow him at all. Because Darius Slay has been fantastic in the last few weeks. So there is a concern of that. Is that going to stop me from playing Brandon Cooks? No, not even close.

[Mike Wright]

And we will no doubt talk about this game at greater length on Monday. Implications for people and their fantasy teams and who we like. We need to move on. We normally talk with Chris Miniature of the Fantasy Sports Network right now. We are going to share his daily fantasy insights, but we don't have him on the show this morning. We're gonna go into the mailbag.

[Andy Holloway]

Mailbag, Mailbag. Without Jason.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Oh, you know what? We are way under. I think we are.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you're right.

[Mike Wright]

We got so lost in the. In the whole. All the matchups and flying through here. We're already over well over an hour on the show today and, you know, we haven't insulted him nearly enough.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's what happened. Slowly but surely, this turned into our best show of the week.

[Mike Wright]

You're right. You're right. It is the best. It might be the best show we've done all year. You.

[Andy Holloway]

Now that you say that right, I'm trying to think back. Of all the show we've done a lot of shows this year, this might be the best show.

[Mike Wright]

You're right. It is the best show. I hate to.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't even. I can't put a finger on why it's the best show.

[Mike Wright]

And it's not like us to brag normally. That's Jason. Jason's the one who brags about everything for no reason. And we are generally very humble. But I, even in my humble state, I can see how this is the best show.

[Andy Holloway]

It's going with the humble brag.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So welcome to the mailbag. Let's actually help people now. How about that? Here we go. Let's do some voicemail questions. I bet we're gonna.

[C]

Hey, guys, it's Alexa in Tampa. Hoping you guys can help me get to the finals. Big playoff matchup this week for me.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[C]

Need to know with Dalton's injury, who do I start? Kirk Cousins at home against the Bills or Tyrod Taylor on the road in Washington? Please help me get to the finals. Love you guys so much. Thanks.

[Andy Holloway]

Bye.

[Mike Wright]

That is a great question.

[Andy Holloway]

That is a great question.

[Mike Wright]

That's a great question. And I have my answer. But I. Do you want me to let you.

[Andy Holloway]

Know who I. I'm going with Tyrod Taylor in this one.

[Mike Wright]

Then it's unanimous.

[Andy Holloway]

I know that I do talk about. Washington is a much better team on the road, but Tyrod Taylor and Sammy Watkins are really getting it going and it's so is Shady McCoy. So I think that the offense of the Bills as a whole will be a little bit too much for Washington to handle over the course of the game. And I expect Taylor to have at least a couple touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

I'm with you. And with D. Jackson's injury versus Watkins ascension over there.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's great.

[Mike Wright]

Kind of leans me that direction.

[Andy Holloway]

And Kirk Cousins, who maybe. Careful, careful. This take is a little hot. Kirk Cousins has actually been pretty good this year.

[Mike Wright]

Like that. You like that?

[Andy Holloway]

It was. It was pretty disastrous at the beginning of the year, but his play has improved. However, I believe he only has two multi touchdown games through the air. He's ran in a few wins, so that. That helped him out. But as far as passing touchdowns. So we like to multi game.

[Mike Wright]

So we like Taylor. Yes, go with Taylor. All right, here's another question.

[C]

Hey, guys, it's Brian in Washington. I love the show, but I have a quarterback quandary. I had Andrew Luck and Brian Hoyer, who are both beat to hell, as Chuck Pagana would say.

[Mike Wright]

Correct.

[C]

And my team is stacked otherwise. But as far as waiver QBs go, it's a bunch of steaming duties left on the free agents. So who do I pick up on this list? Which of these turds will flush down the easiest? Jay Cutler. Who kind of worries me because they Also have forte. So what if Chicago stinks, but Jay Cutler, Jameis Winston, T.J. yates, A.J. mcCarron or Kierk Cousins? So I'll take my call off the air since I'm assuming that's the only option. Okay, thanks.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's the only option. And obviously this was sent in, I guess before Thursday night's game with Winston already playing. So I'm going to cross him off the list. Yeah, you can't retroactively play Winston.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, and I don't think you would want to. I mean, he had good yardage, but.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So for me, I'm actually going to go with TJ8s.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's.

