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Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast
Fantasy Football Podcast for Week 11/12
00:27:08
Fantasy football playoffs are almost here! But we don't want to just get to the fantasy football playoffs, we want a fantasy football championship! We'll discuss the Broncos, Browns, Bills, Bengals, and other fantasy football news in this podcast.
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Andy Holloway
Foreigners Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway and Mike Wright. Hello, hello, hello, hello. It is a lonely day here at the Fantasy Footballers podcast. This is Andy Holloway. Welcome to the show. Mike Wright, my faithful companion here at the Fantasy Footballers is out of town this week and so I will be doing this bad boy solo, which is just fine. We'll get you ready for your fantasy week break down. What's been going on this week. If you want to follow the Fantasy Footballers, which we'd love it if you would, you can find us on itunes, you can visit the podcast section, search for the Fantasy Footballer, subscribe and then all of our podcasts will be right there on your phone. You can also now find us on Stitcher. So if you search for the Fantasy footballers on Stitcher, you can find us and follow us there. If that's a website you use, you can also find us on Facebook. You can submit questions to us on Facebook or via email. The fantasy footballersmail.com and we will be more than happy to answer your fantasy football questions. And one of the things we prioritize when you send those questions in is use a funny name, use a goofy name. That's our show. We do what we want and so we answer questions to people who have creative names first. But go ahead and send those in to us and we'll be happy to answer. So lets get into the show today. There will be a bit of an abridged version. We won't be going through absolutely everything since Mike's not here, but we'll make sure you get the news and notes that you need. Hit the waiver wire. Some great starts this week. Fantasy playoffs are coming and so a couple more weeks for most leagues to get your roster in order for the fantasy playoffs. So let's get into it. News and notes from around the league. All right, Lots of big news this week in the world of injuries. Some sadness for a lot of owners out there. One of the big injuries this week was Ahmad Bradshaw. Not that we should be surprised, but unfortunately as Ahmad Bradshaw attempted to enter the end zone several times in the Colts game, he couldn't do it and he broke his ankle. They're saying broken fibula now. So he is out for the year. So if you were leaning on Ahmad Bradshaw, I'm so sorry. Hopefully you handcuffed him with Trent Richardson. Now we can't expect explosiveness from Richardson, but you do have volume there. And so Bradshaw is out for the year and Richardson is stepping into probably a every down role with Dan Herron filling in as well. In Other news we had some damage done to the Broncos explosive offense. You had both Julius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders go down this week. Emmanuel Sanders took a brutal hit. If you saw this, it was, it was a brutal hit that looked illegal but absolutely wasn't. But he is out with a concussion. He'll have to go through the concussion protocol this week. Sanders has. Despite the injury, he ended up in the he's going to end up in the top five wide receivers at this point for, for the fantasy football world, which is something that people just didn't expect. He's actually pretty close to Demaryius Thomas now in production. And so Emmanuel Sanders keep an eye on the practice reports this week. I suspect he will play this weekend. One guy that will probably not play this weekend is his fellow offensive mate Julius Thomas, one of the premier tight ends in fantasy football. Thomas went down with an ankle injury. There was a lot of concern initially he missed the rest of the game, but it's looking, at least so far, like it's not severe. But that doesn't mean he's playing this week. So you're going to want to pick up a waiver wire tight end for your roster if you have Thomas, because I do not expect Thomas to play this week at all. Another tight end that went down was Dwayne Allen. Dwayne Allen from the Indianapolis Colts. He had a high ankle sprain and so there's some concern that he'll be out for a little while. Kobe Fleener's the guy to own in terms of a replacement there. Another tight end, Travis Kelce, had some injury concerns, but reports this week are that Kelce is practicing. And so if you need him this week, he should be available to you. But keep an eye on the practice reports. In Kansas City, we also have the big news that just broke, I believe this morning. Adrian Peterson will not play this year. So I know we've been talking a little bit about