[Mike Wright]

If you'd rather. If you feel more comfortable, you want to hedge against Chicago stinking and not play Cutler, I'm okay with the eights.

[Andy Holloway]

And for Cutler, a big portion of that is Alshon Jeffrey.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely.

[Andy Holloway]

Is Alshon Jeffrey good to go?

[Mike Wright]

If he was, would you play Cutler over Yates?

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to still say Yates against.

[Andy Holloway]

The banged up Minnesota defense. I would still go with. I would go with Cutler, but if there's any concern over Alishon. Yeah, I mean, Yates, that's.

[Mike Wright]

I know, but listen, what do we say? The Colts have given up? Not. You have to pay attention to the trend. 96 points given up by the Colts. Might be. Whitehurst, might be a beat up Matt Hasselbeck. I think the potential for Yates to have three touchdowns is actually very high.

[Andy Holloway]

And I've heard that this Deandre Hopkins, fellas, he might become a thing.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's good. Very close.

[Andy Holloway]

He's very close to that.

[Mike Wright]

All right, next question.

[Andy Holloway]

Yates. Yates was the. Yates was the quarterback who won the playoff game for the Texans, right? Yes, he's. He's solid.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, well, he's a hardened veteran. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep expounding.

[C]

Hey, fantasy footballers. This is Diego Diaz, Marina Valley, California. And I have such running back situation. I have Amir Abdullah, Goliath Powell or Matt Jones for an RB2 position. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks so much. Love your show, man.

[Andy Holloway]

Wish we knew if that was PPR or not.

[Mike Wright]

Amir Abdullah. Blah, pal. And Matt Jones and I. Okay, so answer for both.

[Andy Holloway]

I would lean.

[Mike Wright]

I would probably play Matt Jones in both forms.

[Andy Holloway]

Really?

[Mike Wright]

I probably would.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to go. I'm going to go Amir Abdullah. I know that. Really?

[Mike Wright]

In both.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Wow.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, in ppr, I might actually go below Powell, but I guess Chris. I forgot Chris Thompson got torn in half.

[Mike Wright]

Well, no, he might be back out There.

[Andy Holloway]

But regardless, after being torn in half, Chris Thompson is back.

[Mike Wright]

Let me just break something to you. And you know, without Jason here, it'll be accurate. So basically, Chris Thompson was not torn in half.

[Andy Holloway]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Mike Wright]

He's actually whole.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason. Jason gave me the assumption that he was torn in half.

[Mike Wright]

He said he had a huge tear.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Well, I assume that means you torn it.

[Mike Wright]

No, no, no, no, no. He's actually fine. He'll be okay. Torn labrum might play regardless. Buffalo has not been as good against the run statistically as you think they are. The games in Washington, I'm taking man Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

I would go. I'm going to go Abdullah. The Saints, we've talked about their defense. They're there with the passing defense being slightly better, but the run defense is still bad, so.

[Mike Wright]

All right. All right, let's get to the next one.

[C]

Hey, fantasy footballers. I just want to thank you guys for getting me to an 112 season. Oh, yeah, I think you guys. And I also debt a gratitude to Devonta Freeman, who I am having some mixed feelings about. I mean, he got me to the playoffs and now I feel like I can't trust him going up against the Carolina defense. If I do make it to week 16, who would you guys feel comfortable playing over? Devonta Freeman. I just picked up Tim Hightower and I also have Matt Forte, a couple other people off the waiver wire. But let me know who you guys who you think you would feel comfortable playing over. Devonta Freeman at this point. Thank you.

[Andy Holloway]

This week, this week, I'm okay with Freeman.

[Mike Wright]

Me too.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm perfectly fine with Freeman moving into championship week.

[Mike Wright]

I'd play both those guys over him in championship week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I can.

[Mike Wright]

I'd play Hightower and Forte.

[Andy Holloway]

Now.

[Mike Wright]

If Hightower poops the bed this week, then it totally changes the equation. And Forte, if he does. If either of those guys doesn't look good this week, then I probably stick with Freeman.