preparing yourself if you're a McKinnon owner, if you're an Asiata owner, what do we do when Adrian Peterson comes back, if he does come back? Well, it doesn't look like he's coming back. The NFL's looking like they are not considering his paid suspension at all. And so the reports are still coming out as to what that will mean for next year. But he's supposed to be on unpaid suspension for the rest of 2014, so do not expect him back. It's a bump for McKinnon for the rest of the year, but he will not be back. Adrian Peterson is Gone. The wide receiver situation in Jacksonville, which I know most people would like to ignore. Alan Hearns is battling some concussion symptoms. He will start. We know that Allen Robinson is out for the year and so the guys to own there are Cecil Schwartz and Hearns. This is kind of a garbage time situation, but those guys do pick up stats. So Hearns is supposed to be starting this week alongside Cecil Schwartz. One guy I forgot to mention from Denver who just barely returned was Monte Ball. Now Monte Ball is. I think you can now put him in the category of fantasy irrelevance. He is going to miss another two to three weeks, if not more for re aggravating his groin. It's possible he comes back in time for fantasy championship games. But who wants to start a guy like that when people like C.J. anderson, Juwan Thompson have probably established themselves, at least in some sort of role. So Montabl is gone. He's been a disappointment this year. I know he went so high in the draft and everybody knows that the running back from Denver is going to be productive, but Ball just is not a unique talent. And you mix in the injuries, it's a major problem. Couple more quick hitters to mention in the news and notes section before we move on here. Brandon Cooks is out for four to six weeks, which is a blow to that offense a little bit. But you should see Kenny Stills step into that role. You should see Colston get a little bit more action. And then there's been some concerns about Philip Rivers. They're denying that he is injured in any way, but he's had a rough few weeks and doesn't look the same. So it's unfortunate for those of us who have bought into Rivers as the every week franchise guy and then you're seeing him struggle now in time for the playoffs. But keep your eyes on him. He's. His play has been disconcerting. So that's all I have by way of news and notes. And so we're gonna go ahead and get into some waiver wire discussion now. Let me in, coach. All right. Well, this is I think an important time of year. Obviously, if you are heading into the fantasy playoffs, there are guys out there that you might need to start. You still have some bye weeks remaining and so I want to walk through a few waiver wire options this week. Who do we think is the best in terms of possible guys to pick up to start? And so the two guys that stand out at the quarterback position for me are Mark Sanchez and Josh McCown. Now Sanchez did come back to Earth. From a very practical quarterback standpoint this week, if you watch that game, I think I heard somebody say the first game Sanchez plays, you didn't hear Nick Foles name mentioned once, but in this game you saw a lot of the camera panning over to Foles and saying, yeah, he might be back, he might not be back. So Sanchez struggled after dominating the panthers in week 10, he kind of crashed back to earth, but still, and here's the key point for fantasy, he still threw for 350 yards, two touchdowns, he had four turnovers, but he had plenty of garbage time production and that offense moves the ball. And honestly they were playing a very in tune packers defense in Lambeau. And so I think that Sanchez is still a viable starting fantasy quarterback in that Chip Kelly offense and he doesn't have a very bad schedule coming up. So Sanchez is a guy that you can still pick up and start. I highly recommend using him if you are in one of those situations that you're streaming quarterbacks or you just don't have a good guy at that position. The other guy that continues to produce now in two straight games is Josh McCown in Tampa. And he's another guy that benefits from the weapons around him. Mike Evans is breaking out in a humongous way. I know if Mike was here he would probably be saying oh yeah, because he signed him and played him this past week and Vincent Jackson is there obviously, and McCown has thrown two touchdowns each of the past two weeks. So he's a very, he's a viable streaming option and he also has a very, very nice schedule coming up. He plays at Chicago versus Cincinnati, at Detroit, at Carolina and then Green Bay. So he's a depth option for you. He's also a potential streaming starter. So let's go ahead and move on to some waiver options at the running back position. Now the guy that everybody needs to be talking about, he has to be owned after his