[Andy Holloway]

And Jason brought this point up yesterday where. And we took a look this guy.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Of Forte's splitting situation of. It was very. It was right down the middle and Langford actually out targeted Matt Forte. So pay attention to that. This week where Chicago could be, you know, they have. They don't have anything to play for this year. Do they want to get a better look at the rookie Matt Forte on. On an expiring contract? Are they going to bring him back? Are they just going to move forward with the rookie where for Hightower he gets to take on Jacksonville, which we've talked about their Running defense is okay, but with with Drew Brees in there, why you. Why you like a guy like Hightower? Your probability for a goal line carrying is pretty solid. When Drew Brees is your quarterback, there's going to be points put on the board. It's can you get him from the running back? So assuming that everyone that that Hightower has a good game this week, I'm more than likely going to roll him out in championship week over Freeman against the Panthers because that is just.

[Mike Wright]

That's rough. I think what we said earlier, you can't just assume Devontae Freeman is going to be what he was for those power weeks. You can't do it right now. I know it's hard to swallow, but play the guy that's going to win you the game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I mean it's just too hard for me to make him an auto elite the way the offense is playing. 29 points in three weeks does not a lot of opportunities on the goal line make.

[Andy Holloway]

Thanks.

[Mike Wright]

I think I said words Pat in Indiana. I can't believe I'm actually having to debate this. I thought I would go all year without using him due to injury waiver while availability and Frank Gore's performance. I have to now debate Frank Gore or Melvin Gordon.

[Andy Holloway]

Ooh, half point.

[Mike Wright]

Half point ppr. Help me, says Pat.

[Andy Holloway]

I might go Melvin Gordon here. What was. I don't.

[Mike Wright]

Melvin Gordon. You would go Gordon.

[Andy Holloway]

I think I go Melvin Gordon here.

[Mike Wright]

All right. I would. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

That's insane.

[Mike Wright]

They both feel like they have the most oppressive ceiling atop them as they can. Like neither guy has the potential to be great this week. I'll just play Gore.

[Andy Holloway]

Stay safer. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Vincent in Rhode Island. Hey, guys, big fan. Randall Cobb or Julian Edelman this week?

[Andy Holloway]

Randall Cobb.

[Mike Wright]

Cobb.

[Andy Holloway]

Either way, I agree.

[Mike Wright]

Kyle and Charlotte. Russell Wilson or Carson Palmer stay in the flames or go with the guy who's been steady all year round. We had this debate in the studio yesterday. Russell Wilson. Wilson, yeah. Russell Wilson.

[Andy Holloway]

I got those guys at one and two.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So I have Wilson at one.

[Mike Wright]

Let me give you a number. 16. 16 touchdowns in four weeks. I'm going to go with Russell Wilson. He's playing Cleveland at home.

[Andy Holloway]

The funny thing about that argument is.

[Mike Wright]

He'S the only guy I would start over Paul this week with with that kind of confidence of that argument.

[Andy Holloway]

You say like, wow, how can you not play him? And then at the same time you think because that's impossible for him to continue to do that.

[Mike Wright]

It may be impossible, but you're playing Cleveland at home this week with a.

[Andy Holloway]

Lack of running game or potential lack.

[Mike Wright]

And a perfect passer rating. When you empty the backfield.

[Andy Holloway]

You got it. You got to go Russell Wilson.

[Mike Wright]

I just you stay in the flames because not only does I think Russell. Does anybody think Russell poops to bed this week?

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

That is the thing. If that was a potential problem, you could just say stay with Palmer. But I don't think he boobs the bet. And what is he. What is his upside? It's been five touchdowns for a couple of weeks in a row.

[Andy Holloway]

His upside might be seven touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

All right, this is both the best and longest show we've done in a while, so we're going to wrap it up. We're done.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, man.

[Mike Wright]

I had at least good luck this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Only five minutes left.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, pay attention on Twitter. We'll keep the keep you updated at the FF Ballers with all the injury reports, everything you need to know. See you on Monday.

[Andy Holloway]

Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Don't forget to visit us on the web at www.thefantasyfootballers.com and follow us on TwitterFFballers.