performance last week. But C.J. anderson looks like he is the top option right now. Anderson came out of nowhere against the Raiders and had a monster game. But now you have Monte Ball, Ronnie Hillman both injured, both probably missing extended time. I'm hearing three to four weeks now on Hillman, even though reports are saying they're kind of taking it week by week. I don't think Hillman's back. And so it's going to be the C.J. anderson with a little bit of Juwan Thompson mixed in. And it doesn't take much in terms of production or in terms of just activity in that offense to be super productive at the running back position. So C.J. anderson is a must own and a must start moving forward. Another guy that had a much better week this past week is Tre Mason. He was kind of the waiver wire darling a few weeks back. He's clearly the most talented running back on this roster. Zack Stacey isn't even seeing a carry anymore. And so it's the Tre Mason with some Benny Cunningham mixed in. Still not the best situation to kind of decipher there, but he looks like the lead back. They just drafted him. He's able to handle a large workload and so Mason's a guy that you know you can start. He had 29 carries this past week. So he's a guy who, if they're playing in a close game or head, he's going to see the ball a lot. Other guy that we've been talking about a little bit, Charles Sims, he's seeing more playing time now. He's not performing necessarily, but playing time is one of the things you want to look at, especially if you're hurting at running back. Maybe you're a guy who lost Bradshaw recently. Maybe you're concerned about, you know, you lost Reggie Bush or you thought Bush was going to be valuable to you. But Charles Simms is a guy that you can plug in and kind of see what happens. So there's a pretty good chance of the remainder of the season he's going to lead his team in carries and touches. So Charles Simms is a guy you want to watch. Two more guys worth mentioning real quick at the running back position are Bryce Brown and Isaiah Cruelty. Bryce Brown is more talented than Fred Jackson. Jackson is old, Jackson is back, but you're gonna see probably a pretty good split. He's in the C.J. spiller role and he's also potentially their lead back in 2015. So consider that for dynasty leagues, Brown is more talented, Brown is younger. They gave Brown money and so they kind of want to see what he's doing there. So Bryce Brown's a sneaky good play. Crowell is in the, in the midst of the Enigma backfield in Cleveland. Team that loves to run the ball. He out touched Terrance west and Tate this past week, but it's one of those situations where probably my gut tells me Tate is kind of out. They just want explosiveness from that, from that backfield. And Tate is brutal. He's killing me in some other leagues that I thought he'd be a starting running back, so probably going to bury me in those leagues. But Terrance west, you know, he could come in and lead in carries, but Crowell needs to be owned at a minimum. And that's what we're talking about here in waiver wire. So he's the best. At least my eyes tell me he's the best back in that backfield. Let's look at some wide receiver options. The one guy that jumps out to me is Cecil Schwartz. Yes, he is an injury prone wide receiver, but he's now walking into a role where Allen Robinson is is gone. Shortz has been getting targets the past three weeks and now he moves into the number one spot. You just hope he doesn't get a concussion or hurt his hamstrings again because that's the risk when you use Cecil Schwartz. And so Shortz is a great waiver wire pickup. Jordan Matthews is looking outstanding again with Sanchez. Kind of lends to Mike. Mike has been saying for weeks this idea that the second string quarterbacks, when they come in, they have a lot of rapport with the second or third string wide receivers and Matthews in that role. Matthews is young. This is the time of year younger guys, you see them like him and Watkins, Mike Evans, you see these guys breaking out. He's got 12 catches for 245 and three touchdowns with Sanchez starting. So I don't need to really tell you anything else other than the fact he's a PPR beast going forward. So Jordan Matthews, if he's not owned, which is crazy, he needs to be another guy that I want to just bring to the attention of the fantasy football world is Jarvis Landry in Miami. He's somebody who is probably the second best receiver in Miami. In week 10 he caught 7 of his 10 targets, 53 yards. Week 11 he caught 5 for 46 in a TD. It's something that you have to keep your eye on because he's a good checkdown option for Tannehill and so Landry's a guy you might want to keep your eye on. I'm not necessarily saying start him at this point, but when you're looking for some depth or somebody to start moving forward, keep your eye on him. The other guy at tight end that just needs to be mentioned is Fleener is a great. Kobe Fleener of Indianapolis is a great pickup this week. So he had a career game this past week and Dennis Allen is out. So he's a can't miss waiver wire start. Make sure you grab them before your teammates do because you should expect a lot of action going Fleeners way, especially with Bradshaw Being out too in the checkdown, you might see a little bit more tight end usage there. And Bradshaw as we know was a goal line threat. So if they're throwing more on the goal line and Fleener's only tight end out there, Allen's off the field. He could really be a sneaky top five six tight end play. So that's it for the waiver wire. Let's move it on starts of the week. All right, starts of the week. Speaking of Fleener, Fleener was my start of the week last week. So if you started him, you got some great production from Kobe Fleener. So let's, let's look at some guys that I think have the opportunity to really win you your fantasy week coming up. That's right. Well, the first guy I'm going to mention is Josh McCown. Now we talked about him in the waiver segment. McCown has weapons. He's got back to back games with two touchdowns. But the best part of this matchup is he gets to face the Chicago defense this week. It is probably not even fair to call them a defense at this point. Okay, that's maybe overstating it, but McCown has every opportunity to throw for a couple more touchdowns this week. I'd expect that game to actually be pretty high scoring. So Josh McCown is my quarterback start of the week at running back. I'm going to go with Alfred Blue. That's right. I don't know what's going on with Foster necessarily. We have to keep our eyes on him. But if Blue has the opportunity to start here, it's a must start situation. He had 36 carries last week. He produced Cincinnati cannot stop the run and I'd expect him to be overworked by Houston, a team that is Ryan Mallet's in the, in the backfield and are he's under the gun now and so Blue is a, a great option for you. And so he's my start of the week at running back. At wide receiver. I'm going to go with Kenny Stills. I think he steps in and gets more action in that Brandon Cooks vein. Cooks is out. I think he'll be more involved up to this point this year. He's kind of playing that Meacham Deverey Henderson role that still gets downfield. He's that deep threat. But I think his floor is coming up a little bit with Cooks out for the next four to six weeks. So I think they have an opportunity on Monday night against the Ravens. D and so Stills is my start of the week at wide receiver, also at tight end this week, I'm going to go with Charles Clay of Miami, and for a number of reasons. One, he's just playing, coming on right now. It's kind of what he did last year. He's got five receptions, seven receptions and five receptions in the last three games, so he's being utilized. Denver's likely to get a lead in this game, and so a lot of passing will ensue. He's been coming on strong, and Denver's not good against tight ends. So Charles Clay, I think, is a very safe play this week with some upside, possibly a touchdown. So Charles Clay is my tight end start of the week and then at D. I'm gonna ride the Packers. The packers are on a roll. They're facing Minnesota this week. It's one of those kind of dreamy matchups for them. They've scored four touchdowns in the last two games. On defense, that team is riding high and Bridgewater is conservative. They're not getting Adrian Peterson back. There's just a pretty low chance of Minnesota putting up a lot of points in this game, even though it's at home. So I think the Packers D is the way to go there if they're available in your league. So that's that. Those are my starts of the week. We don't have mics, but I'm sure they'd be really, really good. Oh, man, I forgot to do the mailbag singing part. Let me try that again. Mailbag, mailbag. Man, Mike is so much better than me. I also miss having Mike here, somebody to disagree with me. Because at this point, you know, there's just. There's no balance here. I mean, I know that honestly, this is kind of the ideal for the fantasy owner to just hear me speak. It's the most likely chance of success versus what Mike has to say. But it's still nice to have a little balance here. But we're going to the mailbag again. You can send us your questions@thefantasyfootballersmail.com we have a number of questions I'm going to go through today. Try to answer these for you. Start sit questions. Choose multiple start questions and kind of see where we're at. So the first question comes in from Philanthropic. Philanthropic asks this. Mark Sanchez versus Tennessee or Philip Rivers versus St. Louis. It's a good question. It's a question no one would have dreamed of a few weeks ago with the way Rivers was playing and Sanchez obviously wasn't starting. But for me, this is. This isn't really close. The St. Louis defense is playing out of their mind right now. Philip Rivers is struggling on offense, so I actually think this is not a very close decision. I'm going to go with Mark Sanchez versus Tennessee. I think they bounce back Chip Kelly offense. Sanchez is going to get his people involved. And Philip Rivers, I just think he's not a bad play. But St. Louis is playing really, really well on defense. This is the defense we envisioned from the beginning of the year for them. So philanthropic. I would go with Mark Sanchez versus Tennessee. All right, let's pull up another question here. This one comes from. Let's go with this one. Son of Sammy. Son of Sammy. Nice. Son of Sammy. Asks DeAndre Hopkins vs. Cincinnati or Sammy Watkins vs. The New York Jets? Well, this is a good question. I'm gonna go with DeAndre Hopkins against Cincinnati. And it's. It's a close call here. The jets are. I think the jets defense, mixed with Kyle Orton struggling over the past couple weeks, puts Hopkins over the top there. He's still the number one option in Houston right now. And so I'm gonna go with DeAndre Hopkins. But it is close. It's a close call. Hopefully that helps. Let's see the next next one here comes from rnb. Me Rnbeami says choose two. Andre Ellington facing Seattle in Seattle, CJ Anderson against Miami or Isaiah Crowell against Atlanta? Well, I think CJ Anderson is your guaranteed start of those three rmbme, so definitely start CJ Anderson. The decision here comes between Isaiah Crowell, a guy in a platoon in Cleveland, but he's against an Atlanta defense that isn't very strong. Or do you just ride Ellington into Seattle? And honestly, I'm gonna stick with Ellington. It's not a fun place to play. I don't expect big rushing numbers from Ellington, but he gets involved in the passing game, and so his floor is really high. And so for me, it's C.J. anderson and Andre Ellington, and those will be the two I would go with. All right, our next question comes in from Queen Diva. Queen Diva asks this. Who should I start? Let's see. Choose three of these four wide receivers. DEZ Bryant, Mike Evans, Jeremy Macklin, or Josh Gordon, who's coming back this week that should have been mentioned in our news and notes. By the way, Josh Gordon is reinstated and will be starting this week, so we'll talk about him in this question here. Let's see. DEZ Bryant is a must start against the Giants, so he's in. So it comes down to two. Choose two between Evans Macklin and Gordon. This is tough. I'm going to stick with Macklin against Tennessee. So DEZ Bryant and Macklin and then it comes down to Evans versus Gordon. And for me, I'm going to make Gordon show it to me for one game. So I'm going to go with Mike Evans. You might as well ride that train at this point. Evans has been absolutely dominant over the last three weeks. So for me it's DEZ Bryant, Mike Evans and Jeremy Macklin and we'll let Gordon prove it to us for a week, but he could be big. Coming up, the last question I'm going to go through here. Last one we'll answer today in this abridged version of the Fantasy Footballers is from Eddie Stacy. Eddie Stacy, that's a, I guess a combination of Eddie Lacey and Zach Stacy. I'd rather be Eddie Lacey than Zack Stacey. So Eddie Stacey asks this. Choose two of these four. So this is any two of these four. Mark Ingram against Baltimore, Denard Robinson against Indianapolis, Tre Mason against San Diego or Ty Hilton against Jacksonville. Okay, this is a pretty tough one. I'm going to go with Ty Hilton against Jacksonville. He's just been a high yardage guy this year. And Jacksonville just, they're Jacksonville. So I'm going to go with Ty Hilton. And so then it's a running back decision between Denard Robinson, Trey Mason or Mark Ingram. That's tough. That's pretty tough. I think I'm going to go with Denard Robinson. It seems crazy. I can see going with Mason and Ingram, they're kind of between the tackles. I like Robinson involved a little bit in the passing game and honestly he's just produced every game he's played in this year, so I'm not going to depart from that. I don't expect Ingram to quite get the carries he's been getting with Pierre Thomas coming back into the fold. So if I had to choose two for you, Mr. Eddie Stacy, I would choose Dennard Robinson and T W Hilton. So hopefully that helps. Hopefully those starts of the week help you guys out. That's gonna about wrap it up for us on this sad, lonely version of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. And Mike, enjoy your time in Disneyland and we'll see you next week on the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Remember, visit us on the web atthe fantasy footballers.com and that'll wrap it up. Take it easy. Leave us a five star review. Bye. Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.